microsoft word welch reply.doc ethnobiology letters                                                                                                                    book review    51    a reply to van der voort’s response to welch’s review of “urihi a: a terra‐ floresta yanomami”  bruce albert and william milliken with gale goodwin gomez. são paulo: instituto socioambiental, 2009. 207 pp.,  illustrations, tables, bibliography, appendices, index. paperback isbn: 978‐85‐85994‐72‐3.    by james r. welch1    reviewer address: 1 escola nacional de saúde pública, fundação oswaldo cruz, rio de janeiro, welch@ensp.fiocruz.br     received: january 26th 2011                               volume 1:51  published: february 6th 2011                       © 2010 society of ethnobiology    i wish to thank hein van der voort for his positive comment regarding the ethnobotanical contents of my review of “urihi a: a terra-floresta yanomami” (ethnobiology letters 2010, 1:18-19). i also would like to affirm that his recent response (ethnobiology letters 2010, 1:39) includes other relevant information about the book. in particular, i agree it is useful to mention that this portuguese language book is an extensively revised and updated edition of a book previously published in english. i appreciate his effort to make that information known. however, i take issue with his main argument that i failed to mention a third author, gale goodwin gomez. it is factually incorrect to identify gomez as co-author and unwarranted to suggest that my “oversight” should not be excused. although the allocation of authorship is a nuanced issue for authors, in this case the authors identified gomez’s contribution as collaboration and not authorship. the distinction is clearly presented on the copyright page of the book, where bruce albert and william milliken are listed as authors and gomez is listed separately as a collaborator (“colaboração” in portuguese). as is the case for translation and illustration, it is neither obligatory nor usual to include collaborators in the list of authors in the bibliographical citation of book reviews. this is true even if the collaboration was very important, as i have every reason to believe was the case in this example. microsoft word van der voort.doc ethnobiology letters                                                                                                                    book review    39    a response to welch’s review of “urihi a: a terra‐floresta yanomami”  bruce albert and william milliken with gale goodwin gomez. são paulo: instituto socioambiental, 2009. 207 pp.,  illustrations, tables, bibliography, appendices, index. paperback isbn: 978‐85‐85994‐72‐3.    by hein van der voort1    reviewer address: 1 museu goeldi, belém    received: december14th 2010                                  volume 1:39  published: december 15th 2010                       © 2010 society of ethnobiology    the review by james r. welch of the book urihi a: a terra-floresta yanomami (ethnobiology letters 2010, 1:1819) is entirely justified in its positive tone. it acknowledges the excellent anthropological and biological work among the yanomami by its two main authors. unfortunately, the reviewer has overlooked the existence and contribution of a third author without whom the essential linguistic component of the work would not have been possible. the linguist is classified as a "with" author, but her name is appropriately mentioned on the cover and on the title page of the book and forms an integral part of its bibliographical description. another aspect of the book that went unnoticed is the fact that it is a revised and translated version of a kew gardens publication in english. the reviewer might be excused for the latter oversight, since this english version from 1999 is mentioned rather inconspicuously on the bibliographical page (4) of the portuguese version. on the table in front of me are two largely identical books on the ethnobiological classification of the environment of the yanomami. the relevant bibliographical references are: bruce albert and william milliken, com a colaboração de gale goodwin gomez. 2009. urihi a: a terra-floresta yanomami. instituto socioambiental, são paulo. isbn 978-85-85994-72-3. william milliken and bruce albert with gale goodwin gomez, illustrations by jane rutherford. 1999. yanomami: a forest people. the royal botanic gardens, kew. isbn 1-900347-73-3. letter from the editors ethnobiology letters book review 20 integrating zooarchaeology and paleoethnobotany: a consideration of issues, methods, and cases amber m. vanderwarker and tanya m. peres, eds. 2010. springer, new york. pp. 317, 13 color illustrations, 13 black-and-white illustrations. $129.00 (hardback). isbn 9781441909343. reviewed by virginia l. butler reviewer address: 1 department of anthropology, portland state university, oregon 97207 received: july 20 th 2010 volume 1:20-21 published: august 17 th 2010 © 2010 society of ethnobiology like the rest of the sciences, archaeology has become increasingly specialized. we’ve made great strides in sampling, recovery and analysis of various constituents of the archaeological record (bones, plants, lithics, ceramics, dirt, features at various scales). but at the end of the day, results from independent studies of our constituents often are not woven together in comprehensive ways. where i have worked on the northwest coast, varying approaches to sampling classes of faunal remains (shellfish, fish, birds, mammals), which often are collected from different volumes, mesh size, and site context, make it difficult to even compare use of various vertebrates (e.g., fish vs. mammal taxa), much less allow for integrated approaches to faunal and floral analyses. so yes, we need to be working to bring our records together in smart ways to answer important questions about the human past. this 12-chapter volume edited by amber vanderwarker and tanya peres is at its base useful, simply for calling attention to the value of explicitly integrating faunal and floral records, particularly for subsistence studies. part i, comprising the first 4 chapters of the book, lays out the main methodological issues and specific approaches for qualitative and quantitative data integration. useful and detailed chapters on zooarchaeology (peres) and paleoethnobotany (wright) are provided. vanderwarker outlines simple analytic approaches (e.g., side-by-side comparisons of faunal and floral records using descriptive statistics and correlation analyses) and more complex strategies (principal components analysis [pca], correspondence analysis [ca]) in two chapters. many good points are emphasized in these introductory chapters: as we attempt to unite disparate records, we need to control for taphonomic differences and depositional contexts of remains; integration is only as good as the independent analyses of each set of data; our questions should focus on change in relative (not absolute) abundances of resource use; and any integrative effort must be guided by the larger research questions and framework of a project. part ii is comprised of 8 case study chapters that are supposed to show why integrating faunal and floral records is a useful enterprise and how this could be done. these chapters succeed to varying degrees. peres et al. most closely follow the guidelines set up in part i, using ca to show differences in plant and animal use by social context at tres zapotes, veracruz, mexico. they find that plant foods were part of everyday diet and animal foods were linked with higher status and ceremonial contexts. hollenbach and walker also use ca to identify trends in holocene-aged plant and animal records at dust cave, tennessee. several chapters draw on multiple lines of evidence for inference, but are not focused on integrating faunal and floral records per se. dickau only reviews plant remains (from panama). jones and quinn consider how to integrate faunal and human bone chemistry data from fiji (in the context of poor plant preservation). bartosiewicz et al. review site formation processes affecting plant and animal tissues in shell middens (scotland); tóth et al. draw on a range of records (historical, archaeological, ceramic, flora and fauna) to reconstruct diet and environment in ottoman-era hungary. moore et al.’s study of site formation processes affecting plant and animal tissues across a range of feature types in sites by lake titicaca, bolivia, steps back from the specific goal of integration. the authors rightly argue that understanding the cultural and natural processes that account for condition and preservation of bones and plants in a given feature is prerequisite to reconstructing subsistence patterns. their chapter provides a very useful summary of taphonomic work (their own and that of other scholars) that helps explain patterning in features. ethnobiology letters book review 21 my next point is less of a complaint and more of an observation: all the authors tend to take a rather post-hoc approach to interpreting patterns rather than begin with a theoretical framework with specific hypotheses that are to be tested. i would argue that a theoretically informed problem orientation –outlining specific goals and expectations -would greatly assist overall project field design and sampling, which as outlined in part i, needs to be explicit at a project’s inception to facilitate integration of faunal and floral records with all site data. we take it as a given that faunal and floral remains can be used to reconstruct subsistence in descriptive sense (recognizing of course ways that sampling, preservation, and analysis itself can confound our efforts). i suggest we need to be working harder to articulate the larger research questions about how subsistence change and variability can inform us. i enjoyed and learned much in this book and would recommend it especially for the university library. at $129.00, it will exceed the budgets of most students and many professionals. the overall quality of production was good, but at the high cost, i was surprised that several of the maps and figures were blurry or hard to decipher. review of animal certifié conforme: déchiffrer nos relations avec le vivant edited by bernadette lizet and jacqueline milliet 13 book review of keeping their numbers in check. a.m. brisebarre presents the ins and outs of ostrich farming in france for meat as a problematic economic endeavor. mammals received attention in three chapters. f. roy contributed an essay on how french sheepherders, who own no land, move their flocks in an ancient transhumance pattern between alpine pastures in summer and winter pastures near the mediterranean coast. j. riegel offered an assessment of the uneasy cohabitation of domestic cattle and wild buffalo in an ostensibly protected park in western niger. c. harper and f. bayart reported on the protective relationship that sakalava people in western madagascar have with the black lemur (eulemor macaco linnaeus lemuridae). hunting them for food is restricted through the social pressure of a communal taboo (fady), which functions to preserve these primates from extinction. a. e. delavigne discoursed on no particular animal at all in his paper; instead, he explained the work of contemporary butchers. in spite of their name, they no longer actually kill livestock as they once did, a job that in france is relegated to slaughterhouses. the catchphrase “animal certifié conforme” used as the title of the book indicates commercial approval in the meat trade. the ironic intent of the editors may escape some readers who will be puzzled by the use of such a narrow title for such a diverse collection. overall evaluation most of the authors of these 11 chapters are described as ethnologists, which would account for their interest in human adjustments more than in the animals themselves. yet each chapter made a number of insightful points that provide a fresh perspective on the human-animal relationship. the well edited collection has few illustrations, though those included this collection of 11 unusually diverse essays converges on the theme of the uses and practices that humans have made of certain non-human creatures who share our planet. from microorganisms to mammals, the book captures a range of animals that humans have harnessed as food (seven cases), for companionship or aesthetic reasons (three cases), or as pests (one case). contributions on microorganisms, fish, and insects l. bérard and m. c. montel discussed the simplest organisms in this book, lactic bacteria, which form the indispensable element in making a cheese called salers. the only insect topic in the book was p. blandin’s thought provoking reflection on butterfly collecting as a hobby. p. pellegrini and e. rochard discussed fish in the seine river, a stream benefitting from pollution control, but which still has the barrier of a hydroelectric dam to thwart fish migration upriver. s. boulay and m. c. cormier-salem deal with another ichthyological theme off the coast of mauri-tania where they described the flathead mullet (mugil cephalus linnaeus mugilidae) and the uses to which that species has been put. essays on birds and mammals birds received attention in three chapters. r. banchs, j. braunstein, and d. fournier wrote about the bluefronted parrot (amazona aestiva linnaeus psittacidae) in the chaco of northern argentina. indians raid their nests in quebracho trees to capture the fledglings, which they sell to the international parrot trade. intense collection of these psitticines, valued for their ability to talk, has become a conservation issue b. lizet and j. milliet described the practice in several municipalities in france that have, not without controversy, constructed public pigeon cotes as a way animal certifié conforme: déchiffrer nos relations avec le vivant bernadette lizet and jacqueline milliet, eds. 2012. dunod/muséum national d’histoire naturelle, paris. pp 256. €22 (paperback). isbn 9782100582853. reviewed by daniel w. gade reviewer address: department of geography, university of vermont, 94 university place, burlingtion, vt 05405. daniel.gade@uvm.edu received: december 1, 2013 volume 5:13-14 published: january 13, 2014 © 2014 society of ethnobiology mailto:daniel.gade@uvm.edu 14 book review were carefully chosen. a substantial bibliography offers an entrée into some of the ethnozoological literature in french. those who do not read french should at least be aware that by no means everything worth knowing in ethnobiology is in english. book review of na primeira margem do rio:território e ecologia do povo xavante de wedezé 40  book review  chapter two provides a basic background on scholarly work on the xavante language and social structure. this chapter is also the most important for contextualizing the establishment of xavante villages in wedezé during the colonial period. the authors give an extended account of settlement, displacement, and resettlement from the late 19th century up to the present, drawing on archival materials and oral histories. at times, the historical discussion is somewhat difficult to follow, but this simply reflects the complex history of movement and resettlement rather than any shortcomings of the authors’ discussion of such events. in many ways, this detailed account is fundamental to the authors’ claims that the occupation of wedezé has been continuous over long stretches of time since the arrival of non-indigenous peoples to the region. the third chapter focuses on demographics, which is also critical for understanding the xavante’s relationship to the wedezé territory. in all the communities currently in pimentel barbosa and wedezé, over 50% of the population is under 15 years of age. and of the nine indigenous territories where the xavante reside, pimentel barbosa had the highest growth rates between 1999 and 2004. this explains why the neighboring territory of wedezé is crucial for accommodating their growing population. chapters four, five, and six are likely to be of greatest interest to ethnobiologists. these chapters discuss the environmental context and subsistence activities of the xavante as well as their use of the local flora and fauna. here the authors provide extended discussion of the xavante relationship to the cerrado (scrub savanna) environment, which is currentas brazil’s demands for energy, resources, and infrastructure expand, indigenous peoples of the nation are facing greater pressure on their lands, and in some cases, even open abuses of their rights. fortunately, this book highlights an important case study in which advances have been made by indigenous peoples and the researchers who work alongside them to establish claims to traditional lands. this text is the outgrowth of a broader project that was designed to identify and demarcate the wedezé indigenous territory of the xavante people in the state of mato grosso, brazil. as described in the introduction, the book also carries the objective of disseminating historical, anthropological, and ethno-ecological knowledge of the xavante. the book is organized into a simple structure with chapters that discuss xavante language and history, demographics, environmental context, economic and subsistence activities, use of flora and fauna, sacred and ceremonial spaces, and wedezé’s demarcation as an indigenous territory. the introduction explains that the title of the book (in english: “on the first bank of the river: territory and ecology of the xavante people of wedezé”) refers to the xavante’s first community established on the east bank of the rio das mortes in the 19th century. although the pimentel barbosa indigenous territory was later established on the west bank of the river, wedezé was not officially recognized despite the extended history of occupation and use by the xavante. now, with a growing population in the area totaling around 1500 people, the authors explain why the establishment of the wedezé indigenous territory is very much needed. na primeira margem do rio:território e ecologia do povo xavante de  wedezé  james r. welch, ricardo ventura santos, nancy m. flowers, and carlos e.a. coimbra jr. 2013. museu do índio/  funai, rio de janeiro. pp. 244. isbn 978‐85‐85986‐46‐9.  reviewed by nicholas kawa   reviewer address: department of anthropology, burkhardt building room 315, ball state university, muncie, indiana 47306.  nckawa@bsu.edu  received: january 7, 2014  volume: 5:40‐41  published: march 29, 2014  © 2014 society of ethnobiology  41  book review  ly threatened by the expansion of soy agribusiness and cattle ranching. many important notes about the historical ecological relationships of the xavante to the landscape are highlighted in these chapters, including the existence and management of anthropogenic forests that harbor high concentrations of useful plants. the authors also examine in detail the use of fire in hunting and its specific ecological role in the management of the cerrado. these forms of landscape management are the product of xavante subsistence activities rooted in a deep history, and the authors argue that the continuation of these activities is fundamental to xavante socio-cultural identity. however, the book also addresses how the xavante have adapted and responded to economic change, including development projects in the 1970s that attempted to push the industrial agricultural model on the xavante for production of rice. chapter six is dedicated specifically to xavante use of plants and animals. many useful plants species are described and presented in this section, but the authors explain that restrictions prevent them from discussing medicinal or spiritual plants since knowledge of these is considered secret cultural or intellectual property. they do note, however, that the wedezé territory is an important source of such plants, including many that are considered rare or non -existent in neighboring pimentel barbosa. yet even considering such limitations, as a reader i was left craving more specifics on xavante ethnobotany and ethnozoology. perhaps we can hope for a future book on xavante ethnobiology, which would surely be of great value to all. many of the chapters would’ve also benefited from the inclusion of more xavante voices. some come out in the discussion of ceremonies and sacred spaces in chapter seven, but more direct xavante insights would’ve enriched many of the other chapters as well. in conclusion, this book serves as an important example of how a project report for identifying and demarcating indigenous lands can be made into an accessible document of great public value, and for this the authors should be commended. the large, colorful photographs and numerous useful maps and tables also provide excellent visual support. future research should benefit from this text and hopefully expand upon this model, perhaps incorporating more indigenous voices into the narrative. also since this book is written in portuguese, it highlights the need for similar texts in other national languages that may serve to broaden awareness of indigenous land rights. clearly, if agro-industrial development continues on its current path, indigenous territories like wedezé will stand as some of the most important biological and cultural refuges on earth. kinship in action: self and group 26 book review imposed on siblings due to their order of birth. then we learn about ways of marking birth events, such as the introduction of newborns to social families through naming of children and religious practices. the rest of the chapter discusses how an individual goes step-by-step from one age-set to the next level, i.e. puberty, growth, maturation, and death. the authors show us how gifts, other payments, and wealth are exchanged between paternal and maternal lines of kin at birth to encourage the growth of children, and how, at incidents of death, kin might claim the body to be buried on their land. in the third chapter, the topic of parent-child bonds is investigated. the authors compare euro-american concepts of reproduction with trobriand islander concepts. the absence of a belief in the father’s contribution in fetus conception among trobriand islanders’ understandings of reproduction results in a social structure in which matrilineal clans control land and resources. strathern and stewart also discuss kinship after the emergence of new reproductive technologies and problems that might emerge due to the separation of mothers’ eggs and surrogacy. also, they discuss different dimensions of adoption and fosterage with examples from the pacific region showing the formative role of adoption in social structure. the fourth chapter discusses that aspect of kinship which connects an individual to the people surrounding him and the aspect in which “kin ties build up into whole groups in accordance with rules and practices of social affiliation, or group membership” (p.58). the authors discuss the history of scottish highland clans as an example for investigating kinship ties linked to group notions. but instead of defining kinship patterns, the authors go through historical kinship in action is a descriptive and comprehensive investigation of family, marriage, and other kinship related notions that provides us with ethnographic accounts from many different parts of the world. the text also provides us with a historical background of kinship studies and an appreciation of the importance of kinship. through this book, andrew strathern and pamela j. stewart support their explanations of kinship-related phenomena with colorful examples from a variety of field sites such as papua new guinea, scotland, ireland, austronesian southeast asia, china, and taiwan. kinship in action investigates the question of how individuals relate to one another in group contexts from an anthropological point of view. “understanding of the basic processes in the domain of kinship is therefore vital to the understanding of the wider domains of politics and history” (p.76). in the first chapter, strathern and stewart define kinship related concepts and highlight the importance of an individual’s relation within a group. they state, “it is the intertwining of self and group that interests us and this intertwining can imply conflict as well as cooperation” (p.1) and suggest how kinship broadens from merely a biological phenomenon to a factor building up and affecting social and political relations. in the second chapter, the authors investigate the “events related to creation, development, maintenance, and termination of kin ties” (p.7) which are elementary structures of kinship in the forms of birth, maturation, marriage, reproduction, and death. the importance of these events could be seen in different rituals as the “prime indicators of social processes and cultural values” (p.18). we learn about the importance of the firstborn child as the beginning of a new nuclear family and the social influences that are kinship in action: self and group andrew strathern and pamela stewart. 2011. prentice hall publishing, upper saddle river, n.j. pp. 224. us $39.60 (paper). isbn 100131844849. reviewed by farid pazhoohi reviewer address: 2nd floor, baharan street-moali abad street, shiraz, iran. pazhoohi@gmail.com received: november 17, 2011 volume: 4:26-27 published: february 14, 2013 © 2013 society of ethnobiology 27 book review accounts of the origin and formation of scottish highland clans, which seems more appropriate for the sixth chapter. after the discussion of scottish highland clans, strathern and stewart explain the basis of social structure in duna society in papua new guinea and how genealogies of a group are recited to prioritize the deployment of wealth and authority to agnates over other members of a group. next the authors discuss some other pacific islanders, such as inhabitants of mount hagen area, to show the arrangements of their social structures in comparison to the duna. strathern and stewart show how the australian colonial period affected urbanization and social structure and resulted in sociopolitical change. after discussing patrilineality in these regions, the authors turn to the communities where matrilineal descent is practiced, such as the tolai of the mainland of papua new guinea, and mention derek freeman’s records on bilateral descent among the iban. in chapter five the authors justify the importance of marriage to kinship, saying it has functions beyond just sex and reproduction. marriage, they write, is a tool for, “creating or reinforcing alliances between networks of groups of people” (p.87). marriage maintains the balance in group relationships and could be used as a tool for managing property and inheritance. in mount hagen “marriages are arranged outside of the sphere of recognized kinship around the degree of third cousins” (p.87) to reinforce more distant familial bonds. the authors explain the historical background for mount hagen marriage practices to point out the influence of colonial administration on native social structure. in kinship in action, the relations of people to property, land, and resources are emphasized as fundamental factors in kinship. because of this constellation of concern, the authors tend to stray from their discussions of kinship structures and focus more on the economics. for example, the authors introduce us to the marriage conditions in telefomin, a small village in which marriage is endogamous, and show how telefomin marriage arrangements were affected by colonialism. strathern and stewart, in their discussion of marriage, filiation, and descent in na communities, show how officials encouraged na to adopt monogamy and the nuclear family model instead of continuing their matrilineal residential practices. in the seventh chapter strathern and stewart review diverse family and kinship arrangements in the appalachian valleys of north america, newcastle of australia, tory island in ireland, and sarakatsani of greece as examples of kinship studies in america and europe. and in the last chapter, using an analytical approach, the authors review changes that have occurred due to new practices such as homosexual marriage or surrogacy regarding kinship. also showing difficulties for specification about relatives, they suggest transaction in substances, food, land, and biological procreation as important notions for relatedness. kinship in action is full of examples from diverse societies. each chapter finishes with a short conclusion section. the main shortcoming of book is a lack of recognizable and general theoretical conclusions. however, this could be due to the number and diversity of topics that the authors try to cover in just one volume. ramsey review of sustainable lifeways: cultural persistence in an ever-changing environment by miller, moore, and ryan 76 book review mined in the past (p. 33). chapters 2 through 4 present ethnographic evidence of pastoralist strategies to buffer risk. fiona marshall and colleagues (chapter 2) present a counter point to what they perceive as a focus in environmental risk and resilience studies on sedentary agriculturalists. the authors demonstrate that east african pastoralists employed a range of economic, social and political mechanisms. notably, mobility is employed as a key strategy to mitigate unpredictability. similarly, lois beck and julia huang (chapter 4) use beck’s ethnographic observations (p. 107) to discuss the nomadic pastoralist adaptations of the qashaqa’i in southwest iran. they also identify mobility as an effective strategy to reduce the effects of environmental risk. kathleen ryan and korega-munene (chapter 3) used their observations of east african pastoralists to conclude that flexibility is fundamental to the success of this lifestyle (p. 75). by shifting emphasis from different types of livestock, pastoralists effectively ‘spread the risk’ – biologically, environmentally, and socially (p. 101). arlene rosen (chapter 5) analyzes foraging strategies in the levant from the early natufian through to the beginning of the pre-pottery neolithic b (ppnb), arguing that hunter-gatherer strategies in the near east did not steer a trajectory towards agriculture by design. rather, rosen shows that hunter-gatherers employed flexible and effective long term foraging strategies. indeed, only with the climatic amelioration a millennium after the natufians did agriculture replace hunter-gather lifestyles. rosen is clear this was not just a matter of climate forcing social change, but rather the push and pull of climatic and social factors (p. 145). atmospheric co2 levels have now passed what experts consider to be the critical threshold of 400 parts per million (ppm). the last time co2 concentrations were this high was several million years ago, during the mid-pliocene. in the wake of this poignant landmark naomi miller, katherine moore and kathleen ryan’s edited volume, sustainable lifeways: cultural persistence in an ever-changing environment is required reading for anyone thinking about how society can address the immediate and long term environmental risk and uncertainty we face. the edited volume addresses three key questions: how do societies perceive environmental risk? how do they adapt to changing conditions? and in what circumstances have the most rapid and far reaching adaptations occurred? contributors include archaeological and anthropological specialists working in west asia, the american southwest, east africa and andean south america with hunter-gatherer, cultivator and non-industrial agricultural groups. robust paleoenvironmental records have been published for these regions, allowing this volume to address key questions through multiple lines of evidence at multiple time scales: long term (millennial); medium term (centuries to a few thousand years); and more recent (few years to decades). the first chapter by neil roberts provides a good review of the proxy methods, such as stable isotopes and pollen, used by researchers interested in humanenvironmental interactions, from prehistory to the present. using examples from dryland regions, a focus throughout this volume, roberts concludes that proxy methods, applied cautiously, provide new insights that can help policy makers in the present understand changing environments, so long as it is understood that social responses are not predetersustainable lifeways: cultural persistence in an ever-changing environment naomi f. miller, katherine m. moore, and kathleen ryan, eds. 2011. university of pennsylvania press, philadelphia. pp. 352, 73 illustrations. $65.00 (cloth). isbn 9787934536193. reviewed by monica ramsey reviewer address: department of anthropology, university of texas at austin. monica.lorelle.ramsey@gmail.com received: june 10, 2013 volume: 4:76-77 published: july 23, 2013 © 2013 society of ethnobiology 77 book review further emphasizing the potential of social mechanisms to buffer risk, timothy kohler and charles reed argue (chapter 6) that population growth, resulting from favorable climatic conditions in the american southwest, led to a decrease in big game hunting efficiency during the basketmaker iii and pueblo i phases (ad 600-900). this heightened risk prompted the intensification of big game hunting through the formation of more efficient kin-based hunting groups. kohler and reed suggest these patrilineal units were effective in warfare, and perhaps even a contributing factor in the emergence of social inequality in the american southwest (p. 154). katherine spielmann and colleagues (chapter 7) consider the environmental risks faced by ancestral pueblo farmers, addressing how these were mitigated through a variety of social and spatial scales: storage employed at the household level and food sharing at the community level. short term emigration is identified as a buffering mechanism at the regional level. notably, the authors show that in conditions of sustained drought permanent emigration from the affected region would be employed (p. 181). traditionally, this behavior has been framed as “abandonments.” however, they argue that migration is an effective buffering strategy and should be seen as part of a resilient system (p. 203). resilience should not be seen to always reflect the most efficient adaptation. it can reflect persistent traditional practice. katherine moore (chapter 9) demonstrates this through faunal analysis at four archaeological sites in the titicaca basin. with data spanning the early formative through to the late intermediate period (1500 bc – ad 145), moore shows that declining fish returns due to changing lake levels resulted in a shift towards agropastoralism. however, in spite of negligible returns, traditional fishing practices persisted. maria bruno’s chapter (8) is based on ethnographic fieldwork in the titicaca basin. bruno’s findings show that resilience of andean farming techniques stem from several sources: a sophisticated understanding and application of locale soil characteristics in the development of agricultural practice, flexible land use and a diverse economic system that includes herding and fishing (p. 237). bruno suggests this knowledge should inform future farmers in the titicaca basin in the mitigation of projected regional climate change (p. 213). these findings provide a useful analogy for archaeological interpretations of past adaptation to climate change. peter stahl (chapter 10) considers risk mitigation strategies under the periodic but extreme disruption caused by volcanic activity in the ecuadorian andes. persistent and repeated human occupation reveals an adaptation towards species that thrive in disturbed ecologies. stahl suggests this commitment to a dangerous and volatile valley is best understood in terms of social context. traditionally, the landscape is seen in neotropical america as a gift from the ancestors, each generation indebted to the last (p. 302), creating a powerful link to a location and fostering a commitment to a risky environment. finally, naomi miller discusses the economic strategies adopted by the agropastoralists at gordion in the central anatolian steppe from the 3rd millennium bc through the roman period to a second medieval occupation (p. 310). using plant macroremains and archaeofaunal assemblages miller reconstructs trends in the mixed farming economy. miller finds that, by employing a flexible agropastoral subsistence base, the inhabitants at gordion could shift their economic emphasis from pastoral to agricultural elements, according to the prevailing physical and social conditions (p. 319). drawing together the large chronological and regional knowledge of the contributors, this work offers excellent case studies concerning human resilience and adaptation to risk, which can inform current decision making. indeed, with the atmospheric co2 threshold surpassing 400 ppm, the archaeological and anthropological perspective on human responses to environmental unpredictability and the resultant food scarcity, expertly presented in this volume, has never been more relevant. this is archaeology at its policy-decision-informing best. khawa karpo: tibetan traditional knowledge and biodiversity conservation   book review  ethnobiology le ers. 2014. 5: 89‐90. doi: 10.14237/ebl.5.2014.187. 89  and, although not highlighted in the book, is another demonstration of the significant commitment to conservation and dialogue about conservation that salick and her team have. lastly, the value of this work in terms of documenting climate change and local responses to it cannot be under-estimated. some of the innovative aspects of research that has been done in this region by salick and colleagues and which are discussed in the book include the use of photographs, both as a form of documentary analysis about climate change (comparing current photos to photos taken of the same area 100 years ago to see changes in the landscape over time) and as a form of ethnographic data aimed at highlighting the emic perspective on related issues (this is a technique used by anthropologists since the early days of selfreflexive ethnographic film, but has over the past decade or so become more widely used in other fields). as a tibetologist but also an ethnobiologist from the anthropological lineage that works in the same region (as well as on related topics), the weaknesses of the book for me mainly revolve around shortfalls in understanding (or simplifications of) tibetan language, culture, and the contemporary state of tibetan medicine. somewhat ironically (given the interest in dialogue with tibetan communities), there are few tibetan names for plants and animals given. while translation between different taxonomic systems can be challenging, they are not impossible and seem woefully lacking in this monograph. there are some errors as well: confusion of wade-giles and wylie systems of transliteration (sman ri is in fact wylie, not wade giles); the translation of sman as “medicinal it is for good reason that jan salick will be receiving the distinguished economic botanist award (awarded by the society for economic botany) this month at the joint society of ethnobiology and society for economic botany conference in cherokee, nc. the work by salick and robert moseley, which benefits from additional collaborating authors in several chapters and appendices, is impressive, especially in its breadth. this publication demonstrates the significant contributions that salick and others have made to our understanding of the ecology and biodiversity, as well as local knowledge of this, in the greater khawa karpo area in china’s southwest, or the southern reaches of cultural tibet. the overall strengths of the work include establishing a baseline for conservation agendas, as little research has been done on this topic in this area of the world and even a smaller amount is published in english; this the authors recognize as a main goal of the publication. additionally valuable are the appendices, which contain important information on flora and fauna in the region; the compilation of a comprehensive list of vascular plants in the region is especially inclusive. also essential is the discussion of local tibetan knowledge, particularly although not exclusively from doctors of tibetan medicine, in the context of conservation. the authors urge that such local knowledge, in addition to local ideas of sacred sites, needs to be recognized as the important resource that it is for conservation efforts. to ethnobiologists, this is hardly news, but unfortunately to some conservation biologists this point needs repeating—and who better to bring this home than salick and her team? the time-depth of the research (spanning close to a decade) is very important as well khawa karpo: tibetan tradi onal knowledge and biodiversity conserva on jan salick and robert k. moseley. 2012. missouri botanical garden, st. louis. pp. 273. us$55 (paperback). isbn  978‐1‐935641‐06‐3  reviewed by denise m. glover reviewer address: department of sociology and anthropology, university of puget sound, tacoma, wa, usa.   dglover@pugetsound.edu received: may 7, 2014  volume 5:89‐90  published:  may 30, 2014  © 2014 society of ethnobiology   book review  ethnobiology le ers. 2014. 5: 89‐90. doi: 10.14237/ebl.5.2014.187. 90  herb” is somewhat misleading, since sman in tibetan refers to many types of materia medica (not just botanicals); the elision of “fraternal” to describe the kind of polyandry practiced in this area. other problems include the repeated use of pinyin romanization for tibetan names (i am very aware of the difficulties of this in sw china especially but effort must be made to avoid this); the fact that the authors appear to have used indian sources (and not tibetan ones) to discuss the history of tibetan medicine (use of the name vairotsana for the historic figure that tibetans call yuthog yonten gonpo suggests this); and several statements about the state of tibetan medicine in the people’s republic of china seem simplistic and outdated: saying that traditional tibetan medicine is recognized by the government only if from lhasa does not acknowledge the contemporary central role of tibetan medicine practice, teaching, research, and production in the amdo (qinghai) region and in chamdo, two main hubs of activity in tibetan medicine. there is some conflation of bön and buddhist concepts of the sacredness of land, and the characterization of bön as being about good and evil is simplistic. the last issue i have with the monograph is that it does not directly cite sources (although acknowledged in a bibliography); this is likely my bias as an academic, and clearly the audience that the book hopes to reach is not restricted to academics alone. nonetheless, regardless of these few shortcomings, the book is well worth the read and is a significant contribution to the field. the mix of accessiblywritten text and beautiful color photos makes this a valuable asset not only to scholars of conservation studies, ethnobiology, and tibetan studies, but also to anyone interested in learning more about this very special part of the world, the area surrounding the impressive and sacred khawa karpo mountain.  microsoft word anderson_pierotti.doc ethnobiology letters                                                                                                                    book review    3    indigenous knowledge, ecology, and evolutionary biology  raymond pierotti. 2011. routledge (taylor & francis group), new york.  pp. xv + 264, bibliography, index.   isbn13: 978‐0‐415‐87924‐8 (hbk), 978‐0‐203‐84711‐4 (ebk).    reviewed by e. n. anderson1    reviewer address: 1 department of anthropology, university of california, riverside, riverside, california 92521    received: april 15th 2011                                            volume 2:3‐5  published: may 11th 2011                         © 2011 society of ethnobiology    raymond pierotti is both a sophisticated veteran field biologist and a scholar of native american cultures and worldviews. this combination has allowed him to develop a rather unique view of the natural world and our place in it as humans. this book consists of eleven essays, treating different topics related to native american views of the nonhuman world. perhaps the best way to review it is to select common themes and general conclusions. the most summary statement in the book is probably the following: “a common general philosophy and concept of community appears to be shared by all of the indigenous peoples of north america, which includes: 1) respect for nonhuman entities as individuals, 2) the existence of bonds between humans and nonhumans, including incorporation of nonhumans into ethical codes of behavior, and 3) the recognition of humans as part of the ecological system” (pp. 198-199). these three themes receive much elaboration. in regard to the first, pierotti notes that his experience as a field biologist confirms the considerable differences that can occur between individuals in the same population of mammals or birds. some are stunningly successful reproducers, some fail. some are terrific hunters or fighters or foragers, others (most) are not. biologists with little field experience tend not to realize this, and to think of all animals of one species as interchangeable (in spite of darwin). of course any good field biologist learns to pick up on individual differences eventually—think of jane goodall’s work—but certainly having a native american outlook helps. in regard to the second, humans and nonhumans are also related religiously and socially; they share one communitas in victor turner’s terms, and other-thanhuman persons are typically incorporated in kinship systems. this is not so much a matter of projecting human society on nature (as early-day social scientists argued) but of seeing society as fully incorporating both human and other-than-human persons. wider kinship groups like moieties and clans naturally include both. this may be metaphoric; pierotti sees much of the religious discourse on animals as metaphoric and based on empirical observation, rather than as irrational mystical belief. as to the third, pierotti critiques the almost universal tendency of biologists to see humans as intruders, disruptors, or plain outsiders to ecosystems, in spite of the fact that humans have been in the americas for at least 13,000 years (and probably longer), and evolved in africa over millions of years. even in the americas, that gives plenty of time for humans to have influenced the evolution of even quite slow-breeding animals, let alone annual plants. humans have influenced all earthly ecosystems profoundly, and outside of the polar regions these influences are long-standing. this leads to the further point that euro-american science has very many blinders, biases, and wrong assumptions of its own, and is hardly in a position to condemn other scientific traditions for whatever errors they may have. (the present reviewer sometimes tries to count up how many of the great scientific truths i learned in high school and undergraduate education have been disproved since. i never finish the list because i lose count.) other themes recur frequently but are foregrounded in particular chapters, to which we may now turn. the first defines traditional knowledge, noting (among other things) that traditions are dynamic, changing and keeping up with the times. the idea of “tradition” as static and archaic is simply silly. many other terminological issues are raised here, including the problem with “supernatural” in societies that do not separate natural from supernatural. are wolves and coyotes supernatural because they (mythically) helped with creation (in a possibly ethnobiology letters                                                                                                                    book review    4    metaphoric sense)? or are they natural, with some dubious powers attributed to them? the second essay, “all things are connected,” develops points two and three above. pierotti also points out that native americans, in common with modern ecologists but not with early-day ones, see the world as dynamic, contingent, and constantly changing, rather than as always in stable harmony and balance except during brief “disruptions.” native americans can thus deal more easily with things like fluctuating fish populations, rather than seeking for an illusorilyexact “maximum sustained yield” figure that turns deadly when fishermen fish up to it even when natural fluctuation leads to a population crash. pierotti then speculates, interestingly, on the roles of plagues in causing population changes but also in conditioning human thought about nature. the third, “predators not prey,” develops the point that native americans tend to identify with—or at least foreground in myth—the predators: wolves, coyotes, bears, eagles, and others. the european world often fears and hates predators and identifies with its animal wards, as in the countless judeo-christian metaphors involving lambs and sheep. europeans love domestic predators, but not wild ones. this has led to mistaken biology; again, an older generation tended to see predators as disruptive and ravaging, not part of the natural order. it is quite amazing to read old sources condemning birds like cooper’s hawks for “cruelly” taking songbirds, or to see the flak that aldo leopold endured for suggesting that wolves had a place in nature. chapter 4, “metaphors and models” develops the point that a great deal of what seems like “religious” or “mythic” discourse to the outsider can be understood as metaphoric discourse based on how animals really act. mythic wolves and eagles act more or less like real ones, and the “keepers of the game” universally known in north america (including among my maya friends in mexico, i may point out) appear to be based on the recognition that some animals are super-successful at breeding, hunting, or other activities. in many species, a few individuals in a population contribute disproportionately to the gene pool. conversely, european biology is also based on models, especially the infamous statement of descartes that animals are mere soulless machines (descartes 2003:40). this led to ignoring complexity, will, individuality, and mentation in animal behavior, and by further extension to the harmony-and-balance errors in accounts of ecology in general. the fifth essay deals with creation and evolution; some native american authors have attacked the theory of evolution, based on poor understandings of it, and pierotti defends it while showing that native american creation stories are quite evolutionary in thinking. the sixth discusses ways of applying traditional knowledge in euro-american science. this will probably be the most interesting essay to a biologist, because pierotti discusses many of his research findings and shows how they fit with native american science but not with european—largely because of the “individual difference” point raised above, but there is much more here, including several examples of high intelligence or of completely inexplicable but complex actions by other-than-human persons. clearly, biologists need the native american eye. the seventh, “connected to the land: nature and spirit in native american novels,” discusses the views on nature reflected in recent native american novels. it seems to me a superb example of literary reading, but i am not competent in the field, so will leave it to better qualified persons to assess. the eighth, “ecological indians,” critiques several inaccurate portrayals of native american ecology, especially shepard krech’s the ecological indian (1999) on grounds that should be familiar to readers of this newsletter (cf. my review, anderson 2000). this essay is long and detailed, and should be required reading for anyone writing on this subject; it is a particularly sensitive and thorough analysis of the truth as opposed to the various stereotypes. the ninth essay extends the same degree of thorough analytic criticism to vine deloria’s creationist ideas and some of his other shaky views on native american matters. pierotti expresses surprise that deloria, usually a defender of indigenous views, has accepted fundamentalist christian ideas closely associated with genocidal and culturocidal policies toward indigenous peoples. the rather briefer tenth and eleventh essays (previously published in shorter versions) call for renewed defense of otherthan-humans in this world of mass destruction (human as well as other), and for much more study, use, and application of traditional ecological knowledge. overall, this book is one of the most impressive, unique, and thoroughly documented discussions of native american ecological thinking. pierotti uses a wide range of quotes, and is extremely literate in everything ranging from state-of-the-art biology to novels and poetry. the book stays at a uniformly high level of analytic and theoretical sophistication. it is convincing and important. it is absolutely necessary reading for anyone interested in native american views ethnobiology letters                                                                                                                    book review    5    of and theories about the natural or other-than-human world and humanity’s place therein. criticisms are few. possibly the most thoughtful would be that “wilderness” in our popular sense (of a truly wild place—not our sense of “scary” or “bad”) was not an unknown concept before columbus: young men seeking visions were expected to go as far from humans as they could get, stay in some remote place among dangerous wild animals, and purify themselves, learn courage and self-reliance, and become strong both physically and spiritually in that solitude. this not only parallels our concept, it may even have inspired it, via the idealization of the “wilderness experience” by people like theodore roosevelt and john muir. they had associated with native americans in the wild, and to my knowledge they were the first to use this sort of rhetoric in english. perhaps pierotti drives the “metaphor” concept a bit beyond its scope; native american ideas of nature can certainly be seen that way now, but, equally certainly, people (europeans as much as native americans) of a few centuries ago believed many things to be factual (not just metaphoric) that we would now consider dubious. there is also one rather surprising error in the book (p. 43): pierotti accepts the theory that the aztecs ate their sacrifices because of lack of protein. this idea was refuted as soon as published (see ortiz de montellano 1990) and has no basis in fact. aside from these trivial notes, this book is an astonishing achievement, covering a wide range of subjects with ease and grace as well as accuracy and depth. it shows that native americans were hardheaded scientists as well as poets and mythmakers. they were not romantic noble savages, but were highly competent and successful users of the environment. they constructed knowledge systems that are not only interesting in their own right, but are vitally important today. the survival of humanity may depend on using their extensive and thorough understandings. thanks to ray pierotti for help with this review— full disclosure: i checked it with him for accuracy. any problems and errors remain entirely mine. references cited anderson, e. n. 2000. the ecological indian by shepard krech. journal of ethnobiology 20:37-42. descartes, rené. 2003. discourse on method and related writings. tr. desmond clarke (french original 1637). penguin, new york. krech, shepard, iii. 1999. the ecological indian: myth and reality. w. w. norton, new york. ortiz de montellano, bernard r. 1990. aztec medicine, health, and nutrition. rutgers university press, new brunswick, nj. an editor’s opinion on the ethics of open access 1 editorial the internet is available. secondarily, i believe that open access is an honorable endeavor ecologically since online publication requires no conventional resources (paper, ink, fuel) to print and distribute content. ebl is committed to promoting the agendas of social justice and environmental sustainability while simultaneously delivering excellent scholarship to the world. financial support from the society of ethnobiology enables ebl’s purist stance to open access. i use the term “purist” not with a sanctimonious attitude, but instead to recognize that we are a viable journal (and thus do not charge authors or readers) due almost completely to support from our organizational home, and that other open access publications may need to exact fees from authors or readers in order to be financially sustainable. open access journals that include author-pay, reader-pay, membership-pay, or database subscriber-pay mechanisms in their models can still—although not completely free—be ethical. at the same time, numerous scholarly communities are developing low-cost, ethical, innovative business models (esposito 2008). at ebl, monies collected from membership dues, subscription income from the journal of ethnobiology, interest from investments, and proceeds from conferences paid our web manager, takahashi design, to create and maintain our web presence for the first four years and coordinate our migration to our new platform on public knowledge project’s open journal systems’s open source software. the society of ethnobiology also covers all fees for membership in the crossref consortium of publishers which enables us to assign dois to articles and, hopefully in the future, to use crosscheck to ensure originality. as editors, we–cissy fowler (wofford college), steve wolverton (university of north texas), and james r. welch (national school of public health in rio de janeiro) in addition to a diverse board of associate editors–donate our time to ebl, which we are fortunate enough to be able to do my approach to writing this editorial is to describe ethnobiology letters’s (ebl) open access model and to present it as one that is, in my opinion, highly ethical. other authors (e.g., beall 2013; kolata 2013) have written about the ethical shortcomings of open access by criticizing publishers’ use of academic covers to mask profit-seeking motives, overcharging authors or only revealing charges late in the publication process, shortchanging or eliminating peer review, enabling plagiarism, and other unscrupulous practices. rather than furthering this track in what is a truly engaging dialogue, i follow an alternative trajectory here by offering ebl as a prototype for an ethical open access journal. my hope is not only that other publishers, editors, and authors will find a description of ebl’s model useful, but also that this essay will alleviate doubts that some people might have (which the aforementioned dialogue, in part, may generate) about the worthiness of open access. the society of ethnobiology board of trustees initiated ebl in may 2010 to expand its publishing portfolio into the realm of open access. our society’s board took that bold step because our flagship journal, the journal of ethnobiology, was considering discontinuing or dramatically shortening its book review section due to the costs of traditional printbased publishing. this step was also taken because open access represents a financially sustainable venue, thanks to the support of our growing membership base (in 2014 have over 500 members). the purpose of this editorial for the fifth volume of ebl is to highlight several important issues related to the ethics of open access from the point of view of an editor of an up-and-coming journal and a board member of a 40-year-old-and-still-maturing professional organization. open access is moral primarily, i believe, since it places high quality scholarly information into anyone’s hands at no cost and from any location where an editor’s opinion on the ethics of open access cynthia t. fowler, co-editor of ethnobiology letters and secretary of the society of ethnobiology author address: wofford college, spartanburg, south carolina 29303 fowlerct@wofford.edu received: december 13, 2013 volume 5:1-3 published: january 13, 2014 © 2014 society of ethnobiology http://takahashidesign.ca/ http://ethnobiology.org/publications/ethnobiology-letters http://ethnobiology.org/publications/ethnobiology-letters http://pkp.sfu.ca/ojs/ http://www.crossref.org/ http://www.crossref.org/crosscheck/index.html http://ojs.ethnobiology.org/index.php/ebl/issue/archive http://ethnobiology.org/ http://ethnobiology.org/about-society-ethnobiology/current-board-directors http://ojs.ethnobiology.org/ mailto:fowlerct@wofford.edu mailto:fowlerct@wofford.edu 2 editorial because academic institutions pay our salaries. we have also received financial support from wofford college to retain students as editorial assistants. above all, ebl is viable because the journal of ethnobiology’s audience pays subscription dues and members of the society of ethnobiology pay nominal dues, which range from $15/year for online access to the journal of ethnobiology for students, to $20/year for retirees, $25/year for professionals, and $150 for institutions. thanks to this generous support, publishing in ebl remains free for authors and readers. if you like ebl, then become a member, buy someone a gift membership, and help us grow our community of ethnobiologists. providing open access to scholarly articles about relations between humans and biota does not necessarily mean people living in rural or underdeveloped regions, who are sometimes subjects of the studies we publish, will get online, search for or even stumble upon our modest journal, read our research, absorb our reports, share the information with friends and family, and use the knowledge contained in our virtual pages as they move through their worlds. yet, the potential for greater fairness, for greater information equality helped us arrive at volume 5 and rapidly drives us into our future. can you see the potential of open access publishing and of ebl? can you afford to write without compensation while we publish for no cost? contribute by sending your writing to us or volunteer to peer review articles in order to share your knowledge with people all over the world who are already reading articles for free. perhaps those people who you could/would reach through ebl’s open access content are the subjects or descendants of the subjects of your research. the goal that writers’ subjects become members of their audiences becomes even more realistic with open access publishing. what do you achieve, morally, by sharing your research—electronically and potentially immediately—with the people who appear in your writings and their descendants? among other repercussions, your accountability for accuracy may increase and your obligation to protect interlocutors may gain greater immediacy. ethnobiologists ought to consider how the lives of their subjects and/or their subjects’ descendants will change when they read about themselves, or see photos and videos of themselves, as well as how knowing the outcomes of ethnobiological research will affect future fieldwork endeavors in the subjects’ societies. “economic empowerment” (das 2008:1), “enhance[ed] educational and research opportunities” (sreenivasan 2008:vii), and “saving researchers in [developing] countries immense expenses and time with their own experiments” (herb 2010) are potential outcomes of open access, although some authors doubt that open access will have a “levelling and democracy-boosting effect’ (herb 2010). perhaps you have witnessed the effects, or the lack of effects, of increased accessibility for people who previously were not able to locate scholarly publications, and could thus write an article for ebl about the implications of projects like ours. publishing ethnobiological essays in an open access journal may better serve the inner circle of scholars (esposito 2010) who are deeply committed to ethnobiology by providing them with a virtual location for reading timely, relevant reports because of the vetting services that our editorial team and crew of reviewers performs. idealistically, open access publishing also expands our disciplinary community by enabling more people in more parts of the world to read about ethnobiology’s methods, theories, and research results, but proof of concept is not yet available to us. if our community does become more spatially and cultural dispersed, it might come to include more people who are, or who bear certain similarities with, ethnobiology’s interlocutors, including indigenous persons and subalterns, although we recognize that many rural people’s ability to consume scholarly information is still limited by the inaccessibility of computers and internet connections. ebl supports authors and readers by advocating for digital inclusion. while ebl advocates for digital inclusion on behalf of information impoverished people including our own interlocutors, we also support authors’ need to maximize their scientific capital (bourdieu 2002). i believe that journals who begin their lives as open access (like ebl) as well as journals who convert from restricted access will eventually, if they have not already, achieve high impact factors and therefore afford merit to authors accustomed to publishing in restricted access journals with high impact factors. moreover, as publishing in open access gains moral status with respect to traditional restricted venues, authors may perceive it has additional benefits. in this editorial, i have revealed some details about our journal’s origins and funding as well as described my moral viewpoint. mine is a post-print 3 editorial egalitarian ethos. “academics need to do some soul searching,” says peter ludlow (2013) referring to our allegiance to conventional systems for achieving merit by publishing in flagship journals because these tend to be restricted access titles. when the society of ethnobiology’s leadership did some soul searching, we found that we agree with aaron schwartz who, in his gorilla open access manifesto, said, “you have a duty to share [the banquet of knowledge] with the rest of the world” (schwartz cited in ludlow 2013). the society of ethnobiology is one among many publishers (see oaspa’s list of publishers) who provide sustenance for the feast. likewise, ebl is one among many reputable open access journals (see a list of 9804 at the directory of open access journals), including standout journals such as peerj and elife, and exemplary repositories such as mana‘o, that uphold scholarly values by completing peer review to ensure that authors use valid methods for collecting information, analyzing data, and arriving at conclusions; who follow ethical practices with regard to their research collaborators; and who abide by additional guidelines established in, for example, the data management for global change research policy statement from 1991, the berlin declaration from 2003, and the tasman declaration from 2013, and by organizations such as the public library of science, the compact for open-access publishing equity, the open access scholarly publishers association, the open knowledge foundation, and unesco. along with these like-minded organizations and their editorial staffs, our team of editors, associate editors, and editorial assistants at ebl are participating in a larger movement that aligns with the belief that published scholarly knowledge should be everyone’s privilege. references cited beall, j. 2013. bourdieu, pierre. 2002. homo academicus. suhrkamp, frankfurt am main. beall, j. 2013. unethical practices in scholarly, openaccess publishing. journal of information ethics 22 (1):11-20. das, anup kumar. 2008. open access to knowledge and information: scholarly literature and digital access initiatives—the south asian scenario. unesco, new delhi. available at: http:// portal.unesco.org/ci/en/ files/26393/12075628443open_access_book_en.pdf /open_access_book_en.pdf. accessed on december 31, 2013. esposito, joseph j. 2008. open access 2.0: access to scholarly publications moves to a new phase. journal of electronic publishing 11(2). doi: http:// dx.doi.org/10.3998/3336451.0011.203. herb, ulrich. 2010. sociological implications of scientific publishing: open access, science, society, democracy, and the digital divide. first monday 15(2). doi: 10.5210/fmv15i2.2599. ludlow, peter. 2013. aaron schwartz was right. the chronicle review february 25, 2013. available at: https://chronicle.com/article/aaron-swartz-wasright/137425/. accessed on december 24, 2013. kolata, gina. 2013. scientific articles accepted (personal checks, too). new york times april 7, 2013. available at: http:// www.nytimes.com/2013/04/08/health/forscientists-an-exploding-world-of-pseudoacademia.html?pagewanted=1&_r=0&smid=fbshare. accessed on december 24, 2013. sreenivasan, k. r. 2008. foreward. in science dissemination using open access: a compendium of selected literature on open access, edited by enrique canessa and marco zennaro, pp. vii-viii. the abdus salam center for theoretical physics, trieste, italy. available at: http://sdu.ictp.it/openaccess/ scidissopenaccess.pdf. accessed on december 31, 2013. http://oaspa.org/membership/members/ http://www.doaj.org/ https://peerj.com/ http://elife.elifesciences.org/ http://evols.library.manoa.hawaii.edu/handle/10524/1511 http://www.gcrio.org/usgcrp/datapolicy.html http://www.gcrio.org/usgcrp/datapolicy.html http://www.gcrio.org/usgcrp/datapolicy.html http://openaccess.mpg.de/286432/berlin-declaration https://sites.google.com/site/nzauopenresearch/tasman-declaration/ http://www.plos.org/ http://www.oacompact.org/ http://www.oacompact.org/ http://okfn.org/ http://www.unesco.org/new/en/communication-and-information/portals-and-platforms/goap/ http://portal.unesco.org/ci/en/files/26393/12075628443open_access_book_en.pdf/open_access_book_en.pdf http://portal.unesco.org/ci/en/files/26393/12075628443open_access_book_en.pdf/open_access_book_en.pdf http://portal.unesco.org/ci/en/files/26393/12075628443open_access_book_en.pdf/open_access_book_en.pdf http://portal.unesco.org/ci/en/files/26393/12075628443open_access_book_en.pdf/open_access_book_en.pdf http://dx.doi.org/10.3998/3336451.0011.203 http://dx.doi.org/10.3998/3336451.0011.203 https://chronicle.com/article/aaron-swartz-was-right/137425/ https://chronicle.com/article/aaron-swartz-was-right/137425/ http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/08/health/for-scientists-an-exploding-world-of-pseudo-academia.html?pagewanted=1&_r=0&smid=fb-share http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/08/health/for-scientists-an-exploding-world-of-pseudo-academia.html?pagewanted=1&_r=0&smid=fb-share http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/08/health/for-scientists-an-exploding-world-of-pseudo-academia.html?pagewanted=1&_r=0&smid=fb-share http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/08/health/for-scientists-an-exploding-world-of-pseudo-academia.html?pagewanted=1&_r=0&smid=fb-share http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/08/health/for-scientists-an-exploding-world-of-pseudo-academia.html?pagewanted=1&_r=0&smid=fb-share http://sdu.ictp.it/openaccess/scidissopenaccess.pdf http://sdu.ictp.it/openaccess/scidissopenaccess.pdf defoliator pest to caboclos and gourmet food to the suruí indians: contrasting amazonian perspectives of lusura sp. caterpillars 56 perspective defoliator pest to caboclos and gourmet food to the suruí indians: contrasting amazonian perspectives of lusura sp. caterpillars carlos e. a. coimbra, jr. author address: escola nacional de saúde pública, fundação oswaldo cruz, rua leopoldo bulhões 1480, rio de janeiro, 21041-210, brazil. coimbra@ensp.fiocruz.br received: september 10, 2011 volume: 2:56-60 published: august 9, 2012 © 2012 society of ethnobiology abstract: the use of a lusura sp. (lepidoptera: notodontidae) caterpillar as food by the suruí indians from the southwestern brazilian amazon is reported in the context of family collecting excursions during arboreal infestations observed in july-august 1983. this caterpillar erupts in very large numbers on brazil nut trees, denuding them of foliage. the paper calls attention to contrasting views about these caterpillar infestations among different inhabitants of the forest, being considered a desirable food delicacy by the suruí and a destructive pest defoliator by caboclos. key words: amazonia, indigenous peoples, brazil nut tree, insects as food, ethnoentomology reading a recently published article in biotropica brought back memories of my first years of fieldwork among the suruí indians in rondônia, brazil, in the 1980s. the article (haugaasen 2009) describes the defoliating action of the moth larva lusura altrix stoll (lepidoptera: notodontidae) on the canopy of the brazil nut tree (bertholletia excelsa bonpl. lecythidaceae)1 (figure 1). according to the author, attacked trees are completely stripped of their leaves. based on testimonies collected among the local caboclo2 population, the voracity of the caterpillars is said to impact the flowering and subsequent fruiting of the tree, causing negative economic consequences for the commercial production of brazil nuts, with harvests reduced by more than 60%. during my stays among the suruí3, i would often accompany groups of men on hunts and whole families during collecting activities. commonly, family excursions contemplated multiple objectives, such as collecting seasonal fruits, honey, heart-of-palms, bird eggs, medicinal plants, and insect larvae, among other items. some of these activities could last several days and involved camping in the forest. in relation to the insects, beetle larvae from the bruchidae and curculionidae families immediately captured my interest for their importance in the suruí diet. depending on the species, these were collected from babaçu or tucumã coconuts (attalea speciosa mart. ex spreng. arecaceae and astrocaryum aculeatum g. mey. arecaceae) or from downed logs of the jaracatiá tree [jacaratia digitata (poepp. & endl.) solms caricaceae], as i described previously (coimbra jr. 1984). during the months of july and august 1983, something happened that was without precedence in my experience. entire family groups turned their attention to caterpillar outbreaks high in the canopies of brazil nut trees. these ecological commotions became visually perceptible from a distance as clusters of trees rapidly lost their leaves, causing them to stand out in their bareness as gaps in the green shades that dominate the amazonian canopy. initially i had no idea what might be happening with these trees, although the signs were more than evident for the suruí. upon noticing the first indications, family groups organized excursions into the forest to accompany the outbreaks. they went specifically looking for brazil nut trees with no leaves since it was there that they would find thousands of the caterpillars they called mamnég-éy. on that first occasion, i accompanied several family groups to areas in the forest surrounding the village with concentrations of brazil nut trees. what i witnessed there was striking, as the explosion of caterpillars reaching the last instar of larval development descended from the canopy along the trunks of the trees. under the canopy of these trees, little balls of caterpillar feces rained down on our james typewritten text james typewritten text james typewritten text james typewritten text james typewritten text 57 perspective figure 1. (1a-1b) lusura sp. caterpillars on the trunk of a brazil nut tree (note the white filaments, indicating the beginning of cocoon production during the last stage of larval development); (1c) lusura sp. cocoon adhering to the trunk of a tree; (1d) upward view of a brazil nut trunk infested with lusura sp. caterpillars (note the canopy is almost completely defoliated due to the caterpillar attack, permitting an otherwise impossible view of the blue sky where there was once dense foliage). photographs by carlos coimbra jr., sete de setembro indigenous reserve, rondônia, brazil, 1983. heads. as the caterpillars descended, they accumulated on the lower third of the tree trunks where they pupated in the cracks and crevices of the bark, forming around them little cocoons of white silk that adhered to the tree. the situated cocoons were so numerous that there was practically no room for the flow of caterpillars that continued to descend from the canopy. consequently, they fell to the ground as though they were pushed from the surface of the trunk, but soon climbed back up any nearby branch or tree in search of adequate space to pupate. given the huge number of caterpillars, the greatest challenge for the suruí was to collect them before they became pupae. the gourmet delicacy consisted of eating the still-soft larvae, recently taken from new cocoons before they pupated and hardened. whole family groups, including children and elders, undertook this collecting activity, which often lasted between three to four days. in order to reach caterpillars in the highest parts of the trunk, some men built scaffolds of poles bound with vines. back in the village, full baskets carried by the women were emptied as they arrived and the caterpillars were placed in deep clay pots to toast, after which they were eaten plain, accompanied with dry popped corn kernels, or mixed with toasted cornmeal, the latter two derived from native suruí varieties. i did not observe any restrictions in the consumption of these caterpillars – children and adults of both genders were equally enthusiastic to eat this delicacy. according to the suruí these esteemed eruptions of mamnég-éy larvae only occurred every three or four years. they also told me that similar defoliating events were occasionally caused by other types of caterpillars, 58 perspective also edible, in different tree species, such as caucho (castilla ulei warb. moraceae) and breu [tetragastris altissima (aubl.) swart burseraceae]. however, i didn’t have the opportunity to observe these other caterpillar taxa. considering the rarity of these events, caterpillars cannot be considered a major source of proteins or other nutrients in the routine suruí diet. in order to identify the mamnég-éy insect, i collected a small number of caterpillars that were about to pupate and put them in a cardboard box covered with screen in the village. after two days, all of them had adhered to the walls of the box and covered themselves in white silk. twelve days passed before the first cocoons hatched, giving rise to greyish nocturnal moths. as soon as they hatched, adult moths were placed in flasks with sulfuric ether vapor and immediately mounted with entomological pins. unfortunately, only four moths hatched and, despite my best efforts, while i was still in the field the mounted specimens were attacked and partially destroyed by small ants that roamed in search of everything organic in the plank hut where i hung my hammock. the larvae specimens were preserved in 70% ethyl alcohol and taken to the university of brasília, where i studied at the time. they were identified with the generous help of dr. david ross gifford, specialist in neotropical lepidopterans and professor at the institute of biological sciences. the circumstances of their collection made identification difficult but not impossible. from the entomological point of view, the mamnégéy caterpillars pertain to the lusura genus (notodontidae). it is also likely that they belong to the altrix species, considering the morphological similarities between the specimens i collected among the suruí and this species, which has an ample distribution in the south-central portion of the amazon, having been observed in brazil nut collecting areas in caboclo communities located in the region of the purús river in amazonas state (haugaasen 2009), the madeira river in rondônia state (santos 2011), and the bolivian lowlands (hurtado 2010). in a review of the anthropological and ethnobiological literature about insect foods among indigenous peoples in brazil, costa-neto and ramoselorduy (2006) encountered references to 135 types of insects pertaining to nine orders. of these, 95 taxa were classified to the species level. only 4% of these species were classified in the order lepidoptera; almost three quarters of the total cited in the literature pertain to the orders hymenoptera (63%) and coleoptera (16%). figure 2. (2a-2b) suruí woman toasting lusura sp. caterpillars in a traditional clay pot. the caterpillars were placed in a preheated pot without added oil and continually stirred. at the end of the cooking process, the caterpillars became crispy and the equivalent of several tablespoons of fat, which came from the caterpillars as they cooked, could be seen at the base of the pot. this fat was often used by the suruí in, for example, preparing red paint from urucu seeds (bixa orellana l. bixaceae). photograph by carlos coimbra jr., sete de setembro indigenous reserve, rondônia, brazil, 1983. 59 perspective also according to these authors, the lepidoptera species identified as food items used by different indigenous peoples in brazil pertain to the families hepialidae, morphidae, nymphalidae, phalaenidae, and pyralidae. taking into account literature reviews addressing indigenous groups throughout amazonia, this list also includes the families brassolidae, castniidae, noctuidae, saturniidae, and sphingidae (araujo and beserra 2007; paoletti and dufour 2005). it is important to stress that this list certainly does not express the entire reality of lepidoptera larvae as human food among indigenous groups in the amazon. the ethnographic literature for the region is full of references to edible caterpillars without any information regarding genus or species. the only reference in the literature to an indigenous group consuming a caterpillar from the notodontidae family is a study by dufour (1987) regarding tukano groups in the northwest amazon. however, in this case there was no identification of the insect’s genus. it is unlikely that the caterpillar consumed by the tukano is the same as that i observed among the suruí (lusura sp.) because dufour described them as feeding on inga spp. leaves, a large genus of neotropical trees in the fabaceae family. the notodontidae family includes over 1,300 species in the neotropics, the majority of which have extremely high larval host specificity (weller 1992). in a previous article, i addressed the question of the pest/food opposition in discussing beetle larvae that develop on palm trees, especially those pertaining to the curculionidae family. for entomologists and agronomists, these are considered pests that attack various palm species of commercial interest, particularly coconut (cocos nucifera l. arecaceae) and oil palm (elaeis guineensis jacq. arecaceae), and are combatted chemically. for the suruí, however, they constitute an extremely valued food (coimbra jr. and santos 1993) (figure 2). similarly contrasting views regarding reptiles as beneficial and/or as pests have been documented for other rural brazilian communities (see review by alves et al. 2011). returning to the subject of my opening paragraph, the article by t. haugaasen (2009) caught my attention precisely because in highlighting the negative aspects of brazil nut trees defoliation by lusura sp. larvae in a caboclo community in the lower rio purús region of brazil, the author made apparent the potentially contrastive cultural views of natural resource management that may exist between different ethnic groups in the amazon. the opposition between the lusura sp. caterpillar as pest and the suruí view of them as a desirable food is practically irreconcilable. not only in the haugassen article, but also in the other entomological studies here referenced that were conducted in caboclo communities that seasonally collect brazil nuts for sale, the lusura sp. outbreaks are considered harmful to production (hurtado 2010; santos 2011). for the suruí, who also consume and commercialize brazil nuts harvested from their lands, the caterpillar outbreaks on brazil nut trees are not interpreted in terms of loss. although brazil nuts may occupy a more significant position in the overall suruí diet and economy, lusura caterpillar outbreaks are valued as welcome moments of increased food diversity. from the suruí perspective, they constitute pleasurable opportunities to spend days with one’s family in the brazil nut groves, taking advantage of a delectable food that is rarely available and largely unpredictable. as i look back and reflect on my old suruí field notebooks, it is apparent that the ethnobiological knowledge i recorded back in 1983 was very possibly already at risk of disappearing in the face of the rapid process of sociocultural change that confronted the indigenous peoples of rondônia, especially that which occurred through the influence of the br-364 highway, which was first paved that very year. already at the end of my visit to the field in 1983, i speculated that possible factors influencing changes in the dietary behavior of the group, especially among the youth: “...were ‘civilized’ prejudices regarding determined foods, expressed in the manifestation of nausea or repulsion. this happens principally in relation to the consumption of insect larvae...” (coimbra jr. 1985:82). despite this pressure, i sincerely hope that some suruí might still enjoy mamnégéy on the occasion of the next outbreak on brazil nut trees in the region. acknowledgements i would like to thank ricardo v. santos for reading my early drafts and james r. welch for his insights and translation from portuguese. eduardo pina kindly restored my old slides and photographic prints reproduced in this paper. references cited alves, r. r. n., k. s. vieira, g. g. santana, w. l. s. vieira, w. o. almeida, w. m. s. souto, p. f. g. p. montenegro and j. c. b. pezzuti. 2011. a review on human attitudes towards reptiles in brazil. environmental monitoring and assessment e-pub ahead of 60 perspective print:1-25. araujo, y. and p. beserra. 2007. diversidad de invertebrados consumidos por las etnias yanomami y yekuana del alto orinoco, venezuela. interciencia 32:318-323. coimbra jr., c. e. a. 1984. estudos de ecologia humana entre os suruí do parque indígena aripuanã, rondônia. o uso de larvas de coleópteros (bruchidae e curculionidae) na alimentação. revista brasileira de zoologia 2:35-47. coimbra jr., c. e. a. 1985. estudos de ecologia humana entre os suruí do parque indígena aripuanã, rondônia. aspectos alimentares. boletim do museu paraense emílio goeldi (antropologia) 2:57-87. coimbra jr., c. e. a. and r. v. santos. 1993. bicudo das palmáceas: praga ou alimento? ciência hoje 16:5960. costa-neto, e. and j. ramos-elorduy. 2006. los insectos comestibles de brasil: etnicidad, diversidad e importancia en la alimentación. boletín de la sociedad entomológica aragonesa 38:423-442. dufour, d. l. 1987. insects as food: a case study from the northwest amazon. american anthropologist 89:383-397. haugaasen, t. 2009. a lepidopteran defoliator attack on brazil nut trees (bertholletia excelsa) in central amazonia, brazil. biotropica 41:275-278. hurtado, g. b. 2010. plagas en la producción de la castaña (bertholletia excelsa h.b.k.) en la amazonia boliviana. instituto boliviano de tecnología agropecuaria/ fundación para el desarrollo de la provincia vaca diez, riberalta, bolívia. paoletti, m. g. and d. l. dufour. 2005. edible invertebrates among amazonian indians: a critical review of disappearing knowledge. in ecological implications of minilivestock: potential of insects, rodents, frogs and snails, edited by m. g. paoletti, pp. 293-342. science publishers, enfield, nh. santos, r. r. 2011. o extrativismo de castanha-do-brasil, bertholletia excelsa (humbl. & bompl.) no rio madeira, rondônia: bases para uma gestão ambiental participativa. unpublished master’s thesis, departamento de hidrobiologia, universidade federal de são carlos, são carlos, brasil. weller, s. j. 1992. survey of adult morphology in nystaleinae and related neotropical subfamilies (noctuoidea: notodontidae). journal of research on the lepidoptera 31:233-277. biosketch carlos e. a. coimbra jr. is a professor of medical anthropology and public health at the national school of public health, oswaldo cruz foundation, in rio de janeiro. 1 botanical nomenclature follows the lista de espécies da flora do brasil 2012 accessible at http://floradobrasil.jbrj.gov.br/2012 (accessed on may 7, 2012). 2 caboclos are individuals of mixed indigenous and european ancestry. 3 although my ethnographic fieldwork among the suruí indians in rondônia, brazil, spanned two decades, the first phase entailed about four months each year from december 1979 to january 1984. during that time, my primary research interests were themes related to human ecology, diet, and health. http://floradobrasil.jbrj.gov.br/2012 63 research communication folk knowledge of an individual plant specimen: the case of the royal fern (osmunda regalis l.) in virestad parish, småland, sweden ingvar svanberg author addresses: uppsala centre for russian and eurasian studies, uppsala university, box 514, se-751 20 uppsala, sweden ingvar.svanberg@ucrs.uu.se received: february 23, 2012 volume 3: 63-67 published: november 5, 2012 © 2012 society of ethnobiology abstract: ethnobiological studies of local economic or folk religious uses of plants often rely on the assumption that plant use relates to folk knowledge about specific taxa. however, in some cases, folk knowledge is more about beliefs concerning an individual plant. when carl linnaeus traveled in 1749 through his native province of småland, sweden, he observed a striking specimen of a royal fern (osmunda regalis l.), which was being used by a local healer. the appearance and unusually large size of this individual plant specimen were possibly responsible for its use. this species has not been used elsewhere in sweden and historical data refer only to the single specimen observed by linnaeus. key words: healer’s knowledge, historical ethnobiology, intra-cultural diversity, carl linnaeus, folk knowledge. introduction today, as local ecological knowledge is rapidly disappearing and to a great extent has already been lost in most post-industrialized countries in europe, historical data in archives are of particular interest to ethnobiologists (heinrich et al. 2006; łuczaj 2008; sõukand et al. 2010; svanberg et al. 2011). however, the information the ethnobiologist acquires concerning various kinds of past local and traditional plant knowledge must be understood in its proper historical, ecological, and cultural context as much as is possible using historical records. plant knowledge is not only a question of how a plant was used, but also when, where and by whom. these are simple, but crucial questions for ethnobiologists to ask and answer in order to understand the context of plant knowledge. it is well documented that people in traditional societies all over the world had an intimate familiarity with local plants (lévi-strauss 1962). however, this knowledge varies within communities. attention to intra-community and intra-cultural diversity of knowledge has increased among researchers (pelto and pelto 1975; reyes-garcía et al. 2007; newkirk et al. 2009). clearly, knowledge about plants is not equally distributed within a particular community; certain skills are specific to men, women or children, others to certain categories such as healers, craftsmen or other specialists within a community. knowledge may also vary according to economic and social context. particular groups can comprise individuals who believe in the healing power of plants, as well as others who do not hold that belief. attitudes can also change over time within a community or during an individual’s lifetime (anderson 2000; pieroni 2003; svanberg et al. 2011). there are additional concerns that are important when considering plant knowledge surrounding the use of a specific taxon. when studying the cultural contexts between plants and people, many ethnobiologists focus on, and generalize about, a plant species or a folk taxon. although scholars have increasingly moved away from cataloguing the use of various taxa, scientific or folk-defined species continue to be the focus of scholarly interest. it is important, however, for the ethnobiologist to be able to shift scale from species to populations to individuals, as plant knowledge can vary from knowledge about a species to intimate knowledge about a single plant. materials and methods in some cases, healers or other users can develop a relationship with a specific plant. specific trees, for instance have been of great importance in traditional plant lore in scandinavia. various customs and medicinal practices have been connected with individual trees (sydow 1935). often, a strange appearance or an unusual growth is the reason why these particular trees were chosen for such purposes (sydow 1973). the use of specific tree specimens for healing purposes was quite common in scandinavian mailto:ingvar.svanberg@ucrs.uu.se 64 research communication folk medicine (sydow 1935; brøndegaard 1978), a phenomenon that is also encountered elsewhere (e.g., blackman 1925; egenter 1981). however, it is rare that individual healers develop a unique tie to a single small plant specimen. such was the case with a single royal fern used by a local healer in virestad parish in the swedish province of småland in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. it was discovered by carl linnaeus during his travels in sweden in the 1740s and recorded in his notes. this relationship is analyzed here using narrative sources and source criticism, which relies on circumstantial evidence to take advantage of indications and clues available from a limited number of sources (myrdal 2009). during his travels in various swedish provinces between 1732 and 1749, linnaeus observed and noted interesting empirical data about folk biology, which are of relevance for ethnobiologists. the information linnaeus gathered during his fieldwork was rendered in his flora lapponica (1737) and flora svecica (1755), both published in latin and therefore extensively read by an international audience. these published data about local swedish and sámi folk biology give very little contextual information, but they have become widely distributed in the scientific community. the origin of much of this information has been obscured, and the information about folk knowledge is usually stripped from botanical handbooks. however, thanks to the travelogues linnaeus published and his preserved hand-written travel diaries, some contextual information about when, where, and from whom he gathered his data about the use of certain plants exists. his travelogues, rather than the floras he published, are important sources for ethnobiological research. results: linnaeus and folk biological knowledge with linnaeus’ notes as the exception there are no available records about local knowledge of the royal fern (osmunda vulgaris l.) in sweden. when linnaeus traveled through his native province of småland on the road to the southernmost province skåne, in may 1749, he made the following annotation when he passed virestad parish: ‘safsa-buske [= royal fern bush] was a renowned plant in virestad parish, which was only to be found in one place, that is to say a small islet in fanhult’s creek. the wise woman, known as ingeborg in mjärhult, used, when she lived in mjärhult, to visit this bush during the mornings in silence, and fasting, to consult with, i know not whom. this is why the inhabitants of virestad call the bush for ingeborg i märhult’s predikstol ‘the pulpit of ingeborg of mjärhult’ (linnaeus 1751). the fern specimen was (for swedish examples of the species) an imposing example of osmunda vulgaris l. linnaeus writes that it was about 1.2 meters high and 3.6 meters in diameter (linnaeus 1751). not surprisingly it was looked on more as a shrub (‘buske’) than a fern. linnaeus had had already written about the healer mother ingeborg just after her death during his visit in 1741 (linnaeus 1745). she was famous all over the country as a seeress and as a folk-healer, and she was a well-known local healer in this part of småland. little biographical data are available, but apparently she learned to use plants in remedies from her mother, and she gathered various plants and grasses during midsummer eve for that purpose. at seventy years of age, ingeborg was put on trial in 1740 for acting as a healer. according to records made by linnaeus himself, mother ingeborg could describe her patients' illness simply by handling their clothes. she thought that every person had a double that followed them like a reversed reflection in calm water or as an antipode in a downwards position. if the double should injure an underground spirit, the person fell ill. the illness was cured by pouring milk or something similar into a northbound stream, on a tree or in a churchyard. unfortunately no further information about her use of plants or healing methods is available. the plant name safsabuske was recorded for the first time by linnaeus in virestad 1749. the etymology of the name remains obscure. although the royal fern is the largest fern species in sweden, which grew along small rivers and brooks with oligotrophic water, no other local names have been recorded. the species occurred – and still occurs – here and there in the southernmost part of sweden north to mid-småland. with its striking appearance, this impressive fern species must have attracted the interest of the peasantry. however, if such was the case, it is surprising that oral folk records in archives and published sources have nothing to say about the plant. discussion ferns have played an important role in scandinavian and european folk botany. the many folk-views about them held across large parts of eurasia have been discussed by gunda (1989). however, information about the osmunda vulgaris from småland is a very local tradition tied specifically to the specimen observed by 65 research communication linnaeus. only this particular plant specimen was used by the local healers. nothing is known about the species’ role in the folk botany of other parts of sweden or in denmark. however, john gerard in his herbal 1597 and nicholas culpepper in his herbal 1653 recommended its rhizomes for medical use (grieve 1931). it has also been mentioned in recent southern european and british folk medicine (vickery 1995; molina et al. 2009). in scotland its rhizome has been reported for use as a love charm (darwin 1996). the swedish local name safsabuske was probably also not used for the taxon as such, but for the particular specimen in virestad parish. however, linnaeus regarded it as a provincial plant name and used it as such in his flora svecica (1755). it thereby became the swedish name of the species, and, shortened to safsa in 1848, is still the one used in swedish handbooks. linnaeus’ descriptions of the fasting and silent woman in mjärhult who used the royal fern as an oracle plant gives us interesting insights into eighteenth century traditional folk knowledge and magical methods of diagnosis. much later, the swedish author and scholar in traditional folk-lore, eva wigström, recorded local traditions about the same royal fern specimen. according to her, there were stories about a witch that once lived in virestad parish who gained power over satan himself. satan gave her the fern to plant and knowledge on how to use it correctly in order to have universal knowledge (wigström 1896). the tradition of the huge royal fern specimen in virestad survived until the nineteenth century, and its magical usefulness seems to have benefited several generations of healers. ethnologist gunnar olof hyltén-cavallius in the 1860s wrote about the same plant specimen: ‘still in our own time, the so-called kloke herren (‘wise gentleman’) in fanhult likewise used branches of the royal fern bush as a potent drug against bewitching and illness’. in this case, over hundred years after linnaeus’ visit it was another healer, this time a male, who used the plant (hylténcavallius 1863–64). for him it was used for the derivation of medicine. the royal fern is a rare species that lives along rivers with oxygen-rich water. it grows in gravely places in or near water. the habitat of this particular specimen was destroyed when water levels decreased in the 1880s (schiöler 1931). although the royal fern as a species was distributed over southern sweden, the records from virestad stand out as unique in swedish folk biological tradition. its use was connected with that particular plant, not with the taxon as such. one reason for this must have been that the virestad specimen was large and outstanding in many ways. scholars have long emphasized the significance of ‘the unusual’ in popular belief and folk perceptions of other organisms (sydow 1973; kolosova 2010). the other reason is that local wise persons discovered the plant and developed a kind of mythical tradition around it. therefore, the biocultural domain that materialized in this relationship must be regarded as unique, not necessary based on folk wisdom on the species as such. conclusions ethnobiologists study the folk biology and the biocultural domains that develop in human and plant and animal interactions (svanberg et al. 2011). however, historically, the primary aim has not been to theorize and generalize about folk biological knowledge but to exploit it for other purposes. this is also true of linnaeus, who, in a more programmatic way than anyone before him, exhorted scholars to direct a searchlight on traditional folk knowledge about nature. he stressed the importance of not neglecting, but carefully investigating ‘peasant botany’, as he called it (linnaeus 1745). for linnaeus and his contemporaries, folk knowledge of plants and animals was a storehouse of information that scholars could draw upon. the purpose of this was to benefit the national economy, that is, to find biological resources that could be of advantage for the nation. linnaeus and other researchers around him, in this fashion, headed towards economic botany and applied botany, which reminds us of contemporary bioprospecting (stearn 1994). although the royal fern has been utilized as a medicinal plant elsewhere in europe, the “use” in småland did not derive from a long-lasting experience of the species’ usefulness as such. it was rather its striking appearance and unusually large size of the individual specimen at virestad that attracted and therefore gave rise to its magical reputation, which the healers perpetuated. linnaeus through his observations and notes preserved the knowledge of a very local folk tradition. even though the locals shared the view of the particular plant specimen as magical and useful, the species as such was never of interest in swedish folk botany. acknowledgements i would like to thank professor eugene n. anderson, professor andrea pieroni, professor łukasz łuczaj, steve wolverton and the anonymous referees for their helpful comments on earlier drafts of this paper. 66 research communication references cited anderson, m. 2000. sami children and traditional knowledge. in ecological knowledge in the north: studies in ethnobiology, edited by i. svanberg and h. tunón, pp. 55–66. swedish science press, uppsala. blackman, w. s. 1925. sacred trees in modern egypt. the journal of egyptian archaeology 11:56–57. brøndegaard, v. j. 1978. folk og flora: dansk etnobotanik 1. rosenkilde og bagger, copenhagen. darwin, t. 1996. the scots herbal: the plant lore of scotland. mercat press, edinburgh. egenter, n. 1981. the sacred trees around goshonai/japan. asian folklore studies 40:191–212. grieve, m. 1931. a modern herbal: the medicinal, culinary, cosmetic and economic properties, cultivation and folk-lore of herbs, grasses, fungi, shrubs & trees with all their modern scientific uses 2. harcourt, brace & company, new york. gunda, b. 1989. a virágzó páfrány. in a rostaforgató asszony, edited by b. gunda, pp. 71–84. múzsák kiadó, budapest. heinrich, m., j. kufer, m. leonti and m. pardo-desantayana. 2006. ethnobotany and ethnopharmacology: interdisciplinary links with the historical sciences. journal of ethnopharmacology 107:157– 160. doi: 10.1016/j.jep.2006.05.035. hyltén-cavallius, g. o. 1863–64. wärend och wirdarne 1. f. a. norstedt & söner, stockholm. kolosova, v. b. 2005. name–text–ritual: the role of plant characteristics in slavic folk medicine. folklorica: journal of the slavic and east european folklore association 10: 44–62. lévi-strauss, c. 1962. la pensée sauvage. plon, paris. linnaeus c. 1745. öländska och gothländska resa, på riksens högloflige ständers befallning förrättad åhr 1741. gottfried kieselwetter, stockholm. linnaeus c. 1751. skånska resa, på höga öfwerhetens befallning förrättad år 1749. lars salvius, stockholm. łuczaj, ł. 2008. archival data on wild food plants used in poland in 1948. journal of ethnobiology and ethnobotany 4:4. doi: 10.1186/1746-4269-4-4. molina m., v. reyes-garcía and m. pardo-desantayana. 2009. local knowledge and management of the royal fern (osmunda regalis l.) in northern spain: implications for biodiversity conservation. american fern journal 99: 45–55. doi: 10.1640/0002-844499.1.45. myrdal, j. 2009. source pluralism and a package of methods: medieval tending of livestock as an example. in methods and the medievalist: current approaches in medieval studies, edited by m. lamberg, j. keskiaho, e. räsänen and o. timofeeva, pp. 134–154. cambridge scholars, newcastle upon tyne. newkirk, c. n., k. s. oths, w. w. dressler, and j. e. dos santos. 2009. intracultural diversity in food knowledge in southern brazil. ecology of food and nutrition 48:285–302. doi: 10.1080/03670240903022304 pelto, p. j. and g. h. pelto. 1975. intra-cultural diversity: some theoretical issues. american ethnologist 2:1–18. doi:10.1525/ae.1975.2.1.02a00010. pieroni, a. 2003. wild food plants and arbëresh women in lucania, southern italy. in women and plants: gender relations in biodiversity management concervation, edited by p.l. howard, pp. 66–82. zed books, london. reyes-garcía, v., n. martí, t. mcdade, s. tanner and v. vadez. 2007. concepts and methods in studies measuring individual ethnobotanical knowledge. journal of ethnobiology 27: 182–203. doi: 10.2993/02780771(2007)27[182:camism]2.0.co;2. schiöler, s. 1931. safsan: en vallfart till mor ingeborg i mjärhult predikstol. sveriges natur 22: 41–50. sõukand r., r. kalle and i. svanberg. 2010. uninvited guests: traditional insect repellents in estonia used against the clothes moth tineola bisselliella, human flea pulex irritans and bedbug cimex lectularius. journal of insect science 10: 150. doi: 10.1673/031.010.14110. stearn, w. t. 1994. linnaeus as an economic botanist. botanical journal of scotland 46:702–706. svanberg, i., ł. łuczaj, m. pardo-de-santayana and a. pieroni. 2011. history and current trends of ethnobiological research in europe. in ethnobiology, edited by e. n. anderson, d. pearsall, e. hunn and n. turner, pp. 191–212. wiley-blackwell, hoboken, nj. sydow, c. w. 1935. något om träden i folkets tro och sed. in svenska kulturbilder xi–xii, pp. 227–258. skoglund, stockholm. sydow, c. w. 1973. det ovanligas betydelse i tro och sed. in folkdikt och folktro, edited by a. b. rooth, pp. 200–214. gleerups, lund. http://dx.doi.org/10.1640/0002-8444-99.1.45 http://dx.doi.org/10.1640/0002-8444-99.1.45 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed?term=%2522newkirk%20cn%2522%255bauthor%255d http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed?term=%2522oths%20ks%2522%255bauthor%255d http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed?term=%2522dressler%20ww%2522%255bauthor%255d http://dx.doi.org/10.2993/0278-0771(2007)27%5b182:camism%5d2.0.co;2 http://dx.doi.org/10.2993/0278-0771(2007)27%5b182:camism%5d2.0.co;2 67 research communication vickery, r. 1995. a dictionary of plant lore. oxford university press, oxford. wigström, e. 1896. växtlifvet i folkets tro och diktning. ord och bild 5:12–19. biosketch ingvar svanberg is a senior lecturer in ethnobiology, living and working in sweden. his current research focuses on companion animals in various ethnographic contexts, historical aquaculture, and ethnobiological information in eighteenth century traveller reports from russia and siberia. microsoft word hockett.doc ethnobiology letters                                                                                                                    book review    1    paleonutrition  mark q. sutton, kristin d. sobolik, and jill gardner. 2010. university of arizona press, tucson.  pp. 384, black‐and‐ white illustrations.  $75.00 (hardback). isbn 9780816527946.    reviewed by bryan hockett1    reviewer address: 1 bureau of land management, nevada state office, 1340 financial blvd., reno, nv 89502    received: jan 30th 2011                                            volume 2:1‐2  published: may 9th 2011                         © 2011 society of ethnobiology    paleonutrition is touted by the publisher as “a definitive volume on ancient diets”. paleonutrition should not be considered the “definitive volume” on the study of ancient nutrition and health, but it does have some good points. the book is divided into two general sections. the first section covers a short history of paleonutrition research (chapter 1), but is devoted almost entirely to descriptive and methodological concerns (chapters 2-4). the weakest part of the book, chapter 5, briefly outlines a limited number of models used in subsistence-related research. the second section (chapter 6) is devoted to five case studies, utilizing various aspects of paleonutritional research. paleonutrition is predominately methodological in scope. most of the book is devoted to descriptive and methodological summaries of how nutritional data may be gleaned from an imperfect archaeological record. the case studies, too, are largely descriptive interpretations. as a taphonomist who has devoted some time asking how archaeologists can interpret descriptive facts accurately from the archaeological record, i am quite sympathetic to these concerns. however, the general lack of treatment of explanatory frameworks used in the study of ancient diets relegates the book to a general textbook manual most appropriate for undergraduate anthropology students. paleonutrition and i got off on the wrong foot in the introduction when the book boldly exclaims that “…the acquisition of food …is the driving force of human evolution” (page 1). that statement is decidedly deductive and explanatory in nature, and it would have been interesting if the authors had carried this postulate forward with concrete evidence supporting it. in fact, it can be argued that discussions on the use of subsistence remains in elucidating ancient sociopolitical organizations, while poorly developed in chapter 5 (pp. 164-166), call into question the authors’ own postulate. there is much more to the history of paleonutrition research than alluded to in chapter 1. for example, the american anthropological association incorporated a human nutrition interest group in 1974, called the council on nutritional anthropology (now known as the society for the anthropology of food and nutrition) (american anthropological association 2006). within two years of this founding, wm. c. brown company published two general texts on the anthropology of nutrition related research (underwood 1975; little and morren 1976). students reading this text should not come away with the idea that this portion of the book, including the two-page treatments of the history of zooarchaeology and paleopathology, represent the depth of the historical development of all of these subdisciplines. additionally, chapter 1 states (p. 6) that the most significant development in the history of paleonutrition research was the new archaeology concept that developed in archaeology in the 1960s. this is debatable; perhaps the most significant development in the history of both the nutrition sciences and the application of nutritional principles to the ancient past (paleonutrition) was the discovery of the organic and inorganic micronutrients in the 1920s and 1930s (e.g., carpenter 2003; carpenter et al. 1997). without these discoveries, paleonutrition would be solely focused on an energy-imperative paradigm with or without the principles imbedded in the new archaeology. chapters 2-4 do an overall good job at summarizing a wealth of previous studies related to the interpretation of descriptive patterns of health and disease in the ancient past. this is the book’s strength. nevertheless, readers should be aware of the following points when reading these chapters: (1) human coprolites or paleofeces are given the lofty distinction of being “direct” evidence for ancient diets rather than “indirect” evidence (such as faunal remains), but nowhere is it mentioned that, in many western north ethnobiology letters                                                                                                                    book review    2    american caves and rockshelters where these items are typically found, fragments or pieces of human and nonhuman feces are often found mixed together; methods to distinguish them are not discussed; (2) the goals stated for the analysis of faunal remains (p. 69) are (a) the reconstruction of subsistence and (b) the reconstruction of paleoecological settings; zooarchaeologists have much more on their minds than this, but the explanatory goals of the subdiscipline are not mentioned, such as explaining why changes occur in the type and density of animals procured through time; (3) chapters 2-4 are liberally referenced except between pages 100-150 (during the discussions of taphonomy and zooarchaeological analysis), when references are in short supply; and (4) the difficulties of ascertaining stone tool cut marks from other markings, particularly trampling damage, is inadequately presented (p. 116). in chapter 5 is the only portion of the book that attempts to go beyond basic method and description in paleonutrition research. unfortunately, only 12 pages of the 372-page volume are devoted to answering the higher-order “why?” questions. for those limited models that are discussed, readers are told: “within evolutionary theory, optimization models appear to be the best, if not the only, current way to explore the interaction between people and their environment” (p. 158). this book would have been better balanced if it had included expanded summaries of models that focus on human cognitive endeavors such as political power and how paleonutritional studies can elucidate the consequences of these behaviors, as well as models than directly challenge the optimization (cost-benefit) paradigm, such as nutritional ecology (hockett and haws 2003, 2005; hockett 2007). informing readers that the only way to investigate interactions between humans and their environment is through optimization models is counterproductive. all higher-order models in archaeology, including the application of nutritional principles to the ancient past, currently have issues with testability and an imperfect archaeological record, so broadening the scope of this section of the book would have made it more useful to a larger group of students and scholars. while the case studies present in chapter 6 are useful, the conclusions drawn are sometimes as misleading as those a case study purported to fix in the first place. for example, the case study involving the study of pinyon pine seed use in the great basin ends with, “much of the interpretation of the region is based on the premise that there was some sort of cultural continuity in the central great basin for the past 5,500 years.” in fact, there is much cultural continuity that underlies a great deal of cultural change in the great basin in material remains and behavioral patterns that span many millennia. in sum, i would recommend paleonutrition be used in undergraduate courses with the caveats mentioned above. use of the book in graduate level courses, in particular addressing the “why” of studying ancient nutritional patterns, will need to be heavily supplemented with journal articles. references cited american anthropological association. 2006. http://www.nutritionalanthro.org/about.php. carpenter, k. 2003. a short history of nutritional science: part 3 (1912-1944). journal of nutrition 133:3023-3032. hockett, b. 2007. nutritional ecology of late pleistocene to middle holocene subsistence in the great basin: zooarchaeological evidence from bonneville estates rockshelter, nevada. in: paleoindian or paleoarchaic? great basin human ecology at the pleistoceneholocene transition, edited by k. e. graf and d. n. schmitt, pp. 204-230. university of utah press, salt lake city. hockett, b., and j. haws. 2003. nutritional ecology and diachronic trends in paleolithic diet and health. evolutionary anthropology 12:211-216. hockett, b., and j. haws. 2005. nutritional ecology and the human demography of neanderthal extinction. quaternary international 137:21-34. little, m., and g. morren. 1976. ecology, energetics, and human variability. wm. c. brown company, dubuque, iowa. underwood, j. 1975. biocultural interactions and human variation. wm. c. brown company, dubuque, iowa. microsoft word fujisawa_proof.doc.docx     18    data, methods, & taxonomies     utilization of non‐timber forest products based on traditional  culture: a case study of iban dyeing in sarawak, borneo, malaysia    natsuho fujisawa1, tohru nakashizuka2    author addresses: 1graduate school of agricultural and life sciences, university of tokyo, japan, 2graduate school of life  sciences, tohoku university, aoba, sendai, japan  nacuho.f@hotmail.co.jp      received: march 7, 2011                                                     volume 3:18‐22  published: april 6, 2012                                                      ©2012 society of ethnobiology    introduction in this brief report, we describe four plant species that iban weavers use for dyes and six ingredients that they use in mordants (supplementary table). from september to november 2009, we interviewed four weavers and observed additional persons collecting and processing dye plants in three iban villages whose names are rumah engkang, rumah ejon, and rumah nyawai. we also collected twenty-four plant vouchers which are deposited in the sarawak herbarium in the forest research centre of sarawak. the means by which iban acquire dye materials varies by community and by individual weaver within each community. generally, however, iban collect plants when they are abundant in forests and easy to access and cultivate or, alternatively, they purchase plants that are scarce in the wild. women use the yarns that they dye with plants to weave cloths. the values of iban textiles in kuching, the largest city in sarawak, the tun jugah foundation and society atelier sarawak are actively involved in preserving iban weaving traditions in various ways. for example, the tun jugah foundation has a museum and a gallery to publicly exhibit the traditional textiles and folk costumes of the iban. it also supports iban women living near the city who engage in traditional weaving techniques. the foundation provides the rumah engkang people with yarns that have undergone the week-long ngar ceremony performed by a master dyer (linggi 2001; gavin 2004) and which residents of rumah engkang then weave into textiles. the society atelier sarawak highlights ngar rituals as iconic of iban traditions and organizes ecotours for people to experience the rituals. the society sells pua cloths that were used historically for wrapping severed heads in headhunting (gavin 2004) and that were produced from yarns that underwent ngar rituals. the society atelier sarawak works with iban weavers by encouraging them to use new materials such as silk and to make clothes with modern materials and colors while simultaneously preserving the iban patterns. the society organizes fashion shows too. as the number of tourists to malaysia has increased, the demand for iban textiles that are colored with natural dyes has also increased. in sarawak, due to the activities of society atelier sarawak and the tun jugah foundation, iban textiles are recognized as valuable nationally as well as internationally. acknowledgements we wish to express our thanks to members of the research institute for humanity and nature, dr. g. hasegawa of kyoto university, members of the tun jugah foundation, staff of the forest research center of sarawak, dr. m. domyo of the university of shiga prefecture, and members of the earth network for their helpful suggestions. we also thank tuai rumah (village leaders) of rumah ejon, rumah tuan, rumah engkang, and rumah nyawai, as well as other villagers for sharing their knowledge and hospitality during fieldwork, especially tuai rumah ejon and his family. this work was supported by grants (to tohru nakashizuka) from the research institute for humanity and nature (p3-5) and the ministry of education, science, sport and culture of japan.     19    data, methods, & taxonomies references cited gavin, traude. 2004. iban ritual textiles. singapore university press, singapore. linggi, datin amar margaret. 2001. ties that bind. the tun jugah foundation, kuching. supplementary table: ethnobotanical inventory biosketches natsuho  fujisawa,  graduate  school  of  agricultural  and  life sciences. the university of tokyo, japan.
  tohru  nakashizuka,  professor,  graduate  school  of  life  sciences, tohoku university, japan.  engkudu (morinda citrifolia l. rubiaceae) description m. citrifolia is a tall evergreen tree whose root is used for dye. distribution in the three villages and plant availability rumah engkang m. citrifolia is cultivated in cultivated fields. only part of the root is harvested so that the tree can be used repeatedly. cultivation is relatively easy and cultivators use cuttings or seeds to propagate the crop. rumah ejon this plant is not used anymore in this village. however, residents cultivate m. citrifolia to sell to residents in other villagers. rumah nyawai a large number of m. citrifolia trees are cultivated in fields using cuttings for propagation. since only the root is used, the upper part of the tree is trimmed to keep them short. some people purchase the roots from other villages. use m. citrifolia (2 kg) and the mordant called jangau are washed, cut into pieces, mashed well and filtered through a sieve. they are mixed with the mordants p. betel (5 leaves), u. ovalifolia (5 leaves), and slaked lime (1/2 cup), and then boiled in water. pretreated threads are soaked for three days, and then dried in the sun. this is repeated three or four times. color red engkerebai (psychotria aurantiaca wall. and p. viridiflora reinw. ex blume rubiaceae) description p. aurantiaca is a tree whose leaves are used for dye. distribution in the three villages and plant availability rumah engkang p. aurantiaca is cultivated in the same field as engkudu, although some people said that the plant was abundant enough to collect from a forest at one hour’s walking distance. rumah ejon p. aurantiaca grows naturally in the gum forests or in secondary forests where the vegetation has recovered. people collect but do not cultivate it.     20    data, methods, & taxonomies rumah nyawai p. aurantiaca is mostly cultivated by weavers because its natural habitat is remote and its population is small. use p. aurantiaca (2 kg), p. betel (5 leaves), and u. ovalifolia (5 leaves) are cut into pieces, mixed with slaked lime (1/2 cup), and boiled in water. threads soaked in the hot mixture are air dried. color red sebangki (coelostegia spp. benth. bombacaceae) description coelostegia spp. is a large tree whose bark is used for dye. distribution in the three villages and plant availability rumah engkang more than ten coelostegia trees stand in a nearby forest and people collect the bark. otherwise, weavers purchase the bark from elsewhere. rumah ejon historically, many coelostegia trees stood in nearby forests, but now only one tree is left near the river and the weavers ask the owner of the tree for bark. some people ask the villagers who work as timber cutters in upstream regions to bring the plant back or buy the bark from the market in kapit. rumah nyawai several coelostegia trees stand in the village. weavers ask the owners of the trees for bark. use coelostegia spp. (1 kg), p. betel (5 leaves), and u. ovalifolia (5 leaves) are cut into pieces and boiled in water for thirty minutes. slaked lime (1/2 cup) is added and the threads are soaked until the water cools and then dried in the sun. color red renggat (marsdenia tinctoria r. br. apocynaceae) description m. tinctoria is a perennial climber whose leaves are used for dye. distribution in the three villages and plant availability m. tinctoria is cultivated together with other vegetables in all three villages (rumah ejon, rumah nyawai, rumah engkang). m. tinctoria grows in several months to a size sufficiently large for harvesting. only the upper part of the plant is harvested. m. tinctoria can be easily propagated by planting cut stems. use m. tinctoria (1 kg) is mixed and rubbed together with slaked lime (1/2cup), and placed in boiling water. color develops quickly. threads are soaked in for 2 minutes and then dried. color indigo mordants jangau (aporosa confusa gage and a.nitida merr. euphorbiaceae)     21    data, methods, & taxonomies description a. confusa is a tall sub-canopy tree whose bark is used for mordant. distribution in the three villages and plant availability rumah engkang some people collect a. confusa bark from the forest where engkerebai and sbangki grow while others purchase the bark from other villagers. rumah ejon a. confusa trees grow naturally together with engkerebai in the gum forests and the bark is collected. rumah nyawai people also collect a. confusa bark. although cultivation is difficult, some people cultivate by planting the seedlings collected from the forests. use a. confusa is used as a mordant only for engkudu. the bark is chopped and ground before use. effective component aluminum serih (piper betel l. piperaceae) and sede (uncaria ovalifolia roxb. rubiaceae) description p. betel is a climbing herb related to black pepper. its leaves are used for mordant. u. ovalifolia is also a vine whose leaves are used for mordant. distribution in the three villages and plant availability these plants are cultivated in all three villages. use p. betel is used to prepare all of the natural dyes. effective component unknown pretreatment kepayang (pangium edule reinw. flacourtiaceae) description p. edule is a large tree whose seeds are used to obtain oil for the pretreatment of yarns. distribution in the three villages and plant availability rumah engkang p. edule is cultivated and oil is extracted by the villagers. cultivation is done by planting seedlings or cuttings. people used to eat detoxified p. edule nuts by boiling and soaking in water in all three regions, but they stopped eating them because of the tedious detoxification procedure. rumah ejon p. edule is cultivated together with other trees in forests. many families used to extract oil from the seeds after removing a poison, hydrogen cyanide, but only a few do it now for selling to other villagers. rumah nyawai some cultivate p. edule to extract oil, but others buy the oil from other villages such as residents of rumah ejon. effective component     22    data, methods, & taxonomies oil lia (zingiber officinale roscoe. zingiberaceae) description z. officinale is a kind of ground herb whose root is used for pretreatment. distribution in the three villages and plant availability rumah engkang z. officinale is also cultivated in the fields but not in great enough quantities; thus, people purchase it in the market. cultivated z. officinale is also used as seasoning. rumah ejon z. officinale is not used. rumah nyawai z. officinale is sufficiently cultivated in the fields. effective component unknown lengkuas (z. officinale roscoe and alpinia galangal (l.) willd. zingiberaceae) description a. galanga is a kind of ground herb whose root is used for the pretreatment of threads. distribution in the three villages and plant availability z. officinale plant is cultivated in the fields, and utilized for pretreatment only in rumah engkang. in rumah ejon and rumah nyawai nobody described z. officinale as a material in the ngar rituals that are mentioned in the narrative above. effective component unknown bangkon (nypa fruticans wurmb. arecaceae) description n. fruticans is a nipa palm. distribution in the three villages and plant availability since n. fruticans does not exist in the region, people in rumah nyawai and rumah engkang purchase it or a “salty” substitute. n. fruticans is not used in rumah ejon. effective component sodium carbonate or soda ash is obtained from the ashes of burnt and crushed n. fruticans leaves. review of essentials of tibetan traditional medicine 105  book review  to procure materials from the vast cannon of materia medica in the tradition. another section in part iii, titled “commonly used herbal formulas” provides ingredient information (arranged, again, by the disorders being treated and using tibetan names with english common names) for 59 recipes; no information on measurements or proportions is given. a related section discusses building-block herbal combinations. these sections are interesting as well as extremely important, as such information is not at all easily available to a western audience; to the best of my knowledge, this information has not been published previously in english. some medicine formulas are highly secretive, and therefore not appropriate to share, but the ones provided in this volume apparently fall more into the domain of public use. other strengths of the book include the use of tibetan script, wylie transliteration, appendices with the tibetan alphabet and wylie transliteration, sample curricula for courses in tibetan medicine, and various references. my main criticisms generally have to do with the authors’ choices in the section on materia medica. the decision to use “herb” for “materia medica” does not make sense to me. the authors state that they do so for the sake of brevity. but semantically “herb” does not and will not—at least in our lifetime—mean anything other than “plant material.” so using “herb” to refer to animal parts or minerals (important types of materia medica used in many traditional medical systems, including tibetan medicine—and included in this volume) is extremely misleading and in fact, incorrect; the sacrifice for brevity (saving 10 typed spaces?) seems not worth it. the authors rightly note the difficulty in translating tibetan names into botanical names; this is a this volume is undoubtedly a significant contribution to the dissemination of traditional tibetan medical knowledge to an english-reading audience. it contains concise summaries of key concepts in the medical tradition: explanations for various types of disorders, caused by imbalance in the three fundamental humors of the body; a very cursory description of the healthy body and how to diagnose a body in dis-ease; and a fairly extensive (although by no means exhaustive) presentation of therapeutics used to restore health. much of the text is in summary of a 4-volume work from the 11th century that forms the heart of the tibetan medical tradition: the four tantras or the rgyudbzhi. the pithy presentation of essentials of tibetan traditional medicine is effective, perhaps because the authors themselves have studied tibetan medicine (one of them—gyatso—a graduate of the men tsee khang, tibetan medical and astrological institute, in dharamsala, india, and a doctor of tibetan medicine, and the other—hakim— a graduate from the international college of traditional chinese medicine in vancouver, canada, and a student of tibetan medicine) and can therefore identify key points that should be emphasized to a western audience. part iii (on therapeutics) is perhaps of the most interest to ethnobiologists. this is where information is provided on over 100 different materials used, arranged according to the disorders that the materials treat.1 typically, each entry has the following: the tibetan name, often a drug name, a botanical name, part of the material used, tastes and properties, therapeutic uses and actions, and a small-sized line drawing of the material. most entries also have information on known pharmacological properties, some have a list of references, and a few have additional comments. the authors indicate that they choose to include the most commonly used and easy essen als of tibetan tradi onal medicine thinley gyatso and chris hakim. 2010. north atlan c books, berkeley. pp. 416. $24.95  (paperback).  isbn 978‐ 1556438677.  reviewed by denise m. glover  reviewer address: department of sociology & anthropology, university of puget sound, tacoma, wa 98416.  received: august 30, 2013  volume: 4:105‐106  published: october 13, 2013  © 2013 society of ethnobiology  106  book review  perpetual problem when any two ethnobotanical and linguistic systems meet. some of the troubles they indicate, however, are quite easily solved by identification to the genus level. for example, they discuss the challenge in identifying khur mang at the species level—it could be taraxacum officinale, taraxacum mongolicum, taraxacum tibetanum, taraxacum sikkimense, or altogether some other species of taraxacum; they therefore chose to use the common english translation of dandelion for khur mang. this is all fine and good (and in fact works well for khur mang and dandelion, i believe), but in fact they could use the botanical designation of taraxacum spp. which means “several species of the genus taraxacum.” in fact, this designation is often the best to use anyway (or a list of all possible species, as the authors provide for bong nga nag po), since, as the authors note themselves, local varieties in plant geography as well as human practice can make identification to the species level very difficult if not impossible. lastly, the decision to use drug names has both positive and negative aspects. sometimes it helps a non-botanist/biologist reader identify a material. for instance, ka ko la is identified as amomum subulatum, with the drug name of black cardamom. readers might recognize black cardamom but possibly not the botanical name, so in this case the use of a drug name is helpful. at other times, however, it adds another level of translation that seems unnecessary. for example, the drug name of bolenggua is used for gser gyi me tog (identified as herpetospermum pedunculosum). as the authors explain, bolenggua comes from chinese bo leng gua zi which is itself a term unidentifiable to the species level and including plants grouped together in the chinese medical tradition (h. pedunculosum, momordica charantia and momordica cochinchinensis)2 but not the tibetan medical tradition. in this case, the use of a drug name may in fact complicate or conflate knowledge from the tibetan tradition with another. despite these criticisms, i highly recommend gyatso and hakim’s volume to those interested in tibetan medicine, ethnomedicine, and ethnobotany in general. i commend the authors on their success 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/hrv (za stvaranje adobe pdf dokumenata najpogodnijih za visokokvalitetni ispis prije tiskanja koristite ove postavke. stvoreni pdf dokumenti mogu se otvoriti acrobat i adobe reader 5.0 i kasnijim verzijama.) /hun 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can be opened with acrobat and adobe reader 5.0 and later.) >> /namespace [ (adobe) (common) (1.0) ] /othernamespaces [ << /asreaderspreads false /cropimagestoframes true /errorcontrol /warnandcontinue /flattenerignorespreadoverrides false /includeguidesgrids false /includenonprinting false /includeslug false /namespace [ (adobe) (indesign) (4.0) ] /omitplacedbitmaps false /omitplacedeps false /omitplacedpdf false /simulateoverprint /legacy >> << /addbleedmarks false /addcolorbars false /addcropmarks false /addpageinfo false /addregmarks false /convertcolors /converttocmyk /destinationprofilename () /destinationprofileselector /documentcmyk /downsample16bitimages true /flattenerpreset << /presetselector /mediumresolution >> /formelements false /generatestructure false /includebookmarks false /includehyperlinks false /includeinteractive false /includelayers false /includeprofiles false /multimediahandling /useobjectsettings /namespace [ (adobe) (creativesuite) (2.0) ] /pdfxoutputintentprofileselector /documentcmyk /preserveediting true /untaggedcmykhandling /leaveuntagged /untaggedrgbhandling /usedocumentprofile /usedocumentbleed false >> ] >> setdistillerparams << /hwresolution [2400 2400] /pagesize [612.000 792.000] >> setpagedevice actualistic zooarchaeology in central western argentina in cave and open air contexts ethnobiology le ers. 2014. 5: 94‐103. doi: 10.14237/ebl.5.2014.227. 94 research communica on  periand post-mortem events that affect remains of animals in the passage from the biosphere to the lithosphere, including diagenetic processes (efremov 1940; olson 1980). these processes make up the taphonomic history (lyman 1994) of faunas, which are assemblages of animal remains from a particular spatial and temporal context. it is important to understand how these processes influence the condition (e.g., shape, completeness, identifiability) of animal remains because bone, shell, antler, horn, and other types of remains can be added to, removed from, or modified within any particular assemblage during its taphonomic history. in order to understand past human behaviors related to subsistence and human ecology, it is important to understand the taphonomic histories of zooarchaeological assemblages. taphonomic analysis relies on the use of analogies to make inferences about taphonomic histories of faunas. in some cases, these analogies are based on actualistic studies in which agents and processes that cause signatures (effects) are observed; this type of analogy is termed a relational analogy (giffordgonzalez 1991; hodder 1982). for example, in haynes’ (1980) research on carnivore damage on introduction for nearly two decades archaeologists have recognized a need for development of actualistic taphonomic research in central, western argentina (borrero 2002; gil 2006; neme 2007; neme et al. 1995; neme et al. 1999; neme and gil 2008). several zooarchaeological studies that focus on differential preservation of animal remains and agents of bone destruction have been published during the last five years that help fill this gap (corbat et al. 2009; fernández 2012; giardina 2010; otaola et al. 2012). however, none of the studies report results from actualistic experiments that characterize processes and agents within the context of regional environmental conditions. the archaeological record contains material products related to human activities that occurred in the past. these materials are invariably exposed to an array of processes from the time they were discarded to the time they are recovered and investigated by archaeologists. zooarchaeology focuses on the portion of the archaeological record that comprises animal remains (e.g., remnants of bones, teeth, horn, antler, shell, and other biological residues from animals) that are recovered from archaeological sites. within zooarchaeology, taphonomy is the study of actualis c zooarchaeology in central western argen na in cave and open air contexts clara otaola  author address: museo de historia natural de san rafael. av ballofe  s/n parque mariano moreno. c.p: 5600, san rafael,  mendoza, argen na.  email: claraotaola@yahoo.com.ar  received: july 8, 2014  volume: 5:94‐103  published: september 4, 2014  © 2014 society of ethnobiology  abstract: many cultural and natural processes form the archaeological record. taphonomy, the study of the transi on of organic ma er from living contexts (the biosphere) to geological contexts (the lithosphere), aids in understanding how agents and processes affect skeletal remains in the archaeological record. in this paper the results of an actualis c taphonomic study on deposi on of bones in open-air and cave contexts in the high eleva on andes mountains are presented. results indicate that within the first three months a er deposi on many bones are displaced or removed from sites and that the agents that act in each context are different. horizontal displacement of bones from their deposited loca ons is limited in the cave context but is dominant in the open air site. carnivores appear to be responsible for moving bones in open-air contexts, and rodents appear to displace bones ver cally in the cave context. such naturalis c experiments are important in par cular areas of the world in which local taphonomic processes vary. keywords: actualis c research; taphonomy; zooarchaeology; carnivore damage; rodent damage ethnobiology le ers. 2014. 5: 94‐103. doi: 10.14237/ebl.5.2014.227. 95 research communica on  skeletal remains, analogies are based on observation of carnivores ravaging bones, from which characterizations of gnawmarks were made. recognition of carnivore damage on bones from archaeological contexts is made by relational analogy because similar processes (gnawing) are inferred to have led to similar effect (gnawmarks). formal analogies are a weaker type of analogy that simply attribute similar cause to similar attributes without observation of the processes that led to the effects (gifford-gonzález 1991). actualistic studies provide a means to develop relational analogies; taphonomists develop studies for assessing different manners in which diverse agents influence (preserve, move, damage) bone, which then aid in the construction of taphonomic histories of faunas. relational analogies rest on the principle of methodological uniformitarianism, where it is assumed that natural laws do not vary with time; therefore processes observed in the present are the same as those that occurred in the past (simpson 1970). there are two kinds of actualistic studies: naturalistic studies and controlled experiments (marean 1995). the main difference between these is that in experiments, the analyst controls variables to precisely understand the relations between the trace (effects on remains) and the agent that generates it. taphonomic experiments can be performed in a laboratory or with animals in captivity, but can also be done in natural settings (blumenschine and marean 1993). in such cases, the researcher controls and manipulates the variables of interest, in order to refine understanding of the process being studied. in contrast, in naturalistic studies the analyst does not manipulate the parameters of the process being studied, since those processes occur in a natural context. a classic example is behrensmeyer’s (1978) naturalistic studies on bone weathering in which bone was exposed to natural weathering agents for which stages were described. the strength of experiments is precise control of taphonomic variables, but a weakness is that experiments do not occur in realistic contexts. naturalistic studies, in contrast, benefit from being carried out in realistic contexts but allow less precise control of taphonomic variables. in this paper, i present two naturalistic studies carried out in southwestern mendoza province, argentina, in the central basin of the salado river, in the andes cordillera (figure 1). in this area, archaeological research had been carried out for more than twenty years. zooarchaeological remains that are recovered from sites are highly fragmented and preservation is poor. several processes affect these faunal assemblages during their taphonomic histories, and the aim of this study is to understand the processes that influenced bones during the initial stages after their discard and deposition. the focus of this research is on the agents that impact bones from goat (capra hircus) carcasses immediately after deposition in the high altitude environment of the andes. although goats were introduced during the historic period, this study focuses on those processes that influence ungulate skeletons and bone in general. the area is located in the patagonia physiographic province (cabrera 1971), zoogeographically this region corresponds to the fauna de montaña, consisting of mammals such as puma concolor and lama guanicoe, lycalopex culpaeus, dolichotis patagonum, lagidium viscacha, microcvia australis, akodon andinus and phyllotis darwini migratory birds that live in small lagoons and creeks (e.g., anas sp. and choelephaga picta) as well as scavengers birds, such as vultur griphus, caracara plancus and milvago chimango (roig 1972). methodology experiments were done in two locations and replicated in two sequential years; january 2009 and january 2010. the different locations were labeled “context a” and “context b”. context a study was in an openair site, and context b was located in a small cave (figure 1, a and b). context a is 150 m from el desecho creek, at 35° 11’ 56.2” south latitude and 70° 03’ 49.3” west longitude, at 2082 masl. the cave selected for doing these experiments (context b) is located 1100 m from the context a, near colorado creek, at 35° 12’ 03.4’’ south latitude and 70° 5’ 25.6’’ west longitude, at 2200 masl. the cave has a depth of 5.5 m and a width of 4.8 m. both contexts have archaeological materials on the surface. indeed, context b is located within the cueva arroyo colorado archaeological site, which had been excavated and reported previously (lagiglia et al. 1994; neme 2007). defleshed goat bones were deposited on the surface and at 20 cm depth below surface in both contexts. bones were registered and photographed in their locations of deposition; after three months the bones were located, recovered, and studied in the laboratory. in january 2009, a total of 48 skeletal elements from a single goat carcass were deposited in context a. thirty-six of these bones were left at the ethnobiology le ers. 2014. 5: 94‐103. doi: 10.14237/ebl.5.2014.227. 96 research communica on  surface near a chuquiraga sp. bush, and 18 were buried 1m east the surface assemblage. in context b a total of 80 goat bones were deposited, 60 were deposited on the surface and 20 were buried near the east wall of the cave, 1 m from the cave entrance (table 1 and 2). after three months visible bones were mapped in context a and b, and it was noted if bones had been displaced, buried, or unburied relative to their original deposited locations. after recording, bones were recovered and analyzed for taphonomic modifications in the department of anthropology at the museo de historia natural de san rafael. post-depositional modifications to bone surface, such as carnivore and rodent gnawmarks or any other agent responsible for bone-surface damage or fragmentation were recorded. table 1. bones deposited in context a and the assemblage found three months a er this deposi on. first experiment (2009)  and replica on (2010).     goat (capra hircus) element start end (three months later) nisp obs. nisp bone modifica ons/observa ons ribs  6     4  moved from the original se ng  2 metapodials with 1°, 2°  and 3° phalanx  8  ar culated  2  rodent marks, moved from the original se ng under  the bush  humerus  1     1  moved under the bush  scapula  1     1  moved under the bush. rodent marcs  radius  1     ‐  ‐  tibia  1     ‐  ‐  proximal femur  1     ‐  ‐  innominate  1     ‐  ‐  thoraxic vertebrae  14  ar culated  14  remain ar culated. under the bush  calcaneous  1     1  ‐  astragalus  1     1  ‐     scapula  1     1  buried  radius ulna  1     1  buried  thoracic vertebrae  7  ar culated  7  par ally unburied. gnawed  tibia  1     1  buried  metatarsal with 1°, 2° and  3° pha.  8  ar culated  2  buried  replica on (summer 2010)    innominate  1     2  carnivore marks. perfora ons.  lumbar vertebrae  3     ‐     tibia, radius, ulna  3  ar cualted  ‐     femur  1     2  carnivore marks –under the bush  ribs  6     4  marks indet  atlas  1     ‐     axis  1     ‐     cervical vertebrae  4     ‐     scapula  1     1  under the east part of the bush.  ribs  12     ‐     tibia,  calcaneus  and  astragalus  3  ar culated  2  under the bush. the calcaneus was absent. tibia have  helicoidal fracture.     femur  1     1  unburied  scapula  1     1     ribs  5     5     innominate  1     1  unburied  cervical vertebrae  4     4     su rf ac e  su b su rf ac e  su rf ac e  su b su rf ac e  ethnobiology le ers. 2014. 5: 94‐103. doi: 10.14237/ebl.5.2014.227. 97 research communica on  the same three-month-duration experiment was replicated beginning in january 2010 in both contexts. in the replication, initial conditions from 2009 were maintained, such as use of goat bones, locations of deposition, starting-period for the experiment (january), and the same interval between initial deposition and subsequent observation (three months). in context a for the replication a total of 48 bone elements were deposited, 36 on surface and 12 bones were left in subsurface. in context b 69 bone elements were deposited on the surface and no bones were buried (tables 1 and 2). results after three months in context a and b, skeletal elements were displaced from their original locations, were modified, or were missing altogether. postdepositional displacement and modification are recorded in table 1 for context a and in table 2 for context b. in the first experiment (2009) of the 48 bones that were originally deposited in context a, 60% were visible and recovered three months later. in the replication of this experiment, only 30% from a total of 36 bones were recovered. most of the bones were displaced from their original deposition location and were trapped under a chuquiraga sp. bush; some of the displaced bone exhibited carnivore marks indicating that perhaps a small carnivore cached the bones near the bush. for buried bones in context a, lumbar vertebrae were “emerging” at the surface, exhibiting carnivore gnawmarks and some evidence of pitting (binford 1981; haynes 1983, lyman 1994), indicating that a small carnivore excavated the remains (figure 2a). in the replication of this experiment, one buried femur and one buried innominate were recovered at the surface and exhibited carnivore damage (figure 2b). in context b for 2009, only 46% of the specimens were recovered after three months, and in the replication in 2010 only 37% were recovered. none of the bones deposited on the surface were in their original positions. all of the bones that were buried in context b were recovered near their original place of deposition. many bones recovered from context a were damaged by carnivore ganwing. in the 2009 experiment, 28% of the bones exhibited carnivore gnawmarks and 8% of them showed rodent gnawmarks. in the 2010 replication, carnivore damage was recorded for 45% of the bones. bones had been displaced under the chuquiraga bush, all of them exhibiting pits or gnawmarks. one of the recovered tibiae exhibited a helicoidal fracture, similar to those made to extract medular grease (binford 1981; gifford-gonzález 1989). in context b, carnivores and rodents also modified bones, though rodents were a more active agent in this context (figure 2c and d). all the elements found at the end of the first replication have rodent marks and 3.5% exhibit carnivore damage. in the 2010 replication, 84% of the bones were rodent damaged and 3.8% exhibited carnivore gnawmarks (table 2). some bones had a combination of gnawmarks, pitting, and cupping, and some bones exhibited complete destruction of spongy bone, which is likely due to carnivore ravaging. results of actualistic experiments in fox dens (lycalopex culpaeus and l. griseus) in northwestern argentina and patagonia show patterns of damage like those observed here, not only destruction of the epiphyses, but also pitting and cupping on ends of the epiphyses (fernández et al. 2010; martin 1998; mondini 1995, 2003a and b). comparisons between the two contexts variables analyzed in this short term study provide figure 1. localiza on of the actualis c studies presented  in this paper. a: context a; b: context b.  ethnobiology le ers. 2014. 5: 94‐103. doi: 10.14237/ebl.5.2014.227. 98 research communica on     goat (capra hircus) element start end (three months later) nisp observa ons nisp bone modifica ons/observa ons tibia  2  distal frag. (1)  1  rodent marks  ribs  16     3  indeterminate marks. found in a den  ulna  1     1  carnivore marks. fracture  femur  2  distal frag. (1)  ‐  rodent marks  astragalus  1     ‐     matapodial  3  ar culated  3  rodent marks  1° phalanx  6  ar culated  6  rodent marks  2° phalanx  6  ar culated  6  rodent marks  3° phalanx  6  ar culated  6  rodent marks  thoracic v.  5     ‐     lumbar v.  1     ‐     caudal v.  2     ‐     scapula  1     1  rodent marks  humerus  1     ‐     innominate  1     ‐     cervical v.  1     ‐     radius ulna  1     ‐        metapodial  1  ar culated  1  buried  1° phalanx  2  ar culated  2  buried  2° phalanx  2  ar culated  2  buried  3° phalanx  2  ar culated  2  buried  radius  1     1  buried  scapula  1     1  buried  calcaneus  1     1  buried  astragalus  1     1  buried  ribs  6     6  buried  cervical v.  3     3  buried  replica on summer 2010    tibia  2     1  rodent marks  astragalus  1     ‐     calcaneus  2     ‐     scapula  2     2  rodent marks  innominate  2     2  rodemt marks  femur  2     2  rodent marks (1)  ribs  26     10  fragmented (2) rodent(8)  lumbar v.  12     ‐     radioulna  2     2  carnivore (1) rodent (1)  cervical v  3     1  rodent  axis  1     ‐     atlas  1     ‐     vertebrae  3     ‐     caudal v.  2     ‐     humerus  1     2  ro/carn? liquens (1) rodent (1)  thoracic v  7     4  rodent marks  table 2. bones  deposited  in  context  b  and  the  assemblage  found  three months  a er  this  deposi on.  first  experiment  (2009) and replica on (2010).  su rf ac e  su b su rf ac e   su rf ac e  ethnobiology le ers. 2014. 5: 94‐103. doi: 10.14237/ebl.5.2014.227. 99 research communica on  data on bone modification that occurs in the first three months after deposition of skeletal remains. this actualistic study is useful because it allows detection of differences and similarities in how taphonomic processes affect skeletal remains in the two different contexts, an open-air site and a cave, within the same physiographic region. surface assemblages of skeletal remains from contexts a and b showed a substantial loss of skeletal elements after three months, illustrating that the potential for disappearance of unburied faunal remains is high in caves and open air sites in this region (figure 3a and b). gnawing damage to bone is important in both contexts, but there are important differences regarding the agents involved. in the open air context (context a), carnivores were the main agent responsible for bone-surface modifications, and very few bones were gnawed by rodents (figure 3c). in contrast, the rodents produced most of the gnawing damage in the cave context (context b) (figure 3d). even though the common damages on bones generated by scavenger activity of birds such as vultur gryphus (andean condor), coragyps atratus (black vulture), were not observed (e.g., digestive corrosion on bones and/or the presence of pellets), avian scavengers could be responsible for the displacement and disappearance of some bones in open air context. these processes were not observed in this study and remain a topic for future study. in both contexts, skeletal remains were commonly displaced from their original location of deposition. however, horizontal and vertical dispersion of bones differ according to context. vertical displacement is common in caves, due to restricted horizontal space figure 2. different post‐deposi onal damage. a & b: carnivore gnawing in context a; c & d: rodent gnawing in context b.  ethnobiology le ers. 2014. 5: 94‐103. doi: 10.14237/ebl.5.2014.227. 100 research communica on  and the high activity of fossorial animals that tend to live there. signs of rodent activity (e.g., krotovina and rodent gnawmarks on bone) are common in cave archaeological assemblages. indeed, many actualistic studies have been carried out in order to understand the impact of rodent disturbance on archaeological assemblages (boceck 1986; durán 1991; erlandson 1984). in the open air context, even though some vertical displacement was observed in this study, horizontal displacement was more evident than vertical displacement. however, some bones in the open air site were vertically displaced. in context a some of the bones that were originally buried, were removed by carnivores and recovered on the surface. in addition, there is limited evidence of horizontal displacement in context b, as some of the remains were found in the rocky part of the cave, at a higher elevation than where they were originally deposited. final remarks the objective of this research is to understand agents involved in the modification of zooarchaeological assemblages in the salado river valley, in the andean portion of southern mendoza. in this actualistic and naturalistic study (sensu marean 1995), initial variables were controlled (such as locations of deposition), but there was not strict control of what happened after deposition. given these conditions, the results indicate that cave versus open-air contexts are important in this region in terms of taphonomy. there are three important implications concerning taphonomic histories in open air and cave contexts made clear through this study. first, there is an important loss of skeletal material in the early stages of depositions in both contexts, which suggests that remains that become part of the archaeological record may only constitute a small proportion of the originally deposited assemblage. second, differences in animal activity between assemblages in these different contexts were observed. carnivores were more impactful in open air contexts, while rodents were more influential in caves. third, it was observed in both contexts contrary to what was expected, that vertical and horizontal displacement of skeletal remains occurred. the extent figure 3. comparison between context a and b. a & b: differences in nisp percentages at the star ng of the experiment and  at the end. c: carnivore marks in context a & b, d: rodent marks in context a & b.  ethnobiology le ers. 2014. 5: 94‐103. doi: 10.14237/ebl.5.2014.227. 101 research communica on  of horizontal and vertical movement of bone varied by context; however, this observation needs to be tested via longer temporal experiments. the actualistic studies presented in this paper are part of a broader taphonomic investigation that includes not only short term observations, but also longitudinal actualistic studies of taphonomic histories of assemblages comprising the remains of large mammals (otaola 2013). these longitudinal studies carried out in different habitats of the rio salado valley demonstrate additional differences in displacement of skeletal remains in the different contexts. at rock shelters and caves, the probability of vertical mixing of material is higher, due to the action of rodents and the horizontal limits of the caves. at open air sites, carnivores are an active agent that modify the composition of the assemblages and cause horizontal displacement of bones (otaola 2013). the results of this actualistic study help to understand archaeological chronological patterns observed in sites from this region, such as inverted dates in caves, which has been observed at cueva arroyo colorado (lagiglia et al. 1994), cueva salamanca and palulo cave (otaola and llano in press). in addition, rodent remains tend to be common in cave sites but not in open air sites, but carnivore remains occur in both contexts (otaola 2013). acknowledgments steve wolverton helped improve the english and the content of this paper. adolfo gil, gustavo neme, and luis borrero helped develop the methodology and interpret the results of the actualistic experiments carried out in southern mendoza. two anonymous reviewers provided constructive comments that improved the paper. the work presented here was supported by conicet doctoral and post-doctoral fellowships. declarations permissions: not 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uniformitarianism: an inquiry into principle, theory, and method in geohistory. in essays in evolution and genetics in honor of theodosius dobzhansky, edited by m. k. hecht and w. c. steere, pp. 43-96. appleton-century-grofts, new york. biosketch clara otaola  is a post‐doctoral  researcher  for conicet,  at  the museo  de  historia  natural  de  san  rafael  who  specializes in zooarchaeology of western argen na.   some phrygian plant and insect remains from kerkenes dağ, central anatolia (turkey) 44  research communica on  nature of the architecture and the preservation of material across the site, and 2) compare this information with preliminary results of earlier remote sensing survey work (summers and summers 1996). as part of this effort, several trenches that had first been excavated in 1928 by erich schmidt were cleaned and, in some cases, extended beyond his original trench limits. schmidt’s test trench 5 (stt5), located close to the gözbaba (southwest) gate was excavated, extending schmidt’s original “site 5” into an urban block to the northwest (schmidt 1929:237–240). this trench ended close to the edge of schmidt’s original “site 4” located on the outside of the urban block wall (schmidt 1929:234– 237). site 4 was of particular interest because schmidt’s excavations had uncovered a large bakingoven and a secondary hearth. both installations were found in place during the re-excavation of this area as stt4 in 1996 (branting 2010:57). in close proximity to the oven, within the newly excavated portion of stt5, a stone paved surface covered in burnt grain and wood was exposed. the grain was likely being stored for later use in baking activities. a sediment sample measuring roughly 2 liters was collected by excavators from this surface for flotation. between 1999 and 2005, one main focus of excavation was on the eastern end of the city’s largest compound, the palatial complex, located along the introduction kerkenes dağ, located roughly 200 km east of ankara, is a large phrygian mountain-top city that lies on the northern edge of the cappadocian plain in the yozgat province of modern-day turkey (figure 1). the walled single-period settlement, spanning roughly 2.5 km2, straddles a strategic location and has been tentatively identified as the ancient city of pteria (przeworski 1929). the occupation of the city spans the end of the 7th century b.c. and the mid-6th century b.c., placing it towards the very end of the middle phrygian period (which across the region dates between the 8th century b.c. and the 540s b.c). the materials discussed here likely date to the last years prior to final destruction of the city by either croesus or cyrus in the 540s b.c. survey work at the site began in 1993 under the direction of geoffrey and françoise summers and has continued since then in collaboration with scott branting. ongoing survey, intensive remote sensing, and excavation have yielded an impressive record documenting the occupation and urban architecture of the settlement (e.g., branting 2004; summers et al. 2011 and references cited therein). archaeological context of samples during the 1996 season, test trenches were excavated at kerkenes dağ in order to: 1) better understand the some phrygian plant and insect remains from kerkenes dağ,  central anatolia (turkey)  alexia smith1* and sco  bran ng2  author address:  1university of connec cut, department of anthropology, beach hall room 406, u‐1176, 354 mansfield  road, storrs, connec cut 06269‐1176 usa,  2the oriental  ins tute, room 207, the university of chicago, 1155 east 58th  street, chicago, illinois 60637 usa  *corresponding author: alexia.smith@uconn.edu   received: february 15, 2014  volume 5:44‐51  published: april 30, 2014  © 2014 society of ethnobiology  abstract: during the 1996 and 2000 seasons of excava on at kerkenes dağ, a large single‐period phrygian mountain‐top city  located in central turkey, a small assemblage of archaeobotanical remains and an insect were recovered from two specific  archaeological contexts dated to the 540s b.c. this report documents a well‐cleaned tri cum durum/aes vum grain cache  retrieved from a baking area, along with hand‐picked remains of cornus mas, cerasus cf. avium, and a brachycerus sp.  weevil.  key words: kerkenes dağ, turkey, phrygian, iron age, archaeobotany, archaeoentomology   45  research communica on  high southern ridge of the site. three phases of rebuilding within the palatial complex were identified: the foundation dates to the second half of the 7th century b.c. and the last phase of construction was completed just prior to the destruction of the city in the 540s b.c. (draycott et al. 2008:4–5). during the 2000 season, excavations exposed a sloping stone glacis that formed the eastern edge of the palatial complex. behind this wall, a number of structures were observed (summers et al. 2000b:11–13). structure c, a two-roomed stone building, was partially excavated revealing a small assemblage of complete pottery vessels (including a small twohandled pithos, a large conical bowl, two large flat lids, and a fine juglet) and bone inlay that may have been set into a small wooden container within destruction debris (summers et al. 2001:11; summers et al. 2000b:11–13). the function of these rooms remains unclear, but it is highly unlikely that they were used for domestic purposes. seven sediment samples were collected for flotation from undisturbed burnt destruction debris lying atop the deeply buried floors of these rooms. additionally, a single insect and a variety of clearly visible plant remains were handpicked from the surface of the floors by excavators. methods archaeobotanical remains were recovered from the seven sediment samples collected within the palatial complex during the 2000 season via bucket flotation by excavators. a 500-micron mesh was used to recover the light fractions. all light fractions were later visually scanned in the field by the lead author. owing to the nature of bucket flotation, heavy fractions were not examined. of the seven light fraction samples recovered, three yielded dense concentrations of wood charcoal and were sent to reinder neef (deutsches archäologisches institut in berlin) for a thorough anthracological study. preliminary anthracological results indicate that pinus nigra j. f. arnold (black pine) was commonly encountered and that quercus sp. l. (oak) and juniperus sp. l. (juniper) were used to construct defensive architecture (dörfler et al. 2000; summers et al. 2000a). the remaining four samples contained modern botanical contaminants intermixed with small wood charcoal fragments and very few charred seeds. since the number of seeds preserved was so low, these samples were not subjected to detailed analysis. the handpicked remains from this area are detailed below, however. archaeobotanical remains within the sample collected from the grain cache atop the stone floor in stt5 during the 1996 season were retrieved by the lead author using a modified siraf flotation tank (the basic design of which is detailed in nesbitt 1995). the figure 1. loca on of kerkenes dağ and other anatolian sites men oned in text.   46  research communica on  light fraction was collected in a 250-micron mesh and dried in the shade. the heavy fraction was collected in a 2 mm mesh, dried and then examined in the field. no plant remains were recovered from the heavy fraction. all archaeobotanical remains were identified by the lead author using the archaeobotanical comparative collection at the university of connecticut. intact grains were counted as one. large fragments were sorted into apical and embryo ends: the larger count of the two was used to estimate a whole seed count. smaller cereal fragments were counted and converted to a whole seed count by dividing by four. the insect was identified by robert anderson of the canadian museum of nature, ottawa, and rolf oberprieler of csiro entomology, australia. owing to the opportunistic sampling strategy in place during the 1996 and 2000 seasons, the list of plant specimens reported here is undoubtedly incomplete, but the remains, nevertheless, provide information on phrygian plant use at the site, a period for which agricultural production and wild resource collection is very poorly documented. archaeobotanical remains from stt5 the dense assemblage of charred remains recovered from the stone floor in stt5, weighing 29.53g, contained virtually no modern contaminants, suggesting that the sample represents a localized, intact, intentionally placed deposit. this assertion is corroborated by micromorphological analyses conducted by wendy matthews, who examined thin-section samples from the oven area in stt4 and the stone paved area in stt5, and observed much greater disturbance and bioturbation in the former (matthews 1996). the vast majority of the remains recovered from the stone floor were free-threshing triticum durum/aestivum grains (table 1, figure 2a). owing to significant morphological overlaps between t. durum and t. aestivum grains, is it not possible to distinguish between the two species based on observations of the grains alone. rachis fragments, where present, can be used to distinguish between the two species (zohary et al. 2012:32), but the grain cache had been well cleaned, and no rachis fragments were recovered. measurements of 100 grains yielded a mean length, breadth, and thickness of 4.6, 3.1, and 2.4 mm respectively. these dimensions are similar to those found for t. durum/aestivum at other sites across anatolia dating to the 1st millennium b.c. (e.g., dönmez 2003). free-threshing wheats were commonly cultivated across anatolia during the first millennium b.c., as documented by remains from gordion, çadır höyük, patnos, kaman-kalehöyök and sos höyük, (dönmez 2003; fairbairn 2002; longford et al. 2009; marston 2012; miller 2010; smith 2007). the grain cache sample from kerkenes dağ yielded very small proportions of t. dicoccum and hordeum vulgare ssp. distichum, both of which likely grew as incidentals amongst the t. durum/aestivum crop (table 1). while occurring in only small proportions here, barley continued to be grown as a major crop in anatolia during the 1st millennium b.c., as evident from frequent hordeum sp. finds within phrygian levels at gordion and fairly pure concentrations of h. vulgare ssp. distichum within the iron age fortress at ayanıs (marston 2012; miller 2010; peña-chocorro et al. 2001). overall, very few weeds were present in the t. durum/aestivum cache, indicating that the crop was well cleaned. since most of the weed seeds recovered approximated the size of a wheat grain, it would appear that the crop had been fully threshed and sieved and was awaiting further cleaning, via handpicking, before being ground into bread flour. weeds within the assemblage include individual finds of cephalaria syriaca, carex sp., bromus sp., lolium sp., and stipa sp., as well as three galium/asperula sp. seeds (table 1). c. syriaca commonly occurs in fields and waste places as well as fallow fields and roadsides, and it is particularly abundant in hand sown wheat crops (musselman 2000:541). seeds produced by c. syriaca are similar in size to wheat grains, so it is necessary to handpick the contaminants from a crop in order to enhance the quality of the resultant grain. according to hillman (1981:504), farmers often claim that “even five of the bitter seeds of ziwan [c. syriaca] are enough to ruin a loaf of bread or bowl of bulgur,” although he adds that this may be somewhat of an exaggeration. the other weeds present in the assemblage are mostly wild grasses and all are commonly reported as contaminants in cereal crops across anatolia and elsewhere in southwest asia (the archaeobotanical database of eastern mediterranean and near eastern sites, maintained by simone riehl and the university of tuebingen archaeology dataset lists species encountered at many sites across anatolia: http:// www.ademnes.de/). since the weed seeds could not be identified beyond the genus level, no further comment on their potential relevance is possible. 47  research communica on  remains from the palatial complex unfortunately, very few seeds were recovered within the flotation samples collected from the floors of structure c within the palatial complex. the handpicked charred plant remains, recovered from the surface of the floors within the northern room of structure c (ct 15n), include cornus mas endocarps and a single cerasus cf. avium endocarp (table 1; figure 2b and 2c). cornus mas l. (cornelian cherry) within turkey today, cornus mas, commonly known as cornelian cherry (kızılıcık in turkish), is commonly cultivated as an ornamental shrub or small tree and is sometimes grown for its fruit (davis 1972:541). externally, c. mas stones resemble those of olea unit/  trench  (season)  taxon  common name  number collected  (number of intact  specimens measured)  mean  length  (mm)  mean  width  (mm)  descrip on of  context  unit 06,  stt5  (1996)  tri cum durum/ aes vum  durum/bread wheat  575 (100)  4.6  3.1  carbonized  grain floor close  to baking oven.  remains recov‐ ered via flota‐ on from 2 li‐ ters of sediment  (mass of  charred remains  = 29.53g)  tri cum dicoccum  schübl.  emmer wheat  12  –  –  tri cum sp. l.  wheat  343  –  –  hordeum vulgare l.  ssp. dis chum  two‐row hulled bar‐ ley  3  –  –  cereal indet.  cereal  80  –  –  cephalaria syriaca (l.)  schrader  syrian cephalaria  1  –  –  galium sp. l.  bedstraw  3  –  –  carex sp. l.  sedge  1  –  –  bromus sp. scop.  brome  1  –  –  lolium sp. l.  rye grass  1  –  –  s pa sp. l.  needle grass  3  –  –  indeterminate seeds  –  3  –  –  wood charcoal  –  10 ml  –  –  pc,* 03/ ct 15n  (2000)  cornus mas (l.)  cornelian cherry  10 (7)  9.9  5.1  soil and rubble  cerasus cf. avium (l.)  moench  wild or sweet cher‐ ry  1  6.4  5.6  soil and rubble  pc, 03/ct  15n  (2000)  cornus mas  cornelian cherry  33 (28)  10.5  5.0  hard soil in  southwestern  corner of ct15  n, rubble rear  sherds  pc, 05/ct  15n  (2000)  cornus mas  cornelian cherry  6 (5)  10.4  4.9  burnt packed  soil  pc, 05/ct  15n  (2000)  cornus mas  cornelian cherry  5 (3)  12.1  5.3  burnt layer  pc, 05/ct  18 (2000)  brachycerus sp. olivier  garlic weevil  1  –  –  floor of room 2  table 1. plant and insect remains recovered from kerkenes dag during the 1996 and 2000 field seasons.   *pc = palace complex  48  research communica on  europaea l. (olive) although the outer endocarp or stone of c. mas tends to be much smoother than that of olive. when broken, the two species are readily distinguishable from one another since in transverse view, o. europaea stones contain a single seed cavity, whereas c. mas stones possess two (figure 2b). in total, 54 c. mas endocarps were recovered, 43 of which were intact (table 1). all intact endocarps were measured and varied in length from 7.4 mm to 13.1 mm, with a mean and standard deviation of 10.5 mm and 1.3 mm respectively. widths ranged between 3.8 mm and 6.2 mm with a mean and standard deviation of 5.0 and 0.5 mm respectively. fragments of the fleshy mesocarp were still adhering to some of the stones recovered from kerkenes dağ (figure 2b). cornus mas fruit is described by sturtevant as harsh, acidic, and barely palatable, but despite his displeasure with the fruit, it still continues to be widely enjoyed across europe and southwest asia where it is consumed raw or processed into jams, sweetmeats, and drinks (dogan et al. 2004:686; hedrick 1919:192–193). while c. mas remains are not routinely encountered on archaeological sites, its occurrence is certainly not rare and finds have been reported from a number of sites across southwest asia and europe. within turkey today, wild forms of the plant are found mostly in northern and southern turkey (davis 1972:541). if the current distribution is similar to that evident during iron age, then it is possible that long distance exchange of c. mas existed across anatolia, at least during the iron age. gordon hillman identified c. mas endocarps from phrygian megaron 3 at gordion, where he describes the fruit as an import with “the probable nearest point of origin the pontic mountain range” (devries 1990:383). recent finds of c. mas wood in trash deposits at gordion (marston 2010:251) may argue against longdistance trade there, however, since the existence of wood within a trash context (as opposed to a curated context) could suggest that the plant was readily available locally. since kerkenes dağ lies much closer to the northern range, it is likely that cornelian cherries discussed here were obtained with relative ease. cerasus cf. avium (wild or sweet cherry) a single cerasus sp. endocarp resembling cerasus cf. avium (synonymous with prunus cerasus l. var. avium) was recovered from the northern room of structure c (03/ct 15n). c. avium trees occur across central and southern europe, caucasia, and northwestern iran (davis 1972:18), but may be native to north turkey where they are referred to as “kiraz.” davis (1972:18) notes, however, that today it can be difficult to distinguish between truly wild and naturalized populations. modern-day drupes are ovoid, 6–12 × 4– 10 mm, containing a smooth stone surrounded by bitter flesh (davis 1972:19). the endocarp from kerkenes dağ measures 6.4 × 5.6 × 4.4 mm and is entirely smooth, broadly elliptic in cross section, pointed at the apex, with only a slightly protruding ventral ridge that can be seen extending in lateral view (figure 2c). cerasus species are infrequently reported from archaeological sites across southwest asia, although they tend to be reported more frequently across europe. since little archaeobotanical work has been done in north-central anatolia, it is unclear how widely this species was used across the region in figure  2.  photograph  of:  a)  tri cum  durum/aes vum  grain  in  dorsal,  ventral,  and  lateral  view  from  le   to  right; b)  two different cornus mas endocarps  in  lateral  and transverse view from le  to right; c) cerasus cf. avi‐ um endocarp in lateral, ventral, and apex view from le   to right; d) brachycerus sp. weevil in dorsal, ventral, and  lateral view from le  to right.  49  research communica on  antiquity. brachycerus sp. (weevil) during recovery efforts within the southern room of structure c (room 2, unit 5, trench ct 18), a carbonized brachycerus sp. weevil (a member of the brachyceridae family, more commonly known as the garlic weevil), was recovered from an intact floor alongside a series of pottery vessels (figure 2d). the preserved portion of the beetle measures 9.9 mm long, 6.9 mm wide, and 5.6 mm deep. owing to the lack of legs and a head, it was not possible to identify the beetle to the species level, although oberprieler (personal communication 2003) states that the specimen seems to “belong to the b. junix group.” the charred beetle has every appearance of being ancient and was recovered from a secure context, but since members of the brachycerus genus are known to burrow, and post-depositional disturbance in this area is evident, there is a slight possibility that it is intrusive. over the past decade, a number of archaeoentomology studies have highlighted the presence of ancient insects on archaeological sites allowing for discussion of post-harvest infestations of stored crops as well as climate change where the insects recovered have narrow ecological tolerances (e.g., kislev et al. 2004). in this instance the weevil was found in close proximity to a series of ceramic storage vessels. oberprieler (personal communication 2003) notes that brachycerus sp. larva feed on live liliaceae bulbs (sensu lato) in the ground. unfortunately, no bulb remains were preserved or recovered within these rooms to shed further light on the contents of the vessels or the origin of the weevil. conclusions during the 1996 and 2000 seasons at kerkenes dağ, a small assemblage of archaeobotanical remains was recovered. hand-picked specimens retrieved from rooms of structure c within the palatial complex include concentrations of cornus mas endocarps, a cerasus cf. avium endocarp, and a brachycerus sp. weevil. exceptionally well-preserved triticum durum/aestivum grains were recovered from a floor in stt5 in close proximity to a large baking installation. the cached crop contained small amounts of triticum dicoccum and hordeum vulgare, both of which likely were unintentionally grown along with the crop, as well as small amounts of cephalaria syriaca, asperula/galium, and a range of wild grasses. the crop had been very well cleaned and was ready for hand-picking to remove wheat-sized contaminants before being ground into bread flour. while the assemblage discussed here is small, and was not collected via a formal archaeobotanical sampling strategy, the remains provide information on phrygian plant use in anatolia, a time period for which agriculture and plant use is poorly understood. the remains also underscore the potential for future archaeobotanical studies at kerkenes dağ. plant remains encountered on most sites across southwest asia become preserved via charring and since kerkenes was destroyed by fire, the potential for excellent preservation of plant remains across the site is enormous, which provides a rare opportunity to examine spatial differences in plant use at a large, socially hierarchical, single occupation site. continued work at the site will undoubtedly yield very exciting results. acknowledgments we thank geoffrey summers and françoise summers for providing these samples and information on the archaeology of kerkenes dağ. we are immensely grateful to bruce archibald (department of biological sciences, simon fraser university), robert anderson (canadian museum of nature, ottawa), and rolf oberprieler (csiro entomology, australia), for their assistance in identifying the weevil. rolf oberprieler generously provided a wealth of information regarding the life history of brachycerus sp. we are also grateful to geoffrey summers and john m. marston, as well as two anonymous reviewers, for providing thoughtful and very helpful comments on earlier drafts of this paper. references branting, s. 2004. iron age pedestrians at kerkenes dağ: an 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february 2014. zohary, d., m. hopf, and e. weiss. 2012. domestication of plants in the old world. the origin and spread of domesticated plants in south-west asia, europe, and the mediterranean basin. oxford university press, new york. biosketches alexia smith is assistant professor of anthropology at  the university of connec cut.  sco  bran ng is director of the center for ancient  middle eastern landscapes, university of chicago and of  the kerkenes project.  http://kerk1.metu.edu.tr/12propub/kerknews/2001/index.html� http://kerk1.metu.edu.tr/12propub/kerknews/2001/index.html� http://kerk1.metu.edu.tr/12propub/kerknews/2001/index.html� http://kerk1.metu.edu.tr/12propub/kerknews/2001/index.html� http://www.kerkenes.metu.edu.tr/kerk1/11prelim/2000/english/00_contents.html� http://www.kerkenes.metu.edu.tr/kerk1/11prelim/2000/english/00_contents.html� http://www.kerkenes.metu.edu.tr/kerk1/11prelim/2000/english/00_contents.html� 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/pdfxoutputintentprofileselector /documentcmyk /preserveediting true /untaggedcmykhandling /leaveuntagged /untaggedrgbhandling /usedocumentprofile /usedocumentbleed false >> ] >> setdistillerparams << /hwresolution [2400 2400] /pagesize [612.000 792.000] >> setpagedevice sidama agro-pastoralism and ethnobiological classification of its primary plant, enset (ensete ventricosum) ethnobiology le ers. 2014. 5: 116‐125. doi: 10.14237/ebl.5.2014.222. 116 perspec ve  argued that classification is not purely perceptual but also reflects local culture in that language is utilitarian; and knowledge of a life-form reflects practical, adaptive cultural importance of that organism. cecil brown asserted that “vocabulary is to a large extent reflective of the long-term interests and endeavors of the people who use it” (brown 1986: 3). he demonstrated that with subsistence differences and their associated divergences in attention to certain biota, shifts in nomenclature—expansion or restrictions of taxonomic ranks—may occur within the berlinian classification framework (brown 1985, 1986). recently, hunn (2013) used the example of english speakers’ folk taxa for dogs to demonstrate how biota of particular cultural focus may require an expansive shift within the berlinian framework. the term “dog,” in addition to its position as a folk generic taxon, may serve more generally as a life-form taxon, depending on the frame of reference. hunn coins the term “generic elevation” (see also hunn and brown 2011) for these circumstances in which generic taxa ‘rise’ to the life-form rank to allow more specificity to classify ethnobiologically important “kinds” of a species, as with “kinds” or “breeds” of dog among this letter discusses sidama folk taxonomy of enset [ensete ventricosum (welw.) cheesman1], an important root and stem staple in the horn of africa, in the highlands and midlands of southern ethiopia. the enset plant feeds millions of ethiopians, and is central to sidama agro-pastoralism. sidama people eat enset daily, sleep on its fibers as mattress stuffing nightly, and use it for numerous other purposes, including feeding their treasured cattle. it is, perhaps unsurprising that in the sidama language, enset description would contain specificity requiring a generic elevation (sensu hunn 2013) of the berlinian (e.g. berlin 1992) framework of folk biological classification. using cross-linguistic data, brent berlin and colleagues developed a universal framework for folk biological classification (see notably berlin 1973, 1992; berlin et al.1966, 1973). this standard berlinian framework contains six ranks of taxonomic inclusion, progressing as follows from most inclusive to most exclusive: unique beginner [or kingdom, e.g. ‘plant’], life-form [e.g. ‘tree’], generic [e.g. ‘pine’], specific [e.g. ‘white pine’], varietal [e.g. ‘eastern white pine’], with a possible intermediate rank between life-form and generic levels [e.g. ‘evergreen’]. eugene hunn (1982) sidama agro‐pastoralism and ethnobiological classifica on of  its primary plant, enset (ensete ventricosum)  marsha b. quinlan1*, robert j. quinlan1, and samuel jilo dira1,2  author address: 1department of anthropology, washington state university, pullman, wa, usa. 2department of behavioral  science, anthropology program, hawassa university, snnprs, ethiopia.  *corresponding author: mquinlan@wsu.edu  received: july 01, 2014  volume: 5:116‐125  published: october 2, 2014  © 2014 society of ethnobiology  abstract: enset is an essen al plant for the ethiopian sidama system of agropastoralism. sidama agropastoralism and the folk taxonomy of enset is presented here in ethnographic context. one of several socie es of ethiopia’s enset complex, the highland sidama are among the most wholly reliant on enset and maintain more enset varie es in their gardens than other groups. sidama agro‐pastoral systems revolve around human‐enset‐ca le interac on: sidama eat low‐protein parts of enset; ca le eat high‐protein parts of enset; sidama get protein from dairy; sidama fer lize enset with ca le manure. in the sidama language, enset offers an example of hunn’s generic eleva on within the framework of berlinian perceptual‐ taxonomic theory. weesho (enset) may serve both as a folk generic taxon and a life‐form taxon depending on the frame of reference. such expansion allows for an intermediate taxa transla ng to “male” or “female” ensets, followed by generic and specific taxa for kinds or “breeds” of enset. generic eleva on offers descrip ve magnifica on of nomenclature for enset, a most salient species among sidama people. keywords: east africa, linguis c ethnobiology, musaceae, ethnobotany, pastoralism  ethnobiology le ers. 2014. 5: 116‐125. doi: 10.14237/ebl.5.2014.222. 117 perspec ve  americans in hunn’s example. this perspective letter is based on descriptive, observational data and literature. we do not attempt to inventory each taxon for “kinds of enset” in the lexicon (see bizuayehu 2008 for many terms). rather, we use berlinian ethnobiological classification, ethnography of sidama subsistence behavior, and widespread subsistence vocabulary to examine how sidama generic elevation of enset occurs on the ground, or, more accurately, in the garden. our data is part of the larger ethiopia risk and resilience project2, on which we all participated during field seasons in 2012 (robert quinlan and samuel dira) 2013 (samuel dira, marsha and robert quinlan), and for which all authors collected qualitative data concerning agricultural practices using open-ended ethnographic interviews with sidama highlander key informants. we culled these interviews for enset terms and their usage. we compared and added our findings to those of bizuayehu 2008. to find rankings, we asked sidama people to clarify, regarding “kinds,” asking, e.g., “is b a kind of a?” (berlin 1992). s.j.d. returned to ethiopia in summer 2014 for his dissertation and was able to inquire with other sidama (s.j.d. is a native sidama anthropologist) on particular questions of classification. sidama agro-pastoralism and enset gardening the sidama belong to the east african “enset complex” (shack 1966), which has received relatively little academic attention compared to the east african “cattle complex” system (herskovitz 1926). the horn of africa, in addition to its pastoralism, has plantingbased subsistence traditions, broken into hoe (root) and plow (cereal) cultures (e.g. murdock 1959, westphal and westphal-stevels 1975). within the hoe cultures, enset is “by far” the most important staple food (murdock 1959), feeding a dense rural population across sw ethiopia (see e.g. bezuneh 1971, bezuneh and feleke 1966, brandt et al. 1997, rahmato 1995, shack 1963). in ethiopia, the pastoralist, hoe, and plow farming distinctions remain useful, but, on the ground, these are not simple, isolated strategies. in all but the driest lowlands, where herders grow no crops, and the highest altitudes, where enset thrives best (pijls et al. 1995), people grow enset along with varying proportions of other root crops or cereals (see brandt et al 1997, and r. quinlan et al.n.d.). shack (1963) concludes that the sedentary– pastoral dichotomy is inadequate, and we concur. planting co-exists with the cattle complex in the form of agro-pastoralism, such that the “enset complex,” in reality entails a subsistence system of mutual dependence between humans, livestock, and crops. ensete ventricosum is native to ethiopia, which is the center of its domestication and diversity (vavilov 1951). the species is widely distributed in subsaharan africa (simmonds 1962), yet only ethiopians cultivate and use enset primarily as a food crop (bezuneh 1971, pijls et al. 1995, simmonds 1962). due to civil wars and other political instabilities in ethiopia from 1974 through the 1990s, academic exchange and research on ethiopian people and biota declined for many years, hence the culture of enset remains under-studied and obscure internationally relative to the size of the populations that subsist on it. enset cultivation covers about 42,000 square miles of ethiopia (bezuneh and feleke 1966) and supports a dense rural population ranging from 200 to over 400 people per square kilometer (≈322 to 644 mi2), totaling well over 10 million people (brandt et al. 1997) and shank and ertiro (1996) estimate up to 15 million. with this many people supported almost entirely by enset, we might expect local languages to distinguish and identify numerous enset types. the sidama are a cushitic-speaking people inhabiting areas between the rift valley lakes of awassa and abaya in southwestern ethiopia (hamer 1987). most sidama reside in the southern nationalities, nations, and peoples regional state (snnprs). as of the 2007 census, the sidama population of almost three million made them the fifth largest ethnic group in ethiopia (csae 2013). not only are the sidama one of several societies that comprise ethiopia’s “enset complex,” they are one of the two cultures―the gurage being the other― that ethiopians refer to as the quintessential enset cultures for which a good proportion of their communities rely on enset as their sole staple crop (see brandt et al 1997). this research takes place in the sidama highlands, the area most reliant on enset. the sidama’s primary food is waasa (wasa in i.p.a.), the starchy pulp from of enset leaves, stem and corm. sidama eat waasa in two forms, either flattened and cooked as bread, called tima, or as a thick porridge called raisame. they complement these enset foods with butter, milk, or cabbage. the sidama agro-pastoral system revolves around human-enset-cattle interactions. sidama raise zebu cattle, bos primigenius indicus3. the pasture grass in the sidama highlands is primarily andropogon abyssinicus r.br. ex fresen., which many ethiopian highlanders ethnobiology le ers. 2014. 5: 116‐125. doi: 10.14237/ebl.5.2014.222. 118 perspec ve  credit as being good for cattle (smeds 1955). grazing land is limited by the relatively high rural population, however, such that enset is an essential fodder (asfaw and ågren 2007, brandt et al. 1997). livestock eat the parts of enset plants that humans do not eat (leaves and outer stems), which also contain the most protein in the plant (yilma 2001). the waasa starches that comprises the primary sidama food are low in protein, however sidama consume cows’ milk, such that enset cow-fodder indirectly fuels human protein requirements. cattle, in turn, fertilize enset through human intervention. sidama dig trenches that channel livestock run-off from stalls into enset gardens, and women collect the manure to distribute among enset plants (see m. quinlan et al. n.d.). highland sidama cultivate plants besides enset, including some barley (hordeum vulgare l.), fruits and vegetables, african highland bamboo (yushania alpina (k.schum.) w.c.lin) and eucalyptus (eucalyptus globulus labill. and e. camaldulensis dehnh.) trees for construction and repair of traditional houses and fences, and they may grow coffee or khat (chat in ethiopia) to sell (i.e., coffea arabica l. and chata edulis forssk., both native stimulants). sidama raise smaller livestock including goats (arsi-bale rift valley goat, capra aegagrus hircus), sheep (ethiopian menz and horro breeds of fat-tail sheep, ovis aries), and chickens (gallus gallus domesticus), which are mostly for consumption (asfaw & ågren 2007). nevertheless, enset and cattle dominate sidama subsistence and cultural values (hamer 1987). sidama call an enset garden a weesete gate, or simply gate. gate range from ¼ hectare to 1½ hectares (tesfaye 2008). as enset takes at least five years to mature, gardens contain plants of various ages and figure 1. landscape in sidama zone showing five houses (le ‐rear and four across the center) with their fenced enset gar‐ dens and pasture areas. photo by robert quinlan.  ethnobiology le ers. 2014. 5: 116‐125. doi: 10.14237/ebl.5.2014.222. 119 perspec ve  sizes. sidama language has at least ten terms referring to enset age-stages4 (tesfaye 2008). larger adult plants are closest to the house due to transplantation. compared to other societies in the enset complex, the sidama maintain more plant varieties in their gardens (bizuayehu 2008, smeds 1955, tesfaye 2008, but see shigeta 1990 for the ari enset diversification technique). tesfaye (2008) finds that sidama gardens contain 5-15 varieties of enset with increasing diversity as garden size and hectares per household member increase. sidama report that maintaining mixed enset varieties is important to best provide varied materials for numerous enset products they use in subsistence, tools, aesthetics and religion; and to ensure a continued and flexible yield of waasa through varied weather conditions, timing and pest invasions. although there are five varieties of enset that are abundant across sidama gardens (gantichcha [gantiča in ipa], midashsho [midašo], guulummo [gúlumo], dammala [damala], and daraasi ado [därasi ado]), individual gardens tend to limit their plantings to two of these common varieties, planted with three or more of the rarer varieties (tesfaye 2008). although not ethnobiological classification per se, the most mentioned distinction that sidama farmers make regarding kinds of plants, is to distinguish between gide, domestic plants, and dubo, wild plants. gide actually refers to planted garden plants, while dubo refers collectively to forest plants, weeds, and domestic species growing as escapes. people usually speak of enset (weesho, [wešo] enset [singular]) as a gide, although dubbo weese (wild ensets) exist as both escapes and undomesticated forms. sidama classification of enset figure 2. a sidama house and enset garden. in the foreground are young enset plants, about one year old, called qaxalo. in  the rear‐right are more mature plants, about four years old, called malancho or itancho. on the le  side, behind the house,  a piece of the yard/pasture is showing, bordered by eucalyptus in the rear. this vantage obscures that the yard is about one  acre (the household has other grazing land as well).  photo by marsha quinlan.  ethnobiology le ers. 2014. 5: 116‐125. doi: 10.14237/ebl.5.2014.222. 120 perspec ve  as a species, enset morphology is highly variable and although the extent of its variation remains unknown, researchers document that ethiopian enset farmers recognize and name many enset varieties or cultivars (admasu and struik 2002, bizuayehu 2008, shigeta 1990, tesfaye 2008). bizuayehu (2008) found that sidama collectively named 103 different enset taxa, with individuals naming between five and thirty-five taxa. nine enset breeds (8.7% of those named collectively) were of common knowledge, as more than 50% of sidama knew the terms across ten sidama villages. there are another 59 kinds that a large minority (over 10%) of sidama know. fourteen taxa were named by single informants. sidama enset taxa fall into categories, which bizuayehu (2008) addresses with the botanical terms “supra-variety, variety, and sub-variety.” classification per berlin’s (1992) folk biological classification terms would differ. at the unique beginner or kingdom rank, sidama language identifies all plants with the term mu’ro. sidama also have two (perhaps three) life-form classifications. sidama generally divide plants into either a haqqe (hake) or hayiso, i.e., “tree” or “grerb” (sensu brown, e.g. 1977, 1984), in which haqqe (tree) is a joint category for woody trees and shrubs, and hayiso (grerb) is a joint grass and herbaceous plant category. enset, (weesho [wešo, singular], weese [wese, plural]), however, is neither haqqe nor hayiso. martin (2004) warns that, in the berlinian system, some generics that are “morphologically distinct or economically important plants may be unaffiliated or independent of all lifeforms (p. 216).” indeed, in this case, weese (enset), are simultaneously herbaceous, as with hayiso figure 3. samuel jilo dira (1.72m [5’8”] in height) walking/standing in an enset garden. photo by robert quinlan.  ethnobiology le ers. 2014. 5: 116‐125. doi: 10.14237/ebl.5.2014.222. 121 perspec ve  [grerbs]) and large, like haqqe, trees. perhaps this unique morphology makes enset neither a ‘tree’ nor ‘grerb,’ or perhaps their singular economic importance sets them apart from other plants. sidama informants told s.j.d, however, that weese (ensets), are their own type of mu’ro (plant). it appears, here, that sidama regard ensets as a special life-form. in sidama, weesho (enset [singular], or weese [plural]) generally refers to the edible species of enset (i.e., e. ventricosum). weesho can serve as a single “generic” kind of plant in reference to, for example, all “plants” (mu'ro), or “crops” (gide), or when sidama refer, as they normally do, to their gidenna weese, meaning “enset and crop.” because enset is a domesticated species with a great deal of specificity in types, “generic elevation” (hunn 2013) occurs. weesho becomes like a life-form in that there are three further levels of specificity recognized with respect to “kinds of enset.” sidama language has two intermediate taxa, between the term weesho as a life-form, and generic breed terms for ensets. all ensets are classified as either labbaahu (la’bahu), “male,” or meyati (meäti), “female.” these are symbolic, metaphorical gender terms as enset plants are hermaphroditic. the “male” or “female” attribution has to do with both size differences in plant morphology and with food qualities (see table 1). meyati, “female” ensets, are smaller than the labbaahu , “male” enset types. “female” varieties have sweet, softer pulp, which is easier to prepare than that of the “male” types. some meyati pulp can be boiled and eaten directly, others need fermentation, but less of it than that of the labbaahu plants. the “male” labbaahu varieties have larger, tougher corms, which are fibrous and bitter, unattractive to pests, difficult to process, and require more fermentation than meyati corms. meanwhile, the meyati “female” enset plants are more prone to predation (e.g., from porcupines), and they are “weaker,” i.e. more sensitive to drought, wind, and frost. despite the extra work involved and less appealing taste, labbaahu are a safer investment due to their size and relative hardiness, so, while sidama farmers plant both meyati and labbaahu in each garden, labbaahu dominate (bizuayehu 2008, tesfaye 2008). the sidama “male” and “female” enset dichotomy is reminiscent of the ethnobiological classification of domesticated manioc (manihot esculenta crantz) among lowland south americans in that “bitter” varieties protect against pests (mckey et al. 1993) and are therefore prominent in indigenous gardens (arroyo-kalin 2010). another similarity is that aguaruna jivaro also classify manioc cultivars according to fermentation requirements; in their case either for “beer-making” (fermenting) or “eating” (not fermenting) (boster 1984). we see in table 1 that the intermediate rank classification of meyati and labbaahu appears to reflect a perceptual/morphological distinction (in size and durability of the members). but there is also a related functional distinction from a human-use perspective (anderson 2011:5), giving those taxa elements of a “special purpose” classification (hunn, 1982, 2013) (as with watch-dogs in hunn’s 2013 dog example). sidama use the word, sircho (sirčo, breed, also seed or lineage) to describe the “generic” level kinds of enset. bizuayehu (2008) finds that generic terms for enset breeds are mostly (94.2%) uninominal (as expected in generic terms [berlin 1992]), though there are some binomials. most of the generic enset names describe plant morphology. for example, the breed called ado (“milk”) has relatively pale leaves and a white corm, while the one called ambooma (am’bôma), characteris c  labbaahu (male)  meya   (female)  aerial plant size  larger  smaller  corm size  larger  smaller  edible stem pulp quality  harder  so er  corm texture  tougher  so er  corm taste  bi er  sweet  corm a rac ve to pests?  no  yes  processing work  difficult  easy  fermen ng  me  long  short or absent  aerial plant vulnerable to predators?  no  yes  "strength" in environmental stress  strong  vulnerable   table 1. characteris cs of sidama “male” and “female” intermediate enset types.   ethnobiology le ers. 2014. 5: 116‐125. doi: 10.14237/ebl.5.2014.222. 122 perspec ve  “hyena,” has black spots on its leaves and petioles. in bizuayehu’s (2008) inventory, more than half of the breeds had names describing the morphology, while non-morphological generic names refer to either growing habit or are names for individuals or groups of people (generally marking regional distributions). according to bizuayehu (2008) there are six sub -varieties, which we reckon as “specific” taxa. specifics all have binomial names comprised of a common generic and a prefix or suffix to modify the specific. for example, darassi ado, is a specific subtype of the ado breed. this pattern shows the hierarchical relationship between the generic and its subordinate specific taxa. compared to the standard berlinian representation (figure 4a), taxonomic elevation (figure 4b) appears to best reflect the cognitive and linguistic processes of sidama speakers. it allows generic and specific ranks to fall neatly into the berlinian system, allowing for the “intermediate” rank to fall, as expected, between the “life form” and “generic” ranking5. folk taxonomies are thus “flexible cognitive mechanisms” (hunn 2013) that can conform to cultural contexts (such as breeding). in the sidama example, weesho (enset [singular]) remains a generic taxon in the context of the domain mu’ro (plants). however, when the cultural domain at hand becomes weese (ensets [plural]), then weesho (enset) comes to resemble—or is elevated to—the rank of life-form, which allows sidama speakers to focus on the intermediate (labbaahu “male” or meyati “female”), the generic sircho (breeds), and the specific sub-breeds. though the modules (taxonomic ranks) of the berlinian system may be universal (berlin 1992, brown 1984), cultures differ ethnoscientifically. languages may hence omit, expand or shift taxonomic ranks to deal with cultural needs for specificity in taxa, which are utilitarian (hunn 1982). the more useful a life-form is within a culture, the more experience members have with it, the more the diversity-based ethnobiological reasoning occurs6 (coley et al. 1996). a species’ usefulness to a society impacts individuals’ emotions regarding the organism, which, in turn, reinforce management of that resource (anderson 1996). emotions about life-forms also impact language such that ethnobiological specificity reflects cultures’ shared emotions (appreciation or disdain) for organisms (nolan and robbins 2001, nolan et al.2006). the enset lexicon is utilitarian indeed. enset is essential to sidama agro-pastoralism; human and livestock survival depend on it. generic elevation offers further magnification of the descriptive ability of generic and specific nomenclature for enset. such specificity is important within cultures of the enset complex, and especially for the highland sidama. acknowledgements this work was funded through a washington state university college of arts and sciences seed grant for the initiative for global innovation studies. we thank the school of behavioral sciences' anthropology program at hawassa university, especially walelign tadesse robele and amalo sooge, for general advice figure 4. sidama classifica on of enset in standard taxonomic representa on (a) and using taxonomic eleva on (b). taxo‐ nomic eleva on allows for the detail present in sidama language.  ethnobiology le ers. 2014. 5: 116‐125. doi: 10.14237/ebl.5.2014.222. 123 perspec ve  and cooperation. we are grateful to eugene hunn for advice on this ethnobiological classification analysis. declarations permissions: washington state university institutional review board. sources of funding: washington state university college of arts and sciences. conflicts of interest: none declared. references cited admasu, t. and p. c. struik. 2002. analysis of enset (ensete ventricosum) indigenous production methods and farm-based biodiversity in major growing regions of southern ethiopia. experimental agriculture 38:291-315. anderson, e. n. 1996. ecologies of the heart: emotion, belief and the environment. oxford university press, new york, ny. anderson, e. n. 2011. ethnobiology: overview of a field. in ethnobiology, edited by e. n. anderson, d. m. pearsall, e. s. hunn and n. j. turner, pp.1-14. wiley-blackwell, hoboken, nj. arroyo-kalin, m. 2010. the amazonian formative: crop domestication and anthropogenic 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accessed on may 15, 2014. biosketches marsha  b.  quinlan  is  an  environmental  and  medical  anthropologist with  foci  largely  at  the  intersec ons  of  ethnobotany  and  ethnozoology  with  health.  her  fieldwork  has  been  in  north  and  south  america,  the  caribbean, and, most  recently,  in east africa  (tanzania  and ethiopia). she is an associate professor at washing‐ ton state university in pullman, washington, usa, in the  department of anthropology.  robert j. quinlan is associate professor of anthropology  at washington state university. he is generally interest‐ ed in ecological and medical anthropology, with specific  focus on household demography and  livelihood among  east african small‐holders. his most recent collabora ve  research  focuses on  vulnerability and  resilience among  agro‐pastoralists  in sw ethiopia. he has also conducted  recent  research  concerning  maasai  veterinary  ethno‐ medical  prac ces  in  northern  tanzania.    he  teaches  graduate  courses  in  quan ta ve  analysis,  human  behavioral  ecology,  ethnography,  and  social‐ecological  systems.  samuel  jilo dira  is a doctoral candidate at washington  state university in the department of anthropology, and  lecturer  in  the  department  of  behavioral  science,  hawassa university, hawassa, ethiopia.  his interests are  in ecological and development anthropology, par cular‐ ly of east africa. he works  in ethiopia where he applies  social‐ecological  system  approaches  to  cultural  resili‐ ence  and  adapta on,  and  biocultural  approaches  to  social learning and ecological knowledge transmission.   notes 1synonyms are musa ensete gmel. and ensete edule (gmel.) horan. 2funded by a seed grant from washington state university college of arts and sciences initiative for global innovation studies to r. quinlan and t. rotolo. 3synonyms are bos indicus and bos taurus indicus. 4sidama enset age-stage terms are sima (0–3 month), funta (4–12 month), kasho (kašo in ipa, 2nd year), qatalo or mogicho (katalo or mogičɩč, 3rd year), simancho (simančo, 4th year), mallancho (malančɩč, 5th year), itancho (itančɩč, 6th year), hindicho (hindičɩč, 7th year, or nearly final maturity), qalimmo (kalimič, 4th-10 th year, i.e., final maturity till death. flowering and seed time varies depending on the breed, manure availability and elevation.). 5brown (1987) noted a similar function with the “folk subgenus.” 6diversity-based reasoning may depend on the species’ variability or the mode of propagating it. hunn (personal communication) notes that, maize in mexico, despite its paramount role as a nutritional staple, does not exhibit the degree of nomenclatural elaboration of such vegetatively propagated cultivars as manioc, potato, sweet potato, taro, or enset. perhaps crops that reproduce from seed may exhibit less readily defined and manipulated phenotypic variation.   the paleobiolinguistics of the common bean (phaseolus vulgaris l.)   research communica on  ethnobiology le ers. 2014. 5: 104‐115. doi: 10.14237/ebl.5.2014.203. 104 here, rendering the present study the most up-to-date and definitive pbl treatment currently possible. the present study of bean also advances the earlier investigation by expanding the number of protolanguages treated, especially augmenting the pool of proto-languages from south america. the genus phaseolus contains about 70 species in the neotropics, with greatest species diversity to the north (freytag and debouck 2002). five species contain domesticated populations: p. acutifolius a. gray (tepary bean); p. coccineus l. (scarlet runner bean); p. lunatus l. (lima bean); p. polyanthus greenman (year bean); p. vulgaris l. (common bean). wild populations of p. vulgaris l. and p. lunatus l. are amply distributed along the edges of the highlands of western north america through to western south america, mostly in the tropics but also somewhat further north and south (debouck and smartt 1995). both were domesticated at least twice, once in the andes and once in mexico (debouck and smartt 1995, chacón et al. 2005, 2007, 2012, mamidi et al. 2011, schmutz et al. 2014). domestication of peruvian p. vulgaris occurred in the andean foothills of southern peru on the eastern slopes (chacón et al. 2005). domestication of mexican p. vulgaris occurred in the río lerma–río grande de santiago basin in west-central mexico (kwak et al. 2009), north of the balsas river valley paleobiolinguistics (pbl) employs the comparative method of historical linguistics to reconstruct the biodiversity known to human groups of the unrecorded past (brown et al. 2013a).1 comparison of words for biological taxa from languages of the same language family facilitates reconstruction of the biological vocabulary of the family’s ancient protolanguage. this study uses pbl to establish when and where the common bean (phaseolus vulgaris l.) developed significance for different prehistoric groups of native america. this entails mapping in both time and geographic space proto-languages for which words for the common bean reconstruct. this information is provided to supplement crop-origin studies of the taxon from genetics and archaeology. as the most important legume domesticated in the new world, and a member of the widespread native american agricultural triad of maize (zea mays l.), squash (cucurbita spp.), and beans, considerable multidisciplinary attention has been directed to the common bean’s origin, domestication, and dispersal. included within this effort is the first pbl analysis of the species (brown 2006), which focused primarily on north and central america, with inclusion of only four language groups south of panama. since 2006, automated methods for dating and locating protolanguages have been developed and are employed the paleobiolinguis cs of the common bean (phaseolus vulgaris l.) cecil h. brown1*, charles r. clement2, pa ence epps3, eike luedeling4, and søren wichmann5   author address: 11700  scenic  highway,  #601,  pensacola,  fl,  32503‐6634,  usa  (ins tu onal  affilia on: northern  illinois  university).  2ins tuto nacional de pesquisas da amazônia, manaus, am, brazil.  3university of texas at aus n, aus n, tx,  usa.  4world  agroforestry  centre  (icraf), nairobi,  kenya.  5max  planck  ins tute  for  evolu onary  anthropology,  leipzig,  germany, and kazan federal university, kazan, russia.  *corresponding author: brown.cecil@yahoo.com   received: may 29, 2014  volume: 5:104‐115  published: october 2, 2014  ©2014 society of ethnobiology  abstract:  paleobiolinguis cs is used to determine when and where the common bean (phaseolus  vulgaris  l.) developed significance for prehistoric groups of na ve america. dates and loca ons of proto‐languages for which common bean terms reconstruct generally accord with crop‐origin and dispersal informa on from plant gene cs and archaeobotany. paleobiolin‐ guis c and other lines of evidence indicate that human interest in the common bean became significant primarily with the widespread development of a village‐farming way of life in the new world rather than earlier when squash and maize and a few other crops became important. keywords: archaeobotany,  crop  origins,  historical  linguis cs, na ve  americans,  paleobiolinguis cs,  plant  domes ca on,  plant gene cs     research communica on  ethnobiology le ers. 2014. 5: 104‐115. doi: 10.14237/ebl.5.2014.203. 105 where maize was domesticated (buckler and stevens 2006). table 1 cites the earliest macro-botanical remains of common bean uncovered by archaeology in various parts of the americas ranging from the eastern u.s. to peru.2 the macro-botanical evidence from peru is considerably earlier than that from mexico, with a date of 4337 bp at guitarrero cave (kaplan and lynch 1999), several hundred kilometers northwest of its center of origin and on the western side of the andes. in fact, domestication may have occurred even earlier in the region. micro-botanical years bp loca on repor ng source 4337  peru: guitarrero cave  kaplan and lynch 1999  3100  mexico: chiapas, mazatán region  clark 1994, blake et al. 1995, brown 2006  2285  mexico: tehuacán, coxcatlán cave  kaplan and lynch 1999  2200  u.s.: southwest, bat cave, tularosa cave  wills 1988, kaplan and lynch 1999  2098  mexico: valley of oaxaca  kaplan and lynch 1999  1285  mexico: tamaulipas  kaplan and lynch 1999  1168  mexico: durango, rio zape  kaplan and lynch 1999  850  u.s.: eastern north america west of the mississippi  adair 2003, asch and hart 2004  700  u.s. eastern north america east of the mississippi  hart and scarry 1999, hart et al. 2002  table 1. earliest macro‐botanical evidence for common bean in various loca ons.  figure 1. bean‐term reconstruc on informa on from table 2 plo ed on map of north america.    research communica on  ethnobiology le ers. 2014. 5: 104‐115. doi: 10.14237/ebl.5.2014.203. 106 years before present proto‐language proto‐word for bean (nr = not reconstructable) homeland center geographic coordi‐ nates family affilia on proto‐word source 6178  siouan‐catawba  nr  43.83  ‐101.83  siouan‐catawba    5944  iroquoian  nr  42.75  ‐76.17  iroquoian    5554  algic  nr  42.67  ‐73.5  algic    4828  caddoan  nr  33.33  ‐97.33  caddoan    4018  uto‐aztecan  nr  27.5  ‐110.25  uto‐aztecan    3827  salishan  nr  49.25  ‐122.5  salishan    3663  u an  nr  38.33  ‐123  u an    3472  southern uto‐aztecan  nr  27.5  ‐110.25  uto‐aztecan    3434  kiowa‐tanoan  nr  37  ‐99  kiowa‐tanoan    3343  algonquian  nr  42.67  ‐73.5  algic    3176  n iroquoian  nr  42.75  ‐76.17  iroquoian    3169  siouan  nr  43.83  ‐101.83  siouan‐catawba    3035  n caddoan  nr  33.33  ‐97.33  caddoan    2980  interior salish  nr  48  ‐117  salishan    2725  sahap an  nr  46  ‐116  sahap an    2678  central algonquin  nr  43  ‐83  algic    2576  northern uto‐aztecan  nr  39  ‐109  uto‐aztecan    2500  yukian  nr  38.5  ‐122.5  yukian    2459  central salish  nr  49.25  ‐122.5  salishan    2400  sonoran  nr  27.5  ‐110.25  uto‐aztecan    2141  miwokan  nr  38.33  ‐123  u an    2062  athabaskan  nr  53.75  ‐123.5  athabaskan    1926  southeastern siouan  nr  36.03  ‐89.39  siouan‐catawba    1865  yuman  nr  32.67  ‐116.17  yuman    1864  n interior salish  nr  50.75  ‐122  salishan    1850  missouri river siouan  nr  47  ‐108  siouan‐catawba    1839  ofo‐biloxi  nr  30.5  ‐88.67  siouan‐catawba    1827  taracahitan  *muni  27.75  ‐108.67  uto‐aztecan  authors  1809  pawnee  *a t  41  ‐98.67  caddoan  authors  1798  mississippi valley siouan  nr  43.83  ‐101.83  siouan‐catawba    1737  numic  nr  39  ‐109  uto‐aztecan    1724  s interior salish  nr  48  ‐117  salishan    1720  muskogean  nr  34  ‐85  muskogean    1673  five na ons  nr  42.75  ‐76.17  iroquoian    1587  cupan  nr  33.17  ‐116.5  uto‐aztecan    1573  southern numic  nr  39  ‐109  uto‐aztecan    1526  fox‐kickapoo‐sauk  *maskočis  43  ‐83  algic  authors  1378  mohawk‐onieda  nr  43.5  ‐74.25  iroquoian    1297  costanoan  nr  36.83  ‐121.5  u an    1295  ojibwa  *miskodisimin  47  ‐89  algic  authors  1245  delta‐californian yuman  nr  32.67  ‐116.7  yuman    1241  e miwokan  nr  38  ‐121  u an    1234  western miwokan  nr  38.33  ‐123  u an    1213  tarahumaran  *muni  27.75  ‐108.67  uto‐aztecan  1  1188  eastern muskogean  nr  34  ‐85  muskogean    table 2. bean‐term reconstruc on for proto‐languages of north america and northern mexico.   (continued on next page)   research communica on  ethnobiology le ers. 2014. 5: 104‐115. doi: 10.14237/ebl.5.2014.203. 107 evidence from starch grains found in northwestern peru and attributed to domesticated phaseolus were dated to between 9000 and 7500 bp (piperno and dillehay 2008), which is consistent with new genetic modeling of the domestication event in peru indicating a beginning at 8500 bp, with the bottleneck extending to 7000 bp (mamidi et al. 2011). piperno and dillehay could not conclusively distinguish between p. vulgaris and p. lunatus, but since the earliest date for p. lunatus macro-botanical remains is 3495 bp (kaplan and lynch 1999), the nw peru micro-fossil find may well be the common bean. the earliest unambiguous macro-botanical evidence for the common bean from mexico, dated to 2285 bp, was recovered from coxcatlán cave in the tehuacán valley (kaplan and lynch 1999), 600-800 km east southeast of bean’s mexican center of domestication cited above. macro-botanical remains of approximately the same age (2098 bp) have been uncovered in the valley of oaxaca (kaplan and lynch 1999), another 100-200 km or so to the east. however, a phaseolus specimen dated to around 3100 bp has been retrieved in the mazatán region of chiapas in southern mexico and may be the oldest macroremains of p. vulgaris in mexico, although identification to species is not entirely certain (cf. brown 2006:514). these dates are much later than the genetic model for the mexican domestication event of common bean, which started at 8200 bp, with the bottleneck extending to 6300 bp (mamidi et al. 2011). micro-botanical remains from mexico have yet to yield dates as old as those reported from peru (piperno and dillehay 2008).3 macro-remains document the presence of bean in northeast mexico (in tamaulipas) at 1285 bp and its arrival to the american southwest no later than 2200 bp (smith 2001). earliest macro-botanical dates for the eastern us are 850 bp and 700 bp for respective sites west and east of the mississippi river (table 1). common bean-term reconstructions are presented for proto-languages of three major regions of the new world: (1) north america and northern mexico (table 2); (2) southern mexico and northern central america (henceforth mesoamerica) (table 3); (3) southern central america and south america (table 4). tables 2-4 list major proto-languages of the americas widely regarded by historical linguists as demonstrated. some major proto-languages are not included, because lexical information from daughter languages is not sufficiently available for drawing either positive or negative conclusions about reconstruction. in addition to identifying proto-languages with common bean terms and the terms themselves, the tables report proto-languages for which these terms are “not reconstructable” (nr). nr is a designation used when terms for the common bean are present in all or most languages of a family, but, nonetheless, are not cognate and, hence, do not attest to a term in their shared ancestral language. nr, then, never indicates non-reconstructibility because of missing data.4 because of the failure of many consulted sources, such as dictionaries, to distinguish species of capsicum years before present proto‐language proto‐word for bean (nr = not reconstructable) homeland center geographic coordi‐ nates family affilia on proto‐word source 1173  seneca‐onondaga  nr  42.75  ‐76.75  iroquoian    1148  central numic  nr  37  ‐117  uto‐aztecan    1005  dhegihan  *hǫbr ḱe  36.17  ‐94.42  siouan‐catawba  2  899  tepiman  *bavi  29  ‐111  uto‐aztecan  1, 3  820  upland yuman  nr  34  ‐113.33  yuman    737  dakota  *omn č́a  43.83  ‐101.83  siouan‐catawba  2  718  apachean  nr  36.58  ‐104  athabaskan    534  river yuman  nr  32.83  ‐114.33  yuman    345  w muskogean  *bala’  34  ‐88  muskogean  authors  (continued from previous page) proto‐word source:  1. stubbs 2011  2. carter et al. 2006  3. bascom 1965    research communica on  ethnobiology le ers. 2014. 5: 104‐115. doi: 10.14237/ebl.5.2014.203. 108 designated by words in native american languages, brown et al. (2013b) were unable to reconstruct referents of proto-terms for chili pepper to species. in the case of phaseolus, species ambiguity in sources is somewhat problematic as well but not as extensively so. for example, when a native term for a phaseolus species is translated in sources by english bean or spanish frijol, that species is typically p. vulgaris. when more than one phaseolus species is reported, terms used in translation for species other than p. vulgaris are usually linguistically marked, e.g., english lima bean or spanish frijol blanco (both p. lunatus). in english, of course, bean (unmarked) can denote p. lunatus as well as p. vulgaris, but it would be extraordinary to find in any variety of the language that bean refers to p. lunatus without also being used to denote p. vulgaris. whatever the details relating to individual languages, we are reasonably confident that all reconstructed words presented here denoted p. vulgaris. dates for proto-languages presented in the tables are intended to be the latest dates at which these languages were spoken (just before breaking up into daughter languages). these are calculated through use of automated similarity judgment program (asjp) chronology, a computational dating approach based on the lexical similarity of languages (holman et al. 2011).5 possible geographic coordinates for protolanguage homeland centers given in the tables are produced through automation using an algorithm for identifying the maximum lexical diversity within a language family (wichmann et al. 2010). the geographic center of lexical diversity of a family is assumed to correlate with where the family’s protolanguage was spoken. tables also give a linguistic family affiliation for each proto-language. the information reported in tables 2, 3 and 4 is plotted respectively on maps of figures 1, 2 and 3 to give a visual perspective on both the chronological and geographic distributions of reconstructed bean terms. archaeological and pbl evidence for the common bean are broadly, but far from perfectly, in accord. both macro-botanical dates and pbl dates for figure 2. bean‐term reconstruc on informa on from table 3 plo ed on map of mesoamerica.    research communica on  ethnobiology le ers. 2014. 5: 104‐115. doi: 10.14237/ebl.5.2014.203. 109 table 3. bean‐term reconstruc on for proto‐languages of mesoamerica (southern mexico and northern  central america).  years before present proto‐language proto‐word for bean (nr = not reconstructable) homeland center geo‐ graphic coordinates family affilia on proto‐word source 6591  otomanguean  nr  18  ‐96.92  otomanguean    5976  eastern otomanguean  nr  18  ‐96.92  otomanguean    5498  popolocan‐zapotecan  nr  17.17  ‐96.17  otomanguean    5357  amuzgo‐mixtecan  nr  16.92  ‐97.58  otomanguean    4542  mixtecan  nr  16.92  ‐97.58  otomanguean    4274  totozoquean  nr  19.92  ‐97.42  totozoquean    3654  otopamean  *khihc‐ɂ  20.08  ‐100.08  otomanguean  1  3149  zapotecan  *(kwe‐)sa:ɂ  17.17  ‐96.17  otomanguean  2  3140  mixtec‐cuicatec  *ndu‐nde  16.92  ‐97.58  otomanguean  3  3036  popolocan  *hmaɂ  18  ‐96.92  otomanguean  4  2220  mayan  *keenaq’  15.42  ‐91.83  mayan  5  2214  otomian  *‐jü  20.08  ‐100.08  otomanguean  authors  2209  chocho‐popolocan  *hmaɂ  17.67  ‐97.42  otomanguean  authors  1935  chinantecan  *hniu:l  17.92  ‐96.5  otomanguean  6  1783  popoloca  *hmaš  18  ‐96.92  otomanguean  authors  1676  zapotec  *(kwe‐)sa:ɂ  17.17  ‐96.17  otomanguean  2  1649  quichean‐mamean  *keenaq’  15.42  ‐91.83  mayan  5  1596  mixe‐zoquean  *sɨk  17.22  ‐96.03  totozoquean  7  1492  greater mamean  *keenaq’  15.42  ‐91.83  mayan  5  1437  mixtec  *ndu ɂ, ndi   16.92  ‐97.58  otomanguean  8  1435  totonacan  *stápu  19.92  ‐97.42  totozoquean  9  1432  cholan‐tzeltalan  *chenek’  16.83  ‐92.83  mayan  5  1225  kanjobalan‐chujean  *tu’t  15.83  ‐91.83  mayan  10  1198  corachol  *muume  22.17  ‐104.83  uto‐aztecan  authors  1186  aztec  *ee‐  20.63  ‐98.58  uto‐aztecan  11  1148  cholan  *chenek’, *b'u’ul  14.81  ‐89.38  mayan  5,10  1058  chujean  *tut  15.92  ‐91.58  mayan  10  997  cha no  *n‐taa  16.25  ‐97.38  otomanguean  2  981  greater quichean  *kenaq’  14.78  ‐91.5  mayan  5  948  sub aba‐tlapanecan  *yaha  17.08  ‐99  otomanguean  authors  900  mixe  *sɨhk  17.02  ‐96.07  totozoquean  7  802  kanjobalan  *hub’al  15.83  ‐91.83  mayan  10  790  yucatecan  *b’u’ul  20  ‐89  mayan  10  787  zoque  *sɨk  16.9  ‐94.68  totozoquean  7  741  otomi  *jü  20.08  ‐100.08  otomanguean  authors  511  tzeltalan  *chenek’  16.83  ‐92.83  mayan  5  proto‐word source:  1. bartholomew 1965  2. campbell 2013  3. rensch 1976  4. gudschinsky 1958  5. wichmann and brown 2011  6. rensch 1989  7. wichmann 1995  8. josserand 1983  9. brown et al. 2011  10. brown 2006  11. merrill 2012    research communica on  ethnobiology le ers. 2014. 5: 104‐115. doi: 10.14237/ebl.5.2014.203. 110 the eastern us region are the latest in each category for the entire americas (see respectively tables 1 and 2). in mexico, the earliest possible archaeological date for common bean is 3100 bp (table 1), and the earliest pbl date is 3654 bp (table 3), dates that are reasonably chronologically close. pbl chronological determinations for the common bean in southern mexico are substantially later than those indicated for the four other crops investigated thus far through pbl analysis, i.e., squash, chili pepper, manioc, and maize (respectively brown et al. 2013a, b, c, and 2014). words for the latter four reconstruct for proto-otomanguean, but a term for the common bean does not. protootomanguean is the oldest demonstrated ancestral language of the new world (6591 bp). the oldest mesoamerican proto-language having a term for p. vulgaris, proto-otopamean (a daughter language of proto-otomanguean), dates to 3654 bp (see table 3 and figure 2). this and archaeological evidence cited by smith (2001) suggest that the common bean is the latest addition to the widespread native american triad of major crops, squash, maize, and common bean. bean has the distinction of being the only member of the triad not to have developed significance for prehistoric groups, as measured by paleobiolinguistics, before the widespread development of a village-farming way of life in the new world. this may relate to the transition from hunting and gathering (in which protein was commonly obtained from a broad spectrum of plant and animal resources) to an increasingly sedentary lifestyle. as lysine-deficient figure 3. bean‐term reconstruc on informa on from table 4 plo ed on map of southern central america and south america.    research communica on  ethnobiology le ers. 2014. 5: 104‐115. doi: 10.14237/ebl.5.2014.203. 111 table 4. bean‐term reconstruc on for proto‐languages of southern central america and south america.  years before present proto‐language proto‐word for bean (nr = not reconstructable) homeland center geo‐ graphic coordinates family affilia on proto‐word source 7266  macro‐ge  nr  ‐11.3  ‐53  macro‐ge    4701  mataco‐guaykuru  nr  ‐22.5  ‐62.58  mataco‐guaykuru    4461  southern arawakan  nr  ‐10.33  ‐74.33  arawakan    4400  chibchan  nr  9.75  ‐83.42  chibchan    4134  arawakan  nr  1  ‐69.17  arawakan    4085  n arawakan  nr  1  ‐69.17  arawakan    3943  panoan‐tacanan  nr  ‐7.5  ‐75  panoan‐tacanan    3585  tupi  nr  ‐8  ‐62  tupi    3518  caribbean n arawakan  nr  12  ‐72  arawakan    3310  salivan  nr  5  ‐67  salivan    3241  barbacoan  nr  0.67  ‐79  barbacoan    3178  zaparoan  nr  ‐3.25  ‐74  zaparoan    3124  nadahup  nr  0  ‐69  nadahup    3023  ge  nr  ‐15  ‐52.5  macro‐ge    2909  guaykuruan  nr  ‐26.5  ‐59  mataco‐guaykuru    2903  witoto‐ocaina  nr  ‐2.75  ‐71.75  witoto‐ocaina    2807  nambiquaran  nr  ‐13  ‐59  nambiquaran    2774  misumalpan  nr  13  ‐84.5  misumalpan    2731  talamancan  nr  9.75  ‐83.42  chibchan    2699  tucanoan  nr  0.33  ‐70.25  tucanoan    2593  inland n arawakan  nr  1  ‐69.17  arawakan    2503  venezuelan cariban  nr  6.5  ‐66  cariban    2433  southern guaykuruan  nr  ‐26.5  ‐59  mataco‐guaykuru    2412  cariban  nr  10.17  ‐72.75  cariban    2404  matacoan  *anhetaʃ  ‐22.5  ‐62.58  mataco‐guaykuru  authors  2271  boran  nr  ‐2.17  ‐72.33  boran    2258  chocoan  nr  6.83  ‐77.17  chocoan    2219  purus  nr  ‐12.5  ‐69.33  arawakan    2156  western tucanoan  nr  ‐2.83  ‐72.5  tucanoan    1931  chapacuran  nr  ‐13.42  ‐63.17  chapacuran    1875  southern ge  *rãgrɔ  ‐26  ‐52  macro‐ge  1  1764  arauan  nr  ‐6  ‐70.5  arauan    1717  quechuan  *purutu  0.33  ‐78  quechuan  2  1672  panoan  nr  ‐7.5  ‐75  panoan‐tacanan    1647  bolivia‐parana  nr  ‐15.17  ‐65.42  arawakan    1634  mainline panoan  nr  ‐7.5  ‐75  panoan‐tacanan    1607  yabu   nr  ‐12.25  ‐62.25  macro‐ge    1590  tacanan  nr  ‐13.33  ‐66.5  panoan‐tacanan    1569  harakmbet  nr  ‐12.5  ‐70.5  harakmbet    1550  tupi‐guarani  *kumana  ‐8  ‐62  tupi  3  1519  kampan  *maroro  ‐10.33  ‐74.33  arawakan    1418  cayapa‐colorado  *molo  0.67  ‐79  barbacoan  4  1402  guianan cariban  nr  3.25  ‐55.75  cariban    1395  cabecar‐bribri  *atu‐  9.42  ‐83  chibchan  authors  (continued on next page)   research communica on  ethnobiology le ers. 2014. 5: 104‐115. doi: 10.14237/ebl.5.2014.203. 112 maize became a staple, the lysine-abundant bean would have become progressively more important. the picture for south america is somewhat more discordant with an earliest macro-botanical date of 4437 bp (table 1) and an earliest pbl date of 2404 bp (table 4). the micro-botanical and genetic-model dates are considerably older, at circa 8500-7000 bp. at present, we offer no explanation for this discordance other than the observation that p. vulgaris apparently did not develop widespread, significant salience for groups in south america until thousands of years after it was domesticated in the area. acknowledgements our gratitude goes to willem adelaar, thiago chacon, bernard comrie, sergio meira, and pilar valenzuela for sharing data and insights. declarations permissions: not applicable. sources of funding: epps’ work on this project was supported by the national science foundation (hsd0902114). clement thanks the conselho nacional de desenvolvimento científico e tecnológico (cnpq) for a research fellowship (proc. no. 306382/2011-3). wichmann's research was funded by an erc advanced grant (mesandlin(g)k, proj. no. 295918) and by a subsidy of the russian government to support the program of competitive development of kazan federal university. conflicts of interest: none declared. references cited adair, m. j. 2003. great plains paleoethnobotany. in people and plants in eastern north america, edited by p. e. minnis, pp. 258-346. smithsonian institution press, washington, dc. asch, d. l., and j. p. hart. 2004. crop domestication in prehistoric eastern north america. encyclopedia of plant and crop science, pp. 314-319. new york: marcel dekker. bartholomew, d. a. 1965. the reconstruction of otopamean (mexico). unpublished doctoral dissertation, department of linguistics, the university of chicago, chicago, illinois. bascom, b. w. 1965. proto-tepiman. ph.d. dissertation, university of washington. blake, m., j. e. clark, et al. 1995. radiocarbon chronology for the late archaic and formative periods on the pacific coast of southeastern mesoamerica. ancient mesoamerica 6:161-183. 1335  kakua‐nukak  nr  0.88  ‐69.56  kakua‐nukak    1319  yanomam  nr  3.5  ‐62.83  yanomam    1241  eastern tucanoan  nr  0.33  ‐70.25  tucanoan    1185  kawapanan  *makira  ‐5.5  ‐77  kawapanan  5  1169  pemongan  nr  4  ‐60  cariban    992  taranoan  nr  1  ‐73  cariban    974  quechua ii  *purutu  0.33  ‐78  quechuan  2  875  embera  nr  5.25  ‐76.66  chocoan    678  jivaroan  *miik  ‐2.5  ‐78  jivaroan  authors  609  araucanian  *deŋɨlʸ  ‐38  ‐72  araucanian  authors  414  witoto proper  nr  ‐1  ‐73.5  witoto‐ocaina    389  mayoruna panoan  nr  ‐4.42  ‐70.25  panoan‐tacanan    years before present proto‐language proto‐word for bean (nr = not reconstructable) homeland center geo‐ graphic coordinates family affilia on proto‐word source (continued from previous page) proto‐word source:  1. marcel pinho de valhery jolkesky 2010  2. willem adelaar, personal communica on  3. mello 2000  4. moore 1962  5. pilar valenzuela, personal communica on    research communica on  ethnobiology le ers. 2014. 5: 104‐115. doi: 10.14237/ebl.5.2014.203. 113 brown, c. h. 2006. prehistoric chronology of the common bean in the new world: the linguistic evidence. american anthropologist 108:507-516. brown, c. h., d. beck, g. kondrak, j. k. watters, and s. wichmann. 2011. totozoquean. international journal of american linguistics 77:323-372. brown, c. h., e. luedeling, s. wichmann, and p. epps. 2013a. the paleobiolinguistics of domesticated squash (cucurbita spp.). in explorations in ethnobiology: the legacy of amadeo rea, edited by m. quinlan and m. d. lepofsky, pp. 132-161. society of ethnobiology, denton, tx. brown, c. h., c. r. clement, p. epps, e. luedeling, and s. wichmann. 2013b. the paleobiolinguistics of domesticated chili pepper (capsicum spp.). ethnobiology letters 4:1-11. brown, c. h., c. r. clement, p. epps, e. luedeling, and s. wichmann. 2013c. the paleobiolinguistics of domesticated manioc (manihot esculenta crantz). ethnobiology letters 4:61‐70. brown, c. h., c. r. clement, p. epps, e. luedeling, and s. wichmann. 2014. the paleobiolinguistics of maize (zea mays l.). ethnobiology letters 5:52-64. buckler, e. s., and n. m. stevens. 2006. maize origins, domestication, and selection. in darwin’s harvest: new approaches to the origin, evolution, and conservation of crops, edited by t. j. motley, n. zerega, and h. cross, pp. 67-91. columbia university press, new york. campbell, e. 2013. the internal diversification and subgrouping of chatino. international journal of american linguistics 79:395-420. carter, r. t., a. w. jones, j. e. 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uk. clark, j. e. 1994. the development of early formative rank societies in the soconusco, chiapas, mexico. ph.d. dissertation, university of michigan, ann arbor. debouck, d. g., and j. smartt. 1995. beans, phaseolus spp. (leguminosae-papilionoideae). in evolution of crop plants, 2nd ed, edited by n. w. simmonds and j. smartt, pp. 287-293. longman scientific and technical, harlow, essex, uk. freytag, g. f., and d. g. debouck. 2002. taxonomy, distribution, and ecology of the genus phaseolus (leguminosae—papilionoideae) in north america, mexico and central america. botanical research institute of texas, fort worth, tx. hart, j. p., d. l. asch, c. m. scarry, and g. w. crawford. 2002. the age of the common bean (phaseolus vulgaris l.) in the northern eastern woodlands of north america. antiquity 76:377-385. hart, j. p., and c. m. scarry. 1999. the age of common beans (phaseolus vulgaris) in the northeastern united states. american antiquity 64:653-658. holman, e. w., c. h. brown, s. wichmann et al. 2011. automated dating of the world's language families based on lexical similarity. current anthropology 52:841-875. jolkesky, m. p. v. 2010. reconstrução fonológica e lexical do proto-jê meridional. unpublished master’s thesis, universidade estadual de campinas, campinas, sp. josserand, j. k. 1983. mixtec dialect history. unpublished ph.d. dissertation, tulane university, new orleans, la. kaplan, l., and t. f. lynch. 1999. phaseolus (fabaceae) in archaeology: ams radiocarbon dates and their significance for pre-columbian agriculture. economic botany 53:261-272.   research communica on  ethnobiology le ers. 2014. 5: 104‐115. doi: 10.14237/ebl.5.2014.203. 114 kwak, m., j. a. kami, and p. gepts. 2009. the putative mesoamerican domestication center of phaseolus vulgaris is located in the lerma–santiago basin of mexico. crop science 49:554-563. mamidi, s., m. rossi, et al. 2011. investigation of the domestication of common bean (phaseolus vulgaris) using multilocus sequence data. functional plant biology 38:953-967. mello, a. a. s. 2000. estudo histórico da familia linguistica tupi-guaraní. phd dissertation, universidade federal de santa catarina. merrill, w. l. 2012. the historical linguistics of utoaztecan agriculture. anthropological linguistics 54:203 -260. moore, b. r. 1962. correspondences in south barbacoan chibcha. in studies in ecuadorian indian languages 1, ed. by b. f. elson, pp. 270-289. norman: summer institute of linguistics of the university of oklahoma. piperno, d. r., and t. d. dillehay. 2008. starch grains on human teeth reveal early broad crop diet in northern peru. proceedings of the national academy of sciences usa 105:19622-19627. rensch, c. r. 1976. comparative otomanguean phonology. indiana university publications, bloomington, in. rensch, c. r. 1989. an etymological dictionary of the chinantec languages. summer institute of linguistics, arlington, tx. schmutz, j., p. e. mcclean, et al. 2014. a reference for common bean and genome-wide analysis of dual domestications. nature genetics 46:707-713. smith, b. d. 2001. documenting plant domestication: the consilience of biological and archaeological approaches. proceedings of the national academy of sciences usa 98:1324-1326. stubbs, b. d. 2011. uto-aztecan: a comparative vocabulary. shumway family history services, flower mound, tx. van etten, j., and r. j. hijmans. 2010. a geospatial modelling approach integrating archaeobotany and genetics to trace the origin and dispersal of domesticated plants. plos one 5: e12060. doi:10.1371/ journal.pone.0012060 wichmann, s. 1995. the relationship among the mixezoquean languages of mexico. university of utah press, salt lake city, ut. wichmann, s., and c. h. brown. 2011. syllable nuclei of proto-mayan disyllabic stems. in new perspectives in mayan linguistics, heriberto avelino, ed., pp. 316342. newcastle upon tyne: cambridge scholars publishing. wichmann, s., a. müller, and v. velupillai. 2010. homelands of the world’s language families: a quantitative approach. diachronica 27:247-276. wills, w. h. 1988. early prehistoric agriculture in the american southwest. santa fe: school of american research press. biosketch cecil h. brown  is  a  linguistic  anthropologist  with  interests  in  ethnobiology,  historical  linguistics,  and  native american languages.  charles r. clement is a geneticist studying the origin and  domestication  of  native  amazonian  crops,  and  the  ethnobotany  associated  with  anthropogenic  soils  and  other domesticated landscapes.  patience epps  is  a  linguist  whose  work  investigates  lowland  south  american  languages  from  historical,  typological, and descriptive perspectives.  eike luedeling  is  an  agricultural  scientist  mainly  concerned with projection of climate change impacts on  agricultural  and  natural  ecosystems  and  with  the  development of appropriate adaptation strategies.  søren wichmann specializes  in quantitative methods  in  historical  linguistics and mesoamerican  languages. he  is  general  editor  of  the  journal  language dynamics and change.  notes 1this is the fourth pbl study published in ethnobiology letters, the first treating chili pepper (brown et al. 2013b), the second manioc (brown et al. 2013c), and the third maize (brown et al. 2014). the method and theory of pbl (and the pbl of squash) is discussed in detail in brown et al. (2013a) and briefly summarized in brown et al. (2013b). given this coverage, a discussion of pbl method and theory will not be repeated here. 2archaeological dates cited in this paper come from various different sources, some firsthand, others second-party reports. some are direct radiocarbon dates and some indirect, and it is often difficult if not   research communica on  ethnobiology le ers. 2014. 5: 104‐115. doi: 10.14237/ebl.5.2014.203. 115 impossible to determine if calibration is involved. we report all dates as if they were non-calibrated, calendric dates. 3pbl and archaeological evidence are in sharp disagreement with dates indicated by the new genetic modeling for the domestication of the common bean in mexico (mamidi et al. 2011). unlike archaeological evidence that can be precisely dated with modern techniques, both pbl and genetic modeling have large variances around the estimated dates, and these variances increase in magnitude as the mean recedes into the past. the new genetic model does not use macro-botanical remains of common bean for calibration (mamidi et al. 2011), as suggested by van etten and hijmans (2010), so these dates may be modified significantly with calibration. 4nr should not necessarily be interpreted as indicating that a term for common bean did not pertain to a proto-language and, by implication, that people who spoke the language were not familiar with the taxon. another possibility is that a bean term did indeed pertain to a proto-language, but that its referent was not especially salient, accounting for the term’s failure to survive in offspring languages and, thus, to be reconstructable for the proto-language (cf., brown et al. 2013a:140). 5occasionally, an asjp date for a proto-language may be older than a date for its own parent language. for example, proto-southern arawakan (4461 bp) has an asjp date older than that for proto-arawakan (4134 bp). this sometimes occurs in asjp chronology when a language group’s breakup is closely followed in time by the breakup of its immediate subgroup. the attested variability of asjp dates accounts for this apparent aberrancy (holman et al. 2011:872). secret chambers: the insider story of cells and complex life ethnobiology letters. 2014. 5:91-93. doi: 10.14237/ebl .5.2014.237. book review robert brown, and charles darwin and the ideas that they were engaged with from a perspective that might be new to many professionals in the field. here we learn about these scientists’ observations and hypotheses leading to the discovery of cytoplasm, the nucleus, and the origin of the idea of the cell itself. we learn about charles lyell’s grand idea and revolutionary explanation of gradual geological changes and his famous principle of uniformity, as well as robert brown’s discovery of the cell nucleus. one geological theory turns into another which finally paves darwin’s road to his theory of the origin of species by means of natural selection. in the third chapter, brasier, a master storyteller with plenty of first person accounts, tells us stories about his work as the ship’s scientist aboard the hms fawn. we learn about his on-board explorations of caribbean marine ecosystems after his graduation in 1970. on sargasso sea, he and his colleagues haul algae from the sea to investigate under the microscope. he describes different algae species that he has encountered during his voyage and their traits such as their reproductive rate, ecology, and structure. using metaphors, analogies, and through interesting explanations, brasier compares the cell and its organelles with different parts of a ship and its belongings, and he signifies the function and importance of cellular membrane and wall. he asks, for example, how the chartroom is equal to the cell nucleus and how the passageways and the engine room resemble endoplasmic reticulum and mitochondrion, respectively. in the fourth chapter, brasier tells the story of his amazing and adventurous expedition encountering pedro bank, an offshore island to the southwest of jamaica, and mapping out its reefs and shorelines if martin brasier didn’t want to pick science as his occupation, certainly he should have chosen to be a novelist, instead! professor martin brasier who is a palaeobiologist at the department of earth sciences, university of oxford, in his book secret chambers: the inside story of cells and complex life, takes us on a journey “to understand the complexity of the complex modern cell, and of the quest to rescue its hidden history from deep within the fossil record” (p. vi). overall, in this book we learn about the formation and evolution of symbiosis between cells and the importance of symbiosis over the course of evolutionary history. brasier’s explanations are bottom-up: he uses metaphor, analogy, and storytelling to explain scientific notions and concepts. in the first chapter, we learn about robert hooke’s invention of the microscope and the historical situation which is that london was haunted by the plague. hooke is the first person who reports the existence of fossils and many things that humans never imagined to exist before that time and also is the first one who conducted experiments on fossilization. with the story of the invention of the microscope, the book’s journey begins. we learn that due to this invention, hooke is the person who coined some terms that we use in biology today, including cell and cell wall. also here we learn that cells are brasier’s “secret chambers.” “each and every cell is like a secret chamber because it is surrounded by a protective wall made of fatty phospholipids. but it is also a secret chamber in another sense too, because its existence was entirely unknown until the invention of the microscope” (p. 8). the second chapter tells us about charles lyell, secret chambers: the insider story of cells and complex life martin brasier. 2012. oxford university press, uk. pp. 320 with 15 black and white illustrations and 8 pages of color plates. £16.99 (hardcover). isbn 9780199644001. reviewed by farid pazhoohi reviewer address: department of animal science, college of agriculture, shiraz university, shiraz, iran pazhoohi@gmail.com received: december 8, 2013 volume 5:91-93 published: august 2, 2014 © 2014 society of ethnobiology ethnobiology letters. 2014. 5:91-93. doi: 10.14237/ebl .5.2014.237. book review beneath the sea water. we learn about symbiosis, “the living together of differently named organisms” (p. 84), between protozoans and other organisms like algae. brazier describes corals’ symbiosis with phytoplanktons, which consequently makes them able to build the colorful coral reefs. next, brasier recounts his visit to south cay island and describes the structure of foraminifera which have algae as the endosymbionts, or organisms that live within other organisms. “corals do it, sponges do it, even articulated clams do it. sometimes it seems as though all the algae in seawater have been sucked inside animal tissues or inside the cells of giant protozoans – leaving the seas themselves remarkably clear and blue” (p. 85). in the fifth chapter, brasier takes us to trinidad island, which lacks corals and symbionts. to provide an explanation for why, he explains how an ecosystem works and which factors contribute to maintenance of such ecosystems. he explains how vulnerable a marine ecosystem is, with its corals and their symbionts, to tiny changes in temperature and nutritional levels. hence, brasier clarifies the importance of stabilizing ecosystems and signifies the recent global temperature rise that has been causing the corals, protozoans, sponges, and other organisms to begin vanishing. brasier tells us how these tiny organisms can affect the lives of other organisms on the planet, including our own. brasier describes how energy flows within both living and extinct cells matter for ecosystems. the next station in brasier’s journey is barbuda island. brasier and his colleagues have interesting adventures while sampling and studying living reefs and algal mats. they find remains of extinct foraminifera that reveal the geological, climatological, and ecological changes of a billion years ago around the caribbean. brasier here again warns us about the negative consequences of human intervention in ecosystems. in the seventh chapter, brasier uses analogies and examples to explain the notion of the ‘tree of life’. interestingly, we learn that eukaryote lineage is mixed up: a kind of symbiont made up from different kinds of prokaryotes. we learn about the evolution and emergence of eukaryote cells from the symbiosis of chloroplasts and mitochondria with the prokaryote cells. in the eight chapter, brasier investigates the sphinx and the great pyramids in egypt, and shows that these ancient structures are made of nummulites, a kind of foraminifera-algal symbiosis. these nummulite fossils, that span from the atlantic coast in europe toward the persian gulf and from the himalayas to the pacific ocean near thailand, are evidence that these regions have been once oceans. exploring the mass extinction of organisms in the fossil records, we come to understand that the foraminifera-algal symbiosis has happened many times since 400 million years ago, and has faced extinction each time. brasier reviews the repeated emergence and collapse of symbiosis across millions of years. in the ninth chapter, we learn about the amazing story of the discovery of ancient (nearly 2000 million years old) bacteria in the fossils. in the tenth chapter, brasier explores australia in general and the lawn hill crater specifically in search of their fossil records. he finds the earliest forms of modern cells in these fossil records and describes the mass extinction of symbiosis near the end of the early cambrian. during his adventures in australia, he collects bacterial fossil specimens and takes them to oxford university for chemical analysis, finding no carbon isotope anomaly from two billion to one billion years ago. brasier, who has coined this interval the boring billion, concludes that during that era there had been a blue water ecosystem. throughout all of his chapters until the last (eleventh) one, the author does not give us any hint where he wants to take us and one might wonder why the reader should read accounts on the author’s journeys. one might even contemplate the aim of the book itself! from one point of view, this seeming lack of direction might be considered as the shortcoming of the book as the author does not make clear what point the book is going to make eventually. from the other point of view, this voyage into the unknown could be very joyful and mysterious—a secret itself! here he uses all the knowledge he has taught the reader over the first ten chapters to draw his conclusion in this final chapter. in this final chapter, brasier explains the main point of the book. to grasp it, one must be patient and read on to the end: mass extinctions and the complexity of organisms are positively correlated! fossil species and their ecosystems have not changed much during a long period of geological time as “mass extinctions are–in geological terms–a relatively recent phenomenon. they have been lacking from much of the early history of life” (p. 212). the ethnobiology letters. 2014. 5:91-93. doi: 10.14237/ebl .5.2014.237. book review “early history” was during this boring billion when the stable environment provided for the permanent symbiosis between cell and its organelles leading to the emergence of symbionts (e.g., chloroplasts and mitochondria) inside the cell, which eventually formed eukaryotes. the speed of emergence and extinction of species has increased after 600 million years ago. since 30 million years ago, emergence of symbiosis and their extinction have undergone huge bust-ups, leaving no time for any other organelle symbiosis to be permanent within the cells. in the rest of the eleventh chapter, using simple words, brasier explains why this symbiosis has happened and why we humans as complex organisms and our ecosystems are predisposed more than ever to mass extinction. the book’s language is in simple form and is an easy read. brasier’s storytelling makes the book readable for laymen and graduate students. even interested high school students can also understand and enjoy the reading. in addition, it is a very good book for helping general readers understand evolutionary processes and biological concepts, such as communication and energy flow. interestingly, the author connects chapters and contents of the book masterfully and describes the stories of inventions and discoveries in detail, and the book gets more interesting the further we read. i highly recommended secret chambers for students of geology, paleobiology, and biology. finally, i think brasier has achieved his goal: “my hope is that the book will reveal just how rich and diverse have been our ways of thinking about the earliest life forms, written in words that can hopefully be read with ease and enjoyment” (p. vii). ethnobiology 5: interdisciplinarity in an era of rapid environmental change 21  perspec ve  ethnobiologists are increasingly addressing environmental management, conservation, environmental ethics, and related topics (e.g., anderson 2010; gilmore and young 2012; lepofsky 2009; müller and dan guimbo 2010), but this does not represent a discipline-wide collective enterprise. more can be done to engage the relevance of ethnobiological research for addressing problems related to global environmental and cultural crises. to do so requires that ethnobiologists address a broader audience of scholars. while most ecologists identify themselves as biologists, scholars in the fields of human ecology, ethnoecology, and environmental anthropology do not necessarily see themselves as ethnobiologists. why is this the case? it relates to the historical effect of ethnobiology being forged on the boundaries of entrenched disciplines; although ethnobiology draws from a diverse crowd, most of its scholars find their primary academic homes in mainstream anthropology and biology, which have deeper histories. because it was framed and has existed inbetween traditional disciplines, ethnobiology is well-suited to serve as an interdisciplinary umbrella for environmental scientists, conservation biologists, restoration ecologists, the term ‘ethnobiology’ was coined by biologists, has been adopted by anthropologists, spans into archaeobotany and zooarchaeology, and correspondingly provides an umbrella for an astonishing array of subject matter (ford 2011; references in anderson et al. 2011). no longer an unadulterated convergence of ethnozoology with ethnobotany (ford 2011), the short definition of ethnobiology used by the society of ethnobiology is “the scientific study of dynamic relationships among peoples, biota, and environments.” under this brief but expansive definition, ethnobiologists do many things along a spectrum from pure to applied research. as is the case for many disciplines during the last two decades, ethnobiologists could go so far as to delineate an applied ethnobiology that focuses on the relevance of ethnobiological data in conservation science, environmental justice, and related areas of scholarship, but to do so could fragment an already small body of scholars. however, to be “applied,” the ethnobiologist needs to do nothing more than redirect the relevant nature of ‘knowing about humanenvironment relationships’ already central to the field toward various disciplines concerned with conservation science and environmental studies. indeed, ethnobiology 5: interdisciplinarity in an era of rapid environmental  change  steve wolverton  author  address: university  of north  texas,  department  of geography,  ins tute  of  applied  science,  denton,  tx  76203.  wolverton@unt.edu   received: september 24, 2012  volume: 4:21‐25  published: january 21, 2013  © 2013 society of ethnobiology  abstract: ethnobiology 5 stems from eugene hunn’s four phases of the history of ethnobiology and focuses on the relevance  of ethnobiological research  in the context of environmental and cultural change.    it refers to a contemporary phase of the  field’s historical development.  in this paper, i argue that ethnobiology is preadapted to be a scholarly umbrella for a number  of disciplines that concern human‐environment  interac ons, sugges ng that one goal of ethnobiology 5  is to bridge tradi‐ onal academic boundaries  in order  to broaden  the  community of  ethnobiologists. another goal of ethnobiology 5  is  to  capitalize on and communicate the relevance of ethnobiological scholarship  for solving problems related to contemporary  environmental and cultural crises.  indeed, ethnobiology is not a subfield of any tradi onal discipline and by the nature of its  name bridges humani es, social science, and science.  ethnobiology has always been interdisciplinary in terms of its subject  ma er, yet its community of scholars is rela vely small compared to mission‐driven disciplines, such as conserva on biology.   venues for publica on and presenta on of ethnobiological research, as well as how ethnobiologists portray their research,  are cri cal to growing ethnobiology.   key words: ethnobiology 5, conserva on biology, interdisciplinarity, biocultural conserva on   mailto:wolverton@unt.edu� 22  perspec ve  environmental philosophers, and others who engage in applied research related to human-environment interactions. however, the ability of ethnobiology to include others under this umbrella by broadening its audience has developed slowly. an example illustrates why this is so. conservation biology provides an interesting point of contrast to ethnobiology; its subject matter is so deeply and pragmatically relevant that it stands nearly separate from conventional biology and ecology. the mission of conservation biology is powerful because it relates scholarship to preservation and protection of biodiversity (lindenmeyer and hunter 2010; meine et al. 2006). from its relatively narrow moniker, the field has reached outward, branching into ecosystem ecology, population genetics, and biocultural conservation (figure 1). the mission of conservation biology ‘to provide the opportunity of continued evolution of biota’ (sensu frankel and soulé 1981:4) is so persuasive that the field transcends traditional disciplinary boundaries and scales of research. in comparison, ethnobiology represents intriguing subject matter without the unity provided by a narrow and compelling mission. indeed, there are ethnobiologists who are advocates for social and environmental justice and there are those who are activists supporting preservation and protection of cultural and biological diversity. in contrast to conservation biology, however, there are multiple objectives in ethnobiology that tend to be topical, and there is no focal and uniform mission shared by most ethnobiologists. nonetheless, biocultural conservation, environmental co-management, environmental ethics, and other topics relevant to addressing and solving modern environmental and cultural problems at local, regional, and global scales, might find a comfortable, explicitly acknowledged, and well-populated home in ethnobiology (nabhan et al. 2011a, 2011b). currently, the field is dominated by anthropologists, as well as ethnobotanists, but also attracts a smaller number of geographers, archaeologists, and paleobiologists interested in addressing human environmental relationships. in simplistic terms, conservation biology and ethnobiology are inverted versions of one another, focusing (these days) on similar subject matter but with different objectives and audiences (figure 1). indeed, the audience of ethnobiology beyond its own frontiers is quite small relative to that of conservation biology. an expansive future for ethnobiology lies beyond its traditional disciplinary homes in anthropology and biology, moving toward human geography, environmental philosophy, political ecology, conservation biology, and related fields with more explicit ideological missions. ethnobiology is, perhaps, pre-adapted to become a scholarly home for interdisciplinary research on human environment relationships because the field is currently populated (in large part, but by no means in total) by anthropologists who are trained to understand and transcend cultural boundaries (sensu nabhan 2009:6; nabhan and martinez 2012:4). scholarly disciplines are cultural institutions (ball and lacey 1980), and an ethnobiology willing to traverse disciplinary and cultural boundaries has the potential to maximize its own relevance (nabhan et al. 2011a). momentum toward a focus on application and practical relevance in ethnobiological scholarship represents what wyndham et al. (2011:124) describe as “ethnobiology 5,” piggy-backing from hunn’s (2007; ford 2011) four phases of ethnobiology’s historical development. phase 5 requires that ethnobiologists address “the needs of a world coping with figure 1.   a simple, ordinal scale model of the missions  of  ethnobiology  and  conserva on  biology  represented  as  con nua  connected  to  respec ve  audiences.    the  implica on  is  that  the  audience  of  ethnobiologists  is  small, yet the mission of the field is to study the earth’s  various  human‐environmental  interac ons  in  me  and  space, which is broad.  in contrast, conserva on biology  is mission driven and is explicitly concerned with support  of con nued evolu on of biological systems, from popu‐ la ons  and  species  to  communi es  and  ecosystems.   yet,  its  audience  is  enormous  because  its  relevance  is  immediately transparent.  23  perspec ve  rapid ecological change and shifting political economies” (wyndam et al. 2011:124; see also nabhan et al. 2011b). that said, how can ethnobiology 5 continue to gain momentum? modest solutions might include hosting conferences, organizing sessions, and publishing papers that reach across the politically entrenched divides in academia in order to invite new perspectives. these offer particular solutions, but there are two additional goals that should be adopted as core objectives. first, to engage the broader audience of environmental studies, media, philosophy, and science, ethnobiologists should continue to publish in flagship ethnobiology journals and increase the frequency of papers that explicitly address phase 5 (e.g., beserra de farias et al. 2010; gilmore and young 2012). for example, it is one matter to publish a plant taxonomy and to debate the cognitive reality of language and classification, it is quite another to link diversity in plant taxonomy to diversity in language (maffi 2001; stepp et al. 2005). and it is still yet another to explicitly recognize that extinction rates in biology and culture (including language) can share a biocultural geographic pattern (sensu albuquerque and muniz de medieros 2012; e.g., maffi 2001; stepp et al. 2004, 2005). ethnobiologists are “on the ground” in such biocultural geographic contexts and command the intimate details concerning human-environmental relationships situated within subtle ecologies of time and place (wyndham 2009), and it is just these subtle ecologies that are of growing interest in community based conservation and environmental comanagement. an equally pervasive argument can be made that ethnobiologists should publish their research in ecology, environmental science, and conservation journals, but then the work may lose its ethnobiological identity. common use of the terms ethnobiology, ethnobiological research, and ethnobiologist in conservation, ecology, and related journals will broaden the exposure of our research and may direct scholars to the society of ethnobiology and its flagship journals as homes for interdisciplinary research on human-environment interactions. though it has been argued that ethnobiologists have much to offer in terms of cultural theory (nabhan et al. 2011a:3), a clear strength of the discipline related to phase 5 is the vast empirical record of humans in places and time―that is, we have data. the cultural, geographic, and evolutionary scope of ethnobiological subject matter, when conveyed broadly, represents what environmental philosopher albert borgmann (2000:103) terms “disclosure.” a disclosive perspective is one that shifts the human experiential scale; for example, a human lifespan is miniscule in terms of geological time. moreover, environmental impacts when recognized in terms of the contingency of earth are more disclosive of the magnitude of particular effects, such as extinction (wolverton and lyman 2012). the same can be said for cultural diversity in environmental knowledge (wolverton et al. 2011); cross-cultural awareness of diverse and local environmental values transcends any particular policy or aim of environmental management and discloses new information relevant to local communities and economies (anderson 2010; müller and dan guimbo 2010). it is the empirical nature of subtle ecologies in varied contexts that provides this disclosure. a focus on the disclosive aspects of ethnobiological scholarship should be developed, as most if not all ethnobiological research is simply relevant to biocultural conservation, environmental ethics and justice, and environmental management (lepofsky 2009). second, the ethnobiology conference is an important venue for generating and encouraging the conversation about the relevance of ethnobiology in a changing world. in recent years, the conference has been organized around important themes, such as “the meeting place: integrating ethnobiological knowledge” (2010), “conservation and communities” (2012), and “climate change and ethnobiology” (2013). such themes enable ethnobiologists to accomplish two important goals: first, it encourages established ethnobiologists to bring the relevance of their research to the forefront of ongoing scholarship within ethnobiology. second, and equally important is it allows the audience to grow because themes conveying messages relevant to the modern global environmental and cultural crises are concerns addressed in multiple areas of scholarship. it is important that conservation biologists, environmental philosophers, eco-critical writers, and environmental scientists be invited to the forums provided by the ethnobiology conference. encouraging their attendance at the society of ethnobiology’s conferences will require new conceptual spaces within which they can situate their own scholarship. the conference should continue to provide an umbrella for such conversations, and doing so will change the community of scholars from one situated primarily in anthropology and botany to one that is even more interdisciplinary than it is currently. 24  perspec ve  ethnobiology has a history of being inherently fascinating to ethnobiologists. scholars of ethnobiology, however, are also deeply concerned about modern environmental and cultural crises ranging from overharvest of marine fish populations to loss of native heirloom plant varieties, to the richness of human cognition and language, to the deep temporal evolutionary implications of biological and cultural extinction. this is our own subtle ecology, something that sometimes is hidden in our plant taxonomies, our tables of data on faunal remains from archaeological sites, our language maps, and our ethnographies. our data are relevant and essential to solving large scale environmental and cultural problems because, as stated by rozzi (1999), problems of humanenvironmental impact cannot be solved unless the values of people in contemporary societies change, and values do not change unless experiences change. the clearest path to initiating such progress is through direct encounter with plants, animals, environments, the outdoors, earth―if ethnobiology is nothing else, it comprises a record of such encounters from many times and places. acknowledgements i wish to thank dana lepofsky for thoughtful review comments and james r. welch and cynthia fowler for comments and support to publish this paper in ebl. declarations permissions: not applicable. sources of funding: none declared. conflicts of interest: none declared. references cited albuquerque, u. p. and p. m. medeiros. 2012. systematic reviews and meta-analysis applied to ethnobiological research. ethnobiology and conservation 1:6. anderson, e. n. 2010. the pursuit of ecotopia: lessons from indigenous and traditional societies for the human ecology of our modern world. praeger press, santa barbara, ca. anderson, e. n. 2011. ethnobiology: overview of a growing field. in ethnobiology, edited by e. n. anderson, d. m. pearsall, e. s. hunn, and n. j. turner, pp. 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spheres of relations, lines of interaction: subtle ecologies of the rarámuri landscape in northern mexico. journal of ethnobiology 29:271-295. wyndham, f. s., d. lepofsky, and s. tiffany. 2011. taking stock in ethnobiology: where do we come from? what are we? where are we going? journal of ethnobiology 31:110-127. biosketch steve wolverton is an archaeologist and ecologist in the  department  of  geography  at  the  university  of  north  texas.  he is one of the founding editors of ethnobiology  le ers,  and  his  research  focuses  on  the  intersec ons  between  zooarchaeology,  ethnobiology,  and  conserva‐ on biology.   ethnobiology 5: interdisciplinarity in an era of rapid environmental change << /ascii85encodepages false /allowtransparency false /autopositionepsfiles true /autorotatepages /none /binding /left /calgrayprofile (dot gain 20%) /calrgbprofile (srgb iec61966-2.1) /calcmykprofile (u.s. web coated \050swop\051 v2) /srgbprofile (srgb iec61966-2.1) /cannotembedfontpolicy 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/hrv (za stvaranje adobe pdf dokumenata najpogodnijih za visokokvalitetni ispis prije tiskanja koristite ove postavke. stvoreni pdf dokumenti mogu se otvoriti acrobat i adobe reader 5.0 i kasnijim verzijama.) /hun 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can be opened with acrobat and adobe reader 5.0 and later.) >> /namespace [ (adobe) (common) (1.0) ] /othernamespaces [ << /asreaderspreads false /cropimagestoframes true /errorcontrol /warnandcontinue /flattenerignorespreadoverrides false /includeguidesgrids false /includenonprinting false /includeslug false /namespace [ (adobe) (indesign) (4.0) ] /omitplacedbitmaps false /omitplacedeps false /omitplacedpdf false /simulateoverprint /legacy >> << /addbleedmarks false /addcolorbars false /addcropmarks false /addpageinfo false /addregmarks false /convertcolors /converttocmyk /destinationprofilename () /destinationprofileselector /documentcmyk /downsample16bitimages true /flattenerpreset << /presetselector /mediumresolution >> /formelements false /generatestructure false /includebookmarks false /includehyperlinks false /includeinteractive false /includelayers false /includeprofiles false /multimediahandling /useobjectsettings /namespace [ (adobe) (creativesuite) (2.0) ] /pdfxoutputintentprofileselector /documentcmyk /preserveediting true /untaggedcmykhandling /leaveuntagged /untaggedrgbhandling /usedocumentprofile /usedocumentbleed false >> ] >> setdistillerparams << /hwresolution [2400 2400] /pagesize [612.000 792.000] >> setpagedevice 76  book review  veteto and maclin emphasize the importance of barbecue as a central vehicle of both identity and difference in the american south. on one hand, the authors argue it is such a key lived symbol and experience within southern life that (following southern sociologist john shelton reed) a flag emblazoned with a dancing pig with a fork and knife might rightly replace the racism tainted flag of the confederacy as the banner of the south. on the other hand, however, regional and local differences in how to prepare hog form fundamental bases for distinctions between communities, such that “…most southerners who engage in the act of cooking or consuming barbecue think that the way they are used to having their barbecue prepared is the only way god intended it to be done” (p. 8). along with the analytical focus on identity and difference, veteto and maclin’s introduction also raises themes concerning race, gender, and memory in regard to food. in these varied areas the volume does not necessarily break new theoretical ground, but certainly outlines in detail barbecue’s rightful place as an excellent phenomenon to explore these scholarly concerns. this fits extremely well with other goals of the volume, namely to make scholarly anthropological writing more engaging and accessible through attention to a topic of broad culinary interest, as well as to make food writing more scholarly through cross-fertilization with rigorous intellectual concerns. most of the chapters engage with barbecue with quite in-depth, specific case studies, although these are effectively framed by those that give a broader perspective on topics such as the history of barbecue and the relation of barbecue to concerns such as tradition in the digital age and food sustainability, with the latter tied to issues such as the slow food movement and heritage varieties of pigs and tomathe authors of this volume love barbecue. seemingly every kind of barbecue and from a broad assortment of analytical frameworks and perspectives. mostly hog, slow smoked, but they’ll take it on the bone, chopped, minced, pulled, shredded, chipped and much more, on a plate or on a bun, with sauce or “dip” ranging from vinegar with nothing more than flakes of pepper, to mustard or mayonnaise based sauces, to thick, sweet ketchupy ones, sometimes but not only including what veteto and maclin maintain is fundamental to a good mid-south barbecue sauce—some combination of vinegar, tomato, pepper and a sweetener. this is not a disinterested text. while rigorously scholarly, taking perspectives centered mainly but not exclusively on anthropology, the editors and contributors are passionate about their hog, particularly the varieties prepared in ways rooted in their own upbringings in the mid-south. the slaw and the slow cooked is composed of eleven chapters: a theoretical introduction and ten chapters focusing on varied aspects of time-honored and contemporary barbecue. although the book is divided into two sections—“traditional and contemporary landscapes of mid-south barbecue” and “old new barbecue moving forward”―the editors note that the divide between them is fairly arbitrary, and indeed it is not entirely clear what contrast between the halves was intended. this minor organizational issue aside, the chapters are varied, solid and engaging. the editors are both anthropologists, and, while the book has a strong anthropological tilt, its contributors also include scholars in literature and folklore, food writers, chefs, and historians. the authors have a number of clear aims and address them effectively. they endeavor to make a firm contribution to the anthropology of food, to some extent theoretically but perhaps more so empirically. the slaw and the slow cooked: culture and barbecue in the mid‐south   james  r.  veteto  and  edward  m.  maclin,  eds.  2011  vanderbilt  university  press,  nashville.  pp.  216  $22.95  (paperback). isbn 978‐0826518019  reviewed by jon d. holtzman   reviewer address: department of anthropology, western michigan university, 1903 w michigan ave, kalamazoo mi 49008‐ 5306. jon.holtzman@wmich.edu  received: november 15, 2012  volume: 3:76‐77  published: december 22, 2012  © 2012 society of ethnobiology  mailto:jon.holtzman@wmich.edu� 77  book review  toes. the case studies tend toward the introduction’s emphasis on identity and difference, but approach these topics in a wide range of ways. several deal with specific producers of barbecue, some with restaurants that are particularly notable or well-known in the micro-region upon which the author focuses, and some with detailed analysis of a geographically focused form of barbecue tradition. these examples do not focus only on the food per se, but show how broader issues such as gender relations and historical and contemporary racism may be enacted through food practices. some of the chapters emphasize the social processes through which the food is produced—whether in a context as commonplace as a charity picnic, or in the highly specialized arena of hog roasting competitions—while many focus more heavily on the nature of the food itself. pervasive throughout most of these pieces is an emphasis on tradition, though this is displayed not to be timeless and unchanging with attention to how it has developed over time and how it may evolve in the future. if there is a drawback to this book it lies in its qualities that are also its strength. the editors and contributors all exude a tremendous enthusiasm in their work and their subject matter, for barbecue in general and for the particular versions of it that are beloved from their communities or childhoods, making this an engaging, readable, and surprisingly personal book. the other side of the hog in this, however, is that i found it at times difficult to separate the authors’ passion for barbecue from the empirical importance that they are attributing to their subject matter. does everyone in the mid-south actually share the beliefs and attitudes that are both pervasive, and portrayed as essentially universal in this text? this is an issue that readers should consider when engaging with the text, but a fairly minor one. the bottom line is that the authors are having fun, but serious fun, and the book is better for it. there is much to be learned from this book in regard to the anthropology of food, the ethnography of the u.s. and, of course, barbecue. the book is highly scholarly, appropriate for engaging students in the classroom, and accessible for lay readers interested in foodways. i highly recommend it for anyone interested in the anthropology of food. << /ascii85encodepages false /allowtransparency false 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can be opened with acrobat and adobe reader 5.0 and later.) >> /namespace [ (adobe) (common) (1.0) ] /othernamespaces [ << /asreaderspreads false /cropimagestoframes true /errorcontrol /warnandcontinue /flattenerignorespreadoverrides false /includeguidesgrids false /includenonprinting false /includeslug false /namespace [ (adobe) (indesign) (4.0) ] /omitplacedbitmaps false /omitplacedeps false /omitplacedpdf false /simulateoverprint /legacy >> << /addbleedmarks false /addcolorbars false /addcropmarks false /addpageinfo false /addregmarks false /convertcolors /converttocmyk /destinationprofilename () /destinationprofileselector /documentcmyk /downsample16bitimages true /flattenerpreset << /presetselector /mediumresolution >> /formelements false /generatestructure false /includebookmarks false /includehyperlinks false /includeinteractive false /includelayers false /includeprofiles false /multimediahandling /useobjectsettings /namespace [ (adobe) (creativesuite) (2.0) ] /pdfxoutputintentprofileselector /documentcmyk /preserveediting true /untaggedcmykhandling /leaveuntagged /untaggedrgbhandling /usedocumentprofile /usedocumentbleed false >> ] >> setdistillerparams << /hwresolution [2400 2400] /pagesize [612.000 792.000] >> setpagedevice eucalyptus sp. at the intersection of environment and culture in kenya garrett kluthe and chen. 2017. ethnobiology letters 8(1):15–22 research communications the diverse cosmos of these groups, including the kikuyu, maasai, and embu, reflected a deep ecology with various beliefs and taboos surrounding native trees (tom 2010; wane and chandler 2002). european influence in kenya not only altered the ecology as new species such as eucalyptus sp. were introduced, but it also had a detrimental impact on the existing social order. european settlements created property boundaries and disrupted trade routes, pushing pastoral and agrarian society into less productive areas. pastoral groups such as the maasai, who depended upon free range grazing and trade with agrarian groups, could no longer move freely around the region (castro 1991). restricted movement and limited natural resources resulted in disputes among ethnic groups, both with each other and with the european settlers (ndege 2009). the cessation of group mobility has also limited the ability of people to cope with climate change (watson and kochore 2012). europeans also profoundly changed kenyan agriculture by shifting it from a subsistence focus to one of profits and exports (doughty 1996). whereas traditional societies typically focused on ecologic introduction the introduction of eucalyptus sp. to east africa was driven by the need for a fast-growing wood source to fuel that expansion of the railroad system (bennett 2010). native to australia, the eucalyptus genus was traditionally used by aboriginal tribes for medical purposes (webb 1969). however, the rapid expansion of eucalyptus sp. to other parts of the world during the nineteenth century did not necessarily mean the translation of all of their medicinal uses to new cultures. although selected species are reportedly used in parts of africa to treat some ailments (kokwaro 1995; njoroge and bussmann 2006; njoroge and bussmann 2007), a recent survey of medicinal plants in western kenya near indigenous forest showed no indication that eucalyptus sp. was utilized (otieno and analo 2012). eucalyptus sp. came to kenya with british colonists over a century ago, however it was only in the past couple of decades that it achieved ubiquity there (peralta and swinton 2009; scherr 1995). prior to british colonization, native kenyans included groups of farmers, herders, and those who represented a combination of the two (ndege 2009). eucalyptus sp. at the intersection of environment and culture in kenya brandy garrett kluthe1* and diana chen2 1biology department, university of arkansas, fayetteville, ar, usa. 2anthropology department, university of arkansas, fayetteville, ar, usa. *brandygarrettkluthe@gmail.com abstract members of the genus eucalyptus are popular on small farms throughout kenya, and include species such as eucalyptus saligna, eucalpytus globulus, and eucalyptus grandis. although they are fast-growing and perform well on marginal land, these trees are associated with negative environmental effects in africa and elsewhere they have been introduced. in-person surveys were conducted with small farmers in kenya to determine patterns of eucalyptus sp. stand use and cultural importance. it was found that despite acknowledged short and long term environmental consequences, eucalyptus sp. remains popular for medium term economic investment. these findings are consistent with other reports of eucalyptus sp. woodlots serving as funding sources for education, health emergencies, etc., in parts of the world where bank loans are unavailable. further, it was found that some farmers are using modified silviculture practices to ameliorate the negative effects of eucalyptus sp., and others are seeking indigenous alternatives. received may 27, 2016 open access accepted november 10, 2016 doi 10.14237/ebl.8.1.2017.706 keywords eucalyptus sp., kenya, farmers, environment, economics copyright © 2017 by the author(s); licensee society of ethnobiology. this is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution-noncommercial 4.0 international public license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0), which permits non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. garrett kluthe and chen. 2017. ethnobiology letters 8(1):15–22 research communications exchanges (toledo 2002), large expanses of land planted in monoculture crops such as wheat (buckley 1903) changed the social focus to economic exchanges. the introduction of coffee and tea altered kenyan agriculture even more. the curing process of these crops secured the continued cultivation of eucalyptus sp. while still widely used for construction, it quickly became the preferred fuelwood source on tea plantations (ojany and ojendo 1982; taku 1999). with a rising demand for fuelwood, and increased governmental promotion of eucalyptus sp. as a fast growing wood source, small plot farmers planted the trees for potential economic benefits (doughty 1996). this increase in cultivation also came with concerns from farmers who noticed that water sources were becoming compromised and crops growing near eucalyptus sp. exhibited poor growth (bennett 2010). indeed, negative effects of eucalyptus sp. may include increased acidity in both the soil and nearby water sources (luzar 2007), toxicity to fish (webb 1969), and the ability to outcompete native plants for water and nutrients—which then leads to increased erosion because of decreased undergrowth (luzar 2007). the entire african continent has been identified by western scientists as a region extremely “vulnerable” to climate change (watson and kochore 2012). bankoff (2001:24) describes the western concept of vulnerability as it applies to africa and other non-western regions as the “historical and social,” as well as the “geographic or climatic predisposition to hazard.” to truly address environmental problems, it is important to understand the social factors leading to vulnerability, such as the decision making practices of small scale farmers who choose to plant non-native species. the recognition of changes in the ecosystem, such as those wrought by eucalyptus sp., falls into the realm of ethnoecology, the human appropriation of nature (toledo 2002). the objective of this study was to assess the ethnoecological knowledge of small plot eucalyptus sp. farmers. as discussed, the introduction of eucalyptus sp. changed the culture of indigenous people living in pre-colonized east africa. today, the monetary benefits of growing eucalyptus on small farmers’ plots may come with environmental as well as social challenges. we use a cultural materialist (harris 1966) framework to understand farmers' motives for growing eucalyptus sp. methods study location in order to assess farmers' ethnoecological knowledge of eucalyptus sp. trees on their farms and elsewhere, a semi-structured survey (figure 1) was administered to seventeen farming family heads from the eastern, central, rift valley, and western regions of kenya in the summer of 2015. though surveys were mainly conducted randomly in central gathering places of villages, some farmers were also surveyed when ecological sampling took place in their personal woodlot. this data is part of a larger research project looking at the environmental effects of eucalyptus sp. trees and their associated fungi. data collection fifteen male and two female farmers representing a wide age range were surveyed. six of the farmers were “middle-aged” (35–50 years), four were “older” (50– 65 years), and two were “younger” (20–35 years). the remaining five farmers declined to indicate their age group. the initial question asked before conducting a survey was to determine if the person farmed and if they also grew eucalyptus sp. trees. only one survey was conducted per family unit. if the survey respondent was fluent in english then the survey was conducted in english. if the respondent was not fluent in english then an interpreter conducted the survey in the local language. ten of the survey respondents used their native language to answer questions. five spoke swahili and five used a regional luo language either throughout the entire survey or to answer a question more thoroughly. the survey data was entered into microsoft excel and subsequently analyzed for developing an overall interpretation of farmer impressions of eucalyptus sp. (martin 1995) using qsr international’s nvivo 11 pro software following the methods for qualitative analysis of surveys outlined in edhlund and mcdougall (2016:253). results the planting regimes for the trees varied but were all consistent with the literature on small scale eucalyptus sp. farming (oballa et al. 2010). the size of the plots ranged from an approximate 700 square meter plot to one hectare (average size of 0.30 hectares) with the exception of one that was approximately 20 hectares. the farmer of the largest plot was caretaker for a large plantation. all of the respondents planted their woodlots from seedlings with one third of them garrett kluthe and chen. 2017. ethnobiology letters 8(1):15–22 research communications purchasing seedlings from government nurseries. the two farmers that grew their own seedlings collected seeds or stems from their own or neighbor's lots and germinated them in pots or temporary beds before out-planting the seedlings. all of the respondents reported planting blue gum, which is the common name for eucalyptus globulus. however, most of the eucalyptus sp. trees observed in the survey areas were eucalyptus grandis or eucalyptus saligna. it appears that the term “blue gum” is now commonly used to refer to most eucalyptus species in kenya and may not accurately reflect the actual tree species planted. the farmers had some varied responses with respect to the seedling spacing in the woodlot. most of the farmers planted their seedlings about one meter apart. several of the farmers added that they would thin out the seedlings when they reached a certain size to an approximate three meter spacing. a few of the farmers planted their trees three or more meters apart. when asked how long they would let the trees grow, 65% responded that they would harvest in 10–15 years. the remaining farmers were split between approximately five years and more than 30 years, so 15 years was the overall average. however, two of the farmers talked about harvesting after a few years, then allowing the trees to coppice for a second harvest a decade or so later. traditional ethnoecological systems are typically multi-use (toledo 2002). the farmers in this study were asked a series of questions about the use of their woodlots for non-timber forest products (ntfps), which might include fuelwood, medicinal herbs, food, fodder, or honey. all of the respondents collected fallen eucalyptus sp. branches for firewood. three of those respondents also used larger limbs for light construction as well. none of the farmers gathered anything else that grew or lived in the eucalyptus sp. woodlots. one farmer indicated that he would hunt an animal if it was found in the woodlot but did not specify the time when that occurred. a little more than half of the farmers had unsuccessfully tried to plant other crops or trees, including maize, cassava, beans, groundnuts, fruit trees or grasses for livestock in the eucalyptus sp. woodlots (figure 2). as a main food staple in kenya, maize was a crop that farmers would have liked to plant if it could grow well alongside eucalyptus sp. (ng'endo et al. 2015). although none of the farmers surveyed indicated that they gathered anything other than firewood from eucalyptus sp. woodlots, more than half of them farmer survey date location who helped 1. farmer/villager age and gender 2. what is the approximate size of your woodlot? 3. how far apart to do you plant your trees? what is planted? 4. do you use seeds or seedlings? 5. where do you get your seeds or seedlings? 6. after how many years do you harvest your woodlot? how do you harvest 7. do you collect the limbs and leaves that fall in the woodlot? yes or no 8. if yes, what do you do with this? 9. have you tried to plant other things in the woodlot? yes or no a. if yes, what have you tried to plant? b. how successful was this new crop you planted? 10. do you collect anything from nearby forest? yes or no a. what items do you collect and for what purpose? 11. do you collect anything that is only found with eucalyptus? 12. do you think eucalyptus trees affect other plants that grow close them? 13. do you think eucalyptus used more water than other trees? 14. do you see the same kinds of birds and animals in eucalyptus forests and native forests? 15. what else can you tell me about eucalyptus? figure 1 farmer survey form used to interview farmers in several regions of kenya to assess their impressions and uses of eucalyptus trees. garrett kluthe and chen. 2017. ethnobiology letters 8(1):15–22 research communications gathered items found in indigenous forests. these items included grasses for livestock, firewood, mushrooms, seeds, wild animals, and fruits. the latter was most frequently mentioned. the farmers were asked if the same kinds of birds and animals were found in both indigenous and eucalyptus sp. forests and all responded no. a few gave examples of seeing monkeys or bats in the eucalyptus sp. forests. many of the farmers reported that the indigenous forest had many more animals and birds, with some saying that no animals or birds could be found in the eucalyptus sp. forests. the farmers were asked if the eucalyptus sp. trees had an effect on other plants that grew close to them. all of the farmers said yes. they volunteered that the ground would get very dry and that other plants would not grow well. one farmer replied that he grew the eucalyptus sp. only on hillsides where he could not grow crops. similarly, another farmer grew eucalyptus sp. in “dry mountain places.” another adaptation to eucalyptus sp. farming included trenching around trees to prevent allelopathy. when asked about water usage, all of the farmers reported that they thought eucalyptus sp. used more water than other trees. some gave examples of planting trees in wet areas that are now dry. the names for eucalyptus in local languages reflect this thirst. they are called drinking water in mukungugu (kaburi and medley 2011) and embu (wane and chandler 2002). each farmer was asked if they had anything else they would like to share about eucalyptus sp. most of the comments elicited were positive, or implied that the positive aspects of eucalyptus sp. farming outweighed the environmental challenges. farmers appear to like eucalyptus sp. trees because they grow well and fast. however, a couple of farmers talked about the leaf litter and how it doesn’t break down. they said it just keeps building up and doesn’t allow the rain the reach the ground. one quarter of the farmers surveyed stated that they wanted or planned to clear the eucalyptus sp., burn the stumps, and replace it with either grevillea robusta a.cunn. ex. r.br. or indigenous plants. this may be linked to recent government recommendations on the planting of eucalyptus sp. but was not specifically addressed in any of the farmers’ responses. during one conversation with a farmer, he spoke about why the harvest time was from 10-15 years. he said that when a man married and started his own farm he would plant eucalyptus sp. trees if he had the space. he would then leave the trees until it was time for his children to go to secondary school, which in many cases requires boarding fees. he would then harvest his trees and have enough money for his children to continue their education. in a sense, the trees were acting as a saving account that accumulated interest as the trees grew in size and value. other studies across the developing world agree that this practice is very common not just for education but for medical bills, planting crops, or other emergencies when large sums of money would be needed at once (hill 1961; quinlan et al. 2015; snyder and cullen 2014). discussion in several instances, the wives of respondents were present but the men gave the survey answers. this is consistent with lado's (2004) surveys of kenyan farmers in which 87% of households were headed by males. in 1989, bentley observed of small scale farmers in honduras that there are often gaps between what he called "indigenous technical knowledge" (which is now more commonly called traditional ecological knowledge, or tek) and western scientific knowledge. according to bentley, the difference is often one of visibility or perception. for example, the farmers in his study had the most information about plants, a lesser amount of figure 2 a cassava plot planted near eucalyptus trees. the cassava closest to the eucalyptus showed evidence of stunted growth (image by the author). garrett kluthe and chen. 2017. ethnobiology letters 8(1):15–22 research communications information about insects, and only a small amount on the subject of bacterial/fungal diseases of plants (bentley 1989). the overall impression left by the data from this study however is that small scale farmers in kenya are entirely aware that the eucalyptus sp. woodlots reduce diversity, impede nearby plants, and use a lot of water. therefore the environmental message has gotten across. however, there appears to be widespread ambivalence to this message, just as kollmuss and agyeman (2002) have identified a gap between the pro-environmental thoughts and behaviors of people in general. the continued planting of eucalyptus sp. indicates that the monetary benefits outweigh the negatives. this idea aligns with harris's famous 1966 work on adaptive ecological systems that may at first seem incomprehensible to outsiders. small farmers in kenya rely heavily on remittances sent from relatives off working in cities (nyasimi et al. 2007), even though the loss of on farm labor negatively affects the homestead (greiner and sakdakpolrak 2012). diversification of farms into part -woodlots is one path to success (nyasimi et al. 2007). as long as kenya remains a net importer of wood (jerneck and olsson 2013), small farmers will have an economic incentive to grow eucalyptus sp. new hybrid varieties of eucalyptus with faster growth rates have increased the eagerness of farmers to plant the trees. the increased growth rate allows for a much earlier harvest resulting in more generations of trees harvested in the same amount of time as one previous generation. based on an average wood lot size of one hectare, the approximate net income from the sale of the harvested trees is over six thousand (us) dollars (oballa 2010). harvesting the trees in just five years instead of the longer harvest age of 8–10 years greatly increases the farms’ income (kirongo et al. 2014). that amount of money effectively doubles the annual income of the average kenyan household (the world bank 2016). when farmers decide what to plant, their culture affects their choice (quinlan et al. 2015). in some places in kenya the productivity of the land is tied to adherence to proper behavior (nyasimi et al. 2007). cultural rules may prevent best farming and land stewardship practices as indicated in the research by nyasimi et al. (2007) which state that women are not allowed to work on the farm unless certain conditions are met. this has led to severe land degradation in some areas. planting eucalyptus sp. relies on less input both of time and resources for a success woodlot. this may appeal to farmers as a way to overcome some cultural restrictions. it is perfectly normal for kenyans to plant eucalyptus sp. the data generally show a lack of active decision making. most kenyan farmers plant the trees because their neighbors do (benjamin and blum 2015), because their government encourages it, and because it's a way to save up money for future expenses. "land in sub-saharan africa is not merely a commodity—it is the most important economic and social asset (snyder and cullen 2014:15)." using their ecological knowledge and scientific findings (such as those from the larger project this paper represents), farmers can take steps to mitigate the environmental impacts of planting eucalyptus sp. while still growing it successfully. indeed, some farmers have indicated that they are using counter measures to combat the negative effects of eucalyptus sp. trees and others indicated an interest in planting different trees and crops. for example, farmers are planting the eucalyptus in dry areas where other crops won't grow. the reasons for doing so are to reduce pressure on water sources for sustainability, or to appease next door neighbors for social reasons. the one farmer who tore up his eucalyptus sp., burned the stumps, and planted banana instead reported that his farm is doing well. agrobiodiversity factors into social prestige. farmers with more trees and crops tend to be wealthier and older (but not necessarily have larger farms), and wild foods tend to have low status (ng'endo et al. 2015). however, ng'endo et al. (2015) and connelly and chaiken (2000) found that agrobiodiversity was no guarantee of food or financial security. the introduction of eucalyptus sp. in kenya has profoundly impacted both the culture and agricultural environment, changing the way kenyans live and interact with the land. even with the knowledge that eucalyptus presents some ecological concerns, farmers grow the trees for the monetary benefits. ownership of eucalyptus sp. woodlots increases the value of the farm and can provide some security against unknown financial hardships. continued planting of this introduced tree will likely become part of the subsistence farming culture of kenya. acknowledgments appreciation is extended to phanuel o. oballa, jared amwatta mullah, joram m. e. mbinga and willis a. atie and several other individuals associated with the kenya forest research institute (kefri); george g. garrett kluthe and chen. 2017. ethnobiology letters 8(1):15–22 research communications ndiritu and the staff of the national museums of kenya; and francis onduso, research colleague and guide in kenya. special thanks are extended to dr. steve l stephenson and dr. justin nolan with the university of arkansas for their guidance in the collection and compilation of this research. declarations permissions: the present research was deemed exempt from irb review on february 11, 2016. sources of funding: partial funding for this project was through a graduate travel grant from the university of arkansas. conflicts of interest: none declared. references cited bankoff, g. 2001. rendering the world unsafe: 'vulnerability' as western discourse. disasters 25:19–35. doi:10.1111/1467-7717.00159. benjamin, e. o., and m. blum. 2015. participation of smallholders in agroforestry agri-environmental scheme: a lesson from the rural mount kenyan region. the journal of developing areas 49:127–143. doi:10.1353/jda/2015.0125. bennett, b. m. 2010. the el dorado of forestry: the eucalyptus in india, south africa, and 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watson, e. e., and h. h. kochore. 2012. religion and climate change in northern kenya: new moral frameworks for new environmental garrett kluthe and chen. 2017. ethnobiology letters 8(1):15–22 research communications challenges? journal for the study of religion, nature and culture 6:319–343. doi:10.1558/ jsrnc.v6i3.319. webb, l. j. 1969. the use of plant medicines and poisons by australian aborigines. mankind 7:137– 146. doi:10.1111/j.1835-9310.1969.tb00398.x. microsoft word welch.doc ethnobiology letters                                                                                                                    book review    18    urihi a: a terra‐floresta yanomami  bruce albert and william milliken with gale goodwin gomez. são paulo: instituto socioambiental, 2009. 207 pp.,  illustrations, tables, bibliography, appendices, index. paperback isbn: 978‐85‐85994‐72‐3.    reviewed by james r. welch1    reviewer address: 1 escola nacional de saúde pública, fundação oswaldo cruz, rio de janeiro    received: march 30th 2010                            volume 1:18‐19  published: august 15th 2010                       © 2010 society of ethnobiology    scientific and public interest in tropical ethnobiology appears to increase in step with international focus on the urgency of conservation efforts in countries where rainforest deforestation is an issue. yet, local political contexts often restrain ethnobiological research, especially when conducted by foreigners, for the apropos goals of protecting indigenous intellectual property and national patrimony. in brazil, several versions of legislation controlling research involving biological samples and traditional biodiversity knowledge have been considered since 2001. undertaking ethnobotanical research in brazil, where it is the subject of intense public and legal scrutiny, is not for foreigners faint of heart. urihi a: a terra-floresta yanomami (urihi a: the yanomami earth-forest) is a welcome example of ethnobotanical research conducted in brazil with a high ethical standard. at the request of the pro-yanomami commission, a brazilianbased ngo, albert and milliken applied their exceptional anthropological and ethnobotanical experience to the project of documenting yanomami plant knowledge for the future benefit of the yanomami people. in this text, they present their results in a manner that simultaneously emphasizes scientific rigor and ethical responsibility. the book begins with an introduction, followed by a brief presentation of the research methods and an overview of yanomami ethnobotany, including wild plant knowledge, classification systems and nomenclature, and agricultural practices. the main body of the text is organized into nine chapters, each focused on a specific category of plant use: edible plants, plants used in hunting and fishing, plants used in construction, plants used for fire, plants of diverse technical uses, plants used for body ornamentation, plants used as psychotropics and stimulants, medicinal plants, and plants in cosmology. the final chapter discusses yanomami ethnobotany in the context of other publications on ethnobotany in amazonia. ethnobotanical knowledge among contemporary indigenous groups in amazonia is rarely as tidy as it would appear to be when presented in lists and tables. albert and milliken make no mistake of that fact, opting to present their methods with integrity and honesty in light of the complex realities of yanomami plant knowledge. for example, they address in a straight-forward manner the tendencies, typical of amazonian ethnobiological systems, for high degrees of temporal and spatial variation, individual or idiosyncratic knowledge, as well as the operational difficulties of uncertainty and recall error. they deal with these challenges creatively but systematically. for example, they favored the deliberation of responses by yanomami collaborators through group interviews and only recorded responses supported by consensus. additionally, the authors made plant collections with proper ethnobotanical procedures. botanical identifications were made by specialists at national and foreign herbariums, including the royal botanic gardens, kew, the new york botanical gardens, the national institute of amazon research (inpa), and the integrated museum of roraima. given these methods, their data appear to have a high degree of reliability and their limits are clearly delineated. the text also benefits from a strong diachronic emphasis even though the study was not explicitly intended to be historical ecological. the yanomami population is large and diverse with an accordingly complex early history. recent yanomami history includes non-indigenous encroachment accompanied by dramatic sociocultural, demographic, and ecological transformations. the authors insightfully discuss western yanomami ethnobotany in light of this historical setting, elucidating its temporal dimensions in a manner that transmits the dynamic realities by which ethnobiology letters                                                                                                                    book review    19    traditional environmental knowledge transforms through time. in this respect, the book benefits from data collected at different moments in time and in communities located in different environmental settings. it also benefits from special attention to the difference between contemporary usages and those from prior decades that were recalled by elders. the authors communicate these complexities with clarity, always attending to the humanness of the yanomami in specific historical, sociocultural, and ecological settings. written in a conversational style, albert and milliken emphasize expository writing rather than plant inventories (although the authors provide abundant tables), this book is both a pleasure to read and an informative resource. it successfully manages to present botanical data in systematic fashion while affording ample space for more anthropological topics, such as architecture, female healing practices, and cosmology. in these instances, as well as others, the authors provide rich ethnobotanical detail for cultural domains that do not always receive such thorough attention. for example, the prevalent and apparently traditional yanomami roof construction employing leaves from the palm geonoma baculifera bound to splints made from socratea exorrhiza is shown to be a historical borrowing from non-yanomami indigenous workers at a federal indian protection service (spi) post operating in the region during the 1940s. previously, the more common roofing material was leaves of a different palm, geonoma deversa, bound with a vine in the genus heteropsis. organizing the book by use categories rather than by botanical taxa was also instrumental in the authors’ effort to be informative without usurping yanomami control over their intellectual property. in this effort the authors should be congratulated. make no mistake, attending to the ethical and legal imperative that science should not violate the rights of a study population or host country is tricky business. in this case, it appears that the study was conducted with necessary permissions from the national indian foundation (funai) and the brazilian research council (cnpq). furthermore, the authors adopted the measure of excluding uniquely yanomami ethnomedicinal data, opting instead to publish only yanomami plants and their uses that are similar to those already documented for other indigenous amazonian groups. this measure is ethically appropriate because it allows the yanomami to retain control over their unique ethnomedicinal knowledge. despite that limitation, the book remains highly informative by emphasizing cultural and historical dimensions of plant knowledge in addition to botanical identifications. this is especially apparent in the domains of cosmology and mythology, where the authors aptly demonstrate the interconnectedness of the physical, metaphysical, and historical dimensions of ethnobotanical knowledge. as one of the precious few rigorous and relevant ethnobotanical publications to come from brazil in recent years, urihi a: a terra-floresta yanomami is an important resource for scholars and nonspecialists. it is also recommended for students interested in an example of responsible ethnobiological research in brazil. 23 book review global warming and the political ecology of health: emerging crisis and systemic solutions hans baer and merrill singer. 2008. left coast press, inc., walnut creek, ca. pp. 238. $32.95 (paperback). isbn 978-1-59874-354-8. reviewed by kate smith reviewer address: 421 w north st, fayatteville, ar 72701 received: march 12, 2012 volume 3:31-32 published: june 14, 2012 © 2012 society of ethnobiology if one is at all interested in the influence that the environment has on society and vice versa, this book by hans baer and merrill singer, will be a fascinating read. baer, a senior lecturer in the development studies program and the center of health and society at the university of melbourne, and singer, a senior research scientist at the university of connecticut’s center for health, intervention, and prevention, make a compelling argument for the affects of global warming and climate change as the single greatest threat to human health today. walking through the book in order, the first chapter provides a solid defense of climate change’s validity as a global phenomenon. those readers keeping abreast on the discussion of global climate change will notice that singer and baer have chosen citations from publications prior to 2008, rendering it quite dated. reading it today, several years after publication, an argument may be made for the inclusion of more recent findings; however, the citations included by the authors are no less relevant, merely less than current. that said, this section does not limit itself to describing the reality of global warming but also begins to read as a diatribe against the evils of capitalism; a feeling that is confirmed later in the book in chapters 7 and 8 by the authors’ adamant exhortation that no form of capitalism can mitigate global warming and that ecosocialism is the best solution to fix what capitalism has broken. chapter 2 addresses the destruction of traditional foodways and subsistence patterns by changing climate, such as those of the inuit in the northern realms, an area where changes in seasonal weather patterns and surface temperatures has already had a measurable effect on human lifeways (leduc 2010), but it is in chapters 3 through 6 that the authors’ contribution to the conversation about how human health will be affected by climate change becomes evident. those hundred odd pages comprise a fascinating discussion and synthesis of the myriad ways that climate change can and has affected human health, ranging from structural power and health disparities to melting glaciers releasing viable pathogens. a large portion of this section focuses on the structural power disparities that, when coupled with the associated ills of climate change, cause even greater health issues in the marginalized populations. baer and singer defend that malnutrition, poor water quality, expanding disease ranges, water borne illnesses, and even asthma affect the structurally impoverished the most and that “climate change is making a bad situation even worse” (p. 76). examples cited include the expansion of disease vector ranges, the desertification and changing rainfall affecting food availability and water quality in already impoverished areas, to increased rates of asthma caused by the syndemism of increased pollen counts amplified by the bronchoaggravating effects of diesel particles binding to the pollen itself, and the spread of water borne diseases. it is interesting to note that baer and singer specifically highlighted the epidemic potential of cholera due to increased flooding and natural disasters, but that it had not occurred to them that cholera could be spread in the site of a natural disaster by aid workers coming to provide relief (e.g. haiti post-quake). it is interesting to remark that neither author actually mentioned the term “structural power” or cited the work of eric wolf or that of paul farmer (beyond a quick quotation of farmer’s in the initial chapters), despite the influence both figures have had in the forums of both political ecology and public health. despite this lack, the case studies mentioned and the support they provide for their hypotheses are extremely well thought out and 24 book review make for an excellent and thought-provoking introduction to the political ecology of health. references cited leduc, t. b. 2010. climate, culture, change: inuit and western dialogues with a warming north. university of ottawa press. microsoft word fernandez.doc ethnobiology letters                                                                                               research communication      52 paleozoogeography of the wine mouse (akodon oenos) & late holocene  paleoenvironments in south‐central mendoza, argentina  fernando julián fernández    author address: conicet. cátedra de anatomía comparada, facultad de ciencias naturales y museo, universidad nacional  de la plata, calle 64 s/n (entre diag. 113 y calle 120), la plata, argentina  fernandezf77@yahoo.com.ar     received: november 24th 2010                       volume 1:52‐57  published: february 14th 2011                       © 2010 society of ethnobiology    abstract: cranial  remains of  the wine mouse  (akodon oenos) are documented  from an archaeological  site  in  south‐central  mendoza, argentina (agua de la mula, 35º22' s, 68º15' w), which dates to the end of the late holocene (1610 ± 60; 1260 ±  60; 1000 ± 50 c14 yr b.p.). the taxonomic status of this small rodent is currently being assessed, but these remains represent  the  first  fossil  record  for  the morphotaxon a. oenos.  the  species’  present  distribution  is  restricted  to  a  few  records  from  mendoza province. analysis of the remains supports paleoenvironmental reconstruction using the small mammal assemblage  recovered from this site. from the  late holocene  into modernity temperature decreased and winter precipitation  increased,  resulting in advance of patagonian steppe grading with altitude into monte desert. holocene climatic conditions may explain  the relatively  late human occupation of ecologically marginal environments  in this region, which probably  favored effective  human occupation of the payunia region at sites such as agua de la mula between 1600 and 1000 years b.p.  key words: akodon oenos, paleoenvironmental analysis, agua de la mula, mendoza, argentina    introduction the wine mouse, akodon oenos (braun et al. 2000), is a poorly known small rodent of the family cricetidae (subfamily sigmodontinae, tribe akondotini) for which no fossil remains have been reported. knowledge about the biogeography of the species is restricted to a few records from mendoza, argentina. these records range from north-central arid environments of the monte desert and puna in localities that are modified by modern human activities (mainly wineyards and olive groves) to the southwest (see figure 1a) in wetland habitat in the foothills of the volcanic payunia region, which is in the semi-arid patagonian steppe (braun et al. 2000; contreras and rosi 1980; pardiñas et al. 2011). akodon oenos lives in sympatry with a. molinae, the only akodontines reported within mendoza (braun et al. 2000; pardiñas et al. 2011). in general, knowledge of small mammal paleobiogeography and of holocene paleoenvironmental conditions from the volcanic payunia region of mendoza is limited. in this paper the first fossil record of the a. oenos from the agua de la mula archaeological site in southcentral mendoza, argentina is presented. in addition, the species’ taxonomic status and geographic distribution are discussed. the paleobiogeography of a. oenos is integrated into reconstruction of environmental conditions during the late holocene in the region via analysis of the small mammal assemblages from agua de la mula. this paleogeographic and paleoenvironmental study expands ongoing discussion of humanenvironment interactions during the very late holocene in southern, central mendoza. study area the agua de la mula site is located near the northern boundary of the volcanic payunia region (figure 1a). this area is within the monte phytogeographic province (cabrera 1976), which is included in the climatic region known as the south american arid diagonal covering a large part of the subcontinent from northern peru along the andes to the south of neuquén continuing across patagonia to the chubut river (bruniard 1982). the east band of the payunia region is exposed to the action of the atlantic anticyclone. however, the great distance traveled by the humid atlantic winds results in low summer precipitation (~200 mm). the vegetation is characterized by xerophytic shrubs, such as prosopis torcuata, p. alpataco, cercidium praecox, chuquiraga erinacea, cassia aphylla, larrea, bulnesia, and plectrocarpa, and isolated stands of geophroea decorticans that grow in low organic matter sandy or rocky soils (abrahan et al. 2009; cabrera 1976). ethnobiology letters                                                                                               research communication      53   figure 1. a: map of mendoza province (argentina), recording localities for a. oenos: triangles (archaeological) 1. agua de la  mula (35º22' s, 68º15' w, 967 m above sea level). circles (modern) 2. 2 km s of villavicencio ruta 32 (32º31' s, 68º59' w); 3.  la pega (32º48' s, 68º40' w, type locality); 4. puesto de lima (32º54' s, 69º01' w) and 5. llancanelo natural reserve (35º38'  s, 69º11' w). phytogeography  follows cabrera  (1976). b: map of nw argentina,  recording  localities  for a. spegazzinii: star  (type locality); circles (modern); triangles (fossil samples). methods the agua de la mula site is a basaltic cave. excavations directed by dr. humberto lagiglia were done by the staff of museo de historia natural de san rafael in 1987 in 10 levels of 10 cm each. 1026 small mammal bones and bone fragments were recovered from levels 4, 5, 6, 7, 9, and 10, as were other organic materials such as remains of domestic plants (zea mays and cucurbita sp.) (lp-563, charcoal sample, level 10, 1610 ± 60; lp-620, charcoal sample, level 10, 1260 ± 60; lp-973, charcoal sample, level 5, 1000 ± 50 c14 yr b.p.). two cranial specimens of a. oenos (a juvenile and an adult individual) were identified from levels 5 and 6.1 morphological description and craniodental measurements of a. oenos (taken with a digital caliper to the nearest 0.01 mm) were made following criteria reported by myers (1989). these data were compared with those provided by braun et al. (2000) and with those from a sample of ten specimens of a. iniscatus mucus from the neuquén province.2 un-fortunately, measurements from the juvenile specimen of a. oenos from the site could not be taken due to its fragmentary condition. paleoenvironmental analysis using small mammal remains is based on modern ecological requirements and biogeographic distributions for various taxa represented in the agua de la mula fauna. for comparative purposes an additional study was done on the area's modern small mammals. a sample of 22 pellets of black-chested buzzard-eagle (geranoaetus melanoleucus, accipitridae) and trapping data were analyzed, identifying 28 individual micromammals. the modern small mammal assemblage the modern fauna is made up primarily of sigmodontine rodents, with graomys griseoflavus (mni% 17.9), and eligmodontia sp. (mni% 10.7) well represented, followed by low frequencies of phyllotis xanthopygus (mni% 7.1), calomys musculinus (mni% ethnobiology letters                                                                                               research communication      54   figure 2. dorsal, ventral and lateral views of cranium  of akodon oenos (mhnsr 15.002). scale: 5 mm. 7.1), and akodon molinae (mni% 3.6). a single hystricognath rodent galea leucoblephara (mni% 28.6) was recorded, and one chiropteran tadarida brasiliensis (mni% 3.6), and one marsupial marmosine thylamys pallidior (mni% 3.6). the modern small mammal assemblage also contained one exotic lagomorph (mni% 7.1). small mammals at agua de la mula a sample of 1026 cranial remains was analyzed, and represents an mni of 491. in this assemblage, hystricognath rodents dominate, ctenomys sp. (mni% 41.9), microcavia australis (mni% 7.7), and g. leucoblephara (mni% 5.3), followed by remains of sigmodontine rodents, p. xanthopygus (mni% 16.1), g. griseoflavus (mni% 14.1), eligmodontia sp. (mni% 3.1), a. molinae (mni% 2.2), reithrodon auritus (mni% 1), c. musculinus (mni% 0.4), and a. oenos (mni% 0.4). a single chiropteran t. brasiliensis (mni% 0.4) was recorded, as were two marsupial marmosines t. pallidior (mni% 6.3), and lestodelphys halli (mni% 1). the adult specimen of a. oenos is represented by a fragmented cranium that is missing the braincase (figure 2). it is medium in size compared to other individuals in the genus with a relatively short and wide rostrum. the interorbital region is narrow and hourglass shaped with frontals that are rounded in the dorsolateral margins. the frontoparietal suture is crescent-shaped. the zygomatic notches are moderately wide and deep. the zygomatic plate is relatively broad, and its anterior margin is straight. the zygomatic arches are slender, the palatal bridge is short and narrow, and the incisive foramina extend posteriorly to the protocone of m1. the posterior palatal foramina are sligthly enlarged and are located at level of the m2; there is also a second pair of small posteropalatal pits situated at the level of m3. the mesopterygoid fossa is narrow, with an anterior border tending towards a lyre shape. upper incisors are orthodont, and toothrows are parallel. molars are relatively hipsodont and robust, with the major cups about equal in size. this description agrees with that provided by braun et al. (2000) for a. oenos and differs from other species in akodon that inhabit the region, such as a. molinae and a. iniscatus. akodon molinae is distinguished by its comparatively wide interorbital region, square frontals, and parallel dorsolateral margins. the zygomatic plate of a. molinae is wide with slightly convex edges that are oriented obliquely backwards and down; the palatal bridge is long and wide. akodon iniscatus is characterized by a long and wide palatal bridge, a narrow zygomatic plate, extension of the incisive foramina posteriorly to the hipocone of m1, a moderately narrow mesopterygoid fossa, a slightly mshaped anterior border, opistodont upper incisors, and slender molars. in terms of biometry, the specimen from agua de la mula falls within the range of a. oenos described by braun et al. (2000) (table 1). discussion the taxonomic status of a. oenos is currently being assessed. the species was described by braun et al. (2000) based on individuals labeled by contreras and rosi as “akodon minoprioi,” and as that original study was not formally published a. minoprioi, it became a nomen nudum (galliari et al. 1996). recent research conducted by pardiñas et al. (2011) based on extensive morphologic and molecular data suggests that a. oenos is a junior synonym of a. spegazzinii and that it belongs to the a. boliviensis species group of akodon. the geographic distribution of a. spegazzinii extends to la rioja, catamarca, tucumán, and salta provinces, with the type locality in lower cachi, central salta (25º07'11.93''s, 66º09'47''w, 2341 m above sea level, ethnobiology letters                                                                                               research communication      55 table 1. descriptive statistics of craniodental measurements (in mm) of the agua de la mula adult specimen of  akodon oenos, the a. oenos holotype, and individuals of a. molinae and a. iniscatus nucus.     mhnsr  a. oenos holotype  a. oenos  a. molinae  a. iniscatus nucus    15.002  iadiza‐cm611*  mean*  mean*  mean  diastema length  6.4  6.9  6.7 ± 0.35  6.9 ± 0.47  6.5 ± 0.29  palatal bridge  3.2  3.6  3.3 ± 0.20  4.0 ± 0.31  2.6 ± 0.21  maxillary toothrow length  5.0  4.9  4.8 ± 0.19  4.8 ± 0.04  4.6 ± 0.24  incisive foramina length  5.9  5.3  5.8 ± 0.37  5.7 ± 0.15  6.3 ± 0.21  zygomatic plate breadth  2.6  2.5  2.8 ± 0.20  3.1 ± 0.19  2.9 ± 0.16  mid rostral width  4.1  3.9  4.0 ± 0.15  4.2 ± 0.23  4.2 ± 0.20  interorbital constriction  4.6  4.6  4.6 ± 0.15  4.7 ± 0.16  4.5 ± 0.15  * data from braun et al. (2000: 219).  figure 1b). if this taxonomic designation is correct, a. spegazzinii extends its geographic distribution and ecological domain from salta province to southern mendoza, ranging from 400 to about 3500 m above sea level, inhabiting arid environments of the patagonian steppe, the monte desert, the puna, and the high andes, as well as the yungas forests, and the semi-arid forests at the ecotone of yungas-chaco (see jayat 2009; jayat et al. 2010). in addition, many fossil remains identified as a. spegazzinii have been recovered from two paleontological sites in northwestern argentina, located in deposits dating to the middle-upper pleistocene (26º56' s, 65°42' w, la angostura, tucumán province [ortiz and pardiñas 2001]) and to the pleistocene-holocene boundary (26º51' s, 65º43' w, tafi del valle, tucumán province [ortiz and jayat 2007]). the presence of pellets preserved in stratigraphy and light digestive corrosion on some teeth and postcraneal bones recovered from agua de la mula site, indicate that the main accumulator agent was probably an owl (fernández et al. 2008). small mammals collected by owl are considered good indicators of environmental conditions (andrews 1995). the modern association of small mammals from agua de la mula shows a clear predominance of species characteristic of the monte desert and the south american arid diagonal (g. leucoblephara, g. griseoflavus, c. musculinus, a. molinae, and t. pallidior), with the addition of two general andean patagonian taxa (p. xanthopygus and eligmodontia sp.). also, the occurrence of p. xanthopygus suggests a landscape dominated by open rocky areas. remains of a. oenos from agua de la mula were recovered together with those of small mammal species that inhabit the area today (a. molinae, g. griseoflavus, p. xanthopygus, c. musculinus, g. leucoblephara and t. pallidior). it is interesting to note the presence at this site of l. halli, an endemic marsupial of the patagonian steppe that is rare in the monte desert of mendoza today (chacras de coria, 32º45' s, 69º00' w; huayquerías del oeste, 33º38' s, 68º26' w; 50 km n san rafael, 34º15' s, 68º40' w). modern populations of l. halli are considered relicts of those that were more widely distributed earlier in the holocene. in addition, the occurrence of r. auritus suggests the development of open, herbaceous steppe environments associated with bodies of water. the presence of both species at agua de la mula indicates wetter and colder conditions in the past, which may have been the result of westerlies generated by the pacific anticyclonic center (causing winter rainfall) during the late holocene. palynological studies on materials from an archaeological site in the western plains of mendoza (gruta del indio, 34º45' s, 68º22' w), 70 km north of agua de la mula, reveal that the establishment of modern climatic conditions occured at roughly 3000 yr b.p. (d’antoni 1983). however, d’antoni (1983: 97) observed a significant change in the pollen sequence between 1600 and 1200 yr b.p. when the patagonian steppe vegetation increased (e.g., poaceae, cyperaceae, and adesmia) and monte vegetation decreased (e.g., larrea). d’antoni suggested that change may have resulted from selective wood exploitation by humans that inhabited this area. however, no evidence of wood exploitation in agua de la mula was found, and based on the small mammals analysis presented here, i propose that near agua de la mula between 1600 and 1000 years b.p. temperature decreased and winter precipitation increased, which produced an advance of patagonian steppe and its associated fauna, developing ethnobiology letters                                                                                               research communication      56 into a transitional mosaic of patagonian steppe and monte desert. available zooarchaeological and modern data indicate that a. oenos are absent from mendoza’s high andean environments.3 however, the fossil akodontine remains from agua de la mula represent an extralimital record in the palaeoenvironmental mosaic of the patagonian-monte during the late holocene (figure 1a). this species may currently be present in such environments and may be common in the unexplored volcanic payunia region, which may be of interest to conservation scientists. more comprehensive understanding of climatic change during the late holocene in the region is important for the study of the late human occupation of ecologically marginal environments, such as the payunia. less dry and cooler environmental conditions observed at agua de la mula between 1600 and 1000 years b.p. probably favored human ocupation in all environments of payunia (i.e., effective human occupation, sensu borrero 1994-1995). humanenvironment interactions have been discussed in archaeological literature from mendoza (e.g., gil 2006; neme 2007). available evidence suggests that economic intensification and effective occupation of andean environments took place at 2000 yr b.p. (neme 2007). this intensification process has been interpreted as the consequence of an imbalance between environmental carrying capacity and human population growth. over-exploitation of the environment reduced the availability of highly-ranked resources (e.g., lama guanicoe, rhea americana, pterocnemia pennata), and drove subsistence towards the inclusion of foods with lower caloric returns and higher processing costs such as some plants and small mammals (gil 2006; neme 2007). however, increased human occupation and economic intensification in the volcanic payunia region occurred subsequently (about 1000 yr b.p) and may relate to climate amelioration indicated by evidence presented here. in summary, small mammals remains from the agua de la mula site in southern mendoza strengthen understanding of the biogeography and ecology of a. oenos. the presence of this species in deposits that date to the late holocene just prior to human the occupation of the payunia during a period in which climate amelioration occurred provides insights into the conditions that promoted human occupation of the region and into the conservation biology of the species today. acknowledgements i thank ulyses pardiñas, cesar garcía-esponda, gustavo neme, pablo teta, and steve wolverton for editorial comments and discussion. gustavo neme and adolfo gil provided access to the agua de la mula collection through the museo de historia natural de san rafael. cesar garcía esponda, gonzalo martinez and fernando ballejo assisted with preparation of the images. germán moreira, fernando ballejo, and luciano de santis provided assistance in the field and lab. three anonymous reviewers provided constructive comments. references cited abraham, e., h. del valle, f. roig, l. torres, j. ares, f. coronato, and r. godagnone. 2009. overview of geography of the monte desert biome (argentina). journal of arid environments 73:144-153. andrews, p. 1995. mammals as palaeoecological indicators. acta zoológica cracovensia 38:59-72. borrero, l. a. 1994-1995. arqueología de la patagonia. palimpsesto 4:9-56. braun, j. k., m. a. mares and r. a. ojeda. 2000. a new species of grass mouse, genus akodon (muridae: sigmodontinae), from mendoza province, argentina. zeitschrift für säugetierkunde 65:216-225. bruniard, e. 1982. la diagonal árida argentina: un límite climático real. revista geográfica 95:5–20. cabrera, a. l. 1976. regiones fitogeográficas argentinas. enciclopedia argentina de agricultura y jardinería 1:1-85. contreras, j. f. and m. i. rosi. 1980. comportamiento territorial y fidelidad al hábitat en una población de roedores del centro de la provincia de mendoza. ecología argentina 5:17-29. d´antoni, h. 1983. pollen analysis of gruta del indio. quaternary of south america and antartic peninsula 1:83104. fernández, f. j., g. j. moreira, and l. j. m. de santis. 2008. análisis preliminar del ensamble de micromamíferos del sitio arqueológico “agua de la mula” (mendoza, argentina). paper presented at the first congreso nacional de zooarqueología argentina, malargüe, mendoza. galliari, c. a., u. f. j. pardiñas, and f. j. goin. 1996. lista comentada de los mamíferos argentinos. mastozoología neotropical 3:39-61. ethnobiology letters                                                                                               research communication      57 gil, a. f. 2006. arqueología de la payunia (mendoza, argentina). el poblamiento humano en los márgenes de la agricultura. bar internacional series 1591, oxford. jayat, j. p. 2009. roedores sigmodontinos de los pastizales de neblina de las yungas de argentina. ph.d. dissertation (paleontology). universidad nacional de tucumán, tucumán. jayat, j. p., p. e. ortiz, j. salazar-bravo, u. f. j. pardiñas, and g. d’elía. 2010. the akodon boliviensis species group (rodentia: cricetidae: sigmodontinae) in argentina: species limits and distribution, with the description of a new entity. zootaxa 2409:1-61. myers, p. 1989. a preliminary revision of the varius group of akodon (a. dayi, dolores, molinae, neocenus, simulator, toba and varius). in advances in neotropical mammalogy, eds. k. h. redford and j. f. eisenberg, pp. 5-54. sandhill crane press, florida. neme, g. 2007. cazadores recolectores de altura en los andes meridionales. bar series 1591, oxford. ortiz, p. e. and u. f. j. pardiñas. 2001. sigmodontinos (mammalia, rodentia) del pleistoceno tardío del valle de tafí (tucumán, argentina): taxonomía, tafonomía y reconstrucción paleoambiental. ameghiniana 38:3-26. ortiz, p. e. and p. jayat. 2007. sigmodontinos (rodentia: cricetidae) del límite pleistoceno-holoceno en el valle del tafí (tucumán, argentina): taxonomía, tafonomía y significación paleoambiental. ameghiniana 44:641-660. pardiñas, u. f. j., p. teta, g. d’elía, and g. b. diaz. 2011. taxonomic status of akodon oenos (rodentia, sigmodontinae), an obscure species from west central argentina. zootaxa 2749:47-61. biosketch fernando fernández  is a professor of zooarchaeology on  the facultad de ciencias naturales y museo  (unlp)  in la  plata,  argentina.  he  is  an  advanced  doctoral  student  funded  by  conicet  at  the  same  university  and  has  produced  more  than  30  publications  and  conference  presentations  on  taphonomy,  zooarchaeology,  and  zoogeography of microvertebrates.                                                                 1 the remains were accessioned to the archaeological collection of museo de historia natural de san rafael                                                                                                    as mhnsr 15.002 (adult specimen) and mhnsr 15.003 (juvenile specimen).  2 the modern specimens of akodon iniscatus nucus are housed in the colección de egagrópilas y afines “elio massoia” of the centro nacional patagónico (puerto madryn, chubut, argentina) under the number cnp-e 88 (owl pellet sample).  3 fernández, f. j. microvertebrados del holoceno de sitios arqueológicos en el sur de mendoza (república argentina): aspectos tafonómicos y sus implicancias en la subsistencia humana. ph.d. dissertation (in preparation). facultad de ciencias naturales y museo, universidad nacional de la plata, la plata.  evaluation of desiccated and deformed diaspores from natural building materials ethnobiology letters. 2015. 6(1):10‐24. doi: 10.14237/ebl.6.1.2015.229. 10 research communication from archaeological sites is even more complicated and often misleading (pearsall 2000). although there are many special seed atlases and reference books available for the identification of recent diaspores (e.g. bojňanský and fargašová 2007; cappers et al. 2006; delcourt et al. 1979; liu et al. 2008), their use does not ensure successful identification of archaeologically excavated diaspores. pearsall (2000) suggested that only a limited number of characteristics can be used to identify seeds recovered in flotation or fine-sieve samples because taphonomic processes can change them appreciably. archaeological diaspores often differ in color, shape, and size compared to recent seeds. moreover, chemical or biochemical processes can also change the appearance of excavated diaspores (gyulai 2001; hillman et al. 1993). many studies in the last few decades have dealt with the identification of charred seeds and fruits, which constitute the most studied types of archaeobotanical remains (see e.g. goette et al. 1994; pearsall introduction plant remains from archaeological excavations offer direct evidence of species presence and imply direct interrelationships between humans and plants in the past (ford 1979; gyulai 2001; paušič et al. 2010). plant remains can reflect many aspects of past societies from past land-use practices, to diet, architecture and trade, as well as information about the natural environment (mcgovern et al. 1995; miller 1989). as a result, the reconstruction of historical flora requires the correct identification of archaeobotanical remains (cappers and neef 2012; pearsall 2000). accurate identification depends mainly on the quality of the botanical material recovered from excavations as well as the quality of the analysis and interpretation of such remains (antolín 2012; csontos 2001; van der veen 2007). the accurate identification of diaspores from modern seed banks is often difficult (conn 1984; gross 1990); the identification of seeds and fruits evaluation of desiccated and deformed diaspores from natural building materials tamás henn1* and róbert w. pál1,2 author addresses: 1department of ecology, institute of biology, faculty of sciences, university of pécs, ifjúság u. 6., h-7624, pécs, hungary. 2division of biological sciences and the institute on ecosystems, university of montana, missoula 59812, montana, usa. *corresponding author: henn.tomi@gmail.com received: july 15, 2014 volume: 6(1):10-24 published: march 27, 2015 © 2015 society of ethnobiology abstract: with the increasing sophistication of paleoethnobotanical methods, it is now possible to reconstruct new aspects of the day-to-day life of past peoples, and, ultimately, gain information about their cultivated plants, land-use practices, architecture, diet, and trade. reliable identification of plant remains, however, remains essential to the study of paleoethnobotany, and there is still much to learn about precise identification. this paper describes and evaluates the most frequent types of deformed desiccated diaspores revealed from adobe bricks used in buildings in southwestern hungary that were built primarily between 1850 and 1950. a total of 24,634 diaspores were recovered from 333.05 kg adobe samples. these seeds and fruits belong to 303 taxa, and the majority were arable and ruderal weed species. a total of 98.97% of the diaspores were identified to species. in other cases, identification was possible only to genus or family (0.93% and 0.10% of diaspores, respectively). difficulties in identification were caused mainly by morphological changes in the size, shape, color, and surface features of diaspores. most diaspores were darker in color and significantly smaller than fresh or recently desiccated seeds and fruits. surface features were often absent or fragmented. the most problematic seeds to identify were those of centaurea cyanus, consolida regalis, scleranthus annuus and daucus carota ssp. carota, which are discussed in detail. our research aids archaeobotanists in the identification of desiccated and deformed diaspores. keywords: archaeobotany, desiccated seeds, deformity, seed identification, thousand seed weight supplementary files available at ojs.ethnobiology.org/index.php/ebl. ethnobiology letters. 2015. 6(1):10‐24. doi: 10.14237/ebl.6.1.2015.229. 11 research communication 2000; renfrew 1973; stewart and robertson 1971; van der veen 2007). moreover, detailed overviews on the properties of waterlogged and desiccated diaspores have been published recently (e.g. cappers and neef 2012; hosch and zibulski 2003; jacomet 2013; matthews 2010; pearsall 2000; van der veen 2007; vandorpe and jacomet 2007). several papers on desiccated plant material discuss difficulties of identification related to diaspore deformation, but, problematically, most do not provide detailed descriptions of deformation morphology. although the richest sources of desiccated plant remains from the last few centuries come from natural building materials, with added straw and chaff (zohary et al. 2012), palaeoethnobotanical analysis of these materials in europe is uncommon (ernst and jacomet 2005). many studies demonstrate that old buildings and building materials such as adobe and mud bricks (hendry 1931; hendry and bellue 1936; hendry and kelly 1925; o’rourke 1983; paušič et al. 2010), daub (carruthers 1991), filling material for floor cavities (ernst and jacomet 2005; fischer and rösch 1999; lohmann 1987), roofing materials (de moulins 2007; willerding 1996), and other materials (dickson 1996; latałowa et al. 2003) are rich sources of desiccated plant microand macro-remains, especially seeds and fruits. despite good preservation, difficulties in identification of desiccated diaspores has not been addressed (day 2013; hendry and bellue 1936). in our previous research (henn et al. in press), a large number of, poorly preserved, desiccated diaspores were recovered and evaluated from 60-160 year old adobe bricks from southwestern hungary. in this study we discuss the preservation status of recovered desiccated seeds and fruits, particularly focusing on deformation. the present study summarizes common morphological changes of desiccated diaspores and provides details for improved identification methods. materials and methods collecting and processing of adobe samples figure 1. ruinous cob cottage in rózsafa (2012) with adobe bricks. ethnobiology letters. 2015. 6(1):10‐24. doi: 10.14237/ebl.6.1.2015.229. 12 research communication ta b le 1 . l is t o f e xc av at e d t ax a w it h a lt e re d s e e d c o at c o lo r. ta xa fr e sh s e e d s an d f ru it s d e si cc at e d s e e d s an d f ru it s c o lo r sh in in e ss p att e rn c h an ge d c o lo r sh in in e ss p att e rn c a m el in a m ic ro ca rp a a n d rz . e x d c . re d d is h -b ro w n d ar k b ro w n c a p se lla b u rs a -p a st o ri s (l .) m ed ik . ye llo w t o o ra n ge s  d ar k re d d is h -b ro w n o r b ro w n c a rd a ri a d ra b a ( l. ) d es v. ye llo w is h -b ro w n o r re d d is h b ro w n d ar k b ro w n t o b la ck -b ro w n c er a sti u m a rv en se l . re d d is h -b ro w n d ar k b ro w n c er a sti u m d u b iu m ( b a st a rd ) g u ép in lig h t ye llo w is h -b ro w n s  d ar k b ro w n er ys im u m o d o ra tu m e h rh . ru st yb ro w n  d ar k b ro w n fa llo p ia c o n vo lv u lu s (l .) a . l ö ve b la ck lig h t b ro w n la th yr u s n is so lia l . gr ey is h t o b ro w n  d ar k b ro w n m ar b le d d ar k re d d is h -b ro w n t o b la ck la th yr u s p ra te n si s l. ye llo w is h -b ro w n t o r ed -b ro w n  d ar k m ar b le d d ar k re d d is h -b ro w n t o b la ck m ed ic a g o f a lc a ta l . b ro w n d ar k b ro w n o r d ar k vi o le tgr ey m ed ic a g o lu p u lin a l . ye llo w , y el lo w is h -g re e n s  / d ar k vi o le tgr ay o r gr ay m ed ic a g o m in im a ( l. ) l. ye llo w t o s an d yye llo w s  / d ar k b ro w n m ic ro rr h in u m m in u s (l .) f o u rr . b la ck is h -b ro w n lig h t gr ey o r w h iti sh m yo so ti s a rv en si s (l .) h ill d ar k b ro w n t o b la ck  lig h t gr ey o r lig h t b ro w n r u m ex c ri sp u s l. d ar k re d d is h -b ro w n  sa n d yb ro w n t o li gh t b ro w n s  r u m ex p a ti en ti a l . re d -b ro w n  sa n d yb ro w n s  st el la ri a g ra m in ea l . b ro w n , p ap ill ae g re yi sh d ar k b ro w n st el la ri a m ed ia ( l. ) v ill . gr ey is h -b ro w n t o r ed d is h -b ro w n d ar k b ro w n t o b la ck -v io le t tr if o liu m a rv en se l . gr ee n is h -y el lo w o r lig h t gr ee n s  / b ro w n tr if o liu m p ra te n se l . ye llo w is h -g re en o r sa n d yb ro w n u p t o v io le t s  / d ar k vi o le tb ro w n o r b ro w n tr if o liu m r ep en s l. ye llo w t o y el lo w is h -b ro w n s  d ar k b ro w n v er b en a o ffi ci n a lis l . d o rs al s id e re d d is h -b ro w n , v en tr al s id e w h iti sh s  d ar k b ro w n t o b la ck -b ro w n v er o n ic a a rv en si s l. ye llo w is h t o o ra n ge re d d is h -b ro w n v er o n ic a h ed er if o lia l . lig h t re d d is h -b ro w n d ar k b ro w n t o b la ck -b ro w n v er o n ic a p er si ca p o ir . ye llo w is h t o p al e -b ro w n d ar k b ro w n v er o n ic a p o lit a f r. p al e -y el lo w is h re d d is h -b ro w n v ic ia a n g u sti fo lia l . gr ey is h o r b ro w n d ar k an d li gh t sp o tt ed o r m ar b le d d ar k vi o le tb ro w n t o b la ck -b ro w n v ic ia c ra cc a l . gr ey is h -g re en t o o liv e, w it h d ar k b lo tc h e d o r m ar b le d d ar k vi o le tb ro w n v ic ia h ir su ta ( l. ) g ra y lig h t gr ey is h -g re en o r ye llo w is h gr ee n sp o tt ed t o m o tt le d d ar k vi o le tb ro w n t o b la ck -b ro w n v ic ia lu te a l . gr ey o r o liv e -b ro w n d ar k sp o tt ed t o m ar b le d d ar k vi o le tb ro w n o r b ro w n v ic ia p a n n o n ic a c ra n tz ye llo w is -g re y to b ro w n is h -g re y sp o tt ed t o m o tt le d d ar k gr ey is h -b ro w n v ic ia t et ra sp er m a ( l. ) sc h re b . o liv egr ee n t o n u tb ro w n d en se d ar k sp o tt ed d ar k b ro w n n o te : s  s lig h h tl y sh in y,  s h in y ethnobiology letters. 2015. 6(1):10‐24. doi: 10.14237/ebl.6.1.2015.229. 13 research communication in total, 60 adobe brick samples (330.05 kg) were collected from 29 settlements from old untenanted and/or ruinous cob cottages (figure 1) in southwestern hungary (see supplementary table 1). most of the bricks were constructed between 1850 and 1950. in some cases, the year of building construction was known (e.g., signed on the pediments), but in other cases construction could only be dated to the decade based on information from the owners or neighbors. adobe bricks were typically made of local building materials near construction sites (büki 2003; juhász 1991). preserved plant remains in bricks are representative of local anthropogenic flora, including plants cultivated in surrounding arable fields, vineyards, and home gardens. to recover plant remains, the bricks were crushed using a simple hammer and a ceramic mortar. our preliminary investigation (henn et al. in press) shows that desiccated plant macro-remains are resistant to crushing and other mechanical impacts, as fragmentation of desiccated diaspores was insignificant during recovery. refuse (figure 2) was sifted over sieves of 2.0, 1.0 and 0.5 mm mesh size to remove most of the loam. after dry-sieving, extraction by flotation (malone 1967) was used to separate the organic plant material (chaff, straw, fruits, seeds, etc.) from the inorganic components of adobe. common salt (sodium chloride, nacl) solution with 1.1261 g cm-3 specific gravity was used as flotation medium (gonzalez and ghermandi 2012; henn et al. in press). the supernatant was processed using a 0.25 mm sieve after sedimentation, which was then rinsed under tap water and air-dried. our previous investigation also showed that diaspores of all preserved taxa were present in the supernatant (henn et al. in press). the recovered and desiccated plant material consisted mainly of chaff and straw (figure 3), which are typical constituents of adobe, but also contained fruits and seeds of cultivated and wild plants. separation, identification and analysis of the recovered diaspores the final step in analysis was hand-sorting of the figure 2. crushed adobe brick sample. ethnobiology letters. 2015. 6(1):10‐24. doi: 10.14237/ebl.6.1.2015.229. 14 research communication diaspores under a binocular stereomicroscope (leica zoom 2000 – model no. z45v). the seeds and fruits were identified using special seed atlases and reference books (bojňanský and fargašová 2007; hunyadi et al. 2000; király et al. 2011; radics 1998; schermann 1967) and also an extensive reference collection of seeds and fruits from synanthropic plant species of the region. the difficulties of identification (changes in color, shape, surface structures, size, etc.) were described and also illustrated in some cases. thousand-seed weights (tsw) of 13 species were measured on laboratory analytical scales and compared to literature data to determine changes in seed size (radics 1998; schermann 1967). statistical analyses were carried out using past software (hammer et al. 2001). the shapiro-wilk test was performed to assess whether or not the data were normally distributed. because the data were not normally distributed, the wilcoxon signed-rank test was then used for comparison of thousand-seed weights. the nomenclature of plant species follows király (2009). results evaluation of recovered diaspores our results indicate that natural building materials in hungary contain a large amount of plant remains. a total of 24,634 desiccated diaspores were recovered from 333.05 kg of adobe samples, which belonged to 303 taxa. cereal crop remains (mostly chaff and straw) are dominant in the recovered plant material; seeds of domesticated and other cultivated plants account for 4.73% of the diaspores. a total of 15 cultivated table 2. list of excavated taxa with degraded seed surface features. taxa deformed/abraded structure degradation bidens tripartita l. spines partly/completely caucalis platycarpos l. spines partly centaurea cyanus l. crest/fruit coat partly/completely centaurea stoebe ssp. micranthos (gugler) hayek crest completely chelidonium majus l. ventral aril completely consolida regalis gray ving-list lobates/seed coat partly/completely crepis biennis l. crest completely crepis rhoeadifolia m. bieb. crest completely crepis tectorum l. crest completely daucus carota ssp. carota l. spines/spiny ridges partly/completely hieracium pilosella l. crest partly lactuca saligna l. crest partly/completely lactuca serriola l. crest completely lappula squarrosa (retz.) dumort. prickles partly leontodon autumnalis l. crest completely pastinaca sativa l. verge partly ranunculus arvensis l. spines partly scleranthus annuus l. perianth/sepals partly/completely scorzonera sp. l. crest completely sonchus arvensis l. crest completely sonchus asper (l.) hill crest completely sonchus oleraceus l. crest completely taraxacum officinale weber crest partly/completely tilia sp. l. wing completely tordylium maximum l. verge/strerchers partly torilis arvensis (huds.) link spines/seed coat partly/completely tragopogon orientalis l. crest completely turgenia latifolia (l.) hoffm. spines partly xanthium spinosum l. spines/thornes partly xanthium strumarium l. spines/thornes partly ethnobiology letters. 2015. 6(1):10‐24. doi: 10.14237/ebl.6.1.2015.229. 15 research communication species were identified. the proportion of triticum aestivum l. seeds is the highest, but numerous seeds of avena sativa l., brassica ´ napus ssp. napus l., papaver somniferum l. and vitis vinifera l. were also identified. interestingly, stones of some fruit-trees, e.g. amygdalus communis l., juglans regia l., persica vulgaris mill. and prunus domestica l. were also found in the studied samples. in addition, 95.27% of the recovered diaspores are from wild plants, most are weed species associated with arable (secalietea), ruderal (chenopodietea), and roadside (artemisietea) vegetation. within the arable species, there are many cereal weeds (e.g. agrostemma githago l., bromus secalinus l., centaurea cyanus l., papaver rhoeas l., ranunculus arvensis l.) and also stubble weeds (e.g. ajuga chamaeptys (l.) schreb, consolida regalis gray, euphorbia falcata l., kickxia spuria (l.) dumort., stachys annua l.). a large number of noxious ruderal and roadside weed species (e.g. amaranthus l. spp., chenopodium l. spp., rumex l. spp., sambucus ebulus l., verbena officinalis l.) were also recovered. in addition to the dominant weed species, several grassland, wetland, and woodland species have also been recovered from the adobe bricks. for the entire list of identified taxa see supplementary table 1. preservation and deformation of excavated diaspores the preservation condition of desiccated diaspores from our adobe samples is excellent. a total of 98.97% of the excavated fruits and seeds could be identified to the species level. however, in some other cases the identification was possible only to genus (0.93% of diaspores) or family level (0.10% of diaspores) because morphological changes of desiccated diaspores were significant, as was fragmentation of seeds and fruits (figure 4a). in several cases, the seed coat (the most important characteristic in the identification process) was lost or badly eroded, and proper identification became extremely difficult or impossible. although diaspores tended to be well preserved in this study, there is important taphonomic information related to the small proportion of poorly figure 3. desiccated plant material from sample ab05 (olasz). ethnobiology letters. 2015. 6(1):10‐24. doi: 10.14237/ebl.6.1.2015.229. 16 research communication preserved diaspores. in the following sections, we discuss the most significant changes of desiccated diaspores recovered from adobe bricks. changes in seed coat color many of the excavated diaspores differ in color from the recent material. most of these diaspores absorbed a notably darker brown, reddish-brown, or black color (table 1). in our findings, brassicaceae, caryophyllaceae, and scrophulariaceae species were the most dominant (figure 4b and c). also, seeds of some fabaceae species, especially lathyrus l. and vicia l. taxa (e.g. vicia hirsuta (l.) gray, figure 4d), became not only darker, but their characteristic spots and marbled patterns completely disappeared from the surfaces of seed coats. in contrast, we also found many diaspores that became a lighter brown or grey (e.g. fallopia convolvulus (l.) a. löve, microrrhinum minus (l.) fourr., myosotis arvensis (l.) hill and some rumex l. species). in addition, lustrous and glossy seed coats generally became dull. changes in the shape of diaspores our research indicates that desiccated diaspores from building materials often become degraded and that surface features are often abraded. this phenomenon hampers the correct identification of many diaspores recovered from adobes, e.g. caucalis platycarpos l., chelidonium majus l. (figure 4e), consolida regalis gray, daucus carota l., lactuca l. spp., lappula squarrosa (retz.) dumort., ranunculus arvensis l. (figure 4f), sonchus l. spp., turgenia latifolia (l.) hoffm. (figure 4g), xanthium l. spp. and other asteraceae species (see table 2). biological and/or chemical degradation of diaspores was also observed in some cases if the adobe sample got wet before recovery. in our samples, only a few diaspores (e.g. amaranthus retroflexus l. and chenopodium album l.) were affected. also, many ‘hollow’ grains were found in the samples, from which the endosperm had disappeared but in which the hulls maintained their original seed shapes or became plastic. such diaspores (e.g. c. album, f. convolvulus and t. aestivum) are usually extremely fragile. changes in the size of diaspores although tsw is characteristic for species, seed weights could not be used to identify seeds because of the significant weight changes of desiccated diaspores. we compared the seed size of 13 recovered species to recent material. our data show a significant decrease in size (wilcoxon signed-rank test; t = 3.108, df = 12, p = 0.00037) of the recovered seeds from expected (recent) values (table 3). use of seed weight for identification is also problematic if there are many ‘hollow’ grains within the recovered diaspores of examined taxa as this changes tsw dramatically (e.g. taxa thousand seed weight (g) relative shrinkage (%) radics (1998) schermann (1967) adobe bricks amaranthus retroflexus l. 0.3-0.5 0.3-0.5 0.118-0.185a 61.85 anagallis arvensis l. 0.4-0.8 0.4-0.7 0.178-0.229b 62.49 apera spica-venti (l.) p. beauv. 0.12 0.12-0.17 0.079-0.090a 40.61 centaurea cyanus l. 2.8-3.8 2.8-3.8 1.700c 47.27 chenopodium album l. 0.8-1.8 0.8-1.0 0.318-0.494a 62.48 cirsium arvense (l.) scop. 2.0 1.1-1.3 0.247-0.385b 77.11 datura stramonium l. 5.5-8.2 5.5-8.2 3.592c 45.45 geranium molle l. 1.15 1.15 0.207-0.223b 81.31 papaver rhoeas l. 0.09-0.15 0.08-0.1 0.077-0.084a 21.11 polygonum aviculare l. 2.7 0.7-2.7 0.819-1.102b 42.19 stachys annua l. 0.8-1.2 0.8-1.2 0.612c 36.25 verbena officinalis l. 0.3-0.38 0.3-0.38 0.276c 19.18 vicia hirsuta (l.) gray 4.0-6.5 4.1-6.2 2.148-3.122a 48.80 table 3. changes in the size of desiccated diaspores comparison of thousand-seed weight (tsw) of some excavated species to literature sources. a3 x 100 seeds weighed b2 x 100 seeds weighed c100 seeds weighed ethnobiology letters. 2015. 6(1):10‐24. doi: 10.14237/ebl.6.1.2015.229. 17 research communication chenopodium album l., cirsium arvense (l.) scop.). other difficulties of identification the correct identification of desiccated diaspores can also be influenced by several other factors. we found many similar diaspores of papaver l., potentilla l., silene l. and some asteraceae and poaceae species (e.g. poa annua/p. trivialis) that were difficult to identify. we also experienced difficulty in the case of poaceae species, as many of these diaspores (e.g. figure 4h) were morphologically similar to other plant remains (e.g. chaff, stem and leaf fragments). deformation of seeds and fruits can be problematic during identification, and neither reference books nor reference collections can solve these problems. for that reason, we emphasize the diapsores of four species below that were exceptionally difficult to identify because we encountered intact and eroded diaspores that were diverse in terms of diagnostic characteristics. eroded diaspores could not be identified unless partially eroded forms were recovered. these partially eroded forms served as a midpoint reference in the continuum of erosion, and greatly aided in the correct identification of completely eroded diaspores. new criteria for identification for each of the species is described in detail below; photos that are referred to for each species are presented in appendix 1. 1. centaurea cyanus l. (cornflower) characteristic achenes of cornflower (photo 1a) were always recognizable in the desiccated plant material. on the other hand, highly eroded seeds (photo 1b) were also encountered that completely differed from the crested achenes of cornflower (photo 2). based on our observation, the eroded seed is cylindrical, but a bit stocky, 2.5-3.0 ´ 1.2-1.5 mm. the base is lengthened, 0.5-1.0 mm, and other features and the outer seed coat are totally absent. the surface is smooth, light brown to dark brown or dark purple-brown and dull. 2. consolida regalis gray (forking larkspur) like the achenes of cornflower, seeds of forking larkspur (photo 3a) are also recognizable. however, we also found some eroded seeds (photo 3b) from which the characteristic wing-like flakes and the outer seed coat were totally abraded. the eroded seed is ovate, obovate, or almost roundish, 1.4-1.8 ´ 1.0-1.2 mm. the hilum forms a small pinnacle on the base, while the apex is almost rounded with an expressed annulus. the surface is smooth, yellow to brown, and dull. figure 4. deformed diaspores: fragmented achene of caucalis platycarpos (a), discolored seeds of capsella bursa-pastoris (b), veronica hederifolia (c) and vicia hirsuta (d), abraded diaspores of chelidonium majus (e), ranunculus arvensis (f) and turgenia latifolia (g), chaff-like seeds of cynodon dactylon (h). ethnobiology letters. 2015. 6(1):10‐24. doi: 10.14237/ebl.6.1.2015.229. 18 research communication 3. scleranthus annuus l. (annual knawel) undamaged capsules (photo 4a) of annual knawel were not found in our samples. the recovered fruits (photos 4b and 5) are deformed, sepals are parceled (remains of harder main and lateral veins could be found as spikes or stumpy spikes, 2.0-3.5 ´ 1.3-1.5 mm), or are totally abraded (1.4-1.8 ´ 1.3-1.5 mm). the surface is even more waved or ribbed, the neck is more pronounced, and color is yellowish-grey to light brown and dull. 4. daucus carota ssp. carota l. (wild carrot) we did not find undamaged achenes (photo 6a) of wild carrot. the spiny secondary ridges are partially or, in most cases, totally abraded from the dorsal side of achenes. the eroded achene (photo 6b) is ellipsoid, the non-spiny ridges are visible, the lateral spiny ridges are absent, and the medials are reduced to simple ribs, 2.4-3.0 ´ 1.2-1.5 mm. the surface is smooth, brownish-grey or dark brown to black, and dull. discussion the main focus of archaeobotanical research is to study people/plant relationships, including the reconstruction of agricultural strategies, diet, the social and cultural roles of food, the exploitation of wild resources, and the production of fodder (van der veen 2007). ernst and jacomet (2005) and paušič et al. (2010) demonstrated that the analysis of desiccated plant remains from natural building materials can be used to reconstruct contemporary house constructions, plant cultivation methods, crop processing procedures, and other kinds of human activities. however, to obtain accurate reconstructions, it is essential to correctly identify archaeobotanical remains. this overview of the effects of diaspore preservation on identification can be of aid to researchers who study fruits and seeds from archaeological sites and from natural building materials. the archaeobotanical study of plant materials preserved in mud bricks and daub or other building structures is important in arid regions, such as north africa (e.g. marinova et al. 2012; newton 2004; van der veen 1999), but is rare in the temperate region of europe (see e.g. carruthers 1991; ernst and jacomet 2005; paušič et al. 2010). while desiccated north african assemblages originate from a wide range of contexts (pit fills, middens, hearths, dung, wall plaster, mud brick, etc.), those from europe originate from one specific context: cob and adobe buildings of medieval and later dates (van der veen 2007). our examination of adobe bricks from the 19th and early 20th centuries shows that natural building materials contain a large number of plant remains. many different kinds of plant materials (mainly cereal chaff and straw) were used for tempering adobe bricks in hungary. similar to the study of hendry and bellue (1936) and marinova et al. (2012), a wide spectrum of diaspores of domesticated and other cultivated plants were recovered from our adobe samples. beyond cultivated species, a large number of fruits and seeds from wild plants (mostly weed species) were recovered and identified. as jones (1987) concluded, plant remains from archaeobotanical samples can also be products and by-products of crop processing. hendry (1931), hendry and bellue (1936), and juhász (1991) confirmed that remnants from winnowing, threshing, and other crop processing procedures were used for tempering adobe bricks. (c.f., ernst and jacomet 2005, paušič et al. 2010). however, as de moulins (2007) demonstrated, it is difficult to ascertain the origin of the incorporated taxa because of complex taphonomic processes. further, jones (1987) determined, that remains of wild species from archaeological samples can also originate from adobe pits and their surroundings or from courtyards and other anthropogenic and wild environments (carruthers 1991; green 1979; rösch and fischer 1999). identification of archaeological diaspores can be problematic. as martin and barkley (1961) and schermann (1967) determined, the most useful characteristics for recognition of seeds are shape, size, peculiarities of the surface, and coloring; in most cases combinations of these features are required for a correct identification. the seed coat provides many of the most important diagnostic characteristics, including color, texture, attachments, and scars (cappers and neef 2012; pearsall 2000). changes of seed coat color of desiccated diaspores have previously been reported by gyulai (2001), pearsall (2000), and van der veen (2007), but these studies did not list species or taxa. in our investigation, several discolored diaspores were identified; these taxa are listed in table 1 and color changes have been precisely documented. pearsall (2000), van bergen et al. (1997), and van der veen (2007) also found that most of the discolored diaspores became notably darker and dull, and patterns disappeared from surfaces. in contrast, here many diaspores were found that lightened in color (e.g. microrrhinum minus and myosotis arvensis), which has not been described previously. beyond coloring, the ethnobiology letters. 2015. 6(1):10‐24. doi: 10.14237/ebl.6.1.2015.229. 19 research communication shape of diaspores also provides important diagnostic characteristics (e.g. features and peculiarities); the presence or absence of these can also significantly influence identifiability (cappers and bekker 2013; radics 1998; schermann 1967). preservation of desiccated diaspores is usually excellent, thus surface features and growths (hairs, wings, spikes, etc.) and papery tissues (e.g. palea and lemma) are often present (van bergen 1997; van der veen 2007). however, desiccated materials may also be fragile, thus preservation is primarily dependent on burial conditions (cappers and neef 2012; pearsall 2000; van der veen 2007). in addition, pennington and weber (2004) and schermann (1967) suggest that specific traits of plant species may also be important factors in preservation. in our findings, most diaspores affected by degradation have different kinds of surface features (hairs, spikes, wings, etc.) (table 2). final identification of our degraded diaspores in many cases was only possible if intact, partially and completely degraded seeds of the same species (e.g. in the cases of centaurea cyanus and consolida regalis) were also recovered. this allowed direct comparison of similar seeds in different preservation stages and also comparison to seeds in reference collections (c.f. cappers and neef 2012; gyulai 2001). beyond mechanical impacts, diaspores may also be degraded by chemical and biological processes, resulting in distended, deformed materials and corroded surfaces (gyulai 2001; hillman et al. 1993; pearsall 2000; van bergen et al. 1997). however, de moulins (2007) and miller (1989) note that desiccated materials are usually not affected by these processes because chemical and microbial degradation is lacking or is slow in continuously dry conditions. in some cases adobe samples may have been exposed to moisture prior to recovery, thus biochemical processes may have degraded the diaspores and ‘hollow’ grains (van der veen 2007) and partially decomposed seeds may form. these kinds of remains tend to be very fragile. seed size is another important characteristic for identification; no previous studies have reported change in size of archaeological diaspores to be problematic for identification. in this study, beyond the changes in the color and shape of the recovered diaspores, a significant change has been observed in the size of desiccated fruits and seeds (table 3). we contend that size change must be considered as an important factor during the identification process. conclusion this paper presents the most common deformation types of desiccated diaspores in adobe bricks from southwestern hungary and provides a species list with changes in the morphology of diaspores. this aids in the identification of desiccated fruits and seeds from natural building materials from archaeological contexts. diaspores from many other archaeological contexts are influenced by similar taphonomic process that change size, texture, color, and shape of seed and fruit remains. therefore, the results reported here are important for archaeobotany more broadly. the correct identification of palaeoethnobotanical plant remains is essential for producing reliable biological, ecological, and sociological data. acknowledgements authors are thankful to dr. andrea stierle (the university of montana) and to dr. csaba varga (university of pécs) for their help in the linguistic revision of the text. declarations permissions: not applicable. sources of funding: this research was realized in the frames of támop 4.2.4. 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plants in the old world, 4th edition. oxford university press, new york, ny. supplementary files are linked to the online version of the paper at ojs.ethnobiology.org/index.php/ebl. biosketches tamás henn is a phd student in the department of ecology at the university of pécs, hungary. he is currently working on the examination of desiccated seed assemblages from natural building materials in southwestern hungary. róbert w. pál is an associate professor in the department of ecology at the university of pécs, hungary. he is currently working on the study of invasive plant species in a biogeographic perspective. ethnobiology letters. 2015. 6(1):10‐24. doi: 10.14237/ebl.6.1.2015.229. 23 research communication appendix photo 1. intact (a) achene and eroded seed (b) of centaurea cyanus. photo 2. achenes of centaurea cyanus found in sample ab02 (véménd). photo 3. intact (a) and abraded seed (b) of consolida regalis. photo 4. intact (a) and abraded capsules (b) of scleranthus annuus. photo 5. deformed diaspores of scleranthus annuus found in sample ab34 (abaliget). ethnobiology letters. 2015. 6(1):10‐24. doi: 10.14237/ebl.6.1.2015.229. 24 research communication photo 6. intact (a) and abraded polachenarium (b) of daucus carota ssp. carota. letter from the editors ethnobiology letters book review 46 paradise found: nature in america at the time of discovery steve nicholls. 2009. university of chicago press, new york and london. pp. 536. isbn10: 0226583406 isbn13: 978-0226583402. reviewed by raymond pierotti1 reviewer address: 1 department of ecology and evolutionary biology, university of kansas, lawrence, ks 66045 received: july 19th 2011 volume 2:46-49 published: august 15th 2011 © 2011 society of ethnobiology paradise found is in the tradition of popular works in environmental history. similarly themed titles are farley mowat’s sea of slaughter (1984) about the north atlantic, jon coleman’s vicious: wolves and men in america (2004), and andrew isenberg’s the destruction of the bison: an environmental history, 1750-1920 (2000). each of these books presents a significant discussion of social and economic factors and how these impact the interaction between european invaders of north america and the abundant fish, wildlife, and botanical resources that were present in america at “first contact.” a somewhat similar genre of books about environmental history fall into a category that could be described as “what was the role of indigenous north americans and were they really conservationists?” these include j. donald hughes north american indian ecology (1996) for the defense; for the prosecution, shepherd krech’s the ecological indian (1999); its academic spawn, charles kay and randy simmons’ wilderness and political ecology: aboriginal influences and the original state of nature (2002); and michael harkin and david lewis’ native americans and the environment: perspectives on the ecological indian (2007). what is both impressive, and at times overwhelming, is that in paradise found, steve nicholls attempts to cover all of the ground covered by all of these books along with a number of other topics. his goal is apparently to provide a complete overview of the impact of europeans upon fish, wildlife, waterfowl, forests, grasslands and virtually any other aspect of conservation and resource management in north america, while at the same time discussing the impacts of indigenous hunters and gatherers on these same resources. given this ambitious goal, it is amazing that nicholls succeeds for the most part, providing a comprehensive discussion of european folly, while also trying to address the role of native americans as resource managers. in my view, he is much more successful in the former than the latter, largely because he relies heavily on the approaches taken by most of the authors in kay and simmons (2002) and harkin and lewis (2007), who contend that native peoples were largely ignorant of conservation practices and may have done considerable damage to plant and animal populations. one major point that nicholls emphasizes repeatedly is that upon arrival in the americas, europeans and their descendants viewed the fish, wildlife, and forests of north america as too abundant and diverse to even fathom. to many readers this might seem contradictory to the idea that native peoples had caused damage to these resources, however, the “realist” crowd has an explanation already prepared, i.e. that indigenous populations had been so devastated by introduced diseases that all of the fish and wildlife had recovered from the presumably, much lower numbers in which they had existed prior to the arrival of europeans. ironically, to the indigenous reader, this model of large indigenous populations that had major impacts, is actually preferable to the alternative, i.e. that there were so few indigenes and they lived so lightly on the land that they had no discernable impact, which creates a romantic notion of these people as “natural conservationists” (e.g., hughes 1996). there is, however, a third alternative, i.e., that indigenous peoples did in fact have major impacts, shaping landscapes through the use of fire, and taking substantial numbers of fish, birds, and mammals to support their ways of life, without causing serious damage to either populations or ecological communities. where i depart from nicholls is that he falls into what i consider the “krech trap,” i.e., he questions if populations of indigenous people were large enough to ethnobiology letters book review 47 have a significant impact. many contemporary scholars have now accepted that indigenous numbers were much larger than the roughly two million, that has long been anthropological dogma (mann 2005). this in turn leads to the conclusion that these peoples must have had major impacts, and thus, were not good ecologists (krech 1999), conservationists (most papers in harkin and lewis 2007), or resource managers (several papers in kay and simmons 2002). this pattern of thought seems to emerge from an assumption that all human beings operate from the same set of concepts, and because most of these investigators are of western european ancestry, they assume that those concepts emerge from western civilization. nicholls presents a relatively comprehensive response to this conundrum. he argues that, “the bottom line is that people, like all animals, are concerned first with their ultimate survival and then with garnering as many resources as they can to make their future as secure as possible” (p. 450). he goes on to admit that, “…the ‘discovery’ of america was in reality a clash of two very different cultures” (p 450). this would be fine if he did not then proceed to argue that, “many of the most extraordinary spectacles witnessed by explorers and settlers could have been the result of the demise of indian populations. released from hunting, animals as varied as fur seals, passenger pigeons, and bison bounced back to enormous populations” (p. 451, emphasis added). please note that “could have been” in the first sentence metamorphoses into a definite causal relationship by the second. there is virtually no evidence that tribes heavily exploited passenger pigeons. fur seals are slow breeding creatures, producing only a single offspring at a time and they also show delayed maturity. in consequence, fur seals are not capable of rapid recoveries, even under a well-designed management plan developed through international cooperation between canada, japan, russia and the united states. as far as passenger pigeons are concerned, no avian population ecologist has ever attributed their extraordinary numbers to a rebound from indigenous exploitation. the inclusion of bison seems to be reworked from isenberg (2000), which is a good and thorough evaluation of the issue. isenberg argues that bison populations appeared to be most dense in boundary areas between tribes where hunters only ventured when availability of bison was low. nicholls’ descent into the krech trap is unfortunate, because paradise found is probably the best book ever written on the history of nature in north america after the european invasion. nicholls is a trained entomologist, with a phd from a good british university, and understands that a large part of the problem arises because democracies operate on short time frames and that free markets may be great at setting prices but they are terrible at recognizing and assessing costs. in contrast, ecology and evolution operate over long time scales and costs are constantly assessed. what nicholls fails to understand at a deep level is that tribes did not function as democracies and that they specifically planned for long timescales, which is the basis of the idea of assessing the impact of your actions on seven generations (pierotti 2011). indigenous peoples knew they lived in environments that were constantly changing and that animal populations could go into precipitous declines. these declines could be exacerbated by selfish behavior on the part of hunters, therefore rituals and ceremonies were developed to minimize the chances of showing disrespect to prey and prey populations (pierotti 2010, 2011). another factor, which for political reasons often goes unmentioned, is that indigenous americans were very aware of the possibility of extinction, especially at the local level. regardless of their role in the decline of the pleistocene megafauna, it is virtually certain that the ancestors of today’s tribes witnessed the disappearance of these species. what is remarkable, is that over the last several thousand years; no further species went extinct until europeans arrived, including primary targets of indigenous hunters, such as caribou, bison, moose, white tailed deer, pronghorn, etc. (pierotti 2011). this suggests that indigenous people developed very effective means of regulating important resources and that as a rule, not only did they try to avoid “garnering as many resources as possible,” as stated by nicholls (p. 450), but also that they had specific behavioral traditions built into their cultures to minimize the chances of damaging resources and the tragedy of the commons. as mentioned above, paradise found is a remarkably comprehensive book. it starts off discussing the northwestern atlantic and the destruction of whale populations and major fisheries, including cod and atlantic salmon. this discussion is distinguished largely because it does not attribute the large populations of marine organisms to the absence of indigenous peoples. this section, which makes up the second through the fifth chapters, is very reminiscent of mowat’s sea of slaughter, which is to say that is depressing and hard to read, even though almost all of what it describes is clearly true. ethnobiology letters book review 48 subsequent chapters deal with mass slaughter of waterfowl and other birds, including the extinctions of the passenger pigeon and carolina parakeet. after this we are treated to extensive documentation of the destruction of furbearer populations, freshwater organisms, and many other species. this can all be depressing, but it is a good source of material. finally nicholls finishes with chapters on the destruction of the bison populations of the plains and on the european war against the grey wolf. the final chapter titled a new world presents a relatively hopeful outlook and a decent summation of current issues and possible solutions. i would like this book much better if nicholls had avoided taking such a eurocentric approach and showing a schizophrenic attitude towards indigenous peoples and their activities. for example, we are told on page 117 that, “a wilderness like this is no place for civilized people” (emphasis added). on page 114 nicholls speculates that bison were only able to colonize the eastern forests after the indigenous populations “demise’. on page 118 we learn that squanto supposedly learned about fertilization of crops from europeans, rather than the other way around. like sheperd krech, nicholls vacillates constantly concerning the size of indian populations and their impacts, and this weakens the book. this book does have many strong points, including its emphasis on the ecological roles of many of the forms of wildlife. nicholls understands science and knows how to describe phenomena effectively. this might explain why he is less effective at understanding the beliefs and traditions of the tribes. for example he discusses the “keepers of the game” concept (p. 175), but follows the line that these were spirits, rather than accounts of actual extraordinary individual animals (see pierotti 2010). europeans always struggle with the link between spiritual practices and scientific knowledge, largely because their own religious traditions separate humans from nature (pierotti 2011). to me one of the strongest and most insightful aspects of paradise found is a discussion of how limited and limiting the views of conservationists can be (p. 240-241). nicholls also has an insightful piece on the jesuit priest, juan de acosta, who accompanied cristobal colon, and wondered why there were “no records of jaguars, raccoons, and guanacos among the inhabitants of the ark” (p 253). it is obvious that i have mixed feelings about paradise found. at one level it is truly comprehensive text that discusses a wide range of topics considering the relationship between europeans and nature on the north american continent. unlike some other authors on this topic, nicholls addresses and engages with how these impacts are related to the impacts made by indigenous peoples. it is probably unfair to hope that nicholls would be more than simply another european scholar and had carefully thought about the relationship between indigenous people. it is good that he avoids describing indigenous peoples in the romantic clichés employed by some authors, but as a british ecologist he assumes that europeans and indigenous people are much more similar than they are and that both fall into the same economic roles. overall, i recommend this book to anyone who is interested in the history of european attitudes towards american nature, but it must be kept in mind that it only tells part of the story well. other voices that are not heard in paradise found are those of the animals themselves. one thing i always point out to my classes is that with a few exceptions, such as passenger pigeons and steller sea cows, the vast majority of species that were here when europeans arrived in the americas are still here, and they are capable of recovering their numbers and living alongside humans, if humans are willing to have them as neighbors. they learned these lessons from thousands of years of coexisting with indigenous population and if we are willing, all of these survivors may yet be seen in substantial numbers. references cited coleman, j. t. 2004. vicious: wolves and men in america. yale university press, new haven, ct. harkin, m. e. and d. r. lewis. 2007. native americans and the environment: perspectives on the ecological indian. university of nebraska press, lincoln, ne. hughes, j. d. 1996. north american indian ecology. texas western press, el paso, tx. isenberg, a. c. 2000. the destruction of the bison: an environmental history, 1750-1920. cambridge university press, new york, ny. kay, c. e. and r. t. simmons (eds.). 2002. wilderness and political ecology: aboriginal influences and the original state of nature. university of utah press, salt lake city, ut. krech, s., iii. 1999. the ecological indian: myth and history. w. w. norton, new york, ny. ethnobiology letters book review 49 mann, c. c. 2005. 1491: new revelations of america before columbus. knopf, new york, ny. mowat, f. 1984. sea of slaughter. mcclelland & stewart, toronto, canada. pierotti, r. 2010. sustainability of natural populations: lessons from indigenous knowledge. human dimensions of wildlife 15: 274-287. pierotti, r. 2011. indigenous knowledge, ecology and evolutionary biology. routledge, taylor and francis group, new york & london. letter from the editors ethnobiology letters book review 14 edible medicines: an ethnopharmacology of food nina etkin. 2006. university of arizona press, tucson. pp. 304. $24.95 (paper). isbn 9780816527489. reviewed by laura barbas-rhoden1 reviewer address: 1 department of foreign languages, wofford college 29303 received: december 6 th 2009 volume 1:14-15 published: august 4 th 2010 © 2010 society of ethnobiology what are the health implications of cuisines in different cultures? how have different human communities managed the physiologic effects of foods, many of which have non-nutritive constituents? edible medicines is a wide-ranging study that investigates such questions from an anthropological and biocultural perspective. it is the third book on an ethnobiological topic by the late nina l. etkin, the renowned university of hawai’i anthropologist who died in january 2009. etkin served as past president of the international society for ethnopharmacology and was named one of two recipients of the 2009 distinguished economic botanist award by the society for economic botany (seb). her influence extends through dozens of graduate students whom she mentored, as well as a lengthy list of academic publications. the volume reviewed here is highly indicative of the interdisciplinary scope of her scholarship. one of the single most important accomplishments of edible medicines is its recovery of a history in which the lines between foods and medicines have been either blurry or nonexistent. informed by both an anthropological and historical perspective, etkin’s scholarship implicitly and explicitly raises provocative questions regarding the atomization of scholarship in the west. as the author points out, this atomization of scholarship has led to the study of food in particular categories of study like nutrition, biochemistry, agriculture, and medicine, with little attention paid, until recently, to the “pharmacologic potential of diet” (3). etkin’s book proposes an anthropological methodology by which to consider the pharmacologic potential of foods selected by cultures around the world for specific uses. using concrete cultural examples, etkin discusses the uses of foods by diverse peoples of the world, and she brings an anthropological discussion into dialogue with plant and nutritional science. the result is a study useful for scholars in ethnobiology, anthropology, food science, and nutrition, but one that also has appeal for nonspecialists and undergraduate students. etkin’s introduction covers the basic scientific principles of plant metabolism, defense, and reproduction, and relates this to subsistence strategies of humans. the introduction also sketches a brief overview of transformations in subsistence in human history, from foraging to pastoralism and horticulture and agriculture. finally, the introduction contextualizes food use in cultural context and addresses the “social organization of eating” (42). chapter two, “food in the history of biomedicine,” considers the place of food in western biomedicine from ancient times to present and offers specific examples of transformations of thought in particular cultures. though the focus is on biomedicine in the west, etkin also documents the ways in which arabic and other medical philosophies influenced thoughts about sickness and health from the eighth to the eleventh centuries in europe (51). the chapter concludes by posing the question of whether or not medicine in the west has entered a new phase in which “preventive and curative modalities . . . now approximate one another” (81). with the background information sketched clearly and succinctly, etkin follows the two opening chapters with more specific categories of study. chapters consider spices; fermented foods and beverages; social plants (foods like tea and masticatories like kola and coca); animal foods with medicinal qualities; and food in contemporary complementary and alternative medicine. these chapters are thorough without attempting to be tediously exhaustive, and they broadly contextualize food use in economic and cultural history of specific practices related to food as medicine. all chapters are well written and readable, though some tell stories that will be more compelling for some readers than others, depending on their particular background or field of interest. for example, the ethnobiology letters book review 15 chapter on fermentation gives a basic definition of the process of fermentation and identifies the biological substrates of fermentation in the old world and new world. after drawing attention to the “ubiquity and sophistical of techniques” (110) involved in food fermentation, etkin points out the nutritional and therapeutic benefits of fermented foods over their nonfermented state. she does not limit herself to only a discussion of the science of allergens, glycosides, and lectins, but rather also takes into consideration palatability and particular cultural applications in the cultures of nigeria. throughout the book, etkin draws from her own ethnographic work among the hausa of nigeria. this provides a sustained cultural example to undergird the categories of analysis she proposes. the book is a welcome addition to the scant selection of volumes on the ethnopharmacological implication of foods and will be of use to scholars and students in a variety of disciplines and settings. the effects of food processing on the archaeological visibility of maize: an experimental study of carbonization of lime-treated maize kernels 12  research communica on  employing a charring technique that allows for complete carbonization of the kernel, without damage. hence, this research adds to the body of data on ancient maize processing techniques by specifically exploring how alkali processing affects the archaeological preservation of different maize varieties (martinez-bustos et al. 2001). the process of alkali cooking, known as hominy production in the eastern woodlands and nixtamalization in mesoamerica, was widely used by societies living throughout mesoamerica and north america. i first address the origins and use of alkali processing in the americas. this is followed by a brief consideration of quantification methods and lab procedures, which is followed by results of the experiments and discussion of their implications for maize-variety identification, processing method identification, and general importance in new world archaeology. alkali processing of maize the purpose of cooking maize with an alkali substance is to lengthen its storage life, to increase its nutritional content by changing the chemical and physical composition of the kernels, and to facilitate the removal of the pericarp (martínez-bustos et al. 2001). unprocessed, maize is deficient in niacin and introduction the effects of ancient processing on the archaeological visibility and recovery of maize is important for reconstructing past subsistence practices in the new world. because maize was a prominent cultivar in the americas, it is important to determine the varieties people grew and the processing methods employed. previous studies by goette et al. (1994), king (1987), and pearsall (1980) addressed this issue through recreating ancient processing techniques (e.g. boiling, sprouting, and parching) to see how these methods affected preservation in the archaeological record. however, these studies were broad in scope and used charring techniques that provided inconclusive results. because of severe distortion to kernel morphology, measurements of kernel shape and size were inaccurate and did not provide reliable results regarding how processing affects carbonization and preservation. as a result, past studies were unable to make direct comparisons between modern carbonized kernels and archaeological carbonized kernels to determine the processing techniques used. this study compares archaeological and modern samples to determine how alkali processing alters phenotypes of new world maize varieties, as well as to establish parameters for identifying alkali processed kernels the effects of food processing on the archaeological visibility of maize:  an experimental study of carboniza on of lime‐treated maize kernels  caroline dezendorf  author address: interna onal studies program, university of oregon, 175 prince lucien campbell hall, eugene, or 97403.  dezendor@uoregon.edu  received: september 26, 2012  volume: 4:12‐20  published: january 19, 2013  © 2013 society of ethnobiology  abstract: this paper explores the effects of maize processing on the carboniza on and preserva on of maize kernels in the  archaeological record. the shi  to processing maize with lime (known as hominy produc on in the eastern woodlands and  nixtamaliza on  in mesoamerica)  in ancient  mes had  the effect of making maize more nutri ous  through  increasing  the  availability of calcium, niacin, dietary fiber, and essen al amino acids.  less understood is how this process of cooking maize  in  a  lime  solu on  affects  the  archaeological  preserva on  of maize;  if  there  is  a  clear  difference  in  the  archaeological  signature of maize remains that are and are not processed this way, then this process may be iden fiable in the archaeological record. to this end, an experiment was constructed analyzing the varia on  in size between dried and alkali processed  maize kernels before and a er carboniza on. results indicate that alkali processed maize kernels are less likely to fragment  during carboniza on. key words: maize processing, nixtamaliza on, mesoamerica, paleoethnobotany, carboniza on   13  research communica on  the essential amino acids lysine and tryptophan; however, alkali processing enhances the potency of these nutrients (king 1987). the traditional process involves the use of alkali cooking, steeping, and washing to remove maize skin from the kernels before consumption or storage (martinez-bustos et al. 2001). martinez-bustos et al. (2001) state that cooking with an alkali substance (e.g., wood ash) allows for increased water uptake, thus resulting in kernel expansion. the amount of water uptake depends heavily on the maize genotype and processing conditions, such as water temperature and time soaked and cooked (martinez-bustos et al. 2001). however, depending on how the maize variety reacts to the process, alkali-processed maize kernels could be differentially preserved through carbonization compared to unprocessed carbonized kernels. four varieties of maize representing modern descendants of archaeological varieties—also known as heirloom varieties―were selected for experimentation to determine how different maize varieties are affected by alkali processing. it is impossible to obtain modern maize with the exact genetic make-up of their archaeological ancestors, due to evolution; thus, the kernels were acquired from seeds of change (www.seedsofchange.com) based on geographic origin and cultural connections (i.e. the historical significance of the heirloom variety in a given region). the four types selected were oaxacan green, anasazi flour, hopi pink, and hickory king. both the oaxacan green (originating from the zapotec indians in southern mexico and green in color) and the hickory king (originating in the southeast united states and yellow in color) are dent varieties. dent maize is characterized by a starchy endosperm in the middle, extending towards the top of the kernel that is surrounded by a corneous endosperm along the sides (sturtevant 1898). hickory king is known to be used for hominy in the southeastern united states (www.victoryseeds.com). in contrast, anasazi flour (a multi-colored maize) and hopi pink are soft-flour varieties from the southwestern united states. the flour varieties are considered soft due to the absence of corneous endosperms and the lack of indentation (sturtevant 1898). it is difficult to make a direct comparison between archaeological specimens and contemporary races of maize even when the evolutionary relationships are well understood because maize is constantly evolving due to human selection (benz 1994). therefore, there is little information available that allows archaeologists to make comparisons of maize kernels over large areas and through time. nevertheless, by studying farmer or heirloom varieties, for which change is slower compared to many other varieties, archaeologists can create a statistical method of analysis to demonstrate correlations of size between modern and ancient varieties (blake and cutler 2001). as most archaeological maize is carbonized, if the effects of alkali processing can be determined, it may be possible to better characterize archaeological varieties. according to king (1987), there are five kernel measurements that can be used to determine variety; these include angle, length, width, thickness, and distance from base to widest part of the kernel. several studies (e.g., pearsall 1980; goette et al. 1994; blake and cutler 2001) have attempted to determine variety using kernel angle to estimate the number of rows on each cob. however, this measurement does not take into account distortion and shrinkage due to charring or processing. blake and cutler (2001) suggest that up to 40% distortion in characteristics can occur during the carbonization process, which alters the kernel angle. thus, kernel angle is not an accurate tool for determining varieties and the most accurate results are based on determining preand post-carbonization length, width, and thickness (king 1987). given these challenges, the purpose of this experimental study is to: (1) determine the best way to identify alkali processing of maize in the archaeobotanical record and (2) understand how the alkali process affects different maize varieties. previous research as suggested by king (1987), processing method plays a role in determining charred kernel shape. understanding the differences in carbonized kernel morphology is essential for characterizing different varieties. in terms of alkali processing, i draw on several previous studies. the first study, conducted by goette et al. (1994), examined three different races of andean maize using techniques of toasting, sprouting, and boiling. the second study, based in north america and conducted by francis king (1987), describes how alkali processing alters the kernel shape. both experiments conclude that most maize recovered from archaeological sites was likely boiled with wood ash (goette et al. 1994; king 1987). charred kernels with endosperm extrusion (when the endosperm expands greatly, causing a fragile and extreme distortion to the kernel) are unlikely to 14  research communica on  survive in the archaeobotanical record. therefore, maize kernels processed by sprouting or toasting, which have high percentages of extrusion, are unlikely to survive, especially compared to boiled kernels, which only have an extrusion percentage of 10-15% (goette et al. 1994). goette et al.’s (1994) findings support ethnographic data suggesting the process of boiling maize with wood ash was a widespread practice throughout north and south america. because goette et al. (1994) focused on only three varieties indigenous to peru, it is important to expand experimentation to other varieties so as to provide an accurate representation of processing and preservation throughout the new world (goette et al. 1994). hence, further knowledge of how alkali processed kernels react to carbonization will help archaeologists determine the processing method used and the number of different varieties at a given site based on morphological characterization (goette et al. 1994). because most recovered archaeobotanical remains are charred, it is difficult to distinguish maize varieties and processing techniques based on morphology alone. past experiments used charring methods in an attempt to recreate archaeological maize and to understand how carbonization affected morphology. often, these studies provided inconclusive results due to the nature of particular charring methods that left kernels indistinguishable. for example, cutler and blake (1973) suggest that kernels carbonized loose (i.e. not on the cob) become too distorted to provide any type of meaningful measurements. however, other scholars indicate that kernels can be charred not on the cob, when packaged tightly together, which avoids extreme distortion to the kernel shape (goette et al. 1994; king 1987). nevertheless, because previous charring experiments were conducted under conditions of too rapid or too high heat, the morphology of the charred kernels were too distorted and provided inaccurate and unreliable measurements for determining kernel size and shape (king 1987; pearsall 1990). in past experiments parching techniques were used to obtain measurable results (goette et al. 1994; king 1987; pearsall 1990). however, parching likely does not provide analogical realism as it does not cause the same changes in morphology or the representation of archaeological kernels that is caused by charring. for the current experiment it was important to develop and use a method of charring that would preserve the features (length, width, and thickness) and shape of the kernels so as to make them comparable to archaeological specimens. materials and methods to determine how alkali processing and carbonization affects the morphology of kernels, it was necessary to perform a laboratory experiment to determine how these processes affect kernels of the four selected varieties of maize. based on experimental design from goette et al. (1994) and king (1987), an experiment was constructed to analyze size variability among maize kernels that were a) dried, b) alkali processed, c) dried and carbonized, and d) alkali processed and carbonized. sample size varied from 40-45 kernels per variety. initially, each dried kernel was photographed and measured using a stereo-microscope with a camera attachment. i recorded kernel weight, length, width, and thickness, as these are morphological characteristics that relate to reproduction and that are least affected by environmental variability in phenotype (goodman and paterniani 1969). the next step involved a 50% random selection of each variety to be processed in an alkali solution. in order to use historically appropriate methods and follow convention of previous alkali processing experiments, ten pounds of uncontaminated oak, maple, and ash wood were burned to produce ash for the alkali solution. three cups of the hardwood ash were boiled in six quarts of water for one hour to achieve a ph of 10 (goette et al. 1994). the water was then sieved and divided between four pots, one for each maize variety, and the maize was soaked for fourteen hours (martinez-bustos et al. 2001). after soaking, the maize was cooked at 85º celsius for one hour, at which point the pericarps began to loosen. the kernels were then rinsed under running water and rubbed together to remove seed coats and points of attachment. after drying, the alkali-processed kernels were re-measured. the next step was carbonization. because research by blake and cutler (1973) suggests that kernels carbonized loose will cause distortion, kernels were placed in tin-foil packets before carbonization. in total there were eight tin-foil packets that were carbonized—two for each variety with one containing the unprocessed kernels and the other containing the alkali-processed kernels. the kernels were cooked in a muffle furnace at 180-190ºc, conditions that represent a low-burning fire, for one hour and then were removed from the furnace to cool for three minutes (werts and jahren 2007). they were then cooked for one more hour at which point smoking ceased, which is indicative of complete charring. the purpose of the 15  research communica on  double cooking method was to mitigate issues that previous studies experienced—these include carbonizing kernels in too high of heat or too rapidly. because this research is experimental, temperature and cooking time were controlled. however, archaeological kernels would not have been exposed to consistent heat, as fire temperatures and surrounding soil temperatures vary (werts and jahren 2007). during the initial phase of the carbonization process, the unprocessed kernels cracked, at an average rate of one to two pops per five minute period, exhibiting splitting and swelling. after one hour, these unprocessed kernels became surrounded by a foamy black matrix. when carbonization was complete, all kernels were re-measured using the same methods as prior to processing. dependent t -tests are used to assess differences in shrinkage among dried, alkali-processed, and carbonized kernels. results by using a controlled charring environment, i was able to carbonize specimens that exhibit similar morphologies to archaeological specimens (including those found at sites in the midwestern united states1), which allows insights into how processing affects maize kernel taphonomy. the metric dimensions of the carbonized alkali-processed kernels were greater than those of non-alkali-processed kernels. there are substantial differences between the (a) dried, (b) alkali processed, (c) unprocessed carbonized, and (d) alkali processed carbonized kernels. there were clear differences in thickness and width amongst the varieties. the increase in thickness between dried (a) and alkali-processed-carbonized (d) ranged from 21.64% for anasazi flour to 71.38% for hickory king. in addition, the lengths of the kernels decreased in size after alkali processing and again after carbonization; this decrease ranged from 3.09% for hickory king to 22.05% for hopi pink. goette et al. (1994) report similar results, indicating that the decrease in moisture causes vertical contraction of kernels, whereas increasing internal pressure causes horizontal expansion. these differences are best demonstrated visually with scatterplots. note that the majority of alkaliprocessed-carbonized kernels show an increase in width and thickness (figure 1), when compared to the (non-carbonized) dried and alkali-processed kernels. in addition, the unprocessed-carbonized kernels show an increase in thickness, but not width, which indicates that carbonization is a contributing factor to increased thickness. it is thus logical to conclude that the increase in internal pressure that occurs during carbonization forces the kernels to expand in thickness; however, because of decreased moisture content in the absence of alkali processing, other factors, such as length and width, appear not to increase under carbonization alone. therefore, the magnitude of width expansion is likely dependent upon cooking method. this interpretation is supported by visual inspection of figure 2, which plots length by width for all four varieties under different experimental conditions. by examining the scatterplots, it is evident that the alkali-processed and the alkali-processedcarbonized kernels exhibit the greatest shift in width when compared to the dried maize and unprocessedcarbonized kernels. the majority of the alkaliprocessed hopi pink kernels and anasazi flour kernels show the largest increase in width after processing, and exhibit a slight decrease in width with carbonization. the fact that the alkali-processed kernels exhibit greater width than the alkali-processed -carbonized kernels indicates a decrease in kernel moisture content caused by carbonization. unless kernels are alkali processed, they should not have significant changes in width. the use of dependent t-tests allows for statistical analysis of shrinkage in kernel dimensions. a comparison of the dried kernels (a) with the alkali processed kernels (b) was beneficial to determining the impact that alkali processing has on kernel shape. tests on width measurements between these pairs (for all varieties) yield p-values less than 0.05, indicating significant differences in width—in other words, alkali processing leads to significant kernel swelling along this dimension (table 1). there is also a significant difference in width between unprocessed carbonized kernels (c) to alkali processed carbonized kernels (d) (p-value < 0.001). dependent t-tests were also used to determine statistical differences in thickness (table 1). for all varieties, it was determined that thickness increases with carbonization. additionally, unprocessed carbonized kernels (c) and alkali processed carbonized kernels (d) were compared in order to determine if the measurement of thickness could be used to determine the different processing methods in archaeological kernels. dependent t-tests demonstrate that the differences are significant; thus, for archaeological specimens, comparisons of the width and the thickness of kernels, assumed to be the same variety, 16  research communica on  figure 1. results from sca er‐plots of width vs. thickness for anasazi flour, hickory king, hopi pink, and oaxacan green  maize kernels.   17  research communica on  figure 2. results from sca er‐plot of length vs. width anasazi flour, hickory king, hopi pink ,and oaxacan green maize ker‐ nels.  18  research communica on  can allow researchers to determine whether or not alkali processing occurred before carbonization. kernels that exhibit increased thickness and width indicate alkali processing and carbonization whereas, kernels that only exhibit increased thickness suggest carbonization alone. additionally, because data suggest that the widths and thicknesses for each variety fall within certain ranges, researchers could separate kernels into varieties. specifically, dent varieties of maize display larger width and thickness dimensions than flour varieties. after carbonization, the median width for the alkali processed anasazi flour kernels was 8826.5 µm and the median width for the alkali processed hopi pink was 9713.0 µm. in contrast the processed and carbonized oaxacan green dent measured 10994.9 µm and the hickory king dent measured 1499.36 µm. results for thickness demonstrate a similar pattern with the median anasazi flour and hopi pink, measuring 5829.1 µm and 7079.1µm, respectively, while median thickness for oaxacan green and hickory king were 6607.1 µm and 7710.5 µm, respectively. both measurements indicate that flour varieties will be smaller in size after carbonization than dent varieties. after experimental carbonization, there was a large phenotypic difference between the kernels that were boiled in the alkali solution and then carbonized compared to those that were only carbonized. the reason for this difference is that the effect of heating on kernels is directly correlated to endosperm composition (king 1994). because the four varieties were composed mainly of floury endosperms, they were more likely to swell and split due to intense pressure build-up in the early stages of carbonization (king 1994). the unprocessed kernels expanded and split, making them unrecognizable, while the alkaliprocessed kernels maintained their shape and structure. the majority of hickory king, oaxacan green, hopi pink, and anasazi flour unprocessed kernels split and became globulated, which indicates that the starches oozed out the pericarp due to internal pressure that produced foamy black matrices. the kernels also became very brittle—a clear indicator that unprocessed kernels are not good candidates for archaeological preservation as they would likely suffer significant mechanical damage, leading to higher rates of fragmentation. in contrast, the alkali processed kernels appeared very similar to archaeological specimens (e.g., from myer-dickson and roskamp sites located in the central illinois river valley in the midwestern united states). a few of the oaxacan green kernels cracked along the exterior, which is likely due to not being soaked long enough in the alkali solution. nevertheless, all of the kernels were identifiable and durable. it is important to note that unlike some archaeological kernels, the embryos of the kernels used in the experiment stayed attached after carbonization, which note: a = dried ; b =  alkali processed ; c = unprocessed carbonized ; d =  alkali processed carbonized ; * indicates sta s cal significance  maize type  pairs for ker‐ nel width  t  df  p‐ value     pairs for kernel  thickness  t  df  p‐value  anasazi flour  a / b  3.855  50.5  0.000*  anasazi  flour  a / c  8.301  20.4  0.000*     c / d  0.169  28.3  0.867     c / d  4.723  26.3  0.000*  hickory king  a / b  3.541  51  0.001*  hickory  king  a / c  13.661  19.5  0.000*     c / d  4.813  26  0.000*     c / d  4.881  27.8  0.000*  hopi pink  a / b  5.377  38.1  0.000*  hopi pink  a / c  7.837  24.1  0.000*     c / d  3.817  31.7  0.001*     c / d  2.195  29.5  0.036*  oaxacan green  a / b  5.336  40.4  0.000*  oaxacan  green  a / c  14.24  14.5  0.000*     c / d  4.926  23.2  0.000*     c / d  8  16.9  0.000*  table 1. results of two‐sample t‐tests with separate variances for anasazi flour, hickory king, hopi pink, and oaxacan  green maize kernels.  19  research communica on  is most likely due to the effects of uniform temperature in the controlled carbonization environment. the lack of distortion in the alkali-processed kernels likely relates to the fact that boiling softens the endosperm, thus allowing the kernel to swell without splitting. discussion and conclusion it is evident from these results that the distinguishing characteristics of carbonized maize are not only based on the genotypic variety but also on the processing mechanisms which the kernels undergo (goette et al. 1994). upon carbonization, most of the alkali processed kernels were similar in appearance to kernels recovered at archaeological sites in the midwestern u.s. (myer-dickson, roskamp, lamb)i, which do not have embryos and are broad and crescent shaped (king 1994). therefore, it can be assumed that various native american groups were using a method of alkali processing, which results in better archaeological preservation of the kernels. however, the use of alkali processing creates a preservation bias at archaeological sites due to the fact that it is primarily alkali processed kernels that remain complete, compared to unprocessed kernels which are more brittle and tend to fragment (king 1994). because the studies indicate that unprocessed kernels become distorted when carbonized, the probability of finding identifiable unprocessed complete kernels is slim compared to finding kernels that are alkali processed (goette et al. 1994; king 1994). additionally, certain varieties, based on endosperm composition, were more likely to be alkali processed than others, and thus, the varieties of recognizable maize found at archaeological sites favor those that underwent alkali processing, which would most likely be dent and flour varieties. due to the fact that there have not been many studies conducted on alkali processing, further research is needed to determine archaeological varieties that underwent processing. what this study does conclude is that alkali processed kernels, which are not brittle and are less likely to fragment, are more readily found at archaeological sites than unprocessed kernels. through the use of statistical analysis that examines kernel morphology, researchers will be able to categorize and determine the number of varieties at a site based on measurements of length, width, and thickness. it is also important to note that there are problems based on developing methods of measurement and of statistical analysis that can be applied to maize varieties from different sample groups. because of genetic differences, it is difficult to make direct comparisons between the samples created in a laboratory and those formed in the archaeological record (goette et al. 1994). however, understanding of genealogy and varietal relationships can help mitigate this problem. in addition, because every variety of maize reacts differently to alkali processing and, therefore, the results for one variety will be different than those of another variety, different varieties can be grouped based on statistical differences. finally, this study focused on flour and dent varieties; we still do not understand how flint, sweet, or popcorn varieties (which have different endosperm compositions) are altered by alkali processing. nevertheless, this study does provide conclusive evidence that alkali processed kernels, when carbonized, will demonstrate increased widths, increased thickness, and loss of pericarps and points of attachment (indicative of alkali processing). if kernels were not alkali processed, they would not lose their pericarps, and therefore, would have different phenotypic compositions than alkali processed kernels. future studies must be conducted in order to determine which archaeological maize samples were alkali processed. the current study demonstrates that there are morphological similarities between modern alkali processed, carbonized kernels and archaeological kernels; however, studies analyzing the chemical composition of archaeological kernels are still needed. it would also be beneficial to conduct burial studies to analyze how modern alkali processed, carbonized varieties, placed underground for an extended period of time, react to environmental pressures. the use of burial studies would allow researchers to determine how local environmental conditions affect composition of the alkali processed kernels to determine if more phenotypic or chemical changes occur. as suggested by modern ethnographic data, there is a high correlation between societies that cultivate and consume maize and those that use alkali processing (king 1987). additionally, we know that alkali processing diffused from mesoamerica to north america, but further research is necessary to understand when diffusion occurred (king 1987). future studies must also determine when different groups in mesoamerica and north america first used alkali processing. to do this, analysis of a broader range of maize varieties, including archaeological kernels from different time periods, needs to occur. nevertheless, 20  research communica on  this study provides clear evidence of the importance of alkali processing for the preservation of archaeological maize and for the identification of different maize phenotypes. understanding how alkali processing affects kernel morphology will allow archaeologists to formulate a statistical method for determining processing techniques and maize varieties in the archaeobotanical record. acknowledgements this research was originally written as my honor’s thesis at the university of california, santa barbara (ucsb) in 2011 and was presented at the 2011 society of ethnobiology conference under the direction of dr. amber vanderwarker. archaeological and experimental aspects of this research were conducted at ucsb. i would like to thank dr. vanderwarker, dr. greg wilson, and dana bardolph for editorial comments and for support and encouragement of my research. two anonymous reviewers provided helpful comments and suggestions. declarations permissions: not applicable. sources of funding: none declared. conflicts of interest: none declared. references cited benz, b.f. 1994. can prehistoric racial diversification be deciphered from burned corn cobs? in corn and culture in the prehistoric new world, edited by s. johannessen and c.a. hastorf, pp. 23-33. westview press, boulder, colorado. bird, r.m. and m.m. goodman. 1977. the races of maize v: grouping maize races on the basis of ear morphology. economic botany 31:471-481. blake, l.w. and h.c. cutler. 2001. plants from the past. the university of alabama press, tuscaloosa. cutler, h.c. and l.w. blake. 1973. plants from archaeological sites east of the rockies. missouri botanical garden, st. louis. goette, s., m. williams, s. johanneseen, and c.a. hastorf. 1994. towards reconstructing ancient maize: experiments in processing and charring. journal of ethnobiology 14:1-21. goodman, m.m. and e. paterniani. 1969. the races of maize: iii. choices of appropriate characters for racial classification. economic botany 23:265 -273. king, f. 1987. prehistoric maize in eastern north america: an evolutionary evaluation. unpublished doctoral dissertation, department of agronomy, university of illinois, urbana. king, f. 1994.variability in cob and kernel characteristics of north american maize cultivars. in corn and culture in the prehistoric new world, edited by s. johannessen and c.a. hastorf, pp. 35-54. westview press, boulder, colorado. martinez-bustos, f., h.e. martinez-flores, e. sanmartin-martinez, f. sanchez-sinencio, y.k. chang, d. barrera-arellano and e. rios. 2001. effect of the components of maize on the quality of masa and tortillas during the traditional nixtamalisation process. journal of the science of food and agriculture 81:1455-1462. pearsall, d.m. 1980. analysis of an archaeological maize kernel cache from manabi province, ecuador. economic botany 34:344-351. smith, b.d. 1995. the emergence of agriculture. scientific american library, new york. sturtevant, e.l. 1898. varieties of corn. usda experiment station, bulletin 137. werts, s.p. and a.h. jahren. 2007. estimation of temperatures beneath archaeological campfires using carbon stable isotope compostion of soil organic matter. journal of archaeological science 34: 850-857. biosketch caroline  dezendorf  is  currently  pursuing  her master’s  degree  in  interna onal  studies  at  the  university  of  oregon. her current research  focuses on  issues of  food  jus ce and la no immigra on.   notes 1 these samples are currently being analyzed in dr. amber vanderwarker’s lab at uc-santa barbara. ethnobotany of breadfruit in vanuatu: review and prospects labouisse. 2016. ethnobiology letters 7(1):14–23 14 research communication within the social and biological sciences are proposed in concluding remarks. breadfruit origins and dispersal recent genetic studies of the genus artocarpus have shed new light on the origins and evolution of breadfruit and related species in the pacific. using genetic markers, zerega et al. (2004) demonstrated that a. altilis derived from a. camansi, a species with large and numerous seeds, originating from new guinea and possibly from the moluccas and the philippines. there is archaeological evidence of arboriculture in the bismarck archipelago before the lapita cultural complex emerged c. 3400 years ago (gosden 1992). due to the lack of woody seeds or hard skin, breadfruit archeological remains have yet been found in western oceania, but it is most likely that domestication of breadfruit occurred in new guinea and the bismarck archipelago through the selection of fruits with fewer seeds and more flesh (lebot 1999). from c. 3200 bp, lapita seafarers and their descendants migrated eastward into remote oceania (santa cruz islands and beyond) carrying a number of staple crops in the form of seeds or root cuttings (kirch 1997:203–212). the shift from sexual to vegetative propagation probably played a major introduction breadfruit (artocarpus altilis) is a traditional staple crop and an important component of pacific island agrosystems (barrau 1958; ragone 1997; yen 1974). in the past it was a key element for islanders’ food security thanks to the potential of the tree to produce high yields under low-input conditions. a range of food and non-food uses, processing and conservation methods, rituals for celebrating harvests, as well as legends associated with breadfruit attest to its cultural importance in the pacific. while the ethnobotanical literature is particularly rich for polynesia and micronesia (e.g., lepofsky 2003; pollock 1992; ragone 1991), information on breadfruit in vanuatu is dispersed over a number of articles, books and gray literature. to date, only one article by walter (1989) gives a general overview of the crop, with observations collected on eight islands, but no recent and comprehensive review of the literature has been conducted. this article organizes published and unpublished material related to breadfruit in vanuatu, with a focus on ethnobotanical data recorded from the first contacts with european voyagers and missionaries to the most recent survey conducted in 2009. some lines for future research on breadfruit ethnobotany of breadfruit in vanuatu: review and prospects jean-pierre labouisse1* 1cirad centre de coopération internationale en recherche agronomique pour le développement, umr agap, f–34398 montpellier, france. *jean-pierre.labouisse@cirad.fr abstract breadfruit is a traditional staple crop and an important component of pacific island agrosystems. this article reviews documentation related to breadfruit in vanuatu with a focus on ethnobotanical data recorded from the first contacts with european voyagers and missionaries to the most recent survey conducted on several islands in 2009. tree management practices, food and non-food uses, conservation techniques, as well as ritual magic intended to increase yields and protect the crop, are described. a database of 539 cultivar names has been compiled. some lines for future research within the social and biological sciences are proposed. received december 8, 2016 open access accepted january 21, 2016 doi 10.14237/ebl.7.1.2016.582 keywords artocarpus, food conservation, pacific, ritual magic, staple crop, tree farming copyright © 2016 labouisse; licensee society of ethnobiology. this is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attributionnoncommercial 4.0 international public license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0), which permits non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. supplementary file available at ojs.ethnobiology.org/index.php/ebl. labouisse. 2016. ethnobiology letters 7(1):14–23 15 research communication role in breadfruit domestication by favoring the emergence of seedless triploid cultivars of a. altilis, which were preferentially propagated and dispersed in eastern polynesia (ragone 2001). in contrast, a very large proportion of cultivars in vanuatu and other countries of western oceania are seeded and presumably diploid, and show greater genetic diversity compared to the cultivars of eastern polynesia (zerega et al. 2015). vanuatu, a pacific crossroads and center of diversity the republic of vanuatu is an archipelago made up of 82 islands and islets straddling the 13th and 22nd parallels in the south-western pacific ocean (figure 1), with evidence of settlement as early as 3000 cal yrs bp (petchey et al. 2014). vanuatu may have acted as a crossroads among other archipelagoes (solomons, fiji, and new caledonia) during the lapita expansion period and through the succeeding millennia (bedford and spriggs 2008). polynesian contact is also attested with the settlement after the year ad 1000 of a few islands and islets by people originating from western polynesia (shutler and shutler 1966). as a consequence of its history, vanuatu stands out through its great and still vigorous cultural diversity. vanuatu is also a center of diversity for a large number of plants, such as tubers and root crops, bananas, kava (piper methysticum), and fruit and nut trees (lebot 1999). great yam (dioscorea alata) and taro (colocasia esculenta) are the chief crops as, in addition to their status as main staple food, they are essential for holding customary ceremonies. although less prestigious than root crops, fruit and nut trees are important components of subsistence agriculture, with a dozen cultivated species (lebot et al. 2008). the last national agriculture census showed that breadfruit comes after cutnut (barringtonia edulis) and tahitian chestnut (inocarpus fagifer) with 218,957 trees planted across the country, which amounts to approximately six breadfruit trees per rural household (vnso 2008:116). however, that number varies considerably depending on the province. in torba province (banks and torres groups), breadfruit ranks first among cultivated trees with an average of 17 trees per household, while in the southern tafea province, there are only 4.5 trees per household. going beyond the statistics and assessing the past and current importance and diversity of breadfruit on the islands of vanuatu, more attention needs to be paid to ethnobotanical information, such as tree management practices, variety naming, food and nonfood uses, conservation techniques, cultural significance, as well as ritual magic intended to increase yields and protect the crop. first historical records the earliest description of breadfruit in vanuatu was made in 1606 by quirós on the island of gaua in the banks group (kelly 1966:201) and at big bay on the northern side of espiritu santo (zaragoza 1876:338). in may 1768, bougainville crossed the archipelago and landed on ambae where the people brought him breadfruit and let him cut down breadfruit trees (la roncière 1921:242; taillemite 2006:254). in 1774, during the second voyage of james cook, breadfruit was mentioned by the naturalist j. r. forster in port sandwich, south east malekula (hoare 1982:568), and on tanna (hoare 1982:620). figure 1 map of vanuatu with the provinces (in upper case), the groups of islands (in bold), and the main islands mentioned in the article (normal font). the stars show the polynesian outliers (in italics). labouisse. 2016. ethnobiology letters 7(1):14–23 16 research communication in 1839, the london missionary society established the first mission in the southern islands. among the missionaries, inglis (1890:114–116) made an accurate description of breadfruit production and uses on aneityum, and gunn (1914:181), who was a medical missionary from 1883 onward, did the same on futuna. further north, murray (1894:36) listed the names of 65 varieties in the village of ranon on ambrym and codrington (1891:304) counted 60 varieties of breadfruit on mota, a small island of the banks group. recent surveys and collections brief mentions of breadfruit in vanuatu can be found in publications by linguists, geographers, anthropologists, and agricultural specialists during the twentieth century, but the most detailed studies were conducted by parham (1966) and, above all, by walter in the 1980s (walter 1989). walter (1989) gives detailed ethnobotanical information (uses, management practices, legends), as well as a list of cultivar names and short descriptions of 130 cultivars recorded on eight islands. more recently two surveys were conducted by navarro, labouisse, and malres in 2004–2005, and by mies and malapa in 2009, both in partnership with the vanuatu agricultural research and technical center (vartc) and with the support from the pacific plant genetic resources network (papgren). results of the first survey were reported in a short communication during the first international symposium on breadfruit held in fiji in 2007 (navarro et al. 2007). by merging the data from both survey campaigns, mies (2009) compiled a catalogue of 222 accessions observed in 31 villages. this unpublished catalogue presents passport data (location, cultivar name), morphological data, cooking methods, miscellaneous uses, and provides pictures of the main parts of the trees. when possible, suckers were taken from roots and, after transfer to vartc, a hundred cultivars were established in a field genebank where they are being characterized following standard descriptors. breadfruit tree management practices in vanuatu, the breadfruit tree is found in several landscape settings: backyards, along roads and paths, borders of gardens, coconut and cocoa plantations, but also in abandoned inland villages and gardens, as well as in forest areas on the larger islands. the seeded forms largely predominate in the country but both ways of propagation (from seeds and from root suckers) coexist (walter 1989). it is likely that a significant proportion of trees are deliberately planted after clonal propagation of forms selected by people according to various criteria (yield, seasonality, fruit size and shape, flesh color and taste, number of seeds, and use). in forest areas and plantations, trees are often born from seeds dispersed by animals, such as flying foxes of the genus pteropus (banack 1998). these feral trees constitute a large reservoir of diversity that exhibits recombined characters of parental trees. if one of them shows outstanding or uncommon characters, it may be propagated by root suckers and planted in other places. typically, it is given a cultivar name at that stage. this selection process was described to us by the chief tari vira of malo during our 2004 survey (navarro et al. 2007). breadfruit cultivars vanuatu is one of the most diverse nations in terms of the number of indigenous languages per head of population. tryon (1997) quoted a figure of 113 languages, some of them spoken by a handful of people. because of the biology of breadfruit, which is heterozygous and sometimes propagated by seeds, and the number of languages spoken in vanuatu, a very large number of cultivar names might be expected at island and country levels. indeed, a database of 580 named entries has been compiled from various sources (supplementary table 1). once synonyms and very similar names were discarded, 539 distinct names were left. the local taxonomy for the cultivars follows the model described by ragone et al. (2004) with a binomial composed of a local head term for breadfruit modified by a descriptive term, or with a monomial in which a descriptive term is used and the term for breadfruit is understood. breadfruit as a food the simplest way to prepare breadfruit is to roast it whole on coals or directly in the fire. this process is used for ordinary home meals, but also when taking a break from gardening or fishing. the fruit can be boiled or baked in an earth oven, wrapped in heliconia leaves, either cut into large chunks or grated to make a laplap [bis]1 pudding. nalot [bis] is the most popular dish made with breadfruit throughout vanuatu. in the past nalot was exclusively prepared by men and consumed during ceremonies and festivals. now it is prepared on feast days, during a family event, or to honor a foreign visitor. the fresh fruit is roasted in the fire, then the labouisse. 2016. ethnobiology letters 7(1):14–23 17 research communication rind, the core, and the seeds are removed. the flesh is placed on a wooden plate and pounded with a pestle. coconut milk is added and the mass thoroughly mixed. then the pudding is laid on a wooden dish, gently hollowed with the skin of a coconut, and filled with hot coconut milk (figure 2). in the north of vanuatu fine wooden artifacts (platters, spoons, pounders, and long knives) were found to be associated with the preparation and eating of nalot (huffman 1996a, b, c; rivers 1914:81–82). conservation techniques local conservation techniques were developed to deal with the seasonal nature of production and the risk of food shortages of staple crops, which result from cyclones, drought, or even earthquakes that can damage taro pond-field systems (walter 1989). the conservation of breadfruit by fermentation in an earth pit developed widely in micronesia and polynesia where it is known under the names mar (ponape, yap), ma (marquesas islands), mahi (society islands), or masi (samoa). storage under quasianaerobic conditions induces a decrease in ph through the conversion of starchy components into lactic acid, which further inhibits degradation by microorganisms. the paste thus remains edible in the pits for many years. regional variations in the methods of preparation have been extensively described for other pacific countries (atchley and cox 1985; cox 1980; pollock 1992; ragone 1991, 2002; yen 1974). in vanuatu, breadfruit fermentation seems to have once been widespread in the central and southern islands, the polynesian outliers futuna and aniwa, as well as on malo. on aneityum, archaeological excavations by shulter and shulter (1966) attest to the existence of numerous earth pits dating to the preeuropean period. pit fermentation techniques were described by inglis (1890:115–116) for this island, where we saw a small pit (namaraï) during our survey in the village of anelgowhat in 2004 (navarro et al. 2007). the fermented paste is called namaraï-ma, inma being the generic term for breadfruit in aneityumese. on erromango, it is called namandaï (barrau 1957). on futuna, mara refers to both the fermented paste and the pit (dougherty 1983:358). on epi, walter (1989) reported the preparation of earth pits called mele, which, in the past, were distributed in several places inland where men used to spend time clearing forest and gardening. on tongoa, the preparation of pits called navinang was reported by weightmann (1989:114). preparation may sometimes include a phase of soaking in the sea as described in the area of melsisi on pentecost by barrau (1957) and walter (1989). the fruit is cut into pieces, placed in holes in the coral reef and covered with leaves and stones. after alternate phases of salt water soaking and sun exposure, the fermented pulp is pounded, mixed with coconut milk and cooked inside small bamboo sticks. less common and probably less valued in the past than in polynesia and micronesia, where fermented food prepared in large quantities played an important role in the prestige economy, the practice of fermenting breadfruit, with some exceptions, seems nevertheless to have almost completely disappeared from vanuatu. the risk of food shortages has been reduced by the introduction of crops, such as cassava, sweet potato, and cocoyam (xanthosoma sagittifolium), which are less seasonal than breadfruit and can be better preserved. moreover, the introduction of a cash economy substantially increased the consumption of figure 2 nalot of breadfruit (ureparapara, banks group). the large wooden spoon contains hot stones to heat the coconut milk that is poured on the paste. note the wooden knife in the right hand of the person. photo by christophe jourdan, 2002. labouisse. 2016. ethnobiology letters 7(1):14–23 18 research communication imported rice, which is always available for purchase in rural stores or can be rapidly shipped in the event of a natural disaster. in the banks group, dried breadfruit (or bredfrut bisket [bis]) is obtained by drying the whole fruit in an oven (netetve) made for that purpose (figure 3). dried breadfruit is called nekey on mota lava and kor in mota. the nekey can be kept for years. it is used as a non-perishable, easy-to-transport food—typically by fishermen at sea—but it can also be given as a gift or be part of exchanges during customary ceremonies. it is generally consumed after pieces are dipped into tea or infusions of orange leaves (s. caillon, personal communication). this preparation of dried breadfruit seems to have been confined to the northern islands and more specifically to mota lava and mota—the latter is called ure kor in mota language, which means “the place full of dried breadfruit” (codrington 1891:7). leaves breadfruit leaves are sometimes used for wrapping food before cooking it in an earth oven or on fire coals. young leaves may be cooked over a fire inside bamboo sticks (walter 1989) and/or added to laplap pudding like for other leafy vegetables (navarro et al. 2007). breadfruit tree wood canoe making first mentioned by bougainville in tahiti, one of the most attested non-food uses of the breadfruit tree is figure 3 preparation of dried breadfruit nekey (mota lava). a peeled fruit is placed on wooden sticks over hot stones. b the oven is surrounded by a framework of flexible wood lined with pandanus leaves. other leaves will be placed on the top. c the dried fruit is tied with pandanus ribbons. photos by muriel navarro, 2004. labouisse. 2016. ethnobiology letters 7(1):14–23 19 research communication for canoe making (e.g., henry 1928:549; ragone 1991). in vanuatu such use was reported by inglis (1890:114) on aneityum where the breadfruit tree is preferred to all others for that purpose. similar reports exist for malekula (deacon 1934:206–207), futuna (capell 1958:25), mota lava (vienne 1984:129), and tanna (iati 2012:41). slit gongs music plays an essential role in ceremonies organized for transitional life events, such as initiation, gradetaking, and death. customary dances are accompanied by several instruments, the most common one being a large wooden gong that is hollowed out from a tree trunk, slit lengthwise, and often embellished at the top with a stylized face. their confection from breadfruit wood was reported by deacon (1934:507) on malekula, guiart (1956a) on ambrym, and ammann (2012:137, 154) in the banks group. other uses mixed with coconut fiber, breadfruit sap is used for canoe caulking (deacon 1934:206). breadfruit sap is also used to glue feathers on masks (navarro et al. 2007) or, mixed with sawdust or clay to form a sticky paste, to coat sculptures made from wood or fern trunks (deacon 1934:398, 545; guiart 1951). birds and small predators are still trapped using breadfruit latex (walter 1989). in the traditional pharmacopeia of vanua lava, breadfruit sap is used to treat menorrhagia (bourdy and walter 1992). on aneityum, it is applied to wounds (bradacs 2008:75). breadfruit tree shoots mixed with macaranga dioica (navenu) are used to treat headaches and migraines (bradacs et al. 2011). ritual magic like most traditional activities, gardening required magical practices to control climate, soil fertility, and to increase and protect crop production. this occurred through seasonal rites performed by garden magicians (firth 1930). in vanuatu, although yam and taro are the crops most often implicated in these activities, such practices still occur on several islands through the use of sacred stones. on futuna, gunn (1914:221) reported that “the stones for causing bread -fruit to grow were almost exactly like the fruit.” on mota-lava and on malo, the stones were buried near the base of breadfruit trees or placed at the junction of branches (codrington 1891:183; vienne 1984:112; walter et al. 1999:54). on malekula, the stones were kept in clay pots (deacon 1934:612) and on tanna in wooden canoes conserved inland, in sacred places that are reserved for magicians (bonnemaison 1991; guiart 1956b:37–40; iati 2012:81–82). myths and legends myths, legends and other stories related to breadfruit are numerous in polynesia (meilleur et al. 2004:13–15; ragone 1991), but few have been collected in vanuatu. two stories reported by walter (1989) are summarized here. in marpagho, southern malekula, it is said that the first breadfruit was born from the breast of a woman who cut it off herself to feed her small sister, in all likelihood an analogy between latex and milk as a source of food. in central pentecost, ten brothers tried to propagate a tree by planting different parts of it (flower, leaf, bark, etc.) but only one, a man named birisilsil, succeeded by sowing seeds. from that time, people of pentecost preferred to propagate breadfruit from seeds rather than from root suckers. conclusion and prospects by combining historical and ethnobotanical data from a variety of sources, our knowledge and understanding of the importance and status of breadfruit in the islands of vanuatu are increasing. breadfruit is present everywhere in the archipelago, but it appears particularly important on the smaller islands of the banks and the shepherd groups, on futuna and on malo where land resources are limited, but also on ambrym where crop cultivation is often affected by drought and occasional volcanic ash fall. it is not surprising then that different preservation techniques were developed on these islands. while recent statistics for tafea province show a small average number of trees per household, two islands of that province, tanna and aneityum, can also be described as “islands of breadfruit,” characterized by complex abundanceenhancing rituals and the use of pit preservation. more in-depth studies on the cultural and social aspects are required to better understand how the planting material (seeds or cuttings) circulate among landscape features, among people, and among islands. there is a lack of detailed studies about many aspects of current management practices (selection criteria, proportion of trees obtained by each method of propagation), which appear to vary from island to island. additional surveys should be carried out to expand country coverage. morphological and ethnobotanical descriptions of cultivars should be supplemented with genetic characterizations. for example, one genotype may have multiple names in different languages, and distinct genotypes may share the same labouisse. 2016. ethnobiology letters 7(1):14–23 20 research communication cultivar name. recent advances in molecular marker techniques for breadfruit (gardner et al. 2015; witherup et al. 2013) provide valuable tools for characterizing the uniqueness of a genotype, tracing its origin and perhaps also indicating its propagation history. bonnemaison (1974) has described the impact of copra industry development and that of other cash crops (cocoa and coffee) on the process of “disintensification” of vanuatu agriculture. changes in the traditional food economy have already resulted in a degree of crop diversity erosion (number of cultivated varieties) and in knowledge related to cultivation, uses, and processing methods. these are coupled with an increasing dependency on imported foods and dietary changes now contributing to a high prevalence of obesity and related health problems. nevertheless, information gathered during the most recent surveys seems to show that local knowledge of breadfruit is still vigorous in many areas of vanuatu. a significant number of named cultivars and their distinctive characteristics are still known, probably because many trees are planted in backyards, facilitating intergenerational knowledge transfer. in most rural areas, breadfruit is secondary to root crops and rice in the daily diet, but nalot is still valued and, while pit conservation has almost completely disappeared, nekey-making has withstood the imported foods and remains a source of pride in mota lava. in the agroclimatic conditions of vanuatu, breadfruit trees once established require low energy and other inputs. as a starchy crop, it is the only tree crop that provides “real food” (pollock 1992:22) as well as non-food products and services. genetic diversity is maintained thanks to the use of both seeds and root cuttings. all these characteristics may make rural households more resilient to natural disasters and economic shocks, as occurs when prices drop for cash crops (lebot and siméoni 2015). breadfruit diversity, management practices, and uses deserve to be better documented and promoted in vanuatu to allow for adaptation to environmental and economic change, as well as for food security and sustained human health. notes 1[bis] = bislama term. bislama is the vanuatu variety of pacific english-based pidgins. acknowledgements the author thanks peter biggins and brien meilleur for editorial input. declarations permissions: permission was obtained from christophe jourdan and muriel navarro to use their photographs. sources of funding: none 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ethnobiology letters book review 16 spirits of the air: birds and american indians in the south shepard krech iii. 2009. university of georgia press, athens. pp. 245, copiously illustrated. $44.95 (hardbound). isbn-13 978-0-8203-2815-7. reviewed by e. n. anderson1 reviewer address: 1 department of anthropology, university of california, riverside, riverside, california 92521 received: march 26 th 2009 volume 1:16-17 published: august 4 th 2010 © 2010 society of ethnobiology birds were as important to native americans in the south as to native americans elsewhere, and shepard krech iii has done a major service in assembling a vast, scattered collection of documentation. the peoples of southeastern north america were shattered by disease and war very soon after european contact. de soto, exploring the south in the 1500s, found up to half the villages in some areas wiped out by diseases— surely introduced ones—that had run ahead of any european travel (see sauer 1971). by the time fairly extensive documentation is available, in the 18th century, many tribes were extinct and others reduced to a few survivors living with more isolated groups. good ethnographic research came even later, at the end of the 19th century, but at least the ethnographers— notably james mooney, john swanton and frank speck—were among the most sympathetic and thorough of that era. krech draws on all this, and on extensive archaeological research. this book not only assembles the scholarship; it displays spectacularly beautiful art. there are striking illustrations, usually in color, on almost every page. the famous paintings by mark catesby, alexander wilson, and john james audubon are featured. so are the almost equally famous drawings by john white and etchings by theodore de bry, from the 16th century. other illustrations, as well as artifacts, archaeological specimens, and ethnographic photographs are notable. this book qualifies as a “coffee tabler,” but is scholarly, unlike the typical member of that breed. birds were incredibly abundant in the south before 1850. krech provides many of the old accounts—often by trained scientists—of flocks miles long, shores and waters teeming with fowl, and hunters killing whole mounds of birds in a few minutes. the last item suggests why there are no such flocks today. indeed, bird populations are still plummeting in the south, and areas still teeming with birds in my youth have achieved something very close to “silent spring” now. krech summarizes this literature under several heads. most obvious, of course, is “subsistence.” given the vast numbers of birds, it is not surprising that the native peoples depended heavily on them for food, as all early sources reported. hunting with blowguns was important and well-described here. turkeys were especially important, but ducks and the now-extinct passenger pigeon contributed heavily. krech is properly skeptical about recent claims that passenger pigeons may have become vastly more common after contact, though they probably rebounded somewhat (see p. 37). archaeology does not always show this. i believe the reason is poor preservation of bones in that climate. next comes “material culture.” feathers were and are extremely important. bones were used. often a whole bird skin was used as an ornament or symbol. not all bird uses involved killing; purple martin gourds were set up to encourage this bird to live around houses, where it drove away avian pests and ate insects. many chapters on symbol, religion, medicine, and myth follow. given the fragmentary documentation, it is amazing that we know so much. folk taxonomy is largely lost, but beliefs were often noted by early writers. many ideas concern owls and other night birds, which are not always bad omens. as elsewhere in the world, eagles are the symbols of strength, hawks of predation, vultures of uncleanness—but vultures were creators and powerful helpers as well. other birds figure less importantly. we have little record of smaller birds, though no one missed the mockingbird’s singing ability or the jay’s noisiness and cleverness. the native peoples surely had far more knowledge, especially of smaller birds, than was recorded; most of the ethnoornithology must have been lost. perhaps some manuscript record(s) will still turn up. ethnobiology letters book review 17 i am struck by some similarities to yucatec maya beliefs (anderson and medina tzuc 2005). kingbirds were used in love magic by the cherokee (p. 161) as they are today by the yucatec. woodpeckers were spiritually important in the south, as they still are in yucatan. most impressive are similarities of southern beliefs about the large woodpeckers, notably the ivorybill, to material in the ritual of the bacabs, a truly bizarre and only partially comprehensible maya text on magical healing. dating to around 1567, ritual of the bacabs survives in a copy from the late 18th century, discovered in 1914-15 (see arzápalo marín 1987). it details many magical beliefs about the large woodpeckers, including the guatemalan ivorybill and the lineated, collectively kolonte’ in maya, which correspond closely to the ivorybill and pileated of the southeastern united states. jays, hawks, night birds (pauraques in the bacabs, whippoorwills in the south), doves, large flycatchers, and other birds also figure in both the bacab rituals and the southern native religious and healing beliefs. it seems beyond doubt that the correspondences, especially in regard to the woodpeckers, show some cultural relationship. i am not aware of similar beliefs in central or north mexico. the blowguns are another point of contact; they were once important to yucatec hunters. contact through the caribbean or directly by sea is implied. krech discusses “human impact on birds” on pp. 175-190. the southern peoples had no domesticated birds; evidently there were enough wild turkeys that they felt no need of picking up the mexican domesticated form. there is nothing in the texts about management of wild populations of birds, or, for that matter, deer or other mammals. krech takes this to mean there probably was no idea of conserving or sustainable management (cf. krech 1999). “absence of evidence is not evidence of absence,” however, and we have only late and unsystematic accounts of badly shattered populations. a belief similar to the maya belief in the spirit protector of wild turkeys (and probably other game birds), sometimes called the leaflitter turkey, would probably not have survived. the maya do not “conserve” in the modern sense, but they used to hunt conservatively and responsibly, killing no more than immediately needed, and the forest spirits would punish those who overhunted (anderson and medina tzuc 2005). this sort of attitude would not last long in a europeanized world. in regard to deer, the “deerskin trade” (described in krech’s book, with reference to a large literature) dominated native economics in the 18th century, and surely would have led to loss of conservation ideology. we will probably never know whether bird hunting was regulated or not. a few minor cautions are in order. one is that evaluation of sources is not always ideal. we are not given much assessment of the relative reliability of the early works. also, krech does not mention that theodore de bry’s late-16th century etchings, based on contemporary drawings, were heavily reworked to resemble classical-style models in de bry’s studio. use with caution. a minor error identifies the european “night raven” as the bittern (p. 24); it is the blackcrowned night-heron (nycticorax nycticorax in latin, doubling an old european name, greek for “night raven”). ethnobiology books are catching on as coffee tablers. many spectacularly beautiful ethnobiological works have crossed my desk recently, ranging from dave yetman’s superb book about columnar cacti (yetman 2007) to anthony miller and miranda morris’ ethnoflora of the soqotra archipelago (2004). this is a worthy addition. references cited anderson, e. n., and felix medina tzuc. 2005. animals and the maya in southeast mexico. university of arizona press, tucson. arzápalo marín, ramón. 1987. el ritual de los bacabes. unam, mexico city. krech, shepard, iii. 1999. the ecological indian: myth and reality. w. w. norton, new york. miller, anthony g., and miranda morris. 2004. ethnoflora of the soqotra archipelago. royal botanic garden edinburgh, edinburgh. sauer, carl. 1971. sixteenth century north america: the land and the people as seen by europeans. university of california press, berkeley. yetman, david. 2007. the great cacti: ethnobotany and biogeography. university of arizona press, tucson. the paleobiolinguistics of domesticated chili pepper (capsicum spp.) 1  research communica on  years to reconstruct vocabularies of proto-languages spoken in prehistoric times, such as proto-indoeuropean and proto-uralic. this involves comparing vocabularies of languages of the same family (all of which are descended from the same proto-language) for phonologically similar words having the same meanings or very similar meanings. if such words show phonological regularities known as sound correspondences, then they are cognate and, consequently, are descendant forms (reflexes) of words found in their common ancestral language. knowledge of sound correspondences facilitates the actual reconstruction of words of a proto-language’s vocabulary. pbl applies the comparative approach of historical linguistics to the reconstruction of words for living things. so far, most pbl attention has focused on words for plants. reconstruction of the phonological shapes of ancient proto-words for species is usually straightforward, with no ambiguity with respect to principles of comparative linguistics. reconstruction of the referents of proto-words can be straightforward as well, especially when all the this is the second in a series of papers each presenting paleobiolinguistic (pbl) maps of a single crop domesticated in the new world. the first, brown et al. (2013), provides maps for squash (cucurbita spp.). papers projected for publication in ethnobiology letters include treatments of manioc (manihot esculenta), maize (zea mays), beans (phaseolus spp.), and tobacco (nicotiana spp.). our ultimate goal is to produce an online compendium, paleobiolinguistic atlas of new world crops, in which maps for at least 30 botanical taxa are presented. papers appearing in ethnobiology letters will present pbl maps accompanied by brief background discussions of crop-origins studies from archaeology and botany. the method and theory of paleobiolinguistics is discussed in detail in preceding studies (brown et al. 2013; brown 2006a,b, 2010). a brief review of highlights is provided here. the comparative method of historical linguistics has been used for around 150 the paleobiolinguis cs of domes cated chili pepper (capsicum spp.)   cecil h. brown1, charles r. clement2, pa ence epps3, eike luedeling4, søren wichmann5   author address: 1northern illinois university and university of west florida, 1700 scenic highway, #601, pensacola, fl,  32503‐6634, usa, 2ins tuto nacional de pesquisas da amazônia, manaus, am, brazil, 3university of texas at aus n, aus n,  tx, usa, 4world agroforestry centre (icraf), nairobi, kenya, 5max planck ins tute for evolu onary anthropology, leipzig,  germany.  brown.cecil@yahoo.com received: september 21, 2012  volume: 4:1‐11  published: january 19, 2013  © 2013 society of ethnobiology  abstract: paleobiolinguis cs employs the compara ve method of historical linguis cs to reconstruct the biodiversity known  to human groups of the remote, unrecorded past. comparison of words for biological species from  languages of the same  language family facilitates reconstruc on of the biological vocabulary of the family’s ancient proto‐language. this study uses  paleobiolinguis cs to establish where and when chili peppers (capsicum spp.) developed significance for different prehistoric  na ve american groups. this entails mapping in both  me and geographic space proto‐languages for which words for chili  pepper reconstruct. maps show the broad distribu on of capsicum through mesoamerica and south america mirroring  its  likely  independent domes ca on  in  these  regions. proto‐language dates  indicate  that human  interest  in  chili pepper had  developed in most of la n america at least a millennium before a village‐farming way of life became widespread.   key words: archaeobotany, capsicum spp., crop origins, historical  linguis cs, na ve american indians, paleobiolinguis cs,  plant domes ca on, plant gene cs   editor note: this ar cle is the first in a series we aim to  publish  on  paleobiolinguis cs.  because  it  is  a  special  series, we have allowed an increased number of figures.  mailto:brown.cecil@yahoo.com� 2  research communica on  offspring words designate the same genus or species, such as capsicum spp. or c. annuum. when meanings of cognate words differ, even if only slightly, e.g., some refer to c. annuum, and others mean ‘spicy’, there is less certainty that the proto-word actually designated the botanical species itself. in our application of pbl, all reflexes of reconstructed words typically denote the same botanical kind, or, if not, show distributional patterns strongly indicating that the target plant was the proto-term’s referent. an important assumption of pbl is that if a word for a species is found to reconstruct for a protolanguage, then that species was of considerable salience to the people who spoke the language. this assumption is strongly supported by research of berlin et al. (1973) and balée and moore (1991) showing that plant words reconstructing respectively for proto-tzeltalan (mayan, mesoamerica) and prototupi-guaraní (south america) designate species that are of robust cultural importance for modern groups speaking offspring languages. on the other hand, plants for which proto-words do not reconstruct are usually not as culturally significant for these groups. if the botanical kind designated by a proto-word occurs as a domesticated crop in modern times, then it may have been a domesticated crop in prehistoric times. however, there is no guarantee that such was the case. the plant in question could have been, for example, a protected wild species, perhaps one on the verge of being intensely managed, and, ultimately, domesticated. the approach of pbl so far has been to assume confidently only that the species was salient to a prehistoric people, meaning that it was known to most adult speakers of the proto-language. all of the approximately 30 species of chili figure1. chili pepper‐term reconstruc on informa on from table 1 plo ed on map covering north america and northern  mexico. centers of circles locate homeland centers of proto‐languages (see geographic coordinates of table 1) and circle  size indicates proto‐language age (see “years before present” of table 1), with larger circles indica ng older proto‐languages  and smaller circles, younger ones. circles are red filled if a chili pepper term reconstructs for a proto‐language, and transpar‐ ent if not.  3  research communica on  pepper are native to the new world, and five contain domesticated populations. the domesticated taxa include the world’s most widely-grown spice, capsicum annuum l., as well as c. baccatum l., c. chinense jacq., c. frutescens l., and c. pubescens ruiz & pav. work during the last half century has established that c. annuum was brought into domestication in south-central mexico, c. baccatum in the andean foothills and adjacent lowlands of bolivia and extreme southern peru, c. chinense in north-central amazonia, and c. pubescens in the mid-elevation andes of southern peru and bolivia (eshbaugh 1993; pickersgill 1984). capsicum frutescens remains a conundrum, since it hybridizes easily with c. annuum and c. chinense, both of which also hybridize, suggesting the proposal of a c. annuum-chinense-frutescens complex (pickersgill 1984), and that c. frutescens may be part of c. chinense, rather than a distinct species (eshbaugh 1993). nonetheless, c. frutescens is always listed as a domesticated capsicum (bosland 2008; perry et al. 2007; pickersgill 2007), and is believed to have been brought into domestication in central america (pickersgill 1984), the caribbean (bosland 2008), or southwestern amazonia (pickersgill and heiser 1977). the oldest macro-botanical remains identified as domesticated c. annuum are retrieved from preceramic strata of dry caves in two areas of mexico, the tehuacán valley (puebla state) and ocampo (tamaulipas state), with dates between 9000 and 7000 bp (mcclung de tapia 1992). these dates are produced indirectly through conventional radiocarbon dating of archaeological materials associated with botanical remains, a method yielding less precise dates than those produced by accelerator mass spectrometry (ams). if eventually subjected to ams analysis, the tehuacan and ocampo remains may prove to be somewhat younger. nonetheless, they are comparable in great age with indirect dates of c. chinense from guitarrero cave, in the mid-elevation peruvian andes (pearsall 1992). given the relative imprecision of indirect radiocarbon dating, pickersgill (2007) and perry et al. (2007) conservatively suggest that domestifigure 2. chili pepper‐term reconstruc on informa on from table 2 plo ed on map covering mesoamerica.  4  research communica on  cated c. annuum was present by 6000 bp at the latest, and c. chinense and c. baccatum by about 4000 bp. capsicum frutescens is reported from huaca prieta, northern pacific peru, between 4000 and 3000 bp (pearsall 1992), but difficulties in distinguishing c. frutescens from c. chinense make this assessment problematic. no clearly identified c. pubescens are recorded from archaeological sites in south america (pearsall 1992, 2008). tables 1 3 present chili pepper-term reconstructions for proto-languages of three major regions of the new world: (1) north america and northern mexico (table 1); (2) southern mexico and northern central america (henceforth mesoamerica) (table 2), and (3) southern central america and south america (table 3). the only new world regions not covered are arctic and subarctic parts of alaska and canada where chili pepper occurs only as a historical introduction. chili pepper is also a historical introduction to most groups of north america north of mexico (accounting for the scant attestation of protolanguages in the region for which chili pepper terms reconstruct [see figure 1]). the tables list major proto-languages of the americas widely regarded by historical linguists as demonstrated. some major proto-languages are not included because lexical information from daughter languages is not sufficiently available for drawing either positive or negative conclusions about chili pepper-term reconstruction. for each proto-language listed, either a reconstructed word for chili pepper is presented, or nr which stands for “not reconstructafigure 3. chili pepper‐term reconstruc on informa on from table 3 plo ed on map covering southern central america and  south america. area enclosed by yellow square is enlarged in map of figure 4.  5  research communica on  ble.” nr is a designation used when terms for chili pepper are present in all or most languages of a family, but, nonetheless, are not cognate and, hence, do not attest to a chili pepper term in their common ancestral language. nr, then, never indicates nonreconstructibility because of missing data. dates for proto-languages presented in the tables are intended to be the latest dates at which these languages were spoken (just before breaking up into daughter languages). these are calculated through use of asjp (automated similarity judgment program) chronology, a computational dating approach based on the lexical similarity of languages and a set of 52 calibration dates for proto-language breakups documented through historical, epigraphic, and archaeological records (see holman et al. 2011). the discrepancies between asjp estimated dates and the 52 calibration dates are on average 29 percent as large as the estimated dates themselves, a figure that does not differ significantly among language families of the world; also, younger dates tend to be more accurate than older ones (holman et al. 2011). the 29 percent average difference between an estimated date and its calibration date should be viewed as the estimated date’s margin of error. since an asjp date indicates the latest date at which a protolanguage was spoken, plausibly any proto-language could have been spoken hundreds of years if not more before its asjp date. occasionally, an asjp date for a proto-language may be older than a date for its own parent language. for example, proto-southern arawakan (4461 bp) has an asjp date older than that for proto-arawakan (4134 bp). this sometimes occurs in asjp chronology when a language group’s breakup is closely figure 4. enlargement of the area of map of figure 3 enclosed in yellow square.  6  research communica on  followed in time by the breakup of its immediate subgroup. the attested variability of asjp dates (i.e., margin of error) accounts for this apparent aberrancy (holman et al. 2011:872). possible geographic coordinates for protolanguage homeland centers given in the tables are produced through automation using an algorithm for identifying the maximum lexical diversity within a language family (wichmann et al. 2010). the geographic center of lexical diversity of a family is assumed to correlate with where the family’s protolanguage was spoken. tables also give a linguistic family affiliation for each proto-language. the information reported in tables 1-3 is plotted in figures 1, 2 and 3 to give a visual perspective on both the chronological and geographic distributions of reconstructed chili pepper terms. these are maps on which proto-languages are located and their ages indicated by the size of circles locating them, larger circles indicating greater chronological depth than smaller circles. circles are red filled if a chili pepper term reconstructs for the proto-language, and are transparent if not. the map of figure 4 is an enlargement of a graphically congested area of the map of figure 3. due to methodological considerations, reconstructed words for chili peppers found in new world proto-languages cannot be narrowed referentially to the species level, although informed speculation can sometimes associate some reconstructed names with specific species (see below). pbl analysis of chili pepper dovetails robustly with archaeological and genetic evidence relating to origins of domesticated capsicum annuum. the oldest years  before  present  proto‐language  proto‐word for  chili pepper (nr =  not reconstructable)  homeland  center geographic  coordinates  family  affilia on  proto‐word  source  4018  uto‐aztecan  nr  27.5, ‐110.25  uto‐aztecan    3663  u an  nr  38.33, ‐123  u an    3472  southern uto‐aztecan  nr  27.5, ‐110.25  uto‐aztecan    3434  kiowa‐tanoan  nr  37, ‐99  kiowa‐tanoan    2576  northern uto‐aztecan  nr  39, ‐109  uto‐aztecan    2500  yukian  nr  38.5, ‐122.5  yukian    2400  sonoran  *ko’okoli  27.5, ‐110.25  uto‐aztecan  1  2141  miwokan  nr  38.33, ‐123  u an    1865  yuman  nr  32.67, ‐116.17  yuman    1827  taracahitan  *kokori  27.75, ‐108.67  uto‐aztecan  authors  1737  numic  nr  39, ‐109  uto‐aztecan    1587  cupan  nr  33.17, ‐116.5  uto‐aztecan    1573  southern numic  nr  39, ‐109  uto‐aztecan    1245  delta‐californian yu‐ man  nr  32.67, ‐116.7  yuman    1241  e miwokan  nr  38, ‐121  u an    1234  western miwokan  nr  38.33, ‐123  u an    1213  tarahumaran  *kokori  27.75, ‐108.67  uto‐aztecan  authors  1148  central numic  nr  37, ‐117  uto‐aztecan    899  tepiman  *ko’okori  29, ‐111  uto‐aztecan  authors  718  apachean  nr  36.58, ‐104  athabaskan    384  tewa  nr  35.83 ‐110.42  kiowa‐tanoan    table 1. chili pepper‐term reconstruc on for proto‐languages of north america and northern mexico.  proto‐word source:  1. stubbs 2011   7  research communica on  table 2. chili pepper‐term reconstruc on for proto‐languages of mesoamerica (southern mexico and northern central  america).  years  before  present  proto‐language  proto‐word for  chili pepper (nr =  not reconstructable)  homeland  center geographic  coordinates  family  affilia on  proto‐word  source  6591  otomanguean  *ɂki3  18, ‐96.92  otomanguean  1  5498  popolocan‐zapotecan  *ki  17.17, ‐96.17  otomanguean  authors  5357  amuzgo‐mixtecan  *nɂsah3  16.92, ‐97.58  otomanguean  1  4542  mixtecan  *(h)yaɂ, hyah, hɵaɂ2  16.92, ‐97.58  otomanguean  1  4274  totozoquean  nr  19.92, ‐97.42  totozoquean    3654  otopamean  *(m)ɂi  20.08, ‐100.08  otomanguean  2  3149  zapotecan  *kiiɂnaɂ  17.17, ‐96.17  otomanguean  3  3140  mixtec‐cuicatec  *ya  16.92, ‐97.58  otomanguean  authors  3036  popolocan  *hña  18, ‐96.92  otomanguean  1  2445  chiapanec‐mangue  *nii‐ngiɂ  17.07  ‐92.73   otomanguean  1  2220  mayan  *iihk  15.42, ‐91.83  mayan  4  2214  otomian  *ɂi  20.08, ‐100.08  otomanguean  5  2209  chocho‐popolocan  *hna  17.67, ‐97.42  otomanguean  authors  1935  chinantecan  *ų:hl  17.92, ‐96.5  otomanguean  6  1783  popoloca  *hna  18, ‐96.92  otomanguean  authors  1676  zapotec  *kiiɂnaɂ  17.17, ‐96.17  otomanguean  3  1649  quichean‐mamean  *iik  15.42, ‐91.83  mayan  4  1596  mixe‐zoquean  *ni:wi  17.22, ‐96.03  totozoquean  7  1520  general aztec  *čiil‐  18.35, ‐99.83  uto‐aztecan  8  1492  greater mamean  *iik  15.42, ‐91.83  mayan  4  1437  mixtec  *ya’a  16.92, ‐97.58  otomanguean  authors  1435  totonacan  *pi’n  19.92, ‐97.42  totozoquean  9  1432  cholan‐tzeltalan  *iihch  16.83, ‐92.83  mayan  4  1225  kanjobalan‐chujean  *iik  15.83, ‐91.83  mayan  4  1198  corachol  *ku'ukuri  22.17, ‐104.83  uto‐aztecan  authors  1186  aztec  *čiil‐  20.63, ‐98.58  uto‐aztecan  authors  1148  cholan  *iich  14.81, ‐89.38  mayan  4  1058  chujean  *ich  15.92, ‐91.58  mayan  4  997  cha no  *kìnáɂ  16.25, ‐97.38  otomanguean  3  981  greater quichean  *iik  14.78, ‐91.5  mayan  4  948  sub aba‐tlapanecan  *dutų  17.08, ‐99  otomanguean  authors  900  mixe  *ni:wi  17.02, ‐96.07  totozoquean  7  802  kanjobalan  *iik  15.83, ‐91.83  mayan  4  790  yucatecan  *iihk  20, ‐89  mayan  4  787  zoque  *niwi  16.9, ‐94.68  totozoquean  7  741  otomi  *ɂi  20.08, ‐100.08  otomanguean  10  511  tzeltalan  *ich  16.83, ‐92.83  mayan  4  1. rensch 1976 2. bartholomew 1965 3. campbell 2013 4. brown and wichmann 2004 5. newman and weitlaner 1950b 6. rensch 1989 7. wichmann 1995 8. campbell and langacker 1978 9. brown et al. 2011 10. newman and weitlander 1950a proto-word source: 8  research communica on  years  before  present  proto‐language  proto‐word  for chili pepper (nr =  not reconstructable)  homeland center  geographic  coordinates  family affilia on  proto‐word  source  7266  macro‐ge  nr  ‐11.3, ‐53  macro‐ge    4701  mataco‐guaykuru  nr  ‐22.5, ‐62.58  mataco‐guaykuru    4461  southern arawakan  *tsi   ‐10.33, ‐74.33  arawakan  authors  4400  chibchan  nr  9.75, ‐83.42  chibchan    4134  arawakan  *ačɨdɨ  1, ‐69.17  arawakan  1  4085  n arawakan  *ači  1, ‐69.17  arawakan  authors  3943  panoan‐tacanan  nr  ‐7.5, ‐75  panoan‐tacanan    3585  tupi  nr  ‐8, ‐62  tupi    3518  caribbean n arawakan  *(h)ači  12, ‐72  arawakan  authors  3310  salivan  *tare'te  5, ‐67  salivan  authors  3178  zaparoan  nr  ‐3.25, ‐74  zaparoan    3124  nadahup  nr  0, ‐69  nadahup    3041  barbacoan  nr  0.67, ‐79  barbacoan    2927  witoto‐ocaina  *hiɂpí‐  ‐2.75, ‐71.75  witoto‐ocaina‐nonuya  2  2909  guaykuruan  nr  ‐26.5, ‐59  mataco‐guaykuru    2857  witoto‐ocaina‐nonuya  *(hi)pi‐  ‐1.25, ‐72.5  witoto‐ocaina‐nonuya  3  2807  nambiquaran  nr  ‐13, ‐59  nambiquaran    2774  misumalpan  *kuma  13, ‐84.5  misumalpan  4  2731  talamancan  *yibah  9.75, ‐83.42  chibchan  authors  2699  tucanoan  *p’ia  0.33, ‐70.25  tucanoan  5  2593  inland n arawakan  *(h)a(ɂ)(n)tsi  1, ‐69.17  arawakan  6  2503  venezuelan cariban  *pëmëi  6.5, ‐66  cariban  authors  2433  southern guaykuruan  *kodai  ‐26.5, ‐59  mataco‐guaykuru  authors  2414  north barbacoan  nr  1.5, ‐78.25  barbacoan    2412  cariban  *pëmëi  10.17, ‐72.75  cariban  7  2404  matacoan  *pa‐ahn‐ajn  ‐22.5, ‐62.58  mataco‐guaykuru  8  2271  boran  *dĩĩ‐ɂoï  ‐2.17, ‐72.33  boran  2  2258  chocoan  nr  6.83, ‐77.17  chocoan    2156  western tucanoan  *p’ia  ‐2.83, ‐72.5  tucanoan  authors  1931  chapacuran  nr  ‐13.42, ‐63.17  chapacuran    1850  tupari  *kõy  ‐12.5, ‐62.5  tupi  9  1780  mascoian  *yam‐na khik  ‐23.2, ‐58  mascoian  authors  1764  arauan  *kashi’i  ‐6, ‐70.5  arauan  10  1717  quechuan  *uchu  0.33, ‐78  quechuan  11  1672  panoan  nr  ‐7.5, ‐75  panoan‐tacanan    1647  bolivia‐parana  *iče   ‐15.17, ‐65.42  arawakan  authors  1634  mainline panoan  *yoči  ‐7.5, ‐75  panoan‐tacanan  12  table 3. chili pepper‐term reconstruc on for proto‐languages of southern central america and south america.  (con nued on next page)  9  research communica on  1607  jabu   nr  ‐12.25, ‐62.25  macro‐ge    1590  tacanan  *biju  ‐13.33, ‐66.5  panoan‐tacanan  13  1569  harakmbet  *ɨg  ‐12.5, ‐70.5  harakmbet  authors  1550  tupi‐guarani  *kɨɂɨj  ‐8, ‐62  tupi  14  1519  kampan  *tsi kana  ‐10.33, ‐74.33  arawakan  authors  1419  cayapa‐colorado  *tʸun  0.67, ‐79  barbacoan  15  1402  guianan cariban  *pëmëi, *asï(sï)  3.25, ‐55.75  cariban  authors  1395  cabecar‐bribri  *dipa  9.42, ‐83  chibchan  authors  1335  kakua‐nukak  *tubni  0.88, ‐69.56  kakua‐nukak  authors  1319  yanomam  *praki  3.5, ‐62.83  yanomam  authors  1291  guahiban  *non‐hi  6.5, ‐71.33  guahiban  16  1241  eastern tucanoan  *bia  0.33, ‐70.25  tucanoan  authors  1185  kawapanan  *nu(ɂ)kaɂ  ‐5.5, ‐77  kawapanan  17  1169  pemongan  *pëmëi  4, ‐60  cariban  authors  992  taranoan  *pëmëi  1, ‐73  cariban  18  974  quechua ii  *uchu  0.33, ‐78  quechuan  authors  875  embera  *pʰi'da  5.25, ‐76.66  chocoan  authors  678  jivaroan  *ximya  ‐2.5, ‐78  jivaroan  authors  419  coconucan  *kɨ’rɨ  2.5, ‐76.5  barbacoan  authors  414  witoto proper  *hipi‐  ‐1, ‐73.5  witoto‐ocaina‐nonuya  2  389  mayoruna panoan  *sia  ‐4.42, ‐70.25  panoan‐tacanan  authors  years  before  present  proto‐language  proto‐word  for chili pepper (nr =  not reconstructable)  homeland cen‐ ter geographic  coordinates  family affilia on  proto‐word  source  reconstructed term for capsicum is found for protootomanguean (6592 bp). this language’s homeland is in south-central mexico (figure 2), the area in which c. annuum was domesticated at the latest by 6000 years ago. proto-southern arawakan shows the oldest date for an ancestral language of south america (figures 3 and 4) for which a chili-pepper term reconstructs (4461 bp). the location and chronology of this protolanguage suggest a relationship with the domestication of c. baccatum in the andean foothills and adjacent lowlands of bolivia and extreme southern peru by 4000 bp at the latest. the location and age of protoarawakan suggests a relationship with c. chinense, which is hypothesized to have been domesticated in north-central amazonia by 4000 bp at the latest. proto-languages for which chili pepper terms reconstruct are found broadly distributed through mesoamerica and south america, reflecting the likely independent domestication of capsicum in these two major regions. the early dates of these ancestral languages indicate a human interest in chili peppers in most parts of latin america that preceded widespread development of a village-farming way of life by at least a millennium. 1. payne 1991  2. aschmann 1993  3. echeverri and seifart 2011  4. constenla‐umaña 1987  5. chacon 2012  6. ramirez 2001  7. sergio meira, per. com.  8. najlis 1984  9. moore and galucio 1994  10. dixon 2004  11. willem adelaar, per. com.  12. shell 2008  13. girard 1971  14. mello 2000  15. moore 1962  16. chris an and ma eson 1972  17. pilar valenzuela, per. com.  18. meira 2000  proto-word source: (con nued from previous next page)  10  research communica on  acknowledgements thanks to bernard comrie and an anonymous reviewer who read and 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chinantec languages. summer institute of linguistics, arlington, texas. shell, o. a. 2008. estudios pano iii: las lenguas pano y su reconstrucción. instituto lingüístico de verano, lima, perú. stubbs, b. d. 2011. uto-aztecan: a comparative vocabulary. shumway family history services, flower mound, texas. wichmann, s. 1995. the relationship among the mixezoquean languages of mexico. university of utah press, salt lake city. wichmann, s., a. müller, and v. velupillai. 2010. homelands of the world’s language families: a quantitative approach. diachronica 27(2):247–276. biosketches cecil h. brown is a linguis c anthropologist with  interests in ethnobiology, historical linguis cs, and  na ve american languages.  charles r. clement is a gene cist studying the origin and  domes ca on of na ve amazonian crops, and the  ethnobotany associated with anthropogenic soils and  other domes cated landscapes.  pa ence epps is a linguist whose work inves gates  lowland south american languages from historical,  typological, and descrip ve perspec ves.  eike luedeling is an agricultural scien st mainly con‐ cerned with projec on of climate change impacts on  agricultural and natural ecosystems and with the  development of appropriate adapta on strategies.  søren wichmann specializes in quan ta ve methods in  historical linguis cs and mesoamerican languages. he is  general editor of the journal language dynamics and  change   << /ascii85encodepages false /allowtransparency false /autopositionepsfiles true /autorotatepages /none /binding /left /calgrayprofile (dot gain 20%) /calrgbprofile (srgb iec61966-2.1) /calcmykprofile (u.s. web coated \050swop\051 v2) /srgbprofile (srgb iec61966-2.1) /cannotembedfontpolicy /error /compatibilitylevel 1.4 /compressobjects /tags /compresspages true /convertimagestoindexed true /passthroughjpegimages true /createjobticket false /defaultrenderingintent /default /detectblends true /detectcurves 0.0000 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can be opened with acrobat and adobe reader 5.0 and later.) >> /namespace [ (adobe) (common) (1.0) ] /othernamespaces [ << /asreaderspreads false /cropimagestoframes true /errorcontrol /warnandcontinue /flattenerignorespreadoverrides false /includeguidesgrids false /includenonprinting false /includeslug false /namespace [ (adobe) (indesign) (4.0) ] /omitplacedbitmaps false /omitplacedeps false /omitplacedpdf false /simulateoverprint /legacy >> << /addbleedmarks false /addcolorbars false /addcropmarks false /addpageinfo false /addregmarks false /convertcolors /converttocmyk /destinationprofilename () /destinationprofileselector /documentcmyk /downsample16bitimages true /flattenerpreset << /presetselector /mediumresolution >> /formelements false /generatestructure false /includebookmarks false /includehyperlinks false /includeinteractive false /includelayers false /includeprofiles false /multimediahandling /useobjectsettings /namespace [ (adobe) (creativesuite) (2.0) ] /pdfxoutputintentprofileselector /documentcmyk /preserveediting true /untaggedcmykhandling /leaveuntagged /untaggedrgbhandling /usedocumentprofile /usedocumentbleed false >> ] >> setdistillerparams << /hwresolution [2400 2400] /pagesize [612.000 792.000] >> setpagedevice letter from the editors ethnobiology letters book review 37 landscape, process and power: re-evaluating traditional environmental knowledge serena heckler, ed. 2009. berghahn books, new york. pp. 304, 21 illustrations, bibliography, index. $95.00 (hardback). isbn 978-1-84545-549-1 reviewed by colleen marie o’brien1 reviewer’s address: 1 university of south florida department of anthropology, tampa, fl received: may 26 th 2010 volume 1:37-38 published: september 6 th 2010 © 2010 society of ethnobiology environmental knowledge and its various forms and appellations (ecological, indigenous, local, traditional) has been at the forefront of ethnobotany, ethnobiology, environmental anthropology, and related subdisciplines for the past several decades. current debates both within and outside of academia focus on such questions as: how does environmental knowledge vary within a community and how is it learned and transmitted? how is knowledge lost or transformed in response to rapid global change? how do power, history, and context shape knowledge production and reproduction? and, who should have control over its use and applications? the edited volume landscape, process, and power successfully captures the evolution of traditional environmental knowledge (tek) studies and applications and serves as a guidepost for future directions in the field. this volume is a diverse collection of applied, cognitive, critical, phenomenological, and political economy approaches to the study of tek. its contributors are an assemblage of academics and practitioners with backgrounds in environmental anthropology, ethnobotany, ecology, conservation, and international development. in chapter one, heckler explains the genesis of the book and its organization around the common emergent themes of landscape, process, and power. according to heckler, after a 2004 panel on “tek and change” at the 9th international congress of ethnobiology, it became apparent that the way in which researchers were studying, discussing, and applying tek was changing along with its content. this volume‟s goals are therefore to articulate the fluid character of knowledge resulting from people‟s daily engagement with the landscape around them and to illustrate the historical and political forces that have shaped and continue to influence tek. in chapter two, zent presents a thorough genealogical review of tek studies and describes the current cognitive dissonance in the field as a “sign of strength” (p. 20). according to zent, much of the early work on tek attempted to blur the lines between scientific and indigenous knowledge, so much so in fact, that at times environmental knowledge was entirely “severed from culturally situated practice”(p. 36). this compartmentalizing of knowledge raises social, political, ethical, and methodological concerns which are expanded upon in the following chapters. alexiades discusses the commoditization of knowledge in chapter three, raising critical questions concerning how knowledge is used, represented, and appropriated as well as who benefits from its consumption. in chapter four, carss et al. apply tek to european conservation concerns by integrating local knowledge into fisheries and cormorant (phalacrocorax carbo carbo or phalacrocorax carbo sinensis) management, focusing on how power is distributed in such conflicts. in chapter five, gilberthorpe explains how oil industry development has shaped environmental perceptions of land as well as gender relations in papua new guinea. in chapter six, thomas challenges assumptions regarding indigenous people and conservation in his study on biological diversity and human disturbance in papua new guinea. fujimoto looks at the ethnobotany of the malo of ethiopia in chapter seven, particularly their indirect uses of plants, which play important roles in transmitting agricultural knowledge. in chapter eight, boissiere focuses on the transformation of identities and dynamics of knowledge among the yali and hupla, two ethnic groups who share the same territory in holuwon, west papua new guinea. in chapter nine, vermonden shifts from focusing on the content of tek to discovering configurations of practice and interactions that lead to learning tek in a ethnobiology letters book review 38 fishing village in south buton, sulawesi. in chapter ten, sillitoe revisits the long accepted theory of carrying capacity in the new guinea highlands where the complexity of farming systems makes its application problematic. rounding out the volume in chapter eleven, kassam and ganya demonstrate that knowledge is traditional but not static and that it can dynamically incorporate change by looking at the gabra oromo nomads of northern kenya and how they have successfully adapted and transformed tek to manage their rangelands. one of the important contributions of this volume is that it engages with current scholarship on the effects of global environmental changes on local populations. locals are portrayed not as victims of change but rather as active participants, transforming their practices in novel ways to meet new demands on resources. kassam and ganya are particularly successful at illustrating this point. of course global changes such as those born out of development often prompt unanticipated consequences exemplified by gillberthorpe‟s discussion on the fasu‟s changing values and identity roles after the entrance of an oil company into the region where former land tenure practices have been transformed by the company‟s more static view of land ownership. in similar fashion, thomas predicts that healthcare development in hewa, papua new guinea could also indirectly threaten biodiversity through improved life expectancy, increased housing within close proximity to healthcare facilities, and through shortened fallow periods. another contribution of this volume is its focus on combined methodological approaches for studying tek. fujimoto‟s study highlights the complexities of knowledge systems and how easy it is to overlook information that may not be considered “knowledge” to locals or that is highly varied among actors in a given culture or community. for example, fujimoto argues that the more subtle aspects of tek are “so embedded in local tek that farmers do not recognize it out of context” (p. 157) when describing his experience of studying indirect plant uses with the malo of southwestern ethiopia. fujimoto used participant observation and unstructured interviews in order to discern subtle indirect plant-use practices such as using them as indicators of degraded fields or fertile soils. boissiere uses a mixed method approach for looking at the transformation of identities and dynamics of knowledge-sharing among the yali and hupla, two ethnic groups who share the same territory in holuwon, west papua new guinea. through structured and unstructured interviews, participant observation, migration myth analysis, and in-depth ethnobotanical surveys, boissiere discerns not only what is known about area plants but also gains a broader view about how this information is transmitted and maintained. by using a historical approach, he finds that subsistence and social organization of the two groups is nearly identical. however, by focusing on their myths, religion, and shamanism, there is further evidence of the yali‟s predominance over the hupla. vermonden emphasizes the importance of process in learning tek by investigating the socially situated transmission of fishing activities using a combination of participant observation and structured and unstructured interviews. in each of these cases the use of complementary methods adds clarity and context to the research. very few areas in this volume fall short because of its thorough coverage of the processual aspects of knowledge and how it is mediated through local landscapes and power relationships. however, since the premise of the volume is that knowledge is processual, a chapter focusing on generational change in tek, particularly on children and knowledge acquisition, is missing. there is currently a paucity of published studies on how children learn tek and whether changes in learning are contributing to knowledge loss. overall, this volume succeeds in its purpose to dislodge enduring western notions of tek as static and to firmly center it within an analytical framework of landscape, process, and power. much like tek, the term „landscape‟ has undergone a transformation of its own progressing beyond purely ecological concerns to incorporate historicity, movement, and past and present social relationships. the application of the term landscape to tek is reflective of the interdisciplinary nature of environmental knowledge studies. as its subtitle, “re-evaluating traditional environmental knowledge,” suggests, this volume challenges formerly accepted notions of tek as a panacea for environmental problems, capable of being extracted, packaged, and conveniently exported to other settings and rather presents an alternative view on knowledge as embedded and contextualized within particular landscapes. the critical perspectives of the authors of this book would prompt lively discussion in the classroom, and the book‟s grounding in ethnographic detail and applications are of interest to both research academics and practitioners. microsoft word anderson_review_dove.docx         13    book review   the banana tree at the gate:  a history of marginal peoples and  global markets in borneo    michael r. dove.  new haven, ct:  yale university press, 2011.  xix, 332 pp.  illus.  bibliography, indexes.  isbn  978‐0‐300‐15321‐7 (hardcover).  $55.00    reviewed by e. n. anderson1    reviewer address: 1department of anthropology, university of california, riverside.    received: october 12, 2011                                           volume 3:13  published: march 7, 2012                         © 2012 society of ethnobiology      michael dove has been a leader in the field of political ecology since it began. with this book, which recently won the julian steward prize for the best ecological anthropology book of 2011, he consolidates his standing in the field. this is a major work that should be read by anyone interested in the fate of traditional societies and their economies in the modern world. the book builds on dove’s decades of research among the kantu’ dayak of the remote interior of kalimantan (indonesian borneo). the title comes from a local proverb; a banana tree at a front gate is unprotected and becomes fair game for anyone who wants to snitch some fruit. the “marginal peoples” of borneo and elsewhere are indeed vulnerable to exploiters. in this case, pepper is the commodity of choice. the kantu’, like many in indonesia, have grown it for centuries as a cash crop. the vicissitudes of the trade over the last couple of centuries emerge from dove’s account. the usual story appears: the actual growers are at the mercy of a long chain of authorities, from local political figures to dutch colonials and then to the world market. dove also considers the role of rubber as a smallholder crop, showing the success of smallholders at producing it. they are fully competitive with modern plantations. i have observed the same phenomenon in malaysia. yet, unlike too many such books, this work is not a victims-and-villains melodrama. the kantu’ maintain themselves as subsistence cultivators, they continue to survive and keep their culture going, and they take every opportunity to get something back from the system. when pepper does not sell, they fall back on food crops; when pepper provides opportunity, they seize that. they keep trying for political agency through it all. dove reads and interprets the hikayat banjar, a local historical text (a hikayat is history fictionalized enough to make a good story, but still basically founded on fact). he finds much commentary therein on the world-system and borneo’s marginal place in it. one is led to respect the indigenous smallholders rather than simply blame the unfair world—though the latter is certainly not spared. dove is well aware of issues of representation, and deals forthrightly with the problems of how to represent indigenous and less than affluent cultivators. earlier generations had their stereotypes, including the inevitable colonial ones; how will we do better? intellectual issues also include most of the serious topics of current political ecology, from smallholder rights to “globalization.” dove points out that indonesia has been well integrated into world trade networks for millennia. pepper, as well as cloves and other spices, were traded to china from early times. the indian ocean and south china sea were almost, or quite, as busy as the mediterranean, from the roman empire onward; roman coins abound in south india. the speed and volume of transport has increased, but dynamics of peripheralization and exploitation are not much changed. i am reminded of my own favorite malaysian proverb: “even though ten ships come, the dogs have no loincloths but their tails.” the ships are understood to be carrying luxury imported fabrics, the choicest goods in the old malaysian trade. low-status humans, like canines, have slim chances of getting any. being the product of decades of work and reflection by one of the most thoughtful, insightful, and industrious anthropologists of our time, this book defies summary. i can only urge all those interested in human ecology to obtain a copy.  microsoft word mullerproof.doc ethnobiology letters                                                                                                                      perspective      40 letting wood rot: a case study on local perceptions of global conservation  initiatives (boumba, niger)  jocelyn müller1, iro dan guimbo2    author addresses: 1 tufts university, biology department, 163 packard ave. medford, ma 02155, 2abdou moumouni  university, niger  jocelyn.g.mueller@gmail.com     received: november 15th 2010                       volume 1:40‐50  published: january 21st 2011                       © 2010 society of ethnobiology    abstract: although  there  is  a  pressing  need  for  conservation  in africa  and  a  push  for  such  actions  to  be  directed  by  the  community, there is still much conflict both in academia and on the ground regarding the success and methods of community‐ based conservation. employing key‐informant interviews, focus group discussions and participant observation, we look at how  one community has perceived the conservation actions  in their village, boumba, niger, and the neighbouring national park,  park‐w. this study examines local perceptions of the goals, priorities and methods of conservation in park‐w and the boumba  region. we demonstrate that while participants expressed positive alignment with perceived conservation goals, they did not  agree with conservation priorities and felt strongly against the methods.   reframing conservation discourse  in the terms of  sustainable‐use or adaptive management may serve  to help  translate much of  the conservation ethic  to  local  realities. we  argue that for  local conservation to be culturally sustainable, programmers of conservation must engage the community on  their own terms, and recognize the value of local perceptions.  key words: community‐based conservation, niger, parks and people, west africa    introduction in africa poaching, illegal grazing, and harvesting in national parks continues to increase even as many national governments in africa increase their efforts around the parks, (gibson 2001; hayes 2006). this has led many observers to argue that protectionist conservation policies, which exclude local communities from the decision-making process, can no longer be justified and sustained in the face of increasing african poverty (darkoh and rwomire 2003; peet and watts 2004). instead researchers and practitioners alike seek to connect community development and nature conservation through initiatives such as communitybased conservation, ecotourism, non-timber forest product commercialization, and integrated conservation and develop-ment programs (gibson and marks 1995; pretty and guijt 1992; wells and mcshane 2004). these methods, which for the purpose of this paper are collectively termed community-based conservation, have become so popular that berkes (2004) stated in a recent paper that it would be hard to find a conservation program that does not “claim” that it is community-based. however, the “successes” of such communitybased conservation programs have been limited and conflicted (berkes 2004; du toit et al. 2004; oates 1999). in a study of 93 parks or protected areas throughout the tropics, parks were shown to be better than “alternative arrangements” at protecting biodiversity (bruner et al. 2001). however, hayes (2006) refuted this study both methodologically and also through her own findings, which demonstrated no significant difference in the condition of forest areas with strong legal protections compared to those managed by local users. despite these conflicting results regarding conservation benefits, many have argued that these programs have also shown few social improvements for the target constituents (ndaskoi 2003; rutten 2002) and may in fact be a tool for legitimizing further exploitation of the poor (brett 2003; hayward et al. 2004). this has led some researchers to argue that conservation and development goals should not be linked, as neither’s aims are served well through such joint programs (oates 1999; rutten 2002). in a response article, redford and sanderson (2000) argued that such linked programs represent an important form of conservation, but should not be considered conservation in its truest sense. they posit that holding community-based conservation to the same standards as “people-free” parks turns advocates of these different programs into competitors rather than allies. while their position is well-reasoned, it does not help to fix some of the chronic problems with ‘fences and ethnobiology letters                                                                                                                      perspective      41 fines’ methods of conservation, especially in africa (adams and mcshane 1992). instead others have argued that these shortcomings are evidence for the need to critically evaluate community-based conservation efforts for their ability to live up to promises of participation, biodiversity enhancement, and social benefits (hulme and murphree 1999). following this call, research has emerged that focuses on the methods and context of participation (hickey and mohan 2005; kesby 2005; quaghebeur et al. 2004; zanetell and knuth 2002). several studies focus on the assumptions, beliefs, and attitudes of all stakeholders that limit effective joint action (kideghesho et al. 2007; sekhar 2003; weladji et al. 2003). many anthropological and political studies of participatory research in general demonstrate that weak forms of participation yield little power and few benefits to the community (hayward et al. 2004; hickey and mohan 2005). other studies indicate that problems in the definition of community (selfa and endter-wada 2008), or the design of community programs can limit engagement and inclusion of local knowledge and perspectives (berkes 2004; goldman 2003; songorwa 1999; turner 1999). many studies have focused on well-established programs, such as campfire in zimbabwe and admade in zambia, which had already been declared successes or failures. this paper follows this stream of literature seeking to examine the limitations, challenges, and assumptions underlying community-based conservation programs, but within the context of a program still in an early stage of transitioning from park-based conservation to community-based conservation. we focus this paper on boumba, niger, a west african community located on the edge of a tri-national biosphere reserve. although never forcibly displaced, the boumba community has been historically excluded from the park, but recently co-opted in new park policy which promotes community-based conservation. this paper explores attitudes and perceptions of local residents regarding the fundamental goals, priorities and methods of conservation. we aim to identify potential barriers to community-based conservation, incorporating local knowledge and needs at this early stage in order to serve as a model for other programs with continual monitoring of community-based conservation goals. this case study of the community in boumba, niger, on the edge of a national park, examines local perceptions of the priorities, goals, and methods of internationally-derived, but locally executed conservation initiatives. we explore how these perceptions can limit the success of community-based conservation initiatives. study area park “w,” named after the w-shaped form in the niger river, is a trans-frontier park including areas in niger, burkina faso, and benin. it has recently been named a biosphere reserve and recognized globally as a world heritage site (turner 1999). the park’s geography and hydrology make it an extremely valuable region to local people and wildlife. boumba is a village located right on the edge of park w, where the niger river exits the park to continue along the benin-niger border in a southeast direction. this setting has attracted a number of groups of people to the region. of the extant groups, the zarma have the longest history in the village and make up the majority of the population. additionally, the village is comprised of minorities of hausa fishermen, fulani herders, and mauri hunters. most recently, this village’s geography and historical importance have attracted the interest of several government and non-governmental organizations seeking to either protect or exploit the natural and social resources of the region. established in the early 19th century as a game reserve for the french colonialists, the park has changed its governance, purpose and borders several times since its conception. the most marked change came in 1954 as the game reserve was redefined as a national park. the 1954 change from reserve to park had several ramifications, the most dramatic perhaps being the forced relocation of all people living within the park borders. this relocation program did not displace the village boumba, which lies just outside the park, but is still marked vividly in the local memory and history of the region. residents describe village burnings and taking in of refugees. boumba became one of the sites of relocation, as people searched for new places to establish themselves and their livelihoods. for most people interviewed, 1954 marked the beginning of the park. as a game reserve, management focused on minimizing hunting and did not threaten the livelihood of the majority of zarma farmers. after the resettlement, park access became much more restricted, use of park resources more limited, and the whole discourse of conservation changed. after this event, boumba became a government forestry post, park enforcement became stricter, and management policies were enacted in response to changes in global conservation narratives. fire became a management tool in the 1930s through a french decree. this policy permitted an annual state-led, early ethnobiology letters                                                                                                                      perspective      42 burn program that resembled early community-led “bush” burnings, while maintaining the ban on all community initiated fires as a threat to national forests (laris and wardell 2006). fires continue to be banned in non-park lands but were set within the park for management purposes. then in the 1990s the global interest in community-based conservation and community run ecotourism finally made its way to boumba in the form of a european union-funded conservation organization. this led to the establishment of a community-owned camp-ground and the development of several non-timber forest product commercialization projects, the largest being a women’s shea butter project (boulet et al. 2004). although discussion of participatory approaches began in the late 90s, these efforts were first felt through the launching of the ecopas (ecosystèmes protégés en afrique sahélienne) program in 2001. this paper explores how the current conservation initiatives are understood and perceived by the local community in boumba, niger at this stage. methods participatory fieldwork conducted from july 2005 until august 2007, employed semi-structured interviews, participant observation, group discussions, and community mapping to explore how local knowledge can inform conservation. however, through engagement with the community, disconnects between local perceptions of conservation actions and stated conservation objectives became apparent. correspondingly, we did a second analysis to better understand local perceptions of conservation. over the course of our fieldwork, the first author conducted key-informant interviews with 17 men and 20 women, ranging from age 30 to 100. the second author conducted interviews with 16 men, 14 women and 9 youths. although generally key informant interviews are conducted with a single participant present, in this study the interviews were often conducted in the presence of other family members or neighbours (37 households). the analysis, however, treated the results as coming from a single respondent, because the structure of the question guide was intended for a sole respondent and other responses were channelled through the named interviewee. interviews were conducted in zarma or in hausa. if needed, a local translator was employed to go between the native language of the participant and language spoken by the researcher. we conducted eight focus group discussions, which in contrast to the key informant interviews were intended to draw out a variety of perspectives. the focus groups included two discussions with an open invite to local women, two with an open invitation to local men, two that met with local fisherman, one with local hunters, and one with conservation agents. these groups ranged from five to twenty adult participants. because the region contains a zarma majority, the group discussions were conducted in zarma. in addition, these data were supplemented by information gathered from informal discussions, community-guided forest walks, a combined total of over 1000 hours of participant observation in boumba, and previous engagement in the region by the authors. discussions that took place in the context of participatory ecological field work also entered into the analysis. as these interviews were conducted in the course of vascular plant surveys, it was not possible to tape the discussions. thus these discussions were not part of the texts used for content analysis. instead notes and observations from those surveys were relied upon to complement and interpret the results of the interviews. the first author conducted all of her formal interviews and recorded them digitally. the recordings were translated, transcribed, and imported into nvivo 7 qualitative data analysis software for coding and content analysis. the second author used his notes from his interviews to conduct his analysis on the local perceptions of conservation. we looked for phrases and comments regarding the participants’ perceptions of the goals, priorities, or methods of conservation. this study was approved by the ministry of higher education and research in niger and the institutional review board at tufts university. permission was given from local, regional, and state level authorities to work in the community. all participants in formal interviews or discussion groups gave oral consent to participate and to be taped. results & discussion goals of conservation—in the interviews and discussions with residents of boumba regarding conservation goals (figure 1) the most common concept or theme of the discussion is tree protection. trees or forest came up in each formal interview and was a consistently recurring topic in discussions. in fact, linguistically, it is difficult in zarma or hausa to talk about plant or habitat conservation at all outside of the context of trees. the zarma word for trees is often translated as ‘vegetation’ and conservation agents are called ‘forest’ guards. even in the discourse of wildlife preservation, deforestation is considered one of the greatest threats. when asked ethnobiology letters                                                                                                                      perspective      43 about the lack of elephants or wild game, one participant responded, “the trees [forests] are all old and dying, soon there will be no trees for us and for the wild animals.” some participants attributed the decline in tree populations to human causes, others to climatic changes; others did not know why the trees were dying. however everyone interviewed talked of correcting the problem of tree die-off as a clear conservation goal. this association between conservation and trees has historical relevance. early colonial interpretations of the landscape argued that the sahelian savannah represented a degraded forest, derived from human misuse of the land (fairhead and leach 1996; laris and wardell 2006; leach and fairhead 2000). although this interpretation of the landscape has been challenged, its influence is still very present in the national discourse of conservation and the environment (fairhead and leach 1994). while trees play important keystone functions in the ecosystem (dean et al. 1999), most of the large wildlife (elephants, water buffalo, gazelles, roan antelope) are grassland species. still the fire policy is implemented to promote trees, not grasses (sprugel 1991), and one of the conservation agents stated that his job is to protect the “last remnants of the forest.” this emphasis on trees and forest, rather than grasses and savannah, was then reflected in the community discussions on conservation. to foster a discussion with local residents on preserving grasses, key conservation terms such as environment, park, and protection had to be omitted. there are many perennial grasses that are traditionally protected and valued as highly as some trees, but discussions of these resources were nearly absent from the focus group and key informant discussions regarding the goals of conservation. it is important to note, that though all of the participants had animals, there were no pastoralists among the interviewees. it is possible to interpret part of this lack of discussion on grasses to reflect also the lack of participation on the part of pastoralist groups. after trees and forests the next most common theme that appeared in community discussions of the goals of conservation related to the role of foreigners. while only five participants stated that the goal of conservation is to attract and please tourists and foreigners, specifically european and euro-americans, indirect references to this concept were common in discussions or in interviews. for example, one respondent kept referring to park*w as “your [the american’s] park; the anasaras park.” anasara is a zarma term applied to western foreigners. the term, however, is not applied to foreign arabs and only haphazardly applied to east asians, two groups that play significant roles in conservation at a national level, but rarely in boumba itself. therefore, discussions of the park in the context of the term anasara, indicate local perceptions are being shaped primarily by local experience rather than by national or global conservation perspectives. furthermore, since 2003 there have been major initiatives within boumba and park w more generally to promote community-based conservation, but still the discourse is about conservation for foreigners, anasaras. the most tangible result of the new conservation programs in the community’s eyes are the new community-owned campground and women’s shea butter co-operative, both intended to provide more direct benefits from the conservation efforts to the community. however, despite outward claims of large profits (boulet et al. 2004), members of the campground board report that the campground itself has produced little revenue for the community and is not covering its costs; so there were only two references made in the interviews between tourism and profit for the community. instead, discussions focused on either the non-monetary benefits of having a campground that brings anasaras, or bitterly relating how entrance fees for the park are priced out of range for local inhabitants and that the facilities designed to attract foreign visitors bring little benefit to the community. this concept that conservation of natural resources equates to designation for viewing by foreigners leads into the third most commonly discussed goal-related theme: conservation is wasteful. this perception was such a repetitive theme in interviews and informal discussions that it seemed local residents interpreted ethnobiology letters                                                                                                                      perspective      44 the goal of conservation as the promotion of wastefulness. residents can see how valuable plants are not harvested, but are burned or simply left to rot every year in the park. the title of this paper, “letting wood rot,” comes from a statement a woman made as the research team passed a fallen branch. it speaks volumes toward the cultural divide between residents of boumba and conservation programmers. the phrase translates well into each language but the intent and value behind the statement differs. western research lists many benefits of wood left to rot in nutrient cycles, habitat structure, and ecosystem services, whereas local views voiced by this woman list primarily how this wastes local fuel and timber. it seems if community-based conservation is to continue, these background values must be made clear and both parties may have to readjust their thoughts on “letting wood rot” in order to find consensus. this perception of wastefulness was reinforced in the vascular plant surveys where discussions often revolved around the economic, nutritional, and medicinal values of the habitat that were not being tapped. the broad concept of wastefulness came up in about one third of the interviews, often with women. most of the products mentioned as being wasted were non-timber forest products: leaves, herbs, grasses, and fruits. sometimes this idea seemed to be exaggerated to a point approaching fantasy. one participant stated regarding a favorite pot herb: “i have heard in the park there are fields and fields of foy juto (ceratotheca sesamoides endl.) that are just left to wilt each year. we are hungry and the park has food—fields and fields of it.” this statement, while not false, does overestimate the true abundance of this herb in the park and seems to reflect how limited local engagement in the park distorts local perceptions. in contrast u.s. parks are primarily patronized by nearby residents. ongoing studies conducted by the university of idaho and the u.s. national park service show that a majority of visitors of most parks come from the states that contain or border national parks. to give one example, united states visitors comprised 91% of total visitors to yosemite national park, with 89% of the visitors coming from the home state california (le et al. 2008). although few western parks are set up to provide direct revenue to the region (hjerpe and kim 2007) they are considered a source of employment and benefit communities in education and recreation services (brody and tomkiewicz 2002; taylor 2006). when the discourse of western conservation talks about saving for our children or our future, boumba community members talk about conservation for the sake of someone else’s children. even in the context of community-based conservation initiatives, community members talk little about conservation goals of improving the lives, livelihoods, or health of local residents, but rather to save things for the anasaras to look at. in the words of the former camping ground guardian, “these [tsetse flies] are the profits the park gives us. your park, you come and look and we swat flies.” despite being an employee of the campground, he not only thought of the park in terms of foreigners, but also thought of it negatively. principles of conservation—although the discussions of goals and priorities are linked, it was primarily in discussions of how conservation aims are prioritized that residents talked explicitly about the divide between their own and outsiders’ perceptions and values (figure 2). in discussions of how conservation goals are prioritized discourse split into what is and what should be. there was not clear opposition to any perceived goals, even when responses seemed negative. over two-thirds of interview participants expressed some level of understanding for the reasoning behind conservation policy and implementation, and many expressed agreement or alignment. however, in discussions of priorities, not a single participant expressed complete satisfaction with the priorities of conservation, even among the conservation agents. instead participants felt frustration in the way conservation goals were prioritized and many would express strong opinions as to how things should be prioritized. ethnobiology letters                                                                                                                      perspective      45 when the discourse turned to how things should be prioritized, it was clear that not all trees and not all fish were the same. community members felt species should have high conservation priority if they had multiple uses or if they drove a high price at the market. in pairwise ranking exercises this was clearly demonstrated as the groups compared a number of valuable trees to one another. for some tree pairs there was no discussion; one plant was a clear winner over the other. in other cases, participants listed the number of uses each tree has (medicine, food, shade, craft, timber etc.) in order to decide. then, if the number of uses came out even, tie breaking depended on the gender of the participants. male participants would turn to the market price of the most commonly sold product. if both were commonly sold for wood, the higher priced wood would win out. for women, the tie-breaking question asked if anything from the tree could be eaten and, if so, how full the food from the tree would make them. in the context of what is, participants commonly referred to how conservation agents prioritize the conservation of certain trees, fish, and the park interior and more importantly prioritized enforcement of restrictions concerning development of benefit sharing. these priorities as described by local residents reflect many local realities. the most stringently regulated activities are wood harvest, fishing, and park access. these are the activities participants will seek permission for from the forestry guards—activities that generally require official permits and are the cause of conflict, penalties, and corruption. although in discussion of conservation priorities participants did not distinguish certain species of fish there were several species of trees that were mentioned as having current conservation priority. the ronier palm (borassus aethiopum mart.), shea butter tree (vitellaria paradoxa c.f.gaertn.), and gum arabic tree (faidherbia albida (delile) a.chev.) were discussed as being focal points of conservation efforts. there were several other trees that were mentioned as having stringent enforcement of wood harvest, these were not seen as having large management programs, so this discussion focuses on the top three trees, as these also highlight how the perceived priorities did not match the desired conservation priorities of community members. at first glance it does not seem like these perceptions about values would lead to differences in priorities between local residents and western conservationists, as many of the state or ngo-run programs look at those same criteria in developing linked conservation and development programs. the difference is that such program criteria are not measured at a local scale. for example, f. albida is promoted throughout niger for its soil enriching properties, agro-forestry benefits, and economic potential as a common ingredient in soft drinks and candies. in discussions with boumba residents, however, this species was ranked very low, as the soil enriching benefits did not overcome the increased grain losses due to nesting birds, and the locally high water table prohibits the tree from producing gum. nevertheless, in participatory conservation actions, farmland was donated to create gum arabic plantations, and men and women from boumba worked to tend nurseries and plant seedlings, demonstrating the overall support for the goals of conservation. however, in discussions with our research team, they expressed their frustration that so much time and effort was spent in planting this “useless” tree, when other valuable trees are hard to find and much more desired. species such as ficus sur forssk., crateva adansonii dc. subsp. adansonii, or kigelia africana (lam.) benth. were all mentioned as trees which are hard to find in the surrounding area and should be of high conservation priority because of their medicinal or nutritional importance. even trees such as the baobab (adansonia digitata l.) and the important fibre palm (hyphaene thebaica (l.) mart.) which were not seen as particularly rare, but were ranked of such high importance that many participants questioned the lack of conservation efforts directed towards these species. the way that human’s versus nature’s needs are prioritized was another commonly discussed “what is” or “what should be” juxtaposition in local understandings of conservation. over 60% of the interview participants expressed ideas that indicated that human needs should come before nature’s needs in conservation goals, but they felt currently human needs were second priority. one conservation agent argued that on the burkina side of the park they allowed culling of herds:“here [in niger] “ he said “people need meat, but they [the government at large] won’t let us hunt, even alongside a forestry agent… currently it is only my job that prevents me from hunting.” the human-nature tradeoff is a sensitive issue that may be what ultimately fuels debates, such as were expressed in the exchange between schwartzman and colleagues (2000), redford and sanderson (2000) and terborgh (2000). we do not seek to take a side in this debate, however, in the context of a program that is attempting to switch the focus from people-free parks to community-based conservation, it is important to be aware of pervasive attitudes and challenges. further, because the issue of people in parks is sensitive, it is ethnobiology letters                                                                                                                      perspective      46 important to recognize how individuals perceive human needs. in other regions this same argument has been used to open parks to commercial logging (groom et al. 2006) and to destroy natural habitat. therefore, many conservationists find a conservation program where human needs are ranked over nature’s as inherently contradictive (oates 1999; sanderson and redford 2003). in africa, however, we must also recognize the history of the people-free parks, where stated conservation goals were used to cover exploitive, racist policies or make them more palatable (hughes 2007). given this politically charged context, it is important to go beyond simply human needs versus wildlife needs to understand underlying perceptions and values. in this study, most respondents were referring to the ability to harvest specific natural resources. to quote one informant, “people are hungry here and there are bushes that could feed us, if we were allowed to go and harvest leaves.” another participant, when asked about the importance of grasses responded, “we need grasses to build our houses and feed our animals, and the government is burning them over there [in the park] every year.” so for many participants a step toward prioritizing the needs of local residents would be to allow some access to the natural resources and direct benefits of their use. in an earlier study of the park w complex, when participatory methods of conservation were still being explored in niger, turner (1999) argued that the poor infrastructure and limited revenue earning potential of the park required more direct incentives and benefit sharing through local people’s use of natural resources. methods of conservation—this brings us to the third set of themes discussed under the general category, the methods of conservation (figure 3). when participants were asked to comment on the methods of conservation three main themes emerged: corruption, restriction, and intimidation. these perceptions vividly reflect the oppressive history of conservation methods and the disparities between the local community and conservation agents. interestingly if something was considered to be off-limits or inaccessible because of restrictive conservation laws, then from the perspective of the participants the conservation priority is lowered. a clear example of how conservation actions can diminish the local conservation priority is with wildlife; due to the government ban on large game hunting most villagers have little to no use for wildlife and also little incentive to conserve or manage their populations. this opinion has changed recently in discussions with villagers since the initial study in 2005-2007. in the winter of 2007, elephants were frequently seen grazing on the banks opposite boumba village. community members did not cross the river to enter boumba fields and raid crops as they are known to do in other parts of africa (gadd 2005), although stories of that happening in the benin village across the niger river were heard of in the boumba area. but this frequent viewing became a great point of discussion in town, and many people expressed pride and agreement with conservation efforts. although this represents a change in opinion as one form of wildlife became more visible, the general view of wildlife (visible elephants aside) reinforces the idea that conservation actions that limit local engagement with resources can negatively alter attitudes of conservation even in the absence of direct conflict. going beyond these negative aspects of local perceptions of conservation methods, it seems there are key themes absent from discussions that seem to better illuminate potential challenges to communitybased conservation. there were no references to fire being a method of conservation, even though fire is the forestry agents’ major form of management within the park and village residents used fire historically to promote soil fertility and grasses. nor was there mention of community involvement in larger conservation efforts, even though for at least the past two years there have been efforts by various ethnobiology letters                                                                                                                      perspective      47 development organizations to lead community-based conservation initiatives and to promote ecotourism. participants did not mention individual forms of conservation, or what they do to promote biodiversity or to preserve important plants on their own land. the majority of participants saw conservation not as actionbased, but as preventative, such as not cutting down trees or not harvesting wildlife. further, they felt inaction was maintained through laws, restrictions that were enforced through high fines and threats to life and livelihood. this control aspect of conservation is then mitigated through the “bargaining” process of corruption. thus, from a local perspective, conservation occurs through fear and intimidation and is made bearable through corruption and undermined by ignorance. our observations within the village supported the perception of this claim, but they did not support the reality of the claim. in the course of our stay in the region, we documented many examples of local residents purposefully saving valuable trees in their fields, planting rare trees and shrubs in their home sites, and tailoring their harvesting methods to promote regrowth. even local fisherman recognized that the ideal of ‘conservation undertaken by all’ is undermined by corruption and poverty. this group traditionally had spiritual leaders who controlled fishing practices and regulated fish harvests, but their positions have been replaced by local conservation agents. however, in discussion with local residents, conservation was initially and predominately associated with the government and only when the conversation would digress from the vocabulary of conservation would people talk about traditional methods of caring for the habitat, protecting species from overuse, or preventing land degradation. for example, one participant when asked directly if there were any trees that the community protected said, “no, we cut down trees. it is the forestry agent who protects trees.” later in the interview we returned to this topic through talking about a traditional belief that powerful spirits reside in or under large trees. that same participant talked about how certain trees contained spirits and could not be cut down without spiritual retribution and plainly stated that “these trees no one cuts down, even if the forestry agent were not there.” this local belief in spirits protects many of the large seed trees in the area, yet still the “job” of protecting trees is attributed to the forestry agents. respondents discussed actions that most western ecologists would agree are beneficial to forest health, such as selective harvest of firewood, protecting seed trees, and farming around seedlings, but none of the respondents listed these activities as ways in which they help the environment. instead these actions would be discussed when voicing traditional beliefs describing farming practices or explaining collecting methods. conclusion the major themes that emerged during this study can be tied together through a reflection on the role of consumptive use in conservation. the actions of community members demonstrated that many individuals supported conservation and management of useful species, but did not understand the efforts of “fences and fines” conservation. this was perhaps highlighted best in the binary discussions of conservation priorities (box 2), and underlined by the presence of negative views toward conservation goals and methods. although in global discourse of conservation, sustainable management plays a large role in the conservation of economically valuable species, this part of the global conservation discourse was not represented in local residents’ perceptions of conservation. despite recent attempts to provide community members with direct benefits from the park and to implement management programs for valuable species such as the ronier palm and shea butter tree, the enforcement of non-consumptive conservation is still the major paradigm. this is problematic both for the functioning of the community-based aspects of the program and for conservation initiatives in the region. previous studies have shown that negative attitudes toward conservation can affect the relationship between the park and local populations and undermine conservation efforts (kideghesho et al. 2007; simelane et al. 2006). in our study community members expressed values and priorities different from those they observed in conservation actions. such conflicting value systems raise questions as to the expected success of community-based conservation actions. for community-based programs, the discourse of conservation must hold consumptive use as equal to non-consumptive use through promotion of sustainable management of locally valued species, as local uses tend to have more direct benefits to the participants. as kaimowitz and sheil (2007) describe, we have to start saving biodiversity for the poor, who form essential elements of daily life. a 2003 (bauer) study based in cameroon, demonstrated that access to natural resources, or more generally consumptive use, can promote positive attitudes toward conservation as a whole. holmes (2003) demonstrated that conservation success is partially dependent on the outreach efforts of the conservation programs. while this is true, we also have to recognize what turner (1999) warned of, an ethnobiology letters                                                                                                                      perspective      48 educative participation that leaves no room for active engagement. many of the frustrations expressed with the boumba community could be addressed in simple changes to conservation priorities without much difficulty, but the key is to start from the bottom-up in order to incorporate these local realities and priorities. finally, although this paper argues that a shift in conservation policies from non-consumptive use to consumptive use may address some of the underlying social barriers and increase cultural sustainability (such as long term success of community-based conservation), this paper does not look at the question of ecological sustainability (long term conservation of biological and earth systems). this question is outside the scope of this analysis, but researchers in socioecological resilience argue that ecological sustainability cannot be achieved in the absence of cultural sustainability (berkes et al. 1998). however, the question remains as to whether a conservation program based on consumptive use is ecologically sustainable. timko and satterfield (2008) developed a set of criteria and indicators for evaluating both social and ecological methods. future studies need to follow this lead and look directly at how true community participation affects the ecological sustainability of conservation. as park w, like many other african parks, was used as pastureland and farmland as recently as 1950, one might argue that some of the habitat we are aiming to protect is even a result of past consumptive and sustained use. acknowledgements we thank dr. pearl robinson, dr. ayron strauch and prof. astier almedom who reviewed earlier versions of this paper. we thank all the residents of boumba and lt. abdoulaye soumana. we thank mlle. haouaou noma and prof. mahamane saadou. this research was funded by the anne s. chatham fellowship (garden club of america), tufts institute of the environment, the switzer foundation, graduate women in science, and tufts graduate school. dr. müller was funded by a national science foundation graduate research fellowship. a preliminary version of this paper entitled: letting wood rot: the role of consumptive use in conservation-boumba, niger was presented at the 2007 meeting of the society for applied anthropology. references cited adams, jonathan and thomas o. mcshane. 1992. the myth of wild africa: conservation without illusion. ww norton & company, new york. bauer, hans. 200. local perceptions of waza national park, northern cameroon. environmental conservation 30:175-181. berkes, fikret. 2004. rethinking community-based conservation. conservation biology 18:621-630. berkes, fikret, carl folke, and johan colding. 1998. linking social and ecological systems: management practices and social mechanisms for building resilience. cambridge university press, 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zanetell, brooke ann and barbara a. knuth. 2002. bribing biodiversity: corruption, participation, and community-based management in venezuela. southern rural sociology 18:130-161. biosketches jocelyn  müller  is  a  phd  scientist  in  the  biology  de‐ partment  at tufts university.  she has been working  and  researching  in  niger  on  the  areas  of  conservation,  ethnobotany and local ecological knowledge since 2001.  iro dan guimbo  is a  teaching assistant and  lecturer and  phd candidate in the agriculture and forestry department  at the university of abdou moumouni in niamey, niger. a  native  of  the maradi  region, mr. dan guimbo  has  been  working in the boumba/park w area since conducting his  master’s thesis in the area in 2006.  33 book review environmental social sciences: methods and research design ismael vaccaro, eric alden smith, and shankar aswani, eds. 2010. cambridge university press, cambridge. pp. 396, 41 b/w illustrations, 20 tables. us$49.99 (paperback). isbn 9780521125710. reviewed by jeremy spoon reviewer address: 724 southwest harrison street, portland, oregon, 97201 received: march 11, 2012 volume 3:33-34 published: june 26, 2012 © 2012 society of ethnobiology research on human-environment relationships necessitates an interdisciplinary lens and mixed methodologies. environmental social sciences: methods for research design, edited by vaccaro, smith, and aswani, provides a framework and toolkit for engaging complex social and ecological questions. this book will assist researchers interested in the social components of environmental issues to identify social science research methods through contemporary examples, both quantitative and qualitative. it accessibly links theory to method and utilizes relevant case studies to illustrate the proposed techniques in a variety of contexts. the volume also clearly identifies how these methods correspond and some of the challenges with these approaches. researchers often piece together social science and other methods to answer complex, interrelated social, cultural, and environmental questions in diverse spatial and temporal contexts. the methods described in this book unite techniques and express linkages for operationalization across the social sciences, humanities, and natural sciences. ethnobiologists will find this work useful for a myriad of research focuses, from cognitive studies on local ecological knowledge and perceptions of landscape to multi-scale analyses of market influences on resource use and management. vaccaro and smith argue that environmental social science requires a consideration of past and present human communities and their relationships with the physical environments that support(ed) them. research emphases and theoretical orientations include economic factors embedded in the study of cultural ecology, analysis of the social construction of knowledge in ethnobiology and science studies, politics and ideology in political ecology, and institutions in property and collective action theories, among others. the social sciences and humanities thus offer complementary methods to understand the social aspects of human-environment relationships across spatial and temporal scales. these techniques are both quantitative and qualitative, and combine discursive, statistical, and spatial analyses. no single methodological approach or causality offers an understanding of an environmental issue. the very fact that environment problems can be assessed from multiple perspectives does not assure the integration of research. the starkest divide has opposed “scientific or positivist approaches to critical, subjectivist, or postmodern schools” (4). this volume challenges this dichotomy and offers a framework that links quantitative and qualitative methods to examine the complexity of environmental issues in new and creative ways. the book highlights 14 parallel themes related to environmental social science research and offers an integrated applied example as the final chapter. the themes include: demography, household production decisions, property theory and institutional analyses, political economy, ethnobiology, mapping histories, literary analyses, text analysis, social networks, multisited ethnography, geospatial analysis, archaeological methods, historical ecology, and conservation design. while a single chapter focuses specifically on ethnobiology methods in practice from voucher collection and photo elicitation to domain analysis and participatory mapping using cases studies from tibet, north america, and brazil (chapter 6), multiple chapters are relevant to ethnobiological inquiry. select examples follow. beltran (chapter 2) illustrates how demography assists in understanding a social and environmental context. demography in general provides a “road map” of a population, which can be correlated with ethnographic data, such as ethnobiological knowledge or perceptions of landscape change. demographic 34 book review indicators become “touchstones” that can enhance the elucidation of political and economic drivers of environmental relationships and the changing factors that shape landscapes. demographic and ethnographic data can thus be layered to form a better understanding of causation. for example, demographic variables can be used to assess ecological knowledge distribution and change. zonotti, glover, and sepez (chapter 6) describe a variety of mixed ethnobiological methods used to examine contemporary ethnobiology and associated place based knowledge. ethnobiologists will find this chapter especially useful for articulating a host of methods that can be used for a variety of research questions. these methods include: the collection of voucher specimens, flora and fauna identification and classification, cultural consensus analysis, ethnosemantics, free listing, pile sorts and triads, various interview techniques, photo elicitation and interpretation, and participatory mapping and plant trails. these techniques cover an entire spectrum of ethnographic inquiry—structured and unstructured, in situ and ex situ, quantitative and qualitative. strang (chapter 7) expresses cultural mapping as an ethnographic method that explores historical and contemporary relationships with local environments. this approach takes participants on “walkabouts” in places considered locally important and collects social, historical, and ecological data in situ. in this method, places are considered as repositories of information and as mnemonic devices, drawing upon both experiential and abstract knowledge. ethnobiologists interested in place based knowledge of species, habitats, or watersheds, ownership and rights of access, economic practices and resource use and management can benefit from this approach. johnson and griffith (chapter 10) discuss research exploring the relationships between systems of human relations (or social networks) and ecosystem interactions. social networks assist in understanding the sharing and distribution of ecological and environmental knowledge, resource allocation, and adaptive responses to stochastic events and climate change. social network analysis offers ethnobiologists a lens to understand the heterogeneity of a human population and how and why knowledge and practice change through research on the social connections among social entities. social network analysis is especially promising for ethnobiological research on the transmission and dynamics of cognitive information. the book lacks a discrete ethics section and has a scant discussion on theory in the introduction. my perspective is that all social science methods texts should contain a discussion of ethics, especially related to intellectual property and applied research. many chapters utilize theory to articulate methods; however a reader would also benefit from a more comprehensive review of theory in the introduction or in a separate chapter. overall, this book is a welcome contribution to the interdisciplinary study of human-environment relationships. it succinctly and accessibly introduces several quantitative and qualitative methods from the social sciences and skillfully animates the methodologies with well-chosen case studies. the 14 themes are useful entry points for students, scholars, and practitioners to construct a methodological toolkit for context specific questions at multiple scales. as research on environmental issues continues to increase, future studies will indeed benefit from these interdisciplinary approaches and mixed methods. 78  research communica on  clothing. families lived in shelters made from blocks of snow and traveled by dogsled (jenness 1916; stefánsson 1913). when the ice receded in summer, many groups turned inland to hunt caribou on the tundra, traveling on foot and sheltering in tents of animal hide (stefánsson 1913). the inuinnait the inuinnait are a subpopulation of canadian inuit who inhabit the kitikmeot region in nunavut, canada. the relative isolation and inaccessibility of the central canadian arctic protected the inuinnait from the contact with europeans experienced much earlier by inuit groups closer to the atlantic and pacific oceans. prior to the early twentieth-century, contact with non-indigenous peoples was limited to introduction the inuit are aboriginal people indigenous to arctic regions. contemporary inuit communities are dispersed from siberia east to greenland. ancestors of the inuit are believed to have migrated across the bering strait from northeast asia onto north america approximately 4,500 years ago. archaeological evidence indicates that populations radiated across the continent, reaching greenland within 500 years (helgason et al. 2006). traditionally, the inuit migrated across ice and tundra to exploit seasonally available prey populations. in winter, the frozen ocean provided access to seals and other marine mammals that were hunted for their ample supplies of fat to be used for food and fuel, and waterproof skins for the construction of ethnobotany of the kiluhikturmiut inuinnait of kugluktuk, nunavut, canada   jonathan duffy davis1, sandra anne banack2  author address:  1fullerton arboretum, california state university, fullerton, ca 92831,  2ins tute  for ethnomedicine, p.o.  box 3464, jackson, wy 83001   received: september 24, 2012  volume: 3:78‐90  published: december 29, 2012  © 2012 society of ethnobiology  abstract:  the  disparity  in  floral  diversity  between  tropical  and  arc c  regions  is  reflected  in  a  paucity  of  ethnobotanical  research among arc c cultures.  the kiluhikturmiut inuinnait are an inuit subpopula on who inhabit the ki kmeot region of  the territory of nunavut in canada’s arc c.  we conducted an ethnobotanical survey in the inuinnait hamlet of kugluktuk to  document  the  tradi onal  uses  of  plants  as  food, materials,  and medicine.    data  were  gathered  through  unstructured  interviews,  par cipant  observa on,  purposive  sampling,  and  voucher‐specimen  collec on  of  all  plants  used.   uses were  documented for 23 plant species/types contained in 14 families.  nine species/types were eaten, six species/types were used  as materials, and 12  species were used  for medicine.   villagers  shared  common  knowledge of plants used  for  food and  materials; however, knowledge of medicinal plants was restricted to a single healer.  we argue that specialized knowledge  such as the use of medicinal plants is important to document especially when the number individuals using this knowledge is  dwindling.  abstract:   pitquhii gut piruqhimayut qauyihaivlu k qanuq inuit atuqtauvagait atungauyanik niqiuvlu k, hanayauvagaillu,  uumingalu havau rniillu.  pitquhiit piruqhimayut ihivgiuqtau anngi uni ukiuqtartumi ava ngnit.  kiluhikturmiut inuinnait  huli anguniayuktuuvlu k atuqpagait ublumi.  atuqtau angi uni haffuminga ukiuqtartup pitquhiit piruqhimayut uumingalu  huli atuqa aqhu k  nunamiunnit taimaa pitquhiita arlingnaqhivakhunilu haffumingat pitquhii gut piruqhimayunit qauyi‐ harnirnit.  hamna atuqtauyumayunut ihivgiuqhiyainnit nalunaitkuhiutauvluni qanurmi atuqtauvagait atungauyait  ilitquhii gut niriyauvagainullu, pitquhii gut, havau turnigullu kiluhikturmiunnut inuinnait.  hamna pitquhii gut piruqhi‐ mayut naunaiqhiniq aqtauvakhu k kiluhikturmiunut inuinnait pivalliahimavluni qurluqturmi, nunavunmi  (67º47.881’  kangangnaa; 115º 13.845’ uataa).  nalunaiqhiyut  qqa gut ka vagait unipkaaliuqhu k tautukpakhugillu ilauqatauyunut.  atuqtauvlu k  raqhimayait 23 nik uumayuit aadjikiingningit/qanuri unik atungauyainnit.  arvinilik pingahuanik niriyauhi‐ mavlu k, arvinilik atauhirmik aadjikiingningit/qanuri unik atuqtauvagaillu pitquhii gut mikhaanut, uvvalu tualunik  uumayuit aadjikiingningit atuqtauvagait havau khainnit.   key words: ethnobiology, corona on gulf , arc c, specialized knowledge  79  research communica on  brief and sporadic encounters with explorers and royal navy sailors (condon 1996). after spending seven months with a group of inuinnait on victoria island, jenness (1916) reported the sustained use of stone-age technology and regarded the inuinnait as the only remaining inuit group still living a traditional lifestyle. the sustained presence of european traders in the coronation gulf region began at the beginning of the twentieth century (condon 1996). the fur-trade influenced inuinnait culture and had a long-lasting impact on hunting practices, economy, and migration patterns: the arctic fox was hunted for its fur which was traded for novel goods such as rifles, tobacco, sugar, flour, and tea. this new economy spurred settlements around trading posts (condon 1996). the first two trading posts were constructed in coronation gulf region in the summer of 1916. by 1963 72% of the inuinnait population lived in the two main settlements of coppermine and holman (usher 1965). inuinnait life has changed considerably since the early twentieth century. the inuinnait now live in modular homes. travel is often accomplished through all-terrain vehicles and snowmobiles. kugluktuk has a health clinic, a school that provides elementary and secondary education, several churches, and offices of the municipal and territorial government. food and other supplies arrive regularly by plane and once or twice each summer by ocean freighter. these supplemental freight charges greatly inflate the cost of goods in arctic communities. the exorbitant cost of market foods is offset by subsistence hunting, a culturally salient practice that continues today. kuhnlein et al. (2004) estimated that 28% of the calories in the average inuit diet was still derived from wild-harvested foods. caribou (rangifer tarandus c.h. smith cervidae) and arctic char (salvelinus alpinus l. salmonidae) remain integral to the inuinnait culture and livelihood. both are actively sought and relished. carl linnaeus pioneered ethnobotanical methods in 1732 while living among the sami of lapland. since this notable beginning, ethnobotanical research has remained relatively uncommon among arctic cultures. the objective of this study was to document the traditional and contemporary uses for plants among the kiluhikturmiut inuinnait of kugluktuk, nunavut, canada. it was predicted that even within the depauperate flora of the coronation gulf region of the central canadian arctic, the kiluhikturmiut inuinnait have identified and retained knowledge of useful and biologically active plants for food, materials, and the treatment of disease. methods kugluktuk began as the inuinnait settlement of coppermine. today it is a hamlet of approximately 1,300 people situated on the southwestern shore of the coronation gulf in the kitikmeot region of nunavut (67˚49.3’ n; 115˚04.8’ w). field research was conducted in june and july of 2006 while living in kugluktuk. data were gathered through daily participant observation and unstructured ethnographic interviews. opportunities for participant observation included hunting and fishing trips, walks around the periphery of town, and other excursions. purposive sampling methods were used as a tool to select community participants (tongco 2007). interviews were conducted according to guidelines presented by spradley (1979). five male traditional hunters, four community elders (female=3 ; male=1), and a single female traditional healer were interviewed in depth. these individuals were chosen based on recommendations of community leaders, active hunting and gathering during the period of study, ability to identify plants in the field, and availability. a hunter was considered to be someone who remained actively engaged in hunting. an elder was an older person who had grown up on the land and experienced a reasonably traditional life; the current inuinnait settlements did not exist during the childhood of these elders. only one traditional healer was identified by community members as residing within kugluktuk during the period of fieldwork. a local-government native speaking interpreter was contracted for interviews with two of the community elders. other participants were bilingual or spoke english as their primary language. no material compensation was provided to study participants. informed consent was obtained from each participant. documentation of traditional knowledge was approved by the nunavut research institute. interview methods were approved by california state university, fullerton irb. each plant species mentioned during interviews was collected, identified using porsild and cody (1980) by davis, and deposited at four herbaria (california state university fullerton (macf), gray herbarium at harvard (gh), university of guelph (oac), and the canadian museum of nature (can). 80  research communica on  plants used by the kiluhikturmiut inuinnait for food. name family uses mentions (n=10) arctostaphylos spp. (kablaq) ericaceae leaves, infusion 2 empetrum nigrum (paun’ngaq) empetraceae raw fruit, mixed with fat 7 hedysarum alpinum (mahuk) fabaceae raw root, boiled 8 oxyria digyna (qunguliit) polygonaceae raw leaves and flowers, prepared in a concoction 9* pedicularis capitata scrophulariaceae raw nectar 1* rubus chamaemorus (aqpik) rosaceae raw fruit, mixed with fat 7* vaccinium uliginosum (kiguangirnaq) ericaceae raw fruit, mixed with fat 7 vaccinium vitis-idaea (kingmignaq) ericaceae raw fruit, mixed with fat 7* caribou stomach contents various raw 1 plants used by the kiluhikturmiut inuinnait for materials arctostaphylos spp. ericaceae tobacco substitute 1 cassiope tetragona ericaceae tinder, fuel, insect repellent 4 eriophorum scheuchzeri (kanguujaq) cyperaceae wick for seal-oil lamp 9 soot for tattoos 4 sphagnum spp. sphagnaceae adsorbent: bandages, diapers, menstrual pads 5 insulation 4 sled-runners 9 driftwood various construction material, fuel 6 sod various sod-house construction 2 name family uses mentions (n=10) table 1. contemporary use of plants by the kiluhikturmiut inuinnait 81  research communica on  results plants used as food eight species from six families, and one plant-derived substance were reported as part of the traditional kiluhikturmiut inuinnait diet (table 1). oxyria digyna (l.) hill polygonaceae was the most commonly reported and recognized plant among all species recorded in the present study. its pleasant tart flavor was commonly likened to candy and described with much relish. the entire shoot is usually consumed raw, but is also simmered in water to create an infused beverage. o. digyna is also wild gathered today along with the fruit of four other species. these contemporary wild-gathered foods are largely gathered opportunistically and eaten out-of-hand. the exception to this would be during the much celebrated berrypicking season of late summer, when families are seen gathering fruit together. while o. digyna and these other four fruits were nearly universally familiar, other edible species were known only by older adults and community elders. plants used as materials community participants in this study identified six types of plants from three families as traditional raw materials (table 1). plant material seemed to be favored in situations where animal-derived materials would have proven inferior. an example of such an application was the use of eriophorum scheuchzeri hoppe cyperaceae as a wick in seal-oil lamps. the cottony bristles of the perianth were gathered in autumn and stored for year-round use. this material would be rolled between the fingers and placed along a raised ledge in stone lamps (qulliq) that held rendered seal or, less commonly, caribou fat. the burning of the qulliq produced heat, light, and a means to cook meat. e. scheuchzeri facilitated the combustion of relatively abundant animal fats in a region where energy-dense, plant-based fuels were scarce. interestingly, pots suspended over a qulliq would accumulate a layer of black soot that would be gathered and used as ink for tattoos. a thread of caribou sinew would be coated in soot and pulled through the skin of the face with a copper needle to create a dashed pattern. women were traditionally the recipients of such tattoos and in this community is considered to denote status and accumulation of knowledge. one of the elders considered it an initiation to womanhood. plants used today as medicine by kiluhikturmiut inuinnait healer pauline plamondon species family uses parts used preparation achillea nigrescens asteraceae reproductive problems whole tea, incense, bath arctostaphylos spp. ericaceae urinary tract infections tea, oil infusion betula glandulosa betulaceae frostbite preventative, catalyst leaf buds oil infusion castilleja elegans scrophulariaceae contradictory thoughts tea epilobium latifolium onagraceae fetal alcohol syndrome whole concoction equisetum arvense equisetaceae urinary tract infection whole tea, maceration ledum decumbens ericaceae gingivitis leaves tea oxyria digyna polygonaceae chest congestion whole poultice potentilla fructicosa rosaceae sore esophagus, heart problems leaves, petals tea salix spp.# salicaceae pain, headache, toothache inner bark chewed silene spp. caryophyllaceae anxiety *uses were observed in the community in addition to reports in the interview process. #the use of salix spp. for pain was mentioned by five additional participants. 82  research communica on  plants used as medicine the use of traditional plant-based medicines is currently limited within the community of kugluktuk to a single healer residing in the village during the period of this study. community members indicated that they visited this healer in addition to seeking help at a western-based medical clinic. eleven plant species representing ten families were identified as useful in the treatment of injury and disease (table 1). the two oldest elders that we interviewed had spent the majority of their life in the traditional manner before permanent settlements were established. both reported that they remember using plants for medicine since their early childhood. although they had been treated for medicinal problems using plants, they had limited specific knowledge of these plants or treatments. the plant-based medicine of the kiluhikturmiut inuinnait appears to be dynamic, with novel remedies created to address modern afflictions such as fetal alcohol syndrome: whole epilobium latifolium l. onagraceae plants are cooked in diluted store-bought honey until the mixture regains the viscosity of honey. a teaspoon consumed each day was reported to calm and improve mental focus. knowledge of medicinal plants and their preparation was transmitted orally between generations and was proprietary to initiated healers; this remains the case today. the one remaining healer in kugluktuk indicated that normally a healer would provide medical care to four or five extended families, traveling among groups as needed. given the lack of traditional healers in kugluktuk today, pauline, treats anyone who has a need and is interested in her help. she was taught to manufacture medicines by her grandmother and is actively trying to keep the knowledge alive by treating as many people as she can, and by teaching it to an apprentice. while pauline generally prefers fresh plants, seasonal gathering, drying, and storing in stone caches of medicinally important species is necessary to insure a year-round supply. the kiluhikturmiut inuinnait healers exploit plants to treat and prevent a variety of conditions including infection, pain and inflammation, chest congestion, heart problems, and mental afflictions. medicines usually included a single species. preparation methods were highly varied, with water extracts and seal oil infusions being most common. seal oil infusions were considered to be the best carrier of active plant constituents and were created by heating the oil and plant material. the strength of the medicine was reported to increase with oil temperature and heating duration. discussion through their ingenuity and fortitude the inuit and their ancestors have inhabited the harsh arctic environment for millennia. many plant species were identified as potential resources. despite the penetration of western practices and associated acculturation, the kiluhikturmiut inuinnait retain uses for the flora of the central canadian arctic, exploiting at least 23 species from 14 plant families, as documented in this study. while this number may appear scant in relation to the diversity of plants used by cultures in temperate or tropical environments, the number should be considered in the context of regional floristic diversity. estimates of floristic diversity are not available for the kugluktuk area; however, nearby victoria island has been estimated to contain 207 species of vascular plants (bliss 1971). the kiluhikturmiut inuinnait thus retain knowledge of uses for approximately 10% of the regional flora. several of the kiluhikturmiut inuinnait food plants reported here have been noted by other authors working in arctic regions. kuhnlein and colleagues have made several notable contributions to the study of the traditional inuit diet (kuhnlein and soueida 1992; kuhnlein et al. 2002; kuhnlein et al. 2004). oxyria digyna was a traditional food of the baffin island inuit (kuhnlein and soueida 1992) and was one of the most important food plants of the eskimo of the north bering sea and arctic regions of alaska (anderson 1939). hedysarum spp. fabaceae were also used by the eskimo of the north bering strait and arctic alaska (anderson 1939). h. obscurum l. and h. alpinum l. roots were consumed by the chukchi (porsild 1953). the fruits gathered by the kiluhikturmiut inuinnait are widely used among arctic cultures (anderson 1939; dritsas 1986; griffin 2001; porsild 1953). kuhnlein et al. (2002) report the use of rubus chamaemoreus l. rosaceae, empetrum nigrum l. ericaceae, vaccinium uliginosum l. ericaceae and v. vitis-idaea l. ericaceae by the inuit and yukon first nations. ledum decumbens (aiton) lodd. ex steud ericaceae is reported to be used in teas among the cup-it eskimo (griffin 2001) and the eskimo of the northern and bering sea regions of alaska by anderson (1939). among the groups inhabiting the high canadian arctic, caribou stomach contents were considered the sole source of plant-based foods (porsild 1953). kuhnlein and souieda (1992) also 83  research communica on  documented the use of caribou stomach contents as a traditional food in an inuit community on baffin island. among plants used as materials, dritsas (1986) documented the use of eriophorum scheuchzeri and e. angustifolium roth cyperaceae as wicks in the lamps of the iglulingmiut. the eskimo of the north bering sea and arctic alaska used cassiope tetragona l. d. don ericaceae in concert with mosses and lichen as an insulating material, albeit for houses (anderson 1939). the use of arctostaphylos uvaursi l. ericacae as a substitute for or additive to tobacco is described in porsild (1953). many of these plants have retained their use in contemporary kugluktuk culture, particularly those used for food and lamp wicks. the traditional life of the inuit differs in important respects from many other hunter-gatherer cultures. the relative abundance of large mammals of both the tundra and ocean supplied the primary staples of inuit life. food, clothing, shelter, and fuel could all be derived from animals. in spite of this bounty, plants were an important resource for the kiluhikturmiut inuinnait. the flora of the central canadian arctic provided the kiluhikturmiut inuinnait with increased dietary diversity in summer, with materials such as wicks and tinder that may have proven superior to animal-derived analogs, and with secondary metabolites for the treatment of disease. the value of traditional kiluhikturmiut inuinnait knowledge the traditional plant-based knowledge of the kiluhikturmiut inuinnait holds both potential and realized value through contributions to nutrition and community health. the value of traditional kiluhikturmiut inuinnait knowledge is most apparent when considering the nutritional status of the population of kugluktuk. the benefits of the traditional inuit diet and decline in the nutritional value of food choices in response to availability of market foods have been highlighted by kuhnlein and colleagues (2004). the harvesting and consumption of traditional foods continue to play a key role in the lifestyle of the kiluhikturmiut inuinnait, providing much needed access to fresh and unprocessed foods and improving the nutrient profile of the contemporary diet (kuhnlein et al. 2004) knowledge of traditional plant-based medicine by healer pauline plamondon serves as an option for supplementary healthcare in a region where access to medicine can be limited. while medical services are available in the community, doctors visit only intermittently and patients must travel by air to access specialized treatment. unlike the generalized knowledge of plants useful as food or materials, knowledge of medicinal plants was specialized. we argue that such specialized knowledge is a valuable component of local knowledge systems and deserves further consideration by ethnobiologists, anthropologists, community workers, and the medical profession. specialized knowledge versus consensus consensus analysis (sensu reyes-garcia et al. 2004) seeks to document shared cultural knowledge and makes the assumption that individuals that exhibit greater coherence of answers are considered most knowledgeable. although, the idea of defining culture as that which is common to the group has great value in understanding cultural domains and normative experience (boster 1986, romney et al. 1986, reyesgarcia et al. 2004), there are risks to this approach, particularly that specialized knowledge will be ignored or potentially labeled as “incorrect.” many cultures today are rapidly loosing ethnobotanical knowledge as indigenous languages are replaced by national and global languages (e.g. dementi-leonard and gilmore 1999), habitat is destroyed, and a connection to the land is replaced by distant jobs and commercial goods. in such cases, preserving the remaining specialized ethnobotanical knowledge should be considered a priority. specialized knowledge is common in any organized system of relationships where certain activities are not easily observed by all members (zelditch 1962). specialization in knowledge is readily apparent in cultural subgroups where there is a division of labor and/or in cultural practices wherein a lack of specific knowledge can result in loss of life, for example, medicine, the art of boat-building, sailing, and warfare (banack and cox 1987; boster and johnson 1989; cox 1991; rondon and banack 2003; tongco 2007). one would expect a practitioner of a specialized art to have knowledge not broadly known. any specialized knowledge that is used periodically would not necessarily be shared knowledge. however, it still may be valued by other members of a community and could be tightly linked to natural resources of the area. likewise, knowledge that requires extensive apprenticeship is likely to reside in fewer individuals within a community and is of particular value to document when reliable individuals can be found. in this study, we note that knowledge of plants gathered as food and used in material culture was 84  research communica on  generally held by most individuals. these are also the two areas where contemporary uses best align with historic accounts of inuinnait culture. medicinal knowledge, however, is not taught broadly to everyone, but is typically passed on only through apprenticeship to initiated individuals and its use is periodic, as in the kiluhikturmiut inuinnait. we regard this specialized knowledge as ethnographically important when held by individuals practicing the arts who are trusted by other community members. we encourage other ethnobiologists to record and report such specialized knowledge in addition to seeking out quantifiable data. changes to arctic culture and environment the rapid progression of inuit cultural change is apparent in daily inuinnait life. commercial interests in arctic oil, diamonds, and natural gas suggest that the rate of change may continue to accelerate. indeed, the inuit now share a vested interest in resource extraction. signed in 1993, the nunavut land claims agreement provided the inuit with the right to use and manage resources within the land claims area (wenzel 2004). employment opportunities in the resource extraction industry provide much needed employment, but also draw people away from traditional practices such as hunting and fishing and encourage further adoption of commercial foods. kuhnlein and colleagues (2004) have noted the resultant changes in diet and nutritional status among the canadian inuit. the biotic and abiotic environments of the coronation gulf region are likely to experience similar rapid change. research suggests a change in the structure of ecological communities, a reduction of species diversity and evenness, and the replacement of 40% of the tundra with taiga by 2100 (walker et al. 2006). successful navigation of the northwest passage has become reality. should conditions permit regular shipping routes through the coronation gulf region, the kiluhikturmiut inuinnait will find themselves on the shores of an international shipping lane instead of within the wilderness of today. a progressively changing climate thus threatens to alter not only local ecology but also to accelerate cultural change of the inuinnait through increased exposure to external cultures and novel opportunities for employment. the territorial government of nunavut mandates the incorporation of inuit traditional knowledge (qaujimajatuqangit) into governance and resource management (wenzel 2004); however, few ethnobotanical accounts of the inuit of nunavut exist. the respect for knowledge or experience (qaujimanilik) is one of the principles of qaujimajatuqangit. the importance of traditional knowledge to inuit culture and governance and the rate of acculturation of the inuit indicate an urgency in documenting the knowledge and experience of the final generation that grew up with more traditional lifestyles. with inuit communities dispersed from siberia to greenland, much remains to be documented. though the arctic flora represented a secondary resource to the inuit the existing body of academic literature on inuit ethnobotany suggests that plant-use among the inuit deserves further consideration. our work indicates the potential for a broader existence of an inuit healing tradition that made use of the arctic flora. we emphasize the need for efforts to identify and collaborate with individuals familiar with plant-based inuit medicine. acknowledgements we are indebted to all of the kiluhikturmiut inuinnait people of kugluktuk who shared their knowledge and hospitality with us. pauline plamondon conveyed the teachings of her grandmother and the many generations of healers that preceded her. peter taptuna, head of the kugluktuk hunters and trappers’ association, participated in this study and lent his support and guidance. bob appatok, nellie kanovak hikok, eric kaiyogana, fred kaohina, johnny kaosoni, george kavanna, and june okalik klengenberg, and the individuals who wish to remain anonymous, all shared their knowledge and time. the authors wish to thank kathy keeling, levi angutiqjuaq, eugene and almeda of kugluktuk, george atatahak, m. j. katiak, becky and luigi torretti, alice ayalik, mathieu dummond, ken taptuna, the niptanatiak family, the kugluktuk hunters and trappers association, deputy mayor of kugluktuk, the ilavut center and department of biological sciences and associated student union at california state university, fullerton. declarations permissions: documentation of traditional knowledge was approved by the nunavut research institute (license # 0401306n-a). informed consent was obtained from each participant. interview methods were approved by california state university, fullerton irb. (assurance # fwa00000135). collection of plant specimens was permitted under a 85  research communica on  wildlife research permit from the nunavut department of the environment (permit #: wl 000872). sources of funding: partial funding was provided by a natural science and mathematics research award granted to banack. conflicts of interest: none declared. references cited anderson, j. p. 1939. plants used by the eskimo of the northern bering sea and arctic regions of alaska. american journal of botany 26:714-716. banack, s.a. and p. a. cox. 1987. ethnobotany of ocean-going canoes in lau, fiji. economic botany 41:148-162. bliss, l. c. 1971. arctic and alpine plant life cycles. annual review of ecology and systematics 2:405-438. boster, j. s. 1986. exchange of varieties and information between aguaruna manioc cultivators. american anthropologist 88:428-436. boster, j. s. and j. c. johnson. 1989. a comparison of expert and novice judgments of similarity among fish. american 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walker, m. d., c. h. wahren, r. d. hollister, g. h. r. henry, l. e. ahlquist, j. m. alatalo, m. s. bretharte, m. p. calef, t. v. callaghan, a. b. carroll, h. e. epstein, i. s. jónsdóttir, j. a. klein, b. magnússon, u. molau, s. f. oberbauer, s. p. rewa, c. h. robinson, g. r. shaver, k. n. suding, c. c. thompson, a. tolvanen, ø. totland, p. l. turner, c. e. tweedie, p. j. webber and p. a. wookey. 2006. plant community responses to experimental warming across the tundra biome. proceedings of the national academy of sciences 103:1342-1346. wenzel, g. 2004. from tek to iq: inuit qaujimajatuqangit and inuit cultural ecology. arctic anthropology 41:238-250. zelditch, m. 1962. some methodological problems of field studies. american journal of sociology 67:566576.   biosketch jonathan duffy davis  is a biologist at fullerton arbore‐ tum,  a  botanical  garden  on  the  campus  of  california  state university‐fullerton.   sandra banack is the senior scien st at the ins tute for  ethnomedicine, jackson, wy.  87  research communica on  appendix 1: photos photo 1. kugluktuk is a small hamlet located on the shores of the corona on gulf in the central canadian arc c.   88  research communica on  photo 2. the contemporary kiluhikturmiut inuinnait live in modular homes that line the streets of kugluktuk.   89  research communica on  photo  3. the bristles of eriophorum scheuchzeri hoppe cyperaceae were  tradi onally gathered and used as a  wick in seal‐oil lamps (qulliq).   90  research communica on  photo 4. a qulliq was usually constructed from soapstone. the wick material would be placed along the upper  ledge of the lamp and the lower reservoir filled with rendered fat.   << /ascii85encodepages false /allowtransparency false /autopositionepsfiles true /autorotatepages /none /binding /left /calgrayprofile (dot gain 20%) /calrgbprofile (srgb iec61966-2.1) /calcmykprofile (u.s. web coated \050swop\051 v2) /srgbprofile (srgb iec61966-2.1) /cannotembedfontpolicy 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can be opened with acrobat and adobe reader 5.0 and later.) >> /namespace [ (adobe) (common) (1.0) ] /othernamespaces [ << /asreaderspreads false /cropimagestoframes true /errorcontrol /warnandcontinue /flattenerignorespreadoverrides false /includeguidesgrids false /includenonprinting false /includeslug false /namespace [ (adobe) (indesign) (4.0) ] /omitplacedbitmaps false /omitplacedeps false /omitplacedpdf false /simulateoverprint /legacy >> << /addbleedmarks false /addcolorbars false /addcropmarks false /addpageinfo false /addregmarks false /convertcolors /converttocmyk /destinationprofilename () /destinationprofileselector /documentcmyk /downsample16bitimages true /flattenerpreset << /presetselector /mediumresolution >> /formelements false /generatestructure false /includebookmarks false /includehyperlinks false /includeinteractive false /includelayers false /includeprofiles false /multimediahandling /useobjectsettings /namespace [ (adobe) (creativesuite) (2.0) ] /pdfxoutputintentprofileselector /documentcmyk /preserveediting true /untaggedcmykhandling /leaveuntagged /untaggedrgbhandling /usedocumentprofile /usedocumentbleed false >> ] >> setdistillerparams << /hwresolution [2400 2400] /pagesize [612.000 792.000] >> setpagedevice letter from the editors ethnobiology letters book review 9 quantitative paleozoology r. lee lyman. 2008. cambridge university press, cambridge. pp. 348, black-and-white illustrations. $29.34 (paper). isbn 9780521715362. reviewed by steve wolverton1 reviewer address: 1 environmental archaeology, department of geography, university of north texas, denton, texas 76203 received: june 11 th 2010 volume 1:9-11 published: august 3 rd 2010 © 2010 society of ethnobiology the literature on quantification of skeletal animal remains from archaeological and paleontological contexts is chaotic. despite several attempts (e.g., grayson 1984; lyman 1994a) there has been little to no systemization. lyman‟s book lends order to the chaos that starts with fundamental definitions and the most basic aspect of quantification, tallying of specimens (bones/shells or fragments thereof). this basic start to the book is a key element to its palatability because nearly any reader with a broadly scientific mind can pick it up, start with chapter 1, and proceed with a spiraling crescendo into increasingly detailed chapters that follow. the first chapter addresses several important topics from the historical development of tallying (how it has been done and is done) to the statistical nature of paleozoological data, to an introduction of the zooarchaeological samples lyman uses in examples throughout the book. lyman repeatedly echoes and reinforces grayson‟s (1984) conclusion that paleozoological data are “at best” ordinal scale. this is the case for at least a couple of reasons: paleozoologists do not sample directly from animal populations, thus analysts cannot control representativeness by design; and paleozoological remains pass through taphonomic histories that might modify what was/is represented. the statistical nature of paleozoological data is patently ignored by zooarchaeologists who pretend that their data are „ratio scale at least.‟ lyman moves into basic units of quantification, number of identified specimens (nisp) and minimum number of individuals (mni) in chapter 2, covering the historical development of each unit. he opens with a brief but important discussion that relates to validity by defining target and measured variables. one must know what one hopes to count (target) in order to quantify appropriately (measure). there is a lengthy and tedious debate within zooarchaeology as to which unit is best for quantification of taxonomic abundances determined from faunal assemblages. lyman covers problematic hurdles associated with each unit. nisp might be prone to the „problem of interdependence‟ or multi-counting in that fragmentation may lead to specimens from the same individual being counted more than once. on the other hand, mni might differ according to how faunal data are aggregated into subassemblages from a site. that is, additive mni from multiple sub-assemblages might be different than that determined from the faunal sample considered as a single large assemblage (non-additive). each problem is considered to be „the classic problem‟ with each unit; lyman shows (as did grayson) that mni and nisp correlate to one another in terms of representing taxonomic abundance in most cases. this is logical since mni is derived from (based on) nisp. nisp represents a maximum and mni represents a minimum; if the two measures correlate to one another in an assemblage then aggregation and interdependence are overcome. lyman concludes that the paleozoologist should simply use nisp at ordinal scale to measure taxonomic abundance. despite that paleozoological data are at best ordinal scale and that nisp and mni correlate to one another, a few zooarchaeologists extend quantification beyond basic units to derive meat weights, biomass estimates, skeletal mass allometry, and other derived units. in chapter 3 lyman demonstrates the fallacy of such extension. lyman‟s reconsideration of a case study on the use of meat weights by renowned paleobiologist john guilday is illustrative of this fallacy (p. 113). guilday (1970) concluded that meat weights are “patently ridiculous,” a sentiment that lyman clearly agrees with for meat weights and similar quantitative methods. the issue with these kinds of derived units can be summarized as follows: if paleozoological abundance data are at best ordinal scale, meaning that it might only be possible to determine that taxon a was more or less abundant in ethnobiology letters book review 10 the assemblage than taxon b, and if that resolution is clearly portrayed through the use of nisp, then why would the analyst derive a ratio-level variable of tissue weight from nisp? lyman‟s answer is that the paleozoologist should not do so. other methods that are introduced in chapter 3 include taxonomic ubiquity, which is simply commonness of particular taxa in multiple assemblages, and a variety of methods for matching paired skeletal elements, the pitfalls and advantages of which lyman considers in detail. the first three chapters are an important prelude to chapter 4, which is (in my opinion) the most important part of the book. other sections represent organized and updated consideration of topics that have been covered in detail in the paleozoological literature, but determining the quality of paleozoological samples has not been covered in as concise and clear of a manner as by lyman in this chapter. lyman demonstrates that sampling to redundancy determined through the use of species-area curves and analysis of nestedness can aid the paleozoologist in terms of knowing how well the taxonomic composition of a faunal assemblage represents past ecological communities. within a single assemblage if taxonomic richness asymptotes with substantial increases in samples size (nisp), then most of the rare taxa have been encountered. when assessing multiple assemblages, if smaller assemblages nest within larger ones in terms of represented taxa, then the community taxonomic composition is likely representative. chapter 4, by necessity, also covers the influence of field recovery methods on paleozoological samples leaving the reader with a complete suite of tools for assessing the quality of paleozoological data on a sample-by-sample basis. chapter 5 organizes and discusses in detail the quantitative methods that paleozoologists use to analyze similarities and differences in taxonomic abundance over time and across space, such as ntaxa for richness and a variety of indices for examining taxonomic diversity and evenness. updates from previous syntheses on quantitative methods include consideration of abundance indices popularized by broughton and others (summary in broughton 1999) in the 1990s and related statistical approaches (cannon 2000). chapter 5 concludes the discussion of taxonomic abundances, and lyman turns to quantitative analysis of skeletal parts (elements) in chapter 6. he begins by discussing another quantitative unit, the minimum number of elements (mne), which is designed for assessment of skeletal element abundance. as he did with nisp and mni, lyman covers the historical development of mne and shows that this unit is also ordinal scale at best and that it tends to correlate with nisp (also shown by grayson and frey 2004). no discussion of skeletal part frequencies would be complete without a detailed consideration of lewis binford‟s minimum animals units. chapter 6, however, also expands into discussion of nisp to mne ratios and other measures of extent and intensity of fragmentation. nisp:mne was discussed in detail by lyman (1994b), but it has received very little use as a quantitative measure of fragment size (cf. nagaoka 2005; wolverton 2006). chapter 7 rounds out the book through discussion of quantification and taphonomy. another quantitative measure of fragmentation is introduced early in the chapter, the ratio of nisp to nsp, where nsp is the number of unidentifiable and identifiable specimens. as the ratio increases, a higher proportion of bone is identifiable, hence less fragmented. lyman is incorrect on page 266 when he states, “because the relationship of the nisp/nsp ratio to preservational condition has never been empirically or critically examined, the nisp/nsp ratio is seldom used analytically” (see wolverton et al. 2008:15). however, such empirical consideration may have been published just as quantitative paleozoology was going into press. various kinds of taphonomic signatures that relate to one or another process such as weathering, abrasion, butchering, and/or burning are discussed. lyman critically examines several approaches for tallying cutmarks; he is unimpressed with surface-area approaches that attempt to „predict‟ where cutmarks should be based on estimations of missing portions of bones, which is tantamount to creating cutmarks out of thin air. a recent advance in butchery studies is egeland‟s (2003) research on butchery-stroke frequency and cutmark frequency in which he found no relationship between the number of strokes and the number of butchery marks on bone. there is no greater disjunction between target and measured variables in zooarchaeology than there is in analysis of cutmarks. ethnicity, procurement strategies, butchering intensity might all be targets, but they are rarely validly represented by the measured variable of cutmarks on bone. in summary, lyman‟s book is not a litany of techniques for paleozoological quantification. instead it is a detail exposé of a variety of methods that discusses—through use of examples—technical application, rigor, and validity. the reader is left with clear reasoning as to when and why particular approaches can be appropriately applied in a variety of research contexts. it is both interesting and troubling to ethnobiology letters book review 11 me that there is no unified framework or system for quantification in paleozoology. archaeology, in general, often compromises methodological rigor for aggrandizing claims. if one is looking for a conservative approach that can be applied with defensible reasoning, lyman‟s book is a good foundation for a systematic approach to paleontological and zooarchaeological quantification. references cited broughton, jack m. 1999. resource depression and intensification during the late holocene, san francisco bay: evidence from the emeryville shellmound. university of california, anthropological records volume 32, berkeley. cannon, michael d. 2000. large mammal relative abundance in pithouse and pueblo period archaeofaunas from southwestern new mexico. journal of anthropological archaeology 19:317-347. egeland, charles p. 2003. carcass processing intensity and cutmark creation: an experimental approach. plains anthropologist 48:39-51. grayson, d. k. 1984. quantitative zooarchaeology. academic press, orlando. grayson, donald k. and carol j. frey. 2004. measuring skeletal part representation in archaeological faunas. journal of taphonomy 2:27-42. guilday, john e. 1970. animal remains from archaeological excavations at fort ligonier. annals of the carnegie museum 42:177-186. lyman, r. lee. 1994a. quantitative units and terminology in zooarchaeology. american antiquity 59:36-71. —. 1994b. relative abundances of skeletal specimens and taphonomic analysis of vertebrate remains. palaios 9:288-298. nagaoka, l. 2005. declining foraging efficiency and moa carcass exploitation in southern new zealand. journal of archaeological science 32:1328-1338. wolverton, steve. 2006. natural-trap ursid mortality and the kurten response. journal of human evolution 50:540-551. wolverton, steve, lisa nagaoka, julie densmore, and ben fullerton. 2008. white-tailed deer harvest pressure & within-bone nutrient exploitation curing the mid to late holocene in southeast texas, usa. before farming 2008/2, article 3. available at: http://www.waspress.co.uk/journals/beforefarming/j ournal_20082/abstracts/index.php (verified 3 august 2010). review of living in a dangerous climate: climate change and human evolution 42  book review  catalyst to spur human migration. as might be expected from an author in the americas, there is a whole chapter dedicated to the peopling of the americas, again engagingly woven with recent archaeological findings. the next chapter deals ably, but briefly, with the emergence of agriculture and animal domestication, with an excellent table that gives the timing and location of the first domestication of various important plant and animal species, which will certainly make a useful reference. here climate is given the lion’s share of credit for the emergence of stable societies and farming, rather than social factors. again, the focus switches back to the americas for a whole (if short) chapter, specifically the maya, who are described as having tried to adapt to climate change but unsuccessfully. here, an opportunity to expand on some of the other civilisations whose collapses have been, partially or wholly, attributed to climate change is missed, such as the mycenaeans, the khmer empire, the tang dynasty, the egyptian new kingdom, or, within the americas, the moche and the tiwanaku. the summary of human evolution and migration and the emergence of agriculture at this point gives way to the real meat of the book, which diverges into a more polemical essay. hetherington characterizes the social darwinian concept of “survival of the fittest”, which is incorporated into many western value systems, as being detrimental to the future of humanity. she is keen to emphasise that dominant species can cease to be dominant, and that there is a paradox at the heart of modern humanity: although we have successfully adapted to climate change in the past, we are now so sheltered from nature that our adaptability is compromised. in the decade that atmospheric levels of co2 passed 400 parts per million (ppm) for the first time since the pliocene, interest in how past human (and hominin) societies adapted to environmental change seems greater than ever. recent books like miller et al. (2011), sheets and cooper (2012), and van der noort (2013) set the tone, providing sustainability lessons from archaeological examples. this book follows on from a previous work, hetherington and reid (2010), essentially distilling parts of that book to make them more easily accessible for a wider audience. after an initial chapter that sets out the book’s central arguments, we are taken on a whistle-stop tour of human evolution. as an accessible summary, it works very well, with helpful illustrations and tables. recent findings about homo floresiensis are deftly integrated, making this a valuable resource for public engagement, although it is only a brief summary – those looking for an accessible account of human evolution with more detail may wish to look at roberts (2010) or stringer (2012). hetherington takes the opportunity to make some serious points in a fun way: chapter 3, ‘the neanderthal enigma’, begins with a vivid description of the depiction of neanderthals as simple savages that will be familiar to many, before casting that story in the light of history written by the triumphant (i.e., homo sapiens), presenting archaeological evidence that neanderthals were far from simple. two chapters on how climate may have influenced human migration follow, describing how the spread of h. sapiens coincided with the onset of a cold stage and the ensuing advancement of desert into southern and eastern africa. all is not environmentally determined, however: hetherington does note that population increases or disease may have been the living in a dangerous climate: climate change and human evolu on renee hetherington. 2012. cambridge university press, cambridge. pp.256, 14 illustra ons. $95.00 (hardcover).  isbn 978‐1107694736.  reviewed by ma  law  reviewer address: school of society, enterprise and environment, bath spa university, cardiff, uk  m.law@bathspa.ac.uk   volume 5:42‐43 received: february 28, 2014  published: april 7, 2014  © 2014 society of ethnobiology  mailto:m.law@bathspa.ac.uk� 43  book review  at times, this part of the book, particularly the start of the chapter “darwin the selector”, are deeply personal, giving us small flashes of autobiography that are affecting and admirable in their candour, but it is not always explicit how they are relevant. there are also chapters on two scientists whose work fell afoul of neo-darwinists, paul kammerer and richard benedict goldschmidt, which are illuminating and engagingly written, but again questionably relevant. there is an important argument being made, however, with essential points about the need to stop seeing ourselves as detached from nature, and to embrace the diversity of worldviews that humanity encompasses. despite the excellent and clear writing, this is very much a book of two halves, and it is somewhat difficult to reconcile the two. the first half feels more like an introductory course book, the second will have more value to scholars as a political argument alongside the likes of giddens (2012). ethnobiologists, especially those concerned with the role of environmental interactions in the history of human evolution and the development of farming, will find this book useful. in particular, the synthesis of recent research is especially enjoyable, and supported by an extensive bibliography and informative endnotes. the book also stands as an important example of how palaeoanthropological and ethnobiological perspectives can be brought to bear on the question of what to do about surviving climate change. references cited giddens, a. 2012. the politics of climate change. second edition. polity, cambridge. hetherington, r. and r. reid. 2010. the climate connection: climate change and modern human evolution. cambridge university press, cambridge. miller, n. f., k.m. moore and k. ryan, eds. 2011. sustainable lifeways: cultural persistence in an everchanging environment. university of pennsylvania press, philadelphia. roberts, a. 2010. the incredible human journey. bbc: london. sheets, p. and j. cooper. 2012. surviving sudden environmental change: answers from archaeology. university of colorado press, boulder. stringer, c. 2013. the origin of our species. penguin, london. van der noort, r. 2013. climate change archaeology: building resilience from research in the world’s coastal wetlands. oxford university press, oxford. << /ascii85encodepages false /allowtransparency false /autopositionepsfiles true /autorotatepages /none /binding /left /calgrayprofile (dot gain 20%) /calrgbprofile (srgb iec61966-2.1) /calcmykprofile (u.s. web coated \050swop\051 v2) /srgbprofile (srgb iec61966-2.1) /cannotembedfontpolicy /error /compatibilitylevel 1.4 /compressobjects /tags /compresspages true /convertimagestoindexed true /passthroughjpegimages true /createjobticket false /defaultrenderingintent /default /detectblends true /detectcurves 0.0000 /colorconversionstrategy /cmyk /dothumbnails false /embedallfonts true 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as professor roy ellen noted in the 9th international congress of ethnobiology in june in the same year at the university of kent, although 70% of humankind depends on medicinal plant preparations, there is actually very little academic research on this subject. his ‘ethnobiology and sciences of humankind’ keynote therefore makes our project all the more timely and relevant. the book is based on the presentations given in the seminar series. the emphasis was on thick description and ethnography. wenzel geissler and ruth prince show how the luo of kenya use plants to enhance children’s growth and rather than focusing on how a particular chemical compound of a particular species is used therapeutically, they highlight how plants are an integral aspect of social practices of belonging, child care and preventive health; and those are fun and playful! francoise barbira-freedman’s piece asks why in the upper amazon shamans are mostly men. she shows that plants are gendered and that shamans have to seduce them to engage them in the healing in this interview professor elisabeth hsu discusses ethnobiology as an interdisciplinary science and introduces the book she co-edited with dr. stephen harris plants, health and healing: on the interface of ethnobotany and medical anthropology (hsu and harris 2010). she discusses epistemological contradictions between biologically and anthropologically orientated ethnobiological studies and argues for a more anthropologically grounded and methodologically rigorous discipline. the interview took place at the school of anthropology and conservation at the university of kent in the uk in february 2011. the anti-malarial qinghaosu (artemisinin) captured elisabeth's attention when she was doing fieldwork in the early 2000s on chinese medicine in east africa, as qinghaosu constituted over 50% of the over-thecounter transactions in the private chinese medical clinics she visited, which mostly catered to the swahili -speaking local clientele. dawa ya kichina, “the medicine from china”, was in this case a purified chemical substance that chinese scientists had extracted, isolated and chemically identified in the 1970s and 1980s from a traditional chinese medical plant. it was a western medical drug, a molecule extracted from the plant materials of artemisia annua l., which, as elisabeth demonstrates in her article in this book, since antiquity had been praised for its parasite-killing and wound-healing properties and since medieval times for its use against intermittent fevers. at the time, thousands of articles had been published on the unusual structure of the molecule, its pharmacokinetics, its toxicity and its clinical effects, but not a single one on the history of qinghao in the chinese medical literature. this prompted elisabeth into launching a seminar series out of which grew this book project. an interview with elisabeth hsu on plants, health and healing: on  the interface of ethnobotany and medical anthropology  sofia a. vougioukalou   author address: king’s college london, department of primary care and public health sciences, 42 weston street, london  se1 3qd   sofia.vougioukalou@kcl.ac.uk  received: september 17, 2012  volume: 3:91‐95  published: december 29, 2012  © 2012 society of ethnobiology  mailto:sofia.vougioukalou@kcl.ac.uk� 92  interview  process. we wanted to be broad so we also included clinical medical, botanical and historical research. sav: one of the book’s strengths, that highlights its ability to cross disciplinary boundaries, is that its editors are a medical anthropologist and a botanist. for botanists, the core of ethnobotanical research is the accurate identification of medicinal plant species. however, this is not regarded a priority by medical anthropologists and is frequently ignored. how did your partnership work? eh: stephen harris and i are based in the same university and in the same college, green templeton college. in the college we are encouraged to undertake joint projects. sir john grimley evans is an emeritus fellow at the same college, a distinguished gerontologist, who is rather sceptical about the alleged memory-enhancing effects of gingko biloba leaf extracts for alzheimer’s patients. he provides a really succinct appraisal of rcts in general, and shows that there are none to prove it. if these leaf extracts have any effect, it is indirect: his hunch is that they modulate mood and reduce depression and thereby may enhance people’s performance in memory tests. the identification of medicinal plant species indeed is very important but there are other important issues in the way plants are used that are neglected by ethnobotanists. for example, geissler and prince show that for the plants used externally in the baths that enhanced luo childrens’ growth, it was important that the plants used grew on the land that belonged to the clan. the people connected to their land through the plants. the authors also had the plants botanically identified by stephen harris. so one can do both, write an ethnographic narrative to emphasise what is important for the people and also in the footnotes provide the identification of the species and the range of plant species used. sav: this is a great example of interdisciplinary work actually working, especially bearing in mind the long history of animosity between anthropologists and biologists that study the same topic and tend to disregard each other. it shows the benefits that come out when people actually collaborate. eh: it is important when we collaborate that we actually are willing to learn a bit about both languages, to be multi-lingual does service to both audiences. for example, harris mentions plant species names in the text and plant appearances in a footnote. whereas geissler and princes’ plant species names feature in footnotes. this is one way in which different disciplines can collaborate and still maintain their focus of interest. sav: your introduction presents an astute critique of medicinal ethnobotany. what in your view has ethnobotany in the uk been missing so far? eh: i only know a little bit about medicinal ethnobotany and it evidently has developed very much in a cognitivist direction and not taken account of recent developments in medical anthropology. a lot of the writing still works with concepts of ‘culture’, ‘illness’ and ‘disease’ that have since been revised. i hope with this book to invite medicinal ethnobotanists to be more open to a phenomenologically-inspired approach that takes seriously people’s experience of plants and that focuses on the practices in which people engage when they interact with plants. medical anthropologists, in light of current trends beyond the figure 1. book cover for plants, health and healing:  on  the  interface  of  ethnobotany  and medical an‐ 93  interview  body proper (lock and farquhar 2007), may become more interested in the study of medicinal plants as cultural artefacts, and in their social lives as an aspect of material culture. sav: you discussed thomas reid’s philosophy of ‘common sense’ and james gibson’s ‘ecological psychology of perception’ and advocate combining them for the investigation of medical realities. you present them as distinct from empirical and functional knowledge that dominates medicinal ethnobotany. can you expand on that? eh: it is really a question why do many medical anthropologists find medicinal ethnobotany so limited, and do not want to engage with it. i think it has to do with its philosophical orientation; ethnobotany appears wedded to an uninteresting kind of empiricism. medical anthropology has gone a different way. narrative theory has questioned the idea of a single truth postmodernism, practice theory, foucauldian questions of institutional power and more recently the phenomenological twist, the interest in the body, personhood and the self, and the impulse we got from science studies to investigate technologies, materiality and material culture. the two orientations are not easily merged. it seems to me that it is a philosophical problem. the ethnobotanist scott atran talked about common sense as some kind of ‘manifestly perceivable empirical fact’ (atran and medin 2008). for an anthropologist a ‘manifestly perceivable empirical fact’ does not exist. scott atran cited george moore who cited thomas reid, and reid i found the most carefully formulated and readable author. his philosophy of common sense concerns the self and how it relates the environment. it posits that in certain situations the self can engage with the world in an unmediated way, such that the self and the environment form a continuum. thomas reid (1764 [1997]) was at the time arguing against his contemporary david hume, who in a typical empiricist fashion was very sceptical about the veracity of whatever is mediated through the senses. i thought reid was interesting as this interrelatedness with the environment until very recently has been dematerialised in medical anthropology. reid, moreover, has extremely interesting thoughts about the senses and perception, and, in my reading, some of them point in the same direction as thomas gibson’s ecological approach to visual perception (gibson 1979) and the notion of affordances that gibson developed in that context. both authors validate the sensory experiences of the common person in ways that scientific empiricism does not, as the latter takes seriously only expert knowledge. so, there is also a knowledge political edge to my argument. if one implicates the self, and its modes of perception, into the study of what appears commonsensical, this may provide a meeting ground for both disciplines. sav: your fascinating account of the ubiquitous presence of qinghao throughout chinese materia medica highlights the importance of history of medicine and linguistic interpretations to unravel the changing nature of medicinals as cultural artefacts. what are the implications for ethnobotanical enquiry when ethnomedical remedies are studied as ‘cultural artefacts’ instead of ‘natural herbs’? eh: it is often said that complementary and alternative medical practitioners work with ‘natural herbs’. this is pretty wrong. what is a ‘natural herb’? the chemical constitution of the ‘herb’ depends on the time plants are harvested, the location of where the plants grow, on their preparation and application. in most traditional medicines one mixes plants with other ingredients, like honey, or with other herbs, or one burns them to ashes, dries them in the shade or sun, rolls them into pills or pounds them into powders, therefore, processed plant materials don’t only have different cultural meanings and connotations but also different chemical properties, with different medical effects. pharmaceuticals as well as the ‘natural herbs’ are cultural artefacts and have figure  2. elisabeth  in a field of sweet wormwood,  artemisia annua l. (asteraceae).  94  interview  social lives. sav: the discussion on the differences between the cultures of different disciplines goes back quite a while. c.p. snow in 1959 remarked on the ‘two cultures’ of modern society – the humanities and sciences (snow 2001 [1959]). how can we better integrate social and biological sciences for interdisciplinary benefits and enhanced knowledge in the understanding of human sickness and its treatment? eh: i do not believe in integration through one language. human beings are born with the ability to speak many languages. the human mind has the capacity to be multi-lingual. in burkina faso i was living in a compound visiting my godchild shortly after her birth, and in this compound there were five languages spoken by children under nine. our knowledge is enhanced by learning the language of different disciplines; learning to frame the problem in different ways and learning to see different perspectives. there are many more than two cultures of modern society: there are enormous differences in the culture of doing science even within the school of anthropology at oxford. within the medical sciences there are differences between geneticists and epidemiologists; the epidemiologists, like anthropologists, emphasize the environmental factors causing disease. and among the geneticists there are the systems biologists who stress the importance of the phenotype when it comes to the transmission of genetic information. it is very important for scholars in the humanities to have an inkling of the natural sciences, and for natural scientists to have one of the social sciences. sav: do you see empiricism, bioculturalism, and neo -darwinism as part of the same framework? eh: weckerle, timbul and blumenshine ask why is it that, worldwide, all seven plant genera that have species producing caffeine (camellia, coffea,, cola, ilex, paullinia, theobroma and citrus) have been put to use in ritual? it is really amazing because these species are in entirely different botanical families and grow in geographically completely unrelated areas. they are used in meditation rituals, in tea ceremonies; they are chewed, drunk or smoked. what is it between human beings and caffeine? it is a psychotropic drug and awakens the mind. this falls nicely into a biocultural framework of explanation: it is a matter of adaptation. weckerle and her colleagues mention adaptation and they bring into this discussion human observation of animal behaviour, but they go further in their explanation by pointing to cultural and economic historical changes. i find any kind of research into these phenomena fascinating. what i find problematic is the idea of adaptation as explanation for their existence. bioculturalist explanations often subsume socio-cultural processes within one species, homo sapiens, into a framework of explanation with which darwin explained species differentiation over geological, not historical or biographical, time periods. the concept “environment” itself is problematic not only because it implies that it is static. the relationship between the self and other organisms needs to be rethought. darwinists themselves, like levins and lewontin (1985) have long questioned the concept of adaptation. sav: major global challenges like public health, food security, climate change and natural disasters when combined with demographic change at current levels call for ethnobiology and medical anthropology to join forces to deliver benefits to the communities studied and vulnerable communities in general. how can that be achieved? eh: applied medical anthropology contributes directly to public health. this book is not about this. it takes seriously cultural history and gives an understanding for the interrelatedness of human beings with the plant world. it tries to get away from focusing on plant chemistry and its medicinal exploitation. it shows how human beings and plants are figure 3. preparing qinghao by macera ng artemi‐ sia  annua  leaves  and  squeezing  the  juice  in  cold  water. quing hao contains artemisinin which is cur‐ rently recommended as an an malarial by who.   95  interview  reid t. 1764 [1997]. an inquiry into the human mind on the principles of common sense. ed. derek r brookes. edinburgh university press, edinburgh. gibson, j. j. 1979. the ecological approach to visual perception. houghton mifflin, boston. snow, c. p. 2001 [1959]. the two cultures. cambridge university press, london. levins, r. and r. c. lewontin. 1985. the dialectical biologist. harvard university press, cambridge, ma. biosketch elisabeth hsu is professor in anthropology and fellow of  green  templeton  college,  university  of  oxford.  her  research  interests  concern chinese medicine,  transmis‐ sion of knowledge and prac ce, body and personhood,  as well  as  touch, pain,  feelings, emo ons,  and  sensory  experience.  dr. sofia anthi vougioukalou is a research associate at  the  department  of  primary  care  and  public  health  sciences  at  king’s  college  london  and  an  honorary  research  fellow  at  the  school  of  anthropology  and  conserva on at the university of kent (uk).  part of one world, entwined in sometimes strikingly similar cultural histories. in the sciences, knowledge is enhanced by a subject-object relationship where the subjective experiences are to be distrusted and the environment is to be objectified; the self has to be detached from the object it studies and a distance is to be produced. there might be another attitude, which arises from a heightened sensitivity to the experiential in human-plant interrelations that are taken for granted. the benefit it might provide for people in these disaster zones is to sharpen their consciousness for these interconnections in everyday life. references cited hsu, e. and s. harris, eds. 2010. plants, health, and healing: on the interface of medical anthropology and ethnobotany. in the series epistemologies of healing, volume 6. berghahn, oxford and new york. lock, m. and j. farquhar, eds. 2007. beyond the body proper: reading the anthropology of material life. duke university press, durham and london. atran s. and d. medin. 2008. the native mind and the cultural construction of nature. mit press, cambridge ma. << /ascii85encodepages false /allowtransparency false /autopositionepsfiles true /autorotatepages /none /binding /left /calgrayprofile (dot gain 20%) /calrgbprofile (srgb iec61966-2.1) /calcmykprofile (u.s. web coated \050swop\051 v2) /srgbprofile (srgb iec61966-2.1) /cannotembedfontpolicy /error /compatibilitylevel 1.4 /compressobjects /tags /compresspages true /convertimagestoindexed true /passthroughjpegimages true /createjobticket false /defaultrenderingintent /default /detectblends true /detectcurves 0.0000 /colorconversionstrategy /cmyk /dothumbnails false /embedallfonts true /embedopentype false /parseiccprofilesincomments true /embedjoboptions true /dscreportinglevel 0 /emitdscwarnings false /endpage -1 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can be opened with acrobat and adobe reader 5.0 and later.) >> /namespace [ (adobe) (common) (1.0) ] /othernamespaces [ << /asreaderspreads false /cropimagestoframes true /errorcontrol /warnandcontinue /flattenerignorespreadoverrides false /includeguidesgrids false /includenonprinting false /includeslug false /namespace [ (adobe) (indesign) (4.0) ] /omitplacedbitmaps false /omitplacedeps false /omitplacedpdf false /simulateoverprint /legacy >> << /addbleedmarks false /addcolorbars false /addcropmarks false /addpageinfo false /addregmarks false /convertcolors /converttocmyk /destinationprofilename () /destinationprofileselector /documentcmyk /downsample16bitimages true /flattenerpreset << /presetselector /mediumresolution >> /formelements false /generatestructure false /includebookmarks false /includehyperlinks false /includeinteractive false /includelayers false /includeprofiles false /multimediahandling /useobjectsettings /namespace [ (adobe) (creativesuite) (2.0) ] /pdfxoutputintentprofileselector /documentcmyk /preserveediting true /untaggedcmykhandling /leaveuntagged /untaggedrgbhandling /usedocumentprofile /usedocumentbleed false >> ] >> setdistillerparams << /hwresolution [2400 2400] /pagesize [612.000 792.000] >> setpagedevice ethnobiology letters editorial letter 81 letter from the editors an interview with ethnobiologist dr. elizabeth widjaja cynthia fowler and amy pittsenbarger author address: wofford college, department of sociology, spartanburg, south carolina 29303 ethnobiologyletters@gmail.com received: december 7 th 2011 volume: 2:81-84 published: december 11 th 2011 © 2011 society of ethnobiology in this letter from the editors that caps the second volume of ethnobiology letters, we are honored and excited to introduce you to dr. elizabeth anita widjaja who currently works as a senior researcher in the botany division of the indonesian institute of sciences and is affiliated with the herbarium bogoriense. she served as director of the plant resources of south east asia (prosea) between 2004 and 2008. the purpose behind our design of this letter from the editors is to present an interview with dr. elizabeth widjaja and to spread the word about a successful female ethnobiologist from a developing country. photo 1 by elizabeth widjaja. gigantochloa atroviolacea widjaja poaceae. elizabeth first came to our attention on february 5th, 2011 when she delivered the presentation, “economic botany from the herbarium amboinense to the plant resources of southeast asia.” elizabeth’s presentation was her contribution to the posthumous celebration of professor e.m. beekman’s life during which his translation of georgius everhardus rumphius’ legendary the ambonese herbal, volumes 1-6 (2011, yale university press) was unveiled and he was awarded the ntbg david fairchild medal for plant exploration. this event occurred on the miami campus of the national tropical botanical gardens (ntgb), which is known affectionately as the kampong, meaning “village” in the family of malay languages that includes elizabeth’s bahasa indonesia. elizabeth was born in the kudus regency in central java province. she received her undergraduate education at the university padjadjaran in bandung. her m.sc. and ph.d. are from the university of birmingham, england. among the awards elizabeth has received for her scholarship are the best young scientist from the indonesian institute of sciences in 1996-1997, the world biodiversity day award from the state ministry of environment in 1999, the indonesian president award in 2004, the harsberger medal from india’s society of the ethnobotanists in 2001, and an award in 2010 for 30 years of service to the indonesian government. widjaja participates in the international cooperative biodiversity group, which involves her indonesian partners and their colleagues at the university of california campuses at davis, berkeley, and san francisco. bamboo captures most of elizabeth’s attention. she has studied the taxonomy, propagation, genetics, ethnobotany, and folk classification of bamboo. she is particularly knowledgeable about malesian and indonesia types of bamboo. elizabeth is the authority for numerous species of bamboo, including her favorite gigantochloa atroviolaceae widjaja poaceae. this indonesian species, known by the common name “black mailto:ethnobiologyletters@gmail.com http://www.lipi.go.id/ http://yalepress.yale.edu/book.asp?isbn=9780300153767 http://yalepress.yale.edu/book.asp?isbn=9780300153767 ethnobiology letters editorial letter 82 bamboo” is portrayed in photo 1. black bamboo is elizabeth’s favorite species because of its beauty and its utility for furniture construction. elizabeth’s second favorite species is dendrocalamus asper (schultes f.) backer ex heyne poaceae. she likes this species because of its, “large size and tasty young shoots which can be used as vegetables.” (see photos 2 and 4.) we explore dr. widjaja’s interest in bamboo and other topics related to her life as an ethnobotanist in the following transcript of our interview with her. dr. cynthia fowler (cf): talk about your work in the field of ethnobotany. dr. elizabeth widjaja (ew): my interest in bamboo began in 1975 with a study of bamboo musical instruments in west java. back then, i realized that indonesians do not pay much attention to bamboo, because it is so commonplace for them. in other areas of ethnobotany, i have studied folk classifications of local rice and bananas in the northern region of eastern kalimantan. cf: how would you describe the ethnobotanical significance of bamboo in indonesia? ew: indonesians on java, bali, lombok, and elsewhere use bamboo in thousands of ways. the torajanese of south sulawesi, for example, use bamboo to make roofs for their homes. torajanese use bamboo to mark almost every phase of life, from birth until death. they use the stems, roots, and leaves of bamboo. cf: how is bamboo used when people die? what communities use bamboo for funeral ceremonies? ew: bamboo biers are constructed to carry corpses to the graveyards. the balinese wait several days before cremating family members’ corpses. balinese funeral ceremonies sometimes occur weeks or months after a person’s death. a special species of bamboo – the yellow variety of schizostachyum brachycladum kurz poaceae (photo 3) – is used to catch the water that leaks from decaying corpses when the cremation or burial of the body is delayed. cf: please describe the use of bamboo in the birth of children. ew: midwives cut the umbilical cords of newborns with slices of bamboo. many indonesian communities, including the javanese, sundanese, balinese, and melayu, use this practice. cf: do you have any bamboo in your home or office? ew: i used to have items made out of black bamboo (gigantochloa atroviolacea) but they were worn out after more than twenty-five years of use. currently, my home garden is only 2 x 5 meters, so i grow bamboo in containers. several species are growing there. one that i recently planted is a climbing bamboo and i am waiting for it to flower. thyrsostachys siamensis gamble poaceae, bambusa multiplex (lour.) raeusch. ex schult. & schult. f. poaceae, and melocanna baciffera (roxb.) kurz poaceae are also growing in my garden. photo 2 by elizabeth widjaja. dendrocalamus asper (schultes f.) backer ex heyne poaceae. cf: how would you describe your day-to-day life as an indonesian ethnobotanist? ew: [i am] a senior researcher. i have a lot of meetings. when i am not in meetings, i do research in the herbarium or i work in my office on proposals and manuscripts. cf: what professional meetings have you attended recently? ew: i mostly attend meetings about bamboo. i am interested in any sort of meeting about bamboo. sometimes i am not able to attend conferences because the registration fees are too expensive and i have no funding to pay for my travel and accommodation expenses. the most recent conference i attended was the rhumphius celebration [at the ntbg kampong in ethnobiology letters editorial letter 83 miami]. i have attended the flora malesiana symposium where we discussed the revision of flora in the malesia and i presented a paper on the flora of mekongga mountains in southeast sulawesi. another meeting i have attended was for the association for tropical biology and conservation where i presented a paper about the loss of floral diversity on java. cf: what are the most critical issues in the ethnobotany of indonesia today? ew: medicinal plants, natural dyes, and traditional knowledge concerning the conservation of nature are all current issues in indonesia. elizabeth has written two books about bamboo plus over seventy-five papers about her varied research interests. a selective list of her publications appears below. to conclude our letter from the editors for volume 2 of ethnobiology letters we reprint this quote in which widjaja describes her observations in 1977 of torajan funeral ceremonies. “when a torajanese dies, a kind of undertaker called tomabalun will prepare the body for the ma’ dio’ tomate ceremony (tangdilintin 1975). first he will make a mixture of various herbs for spicing and perfuming the water to be used in bathing and smearing the body or pouring into the mouth of the deceased (wellenkamp 1984). the herbs used by one of the tomabaluns consist of leaves of lemo (citrus hystrix dc) and young leaves of coconut (cocos nucifera l.) and banana (musa paradisiaca l.) which are boiled in water. other tomabaluns many use different kinds of plants, such as the rind of pangi (pangium edule reinw.), the powdery substance obtained from the inner part of the culm of bamboo petung [dendrocalamus asper (schult. f.) backer ex heyne], and also powder made of buffalo horn. wellenkamp (1984) reported the use of dambu (psidium guajava l.) during washing of the body. bathing of the corpse has a dual purpose: to purify it and to embalm it for long-term preservation. herbs and other material or secret formulas used in preparing the corpse but not disclosed to me by the tomabalun apparently have preservative properties…” (widjaja 1988:251). photo 3 by elizabeth widjaja. schizostachyum brachycladum var. kuning kurz poaceae. references cited & selected bibliography widjaja, elizabeth. 1980. the angklung and other west javanese bamboo musical instruments. in bamboo research in asia: proceedings of a workshop held in singapore, 28-30 may 1980, edited by gilles lessard and amy chouinard, pp. 201-4. international development research centre, ottawa. widjaja, elizabeth. 1988. ethnobotany of the funeral ceremony of the torajanese. economic botany. 42(2):250-254. widjaja, elizabeth. 1995. document on bamboo genetic resources in indonesia. report of fao project no. 94729. herbarium bogoriense, bogor. widjaja, elizabeth. 1997a. jenis-jenis bambu endemik dan konservasinya di indonesia. prosiding seminar nasional biology xv. pbi and universitas lampung, lampung. widjaja, elizabeth. 1997b. konservasi flora bambu indonesia. paper presented in the syposium of botanical gardens, bogor. widjaja, elizabeth. 1998. state of the art of indonesian bamboo. in bamboo: conservation, diversity, ecogeography, germplasm, resource utilization, and taxonomy, edited by a.n. rao and v. ramanath rao. international plant genetic research institute, regional office for asia, ethnobiology letters editorial letter 84 the pacific, and oceania, malaysia. available at http://www2.bioversityinternational.org/publications/ web_version/572/ch26.htm. accessed on december 8, 2011. widjaja, elizabeth and sri nurani kartikasari. 2001. identikit jenis-jenis bambu di jawa. puslitbang biologilipi, bogor. widjaja, elizabeth and sri nurani kartikasari. 2001. identikit jenis-jenis bambu di kepulauan sunda kecil. puslitbang biologi-lipi, bogor. tabata, yasunori, elizabeth widjaja, tri mulyaningsih, ir parman, harry wiriadinata, y.i. mandang and takao itoh. 2003. structural survey and artificial induction of aloeswood. bulletin of the wood research institute. 90: 1112. widjaja, elizabeth, inggit astuti and ida arinasa. 2004. new species of bamboos (poaceae-bambusoideae) from bali. reinwardtia 12(2):199-204. photo 4 by elizabeth widjaja. d. asper. http://www2.bioversityinternational.org/publications/web_version/572/ch26.htm http://www2.bioversityinternational.org/publications/web_version/572/ch26.htm letter from the editors ethnobiology letters book review 33 the great cacti: ethnobotany & biogeography david yetman. 2007. the university of arizona, tucson. pp. 320, 366 color photographs, 17 maps. $59.95 (cloth). isbn 9780816524310. reviewed by david a. hooper 1 reviewer address: 1 department of anthropology, university of montana, missoula received: march 15 th 2010 volume 1:33-34 published: august 31 st 2010 © 2010 society of ethnobiology david yetman sets out to describe his fascination with columnar cacti in the hope that readers will also become interested in these plants. by using photographs, detailed information on cacti distribution, biology, utilization, and personal impressions, yetman succeeds in describing these plants’ diversity. columnar cacti, as the author defines them, are cylindrical plants with ribs, whose height exceeds breadth, often making them significant components of landscapes. the book has three chapters. chapter one, the great cacti, is an overview of columnar cacti evolution, ecology, biogeography, physiology and ethnobotany. in chapter two, the cacti, yetman presents species accounts. the last chapter, the hot spots: where the great cacti are, provides information on locations of high diversity or particularly interesting species. the species accounts are organized by genera. most genera are grouped first by ethnobotanical importance and then according to geographic distribution. ethnobotanically important plants either are used by many different cultures or have contributed to the development of a culture. genera that occur throughout latin america, are discussed in sections of the book that contain other plants found only in mexico, which reflect differences in how columnar cacti have been utilized throughout the region. cacti have been widely incorporated into the cultures of mexico, whereas south american cultures utilize a small number of columnar diversity. the choice of placing genera that have a continental distribution with the region of highest cultural use reflects the author’s interest in stressing the relationships between columnar cacti and people. usually within each genus the first species discussed is one that is used most frequently by local people. the species accounts are not broken into different subsections and lack typical headers such as range, life history, food, medicine, and material uses. instead, yetman writes descriptions that flow from one topic to another. the lack of subsections allows for more flexibility in how yetman presents information. a typical pattern that he uses is to start with the species distribution and possible factors that have limited its range. then, yetman describes the plant’s appearance, natural history, and method of pollination. ethnobotanical information is located at the end of the account. for the majority of the cacti, descriptions of fruits and their distribution smoothly transition into how local people harvest and prepare the fruit for consumption, or notes about propagation lead into information about ethnobotanical uses. in the profile of pachycereus marginatus (dc) britton and rose, for example, yetman begins with a comment about how common this species is in central mexico, which he believes is caused by the wide use of plants as living fences, and then makes a quick transition into ethnobotanical information. although in a few instances yetman’s transitions from one topic to another are too abrupt, his organization works well for the most part. the information presented in the species accounts are based on yetman’s years of studying columnar cacti, searching for populations of different cacti, and talking to local people about their knowledge and use of these plants. secondary sources are used to expand on current taxonomic debates, or to reinforce his observations about the plants’ natural history, and ethnobotany. because of his experiences with all of the cacti presented in the book, yetman includes personal impressions on attractiveness, taste of edible fruits, and difficulties in locating some populations. by providing this aesthetic perspective, yetman is trying to inspire readers to form their own personal connections to columnar cacti. ethnobiology letters book review 34 because of the density of observations found within chapter two, the book represents the starting point for hundreds of research projects. for example, myrtillocactus schenckii (purpus) britton and rose, a cactus of central and southern mexico, is used for firewood in the fuel-limited areas of puebla and oaxaca. the author expresses his concern for the species’ futures under current overexploitation. when i read yetman’s concern about overexploitation of m. schenckii, i asked myself: is the species really overharvested? i assume that the cactus has been a fuel source for thousands of years; so was it overharvested in the past, or is this a new phenomenon? do cultural factors exist to regulate use of the cactus? these questions among others could lead to hypotheses and research plans for their testing. yetman and others may be able to quickly provide data to support his claim, but my point is that aspiring ecologists, biogeographers, and ethnobotanists wanting to work with columnar cacti or in the regions occupied by these plants should read this book because it can lead to many possible topics for theses and dissertations. the final chapter of the book, the hot spots: where the great cacti are, is only twelve pages long. as indicated by its title, the chapter is a list of places where people can find the highest diversity of cacti or particularly spectacular species. choosing to end the book in this way, instead of providing information on how readers can help conserve columnar cacti or ethnobotanical knowledge of cacti, is a reflection of the author’s philosophy. for yetman, the best way to motivate people to help conserve cacti is by having his readers connect on personal and emotional levels through physical contact with these cacti. throughout the book, hundreds of photographs illustrate the characteristics of these plants. while the photographs are impressive, i was frustrated with how they are referenced in the text. in many instances, a paragraph may be focused on the fruit or some ethnobotanical topic and the photograph associated with the text shows the cactus’s habitat. this is the only major drawback to the book, however. after telling my coworkers at the university of montana’s plant ecology lab about pachycereus pringlei (s. watson) britton and rose, a cactus that can reach a height of 20 meters in an area that averages 200 mm of precipitation per year, i realized that yetman’s book conveys his excitement about cacti. whether you have merely a passing interest in the great cacti or have spent an entire career studying them, reading the great cacti will provide new knowledge and a desire to share it with others. indigenous knowledge of the edible weaver ant oecophylla smaragdina fabricius hymenoptera: formicidae from the vientiane plain, lao pdr 4 research communication knowledge in the cultivation of palm weevils (rhynchophorus palmarum linnaeus coleoptera: curculionidae, rhinostomus barbirostris fabricius coleoptera: curculionidae). the asian weaver ant oecophylla smaragdina fabricius hymenoptera: formicidae (figure 1) is one of the most favoured edible insects in the lao pdr (h. barennes 2010 personal communication) and thailand (sribandit et al. 2008). the o. smaragdina use as human food concerns predominantly the brood (i.e., eggs, larvae, pupae), particularly the seasonally available large larvae and pupae – the queen brood – that develop into winged reproductive females known as virgin queens. sribandit et al. (2008) showed the economic importance of o. smaragdina queen brood trade to rural livelihoods in northeastern thailand. there is every reason to assume a comparable economic importance in the neighbouring, and culturally similar, vientiane plain, lao pdr, where rural people are highly dependent on non-agricultural introduction edible insects are a possible core element in improving food security, sustainable food production, and biodiversity conservation, in particular in developing countries accustomed to entomophagy. of major importance in realizing these potentials are developments in sustainable exploitation of wild edible insect populations and in (semi-)cultivating and farming edible insects (defined in van huis et al. 2013), which can draw on both indigenous knowledge and western science (durst and shono 2010; van huis et al. 2013). as such, ramos-elorduy (2006) points to nontraditional collection practices threatening 14 edible insect species in hidalgo, mexico, and the need for preservation measures; ayieko et al. (2011) combine indigenous technological knowledge and modern technology in kenya in developing a termite (macrotermes subhylanus isoptera: macrotermitidae) mass collection device; and choo et al. (2009) show how amerindians use traditional ecological indigenous knowledge of the edible weaver ant oecophylla smaragdina fabricius hymenoptera: formicidae from the vientiane plain, lao pdr joost van itterbeeck1*, niane sivongxay2, bounthob praxaysombath2, and arnold van huis1 author address: 1laboratory of entomology, department of plant sciences, wageningen university, droevendaalsesteeg 1, 6708 pb wageningen, the netherlands, 2department of biology, faculty of science, national university of laos, ban dongdok, vientiane, po box 7322. *corresponding author: joostvanitterbeeck@hotmail.com received: september 25, 2013 volume: 5:4-12 published: january 13, 2014 © 2014 society of ethnobiology abstract: of major importance in realizing the potential of edible insects as a core element in improving food security, sustainable food production, and biodiversity conservation, are developments in sustainable exploitation of wild edible insect populations and in (semi-)cultivating and farming edible insects. such developments can draw on both western science and indigenous knowledge. oecophylla smaragdina fabricius hymenoptera: formicidae, of which particularly the queen brood is commonly consumed in thailand and the lao pdr, is believed to have the potential to act as flagship/umbrella species in forest conservation and management, to be incorporated simultaneously as biological control agent and direct source of human food in agroforestry practices, and to be (semi-)cultivated. we provide a detailed account of indigenous knowledge of o. smaragdina and ant brood collection practices from the vientiane plain, lao pdr, through focus group discussions and participant observations, and then reflect on sustainability and conservation issues, and on semi-cultivating constraints and possibilities embedded in indigenous knowledge and ant brood collection practices. key words: oecophylla smaragdina, entomophagy, edible insects, indigenous knowledge, lao pdr, semi-cultivation, agroforestry 5 research communication resources, including edible insects (meyer-rochow et al. 2008). o. smaragdina is an arboreal ant that builds nests by binding living leafs together. its colonies are polydomous, consisting of multiple nests. as an aggressive and generalist predator it can control a number of pest insects of mango, cashew, citrus, and other crops (crozier et al. 2009). offenberg and wiwatwitaya (2010) suggest that the traditional thai collection practice of o. smaragdina does not conflict with the biological control capability of this ant species in orchards. considering the large variety of commercially valuable o. smaragdina host plants, its potential in agroforestry practices is apparent (lim 2007; van mele 2008). currently though, o. smaragdina, of ecological importance as an abundant and territorially dominant ant species in southeast asia, northern australia, and the pacific (crozier et al. 2009) is primarily collected in forests. the abundance, biological control capability, and relative sessile character of o. smaragdina colonies (rastogi 2007) may be particularly beneficial to further developments in the exploitation of o. smaragdina. this species may have the potential to act as a flagship and/or umbrella species in forest conservation and management, it may be used both as biological control agent and human food source in agroforestry practices, and it might be (semi-) cultivated to increase queen brood predictability and availability (van huis et al. 2013; offenberg and wiwatwitaya 2010). issues pertaining to sustainable use and biodiversity conservation, and biological mechanisms underlying the predictability and availability of the o. smaragdina queen brood resource are likely embedded in indigenous knowledge which can provide the basis for such further developments (berkes 2008; durst and shono 2010; van huis et al. 2013). the aim of this paper is therefore to provide a detailed account of indigenous knowledge of the weaver ant o. smaragdina from the vientiane plain, lao pdr, and to reflect on sustainability and conservation issues, and on (semi-)cultivating constraints and possibilities from a biological and practical perspective. methods the research was conducted in the southern half of xaythani district, vientiane municipality, lao pdr. three rural villages, ban dongbang, ban dongmakkhai, and ban sanghouabor (figure 2), were randomly sampled. land use and demographic data are summarized in table 1. our informants were expert ant brood collectors, who are well-known for their expertise in their village. each head of village, with aid of his assistants, invited the experts in their villages to participate in the research, and most of the people who were invited responded positively. all the expert collectors stated they are farmers growing rice in the rainy season (may – october). some farmers irrigate their fields in the dry season (november – april) allowing for a second, yet shorter, period of rice cultivation. all collect a large variety of non-wood forest products throughout the year, including fish, edible insects, mushrooms, bamboo shoots, and fruits. most informants supplement this with keeping a vegetable garden. informants’ ages ranged between 25 and 70, most were female. information was compiled through focus group discussions and participant observation. focus group discussions were held in december 2010 using a semistructured questionnaire. to cover all topics of the questionnaire sufficiently, two group discussions were figure 1. (a) o. smaragdina castes. from left to right: minor worker, major worker, male, virgin queen, egglaying queen. (b) o. smaragdina brood. top: egg cluster. middle row: small and large larva. bottom row, from left to right: pupae of minor worker, major worker, male, and virgin queen. (photos by van itterbeeck.) 6 research communication conducted in each village. at the start of each session, informed consent was received collectively on recording the discussion (digital voice recorder). attendance ranged between 7 and 21 people. the questionnaire focussed on biological and ecological aspects of o. smaragdina including reproduction, castes, developmental stages, behaviour, nest characteristics, and host tree characteristics, and on harvesting methodologies and their effect on the ants. using an a1 size print of the village and its direct surroundings, different areas were discussed in terms of o. smaragdina abundance and yields. participant observations were conducted from january to april 2011. at least four expert collectors were followed in each of the three villages independently of each other and on at least two separate ant brood collecting trips. all but two expert collectors attended focus group discussions. collecting trips typically lasted from morning (8 am) until noon (12 am), but sometimes continued into the afternoon (between 2 – 4 pm). observations were made on harvesting tools and techniques, localities, external characteristics of nests and their contents, and informal discussions were held during the trips using the aforementioned questionnaire. the focus group discussions were thus verified with individuals during these collecting trips, and additional and more detailed information could be acquired. when an opposing view was encountered, it was verified with other experts. lao words are written in standard international phonetic alphabet but excluding signs for intonation and taken from the lao-english/english-lao dictionary (mingbuapha and poomsan becker 2003). spelling marked * is written by the first author. the most frequently used vernacular names are given. figure 2. the location of the three research sites, ban dongbang (bdb), ban dongmakkhai (bdm), and ban sanghouabor (bs), in xaythani district (shaded area), vientiane municipality, lao pdr. v = vientiane capital. (source: soulixay inthasone, faculty of environmental sciences, national university of laos). 7 research communication perception on caste and life cycle the prime vernacular name of the asian weaver ant, mot som (mot = ant, som = sour), comes forth from its use as food (worker ants taste sour). the secondary name, mot dɛɛng (dɛɛng = red), is derived from appearance (worker ants are colored red). the expert collectors indicate that major workers guard the nests to protect its contents because many run out of a nest when disturbed and bite fiercely while releasing a liquid, “pee” (this is formic acid). they construct nests by pulling leaves together, e.g., through forming a living chain, thereafter held in place by a white substance (“pee” as above but in this case larval silk). major workers collect food as the collectors see them carry insects, and various insect remains are found among the collected brood. because of these behaviors, our respondents believe that major workers are mothers that lay eggs and care for their brood. they regard each ant an individual that cooperates with any other mot som – “all are family” – and compare ants to higher organisms, e.g., humans and their protective behavior towards their young. major workers are hence specified as mɛɛ mot som or mɛɛ mot dɛɛng (mɛɛ = mother, and refers to ‘female’). they may also be called mɛɛ phan* (phan* refers to sexual intercourse and fertilization) as several collectors indicate that only after an act of sexual intercourse ants can lay eggs. sexual intercourse is assumed to occur inside a nest; undisturbed behavior inside the nests cannot be witnessed by the respondents and they acknowledge it remains open to speculation. consequently, identification of a father shows less consensus. some respondents do not know of the existence of a father. others claim that major workers with a larger gaster (the hind body part) are mothers, and those with smaller gaster are fathers. minor workers (no specific vernacular name), which are rarely seen outside a nest, are believed to be young ants due to their smaller body size than major workers. the informants refer to the brood as ant ‘eggs’, kai mot som (kai = egg). true eggs are specified as kai nᴐᴐi nᴐᴐi (nᴐᴐi nᴐᴐi = very small). when collecting ant brood, these are seen sticking on the leaves in the nest interior and in chambers made from “pee” (larval silk). eggs are indicated to become larvae, kai fa* (fa* refers to small size). some of them become large larvae, kai khok* or kai teung* (khok* and teung* refer to large size) (figure 1b, and see seasonality below). the informants explain the difference in size of the larvae by the amount of food and water received. larvae then develop into pupae, specified as naang, meaning young lady, one which is not married yet (as used for human girls). small pupae are called kai naang or naang fa*, large, queen destined pupae are called mɛɛ naang. small pupae change their white color into either red or black. the former develop into major workers (mɛɛ mot som, mɛɛ mot dɛɛng) and minor workers, the latter into winged black ants, mɛɛ dam (dam = black) (these are males). male pupal wing formation is also recognized. large larvae (kai khok*, population* rice production (tonne)~ number of households* male female forest^ (km²) paddy field^ (km²) water body^ (km²) residential area^ (km²) vacant / arable land^ (km²) rainy season / head dry season / head ban dongbang 163 560 433 1.38 3.13 0.05 0.37 0.00 0.47 0.05 ban dongmakkhai 314 861 823 6.51 5.91 0.19 0.64 0.76 0.89 0.03 ban sanghouabor 157 537 415 4.81 5.10 0.40 0.19 0.29 0.40 0.02 * national statistics center (2009) ^ calculated by mr soulixay inthasone, faculty of environmental sciences, national university of laos, using arcmap ~ office of agriculture of xaythani district (2007-2008) table 1. land use and demographic data of the three research sites. 8 research communication kai teung*) and large pupae (mɛɛ naang) become virgin queens, mɛɛ peng* (peng* refers to large size). these pupae change their white color first into yellow. an explanation for the existence of either of the two winged forms (mɛɛ dam and mɛɛ peng*) is lacking. our informants merely state that “it is nature” to produce them. winged forms are known to leave their nest of origin by flight. prior to their flight, the virgin queens are indicated to change their yellow color to green and strengthen their wings. no collector could provide neither a reason for them leaving their nest nor indicate where they fly to. they assume that these will become food for other animals and thus do not regard them to have long life. very few collectors know of a big-bottomed ant, lacking wings but able to crawl (this is the egg-laying queen). she was called hua-naa nyai (hua-naa = boss, nyai = big) by one respondent on our only occasion encountering her during participant observation. a similar description is given to a caterpillar (liphyra brassolis brassolis westwood lepidoptera: lycaenidae) occasionally found live in large nests though it is not recognized as such. they say it looks like a pillow and is hence called mᴐᴐn mot dɛɛng (mᴐᴐn = pillow). pictures of both egg-laying queen and l. brassolis brassolis butterflies were shown to ban sanghouabor informants but none recognized one or the other. since rarely encountered, major workers are believed to produce neither hua-naa nyai nor mᴐᴐn mot dɛɛng often. their existence and function remained unexplained, and they are, rather jokingly, referred to as “big boss”, drawing comparison to human social organization. when found, they may be consumed. total development time of the castes could not be clearly indicated by our respondents. when and where to collect? seasonality and the role of water queen brood availability determines the ant brood collecting period which peaks in march. worker brood production is known to occur throughout the year. however, the collectors observe an increase in major worker numbers in january and february, prior to the production of virgin queens in february, march, and april, and males in may. overlap occurs. they explain the increase in workers by the need of a lot of mothers to produce many large ‘eggs’ (queen brood). local differences in availability are indicated: in the vicinity of water (e.g., a pond) queen brood production is sooner than elsewhere as queen brood is believed to drink a lot of water to become large. these areas are frequented from february onwards. further, in february/march periods of rain are expected which is said to accelerate larval growth. forest and tree characteristics to collect ant brood, a bamboo stick (4 – 6 m), with sharpened tip and a strong bag or a bamboo basket attached behind this tip is used to pierce through a nest. by shaking the stick and/or hitting it with flat hand, the nest contents (all castes and developmental stages) falls into the bag/basket, hanging beneath the nest (figure 3). the collection of queen brood thus implies the collection of worker ants and small-sized brood which develops into minor workers, major workers, and males; these are also consumed and marketed. the majority of collection occurs along forest edges and paths mainly due to the ease of maneuvering with a long stick. many nests can be found away from these zones but are generally only harvested from or sought for when (1) a large nest is seen from the edge/path, (2) promising trees are seen from the edge/path (e.g., the evergreen syzygium cumini skeels myrtaceae, ton wa*), (3) the collector is not satisfied figure 3. (a) collecting ant brood along a forest path. (b) nest contents falls into the basket. the large brood and worker ants are clearly visible. (c) collecting ant brood along a stream. (d) collecting ant brood along the forest edge. (photos by van itterbeeck.) 9 research communication with the number of nests found along the edge/path, and (4) trees are scattered. trees in dry dipterocarp forest (kho*) in the research sites are particularly scattered, edges and paths may be disregarded altogether. dry evergreen forest (dong*) is said to be less suitable for nesting because it is too dense. collectors do ‘island hopping’: nests are found in trees amid paddy fields, usually growing on termite hills. which nests to collect from? collectors use three primary criteria on the external appearance of nests to indicate relative high queen brood yield: (1) nest size, (2) leaf color, and (3) external visibility of larval silk. relative refers to the ratio of large-sized brood (i.e., late queen larvae instars and queen pupae) to small-sized brood (i.e., worker and male brood, and early queen larvae instars), and the positive relation between nest size and nest contents. although all nests are said to contain queen brood, it is acknowledged some do not (“built only to live in”). large nests (estimated > 30 cm diameter) are aimed for. however, it is known that mediumand small-sized nests are more abundant. while medium nests (estimated 10 – 20 cm diameter) are also targeted, small nests (<10 cm diameter) are generally ignored due to a very small yield. relative queen brood yield is expected to be high from any nest with partly green and partly dried leafs and plenty of larval silk visible on the nest exterior. collectors mention two additional criteria: (1) bending of the supporting branch indicates a heavy nest thus with high relative queen brood contents and (2) nests easily shaken by wind are light thus contain little small-sized brood only or no brood at all. apart from the small nests, few along the route taken may escape (severe) disturbance: (1) recently disturbed nests as they contain only small-sized brood (but only very recent disturbance is recognized easily), (2) nests that are too high up in the tree (but sometimes two bamboo poles are attached to each other to reach them), (3) unnoticed nests (e.g., ‘hidden’ behind branches and leafs), (4) nests that are not emptied when probing yields only small-sized brood (nests are then allowed to be repaired such that the remaining brood can develop further), (5) nests that are ignored when others in the same tree lack queen brood, and (6) nests close to a large nest containing queen brood (not expected to contain such brood). correct predictions of nest contents are difficult to make, therefore the collectors usually refrain from doing so. discussion ecological implications the collection practices applied by our informants seem to assure colony survival for two reasons. first, the queen, who is the principal egg-layer (hölldobler and wilson 1990), is very rarely, yet unintentionally, removed and she is unknown to most collectors (colonies that produce sexual forms have a single queen [van itterbeeck et al. in preparation]). this is because her nest is small and located near the top of a tree (van itterbeeck et al. in preparation). small nests are generally ignored – a positive relation exists between nest volume and contents (gupta 1968) – and may remain undetected when near the top of a tree. removal of the queen would result in the death of the colony since oecophylla spp. workers can only produce males (hölldobler and wilson 1983) and queen turnover – the acceptance of a new queen (heinze and keller 2000) – does not seem to occur in o. smaragdina (van itterbeeck et al. in preparation). second, the participant observations made on collection practices suggest that a large fraction of a colony remains undisturbed, although most nests are easily detected and the average tree height allows most nests to be reached. this is intentional as small nests yield small amounts of queen brood (or none at all) and collectors refrain from removing large amounts of ‘mother’ worker ants. therefore, it is likely that the fraction of workers and new worker brood removed by collection does not impede foraging nor defense, and thus does not impede the maintenance of an individual colony and its role in forest ecology. the maintenance and survival of a population of o. smaragdina colonies on the other hand greatly relies on the reproductive castes – not required for the survival of parent colonies – as an ant colony could be viewed as a single reproductive organism, a ‘superorganism’, which produces daughter colonies (hölldobler and wilson 2009). in ants, sexual intercourse occurs between males and virgin queens which conduct a mating flight (nuptial flight) after which the males quickly die and the now fertilized females attempt to establish new colonies (thus to become egg-laying queens). colony founding is the most vulnerable phase in an ant colony’s life; it often fails due, for example, to predation (hölldobler and wilson 1990). thus, a colony should maximize its reproductive success by producing an optimal number of the reproductive castes. 10 research communication our informants yet point to a decrease in queen brood availability (compared to five and ten years before the time of investigation) and explain it by an increase in number of collectors and a decrease in forest area. an increase in number of collectors likely causes more frequent brood removal from a single colony, which may obstruct the development of queen brood into mature brood (final instar larvae and pupae). however, the effect of queen brood removal on subsequent brood production remains unknown. a decrease in forest area indicates loss of suitable nesting sites and thus a decrease in queen brood availability via a decrease in colony abundance. this, in turn, likely causes more frequent brood removal from a single colony. the collectors nevertheless do not deem a conservation strategy for this resource necessary. a collector said, “the ants always have been and always will be present [as merely relatively few worker ants (‘mothers’ according to the collectors) are removed during collection].” o. smaragdina then currently does not act as a flagship/umbrella species in indigenous practices and its potential may not be strong in the vientiane plain, lao pdr. o. smaragdina (semi-)cultivation and agroforestry the development of o. smaragdina (semi-)cultivation can benefit from an input of indigenous knowledge which is relatively detailed due to the intensive use of o. smaragdina as human food. the collectors’ knowledge of o. smaragdina seasonality is consistent with scientific findings in wongwiggarn and leksawasdi (1988). yet, making correct predictions of nest contents remains challenging. the factors inducing the onset and conclusion of o. smaragdina queen brood production need to be discovered and understood. this understanding can in turn form the basis in developing means to predict and manipulate queen brood production of an individual colony. as such, the collectors’ belief in the role of water bodies and rain (water promoting larval growth) deserves examination. further, the collectors’ knowledge of o. smaragdina favored host tree species and their nesting preference near open spaces, as confirmed by hölldobler (1983), can form the basis in developing agroforestry practices of o. smaragdina queen brood and tree crops in accordance with local needs. a number of additional constraints and possibilities to o. smaragdina (semi-)cultivation are identified from the collection practices and the indigenous knowledge embedded therein. first, o. smaragdina is an open access resource. ownership does not occur and, since not even in home gardens, (semi-) cultivating o. smaragdina would require a conceptual change: from open access natural resource to privately owned (semi-)cultivated product. second, the aggressiveness of o. smaragdina to humans is a possible reason why the potential of o. smaragdina in agroforestry is under-researched (van mele 2008). some informants do not wish o. smaragdina to inhabit the trees in their home garden. however, measures to reduce nuisances are applied by collectors, such as the use of starch powder on the collecting pole preventing ants crawling along it and attacking the collector (see also sribandit et al. 2008; van mele et al. 2009). such measures can be improved as they have been in beekeeping. third, the land area owned by a family may not be sufficiently large to make o. smaragdina (semi-)cultivation feasible. agroforestry practices in which o. smaragdina (semi-)cultivation is embedded are economically likely most beneficial. last, due to the respondents’ belief that each major worker ant is an individual able to reproduce and cooperate with any other major worker, an input from western science on ant biology and ecology including queen biology and the concept of individual colonies is required either through formal education systems or training and workshop programs. conclusion indigenous knowledge of o. smaragdina in the vientiane plain, lao pdr, is relatively detailed due to its intensive use as human food. ant brood collection practices seem to assure colony survival as the gravid queen is rarely removed and unknown to most ant brood collectors, and the fraction of workers and worker brood removed does not likely impede the maintenance and ecological role of a colony. yet, with decreasing forest area the population of o. smaragdina colonies seems in decline. whether the ant brood collection itself negatively affects subsequent queen brood production and the number of newly founded colonies remains uncertain. the indigenous knowledge and practices provide scope for further developments in o. smaragdina exploitation, notably in the (semi-)cultivation of o. smaragdina incorporated in agroforestry practices whereby the predictability and availability of queen brood is increased. acknowledgements this study was conducted under an agreement between the department of plant sciences, wa 11 research communication geningen university, and the faculty of science, national university of laos. tree species is identified by mr. soulivanh lanorsavanh and ms. khamfa chanthavongsa, department of biology, faculty of science, national university of laos. mr. thananh khotpathoom, faculty of forestry, national university of laos, kindly identified forest ecosystems from photographs. dr. decha wiwatwitaya of the faculty of forestry, kasetsart university, thailand, is thanked for identifying ant samples. dr. rod eastwood of the museum of comparative zoology, harvard university, is thanked for identifying butterfly samples. declarations permissions: ministry of education of the lao pdr and faculty of science at the national university of laos. sources of funding: none declared. conflicts of interest: none declared. references cited ayieko, m. a., g. o. obonyo, j. a. odhiambo, p. l. ogweno, j. achacha, and j. anyango. 2011. constructing and using a light trap harvester: rural technology for mass collection of agoro termites (macrotermes subhylanus). research journal of applied sciences, engineering and technology 3:105-109. berkes, f. 2008. sacred ecology. routledge, new york. choo, j., e. l. zent, and b. b. simpson. 2009. the importance of traditional ecological knowledge for palm-weevil cultivation in the venezuelan amazon. journal of ethnobiology 29:113-128. crozier, r. h., p. s. newey, e. a. schlüns, and s. k. a. robson. 2009. a masterpiece of evolution – oecophylla weaver ants (hymenoptera: formicidae). myrmecological news 13:57-71. durst, p. b., and k. shono. 2010. edible forest insects: exploring new horizons and traditional practices. paper presented at the fao regional office for asia and the pacific meeting on forest insects as food: humans bite back, a workshop on asiapacific resources and their potential for development. chiang mai, thailand. gupta, c. s. 1968. studies on the population structure of the nests of the indian red ant – oecophylla smaragdina fabr. (formicidae – hymenoptera). paper presented at the symposium on recent advances in tropical ecology of the international society for tropical ecology. varanasi, india. heinze, j. and l. keller. 2000. alternative reproductive strategies: a queen perspective in ants. trends in ecology and evolution 15:508-512. hölldobler, b. 1983. territorial behaviour in the green tree ant (oecophylla smaragdina). biotropica 15:241-250. hölldobler, b. and e. o. wilson. 1983. queen control in colonies of weaver ants (hymenoptera: formicidae). annals of the entomological society of america 76:235-238. hölldobler, b. and e. o. wilson. 1990. the ants. springer-verlag, heidelberg berlin. hölldobler, b. and e. o. wilson. 2009. the superorganism: the beauty, elegance, and strangeness of insect societies. w.w. norton, new york. lim, g. t. 2007. enhancing the weaver ant, oecophylla smaragdina (hymenoptera: formicidae), for biological control of a shoot borer, hypsipyla robusta (lepidoptera: pyralidae), in malaysian mahogany plantations. unpublished doctoral dissertation, department of entomology, virginia polytechnic institute and state university, blacksburg, va. meyer-rochow, v. b., k. nonaka and s. boulidam. 2008. more feared than revered: insects and their impact on human societies (with some specific data on the importance of entomophagy in a laotian setting). entomologie heute 20:3-25. mingbuapha, k. and b. poomsan becker. 2003. laoenglish dictionary. paiboon publishing, bangkok. offenberg, j. and d. wiwatwitaya. 2010. sustainable weaver ant (oecophylla smaragdina) farming: harvest yields and effects on worker ant density. asian myrmecology 3:55-62. ramos-elorduy, j. 2006. threatened edible insects in hidalgo, mexico and some measures to preserve them. journal of ethnobiology and ethnomedicine 2:51. rastogi, n. 2007. seasonal pattern in the territorial dynamics of the arboreal ant oecophylla smaragdina (hymenoptera: formicidae). journal of the bombay natural history society 104:jan-apr. sribandit, w., d. wiwatwitaya, s. suksard and j. offenberg. 2008. the importance of weaver ant (oecophylla smaragdina fabricius) harvest to a local community in northeastern thailand. asian 12 research communication myrmecology 2:129-138. van huis, a., j. van itterbeeck, k. klunder, e. mertens, a. halloran, g. muir and p. vantomme. 2013. edible insects: future prospects for food and feed security. fao, rome. van mele, p. 2008. a historical review of research on the weaver ant oecophylla in biological control. agricultural and forest entomology 10:13-22. van mele, p., n.t.t. cuc, z. seguni, k. camara and j. offenberg. 2009. multiple sources of local knowledge: a global review of ways to reduce nuisance from the beneficial weaver ant oecophylla. international journal of agricultural resources, governance and ecology 8:484–504. wongwiggarn, r. and p. leksawasdi. 1988. nest, population and development of weaver ant oecophylla smaragdina f. paper presented at the 26th kasetsart university conference, bangkok, thailand. biosketches joost van itterbeeck is a phd student at the laboratory of entomology, wageningen university. niane sivongxay is a lecturer at the department of biology, national university of laos. bouthob praxaysombath is head of the department of biology, national university of laos. arnold van huis is a tropical entomologist at the laboratory of entomology, wageningen university. 96  editorial  concerns as they relate to the subjects of research, publication involves additional obligations, such as those owed to the public. ethical publication is the responsibility of authors and publishers. in 2012, ethnobiology letters adopted a publication ethics and malpractice statement (http:// ethnobiology.org/publications/ethnobiology-letters), which outlines some of the responsibilities of authors, reviewers, and editorial board members. one of the most evident issues the statement identifies is disclosure by all parties of originality, conflicts of interest, and ethical soundness. as elementary as the idea of disclosure might appear, it can become more complex when put into practice. one of the most important factors involved in disclosure is straightforwardly providing all information that might be relevant for the readership to interpret and evaluate the merits of a study. ethical transparency in publishing includes but is not limited to disclosure that the minimum legal and institutional prerequisites for research were satisfied. in the united states, one such prerequisite is to obtain and adhere to irb approval. however, especially in international settings, authorization may be required by multiple governmental agencies or community organizations. for example, in brazil, current federal legislation requires that researchers obtain formal permission from government institutions to study traditional knowledge of biodiversity, to collect biological samples of any kind, to enter federal indigenous reserves, and to excavate archaeological sites on public and private land. additionally, many indigenous and traditional communities in brazil have their own leadership structures and associations that should be consulted for research authorizations. in some countries and academic fields, disclosure of permissions is standard practice and considered a necessary component of responsible publishing. some with the recent multiplication of traditional and electronic venues for publishing in ethnobiology, the social sciences, the life sciences, and related fields, it is increasingly important that authors practice selfdiligence to ensure that the contents of their publications meet criteria of veracity and ethical soundness. although the peer-review process encourages high standards, it is an insufficient means for verifying the ethical worthiness of most publications. the ethical merits of published research derive from a cumulative process including formulating a research design, obtaining permissions, collecting and analyzing data, and finally composing and submitting a manuscript. unfortunately, there is no failsafe ethical gatekeeper at any stage of the process. the importance of ethical publishing is all the more important in the field of ethnobiology, as professionals in the field often cross the intellectual and methodological boundaries between disciplines, and their research often involves multiple stakeholders in widespread jurisdictions. there are good resources providing ethical guidelines for ethnobiology researchers and authors. for example, in 2006, the society of ethnobiology adopted the international society of ethnobiology (ise) code of ethics (http://ethnobiology.net/codeof-ethics/) and additional resources are available on the society’s website (https://ethnobiology.org/ about-society-ethnobiology/ethics). also, ethnobiological ethics are addressed in recently published chapters (gilmore and eshbaugh 2011; hardison and bannister 2011). these documents cover a broad range of topics and should be considered required reading for novice and experienced researchers alike. an important conclusion to be drawn from these sources is that ethnobiology research and publishing ethics cannot be reduced to any single issue and often vary according to the circumstances of a particular study. whereas these documents emphasize ethical ethics in ethnobiology publica on james r. welch   author address: escola nacional de saúde pública, fundação oswaldo cruz, rua leopoldo bulhões 1480, rio de janeiro,  21041‐210, brazil  welch@ensp.fiocruz.br  received: september 24, 2012  volume: 3:96‐97  published: december 29, 2012  © 2012 society of ethnobiology  http://ethnobiology.org/sites/default/files/publication_ethics_and_malpractice_statement.pdf� http://ethnobiology.net/code-of-ethics/� http://ethnobiology.net/code-of-ethics/� http://ethnobiology.net/code-of-ethics/� http://ethnobiology.net/code-of-ethics/� https://ethnobiology.org/about-society-ethnobiology/ethics� https://ethnobiology.org/about-society-ethnobiology/ethics� https://ethnobiology.org/about-society-ethnobiology/ethics� https://ethnobiology.org/about-society-ethnobiology/ethics� mailto:welch@ensp.fiocruz.br� 97  editorial  authors, reviewers, and editors may not be aware of all the accepted norms in countries other than their own. at ethnobiology letters, we have adopted the practice of requiring authors to declare which permissions were obtained. of course, additional steps are often required to satisfy the requirements of informed consent and for the use of such information as intellectual property, artistic expressions, photographic images, and databases. also, the publication of sensitive or confidential information, including the names of individuals, must be done with extreme care. ultimately, the decision to publish specific information falls to the authors of an article and cannot be policed by any editorial board or scholarly organization. one potential measure for ensuring that the contents of a publication are consistent with any applicable ethical constraints is consultation with local academic authorities, community representatives, or stakeholders. in some cases, it may be appropriate to involve advisors or research consultants as reviewers before submitting an article. as the ise code of ethics emphasizes, due credit to research consultants is a standard of ethical research in ethnobiology. however, care must be taken because just as the failure to include material contributors as authors is widely regarded as a breach of publication ethics, so is the inclusion of people who did not take part substantially in the conception or execution of a study or reporting of its results (“gift authorship”). more information on ethical authorship and co-authorship is available from the council of science editors (http:// www.councilscienceeditors.org). certainly, researchers must attend to ethical standards at every step beginning with the formulation of a research idea and continuing into the field or laboratory. however, the moment authors submit an article for publication many of the cumulative effects of unethical research become concrete in the eyes of the public. once an article is published, the effects are difficult to undo through retraction. the ethical complexities involved in ethnobiology are diverse and open to interpretation, but they exist through efforts to ensure that our work benefits society. as part of that endeavor, responsible publishing is the concern of each and every one of us. references cited hardison p. and k. bannister. 2011. ethics in ethnobiology: history, international law and policy, and contemporary issues. in ethnobiology, edited by e. n. anderson, d. m. pearsall, e. s. hunn, and n. j. turner , pp. 27-49. john wiley & sons, hoboken, nj. gilmore m. p. and eshbaugh w. h. 2011. from researcher to partner: ethical challenges and issues facing the ethnobiological researcher. in ethnobiology, edited by e. n. anderson, d. m. pearsall, e. s. hunn, and n. j. turner , pp. 51-63. john wiley & sons, hoboken, nj. biosketch james r. welch is co‐editor of ethnobiology le ers and  assistant professor of human ecology and health at  the  na onal  school  of  public health  in  rio  de  janeiro. his  research  focuses  on  indigenous  peoples  in  brazil  and  california.  http://www.councilscienceeditors.org� http://www.councilscienceeditors.org� http://www.councilscienceeditors.org� http://www.councilscienceeditors.org� << /ascii85encodepages false /allowtransparency false /autopositionepsfiles true /autorotatepages /none /binding /left /calgrayprofile (dot gain 20%) /calrgbprofile (srgb iec61966-2.1) /calcmykprofile (u.s. web coated \050swop\051 v2) /srgbprofile (srgb iec61966-2.1) /cannotembedfontpolicy /error /compatibilitylevel 1.4 /compressobjects /tags /compresspages true /convertimagestoindexed true /passthroughjpegimages true /createjobticket false /defaultrenderingintent /default 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/hrv (za stvaranje adobe pdf dokumenata najpogodnijih za visokokvalitetni ispis prije tiskanja koristite ove postavke. stvoreni pdf dokumenti mogu se otvoriti acrobat i adobe reader 5.0 i kasnijim verzijama.) /hun 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can be opened with acrobat and adobe reader 5.0 and later.) >> /namespace [ (adobe) (common) (1.0) ] /othernamespaces [ << /asreaderspreads false /cropimagestoframes true /errorcontrol /warnandcontinue /flattenerignorespreadoverrides false /includeguidesgrids false /includenonprinting false /includeslug false /namespace [ (adobe) (indesign) (4.0) ] /omitplacedbitmaps false /omitplacedeps false /omitplacedpdf false /simulateoverprint /legacy >> << /addbleedmarks false /addcolorbars false /addcropmarks false /addpageinfo false /addregmarks false /convertcolors /converttocmyk /destinationprofilename () /destinationprofileselector /documentcmyk /downsample16bitimages true /flattenerpreset << /presetselector /mediumresolution >> /formelements false /generatestructure false /includebookmarks false /includehyperlinks false /includeinteractive false /includelayers false /includeprofiles false /multimediahandling /useobjectsettings /namespace [ (adobe) (creativesuite) (2.0) ] /pdfxoutputintentprofileselector /documentcmyk /preserveediting true /untaggedcmykhandling /leaveuntagged /untaggedrgbhandling /usedocumentprofile /usedocumentbleed false >> ] >> setdistillerparams << /hwresolution [2400 2400] /pagesize [612.000 792.000] >> setpagedevice plants and humans in the near east and the caucasus: ancient and traditional uses of plants as food and medicine, a diachronic ethnobotanical review 17  book review  listed, however, have not yet been reported for archaeological sites. the first volume of the set provides basic background on the physiographical, climatic, phytogeographical, ethnographic, historical, and archaeological setting of the region covered. in such a broad survey, there are a few arguable statements. for example, it would be more appropriate to call akkadian the earliest written semitic language, not the origin of semitic languages (vol. 1, p. 118). also, the most useful historical or ethnographic information for an archaeobotanist concerns old technologies, such as the use of straw lined storage pits in syria (vol. 1, p. 127), rather than national crop production statistics from the late 20th century. nevertheless, for researchers familiar with part of the area covered, volume one provides expedient access to information and references about the entire region. of direct importance to non archaeobotanists, the authors provide a brief summary of the nature of the physical and textual evidence for ancient plant use (vol. 1, pp. 184187). the country-by-country listing by site includes basic information: location, period, references, and, for most sites, latitude and longitude; locational data are harder to find than you might think, so this is a great service. the two volumes cover much of the same geographical territory as zohary et al. (2012), but provide much more botanical and ethnobotanical information. the benefit of the book for archaeobotdiego rivera and his colleagues have produced a comprehensive reference of ethnobotanical and archaeobotanical data for a region which saw early experiments in plant cultivation and fruit growing, the earliest agropastoral systems known, and the first urban societies. the modern nation states covered in most detail are: armenia, azerbaijan, and georgia in the caucasus, and iran, iraq, lebanon, syria, and turkey, a group of countries that have experienced varying amounts of attention from archaeobotanists.1 as is true of the ancient and modern peoples covered, the available data also cross modern international boundaries, and so information from the arabian peninsula, cyprus, israel, jordan, and palestine are included; of these countries, israel is best documented, but many of the sources are difficult to find chapters in site reports or regional journals. the core of the work is the last part of the first volume (ferns, gymnosperms), and the entire second volume (angiosperms). families, genera, and species are listed in alphabetical order. the basic format of the entries is: genus, species, authority, phytogeographical zone; modern fruit and/or seed description; habitat; archaeological examples; text or linguistic references; ethnobotanical uses. additional sections (e.g., wood description and biology) are added as appropriate to some entries. the fullest archaeological treatment is given to the best documented types, cereals and pulses; many of these entries include measurements compiled from other publications. most of the species for which traditional uses are plants  and humans  in  the near  east  and  the  caucasus:  ancient  and  tradi onal uses of plants as food and medicine, a diachronic ethnobotanical review  (2 vols). vol. 1: the landscapes. the plants: ferns and  gymnosperms. vol. 2: the plants: angiosperms.  diego rivera núñez, gonzalo ma lla séiquer, concepción obón, francisco alcaraz ariza. 2011. ediciones de  la  unverisdad de murcia. pp. 1056. eur 23.76 (paperback). isbn 978‐84‐15463‐07‐08 (2 vols.), 978‐84‐15463‐05‐4  (vol. 1), 978‐84‐15463‐06‐1 (vol. 2).  reviewed by naomi f. miller  reviewer address: university of pennsylvania museum, 3260 south street, philadelphia, pa 19104 usa.   nmiller0@sas.upenn.edu  received: november 20, 2013  volume: 5:22‐23  published: february 10, 2014  © 2014 society of ethnobiology  18  book review  anists is the sheer number of species included, the data for plant use in the caucasus, and the archaeobotanical information collected from sometimes hard-to -find sources. the three main audiences for these volumes are botanists, ethnobotanists, and archaeobotanists. the work presumes a basic understanding of botany and plant taxonomy. this compendium represents an enormous research effort. its limited print run (250) is understandable, given the current state of academic publishing. this fact provides an excellent argument for reproducing the work in digital, searchable format. indeed, ideally it could form the core of a website to which other researchers would add their own published data, including seed measurements, photographs, site latitude and longitude, and maps showing the site locations. the absence of an index makes clear the other great advantage of a digital format: searchability. the economics of publishing and requirements of academic advancement are beyond the control of the authors. yet it would be a great contribution were the underlying database of this volume more readily available to researchers worldwide. references cited ford, richard i. 1979. paleoethnobotany in american archaeology. in advances in archaeological method and theory, vol. 2, ed. m.b. schiffer, pp. 285–336. academic press, new york. google books. 2013. google ngram viewer. available at: https://books.google.com/ngrams. accessed on december 4, 2014. zohary, daniel, maria hopf, and ehud weiss. 2012. domestication of plants in the old world. 4th ed. oxford university press, oxford. notes 1nowadays, paleoethnobotany and archaeobotany are used interchangeably to refer to the study of archaeological plant remains, typically macroremains such as seeds and charcoal. in the early 1980s, preference for the term “paleoethnobotany” grew in americanist archaeology after richard i. ford (1979:286) narrowly defined paleoethnobotany as the “analysis and interpretation of archaeological remains,” relegating “archaeobotany” to “the [mere] recovery and identification of plants” [emphasis in original] (ibid. p. 299), specifically not their interpretation (for usage history of the terms in british and american english see google books 2013). analysis of starch grains produced in select taxa encountered in southwest asia ethnobiology le ers. 2014. 5: 135‐145. doi: 10.14237/ebl.5.2014.251. 135 research communica on asian taxa except for triticum durum desf. (durum wheat), triticum compactum l. (club wheat), hordeum distichon l. (two-rowed barley), and vicia ervilia (l.) willd. (bitter vetch) and numerous wild grasses (henry et al. 2011; henry and piperno 2008; piperno et al. 2004). unfortunately, not all of these publications provide detailed descriptions of the taxa they discuss despite their pioneering endeavors. having thorough descriptions of starch producing taxa included in publications provides information about which taxa do and do not produce starches thereby helping researchers in identifying their own archaeological starch materials. southwest asian taxa are also described in archaeological publications from other parts of the world either because these taxa were introduced to the region or because their natural distribution overlaps with that of southwest asia. for example, yang and perry (2013) analyze starch grains from the tribe triticeae that grow in north china. these taxa include introduced southwest asian domesticates, such as triticum aestivum l. (bread wheat), and wild taxa that are native to both china and southwest asia, such as aegilops tauschii coss. (tauschs goatgrass). a list of publications detailing starch grains from poaceae taxa that grow in southwest asia can be found in table 1. introduction recent starch grain analysis in southwest asia has provided insight into new areas of research such as beer brewing in ancient egypt (samuel 1996) and the diets of middle holocene farmers (henry and piperno 2008), upper paleolithic hunters and gatherers (piperno et al. 2004), and neanderthals (henry et al. 2011). despite these promising strides in archaeological research, much remains to be done in regards to discovering which plants produce starches in southwest asia and whether or not these starch grains can be used to aid archaeological and paleoecological endeavors. in this paper i seek to understand the research potential of archaeological starch grain research in southwest asia by: 1) centralizing where starch grain information about southwest asian taxa can be found; 2) examining 64 previously unstudied taxa from 22 families to assess their production patterns; and 3) examining the diagnostic potential of starches found in these new taxa if present. organization of comparative southwest asian publications the most comprehensive and detailed information about southwest asian taxa are embedded within archaeological site reports from this region. these publications provide the best source of data because they cover almost all of the domesticated southwest analysis of starch grains produced in select taxa encountered in southwest asia thomas c. hart author address: department of anthropology, university of texas, 2201 speedway c3200, university of texas at aus n, aus n, texas, 78712, u.s.a. email: thomas.hart@utexas.edu received: september 13, 2014 volume: 5:135‐145 published: december 15, 2014 © 2014 society of ethnobiology abstract: starch grain analysis is a rapidly growing field of archaeological research in southwest asia. however, much work s ll remains regarding which taxa produce starch grains that can be iden fied in the archaeological record. in this paper, i centralize what is known about starch produc on pa erns within regional flora and analyze 64 previously unstudied taxa from 22 families. the results of this study demonstrate that descrip ons of starch grains from southwest asian taxa are sca ered between archaeological and plant and food science publica ons. ten of the species examined in this study, most of whom are grasses, produced starch grains that can be iden fied at varying taxonomic levels. keywords: paleoethnobotany, starch grains, southwest asia ethnobiology le ers. 2014. 5: 135‐145. doi: 10.14237/ebl.5.2014.251. 136 research communica on table 1. poaceae (gramineae) taxa that have been published. note, not all of these publica ons include descrip ons of op cal proper es. genus and species source aegilops bicomis (forsk.) jaub. & spach. henry et al., 2011 aegilops caudate auct. reichert, 1913 aegilops geniculata roth piperno et al., 2004 aegilops peregrina (hackel) maire et weiler piperno et al., 2004 aegilops speltoides tausch henry et al., 2011 aegilops truincialis l. reichert, 1913 agropyron cristatum (l.) gaertn. reichert, 1913 agropyron rigidum (schrad.) p. beauv. reichert, 1913 agros s spica‐ven l. reichert, 1913 aira caespitosa l. reichert, 1913 alopecurus arundinaceus poir piperno et al., 2004 alopecurus geniculatus l. reichert, 1913 alopecurus utriculatus banks & sol. piperno et al., 2004; reichert, 1913 alopecurus pratensis l. reichert, 1913 avena barbata po ex link piperno et al., 2004 avena sterilis l. henry et al., 2011 brachypodium distachyon (l.) p.beauv. piperno et al., 2004 bromus brachystachys hornung reichert, 1913 bromus pseudobrachystachys h. scholz piperno et al., 2004 bromus squarrosus l. reichert, 1913 gastridium ventricosum (g. australe) (gouan) schinz & thell. piperno et al., 2004; reichert, 1913 hordeum bulbosum l. piperno et al., 2004 hordeum glaucum steudel henry et al., 2011; piperno et al., 2004 hordeum hexas chon l. henry et al., 2011 hordeum marinum huds. piperno et al., 2004 hordeum sa vum var. (champion) jess. reichert, 1913 hordeum spontaneum l. henry et al., 2011; piperno et al., 2004 hordeum vulgare l. henry et al., 2011; reichert, 1913 koeleria macrantha (ledeb.) schult. messner, 2011 lolium mul florum lam. piperno et al., 2004 lolium rigidum gaudin piperno et al., 2004 lolium temulentum var. speciosum l. reichert, 1913 phalaris minor retz. piperno et al., 2004 phalaris paradoxa l. piperno et al., 2004 piptatherum holciforme (m.bieb.) roem. & schult. piperno et al., 2004 poa pratensis l. messner, 2011 poa nemoralis l. messner, 2011 puccinellia distans (jacq.) parl. piperno et al., 2004 puccinellia gigantea (grossh.) grossh. piperno et al., 2004 secale cereale l. reichert, 1913 secale cereale var. mammothwinter l. reichert, 1913 secale cereale var. spring l. reichert, 1913 secale cereale ssp. ancestrale l. henry et al., 2011 secale vavilovii grossh. henry et al., 2011 (con nued on next page) ethnobiology le ers. 2014. 5: 135‐145. doi: 10.14237/ebl.5.2014.251. 137 research communica on messner (2011) analyzes starch grains in seeds and underground storage organs (usos) produced by taxa that grow in the delaware river valley, usa. two of these taxa, typha latifolia l. (cattail) and cyperus esculentus l. (yellow nutsedge), are also found in southwest asia (davis 1965; migahid 1988). finally, a few southwest asian taxa are discussed in experimental archaeological publications where researchers examine how food-processing activities affect starch grain morphology and how these changes can be detected archaeologically (ge et al. 2010; henry et al. 2009). food and plant science research on southwest asian taxa is extensive, focusing on understanding the chemical and physical attributes of main southwest asian domesticates: triticum spp. (wheat), hordeum spp. (barley), secale spp. (rye), vicia faba l. (faba bean), lens culinaris medikus (lentil), pisum sativum l. (pea), and cicer arietinum l. (chickpea). other domesticates, such as vicia sativa (common vetch) and vicia ervilia (bitter vetch), have received little attention. reichert (1913) provides the most comprehensive analysis of starch grains produced by taxa and remains one of the seminal publications used by many paleoethnobotanists. in this publication, he reviews the state of starch grain research at the beginning of the 20th century, discusses the chemical and physical properties of specific taxa, and provides an assessment on how these taxa can be identified based on their chemical and physical characteristics. many of the taxa that he describes are found in southwest asia and can be referenced by comparing the list of species he covers with the species listed in one of the regional floras such as the flora of turkey and east aegean islands (davis 1965). materials and methods selecting species for analysis sixty-four species representing 22 families that currently grow in syria were collected from professor joy mccorriston’s extensive southwest asian herbarium collection at ohio state university. the 64 species were subdivided into their constituent parts resulting in eighty-two samples (tables 2 and 3). these samples included seeds, pericarps, synconia, legumes, and legume capsules. in this study, the generic term “seed” is used for simplicity. no leaves, stems, or small roots (con nued from previous page) tri cum aegilopoides (t. monococcum subsp aegilopoides) (link) balansa ex körn. henry et al., 2011 tri cum aes vum (t. aes vum ssp aes vum) l. henry et al., 2011; 2009 tri cum dicoccum (t. turgidum ssp. dicoccum) schrank ex schübl reichert, 1913 tri cum dicoccoides schrank ex schübl piperno et al., 2004 tri cum monococcum l. reichert, 1913 tri cum monococcum subsp. aegilopoides henry et al., 2011 tri cum sa vum var.dicoccum (schrank) reichert, 1913 tri cum sa vum var.vulgare reichert, 1913 tri cum turgidum desf. henry et al., 2011; reichert, 1913 tri cum urartu tumanian ex gandilyan henry et al., 2011 vulpia persica (boiss. & buhse) krecz. & bobrov piperno et al., 2004 bibliography for poaceae of southwest asia: henry, a. g., a. s. brooks, d. r. piperno. 2011. microfossils in calculus demonstrate consump on of plants and cooked foods in neanderthal diets (shanidar iii, iraq; spy i and ii, belgium). proceedings of the na onal academy of sciences 108:486‐491. henry, a. g., h. f. hudson, and d. r. piperno. 2009. changes in starch grain morphologies from cooking. journal of ar‐ chaeological science 36:915–922. messner, t. c. 2011. acorns and bi er roots: starch grain research in the prehistoric eastern woodlands. university of alabama press, tuscaloosa, al. piperno, d. r., e. weiss, i. holst, and d. nadel. 2004. processing of wild cereal grains in the upper palaeolithic revealed by starch grain analysis. nature 430:670‐673. genus and species source ethnobiology le ers. 2014. 5: 135‐145. doi: 10.14237/ebl.5.2014.251. 138 research communica on were analyzed because they rarely produce large storage starch grains (haslam 2004). underground storage organs of important wetland taxa from the cyperaceae family (ryan 2011) were not available for analysis because they are difficult to store and are rarely found in herbarium collections. processing the samples samples were cleaned according to the protocol outlined by pearsall (2000: 436–437), cut into small pieces using a sterile scalpel, or gently crushed using a sterile mortar and pestle. very little pressure was applied when using the mortar and pestle to minimize potential damage to the starch grains. two drops of a one to one glycerol/distilled water mix were placed on a 25 × 75 × 1mm microscope slide for each comparative sample. this medium was chosen, as opposed to a more permanent medium such as permount or entellen, in order to allow potential starch grains to be rotated when examined. the sample was gently covered with a microscope cover slip and the edges were sealed using finger nail polish and allowed to dry before being examined. recording methods samples were examined at 500× magnification using a zeiss axiostar plus microscope. each starch grain was given an identification number, described according to terms defined in the international code for starch grain nomenclature (icsn 2014) and measured using nis elements software. photos of individual starch grains were taken at the environmental archaeology lab at university of texas. in order to minimize researcher bias, starch grains were chosen at random for description by using the random number generator function within excel to provide x and y coordinates on the microscope stage. fifty simple or half compound starch grains were described and photographed when present for each sample. compound and aggregate starch grains were noted although excluded from the total count because clustering would often obscure their optical attributes making the individual starch grains difficult to describe and quantify. starches less than five microns were typically omitted because their optical attributes were often hard to distinguish. starch grains less than five microns in length were only counted in instances where they constituted the bulk of the starch grains produced. results ten of 64 species produced starch grains. all of the starches were produced in the seeds with the exception of moringa peregrina (forssk.) fiori (yusor tree) that concentrated its starch in the pericarp (table 2). the 54 species that did not produce starch grains were from wild taxa that were related to the domesticated grains and legumes or from other types of domesticatfigure 1. transmi ed and polarized views of starch at 400 × magnifica on from: a, b) cyperus esculentus; c, d) vicia ervil‐ ia; and e, f) moringa peregrina. ethnobiology le ers. 2014. 5: 135‐145. doi: 10.14237/ebl.5.2014.251. 139 research communica on ed taxa (table 3). these taxa produced seeds that were very small and contained almost no starches. cyperus esculentus the starches formed within cyperus esculentus (yellow nutsedge) seeds have a mean length of four microns, range in size from one to eight microns and are mostly ovoid in shape (figure 1a, b). they differ markedly in size and shape from the starches produced in the tuber or root-stock, which have an average length of 12 to 14mm and are conical to oval in shape (reichert 1913). the seed starches are diagnostic to cyperaceae because of their size and rounded, oval, compressed lenticular, angular, or polyhedral shapes that are commonly associated with other cypereraceae seeds discussed in reichert (1913). vicia ervilia vicia ervilia (bitter vetch) starches have an average length of 16mm and range in size from five to 27mm (reichert 1913) (figure 1c, d). vicia ervilia starches from seeds can be identified to the family level because they exhibit what reichert (1913) refers to as “bean type” features (spherical to ovoid in shape, half to as broad as long, slightly compressed with a distinct longitudinal cleft) that are characteristic of the fabaceae (leguminosae) family. these starches are mostly ovoid to elliptical and reniform shape and have deep longitudinal clefts. moringa peregrina moringa peregrina starches are mostly angular rounded, range in size from four to 27mm, and have an average length of ten microns (figure 1. e, f). it is hard to determine if these starches are diagnostic because there are no close relatives discussed in reichert (1913) or any of the other publications mentioned in this study. more studies should be conducted on moringa and closely related taxa to determine the diagnostic status of these starches. it is important to note that starch grains were extracted from the pericarp of the m. peregrina sample, and not the seed. this species suggests that tissues surrounding the seed, and not just the seed itself, need to be studied when conducting comparative starch grains research. aegilops crassa, a. triaristata, hordeum distichon, triticum durum, and t. compactum the seeds from the species aegilops crassa (persian goatgrass) (figure 2a, b), a. triaristata (three awn-goat family genus/species plant part cyperaceae cyperus esculentus l. seed fabaceae (leguminosae) vicia ervilia legume moringaceae moringa peregrina pericarp poaceae (gramineae) aegilops crassa boiss seed aegilops triaristata willd. seed aegilops vavilovii (zhuk.) chennav. seed hordeum dis chon l. seed pennisetum americanum (l.) leeke seed tri cum compactum host. seed tri cum durum desf. seed table 2. taxa that produced starch grains in abundance in this study. figure 2. transmi ed and polarized views of starch at 400× magnifica on from: a, b) aegilops crassa; c, d) ae‐ gilops triaristata; e, f) aegilops vavilovii; g, h) hordeum dis chon; i, j) pennisetum americanum; k, l) tri cum durum; and m, n) tri cum compactum. ethnobiology le ers. 2014. 5: 135‐145. doi: 10.14237/ebl.5.2014.251. 140 research communica on table 3. taxa that did not produce abundant starch grains. family genus/species plant part anacardiaceae pistacia atlan ca desf. seed pistacia khinjuk stocks seed pistacia palaes na boiss. seed pistacia terebinthus l. seed rhus coriaria l. seed apiaceae (umbelliferae) bupleurum lancifolium hornem. seeds cuminum cyminum l. seeds arecaceae (palmae) phoenix dactylifera l. seed asteraceae (compositae) carthamus nctorius l. seed guizo a abyssinica (l.) cass. seed helianthus annus l. seed notobasis syriaca (l.) cass. seed onopordum illyricum l. seed onopordum palaes num eig. seed silybum marianum (l.) gaertn seed euphorbiaceae chorozophora nctoria (l.) a. juss. seed fabaceae (leguminosae) acacia farnesiana (l.) willd. legume acacia nilo ca (l.) delile seed hymenocarpos circinnatus (l.) savi legume prosopis farcta banks & sol.) j. f. macbr. legume capsule trigonella foenum‐graecum l. legume trigonella monantha c. a. mey. legume trigonella stellata forssk. legume geraniaceae erodium ciconium (l.) l'hér. ex aiton seed erodium gruinum (l.) l'hér. ex aiton seed malvaceae malva parviflora l. seed moraceae ficus carica l. synconium, seed moringaceae moringa peregrina (forssk.) fiori seed oleaceae olea europaea l. pericarp, seed pedaliaceae sesamum indicum l. seed poaceae bromus scoparius scop. seed polygonaceae polygonum patulum m. bieb seed polygonum venan anum clemen seed ranunculaceae adonis dentata delile seed rhamnaceae rhamnus palaes nus boiss. pericarp, seed zizyphus spina‐chris (l.) desf. exocarp, pericarp, seed rosaceae amygdalus arabica (oliv.) pericarp, seed amygdalus communis l. pericarp, seed amygdalus orientalis mill. exocarp, pericarp, seed (con nued on next page) ethnobiology le ers. 2014. 5: 135‐145. doi: 10.14237/ebl.5.2014.251. 141 research communica on grass) (figure 2c, d), hordeum distichon (two-rowed barley) (figure 2g, h), triticum durum (durum wheat) (figure 2k, l), and t. compactum (club-wheat) (figure 2m, n) in this study all exhibit features that are diagnostic of the tribe triticeae within the poaceae (gramineae) family. in general, starch grains from this tribe have simple, lenticular, oval, kidney (reniform) or dicoid in shapes with small reticulate surface depressions (piperno et al. 2004; yang and perry 2013). the five triticeae taxa that yielded abundant starch grains within this study exhibited all of these features seed starch grains from aegilops, hordeum, and triticum taxa (aht) and the triticeae tribe are also much larger in general than the seed starch grains from non-triticeae taxa. this feature can be used to identify individual starches at least to the tribe level when shape and size attributes are analyzed together. the mean length for the poaceae starch grains observed in this study follow the pattern observed by piperno et al. (2004) where aht taxa can be distinguished from other grass taxa, such as the pennisetum americanum, based on their overall large size (table 4). the average length of the 18 aht seed starch grain taxa in table 4 with a sample size of 50 is 17.7mm with a standard deviation of 5.7mm. this length is well above the average length of the 15 non-triticeae with an average of 5.1mm and a standard deviation 2.6mm. recent work by yang and perry (2013) on 38 grass species from china supports this hypothesis and goes one step further, suggesting that all members of the tribe triticeae produce larger starches relative to other poaceae. the one non-triticeae grass in this study that yielded abundant seed starch, pennesitum americanum yielded semi-compound to compound, flat, angular, or irregular shaped starch grains (figure 2. i, j). this compares well with other studies of non-triticeae grasses such as bromus sp. and pipatherum sp. where similar features were observed (piperno et al. 2004). discussion and conclusions chemical and physical properties of starch grains from over 100 species from southwest asia have been published in archaeological reports and food and plant science literature. an additional 64 species were examined here, ten of which produced abundant starch grains in their seeds and pericarps that are diagnostic at the tribe, family, and potentially genus and species level. this project adds to the growing body of knowledge regarding archaeological starch grain analysis in southwest asia by centralizing the published comparative literature for this region and describing the starches produced in domesticated and wild taxa. the starches from cyperus esculentus seeds are crataegus aronia (l.) dc pericarp, seeds prunus domes ca l. seeds prunus mahaleb l. seeds prunus persica (l.) stokes pericarp, seed rosa canina l. pericarp/seed, seeds rosa phoenicea boiss. pericarp, seeds sarcopoterium sinposum (l.) spach. seeds rubiaceae asperula arvensis l. seeds coffea arabica l. beans galium tricornutum dandy seeds solanaceae hyscamus mu cus l. seed physalis alkekengi l. seed physalis angulata l. pericarp solanum sepicula dunal seed, fruit ur caceae ur ca pilulifera l. seed zygophllaceae balanites aegyp aca (l.) delile exocarp, pericarp, seed family genus/species plant part (con nued from previous page) ethnobiology le ers. 2014. 5: 135‐145. doi: 10.14237/ebl.5.2014.251. 142 research communica on table 4. mean (±s.d.) length (mm) and range for poaceae starch grains divided by subfamily and tribe. subfamily tribe genus/species mean range n source panicodae paniceae pennisetum americanum (l.) leeke 5.7 (1.4) 3–10 50 this study pooideae aveneae alopecurus arundinaceus poir. 4 (0.9) 2–8 50 piperno et al 2004 alopecurus utriculatus banks & sol. 5 (1.5) 2–8 50 piperno et al 2004 avena barbata po ex link 12 (2.9) 6–18 50 piperno et al 2004 gastridium ventricosum (gouan) schinz & thell. 4 (1.0) 2–6 50 piperno et al 2004 phalaris minor retz. <2.0 ‐ 50 piperno et al 2004 phalaris paradoxa l. <4.0 ‐ 50 piperno et al 2004 brachypodieae brachypodium distachyon (l.) p.beauv. 9 (2.2) 4–16 50 piperno et al 2004 bromeae bromus pseudobrachystachys h. scholz 5 (1.4) 4–8 50 piperno et al 2004 poeae lolium mul florum lam. <6.0 ‐ 50 piperno et al 2004 lolium rigidum gaudin <6.0 ‐ 50 piperno et al 2004 puccinellia distans (jacq.) parl. <4.0 ‐ 50 piperno et al 2004 puccinellia gigantea (grossh.) grossh. <4.0 ‐ 50 piperno et al 2004 vulpia persica (boiss. & buhse) krecz. & bobrov <2.0 ‐ 50 piperno et al 2004 s peae piptatherum holciforme (m.bieb.) roem. & schult. 3 (1.0) 2–4 50 piperno et al 2004 tri ceae aegilops crassa boiss 16 (7.6) 5–31 50 this study aegilops geniculata roth 21 (6.4 ) 10–36 50 piperno et al 2004 aegilops peregrina hack. 25 (8.0) 12–52 50 piperno et al 2004 aegilops speltoides tausch 22 (4.5) 10–32 50 henry et al 2011 aegilops triaristata willd. 10 (3.4) 5–20 50 this study aegilops vavilovii (zhuk.) chennav. 13 (6.2) 5–35 50 this study hordeum bulbosum l. 17 (3.7) 10–24 50 piperno et al 2004 hordeum bulbosum (with lamellae only) 21 (1.6) 18–24 50 piperno et al 2004 hordeum dis chon l. 11 (2.7) 5–18 50 this study hordeum glaucum steudel 18 (3.5) 10–30 39 henry et al 2011 hordeum glaucum steudel 18 (3.9) 8–24 50 piperno et al 2004 hordeum glaucum (with lamellae only) 22 (1.4) 18–26 50 piperno et al 2004 (con nued on next page) ethnobiology le ers. 2014. 5: 135‐145. doi: 10.14237/ebl.5.2014.251. 143 research communica on distinct from the starches produced in its tubers but are similar to the seeds of other related taxa within the cyperaceae family making them diagnostic to this family. vicia ervilia starches exhibit “bean type” features and can be identified to the genus and species level due to their small size and fabaceae (leguminosae)-like properties. although the diagnostic ability of moringa peregrina starches remains unclear, their production in the pericarp, and not the seed challenges assumptions originally made in this project, and in the general literature, about perceived starch production in particular plant parts and illustrates the importance of testing every part of a plant when possible. finally, the poaceae taxa in this study can be distinguished from each other at the tribe level by size and overall shape. centralization of information about taxa that produce starch grains will help specialists narrow down identification of unknown starch grains encountered in the archaeological record. the discovery of starch grains within important domesticated taxa such as hordeum distichon, triticum durum, and wild taxa such as cyperus esculentus provides a clearer understanding of what can be identified within southwest asia and within these families and genera. there are many avenues of comparative starch grain research that can be pursued to better aid archaeologists in their reconstruction of plant use in southwest asia. with a few exceptions, very little research has been conducted on starch grains produced by underground storage organs such as bulbs, corms, rhizomes, and tubers (henry et al. 2009, 2011; messner 2011; piperno et al. 2004; reichert 1913; yang and perry 2013). macrobotanical and phytolith evidence suggests that wetland taxa played an important role as a source of food in southwest asia during the epipaleolithic (wollstonecroft et al. 2008), pre-pottery neolithic (balbo et al. 2012), pottery neolithic (rosen 2005), and ubaid (kennett and kennett 2006) periods. aside from the research by hather (1991, 1993), very little work has been conducted to establishd criteria for identifying underground storage organs at archaeological sites. recovering and identifying starch grains associated with uso’s would open a whole new avenue of research into wild resource exploitation, complement existing datasets, and allow for archaeologists to explore new topics through the analysis of starches contained in artifact residues and dental calculus. the research on triticeae taxa from china (yang and perry, 2013) and taxa from the delaware river valley, usa (messner 2008, 2011) are excellent examples of how a regional synthesis can lead to the construction of standardized dichotomous keys for a region. in both of these papers, the researchers develop an easy to use dichotomous key that allows for quick identification of archaeological starch grains. further research into starch grain production patterns of other taxa found in southwest asia and the identification of southwest asian taxa discussed in reichert (1913) would eventually lead to the developpooideae tri ceae hordeum hexas chon l. 20 (3.5) 10–30 52 henry et al 2011 hordeum marinum huds. 10 (1.8) 6–14 50 piperno et al 2004 hordeum spontaneum l. 18 (3.8) 12–30 27 henry et al 2011 hordeum spontaneum l. 20 (4.7) 10–26 50 piperno et al 2004 hordeum spontaneum (with lamellae only) 28 (2.9) 18–26 50 piperno et al 2004 secale vavilovii grossh. 25 (4.2) 15–36 50 henry et al 2011 tri cum aes vum l. 24 (4.4) 15–35 52 henry et al 2011 tri cum compactum host. 12 (4.9) 5–22 50 this study tri cum dicoccoides schrank ex schübl. 17 (6.1) 8–30 50 piperno et al 2004 tri cum durum desf. 11 (4.0) 5–23 50 this study tri cum monococcum subsp. aegilo‐ poides (link.) thell. 15 (1.7) 10–20 46 henry et al 2011 subfamily tribe genus/species mean range n source (con nued from previous page) ethnobiology le ers. 2014. 5: 135‐145. doi: 10.14237/ebl.5.2014.251. 144 research communica on ment of a dichotomous key and the establishment of regional diagnostic starch grain types that archaeologists could use in this important area of the world. acknowledgements i owe professor joy mccorriston a massive debt of gratitude for allowing me to study and use her near eastern macrobotanical comparative collection for this project. i would also like to thank masoumeh kimiaie and matthew senn for their assistance and hospitality while working in the mccorriston laboratory at ohio state university. this project would not have been possible without the aid of my undergraduate assistants kathleen hammel, andrew ritz, joyce fountain, stephen mckay, and jessica lundquist. without them, i never would have been able to create and study such a wonderful starch grain comparative collection. finally, thank you to my committee members dr. alexia smith, dr. natalie munro, professor deborah pearsall, professor gil stein, and professor sally mcbrearty, as well as the anonymous reviewers for the helpful comments on the manuscript. declarations permissions: none declared. sources of funding: national science foundation dissertation improvement grant. conflicts of interest: none declared. references cited balbo, a. l., e. iriarte, a. arranz, l. zapata, c. lancelotti, m. madella, l. teira, m. jiménez, f. braemer, and j. j. ibáñez. 2012. squaring the circle. social and environmental implications of pre-pottery neolithic building technology at tell qarassa (south syria). plos one 7:e42109-e42109. 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plant food processing in the near eastern epipalaeolithic and implications for improved edibility and nutrient bioaccessibility: an experimental assessment of bolboschoenus maritimus (l.) palla (sea club-rush). vegetetation history and archaeobotany 17:19-27. yang, x., and l. perry. 2013. identification of ancient starch grains from the tribe triticeae in the north china plain. journal of archaeological science 40:3170-3177. zohary, d., m. hopf, m., and e. weiss. 2012. domestication of plants in the old world. oxford university press, oxford. biosketch thomas c. hart is the laboratory manager/research scien st for the environmental archaeology laboratory at the university of texas at aus n. letter from the editors ethnobiology letters book review 7 grass roots: african origins of an american art dale rosengarten, theodore rosengarten, and enid schildkrout, eds. 2008. museum for african art, new york. distributed by university of washington press, seattle. pp. 269, copiously illustrated in black-and-white and color. isbn (cloth) 978-0-945802-50-1, (paper) 978-0-945802-51-8. reviewed by e. n. anderson1 reviewer address: 1 department of anthropology, university of california, riverside, riverside, california 92521 received: november 28 th 2009 volume 1:7-8 published: august 3 rd 2010 © 2010 society of ethnobiology many readers of the journal of ethnobiology and ethnobiology letters will remember the society for economic botany meetings in charleston in 2009, and the wonderful sea island baskets and basketmakers we saw and met there. by happy coincidence, these have finally received proper attention, in the form of an exhibit based at new york’s museum of african art and currently traveling to several museums around the country (i saw it at ucla’s fowler museum of ethnic art). ordinarily an art exhibit catalogue would not be reviewed in this journal, but the present work is a major contribution to ethnobiology and deserves attention. it traces the roots of the seagrass baskets of the sea islands of south carolina to africa, primarily west africa. this is done through eleven major essays (ten chapters and an introduction) by experts in africanamerican history, arts, folklore, and ethnobotany. a great deal of original research was done for this exhibit, and it showed an even more complex and rich african heritage than what had already emerged from research over the past decades. the slaves imported from africa in the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries brought a great deal with them—some actual material culture, but much more in the way of knowledge and technique. judith carney, who has an essay in this volume, has been the major tracer of ethnobotanical connections, especially in rice (see her now classic black rice, 2001, and my review of it in the journal of ethnobiology, 2002, as well as her article in that journal, 2003). anglo-american planters wanted to grow rice, but did not know how; they imported slaves from the parts of west africa where native rice, oryza glaberrima, was domesticated and grown. the plantations grew asian rice (o. sativa), but o. glaberrima is still found in a few places in latin america, having been brought over by the slaves— sometimes concealed in their hair (carney 2004). the basket technology was used in rice processing, as well as in almost all other walks of life, from divination to carrying children. baskets were and are made of tough native saltmarsh grasses and rushes. (the one deficiency of this catalogue is a lack of full discussion of species involved; genera include muhlenbergia and juncus. pine needles, palm fronds, and other materials are sometimes pressed into service.) as is usual in today’s world, there is pressure on the resource base, more from development of all kinds than from collecting. the great african-american linguistic anthropologist lorenzo dow turner long ago showed that many african words, largely but not entirely from the wolof and mende languages, survived in the gullah dialect. (many also survive in louisiana and elsewhere.) in the sea islands he recorded a mende song (turner 2002:256), which has later crossed and recrossed the atlantic several times and been re-recorded in later versions—it is still current. teasing out the full complexity of the sources of baskets is difficult, but it appears that not only the ricegrowing areas of west africa, but all of the west african slave source areas from the gambia to angola, were involved in basket history and in the formation of the gullah (or geechee) ethnic group on the sea islands. j. lorand matory, in chapter 10 herein, points out that the gullah were not so isolated as usually claimed, and that their ethnicity was formed through interaction with black, white, and native american groups, all quite diverse. he thus feels optimistic for its future; fears that contact with the outside world would destroy it have turned out to be overdone. there is, in fact, something of a cultural renaissance and reaffirmation today, as we could see at the 2009 economic botany conference. ethnobiology letters book review 8 this book shows what can be done with ethnobotany applied to the study of arts and crafts. the survival of gullah culture in the face of centuries of slavery, racism and oppression is astonishing. mere survival would have been a major achievement of the human spirit, but african-americans have done more: they have created superb art and culture under appalling circumstances. even the slaveowners had to admit this, however grudgingly, but now it is getting its full due. references cited anderson, e. n. 2002. black rice, by judith a. carney. journal of ethnobiology 21:53-54. carney, judith a. 2001. black rice. harvard university press, cambridge. —. 2003. african traditional plant knowledge in the circum-caribbean region. journal of ethnobiology 23:167-186. —. 2004. with grains in her hair: rice in colonial brazil. slavery and abolition 25:1-27. turner, lorenzo dow. 2002 (orig. 1949). africanisms in the gullah dialect. university of south carolina press, columbia. microsoft word scarpa-birds.doc ethnobiology letters                                                                                                                    book review    35    birds in the daily life of the toba indigenous people from the west of the  province of formosa (argentina)  pastor arenas & gustavo porini. 2009. tiempo de historia, asunción. pp. 300 + xxvi. $27.00 (paperback). isbn  9789995381660    reviewed by gustav f. scarpa1    reviewer address: 1centro de estudios farmacológicos y botánicos (cefybo‐conicet), buenos aires, argentina    received: july  5th 2010                         volume 1:35‐36  published: september 6th 2010                       © 2010 society of ethnobiology    this book, whose original title is "las aves en la vida de los toba del oeste de la provincia de formosa (argentina),” is undoubtedly the foundation of argentinian ethnozoology, since there is as yet no exhaustive monograph on the subject. the authors present the results of an extensive ethno-ornithological research program aimed mainly at knowing how the toba name, perceive, conceive, use and relate to birds in their natural environment. once hunter-gatherers and fishermen, toba are currently experiencing an intensive process of assimilation into the argentinian way of life. toba are one of the most populous ethnic groups of the gran chaco, the second largest forested region in south america after the amazon basin. this subject is part of a broader ethnobiological research program that has been carried out by pastor arenas since 1983. the investigation plan was carried out by means of field work consisting of interviews, participant observation, and biological material collection, among other techniques. for the specific subject of birds, these also included bird watching and observation of skins, photographs, and pictures of the local ornithofauna. the information obtained was subsequently organized, analyzed and interpreted, identified, and the biological material was archived in the researcher’s cabinet. results are presented in two sections: 1) an outline of the diverse cultural and social spheres in which the bird’s specific roles are situated, and 2) a species directory which details all the information gathered for each species. the list of chapters is as follows: 1) preface, 2) acknowledgements, 3) introduction, 4) materials and methodology, 5) the toba and their natural environment, 6) birds in the life of the toba, 7) representation of birds, 8) usage of birds, 9) birds and subsistence, 10) material culture, 11) other roles of birds or their parts, 12) nomenclature for bird morphology, 13) vernacular names and classificatory systems, 14) bird directory, 15) the toba’s knowledge about birds, 16) bibliography, 17) index of toba and scientific names, 18) index of scientific and vernacular spanish names. a fairly complete ethnographic and ecological background is included in the first section of the book to allow the reader to interpret the results adequately. as an example of this, in the chapter the toba and their natural environment, many bird attributes referred to by the people are deeply associated with the annual climatic variability of the region, as well as with the different kinds of habitats these animals occupy. in the same way, most of the subsequent chapters could hardly be understood without taking into account some basic facts related to toba material culture, mode of subsistence, annual cycle, shamanism and witchcraft, which are outlined briefly by the authors. utilitarian aspects of birds are described in such a manner as to avoid repetitions in the second part of the book, where data is presented and arranged by bird species. the uses of birds in material culture, both as medicines and especially as announcers, are highlighted. in fact, birds are considered the main announcing agents for the toba; birds advertise goodness, including some important economic resources such as game animals and fishes, and evilness, such as harmful spirits of malicious shamans or witches. this is the case of the frightening po'tanagae (crotophaga ani, cuculidae) whose singing is a clear sign of witchcraft activities and who always announces death. people of ancient times run immediately when they heard it near the villages; nowadays, they shoot them whenever they can. the detailed analysis of bird morphology made on the basis of toba knowledge constitutes another very interesting part of the book, which reveals aspects linked to perception and representation of these ethnobiology letters                                                                                                                    book review    36    animals. these details are shown in a comprehensive manner through schematic and beautiful drawings of each kind of bird. the first section of the book ends by looking in even greater depth at the significance of birds for toba, identifying and analyzing the vernacular nomenclature. as a corollary of this analysis, a preliminary model of the vernacular classificatory system of birds is proposed here, giving a useful approximation to the toba view of the avian world in a cognitively structured manner. the last section of the book includes the description of uses and general representations of birds in toba’s daily life, for each one of the 169 native and naturalized taxons, 7 domesticated exotic species, and 20 ornithological entities that authors have been unable to identify. ma'ñik, the american ostrich (rhea americana, rheidae), is the most outstanding avian species for the toba, not only as a primary source of food but also for the multiple connotations it has in social life. in order to secure the position needed to strike ostrich with an arrow in open fields, the toba wear an amazing camouflage made with lianas and leafy shrubs interweaved all around their bodies. drawings, graphics and photographs illustrate many species. the amount of information gathered on this matter clearly shows that these animals have been and still are of great importance for these people. bird songs and behaviors, as well as their feathers, eggs, bones and meat, among other features, have ample implications and meanings for the life of the toba. 35 book review forms of becoming: the evolutionary biology of development alessandro minelli. 2009. princeton university press, princeton and london. pp. 242, 17 line drawings. us$29.95 (cloth). isbn 9780691135687. reviewed by raymond pierotti reviewer address: department of ecology and evolutionary biology, university of kansas, lawrence, ks 66045 received: february 20, 2012 volume 3:35-38 published: june 26, 2012 © 2012 society of ethnobiology the embryo is key to the adult. this idea has been at times, and probably always should have been, a basic principle of biological thinking. darwin considered development to be crucial to understanding evolution, however, darwinian thinking did not include a useful concept of heredity, therefore the discovery of genes and the growing influence of genetics in biology during the early part of the 20th century, caused both the darwinian concept of natural selection and the potential importance of developmental biology to fall into eclipse. the study of development became descriptive and generalized, which meant it was not used as a means to understand the generation of individual variation. finally in the 1980s, the discovery of hox genes provided a mechanism that directly linked dna with development, thus providing the stimulus for a “new” discipline, referred to as evolutionary developmental biology, or evo/devo for short. the most important aspect of evo/devo is that it provides new insight into how variation in morphometric traits is generated among individuals within a species and provides a mechanistic explanation for phenotypic plasticity, the means by which a single genotype can produce more than one phenotype, depending upon environmental conditions. an interesting aspect of minelli’s forms of becoming is that, rather than focusing on the production of variable phenotypes and the role of genes in development, minelli frames the debate in terms of an earlier argument between cuvier and st. hillaire in france in the years from the french revolution to the publication of darwin’s origin of species in 1859. for those of you who have remained largely ignorant of the internal politics of the musee d’histoire naturelle during the early 19th century this debate was of interest because it remains with us, only today it is disguised as creation “science” vs. evolution as a process. the basic story is that etienne geoffrey st. hillaire was appointed musee chair in vertebrate zoology in 1793. st. hillaire recommended his senior colleague georges cuvier for appointment to the professorship of comparative anatomy. ironically, the position of professor of invertebrate zoology was given to the plant expert jean-baptiste monet de lamarck, who probably should be recognized as the originator of the concept of phenotypic plasticity. lamarck’s advocacy of the role of phenotypic plasticity in evolution makes more sense if we consider that he was at heart a botanist. this knowledge places his otherwise naïvesounding arguments about neck length in giraffes in a better context, if we realize that what he really had in mind was floral forms and leaf shapes, which are quite variable, and in some cases new variants can be passed across generations. plants do not initiate a separate germ line early in their development the way animals do. thus, somatic mutations in plants can be incorporated into future germ lines and acquired traits can readily be inherited across generations. problems arose because cuvier identified four basic groups of animals: vertebrates, articulates (arthropods and worms), molluscs, and radiates (echinoderms and cnidarians), and contended that these four groups were distinct and could not be usefully compared to one another in terms of anatomical features, thus negating the use of homology and removing a major source of evidence for evolutionary change. in essence, cuvier felt that once an organism, or form, existed, it could not change. in contrast st. hillaire argued that nature was far more mutable and that all of these different forms were in fact, animals, and hence shared a history. st. hillaire believed in a common descent as shown through structural design, and that even major differences between organisms might be revealed to show common ancestry, which was as radical a concept in 36 book review napoleon’s france as it later proved to be in victorian england. minelli points out that this debate was settled in cuvier’s favor; more important to us today, the debate was reopened during the last years of the twentieth century, when the discovery of hox genes revealed that all living creatures, and certainly animals, did in fact share a master plan. in contemporary biology, evo/devo has become linked to the origins of phenotypic plasticity and is thus recognized as a major factor in generating the variation among individuals upon which natural selection can act. the most exciting thing is that we now have the beginnings of a theory that can explain differences in life history and behavior, which have always been the aspects of a phenotype with the lowest heritability, and hence are the features most heavily influenced by the environment. this last point should be of special interest to ethnobiologists because indigenous peoples have long recognized that the environment influences the appearance and behavior of local plants and animals. the teton lakota okute stated that, “all birds, even those of the same species, are not alike, and it is the same with animals, and with human beings. the reason wakan tanka does not make two birds, or animals, or human beings exactly alike is because each is placed here to be an independent individual and to rely upon itself... from my boyhood i have observed leaves, trees, and grass, and i have never found two alike. they may have a general likeness, but on examination i have found that they differ slightly. it is the same with animals” (mcluhan 1971, cited in pierotti 2011). in this statement, wakan tanka should probably be read as nature, rather than as “god”, the way many anthropologists and christianized lakota people may interpret this term today. in forms of becoming, minelli advances a related argument: “evolutionary history does not follow a plan, but lays out a pattern whose logic can only be interpreted after the fact” (p. 78), which basically states his premise that the basis of individuality lies in the developmental process, and that development is to the individual as phylogeny is to a species. following this theme, minelli honors haeckel’s once discredited idea that “ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny,” which minelli likens to a soap opera, in which the beginning of the 2nd episode briefly summarizes the first and so on, such that the nth episode provides a summary of all previous episodes, spending slightly more air time on the n-1th episode. stephen jay gould resurrected haeckel’s principle in his ontogeny and phylogeny (1977) by raising the question of how timing of developmental effects was important in macroevolution. where i find haeckel’s principle most useful is in pointing out that mammalian embryos do not undergo a stage showing features of birds or even those of modern reptiles, because mammals (and their ancestors) evolved well before birds and that contemporary reptiles (except turtles) come from a separate lineage, the diapsids, so that neither of these groups is ancestral to mammals in any way, thus their embryonic stages are not a part of mammalian phylogeny. ontogeny was largely ignored by evolutionary biologists during all but the last decade of the 20th century because of the preeminence of genetics and “gene-based” thinking in evolutionary thought. this approach once seemed productive, but recent discoveries have revealed weaknesses, and as minelli points out, we have passed from the mendelian gene, which was sort of a black box, to “the central dogma” of dna, mrna, and transcription and translation resulting in enzymes and structural proteins, and now to evo/devo in which genes are considered to be flexible in function and may not always generate the same product if they act in different environments. given these differences minelli asks, “to what extent biologists educated in different research traditions such as population genetics, molecular genetics, and developmental biology are aware…that they are really talking entities that differ markedly…of concepts…that are part of research paradigms without much in common” (p. 97). minelli argues that this contemporary redefinition of gene action reveals “why (evo/devo) can become a terrain of rigorous critical revision…as regards the topic of the gene” (p. 97). minelli is a scholar of the evolution of animal form at the university of padua (this book was originally published in italian as forme de devinere), therefore, his knowledge of development is solidly grounded. his specialization seems to be on modularity and body form in segmented invertebrates, and many of his examples are drawn from centipedes and leeches, organisms that basically repeat the same bodily unit a number of times. as such, these organisms are ideal for examining the functioning of homeobox (hox) genes, which regulate the production of specific organs and are found in all bilateral animals, including echinoderm larvae. the only difficulty, however, is 37 book review that for ethnobiologists the extensive discussions of invertebrate body types will seem a bit arcane. another, more serious, issue is that this book lacks a bibliography, and only contains a short set of recommended readings for each chapter, so the interested reader will find it very difficult to seek out the sources of some of the interesting examples or points of theory. if forms of becoming does not provide nonspecialists with user-friendly access to the science of evo/devo, what are the alternatives? ironically, one factor that stimulated evolutionary biologists to carefully explore the issue of evo/devo was the sequencing of complete genomes, including the human genome. since the 1970s molecular biology has been very productive and always seemed to promise great insights into the process of evolution. this promise was based upon the notion that complex organisms could be best understood by examining their constituent parts, and dna sequencing promised to reduce life to its simplest components and allow us to understand the true nature of living organisms. as soon as sequencing became well established, it was obvious that genomes (and living creatures) were much more complicated than had been promised. many molecular biologists became frustrated and confused at how unintuitive, complex, and apparently inefficient genomes really seem to be, and that sheer masses of information will not resolve central questions in biology. one voice that had predicted this state of affairs and recognized the importance of evo/devo was the superb but controversial evolutionary geneticist, richard lewontin. in his book the triple helix (2000), lewontin laid out the basis of evo/devo and established that the only way to understand living systems was to recognize that they arise at the intersection of multiple weak forces. it is important to emphasize that “weak” is not used in the sense of unimportant, but in the sense that they are not strongly deterministic and do not necessarily always produce the same outcome. perhaps the most innovative argument of lewontin’s is that we should change our conception of an environment that creates conditions to which an organism must respond, and recognize that organisms shape and change their environments as well as the other way around. it is this interaction between “genes” and their local environment (including local environments experienced within the body by individual cells and tissue types) that produces the variable phenotypes we observe, and also reveals that genes are the least variable aspect of the triad of gene, organism and environment that provides the metaphor that underlies his title. minelli presents an analogous argument that is not as clearly laid out as lewontin’s in his discussion of pleiotropy, in which many characteristics are affected by the actions of the same gene really depends on our definitions of both “characteristic” and “gene” (p. 121). minelli explains pleiotropy using an analogy of how an electrician has multiple effects on the construction of a house that may have made more sense in the original italian. minelli is correct in pointing out that “genes” are more complex entities than we realize, but his explanations are nowhere near as elegant as those found in the plausibility of life: resolving darwin’s dilemma, published in 2005 by marc kirschner and john gerhart, systems biologists from harvard and uc berkeley, respectively. the plausibility of life provides the best explanations i have read of how molecular and cellular processes interact to produce variable phenotypes at each level from physiological to morphological to behavioral. for anyone who feels intimidated by detailed discussions of molecular genetics, this text provides a user-friendly approach to discussion of the genetics of development and how they produce variable individuals by using the same basic plan and show how variations that occur during the developmental process are probably much more important than genetic mutations in producing variants upon which selection can act. this idea is very important in that it is now possible to connect phenotypic variation and plasticity with genetic processes to produce adaptive traits without having to rely on fortuitous mutations. for ethnobiologists, the plausibility of life will provide useful insights at the cellular or molecular level in understanding phenotypic variation, but most ethnobiological work involves phenomena at higher levels of organization such as ecology and behavior. fortunately in 2011 another new text, the flexible phenotype by the dutch physiological ecologists theunis piersma and jan van gils, became available. this book expands upon lewontin’s idea of the interaction between the organisms and its environment from the perspective of ecology. piersma and van gils also provide an evaluation (table 6) of most of the texts available that discuss the evolution of phenotypic plasticity (interestingly they do not include minelli’s forms of becoming). 38 book review i suspect that this last omission is because minelli’s work is too esoteric and specialized to provide insights to students of ecology and behavior. accordingly i would advise most readers of this review to look at kirschner and gerhart (2005) and piersma and van gils (2011) if they want to learn why evo/devo and phenotypic plasticity are of relevance to both evolutionary biology and to their own studies. references cited gould, s. j. 1977. ontogeny and phylogeny. belknap press of harvard university press, cambridge, ma. kirschner, m.w. and j. c. gerhart. 2005. the plausibility of life: resolving darwin’s dilemma. yale university press, new haven, ct. lewontin, r. 2001. the triple helix: gene, organism, and environment. harvard university press, cambridge, ma. piersma, t. and j.a. van gils. 2011. the flexible phenotype: a body-centered integration of ecology, physiology, and behaviour. oxford university press, new york, ny. using 3d microscopy to analyze experimental cut marks on animal bones produced with different stone tools ethnobiology letters. 2015. 6(2):267‐275. doi: 10.14237/ebl.6.2.2015.349. 267 research communication special issue on digital zooarchaeology the application of 3d technologies has also produced useful data related to engraved palaeolithic mobiliary art (bello et al. 2013; güth 2012; joordens et al. 2014; moretti 2014), where research has informed the technical and artistic procedures followed by prehistoric artists. over the last few years the authors have been carrying out a review of the entire portable art assemblage of grotta paglicci (foggia, southern italy) by means of 3d digital microscopy. this 12-meter thick stratigraphic sequence is considered a reference for understanding the evolution of the upper palaeolithic in italy and is more generally a point of reference for the whole of the south-eastern mediterranean region (palma di cesnola 1993, 2006; ronchitelli et al. 2014; wierer 2012). the grotta paglicci research program is developing an experimental approach with the following goals: 1) to characterize artistic engravings and butchering marks on bone surfaces with micromorphometric parameters. introduction 3d digital microscopy has many applications in archaeological research, particularly for precise micromorphometric analysis of very small surfaces, enabling measurements in three dimensions. in previous studies, 3d microscopy allowed us to distinguish between grooves inflicted by stone and metal tools (bello and soligo 2008; boschin and crezzini 2012), as well as characterize the marks produced by ancient tools (bello et al. 2009). similarly, 3d microscopic analysis of grooves present on two human teeth from epigravettian (ca., 17,0000-10,000 years bp) layers of grotta paglicci (southern italy) enabled the interpretation of tooth picking behaviours aimed at alleviating sore gums (ricci et al. 2014). in their study of “hatched bricks,” a type of brick used in civil and religious monumental architecture during 12th-14th centuries in northern and central italy, arrighi et al. (2012b) used 3d microscopy of experimental engravings to define parameters that suggested a link between engraving patterns, the tools employed, and the action performed. using 3d microscopy to analyze experimental cut marks on animal bones produced with different stone tools erika moretti1, simona arrighi1,2, francesco boschin1,2*, jacopo crezzini1,2, daniele aureli1,3, and annamaria ronchitelli1 author addresses: 1università degli studi di siena, dipartimento di scienze fisiche, della terra e dell'ambiente, unità di ricerca preistoria e antropologia, via laterina 8, 53100 siena, italy. 2cesq, centro studi sul quaternario onlus. via nuova dell'ammazzatoio 7, i 52037 sansepolcro (arezzo), italy. 3université paris ouest nanterre la défense, umr 7041 – arscan, equipe antet, boite n°32, maison rené ginouvès (mae), 21 allée de l'université f-92023 nanterre cedex, france. *corresponding author: fboschin@hotmail.com received: february 19, 2015 volume: 6(2):267-275 published: december 18, 2015 © 2015 society of ethnobiology abstract: this study uses a combination of digital microscopic analysis and experimental archaeology to assess stone tool cut marks on animal bones. we used two un-retouched flint flakes and two burins to inflict cut marks on fresh, boiled, and dry ungulate bones. the experiment produced three series of three engravings on each bone with each of the experimental tools. the first series involved one single stroke; the second, two strokes in the same direction; and the third, multiple strokes using a to-and-fro movement. we analyzed the striations using a hirox 3d digital microscope (kh-7700) and collected metric and profile data on the morphology of the cut marks. in order to describe the shape of each cross section, we calculated the ratio between the breadth at the top and the breadth at the floor of cut marks. preliminary results show that both the tool type and the method of creating the cut mark influence the shape of the resulting groove. in our experiment, morphological parameters can be used to differentiate between marks produced using un-retouched flint flakes and those produced using burins. however, neither morphological nor morphometric analysis allows us to identify the mechanical motion used to produce the cuts, nor the state of the bone (fresh, boiled, or dry) at the moment of marking. keywords: taphonomy, digital microscopy, 3d imaging, cut marks, zooarchaeology ethnobiology letters. 2015. 6(2):267‐275. doi: 10.14237/ebl.6.2.2015.349. 268 research communication special issue on digital zooarchaeology 2) to differentiate engravings produced by different types of lithic tools. 3) to identify the origin of uncertain marks on bones found at grotta paglicci (if they are produced with artistic meanings or if they are the result of subsistence activities). 4) to reassess previous evaluations of artistic engravings from grotta paglicci that were based on optical microscopy. the research reported in this paper focuses on the contribution of 3d digital microscopy to identifying the origin of different kinds of grooves on modern animal bones, in order to inform our study of archaeological bones from grotta paglicci. we focus specifically on the potential to differentiate between cut marks produced by un-retouched flakes (generally, very sharp and thin) and those produced by burins which are comparatively more robust and oblique. while un-retouched flakes were likely used both for butchering activities and artistic production by ancient populations due to the ease of making them and their superior cutting capabilities (dewbury and russel 2007), burins were also hypothesized to be used, among other activities, in the production of prehistoric artistic engravings at grotta paglicci (arrighi et al. 2008; arrighi et al 2012a). materials and methods taphonomic studies on bone remains have long demonstrated the potential for recognizing micromorphological parameters useful for identifying the origin of cut marks (e.g., greenfield 1999; potts and shipman 1981). the improved imaging technology provided by 3d digital microscopy allows the capture of a 3d image of a cut mark along its entire length. in addition, analyzed surfaces do not need to be specially prepared, and digital representations are obtained in a few minutes. this approach also allows visualization of the mark’s cross sections and collection of morphometric data that can be analysed statistically. in previous studies 3d morphology of marks (particularly the distinction between “v” shaped marks and “\_/” shaped marks) was analyzed using 2d imagery (e.g., domínguez-rodrigo et al. 2009). in our experience, directly observing cross sections of cut marks is not readily feasible using conventional 2d microscopy (both optical and sem) because diagnostic criteria pertaining to the micromorphology of the cross sections and the slopes and floor of the grooves are difficult to calculate. while an innovative alternative approach using microscopic observations of transversally cut casts or moulds was carried out by greenfield (1999), this also relied on a 2d image when a 3d image is better suited to such an analysis. for the experimental study presented here, we focused on two types of lithic artefacts: burins and un -retouched flakes. tools were produced by one of the authors (da) using flint obtained from the gargano promontory (apulia, southern italy). burins were produced according to the technical variability of epigravettian burins found at grotta paglicci. the table 1. experimentally produced stone tools used to create cut marks. tool number length (mm) width (mm) thickness (mm) tool type type of blank cutting edge prehensile portion (proximal end of tool) tool 1 (figure 1a) 63 27 17 burin on fracture thick flake cortex removal phase dihedral; α: 70°; β: 90° presence of backs (back a, opposite side to the functional part: thickness: 15 mm; back b, adjacent to the functional part: thickness: 10 mm) tool 2 (figure 1b): 59 36 15 burin on fracture thick flake cortex removal phase dihedral; α: 70°; β: 90° presence of backs (back a, opposite side to the functional part: thickness: 15 mm; back b, adjacent to the functional part: thickness: 10 mm) tool 3 (figure 1c) 26 28 7 unretouched flint flake blank: flake dihedral; α: 50°; β: 70° absence of back on the opposite side to the functional part; presence of a back adjacent to the functional part (thickness of back: 0.7 mm) tool 4 (figure 1d) 38 14 4 unretouched flint flake blank: bladelet dihedral; α:30°; β: 70° absence of backs ethnobiology letters. 2015. 6(2):267‐275. doi: 10.14237/ebl.6.2.2015.349. 269 research communication special issue on digital zooarchaeology following description of experimental tools follows a techno-functional typology (lepot 1993; boëda 2001), aimed at understanding the role of the tool’s prehensile and functional parts in the production of engravings. parameters of produced tools are presented in table 1. in this study, we refer to both engravings and butchery marks as “cut marks.” however, we distinguish engravings from butchering marks by the latter being the epiphenomenal by-product of butchering soft tissue (lyman 1987). in contrast, we define “engravings” as cut marks of prearranged shape, made with a slow and controlled hand movement on a flat surface (as one would see in bone working, as opposed to butchery). we produced engravings on three modern bones: a roe deer (capreolus capreolus linnaeus cervidae) scapula (dry bone), a cattle (bos taurus linnaeus bovidae) innominate (fresh bone), and a cattle scapula (after boiling to remove soft tissues) (figure 2). the roe deer scapula was collected from a field in north-eastern italy. the bone surface is well preserved and does not show any kind of weathering. the cattle bones came from an animal that was butchered a few days before this experiment took place. engravings were produced by the lead author, maintaining control on two parameters: force applied and hand position. the experiment produced three series of three engravings on each bone with each of the experimental tools. the first series involved one single stroke; the second, two strokes in the same direction; and the third, multiple strokes using a to-and-fro movement. we analysed the engravings using a hirox kh-7700 digital microscope with an mxg-10c body, an ol-140ii lens and an ad-10s directional lighting adapter. this instrument allows creation of a 3d image obtained by the composition of several pictures (up to 120) taken at different focal lengths, enabling the bone surfaces to be observed from different points of view. in addition, the cross-section of each cut mark can be viewed along its entire length. furthermore, areal, linear, and angular measurements of profiles of cross-sections can be obtained (arrighi and borgia 2009). five crosssections were calculated per cut mark for a total of 540 profile measurements. the cross sections were grouped into seven morphological categories, according to boschin and crezzini (2012) (see figure 3). the breadth at the top (bt) and breadth at the floor (bf) of individual cut marks, as well as the ratio between the breadth at the top and the breadth at the floor (ratio of top to floor [rtf] index) were recorded on each of the 540 cross sections, following boschin figure 1. burins produced for the experiments . α, β: angles characterizing the cutting edge. measurements are reported in table 1. figure 2. the experimental production of engravings. ethnobiology letters. 2015. 6(2):267‐275. doi: 10.14237/ebl.6.2.2015.349. 270 research communication special issue on digital zooarchaeology and crezzini (2012) (figure 3). the absolute depth of the cut (dc), as defined by bello and soligo (2008) was not considered because it is primarily a reflection of the force applied by the operator when producing cut marks. micromophological characteristics of these experimentally produced engravings were compared with a sample of archaeologically documented butchery marks (sensu greenfield 1999) (n = 134) identified on gravettian and epigravettian faunal remains from grotta paglicci (foggia, southern italy), and with epiphenomenal butchery marks produced during modern butchering experiments using unretouched flint flakes (n = 93). experimental cut marks in the modern butchering experiments were produced with un-retouched flakes, butchering two fresh cattle autopodia (metapodials and phalanges) and three complete cat carcasses. cut marks were related to skinning, disarticulation and removal of soft tissues1 (boschin and crezzini 2012, crezzini et al. 2014). these comparative archaeological and experimental cut marks will be referred to as “butchering marks” in the following paragraphs and will be examined in relation to the experimentally produced engravings. results using high resolution three-dimensional imagery, we first conducted a micromorphological analysis on the entire sample of experimental engravings. this analysis quantified the cross-section morphology of the 540 engravings and placed them into one of seven categories (figure 3). there is a clear morphological figure 3. seven morphological categories and measurements taken on the profiles. modified from boschin and crezzini (2012). 1. profiles with a flat floor; 2. narrow vshaped regular profiles; 3. narrow u-shaped regular profiles; 4. broad v-shaped profiles; 5. irregular vor ushaped profiles characterised by the presence of one ancillary groove or edge on one side; 6. irregular vor ushaped profiles characterised by the presence of several ancillary parallel striations, on one or both sides, lateral to the apex of the cut and of uneven length and thickness; 7. profiles with two apexes occurring on the floor of the groove. figure 4. a) cross-section of an experimental engraving produced with an un-retouched flake. b) cross-section of an experimental engraving produced with a burin. ethnobiology letters. 2015. 6(2):267‐275. doi: 10.14237/ebl.6.2.2015.349. 271 research communication special issue on digital zooarchaeology distinction between engravings produced by unretouched flakes which are more irregular and vshaped (figure 4a) and engravings produced using burins which have a more u-shaped cross section (figure 4b). the bulk of engravings produced using sharp un-retouched flakes can be grouped into two morphological categories (1 = 27%; 3 = 22.9%), but categories 4 and 5 are also well represented (figure 5). on the contrary, among engravings produced using burins, category 1 is the most represented (34.4%), followed by category 3 (30.3%). v-shaped profiles are less represented (categories 2 and 4) and, in general, the distribution of profiles in the seven categories is significantly different between engravings inflicted with un-retouched flakes and those inflicted by burins (χ2 = 25.4, p<0.001; figure 5a). notably, burins seem to produce very few engravings with ancillary edges or irregular microstriations within the main groove (category 6) or with two ridges on the floor (category 7) suggesting that these categories may explain why they are infrequently observed. butchery marks produced with un-retouched flint flakes during butchering experiments tend to be vshaped (category 1 counts only for about the 4.3 % figure 5. a) frequency of each morphological category according to the groups; black: experimental engravings (burins, n = 270), white: experimental engravings (unretouched flakes, n = 270), dark gray: experimental butchering marks (n = 93), light gray: archaeological butchering marks (n = 134). b) experimental engravings: frequency of each morphological category according to tool and hand movement. every sample is composed by 90 observations. black: burin, single mark; white: burin, to and fro movement; light gray: burin, double unidirectional movement; dark gray: flake, single mark; horizontal hatching: flake, to and fro movement; oblique hatching: flake, double unidirectional movement. c) experimental engravings: frequency of each morphological category according to tool and bone type. every sample is composed by 90 observations. black: burin, boiled bone; white: burin, fresh bone; light gray: burin, dry bone; dark gray: flake, boiled bone; horizontal hatching: flake, fresh bone; oblique hatching: flake, dry bone. figure 6. rtf (ratio between the breadth at the top and the breadth at the floor) of single-stroke engravings (according to tool category) and of butchering marks. sample size: burins = 270; blanks = 270; butchery marks = 227. ethnobiology letters. 2015. 6(2):267‐275. doi: 10.14237/ebl.6.2.2015.349. 272 research communication special issue on digital zooarchaeology and category 3 for the 13.9 % n = 93) and quite different from the non-butchery-related engravings inflicted with the same kind of tool (χ2 = 30.4, p<0.001). category 1 is also under-represented among archaeological butchering marks (11.2%). differentiating between burins and flakes is difficult if variation in hand movement is considered. u-shaped cross sections tend to increase when flakes are used with multiple hand movements, but decrease when burins are used in the same way. more irregular profiles with internal striations (category 5) seem to increase when all tools type are used inflicting two strokes or with a to-and-fro movement (figure 5b). trends in the micromorphology of engravings remain unclear when comparing fresh bone to dried bone. differences observed among groups could be related to other parameters, such as the tool used or variability in the movement of the operator (figure 5c). therefore, we further analysed the rtf index values of engravings in order to explore how different tool types, hand movements, and whether bones were fresh or dry influenced the morphology of engravings. among single-strokes, engravings produced with burins and those produced with flakes show a similar distribution of rtf index values (figure 6). when subjected to multiple hand movements, the breadth at the top (bt) and bottom (bf) increases (figure 7). among burins, cross sections become more u-shaped as indicated by a slight decrease of the rtf values, whilst among blanks this reduction was not observed (figure 8). discussion our experimental results reveal significant morphological differences between engravings produced with burins and engravings produced with un-retouched flakes. burins composed of two backs, one adjacent (corresponding to a fracture) and one opposite (corresponding to lateral cortex) indicate that the proximal (prehensile) portion of the tool is a key functional element. morphological characteristics of this ‘prehensile’ portion of the tool provides more control over movement and in the application of force. conversely, the two un-retouched flakes do not have thick prehensile portions and accordingly, lacks the force of burins when tools are used by hand. in addition, the wider edge angles of burins (α between 70° and 90°) are more oblique than in unretouched flakes (α between 30° and 50°). thus the edge of an un-retouched flake could be more fragile and likely to chip when inflicting marks on hard materials, resulting in an irregular shape. these characteristics likely explain the greater variability observed among marks produced with flakes that have not been retouched than those which are characterised by more irregular ridges or internal striations. it is important to note that the morphology of experimental butchering marks inflicted with unretouched flakes, is measurably different from that of figure 7. bf (breadth at the floor) and bt (breadth at the top) values of engravings according to tool and hand movement. a) bf – blanks; b) bf – burins; c) bt – blanks; d) bt – buris. every sample is composed by 90 observations. figure 8. rtf (ratio between the breadth at the top and the breadth at the floor) of engravings, according to tool and hand movement. a) blanks; b) burins. every sample is composed by 90 observations. figure 7. bf (breadth at the floor) and bt (breadth at the top) values of engravings according to tool and hand movement. a) bf – blanks; b) bf – burins; c) bt – blanks; d) bt – buris. every sample is composed by 90 observations. ethnobiology letters. 2015. 6(2):267‐275. doi: 10.14237/ebl.6.2.2015.349. 273 research communication special issue on digital zooarchaeology engravings produced using the same type of tool which were conducted with slow and completely controlled hand movements. on the one hand, production of engravings on the surface of a bone is a goal while butchering marks are a secondary consequence of a cutting action (egeland 2003; lyman 1987). on the other hand, different applications of a tool can be chosen making use of particular portions of un-retouched flakes (e.g., a dihedral or an elongated cutting edge) as well as different applications of force, hand position, and movement. following our goal to differentiate cut marks produced by different types of lithic tools, this study shows that tool types have to be considered in relation to the characteristics of their prehensile and functional elements and not only in relation to their technological categorization (such as “burin” or “un-retouched flake”). our analysis shows that metrical data on cut marks vary depending on the type of action adopted. for instance, with a to-and-fro movement the breadth of marks increases and, at least among burins, crosssections become more u-shaped. however, clear quantitative differences between profiles of cut marks produced by burins and flakes do not emerge. thus, absolute measurements (bt and bf) cannot be used to reliably distinguish between them because they can depend on the size of the tool's edge and its penetration into the bone tissue. the distribution of values of the rtf index, which is a function of the shape of the tool's edge, is quite similar with an analogous mean (ttest, experimental engravings, burins vs. flakes: t = -1.19, p = 0.23). conclusions this paper presents our first attempt at using 3d microscopy to characterize and examine variability in marks produced by specific lithic tool types on a range of bone surfaces. our preliminary research supports 3d microscopy as a promising method to analyze and quantify the micromorphology of butchery marks and engravings. our results suggest that most marks have u-shaped cross sections (morphological categories 1 and 3) and lack more complex shapes (categories 5, 6, 7) and therefore can be considered to be produced by robust functional edges of tools (such as burins). conversely, profiles characterized by a narrow floor, including the presence of engravings with two ridges on the floor or irregular striations or internal ridges, suggests the use of narrower or more fragile functional elements of tools (for instance, the edges of un-retouched flakes). however, neither morphological nor morphometric analysis allows us to identify the hand motion used to produce the marks, nor the state of the bone (fresh or dry) at the time of marking. we observe that un-retouched flakes produce morphologically different cut marks depending on the activity: prearranged cuts created by controlled, slow, and regular hand movements on flat, clean bone surfaces (such as used for bone working) differed from cuts produced during butchering activities. this evidence is relevant in developing future experimental protocols in the study of tool marks and other human caused traces on bones. while our results remain preliminary, they show a distinction between engravings produced with different tool types, although they also show that such morphological observations cannot be made in the absence of other contextual evidence. in future research, we plan to apply this method to archaeological materials from grotta paglicci, where recent research has demonstrated a significant micromorphometric difference between artistic epigravettian engravings and butchering marks (moretti 2014). the preliminary results presented in this paper have helped us improve our experimental protocol for future research. the refined protocol will (1) include the use of other types of lithic artifacts (i.e. retouched flakes) and (2) maintain greater control of the modern substrate in the experiments by using the same bone elements from the same species observed in the archaeological sample. acknowledgements we thank the soprintendenza per i beni archeologici della puglia for supporting research at grotta paglicci. we are also grateful to the editors of this special issue for editing and improving the original manuscript. declarations permissions: none declared. sources of funding: none declared. conflicts of interest: none declared. references cited arrighi, s., v. borgia, f. d'errico, and a. ronchitelli. 2008. i ciottoli decorati di paglicci: raffigurazioni e utilizzo. rivista di scienze preistoriche 58:39-58. arrighi, s. and v. borgia. 2009. surface 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journal of osteoarchaeology in press. doi: 10.2002/oa.2420. ronchitelli, a., s. mugnaini, s. arrighi, a. atrei, g. capecchi, m. giamello, l. longo, n. marchettini, c. viti, and a. moroni. 2014. when technology joins symbolic behaviour: the gravettian burials at grotta paglicci (rignano garganico e foggia e southern italy). quaternary international, 359-360:423441 doi: 10.1016/j.quaint.2014.08.038. wierer, u. 2012. variability and standardization: the early gravettian lithic complex of grotta paglicci, southern italy. quaternary international 288:215-238. doi: 10.1016/j.quaint.2012.04.043. notes 1slicing cut marks on spongy bones (epiphyses, tarsal and carpal bones, vertebral bodies) were not included in order to avoid striations whose characteristics may have been dictated by the softness of the bone surface rather than the nature of the cut. biosketches erika moretti graduated at the university of siena where she produced a thesis on paleolithic portable art objects. simona arrighi is collaborator of the university of siena studying paleolithic art and use-wear on lithic tools. she is also developing new protocols for the application of 3d microscopy in zooarchaeology. francesco boschin is a zooarchaeologist focusing on prehistoric italy. he is also developing new protocols for the application of microtomography scans and 3d microscopy in zooarchaeology. jacopo crezzini is a zooarchaeologist focusing on prehistoric italy. he is also developing new protocols for the application of 3d microscopy in zooarchaeology. daniele aureli is focusing his research interests on the study of lower and middle paleolithic lithic artifacts. he is also carrying out fieldwork on lower-middle paleolithic sites from italy. annamaria ronchitelli is a professor at the university of siena, a paleoanthropologist, and a prehistoric archaeologist working on italian paleolithic sites. free for all: foods, landscapes, and lives in the paraguayan chaco wyndham. 2016. ethnobiology letters 7(2):14–22 14 perspectives special issue on memoirs and memory knowledge—how people interact with their landscapes, and with each other, through food and through storytelling. this essay addresses a few of these interconnections of personal histories, ethnobiology, and foodscapes during my first visit in 1998, and during subsequent trips in 2011, 2012, and 2014. jesudi was the first ayoreo community living among the cojñone (whites) to be formed independently of the new tribes mission, any of the catholic or anglican missions, or mennonite-organized labor settlements. in 1998 there were about eight extended families living there, from several ayoreo sub-groups, who had lived in various mission camps—most commonly campo loro (new tribes) and maría auxiliadora (salesian)—following their particular experience of contact with cojñone in the 1960s–80s. the settlement is about 70 kilometers north of the mennonite town of filadelfia, on a dirt road that leads, after another few hundred kilometers northeast, to the riverine, palm-savannah, forests, and grasslands where many of the people in jesudi grew up and consider their ancestral homelands near the bolivian and brazilian borders. there is little water in jesudi, and it is a much drier thornscrub ecosystem than its residents were used to in their childhoods and young adulthoods living as hunters, gatherers, fishers, and gardeners further north. but the original settler siempre comemos juntos cuando ella recibe cosas1 —queneja dosapé, age 10 my first evening in jesudi i was given a small strip of roasted giant anteater (myrmecophaga tridactyla) for supper. it was very dark meat, slightly spicy, delicious, chewy, topped with a layer of creamy fat and burnt hide. each person in the small ayoreo community received a piece of the animal, and i, having been renamed ichá (meaning ‘newly arrived’), had also warranted a portion—a very small portion. to be included in the distribution changed me immediately. it was 1998. i was a first-year ecological anthropology grad student from the us and i was in a small ayoreo settlement in the central chaco of northern paraguay. jesudi, a collective name for the esó fruit trees (sideroxylon obtusifolium) that used to ripen there, was home to a group of families who had decided to move away from the mennonite cooperatives and missionary camps about a decade earlier. they were trying to make it on their own as a community with more access to forest resources than they had in the camps, but without the benefits of either their traditional mobility across the landscape, or proximity to a town. i was there to complete a study of children’s plant knowledge, but in many ways i ended up most transfixed by the more general context for that free for all: foods, landscapes, and lives in the paraguayan chaco felice s. wyndham1* 1290 stanton way, athens, ga, usa. *felice.wyndham@zoology.ox.ac.uk abstract foods and foodscapes structure and inform our experiences as ethnobiologists and ethnographers, the way we interact with and learn from teachers in study sites, and how relations between peoples and between people and landscapes unfold over time. this short memoir essay revisits my education in foodscapes with the ayoreo community of jesudi in the paraguayan chaco through stories and experiences of food procurement and distribution. from landscapes in which food was free for all (non-monetized) to contemporary encroachments and land-grabbing in the chaco for globallyconnected markets, the transformations have been rapid and witnessed by ayoreo and other dispossessed indigenous groups. received june 19, 2016 open access accepted december 4, 2016 doi 10.14237/ebl.7.2.2016.731 keywords ayoreo, paraguayan chaco, wild foods, landscape ethnobiology copyright © 2016 by the author(s); licensee society of ethnobiology. this is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution-noncommercial 4.0 international public license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0), which permits non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. wyndham. 2016. ethnobiology letters 7(2):14–22 15 perspectives special issue on memoirs and memory families of jesudi, after struggling to obtain legal land title from the paraguayan government, were determined to make it work, and by and large they have. in this essay i begin to explore the implications of understanding the work we do as ethnoecologists as a meeting ground, in the sense of ermine’s ethical space (2007:195), in which we can learn to see one another’s knowledge systems as well as the spaces— or thought-distances—between them. especially in ethnobiology, an eye-level meeting of the minds is necessary to learn specifics, understand systems of knowledge, and relate to our interlocutors as teachers and hosts. the process is intensely relational, a dipping into experiences that are invited, moderated, and guided by the people we learn from. at the same time we need to learn the forms and spaces of the socio-political and worldview differences between us and those with whom we study, and between them and their wider local context. in the day-to-day, food is often the medium for communicating both the facts and the intentions of underlying relations, visible and invisible. stories about food intersect with memories of the past strongly for ayoreo people, often evoking a narration or a story that illustrates their notion of place in the landscape, their historicizing of personal experiences of the colonial encounter, or their own identity and social relations (besirre 2014; blaser 2010; glauser 2011:33). over and over again in world ethnographies by outsider researchers, we read of the generosity of inclusion on the part of local communities and outsiders’ attempts to learn from it. for me, being included in the roasted anteater meat distribution in jesudi was a deeply appreciated invitation to relationship, and it awakened in me acute awareness of a dormant social faculty, that invisible web of reciprocity called the gift by writers since mauss (1990 [1950]). the day before i arrived in jesudi, i spent a couple of hours at the mennonite cooperative supermarket in the town of filadelfia, which, an hour and a half by car from jesudi, was the nearest large store. i bought enough food to last weeks, i hoped. i knew from my reading that ayoreo people especially prized honey, so i purchased a two liter jar of it, chuckling a bit at my extravagance, because such a quantity would last me years at home. the supermarket was delightfully cool and nicely organized, with long straight aisles of packaged foods and butcher, bread, and cheese sections with european delicacies. i paid for my provisions and then asked permission from the supervisor to borrow the shopping cart momentarily to wheel the groceries across the street to my hotel. “no.” “sorry, maybe you misunderstood. it is just for five minutes, just directly across the street there.” “no.” “i’ll bring it back right away...” “no.” chagrined and annoyed, i left most of my bags on the cement patio in front of the store while i sweated three trips back and forth across the street. the market supervisor stood in the doorway and watched to make sure i didn’t try to sneak the cart when he wasn’t looking.2 honey that first evening in jesudi, my hosts graciously showed me the lean-to they were providing for my shelter. my hammock fit nicely between the poles that supported the raw-hewn plank walls, and a blackboard that had seen better days served as a low door to block small animals from entry. my hosts ei and ijaoi, the leaders of jesudi, loaned me a footlocker chest in which to store my things. as i unloaded my backpack, all their extended family crowded into the tiny space to watch, comfortably squatting or sitting on the dirt floor with me. i put my few items of clothes, plant press paraphernalia, and notebooks into the chest, along with some snacks—chocolate bars, granola, beef jerky, dried fruit and lemonade powder—that i hoped would keep me from getting too hungry in the weeks to follow. i felt self-conscious about sequestering food so i attempted to hide these edibles under other things as i transferred them; i’m sure my hostess ei and the others noticed every last item nonetheless. i handed all the bulk foods over to ei, as head of household, as a contribution to the family meals: cans of corned beef, large bags of egg noodle pasta, beans, oatmeal, carrots, onions, stew meat, five kilos of yerba mate, sugar, flour, and cooking oil. and the two-liter jar of supermarket honey. at the sight of the honey, an excited buzz started up among the children, and one was sent to fetch a big mixing bowl and a pitcher of water. i watched, intrigued, as ei poured half of the honey into the bowl, mixed in a generous amount of water, and passed it back to me. i wasn’t sure exactly what to do but took a sip from the honey-water drink—it was delicious—and passed the wyndham. 2016. ethnobiology letters 7(2):14–22 16 perspectives special issue on memoirs and memory bowl to one of the children, who drank deeply. it went around the assembled group, each adult and child drinking until the sweet liquor was gone. then ei repeated the procedure with the remaining honey, emptying the two-liter jar completely, to the contented sounds of licked lips and sweetened sighs, and everyone went off to bed. that, on my first night in jesudi, was my second lesson in food protocols among people who grew up hunting, gathering, fishing, and gardening in the forests and palm savannahs of north-east paraguay. if the first lesson, that of the anteater, was that all hunted meat will be carefully curated and shared out along prescribed relational rules, this second lesson was that if a boon resource is found, gather your people and consume it all, right then and there. carry it away in the belly and the bloodstream rather than mess around with trying to transfer the sticky, runny stuff into containers and trying to store it in the relentless, fermenting heat of the chaco. i had, of course, read about the first lesson especially, in ethnographies about other hunting societies, so the structure of the gifting was familiar when i saw it, a thrill of recognition running through me. but the feel of it as a social being was altogether new and unexpected. to feel the electric moment as a new social tie came into being, a strip of roasted meat passed from josé ikebi’s hand to mine, an inauguration of reciprocities to come, and of being overtly included in a clear social web, was felt in the flesh more than understood by the mind. the second lesson, the honey lesson, was more thoroughly illustrated to me a few weeks later, when luis ijaoi, the leader of jesudi and the father of the extended group that was my host family, came home one day and reported that he had found a hollow tree full of bees. again, the children buzzed with excitement, i was invited, and, gathering up all available receptacles—plastic soda bottles, buckets, and enameled bowls—we set off with him at a walk-jog to collect honey. along the way through dense thicketed forest, he pointed out a dochiya’c tree (no linnaean identification), leaning at a slight angle, that had been incised across its bark and living tissue at head height, in such as way so as to drip sap-water drawn up from its roots. ijaoi explained that his people liked to create these water sources throughout their territories as a reserve in case of need, and if they were in use, they would place a container underneath to catch and store the filtered water that dripped from the tree after a rain. the container was usually a barrel made from the naturally-hollow trunk of a young cucoi (chorisia insignis), placed on logs so as not to decay in contact with the earth. a short ways on, we found the beehive. i approached cautiously, thinking of the vituperative ire of a disturbed hive. but the children ran right up to the tree in question, poked their fingers into its hollows, and pulled bark away where they could. all i had known until that point was that we were after honey, though i’m sure ei and the others tried to explain to me that it was an ajidábia nest (a small, native, edible stingless species of black melipone bee [melipona sp.]), my ayoreode vocabulary did not yet include any of the numerous species of chacoan honeybees. ijaoi told his daughter and sons to stand back, and swiftly opened up the tree trunk with his axe. layer upon layer of dark combs were exposed to sunlight, and dark liquid dripped amongst a cloud of tiny bees that had suddenly materialized. the children crowded in immediately, sitting back on their heels comfortably, as close as possible to the trunk, and proceeded to delicately pick out combs and put them into their mouths in rapid succession, as if intent on getting as much as possible as quickly as possible. ijaoi and ei looked on indulgently and collected handfuls for themselves, for me, and for the others in attendance. i followed the children’s example and bit into the honeycomb’s dark gold wax tunnels, larvae and all— the larvae were a delicacy—and was transported by an aromatic, flesh-tingling ultrasweet sensation. it was a new taste to me, having only eaten the various products of the reina, or european honeybee. this wild melipone honey was more delicate, nuanced, runny, and i imagined that it also tasted of the aromatic wood of its hive. since then, i’ve heard ayoreo people disparage the use of metal wires or frames in beekeeping, saying that it ruins the flavor of the honey. for quite a while, no one said anything. we just squatted there under the trees, gently waving away the mildly buzzing bees whose lifework we had just destroyed, eating, sucking, savoring, swallowing honey and bees, and spitting out tooth-marked balls of wax. i felt the sweet excess coursing through my arteries and capillaries, almost painful as it made its way to the surfaces of my skin. perhaps we became a bit torpid, the excitement of the find transmuted into an altered state of sugary satiation, the gaze of the honey eater steady and even, everything slowed down around us, no thoughts to turn into words, just the obvious and shared pleasure in the abundance of deliciousness. wyndham. 2016. ethnobiology letters 7(2):14–22 17 perspectives special issue on memoirs and memory once we had regained a bit of focus, we filled the vessels we’d brought with the rest of the honeycomb, and carried them on the long return walk to jesudi. it was clear to me that the efficiency of taking people to the spot to eat their fill then and there made good sense in this world. hunger one of the recurrent topics of conversation in jesudi, both in 1998 and in later visits, revolved around the lives and livelihoods of relatives—totobiegosoode family groups, mostly—who still live in voluntary isolation en el monte (in the forest). while i was there in 1998, several incidents of controversial contact between ranch workers and silvícola (forest-dwelling) ayoreo people occurred (see besirre 2005, 2014). young and old jesudi residents were intensely intrigued and concerned with the plight of their relatives who were (and many still are) on the run: some advocated ‘bringing them out,’ others supported legal protection of their traditional territories so they could stay there indefinitely. with an empathetic genius for imagining what their lives might be like, which, for many, was also a remembering of similar personal experience when they were younger, people often commented on how hungry they must be, and what it must be like for the totobiegosoode en el monte as they seek and prepare wild foods nowadays. one example in particular illustrates a sensorial awareness of the dimensions of interaction implicated by food practices that were veiled to me, having never experienced prolonged hiding from enemies. in 1998, knowing of my interest in wild foods, ei graciously agreed to teach me how to collect and prepare doídie, a common spiny ground cover bromeliad (bromelia balansae). it is time-consuming compared to the yield, so for the most part families no longer prepare this food in jesudi, but report that it was a common food in the past. with machete-tipped ironwood digging sticks we cut, tied, and carried the wiry rosettes to a clearing, where we piled them several feet high over kindling and set them on fire. ei was much more efficient at this work than i. an intense white smoke soon issued from the roasting pile, and the plants crackled and popped loudly as the leaves burned off (figure 1). we sat nearby, waiting for the fire to die down so we could rake the roasted petiole bases out of the coals. ei watched and listened, and soberly commented that though this was a predominant food source for people living in the forest, the totobiegosoode would not feel safe cooking it any longer, because as a food doídie was too noisy. the sharp popping and crackling, and the white smoke could give their location away to outsiders, whom would all be perceived as dangerous, mortal enemies. each morning, the two daily eggs from the (notvery-productive) family hens were cracked into a pot of canola oil boiling over a wood fire. the whites frothed up into a feathery nest around quickly hardening yolks, and each was scooped out with a spoon and deposited on a plastic dish and cut into small pieces for the children to eat. i watched, interested because i had never seen a deep-fried egg before, but also recognizing in myself a hunger i hadn’t often experienced. of course i had been plain old peckish many times, but this was a deeper, sharper, more specific hunger, likely for protein, which, while in jesudi, had been lacking from my diet for several weeks. i watched the three kids eat the two eggs, sharing them equally, and i was immensely glad that they were getting this protein, at the same time that i averted my eyes, trying to mask my interest so as not to make them uncomfortable. i also craved greens, fruits, and vegetables during the weeks i was in jesudi. we gathered wild foods but usually only enough to taste, not eat our fill. we had lots of delicious squash, which was stored on the vine in the fields it had grown in, protected from the frost under piles of dried grass. curiously, however, leafy greens of any kind did not seem to be a part of the ayoreo diet, though chenopodium and other weedy edibles grow prolifically in jesudi. there was a lettuce farm some kilometers down the road that sent its produce to market weekly, and when i could i did my best to waylay the trucks and buy some from the drivers. one of the narratives that adults return to regularly was their worry that there won’t be enough to eat for themselves or the children in jesudi. in 1998 the community was somewhat dependent on getting deliveries of gift food from the red cross, unicef, or other aid and government organizations. by settling in jesudi as an independent community, these families were experimenting with a life in-between the lifestyle most of the adults had grown up in (hunting, gathering, fishing and growing foods in el monte) and the life they led as dependents employed on mennonite farms or in the mission camps, with limited access to forest foods and land to move around on. in jesudi people had more freedom and autonomy to organize their own life projects; “to seek out foods and benefits for their families” (picanerai 2011), but the 5,000 hectares wyndham. 2016. ethnobiology letters 7(2):14–22 18 perspectives special issue on memoirs and memory of jesudi lands wasn’t necessarily enough land, or the right ecotype, to reproduce their former livelihoods en el monte. the more i paid attention to what the children were doing moment-to-moment as they went through their days i noticed that they took every opportunity to eat a diverse array of foodstuffs. no matter how minor the resource seemed to me, to them it was fun, a game, a challenge, a shared activity, or just an opportunity to satiate a passing hunger. they picked nectary flower blossoms to share amongst themselves, and made tiny fires on which they cooked tiny stews in tuna-fish cans. when the men cut, stacked and hauled palo santo (bulnesia sarmientoi) logs on a truck to take to town, children would snap slender twigs from nearby bushes and poke these into holes in the exposed cross-sectioned logs, drawing them out carefully and sliding them through their lips to get the droplets of wild honey that solitary bees had deposited in the trunks of these aromatic trees (figure 2). the logs were destined to be sold in filadelfia, which at that time still ran its electricity plant by burning endemic chacoan ironwood trees. when someone went to town to sell the logs, they’d bring back treats for the kids in the form of a ziplock bag of hellman’s mayonnaise and a brown sugarloaf, and they would sip and nibble in turn on one, then the other, until they were gone. free for all: mattresses and lollipops all around one day in jesudi, as we women were relaxing in the shade on our sitting cloths, twining bromeliad string with white ash on our thighs, those around me suddenly lifted their heads to listen. i could hear nothing new. “camión cruz roja!” one woman cried and everyone immediately set aside their things and started running towards the driveway entrance to jesudi, some 600 yards away. they kept shouting to the others as they ran, and people appeared out of their houses and joined in the sprint. i followed, and figure 1 ei posinho burning a pile of doídie bromeliads, 1998, by the author. wyndham. 2016. ethnobiology letters 7(2):14–22 19 perspectives special issue on memoirs and memory by the time i got there, a crowd had gathered, and i could just make out the growl of a truck’s engine coming towards us on the red dirt road. it slowed, and turned onto the jesudi entrance track. as soon as it stopped, people surrounded it. the men in the cab got out, greeted the jesudi leaders, and then climbed into the bed of the truck and started to throw out a flurry of plastic-wrapped mattresses, blankets, gunnysacks of pasta, and jugs of peanut oil, each item grabbed by the first person in the crowd to touch it. i was stunned by the rapidity and the chaos of the handout—so different from the carefully considered distribution of the meat from a single anteater amongst the group a couple weeks earlier. as far as i could tell, it was a free-for-all, and those who grabbed an item first got to keep it for their family. as soon as their truck bed was empty, the red cross workers jumped back into the cab, made a tight u-turn, and drove off, heading to the next community. a few days later, another truck arrived, also identified by the unique sound of its engine by those around me long before i could hear it. this one brought a health ngo team, who interviewed the residents of jesudi, and distributed some food, including an enormous bag of lollipops for the children, which they gave to one of the moms to hand out. clearly used to this process, the children, about 23 of them, immediately formed a queue, from youngest to oldest, and each was handed one lollipop. upon receiving it, the child went right back to the end of the line, and each got a second candy. after every child had received three lollipops, there were some left over, but not enough for everyone to get a fourth. again with no hesitation, deliberation, or instructions, the five youngest children, mostly threeand four-year -olds, took the remaining lollipops over to a nearby flat tree stump, gently smashed them with a hammer, and then divided the candy powder into five equal piles and proceeded to each consume their pile of sweet dust by pressing and licking their fingers (figure 3). the rules of food and resource distribution figure 2 sampling honey treats from bee-tunnels in palo santo logs on a truck bound for market, 1998, by the author. wyndham. 2016. ethnobiology letters 7(2):14–22 20 perspectives special issue on memoirs and memory became a bit clearer to me when, much later, i was working on a forthcoming book based on ei posinho’s life story, and she explained in detail the moral code that dictates that the smallest children should always be fed first, with special foods ‘reserved’ for them so they can eat even in times when the rest of the family goes hungry. she also related her sister puúa’s account from the time in el monte (meaning before their transition to living among paraguayans), which shed some light on the claiming of resources in a world that is otherwise free for all. puúa and several other women had been on a foodgathering trip when in the near distance they spied a grove of prized edauóde palm trees—a species that yields abundant edible flour from its trunk (probably syagrus romanzoffiana). puúa recognized an especially mature tree, sure to provide a great deal of food, by its dark horizontal stripes and sprinted towards it to claim it for herself and her family. but another woman sprinted toward it at the same time, and though puúa thought that she had definitely touched and claimed it first, the other woman argued loudly, saying that it should be hers, fighting until she got her way. for years this memory had rankled with puúa’s sense of fair play and she used it as a teaching anecdote to instruct her sister ei in proper food rules. for certain items, such as palm trees and red cross blankets, the first person to touch it gets to keep it. lollipops and giant anteater meat, on the other hand, should be carefully apportioned according to social ties and standing in one’s immediate group. the difference likely has to do with whether or not the item is ‘windfall,’ that is, still in a wild state of noclaim, in which case it is up for grabs… and then, once a claiming has occurred, the social sharing rules kick in so that the item is distributed and credit, prestige, and reciprocal obligation circulate. a frequent comment jesudi residents made about the transition from forest life to mission life was how surprised they were to discover that outside of el monte all foods, especially plant foods, were not free. not only was the landscape itself carved up into owned pieces, but all the foods growing upon it also had owners. for ayoreo individuals who first came in contact with cojñone in the 60s, 70s, and 80s, and still today, food transactions are the most ubiquitous quotidian economic interface with non-ayoreo peoples, and are thus also inherently linked to political and ideological difference. gifts of food were, and still are, used by missionaries to attract people to attend church services. people still talk about the moment when they realized, after accommodating to mission camp life and the horrors of their transition from forest to settlement, that the foodstuffs they had been given by the cojñone were not always gifts, but came with obligations of physical labor and other services, including sex services. though most of the food of the cojñone was unpalatable3 to the recently arrived, they soon discovered that a key aspect of their loss of autonomy related to their inability to harvest foods for their own families, on their own terms. gifts of food were, and still are, used by anthropologists to initiate and continue relationships of teaching and learning with local communities. i brought foodstuffs with me as gifts in 1998, and i still take lots of extra food with me when i visit jesudi, as a contribution to the material sustenance of the families who host me, and as a way to reciprocate for their time and any inconvenience of my presence, aside from any research-related compensations. as i have investigated the personal histories of coercion, obligation, and exploitation experienced by ayoreo groups of the last hundred years, however, my awareness of the imbalances involved has become ever more acute. though it is a complex history, the basic relations are simple: their means of production have been coopted by ours. their homelands have been grabbed by the state, by settlers, and by multinational corporations, bulldozed, planted in buffel figure 3 jesudi children in charge of equitably dividing up an odd-number of lollipops amongst themselves, 1998, by the author. wyndham. 2016. ethnobiology letters 7(2):14–22 21 perspectives special issue on memoirs and memory grass pasture, and populated with beef grow-lots. the foods of the chaco are now exported to supermarkets around the world in the form of dairy and beef products. these are the macro-structural relations of food in this place. the micro-structural relations of daily interaction for the ayoreo continue in the sections of landscape that have not been coopted by outsiders: children learning to automatically share sweets amongst themselves, the now rare game-meats lauded and carefully distributed, the jockeying for gifts/grants from outside projects, and selling one’s labor to the cattle ranchers. conclusion the chaco as a productive foodscape is in the process of transforming. transforming from a place where resources were diverse, and literally free for all who lived there, into a place that has been more of a free-for-all of non-indigenous settler resource appropriation via ideology, law, and firepower. there is quite a bit of space, in ermine’s sense, between the worldviews of the indigenous peoples and those of the settlers. people from each community feel that their way of relating to the landscape is correct and natural. by being there in person, forging individual relationships with ayoreo community members, learning from their stories and, perhaps most of all, experiencing the electricity of inclusion in the form and reason of food sharing, one begins to learn to see the spaces between those worldviews, and the spaces between the material worlds we create by our actions. notes 1“we always eat together when she gets food.” this recommendation from a young ayoreo girl was one of several messages tape-recorded about me by jesudi community members upon my departure from the chaco in 1998, meant as a report or assessment for my supervisors and parents. i later learned more explicitly that whether or not a person shares food with children is a key test of character in ayoreo ethics. 2of course, this may have been my paranoid interpretation. he may have been watching my groceries to make sure no one took them while i made the trips back and forth across the street. since this unfriendly first encounter, i have met many other filadelfians and members of the mennonite communities elsewhere who were extremely helpful, welcoming, and generous. 3many reports from this time concur that rice, sugar, bread, wheat, and other foods of the cojñone were perceived as smelling and tasting horrible to the ayoreo, especially to the elders. it is not uncommon to hear of elders who starved to death rather than eat the new foods (which were also associated with extreme cultural and social trauma), and of the efforts by their family members to find wild and traditional foods for them. sweet potatoes, watermelon, and squash were foods common to both the ayoreo and cojñone communities but only seasonally available. acknowledgements this work was made possible by ei posinho, ijaoi dosapei and their family, all the residents of jesudi, and justina taobi juuminé’s translations. thanks also to ted gragson, who made me aware of jesudi in 1998; antonia barreau-daly, who assisted with research in 2011, the many people in paraguay who generously gave of their time along the way, two anonymous reviewers and editors mac marston and rick stepp. declarations permissions: institutional review board and behavioral research ethics board permits for research were obtained from the university of georgia (1998) and the university of british columbia (2011-12), respectively. permissions were granted by ayoreo community members after informed consent conversations took place during each research visit. sources of funding: national science foundation ethnographic research training grant (1998), and social science and humanities research canada standard research grant (2011-2012). conflicts of interest: none declared. references cited bessire, l. 2005. isolated ayoreo: will history repeat itself in the gran chaco? before farming 2:1–4. doi:10.3828/bfarm.2005.2.1. bessire, l. 2014. behold the black caiman: a chronicle of ayoreo life. the university of chicago press, chicago, il. blaser, m. 2010. storytelling globalization from the chaco and beyond. duke university press, durham, nc. ermine, w. 2007. the ethical space of engagement. indigenous law journal 6:193–203. glauser, b. 2011. being indigenous: the concept of indigeneity, a conversation with two ayoreo leaders. in the politics of indigeneity: dialogues and wyndham. 2016. ethnobiology letters 7(2):14–22 22 perspectives special issue on memoirs and memory reflections on indigenous activism, edited by s. venkateswar and e. hughes, pp. 21–44. zed books, london. mauss, m. 1990 (1950). the gift: the form and reason for exchange in archaic societies. routledge, london. picanerai, a. 2011. online audio interview on the work of the unión de nativos ayoreos de paraguay. available at: www.iniciativaamotocodie.org/unap/ files/entrevista_aquino-picanerai.mp3. accessed on 3/20/2011. the paleobiolinguistics of maize (zea mays l.)   research communica on  ethnobiology le ers. 2014. 5: 130. doi: 10.14237/ebl.5.2014.130. 52 (respectively, brown et al. 2013b and brown et al. 2013c).2 being the most important cereal crop domesticated in the new world, substantial multidisciplinary attention has been directed to maize’s origin, domestication, and dispersal, much of which is covered in a comprehensive anthology by staller et al. (2006). among papers included in staller et al.’s book is brown (2006a), an early application of the pbl approach that was neither computer-assisted nor provided proto-language homeland cartography. since the appearance of the latter, software-based methods for dating and locating proto-languages have been developed and are employed here, rendering the present study the most up-to-date and definitive pbl treatment possible. the present study also advances the earlier investigation (brown 2006a) by expanding the number of proto-languages treated, especially augmenting the pool of proto-languages from south america. all five species of zea are native to mexico and central america (buckler and stevens 2006). zea mays contains the domesticated populations of maize (zea mays ssp. mays), its wild ancestor (ssp. parviglumis), and two other subspecies that hybridize with other populations but do not contribute significantly to the paleobiolinguistics (pbl) employs the comparative method of historical linguistics to reconstruct the biodiversity known to human groups of the unrecorded past (brown et al. 2013a).1 comparison of words for biological taxa from languages of the same language family facilitates reconstruction of the biological vocabulary of the family’s ancient protolanguage. this study uses pbl to establish when and where maize (zea mays l.) developed significance for different prehistoric groups of native america. this entails mapping in both time and geographic space proto-languages for which words for maize reconstruct. this information is provided to supplement croporigin studies of maize from genetics and archaeology. our paper’s primary purpose is to supply pbl data for use by scholars directly and intimately focused on maize origin and dispersal. we do not attempt to flesh out nuanced implications of pbl results, but instead offer only the most general interpretation of our findings for understanding developments in the prehistory of maize, leaving consideration of details suggested by pbl to experts dedicated to the taxon. our limited interpretive approach continues a practice followed in presentation of pbl data relating to chili pepper and manioc published in preceding ethnobiology letters papers the paleobiolinguis cs of maize (zea mays l.) cecil h. brown1*, charles r. clement2, pa ence epps3, eike luedeling4, and søren wichmann5   author address: 1northern illinois university, dekalb, il 60115, usa, 2ins tuto nacional de pesquisas da amazônia, manaus,  am, brazil, 3university of texas at aus n, aus n, tx, usa, 4world agroforestry centre (icraf), nairobi, kenya, 5max planck  ins tute for evolu onary anthropology, leipzig, germany, and kazan federal university, kazan, russia   * corresponding author: brown.cecil@yahoo.com   received: june 26, 2013  volume: 5:52‐64  published: may 21, 2014  ©2014 society of ethnobiology  abstract: paleobiolinguis cs is used to determine when and where maize (zea mays l.) developed significance for different prehistoric groups of na ve america. dates and loca ons of proto‐languages for which maize terms reconstruct generally accord with crop‐origin and dispersal informa on from plant gene cs and archaeobotany. paleobiolinguis c and other lines of evidence indicate that human interest in maize was extensive millennia before the widespread development of a village‐ farming way of life in the new world. keywords: archaeobotany,  crop  origins,  historical  linguis cs, na ve  americans,  paleobiolinguis cs,  plant  domes ca on,  plant gene cs     research communica on  ethnobiology le ers. 2014. 5: 130. doi: 10.14237/ebl.5.2014.130. 53 years before present proto‐language proto‐word for maize (nr = not reconstructable) homeland center geographic coordinates family affilia on proto‐word source 6178  siouan‐catawba  nr  43.83  ‐101.83  siouan‐catawba    5944  iroquoian  nr  42.75  ‐76.17  iroquoian    5554  algic  nr  42.67  ‐73.5  algic    4828  caddoan  nr  33.33  ‐97.33  caddoan    4018  uto‐aztecan  *suŋu  27.5  ‐110.25  uto‐aztecan  1  3827  salishan  nr  49.25  ‐122.5  salishan    3663  u an  nr  38.33  ‐123  u an    3472  southern uto‐aztecan  *sunu  27.5  ‐110.25  uto‐aztecan  1  3434  kiowa‐tanoan  *ɂia, *p’ǝa  37  ‐99  kiowa‐tanoan  2, 3  3343  algonquian  nr  42.67  ‐73.5  algic    3176  n iroquoian  nr  42.75  ‐76.17  iroquoian    3169  siouan  nr  43.83  ‐101.83  siouan‐catawba    3035  n caddoan  nr  33.33  ‐97.33  caddoan    2980  interior salish  nr  48  ‐117  salishan    2725  sahap an  nr  46  ‐116  sahap an    2678  central algonquin  nr  43  ‐83  algic    2576  northern uto‐aztecan  *kuma  39  ‐109  uto‐aztecan  3  2500  yukian  nr  38.5  ‐122.5  yukian    2459  central salish  nr  49.25  ‐122.5  salishan    2400  sonoran  *sunu  27.5  ‐110.25  uto‐aztecan  1  2062  athabaskan  nr  53.75  ‐123.5  athabaskan    1926  southeastern siouan  nr  36.03  ‐89.39  siouan‐catawba    1865  yuman  *tayač  32.67  ‐116.17  yuman  authors  1864  n interior salish  nr  50.75  ‐122  salishan    1850  missouri river siouan  nr  47  ‐108  siouan‐catawba    1839  ofo‐biloxi  nr  30.5  ‐88.67  siouan‐catawba    1827  taracahitan  *sunu  27.75  ‐108.67  uto‐aztecan  1  1809  pawnee  nr  41  ‐98.67  caddoan    1798  mississippi valley siouan  nr  43.83  ‐101.83  siouan‐catawba    1737  numic  *kum‐  39  ‐109  uto‐aztecan  3  1724  s interior salish  nr  48  ‐117  salishan    1720  muskogean  nr  34  ‐85  muskogean    1673  five na ons  nr  42.75  ‐76.17  iroquoian    1587  cupan  nr  33.17  ‐116.5  uto‐aztecan    1573  southern numic  *kum‐  39  ‐109  uto‐aztecan  3  1526  fox‐kickapoo‐sauk  nr  43  ‐83  algic    1378  mohawk‐oneida  nr  43  ‐75.67  iroquoian    1295  ojibwa  *mandaamin  47  ‐89  algic  authors  1245  delta‐californian yuman  nr  32.67  ‐116.7  yuman    1241  e miwokan  nr  38  ‐121  u an    1213  tarahumaran  *sunu  27.75  ‐108.67  uto‐aztecan  1  1188  eastern muskogean  nr  34  ‐85  muskogean    1173  seneca‐onondaga  nr  42.75  ‐76.75  iroquoian    1148  central numic  *kum‐  37  ‐117  uto‐aztecan  3  1005  dhegihan  *wathᾴse, *hápa  36.17  ‐94.42  siouan‐catawba  4  899  tepiman  *hunu  29  ‐111  uto‐aztecan  1  table 1. maize‐term reconstruc on for proto‐languages of north america and northern mexico.  (con nued on next page)    research communica on  ethnobiology le ers. 2014. 5: 130. doi: 10.14237/ebl.5.2014.130. 54 years before present proto‐language proto‐word for maize (nr = not reconstructable) homeland center geographic coordinates family affilia on proto‐word source 820  upland yuman  *tayač  34  ‐113.33  yuman  authors  737  dakota  *wahú‐apa  43.83  ‐101.83  siouan‐catawba  4  718  apachean  *naadaa  36.58  ‐104  athabaskan  authors  534  river yuman  *tadič  32.83  ‐114.33  yuman  authors  436  alabama‐koasa   *čassi  32.33  ‐87.41  muskogean  authors  384  tewa  *khú‐  35.83  ‐110.42  kiowa‐tanoan  authors  345  w muskogean  *tančiɂ  34  ‐88  muskogean  authors  (con nued from previous page)  proto‐word source:  1. stubbs 2011  2. davis 1989  3. hill 2008  4. carter et al. in prepara on  figure 1. maize‐term reconstruc on informa on from table 1 plo ed on map of north america.    research communica on  ethnobiology le ers. 2014. 5: 130. doi: 10.14237/ebl.5.2014.130. 55 years before present proto‐language proto‐word for maize (nr = not reconstructable) homeland center geographic coordinates family affilia on proto‐ word source 6591  otomanguean  *kwau, *s(a7)ai(n), *nu  18  ‐96.92  otomanguean  1  5498  popolocan‐ zapotecan  *nu‐  17.17  ‐96.17  otomanguean  authors  5357  amuzgo‐mixtecan  *nu‐  16.92  ‐97.58  otomanguean  authors  4542  mixtecan  *ndi‐ɵe(m)34  16.92  ‐97.58  otomanguean  2  4274  totozoquen  *kyuši ~ *kyi’s  19.92  ‐97.42  totozoquean  3  3654  otopamean  *thǫa, *‐sa  20.08  ‐100.08  otomanguean  4  3149  zapotecan  *š‐okwaɂ  17.17  ‐96.17  otomanguean  5  3140  mixtec‐cuicatec  *ndu  16.92  ‐97.58  otomanguean  6  3036  popolocan  *na‐, ñu‐hme  18  ‐96.92  otomanguean  2  2445  chiapanec‐mangue  *nuu‐  17.07  ‐92.73  otomanguean  2  2220  mayan  *ii’m  15.42  ‐91.83  mayan  7  2214  otomian  *thᶏ  20.08  ‐100.08  otomanguean  8  2209  chocho‐popolocan  *nu‐  17.67  ‐97.42  otomanguean  authors  1935  chinantecan  *kwɨ:l  17.92  ‐96.5  otomanguean  9  1783  popoloca  *nuwa  18  ‐96.92  otomanguean  authors  1676  zapotec  *š‐okwaɂ  17.17  ‐96.17  otomanguean  5  1649  quichean‐mamean  *‐ii’m  15.42  ‐91.83  mayan  7  1596  mixe‐zoquean  *mo:k  17.22  ‐96.03  totozoquean  10  1520  general aztec  *sɨn‐  18.35  ‐99.83  uto‐aztecan  11  1492  greater mamean  *‐i’m  15.42  ‐91.83  mayan  7  1437  mixtec  *noniɂ  16.92  ‐97.58  otomanguean  12  1435  totonacan  *kúši’  19.92  ‐97.42  totozoquean  7  1432  cholan‐tzeltalan  *‐ii’m  16.83  ‐92.83  mayan  7  1225  kanjobalan‐chujean  *‐ii’m  15.83  ‐91.83  mayan  7  1198  corachol  *iku  22.17  ‐104.83  uto‐aztecan  13  1148  cholan  *‐ii’m  14.81  ‐89.38  mayan  7  1058  chujean  *‐i’im  15.92  ‐91.58  mayan  7  997  cha no  *n‐sukwàɂ  16.25  ‐97.38  otomanguean  5  981  greater quichean  *‐iim  14.78  ‐91.5  mayan  7  948  sub aba‐tlapanecan  *iši  17.08  ‐99  otomanguean  authors  900  mixe  *mo:hk  17.02  ‐96.07  totozoquean  10  802  kanjobalan  *‐i’m  15.83  ‐91.83  mayan  7  790  yucatecan  *‐i’m  20  ‐89  mayan  7  787  zoque  *mok  16.9  ‐94.68  totozoquean  10  741  otomi  *thᶏ  20.08  ‐100.08  otomanguean  14  511  tzeltalan  *‐im  16.83  ‐92.83  mayan  7  table 2. maize‐term reconstruc on for proto‐languages of mesoamerica (southern mexico and northern central america).  proto‐word source:  1. kaufman 1990  2. rensch 1976  3. brown et al. 2011  4. bartholomew 1965  5. campbell 2013  6. longacre 1957  7. brown and wichmann 2004  8. newman and weitlaner 1950b  9. rensch 1989  10. wichmann 1995  11. campbell and langacker 1978  12. josserand 1983  13. stubbs 2011  14. newman and weitlaner 1950a    research communica on  ethnobiology le ers. 2014. 5: 130. doi: 10.14237/ebl.5.2014.130. 56 domesticated genome (but see heerwaarden et al. 2011 for the importance of ssp. mexicana). initial domestication of subspecies mays occurred in the balsas river valley of southern mexico from local populations of ssp. parviglumis (benz 2006; buckler and stevens 2006) as early as 9000 bp (matsuoka et al. 2002; heerwaarden et al. 2011). the earliest microbotanical evidence dates the crop to 8700 bp in the balsas river valley (piperno et al. 2009) and the earliest macrobotanical evidence to 6200 bp at guilá naquitz cave, mexico (piperno and flannery 2001). from the balsas river valley, maize spread both north and south, reaching the u.s. southwest by 3200 bp, the eastern u.s. by 2300 bp (hart et al. 2007), the inter-andean valleys of colombia by 7500 bp, northern coastal peru by 6500 bp (grobman et al. 2012), and lowland amazonian ecuador by 6000 bp (piperno 2011). molecular genetic analyses confirm the dispersal from southern mexico into the southwestern u.s. and then into the northern u.s.3 the southward dispersal led to a split into two major genetic groups, an andean and a lowland south american group (matsuoka et al. 2002; vigouroux et al. 2008; heerwaarden et al. 2011). much of maize’s dispersal occurred well before it developed as a staple crop between 3000 and 2000 bp (blake 2006; piperno 2011), suggesting that it was only a minor crop, perhaps having uses other than general consumption. iltis (2000) hypothesizes that sugar in the plant’s stem was initially more important than its kernel, an idea elaborated by smalley and blake (2003) with the proposal that maize was first used to produce an alcoholic beverage. detection of abundant kernel starch grains at the site of early domestication, and lack of stalk phytoliths (piperno et al. 2009) weaken support for this proposal. sugar is the basis for fermentation, and can be produced from kernel starch as well as from the stem. consequently, kernel starch might have been selected for fermentation relating to gifting and feasting events (bonzani and oyuelafigure 2. maize‐term reconstruc on informa on from table 2 plo ed on map of mesoamerica. the yellow star locates the  balsas river valley and the white star locates guilá naquitz cave.    research communica on  ethnobiology le ers. 2014. 5: 130. doi: 10.14237/ebl.5.2014.130. 57 table 3. maize‐term reconstruc on for proto‐languages of southern central america and south america.  years before present proto‐language proto‐word for maize (nr = not reconstructable) homeland center geographic coordinates family affilia on proto‐word source 7266  macro‐ge  nr  ‐11.3  ‐53  macro‐ge    4701  mataco‐guaykuru  nr  ‐22.5  ‐62.58  mataco‐guaykuru    4461  southern arawakan  *šinki  ‐10.33  ‐74.33  arawakan  authors  4400  chibchan  *eba  9.75  ‐83.42  chibchan  1  4134  arawakan  *marikɨ  1  ‐69.17  arawakan  2  4085  n arawakan  *mariki  1  ‐69.17  arawakan  authors  3943  panoan‐tacanan  *žikɨ, *žɨki  ‐7.5  ‐75  panoan‐tacanan  3  3585  tupi  nr  ‐8  ‐62  tupi    3518  caribbean n arawakan  *mariki  12  ‐72  arawakan  authors  3310  salivan  *nyamo  5  ‐67  salivan  authors  3241  barbacoan  *pijo  0.67  ‐79  barbacoan  4  3196  wapishanan  *mariki  1  ‐59  arawakan  authors  3178  zaparoan  *sauku  ‐3.25  ‐74  zaparoan  5  3124  nadahup  nr  0  ‐69  nadahup    3023  ge  nr  ‐15  ‐52.5  macro‐ge    2927  witoto‐ocaina  nr  ‐2.75  ‐71.75  witoto‐ocaina‐nonuya    2909  guaykuruan  nr  ‐26.5  ‐59  mataco‐guaykuru    2807  nambiquaran  *ka3yat3  ‐13  ‐59  nambiquaran  6  2774  misumalpan  *aja  13  ‐84.5  misumalpan  1  2765  zamucoan  nr  ‐20.25  ‐59.25  zamucoan    2731  talamancan  *ipo ~ *ikwo  9.75  ‐83.42  chibchan  authors  2699  tucanoan  *we'a  0.33  ‐70.25  tucanoan  7  2593  inland n arawakan  *(ma)kaanhai  1  ‐69.17  arawakan  8  2503  venezuelan cariban  *ana‐  6.5  ‐66  cariban  authors  2433  southern guaykuruan  nr  ‐26.5  ‐59  mataco‐guaykuru    2414  north barbacoan  *pija  1.5  ‐78.25  barbacoan  authors  2412  cariban  *‐na‐  10.17  ‐72.75  cariban  9  2404  matacoan  *iphatha  ‐22.5  ‐62.58  mataco‐guaykuru  10  2271  boran  nr  ‐2.17  ‐72.33  boran    2258  chocoan  *pe  6.83  ‐77.17  chocoan  authors  2219  purus  *šiki  ‐12.5  ‐69.33  arawakan  authors  2156  western tucanoan  *we'a  ‐2.83  ‐72.5  tucanoan  authors  1931  chapacuran  *mapak  ‐13.42  ‐63.17  chapacuran  11  1853  panoan  *šɨki, *šiki  ‐7.5  ‐75  panoan‐tacanan  authors  1853  pekodian  *‐nat  ‐14  ‐55  cariban  authors  1850  tupari  *atsitsi  ‐12.5  ‐62.5  tupi  12  1821  southern ge  *gãr  ‐26  ‐52  macro‐ge  13  1764  arauan  *kimi  ‐6  ‐70.5  arauan  14  1717  quechuan  *sara  0.33  ‐78  quechuan  15  1712  monde  *maek  ‐10.97  ‐61.13  tupi  authors  1647  bolivia‐parana  *soporo  ‐15.17  ‐65.42  arawakan  authors  1634  mainline panoan  *šɨki  ‐7.5  ‐75  panoan‐tacanan  16  1607  yabu   *čiči  ‐12.25  ‐62.25  macro‐ge  authors  1590  tacanan  *jike  ‐13.33  ‐66.5  panoan‐tacanan  3  1569  harakmbet  nr  ‐12.5  ‐70.5  harakmbet    1550  tupi‐guarani  *aβa   ‐8  ‐62  tupi  17  (con nued on next page)    research communica on  ethnobiology le ers. 2014. 5: 130. doi: 10.14237/ebl.5.2014.130. 58 caycedo 2006; benz and staller 2006), a possible explanation of maize’s use before becoming a food staple. maize-term reconstructions are presented for proto-languages of three major regions of the new world: (1) north america and northern mexico (table 1); (2) southern mexico and northern central america (henceforth mesoamerica) (table 2); and (3) southern central america and south america (table 3). the tables list major proto-languages of the americas widely regarded by historical linguists as demonstrated. some major proto-languages are not included because lexical information from daughter languages is not sufficiently available for drawing either positive or negative conclusions about maizeterm reconstruction. in addition to identifying protolanguages with maize terms and the terms themselves, the tables report proto-languages for which these terms are “not reconstructable” (nr). nr is a designation used when terms for maize are present in all or most languages of a family, but, nonetheless, are not cognate and, hence, do not attest to a maize term in their shared ancestral language. nr, then, never indicates non-reconstructibility because of missing data.4 dates for proto-languages presented in the tables are intended to be the latest dates at which these languages were spoken (just before breaking up into daughter languages). these are calculated through use of automated similarity judgment program (asjp) chronology, a computational dating approach based on the lexical similarity of languages (holman et al. years before present proto‐language proto‐word for maize (nr = not reconstructable) homeland center geographic coordinates family affilia on proto‐word source 1520  chipaya‐uru  *tura  ‐19  ‐68.4  chipaya‐uru  authors  1519  kampan  *šinki  ‐10.33  ‐74.33  arawakan  authors  1480  mundurucu  *muira  ‐7  ‐55.57  tupi  authors  1418  cayapa‐colorado  *pijo  0.67  ‐79  barbacoan  authors  1402  guianan cariban  *‐na‐  3.25  ‐55.75  cariban  authors  1395  cabecar‐bribri  *ikwo  9.42  ‐83  chibchan  authors  1335  kakua‐nukak  nr  0.88  ‐69.56  kakua‐nukak    1319  yanomam  nr  3.5  ‐62.83  yanomam    1291  guahiban  *hétsa  6.5  ‐71.33  guahiban  18  1241  eastern tucanoan  *we'a  0.33  ‐70.25  tucanoan  authors  1185  kawapanan  *čiʔ ʔ  ‐5.5  ‐77  kawapanan  19  1169  pemongan  *anaik  4  ‐60  cariban  9  992  taranoan  *a:naci  1  ‐73  cariban  20  974  quechua ii  *sara  0.33  ‐78  quechuan  15  875  embera  *pe  5.25  ‐76.66  chocoan  authors  678  jivaroan  *šaa  ‐2.5  ‐78  jivaroan  authors  609  araucanian  *wa‐  ‐38  ‐72  araucanian  authors  419  coconucan  *pura‐  2.5  ‐76.5  barbacoan  authors  414  witoto proper  *beǰa  ‐1  ‐73.5  witoto‐ocaina‐nonuya  authors  389  mayoruna panoan  *šik(š)u  ‐4.42  ‐70.25  panoan‐tacanan  authors  (con nued from previous page)  proto‐word source:  1. constenla 1990  2. payne 1991  3. girard 1971  4. curnow and liddicoat 1998  5. lev michael, per. com.  6. price 1978  7. thiago chacon per. com.  8. ramirez 2001  9. sergio meira per. com.  10. najlis 1984  11. angenot‐de lima 1997  12. moore and galucio 1994  13. jolkesky 2010  14. dixon 2004  15. willem adelaar per.com.  16. shell 2008  17. mello 2010  18. chris an and ma eson 1972  19. pilar valenzuela per. com.  20. meira 2000    research communica on  ethnobiology le ers. 2014. 5: 130. doi: 10.14237/ebl.5.2014.130. 59 2011).5 possible geographic coordinates for protolanguage homeland centers given in the tables are produced through automation using an algorithm for identifying the maximum lexical diversity within a language family (wichmann et al. 2010). the geographic center of lexical diversity of a family is assumed to correlate with where the family’s protolanguage was spoken. tables also give a linguistic family affiliation for each proto-language. the information reported in tables 1, 2 and 3 is plotted on maps of figures 1, 2, 3 and 4 to give a visual perspective on both the chronological and geographic figure 3. maize‐term reconstruction information from table 3 plotted on map of southern central america and south america.    research communica on  ethnobiology le ers. 2014. 5: 130. doi: 10.14237/ebl.5.2014.130. 60 distributions of reconstructed maize terms. figure 4 is an enlargement of a highly congested area of the map of figure 3. pbl findings reported here are offered as a resource for scholars of maize prehistory interested in pursuing lines of evidence in addition to those provided by genetics and archaeology. while we leave consideration of details suggested by pbl to those with specialized knowledge of the origin and dispersal of maize, we can observe now that pbl chronological and geographic determinations for zea mays l. generally accord with preceding observations relating to the time and place of its domestication, and to subsequent dispersal. for example, the homeland of the oldest ancestral language showing a reconstructed maize term, proto-otomanguean (6591 bp), is in southern mexico, not far from the postulated area of maize’s domestication in the balsas river valley (benz 2006; buckler and stevens 2006; matsuoka et al. 2002; heerwaarden et al. 2011) and the guilá naquitz cave in oaxaca from which the earliest macro-botanical examples of maize (6200 bp) have been retrieved (blake 2006) (see stars on the map of figure 2 locating these two sites). pbl determinations also mirror the archaeologically attested early appearance of the crop in south america (piperno et al. 2011), and its relatively late manifestation in the eastern u.s. (hart and lovis 2013). generally, proto-languages for which maize terms reconstruct are broadly distributed in the americas, reflecting the crop’s substantial dispersal from its origin in southwestern mexico. asjp dates for these proto-languages, like archaeobofigure 4. enlargement of congested region (northwestern south america and adjacent areas) of map of figure 3.    research communica on  ethnobiology le ers. 2014. 5: 130. doi: 10.14237/ebl.5.2014.130. 61 tanical ones, indicate that domestication and dispersal of the crop occurred before the general development of a village-farming way of life in the new world from 4000 to 3000 bp (piperno and pearsall 1998) and before maize became a major food crop after 3000 bp (blake 2006). acknowledgements our gratitude goes to willem adelaar, thiago chacon, bernard comrie, sergio meira, lev michael, and pilar valenzuela for sharing data and insights, and to dolores r. piperno and yves vigouroux for critical suggestions to improve the archaeological and genetic associations. we also thank three anonymous reviewers for their insightful comments. declarations permissions: not applicable. sources of funding: epps’ work on this project was supported by the national science foundation (hsd0902114). conflicts of interest: none declared. references cited angenot de lima, g. 1997. fonotática e fonologia do lexema protochapakura. unpublished master’s thesis, universidade federal de rondônia, guajara-mirim, rondônia. bartholomew, d. a. 1965. the reconstruction of otopamean (mexico). unpublished doctoral dissertation, department of linguistics, the university of chicago, chicago, illinois. benz, b. f. 2006. maize in the americas. in histories of maize: multidisciplinary approaches to the prehistory, biogeography, domestication, and evolutions of maize, edited by j. e. staller, r. h. tykot, and b. f. benz, pp. 9-20. elsevier, san diego, ca. benz, b. f., and j. e. staller. 2006. the antiquity, biogeography, and culture history 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[in] handbook of amazonian languages, [edited by d. derbyshire and g. pullum], 3:355499. piperno, d. r. 2011. the origins of plant cultivation and domestication in the new world tropics: patterns, process, and new developments. in the beginnings of agriculture: new data, new ideas, edited by d. price and o. bar-yosef. current anthropology 52 (s4):s453-470. piperno, d. r., and k. v. flannery. 2001. the earliest archaeological maize (zea mays l.) from highland mexico: new accelerator mass spectrometry dates and their implications. proceedings of the national academy of sciences usa 98(4):21012104. piperno, d. r., and d. m. pearsall. 1998. the origins of agriculture in the lowland neotropics. academic press, san diego, ca. piperno, d. r., a. j. ranere, i. holst, j. iriarte, and r. dickau. 2009. starch grain and phytolith evidence for early ninth millennium b.p. maize from the central balsas river valley, mexico. proceedings of the national academy of sciences usa 106:5019-5024. price, p. d. 1978. the nambiquara linguistic family. anthropological linguistics 20:14-37. ramirez, h. 2001. línguas arawak da amazânia setentrional. editora da universidade do amazonas, manaus, am. rensch, c. r. 1976. comparative otomanguean phonology. indiana university publications, bloomington, in. rensch, c. r. 1989. an etymological dictionary of the chinantec languages. summer institute of linguistics, arlington, tx. shell, o. a. 2008. estudios pano iii: las lenguas pano y su reconstrucción. instituto lingüístico de verano, lima, peru. smalley, j., and m. blake. 2003. sweet beginnings: stalk sugar and the domestication of maize. current anthropology 44:675-703. staller, j. e., r. h. tykot, and b. f. benz, eds. 2006. histories of maize: multidisciplinary approaches to the prehistory, biogeography, domestication, and evolutions of maize. elsevier, san diego, ca. stubbs, b. d. 2011. uto-aztecan: a comparative vocabulary. shumway family history services, flower mound, tx. vigouroux, y., j. c. glaubitz, y. matsuoka, m. m. goodman, j. sánchez g., and j. doebley. 2008. population structure and genetic diversity of new world maize races assessed by dna microsatellites. american journal of botany 95:1240-1253. wichmann, s. 1995. the relationship among the mixezoquean languages of mexico. university of utah press, salt lake city, ut. wichmann, s., a. müller, and v. velupillai. 2010. homelands of the world’s language families: a quantitative approach. diachronica 27:247-276. biosketch cecil h. brown  is  a  linguis c  anthropologist  with  interests  in  ethnobiology,  historical  linguis cs,  and  na ve american languages.  charles r. clement is a gene cist studying the origin and  domes ca on  of  na ve  amazonian  crops,  and  the  ethnobotany  associated  with  anthropogenic  soils  and  other domes cated landscapes.  pa ence epps  is  a  linguist  whose  work  inves gates  lowland  south  american  languages  from  historical,  typological, and descrip ve perspec ves.  eike luedeling is an agricultural scien st mainly working  on  the  development  of  holis c  analysis  methods  for  agricultural development interven ons.  søren wichmann specializes  in quan ta ve methods  in  historical  linguis cs and mesoamerican  languages. he  is  general  editor  of  the  journal  language dynamics and change.  notes 1this is the third pbl study published in ethnobiology letters, the first treating chili pepper (brown et al.   research communica on  ethnobiology le ers. 2014. 5: 130. doi: 10.14237/ebl.5.2014.130. 64 2013b) and the second manioc (brown et al. 2013c). the method and theory of pbl (and also the pbl of squash) is discussed in detail in brown et al. (2013a) and briefly summarized in brown et al. (2013b). given this coverage, a discussion of pbl method and theory will not be repeated here. 2pbl analysis is in its infancy, so that it is difficult to predict what detailed contributions to crop-origin studies may emerge. our ultimate goal is to produce a pbl atlas of new world crops that presents maps for as many as 31 different taxa. an anticipation of this proposed work is that distribution of reconstructed words for many different crops across new world proto-languages will show hemispheric patterns revealing areas of intensified domestication activities and crop dispersal that may not be so apparent when crops are considered on a one-by-one basis. 3archaeological dates cited in this paper come from various different sources, some firsthand, others second-party reports. some are direct radiocarbon dates and some indirect, and it is often difficult if not impossible to determine if calibration is involved. we report all dates as if they were non-calibrated, calendric dates. 4nr should not necessarily be interpreted as indicating that a term for maize did not pertain to a protolanguage and, by implication, that people who spoke the language were not familiar with the taxon. another possibility is that a maize term did indeed pertain to a proto-language, but that its referent was not especially salient, accounting for the term’s failure to survive in offspring languages and, thus, to be reconstructable for the proto-language (cf., brown et al. 2013a:140). 5occasionally, an asjp date for a proto-language may be older than a date for its own parent language. for example, proto-southern arawakan (4461 bp) has an asjp date older than that for proto-arawakan (4134 bp). this sometimes occurs in asjp chronology when a language group’s breakup is closely followed in time by the breakup of its immediate subgroup. the attested variability of asjp dates accounts for this apparent aberrancy (holman et al. 2011:872). letter from the editors ethnobiology letters book review 3 book review material choices: refashioning bast and leaf fibers in asia and the pacific roy w. hamilton and b. lynne milgram, eds. 2008. fowler museum at ucla, los angeles. pp. 187, bibliography, index, copious color illustrations. $30.00 (paper). isbn-13 9780974872988. reviewed by e. n. anderson1 reviewer address: 1 department of anthropology, university of california, riverside, riverside, california 92521 received: december 6 th 2009 volume 1:3 published: august 3 rd 2010 © 2010 society of ethnobiology this work is the catalogue of an exhibition of east asian and micronesian textile art at the fowler museum, ucla’s large and excellent museum of ethnic arts. it is important and interesting to ethnobiologists because of its unique coverage of the textile plants of asia and oceania that provide the fibers. plants involved include flax, hemp, various banana species, hibiscus, elm (bast from inner bark), lotus, and others. decidedly the most exotic is curculigo latifolia, used only by the benuaq of kalimantan. they produce spectacularly beautiful fabrics, but the industry almost died out a generation ago; it has been revived largely because of tourism and art collecting. also specialized is the exquisite banana and hibiscus fiber art of fais island, micronesia, a tiny speck with a population of some 300. other cultures treated in this volume include hmong (vietnam), korea, in-tha (north myanmar), okinawa (the famous banana fiber there), interior luzon peoples, and japan including the ainu. several of the chapters are authored or coauthored by scholars from the countries in question. the level of scholarship and detail is high. all these art traditions are extremely laborintensive and specialized, and thus in danger of displacement in this world of cheap mass-produced textiles. the weavers show great dedication in continuing to work in the face of this. some (notably in japan) receive appropriate recognition, but others work for themselves and their communities, unrecognized by the wider world until now. thus, a major part of the book concerns the efforts to preserve and maintain these arts in the face of imminent threats. yet the art presented in this book is world-class. textiles in europe have a lowly reputation and are sometimes unfairly dismissed as “mere craft,” because the european world has long regarded sculpture and painting as the “fine” arts. however, in much of island asia, especially the small-scale societies of indonesia and the philippines, it is textiles that are the “fine” arts, while sculpture and painting receive decidedly lower status and aesthetic investment. the results shown herein are amazing. textile lovers will already be familiar with the beauty of japanese and other mainstream textile art, but the work from the benuaq and from fais may come as a surprise, and, if so, prepare to be literally stunned. to anyone who appreciates abstract geometric art, any one of the photographs of the benuaq pieces is worth the full price of this book. roy hamilton deserves recognition as a powerful major figure in ethnobotanical art. his previous work the art of rice (2003) was a landmark—a truly great work of aesthetic anthropology. the present work is a unique contribution, apparently the first book to cover the bast traditions of east asia and oceania. reference cited hamilton, roy w. 2003. the art of rice: spirit and sustenance in asia. ucla fowler museum of cultural history, los angeles. the dogs of ca-sri-2: zooarchaeology, diet, and context of canis familiaris from santa rosa island, california, usa ethnobiology le ers. 2014. 5: 65‐76. doi: 10.14237/ebl.5.2014.144.  65  research communica on  evolution in california and broader western north america. background one of california’s eight channel islands, santa rosa island is ~44 km from the mainland and ~217 km2 in area. the island is home to few terrestrial mammals, the largest of which are the island fox (urocyon littoralis) and island spotted skunk (spilogale gracilis amphiala). although removed from all but santa catalina island today, during much of the holocene dogs were the largest terrestrial mammal, other than humans, that inhabited the islands (rick et al. 2008). native americans colonized the channel islands some 13,000 calendar years ago and lived on the islands until ~ad 1822 (kennett 2005). island chumash peoples were maritime foragers, and during the late holocene and potentially earlier they lived in large villages and had sophisticated mainland and island exchange networks. dogs were an important component of native american life on the channel islands, often receiving formal burial (hale and salls 2000; vellanoweth et al. 2008). dog remains have been found in channel island sites as early as ~6000 years ago, but they are most common in sites dated from ~1500 years ago to the historic period (rick et introduction domestic dogs (canis familiaris) accompanied humans on migrations around the world, with current genetic data suggesting an old world origin sometime between 18,000 and 32,000 years ago (see morey 2010; thalmann et al. 2013). in western north america, dogs have been found in a variety of archaeological contexts, from intentional burials to middens (bartelle et al. 2010; crockford 2005; crockford et al. 2012; hale and salls 2000; langenwalter 1986; langenwalter 2005; lupo and janetski 1994; noah 2005; rick et al 2008; vellanoweth 2008; west and jarvis 2014). here we present osteological data obtained from the remains of six dogs excavated at a chumash village (ca-sri-2) on santa rosa island, california. although researchers have long been interested in archaeological dog remains from california (e.g., allen 1920), including recent genetic analysis (byrd et al. 2013), limited osteometric data are available for california dogs (see bartelle et al. 2010; langenwalter 1986, 2005; vellanoweth et al. 2008). dogs were clearly important in native california symbolic and ritual systems (hale and salls 2000; langenwalter 2005; vellanoweth et al. 2008), but the dearth of dog osteometrics leaves a substantial gap in our understanding of dog morphology and the dogs of ca‐sri‐2: zooarchaeology, diet, and context of  canis familiaris from santa rosa island, california, usa  courtney hofman1,2, torben rick1*  author  address:  1program  in  human  ecology  and  archaeobiology,  department  of  anthropology,  na onal museum  of  natural  history,  smithsonian  ins tu on,  washington  d.c.  20013‐7012,  2department  of  anthropology,  university  of  maryland, college park, md 20742.  *corresponding author:  rickt@si.edu  received:  february 4, 2014  volume 5:65‐76  published:  march 22, 2014  © 2014 society of ethnobiology  abstract: domes cated dogs (canis familiaris) are an important human companion around the world and have long been a focus of archaeological research. zooarchaelogical analysis of six dogs from a late holocene chumash village on santa rosa island, california indicates that adults, juvenile/young adults, and a puppy were present. similar to dogs on other channel islands, these dogs were large to medium in size, standing some 43‐55 cm tall, with mesa cephalic or mild brachycephalic facial characteris cs. no cutmarks were found on the bones, but one of the mandibles was burned. the ca‐sri‐2 dogs appear to have eaten high trophic marine foods similar to what humans consumed, documen ng the close bond between dogs and humans on the channel islands and broader north american pacific coast. key words: channel islands, domes ca on, hunter‐gatherers, morphometrics, osteometry  ethnobiology le ers. 2014. 5: 65‐76. doi: 10.14237/ebl.5.2014.144.  66  research communica on  al. 2008). ethnographic accounts of dogs are limited, suggesting that the mainland chumash may have occasionally used dogs for food, but it is unclear if they were used in hunting (harrington 1942:6-7; kroeber 1941). archaeological data suggest that dogs may have been used for hunting and as working animals (see langenwalter 2005; rick et al. 2008; vellanoweth et al. 2008). langenwalter (2005:30), citing wagner (1929), noted that an account from vizcaino’s 1602 expedition suggested that santa catalina island dogs were of medium size and similar to spotted retrievers found in europe at the time. ca-sri-2, a large late holocene village and cemetery complex on northwest santa rosa island, has produced a number of dog remains (orr 1968; rick et al. 2011). the site was excavated by phil orr (1968) in the 1940s-1960s and then revisited by rick (2011) in 2000-2003. rick et al. (2011) used δ13c and δ15n data from dog, fox, and human bones to reconstruct diet among these three species. we build on this work by presenting the analysis of cranial and post-cranial skeletal material from six archaeological dogs. materials and methods the remains of five dogs recovered by orr (1968) and a dog excavated by rick in 2003 were analyzed. all of the dog skeletons are incomplete, consisting primarily of crania and/or mandibles, but in three cases postcranial elements were available (figure 1). provenience and context for all but one specimen (cf1, see below) are limited, indicating only that the dogs came from three of the four sections of this large village and were fairly widely distributed across the site (rick et al. 2011). no direct radiocarbon dates for the dog remains have been obtained, but 26 radiocarbon dates from ca-sri-2 suggest that the site dates primarily between cal ad 130-1820, with an isolated component dated to 2400 cal bc (rick 2011). the dogs most likely date between cal ad 930-1820. details on the elements available for each specimen (cf1-cf6) and other characteristics are in table 1. the specimen recovered by rick (cf1) was a dog buried within a shell midden that was eroding out of the sea cliff. some of the lower limbs had already eroded away, with the dog placed in an east-west orientation on its right side with the rostrum facing north. an olivella wall and lipped bead, triangular prepared microblade, red abalone shell fishhook, california mussel bead in production, and worked red abalone were recovered in the surrounding sediments, but these items are commonly found in late prehistoric middens and it is unclear if they were intentionally placed with the dog. all of the dog cranial remains contain the dental crowding common in domestic dogs (morey 2010) and no paleozoological evidence of any canids other than the island fox and dogs have been found on the channel islands. most of the dogs had the typical dental arcade of four premolars and two upper molars and three lower molars (evans 1993). however, cf1 and cf4 were both missing the right first upper premolar, with cf1 also missing the first lower left premolar, a pattern noted in some other channel island dogs (bartelle et al. 2010; walker et al. 1978). one note of caution concerns cf6, which contains a relatively large right femur and tibia. these are morphologically similar to dogs but, in the absence of cranial remains, we cannot rule out the possibility that figure 1. cranium and mandibles from five of the ca‐sri ‐2 dogs reported in this study (specimen numbers corre‐ spond with  table  1). note  frontal  swelling  and  sagi al  crest  in cf1 and cf4, burning on cf3 mandible,  the  re‐ mains of the cf2 puppy, and damage and glue on cf5.   ethnobiology le ers. 2014. 5: 65‐76. doi: 10.14237/ebl.5.2014.144.  67  research communica on  these are from a large coyote or dog-coyote hybrid, though we believe this is unlikely. archaeologists have relied on a wide range of metrics and classifications to document dog domestication, evolution, and morphology (see morey 2010 for a summary). to increase the comparability of our results to other channel island studies, we rely on similar methods employed by bartelle et al. (2010) and vellanoweth et al. (2008). measurements were taken using digital calipers following haag (1948) and von den driesch (1976). for consistency, all measurements were obtained by hofman and are presented in appendix a, b, and c. although measurements for juvenile dogs can be problematic, we measured the remains of cf1 following vellanoweth et al. (2008). the remains from the puppy (cf2) were not measured. bilateral symmetry was assumed and measurements were taken on the left side unless otherwise noted. due to specimen damage or missing elements, it was not possible to obtain some of the measurements for all specimens. results age and sex the age of cf1 was estimated using epiphyseal fusion of the long bones and dental eruption patterns. the proximal and distal epiphyses of the humerus, femur, and tibia and the distal end of the ulna are not fused. the distal epiphysis of the humerus is fused and the olecranon process of the ulna is partially fused. these data suggest that cf1 is approximately 7-8 months old (gilbert 1990). cf1 has all permanent teeth with minor wear, which are typically completely erupted by 6-8 months, further supporting the 7-8 month age estimate (evans 1993:394; vellanoweth et al. 2008:3114). cf2 is a puppy likely less than 4-6 weeks of age because its permanent teeth do not appear to have erupted (evans 1993:394; langenwalter 1986:84). the mandible for cf3 has all of its lower permanent teeth and wear on the occlusal surface, suggesting this dog is at least a young adult. for cf4, all of the teeth have erupted and there is significant wear, indicating this dog is an adult considerably older than 8 months, when all teeth have erupted. cf5 has significant wear on the labial surface of the left mandibular canine indicating a malocclusion and wear to the dentin on its mandibular molars, suggesting that cf5 is likely an older adult. the long bones from cf6 specimen  site area  date (cal ad)  age/sex  shoulder  cranial shape  elements present  cf1  sec on i  1080 – 1820    7 – 8 mos.,  male?  46.13 cm, large  mesa cephalic/  brachycephalic   60: cranium, mandibles,  scapulae, ribs, vertebrae,  femora, humeri,  bia, ul‐ nae, and fibula   cf2  sec on i  1080 – 1820  < 6 weeks  –  –  5: cranium and mandibles  cf3  cemetery b  1200 – 1820  young adult  –  –  1: mandible  cf4  unknown  late holocene  adult, male?  –  mesa cephalic/  brachycephalic   2: cranium, right mandible   cf5  sec on iii  930 – 1220  older adult  42.52 cm,  large/medium  fragmented  71: damaged cranium, man‐ dibles, and femora, humeri,  ulnae, innominate, radii,  bia, vertebrae, and  fibula   cf6  sec on ii  930 – 1820  adult  55.09 cm, large  –  2: right femur and  bia   table 1. summary of dog remains from ca‐sri‐2, santa rosa island.  1es mated  shoulder height based on mean of harcourt  (1974) and  size es mates based on allen  (1920) as described  in  langenwalter (1986)  ethnobiology le ers. 2014. 5: 65‐76. doi: 10.14237/ebl.5.2014.144.  68  research communica on  are completely fused indicating that this dog is also an adult. size, the presence or absence of a baculum, and the presence of a thicker sagittal crest in males are typical indicators of sex (shigehara et al. 1997; vellanoweth et al. 2008; west and jarvis 2014). because no bacula were recovered, we rely on size and morphology for sexing the three cranial specimens based on non-metric traits (i.e., presence of a pronounced sagittal crest in males and lack of a pronounced sagittal crest and a constriction of the frontal region in females) described by shigehara et al. (1997) and west and jarvis (2014). these sex categories should be treated as provisional and need to be confirmed by additional analyses (e.g., adna). the crania of cf1 and cf4 have fairly large sagittal crests and frontal/zygomatic swelling consistent with male specimens (see figure 1). cf5 and the others were either too fragmented or no elements were present to infer sex. size and morphology we categorized dog skull shapes as dolichocephalic (long, narrow headed), mesaticephalic (medium proportions), or brachycephalic (short, wide-headed) based on skull, facial, and cranial indices devised for modern dog crania and calculated following evans (1993:132). for cf1, a skull index of 55 and facial index of 110 suggest medium head proportions of mesaticephalic dogs (average skull index=56 and facial index=111), but the cranial index of 59 is similar to brachycephalic dogs (average cranial index=57) (figure 2). cf4 was similarly proportioned with a skull index of 54, a facial index of 112, and a cranial index of 60, again suggesting a mix of mesaticephalic and brachycephalic traits. the foramen magnum of cf4 is more circular than oval and contains a notch which is a characteristic of brachycephalic dogs, but cf1 is ovoid with no notch. unfortunately, cf5 was too fragmented to obtain these measurements. colton (1970), lupo and janetski (1994), and bartelle et al. (2010) estimated dog size based on humerus and femur lengths, with large dogs having humerus lengths of >140 mm and femur lengths >160 mm and small sized dogs <140 and <160. langenwalter (2005) raised questions about the reliability of size estimates based on these criteria, but we present these data as rough approximations that can be complemented or refuted by other estimates of size. although still young, cf1 is a large dog with a humerus length of 142.78 mm. cf6 has a large femur length of 179.57 mm. the humerus for cf5 (130.56 mm) is below the large dog size of >140. langenwalter (1986) also presented a series of femur, tibia, and humerus lengths based on allen’s (1920) large and small indian dogs, with cf1, cf5, and cf6 all falling into the large indian dog category. only cf5’s femoral measurement is just below the large indian dog category, but well above the measurements for small indian dogs. harcourt’s (1974:154) regression formulae for estimating dog size based on measurements of long bones from dogs with known shoulder heights were used to calculate shoulder heights for the three casri-2 dogs with post-cranial remains. these produced shoulder height estimates of 46.13 cm for cf1 (average of humerus [46.32 cm], tibia [46.84 cm], and ulna [45.23 cm]), 42.52 cm for cf5 (average of humerus [42.13 cm] and tibia [42.90 cm]), and 55.09 cm for cf6 (femur). pathology, trauma, and taphonomy there is limited definitive evidence for pathology or trauma and no cutmarks were found on the ca-sri-2 dogs. the only sign of processing is burning on the mandible from cf3 (see figure 1). there is a small, unhealed fracture on the right scapula of cf1 (figure 3). cf5 contains many bone fragments and broken teeth, but unfortunately these have been glued together making it difficult to tell if this is from poor figure 2. cranial, skull, and facial indexes following evans  (1993).  d=dolichocehphalic  (long,  narrow  headed),  b=brachycephalic  (short,  wide  headed),  and  m=mesa cephalic  (medium  propor ons).  d,  b,  and m  are average cranial indexes reported for modern dogs in  evans (1993). cf1 and cf4 are from ca‐sri‐2 and sni is a  dog  reported by bartelle et al.  (2010)  from san nicolas  island.  ethnobiology le ers. 2014. 5: 65‐76. doi: 10.14237/ebl.5.2014.144.  69  research communica on  preservation, damage during excavation or transport, or may represent trauma or pathology. many of the long bones and vertebrae are also damaged, especially at the proximal and distal ends. some of the long bones from cf1, cf3, and cf6 contain well-defined muscle attachment areas, suggesting they may have been involved in heavy labor or traveling long distances. finally, two vertebrae from cf5 show signs of lipping consistent with osteoarthritis (figure 3). root etching, caliche/sediment adhering to a few bones (cf5), deterioration from exposure (cf1), and some post-depositional breakage of teeth and bones are the only obvious taphonomic disturbances. diet there were no clearly identifiable stomach contents from any of the dogs, but δ13c and δ15n isotope analysis of dog (n=5), island fox (n=3), and human (n=15) bone collagen from ca-sri-2 provide proxies for the diet of these species (rick et al. 2011). the stable isotope values for each species are: 1) δ13c = 12.40 to -14.65‰, δ15n = 15.14 to 21.16‰ for humans; 2) δ13c = -10.71 to -12.89‰, δ15n = 17.12 to 18.59‰ for dogs; and 3) δ13c = -17.80 to -18.94‰, δ15n = 7.68 to 11.36‰ for foxes (rick et al. 2011). these data demonstrate that native americans and their dogs at ca-sri-2 had similar diets, suggesting that both species focused primarily on high trophic marine organisms like finfishes, marine mammals, and seabirds, complemented by seeds, corms, and other carbohydrates. in contrast, the ca-sri-2 island foxes appear to have eaten lower trophic level terrestrial foods. these data confirm the commensal relationship between dogs and people, with some modest carbon enrichment in dogs perhaps from higher consumption of c3 plants and/or bone collagen (rick et al. 2011). discussion and conclusions the six dogs from ca-sri-2 demonstrate some similarities with other dogs reported from the channel islands and southern california and begin to identify possible regional trends and anomalies in size and morphology, butchering and processing, and diet. although cutmarks have been identified on dog bones in north american archaeological sites, sometimes in abundance (west and jarvis 2012), none of the dogs from ca-sri-2 contain cutmarks. none of the dog remains reported from san nicolas, san miguel, or santa cruz islands have produced any cutmarks (bartelle et al. 2010; noah 2005:240; vellanoweth et al. 2008; walker et al. 1978). the only evidence for any potential processing is burning on the mandible of cf3, which could be either intentional or from incidental contact. walker et al. (1978) also identified burning on a dog mandible from ca-scri-240 and noah (2005:240) identified burning on eight dog bones from ca-scri-192, both on santa cruz island. it remains possible that people occasionally consumed dogs on the channel islands, but evidence of clear butchering or processing is largely absent. at ca-sri-2 and on san nicolas island dogs appear to have been consuming marine resources and eating similar foods as people (bartelle et al. 2010; rick et al. 2011; vellanoweth et al. 2008). however, stomach contents from three mainland southern california dogs suggest consumption of gophers (thomomys bottae), rabbits (sylvilagus bachmani), and deer (odocoileus sp.) (langenwalter 2005). these data figure 3. pathology  in sri‐2 dogs. cf1 shows a possible  unhealed  fracture  (indicated by  the arrow) on  the right  scapula.  cf5  shows  lipping  (indicated  by  the  arrow)  which may be a sign of osteoarthri s on  two vertebrae  (only one shown).   ethnobiology le ers. 2014. 5: 65‐76. doi: 10.14237/ebl.5.2014.144.  70  research communica on  suggest variability in dog diet in the region, probably reflecting what was locally available, what dogs were being given access to by humans, and what dogs may have been scavenging or hunting. limited dog osteometric data from other channel islands or adjacent coastal mainland are available for comparison. however, the ca-sri-2 dogs are similar in size and share some aspects of morphology to three dogs from san nicolas island. two of the casri-2 dogs are consistent with medium facial size or mesaticephalic dogs (evans 1993) and have similar characteristics to a dog from san nicolas island reported by bartelle et al. (2010), though that dog was more strongly brachycephalic than the ca-sri-2 dogs (figure 2). shoulder height estimates (harcourt 1974) suggest that the ca-sri-2 dogs were large to medium in size (46.12 cm, 42.52 cm, and 55.09 cm), falling within or above the estimates for three ca-lan-43 dogs (averages of 46.25 cm, 44.65 cm, and 39.88 cm; langenwalter 1986:82-83) and a dog from ca-sni-25 on san nicolas island (49 cm; bartelle et al. 2010:2726). researchers have long sought to determine different breed types for prehistoric dogs, including some 17 different types reported by allen (1920) and three more general categories: large eskimo and large and small indian dog (haag 1948). vellanoweth et al. (2008) reviewed these criteria, as well as strengths and weaknesses of these determinations, and concluded that two immature female dogs from san nicolas island shared characteristics with both allen’s (1920) short-nosed and plains-indian dog breeds and bartelle et al. (2010) reached a similar conclusion for an adult from san nicolas island. the ca-sri-2 dogs share many characteristics with plains-indian dog breed measurements reported by allen (1920:451453) for san nicolas island but, like some of those dogs, they also have some overlap with the shortnosed indian dog. the mix of allen’s (1920) shortnosed and plains-indian dog characteristics is further supported by dog mandible and teeth measurements reported by walker et al. (1978) for three dogs from ca-scri-240 on santa cruz island and a dog from ca-smi-525 on san miguel island. for ca-lan-43 located on the adjacent mainland, langenwalter (1986) suggested that the remains of several dogs from distinct dog burials likely represented a regional population of large indian dogs, noting that these dogs had fairly large heads but somewhat reduced limbs. these data suggest that prehistoric southern california dogs had a mix of traits with many falling into the large indian dog category and still others falling into the small indian dog category (see allen 1920; haag 1948; vellanoweth et al. 2008). beyond california, crockford (2005) documented the presence of two distinct dog types in the central and southern northwest coast, including a medium sized “village dog” and a smaller, long-haired dog (“wool dog”). these data suggest that, like the channel islands, there was some variability in dog types in parts of the pacific northwest, including probable hybridization. domestic dogs were important companions for humans on the northern and southern channel islands, were scavenging and/or being fed the same types of foods that people were eating, and were often given special burial treatment. continued osteometric analyses are needed for the channel islands and broader california coast to help better understand the morphology and evolution of channel island dogs. ultimately, these studies lay the foundation for genetic research of the same specimens that can further enhance and clarify these morphological studies. acknowledgements we thank ray corbett and john johnson for providing access to the santa barbara museum of natural history specimens and channel islands national park for supporting rick’s fieldwork at ca-sri-2. we thank adele caruth for her previous work with one of the dogs reported here, which was re-measured and re -analyzed for this study. finally, we thank three anonymous reviewers and steve wolverton for important comments on an earlier version of this manuscript. declarations permissions: permision for analysis was given by the santa barbara museum of natural history, which curates the dog specimens. sources of funding: none declared. conflicts of interest: none declared. references cited allen, g. m. 1920. dogs of the american aborigines. bulletin of the museum of comparative zoology, harvard college 63:431-517. bartelle, b. g., r. l. vellanoweth, e. s. netherton, n. w. poister, w. e. kendig, a. f. ainis, r. j. glenn, ethnobiology le ers. 2014. 5: 65‐76. doi: 10.14237/ebl.5.2014.144.  71  research communica on  j. v. marty, l. thomas-barnett, and s. j. schwartz. 2010. trauma and pathology of a buried dog from san nicolas island, california, u.s.a. journal of archaeological science 37:2721-2734. byrd, b. f., a. cornellas, j. w. eerkens, j. s. rosenthal, t. r. carpenter, a. levanthal, and j. a. leonard. 2013. the role of canids in ritual and domestic contexts: new ancient dna insights from 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california. journal of archaeological science 38:13851393. rick, t. c., p. l. walker, l. m. willis, a. c. noah, j. m. erlandson, r. l. vellanoweth, t. j. braje, and d. j. kennett. 2008. dogs, humans, and island ecosystems: the distribution, antiquity, and ecology of domestic dogs (canis familiaris) on california’s channel islands, usa. the holocene 18:1077-1087. shigehara, n., s. onodera, and m. eto. 1997. sex determination by discriminant analysis and evaluation of non-metric traits in the dog skeleton. in osteometry of makah and coast salish ethnobiology le ers. 2014. 5: 65‐76. doi: 10.14237/ebl.5.2014.144.  72  research communica on  dogs, s. j. crockford, editor. archaeology press, simon fraser university, burnaby, pp. 113-126. thalman, o., et al. 2013. complete mitochondrial genomes of ancient canids suggest a european origin of domestic dogs. science 342:871-874. vellanoweth, r. l., b. g. bartelle, a. f. ainis, a. c. cannon, and s. j. schwartz. 2008. a double dog burial from san nicolas island, california, usa: osteology, context, and significance. journal of archaeological science 35:3111-3123. wagner, h. r. 1929. spanish voyages to the northwest coast of america in the sixteenth century. california historical society special publication 4. walker, p. l., s. craig, d. guthrie, and r. moore. 1978. an ethnozoological analysis of of faunal remains from four santa barbara channel island archaeological sites. report on file, central coast information center, university of california, santa barabra. west, c. f. and k. n. jarvis. 2014. osteometric variation in domestic dogs (canis familiaris) from kodiak archipelago, alaska. international journal of osteoarchaeology, doi: 10.1002/oa.2293. biosketch courtney hofman is a phd candidate in the department  of anthropology at the university of maryland and a pre‐ doctoral  fellow  at  the  smithsonian’s na onal museum  of  natural  history  and  na onal  zoo.    her  research  interests  include  archaeogenomics,  historical  ecology,  animal  transloca ons, coastal archaeology, and human‐ environment interac ons.  torben  rick  is curator of north american archaeology  and  research  scien st  at  the  smithsonian’s  na onal  museum  of  natural  history.  his  research  interests  include  historical  ecology,  human‐environmental  interac ons, and island and coastal archaeology.  ethnobiology le ers. 2014. 5: 65‐76. doi: 10.14237/ebl.5.2014.144.  73  research communica on  appendix a. cranial measurements (mm) obtained from ca‐sri‐2 dogs following von den driesch (1976)     cf1  cf5  cf4  (1) total length  178.31  ‐‐  170.98  (2) condylobasal length  163.37  ‐‐  162.93  (4) basicranial axis  44.1  39.41  41.76  (7) upper neurocranium length  89.69  ‐‐  82.93  (10) greatest length of the nasals  67.89  63.69  68.66  (11) length of braincase  80.52  70.21  78.60  (13) median palate length  85.72  77.97  87.28  (13a) palatal length  84.22  75.78  85.58  (14) length of the horizontal part of the pala ne  32.97  27.94  28.37  (14a) length of the horizontal part of the pala ne corresponding to m 13a  29.6  26.49  26.81  (17) length of premolar row  48.63  54.8  44.77  (18) length of the carnassial  17.96  18.53  17.04  (18a) greatest breadth of the carnassial  8.81  9.73  10.48  (19) length of the carnassial alveolus  18.46  17.99  16.89  (20) length of m1  11.76  11.26  11.75  (20a) breadth of m1  14.95  16.56  14.67  (22) greatest diameter of the auditory bulla  24.84  ‐‐  24.27  (23) greatest mastoid breadth  61.33  ‐‐  59.48  (24) breadth dorsal to the external auditory meatus  62.02  ‐‐  59.11  (25) greatest breadth of the occipital condyles  34.7  34.26  33.18  (26) greatest breadth of the bases of the paraoccipital processes  48.41  ‐‐  ‐‐  (27) greatest breadth of foramen magnum  18.15  16.42  17.44  (28) height of the foramen magnum  12.73  ‐‐  15.05  (29) greatest breadth of the braincase  60.15  55.65  57.92  (30) zygoma c breadth  98.2  ‐‐  93.09  (31) least breadth of skull  37.09  36.79  29.57  (32) frontal breadth  50.07  ‐‐  38.79  (33) least breadth between orbits  37.37  35.39  27.48  (34) greatest palatal breadth  60.84  64.96  59.04  (35) least palatal breadth  32.39  37.98  31.96  (36) breadth at the canine alveoli  32.97  ‐‐  32.76  (37) greatest inner height of the orbit  29.67  ‐‐  27.61  (38) skull height  54.71  ‐‐  53.28  (39) skull height without the sagi al crest  49.75  ‐‐  50.65  (40) height at the occipital triangle  39.53  ‐‐  39.39  (41) height of the canine  39.55  –  –  ethnobiology le ers. 2014. 5: 65‐76. doi: 10.14237/ebl.5.2014.144.  74  research communica on  appendix b. mandibular measurements (mm) for ca‐sri‐2 dog specimens following von den driesch (1976)     cf1  cf3  cf5  cf4  (1) total length  129.67  131.00  118.9  125.74  (2) length: the angular process  131.79  135.61  112.94  127.54  (3) length  from  the  indenta on between  the condyle process and  the angular process  127.93  129.84  113.62  122.13  (4) length: the condyle process‐aboral border of the canine alveolus  111.59  115.91  105.65  108.92  (5) length from the indenta on between the condyle process angular  process – aboral border of the canine alveolus  110.23  112.33  102.28  106.01  (6) length:  the angular process‐aboral border of  the canine alveo‐ lus.  114.2  120.00  100.76  110.73  (11) length of the premolar row, p1–p4  ‐‐  34.73  35.04  35.16  (12) length of the premolar row, p2–p4  32.7  30.25  31.4  30.4  (13) length of carnassial  20.08  20.01  21.17  19.79   breadth of carnassial  8.15  8.13  7.9  7.89  (14) length of carnassial alveolus  19.34  19.11  19.51  19.02  (17) greatest thickness of the body of the jaw  12.18  12.44  12.94  10.09  (18) height of the ver cal ramus: basal point of the angular process  51.67  54.88  47.96  49.7  (19) height of the mandible behind m1  25.54  24.00  22.08  22.14  (20) height of the mandible behind p2 and p3  21.53  21.55  19.79  19.36  (22) calcula on of the basal length: measurement number two mul‐ plied by 1.21  159.4659  164.09  136.66  154.32  (23) calcula on of the basal length: measurement number four mul‐ plied by 1.37  180.5523  158.80  144.74  149.22  (24) calcula on of the basal length: measurement number five mul‐ plied by 1.46  192.4134  164.00  149.33  154.77  (25) the mean of m 22, 23, and 24  177.5  162.3  143.6  152.8  ethnobiology le ers. 2014. 5: 65‐76. doi: 10.14237/ebl.5.2014.144.  75  research communica on  appendix c. post cranial measurements (mm) from ca‐sri‐2 dogs following von den driesch (1976)     cf1  cf5  cf6  atlas        greatest breadth over the wings  76.72  ‐‐  ‐‐  greatest length  32.94  ‐‐  ‐‐  greatest breadth of the cranial ar cular surface  38.75  ‐‐  ‐‐  greatest breadth of the caudal ar cular surface  32.08  ‐‐  ‐‐  greatest length from the facies ar cularis cranialus to the facies ar cularis  caudalis  27.98  ‐‐  ‐‐  length to the arcus dorsalis, median  14.82  ‐‐  ‐‐  axis        greatest length in the region of the corpus including the dens  43.13  42.36  ‐‐  greatest length of the arch including the caudal ar cular process  45.74  ‐‐  ‐‐  greatest breadth across the cranial ar cular surface  28.81  26.91  ‐‐  greatest breadth across the caudal ar cular process  27.34  ‐‐  ‐‐  greatest depth across the transverse process  32.67  ‐‐  ‐‐  smallest breadth of the vertabrae  19.83  19.51  ‐‐  greatest breadth of caudal ar cular surface  17.14  16.6  ‐‐  first thoracic vertebrae        physiological length of the body  16.76  ‐‐  ‐‐  greatest length from the cranial ar cular process to the caudal ar cular pro‐ cess  26.6  ‐‐  ‐‐  greatest breadth across the cranial ar cular process  30.95  ‐‐  ‐‐  greatest breadth across the caudal ar cular process  27.74  ‐‐  ‐‐  greatest breadth across the transverse process  39.59  ‐‐  ‐‐  greatest breadth of the cranial ar cular surface  12.64  ‐‐  ‐‐  greatest breadth of the caudal ar cular surface  14.56  ‐‐  ‐‐  greatest height of the cranial ar cular surface  12.26  ‐‐  ‐‐  greatest height of the caudal ar cular surface  10.8  ‐‐  ‐‐  height  39.1  ‐‐  ‐‐  scapula         height  115.55  ‐‐  ‐‐  diagonal height  104.82  ‐‐  ‐‐  greatest dorsal length  56.83  ‐‐  ‐‐  smallest length of the neck of the scapula  20.96  ‐‐  ‐‐  greatest length of the glenoid process  25.92  ‐‐  ‐‐  length of the glenoid cavity  22.23  ‐‐  ‐‐  breadth of the glenoid cavity  17.24  ‐‐  ‐‐  humerus        greatest length  142.78  130.56  ‐‐  greatest length from the head (caput)  137.09  ‐‐  ‐‐  depth of the proximal end  32.1  ‐‐  ‐‐  smallest breadth of the diaphysis  13.15  10.39  ‐‐  greatest breadth of the distal end  29.89  25.33  ‐‐  greatest breadth of the trochlea  20.63  20.9  ‐‐  greatest breadth of the proximal end  ‐‐  15.61  ‐‐  radius        ethnobiology le ers. 2014. 5: 65‐76. doi: 10.14237/ebl.5.2014.144.  76  research communica on  appendix c con nued. post cranial measurements (mm) from ca‐sri‐2 dogs following von den driesch (1976)    cf1  cf5  cf6  smallest breadth of diaphysis  ‐‐  10.3  ‐‐  ulna        greatest length  160.46  ‐‐  ‐‐  depth across the processus anconaeus  21.95  21.42  ‐‐  smallest depth of the olecranon  18.91  18.86  ‐‐  greatest breadth across the coronoid process  12.45  ‐‐  ‐‐  femur        greatest length  ‐‐  ‐‐  179.57 ( r)  greatest length from caput femoris  ‐‐  140.27  177.67( r)  greatest breadth of the proximal end  ‐‐  ‐‐  40.36( r)  greatest depth for the caput femoris  ‐‐  16.27  19.26( r)  smallest breadth of the diaphysis  12.44  11.08  14.15( r)  greatest breadth of the distal end  26.26  ‐‐  32.5( r)  tibia        greatest length (149.61=without epiphyses)  157.18  (149.61)  143.71  ‐‐  greatest breadth of the proximal end  30.19  29.97  ‐‐  smallest breadth of the diaphysis  12.77  10.6  ‐‐  fibula        greatest length  138.58  –  ‐‐  letter from the editors ethnobiology letters featured reprint & invited comments 19 identification, classification and zooarchaeology jonathan c. driver1 author address: 1department of archaeology, simon fraser university, burnaby, bc v5a 1s6 driver@sfu.ca received: june 18th 2011 volume 2:19-39 published: august 9th 2011 © 2011 society of ethnobiology abstract: identification of preserved biological materials is often regarded as a skill which has little to do with analysis and interpretation. this paper argues that in zooarchaeological studies―here with particular reference to vertebrate remains―identification procedures deserve more detailed consideration, because these procedures have a significant effect on the results of faunal studies. it is suggested that most identifications are made within a system of usually unspecified rules which vary from one analyst to another. improvements in comparability between faunal studies will result if these rules are considered before beginning an analysis, and if the rules are made explicit in publications. key words: zooarchaeology, methods, identification introduction most archaeological studies employ typologies as descriptive and analytical devices. the conscious use and analysis of typologies dates from the publication of krieger's (1944) paper, and a large, complex, and sometimes acrimonious literature has been devoted to typology in general and artefact typology in particular (hill and evans 1972; whallon and brown 1982). in spite of the continuing typological debate there would appear to be a general consensus that typologies are artificial devices designed to expedite research in specific areas (hill and evans 1972; hayden 1984) and that “types of types” (steward 1954) exist. typological debates continue in many sub-disciplines of archaeology, and these generally concern the appropriateness of certain typologies for solving certain archaeological problems. for example, typologies of microchipping have been called into question by vaughan (1985) on the basis of experiments which suggest that the correlation between microflake form and the material worked by the stone artefact is not as good as once thought. similarly, the utility of some typologies of lithic debitage have been questioned by sullivan and rozen (1985). editors note: jonathan driver was invited to re-publish this paper by the ebl editors. in addition, we have invited several commentaries on this important methodological paper from leading zooarchaeologists. this article originally appeared in circaea (http://www.envarch.net/ publications/circaea/index.html), the journal of the association for environmental archaeology, which is now known as environmental archaeology (http://www.maney.co.uk/index.php/journals/env/). this article is reproduced with the permission of the association for environmental archaeology. there has been relatively little debate about typology in the analysis of animal remains from archaeological sites. this is because most zooarchaeologists have assumed that the system with which they describe specimens may be imported intact from zoology. as a result most methodological developments have been in the interpretation of organic remains rather than in their classification and description. the one important exception to this is the discussion concerning the identification of cut marks and breakage patterns on bone (e.g., behrensmeyer et al. 1987; binford 1981; johnson 1985; morlan 1986; shipman 1981). typologies of these phenomena are concerned with the identification and classification of humanly produced modifications rather than the identification of the faunal element on which they are found. they therefore resemble artefact typologies, and share all the problems and advantages inherent in such methods. in this paper i will briefly consider the theory of identification, then examine the use of classificatory systems to describe and “identify” faunal specimens from archaeological sites. it will be suggested that zooarchaeologists should consider their identification systems more carefully in order to increase the degree of standardisation of data presentation and reduce the possibility of interpretive error resulting from misapplication of identification methods. examples will be drawn largely from vertebrate zooarchaeology. it is in this field that problems of identification are most likely to occur, because zooarchaeologists are generally concerned with identifying elements or parts of elements of complex endoskeletons. analysis of other mailto:driver@sfu.ca� http://www.envarch.net/%20publications/circaea/index.html� http://www.envarch.net/%20publications/circaea/index.html� http://www.maney.co.uk/index.php/journals/env/� ethnobiology letters featured reprint & invited comments 20 animal remains, such as molluscs or insects, is usually concerned with identification of relatively complete shells or exoskeletons. this is not to say that many of the problems discussed below will not occur; however, the problems are probably less acute than in the field of vertebrate zooarchaeology. i should point out at the start of this paper that i have deliberately avoided discussing “case studies” which i consider to be examples of poor identification procedures or data reporting. most zooarchaeologists, including myself, have made errors of the types discussed below. it will not serve any purpose to select a few examples from the many to illustrate the points made here. identification, classification, and typology the initial stage of any zooarchaeological analysis is to group specimens into meaningful categories. although this may appear to be similar to the creation of artefact typologies, which also group objects into meaningful groups, there are differences between the two processes. these differences stem from the distinction which must be made between classification and typology on the one hand and identification on the other. classification is the process of grouping objects or other phenomena into groups based on similarities and differences (hill and evans 1972, 233). typology is a special form of classification, in which phenomena are assigned to the same type if they share consistent patterning of attribute states (ibid.). biologists have distinguished identification from classification (sneath and sokal 1973, 3), noting that identification is the assignation of an organism to a previously established classificatory system. archaeologists who study artefacts may wish to use previously established typologies and “identify” their artefacts by reference to those systems. however, they are always free to modify such typologies or to develop new typologies if existing systems are inadequate for their research design. as a result, there may be debate about the relative merits of different typological systems to assist in the solution of the same research problem. alternatively, one may apply two completely different typologies to the same artefact assemblage if one wishes to investigate two different areas of human behaviour. for example, typologies of ceramics or lithics which are useful for constructing culture history may be inappropriate for analysing site function. archaeologists, who study animal remains, or any other largely unmodified organic material, generally organise their specimens into groups by a process of identification. no matter what the research orientation, it is commonly assumed that the initial step of a faunal analysis is to group species according to well-defined attributes preserved in chitin, shell, bone or teeth. this accounts for the widespread establishment of comparative collections and the publication of identification guides and keys. most zooarchaeologists believe that pre-existing classificatory systems can be employed in the analysis of organic remains. this view is further enforced by fairly frequent pleas for standardisation of data reporting in zooarchaeology (e.g., clason 1972; grigson 1978; driver 1983), such standardisations being impossible without a general agreement that there is a single appropriate classificatory system. this attitude is certainly reasonable, and many specimens can indeed be grouped using two biological schemes. the first of these is the standard binomial nomenclature; the second is a fairly well standardised system of anatomical description. using these systems “bison bison left femur” is likely to be well understood throughout the english speaking world and (with one translation) throughout the entire world. this stands in contrast to artefact typologies which, in some areas, have become so cumbersome as to become almost unworkable, and which contain few standardised terms acceptable in more than one language. if one accepts some of the assumptions (discussed below) inherent in the classification “bison bison left femur” then this is a reasonable way of describing faunal remains. in fact, most vertebrate remains can be described quite precisely by three variables−species, element, and part of element, the latter following a system such as brumley's (1973) butchering units or watson's (1979) diagnostic areas. some specimens may be described further, using categories such as age, sex or pathological condition, but these are usually a distinct minority of the entire assemblage. are faunal identifications a form of typology? in some ways they do resemble artefact typologies. bones are grouped by considering a variety of attributes, with multiple attribute states. the groups are exclusive, and can be defined by non-random associations of attribute states. however, there are important differences between a system of bone identification and artefact typology. the binomial system assumes phylogenetic relationships between animal groups, which is not the case with artefact typologies. the binomial system is hierarchical while many artefact typologies are not. the basic unit of zoological classification the species is essentially defined by its reproductive behaviour, while the basic unit of typology the type does not exist as a population and has no capacity for perpetuation. ethnobiology letters featured reprint & invited comments 21 finally, modern artefact typologies are designed to solve specific research problems, while zoological systems of classification are often used as descriptive referents in research which does not deal with phylogeny. methods of identification and their effects on bone groups of the three major attributes defined above (taxon, element and modification), the third will not be discussed in this paper, as it is often describing an artificially induced condition of the bone, and consequently most zooarchaeologists have to be explicit in developing non-zoological typologies to describe bone fragments or other aspects of bone modification. identification of specimens is essentially a matter of grouping specimens by taxon and element. the methods by which bone fragments are identified ought to be relatively simple. first, it is necessary to identify the element represented by the complete bone or bone fragment. unless one can identify the element represented, it is usually impossible to justify identification of taxon. it may be possible, using such criteria as bone thickness or surficial characteristics to identify some fragments to the class level without first identifying the element. for example, long bone fragments with cortical bone thicknesses over a few millimetres are unlikely to be anything except mammals (unless one is working in an area with large reptiles or large flightless birds), and many cranial bones of fish display distinctive surficial characteristics which distinguish them, as a class, from other vertebrate classes. however, i strongly suspect that in many cases the assignment of bone fragments to categories such as “unidentifiable mammal” or “unidentifiable bird” is the product of wishful thinking. this is particularly likely in the case of birds, where size ranges and cortical thickness of bone fragments frequently overlap with the smaller mammalian species. it is worth emphasising that assignation of any bone fragment to all but the most general taxonomic group cannot be undertaken without identification of the element. generally, once one considers specimens below the level of the class, there are no readily observable features of the gross morphology which permit identification of the taxon without prior or concomitant identification of the element. terms such as “small ungulate long bone fragment” are meaningless, although they are sometimes encountered in the zooarchaeological literature. if the features on the fragment are sufficient for identification as a small ungulate (as opposed to a medium-sized carnivore, for example), then they will certainly be sufficient to identify the element from which the fragment derives. the second stage of identification is to assign the identified element to a taxonomic group. such identifications may range from very general (e.g., the order or family) to the particular (species or subspecies). regardless of the specificity of the identification, it follows that the identification guarantees distinction from other taxa at the same level of specificity. thus, the identification “canidae” should guarantee that the specimen could not belong to any other mammalian family, such as felidae or cervidae. similarly “canis lupus” implies that no other members of canis, such as c. familiaris or c. latrans are represented. the use of such a classificatory system depends upon the following: 1. zooarchaeologists employ the existing binomial nomenclature used by zoologists. 2. identification to the given taxonomic level is justified by the methods employed. these principles are investigated further below. use of binomial nomenclature the international code of zoological nomenclature (iczn) provides rules for the classification of animals by order, family, species etc. and, like many artefact typologies, is a way of simplifying an incredible array of diversity (jeffrey 1977). it is organised in such a way as to suggest degrees of relationships between phenomena; for example, animals of the same genus are thought to be more closely related (i.e., they diverged more recently from a common ancestor) than other members of the family to which the genus belongs. the zoological classification is also an artificial classificatory device, as are archaeological typologies. with the possible exception of the species, all other hierarchical levels of the system are imposed by zoologists, rather than by nature. one must remember that, because the binomial system defined by the iczn is artificial, there are other ways to develop classifications of animals. for example, one could describe groups based on diet, locomotion and size, such as those used by some paleoecologists (e.g., van couvering 1980). the emphasis in zooarchaeology, palaeontology and palaeoecology on identification of taxonomic groups defined by the iczn is because of the general belief that identification of the species allows one to infer a wide range of other information, including tolerances to a variety of climatic conditions, habitat types utilised, and various behavioural traits (e.g., social behaviour; migrations ethnobiology letters featured reprint & invited comments 22 etc.). the reason for the continued use of the binomial system of nomenclature is probably because most other possible classifications of vertebrates will operate at a more general level than the species, and identification of bones using standard zoological categories allows them to be regrouped into other classificatory schemes if required. in most cases the use of the binomial system does not cause problems, but one must recognise that zooarchaeologists frequently modify the system, usually by recognising size classes which cross-cut established taxonomic divisions. the most widely used example of this would be a designation such as “large ungulate”. such an identification for late pleistocene/holocene faunas of canada might include bones of horse, bison, musk ox, camel, wapiti and moose, from two separate orders and four separate families. from the same fauna one might also recognise “small ungulates”, which could include deer, caribou, sheep, mountain goat, pronghorn antelope and possibly even saiga antelope; in this case the taxonomic category includes two families from a single order. thus, while bones with many diagnostic features might be assigned a taxon based on established zoological classifications, bones with fewer diagnostic features may be “identified” using a system which groups specimens from separate lineages into a single category based on an attribute (size) which is not relevant to the zoological system. thus, some cervids (moose, wapiti) are separated from other cervids (deer), but grouped in the same “large ungulate” category as bovids, camelids and equids. this is somewhat analogous to the provisions in the international code of botanical nomenclature which allow the category “form-genus” to describe superficially similar fragmentary plant fossils which may derive from a variety of different families (jeffrey 1977, 40). the implications of this methodology are probably not critical to zooarchaeology, although one wonders whether it is really worth making these types of identifications, as virtually no inferences or deductions are ever made from such information. however, as will be discussed below, if one begins to make assumptions about which species are really represented in these very general taxonomic categories, the potential interpretive value increases and new problems arise. identification systems as a zooarchaeologist, one is occasionally stopped in hallways or, more disconcertingly, in conference receptions and asked to identify a specimen. after a few instances of embarrassingly implausible identifications, one learns to ask some critical questions before making a pronouncement. "where does it come from?" and "how old is it?" are the two i have used most frequently. such preliminary questions reveal something rather interesting about our identification methods−we frequently rely upon the context of the specimen to aid our identifications. it would appear that our methods do not simply depend on recognising “diagnostic” characters on bone fragments, but also on other assumptions which are rarely stated. these assumptions are worth examining in some detail. assumption 1: although taxonomic groups are defined by a host of characteristics, most of which are not preserved archaeologically, single bones exhibit sufficient diagnostic characteristics to allow identification, frequently to the species level. this assumption is the basis for zooarchaeological identification. yet very few bones in the post-cranial skeleton are diagnostic of the species if one has to select one species from the entire animal kingdom. for example, the presence of a large bovid femur fragment on a 3000 year old site from the canadian plains virtually guarantees the identification bison, and in many cases analysts will identify bison bison. however, on a historic period site from the same area, many femur fragments would be indistinguishable from domestic cattle, and would be recorded as bos/bison. what zooarchaeologists really mean when they identify a bone fragment is that, given our knowledge of what animal species are likely to have been found in an area during a particular time period, one can identify a fragment based on a combination of size and morphological characteristics. in the above example, the bison femur fragment is probably not distinguishable from those of european bison or some african and asian bovids. however, given the likely geographic range of fauna, the possibility of there being an old world bovid in the assemblage is considered so unlikely as to be dismissed. another problem associated with this assumption is the concept that the zoological taxonomy is immutable, whereas in fact it is in a constant state of revision. for most vertebrate zooarchaeologists this is not a major problem, because revisions tend to be rare and minor. however, it can lead to some embarrassingly over-confident identifications. for example, until recently ornithologists identified two species of flickers in western north america, the redshafted flicker (colaptes cafer) and the yellow-shafted flicker (c.auratus). these are now considered as subspecies of a single species, the common flicker (c.cafer). if one reads zooarchaeological reports from the 1960s and 1970s one can find bones of both ethnobiology letters featured reprint & invited comments 23 original “species” identified. one suspects that, in reality, the skeletons of these two types of bird exhibit so much overlap that one cannot separate them, and certainly today few people would attempt to separate bird subspecies on osteological characters. the fact that the two types were originally divided into separate species probably produced a state of over-confidence in zooarchaeologists, who felt that osteological differences ought to be found. today no one attempts to make the distinction which was made a decade or so earlier, because the taxonomy has changed, not the birds. assumption 1 therefore requires some modification. bones are not identified solely by their morphology and size. rather, a great many possible species are excluded as candidates by virtue of their position in time and space. furthermore, species which can be separated by zoologists are not necessarily separable on the basis of osteology. assumption 2: the methods for identification are sufficiently well tested that one does not need to justify most identifications, except in relatively rare circumstances. in most zooarchaeological publications there is little discussion of identification methods. perhaps zooarchaeologists feel that their methods of identification are so easy to use that the methodology requires little discussion. perhaps they rely to so great an extent on “experience” that they cannot describe their methods. generally, discussion of identification methods is confined to relatively rare species, when it is important to demonstrate that the identification is justified. in addition to personal experience, zooarchaeologists use three methods for identifying fragments: a) comparative collections b) published guides or keys c) measurement systems the use of comparative collections is widespread, and probably forms the basis for most identifications made by zooarchaeologists. however, most comparative collections (including the one i use) are really inadequate for their intended purpose. returning to an earlier example, the identification “bison bison left femur” is usually arrived at through the following type of mental process: “clearly a large ungulate, based on morphological characteristics and size; perissodactyls can be eliminated on the basis of morphology, so it must be an artiodactyl; the only artiodactyls of this size on the canadian plains at 3000 bp are bison, moose and wapiti; specimen was compared with an old male bison which died in a zoo, a juvenile moose donated by a game farm, and a mature female wapiti culled from a national park; characteristics most resemble the bison”. while this may exaggerate the deficiencies of comparative collections, there are few which contain sufficient numbers of specimens to cover age and sex variation, individual variation, or variation resulting from life in different habitats. most identifications using comparative collections are therefore “best guess” approximations, usually based on inadequate comparative samples. the use of identification guides and keys also poses problems. a key is a formally laid out system of identification, usually organised in such a way that presence or absence of characteristics can be used to identify a species. keys usually have a branching form, so that one begins by looking for features characteristic of gross taxonomic groupings, and then proceeds to finer divisions (pankhurst 1978). such keys are rare in vertebrate zooarchaeology or paleontology, because each species possesses hundreds of bones, and bones are generally found as fragments. consequently, a formal key would be required for each part of each element of the skeleton, or at least for those areas generally considered most useful for separating taxonomic groups. while attempts to do this have been made (e.g., various keys in gilbert et al. 1985), most published aids to identification cannot be described as keys. in most cases they are usually collections of illustrations, sometimes with notes discussing diagnostic characteristics (e.g., gilbert 1980; olsen 1964, 1968; schmid 1972; smith 1979). as i have suggested (driver 1987) the existence of such guides is somewhat anomalous. for the frequently occurring species in an area, one can anticipate that most zooarchaeologists will have access to comparative collections which contain those species, and “hands on” inspection is likely to be better than illustrations for the purposes of identification of fragments. for rare species, on the other hand, it is surely better to take the specimens to a comparative collection which contains the species than to rely on an illustration to identify a rarity. the only guides which have any real value to zooarchaeologists are those which summarise the results of observations of large numbers of specimens and discuss distinctive diagnostic characteristics which consistently occur (e.g., olsen 1960; brown and gustafson 1979; lawrence 1951). such publications are relatively rare, and even those which are based on observations of many specimens rarely provide information on how many specimens of each species were consulted or the locations from which specimens were obtained. nevertheless, they are quite important as a supplement to a comparative ethnobiology letters featured reprint & invited comments 24 collection, because they point out consistent diagnostic differences between morphologically similar species. most zooarchaeological identifications are made through a combination of comparative collections and illustrated guides, generally used in a complementary fashion. good illustrated guides will be the result of examination of many specimens, and should partly solve the problem of most comparative collections−insufficient representation of intra-species variation. the comparative collection is essential for the identification of fragments, and for examining details of bone morphology. measurement systems of varying degrees of complexity have been used by zooarchaeologists. at the most simple level, all analysts use gross size to eliminate certain taxa from consideration. thus, to return to the example of the bison femur, sheep is excluded, on the criterion of size rather than morphology, because both sheep and bison share many morphological features. more complex systems of measurement involve taking multiple measurements on single specimen, and are generally only used to separate closely related species. these measurements may be compared using a bivariate plot (e.g., davis 1987, figure 1.12) or by using multivariate statistics (e.g., morey 1986). while such methods appear to be sound, as they are based upon measurements which discriminate between modern specimens of known taxonomic affiliation, they can be misleading. many modem species exhibit considerable geographic variation and, while a system of measurements may discriminate between two closely related sympatric species, it is not necessarily the case that the method can be applied in other regions or in the past. identification by measurement also requires relatively complete specimens, and can only be applied to a relatively small proportion of fragments. assumption 2 therefore requires some qualifications. we do not systematically test the quality of our identifications using “blind” tests. the only criterion for the validity of identifications is the reputation and experience of the analyst. consequently we have no idea of the accuracy of our methods. all identification methods have potential flaws, and while most zooarchaeologists would probably agree that most identifications are probably accurate, they have no empirical or theoretical basis for this claim. taxonomic diversity a further problem in identification concerns the very uneven diversity of species in separate lineages. in part this is due to differences in the importance of “lumping” and “splitting” for taxonomists studying different vertebrate classes. in part it also reflects the evolutionary history and adaptive radiation of certain vertebrate lineages. the problem for the zooarchaeologist is that some types of animals are easily identified to the species level, because nothing else anywhere in the world resembles their skeletons, while other species are virtually indistinguishable on osteological evidence. for north america we could cite the familiar beaver (castor canadensis) as an example. many of the bones of this species are so distinctive that a high frequency of specimens can be identified confidently to the species level. this situation can be contrasted with north american microtine rodents, whose post-cranial skeletons are so similar that, with the exception of the very large muskrat, individual bones can only be identified to the family or sub-family level. identification of species for microtines can only be undertaken through analysis of teeth, and even then some species are not separated easily. clearly, we can expect a higher frequency of bones of some species to be identified to the species level than others. if a major goal of zooarchaeological analysis is calculation of relative frequency of species, some species will be more abundant simply because their skeletons are more easily identified. there appears to be no solution to this problem at present. it is not possible to calculate species abundance by selecting only elements (such as crania and mandibles) which are commonly identifiable to species in most cases, because cultural factors (e.g., butchery methods or differential transportation of elements) and natural factors (e.g., many taphonomic processes) may differentially affect the presence of these elements on a site. calculation of minimum numbers of individuals (mni) is not a solution either. grayson (1979) has shown that mni is not independent of the number of indentified specimens (nisp); consequently, mni does not provide an estimate of relative abundance independent of the number of identified elements. species with large numbers of identifiable post-cranial elements will provide higher mni values than species in which only mandible and cranium can be identified to species. identification by association most of the discussion so far concerns the problems of actually identifying individual specimens. in spite of the various problems discussed, most zooarchaeologists would probably agree that an unknown but high percentage of specimens identified by reasonably competent and experienced zooarchaeologists familiar with the fauna of a particular region are correct. ethnobiology letters featured reprint & invited comments 25 table 1. element frequencies and percentages for fauna on two hypothetical sites. site u1 u2 s l xactual 100 100 100 % 33 33 33 yactual 50 50 100 100 % 17 17 33 33 xreported 100 100 100 % 33 33 33 yreported 20 20 100 100 % 8 8 42 42 however, further problems are encountered when zooarchaeologists begin to make assumptions about the specific identity of taxa identified to a more general level than that of the species. we can begin this discussion by considering the relatively rare circumstance of identifying bones from a site where a single species is encountered. although zooarchaeologists working in the north american plains are familiar with this in the case of bison kill sites, on a global scale this is a somewhat unusual occurrence. if one examines faunal reports from bison kill sites, one finds that species identifications are made of some elements which would normally be relegated to a much more general taxonomic category. in fact, in most cases, virtually every bone fragment which can be identified to element is assumed to be from a bison. in such a case one can argue that this practice is reasonable, and that if all the femora, humeri, crania, etc. are from bison bison, then less diagnostic elements such as rib shaft fragments or vertebral zygapophyses are probably from the same species. however, the identification of these fragments to the species level depends entirely upon their association with the specimens which possess characteristics which allow identification of species. if such fragments were encountered in sites in which other large ungulates were identified, they would almost certainly be relegated to the category “large ungulate”, or some such similar designation. the practice of “identification by association” is not only, as will show, potentially misleading; it is also unnecessary. with the possible exception of articulated specimens (a special instance discussed later), every bone fragment should be identified on its own merits. thus, a summary of fauna from a monospecific assemblage should include fragments identified to the species, genus and family level, as well as some fragments identified to the archaeologically created categories of the “large ungulate” type. once the identifications have been made and tabulated, the zooarchaeologist may wish to argue that, for the purposes of certain analyses (perhaps element frequency), the assumption will be made that all fragments identified to more general levels are in fact from a single species. in other words, the previously hidden assumption is made clear, the reasoning behind the assumption is made plain, and one can then proceed with the analysis. such a procedure is recommended here not simply because it places identification on a more formal footing. it has practical implications for inter-site comparisons. to illustrate this, one may imagine two single-component archaeological sites, x and y, located in the same general region but in different habitats. site x contains three species: a large ungulate (u1), a small ungulate (s), and a lagomorph (l). site y contains four species: two large ungulates (u1 and u2), and the same small ungulate and lagomorph found in site x. the analyst of the site x fauna identifies all large ungulate bones as u1, all small ungulate bones as s and all lagomorph bones as l, using the type of “identification by association” principle discussed above. the analyst of the site y fauna identifies some large ungulates as u1 and some as u2, but many fragments are not diagnostic of either species even though they are recognizable as large ungulates. these cannot, of course, be identified to species, although they could, as discussed later, be included in a general “large ungulate” category. like the analyst of site x, the site y analyst also uses “identification by association” whenever possible, and therefore identifies all small ungulate and lagomorph bones on site y as s and l respectively. we can therefore envisage two assemblages for each site. the first (the actual assemblage) represents the real numbers of fragments of each species which were in fact present at both sites. the second (the reported assemblage) is composed of specimens identified by the analysts (table 1). as the example shows, differences in identification methods may lead to different relative frequencies of different species. for example, the ratio of l to u1 changes from 2:1 in the actual site y assemblages to 5:1 in the reported assemblages. similarly the ratio of l to all ungulates (u1+u2) changes from 1:1 in site x to 5:2 in the reported assemblages from site y, even though ethnobiology letters featured reprint & invited comments 26 the actual ratio remains constant from one site to the next. cases such as this will not necessarily arise provided that zooarchaeologists are aware of such problems in the data. however, unless the analyst of site x clearly differentiates between specimens which can be identified positively as species u1 and those which can only be identified on their own merits as large ungulates, the data produced by the analysis will be of limited value in any comparative studies, because it will not be possible to sort out which bones are really identifiable to the species level and which are assumed to belong to that species. one could argue that such a problem would not arise if the analyst of site y reported values for an extra category−“large ungulate.” indeed, this is a fairly common procedure in zooarchaeology. while this would solve the problem of looking at ungulate to lagomorph ratios, it still creates problems. for example, the importance of u1 in the site y assemblage still cannot be compared with u1 values from site x because criteria used to identify the bones differed from one assemblage to the other. if, on the other hand, the site x analyst had used the “large ungulate” taxon for specimens which could not be identified positively as species u1, the assemblages would be comparable. one other possible solution would be to calculate the ratio of u1 to u2 in the site y assemblage, and then make the assumption that this same ratio applies to the “large ungulate” category. the “large ungulates” could then be assigned proportionately to species u1 and u2, and comparisons could be made with site x. again, there are serious problems with this method. for example, if butchery practices differed between the two ungulate species, then more “large ungulate” fragments would derive from the species which had undergone more frequent bone breakage and comminution. the situation could be further confused if we added more sites to the example with new species of small ungulates and lagomorphs at some of the sites. there are other problems with “identification by association.” the practice almost certainly encourages complacency in identification procedures. if one begins with the assumption that all bones found in a supposedly monospecific assemblage are indeed from one species, then the likelihood of identifying the rare bone of another species of similar size is considerably diminished. the practice of “identification by association” is of little value to zooarchaeology. apart from being dishonest, such identifications can lead to either confusion or unwarranted conclusions. the practice should be discontinued. zooarchaeologists should identify to a particular taxon only those bones which can unquestionably be assigned to it. a set of procedures for zooarchaeological identification identification of specimens by zooarchaeologists is an attempt to place them into taxonomic and anatomical categories used in zoology. in view of the general robusticity of the system of binomial nomenclature, and (with the possible exception of fishes) the system for naming individual bones, this method of classification would seem to be the most appropriate for the initial stages of any zooarchaeological analysis in which knowledge about species representation is important. even if one does not wish to use the binomial system and standard anatomical terms, most other imaginable classifications require prior knowledge of the taxon and element. consequently standard zoological descriptors will continue to be important in zooarchaeological classification. it is important for zooarchaeologists to realise that the evidence used by zoologists to establish their classificatory systems include a wide range of data which can never be observed in the archaeological record (ross 1974). there is no expectation that all, or any, bones or bone fragments will be sufficiently distinctive to identify unequivocally the species defined by consideration of whole specimens. the classification that zooarchaeologists use was developed to meet the needs of zoologists who almost always have many complete specimens of the animals they are attempting to classify. it is inevitable that many zooarchaeological specimens will be recorded as “unidentifiable”. if most zooarchaeologists accept the use of zoological terms to identify bone fragments, one might expect unanimity on standardised methods for data reporting. however, it is unrealistic to propose this. individual zooarchaeologists have different confidence levels (with a tendency for the more experienced to be less willing to differentiate between closely related species). since comparative collections differ in quality, one's ability to identify bones is partly a function of where one works. furthermore, different research goals may require different approaches towards identification. for example, if research is primarily oriented towards analysis of subsistence, it might well be a waste of time tracking down the occasional passerine bone in an assemblage dominated by large mammals. alternatively, palaeoenvironmental studies ethnobiology letters featured reprint & invited comments 27 require species identifications, and bone fragments which cannot be identified to that level can often be ignored, even though in other contexts they might provide information about element frequency or butchery. however, although we cannot expect complete standardisation of data reporting, it is nonetheless necessary to inform other archaeologists of how one has implemented the system of identification. in order to do this, one has to follow certain procedures, and these are outlined below. prior to beginning an analysis one should develop a set of rules about how identifications are to be made. i suspect that very few zooarchaeologists do this, although many assume that they have done so. in most cases, one has a fairly good idea of the type of fauna which will be recovered from a site, and can predict fairly well what sorts of decisions will be required during the course of the analysis. the first rule of virtually any analysis must be that each fragment will be identified on its own merits, so that “identification by association” does not occur. however, one may decide to make exceptions to this rule (although i personally do not). for example, a complete articulated skeleton might contain some bones which are identifiable to species, while others are only identifiable to genus if found as individual specimens. in such a case, one might decide to allow the identification to species of all bones which are clearly articulated. similar decisions must be made in the case of bone fragments which can be glued together. if one finds twenty fragments of a moose tibia which can be reconstructed, should it be identified as a single fragment of moose? should each individually identifiable fragment be counted? should each fragment be counted as a separate identifiable piece? one can make arguments for all procedures, but whichever is to be followed must be established prior to the beginning of the analysis, and should also be reported (briefly) in the faunal report. one must also make decisions about how one will make taxonomic distinctions. as noted earlier, assumptions are always made about what species are represented in the fauna. if one begins with no assumptions, then identification is virtually impossible, because every fragment will have to be checked against far more species than is realistic. for example, on canadian high arctic sites dating to the last 5000 years, the only canidae likely to occur are canis lupus, c. familiaris, alopex lagopus and vulpes vulpes. for most analysts these form the universe from which any specimens identified as canidae must derive. such north american species as canis latrans, vulpes velox or urocyon cinereoargenteus will be excluded from consideration by most analysts prior to attempting to identify canid bones. decisions not to include certain species as possible sources of fauna result in a greater proportion of specific identifications. for example, using the arctic example cited above, a canid femur which was demonstrably larger than a big fox but much smaller than a small wolf would have to be identified as a dog, canis familiaris. however, if one was to include c. latrans in the list of “possible” species for the area, then the specimen would probably be identified as “dog/coyote sized canid”. in addition to deciding what species might be present in the area, analysts must also decide what elements of the skeleton can provide specific identifications. this varies from one taxonomic group to another. for example, identification of the various species of canis must be undertaken on fairly complete mandibles or crania; distinctions between mule deer and white-tailed deer can be made only on the antlers. on the other hand, many bones of castor canadensis can be identified to species because there are no closely related species in the region being studied. if one is willing to produce a list of species which are likely to occur in the site (which i have argued above is essential), then one should be able to predict in advance which species are likely to be difficult to separate. this will allow one to decide prior to the analysis which elements exhibit so much overlap in morphology and size that distinctions between species cannot be made. once such decisions have been made, they should be adhered to, and should be reported in the published analysis. finally, it is very important that zooarchaeologists attempt whenever possible to report identifications in more detail than is usually done, so that the nature of identification methods can be understood by other archaeologists. as noted above, this should include brief notes about what taxa were considered separable, and what elements were used to separate taxa. ideally, descriptive zooarchaeological reports which provide the basic information about a site's fauna should also include tables in which numbers of elements (or parts of elements, or butchering units, etc.) are recorded for each taxa. this not only allows other analysts to manipulate data on element frequency, it also provides a very good guide to the identification procedures utilised. for example, if a zooarchaeologist practices “identification by association,” these tables will show elements such as ribs identified to fairly specific levels; on the other hand, tables produced by a zooarchaeologist who does not use the method will ethnobiology letters featured reprint & invited comments 28 show ribs and other less diagnostic elements relegated to a more general category. admittedly, such tables take up space. this problem can be solved by carefully constructed tables and a lot of fine print. it can also be solved by the somewhat controversial use of microfiche appendices or even floppy discs. the introduction of many tables of data is not generally approved by editors and publishers, but without them much of the information recorded by zooarchaeologists is lost. such data are often vital to future researchers, and zooarchaeologists should promote their use. conclusion the classification of specimens by element and taxon is a preliminary step of most zooarchaeological analyses. zooarchaeologists generally use classificatory systems borrowed from zoology. it has been shown that the assumptions made by zooarchaeologists when using these systems, especially binomial nomenclature, are partly invalid. furthermore, the procedures for actually identifying specimens are rarely made explicit, nor are most zooarchaeological identifications susceptible to testing or critical evaluation. we can place no confidence limits on identifications. while it is desirable to begin testing our abilities to provide correct identifications, using carefully constructed blind tests to assess the reliability of the methods, we can make zooarchaeological data more trustworthy by following some simple procedures. we must make explicit which species have been considered as the “universe” from which identifications have been made. we must outline the way in which identifications were made, including details of comparative collections, keys, guides, and measurement systems used. we should avoid “identification by association”. data reporting should include more than a list of taxa accompanied by nisp and mni values. publication of data should, at the very least, include lists of elements identified to various taxa, preferably organised by provenance. the arguments for these recommendations are unambiguous and easily defended. zooarchaeological analysis does not stop at the site level. any attempt to work with data compiled by other researchers requires that one assess whether data sets are comparable, and this means that details of identification procedures and results must be made explicit. if zooarchaeology has any claims to be scientifically based we must adopt procedures which make the methodology of data production clear to other researchers. only then can past research contribute to future syntheses. acknowledgements i am very grateful to jack nance who read an earlier draft of this paper and helped to clarify the distinctions between typology and identification, as well as making many other useful comments. references cited behrensmeyer, a. k., k. d. gordon, and g. t. yanagi. 1987. trampling as a cause of bone surface damage and pseudo-cutmarks. nature 19:768-71. binford, l. r. 1981. bones. ancient men and modern myths. academic press, new york. brown, c. l. and c. e. gustafson. 1979. a key to postcranial skeletal remains of cattle/bison, elk and horse. washington state university laboratory of anthropology reports of investigations 57. brumley, j. h. 1973. quantitative methods in the analysis of butchered faunal remains: a suggested approach. archaeology in montana 14(1):1-40. clason, a. t. 1972. some remarks on the use and presentation of archaeological data. helinium 12(2):139-53. davis, s. j. m. 1987. the archaeology of animals. batsford, london. driver, j. c. 1983. minimum standards for reporting of animal bones in salvage archaeology: southern alberta as a case study. in directions in archaeology: a question of goals, edited by p. d. francis and e. c. poplin, pp. 199-209. university of calgary archaeological association, calgary. driver, j. c. 1987. review of mammalian osteology (gilbert) and avian osteology (gilbert, martin and savage). zooarchaeological research news 6(1). gilbert, b. m. 1980. mammalian osteology. missouri archaeological society, columbia. gilbert, b. m., l. d. martin, and h. savage. 1985. avian osteology. missouri archaeological society, columbia. grayson, d. k. 1979. on the quantification of vertebrate archaeofaunas. in advances in archaeological method and theory 2, edited by m. b. schiffer, pp. 199237. academic press, new york. grigson, c. 1978. towards a blueprint for animal bone reports in archaeology. in research problems in zooarchaeology, edited by d. r. brothwell, k. d. thomas, and j. clutton-brock, pp. 121-128. institute of archaeology occasional papers 3. ethnobiology letters featured reprint & invited comments 29 hayden, b. 1984. are emic types relevant to archaeology? ethnohistory 31(2):79-92. hill, j. and r. evans. 1972. a model for classification and typology. in models in archaeology, edited by d. l. clarke, pp. 231-73. methuen, london. jeffrey, c. 1977. biological nomenclature. crane russak, new york. johnson, e. 1985. current developments in bone technology. in advances in archaeological method and theory 8, edited by m. b. schiffer, pp. 157-235. academic press, new york. krieger, a. d. 1944. the typological concept. american antiquity 9: 271-88. lawrence, b. 1951. post-cranial skeletal characters of deer, pronghorn and sheep-goat, with notes on bos and bison. papers of the peabody museum of archaeology and ethnology 35(3). morey, d. f. 1986. studies on amerindian dogs: taxonomic analysis of canid crania from the northern plains. journal of archaeological science 13:119145. morlan, r. e. 1986. pleistocene archaeology in old crow basin: a critical reappraisal. in new evidence for the pleistocene peopling of the americas, edited by a. l. bryan, pp. 27-48. university of maine center for the study of early man, orono. olsen, s. j. 1960. post-cranial skeletal characters of bison and bos. papers of the peabody museum of archaeology and ethnology 35(4). olsen, s. j. 1964. mammalian remains from archaeological sites, part i, southeastern and southwestern united states. papers of the peabody museum of archaeology and ethnology 56(1). olsen, s. j. 1968. fish, amphibian and reptile remains from archaeological sites, part i, southeastern and southwestern united states. papers of the peabody museum of archaeology and ethnology 56(2). pankhurst, r. j. 1978. biological identification: the principles and practice of identification methods in biology. university park press, baltimore. ross, h. h. 1974. biological systematics. addison-wesley, reading. schmid, e. 1972. atlas of animal bones. elsevier, amsterdam. shipman, p. 1981. application of scanning electron microscopy to taphonomic problems. annals of the new york academy of sciences 376:357-86. smith, g. s. 1979. mammalian zooarchaeology, alaska: a manual for identifying and analyzing mammal bones from archaeological sites in alaska. university of alaska anthropology and historic preservation cooperative park studies unit occasional paper 18. sneath, p. h. and r. r. sokal. 1973. numerical taxonomy. w. h. freeman, san francisco. steward, j. h. 1954. types of types. american anthropologist 56:54-7. sullivan, a. p. and k. c. rozen. 1985. debitage analysis and archaeological interpretation. american antiquity 50(4):755-79. van couvering, j. a. 1980. community evolution in east africa during the late cenozoic. in fossils in the making, edited by a. k. behrensmeyer and a. p. hill, pp. 272-298. university press, chicago. vaughan, p. c. 1985. use-wear analysis of flaked stone tools. university of arizona press, tucson. watson, j. p. n. 1979. the estimation of the relative frequencies of mammalian species: khirokitia 1972. journal of archaeological science 6:127-37. whallon, r. and j. a. brown (eds.). 1982. essays on archaeological typology. center for american archaeology press, evanston. biosketch jon driver is a professor in the department of archaeology at simon fraser university (canada), where he currently serves as provost and vice-president, academic. he completed a b.a. at cambridge and a ph.d. at calgary. he has undertaken zooarchaeological research in england, canada and the usa. he is currently working on faunal assemblages from colorado and new mexico. ethnobiology letters featured reprint & invited comments 30 comments on “identification, classification, & zooarchaeology” kristine bovy dept. anthropology, university of rhode island kbovy@mail.uri.edu re-reading driver’s paper was an eye opening experience. while i was pleased to find that i have internalized many of his suggestions, i was reminded of many others that i wish i had followed more closely. for the most part, his observations and recommendations are as true today as there were twenty years ago. for example, many beginning zooarchaeologists may be puzzled by driver’s remark that there is “a tendency for the more experienced [zooarchaeologist] to be less willing to differentiate between closely related species (65).” wouldn’t one get better at making more specific identifications with more practice? driver’s statement exactly captures how i feel when looking back at some of my early analyses—how could i identify that? the answer—i couldn’t! it has taken fifteen years of analysis for me to more fully realize what can and cannot be identified. unfortunately, driver’s observation about the inadequacy of many comparative collections is also still salient today. for example, juvenile birds from zooarchaeological assemblages are often left unanalyzed due to the lack of sub-adult comparative specimens. although immature birds can be difficult to identify, such analyses can reveal important biogeographic information about past breeding distributions and can have relevancy for the management of current bird species (e.g. bovy 2011). in addition, driver commented on the difficulty of distinguishing fragmented bird bones from small mammals. i have also observed cases in which immature bird bones were sorted with the mammal bones because of their spongy appearance. some juvenile bird bones may never make it to the bird bone analyst, but are relegated to “unidentified” mammal. there are at least two aspects of zooarchaeology that are different today than in 1992. first, driver notes, “for most vertebrate zooarchaeologists this [taxonomic revision] is not a major problem, because revisions tend to be rare and minor (61).” however, extensive genetic studies in biology in the past twenty years have created significant changes in bird taxonomy. in the 2010 installment of the annual supplement to the check-list of north american birds (chesser et al., 2010), the american ornithologists’ union re-arranged a number of taxa in response to recent genetic studies and created four new taxonomic orders: phaethontiformes (tropicbirds), suliformes (frigatebirds, boobies, cormorants, darters, and allies), accipitriformes (hawks, kites, eagles, and allies), and eurypygiformes (sunbittern and kagu); herons were also moved from ciconiformes (now just storks) to pelecaniformes (pelicans, herons, ibises, and allies). therefore, taxonomic identifications made just a few years ago, may now mean something quite different. for example, a specimen identified conservatively in the past as “falconiformes” (formerly “diurnal birds of prey”) could now be assigned to either “accipitriformes” or “falconiformes” (caracaras and falcons). it is now essential that bird analysts keep on top of these yearly updates, and also be explicit about what version of the checklist and updates are being used in a given report. second, it has obviously become much easier to share raw data with other analysts via the internet, and some journals allow authors to include online appendices or supplements to articles. in addition, the archaeology program of the national science foundation requires those applying for a grant to submit a “data access plan” detailing how the primary data will be disseminated. as more analysts take advantage of new digital options, it will hopefully become more common to have access to original data and tables, rather than just the short summary tables allowed in many journal articles. as i begin a new zooarchaeological analysis this fall and train students to help in the lab, i plan to review driver’s article again, and make sure the hidden assumptions of zooarchaeology are transparent to these budding zooarchaeologists as well. i may even post the following quote from driver’s article in the lab as a reminder to do good work: “zooarchaeologists should identify to a particular taxon only those bones which can unquestionably be assigned to it (65).” references cited bovy, k. m. 2011. archaeological evidence for a double-crested cormorant (phalacrocorax auritus) colony in the pacific northwest, usa. waterbirds 34(1):89-95. chesser, r. t., r. c. banks, f. k. barker, c. cicero, j. l. dunn, a. w. kratter, i. j. lovette, p. c. rasmussen, j. v. remsen, jr., j. d. rising, d. f. stotz, and k. winker 2010. fiftieth supplement to the american ornithologists’ union check-list of north american birds. the auk 127:726-744. mailto:kbovy@mail.uri.edu� ethnobiology letters featured reprint & invited comments 31 comments on “identification, classification, & zooarchaeology” virginia l. butler dept. anthropology, portland state university virginia@pdx.edu i am pleased to see the republication of jon driver’s 1992 paper. he makes many excellent points about zooarchaeological methods and reporting of faunal data, especially the need to be explicit about the basis of our taxonomic identifications, including assumptions we make about which taxa are in our geographic universe and other factors that help determine whether a species, genus, or family level assignment is appropriate. there are many reasons we should follow driver’s suggestions. being explicit about the source of our identifications allows for others to evaluate claims, prerequisite to the scientific enterprise. we can also build on others’ work, not having to re-invent the wheel in developing distinguishing criteria. another reason is associated with data synthesis. aggregating faunal data across multiple projects and analysts can be challenging, if not impossible when methods of analysis are vague or obscure. in addition, as we work to insinuate zooarchaeological research into more public domains such as wildlife and conservation policy, we will need to defend our identifications in those public domains including the courts. we want the products of our research to stand up to the closest scrutiny as we leave the “ivory tower” and the stakes increase. driver’s paper provides very useful guidance here. i have two main points to make. first, i want to explore the use of “identification by association”, which driver suggests is of little value to zooarchaeology. as driver explains, this practice begins with the taxonomic assignment of some specimens in a given site context, based on morphological or other criteria, and then “by association”, assigning a larger set of specimens to that taxon simply because of context, not based on independent criteria. for example, if one was able to identify some number of a site’s fish remains from the family catostomidae (sucker) to the species catostomus macrocheilus (largescale sucker), then by association, one could assign all the sucker remains to c. macrocheilus, not just the ones assigned based on morphology, given that this is the only species (of several others in the region) present. driver suggests that faunal analysts should avoid this practice, arguing instead that each bone be examined and taxonomically identified on its own merit. i argue that the problem with “identification by association” is not the use of context to make a claim, but rather the lack of background information in a report that would explain the analytic decision used to make the taxonomic assignment. if one is explicit about analytic decisions and protocols used to assign specimens to various taxonomic levels and describes which specimens were assigned based on morphology and association, then other researchers can evaluate the knowledge claims and decide whether to accept them. the key piece here is being explicit, shining a light on the hidden assumptions. second, i want to propose a bit of activism in the zooarchaeology community, if we all agree with driver and the underlying value of promoting rigorous approaches to faunal analysis and reporting of data. as with archaeology overall, in north america most funded faunal analysis and reporting takes place under the umbrella of heritage or cultural resources management. in the united states, state level offices (known variously as office of historic preservation, state historic preservation office, etc.) set guidelines for archaeological work and reporting. at least in oregon and washington, guidelines for zooarchaeological data reporting do not exist; i suspect many states and canadian provinces lack state-level guidelines. i suggest that we come up with some general guidelines for faunal sampling, analysis and reporting and that we work with our state/provincial historic preservation officers to get them integrated into archaeology practice guidelines. because of varying goals and research interests, we don’t want to mandate that all faunal analyses conform in lock-step to the same procedures. on the other hand we might “raise our game” more broadly, encouraging greater rigor and explicitness regarding taxonomic identification (and other important aspects of analysis and reporting), if we work to develop guidelines/ policies that management agencies could use. writing papers in peer-reviewed journals may not be sufficient to lead to the kinds of changes driver and others of us want to see. comments on “identification, classification, & zooarchaeology” karen d. lupo dept. anthropology, washington state university klupo@wsu.edu in the nearly two decades since driver’s (1992) publication appeared in circaea, identification techniques for faunal remains from archaeological sites have greatly expanded and become far more mailto:virginia@pdx.edu� mailto:klupo@wsu.edu� ethnobiology letters featured reprint & invited comments 32 sophisticated. the application of new techniques for analyzing ancient genomics (ancient dna) are becoming more widespread and allow for the precise identification of different species (e.g., barnes et al. 2000; horsburgh 2008; yang et al. 2005). in many cases, these same identifications could not have been justified solely on the basis of bone characteristics or morphometrics. other kinds of techniques applied to different archaeological data, such as lipid residue analysis of tools and the identification of isotopic signatures, are increasingly providing additional details on the prehistoric use of animals. novel identification techniques based on bone histology are expanding analysts ability to identify the largely fragmented bones recovered in zooarchaeological contexts (cuijpers 2006). even as these new techniques become more widespread, however, most analyses of zooarchaeological assemblages still rely largely on more conventional sources of information such as comparative collections, published keys, the experience of the analyst and contextual information. but even some of these conventional sources are enhanced by the large number of manuals, keys and articles on bone identification focusing on a single taxon or comparing a few closely related species that have been and continue to be published since the early 1990’s (e.g., crockford 2009; semkin and wallace 2002). on-going assessments and refinements of standard identification criteria based on skeletal elements are distinguishing useful traditional criteria from those that are ambiguous (see zeder and lapham 2010 for a recent example). the perennial problem of a lack of access to adequate comparative collections is improved by digital, 3-d images that are becoming increasing available on the internet. although most current collections of digital images are a long way from capturing the range of ontogenetic, sexual, and geographic variability displayed by most animal populations, this deficit will undoubtedly be closed in the future. thus, faunal analysts now have many more identification tools in their arsenal than they did 30 years ago, and the potential for identifying large numbers of highly fragmented prehistoric faunal specimens has never been greater. despite the advantages that new developments afford, some of the problems identified by driver persist but are now manifested in different ways. elements of driver’s two fundamental and inter-related suggestions concerning standardization and transparency in taxonomic identifications still resonate today. to a certain extent, the realization of these objectives, is uneven in the field zooarchaeology and varies, in part, as a function of the analytical technique used by the researcher. for example, transparency in methodology and protocols are compulsory in most ancient genomic analyses. replication of results and duplicate testing in different laboratories are also part of the standard protocol. with the exception of rare or potentially controversial specimens, most conventional zooarchaeological analyses based on bone morphology and standard landmarks are often less clear about methodology. replication of results is not part of the standard protocol. while transparency in identification procedures in more conventional zooarchaeological analyses is on the rise, especially in archaeological reports, driver’s vision of clear procedural outlines for taxonomic identification remains unfulfilled. the sequence he envisioned involved analysts making a series of decision rules guiding how each fragment was to be identified before and during analysis. in practice, most analysts probably have developed a series of identification decision rules, but inclusion of these rules in publications is often overlooked. this is particularly problematic in analyses where bone fragments are assigned to animal size-class. because most analyses still rely largely on conventional identification sources, the use and clear reporting of procedures is critical and should be expanded beyond the rare or unique finds. if zooarchaeology is to prevail as an integrated sub-field in archaeology, then analysts need to strive to develop and apply common standards to all forms of identification. references cited barnes, i., j.p.w. young, and k. dobney. 2000. dnabased identification of goose species from two archaeological sites in lincolnshire. journal of archaeological science 27:91-100. crockford, s. j. 2009. a practical guide to in situ dog remains for the field archaeologist. pacific identifications, inc. cuijpers, a. g. f. m. 2006. histological identification of bone fragments in archaeology: telling humans apart from horses and cattle. international journal of osteoarchaoelogy 16:465-480. horsburgh, k. a. 2008. wild or domesticated? an ancient dna approach to canid species identification in south africa’s western cape province. journal of archaeological science 35:1474-1480. semken, h. a. and s. c. wallace. 2002. key to arvicoline (“microtine” rodents ) and arvicoline-like lower first molars recovered from late wisonsinan and holocene archaeological and palaeontological ethnobiology letters featured reprint & invited comments 33 sites in eastern north america. journal of archaeological science 29:23-31. yang, d. y., j. r. woiderski, and j. driver. 2005. dna analysis of archaeological rabbit remains in the american southwest. journal of archaeological science 32:567-578. zeder, m. and h. lapham. 2010. assessing the reliability of criteria used to identify postcranial bones in sheep, ovis, and goats, capra. journal of archaeological science 37:2887-2905. comments on “identification, classification, & zooarchaeology” r. lee lyman dept. anthropology, university of missouri lymanr@missouri.edu zooarchaeologists often do not report the anatomical criteria they have used to identify individual bones or teeth or shells as representing particular species. although perhaps understandable if one is of the opinion that discussions of taxonomically diagnostic morphometric features are simply “descriptive” and thus unworthy of page space in our professional journals, such an opinion is naive. taxonomic identification of animal remains recovered from archaeological excavations is the most fundamental and significant step of virtually any analysis of ancient faunal remains, regardless of the research question being asked or the hypothesis being tested. taxonomic identification is, however, superficially simple. in one of the best descriptions of the protocol i have found, paleontologist george gaylord simpson (1942:144) noted that one first assumes “that the bones of different [taxa] have characteristic forms, more or less constant for any one [taxon]” (simpson 1942:144). under this assumption, the zooarchaeologist places two homologous bones (say, two femora) next to one another “and looks” (simpson 1942:145), concluding that if the two bones look alike they are from the same taxon, but if they look different they are from different taxa. the “characteristic forms” or features of a bone or tooth or shell of a particular taxon constitute the necessary and sufficient conditions for identifying an archaeological specimen as a member of that taxon. perhaps because it is thought to be simple, many feel they can identify bones with minimal training and perhaps a skeletal guidebook such as gilbert (1990). unfortunately, this is not at all true. for example, at a minimum, such guidebooks not only seldom include more than one view of each skeletal element, they often present that view at a non-life-size scale, taxonomically diagnostic features are not indicated, and individual (intrataxonomic) variation due to age and sex and population differences is not indicated. to these facts can be added two more. first, many archaeological specimens are incomplete anatomical units such as a distal femur or a fragment of a proximal radius, and therefore fewer of the taxonomically diagnostic features are present. second, many species have closely related congeners (other species of the same genus) that display similar skeletal features. simply put, taxonomic identification is not simple. twenty years ago, jon driver (1992) wrote his thoughtful paper on the weaknesses of what he took to be the general protocol of taxonomic identification of archaeological faunal remains. subsequent studies of taxonomic identification procedures, while few in number (e.g., bochenski 2008; gobalet 2001; lyman 2002), have reinforced much of what driver said originally. yet the identification protocol deserves further study. driver’s paper is a great place to start and it is thus very appropriate that it is reprinted in a venue that will see it and that the fundamental topic receive more attention. driver argues that each specimen (individual bone or tooth or shell or fragment thereof) should be identified “on its own merits” by which he means its intrinsic anatomical and morphometric attributes. i agree. driver also argues for standardization of identification procedures and rules. i agree to the extent that we all use comparative collections of actual skeletons rather than some use guidebooks, some use comparative skeletons, and some use seat-of-the-pants. he advocates standardization of identification procedures and rules because at present the only criterion by which to judge the validity of any particular identification is the “reputation and experience of the analyst.” this qualified authority notion has some validity (e.g., woodward and goodstein 1996), and while perhaps necessary to evaluate an identification, it is not sufficient. driver’s solution to this dilemma is to recommend that an identification be reported in sufficient detail that it can be understood by the reader why a particular specimen has been identified as representing species a rather than species b or species c. to me, this only begs the question of what “sufficient detail” means. further, it ignores a historically well-established protocol. in the early history of zooarchaeology, it was paleontologists and zoologists who identified archaeologically recovered faunal remains to taxon (e.g., mailto:lymanr@missouri.edu� ethnobiology letters featured reprint & invited comments 34 gilmore 1949; merriam 1928; white 1953). paleontology has had, virtually since it became a distinct science (roughly 200 years ago at the hands of georges cuvier [rudwick 1976]), a standard protocol for reporting identifications. in a typical paleontological study there is a section entitled “descriptive paleontology” or “systematic paleontology.” there, all identified specimens are listed under each taxon, each specimen is described, and the anatomical and morphometric criteria used to make the identification are described verbally and exemplary specimens are illustrated. the taxonomically diagnostic anatomical features used to identify specimens as representing a particular species become well known among those studying particular taxa and undergo blind tests every time a paleontological report undergoes peer review and is published. someone is sure to point out when allegedly diagnostic anatomical features are not taxonomically diagnostic. a novice zooarchaeologist (and even many experienced ones) can do little better than to read paleontology when it comes to learning the protocol of taxonomic identification (e.g., barnosky 2004; guilday et al. 1964, 1977, 1978). that protocol addresses every problem driver identifies. references cited barnosky, a. d. (ed.) 2004. biodiversity response to climate change in the middle pleistocene: the porcupine cave fauna from colorado. university of california press, berkeley. bochenski, z. m. 2008. identification of skeletal remains of closely related species: the pitfalls and solutions. journal of archaeological science 35:1247–1250. driver, j. c. 1992. identification, classification and zooarchaeology. circaea 9:35–47. gilbert, b. m. 1990. mammalian osteology. missouri archaeological society, missouri state university, springfield. gilmore, r. m. 1949. the identification and value of mammal bones from archeological excavations. journal of mammalogy 30:163–169. gobalet, k. w. 2001. a critique of faunal analysis: inconsistency among experts in blind tests. journal of archaeological science 28:377–386. guilday, j. e., p. s. martin, and a. d. mccrady. 1964. new paris no. 4: a pleistocene cave deposit in bedford county, pennsylvania. bulletin of the national speleological society 26:121–194. guilday, j. e., p. w. parmalee, and h. w. hamilton. 1977. the clark’s cave bone deposit and the late pleistocene paleoecology of the central appalachian mountains of virginia. bulletin of the carnegie museum of natural history no. 2. guilday, j. e., h. w. hamilton, e. anderson, and p. w. parmalee. 1978. the baker bluff cave deposit, tennessee, and the late pleistocene faunal gradient. bulletin of the carnegie museum of natural history no. 11. lyman, r. l. 2002. taxonomic identification of zooarchaeological remains. the review of archaeology 23(2):13–20. merriam, c. h. 1928. why not more care in identifying animal remains? american anthropologist 30:731–732. rudwick, m. j. s. 1976. the meaning of fossils: episodes in the history of palaeontology, revised edition. neale watson academic publications, new york. simpson, g. g. 1942. the beginnings of vertebrate paleontology in north america. proceedings of the american philosophical society 86:130–188. white, t. e. 1953. studying osteological material. plains archaeological conference news letter 6:58–66. woodward, j. and d. goodstein. 1996. conduct, misconduct and the structure of science. american scientist 84:479–490. comments on “identification, classification, & zooarchaeology” clara otaola museo de historia natural de san rafael–conicet claraotaola@arqueologiamendoza.org the republication of driver’s paper is important and is of interest in argentina where the earliest papers about methods in faunal analysis either emphasized taxonomic identification or quantification of bone specimens. emphasis varies according to where archaeology programs are housed. those in programs within departments housed in the natural sciences, focus on the importance of zoological taxonomy during the identification process (salemme et al. 1991; tonni 1984). on the other hand, those trained in departments housed in the social sciences, despite treating faunal identification as a fundamental aspect of zooarchaeological research, emphasize the problems of quantification, the derivation of analytical units, and the development of models of past human behaviour related to subsistence (mengoni goñalons 1981, 1988). both perspectives are important for the development mailto:claraotaola@arqueologiamendoza.org� ethnobiology letters featured reprint & invited comments 35 of zooarchaeology in argentina. howev-er, a common standard for faunal identification as described by driver has not been adopted. zooarchaeological research has increased during the last thirty years in argentina (mengoni goñalons 2004, 2010), but much remains to be accomplished concerning standardization in faunal analysis. driver’s paper is rarely cited by argentine zooarchaeologists, though there are exceptions. a lack of attention to his paper reflects that many academic journals were difficult to access for much of the 1980s, 1990s, and early 2000s. the republication of this article in an open-access format provides the opportunity for argentine zooarchaeologists to revisit the topic of standardization. i would like to highlight one of driver´s ideas that is particularly important for the argentine zooarchaeologist, the statement that zooarchaeological analysis does not stop at the site level. for decades the majority of the papers in zooarchaeology in argentina were akin to faunal reports that relied heavily on faunal lists. regional approaches comparing faunas from multiple sites analyzed by diverse research teams are becoming more common today (barberena et al. 2009; martinez and gutiérrez 2004; otaola 2010; santiago and vázquez 2011). also, there has been an increase in collections-based research focusing on new questions, using new methods, especially for doctoral dissertation research. such use of previously excavated and often previously analysed collections makes the establishment of a transparent faunal identification standard a necessity. without such a foundation it is impossible to derive more sophisticated research orientations, such as taphonomic and theory-driven approaches. grayson (1984) warned over two decades ago that the zooarchaeological literature would grow to the point that it would become overwhelming. for the student, access to foundational literature can have an important impact on career development. many papers and manuals discuss methods for analyzing faunas, but driver´s paper emphasizes the theory of identification, which is a fundamental aspect of zooarchaeology because all subsequent analyses depend on rigorous faunal identification. references cited barberena, r. a., f. zangrando, a. f. gil, g. a. martínez, g. g. politis, l. a. borrero, and g. neme. 2009. guanaco (lama guanicoe) isotopic ecology in southern south america: spatial and temporal tendencies, and archaeological implications. journal of archaeological science 36:2666-2675. grayson, d. k. 1984. quantitative zooarchaeology. academic press, orlando, fl. martínez, g. and m. gutiérrez.2004. tendencias en la explotación humana de la fauna durante el pleistoceno final y holoceno en la región pampeana (argentina) in zooarchaeology of south america, edited by g.l. mengoni goñalons, pp. 81-98. bar international series, 1928. archaeopress, oxford. mengoni goñalons, g. l. 1981. obtención de información cultural de arqueofaunas. técnicas de estudio y análisis de material arqueológico. facultad de filosofía y letras, uba, pp. 15-33, buenos aires. mengoni goñalons, g. l. 1988. análisis de materiales faunísticos de sitios arqueológicos. xama 1:71-120. mengoni goñalons, g. l. 2004. an overview of south american zooarchaeology. in zooarchaeology of south america, edited by g. l. mengoni goñalons, pp. 1-9, bar international series 1298. archaeopress, oxford. mengoni goñalons, g. l. 2010. advances in animal bone archaeology in argentina: general trends and some prospects for the future. in current advances for the latin-american archaeozoology, edited by g. l. mengoni goñalons, j. arroyo cabrales , ó. polanco and f. j. aguilar, pp. 17-26. instituto nacional de antropología e historia, méxico, d. f. otaola, c. 2010. índices de utilidad en contextos tafonómicos variados. in zooarqueología a principios del siglo xxi: aportes teóricos, metodológicos y casos de estudio, edited by m. de nigris, p. m. fernández, m. giardina, a. f. gil, m. a. gutiérrez, a. izeta, g. neme, and h. d. yacobaccio, pp. 157-166. ediciones del espinillo, buenos aires. salemme, m., e. tonni, and l. miotti. 1991. the determination of mammal bones in zooarchaeological research. in recent developments in western mediterranean prehistory: archaeological techniques, technology and theory, vol. i, edited by w. h. waldren, j. a. ensenyat, and r. c. kennard, pp. 209-222. bar international series 573. archaeopress, oxford. santiago f. and m. vázquez. 2011. dietas promediadas. explorando el registro zooarqueológico supraregional en tierra del fuego. paper presented at the ii congreso nacional de zooarqueología argentina, universidad nacional del centro de la provincia de buenos aires, facultad de ciencias sociales, olavarría. tonni, e. p. 1984. la arqueología biológica en la argentina: el estudio de los vertebrados. adeha 6:1-11. ethnobiology letters featured reprint & invited comments 36 twenty years after “identification, classification and zooarchaeology” jonathan c. driver dept. archaeology, simon fraser university driver@sfu.ca abstract: in 1992 the author published “identification, classification and zooarchaeology” in the journal circaea. although rarely cited, the article has appeared regularly on the reading lists of some courses in zooarchaeology, and has been reprinted in this issue of journal of ethnobiology, together with a number of comments. in this short paper the author provides some context for the original article, and reflects on how zooarchaeologists have approached some of the problems of specimen identification in the last twenty years. key words: zooarchaeology, methods, identification background “identification, classification and zooarchaeology” (driver 1992) was written originally as a contribution to a proposed festschrift for richard (dick) forbis, an archaeologist who specialized in the northern plains (janes 1984), and who taught the graduate method and theory class in the department of archaeology, university of calgary when i was a student. the intended volume was never completed, so i submitted the paper to circaea, the journal of the association for environmental archaeology, because i felt that it would appeal more to british zooarchaeologists than their north american counterparts. my undergraduate degree was from cambridge, and i had spent a couple of years back in england working on medieval faunas after completing my phd in calgary, so i was familiar with the british and, to a lesser extent, the european approaches to zooarchaeology. “identification, classification and zooarchaeology” (icz) reflects four influences. first, i had experience in research projects where comparison of zooarchaeological data from numerous excavations was yielding more robust information than single site reports. my phd (completed in 1978) had taken a regional approach to a valley in the northern rocky mountains (driver 1985a). in britain i got to know members of the “faunal remains unit”, a government funded laboratory associated with southampton university that took on a wide range of projects in southern england, and used regional data for interesting overviews (e.g., maltby 1981). i had also completed a regional study of sites in eastern new mexico (driver 1985b). it had become apparent that reporting zooarchaeological data for a single excavation was only valuable if future researchers understood what criteria were used to identify animal remains, so that data from numerous sites could be combined for comparative or synthetic purposes. second, i had been strongly influenced by the work of don grayson on quantification. in 1982, i replaced rick casteel as the zooarchaeologist at simon fraser university, and his students convinced me that i should pay more attention to quantification methods. a close reading of grayson’s work, especially his first comprehensive analysis of the issues (grayson 1979); showed me that failure to understand fundamental aspects of data generation would lead to unsupportable interpretations. the influential books on taphonomy that appeared in the early 1980’s (e.g., behrensmeyer and hill 1980; binford 1981; brain 1981) contained numerous case studies of the dangers of making assumptions about the underlying natural and cultural processes that created faunal assemblages. however, what particularly struck me about grayson’s work was the potential for archaeologists themselves to structure assemblages in ways that would affect the interpretation of their data. just as grayson had investigated how choice of quantification methods affected assemblage composition and interpretation, i wanted to investigate how the identification of zooarchaeological specimens could do the same. third, having employed undergraduate and graduate research assistants, i had realized that in order to ensure comparability of results within my own projects, i would have to define protocols for recording specimens. this required standardized coding (so that we all spoke the same language), but i also wanted to ensure that we would be consistent in our identifications. i therefore began to develop rules for my students about what would and would not be considered “identifiable”. finally, with the widespread availability of personal computers in the 1980’s, it became more important to ensure that zooarchaeological specimens were recorded in a way that facilitated electronic sorting and manipulation of data. this also reinforced the need for clear protocols and coding systems for entry of descriptive data. by the mid-1980’s i had given up recording basic information about specimens on paper, and this led to more careful thought before beginning an analysis about what ought to be recorded. for example, in icz i talked about the need to define a “universe” of taxa that would be considered as potentially identifiable in a particular region. that mailto:driver@sfu.ca� ethnobiology letters featured reprint & invited comments 37 concept arose from having to make decisions about what taxa would receive codes when i was developing coding systems for use on personal computers. icz focused on identification because i felt that this was fundamental to zooarchaeological analysis, and yet was rarely discussed as a methodological problem. there was a literature available on criteria for distinguishing different taxa, but very little had been written on the assumptions that underlay the actual decision to identify a particular specimen to a particular taxonomic category. i also wanted to get away from attempts that had been made by zooarchaeologists to standardize reporting methods (e.g., grigson 1978) or create standard coding systems (e.g., klein and cruzuribe 1984) because these approaches reduced zooarchaeological analysis to a method without a research problem. what else should have been included in retrospect, there are two interrelated topics and an important earlier publication that i should have included in icz. first, as pointed out to me recently by steve wolverton, i should have investigated the literature on experimental protocols in science laboratories. my failure to do this is difficult to understand, because at the time the paper was written i was having regular conversations with physicist erle nelson, who did pioneering work on stable isotope analysis (e.g., chisholm, nelson and schwarcz 1983 ) and ams radiocarbon dating (e.g., nelson et al. 1986), and was a colleague in the same department. a frequent topic of our discussions was the reliability and precision of results, particularly when ams laboratories were being developed around the world. however, i didn’t connect our discussions about reliability, accuracy and precision in science labs to my own concerns about identifying faunal specimens. second, i was already aware of the processes that vertebrate palaeontologists used to formally describe faunas, and of the fact that a group of zooarchaeologists trained at university of wyoming had long used a descriptive approach derived from paleontology for reporting identifications (e.g., walker and frison 1980). i should have discussed the formality of that approach as a contrast to the more informal approach adopted by most zooarchaeologists. i should also have been aware of barbara lawrence’s paper on methodological problems raised during inter-site analysis, especially as the book in which it appeared was in the sfu library at the time. lawrence argued that in order to undertake inter-site comparisons it was necessary to agree on the criteria to be used for identification, and to report them. although she did not explore this topic in as much detail as icz, she was clearly aware of the fundamental issue: “the comparability of analyses can only be evaluated if the foundations on which these rest are fully described” (lawrence 1973:399). subsequent developments icz seems to have had little impact on zooarchaeological practice and has been cited rarely, although it is now available online through the association for environmental archaeology web site. a few zooarchaeologists have told me that they include the paper as required reading for undergraduate or graduate classes. my experience in compiling data from dozens of sites in british columbia and from hundreds of sites in the american southwest has shown that few zooarchaeologists discuss identification procedures in publications or in the grey literature, and i continue to believe that this is a failing of our research field almost 40 years after lawrence first defined the problem. there have been a number of developments since 1992 that should be noted. one of my former graduate students, randall preston, pointed out that one would have greater confidence in reported identifications if analysts carried out “blind” re-analysis of specimens. as far as i know, randall was the first zooarchaeologist to deliberately undertake this process, and i have encouraged all of my students to follow his example and report the reliability of their own identifications, based on a protocol for re-analyzing a portion of the assemblage. a more sophisticated experiment in assessing the accuracy of identifications was undertaken by ken gobalet (2001), who submitted the same collection of fish bones to different analysts, and reported the discrepancies between them. this paper was published in a journal that is widely read by zooarchaeologists, yet the paper is rarely cited, something that i find hard to understand. zooarchaeologists claim the ability to identify complete and fragmentary specimens from the vertebrate skeleton. they provide no proof that they can do this either reliably or accurately, and when someone conducts an experiment that throws the most basic aspect of zooarchaeology into question, there is virtually no reaction. gobalet’s paper should have been a wake-up call to the discipline. at the very least it should have prompted further experiments to assess whether this problem is widespread, and whether it is more prevalent for certain kinds of fauna maybe fish are more difficult to identify than mammals? ethnobiology letters featured reprint & invited comments 38 another important development that was just on the horizon in the early 1990’s is the ability to present massive amounts of information electronically, and to provide remote access to the data. this means that zooarchaeologists can archive detailed discussions of identification methods online, and that they can store complete data sets in accessible formats. of course, this makes the reliability and accuracy of the data even more important. one encouraging sign is that more people are posting photographs of “difficult” specimens online, and asking colleagues to assist in identification. also encouraging is the willingness of many journals to electronically archive data and descriptions of experiments that support the conclusions of published papers. it is interesting to note that the society for american archaeology’s january 2011 archaeological record contains a series of short articles about the potential for storing and sharing zooarchaeological information using digital formats. however, the biggest change in identification methods since icz was published is the development of ancient dna analysis (adna). this has revolutionized understanding of late pleistocene and holocene plants and animals, their genetic and ecological relationships, and their interaction with people. however, there has been surprisingly little use of adna as a method for independent confirmation of taxonomic identification based on more traditional zooarchaeological methods. there are some interesting examples that demonstrate the potential of adna as a check on the validity of identification methods. for example, while working on a large collection of rabbits from a site in the american southwest, yang et al. (2005) used adna to check the separation between lepus and sylvilagus on the basis of size. while the adna verified the legitimacy of element size as a distinguishing criterion (a not unexpected result), it also revealed the presence of a small lepus species that was present regionally, but thought to be very unlikely to occur around the site that had been excavated. another interesting example is ann horsburgh’s analysis of iron age canids in south africa. she reports that the context and abundance of canid remains had led archaeologists to assume that domestic dogs were present, but all of the specimens she tested were blackbacked jackals, a local wild canid (horsburgh 2008). tarcan and i used adna on a small number of specimens to test our ability to separate species and genera of medium-sized artiodactyls from the historic contexts at zuni pueblo, new mexico (tarcan and driver 2010). as analysis of adna samples becomes faster and cheaper, we should expect to see some systematic testing of identification of ancient faunal specimens that had been identified through more traditional zooarchaeological methods, such as morphology or biometrics. such experiments would help delineate the kinds of specimens that we have the most difficulty in identifying accurately, and could provide zooarchaeologists with some best practices for various categories of taxa. conclusion in the late 1980’s a combination of factors, both practical and theoretical, led me to reflect on the process of making an identification during a zooarchaeological analysis. i believe that my 1992 paper in circaea presented some troubling issues with the most fundamental aspect of zooarchaeology – attaching a taxonomic designation to a fragment of a skeleton. i do not think that we have resolved most of these issues. our continued assumption that identification is an acquired skill that cannot be subjected to rigorous confirmation procedures makes zooarchaeology less credible, especially to scientists from other disciplines. acknowledgements i thank steve wolverton for providing the opportunity to reprint my 1992 paper in ethnobiology letters, and for organizing the comments about the paper. i also thank daniela balanzetegui for her editorial assistance. references cited behrensmeyer, a. k. and a. p. hill (eds.) 1980. fossils in the making, vertebrate taphonomy and paleoecology. university of chicago press, chicago binford, l. r. 1981. bones. ancient men and modern myths. academic press, new york. brain, c. k. 1981. the hunters or the hunted? university of chicago press, chicago. chisholm, b. s., d. e. nelson, and h. p. schwarcz. 1983. marine and terrestrial protein in prehistoric biets on the british columbia coast. current anthropology 24:396-398. driver, j. c. 1985a. prehistoric hunting strategies in the crowsnest pass, alberta. canadian journal of archaeology 9:109-129. driver, j. c. 1985b. zooarchaeology of six prehistoric sites in the sierra blanca region, new mexico. museum of anthropology university of michigan technical report 17. driver, j. c. 1992. identification, classification and zooarchaeology. circaea 9: 35-47. ethnobiology letters featured reprint & invited comments 39 gobalet, k. w. 2001. a critique of faunal analysis: inconsistency among experts in blind tests. journal of archaeological science 28:377-386. grayson, d. k. 1979. on the quantification of vertebrate archaeofaunas. in advances in archaeological method and theory 2, edited by m. b. schiffer, pp. 199237. academic press, new york. grigson, c. 1978. towards a blueprint for animal bone reports in archaeology. in research problems in zooarchaeology, edited by d. r. brothwell, k. d. thomas, and j. clutton-brock, pp. 121-128. institute of archaeology occasional papers 3. horsburgh, k. a. 2008. wild or domesticated? an ancient dna approach to canid species identification in south africa’s western cape province. journal of archaeological science 35:1474-1480. janes, r. r. 1984. smith-wintemberg award. canadian journal of archaeology 8:1-2. klein, r. g. and k. cruz-uribe. 1984. the analysis of animal bones from archaeological sites. university of chicago press, chicago. lawrence, b. 1973. problems in the inter-site comparison of faunal remains. in domestikationsforschung und geschichte der haustiere, edited by janos matolcsi, pp. 397-402. akademiai kiadó, budapest. maltby, m. 1981. iron age, romano-british and anglosaxon animal husbandry. a review of the faunal evidence. in the environment of man: the iron age to the anglo-saxon period, edited by m. jones and g. dimbleby, pp. 155-203. british archaeological reports, british series 87, oxford. nelson, d. e., r. e. morlan, j.s. vogel, j.r. southon and c. r. harington. 1986. new dates on northern yukon artifacts: holocene not upper pleistocene. science 232:749-751. tarcan, c. and j. c. driver. 2010. the adoption and use of domestic animals at zuni. in anthropological approaches to zooarchaeology, edited by d. campana, p. crabtree, s. d. de france, j. lev-tov and a. choyke, pp. 159-167. oxbow books, oxford. walker, d. and g. c. frison. 1980. the late pleistocene mammalian fauna from the colby mammoth kill site, wyoming. rocky mountain geology 19:69-79. yang, d., j. r. woiderski, and j. c. driver. 2005. dna analysis of archaeological rabbit remains from the american southwest. journal of archaeological science 32:567-578. microsoft word anderson-burnett.doc ethnobiology letters                                                                                                                    book review    4    book review trying leviathan: the nineteenth‐century new york court case that put the  whale and challenged the order of nature   d. graham burnett. 2007. princeton university press. pp. 304 color plates, halftones, bibliography, index.  $29.95  (cloth). isbn 9780691129501.       reviewed by e. n. anderson1    reviewer address: 1department of anthropology, university of california, riverside, riverside, california 92521    received: january 2009                                  volume 1:4‐6  published: august 3rd 2010                       © 2010 society of ethnobiology    my fishermen friends in old hong kong regarded whales and porpoises as anomalous. these creatures were outwardly fish, but inwardly and behaviorally like mammals. thus they were sacred and taboo, like other anomalous fish. no one would hunt them, and if they were killed accidentally they had to be offered to the fishers’ protective goddess. it seems that whales were equally anomalous— burnett even uses the word—in old new york. having written one of the very few books on folk taxonomy of fishes (anderson 1973), i could not resist this history. starting with the title—recall that “trying” refers to both court action and boiling oil out of a whale—the book is witty, well-written, concise, and delightful. historians, unlike anthropologists, are still supposed to write well, and we are herein spared such words as “neoliberalism” and “globalization”—vapid terms whose sole function is to show off multisyllabic jargon. it relates the story of a trial in new york city in 1818. one samuel judd, dealer in whale oil, tried to get around a new law for inspecting fish oil, and thus avoid paying a hefty fee, by claiming that whales are not fish. the inspector (for the state of new york) promptly took him to court. the defense called the great ichthyologist and naturalist samuel mitchill (well known to any modern ichthyologist for his classic descriptions of fish species). mitchill testified according to the latest science, from linnaeus and cuvier: whales are mammals, not fish. the fiery and charismatic lawyer william sampson argued for the plaintiff, and brought in countless people to testify that almost everyone knew a whale was a fish. the only whaler the defense could bring was a captain with the incredible cognomen of preserved fish, “whose name, predictably, attracted the mirth of several commentators” (p. 95; preserved, pronounced preserv-ed, was a fairly common name among new england puritans). judd’s case was not helped by the fact that he was obviously trying to cheat the state rather than teach zoology. yet, “original intent” was as messy then as now. the law was new, so the people who framed it could actually be brought in to testify. gideon lee, who first advocated it, made it clear that he had meant it to include all fish, whales included. lee was a tanner; tanners used much fish oil (not usually whale oil) in working hides. so the direct court battle was really between whale oil sellers and fish oil buyers. peter sharpe, the legislator who actually got it passed, had understood differently—he wanted a law that covered fish oil in the narrow sense, not whale oil. sampson argued a populist line, setting the ordinary people against the ivory-tower scholar, and new yorkers (who generally used “fish” for any sea creature) against new englanders (who tended to separate “whales,” so important a quarry there). this proved successful, and the jury took only 15 minutes to find that, for purposes of the law, a whale was a fish. sharpe subsequently rewrote the law to make it clearer and thus to exempt whale oil. the matter stayed so poorly resolved that there was another trial, involving meat, not oil, but otherwise the same story, in 1919! today, especially after the shenanigans of the bush administration, this may sound like yet another american triumph of obscurantism and antiintellectualism over science. yet, in mitchill’s day, the idea that whales were mammals and not fish was new, and it was far from obvious. darwin’s revelation of what made real natural relationships was far in the future. there was no obvious reason to look at milk, live birth, lungs, and a horizontal tail (mitchill’s main ethnobiology letters                                                                                                                    book review    5    points of emphasis) rather than aquatic habitat, streamlined body shape, fins instead of legs, hairless skins, and active swimming and diving (see esp. pp. 8182). thank goodness the court was not aware of obligatory air-breathing lungfish. they knew of the “duck-billed beaver” (platypus) but were mercifully unaware that it lays eggs. they did know that linnaeus had classed “men” with monkeys (in the primates), and were properly scandalized, using the same language later used to attack darwin. this did not help mitchill’s case. sampson made much of the contrast between mere academic anatomy and actual functional similarities. folk usage was based on the latter. it, and therefore the obvious intent of the law as far as its original sponsors was concerned, was perfectly clear. even today, the english language maintains “shellfish,” “cuttlefish,” and so on, talks of the “whale fishery,” and even continues to refer to several small whales (notably globicephala spp.) as “blackfish”! burnett is aware, also, that darwinian thinking is not too kind to the category “whale.” the english word is paraphyletic. it includes the giant baleen whales, but also the sperm whale, killer whale, and other toothed whales that are actually overgrown dolphins. the english word “fish” is also paraphyletic, and really messy. a whale is actually closer to a trout than the latter is to a hagfish or even a shark. we may also remember, going back to the platypus, that the category “mammal” is still up for grabs too. the platypus is classed as a mammal, but is actually more like a surviving mammal-like reptile. burnett sees the case as “an occasion to investigate cetaceans as ‘problems of knowledge…’; a window onto the contested terrain of zoological classification…; and…an opportunity to assess the broader place of natural history…in new york and in the united states…in the early nineteenth century” (p. 190). actually, he does more. he deals with the whole question of folk classification, and the similarities and differences between it and scientific taxonomy. among the similarities are the obvious influences of “common sense,” economics, and utility. burnett has not read much anthropology, and is thus apparently unaware that “fish” is a universal form-class in human languages, and almost everywhere includes whales. but he unpacks the many “common sense” uses of the term in american english of the time, and makes some very astute remarks about classification. among them is a long essay on the special advantages of folk classification, based as it is on intimate working knowledge of living creatures. quoting one susan scott parrish, he refers to working people’s “local, experimentally derived, and multiracial epistemologies” (p. 103). “multiracial” is offensive here, implying that knowledge and intelligence are genetically coded and racially different, but evidently “multicultural” is meant. thus, knowledge is created through work. some kinds of knowledge are created by the work of whaling; others by the work of cutting up specimens in a comparative anatomy lab. some kinds are created by merchants selling and buying oil, others by lawyers marshalling and deploying shaky information in a courtroom. we see here the government responding (rather lamely) to folk and scientific usages, the people trying to sort it all out, and the final triumph of folk sense over learned controversy. knowledge is negotiated, and largely in terms of how it can be used in actual everyday real-world undertakings. this strongly supports the “utilitarian” tradition in ethnobiology, but gives some comfort to the “platonic” trend and the “social constructionist” trend also. people clearly form abstract ideas—schemas—from what they learn by interactive work. they then often use said schemas in governing, status-jockeying, social gaming, and other wider (and often shadier) pursuits. it seems to me that the utilitarian, or rather interactivepragmatic, trend is the basic one, at least in this case. thanks to all these concerns, the book is a wonderful one for showing how important the whole issue is. if anyone is still deluded by the claim that folk classification is “trivial,” this book emphatically proves otherwise. debates about “fish” continued for decades. herman melville opted for “fish” in moby dick (allowing burnett to bring torrid romantic emotionality into the book, by going into melville in detail). the great william whewell, who coined the word “scientist,” knew of the judd trial, and was moved to consider the taxonomic issues it raised. whewell saw types in a platonic way: induced as ideas. john stewart mill then crossed swords with whewell, seeing taxa as defined by people according to use, rather than being inherent (god-given?) in nature (burnett, pp. 215ff). this fundamental debate is still with us. i am thus glad to learn of the judd trial and its role in starting it. finally, burnett follows an important trend in history by seeing much importance in what we forget. the very real questions of when a whale is a fish, and of how social is science, are not salient to most people, however much they are to us ethnobiologists. we try ethnobiology letters                                                                                                                    book review    6    to situate and contextualize the knowledge we record, showing how it fits with wider social and cultural practices. others have not been so aware, and thus tend to erase stories that reveal the case for whales as fish or the role of legal pettifogging in scientific definitions. i can do no better than echo his final words (p. 220): “is a whale a fish? is science social? is philosophy historical? the precedent question is always this: what stories must be forgotten to answer these questions?” microsoft word anderson-feeding.doc ethnobiology letters                                                                                                                    book review    45    feeding the people, feeding the spirit:  revitalizing northwest coastal  indian food   elise krohn and valerie segrest. 2010. northwest indian college, bellingham, wa.  pp. x + 158, copiously  illustrated, tables, bibliography.      reviewed by e. n. anderson1    reviewer address: 1department of anthropology, university of california, riverside, riverside, california 92521    received: april 29th 2011                                       volume2:45  published: august 14th 2011                       © 2011 society of ethnobiology    this beautifully produced book is a traditional food sourcebook for native americans, primarily of western washington state. created by nutritionists working with the tribes there, it is part of a major food revitalization program that was featured at the traditional foods summit at the recent society for applied anthropology convention in seattle. the book is divided into four chapters, covering traditional views and foods; their fate in the contemporary world of supermarkets and online grocery shopping; revitalization efforts; and traditional foods—basically an ethnobotany. many of the entries on traditional foods include myths, stories, and conservation knowledge. this is followed by a long and quite mouthwatering section of recipes. all parts of the book are useful and accessible. anthropologists will find notably valuable the long and detailed quotes and stories from elders. inez bill of the tulalip tribe contributes (on p. 42) some particularly good food rules, which from my experience seem general to the northwest coast and farther: “taking and gathering only what you need so mother nature can regenerate her gifts to us.” “remembering to not waste any of our traditional food.” “sharing what you gather with family, friends and elders that are not able to go out and gather whenever possible.” “including prayer and giving thanks when gathering.” “preparing local native foods at gatherings.” “preparing food with a good heart and mind so when you serve your meal, people will enjoy their meal.” “providing nourishment for our people and their spirits, but also the spirit of our ancestors. we will strive to continue this way of life.” the ethnobotany section includes not only the traditional foods that are still commonly used, but considerable food advice on how to deal with supermarket foods: how to substitute for traditional foods, how to shop wisely, what to avoid, and so on. some of this advice is of use only to educated urban people (e.g. advice to buy nut butters other than peanut butter, p. 115), but there are now, thank goodness, a great number of highly educated and urbanized native northwest coasters. the recipes are also far from the stereotype of “hunter-gatherer” cuisine. thanks to the importance of feasts and potlatches, the northwest coast peoples had a genuine haute cuisine long before the euroamerican world intruded. this book moves on into fusion realms: nettle pesto, wild berry crisp, balsamic blueberries with amaranth, and the like. the recipes are wonderful, and i hope to try them out soon. in short, buy this book. it supports a good cause.  northwest coast food and medicine: grapevines and willow trees. photo by e. n. anderson, 2010. 68  research communica on  flight feathers useless (alves et al. 2010; fitzwater 1982). birdlime has a long history of use in many parts of the world with the earliest written records in the west dating to ancient greece (macpherson 1897). birdlime was a particularly important hunting strategy before modern firearms became widely available (macpherson 1897). although most effective against smaller avifauna, birdlime has also been employed to capture large birds such as waterfowl, cranes, raptors, and pheasants (macpherson 1897). insects (macpherson 1897) and small mammals (fitzwater 1982) can also be taken by “liming”, and burton (1918) even reported observing indigenous hunters capturing tigers (panthera tigris l. felidae) with birdlime in india. birdlime is traditionally prepared from adhesive introduction hunting is a behavior of primary importance in the physical and social evolution of humans (cartmill 1993) and information on traditional hunting and trapping methodologies is of interest to anthropologists, archaeologists, biologists, conservationists, and wildlife managers (gilchrist et al. 2005; shaffer 1996). such information not only enhances our understanding of indigenous folkways and patterns of resource exploitation among traditional societies (shaffer 1996), but on occasion can be adapted by professional biologists to meet research objectives (mcclure 1956; van vliet et al. 2009). birdlimes are a class of adhesive entangling compounds used to capture birds (macpherson 1897) by binding them to a substrate and rendering their birdlime in western myanmar: prepara on, use, and conserva on implica ons for an endemic bird steven g. pla 1, kalyar pla 2, thet zaw naing1, hong meng3, win ko ko1, naing lin1, robert j. tizzard1,  khin myo myo1, me me soe2, thomas r. rainwater4  author address:  1wildlife conserva on  society, myanmar program, hlaing  township, yangon, myanmar,  2turtle  survival  alliance, hlaing township, yangon, myanmar,  3natma taung na onal park, kampetlet, myanmar,  4u.s. fish and wildlife  service, charleston field office, charleston, south carolina, usa.  trrainwater@gmail.com  received: september 24, 2012  volume: 3:68‐75  published: december 17, 2012  © 2012 society of ethnobiology  abstract: birdlimes are adhesive  entangling  compounds  that passively  capture birds by binding  them  to a  substrate and  rendering flight  feathers useless. we  inves gated birdlime use among  indigenous chin hunters during a wildlife survey of  natma taung na onal park (ntnp) in western myanmar (may‐june 2011). we found that birdlime is prepared from the sap  of various banyan trees (ficus spp.) collected during the annual dry season (december‐may). birdlime is prepared by boiling  sap  to  remove water, and  the finished product  is a  readily malleable and extremely adhesive compound known  locally as  nghet phan te kaw (“bird glue”). hunters employ four principal strategies when using birdlime: 1) limed s cks are placed at  waterholes and springs; 2) limed s cks are placed in frui ng trees or nocturnal roost sites; 3) limed s cks are posi oned at  prominent vantage points and hunters mimic vocaliza ons to a ract birds; 4) small insects (possibly termites) are affixed to  a limed pole and serve as bait to a ract birds. large numbers (>200) of birds can reportedly be captured during a single day  by hunters using birdlime. at least 186 (63.9%) of 291 species of birds occurring in natma taung na onal park are thought  to  be  vulnerable  to  this  non‐selec ve  hun ng  strategy.  the  endangered white‐browed  nuthatch  (si a  victoriae  rippon  si dae), a poorly‐studied endemic species restricted to high eleva on oak‐rhododendron forest  in ntnp,  is vulnerable to  birdliming,  although  the  impact  of  hun ng  on  popula ons  remains  unclear. we  recommend  that  future  inves ga ons  determine the sustainability of the chin bird harvest by rela ng hunter off‐take to recruitment and survivorship of nuthatch‐ es. if conserva on ac on is deemed prudent, management plans should be developed in close collabora on with local chin  communi es.  key words: birdlime, ficus, natma taung na onal park, tradi onal hun ng, white‐browed nuthatch  mailto:trrainwater@gmail.com� 69  research communica on  resins and gums obtained from a wide variety of plants, often mixed with vegetable oils or turpentine to improve malleability (fernandes-ferreira et al. 2012; fitzwater 1982; macpherson 1897). occasionally plant-based dyes are included to camouflage the mixture (alves et al. 2010). although numerous plant sources of birdlime have been documented (macpherson 1897), reports describing the preparation of these compounds are notably absent from the literature (fitzwater 1982). in this article, we describe various aspects of birdlime use among chin hunters of western myanmar. we identify the plants used to manufacture birdlime, outline the preparation process, describe how hunters deploy birdlime to capture birds, and discuss the conservation implications of these practices. study area and methods the use of birdlime by indigenous hunters was investigated as part of a wildlife survey of natma taung national park (ntnp) in the southern chin hills of western myanmar (platt et al. 2012). ntnp encompasses 722 km2 of mountainous terrain that includes mount victoria (elevation 3,095 m), the highest mountain in central myanmar. the chin hills are inhabited by chin, a tibeto-burman people comprising one of the largest ethnic groups in myanmar (diran 2001). the chin are swidden agriculturalists who derive much of their protein from hunting, fishing, and free-range livestock (carey and tuck 1896; diran 2001). at least 78 villages, containing 12,000 total inhabitants, are located within the boundaries of ntnp, and shifting cultivation, hunting, and other forms of resource extraction are widespread despite the protected status of the area (platt et al. 2012; thet zaw naing 2003). the topography, vegetation, and wildlife of the chin hills are described in greater detail elsewhere (carey and tuck 1896; sayer 1983; thet zaw naing 2003). we conducted fieldwork in ntnp from 24 may to 14 june 2011. during this period we visited chin villages in the park where we conducted open-ended interviews (martin 1995) of individual hunters. because most chin are proficient in a variety of hunting methodologies (e.g., flintlock muskets, crossbows, traps, snares, nets, and birdlime) that are variously used depending on the species sought, we followed mcculloch et al. (1992) and defined “hunter” as any person who harvests wildlife irrespective of the method employed (i.e., projectile weapons or passive techniques such as traps, snares, nets, and birdlime). in accordance with the format of openended interviews, we asked each individual a series of questions that included standard questions prepared in advance and others that arose during the course of conversation (martin 1995). on several occasions, where it was not possible to interview single individuals, we met with groups of hunters simultaneously. in such cases we used a semi-directive approach (gilchrist et al. 2005), in which information was recorded as questions were asked and discussed more informally. interviewees were selected with the assistance of village leaders, and interviews were conducted in burmese by native burmese speakers. interviewees who spoke only chin were interviewed by one of us (hm) who is fluent in both chin and burmese. we began each interview by explaining the objectives of the wildlife survey and the role of the interviewee(s) in our research. questions about birdlime were embedded in a larger set of questions regarding the local occurrence and population status of wildlife (with an emphasis on large mammals, primates, and turtles), hunting and collecting methods, and levels of harvest. concerning birdlime we specifically asked: 1) do you use birdlime to capture birds?; 2) what plants are used to make birdlime?; 3) what parts of these plants are used to produce birdlime?; 4) what time of year do you harvest these plant materials?; 5) could you describe the collection process?; 6) could you describe the preparation process?; 7) how is birdlime stored?; 8) how is birdlime used to capture birds?; and 9) how many birds can you catch in a single day using birdlime? initially we queried interviewees about the species of birds captured with birdlime, but this question was discontinued due to confusion surrounding the local avian folk taxonomy. transcripts and summaries of interviews are contained in the field notes of steven g. platt archived in the campbell museum, clemson university, clemson, south carolina, usa. results we interviewed 47 chin hunters, all of whom claimed familiarity with birdlime suggesting this hunting strategy is widespread in the region. birdlime is known locally as nghet phan te kaw, which translates literally as “bird glue”. interviewees stated that wild birds are considered a delicacy among the chin, and described a complex hierarchal system of reciprocal food offerings, in which a person who is offered one food (e.g., domestic chicken) reciprocates with the offer of a 70  research communica on  higher ranking food (e.g., wild birds). birds are also sold in the local bushmeat trade and harvested for their plumage, which bedecks traditional headgear. birdlime is just one strategy among many used to harvest wild birds. hunters also described taking birds with muzzle-loading flintlock muskets charged with locally manufactured gunpowder, slingshots, nets, snares, and bamboo traps. according to interviewees, birdlime is prepared from the viscous sap of banyan trees (ficus l. moraceae; figure 1). ficus benghalensis l. and f. infectoria willd. are the preferred sources, although other ficus (f. religiosa l., f. nervosa b. hayne ex roth, and f. citrifolia mill.) are tapped if the preferred species are unavailable. sap collection is a seasonal activity and while march-april is regarded as the optimal harvest period, trees can be tapped at any time during the dry season (december-may). banyan trees are tapped in much the same manner as rubber (hevea brasiliensis mull. arg. euphorbiaceae); shallow diagonal grooves are cut into the cambium, which channel the sap downward into a collection receptacle. truncated cuts (7-10 cm) are made in the cambium because banyan sap is extremely viscous and unlike rubber, will flow only a short distance before coagulating. a bamboo culm (ca. 30-40 cm long) is attached vertically to the bole to collect flowing sap. once the bamboo culm becomes filled, the sap rapidly hardens into a solid mass. the culm is later split lengthwise, and the congealed mass scraped out and boiled slowly for several hours depending on the amount of sap collected. boiling serves to remove water from the sap and increase the adhesiveness of the final product. the resulting birdlime is a black, strong-smelling, extremely adhesive, readily malleable compound. hunters handle birdlime without it adhering to the skin by first wetting their fingers with water or saliva. birdlime is stored in a variety of non-edible gourd, reportedly for periods of up to 10 years. according to interviewees, birdlime maintains its adhesive properties even when stored in unsealed containers for long periods. birdlime can also be reused multiple times, after being cleaned of dirt, leaves, and other debris. cleaning is accomplished by boiling birdlime and skimming debris from the surface before allowing it to cool. some hunters now substitute traditionally prepared birdlime with commercially available entangling compounds designed to catch rodents. commercial rat glue is widely available, relatively inexpensive, easy to use, and requires no time-consuming preparation as does birdlime. birdlime is smeared on sticks or other surfaces where birds are likely to alight and become entrapped. lengths of bamboo are often used as a liming substrate owing in part to its widespread availability. bamboo is also relatively light in comparison to wood, making it easy to transport and place high in the canopy. four principal strategies for deploying birdlime emerged from our interviews. the most common seems to be the placement of limed sticks at waterholes and springs where flocks congregate. this strategy is generally employed during the hottest months of the dry season (february-april) and, according to sayer (1983), is particularly effective at higher elevations where water sources are limited. hunters described occluding parts of a waterhole with large leaves to funnel birds into a restricted area where limed sticks offer conveniently located perches. a second widely used strategy is to place limed sticks in fruiting trees where birds congregate to feed, or in thickets where large numbers gather to roost every night. a third method described by hunters is to place limed sticks at prominent vantage points (e.g., above the canopy), and after concealing themselves, attract birds by imitating vocalizations. birds arriving to investigate the vocalizations alight on the perches and become entrapped. finally, hunters described a method in which small winged insects that emerge en masse at certain times of the year (possibly termites), are captured and impaled on sharpened slivers of wood, which in turn are affixed to a limed pole. birds attracted by the insects alight on the limed pole. figure 1. indigenous hunters in the chin hills of western  myanmar prepare birdlime from the viscous sap of ban‐ yan trees (ficus spp.). photograph by win ko ko.  71  research communica on  despite being impaled, it is important that the insects remain alive, as their wing movements are said to attract birds. large numbers (>200) of birds can reportedly be captured during a single day by an individual hunter using birdlime. often so many birds are captured that hunters tally their harvest according to the number of baskets required to transport the catch, rather than count the individual birds. based on our interviews, birdlime appears to be a relatively non-selective hunting strategy, whereby any small to medium-sized bird coming into contact with a limed surface is likely to be trapped. although we were unable to determine which species are taken by liming, descriptions provided by hunters suggest that smaller birds (e.g., babblers, bulbuls, flycatchers, barbets, warblers, and finches) comprise the bulk of the catch. larger birds such as hornbills and pheasants are generally taken by shooting or snaring, respectively. discussion the use of birdlime by indigenous hunters in chin state and adjacent nagaland has been noted elsewhere (carey and tuck 1896; saul 2005; sayer 1983; thet zaw naing 2003), although in contrast to our report, sparse detail is provided in these earlier accounts. according to carey and tuck (1896:217), “pigeons and doves are caught with bird-lime, which is nothing more than the gum of a tree and which is smeared on the boughs of the trees which birds frequent”. saul (2005:65) stated the naga use “…sticky secretions from trees or seeds to trap small birds”. sayer (1983) observed small birds being trapped for food using birdlime smeared on sticks placed at mountain springs. thet zaw naing (2003) listed “gum traps” among the methods employed by hunters in natma taung national park to harvest small birds for domestic consumption and sale in local bushmeat markets. literature sources list a number of plants used to prepare birdlime elsewhere in south and southeast asia. banyan sap is widely used throughout asia, parts of africa, and the mediterranean to manufacture birdlime (macpherson 1897). similar to our findings, burton (1918) identified f. religiosa as a source of birdlime in india. other important plant sources in the region include cordia myxa l. boraginaceae (hutchinson 1918), loranthus odoratus wall. loranthaceae (kunwar et al. 2005), viscum album l. viscaceae (kunwar et al. 2005), various unspecified dipterocarpaceae (bourke 1925), and artocarpus heterophyllus lam. moraceae (reidinger and libay 1979); the latter of which is reportedly capable of restraining birds as large as hornbills (maynahan 2009). birdlime is derived from various parts of these plants, including mucilaginous fruits (kunwar et al. 2005), crushed cambium (macpherson 1897), fresh sap (macpherson 1897; reidinger and libay 1979), and resins (bourke 1925). while ethnobotanists have identified numerous plants used to make birdlime (fitzwater 1982), our report appears to be among the few that describe the preparation process (see also hiscox 1914; kunwar et al. 2005; macpherson 1897). similar to our findings, macpherson (1897: xxxii) stated that birdlime can be preserved for an “indefinite period” when properly prepared and stored in “reed vessels”. our study and others (sayer 1983; thet zaw naing 2003) found that chin hunters use birdlime exclusively to harvest birds for food and feathers. however, liming is a versatile technique that has been employed worldwide for a variety of reasons, including recreation and sport, agricultural crop protection, destruction of urban pest species, capturing birds for culinary reasons and to obtain feathers for the millenary trade, and capturing living birds for falconry, pets, and zoological specimens (alves et al. 2010; fernandes-ferreira et al. 2012; fitzwater 1982; gibson 1881; macpherson 1897; reidinger and libay 1979). when birdlime is employed for the latter purpose, birds must be rapidly released or will otherwise quickly succumb to exhaustion (alves et al. 2010). unfortunately, there is no evidence in the literature to indicate how birds are extracted from birdlime without injury and what techniques are used to clean this adhesive compound from feet and feathers when living birds are desired. this question warrants future investigation, as birdlime, like some other indigenous hunting techniques (e.g., mcclure 1956), could prove an effective tool for research and conservation. the strategies used by chin hunters to deploy birdlime are similar to those reported wherever this methodology is employed to capture birds (fernandes -ferreira et al. 2012; fitzwater 1982; macpherson 1897). the over-riding concern is to place birdlime in a manner that ensures physical contact with some part of the bird. limed perches seem be the most common method of deploying birdlime (fernandesferreira et al. 2012; macpherson 1897; reidinger and libay 1979). birds are often attracted to limed perches 72  research communica on  by bait in the form of food or water, vocalizations made by hunters, or decoy birds, which are usually conspecifics, but sometimes predatory species such as owls or hawks (fernandes-ferreira et al. 2012; macpherson 1897). in the latter case, hunters take advantage of mobbing behavior that passerines often exhibit towards predatory birds. limed perches can also be placed at locations where flocks regularly congregate (e.g., nocturnal roosts and fruiting trees). birdlime smeared on hanging strings has been used to ensnare flying birds (macpherson 1897). waterfowl and cranes have been captured by liming the inside of a baited paper cone, which becomes stuck as it covers the head when birds attempt to reach the bait, thereby compromising their vision. disoriented and unable to fly properly, birds are quickly seized by concealed hunters waiting nearby (macpherson 1897). nectivorous birds have been captured by smearing birdlime on the inside of flowers (gibson 1881). indeed, effective strategies for deploying birdlime seem limited only by the ingenuity of hunters and their knowledge of bird habits and behavior. consistent with our results, there is general agreement in the literature that birdliming is a highly effective non-selective hunting strategy that results in the harvest of large numbers of birds. according to macpherson (1897) thousands of passerines were harvested every day with birdlime during the passage of migratory flocks through southern europe. more recently, mcculloch et al. (1992) estimated that 2 million birds were harvested annually in cyprus with a combination of birdliming and mist netting. however, aside from general qualifiers such as “thousands”, “whole flocks”, or “great numbers”, studies which more specifically quantified the harvest of birds taken with birdlime or compared this method with other hunting strategies seem not to have been undertaken. such data are a necessary prerequisite for assessing the potential impact of this hunting strategy on bird populations. conservation implications concern regarding the population-level impacts of birdlime use in ntnp appear warranted given the ubiquity of this hunting strategy among hunters, the large number of birds evidently harvested with birdlime, and the elevated levels of hunting activity within the park despite its protected status (platt et al. 2012; thet zaw naing 2003). based on body size, behavior, and ecology, we conservatively estimate that 186 (64.2%) of 291 species of birds known to occur in ntnp (thet zaw naing 2003 and unpubl. data) are potentially vulnerable to entrapment with birdlime. of particular concern is the white-browed nuthatch (sitta victoriae rippon sittidae), a poorlystudied endemic species restricted to oakrhododendron forests above 2,400 m on mount victoria and adjacent peaks (figure 2; thet zaw naing 2003). the white-browed nuthatch is classified as endangered by the international union for conservation of nature (iucn), and populations are thought to be declining for reasons not fully understood, but probably at least partly due to habitat loss (iucn 2012). nuthatch populations may also be at risk from climate change, as elevational habitat zones undergo an upwards shift in response to warming temperatures, greatly reducing or perhaps potentially even eliminating existing oak-rhododendron forest (peh 2007). we regard nuthatches as especially vulnerable to birdliming owing to their small body size and habitat requirements; these birds occur at elevations where springs are the only dry season water source, and such sites are favored locations for setting out limed sticks (sayer 1983; this study). although hunter accounts describing the taxonomic composition of harvests proved difficult to interpret, that nuthatches are taken by birdlime is unequivocal. while conducting fieldwork in the park during 1997-2001, one of us (tzn) figure 2. the white‐browed nuthatch is endemic to high  eleva on oak‐rhododendron forests on mount victoria  where popula ons are  likely to be at risk from con nu‐ ing habitat  loss and climate change. hun ng with bird‐ lime, ac ng in concert with habitat loss could poten ally  exacerbate popula on declines of this endangered spe‐ cies. photograph by thet zaw naing.  73  research communica on  encountered numerous birds entangled in birdlime, including five white-browed nuthatches. additionally, forest department rangers reportedly found whitebrowed nuthatches entangled in birdlime near popular bird watching sites in the park as recently 2011-12 (naing lin, unpubl. data). given its restricted natural distribution, coupled with predicted reductions in habitat, hunting with birdlime could potentially exacerbate current population declines of the white-browed nuthatch. however, it remains unclear what, if any role hunting plays in the dynamics of nuthatch populations, and without rigorous quantitative data on densities, recruitment, annual survivorship, and rates of hunter off-take (milner-gulland et al. 2003), any conclusion regarding the sustainability of the chin bird harvest would be premature and at best, speculative. although intensive hunting of rare species can result in extinction (fernandes-ferreira et al. 2012), many populations of small birds appear resilient in the face of moderate hunting pressure; hunting mortality is often not additive to natural mortality, and density-dependent processes seem to compensate for hunting losses such that breeding populations are ultimately unaffected (mcculloch et al. 1992). we therefore recommend that future investigators address the sustainability of chin bird hunting by first quantifying the harvest and then relating hunter off-take to annual recruitment and survivorship among nuthatch populations. if conservation action is deemed prudent to insure the long-term viability of nuthatch populations, any forthcoming management plan should be developed in close collaboration with local chin communities, taking into account the social, cultural, and economic factors that drive the harvest of small birds (alves et al. 2012; fernandes-ferreira et al. 2012). without the active participation of indigenous hunters in the planning and implementation of conservation initiatives, such efforts are unlikely to prove effective (alves et al. 2012; rao et al. 2011). this is especially true in myanmar where resources for enforcement are extremely limited, and implementing effective conservation measures depends on enlisting the cooperation of local communities (rao et al. 2011). acknowledgements this project was made possible through the generous support of andy sabin, the sabin family foundation, and the turtle conservation fund. u than myint and the wildlife conservation society–myanmar program are thanked for organizing the expedition and providing logistic support. we are especially grateful for the assistance of u tin myat soe (park warden of natma taung national park) for facilitating our fieldwork and sharing his extensive knowledge of the area. further gratitude is due the myanmar forest department staff and others who accompanied us into the field. additional support was provided by colin poole, joe walston, lisa yook, and the wcs asia program. madeline thompson is thanked for locating numerous obscure references. additional references were provided by lewis medlock, elizabeth bennett, rômulo alves, and madhu rao. we are grateful to thom hiers for translating a brazilian source into english. comments by lewis medlock and two anonymous reviewers on an early draft of this manuscript were most appreciated. the findings and conclusions in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the views of the u.s. fish and wildlife service. declarations permissions: permission to conduct research in western myanmar and among indigenous communities in the region was granted by the nature and wildlife conservation division of the myanmar forest department. our research is also in compliance with institutional guidelines of the wildlife conservation society and turtle survival alliance. sources of funding: this research was funded by a grant from the andy sabin family foundation and turtle conservation fund. salary support for most participants was provided by the wildlife conservation society's myanmar program. conflicts of interest: none. references cited alves, r. r. n., e. e. g. nogueira, h. f. p. araujo, and a. e. brooks. 2010. bird-keeping in the caatinga, ne brazil. human ecology 38:147-156. doi:10.1007/s10745-009-9295-5 alves, r. r. n., m. b. r. gonçalves, and w. l. s. vieira. 2012. caça use e conservação de vertebrados no semiárido brasileiro. tropical conservation science 5:394-416. bourke, d. 1925. monkey trainers and bird catchers in pattani, south siam. indian forester 51:1-4. burton, r. w. 1918. notes from the oriental sporting magazine. new series 1869-1879. journal of the 74  research communica on  bombay natural history society 25:491-493. carey, b. s. and h. n. tuck. 1896. the chin hills: a history of their people, our dealings with them, their customs and manners, and a gazetteer of their country. vol. 1. government printing office, rangoon, burma. cartmill, a. 1993. a view to a death in the morning. harvard university press, cambridge. diran, r. k. 2001. the vanishing tribes of burma. sterling publishing, new york. fernandes-ferreira, h., s. v. medonça, c. albano, f.s. ferreira, and r. r. n. alves. 2012. hunting, use and conservation of birds in northeast brazil. biodiversity and conservation 21:221-244. doi:10.1007/s10531-011-0179-9 fitzwater, w. d. 1982. bird limes and rat glues – sticky situations. proceedings 10th vertebrate pest conference 10:17-20. gibson, w. h. 1881. camp life in the woods and the tricks of trapping and trap making. harper and brothers, publishing, new york. gilchrist, g., m. mallory, and f. merkel. 2005. can local ecological knowledge contribute to wildlife management? case studies of migratory birds. ecology and society 10:20-31. hiscox, g. d. 1914. henley’s twentieth century formulas, recipes, and processes. norma w. henley publishing company, new york. hutchinson, j. 1918. cordia myxa and allied species. bulletin of miscellaneous information (royal botanic gardens, kew) 7:217-222. iucn. 2012. iucn red list of threatened species. version 2012.1. available at: http:// www.iucnredlist.org accessed on june 29, 2012. kunwar, r. m., n. adhikari, and m. p. devkota. 2005. indigenous use of mistletoes in tropical and temperate regions of nepal. banko janakari 15:38-42. macpherson, h. a. 1897. a history of fowling. david douglas, edinburgh, scotland. martin, g. j. 1995. ethnobotany: a methods manual. chapmen hall, london. maynahan, b. 2009. jungle soldier: the true story of freddy spencer chapman. quercus press, london. mcculloch, m. n., g. m. tucker, and s. r. ballie. 1992. the hunting of migratory birds in europe: a ringing recovery analysis. ibis 134(supplement):5565. mcclure, h. e. 1956. methods of bird netting in japan applicable to wildlife management problems. bird-banding 27:67-73. milner-gulland, e. j., e. l. bennett, and scb 2002 annual meeting wild meat group. 2003. wild meat: the bigger picture. trends in ecology and evolution 18:351-357. doi:10.1016/s0169-5347(03) 00123-x peh, k. s. h. 2007. potential effects of climate change on elevational distribution of tropical birds in southeast asia. condor 109:437-441. platt, s. g., win ko ko, kalyar platt, khin myo myo, me me soe and t. r. rainwater. 2012. species inventory and conservation status of chelonians in natma taung, national park, myanmar. hamadryad (in press). rao, m., than zaw, saw htun, and than myint. 2011. hunting for a living: wildlife trade, rural livelihoods, and declining wildlife in hkakaborazi national park, north myanmar. environmental management 48:158:167. doi:10-1007/s00267-0119662-z. reidinger, r. f., jr., and j. l. libay. 1979. perches coated with glue reduce bird damage in rice field plots. proceedings 8th bird control seminar, bowling green state university 8:201-204. saul, j. d. 2005. the naga of burma: their festivals, customs and way of life. orchid press, bangkok, thailand. sayer, j. a. 1983. a survey of natma taung (mount victoria), southern chin hills. field report 20, fo: bur/80/006. report to food and agriculture organization of the united nations, rangoon. shaffer, b. s. 1996. prehistoric small game snare trap technology, deployment strategy, and trapper gender depicted in mimbres pottery. journal of ethnobiology 16:145-155. thet zaw naing. 2003. ecology of the white-browed nuthatch sitta victoriae in natmataung national park, myanmar, with notes on other significant species. forktail 19:57-62. http://www.iucnredlist.org� http://www.iucnredlist.org� http://www.iucnredlist.org� http://www.iucnredlist.org� 75  research communica on  van vliet, n., e. kaniowska, m. bourgarel, c. fargeot, and r. nasi. 2009. answering the call! adapting a traditional hunting practice to monitor duiker populations. african journal of ecology 47:393399. biosketch steven g. pla  is the regional herpetologist for wildlife  conserva on society  in southeast asia. he received his  b.sc.  in  forestry  and  wildlife  management  from  louisiana state university  (1985), m.sc.  in biology from  southeastern  louisiana university  (1990),  and  ph.d.  in  zoology  from  clemson  university  (1996).  his  current  focus  is  the  study  and  conserva on  of  turtles  and  crocodilians  in  southeast  asia,  with  an  emphasis  on  myanmar, thailand, laos, and china.  birdlime in western myanmar: preparation, use, and conservation implications for an endemic bird << /ascii85encodepages false /allowtransparency false /autopositionepsfiles true /autorotatepages /none /binding /left /calgrayprofile (dot gain 20%) /calrgbprofile (srgb iec61966-2.1) /calcmykprofile (u.s. web coated \050swop\051 v2) /srgbprofile (srgb iec61966-2.1) /cannotembedfontpolicy /error /compatibilitylevel 1.4 /compressobjects /tags /compresspages true /convertimagestoindexed true /passthroughjpegimages true /createjobticket false /defaultrenderingintent /default /detectblends true /detectcurves 0.0000 /colorconversionstrategy /cmyk /dothumbnails false /embedallfonts true /embedopentype false /parseiccprofilesincomments true /embedjoboptions true /dscreportinglevel 0 /emitdscwarnings false /endpage -1 /imagememory 1048576 /lockdistillerparams false /maxsubsetpct 100 /optimize true 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/hrv (za stvaranje adobe pdf dokumenata najpogodnijih za visokokvalitetni ispis prije tiskanja koristite ove postavke. stvoreni pdf dokumenti mogu se otvoriti acrobat i adobe reader 5.0 i kasnijim verzijama.) /hun 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can be opened with acrobat and adobe reader 5.0 and later.) >> /namespace [ (adobe) (common) (1.0) ] /othernamespaces [ << /asreaderspreads false /cropimagestoframes true /errorcontrol /warnandcontinue /flattenerignorespreadoverrides false /includeguidesgrids false /includenonprinting false /includeslug false /namespace [ (adobe) (indesign) (4.0) ] /omitplacedbitmaps false /omitplacedeps false /omitplacedpdf false /simulateoverprint /legacy >> << /addbleedmarks false /addcolorbars false /addcropmarks false /addpageinfo false /addregmarks false /convertcolors /converttocmyk /destinationprofilename () /destinationprofileselector /documentcmyk /downsample16bitimages true /flattenerpreset << /presetselector /mediumresolution >> /formelements false /generatestructure false /includebookmarks false /includehyperlinks false /includeinteractive false /includelayers false /includeprofiles false /multimediahandling /useobjectsettings /namespace [ (adobe) (creativesuite) (2.0) ] /pdfxoutputintentprofileselector /documentcmyk /preserveediting true /untaggedcmykhandling /leaveuntagged /untaggedrgbhandling /usedocumentprofile /usedocumentbleed false >> ] >> setdistillerparams << /hwresolution [2400 2400] /pagesize [612.000 792.000] >> setpagedevice an interview with roy ellen 31  interview  reassuring me as i fumbled around, making my own unique but comparable mistakes among the insights i gleaned. the following is an edited version of the original interview. i hope it will be as enjoyable to the reader as it was to me working on it. nejm: can you tell us a little about your upbringing, and the influences that brought you to where you are today? did your home environment influence your choices? roy: no, i think my parents were very supportive as far as they could be but i was brought up in a lower middle-class family [with] no previous academic tradition. my interest in anthropology developed fairly early. when i was about 11, i insisted that the thing i wanted most for christmas was a copy of a book called the dawn of creation (mansfield 1952), which was about human origins. and low and behold, this was delivered to me on christmas day! at that stage you wouldn’t expect me to have a knowledge of environmental anthropology or ethnobiology, they were not thought of as separate subjects we’re talking about the early 1960s. but i was interested in what is now called ‘holistic’ anthropology. i had a very strong conviction that the different aspects of anthropology the biological, the sociocultural, and prehistory had something to say to each other. i was very keen on going to university college london (ucl), because what they did then, and what they still do, is what the americans call the ‘four-field’ style of anthropology, which was what appealed to me. but they didn’t let me in. lse, however, accepted me. the irony here is that i took exactly the same undergraduate degree at lse that i would have taken at ucl. at that time at the university of london you could take an inter-collegiate degree, which was the bsc, the nearest you got to a ‘holistic’ anthropology degree. so, although i was registered at the lse and did most of my social anthropology there, a small group of us no more than six used to migrate through the various central roy ellen completed his phd at the london school of economics (lse) in 1973. during the following decade his work was influential in shaping some of the key questions of ecological (later environmental) anthropology (ellen 1982). his work at this time also marked the opening-up of the moluccas as an area for modern ethnographic fieldwork. this early research led in the 1980s to the development of his interests in the regional and historical contexts in which issues relating to production and resource management had to be understood (ellen 1979), culminating in 2003 with the publication of on the edge of the banda zone (ellen 2003). ethnobiological work had throughout this period also been a central feature of his work, particularly the way folk classification and underlying cognitive architectures are influenced by social and ecological conditions (ellen 1993). his contribution to the critical appraisal of the role and form of local environmental (‘indigenous’) knowledge and of ‘nature’ as a comparative concept are reflected in a number of edited and co-edited works (ellen and fukui 1996;  bicker et al. 2000; ellen 2006). he was elected a fellow of the british academy in 2003 and served as president of the royal anthropological institute between 2007 and 2011. i decided to undertake this interview with professor ellen, simply because i thought such a distinguished career deserved to be marked as he was retiring. roy was happy to make time for our interviews, in the form of loosely structured conversation which, like the arabian nights, roy pointed out, could have gone on forever, but i decided to draw the line at three sessions. perhaps it could, and will go on to form part of a more in-depth biography, as i continued to discover other aspects and adventures of roy’s interesting life in the course of other contexts, much as one does in the field. much is known about what ethnobiologists and anthropologists say about another people’s lives; less is known about their own, apart from rare reflections, diaries and memoires. i found roy’s reflections a source of comfort as i embarked on my own phd fieldwork, an interview with roy ellen  nejm benessaiah  author address: school of anthropology and conserva on, university of kent, canterbury, kent, uk ct2 7nz  nejben00@gmail.com    received:  september 12, 2013  volume: 5:31‐39  published: march 20, 2014  © 2014 society of ethnobiology  32  interview  london colleges. we went to ucl for our biological anthropology and to the school of oriental and african studies (soas) for our linguistics, and the institute of archaeology for prehistory. so we were on the move all the time and we got to hear and listen to a whole range of luminaries. if i had simply been at the lse it would have been much more restricted. so i was very happy with my undergraduate programme. that degree was sadly discontinued a few years after i had completed, so you can no longer do this kind of inter-collegiate degree. nejm: what took you to the university of leiden? roy: i had positive interests in terms of the thematic matters that i wanted to pursue, but also had a strong negative motivation. i took the view that if i was to do ethnographic fieldwork anywhere, it would not be in any part of the world that had at any time been part of the british empire [laughs]. we’d been fed the classics of sub-saharan ethnography, the principal diet at the lse, and indeed at ucl, at that time (notwithstanding [raymond] firth [who had worked in malaya and oceania]). everything seemed to get drawn through the matrix of sub-saharan african ethnography. subsequently, we know that british anthropology tried to export some of these models to other parts of the world and they didn’t quite work so well; so all that detailed work on lineage organisation by [edward] evans-pritchard and meyer fortes in africa, when you tried to use it to model kinship in the new guinea highlands, didn’t work [laughs]. i knew that a diet of sub-saharan ethnography had been very good for me, and i cut my theoretical teeth on it, but i thought that if i wanted to do fieldwork i needed to go somewhere else, so it was the dutch empire really. what interested me particularly was that area between island southeast asia and the pacific where there seemed to be a zone of transition, which i subsequently learnt was called wallacea. the interesting thing about wallace’s line is that it not only works for fauna and flora, but it also works with human cultures and populations. there is a break that falls somewhere in that area, which means that there are very different kinds of social and cultural features on either side of the line. the person i worked most closely with at the university of leiden was a man called patrick de josselin de jong, the nephew of j.p.b. de josselin de jong, who is the more famous [of the two] because of his influence on lévi-strauss. lévi-strauss’s work on structuralism as applied to kinship was strongly anticipated by a generation of dutch anthropologists, of which j.p.b. de josselin de jong was one. it was something about the structure of the marriage systems found in parts of eastern indonesia and sumatra that gave rise to these dutch structuralist analyses, and these in turn influenced lévi-strauss. i read that stuff and found it intriguing. indeed, i ended-up working amongst an indonesian people on the island of seram (the nuaulu) who have a classic symmetrical crosscousin marriage system of the kind that would have very much excited de josselin de jong or lévistrauss. part of the problem was that [the work of] the dutch anthropologists wasn’t based on very good (or firsthand) ethnography, mainly missionary accounts. some of the missionary accounts were excellent, but other accounts were a bit dodgy. so, in a way it was the very weaknesses in the data that allowed the construction of these rather grand theories. if they’d had more data they couldn’t have sustained the theories. nejm: what got you into shifting cultivation? roy: well, i knew that i wanted to do something on ecology and environmental relations, being very much influenced by roy rappaport for example, and other people of that generation. i could have worked amongst hunters and gatherers. the literature at that time [for indonesia] wasn’t particularly good, and we didn’t even know that some populations actually still existed. it was much later [in 1976] that i was to personally encounter groups of hunter-gatherers, in south-eastern sulawesi. they’d existed there for years and few people had really known about them. or, i could have worked on maritime issues in that part of the world and done something on fishing. but i suppose, in reading around my southeast asian ethnography on likely themes that i could pursue as a research student in eastern indonesia, shifting cultivation was an obvious contender, because there had had been some very interesting monographic work published on the subject during the early 60s, and before. [harold] conklin’s work, for example, on the mindoro hanunóo. so again it was a current issue. and of course the interesting thing about conklin is that he had developed systematic, some might say obsessively meticulous, methods and checklists for analysing it, which tied in with his particular interest in looking at local environmental knowledge systems (figure 1). 33  interview  and this is where, if you like, the ‘ethnobiological knowledge’ passion begins to kick in. that came in as a secondary consideration for me, through rappaport, who had theorised cognized or home-made models, and through conklin’s interest in exact ethnographic description. ethnographers such as rappaport made shifting cultivation a ‘sexy’ theoretical subject, something that went beyond description of peoples’ equipment and subsistence habits, but introduced exciting new concepts such as carrying capacity and negative feedback, and had a kind of dynamic component. after all, shifting cultivation was something that went in cycles, and these cycles had implications for forest ecology and human settlement patterns. a lot of my ph.d. was about understanding the form that human settlement takes in areas where shifting cultivation is the main form of subsistence. nejm: maybe now would be a good time to get into your fieldwork. roy: everybody says that first fieldwork is formative, but i suppose if you’re that young [i was just 22], it’s even more formative [laughs]. research training existed only in a rather informal way at the lse in the late 1960s. in some sense i suppose i went into the field not quite knowing how i was going to develop my data! there can’t have been any more than 10 [research training] sessions [at lse] overall. and one of them involved telling us how important it was to buy the right kind of shotgun, and how you should buy a land rover that had a winch on the bonnet so that you could pull yourself out of a swamp [laughs]. and that constituted fieldwork training. it is true that they also taught you how to collect demographic data and how to use the international phonetic alphabet to transcribe unwritten languages, things like that, and a little bit on survey design, but it was all pretty basic. nejm: what was it like when you arrived? figure 1. roy ellen with harold conklin, explaining the finer points of his trusty nikkormat at the ‘redefining nature’ confer‐ ence in atami, japan, 1992. hal had been an intellectual hero of roy’s from his  me as a postgraduate student at the lse,  and was over‐awed to find himself sharing a japanese communal bath on their first encounter.  34  interview  roy: although the nuaulu [of central seram] at that time were mostly living on the coast, their entire subsistence orientation was to the inland and upland areas. they moved to the coast in the late 19th century as part of the dutch pacification programme, but nevertheless, they were still extracting from the upland forests, and they’d retained a lot of the institutions and practices that interested me, whereas there had been much depopulation and acculturation in west seram. so i was very pleased to discover the nuaulu after several introductions and recommendations. i hadn’t read anything about them, not that there was much anyway. what was interesting about the nuaulu was less that they were remote and isolated, but that they had a history of contact with the wider world through trade, and contact with the dutch, going back some centuries. and once you get [to seram] you can understand this, because a lot of their social structure is really dependent upon certain kinds of exchange with the outside world. their valuables are chinese porcelain and red cloth, and all kinds of things that could only be obtained through trade. and after all, this had been an area of global production of spices going back centuries, until the 16th century without any direct european contact. so they’d had a lot of contact with the outside world, but they’d sort of retained their independence in many ways. nejm: how were your first few days among the nuaulu? what practical situations were you encountering? how were you received? any embarrassing situations? roy: plenty of embarrassment, of course. some of the embarrassment followed a few months later, as i realised the implications of having accepted the invitation to live in a particular house. i was offered a house [in rouhua] that happened to be vacant (figure 2). at the time i was collecting zoological specimens with kit given to me by the natural history museum in london. this was in support of my work on ethnozoology. i humanely killed the specimens and injected them with a little formalin, and thereafter preserved them in large polythene containers. after about six months in the field, i became a little concerned because when i returned to my house i would find a reticulate python curled up on my sleeping mat or hanging in the rafters. i mentioned this to komisi, the head of clan who owned the house. he explained to me that this was obviously going to happen because the principal totem of his clan was the reticulate python. he explained that i would have to remove the polythene containers with the snakes, and would have to pay a fine. this was a classic lesson in participant observation, because i had to learn how to go through the ritual of paying a fine, a plate and five lengths of red cloth that had to be bought at the local chinese kiosk about 3 or 4 km away. nejm: so the fine was for offending the snake spirit? roy: the fine was for offending the ancestral snake spirit. and everything was alright after that! the thing about doing fieldwork is that because you’re going into an area where you don’t know the people and you certainly don’t know their cultural rules and values, the scope for embarrassment is enormous. and if you are working with a people who are being incredibly tolerant, because they’re being tolerant you probably don’t learn the rules as quickly as you ought to. moreover, nuaulu are always looking for explanations of misfortune. no misfortune is considered random. [have you] read evans-pritchard on azande witchcraft? it’s the same kind of situation, where a concatenation of circumstances are the problem. they can understand fully to their own satisfaction that the reason the bamboo slats inside a house break at a crucial moment is because there are ants eating through them, but they might want to know why it’s happened to them at that particular time! and it will usually be that something they have done previously has angered ancestral spirits. it’s usually the ancestral spirits. so it could be that anything they may have done wrong in the past would be mobilised as a possible explanation. and it’s one of their main preoccupations, trying to prevent these bad concatenations of circumstance and thinking of ways in which they unknowingly have offended the ancestors. it’s a major preoccupation, and they constantly talk about the burden of monne, the burden of custom. they say things like “it’s alright for you christians and muslims, you don’t have the burden of custom. every few minutes ancestors may be interfering in our lives, so we have to make sure they’ve been placated or make sure we’ve done things in the correct way”. so, the important thing about ritual is that it must be done precisely in the correct way. any deviation from the correct way may result in misfortune. nejm: did you find any conflict with your own belief system or lack thereof? 35  interview  hookworm and body lice – you’re not human unless you have hookworm and body lice because everybody there has them. it’s part of being human; they really do think that. nejm: can you describe some impressions of the first few days? roy: i suppose you have to get used to a new environment, and nuaulu villages are different to those of other people on seram. at that time when i first arrived [early 1970] houses were entirely made of timber and sago leaf stalks and so on, and they were incredibly smoky, with a pall of smoke hanging over the village and the house in particular. it was also very humid, oppressively so. and although most nuaulu villages are on or near the coast, they’re highly connected with the forest in a way in which other non -nuaulu villages aren’t. so, if you go to your average coastal muslim village, the village itself is probably surrounded by coconut groves for some distance until you get to the forest, whereas the nuaulu, their gardens, their swiddens, tend to be several kilometres away in the middle of the forest, so the whole orientation is to the forest, the presence of the forest roy: yes, i think there were moments. i had to have some kind of identity, and at least initially my identity was that i was a christian. you know, i had to have that identity, i couldn’t avoid [it]. local people needed to place me within some field of understood religious identities, even though there was a certain amount of tension between indonesian christian and animist groups. but the longer i was there, the more i felt confident i could identify with the nuaulu themselves, and my position as a cultural christian seemed less important to them. i think that whenever you’re a fieldworker, you question some local beliefs and practices, but if things happen you have to enter into the spirit of it. because the alternative would be impossible… it’s easier for them to understand that you are a cultural christian [or a cultural muslim, jew or hindu] than for you to say you don’t have any sort of affiliation at all; they would find that difficult to handle. and for nuaulu certain kinds of belief, like the belief in spirits, are so self-evident that questioning them is extremely difficult. they just assume that if you’re human you must share in these kinds of beliefs. for them it’s absolutely clear, like they believe that everybody has figure 2. roy ellen with anarima and heunaka, near the nuaulu village of rouhua, south seram, 1996.  36  interview  is everywhere. nejm: is there any kind of dualistic division between the forest and the village, or are there more grey areas? roy: absolutely. you can almost say that the nuaulu case presents a defence for the more traditionalist view of how nature is constructed. they don’t have a word for nature, at least they didn’t have, but there is nevertheless a strong conceptual difference between the village and the forest; the forest is a kind of proxy for nature, because the rules governing behaviour in the forest are different from those governing behaviour in the village. so for example, thinking of linguistic rules, there are certain expletives you can use in the village that you can’t use in the forest because they’re considered as mocking animals. so as you pass from the village to the forest you often perform a ritual, make a small offering to the spirits of the forest, so there’s a very clear boundary as you go into the forest. and nuaulu talk about the village as being like an island. and that’s a metaphor that crops up in all kinds of symbolic contexts. so yes, there’s a strong sense of dualism as between the village and the forest, and hence between culture and nature. nejm: did those sort of deeper realisations take a while to conceptualise? roy: well, i don’t know at what point that interpretation suddenly occurred to me. they [nuaulu] certainly didn’t draw a little map and show me how it all worked. of course, one of the things about doing ethnographic research anywhere is that you do a literature survey that has told you about the peoples in this area. and so you do have certain expectations about how things are supposed to work. in the context of, especially, eastern indonesia there is this longstanding dutch structuralist tradition. and so i was expecting these sorts of elaborate conceptual patterns. and so when they came along i was quite pleased! (laughs). one thing it did teach me though, was that you have to be careful because it is terribly easy to make your data fall into some kind of neat system of binary oppositions. and a lot of my professional career, when i haven’t been doing ethnobiology, has really been a critique of this dutch position. although you could say that the nuaulu work with some kind of ‘cognitive geometry’ in which they use different kinds of oppositions to think about the world around them, there is no neat, overarching symbolic structure. it’s a very dynamic kind of situation, and the problem with the dutch structuralists was that they were working with very inadequate ethnographic materials, and they thought there were these rather tight cosmological models where everything neatly slotted together. but that certainly hasn’t been my experience. so if you take the concept of nature: on the one hand certainly, there is this strong contrast between the village and the forest, but then, equally there is a series of symbolic gradations, so the village periphery is more liminal than the village centre, less symbolically charged; and if you go into the forest there are clearly areas that are less ‘part of nature’ than others in the sense that they have been modified by humans: other village sites, sacred groves, all that kind of thing. so there wasn’t an easy neat structuralist interpretation of what was going on. nejm: how about your methodology? i haven’t managed to look at your thesis yet for that section. roy: well, there’s not a separate methodology section in there i’m ashamed to say. those were the days, especially in anthropology, when you weren’t expected to have a methodology section. the methodology was implicit. though i suppose i was more methodologically conscious or literate than some other people, who simply imbued the ethos of participant observation, simply filling their notebooks with anything they found out as they went along. because i had been reading conklin on how to do research on shifting cultivators, and i had been reading some of the early work on the proper way to conduct ethnobiological research, i think i was more methodologically sensitive and explicit in those specific areas, and on the more technical things. even at that stage i had honed-up on particular protocols for doing swidden surveys and transects. but none of that was really part of the anthropology that i’d learned at the lse! that all had to be acquired because i was doing work on ecology and ethnobiology. within my thesis, above the more technical level, the kind of model i was using to try to integrate different kinds of data was in tune with something called ‘generative analysis’, which had been developed by frederick barth. in the way i used it, what it most resembled in retrospect was vayda’s analytic induction. my thesis was called ‘nuaulu settlement and ecology’ – and its objective was to understand the wider nuaulu pattern of settlement as an outcome of the various factors that impacted upon it. so clearly if they [the nuaulu] are conducting shifting cultivation, then the requirements for the effective conduct of 37  interview  shifting cultivation were part of that: you had to have a certain amount of land in fallow, it had to be rotated, and this kind of stuff. and at the same time there were clearly non-ecological factors, almost symbolic factors. we’ve already talked about the symbolic structure of the village, and that’s a very good example. you know, the literal pattern of the nuaulu village, although you can’t always see this when you walk into a village, is dictated in part by these symbolic considerations. so, at the centre, ideally, in every nuaulu village is a big ritual house. and then on the periphery are the menstruation huts for the women. now that’s entirely in accordance with the symbolic expectations. but when you walk into the village you can’t see it as a set of concentric circles of course; but it’s there. such symbolic considerations are quite important when you are explaining the juxtaposition of different components of the settlement pattern. why do particular clans live in particular areas? so the clan matoke is a primus inter pares it provides the ‘lord of the land’, who has certain responsibilities for supervising the matter of land relations, over all other clans. and all their [matoke] houses have to be located in what we would call the northeast corner of the village. you can’t immediately see this, it has to be inferred. i mean, the point of the generative analysis was that somehow the visible pattern you could see, was generated by the interaction of these different kind of factors. and that’s what i was wrestling with. how you would resolve the more mundane economic and ecological factors with the more religious and symbolic things. that’s something else that was connected with my methodological ruminations at the time. nejm: was it an easy place to live in? roy: you mean in terms of things physical? nejm: well yes, but also in terms of friendliness? roy: oh yes, it was. and again, another one of those important truisms about fieldwork is the importance of children. children were very interested in any outsiders. they may be a little scared to begin with but that quickly disappears when they interact with you. and of course they’re much more tolerant than adults and so learning the rudiments of language, and indeed other cultural rules, is so much easier. it’s a good way to do it; i would recommend it. physically, it [life] was different, but i think i was expecting that; in fact, in certain respects i found it more tolerable than i might have had reason to expect. the little hut that they’d given me was no bigger than this room [roy’s office], divided into two. did i tell you about evans-pritchard’s dictum, ‘take two tables?’ nejm: yes! roy: well they’d actually provided me with two tables (figure 3)! and there’s this big slab of wood – that was one, and it was the right height, and i could use my typewriter, and have my tilley lamp hanging up and so on. and then i had one [a table] where i had all my food preparation going on. and it became quite a social centre. during the day i might be out and about, measuring a swidden or attending a ritual figure 3. roy ellen on the coral atoll of geser  in south‐ east seram, april 1986, while undertaking work that led  to the publica on of on the edge of the banda zone. the  photograph might be of  some  interest  to historians of  field compu ng, as it depicts ellen with a ‘portable’ gi ‐ ed by epson,  run on solar ba eries and saving  to mini‐ casse es.  38  interview  as one does. and then in the evening i’d come back and start writing up my notes, light the tilley lamp, and have something to eat. and of course the tilley lamp was the brightest lamp in the village and so it attracted everybody. so that was quite productive as well; because people come to you it became a sort of social meeting place. and so i learnt a lot during those evening sessions round my table. people were always very generous with food. i had an arrangement whereby i would buy sacks of rice and sugar and those sorts of things you would get from the stores, salt and so on, and there’d be a rough and ready exchange. people would give me some cassava roots or a bit of meat or something, and i would give them some rice. so that worked very well. i was never short of food or anything. and of course i dispensed minor medical assistance as well. so that was the exchange relationship that made collecting fieldwork data work, really. and i think at that stage people were perfectly happy with that arrangement. on subsequent visits, as i ceased to be a student and became a ‘big man’, they expected more of me, and as indeed the whole area became a great deal more commoditised. from the 1980s the government put through a road, and there were incoming transmigrants, so there was much more contact with the outside world. nuaulu women would go off to the market and sell tubers and stuff. so as it was much more of a cash economy, so their cash expectations of me were probably correspondingly higher (laughs). nejm: so the last question would be… i’ve been going over some of your recent works, and not so recent, such as the 2006 ethnobiology of humankind and other syntheses, and i’d love to hear where you see ethnobiology going, whether in a more quantitative direction, or a more qualitative and social science direction while very much grounded in biology and ecology? roy: i would like to think there’s room for both. there’s certainly a lot of interest in ethnobiology. and i think, intellectually, it’s not going to disappear, and i think it’s certainly going to be driven by some of the applied issues. for example, conservation scientists see that it can augment what they’re trying to do, and there’s the whole indigenous rights issues there, so i think it’s inevitably going to be much more applied. what i was explicitly trying to do in that special issue in the journal of the royal anthropological institute was to bring it back into anthropology where i thought it belonged, because i think ethnobiology as a set of practices, and also the sorts of intellectual issues it raises, can contribute in major ways to those questions we consider to be central to the anthropological project. nejm: anything else in terms of themes? we were talking about drawing things together within anthropology through a co-evolutionary framework. the international society of ethnobiology is doing some important work. roy: what i like about the international society of ethnobiology is that there’s always a tension, and it’s an important tension, a positive tension between the science and the activism. it’s an organisation whereby scientists and researchers can actually get together and share concerns with indigenous activists and people who own and wish to protect knowledge, as well as use it and understand it. ideally you might think these aspects mutually supportive, and to a considerable extent they are, but there are tensions because, inevitably, the project of wanting to protect indigenous knowledge is a highly political one, and it doesn’t always sit comfortably within the scientific context and the ways of trying to understand the world that anthropologists, and perhaps even academic ethnobiologists would prefer. but you need that kind of tension, and i think intellectually the world would be a far less satisfying place to live in if [these kinds of tensions] didn’t exist. references cited bicker, a., r. f. ellen, and p. parkes, eds. 2000. indigenous environmental knowledge and its transformations: critical anthropological perspectives. harwood academic, amsterdam. ellen, r. f. 1979. sago subsistence and the trade in spices: a provisional model of ecological succession and imbalance in moluccan history. in social and ecological systems, edited by r. f. ellen and p. burnham, pp. 43-74. academic press, london. ellen, r. f. 1982. environment, subsistence and system: the ecology of small-scale social formations. cambridge university press, cambridge. ellen, r. f. 1993. the cultural relations of classification: an analysis of nuaulu animal categories from central seram. cambridge university press, cambridge. 39  interview  ellen, r. f. 2003. on the edge of the banda zone: past and present in the social organization of a moluccan trading network. university of hawaii press, honolulu. ellen, r. f., ed. 2006. ethnobiology and the science of humankind. wiley-blackwell, oxford. ellen, r. f., and k. fukui, eds. 1996. redefining nature: ecology, culture, and domestication. berg, oxford. mansfield, j. c. 1952. dawn of creation. george g. harrap, london. biosketch roy ellen is a re red emeritus professor of anthropology  and human ecology with a par cular interest in ethnobi‐ ology, s ll based at the university of kent. his research is  currently  focused  on  the  applica ons  of  cogni ve  anthropology to the history of science, the reproduc on  of nuaulu  ritual cycles, and understanding  the manage‐ ment and significance of cul var diversity amongst home  gardeners  and  farmers  in  the  bri sh  isles  and  in  the  moluccas.   nejm benessaiah  is a phd candidate  in ethnobiology at  the  university  of  kent.  his  research  concerns  how  farming communi es deal with and affect change in arid  ecosystems  of  north  africa  within  the  shi ‐ ing  nego a on  of  knowledge,  power,  and  values  in  rela on to the state and market economy.     letter from the editors ethnobiology letters research communication 50 peruvian children’s folk taxonomy of marine animals josé pizarro-neyra1 author address: 1 proyecto nuestro medio ambiente marino, perú josepizarroneyra@gmail.com received: june 18 th 2011 volume 2:50-57 published: september 9th 2011 © 2011 society of ethnobiology abstract: free listing was used to obtain names of marine animals from 234 peruvian children with families involved in fishing activities. they live in the fishing towns of vila-vila, morro sama and ilo, located in southern peru. fishes, birds and the category “other marine animal” were used for the classification of marine fauna by children. the group of 6-8 year-olds shows a mean frequency of 19.7 names per child, while the group of 9-11 year-olds shows a mean frequency of 25.7 names per child. folk species of fish is the most frequently recorded category with a predominance of coastal species and with a mean frequency of 7.56 and 11.51 names per child for the groups of 6-8 year-olds and 9-11 year-olds, respectively. in contrast, bird names are less frequently recorded in the lists. some bird and mollusc names have lexical under-differentiation at a generic level and apparently have lower cultural significance than fish. children’s classification in different levels of organization is evidence of a folk biology. the folk taxonomy of marine animals could be influenced by the lesser cognitive development of younger children and the ecological salience of some species. some species with coastal habitat exhibit a high dominance index of folk names. cultural transmission of knowledge about birds could be failing due to the recent occupancy of the study sites by migratory people and the sexual division of work in the children’s families. key words: folk taxonomy, ecological salience, cognitive development, marine animals, children, fishing, southern peru introduction children’s folk biology has been studied recently in latin america, however, the folk taxonomy built by children is lesser known. according to au and romo (1999), if children make a distinction between biological and non-biological species, they demonstrate a folk biology. ross et al. (2002) argue that rural children from non-western cultures who are exposed to nature make use of relationships between organisms to explain biological phenomena. this is evidence of the existence of children’s folk biology. fish are predominant in the study of the folk biology of marine animals in south america. paz and begossi (1996) studied the nomenclature, classification and ethnoecology of brazilian marine fish among small-scale fishermen, but no children were included in their work. the ethnobiological classification of life-form taxa is influenced by utilitarian or perceptual factors, but folk generic categories have mainly perceptual salience (berlin 1992). their generalization implies that there exists a predominance of perceptual factors influencing folk taxonomy of children. but, according to markman (1989), little children tend to use thematic relationships rather than taxonomic similarity for the categorization of objects. this is in concordance with the lesser cognitive development in children under six years. in this sense, johnson & carey (1988) affirm that children finish acquiring knowledge of animals around age ten. another aspect linked with folk taxonomy is the universality of the categories. brown (1979) suggested the universality of the categories “fish,” “mammals,” “reptile,” “bird” and “wug.” the acquisition of these zoological life-forms by children is complete at age eight. in this article, the folk taxonomy used by rural children on the peruvian southern coast is examined. i search organization levels of the marine animals and the reasons that would explain the peruvian children’s classification system. this information is considered important for the management and conservation of marine habitats (drews 2005). methods study zone―the fishing villages of vila-vila (18°07’ s 70°36’ w) and morro sama (18° s 70°54’ w) are located in the department of tacna and the port of ilo (17°38’ s 71° 20’ w) is located in the department of moquegua. tacna and moquegua are the southernmost departments of peru. fishing is the main activity in the localities under study. the exploitation of marine resources for the fish meal industry is a important to the national economy. in tacna and moquegua fishermen practice mainly small-scale fishing. mailto:josepizarroneyra@gmail.com ethnobiology letters research communication 51 table 1. number of genera and species of marine animals named per peruvian child. age group fish taxa bird taxa other marine animal taxa 6-8 yrs old 7.56 3.79 8.125 9-11 yrs old 11.51 3.95 10.24 the children―all children studied were students at the primary schools in vila-vila, morro sama and ilo whose families were involved in the fishing industry. the informants were 234 children between the ages of 6 and 11 divided in two groups: ages 6-8 (n=102) and ages 9-11 (n=132). the list―children were invited to recall and write the maximum quantity of names of marine animals in twenty minutes. they created their lists on forms comprised of three columns corresponding to the following categories: “marine fish,” “marine bird” and the category “other marine animal.” this last category covers all others marine animals and contains less diversity than fish and birds in the students’ natural surroundings. the form was developed with sufficient space to write approximately twenty names in each column. the listing exercise was administered to children during school hours in july and november 2006 and in june 2007. analysis―the supplementary table (end of the document) summarizes marine animals named by the peruvian children who were interviewed. the scientific names and the habitat of the folk species were obtained from chirichigno and vélez (1998) for fish, vizcarra (2006) and schulenberg et al. (2007) for birds, jefferson et al. (1993) for marine mammals and paredes et al. (1988) for marine invertebrates. in case of doubt about the correspondence between folk names and scientific species, names were clarified during classes in the schools, where students identified the organisms after observing photographs. this was needed in the cases of marine turtles, mollusks, fur seals, gulls, cormorants, and some fish such as pampano (trachinotus paitensis carangidae cuvier). the purpose of table 1 is to identify the lexical differentiation of species and their cultural importance. the marine animal identified is indicated by the folk category mentioned by children for each one. the habitat of each species obtained from the literature serves as an indicator of ecological salience when these species appears more frequently in the lists. the measurement of this frequency was calculated by a dominance index using the formula figure 1. frequency of marine animals names used per child. d=(∑l)/t. l= lists containing the name of a species. t=234 examined lists. the species with higher values of d and usually caught near the shore would indicate species with ecological salience. results & discussion children wrote 58 folk names of marine animals in all the lists. fish was the most frequently mentioned lifeform, comprising 55% of the total folk taxa. names of terrestrial animals, such as dog, cat and dove appeared in some lists, but these animals are not considered in this study. many lists show names at generic level, such as pajarito (little bird), ave marina (seabird), pescado (fish), pescado chico and pescado grande (little and big fish, respectively). these names do not appear in the analysis of folk names (supplementary table, end of document). a total of 5380 mentions of marine animals were counted in all the lists. table 1 lists only 4675 mentions of folk taxa with a dominance index > 0.05. according to the results (table 1), most marine animals live in coastal habitats, but only a few animals exhibit ecological salience, with a dominance index > 0.50. this is the case for peruvian pelicans (pelecanus thagus pelecanidae molina) (d=0.84), humboldt penguins (spheniscus humboldtii spheniscidae meyen) (d=0.78), sea gulls (mainly larus belcheri laridae vigors, l. modestus laridae tschudii and l. dominicanus laridae lichtenstein) (d= 0.79), cormorants (phalacrocorax spp. phalacrocoracidae brisson) (d= 0.56), marine fur seals (otaria byronia otariidae shaw) (d= 0.78), pejerrey (odonthesthes regia atherinopsidae hildebrand) (d= 0.54), and lapa (fissurella spp. fissurellidae) (d= 0.69). the group of 6-8 year-olds old shows a mean frequency of 19.7 names per child, while the group of 9-11 year-olds presented 25.7 names per child (table ethnobiology letters research communication 52 1). the category of fish was most often mentioned in the lists with frequencies varying between 7.5 and 11.5 names per child (figure 1). fish are mentioned mainly using the specific level when perceptual salience is present such as in the case of pintacha (cheilodactylus variegatus cheilodactylidae valenciennes), pejesapo (syciases sanguineus gobiesocidae m. et t.) and diamante (isurus oxyrhinchus lamnidae rafinesque). these folk names exhibit one-to-one correspondence with scientific species which indicates cultural significance. indeed, these are target species for local fishermen according to estrella et al. (2006). the pelagic species known as perico (coryphaena hppurus coryphaenidae l.) is easily recognized by children due to their perceptual salience and because it is a species caught and consumed in the area at low prices. however, coastal species of fish are predominant in the lists. coastal fish are considered target species of artisanal fishery in tacna and moquegua according to estrella et al. (2006). the fish mentioned by the children have cultural salience as sources of food. sethalaphruk and price (2007) observed that children’s knowledge of animals used as food resources is mediated by the consumption or sale of them. in addition, some children in vila-vila and morro sama use fish as bait for shore fishing, as in the case of michi (chromis crusma cuvier and valenciennes) (figure 2). in this case, boys that fish use other criteria besides just perceptual characteristics for the recognition of species. boster and johnson (1989) affirm that some novice fishers recognize fish species using morphological appearance because knowledge of utility and behaviour requires cultural transmission and more experience. in contrast, marine birds are the category with fewer mentions in the children’s lists with a mean frequency of 3.9 names per child. this is relevant because peru is a country that lacks diversity of bird species (schulenberg 2007). on the coast of tacna, there are only 144 reported species of birds (vizcarra, 2006). following the theory of hunn (1999), the birds mentioned are probably species with higher ecological salience. the species mentioned in the childrens’ lists are: peruvian pelican or huacacho (pelecanus thagus molina), guanay (phalacrocorax bouganvilliii phalacrocoracidae lesson), piquero (sula variegata sulidae tschudi), and the humboldt penguin or pinguino. generic names mentioned were: patillo (corresponding to cormorants such phalacrocorax bouganvillii phalacrocoracidae lesson and phalacrocorax brasiliensis phalacrocoracidae gmelin) and gaviota or perica corresponding to at least the three species of larus figure 2. peruvian child holding a michi (chromis crusma) to be used as bait. gulls listed above. following martin (1995), species that are less important culturally are usually underdifferentiated. in this sense, the lexical underdifferentiation of some marine birds in the lists indicates a lower cultural importance of marine birds. the majority of marine birds mentioned can be found near ports, searching through garbage or fishing nets for food. all bird species have coastal habitats and are commonly found in the area (table 1). perhaps the low number of names for small birds such as sandpipers and lesser terns, which are abundant in the area, is due to their size. these birds’ small size may not allow children and their parents to recognize details for species identification. the cultural transmission of local knowledge about avifauna could be lacking for at least two reasons. first, some children’s families are migratory people from the andes, with limited ecological knowledge of marine resources. migrants represent 30% of the total population of the departments of tacna and moquegua, (inei 2008). secondly, a mother’s knowledge of marine fauna could be scarce. in this ethnobiology letters research communication 53 situation, a child’s limited knowledge of birds could be due to the amount of time spent with her mother. the gender division of work in peruvian fishing villages deters women from working on boats during fishing activities. according to estrella et al. (2006), 10% of artisanal fishers in tacna are women who only participate in the harvest of mollusks or aid their husbands with net fishing along the shore. women are not allowed to work on boats. therefore, women and children would not see the many bird species that men would see during fishing activities. in berlin’s (1981) ethno-ornithological study, women show less linguistic ability in the folk taxonomy of birds than men due to two factors: 1) a limited outcome of life experience in the hunting, and 2) no opportunity to observe entire birds because males remove all plumage before women prepare them for food. children’s knowledge about marine birds in our study zone could be lower probably because none of these types of birds are cooked and eaten by the fishermen families. some folk species from the category “other marine animals” do not correspond with the linnean taxonomy. the cetaceans are classified as fish by 66% of the 6-8 year-olds and by 43% of the 9-11 year-olds. according to souza and begossi (2007), the cultural transmission from elders to younger fishermen could play a role in the identification of cetaceans as fish in other parts of south america. fish and cetaceans such as porpoises and dolphins share morphological attributes (shape, fins) and could belong to the same group of animals in the taxonomies of little children. markman (1989), explains that young children tend to acquire basic categorizing skills by maximizing the similarities between category members and minimizing the similarities between members of other categories. in addition, some students in vila-vila and morro sama said that they ate porpoise meat in reference to chancho marino (phocoena spinipinnis phocoenidae burmeister). this species is mentioned in their lists, and children that eat cetacean meat are using the utilitarian factor to group porpoises into the fish category. according to van waerebeek and reyes (1994), this species suffers incidental capture in vilavila and is used as bait in ilo. sharks and sea horses are identified as “other marine animals” by 12% of the 6-8 year olds. these folk names were not grouped within the fish category by the children, perhaps due to their dissimilarities with the previously learned fish prototype. the status of the sea horses in the folk taxonomy is unique. for example, the sea horse was not classified by any folk taxa by brazilian artisanal fishermen (paz and begossi 1996). sharks, however, are well recognized as a taxonomical group by children, perhaps due to their cultural importance. sharks are caught in southern peru during the winter with longlines known as redes animaleras (nets for the animal), and fisherman call sharks el animal (the animal). in my experience, artisanal fishermen identify sharks as a different group of fish. additionally, the humbolt penguin was classified as “other marine animals” by 8% of the 6-8 year-olds. trowbridge and mintzes (1985) suggest that the penguins are not identified by children as birds due to their similarity with marine mammals and the fact that they do not fly. very few names of invertebrates were written within the category “other marine animals” considering the abundance of these organisms in the peruvian sea. but some mollusks such as the gastropods exhibit under-differentiation of the folk species (table 1). for instance, mollusks of the generic level lapa comprise at least two species not differentiated by children. this is evidence of moderate or low cultural significance of these species, probably due to how little they are used. finally, the classification of sessile invertebrates such “other marine animals” can be a problem for young children. carey (1988) indicates that small children manage the concept “animal” as an entity with the capacity of “action.” for this reason, it is possible that sessile animals such as mollusks were not included in the lists made by children aged 6-8 years. conclusions the use of different levels of classification (life-forms, generic and specific) is evidence of the existence of folk taxonomy among children from the southern coast of peru. cetaceans were classified in the category “fish” by some children. the humboldt penguin and some fish were also classified as “other marine animals” (neither fish nor birds) in order to differentiate from the previously learned prototype of fish and bird. “marine birds” is the category less frequently mentioned, and some folk species present less cultural importance. some mollusks and birds with lexical under-differentiation would be considered to have low cultural importance. in contrast, marine fish would be considered the category with higher cultural significance for the children. cultural transmission about local ecological knowledge of marine resources is failing due to the recent migration of people from the andes and by the gender division of work that leads to a lack of experience in fishing activities among women. the lower number of marine animal names recorded ethnobiology letters research communication 54 per child in the 6-8 year-old age group is most likely explained by the lower cognitive development of younger children. acknowledgements many thanks to students in san pedro and morro sama schools in tacna and to students children at jorge basadre, daniel becerra, l. conde and avelino cáceres schools in ilo. maureen maccarthy aided with translation of this report. references cited au, t. k. and l. romo. 1999. mechanical causality in children´s folkbiology. in folkbiology, edited by d. c. medin and s. atran, pp. 355-402. mit press, cambridge. berlin, b. 1992. ethnobiological classification. principles of categorization of plants and animals in traditional societies. princeton university press, princeton. berlin, b., j. s. boster, and j. p. o’neil. 1981. the perceptual bases of ethnbiological classification: evidence from aguaruna jívaro ornithology. journal of ethnobiology 1:95-108. boster, j. s. and j. c. johnson. 1989. form of function: a comparison of expert and novice judgments of similarity among fish. american anthropologist 91:866-889. brown, c. 1979. folk-zoological life-forms: their universality and growth. american anthropologist 81:791-817. carey, s. 1988. conceptual differences between children and adults. mind and language 3:167-181. chirichigno, n. and j. vélez. 1998. clave para identificar los peces marinos del perú, segunda edición. instituto del mar del perú, callao. drew, j. a. 2005. use of traditional ecological knowledge in marine conservation. conservation biology 19:1286-1293. estrella, c., g. castillo, and j. fernández. 2006. encuesta estructural de la pesquería artesanal peruana. regiones de moquegua y tacna. imarpe-produceaeci, callao. johnson, s. and s. carey. 1998. knowledge enrichment and conceptual change in folkbiology: evidence from williams syndrome. cognitive psychology 37:156-200. hunn, e. 1999. size as limiting the recognition of biodiversity in folkbiological classifications: one of four factors governing the cultural recognition of biological taxa. in folkbiology, edited by d.c. medin and s. atran, pp. 47-69. mit press, cambridge. inei. 2008. censos nacionales 2007: xi de población y vi de vivienda. resultados definitivos. tomo i. dirección nacional de censos y encuestas del instituto nacional de estadística e informática, lima. jefferson, t. a., s. leatherwood and m. a. webber. 1993. marine mammals of the world. fao species identification guide. fao, rome. markman, e. m. 1989. categorization and naming in children: problems of induction. mit press, bradford books, cambridge. martin, g. j. 1995. ethnobotany: a methods manual. chapman and hall, london, uk. paredes, c., j. tarazona, e. canahuire, l. romero and o. cornejo.1988. invertebrados macro.bentónicos del área de pisco, perú. in recursos y dinámica del ecosistema de afloramiento peruano. volúmen extraordinario, edited by h. salzwedel and a. landa, pp. 121-132. boletín imarpe, callao. paz, v. a. and a. begossi. 1996. ethnoicthyiology of gamboa fishermen of sepetiba bay, brazil. journal of ethnobiology 16:157-168. ross, n., d. l. medin, j. d. coley and s. atran. 2003. cultural and experiential differences in the development of folkbiological induction. cognitive development 18:25-47. schulenberg, t. s., d. f. stotz, d. l. lane, j. p. o’neill and t. a. parker. 2007. birds of peru. princeton university press, princeton. setalaphruk, c. and l. l. price. 2007. children’s traditional ecological knowledge of wild food resources: a case study in a rural village in northeast thailand. journal of ethnobiology and ethnomedicine 3:33. doi:10.1186/1746-4269-3-33. souza, s. p. and a. begossi. 2007. whales, dolphins or fishes? the ethnotaxonomy of cetaceans in são sebastião, brazil. journal of ethnobiology and ethnomedicine 3:9. doi:10.1186/1746-4269-3-9. trowbridge, j. e. and j. mintzes. 1985. students’ alternative conceptions of animals and animal classification. school science and mathematics 85:304-316. van waerebeek, k. and j. c. reyes. 1994. post-ban small cetacean takes off peru: a review. report international whaling commission 15:503-519. ethnobiology letters research communication 55 vizcarra, j. 2006. aves de los humedales de ite y alrededores. biodiversidad y conservación integral (colombia) 11:41-50. biosketch jose pizarro-neyra was born in tacna, southern peru. he is a researcher with interests in ethnobiology. in 2007 jose began doing research among artisanal fishermen and their children, looking at the ethnotaxonomy of marine animals. he is a member of the nuestro medio ambiente marino project team. supplementary table. folk taxa and habitat of marine animals named by peruvian children. common & scientific names scientific taxa class/order folk taxa habitat a d=(∑l)/t d 1. “caballa” scomber japonicus houttuyn pisces (actinopterygii) fish n 0.65 2. “borracho” scartichthys gigas steindachner pisces (actinopterygii) fish s 0.20 3. “lisa” mugil cephalus linnaeus pisces (actinopterygii) fish s 0.40 4. “lisa voladora” exocoetus volitans linnaeus pisces (actinopterygii) fish n 0.34 5. “anchoveta” engraulis ringens jenyns pisces (actinopterygii) fish n 0.39 6. “lorna” sciaena deliciosa tschudi pisces (actinopterygii) fish s 0.33 7. “cojinova” seriolella violacea guichenot pisces (actinopterygii) fish s 0.30 8. “corvina” cilus gilbertii abbott pisces (actinopterygii) fish s 0.37 9. “peje sapo” sicyases sanguineus muller et troschel pisces (actinopterygii) fish s 0.24 10. “jurel” trachurus picturatus murphyi nichols pisces (actinopterygii) fish n 0.41 11. “pejerrey” odonthestes regia hildebrand pisces actinopterygii fish s 0.54 12. “cabrilla” paralabrax humeralis valenciennes pisces (actinopterygii) fish s 0.06 13. “bonito” sarda chiliensis cuvier pisces (actinopterygii) fish p 0.41 14. “michi” chromis crusma valenciennes pisces (actinopterygii) fish s 0.15 15. “pintacha” cheilodactylus variegatus valenciennes pisces (actinopterygii) fish s 0.23 16. “tramboyo” labrisomus philippii steindachner pisces (actinopterygii) fish s 0.18 17. “pampano” trachinotus paitensis cuvier pisces (actinopterygii) fish s 0.13 18. “bagre” galeichtys peruvianus litken pisces (actinopterygii) fish n 0.06 ethnobiology letters research communication 56 19. “cabinza” isacia conceptionis cuvier pisces (actinopterygii) fish n 0.63 20. “sargo” anisotremus scapularis tschudi pisces (actinopterygii) fish s 0.13 21. “lenguado” paralichtys adspersus steindachner pisces (actinopterygii) fish s 0.38 22. “tollo” mustelus whithneyi chirichigno pisces (chondricthyes) fish s 0.14 23. “raya” not identified at species level pisces (chondricthyes) fish n 0.21 24. “tiburón” not identified at species level pisces (chondricthyes) fish, oma b,c p 0.34 25. “perico” coryphaena hippurus linnaeus pisces (actinopterygii) fish p 0.73 26. “caballito de mar” hippocampus ingens girard pisces (actinopterygii) fish, oma b n 0.18 27. “diamante” isurus oxyrhinchus rafinesque pisces (chondricthyes) fish p 0.37 28. “martillo” sphyrna zygaena linnaeus pisces (chondricthyes) fish p 0.11 29. “pelicano” pelecanus thagus molina aves bird p 0.84 30. “pingüino” spheniscus humboldti molina aves bird, oma b n 0.78 31. “patillo”at least two species: phalacrocorax brasiliensis gmelin and phalacrocorax bouganvillii lesson aves bird s 0.56 32. “guanay” phalacrocorax bouganvillii lesson aves bird s 0.25 33. “piquero” sula variegata tschudi aves bird s 0.21 34. “gaviota” & “perica” at least three species: larus belcheri vigors, larus dominicanus lichtenstein and larus modestus tschudi aves bird s 0.79 35. “pulpo” octopus sp. mollusca (cephalopoda) oma s 0.52 36. “pota” dosidiscus gigas d'orbigny mollusca (cephalopoda) oma p 0.41 37. “ballena” not identified at species level mammalia (cetacea) oma, fish b p 0.60 38. “orca” orcinus orca linnaeus mammalia (cetacea) oma, fish b p 0.33 39. “delfín” tursiops truncatus montagu mammalia (cetacea) oma, fish b p 0.50 40. “chancho marino” phocoena spinpinnis burmeister mammalia (cetacea) oma, fish b n 0.25 41. “lobo marino”two species: otaria byronia shaw and arctocephalus australis zimmerman mammalia (carnivora) oma s 0.78 42. “chungungo” lontra felina molina mammalia (carnivora) oma s 0.28 43. “estrella de mar” at least two species: stichaster striatus lamarck and heliasther helianthus lamarck echinodermata (asteroidea) oma s 0.53 44. “tortuga” at least two species: caretta caretta linnaeus and chelonia agassizi bocourt reptilia (testudines) oma p 0.36 45. “poto de mar” at least two species: phymactis papillosa lesson and phymantea pluvia drayton coelenterata (anthozoa) oma s 0.12 ethnobiology letters research communication 57 46. “choro” aulacomya ater molina mollusca (bivalvia) oma s 0.33 47. “almeja” prothotaca thaca molina mollusca (bivalvia) oma s 0.16 48. “chanque” concholepas concholepas bruguiére mollusca (gastropoda) oma s 0.34 49. “muy-muy” emerita analoga stimpson crustacea (decapoda) oma s 0.32 50. “macha” mesodesma donacium lamarck mollusca (bivalvia) oma s 0.12 51. “chiton” at least two species: enoplochiton niger barnes and chiton granosus frembly mollusca (gastropoda) oma s 0.15 52. “caracol” at least two species: thais chocolate duclos and tegula atra lesson mollusca (gastropoda) oma s 0.28 53. “erizo negro” tetrapygus níger molina echinodermata (echinoidea ) oma s 0.30 54. “lapa” at least two species: fissurella crassa lamarck and fissurela cumingsi reeve mollusca (gastropoda) oma s 0.69 55. “jaiva” cancer setosus molina crustacea (decapoda) oma s 0.43 56. “araña de mar” at least two species: grapsus grapsus linnaeus and geograpsus lividus milne edwards crustacea (decapoda) oma s 0.17 57. “camarón” cryphiops caementarius molina crustacea (natantia) oma s 0.22 58. “cangrejo” ocypode gaudichaudii milne edwards and lucas crustacea (decapoda) oma s 0.16 a habitat: s= shore, n= neritic, p= pelagic b classified by some children as this folk taxa c other marine animals d d=dominance index. l= lists containing the name of a species. t= the number of lists examined. the higher the d value, the greater the ecological salience. towards an interdisciplinary focus on sound in ethnobiology research wright. 2017. ethnobiology letters 8(1):58–60 58 short topical reviews sound studies have been popular in the social sciences and humanities for decades, but a recent surge in technological advances in audio recording has led to research on sound, from a wholistic as opposed to single species perspective, in the ecological sciences. soundscape ecology has largely centered on non-human research, such as long-term sound studies evaluating environmental health and investigations of spatial-temporal patterns to ascertain interactions between species (pijanowski 2016). ethnomusicologists have led the call for greater integration between sound studies in the social and biological sciences, and focusing more attention to sound, music, and meaning (guyette and post 2015). ethnobiology is in a unique position to link these interdisciplinary sound studies, especially because of its long history of addressing local ecological knowledge and bridging the humanities and biological science disciplines. sound can provide information that is crucial and not readily accessible through sight. whereas soundscape ecologists are now using recorders to monitor environmental health (pijanowski 2016), ethnobiologists have, for decades, studied communities that use sound as indicators of environmental dynamics (hunn 1992; schaffer 2014). unfortunately, most ethnobiological literature mentioned such data peripherally. the few examples of studies emphasizing sound can serve as an important resource for future research. ethnobiological research that incorporates sound maybe grouped according to sound is an important element in an individual’s understanding of place and environmental conditions. as ethnobiology research has shown, sounds are often used as signals or cues for various events or presences, such as a bird that sings before it rains (schaffer 2014:315). while there are examples of sounded ecological knowledge within ethnobiology research, it is usually peripheral, especially to methodologies unrelated to linguistics. considering that very few studies forefront sound, this review discusses several that do and their potential to inform future research. in addition, this review will argue that a move towards ethnobiology research that directly recognizes sounded ecological knowledge, will benefit greatly by looking at examples of literature outside ethnobiology, especially from ethnomusicology and soundscape ecology. ethnomusicology has a long history of research into the importance of sound in ecological and social understandings, while soundscape ecology is a new field that “examines how sounds produced by objects over space and time are related to natural and human activities occurring at a place” (pijanowski 2016:839). conversation between the three fields of ethnobiology, ethnomusicology, and soundscape ecology have the potential to bridge gaps and develop innovative interdisciplinary methodologies to understand the importance of environmental sound from biological (e.g., animals/humans) and nonbiological (e.g., thunder) sources. towards an interdisciplinary focus on sound in ethnobiology research claire wright1* 1department of anthropology and department of folklore and ethnomusicology, indiana university, bloomington, usa. *clcwrigh@indiana.edu abstract research on perception and ecological knowledge in ethnobiology has primarily focused on sight, in tandem with taste, smell, and touch. sound, however, has been largely neglected as a topical or methodological focus. this review addresses research in ethnomusicology and soundscape ecology to suggest how attention to sound could open new avenues and add value to ethnoecological research. received september 10, 2016 open access accepted march 24, 2017 doi 10.14237/ebl.8.1.2017.788 keywords ethnomusicology, soundscape ecology, ethnoecology, methodology, perception copyright © 2017 by the author(s); licensee society of ethnobiology. this is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution-noncommercial 4.0 international public license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0), which permits non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. wright. 2017. ethnobiology letters 8(1):58–60 59 short topical reviews several themes. a first such theme includes sound as an environmental indicator. turpin et al. (2013) write of the importance of sounds made by snake lizards as a signal that yams are ready for harvest. a second theme is language and sound, such as onomatopoeia and sound symbolism. among the numerous resources in this area, an article by berlin and o’neill (1981) illustrates the long history of this theme in ethnobiology research. a third is evident in classification systems research, some of which incorporate all the physical senses. for example, an article by ramires et al. (2015) describes research incorporating visual and aural methodologies to elicit data from participants. hunn (1992) also references ethnobiological methods involving sound. while there are a few examples which incorporate sound into methods, in many cases it is completely absent. for example, a useful and recent methods book entitled methods of ethnoecology and ethnobiology focuses primarily on visual stimuli without any mention of sound in discussions of environmental perception (albuquerque et al. 2014). at issue is not ethnobiology’s heavy focus on visual stimuli, which makes sense considering that many animal species and plants are non-vocal. instead, the concern is over the dearth of research focusing on sound from biological and/or nonbiological sources. the few studies addressing sound as a primary topic illustrate its potential benefits. for example, jennifer schine (2012) wrote about “acoustical ecologies of knowing the biological world through sonic interactions with ethnobiology,” arguing that “our experience of listening can inform us about the transformation (and continuity) of resource-based living to environmentalism, and the contemporary importance of sound in the cultural history of british columbia’s coastal communities.” in another unique example, firew mekbib looked at folksongs in a farming community in ethiopia, arguing that they are used to transmit knowledge about caring for sorghum, the main crop. the author called this research a “new system of appraising farmers’ bioecocultural heritage” (mekbib 2009:1). outside of ethnobiology, other fields with lengthy durée in sound focused research could serve as important resources to encourage innovative research and methodologies. collaboration between ethnomusicology, ethnobiology, and soundscape ecology could improve methodologies for understanding ecological knowledge, its importance, and the ways in which communities are adapting to climate and environmental change more broadly. many ethnomusicologists have studied local ecological knowledge, looking at the importance of sound in ecological knowledge and cultural identity for decades (e.g., feld 2012; seeger 1981). more recent articles on sounded knowledge have looked at the role of sound and agency, space, and human-non-human relationships (e.g., de mori and seeger 2013; sakakeeny 2010). in addition, guyette and post (2015) have already begun to bridge soundscape ecology and ethnomusicology. their article looked at two case studies in mongolia and new zealand, presenting research from a soundscape ecological perspective and an ethnomusicological perspective for each. soundscape ecology and ethnobiology also stand to benefit from consulting one another’s literature. shaffer’s (2014) article on co-producing climate knowledge between community members in rural tanzania and western scientists serves as an example of possible intersections between these two fields. while the article is focused on visual markers, she opens with a quote from a community elder about changing climate causing birds to no longer make certain calls used to predict the weather (shaffer 2014:315). this article illustrates that, peripherally, published ethnobiological studies point to the importance of sound for communities’ perceptions of climate change, which soundscape ecologists are just starting to detect in their analysis (krause and farina 2016). the inclusion of soundscape ecology’s methods of passive acoustic recording and analysis could contribute to the co-production of knowledge between researchers and collaborators. potentially useful analyses include tracking specific species over time (of interest to collaborators), and looking for overall patterns and changes in the make-up of sounds throughout days, seasons, and even years (pijanowski 2016). acknowledgements i am especially grateful to eduardo brondizio for his encouragement and guidance, as well as the anonymous reviewers for their insightful and constructive feedback. declarations permissions: none declared. sources of funding: none declared. conflicts of interest: none declared. wright. 2017. ethnobiology letters 8(1):58–60 60 short topical reviews references cited albuquerque, u. p., l. v. f. cruz, r. f. p. lucena, and r. r. n. alves, eds. 2014. methods and technique in ethnobiology and ethnoecology. springer, new york, ny. berlin, b., and j. p. o’neill. 1981. the persuasiveness of onomatopoeia in aguaruna and huambisa bird names. journal of ethnobiology 1:238–261. available at: http://www.botanicus.org/ item/31753002401393#. accessed on january 17, 2017. de mori, b. b., and a. seeger. 2013. introduction: considering music, humans, and non-humans. ethnomusicology forum 22:269–286. feld, s. 2012. sound and sentiment: birds, weeping, poetics, and song in kaluli expression, 3rd edition. duke university press, durham, nc. guyette, m. q., and j. c. post. 2015. ecomusicology, ethnomusicology, and soundscape ecology: scientific and musical responses to sound study. in current directions in ecomusicology, edited by a. s. allen and k. dawe, pp. 40–65. routledge, new york, ny. hunn, e. 1992. the use of sound recordings as voucher specimens and stimulus materials in ethnozoological research. journal of ethnobiology 12:187–198. available at: http:// www.botanicus.org/page/1760570. accessed on march 28, 2016. krause, b., and a. farina. 2016. using ecoacoustic methods to survey the impacts of climate change on biodiversity. biological conservation 195:245–254. doi:10.1016/j.biocon.2016.01.013. mekbib, f. 2009. folksong based appraisal of bioecocultural heritage of sorghum (sorghum bicolor (l.) moench): a new approach in ethnobiology. journal of ethnobiology and ethnomedicine 5:19. doi:10.1186/1746-4269-5-19. pijanowski, b. c. 2016. terrestrial soundscape: status of ecological research in natural and humandominated landscapes. in the effects of noise on aquatic life ii, edited by a. n. popper and a. hawkins, pp. 839–846. springer, new york, ny. ramires, m., m. clauzet, w. barrella, m. m. rotundo, r. a. m. silvano, and a. begossi. 2015. fishers’ knowledge about fish trophic interactions in the southeastern brazilian coast. journal of ethnobiology and ethnomedicine 11:19. doi:10.1186/s13002-0150012-8. sakakeeny, m. 2010. ‘under the bridge’: an orientation to soundscapes in new orleans. ethnomusicology 54:1–27. doi:10.5406/ ethnomusicology.54.1.0001. schaffer, l. j. 2014. making sense of local climate change in rural tanzania through knowledge co -production. journal of ethnobiology 34:315–334. doi: 10.2993/0278-0771-34.3.315. schine, j. 2012. soundwalking: ways of listening to the biological world [webpage]. available at: www.ethnobiology.net/schine-2012congress. accessed on september 6, 2016. seeger, a. 1981. nature and society in central brazil: the suyá indians of mato grosso. harvard university press, cambridge, ma. turpin, m., a. ross, v. dobson, and m. k. turner. 2013. the spotted nightjar calls when dingo pups are born: ecological and social indicators in central australia. journal of ethnobiology 33:7–32. doi:10.2993/0278-0771-33.1.7. toponymic data helps to reveal the occurrence of previously unknown populations of wild zamia pumila l. on volcanic substrates in south central puerto rico 52 research communication antilles has been registered for cuba (gonzález-géigel 2003). in puerto rico, three zamia species have been recognized (acevedo and strong 2005; axelrod 2011; meerow et al. 2012). zamia erosa cook and collins zamiaceae is widely distributed across the northern limestone region, where its abundance ranges from rare to locally dominant. the other two species (z. pumila and z. portoricensis urb zamiaccae) are distributed along interrupted, metamorphosed limestone (marble), and serpentine areas of south-central and southwestern puerto rico. they are geographically separated from z. erosa by the metamorphic volcanic rock of the cordillera central (figure 1). during the last 8 years, archaeological findings in puerto rico (including vieques island), dominican republic, cuba, saba, trinidad and aruba have consistently revealed the importance of zamia for the pre-columbian inhabitants of these islands (mickleburgh and pagán-jiménez 2012; pagánjiménez 2007, 2009, 2011, 2013). microbotanical residues, such as starch grains from subterranean introduction zamia l. zamiaceae is the cycad genus with the widest distribution in the neotropics. its species are found from florida to bolivia (norstog and nicholls 1997). in the antilles, it is represented by the zamia pumila complex, a distinct, and monophyletic group (caputo et al. 2004; norstog and nicholls 1997), with an undetermined number of species, ranging from 1 to 9 depending on the preferred taxonomic approach (e.g., eckenwalder 1980; gonzález-géigel 2003; meerow et al. 2007; meerow et al. 2012; stevenson 1987). at present, populations of this species complex are known in cuba, hispaniola (haiti and the dominican republic), jamaica, puerto rico, the bahamas, and the cayman islands, but there is no record of its native distribution throughout the lesser antilles (stevenson et al. 2003). although the genus is commonly associated with volcanic and limestone formations in the tropical american continent (whitelock 2002), the only known and clear occurrence of the genus in volcanic formations across the toponymic data helps to reveal the occurrence of previously unknown populations of wild zamia pumila l. on volcanic substrates in south central puerto rico jaime r. pagán-jiménez1* and julio c. lazcano-lara2 author address: 1faculty of archaeology, leiden university (the netherlands), and programa de maestría en arqueología, centro de estudios avanzados de puerto rico y el caribe (puerto rico). 2laboratory for integrative biology, departamento de biología, universidad de puerto rico, río piedras (puerto rico). * corresponding author: jpaganpr@yahoo.com received: february 26, 2013 volume: 4:52-58 published: april 30, 2013 © 2013 society of ethnobiology abstract: this is the first report of the occurrence of wild zamia pumila l. zamiaceae populations on various volcanic substrates in the piedmont area of south central puerto rico. data acquisition and its field confirmation were possible after the identification of toponymic names in old and current maps, and historic documents of the island in which one of the indigenous names for the genus (marunguey [marungüey] or marungueyes) has been used for naming some localities. these preliminary data have deep implications for paleoand neoethnobotanical research, and for population ecology of the species in puerto rico, because they expand the traditionally accepted range for the species on the island. zamia has been described as one of the main food plants among preand post-columbian inhabitants in two islands of the greater antilles, hispaniola and puerto rico, where the most sophisticated pre-columbian society of the antilles, the taínos, emerged. our findings suggest that zamia might have been more available to humans, as a food source, than previously thought. keywords: zamia pumila, volcanic geology, puerto rico, ecology, biology, paleoethnobotany. 53 research communication stems of zamia, have been identified in a diverse array of food processing/cooking tools and in human dental calculus chronologically placed between c. 5000 to 450 bp. the use of the subterranean stems of zamia as a starchy food source has also been documented for colonial times in islands such as puerto rico, hispaniola and cuba, where some detailed descriptions were offered mainly on its exploitation and processing for making foodstuffs (abbad y lasierra 2002; las casas 1909; pagán-jiménez 2007). within this context it is difficult to explain archaeological remains of zamia discovered outside the current distribution range of the genus on the caribbean islands and, above all, the presence of populations of this species complex growing on soils that do not have limestone/serpentine substrates. the recovery of pre-columbian zamia remains in archaeological excavations from the east coast of puerto rico (ceiba and humacao municipalities), vieques, the lesser antilles (e.g., saba and guadeloupe), trinidad, and aruba is intriguing. therefore, it seems that the past distribution of species of zamia on these islands is poorly understood. the findings reported here suggest that, in the past, this genus could have been much more widely distributed and may have reached other islands and exploited a wider array of soils. methods documentary search toponymy is a type of linguistic inquiry used for studying and classifying the names of places in which any topographical, natural (floristic, faunal), or functional feature of the locality is used for assigning a particular name to a determined point in the geography. initial results from the search of the puerto rico amerindian word for zamia (i.e., marunguey) in 19th and 20th century maps of the island, documents and satellite images (córdova1831; erhard 1861, google earth 2012) have revealed its use for naming: (1) a secondary road between the southern municipalities of ponce and peñuelas (camino los marungueyes); (2) figure 1. potential distribution of the three wild zamia species known for puerto rico according to herbarium collections, published literature, personal field surveys, and geologic substrates traditionally associated with them. orange dot (or oval) is the general location of the populations in this report. 54 research communication a lagoon, a coastal point, and a creek in the eastern municipalities of fajardo and vieques island (laguna marungueyes, punta marunguey, quebrada marungueyes, respectively); and (3) another coastal point in the northern municipality of arecibo (punta de marunguey). the locality in arecibo is the only one situated on a limestone substrate, whereas the other sites are clearly found on various volcanic substrates where zamia species have never been recorded or reported. this communication is focused in one of the areas found during the toponymic search: camino los marungueyes. field survey based on the geographical information, we conducted field studies to confirm if populations of zamia occur at two different volcanic substrates in the periphery of camino los marungueyes (figure 1, orange dot). we explored the vicinity of camino los marungueyes, which is mostly a semi-deciduous secondary forest between tallaboa alta/rucio and quebrada limón in the municipalities of peñuelas and ponce. we also interviewed local senior residents of the area who had general knowledge of the species and its uses, and obtained directions to locate two groups of plants. results three preliminary and localized field surveys have confirmed that small groups of z. pumila grow wild near the vicinity of camino los marungueyes (figure 2). intra-population data for the three z. pumila groups described below (p-1 to p-3) are based on general observations obtained by a limited walkover in the area of interest. two of the three groups found (p-1 and p-3) were located by using information provided by local senior residents of the area who have general knowledge of the species and of its past use as a foodstuff. p-2 was found during a general inspection of roadsides near camino los marungueyes. the sites where plants of zamia were found have mostly a volcanic substrate that belongs to the yauco and lago grazas formations. the sites also have soils derived from augite andesite porphyry, augitehornblende porphyry and dacite (krushensky 1998). it is worth mentioning that the juana díaz limestone formation is located 1.3 km farther south from these sites. the topography of the sites is highly irregular, comprising ridge tops surrounded by steep to moderate slopes. soil types in the general area consist of well drained clay, silty clay and gravelly clay loam. weathered and unweathered bedrock can be present at a depth of 10 to 36 inches (web soil survey 2012). one of the z. pumila groups (p-1) lies on a c. 45° slope in a secondary forest within the yauco formation at an elevation of ca. 164 masl. this formation consists of siltstone, claystone, sandstone, limestone, and conglomerate (krushensky 1998) and the soil surface in this specific location is a yellowish brown gravelly clay loam similar to the one described as figure 2. habitat of zamia pumila l. in p-2 (left) and p-3 (right). 55 research communication caguabo gravelly clay loam (web soil survey 2012). the other 2 groups (p-2 and p-3) grow on 30-70° slopes in secondary forests near the vicinity of camino los marungueyes at an elevation between 180 to 220 masl (figure 2). both groups are located very close to two different ephemeral creeks and are approximately 1.2 km to the north of p-1. these 2 groups grow on the volcanic augite andesite porphyry substrate, which basically consists of dark gray groundmass together with minor phenocrysts and microchrystals (kaye 1959). the topsoil in the areas of p-2 and p-3 is silty clay with some minor variations in color, ranging from dark grayish to yellowish brown as described for the mucara silty clay (web soil survey 2012). as noted above, the forests the 3 groups inhabit are similar. they are composed of mixtures of exotic and native plants such as mango (mangifera indica l. anacardiaceae), corozo palms (acrocomia media o.f. cook arecaceae) and other woody species in which zamia individuals grow in the understory. preliminary data from p-1 reveals that at least 10 individuals are distributed in two small clusters of four and 6 plants each, separated by c. 15 m. both, male (n=4) and female (n=5) plants are present in these clusters and sometimes male and female plants are distributed in pairs. other mature plants were detected to the east of the visited area although they are distributed at higher points in the slope on private property and are generally separated by 10-20 m each. observations made for p-2 indicate that there are 5 to 6 individuals from both sexes. at least 3 of them of undetermined sex are clustered while the other 2 or 3 are separated from each other by 5 to 10 m. one isolated individual of undetermined sex was found at the edge of a municipal road 40 m. to the southeast of the main cluster. males and females are not located close to each other. nonetheless, a small cluster of young individuals was located below on the slope at no more than 3 m from one of the female plants. general data acquired for p-3 establish a heavily scattered distribution pattern for zamia individuals of both sexes. two clusters comprise this group of zamia. one of them is composed of only 2 individuals (at least 1 is a mature male plant) separated by c. 35 m. the other cluster, located at more than 100 m to the north, consists of 4 individuals (at least 1 female and 1 male plant) separated from each other by approximately 25 to 65 m. figure 3. new and perished female (left) and male (right) cones as commonly seen in all the surveyed groups. 56 research communication although most of the plants were adults in all the surveyed groups (figure 3), we did not find definitive evidence of recent sexual reproduction. the presence of decayed female cones with non-fecundated ovules suggests a lack of pollination during the previous reproductive season. moreover the absence of seedlings around female plants implies that no recruitment has occurred in the recent past. issues such as spatial separation of individuals of different sex, the local extinction of the pollinator, and poor recruitment may prevent successful sexual reproduction. this topic requires further investigation. final remarks our findings and general observations have shown the occurrence of various wild z. pumila groups (or populations) in the vicinity of camino los marungueyes, a former volcanic area of south-central puerto rico. these groups are composed mainly of mature and old individuals who apparently are not reproducing sexually. preliminary data obtained through informal interviews with older residents near the areas of these findings suggest that past agricultural activities were the main source of impact on this species, thus heavily affecting the population structure and its reproductive system. these new findings of z. pumila probably reveal one of the last redoubts for this species growing wild in a volcanic area of puerto rico. our data have implications for paleoethnobotanical and archaeological research because they support previous archaeobotanical records of zamia for precolumbian sites outside the current range of the species in puerto rico and other antillean islands (mickleburgh and pagán-jiménez 2012; pagánjiménez 2007, 2013). this suggests that zamia could have been naturally distributed in “unexpected” areas beyond its present distribution range in puerto rico, thus making this plant potentially available for human use and consumption in the past. however, it is important to stress that pre-columbian human impact on zamia has not been properly evaluated in the antilles; thus, an alternative hypothesis that precolumbian indigenous people might have served as dispersal agents for the species into new habitats cannot be ruled out (mickleburgh and pagán-jiménez 2012). knowing that zamia has played an important role for the pre-columbian human subsistence strategies in the antilles (see pagán-jiménez 2013; veloz maggiolo 1992), it is important to obtain a more complete data set in order to understand the past and present status of this genus in puerto rico and the rest of the antilles. based on archaeological, paleoethnobotanical, and ethnohistoric information, zamia sp. appears to be one of the few wild species in the greater antilles that was widely used by indigenous people, mainly as a food source. this same information also reveals that this species could have been one of the key staples for different preand post -columbian periods and peoples of the region, so it is likely that the original inhabitants of the islands had well established management strategies, which directly involved zamia for at least 5000 years in puerto rico and other antillean islands (pagán-jiménez 2013). historical ecology brings an ideal framework for understanding long term human-plant interaction processes (sensu balée 2006; erickson 2008) that could help us gain refined information on the role pre -columbian populations played in many aspects of zamia biology and biogeography through time. historical ecology derives from the understanding that rather than “adapt to” or be “limited by” the environment, humans created, transformed, and managed cultural or anthropogenic (human-made) landscapes that suited their purposes (erickson 2008; see also lansing and cox 2011; smith 2011). wild plants such as zamia sp., together with human agents through time, could be easily placed within this scenario in the antilles considering our findings. we do not know to what extent the current status of zamia, including its known and current distribution pattern, is the result of natural or cultural forces. we believe the only plausible way for acquiring specific knowledge on both sides of the problem is through the formulation of concerted and well-balanced research incorporating both the social and natural sciences. we think this brief research communication is a good example of how important the integration of various disciplines is for expanding our knowledge about our natural and human world. acknowledgments we would like to thank dr. javier francisco ortega (florida international university), as well as to two anonymous reviewers, for kindly making valuable comments to previous versions of this writing. many thanks also to dr. franklin s. axelrod and dr. jean e. turnquist (universidad de puerto rico-río piedras) for kindly correcting our caribbean spanglish. references cited abbad y lasierra, f. i. 2002. historia geográfica, civil y 57 research communication natural de la isla de san juan bautista de puerto rico. ediciones doce calles, madrid. acevedo, p., and m. strong. 2005. zamiaceae. in monocotyledons and gymnosperms of puerto rico and the virgin islands, edited by p. acevedo and m. strong, pp. 14-17. contributions from the united states national herbarium, volume 52: 1-415. smithsonian institution, washington dc. axelrod, f. s. 2011. a systematic vademecum to the vascular plants of puerto rico. sida, botanical miscellany number 34: 1-420. brit press, fort worth. balée, w. 2006. the research program of historical ecology. annual review of anthropology 35:1–24. caputo , p., s. cozzolino, p. de luca, a. moretti and d. w. stevenson. 2004. molecular phylogeny of zamia (zamiaceae). in cycad classification. concepts and recommendations, edited by t. walters and r. osborne, pp. 149-158. cabi publishing, oxford. córdova, p. t. 1831. memorias geográficas, históricas, económicas y estadísticas de la isla de puerto rico. oficina del gobierno a cargo de d. valeriano de sanmillán, madrid. eckenwalder, j. e. 1980. taxonomy of the west indian cycads. journal of the arnold arboretum 61:701722. erhard, g. c. 1861. carte de l’ ile de saint jean de puerto-rico. bulletin de la société de geographie 5. erickson, c. l. 2008. amazonia: the historical ecology of a domesticated landscape. in handbook of south american archaeology, edited by h. silverman and w. h. isbell, pp. 157-183. springer, ny. gonzález-géigel, l. 2003. zamiaceae. in flora de la república de cuba. fascículo 8(4). a.r. ganter verlag kg, liechtenstein. google earth. 2012. google earth version 6.1.0.5001. server kh.google.com, mountain view, ca. kaye, c. a. 1959. coastal geology of puerto rico. us department of the interior, geological survey professional paper 317, washington dc. krushensky, r. d. 1998. geologic map of puerto rico with correlation chart and map unit descriptions. in geology, geochemistry, geophysics, mineral occurrences and mineral resource assessment for the commonwealth of puerto rico, edited by w. bawiec. us geological survey open-file report 98-38, http:// pubs.usgs.gov/of/1998/of98-38/. lansing, s., and m. p. cox. 2011. the domain of the replicators. current anthropology 52(1):105-125. las casas, b. de. 1909. apologética historia de las indias. nueva biblioteca de autores españoles 13, madrid. meerow, a. w., d. stevenson, j. moynihan and j. francisco-ortega. 2007. unlocking the coontie conundrum: the potential of microsatellite dna studies in the caribbean zamia pumila complex (zamiaceae). memories of the new york botanical garden 98: 484-518. meerow, a. w., j. francisco-ortega, m. calonje, m. patrick griffith, t. ayala-silva, d. w. stevenson and k. nakamura. 2012. zamia (cycadales: zamiaceae) on puerto rico: asymmetric genetic differentiation and the hypothesis of multiple introductions. american journal of botany 99(11):1828 -1839. mickleburgh, h. and j. r. pagán-jiménez. 2012. new insights into the consumption of maize and other food plants in the pre-columbian caribbean from starch grains trapped in human dental calculus. journal of archaeological science 39:2468-2478. norstog, k. and t. j. nicholls. 1997. the biology of the cycads. cornell university press, ithaca, ny. pagán-jiménez, j. r. 2007. de antiguos pueblos y culturas botánicas en el puerto rico indígena. paris monographs in american archaeology 18/british archaeological reports international series. archaeopress, oxford. pagán-jiménez, j. r. 2009. nuevas perspectivas sobre las culturas botánicas precolombinas de puerto rico: implicaciones del estudio de almidones en herramientas líticas, cerámicas y de concha. cuba arqueológica ii(2):7-23. pagán-jiménez, j. r. 2011. early phyto-cultural processes in the precolonial antilles: a pancaribbean survey for an ongoing starch grain research. in communities in contact. essays in archaeology, ethnohistory and ethnography of the amerindian circum-caribbean, edited by c. l. hofman and a. van duijvenbode, pp. 87-116. sidestone press, leiden. pagán-jiménez, j. r. 2013. human-plant dynamics in the precolonial antilles: a synthetic update. in the 58 research communication oxford handbook of caribbean archaeology, edited by w. keegan, c. l. hofman and r. rodríguezramos, pp. 391-406. oxford university press, ny. smith, b. d. 2011. general patterns of niche construction and the management of wild plant and animal resources by small-scale preindustrial societies. philosophical transactions of the royal society biological sciences 366:836-848. stevenson, d. w. 1987. again the west indian zamias. fairchild tropical garden bulletin 42(3):2327. stevenson, d. w., a. vovides and j. chemnick. 2003. regional overview: new world. in cycads. status survey and conservation action plan, edited by j. donaldson, pp. 31-38. the world conservation union, gland, switzerland. veloz maggiolo, m. 1992. notas sobre la zamia en la prehistoria del caribe. revista de arqueología americana 6:125-138. web soil survey. 2012. puerto rico. available at: http://websoilsurvey.nrcs.usda.gov/app/. accessed on may 24, 2012. whitelock, l. m. 2002. the cycads. timber press, portland. biosketches jaime r. pagán-jiménez (doctorate in anthropology, universidad nacional autónoma de méxico, 2005) is adjunct professor of archaeology at the centro de estudios avanzados de puerto rico y el caribe, and research affiliate in caribbean archaeology (paleoethnobotany) at leiden university, the netherlands. he is also a research fellow of the secretaría nacional de educación superior, ciencia, tecnología e innovación (senescyt, proyecto prometeo) ascribed to the instituto nacional de patrimonio cultural, ecuador, where he advises the development of a national research program in paleoethnobotany. his current research examines the paleoethnobotany of the caribbean islands, french guiana, and ecuador, as well as the socio-politics of archaeological praxis in the caribbean and latin america. julio c. lazcano-lara (ph.d. candidate, departamento de biología, universidad de puerto rico-río piedras) is currently in his fourth year at the laboratory for integrative biology lead by dr. james d. ackerman. he is a member of the cycad specialist group, ssc-iucn. his research is focused on the reproductive biology of puerto rican zamias and how it influences species differentiation and their patterns of genetic diversity. review of african ethnobotany in the americas 107  book review  american agricultural systems received prominent inputs from africa in terms of botanical species and human agency, as carney points out. twenty-six crops native to or introduced from africa (millet, sorghum, rice, yams, plantains, black-eyed peas, watermelon, etc.) influence people’s lives globally. the impact of rice is unquestionable, as alpern demonstrates in a meticulous analysis of africans’ roles in the 18th century south carolina rice boom. the disputable asian origin of rice is carefully discussed. alpern substantiates how some rice species – prominently oryza glaberrima steud. poaceae – was independently domesticated in western africa and, along with o. sativa l. poaceae, entered the americas with slaves. elaborate knowledge about growing, processing, cooking, and re-producing rice by africans is reported in detail. bedigian offers a thorough study of sesame (sesamum indicum l. pedaliaceae) in the americas. in the book’s longest chapter, she stresses biocultural (ecological, economic, geographical, historical) aspects of sesame as a crop that was first introduced to africa and then to the americas. bedigian provides lengthy yet meticulously detailed accounts of sesame in different historical periods and geographical contexts (eurasia and the americas) from 1350 b.c.e. to the present, along with the diversity of use patterns (medicine, food, supernatural, punishment, etc.), names (vanglo, bowangala, etc.), and management domains (recipes, gardens, commercial). the involvement of wild plants in the dynamics of slavery and freedom from past to present is nicely depicted by four authors. dale rosengarten renders a well-documented historical narrative of coiled basketry, which he represents as an eclectic, unique craft that changed because of the encounter between different african traditions in the carolinas and the fourteen chapters written by 19 scholars constitute african ethnobotany in the americas, a book that unlocks the radical consequences of politically and economically coerced movements of people and plants worldwide in diachronic perspective. this guiding purpose articulates distinctly with other books that do not specifically address plants, such as mobility and migration in indigenous amazonia (alexiades 2009) and women and plants (howard 2003). the first book emphasizes the agency of amerindian peoples in the configuration of the natural and cultural landscape of the amazon. the authors of the second book declare the fallacy of a gender neutral ethnobotany. in the same spirit, the authors of african ethnobotany in the americas recognize african people’s central place in the history of the americas. the book’s authors represent african peoples and their descendants as meaningful agents in the management of botanical resources. by merging qualitative and quantitative approaches with rigorous data and first hand fieldwork, they demonstrate the explanatory power of research about people-plant interactions. this compendium of studies makes an explosive statement against decontextualized, ahistorical research that disregards african plants and people in the overall current configuration of the americas. the authors of this book use historical perspectives to effectively understand and explain multiple spheres of relationships between plants and peoples. the book is divided into sections about crops, handicrafts, medicine, permanence, and change in contemporary caribbean (cuba, barbados), south american (brazil, ecuador, suriname), and north american (united states) countries. judith carney, stanley alpern, and dorothea bedigian discuss the importance of african crops in commerce, nutrition, social relations, and knowledge. african ethnobotany in the americas  edited by robert voeks and john rashford. 2013. springer. pp. 429, 105 illustra ons, 69 color illustra ons.  $49.95 (paperback). isbn 978‐1461408352.  reviewed by egleé l. zent   reviewer address: lab ecología humana, ivic, altos de pipe, venezuela  received:  september 9, 2013  volume: 4:107‐109   published: october 13, 2013  © 2013 society of ethnobiology  108  book review  expansion of the craft to other southern states (georgia, florida, alabama, mississippi) and overseas (bermuda, caicos islands). african-descent slaves were responsible for creating the creole basket tradition and since baskets were utilized as receptacles for storing harvested rice grains, those slaves who had the skills to make these baskets were more valuable than others. the author identifies about two dozen plants found in the carolina lowcountry that were used for this purpose [spartina alterniflora loisel. poaceae, s. patens (aiton) muhl. poaceae, juncus roemerianus scheele juncaceae, juniperus virginiana small cupressaceae), quercus virginiana mill. fagaceae, sabal palmetto walter arecaceae, etc.]. notably, baskets were agents of slaves’ freedom and escape as reported by several factual cases. basket making survived as an economic activity after slaves became freed. even today, lowcountry south carolinians make baskets, according to patrick hurley, brian grabbatin, cari goetcheus, and angela halfacre. basket makers today gather, buy, and grow four local species [muhlenbergia sericeae (michx.) p.m. peterson poaceae, pinus palustris p. mill pinaceae, juncus roemerianus g. scheele jucaceae and s. palmetto], to weave and sell baskets. the settings where the actual collections occur, however, are undergoing urbanization that disturbs traditional patterns of political-ecological and social dynamics associated with this craft. land development patterns, private property, and habitat disturbance alter not just the social networks by which raw resource are accessed but also mark the potential termination of a non-timber forest product tradition (ntfpt) that has survived 400 years. this study warns planners and policy makers about the precarious survivability of sense of place and identity in a changing landscape. maria fadiman proficiently discusses the economic, cultural, and conservation aspects of piquigua (heteropsis ecuadorensis kunth araceae) in the ecological reserve mache-chindul on ecuador’s pacific ecuadorian coast. the minor economic importance of piquigua contrasts with its great cultural value for african-ecuadorians, which in turn duplicate its potential significance in conservation as a ntfpt. fadiman describes the historical arrival of black people to esmeraldas in the 16th century as escaped slaves who mixed with local indigenous populations, and later became a free creole community. considering piquigua as a cultural keystone species, she details the different steps associated with collecting, preparing, managing, weaving, marketing, and bartering piquigua by current descendants of african people. a rich diachronic interpretation by james sera and robert voeks acutely exposes the botanical and cultural foundation, construction, establishment, commercialization, and development of the berimbau de barriga, a one-stringed musical bow of west african origin in brazil. except for a metal wire ring, the berimbau is completely fabricated with wild and cultivated local plants (lagenaria siceraria standl. cucurbitaceae, heliconia sp. heliconiaceae, eschweilera ovata miers lecythidaceae, coix lacryma-jobi l. poaceae, etc.). the berimbau accompanies capoeira where it condenses the dynamics of resistance and resilience that endured the colonial, republican and current periods for afro-brazilians. a creative result of the vast trading network of information, service, and goods among west africa, portugal, and brazil, the berimbau materializes hegemony and symbolizes continuity and adjustment. three papers assert the impact of african spiritual and medicinal ethnofloras in american territories. erica moret establishes a comparison between botanical-use knowledge of migrants from two continents in cuba organized around different agricultural systems: one based on tobacco usually attended by hispanic descendants, and the other based on sugarcane whose workforce was mainly african peoples. remarkably, nicotiana tabacum l. solanaceae is an american domesticate whereas saccharum offinarum l. poaceae is a crop introduced from eurasia. following a careful methodology, moret studied 64 plants (46 originating from african centers and 27 from mediterranean ones, while 9 are shared between the two regions) and uses her analysis of them to ponder power, identity, and resource access. her data indicate a stronger botanical knowledge of west african plants in the sugar cultivation area whereas the mediterranean-derived lore appears more widespread in both areas and is slightly higher in the tobacco zone. one-thousand one hundred botanical recipes using 411 sacred plant species (114 families) in the afro-surinamese winti rituals are meticulously reported by tinde van andel, sofie ruysschaert, koebeke van de putte, and sara groenendijk after interviewing 20 priests, along with several traditional healers, vendors and plant collectors. the authors are interested in ascertaining how and why those particular plants attain the role of magical icons after africans arrived on american 109  book review  shores. winti, a religion prohibited until the 1980s, conceals syncretic and identity dimensions bound to a wealth of ecological, botanical, historical, linguistic, and cultural wisdom that make specific plants sacred. the authors provided data associated with emic categories of 13 magical uses, management, and growth form of wild and domesticated species, vegetation type, flora attributes associated with rituals (color, scent, etc.), signatures’ doctrine, and the ways in which plants aided african descendants in their struggle for self-determination. in barbados, 93 medicinal species (31 used as cooling teas) were reported by 440 interviewees to sonia peter, a meaningful number given that less than 300,000 people live on the island. peter studied 8 parishes and found women to be the major repositories of botanical knowledge. in her chapters, she presents phytochemical data on bioactive components of plants used as medicine by barbados’ people, whose country is rated as second in centenarians per capita. the last section of the book comprises three chapters dedicated to current dynamics of continuity and change. john rashford presents his detailed research on five species of ficus spp. moraceae that serve in candomblé as cosmic trees, opposing the general assumption that one single species function for that purpose in brazil. a detailed description of the importance of ficus in candomblé is reported for 17 of the 19 terreiros (religious centers) where native and exotic ficus are found. a more extensive exploration would probably yield more species, according to rashford. bruce hoffman provides a fascinating comparative ethnobotanical study between native indigenous people and afro descendant communities in suriname, the trio, and the saramacca. he uses comprehensive phyto-ecological and quantitative ethnobotanical methods to record botanical and ecological data along with knowledge, categorization, use, and resource selection of three tropical forest vegetation zones by 4 male specialists in each group (one trio male left the community before the study ended). hoffman presents different sections and results on biophysical characters, ecological features, and biodiversity use categories (examples of resource use patterns for 4 botanical families) by the surinamese. one conclusion as predicted by the literature is that longer-term residents such as indigenous peoples have more extensive botanical knowledge than shorterterm residents although the latter are able to build a solid use-knowledge of local plants. whereas the trio show considerable knowledge in all vegetation zones, the saramacca seem to have, quantitatively and qualitatively, a special interaction with fallow forest. the saramacca also maintain a complex religious system that proscribes the use of old growth forest, thus proposing alternatives for culturally appropriated in situ conservation. hoffman’s chapter is from my view the most accomplished in the book. robert voeks closes the book by describing the reassembling of african beliefs in brazilian’s candomblé around a cornucopia of medicinal and edible plants related to particular orixás, or deities. voeks confirms how the enslaved africans innovatively used the landscapes that had become floristically similar to african ones because of the previous establishment of old world esculent and medicinal plants. accidental or voluntary introduction of plants by european migrants created anthropogenic settings in tropical america that appeared similar to the enslaved africans’ homelands that ended up in a process of botanical homogenization facilitating ethnobotanical continuity as well as resistance to the forced newcomers. this fascinating book, written by inquisitive authors, should be required reading for ethnoecological scholars. it documents the essential importance of african peoples and plants in the americas through fruitful methodological syntheses of ethnobotanical and ethnoecological approaches, both diachronic and synchronic. the sophisticated, quantitative methods of some chapters (hoffman, van andel et al., hurley et al, peter, fadiman) are balanced by the meticulous, qualitative, detail-driven historical and ethnohistorical accounts in the chapters written by voeks, carney, alpern, bedigian, rosengarten, rasford, sera & voeks, and moret, and then integrated through theoretical and eco-botanical perspectives. references cited alexiades, miguel ed. 2009 mobility and migration in indigenous amazonia: contemporary ethnoecological perspectives. studies in environmental anthropology and ethnobiology vol. 11. berghahn books, oxford, u.k. howard, patricia ed. 2003 women and plants: gender relations in biodiversity management and conservation. zed books, london and new york. << /ascii85encodepages false /allowtransparency false /autopositionepsfiles true /autorotatepages /none /binding /left /calgrayprofile (dot gain 20%) /calrgbprofile (srgb iec61966-2.1) /calcmykprofile (u.s. web coated \050swop\051 v2) /srgbprofile (srgb iec61966-2.1) /cannotembedfontpolicy /error /compatibilitylevel 1.4 /compressobjects /tags /compresspages true /convertimagestoindexed true /passthroughjpegimages true /createjobticket false 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/hrv (za stvaranje adobe pdf dokumenata najpogodnijih za visokokvalitetni ispis prije tiskanja koristite ove postavke. stvoreni pdf dokumenti mogu se otvoriti acrobat i adobe reader 5.0 i kasnijim verzijama.) /hun 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/pdfxoutputintentprofileselector /documentcmyk /preserveediting true /untaggedcmykhandling /leaveuntagged /untaggedrgbhandling /usedocumentprofile /usedocumentbleed false >> ] >> setdistillerparams << /hwresolution [2400 2400] /pagesize [612.000 792.000] >> setpagedevice microsoft word yamin-past.doc ethnobiology letters                                                                                                                    book review    26    shroom: a cultural history of the magic mushroom   andy letcher. 2007. ecco harpercollins, new york. pp. 384. $14.99 (paperback). isbn 9780060828295.    reviewed by sveta yamin‐pasternak 1    reviewer address: 1university of alaska fairbanks, fairbanks, alaska 99775    received: july 30th 2009                                         volume 1:26‐27  published: august 25th 2010                       © 2010 society of ethnobiology    “we could claim living in the mushroom age. we are the mushroom people” (p.5), is how andy letcher begins his grand historico-biographical odyssey. letcher’s “we” is a stratum of post world war ii generations, whose experience of coming of age dwells within the contours of a certain transnational culture. this culture thrives on its enchantment with the magic mushroom, drawing fulfillment and inspiration from the mushroom’s pharmacological qualities and historical roles, both real and imagined. “we” were the (re)discoverers, the pioneers, and the recipients of the psychedelic research, revolution, and substances. “we” are the ones who sought mckenna’s true hallucinations and castaneda’s journeys. collectively, we share a need to feel that our individual corporal way of being in the world transcends into alternate universes, inhabited by wisdoms of the ancients. the prominence we ascribe to the role of the magic mushroom in human prehistory is a reflection of that need, as is the eagerness with which we embrace it. the urge to connect our past to the use of the magic mushroom says more about us, here and now, than it does about anything in our past. that is the overreaching argument of the vast, enticing, and masterful treatise shroom: a cultural history of the magic mushroom. the book is organized into three main parts, each carrying a title of a mycological category: agaricus (i), amanita (ii), and psilocybe (iii). the first of the trilogy provides an overview of mushroom anatomy, ecology, and chemistry. it also explains how the compounds found in particular species interact with the human body to produce a psychoactive effect. following the mycology fundamentals, letcher unveils a compilation of fables, which ascribe the genesis and the essence of human religious thought to the use of the magic mushroom. through the efforts of a diverse cast of characters – writers, scholars, businesspeople, artists, and charismatic teachers – the hypotheses connecting “shrooming” with early enlightenment had anchored firmly in the historiography of the magic mushroom. legitimized, in part by academic research and discussion, during the rise of the mushroom age the stories that letcher calls “tripper’s tales” have attained the level of scripture. one by one, letcher deconstructs these pillars of the mushroom mythology that are likely to ring familiar to the readers of ethnobiology letters, such as the supposed shamanic origin of the santa claus figure, or the deciphered mushroom identity of the sacred soma plant in the vedic hymns. the cultural context that enabled the propagation and widespread acceptance of the mushroom age mythology is, to a great extent, what makes “the real and as yet untold history [of the magic mushroom] at once less fanciful and far more interesting” (p. 5). with the mirror facing contemporary western society, positioned at such a revealing vantage point, and interpreted in letcher’s edge-of-the-seat style of narration, this cultural critique should appeal to broad audiences. readers with a special affinity for mushrooms are bound to marvel at the multiple twists and turns of the plot, unraveling some long overlooked mysteries and presenting familiar controversies in a different light. the book is packed with biographical gems about the lives of prominent contributors to the study of human relationships with fungi, including gordon wasson, mordechai cubitt cooke, stephen hayden pollock, and many others. for practitioners of ethnobiology, shroom is an opportunity to reflect on how a scholarly exploration of a life form can boost its general popularity and shape its public perception. within the range of existing theories that letcher sets out to debunk, the idea of mycophilic and mycophobic cultures, once proposed by valentina and gordon wasson, comes under a particularly strong disparagement. inspired by the polarity of their own attitudes (russian by birth, valentina adored mushrooms while her american anglo-saxon husband, gordon, regarded them with abhorrence and fear), the ethnobiology letters                                                                                                                    book review    27    wassons carried out a broad ethnological survey, finding that a number of other world populations show a strong emotion toward mushrooms. the disposition of a culture where mushrooms are valued and widely consumed, such as the kind found throughout eastern europe, the wassons had labeled as “mycophilia.” the condition of overwhelming disdain for mushrooms, on the other hand, which at the time of their writing was true for britain, became known as that of “mycophobia.” letcher finds the dichotomy problematic. “the term ‘phobia,’” he says, “implies an overwhelming and irrational panic reaction…, whereas anxieties about mushrooms are wholly rational. in the absence of any reliable methods for distinguishing the edible from the poisonous…, blanket avoidance of all mushrooms is the most sensible and reasonable option” (p. 95). although the logic of the last argument may appear sensible to a person who did not grow up eating wild mushrooms, for a person from belarus it sounds just as unreasonable as would, in our day and age, an agitation to stay away from cars and airplanes for the fear of a possible crash. perhaps it is no accident that the author of shroom himself happens to be from the uk? the fact that his perspective aligns so flawlessly with the one ascribed to the british culture as a whole, and the type i encounter frequently in the united states, suggests that the attempted counterevidence actually speaks in support of the hypothesis it tries so hard to dispute. this leaves us with plenty of reassurance that the story of fungi and humanity is to be continued. nature's chemicals 30  book review  produce culturally valuable "distinctive chemicals" such as the toxins made by poison dart frogs (dendrobates spp.) but firn does not include the study of such chemicals in his book. he does make reference to possible nps made by humans, but chooses instead to focus on nps made by plants and microbes that have shaped human history. firn makes the distinction between nps (uppercase), which are typically chemicals such as theobromine and caffeine, and nps (lowercase), which are exemplified by consumer products such as cotton and wood. nps have also been called "secondary metabolites" since albrecht kossel made the distinction between primary and secondary metabolites in 1891. firn takes issue with this nomenclature in chapter 9 of his book, calling it "unhelpful and wrong (p. 9)." hopefully, for ease of scientific communication, firn's convention of capitalizing nps to distinguish them from nps will catch on. nps are very important in the daily activities of people around the world, not to mention they are the foundation of major economic systems (both legal and illegal) and yet little is known about them. most of the world's biochemical diversity not just biological activity but flavors and scents is a result of its almost 200,000 different nps. that may seem like a lot of unique compounds; however, considering the biodiversity of plants and bacteria on earth, it is apparent that nps must be present in very few specimens. this book grants the reader a new appreciation for nps as rare chemicals. apparently, most nps come from one of just three main biochemical pathways, and each of those pathways is biologically costly to run, and even more costly to evolve. one of the major points made in the book is that bioprospecting, the in vitro screening for biologically active compounds, is a little-rewarding task. nature's chemicals, by plant biologist richard firn, is introduced by the author as "a book about ideas." this opening is unexpected because based on the book's subtitle, the natural products that shaped our world, one would think it would be the typical layman's history of economically relevant plant compounds such as coffee, rubber, and quinine a la national geographic. instead, as promised, the reader is introduced to ideas concerning not just natural products—the economics, biochemistry, and evolution thereof—but ideas about the nature of science itself. the most famous idea detailed in the book is the "screening hypothesis," which firn developed in 1991 in conjunction with his former graduate student, clive jones. as he explains in chapter 5, the screening hypothesis states that to maintain and improve the biodiversity of the world's natural products, a certain amount of diversity and flexibility must be present in the biochemical processes that create them. this implies some radical thinking. for example, might some organisms have evolved certain enzymes that are not, as biology students are generally taught, substrate-specific? if this discussion makes the book seem heavy on biochemistry and molecular biology, and perhaps overly didactic, rest assured, it is also an informative and relatively smooth read even for those who don't work in a laboratory. the methodological approach of the book is based in those faceless sciences that anthropologists commonly eschew. the book outlines the theory behind why the medicine man, sean connery's dr. robert campbell, would go into the jungle to search for the cure for cancer. that makes it an important read for would-be ethnobotanists, if not as inspiring a one as say, plotkin's tales of a shaman's apprentice (1994). in the first chapter, firn creates a useful convention by defining natural products (nps) as "the distinctive chemicals which characterize particular plant and microbial species (p. 3)." animals also nature’s chemicals  richard firn. 2009. oxford university press, new york. pp. 264. $44.95 (paper). isbn 9780199603022.   reviewed by diana chen  reviewer address: 3702 sw  hansom loop, bentonville, ar  72712. dkchen@email.uark.edu   received: february 14, 2013  volume: 4:30‐31  published: february 20, 2013  © 2013 society of ethnobiology  31  book review  each of the ten chapters begins with a popular quotation and ends with a paragraph or two about "the way science works." these concluding paragraphs are often not reflected in the chapter content and seem like merely a platform from which firn can vent his frustrations, such as in chapter 4 a lamentation over the corporate guarding of scientific data. another one of the beefs firn has with the way science works, is that it has become too compartmentalized to deal with subjects such as nps, which require a holistic approach (chapter 1). the book contains no grand closing chapter to summarize and connect firn's many interesting ideas. ethnobotanists would be quite eager to know how the latter chapters that are heaviest in biochemistry and molecular biology, as well as most deficient in the simple black and white illustrations that break up the text in the rest of the book, relate back to its second chapter. chapter 2 is the one that will most interest ethnobotanists. therein lie the actual narratives of nps that have shaped our world. the chapter begins with an overview of nps in economics and history and then stops to focus on specific nps such as coffee, cocoa, and opium, and finishes up with nps in a smattering of other areas such as sodas and perfumes. although penicillin is included in the book, many other nps important to the pharmaceutical and health industries such as digitalis and echinacea are absent. it would also have been interesting to see firn address the recent craze for antioxidants and phytochemicals. in chapter 4, he does enter the natural vs. synthetic debate, to state predictably that the end products (using the example of vanillin, used in baking) are the same. many other books tell the stories of "natural products that shaped our world" in more detail, such as balick and cox's plants, people, and culture (1996). specific nps and their influence on civilization are the subjects of still other books, such as mintz's sweetness and power (1985), a book about sugar. however, what makes nature's chemicals a unique book, is how few scientists have taken firn's holistic approach to explain why nps evolved, why they are important, and how we can continue to search for and learn about them. sadly, the free-thinking author died shortly after writing the book. he was 65 years old. 61 book review biocultural diversity conservation: a global sourcebook luisa maffi and ellen woodley. 2010. earthscan, london. pp. 304. $57.95 (paperback). isbn 978-1-84407-921-6. reviewed by jose martinez-reyes reviewer address: department of anthropology, university of massachusetts, boston, ma 02125 received: february 1, 2012 volume 3:61-62 published: september 26, 2012 ©2012 society of ethnobiology conservation of natural resources has increasingly been on the agendas of many governments, global institutions, environmentalists, scholars, and the public in general in recent decades. the focus of conservation, particularly in the tropics, has been overwhelmingly towards biological diversity, or biodiversity. it is precisely this unbalance that maffi and woodley seek to address in ‘biocultural diversity conservation: a global sourcebook.’ they argue that this emphasis on the biological aspects has relegated people, mostly indigenous groups that have interacted with these resources and in many cases have contributed to protecting and regenerating biological diversity, to a symbolic place. by this i mean that this book seeks to rectify the subordinated role that culture and traditional environmental knowledge have played in the world of conservation. this book builds on previous work to confront the problems faced by human populations that have close and interdependent relations with their environments. maffi and woodley have been pioneers in the field, and in many ways this “sourcebook” makes the case for making biocultural research more visible, if not more mainstream, in conservation circles. the book is divided into three sections. the first section has two chapters that focus on the theoretical framework of biocultural diversity. the second section consists of four chapters that engage the readers with examples of projects that integrate biocultural diversity as their core for conservation initiatives. the last part contains two chapters that focus on tying together the loose ends and making sense of the dozens of case studies presented. their objectives—“to connect the dots” between several life projects with similar objectives, to link biocultural conservation projects, to increase public visibility, to create a larger united front—are not only commendable, but more importantly, are urgent. there are projects and ngos, in my experience, that emphasize or claim that they are working with indigenous groups to protect their traditional ecological knowledge, but in reality are only paying lip service and, to the contrary, want to implement a western scientific rationality over traditional ecological knowledge. i do not intend to imply that the case studies presented in this book fall into that category, but it is something that readers should be aware of. from the outset, the authors warn readers about what precisely i thought where the shortcomings: that the surveys are not systematic enough to elaborate on the conflicts or difficulties that occur as a consequence of the interactions between different groups. that probably would be the task of a more in-depth ethnographic analysis. there was a mix of contributors. among them were anthropologists, ngo personnel, and indigenous people. the case studies work well to contextualize the biocultural elements of each community as they provide vivid descriptions of the landscape and the conservation projects. some anthropologists, however, would like to know more of the intimate details about the dynamics between conservation projects and indigenous peoples, principally the contentious issues that surround particular western notions of conservation versus local indigenous point of views. the task of promoting biocultural diversity is immense and, i dare to say, urgent as the threat of loss of languages and connections to land seems to grow as time goes by. this book shows the ways in which it is possible to reverse this trend. connecting local experiences and indigenous groups with each other can reaffirm that, by defending their connection to their land, their language, and by continuing their engagement with their environment, indigenous people are contributing, not only to their ‘life projects’, but to global diversity as well. in spite of the shortcomings 62 book review that the authors themselves point out, this book is a compelling case for reconceptualising conservation through the biocultural perspective. the book should be indispensible for ngos, grassroots organizations, and scholars that intend to, or already works with, the complex connections between indigenous populations and conservation. river notes: a natural and human history of the colorado 110  book review  creation on the canyon’s rim where they first saw sunlight crack open the sky” (page 37). mormon use of the river in the book, davis describes the early (1800’s) mormon colonizers and evangelists, like jacob hamblin and john lee (for whom lee’s ferry, the definitive start of float trips through the grand canyon, is named). to quote, “their mission, inspired by god, was to settle and make fertile the desert wastes” (page 34). this brought to mind a recent course field trip i took with students from the university of north texas. the course concerns agricultural, recreational and municipal water use in the west, focused largely on the colorado and green river basins. we had visited the promontory in canyonlands, from which one could see the confluence of the green and colorado rivers. as we were returning from the short hike to the viewpoint, we met a mormon scout leader with his troop of scouts. he was telling them that “all that open land (just upstream from cataract canyon!) was a waste and should be built on!” i was astounded by his remark and remain ashamed to this day that i did not call him out to ask about his feelings of wilderness and the value of open land. he obviously continues the divinely-inspired vision of all lands being filled with humans. no different than in the 1870’s. running the colorado the excitement one feels as one readies rafts or dories for a grand canyon trip cannot be adequately described in words, even in this book. i have floated this stretch five times during my life and each trip was a total immersion (pun intended) in a part of the globe that is most profound, beautiful, awe-inspiring, and at times harrowing. davis describes his trip down the colorado through the grand canyon with a professional group, and brightly describes the excitement he felt has he traversed the roaring 20’s, this is a wonderful book on the cultural and natural history of the colorado river and the demands on the water it carries. the book presents a geological, cultural and biological panorama of colorado river water throughout history, beginning with the formation of the colorado river drainage, and then neatly describing the relation between water and human culture. the book focuses largely on the lower portion of the river, and delights in its descriptions of canyons, anasazi, hopi and zuni culture, water demands, and recreation in present and past. the book carries a serious warning about how we are presently using colorado river water (abusing, actually) and what the root cause is of this disturbing waste of a precious resource. historical use of the river davis’ background as a highly regarded ethnographer comes into play early as he describes the early essay by aldo leopold, in which leopold canoes down lower colorado river through the delta formed as the river flows into the gulf of california. in the book, davis weaves together a great section about the use of water by the ancients, the anasazi and more recently the hopi and zuni. the anasazi had elaborate dams and water control structures and recognized the value of water. it was ingrained into their culture. as water became scarce, the society fell apart and the people drifted into smaller groups, away from the areas surrounding the present-day “four corners” area of the us. he writes about the hopi of the first mesa. their water problems are legion, not to mention the daily difficulties of keeping youngsters in the area, continuing to be part of the culture. in each case, their beliefs of origin reflect “their astonishment as they took in the canyon’s beauty, the painted rocks and magical animals, the springs and lush plantings by the shallows of bright angel creek, the fulcrum of river notes: a natural and human history of the colorado  wade davis. 2012 island press. pp. 176 $23.63 (hardcover). isbn 978‐1610913614  reviewed by thomas  w. la point  reviewer address: department of biological sciences, university of north texas,  1155 union circle #305220, denton, tx  76203. lapoint@unt.edu  received: september 20, 2013  volume: 4:110‐112   published: november 4, 2013  © 2013 society of ethnobiology  111  book review  badger creek, hance, granite, crystal, the jewels, and lava. davis’ book does a great job of intertwining the views and experiences on his trip with those of john wesley powell, the first director of the us geological service and the key voice warning against agrarian development of the western states. he cautioned against such development, as water was too limiting. powell’s ideas, of course, were swept aside by developers, politicians and land agents intent on selling land, dreams, and abundance. davis was on a commercial trip and notes that private trips do give one more time to take side hikes up remote canyons. hikes into side canyons lead to sublime views and an absolute quiet that exists nowhere else that i know. on one private trip, we hiked up matkatamiba canyon. the clear water of the creek poured in a little rivulet down the base of this amazing canyon, with overhangs covered with seeps, ferns and mosses. around the trail is a riot of flowers, including camas lilies, datura, figworts, asters, and penstemons. all this, however, pales in comparison to the stillness of the canyon (excepting the wonderful cadence of a canyon wren). stillness that no one in a city can anymore imagine; stillness that allows the blood coursing through one’s temples to sound loud. such stillness has “to be not heard” to be believed. i personally think that john muir’s (1938 cited in dunlap 2009) statement “in god's wildness lies the hope of the world the great fresh, unblighted, unredeemed wilderness" is really a reference to the quiet and peacefulness in such places. in my own trips and on davis’ trip down the river, an amazing variety of boats and technical equipment are now employed that help folk to get safely downstream: multi-compartment rafts, wide dories, life preservers capable of holding 24 lbs of deadweight up in the water, and coolers capable of holding ice for 10 – 12 days. compared to what powell had, it is a life of luxury. yet, it still is true that the river itself decides which boat to let through its rapids – and determines which side ends up upright. i had been feeling fairly smug on my fifth trip, as on the previous four i had not flipped in any colorado river rapids. on my fifth trip, we flipped in houserock, an 8 on the scale of 10 used to describe the difficulty of the rapids. in house rock i was too far left and the curling wave off of the house-rock sized boulder on lower left curled my little 16 foot boat over – and humbled me greatly. after that, i was much more careful in placing the boat in the current. davis writes about running lava, one of the great rapids of north america: “ there are two types of people, those who have flipped and those that will.” to that, i add one more truism (from dick barker, co -owner of barker-ewing raft trips in jackson hole wy): “there are old boatmen, and there are bold boatmen. however, there are no old, bold boatmen.” the river decides and requires respect. i had to chuckle to myself how davis describes his raft trip down the canyon, with lava falls as the climax of the trip. i have experienced on every trip the same attitude among fellow participants: lava falls is so huge, overwhelming, and just plain scary, and had been anticipated for so long, that running it effectively ends the raft trip. in truth, there are usually two or three full days after lava to enjoy the canyon, wonderful vistas, and several more great rapids. however, on every trip we have taken, the “trip is over” at lava. folks begin talking about the shuttle to flagstaff, via kingman, getting a real shower, etc. all i have thought of is “how do i get on the river again?” loss of glen canyon i have read much of the loss of glen canyon. many books, including this one, have written about how beautiful the canyon was and how many ancient ruins were lost by raising the level of lake powell. i am sure john wesley powell turned in his grave when the great river he explored was dammed behind glen canyon dam – and then named for him in an ultimate irony. perhaps it should have been named “lake dominy” for the bureau of reclamation water master who saw any water passing a given location as “wasted water.” davis eloquently writes of guides on lake powell describing the “islands” around which they boat, forgetting that each island is a “drowned butte.” thinking three-dimensionally is a good way to visualize what was lost under the waters. the link between powell and the colorado river – and his exploration of this part of the west – cannot be overstated. davis writes extensively of this, summarizing powell’s explorations of the green river (the major tributary to the colorado, joining it upstream from cataract canyon) and then down into the unknown terrors of the canyon’s immense rapids. powell’s determination to travel down the canyon is epic; he and his team faced difficulties unimaginable now to river runners. historically, however, the most visionary aspect of powell was his warning to congress about inhabiting this desert country. it was not suited at all for the typical farm, he warned. he actually suggested that state borders be based on 112  book review  watershed boundaries. sadly, his warning suggestion was ignored for political and economic expedience. the dam itself has always been controversial because of the phenomenal canyon it flooded. one commercial or cultural aspect of the dam is the electrical power it produces. a tour of the dam provides insight into the tremendous power of the stored water behind it. seven wires, albeit large ones, leave from glen canyon dam. they carry 1.3 million kilowatts of power produced by eight generators in the dam, each powered by water from the hypolimnion of lake powell. that power provides electricity for cities, commerce and recreation in several western states. the cold hypolimnetic release, cold and clear, allows trout to be caught downstream as far as lee’s ferry. this is totally unnatural and has disrupted the ecology of the endangered fish in the colorado river downstream from the dam. as davis writes, the dam provides power not only for municipalities, but also for agriculture – there is an electrical cost for transporting water for agriculture. the more than 60,000 water systems and 15,000 wastewater systems in the united states are among the country’s largest energy consumers, using about 75 billion kwh/yr nationally—3 percent of annual u.s. electricity consumption (nrdc 2010). i am sure that most people do not recognize the “water cost” of food on their table, nor do they recognize the ecological cost of running water through a tap or faucet. it takes either burning coal (as in texas) or turning a turbine to produce enough electrical power to pump water through the various treatment plants, through delivery pipes, up to municipal water storage towers, then into each home or business. the cost is real, in terms of what we expect from the colorado: in southern california, pumping one acre-foot of colorado river aqueduct water to southern california requires about 2,000 kwh. according to an estimate from the metropolitan water district of southern california, the amount of electricity used to deliver water to residential customers in southern california is equal to one-third of the total average household electric use in southern california. it also provides the power for lifting water over mountains into agricultural irrigation systems. on our being homo sapiens the final chapter of davis’ great book ends on a cautionary note for all. water is not recognized for the valuable resource it is. agricultural water demands on the colorado river largely go for cultivating alfalfa, a feed used primarily for cattle. alfalfa is a water-hungry forage and depends on overhead sprinkling systems. such systems lose as much as 50% of the water applied during hot summers. the u.s. subsidies for irrigating range land in the west, with colorado river water, are huge. davis writes that the cost to farmers is $17 per acre foot, whereas municipal costs are closer to $ 1500 per acre-foot. in that arid climate, using precious colorado river water to grow alfalfa to feed cattle, brings home an important point: society should be able to change this horribly wasteful practice. i think it should, as does davis. it becomes a personal choice, as consumers (or, as i like to think of it, as educated humans) decide whether or not to continue to eat as much beef as we do. it also becomes increasingly important to participate in civics, as voters. we can and should vote down such subsidies. as he elegantly describes it, “..even assuming that all such wanton habits of consumption can be dramatically curbed, no conservation initiative can succeed that gives a free pass to the cattle industry.” as humans, we should be able to contemplate the consequences of our actions; hence, the term “homo sapiens.” however, we seem to be disregarding efforts to control our affluence, our greed and our demand for ever more resources to be used ever more quickly. rather than following the advice of gifford pinchot, who said, “the best use for the most people for the longest time,” we are taking the first two thirds of that advice, at our risk. the mantra has become: “the best use for the most people now, not later.” we cannot go on in this and davis points this out in his last chapter, in which he lays out the problem: we are growing a water-hungry plant alfalfa in dry country to feed cattle for our consumption. public education is a must here, as many folk have not made the connection. they cannot see their way to “connect the dots. davis ends his book by suggesting we re-visit the delta where the colorado river enters the gulf of california. his description evinces the growth that could occur and the riot of life that would ensue if water were to once again flow into the gulf. i am convinced that, if we do not hear this warning, we will perish in the desert. references cited muir, j. 1938. john of the mountain: the unpublished journals of john muir. cited in dunlap, d. 2009. the national parks: america’s best idea, pp. 43. alfred a. knopf publishers, toronto. mormon use of the river running the colorado historical use of the river loss of glen canyon on our being homo sapiens << /ascii85encodepages false /allowtransparency false /autopositionepsfiles true /autorotatepages /none /binding /left /calgrayprofile (dot gain 20%) /calrgbprofile (srgb iec61966-2.1) /calcmykprofile (u.s. web coated \050swop\051 v2) /srgbprofile (srgb iec61966-2.1) /cannotembedfontpolicy /error /compatibilitylevel 1.4 /compressobjects /tags /compresspages true /convertimagestoindexed true /passthroughjpegimages 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can be opened with acrobat and adobe reader 5.0 and later.) >> /namespace [ (adobe) (common) (1.0) ] /othernamespaces [ << /asreaderspreads false /cropimagestoframes true /errorcontrol /warnandcontinue /flattenerignorespreadoverrides false /includeguidesgrids false /includenonprinting false /includeslug false /namespace [ (adobe) (indesign) (4.0) ] /omitplacedbitmaps false /omitplacedeps false /omitplacedpdf false /simulateoverprint /legacy >> << /addbleedmarks false /addcolorbars false /addcropmarks false /addpageinfo false /addregmarks false /convertcolors /converttocmyk /destinationprofilename () /destinationprofileselector /documentcmyk /downsample16bitimages true /flattenerpreset << /presetselector /mediumresolution >> /formelements false /generatestructure false /includebookmarks false /includehyperlinks false /includeinteractive false /includelayers false /includeprofiles false /multimediahandling /useobjectsettings /namespace [ (adobe) (creativesuite) (2.0) ] /pdfxoutputintentprofileselector /documentcmyk /preserveediting true /untaggedcmykhandling /leaveuntagged /untaggedrgbhandling /usedocumentprofile /usedocumentbleed false >> ] >> setdistillerparams << /hwresolution [2400 2400] /pagesize [612.000 792.000] >> setpagedevice essay on the geography of plants 28 book review in their essay on the geography of plants, the authors have succeeded in fluently presenting humboldt’s foundational ideas. building from an english translation of humboldt’s essai by sylvie romanowski, the authors provide context and detail, enabling them to paint a picture of how humboldt, as a travelling botanist and polymath, has stimulated the science of historical ecology. the inclusion and analysis of humboldt’s tableau by the authors reveals humboldt’s observation of the global pattern of plants and geography. a poster-sized color reproduction of humboldt’s mt. chimborazo tableau is a beautiful addition to the text. the contents of the book are arranged in a manner that guides the reader towards a deeper understanding of the central translated essay. following the preface, several notes to the reader, and acknowledgements, the reader is introduced to humboldt and his work. here jackson eloquently expresses his respect for humboldt and his contributions to science. this passage transitions nicely to a reading of the translation of humboldt’s essay and his tableau physique. a short chapter analyzing the science of the tableau and a listing of the scientific names within the tableau is provided next. humboldt and bonpland did not have modern gis technology, yet they used particular instruments such as the chronomoter to observe the spatial interrelationship of biotic and abiotic systems. jackson addresses this topic with a short essay detailing why those instruments were hauled by the scientists and their crews over the mountains and rivers of the continent to explore their numerous hypotheses including those on longitude, latitude, and elevation (p. 221). the biographical sketches and bibliographical essay provide supplementary information for the reader looking for a comprehensive understanding of alexander von humboldt established himself as one of the fathers of modern day biogeography when he wrote his essai sur la géographie des plantes and accompanying tableau physique des andes et pays voisins. this essay, based on scientific observations collected from a five year scientific expedition and journey from 1799-1804 through the americas with aimé bonpland, was first presented in 1807. in cosmos and other writings, humboldt provided many intellectual insights to our modern understanding of the world including the similarity of plants growing at higher altitudes to those growing at lower and higher latitudes and the historical positions of the continents. a highly distinguished scientist in his own time and a contemporary of charles darwin, alfred russell wallace, and a multitude of influential scientific minds, humboldt has faded from today’s public consciousness. this may not be the case for long. stephen t. jackson, professor of botany and ecology at the university of wyoming, and dr. sylvie romanowski, associate professor of french literature at northwestern university, have collaborated to produce a wonderful contribution to ethnobiology. a chance meeting while traveling led to the cooperation between the authors, an event resulting in a book that should prevent future frustration for readers while staying as close to the original 18th century writing as possible. born from dr. jackson’s frustration as an english speaker trying to understand botanical details from humboldt’s essai and tableau in the original french, this work grants the english reader of natural history and biogeography greater access to the ideas and writings of alexander von humboldt and aimé bonpland. essay on the geography of plants alexander von humboldt and aimé bonpland. edited and with an introduction by stephen t. jackson. translated by sylvie romanowski. 2009. university of chicago press, chicago. pp. 296, 1 color plate, 9 halftones, 7 tables, 1 poster. $45.00 (cloth). isbn 9780226360669. reviewed by ian c. smith reviewer address: department of anthropology, university of arkansas, fayetteville, ar 72701. icsmith34@gmail.com received: november 1, 2011 volume: 4:28-29 published: february 14, 2013 © 2013 society of ethnobiology 29 book review the leading scientific and political figures mentioned in the essai and tableau as well as how this work relates to additional books and essays on humboldt. jackson and romanowski’s level of footnoting remains measured throughout which adds valuable information without detracting from the reader’s experience of the main text. this book benefits from a thoughtful and wellorchestrated layout that introduces alexander von humboldt as the scientist, writer, and man that current and past ethnobiologists have benefitted from. as jackson echoes humboldt from his essai, the purpose of his work is to appeal to botanists to “go beyond collecting, describing, and classifying plant specimens…to focus on the geography of plants” (p.18). a more holistic approach to botany was pioneered by humboldt. this concept of the important role of ecological knowledge remains important today. translated into english and bookended by a well written introduction and supplemental information on the life and times of humboldt, it is quite possible that essay on the geography of plants will cause you to develop the “humboldt virus” (p. vii) shared by jackson and romanowski. microsoft word wolverton-the pursuit of ecotopia.doc ethnobiology letters                                                                                                                    book review    22    the pursuit of ecotopia: lessons from indigenous and traditional societies  for the human ecology of our modern world  eugene n. anderson.  2010. praeger publishers, santa barbara. pp. 251. $44.95 (hardcover). isbn  0313381305.    reviewed by steve wolverton1    reviewer address: 1 environmental archaeology, department of geography, university of north texas, denton, texas 76203    received: july  9th 2010                                            volume 1:22‐25  published: august 17rd 2010                       © 2010 society of ethnobiology    environmentalism is rife with political correctness such that the term “human impacts” is often chastised as loaded and is replaced with softer words, such as “human-environmental interactions.” there is really no place for this soft approach in eugene anderson’s recent book the pursuit of ecotopia. yet, anderson is blunt and forceful in a respectful manner in his epic essay (or series of essays) on the state of the environmental crisis, and more precisely the place of humanity within it. the book covers political ecology, political economy, environmental injustice, morality, ethics, and traditional and local management of natural resources. it is a hefty read—honest, penetrating, unabashed, damming, inspiring, and hopeful all at once. as a result, books such as this one should put ethnobiology in the forefront of literature on the current, global environmental crisis, and it is my hope that scholars in environmental science, political ecology, environmental economics, and related disciplines will read it to see what it offers. throughout the book, anderson points out successful and unsuccessful examples of environmental management. he criticizes governments that are too big, too small, and those that claim to maintain free trade but fall short. although there are several messages throughout the book that draw on anderson’s vast experience with environmental knowledge in many cultures, worldwide, there are three that resonated deeply in my reading of it. first, anderson discards typical notions that politics can solve modern environmental problems by demonstrating that most governments are held hostage by huge natural resource and agricultural firms that are economically more powerful than many a nation. only individuals can overcome problems of environmental management, and to do so there must be unity. members of societies in developed countries have much to learn regarding solidarity from traditional and local societies (e.g., lepofsky 2009). in particular, in local settings where natural resources, food, and space are concerned, it is much easier for people to recognize face-to-face that they are in it together. often overlooked by scientists, economists, politicians, and other parties from developed countries is that environmental management in local settings has been effective for centuries. anderson conveys a belief that people must gain solidarity at the global scale to overcome current environmental abuses. it is interesting to note that throughout the book, anderson describes problems in detail, but balances his discussion with fair objectivity. why wouldn’t big business promote environmental abuse when the current cultural system promotes values of strident individualism at the cost of common good? and yet toxic pollution that kills people, anderson equates to toleration of fatal drive-by shootings (p. 191). similarly, irresponsible exploitation of a finite resource that could be managed more sustainably threatens global ecology, humanity’s “global life support system,” and should not be tolerated (p. 191). the problems are ones of scale and context; people recognize individual threats from point sources, but it is much harder to adopt a position of solidarity to confront cumulative challenges. even environmentalists are boondoggled by individualism: “too many environmentalists think that individual actions can solve the problem. no the problem is social and political, and can only be solved by a movement that would unify people in solidarity with a common cause” (p. 189). second, solidarity cannot be achieved unless individual rights are protected in all societies. an important corollary is that a livable environment is a right: “if there is one human right, this is it. if resistance to direct threat is a basic right, then we all have a right—and, in fact a collective duty—to resist ethnobiology letters                                                                                                                    book review    23    destruction of our life support system” (p. 161). undoubtedly, adoption of such a perspective requires a change in values for many people, and this requires education as to just how it is that global ecology is a “life support system.” global solidarity of individuals concerning modern environmental problems, such as pollution, clear-cutting, over-harvesting of fish stocks, et cetera, cannot be accomplished unless environmental health is regarded as a human right. anderson’s is a no-nonsense approach. for example, he may castigate monopolistic oil firms but he also does not endorse the “indigenous above all other” perspective. instead, environmental management must be done on a contextual basis, case-by-case. what is needed is support and infrastructure for parties (individuals) to bring their concerns and solutions to the table. without environmental health as a right, such cannot be accomplished. third, anderson labels hatred as hatred. he is unafraid to use and define terms, such as ‘tolerance’ for one another. what is meant by tolerance is open acceptance and encouragement of other’s (individuals in societies) perspectives. politicians and members of society (particularly recently in the us) are increasingly marginalized into extremist positions that reflect hatred towards the “other” (those with different values about life, environment, religion than oneself). environmental concerns in some areas are overlooked as politicians avoid issues through divisive hateful rhetoric. anderson uses the conservative christian right-wing perspective as an example; not coincidentally this group is largely responsible for the rampant deregulation that allows monster-firms to control the global fate of environments (acknowledging that the general public has allowed this to happen). to overcome hatred, environmental health must be seen as a right and it must be adopted at a grass-roots level; however, a new ethic based on morality must also be advocated. anderson expands leopold’s land ethic by describing a new global ecological context and by developing reasoning for adopting a more inclusive morality. several important principles underlie anderson’s ethic. first, if individuals matter, then “we are all in it together,” which necessitates solidarity. however, what is it that we face? when leopold wrote his land ethic he maintained that nature existed as a balanced system that humans perturb; nature is not separate from humanity but is a concept, environments change and are not stable, and human-influence spans the globe. anderson states that a “new land ethic must therefore be one of managing for an unstable world system, not one of keeping our hands off (or almost off) a stable one” (p. 171). in addition leopold entrusted communities to simply do the right thing, which has not translated into solidarity and political will. no one acts on the land ethic (or too few people do), and “whether the environmentalists like it or not, the world is now one big farm” (p. 170). a new morality is required, and anderson adopts emmanuel levinas’ position that ethics is an interactive process—how fitting for a world that needs solidarity—“from the fear of being alone and the warmth of the active, warm interest in each other, we construct a world” (p. 178). this morality is the seat of solidarity because it requires toleration and respect for difference and interaction with other beings (human and non-human). morality, anderson holds, is an evolutionary force that is pragmatic, forming the basis for an ethic “that privileges long-term and wide interests over short-term, narrow ones [that] must be made explicit in particular cases” (p. 176). that is, morals and an updated ethic to support solidarity require explicit choices and love of nature. anderson holds that an environmental ethic is multi-layered from general, widely held principles, the violation of which is easy to see, to problems of externalities that require “utilitarian calculus,” to difficult choices about human preferences about what we enjoy in the world around us; “the problem is that most americans… object to saving anything for mere beauty if it could be used for even the slightest amount of money. this appears to be true of liberals as of conservatives” (p. 199-200). not only must our new morality adopt tolerance; we must learn to enjoy rather than simply conform because “one of the biggest problems in trying to save the environment has been public lack of willingness to act out of sheer love and delight in nature” (p. 200). anderson deals a final blow to calvinist morality, which prevents “acting on such grounds” by attaching morality to misery. such puritanism requires sameness in a world that requires diversity to survive. to conclude, anderson makes it clear that environmental ethics in many areas of the world provide a model of what he recommends—a world in which humans enjoy the environment, which leads to solidarity and responsible community management: ecotopia. in the west, “we have not recognized how deeply humans need a beautiful environment to be human” (p. 202). undoubtedly anderson’s book will be castigated by some readers as “too liberal,” but there is no base to this conclusion. anderson knows what a true conservative is, philosophically. he equally criticizes knee-jerk liberalism; the recommendations he makes ethnobiology letters                                                                                                                    book review    24    often rely on conservative politics and (real) small government that supports the rights of individuals. the far right does not equal “conservative” and reactive liberalism is impractical. he even states that literal environmentalism is quite dangerous; “the worst thing that could possibly happen to the environment would be the world victory of such environmentalism” (p. 195). instead local co-management of resources where individuals are invested in outcomes is the solidarity that anderson envisions under the mantra “think globally and locally, act globally and locally” (p. 171). environmental philosophers may lament that they have said this all before in a variety of shapes and forms (e.g., callicott 1989; norton 1991; rolston 1988; rozzi 1999). the difference that anderson provides is an ethnobiological context that offers a model for how things might be. examples are consistently spattered throughout each chapter, reflecting anderson’s encyclopedic knowledge in the field. a series of examples are concentrated in chapter 2, such as the traditional chinese feng-shui practice of tending tree groves near settlements, which were managed for sustainable use as timber and firewood up until the communist era. anderson cites his own experience with the maya of the yucatan throughout the book for which “every aspect of cultivation and hunting is religiously—and often ritually—represented” (p. 37). one example was the “13th deer ceremony,” which was practiced by religious leaders to give thanks and to pray for more hunting success prior to allowing additional hunting (p. 37). countless other examples are offered, and his conclusion is that “we should be fully documenting local ecological knowledge, and, above all, management systems” as examples of how to live (more) sustainably in all environments (p. 44, emphasis in original). these management systems are not disjointed, superficial entities, and though not all traditional societies value “nature” and certainly do not all do so in the same ways when they do, traditional ecological knowledge often reflects what wyndham (2009) terms “subtle ecologies” often running quite deep in terms of institutions, ethics, and morals (pp. 42-48). though these subtle ecologies may result in apparently “epiphenomenal conservation” (hunn 1982); conservation, in general, whatever the source or intention is of high value to environmentalists. in the context of ethnobiology, anderson moves well beyond what ought to be done to how successful environmental management can be accomplished, indeed has been accomplished in many cultures; to learn from ‘others’ we must promote solidarity and morals and ethics that celebrate variability (differences). as an ecologist/archaeologist who regularly interacts with environmental chemists, aquatic toxicologists, stream ecologists, other environmental scientists, and environmental philosophers i welcome anderson’s frontal ethnobiological assault on the global environmental crisis. too often anthropologists (including ethnobiologists) tell other scholars what subjects should be of importance (anderson touches on this on page 203); that is, we try hard to set the agenda from our self-prescribed lofty anthropological perspective, while scholars from environmental science (as one example) cannot see what concrete perspectives we bring to the table. as a result, i have been waiting for a book such as this one that brings ethnobiology to the forefront in a manner that makes sense to all parties who are concerned about global humanity and environments. anderson’s book is inclusive and should appeal to scientists, humanists, and those in between. references cited callicott, j. b. 1989. in defense of the land ethic: essays in environmental philosophy. state university of new york press, albany. hunn, e. s. 1982. mobility as a factor limiting resource use in the columbia plateau of north america. in resource managers: north american and australian hunter-gatherers, eds. s. m. williams and e. s. hunn, pp. 17-43. american association for the advancement of science selected symposium no. 67. lepofsky, d. 2009. the past, present, and future of traditional resource and environmental management. journal of ethnobiology 29:161-166. norton, b. 1991. towards unity among environmentalists. oxford university press, new york. rolston, h. iii. 1988. environmental ethics: duties to and values in the natural world. temple university press, philadelphia. rozzi, r. 1999. the reciprocal links between evolutionary-ecological sciences and environmental ethics. bioscience 49:911-921. wyndham, f. s. 2009. spheres of relation, lines of interaction: subtle ecologies of the rarámuri ethnobiology letters                                                                                                                    book review    25    landscape in northern mexico. journal of ethnobiology 29:271-295. microsoft word schram.doc ethnobiology letters                                                                                                                    book review    28    kinship and beyond: the genealogical model reconsidered   sandra bamford and james leach, eds. 2009. berghahn books, new york. 292 pp., 21 illustrations, bibliography,  index. $95.00 (hardback). isbn 9781845454227.    reviewed by ryan schram 1    reviewer address: 1 center of excellence in global governance research, university of helsinki    received: august 21st 2009                                      volume 1:28‐29  published: august 26th 2010                       © 2010 society of ethnobiology    david schneider (1984) has famously showed that the original anthropological conception of kinship unwittingly reflected a middle-class western folk biology, and furthermore, other kinship systems are themselves based on different key symbols. yet since schneider pronounced the death of kinship as a distinct domain, it has been revived more than once. this collection of ten essays is the latest major work to call for renewed attention to the topic, especially with respect to contemporary questions of how cultures relate to nature. this volume takes the doctrine of the genealogical unity of mankind, the target of schneider's critique, and examines it as a cultural fact in its own right. each of the authors in this volume addresses himself or herself to the consequences of genealogical thinking. the genealogical model of kinship, as described in the introductory chapter, is a cultural construction of relationships in terms of inherited, biogenetic attributes. as the editors show in their detailed review of kinship studies from w. h. r. rivers, through descent theory, past schneider's critique, to recent studies, the genealogical model not only lingers in the work of anthropologists, it also informs the way people of many cultures and in many contexts think about nature and culture. in this respect, many of the authors echo roy wagner's argument that each culture makes its own distinction between the arbitrary and the conventional. science, many authors imply for instance, is the way western culture "invents" nature as a domain beyond human control. the knowledge nature scientists produce is often treated as though it were a representation of these forces, or a means by which people can predict and thus control natural forces. an example of this construct in science is provided by sandra bamford and james leach in their introduction (p. 11); they discuss a case of a hospital accidentally implanting the wrong human embryos in patients' wombs, the hospital immediately acted to flush the potential children from the bodies of the mothers. had the fetuses been delivered by their surrogate mothers, it would seem, there would necessarily be a conflict between the chromosomal and uteral genetrices over maternity. the reason why surrogacy and other ivf protocols attract controversy is because they alter the relationships between people by manipulating the biological substances that symbolize them. i want to focus on a few essays in kinship and beyond which best exemplify this theme. in his essay titled "knowledge as kinship", james leach presents a case of reite kinship in papua new guinea (png) where membership in local groups is based on either matrior patri-filiation, and coresidence or mutual recognition of knowledge of a kin group's founding myths. leach argues that reite do not believe that genealogical ties automatically confer membership in the group, nor do they believe that kinship is constructed or performed through people's creative symbolic acts. the nonbiological bases for reite membership are equally constitutive of innate personhood. people, in essence, share substance with each other and with the landscape itself. sandra bamford ("'family trees' among the kamea of papua new guinea"), describing another case from png, also argues that when kamea use plants to assist procreation, they do not creatively enact kinship through ritual as much as recognize a wider set of possible consubstantial relationships, including between humans and nonhumans. sounding a somewhat contrary note in her essay ("revealing and obscuring rivers's pedigrees") on veso in madagascar, rita astuti describes a society in which people do hold a genealogical model of kinship, but simply do not use it in everyday talk. in the everyday discourse of kinship, people do not assume a genealogical model of inheritance of bodily traits. yet ethnobiology letters                                                                                                                    book review    29    when given a hypothetical scenario, people's reasoning about inheritance is premised on genealogy. veso suppress this when talking about physical resemblances between fictive kin because this, astuti argues, allows them to emphasize the social norm of solidarity and mutual obligation among kin. genealogy and alternative models coexist in this culture, but are only deployed in specific contexts. in a three-part essay, eduardo viveiros de castro ("the gift and the given") explores the ontological presuppositions behind genealogy and other models of kinship by linking kinship to magic, animism and gift economies. he also builds a case for bringing levistrauss back into kinship studies. although levistrauss assumed that a distinction between consanguinity and affinity was a natural fact, viveiros de castro points out how he differs from the descent theorists schneider criticizes. descent theory makes kinship into a jural system of rights and obligations that arise from natural bonds. levi-strauss's model makes kinship into a maussian gift economy, in which both subjects and objects are in circulation. hence the former leads to genealogical assumptions and the latter suggests an alternative, horizontal imagination of relatedness. viveiros de castro sketches another possibility, the inverse of the genealogical model, which he sees at work in amazonian kinship. amazonians, he writes, believe that affinity is a natural property of people's being, in that they believe that they are fundamentally estranged from each other, and have to work to create relationships based on sameness through cultural practices. he alludes to leach's case and suggests that his inversion of genealogy is what is needed to properly analyze systems like reite and kamea. this book is a welcome addition to the ongoing revival of kinship, and will stimulate further debate among its many participants. one complaint is that the chapters on the implications for kinship of genomics, thoroughbred horseracing, african colonial policy, and ivf, as well as tim ingold's intriguing essay outlining a phenomenology of social relationships, are not as clearly articulated with what this reviewer saw as the most significant ideas of the book. berghahn books, the publisher, should be commended for making this book available in a digital format as well as in hardback, and by allowing readers to purchase individual chapters for download (at http://www.berghahnbooks.com/ title.php?rowtag=bamfordkinship) as well as the whole work. this will give more students access to the book's rich and provocative material. reference cited schneider, d. 1984. a critique of the study of kinship. university of michigan press, ann arbor. using linked open data to improve data reuse in zooarchaeology ethnobiology letters. 2015. 6(2):224‐231. doi: 10.14237/ebl.6.2.2015.467. 224 perspective special issue on digital zooarchaeology research community using linked open data (lod) methods. the perils of current data sharing practices the zooarchaeological community has long recognized that data sharing is a critical part of communicating research outcomes (see clason 1972; driver 1992; grigson 1978). however, while comprehensive datasets used to commonly accompany monographs, in particular, print has become an increasingly difficult format for accommodating the complexity and size of today’s datasets (marwick 2015). the fact that most journals and books are unable to accommodate datasets in full has led to the gradual loss of vast amounts of information, and has prevented “computational reproducibility that might lead the work to have greater impact and reuse” (marwick 2015). researchers select (whether by necessity or by choice) what they see as the most important data to disseminate or provide summarized data tables to support arguments. this has done a disservice to archaeology (and anthropology and ethnobiology, more generally) by permitting only certain kinds of reuse, bounded by the reporting format chosen by the introduction access to rich, well-described datasets can enable large-scale analysis, drawing on multiple data sources to address “big picture” research questions. recognizing the research potential of multiple datasets, many public and private funders of archaeology now mandate data management plans as part of the research they fund.1 as digital data increasingly play a key role in all forms of archaeological observation and recording, professional practice must emphasize rigorous and effective data management. unfortunately, without examples of how standards, metadata, and data quality impact research outcomes, field archaeologists will have little motivation to improve their data creation and management practices. furthermore, if scholars only see data sharing as a matter of bureaucratic compliance, there is the risk of filling data repositories with poorly documented, poor quality, and nearly useless data. to avoid this, researchers need clear examples of how to align data creation and management with reuse and understanding. this paper discusses one such approach by describing how zooarchaeology can benefit from linking faunal data with data curated by a much wider using linked open data to improve data reuse in zooarchaeology sarah whitcher kansa author address: the alexandria archive institute & open context, 125 el verano way, san francisco, ca 94127, usa. email: skansa@alexandriaarchive.org received: august 20, 2015 volume: 6(2):224-231 published: december 18, 2015 © 2015 society of ethnobiology abstract: the inability of journals and books to accommodate data and to make it reusable has led to the gradual loss of vast amounts of information. the practice of disseminating selected sub-sets of data (usually in summary tables) permits only very limited types of reuse, and thus hampers scholarship. in recent years, largely in response to increasing government and institutional requirements for full data access, the scholarly community is giving data more attention, and solutions for data management are emerging. however, seeing data management primarily as a matter of compliance means that the research community faces continued data loss, as many datasets enter repositories without adequate description to enable their reuse. furthermore, because many archaeologists do not yet have experience in data reuse, they lack understanding of what “good” data management means in terms of their own research practices. this paper discusses linked open data (lod) as an approach to improving data description, intelligibility and discoverability to facilitate reuse. i present examples of how annotating zooarchaeology datasets with lod can facilitate data integration without forcing standardization. i conclude by recognizing that data sharing is not without its challenges. however, the research community’s careful attention and recognition of datasets as valuable scholarly outputs will go a long way toward ensuring that the products of our work are more widely useful. keywords: annotation, data publishing, integration, data modeling, zooarchaeology ethnobiology letters. 2015. 6(2):224‐231. doi: 10.14237/ebl.6.2.2015.467. 225 perspective special issue on digital zooarchaeology original author. data tables in print format require manual transcription for reuse, leading to a high rate of error (dibble, this issue). furthermore, printed data tables, even if complete, cannot be searched or sorted, and thus lead to a painfully slow process of transcription by the person seeking to use them. finally, this work is done by one person, and all other researchers seeking to use the data will have to transcribe it themselves, again potentially making errors, and again spending hours of precious research time on a tedious task. in some cases, full data tables are provided on dvds that accompany a print publication. while easier to manipulate, these datasets are still problematic because dvds degrade over time and are often broken, scratched, or lost. another persistent data sharing practice in zooarchaeology involves the one-to-one exchange of information, usually over email (faniel et al. 2013). for example, a colleague contacts me indicating interest in a subset of data, and i share that data with him, often over several emails explaining the nature of the dataset, the methods, errors, etc. this type of oneto-one transaction leads to information loss because data description and clean up is not formally documented (if it occurs at all). the dataset is shared with one person, and any future sharing requires the same process. handing out batches of data piecemeal in such a manner does not lead to full data preservation and does not enable reuse. these practices also promote “choosing favorites” by allowing sharing with only certain people, and lead to fears of “scooping” because of the informal nature of the communication. another entrenched data sharing practice is through summary tables in the published literature. while summary tables are an acceptable and effective approach to support the interpretive perspective being advanced in the paper in which they appear, they are of limited analytical use to those who want to reuse these data. table 1 is an example of data presentation that may sufficiently support an author’s argument, but leaves the reader with no means to leverage that data in future research. for instance, a researcher may like to know which specific skeletal elements were burned, or which were fused. what is the basis for calling a skeletal fragment “juvenile”? what was the nature and location of the cut marks on the bone surface? there are infinite future research questions that this dataset could inform, but the data are not shown when in summary form. unless the full dataset is available elsewhere (ideally, in an institutional archive), such data presentation is not sufficient stewardship because reuse of the data is extremely limited. it is important to note that table 1 is not necessarily a poorly constructed table, it may suit an argument built in the paper; this example simply illustrates the limitations not reporting datasets in ways that make them available for future use. several recent studies have used summary tables in the published (and gray) literature to explore new research questions that may be better addressed with access to large corpora from multiple sites (among others, see conolly et al. 2011; mackinnon 2004, mckechnie et al. 2014, sasson 2010, thomas et al. 2013). though useful for addressing certain questions, these meta-analyses run the risk of leading to misinterpretations simply because comparing summary data across a large number of sites requires finding such a broad basis for comparison (“present / absent”, “many / few” or, as above, “juvenile / adult”) that researchers are unable to see or incorporate any higher -resolution observations that may be very important to the broad interpretations. in short, when primary data and detailed documentation about how the data were collected and analyzed are not available, considerable caution must be taken in aggregating data from multiple studies (jones and gabe 2015). part of the greater public policy interest in research data management comes from recognition that researchers do a poor job as stewards of their own data, where many datasets maintained by individual researchers are lost entirely after only a few years, while others are useless because of a lack of detailed data description (vines et al. 2014). clearly, we need to identify better data management practices and find incentives to encourage zooarchaeologists to adopt better practices. the sections below discuss how current technologies and emerging data sharing practices promise to change common out-dated practices to make data more useful to others. table 1. a hypothetical summary data table. sheep (ovis aries) juvenile adult nisp 238 459 mni 6 11 burned 3% 5% cut 12% 22% gnawing (rodent) 1% 1% gnawing (carnivore) 2% 4% ethnobiology letters. 2015. 6(2):224‐231. doi: 10.14237/ebl.6.2.2015.467. 226 perspective special issue on digital zooarchaeology a linked open data approach to zooarchaeological data sharing and integration advances in technology now offer opportunities to share and document data in full. however, “sharing data” is not simply a matter of dropping a spreadsheet onto a website or into an archive. i participated in a recent study that explored issues in data access and reuse by working directly with researchers to gain first -hand experience of the challenges data reuse presents (arbuckle et al. 2014). this study, funded by the encyclopedia of life and the national endowment for the humanities, brought a group of scholars together to integrate data from one dozen archaeological sites (figure 1) and to collaborate on a research topic using those data. this group, led by benjamin arbuckle (unc chapel hill) represents a rare collaborative effort to publish and integrate open data in archaeology. project participants shared faunal datasets in the open access data publishing platform, open context. these datasets, from archaeological sites in turkey that span the epipaleolithic through the chalcolithic, were used to explore how integrated datasets can inform archaeologists about the spread of early domestic animals westward across turkey. the project highlighted a complex regional picture in the spread of agriculture, with particularly notable differences between different coastal and inland regions (arbuckle et al. 2014). it also highlighted critical differences in the way different zooarchaeologists describe data (kansa et al. 2014). figure 1. participants in the central and western anatolia neolithic working group, who collaborated to integrate and analyze multiple faunal datasets from archaeological sites in turkey (see arbuckle et al. 2014). ethnobiology letters. 2015. 6(2):224‐231. doi: 10.14237/ebl.6.2.2015.467. 227 perspective special issue on digital zooarchaeology part of my role in this project, as editor for open context, was to work with data authors to clean up and document their datasets in preparation for publication and for integration for analysis by the group. data clean up proved to be challenging, but it was not without its rewards. some datasets documented over 100,000 specimens, sometimes using more than 100 fields. each dataset used a largely idiosyncratic system of organization and terminology. integrating these diverse datasets entailed making sure terms were consistent and all fields and terms were clearly described. to complicate matters, many of the datasets were either fully or partially coded, requiring specialist knowledge and ten times the effort to clean up and decode than other datasets. in one case, the project codebook was a 90-page pdf; in another, codes had been added later and not included in the codebook, making contact with the data author critical to making the dataset intelligible. this exercise convinced me that clean-up and additional documentation through a formal editing process creates datasets that are of far greater quality and that have vastly increased potential for reuse than simply uploading a spreadsheet to an archive. though this documentation requires substantial time and effort, it is a one-time job that benefits from direct interaction with other analysts to create a more robust and appropriately described dataset. once the datasets were cleaned and richly documented, the next editorial step was to prepare them for integration by annotating them with linked open data (lod). essentially, lod boils down to using stable web identifiers or “uris” (uniform resource identifiers) to reference shared concepts and other information resources.2 lod can help zooarchaeologists aggregate data at larger scales without necessarily forcing everyone to adopt the same predetermined recording standards. in the anatolian example above, we used lod to annotate data to relate different idiosyncratic terminologies to common controlled vocabularies. the example in figure 2(a-c) shows the different ways various analysts might describe ovis orientalis linnaeus bovidae in their database. rather than require analysts to change the way they document their data, the data publication process can add links to shared concepts to help describe data and relate different terminologies across datasets. this example shows how the encyclopedia of life (eol) can be used to integrate taxonomic descriptions across datasets. eol publishes a webpage, with a stable identifier and address, for every taxonomic group defined by the life sciences. a researcher can go to their page that describes the concept of “wild sheep,” grab that address and paste it into a spreadsheet. this tells everyone “this is the animal my term is describing.” by linking all the different ways the analysts describe o. orientalis to the authoritative concept, different datasets are integrated around taxonomic concepts. furthermore, this provides a common point of reference for all other data on the web that reference this concept, allowing for discovery and large scale integration. another example of the benefits of a linked open data approach to zooarchaeological data management can be structured around the “adult / juvenile” problem mentioned in the previous section. though “adult” or “juvenile” may be the only terms that serve as the “least common denominators” across multiple projects, annotating the epiphyseal fusion data with these terms enables linkages across datasets while still maintaining the original researcher's descriptions. this allows for a much more transparent research process, where the annotations allow for integration across multiple datasets, but the original data can still be seen. that is, more refined categories (e.g., “newborn”, “old adult”, “fusing”, etc.) present in certain datasets will remain visible, allowing for more nuanced interpretations. given the exponential growth of lod on the web (see figure 3), the potential of lod in facilitating the discovery and use of relevant, quality research data is vast. the pioneering efforts of the perseus digital library3, pleiades4, pelagios5, arachne6, dinaa7, fasti online8, and the portable antiquities scheme9, to name a few, as well as increasing openness of museums in sharing collections data and metadata (especially the british museum) creates many research opportunities for digitally enabled scholarship. zooarchaeology is “low-hanging fruit” in the world of lod and data integration. several authoritative sources of lod already exist, including the eol described above and uberon, an anatomy ontology that can be used to describe skeletal elements. lod is extremely easy for zooarchaeologists to build into their data collection protocols: in many cases, one can simply add a field to a databases or spreadsheets where they insert a link (uri) to the taxon or skeletal element referenced. this immediate disambiguation of terms will begin to consolidate more intelligible and reusable data that will have wide benefits to zooarchaeologists. however, in order for this to work, the community as a whole must change expectations ethnobiology letters. 2015. 6(2):224‐231. doi: 10.14237/ebl.6.2.2015.467. 228 perspective special issue on digital zooarchaeology around data. while data archiving is needed, we should also encourage additional steps toward contextualizing our data, such as the lod approaches introduced above. linking data is about networking data across datasets, across systems, and across communities. as the network grows and diversifies, it offers more opportunities not just for larger scale forms of analysis, but also for new collaborations that may result from linking our data to the data curated by other expert communities. while lod offers many exciting and open-ended possibilities, as discussed in the next section, realizing these opportunities requires that we make important changes in our research practices even before we begin data collection. data sharing is not without its challenges while it is clear that linked data annotation was invaluable in the data sharing project described above, the participants were surprised to note how certain limitations in source datasets themselves impeded annotation and thus limited comparative analysis. zooarchaeological taxa and skeletal elements were easy to align because most people find these characteristics easy to model and represent in a spreadsheet, usually with fields for “taxon” and “element.” certain other characteristics proved more difficult to align. for example, all participants took measurements according to guidelines provided by von den driesch (1976). however, since von den driesch gives many different measurements for different elements, these are difficult to represent in a single-table spreadsheet which many zooarchaeologists use. as a result, open context’s editors needed to expend significant editorial effort to align bone measurements to a common measurement ontology so that they could be compared. figure 2. a) a small sample of the many terms analysts may use to describe a specimen from ovis orientalis in their databases and spreadsheets. entrenched data collection practices, different data description conventions, and a reluctance to adopt standards, mean that researchers will continue to collect disparate data. linked open data approaches allow us to embrace the diversity of our data collection practices by offering an external source of data integration. b) the eol uri for the term “ovis orientalis” provides an authoritative and unambiguous description of this species, as well as additional descriptive content from authoritative resources across the web. linking terms that mean “ovis orientalis” to this uri provides a common language to integrate many data sets without forcing analysts to adopt standard terminology. c) linking data in this way is an essential step to enable future research that draws on multiple data sets. ethnobiology letters. 2015. 6(2):224‐231. doi: 10.14237/ebl.6.2.2015.467. 229 perspective special issue on digital zooarchaeology similarly, tooth eruption and wear data recorded by project participants proved very difficult to integrate and compare. though all participants used the system for recording tooth eruption and wear developed by payne (1973), the manner by which they recorded observations varied greatly. again, the limitations of spreadsheets to organize and model complex data played an important role in impeding data reuse. for example, one analyst noted the tooth number in the column heading (“molar 1”) and listed the tooth wear stage in the cell. another analyst noted the tooth number in a “tooth number” column and the wear stage in a “wear stage” column. though both approaches record information according to payne’s system, the splitting of data across different fields, including free-text comments fields, makes integration very labor-intensive. although these two examples are near eastspecific (where researchers tend to use the two recording systems discussed), they illustrate more generally how data modeling (data organization), plays an important and largely ignored role in interpretation. even small differences in recording, or in the structure of databases and spreadsheets, can have significant impacts on interpretation. these recording and modeling discrepancies become apparent when data authors begin looking “under the hood” at each other’s datasets. data sharing is important, then, not only in terms of getting access to data, but also in terms of getting access to each other's data models and systems of organization. data modeling issues play a huge role in how data can be interpreted, especially in integrative studies, and this issue needs more attention. thus this discussion of data modeling illustrates how zooarchaeologists need to invest more thought and effort in describing and modeling their data, well before data collection, if they are to create data of lasting value to a wider community. while lod offers powerful methods, lod needs to be coupled with improved data modeling practices. conclusions data management in the 21st century is still a new frontier, and considerable research and perspectives are needed on how to integrate data dissemination and preservation meaningfully into the research process. a good starting point is to avoid perceiving data management as only as a byproduct or a residue of research, to be quickly filed away in an archive to comply with a grant requirement. if researchers want to unlock new opportunities with data, data need to be treated as “first class citizens” in scholarly communication. achieving this requires several things. one is a shift in perspective on archiving practices. most digital repositories focus on the quality of the metadata, with an end goal being archiving. however, from working first-hand with data reuse and integration, we have learned that investing more effort into the figure 3. the growth of linked data on the web, from 2009 (a; 89 data sets) to 2014 (b; 570 data sets). these images show datasets from all domains (i.e. not just archaeology) that have been published in linked data format by contributors to the linking open data community project and other individuals and organizations. [linking open data cloud diagram 2014, by max schmachtenberg, christian bizer, anja jentzsch and richard cyganiak. http://lod-cloud.net/] for information about the colors and text, see the web versions of the diagrams: 2009 here: http://lod-cloud.net/ versions/2009-03-05/lod-cloud.png ; 2014 here: http:// lod-cloud.net/versions/2014-08-30/lodcloud_colored.svg. ethnobiology letters. 2015. 6(2):224‐231. doi: 10.14237/ebl.6.2.2015.467. 230 perspective special issue on digital zooarchaeology individual data themselves is essential to understanding and reuse. meaningful data preservation also means providing access to full datasets, not just summary tables. though summary tables are useful to support the theoretical perspective being advanced in a given paper, their summarized format precludes many uses that address a number of vital research questions. sharing summary tables without sharing the original, ungrouped data, often means immediate loss of information. finally, researchers must commit a level of intellectual effort to data. such a level of effort entails professionalism and dedicated expertise on par with current print publication practices. unless data dissemination sees similar rewards, with regard to professional recognition and advancement, as conventional publishing, scholars will not find the time or motivation to share their data, and datasets amounting to years of work and (often public) funding continuing to languish on hard drives and in file cabinets around the world. acknowledgments the research reported would not have been possible without funding from the encyclopedia of life and the national endowment for the humanities, as well as hard work on the part of the project participants, ben arbuckle, and eric kansa. i would like to thank iain mckechnie for working with me so enthusiastically in organizing another icaz session on the theme of digital data in zooarchaeology. heartfelt thanks also to the conference organizers and sponsors for a very successful icaz 2014 in san rafael, argentina. declarations permissions: none declared. sources of funding: the encyclopedia of life and the national endowment for the humanities. conflicts of interest: none declared. references cited arbuckle, b. s., s. w. kansa, e. kansa, d. orton, c. çakırlar, l. gourichon, l. atici, a. galik, a. marciniak, j. mulville, h. buitenhuis, d. carruthers, b. de cupere, a. demirergi, s. frame, d. helmer, l. martin, j. peters, n. pöllath, k. pawłowska, n. russell, k. twiss, and d. würtenberger. 2014. data sharing reveals complexity in the westward spread of domestic animals across neolithic turkey. plos one 9:e99845. doi: http://doi.org/10.1371/ journal.pone.0099845. clason, a. t. 1972. some remarks on the use and presentation of archaeological data. helinium 12:139-53. conolly, j., s. colledge, k. dobney, j. -d. vigne, j. peters, b. stopp, k. manning, and s. shennan. 2011. meta-analysis of zooarchaeological data from sw asia and se europe provides insight into the origins and spread of animal husbandry. journal of archaeological science 38:538-545. doi: http:// dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jas.2010.10.008 driver, j. c. 1992. identification, classification and zooarchaeology. circaea 9:35-47. von den driesch, a. 1976. a guide to the measurement of animal bones from archaeological sites, peabody museum bulletin 1, cambridge, ma. faniel, i., e. kansa, s. w. kansa, j. barrera-gomez, and e. yakel. 2013. the challenges of digging data: a study of context in archaeological data reuse. jcdl 2013 proceedings of the 13th acm/ ieee-cs joint conference on digital libraries: 295 -304. new york, ny: acm. doi: http:// doi.org/10.1145/2467696.2467712 . [preprint available online at http://www.oclc.org/content/ dam/research/publications/library/2013/fanielarchae-data.pdf]. grigson, c. 1978. towards a blueprint for animal bone reports in archaeology. in research problems in zooarchaeology, edited by d. r. brothwell, k. d. thomas, and j. clutton-brock, pp. 121-128. institute of archaeology occasional papers 3, london. jones, e. l. and c. gabe. 2015. the promise and peril of older collections: meta-analyses and the zooarchaeology of late prehistoric/early historic new mexico. open quaternary 1:art. 6. doi: http:// doi.org/10.5334/oq.ag. kansa, e., s. w. kansa, and b. arbuckle. 2014. publishing and pushing: mixing models for communicating research data in archaeology. international journal of digital curation 9:57-70. doi: http:// doi.org/10.2218/ijdc.v9i1.301. marwick, b. 2015. geoarchaeology of aboriginal landscapes in semi-arid australia. s. j. holdaway and p. c. fanning. 2014. geoarchaeology 30:459-461. doi:10.1002/gea.21522. ethnobiology letters. 2015. 6(2):224‐231. doi: 10.14237/ebl.6.2.2015.467. 231 perspective special issue on digital zooarchaeology mackinnon, m. 2004. production and consumption of animals in roman italy: integrating the zooarchaeological and textual evidence. journal of roman archaeology, supplement 54. mckechnie, i., d. lepofsky, m. l. moss, v. l. butler, t. j. orchard, g. coupland, f. foster, m. caldwell, and k. lertzman. 2014. archaeological data provide alternative hypotheses on pacific herring (clupea pallasii) distribution, abundance, and variability. proceedings of the national academy of sciences 111:e807-e816. doi: http:// doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1316072111. payne, s. 1973. kill-off patterns in sheep and goats: the mandibles from aşvan kale. anatolian studies 23:281-303. sasson, a. 2010. animal husbandry in ancient israel: a zooarchaeological perspective on livestock exploitation, herd management and economic strategies. equinox, london. thomas, r., m. holmes, and j. morris. 2013. “so bigge as bigge may be”: tracking size and shape change in domestic livestock in london (ad 1220–1900). journal of archaeological science 40:33093325. vines, t. h., a. y. k. albert, r. l. andrew, f. débarre, d. g. bock, m. t. franklin, k. j. gilbert, j. -s. moore, s. renaut, and d. j. rennison. 2014. the availability of research data declines rapidly with article age. current biology 24:94-97. doi: http://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2013.11.014. notes 1see recent policies by us national science foundat ion (ht tp ://www.nsf .gov/sbe/bcs/arch/ archaeom.jsp) and us national endowment of the humanities (http://www.neh.gov/files/grants/ data_management_plans_2015.pdf) 2unlike most urls, web uris not only serve as addresses to retrieve content, but uris also as globally unique and unambiguous identifiers, backed by an institutional commitment for long-term curation. while urls are simply addresses that can point to changing content (and those addresses themselves can come and go), using well curated and institutionally backed web uris provides much greater stability and clarity in identifying (and usually accessing) data across the web. this makes it possible to network together widely distributed data, curated in different systems by different professional communities and different disciplines. 3http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/ 4http://www.pleiades.stoa.org/ 5http://www.pelagios-project.blogspot.com/ 6http://www.arachne.uni-koeln.de/drupal/ 7http://ux.opencontext.org/archaeology-site-data/ 8http://www.fastionline.org 9https://www.finds.org.uk/ biosketch sarah whitcher kansa directs the non-profit alexandria archive institute, working with researchers to publish open access data with open context. ethnobiology letters research communication 72 traditional knowledge, agave inaequidens (koch) conservation, and the charro lariat artisans of san miguel cuyutlán, mexico ana g. valenzuela-zapata1, irma lopez-muraira2, and marie sarita gaytán3 authors’ addresses: 1 signo tequila foundation, 2 instituto tecnológico de tlajomulco, tlajomulco de zuñiga, jalisco, mexico, 3 university of utah, united states ana.valenzuela@gmail.com received: april 12 th 2011 volume: 2:72-80 published: november 16 th 2011 © 2011 society of ethnobiology abstract: the mexican sport of charrería, or mexican rodeo, developed in post-conquest mexico as a way of preserving and celebrating traditional cowboy riding and livestock handling skills. today, charrería is considered the national sport of mexico and the charro (cowboy) is also a celebrated icon of mexicanness. special handcrafted ropes used in charrería, known as sogas finas, or charro lariats, are made from the fibers of the agave inaequidens. the manufacture of charro ropes is an artisinal practice that requires both cultural and botanical knowlege. in the last ten years, there has been a significant decl ine in the a. inaequidens population in the cerro viejo mountain range of the central-western mexican state of jalisco, putting the financial wellbeing of local lariat artisans at risk. drawing on fieldwork and laboratory analysis conducted from 2002 through 2010, we discuss the socio-cultural significance of charro lariats, detail the harvesting of a. inaequidens in relation to lariat craftsmanship, document the physical characteristics of the a. inaequidens from this region, and describe the relationship between traditional knowledge and the local economy. the goal of this research is two-fold: 1) to stimulate feedback between producers and consumers in an attempt to leverage the existing business cluster based on traditional knowledge and 2) to initiate dialogue concerning conservation, domestication, and sustainable management of the wild a. inadequidens population. key words: agave inaequidens, hard fibers, plant conservation, charro lariat introduction in 2002, farm technicians in san miguel cuyutlán, a small town in the western state of jalisco (figure 1), reported a decrease in the wild population of a. inaequidens asparagaceae koch in the surrounding cerro viejo mountains. a. inaequidens is the primary raw material used by lariat artisans (sogueros) to make charro lariats (reatas de ixtle or sogas finas), the ropes central to the popular mexican sport of charerría (mexican rodeo).the local craftsmen depend on this population of agave because it cannot be substituted with sisal and/or henequen, which are fibers made from two different agave species, (a. sisalana agavaceae perrine, henequen a. fourcroydes asparagaceae lem) or other synthetic materials for a. inaequidens fibers. since 2006, producers, researchers, and the local government have been working on a. inaequidens seed propagation and reforestation. while some progress has been made in cultivating the species, it is unclear whether or not the fiber quality will remain the same.1 in this article, we document the traditional knowledge associated with the art of charro lariat craftsmanship and address issues pertaining to the conservation of a. inaequidens in the cerro viejo mountain range. at least 200 families in the region support themselves by harvesting, extracting, and transforming by hand the long, shiny agave fibers into charro lariats. the relative economic success of this traditional craft reduces the need for labor-induced emigration from communities in the region. however, the wild populations of the once abundant a. inaequidens have diminished at the same time that the demand for charrería apparel in mexico and the united states has increased. as a consequence, the financial wellbeing of lariat artisans is being threatened during a period when they should potentially be making greater profit. what explains the disappearance of the native a. inaequidens? as we illustrate, this pheomenon is a result of a combination of factors that include disease, deforestation, and inexperienced agave fiber harvesters. the goals of this research are two-fold: 1) to stimulate feedback between producers and consumers in an mailto:ana.valenzuela@gmail.com ethnobiology letters research communication 73 figure 1: map of mexico showing the location of san miguel cuyultán in jalisco. attempt to leverage the existing business cluster based on traditional knowledge and the local economy and 2) to initiate dialogue concerning conservation, domestication, and sustainable management of the wild a. inadequidens population. methods in 2006-2007, we held a total of four focus group meetings at lariat-making workshops with fiber harvesters (ixtleros) to explore the role of traditional knowledge in relation to cultural, economic, and sustainability matters. each focus group was comprised of six to eight men and discussions addressed themes including agave harvesting, the diminishing numbers of a. inadequidens, lariat making, and the artisans’ concerns for their families and their communities. each focusgroup meeting lasted roughly two hours and segments of each gathering were video recorded.2 we also attended ten lariat-making workshops at two charrería schools: the colomos school of charrería, in guadalajara, the state capital of jalisco and lienzo charro in tlajomulco de zuñiga, a town just southeast of guadalajara. as participant observers at numerous charreadas (charro sporting events) in jalisco, we took field notes and recorded video of the various lariat techniques used throughout each competition. in november 2007, we conducted interviews with rope artisans in coatepec harinas near mexico city, another location where a. salmiana asparagaceae otto ex salm fibers are harvested. in total, from 2002-2010, we conducted 38 semistructured interviews with individuals involved in the production and use of charro lariats (15 ixtleros and crafters, 3 farm technicians, 20 charros and lariat sellers). botanical explorations were carried out from 2002 to 2007 in sites where field harvesters collect agave in the cerro viejo lowlands mountain region of tlajomulco de zuñiga and san miguel cuyutlán. specimens were prepared with labels detailing the date, locality, plant description (with or without flowers), and leaf-length measurement. the specimens were later taken to the technological institute of tlajomulco herbarium. with the technical assistance of several ethnobiology letters research communication 74 different harvesters, we collected agave specimens of different ages, both with and without flowers. the species were identified according to the principles outlined by gentry (1982). study area san miguel cuyutlán is located at 20° 20' n by 103° 14' w in the municipio of tlajomulco in the state of jalisco in western mexico. wild a. inaequidens populations in cerro viejo (cv) are found in oak forests with quercus laurina fagaceae bonpl., q. rugosa fagaceae née, q. candicans fagaceae née, and q. obtusata fagaceae humb. and bonpl. (gonzález 1986). the agave flourishes at high elevations on open rocky slopes associated with oak, pine–oak and pine–oyamel (abies sp.) forests. it is also found in tropical deciduous forests (vázquez-garcía et al. 2008). study limitations our initial findings suggest that two forms of agave correspond to the same species, a. inaequidens. however, due to the limitations we describe below, we cannot make taxonomic categorizations with regard to subspecies or varieties of the same taxon. since species of the agave genus are monocarpic and perennial, botanical studies and studies of agave biology must be long term if they are to obtain flowering specimens and to identify the new taxon.3 this limitation is even more severe when wild populations are overexploited. with so few specimens actually in flower, we were unable to write full descriptions of all the plants’ organs in the wide and narrow-leaved a. inaequidens we found. the joint limitations of having to find specimens in flower, and the long periods between flowering, meant we had to wait a long time to find samples where all the plants' characteristics could be observed and identified as species or varieties. therefore, we call attention to the need for more research that draws on both conventional and biomolecular botanical methods. other limitations were related to our interactions with informants. in particular, we found that lariat artisans were reluctant to talk to us about their traditional techniques for fear that they might be copied and reproduced in china. additionally, there was scant and sometimes contradictory information provided regarding costs and income because the artisans were concerned about tax issues. results background: the mexican sport of charrería charrería, or mexican rodeo, is a uniquely mexican cultural tradition involving technical equestrian skills associated with cattle ranching that can be traced to the arrival of the spanish in the fifteenth century. in addition to prompting drastic changes to the religious, political, and social lives of local populations, colonization introduced many new foods, traditions, and animals to the “new world.” one such animal was the horse. initially only elite men were permitted to own horses, but as cattle ranching began to develop, lower class mestizos were allowed to work in teams of men on horseback (nájera-ramírez 1994). on the open range, charros (hombres a caballo or jinetes) refined and perfected their horsemanship skills. the growth of the hacienda system with large landed estates created a demand for workers who could “break wild horses, feed and breed cattle, control bulls and broncos, and protect the cattle and themselves from the dangers of the range” (nájera-ramírez 1994:2). training and controlling animals required tools, such as thin ropes known as mecates, which were specifically designed for the ranching conditions of the mexican range. over the years, ranch workers adapted new saddle styles, riding, and roping techniques. in the 19th century, haciendas began to host public events for charros to compete and to demonstrate their horsemanship skills. when the economic significance of the hacienda system began to decline after the mexican revolution (1910-1920), so too did the need for charros. whereas charros once played a significant material role in the mexican economy, they were slowly becoming more recognized for their athletic and artistic capabilities (lecompte 1985). in 1921, the national association of charros was established to preserve and promote the cultural traditions associated with charrería. in 1933, mexican president abelardo rodriguez formally declared charrería the national sport of mexico. today, there are more than 900 charro organizations in mexico and the united states (palomar 2004). the lariat in charrería culture the contemporary charreada, or the main event associated with charrería culture, consists of competitions and also features food, live music, and dance performances. each charreada begins with a short opening ceremony in which competing teams parade their horses around the arena. once finished, the participants take their places for the first of nine demonstrations in ten events. a major component of the events involves the charros’ demonstration of his technical and artistic handling of the lariat. the lariat is the charros’ most important tool, and, unlike other equestrian sports, is an essential piece of equipment. in fact, charrería has its own specialized vocabulary ethnobiology letters research communication 75 table 1: charro events and characteristics of lariat use event resistance to tension resistance to friction floreo variants/bonus points fore-footing on foot and on horseback important less important very important/12 fore-footing from horseback important important very important/10 roping the hind legs important very important important team bull roping important less important very important/13 source: the authors, with data from charrería scoring rules. related specifically to rope use. for example, chorrear la soga (spray the rope) means to slip down out of the saddle while roping and catching the animal. today, much of this vocabulary is formally used in the specifications of events. table 1 shows the charro events which require the use of the lariat. below are a few examples of the events that feature lariat components. 1. piales (hind foot roping) consists of stopping a mare going out the gate, galloping along the track, being roped by the hindquarters by a charro mounted on a horse. 2. ternas (team bull roping) consists of three roping charros on horseback working as a team who must rope a bull, hobble it (rope it and catch it by the feet) and bring it down. they may use lariats, or other material to rope the feet of the animal. 3. manganas (forefooting) the charro, starting at least four meters from the edge of the ring, after flourishing his lariat, ropes the forequarters of the horse, who begins to run, having been driven by three mounted charros. once it is forefooted (its forefeet tied), the charro pulls on his lariat to bring it down. 3.1. manganas a pie (horse catching on foot) the charro positions himself in the arena and an untamed horse is guided to a run by three mounted teammates. the charro artistically twirls his lariat accumulating points in a display of skilled trick roping maneuvers and timing. he then throws a loop and attempts to catch the horse’s forelegs.4 3.2 manganas a caballo (foreleg horse catching from horseback) this event follows the same sequence as manganas a pie, except that it is conducted on horseback. charros are also judged by their abilities to perform the floreo (flowering of the lariat or flourishing a fancy rope) in which they maneuver the lariat in a wave-like pattern and execute revolutions or spins. each of the various floreo movements has a name, such as “change,” “mirror,” “spring,” and so on. the rules give precise definitions for scoring, bonus points, disqualifications, time limits for each events, and infractions. the ropes of san miguel cuyutlán charro lariats evolved from conventional rope (mecate) made from agave fibers (ixtle). over time, fiber harvesters (ixtleros), rope makers (sogueros), and charros improved on the basic design to make it more suitable for roping and handling horses and cattle in charreada competitions. once implemented, the modifications were systematized, and according to the charros we talked to, the changes added significantly to the artistic and technical level of sophistication central to handling the lariat. both charros and charrería scholars described the best quality ropes as those made of ixtle. (dean and rodriguez 2003); of those made of ixtle, ropes from san miguel cuyutlán (which are known as coyotlanas in charro slang), were identified as having the best reputation. charros preferred ropes from this town because of their better flexibility, strength, and color. further, the ropes are widely considered to cut the best figures, to produce the best performances, and to yield the most points when used in competition by professional charros (dean and rodriguez 2003). from mesoamerican ropes to charro lariats writing from an anthropological perspective, saumade (2008) contends that early ropes were used for hunting and as weapons in ancient mesoamerican society. beyond solely serving a material purpose, they were also symbolically significant. in particular, ropes were closely linked to family lineage (marriage, children, and blood ties) and also reflected the duality of the sexes, whereby men were symbolized by the rope itself and ethnobiology letters research communication 76 women were reflected in the circular forms of the manipulated rope. this gendered symbolism carries on today in charrería, and ropes are closely associated with masculinity. for example, in mexico, if someone is very manly or is good at something he is described as a lariat (reata). also, “to handle a lariat” has sexual overtones in relation to catching someone in a compromising sexual position (islas escárcega 1992). another popular expression, “lariat knowledge spare me, the lariat is all i need (lazar me sobra, reata es lo que me hace falta), refers to an individual who has the knowledge or ability to complete a challenging task, but lacks the proper equipment or tools to carry it out; in charro slang, it also refers to demonstrating one’s sexual prowess. further, ropes and lariats are commonly used in expressions to describe physical attractiveness. for example, a “good rope” (una buena reata) could describe an attractive woman. charro rope appears in official charrería guidelines as a wardrobe element without any description. in viii article chapter 57 of the 2011 charro rulebook (charrería reglamento 2011), charro attire and charrería regulations are described in detail; however, there is no mention of charro ropes. charros prefer ixtle or lechuguilla ropes because they work well in performances. soguillas (leather ropes) and paraffine-coated cotton are well suited in humid and hot regions respectively. in the past, generic names as ixtle and lechuguilla have resulted in incorrect botanical identification of agave fibers. ixtle refers to fibers from agave lechuguilla torr. agavaceae hutchinson, yucca carnerosana agavaceae (trel.) mckelvey, y. filifera chabauud agavaceae hutchinson, and aechmea magdalenae bromeliaceae (andré) andré ex baker (garcia-moya and ayala-sosa 2007). the term lechuguilla is registered by colunga-garciamarin et al. (2007) to name the following agavaceae species: a. zebra gentry, a. angustiarum trel., a. angustifolia haw., a. atrovirens karw. ex salm-dyck, a. aurea brandegee, a. bovicornuta gentry, a. cantala (haw.) roxb. ex salmdyck, a. fortiflora gentry, a. funkiana k. koch & c.d. bouch, a. gigantesis gentry, a. kerchovei lem, a. lechuguilla torr., a. lophanta schiede, a. maximiliana baker, a. maximiliana var . katherinae gentry, a. palmeri engelm, a. peacockii croucher, a. scabra gentry, a. schotii engelm a. shrevei gentry, and a. sobria (trel.) i.m. johnst. a. lechuguilla is the most important hard fiber plant from central and northern arid areas in mexico (reyes-agüero, aguirre, and peña 2000) but it is not adequate for charro ropes. according to the charros we interviewed, the agave fiber ixtle (from a. inaequidens and a. salmiana) is irreplaceable because of the specific conditions and attributes developed by the formal structure of charrería as a sport. earlier versions of ropes used by professional charros were much thicker than their current counterparts, changing from 36 wires to one with a heart (central wire) to 6 wires (miranda 1993). rope thickness was one of many changes that took place as charrería evolved in the early part of the twentieth century (palomar 2004). specifically, the ropes became thinner as charros’ roles changed from exclusively working on haciendas (e.g., breaking horses) to taking on more showmanship qualities (e.g., competing in rodeos). taxonomy and agave fibers the agave genus is the most diverse genus of the agavaceae family. of some 200 species in the new world, 150 (75%) are found in mexico with 69% endemism (garcia-mendoza 2002). today there are primarily four uses for agave: as fibers, as aguamiel (sap), as pulque (fermented sap), and as mezcal or tequila (distilled from the cooked and pressed juices of agave) (valenzuela and nabhan 2004). in the last ten years, scholars have made important inroads with regard to documenting the agricultural diversity of the agave genus in mexico. specifically, there are many botanical studies on the agave species used in the distillation of tequila and mezcal (colunga-garciamarín et al. 2007), while less is known about the agaves used in pulque or for fibers. from an economic perspective, fibers made of henequen (a. fourcroydes and a. lechuguilla) are the most important, but research on these plants has diminished in the last several years. otherwise, agave species are currently attracting renewed interest for their ability to produce biomass for biofuel production in non-irrigated marginal land (nobel 2010; valenzuela 2011). today, wild and native species of the agave genus are used for fiber and handicrafts mainly by indigenous communities. in the northern state of sonora, indigenous groups utilize a. jaiboli gentry and a. angustifolia haw. (yetman and van devender 2002) and in the southern state of oaxaca they use: agave americana l. var americana, a. americana var oaxacensis gentry, a. angustiarum trel., a. angustifolia var angustifolia haw., a. angustifolia var rubescens gentry, a. convallis trel., and a. horrida lem. ex jacobi hutchinson (garcia-mendoza 2004). agave inaequidens in cerro viejo the a. inaequidens plant grows in volcanic soils on cliffs and ravines of the sierra madre occidental and the trans-mexican volcanic belt (gentry 1982) and is the ethnobiology letters research communication 77 primary raw material for mezcal (valenzuela et al. 2008) and raicilla (a type of mezcal made from a. lechuguilla) (conabio 2005). like other species of the crenatae group (gentry 1982), they have interbred, and are plants with medium to large rosettes, which rarely reproduce asexually by rhizome or axillary shoots. their main characteristic is their deeply crenate and mammillated leaf margins. this study also reports for the first time on the importance of the specificity of a. inaequidens, section crenatae use in the tradition of handcrafted charro ropes and details their unique attributes for their use in charrería competitions. herbarium materials and field observations show that a. inaequidens grows in two forms in cerro viejo: wide leaves and dense inflorescences, and narrow leaves and sparse inflorescences, the latter perhaps an effect of selection. the plants are in anthesis in winter and fruits and flowers are picked in february. handcrafting cluster in san miguel cuyutlán a. inaequidens grow wild on the rocky volcanic slopes of the cerro viejo mountains (2960 m) about an hour out of the city of guadalajara on the highway to colima. the fibers are extracted from the leaves, and the sap left after the fibers are stripped is used to prepare cancer remedies. the floral axes are roasted for food, and the flowers, which are eaten by deer, are used as bait by hunters. some agave fiber harvesters (ixtleros) stated that aguamiel (a drink prepared from the sap) used to be extracted from these plants, but during the study period, no aguamiel was seen being sold in the region. aguamiel is obtained by cutting the central cone of leaves and carving out the base to collect the sap that runs down from the leaves by the force of gravity. approximately 200 families in san miguel cuyutlán earn supplemental income by harvesting fiber and making rope. this region of jalisco is known for its wood and fiber, its kitchen tools made of volcanic rock, and its metal-working crafts. the production of ropes in cuyutlán is a localized production system in which fiber harvesting and collecting, rope production, and charrería all take place around the cerro viejo mountain region. the area has considerable emigration and the main source of income is from family members working in the united states. a rope production unit is composed of a master rope maker, who knows the entire process, and two apprentices. only men are rope makers. each unit has its own shed and area for hanging ropes, but up to five units may share a plot of land, splitting the cost of renting the lot. sales are mainly local and within mexico, but consumption of these products is beginning to increase in the united states as charrería becomes more popular. rope crafters sell to charros, small-scale merchants, and specialized stores, several of which are on the internet. they also sell their ropes at charreadas. agave harvesters and traditional knowledge the ixtlero selects, harvests, and extracts the fiber. he uses three tools: a board (tabla), a knife (raspador), and a pocket knife (cuchilla) to cut up the leaf and strip the fibers. the ixtleros have traditional, particular skills pertaining to how to select and harvest plants. specifically, they have intimate knowledge of the process of picking and stripping the leaves and removing the fibers and the post-harvest treatment. in addition, they know how to protect and evaluate wild populations and the fiber quality. harvest we measured the best leaf dimensions preferred by collectors in a sample (n=4) of the best plants chosen for harvest by ixtleros. to find one plant whose leaves are suitable for picking, an ixtlero must walk at least one hour, and in general it takes a full 8-hour working day to obtain 6 leaves, the quantity that will yield 1 kg of fiber. plants are harvested for the first time (the leaves are not cut off, but detached) when they are 5–7 years old. the agaves which are used are about 7 years old, and after one year they produce around 6 leaves, and fewer the next year. a plant may be harvested three times and it is then left to flower. we believe that it is for this reason that wild semi-domesticated populations growing in forest clearings have the most fiber. stripping after the leaves have been detached, the edges are cut to make them easier to handle and strip. the leaf is placed on a stone and beaten with a stick to soften the texture. the leaf is then placed on a plank made from avocado wood (persea gratissima lauraceae mill) and tied in place, and the fibers are stripped with a pocketknife. this task must be done very carefully to avoid cutting the fibers, which are 1 to 1.20 meters long. the fibers are a shiny whitish-green color and smell like watermelon. some ixtleros claim that working with the fibers causes kidney and lung problems. the maximum price for fiber in san miguel cuyutlán is 200 mexican pesos per kg, so the price for raw material for one rope alone is 1000 pesos. if the fiber from the state of mexico costs between 50 and 70 pesos, the cost of a lariat is 50% less. in a working day ethnobiology letters research communication 78 one ixtlero harvests and prepares 1.5 to 2 kg and approximately 1 kg is obtained from 6 leaves. a rope length 30 brazadas (about 28–30 m) needs from 4.5 to 5 kg of fiber. ixtleros and lariat makers mentioned that changes in land use, deforestation, grazing, forest fires, and overexploitation of the resource by new and young ixtleros with little knowledge affected a. inaequidens repopulation. despite their opinionated responses, each interviewee mentioned that they could not say with any certainty which of the circumstances was more responsible for the decrease in agave. further, they explained that until a community standards compliance agreement is made, negative environmental changes will likely continue in cerro viejo. they also expressed regret regarding their potential role for not engaging in sustainable practices and remained concerned about having to make their lariats with substandard agave fiber. on our visits to wild a. inaequidens populations, we recorded diseases such as core rot (due to erwinia spp. pathogens) and insect pests such as the agave weevil (scyphophorus acupunctatus gyllenhal curculionidae). although hunting was not mentioned, it could be a factor affecting populations, as the flower stalks are picked by hunters to attract deer, who like to eat them. with the decrease in a. inaequidens populations in cerro viejo, rope makers have begun to partially substitute fibers from coatepec harinas near mexico city. using information they provided, we calculated that the fibers bought in coatepec harinas represent 80% of the total fibers needed to replace those from cerro viejo. more long-term studies are needed to monitor newly germinated, young, and adult plants. rope production in san miguel cuyutlán the production and value-added chain of rope crafting in jalisco begins with the quality of the raw material obtained from a. inaequidens and continues with the work, entirely by hand, of the artisan, ending with the consumer (the charro) who gives the rope the final touch, or “tames” it. there are no records of total rope production, but we estimate that each workshop, which is comprised of anywhere from three to twelve employees, works 6 months of the year (24 weeks), making 5 ropes a week for a total of 120 ropes per year. we calculate the annual production of one workshop to be 24 ropes with a total of 600 ropes for the five workshops in the region. rope quality and reputation the flexibility, lifetime, resistance to friction, tempering (ability to retain shape), weight and color of the san miguel cuyutlán-produced ropes help charros to better execute the skills needed to earn more points during competitions. stiff, heavy ropes are less flexible and more likely to crack, making them less suitable for executing the figures of the floreo. points are deducted from the charros’ score if the rope breaks. a good lariat will withstand the friction, heating and stretching that it is subjected to in charrería events. the quality and lifetime of a rope are dependent on the material it is made of and the process of making it, maintenance, the event it is used for, and humidity and moisture levels. a rope will last a charro between four months to four years with the average being one year. charros attribute the quality of a lariat to the material (ixtle) and the process by which it is made. a rope’s propensity to dry out, and therefore to weaken and crack or break, is considered to result from the spinning technique and the length of the fibers. if resistant yarns of uniform thickness are formed in the rope-making process, the rope will be more durable. for this reason, the shorter fibers of other agaves such as sisal, henequen, and lechuguilla are not suitable. rope artisans sign their work by an industrial color; during the process the first meter of the rope is dyed in a pattern using yellow, red or black, or a combination of colors. the price of a rope depends on its quality, length, and the process used to make it varying from 125 to 250 us dollars. the demand for charro ropes was estimated conservatively from the number of ropes used per year per team in a national championship competition. in one year, there are an average of 150 charrería teams, and twenty ropes per team, hence a demand of 3000 ropes in four years and an annual demand of 750 ropes. there are no recorded data for this industry, but using our information, we assume a total annual value of 112,500 us dollars (150 usd per unit). according to the charros we interviewed, the best ropes in mexico are crafted in san miguel cuyutlán, and the second-best are those made in coatepec harinas. charro associations in jalisco appraise the ropes from different regions of mexico as follows:  ropes tend to be too dry and do not last long (oaxaca and northern mexico)  ropes are not tight enough and deform with use (central mexico).  coatepec harinas ropes are heavier and tend to lose their form. in summary, the quality of the fiber and the local expertise in san miguel cuyutlán of hand spinning and ethnobiology letters research communication 79 other traditional knowledge are what make this rope the best. discussion and conclusion although much has been written about charrería and charro culture, little is known about the handicrafts associated with these traditions. even less is known about the role of agave inaequidens as a source of charro rope raw material or the factors that explain the recent decrease of its population. this study fills in some of these gaps by documenting the local use and cultural and economic value of a. inaequidens in san miguel cuyutlán and by addressing the possible causes of the decrease in the wild population. to understand the importance of fiber from wild agaves, we examined the regional cluster of rope making in charrería and the traditional knowledge which is widely recognized as an important part of mexico’s cultural heritage. as our interviews illustrate, rope artisans value their heritage and recognize the importance of the traditional knowledge that they zealously maintain with the unwritten details of the process. one unresolved matter that concerns the craftsmen is the safety of their intellectual property, and the possibility that their skills might eventually be adopted in china, which could undermine the already tenuous sustainable circumstances of their trade. many of the artisans stated that they were interested in registering a collective trademark, but they could not afford the fees associated with such an undertaking. other concerns included the high rate of emigration to the united states, which resulted in fewer young men entering the seasonal rope crafting profession as apprentices. rope crafting not only provides added income in the dry season when the demand for farm labor is low in the region, but also helps the men maintain their roots in the region. we also found that, a. salmiana fibers from central mexico were not a good quality substitute for a. inaequidens fibers from the cerro viejo mountains. during the 2008-2009 global financial crisis, the demand for lariats decreased slightly. as a consequence, pressure on the local agave population did not increase, but concerns about the supply continued, as dependence on raw materials from outside of cerro viejo remained consistent. the lariat artisans were adamant that partial substitution for local fibers has a limit. too great a proportion of non-local fiber will decrease the overall quality of their lariats. in the long run, this could have a negative effect on their reputation and on the price of the ropes. the traditional knowledge held by agave fiber harvesters could be used to set community standards which might lead to local environmental governance as a first step towards a sustainable management plan. a similar route has been taken in the south of mexico with a. cupreata mezcal production, where the model looks toward reforestation and not commercial plantations (larson, valenzuela-zapata, and illsley 2007). we suggest that systematized work with stakeholders is needed to solve the overexploitation problem. the training and bringing together of the various social actors should integrate traditional ecological knowledge to promote sustainable extraction. in addition, development agreements with charrería associations should be fostered by local governments, and more research is needed to better understand the potential for other collaborative projects. specifically, more technical studies are needed in demographic, biological, ecological, hydrological, ethno-ecological areas of analysis, and on the potential use of intellectual property initiatives for rural artisans. finally, interdisciplinary researchers should engage in more rural, participative, communal studies to gain greater insight into what the artisans and other stakeholders see as the problems affecting their environment instead of first turning to biotechnological solution tools that tend to reduce biological diversity with in vitro plantations (personal communication, dr. juan florencio gómez 2010). acknowledgements this study was made possible by the valuable information provided by the ixtleros, rope crafters, and charros of jalisco and the state of mexico. we would like to thank cynthia fowler and gwyn fisher for their translation assistance. we are also grateful for the critical feedback from the anonymous referees and the valuable comments from dr. alejandro de avila. references cited dean, frank and rodriguez ignacio, 2003. trick and fancy roping in the charro style. wild west arts club, las vegas, nv. garcía-mendoza, a. 2002. distribution of the genus agave (agavaceae) and this endemic species in mexico. cactus and succulent journal 74:177-187. garcía-mendoza, a. 2004. agavaceas. in biodiversidad de oaxaca. instituto de biología, edited by j. garcía, abisaí, m. j. ordoñez and m. briones-salas, pp. 159– 169. unam-fundo oaxaqueño para la conservacion de la naturaleza-world wildlife fund, mexico. garcia-moya e. and c. ayala-sosa. 2007. la lechuguilla: del rescate de un recurso? in lo ethnobiology letters research communication 80 ancestral hay futuro: del tequila, los mezcales y otros agaves, edited by s. p. colunga-garcía marín, luis eguiarte, a. larqué-saavedra and d. zizumbovillarreal, pp. 355–365. cicy, mérida, yucatán, méxico. gonzález, v. l. m. 1986. contribución al conocimiento del género quercus (fagaceae) en el estado de jalisco. colección flora de jalisco, universidad de guadalajara, mexico. gentry, h. s. 1982. agaves of continental north america. university of arizona press, tucson. islas escárcega, leovilgildo. 1992. diccionario y refranero charro. edamex, méxico. larson, j., a. g. valenzuela-zapata, and c. illsley. 2007. del whisky escocés al mezcal: diferenciación y etiquetado, desarrollo y conservación. in lo ancestral hay futuro: del tequila, los mezcales y otros agaves, edited by s. p. colunga-garcía marín, luis eguiarte, a. larqué-saavedr,a and d. zizumbovillarreal, pp. 213–228. cicy, mérida, yucatán, méxico. lecompte, m.l. 1985. the hispanic influence on the history of the rodeo, 1823-1922. journal of sport history 12(1):21-38. nájera-ramírez, o. 1994. engendering nationalism: identity, discourse, and the mexican charro. anthropological quarterly 67(1):1-14. nobel, p. s. 2010. desert wisdom/agaves and cacti: co2, water, climate change. iuniverse, inc., new york. palomar verea, c. 2004. el papel de la charrería como fenómeno cultural en la construcción del occidente de méxico. revista eruopea de estudios latinomericanos y del caribe. available at http://www.cedla.uva.nl/50_publications/pdf/revista/ 76revistaeuropea/76palomar.pdf. accessed on june 21, 2011. reyes-agüero, j. a., r. j. r. aguirre, and b. peña. 2000. aprovechamiento de agave lechuguilla torrey. boletin de la sociedad botanica de mexico 67:75-88. saumade, frédéric 2008. maçatl. les transformations mexicaines des jeux taurins. presses universitaires de bordeaux, france. valenzuela, z. a g. 2011. a new agenda for blue agave landraces: food, energy and tequila. gcb bionergy 3(1):15–24. valenzuela, z. a g. and g. p. nabhan. 2004. tequila. a natural and cultural history. university of arizona press, tucson. valenzuela, z. a. g., a. regalado, m. mizoguchi. 2008. influencia asiática en la producción de mezcal en la costa de jalisco. el caso de la raicilla. méxico y la cuenca del pacífico 11(32):81–116. vázquezgarcía, j. a. et al. 2007. taxonomía del género agave en el occidente de méxico: una panorámica preliminar. in los agaves del occidente de méxico, edited by j. a. vázquez-garcía, m.j. cházaro, g. hernández, v. e. flores, and y. l. vargas-rodriguez, pp. 38–82. universidad de guadalajara cucba-cucsh, mexico. yetman, d. and t. r. van devender. 2002. mayo ethnobotany: land, history, and traditional knowledge in northwest mexico. university of california press, berkeley. biosketches ana g. valenzuela zapata is professor at university of guadalajara cucienega and signo tequila president charged in agave landraces conservation. irma lópez muraira is professor at instituto tecnológico de tlajomulco in jalisco. marie sarita gaytan is an assistant professor sociology and gender studies at the university of utah. 1 we will have more information in six years (2017) when the first plants are ready for harvest. 2 approximately 40 high quality video segments are now available for public viewing on youtube. 3 for this paper we assume it is the same species, however we cannot be sure if there are actually two subspecies without further studies and flowering samples. that is, all we can state scientifically is that there may be two subspecies or intraspecific categories; however it could merely be a symptom of the domestication of plants selected from the same species. 4 tripping of horses has been voluntarily banned by official charro organizations since 1995. if a charro pulls the rope in an attempt to trip the horse, he is expelled for one year and fined $350 dollars. the individual is also subject to state laws and regulations where the practice is illegal. ranking tool created for medicinal plants at risk of being overharvested in the wild   research communica on  ethnobiology le ers. 2014. 5: 77‐88. doi: 10.14237/ebl.5.2014.169. 77 mation about plant populations was unavailable, the organization deliberately chose to be conservative in their assessments and include species on the list (gladstar 2000). plants for which multiple species may be harvested and sold under the same common name (e.g. “echinacea” or “eyebright”) were scored collectively as a genus. as of december 2012, the united plant savers at-risk list included 14 species and 7 genera, while the to-watch list included 17 species and 5 genera. the at-risk and to-watch lists immediately filled a unique role in plant conservation. many other agencies have created lists: the federal endangered species act works to protect the very rarest of species; natureserve provides a standard ranking system used by all us states to score plant species based on rarity and abundance; and the convention on international trade in endangered species (cites) regulates international trade in threatened species. none of these other lists, however, considers issues specific to medicinal plants, including market forces and method of harvest. the at-risk and towatch lists were therefore widely disseminated and used by different audiences. governmental agencies, introduction competing interests for land use, a growing human population, and a growing herbal products industry place pressure on populations of wild-harvested medicinal plants. as a reaction to these growing threats, the united plant savers (ups) formed in 1995 with a mission to “protect native medicinal plants of the united states and canada and their native habitats while ensuring an abundant supply of medicinal plants for generations for come” (ups 2013). one step towards accomplishing this mission was to create lists of medicinal plant species deemed most vulnerable to over-harvest (“at-risk”) and those less vulnerable but still of great concern (“to-watch”). first officially published in 2000 as part of the united plant savers’ planting the future book (gladstar and hirsch), the at-risk and to-watch lists were developed following a long series of discussions that included input from herbalists, ecologists, land managers and herb growers. the listed plants were considered to be sensitive to human activity based on market analysis, habitat specificity, impacts of harvest, and lack of techniques or material for large scale cultivation (gladstar 2000). where scientific inforranking tool created for medicinal plants at risk of being  overharvested in the wild  lisa marie castle1*, susan leopold2, rachel cra 3, kelly kindscher3  author address: 1southwestern oklahoma state university, department of biological sciences, 100 campus drive, weather‐ ford,  ok  73096  2united  plant  savers,  po  box  776,  athens,  oh  45701,  3kansas  biological  survey,  2101  constant  ave.,  lawrence, ks 66047  *corresponding author: lisa.castle@swosu.edu   received: september 26, 2013  volume 5:77‐88  published: may 30, 2014  © 2014 society of ethnobiology  abstract: we developed an adaptable, transparent tool that can be used to quan fy and compare vulnerability to overharvest for wild collected medicinal plants. subsequently, we are crea ng a list of the most threatened medicinal plants in temperate north america. the new tool scores species according to their life history, the effects of harvest, their abundance and range, habitat, and demand. the resul ng rankings, based on explicit criteria rather than expert opinion, will make it easier to discuss areas of vulnerability and set conserva on priori es. here we present scores for 40 species assessed using the at-risk tool and discuss the traits that led to different scores for six example species: echinacea (echinacea angus folia  dc. asteraceae), peyote (lophophora williamsii  (lem. ex salm-dyck) j.m. coult. cactaceae), sandalwood (santalum spp. l. santalaceae), s nging ne le (ur ca  dioica l. ur caceae), american ginseng (panax  quinquefolius  l. araliaceae) and mayapple (podophyllum peltatum l. berberidaceae).  keywords: medicinal plants, sustainable harvest, plant conserva on    research communica on  ethnobiology le ers. 2014. 5: 77‐88. doi: 10.14237/ebl.5.2014.169. 78 conservation organizations, popular media, herb sellers and growers, consumers, and herbalists have all referred to the ups lists (cech 1998, westfall and glickman 2004, mccoy et al. 2007, roberson 2008). as use of the lists has expanded, so has recognition of their limitations. despite a stated desire for the lists to be continuously reviewed and for species to be removed from the lists as the threat of over-harvest is reduced (gladstar 2000), the difficulties of including input from so many stakeholders made the lists effectively static. neither additional plants nor additional information could be easily added. without publicly available criteria, inclusion on the at-risk list did not provide any information about the factors causing a species to be vulnerable, information about areas of greatest conservation concern, or means of comparing one species to another. working with the united plant savers, we set out to create a tool to answer these criticisms and better aid in setting conservation priorities for wildharvested medicinal plants. our primary goal was to create a tool that: 1) meets the needs of the diverse users of the united plant savers lists, 2) leads to numerical scores of vulnerability to over-harvest that are comparable across species, 3) is based on explicit, science-based criteria, and 4) is transparent and adaptable such that new information or new plants can be added at any time. our second goal was to use the assessment tool to score plants and use the numerical scores to inform updates to the at-risk and to-watch lists. materials and methods creation of the assessment tool the format of the assessment tool was patterned after the blue oceans group’s seafood mini guides (brownstein et al. 2003). as with susceptibility of seafood to over-fishing, vulnerability to over-harvest depends on many different factors, from intrinsic life history traits to market forces. based on literature, logic, and discussions with conservation practitioners, five main factors that influence a species’ vulnerability to overharvest were determined: life history, effect of harvest on individual plants, population size, habitat, and demand (peters 1994, cunningham 2001, schippmann et al. 2002, schippmann et al. 2006). while it was recognized that each of these factors is important, it was impossible to quantify their relative importance, so like the seafood assessment or rabinowitz’s “seven forms of rarity” (1981), we considered each factor equally. the at-risk assessment tool is divided into five sections based on these factors. each section begins with a broad multiple choice question that leads to a score of 4 to 12 points, which is then modified by three to five questions that can add or subtract up to two points each. the range for point values was selected for ease of use with integer values and whole number totals. absolute magnitude of the scores is not meaningful outside of the context of the tool. the complete list of main and modifying questions and their associate point values can be found on the at-risk assessment tool in appendix a. a species’ score is the sum of all the section scores and the higher the point total, the more vulnerable the plant species is to overexploitation. the questions in each section are discussed below. life history section this group of questions assesses how quickly a plant can grow and spread. for example, a long-lived perennial that is destructively killed when harvested will score 12 points for life history, while a harvested annual will score only 4. vegetative reproduction in the wild will decrease this score, and the necessity of a specialist pollinator will increase it. effect of harvest on individuals section this group of questions will produce higher scores for plant species that are root harvested rather than those for which the leaves are used. re-sprouting or quick recovery will decrease this score and a long harvest season (thus being open to year round exploitation) will increase it. population size section these questions’ scores will primarily be determined by the extent and density of naturally occurring populations. the size of the range and habitat specificity modify this section score. habitat section the main question in this section is about the vulnerability and extent of a plant species’ habitat. habitats that are both limited and specifically threatened score 12 points, and habitats that are widespread and no more threatened than all natural areas score 4. modifying questions concern fragmentation, soil type, and particular habitat threats (e.g. urbanization, logging, invasive species).   research communica on  ethnobiology le ers. 2014. 5: 77‐88. doi: 10.14237/ebl.5.2014.169. 79 demand section these questions’ scores will primarily be determined by the annual demand for wild harvested plant product. availability of widely accepted substitutes and ease of cultivation will decrease this score, while unique uses and failed past attempts at cultivation will increase it. the process of refining the list of questions was collaborative and iterative. at each stage, plant ecologists and medicinal herbs specialists were asked to independently score plant species. areas where scores were most divergent were noted and discussions ensued about whether the differences were due to incomplete information or different interpretations of the questions. after several rounds of scoring and discussion, a committee of 14 met in person in july 2005 for an at-risk tool review meeting at herbpharm in williams, oregon. at this time, we placed quantitative bounds on question responses (e.g. that high demand is more than 10 tons dry weight collected annually in the united states, or that a large range extends more than 300 miles) and questions for which the answers are unknown for most species (e.g. seed bank details, or how disturbance affects reproductive output) were removed from the tool. we recognized that one of the weaknesses of the tool is that good data on the actual number of plants, seed produced, and other reproductive characteristics do not exist for most species of medicinal plants. selection of species and scoring all of the taxa on the united plant savers at-risk or to-watch lists as of october 2012 were scored using the tool. stinging nettle (urtica dioica l. urticaceae) and elderberry (sambucus canadensis l. caprifoliaceae) were also scored because we wanted to include species that likely (and did) have low scores because they were not at risk. each species was independently assessed by at least three scorers who work in the field of plant ecology. many species were also assessed by undergraduate students in plant science classes at glenville state college and southwestern oklahoma state university as part of an assignment investigating medicinal plants and internet information retrieval. to assess a species, the scorer enters the point value for each main and modifying question on a score sheet. the score sheet also contains a space for the scorer to enter a note about the relevant knowledge for that question and a space to identify the source of that knowledge. where possible, scorers relied on primary and well-documented secondary source information including the north carolina consortium on natural medicines grower’s guides, the usda plants database and the american herbal products association tonnage reports (greenfield and davis 2004, usda, nrcs 2013, dentali and zimmerman 2012). where better-documented data were unavailable, plant information was also gleaned from web pages of wildcrafters, retail herbal companies, and home gardeners. “master scores” for each species were assigned by kindscher or castle. to do this, all of the independent score sheets were compiled and a score for each question was assigned based on the consensus responses from the individual score sheets or from reconciling differences based on source data. results scores on the 40 species assessed ranged from a low (least vulnerable to overharvest) of 8 for nettles (u. dioca) to a high (most vulnerable to overharvest) of 75 for sandalwood (santalum paniculatum hook & arn. santalaceae and related species) (figure 1). the most vulnerable species scored, including sandalwood, had high scores in all five areas assessed. many species on the original at-risk list had high scores for several categories, but not for all, which highlights different areas of greatest concern for different species. collectively, those species on the 2012 at-risk list had higher average scores than those on the 2012 to-watch list and those on the to-watch list had higher average scores than the species assessed that were not listed by united plant savers. many individual species from the 2012 to-watch list, however, scored higher than some individual species originally deemed at-risk, which indicates a need to examine the dividing line between at-risk and to-watch. discussion case studies of species on the at-risk list the following case studies present a range of species that were scored with the ranking tool. 1) eastern deciduous perennials: american ginseng (panax quinquefolius l. araliaceae), score of 63, and mayapple (podophyllum peltatum l. berberidaceae), score of 34 many of the species on the original at-risk list are herbaceous perennials from the understory of the deciduous forest in the eastern united states and canada. most of these species are long-lived and harvested for root or rhizome use (klein 2000), giving   research communica on  ethnobiology le ers. 2014. 5: 77‐88. doi: 10.14237/ebl.5.2014.169. 80 them high scores for the main questions in life history and effects of harvest on individuals, yet the overall scores can be quite different. comparing mayapple (overall score of 34) with american ginseng (overall score of 63) highlights the areas in which two perennial species from the same woodlands can differ. mayapples can thrive along roadsides, spread rhizomatously, and are easy to grow in a garden setting, decreasing their life history score compared with disturbance intolerant ginseng. while both species have a naturally wide range, covering hundreds of kilometers, ginseng patches are much less dense and more difficult to find than mayapple patches. adverse effects of the plant-killing harvest on population size and structure in ginseng populations have been documented (mcgraw 2001, mooney and mcgraw 2009, rock et al. 2012), thereby increasing the relative vulnerability of ginseng to overharvest. both mayapple and ginseng live in a habitat of fairly stable size that is threatened by invasive species, overgrazing by deer, and expanded human development. impacts of these habitat changes on ginseng populations have been studied and documented (mcgraw and furedi 2005, wixted and mcgraw 2010). mayapple populations, frequently visible from roadsides, appear less disturbed by these habitat changes; but, as with most medicinal plant species, effects of habitat changes on the populations have not been directly studied. demand for ginseng remains high and, although cultivation is possible, wild-harvested roots continue   0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 u rt ic a  d io ca  ( o th )  8 sa m b u cu s  ca n ad en si s  (o th )  1 9 m it ch e lla  r ep en s  (t w )  2 7 p o d o p h yl lu m  p e lt at u m  ( tw )  3 4 u lm u s  ru b ra  ( a tr )  3 4 sp ig e lia  m ar ila n d ic a  (t w )  3 5 c as te la  e m o ry i ( tw )  3 9 c h im ap h ila  u m b el la ta  ( tw )  4 0 a ct ae a  ra ce m o sa  ( a tr )  4 0 eu p h ra si a  sp p . ( a tr )  4 0 a n em o p si s  ca lif o rn ic a  (t w )  4 1 a sc le p ia s  tu b e ro sa  ( tw )  4 1 c o lli n so n ia  c an ad e n si s  (t w )  4 1 d io sc o re a  vi llo sa  ( a tr )  4 1 b ap ti si a  ti n ct o ri a  (t w )  4 2 b u rs er a  m ic ro p h yl la  ( tw )  4 4 ec h in ac ea  a n gu st if o lia  ( a tr )  4 4 c au lo p h yl lu m  t h al ic tr o id es  ( a tr )  4 5 a le tr is  f ar in o sa  ( a tr )  4 6 tr ill iu m  s p p . ( a tr )  4 6 a ri st o lo ch ia  s e rp en ta ri a  (a tr )  4 7 sa n gu in ar ia  c an ad e n si s  (a tr )  4 7 li gu st ic u m  p o rt er i ( a tr )  4 8 ep ip ac ti s  gi ga n te a  (t w )  4 9 sa lv ia  a p ia n a  (t w )  4 9 c h am ae lir iu m  lu te u m  ( a tr )  4 9 lo p h o p h o ra  w ill ia m si i ( a tr )  4 9 h yd ra st is  c an ad e n si s  (a tr )  5 0 lo m at iu m  d is se ct u m  ( a tr )  5 0 a lli u m  t ri co cc u m  ( o th )  5 0 d ic en tr a  ca n ad e n si s  (t w )  5 1 fr an gu la  p u rs h ia n a  (t w )  5 1 a d ia n tu m  p ed at u m  ( tw )  5 2 a ra lia  r ac e m o sa  ( tw )  5 3 d ro se ra  s p p . ( a tr )  5 8 d io n ae a  m u sc ip u la  ( a tr )  6 1 p an ax  q u in q u ef o liu s  (a tr )  6 3 c yp ri p ed iu m  s p p . ( a tr )  6 6 p ip er  m et h ys ti cu m  ( tw )  6 8 sa n ta lu m  s p p . ( a tr )  7 5 life history effects of harvest population size habitat demand figure 1. scores of species and genera scored using the at‐risk tool. parentheses indicate previous lis ng by the united  plant savers (as of december 2012) as at‐risk (atr), to‐watch (tw) or unlisted (“other”, otr). colored regions indicate  magnitude of the subscores for life history, effects of harvest on individuals and popula ons, popula on size, habitat, and  demand.    research communica on  ethnobiology le ers. 2014. 5: 77‐88. doi: 10.14237/ebl.5.2014.169. 81 to sell at a considerable premium (hankins 1998, chamberlin et al. 2013). the demand for mayapple, meanwhile, is low: a recent internet search found many more retailers selling plants for ornamental garden use than selling medicinal mayapple products in any form. while no long-lived perennial harvested for roots or rhizomes is invulnerable to overharvest, mayapple exhibits traits that make it considerably less vulnerable than american ginseng. 2) nettle (urtica dioica), score of 8 stinging nettles is a well-known herb that is common in moist soil and waste places. its low score suggests it is not at risk of over-harvest and it exemplifies many of the traits of species for which wild harvest is not currently of conservation concern. it is a perennial that reproduces the first year from seed, spreads by rhizomes, and is almost invasive. as only the leaves and stems are generally collected, harvest does not impact the population much. a nettle patch can be harvested more than once per year, and certainly every year as it re-grows easily. the plant is naturally abundant with a large range and many dense populations that appear to be stable, and painful to harvest, across its range. its specific habitat is not threatened and there are large areas of low, moist waste ground along creeks and streams. finally, although the annual demand for nettles is moderate, the plant is high yielding and can easily be cultivated. overall this plant is not at risk for being over-harvested. 3) sandalwood (santalum spp.), score of 75 native hawaiian sandalwood is vulnerable to overharvest and possibly at risk of extinction due to the fact that it takes more than 40 years to mature, and harvesting involves removing the entire tree. furthermore the sandalwood tree is a hemi-parasite species that needs certain host plants in order to grow, making it a tricky species to reforest successfully. sandalwood’s extraordinary fragrance, versatility, and medicinal properties have put it in high demand for centuries, all over the world. this is why hawaii’s native sandalwood population was almost completely decimated during the infamous sandalwood trade that took place during 1815-1825. despite this history, hawaii remains the only region in the world where sandalwood is commercially harvested without regulation. native hawaiian sandalwood represents a quarter of the diversity of the genus santalum. six separate species are found throughout the hawaiian islands, and within these species are several unique varieties, all endemic to the islands. one variety, santalum freycinetianum var. lanaiense rock, has already been officially recognized as endangered (usda, nrcs 2013). currently, s. paniculatum is the only species that is currently commercially harvested on the big island (tummons 2010). sandalwood was placed on the ups at-risk list by a board vote in 2011. after hearing concerns about exploitation of sandalwood in hawaii, ups members scored the plant using a draft version of the tool, and then came to the consensus decision to add sandalwood to the at-risk list. it is the only taxon that has been added to the list after being scored with the tool. sandalwood has a high life history score as it is a long-lived tree that does not reproduce easily. it scored high on effects of harvest on populations because the entire plant is harvested, many plants do not re-grow, and for those that do, they are slow growing. it scored very high in abundance and range, which are both very limited due to limited habitats on an island. the habitat of native sandalwood is both scarce and threatened. finally, sandalwood scores high in demand because there is a large market for the volatile oil and no commercial cultivation exists in the us. overall, sandalwood, with a score of 75, exemplifies all of the traits of a plant species at great risk of being over-harvested. 4) echinacea (echinacea angustifolia dc. asteraceae), score of 44 the echinacea genus in north america includes nine species with very different ranges and medicinal use patterns. the most popular medicinal echinacea is e. angustifolia, which is primarily harvested in the wild (price and kindscher 2007; kindscher et al. 2008). also in the genus are echinacea purpurea (l.) moench, which is widely cultivated, and two species that have been listed as threatened or endangered (e. sanguinea nutt. and e. tennesseensis (beadle) small). to clarify assessment, we are considering echinacea species separately, rather than as a collective genus as originally listed on the at-risk list. we have scored only e. angustifolia here, but caution that e. sanguinea and e. tennesseensis, because of their small population sizes and limited ranges, are species more vulnerable to overharvest. the life history score for e. angustifolia is low to moderate because, although it is a long-lived perennial, it tolerates disturbance, produces lots of seeds, and most interesting, half of the harvested plants are able   research communica on  ethnobiology le ers. 2014. 5: 77‐88. doi: 10.14237/ebl.5.2014.169. 82 to re-sprout after the top 6-10 inches (15-25 cm) of root is harvested (kindscher et al. 2008). the score for “effects of harvest” is high because roots are harvested (which can kill the plant), it takes years for plants to be large enough to harvest, harvest is conducted nearly year-round, and, when recovery from harvest occurs, it takes several years for the roots to be large enough for harvest again. the abundance and range score is very low because many scattered populations exist over a large range of great plains states and e. angustifolia can grow in many broad habitats, although some populations have been decreasing due to grazing, herbicide use, and other land management practices. the habitat vulnerability score is moderately low as the rocky prairie habitat is widespread and not particularly threatened. since the great plowing of prairies occurred, habitats have remained generally available with no special threats, and the plants do not require any unique soil type. the demand score is moderately high as market demand is high, but yield per acre is moderate, and cultivated sources are known and available. overall, e. angustifolia, with a score of 44, has only a moderate risk of being over-harvested. 5) peyote (lophophora williamsii, (lem. ex salmdyck) j.m. coult. cactaceae) , score of 49 l. williamsii, or peyote, is an unusual medicinal plant as it is not legal for most people to harvest or possess it, yet it is a central part of a native american sacrament. there is considerable concern about the over-harvest of this plant due to its limited range, the tightening of trade across the mexican border, and the growth of the native american church (terry et al. 2011). peyote scores high on life history as it is a longlived cactus that produces slowly, but it does vegetatively propagate and tolerate some disturbance. it also scores high on the effects of harvest because either crowns or whole plants are collected and the harvest season is very long. when the crowns are harvested, regrowth takes at least four years (terry, personal communication january 2013; terry et al., 2011). as for abundance and range, it has a moderately high score as populations are not dense, most of the large range is in mexico and inaccessible to us harvesters, and population declines have been documented. peyote’s main habitat score is fairly low, as its habitat is widespread and has not changed greatly over the last decades. modifying questions increase this section score because the plant is only found on calcareous soil and the habitat is threatened by invasive species and development. the highly regulated market keeps legal demand low, but the demand section score is increased because the yield per acre is less than 10 pounds, no substitutes are acceptable, and it is not currently commercially cultivated. conclusions: applications and limitations we believe that the at-risk tool can be a useful method of summarizing a plant species’ vulnerability to over-exploitation and will be helpful for setting conservation priorities. the tool does not provide a clear numerical cut-off between species that warrant protection and species that can be harvested without concern. it does, however, provide a snapshot of relative vulnerability based on magnitude of total score, and a quick synopsis of areas of greatest concern based on the subscores. additional influences on vulnerability and missing information we recognize that other factors not included in the tool may influence a species’ vulnerability and these circumstances will require broader discussion. we also recognize that the information on plant populations, habitats, and demand, that are required to use the tool, are not always well documented and are rarely available in the same form across species. while this lack of consistent baseline data highlights a limitation of the tool, it also demonstrates an important secondary function of the tool: use of the tool requires a compilation of available information into one place and draws attention to areas where data is entirely lacking. such gaps in knowledge can be the starting point for future studies, and use of the tool brings them to light. an important attribute of the tool is that it is adaptable to new information and that scores can be easily updated or generated as new information is learned or conditions change. using scores and the at-risk tool we are hopeful that, like the original at-risk and towatch lists, the new scores will be used by a wide range of audiences, from land management organizations setting conservation priorities to herbalists recommending appropriate alternatives to the most vulnerable herbs. the availability of subscores for each area should aid in planning and decision-making. for example, even though they both score 49, different strategies should be employed to protect white sage (salvia apiana jeps. lamiaceae), which has a highly threatened habitat in the southern california desert and moderate demand for leaves, than to   research communica on  ethnobiology le ers. 2014. 5: 77‐88. doi: 10.14237/ebl.5.2014.169. 83 protect the stream orchid (epipactis gigantea douglas ex. hook. orchidaceae), which has low demand but an inherently more vulnerable life history, being a water-loving perennial orchid. the tool can be used to quickly model how potential changes might affect a species’ vulnerability. if a plant were determined next year to be the next viagra, only better, then the at-risk tool could be used to determine to what degree we should be concerned about its potential overharvest. it can also be used to project effects of changes in range and habitat due to climate change, invasive species or urban expansion. opportunities for expansion one current limitation of use of the tool is small sample size of plants scored. scores would be of greater value if they could be compared to scores from a broader sample of medicinal plants. we heartily encourage others interested and knowledgeable about medicinal plants in north america to assess plants using the at-risk tool and submit the results and comments to the united plant savers. while designed for wild-harvested medicinal plants in temperate north america, the questions on the at-risk tool can apply to many other groups of plants and regions with only slight modifications to questions. the tool can also serve as a dynamic teaching instrument for students and the general public who are concerned about wild plant populations. as use of the at-risk tool expands to other species and other regions, we anticipate productive discussions for adjustments to provide scores that will best inform practitioners working with the goal of sustainable plant populations. acknowledgements there are many people who have helped with developing this tool. the at-risk list was developed by the united plant savers, and their staff and board over the years have been instrumental in maintaining and promoting the list. the current board also requested that we work on this tool and provided some funds for its development. among those on the board and staff, advisory board, and others who have helped, are: beth baugh, tim blakely, david bunting, richo cech, jim chamberlain, trish flaster, edward fletcher, steven foster, cascade anderson geller, rosemary gladstar, mindy green, christopher hobbs, gary kauffman, sara katz, lynda lemole, michael mcguffin, and mark wheeler. hillary loring, quinn long, jennifer moody, and students from glenville state college 2007 and 2009 botany classes and southwestern oklahoma state university 2012 plant taxonomy all scored individual plant species. zella classen assisted with data management and fact checking. declarations permissions: none declared. sources of funding: the united plant savers provided funds to kindscher, castle, and their students to meet, print posters, and complete the project. conflicts of interest: susan leopold is employed by the united plant savers. references cited brownstein, c., m. lee, and c. safina. 2003. harnessing consumer power for ocean conservation. conservation magazine 4:39-42. cech, r. a. 1998. balancing conservation with utilization: restoring populations of commercially valuable medicinal herbs in forests and agroforests. paper presented at the north american conference on enterprise development through agroforestry. minneapolis, mn, october 4-7. chamberlain, j. l., s. prisley, and m. mcguffin. 2013. understanding the relationships between american ginseng harvest and hardwood forests inventory and timber harvest to improve co-management of the forests of eastern united states. journal of sustainable forestry (in press). cunningham a. b. 2001. applied ethnobotany: people, wild plant use, and conservation. earthscan publications, london, uk. dentali, s. and m. zimmermann. 2012. tonnage surveys of select north american wild-harvested plants, 2006-2010. american herbal products association. silver springs, md. gladstar, r. 2000. introduction. pp. 1-12 in planting the future, edited by r. gladstar and p. hirsch. healing arts press, rochester, vt. gladstar, r. and p. hirsch. 2000. planting the future. healing arts press, rochester, vt. 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agriculture, fao, rome. terry, m., k. trout, b. williams, t. herrera, and n. fowler. 2011. limitations to natural production of lophophora williamsii (cactaceae) i. regrowth and survivorship two years post harvest in a south texas population. journal of the botantical research institute of texas 5:661−675. tummons, p. 2010. dispute over hokukano sandalwood logging ends up before federal bankruptcy judge. environment hawaii 21:1. westfall, r. e. and b. w. glickman. 2004. conservation of indigenous medicinal plants in canada. in proceedings of the species at risk 2004 pathways to recovery conference, edited by t. d. hooper. species at risk 2004 pathways to recovery organizing committee, victoria, b.c. ups. 2013. the united plant savers homepage (http://www.unitedplantsavers.org/, accessed 9 sept. 2013). east barre, vt, usa. usda, nrcs. 2013. the plants database (http://plants.usda.gov, accessed 1 july 2013).national plant data team, greensboro, nc 27401-4901 usa. wixted, k. l. and j. b. mcgraw. 2010. competitive and allelopathic effects of garlic mustard (alliaria petiolata) on american ginseng (panax quinquefolius). plant ecology 208:347-357. biosketch lisa marie castle  inves gates plant‐human  interac ons  and  teaches  as  an  assistant  professor  of  biology  at  southwestern oklahoma state university.     research communica on  ethnobiology le ers. 2014. 5: 77‐88. doi: 10.14237/ebl.5.2014.169. 85 susan  leopold  is  execu ve  director  of  united  plant  savers  and  serves  as  board  member  of  botanical  dimensions and the center for sustainable economy.   rachel  cra   is  a  phd  candidate  at  the  university  of  kansas,  department  of  sociology,  and  a  graduate  research assistant at the kansas biological survey.  kelly  kindscher  is  a  plant  ecologist  at  the  kansas  biological  survey  and  a professor  in  the environmental  studies program at the university of kansas.     research communica on  ethnobiology le ers. 2014. 5: 77‐88. doi: 10.14237/ebl.5.2014.169. 86 appendix a: united plant savers at‐risk assessment tool    i. life history: how vulnerable are plants based on their life history?     1. life span    +4  annual or biennial  (1‐2 years)          +4  perennial plant that is not destruc vely harvested    +8  short lived perennial  (2‐5 years)        +12  long lived perennial  (> 5 years)          1.1 age at first reproduc on   ‐2   1 or less    0  2 to 4                +2   5 or more                1.2 ability to withstand disturbance (e.g. ability to grow a er vegeta on and soil have been mowed, plowed, grazed or oth‐ erwise disturbed)    ‐2  thrives on disturbance (weedy or early succession species)      0  tolerates some disturbance or some types of disturbances      +2   intolerant (very conserva ve species)    1.3 ability to reproduce vegeta vely under normal condi ons   ‐2  reproduces vegeta vely regularly in the wild and from small parts of plant (includes suckers, runners, bulblets and  tubers)    0  occasionally reproduces vegeta vely in the wild  +2  rarely to never seen to reproduce vegeta vely in the wild        1.4 ability to reproduce from seed under normal condi ons   ‐2  seedlings regularly seen or easy to cul vate from seed    0  seedlings occasionally seen  +2  seedlings rarely to never seen    1.5 interac ons with other organisms required for growth and reproduc on (e.g. known obligatory mychorrhizal associa‐ ons, pollinator specificity, parasi sm)   ‐2  no special associa ons needed to grow it in places outside of natural range    0  not known                  +2  known limi ng associa ons     ii. effects of harvest on individuals and popula ons: how does harvest affect plants?    2. part of plant most commonly harvested    +4   harvest is of leaves and twigs only.    +8  harvest is of seeds, fruits, flowers, stem bark or off‐shoots.  +12   harvest is of roots, root bark or en re plant.    2.1 post‐harvest recovery of individual plants  ‐2  plants are able to reproduce normally the season following harvest.  ‐1  harvest limits the next season’s growth   0  at least some plants in a harvested popula on can re‐grow a er harvest, but re‐growth takes several growing sea‐ sons    +2  individual plants cannot re‐grow a er harvest    research communica on  ethnobiology le ers. 2014. 5: 77‐88. doi: 10.14237/ebl.5.2014.169. 87 2.2 harvest interval   ‐2  a plant can be harvested mul ple  mes in one year    0  1 to 2 years  +2   3 years or more     2.3 length of harvest season   ‐2  harvestable for one month or less    0  harvestable for 1 to 3 months  +2  harvestable for more than 3 months per year    iii. popula on size: how many plants are there?    3. is the plant naturally abundant?    +4  many dense popula ons exist.  (there are many popula ons in which someone could harvest all day in a very local  area.)    +6  a few dense popula ons exist and many more sca ered popula ons exist.  (there are a few popula ons in which  someone could harvest all day without moving and many in which one could harvest all day by moving across some  local acreage.)    +8  many sca ered popula ons exist.  (there are many places in which someone could harvest all day by driving to  several local patches.)  +10  few sca ered popula ons exist and many more sparse popula ons.  (there are a few places in which a harvester  could harvest all day moving around a bit, but most places the harvester would need to drive distances to harvest  all day.)  +12  popula ons are few and sparse.    3.1 range   ‐2  large (plant found across an area greater than 300 miles)    0  medium (plant found across an area 100 to 300 miles)    +2  small (plant found across an area less than 100 miles)    3.2 change in overall popula on size in primary harvest range   ‐2  popula on known to be increasing    0  popula on stable or status unknown  +2  declines in popula on size documented    3.3 degree of habitat specializa on   ‐2  can grow in roadsides, vacant lots or other disturbed areas    0  can grow in broad habitat categories (e.g. “eastern deciduous forest” or “great plains grassland”)  +2  can only grow in a very limited habitat (e.g. “moist acidic glades in eastern deciduous forest” or “limestone out‐ crops in tall‐grass prairie”)     iv. habitat: how vulnerable is the habitat?    4. how vulnerable is the plant’s physical habitat?    +4  habitat is widespread and no more threatened than all land areas.    +8  habitat is limited or specifically threatened  +12  habitat is limited and specifically threatened    4.1 habitat acreage change   ‐2  habitat acreage is expanding (e.g. forest edge, roadsides, “suburban savannas”)    0  habitat acreage unchanged or not drama cally reduced  +2  habitat acreage has been reduced by 50% or more over last 100 years.    research communica on  ethnobiology le ers. 2014. 5: 77‐88. doi: 10.14237/ebl.5.2014.169. 88 4.2 habitat fragmenta on   ‐2  large tracts of con nuous acres of habitat exist    0  habitat areas intermediate or unknown  +2  only very small habitat patches exist    4.3 confined to a limited or very vulnerable soil type    0  no              +2  yes (includes hydric or salty soils)      4.4 habitat threats  add 1 point for each of these habitat threats (to a maximum of 2 points)  logging expansion  rapid development  mining    over‐grazing  take‐over from invasive species  use land for recrea on growing rapidly     widespread regular herbicide use   vulnerability to disease  acid deposi on     fire suppression     v. how much is needed?: what is the demand?  are there alterna ves? can the plant be cul vated?    5  annual demand for wild harvested plant    +4  less than 1 ton dry weight    +8  1 to 10 tons dry weight  +12  more than 10 tons dry weight    5.1 yield per acre   ‐2  ten pounds or more    0  one to ten pounds  +2  less than one pound    5.2 availability of good subs tute to wild‐harvested plant   ‐2  subs tute known and widely accepted    0  subs tute known but not widely accepted as such      +2  no known subs tutes    5.3 cul va on and poten al for cul va on   ‐2  currently cul vated and commercially viable       ‐1  not commercially cul vated but cul va on on a commercial scale hor culturally achievable (plant material availa‐ ble, no special associa ons required)        0  growth on a commercial scale not easily achievable or economically viable (plant material not available or special  associa ons required)  +2  growth on a commercial scale probably not achievable (plant material not available and special associa ons re‐ quired)  to know them is to love them ethnobiology le ers. 2014. 5: 146‐150. doi: 10.14237/ebl.5.2014.297. 146 perspec ve  might better communicate to a broader audience the relevance of ethnobiology to the ecological and political crises that threaten us all today. i have no easy answers but a few reflections. cognitive ethnobiology was defined by theoretical issues of central concern in the 1960s, notably, how best to define “culture” as the proper subject of anthropological understanding. we hoped to devise a “theory of culture,” “culture” understood as a society’s “knowledge of the world.” cognitive ethnobiology traces an intellectual pedigree to an emerging “science of mind,” which had parallel contemporary elaborations in psychology and linguistics (gardner 1986). the recent “white house brain initiative: brain research through advancing innovative neurotechnologies,” initiated to explore the “new frontier” of the human mind, indicates that our interest in understanding the cognitive foundations of culture through ethnobiological classification was not misplaced. however, anthropology’s theoretical efforts since have been redirected, leaving the cognitive terrain to neurotechnology. the ecological issues that have dominated “to know, know, know him is to love, love, love him; just to see him smile makes my life worthwhile….” ‒phil spector this pop song by the teddy bears climbed to #1 on the billboard’s top 100 in september 1958, the lyric inspired by a tombstone epitaph (http:// en.wikipedia.org/wiki/to_know_him_is_to_love_him). i recalled the tune as i contemplated my assigned topic for this brief perspective piece: “cognitive ethnobiology and bio[cultural] diversity conservation.” how so? and what has love got to do with it? how are we to connect cognitive ethnobiology – what i have characterized in a previous essay as “ethnobiology ii” (hunn 2007), noted for its sometimes obsessive concern with nomenclature and classification – with an emergent ethnobiology v (wyndham et al. 2011; wolverton 2013), which would build on what we have learned through the previous four phases of ethnobiology in order to promote a more loving relationship between humanity and biodiversity? this question is relevant to the larger issue of how we to know them is to love them  eugene hunn  author address: department of anthropology, university of washington, sea le, wa, u.s.a.  email: enhunn323@comcast.net  received: december 10, 2014  volume: 5:146‐150  published: december 30, 2014  © 2014 society of ethnobiology  abstract:  i connect the theore cal emphasis that mo vated the cogni ve ethnobiology of the 1960s and early 1970s with the contemporary emphasis on promo ng ethnobiology as contribu ng to biodiversity conserva on. i use the words of a popular song to highlight the necessary, if problema c, links between knowing nature – the focus of cogni ve ethnobiology, loving nature, and ac ng to conserve nature. i argue that a highly elaborated knowledge of the living things in one’s local environment is characteris c of indigenous and other deeply rooted communi es, which are dependent on sustainable harvests of local natural resources. furthermore, this extensive knowledge goes hand in hand with a deep emo onal engagement with those species (“love”), which is in turn powerful mo va on to treat those species with respect, absent dominance of profit mo ves. i suggest in conclusion that ethnobiology may best contribute to biodiversity conserva on by documen ng the detailed knowledge of and cultural apprecia on for biodiversity evident in such rooted communi es – an effort that has defined the ethnobiological project for over the past half century. the wider community of ac vists dedicated to biodiversity conserva on may thus be er know and thus appreciate – respect, if not “love” – those who live with and depend for their livelihood on this biodiversity. keywords:  ethnobiology, conserva on biology, classifica on and nomenclature, knowledge and emo on, applied  ethnobiology   ethnobiology le ers. 2014. 5: 146‐150. doi: 10.14237/ebl.5.2014.297. 147 perspec ve  subsequent phases of ethnobiological investigation were below the theoretical horizon during my grad school days. while we turned our attention inward to the “mind,” we were not unaware of the essential fact that knowledge of the world derives from an engagement with the world outside the mind. we reasoned that words named ideas, that ideas were the grist for thought, and that thought was the foundation for action (d’andrade 1995). thus, to understand how people related to their natural environment it would first be essential to understand how people conceptualized that environment, to appreciate their traditional or local environmental knowledge (tek or lek, traditional/local environmental/ecological knowledge), made manifest in language. in this we affirmed the conclusion of eminent biologists, who argued likewise that the systematic naming and classification of the world’s biological species was prerequisite to any proper investigation of the evolutionary and ecological relationships among those species (simpson 1961). knowledge, however, is no simple reflection of the surfaces of the world but rather involves an implicit and likely innate “theory of nature.” language, notably encapsulated in vocabulary, provides strong evidence for the mental transformations that give rise to the conceptual worlds we all inhabit. it is now apparent, in light of this early ethnobiological research, that the living world that surrounds us, the plants, animals, and fungi, is the subject of impressive lexical elaboration in all the world’s languages, not least of all, those lacking written traditions. a careful study of any such language will yield an inventory of at least 1000 lexemes naming “folk species” known locally (berlin 1992). these basic vocabulary entries constitute perhaps 5% of the total working vocabulary of a language. such linguistic resources allow people to describe, remember, understand, and imagine their ambient biodiversity. during the heyday of cognitive ethnobiology we were not entirely unconcerned with how this elaborate knowledge of ambient biodiversity might be of use in the everyday lives of the people with whom we worked. claude levi-strauss famously discounted utilitarian motives for the elaboration of cultural knowledge, and of environmental knowledge in particular (1966), attributing the primary motivation to “disinterested” curiosity, to biophilia one might say (wilson 1984). he rejected malinowski’s utilitarian argument that, “the road from the wilderness to the savage’s [sic.] belly and consequently to his mind is very short” (1974:44). however, there is no fundamental conflict between seeing human knowledge as intellectually satisfying and at the same time useful. in fact, evolutionary theory requires that this intensive human investment in the cognitive ordering of the living world must have or have had survival value. which brings us back to the topic of this paper: how might cognitive ethnobiology inform biodiversity conservation, in light of the fact that conservation biologists have been slow to recognize the complex intimacy of the human relationship to nature (rozzi 1999; saslis-lagoudakis and clarke 2013; wolverton et al. 2014)? my title hints at an answer. do we humans treasure what we know best? perhaps, yet it is clearly inadequate as an explanation of why humans sometimes husband living resources and at other times mercilessly exploit or destroy them. we may well grant the inverse, to wit, that to be ignorant of the plants, animals, and fungi in our midst is to guarantee that we will lack the motivation to conserve them. even if our ignorance were only partial, say to the extent that we recognized trees, but not oaks, maples, cedars, ceibas, or baobabs; birds, but not ravens, eagles, chickadees, or hummingbirds; and mushrooms, but not morels, chanterelles, puff balls, or fly agaric, we would have next to no basis for valuing the diversity of trees, birds, and fungi. the stunning ignorance of local biodiversity demonstrated by contemporary college students (medin et al. 2006) may be symptomatic of a modern malady, dubbed by loev, “nature deficit disorder” (2005), which in turn may account for a lack of passion in defense of the local natural environment by the earth’s predominantly urban populations. that simply knowing biodiversity – recognizing and naming hundreds of ethnospecies – ensures that we therefore will love biodiversity, is far from selfevident. there is more to the equation of knowing with loving. our hit song suggests a somewhat more complex set of connections. first, “to know him is to love him” implies that knowing → loving, then “just to see him smile, makes my life worthwhile” implies further that loving → a life worth living. what might ethnobiology suggest with regard to these lyrical connections? 1) our efforts at documenting the depth and breadth of traditional environmental/ ecological knowledge constitute, in my ethnobiology le ers. 2014. 5: 146‐150. doi: 10.14237/ebl.5.2014.297. 148 perspec ve  opinion, ethnobiology’s deepest and most lasting contribution to environmental science. our research efforts have shown that our citizen colleagues, those who are indigenous and/or otherwise deeply engaged with local ecologies, pay close attention to the living world around them. they devise systematic inventories of local species of plants, animals, and fungi, as well as elaborating complex ethnoanatomical, ethnomedical, and ethnogeographic vocabularies. these cultural inventories of biodiversity are more than bland lists of names. rather, each name points to a web of knowledge of where, when, how, and why a plant or animal or fungus exists, a “subtle ecology” (wyndham 2009) of “ecological understanding” (turner and berkes 2006). the zapotec children who taught me about the natural environment of their mexican town would readily rattle off several hundred zapotec plant names but also were eager to share many salient details about the lives of each plant and its value as food, medicine, material, or “as ornament” (hunn 2008). 2) given that humans are eminently capable of and inclined to carefully observe ambient biodiversity, developing thereby an encyclopedic cultural inventory of the local biota, what is the evidence that humans consequently harbor strong emotional attachments to their natural worlds? eugene anderson’s theme throughout his ecologies of the heart (1996) is that to conserve nature we must first love nature, that is, feel strong emotional attachments to plants, animals, even fungi. kay milton likewise argues that loving nature is key to saving the natural world (2002). it must be recognized that beside biophilia runs a countercurrent of biophobia. our contemporary urban aversion to mosquitoes, ticks, spiders, snakes, bats, and rats (nolan and robbins 2001; nolan et al. 2006) is shared to some degree in indigenous communities, as shown by traditional classifications of “wugs” and “noxious invertebrates,” as i found in my tzeltal mayan ethnotaxonomies (hunn 1977). tzeltal maya from tenejapa, chiapas, mexico, elaborate their classification of insects to the greatest degree in dealing with social hymenoptera, ants, bees, and wasps, not so much in recognition of their beauty or positive utility but rather because of the competitive and often painful interactions with these creatures in their daily lives. brightman characterizes the cree attitude towards animals as a mix of respect for a worthy adversary and fear, rather than “love,” with its sentimental connotations (1973). hunters hunt their prey, kill and eat them. but, with due respect (nelson 1983). a world apart from the “love” of the animal rights activist. yet, time and again we learn that indigenous people recognize the essential part each animal and plant must play in the local ecological drama. so “love” may not be the most appropriate term for this term of the equation. rather, call this an intensely respectful emotional engagement with nature. what many urbanites have lost – insulated as many of us are from direct personal experience of nature – is this intense emotional engagement, which is replaced by ignorance, indifference, annoyance, romantic delusion, or abstract analysis. 3) finally, can we show that this “love,” this intense emotional engagement grounded in extensive, experiential knowledge will “make our lives worthwhile”? that is, will this emotion motivate action with respect to sustainable use and management of local biodiversity? we should not expect people to conserve biodiversity for its own sake. such is far too abstract a target for “love.” rather, our most intense emotional engagements will be with particular animals or plants, places and landscapes. and such engagements are as particular as the multitude of animals, plants, and places for which we have names. spotted owls are easier to love (and to hate, if you were an unemployed logger) than an old growth forest ecosystem. might it be the case that our inclination to conserve biodiversity is a function of the number and intensity of our emotional attachments with the world around us, grounded in direct personal experience with the stunning diversity of natural forms? we have no controlled double-blind experimental studies that might prove that for an individual to know more about his or her ambient biodiversity guarantees or even encourages more careful steward ethnobiology le ers. 2014. 5: 146‐150. doi: 10.14237/ebl.5.2014.297. 149 perspec ve  ship of that biodiversity (but cf. atran et al. 2004; dombrosky and wolverton 2014). yet anecdotally, in our contemporary urban milieu those most supportive of biodiversity conservation are those who have invested in learning to appreciate that biodiversity in concrete detail. i include here hunters and fisher folk as well as birders and native plant people. we may question this as a general rule in light of the fact that commercial fishers and foresters, however knowledgeable, have contributed to the depletion of global fish stocks and old growth forests. two competing forces are at work here, appreciation versus accumulation. the fact that most indigenous communities still practicing a traditional “subsistence economy” on their ancestral lands exhibit highly elaborated tek may be due to the near absence of profit motives from their conceptual worlds, motives that drive boundless accumulation. in which case, conservation biologists should clearly recognize as their opponent not the subsistence farmer or fisher but rather the profit-making enterprises of high capitalism, a cautionary fact for proponents of the “new conservation” (wolverton et al. 2014; http://www.snap.is/ magazine/new-conservation-friend-or-foe/). this highlights a critical problem: the world is rapidly urbanizing. capitalist “rationality” rules politics. yet, somehow we must reclaim that essential basis for biodiversity conservation, the “love” of nature shared by those who live within its intimate embrace. finally, our equation here of knowledge → love → action may be interpreted from a different perspective. that is, it applies not only to the indigenous and other locally rooted communities we have been inclined to study, but to ourselves (nabhan 2013). that is, as ethnobiologists we have come to know well people who live in close proximity to and in deep dependence upon their local natural environments (lepofsky and feeney 2013). participant observation over an extended period of collegial research in such communities forges an intense emotional engagement (turner and berkes 2006), which in turn urges our efforts on their behalf, to deflect those social, economic, and political forces that would undermine the foundations of their lives and livelihoods. my cognitive ethnobiological research masked a hidden motive. as an avid birder i took pleasure in sharing my enthusiasm for the fascinating diversity of birds with indigenous colleagues, though they often seemed more interested in bugs and plants than birds. thus my knowledge and love of birds led me to share an intense emotional engagement with my indigenous interlocutors and ultimately to share this with students and colleagues. as ethnobiologists we return from the intense experience of participating with a local community, sharing in their daily encounters with nature, loving the people as they love the land. we then do our best to communicate, by writing and teaching, both our knowledge and our love of “our people.” i believe this has been and will be the most effective way for ethnobiologists to promote biocultural diversity, through the medium and message of our close encounters with the citizen scientists whose lives we briefly share, at their homes in the communities we study. references cited anderson, e. n. 1996. ecologies of the heart: emotion, belief, and the environment. oxford university press, new york and oxford. atran, s., d. medin, and n. ross. 2004. evolution and devolution of knowledge: a tale of two biologies. journal of the royal anthropological institute 10: 395 -420. berlin, b. 1992. ethnobiological 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university of arizona press, tucson. ethnobiology le ers. 2014. 5: 146‐150. doi: 10.14237/ebl.5.2014.297. 150 perspec ve  lepofsky, d., and k. feeney. 2013. ten principles of ethnobiology: an interview with amadeo rea. in explorations in ethnobiology: the legacy of amadeo rea, m. quinlan, and d. lepofsky, editors, pp. 34-46. society of ethnobiology, denton, tx. levi-strauss, c. 1966. the savage mind. weidenfeld and nicholson, london. loev, r. 2005. last child in the woods. algonquin books, chapel hill, north carolina. malinowski, b. 1974 (1925). magic, science, and religion. souvenir press, london. medin, d., n. ross, and d. cox. 2006. culture and resource conflict: why meanings matter. russell sage foundation publications, new york. milton, k. 2002. loving natures: towards an ecology of emotion. routledge, london and new york. nabhan, g. p. 2013. ethnobiology for a diverse world: autobiology? the traditional ecological, agricultural and culinary knowledge of us!. journal of 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pacific northwest. human ecology 34: 495-513. wilson, e. o. 1986. biophilia. reprint edition. harvard university press, cambridge, massachusetts. wolverton, s. 2013. ethnobiology 5: interdisciplinarity in an era of rapid environmental change. ethnobiology letters 4: 21-25. wolverton, s., j. m. nolan, and w. ahmed. 2014. ethnobiology, political ecology, and conservation. journal of ethnobiology 34: 125-152. wyndham, f. s. 2009. spheres of relation, lines of interaction: subtle ecologies of the rarámuri landscape in northern mexico. journal of ethnobiology 29: 271-295. wyndham, f. s., d. lepofsky, and s. tiffany. 2011. taking stock in ethnobiology: where do we come from? what are we? where are we going? journal of ethnobiology 31: 110-127. biosketch eugene  hunn  is professor emeritus of  anthropology  at  the university  of washington.  he  has  served  as  presi‐ dent  of  the  society  of  ethnobiology  and  editor  of  the  journal  of  ethnobiology.  he  was  honored  as  a  dis n‐ guished ethnobiologist by the society of ethnobiology in  2014.  microsoft word smith_aridland_proof.docx         14    book review   aridland springs in north america: ecology and conservation    lawrence e. stevens and vicky j. meretsky, editors. 2008. the university of arizona press and the arizona‐sonora  desert museum, tucson.pp. 406, 4 black‐and‐white photos, 28 illustrations, 38 tables, 8 maps, bibliography.  $75.00 (cloth). isbn 978‐0‐8165‐2645‐1.    reviewed by kate smith    reviewer address: 421 w north st, fayetteville, ar 72701    teosholo@gmail.com     received: november 1st 2011                                                                                                                                                volume 3:14‐15                         published: march 9th 2012                                                                                                                          © 2012 society of ethnobiology  in the words of reviewer r. l. wallace (2009:1535), “this volume is a must read for those interested in oases or the future of water in the western states.” this book represents the combined efforts of twenty-seven authors to holistically address the ecology and conservation of springs in the arid areas of north america. the authors largely meet these goals, gathering their individual expertise and styles to shed light on a greater whole. it is always exciting to see a book truly embrace the interdisciplinary nature of ecology and of conservation efforts, and this book manages to do that. topics covered in the seventeen chapters include, but are not limited to, the history of springs, groundwater hydrology, ecological case studies, conservation efforts, endemic species, anthropogenic alterations, conservation laws, ethnoecology, and paleobiology. the book opens with a foreward by gary paul nabhan, who reminds us of the urgency of protecting water resources and of how unique aridland springs are. the authors of aridland springs have provided an immensely readable summary of current understanding of the springs and the threats to them. the first four chapters serve to introduce the readers to aridland springs: their historical significance, locations, origins, and classification systems. chapters six through eight provide case studies of specific springs ecosystems, while nine through eleven address biogeographic distributions of vegetation and terrestrial productivity. chapter fourteen predicts how the flora and distribution of great basin springs will likely change with groundwater withdrawal, while chapter fifteen examines the recovery of a hanging garden spring after accidental human torching of the vegetation. sixteen examines the legal issues of spring conservation and seventeen summarizes the current research gaps and the conservation challenges still remaining. now, if the reader has been paying attention, he or she will realize that chapters five, twelve, and thirteen were omitted from that brief summary. that is because although the previously mentioned chapters provide excellent information, data, research, arguments, and more, these three specific chapters specifically focus on ethnoecology. chapter five, written by vance haynes, examines the paleoecology and paleontology of springs, with examples of human use of the aridland springs primarily as hunting grounds and many springs likely remaining relatively untouched by humans until recent history. the springs that do show a long archaeological and ethnographic history of human use are addressed in chapters twelve and thirteen, which both examine the quitovac and quitobaquito springs for holocene interactions of humans at the springs. both authors, nabhan and amadeo rea, conclude that the indigenous spring management was likely more effective at preserving spring function and biodiversity than current management practices by the federal government. these conclusions are indirectly supported by the earlier history of conservation issues of the springs provided in chapter two, which stress the difficulties in finding a functioning conservation strategy for the springs that balances the need for disturbance with obliteration of these delicate systems in the xeriscape. for those interested in applied ethnobiology and ethnoecology, books like aridland springs in north america are gems. the book has combined the works of experts in their fields to provide a truly interdisciplinary review of the current understanding and value of the springs. it documents conservation efforts that have been tried, ecological case studies of three types of         15    book review springs, the legalese surrounding the springs, their cultural and archaeological significance, and their responses to human alterations. the authors have reviewed the causes and symptoms of the ongoing decline and destruction of the springs, their biotic and functional importance, and how different groups of people have used the springs in ways that help or hurt them. in sum, this book provides an excellent interdisciplinary window into the aridland springs of north america and is worthy of inclusion in any ethnoecologists’ library. references cited stevens, l.e. and v.j. meretsky, eds. 2008. aridland springs in north america: ecology and conservation. the university of arizona press and the arizona-sonora desert museum, tucson, az. wallace, r.l. 2009. review: aridland springs in north america: ecology and conservation. choice 46:1535. examining fuel use in antiquity: archaeobotanical and anthracological approaches in southwest asia ethnobiology letters. 2015. 6(1):192-195. doi: 10.14237/ebl.6.1.2015.416. 192 mini-review analyses of wood, seeds, and dung spherulites from sites where dung is used as fuel. socially conditioned use and preservation of fuel plant remains can be preserved archaeologically through a number of processes, but are routinely preserved through charring, thereby providing an ideal means for preserving plant-based fuels. studies of ancient fuel have generally been restricted to specialist studies of wood and shrubby plant remains by anthracologists (asouti and austin 2005; chabal 1997) and seed assemblages preserved via burned dung fuel (and to a lesser degree wood remains) by archaeobotanists (deckers and riehl 2007; miller and marston 2012). less common are fossil fuels such as peat (braadbaart et al. 2012), burned bone from hearths (théry-parisot et al. 2005), and ftir or micromorphological analysis of archaeological sediments (matthews 2010). recent discussions examining the social and environmental factors associated with fuel use such as those organized by ethel allué martí, llorenç picornell gelabert, and marie-agnés courty at the recent 2014 uispp (international union of prehistoric and protohistoric sciences) meeting may signify a positive shift towards a more unified approach. in recent years, increased attention has been paid to ancient fuel economies within the archaeological literature. veal (2013) provides a compelling argument for the central importance of fuel to the regional economy of the mediterranean during the roman period. this viewpoint can reasonably be extended to underscore the major significance of fuel to all pre-modern societies across the globe. picornell gelabert et al. (2011:375) argue that “firewood collection constitutes one of the most enduring categories of routine landscape practices on par with food procurement and dwelling” and that in order to fully appreciate the potential of archaeological charcoal assemblages, greater emphasis needs to be paid to socio-economic and cultural aspects of firewood to pre-modern societies (2011:382). despite the importance of fuel in shaping and enabling cultural and socio-economic choices, relatively little attention has been paid to the use and management of fuel compared with research on subsistence and technology. this article provides a brief review of studies from the old world highlighting behavioral, social, and functional insights that can be gained through archaeological analyses of fuel. we consider how the archaeological study of fuel use in southwest asia can build upon these studies by integrating examining fuel use in antiquity: archaeobotanical and anthracological approaches in southwest asia alexia smith*1, krista dotzel1, joyce fountain1,2, lucas proctor1, and madelynn von baeyer1 author addresses: 1department of anthropology, university of connecticut, 354 mansfield road unit 1176, storrs, ct 06269, usa. 2department of archaeology, university of sheffield, northgate house, west street sheffield s1 4et, united kingdom. *corresponding author: alexia.smith@uconn.edu received: june 7, 2015 volume: 6(1):192-195 published: november 8, 2015 © 2015 society of ethnobiology abstract: this article considers the study of wood and dung fuel use in antiquity across southwest asia by anthracologists and archaeobotanists. in recent years, the socially conditioned nature of fuel use has been highlighted and many scholars are stressing the central importance of fuel to pre-modern societies as on par with subsistence and tool use. by elevating and unifying the study of ancient fuel through anthracological, archaeobotanical, geochemical, and micromorphological studies, detailed insights into cultural practices, decision making, and resource use in the past can be gained. we provide a brief review of studies examining ancient fuel use and reflect on the integration of wood and seed data where seed assemblages are indicative of dung fuel use. keywords: archaeobotany, anthracology, dung and wood fuel economy, southwest asia mailto:alexia.smith@uconn.edu ethnobiology letters. 2015. 6(1):192-195. doi: 10.14237/ebl.6.1.2015.416. 193 mini-review throughout prehistory the nature and intensity of fuel use and management changed in a dynamic relationship with shifting cultural and economic practices, settlement patterns, and population levels. anthracologists, who traditionally identified charred wood to examine paleoecology, are now broadening their attention to the culturally conditioned nature of fuel use to consider communal choices, economic practices, and woodland resource exploitation and management (théry-parisot et al. 2010). the types of fuels selected generally reflect combined consideration of availability, ease of access, intended use, burning properties, as well as economic considerations and cultural preferences and prohibitions. prehistoric hunter-gatherers used wood fuel for cooking and heating, protection against predators, smoking meats, and processing hides, and sometimes relied heavily upon the collection of fallen dead wood rather than procured green wood (asouti and austin 2005). the ability to identify dead or rotten wood archaeologically allows for wood procurement strategies and fuel-related activities to be understood. in their ethnographic study of fuel use among evenk siberian reindeer herders, henry and théry-parisot (2014) observed morphological differences between charred healthy, dead, and rotten pinus sylvestris wood, allowing for hearth or site function to be considered. the physical characteristics and moisture content of wood determines its heating qualities as well as its suitability for smoking hides and repelling insects. consequently, ethnographic studies of fuel use, and experimental studies that attempt to replicate preservation and document features that are discernible archaeologically, are broadening the range of questions that can be asked through observations of fuel (braadbaart et al. 2012; henry and théryparisot 2014; picornell gelabert et al. 2011; théryparisot et al. 2005). settled agriculturalists intensified wood fuel use to prepare plaster floors, heat baths, make glass, tiles, and bricks, and (from the chalcolithic onward) to smelt metals. these practices increased the demand for high quality fuel dramatically, variably impacting forest cover and succession patterns (asouti and austin 2005; veal 2013). smelting often requires the combustion of prepared charcoal that yields higher temperatures. distinguishing between the charred remains of untreated wood versus intentionally prepared charcoal remains important given the economic implications of this shift. studies examining the reflectance of charred wood fragments demonstrate much potential for distinguishing between the two by estimating the temperatures reached within a fire (veal 2013). examining dung fuel in southwest asia in contrast to anthracology, archaeobotanists have traditionally focused on questions of subsistence but since the publication of miller and smart’s (1984) study of dung fuel use at ancient malyan, iran, increasing attention has been paid to identifying dung fuel and assessing the relative importance of dung versus wood fuels across southwest asia. not all seeds consumed by ruminants are digested and, once excreted in fresh dung, become charred and preserved when dung is burned as fuel; charles (1998) provides guidelines for identifying burned dung. while archaeobotanists generally agree that both dung fuel and crop-processing activities contributed plant remains to many archaeological assemblages in southwest asia, opinions vary on the relative contribution of each. miller and marston (2012) argue that dung fuel remnants contribute heavily to post-neolithic deposits across southwest asia. they reason that increases in seed:wood mass ratios are associated with elevated dung fuel use and diminished wood availability. researchers who adopt this view often focus on questions of changing landscapes and pasturing or foddering practices. others argue that the presence of burned cereal grains, crop-processing debris, and small weed seeds predominantly reflect deposition of on-site crop processing activities. they often rely on ethnographic observations of crop processing and analyses of weed assemblages to determine whether discrete stages of crop processing are present, since physical characteristics of weed seeds (size, headedness, and weight) determine when in crop processing various weed species are selectively removed (jones 1984). such researchers focus on the nature, spatial patterning, and social implications of crop processing. many accept that an intermediary view is also possible, whereby both depositional processes occur in tandem, since crop processing debris is often intentionally mixed with dung to prepare fuel cakes and fuel debris is likely to be mixed with household waste for disposal or reuse as a fertilizer. ethnobiology letters. 2015. 6(1):192-195. doi: 10.14237/ebl.6.1.2015.416. 194 mini-review teasing apart the precise contribution of these depositional processes remains difficult but is essential in any archaeobotanical consideration of fuel choice and use. a clear understanding of archaeological context is critical to this debate: secured, sealed storage contexts, for example, are more likely to contain stored crops, whereas refuse pits are more likely to contain discarded fuel-related and/or household debris. lessons from micromorphology combined with routine, rigorous analysis of weed assemblages to determine whether discrete processing stages may be present could help disentangle the processes. matthews (2010:104) notes from her micromorphological analysis of sediments from early urban settlements across southwest asia that “dung can be unequivocally identified by the morphology, comminution and distribution of plant remains and groundmass in intact dung pellets” as well as the presence of distinctive calcareous spherulites excreted in dung which “can be readily identified, with little training, in smear slides under cross-polarised light at ×100” (matthews 2010:105). through the routine collection of small grab samples from sediment intended for flotation, archaeobotanists could use this approach to support claims for the presence or lack of dung alongside considerations of archaeobotanical data. this sampling method would have the added advantage of providing phytolith and starch grain samples for future subsistence studies. considering the relative use of dung and wood fuels once the presence of dung fuel has been demonstrated, the factors that shape fuel selection can be considered. miller has convincingly argued that increasing dung use often relates to increased aridity or phases of decreased wood availability (e.g., miller and marston 2012), but as deckers (2011) rightfully argues, dung and wood fuel offer different heating properties and may be selectively chosen for practical rather than environmental reasons, complicating interpretations to some degree. exploring this issue in more detail is important. few researchers have integrated anthracological and archaeobotanical data (naomi miller, katleen deckers, and simone riehl being notable exceptions). considering the two datasets side-by-side allows for a fuller understanding of fuel selection practices, but also presents methodological difficulties on how best to consider relative abundance and how to compare wood data from hand-picked samples to remains recovered via flotation. currently weight measures of wood and seeds provide a simple and effective way to quantify and compare assemblages at the site level either regionally or between phases (miller and marston 2012). it remains difficult, however, to estimate the precise extent to which each fuel source contributed to individual burning events. there is no simple solution, but this does not mean that the endeavor should be abandoned entirely. experimental studies that examine the differential preservation of wood and dung under comparable conditions, similar to those conducted by braadbaart et al. (2012), would be useful, as would the regular integration of micromorphological analyses, assuming that the density of dung spherulites within a unit of sediment serves as a proxy for dung fuel use intensity. since archaeobotanical and anthracological studies are complementary, the detailed consideration of archaeobotanical data within the current anthracological framework has the potential to enhance our understanding of the complexities and culturally conditioned nature of ancient fuel management in both domestic and industrial spheres. by building a more unified approach to the study of ancient fuel and elevating the level of inquiry, the ability to understand ancient societies globally will be greatly enriched. acknowledgments this review developed out of discussions within an anthracology course led by alexia smith. we are very grateful to naomi miller for stimulating our conversation though an earlier anthracology workshop and to two anonymous reviewers for their excellent comments. declarations funding: we gratefully acknowledge an nsf early faculty career award (1054938) awarded to alexia smith that helped build the anthracology focus within the archaeobotany laboratory at the university of connecticut. conflict of interest: none declared. ethical approval: none declared. references asouti, e., and p. austin. 2005. reconstructing vegetation and its exploitation by past societies, based on the analysis and interpretation of ethnobiology letters. 2015. 6(1):192-195. doi: 10.14237/ebl.6.1.2015.416. 195 mini-review archaeological wood charcoal macro-remains. environmental archaeology 10:1–18. doi:10.1179/ env.2005.10.1.1. braadbaart, f., i. poole, h. d. j. huisman, and b. van os. 2012. fuel, fire and heat: an experimental approach to highlight the potential of studying ash and char remains from archaeological contexts. journal of archaeological science 39:836–847. doi:10.1016/j.jas.2011.10.009. chabal, l. 1997. forêts et sociétés en languedoc (néolithique final, antiquité tardive): l'anthracologie, méthode et paléoécologie. maison des sciences de l’homme, paris, france. charles, m. 1998. fodder from dung: the recognition and interpretation of dung-derived plant material from archaeological sites. environmental archaeology 1:111–122. doi:10.1179/ env.1996.1.1.111. deckers, k. 2011. the “dung-as-fuel” model tested at two syrian jezirah sites. in holocene landscapes through time in the fertile crescent, subartu 28, edited by k. deckers, pp. 143–156. brepols, turnhout, belgium. deckers, k., and s. riehl. 2007. an evaluation of botanical assemblages from the 3rd to 2nd millennium bc in northeastern syria. varia anatolica 19:481–502. henry, a., and i. théry-parisot. 2014. from evenk campfires to prehistoric hearths: charcoal analysis as a tool for identifying the use of rotten wood as fuel. journal of archaeological science 52:321–336. doi:10.1016/j.jas.2014.09.005. jones, g. e. m. 1984. interpretation of archaeological plant remains: ethnographic models from greece. in plants and ancient man: studies in palaeoethnobotany, edited by w. van zeist and w. a. casparie, pp. 43–61. balkema, rotterdam, the netherlands. matthews, w. 2010. geoarchaeology and taphonomy of plant remains and microarchaeological residues in early urban environments in the ancient near east. quaternary international 214:98–113. doi:10.1016/j.quaint.2009.10.019. miller, n. f., and j. m. marston. 2012. archaeological fuel remains as indicators of ancient west asia agropastoral and land-use systems. journal of arid environments 86:97–103. doi:10.1016/ j.jaridenv.2011.11.021. miller, n. f., and t. l. smart. 1984. intentional burning of dung as fuel: a mechanism for the incorporation of charred seeds into the archeological record. journal of ethnobiology 4:15–28. picornell gelabert, l., e. asouti, and e. allué martí. 2011. the ethnoarchaeology of firewood management in the fang village of equatorial guinea, central africa: implications for the interpretation of wood fuel remains from archaeological sites. journal of anthropological archaeology 30:375–384. doi:10.1016/ j.jaa.2011.05.002. théry-parisot, i., l. chabal, and j. chrzavzez. 2010. anthracology and taphonomy, from wood gathering to charcoal analysis. a review of the taphonomic processes modifying charcoal assemblages, in archaeological contexts. palaeogeography, palaeoclimatology, palaeoecology 291:142– 153. doi:10.1016/j.palaeo.2009.09.016. théry-parisot, i., s. costamagno, j. p. brugal, p. fosse, and r. guilbert. 2005. the use of bone as fuel during the paleolithic, experimental study of bone combustibe properties. in the zooarchaeology of fats, oils, milk and dairying. proceedings of the 9th conference of the international council of archaeozoology, durham, august 2002, edited by j. mulville and a. k. outram, pp. 50–59. oxbow books, oxford, united kingdom. veal, r. 2013. fuelling ancient mediterranean cities: a framework for charcoal research. in the ancient mediterranean environment between science and history, edited by w. v. harris, pp. 37–58. brill, leiden, the netherlands. biosketches alexia smith is an associate professor in the department of anthropology at the university of connecticut and heads the archaeobotany laboratory. krista dotzel, lucas proctor, and madelynn von baeyer are ph.d. students in archaeology in the department of anthropology at the university of connecticut. joyce fountain is a m.sc. student in environmental archaeology at the university of sheffield. aspects of honeybee natural history according to the solega 78 research communication my hills of karnataka state in southern india, which are home to the solega, a dravidian-languagespeaking tribal community. it is estimated that there are around 24,000 people who identify themselves as ‘soliga’ or ‘sholaga’ (lewis et al. 2013). the solega people who participated in the current study all lived in villages inhabited by no other ethnic group. the solega readily exploit various honeybee species from march to july every year, when honeybees from the lowlands migrate into highland forest areas to take advantage of the seasonal flowering of large rainforest trees. it is also during this time that the solega start to be keenly aware of the presence of bees in their environment, frequently looking up at trees for hives, and exchanging information on the movements of bee colonies in the neighboring forest. types of honeybee the solega recognize and name four types of je:nu ‘bees’, namely hejje:nu (‘giant honeybee’ apis dorsata fabricius hymenoptera: apidae), t(h)uḍuve je:nu (‘asiatic honeybee’ apis cerana fabricius hymenoptera: apidae), kaḍḍi je:nu (‘dwarf honeybee’ apis florea fabricius hymenoptera: apidae) and nesari je:nu (‘stingless bee’ trigona iridipennis smith hymenoptera: apidae) (figure 1). further, two kinds of asiatic introduction in a great many cultures around the world, honeybees and their products play important roles in several aspects of daily life, including food, religion, construction and medicine. much has been written about indigenous peoples’ traditional knowledge of this important group of insects, with studies focusing on issues such as identification and taxonomy (posey 1983; wyman and bailey 1964), methods of obtaining, and the uses of, various honeybee products (nonaka 1996; posey 1978; santos and antonini 2008), and the representation of these insects in folklore and cosmology (posey 2002). while the above publications frequently make reference to indigenous peoples’ knowledge of the natural history of various honeybee species, as far as i can tell, there have been few in-depth studies of such knowledge, especially with regard to honeybee life cycles, reproduction and behavior. in this paper, i present some results of a language documentation project carried out with the solega people of southern india. i focus more on consultants’ knowledge of the fundamentals of honeybee natural history, than on producing an ethnographic account of honeygathering practices. honeybees are plentiful in the biligiri rangaswaaspects of honeybee natural history according to the solega aung si author address: university of melbourne, school of languages and linguistics, babel building, parkville, vic 3010, australia. aung.si@unimelb.edu.au received: april 2, 2013 volume: 4:78-86 published: july 30, 2013 © 2013 society of ethnobiology abstract: honeybees and their products are highly prized by many cultures around the world, and as a result, indigenous communities have come to possess rich and detailed knowledge of the biology of these important insects. in this paper, i present an in-depth investigation into some aspects of honeybee natural history, as related to me by the solega people of southern india. the solega recognize, name, and exploit four honeybee species, and are well aware of the geographical and temporal distributions of each one. in spite of not being beekeepers – as they only forage for wild honey – their knowledge of obscure and complex phenomena such as honeybee gender and reproduction, rivals that of comparable, non industrial beekeeping societies. swarming, another hard-to-understand honeybee behavior, is also accurately explained by solega consultants. i contrast this knowledge to that of european bee keeping cultures, as evidenced by the writings of aristotle and 18th century european beekeepers. this paper shows that the solega have a reliable and internally consistent body of honeybee knowledge based entirely on brief encounters with these wild, migratory insects that are present in the forest for only part of the year. key words: honeybee, solega, soliga, reproduction, swarming, aristotle file:///c:/users/asb0123/appdata/local/temp/ebl_bee_paper_25-06-2013.docx#_enref_6#_enref_6 file:///c:/users/asb0123/appdata/local/temp/ebl_bee_paper_25-06-2013.docx#_enref_11#_enref_11 file:///c:/users/asb0123/appdata/local/temp/ebl_bee_paper_25-06-2013.docx#_enref_11#_enref_11 file:///c:/users/asb0123/appdata/local/temp/ebl_bee_paper_25-06-2013.docx#_enref_14#_enref_14 file:///c:/users/asb0123/appdata/local/temp/ebl_bee_paper_25-06-2013.docx#_enref_8#_enref_8 file:///c:/users/asb0123/appdata/local/temp/ebl_bee_paper_25-06-2013.docx#_enref_10#_enref_10 file:///c:/users/asb0123/appdata/local/temp/ebl_bee_paper_25-06-2013.docx#_enref_13#_enref_13 file:///c:/users/asb0123/appdata/local/temp/ebl_bee_paper_25-06-2013.docx#_enref_13#_enref_13 file:///c:/users/asb0123/appdata/local/temp/ebl_bee_paper_25-06-2013.docx#_enref_12#_enref_12 https://co1prd0112.outlook.com/owa/redir.aspx?c=6mtmcr4awe6-xa3m8cdnztguim45tdaia-do7_bt7rb_fy2rv8suy4gynreokpvtheh6sml1qa4.&url=mailto%3aaung.si%40unimelb.edu.au 79 research communication honeybee are recognized by the solega: kencu thuḍuve (the ‘red’ variety) and kari thuḍuve (the ‘black’ variety). the implications of the ethnotaxonomy of honeybees are beyond the scope of the current paper, and will be addressed in a forthcoming publication. while there have been no taxonomic surveys of the insect life of the region, it is probably correct to say that there are no other species of social, honey producing bee in the solega’s forests. there are, however, a number of wasps (social and solitary) and bees (solitary) that the solega do not label as je:nu. the term je:nu, as applied to the insect (the word can also mean ‘honey’ or ‘hive’), therefore differs markedly from the western biological concept ‘bee,’ being used by the solega to refer to only those bee species from which honey is harvested. the following information has been collated from around 15 interviews or informal conversations with a total of six male solega consultants from five different villages. the ages of the solega men ranged from 33 to >70. information was collected over the course of four field trips, between 2008 and 2012, either during planned elicitation sessions at the speaker’s village or at the author’s field station, or opportunistically during forest walks on which bees were encountered. on two occasions, consultants stopped to harvest honey from hives of a. cerana and a. florea. the author spoke a mixture of kannada and solega during these sessions, and the solega men were asked to reply only in solega. hejje:nu the name hejje:nu, (in particular, the presence of the prefix he‘largest’) acknowledges the fact that this is the largest type of honeybee known to the solega (the giant honeybee or a. dorsata). colonies of the giant honeybee are common in high-altitude rain forests (male ka:ḍu or ka:nu ka:ḍu), although they may also be found in drier, lowland forest types (na:ḍu ka:ḍu). in evergreen forests, giant honeybees prefer to live on very tall trees, showing a marked preference for the soravilu (acrocarpus fraxinifolius wight & arnott fabaceae) and ba:ge/sele ba:ge (albizia odoratissima bentham fabaceae, albizia lebbek bentham fabaceae) trees. indeed, individual trees of these species may be well known across a range of solega settlements as je:nu mara or ‘bee/honey trees’, due to the fact that they are home to a large number of giant honeybee colonies year after year. for instance, the do:vu ma:vu ba:ge is a single large a. odoratissima found near ko:li ba:vi hill, which attracts up to 50 giant honeybee colonies around the same time every year. several other ‘bee trees’ are known to the solega, and these, along with other locations where bees often nest, are remembered as mental maps of honey harvesting sites. in the following passage, a single consultant (mrm) is asked to recall the important honey harvesting sites known to him, and the directions for getting to these places. if you keep going past doḍḍa sampage (tree), there’s a soravilu tree with bees. [there were] four soravilu trees [initially] – one or two have died, and there are still a couple left. if you keep going, you’ll see another soravilu tree at guṇḍu sikkida waterfall. ten or so bee colonies nest there. if you keep going uphill from there, you get to gombegallu village. if you climb uphill from there, you’ll find sikka sampage (tree). above sikka sampage is aravilu hill. a stream flows from there. it meets both the doḍḍa sampage and sikka sampage streams in the middle. if you keep going upstream of sikka sampage, you’ll find an aravilu kende tree. about twenty colonies come to that tree. we harvest from there. it’s a tree that’s right below aravilu hill. it’s growing out of a rock platform. next, you can go uphill from sikka sampage. there you will see a tekke soravilu tree. about twenty figure 1. the four honeybee species named by the solega: (a) a. dorsata, (b) a. cerana, (c) a. florea and (d) t. iridipennis. scale bars are 5mm long. white arrowheads indicate the heads of two individuals. 80 research communication bee colonies come to that tree. we harvest from that tree as well. if you walk a bit to the right from that tree, you get to iṭṭu bu:di – two or three soravilu trees grow there too. bees nest there. we harvest from those trees as well. when you go up to the road from there, to kambaḷi gadde forest, you find the jo:ḍu [twin/ joint] turuve trees. we harvest from the jo:ḍu turuve. jo:ḍu turuve means the road goes in between, there’s a tree on one side, and a tree on another. we call those two trees the jo:ḍu turuve. they’re big trees – they meet in the middle [overhead]. you need to build a bridge to climb from one tree to the other. the above passage not only contains references to individual trees from which honey is harvested, but also convincingly demonstrates the existence of a mental map of significant harvesting sites. solega men eagerly await the annual migration of bees in february/march, and plan harvesting excursions in small groups of neighbors or relatives to ‘bee trees’ growing near their own village. giant honeybees start arriving in locations familiar to the solega in march, at the time when the flowers of the honne (pterocarpus marsupium roxburgh fabaceae) tree are in bloom. following similar reports of honeybee migration from local communities in many parts of tropical asia, scientists have confirmed that colonies of a. dorsata do embark on annual migrations of up to 200 km, and faithfully return to the same tree the following season (dyer and seeley 1994; neumann et al. 2000). apart from this very obvious annual pattern of appearance and disappearance that the giant honeybees exhibit, there is evidence that the solega are aware of this species’ stepwise migration behavior, which has frequently been reported in the scientific literature. in the following excerpt from an interview recorded in the village bu:ta:ni po:ḍu, the speaker contrasts the ‘arrival’ behavior of giant honeybees and asiatic honeybees on the one hand, which appear to make more than one stop before deciding on a final hive location, and the stingless bee, which appears to choose a final hive location straight away: hejje:nu arrives in the time of the honne flower... then hejje:nu goes to many different places, it goes all over the forest, thuduve also goes all over the forest, it’s only nesari that (remains) exactly where it (first) lands. thuḍuve je:nu thuḍuve je:nu (variously known as the indian, asiatic or eastern honey bee, a. cerana) can be found in both evergreen forests, ka:nu ka:ḍu, or in dryer lowland regions, or na:ḍu ka:ḍu. unlike the giant honeybee, with its preference for particular tree species (or even individual trees), some informants stated that the asiatic honeybee is not picky about its nest site: whenever it finds a home, any tree hollow (will do), they’ll be inside, any tree with such hollows is fine...all of them, i can’t name just one. asiatic honeybees will also readily nest in small rock crevices, even close to ground level. however, when asked to be more specific, some informants replied that this bee can often be found on ne:ri, bejja (anogeissus latifolia guillemette & perrotet combretaceae) and karava:di (persea macrantha kostermans lauraceae) trees, and especially on the koṭṭa:na beṇḍe (kydia sp. roxburgh malvaceae). the kencu thuḍuve (the ‘red’ variety) and kari thuḍuve (the ‘black’ variety) may well be subspecies of a. cerana, as they are said to occupy rather different ecological niches. kencu thuḍuve is to be found primarily in the dryer lowland forests, and on bejja, kaggali and ka:rase trees, whereas kari thuḍuve is said to occur in higher-altitude rainforests, or male ka:ḍu, usually on beṇḍe, bejja, soravilu and puḍu ma:vu trees, and in rocks. kaḍḍi je:nu another bee species whose honey is eagerly sought after is kaḍḍi je:nu (the dwarf honeybee, a. florea). this is the smallest of the apis species known to the solega, and can be found in all forest types. the dwarf honeybee is said to appear around the time that the maruḷi plant (indigofera sp. linnaeus fabaceae) is in flower. when the iṇḍã trees are in bloom, however, the dwarf honeybee appears in the lowland forests, and in particular in the region where hill slopes meet flat land (orrega:ḍu). certain conditions need to be fulfilled, however, for this bee to nest in a particular location: according to the solega, a place needs to be open, i.e. not densely wooded (bailu), and cool (shi:ta), for dwarf honeybees to take up residence there. in locales where such conditions exist, this bee will be found on bushes, on clumps of mistletoe (uppilu) growing on bejja trees, and even on bamboo canes. the name kaḍḍi je:nu recalls the fact that this species’ comb completely encloses part of the small file:///c:/users/asb0123/appdata/local/temp/ebl_bee_paper_25-06-2013.docx#_enref_4#_enref_4 file:///c:/users/asb0123/appdata/local/temp/ebl_bee_paper_25-06-2013.docx#_enref_4#_enref_4 file:///c:/users/asb0123/appdata/local/temp/ebl_bee_paper_25-06-2013.docx#_enref_7#_enref_7 81 research communication twig, or kaḍḍi, to which it is attached. nesari je:nu one species of stingless bee is known to the solega. nesari je:nu (t. iridipennis) is a tiny black bee, which is frequently found in tree hollows. there was some disagreement regarding its preferred habitat, with some solega claiming that it occurred in all forest types, and others stating that it was more common in the dryer, lowland forests, especially at the hill slopeflat land interface, and in less densely wooded areas. stingless bees can be found on bejja and ka:rasa trees in dry, open country (begga:ḍu), as well as on asuvara (commiphora caudata engler burseraceae). it is possible to find several (5-10) colonies on a single tree. the nesari honey, to which powerful diseasecombating properties are ascribed, starts to be available from the time that the te:ku (teak; tectona grandis linnaeus lamiaceae) and beṇḍe trees are in flower (usually november-december): you need to eat five a:la of pure honey, if you eat that, all...the diseases that afflict a person go away. the nests of this stingless bee are difficult to observe directly, because of their small size, and their location within tree hollows and rock cavities. however, the solega maintain that the brood area is separate from the honey and pollen storage areas. aspects of bee life history the most impressive aspect of the honeybee traditional ecological knowledge (tek) of the solega is the detailed and in-depth awareness of the life cycle of honeybees, including, in particular, astonishingly accurate elements of honeybee reproductive biology. it is not an easy task for a lay observer to determine a honeybee’s gender, while the sexual habits of the reproductive members of a honeybee colony are also extremely hard to observe. in the european honeybee a. mellifera at least, mating occurs once in a queen’s lifetime, when she leaves the hive for a ‘nuptial flight.’ during this time, she is eagerly sought out by drones that detect her pheromones, chase her, and mate with her while in flight; the queen may mate with several drones, and stores their sperm within her body for life. knowledge of bee genders in europe – which has a long history of beekeeping – did not emerge until the late 17th century, when dutch biologist jan swammerdam decided to look at the internal organs of the so-called ‘king’ bee under the newly-invented microscope, and discovered that ‘he’ had ovaries. until then, it had been widely accepted that only a male could be the leader of a hive, and the honeybee colony was often used in political and sociological writings of the time as an allegory of kingly power, wise and benevolent rule, loyalty, industry and a unity of purpose (campbell 2006). it is against this backdrop of the western intellectual tradition that i wish to showcase the honeybee knowledge of the solega. honeybee gender and reproduction individual worker honeybees are called kunni in solega, which is also the word for ‘girl,’ while the ‘leader’ of the hive is called ra:ṇi, or ‘queen.’ this is consistent with the fact that at any given time, most, if not all, the insects in a honeybee colony, including the queen, are biologically female. already, it is clear that certain basic facts that eluded the beekeeping societies of europe are known to the honey-gathering solega, even in the absence of technological developments such as microscopes and observation hives – these are hives with a clear glass (or recently, perspex) wall that allows observation of the interior of the colony. as has been made clear previously, the solega are not beekeepers, and are instead totally dependent on the seasonal migration of honeybees. their observations, then, are based on the frequent, but brief, chance encounters they have with bees when out foraging, or the longer, but less frequent periods of scrutiny when the honey from bee-trees is systematically harvested. beekeepers, in contrast, have far more opportunities to tend, examine and manipulate several hives, which would be available year-round. a good example of a non-industrial beekeeping society with which to compare solega tek is the writings of aristotle, widely regarded as the ‘father of natural history.’ in his books, generation of animals and history of animals, one finds sections where aristotle presents the honeybee tek of his greek contemporaries (some of whom are beekeepers), and analyzes this information to deduce certain features of honeybee biology. of course, aristotle had the advantage of being able to lead a life of leisure, and of having beekeepers to consult with. still, it seems reasonable to assume that his observations, and those of his contemporaries, were made with little more than the basic human senses, blended with a healthy dose of deductive reasoning. some relevant aspects of contemporary scientific understanding of honeybee reproduction are first file:///c:/users/asb0123/appdata/local/temp/ebl_bee_paper_25-06-2013.docx#_enref_3#_enref_3 82 research communication presented in brief: as mentioned above, the queen and all the workers (her daughters) are female, while only the drones are male. the queen mates with one or more drones on nuptial flights outside the hive, and produces workers from fertilized eggs, and drones from unfertilized eggs (figure 2a). when a queen leaves the hive, or is lost, the hive will descend into anarchy unless new queens, produced by the old one, start to develop. otherwise, the female workers lose their pheromone-induced physiological inhibitions, and start laying unfertilized drone eggs. the worker population crashes due to a lack of new fertilized eggs, and the colony perishes. aristotle takes it as a given that the leader of a hive is a “king” (figure 2b). he is aware of the existence of two other types of individuals – “bees” (workers) and “drones” – among a colony’s members, but on the topic of gender, aristotle has the following to say about certain hypotheses that were being offered by other commentators: nor is it reasonable to hold that “bees” are female and drones male; because nature does not assign defensive weapons to any female creature; yet while drones are without a sting, all “bees” have one. nor is the converse view reasonable, that “bees” are male and drones female, because no male creatures make a habit of taking trouble over their young, whereas in fact “bees” do (aristotle 1953:12). his rejection of the first hypothesis, we now know, figure 2. the three conceptions of honeybee reproduction and behavior described in this paper. file:///c:/users/asb0123/appdata/local/temp/ebl_bee_paper_25-06-2013.docx#_enref_1#_enref_1 83 research communication was far too hasty. his detailed and accurate descriptions of many aspects of honeybee natural history notwithstanding, aristotle failed to gain a complete understanding of honeybee reproduction, possibly due to the fact that it is very difficult to observe a drone copulate with a queen. hence, he writes: the generation of bees is a great puzzle… either (i) each kind generates its own kind, or (ii) one of the three kinds generates the others, or (iii) one kind unites with another kind (aristotle 1953:10). he adds that “bees” (and possibly also the king, but the language dealing with this point is vague) contain within themselves “the male as well as the female, just as plants do,” and that they are able to generate offspring without recourse to copulation. eventually, however, by eliminating various untenable possibilities, and by drawing heavily on key observations of beekeepers, such as the following, …the brood of the drones is produced even when there is no drone present to start with, whereas young “bees” are produced only if the kings are present… aristotle concluded that: …the leaders generate their own kind and another kind as well, (viz. the “bees”); while the “bees” generate another kind (the drones), but not their own kind… necessity requires that the drones shall have been deprived even of generating some other kind. and this is what is found to be the case in actual fact: they are generated themselves, but generate no other creature… the solega possess detailed information on the breeding schedules of at least some of the four named bee species. moreover, there is a clear understanding that the pollen and nectar gathered by the colony are for the purpose of nourishing new brood. this was made clear by explicit statements from consultants that the intensive collection of honey and pollen tended to accompany the rearing of brood. in fact, it would be unusual to find honey in a hive which did not also contain some amount of brood. unlike the ‘scientific’ and aristotelian conceptions of honeybee reproduction, the solega believe that each honeybee caste is able to generate other individuals like itself (figure 2c). there are complications, however, because the ra:ṇi ‘queen bee’ is above all the awwe ‘mother’ of all the bees, and is responsible for, presumably, the first generation of kunni ‘daughter’ (worker bees) in a newly established colony. moreover, the drones can be generated by another mechanism, namely the transformation of kunni into the fatter, stingless, unproductive counterparts through the loss of a sting. the following six extracts from three speakers sum up the solega position on the origin of honeybee castes: 1) as for the queen bee, she’s like a mother for all the bees…she looks after them carefully. however many bees there are, she never leaves them, she looks after all of them. 2) the small bees [workers] come from the queen. she is their mother. 3) when eggs are laid, the drone bee – it lays on one spot, there, by the side of the hive. the other bees do it in another spot. just like the drones, whatever eggs they lay turn into young bees just like themselves. the young of ordinary bees turn into ordinary bees (like their parents)… when a (new) hive is built, the queen lays eggs in it. the queen’s eggs hatch into queens just like her. 4) the sting breaks off, from its (the worker’s) bottom. when the sting breaks off, it does not have another sting – that’s how it becomes a drone. it loses its poison. 5) the sting of the (worker) bee is lost, it goes away. at that time, some die. some that remain turn into fat workers… once their sting goes away, they no longer have the strength to work. their work slows down. while they possess their sting, they work much faster, because they’re like, “we’re in good health”. 6) new queens will emerge from only those spots (cells of the honeycomb) that the (existing) queen has sat on. the above quotes were offered as explanations of honeybee biology in general, and without reference to any particular species. however, it would be safe to assume that this information was gained mostly through observation of a. dorsata and a. cerana colonies, as these are more frequently encountered, and the larger size of these species makes it easier to note the behavior of individual insects. extract 1, 2 and 3 indicate that while each caste can generate its own kind, the queen is ultimately the progenitor of the hive. extracts 4 and 5, on the other hand, illustrate the belief that since drones are fatter and less active than the workers, and also stingless, they must file:///c:/users/asb0123/appdata/local/temp/ebl_bee_paper_25-06-2013.docx#_enref_1#_enref_1 84 research communication be ex-workers who are transformed after losing their sting (the loss of the sting is almost always observed when a worker bee stings a human). the sting, then, is not only a defensive weapon and a source of the bees’ intensely algesic venom, but also the basis of their motivation to forage. while these statements echo elements of the deductive logic of aristotle, it is in fact the last extract (6) which is the most intriguing, and points to possibly the key observation responsible for the elevated status of the ra:ṇi ‘queen’ in the solega system – the fact that only queens can produce other queens. as a result, it is the queen who is responsible for honeybee reproduction at the level of the hive as a superorganism, a phenomenon which will be discussed in the next section. swarming swarming is a natural process in honeybee colonies, and occurs mainly in response to overcrowding. the existing queen starts to lay eggs in special queen cells, which then develop into new queens. the old queen leaves the hive with about half the workers, and occupies a new nesting site, stopping along the way at various places. when a swarm lands at one of these intermediate sites, scout bees fly off in all directions to locate potential nest sites. they return to the main swarm and perform dances that advertise the locations they have found. when many scouts have agreed on a single nest site, the swarm flies off to the new location, and takes up residence there. aristotle says little about this phenomenon, but he does make note of the facts that the hive’s leaders may sometimes be killed by other leaders, especially during periods of adverse environmental conditions. many of their rulers are also frequently killed, and especially the bad ones, in order that the swarm may be dispersed by the numbers. they are more disposed to kill them when the swarm is not fruitful... (aristotle 1991:26) he does, however, mention occurrences of the ‘king’ leaving the hive in the company of many bees, although he neglects to explain why. the king bees never leave the hives, either for food or any other purpose, except with the whole swarm... they say also that, when king is unable to fly, he is carried by the swarm; and if he perishes, the whole swarm dies with him. (aristotle 1991:27) one of the first discussions of the causes of swarming behavior appears to have been written by the english apiarist john gedde in his monograph the english apiary, or, the compleat bee-master (gedde 1721). here, he blames low food stocks and inclement weather, coupled with overcrowding in the hive, for forcing bees to abandon their old nest. …moist weather gives them two causes of swarming, plenty of bees, and penury of honey; and so neither winds, nor clouds, nor rain can stay them. (p. 40) the solega have quite explicit and accurate knowledge of why a swarm leaves its natal colony, and of the events that occur between departure and arrival at a new nest location. here, too, population increase in the original colony is held responsible for triggering a swarming episode: 1) what does the queen bee do? she has produced lots of offspring, and that family gets a new queen. when there’s a new queen, the rest of the family is divided (into two). but only when the queen reproduces (new queens). if not, it remains as one family. when one of the queens gets a part of the family, it goes away and builds a new house. that queen repeats the process in that family as well. thus, by dividing over and over, you get many bee hives. 2) that’s how bee(hive)s proliferate. however many queen bees there are, that’s how many families you get. when (the queen) wants to grow its family, it makes other bees from the comb. when that happens, you get lots of bees. when the queen lays eggs and produces (queen) offspring, the family divides into two. the second extract presented above contains more or less the same content as the first, but offers, almost in passing, a valuable insight – that ‘reproduction’ in bees really should be understood as two parallel phenomena taking place on two time scales. the first is the growth of a colony’s population, which continues practically every day, and the second is the division of colonies into daughter colonies through swarming, which only happens a few times in a year. knowledge of what happens to a swarm after it leaves its original nest site is arguably the most fascinating and impressive piece of solega honeybee tek. first, it is said, the swarm will often land on a tree, which serves as a temporary resting place. such behavior is also seen after honey has been harvested file:///c:/users/asb0123/appdata/local/temp/ebl_bee_paper_25-06-2013.docx#_enref_2#_enref_2 file:///c:/users/asb0123/appdata/local/temp/ebl_bee_paper_25-06-2013.docx#_enref_2#_enref_2 file:///c:/users/asb0123/appdata/local/temp/ebl_bee_paper_25-06-2013.docx#_enref_5#_enref_5 file:///c:/users/asb0123/appdata/local/temp/ebl_bee_paper_25-06-2013.docx#_enref_5#_enref_5 85 research communication from a hive by humans, and the surviving bees are forced to look for a new nest site: speaker 1: when people go and harvest honey from a hive, the queen and the other bees stay in the same spot for a night or so. speaker 2: (for) one or two days. then the bees do another thing, the bees simply go and sit on a tree (without nesting). those bees are called togaruguḍukã (‘sap drinkers’). then they land there and make inquiries regarding possible locations to nest in. the exact way in which bees “make inquiries” was elucidated by one consultant from bu:ta:ṇi po:ḍu village, who depicted the process as a conversation between a scout bee and a potential host tree. the bees come from elsewhere, and land on an unoccupied tree. let’s take the giant bee. when the giant bee (swarm) comes and sits on a tree, it does not stay there long. it drinks the sap on that tree. that’s when we call it togaruguḍukã. and as it sits on that tree, it also looks for a home on other trees… it finds things out by touch. it’s become fussy. it goes to another tree and sits on a branch in order to find things out through touch. and then it moves on to another tree again. and when it moves, five or six individuals (first) go to a tree to determine whether it would make a good home or not. the bees are smart. they ask the tree, “o tree! there are many in our household; will you have the strength to bear us all? or will you not?” that’s what they need to ask the tree. then the honne tree says, “o bees! i will support all 1,006 of you; come and sit on all my branches, for i will support you.” that’s how it reassures them. as soon as they’re reassured, those bees go back, and say to the rest, “yes, come on, let’s go! let’s go, our home is there!” they all go there (to the new tree). at the new tree, after eight days or so, they start to build new comb. conclusion the aristotelian conception of honeybee natural history consisted of accurate insights based on available evidence, as well as (at the time) logical, educated guesswork, in those instances where key evidence was not readily available. the solega appear to have built up their picture of honeybee biology on similar principles. as a different evidence set was available to them, however (the solega only gather wild honey from the forest; they have never been beekeepers), their final notion of honeybee natural history must necessarily differ from that presented in aristotle’s writings, who frequently cites apiarists’ reports to back up his claims. nevertheless, their interactions with wild honeybees over countless generations have enabled the solega to attain an understanding of this important insect’s behavior, migration, reproduction and ecology, which is totally consistent with their observations and experiences. how might the solega have arrived at their conception of honeybee reproduction? in the absence of longitudinal data of any significant time depth, one might hypothesize that some of the mechanisms described in pereira and gupta (1993) are in play: individuals or groups of individuals innovate (in this case, propose an explanation for a poorly-understood phenomenon, such as swarming), the innovation is shared with and tested by the individuals’ peers, and, if found to be useful, is formalized and accepted by the wider community. more specifically, the development of the idea that the queen and worker bees are female may have been facilitated the solega’s cultural milieu – their belief in powerful female deities, for example – as well as by other domains of ethnobiological knowledge: perhaps the observation that elephant herds tend to be led by a matriarch. some younger solega men have attended beekeeping workshops organized by community-developmentoriented ngos, but for the purpose of this study, it was established at the very outset that none of the consultants interviewed here had attended such a workshop. in any case, all stated unambiguously that the information they were providing me had been passed down from their parents. another, and perhaps the most convincing, piece of evidence in favor of an indigenous origin of the information presented here is the presence of key points of disagreement between the solega’s account of honeybee reproduction and the accepted biological facts – the origin of drones is an illustrative example. the solega explanations taken together, even if not wholly accurate from a biologist’s point of view, form a sophisticated and comprehensive account of the mysterious world of honeybee reproduction. acknowledgements i thank the many solega people who took part in this research, including m. r. madha, heddini basavegowda, tammadi dasegowda and nanjegowda. i am also grateful to professors nicholas evans, adrew pawley file:///c:/users/asb0123/appdata/local/temp/ebl_bee_paper_25-06-2013.docx#_enref_9#_enref_9 86 research communication and alan rumsey for their insightful and valuable comments. declarations permissions: none declared. sources of funding: this research was funded by the australian national university and the hans rausing endangered languages project. conflicts of interest: none declared. references cited aristotle. 1953. generation of animals, book iii. harvard university press, cambridge, massachusetts. aristotle. 1991. history of animals, book ix. harvard university press, cambridge, massachusetts. campbell, m. 2006. busy bees: utopia, dystopia, and the very small. journal of medieval and early modern studies 36:619-642. dyer, f. and t. seeley. 1994. colony migration in the tropical honey bee apis dorsata f. (hymenoptera: apidae). insectes sociaux 41:129-140. gedde, j. 1721. the english apiary; or compleat bee master. e. curll, w. mears, and t. corbet, london. lewis, p., g. simons and c. fennig. 2013. ethnologue: languages of the world, seventeenth edition. sil international, dallas. neumann, p., n. koeniger, g. koeniger, s. tingek, p. kryger and r. moritz. 2000. home-site fidelity in migratory honeybees. nature 406:474-475. nonaka, k. 1996. ethnoentomology of the central kalahari san. african study monographs suppl. 22:2946. pereira, w. and a. gupta. 1993. a dialogue on indigenous knowledge. honey bee 4:6-10. posey, d. 1978. ethnoentomological survey of amerind groups in lowland latin america. the florida entomologist 61:225-229. posey, d. 1983. folk apiculture of the kayapo indians of brazil. biotropica 15:154-158. posey, d. 2002. wasps, warriors and fearless men: ethnoentomology of the kayapó indians of central brazil. in kayapó ethnoecology and culture, edited by k. plenderleith, routledge, london. santos, g.d. and y. antonini. 2008. the traditional knowledge on stingless bees (apidae: meliponina) used by the enawene-nawe tribe in western brazil. journal of ethnobiology and ethnomedicine 4. doi: 10.1186/1746-4269-4-19. wyman, l. and f. bailey. 1964. navajo indian ethnoentomology. university of new mexico press, albuquerque. biosketch aung si has training in biology and linguistics, and is currently a mckenzie postdoctoral fellow at the university of melbourne. the tanoak tree: an environmental history of a pacific coast hardwood. by frederica bowcutt. 2015. university of washington press, seattle. 219 pp. french. 2017. ethnobiology letters 8(1):54–55 54 reviews bowcutt’s book demonstrates how ethnobiology can call attention to at-risk species and can reinvigorate the sustainable use of indigenous plants. for example, current livestock production systems in the united states could re-adopt feeding livestock acorns. tannins have strong anti-parasitic properties and could reduce anthelmintic use in commercial livestock production systems (piluzza et al. 2014). indigenous communities (and perhaps entrepreneurs) could produce specialty flours and other products made from tanoak acorns based on traditional processing techniques of the karuk people. these traditions date back 6,000 years and involve soaking, fermenting or grinding the acorns to remove the bitter tannins. although some might question the ethics of using traditional knowledge for commercial gain (particularly by non-indigenous communities) an agreement could be established to funnel part of the financial gain from these products back into local communities and tanoak conservation. the tanoak tree also calls attention to the potential ecological and economic effects of losing cultural keystone species. cultural keystone species are those which have a strong cultural and ecological role within a given society in a specific geographic area (garibaldi and turner 2004). currently, "sudden oak death" (phytophthora ramorum) is rapidly reducing tanoak populations. p. ramorum is a fungus that cuts off the water flow to the tree by blocking xylems, killing trees in weeks. the loss of these trees is devastating to local redwood ecosystems. bowcutt notes that a number of birds (e.g., steller’s jay, cyanocitta stelleri) and mammals (e.g., american black from new medicines to new materials, plants that have been valued historically are now being repurposed for the demands of twenty-first century life. applied ethnobiology plays a strong role in this process by highlighting how specific plants were used in the past and how they can be used and sustainably managed in the future. frederica bowcutt’s book, the tanoak tree: an environmental history of a pacific coast hardwood, focuses on the cultural and environmental history of an indigenous american tree in an effort to reinvigorate the socio-economic use of the tanoak (notholithocarpus densiflorus) in the face of rapid decline. tanoak is the only species in the notholithocarpus genus and is native to the western coast of the united states (oregon to california). tanoaks have a checkered past, with population levels rising and falling in parallel with human exploitation. before colonial times, indigenous groups valued tanoaks as a source of food and used fire to sustainably manage forest productivity and pathogens. in the nineteenth century, tanoak acorns became a prized source of livestock feed for american settlers due to their high protein, fat, carbohydrate and tannin content. tanoak bark also became a cornerstone of emerging tanning industries. at the same time, native communities began clearing tanoaks to graze livestock. these processes greatly reduced tanoak populations, leading to calls by the us forest service and californian department of agriculture in the late nineteenth and twentieth century to reduce over-exploitation. by the twentieth century, tanoaks fell out of economic use and foresters felled these hardwoods in favor of softwoods. today, the tree faces extinction due to pathogens and climate change. the tanoak tree: an environmental history of a pacific coast hardwood. by frederica bowcutt. 2015. university of washington press, seattle. 219 pp. katherine e. french1* 1department of plant sciences, university of oxford, oxford, england. *katherine.french@plants.ox.ac.uk received december 31, 2016 open access accepted february 13, 2017 doi 10.14237/ebl.8.1.2017.862 copyright © 2017 by the author(s) licensee society of ethnobiology. this is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution-noncommercial 4.0 international public license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0), which permits non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. french. 2017. ethnobiology letters 8(1):54–55 55 reviews bear, ursus americanus) consume tanoak acorns. the tree is also host to 265 ecotomycorrhizal fungi, including the american matsuke (tricholoma magnivelare) which is collected by californian tribes for consumption and export, all of which could disappear with the loss of tanoak populations. similar tree diseases (e.g., dutch elm disease, ash dieback) are also increasing in other parts of the world, in part, due to the increased globalization of trade. loss of any of these tree species can have profound effects that ripples through multiple trophic levels and threatens the provision of many forest ecosystem services (boyd et al. 2013). the alarming effect of p. ramorum on tanoak populations is a powerful reminder of how traditional conservation measures (restoring populations, preventing over-harvesting) are powerless in the face of microbial pathogens. bowcott describes several measures currently used (e.g., potassium phosphite, establishing in-situ and ex-situ collections) yet these have had limited success. hopefully the example of the tanoak will spur more research in developing biocontrol systems for microbial pathogens. often biocontrol systems are applied to crops (e.g., seed treatments); few treatments exist for trees and even fewer treatments are applied at the ecosystem level. plants contain thousands of chemicals that can be exploited for this purpose. for example, polyphenols and terpenoids derived from several west-coast conifers (western redcedar, yellow cedar, western juniper, and port orford cedar) showed in vitro antimicrobial activity against p. ramorum and placing woodchips from these species around tanoak trees reduced the abundance of the fungal pathogen (manter et al. 2007). future research could look at compounds from other local plants that target fungal virulence mechanisms (e.g., cell-wall proteins secreting effectors, spore production) and how these might be integrated into current landscapes as a form of low-level pathogen control (meijer et al. 2006). if such biocontrol measures work with tanoaks similar approaches might also be applied to other trees and plants at risk. overall, bowcutt’s book is well-researched and integrates ethnography, ecology, and social history. it will surely be of great interest to anthropologists and american economic historians. numerous photos, diagrams and illustrations enhance the text and give the reader a feel for the cultural landscape of the tanoak. bowcott’s research is an excellent example of how ethnobiology can inform conservation and resource management and will hopefully spur similar ‘life histories’ of species at risk of extinction. references cited boyd, i. l., p. h. freer-smith, c. a. gilligan, and h. c. j. godfray. 2013. the consequence of tree pests and diseases for ecosystem services. science 342:1235773. garibaldi, a., and n. turner. 2004. cultural keystone species: implications for ecological conservation and restoration. ecology and society 9:1. manter, d. k., r. g. kelsey, and j. j. karchesy. 2007. antimicrobial activity of extractable conifer heartwood compounds toward phytophthora ramorum. journal of chemical ecology 33:2133–2147. meijer, h. j. g., p. j. i. van de vondervoort, q. y. yin, c. g. de koster, f. m. klis, f. govers, and p. w. j. de groot. 2006. identification of cell wallassociated proteins from phytophthora ramorum. molecular plant-microbe interactions 19:1348–1358. piluzza, g., l. sulas, and s. bullitta. 2014. tannins in forage plants and their role in animal husbandry and environmental sustainability: a review. grass and forage science 69:32–48. wild cultures: a comparison between chimpanzee and human cultures 73 book review in the first two chapters, boesch reviews approaches to the study of animal culture and definitions of culture. he goes on to suggest that our greatest limitation in understanding culture, as well as observing and describing similarities and differences between homo sapiens and other primate species, is our tendency for ethnocentric and anthropocentric thinking. in other words, we admit our close evolutionary heritage but do not think of ourselves as primates. we consider ourselves far from nature, and we have a “superior” position due to culture (garcía raso 2013; haslam et al. 2009). in order to make valid comparisons, boesch argues that cultural phenomena are the result of interactions between ecological conditions and actions of group members. therefore, culture in humans and chimpanzees is reflected in material, symbolic, and social domains. he criticizes the research and validity of experimental studies on cognition without a social context – “culture outside of culture” – because cultural behaviors are best observed in natural habitats during normal social interactions. he explains that through an ethnographic field approach it is possible to witness, observe, experience, and describe these behavioral processes among chimpanzees. this approach has the potential to further enrich our understanding of chimpanzee cultural diversity and facilitates comparison with human culture. in the third chapter, boesch describes the material culture domain among chimpanzees by comparing different populations. he demonstrates how the creation and use of tools broadens access to new food sources and shapes their physical world, which in the end plays a crucial role in the survival of individuals. he suggests that successive generations may socially in wild cultures: a comparison between chimpanzee and human cultures christophe boesch, professor and director of the department of primatology at max planck institute of evolutionary anthropology in germany, employees a comparative ethnographic approach to discuss the controversial topic of animal culture in apes and its diversity in comparison to human culture. through the nine chapters of this book and based on his long research experience in côte d´ivoire and gabon, boesch makes compelling contributions to the ongoing debate about human and animal culture. although the book is written for professional experimental psychologists, it will also be of interest to students in psychology, anthropology, primatology, and biology, as well as professional social and biological scientists. indeed, the author’s style makes thorny issues more accessible to a general audience such as our uniqueness as human beings, the nature of our close chimpanzee relatives, and the definition of culture. in my view, this book provides both a methodological twist and a new point of departure for thinking about the theoretical opposition between the notions of human/animal and culture/nature among western scholars. in proposing a holistic perspective, boesch questions the closed groups in which we have enclosed ourselves as social scientists and biologists in regard to discussions about what makes us human, what we share with other primates, and how we obtained our unique characteristics (morin 1973). he also points out that the question of “what makes us humans” entails such complexity in the definition of culture in nature that it can only be answered by admitting that both humans and animals have culture. wild cultures: a comparison between chimpanzee and human cultures christophe boesch. 2012. cambridge university press. pp. 276, 68 b & w illustrations, 11 tables. £60 (hardback). isbn 9781109025370. reviewed by diana rocío carvajal contreras reviewer address: facultad de estudios de patrimonio cultural, carrera de arqueología, universidad externado de colombia. diana.carvajal@uexternado.edu.co received: may 27, 2013 volume: 4:73-75 published: july 9, 2013 © 2013 society of ethnobiology mailto:diana.carvajal@uexternado.edu.co 74 book review learn and improve techniques that build on earlier achievements through a cumulative evolutionary process. this is similar to human material cultures even though humans face a greater diversity of environments and therefore have a greater diversity of tools. in the next chapter, boesch discusses the importance of social culture for chimpanzees. their social culture expresses itself in various social behaviors long assumed to be unique to homo sapiens, such as hunting cooperation, altruism, and sharing food. the differences in social behaviors among chimpanzee populations are related to ecological differences and are decisive to the survival of individuals of each group. in chapter five, boesch reveals that different populations of chimpanzees—taï, mahale, and bossu—invent symbols and adhere to cultural conventions. using selected examples, boesch argues that none of these are uniquely human characteristics. according to boesch, basic aspects of this symbolic domain are shared by humans and chimpanzees. after reviewing chimpanzee achievements in the three cultural domains (material, social, and symbolic), boesch focuses on how chimpanzees teach and acquire cultural traits. he emphasizes the importance of imitating behavior for juvenile individuals, not only from their mothers but from other members of the group as well, and how vital such learning is for their survival as adult group members. according to the author, this pattern is similar to how humans acquire culture, but the parallels include the diversity of teaching styles. the teaching style is in accordance with the task in either material or symbolic domains and varies according to the particular population. chapter seven addresses how chimpanzees react to death and injuries of group members. boesch presents compelling evidence that ivorian and tanzanian chimpanzees, like elephants, dolphins, whales, gorillas, and humans, share an understanding of the notion of death and strong empathy toward individuals in need. in the next chapter, boesch compares chimpanzee and human culture and cognition. however, due to the scarcity of studies in other chimpanzee communities and the destruction of their habitats, data are insufficient to make meaningful comparisons. boesch suggests that such comparisons require future research. the author also questions whether the divergence between findings from captive and wild chimpanzees may be related to the social and natural environments. in other words, chimpanzees in captivity are not representatives of all species. as in humans, the conditions in which they develop have important effects on their cognitive development. in the last chapter, the author reviews the themes of the book with an emphasis on the uniqueness of human and chimpanzee cultures, rather than on their similarities. he argues that human uniqueness is related to the diversity in material culture, a mixture of learning mechanisms, complex social culture, and a greater degree of symbolic culture. the author adds that uniqueness is even more marked by the language skills of our species and the different environmental challenges that humans faced during their evolution. in comparison, chimpanzee culture has the same three cultural domains but to a lesser degree. chimpanzees use learning mechanisms such as teaching and imitation. i found boesch´s arguments appealing for his intended audience. his use of tables, diagrams, and pictures encourages reflection about the separation between chimpanzees and humans, the dichotomy between nature and culture, and the perceptions of the social and biological sciences with regard to the status of chimpanzees (strier 2003). the initial comparison proposed by boesch is a meaningful contribution to our understanding of human evolution and distinctiveness and towards a redefinition of our dualistic point of view about human-animal boundaries. the numerous examples presented in this book are clear indications that primatology from the methodological point of view is not going back and forth from ethnography to ethology. both perceptions and methodologies will work in an integrative way to understand behavioral variation between humans and chimpanzees. references cited garcía raso, d. 2013. los otros hijos de efesto: uso y fabricación de herramientas en animales no humanos. jas arqueología, madrid. haslam, m., a. hernandez-aguilar, v. ling, s. carvalho, i. de la torre, a. destefano, a. du, b. hardy, j. harris, l. marchant, t. matsuzawa, w. mcgrew, j. mercader, r. mora, m. petraglia, h. roche, e. visalberghi, and r. warren. 2009. primate archaeology. nature 460:339-344. morin, e. 1973. el paradigma perdido, ensayo de 75 book review bioantropología. editorial kairos, barcelona. strier, k. 2003. primate behavioral ecology: from ethnography to ethology and back. american anthropologist 105:16-27. 23 research communication when is a fish not a fish? questions raised by a nage life-form category gregory forth author address: 13-15 hm tory university of alberta edmonton, alberta canada t6g 2h4 gforth@ualberta.ca received: january 20, 2012 volume 3:23-30 published: june 12, 2012 © 2012 society of ethnobiology abstract: speakers of a central-malayo-polynesian language, the nage inhabit the central region of the eastern indonesian island of flores. their folk taxonomy of animals (ana wa) contains three named life-form taxa, one of which is ika, fish. a review of component folk-generic taxa, however, reveals that nage do not classify five kinds of freshwater fish as ‘fish’ (ika), even though they further apply ika to various marine fish (including sharks and rays) as well as to marine mammals. the article considers this peculiarity of nage folk zoological taxonomy, and how it might affect an understanding of ika as denoting a ‘fish’ life-form taxon. the main conclusion is that the five excluded categories—distinguished largely on morphological and behavioural grounds, and conveniently designated as the ‘tebhu cluster’, after one of their members—are contrasted primarily with freshwater species which nage do classify as ‘fish’ (ika). specified by name as ika lowo (‘river fish’), these are further contrasted with another named folk-intermediate taxon of ‘marine fish’ (ika mesi). from this, it is argued that, as a life-form category, ika should be understood as implicitly including the five members of the ‘tebhu cluster’ as a third, albeit covert, folk-intermediate taxon. key words: life-forms, fish, marine fish, freshwater fish, nage, folk taxonomy introduction the theory of ‘life-forms’ is well established in ethnobiology. in regard to animals, it is widely accepted that people the world over distinguish large, general classes of creatures coinciding with english vernacular ‘bird’, ‘snake’, and the like, which further reveal some coincidence with scientific taxa, such as classes, orders, and sub-orders. life-forms (such as ‘bird’) may be ‘covert’, which is to say unnamed. but evidence for these folk taxa is obviously clearest when they are named, and moreover named with single lexemes (german ‘vogel’, translating as english ‘bird’, provides a good example). as brown (1984) has demonstrated, languages vary in the number of life-form taxa they name, and such named taxa occur in a relatively fixed order. thus, where there is just one term, this will be ‘fish’, ‘snake’, or ‘bird’; where there are two, they will be two of these three; and where there are three, they will, almost without exception, be precisely these three. also, when there are four or five life-form terms, ‘fish’, ‘snake’, and ‘bird’ will be retained, so to speak, while terms for ‘mammal’ and ‘wug’ (a term coined to describe folk categories mostly comprising small invertebrates) will be added to this more basic triad. in this respect, it may be noted, brown’s thesis is essentially similar to the ‘evolutionary’ approach proposed with reference to colour terminology by berlin and kay (1969). among the most basic of named life-form taxa— or employing the evolutionary idiom, the ‘earliest’ to be named—are ‘fish’ and ‘snake’. the nage of flores island, eastern indonesian cultivators and hunters whose folk classification of animals is the subject of the present discussion, name just three life-forms. two of these, ‘snake’ (nipa) and ‘fish’ (ika) are designated with single lexemes, while ‘bird’ is normally labeled by the descriptive phrase ana wa ta’a co, meaning ‘animals that fly’. closer attention to the content of the classes, however, reveals peculiarities of the ‘fish’ category. nage ika includes a variety of marine and riverine creatures, all of which typically fall within a ‘fish’ lifeform in other ethnozoological taxonomies, yet it excludes a number of freshwater species which vernacular english speakers would classify as fish and which fall under the rubric of ‘fish’ as commonly employed in scientific discourse.1 in other words, the nage appear to consider a number of fish as non-fish. it might therefore be asked whether ika can in fact be mailto:gforth@ualberta.ca 24 research communication fully comprehended as a life-form taxon, as opposed to a smaller, more exclusive grouping, or whether nage ethnotaxonomy is more accurately characterized as incorporating two life-forms that apply to ‘fish’. as this may suggest, the case also draws attention to features of the concept of life-form in general. ethnographic details and formal particulars residing in central flores just north of the ebu lobo volcano, nage are a highland people. as such, their experience of fish is limited to several riverine species and, nowadays, fish sold, either fresh or dried, in weekly markets. during the last decade, in more developed settlements, fresh fish have become available for purchase on a daily basis, from young men who travel by motorbike outside the nage region to the port settlement of ende, each morning bringing back fish in large plastic containers. in central nage, the main focus of my ethnographic research,2 fish have thus become an important part of daily diets, and being consumed in significantly greater quantities than fowl or meat, they are now a major source of protein. by contrast, in former times, fish and other freshwater creatures, caught with hooks and lines, nets, traps, and stone weirs, were of far less dietary importance. it is also noteworthy that, apart from the ae sésa, central flores’ major river located to the north of central nage territory, water courses containing fish are restricted to small rivers and streams, and that, while people do still fish, bodies of freshwater suitable for fishing are somewhat more restricted than they were in the early twentieth century, owing to alterations to water courses to facilitate wet-rice cultivation, introduced during the colonial era. like indonesian (or malay) ikan and in fact words for ‘fish’ in most malayo-polynesian languages and two formosan languages, nage ika (fish) reflects protoaustronesian *sikan (blust 2002:125; cf. zorc 1994:545, 591, who notes that the prototerm literally means ‘what is used for eating’, thus ‘food’). as shown in table 1, ika comprises two sub-categories which, following berlin’s scheme, can be construed as ‘folkintermediate’ taxa. one is ‘sea fish’, a category that comprises fish not further distinguished by individual nage names but which are known simply as ika or ika mesi (mesi is ‘salty; saltwater, the sea’). nowadays fish of this sort, mostly encountered as dead specimens for sale, are distinguished by indonesian names, for example, ikan tonggkol, ‘tunny fish’. also included among ‘sea fish’ are creatures that, according to international zoology, are not fish, in particular marine mammals. at least one marine fish which is not classified as a fish (ika, ika mesi) is ipu, the immature form of a fish species which enters estuaries during certain months of the year, where coastal dwellers catch them in large numbers. the other sub-category of ika is ika lowo (‘river fish’). of these, central nage nominally distinguish four folk-generic taxa as indigenous kinds (see table 1, section 1a). however, informants consistently describe all of these as having disappeared from local rivers and streams. nage attribute this disappearance to the construction of the irrigation dam in mbai, just upstream of the estuary of the ae sésa river, in the 1960s. they further remark how some returned temporarily following a breach of the mbai dam sometime in the 1970s or 1980s. all kinds of ika lowo (river fish), therefore, are evidently species that spend part of the life cycle in saltwater. all water courses in the nage region, it should be noted, ultimately flow northwards and empty into the ae sésa upstream of the dam. this ecological change would seem to explain statements i occasionally recorded to the effect that all animals nage classify as ika (fish) are sea fish. at the same time, there are several species of freshwater fish which have been introduced to central flores during the twentieth century, some for farming in paddy-fields which have subsequently escaped into local rivers. there are three or possibly four kinds of these, and all are known only by their names in the indonesian national language (see table 1 section 1b); hence it is commonly claimed that, nowadays, all ika lowo (or freshwater fish) are introduced varieties. definitely excluded from the category ika are five folk-generic taxa comprising several species of freshwater fish (see table 1, section 3). for reasons i explain below, these can be collectively designated as the ‘tebhu cluster’. although i have not been able to confirm species identifications for the several nage categories, from questioning with photographs and illustrations stored on a lap-top computer and from detailed informant descriptions, the majority appear to be members of the gobiidae. because all five are creatures that are classified as ikan (‘fish’) in indonesian, the national language in which almost all nage are nowadays fluent, the consistency with which nage characterize the five kinds as not belonging to the category ika is remarkable. nage, moreover, can readily articulate reasons why they do not classify them as ika. ika, they say, have thin (that is, elliptical) bodies covered in scales, with the height far exceeding the width. they also swim freely at mid-depth or near the surface of the water, and they travel in groups. by 25 research communication contrast, the five kinds composing the tebhu cluster, nage point out, have round bodies with scales only on the head or the front part of the body, and they are always found on or near the bottom of streams or pools, either adhering to rocks or burying themselves in sand. finally, whereas ika swim freely and are generally active, members of the tebhu group are described as moving only in order to feed and, unlike fish classified as ika, as swimming separately rather than in shoals. curiously, these criteria would appear to exclude introduced scaleless and round-bodied catfish (ikan léle or ika léle) from the category of ika. however, i suspect that, insofar as nage do count of these as ika, the usage reflects the national language specification of these fish as a kind of ikan. the fact that catfish have a recognized external origin also accords with the classification of a variety of marine creatures as ika, these of course being similarly alien to nage highlanders. although nage have no collective name for the five members of the tebhu cluster, by virtue of the common morphological and behavioural features just described they clearly recognize them as a group and regularly mention them together in free recall listing of freshwater creatures. an especially close relationship between two kinds is revealed by the names ana tebhu and tebhu teke, ‘gecko tebhu’ (see table 1, section 3). since ana (contextually meaning ‘animal, member, instance of a kind’) is an optional component of many nage animal names, tebhu can be understood as a short form of ana tebhu; hence tebhu teke could be regarded as a sub-category of tebhu (meaning ana tebhu). nage explicitly compare other members of the cluster ana tebhu. ana tebhu are described as possessing discs or suckers and attaching themselves to rocks in streambeds; so too are kaka watu, whose name ‘attaches, holds on to stones’ explicitly refers to this behaviour. one man also described kaka watu as climbing on to rocks after leaving the water, thus suggesting a mudskipper, although mudskippers are not clearly attested on flores (monk et al. 1997). employing a formulation typical of nage taxonomic discourse, one of my most knowledgeable and articulate sources on nage folk zoology stated that there are “three kinds of ana tebhu: tebhu teke, kaka watu, and ana tebhu.”3 another informant specified the fish called pusu as “a kind of ana tebhu” (bhia ko’o ana tebhu), an expression which however commonly refers to resemblance rather than class inclusion. i seem not to have recorded a similar statement regarding su lai, but as evidenced by its name, ‘sand penetrator’, this fish remains at the bottom of streambeds and to that extent exhibits behaviour characteristic of all members of the group. as a covert category, the tebhu cluster evidently has its focus in ana tebhu, probably a member of the genus sicyopterus, and the folk-generic to which other members of the unnamed grouping are regularly compared. another indication of this focal status is the standard compound kuza tebhu, ‘prawns and tebhu fish’, a utilitarian category that refers generally to edible creatures found in fresh water. thus compounded, tebhu therefore implicitly includes other fish besides the one designated ana tebhu, although of course the term, or the entire expression, encompasses much else besides. in the same context, kuza tebhu is synonymous with the more common utilitarian compound kuza tuna, prawns and eels (see also kogha wawi, kuza tuna [deer and pigs, prawns and eels], an expression denoting all wild foods deriving from land and freshwater, and even all food deemed fit for human consumption). interestingly, among utilitarian categories ika (fish) appears only to occur in ika kima (fish and shellfish), a reference to foods derived from the sea. in this context the term obviously refers specifically to marine fish—a circumstance consistent with the modern situation where, apart from freshwater exotics, the only fish classified as ika that are consumed by nage are marine fish. as indicated in table 1 (section 4), eels (tuna) formally resemble members of the tebhu cluster insofar as they too are not considered ika (fish). eels are of course classified as fish in english scientific discourse, and they can also be counted as ikan (fish) in indonesian. in anglophone folk zoology, however, ‘fish’ and ‘eel’ are usually treated as a simple contrast, which is to say most anglophones would not regard eels as a kind of fish. in this comparison, the nage exclusion of ana tebhu and related folk-generics from the category labelled ika may appear less peculiar; yet possible reasons for the nage contrast still require discussion. as all members of the tebhu cluster are eaten, as are all ika, the distinction has no relation to edibility. it is also largely devoid of ritual or cosmological import. the one possible exception concerns the spiritual beings nage call nitu. when encountered in animal guises these spirits mostly take the form of snakes, but they can also appear as freshwater fish, eels, and crustaceans. their identification as fish applies largely to traditional narratives, where they are specified simply as ika (fish); accordingly, in response to my question, i was told that nitu never take the form of ana tebhu or other creatures belonging to the tebhu cluster. the 26 research communication nage characterization of members of this group as being only partly covered in scales is interesting in relation to the abominations of leviticus (11:12; cf. deuteronomy 14:10), wherein “whatsoever hath no fins nor scales in the waters” is deemed unclean and is therefore prohibited. also, the fact that they occur on the bottom of streambeds and do not swim freely in clear water is reminiscent of the biblical abomination of creeping or crawling creatures. but whereas the old testament taboos define which animals can and cannot be eaten or otherwise used, the nage distinction has no such significance, and in fact the taxonomic contrast, founded on features of morphology and behaviour, lacks virtually any symbolic or utilitarian dimension. the nage restriction of ika to certain kinds of freshwater fish, and their explicit exclusion of several other kinds, is remarkable not only in relation to the extension of ika to a wide variety of marine creatures (including sharks, rays, and sea mammals) but also in comparison with the extension of indonesian/malay ikan. the indonesian cognate can occur in compounds denoting eels (ikan belut), squid and cuttlefish (ikan cumi-cumi, ikan sotong), dugong (ikan duyung), sharks (ikan hiu), dolphins (ikan lumba-lumba), rays (ikan pari), whales (ikan paus, ikan lodan), and jellyfish (ikan ubur-ubur)—that is, a large variety of fish and non-fish, vertebrates and invertebrates, as well as numerous other kinds of freshwater and saltwater fish (stevens and schmidgall-tellings 2004). in fact, several nage compound names for ‘sea fish’ may reflect the influence of malay or the malay-based national language. examples include ika pau (malay ikan paus), ika duyu (ikan duyung), ika pai (ikan pari), and ika iu (ikan hiu). the only nage folkgeneric denoting a marine creature classified as ika which does not obviously conform to this pattern is lobhu, ‘dolphin’ (cf. malay lumba-lumba), in part because the name is never in my experience prefixed by ika. on the other hand, the broad application of ika to marine species cannot simply be ascribed to the influence of malay, for one could then reasonably expect the same to apply to the several freshwater fish which nage insist are not ika. it might be hypothesized that names of such ‘sea fish’ (ika mesi) as, for example, ika duyu (dugong) and ika méze (whale, or ‘great fish’) are non-productive compounds, that is, essentially metaphorical usages which are to be understood as denoting ‘real’ fish no more than does the english name ‘silverfish’ (designating a small silvercoloured invertebrate). the suggestion is however purely speculative; it is not definitively borne out by nage statements and would be difficult to subject to further test. a better explanation for the comprehensive character of the category ika mesi may be found in the ecological circumstance that, traditionally and still largely at present, highland nage are unfamiliar with creatures like cetaceans (whales and dolphins) and sirenians (dugongs), as well as sharks and rays, knowing only that these all possess the same general shape as freshwater fish and live in the sea. it may even be speculated that ika has been adopted as something of a provisional label for these unfamiliar creatures which, moreover, nage rarely need to identify, name, or classify in any case. at the same time, this interpretation may not be essentially different from the interpretation of ika méze (‘great fish’, whale), for example, as an unproductive compound. analysis and conclusion ika qualifies as a life-form taxon since it includes a wide variety of folk-generics of the same general form. the category also subsumes two named folkintermediate taxa (ika lowo and ika mesi), and like other life-forms it possesses a focal structure. nowadays the most focal of fish—those kinds considered the ‘best examples’ of ika and which are mostly likely to be mentioned first in free-recall—are probably sea fish regularly encountered in modern markets. before the early part of the 20th century, and thus before the establishment of markets, saltwater fish were rarely encountered by nage highlanders; also, prior to the last few decades, such fish were mostly available as dried filets, not as complete specimens. traditionally, therefore, the most typical ika were almost certainly ika lowo, the grouping of four categories incorporating ika in their names which are no longer present in nage inland waters owing to the mbai dam. no explanation is available for the nage exclusion of five folk-generics of freshwater fish from the taxon ika. the separation appears curious especially in view of the inclusion in ika of sea fish and other marine animals, particularly as many of the latter are, according to nage folk zoologists’ own criteria—elliptical shape, scales, swimming in shoals at mid-depth or close to the surface—even less like ika lowo (river fish) than are ana tebhu and other excluded members of what i call the ‘tebhu cluster’. by the same token, it is evident that exclusion of the tebhu cluster from ika is contextual, relating specifically to perceptible contrasts among species of freshwater fish. as noted, nage are explicit, even insistent, that these five kinds are not ‘fish’ (ika). in this, one may be tempted to suggest that they “protest too much,” and that the contrast they 27 research communication articulate between ika and the tebhu group is best understood as a hyperbolic way of emphasizing a suite of morphological and behavioural differences. yet, quite apart from the fact that it is always risky to second guess one’s informants, the distinction holds little if any practical importance for nage; thus, hyperbolic or otherwise, its motivation remains unclear. based on explicit morphological and behavioural traits, the contextual character of the contrast of ika and the tebhu cluster, applying specifically to a particular level of nage animal taxonomy, raises other possibilities. in fact, this specificity strongly suggests that the five non-ika are perceived as distinct not so much from ika as an entire life-form as from the taxon specified as ika lowo (river fish). this in turn allows for the implicit inclusion of the tebhu cluster in ika in the broader sense—even though nage speak simply of ika as the category with which the cluster contrasts. the tebhu grouping would then together compose an unnamed folk-intermediate taxon forming part of the life-form ika. since the five folk-generics are implicitly recognized as a group, showing a variety of common features and not simply composing a negative category in opposition to ika lowo (river fish), they cannot be treated as a congeries of unaffiliated folk-generics. one alternative might be to consider them as a covert lifeform contrasting with ‘fish’ in general, that is, ika subsuming both ika lowo and ika mesi (thus also sharks, whales, dugongs, and so on). but as we have seen, the contrast for nage evidently pertains only to the first of these two taxa.4 there is just one other formal possibility, namely to regard the tebhu cluster as an unaffiliated covert folk-intermediate, that is, an unnamed category comprised of several named folkgeneric categories which is not itself subsumed by any more inclusive category except, of course, the nage ‘unique-beginner’ taxon animal or creature (ana wa). this, however, requires viewing the tebhu cluster as a group of creatures that nage regard as fundamentally distinct from all fish (ika), and this is not supported by the evidence. in addition, although ‘folk-intermediate’ obviously has a relative sense, it raises the formal question of whether the analytical concept can usefully be applied to a category that does not form part of any life-form.5 revealing obvious differences between nage classification of fish, scientific taxonomy, and vernacular classifications found in english, bahasa indonesia (malay), and other languages, the present case might seem to call aspects of the ‘life-form’ concept into question and even raise doubts about the intellectualist or universalist theory of ethnobiological classification as a whole. to reject the theory categorically, however, would be to throw the proverbial baby out with the bath water—or, perhaps more appropriately in this instance, the fish with the pond water. as with animals of other kinds, fish are classified in nage folk taxonomy primarily on morphological and behavioural grounds and by a principle of inclusion effecting a hierarchy of four levels: animal (ana wa)—fish (ika)—e.g. river fish (ika lowo)—and e.g. ika hepa (see table 1). as this specification shows, ‘life-form’ figures as an essential component of the scheme, and even if ika does not subsume the tebhu cluster, this circumstance does not compromise the status of ika as a life-form category. to this extent, nage classification can be seen to conform to a pattern grounded in a pan-human cognition based on perception of natural discontinuity. but this is a pattern best understood not as a rigid template, but as a set of basic principles that allows for variation in different ethno-linguistic environments. indeed, nage ichthyological taxonomy exemplifies such variation with especially clarity, revealing what is evidently a particular cultural shaping of a fundamentally universal scheme. on the one hand, ika is maintained as a named life-form category. on the other, a specifically nage classification has, as it were, subtracted from this a series of folk-generics that would very likely be included in a ‘fish’ life-form in other cultural and linguistic settings. my basic conclusion, that the tebhu cluster should be understood as a covert folk-intermediate within the life-form ika, might seem to support suggestions that folk-intermediates are specifically cultural categories (brown 1974, atran 1983). yet what specific cultural factors could account for this feature of nage fish taxonomy remains undetermined. despite the location of the contrast of ika (=ika lowo) and the tebhu cluster at the level of folk-intermediate taxa, it might just be considered that a new utilitarian value on freshly caught saltwater fish, now almost challenging meat as a preferred food, has influenced the distinction nage make between two different forms of freshwater fish. but there is no evidence that this value is the origin of the distinction, while other evidence suggests that the contrast is much older than the hypothesis would require. references cited arndt, p. 1961. wörterbuch der ngadhasprache. studia instituti anthropos, 15. anthropos-institut, posieux, fribourg, suisse. 28 research communication atran, s. 1983. covert fragmenta and the origin of the biological family. man 18:51-71. berlin, b. 1992. ethnobiological classification: principles of categorization of plants and animals in traditional societies. princeton university press, princeton, nj. berlin, b. and p. kay. 1969. basic color terms: their universality and evolution. university of california press, berkeley. blust, r. 2002. the history of faunal terms in austronesian languages. oceanic linguistics 41:89-139. brown, c. h. 1974. unique beginners and covert categories in folk biological taxonomies. american anthropologist 76:325-27. brown, c.h. 1984. language and living things: uniformities in folk classification and naming. rutgers university press, new brunswick, nj. forth, g.. n.d. nage lizard classification: free-listing and other evidence for a covert life-form. to appear in anthropological linguistics. monk, k., y. de fretes, and g.reksodiharjo-lilley. 1997. the ecology of nusa tenggara and maluku. periplus editions, hong kong. stevens, a. m. and a. ed. schmidgall-tellings. 2004. a comprehensive indonesian-english dictionary. ohio university press, columbus. zorc, r. d. p. 1994. austronesian culture history through reconstructed vocabulary (an overview). in austronesian terminologies: continuity and change (pacific linguistics series c-127), edited by a.k. pawley and m.d. ross, pp. 541-594. department of linguistics, research school of pacific and asian studies, the australian national university, canberra. biosketch gregory forth is a social/cultural anthropologist and ethnozoologist. his most recent book is images of the wildman in southeast asia (2008). table 1: nage names of fish (ika) with descriptive notes ika lowo (river fish) or ika ae ([fresh] water fish) native kinds ika wonga huma huma flower fish; huma is a tree whose white blossoms the fish’s colour resembles; unidentified (ika) hepa broom fish; possibly so named because the fish can grow as long as a hand broom (hepa); some evidence suggests ika hepa may be the most focal member of this group; unidentified (ika) izu nguza ‘nose, snout fish’; (izu (nose); nguza can mean ‘sprout’ or ‘young, newly emerged’; so called because it sticks its snout about the water; unidentified ika léro (or leo) léro fish; so named because of its yellowish markings resembling the skin pattern of the timorese python (python timoriensis peters pythonidae), called goka leo; unidentified in some flores languages léro is ‘yellow’; also the /r/ commonly included in the name suggests a possible external derivation since /r/ has disappeared from several nage dialects.) in central nage leo denotes the black-naped oriole (oriolus chinensis l. oriolidae). exotic kinds introduced in the 20th century and known only by indonesian (malay) names (identifications from stevens and schmidgall-tellings 2004) 29 research communication ikan léle (or ika léle) kind of catfish, clerius melanoderm ikan mas goldfish, kind of carp, cyprinus carpio l. cyprinidae ikan mujair tilapia, a freshwater fish, tilapia mossambica peters chichlidae ikan nila unidentified (mentioned by one informant only) ika mesi (sea fish) or ika lau (seaward fish) ika or ika mesi various species of marine bony fishes (osteichthyes), for example, the tunny or bluefin tuna (thynnus thunnina cuvier carangidae), in indonesian called ikan tongkol; there are no nage names for individual kinds of sea fish, and nage distinguish these only with indonesian names duyu or ika duyu dugong, dugong dugon muller dugongidae ika méze whales (literally ‘big fish’), also called ika pau (from indonesian ikan paus, ‘whale’) iu or ika iu sharks ika pai (or pari) rays lobhu dolphin (delphinidae); probably referring most often to peponocephala electra gray delphinidae, melon-headed dolphin, or stenella coeruleoalba meyen delphinidae, striped dolphin (monk et al. 1997:462) tebhu cluster ana tebhu probably sicyopterus sp. tebhu teke also sicyopterus; described as resembling ana tebhu but distinguished by a head shaped like that of the tockay gecko (gekko gecko l. gekkonidae), teke kaka watu or kebhi watu probably stenogobius sp.; described as attaching itself to rocks at the bottom of streams (kaka and kabhi both mean ‘to attach, adhere’; watu is ‘rock’ or ‘stone’ pusu pusu also means ‘heart’; described as larger than ana tebhu and as also resembling a catfish (ikan léle); unidentified su lai so named because it lives in sandy stream beds; su, means ‘to penetrate, enter’; lai is ‘sand’; unidentified 30 research communication other aquatic creatures not identified as ika (fish) tuna eels; three or four kinds are distinguished kuza crustaceans, especially freshwater prawns, crayfish; nominally distinguished into four or more varieties ana fe tadpoles, generally recognized as creatures which transform (bale) into frogs (pake) kea, kea mesi marine turtles ipu fry, immature form of fish which in certain months enter estuaries from the sea where they are caught in large numbers by coastal dwellers podhe possibly an immature prawn (cf. arndt 1961); known to most nage only as an unidentified sea creature which characteristically enters estuaries in advance of ipu 2 1 in scientific zoology ‘fish’ is a notably various category and for that reason may be judged not particularly ‘scientific’. it covers two scientific classes: osteichthyes (bony fish), sometimes treated as a superclass, and chondrichthyes (cartilaginous fish, including sharks, rays, and skates). comprising lampreys and hagfish, a third group is the agnatha, or ‘jawless fish’, now recognized as a superclass and sometimes not considered true fish. by contrast, ‘bird’ and ‘mammal’, for example, respectively coincide with two scientific classes (aves and mammalia). 2 by ‘central nage’ i refer to the inhabitants of the three original ‘nage desa’ (administrative ‘villages’ or municipalities) centered on the colonial capital village of bo’a wae. 3 an additional category may be ana bo. however, while sometimes described as a creature morphologically similar to but smaller than ana tebhu, other information suggests the term may be a dialectal name for the fish central nage call ana tebhu. in his dictionary of the neighbouring ngadha language, arndt (1961:198 s.v. cana [=ana]) gives cana bo and cana bebu as ‘small river fish’. 4 in regard to internal resemblance, and indeed the number of component generics, the tebhu cluster recalls the five lizard taxa named by nage. elsewhere (forth n.d.) i have argued that these do indeed compose an unnamed life-form. however, crucial to this determination is evidence for nage recognition of ‘lizard’ not only as a distinct grouping of animals but as one represented as contrasting with ‘snake’ (nipa), one of the named nage life-forms. 5 this analysis may raise questions about other areas of nage classification of aquatic creatures, especially eels (tuna) and crustaceans (kuza). although the matter cannot be properly treated here, both tuna and kuza are best understood as unaffiliated folk-generics, each further divided into a number of ‘folk-specifics’ (sensu berlin 1992). in response to free-listing of freshwater creatures, tuna and kuza are accordingly mentioned, without further specification, along with the folk-generics listed in table 1. microsoft word simsproof.doc ethnobiology letters                                                                                           research communication      40 tusk or bone? an example of ivory substitute in the wildlife trade  margaret e. sims, barry w. baker, & robert m. hoesch  author address: u.s. national fish and wildlife forensics laboratory (nfwfl), 1490 e. main st. ashland, or 97520  cookie_sims@fws.gov       received: may 6th 2011                         volume 2:40‐44  published: august 14th 2011                       © 2011 society of ethnobiology  abstract:  bone  carvings  (and  other  ivory  substitutes)  are  common  in  the modern‐day  lucrative  international  ivory  trade.   souvenirs  for unknowing  travelers and market  shoppers  can be made of non‐biological material  (plastic  "ivory" beads) or  skillfully crafted natural objects made to resemble something other than their true origin.  many of these items are received at  the  u.  s.  national  fish  and wildlife  forensics  laboratory  (nfwfl)  for  species  identification  as  part  of  law  enforcement  investigations.  morphologists at the lab often receive uniquely carved ivory items that have been imported with little or no  documentation.  in recent years, analysts examined several purported ivory tusks suspected to be walrus, a protected marine  mammal.   after examination, the lab determined their origin as carved  leg bones of cattle using principles and methods of  zooarchaeology and ancient dna analysis.  the naturally long and straight ungulate metapodials had been cut, carved, filled,  stained, and polished to closely resemble unmodified ivory tusks.  morphological species identification of these bones proved  to be a  challenge  since diagnostic  characters of  the bones had been altered and  country of origin was unknown. genetic  analysis showed that the bones originated from cattle.   while bone  is commonly used as a substitute for  ivory, this style of  artifact was not previously documented in the wildlife trade prior to our analysis.  archaeological ethnobiologists commonly  encounter bone tools and other forms of material culture from prehistoric and historic contexts; in this case bone tools come  from a modern  context,  thus  the application of methods  common  in  zooarchaeology are  situated  in wildlife  forensics.    in  addition, results reported here pertain to cross‐cultural ivory trade and conservation science.  key words: imitation ivory, bone, bos taurus, wildlife trade    introduction the nfwfl functions as scientific analytical support of the law enforcement efforts of the united states fish and wildlife service (usfws) to uphold state, federal, and international wildlife laws and treaties. unfortunately, illegal or improperly declared wildlife parts and products are routinely discovered in personal luggage, mail, and commercial shipments by inspectors at ports of entry to the u.s. confiscated items1 were submitted to analysts at the national fish and wildlife forensic laboratory for species identification as a paired set of ivory tusks (figure 1 bottom, single tusk pictured). the items were assigned to the morphology section of the lab to be identified using ivory identification techniques previously described (espinoza and mann 2000). the items were examined visually, and identification was made by macroscopic comparison with reference to a collection of known reference materials and published literature. no documentation of their origin was provided at the time of analysis. bone has been used as a natural ivory substitute for decades, and bone tools in general were used extensively by prehistoric peoples for thousands of years (shell 1983, krzyszkowska 1990). bone has even been called the “poor man’s ivory” (abrams 1987). it is no surprise that bone material continues to appear in wildlife forensic casework. evidence received at the nfwfl often includes bone jewelry, decorative boxes, statues, and modified artifacts (figure 1). although the material is light in color and can be polished to a smooth surface, the structure of bone is different from ivory. although ivory (carvable dentine) and bone share similar chemistry, ivory is a denser material (s. o’connor, 1984; t. p. o’connor 1984). it appears smooth without visible texture irregularities. unlike ivory, bone is highly vascularized. the microscopic canals (haversian system) within the bone matrix gives carved objects a “grainy” appearance. the fine pits and canals are naturally darker than the surrounding matrix, and are observed as fine dark spots, scratches, or irregular streaking on a carved object (figure 1a). ethnobiology letters                                                                                           research communication      41   figure 1. top: small polished elephant tusk; middle: fake ivory tusk constructed from long bones attached end‐to‐end; bottom: fake ivory  tusk made of bone. a: diagnostic pitting on bone surface. b: discoloration line where distal diaphysis is filled with amalgam.  (2003) and locke (2004). compact bone is most often used as an ivory substitute (espinoza and mann 2000). cancellous bone, commonly found near the ends of long bones, has a sponge-like appearance and has much larger canals than smooth compact bone. it is the differences in these physical properties that distinguish ivory and bone when examining carved objects. because ivory and bone share similar chemistry, they both fluoresce when examined with uv light (espinoza and mann 2000). morphological observations although the size and color of the submitted items are similar to some ivory tusks found in the wildlife trade, these bone “tusks” are readily recognizable as fake. further morphological analysis showed that they are carved leg bones (metatarsals) of a large bovid. the haversian canals diagnostic for bone are clearly visible (figure 1a). in addition, the items lack typical tusk features such as enamel, cementum, or a pulp cavity. the objects lack prominent schreger morphology typical of extant and extinct elephants, and prominent secondary dentine observed in walrus ivory. the items also do not show the external longitudinal ridges and fine concentric dentine rings of hippopotamus incisors. the edges of the proximal epiphysis of the metatarsal have been chiseled away, leaving remnants of the articular surface visible and exposing cancellous bone (figure 2). the proximal ends of these items are stained dark brown to resemble tooth root discoloration. the bone shaft has been carved and polished to obtain a smooth shiny surface. small nutrient canals (or their remnants) are visible on the distal anterior surface of the bone shaft. the distal epiphysis has been removed and filled-in with an amalgam. a slight discoloration in material (and appearance of texture) reveals where the bone ends and the amalgam begins (figure 1b). the distal end was then rounded to form a tip and polished smooth. the result is a tusk-like object originally carved from a long bone. the bone element was identified by the shape of the articular surface. the characteristic shape of an ungulate metatarsal articular surface (as compared with the smaller “d” shape of a metacarpal) was visible even though the proximal end had been altered (figure 2) (gilbert 1990). the length of the bone and relative position of the nutrient foramina were helpful in identifying the bone to the lowest taxonomic level possible given the condition of the evidence. these features eliminated many comparable ungulate species including elk, moose, bighorn sheep, and camel. the carved metatarsals were most similar to a large bovid, which based on its upper shaft diameter (approximately 32 mm) suggests domestic cow (bos taurus), a species often used as a legal and ready source for bone material in the wildlife trade. genetic obervations to further determine the taxonomic origin of the bone used to fabricate these fake tusks, a small amount of bone material (~1g.) was removed from each of two b a ethnobiology letters                                                                                           research communication      42     figure  2. top:    proximal  articular  surface  of  cow  metatarsal;  bottom:  metatarsal  bone  (fake  ivory  tusk)  with  heavy  alteration.    most  of  the  original  articular  surface  has  been  obliterated.  a:  articular  surface;  b:  cancellous bone; c:  edge of tool mark from carving. items and pulverized in a freezer mill.2 dna was extracted from the pulverized bone using a commercial membrane–binding method (nucleospin tissue kit, machery-nagel, bethelehem, pa)2 and quantitated spectrophotometrically. the polymerase chain reaction was used to obtain a 265 base pair amplicon from the cytochrome b gene. the amplicon was sequenced using cycle sequencing (big dye terminator v. 3.1 cycle sequencing kit, applied biosystems, carlsbad, ca)2, and analyzed using an abi 3130xl genetic analyzer)2. the resulting sequences were identical to domestic cow (bos taurus), genbank sequence dq124403, positions 14,308 through 14,573, and also identical to bos frontalis genbank sequence ef061230. bos taurus is synonymous with bos indicus (bos taurus indicus) (wilson and reeder 2005). discussion morphological analysis revealed the items to be carved mammal long bones (metatarsals), rather than any source of commercial ivory such as walrus, elephant, or hippopotamus. upon later discussion with law enforcement wildlife inspectors, the shipment origin of one of the fakes was discovered to be hong kong, one of the largest ivory-trading markets (martin 2006) where bone-fabricated items are part of the industry. cow bone is used extensively as an alternative carving material to ivory and is more common than other sources (martin 2000). genetic analysis of these fake tusks identified the source as cattle. worldwide, there are many different cattle types, including domesticated and feral animals of different species within the family bovidae. there are multiple specific types of cattle that may be available as raw materials and may be categorized as “cow.” since our initial examination, additional fake tusks have been submitted to the laboratory for analysis from ports on the east and west coast of the united states, including an elongated “tusk” constructed from several long bones attached together from end to end (figure 1 middle). it is not certain that metatarsals are used exclusively, as many of the articular surfaces have been heavily modified. further analysis of additional evidence items was not pursued due to lack of probative value in forensic investigations. the use of bone as a substitute in the commercial ivory trade has a long history, and such fake artifacts are common in the world of antiquities. however, we continue to be intrigued by the manufacturing details and considerable workmanship effort that goes into the numerous fakes and frauds seen in wildlife trade. while bone is commonly used as a substitute for ivory, this style of artifact was not previously documented in the wildlife trade prior to our analysis. as a result of this analysis and the continued appearance of these items in the wildlife trade, an online identification guide was developed to assist field law enforcement officers in examining these fakes (sims and baker 2006). new usfws wildlife inspectors are also trained annually in the identification of ivory and bone in order to examine the broad variety of artifacts imported regularly. growing international communities in the united states create new markets and global traffic for familiar goods that are new to western culture. although we’re unsure of how these items are marketed commercially a b c ethnobiology letters                                                                                           research communication      43 in asian culture, there are tourist images showing similar objects. two fabricated “tusks” were observed for sale at the heavily-touristed chatuchak market in bangkok, thailand by one of the authors (mes) in 2006. it is possible these carvings serve a dual purpose, partially modified and sold as souvenirs in the tourist market and sold as pipes in local markets for a functional purpose (icitap3 participants, personal communication, april 2010). morphological examination in this case proved useful in excluding the originally suspected ivory sources (walrus, hippo, and elephant tusk), and genetic analysis confirmed the crafted items were constructed from cattle bones. prior to this analysis, this particular style of fake ivory artifact was not known in the wildlife trade. as international trade in wildlife parts and products continues to put pressure on alreadydwindling wild populations, it is likely that more commonly available resources (i.e., cattle bone) will be used to manufacture goods to satisfy consumer demand. while the use of bone, even from nonthreatened taxa, may engender the desire to have authentic animal products, it also remains an inexpensive alternative to true ivory, a practice that is promoted and encouraged by conservationists (martin 2006). training of inspectors and online identification aids continue to improve screening methods for imported shipments of undeclared or improperly declared wildlife material, and expedite inspections in support of legal possession and trade (i.e., bone objects from non-threatened species). as international trade in wildlife artifacts continues to expand, wildlife forensic scientists increasingly draw insight from subdisciplines within the field of ethnobiology as an aid to forensic analysis. conclusion the u.s. fish and wildlife service is responsible for both enforcing legislation regulating the trade in threatened and endangered species, and in facilitating the legal trade in wildlife. the artifacts described in this case study were purchased by buyers who believed they were authentic ivory that was confiscated by law enforcement officials who suspected the ivory to be authentic. subsequent forensic analysis shows these items were, in fact, constructed from cattle bones. while bone is commonly used as a substitute for ivory (especially in small carvings), this particular style of whole fake "ivory tusk" was not previously known in the wildlife trade. this note serves to highlight this relatively new trend and to bring this awareness to ethnobiologists and law enforcement officials so that individuals are not wrongly charged with ivory trafficking. in this case, methods commonly applied by archaeological ethnobiologists to material culture from prehistoric contexts (e.g., bone and ivory tools) provide useful information relevant to wildlife forensics and conservation science. acknowledgements we thank darby morrell for assistance with digital images, and various colleagues for reading earlier drafts of this paper. the findings and conclusions in this article are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily represent the views of the u.s. fish and wildlife service. references cited abrams, h. n. 1987. ivory: an international history and illustrated survey. harry n. abrams, incorporated, new york, ny. espinoza, e. o. and mann, m. j. 2000. identification guide for ivory and ivory substitutes, 3rd edition. ivory identification, inc., richmond, va. gilbert, b. m. 1990. mammalian osteology. missouri archaeological society, columbia, mo. krzyszkowska, o. 1990. ivory and related materials: an illustrated guide. classical handbook 3. bulletin supplement 59, institute of classical studies, london, uk. locke, m. and r. l. dean. 2003. vascular spaces in compact bone: a technique to correct a common misinterpretation of structure. the american biology teacher 65:701-707. locke, m. 2004. structure of long bones in mammals. journal of morphology 262:546–565. martin, e. 2006. are we winning the case for ivory substitutes in china? pachyderm 40:89‐101. martin, e. b. and stiles, d. 2000. the ivory markets of africa. save the elephants, nairobi and london. o’connor, s. 1984. the identification of osseous and keratinaceous materials at york. in u.k.i.c. archaeology section conference proceedings, edited by k. starling and d. watkinson. pp 9-21. institute for conservation, london, uk. o’connor, t. p. 1984. on the structure, chemistry, and decay of bone, antler, and ivory. in u.k.i.c. archaeology section conference proceedings, edited by k. starling and d. watkinson. pp 6-8. institute for conservation, london, uk. ethnobiology letters                                                                                           research communication      44 shell, h. 1983. is it ivory? ahio publishing co, tulsa, ok. sims, m. e. and b. w. baker. 2006. tusk or bone?: an example of fake walrus ivory in the wildlife trade. identification guides for wildlife law enforcement no. 10. usfws, national fish and wildlife forensics laboratory, ashland, or. sweet, d. and d. hildebrand. 1998. recovery of dna from human teeth by cryogenic grinding. journal of forensic science 43:1199-1202 wilson, d. e. and d. m. reeder (eds.). 2005. mammal species of the world. a taxonomic and geographic reference, 3rd edition. johns hopkins university press, baltimore, md. biosketches margaret e. sims is a forensic scientist in the morphology  section  of  the  u.s.  national  fish  and wildlife  forensics  laboratory.  she completed her b.s. and m.s. at southern  oregon  university.    her  current  casework  and  research  involves forensic identification of mammal remains.    barry w. baker  is a forensic scientist  in the morphology  section  of  the  u.s.  national  fish  and wildlife  forensics  laboratory.    he  also  serves  as  an  adjunct  professor  of  anthropology in the department of social sciences, policy,  and culture at southern oregon university. he completed  his  b.a.  and m.a.  at  texas  a&m university. his  current  work and research focuses on wildlife forensics, especially  forensic morphology,  forensic  herpetology,  and  forensic  mammalian osteology.    robert m. hoesch  is a forensic scientist  in  the genetics  section  of  the  u.s.    national  fish  &  wildlife  forensic  laboratory.  he  earned  a  master's  degree  from  the  university  of  toledo  (ohio)  and  has  done  research  at   universities and medical colleges in the u.s.                                                               1 specimens have been deposited for curation at the national fish and wildlife forensics laboratory in ashland, oregon.  2  use of commercial products does not imply u.s. government endorsement. 3 united states department of justice, criminal division, international criminal investigative training assistance program (icitap).   human impacts on seals, sea lions, and sea otters: integrating archaeology and ecology of the northeast pacific 32 book review may have had significant negative impacts on wildlife populations. this book became quite controversial in ethnobiological circles (i addressed this topic at length in chapter 8 of my 2011 book, indigenous knowledge, ecology, and evolutionary biology). as a result, there is a range of opinions concerning possible negative impacts of indigenous hunting of pinnipeds. the pinniped species involved are four species of otariid pinniped: the steller sea lion (eumetopias jubatus schreber otariidae), northern fur seal (callorhinus ursinus linnaeus otariidae), california sea lion (zalophus californianus lesson otariidae), and guadalupe fur seal (arctocephalus townsendi merriam otariidae). the book’s authors discuss two phocid pinnipeds: harbor seal (phoca vitulina linnaeus phocidae) and northern elephant seal (mirounga angustirostris gill phocidae). the pacific walrus (odobenus rosmarus divergens linnaeus odobenidae) is also a species of interest. as an undergraduate and larval graduate student i participated in studies involving all of these species but the guadalupe fur seal and the pacific walrus, working on southeast farallon, año nuevo, and santa barbara islands, and the monterey bay area in general. handling and observing these species gives me some insight into the experiences involved in hunting such creatures without the benefit of firearms. most of these species are strongly sexually dimorphic, with males weighing from 300 (northern fur seal) to 2000 kg (northern elephant seal). this means that there is potential for a lot of meat, but it also suggests that there is potential danger in taking on large and aggressive males, who are most vulnerable, but also at their most dangerous, during breeding seasons, which occur during spring and early summer exploitation of wildlife populations by indigenous peoples typically involves exploitation of herbivores, such as bison, deer, or elk, or of fishes, such as salmon or halibut. it is unusual for hunting societies to focus much of their attention on top carnivores in an ecological system. this unusual state of affairs and its long term ecological consequences are the topic of this collection of papers. in the marine environments along the pacific coast of north america and the bering sea, pinnipeds (seals, sea lions, and walrus) and sea otters are among the top predators. in addition, sea otters are considered to be a keystone predator responsible for structuring nearshore benthic communities. these species are the largest warm-blooded animals that come onshore, and are thus available for hunting by humans along these coasts. one reason that it is possible for humans to hunt predators is that marine food chains are very different than terrestrial ones, because in marine systems predators are always larger than their prey, whereas in terrestrial systems prey, especially mammalian prey, can be as large or larger than their predators. as with any edited collection, the individual chapters vary widely in both theme and quality. one important subtheme in this collection is the question of the impact of humans upon populations of marine mammal carnivores. some of the papers in this collection are written by adherents to ideas developed by brown university anthropologist shepherd krech. these individuals, principally hildebrandt and jones, follow a tradition established by krech, who became famous (or notorious) for his 1999 book, the ecological indian, which argued that the native peoples of north america were not “good ecologists” and human impacts on seals, sea lions, and sea otters: integrating archaeology and ecology of the northeast pacific edited by todd j. braje and torben c. rick. 2011. university of california press, berkeley. pp. 328. $65.00 (hardcover). isbn 9780520267268. reviewed by ray pierotti reviewer address: ecology and evolutionary biology, university of kansas. lawrence, ks 66045-2106. pierotti@ku.edu received: february 8, 2013 volume: 4:32-36 published: march 7, 2013 © 2013 society of ethnobiology 33 book review in the otariids and december through february in northern elephant seal. this winter breeding season also means that winter seas must be dealt with to exploit elephant seals, so it is not surprising that elephant seals, especially males, are the species taken least often as reported in the studies in this collection. the species taken least often after northern elephant seal is steller sea lion, where the males can weigh up to a ton, which makes them one of the largest carnivores that ever lived. they have teeth the size of grizzly bears, a protective thick mane which gives them their name, plus they are very aggressive towards humans: an “experiment” conducted by some of my colleagues on año nuevo using a human dummy resulted in the dummy being thrown into the ocean and torn apart by a bull steller sea lion, after which everyone became much more cautious around male steller sea lions. another factor that must be considered is the role of climate change and accompanying variation in environmental conditions over historical time. some of the studies in this collection, e.g. hill (chapter 3) and crockford and frederick, (chapter 4) describe hunting regimes associated with ice cover, which came down as far as the aleutians during the last 5000 years. at ice maxima this would have prevented northern fur seal from breeding on the pribilof islands, which are their major breeding colonies today, because they would have been ice choked, even in midsummer, during the neoglacial period (47002500 ybp). hill’s chapter is the only contribution that addresses exploitation of walrus. its major finding is that peoples of the bering strait area probably exploited walrus preferentially over bowhead whales for much of the last thousand years, and that whaling may have arisen largely as a response to declines in walrus populations. evidence of contemporary whaling in the western arctic is found primarily in areas that seemed to have previously been most dependent upon walrus. this finding may have profound impacts upon the future hunting patterns of these peoples, because both walrus and bowheads (along with ringed seals and bearded seals [erignathus barbatus erxleben phocidae]) are strongly ice dependent, and may no longer be available to indigenous populations as arctic ice retreats under current conditions of climate change. crockford, the senior author of chapter 4, has become a controversial figure, considered to be a climate change denier in canada. this seems to be primarily because as an archaeologist, she believes that climates change constantly and that current variations might be considered natural variation in global conditions. this approach can be seen in her chapter where she argues that colder climates resulted in a major expansion of sea ice in the north pacific and bering sea; that altered conditions led to changes in distribution and life history features of pagophilic pinnipeds; and that more temperate pinniped species, like sea lions and fur seals, were effectively excluded from this environment for a considerable period of time, which in turn had a major impact on patterns of human exploitation during this period. a more comprehensive approach to studying exploitation patterns between humans and pinnipeds is shown in chapters 5 and 6 by betts, meschner, and lech, who examine a 4500 year time series of otariid and sea otter take on an island in the western gulf of alaska in relation to both climate change and human activities. i found this to be one of the most interesting articles, even though the authors have a tendency to present graphs using straight lines to connect data points, e.g., from 2500 to 1750 to 590 bc as if conditions changed at a constant rate between those widely separated dates. despite this issue with data presentation, the authors present a credible interpretation, i.e., that a combination of climatic variation and human exploitation on both the local and metapopulation level explain the observed fluctuations, which over a period of two thousand years evolved into a sort of natural predator-prey equilibrium. they argue that human predation does have significant impact upon otariid populations. unlike the concepts developed by the krech/martin school of over exploitation and use of blitzkrieg metaphors, however, these scholars argue that pinnipeds quickly developed significant behavioral responses that allowed them to minimize negative impacts. in addition, it appears that exploitation increased when population sizes increased in response to colder, more productive conditions, and declined during warmer, less productive conditions, which is what would be expected from a natural predator-prey dynamic. in chapter 5 betts et al., rely heavily upon methods and concepts developed by r. lee lyman, author of the overview of paleoecological research provided in chapter 2 of this book. lyman is critical of the krechian perspective, arguing that it is hard to 34 book review estimate historical population sizes based solely upon taphonomic remains. he points out that many archaeologists have difficulty identifying marine mammal remains to species level (ancient dna has apparently been useful in revising earlier assessments). lyman also points out that few major museums have good collections of marine mammal skeletal material for comparative purposes. for example walrus skeletal material of varying antiquity shows up all over the north pacific, but that walrus are never found in many of these areas today, so we should be skeptical of modern biogeography when identifying recent remains. the role of historical biogeography is more important than is generally realized. for example, the two species of fur seal (northern fur seal and guadalupe fur seal) show complex histories over the last few centuries and millennia. northern fur seals are found today primarily in subarctic waters during the breeding season, except for a small breeding population that exists on california’s san miguel island and may be the relict of a metapopulation that ranged from alaska to california. northern fur seal probably consisted of two or more distinct forms, possibly even distinct species: the current northern population and a second “species” that ranged from coastal washington southward. the guadalupe fur seal, as implied by its name, until recently was found breeding exclusively south of the u. s.-mexico border, however historically it ranged at least as far north as the farallon islands (25 miles west of san francisco) where it was extirpated by euroamerican sealers in the 19th century (busch 1987), and lyman reports archaeological specimens from as far north as coastal washington. the basic structure of the book after lyman’s chapter is to move down the coast from alaska and the bering sea through coastal canada and then down the pacific coast of the us from washington to california’s channel islands, although there is a large gap in that southern and southeastern alaska and northern british columbia are not covered at all. for example the cultures of haida gwai are not even mentioned, although these may represent the most intact first nations cultures along the entire coast and could thus provide considerable insight into historical phenomena. these gaps create some interesting complications, because not all of the investigators use the same approaches or come from the same philosophical perspectives. in a way this makes the book more compelling because it does not really come to any obvious consensus. as one example, some of the authors make periodic stabs at applying optimal foraging theory, usually in that odd way that anthropologists employ concepts from behavioral ecology. in chapter 6, which has the same authors as chapter 5, but in different order, they make the argument that, “the prey choice model predicts that as the availability of large bodied taxa decline, predation of smaller bodied and lower-ranked taxa increases” (p. 111). what goes unacknowledged is that this theorem was developed after watching great tits choose mealworms of various sizes off a conveyer belt. this means that search and handling times were not assessed, which suggests it may not be applicable as to whether human foragers preferentially select 300-1000 kg otariids as opposed to 100 kg phocids or 30 kg sea otters as food. although this point may seem trivial, it is crucial to understanding the krech–influenced mindset, because individuals adhering to such beliefs employ models from optimal foraging theory to explain how indigenous hunters are not typical predators and are thus, according to their thinking, not ecologically conservationist (pierotti 2011). in the organisms under study in this collection, sea otters are the least palatable, being mustelids, but sea lions and fur seals represent much more formidable prey, with teeth and jaws the size and strength of their ursid relatives, especially in the case of steller sea lions. thus, many indigenous hunters probably concentrated on the medium sized, sexually monomorphic phocids, such as ringed seals (pusa hispida schreber phocidae) and harbor seals which are less aggressive and dangerous than otariids and more palatable than otters. a more profitable approach is in the use of isotopic analysis, which can reveal whether food is primarily obtained from terrestrial or marine environments, where carbon/nitrogen ratios are markedly different. interestingly several of these studies reveal that humans, especially in british columbia were taking primarily terrestrial prey (deer, moose, etc.) even though they lived in a coastal environment (chapter 7 by mckechnie and wigan). this chapter is dominated by a ten page table that allows the reader to assess the data in considerable detail. from this table and accompanying figures it is clear that pinnipeds and otters (they include river otters as marine prey) were important prey items only on the outer coast of vancouver island, and that most of these 35 book review were smaller species like harbor seals, northern fur seals, and otters. the authors do not include cetaceans, which may have been an important food source in this area. one of their most compelling findings is that as europeans invaded their ranges, the first nations peoples apparently abandoned taking marine mammals. this could be either because their own populations were decimated by disease or because of european exploitation patterns, which extirpated populations of fur seals and sea otters. moss and losey (chapter 8) examine human exploitation of the same set of species in the estuaries of southern washington and northern oregon. these authors critique the use of optimal foraging theory models, pointing out that size alone may not be an important component of prey choice, especially when accessibility is factored in. this is a more sophisticated use of optimal foraging theory, which incorporates search and handling times into prey selection. they point out that harbor seals, although relatively small (100-150 kg), are the most consistently available prey, being year-round residents that use regular haulouts, and that they are slow on land. sea otters are also year-round residents. these two species make up the preponderance of the prey taken in these areas. one interesting aspect of this chapter is that they also assess the availability of various species of fishes, which were probably a more important component of overall diet of indigenous peoples. chapter 9 by whitaker and hildebrandt is equivocal, seeming to want to both critique and endorse the krechian perspective. their data suggest that early human hunters had little impact upon the fur seal populations in northern california that were subsequently extirpated by europeans, but they close by contending that this was because exploitation of fur seals was an example of “prestige economy”, in which males were taken preferentially because this conferred higher status on the hunters who took males primarily so their teeth could be used in necklaces, as opposed to being a conservation tactic in which females in a highly polygynous species were not exploited because of management strategies to maintain high population numbers. hildebrandt and his regular co-author jones (primary author of chapter 11) are the primary krech disciples represented in this collection. these two coauthored a 1992 study where they argued that indigenous californians created a “tragedy of the commons” that led to over exploitation of pinniped populations, even though there is little evidence that a collapse of these populations ever took place. hildebrandt showed a similar ambivalence in a volume of decidedly krechian cast (kay and simmons 2002) where he argued that, even though aboriginal hunters had eliminated mainland rookeries of pinnipeds, they may not have had much of a negative impact because of the ability of these populations to establish offshore rookeries that were harder to access. this of course ignores that possibility that the main problem for mainland rookeries may have been the presence of wolves and grizzly bears, which were themselves extirpated after the arrival of european invaders in the 1600s. this means that recent evidence of mainland breeding colonies may not be related to human exploitation. this is typical of the krechian approach in which aboriginal human exploitation is to blame for any identified problem while ignoring 1) the presence and possible impacts of nonhuman predators, and 2) that any evidence of “overexploitation” is played up, even when there is no evidence of a population decline of the exploited prey (white 2000; pierotti 2011). gifford-gonzalez (chapter 10) assesses the history of fur seals around central california, including monterey bay, arguing that these populations were probably established because the breeding colonies in the bering sea and surrounding waters may not have been available during the neoglacial as discussed by crockford et al. above. this suggests that the disappearance of these colonies may have been related to climatic factors, rather than human exploitation. she also points out that even though there is evidence of aboriginal exploitation, especially on año nuevo island, which was connected to the mainland until at least the 19th century, the world metapopulation of this species seem to have been quite stable over the last few thousand years. only the advent of the european and japanese sealing industries led to complete extirpation of populations until the establishment of the north pacific fur seal commission. in chapter 11, jones et al. review the prehistory of the southern sea otter, a subspecies that was almost completely extirpated by europeans starting with the russian fur trade in the 1600s. as noted above, jones was hildebrandt’s co-author on the 1992 paper and the paper in kay and simmons (2002). as a krech disciple, he shows a similarly equivocal view of the role of aboriginal exploitation, arguing that even 36 book review though hunting of sea otters, especially females, was intense, that it did not depress populations to such a degree that subsequent commercial exploitation by europeans was precluded. in the final two chapters, the editors summarize and comment on the data based chapters. in the penultimate chapter (12), they collaborate with the pinniped biologist bob delong, who brings considerable knowledge of the behavior and ecology of these mammals to the discussion. i regard this chapter as a model of interdisciplinary work, where archaeologists and marine mammal ecologists work together to produce genuine insights into long term processes. this chapter emphasizes that pre-contact human hunting did impact marine mammal populations, especially in driving rookeries to offshore islands, which are less accessible to humans, even though they make it clear that pinniped populations on san miguel island have remained large until recent commercial exploitation by european invaders, despite continued hunting pressure over the last ten thousand years. this provides little support for the krechian “tragedy of the commons” argued by hildebrandt, in fact hildebrandt’s own chapter (9) demonstrates that northern fur seal populations did not decline during this period. another point made in chapter 12 is that the predominant species found in middens throughout much of the channel islands are guadalupe fur seal, which today are the only species that is found year round in these islands. other supposedly vulnerable species, like northern elephant seal, are found only rarely and may represent scavenging events. this is important, because as delong points out, northern elephant seal weanlings are left unprotected by adults for several months following the breeding season from february through may, yet they are not found in large numbers in the archaeological sites. in the final chapter (13) the editors summarize the results of this symposium in relation to a set of questions they posed in the opening chapter. this allows them to address the points of contention without being openly critical, even though it may be inferred that they do not think that holocene exploitation had serious negative impacts upon marine mammal populations, except for some local impacts and possibly forcing rookeries onto smaller less accessible islands and rocks. they never address the grizzly bear-wolf issue, which also could have forced rookeries and haulouts offshore. the overall consensus is that a complex mix of human impacts and climate/environmental changes have shaped marine carnivore populations along the pacific coast of north america over the last several millennia. once european invaders arrived, there was a precipitous decline in all of these species, with extirpation of sea otters and guadalupe fur seal from many areas. thus, the implication in my estimation is that archaeologists should not assume that human hunting is the primary driver of changes in prehistoric marine mammal population sizes and habitat use patterns. in a way, this comes down to an issue raised in the last few pages of the book, i.e., that archaeological data do not provide the same detailed insights into previous environments and population dynamics that ecological investigations can provide into contemporary ecological and exploitation systems. this volume shows that this should not prevent interdisciplinary approaches where scholars from different disciplines can provide information that is relevant to interpreting the processes involved in human and nonhuman interactions. references cited busch, b. c. 1987. the war against the seals: a history of the north american seal fishery. mcgill-queens’ university press, montreal. kay, c.e. and r.t. simmons, eds. 2002. wilderness and political ecology: aboriginal influences and the original state of nature. university of utah press, salt lake city. krech, s. iii. 1999. the ecological indian: myth and history. w. w. norton and co., new york. pierotti, r. 2011. indigenous knowledge, ecology and evolutionary biology. routledge, taylor and francis group, new york & london. reconstructing meat consumption through biomarker analyses of paleofeces ethnobiology letters. 2015. 6(1):111-113. doi: 10.14237/ebl.6.1.2015.401. 111 mini-review ceramics from other contexts) tested negative. from this study, it is evident that future use of myoglobin analysis in paleofecal studies could offer broader insights into animal resources that were incorporated into prehistoric diet. recent advances in stable isotope analysis may also allow for dietary reconstruction from paleofeces. isotopic analysis of paleofeces has not been frequently applied in archaeological studies, but isotope ratios from modern feces show seasonal variability and dietary shifts on a shorter timescale in comparison to the early-life signature of teeth and the long-term signature of bone (blumenthal et al. 2002; kuhnle et al. 2013). in contrast to teeth and bone, feces represent only a day or two in the life of the animal (kuhnle et al. 2013). meat consumption is reflected in isotopic signatures based on trophic level enrichments. carbon becomes fixed in plant tissues and is absorbed by consumers; further up the food chain 13c becomes more enriched relative to 12c. although δ15n can vary between plant species based on nitrogen origin, δ15n primarily rises with increasing trophic levels, so that animals and fish have enriched 15n. however, given the increased complexity of marine food chains, fish are more enriched in 15n than terrestrial animals, so that the relative representation of fish and meat in diet can be difficult to assess using isotopic studies. a modern dietary study demonstrated that it is possible to differentiate between fish diets and mixed fish and meat diets using stable δ15n and δ13c isotopes analyses from fecal material, although the researchers paleofeces provide some of the most precise and unambiguous evidence for diet in archaeological research, as they allow researchers to directly identify digested remains of dietary constituents. furthermore, parasite eggs, human dna, and other contents of paleofeces can inform about individual health and life histories. radiocarbon dating can directly link these data to a temporal scale (jenkins et al. 2012). this review discusses the potential application of three biomarkers found in paleofeces—myoglobin, stable isotopes, and dna—that can be used to reconstruct meat consumption in the archaeological record. several biomolecules can indicate meat consumption, but perhaps the least understood of these is myoglobin. myoglobin is an oxygen and iron binding protein found exclusively in skeletal and cardiac muscle; therefore, it can only be incorporated into feces by ingestion or due to severe health issues. myoglobin can often be identified to the genus or species level, and is used in modern food studies to identify the contents of meat products. a groundbreaking archaeological study performed by marlar and colleagues (2000) used enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (elisa) on a cooking pot sherd and a human paleofecal sample from cowboy wash pueblo, colorado to confirm a suspected case of cannibalism. both the paleofeces and the cooking pot tested positive for human myoglobin, indicating human muscle tissue had been cooked and consumed. all control samples (including comparative modern human fecal samples, human paleofeces, and reconstructing meat consumption through biomarker analyses of paleofeces jenna m. battillo1* and abigail e. fisher1 author addresses: 1department of anthropology, southern methodist university, 3225 daniel avenue, heroy hall, room 408, dallas, tx 75205-1437, usa. *corresponding author: jbattillo@smu.edu received: may 6, 2015 volume: 6(1):111-113 published: august 25, 2015 © 2015 society of ethnobiology abstract: this mini-review outlines three underutilized approaches for studying meat-based biomarkers in archaeological paleofeces that we expect will increase in significance within the field. myoglobin, stable isotope, and adna analyses all have untapped potential to inform meat-based dietary constituents. keywords: paleodietary analysis, dna, stable isotope analysis, myoglobin, meat consumption, coprolites, paleofeces ethnobiology letters. 2015. 6(1):111-113. doi: 10.14237/ebl.6.1.2015.401. 112 mini-review were unable to differentiate between purely terrestrialbased meat diets and diets containing meat and fish (kuhnle et al. 2013). the ability conferred through isotopic analysis of paleofeces to distinguish between terrestrial and marine-based diets holds important implications for human behavioral shifts (e.g., the neolithic revolution). stable isotope analysis can be used to investigate diet and environment directly, but they can also be used in a more indirect way to study cultural practices related to meat consumption, such as changes in animal husbandry (e.g., fisher and thomas 2012). paleofecal analyses of cattle dung and human feces from the same cultural context could link dietary changes in cattle to patterns of human consumption. for example, they can offer a more nuanced view of changes in cattle tending, including changes in seasonality that would likely be missed using bone or teeth. as such, isotopic analyses of fecal material could offer an untapped source of information on diet and cultural treatment of animals for archaeologists. digested remains of meat often cannot be identified through visual assessment, so dna can serve as an invaluable source of information on specific animal resources in diet. both traditional pcr and high-throughput sequencing have been used in multiple ecological studies of modern animals to identify dietary remains from feces (deagle et al. 2010; mallott et al. 2015). recent advances in highthroughput dna sequencing technologies allow simultaneous testing for numerous taxa in a single sample while using smaller dna fragments. these studies have changed the way that ecological and primatological studies of diet are being conducted (e.g., mallott et al. 2015) and have the potential to contribute similarly to archaeological studies. recent archaeological studies have demonstrated that paleofeces often contain analyzable dna from dietary contents (e.g., battillo et al. 2014; poinar et al. 2001). both poinar et al. (2001) and battillo et al. (2014) successfully extracted mitochondrial dna (mtdna) using traditional pcr to study animal constituents from archaeological paleofeces in hinds cave, texas and turkey pen ruin, utah, respectively. the hinds cave human paleofeces yielded mtdna from three animal taxa as well as chloroplast dna from eight plant families. several turkey pen ruin paleofeces also yielded mtdna from mammalian species and one sample tested positive for turkey (meleagris sp. linnaeus phasianidae) mtdna, as well. although there were a number of turkey paleofeces and remains in the same midden, the single positive result for turkey dna suggests that dna crosscontamination was unlikely and probably indicates a rare instance of turkey consumption at this site. dna leaching through sediments has been demonstrated (haile et al. 2007), but work by jenkins and colleagues (2012) at paisley caves, oregon showed that leaching is not universal, and demonstrated the validity of associating dna with a specific paleofecal sample within rock shelter settings. biomolecular analyses of paleofeces have been underused in studying diet in archaeology. myoglobin, stable isotopes, and dna analyses of paleofeces allow for increased precision in dietary studies through greater species-specific differentiation. our focus has been on ways to identify the meat portion of human diet, but biomolecular methods should be equally effective when applied to plant remains, and we believe they will greatly enhance archaeological understanding of prehistoric diet. references cited battillo, j. m., k. lupo, j. mata-miguez, d. bolnick, w. d. lipe and r. g. matson. 2014. no bones about it: adna sequencing of dietary remains from human paleofeces. paper presented at the 12th international conference of archaeozoology (icaz). san rafael, argentina. doi:10.13140/ rg.2.1.4842.2241. blumenthal, s. a., k. l. chritz, j. m. rothman and t. e. cerling. 2012. detecting intraannual dietary variability in wild mountain gorillas by stable isotope analysis of feces. proceedings of the national academy of sciences of the united states of america 109 (52):21277-21282. doi:10.1073/pnas.1215782109. deagle, b. e., a. chiaradia, j. mcinnes and s. n. jarman. 2010. pyrosequencing faeces dna to determine diet of little penguins: is what goes in what comes out? conservation genetics 11:2039–2048. doi:10.1007/s10592-010-0096-6. fisher, a. e. and r. thomas. 2012. isotopic and zooarchaeological investigation of later medieval and post-medieval cattle husbandry at dudley castle, west midlands. environmental archaeology 17 (2):151-167. doi:10.1179/1461410312z.00000000013. haile, j., r. holdaway, k. oliver, m. bunce, m. thomas, p. gilbert, r. nielsen, k. munch, s. y. w. ethnobiology letters. 2015. 6(1):111-113. doi: 10.14237/ebl.6.1.2015.401. 113 mini-review ho, b. shapiro and e. willerslev. 2007. ancient dna chronology within sediment deposits: are paleobiological reconstructions possible and is dna leaching a factor? molecular biology and evolution 24(4):982–989. doi:10.1093/molbev/ msm016. jenkins, d. l., l. g. davis, t. w. stafford jr, p. f. campos, b. hockett, g. t. jones, l. scott cummings, c. yost, t. j. connolly, r. m. yohe ii, s. c. gibbons, m. raghavan, m. rasmussen, j. l. a. paijmans, m. hofreiter, b. m. kemp, j. l. barta, c. monroe, m. t. p. gilbert and e. willerslev. 2012. clovis age western stemmed projectile points and human coprolites at the paisley caves. science 337 (6091):223-8. doi:10.1126/science.1218443. kuhnle, g. g., a. m. joosen, c. j. kneale and t. c. o’connell. 2013. carbon and nitrogen isotopic ratios of urine and faeces as novel nutritional biomarkers of meat and fish intake. european journal of nutrition 52(1):389-395. doi:10.1007/ s00394-012-0328-2. mallott, e. k., r. s. malhi and p. a. garber. 2015. brief communication: high-throughput sequencing of fecal dna to identify insects consumed by wild weddell’s saddleback tamarins (saguinus weddelli, cebidae, primates) in bolivia. american journal of physical anthropology 156(3):474-481. doi:10.1002/ajpa.22654. marlar, r. a., b. l. leonard, b. r. billman, p. m. lambert and j. e. marlar. 2000. biochemical evidence of cannibalism at a prehistoric puebloan site in southwestern colorado. nature 407:74–78. doi:10.1038/35024064. poinar, h. n., m. kuch, k. d. sobolik, i. barnes, a. b. stankiewicz, t. kuder, w. g. spaulding, v. m. bryant, a. cooper and s. pääbo. 2001. a molecular analysis of dietary diversity for three archaic native americans. proceedings of the national academy of sciences of the united states of america 98(8):43174322. doi:10.1073/pnas.061014798. biosketches jenna m. battillo is a ph.d. candidate in the department of anthropology at southern methodist university. her research focuses on paleodietary reconstruction using paleofeces from cedar mesa, utah. abigail e. fisher is a ph.d. student in the department of anthropology at southern methodist university. her current research uses stable isotope and zooarchaeological analyses to study mechanisms of state collapse in south africa. bedouin ethnobotany: plant concepts and uses in a desert pastoral world 71 book review after a concise introduction describing the scope of the research, previous work, and research chronology, the authors present a description of research consultants, features of najdī arabic dialect, and working procedures. the reader is greeted with an indepth description of the area of study, starting with geology and topography. throughout his orographic sketch, mandaville manages to sprinkle in facts on cultural change among bedouins, a style all ethnobiologists might benefit from. i appreciated encountering narrations on bedouin use of off-road vehicles and deep water oil wells, especially in the section devoted to geology and topography. these ethnographic treats help incorporate the essence of today’s bedouins into the author’s description of the local landscape and thereby demonstrate its relevance to them. in chapter 2, the author describes the people briefly but comprehensively, touching on various aspects that include political organization, land property regimes, gender-based administration of dwellings, the household economy, and market relationships with towns and cities. one thing i find problematic is that the author explains government policies towards bedouins only superficially and in apolitical terms. for example, mandaville organizes all reasons behind forced settlement under the term “modernization” without further discussion of the implications, motivations, and results of these policies for “modernizing” bedouins. i found chapter 3, a section on stars, land, and plants, to be one of the best parts of the book, as it situates the reader inside a nomadic expedition, whose success depends on the members’ abilities to know, recognize, and anticipate the sprouting and blooming of desert vegetation throughout their territories. this dry heat, tremendous temperature fluctuations, and the access to and availability of water, are some of the common challenges that humans face in arid and desert ecosystems. yet, human societies that have lived in these ecosystems lessened these adversities through diverse and ingenious cultural strategies. regardless of how impressive these strategies are, they would be ineffective without a vast reservoir of knowledge on the utilization of plants and animals. amongst the vast number of peoples that have adapted to arid and desert environments, it is my opinion that few cultures are as iconic to the collective imaginaries as middle eastern bedouins. however, the conjuring of this rich and exotic image as a contemporary phenomenon lacks verisimilitude. presently, a majority of the bedouin tribes in the middle east share the common problems of a changing world: forced settlement, displacement, encroachment, and range shrinkage. with the former in mind, it is easy to appreciate the value of the book james p. mandaville has prepared with data collected over 15 years starting in 1960 when bedouin lifestyle started shifting from semi-nomadic pastoralism to urbanism. the book is divided into 7 chapters: 1) the study area, with an explanation of the features of land climate and vegetation; 2) the people, with a description on the livelihoods of 9 different bedouin tribes; 3) a section on the functional aspects of plant knowledge; 4) a list of plants and their uses; 5) plants as concepts and names; 6) generics and subgenerics, with a descriptive section on folk categories; and 7) plant lore in space and time, with a section discussing the temporal and geographic stretch of bedouin plant lore. bedouin ethnobotany: plant concepts and uses in a desert pastoral world james p. mandaville. 2010. the university of arizona press, tucson. pp. 352, 33b/w photos, 2 maps, 5 tables. $55.00 (hardcover + cd). isbn 978-0-8165-2900-1. reviewed by nemer e. narchi reviewer address: departamento de relaciones sociales, universidad autónoma metropolitana-unidad xochimilco, calzada del hueso 1100, mexico city, mexico 04960. nenarchi@gmail.com received: february 14, 2013 volume: 4:71-72 published: june 24, 2013 © 2013 society of ethnobiology 72 book review is a compelling effort that highlights the most important components of ethnobiological knowledge – its practical and operational aspects. chapter 4 presents a large compilation of culturally important plants. the list includes those used as livestock feed, fuel, food, and medicine. among these descriptions, i found the accounts of plants used in children’s play to be the most interesting. what could be called the cultural domain of ludic plants is not very large, but is markedly diverse as it encompasses plant collections, sources of pigments for young girls, and, the one i liked the most because it reflects the incisive nature of play, farsetta aegyptia turra brassicaceae, which is used as “itching powder.” the descriptions of plants are complemented by a supplementary cd with outstanding color images of many of the taxa presented in the book. i found mandaville’s most remarkable contribution to be his discussion in chapter 5 of plants as concepts and names. his conclusions align with the biological and nomenclatural features that would be expected for hunters, foragers, and pastoralists based on brent berlin’s models. that is, bedouin generics are overwhelmingly monotypic with the exception of taxa with particularly important cultural salience. in chapter 6, mandaville contributes to the continuing debate about intellectualist versus utilitarian notions of the nature of ethnotaxonomies by supporting berlin’s intellectualist approach with an interesting utilitarian twist. i wish that these arguments had been available when ethnoclassification was the main focus of ethnobiology. however, these data remain relevant to this debate. james p. mandaville has integrated all of his experience and narrative brilliance in a volume that is much more than just another ethnobotanical inventory. it is a well balanced monograph touching on many aspects of a culture that is transforming with dramatic speed and in many directions, as noted in chapter 7. ethnobiologists interested in cultural change among arabic bedouins, as well as ethnologists willing to revisit the wonderful subject of ethnotaxonomies, should consider keeping a copy of bedouin ethnobotany nearby. the book makes a valuable contribution because it provides a written record of many ethnobotanical practices that have no present equivalent. however, the book’s most important achievement is its blending of the chapter topics into a conceptual whole which communicates bedouin relations with the vegetation of a territory to which they are deeply attached emotionally and outstandingly adapted to culturally. finally, as a researcher with a deep interest in arid livelihoods but only tangential interests in arabic culture, i found the book to be amusing, the narrative to be deeply vivid, and the pictures to be excellent. it is worth reading just for the pleasure of doing so. how forests think: toward an anthropology beyond the human. by eduardo kohn. 2013. university of california press, berkeley. 288 pp. flores, medinaceli, and thiel. 2016. ethnobiology letters 7(1):53–54 53 reviews he proposes holds because, to a particular crowd of people, for example, there may be a unified purpose or function amongst them and their presence represents something. kohn weaves these assertions into a broader semiotic discourse on what it means to think, be alive and to relate with other thinking, animate selves. he calls this an “ecology of selves” (p. 78), evident in the dynamism of the forest around ávila and the interrelationship of humans with animals, plants, and spirits therein. kohn’s “trans-species pidgin” discussion is one of the book’s strongest and most ethnographic chapters. according to kohn, a trans-species pidgin is the language humans speak when talking to living entities, primarily dogs but also including forests. this language allows the runa to communicate with their dogs directly and to interpret dogs’ dreams via the vocalizations dogs make while sleeping. kohn’s abstract discussions of “self” become clearer as this particular chapter unfolds. the pidgin’s structure and application are indicators of how the runa conceptualize their role in humanity. considering dogs’ and forests’ languages and how they are transmitted and exist within runa culture is an aspect of the anthropological “beyond” which kohn endorses. he argues that these entities sustain humans and need to have their own anthropological attention. runa people have an atypical relationship with dogs. they ignore dogs, not even feeding them, until they are mature, seemingly living in separate worlds. yet, humans and dogs nevertheless entangle with one another daily in the home or village, and in interactions in their physical environment, as well as through dreaming and language. the runa communicate with dogs orally, and even give them hallucinatory plant how forests think: toward an anthropology beyond the human offers an unconventional perspective in anthropology. kohn uses arguments from animism (philippe descola), perspectivism (eduardo viveiros de castro), and semiotics (charles sanders peirce) to argue for a different anthropology—one that does not focus only on humans, but that identifies and analyzes animals and plants in terms of their own selves. this, coupled with how humans interact with these other beings, is what kohn defines as an “anthropology beyond the human.” to understand this idea, kohn encourages us to explore what signs look like beyond the human. kohn’s theories are based on over four years of field experience immersed in the lives of the quichua speaking runa people of ávila in ecuadorian amazonia – people strongly connected with different beings in the forest. a central premise of how forests think is the notion of ‘self.’ kohn equates selfhood with thinking, in the sense that if something, or someone (a broad category, and not limited to humans) experiences meaning, intention, purpose, function or significance, then this something or someone is “enchanted”, or alive. thus, a forest is alive and thinking, as is a dog, a jaguar, a peccary, and a plant. he expands this discussion of selfhood by explaining life as a sign process in which—developing and quoting the thinking of charles peirce—anything alive is “something… [that] stands to somebody, for something in some respect or capacity” (peirce 1992:228, cited in kohn, p. 74). from here, kohn suggests that there are many different kinds of selves, from the “physically bounded organism” to one that is “distributed over bodies” (p. 75), such as a group of people or an ant colony. the definition of selfhood how forests think: toward an anthropology beyond the human. by eduardo kohn. 2013. university of california press, berkeley. 288 pp. katherine e. flores1, armando medinaceli1, and amanda m. thiel1* 1department of anthropology, washington state university, pullman, wa, usa. *amanda.thiel@wsu.edu received february 24, 2016 open access accepted june 8, 2016 doi 10.14237/ebl.7.1.2016.550 copyright © 2016 by the author(s); licensee society of ethnobiology. this is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution-noncommercial 4.0 international public license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0), which permits non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. flores, medinaceli, and thiel. 2016. ethnobiology letters 7(1):53–54 54 reviews mixtures to counsel them. they give dogs tasks or behavioral commands; they instruct them to chase and hunt wild game, but not to chase domestic animals. they say that dogs, like men, should not be violent, nor should they bite or bark loudly at humans. kohn implies that dogs can become human, to some extent, and can also acquire jaguars’ ultimate predatory qualities. for the runa, dogs are the spiritual masters of jaguars, who in turn, are the masters of the forest animals. runa thus express that, “what we think of as a jaguar is actually a dog” (p. 137). how forests think, while attempting to demonstrate a new vision of anthropology, at times aligns closely with ethnobiology, discussing the interrelationship of the ávila runa with forests, dogs, jaguars, peccaries, and other forest inhabitants. kohn offers an interaction that goes beyond the utilitarian to include the spiritual and mental interactions of people with their environment, and by offering an analysis of the interactions of other non-human beings, and attempting to understand how they perceive their own relationship with the forest and with humans. ethnobiologists, therefore, may find how forests think appealing for its potential to transform cultural theory as it relates with the environment. kohn calls for an anthropology that considers other beings along with humans as part of a whole environmental unit, one that is full of interactions within and between actors. readers unfamiliar with post-modernist anthropological theory and its characteristic writing style should take heed. kohn’s writing and the topics he discusses are philosophical in nature and may be challenging to comprehend at first glance. it may be helpful for future readers to read his american ethnologist article, ‘how dogs dream: amazonian natures and the politics of transspecies engagement’ before starting this book. novice interpretivists should not take this advice as a warning to avoid this book; rather, they need to be prepared to work through the confusion they may initially feel as they read. although his work is not traditionally ethnographic in nature, kohn makes a powerful contribution to anthropological theory and creates a pathway for the expansion of an “anthropology beyond the human.” understanding the relationships humans and other biota maintain are essential to anthropological holism and can provide insight into a culture’s worldviews and behavior motives. kohn forces the reader to reconsider what s/he considers a “self” and how they fit into his/her world. overall, this book is a welcomed challenge and may be unexpectedly useful for scholars interested in ecology or cognition. references cited kohn, e. 2007. hows dogs dream: amazonian natures and the politics of transspecies engagement. american ethnologist 34:3–24. peirce, c. s. 1992. the essential peirce: selective philosophical writings, vol. 1. indiana university press, bloomington, in. we probably thought that would be true: perceiving complex emotional states in nonhumans 15 book review that allow them a sophisticated understanding of the natural world (pierotti 2011). the reason that such issues are of concern to ethnobiology is that much of our scholarship operates within the zone circumscribed by these competing views of nature (anderson 2013). we are scientists who operate mostly in the western tradition, yet the questions we choose to investigate allow us understanding of, and sometimes identification with, the knowledge traditions of non-western cultures that informs the work of many of our top scholars, as exemplified in works like gene anderson’s ecologies of the heart (1996). another factor that predisposes ethnobiologists to a more open and flexible perspective with regard to nonhumans is that we represent a deliberate attempt to merge two fields, anthropology and biology, although the biology practiced by ethnobiologists deals more with ecosystems and populations than the practices of laboratory oriented scholars who deal primarily or exclusively with cells and molecules. one thing that is obvious in reading these books together is that anthropologists sometimes rush in where biologists oft fear to tread. braithwaite, a professor of fisheries at penn state, gives her (2010) book the relatively limp title, do fish feel pain? in contrast, king, an anthropologist at william and mary, leaps right into the breach with the title, how animals grieve, avoiding both the dreaded question mark, and establishing that from her perspective, in 1983 the cherokee poet jimmy durham wrote a poem titled “teachings of my grandmother” which begins: in a magazine too expensive to buy, i read about how, with scientific devices of great complexity us scientists have discovered that if a rat is placed in a cage in which it has previously been given an electrical shock, it starts crying. i told my grandmother about that and she said, “we probably knew that would be true” (durham 1983) while reading the two books listed above, our thoughts turned frequently to the knowledge of durham’s grandmother and of grandmothers everywhere. why do we find it necessary to ask questions like this when the answers seem obvious? that is, why do people of european ancestry, including scientists, insist on arguing that our nonhuman relatives are incapable of achieving complex behavioral states when it should be obvious that they can, just from our interactions with animals in our everyday lives? this tendency is likely a result of differences in cultural traditions, although it is also clearly linked to the concept of what is considered to be “science” or scientific. it seems likely that the attitudes of scientists in cases like this may be a major reason why many indigenous people argue that they don’t have “science,” even though they have well worked out systems of close observation of natural phenomena we probably thought that would be true: perceiving complex emotional states in nonhumans victoria braithwaite. 2010. do fish feel pain? oxford university press, new york. pp. 256. $35.00 (hardcover). isbn 9780199551200. barbara j. king. 2013. how animals grieve. university of chicago press, chicago. pp. 208, 7 halftones. $25.00 (cloth). isbn 9780226436944. reviewed by raymond pierotti1* and cynthia annett2 reviewer address: 1ecology and evolutionary biology, university of kansas, lawrence, ks 66045-2106, 2department of biological sciences, university of alaska anchorage, anchorage, ak 99507 *corresponding author: pierotti@ku.edu received: july 5, 2013 volume: 5:15-21 published: january 13, 2014 © 2014 society of ethnobiology 16 book review there is no question that nonhuman animals are, in fact, capable of experiencing grief. one oddity is that, although both of these books are published by major academic presses, neither is a truly scholarly work with complete citations of sources (even of important examples), or presentations of the actual data; in fact, neither volume includes a single illustration. both books depend upon closely argued examples in the darwinian tradition, and as with darwin’s original work, appear to be targeted at that audience consisting of educated laypeople, scholars from other disciplines, university administrators, and those responsible for ethical decisions at the political level. to begin with braithwaite’s do fish feel pain? (henceforth dffp), one of us raymond pierotti (rp) was first exposed to this issue as a graduate student in the late 1970s, when a fellow grad student in ichthyology said at a social gathering, “we don’t even know if fish feel pain.” i confess that my initial reaction was similar to that described for jimmy durham’s grandmother, but i was made to realize that this was a serious issue to many biologists. about a decade later i watched a dear friend and close colleague take a live and active fish from a tank, lay it on a table and remove one of its eyes, with no apparent consideration of anesthesia. observing this made me realize that i was very naïve concerning the attitudes of lab biologists. i then determined to devote myself more to this issue. in consequence, i am now the longest tenured member of my university’s institutional animal care and use committee (iacuc) at seventeen years. the issue of suffering in fish still arises at irregular intervals during iacuc discussions. one of the more compelling issues is, “exactly how does one decapitate a fish?” considering that they have no obvious division between head and trunk. for us the issue of sentience and complex behavior in fish was settled when we spent a couple of seasons watching biparental care in cichlids (tilapia mariae boulenger cichlidae) in the channelized rivers surrounding the florida everglades. this species showed clearly differentiated parental roles, with females performing nearly all tending of eggs and most tending of free embryos. after young became free-swimming and left the nest, however, males took over primary tending of the free swimming young while the smaller females patrolled the perimeter of the school and performed nearly all chases directed at predators. males and females traded off vigilance and feeding, and showed a high degree of intrapair coordination (annett et al. 1999). under dense nesting conditions in this species, we observed adoption of broods, group rearing of free-swimming young and the presence of non-breeder ‘satellites’ sharing and defending a territory with breeders. the level of complexity we observed in these fish was comparable to the behavior we had observed in monogamous birds (pierotti and annett 1994, 1995; pierotti et al. 1996). it seems obvious that fish were capable of complex social behavior. equally obvious was our conclusion that the issue over complexity of fish behavior might be settled if scientists dealing with this question actually spent any time watching their study organisms in their natural environments. in dffp braithwaite describes her work on the presence of nociceptors (cells located in the epidermis that perceive painful stimuli) in fishes. since nociceptors exist in birds, mammals, and amphibians, and even in invertebrates, it should be expected that they would be found in fishes as well. the null hypothesis should be: “this feature exists in a wide range of organisms, hence we assume that it exists in fishes as well,” which would be the darwinian perspective. but there seems to be an odd logic amongst scientists that historically gave us the opposite: “we assume that if a given structure has not been proven to exist in a particular organism, the null hypothesis is that it does not exist, despite its proven existence in closely related forms.” fish, by this reasoning, were assumed not to have nociceptors despite their established presence in every other lineage of vertebrates. this line of thinking invariably works to the benefit of economic (sometimes referred to as “pragmatic”) interests, especially food industries, including the aquaculture, commercial, and sport fishing industries in the case of fishes. when scientific reasoning is influenced by the economic system predominant in our society, there may well be a greater tendency to take a non-darwinian approach such as arguing that relatedness does not predict whether an organism has particular traits, and therefore allow us to assume that an economically important animal lacks the ability to feel pain until proven otherwise. taking this a step further, in the u.s., which probably represents the most economically driven philosophical system in history, this attitude goes hand in hand with a tendency on the part of much of the public to oppose the teaching of darwin 17 book review ian thinking in schools. darwinian thought assumes relatedness and the existence of shared traits among related species, and actually shares many concepts with indigenous knowledge (see chapter 6 in pierotti 2011). what goes unrecognized and unacknowledged by most western scientists is that the “objectivity” or “pragmatism” expected of their scientists, ends up being used to deny identity between obviously homologous traits in humans and other species, which is, in essence, creationist thought. a similar approach can be found in attempts by the american veterinary association and the humane society of the united states to argue that rabies vaccines approved for use in domestic dogs, should not also be used in their ancestral congeners, gray wolves (canis lupus linnaeus canidae), even though the same vaccine is approved for use in cats (felis sylvestris linnaeus felidae), cattle (bos taurus linnaeus bovidae), and horses (equus caballus linnaeus equidae) (see pages 93-94 in pierotti 2011). what is striking is how mute many scientists become when faced with such obvious sophistry. according to braithwaite, simply demonstrating the presence of nociceptors was not considered sufficient to demonstrate that fish feel pain, it was also necessary to demonstrate that fish show behavioral responses to painful stimuli that are the same as those observed in birds and mammals, i.e., showing obvious changes in behavior in response to “painful stimuli.” one reason for requiring such evidence is apparently based upon the argument that because hooked fish pull and try to swim away, the hook does not really cause them pain. braithwaite, however, correctly points out that the situation is more complicated than this. a nociceptive response to a painful stimulus may indeed involve an escape or flight response. when any vertebrate, including humans, are trapped or caught, their bodies experience a range of responses, often not involving conscious thought, typical of nociceptive responses. for example, people who lose limbs in accidents often try to run, or may even pick up the severed limb, without feeling apparent pain (for several cinematic but fact-based examples, watch the opening section of steven spielberg’s saving private ryan). as braithwaite states, “the motivation to escape is so strong that the (individual) works to overcome any pain to try and get away” (p. 165). this last point suggests an issue that is rarely, if ever, raised: “how do we know that humans feel pain?” raymond pierotti asked his fellow graduate student this exact question in 1978 in response to his statement concerning our lack of knowledge concerning pain in fish. the answer seems to be that we can talk to humans. there is, however, no quantifiable basis for pain, even in humans. we ask humans to assess their own levels of pain and there is no way of verifying that one person’s level 10 is different than another’s level 7. as braihwaite indicates, we have trouble identifying subjective pain in fishes; however, “we would probably struggle to do this for any human if we could not understand their language” (p. 106, emphasis added). this entire debate is basically a legacy of the cartesian machine metaphor, which argues that nonhumans are “machines, who cannot suffer, but only malfunction.” it needs to be kept in mind that despite his contributions to the history of science, descartes was very much a creationist by today’s standards, and his “philosophy” is rooted in the christian tradition, e.g., the discussion of souls, whose existence has never been demonstrated by “objective” science. this logic was even applied to non-european homo sapiens, and there have been numerous episodes where individuals of european ancestry have questioned the humanity, the emotional responsiveness, and the existence of “souls” in people whose skin color did not match theirs, especially those who did not speak their language (pierotti 2011). despite the fact that scientists are said to be objective and to “see their work in isolation—that is unconstrained by their own context…despite their careful definitions and their forced assertions, scholars are inevitably influenced at least as much by the common usage of the terms that they deploy, as they are by their more rarefied and specialized senses” (ritvo 2010:4). in any case, it appears that fish are fully capable of experiencing painful stimuli, and they respond to these stimuli in ways similar to responses shown by birds and mammals; i.e., avoiding areas where pain is experienced, rubbing the affected areas. if analgesics are applied, fish show a marked reduction in such behavior. braithwaite brings up the issue of objective emotion, in which the organism is in an emotional state that is obvious from its posture and appearance. almost all animals, including invertebrates and possibly even plants, show this type of response. it is another issue, however, whether fish are capable of subjective emotion, which is “feeling what it is to feel 18 book review something.” this is a state in which an animal interprets and is aware of its state of discomfort, sort of the difference between stubbing your toe and cursing and jumping around (the objective response), and thinking, “my toe really hurts and i wish it would stop feeling this way” (the subjective response). there seem to be variation among species of fishes in this ability to display apparent consciousness or sentience. braithwaite provides a rather elegant example of whether or not fish are capable of considering possible alternative scenarios and modifying decisions based upon contingencies, in her description of interactions between moray eels and groupers. when prey pursued by groupers flee into crevices on coral reefs where the grouper cannot pursue, some groupers go and signal to morays, vigorously shaking their heads in rapid vertical motion. the moray can choose to ignore this, and some do, but other eels leave their crevices and follow the grouper, who leads them to the part of the reef where the smaller prey have taken refuge, at which point the grouper can actually point to particular holes using its head. the eel then enters the hole and about half the time it flushes the prey where it is caught by the grouper. it is assumed that many of the times when the prey does not flush, it is taken by the eel. at the same time we were studying parental care in cichlids, we also studied group hunting behavior in florida largemouth bass, which showed behavior that was somewhat analogous to the situation observed between groupers and moray eels. we observed largemouth bass in groups of 4-5 individuals surround a clump of aquatic vegetation, and then one individual would lunge into the vegetation, while its companions picked off small fish and invertebrates dislodged or startled by the rush (annett 1998). we could not determine if individuals took different roles, but it seemed likely that the bass were trading off lunging and surrounding. one situation quite similar to the cooperative interaction between the grouper and the moray is the observation derived from indigenous knowledge traditions that badger and coyote were "friends" and hunted together (see pages 58-59 in pierotti 2011). film footage of this relationship can be seen in yellowstone: realm of the coyote (national geographic 1995). empirical study has revealed that these two species truly are cooperative. coyotes and badgers spend a lot of time wandering around together, but when they see ground squirrels, coyotes give chase. if the squirrel goes into a burrow, badgers will dig up the burrow, or both will dig together. if the squirrel stays in the burrow, badgers will often get it. if the squirrel attempts to escape by using another burrow exit, coyote often gets it and has a meal. both coyote and badger catch more squirrels when they hunt together than when they hunt alone (minta et al. 1992). even though it seems clear that fish can feel pain and seem capable of a wide range of complex social behaviors and emotional states, no one seems to raise the question of whether fish feel grief. we can’t help but wonder what might be found if scientists looked more closely at monogamous species with strong pairbonds. clearly when one partner was removed in our study of t. mariae, the remaining partner experienced considerable stress (annett et al. 1999). if they had not had to work so hard to make up for their partner’s absence, they might have shown behavior comparable to responses shown by monogamous birds who have lost a partner. grief is an unusual phenomenon; at one level it seems an obvious response to the loss of an individual with whom one has a social bond, but if this response becomes too consuming it can have serious negative implications for survival. the major question concerning the presence of grief in human versus nonhuman animals might be whether humans are the only species that can afford to indulge in extreme displays of grief. the issue of whether grief can be found in nonhuman animals is well addressed by barbara king, in her book, how animals grieve. king does a generally good job of presenting her arguments concerning the evidence for grief in nonhumans, although she has to rely a good deal on examples from domestic animals. most of these examples take a similar form; i.e., two individuals, sometimes from different species or breeds, spend many years together. if one perishes, the other acts depressed, often refusing to eat, and its health may decline. however if another animal is introduced often the spirits of the survivor will pick up and they seem to return to “normal” after a while. as an anthropologist, king is most familiar with the primate literature, and draws numerous examples from this source as well. after all, the “likeliest targets of unconscious identification and projection [are] animals who were most like people, either because they looked like people, or because they were members of the same society. animals outside these overlapping circles of familiarity were much less likely 19 book review potential surrogates” (ritvo 2010:8-9). king does include other examples, but these are often from the usual set of suspects; e.g. elephants and dolphins, which seem to be among the few species that most humans are willing to accept into the pantheon of fellow grievers, and are allowed to have a theory of mind. one thing we found both interesting and perplexing is that in a discussion of the reaction of elephants to bones of their own kind, king discusses whether they recognize individual skulls. an experiment was carried out which suggested that although elephants can clearly distinguish between skulls of conspecifics and those of other species, they recognized skulls of elephants in general, but not of individuals. why is this surprising? we doubt that most humans could recognize the skulls of departed family members in a group of skulls without resort to looking at teeth, which are the only part of the skull we see with any regularity while the individual is alive. after all, even hamlet had to have the gravedigger identify yorick’s skull so he could soliloquize about it. with regard to recognition of dentition, it is clear that elephants recognize tusks from familiar individuals. we also suspect that spatial context is important to elephants. they know where members of their social groups have died, therefore encountering their skulls in a new location, as happened in the experiment, may only confuse them. king describes extreme displays that can be shown over dead conspecifics in chimpanzees, including violence directed at the dead individual. she contends that this type of behavior is not observed in humans, which suggests she has not carefully surveyed the human literature. we are again provided the example of flo and her son flint, who apparently died of grief shortly after his mother passed. this example is compelling, but it generally leaves out the fact that flint was the last male offspring of this prolific female, and her other older offspring did not die of apparent grief, however badly they may have felt concerning her passing. missing from king’s book are some very strong examples from monogamous birds, even though she does discuss examples from geese and chickens. safina (2002) describes very dramatic behavior in a pair of laysan albatross (phoebastria immutabilis rothschild diomedeidae), involving grieving by a female who lost her first chick. this pair was closely observed by a couple upon whose land they were nesting. what was extraordinary in this case was the behavior by the male partner, who continued to help incubate the dead chick for several weeks to help the obviously grieving female cope, until she seemed to adjust to loss of her first offspring. this is crucial, because this species typically has lifetime pair-bonds that can last for several decades, and one of the major factors leading to pair-bond breakage is the loss of offspring early in the relationship. from our own work, along with other scholars, we have observed what we considered to be "funerals” in magpies (genus pica linnaeus corvidae) and described the most dramatic example of this phenomenon that we observed in the yellow-billed magpie: one day when rp was watching magpies feeding in an oak-savannah habitat (in central california) an incredible ruckus broke out. a cooper’s hawk (accipiter cooperi bonaparte accipitridae), had attacked and killed a female magpie. magpies from all over the area gathered in the trees around the kill site and chattered constantly while the hawk ate the magpie. this was not that surprising, animals often gather and observe a predator after it has taken a member of their group, however i did not expect what happened next. after the hawk left, the magpies flew down and walked over to the remains of the dead female. they no longer chattered, instead they muttered in low voices, like they were talking to each other. to my surprise, some magpies picked up feathers from the dead bird, took them into the trees, and stuck them there. after 15-20 minutes all the magpies except one flew away silently. the only remaining bird was the mate of the dead bird. he picked up one of her primary wing feathers and carried it around with him for several days. when he stopped to eat he would put the feather down carefully and eat, then he would pick the feather up again and fly off with it. i realized that i was witnessing something akin to a funeral, or at least a celebration of a death, in a nonhuman. other observers had described this behavior (miller and brigham 1988; trost 1999), but they had not seen the feather carrying aspect (see pages 132-133 in pierotti (2011). comparing our experience to accounts in king’s book, this behavior seemed to have elements of a ceremony, which is why we described this as a 20 book review "funeral." a “ceremony” conducted by nonhumans related to sudden death seems to fit clearly within the category of behavioral responses that reveal grieving in nonhumans. king discusses the carrying of stillborn infants by monkeys, apes, and dolphins. such behavior occurs in a wide range of species. we have observed the carrying of stillborn offspring by female steller sea lions (eumetopias jubatus schreber otariidae), and have photographic evidence of this behavior. females carried their offspring with them for 2-3 days, picking them up in their mouths and carrying them by the scruff of the neck. for the record, carrying offspring in this fashion is not typical behavior in this species: despite being arctoid carnivores, sea lions do not carry their offspring in their mouths when the young are alive. after stillbirths were the only times we observed this behavior. king’s accounts of grieving in primates might be strengthened by an example observed by steve green of the university of miami. when he was working on japanese macaques (macaca fuscata blythe cercopithecidae), green observed a young female who had just lost her first infant. this female was alone at the time, and when she picked up her infant's body she began to wail in a way he not seen before (green 1975). within a few minutes there was a crashing in nearby bushes and another adult monkey came running up and threw her arms around the young female and held her while she wailed (s. green, personal communication). not surprisingly, this new female adult was the mother of the young female who had lost her infant, which suggests strongly that not only grief, but empathy and comfort to the grieving, might be components of nonhuman activity. after reading these books, it seems obvious that yes, fish do indeed feel pain and are even capable of much more complex behavior. similarly, a wide range of nonhuman species seem capable of complex emotions such as grief and even empathy. the real problem with identifying these complex behaviors seems to be a fear of “anthropomorphism,” combined with a desire to please, or at least placate, economic and religious interests in western european traditions. by this reasoning, the only reason there is any debate over pain in fish is because of the way they are “harvested,” a term implying that they are like agricultural plants rather than other vertebrates. braithwaite points out that the equivalent of commercial fishing, especially with bottom trawls, would never be tolerated if it were applied to birds or mammals on land. this can also be seen in the fact that it is illegal to hunt in national parks, but fishing is allowed. even “catch and release” fishing, which is touted as a means of conservation, has serious problems in that many animals are seriously injured and left to die slow deaths (pierotti and wildcat 1999). the irony is that this way of thinking owes much more to descartes than to darwin. charles darwin (1871) argued that humans and nonhumans shared emotional states and that the differences were of degree, not of kind. despite constant repetition that humans are animals, and also that they are primates, “such assertions often seem defensive or even strident,” because of the, “persistent reluctance to locate ourselves and our closest extinct relatives in the family pongidae…rather than in the more exclusive family hominidae, reserved for australopithecines and humans” (ritvo 2010:3). rarely has a 1% difference between the total genomes of closely related species been used for such taxonomic grandeur (see also diamond 1992). as a result, many scientists who allege that they are darwinians seem to actually show strong creationist inclinations when it comes to discussing the similarities between our own emotional states and those of our nonhuman relatives. it is time that we carefully evaluate the science and come to accept the fact that human emotions are not the result of special creation, but instead arise from a long evolutionary history and from shared traits. we should welcome the ability to situate ourselves in the larger world with our animal relatives. we hope that this will come to be regarded as something we already knew. references cited anderson, e. n. 1996. ecologies of the heart: emotion, belief, and the environment. oxford university press, ny, ny. anderson, e. n. 2013. what shapes cognition? traditional sciences and modern international science. in explorations of ethnobiology: the legacy of amadeo rea. contributions in ethnobiology, edited by marsha quinlan and dana lepofsky, pp 47-77. society of ethnobiology, denton, texas. annett, c.a. 1998. hunting behavior of florida largemouth bass (micropterus salmoides floridanus) in a channelized river. environmental biology of fishes 53:75-87. 21 book review annett, c. a., r. pierotti, and j. r. baylis.1999. male and female parental roles in a biparental cichlid, tilapia mariae. environmental biology of fishes 54:283293. darwin, c. 1871.the expression of emotions in man and animals. reprint 1998. harper collins, london. diamond, j. 1992. the third chimpanzee: the evolution and future of the human animal. harpercollins publishers, ny, ny. durham, jimmy. 1983. columbus day. west end press, minneapolis, mn. green, s. 1975. variation of vocal pattern with social situation in the japanese monkey (macaca fuscata): a field study. in primate behavior: developments in field and laboratory research, vol. 4, edited by l.a. rosenblum, pp. 1-102. academic press, ny, ny. miller, w. r., and r. m. brigham. 1988. "ceremonial" gathering of black-billed magpies, pica pica, after the sudden death of a conspecific. murrelet 69:7879. minta, s. c., k. a. minta, and d. f. lott. 1992. hunting associations between badgers and coyotes. journal of mammalogy 73:814-820. goldberg, rob and john rubin. 1995. yellowstone: realm of the coyote. national geographic video. pierotti, r. 2011. indigenous knowledge, ecology and evolutionary biology. routledge, taylor and francis group, new york. pierotti, r. and c. a. annett. 1994. patterns of aggression in gulls: asymmetries and tactics in different roles. condor 96:590‑599. pierotti, r. and c. a. annett. 1995. western gull (larus occidentalis). no. 174. the birds of north america, edited by a. poole and f. gill. the academy of natural sciences, philadelphia and american ornithologists’ union, washington d.c. pierotti, r., c. a. annett, and j. l. hand. 1996. male and female perceptions of pair-bond dynamics: monogamy in the western gull. in feminism and evolutionary biology, edited by p.a. gowaty, pp. 261275. chapman and hall press. pierotti, r. and d. wildcat. 1999. connectedness of predators and prey: native americans and fisheries management. fisheries 24(4):22-23. ritvo, h. 2010. nobel cows and hybrid zebras: essays on animals and history. university of virginia press, charlottsville, va. safina, c. 2002. the eye of the albatross. henry holt and co., ny, ny. trost, c. h. 1999. black-billed magpie. no. 389. the birds of north america, edited by a. poole and f. gill. the academy of natural sciences, philadelphia and the american ornithologists’ union, washington, d.c. 39 research communication use value of food plants in the xi’iuy indigenous community of las guapas, rayon, san luis potosi, mexico haydeé carbajal-esquivel, javier fortanelli martínez,1 josé garcía-pérez, juan a. reyes-agüero, laura yáñez-espinosa, mark bonta. author addresses: 1 instituto de investigación de zonas desérticas, universidad autónoma de san luis potosí, san luis potosí, slp, méxico fortanel@uaslp.mx received: october 31, 2011 volume 3:39-55 published: august 21, 2012 © 2012 society of ethnobiology abstract: native communities’ erosion of ethnobotanical knowledge of food plants is a global concern. this investigation focuses on a xi’iuy community in the sierra madre oriental, san luís potosí, méxico. a total of 21 randomly-selected families participated (22% of the total population). the 56 people who were interviewed—an average of 2.7 per family-were separated into four groups (fathers, mothers, single sons, single daughters). to investigate the use value of each plant, a collection of 54 food specimens was shown to the informants. knowledge of each food species’ uses was compared between genders and age groups. the results included figures that were lower than expected, as well as less knowledge among women than men, particularly among underage daughters. the difference in use value between men and women in this community is explicable by cultural factors: i.e., women’s participation in agriculture and plant collecting is minimal. this, along with men’s seasonal migration for work (men are usually wage laborers half the year in the sugarcane harvest, and the other half they cultivate their own land), plus increasing availability of commercial food in grocery stores, contributes to the steady loss of ethnobotanical knowledge. key words: use value, food plants, quantitative ethnobotany, xi’iuy ethnic group. introduction the geographical region known as la pamería, located in the sierra madre oriental, in the states of san luis potosí and querétaro, méxico (chemin, 1984; álvarez, 1996; vázquez, 2010), has evolved through a lengthy and complex historical processes involving the xi’iuy ethnic group (known by mestizos as “pame”, thus “la pamería” means “land of the pames”). state policies over the centuries have favored the reduction of xi’iuy territory and displacement of its people, resulting in land and water resources becoming increasingly concentrated in the hands of mestizo and criollo landowners (ordóñez 2004). from the 16th to the 18th centuries, the xi’iuy people, facing long-lasting conflicts with encomienda holders, hacienda owners, and bellicose, nomadic tribes, retreated to the most isolated and rugged parts of the sierra madre, where they eked out an existence as smallholders (velázquez 1987). although xi’iuy land contains abundant resources and high productive potential, it is characterized by stark poverty. chronic malnutrition, a poverty-related condition, is rife, and can be explained by several factors: inadequate agricultural and food-gathering strategies; dietary changes resulting from the introduction of commercial food products of little nutritional value; adoption of alien cultural mores fomented by temporary, local emigration (anonymous 1999). ethnographic research carried out in two nearby indigenous towns (la manzanilla and agua puerca) highlighted a similar situation (cotonieto, 2011). during the dry season, males 15 years and above typically labor in the sugarcane harvest, in nearby intermontane valleys. during this time, they return each weekend to their homes. in the rainy season, they plant and harvest maize and beans on their own land in the mountains. this situation appears to favor continuous erosion of xi’iuy knowledge of local food resources. a concept that contributes to the understanding of this issue is use value, i.e., the capability of a given resource, good, or service to meet the needs of an individual or society (callan and thomas 1996; asafu 2005). in the case of plants, a given species will have a high use value if a relatively elevated number of consumers or users 40 research communication make use of it for a wide variety of purposes. hence, this study analyzes the use value of local food plants by gender and age groups in a xi’iuy community. materials and methods this study was conducted from january 2006 to april 2007 in the village of las guapas, municipality of rayón, san luis potosí state, mexico (99º27’40”w; 21º55’45ºn; 1080 m.a.s.l.) (anonymous 1980). las guapas comprises 96 families whose livelihoods include subsistence agriculture, small-scale commerce in fruits and vegetables, cattle-raising, fabrication and sale of handicrafts, and agricultural labor outside the community. las guapas has a warm climate and is located in a valley with reddish-brown, clayey soils derived from fine-grained sedimentary rock. it is flanked by limestone hills that reach altitudes of nearly 1400 meters above sea level. the dominant vegetation type is quercus oak forest. first, we conducted a community meeting to seek consent for the research. informed consent was granted. the sample included 21 families (21.8% of the total number of families in las guapas, ) selected at random. then, we conducted a field survey, using data from local informants along with botanical identification, in forests, lands under cultivation, and community orchards. we identified 159 species of ethnobotanical interest and nine different uses. thenceforth, following the objective of this study, we made a collection of 54 specimens with uses for food, and 12 specimens with non-food uses. only 71% of food plants collected were used in this study (the remaining 29% were unidentifiable owing to the poor state of the specimens, and were thus discarded), to avoid potential species misidentifications due to informants’ fatigue and/or boredom toward the end of the study. this method is superior to that employed in a study by lyen y nguyen (2003) in which, to avoid fatigue and loss of interest on the part of the informants, just ten photographs were used to evaluate traditional fruit and vegetable knowledge among vietnamese in vietnam and hawaii. after we gathered data on plants collected, we calculated use values following phillips and gentry (1993a, b). this method allows researchers to assess 1) the ability of interviewees to recognize plant species and 2) interviewees’ knowledge of their uses. we showed interviewees plant specimens and asked them to describe different uses. we ran tests on these data to assess the importance of a given species based on its various uses (see table 1 for equations used). we also investigate interviewees’ knowledge of the species’ common name, xi’iuy name, part of the plant used and means of preparation, and frequency of inclusion in the diet. we interviewed 21 female heads of family, 11 male heads of family (it was impossible to interview all male heads of family in the sample due to their temporary absence from the community for work purposes), and single (“underage”) sons and daughters between 12 and 22 years of age (seven sons and seven daughters). we made the assumption, based on chemin (1984) and cotonieto (2010) that persons in the 12-to-22 age group had already gained sufficient knowledge of community life and traditions to apply in the future as heads of family. to avoid confusion between interviewees, we conducted separate and isolated sessions for each interviewee. results and discussion results obtained via the equations shown in table 1 allowed us to analyze differential knowledge of plant uses among the xi’iuy people. assuming that only plants used as food were included, our minimum expectation was that the interviewee would be able to identify at least one type of food produced from each plant sample. however, some interviewees faced difficulties in identifying specimens, particularly for species belonging to the same taxonomical family, or did not know of specific alimentary uses at all. table 2 displays some of the species collected (refer to appendix 1 for the complete list) to demonstrate how use values were calculated. the example shows the outcome of interviews with 11 heads of family. it is evident that erythrina coralloides has a maximum vt of 4.0, meaning that interviewees acknowledged that this species is used both as food and for other purposes. although the table lists only a fraction of all species considered, complete results for these species are displayed. e. coralloides has the highest use value relative to all others (vsp = 2.73), as a result of the number of distinct uses associated with this species. interviewee 1 in the adult men group assigned the highest figures to the set of plants analyzed (vs = 1.17); this was likely due to his age: at 60 years old, he was the oldest of the 11 interviewees in his group. table 3 displays 25 species included in the plant collection and the respective total use value for each interviewee group. use values (vs) were compared among interviewee groups through the u-mannwhitney test. from this, only differences between adult men and underage women (vppa versus vpja), and 41 research communication between underage men and underage women (vpjo versus vspja), were statistically significant (u = 39.5, p < 0.01; u = 21, p < 0.01, respectively).this may be correlated with the custom of women’s visiting forests and parcels only when accompanying their husbands or sons. as a result, women access to knowledge is limited relative to men’s. nevertheless, when a woman becomes the head of household (because her partner has either died or emigrated to the us or to a distant mexican state), she learns to use the different plants as food and also identifies other uses. xi’iuy women’s inferior knowledge of plant uses contrasts sharply with the situation of a mestizo mapuche community in neuquen, argentina (lozada et al. 2006), where women play the leading role in preserving ethnobotanical knowledge, and no significant differences between men and women vis-àvis knowledge of plant uses are reported. in a similar context, hadza women in south africa walk some eight km to collect water as well as fruits and other food plants (youngblood 2004). more restrictive situations exist among bribri and cabecar communities in costa rica, where women are barred from utilizing certain plants in anthropic landscapes (ramos and del monte 2004). the closest resemblance to the situation of the xi’iuy people of las guapas is santa isabel chalma, amecameca, mexico, a community involved primarily in forest exploitation. there, men possess a deeper ethnobotanical knowledge than women; working in the forest is said to be an activity unsuitable for unmarried women (estrada 1996). it is only when married that a woman learns knowledge about plants from her husband. in the cuenca del caura, venezuela, souto and ticktin (2012) obtained similar results in a study that showed that men know more edible wild fruits than women, and elderly women know more plants—particularly those found close to dwellings— than younger women. within a similar context, the difference between vpjo and vspja in las guapas is due to the fact that boys begin their acquaintance with plant uses at an earlier age than girls, as they are afforded the opportunity to visit the forest with their fathers. furthermore, the difference in vp between fathers and sons should be noted: sons easily identified species and described at least their uses as food, while fathers faced various problems in identifying them. this may be due to the fact that fathers have lost regular contact with plants as a result of constant, temporary emigration for work. these findings are cause for great concern, because issues involving transmission of knowledge derived from traditional differential gender roles are exacerbated by the ongoing loss of contact with environmental resources and growing economic and cultural pressures to consume processed, commercial foods readily available in local grocery stores. in this respect, some authors have pointed out diverse tendencies in relation to increased contact with the outside. for example, hamlin and salick (2003), working in the peruvian amazon, found that yanesha communities were not negatively affected by the opening of a modern highway. although it brought more people to a previous isolated zone and augmented the presence of commercial activities, the yanesha were able to adapt by not only enriching their dooryard gardens and diets with new flavors and ingredients, but also maintaining their traditional agricultural knowledge. similarly, mcmillen (2012) found in tanga, tanzania, that medicinal plant knowledge was being improved rather that eroded with better connections to regional markets. by contrast, voeks and leony (2004) showed that the process of modernization in lençóis, eastern brazil, is incompatible with the persistance of ethnobotanical knowledge of medicinal plants, because there is a positive relationship between illiteracy and local traditional knowledge. in las guapas, forest plant species with high use values included “higuerón” (ficus cotinifolia kunth) and avocado (persea americana mill.). these species are also found in household orchards, but they were classified as forest plants because they also grow wild. cultivated plants with highest use values were “teja corn” (helianthus annuus l.) and “epazote” (chenopodium ambrosioides l.). the species with highest use value in orchards was “patol” (erythrina coralloides dc.): as already mentioned, this species is utilized in a number of different ways. another relevant plant in typical xi`iuyky orchards is “ruda” (ruta chalepensis l.), a species used both as medicine and spice. table 3 shows that plants with the highest use values (for example, cnidoscolus multilobus and conostegia xalapensis) correspond mostly to either anthropic landscapes like orchards and plots under cultivation, or to disturbed vegetation. in general, similar uses for food occur across different environments; based on the u mann-whitney test, there are no statistically significant differences between food plants from forests and from orchards in terms of: a) frequency of consumption (number of days per year that a given species is consumed by the family interviewed) (u = 42 research communication 136.5, p > 0.05), and b) the plant’s use value (u = 136, p > 0.05). conclusions use value figures for plant species consumed as food were lower than expected, with extent of knowledge below average among underage daughters and above average among underage sons. differences in use value between men and women are most likely related to a cultural context in which women participate in agriculture and plant collection in only a limited fashion. plants with the highest use values correspond to anthropic landscapes such as orchards and cultivated fields, and to areas with disturbed vegetation. in terms of frequency of consumption or use value, plants collected in the forest displayed no significant differences relative to plants grown in orchards. references cited álvarez c. h. 1996. problemática agraria en la pamería potosina: panorama actual. in: l. torre (coord.) xi’oi coloquio pame. los pames de san luis potosí y querétaro. pp. 159-170. centro de investigaciones históricas de san luis potosí and instituto de cultura de san luis potosí, san luis potosí, méxico. anonymous. 1980. tamasopo. carta topográfica. f-14-c18, escala 1:50000. dirección general de geografía del territorio nacional, méxico. anonymous. 1999. diagnóstico socioeconómico, productivo y de análisis económico financiero de proyectos tipo en la zona pame de san luis potosí. programa de desarrollo productivo sostenible en zonas rurales marginadas. sagarpa, san luis potosí, méxico. asafu-adjaye, j. 2005. environmental economics for noneconomists. techniques and policies for sustainable development. world scientific publishing, singapore, malaysia. callan, s. j. and j. m. thomas. 1996. environmental and management theory, policy and applications. irwin mcgraw-hill, chicago, illinois. bassler, h. c. 1984. los pames septentrionales de san luis potosí. instituto nacional indigenista, méxico. santilez, h. c. 2011. no tenemos las mejores tierras ni vivimos en los mejores pueblos... pero acá seguimos: ritual agrícola, organización social y cosmovisión de los pames del norte. el colegio de san luis, san luis potosí, méxico. estrada, m. e. 1996. etnobotánica forestal en santa isabel chalma, amecameca, méxico. unpublished master’s thesis, department of botany, colegio de postgraduados montecillo, texcoco, estado de méxico. hamlin, c. c. and j. salick. 2003. yanesha agriculture in the upper peruvian amazon: persistence and change fifteen years down the “road”. economic botany 57:163-180. lien, m. and t. nguyen. 2003. comparison of food plant knowledge between urban vietnamese living in vietnam and in hawai’i. economic botany 57:472-480. lozada, m., ladio a., and m. weigandt. 2006. cultural transmission of ethnobotanical knowledge in a rural community of northwestern patagonia, argentina. economic botany 60:374-385. mcmillen, h. 2012. ethnobotanical knowledge transmission and evolution: the case of medicinal markets in tanga, tanzania. economic botany 20:1-11. ordóñez, c. g. 2004. pames. programa de las naciones unidas para el desarrollo, méxico city, méxico. phillips, o. and a. h. gentry. 1993a. the useful plants of tambopata, perú: i. statistical hypotheses tests with a new quantitative technique. economic botany 47:15-32. phillips, o. and a. h. gentry. 1993b. the useful plants of tambopata, perú: ii. additional hypothesis testing in quantitative ethonobotany. economic botany 47:33-43. ramos, g. s. c. and j. p. del monte. 2004. the use of tropical forest (agroecosystems and plant harvesting) as a source of food in the bribri and cabecar cultures in the coast of costa rica. economic botany 58:58-71. souto, t. and t. ticktin. 2012. understanding interrelationships among predictors (age, gender, and origin) of local ecological knowledge. economic botany 20:1-16. vázquez e. a. 2010. xi’oi los verdaderos hombres. atlas etnográfico pames de la sierra gorda queretana. universidad autónoma de querétaro, qurétaro, méxico. velázquez, p. f. 1987. colección de documentos para la historia de san luis potosí. archivo histórico del estado de san luis potosí, san luis potosí, méxico. voeks, r. a. and a. leony. 2004. forgetting the forest: assessing medicinal plant erosion in eastern brazil. economic botany 58:s294-s306. youngblood, d. 2004. identification and quantification of edible plant foods in the upper (nama) karoo, south africa. economic botany 58:s43-s65. 43 research communication biosketch haydeé carbajal-esquivel is a biologist with a master’s degree in environmental science from the autonomous university of san luis potosi in mexico. he is also a high school director at iuem university in mexico. 44 research communication table 1. equations used to calculate use value of plant species [modified from original equations by phillips and gentry (1993a,b)]. feature index definition use value per interviewee for each species vt = number of uses of each species known to given interviewee total number of uses of each species: vt = 0, vt = 1, etc. mean use value per interviewee vs = σvt/total number of species observed per interviewee average use value per interviewee for each species observed. mean use value per species vsp =σvt/number of interviewees that observed the plant species average use value assigned to a given species by all interviewees. use value of food species per group of interviewees vpi = σvs(i)/number of interviewees (total or per subsample i) vp is the mean use value assigned by the total number of interviewees (t) or a subsample of interviewees (i): i = adult men, pa, vppa i = adult women, ma, vpma i = underage men, jo, vpjo i = underage women, ja, vpja 45 research communication table 2. use values of food plants in las guapas by heads of family. number of uses recognized per interviewee (vt ) interviewee 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 vsp species erythrina coralloides 4 3 2 2 4 4 3 1 4 2 1 2.73 ficus cotinifolia 3 4 2 2 1 4 3 2 2 2 1 2.36 persea americana. 2 4 2 2 1 1 3 1 3 1 1 1.91 chenopodium ambrosioides 1 1 1 1 1 2 1 1 1 2 1 1.18 helianthus annuus 2 2 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1.18 psidium guajava 2 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 2 1 1 1.18 cnidosculus multilobus 2 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1.09 coffea arabica 1 2 1 1 1 1 2 1 1 1 0 1.09 amaranthus hybridus 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1.00 bauhinia chapulhuacania 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1.00 carica papaya 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1.00 carya ovata var. mexicana 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1.00 conostegia xalapensis 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1.00 gonolobus niger 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1.00 juglans mollis 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1.00 lycopersicon esculentum var. cerasiforme 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1.00 mangifera indica 1 1 1 1 1 2 1 1 1 0 1 1.00 manihot esculenta 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1.00 musa x paradisiaca 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1.00 nopalea cochenillifera 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1.00 opuntia sp. 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1.00 phaseolus coccineus 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1.00 phaseolus vulgaris 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1.00 ruta chalepensis 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1.00 saccharum officinarum 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1.00 tagetes filifolia 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1.00 vigna unguiculata 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1.00 zingiber officinale 1 1 1 1 2 1 1 1 1 1 0 1.00 canna indica 1 1 2 1 1 0 1 1 1 0 1 0.91 curcuma longa 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 0 0.91 cymbopogon citratus 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 0 1 0.91 pachyrhizus erosus 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 0 1 0.91 phytolacca icosandra 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 0 0.91 sechium edule 1 1 2 1 1 1 1 1 1 0 0 0.91 tigridia pavonia 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 0 0.91 capsicum annuum 1 0 1 1 1 1 0 1 1 1 1 0.82 capsicum annuum var. aviculare 1 0 1 1 1 1 0 1 1 1 1 0.82 jatropha curcas 1 1 0 1 1 1 1 0 1 1 1 0.82 pisum sativum 1 0 1 1 1 1 0 1 1 1 1 0.82 syngonium podophyllum 1 0 1 1 1 1 0 1 1 1 1 0.82 arachis hypogaea 1 1 1 1 1 0 1 1 1 0 0 0.73 citrus maxima 1 1 1 1 1 0 1 1 1 0 0 0.73 morus aff. celtidifolia 1 1 1 1 1 0 1 1 1 0 0 0.73 physalis philadelphica 2 0 0 1 2 0 0 0 2 1 0 0.73 46 research communication casimiroa edulis 1 1 0 1 1 0 0 0 1 1 1 0.64 citrus aurantifolia 1 1 1 1 0 1 0 0 1 1 0 0.64 citrus reticulata 1 1 0 1 1 0 1 0 1 1 0 0.64 citrus aurantium 1 0 1 1 0 1 0 1 1 0 0 0.55 portulaca oleracea 1 0 1 1 1 0 0 1 1 0 0 0.55 rosmarinus officinalis 1 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 1 1 1 0.45 yucca treculeana 1 0 0 1 1 0 0 0 1 0 1 0.45 canavalia septentrionalis 1 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 1 1 0 0.36 eugenia capuli 1 0 0 1 1 0 0 0 1 0 0 0.36 asparagus officinalis 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 1 0 0.18 vs 1.17 0.96 0.93 1.02 1.04 0.91 0.87 0.83 1.13 0.83 0.69 vppa 0.94 vt = number of uses mentioned for each species by a given interviewee; vs = σvt /number of species observed per interviewee; vsppa = σvt /number of adult male interviewees that observed the species; vppa = σvs/number of adult male interviewees. 47 research communication table 3. use value of food species in las guapas community, by species and interviewee group. scientific name habitat vspma vsppa vspja vspjo vsptotal erythrina coralloides h 1.48 2.73 1.06 2.00 1.66 ficus cotinifolia h,f 1.38 2.36 0.94 1.57 1.46 persea americana h,f 1.33 1.91 1.24 1.71 1.46 helianthus annuus h,cl 1.24 1.18 1.00 1.00 1.13 chenopodium ambrosioides h,cl 1.10 1.18 1.00 1.00 1.07 carya ovata var. mexicana h,f 1.14 1.00 1.00 1.00 1.05 juglans mollis. h,f 1.14 1.00 1.00 1.00 1.05 ruta chalepensis h 1.14 1.00 1.00 1.00 1.05 mangifera indica h 1.14 1.00 0.94 1.00 1.04 psidium guajava h 1.00 1.18 1.00 1.00 1.04 cnidosculus multilobus cl,ol,f 1.00 1.09 1.00 1.00 1.02 musa x paradisiaca h,cl 1.00 1.00 1.06 1.00 1.02 amaranthus hybridus h,cl,ol 1.00 1.00 1.00 1.00 1.00 carica papaya h,cl 1.00 1.00 1.00 1.00 1.00 gonolobus niger h,f 1.00 1.00 1.00 1.00 1.00 nopalea cochenillifera h,cl 1.00 1.00 1.00 1.00 1.00 opuntia sp. h,cl,ol 1.00 1.00 1.00 1.00 1.00 curcuma longa h,cl 1.00 0.91 1.00 1.00 0.98 phaseolus coccineus cl 0.95 1.00 1.00 1.00 0.98 phaseolus vulgaris cl 0.95 1.00 1.00 1.00 0.98 vigna unguiculata cl 0.95 1.00 1.00 1.00 0.98 coffea arabica h,cl,f 0.90 1.09 0.94 1.00 0.96 conostegia xalapensis h,cl,ol 0.90 1.00 1.00 1.00 0.96 saccharum officinarum h,cl 0.95 1.00 0.94 1.00 0.96 zingiber officinale h,cl 1.00 1.00 0.88 1.00 0.96 vp 0.88 0.94 0.82 0.95 vp total women 0.85 vp total men 0.95 vsppa = σvt/number of adult male interviewees that observed the species. this also applies for vspma = adult women; vspjo = underaged men; vspja = underaged women; vp = σvs/ number of interviewees in each group. only 25 of the 54 species used in this investigation are shown (refer to appendix 1). habitat: h=homegarden, cl=cultivated land, f=forest, ol= other anthropic land (roadside, wasteland, etc.) 48 research communication supplementary table 1. use value assigned to plants by interviewees in las guapas community. female head of family number of uses mentioned per interviewee (vt) scientific name 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 vspma amaranthus hybridus l. 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1.00 arachis hypogaea l. 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 0 0 1 0 1 1 1 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0.71 asparagus officinalis l. 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 1 0 0 0.19 bauhinia chapulhuacania wunderlin 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 0 1 0.95 canavalia septentrionalis sawer 1 1 1 1 0 0 1 0 0 1 0 0 1 1 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0.57 canna indica l. 1 1 1 0 2 0 0 0 1 1 1 0 1 1 1 1 0 0 2 0 0 0.67 capsicum annuum l. 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 0 1 1 1 0.95 capsicum annuum var. aviculare (dierb.) d' arcy & eshbaugh 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 0 1 1 1 0.95 carica papaya l. 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 2 1 1 1 1 1 1 0 1 1 1 1.00 carya ovata var. mexicana (engelm. ex hemsl.) manning 2 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 2 1 1 1 1 2 1 1 1.14 casimiroa edulis la llave & lex. 1 0 0 1 1 1 1 1 0 1 0 0 1 1 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0.62 chenopodium ambrosioides l. 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 2 1 1 2 1 1 1 1 1 1 0 2 1 1 1.10 citrus aurantifolia swingle 1 1 1 0 1 1 0 1 1 1 1 0 1 1 1 0 0 0 1 0 1 0.67 citrus aurantium l. 1 1 1 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 1 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 1 0 1 0.43 citrus maxima (burm.) merr. 1 1 1 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 1 1 0 1 0.43 citrus reticulata blanco 1 0 1 1 1 1 1 1 0 0 1 1 0 1 0 1 1 0 1 0 1 0.67 cnidosculus multilobus (pax) i.m. johnst 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1.00 coffea arabica l. 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 0 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 0 1 1 1 0.90 conostegia xalapensis (bonpl.)d.don 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 0 1 1 0 0.90 curcuma longa l. 1 1 1 1 2 1 1 1 0 1 1 1 1 1 1 2 1 0 1 1 1 1.00 cymbopogon citratus (dc.) stapf 2 1 1 1 1 1 1 0 1 1 1 1 1 2 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1.05 erythrina coralloides dc. 1 1 1 1 4 1 1 2 1 1 4 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 4 1 1 1.48 eugenia capuli (cham. & schltdl.)o.berg 0 1 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 1 0 1 0 0 0 1 1 0 0.38 ficus cotinifolia kunth 1 1 1 0 1 2 0 2 2 1 4 1 1 1 1 2 0 0 4 2 2 1.38 gonolobus niger (cav.) r. br. 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1.00 helianthus annuus l. 2 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 2 1 1 1 2 2 1 2 1.24 jatropha curcas l. 1 1 1 0 1 1 0 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 0 0 1 0 1 0.76 juglans mollis engelm. 1 2 2 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 2 1 1 1.14 lycopersicon esculentum var. cerasiforme (dunal) a. gray 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 0 1 1 1 1 1 0 1 1 1 0.90 mangifera indica l. 1 2 2 1 1 1 1 0 1 1 2 1 2 1 1 1 1 0 2 1 1 1.14 49 research communication manihot esculenta crantz 1 1 1 0 1 1 0 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 0 1 1 0 1 0.81 morus aff. celtidifolia kunth 0 1 1 1 1 1 1 0 0 1 0 1 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 0 0.57 musa x paradisiaca l. 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1.00 nopalea cochenillifera (l.) salm-dyck 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1.00 opuntia 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1.00 pachyrhizus erosus (l.) urb. 1 1 1 1 1 0 1 0 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 0 1 1 1 0.86 persea americana mill. 1 1 1 1 1 3 1 1 2 1 1 1 2 1 1 2 1 0 3 2 1 1.33 phaseolus coccineus l. 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 0 1 1 1 0.95 phaseolus vulgaris l. 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 0 1 1 1 0.95 physalis philadelphica lam. 0 1 1 0 2 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 1 0 1 0 0 0 1 1 1 0.62 phytolacca icosandra l. 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 0 1 1 1 1 1 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0.81 pisum sativum l. 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 0 1 0 1 0.90 portulaca oleracea l. 0 1 1 1 1 1 1 0 0 1 0 1 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0.62 psidium guajava l. 1 1 2 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 0 1 1 1 1.00 rosmarinus officinalis l. 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 0 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 0 1 0.90 ruta chalepensis l. 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 2 1 1 2 1 2 1 1 0 2 1 1 1.14 saccharum officinarum l. 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 0 1 1 1 0.95 sechium edule (jacq.) sw. 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 0 0 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 0 1 1 0 0.81 syngonium podophyllum schott. 0 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0.71 tagetes filifolia lag 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 0 1 1 1 0.95 tigridia pavonia (l.f.) dc. 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 0 1 1 0 1 1 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0.76 vigna unguiculata (l.) walp. 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 0 1 1 1 0.95 yucca treculeana carr. 0 0 0 0 1 1 0 0 1 1 0 1 1 1 1 1 0 0 1 0 0 0.48 zingiber officinale roscoe 1 2 2 1 2 2 1 1 0 1 1 0 1 1 1 0 1 0 2 0 1 1.00 vs 0.93 0.98 1 0.8 1.1 1 0.8 0.8 0.7 0.9 1 0.8 1 0.9 0.9 0.8 0.8 0.3 1.3 0.6 0.91 vpma 0.88 vt = number of uses mentioned by each interviewee for each species; vs = σvt /number of species observed per interviewee; vspma = σvt /number of “adult women” interviewees that observed the species; vpma = σvs / number of “adult women” interviewees. 50 research communication supplementary table 1. (cont.). male head of family underage sons ( ≥ 12 ≤ 22 years old) number of uses mentioned per interviewee (vt) number of uses mentioned per interviewee (vt) scientific name 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 vsppa 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 vspjo amaranthus hybridus l. 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1.00 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1.00 arachis hypogaea l. 1 1 1 1 1 0 1 1 1 0 0 0.73 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1.00 asparagus officinalis l. 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 1 0 0.18 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0.00 bauhinia chapulhuacania wunderlin 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1.00 0 1 1 1 1 1 1 0.86 canavalia septentrionalis sawer 1 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 1 1 0 0.36 0 0 1 1 1 1 1 0.71 canna indica l. 1 1 2 1 1 0 1 1 1 0 1 0.91 0 1 1 1 1 1 1 0.86 capsicum annuum l. 1 0 1 1 1 1 0 1 1 1 1 0.82 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1.00 capsicum annuum var. aviculare (dierb.) d' arcy & eshbaugh 1 0 1 1 1 1 0 1 1 1 1 0.82 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1.00 carica papaya l. 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1.00 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1.00 carya ovata var. mexicana (engelm. ex hemsl.) manning 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1.00 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1.00 casimiroa edulis la llave & lex. 1 1 0 1 1 0 0 0 1 1 1 0.64 0 1 1 1 1 1 1 0.86 chenopodium ambrosioides l. 1 1 1 1 1 2 1 1 1 2 1 1.18 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1.00 citrus aurantifolia swingle 1 1 1 1 0 1 0 0 1 1 0 0.64 0 1 1 0 1 0 1 0.57 citrus aurantium l. 1 0 1 1 0 1 0 1 1 0 0 0.55 0 1 1 1 1 1 1 0.86 citrus maxima (burm.) merr. 1 1 1 1 1 0 1 1 1 0 0 0.73 1 0 1 1 1 1 1 0.86 citrus reticulata blanco 1 1 0 1 1 0 1 0 1 1 0 0.64 0 0 1 1 1 0 1 0.57 cnidosculus multilobus (pax) i.m. johnst 2 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1.09 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1.00 coffea arabica l. 1 2 1 1 1 1 2 1 1 1 0 1.09 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1.00 conostegia xalapensis (bonpl.)d.don 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1.00 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1.00 curcuma longa l. 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 0 0.91 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1.00 cymbopogon citratus (dc.) stapf 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 0 1 0.91 0 0 1 1 1 1 1 0.71 erythrina coralloides dc. 4 3 2 2 4 4 3 1 4 2 1 2.73 1 1 2 3 2 2 3 2.00 eugenia capuli (cham. & schltdl.)o.berg 1 0 0 1 1 0 0 0 1 0 0 0.36 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1.00 ficus cotinifolia kunth 3 4 2 2 1 4 3 2 2 2 1 2.36 0 1 2 2 2 2 2 1.57 gonolobus niger (cav.) r. br. 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1.00 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1.00 helianthus annuus l. 2 2 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1.18 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1.00 jatropha curcas l. 1 1 0 1 1 1 1 0 1 1 1 0.82 0 1 1 1 1 1 1 0.86 juglans mollis engelm. 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1.00 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1.00 lycopersicon esculentum var. cerasiforme (dunal) a. gray 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1.00 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1.00 mangifera indica l. 1 1 1 1 1 2 1 1 1 0 1 1.00 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1.00 51 research communication manihot esculenta crantz 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1.00 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1.00 morus aff. celtidifolia kunth 1 1 1 1 1 0 1 1 1 0 0 0.73 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1.00 musa x paradisiaca l. 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1.00 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1.00 nopalea cochenillifera (l.) salm-dyck 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1.00 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1.00 opuntia 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1.00 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1.00 pachyrhizus erosus (l.) urb. 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 0 1 0.91 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1.00 persea americana mill. 2 4 2 2 1 1 3 1 3 1 1 1.91 1 1 2 1 2 2 3 1.71 phaseolus coccineus l. 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1.00 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1.00 phaseolus vulgaris l. 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1.00 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1.00 physalis philadelphica lam. 2 0 0 1 2 0 0 0 2 1 0 0.73 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1.00 phytolacca icosandra l. 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 0 0.91 0 1 1 1 1 1 1 0.86 pisum sativum l. 1 0 1 1 1 1 0 1 1 1 1 0.82 0 0 1 1 1 1 1 0.71 portulaca oleracea l. 1 0 1 1 1 0 0 1 1 0 0 0.55 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1.00 psidium guajava l. 2 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 2 1 1 1.18 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1.00 rosmarinus officinalis l. 1 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 1 1 1 0.45 0 1 0 0 1 0 1 0.43 ruta chalepensis l. 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1.00 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1.00 saccharum officinarum l. 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1.00 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1.00 sechium edule (jacq.) sw. 1 1 2 1 1 1 1 1 1 0 0 0.91 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1.00 syngonium podophyllum schott. 1 0 1 1 1 1 0 1 1 1 1 0.82 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1.00 tagetes filifolia lag 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1.00 0 1 1 1 1 1 1 0.86 tigridia pavonia (l.f.) dc. 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 0 0.91 0 0 1 1 1 1 1 0.71 vigna unguiculata (l.) walp. 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1.00 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1.00 yucca treculeana carr. 1 0 0 1 1 0 0 0 1 0 1 0.45 0 1 1 1 1 1 1 0.86 zingiber officinale roscoe 1 1 1 1 2 1 1 1 1 1 0 1.00 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1.00 vs 1.2 1 0.9 1 1 0.9 0.9 0.8 1.1 0.8 0.685 0.7 0.9 1 1 1 1 1.1 vppa 0.94 vpjo 0.82 vt = number of uses mentioned by each interviewee for each species; vs = σvt divided by the number of species observed per interviewee; vsppa = σvt divided by the number of “adult men” interviewees that observed the species; vspja = σvt divided by the number of “underage men” that observed the species; vppa = σvs divided by the number of “adult men” interviewees; vpjo = σvs divided by the number of “ underage men” interviewees. 52 research communication supplementary table 1. (cont.). single daughters ( ≥ 12 ≤ 22 years old) number of uses mentioned per interviewee (vt) scientific name 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 vspja vspt amaranthus hybridus l. 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1.00 1.00 arachis hypogaea l. 0 1 1 0 0 1 1 1 1 0 1 1 1 1 1 0 1 0.71 0.75 asparagus officinalis l. 0 0 0 1 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0.18 0.16 bauhinia chapulhuacania wunderlin 1 0 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 0.94 0.95 canavalia septentrionalis sawer 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 0.18 0.43 canna indica l. 1 0 1 1 1 0 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 0 0 0 0 0.65 0.73 capsicum annuum l. 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1.00 0.95 capsicum annuum var. aviculare (dierb.) d' arcy & eshbaugh 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1.00 0.95 carica papaya l. 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1.00 1.00 carya ovata var. mexicana (engelm. ex hemsl.) manning 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1.00 1.05 casimiroa edulis la llave & lex. 0 0 1 0 0 0 1 1 1 0 0 0 1 0 0 1 0 0.35 0.57 chenopodium ambrosioides l. 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1.00 1.07 citrus aurantifolia swingle 1 0 1 1 0 0 1 1 0 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 1 0.47 0.59 citrus aurantium l. 1 0 1 1 1 0 1 1 1 1 0 1 0 1 1 0 0 0.65 0.57 citrus maxima (burm.) merr. 1 1 0 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 1 1 1 1 0.59 0.59 citrus reticulata blanco 0 0 0 0 1 0 1 1 1 1 0 1 1 1 1 1 1 0.65 0.64 cnidosculus multilobus (pax) i.m. johnst 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1.00 1.02 coffea arabica l. 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 0 1 1 1 1 1 1 0.94 0.96 conostegia xalapensis (bonpl.)d.don 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1.00 0.96 curcuma longa l. 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1.00 0.98 cymbopogon citratus (dc.) stapf 1 0 0 1 1 0 1 0 0 1 1 1 1 0 0 1 1 0.59 0.84 erythrina coralloides dc. 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 2 1 1.06 1.66 eugenia capuli (cham. & schltdl.)o.berg 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 0 0 0 1 1 1 0 0 0.71 0.55 ficus cotinifolia kunth 1 0 1 1 1 0 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 3 0 0.94 1.46 gonolobus niger (cav.) r. br. 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1.00 1.00 helianthus annuus l. 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1.00 1.13 jatropha curcas l. 0 0 1 0 0 0 1 1 1 1 1 1 0 1 0 1 1 0.59 0.73 juglans mollis engelm. 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1.00 1.05 lycopersicon esculentum var. cerasiforme (dunal) a. gray 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 0 1 1 1 1 0.94 0.95 mangifera indica l. 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 0 1 0.94 1.04 53 research communication manihot esculenta crantz 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 0 0.94 0.91 morus aff. celtidifolia kunth 0 1 1 0 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 0 1 1 0 0 0.71 0.70 musa x paradisiaca l. 2 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1.06 1.02 nopalea cochenillifera (l.) salm-dyck 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1.00 1.00 opuntia 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1.00 1.00 pachyrhizus erosus (l.) urb. 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1.00 0.93 persea americana mill. 2 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 2 1 1 1 1 1 2 2 1.24 1.46 phaseolus coccineus l. 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1.00 0.98 phaseolus vulgaris l. 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1.00 0.98 physalis philadelphica lam. 0 1 1 1 0 1 1 1 1 0 1 1 1 1 1 1 0 0.76 0.73 phytolacca icosandra l. 1 0 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 0 1 1 0 1 0 1 0 0.71 0.80 pisum sativum l. 0 0 0 1 0 1 0 1 1 1 1 1 1 0 1 1 1 0.65 0.79 portulaca oleracea l. 0 1 1 0 1 1 1 1 1 0 0 1 0 1 1 0 0 0.59 0.64 psidium guajava l. 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1.00 1.04 rosmarinus officinalis l. 0 0 1 0 0 0 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 0 1 0 0 0.53 0.64 ruta chalepensis l. 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1.00 1.05 saccharum officinarum l. 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 0 1 1 1 1 0.94 0.96 sechium edule (jacq.) sw. 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 0 1 0 1 1 0 1 0.82 0.86 syngonium podophyllum schott. 0 1 1 1 0 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 0 1 1 1 0 0.76 0.79 tagetes filifolia lag 0 0 1 0 0 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 0 1 1 0 0.65 0.86 tigridia pavonia (l.f.) dc. 1 0 0 1 1 1 1 0 0 1 0 1 1 1 0 1 0 0.59 0.73 vigna unguiculata (l.) walp. 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1.00 0.98 yucca treculeana carr. 1 0 1 1 0 0 1 1 1 0 1 1 0 0 1 0 0 0.53 0.54 zingiber officinale roscoe 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 0 0 1 1 1 1 1 1 0.88 0.96 vs 0.8 0.69 0.9 0.8 0.8 0.8 0.9 0.9 0.9 0.8 0.8 0.9 0.8 0.8 0.8 0.9 0.7 vpja 0.95 vpmen 0.95 vpwomen 0.85 vt = number of uses mentioned by each interviewee for each species; vs = σvt /number of species observed per interviewee; vspma = σvt /number of “underage women” interviewees that observed the species; vspt = σvt /total of interviewees that observed the species; vpma = σvs / number of “underage women” interviewees. 54 research communication supplementary table 2. list of food species referred to in the text. scientific name family spanish name xi'iuy name* amaranthus hybridus l. amaranthaceae quelite xixium arachis hypogaea l. fabaceae cacahuate ampogose/dempogose asparagus officinalis l. liliaceae espárrago bauhinia chapulhuacania wunderlin fabaceae pata de vaca vacua pagas/shankuc canavalia septentrionalis sawer fabaceae conchito cujuel/gaun canna indica l. cannaceae platanillo vin oh capsicum annuum l. solanaceae chile pico de pájaro ilju shinyua shiljai capsicum annuum var. aviculare (dierb.) d' arcy & eshbaugh solanaceae chile piquín ilju quipin carica papaya l. caricaceae papaya carya ovata var. mexicana (engelm. ex hemsl.) manning juglandaceae nogal jusé/ gatun casimiroa edulis la llave & lex. rutaceae zapote blanco zapot denua chenopodium ambrosioides l. chenopodiaceae epazote shquipis citrus aurantifolia swingle rutaceae limón dulce y limón agrío danaas vaas/ danaas vais citrus aurantium l. rutaceae naranja cucha danaas vais citrus maxima (burm.) merr. rutaceae toronja danaas vaas citrus reticulata blanco rutaceae mandarina danaas vaus cnidosculus multilobus (pax) i.m. johnst euphorbiaceae mala mujer xkete coffea arabica l. rubiaceae café kepiai conostegia xalapensis (bonpl.)d.don melastomataceae garambullo ximpion curcuma longa l. zingiberaceae azafrán miyuandajuan cymbopogon citratus (dc.) stapf poaceae zacate limón danaas insu/danaas sansu erythrina coralloides dc. fabaceae patol ndaá eugenia capuli (cham. & schltdl.)o.berg myrtaceae capulín datuen ficus cotinifolia kunth moraceae higuerón gonolobus niger (cav.) r. br. asclepiadaceae talayote gajú helianthus annuus l. asteraceae girasol, gordolobo, maíz de teja vinchin 55 research communication scientific name family spanish name xi'iuy name* jatropha curcas l. euphorbiaceae pipián góse juglans mollis engelm. juglandaceae nuez/ nogal guse lycopersicon esculentum var. cerasiforme (dunal) a. gray solanaceae tomate coyol spai/ dapai nacua mangifera indica l. anacardiaceae mango corazón de burro, mango manila y mango corriente manihot esculenta crantz euphorbiaceae yuca morus aff. celtidifolia kunth moraceae mora nkuan encush musa x paradisiaca l. musaceae plátano roatán ntaas nopalea cochenillifera (l.) salm-dyck cactaceae nopalito del huerto mbiu opuntia sp. cactaceae nopal manso mbiu pachyrhizus erosus (l.) urb. fabaceae jícama minyuan persea americana mill. lauraceae aguacatillo, aguacate de monte, pagua, aguacate nxaun phaseolus coccineus l. fabaceae frijol grande kiet chiat phaseolus vulgaris l. fabaceae frijol ojo de conejo, frijol de mata, frijol de guia chiant physalis philadelphica lam. solanaceae tomate de bolsa, tomatillo de monte indapuai lamuisemjul phytolacca icosandra l. phytolaccaceae congara, congora, conga, quelite hoja ancha, quelite punta colorada esshauel kiljus pisum sativum l. fabaceae garbanzo portulaca oleracea l. portulacaceae verdolaga de adorno sanke psidium guajava l. myrtaceae guayaba huanjua/genjua rosmarinus officinalis l. lamiaceae romero ruta chalepensis l. rutaceae ruda saccharum officinarum l. poaceae caña blanca, caña borrada y caña morada xiljua sechium edule (jacq.) sw. cucurbitaceae chayote datúa syngonium podophyllum schott. araceae huevo de burro rinchu enmep/indkui mai tagetes filifolia lag asteraceae hierbanis, anis tigridia pavonia (l.f.) dc. iridaceae flor de calabaza, /carcoma/ oreja de perro xcamoo vigna unguiculata (l.) walp. fabaceae chícharo inyun chichil yucca treculeana carr. agavaceae samandoque ximbia zingiber officinale roscoe zingiberaceae jengibre minyuan jengibre microsoft word rick (review).docx         16    book review   when the killing’s done    t. coreghessan boyle. 2011. viking press, new york, ny. pp. 384. isbn10: 0143120395. isbn13: 978‐0143120391    reviewed by torben c. rick    reviewer address: program in human ecology and archaeobiology, department of anthropology, national museum of  natural history, smithsonian institution, washington d.c. 20013‐7012  rickt@si.edu     received: february 20th 2012                                                   volume 3:16‐17  published: march 14th 2012                                                   © 2012 society of ethnobiology  a review of a novel is not what you generally expect to read in ethnobiology letters, but when the killing’s done brings important topics—namely invasive species and conservation biology—into the heart of popular culture. using examples of invasive species eradication on california’s channel islands and tensions between conservation biologists and animal rights activists, boyle thrusts human environmental interactions, island ecology, and restoration ecology into a dramatic narrative (see a cinematic trailer for the book here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ryfvrjhi3pk). this book has all the makings of a good novel from death to shipwrecks and dramatic chases. unlike most novels, these occur because of conflict and disagreement over how best to manage invasive species, the ecological problems invasive species cause, and the concerns of animal rights activists about the fate of invasive species facing eradication. although the book is a work of fiction, its core elements are based on real events, including the eradication of introduced black rats (rattus rattus) from anacapa island by the national park service (nps) in 2001-2002 and wild pigs (sus scrofa) from santa cruz island by the nps and the nature conservancy (tnc) in 2005-2007. the book begins with a brief historical account of a shipwreck that left a fictitious nps biologist alma takesue’s grandmother shipwrecked on anacapa island decades ago, and already invaded by rats. the book then jumps ahead to the present day with takesue presenting at a public hearing on the nps proposal to eradicate rats from anacapa because of the major impact they are having on island birds, deer mice, and other species. the writing is vivid and descriptions of the lecture hall, parking lot, and landscape will be easily recognizable to anyone familiar with the region. at this hearing we meet dave lajoy, an arrogant, well to do, animal rights activist who deeply opposes rat eradication, asking takesue at one point, “and who exactly was it appointed you god, lady?” (p. 64). here lajoy makes an important point that is at the core of conservation biology and one that many archaeologists, anthropologists, historians, ecologists, and other researchers are working to understand. lajoy asks, “those rats have been there for a hundred and fifty years!…what’s your baseline? a hundred years ago? a thousand? ten thousand?” (p. 63). this is a key question for restoration ecologists: what are the baselines and targets that should be used for restoration and management, especially since ecosystems change over time (lyman 2006; jackson et al. 2011)? more simply, lajoy asks, what is natural? what is anthropogenic? why should we care? lajoy ends up sailing with two others to anacapa island during rat eradication to spread vitamin k, an antidote to the poison being used to kill the rats. after dealing with the rat issue and additional details of lajoy and takesue’s life, the book focuses on pig eradication on santa cruz island. lajoy and his group find themselves working to thwart the eradication of pigs, with their efforts spiraling downhill with exciting plot twists. through all of the excitement and fantasy, boyle provides an important account of modern conservation biology and human environmental interactions. often called a north american galapagos, california’s channel islands are home to numerous endemic mammals, land birds, and rare plants, many of which are the subject of ongoing conservation and restoration efforts by the nps, tnc, us navy, catalina island conservancy, and other groups (schoenherr et al. 1999). while boyle correctly has lajoy ask about baselines for ecological restoration and conservation, we are later led to believe that the islands were largely         17    book review free from human influence prior to the rapid alteration of the 19th and 20th centuries when commercial ranching operations and other groups introduced numerous animal and plant species and dramatically altered island ecosystems. unfortunately, the book unwittingly takes a view common among some researchers and members of the public by failing to discuss the legacy of long-term influence that native americans had on island ecology during their 13,000 year history on the channel islands (erlandson and rick 2010). it is hard to fault boyle here, but this is a challenge for archaeologists, historical ecologists, and other researchers as we work to more firmly place our research on ancient and modern human environmental interactions into broader scientific, public, and popular discourse on conservation. when the killing’s done offers many items for reflection. what is natural or pristine? are humans part of or separate from nature? given deep time (centuries, millennia, or more) interactions between people and the environment around the world, how do we best manage earth’s ecosystems for the future? should the goal be to erase people from the system and harken back to pre-human environments, such as the pleistocene in the americas and australia, but as early as the miocene in africa? is there middle ground, where people are not divorced from the ecosystems they inhabited for centuries, millennia, or more and modern management efforts account for different temporal ecological baselines? what about animal rights concerns and the eradication of invasive species? there are no clear answers to these questions, but there is need for continued collaboration between social scientists, ecologists, biologists, resource managers, and others. ethnobiologists are at the forefront of this endeavor (lepofsky 2009; wolverton et al. 2011), but we need to continue to transcend disciplinary boundaries and confront difficult questions about human environmental relationships (past and present). as ethnobiology demonstrates, creating a sharp separation between the natural and anthropogenic worlds is problematic on many levels and is a topic worthy of scientific discussion, as well as public and popular dialogue. boyle’s book demonstrates that these issues are making their way into popular culture. when the killing’s done is worth a read and discussion with friends, colleagues, and students. the book is not the first popular medium to explore conservation biology and human environmental interactions, and it will not be the last. a key for ethnobiologists and other researchers is to help shape popular discourse and continue to demonstrate the importance of our deep temporal and cross-cultural perspectives for managing contemporary ecosystems and organisms. references cited erlandson, j. m. and t. c. rick. 2010. archaeology meets marine ecology: the antiquity of maritime cultures and human impacts on marine fisheries and ecosystems. annual review of marine science 2:231-251. jackson, j. b. c., k. a. alexander and e. sala, eds. 2011. shifting baselines: the past and the future of ocean fisheries. island press, new york, ny. lepofsky, d. 2009. the past, present, and future of traditional resource and environmental management. journal of ethnobiology 29:161-166. lyman, r. l. 2006. paleozoology in the service of conservation biology. evolutionary anthropology 15:1119. schoenherr, a. a., r. c. feldmath and m. j. emerson. 1999. natural history of the islands of california. university of california press, berkeley, ca. wolverton, s., c. r. randklev and a. barker. 2011. ethnobiology as a bridge between science and ethics: an applied paleozoological perspective. in ethnobiology, edited by e. n. anderson, d. m. pearsall, e. s. hunn and n. j. turner, pp. 115-132. wileyblackwell, hoboken, nj.   outline of an anthropological contribution to the study of snake venom variability: the case of echis sp. envenomation 24 research communication analyses, toxicity and lethality studies on animals or in vitro, as well as clinical observations of envenomation symptoms. chippaux et al. consider clinical observations as an important method in the identification of venom variation and as a “first clue to composition variability” (1999:1283). particularly in the african context, in the case of snakebites, clinical observations are seldom made by medical practitioners or hospital staff, as the majority of people prefer to seek the assistance of “traditional” healers in such cases. the dispensary of bonkoukou, niger, for example, which, theoretically, all sick people of the present research area may attend, treats only an insignificant number of bites (one or two in a month), whereas each interviewed healer, “responsible” for a much smaller community, may treat one to three snakebite victims in one month.2 this preference for “traditional” healing is also confirmed in literature (e.g., chippaux 2006:26). for example, 80% of bite victims in benin (chippaux 2002) and 95% in senegal (chippaux et al. 2005) refer themselves to local healers. observations of envenomation symptoms made by medical personnel may thus not be representative when studying venom variability in the african context. furthermore, hospital or dispensary staff often has a different cultural background to the local population and may thus also have a different understanding of “illness” caused by snakebites. introduction the present paper outlines an ethnozoological and ethnomedical approach to snake venom variability as a contribution to interdisciplinary research.1 first, in a brief theoretical overview, the anthropological input to such research, as well as to the topic of venom variability, will be discussed. then follows, as an example of how an anthropological contribution could be realized, a short case study of echis leucogaster roman viperidae envenomation carried out in western niger. medical descriptions of e. leucogaster envenomation do not seem to exist, and scholars tend to reference, in the case of this species, descriptions of envenomation by echis ocellatus stemmler viperidae. this may be problematic, as snake venom can show high variability on several levels (species, subspecies, etc.). thus, these local descriptions of e. leucogaster envenomation are, in the following discussion, contrasted to existing descriptions of envenomation by e. ocellatus in order to show possible differences in symptoms which may be due to interspecies variability. theory snake venom variability is of high relevance when developing adequate treatments for envenomation. natural sciences apply several methods in order to study variability: biochemical and electrophoretic outline of an anthropological contribution to the study of snake venom variability: the case of echis sp. envenomation tilman musch author address: ethnologie, universität bayreuth, bayreuth, germany 95440. tilman.musch@uni.bayreuth.de received: december 10, 2013 volume: 5:24-30 published: march 19, 2014 © 2014 society of ethnobiology abstract: an understanding of the variability of snake venom composition is of high relevance for adequate treatment of snakebites. clinical observations of bite victims are considered as a first step in the study of venom variability. the present paper suggests the study of local clinical observations made by healers as an anthropological contribution to the interdisciplinary research of venom variability on a species and subspecies level. such an anthropological contribution will take into account cultural particularities of a region. in order to illustrate his approach, the author describes his ethnozoological and ethnomedical fieldwork among zarma and tuareg in western niger where he studied envenomation by echis leucogaster. this species is of particular interest, as no medical descriptions of envenomation resulting from its bites seem to exist. key words: snake venom, snakebites, ethnozoology, ethnomedicine, echis leucogaster, niger mailto:tilman.musch@uni.bayreuth.de 25 research communication the present research seeks to contribute to the above mentioned method of observing clinically in order to study venom variability. it proposes a decisively anthropological approach, as it discusses descriptions of envenomation given by local people. it is supposed that such local knowledge assembled during decades or even transmitted through generations can provide important information which is closely linked to a specific region and to the local particularities of its snake fauna. the composition of snake venom, which is genetically determined, presents a high variability among species, as well as a wide range of variations on interfamily, individual, seasonal, geographic or other levels (e.g., chippaux et al. 1991; currier et al. 2010; nkinin et al. 1997). in several cases, the scientific discovery of venom variability in one presumed species provided evidence for classification into two species or into a further subspecies. jimenez-porras (1967) used variation in venom composition to differentiate between bothrops nummifer viperidae hoge and bothrops picadoi dunn viperidae. the two species are closely related in shape and color patterns but show marked differences in the composition and electrophoretic properties of their respective venom (e.g., the absence of a coagulant effect in the venom of b. picadoi). in terms of symptoms, lethal proteases of b. nummifer venom, for example, produced massive lung hemorrhages in mice, whereas this effect was not observed from venom of b. picadoi. evidence for the existence of two different species was also found in the venoms of montivipera bornmulleri werner viperidae and montivipera latifii mertens, darevsky, klemmer viperidae. in this case it was shown that immunological differences between the venoms of the species correspond to their wide spatial separation. this allowed the suggestion of an important separation in evolutionary development (weinstein and minton 1984; nilson and sundberg 1981). one example of inner-specific variability is vipera aspis linnaeus viperidae. differences in the venom of snake specimens led here to the zoological classification of the new subspecies v. aspis zinnikeri kramer viperidae (bouquet 1948; chippaux et al. 1991). the discussion of venom properties in echis carinatus schneider viperidae and echis coloratus günther viperidae ultimately led to the conclusion that venoms, even within the same species, can vary considerably and may cause contradictory physiological or biochemical test results (schaeffer 1987). e. leucogaster, the white-bellied carpet viper and e. ocellatus, the west african carpet viper, are very similar in shape and coloration. as sympatric species, they occupy neighboring environments (e.g., chippaux 2006:257), but the latter prefers a more humid habitat. it was only in the 1970s that e. leucogaster was classified as a species of its own. whereas numerous papers discuss the effects of e. ocellatus envenomation (e.g., below), no scientific report seems to exist concerning envenomation by e. leucogaster, as is also stated by phelps (2010:386). bites of the latter are often considered to have the same effects on the human organism as those of other echis spp. (e.g., mion et al. 2002a). the assumption that e. leucogaster venom may act in the same way as venom from other echis spp. is nevertheless surprising when considering the wide range of venom variability, in particular on an interspecies level. one may thus ask if e. leucogaster envenomation should still a priori be considered as similar to envenomation by other echis spp. as will be shown below, local descriptions of e. leucogaster envenomation significantly differ in some aspects from medical observations of envenomation by e. ocellatus, and a further biochemical study would seem to be useful. case study: e. leucogaster envenomation the aim of the following case study is to exemplify how an anthropological contribution to snake venom variability research could be realized. the study was carried out in a precise and well-circumscribed area of western niger with which the author is very familiar as a result of carrying out several periods of fieldwork on rural habitat since 2007. the analysis doesn’t attempt to be exhaustive, as still more features of variability may be present in other places of the sahel where e. leucogaster can be found. methods and geographical context the present research was carried out near the village of bonkoukou (department of filingué, republic of niger).3 the research area is located in dallol bosso, a fossil valley leading from the south of gaya, niger, up to the malian adrar. it belongs to the sahelian belt. two settlements on a plateau bordering the valley slightly westwards of bonkoukou were chosen as field sites: sanayan, tilobi, a zarma village, and tigalalen, inhabited by now highly assimilated tuareg.4 the latter mostly adopted the zarma language. whereas these two communities of settled agriculturalists have a different historical ethnic background, the patterns 26 research communication of their contemporary every-day-life are rather similar to each other. the two field sites can be considered as an ecologically coherent micro environment (ellen 1989:81) with the inhabiting zarma and mostly assimilated tuareg as its ecological population (ellen 1989:77f.). the very dry area is located on a rocky plateau, marked by erosion and scarce and shrubby vegetation, whereas one can encounter lower and damper places to its south, east and west. in the north, a landscape increasingly resembling the sahara is found, populated by other ethnic groups. the choice of this relatively small dry area allows the study of local representations of e. leucogaster bites and, at the same time, avoids the habitat of e. ocellatus, which prefers more humid places, as the occurrence of the latter species could have falsified the descriptions obtained. in cases of snakebites, locals appeal to specialized healers.5 the number of healers is very limited; only five were identified in the research area. ordinary locals here have quite poor knowledge of snakes and snakebites, as became clear during the fieldwork, thus, choosing a random sample among the whole population would not have made sense. in order to provide scientifically reliable data despite the small number of healers, the information given by any one person was cross-checked by “triangulation” (flick 2009:53f) with the other informants. in order to discuss with the healers e. leucogaster envenomation and its symptoms, semi-structured interviews were held, leading to open-ended conversation[s] (martin 1995:109ff.). the zarma language was mostly used, but some answers were given in tamashek. snake species were determined by means of dead samples, scientific descriptions and photographs (e.g., chippaux 2006; phelps 2010; trape et al. 2006).6 in order to give an example of how the healers represent envenomation symptoms, a selection of short quotations in local languages is listed below in an annex (numbers given in brackets). no relevant differences could be detected in the descriptions of the five healers. local knowledge of e. leucogaster envenomation e. leucogaster can be distinguished from e. ocellatus by the coloration of its ventral face; the former has an immaculate ivory white belly, whereas the latter has a pale-colored one with brownish spots (chippaux 2006; phelps 2010., hughes 1976; roman 1972; stemmler 1970). the informants were aware of these differences between e. leucogaster and e. ocellatus and also of their different habitats and contrast them in the zarma language by secondary color terms: the former is called “red echis” (hayni dooru ciray) and the latter “black echis” (hayni dooru bi).7 thus, each of the species represents not only a different scientific taxon, but one can also consider them as two different folktaxa (berlin 1992). the generic name hayni dooru and its equivalent ta-masangu in tamashek allude to the noise made by the snake’s scales when menaced and which is said to resemble trickling millet (hayni dooru = “pour millet”; ta‑masangu = “that one from the millet grains”). the informants underlined the relatively slow action of the venom of e. leucogaster. all of them mentioned local edema around the bite, which two of the informants compared to a scald: “the place [of the bite] looks like as if hot water has been poured on it” [01]. later on, necrosis develops. necrosis was described as “fouling flesh” with bad odor [02, 03]. envenomation was described by all informants as very painful. first, pain is felt as a local symptom around the bite [04], but then it is felt throughout the whole body [05]. three informants associated the venom directly with pain: pain and venom spread at the same rate progressively around the person’s body. the venom/pain tries to reach the heart [07, 08], and “good” medicine, on the other hand, prevents it from doing so [11]. without immediate treatment however, the pain “comes to your heart” [07], and the person wants to vomit [08]. hemorrhage, especially of the nasal mucosa, was also mentioned [06] by all the healers. three healers also said that the blood-circulation does not go the “right” way and that blood “assembles in one place” [10, 09]. affected blood and the affected heart are sometimes seen by them as closely linked to each other [10]. all healers described the “closure” of the heart which can lead to death [11, 12, 14] as the most salient symptom. they also linked it directly to asphyxia: when the heart “closes”, breathing is not possible [12]. as the “closure” of the heart is considered to be the most important symptom, healing in particular focuses on this cardiac affliction. thus, four healers explained the interaction of venom and remedy as follows: the venom tries to “mount” up to the heart (a bite often occurs on the feet), and the remedy tries to prevent it from doing so [13]; if the venom has already 27 research communication reached the heart and the remedy is given only then, the latter should provoke vomitus8 in order to make the former leave the person’s body [15]; if the venom leaves in such a way, the heart will not close [14, 15]. discussion as already mentioned, medical reports of e. leucogaster envenomation do not seem to exist. concerning envenomation by e. ocellatus and e. carinatus, scientific descriptions emphasize the high potency of the venom and the high mortality (e.g., warrell and arnett 1976). symptoms such as edema and necrosis, which the informants mentioned for e. leucogaster, are present in other echis spp. too, and sometimes the importance of the edema as well as the high necrotizing activity of the venom are emphasized (mion et al. 2002b; warrell and arnett 1976). several authors describe persistent and abnormal bleeding, hemorrhages, non-clotted blood and death from bleeding for e. ocellatus (chippaux and goyffon 1991; chippaux et al. 1999; einterz and bates 2003; pugh et al. 1979). the healers mentioned bleeding and hemorrhages as well. some of them underscored the affected blood circulation. it can be supposed that the images linked to “affected blood” represent for them also a symbolic way to express “illness.” in fact, the “right” or “wrong” circulation of blood expresses, in songhay,9 representations of illness, well-being or disease (bisilliat 1979). the fact that cardiac problems and asphyxia were mentioned by all informants seems to be of great interest, as these symptoms are not recorded in scientific observations of envenomation by other echis spp. the conspicuous nature of these symptoms in the descriptions of the healers may allow the hypothesis that particularities in the composition of e. leucogaster venom could differentiate it from the venoms of other echis spp., thus representing a case of intraspecies variability. however, as the “heart,” “cardiac troubles,” and “breathing” may be culturally variable concepts, this hypothesis should be further tested by biochemical analyses searching in particular for supposed cardioor neurotoxic components of the venom. conclusion knowledge of venom variability is of high importance for the treatment of snakebites, and clinical observations are considered as a first step in the analysis of composition variability. clinical observations made by local healers seems to be highly relevant, as they take into account the particular cultural background of a specific population and the possible regional particularities of snake fauna. studying such local clinical observations of snakebite envenomation from ethnomedical and ethnozoological viewpoints could be an anthropological contribution to the interdisciplinary study of snake venom variability. acknowledgments i thank the whole population of the bonkoukou area in western niger who has known me since 2007. in particular, i express my thanks to the healers, as well as to dr. soufiane tahirou, director of the bonkoukou dispensary, and jean-phillippe chippaux, institut de recherche au développement, cotonou, for his advice. declarations permissions: ministry of higher education and research of the republic of niger, chief of bonkoukou canton in niger sources of funding: institut national de langues et civilisations orientales at inalco in paris and faculty of cultural studies at bayreuth university in germany conflicts of interest: none declared. references cited berlin, b. 1992. ethnobotanical classification. principles of categorization of plants and animals in traditional societies. princeton university press, princeton, nj. bisilliat, j. 1979 (1976). village diseases and bush diseases in songhay: an essay in description and classification with a view to a typology. in social anthropology and medicine, edited by j. b. loudon, pp. 553-593. academic press, london. boquet, p. 1948. venins de serpent et antivenins. flammarion, paris. chevallier, j. 1997. nouvelles données sur l’ecologie d’echis ocellatus (viperidae) au burkina faso. bulletin de la société herpétologique de france 81:21-27. chippaux, j.-p. 2006 (1999, 2001). les serpents d’afrique occidentale et centrale. ird, paris. chippaux, j.-p., a. massougbodji, and m. goyffon. 2005. table ronde 20 novembre 2004: recommandations pour l’amélioration de la prise en charge des envenimations en afrique. bulletin de la société de pathologie exotique 98:316-319. chippaux, j.-p. 2002. épidémologie des morsures de 28 research communication serpent au bénin. in bulletin de la société de pathologie exotique 95:172-174. chippaux, j.-p., v. williams, j. white. 1991. snake venom variability: methods of study, results and interpretation. toxicon 29(11): 1271-1303. chippaux, j. p. and m. goyffon. 1991. production and use of snake antivenim. in reptile venoms and toxins. handbook of natural toxins, 5, edited by t. a. tu, pp. 529-555. decker, new york. chippaux, j. p., s. amadi-eddine, and p. fagot. 1999. diagnostic et surveillance des hémorragies dues aux envenimations vipérines en savane africaine. bulletin de la société de pathologie exotique 92(2):109113. ellen, r. 1989. environment, subsistence and system. the ecology of small-scale social formations. cambridge university press, cambridge. einterz, e. m. and m. e. bates. 2003. snakebite in northern cameroon: 134 victims of bites by the saw-scaled or carpet viper, echis ocellatus. transactions of the royal society of tropical medicine and hygiene, 97(6):693-696. flick, u., 2009. an introduction to qualitative research. sage, london. hughes, b. 1976. notes on africa carpet vipers, echis carinatus, e. leucogaster, and e. ocellatus (viperidae, serpentes). revue suisse de zoologie 83 (2):359-371. jimenez-porras, j. m. 1964. intraspecific variations in composition of venom of the jumping viper, bothrops nummifera. toxicon 2(3):187-195. jimenez-porras, j.m. 1967. differentiation between bothrops nummifer and bothrops picadoi by means of the biochemical properties of their venoms. in animal toxins, edited by f. e. russell and p. r. saunders, pp. 307-321. pergamon press, oxford. martin, g. j. 1995. ethnobotany: a methods manual. earthscan, london. mion, g., f. olive, e. hernandez, n.y. martin, a-s. vieillefosse, and m. goyffon. 2002a. action des venins sur la coagulation sanguine: diagnostic des syndromes hémorragiques. bulletin da la société de pathologie exotique 95(3): 132-138. mion, g., f. olive, d. giraud, e. lambert, c. descraques, e. garrabé, and m. goyffon. 2002b. surveillance clinique et biologique des patients envenimés. bulletin de la société de pathologie exotique 95(3):139-143. nilson, g. and p. sundberg. 1981. the taxonomic status of the vipera xanthina complex. journal of herpetology 15(3):379-381. nkinin, s.w., j. p. chippaux, d. piétin, y. doljanski, o. trémeau, and a. ménez. 1997. l’origine génétique de la variabilité des venins: impact sur la préparation des sérums antivenimeux. bulletin de la société de pathologie exotique 90(4):277-281. olivier de sardan, j. p. 1982. concepts et conceptions songhay-zarma. histoire, culture, société. nubia, paris. phelps, t. 2010. old world vipers. a natural history of the azemiopinae and viperinae. chimaira, frankfurt/ main. pugh, r. n. h., c. c. m. bourdillon, r. d. g. theakston, and h. a. reid. 1979. bites by the carpet viper in the niger valley. the lancet 314 (8143):625-627. roman, b. 1972. deux sous-espèces de la vipère echis carinatus (schneider) dans les territoires de haute-volta et du niger: echis carinatus ocellatus stemmler, echis carinatus leucogaster n. ssp. notes et documents voltaïques 5(4):3-13. rouch, j. 1989. la religion et la magie songhay. éditions de l’université de bruxelles, brussels. schaeffer, r.c. 1987. heterogeneity of echis venoms from different sources. toxicon 25(12):1343-1346. stemmler, o. 1970. die sandrasselotter aus westafrika, echis carinatus ocellatus subsp. nov. (serpentes, viperidae). revue suisse de zoologie 77 (2,18):273-282. trape, j.-f., y. mané. 2006. guide des serpents d’afrique occidentale. savane et désert. ird, paris. warrell, d. a., c. arnett. 1976. the importance of bites by the saw-scaled or carpet viper (echis carinatus): epidemiological studies in nigeria and a review of the world literature. acta tropica 33(4): 307-341. weinstein, s. a. and s. a. minton. 1984. lethal potencies and immunoelectrophoretic profiles of venoms of vipera bornmulleri and vipera latifii. toxicon 22(4):625-629. 29 research communication biosketch tilman musch works at bayreuth university on topics of spatial anthropology and ethnobiology in west africa and central asia. annex [01] nango gate danga hari dungo no munu boro boŋ [zarma] – “the place [of the bite] looks like as if hot water has been poured on it”. [02] nango ga fumbu [za.] – “the place is rotten / smells bad”. [03] edǎg-di ad irsaḍ [tamashek] – “this place will be rotten”. [04] edǎg ən nagi-nes ikkûs [ta.] – “the place of the poison [of the bite] is hot [very painfull]”. [05] ni gaham mo kulu no ga dooru [za.] – “your whole body is painful”. [06] tinžar n ǎwedem a dd-igâmӑḍ azni [ta.] – “the nose of the person, blood comes out [from it]” [07] dooro ga koy ni bina do [za.] – “the pain comes to your heart”. [08] dooro no ga koy boro bina ga, bora ga ceeci kayeeri [za.] – “the pain goes to the heart, the person wants to vomit”. [09] kuro ga margu nangu fallan [za.] – “the blood is assembling in one place”. [10] as tədǎd awedam awəl-nes a ibâddӑγǎn, γas azni a itâssin awəl eqqâmu isâγlǎy kunduba ibâddaɣan n əwəl ad ənkərǎn dǎγ ǎwedam [ta.] – “when it bites [a person], his heart closes, then blood goes to the heart, it goes around until closures of the heart are happening in the person”. [11] da i mana tarka bora safar, bora bina ga daabu, bora mabu [za.] – “if you haven’t provided rapid healing to the person, the heart of person closes, the person dies”. [12] bina ga daabu, boro si hin ka fulanzam [za.] – “the heart will close, the person cannot breathe”. [13] a ga gandji naadjo makoy beene [za.] – “it prevents the venom from mounting [up to the heart]”. [14] dinna bora haŋŋgandi enda, a ga yeeri bina si daabu [za.] – “if you make the person drink [the water] with it [the remedy], he will vomit, the heart will not close”. [15] bora yeeri nadjo aga fatta [za.] – “the person vomits, the venom leaves”. notes 1research on venom variability has to be interdisciplinary, and the present paper outlines the anthropological contribution to such research. whereas the anthropological input lies in the study of local conceptions on how the venom of a respective species or regional subspecies may act on the human organism, only a biochemical analysis of the venom will allow the exact molecular agent of symptoms provoked by a venom to be determined (for example: respiratory paralysis can be due to neurotoxins as well as to phospholipase a2 enzymes). 2the village of bonkoukou, to which the research area belongs administratively, has about 20,000 inhabitants (as compared to 1,400 for the research area itself). the dispensary provides only symptomatic treatment, as immunotherapy would be too expensive and is not available there. 3three periods of fieldwork, each of about 6 weeks, were spent on this topic (july-august 2011, octoberdecember 2012, and march-april 2013). 4sanayan is located around n 14° 07.275‘, e 003° 09.087‘ (227 m). tigalalen is a wide area located around n 14° 03.727‘, e 003° 12.756‘ (238 m). the former has about 1,000 and the latter about 400 inhabitants. 5healers are called zima (zarma language) and have a special relationship with spirits which confer on them the knowledge of plants and healing (rouch 1989:56 ff., 204ff.). the interviewed healers are considered by the local population as specialists in snakebites. 6people of the area relatively often encounter snakes and kill them. the inhabitants were not required to search for snakes for the present scientific purpose. discussing the matter by handling living animals was not possible – venomous snakes are considered a serious danger to humans and animals. nobody would have tried to capture a snake alive and, if captured alive, nobody would have released it after examination. due to the small number of venomous snake-species relevant in the area (bitis arietans merrem viperidae, e. leucogaster, and naja nigricollis elapidae reinhardt; and, rarely, naja haje elapidae linnaeus), an exact scientific determination of e. leucogaster was possible without examination of living samples. 7these color terms may not allude to real coloration. “black” and “red” are used by zarma also in order to 30 research communication mark contrast, particularly in a hierarchical sense between social classes (olivier de sardan 1982:67f.). 8informants did not mention a possible diuretic effect of their respective treatments, which can, however, be of high relevance in the elimination of snake-venom. 9songhay are an ethnic group culturally and geographically close to zarma, sharing with them the same language. microsoft word ponette_byrnesproof.docx ethnobiology letters                                                                                                         perspective 65 sustainable science? reducing the carbon impact of scientific   mega‐meetings  alexandra g. ponette‐gonzález1* and jarrett e. byrnes2  author address: 1department of geography, university of north texas, 1155 union circle #305279, denton, tx 76203, usa,  alexandra@unt.edu     author address: 2national center for ecological analysis and synthesis, santa barbara, ca 93101, usa  received: september 10th 2011                                                                                                                                           volume: 2:65‐71  published: october 29th 2011                                                                                                                    © 2011 society of ethnobiology  abstract: scientists across the globe recognize the importance of reducing carbon emissions to combat climate change.  at the  same  time, we have  increased our  carbon  footprint  through air  travel  to  the growing number of  scientific  society  “mega‐ meetings” that host thousands of attendees.  although alternative solutions have been proposed to reduce the environmental  impact of annual conferences, these have yet to be evaluated against the business‐as‐usual scenario.  here, we use 9 years of  annual meeting attendance data  from  the ecological society of america and  the association of american geographers  to  assess  the efficacy of  two additional  solutions: 1) alternate  large national meetings  that  require  significant air  travel with  smaller regional meetings that do not; and 2) incorporate geography into the meeting location selection process.  the carbon  footprint of annual mega‐meetings ranged 3‐fold,  from 1196‐4062 metric tons of co2.   results  indicate that an alternating  schedule of national and regional meetings can reduce conference‐related co2 emissions up to 73%, while  improved spatial  planning may  result  in  further  reductions.   we discuss  the benefits and  tradeoffs of proposals  to green scientific meetings,  with a view to spark further debate on how to increase the sustainability of scientific conferences.  key words: carbon footprint, greening the meeting, scientific conferences, planning, sustainability    introduction every year scientists showcase their research findings at large national and international conferences, some of which host thousands of participants. regrettably, these “mega-meetings” represent a significant source of co2 to the atmosphere. air travel to a single meeting can generate ~11,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide (lester 2007), while a roundtrip flight from new york city to brussels is nearly equivalent to a moroccan’s annual co2 emissions, 1.4 metric tons of co2 (iea statistics 2010). these statistics are at odds with the values of scientists who seek to slow the current rate of co2 increase in the atmosphere, and especially those concerned with climate change (bonnett 2006; young 2009; burke 2010). at the 2010 dissertations initiative for the advancement of climate change research symposium (disccrs), this question arose as a topic of conversation among a small group of interdisciplinary scholars during a break-out session. in the recent scientific literature, parallel discussions and debates on how to “green meetings” reveal not only increasing concern over climate change but also a greater selfawareness among scientists at all levels of the need for a more sustainable scientific enterprise (mills 2009; rosenthal 2010). for example, in his editorial, bonnett (2007) argues that to achieve sustainable conferences in the field of geography, a “cultural shift” is necessary within the discipline. bonnett refers to the assumption of personal responsibility by academics for the environmental impacts associated with conference travel. jarchow et al. (2011) echo this perspective for ecology and evolutionary biology, and find that raising awareness about sustainability issues at meetings is an effective means to reduce resource use among participants. however, assuming the burden of sustainability is often inconvenient (jarchow et al. 2011), and worse, may conflict with institutional norms and expectations in academia (young 2009). as pointed out by philippe (2008), for conferences to become sustainable, a paradigm shift must occur whereby the notion of scientific progress is decoupled from that of economic growth. ethnobiology letters                                                                                                         perspective 66 despite this self-reflection and awareness and a growing laundry list of proposed alternatives— reduction in meeting frequency (philippe 2008), rethinking the role of international attendance (hall 2007), use of videoand virtual conferencing (huang et al. 2008; arslan et al. 2011), and purchase of carbon offsets—the benefits and tradeoffs of diverse strategies have yet to be evaluated against the business-as-usual scenario. moreover, the efficacy of some of these measures (e.g., carbon offsets, renewable energy credits) remains highly uncertain (struck 2010). here, we propose two new solutions that seek to balance scientists’ intellectual needs with a generous reduction in our carbon footprint: 1) alternate large national meetings that require significant air travel with smaller regional meetings that do not; and 2) incorporate geography into the meeting location selection process. according to our calculations, we find that these plans for action could more than halve conference-related co2 emissions while maintaining the benefits provided by meetings, and even adding new ones. additionally, our proposal reduces the carbon footprint of scientific meetings up to three times more than other suggested alternatives, including a model carbon offset program. we present this perspective as a starting point for a deeper discussion on the sustainability of scientific conferences that is long overdue. much like the cultural groups that are often the focal point of ethnobiological studies, interactions between scientific societies and the environment are complex and varied. perceptions about the nature and progress of the scientific enterprise differ among societies and influence the degree to which this enterprise is, or is not, sustainably managed. in general, however, there are many questions that remain unaddressed or unresolved. can conference attendance to megameetings grow indefinitely? what are optimal strategies for organizing sustainable conferences and how might these strategies vary by society, discipline, or specialization? what are the roles and responsibilities of individual scientists, funding agencies, and scientific societies in enhancing sustainability? and, what types of social, cultural, and institutional changes are needed to facilitate other forms of information dissemination? we hope that our proposal will contribute to a spirited and productive conversation on how to address these questions. estimating the carbon footprint of scientific meetings to examine the carbon savings of multiple regional meetings versus a single national mega-meeting (hereafter referred to as “business-as-usual”), we developed two baseline emissions scenarios. we estimated co2 emissions incurred from air and car travel to the 2002-2009 ecological society of america (esa) annual meetings and to the 2010 association of american geographers (aag) annual meeting by 1) members in the united states (domestic travelers), and 2) all attendees (domestic plus international travelers). we then compared baseline carbon costs to co2 emissions resulting from us attendees driving to regional meetings. only differences arising from changes in air and car travel were analyzed, because these comprise the bulk of conference-related co2 emissions (lester 2007). we considered esa and aag to be good candidates for analysis and representative of other large scientific societies. these mega-meetings attract considerable numbers of scientists studying climate change, and attendance is high (esa 2009, 3599 participants; aag 2010, 7727 attendees). carbon dioxide emissions under national versus regional meeting scenarios were calculated using the conservation fund carbon calculator (http://www.conservationfund.org). for business-as-usual estimates, address location data for all participants were compiled in a geographic information system (gis) and roundtrip distances to the host city were calculated. we assumed that members located < 420 miles (~7 hours of driving) from the host city would drive and that international members would fly from the nearest major city (i.e., population ≥ 1 million). it is probable that these assumptions underestimate co2 emissions from air travel. first, we are not certain that scientists who obtain institutional funds for air travel are willing to drive to meetings even when they are located < 420 miles from the host city. second, we did not estimate emissions to the nearest major airport for international participants. to estimate the carbon footprint of multiple regional meetings, we employed several driving distance models: 1) a fixed 420 mile driving distance; 2) a uniform distribution of driving distances; 3) a poisson distribution of driving distances with a mean of 210 miles; and 4) an explicit regional geospatial model. for the geospatial model, us members were assigned to one of nine regional divisions based on the current aag structure (www.aag.org/cs/membership/regional _divisions). once assigned to a division, we assumed that all us members (with the exception of those in alaska and hawai’i) drove to a hypothetical host city randomly selected from each region. modeled regional carbon footprints were compared to both baseline scenarios. ethnobiology letters                                                                                                         perspective 67 we also examined the spatial distribution of us meeting attendees by zip code as well as spatial variability in the carbon cost of meetings to determine the influence of meeting location on carbon footprints. for the latter, business-as-usual co2 emissions were divided by the total number of attendees to calculate per capita co2 emissions for each annual conference. finally, we used these calculations and existing literature on the subject to approximate the co2 reduction potential of alternate proposals. the difference between the most carbon expensive meeting location and all other meeting locations was computed to establish the range in savings that could be generated with the inclusion of per capita co2 emissions estimates into site selection criteria. we employed the estimated contribution of international attendance to the carbon footprint of mega-meetings to evaluate the effect of decreased overseas participation on carbon dioxide emissions. the estimated annual carbon sequestration of the society for conservation biology’s wild rose conservation site was employed to assess the reduction potential of carbon offset projects. we reasoned that holding biennial conferences would reduce the carbon cost of scientific meetings by ~50%. the carbon savings potential of videoand virtual conferencing depends on the number of participants using these technologies. to estimate this, we used poll data on the willingness of scientists to participate in scientific conferences remotely. putting a carbon price tag on business-as-usual data on number of participants, distance traveled, and co2 emissions for esa and aag meetings underscore the high carbon costs associated with large annual conferences. total attendance to the 2010 aag annual meeting was two to three times greater than to the esa annual meeting during any given year. therefore, we report results for these different-sized meetings separately. for the 2002-2009 esa meetings, attendance ranged from 2729-4255 participants. total distance traveled varied up to 2-fold among meetings. averaged over all meetings, collectively, esa members traveled a mean 14.2 ± 1.4 million km to the conference host city. total business-as-usual co2 emissions ranged from 1196-2310 metric tons, with a mean carbon footprint of 1754 ± 166 metric tons. with the exception of the 2005 meeting held in canada, international attendees from as many as 44 countries comprised 9-15% of the total attending population. yet international scientists accounted for approximately one-third of the total distance traveled (4.7 ± 0.7 million km) and contributed 25-47% of the total meeting carbon footprint. in 2010, 7727 scientists from 65 countries attended the aag annual meeting in washington d.c. combined, aag members traveled ~32 million km to attend the conference, more than two times the mean distance traveled to esa meetings. as a result of the larger size of this meeting and the greater distances involved, the 2010 aag resulted in an estimated 4062 metric tons of co2 emissions to the atmosphere. compared with esa meetings, international attendance to the aag was much higher, accounting for 27% of the total population. international attendees comprised 56% of the total meeting carbon footprint. on a per capita basis, co2 emissions for the esa meetings ranged from 0.46-0.66 metric tons. the estimated per capita aag carbon footprint, 0.58 metric tons of carbon dioxide, fell within this range of values. alternating national and regional conferences depending on the model, we estimated an average 1859% reduction in carbon emissions for multiple regional compared with national meetings (from ~229 metric tons to ~730 metric tons for esa, from ~275 metric tons to ~865 metric tons for aag) when only domestic travelers were considered (figure 1a). the carbon reduction potential of an alternating schedule, however, increased to an average 49-74% when the footprint of smaller meetings was compared to the full carbon cost of meetings with international participation (figure 1b). because we were unable to geocode participant address locations (i.e., identify exact geographic coordinates) for 3-10% of the sample population, our calculations underestimate the true carbon cost of large national meetings. moreover, our regional models assumed that meeting participants do not carpool or employ public transit. therefore, the estimated carbon savings presented here are likely quite conservative. our analysis also indicates that the carbon cost of national meetings varies geographically (figure 2). for example, per capita co2 emissions for a meeting held in memphis, tennessee, are 30% lower than for a meeting held in san jose, california. careful selection of meeting location therefore represents a potentially simple and cost-effective way to reduce co2 emissions. we acknowledge that holding all conferences in one or a handful of locations may not suit every scientific society. however, there are numerous ways to optimize meeting location to reduce carbon emissions: organize more meetings in areas where the majority of e fi di tr sy th qu ho fli lo of low na w h so th re th re ca an m co co be th qu pr ef ex th en co em on ethnobio gure 1: percen ifferent driving ravel  to  large  ymbols represe he attending uency of mee old conferenc ights (lester ocation is perh f conferencewer their emiss ational-regional weighing the how do our so olutions in ter hat a rotating egional meetin han other pr eveals that inc apita co2 em n additional m mega-meetings annual rot ould more tha onference-rela enefits over th he carbon s uantified. th rojects, which ffectiveness (b xemplary carb he purchase nergy credits onference att missions per se n scientists to ology le ntage reductio g scenarios wh national meet ent different n population r tings 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ngs used for co ease the freast travel; and wer connecting lling meeting o the problem societies will nting a rotating ative proposed findings show nal and small more effective analysis also criteria as per ion process is n footprint of onal meetings missions from ide additional for example, ns are easily carbon offset re in terms of rvation biology’s tionally, while or renewable reness among o not reduce place the onus avior to align                         alternating sc regional meet of  domestic  p omparisons.  d g g m ll g d w l e o r s f s m l , y t f s e e g e s n with those o inves intell such as-us more oppo and atten relev local likely inter of co w on d and natio conf netw 2010 from scien resea (mcn recru for s perv meet discip case,                       chedule of nat tings  is compa plus  internatio the values pr e covered her our proposal stment and of lectual benefi h, it represents sual approach eover, regio ortunities for undergraduat ndance cost, a vant issues e lly” adage. in y to be atte rested in engag oncern. we recognize different levels tenure crite onal and inter ferences prov work with dist 0, nearly onem overseas. ntists to show arch findings nutt 2008). uiting grounds some scientis verse incentive tings. for aca iplines, our ap , virtual or v                       ional and regio red to the: (a) onal  travel  to  romoted by m re and the soci l does not req ffers the adva fits of face-to s a compromis h and reduc onal meeting local collabo te student par and increased embodying th n addition, sm ended by m aging with scie e that this solu s. for individu eria typically rnational mee vide an oppor tant or interna -third of aa large meetin wcase their mo and to comm and, they s for students sts, a rotating e to attend oth ademics work pproach may video confer                 per onal meetings ) carbon cost o large  nationa many societies iety of ethnobiol quire substanti ntage of main o-face interac se between the ced meeting gs include oration, greate rticipation du d focus on lo he “think gl maller meeting members of entists on regi ution presents ual scientists, include atte etings. furth rtunity for sc ational collabo ag participan ngs are ideal ost important municate with are often em and faculty. g schedule ma her large or in king in highly not be feasib rencing, or “ rspective 68    under four  of domestic  al meetings.   s (including logy). ial financial ntaining the ctions. as e business frequency. enhanced er graduate ue to lower ocal policylobally, act gs are more the public ional issues s challenges promotion endance to her, annual cientists to orators. in nts traveled spaces for and timely h the press mployed as therefore, ay create a nternational specialized ble. in this “workshops ethnobiology letters                                                                                                         perspective 69 without walls” (arslan et al. 2011) might make more sense as a strategy to reduce carbon footprints. our proposal also involves tradeoffs for scientific societies or groups with broad-based memberships. an alternating schedule would involve the restructuring of scientific conferences and potentially the societies themselves. for example, while some societies have their membership concentrated in relatively few geographic areas, others are more widely dispersed. each organization will need to examine the distribution of its own membership to decide on an optimal plan. while some societies have regional divisions (e.g., aag) making our option immediately feasible, others do not. implementation of regional chapters would thus require additional planning and service from society staff and members. this type of reorganization could affect society budgets and lead to decreased funds during “off years” limiting available resources for diverse non-meeting related activities. in some cases, however (e.g., the society of ethnobiology), conferences are not money-making enterprises, and our solution may be economically feasible and beneficial (steve wolverton, personal communication). as a recent poll and commentary in science suggest (mcnutt 2008; sills 2011), willingness to participate in conferences remotely or to attend fewer conferences is far from universal (table 1). under these circumstances, societies should consider incorporating per capita carbon dioxide emissions as a criterion into the meeting location selection process. there are societies including the ecological society of america and the society for conservation biology that already calculate the footprint of annual meetings; adding this component to the site selection process could be relatively straightforward. as we have done here, geospatial technologies such as gis can be employed in conjunction with attendance data to analyze and optimize the carbon footprint of scientific conferences. perhaps the greatest advantage of this approach is the flexibility involved. the best optimization strategy will depend on the goals and membership of each society. most societies have years to decades worth of meeting attendance records, data that could be utilized for a baseline analysis of the carbon cost of diverse meeting locations. in addition, the technological, software, and programming requirements are minimal, although a gis analyst would be needed to capture, manage, and analyze the data. in the end, “adaptive management” that combines a number of approaches may be the best way to provide pragmatic, sustainable changes to conference organization. table 1: benefits and drawbacks of alternative proposals to  reduce the carbon footprint of scientific society meetings.    scenario  maximum co2  reduction   drawback  business‐as‐usual    0%   co2 emissions  alternating schedulea  49‐74%  additional  infrastructure and  planning, decreased  funds during “off”  years      use of geography in  the selection processb    6‐30%  additional planning  reduced  international  participationc  25‐56%  reduced  international  collaboration    carbon offsets d  23‐44%    uncertainty  regarding  effectiveness    reduction in meeting  frequency to biennial  conferences e  ~50%  fewer face‐to‐face  interactions    virtual‐ and video‐ conferencing f  52%  fewer face‐to‐face  interactions,  additional financial  investment required  a carbon footprint of regional meetings compared with a large annual conferences with domestic and international participation. b difference between the most carbon expensive meeting per capita and all other meetings. c estimated contribution of international participants to the total meeting carbon footprint. d the annual carbon offset of 573.9 metric tons of co2 reported by the society for conservation biology for its wild rose conservation site. e holding biennial conferences would reduce the carbon cost of scientific meetings by ~50% f number of poll participants who responded “yes” to the question “would you participate in an annual meeting remotely (via video teleconferencing or other technology)?” (sills 2011) conclusion a formula of a rotating schedule of national and regional meetings coupled with the incorporation of a carbon-minimizing meeting selection process is feasible, and we believe that this approach could reduce carbon emissions significantly and immediately with benefits to scientific progress. as we move forward and societies and meetings grow in size and number, we believe that an ongoing dialogue on the sustainability of scientific conferences is vital. clearly, no single solution will be applicable to all societies. rather, a range of approaches can be used for different societies and purposes. we also call for this debate to move beyond traditional cost-benefit analyses to a broader discussion ethnobiology letters                                                                                                         perspective 70   figure 2: the carbon cost of scientific mega‐meetings.   dots show the geographic distribution of attendees for all meetings  evaluated within  the  continental united states.   dot  size  represents  the number of attendees  from any given geographic  location.   triangles outline the  location of national meetings considered  in this analysis.   price tags  indicate per capita co2  emissions (metric tons) for national meetings.  about norms and expectations in academic culture, and how these shape our interactions, as scientists, with the environment. in their book environmental values in american culture, kempton et al. (1995:1) aptly note that “understanding culture is an essential part of understanding environmental problems because human cultures guide their members both when they accelerate environmental destruction and when they slow it down. for everyone––leaders, citizens, and scientists alike–– the cultural framework shapes the issues people see as important and affects the way they act on those issues.” we specifically encourage continuing conversations on the relationship between the advancement of and growth in science; the roles and responsibilities of scientists, funding agencies, and societies in enhancing the sustainability of the scientific enterprise; environmental ethics; and the development and application of other forms of information dissemination. acknowledgements this paper was developed through discussions at the disccrs v symposium. symposium travel and on-site expenses were covered by the national science foundation through collaborative grants ses-0932916 (whitman college, p. yancey p.i.) and ses-0931402 (university of oregon, r. b. mitchell p.i.) and through a pending award from the national aeronautics and space administration (whitman college, p. yancey p.i.). we are grateful to the ecological society of america and the association of american geographers for providing the data used in this analysis. special thanks go to chetan tiwari for assistance with spatial analysis. we also thank ronald mitchell, rebecca barnes, jennifer marlon, matthew fry, and four anonymous reviewers for their comments and suggestions on this manuscript. references cited arslan, b. k., e. s. boyd, w. w. dolci, k. e. dodson, m. s. boldt, and c. b. pilcher. 2011. workshops without walls: broadening access to science around the world. plos biology 9:1-5. bonnett, a. 2006. the need for sustainable conferences. area 38:229-230. ethnobiology letters                                                                                                         perspective 71 burke, i. c. 2010. travel trade-offs for scientists. science 330:1476. hall, e. 2007. alternative futures for academic conferences: a response to bonnett. area 39:125-129. huang, s. t., m. n. kamel boulos and r. p. dellavalle. 2008. scientific discourse 2.0. will your next poster session be in second life ®? embo reports 9:496499. iea (international energy agency) statistics. 2010. co2 emissions from fuel combustion highlights 2010 edition. international energy agency, paris, france jarchow, m. e., j. w. rice, r. m. ritson, and s. k. hargreaves. 2011. awareness and convenience are important in increasing conference sustainability. sustainability science 6:253-254. kempton, w., j. s. boster and j. a. hartley. 1995. environmental values in american culture. mit press, cambridge, ma. lester, b. 2007. greening the meeting. science 318:3638. mcnutt, m. 2008. scientific meetings: worth attending. science 319:281. mills, e. 2009. sustainable scientists. environmental science & technology 43:979-985. philippe, h. 2008. less is more: decreasing the number of scientific conferences to promote economic degrowth. trends in genetics 24:265-267. environment 360 rosenthal, e. 2010. toward sustainable travel: breaking the flying addiction. available at: http://e360.yale.edu/content/feature.msp?id=2280. accessed on september 10, 2011. sills, j. 2011. travel trade-offs for scientists: readers’ poll results. science 331:145. scb (society for conservation biology). the wild rose conservation site: scb’s new carbon offset project for 2010-2013. available at: http://www.conbio.org/activities/committees/ecologi calfootprint/carbonoffset/wildrose.cfm. accessed on september 10, 2011. struck, d. buying carbon offsets may ease eco-guilt but not global warming. available at: http://www.csmonitor.com/environment/2010/0420 /buying-carbon-offsets-may-ease-eco-guilt-but-notglobal-warming. accessed on september 10, 2011. young, s. 2009. rethinking scientific meetings: an imperative in an era of climate change. journal of psychiatry and neuroscience 34:341–34. biosketch alexandra ponette‐gonzález    is a biophysical geog‐ rapher  and  assistant professor of  geography  at  the  university of north  texas  in denton.   her  research  focuses  on  understanding  the  effects  of  global  environmental change on terrestrial ecosystems.  jarrett  byrnes  is  an  ecologist  and  postdoctoral  fellow at the national center  for ecological analysis  and  synthesis.   his  current  research  involves  the  effects of  climate  change on  the network  structure  of  food  webs  and  the  ensuing  ecological  con‐ sequences.    searching for symbolic value of cattle: tropical livestock units, market price, and cultural value of maasai livestock quinlan et al. 2016. ethnobiology letters 7(1):76–86 76 research communications currencies” which are crucial for understanding adaptively relevant decisions in context. yet we know little about how assets come to have a particular value locally. ecological and economic anthropologists focusing on pastoralism routinely convert livestock assets into a unidimensional measure of wealth in kilograms of meat known as tropical livestock units. in many accounts of pastoralists, however—and in their own words—cattle are the “gold standard” valued above other livestock (e.g., sheep, goats, camels). we explore the cultural context of livestock valuation among simanjiro maasai. we begin with an ideal account of the role of livestock in ritual and in the division of labor. we examine market value of african pastoralist people love their animals, and this bond has shaped their cultural practice for at least a millennium (herskovitz 1926). today pastoralist lives are transforming with different livestock use and value (fratkin 2001, 1991; galvin 2009). maasai people of northern tanzania offer one model of east african pastoralism, and they are the focus of our account. this research was motivated by a simple, nagging, and unresolved question in human behavioral ecology: how do people value local “proximate currencies” for “cultural success” (irons 1998)? everywhere people place value on things that are particularly relevant for success in that environment. in human behavioral ecology assets are “proximate searching for symbolic value of cattle: tropical livestock units, market price, and cultural value of maasai livestock robert j. quinlan1,2*, isaya rumas3, godfrey naisikye4, marsha b. quinlan1,2, and jonathan yoder5,2 1department of anthropology, washington state university, pullman, wa, usa. 2paul g. allen school for global animal health, washington state university, pullman, wa, usa. 3lorboisoit, simanjiro, republic of tanzania. 4terat, simanjiro, republic of tanzania. 5school of economic sciences, washington state university, pullman, wa, usa. *rquinlan@wsu.edu abstract we examine metabolic, market, and symbolic values of livestock relative to cultural “positioning” by gender, marriage, and household production among maasai people in simanjiro, tanzania to assess local “proximate currencies” relevant for “cultural success.” data from mixed methods ethnographic research include qualitative interviews since 2012, observation of 85 livestock market sales in 2013 and 2015, and 37 short key informant interviews in 2015. we examine fit between market values, tropical livestock units (tlu, weight-based species exchange ratio), and perceived value from interviews for moran (unmarried men), muruo (married men), and tɔmɔnɔḱ (married women). hedonic regression using livestock species, sex, maturity, and size accounted for 90% of the local market price of livestock. we compared the marketbased exchange ratio between cattle and smallstock (sheep and goats) to tlu and perceived values situating symbolic value of cattle in terms of maasai household production schema. one tlu model accurately predicted market exchange ratios, while another predicted hypothetical exchanges, suggesting need for improved livestock wealth estimation for pastoralists. ritual context, subsistence work, and cultural position influenced perceived values: moran overvalued cattle by 100% of the local market value. tɔmɔnɔḱ accurately perceived the market exchange ratio despite never directly engaging in livestock market transactions. muruo perceived exchange ratios intermediate between moran and tɔmɔnɔḱ. we argue that these perceptions of value reflect distinct labor responsibilities of moran, muruo, and tɔmɔnɔḱ in livestock management, differential value of bridewealth, and control of meat and milk. attention to value of different livestock species in cultural models of production may prove useful for development efforts. received january 28, 2016 open access accepted september 1, 2016 doi 10.14237/ebl.7.1.2016.621 keywords ethnozoology, east africa, smallholder household wealth, pastoralism, gender and marriage, ethnographic science copyright © 2016 by the author(s); licensee society of ethnobiology. this is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution-noncommercial 4.0 international public license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0), which permits non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. quinlan et al. 2016. ethnobiology letters 7(1):76–86 77 research communications livestock which we use to assess equivalence of cattle and small-stock (sheep and goats) compared with common weight-based exchange ratios for tropical livestock. finally, we report variation in a hypothetical exchange among maasai in different cultural positions relevant to household production. livestock are the assets that maasai people control to help ensure their wellbeing, which depends on converging and diverging individual and group motivations. livestock valuation, hence, depends on one’s “positioning” (sensu hodgson 2011) within maasai society and in broader contexts. herds form the base of maasai livelihood. birth, daily chores, division of labor, and rituals of maturation and marriage revolve around livestock. livestock provide people milk and meat. herds are “savings accounts” and animals are the medium of exchange connecting people to each other in the homestead or nkang, across homesteads and regions through stock partnerships or pakishu, and into global systems through cash sales. we approach the value of animals from four vantage points: (1) how do they contribute to diet? or what is the metabolic value of livestock? (2) how do people convert them into other resources through currency? or what is their market value? (3) what is their value beyond these materialist perspectives? or what is their symbolic value? (4) how might we translate livestock values across these perspectives? maasai people engage in a range of livelihoods, but livestock are at the center of traditional subsistence and transitional, mixed household economies. a series of “binary oppositions” (turner 1973) concerning pastoralist household production guides our analysis. meat:milk, cattle:smallstock, man:woman, adult:juvenile, married:moran (warriors) characterize important dimensions of ritual, life history, and livelihood. these oppositions reflect traditional cultural models of household production and provide “predictor variables” for local diversity in estimating the value of livestock. our account draws on direct observation and interviews among maasai people in simanjiro district, northern tanzania (2012–present). simanjiro maasai live along an economic continuum from subsistencelevel herding and agriculture to intensive cash cropping. extended family homesteads or nkang are the units of production and corrals for livestock when animals are not traveling with moran in search of grazing and water. for recent accounts of simanjiro maasai see leslie and mccabe (2013), mccabe et al. (2014), miller et al. (2014), and sachedina and trench (2009). marital status and gender are two key characteristics of maasai social organization for household production. marriage marks a transition in life for both genders through different pathways. for women, marriage traditionally (and often still) takes place soon after menarche. a woman transitions from a girl through ritual observances including now outlawed circumcision, and menstrual taboos. menarche relates to livestock by marking the onset of taboos prohibiting women from slaughtering animals or even seeing meat before it is delivered to them from the men’s tree outside the nkang fence where butchering often occurs (figure 1). mere presence of a menstruating woman could taint the meat (montgomery 1974; nichter and nichter 1996). boys and girls act as messengers, bringing meat from the men’s tree to their mothers for the family cooking pot. men control the distribution of meat. figure 1 men’s tree. photo: robert j. quinlan, 2015. quinlan et al. 2016. ethnobiology letters 7(1):76–86 78 research communications when a new wife arrives at her husband’s nkang for the first time not long after menarche, an older cowife or mother-in-law meets her at the nkang entrance with a gift: a milk cow. her husband allocates a herd of milk cows to his wife who is responsible for managing the animals—milking twice a day, watching for illness, etc. this dairy herd will become the basis of the woman’s sons’ herd, along with other gifts, when he/they reach marriageable age near the end of the moran period (hodgson 2001). the animals are never technically a woman’s property in that she could not buy, sell, or slaughter them without her husband’s consent. still, she manages their health and productivity, and with their milk she cares for herself, her children, her husband, and friends. in the nkang women control the milk (figure 2). when a woman gives birth, her husband celebrates the occasion and cares for her by giving her one ram with large fat flaps around the base of the tail. a mature sheep’s fat flap looks like a wooly throw pillow and can weigh ten pounds. tail fat should be a mother’s first meal after delivery. thereafter, the grease and greasy meat enhances the mother’s milk production and recovery from birth over a period of rest when she may not work. by convention, a man can obtain a birth ram by exchanging one young, small steer with an exchange partner. this is an important point because the convention specifies the exchange ratio of sheep to cattle that we use to explore symbolic value. women can convert the products of their work into cash. they sell surplus milk, butter, eggs, chickens, beadwork, gourds, etc. at local markets or to figure 2 milking a cow. photo: robert j. quinlan, 2013. quinlan et al. 2016. ethnobiology letters 7(1):76–86 79 research communications visitors to the nkang (hodgson 2001). they use that cash for children’s school expenses, cellphones, tools, and to sometimes purchase small stock (sheep and goats) that are the woman’s assets or savings. women have other assets: they build their houses without help from men, they own donkeys to haul water and firewood, and they have cell phones, cooking pots, gourds, etc. for men the transition to marriage is much less abrupt. at about 15 to 17 years old a boy undergoes circumcision (figure 3). transfer of livestock marks this event too: guests to the circumcision feast bring one or two smallstock for the host. at this ritual, boys become moran and must give up the only animal property they have had: their dogs. they spend the next 15 or so years (it varies from person to person) caring for and protecting livestock, often in distant dry season manyatta or cattle camps. men transition from moran into moruo, or elders, through marriage, again entailing ritual transfer of cattle for bridewealth. new grooms receive a share of their father’s herd along with gifts from friends and relatives and make bridewealth payments minimally of five steers to their bride’s father. the amount can vary somewhat depending on the balance of wealth between the groom’s and bride’s families. older men slaughter three of the bridewealth animals for the wedding feast, and may distribute other animals to kin or friends of the bride’s father. after marriage, a man takes responsibility for the production of his household, often in coordination with close kin who reside near him in the patrilocal nkang. after marriage, a man uses his herd to provide milk cows for his wives to manage; for meat consumption largely for men, although a portion goes to the household as described above; and for creating and maintaining stock-partner or pakishu relationships. stock partner relationships are an important part of herd management in dry years and in response to livestock loss through disease and drought (aktipis et al. 2011). in dry years, when grazing is difficult, moruo reach out to pakishu in distant communities (often by cell phone) to find good grazing and to negotiate moving their herd into land associated with other communities. when times are tough or the family needs cash, men sell livestock in local markets. smallstock are the most disposable form of livestock wealth. wealthy households slaughter sheep and goats to meet regular protein desires, and any household may sell them off for cash. in comparison, selling cattle is undesirable and maasai generally view it as a last resort, though some households appear to somewhat specialize in cattle production for sale (caudell et al. n.d.). when nadonjukin moruo decide to sell livestock, they usually travel to the weekly local market in terat town. women also sell their wares in local markets, but we never saw women directly engaged in negotiations in 85 livestock transactions observed in terat market. we can simply use any of several unidimensional metabolic equivalence models for livestock known as tropical livestock units (tlu), where smallstock and cattle are evaluated by “package weight”, but this assumes that the only relevant currency for local success is food. in an early tlu model, one “cow” bos indicus (bi) is assumed to weigh 175 kg, and one sheep or goat weighs 25 kg giving an exchange ratio of seven cattle to one sheep or goat (jahnke 1982). a figure 3 new moran in circumcision paint. photo: robert j. quinlan, 2015. quinlan et al. 2016. ethnobiology letters 7(1):76–86 80 research communications more common tlu model, cited in grandin (1988), gives an exchange ratio of 4.17 to one. we can thus convert a herd of mixed composition into a measure of “non-monetized wealth”. does this make sense for maasai livestock? we could approach the question at least two ways: (1) do maasai cattle, on average, weigh seven times a sheep or goat? the answer suggests a better local measure of “livestock value” but it assumes that all wealth translates into kilograms of meat or milk. a biomass approach requires good methods for estimating weight and milk production in the field and time to measure a sufficiently large sample of herds of different composition and intended use. this is a reasonable approach, but differences in control of meat and milk from cattle and smallstock suggests an alternative. (2) what is the local “exchange ratio” of one livestock species for another? do maasai people of different positions in the production system value livestock differently? market price of maasai livestock and tlus we examined market price to evaluate the adequacy of tlu estimates and to examine discrepancies in hypothetical exchanges that might indicate effects of cultural positioning in the production system. the research team observed 85 livestock transactions on two market days in terat in october 2013 and june 2015. rq’s and mq’s presence as observers immediately destabilized price negotiations, and they did not observe transactions closely. instead ir and gn, both maasai muruo members of the research team, with extensive experience in research and livestock management recorded the asking price, sale price, species, sex, age (juvenile or adult), and relative size (relatively small, “average”, relatively large). livestock markets seem chaotic with negotiations occurring ad lib. hence, we selected a convenience sample of as many transactions as possible. with these data we converted sales price of cattle into smallstock to examine fit between tlu estimates and local market value. later we use market price to estimate the “symbolic” value of cattle for people in different “positions.” ironically, this approach allows us to “monetize” symbolic value (transform it into cash value) to examine intra-cultural variation reflecting convergent and divergent interests in herd management. men bring livestock on a lead into the market square beginning in the late morning of market day. transactions occurred in public and men negotiated prices verbally, often with many onlookers, including women and children. the owner began negotiations with an asking price, the buyer countered, etc. table 1 summarizes 85 market transactions for individual animals in terat. the average transaction was tsh 156,482 (tanzanian shillings) or approximately us$82. average price received for cattle was tsh 285,972 or us$150. average price for sheep and goats all transactions n mean sd min max 95% ci livestock receive 85 156482 126163 20000 550000 129270 183695 adult 86 0.53 0 1 size 86 2.12 1 3 male 86 0.64 0 1 cattle receive 36 285972 85003 130000 550000 257212 314733 adult 36 0.36 0 1 size 36 2.00 1 3 male 36 0.67 0 1 sheep receive 25 64920 27494 25000 110000 53571 76269 adult 25 0.68 0 1 size 25 2.40 1 3 male 25 0.68 0 1 goats receive 24 57625 28147 20000 120000 45740 69510 adult 25 0.64 0 1 size 25 2.02 1 3 male 25 0.56 0 1 table 1 terat market livestock transactions. note: receive = tanzania shillings; adult (animal) 1 = adult, 0 = juvenile; size 1 = relatively small; 2 = about average; 3 = relatively large; male 1 = male, 0 = female. quinlan et al. 2016. ethnobiology letters 7(1):76–86 81 research communications was tsh 64,920 and tsh 57,625 respectively or us$34 and us$30. because the price difference between sheep and goats was not statistically significant, we pooled their values in these analyses. here, one bi is equivalent to 4.67 smallstock in the market. tlu gives an exchange ratio of 7.00 smallstock for one bi as reported in jahnke (1982) and about 4.2 smallstock for on bi reported in grandin (1988). early tlu exchange ratios (jahnke 1982) overestimate the value of cattle or underestimate smallstock in our market sample. exchange ratios from grandin (1988) give a better estimate of simanjiro livestock equivalence based on market prices. depending on context, however, livestock value might not be entirely metabolic or nutritional. providing a fat-tail ram at birth could be more than nutritional provisioning. using market price to estimate symbolic value of maasai livestock next we constructed a multivariate model called a hedonic regression (coatney et al. 1996; lankester et al. 2015; rosen 1974) to evaluate determinants of market price used to suggest the symbolic value of a fat-tail ram. here we regressed price received on species (sheep or goat = 1 with bi = 0 as the reference), sex (male = 1, female = 0), adult (1 = adult, 0 = juvenile), size (1=small to 3=large), and interaction effects for species x size. because we did not weigh animals, species x size adjusts for the weight difference between a small vs large goat and a small vs large steer. we also entered year of sale (2013 vs 2015) to adjust for inflation and market volatility. size and age were centered so that we could interpret model constants as the price for an average animal. diagnostic tests indicated an adequate model. the model in table 2 accounts for 90% of the variance in market price. using this equation, we calculated the predicted value of average adult smallstock and average adult cattle at tsh 68,373 and tsh 318,466 respectively which gives an exchange of 4.66 smallstock for one bi compared with 4.67 (table 1). with this model, we calculate the value of a large ram and a small steer to evaluate the symbolic value of a birth ram. using the regression equation, a fat ram is worth tsh 92,642 and a small steer is worth tsh 174,763 putting the market exchange ratio at 1.89 fat rams to one small steer. the extent that the ritual value of a ram is greater than its market value suggests symbolic value of birth provisioning. hence, the symbolic value of a fat ram as birth provisioning is the difference between the traditionally specified 1:1 exchange ratio and the market exchange ratio 1:1.89 or tsh 82,120 (approximately us$43). for some people in a specific marriage-gender position, a small steer is not worth 1.89 fat rams, but one fat ram. ritual context influences the perceived value of maasai livestock. hypothetical exchange of smallstock for cattle by marriage and gender positions if ritual context can alter the perceived value of livestock, then what about other dimensions of “positioning” in maasai cultural ecology? supplied with knowledge of the local market value of livestock, we then examined perceptions of smallstock and cattle values with a hypothetical exchange. during the course of qualitative livestock management interviews we were impressed with the variation in responses and the large discrepancies between a hypothetical exchange and market values. we recruited a convenience sample of 37 maasai people and posed two questions to them: 1) how many average smallstock tsh received coef. p 95% ci sheep -252018 0.000 -275559 -228478 size (centered) 100655 0.000 69514 131796 sheep x size -84831 0.000 -124277 -45386 goat -251572 0.000 -274690 -228455 goat x size -84658 0.000 -121918 -47397 adult (centered) 44677 0.000 20882 68473 sex (male=1, female=0) 10962 0.311 -10460 32383 year (centered) 1975 0.716 -8793 12742 constant 298789 0.000 279350 318228 table 2 hedonic model of market price. note: r2=.90 quinlan et al. 2016. ethnobiology letters 7(1):76–86 82 research communications would be fair in exchange for one average cow? and 2) how many average smallstock would be fair in exchange for one average steer? hypothetical exchange questions were asked in public with onlookers out of earshot to reduce contamination. informants were compensated with a payment of tsh 1000 (approximately us$0.50). an average interview was completed in less than five minutes. we recorded the gender and marital status of the informants; hence, we have three groups—married women or tɔmɔnɔ́k, married men or móruo, and unmarried men or moran (table 3). the mean hypothetical exchange rate for cattle is 7.88 smallstock or 3.2 goats-sheep more than the market value based on data in table 4. note this figure is close to tlu exchange ratios in jahnke (1982). does this value vary, however, by gender and life history? women’s average hypothetical value of one bi was between about four and eight smallstock (see 95% ci for constant model 1, table 4), which is not significantly different from the observed market value and overlaps with tlu estimates. husbands (móruak) are not significantly different compared with wives. moran, however, valued one bi at about ten smallstock, which was more than twice the market value. there were no significant differences among maasai for the value of cows (i.e., female bi): they perceived cows to be worth between the market value and tlu estimates. market prices indicated that male and female livestock had equal monetary value, and women agreed. in the hypothetical exchange, men significantly overvalued steers relative to women. moran “overvalued” steers by more than three times their local market value, with a ratio of 13:1 (table 4, model 3 adding the constant and coefficient for moran). using market prices (from table 2) and the same procedure for the analysis of birth provisioning, we calculated the difference between the hypothetical exchange and market exchange ratio to indicate symbolic value of cattle for men. the “symbolic value” of each steer for a morani was about 8.5 smallstock more than the market value, about tsh 400,000 or us$200. for married men the symbolic value of steers was less than for moran but, at tsh 140,000 or us$75, it was significantly greater than women value steers relative to cows, and more than variable n mean sd min max steer 37 8.88 5.32 3.5 30 cow 37 6.88 2.57 4 16 cattle 37 7.88 3.63 3.75 20 moran 37 0.35 0.48 0 1 adult male 37 0.35 0.48 0 1 women 37 0.30 0.46 0 1 table 3 sample for hypothetical exchange of livestock. dependent variable: smallstock for cattle r2 position coef. p 95% ci mod. 1 moruo 1.08 0.402 -1.50 3.66 cattle 0.31 moran 4.66 0.001 2.07 7.24 constant 5.86 0.000 3.96 7.76 mod. 2 moruo -0.04 0.967 -2.12 2.03 cow 0.11 moran 1.77 0.093 -0.31 3.84 constant 6.27 0.000 4.75 7.80 mod. 3 moruo 2.20 0.227 -1.44 5.84 steer 0.36 moran 7.55 0.000 3.91 11.18 constant 5.45 0.000 2.78 8.13 mod. 4 moruo 0.38 0.044 0.01 0.74 steer/cow 0.35 moran 0.77 0.000 0.41 1.13 constant 0.89 0.000 0.62 1.16 table 4 multivariate model of hypothetical exchange of smallstock for cattle by animal sex, human gender, and marriage. quinlan et al. 2016. ethnobiology letters 7(1):76–86 83 research communications the market would pay. hence, women’s perception of livestock values concurred with the market; men’s perception did not because they overvalue steers. translating exchange ratios as a measure of total livestock wealth, tlu estimates appear to be reasonable approximations, but livestock equivalence varies by gender and ritual context. for men and particularly moran, tlu and market exchange ratios undervalue steers. what good is a steer to whom as they do not reproduce, nor produce milk, and they require time, attention, water, food, medicine etc.? people have to make a steer by castration (figure 4). steers are useful as special meat. if access to meat from steers varies by one’s cultural positioning, then their value may vary accordingly. however, cattle and smallstock meat should be equivalent pound-for-pound, hence, moran’s overvaluation can be interpreted as symbolic value. clues for understanding this symbolic value may be in ritual consumption of beef mixed with medicinal plants for cleansing in orpul (figure 5) (roulette et al. n.d.). additionally, moran are often responsible for managing steers that are not a part of the nkang milk herd. moran status among peers and within their family is related to their responsibility for the “grazing” herd which typically includes fewer milk cows than does the nkang herd; thus steers could carry special significance for moran. alternatively, cattle may be valued as more desirable bridewealth, and hence, represent more value for young men anticipating marriage. moran overvaluation of steers might be interpreted as symbolic value in relation to their role in the production and marriage systems. figure 4 castrating steers. photo: robert j. quinlan, 2015. quinlan et al. 2016. ethnobiology letters 7(1):76–86 84 research communications conclusions symbolic value of subsistence assets is difficult to operationalize because it is a function of multiple considerations for individuals in historical and social context. drawing on human behavioral ecology we conceptualize symbolic value as part of local proximate currencies that tap into aspects of “adaptively relevant environments” (irons 1998). we suggest as a starting point for integrated economic, ecological, and cultural analysis that symbolic value is the value of an asset beyond subsistence or cash equivalent of food value. for simanjiro tlu estimates from grandin (1988) are close to local market value suggesting that market prices track nutritional value of animals pound for pound. we suggest that comparing local conventions for ritual exchange of livestock for a birth gift with market values serves as a proxy for symbolic value. moran over-valuation of steers is perhaps less clearly a reflection of symbolic value and we welcome alternative critiques. here we suspect that moran (and married men’s) valuation of steers reflects (1) the role that beef plays in social solidarity among men, (2) the role of cattle in bridewealth exchanges, and (3) value of stock-partner exchange relationships for risk reduction. the latter may be less symbolic (closer to subsistence, survival and reproduction) as stockpartners provide a kind of insurance against local variance in forage and water (aktipis et al. 2011). our results suggest several points for development. different species have different uses. cattle provide daily milk and special meat largely reserved for ritual purposes. selling cattle is undesirable. in contrast, few maasai regularly drink or sell milk from smallstock and many people have never tasted it. smallstock are the source of meat for regular household consumption, and smallstock sales are common to provide for cash needs. this difference suggests potentially important avenues for gendered development. for example, the maasai foundation (directed by co-author, isaya rumas) takes advantage of the cultural position of smallstock to help women develop their own smallstock herds. the foundation converts homemade crafts into cash to purchase animals which reproduce, giving potentially large returns on women’s crafts and animal husbandry. division of labor in milk and meat handling can also influence public health and disease transmission. cultural models for meat handling exposes men to meat-borne pathogens similar to gendered funerary practices in mathews, glasse and lindenbaum’s (1968) classic study of kuru retrovirus transmission. similarly, preliminary results for prevalence of antibiotic resistant bacteria among maasai suggest that cows’ milk is involved in transmission of resistant bacteria (call et al. 2016). the precise mechanism for this transmission is unknown at present, but milk handling is a likely suspect making these patterns targets for public health engagement. greater attention to relative value and role of different livestock species in cultural models of production may prove useful for development efforts. we hope this short study of livestock values offers a contribution for collaborative work to enhance the wellbeing of african pastoralist people. acknowledgments this work was funded through a grant from the u.s. national science foundation, ecology and evolution of infectious disease program #deb-1216040 (d.r. call et al.). thanks to the people of nadonjukin village and terat town for their generous cooperation in this research. thanks to dr. julius keyuu, tanzania wildlife research institute for facilitating our larger collaborative research efforts in tanzania. special thanks to dr. doug call of the washington state university, paul g. allen school for global animal health for his collaborative spirit and able leadership of our larger interdisciplinary efforts in tanzania. declarations permissions: washington state university institutional review board; tanzania national institute for medical research review board; tanzania commission on science and technology permit. local figure 5 beef for orpul. photo: robert j. quinlan, 2015. quinlan et al. 2016. ethnobiology letters 7(1):76–86 85 research communications permission from nadonjukin village council, simanjiro, tanzania. sources of funding: national science foundation, nsf deb-1216040 (d. call et al.). conflicts of interest: none declared. references cited aktipis, c. a., l. cronk, r. de aduiar. 2011. risk pooling and herd survival: an agent based model of a maasai gift giving system. human ecology 39:131-140. doi:10.1007/s10745-010-9364-9. call, d. r., m. subbiah, m. caudell, l. orfe, r. j. quinlan, m. b. quinlan, l. matthews, and c. mair. 2016. consumption of raw-milk: a critical risk factor in disseminating antibiotic-resistant bacteria to maasai people in northern tanzania. unpublished data. available from drcall.vetmed@wsu.edu. caudell, m., m.b. quinlan, m. subbiah, d. r. call, c. j. roulette, j. w. roulette, a. roth, l. mathews, r. j. quinlan. n.d. veterinary antibiotic use among agro-pastoralists in northern tanzania. unpublished manuscript. available from drcall.vetmed@wsu.edu. coatney, k. t., d. j. menkhaus, and j. d. schmitz. 1996. feeder cattle price determinants: an hedonic system of equations approach. review of agricultural economics 18:193–211. available at: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1349432? seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents. accessed on january 28, 2016. fratkin, e., and e. a. roth. 1990. drought and economic differentiation among ariaal pastoralists of kenya. human ecology 18:385–402. fratkin, e. 2001. east african pastoralism in transition: maasai, boran and rendille cases. african studies review 44(3):1–25. available at: http:// www.jstor.org/stable/525591? seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents. accessed january 28, 2016. galvin, k.a. 2009. transitions: pastoralists living with change. annual review of anthropology 38:185– 98. doi:10.1146/annurev-anthro-091908-164442. herskovitz, m. j. 1926. the cattle complex in east africa. american anthropologist 28(1):230–272. available at: http://www.jstor.org/stable/ pdf/660813.pdf. accessed january 28, 2016. irons, w. 1998. adaptively relevant environments versus the environment of evolutionary adaptedness. evolutionary anthropology 6:194–204. doi:10.1002/(sici)1520-6505(1998)6:6<194::aidevan2>3.0.co;2-b. grandin, b.e. 1988. wealth and pastoral dairy production: a case study from maasailand. human ecology 16:1–21. hodgson, d. 2001. once intrepid warriors. indiana university press, bloomington, in. hodgson, d. 2011. being maasai, becoming indigenous. indiana university press, bloomington, in. jahnke, h. e. 1982. livestock production systems and livestock development in tropical africa. kieler wissenshfstverlag vauk, kiel, germany. available at: http://pdf.usaid.gov/pdf_docs/pnaan484.pdf. accessed january 28, 2016. lankester f, a. lugelo, r. kazwala. j. keyyu, s. cleaveland, and j. yoder. 2015. the economic impact of malignant catarrhal fever on pastoralist livelihoods. plosone 10:e0116059. 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82:34–55. available at: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1830899? seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents. accessed january 28, 2016. quinlan et al. 2016. ethnobiology letters 7(1):76–86 86 research communications roulette, c. j., e. f. njau, m. b. quinlan, r. j. quinlan, and d. call. n.d. maasai dietary additives in tanzania: ethnomedical beliefs, ethnopharmacology, and gender differences. unpublished manuscript. available from croulette@sdsu.edu. sachedina, h., and p. c. trench. 2009. cattle, crops, tourism and tanzanite: poverty, land use change, and conservation in simanjiro district, tanzania. in staying maasai?, edited by k. homewood, p. kristjanson, and p. c. trench. springer-verlag, new york, ny. turner, v. w. 1973. symbols in african ritual. science 179:1100–1105. available at: https:// www.amherst.edu/system/files/media/1479/ symbols%2520in%2520african%2520ritual_0.pdf. accessed february 24, 2016. the mushroom at the end of the world: on the possibility of life in capitalist ruins ethnobiology letters. 2015. 6(1):214-215. doi: 10.14237/ebl.6.1.2015.506. 214 book reviews perspectives from gene anderson’s bookshelf tsing and others in her matsutake working group, such as michael hathaway. among the ruins of past enterprise, especially in oregon, people find amazingly creative ways to live and flourish—sometimes in spite of their own internal demons as well as landscape ruination. tsing’s book is hopeful; perhaps we can create new “assemblages” of people, plants, wealth, and other links, and somehow manage the future. in the meantime, however, pickers live precarious lives. tsing makes good use of the recent concepts of “precarity” (or precariousness) and the “precariate.” for once, these are neologisms that actually mean something and describe a serious world problem, and tsing’s cool ethnography of the pickers is a major contribution to understanding it. perhaps less happy is the coinage of “salvage capitalism” for what has always before been called “primary production”: drawing down nature’s bounty, in this case timber and mushrooms. tsing is a fine writer and a superb ethnographer. she has a brilliant ability to find amazing people, get their stories, and write those stories in a compelling way. she also has an original mind given to quirky insights, as her fascination with life among ruins shows. also, she has a solid grasp of the biological science involved in the matsutake world, and is insightful and precise at identifying key points and explaining them. in this she differs radically from too many political ecologists and critical-studies environmental writers, who take a perverse pride in not knowing the (colonialist hegemonic master-narrative) science. her observations on the problems of matsutake taxonomics would be valuable reading for any taxonomist. she also refrains from the harsh, this long-awaited book concerns the worldwide trade in the mushroom tricholoma matsutake and its american counterpart t. magnivelare, a gourmet item of enormous prestige in japan. there, it has become one of those status-marker foods, like caviar and fine wine—appropriate for high-end gifts and other social prestations. its popularity is spreading, by status emulation, to other lands. it currently sells for around $50 a pound in markets. it proves refractory to cultivation, so is gathered by local rural people in japan and china. in the united states, it is gathered by recent asian immigrants (often refugees from the indochina wars), latin american migrants, and such anglo-americans as have returned to the wild to make a living—many of them vietnam veterans who cannot cope with urban society, or, for some of them, with any society. they all find comfort and solace in the wild. most of the gathering is done in oregon, where incredibly irresponsible logging and forest management led to replacement of commercial timber by weedy lodgepole pine (pinus contorta)—almost useless for wood, but the perfect plant for matsutakes, which are mycorrhizal symbionts of pine roots. in japan, similar mismanagement had the same effect—but now the forests are more valued for the mushrooms than for any possible timber, and there is a huge effort to restore them. in yunnan, similar stories have played out, now extending to a stage of total deforestation. the book moves rapidly from continent to continent, providing a series of superbly done vignettes that touch on all aspects of the industry. there are few statistics or detailed studies, but those seeking for such can find them in technical articles by the mushroom at the end of the world: on the possibility of life in capitalist ruins anna lowenhaupt tsing. 2015. princeton university press, princeton, nj. xii + 331 pp. $29.95 (cloth). isbn: 978-0-6911-6275-1 (cloth), 978-1-4008-7354-8 (ebook). reviewed by eugene n. anderson reviewer address: department of anthropology, university of california, riverside, ca 92521, usa. email: eugene.anderson@ucr.edu received: october 25, 2015 volume: 6(1):214-215 published: december 19, 2015 © 2015 society of ethnobiology ethnobiology letters. 2015. 6(1):214-215. doi: 10.14237/ebl.6.1.2015.506. 215 book reviews perspectives from gene anderson’s bookshelf overheated rhetoric of so much environmental literature. those who know anna tsing find her an extremely decent human being, and she stays very far indeed from the attacks so common in this brand of writing. still, some things done in the past are so evil that tsing cannot gloss them over, notably the complete freedom that timber companies had in oregon to cut everything down. thanks to the forest service cooperatively assuming the costs of road building, cleanup, security, and replanting, the companies had no incentive to manage the resource or log it sustainably. they followed a “cut and git” rule. worse still was the rip-off of the klamath reservation (pp. 197199). local banking and timber interests lobbied with the eisenhower administration of the us to “terminate” the klamath reservation. this was done, and sharp dealers quickly stripped the klamath and modoc of their resources, leaving them ruined (see stern 1966 for the full story; some land was eventually restored, but the timber was gone). the book is not without problems. tsing is more original and dashing than careful with theory or history. right at the start, on p. vii, she gives us a view of “western philosophy” holding that “nature…is grand and universal but also passive and mechanical. nature was a backdrop and resource for the moral intentionality of man, which could tame and master nature.” well, yes, for descartes and a few others, but not for kant, emerson, thoreau, and countless other thinkers. later on the page: “the time has come for new ways of telling true stories beyond civilizational first principles” (meaning the above principles of ripping off nature in the name of progress). well, since kant, wordsworth, and thoreau, and on down through burroughs, muir, boas, leopold and others, to bill mckibben and gary snyder, there have been plenty of people doing that. i have done my small bit. it is somewhat annoying to find all of us consigned to oblivion in a casual sentence. later, tsing blames or credits “capitalism” with the ruin she describes, but the us national forests, the japanese communal forests (left from tokugawa forest policy), and of course china’s forests are all the result of socialism in its purest form. even the private logging firms in oregon were so heavily subsidized by the us that they were parastatals rather than free enterprises. the public forests were not even run for profit, theoretically, but for national welfare, though this gave way in all cases to profiteering. so, are capitalism and socialism different? do they even exist today? or do we live in a post-capitalist, post-socialist world where state firms and parastatal international corporations control everything? on a less arcane note, tsing credits matthew perry and us policy for the meiji restoration and the revolutionary changes in japan in the 1860s; this is surely crediting the us too much. there were plenty of internal struggles that were poised to do the job. there are a few other bits of controversial history in the book, including a tendency to ignore tokugawa forest policy and its green legacy. the problems with history and with developing a clear message about capitalism and its trajectory tend to weaken this book as a source of theory. the final message is one of hope. we can, indeed, find and create “life in capitalist ruins.” we will certainly need to; the age of free goods from nature is over, and every appropriation (be it primary production or salvage capitalism) now comes at someone’s expense. one has an uncomfortable feeling that the future will be more like the klamath tribe termination than like the free life in the forest of the matsutake pickers. moreover, one has an even more uncomfortable feeling that the future will consist of an ever more complete fusion of governments and international corporations. this is appearing most clearly in china, where classic european fascism— fusion of a totalitarian, autocratic state with giant industrial enterprise, justified by oppression of minorities and other groups—is now in place and getting rapidly more extreme. in short, this is an important book that should start, not end, discussion. meanwhile, the hills around me are rich with tricholomas after late-summer rains, and i can’t find out what they are. some trichs are gourmet fare, like the matsutake; others are poisonous. i hope mine are the new matsutake! references cited stern, t. 1966. the klamath tribe: a people and their reservation. university of washington press, seattle, wa. winds from the north: tewa origins and historical anthropology   book review  ethnobiology le ers. 2014. 5: 132‐134. doi: 10.14237/ebl.5.2014.278. 132  were slowly incorporated into endemic culture. the population movement hypothesis envisions a rapid large-scale migration from mesa verde into the northern rio grande. ortman sets out to assess which hypothesis is best supported by the new lines of historic and prehistoric evidence that are revealed throughout the book. winds from the north is comprised of 14 chapters that progressively lead the reader through each line of evidence that informs ortman’s final conclusion. chapter 1 is dedicated to situating the reader within the existing body of knowledge on tewa origins. basically, this chapter serves to answer the question: what research has been done on this topic in the past and what is the most recent work? it is, therefore, a valuable compendium of resources for anyone researching tewa culture. chapter 2 orients the reader with regard to the theoretical underpinnings of the rest of the book. ortman describes the evolutionary perspective he uses to research genes, language, and culture. he draws from durham (1991) to set up the prerequisites needed to assume that each one of these human systems produces descent with modification. ortman is abundantly clear that each line of evidence―genes, language, and culture―must be evaluated on its own merits and must not be bundled with the other systems. he then goes on to delineate the three hypotheses of tewa origins mentioned above and sets up expectations for each (table 2.3). in chapter 3 the author begins evaluating each hypothesis and situates the reader into a body of literature on modeling past populations in the tewa basin. strengths and weaknesses of past approaches are assessed and are used in chapter 4 to build a new model that utilizes a regional stratified sampling technique. that is, ortman uses topography, historical for decades, the origin of the tewa, one of the culturally affiliated groups in the northern rio grande region of new mexico, has fascinated southwestern anthropologists and archaeologists. it has long been postulated that the northern rio grande was an important area of immigration after the depopulation of the mesa verde region in southwestern colorado (ca. a.d. 1300). the initial line of evidence for this interpretation was an apparent decrease in population density in the mesa verde region alongside a corresponding increase in the northern rio grande at roughly the same time. this interpretation, however, has been questioned due to a lack of distinct mesa verde material culture in the northern rio grande after a.d. 1300. understanding what happened to the people of mesa verde after depopulation is important for ethnobiology for a number of reasons. one major, though broad, reason is to understand past human response to environmental uncertainty, which characterized this time period in the american southwest. undoubtedly, this issue is increasingly relevant in the context of contemporary worldwide environmental change. in the book winds from the north: tewa origins and historical anthropology, scott ortman’s objective is to sort out the “puzzle of tewa origins” (p. 1) using new lines of historic and prehistoric evidence. to initiate this process, ortman describes the three leading hypotheses concerning tewa origins: 1) the in situ development hypothesis, 2) the immigration hypothesis, and 3) the population movement hypothesis. the in situ hypothesis is characterized by intrinsic growth among the people that already occupied the northern rio grande before a.d. 1300. the immigration hypothesis claims that small bands of mesa verde people immigrated into the northern rio grande and winds from the north: tewa origins and historical anthropology sco  g. ortman. 2012. the university of utah press, salt lake city. pp. 520, 51 illustra ons, 25 maps, 54 tables.  $70.00 (hardcover). isbn  978‐1‐60781‐172‐5.  reviewed by jonathan dombrosky reviewer address: university of north texas, department of geography, 1155 union circle #305279, denton, tx 76203  jonathan.dombrosky@unt.edu received: march 5, 2014  volume: 5:132‐134  published: november 13, 2014    © 2014 society of ethnobiology   book review  ethnobiology le ers. 2014. 5: 132‐134. doi: 10.14237/ebl.5.2014.278. 133  accounts, and the archaeological record to break the tewa basin into five unique geographic regions. this is significant because each region exhibits population trends that differ from the overall tewa basin trend, especially in the pajarito and cochiti regions. regarding migration from mesa verde, the population history model ortman uses for the pajarito and cochiti areas aligns with the population movement hypothesis because populations started increasing there, largely in previously unsettled areas, before increasing in the rest of the tewa basin. chapter 5 assesses and utilizes craniometric data to model past genetic relationships of people in the four corners region through time. first, ortman seeks to understand past genetic distances within populations of the four corners. close genetic distance is established between mesa verde and post a.d. 1275 pajarito and chama populations. then, ortman explores the patterns of gene flow within populations of the tewa basin. his results indicate that there was little gene flow among the pajarito, chama, and tano populations and a greater amount of gene flow between the cochiti and santa fe populations. in other words, post-1275 populations in the pajarito and chama areas are closely related to inhabitants of the mesa verde region and had received little genetic input from other northern rio grande populations. importantly, he concludes that genetic drift does not account for the observed patterns in these areas. lastly, ortman is interested in understanding the relative genetic contribution of possible migrants and existing populations to postabandonment populations in the tewa basin. through admixture analysis, he shows that the genetic structure of post-abandonment populations meets the expected genetic contribution of migrants and locals based off of modeled population sizes. chapters 6 through 8 address three questions about the linguistic history of the kiowa-tanoan language family (of which tewa is one): “how long has tewa been a distinctive language? how long can this language be documented as having been spoken in the tewa basin? and what aspects of the tewa language might one expect to see expressed in material culture of ancestral tewa speakers, and where and when do we see them” (p. 125)? briefly, ortman’s results, based on animal names, plant names, object names, place names, place lore, and oral tradition, indicate that tewa became a distinct language between a.d. 920 and 980, but not necessarily within the northern rio grande. ortman favors the population movement hypothesis and sees mesa verde as the primary location of tewa ethnogenesis; thus his approach is to analyze the presence or absence of names related to places either in the northern rio grande or in mesa verde. he determines that there is an absence of northern rio grande place-related terms, suggesting that tewa did not originate there. he postulates that tewa language was not situated geographically in the northern rio grande until a.d. 1240 to 1280. to further this argument, ortman moves beyond the previous “standard approaches” (p. 204) to introduce the contemporary cognitive science theory of conceptual metaphor. according to ortman, identifying conceptual metaphors in past societies can illuminate their worldviews, constructed in particular times and places. ortman argues that given certain aspects of mesa verde material culture (i.e., architectural plans and pottery designs) archaeologists can infer conceptual metaphors that framed everyday tewa life. he refers to the remnants of these metaphors as dead metaphors and analyzes the tewa language accordingly. chapters 11 through 13 address material culture directly. chapter 11 serves to situate the reader into the current literature of population movement and ultimately reframes how archaeologists can pick up on these signals. chapter 12 addresses the material culture of the mesa verde region and explicates the “push factors” that are associated with people leaving this region at a.d. 1300. chapter 13 introduces new ways of looking at material culture, derived from chapter 11 but with particular reference to the tewa basin. one salient example is that of smearedindented-corrugated utility ware. ortman shows that around a.d. 1050 to 1200 corrugated pottery was similar in the mesa verde and tewa basin. however, in the mid 1200’s the same corrugated pottery process was being done in the tewa basin but with an extra step; the exterior of corrugated pottery was being smeared away. therefore, the question becomes why would people take extra steps in the pottery making process only to erase what those extra steps accomplished? finally, chapter 14 serves to quickly summarize results from the previous chapters and then assesses them with regard to the expectations elicited in chapter 2. ortman explains that his analysis best supports the population movement hypothesis and least supports the in situ development hypothesis.   book review  ethnobiology le ers. 2014. 5: 132‐134. doi: 10.14237/ebl.5.2014.278. 134  though he is clear in this chapter (and throughout the book) that his conclusions are not irrefutable, he argues that population movement away from mesa verde was integral to the ethnogenesis of the tewa people. he suggests that the collapse of the mesa verde society elicited a largely religious migration into the northern rio grande to escape the hegemonic structures and institutions to the west. ortman terms this the “religious revolution model of tewa ethnogenesis” (p. 361). ortman also advances the historical account of the pueblo revolt to bolster his argument. using this example, he suggests that, “the ideology of the pueblo revolt can thus be characterized as one of a return to a state of bodily satisfaction through the overthrow of the dominant fraction, destruction of items related to the religion of that fraction, the abandonment of villages in which the religion of the dominant fraction had been practiced, and the readoption of the way of life of an earlier period” (p. 363). by analogy, ortman uses this example to explain the absence of mesa verde material culture in the tewa basin after a.d. 1300, by suggesting that the mesa verde people would revert to the “old ways” of making materials as a way to distance themselves from their more recent past. smearing the exterior of corrugated pottery represents such distancing. the scope of ortman’s book is immense and reifies what a modern four field approach toward anthropological inquiry looks like. overall, questions are framed in the context of the most relevant bodies of literature needed to understand them, the importance of most questions are explicitly underscored, results are clearly discussed, and duplicitous results are usually highlighted. this book is a great example of a weight of evidence approach towards answering research questions. however, there are some inherent drawbacks to the large scope of this work. data quality is rarely addressed. some holes in data (i.e., craniometric data) are smoothed over, so as to fit them into more “robust” models. and the classic question of, “are we measuring what we think we are?” (kerlinger 1964) is never directly addressed. as the topics and questions of each chapter shift from biological, to linguistic, to cultural, the presence of discussions related to equifinality diminish. these criticisms aside, there is little doubt that the work ortman has done has furthered research in archaeology and historical anthropology. it has, without a doubt, set a precedent for future anthropological and archaeological research in the northern rio grande region. further, for the ethnobiologist, ortman’s work allows one to contemplate the utility of population movement in the face of severe environmental and societal crisis (sensu spielmann et al. 2011). references cited durham w. h. 1991. coevolution: genes, culture, and human diversity. stanford university press, stanford, ca. kerlinger f. 1964. the foundations of behavioral research. holt, new york, ny. spielmann, k. a., n. margaret, s. ingram, and m. a. peeples. 2011. mitigating environmental risk in the u.s. southwest. in sustainable lifeways: cultural persistence in an ever-changing environment, edited by n. f. miller, k. m. moore, and k. ryan, pp. 180211. university of pennsylvania press, philadelphia, pa. out of nature: why drugs from plants matter to the future of humanity 59 book review world and the drug discoveries that resulted from it. in elaborating on this phenomenon, rogers recounts many of the important expeditions of this era—from ancient egypt to the tradescants, sir joseph banks, and the early-twentieth century plant collecting ventures in the far east. unfortunately, this passion for discovering the wonders of nature waned, and with it the search for plant medicines. rogers then leaps back in time to the origins of medicine and reiterates the importance of a felt connection with nature to conservation of biodiversity. there is much useful information in this chapter, particularly about the history of botanical exploration, but it is not always evident exactly how the different threads of discussion are related to each other and to the concluding plea for awareness of nature. chapter 4 is a history of gardens and other natural places, such as natural parks, and the role they play in maintaining the human connection to the natural world and thus to preservation of biodiversity. visitors to botanical gardens and other natural areas cultivate an appreciation for nature that rogers believes is a key component of successful conservation on a global scale. the conclusion to this chapter introduces the topic of chapter 5, which is extinction. here rogers discusses a series of specific ongoing conservation problems, including the overharvesting of medicinal plants such as gingko and ginseng in china, the effects of deforestation on tropical ecosystems, and the disappearance of endemics from the island of st. helena. chapter 6 is about modern drug discovery and the contributions of plants to contemporary medicine. it presents many of the cases that are frequently discussed in textbooks, such as the extraction of anti-cancer compounds from the madagascar periwinkle. rogers’ thesis is that plants in this book, kara rogers makes an impassioned plea for a renewed awareness of ‘nature’ in the industrialized world. only by connecting with the living world will people develop the kind of deep appreciation for other living things that allows conservation efforts to succeed. rogers is particularly concerned about the erosion of biodiversity and traditional plant knowledge because of the key role they can play in medicine on a global scale. she builds her argument by carefully explaining the basics of botany and plantbased ethnomedicine and describing the debt owed to traditional plant knowledge by western medicine. rogers argues that there is an innate human propensity to connect with the natural world, illustrating this point with a brief history of european plant collecting. she goes on to detail the benefits of maintaining diversity in both wild and cultivated plant populations, and discusses the ethical and practical issues involved in biodiversity conservation and prospecting. rogers concludes by revisiting the importance of the innate human attraction to the natural world in fueling conservation efforts. the first chapter, on plants and medicine, discusses the replacement of natural phytochemicals with synthetic ones. large-scale commercialization has reduced drug diversity, whereas traditional medicine maintains the connections between humans and nature. in chapter 2, rogers elaborates on the theme of the interconnectedness of humans and the plant world and how it is reflected in early botany and herbalism. chapter 3 is something of a hodgepodge—it begins with a discussion of the concept of biophilia as an innate human desire to connect with nature. this desire emerges naturally from the broader network of interactions between species. biophilia drove early western exploration of the plant out of nature: why drugs from plants matter to the future of humanity kara rogers. 2012. the university of arizona press, tucson. pp. 216. $19.95 (paper). isbn 978-0-8165-2969-8. reviewed by kris gremillion reviewer address: 174 west 18th avenue, department of anthropology, 4034 smith laboratory, the ohio state university, columbus, oh 43210. gremillion.1@osu.edu received: april 4, 2013 volume: 4:59-60 published: june 24, 2013 © 2013 society of ethnobiology 60 book review remain an important source of healing substances even though many compounds can be synthesized in the laboratory, a fact that highlights the urgency of conservation measures. chapter 7 turns to the challenges and potential of collaboration between custodians of traditional botanical knowledge and those who seek to develop plant-derived natural products. bioprospecting efforts rely for their success on respectful collaboration with these knowledgeholders and active efforts to keep harvesting at a sustainable level. the final chapter considers plant conservation on a global scale, reiterating the importance of personal experience of nature on the part of the wider public. the book is rich in information and clearly written and well-researched, and rogers’ writing style is smooth and professional. she effectively communicates her plea for conservation and ethically informed drug development based on traditional botanical knowledge. rogers enlivens her descriptions of history, plant discovery, and policy with detailed examples—for example, the development of malaria drugs from wormwoods and the threat of overharvesting of ginseng. though necessarily selective, these narratives engage the reader and help to illustrate broader patterns. the book overall is logically organized, although some of the chapters (for example, chapter 3) are so rich in detail that it is hard to discern a unifying theme. for the advanced student and professional, rogers is preaching to the choir when it comes to the exhortation to promote conservation and respect nature. however, much of the information presented will be eye-opening for students in an introductory course in economic botany or ethnopharmacology. dedicated lay readers will also find the book highly informative. out of nature will enlighten many and should raise awareness of these important issues. still, it’s not the book itself but the author’s advice to get out and experience the natural world directly that is likely to arouse a passion for biodiversity conservation a look from the inside: microct analysis of burned bones ethnobiology letters. 2015. 6(2):258‐266. doi: 10.14237/ebl.6.2.2015.365. 258 research communication special issue on digital zooarchaeology x-ray computed microtomography (microct) scanning can also be used to evaluate changes in mammal bone microstructure from burned specimens, which is the focus of this study. burned bones and burned bone fragments can be abundant in archaeological sites and their presence can provide insight into preservation conditions and processing decisions (riedel and tecchiati 2005). the analysis of burned bones in archaeological samples can shed light on hominid evolution, and culinary as well as ritual traditions (berna et al. 2012; cain 2005; clark and ligouis 2010; mccutcheon 1992; steffen and mackie 2005; stiner et al. 1995). the effect of burning on bone shrinkage, crystallization, color, and surface alterations has been previously observed on modern and archaeological samples heated in ovens and campfires (bonucci and graziani 1975; nicholson 1993; shipman et al. 1984; stiner et al. 1995). histological analyses of burned bones have been carried out by hanson and cain (2007), but to our knowledge, a thorough three-dimensional (3d), introduction high resolution x-ray imaging is increasingly used in zooarchaeological research to better understand taphonomic processes that bones undergo during butchery and deposition in the archaeological record (bello et al. 2013; boschin et al. 2015; bradfield 2013; shackleford et al. 2013; tuniz et al. 2012). this approach is relatively new in archaeology and offers the opportunity to develop and improve analytical protocols for zooarchaeological research into bone microstructure. since the physical properties of mammal bone are related to age and adaptation to mechanical loads, characteristics of bone microstructure can be indicative of age-at-death and life history conditions (agarwal et al. 2004; barak et al. 2011; boschin et al. 2015; brickley et al. 1999; macho et al. 2005; tanck et al. 2001; shackleford et al. 2013). for instance, bone microstructure has the potential to yield inferences about domestic stock management or to differentiate domestic individuals from their wild ancestors (boschin et al. 2015; shackleford et al. 2013). a look from the inside: microct analysis of burned bones francesco boschin1*, clément zanolli2, federico bernardini2,3, francesco princivalle4, and claudio tuniz2,3 author addresses: 1dipartimento di scienze fisiche, della terra e dell'ambiente, ur preistoria e antropologia, università degli studi di siena, italy. 2multidisciplinary laboratory, the abdus salam international centre for theoretical physics, italy. 3centro fermi, museo storico della fisica, centro di studi e ricerche enrico fermi, italy. 4università degli studi di trieste, dipartimento di matematica e geoscienze, italy. *corresponding author: fboschin@hotmail.com received: march 5, 2015 volume: 6(2):258-266 published: december 18, 2015 © 2015 society of ethnobiology abstract: microct imaging is increasingly used in paleoanthropological and zooarchaeological research to analyse the internal microstructure of bone, replacing comparatively invasive and destructive methods. consequently the analytical potential of this relatively new 3d imaging technology can be enhanced by developing discipline specific protocols for archaeological analysis. here we examine how the microstructure of mammal bone changes after burning and explore if xray computed microtomography (microct) can be used to obtain reliable information from burned specimens. we subjected domestic pig, roe deer, and red fox bones to burning at different temperatures and for different periods using an oven and an open fire. we observed significant changes in the three-dimensional microstructure of trabecular bone, suggesting that biomechanical studies or other analyses (for instance, determination of age-at-death) can be compromised by burning. in addition, bone subjected to very high temperatures (600°c or more) became cracked, posing challenges for quantifying characteristics of bone microstructure. specimens burned at 600°c or greater temperatures, exhibit a characteristic criss cross cracking pattern concentrated in the cortical region of the epiphyses. this feature, which can be readily observed on the surface of whole bone, could help the identification of heavily burned specimens that are small fragments, where color and surface texture are altered by diagenesis or weathering. keywords: microct imaging, burned bones, taphonomy, zooarchaeology ethnobiology letters. 2015. 6(2):258‐266. doi: 10.14237/ebl.6.2.2015.365. 259 research communication special issue on digital zooarchaeology quantitative imaging study on the internal structural changes in bone induced by burning has not been performed. a preliminary magnetic resonance imaging (mri) analysis was carried out by thompson and chudek (2007) on a defleshed long bone of domestic sheep that had been exposed to different heating conditions. as the authors concluded, more in -depth studies are required to improve the contribution of this type of research to forensic anthropology and archaeology. the primary aim of the work presented here is to understand if burned bones can be studied by microct analyses to collect reliable data on microstructure. in addition, we aim to analyze internal features of bone to more reliably identify burned specimens. materials and methods we conducted burning experiments using two red fox talii (vulpes vulpes linnaeus canidae), one domestic pig talus (sus domesticus erxleben suidae) and two first phalanges of roe deer (capreolus capreolus linnaeus cervidae), at different temperatures in an oven and in an open fire (table 1). all bones were defleshed before burning. talus bones from each species were chosen as representative of ‘spongy’ bones, and phalanges were selected to understand heat-induced bone modifications in the diaphysis (shaft portion) of long bones. roe deer bones were collected in the field, and the pig specimen was analyzed a few days after butchering. the choice of these specimens was influenced by their availability. the fox bones (specimens 1 and 2) were analyzed in a previous study (boschin et al. 2015) and are part of the osteological reference collection of the university of siena (specimens 160 and 149, respectively). the red fox and roe deer specimens came from adult individuals, while the domestic pig talus came from a subadult (about 1 year old). fox bones appeared to have already lost their fat content, whilst roe deer and domestic pig specimens were still greasy before the burning experiments. the red fox and domestic pig bones were heated twice in an oven at the university of trieste (italy): the first time at 400°c and the second time at 600°c. the temperature was maintained for one hour and then the specimens were removed. the two roe deer phalanges were burned in an open fire over a clay-rich sediment. the open fire used about 5 kg of prunus domestica linnaeus rosaceae and vitis vinifera linnaeus vitaceae wood. hardwood pieces were of small diameter (less than 10 cm). the peak temperature of table 1. bone measurements (mm) after von den driesch (1976). specimen id taxon element combustion gl/gll/glpe bp bd measure 2* 1 vulpes vulpes talus not burned 18.7 8.1 oven – 400°c 18.5 7.1 oven – 600°c 18.5 7.1 2 vulpes vulpes talus not burned 19.5 7.8 oven – 400°c 19.5 7.3 oven – 600°c 19.5 7.0 3 sus domesticus talus not burned 59.7 39.0 oven – 400°c 59.7 37.4 oven – 600°c 59.0 37.1 4 capreolus capreolus phalanx 1 not burned 35.5 11.8 9.7 open fire – 900°c 31.6 9.7 7.4 5 capreolus capreolus phalanx 1 not burned 38.5 12.0 open fire – 900°c 8.8 *width of the trochlea at the apex of each condyle. ethnobiology letters. 2015. 6(2):258‐266. doi: 10.14237/ebl.6.2.2015.365. 260 research communication special issue on digital zooarchaeology about 900°c, measured with a thermocouple, was reached within a few minutes, similar to that as observed by other authors (stiner et al. 1995). this open fire was allowed to burn down naturally, and the coals were then allowed to smoulder through the night. burned bones were collected the following morning. each specimen was measured to the nearest 0.1 mm prior to and after burning (table 1), following von den driesch (1976) with the exception of the measure of the width of the trochlea at the apex of each condyle for the red fox talii. to evaluate internal micro-structural modifications, microct scans were carried out at the abdus salam international centre for theoretical physics of trieste (ictp) (tuniz et al. 2013) on each bone using the following parameters: voltage 110 kv; current 90 μa; 2400 projections. the virtual record of the specimens was reconstructed with an isometric voxel size ranging from 17.41 to 30.95 μm. microct imaging analyses were performed before and after heating sessions using a semiautomatic threshold-based image segmentation (coleman and colbert 2007) to separate bone tissue from the interstitial air entrapped between the trabeculae. rectangular cubes (hereafter termed ‘subvolumes’) of trabecular bone were extracted from all specimens to evaluate the structural changes that occurred to each bone after burning (figure 1). subvolume (or volume of interest, voi) extraction is a virtual biopsy technique currently used in microct bone analysis (lazenby et al. 2011). characteristics of the cancellous bone were analysed using the imaging software bonej (doube et al. 2010). the following parameters were calculated for each subvolume: the connectivity (number of trabeculae); the degree of anisotropy (directional stretching); a structural model index (hildebrand and rüegsegger 1997); the mean trabecular thickness in μm; the mean trabecular spacing in μm; the bone volume/total volume ratio (bv/tv), and the fraction of concave surface. these various parameters offer a variety of quantitative measures of the degree to which microstructural characteristics of bone changed when subjected to burning. since burned specimens were also affected by shrinkage, an additional subvolume was extracted figure 1. 3d renderings of bone elements subjected to micro ct analysis. hatched rectangles on the bone surfaces indicate the position of the subvolumes sampled and described in the text. represented bones are: specimen 1 red fox talus (on the left); specimen 3 pig talus (in the middle); specimen 4 – roe deer first phalanx (on the right). figure 2. subvolume extracted from the domestic pig talus showing the trabecular network. the large void in upper right of this image does not allow for a conventional measurement of mean trabecular spacing. nevertheless, this part of bone was chosen for the high reproducibility across measurement angles. ethnobiology letters. 2015. 6(2):258‐266. doi: 10.14237/ebl.6.2.2015.365. 261 research communication special issue on digital zooarchaeology from every bone prior to burning in order to provide a reference scale for comparison after burning (lazenby et al. 2011). mean trabecular spacing could not be quantified from the domestic pig talus, due to the peculiar shape of that portion of trabecular network (figure 2). micro ct analysis of the diaphyses of the roe deer phalanges were distinguished from the proximal and distal epiphyses, and the following parameters were measured: bone volume; volume of the voids within the diaphysis; and volume of the marrow cavity. microct scans were carried out the day after burning. in the case of the pig and the red fox talii, a few days passed between heating sessions. specimens are numbered from 1 to 5 in table 1. results all burned bones exhibited shrinkage in their absolute volume, though this was variable between species and with temperature (table 1). these results are consistent with previous observations (e.g., shipman et al. 1984) in which the degree of bone shrinkage was positively related to higher temperatures. the greatest shrinkage was observed for the roe deer phalanges (greatest length of the peripheral half glpe from 35.5 to 31.6 in specimen 4; greatest breadth of the proximal end bp from 11.8 to 9.7 and from 12.0 to 8.8). in addition, heat-induced shrinkage caused specimen 5 to fracture along the shaft, making it impossible to measure the bone’s length (glpe). specimen 4 does not show any macroscopic characteristics indicating marked shrinkage. the ratio of bone volume to total volume (bv/ tv) increases after burning in specimen 1 but decreases in specimen 4 and follows an ambiguous pattern in specimen 2. the bv/tv ratio was not recorded for specimens 3 and 5 due to the presence of visible cracks that compromised the analysis. (table 2). characteristics of bone microstructure show drastic changes after burning (tables 3 and 4). most of the measurable changes were in trabecular shape (from plate-like trabeculae to rod-like trabeculae or vice versa as indicated by the structure model index), thickness, and spacing. changes in the bv/tv ratio and anisotropy do not appear to be significant in some of extracted subvolumes (tables 3 and 4). the decrease of bone volume of the diaphysis of specimen 4 from 53.64 to 43.69% of the total volume is mirrored by an increase in the marrow cavity volume from 46.14 to 56.23%. likewise, the volume of voids within the compact bone of the diaphysis also decreases from 0.23 to 0.08% (numbers not in tables). at 600°c the cortical bone of all epiphyses in the study exhibits small, thin cracks that are sometimes criss-crossed (figure 3). a polyhedral patterning (pentagonal or hexagonal) is sometimes visible. virtual transversal cross-sections of specimen 4 show that greyscale values of the external part of compact bone of the diaphyseal shaft are higher than those of the internal part (220 vs. 137), thus indicating a higher density (figure 3b). this feature was not observed in specimen 5, which fractured after heating-induced deformation whereby both inner and outer shaft surfaces then burned with the same intensity. most of cracks of the diaphysis of specimen 4 appear to be perpendicular to the outer surface and do not reach table 2. bone volume/total volume (bv/tv) counted for the whole bones before and after the heating sessions. % of change of the parameter was calculated following the formula = (initial value/final value*100)-100. specimen id taxon element combustion bv/tv % of change 1 vulpes vulpes talus not burned 0.66 oven – 400°c 0.69 4.54 oven – 600°c 0.74 12.00 2 vulpes vulpes talus not burned 0.71 oven – 400°c 0.65 -8.45 oven – 600°c 0.71 0 4 capreolus capreolus phalanx 1 not burned 53.23 open fire – 900°c 48.28 -7.50 ethnobiology letters. 2015. 6(2):258‐266. doi: 10.14237/ebl.6.2.2015.365. 262 research communication special issue on digital zooarchaeology the less dense inner layer of bone. exfoliation is not observed in specimens 1, 2, 3 and 4. clear cracks parallel to the outer bone surface are visible only in specimen 5 and are related to diaphysis breakage and deformation. discussion this analysis indicates that bone microstructure starts to change significantly at about 400°c. these results are consistent with other studies reporting burninginduced bone shrinkage at lower temperatures, between 150 and 300°c (shipman et al. 1984). the improvements of this 3d imaging method indicate that the intensity of shrinkage does not occur consistently, but likely varies with shape, bone thickness, and degree of dehydration or other factors. for instance, specimen 4 underwent an overall reduction in length by 10.90%, but a reduction in proximal breadth of 17.80%. this anisotropic change affects bone internal structure by deforming the trabecular network and the cortical structure of the bone shaft (diaphysis). other alterations occurred in the cancellous bone of tarsal elements as well as epiphyses and diaphyseal portions of phalanges. in the cortical portion of tarsal bones the bv/tv ratio appears to change as a result of collapsing (and obstruction) of small porosities observed by an increase in the index value or because of the presence of micro cracks reflected in the diminution of the index value. the degree of dehydration induced by the heating processes appears to be followed by the loss table 3. parameters measured on the subvolumes of trabecular tissue. abbreviations: da: degree of anisotropy; c: connectivity; smi: skeletal model index; tb.th: mean of trabecular thickness; tb.sp.: mean of trabecular spacing; bv/tv: bone volume/total volume; fcs: fraction of concave surface. specimen id taxon element combustion da c smi tb. th. (µm) tb. sp. (µm) bv/tv fcs (%) 1 vulpes vulpes talus – vol 1 not burned 0.58 137.75 -0.04 233.95 380.10 0.52 0.53 oven – 400°c 0.62 402.88 1.29 201.78 272.99 0.50 0.37 oven – 600°c 0.53 286.80 0.76 198.13 289.35 0.51 0.42 talus – vol 2 not burned 0.78 449.00 0.57 229.42 340.91 0.48 0.48 oven – 400°c 0.79 173.00 0.85 215.54 324.87 0.48 0.45 oven – 600°c 0.80 149.10 0.42 231.38 311.29 0.51 0.48 2 vulpes vulpes talus – vol 1 not burned 0.33 736.80 1.85 193.71 420.34 0.36 0.31 oven – 400°c 0.59 289.00 1.45 173.93 367.35 0.40 0.34 oven – 600°c 0.59 182.00 0.44 214.84 355.86 0.48 0.47 talus – vol 2 not burned 0.70 226.50 0.61 226.11 300.15 0.50 0.48 oven – 400°c 0.80 184.20 1.01 205.44 354.64 0.44 0.43 oven – 600°c 0.80 165.30 0.30 231.20 334.97 0.50 0.50 3 sus domesticus talus not burned 0.89 748.62 0.66 330.42 0.15 0.43 oven – 400°c 0.87 989.00 2.27 257.50 0.11 0.22 oven – 600°c 0.87 830.00 1.78 277.62 0.13 0.28 4 capreolus capreolus phalanx 1 not burned 0.67 135.50 3.34 181.72 463.05 0.27 0.15 open fire – 900°c 0.68 98.10 3.20 131.30 384.43 0.27 0.10 5 capreolus capreolus phalanx 1 not burned 0.67 184.60 1.91 168.75 306.23 0.44 0.29 open fire – 900°c 0.62 169.00 1.91 154.55 208.06 0.57 0.29 ethnobiology letters. 2015. 6(2):258‐266. doi: 10.14237/ebl.6.2.2015.365. 263 research communication special issue on digital zooarchaeology of pore space in the compact bone of diaphyseal shafts. changes in bv/tv ratio of cancellous bone can be due to destruction and deformation of trabeculae similarly associated with bone shrinkage. the measure of connectivity may change due to trabecular destruction (corresponding to a diminution of the index), or it may be due to splitting or cracking (corresponding to a possible increase in index values). diminution in trabecular thickness could also be due to rapid bone dehydration, while diminution in trabecular spacing could be related to shrinkage. an increase in trabecular thickness in three of the red fox specimens examined after the second heating session is difficult to explain with these data. criss-crossed cracks of the cortical bone observed in this study (figure 3) confirm observations made by hanson and chain (2007) on burned bone thin sections. they indicate this feature as helpful in identifying high intensity burning, which is associated with white colour matrix (sometimes referred to as calcined bone) and structural disintegration. the higher density of such cracking observed in the outer part of the diaphysis of specimen 4 (figure 3b) could be related to the heat-induced recrystallisation of bone. conclusions in-depth studies of heat-induced changes to bone structure bear significant importance for archaeological and forensic research (bonucci and graziani 1975; cain 2005; clark and liguois 2010; hanson and cain 2007; steffen and mackie 2005; stiner et al. 1995; thompson 2004; thompson and chudek 2007). our preliminary data, though based on a small sample, demonstrate that burning affects bone microstructure, and this analysis provides a range of parameters, surpassing the analytical resolution of previous studies. since some authors have reported differences table 4. percentage change for parameters measured on the subvolumes of trabecular tissue. formula = (initial value/ final value*100)-100.2 specimen id taxon element combustion da c smi tb. th. tb. sp. bv/tv fcs 1 vulpes vulpes talus – vol 1 oven – 400°c 6.90 192.47 3683.33 13.75 28.18 -3.85 -29.79 oven – 600°c -8.62 108.20 2211.11 15.31 23.88 -1.54 -20.30 talus – vol 2 oven – 400°c 1.28 -61.47 49.12 -6.05 -4.70 -1.04 -6.25 oven – 600°c 2.56 -66.79 -26.49 0.85 -8.69 6.25 0 2 vulpes vulpes talus – vol 1 oven – 400°c 78.79 -60.78 -21.41 10.21 12.61 11.11 9.68 oven – 600°c 78.79 -75.3 -76.15 10.91 33.33 51.61 talus – vol 2 oven – 400°c 14.29 -18.68 65.57 -9.14 18.16 -12.00 -10.04 oven – 600°c 14.29 -27.02 -50.82 2.25 11.60 0 4.60 3 sus domesticus talus oven – 400°c -2.25 32.11 244.98 -26.67 -48.8 oven – 600°c -2.25 10.87 170.52 -13.33 -34.88 4 capreolus capreolus phalanx 1 open fire – 1.49 -27.6 -4.19 0 -33.33 5 capreolus capreolus phalanx 1 open fire – 900°c -7.46 -8.45 0 -8.41 32.06 29.55 0 ethnobiology letters. 2015. 6(2):258‐266. doi: 10.14237/ebl.6.2.2015.365. 264 research communication special issue on digital zooarchaeology between bones burned with the flesh still on and defleshed bones (binford 1963; whyte 2001), it has to be pointed out that our study involved only defleshed bones and our observations reflect this condition. we show that bone heating induces a deformation of trabecular shape and strong changes in the trabecular network. we also observe a decrease in trabecular thickness and spacing as well as a change in the number of trabeculae, although these trends are not clear and exceptions have been observed. this work highlights some important caveats for researchers to consider when working with burned bones. first, since trabecular structure is related to an animal's form of locomotion (barak et al. 2001), biomechanical studies involving burned bones need to consider how burning may contribute to the observed trabecular structure. trabecular parameters are also related to age-at-death (boschin et al. 2015) and heat-induced changes could lead to misinterpretations if the age-at-death is inferred from microscopic observations. the analysis of burned specimens belonging to different age classes would help to clarify if burned specimens can be analysed to obtain at least an approximate age-at-death. in addition, at higher temperatures (600°c or more) bone cracks can represent another problem for quantifying characteristics of bone microstructure. since patterns of cracking can be observed in the whole bone and characterised in three dimensions using micro-ct, further studies are needed to compare heat-induced cracks with those related to diagenesis and weathering. these non-destructive methods can lead to the identification of burned bones whose color and surface preservation were altered by other factors (hanson and cain 2007; nicholson 1993). finally, to better clarify how heat influences bone microstructure, a next step in our research will be to reproduce these results analysing a larger sample and controlling some parameters (anatomical element and bone conditions before burning) and to examine burned bones that still retain flesh as well as boiled bone, since the influence on 3d bone microstructural organization of such cooking methods that are often identified in archaeological contexts remains unknown. acknowledgements we are grateful to the editors of this special issue and to the two anonymous reviewers for editing and improving the original manuscript. declarations permissions: none declared. sources of funding: this research was supported by the ictp/elettra exact project (elemental x-ray analysis and computed tomography) funded by autonomous region friuli venezia giulia (italy). conflicts of interest: none declared. figure 3. cross-sections of burned specimens 1 (a), burned at 600°c, 4 (b), burned at 900°c, and 5 (c), burned at 900°c. thin cracks perpendicular to the outer surface are visible in the cortical region of specimens a and b (white arrows). cracks parallel to the outer surface, related to bone deformation, are visible in c. a change in greyscale values from the marrow cavity to the outer surface (indicating an increase in bone density) is visible in b. ethnobiology letters. 2015. 6(2):258‐266. doi: 10.14237/ebl.6.2.2015.365. 265 research communication special issue on digital zooarchaeology references cited agarwal, s. c., m. dimitriu, g. a. tomlinson, and m. d. grynpas. 2004. medieval trabecular bone architecture: the influence of age, sex, and lifestyle. american journal of physical anthropology 124:33-44. doi:10.1002/ajpa.10335. barak, m. m., d. e. lieberman and j.-j. hublin. 2011. a wolff in sheep’s clothing: trabecular bone adaptation in response to changes in joint loading orientation. bone 49:1141-1151. 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dimkaroski, l. mancini, and d. dreossi. 2012. did neanderthals play music? x-ray computed micro-tomography of the divje babe ‘flute’. archaeometry 54:581-590. doi: 10.1111/j.1475-4754.2011.00630.x. von den driesch, a. 1976. a guide to the measurements of animal bones from archaeological sites. peabody museum bulletins 1, peabody museum of archaeology and ethnology, harvard university, cambridge, ma. whyte, t. r. 2001. distinguishing remains of human cremations from burned animal bones. journal of field archaeology 28:437-448. biosketches francesco boschin is collaborating with the university of siena (italy) carrying out zooarchaeological research and taphonomic studies on pleistocene and holocene faunal assemblages in italy. in the last years he developed new applications of 3d microscopy and microct imaging on faunal remains. clément zanolli is carrying out several palaeoanthropological studies focusing his interest in the application of microct imaging in the analysis of primate skeletal remains. claudio tuniz is scientific consultant of the ictp (the “abdus salam” international centre for theoretical physics of trieste, italy) and the coordinator of the x-ray microanalysis for archaeology and palaeoanthropology project, at the ictp multidisciplinary laboratory. microsoft word shaw_young_final.docx         1    research communication   ethnobotany of tl’azt’en nation: plant use and gathering  site characteristics    leona r. shaw, jane p. young    author addresses:  ecosystem science and management program university of northern british columbia, 3333 university  way, prince george, bc v2n 4z9.  lshaw@unbc.ca     received: june 8, 2011                                                       volume 3:1‐12  published: march 7, 2012                                                     © 2012 society of ethnobiology    abstract: aboriginal people have  intimate and venerable  relationships with  the environment, and plants were and  still are  important for food, medicine, and cultural purposes.  the present research is a collaborative project between tl’azt’en nation  (located in northcentral british columbia, just north of fort st. james) and the university of northern british columbia (unbc).   the objectives of the study were to collect traditional ecological knowledge (tek) to gain an understanding of the criteria for  gathering individual plants for food or medicine use, and to understand why traditional plant gathering sites may fall out of  use.  multiple methods were used to gather information from knowledgeable tl’azt’enne community members including focus  groups,  interviews, and  field  trips.   community members possess deep understandings of plants and  their gathering  sites.   people’s  concerns  include  the  loss of tek and  changing  landscapes due  to  the effects of disturbances on  their  lands.   the  knowledge  gathered  and  documented  throughout  the  study  can  be  used  to  promote  the  preservation  of  the  culture  and  language of tl’azt’en nation.      key words:  traditional ecological knowledge (tek), ethnobotany, ethnobiology, tl’azt’en nation, plant gathering sites    introduction the dakelh, or carrier, people of northcentral british columbia (bc) see the forest as an integral part of their history and tradition, and several plants from the spruce forest are medicinally important to them (ritchkrc et al. 1996). sophie thomas, who passed away in march of 2010, was a beloved and renowned healer and elder of the sai’kuz first nation that is part of the dakelh located near vanderhoof. her knowledge of medicinal plants and medicines is part of a vast traditional knowledge about the environment and its people. sophie was always a keen observer of the natural world, and had seen changes in that world over her lifetime. she was concerned about the destruction of habitat and the accumulation of contaminants (young and hawley 2010). the present study further documents the ethnobotany of the dakelh people and the traditional ecological knowledge (tek) of tl’azt’en (shaw 2010). the objectives of this research are to gain an understanding of the criteria for gathering individual plants for food or medicine, and to identify reasons why traditional plant gathering sites may fall out of use. over the last several decades, the land and people of tl’azt’en nation have been considerably affected by industrial developments, such as the establishment of a mercury mine at pinche lake in the 1940s, the construction of a railroad line by pacific great eastern railway company in the 1970s, and the development of the forestry industry (morris and fondahl 2002). this study provides ethnobotanical data that can be incorporated into protection and measurement as strategies necessary for ensuring the continuation of plant gathering activities and conservation of sites. it was important to all involved in this research to document quotes by tl’azt’en community members (in addition to providing data in tabular form), in efforts to present their knowledge in its cultural context. methods this research was part of a larger communityuniversity research alliance (cura) project made up of team members from tl’azt’en nation and the university of northern british columbia (unbc) (fondahl et al. 2009). tl’azt’en (people by the edge of the bay) are athapaskan-speaking people (brown 2002). the name “carrier” was introduced through a european explorer, but in their own language, they         2    research communication refer to themselves as dakelh (we travel by water) (cstc 2007). they inhabit approximately 6500 km² of land in northcentral bc, about 65 km north of fort st. james (tl’azt’en nation 2009). tl’azt’en nation is now comprised of thirty-five reserves, ranging between 0.4 and 817 ha in size, that are scattered throughout their traditional territory (morris 1999). tache is the administrative centre and the most populated reserve (karjala 2001). most of their on-reserve population resides in the three main settlements of tache, binche, and dzitlainli (grainger, sherry and fondahl 2006). tl’azt’en nation is located in the northern part of the interior plateau region, bounded on the west by the coast mountains, on the north by the omineca mountains, and on the east by the rocky mountains (brown 2002). the region is dominated by the subboreal spruce (sbs) biogeoclimatic zone with some areas covered by mountain hemlock (mh) and engelmann spruce-subalpine fir (essf). upland coniferous forests dominate the sub-boreal landscape. the nechako-fraser basin is in the south and the finlay, parsnip and peace rivers in the north, with the watersheds of the nass and skeena rivers lying along the western edge. this region contains a number of large natural lakes (babine, stuart, and takla) and human-made reservoirs (cheslatta/murray and williston). the climate is continental with long, cold winters and short summers with relatively long, warm days. overall, the region has relatively low precipitation (brown 2002). before we began our study, the tl’azt’en nation’s band council resolution (bcr) and the unbc research ethics board (reb) agreed that our research was ethical. each of the research participants granted their written consent and approved of the research methods, recordings and publication of the results, in accordance with the procedures outlined in the ethics approval. in the initial phase of the study, shaw (the lead researcher) attended several community events and activities such as language and culture meetings, community day events, an elder’s retreat, and a children’s science camp. this allowed tl’azt’en nation community members to become familiar with her, and for her to gain some understanding of tl’azt’en nation culture. we held two meetings prior to interviews and asked community members what they thought the project goals, outcomes, and products should be; this ensured that the research would be beneficial and relevant for tl’azt’en nation. ten participants (6 women and 4 men) were selected for this study based on a systematic, peer-reference method (davis and wagner 2003). these participants chose thirty-two plants that they thought were important for food/medicine uses; this list was reduced to fifteen plants by the participants to make the project more manageable (supplementary table). before the interviews began, a detailed “survey” was prepared and acted as a template or type of questionnaire for shaw to use when interviewing the participants. questions were related to the uses of plants for food and medicine, information about the plant gathering sites, and any concerns participants may have about traditional plant use and their gathering sites. dakelh names were used first as a methodological consideration, as there may not be a one to one correspondence between scientific botanical taxa and indigenous plant taxa (johnson gottesfeld 1993). the survey questions were pre-tested before the interviews were conducted (halcomb et al. 2007). one-on-one interviews with each participant were held in tache or at the john prince research forest (jprf) office in fort st. james. shaw asked openended, informal interview questions in english following the surveys. the responses were given in either english or dakelh, whichever was more comfortable for the participant. a researcher, who was also fluent in dakelh, attended each of the interviews. during the interviews, participants were shown pictures of each of the plants; this was done to help trigger participants’ memories and to ensure that both the researcher and participants were referring to the same species (miranda et al. 2007). shaw held two field sessions during which she went out into tl’azt’en territory with participants and other interested community members. voucher specimens were collected for each plant and samples were gathered to distribute to community members who were unable to attend the field interviews. all focus group meetings and interviews were audio and video recorded. researchers discussed the recording devices at each event, and asked participants if they were comfortable with the recording methods. the audio recordings were used to create verbatim transcripts. as per tl’azt’en community norms, team members expected research events to be recorded for archival and educational purposes. during the interviews, the researchers filled out the “survey” by hand and additional notes were taken. the field sessions were not video-recorded, but shaw took field notes. all audio and video recordings, and hand-written notes, are         3    research communication figure  1.  an  important  medicinal  plant,  ludi  musjek  (ledum groenlandicum).    figure  2.  an  important  food  plant,  duje  (vaccinium  membranaceum).    presently archived with tl’azt’en nation and at unbc. shaw transcribed interviews manually with the assistance of a tl’azt’en research assistant. transcripts included contextual information such as pauses, interruptions (such as cell phones), and emotions (such as laughing, etc.). when dakelh was spoken, the dakelh words and english translations were included in the transcript (the research assistant spoke dakelh fluently and was capable of all translations). all transcripts were edited for accuracy by shaw or tl’azt’en research assistants before they were returned to each participant for verification. the participants either reviewed their written transcripts independently or orally with a research team member, and changes were incorporated. as with any community-based research project, it is important to create products that are culturally important and useful to the community. we produced a community booklet, a brochure, three community updates, posters, and herbarium specimens. some participants asked to remain anonymous, therefore, their names have been excluded from all products and deliverables, including this article. plants and their gathering sites all fifteen plants identified by tl’azt’en nation as being culturally important were considered to be important medicinally, for example, ludi musjek (ledum groenlandicum oeder ericaceae) (figure 1). ten of them were also considered important as food sources, for example, duje (vaccinium membranaceum douglas ex torr. ericaceae) (figure 2) (supplementary table). fourteen of the plants are currently being used in the community by at least one of the participants. the only plant which was not actively gathered during this study was chunach’ulh (black birch, latin name unknown). when shaw asked one participant, “what other plants were used for medicine?” the response was, “daja ts’iyawh yoo ‘unt’oh.” (“well, they are all medicine”) (anonymous). pierre john, one of the tla’zt’en participants, explains how plant medicines have been used in the past. one guy he fell off the cliff up on the mountain, he tried to hang on to the rock, but he started rolling with the rock down the mountain. he rolled right down to the bottom, broke every bone in his body. he had to use balsam (abies lasiocarpa (hook.) nutt. pinaceae) pitch and red willow (cornus stolonifera michx. cornaceae) for two weeks. they take the pitch out with spoon, and put it in his mouth and swallow it the way it is. they use the red willow as a poultice and over a hole with hot rocks. it took the man two weeks to heal; he used a cane to walk back to the river. pierre’s son, simon john, speaks about how plant medicines have helped his dad. when my dad (pierre john) just about died from ulcers in the 1960s, his brother louie, beverly’s dad, they got directions from their grandma to go get these medicines…the doctor said [dad] had no hope. they mix dats’an angut (juniperus communis l. cupressaceae), kinnikinnick (arctostaphylos uva-ursi l. spreng. ericaceae), red willow and ts’ootsun na too’ (a. lasiocarpa blisters). they gave it to him for a whole month and some after that, right ‘til today         4    research communication he is still living, he’s seventy-seven years old. they prove the doctor wrong by mixing these medicines, and one of it was dats’an angut. i think it does a lot to cleanse their blood and their system and probably stop the bleeding in the inner too, we wouldn’t know that…a lot has to do with that ts’ootsun na too’. a lot more of it should be studied i think. participants issac felix and theresa austin share their stories of medicinal use. i use it [ningwus] (shepherdia canadensis nutt. elaegnaceae) lots for medicine. i use it every day if i feel bad or something. i just eat soapberries, and right there i feel better. even if you get heartburn or something you would eat soapberries. (issac felix) a few years ago i made some dunih t’an (a. uva-ursi) for my friend, who was going through the change in life, or hot flashes, and she drank it maybe about a week, three times a day, about one cup, and it really helped. it stopped the hot flashes and cold sweats. (theresa austin) berries are one of the most significant food sources, which is consistent with other studies conducted in bc. they served as an essential winter food source (johnson gottesfeld 1993; lantz and turner 2003; turner 1995) and were also considered to be extremely important in trade and potlatch ceremonies (thornton 1999; turner 1995). berries are also important cultural indicator species for other traditional practices such as fishing for salmon according to tl’azt’en participant, paul williams. they say the more berry flowers you see in the bush then you know more salmon is going to come. but if you don’t see very many white flowers in the bush, like blackberries (amelanchier alnifolia (nutt.) nutt rosaceae) always got real lots of nice white flowers, you just get a few here and there, that means the salmon is not going to be that great of a run. but now-a-days, with the climate, everything is changing. several participants, including mary lebrun (quote below), state that most of the plants can be gathered all year round, but are best gathered in the spring (see also supplementary table). i think for most of the plants a good time is spring time. you can gather probably year round, most of the medicine is good year round. if a person really needs it they all go out in the bush and get some. bring a shovel and like if it’s a very sick person that really needs it, they’ll go out in the bush until they find it. when asked where plants were selected from, many tla’zt’en participants, spoke about the importance of their traditional territory. parlee et al. (2006) found similar results among the teetl’it gwich’in (who live in the northwest territories). there were extended family ownership developed around many berry patches, and community members stated that these areas can only be accessed if you are invited. simon john and theresa austin discuss this important rule. if you want the medicine to work, it should come from your traditional territory (keyoh). my father and grandfather always said, “if you want medicine to work, you have to believe in it, and the person that’s making it has to believe it’s going to help you”. and i strongly believe in that and it’s just like permission to go into another man’s keyoh (traditional territory), you know. they’re the ones that make the medicine and help you out; they know their area more than you do. (simon john) long ago when we used to go out, the last day of school usually or the first weekend after school is done, our family and my aunts and uncles with their families would go up to dzitl’ainli. because we used to just go to our keyoh to pick whatever grows in our territory. i have never gone onto another person’s traditional territory to pick berries, unless we had already asked them for permission (theresa austin). tl’azt’enne also believe that it is important to gather plants where they are the least disturbed. the trails leading to all our lakes behind the village are all logged out. we don’t go there anymore. we tend to stay away from where it’s been logged out. we go further away, if we have to, where it hasn’t been logged or sprayed or anything. (simon john) if you are picking for medicine it has to be away from people, where they don’t walk around or use the area. most of the medicines are supposed to be like that—away from where people walk around. a few miles out of town or something like that. (mary lebrun) they usually say just where the creek, where the creek’s running down on the hillside. and some they pick it up on the mountainside, where’s there’s nobody around, if you’re gonna heal with it. (helen johnnie)         5    research communication when asked what type of site characteristics tl’azt’enne select for when gathering food or medicine plants, broad areas of “open” and “forested” were mentioned (supplementary table). for example, ‘ut’ankal (rubus idaeus l. rosaceae) and latalba (achillea millefolium l. asteraceae) are gathered in open areas. dunih t’an (a. uva-ursi) is taken from forest floors. similar results were found in research with several dene nations who inhabit the canadian northwestern boreal forests in bc (johnson 2008). when talking about the various plants, participants would often mention the animals and were aware of the animals’ needs as well. ts’ootsun (a. lasiocarpa) is a food source for moose and k’us (alnus tenuifolia nutt. betulaceae) is food for moose, rabbit and deer (supplementary table). johnson (2008) found that when speaking about habitats that aboriginal people were greatly aware of the relationships of animals to plants and place. some dene described the significance of habitats to animals such as caribou, moose, rabbits and ptarmigan in that there were seasons of animal activity and particular plants were food sources for the animals. isaac felix speaks about his awareness of other plant users in the following quote. and it is not only us who are using it, it’s the bears too. every year there’s bears there, and they pick right beside us and they don’t bother us. especially grizzly bears, they don’t bother us, they just make funny noises but they don’t bother us. we just stay on our own side and they stay on their own side. participants often described the location of different plant species as “among [plant name].” for example, dats’an angut (j. communis) is found with dunih t’an (a. uva-ursi), and tsalhtse’ (viburnum edule (michx.) raf. caprifoliaceae) is found among t’ughus (populus tremuloides michx. salicaceae) (supplementary table). johnson (2008) found a common pattern occurring in more than one athapaskan language. for example, a kaska elder is aware of the association of berry species with other vegetation. the speaker places himself in the landscape by referring to a spruce forest as “among the trees” instead of using an abstracted classification that separates environment and speaker (johnson 2008). a common theme that arose during the interviews was related to respect for plants and their powers. even though no direct questions were asked about traditional rituals or prayers, the following statements were made by participants. everything that they [the elders] use to tell us is true. they tell us we have to be careful of what we’re going to say when we’re going out. tell us not to say anything to hurt the animals or to hurt the indian medicine what we going to make. just like a human being we talk to it: “we want you for medicine and to heal who we are going to make it for.” we just talk to them and not laugh about anything like that. (helen johnnie) before we gather our plants we have to make an offering and talk to it. give [the plant] an offering of tobacco or, if you don’t have tobacco, whatever you have that is handy. some elders say even a strand of your hair, you could use that to give to the plant as an offering of thanks for helping. “[i] believe that you are going to help me.” talk to the plant. we tell the plant, “we are going to use you for medicine,” and usually what we do is put tobacco on the east side of the plant. (theresa austin) first thing we got to do before they take [the plant], you got to say a little prayer. right at the bottom of it, they offer tobacco. that’s how you have to take it. can’t take it without praying, because people believe that, if you do not pray, it won’t help us. so that’s how we pick berries or anything like food. (anonymous) if i take [a plant] i put tobacco there to pay for it. just not to take the plants unless i have something to replace it with. (doreen austin) turner, ignace, and ignace (2000) state that it is the respect for all life forms more than any other single concept that distinguishes north american aboriginal belief systems. many believe that plants are entities having their own intrinsic power to help or heal, or to withhold help, therefore, attitude is important when gathering plants (johnson 2006). tl’azt’enne believe in similar values, as communicated by sophie monk. well, we like to respect all the plants and the little animals. respect all animals, even if they see a frog. them young kids, they go fool around with it. respect everything. then none of it will ever bother them. loss of plants and plant knowledge the traditional way for a tl’azt’enne to learn was through verbal stories and lessons from family, other community members, and elders out on the land. they believe that the only way to truly learn about tl’azt’enne traditional knowledge is to connect with the land, know the dakelh language, and practice the         6    research communication culture of tl’azt’en nation in the forms that were passed down through generations of ancestors. simon and pierre john reflect upon the importance of these connections. we need to reconnect ourselves and our people with the land. a lot of people forget about it and just don’t do it anymore. our elders don’t get around as much as they used to. it’s harder for them to go out and teach us, but there’s not enough young people willing to learn. if they don’t learn now it’s going to be forgotten. they need to get out there [on the land] and learn. (simon john) i don’t know what it is but i know people are going to suffer, certain way. bad time is coming. that’s what makes me feel bad. i’m not worrying about the people. i am worried about the kids. like me, i had my life. but the younger kids, what are they going to do? they don’t know how to set net, how to hunt, how to pick berries, and how to make indian medicine. (pierre john) sherry et al. (2005) said that the transmission of traditional knowledge and cultural values, restoration of the role of elders as teachers, increased observational/experiential learning opportunities, and respect for the oral tradition were all important to tl’azt’enne. decreased rates of skill and knowledge transmission seen in many aboriginal communities may be due to the fact that the traditional mode of education that involved learning by watching and apprenticeship is not fully operational in the present day, european educational system. in addition, social changes caused by sedentarization, schooling, and the introduction of television have caused changes in values among younger generations (ohmagari and berkes 1997). tl’azt’enne also expressed concerns for loss of traditional knowledge. they fear that fewer people are spending time in their keyoh and less time learning from the elders, which are points simon john conveys in the following statements. before it’s too late we really need to get all these younger people to reconnect with the land and reconnect with the elders. half of it is doing research and the damage that has been done in our area. the new plants that are coming, what kind of effect do they have on ours? we don’t know that as a nation because it’s new to us. logging is new to us. europeans are new to us. a lot of this stuff our people are getting sick on, we don’t know about. it’s only by trial and error that they know how to deal with certain things like ulcers and that. they overcome things like that. and another big one is arthritis. that’s why they learn how to use devil’s club (oplopanax horridus (sm.) miq. araliaceae). it’s a learning process even for me and some of our elders. a lot of it has to do with alcoholism, you know. a lot of the damage was done to their stomach and they turn a lot of their attention to how to help their innards. there’s no answer to it, not in the near future anyway. we need to learn from the elders as fast as we can so we wouldn’t lose touch with the land. we will never get it back. an example of lost traditional ecological knowledge can be directly seen in this project with chunach’ulh (black birch) (supplementary table). the participants selected this plant as one of the most important medicine plants to focus this study on. it is known to be a powerful medicine, but not many people currently use it. most participants recalled stories of the use of chunach’ulh and the strong medicinal properties it possesses, but did not actually use it themselves. this was because most of participants could not positively identify the plant in the field or from pictures and those that could were no longer able to go into the field. even though the remaining fourteen plants are currently being used in the community, tl’azt’enne stressed their concern that the knowledge about them is being lost. another concern among tl’azt’enne is that landscapes are changing in their traditional territory. this is due to disturbances such as logging, but the effect this may have on the plants and gathering sites is unknown. karjala and dewhurst (2002) found that tl’azt’en members perceive that forest management practices over numerous past decades have had significant impacts on the forest ecosystem; these concerns include cleanliness of drinking water and moose meat, and negative effects of clear-cut areas. mary lebrun expresses her worry over use of plants near the mercury mine at pinche lake: especially if the mining is going to come, you have to fence everything off. look at that pinche mine they had long time ago, the mercury mine. you can’t make medicine anywhere near there. it is still going to affect us because the streams are coming from there. look at pinche mine, all the streams they go down to the lake and look at all the people that are dying of cancer.         7    research communication “the new plants that are coming, what kind of effect do they have on ours?” this concern of simon john is not uncommon as some invading species negatively affect human health and wealth directly, while others influence the structure and functioning of ecosystems and the maintenance or restoration of native biological diversity (vitousek et al. 1997). although there were no documented invasive species affecting the chosen fifteen plants and their gathering sites, tl’azt’enne are aware that invasive species exist in the area and that these species can seriously impact their traditional territory’s biodiversity. participants also expressed concern about the effects of climate change on their lands and plants. indigenous populations of canada are often more vulnerable to climate change because of their close relationships with the environment (furgal and sequin 2006). as mentioned earlier, the industrial development affecting traditional tl’azt’en territory includes the establishment of a mercury mine, the construction of a railroad line, and the development of the forestry industry (morris and fondahl 2002). most medicinal plants, as well as animals, have restricted habitats, usually confined to geographic sites like seasides, riversides, highlands and forest zones. alteration of local ecosystems due to human activities has resulted in severe constraints on the availability and accessibility of plant and animal species used for medicinal purposes (anyinam 1995). according to the testimony of many elders who have witnessed tremendous change in bc landscapes over their lifetimes, most of these species are not as productive or as common as they once were (austin et al. 2008). recommendations for protection of traditionally important plants and their gathering sites knowledgeable tl’azt’enne who use plants for food and medicine do not seem to have many specific sites where plants must be gathered, as long as they are available in tl’azt’en territory in an undisturbed area away from people. however, some plants are gathered in preferred areas, for example, dats’an angut (j. communis) on rock bluffs or hillsides at higher elevations in the mountains and ningwus (s. canadensis) in open areas in valleys or near water (supplementary table). this site information will give guidance to foresters when deciding upon best management practices, or more importantly, can provide tl’azt’en nation with a set of directives for licensees that operate in their territory so that tl’azt’enne values are protected. the fifteen culturally important plants identified by the tl’azt’enne could be incorporated into landscapelevel or site-level criteria for tl’azt’en criteria and indicators (c&i), and then be measured using indicators of health, abundance, and habitat. tl’azt’en c&i may be used for evaluation of existing or future management practices in order to develop management scenarios and for incorporation of alternative perspectives (sherry et al. 2005). the fifteen plants can be used as values in community-based environmental monitoring studies (cbem) in an effort to maintain biodiversity in tl’azt’en nation’s traditional territory. whatever the formula, forest management activities should be planned and implemented so as to protect or enhance sites of ecological, cultural, and social significance to tl’azt’en nation. tek of tl’azt’en nation documented in this study, including plant use data and concerns of loss of plants and gathering sites, will be invaluable in environmental decision making and creating policy. many challenges lay ahead for the incorporation of tek in management decisions (e.g. houde, 2007), but the inclusion of this knowledge and wisdom will undoubtedly aid in understanding environmental issues facing the world today. conclusions identifying and recognizing the fifteen plants described in this study as important to tl’azt’en nation people. the knowledge of plant gathering criteria will lead to better appreciation of ecological systems, and aid in the preservation of culture, language, and biodiversity. tl’azt’enne plant gatherers have many concerns about plants, gathering sites, and traditional knowledge about them. it is important to note that, although tl’azt’enne community members are concerned about the loss of tek, they realize that the tek system it is adaptable, as are other knowledge systems. by having tek recorded in “non-traditional” methods, such as in research projects like this, they are controlling the future and the preservation of their knowledge. finally, it is crucial to undertake further studies, like the present one, to help preserve and perpetuate tek of the dakelh people. acknowledgements we would like to acknowledge all of the tl’azt’en community members whose knowledge and patience contributed to this paper. snalchailya (thank you) to the elders, community members, and project assistants who shared their time, energy and support throughout this project. in particular, we would like to thank doreen austin, theresa austin, isaac felix, pierre john, simon john, helen johnnie, mary lebrun, sophie monk, paul williams, and those participants         8    research communication who wish to remain anonymous. we are also grateful to beverly john for her guidance and support throughout the project, and to beverly bird and alex pierre who assisted in the initial design of the research. we would also like to thank the social sciences and humanities research council of canada (sshrc) for generously funding this research and the unbc faculty and staff for their support and resources. tl’azt’en nation was invited to review this article as per tl’azt’en guidelines for conduction of research in tl’azt’en territory. references cited anyinam, c. 1995. ecology and ethnomedicine: exploring links between current environmental crisis and indigenous medical practices. social science medicine 40:321-329. austin, m. a., d. a. buffet, d. j. nicolson, g. g. e. scudder and v. stevens, eds. 2008. taking nature’s pulse: the status of biodiversity in british columbia. biodiversity bc, victoria, bc. brown, d. 2002. carrier sekani self-government in context: land and resources. western geography 12:2167. cstc (carrier sekani tribal council). 2007. a cstc background. available at: http://www.cstc.bc.ca/cstc/7/about+cstc. accessed on january 15, 2012. davis, a. and j. r. wagner. 2003. who knows? on the importance of identifying “experts” when researching local ecological knowledge. human ecology 31:463488. fondahl, g., p. wright, d. yim, e. sherry, b. leon, w. bulmer, s. grainger and j. young. 2009. co-managing research: building and sustaining a first nationuniversity partnership. the community development institute at unbc. prince george, bc, canada. furgal, c. and j. seguin. 2006. climate change, health, and the vulnerability in canadian northern aboriginal communities. environmental health perspectives 114:19641970. grainger, s., e. sherry and g. fondahl. 2006. the john prince research forest: evolution of a comanagement partnership in northern british columbia. the forestry chronicle 86:1-12. halcomb, e. j., l. gholizadeh, m. digiacomo, j. phillips and p. m. davidson. 2007. literature review: considerations in undertaking focus group research with culturally and linguistically diverse groups. journal of clinical nursing 16:1000-1011. houde, n. 2007. the six faces of traditional ecological knowledge: challenges and opportunities for canadian co-management arrangements. ecology and society 12:34. johnson, l. m. 2006. gitksan medicinal plants cultural choice and efficacy. journal of ethnobiology and ethnomedicine 2:29. doi:10.1186/1746-4269-2-29. johnson, l. m. 2008. plants and habitats – a consideration of dene ethnoecology in northwestern canada. botany 86:146-156. johnson gottesfeld, l. m. 1993. plants, land and people, a study of wet’suwet’en ethnobotany, master’s thesis, department of anthropology, university of alberta, edmonton, ab, canada. karjala, m. k. 2001. integrating aboriginal values into strategic-level forest planning on the john prince research forest, central interior, british columbia, unpublished master’s thesis, department of natural resources and environmental studies, university of northern british columbia, prince george, bc, canada. karjala, m. k. and s. m. dewhurst. 2002. including aboriginal issues in forest planning: a case study in central interior british columbia, canada. landscape and urban planning 64:1-17. lantz, t. c. and n. j. turner. 2003. traditional phenological knowledge of aboriginal peoples in british columbia. journal of ethnobiology 23:263-286. miranda, t. m., m. c. amorozo, j. s. govone and d. m. miranda. 2007. the influence of visual stimuli in ethnobotanical data collection using the listing task method. field methods 9:76-86. morris, p. k. 1999. negotiating the production of space in tl’azt’en territory, 1969-1984. unpublished master’s thesis, department of geography, university of northern british columbia, prince george, bc, canada. morris, p. and g. fondahl. 2002. negotiating the production of space in tl’azt’en territory, northern british columbia. the canadian geographer 46:108-125. ohmagari, k. and f. berkes. 1997. transmission of indigenous knowledge and bush skills among the western james bay cree women of subarctic canada. human ecology 5:197-222.         9    research communication parlee, b. f. berkes and teetl’it gwich’in renewal resource council. 2006. indigenous knowledge of ecological variability and commons management: a case study on berry harvesting from northern canada. human ecology 34:515-528. ritch-krc, e. m, s. thomas, n. j. turner and g. n. h. towers. 1996. carrier herbal medicine: traditional and contemporary plant use. journal of ethnopharmacology 52:85-94. shaw, l. r. 2010. the ecology of food and medicine plants and their gathering sites as defined by tl’azt’en nation. unpublished master’s thesis, department of natural resources and environmental studies, university of northern british columbia, prince george, bc, canada. sherry, e., r. halseth, g. fondahl, m. karjala and b. leon. 2005. local-level criteria and indicators: an aboriginal perspective on sustainable forest management. forestry 78:1-27. thornton, t. f. 1999. tleikw aani, the “berried” landscape: the structure of tlinglit edible fruit resources at glacier bay, alaska. journal of ethnobiology 19:27-48. tl’azt’en nation. 2009. about us. available at: http://www.tlc.baremetal.com/about%20us.htm. accessed on january 15, 2012. turner, n. j. 1995. food plants of coastal first peoples. royal british columbia museum, vancouver, bc. turner, n. j., m. b. ignace, and r. ignace. 2000. traditional ecological knowledge and wisdom of aboriginal peoples in british columbia. ecological applications 10:1275-1287. vitousek, p. m., c. m. d’antonio, l. l. loope, m. reimanek and r. westbrooks. 1997. introduced species: a significant component of human-caused global change. new zealand journal of ecology 21:1-16. young, j. and a. hawley. 2010. plants and medicines of sophie thomas. based on the traditional knowledge of sophie thomas, sai’kuz elder and healer. 3rd ed. available at: http://sophiethomas.org/. accessed on january 15, 2012. biosketches leona  r. shaw  has  a masters  of natural  resources  and  environmental  studies  degree.   her  studies  focused  on  ethnobotany and traditional ecological knowledge.  jane p. young  is an assistant professor  in  the ecosystem  science  and management  program  at  the  university  of  northern british columbia.  10    plant uses/parts used plant characteristics site characteristics time of year notes ts’ootsun abies lasiocarpa (hook.) nutt. (pinaceae) balsam, subalpine fir food – sap eaten as an energizer medicine – sap/pitch used to treat lung ailments, colds, and as an antibiotic; bark boiled and used to treat lung ailments (coughs and tuberculosis) and itchy throats; branch tips (buds) used to treat pneumonia; needles used to heal sores or burned to freshen the air and prevent colds small to medium sized younger trees with red bumps/blisters preferred (easy to peel); older trees with smooth bark are also selected preference to gather at higher elevations (where smaller trees found) or closer to water spring is best (bark peels more easily), but can gather all year round food source for animals, such as moose dats’an angut juniperus communis l. (cupressaceae) juniper food – female cones (bluish berries) used as a spice, similar to clove medicine – whole branch boiled and used to treat stomach ailments, coughs, ulcers, tuberculosis, bronchitis, lung disease, and chest infections most effective when branches and berries are used together; branches should be green, and red and brown branches should be avoided gathered on rock bluffs or hillsides at higher elevations in the mountains; often found with dunih t’an (kinnikinnick) spring is best for branches and fall for berries, but can be gathered all year round k’entsi cornus stolonifera michx. (cornaceae) red willow, redoiser dogwood medicine – whole branch boiled and used as a pain killer, aspirin, hair wash, to treat burns, open sores and cuts, arthritis, tuberculosis and chest infections; however, outer red bark peeling is most commonly used; branches can be placed over hot rocks to assist in healing broken bones; buds used to treat arthritis smaller plants with red bark are preferred for medicine and are the most effective; the “cleaner” branches with the least limbs are also used; plants with old brown branches are avoided best to gather on sunny hillsides near creeks spring is best, but can be gathered all year round tsalhtse’ viburnum edule (michx.) raf. (caprifoliaceae) cranberry food – berries eaten raw and made into jam medicine – berries or branches used to treat stomach ailments, kidney infections, and the flu; berries used to treat constipation and clean out your stomach and kidneys best to gather branches when berries are present gathered along shores in lower elevations; often found among t’ughus (poplar) best to gather branches in spring and berries in late summer ningwus shepherdia canadensis (l.) nutt. (elaegnaceae) soapberry food – berries eaten raw, dried, or made into indian ice cream; berries are a good source of vitamin c medicine – berries eaten to treat heart conditions, heartburn, diarrhea, constipation, stomach ailments (such as ulcers and cancer), and to cleanse the blood and kidneys; berries can be put best to gather plants with red ripe berries; older branches should be avoided gathered in open areas in valleys or near water; often gathered among forests that have mix of pine and poplar best to gather berries in summer or late summer; best to gather branches in spring, but can be gathered all year round table 1: plants of tl’azt’en nation: plant use and gathering site characteristics. 11    into eyes to treat cataracts ludi musjek ledum groenlandicum oeder (ericaceae) labrador tea food – leaves boiled to make tea medicine – leaves boiled and used as a relaxant or sleeping aid and to treat high blood pressure and angina (chest pains) plants that have large, green, fresh leaves are preferred gathered in swampy, mossy area at lower elevations best to gather in spring when plants are flowering, but can be gathered all year round ‘ut’ankal rubus idaeus l. (rosaceae) raspberry food – berries eaten raw and made into jam medicine – whole branch (including the leaves) boiled and used to treat diarrhea, stomach ailments, ulcers, the flu and to prevent hemorrhaging after child birth younger ‘fresher’ looking plants are preferred gathered in open areas best to gather the berries in summer; branches can be gathered all year round hoolhghulh oplopanax horridus (sm.) miq. (araliaceae) devil’s club medicine – outer bark or roots used as a pain killer and to heal broken bones; roots ground and used as a muscle rub please note: hoolhghulh is for external use only and should not be left on a person for too long younger plants are preferred, as the older ones are too ‘woody’ gathered in cooler, damp areas of ridges that are close to water best to gather in spring, but can gather in summer or fall as well dunih t’an arctostaphylos uvaursi (l.) spreng. (ericaceae) kinnikinnick food – berries eaten raw medicine – whole branch boiled and is good for the lungs and to clean out your system, and can treat colds, tuberculosis, stomach bleeding and the flu; whole branch with the roots boiled and used to treat menopausal symptoms (the change in life), such as hot flashes and cold sweats green branches with ripe berries are preferred; plant is most potent with berries, but can be used without them gathered in rocky area on forest floor or on mountain or hillsides; often gathered with dats’an angut (juniper) best to gather in summer when the berries are ripe, but can be gathered in spring and fall as well latalba achillea millefolium l. (asteraceae) yarrow medicine – whole plant boiled and used as a diuretic, to treat a sore throat, stomach ailments, and arthritis; plant can be rubbed directly onto the skin as a bug repellant plants with white flowers are selected and brownish ones are avoided; any plant that turns brown when boiled is removed from the pot gathered in any open area best to gather in summer when flowers are white k’us alnus tenuifolia nutt. (betulaceae) alder medicine – bark ground into a powder and used for stomach ailments; inner bark boiled and used to treat ulcers; all of bark boiled and used to treat sores, asthma, and chest colds; bark also chewed to treat the flu younger, medium-sized plants with catkins are preferred gathered in any open area best to gather in spring when bark is easier to peel, but can be gathered all year round food source for wildlife such as moose, rabbit, and deer chundoo pinus contorta douglas ex loudon food – pitch (chun ts’a’) eaten; black tree lichens found on chundoo are edible as well medicine – pitch used to treat burns and younger small or mediumsized trees are preferred gathered anywhere best to gather pitch in spring and bark in spring or summer severely damaged by the mountain pine beetle infestation 12      (pinaceae) jack pine, lodgepole pine sores and a pain killer and cold rub; bark and buds boiled and used for stomach ailments or as an antibiotic t’ughus populus tremuloides michx. (salicaceae) poplar, trembling aspen food – sap eaten medicine – bark chewed and applied to open wounds to stop bleeding; bark also boiled and used to treat pinworms, eczema, and ulcers young, smaller trees are preferred best to gather in lower elevations, as bark tends to be too dry in higher elevations best to gather in spring or summer, but can be gathered all year round food source for beavers duje vaccinium membranaceum douglas ex torr. (ericaceae) huckleberry food – berries eaten raw and made into jams and jellies; berries also boiled with water and used as a syrup for pancakes, ice cream or cake medicine – berries eaten as an energizer or used to clean out your system plants with green leaves and newer growth are preferred as berries tend to grow bigger on these best to gather in open areas on hillsides in higher elevations best to gathered in summer when berries are ripe food source for wildlife such a rabbit, deer, elk, and bear chunach’ulh (latin name unknown) black birch medicine – bark boiled and used to treat pneumonia; bark also chewed raw to relieve chest pains or to treat colds unknown unknown unknown unable to find it in the field and positively identify it; not many people presently use it; very difficult to find and not many people can positively identify it paleobiolinguistics of new world crops and the otomanguean language family ethnobiology letters. 2015. 6(1):189-191. doi: 10.14237/ebl.6.1.2015.436. 189 perspective question the great antiquity of words for chili pepper, manioc, and maize in new world languages. vocabulary reconstructed for pom is not based on demonstrated sound correspondences holding between words of daughter languages of the proposed family. for over two-hundred years, recognition of regularly corresponding sounds has been the bedrock of the comparative method of historical linguistics. words similar in sound and meaning from matched languages are shown to be descended from a common ancestor when comparisons are supported by regular sound correspondences. both rensch (1976) and kaufman (1990) reconstruct words for pom, but these are not supported by regular sound correspondences and, consequently, their reconstructions as well as om itself are seriously called into question.3 despite this, most mainline historical linguists accept om as a valid language family. as far as i know, i am the only student of american historical linguistics who now questions om’s demonstration. more than one factor may contribute to the broad, categorical confidence in om genetic unity. i suspect most historical linguists simply have not looked at the supporting evidence very closely. another factor may be the publication of lyle campbell’s book in 1997 entitled american indian languages: the historical linguistics of native america. in this influential work, campbell presents a detailed internal classification of my colleagues and i have published a series of papers in ethnobiology letters dealing with the paleobiolinguistics of new world crops, including treatments of chili pepper, manioc, maize, and the common bean (respectively, brown et al. 2013a, b, 2014a, b). in these works, we cite reconstructions of words for crops in proto-languages (ancestral to modern language families). one of these is protootomanguean (pom) whose offspring languages are spoken in central mexico in eight different subfamilies. the date at which pom was last spoken is 6591 bp1, making it the second oldest proto-language of the americas (after proto-macro-ge of south america dated to 7266 bp) among approximately 130 ancestral languages surveyed by us. from sources treating the historical linguistics of the otomanguean language family (kaufman 1990; rensch 1976) we determine that words for chili pepper, manioc, and maize reconstruct to pom, while a term for the common bean does not.2 i would now characterize our analysis of otomanguean (om) paleobiolinguistics as tentative. i have had a growing concern that om is not a demonstrated genetic group, that it should more appropriately be treated as a proposal for empirical investigation rather than as a proven language family. the possible failure of this proposal would bring into paleobiolinguistics of new world crops and the otomanguean language family cecil h. brown1,2 author address: 11700 scenic highway, #601, pensacola, fl, 32503‐6634, usa. 2department of anthropology, northern illinois university, dekalb, il 60115, usa. email: brown.cecil@yahoo.com received: june 26, 2015 volume: 6(1):189-191 published: september 24, 2015 © 2015 society of ethnobiology abstract: several studies recently published in ethnobiology letters treat respectively the paleobiolinguistics of chili pepper, manioc, maize, and the common bean in new world language families. this includes the otomanguean family of mexico, one of the oldest language groups of the hemisphere, whose parent language may have been spoken at the latest around 6500 years ago. this communication addresses the possibility that otomanguean paleobiolinguistics should be considered tentative since languages of the grouping are not yet conclusively demonstrated to be descended from a common ancestor. this challenges the proposal that words for chili pepper, manioc, and maize were in vocabularies of languages spoken two thousand or more years before development of a village-farming way of life in the new world. keywords: crop origins, historical linguistics, native americans, otomanguean, paleobiolinguistics mailto:brown.cecil@yahoo.com ethnobiology letters. 2015. 6(1):189-191. doi: 10.14237/ebl.6.1.2015.436. 190 perspective om without mention of the fact that the family has not been demonstrated through use of the standard comparative method. campbell was and still is regarded widely as conservative in his acceptance of proposed language families, so that his unqualified embracement of om as a genetic group carries considerable weight. om subfamilies show fetching similarity including resemblances involving grammar as well as vocabulary. some scholars point to grammatical similarities as support for genetic affinity. contemporary om languages are all spoken in a more-or-less contiguous region of central mexico. this geographic proximity enhances the possibility that many if not all om resemblances, including grammatical ones, are due to language contact and linguistic-trait diffusion taking place over millennia. indeed, a reasonable case could be made that om languages constitute a sprachbund (language diffusion area) rather than a genetic group. om may eventually be shown to be a valid language family. but, at present, this has not been demonstrated through strict implementation of the comparative method of historical linguistics. until it is, we should be careful in drawing conclusions based on the assumption of om genetic unity, including those of our paleobiolinguistic papers, i.e., that words for chili pepper, manioc, and maize were part of the vocabulary of a language spoken as long ago as the early mid-holocene, some two thousand years or more before development of a village-farming way of life in the new world. declarations permissions: none declared. sources of funding: none declared. conflicts of interest: none declared. references cited bartholomew, d. a. 1965. the reconstruction of otopamean (mexico). unpublished doctoral dissertation, department of linguistics, university of chicago, chicago, il. brown, c. h., c. r. clement, p. epps, e. luedeling and s. wichmann. 2013a. the paleobiolinguistics of domesticated chili pepper (capsicum spp.). ethnobiology letters 4:1-11. doi: 10.14237/ebl.4.2013.2. brown, c. h., c. r. clement, p. epps, e. luedeling and s. wichmann. 2013b. the paleobiolinguistics of domesticated manioc (manihot esculenta). ethnobiology letters 4:61-70. doi: 10.14237/ebl.4.2013.5. brown, c. h., c. r. clement, p. epps, e. luedeling and s. wichmann. 2014a. the paleobiolinguistics of domesticated maize (zea mays l.). ethnobiology letters 5:52-64. doi: 10.14237/ebl.5.2014.130. brown, c. h., c. r. clement, p. epps, e. luedeling and s. wichmann. 2014b. the paleobiolinguistics of the common bean (phaseolus vulgaris l.). ethnobiology letters 5:104-115. doi: 10.14237/ebl.5.2014.203. brown, c. h., e. luedeling, s. wichmann and p. epps. 2013. the paleobiolinguistics of domesticated squash (cucurbita spp.). in explorations in ethnobiology: the legacy of amadeo rea, edited by m. quinlan and d. lepofsky, pp. 132-161. society of ethnobiology, denton, tx. brown, c. h., s. wichmann and d. beck. 2014. chitimacha: a mesoamerican language in the lower mississippi valley. international journal of american linguistics 80:425-474. campbell, lyle. 1997. american indian languages: the historical linguistics of native america. oxford university press, ny. gudschinsky, s. c. 1959. proto-popotecan: a comparative study of popolocan and mixtecan. indiana university publication, bloomington, in. kaufman, terrence. s. 1990. early otomanguean homeland and cultures: some premature hypotheses. university of pittsburgh working papers in linguistics 1:91-136. nichols, johanna. 2010. proving dene-yeniseian genealogical relatedness. in the dene-yeniseian connection, edited by j. kari and a. potter, pp. 299309. university of alaska, fairbanks, ak. rensch, calvin. r. 1976. comparative otomanguean phonology. indiana university publications, bloomington, in. biosketch cecil h. brown is a linguistic anthropologist with interests in ethnobiology, historical linguistics, and native american languages. notes 1bp = before present. 2 in another publication venue, brown, luedeling, wichmann, and epps (2013), using the approach of ethnobiology letters. 2015. 6(1):189-191. doi: 10.14237/ebl.6.1.2015.436. 191 perspective paleobiolinguistics, propose that a word for squash reconstructs to pom. 3 only two studies known to me have used the standard method of historical linguistics for comparing words of subfamilies of om (gudschinsky 1959, and bartolomew 1965). these investigations have yet to be systematically evaluated. i am currently doing so through approaches developed by brown, wichmann, and beck (2014), and by nichols (2010) focusing on the extent to which observed similarities for compared languages could be due to chance. traditional knowledge as a basis for the development of a sustainable resource management program: a case study in a rural village in morelos, mexico hernández-tapia et al. 2018. ethnobiology letters 9(2):1–11 1 research communications tal and strategic information for designing and running these programs (garibaldi and turner 2004; ramires et al. 2012). accordingly, the involvement of local residents decreases the uncertainty around the success and effectiveness of these programs (kellert et al. 2000; ramires et al. 2012; vandebroek et al. 2011). with this in mind, we used an ethnobiological approach to document and analyze the traditional knowledge of a peasant community in the mexican state of morelos, their perceptions and feelings towards the plant and animal species with which they interact, and the way the latter influence their introduction the biological knowledge of the local inhabitants of protected areas should be taken into account as central elements in the development of government programs aimed at the conservation and sustainable management of these areas (ortega-argueta et al. 2016; weber et al. 2006). in support of this, there is growing evidence that the success of environmental programs and sustainable resource management projects greatly benefits from the active participation of local inhabitants (haenn 1999; ortega-argueta et al. 2016; ramires et al. 2012; weber et al. 2006). moreover, local inhabitants possess key environmentraditional knowledge as a basis for the development of a sustainable resource management program: a case study in a rural village in morelos, mexico rubén hernández-tapia1, teresa valverde2, abel aranda1, concepción martínez-peralta1, and diana platas-neri1* 1school of superior studies of jicarero, autonomous university of the state of morelos, jojutla, morelos, mexico. 2department of ecology and natural resources, faculty of science, national autonomous university of mexico, mexico city, mexico. *diana.platas@uaem.mx abstract we analyzed the traditional knowledge and management of local wild fauna and flora among the inhabitants of the peasant community of chimalacatlán, together with their perception of local environments, to identify potential species for the future development of a sustainable resource management program. initial contact with the community was established through an ethnographic survey to identify those with the most knowledge on this topic. residents were selected for inclusion in the interviews using chain referral sampling. forty-eight people were interviewed and asked about the species they were familiar with, as well as their methods of fostering/managing some of them. in this context, people cited 83 plant and 44 animal species. the preferred animals for the development of a resource management program were odocoileus virginianus (white-tailed deer) and ctenosaura pectinata (mexican spiny-tailed iguana); while the preferred plants were amphipterygium adstringens (cuachalalate) and bursera linanoe (linaloe). for the residents of this community, fauna and flora have constituted an important resource, since various species are used as food, medicinal remedies, firewood, ornaments, and pets. some species are illegally hunted and/or marketed as a means of subsistence. this study confirms the value of local residents’ knowledge in improving the management of environmental units, as well as the need to strengthen collaboration between decision-makers in development programs and the community. received january 12, 2017 open access accepted november 27, 2017 doi 10.14237/ebl.9.2.2018.870 keywords community programs, ethnobiology, environmental perception, sustainable resource management, traditional knowledge copyright © 2018 by the author(s); licensee society of ethnobiology. this is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution-noncommercial 4.0 international public license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0), which permits non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. supplementary files available at ojs.ethnobiology.org/index.php/ebl/rt/suppfiles/870 hernández-tapia et al. 2018. ethnobiology letters 9(2):1–11 2 research communications decisions on natural resource acquisition and management (bohensky and maru 2011; bohensky et al. 2013; marques 2001). we aimed to identify potential plant and animal species that could be the focus for the future development of sustainable resource management programs. the state of morelos, located in southwestern mexico, is a highly biodiverse area with an extremely elevated deforestation rate. it is estimated that by 1990, 60% of the original vegetation cover had been lost (trejo and dirzo 2000). as a result, 123 plant and animal species from this state have been listed as threatened (conabio and uaem 2006). the major driving force of this transformation process throughout mexico, has been land-use change towards agriculture, farming, and urban growth (ceama-conabio 2003). in response to this general trend towards biodiversity loss, the mexican government has created public policies that encourage the diversification of resource management systems in rural areas (conabio 2012; rubio-becerra 2012). these initiatives include ongoing regional programs aimed at wildlife management. these are referred to as 'management units for the conservation and sustainable use of wildlife' (in spanish, 'unidades de manejo para la conservación y aprovechamiento sustentable de la vida silvestre', spanish acronym: abbreviated as 'uma') (robles-de benito 2009; semarnat 2015). all too often, however, the establishment of an uma is the result of government decisions and actions that seldom take into account the views and choices of the local people (ortegaargueta et al. 2016; weber et al. 2006). consequently, these units often fail to respond to the actual needs and preferences of local communities and thus they eventually fall into disuse, resulting in a regrettable waste of money, effort, and time (ortega-argueta et al. 2016; weber et al. 2006). our study community is located within the boundaries of the sierra de huautla biosphere reserve, designated as such in 1999 and recognized by unesco through the man and biosphere program (conanp 2005). this designation was achieved with the participation of a local university: the autonomous university of morelos state (uaem) and the authorities (durand and vázquez 2011; lópez -medellin et al. 2017). however, protected areas are established in complex social scenarios, and although they contemplate social participation as a fundamental element, communities often have very little knowledge about the purposes and activities of the reserves, and limited involvement in their management (brandon et al. 1998; durand 2010; durand and vázquez 2011). it is therefore of paramount importance to make an effort to secure the active participation of local residents in launching any sustainable resource management project in the area. people must be taken into account for any resource management project to be sustainable, since they are the main executors of the action on which the project is based (berkes 2009; durand and vázquez 2011; robles-de benito 2009). this study represents a step in that direction for an uma project in the state of morelos. methodology study site this study was conducted in the community of chimalacatlán, in the south-central portion of the figure 1 the study site, the village of chimalacatlán, is in south-central mexico, south of morelos state. hernández-tapia et al. 2018. ethnobiology letters 9(2):1–11 3 research communications mexican state of morelos at an altitude of 1,130 masl (inegi 2015) (geographic coordinates: 18o 27’ 48.0’’ n; 99o 05’ 30.6’’ w; figure 1). the climate is warm and subhumid with a summer rainy season (awo"(w) (i')g, sensu garcía 1981; conanp 2005). annual precipitation is approximately 900 mm, while the mean annual temperature is approximately 22.6 oc. chimalacatlán is located within the sierra de huautla biosphere reserve (conanp 2005), mainly covered with seasonally dry tropical forest with a high diversity of vascular flora (conanp 2005). the plant families fabaceae lindl., poaceae barnhart, asteraceae bercht. and j. presl and burseraceae kunth are the best represented, and some of the dominant tree species in the region include conzattia multiflora (b. l. rob.) stanld., lysiloma acapulcensis (kunth), l. divaricatum (jacq.) j. f. macbr., bursera sp. jacq. ex l., and ceiba sp. mill. (conanp 2005). in disturbed areas, a secondary forest dominated by thorny legumes (e.g., acacia farnesiana (l.) willd., a. bilimekii j.f. macbr., a. cochliacantha humb. and bonpl. ex willd., a. pennatula (schltdl. & cham.) benth., pithecellobium acatlense benth. and mimosa polyantha benth.) (pérez-jiménez et al. 1992) has regrown. faunistic records list eight fish species, 11 amphibians, 52 reptiles, 220 birds, and 66 mammals (conanp 2005). at least 40 vertebrate species (excluding fishes) are considered threatened (ceamish 1993). chimalacatlán, belonging to the municipality of tlaquiltenango, is among the poorest communities in morelos (at least 25% of its population live in extreme poverty, and educational facilities are limited) (inegi 2015). there is some degree of communal land management, in which an assembly oversees several administrative matters. ethnographic survey initial contact with community members was established through informal visits to local residents’ homes to explain the purpose of the research and to identify those with the best knowledge of the local flora and fauna, and resource management. residents were selected to be interviewed using chain referral sampling (also called snowball sampling [biernacki and waldorf 1981; heckathorn 2002]). in keeping with this system, sampling began by interviewing the householder, i.e., the person ‘in charge’ of a household in the sense that s/he is the main provider and the key decision maker. we began with the householders, since, according to the community, they are the main possessors of ethnobiological knowledge given their livelihood as farmers and therefore their contact with nature. after the interviews had been completed, respondents suggested other individuals who could be interviewed based on the criteria of being local community residents. the village of chimalacatlán is composed of 384 local inhabitants distributed among 96 households. a semi-structured interview was applied to 48 householders, 46 men and two women. sample size was determined using the method explained by spiegel and stephens (2005). interviews were applied between october and december 2015 and covered the following topics: general information, socio-economic aspects, sociocultural aspects, and perception of the importance of animal and plant species as potential management targets (for the complete interview, see appendix 1). data analysis the results of the interviews were concentrated in a database from which general statistics were obtained. in addition, a correlation table was obtained between all possible pairs of continuous variables from the socio-economic and socio-cultural sections to identify significant associations between various features of the community (spearman rank order correlation – square matrix). in relation to respondents’ perception of the importance of local flora and fauna, a list of all the species mentioned was drawn up, including their common names (by which local people refer to them, either in spanish, náhuatl, or in some cases, a combination of both) and their scientific names. we verified the correspondence between common and scientific names using the descriptions people gave of the different plants and animals and corroborated their identity using published lists of local flora and fauna (ceamish 1993; conanp 2005). the most renowned species were identified (i.e., those that were mentioned by at least 30% of respondents) and generalized linear models (glm) were run between each of them (as a categorical variable: mentioned vs. not mentioned) and the continuous variables comprising the socio-economic and socio-cultural profiles (e.g., age, educational attainment, number of children, number of household members). this allowed us to evaluate which aspects of these profiles were significantly related to people’s choice of particular animal and plant species during hernández-tapia et al. 2018. ethnobiology letters 9(2):1–11 4 research communications the interviews. statistical tests were conducted using statistica 8 (statsoft.com). results ethnographic survey the average age of the sample was 50 years old, with ages ranging from 23 to 83 (table 1). all of them were ‘mestizos’ (i.e., of mixed indigenous and european descent). educational attainment varied widely; 67.0% of respondents had completed elementary school, and 43.7% had finished middle school. seven people (14.6%) had no children, while 33.0% had five or more. the vast majority were roman catholics (92.0%; appendix 2). most households were composed of the nuclear family only, though some of them also included members of the extended family, or the spouses of one or two of their children. as they become adults, most men who stay in the village eventually marry, settle down and make a living as farmers (in agriculture and / or cattle farming). in relation to how decisions are made in the household, most people reported that they alone made the decisions (60.4%), although some stated that both they and their spouse decided together. a high proportion (48.0%) considered themselves to have a very good or a reasonably good knowledge of the environment (x = 3.4, 1 < x < 5), while 54.0% of them expressed great or very great interest in the establishment of an uma in chimalacaltán (with an average of 3.5, on a scale of 1 to 5) (table 1). correlations between ethnographic variables results from the spearman rank order correlation show that educational attainment negatively correlates with age: younger people tend to have higher education (table 2). moreover, older people tend to have more children than younger people, and the number of children negatively correlates with educational attainment: more highly educated people have fewer children than people with lower educational attainment. predictably, people who have more children live in households with a higher number of members, and higher educational attainment is associated with more crowded table 1 general statistics obtained from respondents on their socio-economic and socio-cultural aspects. age (yr) educational attainmenta no. of children no. of people in household no. making decisions environmental knowledgeb interest in umac means 49.96 7.04 3.29 3.67 1.37 3.37 3.46 sd (2.19) (0.41) (0.33) (0.25) (0.07) (0.12) (0.11) range 23–83 1–12 0–8 1–9 1–2 1–5 1–5 ain terms of the number of school years finished. elementary school consists of six years; middle school is three years; and high school is three years. brefers to a self-evaluation with figures ranging from one (low) to five (high). crefers to a self-evaluation with figures ranging from one (low) to five (high). for a detailed description of variables, see appendix 1. table 2 general statistics obtained from respondents on their socio-economic and socio-cultural aspects. figures are spearman rank r coefficients, which vary between 1 and -1, with values approaching 0 when there is no correlation between variables. significant correlations (p < 0.05) are marked in bold. educational attainment no. of children household members no. of decision makers knowledge of environment interest in uma age (years) -0.651 0.546 -0.127 -0.268 -0.246 -0.076 educational attainment -0.434 0.299 0.298 0.229 0.023 no. of children 0.292 -0.108 -0.239 -0.018 household members 0.306 0.156 0.19 no. of decision makers -0.199 0.207 knowledge of environment 0.449 hernández-tapia et al. 2018. ethnobiology letters 9(2):1–11 5 research communications households (table 2). it is interesting that householders with lower educational attainment often state that they alone make the decisions at home, while householders with higher educational attainment more often declare that decisions at home also involve others. lastly, people that consider themselves more knowledgeable about the environment tend to have greater interest in the establishment of an uma (table 2). perception of the community situation the main challenges perceived by respondents in chimalacatlán are of economic origin (85.4%); only 2.1% considered that environmental problems are the main challenge facing their community (appendix 2). however, when asked about the near future (i.e. in 20 years’ time), a much higher number of people (32.0%) identified environmental issues as a potential cause for concern. species loss (40.0%) and climate change (33.0%) were the most frequently mentioned environmental problems (appendix 2). the main environmental degradation factors mentioned were pollution (37.5%), deforestation (25.0%), and illegal hunting and fishing (29.2%). yet when asked about figure 2 number of times each plant species was mentioned during the interviews (frequency). column shade refers to the main use of each species; when several uses were recognized, the relevant column is marked with + and the initials of the secondary use (me = medicinal, or = ornamental). species are named according to their genus in latin (see appendix 3), and the first letters of the common name are shown in parenthesis (see appendix 3). hernández-tapia et al. 2018. ethnobiology letters 9(2):1–11 6 research communications the latter, only 18.7% of respondents admitted to having direct acquaintance with poachers, whose main aim is either commercial gain or home consumption; a much higher proportion (47.9%) were aware of people who harvest plant species and commercialize them one way or another. relationship with the local flora and fauna respondents mentioned a total of 83 plant species and 44 animal species, which they considered important (appendix 2 and appendix 3). most of them are native to the area, although a few correspond to exotic species (i.e. introduced), valued mainly because of their ornamental or medicinal uses (e.g. eucalyptus sp. l’hér., aloe vera (l.) burm. f.). of the 83 plant species mentioned, 26 (31.3%) were named by five people or less (fig. 2), and only 10 species (12.0%) were named by at least 15 people (i.e., 30.0% of respondents). the latter group will be referred to, from now onwards, as the renowned species, popular either because they are edible (5 species), or have medicinal uses (5 species) (figure 2). of the 44 animal species people named, fewer than half (18 species, 41.0%) were mentioned by five or less people (fig. 3). twelve species (27.2%) belonged to the category of renowned species (named by at least 30.0% of respondents). the reason for this is that most of them are edible (8 species) and/or medicinal (8 species) (figure 3). figure 3 number of times each animal species was mentioned during the interviews (frequency). column shade refers to the main use of each species; when several uses were recognized, the relevant column is marked with + and the initials of the secondary use (pt = pet, me = medicinal). the & symbol indicates unwanted species. species are named according to their genus in latin, the first letters of the common name are shown in parentheses (see appendix 3). hernández-tapia et al. 2018. ethnobiology letters 9(2):1–11 7 research communications the number of renowned animal species mentioned by respondents directly correlated with their level of environmental knowledge, and interest in the establishment of an uma (table 3). however, the number of renowned plants mentioned was mainly associated with the number of renowned animals. however, other factors also had some association with this variable: people with a greater interest in the establishment of an uma, as well as those with higher educational attainment tended to name a larger number of renowned plant species (table 3); and interestingly, older people tended to name a smaller number of renowned species than younger people (table 3). discussion the aim of our study was to assess the knowledge the chimalacatlán people have of their local fauna and flora, as well as evaluate their perceptions and customs regarding natural resource acquisition and management, to identify potential animal and plant species for the establishment of an uma. previous studies had clearly established the need for social participation as a key element of these projects, and recognized the value of ethnobiological knowledge, the incorporation of community needs, and the provision for shared responsibilities between government and community (berkes 2009; garibaldi and turner 2004; ortega-argueta et al. 2016). in our study, chimalacatlán residents acknowledged the importance of 83 plant and 44 animal species, most of which are native to the area. we correlated this information with cultural and economic aspects to gain insight into how these variables could impact the potential establishment of an uma. the ethnographic approach has allowed us to deepen our understanding of the ethnobiological aspects that are crucial to supporting efficient resource management measures in such a way that local inhabitants can understand and accept them. ethnographic survey compared to national demographic records, the sample population is a relatively mature (in terms of average age and population structure) and welleducated group of people (table 1). this does not reflect the general situation of chimalacatlán, as respondents were chosen on the basis of the likelihood that they would be able offer valuable insights into the potential establishment of an uma. the fact that younger people had higher educational attainment than older people (table 2) may reflect a developing society with increasing access to education. these demographic trends may promote greater participation by youth within the community, as they may become active agents of social change (durkheim 1968; oehmichen 2000). the average number of children per family among respondents (3.3) was much higher than the national average (2.2), as one would expect for a rural area in mexico. however, average household size (3.7) was slightly lower than the national mean (3.9). the fact that nearly 40% of householders decide together with their spouses is quite unusual for a rural community in mexico, since men are traditionally the main providers and decision makers (galeski 1977). however, morelos’ rural societies are rapidly changing partly as a result of migration. together with higher educational achievement and greater concern about the environment, we are seeing a shift in gender issues (saldaña-fernández et al. 2007; sánchez-saldaña 2008). table 3 correlation table between the different continuous variables comprising the socio -economic and socio-cultural profiles (as in table 2), and number of renowned * animal and plant species mentioned in the interview. figures are spearman rank r coefficients (details as in table 2). significant correlations (p < 0.05) are marked in bold. correlations with significance levels of 0.07&, 0.09+ and 0.10# are also noted. *renowned animal and plant species are defined here as those mentioned by at least 30% of the population sample. no. of renowned * animals mentioned no. of renowned * plants mentioned age (years) -0.107 -0.275& educational attainment 0.162 0.243# no. of children -0.059 -0.102 household members 0.165 -0.009 no. of decision-makers 0.069 0.201 knowledge of environment 0.404 0.128 interest in uma 0.336 0.251+ no. of renowned * animals mentioned 0.566 hernández-tapia et al. 2018. ethnobiology letters 9(2):1–11 8 research communications as in many rural mexican villages, in chimalacatlán, most women are housewives, while children and youth go to school and help out with household chores and farming jobs. many of them eventually emigrate to big cities or to the united states (especially men), in search of better education or job opportunities. migration from rural to urban areas creates complex dynamics, such as the fragmentation of community life and a change in priorities, since survival and adaptation to new situations become central concerns (giménez 1994; lópez-medellin et al. 2017; medina 1996; robson and berkes 2011; saldaña-fernández et al. 2007). as mentioned earlier, most of the men who stay in the village eventually marry, settle down, and make a living as farmers. these people interact intensively with the local wildlife since, in addition to farming activities, they harvest other resources for direct consumption or to supplement the household economy (such as fishing, hunting, fruit picking, firewood collection and so on). they also often become involved in decision making in relation to politics and resource management in the community. we observed that agricultural land plots are socio -cultural units around which many aspects of community life are organized, such as the agricultural cycle and associated customs and rituals, which consolidate the relationship between local inhabitants and their environment. traditionally, these agricultural units have also affected the gender division of labor, family relations, and economic and political principles in the community (medina 1995, 1996). perception about the community’s situation as shown by our results, people perceive that the most important challenges in chimalacatlán are economic whereas environmental problems are not really a major concern (only 4.0% of respondents identified environmental degradation as the main challenge facing the community). the reason for this may be that environmental changes occur slowly and people are not necessarily aware of or worried about them. moreover, people’s immediate concerns revolve around everyday needs such food and shelter. however, a high proportion of respondents mentioned that environmental challenges are likely to be a key concern in the near future. for instance, although some people mentioned that they notice dams are emptier and that the rainy season is shorter than a few years ago; since they still manage to make a living, they tend to frame these worries in the future tense. our results showed that in chimalacatlán, 85.0% of respondents regarded economic problems as the main challenge facing the community. indeed, public policies have aggravated economic tension in rural areas. for instance, government support for economic development in these regions has decreased dramatically over the past few decades, while access to direct natural resource management has gradually been restricted (calva 2001; fox and haight 2010; guzmán-gómez and león-lópez 2014). accordingly, we consider that the establishment of an efficient, community-managed uma could generate cooperative processes, reactivate local production and thus satisfy local needs for both social network building and economic stability. a community managed model, despite its potential for social conflict, could generate economic gain and assistance in natural resource management (lópez-medellin et al. 2017). we are aware this is a major area of discussion in both academic and social contexts. in this article, we limit our considerations on this issue to the local situation of the chimalacatlán community. relationship with the local flora and fauna the plant species we recorded are used as food, medicine, ornamental, or firewood (their use as building material and fodder were not mentioned). the fact that people harvest edible plants for direct consumption is a sign of a resilient food system that contributes to the stability of the community in social and cultural terms. medicinal plants are part of traditional therapeutics, which has empirical, ritual and religious elements. people allow these plants to grow freely on their agricultural plots, home gardens, and adjacent lands; or else know where to find them in the wild. this denotes a systematic observation of the environment and a transmission of knowledge from generation to generation. the concept of wild fauna refers to nondomesticated animals with which people interact either directly or indirectly in their natural environment. in chimalacatlán, many wild animals are important resources that function mainly as food complements, but also as remedies. however, there is a widely-held perception that overexploitation may result in species loss. our results showed that 29.0% of respondents thought that illegal hunting and fishing were key factors in environmental degradation. this is hernández-tapia et al. 2018. ethnobiology letters 9(2):1–11 9 research communications an issue that warrants further analysis in future studies. relevance in terms of resource use and the potential establishment of a uma according to the perception of local residents, a uma community project could enhance social and economic development in chimalacatlán by expanding people’s opportunities for participation and indirectly generating jobs (lópez-medellin et al. 2017). in principle, it is thought that emphasizing residents’ participation has the potential to benefit wildlife conservation and sustainable resource management (durand and vázquez 2011; lópezmedellin et al. 2017). accordingly, our study shows the value of traditional knowledge in the potential establishment and management of umas. a promising investment, according to local residents’ preferences and traditional use, would be an uma focused on the captive breeding and commercialization of the mexican spiny tailed iguana (ctenosaura pectinate wiegmann), together with the cultivation of certain wild plants such as amphipterygium adstringens (schltdl.) standl. (cuachalalate), haematoxylum brasiletto h. karst. (brazil wood) and bursera linanoe (la llave) rzed., calderón and medina (bursera). comanagement systems (such as coordinated civil projects) would seem to be the most appropriate means of strengthening the interplay between conservation and sustainability (berkes 2009; biskupovic 2015). acknowledgements this study was funded through a studentship to rht and support to publish in open access. we would like to thank mr. nagapriya wright for his helpful comments on the manuscript. we are also grateful to the tapia family for their hospitality and support during the fieldwork. we are indebted to those who were so generous with their time and agreed to be interviewed over the course of the research. declarations permissions: none declared. sources of funding: none declared. conflicts of interest: none declared. references cited biskupovic, c. 2015. from rural haven to civil political project: utopian ideals and environmental protection in the precordillera, santiago, chile. journal of 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wildlife management units in southeastern mexico. wildlife society bulletin 34:1480–1488. doi:10.2193/0091-7648(2006)34 [1480:ttotcw]2.0.co;2. explorations in ethnobiology: the legacy of amadeo rea   book review  ethnobiology le ers. 2014. 5: 126‐128. doi: 10.14237/ebl.5.2014.286. 126 community that is important to their personal and professional growth. johnson and kingsley provide an overview of rea’s career. a couple of important points about rea are that he began his professional career as a franciscan friar and proved to be a highly effective biology teacher at a reservation high school. this experience led rea into the study of ornithology within a nonwestern cultural context, which launched his scholarly career and helped establish the discipline of ethnobiology. my early memories of rea come from our time as budding ornithologists in the 1970s, where amadeo presented his innovative idea that comparative behavior could be used to establish taxonomic relationships, providing evidence that vultures and storks were closely related. this concept may have come from his work with indigenous peoples, who classify storks as a form of vulture. several chapters deal with rea’s legacy as an ornithologist, including chapter 9 by kay fowler about the ethnoornithology of one band of northern paiute, chapter 10 by jan timbrook and john johnson concerning the avian knowledge of the chumash, and chapter 12 by carothers, house, and johnson on endangered species and habitat destruction. other chapters deal with rea’s influence on ethnobotany in the southwestern us and northern mexico. chapter 5 by hodgson discusses the precolumbian introduction of domestic agave. in chapter 6 brown et al. discuss paleobiolinguistics and domesticated squash. only one chapter deals specifically with archaeology: charmion mccusick’s chapter 11 on the ecological conclusions that can be drawn based upon evidence from ruins in the upland salado between the explorations in ethnobiology: the legacy of amadeo rea (eie) begins with a short article by rea setting the tone by pointing out how western attempts at economic development often destroy both local diversity and long-term management schemes developed by indigenous peoples, a theme repeated in several chapters. another key theme is evident in rea’s statement: “…we westerners are saturated from birth to death with the values of consumerism and progress through advanced technology, so much so that it is almost impossible for us to conceive of anyone thinking differently” (p., 6), which reinforces the point that western approaches should not be automatically privileged over those of peoples who have lived in their places, interacting with their fellow species for centuries, if not millennia. similar themes are established in chapter 3, ten principles of ethnobiology, in which lepofsky interviews rea. rea says, for example, “many cultures specify appropriate ways of interacting with their biological worlds that are, in turn embedded in more general rules about the right way to live. understanding the complexity of peoples’ relationships with their biological worlds, and how these relationships are expressed within specific cultures, are fundamental goals of ethnobiological research” (p. 41). these principles deal with the interdisciplinary, cross-cultural, mutually respectful nature of top flight ethnobiological research. the relationships that indigenous peoples have with their landscapes and of careful listening are discussed along with the necessity of keeping in mind potential applied aspects of such research. for example, scholars can find themselves testifying before courts or legislatures as experts on the cultures of people of which they are still outsiders. if this is done effectively, they can give back to the explora ons in ethnobiology: the legacy of amadeo rea marsha quinlan and dana lepofsky, eds. 2013. society of ethnobiology, denton, tx. pp. 310, color illustra ons,  maps, tables. $56.95 (paperback). isbn 978‐0988733008.  reviewed by raymond piero reviewer address: ecology and evolu onary biology, university of kansas, lawrence, ks 66045‐2106.   piero @ku.edu  received:  august 11, 2014  volume: 5:126‐128  published: november 13, 2014  © 2014 society of ethnobiology   book review  ethnobiology le ers. 2014. 5: 126‐128. doi: 10.14237/ebl.5.2014.286. 127 salt and gila rivers near globe, arizona. this paper feels somewhat disconnected from the other papers, which seem to be divided between ethnographic studies and philosophical or theoretical arguments. one area for which rea, nabhan, hunn, anderson, fowler, and many scholars in this volume should be congratulated is in their ready acceptance of statements by indigenous peoples as solid forms of evidence, which can contribute to scientific understanding. too often statements, or accounts, by indigenous people are relegated to what anderson describes as “hot cognition,” which is set in opposition to the “cool cognition” of the scientific method. a somewhat benign form of this attitude is the description of indigenous people as being “mystical,” hence not in touch with reality. another, more noxious form, is description of indigenous accounts of experienced relationships between different species, including humans, as “fairy tales” or “myths.” archaeological findings and ethnographic accounts seem to function best when they compliment one another. the advantages of archaeological data are revealed in chapter 10 by timbrook and johnson in their evaluation of harrington’s ethnological data on the chumash people of the south central california coast. accounts recorded by harrington, which rely primarily on the memories of a few elders, seem to omit some crucial groups, e.g., alcids (murres and auklets), from the account of important avian food sources, whereas the archaeological data included in this paper reveal the importance of this group, at least to island chumash populations. there are a series of insightful essays on more general topics by gene anderson (chapter 4), gary nabhan (chapter 7), gene hunn (chapter 8), and an elegant closing (chapter 13) by nancy turner and several first nations collaborators. one theme emerging from several essays is how important indigenous people are to local ecology and how they have profound observational knowledge of the organisms that share the places where they coexist. this theme is well presented in anderson’s what shapes cognition? traditional sciences and modern international science. anderson argues cogently that different perceptions that emerge from specific cultural traditions represent different but equivalent ways of seeing and comprehending interactions between species and other natural phenomena because knowledge, including western scientific knowledge, is socially constructed. the manner in which anderson develops this argument involves an examination of aspects of knowledge that seem either “natural” or “supernatural” and that western science tries to limit itself to the former, which restricts its usefulness in some ways because it cannot address issues that are not easily quantifiable; e.g., are nonhumans capable of emotional responses or do they have cultural traditions. hunn’s essay, “dog” as a life form, addresses important issues concerning systematics. few biological ethnobiologists address theoretical issues, such as the correct approach to phylogenetic analysis. hunn points out that most humans elevate the concept of ‘dog’ to a status that might be more properly associated with a taxonomic genus or family, because the way in which we parse the diversity within this “life-form.” folk taxonomy runs counter to contemporary dnabased canid phylogeny, in which ‘dog’ has become a sort of orphaned but aggregate grouping with no proper scientific name, considered to be a domestic form of wolf, the wild ancestor of all “dogs.” confusion generated by dna-based interpretations has caused numerous local governments to pass unenforceable, problematic laws, because of difficulties in in dealing with ‘dogs’ who are close to their wolf ancestors, as opposed to most ‘recognized breeds’ which are clearly domestic animals. other articles in eie address systematic issues, such as hodgson’s excellent discussion of how the presence of “domesticated forms” of agave can be used to infer human occupation and use patterns in areas where the people themselves have disappeared. brown et al. use a similar approach in examining the terminology used to describe different forms of squash domesticated in the americas. they reveal that archaeological evidence is often millennia older than the linguistic terminology, suggesting that names evolve well after use patterns have been established and the people are quite familiar with the species with whom they share their lives. also related to issues of how indigenous people see the world is nabhan’s clever and insightful chapter 7, the wild, the domesticated, and the coyote tainted, which explores differences in perception between hunter-gatherer (comc’aac) and agrarian (o’odham) indigenous cultures. nabhan is significant here as the only person directly mentored by rea, starting as an undergraduate and continuing to the present. he makes an important distinction between the biological coyote, canis latrans say canidae, and   book review  ethnobiology le ers. 2014. 5: 126‐128. doi: 10.14237/ebl.5.2014.286. 128 two aspects of the coyote of myth, as both trickster and as the tricked. in some cultural traditions, the last two states might represent opposite sides of the same coin, because even when coyote functions as trickster, he often ends up the butt of his own tricks. nabhan discusses how the more agrarian o’odham people are prone to regard wild relatives of domestic flora as inferior variants of domestic forms belonging to coyote, whereas the hunting and gathering comc’aac regard less useful wild forms as the property or outcome of coyote’s careless or foolish activities. there are quite different interpretations of the role of domesticated forms, with o’odham regarding domesticates as more perfect life forms, whereas the comc’aac regard domesticated forms as being almost parasitic because they require time and energetic input on the part of humans. the issue of how different cultures view “wild” versus “domestic” life forms appears in several chapters, including brown et al.’s discussion of the phylogenetics of domestic squash, hodgson’s examination of the distribution of agaves that were domesticated during pre-columbian times, and hunn’s examination of how to apply berlin’s folk taxonomic concepts to ‘dogs’. the real issue may be “when did the neolithic begin in the americas as opposed to other parts of the globe?” this issue becomes particularly telling in the final essay, by nancy turner and her co-authors on the feast tradition in pacific northwest first nations, where almost all foods are taken from nature and there are no domestic forms, because the environment is rich and prolific and the nutritional quality of the gathered foods is high. feasts consisting almost entirely of non-domestic food types may be a thing of the past because of the social and cultural pressures imposed by us and canadian production of foodstuffs. this is a fascinating volume, full of provocative ideas and themes that might be used to develop the future of ethnobiology. i hope that future generations follow up upon traditions established by amadeo rea and the authors of this volume. if we succeed, perhaps future generations of o’odham people will see the gila as once again a river with a functioning riparian zone rejoicing to calls of ferruginous pygmy owls. preliminary starch grain evidence of ancient stone tool use at the early archaic (9,000 b.p.) site of sandy hill, mashantucket, connecticut 87  research communica on  chloroplasts of plant cells and are composed of alternating layers of amylose and amylopectin carbohydrate molecules (torrence and barton 2006). storage starch grains, also known as “reserve” starch grains, are produced in the amyloplasts of corms, rhizomes, roots, tubers, seeds and fruits, and serve as a source of energy for plants during periods of germination, hibernation, and/ or dormancy (perry 2011; piperno 2006; torrence and barton 2006). because features of a starch grain such as the shape, size, hilum, extinction cross, cracks or fissures, lamellae, and surface texture are under strong genetic control, variations in these features are used to identify storage starch grains to a genus, species, or sometimes even variety level (reichert 1913). “transitory” starches, also known as “leaf” or “assimilation” starch grains, are smaller (typically less than five μm), and produced in the chloroplasts of leaves and other green tissues, and serve as temporary forms of energy storage that are utilized by plants immediately following the completion of their photoperiod (haslam 2004). southeastern connecticut’s sandy hill site (also known as ct site 72-97) (figure 1) is located on the mashantucket pequot reservation and has been introduction starch grain analysis is fast becoming a mainstay of archaeological and palaeoethnobotanical research and is useful for understanding ancient plant use practices and reconstructing paleoenvironments where the preservation of other types of remains such as charred seeds and wood, phytoliths, and pollen is poor (torrence and barton 2006). the early archaic (9000 ‒7000 b.p.) of southern new england remains an enigma in terms of subsistence practices despite its importance in helping researchers understand how people adapt to changing landscapes following the last glacial maximum (21 ‒ 14 kya b.p) (mcweeney 1999). the extensive stone tool assemblage recovered from the early archaic site of sandy hill at the mashantucket pequot reservation in mashantucket, connecticut presents a unique opportunity to explore how the inhabitants of this semi-sedentary village adapted to changing environmental conditions. this study highlights the potential use of starch grains found on museum curated stone tools for reconstructing plant use practices at this site. starch grains are microscopic semi-crystalline structures typically produced in the amyloplasts and preliminary starch grain evidence of ancient stone tool use at the  early archaic (9,000 b.p.) site of sandy hill, mashantucket, connec cut  thomas c. hart1* and timothy h. ives2  author address: 1department of anthropology, university of connec cut, beach hall u‐1176, 354 mansfield road, storrs,  connec cut 06269 usa.  2rhode  island historical preserva on & heritage commission, the old state house, 150 benefit  street, providence, rhode island 02903, usa.  *corresponding author: thomas.hart@uconn.edu  received: may 16, 2013  volume: 4:87‐95  published: september 2, 1013  © 2013 society of ethnobiology  abstract: early archaic subsistence strategies of new england remain poorly understood despite their importance in helping  researchers understand how people adapt to changing  landscapes following the end of the  last glacial maximum (21,000‐ 14,000 b.p.). excava ons at the mashantucket pequot reserva on in mashantucket, connec cut during the 1990s revealed  a large, semi‐sedentary village nestled alongside a complex wetland ecosystem. in this paper, we present preliminary starch  grain analysis of several stone tools recovered and curated  from these excava ons. the results of this study  indicate that  both transitory and reserve starch grains are preserved on these ar facts and that at  least one of the ar facts may have  been used for leaf or stem processing. the results of this study also demonstrate the poten al for future research in which  paired macrobotanical and  residue analysis will allow  for a be er understanding of  subsistence prac ces at  the  site and  during the early archaic in general. key words: paleoethnobotany, starch grains, new england, early archaic, lithics  88  research communica on  repeatedly excavated by the mashantucket pequot museum and research center (hereafter mpmrc) in collaboration with the university of connecticut’s department of anthropology. the most productive was a large-scale excavation (5,358 m2) from 1996 to 1997 that mitigated portions of the sandy hill site prior to development impacts associated with the expanding foxwoods casino complex. these efforts revealed a large multicomponent site dating back to the terminal pleistocene (forrest 1999) that contained over 300,000 artifacts. the site’s most archaeologically robust component spans the 9th millennium b.p. and manifests the gulf of maine archaic tradition (hereafter gmat); an early-to-middle holocene archaeological complex (14,000 ‒ 5000 b.p.) endemic to new england distinguished by enigmatic stone tool technologies and a notably ancient adaptation to wetland environments (mcweeney 1999; robinson and peterson 1993). sandy hill lies near the rim of the great cedar swamp basin, a large area that harbored a complex wetland system during the early holocene featuring wooded, swamp, marsh, and open-water habitats (jones and forrest 2003; mcweeney 1994; thorson and webb 1991). the site’s 14c date series (9340 ± 60 b.p. – 1010 ± 40 b.p.) (table 1) indicates multiple occupations with the earliest occupation coinciding with the existence of this wetland system and ends with the advance of the hypsithermal drying trend that turned the basin floor into a brushy field (forrest 1999). carbon-rich “black sand” layers at stratified gmat sites suggest intensive occupations (robinson and peterson 1993), an interpretation that is wellsupported at sandy hill where such layers constitute the remnants of pit-house floors (forrest 1999). these floors contained abundant macrobotanical remains including carbonized fuelwood, hazelnut shells, and parenchymous tissues. analysis of parenchymous tissues revealed the utilization of species associated with disturbed wetland and field environments such as cattails (typha sp. linnaeus poales: typhaceae) and yellow nutsedge (cyperus esculentus linnaeus poales: figure 1. loca on of sandy hill at  the mashantucket pequot reserva on, ledyard, connec cut  (adapted  from  jones and  forrest 2003: 75).   89  research communica on  cyperaceae) (d. perry 1998, 1999, 2000). these findings are consistent with early holocene environmental reconstructions that place sandy hill in a complex wetland ecosystem (mcweeney 1994; thorson and webb 1991). while the macrobotanical record allows us to reasonably infer that the foragers at sandy hill followed the gmat tradition of exploiting wetland plant resources, the relationship between their stone tool technologies and mode of food production remains unknown. stone tool assemblages curated in museums, such as those housed at the mpmrc, offer the opportunity to articulate technology with subsistence practice by analyzing ancient starch grains embedded in the stone tools. this pilot project reports on the starch grains embedded in several stone tools recovered from this site. materials and methods recent advances in artifact residue analysis (barton 2007; hart 2011) have made it possible to analyze museum artifacts that were recovered before modern protocol were established to prevent contamination. it is important to be able to reconstruct handling events from the time an artifact was first discovered in the field until the time it was sampled for residue analysis. understanding these events and their sequence helps researchers to determine the level of post-depositional contamination associated with the artifact. it is assumed that the deeper the residues are found on an artifact’s surface, the more likely they are to be associated with its original use. while archaeological residues may be directly sampled from the surface of an uncontaminated artifact (barton 2007; piperno et al. 2004), if an artifact is contaminated with younger residues, it is necessary to systematically strip them away to isolate, collect, and identify older residues associated with the artifact’s original use. this study combines the utilization of museum artifacts as proposed by barton (2007) with efforts to mitigate contamination as proposed by hart (2011). various techniques for sampling artifacts for starch grain analysis exist (pearsall 2000; piperno 2006; torrence and barton 2006). the stone tools from sandy hill were systematically sampled using protocol established by chandler-ezell and pearsall (2003) and hart (2011) whereby three samples designated as sediments 1, 2, and 3 were taken from each artifact. this approach assumes that different proportions, abundances, and varieties of starch grains present in each sediment (or layer) reflect differing degrees of post-depositional contamination. the lab number  measured 13c age  13c/12c ra o  13c adjusted age  dated carbonized material  beta‐113499  8490±6o   ‐24.1  8510 ± 60  typha sp.  beta‐162837  8570 ± 60   ‐25.1  8570 ± 60  corylus sp.  beta‐162872  8630 ± 50   ‐23.4  8660 ± 50  corylus sp.  beta‐126812  8660 ± 60   ‐26.6  8640 ± 60  unid. plant  ssue  beta‐126816  8680 ± 60   ‐26.1  8660 ± 60  unid. plant  ssue  beta‐113498  8710 ± 60   ‐27.7  8670 ± 60  typha sp.  beta‐102564  8920 ± 100   est. ‐25.00  8920 ± 100  corylus sp.  beta‐162920  8960 ± 40   ‐24.7  8960 ± 40  unid. plant  ssue  beta‐122014  9020 ± 60   ‐25.8  9000 ± 60  corylus sp.  beta‐122013  9340 ± 60   ‐25.2  9340 ± 60  unid. wood  table 1. carbon 14 dates of early archaic occupa on from sandy hill (adapted from jones and forrest 2003: 85).   90  research communica on  outermost sediment 1 samples are most likely to contain abundant materials from surrounding (loosely adhering) soil matrix. sediment 2 samples are likely contaminated, but may contain some primary (userelated) residue freed from the artifact surface. the innermost sediment 3 samples should be free of contamination. see hart (2011) for an illustration of this assumption and how the sediment samples are removed. three stone tools (one large laminar debris specimen, one small laminar debris specimen, and one large quartzite “hoe”) were chosen for analysis from the museum collections at mpmrc. the large laminar debris and the small laminar debris were chosen because they had visible dirt adhering to their surfaces and came from occupational strata within a pit house feature. though not directly dated, these strata are presumed to be 9th millennium b.p. depositions according to the radiocarbon date series collected from the site’s greater pit-house complex (forrest 1999). the quartzite hoe was chosen because it was unwashed after being recovered in the field and was one of the two major classes of stone artifacts recovered from the site (the other being small microliths like the small and large laminar debris). the quartzite hoe is made of locally available quartzite and was one of five hoe-like forms cached in a pit-house floor stratum. a charred wood sample from this stratum yielded an uncalibrated ams date of 8610 ± 60 b.p. (beta-226145). the three stage removal process described above was deemed necessary to systematically recover starch grains associated with primary deposition and remove potential contamination from the outer surfaces of each artifact. the laminar debris specimens were sampled in their entirety because they were small and contained trace amounts of sediments, while only the front edge of the quartzite hoe was sampled because it contained visible sediments. the artifacts were removed from storage using sterile, powder-free nitrile gloves and were initially photographed to document potential areas of residue deposition. once photographed, the laminar debris specimens were placed into individual sterile ziplock bags where their residues were removed systematically. the quartzite hoe was set aside and covered with sterile paper towels until its residues were removed. all residues were processed at the paleoethnobotany laboratory at the university of missouri, columbia, via the standard mu “piggyback” method designed to simultaneously extract phytoliths and starch grains from artifact residues (chandler-ezell and pearsall 2003; pearsall et al. 2004). the phytoliths were set aside for analysis at a later date while the starch grains were analyzed for figure 2. cyperus esculentus l. cf. starch grain found on  quartzite hoe  (a1, a2). transitory starch grains embed‐ ded in leaf  ssues recovered from the large laminar de‐ bris  (b1,  b2).  two  similar,  uniden fied  storage  starch  grains recovered from the small laminar debris (c1, d1)  transmi ed light photographs are designated with a “1”  and polarized  light photographs  are designated with  a  “2”. scale bar is 50 microns.   91  research communica on  this project. archaeological starch grains were mounted on microscope slides using immersion oil and cover slips sealed with finger nail polish, and examined using an olympus bx60 microscope. all starches were counted, measured, and photographed, including those that were smaller than five microns. each slide was scanned in its entirety at 200x magnification at “dusk” with the polarizer turned halfway on thereby allowing us to see starch grain features in transmitted light and extinction crosses in polarized light at the same time. when small starch grains (those smaller than 5 microns in size) formed aggregates, they were counted as a single unit. each individual starch grain was examined at 500x magnification in both full transmitted and polarized light and photographed using an olympus dp10 camera. starch grains were identified based on the starch grain comparative collection housed at the mpmrc as well as published comparative types established for the northeast united states (messner 2011). the mpmrc comparative collection contained species represented in the macrobotanical assemblage at sandy hill as well as a few additional plants that may have been present at the time of occupation (mcweeney 1999). the research for this project was conducted prior to the establishment of naming protocol by the international code for starch nomenclature (perry, 2011); therefore, starch grains were described and named according to protocol established by torrence and barton (2006). sediments 1, 2, and 3 were examined with sediments 1 and 2 being discarded due to potential contamination. results and discussion both transitory and storage starch grains (figure 2) were found on all three artifacts studied. five types of starch grains were found on the artifacts: compound transitory starch grains, small starch grains (less than 5 μm in diameter) embedded in soil, unidentified storage starch, andropogoneae and c. esculentus cf. starch grains. transitory starch grains were rarely found individually but were frequently observed in compound forms, most often as aggregates preserved in vegetative tissues. a total of one-hundred and thirty-nine transitory starch grains, 2 identified storage starch grains, 7 unidentified storage starch grains, and 10 starch grains in a soil matrix were found (table 2). the quartzite hoe yielded thirty compound transitory starch grains, 9 small starch grains embedded in the soil, 3 unidentified storage starch, 1 andropogoneae and 1 c. esculentus cf. starch grain. compound transitory starch grains comprised the bulk of the material recovered from the artifact (68.18%; table 2). both the andropogoneae and c.    raw  count         sum  propor on     type of starch  qh  sld  lld     qh  sld  lld  compound transitory starch  grains  30  9  100  139  68.18%  75.00%  98.04%  andropogoneae cf.  1  0  0  1  2.27%  0.00%  0.00%  cyperus esculentus l. cf.  1  0  0  1  2.27%  0.00%  0.00%  uniden fied storage starch  3  3  1  7  6.82%  25.00%  0.98%  small (less than 5 microns) grains  in soil  9  0  1  10  20.45%  0.00%  0.98%  sum  44  12  102              key  qh = quartzite hoe  sld = flake small laminar debris  lld = flake large laminar debris  table 2. starch grains recovered from sediment 3 samples from ar facts.   92  research communica on  esculentus l. cf. starch grains were identified based on the comparative criteria and dichotomous key outlined in the work pioneered by messner (messner 2008). the andropogoneae starch grain is a simple twelve by twelve μm starch grain with an indistinct extinction cross, dimpled surface, rounded shape, and rounded pressure facets. the c. esculentus cf. is a simple fourteen by fourteen μm starch grain with a thick, straight, distorted extinction cross at a 90° angle, smooth surface texture, and angled pressure facets (figure 2). the unidentified storage starch grains are different from each other morphologically and ranged in size from fourteen by twenty μm to twenty four by twenty four μm. remains recovered from the large laminar debris contained one hundred compound transitory starch grains representing 98.04% of the material (figure 2), a single unidentified storage grain, and one small starch grain found in the soil (table 2). the unidentified storage starch grain was a compound grain that measured fourteen by sixteen μm with a granular surface, polyhedral shape, and angled edge pressure facets. this starch grain is distinguished from compound transitory starch grains by a double wall with multiple amyloplast centers of formation associated with storage starch formation as opposed to the smaller, single-walled transitory tissues with chloroplast centers. the small laminar debris contained only nine compound transitory starch grains and three unidentified storage grains (table 2) or 75% and 25% of the assemblage respectively. one unidentified storage starch grain measured 14 by 16 μm in size, with a smooth surface, and a thin, straight extinction cross at a 90° angle. this grain could not be rolled under the microscope slide so its three-dimensional shape was impossible to determine. the two remaining storage grains were a large and small version of the same type. these grains were 22 by 24 μm and 42 by 36 μm respectively; had an open, centric hilum with a smooth surface and a lenticular shape. of particular interest was the uncommon and highly diagnostic delicate, regular fissure that appeared when the starch grain was rotated into side view. the results of this study indicate that ancient starch grains can be recovered from museum curated artifacts, and that sampling artifacts from sites like sandy hill can potentially offer insights into tool use and subsistence practices during new england’s early archaic period. preliminary stone tools residue analysis, an abundance of wetland plants in the macrobotanical record, and both large and small mammal faunal data tentatively support the hypothesis that gmat technologies are associated with an adaptation to wetland environmental exploitation. preliminary analysis of starch grains recovered from the large and small laminar debris suggests they functioned as (or as elements of) plant-processing tools. jones (2006) has suggested that sandy hill’s laminar “debris” served specifically as grater-board teeth designed for shredding wetland rhizomes and tubers, seeing a possible ethnographic parallel in the stone-studded manioc shredders of south america. however, almost all of the starch grains found on the large laminar debris were transitory starch grains enmeshed in plant tissues, suggesting that this specimen was used to process leaves or stems rather than starchy tubers. additionally, cattail and bullrush (scirpus sp. linnaeus poales: cyperaceae.) stem fragments in sandy hill’s macrobotanical record may be unrelated to food consumption, having served as construction material for bedding, matting, rope, etc. (perry 1999; torrence and barton 2006). according to the current results, we cannot presume a correlation between quartz flake production and foodprocessing. future phytolith analysis of residues from these artifacts may be particularly useful because many wetland plants, such as those from the cyperaceae family, produce diagnostic phytoliths in their leaves and stems (piperno 2006). the presence of both transitory starch grains and storage starch grains with diverse morphologies suggests that the quartzite hoe was a digging tool that was, at some point, used to harvest edible plant foods. the presence of andropogoneae and yellow nutsedge starch grains suggests that this tool may have been used to harvest plants away from the settlement because of the widespread nature of wild grasses and yellow nutsedge in disturbed, open field environments (lapham and drennan 1990). because sandy hill was located at the water’s edge of the great cedar swamp, its inhabitants would have had to travel away from the swamp to find open field environments. the recovery of yellow nutsedge in the charred macrobotanical assemblage also supports the hypothesis of offsite resource use. the unidentified storage starch grains recovered from the artifacts did not match any in the mpmrc’s comparative collection or those described by messner (2008), and may reflect the exploitation of resources 93  research communica on  in nearby, though ecologically distinct, environmental regimes. for example, the long island sound basin, located approximately 10 kilometers south of sandy hill, hosted a relatively stable and potentially rich estuarine body during the 9th millennium b.p. (lewis 1995; mcmaster and garrison 1967). though sea level rise has deeply submerged this ancient environment, future starch grain analysis at sandy hill may help confirm its exploitation. botanical analysis at the monte verde ii site in chile points to the potential value of such an approach, establishing that site inhabitants gathered plant food from far afield, such as seaweed from the pacific coast and wild potatoes from inland forests (dillehay et al. 2008). it is difficult to assess the use of animal resources at sandy hill because the excessively drained character of its glacio-deltaic sands is not conducive to bone preservation (jones and forrest 2003:81). over 23,000 bone specimens have been recovered, consisting mostly of small, calcined fragments that are poorly suited for species identification or minimum number of individuals quantifications. analysis attributes 36% of these bone specimens to mammals, and of those, 79% appear to be derived from medium and large mammals. though a few bone specimens recovered from pit house floor strata have been confidently attributed to white tailed deer (odocoileus virginianus zimmermann artiodactyla: cervidae), the importance of hunting to sandy hill’s early archaic occupants remains largely unknown. conclusions this project was originally designed as a pilot study to determine whether starch grain residues preserved on excavated and subsequently curated stone tools from the early archaic site of sandy hill. the results of this study do not allow us to substantially refine our view of early archaic subsistence practices at the site on the basis of its small sample size. however, preliminary analyses indicate that both transitory and storage starch grains survived in the pores and cracks of 8,000-year-old artifacts that were handled, washed, and curated. an abundance of transitory starch grains preserved on one of the gmat microliths suggests that at least one of the small stone tools was used to process leaf/stem tissues. the presence of andropogonae and yellow nutsedge starch grains on the quartzite hoe corroborates the macrobotanical record for offsite resource exploitation. the presence of reserve starch grains on all of the artifacts and the high concentrations of transitory starch grains on the large laminar debris demonstrates the potential for using starch grains to gain a better understanding of ancient plant use practices during the early archaic period of southern new england. there are many avenues of potential research at sandy hill that will expand our understanding of subsistence practices during the early archaic and add to the growing body of knowledge related to the role that wetlands and surrounding ecosystems have played throughout human history (for other examples see fuller et al. 2009; neff et al. 2006; nicholas 1998; roberts and rosen 2009). the first step would be to expand the existing starch grain comparative collection at the mpmrc and create a phytolith comparative collection for southern new england. future projects should incorporate phytolith analysis and a larger number of artifacts and artifact types such as mortar and pestles. finally, a new series of excavations would help shed light on this topic since approximately only 25% of the site has been excavated to date. acknowledgements there are a great number of people and organizations whose help made this research possible. thank you first and foremost to the mashantucket pequot tribal nation for their funding, continued support, and for allowing us to study their collections. thank you to the mashantucket pequot museum and research center for coordinating access to the collections and for allowing us to use their equipment. we remain indebted to dr. kevin mcbride, doug currie, roberta charpentier, sarah holmes, dr. jason mancini, kathleen boushee and the rest of the staff at the mashantucket pequot museum and research center for their support and guidance. doug was kind enough to permit the use of his microscope and camera. the collection, processing and scanning of comparative plant remains would not have been possible without the help of dr. sarah sportman, dr. robert capers, dr. heather trigg, eric hefter, and ashley oakley. this collection is housed at the mashantucket pequot museum and research center. thank you to dr. timothy messner for the advice regarding starch and ancient plant remains and to dr. brian jones and daniel forrest for the help regarding the excavations at sandy hill and the gulf of maine archaic. thank you to dr. deborah pearsall and dr. 94  research communica on  neil duncan who not only processed the residues for starch grains, but also patiently answered any number of questions regarding starch grain methodology. finally, thank you to dr. alexia smith, dr. natalie munro, gabe hrynich, and the anonymous reviewer for the helpful comments on the manuscript. declarations permissions: none declared. sources of funding: none declared. conflicts of interest: none declared. references cited barton, h. 2007. starch residues on museum artefacts: implications for determining tool use. journal of archaeological science 34:11–11. chandler-ezell, k.c., pearsall, d.m. 2003. piggyback microfossil processing: joint starch and phytolith sampling from stone tools. phytolitharien 15:2–8. dillehay, t.d., ramirez, c., pino, m., collins, m.b., rossen, j., pino-navarro, j.d., 2008. monte verde: seaweed, food, medicine, and the peopling of south america. science 320:784–786. forrest, d.t. 1999. beyond presence and absence: establishing diversity in connecticut's early holocene archaeological record. bulletin of the archaeological society of connecticut 62:79–99. fuller, d.q., qin, l., zheng, y., zhao, z., chen, x., hosoya, l.a., sun, g.-p. 2009. the domestication process and domestication rate in rice: spikelet bases from the lower yangtze. science 323:1607– 1610. hart, t.c. 2011. evaluating the usefulness of phytoliths and starch grains found on 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d. 2000. vegetative plant remains from site 72163. report on file, mashantucket pequot museum and research center, mashantucket, ct.. perry, l.l. 2011. the international code for starch nomenclature. foundation for archaeobotanical research in microfossils. available at: http:// fossilfarm.org/icsn/code.html. accessed on february 19, 2013. piperno, d.r. 2006. phytoliths : a comprehensive guide for archaeologists and paleoecologists. altamira press, lanham, md. piperno, d.r., weiss, e., holst, i., nadel, d. 2004. processing of wild cereal grains in the upper palaeolithic revealed by starch grain analysis. nature 430:670–673. reichert, e.t. 1913. the differentiation and specificity of starches in relation to genera, species, etc., stereochemistry applied to protoplasmic processes and products and as a strictly scientific basis for the classification of plants and animals. the carnegie institute of washington, washington d. c. roberts, n., rosen, a.m. 2009. diversity and complexity in early farming communities of southwest asia: new insights into the economic and environmental basis of neolithic çatalhöyük. current anthropology 50:393–402. robinson, b.s., peterson, j.b. 1993. perceptions of marginality: the case of the early holocene in northern new england. northeast anthropology 46:61 –75. thorson, r.m., webb, r.s. 1991. postglacial history of a cedar swamp in southeastern connecticut. journal of paleolimnology 6:17–35. torrence, r., barton, h., eds. 2006. ancient starch research. left coast press, walnut creek, ca. biosketch thomas c. hart  is pursuing his phd  in anthropology at  the university  of  connec cut. his  research  focuses  on  subsistence and social complexity in mesopotamia.  timothy  h.  ives  is  timothy  h.  ives  is  the  principal  archaeologist  at  the  rhode  island  historical  preserva‐ on and heritage commission.  preliminary starch grain evidence of ancient stone tool use at the early archaic (9,000 b.p.) site of sandy hill, 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can be opened with acrobat and adobe reader 5.0 and later.) >> /namespace [ (adobe) (common) (1.0) ] /othernamespaces [ << /asreaderspreads false /cropimagestoframes true /errorcontrol /warnandcontinue /flattenerignorespreadoverrides false /includeguidesgrids false /includenonprinting false /includeslug false /namespace [ (adobe) (indesign) (4.0) ] /omitplacedbitmaps false /omitplacedeps false /omitplacedpdf false /simulateoverprint /legacy >> << /addbleedmarks false /addcolorbars false /addcropmarks false /addpageinfo false /addregmarks false /convertcolors /converttocmyk /destinationprofilename () /destinationprofileselector /documentcmyk /downsample16bitimages true /flattenerpreset << /presetselector /mediumresolution >> /formelements false /generatestructure false /includebookmarks false /includehyperlinks false /includeinteractive false /includelayers false /includeprofiles false /multimediahandling /useobjectsettings /namespace [ (adobe) (creativesuite) (2.0) ] /pdfxoutputintentprofileselector /documentcmyk /preserveediting true /untaggedcmykhandling /leaveuntagged /untaggedrgbhandling /usedocumentprofile /usedocumentbleed false >> ] >> setdistillerparams << /hwresolution [2400 2400] /pagesize [612.000 792.000] >> setpagedevice beyond nature and culture ethnobiology letters. 2015. 6(1):208-211. doi: 10.14237/ebl.6.1.2015.481. 208 book reviews perspectives from gene anderson’s bookshelf is the latest stage in our field’s history of paying serious attention to what “the natives” say, as opposed to writing it off as mere myth or error. indigenous and traditional people are at least as good at thinking as anyone else, and ignoring their philosophy is as foolish as ignoring their now-famed knowledge of plants and animals. some of the conclusions reached in traditional societies may seem strange, but some philosophers in the european tradition have rather different ideas too, after all. it is the underlying perceptions and basic principles that matter, and they are what descola studies. (by contrast, postmodernism appears in its full racist and neocolonialist light; postmodernists rarely had any interest in finding out what the locals thought; they were interested only in elite french or german thinkers.) the ontological turn is, i believe, the first worldwide anthropological movement to begin in the “global south.” it has emerged from south america: from south american researchers like gerardo reichel-dolmatoff, eduardo viveiros de castro, mario blaser, eduardo kohn (and from a related tradition arturo escobar), and “global north” researchers who have spent their careers studying south american indigenous peoples. philippe descola, a lévi-strauss student and leading french ethnographer, is in the latter category. his book is a major study of traditional ontologies. for him, “anthropology that seeks to be consequential has no choice but to gain an understanding of the logic of this work of composition [of culture and its shared schemas], by lending an ear to the themes and harmonies that stand out from the great hum of the world and concentrating on emerging orders whose regularity is detectable behind the proliferation of different customs” (p. 111). recently, anthropologists have been concerned with the “ontological turn,” a recent term for an old tendency in the field. anthropologists have always looked at local worldviews, cosmologies, philosophies, and knowledge systems. recently, a deeper and more philosophical concern for such things has led to wider use of the term ontology, which is the field of philosophy concerned with what is, what is not, and what might be. closely related fields include epistemology—the study of what we can and can’t know, and how we know it—and phenomenology, the study of what we think we know: what “phenomena” we see in the world and how we come to see those particular things rather than other things. anthropologists have taken indigenous ontologies seriously since the days of lewis henry morgan. the first book to refer explicitly to traditional and indigenous peoples as philosophers was paul radin’s book primitive man as philosopher (1927—and please note those first two words were not pejorative or sexist when he wrote). he had discovered with the winnebago that indigenous people have perfectly sophisticated and elaborated systems of philosophy and religion, and he was one of the first to pay these full respect as worthy of serious study. he was followed by a. irving hallowell (1955), who put serious study of traditional worldviews on the map, getting psychological and cognitive anthropologists interested in the whole agenda and starting a whole generation of work on canadian first nations (hallowell’s specialty). hallowell was one of the first to use the term “ontology” for this field (hallowell 1960). there followed a great deal of research in this area, but it failed to catch on as mainstream anthropology. it has finally done so. unlike postmodernism and other recent fads, ontology is probably here to stay. it beyond nature and culture philippe descola. translated by janet lloyd. 2013. university of chicago press, chicago. xxii +463 pp. $35.00 (paperback), $65.00 (hardcover). isbn 978-0-22621-236-4 (paperback), 978-0-22614-445-0 (hardcover). reviewed by eugene n. anderson reviewer address: department of anthropology, university of california, riverside, ca 92521, usa. email: eugene.anderson@ucr.edu received: april 8, 2015 volume: 6(1):208-211 published: december 19, 2015 © 2015 society of ethnobiology ethnobiology letters. 2015. 6(1):208-211. doi: 10.14237/ebl.6.1.2015.481. 209 book reviews perspectives from gene anderson’s bookshelf in it, he classifies ontologies according to a lévistraussian type of structural matrix. he sets up a twoby-two table setting interiority (soul, essence, spirit, mind) against physicality (body, physical stuff) and shared against nonshared. for him, animism involves humans sharing their interiority with other lifeforms but not their physicality. animals and plants are people, with souls and minds similar to ours, and with their own societies and shamans. it is widespread among hunter-gatherers and horticulturalists, and characterizes the views of the achuar and their neighbors, whom descola studied in the upper amazon region. totemism, found mostly in australia but somewhat in native north america, is the view that we humans share both physicality—or some of it—and interiority with many other lives (and even with rocks and landscapes). analogism holds that humans differ both physically and spiritually from other lives, but that there are countless interpenetrating essences, flows, or qualities that link us all into a vast web. examples are found in traditional china and among the nahuatl of mexico. finally, naturism is the view that we are all subject to the same physical laws and made out of the same stuff, but that humans are sharply separated from nature by having a totally different interiority: soul for descartes, language for chomsky and others, consciousness for some modern philosophers (who apparently cannot tell whether their dog is asleep or awake). these are complemented by six modes of transaction: exchange, predation, gift, production, protection, and transmission (see table, p. 334). theoretically, we could thus have 24 combinations, but descola says many of these (unspecified) do not exist in the real world. he also discusses different modes of interaction. most of the book consists of discussion of the four basic ontologies, with many examples. descola is widely read and a careful scholar. naturally, his knowledge is fullest when it comes to the upper amazon, but he is quite aware of ontologies from mongolia and siberia to mexico and canada. animists are the people so familiar in anthropological accounts, who tell us that trees are people, rocks are people, and even the wind and the sky are people who can be humanoid or at least act socially as humans. animals often have spaces to which they can repair to shed their animal skins, appear as human or humanoid, and act like humans, with leadership systems, language, culture, songs, dances, and all. they also help humans, often as predators or prey or helpers in the hunt. they have various relationships of their own. “the swallow-tailed kite is the father of edible insects: the shaman pays regular visits to its wife to ask her to allow her children—who are regarded as the shaman’s brothers—to accompany him so that humans can feed on them” (p. 353). to understand this, you have to know that the swallowtailed kite is a particularly conspicuous feeder on those same insects, and this recapitulates the family relationship of hunter and prey. humans, similarly, can shapeshift, at least if they have shamanic power. it is never easy to tell whether a bear/human is usually a bear shaman or usually a bear. totemism is more complex. humans share some physical and spiritual traits, essences, or attributes with nonhumans, but the relationship is complex. an australian aboriginal man may have a dreaming from his father’s clan, another from his mother’s, another from his birth spot, another from life encounters, and so on; or he may have several dreamings from each of these sources. totemism usually involves essences manifested from dreamtime beings, in original times, so that shape-shifting is less common today (though it may occur, and also the original times of the dreamings are still going on now, in something like a parallel universe). analogism is most familiar from premodern european cosmology and from traditional chinese thought. humans are separate from natural kinds, and groups of humans from each other. but in europe, spiritual connections, astrological influences, the qualities (hot, cold, wet, dry) of galenic medicine, and other subtle links wove the universe into one vast order. in china, flows of qi, the force fields mistranslated “elements” in western literature, and other spiritual connections link everything in highly complex ways. analogistic thinking shows itself in “transmigration of souls, reincarnation, metempsychosis, and, above all, possession” (descola, p. 213) and also in macrocosm/microcosm parallels, so typical of china. “analogical collectives are thus alone in having veritable pantheons, not because they are polytheist (a more or less meaningless term), but because…the organization of their little world of deities extends that of the world of humans with no break in continuity” (p. 275). naturalistic ontologies seem limited to the modern technological world. they are our familiar cartesian views. ethnobiology letters. 2015. 6(1):208-211. doi: 10.14237/ebl.6.1.2015.481. 210 book reviews perspectives from gene anderson’s bookshelf it will not have escaped the anthropological reader that these types sort with socioeconomic formations: animism and totemism with huntergatherer and horticultural societies, analogism with traditional agrarian civilizations, naturalism with modern industrial civilization. descola is aware of this linkage but avoids speculating on it, let alone concluding it shows any economic determinism. a partial exception is noting a link between hunting and the animistic view; hunters with simple weaponry personalize their game. (i note this among my hunting friends even in our “naturalistic” world.) all this is impressive and exciting, but a hardened veteran of anthropological debate must raise a few flags. first, descola seems to believe, genuinely, that these four are completely separate and watertight categories. for instance, when modern euroamericans pick up chinese medicine, shamanistic practice, or yoga: “this does not mean…that they have become animist, analogical, or totemic, for the institutions that provide the framework for their existence and the automatic behavior patterns acquired over the passing of time are sufficiently inhibiting to prevent such episodic slippage...from… endowing them with an ontological grid that is completely distinct…” (p. 233). i cannot agree. i see the four types of ontology as weberian ideal types— useful for thinking, but hard to turn into iron boxes. for one example, the chinese certainly and the nahuatl probably were shamanistic well into their civilized centuries, and changed slowly from animism to analogism. then they had to change from analogism to naturalism as modernization hit. this produced countless “hybrid” or mixed forms, as i know from spending years in chinese communities during key transitional times. similarly, my maya friends in mexico preserve large amounts of animism while adopting both mexican and premodern european analogism and, much more recently, naturalism. i cannot fit their ontology into a box. and of course europe transitioned from analogism to naturalism, with accompanying fireworks. even earlier, much of europe transitioned from animism to analogism, and we have some literary monuments to this, especially in celtic and finnish traditions. also, descola, like many french thinkers, is a solid rationalist. he gives little place to emotion or feeling. this leads him to ignore aesthetics and aesthetic sources. his profound knowledge of animism (from his south american work) allows him to manage well with that, but his knowledge of totemism would have been improved by knowledge of australian aboriginal song, dance, and visual art. much of their ontology is carried in those media. for instance, he has missed the all-important role of “country”—mythologized, inhabited landscape—as the great integrating and unifying theme in aboriginal thought. he has also missed the all-important role of power (or words that translate so) and respect among animistic peoples, and the ways that power flows link everything together—a trait he seems to consider diagnostic of analogism. he has missed the value of art in understanding chinese thought, also; knowledge of chinese literature and painting (elite or folk) would have led him to see chinese thought as more unified than he allows. more specific criticisms are few, but his discussion of the origins of european landscape art is out of date (p. 57). his knowledge of china is derived largely from marcel granet’s classic accounts from the early 20th century. if one must consult one old source, granet is the one to use; he was amazingly balanced, judicious, and perceptive for his time. but using later sources would have shown descola how much early chinese thought is informed by animism and even by an early-day sort of naturalism. all the above leads me to think that descola has done a masterful job of discussing and synthesizing ontologies, and of bringing ontology (worldview, cosmology…) back into the anthropological mainstream, but i do not see this as the final word (nor is it claimed to be). we will have to refine classifications of ontologies, and see how these modes of thought change from one to the other over time and space, how they interact, how they can blend. there will be much more to say about ontologies and types thereof. one idle question for summer musing is: which one is closest to modern scientific knowledge? i submit that it is totemism. we know we are consubstantial with plants and animals—as the naturalist ontology points out. but the great fallacy of naturalism is its separation of humans (souls! minds!) from “brute beasts” that are “mere machines.” we now know that animals think as well as feel, and that “instinct” is not the automatic pilot we used to believe it was. even plants communicate with each other (by chemicals excreted by their roots and leaves; trewavas 2014) and of course they cleverly lure their pollinators in with carefully chosen cocktails of volatile oils. there is a gradual decline in similarity to us, not a sudden watershed. “language,” more or less by ethnobiology letters. 2015. 6(1):208-211. doi: 10.14237/ebl.6.1.2015.481. 211 book reviews perspectives from gene anderson’s bookshelf definition, is strictly human, but then the song of the bell’s vireo is specific to the bell’s vireo, and the particular cocktail of volatiles that tomatoes use to lure moth pollinators is specific to the tomato. what matters is that we all get the message out. totemism wins. i may not be a kangaroo (descola quotes baldwin spencer’s deathless line from an early consultant who was one) but i share basic brain and other functions with kangaroos. descola closes with a final page—only one—on how all this might inform our troubled time. one might wish he had speculated more. the other three types of ontology all allow humans to live in harmony with nature (to use a cliché) in ways that we seem unable to do within a naturalist framework. speculation on whether we can, and how to refine our ontologies to allow us to preserve the world ecosystem is in order. i submit that such refining would have to take fuller account of emotions, feelings, aesthetics, and broad patterns and linkages than does the book under review, but no one book can do everything, and this book is overwhelming enough as it is. all in all, this is a very long, detailed, densely written book, and much of the real excitement lies in the ways descola works out the ontologies and supplies excellently detailed examples. this is an important book that deserves careful reading. references cited hallowell, a. i. 1955. culture and experience. university of pennsylvania press, philadelphia. hallowell, a. i. 1960. ojibwa ontology, behavior, and world-view. in culture in history: essays in honor of paul radin, edited by stanley diamond, pp. 19-52. columbia university press, new york. radin, p. 1927. primitive man as philosopher. d. appleton and company, new york. trewavas, a. 2014. plant behaviour and intelligence. oxford university press, oxford. microsoft word karst-turner proof.doc ethnobiology letters                                                                                           research communication      6 local ecological knowledge and importance of bakeapple (rubus chamaemorus l.) in a southeast labrador métis community  amanda l. karst1, nancy j. turner2    author addresses: 1245 mcdermot ave., winnipeg, mb, r3b 0s6, 2school of environmental studies, university of victoria,  victoria bc, v8w 3r4  amanda@karst.ca      received: may 19th 2011                           volume 2:6‐18  published: july 15h 2011                                  © 2011 society of ethnobiology    abstract: bakeapple,  or  cloudberry  (rubus  chamaemorus  l.;  rosaceae)  is  a  circumpolar  perennial with  orange  aggregate  fruits, which has been a vital  food  resource  for many northern peoples  including  those of the subarctic and arctic areas of  north  america.  this  study  documented  the  importance  and  local  knowledge  of  bakeapple  in  the  predominantly métis  community of charlottetown, labrador. the cultural importance of bakeapple is evidenced by the social customs surrounding  its picking, by its prevalence in people’s homes and at community events, and by its formal and informal economic exchange,  within and outside  the community. the  local ecological knowledge of bakeapple  that  residents of charlottetown possessed  also  illustrates  its  importance.  local  knowledge  of  interviewees  included  different  habitat  types  associated with  various  bakeapple densities and  fruit  sizes, bakeapple development/phenology  (e.g., “turned  in”  stage) and variations  in  the berry  (e.g. in color and size). bakeapple remains a culturally important species with a high profile in charlottetown, although lack of  interest in bakeapple picking by younger people may affect future use.   key words: labrador, métis, bakeapple, local ecological knowledge, rubus chamaemorus    …that was our livelihood, that was our food, hey… those berries and fish and wild meat, that’s what we lived on years ago…. (charlottetown resident, pers. comm. to ak, 2004). introduction bakeapple (rubus chamaemorus l. rosaceae), also known as cloudberry, maltberry or “salmonberry” (a term also applied to some other rubus species), has been a popular fruit for many northern peoples of subarctic and arctic areas of north america and eurasia (see table 1 for range of use and references). many of these peoples consider bakeapple to be their most important berry (eidlitz 1969; griffin 2001; jones 1983; oswalt 1957). the vitamin c (ascorbic acid) content of bakeapples is about 130 mg per 100 g of fresh fruit, more than twice that of oranges (at 52 mg/100 g) (arnason et al. 1981; kuhnlein and turner 1991). throughout the range of this plant, bakeapples have likely provided essential amounts of this vital nutrient to people in northern communities where wild fruit sources are minimal. rubus chamaemorus l. is a low-growing perennial (up to 20 cm in height) distributed throughout the arctic and subarctic regions, from northern russia, finland, sweden, and norway, to across northern north america, extending south to latitude 50º n in europe and 44º n in north america. bakeapple is typically found in acidic bog habitats and exhibits clonal growth from branching rhizomes. the upright stems bear 1-3 palmately lobed leaves and each stem produces a single white, 5-petalled flower (taylor 1971); the flowers are dioecious and insect-pollinated. the aggregate fruits when ripe are yellowish orange to red (taylor 1971). as the fruit matures, the broad calyx wraps around the developing fruit, pulling away when the fruit is fully ripe. bakeapple populations show high variability in fruit production among different habitats and from year to year (makinen and oikarinen 1974). flowers and developing fruits are extremely sensitive to late frosts, which are thought to be the predominant cause of fruit loss. traditionally, bakeapples were often gathered in birch-bark baskets and eaten fresh, mixed with animal oil and/or sugar (post-european contact) or served in “eskimo/indian ice cream”. large quantities of bakeapples (as much as 130 litres/30 gallons per family) were preserved in cold water or oil and stored for the winter in seal skin pokes, wooden barrels or underground caches. people often added other berries like nagoonberries (rubus arcticus l.), “blackberries” or crowberries (empetrum nigrum l.) or edible greens such as sourdock leaves (rumex arcticus trautv.) (cf. andre ethnobiology letters                                                                                           research communication      7 figure 1. map of charlottetown,  located  in southeastern  labrador, canada. charlottetown is located approximately  23 km inland from the coast of labrador.  and fehr 2001; eidlitz 1969; griffin 2001; jones 1983; kari 1987; kuhnlein and turner 1991; omohundro 1994; russell 1991; turner 1995). despite bakeapple’s longstanding nutritional and cultural importance, little research has been undertaken on the details of its use in northern communities and local ecological knowledge of this species (but see gordon, boxall and wein 2005; parlee et al. 2006). in addition, there has been little ethnobotanical research carried out in newfoundland and labrador in general (but see clément 1990). this paper focuses on present day use and importance as well as local ecological knowledge of bakeapple by métis residents in charlottetown, labrador (karst 2005). our objectives for this paper were to: 1) document local ecological knowledge of bakeapple on topics such as habitat, phenology and factors critical to fruit development, 2) document a variety of components of current use of bakeapple, including picking locations, and social norms for bakeapple harvesting in the métis community of charlottetown in labrador, and 3) determine the overall contemporary importance of bakeapple in this community. charlottetown, the community where this study was undertaken, is located in the southeastern region of labrador, 23 km from the atlantic coast (figure 1). charlottetown was established in 1950 with a population of approximately 360 people, many of whom are members of the labrador métis nation (lmn). members of the lmn have mixed labrador inuit and european ancestry. in the past, people in this community relied on fish (e.g. atlantic salmon, arctic char, atlantic cod, capelin), birds (e.g. partridge and eider duck), and mammals (e.g. caribou and rabbit) for meat sources. they also harvested wild berries extensively, including: bakeapples; “blackberries” or crowberries (empetrum nigrum l. empetraceae); “redberries” or partridgeberries (vaccinium vitis-idaea l. ericaceae); blueberries (vaccinium spp. ericaceae); and squashberries (viburnum edule michx. caprifoliaceae). a shrimp processing plant, established in 2001 and employing over 100 people, is the primary economic support in the community. some residents harvest shrimp and also crab. bakeapples and other wild foods have continued to form an important supplement to peoples’ diets and incomes. methods two methods of data collection were used in this study: in-depth, semi-directive interviews and participant observation. the selection of a community to study bakeapple involved consulting with the office of the labrador métis nation and obtaining community contacts who in turn provided us with phone numbers of experienced bakeapple pickers. charlottetown was selected as the focus for the research because there was a high degree of bakeapple use in the community and it was home to the largest number of people who agreed to participate in the study. community members also participated in the project in other ways: one individual was a paid research assistant and others provided transportation and accommodation. a snowball sampling method was used to identify potential interviewees, in which initial contacts (experienced bakeapple pickers in the community in this case) suggested additional interviewees (walker 1985). interviews were carried out in 2004, between may and august, and were conducted in community members’ homes. all community-based research and interview protocols were approved by the university of victoria human research ethics committee (id # ethnobiology letters                                                                                           research communication      8 052-04). each interviewee was first contacted by phone and then through a subsequent home visit where they were provided with a leaflet describing the project and its goals. interviewees read or had read to them a consent form fully describing the project and their role in the research, which they signed prior to interviewing. each interview covered approximately 100 questions relating to bakeapple use, and lasted between 45 minutes and 2 hours. questions covered all aspects of bakeapple harvesting, including the social groups with whom interviewees tended to pick, specific areas picked, ecological knowledge of bakeapple, types of containers used and quantities of berries picked, storage techniques, and how bakeapples were prepared and eaten. the taped interviews were transcribed and analyzed using qsr n6 © (vol 4.0, qsr international pty ltd). trends in interview statements were used to identify major topical themes in the data. fifteen community members in total were interviewed in this study: six women and nine men. interviewee age ranged from 30 to 73 years, but a larger proportion of older pickers were interviewed because of their greater experience. of the 15 interviewees, 12 had grown up in charlottetown, or around st. michael’s bay where charlottetown is located, while three had moved in from henley harbour or red bay. all of the interviewees had families with over three generations of bakeapple picking experience and all had begun picking bakeapples at 5 to 7 years of age. generally, all interviewees had picked bakeapples throughout their lives. total bakeapple picking experience of individual interviewees ranged from 25 to 65 years. local ecological knowledge bakeapple habitat—most interviewees described three main habitat types where bakeapples are found. the first and most common is a bog, or “mash” as it is locally termed. people described this habitat as a wet, flat area that is fairly open with red/brown/yellow mossy ground. the second kind of bakeapple habitat interviewees identified was an area sheltered by shrubs and trees. most interviewees describing this habitat often were referring to shrubs and trees on the periphery of the mashes, but almost half said they found bakeapples in forested areas sheltered among trees. the third type of habitat described by several interviewees was what one interviewee referred to as “barren ground” (the other interviewees generally referred to it as a drier area). interviewees described this type of area as open and flat, similar to a mash but drier and rockier. interviewees said that barren ground or drier ground is characterized by more “caribou moss” (cladonia spp.) and “blackberry” or crowberry (empetrum nigrum) bushes compared to the predominant cover of moss (sphagnum spp.) found in a mash. one interviewee explained that the barren ground was “hard” to walk on, compared to the bog, where you are “going up and down” when you walk across it reflecting the spongy nature of the peat in the bogs. pickers also noted that bakeapples in both sheltered and barren areas are more “scattered” (i.e., lower density) whereas bakeapples found on mashes tend to be “thick” (i.e., higher density). interviewees reported few plants found in areas with bakeapples but indian tea leaves (rhododendron (ledum) groenlandicum), marshberries or bog cranberries (vaccinium oxycoccos) and “blackberry” bushes were mentioned as being associated with bakeapple. three pickers noted that bakeapples tend to grow well near ponds and along brooks. other descriptions of bakeapple habitat provided by pickers include: in small valleys higher up on an island, in gulches, on the sides of banks, and at the foot of hills, where one interviewee said, “the water dribbles down and the ground isn’t as dry.” another interviewee stated that large and high densities of bakeapples are found in elevated areas, “like little islands” within wet bogs. fruit production and variation—all pickers identified the weather as the main factor influencing fruit production of bakeapple and most prominently at the sensitive blossom stage. interviewees described different kinds of damaging weather, including lightning and thunder, hard rain, frost, and hard wind. these weather conditions can potentially destroy the majority of blossoms in an area and thereby prevent berries from forming. several pickers, however, observed that if a late frost or hard rain destroyed all the developed blossoms, some bakeapples might still fruit. this is due to the variability in fruit development within an area, so blossoms that have not emerged yet may still turn to fruit. if these kinds of damaging weather conditions have occurred, almost half the interviewees said that bakeapples will only be found in among the shrubs and trees (i.e., sheltered areas). dry weather is also said to be detrimental for developing fruit, and can result in the bakeapples “not coming to berries”; this was described mostly for the blossom stage, but sometimes also after the plants had “turned in” (i.e., the time when the “shuck” [calyx or sepals] engulfs the developing berry). one interviewee, when describing how different kinds of weather conditions affect bakeapples, said, ethnobiology letters                                                                                           research communication      9 the sun dries them up and the wind blows them away and the rain knocks them off too…. that sort of thing… the weather got to be sort of normal, hey, and nice normal weather, and showers of light rain and that sort of a thing, helps them to grow…. and if you don't get the rain, it dries up, burns…. a few interviewees said that once the bakeapple reached the “turned in” stage, it was unaffected by the weather, while others said it could still be affected by some adverse weather conditions, such as frost. favorable weather conditions outlined by some pickers include an abundance of snow in the winter and a balance of rain/fog/dampness and warm weather once the bakeapple has turned in. one interviewee said the rain “brings the shucks away from the berry.” interviewees report that the size of bakeapple fruits can vary considerably among patches and years as well as within a patch in a given year. both sheltered habitats and barren areas were reported by pickers to have larger berries and lower densities of bakeapple plants than bog areas. pickers also note that larger berries may be found at the bottoms of hills and within depressions, or “valleys” in high elevation areas. interviewees also discussed differences in the colour of the bakeapples, which can vary from pale orange to red. one interviewee observed redder berries on drier areas while another interviewee noted that the larger bakeapples tend to have a paler color. aspects of bakeapple use the when, who & where of picking—bakeapples are the first of the wild berries to be harvested in the season. pickers use a range of methods to determine when the bakeapples are ready for picking. some of the older people still observe the weather to determine when to go out picking. for example, an early spring or a hot summer signals pickers to check the bakeapples for ripeness earlier than usual. presently, the most common means of knowing when the berries are ripe is through word of mouth between friends, neighbours and family members and the arrival of the first boat returning with bakeapples. all pickers stated that no other berries or plants were gathered during bakeapple picking, other than for very casual snacking, partly because no other berries were ripe at this time except the lesser valued “blackberries”. some pickers also suggested that the focus on bakeapples was encouraged due to the very short interval between when the berries are too hard and when they become “faded” (overripe). if people do figure 2. a grandfather and his granddaughter picking  bakeapples on one of many islands near charlottetown,  labrador, august, 2004.  not concentrate on this particular species at that time, they will miss the harvest. typically two to five people, who are often relatives, go out bakeapple picking together (figure 2). some older men in the community who harvest bakeapples to sell as a means of supplementing their incomes pick bakeapples alone. all interviewees commented on the fact that currently the younger people in the community (age 20 and under) are mostly not interested in picking bakeapples. this was consistent with the first author’s experience in the community, where she observed and heard of very few young people going out bakeapple picking. the interviewees mostly pick bakeapples on the islands in st. michael’s bay. they often pick in harvesting areas that they frequented in their youth, shown to them by their parents, uncles and aunts. as one interviewee summarized, “we knew handy about where [to go picking]. the old people would tell us.” those who married into the community said they were introduced to good picking places by their in-laws. due to the unpredictable nature and annual variability of bakeapple fruit yields from one place to the next, most pickers noted that it was important to check all bakeapple spots every year. eight of the ethnobiology letters                                                                                           research communication      10 interviewees recognized bakeapple-picking places that were accessed exclusively by specific individuals or families, which were generally left for them to pick. the remaining interviewees stated that there is no “ownership” or “claiming” of bakeapple areas and that the first person to go to an area in bakeapple season is considered free to harvest the berries. those who identified exclusive bakeapple areas, explained that such spots were named after the person who was credited with discovering them, or who had picked a large quantity of bakeapples there at one time, or who was known to pick regularly at that site. harvesting protocols—most interviewees did not describe any special technique for picking bakeapples but some noted conventions to follow, such as the importance of not pulling the stalks out from the ground while picking, as this damages the bakeapple plant and could impede the next year’s growth. if bakeapples are picked before they are ripe, there are a few ways to “shuck” (remove the calyx from) the berry, which can be done either while picking or after returning home. some pickers use their thumb to snap the berry from the shuck, and a few used their teeth for this. two interviewees talked about not “picking through” the bakeapples, meaning not to select only the very large berries, but instead pick all those that are ripe in a given patch. one interviewee was taught by his mother or uncle to avoid certain berries: …while you was there, picking with them and they'd talk about the berry, this one here was blighted [spoiled]…. and they'd always tell us, they'd show us, the berry to pick, right? … don’t pick ’em if …they got old spots into them, right?…. we were always taught not to do that. a few of the older interviewees expressed concern over berry grounds being “trampled” by other pickers, either where fruits or just the plants were damaged. one person viewed this as being very disrespectful to the bakeapples. a few interviewees also mentioned one particular area in town that used to produce bakeapples but where the potential for the area to produce fruit had been destroyed due to considerable use by atvs (all-terrain vehicles). the topic of picking unripe bakeapples was brought up by many interviewees. while most people expressed the importance of waiting until the berries are soft (i.e., ripe) before picking them, for a number of reasons, many people actually tend to pick from a few to many hard (i.e., unripe) berries. these reasons included: if there were not enough hard berries to warrant a later return trip to a particular patch; they are better for jam than soft berries; pickers are unable to resist picking really large berries (despite their ripeness); hard (red) berries give the berry mix a better colour in desserts; and that a few hard berries prevent bakeapple pies from being soggy. some factors have discouraged people from picking the harder, unripe berries, such as the extra time required for cleaning unripe berries (must remove shuck from berry) and the fact that unripe berries get “rubbery” after they are left to ripen and do not taste as good as berries harvested when ripe. the quantities of bakeapples harvested in a household each year is affected by a number of factors: the number of individuals in the family interested in harvesting and consuming bakeapples; the productivity of the bakeapples in a given year; and the time available for picking and processing them. individuals who sell bakeapples will pick a much larger quantity of bakeapples than those just picking for consumption. interviewees use plastic buckets to pick bakeapples. the “boil-up” is a social event that is often associated with berry picking (and other outdoor activities). this is “how you get your lunch,” explained one interviewee. the basic requirements for a “boil-up” are a fire and a kettle or container for boiling water to make tea. common favourite foods at the boil up are molasses bread and mussels roasted over the fire. boilups are not tied specifically to bakeapple picking, however, and are held throughout the year. processing, consuming & preserving—interviewees generally agreed that it is the women’s – the mother of the family and sometimes the oldest daughters – job to carry out all bakeapple processing activities following the harvest. a point of pride is for some to pick the berries so “clean” that it is not necessary to go through them afterwards. bakeapples are consumed in a variety of ways, for example with cream and sugar and in pies. currently, cheesecake is the most popular form of dessert using bakeapples. generally, interviewees freeze their bakeapples. some also store bakeapples in canning jars, either as jam or simply scalded briefly. a few interviewees make bakeapple jam using “freezer jam gelling powder” so the bakeapples do not need to be heated. economic aspects of bakeapples selling berries is relatively new to the community of charlottetown. mostly retired fishermen pick large quantities of bakeapples to sell. the first author was told that bakeapples can sell for up to $80 a gallon during years when the quantity is low. although some ethnobiology letters                                                                                           research communication      11 interviewees sell their bakeapples, other interviewees did not support this practise. i never sold a bakeapple in my life… never a berry in my life... and i give away dozens and dozens of gallons…never ever bothered to charge them.… i'm no worse off for it, i'm only gonna live till i die, just like everybody does... no more than that to it. one interviewee said he only sold enough bakeapples to pay for his gas. some pickers said they would buy bakeapples if they were not able to pick enough while others said they would go without. most interviewees reported giving away their bakeapples to others. one interviewee said, “we give away a lot of berries. we give away half of what we pick.” another interviewee talked about giving bakeapples to a family in the community: “they're right delighted if they had a bag of bakeapples... ’cause where they’re busy, they don't get to go out and get bakeapples.” interviewees also describe situations where bakeapples are given to others who have given something to them (e.g., raspberries or caribou) or who did something nice for them (e.g., gathered wood for their house). importance of bakeapple bakeapples and partridgeberries [“redberries”] and salmon and trout… that's pretty much the community, it’s a lot of it… they’re important in terms of diet in your home… all of the tradition and the stories and the things that come with it… something i did as a kid, now i pass on that to my child…. it was a thing you'd always try to get, if you could get them, hey ... redberries [partridgeberries] and bakeapples, that was the two main berries, now you picked blueberries and a few blackberries [crowberries] for buns and puddings, but bakeapples and redberries…, that was the two main ones, yeah. bakeapple is important to the community of charlottetown, in terms of its relatively high profile compared to other wild berries, as a component of traditional foods of the labrador métis and in its role in the social and cultural fabric of the community. all interviewees identified bakeapple as one of the two “main berries” for the community (the other being redberry). along with redberries and wild meat and fish, bakeapples formed one of the primary food staples for the community in the past and therefore played a large role in the social life of the community that still exists today. …with every island there came a story… boat ran ashore… or where they hunted…. maybe they came across a bear during berry picking, or something that had happened with a whale… where grandfather would set up tent… just stories, everyday stories, right? it was often during the activity of bakeapple picking that local knowledge associated with bakeapples and living out on the land and waters was communicated from parents or older relatives to children. according to the middle aged interviewees who recalled their childhood experiences, it was at this time, for example, that children learned about the history of the islands where they were picking. this included both biological (e.g., history of fluctuations in bakeapple abundance) and social (e.g., past berry picking experiences on the islands) aspects pertaining to the land, as well as practical knowledge such as how to start a fire and where to get fuel. children and youth would learn all facets of bakeapple harvesting, ranging from the location of picking areas and habitat characteristics of the best sites, to various influences on bakeapple abundance, and techniques used in picking. one middle aged interviewee explained: …[bakeapple picking is] a part of my culture and it’s a part of who i am… a part of that history… passed down, so it’s meaningful…. the times that are important to me in my childhood and the memories that stand out are the memories of berry picking, with dad. older (over 60) pickers often described the importance of bakeapple picking more simply in the terms of “your living.” yeah, and it’s something you should never give up, hey... give up picking berries, because it's a part of your living, it's something that's good to be at, it’s out of doors… and it’s our way of living, really, that's what we grew up doing, hey.… bakeapples are also considered a healthful food, especially important for the residents before the clinic was introduced to the community in 1975. one interviewee, who is 74 years old, said, “one time now people used to use it, like if someone was sick, make bakeapple drink.” another interviewee noted that bakeapples are good for a bad stomach, that they won’t “burn the stomach.” he also recalled, a woman said to me one time, a nurse, years ago, she said ‘you’re a healthy crowd.’ i have seven sisters, i’m the only brother.… we grew up with bakeapple drink... partridgeberry ethnobiology letters                                                                                           research communication      12 drink… that was our foods to eat, and we were a healthy family. many of the interviewees made a number of comments about bakeapple that reflected its importance to the community. one interviewee said, “oh, we’d be lost if we never got our bakeapples! …[i] enjoy it… as cripple[d], as bad as my legs are, but i love berry picking, out in the fresh air.” another interviewee said, “…you missed it, when there was none, when the berry was scarce.” one interviewee declared, “i’d just sooner have bakeapples than i would meat; we love them.” other pickers described bakeapple as a “delicacy” and a “luxury.” these sentiments as well as the specialized local terms around bakeapple ecology and its role in the informal economy, illustrate the fundamental role bakeapple plays in the social practises and culture of the community of charlottetown. this importance was corroborated by observations the first author made in the community. for one, she was known as the ‘bakeapple lady’ by community members during her stay in charlottetown, which highlights how familiar the community members were with this berry. community events that the first author attended, such as a baby shower and the shrimp festival, always had bakeapple products, such as bakeapple cheesecake. leading up to and throughout the bakeapple picking season, bakeapples were frequently discussed in the community (e.g., what the bakeapples were like this year, how much people picked). other community members, in addition to the interviewees, would use the specialized local terms for bakeapple, such as talking about the “turned in” stage. considerations for the future one consideration for future use of bakeapple is how the lack of interest in bakeapple picking by younger generations may influence the collective knowledge and social protocols associated with this berry. since young people do not often attend family bakeapple picking events, they are no longer receiving detailed knowledge from their older relatives that is shared on these trips, such as stories tied to islands and the ecological understandings of bakeapple. younger people may become interested in bakeapple picking later in their lives, but will the older generations be there to teach them the knowledge associated with bakeapple and its use? even younger adults in their 30s found that they did not possess the knowledge of their parents since they have not been on the land as much as their parents were when they grew up. another consideration is the recent small scale commercialization of bakeapple in charlottetown and how this may change. the sale of bakeapples will likely remain a small component of the economy in charlottetown, since – based on our observations and conversations with community members –bakeapples are not abundant enough to support increased commercialization. red bay (south of charlottetown) and black tickle (north of charlottetown) both have much higher local abundance and bakeapple plays larger roles in their local economies. it will be interesting to see if young people in addition to the older retired fishermen become interested in picking bakeapples for sale. financial gains from bakeapple picking would have to outweigh the physical discomforts of picking them since bakeapple picking is quite challenging due to high temperatures, lots of black flies, and spongy terrain. social protocols around bakeapple picking may also be influenced by changing frequency in the sale of bakeapples. the sharing of bakeapples appeared to be part of the informal economy, as a way to give something to someone who has given something to you or given you assistance or to help out people who are not able to get berries themselves. some interviewees seemed quite resistant to the idea of selling berries, perhaps because of the importance of bakeapples in the informal economy. there could be shifts in the role of bakeapple in sharing networks in the community if it becomes better known as a commodity by community members. conclusion this study has documented local ecological knowledge, social aspects of use and importance of bakeapple in a small coastal métis community in eastern canada. the interviewees provided a number of unique observations and understandings of bakeapple ecology, in areas such as habitat and phenology. they also had a number of social conventions and rules that dictated the ways in which bakeapple is harvested and used. a few areas could be explored for future study. for one, an experimental study could be designed building on the interviewees’ ecological observations of bakeapple habitat and corresponding fruit characteristics. bakeapple fruit size, quality and abundance could be systematically compared between mashes and the barren areas. another avenue for future research would be to undertake participatory work in the community to identify people’s thoughts on bakeapple use in the context of maintaining and renewing traditional foods in view of their importance to health and cultural heritage. ethnobiology letters                                                                                           research communication      13 bakeapple has been, and remains, an important plant food for the people of charlottetown, an integral part of the culture and lifestyle. although bakeapples are no longer essential nutritionally as one of the sole sources of fruit for the winter, they still hold high importance to the community. local people’s ecological understandings of bakeapple illustrate their close observation of and connection to this species. it remains to be seen in what ways the changes in social practices – especially fewer young people picking bakeapples– will affect the role this berry will play within the social fabric of the people of charlottetown in the future. today, bakeapples can be assessed as a food “at risk” and, given its important social and nutritional contributions, it is one definitely worthy of increased attention and interest. acknowledgements we are very grateful to the labrador métis nation, and especially to the people of charlottetown for their warm hospitality, and for sharing their knowledge and insights on bakeapple and community life, and for their overall support of this project. we would also like to acknowledge coasts under stress major collaborative research project (dr. rosemary ommer, project director), funding through the social sciences and humanities research council of canada, national sciences and engineering research council of canada, and the northern scientific training program. our deep thanks also go to: dr. barbara neis and dr. luise hermanutz, memorial university of newfoundland; dr. geraldine allen and dr. joe antos, university of victoria; and dr. ken marr of the royal british columbia museum, victoria. many thanks also to carla mellott, stu crawford, and three anonymous reviewers for providing comments on a previous draft of the manuscript. references cited anderson, j. p. 1939. plants used by the eskimo of the northern bering sea and arctic regions of alaska. american journal of botany 26:714-716. andre, a. and a. fehr. 2001. gwich’in ethnobotany: plants used by the gwich’in for food, medicine, shelter and tools. gwich’in social and cultural institute, aurora research institute, northwest territories. arnason, t., r. j. hebda, and t. johns. 1981. use of plants for food and medicine by native peoples of eastern canada. canadian journal of botany 59:21892325. berkes, f. 1999. sacred ecology. taylor and francis, philadelphia, pa. clement, d. 1990. l’ethnobotanique montagnaise de mingan. centre d’études nordiques, université laval, quebec. eidlitz, k. 1969. food and emergency food in the circumpolar area. studia ethnographica upsaliensia xxxii. almqvist and wiksells boktryckert ab, uppsala, sweden. griffin, d. 2001. contributions to the ethnobotany of the cup’it eskimo, nunivak island, alaska. journal of ethnobiology 21:91-127. hawkes, e. w. 1916. the labrador eskimo. government printing bureau, no. 1637. johnson reprint corporation, new york. heller, c. 1976. wild edible and poisonous plants of alaska. cooperative extension service bulletin f-40, university of alaska, college. holloway, p. s. and g. alexander. 1990. ethnobotany of the fort yukon region, alaska. economic botany 44:214-225. jones, a. 1983. nauriat niginaqtuat: plants that we eat. maniilaq association, kotzebue, alaska. kari, p. r. 1987. tanaina plantlore. dena’ina k’et’una: an ethnobotany of the dena’ina indians of southcentral alaska, 2nd ed. us national park service, alaska region. karst, a. 2005. the ethnoecology and reproductive ecology of bakeapple (rubus chamaemorus l. rosaceae) in southern labrador. unpublished master’s thesis, department of biology, university of victoria, victoria, bc, canada. kuhnlein, h. v. and n. j. turner. 1991. traditional plant foods of canadian indigenous peoples: nutrition, botany and use. gordon & breach science publishers, philadelphia, pennsylvania. makinen, y. and h. oikarinen. 1974. cultivation of cloudberry in fennoscandia. report from the kevo subarctic research station 11:90-102. murray, g., p. boxall, and r. w. wein. 2005. distribution, abundance and utilization of wild berries by the gwich’in people in the macknezie river delta region. economic botany 59:174-184. omohundro, j. t. 1994. rough food: the seasons of subsistence in northern newfoundland. institute of social and economic research, memorial university of newfoundland, st. johns. ethnobiology letters                                                                                           research communication      14 oswalt, w. 1957. a western eskimo ethnobotany. anthropological papers of the university of alaska 6:16-36. parlee, b., f. berkes, and teetl’it gwich’in renewable resources council. 2006. indigenous knowledge of ecological variability and commons management: a case study on berry harvesting from northern canada. human ecology 34:15-528. russell, p. n. 1991. english bay and port graham alutiiq plant lore. pratt museum. homer, alaska. shishmaref day school. 1952. eskimo cook book. shishmaref, alaska. taylor, k. 1971. biological flora of the british isles. rubus chamaemorus l. journal of ecology 59:293-306. thornton, t. f. 1999. tleikw aaní, the “berried” landscape: the structure of tlingit edible fruit resources at glacier bay, alaska. journal of ethnobiology 19:27-48. turner, n. j. 1995. food plants of coastal first peoples. ubc press, vancouver. turner, n. j. 2004. plants of haida gwaii. xaadaa gwaay guud gina k'aws (skidegate), xaadaa gwaayee guu giin k'aws (massett). sono nis press, winlaw, b.c. turner, n. j. and j. c. thompson, eds. 2006. plants of the gitga’at people. ‘nwana’a lax yuup. hartley bay, bc: gitga’at nation and coasts under stress research project, cortex consulting, victoria, b.c. walker, r. 1985. applied qualitative research. gower publishing company, uk. young, s. b. and e. s. hall. 1969. contributions to the ethnobotany of the st. lawrence island eskimo. anthropological papers of the university of alaska 14:43-53. biosketch amanda karst has a master of science degree in biology,  with  a  focus on  ethnobotany  and plant  ecology.    she  is  currently  a  research  associate  at  the  centre  for  indigenous  environmental  resources  where  she  has  worked  on  projects  on  climate  change,  watershed  planning and traditional foods.  nancy  turner  is  distinguished  professor  and  holds  the  hakai chair  in ethnoecology at the university of victoria.  she has published widely in the areas of ethnobotany and  ethnoecology over  the past 40  years,  and was proud  to  serve as graduate advisor for amanda karst’s msc degree  at uvic. she has a special love of edible berries.        ethnobiology letters                                                                                                                                                                      research communication    15    table 1.   list of names, uses and importance of rubus chamaemorus among indigenous peoples of north america.    group  location  bakeapple name bakeapple  importance  how used gathering processing cup’it (inuit)    (griffin 2001)  nunivak island,  alaska  atsar atsakutag most sought  after berry on  island  eaten raw,  frozen for  winter use, or  mixed with  other berries  into akutar    by women/children  in late summer/early  fall  stored in seal‐pokes w/o being cooked; or  stored in rock‐lined underground pits, lined  with rumex arcticus leaves, berries packed in,  covered with more leaves, sod, then rocks  huna tlingit    (thornton 1999)  glacier bay,  alaska  néx´w  minor in relation  to rest of berries  ‐‐‐‐‐ available in spring,  men/women/  children  all gathered  ‐‐‐‐‐ inupiat    (jones 1983)  alaska  aqpik, ‐piik, ‐piich of all berries,  most prized for  being 1st to ripen,  large, sweet,  easy to pick and  keep well; most  significant source  of vit. c, and  good source of  roughage  eaten fresh,  with seal oil and  sweetener after  meal, as eskimo  ice cream,  preserved with  blackberries  groups of women or  whole families,  berries picked  individually by hand,  gathered (and  stored) in birch  baskets, pokes (sacks  made from animal  (includes birds and  fish) skin) or wooden  containers (now  replaced by plastic  and glass).  folded into “fluffy” fat to make eskimo ice  cream; preserved in a seal poke or barrel,  (keep best if mixed with something else) or  mixed with blackberries/ raw whole sourdock  leaves/ nagoonberries/ firm cloudberries/  seal oil/blueberries and stored in pits (lined  with grass then coltsfoot, sourdock or  rhubarb and covered with leaves, grass, and  birch bark or sigluaq (small house dug part or  all into the ground, covered with sod) for  winter    ethnobiology letters                                                                                                                                                                      research communication    16    inuit    (anderson 1939)  northern bering  sea and arctic  regions of  alaska  akpik, epik “most widely  distributed of  rosaceae  berries”  eaten fresh or  preserved  preserved in oil inuit    (shishmaref  school 1957)  shishmaref,  alaska  ah‐pick  ‐‐‐‐‐ ‐‐‐‐‐ gathered in dippers  or pots, put into  amouk (bag made of  seal skin), tie with  string  stored in a pit, 18 inches deep, with a little  willow in it, “put in as many pokes as it will  hold”  inuit, general    (heller 1976)      barter island,  shishmaref,  kotzebue,  noorvik, nome,  lower  kuskokwim  akpik,   ahtchaigpiat    “highly prized” eaten raw, with  seal oil and  sugar and  preserved  gathered in late  august, early  september, in seal  poke, keg or barrel.  large quantities stored by burying seal poke,  keg or barrel in frozen tundra or in ice cellars  – kept frozen until ready to use  gwich’in    (andre and fehr  2001)  inuvik,   nwt  naskal  yellowberry  a favourite in the  area  eaten fresh,  saved for special  occasion or  given as gift  ‐‐‐  stored in birch bark baskets under the moss,  where permafrost kept them from spoiling  and in winter, from freezing too hard  gwich’in  (holloway and  alexander 1990)  fort yukon,  alaska    limited use infrequently  harvested  processed into jam and jelly napaskiak inuit    (oswalt 1957)  napaskiak,  alaska  sw alaska  at’sut  the berry most  important to this  group  gathered by families,  go by boat to open  tundra country  behind village, for 3  days  stored in wooden barrels over winter (in ice  cellar)  dena’ina  (tanaina)    south‐central  alaska     nqutl’  highly favoured  for its juicy fruit  and gathered in  eaten fresh or  preserved  women in charge of  gathering and  processing all plant  traditionally preserved in oil or lard (or will  spoil). presently commonly eaten raw or  made into jam or “indian ice cream”.    ethnobiology letters                                                                                                                                                                      research communication    17    (kari 1987)  quantity when  available  materials, in birch  bark or wooden  containers          traditionally stored in caches: platform  cache, underground frame cache and pit  cache  alutiiq    (russell 1991)  english bay‐ port  graham  alaska    not plentiful but  “relished”  eaten raw, in  alutiiq ice  cream, with seal  oil, and  preserved;  shared, given as  gifts,  occasionally  traded  women and children  main gatherers (but  sometimes berry  gathering a family  event), cleaned by  hand, gathered in  spruce bark  containers, now in  plastic containers,  mid‐july to mid‐ august       traditionally eaten with seal oil and sugar or  mixed with alutiiq ice cream. preserved in  seal oil, dried, or preserved in water. stored  in pit cache (in wooden kegs and seal  stomachs, pit lined with spruce bark and  grass) or platform cache (contained dried  berries held in round spruce bark containers).  recently, preserved by freezing, making into  jams and jellies  labrador inuit  (hawkes 1916)  labrador    “chief” among  the berries  montagnais  (clément 1990)  labrador  shakuteumin‐ ânakashî  gathered in great  quantities  inuit    (young and hall  1969)  st. lawrence  island  ahkahavazik not available in  large quantities,  but relished  when found  “some older  inuit claim that  there is a good  crop only once  every 4 yrs”  gathered by women  and young girls  “say when the berries are exceptionally  abundant, called yewewmattomililinggook,  meaning “man with no clothes on”; b/c the  berries colour the tundra flesh coloured”    ethnobiology letters                                                                                                                                                                      research communication    18    haida    (turner 2004)  bakeapple name:  k'aaxu ts’alaangga,   (skidegate dialect);   k'a.àw ts’alaangaa (massett dialect);  k'aawts’aláangaa (alaska dialect);  cloudberry,   mars apples, maltberry   eaten in large  quantities,  extremely  popular  stored in water or grease in tall boxes,  barrels; now become rare since deer and  cattle introduced on haida gwaii  tsimshian  (gitga’at)  (turner and  thompson  2006)  hartley bay  golk’  it is good luck to  see them at  hartley bay, up in  the back where  the lake is  ate them fresh,  or made into  jam  called ‘jam  kolk’    karst-turner proof.pdf karst t1 echinacea: herbal medicine with a wild history. edited by kelly kindscher. 2016. springer international publishing, switzerland. 238 pp. stiegler. 2017. ethnobiology letters 8(1):56–57 56 reviews herbal remedies and their connections with western biomedical studies of plants and their impact on human health. native peoples kept their use and traditions alive and often taught anthropologists about herbal remedies, informing western studies of plant bioactivity. historic ecological knowledge serves as an effective platform for the stepwise rediscovery of biochemically active plant resources. over centuries, native americans developed their pharmacopeia of botanical resources through knowledge transmission, trial-and-error, and by virtue of the perceptual salience or obviousness of ambient taxa in surrounding environs. throughout this volume, the authors clearly acknowledge the survival of medicinal plant knowledge among native americans depended largely on efficacy. thus, one can conclude that notions of western science as the only mechanism revealing accurate knowledge are shortsighted. herein lies kindscher’s assertion that it is essential to preserve traditional ecological knowledge. traditional ecological knowledge transmits timetested, accurate information about the utility of specific plant resources such as echinacea, and therefore illustrates why biological and cultural conservation are essential for the survivorship and wellbeing of humankind. botanical resources such as echinacea can be bioactive or hold symbolic meaning in ritual and religious contexts. in either case, the authors make it clear that echinacea is important for the continued survival of people and their ways of life. the authors perhaps overlooked an opportunity to describe the most common system through which human knowledge is transmitted—language. in the this edited volume is biocultural in scope, as it elucidates links between cultural beliefs and values, traditional knowledge, economics, and bioactivity associated with the botanical genus echinacea. editor kelly kindscher is particularly well-qualified to write about echinacea given his career-long study of the genus, and his work in kansas and the great plains, where echinacea grows ubiquitously. this book arrives at a time when wild echinacea populations are threatened due to extensive harvesting and perceived economic values of selected species within the genus. growing supply and demand for echinacea, primarily as a medicinal resource, is associated with its excessive exploitation. this book represents a benchmark volume committed to the importance of echinacea conservation. it is an accumulation of scientific discoveries and wisdom aimed to promote understanding of echinacea conservation, bioactivity, and cultural relevance. the volume aims to distribute information and knowledge regarding these factors, and while over-arching theoretical perspectives are not apparent at first, significant conclusions regarding biocultural diversity conservation can be derived from its pages. kindscher’s first chapter conveys how echinacea maintained its role as a culturally salient botanical genus for millennia in native america. in plains societies, echinacea is widely known and revered as a panacea. in these tribes, knowledge was perpetuated by belief in echinacea’s spiritual power, and its myriad associated healing properties. contact between indigenous peoples and european settlers dramatically changed the dynamics of traditional wild plant knowledge. however, anthropologists are presently recovering and documenting ancient native echinacea: herbal medicine with a wild history. edited by kelly kindscher. 2016. springer international publishing, switzerland. 238 pp. christopher d. stiegler1* 1department of anthropology, university of arkansas, fayetteville, arkansas, usa. *cstiegle@uark.edu received february 15, 2017 open access accepted march 22, 2017 doi 10.14237/ebl.8.1.2017.911 copyright © 2017 by the author(s) licensee society of ethnobiology. this is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution-noncommercial 4.0 international public license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0), which permits non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. stiegler. 2017. ethnobiology letters 8(1):56–57 57 reviews chapter co-authored by kindscher and wittenberg, linnaean binomials of echinacea taxonomy are shown to reflect genetic phylogenies and thereby reveal species commonly used and collected for medicine. kindscher and wittenberg correctly assess how linnaean binomials distinguish which species are important for medical researchers. however, linnaean binomials reveal little (with certain exceptions) about non-western cultural use patterns and associated knowledge of botanicals. the work, while useful and significant, neglects the relevance of common native and folk names for echinacea among human cultures. linguistic data may reveal functional properties of plant domains and their associated cultural relevance. as the work points out, one of the greatest threats to wild echinacea populations is overharvesting, discussed in chapters co-authored by price, riggs, craft, and klein. when echinacea demand is high, collectors tend to prefer wild plants over cultivated ones. wild specimens have not undergone intensive domestication and therefore contain more bioactive alkaloids, rendering them economically valuable. monetary value leads to illegal harvesting, which negatively impacts the biological and ecological status of echinacea as a genus. with data like these, kindscher and other co-authors do a masterful job of illustrating the importance of echinacea conservation and go on to suggest several viable and creative conservation methods and approaches, including the advancement of ethnobotanical research. no doubt these data will be essential for extending awareness of how traditional knowledge promotes accurate conclusions about the guardianship of botanical resources essential to human livelihood and survival. chapters in the volume addressing medical effects of echinacea on human physiology hold special relevance for medical ethnobotanists and others interested in the interaction of botany and human health. the essays co-authored with cao and drisko present luminous materials regarding recent biochemical properties and medical discoveries about echinacea. they effectively inform how cultural and medical resources converge with biochemistry to explain the efficacy of this genus in healing pathways generally. through repeated success and failures, curiosity and experimentation, humans have arrived at effective conclusions that have been synthesized into ethnomedical beliefs pertaining to human health overall. certainly, this book’s relevance to ethnobiology rests in its illustration of how humans are biocultural beings with behaviors and resources under constant modification by biological factors and constraints. cultural beliefs reveal how bioactive resources must be consciously conserved if future generations of humans are to flourish. non-western ecological knowledge should never be viewed as simplistic or ineffective, but crucial for biocultural conservation. anthropologists, ecologists, and others will enjoy this book’s consideration of important knowledge embodied in native worldviews, seen here to inform health, diet, nutrition, and disease-prevention. an optimistic view reveals that most threats to echinacea are created by human behavior, which is potentially easier to reverse than ecological variables currently impacting human wellbeing more broadly. as kindscher and others reveal so persuasively here, humans can be cognizant of their impact on echinacea populations, and therefore act to preserve it. by considering echinacea’s history, cultural and economic value, as kindscher and his colleagues have done so ably in this volume, ethnobotanists may advance their efforts to understand the implications and advantages of safeguarding valuable flora for the benefit of present and future generations. microsoft word letter from the editors[3].doc ethnobiology letters                                                                                                          introductory letter      1 letter from the editors introducing ethnobiology letters  steve wolverton1, cynthia fowler2, david cozzo3    author addresses: 1university of north texas, department of geography, denton, tx 76203,  2wofford college, department of  sociology, spartanburg, south carolina 29303, 3north carolina state university, rtcar, cherokee, nc 28710  ethnobiologyletters@gmail.com    received: july 12th 2010                     volume 1:1‐2  published:                  © 2010 society of ethnobiology    ethnobiology letters (ebl) is a peer-reviewed journal for short papers on topics related to ‘the study of human and plant and animal interactions.’ the journal was created to address a few needs that were explicated during the society of ethnobiology annual board meeting in 2010 in victoria, bc. first, there is no outlet dedicated to publishing short papers for ethnobiologists. second, the journal of ethnobiology, from time to time, receives papers that present important data but that do not fit the mission of the journal to publish full-length, problem-oriented articles. finally, the journal of ethnobiology is published twice per year; an open-access journal will publish a stream of papers between the two issues. to address these concerns, we decided to create a new complementary journal for the purpose of partnering with the journal of ethnobiology and our new, online monograph series contributions in ethnobiology. we immediately envisioned an open-access fully online journal to fill this niche, and ebl was born. we are interested in publishing a variety of types of papers, which we discuss in the rest of this letter. research communications research communications are short case studies that include description of methods, results, and brief discussion of the implications of results. these papers will be tight, short papers that deftly handle small problem-oriented case studies. by no means are these studies to be exhaustive and comprehensive; rather, their appeal should be their brevity and clarity. we envision topical studies with small scopes in ethnoscience, ethnoinguistics, archaeology, and other branches of ethnobiology. these could also include targeted ethnographic accounts, ethnohistorical background, and indigenous perspectives that clarify or contextualize specific topics relevant to ethnobiology. perspectives perspectives present essays about informed opinions, scholarly memoirs, and instructive stories relevant to ethnobiology. these essays may be purely theoretical, important anecdotes, critiques, or short empirical studies that back a theoretical position or an opinion. papers that ‘set the tone’ on an issue, that engage in vigorous debate, or that defend scholarly positions are especially welcome as perspectives. we also welcome responses to preceding perspectives. we anticipate these kinds of papers to challenge members of the discipline through presentation of new and/or provocative ideas. data, methods & taxonomies data, methods & taxonomies portray innovative approaches and/or communicate ethnobiological data, such as plant taxa and linguistic notes. one impetus for publishing ebl is to provide a forum for short contributions that are not very problemoriented and that may be entirely descriptive. for example, many a zooarchaeologist or paleoethnobotanist boasts notebooks full of precise morphological criteria that might be used to separate closely related plant or animal taxa, the remains of which are recovered from archaeological sites. in particular, studies that assess and validate or invalidate particular methods are welcome. in addition to data and methods papers, often important taxonomic lists of plants and animals from field studies should be published so that they are available for wider scholarly use. these lists should be ethnographically contextualized to broaden the impact of their publication. we anticipate publishing such lists with short assessments as to their importance in ebl. book reviews in the past, book reviews have been published in the journal of ethnobiology. however, since the society only ethnobiology letters                                                                                                          introductory letter      2 publishes two issue of the journal per year, it is important to preserve space in the journal for longer pieces. an advantage of publishing book reviews through ebl is that these important essays are made available rapidly through a very accessible forum. we anticipate publishing a greater number of book reviews, and we encourage our readers to submit reviews of intriguing books as often as possible. book reviews are not peer-reviewed but are read and edited by ebl editors. letter from the editors periodically we will write short opinion pieces that touch on issues relevant to the ethnobiologists or that solicit perspectives related to particular problems and issues. we look forward to publishing a variety of brief papers. paper format authors may send submissions as attachment in an email to ethnobiologyletters@gmail.com. texts are limited to 5000 words, 30 cited references, two figures, and one data table. ethnobiology letters follows the style guidelines of the journal of ethnobiology. ethnobiology letters appears in one volume per year and the number of papers varies annually. papers are grouped by type and paginated in their order of appearance in each volume. welcome to ebl. participatory ethnomedicinal cancer research with fante-akan herbalists in rural ghana ethnobiology letters. 2015. 6(1): 66‐79. doi: 10.14237/ebl.6.1.2015.253. 66 research communication cal approaches) (hill et al. 2003). the principal area of study is kormantse, a coastal village in the central region of ghana, west africa, located approximately 62 miles west of the capital city accra. fante akan dialect dominates in kormantse, a historically important fishing and farming community that played a prominent role in the slave trade. the primary occupation is fishing; however, mining activities also occur in the region.1 kormantse borders salt pond to the east and abandze to the west, and has a population of about 6,500 people (personal communications with nana kwame akyen ii, adontenhen of mankessim traditional area and chief of kormantse). kormantse owns a basic school where its members seek their education, and has one medical clinic that treats minor illness and provides injury first aid. the nearest hospital is saltpond municipal hospital, about a 25 minute drive by car. herbal medicines are commonly used by kormantse residents due to their affordability and familiarity as compared to pharmaceutical drugs. background herbal medicine is a primary healthcare option for people in the developing world (cunningham 1993). in africa, for instance, people often consult community herbalists in matters of disease and well-being. previous studies in rural central ghana suggest that the decision to use traditional medicine (herbalists or spiritual healers), as opposed to biomedicine (conventional or “western medicine”), is affected by several factors including access, affordability, as well as cultural views of disease, wellness, and traditional healing methods (aikins 2005; hill et al. 2003). for example, research investigating herbal malaria treatments in fante regions of central ghana (mankessim and kasoa) showed that people select herbal remedies even when pharmaceutical remedies are readily available, due to their lower cost per dose (asase and oppong-mensah 2009). furthermore, differences in traditional and biomedical terminology (particularly in the area of nosology), appear to present a barrier to integrative treatments (healthcare that encourages or uses both traditional and biomediparticipatory ethnomedicinal cancer research with fante-akan herbalists in rural ghana summer ragosta1*, ivelyn harris2, ntim gyakari3, emmanuel otoo4, and alex asase5 author addresses: 1surfing medicine international, p.o. box 548, waialua, hawaii 96791, usa. 2rio grande valley jamaica maroons, moore town, portland, jamaica. 3freelance botanist and technical herbalist, p.o. box 1457, kumasi, ghana. 4p.o. box sp116, salt pond, ghana. 5botany department, university of ghana at legon, p.o. box lg 55, legon, ghana. *corresponding author: surfingmedicine@gmail.com received: september 23, 2014 volume: 6(1):66-79 published: july 21, 2015 © 2015 society of ethnobiology abstract: an ethnomedicinal study was initiated with herbalists in coastal central region ghana to explore how cancer is defined, diagnosed, and treated within a traditional fante-akan context. the participatory, service-oriented investigation included international collaboration with herbalists and traditional plant experts. on-site meetings informed community leaders and members of project intent and methods, guided protocol, and gauged critical support. to provide immediate educational and economic opportunities, hands-on activities with villagers transferred academic and applied skills. ethnographic interviews and voucher specimen collections were conducted with seven herbalists. plant samples were dried and housed locally in a community herbarium cabinet constructed in kormantse. ten cancer ethnopharmacopoeia plants were identified, most of which are species considered native to tropical africa. fante akan herbalists listed various types of cancers they treat with herbal remedies, along with ethnomedicinal descriptions of disease etiology, diagnoses, and treatments. the most common cancer type mentioned was “breast cancer.” topical application was the most often cited method of administering remedies. researchers established key contacts in the kormantse, salt pond, and elmina communities, and identified local and international research collaborators for a proposed interdisciplinary project focused on longitudinal case studies with herbalists, patients, and medical physicians. keywords: ethnomedicine, ghana, collaborative research, ethnopharmacopoeia, cancer ethnobiology letters. 2015. 6(1): 66‐79. doi: 10.14237/ebl.6.1.2015.253. 67 research communication according to laryea et al. (2014), region-specific cancer rates have not been adequately documented in ghana. the first population-based cancer registry in the country was established in 2012 in the urban city of kumasi, located in the ashanti region about 110 miles north of kormantse. the kumasi registry data showed that the most commonly diagnosed cancers were, in decreasing order, liver, prostate, lung, and stomach among men; and breast, cervix, ovary, and endometrium among women (laryea et al. 2014). country-wide data from 2012 indicated that cervical cancer is the most commonly diagnosed cancer among ghanaian women (american cancer society 2015), with over 50% of these cases attributed to the vaccine preventable2 human papillomavirus (hpv) types 16 and 18 (ebu et al. 2015). according to adanu et al. (2010), regular cervical cancer screening (associated with early detection and improved mortality rates for women diagnosed with the disease) is not common in ghana. an ethnographic study of cervical cancer awareness among fante women in elmina (a large coastal town about 22 miles west of kormantse) identified social (e.g., religious and cultural beliefs), institutional (e.g., no local screening clinics, lack of health education and cervical cancer information), and cost factors that prevented women from seeking cervical cancer screening tests (ebu et al. 2015). these barriers to conventional biomedical access are juxtaposed by relatively high numbers of traditional medicine practitioners in ghana (compared to number of physicians), leading many to choose herbal medicine in matters of disease treatment and prevention (busia 2005). ethnomedicinal comparisons since traditional herbal medicine is a critical component of rural healthcare, safety and efficacy are a concern for both herbalists and the public they serve, and many traditional practitioners in africa have expressed interest in cooperating with biomedical physicians to improve their status as respected healthcare providers (busia 2005). however, in order to make cross-cultural parallels between traditional and conventional medicine, ethnomedicinal terminology must first be relatable to biomedical taxonomy. yet, there are currently no studies known to us that adequately describe and define fante ethnomedicinal taxonomy in a conventional medicine context. social constructs of wellness and remedy efficacy vary within and across ethnicities, and some health related expressions may be wholly culturally constructed (etkin 1988; kleinman 1978). associating emic disease terms with ethnographically derived descriptions of etiology, treatment procedures, and biological symptoms and systems can improve understandings of ethnomedicinal concepts which, when correlated with biomedical classification systems, may facilitate comparative research and cross -cultural collaborations, improve health education programs, as well as increase access to and overall quality of healthcare (berlin and berlin 2005; browner et al. 2007; etkin 1988). through collaborative and participatory ethnobotanical research, our goal is to better understand traditional remedies for cancer and to facilitate crosscultural medical knowledge transfer. although no perfect protection from unintended and unforeseen misappropriation of published information is known to the authors, this ethnomedicinal documentation aims to protect intellectual property of participating fante herbalists by presenting prior art evidence pertaining to traditional knowledge of bioactivity associated with the plant species listed here,3 with the intention of discouraging its use in extra-cultural and non-collaborative ventures.4 furthermore, it is anticipated to augment positive safeguards legislated in intellectual property rights laws, acts, and instruments administered by the ghana registrar-general’s department (dutfield 2003; sackey and kasilo 2010). our publication objective is to provide fante akan herbalists in kormantse and surrounding areas access to their traditional knowledge in a written format, and to encourage grassroots-initiated collaborative ethnomedicinal projects focused on sustainable equitable economic and social development in the region. two primary questions guide this research: 1) what plant species are used in fante akan cancer ethnopharmacopoeia; and 2) how is cancer defined, diagnosed, and treated within the traditional herbalist practitioner system in coastal areas of central region ghana? methods this study initiation was conducted under ethical guidelines proposed by the 2006 international society of ethnobiology (2006) code of ethics (with 2008 additions). prior informed consent documents were drafted according to university of ghana noguchi medical research institutional review board guidelines. previous exploratory research carried out in ghana in 2005 (ragosta 2011)5 enabled professional relationships and rapport to develop among investiga ethnobiology letters. 2015. 6(1): 66‐79. doi: 10.14237/ebl.6.1.2015.253. 68 research communication tors and community participants. over a period of several months (september 2012 to july 2013), project discussions by mail, email, and telephone allowed ghanaian co-researchers and key collaborators to review methodology, ask questions, and suggest changes. the preliminary field study was conducted over a period of ten days in july and august 2013. additional follow-up meetings and plant collections with participating herbalists and local project leaders (carried out in july 2014 and april 2015) confirmed interview data and species identifications. we worked with traditional herbalists who use plants to heal and treat disease. selection of herbalist participants was purposive and accomplished with help from local key collaborators6 (bernard 2006; tongco 2007). a village meeting was initiated to gauge support, identify participants, and review research methods with community members and leaders. individual written informed consent was received prior to each interview. a fante-english translator assisted in prior informed consent discussions and interviews. research goals, including intention to publish results of the study, and data collection methodology were discussed in detail with each individual participant. potential risks associated with unintended misappropriation of published information were described to participants by means of prior informed consent documentation and discussions. herbalists were asked to not disclose information they wished to remain secret. participants were given opportunity to review the article manuscript and were asked for final permission prior to publication. data gathering methods included plant collections and formal semi-structured interviews using predetermined open-ended and direct questions (bernard 2006); for example, “what conditions do you treat?,” “please explain the effects of the remedies you use to treat cancer”, “what plants are in your remedies?,” and “can you show us the plant(s) and may we take a sample?” most of the herbalists were interviewed initially in group settings, followed by individual interviews and observations at each participant’s place of practice.7 group interviews and nightly plant pressing activities functioned as training sessions for community members leading herbarium management, participant meeting organization, and subsequent interviews and plant collections. pressed and dried plant samples (voucher specimens) were prepared to provide a concrete link between vernacular and botanical classification systems and to positively identify species discussed and shown to researchers during interviews (alexiades and sheldon 1996; etkin et al. 1999). specimens were pressed and dried in the village of kormantse (figure 1). after foreign researchers left ghana, participating community members mounted the dried vouchers and constructed a small herbarium cabinet to house the specimens. the kormantse participants also sent a set of vouchers for deposit in the national forestry commission herbarium in kumasi. a ghanaian taxonomist (gyakari) worked with researchers to assist with plant identification in the field. dichotomous keys published in the flora of tropical west africa (hutchinson and dalziel 1936, 1954, 1958, 1963, 1968, 1972) were consulted to aid species determinations. digital photographs were taken of plant specimens to create a virtual copy of the herbarium. plant taxonomy and authorship was authenticated with tropicos (missouri botanical figure 1. collecting voucher specimens for the kormantse herbarium. ethnobiology letters. 2015. 6(1): 66‐79. doi: 10.14237/ebl.6.1.2015.253. 69 research communication garden 2014) and the plant list (2013) databases. distribution status was verified via african plant database (2012) and the flora of tropical west africa (hutchinson and dalziel 1936, 1954, 1958, 1963, 1968, 1972). we focused on building long-term relationships in the community through educational service projects and participatory research (juliá and kondrat 2005; kobetz et al. 2009; vandebroek 2013). crosscultural experiential educational sessions were organized and led by experts from jamaica, ghana, and the united states.8 community participants were given opportunities to learn through hands-on activities and small-group sessions (ranging from about two to seven participants) focusing on videography, ethnography, medicinal plant taxonomy and use, african diaspora ethnohistory, voucher curation, native timber species seed germination, and handcarved craft (figure 2). these activities were filmed by both foreign project leaders and kormantse community members. to fully involve the community in all aspects of the research, from the planning and methods development stages to the research write-up and publication submission process, correspondence was maintained between foreign and local project leaders and herbalists via mail, email, phone, and text. official project meetings with participating herbalists and local leaders were held in kormantse after foreign researchers left ghana, and drafts of the preliminary research summary and results were shared with meeting attendees for review and approval. results as a result of this project, the participating herbalists residing in the kormantse and salt pond areas have established a fante herbalist consortium, which acts as a steering committee for long-term research goals and local project development. a major focus for the herbalists is to construct a centralized clinic as a place to consult with and treat patients, as well as to collaboratively research aspects of their ethnomedicinal knowledge. interviews, collections, and observations were carried out with seven fante herbalists, including five figure 2. local participants receive hands-on training in both practical and academic arts; clockwise from left to right: handcarved wooden craft, voucher preparation and taxonomy, and videography. photos by guy a. ragosta. ethnobiology letters. 2015. 6(1): 66‐79. doi: 10.14237/ebl.6.1.2015.253. 70 research communication men and two women. we identified ten cancer ethnopharmacopoeia species used by these herbalists (table 1). the herbalists talked about “different kinds of cancer” they have treated with plant based remedies: breast, leg, hand, arm, head, nose, penis, prostate, skin, stomach, thigh, abdomen tumor, and vagina. breast cancer was the most commonly cited cancer type treated (mentioned by five out of seven herbalists). one herbalist emphasized that there are various types of breast cancer. none of the herbalists reported any adverse side effects related to their herbal medicine treatments. one herbalist who claimed to have successfully treated about 100 people for cancer stated that “for every cancer there is a particular herb that is appliedfor different cancers-leg, hand, breast, etc.… and for every herb there is a manner of approaching the herb.” cancer was described by one herbalist as a “chronic sore.” another herbalist expounded on the definition, saying, “outside sores can develop into inside sores, an early stage of cancer.” to further explain, this herbalist told us, with leg and arm cancers you will see boils. an outside boil is an indication of an inside sore, and when you press on it the person will feel pain. in the breast there will be no boil, [instead] you will feel a hard painful lump inside and [the person] will feel pain around the heart. because there are a lot of veins in the breast, stones will form inside, meaning that there is an inside wound or sores. also one of the symptoms is itchiness. researchers observed pulverized plant material used in topical treatment applications. one herbalist explained that for both leg and breast cancers the same medicine is used. first, an ointment is applied; then, pulverized woody plant material (a combination of three different plants) is put into a broad leaf and applied to the patient, left for nine days, then replaced. this and other cancer treatment preparation and administration methods mentioned and observed during interviews are presented in table 2.9 of the recorded methods, topically applied remedies were the most common. often, multiple plant species are used in combination. for example, one herbalist who claimed to have cured eight people from breast cancer described one remedy as a combination of four different herbs; the fresh leaves are ground together and rubbed on the patient. or, if the plant material is dry, it will be pounded first, and then ground into a powder, which can be applied directly to the patient or made into a paste first by adding a little water. the herbalist went on to say that the same herbs can also be dried and boiled to make a tea for internal consumption. another herbalist who had been working collaboratively with other herbalists for over 40 years table 1. fante herbalist cancer ethnopharmacopoeia. family species local name species distribution apocyanceae voacanga africana stapf amadansowaa tropical africa apocynaceae asteraceae rauvolfia vomitoria afzel. aspilia africana (p. beauv. ex pers.) c.d. adams kakapempem; kakapenpen mfofo tropical africa tropical africa euphorbiaceae tragia sp. l. nsason; ensasonno n/a fabaceae dialium guineense willd. oserene tropical africa fabaceae mimosa pigra l. asisirow pan-tropical lamiaceae hoslundia opposita vahl abrewanyikanfo tropical and south africa marantaceae marantochloa conferta (benth.) a. c.ley not recorded tropical africa nyctaginaceae boerhavia diffusa l. ntradaa pan-tropical sapindaceae paullinia pinnata l. toantini; akokodwendwn pan-tropical ethnobiology letters. 2015. 6(1): 66‐79. doi: 10.14237/ebl.6.1.2015.253. 71 research communication r e m e d y g e n e ra l ap p lic ati o n m e th o d p re p ar ati o n m e th o d sp e ci fi c ap p lic ati o n m e th o d p la n t p ar t (s ) u se d m u lti p le o r si n gl e sp e ci e s fr e sh o r d ri e d p la n t m at e ri al r e p o rt e d u se 1 c o n su m e (d ri n k) c u t ro o t in to p ie ce s an d m ak e a ti n ct u re w it h lo ca l r u m d ri n k as a " b itt er s" r o o t si n gl e * c h ro n ic s o re s (c an ce r) 2 c o n su m e (d ri n k) d ec o cti o n * fl o w er p ar ts , fr u it s m u lti p le ( tw o sp ec ie s) * sk in c an ce r 3 c o n su m e (d ri n k) d ec o cti o n d ri n k te a * m u lti p le ( fo u r sp ec ie s) d ri ed c an ce r 4 to p ic al p u lv er iz e p u t in to a b ro ad le af , ap p ly t o a ff ec te d ar ea b ar k m u lti p le ( th re e sp ec ie s) * b re as t o r le g ca n ce r 5 to p ic al p o u n d a n d p u lv er iz e in to a p o w d er a p p ly d ir ec tl y le av es m u lti p le ( fo u r sp ec ie s) d ri ed c an ce r 6 to p ic al p o u n d a n d p u lv er iz e in to a p o w d er t h en m ak e a p as te w it h a litt le w at er * le av es m u lti p le ( fo u r sp ec ie s) d ri ed c an ce r 7 to p ic al u se le av e s as a p o u lti ce a d d p al m k er n el o il a p p ly p o u lti ce t o w o u n d le av es si n gl e * c h ro n ic s o re s (c an ce r) 8 to p ic al p o u lti ce o f fr e sh p la n t m at er ia l p u t p o u lti ce in c lo th an d w ra p a ro u n d h an d * m u lti p le ( tw o sp ec ie s) fr es h h an d c an ce r 9 to p ic al o in tm en t w it h p u lv er iz ed p la n t m at er ia l a p p ly t o b re as t o r le g * * * b re as t o r le g ca n ce r 1 0 to p ic al b u rn c ru sh ed h er b s an d r o o ts an d m ix in to v as el in e a p p ly o in tm en t to b re as t * * * b re as t ca n ce r 1 1 to p ic al p u lv er iz e a p p ly d ir ec tl y to b re as t * si n gl e * b re as t ca n ce r 1 2 to p ic al p u lv er iz e r u b o n to a re a le av es m u lti p le ( fo u r sp ec ie s) fr es h c an ce r 1 3 * * * r o o t b ar k si n gl e * st o m ac h c an ce r 1 4 * d ec o cti o n * tr e e st e m , ro o ts si n gl e * b re as t ca n ce r ta b le 2 . a p p lic ati o n a n d p re p ar ati o n m e th o d s o f 1 4 e th n o m e d ic in al c an ce r re m e d ie s re co rd ed d u ri n g in te rv ie w s w it h f an te h e rb al is ts i n c e n tr al r eg io n g h an a. *i n d ic at es u n d is cl o se d o r u n re co rd ed in fo rm ati o n . ethnobiology letters. 2015. 6(1): 66‐79. doi: 10.14237/ebl.6.1.2015.253. 72 research communication showed us a dried and pulverized mixture of three plant species used in breast cancer treatments. most of the herbalists stated they diagnose cancer through observation of the patient and “looking at the symptoms.” one herbalist explained, there are different kinds of cancer. each cancer has its own dosagebreast, leg, hand, vagina. i look at the symptoms then diagnose based on past experience. then i can say what type of cancer, and then prescribe a particular herb for it. and different people with the same cancer may even get a different herb. another herbalist said, “i look at the symptoms [for leg, breast, and thigh cancers]. different parts of the body indicate symptoms.” other diagnostic measures mentioned included patient and medical doctor feedback. for example, according to one herbalist, “doctors confirm diagnosis and cure.” another indicated that they look at the symptoms and ask the patient about physical symptoms. responses to questions regarding duration of cancer treatment regimens ranged from one week to several months. for example, one herbalist stated that “early stage” cancer can be treated in one to two weeks, or up to one month. another herbalist also talked about cancer “stages,” explaining that the duration of treatment depends on factors such as age of the patient, secondary illnesses the patient may have, and “the stage of sickness. initial stage is treated in one week, second stage treated in two weeks, worst stage treated in two-three months.” similarly, a different herbalist described treatments in relation to the “stage” of cancer. when asked about treatment efficacy, this herbalist said, within one hour time of applying herbs, pain vanishes. then after continued treatment the boil vanishes. then with continued treatment, the patient will still feel pain, and then the sores heal. early stage cancer can be treated in one week. worst stage cancer takes three months. other patient health determinants described by herbalists included observations, feedback, and physician confirmations. for example, one herbalist had a dwelling place for the patients so they could be monitored and observed for signs of wellness. this person recalled an instance when a man from the village came to the herbalist’s home. he could not walk, so the herbalist concluded that he had cancer. after applying herbal treatments for three months, the man improved and began to walk. another herbalist listed a three-step process to decide if a patient is healed: “(1) observation, (2) patient testimony, (3) try a two week period of no treatment to check if sickness comes back or not.” this same herbalist also explained, when patients are brought in i look at the symptoms and diagnose, take photographs of them, then start treatment-apply medicine; look at the stages [over time], up or down, then compare the first picture to the last picture and draw conclusions based on changes in observations. two other herbalists stated that patients confirm with medical doctors that their cancer has been cured. one herbalist described the physical symptoms of a cure, for every cancer there is a “sore” inside-so to know if it is cured, you touch the skin and the patient will not feel pain at all; but if they do feel pain (or burning), then there is still a sore inside. one herbalist stated that cancer can be caused by exposure to harmful substances (“chemicals”) in food, or in lotions that are absorbed through the skin. for example, the herbalist explained, some lotions cause bleaching of the skin, which will remove a layer of the skin and can cause cancer. other lotions have chemicals that will attack the breast and decompose the breast. also, women in africa store money in their bras and chemicals from the coins are hazardous to the breast. the herbalist further explained that cancer can be caused by physical injury to the affected area, stating that breast cancer may be caused by intense fondling of the breast, which allows cancer to attack and decompose the breast, causing it to smell; and penis or prostate cancer may be caused by frequent masturbation. this herbalist also said that penis cancer may be caused when gonorrhea medication is improperly ethnobiology letters. 2015. 6(1): 66‐79. doi: 10.14237/ebl.6.1.2015.253. 73 research communication administered by the patient into the penis opening, and explained that the side effects of this behavior over time can lead to cancer. upon our asking, the herbalists expressed interest in participating in long-term case studies involving cooperation with biomedical professionals to confirm diagnoses and patient prognosis over time. there was consensus among participants that a local clinic where herbalists can meet and care for patients would facilitate interdisciplinary collaborations and longitudinal ethnomedicinal research. community service & participatory aspects of research the experiential educational sessions conducted during this research served primarily as a means of cultural knowledge sharing, community capacity building, and reciprocity. for example, a master craftsman taught rural kormantse residents how to hand-carve locally sourced timber into wave-riding vehicles useful for recreation or enterprise (e.g., surf tourism). another foreign project leader shared personal experiences of traditional herbal knowledge publication and business. a ghanaian taxonomist taught kormantse residents how to harvest and germinate musanga cecropioides r. br. ex tedlie seeds, a native west african timber species. filming the community service activities served to transfer videography skills to local youth, with an overarching intention of increased outreach potential when the footage is edited for an educational documentary production. collegial relationships between foreign researchers and kormantse leaders, university of ghana professors, and local botanists facilitated community participation, enabled a locally-driven evolution of long-term goals and research methodology, and encouraged open involvement in data gathering and analyses activities. kormantse community residents were essential to carrying out this research and played vital roles including interview and informed consent interpretation, participant identification, meeting organization, plant collection, herbarium cabinet construction, data review and local dissemination, background research and writing, voucher curation, photographic journaling, follow-up report writing, interviewing, and documentation. additional village meetings with participating herbalists were organized by community members after foreign project participants left ghana. meeting activities included preliminary results review and discussion, feedback reports, additional plant species collection and documentation, voucher preparation, and community garden installation.10 discussion and conclusions most of the plants identified in this study are considered native to tropical west africa and belong to the botanical families apocynaceae and fabaceae. these two plant families are distinguished by the bioactive secondary metabolites typically produced by representative species, namely alkaloids (lin et al. 2011; michael 2005; raffauf and flagler 1960; wink 2003). the coastal ecology of the study region may explain the percentage of species with a pan-tropical distribution (approximately 33%). the long and intense history of trade in central region ghana likely contributed to transatlantic introductions of weedy11 plants such as mimosa pigra l. to tropical american regions of the african diaspora. previously published phytochemical studies on species collected in this research suggest a biological basis for their use in fante cancer treatments. for example, anti-angiogenic12 molecules were isolated from both voacanga africana stapf (voacangine) and boerhavia diffusa l. (punarnavine) (kim et al. 2011; saraswati et al. 2013). at least 22 indole alkaloids have been isolated from rauvolfia vomitoria afzel., including yohimbine, which has been shown to enhance anticancer drug cytotoxicity in multidrug resistant human cancer cell lines (beck et al. 1988; sabri and court 1978). flavonoids were found in extracts of aspilia africana (p. beauv. ex pers.) c.d. adams, hoslundia opposita vahl, mimosa pigra, and paullinia pinnata l. (jimoh et al. 2007; ngadjui et al. 1993; okwu and josiah 2006; yusuf et al. 2003). also, dialium guineense willd. leaf and seed extracts were shown to contain antioxidants (odukoya and sofidiya 2007). fante akan herbalists interviewed in this study often associated the manifestation of cancer with “sores.”13 the herbalists demonstrated and described a variety of preparation methods for their ethnobotanical cancer remedies administered orally or topically, with topical remedies cited most often. how fante cancer ethnomedicine is applied may be a cultural reflection of the disease perception and characterization. cancer diagnoses and cures were stated to be largely based on patient observations and feedback, and sometimes confirmed by physicians. herbalists expressed etiological theories and detailed cancer ethnobiology letters. 2015. 6(1): 66‐79. doi: 10.14237/ebl.6.1.2015.253. 74 research communication “stage” designations, as well as cancer types and subtypes, suggesting a sophisticated ethnomedicinal treatment of cancer, as understood within the local context. breast cancer was the most commonly cited type of cancer treated by the herbalists. this compares to global data (jemal et al. 2011), as well as the 2012 regional kumasi cancer registry data (laryea et al. 2014), which also cite breast cancer as the most common cancer type diagnosed among women, suggesting there may be a similarly high incidence rate among the rural population of kormantse. the herbalists did not mention either cervical or liver cancer types, even though cervical cancer (in women) and liver cancer (in men) are the two most commonly diagnosed cancers in ghana (american cancer society 2015). perhaps this finding is simply because the herbalists interviewed in this study did not treat these types of cancer. alternatively, there could be a discrepancy in fante herbalist and biomedical diagnostics and/or terminology, or a significant difference in kormantse cancer incidence rates compared to the country as a whole. this study was intended to initiate a broader investigation process. continued recording of local medical terminology, symptom descriptions, and ethno-etiology is significant and critical to our appreciation of how health and wellness is conceptualized, and how disease treatments are applied in a fante akan ethnomedicinal context. research questions need further exploration through additional in-depth interviews, participant observations, and plant collections with herbalists and their patients to identify themes in fante-akan traditional medicine, to improve ethnotaxonomic understandings, to better describe how fante herbal remedies are harvested, prepared, and applied, and to identify any additional species in the fante akan cancer ethnopharmacopoeia. also, more inquiry and observations are required to discern how cancer is wholly defined and identified in fante akan ethnomedicine. anticipated collaborations between herbalists and biomedical professionals (e.g., licensed physicians, registered nurses, and researchers) may help describe patient diagnoses and outcomes, gather population-based cancer incidence data, and determine whether fante cancer remedies are prescribed for malignancies, growths, abscesses, and/or other illnesses. herbalists and other project leaders demonstrated considerable attention to their goal of building a kormantse research and education center and clinic, where participating herbalists can direct their own studies,14 document fante traditional knowledge, treat and monitor patients with culturally acceptable counseling and care methods, record clinical data (e.g., diagnoses, longitudinal outcomes, etc.),15 provide educational opportunities for rural people (e.g., promote participatory research and public discussions regarding how cancers may be acquired in the community and ways to minimize risk, encourage cancer screening for early detection, etc.), and host internationally collaborative academic fora. when herbalists and biomedical physicians are able to make clinical observations16 together, symptoms and biological markers used within a fante akan ethnomedicinal context to identify and diagnose cancers can be related to and described by conventional biomedical terminology. the stated research objective of the proposed center is to facilitate community-based working relationships between herbalists, biomedical physicians, and scientists in order to bridge crosscultural gaps in medical terminology and perceptions, as well as to encourage integrative medicine approaches to disease treatment and prevention, with an overarching mission to improve kormantse residents’ access to quality affordable and culturally familiar healthcare options. acknowledgements a set of voucher specimens from this research was deposited in the national forestry commission herbarium in kumasi ghana. the authors are extremely grateful to nana kwame akyen ii, the kormantse council of elders, the community of kormantse, and all of the participants for their research assistance, confidence, and hospitality. we especially want to acknowledge the critical contributions of the participating herbalists, who provided their time, knowledge, and talents during data collection, and also reviewed final drafts of the written manuscript and data tables for accuracy and completeness. we also thank samuel otoo, who organized professional meetings and correspondence with herbalists and other project participants during manuscript review. additionally, we thank university of ghana legon professors for supporting this type of research, and assistance with the university of ghana noguchi memorial institute for medical research irb ethical clearance paperwork submissions for our proposed collaborative longitudinal research. we are also thankful to ben, our faithful guide, and cyril our host. we thank the surfing ethnobiology letters. 2015. 6(1): 66‐79. doi: 10.14237/ebl.6.1.2015.253. 75 research communication medicine international board of directors, especially president guy a. ragosta, without whom surfing medicine international would not exist; also steve bogle, elaine dupont lpn, chad durkin, michael mcmahan, jay oku, and marcello parisi. we are grateful to all surfing medicine international mentors, musicians, traditional healers, surfers, sponsors, volunteers, and consultants. also, tom pohaku stone, kahuna kalai of o’ahu, organized and led educational workshops with youth and leaders in kormantse ghana to share his expertise and skill in the craft of native hawaiian wooden surfboard carving and the healing art of surfing. this was a critical service component of the project and provided the kormantse community with practical knowledge for sustainable enterprise. finally, we would like to acknowledge the tax-deductible donations received from individuals in support of this research through surfing medicine international, 501 (c)(3), and all the musicians who graciously donated songs for surfing medicine international charity album, especially john butler, as sales from his song ‘ocean’ funded the majority of this project. declarations permissions: formal permission to conduct this research was obtained from the department of botany, university of ghana at legon, the traditional chief and council of elders governing the kormantsesalt pond cultural area, and each individual participant. sources of funding: the research was funded through grants, donations, and volunteer effort provided by surfing medicine international, 501(c) (3) and associates. conflicts of interest: none declared. references cited adanu, r. m. k., j. d. seffah, r. duda, r. darko, a. hill and j. anarfi. 2010. clinical visits and cervical cancer screening in accra. ghana medical journal 44:59-63. african plant database. 2012. conservatoire et jardin botaniques & south african national biodiversity institute. available at: http://www.villege.ch/ musinfo/bd/cjb/africa/details.php? 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w. e. court. 1978. stem alkaloids of rauwolfia vomitoria. phytochemistry 17:2023-2026. saraswati, s., a. a. alhaider and s. s. agrawal. 2013. punarnavine, an alkaloid from boerhaavia diffusa exhibits anti-angiogenic activity via downregulation of vegf in vitro and in vivo. chemicobiological interactions 206:204-213. the plant list. 2013. version 1.1. available at: http://www.theplantlist.org/. accessed on june 30, 2014. raffauf, r. f. and m. b. flagler. 1960. alkaloids of the apocynaceae. economic botany 14:37-55. sackey. e. k. a. and o. m. j. kasilo. 2010. intellectual property approaches to the protection of traditional knowledge in the african region. african health monitor 13:89-102. tongco l. 2007. purposive sampling as a tool for informant selection. ethnobotany research and applications 5:147-158. missouri botanical garden. 2014. tropicos database. available at: http://www.tropicos.org/ name/13018667. accessed on june 30, 2014. vandebroek, i. 2013. intercultural health and ethnobotany: how to improve healthcare for underserved and minority communities? journal of ethnopharmacology 148:746-754. wink, m. 2003. evolution of secondary metabolites from an ecological and molecular phylogenetic perspective. phytochemistry 64:3-19. yusuf, u. k., n. abdullah, b. bakar, k. itam, f. abdullah and m. a. sukari. 2003. flavonoid glycosides in the leaves of mimosa species. biochemical systematics and ecology 31:443-445. biosketches summer ragosta resides in california where she cares for her family, teaches, conducts ethnobotany research, and leads charity development projects. ivelyn harris resides in rio grande valley jamaica, practices traditional maroon herbal medicine, and wrote the book healing herbs of jamaica. alex asase resides in accra ghana and spends time teaching and researching traditional west african uses of plants for medicine. notes 1environmental toxicology studies in ghana indicate that mining activities are associated with increased levels of toxic pollutants, such as heavy metals, in ambient soil and water, posing an increased cancer risk to surrounding communities (armah and gyeabour 2013). 2vaccine preventable cancers such as liver cancer associated with hepatitis b and cervical cancers caused by hpv (primarily types 16 and 18), are relatively high in ghana compared to more developed areas of the world (jemal et al. 2011). 3“traditional” implies fante cultural knowledge that has been known and transferred inter-generationally over time. 4specifically, we hope this documentation prevents ethnobiology letters. 2015. 6(1): 66‐79. doi: 10.14237/ebl.6.1.2015.253. 78 research communication unethical bioprospecting developments that do not include equitable indigenous profit-sharing (mcmanis 2007). 5during the first author’s doctoral dissertation research, observations and community contacts were made during an initial visit to ghana from june 1 to 21, 2005; ragosta resided in the coastal village of biwiri, adjacent to the village of kormantse, as an invited guest of nana kwame akyen ii and nana bonku v. 6before international project leaders arrived in ghana (july 2013), the traditional leader of kormantse (nana kwame akyen ii) was contacted and asked to introduce the researchers to herbalists in his community who use plants to treat cancer. 7some herbalists were interviewed only once, either at the research meeting area, or at their place of practice. 8the foreign project team consisted of two ethnobotanists (ivelyn harris & summer ragosta), one native hawaiian master wood carver (tom pohaku stone, iii), and one watershed scientist and film producer (guy a. ragosta). the ghanaian research team consisted of one botanist from accra (alex asase), one ethnotaxonomist from kumasi (ntim gyakari), and several kormantse community members including nana kwame akyen, ii, emmanuel otoo, isaac dadzie, amos anane, timothy bentum, samuel otoo, and nana weehi. educational sessions occurred concurrently with ethnobotanical research (i.e., some team members led surfboard carving sessions and videography lessons in the community, while other team members were interviewing herbalists and collecting plants). the ethnobotanical research components (interviews, plant collections, etc.) allowed for direct participation, training, and knowledge sharing opportunities with local residents. daily research and education activities lasted typically six to seven hours daily, and were usually followed by one to three hours of evening activities carried out with project participants and other community members (e.g., plant pressings, species identification/ taxonomy lessons, seed germination, and other educational discussions). after foreign project team members left, training of the herbarium curator continued remotely via communications over email, phone, and text, as well as locally with assistance from n. gyakari, a ghanaian taxonomist and technical herbalist. locally driven data collection and documentation also continued during subsequent meetings and plant collections with participating herbalists. 9maintaining secrecy of proprietary information such as formulations and preparation/application methods associated with medicinal species protects herbalists’ business interests; therefore, plant species names are not included in table 2. 10during interviews the need or desire for a medicinal plant garden repository was expressed. garden species were selected, collected, and planted by the herbalists; also native timber species were planted and cared for by community members. 11plants described as weedy are usually hardy and have several defining characteristics, such as profuse seeds and the ability to establish readily in disturbed places. 12angiogenesis is the process of new blood vessel formation and is associated with cancerous tumor growth and spread (see http://www.cancer.gov/ cancertopics/factsheet/therapy/angiogenesis inhibitors for more information). 13it is unclear from the west african ethnobotanical literature whether the term cancer has been previously documented as a disease associated with the presence, or defined by the presence, of sores. however, one study in the niger delta area of nigeria recorded several uses of xylopia aethiopica (dunal) a. rich, including “as a dressing for sores and rubbed onto gums for pyorrhea and in the local treatment of cancer” (ndukwu and ben-nwadibia 2005). 14it is expected that the proposed community-based herbal research and education clinic will support traditional herbal practitioners in their own research and documentation interests and goals by providing a local collaborative space. research participants will be asked to sign memorandums of understanding stating that all studies and projects conducted at the clinic will conform to international society of ethnobiology (2006) code of ethics (with 2008 additions). although drug discovery is not the intended focus of the proposed clinic, if participating herbalists initiate interest in benchtop bioassays or other phytochemical testing or development of their traditional botanical remedy that could result in a value-added product or other form of financial gain, we will encourage appropriate use of guidelines for intellectual property (ip) protection enacted in previously successful models (e.g., international cooperative biodiversity group-peru project (lewis and ramani 2007), such as confidentiality and contractual agreements ensuring equitable community benefit sharing, and enlist advice from ip attorney(s) in prior informed consent documents and discussions in order to make partici ethnobiology letters. 2015. 6(1): 66‐79. doi: 10.14237/ebl.6.1.2015.253. 79 research communication pants aware of current local and global ip and patent laws. 15the research intention of the clinic is to facilitate participatory and collaborative, non-experimental longitudinal observational monitoring of patients currently receiving botanical remedies for cancer, with assistance from bio-medical personnel and in compliance with institutional review board ethical guidelines for human subjects research. we expect the results will improve participating health care providers’ practices and public welfare by supporting health education programs and encouraging integrated health care practices that are culturally familiar, affordable, and based on clinical safety and efficacy data. 16case studies involving interviews and surveys with patients and health care providers, results, and interpretations of blood-work and physical exams may facilitate documentation of patient outcomes over time and relate fante ethnomedicinal terms to biomedical taxonomy for cross-cultural comparability. bird names and folklore from the emberá (chocó) in darién, panamá ethnobiology letters. 2015. 6:32‐62. doi: 10.14237/ebl.6.1.2015.226. 32 data, methods & taxonomies they live in fairly egalitarian, politically autonomous, extended family households dispersed along the rivers. however, under the mid-twentieth century push for rural development, the emberá began concentrating riverine household sites into villages and electing representatives who became actors in regional and national politics. by this means, they worked to legally establish and to protect cultural and geographic autonomy and to receive government resources for, among other things, health clinics, and primary schools (herlihy 1985, 2003; kane 1994/2004; cansarí 1996; chapin 2001; cahn 2004; colin 2010). this data was collected as a small part of a larger ethnographic research project on the cultural dimensions of village formation and national integration.4 the project was carried out in two villages on two interior rivers. avian data collection was carried out in the smaller and newer of the two, a village of only 10 households not far from what has since become the darién biosphere reserve, national park, and unesco world heritage site. the data provide documentary evidence of the linguistic and ethnobiological diversity of a unique, narrow stretch of tropical forest that bridges south and central america at a time and place still relatively protected from the inexorable impact of regional deforestation. bird habitat was still plentiful. unlike the youngsters who learned spanish in village schools, elders learned to speak spanish through market contacts with nonindigenous people of panama and colombia. the introduction this paper presents data on names (see appendix 1) and folklore (appendix 2) of birds collected among native speakers of emberá1 in the moist tropical forests of darién, panamá in 1984 and 1985.2 in most of panama, the emberá are popularly known as the chocó, a name taken from the department of chocó in colombia, from whence many crossed the low mountain range into the darién to settle. the name chocó also includes a sister linguistic group of the emberá named the wounaan, who live closely among them. the catio and chami are also closely related indigenous groups. the emberá and wounaan are principally distinguished by their languages, which are related (almost 50% agreement of cognate roots) but mutually unintelligible (loewen 1963a, b). most speakers are bilingual in either emberá or wounaan and spanish. emberá and wounaan use spanish to speak to each other and to the ethnographer. in his early linguistic work in the chocó river basin, loewen (1958:1) identifies nine emberá and three wounaan dialects based on phonological, morphological, and lexical features associated with particular localities.3 the bird name data presented here reflect variations derived from these differences in dialect and locality of origin. the emberá build open thatch-roofed homes on stilts along the many rivers. they hunt, fish, gather wild foods and medicines, and grow corn, rice, bananas, plantains, manioc, and medicinal plants (kane 1995; dalle and potvin 2004). traditionally, bird names and folklore from the emberá (chocó) in darién, panamá stephanie c. kane author address: department of international studies, school of global and international studies, indiana university, 355 north jordan avenue, bloomington, in 47405-1105 usa. email: stkane@indiana.edu received: july 15, 2014 volume: 6:32-62 published: june 15, 2015 © 2015 society of ethnobiology abstract: this paper presents data on folklore and names of birds collected among native speakers of emberá in the moist tropical forests of darién, panamá. the naming data was collected by systematic elicitation of names from pictorial representations of birds. it is organized here to facilitate analysis of various aspects of folk taxonomy in relation to scientific taxonomy. folklore about birds collected in natural contexts is also included to indicate the role of birds and their names in symbolic processes that exceed the limits of literal reference. keywords: emberá (chocó), bird classification, darién forest, panama, bird folklore supplementary files available at ojs.ethnobiology.org/index.php/ebl. ethnobiology letters. 2015. 6:32‐62. doi: 10.14237/ebl.6.1.2015.226. 33 data, methods & taxonomies villagers among whom this data was collected relied almost completely on the animals and plants of the riverine forest for subsistence and inspiration. probably because of the intense violence in the region since the late 1980s, published ethnozoological research among the emberá of darién was and remains scarce.5 indeed, to my knowledge, since the larger ethnographic project that provided a context for the collection of this avian data, there has been no in-depth ethnographic research published. the naming data was collected by systematic elicitation from colored pictorial representations of birds.6 except to share emberá bird names, the elicitation groups used spanish to communicate with the ethnographer.7 data are organized to facilitate analysis of particular aspects of folk taxonomy such as contrast, level, and ranking of taxa; hierarchic inclusion and depth in taxonomic structures (berlin 1992, berlin 1976; conklin 1969; kay 1971); grading within categories (kempton 1978; lakoff 1972); taxonomic space (hunn 1976) and comparison of folk and scientific taxonomies (berlin et al. 1966; berlin 1973). in this format, the data can be compared, contrasted or combined with other ethnobiological data. in addition to the taxonomic data, which were elicited in contexts that were contrived by me, folkloric data, collected in more or less natural contexts, are also presented here. the folkloric data provides examples of the metaphorical connections between names and their referents (bean 1975; dougherty 1982; johnson 1974; rosaldo 1972). my interlocutors shared the folklore in the form of stories, conversations, and reflections on avian life happening around us as, for example, we canoed on the river, rested from cleaning bush, walked through the forest, or sat by the hearth. my interlocutors also contributed folklore in the context of the group elicitation sessions. to reflect the two distinct modalities of data collection and the style in which the data were conveyed, the ethnographer’s voice shifts as i move between taxonomic and folkloric sections. elicitation procedures i presented 32 color plates from ridgely's (1976) birds of panama, in order of their appearance in the book, to nine independent groups of people in their homes, or in one case, in a work setting. the design was opportunistic; that is, i took advantage of situations conducive to data collection and did not attempt to control group composition. the aim was to collect data in a manner that did not disrupt everyday life. as an interesting visual object, once introduced and held in my hands, the book became a conversation piece. its well-drafted images of species that varied beautifully in form and color made the page-layout itself a pleasurable and stimulating elicitation device. the origin of the book and the unreadable text within it clearly signaled its foreignness, but the images it contained were legible and familiar, and so the book worked well as an elicitation tool. it was a well-received artifact that promoted and coordinated sociality for about an hour or two per session. each set represents a consensus elicitation from two to ten people. they were a mix of generation and gender although there was no group that included only children or youths. through discussion each group would decide on one name for each bird they identified; they took it upon themselves not to present multiple names. where several people were present one or two more knowledgeable elders dominated the discussion. other than deference to elders with more knowledge, there were no noticeable differences in power or authority that affected the outcome of consensus. bird names are listed here in such a way that the relationship between emberá and scientific names stands out. each emberá name is listed together with the plate and identification number of each species designated, the corresponding scientific name, the general common name in english, a list showing which of the nine elicitation groups (here represented as capital letters "a" through "i") make the identification and the total number of groups that make the identification as an expression of inter-group consensus.8 there are various limitations to this kind of elicitation procedure. information on one plate could inform another, e.g. where an early identification was unclear, a later more typical example might clarify. as the elicitation process proceeded, informants had more information at their disposal with which to make a judgment and therefore the level of accuracy probably is not consistent. on the other hand, in some cases where scientific genera happened to be separated on non-consecutive plates, informants did identify them with the same emberá name, indicating that they could transcend the restrictions imposed by book order (e.g. the genus cranioleuca on plates 8 and 14, both identified as jorójoró9). in addition, because ethnobiology letters. 2015. 6:32‐62. doi: 10.14237/ebl.6.1.2015.226. 34 data, methods & taxonomies each group had more than one person in it (a factor shaped by the social conditions of fieldwork among extended families), the nine elicitation groups are more diverse then nine single informants would be. furthermore, because names were elicited from a printed page rather than from birds in their natural habitat, certain physical criteria tended to dominate the identification process, e.g. beak type was a more distinguishable feature than variation in size and behavioral and functional criteria were only available in the form of memory associations. presentation of taxonomic data each category identified by an emberá name that is a primary lexeme (one which cannot be translated directly) is listed in alphabetical order in appendix 1. names which combine a lexeme with a modifier are listed under the main lexeme (e.g. ansabidá [kingfisher] is the lexeme listed alphabetically under which will appear ansabidá chikaibéa [little kingfisher] and meabémaansabidá [forest kingfisher]). within that ordering of categories, the different scientific species identified by the same name are listed from highest consensus to lowest consensus. where the consensus ratings are equal, they are listed in the order in which they appear in the book. where the relationship between one lexeme and another is not manifested in the form of the name, but is commented on by a speaker, the more general name is listed in curly brackets under specific name (e.g. chilingó [cacique] is a kind of kumbarrá [a category including caciques, oropendolas, and antbirds]). in compound names in which one of the names may or may not be spoken, or in names which may or may not have particular endings, straight brackets [ ] will appear around the optional segment.10 notes on emberá-english translation the emberá language has 12 vowels: a, e, i, ʌ, o, u (pronounced as in spanish except for the /ʌ/ which is somewhere between i and u) and the same sounds nasalized: ã, ẽ , ĩ, λ, õ, ũ. the consonants are pronounced the same as in spanish, i.e. j is pronounced as the english h; dz is pronounced as english j. where name-segments are emphasized with a stop, this is indicated by an apostrophe (') after the segment. as mentioned above, there are 12 dialects in the language of emberá corresponding to 12 geographic areas in colombia from whence the emberá came before they migrated to panama (loewen 1958). dialectal variation is reflected both at the lexical and phonological levels. i have indicated phonological variation of particular names with the superscript "v" and list the variants at the end of the taxonomy data. lack of accurate migration data on all informants and the methods of elicitation used precludes analysis of nomenclature in respect to dialects. where names are combinations of words or morphemes, part or all of which i can translate, i set these off from each other by a dash and indicate a dictionary listing with a superscript "d". these translations appear in the supplementary file linked to this document (supplementary table 1). i have only included spanish loan words when there is no emberá name corresponding to the same category. these are noted with the superscript "sp." note on the classification of emberá and scientific bird names there are interesting comparisons to be made between the folk and scientific taxonomies (appendix 1). while in some cases one emberá name exactly or almost exactly corresponds to one scientific genus (e.g. kokarrá and the genus odontophorus, chákoro and the genus icterus), in most cases there is a different kind of "fit.” so, for example, the emberá, like english speakers, have only one name for all hummingbirds, while the scientific taxonomy breaks these down into 35 genera. clearly, the physical attributes necessary for systematizing these birds from an evolutionary point of view are not relevant to emberá speakers. there are cases, however, in which the emberá taxon is more elaborated than the scientific. for example, there is a general name karé and four specific names that correspond to a single scientific genus amazona. for the emberá, this kind of bird is distinctive not only because of its bright plumage and noisy behavior, but because it is also a source of food. there is also a varying relation between the most typical species representing a group of genera that together constitute a taxon and the size of the taxon. so, for example, pulsatrix perspicillata latham strigidae is the species of owl that most represents "owlness" to the emberá and the name for that species, bombóra, includes eight genera within its reference. while a name like jorójoró, represented with best consensus by taraba major vieillot thamnophilidae includes 27 genera within its reference. all these variations of fit between emberá and scientific taxonomies of birds can be considered in relation to other folk taxonomies of birds as well as folk taxonomies of other biological http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/thamnophilidae ethnobiology letters. 2015. 6:32‐62. doi: 10.14237/ebl.6.1.2015.226. 35 data, methods & taxonomies classes, in order to develop a cross-cultural understanding of the principles of category formation and more generally how human beings think about the natural world. folkloric examples presented in appendix 2 were collected as they emerged spontaneously in the context of everyday life and suggest the important role that birds play in the encoding of cosmological as well as social and utilitarian thought. the songs and calls of particular bird species are located between the invisible and the human worlds as they inform people of new birth and impending death. because songs and calls depart and are distinct from the avian bodies that produce them, they can travel across the space of the imagination as well as physical space. in emberá cosmology, an otherworld accompanies the mundane world. birds symbolically mediate the two worlds. they have the power to tell about matters as small as the time of day and as great as the events that happened when the world changed. indeed, before the world changed, animals were people. and, although this happened in ancient times, the world could change back any day. so say the emberá when they observe the widening rivers, the atypical flooding patterns and the long dry seasons that are accompanying the transformation of the downstream forests into fields and pastures. conclusion taxonomic and folkloric modes of knowledge, together, suggest the significant role that birds play in emberá life. they illuminate relationships between biodiversity and cross-cultural bird knowledge in the lowland riverine tropical forest. when geopolitical conditions allow future ethnobiologists to do research in the interior of the darién, whether inside or outside the biosphere reserve, the data presented here can provide a baseline for comparison and departure point for conversation. further study will not only lead to a better understanding of how the emberá enroll nature in their conceptions of a mythic universe in which animals are communicating co-spirits, but will also lead to a better understanding of emberá thoughts about their place in the dynamic environmental history of the darién. acknowledgements my thanks to the emberá people who accepted and protected me and who generously shared their knowledge of the forest. i thank larry gilbert for introducing me to field biology and rainforest logistics, joel sherzer for teaching me indigenous language transcription skills, brian stross for introducing me to ethnosemantics and encouraging me to publish these data, harriet klein for reading earlier versions of this manuscript, and semantha bertram and jonathan dombrosky for assistance with data input and formatting. declarations permissions: none declared. sources of funding: my 1984-1985 dissertation fieldwork with the emberá was funded by a fellowship from the organization of american states and the institute of latin american studies, university of texas at austin. conflicts of interest: none declared. references aguirre licht, d. 2006. choco language. in encyclopedia of language and linguistics, 2nd edition, edited by k. brown, pp. 367-381. elsevier, oxford. bean, s. 1975. referential and indexical meanings of amma in kannada: mother, woman, goddess, pox, and help! journal of anthropological research 31:313330. berlin, b. 1973. folk systematics in relation to biological classification and nomenclature. annual review of ecology and systematics 4:259-271. berlin, b. 1992. ethnobiological classification: principles of categorization of plants and animals in traditional societies. princeton university press, princeton, nj. berlin, b. 1976. the concept of rank in ethnobiological classification: some evidence from aguaruna folk botany. american 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kane is a cultural anthropologist and professor in the department of international studies at indiana university. she is the author of the phantom gringo boat, aids alibis, and where rivers meet the sea. notes 1readers may view images of the emberá in the ethnobiology letters. 2015. 6:32‐62. doi: 10.14237/ebl.6.1.2015.226. 37 data, methods & taxonomies darién forest by visiting the indiana university image collections online. 2for in-depth ethnography of the emberá in the darién see kane 1994/2004. for emberá medicinal plants see kane 1995. for emberá folktales see crandell 2008. for a comprehensive bibliographic index of writings on the indigenous people of panamasee runk et al. 2011:77-162. 3for recent linguistic research see sara 2001 and aguirre licht 2006. for many other sources see runk et al. 2011:77-162. 4as an ecologist with a specialty in tropical forest zoology at the masters level i keep my interest alive through collection of ethnobiological data in the course of larger holistic ethnographic projects. 5for more recent ethnozoological research in the region outside the darién see bittner 2003, bejarano et al. 2004 and racero-casarrubia et al. 2008. 6i received permission from the first cacique of the emberá to do ethnographic research in two specific villages. i also received permission from the university of texas irb to do ethnographic research among the emberá of darién. 7i was trained in the transcription of central and south american indigenous languages. as part of my larger project i was working with an emberá youth to record and transcribe emberá myths and folktales. 8since ridgely’s (1976) book, authorities have changes some species names. the appendix reflects current usage. 9for orthography and transcription see note on language below. 10to prioritize the legibility of consensus ratings in appendix 1, scientific and popular bird names are listed only in the main category for each emberá bird name. genus and species names are left blank in the subcategories. wherever there is a subcategory blank, the key plate/image # indicates which genus and species name from the main list is relevant. for english popular names, wherever there is a blank, readers should apply whichever name is listed most directly above it. ethnobiology letters. 2015. 6:32‐62. doi: 10.14237/ebl.6.1.2015.226. 38 data, methods & taxonomies a p p e n d ix 1 : e m b e rá b ir d c la ss if ic a ti o n em b e rá n am e p la te /# en gl is h c o m m o n n am e sc ie n ti fi c n am e ( cu rr en t) id en ti fi ca ti o n s to ta l á jo m b ʌ {n ẽj õ m b ʌ} 2 /7 fa lc o n m ic ra st u r ru fi co lli s v ie ill o t fa lc o n id a e c 1 a m p a rr á -j o m b ʌ = a m p a rr á zé si d {n ẽj õ m b ʌ} 3 /8 c ar ac ar a m ilv a g o c h im a ch im a v ie ill o t fa lc o n id a e i 1 a n sa b id á 1 0 /1 0 k in gfi sh er m eg a ce ry le t o rq u a ta l in n a eu s a lc ed in id a e a b c d ef h i 8 1 0 /7 c h lo ro ce ry le a m a zo n a l a th a m a lc ed in id a e eh i 3 1 0 /9 c h lo ro ce ry le in d a l in n a eu s a lc ed in id a e a c i 3 1 0 /1 1 c h lo ro ce ry le a m er ic a n a g m el in a lc ed in id a e c h i 3 1 0 /5 ja ca m ar g a lb u la r u fi ca u d a c u vi er g a lb u lid a e i 1 1 0 /6 ja ca m er o p s a u re a m u lle r g a lb u lid a e i 1 1 0 /8 k in gfi sh er c h lo ro ce ry le a en ea p a lla s a lc ed in id a e i 1 a n sa b id á -c h ik a ib éa d 1 0 /7 g 1 a n sa b id á -d ó -b a d a d 1 0 /8 c 1 a n sa b id á -d ro m á d 1 0 /1 0 g 1 a n sa b id á -m ea b ém a d 1 5 /5 a n tw re n m yr m o th er u la b ra ch yu ra h er m a n n t h a m n o p h ili d a e g 1 1 6 /8 a n tp itt a p itt a so m a m ic h le ri c a ss in c o n o p o p h a g id a e d 1 a n sa b id á -w ẽr a d 1 0 /7 k in gfi sh er b d 2 a n sa b id á -z a ké d 1 0 /9 b d 2 1 0 /7 c 1 1 0 /1 1 b 1 m ea b ém a -a n sa b id á -s a sá d 1 5 /7 a n tw re n ep in ec ro p h yl la f u lv iv en tr is l a w re n ce t h a m n o p h ili d a e g 1 n u n sí -a n sa b id á 1 0 /1 1 k in gfi sh er a 1 a n tu m iá d 2 4 /1 0 v ir eo v ir eo le u co p h ry s la fr es n a ye v ir eo n id a e d 1 a n tu m iá -i m b a n á d 6 /1 1 c u ck o o d ro m o co cc yx p h a si a n el lu s sp ix c u cu lid a e c 1 2 4 /1 6 p ip it a n th u s lu te sc en s p u ch er a n m o ta ci lli d a e i 1 a n tu m iá -j ã ĩm b a n á d 2 3 /3 fl yc at ch er p ti lo g o n ys c a u d a tu s c a b a n is p ti lio g o n a ti d a e c 1 a o { n ẽj õ m b ʌ} 2 /1 1 k it e c h o n d ro h ie ra x u n ci n a tu s te m m in ck a cc ip it ri d a e i 1 (c o n ti n u ed o n n ex t p ag e) ethnobiology letters. 2015. 6:32‐62. doi: 10.14237/ebl.6.1.2015.226. 39 data, methods & taxonomies (c o n ti n u ed o n n ex t p ag e) (c o n ti n u ed f ro m p re v io u s p ag e) 2 /1 2 h a rp a g u s b id en ta tu s la th a m a cc ip it ri d a e i 1 3 /4 h aw k b u te o g a llu s a n th ra ci n u s d ep p e a cc ip it ri d a e i 1 ã rĩ ã rĩ 2 6 /1 3 g ra ck le q u is ca lu s m ex ic a n u s g m el in ic te ri d a e a 1 2 6 /1 6 c o w b ir d m o lo th ru s o ry zi vo ru s g m el in ic te ri d a e a 1 ã w ẽn sõ v 5 /4 p ar ak ee t eu p si tt u la p er ti n a x li n n a eu s p si tt a ci d a e c d fg i 5 5 /1 m ac aw a ra s ev er u s li n n a eu s p si tt a ci d a e c h 2 5 /5 p ar ak ee t p yr rh u ra h o ff m a n n i c a b a n is p si tt a ci d a e e 1 5 /6 p si tt a ca ra fi n sc h i s a lv in p si tt a ci d a e a 1 b a g a rá 5 /1 m ac aw a ra s ev er u s li n n a eu s p si tt a ci d a e a ef g 4 5 /5 p ar ak ee t p yr rh u ra h o ff m a n n i c a b a n is p si tt a ci d a e h 1 5 /6 p si tt a ca ra fi n sc h i s a lv in p si tt a ci d a e h 1 3 2 /1 5 p ar ro t p io n o p si tt a p yr ili a b o n a p a rt e p si tt a ci d a e e 1 b a g a rá -p a u w a rá d 5 /1 m ac aw b d 2 ey á -b a g a rá d 5 /1 i 1 5 /6 p ar ak ee t c 1 b a g a rá c h ib o ró p u rr ú d 5 /5 f 2 b a g a rá c h ik u a rá d 5 /5 b f 2 ji w á -b a g a rá d 5 /5 c i 2 3 2 /5 p u ffl eg h a p lo p h a ed ia a u re lia e b o u rc ie r & m u ls a n t tr o ch ili d a e f 1 3 2 /1 5 p ar ro t h 1 b a su sú 1 3 /a ll p ic u le t p ic u m n u s sp . t em m in ck p ic id a e g 1 w o o d cr ee p er d en d ro ci n cl a s p . g ra y fu rn a ri id a e si tt a so m u s sp . s w a in so n f u rn a ri id a e g ly p h o ry n ch u s sp . w ie d -n eu w ie d f u rn ar iid ae le p id o co la p te s sp . r ei ch en b a ch f u rn a ri id a e x ip h o rh yn ch u s sp . s w a in so n f u rn a ri id a e d ec o n yc h u ra s p . c h er ri e fu rn a ri id a e d en d ro co la p te s sp . h er m a n n f u rn a ri id a e sc yt h eb ill c a m p yl o rh a m p h u s sp . b er to n i f u rn ar iid ae 8 /1 9 tr ee ru n n er m a rg a ro rn is r u b ig in o su s la w re n ce f u rn a ri id a e g 1 ethnobiology letters. 2015. 6:32‐62. doi: 10.14237/ebl.6.1.2015.226. 40 data, methods & taxonomies (c o n ti n u ed o n n ex t p ag e) (c o n ti n u ed f ro m p re v io u s p ag e) b a su sú -i m b is ú 1 3 /1 7 sc yt h eb ill c a m p yl o rh a m p h u s tr o ch ili ro st ri s li ch te n st ei n d en d ro co la p ti d a e g 1 1 3 /1 8 c a m p yl o rh a m p h u s p u si llu s sc la te r d en d ro co la p ti d a e g 1 b es éa m iá d { n ẽj õ m b ʌ} 2 /1 0 k it e le p to d o n c a ya n en si s la th a m a cc ip it ri d a e c 1 b et ó ko rr ó 1 4 /1 sp in et ai l sy n a lla xi s a lb es ce n s te m m in ck f u rn a ri id a e g 1 1 4 /6 f o lia ge -g le an er p h ily d o r er yt h ro ce rc u s p el ze ln f u rn a ri id a e d 1 b ic h íd 1 1 /1 0 a ra ca ri p te ro g lo ss u s to rq u a tu s g m el in r a m p h a sti d a e a b c d ef g h 8 1 1 /1 p u ffb ir d m a la co p ti la p a n a m en si s la fr es n a ye b u cc o n id a e i 1 b ic h íp á d 1 1 /6 to u ca n et a u la co rh yn ch u s p ra si n u s g o u ld r a m p h a sti d a e b c 2 1 1 /7 se le n id er a s p ec ta b ili s c a ss in r a m p h a sti d a e c 1 b id ó -j a rá m ia d 1 3 /1 7 sc yt h eb ill c a m p yl o rh a m p h u s tr o ch ili ro st ri s li ch te n st ei n d en d ro co la p ti d a e i 1 1 3 /1 8 c a m p yl o rh a m p h u s p u si llu s sc la te r d en d ro co la p ti d a e i 1 b id ó -k o ró ch ia d v 3 0 /5 g ro sb ea k sa lt a to r g ro ss u s li n n a eu s th ra u p id a e c d g i 4 b id ó -w íd o d 1 9 /7 fl yc at ch er c o n o p ia s p a rv u s vo n p el ze ln t yr a n n id a e e 1 b im b ím v 2 7 /2 eu p h o n ia eu p h o n ia m in u ta c a b a n is f ri n g ill id a e ei 2 2 7 /3 eu p h o n ia f u lv ic ri ss a s cl a te r fr in g ill id a e ei 2 2 7 /6 eu p h o n ia la n iir o st ri s d 'o rb ig n y & l a fr es n a ye f ri n g ill id a e i 1 1 7 /4 m an ak in m a n a cu s vi te lli n u s g o u ld p ip ri d a e i 1 1 7 /5 m a n a cu s a u ra n ti a cu s sa lv in p ip ri d a e i 1 1 8 /4 b ec ar d p a ch yr a m p h u s ve rs ic o lo r h a rt la u b t it yr id a e b 1 b ir á b ir á 1 3 /a ll p ic u le t p ic u m n u s sp . t em m in ck p ic id a e h 1 w o o d cr ee p er d en d ro ci n cl a s p . g ra y fu rn a ri id a e si tt a so m u s sp . s w a in so n f u rn a ri id a e g ly p h o ry n ch u s sp . w ie d -n eu w ie d f u rn ar iid ae le p id o co la p te s sp . r ei ch en b a ch f u rn a ri id a e x ip h o rh yn ch u s sp . s w a in so n f u rn a ri id a e d ec o n yc h u ra s p . c h er ri e fu rn a ri id a e d en d ro co la p te s sp . h er m a n n f u rn a ri id a e sc yt h eb ill c a m p yl o rh a m p h u s sp . b er to n i f u rn a ri id a e 3 2 /4 h u m m in gb ir d g o et h a ls ia b el la n el so n t ro ch ili d a e a 1 3 2 /5 p u ffl eg h a p lo p h a ed ia a u re lia e b o u rc ie r & m u ls a n t tr o ch ili d a e a 1 3 2 /1 6 ja ca m ar b ra ch yg a lb a s a lm o n i s cl a te r & s a lv in g a lb u lid a e a 1 b it á b it á 2 0 /2 fl yc at ch er m yi o b iu s su lp h u re ip yg iu s sc la te r o n yc h o rh yn ch id a e g 1 ethnobiology letters. 2015. 6:32‐62. doi: 10.14237/ebl.6.1.2015.226. 41 data, methods & taxonomies (c o n ti n u ed o n n ex t p ag e) (c o n ti n u ed f ro m p re v io u s p ag e) b ĩr ũ rĩ v 1 9 /a ll si ry st es si ry st es s p . c a b a n is & h ei n e ty ra n n id a e d fl yc at ch er m yi o d yn a st es s p . b o n a p a rt e ty ra n n id a e le g a tu s sp . s cl a te r ty ra n n id a e ty ra n n u s sp . l a cé p èd e ty ra n n id a e m yi o ze te te s sp . s cl a te r ty ra n n id a e c o n o p ia s sp . c a b a n is & h ei n e ty ra n n id a e m eg a ry n ch u s sp . t h u n b er g t yr a n n id a e k is ka d ee p it a n g u s sp . s w a in so n t yr a n n id a e 1 9 /9 fl yc at ch er m eg a ry n ch u s p it a n g u a l in n a eu s ty ra n n id a e b 1 9 /1 0 k is ka d ee p it a n g u s su lp h u ra tu s li n n a eu s ty ra n n id a e b 1 9 /1 1 p it a n g u s lic to r li ch te n st ei n t yr a n n id a e b 1 9 /1 2 fl yc at ch er m yi o ze te te s ca ya n en si s li n n a eu s ty ra n n id a e b b ʌs es é 2 6 /8 o ro p en d o la za rh yn ch u s w a g le ri g ra y ic te ri d a e c d g h i 5 2 6 /1 1 p sa ro co liu s d ec u m a n u s p a lla s ic te ri d a e c fg i 4 b o m b ó ra 6 /1 -8 o w l m eg a sc o p s sp . k a u p s tr ig id a e a c eg i 5 c ic ca b a v ir g a ta c a ss in s tr ig id a e a si o s p . b ri ss o n s tr ig id a e p u ls a tr ix s p . k a u p s tr ig id a e lo p h o st ri x sp . l es so n s tr ig if o rm es 6 /7 p u ls a tr ix p er sp ic ill a ta l a th a m s tr ig id a e b c d fg h 6 6 /6 a si o c la m a to r v ie ill o t st ri g id a e d e 2 6 /8 lo p h o st ri x cr is ta ta d a u d in s tr ig id a e d h 2 b o ka ká 1 /2 2 h er o n p ilh er o d iu s p ile a tu s b o d d a er t a rd ei d a e b c e 3 1 /2 7 ti g ri so m a li n ea tu m b o d d a er t a rd ei d a e a 1 1 /2 8 ti g ri so m a m ex ic a n u m s w a in so n a rd ei d a e a 1 1 /2 9 ti g ri so m a f a sc ia tu m s u ch a rd ei d a e a 1 b o ró p a rí d 1 9 /9 fl yc at ch er m eg a ry n ch u s p it a n g u a l in n a eu s ty ra n n id a e g 1 1 9 /1 0 k is ka d ee p it a n g u s su lp h u ra tu s li n n a eu s ty ra n n id a e g 1 1 9 /1 1 p it a n g u s lic to r li ch te n st ei n t yr a n n id a e g 1 1 9 /1 2 fl yc at ch er m yi o ze te te s ca ya n en si s li n n a eu s ty ra n n id a e g 1 ethnobiology letters. 2015. 6:32‐62. doi: 10.14237/ebl.6.1.2015.226. 42 data, methods & taxonomies (c o n ti n u ed o n n ex t p ag e) (c o n ti n u ed f ro m p re v io u s p ag e) ch á ko ro 2 6 /1 o ri o le ic te ru s m es o m el a s w a g le r ic te ri d a e a b c d ef g h i 9 2 6 /2 ic te ru s ch ry sa te r le ss o n ic te ri d a e a b c ef g h i 8 2 6 /3 ic te ru s a u ri ca p ill u s c a ss in ic te ri d a e a b c fg h i 7 2 6 /4 ic te ru s p ro st h em el a s st ri ck la n d ic te ri d a e a b c d g i 6 1 8 /1 3 b el lb ir d p ro cn ia s tr ic a ru n cu la ta v er re a u x & v er re a u x c o ti n g id a e c 1 p a tá -c h á ko ro d =o h íh í 2 6 /3 o ri o le d e 2 2 6 /4 h 1 ch ía -c h á ko ro d 2 6 /1 d 1 2 6 /2 d 1 ch a m p a ch í 2 8 /5 ta n ag er th ra u p is e p is co p u s li n n a eu s th ra u p id a e a b c d ef g h i 9 2 8 /1 ta n g a ra f u co sa n el so n t h ra u p id a e d h 2 2 8 /4 ta n g a ra p a lm a ru m w ie d -n eu w ie d t h ra u p id ae d i 2 1 8 /1 2 c o ti n ga c o ti n g a n a tt er er ii b o is so n n ea u c o ti n g id a e c d 2 2 4 /1 g n at ca tc h er p o lio p ti la p lu m b ea g m el in p o lio p ti lid a e h 1 ch á n g a m e 2 6 /1 3 g ra ck le q u is ca lu s m ex ic a n u s g m el in ic te ri d a e d i 2 ch á rr o 2 6 /6 c ac iq u e c a ci cu s u ro p yg ia lis l a fr es n a ye ic te ri d a e d 1 ch iá -t u m iá d 1 2 /1 3 w o o d p ec ke r c el eu s lo ri ca tu s r ei ch en b a ch p ic id a e d 1 1 2 /1 4 c el eu s ca st a n eu s w a g le r p ic id a e d 1 ch ic h á rr a 1 9 /a ll si ry st es si ry st es s p . c a b a n is & h ei n e ty ra n n id a e c 1 fl yc at ch er m yi o d yn a st es s p . b o n a p a rt e ty ra n n id a e le g a tu s sp . s cl a te r ty ra n n id a e ty ra n n u s sp . l a cé p èd e ty ra n n id a e m yi o ze te te s sp . s cl a te r ty ra n n id a e c o n o p ia s sp . c a b a n is & h ei n e ty ra n n id a e m eg a ry n ch u s sp . t h u n b er g t yr a n n id a e k is ka d ee p it a n g u s sp . s w a in so n t yr a n n id a e ch ijí 1 6 /7 a n tp itt a h yl o p ez u s p er sp ic ill a tu s la w re n ce g ra lla ri id a e d 1 ch ik á m ia d 1 6 /3 a n tb ir d h yl o p h yl a x n a ev io id es l a fr es n a ye t h a m n o p h ili d a e d 1 ch ila kó 1 /2 r ai l p a rd ir a llu s m a cu la tu s b o d d a er t r a lli d a e c 1 1 /6 c ra ke la te ra llu s a lb ig u la ri s la w re n ce r a lli d a e c 1 1 /7 r ai l a ra m id es c a ja n eu s m u lle r r a lli d a e c 1 ethnobiology letters. 2015. 6:32‐62. doi: 10.14237/ebl.6.1.2015.226. 43 data, methods & taxonomies (c o n ti n u ed o n n ex t p ag e) (c o n ti n u ed f ro m p re v io u s p ag e) 1 /8 a ra m id es a xi lla ri s la w re n ce r a lli d a e c 1 ch ili n g ó { ku m b a rr á } 2 6 /6 c ac iq u e c a ci cu s u ro p yg ia lis l a fr es n a ye ic te ri d a e a c g i 4 2 6 /7 c a ci cu s ce la l in n a eu s ic te ri d a e a c ei 4 2 6 /5 a m b ly ce rc u s h o lo se ri ce u s d ep p e ic te ri d a e a c i 3 ch in g é 1 4 /1 3 a n ts h ri ke th a m n o p h ilu s p u n ct a tu s sh a w t h a m n o p h ili d a e i 1 ch in g é= ku e tr ʌm ia d 1 5 /a ll a n tw re n te re n u ra s p . c a b a n is & h ei n e th a m n o p h ili d a e d 1 a n tv ir eo d ys it h a m n u s sp . c a b a n is t h a m n o p h ili d a e m yr m o th er u la s p . s cl a te r th a m n o p h ili d a e a n tw re n m ic ro rh o p ia s sp . s cl a te r th a m n o p h ili d a e a n tb ir d c er co m a cr a s p . s cl a te r th a m n o p h ili d a e m yr m ec iz a s p . g ra y th a m n o p h ili d a e g ym n o ci ch la s p . s cl a te r th a m n o p h ili d a e c er co m a cr a s p . s cl a te r th a m n o p h ili d a e 1 5 /1 3 c er co m a cr a n ig ri ca n s sc la te r th a m n o p h ili d a e d 1 ch in g é[p a im a ]d =i n g é[p a im a ] 2 8 /7 ta n ag er r a m p h o ce lu s ic te ro n o tu s b o n a p a rt e th ra u p id a e a b d ef g h i 8 2 8 /8 r a m p h o ce lu s p a ss er in ii b o n a p a rt e th ra u p id a e b c 2 ch in g ép a u w a rá d 2 8 /2 b a n g si a a rc a ei s cl a te r & s a lv in t h ra u p id a e f 1 ch in g é[p u rr ú ]d =i n g é [p u rr ú ] 2 8 /2 r a m p h o ce lu s d im id ia tu s la fr es n a ye t h ra u p id a e a b c d ef h i 1 2 8 /1 2 h a b ia r u b ic a v ie ill o t c a rd in a lid a e a d g h i 5 2 8 /1 3 h a b ia f u sc ic a u d a c a b a n is c a rd in a lid a e a d i 3 2 8 /1 1 p ir a n g a le u co p te ra t ru d ea u c a rd in a lid a e a i 2 2 8 /3 ta n g a ra p a lm er i h el lm a yr t h ra u p id a e h 1 2 8 /8 d 1 2 8 /1 0 p ir a n g a b id en ta ta s w a in so n c a rd in a lid a e c 1 2 8 /1 4 h a b ia c a rm io li la w re n ce c a rd in a lid a e i 1 ch ĩm p á w i 3 0 /1 5 sp ar ro w a rr em o n a u ra n ti ir o st ri s la fr es n a ye p a ss er el lid a e d 1 ch ip a u w a rá d 2 4 /5 p ep p er sh ri ke c yc la rh is g u ja n en si s g m el in v ir eo n id a e e 1 ch it rr éch it rr é 1 4 /4 x en o p s x en o p s m in u tu s sp a rr m a n f u rn a ri id a e g 1 ch o m b ʌ 1 /2 3 h er o n a rd ea c o co i l in n a eu s a rd ei d a e d 1 ethnobiology letters. 2015. 6:32‐62. doi: 10.14237/ebl.6.1.2015.226. 44 data, methods & taxonomies (c o n ti n u ed o n n ex t p ag e) (c o n ti n u ed f ro m p re v io u s p ag e) g a rs a sp -[ w a ib ´ʌ a ]d 1 /2 4 ef h i 4 ch o rĩ h o 1 /5 c ra ke h a p a lo cr ex fl a vi ve n te r b o d d a er t r a lli d a e c 1 ch u ch u 1 6 /6 a n tb ir d p h a en o sti ct u s m cl ea n n a n i l a w re n ce t h a m n o p h ili d a e d 1 d ĩr ĩr ĩv 1 1 /4 b ar b et c a p it o m a cu lic o ro n a tu s la w re n ce r a m p h a sti d a e c d g 3 1 6 /8 to u ca n c o ra p ip o a lt er a h el lm a yr p ip ri d a e g 1 d ó -b a ta d 1 0 /1 1 k in gfi sh er c h lo ro ce ry le a m er ic a n a g m el in a lc ed in id a e d g 2 d õ -h ẽh ẽd 1 /1 2 ja ca n a ja ca n a ja ca n a l in n a eu s ja ca n id a e a ef g i 5 1 /1 1 ja ca n a s p in o sa l in n a eu s ja ca n id a e a ef i 4 d o -k ʌm á m ia d 1 /3 c ra ke a m a u ro lim n a s co n co lo r g o ss e r a lli d a e c 1 d o -k ʌm b a rr á d 1 9 /a ll si ry st es si ry st es s p . c a b a n is & h ei n e ty ra n n id a e a 1 fl yc at ch er m yi o d yn a st es s p . b o n a p a rt e ty ra n n id a e le g a tu s sp . s cl a te r ty ra n n id a e ty ra n n u s sp . l a cé p èd e ty ra n n id a e m yi o ze te te s sp . s cl a te r ty ra n n id a e c o n o p ia s sp . c a b a n is & h ei n e ty ra n n id a e m eg a ry n ch u s sp . t h u n b er g t yr a n n id a e p it a n g u s sp . s w a in so n t yr a n n id a e d o -l é 1 1 /1 1 ja y c ya n o ly ca a rg en ti g u la l a w re n ce c o rv id a e c 1 1 1 /1 2 c ya n o ly ca c u cu lla ta r id g w a y c o rv id a e c 1 d u n d ú n 1 /1 1 ja ca n a ja ca n a s p in o sa l in n a eu s ja ca n id a e c e 2 1 /1 2 ja ca n a ja ca n a l in n a eu s ja ca n id a e c e 2 1 6 /1 0 a n t th ru sh fo rm ic a ri u s a n a lis d 'o rb ig n y & l a fr es n a ye f o rm ic a ri id a e a b 2 1 /2 0 ti n am o u ti n a m u s m a jo r g m el in t in a m id a e c 1 1 6 /8 a n tp itt a p itt a so m a m ic h le ri c a ss in c o n o p o p h a g id a e a 1 2 4 /2 g n at ca tc h er p o lio p ti la s ch is ta ce ig u la h a rt er t p o lio p ti lid a e d 1 im b a n á d al l b ir d a b c d ef g h i 9 2 8 /8 ta n ag er r a m p h o ce lu s p a ss er in ii b o n a p a rt e th ra u p id a e g 1 im b ic h ú v 7 /a ll h u m m in gb ir d k la is s p . r ei ch en b a ch t ro ch ili d a e a b c d ef g h i 9 g o ld m a n ia s p . n el so n t ro ch ili d a e ethnobiology letters. 2015. 6:32‐62. doi: 10.14237/ebl.6.1.2015.226. 45 data, methods & taxonomies (c o n ti n u ed o n n ex t p ag e) (c o n ti n u ed f ro m p re v io u s p ag e) h yl o ch a ri s sp . b o ie t ro ch ili d a e le p id o p yg a s p . r ei ch en b a ch t ro ch ili d a e th a lu ra n ia s p . g o u ld t ro ch ili d a e c h lo ro sti lb o n s p . g o u ld t ro ch ili d a e fl o ri su g a s p . b o n a p a rt e tr o ch ili d a e p h a eo ch ro a s p . g o u ld t ro ch ili d a e a m a zi lia s p . l es so n t ro ch ili d a e d a m o p h ila s p . r ei ch en b a ch t ro ch ili d a e c h a ly b u ra s p . r ei ch en b a ch t ro ch ili d a e h el io th ry x sp . b o ie t ro ch ili d a e a n th ra co th o ra x sp . b o ie t ro ch ili d a e lo p h o rn is s p . l es so n t ro ch ili d a e m ic ro ch er a s p . g o u ld t ro ch ili d a e h el io m a st er s p . b o n a p a rt e tr o ch ili d a e d o ry fe ra s p . g o u ld t ro ch ili d a e d is co su ra s p . b o n a p a rt e tr o ch ili d a e h el io d o xa s p . g o u ld t ro ch ili d a e c o lib ri s p . s p ix t ro ch ili d a e p h a et h o rn is s p . s w a in so n t ro ch ili d a e th re n et es s p . g o u ld t ro ch ili d a e g la u ci s sp . b o ie t ro ch ili d a e 8 /1 -1 3 se la sp h o ru s sp . s w a in so n t ro ch ili d a e a c d ef g 6 c a lli p h lo x sp . l a w re n ce t ro ch ili d a e la m p o rn is s p . s w a in so n t ro ch ili d a e lo p h o rn is s p . l es so n t ro ch ili d a e p a n te rp e sp . c a b a n is & h ei n e tr o ch ili d a e eu p h er u sa s p . g o u ld t ro ch ili d a e c a m p yl o p te ru s sp . s w a in so n t ro ch ili d a e c o lib ri s p . s p ix t ro ch ili d a e el vi ra s p . m u ls a n t, v er re a u x, & v er re a u x tr o ch ili d a e ethnobiology letters. 2015. 6:32‐62. doi: 10.14237/ebl.6.1.2015.226. 46 data, methods & taxonomies (c o n ti n u ed o n n ex t p ag e) (c o n ti n u ed f ro m p re v io u s p ag e) 3 2 /1 6 ja ca m ar b ra ch yg a lb a s a lm o n i s cl a te r & s a lv in g a lb u lid a e b h 2 7 /1 5 h u m m in gb ir d h el io th ry x b a rr o ti b o u rc ie r tr o ch ili d a e b 1 1 3 /1 7 sc yt h eb ill c a m p yl o rh a m p h u s tr o ch ili ro st ri s li ch te n st ei n d en d ro co la p ti d a e h 1 in g ép u rr ú d 2 4 /1 2 g re en le t h yl o p h ilu s a u ra n ti if ro n s la w re n ce v ir eo n id a e d 1 ja ra g ú -b ir á b ir á 8 /1 4 -2 2 f o lia ge -g le an er sy n d a ct yl a s p . r ei ch en b a ch f u rn a ri id a e d 1 sp in et ai l c ra n io le u ca s p . r ei ch en b a ch f u rn a ri id a e fo lia ge -g le an er p h ily d o r sp . s p ix f u rn a ri id a e le aft o ss er sc le ru ru s sp . s w a in so n f u rn a ri id a e f o lia ge -g le an er la fr es n ay e fu rn ar iid ae tr ee ru n n er m a rg a ro rn is s p . r ei ch en b a ch f u rn a ri id a e tr ee h u n te r th ri p a d ec te s sp . s cl a te r fu rn a ri id a e tu ft ed ch ee k p se u d o co la p te s sp . r ei ch en b a ch f u rn a ri id a e b ar b ta il p re m n o p le x sp . c h er ri e fu rn a ri id a e ja rú 9 /1 q u et za l p h a ro m a ch ru s m o ci n n o l la ve t ro g o n id a e h 1 9 /3 tr o go n tr o g o n m el a n u ru s sw a in so n t ro g o n id a e h 1 9 /4 tr o go n tr o g o n m a ss en a g o u ld t ro g o n id a e h 1 ja ru g ú v 1 0 /5 ja ca m ar g a lb u la r u fi ca u d a c u vi er g a lb u lid a e c eg 3 3 2 /1 6 b ra ch yg a lb a s a lm o n i s cl a te r & s a lv in g a lb u lid a e c d g 3 1 0 /6 ja ca m er o p s a u re a m u lle r g a lb u lid a e eg 2 1 0 /8 k in gfi sh er c h lo ro ce ry le a en ea p a lla s a lc ed in id a e g 1 ja ru g ú -c h ik u a rá d 9 /1 0 tr o go n tr o g o n v ir id is l in n a eu s tr o g o n id a e h 1 9 /1 1 tr o g o n v io la ce u s g m el in t ro g o n id a e h 1 jĩõ jĩõ 1 4 /9 le aft o ss er sc le ru ru s m ex ic a n u s sc la te r sc le ru ri d a e g 1 jiú jiú 1 5 /2 a n ti vi re o d ys it h a m n u s m en ta lis t em m in ck t h a m n o p h ili d a e c 1 jʌ d ʌ 1 0 /2 m o tm o t b a ry p h th en g u s m a rti i v o n s p ix m o m o ti d a e a b c d ef g h i 9 1 0 /1 el ec tr o n p la ty rh yn ch u m l ea d b ea te r m o m o ti d a e a b c d ef h i 8 1 0 /4 h yl o m a n es m o m o tu la l ic h te n st ei n m o m o ti d a e a c ef h i 6 1 0 /3 m o m o tu s m o m o ta l in n a eu s m o m o ti d a e a d fh i 5 1 0 /5 ja ca m ar g a lb u la r u fi ca u d a c u vi er g a lb u lid a e a 1 1 0 /6 ja ca m er o p s a u re a m u lle r g a lb u lid a e a 1 ethnobiology letters. 2015. 6:32‐62. doi: 10.14237/ebl.6.1.2015.226. 47 data, methods & taxonomies (c o n ti n u ed o n n ex t p ag e) (c o n ti n u ed f ro m p re v io u s p ag e) 6 /1 4 c u ck o o n eo m o rp h u s g eo ff ro yi t em m in ck c u cu lid a e h 1 jʌ d ʌza ké d 1 0 /4 m o tm o t h yl o m a n es m o m o tu la l ic h te n st ei n m o m o ti d a e b d 2 jʌ d ʌp a u w a rá d 1 0 /3 m o tm o t m o m o tu s m o m o ta l in n a eu s m o m o ti d a e g 1 jo jó 9 /2 -1 1 q u et za l p h a ro m a ch ru s sp . l la ve t ro g o n id a e d i 2 tr o go n tr o g o n s p . b ri ss o n t ro g o n id a e tr o g o n v ir id is l in n a eu s tr o g o n id a e c g 2 tr o g o n v io la ce u s g m el in t ro g o n id a e c g 2 tr o g o n c o lla ri s v ie ill o t tr o g o n id a e b 1 tr o g o n a u ra n ti iv en tr is g o u ld t ro g o n id a e b 1 tr o g o n r u fu s g m el in t ro g o n id a e g 1 tr o g o n b a ir d ii la w re n ce t ro g o n id a e c 1 g ro sb ea k sa lt a to r g ro ss u s li n n a eu s th ra u p id a e h 1 jo ró jo ró 1 4 /1 4 ta ra b a m a jo r v ie ill o t th a m n o p h ili d a e a b c d eg h i 8 1 4 /a ll sp in et ai l sy n a lla xi s sp . v ie ill o t fu rn a ri id a e a h 2 c ra n io le u ca s p . r ei ch en b a ch f u rn a ri id a e x en o p s x en o p s sp . i lli g er f u rn a ri id a e fo lia ge -g le an er a u to m o lu s sp . r ei ch en b a ch f u rn a ri id a e p h ily d o r sp . s p ix f u rn a ri id a e a u to m o lu s sp . r ei ch en b a ch f u rn a ri id a e le aft o ss er sc le ru ru s sp . s w a in so n f u rn a ri id a e a n ts h ri ke th a m n is te s sp . s cl a te r & s a lv in t h a m n o p h ili d a e th a m n o p h ilu s sp . v ie ill o t th a m n o p h ili d a e ta ra b a s p . l es so n t h a m n o p h ili d a e c ym b ila im u s sp . g ra y th a m n o p h ili d a e 8 /1 4 -2 2 fo lia ge -g le an er sy n d a ct yl a s p . r ei ch en b a ch f u rn a ri id a e fh 2 sp in et ai l c ra n io le u ca s p . r ei ch en b a ch f u rn a ri id a e fo lia ge -g le an er p h ily d o r sp . s p ix f u rn a ri id a e le aft o ss er sc le ru ru s sp . s w a in so n f u rn a ri id a e fo lia ge -g le an er la fr es n ay e fu rn ar iid ae tr ee ru n n er m a rg a ro rn is s p . r ei ch en b a ch f u rn a ri id a e ethnobiology letters. 2015. 6:32‐62. doi: 10.14237/ebl.6.1.2015.226. 48 data, methods & taxonomies (c o n ti n u ed o n n ex t p ag e) (c o n ti n u ed f ro m p re v io u s p ag e) tr ee h u n te r th ri p a d ec te s sp . s cl a te r fu rn a ri id a e tu ft ed ch ee k p se u d o co la p te s sp . r ei ch en b a ch f u rn a ri id a e b ar b ta il p re m n o p le x sp . c h er ri e fu rn a ri id a e 1 1 /1 p u ffb ir d m a la co p ti la p a n a m en si s la fr es n a ye b u cc o n id a e eh 2 1 1 /1 -5 m a la co p ti la s p . g ra y b u cc o n id a e e 1 n u n le t n o n n u la s p . s cl a te r b u cc o n id a e b ar b et eu b u cc o s p . b o n a p a rt e c a p it o n id a e c a p it o s p . v ie llo t c a p it o n id a e se m n o rn is s p . r ic h m o n d s em n o rn it h id a e 2 2 /1 w re n c a n to rc h ilu s m o d es tu s c a b a n is t ro g lo d yti d a e f 1 2 2 /2 c a n to rc h ilu s le u co ti s la fr es n a ye t ro g lo d yti d a e f 1 ju á m ia 2 8 /1 0 ta n ag er p ir a n g a b id en ta ta s w a in so n c a rd in a lid a e h 1 ju á n g o ro 1 4 /1 3 a n ts h ri ke th a m n o p h ilu s p u n ct a tu s sh a w t h a m n o p h ili d a e g 1 2 2 /1 w re n c a n to rc h ilu s m o d es tu s c a b a n is t ro g lo d yti d a e g 1 2 2 /2 c a n to rc h ilu s le u co ti s la fr es n a ye t ro g lo d yti d a e g 1 ju á p ip i { n ẽj õ m b ʌ} 3 /3 h aw k b u te o g a llu s u ru b iti n g a g m el in a cc ip it ri d a e eg i 3 3 /a ll b u te o s p . l a cé p èd e a cc ip it ri d a e c 1 le u co p te rn is s p . k a u p a cc ip it ri d a e b u te o g a llu s sp . l es so n a cc ip it ri d a e h aw k‑ ea gl e sp iz a et u s sp . v ie ill o t a cc ip it ri d a e c ar ac ar a d a p tr iu s sp . v ie ill o t fa lc o n id a e h aw k g er a n o sp iz a s p . k a u p a cc ip it ri d a e c ar ac ar a m ilv a g o s p . s p ix f a lc o n id a e c a ra ca ra s p . m er re m f a lc o n id a e h aw k b u te o g a llu s sp . l a th a m a cc ip it ri d a e b u sa re llu s sp . l es so n a cc ip it ri d ae 3 /2 m o rp h n a rc h u s p ri n ce p s sc la te r a cc ip it ri d a e c 1 3 /4 b u te o g a llu s a n th ra ci n u s d ep p e a cc ip it ri d a e c 1 3 /5 h aw kea gl e sp iz a et u s o rn a tu s d a u d in a cc ip it ri d a e e 1 3 /1 0 h aw k b u te o g a llu s m er id io n a lis l a th a m a cc ip it ri d a e e 1 2 /1 fa lc o n fa lc o r u fi g u la ri s d a u d in f a lc o n id a e h 1 ethnobiology letters. 2015. 6:32‐62. doi: 10.14237/ebl.6.1.2015.226. 49 data, methods & taxonomies (c o n ti n u ed o n n ex t p ag e) (c o n ti n u ed f ro m p re v io u s p ag e) ju á p ip ich ip u rr u d 3 /1 0 h aw k i 1 3 /1 1 b u sa re llu s n ig ri co lli s la th a m a cc ip it ri d a e i 1 ju ej u é {n ẽj ó m b ĩ} 2 /4 r u p o rn is m a g n ir o st ri s g m el in a cc ip it ri d a e b i 2 3 /1 b u te o n iti d u s la th a m a cc ip it ri d a e a c 2 2 /1 fa lc o n fa lc o r u fi g u la ri s d a u d in f a lc o n id a e f 1 2 /2 h aw k c ry p to le u co p te ry x p lu m b ea s a lv in a cc ip it ri d a e b 1 2 /3 le u co p te rn is s em ip lu m b ea l a w re n ce a cc ip it ri d a e b 1 2 /7 fa lc o n m ic ra st u r ru fi co lli s v ie ill o t fa lc o n id a e h 1 ju ém iá jo v 3 /5 h aw kea gl e sp iz a et u s o rn a tu s d a u d in a cc ip it ri d a e c g 2 2 /8 h aw k a cc ip it er s u p er ci lio su s li n n a eu s a cc ip it ri d a e c 1 ju rá -j u rá 1 5 /1 0 a n tb ir d c er co m a cr a t yr a n n in a s cl a te r th a m n o p h ili d a e c 1 1 6 /1 0 a n tt h ru sh fo rm ic a ri u s a n a lis d 'o rb ig n y & l a fr es n a ye f o rm ic a ri id a e g 1 ká ik a te 1 /2 7 h er o n ti g ri so m a li n ea tu m b o d d a er t a rd ei d a e b 1 1 6 /7 a n tp itt a h yl o p ez u s p er sp ic ill a tu s la w re n ce g ra lla ri id a e h 1 ka ré 5 /1 1 a m az o n a m a zo n a f a ri n o sa b o d d a er t p si tt a ci d a e c d ef g i 6 5 /1 0 a m a zo n a a u tu m n a lis l in n a eu s p si tt a ci d a e c d g i 4 5 /1 2 a m a zo n a o ch ro ce p h a la g m el in p si tt a ci d a e c d g i 4 [k a ré ] ch iju é 5 /1 0 a b c d ef h 7 ka ré -p a d 5 /1 2 c eg h 4 ka ré -a rá =k a ré zr o m a d 5 /1 1 b c 2 5 /1 2 b 1 ka ré c h ib o ró k u a rá 5 /1 2 e 1 ke ke rr é[p a ] 5 /2 p ar ak ee t b o lb o rh yn ch u s lin eo la c a ss in p si tt a ci d a e a b c d ef g h i 9 5 /3 b ro to g er is ju g u la ri s m u lle r p si tt a ci d a e a b c ef g h i 8 5 /1 2 a m az o n a m a zo n a o ch ro ce p h a la g m el in p si tt a ci d a e c 1 3 0 /1 4 sp ar ro w a rr em o n o p s co n ir o st ri s b o n a p a rt e p a ss er el lid a e e 1 ke w a rá 1 1 /8 to u ca n r a m p h a st o s sw a in so n ii g o u ld r a m p h a sti d a e a c ef h 5 1 1 /7 to u ca n et se le n id er a s p ec ta b ili s c a ss in r a m p h a sti d a e a e 2 1 1 /6 a u la co rh yn ch u s p ra si n u s g o u ld r a m p h a sti d a e a 1 1 1 /9 to u ca n r a m p h a st o s su lf u ra tu s le ss o n r a m p h a sti d a e d 1 ke w a rá -a rá 1 1 /8 b 1 ethnobiology letters. 2015. 6:32‐62. doi: 10.14237/ebl.6.1.2015.226. 50 data, methods & taxonomies (c o n ti n u ed o n n ex t p ag e) (c o n ti n u ed f ro m p re v io u s p ag e) [k ew a rá ]ch ik er é[ o ]v =c h ip á 1 1 /9 a c ef i 5 ke w a rá -i d zi a rá d 1 1 /8 d i 2 ke w a rá -p á 1 1 /9 b h 2 1 1 /6 to u ca n et e 1 ke w a rá -z ro m á d 1 1 /8 to u ca n g 1 ke w ét a ka v 5 /9 p ar ro t p io n o p si tt a h a em a to ti s sc la te r & s a lv in p si tt a ci d a e a c d ef g h i 8 ki d á -d a d a d 6 /1 4 c u ck o o n eo m o rp h u s g eo ff ro yi t em m in ck c u cu lid a e c d eg i 5 1 7 /3 m an ak in c er a to p ip ra e ry th ro ce p h a la l in n a eu s p ip ri d a e e 1 2 0 /1 4 fl yc at ch er o n yc h o rh yn ch u s m ex ic a n u s sc la te r o n yc h o rh yn ch id a e g 1 ki d á -p ic h u m á d 3 0 /1 5 sp ar ro w a rr em o n a u ra n ti ir o st ri s la fr es n a ye p a ss er el lid a e c g 2 ki ró ki ró { ku m b a rr á } 2 6 /6 c ac iq u e c a ci cu s u ro p yg ia lis l a fr es n a ye ic te ri d a e eh 2 2 6 /7 c a ci cu s ce la l in n a eu s ic te ri d a e d h 2 ko ka rr á 1 /1 7 q u ai l o d o n to p h o ru s g u ja n en si s g m el in o d o n to p h o ri d a e a b c ef g h 7 1 /1 3 o d o n to p h o ru s er yt h ro p s g o u ld o d o n to p h o ri d a e a c ef 4 1 /1 4 o d o n to p h o ru s le u co la em u s sa lv in o d o n to p h o ri d a e a c ef 4 1 /1 5 o d o n to p h o ru s d ia le u co s w et m o re o d o n to p h o ri d a e a c 2 1 /1 6 o d o n to p h o ru s g u tt a tu s g o u ld o d o n to p h o ri d a e a c 2 ko te d év 1 /7 r ai l a ra m id es c a ja n eu s m u lle r r a lli d a e b c d ef g i 7 1 /8 a ra m id es a xi lla ri s la w re n ce r a lli d a e a c d ei 1 1 /1 c ra ke n eo cr ex c o lu m b ia n u s b a n g s r a lli d a e a 1 1 /2 r ai l p a rd ir a llu s m a cu la tu s b o d d a er t r a lli d a e a 1 1 /3 c ra ke a m a u ro lim n a s co n co lo r g o ss e r a lli d a e a 1 1 /4 la te ra llu s ex ili s te m m in ck r a lli d a e a 1 1 /5 h a p a lo cr ex fl a vi ve n te r b o d d a er t r a lli d a e a 1 1 /6 la te ra llu s a lb ig u la ri s la w re n ce r a lli d a e a 1 1 /1 0 su n gr eb e h el io rn is f u lic a b o d d a er t h el io rn it h id a e f 1 ko te d éza ké d 1 /8 r ai l b 1 ku éd ze d zé m ia d 2 2 /7 w re n p h eu g o p ed iu s ru ti lu s v ie ill o t tr o g lo d yti d a e b 1 3 2 /1 7 c a n to rc h ilu s le u co p o g o n s a lv a d o ri & f es ta t ro g lo d yti d a e f 1 ku éd zí m ia d 1 5 /4 a n tw re n m yr m o th er u la s u ri n a m en si s g m el in t h a m n o p h ili d a e h 1 ku étr ʌm iá d 2 2 /1 0 w re n h en ic o rh in a le u co sti ct a c a b a n is t ro g lo d yti d a e c 1 2 2 /1 1 h en ic o rh in a le u co p h ry s ts ch u d i t ro g lo d yti d a e c 1 ethnobiology letters. 2015. 6:32‐62. doi: 10.14237/ebl.6.1.2015.226. 51 data, methods & taxonomies (c o n ti n u ed o n n ex t p ag e) (c o n ti n u ed f ro m p re v io u s p ag e) ku m b a rr á v 2 6 /1 1 o ro p en d o la p sa ro co liu s d ec u m a n u s p a lla s ic te ri d a e b d eh 4 2 6 /9 p sa ro co liu s g u a ti m o zi n u s b o n a p a rt e ic te ri d a e fg 2 2 6 /1 0 p sa ro co liu s m o n te zu m a l es so n ic te ri d a e fg 2 2 6 /6 c ac iq u e c a ci cu s u ro p yg ia lis l a fr es n a ye ic te ri d a e e 1 2 6 /7 c a ci cu s ce la l in n a eu s ic te ri d a e e 1 1 5 /1 2 a n tb ir d g ym n o ci ch la n u d ic ep s c a ss in t h a m n o p h ili d a e h 1 ku m b a rr á -c h ik id á -t o rr ó d 2 6 /8 o ro p en d o la za rh yn ch u s w a g le ri g ra y ic te ri d a e a 1 2 6 /1 1 a 1 ku m b a rr á -c h ik id á -p u rr ú d 2 6 /9 a i 2 2 6 /1 0 a i 2 ku m b a rr á -d ro m a d 2 6 /1 0 b c d 3 2 6 /9 b 1 2 6 /1 1 e 1 m a ku á -p á d 1 1 /1 p u ffb ir d m a la co p ti la p a n a m en si s la fr es n a ye b u cc o n id a e c 1 m ic h it á 5 /8 p ar ro t p io n u s m en st ru u s li n n a eu s p si tt a ci d a e a b c d ef g h i 9 n ẽj õ m b ʌ 2 -3 /a ll fa lc o n fa lc o s p . l in n a eu s fa lc o n id a e a b c d ef g h i 9 h aw k le u co p te rn is s p . k a u p a cc ip it ri d a e b u te o s p . l a cé p èd e a cc ip it ri d a e fa lc o n m ic ra st u r sp . g ra y fa lc o n id a e h aw k a cc ip it er s p . b ri ss o n a cc ip it ri d a e k it e le p to d o n s p . s u n d ev a ll a cc ip tr id a e c h o n d ro h ie ra x sp . l es so n a cc ip it ri d a e h a rp a g u s sp . v ig o rs a cc ip it ri d a e h aw k b u te o g a llu s sp . l es so n a cc ip it ri d a e h aw kea gl e sp iz a et u s sp . v ie ill o t a cc ip it ri d a e c ar ac ar a d a p tr iu s sp . v ie ill o t fa lc o n id a e h aw k g er a n o sp iz a s p . k a u p a cc ip it ri d a e c ar ac ar a m ilv a g o s p . s p ix f a lc o n id a e c a ra ca ra s p . m er re m f a lc o n id a e h aw k b u te o g a llu s sp . l a th a m a cc ip it ri d a e b u sa re llu s sp . l es so n a cc ip it ri d ae ethnobiology letters. 2015. 6:32‐62. doi: 10.14237/ebl.6.1.2015.226. 52 data, methods & taxonomies (c o n ti n u ed o n n ex t p ag e) (c o n ti n u ed f ro m p re v io u s p ag e) n ǘ rĩ 1 /9 su n b itt er n eu ry p yg a h el ia s p a lla s eu ry p yg id a e a b c d ef g h i 9 1 /1 0 su n gr eb e h el io rn is f u lic a b o d d a er t h el io rn it h id a e a c i 3 o jíj i 2 6 /7 c ac iq u e c a ci cu s ce la l in n a eu s ic te ri d a e g 1 ó ko ko { p ʌi ch ĩr a } 4 /2 p ig eo n p a ta g io en a s sp ec io sa g m el in c o lu m b id a e c 1 õ õ ko 1 /2 8 h er o n ti g ri so m a m ex ic a n u m s w a in so n a rd ei d a e c d eh i 6 1 /2 7 ti g ri so m a li n ea tu m b o d d a er t a rd ei d a e c d i 3 1 /2 9 ti g ri so m a f a sc ia tu m s u ch a rd ei d a e d i 2 1 /2 4 a g a m ia a g a m i g m el in a rd ei d a e d g 2 1 /2 3 a rd ea c o co i l in n a eu s a rd ei d a e g 1 o rr á n ia 1 /2 3 a rd ea c o co i l in n a eu s a rd ei d a e h 1 p a rr ú v 6 /8 o w l lo p h o st ri x cr is ta ta d a u d in s tr ig id a e a c g 3 6 /1 m eg a sc o p s cl a rk ii k el so & k el so s tr ig id a e d i 2 6 /2 m eg a sc o p s ch o lib a v ie ill o t st ri g id a e d i 2 6 /3 m eg a sc o p s g u a te m a la e sh a rp e st ri g id a e d i 2 6 /4 c ic ca b a v ir g a ta c a ss in s tr ig id a e d 1 6 /5 c ic ca b a n ig ro lin ea ta s cl a te r st ri g id a e d 1 6 /6 a si o c la m a to r v ie ill o t st ri g id a e c 1 {n ẽj õ m b ʌ} 3 /5 h aw kea gl e sp iz a et u s o rn a tu s d a u d in a cc ip it ri d a e e 1 p a tr á 1 1 /6 to u ca n et a u la co rh yn ch u s p ra si n u s g o u ld r a m p h a sti d a e d g 2 p a tú 1 /1 0 su n gr eb e h el io rn is f u lic a b o d d a er t h el io rn it h id a e e 1 p ip id í 1 9 /5 k in gb ir d ty ra n n u s m el a n ch o lic u s v ie ill o t ty ra n n id a e eg i 3 1 9 /a ll si ry st es si ry st es s p . c a b a n is & h ei n e ty ra n n id a e fh 2 fl yc at ch er m yi o d yn a st es s p . b o n a p a rt e ty ra n n id a e le g a tu s sp . s cl a te r ty ra n n id a e k in gb ir d ty ra n n u s sp . l a cé p èd e ty ra n n id a e fl yc at ch er m yi o ze te te s sp . s cl a te r ty ra n n id a e c o n o p ia s sp . c a b a n is & h ei n e ty ra n n id a e m eg a ry n ch u s sp . t h u n b er g t yr a n n id a e k is ka d ee p it a n g u s sp . s w a in so n t yr a n n id a e 1 9 /6 fl yc at ch er m yi o ze te te s g ra n a d en si s la w re n ce t yr a n n id a e g i 2 1 9 /7 c o n o p ia s p a rv u s vo n p el ze ln t yr a n n id a e g i 2 ethnobiology letters. 2015. 6:32‐62. doi: 10.14237/ebl.6.1.2015.226. 53 data, methods & taxonomies (c o n ti n u ed o n n ex t p ag e) (c o n ti n u ed f ro m p re v io u s p ag e) 1 9 /8 m yi o ze te te s si m ili s sp ix t yr a n n id a e g i 2 1 9 /3 m yi o d yn a st es m a cu la tu s m u lle r ty ra n n id a e h 1 2 0 /a ll m yi o b iu s sp . d a rw in t it yr id a e d 1 to lm o m yi a s sp . h el lm a yr t yr a n n id a e el ae n ia m yi o p a g is s p . s a lv in & g o d m a n t yr a n n id a e p ew ee c o n to p u s sp . c a b a n is t yr a n n id a e el ae n ia el a en ia s p . s u n d ev a ll ty ra n n id a e fl yc at ch er su b le g a tu s sp . s cl a te r & s a lv in t yr a n n id a e m yi a rc h u s sp . c a b a n is t yr a n n id a e o n yc h o rh yn ch u s sp . w a ld h ei m o n yc h o rh yn ch id a e c n ip o d ec te s sp . s cl a te r & s a lv in t yr a n n id a e m io n ec te s sp . c a b a n is t yr a n n id a e fl at b ill r h yn ch o cy cl u s sp . c a b a n is & h ei n e ty ra n n id a e p ʌw ʌ 9 /a ll q u et za l p h a ro m a ch ru s sp . l la ve t ro g o n id a e g 1 tr o go n tr o g o n s p . b ri ss o n t ro g o n id a e 9 /3 tr o g o n m el a n u ru s sw a in so n t ro g o n id a e g 1 9 /4 tr o g o n m a ss en a g o u ld t ro g o n id a e g 1 p õ rá 1 /1 3 q u ai l o d o n to p h o ru s er yt h ro p s g o u ld o d o n to p h o ri d a e d 1 1 /1 4 o d o n to p h o ru s le u co la em u s sa lv in o d o n to p h o ri d a e d 1 1 /1 5 o d o n to p h o ru s d ia le u co s w et m o re o d o n to p h o ri d a e d 1 1 /1 6 o d o n to p h o ru s g u tt a tu s g o u ld o d o n to p h o ri d a e d 1 1 /1 7 o d o n to p h o ru s g u ja n en si s g m el in o d o n to p h o ri d a e d 1 1 /1 8 r h yn ch o rt yx c in ct u s sa lv in o d o n to p h o ri d a e d 1 p o ró p o ró 1 /1 3 o d o n to p h o ru s er yt h ro p s g o u ld o d o n to p h o ri d a e i 1 1 /1 4 o d o n to p h o ru s le u co la em u s sa lv in o d o n to p h o ri d a e i 1 1 /1 7 o d o n to p h o ru s g u ja n en si s g m el in o d o n to p h o ri d a e i 1 p ʌc h ʌr a 4 /a ll p ig eo n c o lu m b a s p . l in n a eu s c o lu m b id a e a b c d g 5 d o ve c la ra vi s sp . o b er h o ls er c o lu m b id a e c o lu m b in a s p . s p ix c o lu m b id a e le p to ti la s p . s w a in so n c o lu m b id a e g eo tr yg o n s p . g o ss e c o lu m b id ae ethnobiology letters. 2015. 6:32‐62. doi: 10.14237/ebl.6.1.2015.226. 54 data, methods & taxonomies (c o n ti n u ed o n n ex t p ag e) (c o n ti n u ed f ro m p re v io u s p ag e) 4 /1 0 d o ve le p to ti la v er re a u xi b o n a p a rt e c o lu m b id a e b d g h i 5 4 /9 le p to ti la c a ss in ii la w re n ce c o lu m b id a e b g h i 4 4 /8 le p to ti la p lu m b ei ce p s sc la te r & s a lv in c o lu m b id a e h i 2 4 /3 p ig eo n p a ta g io en a s ca ye n n en si s b o n n a te rr e c o lu m b id a e c 1 4 /4 p a ta g io en a s n ig ri ro st ri s sc la te r c o lu m b id a e c 1 4 /5 d o ve c la ra vi s m o n d et o u ra b o n a p a rt e c o lu m b id a e c 1 4 /1 5 g eo tr yg o n la w re n ci i s a lv in c o lu m b id a e c 1 4 /1 6 g eo tr yg o n c o st a ri ce n si s la w re n ce c o lu m b id a e c 1 4 /1 7 g eo tr yg o n v er a g u en si s la w re n ce c o lu m b id a e c 1 p ʌc h ĩr a -[ to ro ]d 4 /6 c o lu m b in a m in u ta l in n a eu s c o lu m b id a e b e 2 p ʌc h ĩr a -e yá d eb ém a d 4 /1 2 g eo tr yg o n m o n ta n a l in n a eu s c o lu m b id a e c 1 p u tu h ú { p ʌc h ĩr a } 4 /6 d o ve c o lu m b in a m in u ta l in n a eu s c o lu m b id a e d i 2 4 /a ll p ig eo n c o lu m b a s p . l in n a eu s c o lu m b id a e h 1 d o ve c la ra vi s sp . o b er h o ls er c o lu m b id a e c o lu m b in a s p . s p ix c o lu m b id a e le p to ti la s p . s w a in so n c o lu m b id a e g eo tr yg o n s p . g o ss e c o lu m b id ae 4 /5 c la ra vi s m o n d et o u ra b o n a p a rt e c o lu m b id a e h 1 4 /8 le p to ti la p lu m b ei ce p s sc la te r & s a lv in c o lu m b id a e e 1 4 /9 le p to ti la c a ss in ii la w re n ce c o lu m b id a e e 1 4 /1 0 le p to ti la v er re a u xi b o n a p a rt e c o lu m b id a e e 1 p ʌt ʌh ʌ[z a ké ]d -[ p u rr u ]d 4 /7 c o lu m b in a t a lp a co ti t em m in ck c o lu m b id a e b c ef 4 p ʌt ʌh ʌch ip a u w a rá d 4 /1 1 c la ra vi s p re ti o sa f er ra ri -p ér ez c o lu m b id ae c i 2 rr ío 1 1 /7 to u ca n et se le n id er a s p ec ta b ili s c a ss in r a m p h a sti d a e g 1 se m í 2 6 /1 6 c o w b ir d m o lo th ru s o ry zi vo ru s g m el in ic te ri d a e b fg 3 se rr ém ia 2 2 /a ll w re n th ry o th o ru s sp . v ie ill o t tr o gl o d yti d ae d 1 tr o g lo d yt es s p . v ie ill o t tr o g lo d yti d a e th ry o rc h ilu s sp . o b er h o ls er t ro g lo d yti d a e h en ic o rh in a s p . s cl at er & s al vi n t ro gl o d yti d ae m ic ro ce rc u lu s sp . s al vi n t ro gl o d yti d ae c yp o rh in u s sp . c a b a n is t ro g lo d yti d a e ethnobiology letters. 2015. 6:32‐62. doi: 10.14237/ebl.6.1.2015.226. 55 data, methods & taxonomies (c o n ti n u ed o n n ex t p ag e) (c o n ti n u ed f ro m p re v io u s p ag e) c a m p yl o rh yn ch u s sp . s p ix t ro gl o d yti d ae 2 2 /1 7 c a m p yl o rh yn ch u s a lb o b ru n n eu s la w re n ce t ro g lo d yti d a e d 1 2 2 /1 8 c a m p yl o rh yn ch u s zo n a tu s le ss o n t ro g lo d yti d a e d 1 so ko rr ó v 1 /2 0 ti n am o u ti n a m u s m a jo r g m el in t in a m id a e a b c d ef h i 8 1 /2 1 c ry p tu re llu s so u i h er m a n n t in a m id a e a c g 3 1 /1 9 n o th o ce rc u s b o n a p a rt ei g ra y ti n a m id a e c 1 so ko rr ó -z a ké d 1 /2 1 b d 2 so rd o ró 1 3 /1 6 w o o d cr ee p er x ip h o rh yn ch u s la ch ry m o su s la w re n ce d en d ro co la p ti d a e i 1 so rr év 1 2 /a ll w o o d p ec ke r c o la p te s sp . v ig o rs p ic id a e a c d ef g 6 p ic u lu s sp . s p ix p ic id a e m el a n er p es s p . s w a in so n p ic id a e d en d ro co p o s sp . k o ch p ic id a e v en ili o rn is s p . b o n a p a rt e p ic id a e c el eu s sp . b o ie p ic id a e d ry o co p u s sp . b o ie p ic id a e c a m p ep h ilu s g ra y p ic id a e 1 2 /6 m el a n er p es c h ry sa u ch en s a lv in p ic id a e a 1 6 /1 4 c u ck o o n eo m o rp h u s g eo ff ro yi t em m in ck c u cu lid a e a 1 so rr éd ró m a vd =s o rr é w a ib ʌa d 1 2 /1 6 c a m p ep h ilu s m el a n o le u co s g m el in p ic id a e c ef g h i 6 1 2 /1 5 d ry o co p u s lin ea tu s li n n a eu s p ic id a e b fh i 4 1 2 /1 c o la p te s p u n cti g u la b o d d a er t p ic id a e b 1 1 2 /2 p ic u lu s si m p le x sa lv in p ic id a e b 1 1 2 /3 p ic u lu s ch ry so ch lo ro s v ie ill o t p ic id a e b 1 1 2 /6 m el a n er p es c h ry sa u ch en s a lv in p ic id a e b 1 1 2 /7 m el a n er p es p u ch er a n i m a lh er b e p ic id a e b 1 1 2 /8 m el a n er p es r u b ri ca p ill u s c a b a n is p ic id a e b 1 1 2 /9 m el a n er p es f o rm ic iv o ru s sw a in so n p ic id a e b 1 1 2 /1 4 c el eu s ca st a n eu s w a g le r p ic id a e f 1 1 2 /1 7 c a m p ep h ilu s g u a te m a le n si s h a rt la u b p ic id a e g 1 1 2 /1 8 c a m p ep h ilu s h a em a to g a st er v o n t sc h u d i p ic id a e g 1 ethnobiology letters. 2015. 6:32‐62. doi: 10.14237/ebl.6.1.2015.226. 56 data, methods & taxonomies (c o n ti n u ed o n n ex t p ag e) (c o n ti n u ed f ro m p re v io u s p ag e) so rr éka ib éa d =s o rr éza ké d 1 2 /7 c fg i 4 1 2 /8 eg h i 4 1 2 /6 c g i 3 1 2 /9 i 1 1 2 /1 0 p ic o id es v ill o su s li n n a eu s p ic id a e i 1 so rí jo jó 1 /2 5 h er o n b u to ri d es s tr ia ta l in n a eu s a rd ei d a e a 1 su ék o ko v 1 3 /1 8 sc yt h eb ill c a m p yl o rh a m p h u s p u si llu s sc la te r d en d ro co la p ti d a e a c 2 1 3 /a ll p ic u le t p ic u m n u s sp . t em m in ck p ic id a e a 1 w o o d cr ee p er d en d ro ci n cl a s p . g ra y fu rn a ri id a e si tt a so m u s sp . s w a in so n f u rn a ri id a e g ly p h o ry n ch u s sp . w ie d -n eu w ie d f u rn ar iid ae le p id o co la p te s sp . r ei ch en b a ch f u rn a ri id a e x ip h o rh yn ch u s sp . s w a in so n f u rn a ri id a e d ec o n yc h u ra s p . c h er ri e fu rn a ri id a e sc yt h eb ill d en d ro co la p te s sp . h er m a n n f u rn a ri id a e 1 3 /1 7 c a m p yl o rh a m p h u s tr o ch ili ro st ri s li ch te n st ei n d en d ro co la p ti d a e c 1 {s o rr é} 1 2 /1 3 w o o d p ec ke r c el eu s lo ri ca tu s r ei ch en b a ch p ic id a e c 1 1 2 /1 4 c el eu s ca st a n eu s w a g le r p ic id a e c 1 tã ta n ú { n ẽj õ m b ĩ} 3 /6 c ar ac ar a ib yc te r a m er ic a n u s b o d d a er t fa lc o n id a e c 1 te d éj o m b ʌ {n ẽj õ m b ĩ} 2 /1 fa lc o n fa lc o r u fi g u la ri s d a u d in f a lc o n id a e c i 2 2 /1 0 k it e le p to d o n c a ya n en si s la th a m a cc ip it ri d a e h 1 ti ó ti ó =c h o ch o 1 1 /1 3 ja y c ya n o co ra z a ffi n is v o n p el ze ln c o rv id a e a b c eg h i 7 to kó v 1 7 /3 m an ak in c er a to p ip ra e ry th ro ce p h a la l in n a eu s p ip ri d a e b c d h i 5 1 7 /2 c er a to p ip ra m en ta lis s cl a te r p ip ri d a e h 1 1 7 /5 m a n a cu s a u ra n ti a cu s sa lv in p ip ri d a e c 1 2 7 /a ll c h lo ro p h o n ia c h lo ro p h o n ia s p . b o n a p a rt e fr in g ill id a e c 1 eu p h o n ia eu p h o n ia s p . d es m a re st f ri n g ill id a e ta n ag er ta n g a ra s p . b ri ss o n t h ra u p id a e 2 7 /2 eu p h o n ia eu p h o n ia m in u ta c a b a n is f ri n g ill id a e c 1 2 7 /3 eu p h o n ia f u lv ic ri ss a s cl a te r fr in g ill id a e c 1 ethnobiology letters. 2015. 6:32‐62. doi: 10.14237/ebl.6.1.2015.226. 57 data, methods & taxonomies (c o n ti n u ed o n n ex t p ag e) (c o n ti n u ed f ro m p re v io u s p ag e) 2 8 /a ll ta n ag er ta n g a ra s p . b ri ss o n t h ra u p id a e c 1 b a n g si a s p . p en a rd t h ra u p id a e th ra u p is s p . b o ie t h ra u p id a e r a m p h o ce lu s sp . d es m a re st t h ra u p id a e r a m p h o ce lu s sp . d es m a re st t h ra u p id a e p ir a n g a s p . v ie llo t c a rd in a lid a e h a b ia s p . b ly th c a rd in a lid a e c h lo ro th ra u p is s p . s a lv in & g o d m a n c a rd in a lid a e 2 8 /2 b a n g si a a rc a ei s cl a te r & s a lv in t h ra u p id a e c 1 2 8 /3 ta n g a ra p a lm er i h el lm a yr t h ra u p id a e c 1 to kó -c h ib o ró -k u a rá d 1 7 /3 m an ak in g 1 to kó -c h ib o ró -p u rr ú d 1 7 /2 g 1 to kó -p a im á d 1 7 /2 b 1 tr ík a 6 /1 3 c u ck o o p ia ya c a ya n a l in n a eu s c u cu lid a e c d ef g h i 7 6 /1 2 c o cc yc u a m in u ta v ie ill o t c u cu lid a e a d ei 4 6 /1 0 ta p er a n a ev ia l in n a eu s c u cu lid a e a i 2 6 /1 1 d ro m o co cc yx p h a si a n el lu s sp ix c u cu lid a e i 1 u m á { p ʌc h ĩr a } 4 /2 p ig eo n p a ta g io en a s sp ec io sa g m el in c o lu m b id a e a c d eh i 6 4 /4 p a ta g io en a s n ig ri ro st ri s sc la te r c o lu m b id a e b i 2 4 /3 p a ta g io en a s ca ye n n en si s b o n n a te rr e c o lu m b id a e b 1 w á rr a -j a rá m ia d 1 3 /6 w o o d cr ee p er g ly p h o rh yn ch u s sp ir u ru s v ie ill o t d en d ro co la p ti d a e f 1 1 9 /5 k in gb ir d ty ra n n u s m el a n ch o lic u s v ie ill o t ty ra n n id a e b 1 1 9 /6 fl yc at ch er m yi o ze te te s g ra n a d en si s la w re n ce t yr a n n id a e b 1 1 9 /7 c o n o p ia s p a rv u s p el ze ln t yr a n n id a e b 1 1 9 /8 m yi o ze te te s si m ili s sp ix t yr a n n id a e b 1 2 0 /a ll m yi o b iu s sp . d a rw in t it yr id a e h 1 to lm o m yi a s sp . h el lm a yr t yr a n n id a e el ae n ia m yi o p a g is s p . s a lv in & g o d m a n t yr a n n id a e p ew ee c o n to p u s sp . c a b a n is t yr a n n id a e el ae n ia el a en ia s p . s u n d ev a ll ty ra n n id a e fl yc at ch er su b le g a tu s sp . s cl a te r & s a lv in t yr a n n id a e ethnobiology letters. 2015. 6:32‐62. doi: 10.14237/ebl.6.1.2015.226. 58 data, methods & taxonomies (c o n ti n u ed f ro m p re v io u s p ag e) m yi a rc h u s sp . c a b a n is t yr a n n id a e o n yc h o rh yn ch u s sp . w a ld h ei m o n yc h o rh yn ch id a e c n ip o d ec te s sp . s cl a te r & s a lv in t yr a n n id a e m io n ec te s sp . c a b a n is t yr a n n id a e fl at b ill r h yn ch o cy cl u s sp . c a b a n is & h ei n e ty ra n n id a e w id ó -w id ó 1 4 /1 2 a n ts h ri ke th a m n o p h ilu s d o lia tu s li n n a eu s th a m n o p h ili d a e c 1 2 0 /a ll fl yc at ch er m yi o b iu s sp . d a rw in t it yr id a e f 1 to lm o m yi a s sp . h el lm a yr t yr a n n id a e el ae n ia m yi o p a g is s p . s a lv in & g o d m a n t yr a n n id a e p ew ee c o n to p u s sp . c a b a n is t yr a n n id a e el ae n ia el a en ia s p . s u n d ev a ll ty ra n n id a e fl yc at ch er su b le g a tu s sp . s cl a te r & s a lv in t yr a n n id a e m yi a rc h u s sp . c a b a n is t yr a n n id a e o n yc h o rh yn ch u s sp . w a ld h ei m o n yc h o rh yn ch id a e c n ip o d ec te s sp . s cl a te r & s a lv in t yr a n n id a e m io n ec te s sp . c a b a n is t yr a n n id a e fl at b ill r h yn ch o cy cl u s sp . c a b a n is & h ei n e ty ra n n id a e w id ó -w id ó -w ẽr a d 2 0 /1 3 m yi a rc h u s p a n a m en si s la w re n ce t yr a n n id a e c 1 w ít o 1 1 /2 ja y n o n n u la f ro n ta lis s cl a te r b u cc o n id a e i 1 ya h eh é 1 3 /1 7 sc yt h eb ill c a m p yl o rh a m p h u s tr o ch ili ro st ri s li ch te n st ei n d en d ro co la p ti d a e d 1 ethnobiology letters. 2015. 6:32‐62. doi: 10.14237/ebl.6.1.2015.226. 59 data, methods & taxonomies appendix 2: emberá bird folklore these data were collected either in the context of elicitation sessions or upon sighting or hearing the bird in a natural context. the information gathered in elicitation session is indicated with an "ec" after the bird name and that gathered in natural contexts with an "nc." see appendix 1 for the scientific identification of emberá bird names appearing in the text. note however, the text includes some emberá examples that i was not able to translate into scientific taxonomic categories in the elicitation sessions. where i have been able to identify these by other means, or know the common spanish name, i list them below. the data are organized alphabetically by emberá name within three categories: a) birds used in magic, b) birds used as symbols in folktales, c) birds whose songs and calls contain messages for the emberá. again, i include them here in order to bring the connotative and metaphorical meanings associated with names to the attention of the analyst. in general, compared to processes of denotative reference that are the basis of taxonomic naming, symbolic processes involved in the folkloric use of bird names tend to rely more on behavioral and functional attributes of the birds and less on morphological attributes. this could reflect the operation of different kinds of semantic processes, or is perhaps principally due to the fact that most of the folkloric data was collected in natural context. birds used in magic antumiá (sp. madre de agua, mother of waters)1 nc ec antumiá is a malevolent spirit being of the night that emberá conceptualize in various ways. it is most commonly associated with a clear, loud, whistling song composed of five long minor tones rising in pitch. (according to book descriptions, none of the birds identified in the elicitation sessions have this song. interestingly, there was no consensus on any of the identifications.) the bird’s eerie song comes out from the woods, is quite common and, in my experience, always evokes a strong reaction from emberá listeners. i have been told that antumiá is a small black bird that is a messenger of the shaman (jãĩmbaná). when shamans fight they send this bird out to kill. during the daytime it lives in the river, at night it walks around on land. however, not all emberá associate the song with a bird, or any other natural being. cuervo (crow) nc the crow’s tail feathers were prescribed as treatment in a curing ceremony i attended for a little baby. the morning after the ceremony, a live crow was caught and its tail feathers were removed, then swept up and down over the child’s body. participants explained to me that this caused the baby to sweat profusely after which the sickness blew away. dogowíru nc the dogowíru is called the “devil’s chicken.” examples of relevant instructions follow below. “if you catch it during easter week it brings good luck and money. you catch it on the night of good friday and take a walk on the beach. then you pull out the tail feathers. the devil will come up to you and in a deep, gruff voice demand, “why have you killed my chicken? what do you want?” and, if your heart is strong, you say, “i want money,” and the devil will deliver it to you.” domiá and chorihú (2 kinds of sandpipers) scolopacidae nc “dios dejo domiá muy puta (sp. god left domiá like a whore [god upset domiá]),” says my informant, bumping and grinding his behind side to side, bending at first one knee then the other, mimicking the tail movements of this bird when it walks. “so,” he says, “if your lover humiliates you by taking other lovers, take the tail feathers of domiá and, when your lover is sleeping, put them between the big and the second toe and move it up and down, in and out, chanting “auduobaya jumaraba nonia” (go with all). after that your lover will be compelled to have sex with dogs, animals, anything that walks.” makuá-pa and bidó-koróchia ec nc these birds are both used to do makuá, a magical practice that men and women do to attract individuals for various purposes. most commonly, individuals do makuá to attract another person of the opposite sex. one can also do makuá to start up some business, like a store or canteen. it will then call people away from competitors. to do it, one makes a potion made of various ingredients, such as feathers of these birds. another animal that can be used is a little arthropod (coropipí) that ethnobiology letters. 2015. 6:32‐62. doi: 10.14237/ebl.6.1.2015.226. 60 data, methods & taxonomies lives on the riverine beaches and climbs into sand holes backwards. there are also plants called makuá that are usually scented sweetly. people may even use bottled perfume. once the potion is made, it is put on while chanting some appropriate words. if a man is after a woman, when she walks by him while the magic is in effect, she cannot pass him by. this practice is not specific to emberá. indeed, i saw a sign for makuá in the market of panama city. sorré (woodpecker) ec nc the woodpecker is essential to the magical acquisition of good axmanship. what you need to do first is get a hold of a large male sorré. this is the bird that can make a hole in a thick, hard tree by repeatedly hitting the same spot, fast and precisely with his beak. he will go and go. if the hole is not made at once he will keep going till he is finished. the first time i heard about this was in the course of observing the construction of a dugout canoe, a process in which there is no room for inexpert ax handlers. the trick, when starting the job, is to hit hard along a certain angle so the wood can be cut out in large blocks. to do the smooth finishing at the end, hit the sides with fine precision. great strength and several people are required to sustain ax work for the long hours that stretch into weeks of canoe construction. so you get a sorré, grate its beak and mix it with jagua (the blue black dye from genipa americana l. rubiaceae). then paint it on your hands, quickly rubbing up and down first one then the other, while repeatedly chanting something to the effect of, “leave me strong like you.” this magic is done when the moon is full, just rising on the horizon. it is done four times in a man’s life, at no specific age. “it can be done the first time as a boy,” my informant says as he points to his six and eight year old sons. “but it can’t be done more than four times because then you become too strong.” too much strength is also no good. you can ruin a canoe like that. however, when a man uses this magic correctly, he is stronger and better at wielding an ax. if you put him side by side with the man who has not done it, the one with magic wins any contest of strength. he can finish taking out the innards of a log by noon. when the sorré is making a hole his cry is, “trrrrrrrrr-ke-ke-ke-ke,” just like people when they are working. whenever men are working hard with an ax or machete they cry out when the work gets most intense. there is a variation of this method in which the powdered beak of sorré is put in the bellybutton of male newborns. birds used as symbols in folktales2 while traveling downriver one morning in the dry season on our way to a regional political meeting, my companions could not pass up the numerous female opogá (iguana iguana l. iguanidae) basking in the sun up on the branches of leafless cecropia trees (eborró). after they cut down the trees with machetes and tried to grab the iguanas as they fell into the river, capturing one and missing two, they decided to send someone back to the village to get a rifle. while we were waiting i was told all but two of the folktales that follow below. the ones about kumbarrá and sorré were told in other contexts. angosó (vulture) nc dzoshua, a village elder, points up to the angosó flying high in the distance and says, “he’s always looking for the dead.” his daughter zelda interrupts, “that brings luck. ask the angosó for luck while hunting because he likes dead animals.” then dzoshua tells this tale: “one day angosó finds a cow lying there in the forest. he walks around it, examining it carefully. he walks up to the head and looks in the eyes. is it dead? he wonders. the eyes are closed. yes, well, it must be dead. so he sticks his head in the cow’s anus. thinking the cow was dead, he sticks it in so far his beak comes out of the mouth end. but then, the cow tightens up his anus and angosó can’t get out! it wasn’t dead after all. finally angosó manages to pull his head out, but he was left bald. and that’s why angosó has no feathers on top.” ansabidá (kingfisher) nc getting impatient, dzoshua walked over complaining how the iguanas (opogá) always deceive man by getting away all the time. to make us all feel better he reminded us about the tale in which ansabidá deceives opogá: opogá asks ansabidá, “could you warn me if any people come downriver? i want to lie out here in the sun and snooze on this tree for a while.” ethnobiology letters. 2015. 6:32‐62. doi: 10.14237/ebl.6.1.2015.226. 61 data, methods & taxonomies so opogá stayed sleeping on this tree. [dzoshua mimes the iguana lying on the side of the tree trunk on the side away from the river.] when all of a sudden he spotted people in a canoe coming downriver! realizing ansabidá had lied to him, he watched, staying very still, peeking carefully around the edge of the trunk. and then the cholo (indian) in the canoe calls, “opogá! on the tree!” “oh shit!” says opogá and falls into the water. and the indian cries, “get him! he’s full of eggs!” then lunging for the opogá, he catches him and kills him. note that the inedible kingfishers, small and large, are some of the most common and noticeable birds on the river. their rapid flight diagonally across the water can be seen at all seasons. here is another tale in which the oropendola, probably psarocolius decumanus pallas icteridae, which ridgely (1976:306) mentions often nests in cecropia trees, also tricks iguana. it was told to me while i watched dzoshua constructing a canoe by the river’s edge. kumbarrá (kingfisher) nc and then there is kumbarrá, the black bird with a red patch that cries out loudly as he falls from the sky towards the water. poor opogá took fright, for he thought kumbarrá was falling into the river. but kumbarrá only laughed. he was only playing. still waiting on the beach, dzoshua’s daughter zelda continued telling me folktales. the next one is as close to a creation story as i’ve heard from the emberá. the heroes or, rather, anti-heroes, are woodpecker and the crowned lizard (basiliscus basiliscus l. corytophanidae). (ochorró in emberá). sometime before this i had learned that, like the woodpecker, the crowned lizard was an axman in ancient times when animals were people. he was in the middle of an ax swing when the world changed. the ax got fixed to the top of his head and because it is quite heavy, ochorró cannot run very far on water. astonishing enough to a newcomer in the tropical forest, basiliscus does really run across small streams. sorré (woodpecker) nc zelda said, “and there was sorré and ochorró. they were stealing water from the epave tree [anacardium excelsum bertero & balb. ex kunth anacardiaceae] and god knew it. so god asks them, “oh, by the way, where did you get that water from?” knowing full well where they got it, they kept their mouths shut. what could they say, after all? then god got mad and made the epave tree burst open. [zelda interrupted her telling to gesticulate animatedly, flinging her arms up into the air and stretching them in various directions.] woosh, woosh, woosh, the water burst all over, making rivers and big lakes. each branch (of the tree) became a river. and so sorré and ochorró stayed with their axes on their heads.” i include one last folktale here, told to me by dzoshua in his house, to illustrate the use of bird imagery in the discussion of contemporary problems. sokorró (tinamou) (tetrao major gmelin tinamidae) nc dzoshua said, “well you know how come we indians never have any money? it’s like this: “we cholos (indians) grab the sokorró (our chicken) by the tail feathers and of course, what happens? the feathers pull out and the bird gets away. and the same with deer. we grab it by the tail and the tail breaks off. and the cow and the horse too. but no, not the kampuniá (non-indian). the kampuniá grabs it by the hoof and it can’t get away. then he puts it away to breed so he can keep it. like money. but the cholo? thirty dollars, fifty dollars, one hundred dollars—eaten. [dzoshua makes a hand to mouth movement.] but not the kampuniá: he’s got one hundred dollars and suddenly he’s got more.” birds whose songs and calls contain messages for the emberá bidó jarámia ec this bird’s name speaks for itself: “a being that tells of white-lipped peccary” (tayassu pecari link tayassuidae). in other words, the appearance of this bird signals the proximity of one or more white-lipped peccaries, which are an important source of meat. dogowíru (kind of nightjar) possibly nyctidromus albicollis gould caprimulgidae nc this crepuscular and nocturnal ground nester, whose name iconically mimics its song, advises when the new moon appears and when there is a ethnobiology letters. 2015. 6:32‐62. doi: 10.14237/ebl.6.1.2015.226. 62 data, methods & taxonomies clear moon. they say it has a house of moonlight (jedeko debema). through its oft repeated song this bird musically says, “estoy jodido. no tengo sabana (i’m screwed. i have no sheet).” known as the devil’s chicken, the dogowíru is a magical counterpart of the emberá’s chicken, the edible tinamou known as sokorró. during the elicitation sessions several people noted that the dogowíru was not among the birds illustrated in the plates. because the bird’s song is the most salient, culturally familiar aspect, this may mean that they do not recognize the bird’s image among the nightjars, or alternatively, that the dogowíru is not a nightjar. do-miá (kind of sandpiper) scolopacidae nc this is a little seabird that often frequents the rivers of darién. since ancient times the old people have known that, when they see this little bird walking along the riverbanks, the river will rise. eteré umákira (rooster) gallus gallus domesticus l. phasianidae nc when an eteré umákira (literally, “chicken of the male sex”) crows, they say he is trumpeting in spanish, “jesu cristo nació (jesus christ was born).” a white rooster also symbolizes the character of jesus in folktales in central and south america more broadly. jue jué ec this bird’s song tells of the presence of collared peccary (tayassu tajacu l. tayassuidae). kué-dzedzémia ec this bird, who is considered to be a rain being, advises of coming rain. kué-trʌmia ec the name literally means “being that tells of rain.” the emberá say that when a hard rain is going to fall this bird is happy. it dances and sings “pi-pi.” kué-trʌmia is listed in appendix as a chingé of central importance. serrémia ec this bird may also be referred to as wío wío, which means “good day” in emberá. this is the happy sound it makes when it is going to rain. suenrú (sp. corní) nc this is the little bird that tells time. it sounds at dawn, at 3:00 pm and again at 4:00 pm. the fact that suenrú sings at dawn and in the day is significant because it distinguishes this bird from the similar night song of the fearsome antumiá. wáko (laughing falcon) herpetotheres cachinnans l. falconidae ec this bird calls out in spanish, “cafe con harina (coffee and flour [dough cakes]).” these foods are the preferred food for wakes and the bird’s call signals that someone is about to die. this bird was identified from a black and white drawing in the same book that i used for the photo elicitations. ridgely (1976:77) describes the species as having far-carrying calls, most often a loud, “guaco, gua-co.” note that if you pronounce this verbal rendition of the call it sounds almost identical as the emberá name. wárra-jarámia ec this name literally means “being who tells of child.” the emberá say that when a woman becomes pregnant this bird tells them. when two birds are seen walking together and the male follows the female, the baby will be a girl. if the female follows the male, the baby will be a boy. widó-widó ec this bird advises you at the very beginning of pregnancy. even if you deny being pregnant, this bird will tell. references ridgely, r. 1976. a guide to the birds of panama. princeton university press, princeton, nj. notes 1widespread folklore of mother of waters originated in africa. see for example drewal 2008. 2note that these tellings happened spontaneously in situ and i had no tape recorder. these versions are composed on the basis of rough notes. analysis of the following tales are available in the context of ethnographic description and analysis. see kane (1994/2004:66-82) for woodpecker tales and canoebuilding. see kane 1994/2004:23-5 for iguana hunting and vultures on the way to a political congress. for a creation story see kane 1994/2004:20. cactus nurseries and conservation in a biosphere reserve in mexico 96 research communication the current conservation paradigm no longer views the ecosystem and human beings as separate, but rather acknowledges the fundamental role of humans in socio-ecosystem management and conservation. socio-ecosystems are complex systems whose proper management requires participative multiscale schemes and whose basic goal is both conservation and development through multicentric decision making (berkes 2003; berkes and turner 2006; campbell and vainio 2003). as a consequence, the concept of protected areas has changed over time. once they were zones from which local residents were removed, supposedly to prevent environmental degradation, but now there are protected areas where the participation of the people who live there is considered of vital importance. including humans in natural protected areas has given rise to the biosphere reserve model promoted by unesco (unesco 2013). the purpose of this model is to enable sustainable development based on local community efforts in protected areas. in mexico, current environmental law based on the convention on biological diversity and other precedents provides for biosphere reserves as one of several types of introduction an ethnobiological issue of current interest is that of documenting how knowledge and sustainable conservation practices arise, are maintained, and/or are modified (turner and berkes 2006), especially in rural and indigenous villages (berkes and turner 2006). an understanding of these issues is a key part of extending sustainable practices to new areas, bringing together stakeholders who can integrate comprehensive conservation actions into existing socio-ecosystems. many researchers have concluded that local knowledge is a key element for helping solve complex environmental problems (bowler 2000; funtowicz and marchi 2003) because indigenous and peasant communities hold a profound fount of accumulated knowledge based on the experiences of people who have been in close relationships with nature for millenia (berkes and turner 2006; boege 2010; leff 2005; toledo 2002). only recently has the scientific community begun to understand the importance of ancestral wisdom and shared responsibility (anta fonseca et al. 2008; berkes and turner 2006). cactus nurseries and conservation in a biosphere reserve in mexico maría t. pulido* and consuelo cuevas-cardona authors’ address: universidad autónoma del estado de hidalgo. instituto de ciencias básicas e ingenierías. centro de investigaciones biológicas. km 4.5 carretera pachuca-tulancingo. pachuca, hidalgo, código postal 42184, méxico. * corresponding author: mtpulido@yahoo.com received: march 4, 2013 volume: 4:96-104 published: september 3, 2013 © 2013 society of ethnobiology abstract: documenting how socio-ecosystem conservation knowledge and practice arise and are modified are issues of ethnobiological interest. in the barranca de metztitlán biosphere reserve (rbbm), plant nurseries, some of which were created as environmental management units (umas), have been established to grow and conserve cacti. this paper describes these nurseries, their role in cactus conservation, and the benefits and limitations for the people managing them. the nurseries have helped decrease illegal traffic in cacti and have enabled ex situ conservation of 22 cacti species. cactus management has changed from extraction to cultivation, as a result of the knowledge and actions of multiple actors. the main limitation is marketing, a recurring problem for non-timber forest products (ntfp). greater coordination among stakeholders is recommended, such as involvement by non-governmental organizations to improve their probability of success, as well as learning from the experience of other cactus umas. improving the market for cacti is an issue that needs an immediate solution; otherwise conservation efforts could relapse. keywords: ntfp, metztitlán canyon, cacti, traditional wisdom, umas mailto:mtpulido@yahoo.com 97 research communication natural protected areas (anp for its name in spanish) under federal jurisdiction. in addition to anps, mexico has management units for wildlife conservation (uma in spanish), that are currently the main legal instrument for achieving sustainable use of wild resources. these are legally constituted areas in which a management plan is carried out to conserve habitat and maintain wild populations for a variety of goals including sustainable use, teaching, and restoration. widely accepted since they were first created in 1995, by 2008 they covered 15% of mexico’s land area, more than the total anp land area in mexico, resulting in a large potential impact on biodiversity conservation. despite their importance in terms of land area, it is recognized that there must be more careful follow up of management plans and improved monitoring systems to obtain more detailed information about the impact of umas on the conservation of wildlife and nature (anta fonseca et al. 2008; robles de benito 2009). barranca de metztitlán biosphere reserve (rbbm) is one of the anps in which umas have been established. it is a natural protected area rich in cactus species, especially endemic species, that was ransacked for a considerable period. the extracted plants were sold mainly in overseas markets. scientists such as helia bravo (1978) began to draw attention to the uncontrolled removal of these plants. residents began to organize, first to form squads of guards and eventually to lobby to have the biosphere reserve established (cuevas-cardona et al. 2008). the rbbm is a 2,090,512 hectare area created in november 2000 that includes parts of the municipios (county equivalents) of acatlán, atotonilco el grande, huasca, eloxochitlán, metztitlán, san agustín metzquititlán, and zacualtipán in the state of hidalgo. it includes arid tropical scrub, tropical deciduous forest, submontane scrub, pine forest, pasture, and riparian woodland ecosytems (conanp 2003). the arid tropical scrub vegetation includes some sixty species of cactus, among which echinocactus platyacanthus link & otto cactaceae, cephalocereus senilis (haw.) pfeiff. cactaceae, and stenocereus marginatus (dc.) a. berger & buxb. cactaceae are notable. in the rbbm, the federal agency in charge of conservation (conanp) has supported plant nurseries as an example of an activity that both utilizes resources and promotes conservation. the underlying logic is that raising species that can be marketed as well as used for reforestation and/or restoration reduces the likelihood that these species will be plundered from their natural environment. however, this strategy must be analyzed in depth in the context of the framework of non-timber forest products (ntfp), such as these cacti. recent comparative analysis on ntfp indicate that marketing is the key factor for their sustainable use, but also the most difficult to achieve (marshall, schreckenberg, and newton 2006; pulido et al. 2010). the most frequent error of many conservation and development projects in the past has been to conduct studies to ensure biologically sustainable production of the product while assuming unlimited market demand, which is often not the case; this has led to failure. this paper analyzes the operation of several cactus nurseries in the rbbm in the context of how knowledge and conservation practices begin and are maintained or modified as a result of complex interactions between institutional, local, and external agents, and whether the cactus nursery is a sustainable alternative. the objectives of this study are to: a) analyze the emergence and organization of nurseries and their achievements and limitations in the opinions of their managers; b) document how conservation and knowledge practices have been generated; c) analyze the effect of the nurseries on cactus conservation, and evaluate whether nurseries have been able to decrease illicit removal of cacti. using an ethnobiology approach, this case study seeks to contribute to the relationship between conservation and applied ethnobiology. figure 1. the metztitlán landscape. xeric vegetation predominates in the mountains, while the metztitlán town is located in the flat, with the augustinian ex convento de los santos reyes, built in the xvi century , in the background. 98 research communication methods in december, 2010, we visited the administrative offices of the reserve and interviewed two officials, asking them about the operation of the umas, the support they have received from the reserve, and their impact on cactus conservation in the region. they explained that three of the nurseries are registered umas (la joya, xochinanahual, and acalometlán) and one is not. the four were included in this study to compare the responses given by people involved in cactus umas, and by people who ransacked cactus in the past. the four nurseries were visited in december 2010 and january 2011, and five semi-structured interviews with the managers were conducted. the interviews were one to two hours long, and each included a tour of the respective nursery. the topics covered in each interview included: 1) origin of the nursery, changes in personnel and organization; 2) contribution of each person involved in generating and changing cactus conservation knowledge and practices; 3) cactus species; 4) achievements and limitations; 5) perception of the impact of the nursery on cactus extraction. the perceptions of local residents collected in the interviews were compared to identify patterns and, where possible, included in the comparisons to bibliographic data and official statistics. results emergence, organization, achievements and limitations of the cactus nurseries biosphere reserve officials state that in 2002, the reserve began to promote the establishment of umas to produce cacti as a sustainable alternative to incorporating the area as an anp. as a result, three umas were legally constituted, while several others, such as the san cristobal nursery, have not yet been legally established. at all three umas, the nursery managers reported support from the reserve administration to attend courses in production methods, cactus care and germination, and marketing. the administration also put them in touch with the national forestry commission (conafor), which supports market research and courses in nationwide marketing. the following section describes the founding of the three umas and the san cristobal nursery, and their achievements and limitations. la joya la joya nursery is managed by mr. baena (figure 3), a farmer and construction worker by profession. the biosphere reserve officials invited him to organize the nursery and supported him in starting it. the eight people who started the nursery provided the labor while the reserve provided building materials and tools. however, six of the original participants lost interest because there were no immediate earnings or quick profit. although this nursery is located in a remote village, they have sold plants to buyers from xochimilco and morelos. they met the buyers at one of the marketing courses organized by the reserve administration. florycactus the florycactus nursery (figure 4) is part of the xochinanahual uma. it was started by two agricultural engineers, acosta and oaxaca. they invited people in their neighborhood of tepeyac to start the nursery, and persuaded the community to donate the land for it. mr. oaxaca also designed the management plan. the group began with 50 people, mostly women, although in 2003 the nursery was legally constituted with 18 people. currently there are only 12 members. since committee work was not valued, they decided that each member would serve as administrator for one month. the members are now all trained to do all the jobs at the nursery. their duties include working in the nursery two days a month and attending monthly meetings where the members analyze problems and consider new points of view. the nursery was formed for the purpose of preserving the cacti. the income it generates does not support any of the members. all have other jobs: shopkeepers or construction workers, and several are figure 2. hundreds of c. senilis propagated by seeds in el viejo cactus nursery. 99 research communication homemakers. their main challenge included buying a vehicle to take the plants to market. the main accomplishments include: a) good sales (10,000 to 22,000 pesos per month); b) attending trade fairs outside their region (the nursery workers have traveled to mexico city, uruapan, guadalajara and cuernavaca); c) carrying out environmental education; d) selling cacti for reforestation to other umas (including the distant cuatrocienegas); e) serving as an example of organization for other umas; f) teaching cactus propagation to other umas; g) using profits to produce worm compost for cacti. el viejo cactus el viejo cactus (see figure 2) is part of the uma acalometlán, it is managed by valderrama and sánchez. sánchez had heard about the projects proposed by the management of the reserve, was interested in forming a uma, and invited valderrama, who was working in the united states at the time. it was started by six partners with four currently remaining. the families of two partners make a living from the nursery, although income from cactus sales is supplemented from the sale of flower pots (an innovative product they create from local materials) and two stores. the site has the advantage of being located by the side of the road, so it is seen by people traveling by. the accomplishments of this uma include: a) generating a source of local employment (reducing emigration); b) helping sell plants from other, more remote nurseries; c) environmental education for young people; d) conserving cacti. they state that creating the reserve and promoting nurseries has increased care for cacti and decreased extraction, which has helped natural regeneration. limitations mentioned are that their website is very basic and they do not have a telephone number, which impedes their access to the non-local markets in the rest of mexico. san cristobal three partners began the san cristobal nursery of which two remain, but they closed it because it was not profitable. they were never incorporated as a uma. they state that they receive much less support from the reserve than other nurseries. the plants are still there but receive only minimal care. the person who was in charge of the nursery, mr. flores, is now elderly and his sons need to do other work. the flores family spent several years selling wild cacti to foreigners. according to his sons, mr. flores was, “the most knowledgeable person about cacti in this region.” they say that japanese, germans, and americans came to metztitlán with trucks to take away cacti. the brothers say that they did not only sell plants, but for a time they also sold seeds. in three months, four people working together managed to collect some 2 to 3 kilos of seed from wild cacti. the main achievements have been to teach bioreserve officials about cactus management, while the basic limitation has been the low level of sales. from the officials’ point of view, legal cactus sales are a good economic option, but the main limitation is the low level of business, made worse by the lack of organization and disputes between the managers. they consider that factors such as distrust between the managers have held the nursery back. conservation knowledge and practices various stakeholders have influenced the generation of knowledge and practices of cactus conservation at the local level. a key factor in improved practices has been the role of government institutions conafor and conanp (national commission of natural protected areas). another key factor, as several managers stated, is their knowledge of cactus propagation, a combination of what they have learned at workshops, and their own daily experiments which they apply to improve their methods. others mention exchanges of knowledge with uma managers. the officials report that these training workshops were delivered by academic technicians from the national university of mexico and state universities, although figure 3. mr. baena in la joya nursery with small cephaloceros senilis propagated by seeds in front of him. 100 research communication these academics have played only a small role. according to the flores brothers (san cristobal nursery), their father taught the bioreserve officials about cactus management, including the right way to harvest seed from wild cacti—the right time to extract them, how to determine the viability of the seed, and the common names of the local cacti. the flores brothers would camp in the hills and they were able to extract quite large cacti, up to a meter and a half. they were able to do this, they said, because they knew the area and the plants well. when asked if they were concerned at the time that harvesting would finish off the cacti in the region, they said no, that they rotated their harvesting between different areas so that the populations would recover. they add that the more the plants are harvested, the more they produce, and it does them good to have their seed removed. unfortunately, there are no scientific papers available to confirm this. the flores brothers stated that they taught the biosphere reserve administrators the techniques for harvesting the seeds of the c. senilis, since these are difficult to obtain. they told them how and where to get the seeds, when it is best to extract them, how to tell whether they are healthy or not and which ones should be planted. they estimate that a c. senilis that generates 30 fruits produces 3000 seeds, 100 per fruit . they need specific amounts of moisture and heat to germinate. the type of soil is also important; it must be white or brown, never black. the flores brothers explained that these plants “face” north and that their reproductive structures are always formed on that side. interestingly, vazquez, terrazas, arias (2007) reported that the cephalium (the structure that gives rise to the fruit) is always on the north side. effects of nurseries on cactus conservation and decrease in uncontrolled extraction everyone involved agrees that they have benefited from the existence of the biosphere reserve, because they have been able to conserve cacti, while also creating a source of income. previously, whole areas were stripped of plants. japanese buyers, they say, came to extract them by the truckload and local people helped them only as day laborers. since there is now a biosphere reserve, the people are more aware and the cactus populations have been regenerated. robbins (2003) suggests that japan and the united states have been the most frequent destinations for illegal export where the volume extracted is only a small part of what it was in the 1980s. like the nursery managers, the bioreserve managers consider that creating the reserve stopped much of the illegal extraction. at first, the biosphere managers formed squads to guard the area around the clock, to reduce the activity of the groups of cactus extractors. they halted the activity of some 15 to 20 groups of cactus extractors, and illegal extraction decreased by 80%. they add that the local residents now understand that removing cacti is a federal offence and they report it. official statistics from the environmental protection agency procuraduría federal de protección al ambiente (profepa) show that nine cactus seizures have been reported in the last seven years, with a disturbing increase in 2012 (table 1). the positive impact on conservation is not only reflected in the reduction in uncontrolled extraction, but also in the role of the nurseries in cactus conservation, because they promote ex situ conservation of at least 22 species in 11 genera (table 2). it is notable that six of the species grown by these nurseries are listed in the nom-059-semarnat-2010, which makes their conservation even more important. these six species are endemic to mexico, so their conservation and propagation is one of the successes under the uma scheme. there is also considerable ex situ conservation. each nursery has permits to grow some 5,000 to 10,000 individuals of c. senilis. a critical factor for conservation is the procurement of seeds used at the umas. the managers explain that the umas must prove that the seed they grow was acquired legally. therefore, “mother plants” for generating seed are raised at all three umas. however, the seeds of c. senilis which is estimated to take 70 years to reach reproductive maturity, must be obtained by sustainable collection in the wild. there year no. of events no. of plants no. of species 2005 1 8 3 2006 2 12 2 2007 to 2010 0 0 0 2011 2 4 2 2012 4 96* 1 table 1. cactus seizures in hidalgo of e. platyacanthus parts. profepa 2013)*. 101 research communication are plans to create an uma to facilitate this. there are also dissenting opinions about the reserve; for example, the flores brothers do not agree with the establishment of the biosphere reserve in the region. they complain that there have been prohibitions that do not make sense, which have adversely affected many residents. for example, in el palmar, a very poor village, harvesting palm leaf (used in crafts) was prohibited. it is not fair, they say. if the biosphere doesn’t let people use the natural resources, they should give alternatives, but they do not. the brothers say that they would agree with the existence of the biosphere reserve if there were justice and genus & species spanish & english common name category species authority astrophytum ornatum liendrilla, star cactus threatened (dc.) weber ex britt. rose cephalocereus senilis viejito, old man cactus threatened (haw.) pfeiff. coryphantha octacantha biznaga partida de ocho espinas (dc.) britton & rose echinocactus grusonii biznaga dorada, golden ball endangered hildm. echinocactus platyacanthus biznaga gigante, giant barrel cactus protected link & otto echinocereus cinerascens tuna de mayo lem. ferocactus glaucescens biznaga azul, blue barrel cactus (dc.) britton & rose ferocactus histrix biznaga borrachita protected lindsay ferocactus latispinus biznaga uña de gato, devil’s tongue barrel (haw.) britton & rose mammillaria geminispina biznaga de chilitos, twin-spined cactus haw. mammillaria gracilis biznaga grácil, thimble cactus pfeiff. mammillaria magnimamma volcanes, mexican pincushion haw. mammillaria schiedeana biznaga de metztitlán threatened ehrenb. ex schltdl. mammillaria sempervivi biznaga siempre viva d.c. myrtillocactus geometrizans garambullo, blue candle (mart. ex pfeiff.) console. neobuxbaumia polylopha órgano dorado, golden saguaro (dc.) backeb. pachycereus weberi órgano blanco, órgano webere (j.m. coult.) backeb. stenocactus lamellosus cactus estrella (a. dietr.) a. berger ex a.w. hill stenocereus dumortieri órgano cimarrón, candelabra cactus (scheidw.) buxb. stenocereus marginatus órgano manso, organ pipe cactus (dc.) a. berger & buxb. table 2. cactaceae species grown in metztitlán nurseries, showing category of threatened species according to the mexican nom-059-semarnat-2010. 102 research communication fairness for all. although the palm leaves could be harvested sustainably, it is difficult for local residents to obtain permits to do so (coronel and pulido 2011). the sale of cacti generated the flores brothers enough income to make a living, but, they stated, “the biosphere people got involved and then it was all over.” since the biosphere was established, the flores brothers had to tell their customers that plants could no longer be removed, that they no longer had permission, and that they could be fined or imprisoned. discussion the case study presented here suggests that the rbbm has resulted in a notable change in the use and management of cactus in the metiztitlán region from uncontrolled extraction of wild plants to cultivation. these opinions expressed by local residents are corroborated by official data. this suggests that the nurseries and this anp are quite successful from an ecological point of view and have brought direct and indirect benefits to their managers. nevertheless, their success should be evaluated more thoroughly, since anps often do not improve the quality of life of local residents (rodríguez and bracamonte 2008). the change in cactus conservation practices in metztitlán has been a result of the efforts of the local population, resident groups, federal agencies, and other stakeholders. this study shows that although vertical decision making schemes are predominant in mexican conservation, community based strategies are also incorporated, a trend that should be encouraged. the challenge is to take local stakeholders into account not only in execution phases, but also in analysis, planning and other stages, with the goal of having them operate autonomously. community based conservation, co-management and decentralized decision making are some of the desirable aspects of current conservation strategies in socio-ecosystems (berkes and turner 2006; campbell and vainio 2003), which represent a significant challenge for rbbm. current knowledge of cactus management and propagation is the result of a combination of sources that include the empirical experience of local residents, in addition to the efforts of academic technicians and knowledge exchanges between peers. this knowledge acquisition has taken place over a few decades, according to the information gathered in this study, although it surely includes traditional knowledge acquired over centuries. the nurseries provide a number of different benefits, including local jobs that enable nursery managers to make a living or at least to supplement their income, and have kept them from emigrating. the nurseries have provided an opportunity for personal growth, increased self-esteem, education, and other important benefits. however, the main limitation is the marketing issue. although managers of the reserve considered doing a market study and forming a production chain to help them market the cactus, several of the nursery managers find that it is difficult to get enough buyers and they also find it difficult to maintain long term business relationships. this seems paradoxical considering that there is a large demand both domestically and internationally for these cacti, especially the largest ones. the missing piece of the picture is better coordination among the efforts made by these stakeholders. in addition to receiving training on how to grow the cacti, they need training on how to apply for government support and improve their marketing capacity. ngos could help create and strengthen these links, as developing local capacity is often part of the work they do. for example, the ngo methodus consultora has created new markets and improved links between local residents and potential customers for edible fungi in oaxaca, mexico (see marshall, schreckenberg, and newton 2006). although ngos are not always a panacea, they are key actors who often catalyze local processes. in addition to ngos, lessons learned about ntfp show that in some contexts, middlemen can be figure 4. florycactus nursery. 103 research communication key elements for commercial success, provided that there are better conditions for parity between producers and middlemen, and producers are more united (marshall, schreckenberg, and newton 2006). considering this, it is recommended that metztitlán enter into the national ornamental plant market, perhaps with support from cactus cooperatives in the neighboring state of puebla, which operate a successful business in the tehuacán–cuicatlán region. for the metztitlán nursery managers to cooperate, they will have to overcome critical issues such as mutual distrust and competition for buyers. the solution to these problems is more sociological, which in this context is an inescapable factor for achieving success. another recommendation is that rbbm try to decentralize government support, so that the umas can seek support beyond the local municipal seat. this includes indigenous people who, although a minority, are the most needful of support. in addition, umas should not focus on cactus sales alone, which are intrinsically limited by slow growth, but should offer environmental education, ecotourism, and other activities enhanced by the presence of cacti. declarations permissions: none declared sources of funding: none declared conflicts of interest: none declared references cited anta fonseca, a., j. carabias, a. díaz de león, c. illsley, c. lópez, d. robinson, e. escamilla, f. edouard, f. ramírez, l. merino, m. chauvet, o. ramírez, p. álvarez, r. obregón, s. madrid, s. purata, s. ávila. 2008. consecuencias de las políticas públicas en el uso de los ecosistemas y la biodiversidad. in capital natural de méxico, vol. iii: políticas públicas y perspectivas de sustentabilidad, pp. 214 –218. conabio, méxico. berkes, f. 2003. rethinking community-based conservation. conservation biology 18:621-630. berkes, f. and n. j. turner. 2006. knowledge, learning and the evolution of conservation practice for social-ecological system resilience. human ecology 34:479-478. boege, e. 2010. el patrimonio biocultural de los 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botánica. chile. cuevas-cardona, c., a. p. martínezfalcón and o. a. molina-gonzález. 2008. los científicos en la creación de las areas naturales protegidas del estado de hidalgo. in estudios biológicos en las areas naturales del estado de hidalgo, edited by g. pulido flores, a. l. lópez escamilla and m. t. pulido silva, pp. 7–17. universidad autónoma del estado de hidalgo, pachuca, méxico. funtowicz, s. and b. de marchi. 2003. ciencia posnormal, complejidad reflexiva y sustentabilidad. in la complejidad ambiental, edited by e. leff, pp. 5–84. siglo xxi editores, méxico. leff, e. 2005. ecología y capital. siglo xxi editores, méxico. marshall, e., k. schreckenberg, and a. c. newton. 2006. comercialización de productos forestales no maderables, factores que influyen en el exito. conclusiones del estudio de méxico y bolivia e implicancias políticas para los tomadores de decisiones. centro mundial de vigilancia de la conservación del pnuma, cambridge, uk. profepa. 2013. sistema de solicitudes de información (infomex). exp pfpa/5.3/12c.6/000176_13. folio 1613100017613. procuraduría federal de protección al ambiente, delegación hidalgo. pulido, m. t., m. s. gonzález, p. hersch, c. illsley, c. 104 research communication lópez and f. ramírez. 2010. productos forestales no maderables: consideraciones sobre su dimensión económica. in sistemas biocognitivos tradicionales: paradigmas en la conservación biológica y el fortalecimiento cultural, edited by a. moreno, m.t. pulido, r. mariaca, r. valadéz, p. mejía correa and t.v. gutiérrez, pp. 214–218. universidad autónoma del estado de hidalgo, asociación etnobiológica mexicana y sociedad latinoamericana de etnobiología. méxico. rodríguez, g. and a. bracamonte. 2008. pertinencia de las anp como política de conservación y mejoramiento de la calidad de vida. análisis de percepción en la reserva de la biosfera del alto golfo de california y delta del río colorado. estudios sociales 16:41-72. robbins, c. s. 2003. comercio espinoso. comercio y conservación de cactos en el desierto chihuahuense. traffic north america wwf, washington d.c. robles de benito, r. 2009. las unidades de manejo para la conservación de vida silvestre y el corredor biológico mesoamericano, méxico. conabio, méxico, d.f. toledo, v. m. 2002. biodiversidad y pueblos indios en méxico y centroamérica. biodiversitas 43:1–8. turner, n. j. and f. berkes. 2006. developing resource management and conservation. human ecology 34:375-478. unesco. 2013. biosphere reserves – learning sites for sustainable development. available at: http:// www.unesco.org/new/es/natural-sciences/ environment/ecological-sciences/biospherereserves/. accessed on january 10, 2013. vázquez, m., t. terrazas, s. arias. 2007. morphology and anatomy of the cephalocereus columna-trajani cephalium: why tilting. plant systematics and evolution 265:87-99. biosketch maría teresa pulido silva has a phd in science. her areas of research are ethnobotany, non-timber forest products, and traditional farming systems. consuelo cuevas cardona has a phd in science. his areas of research are the history of biology in mexico and environmental history. http://www.unesco.org/new/es/natural-sciences/environment/ecological-sciences/biosphere-reserves/ http://www.unesco.org/new/es/natural-sciences/environment/ecological-sciences/biosphere-reserves/ http://www.unesco.org/new/es/natural-sciences/environment/ecological-sciences/biosphere-reserves/ http://www.unesco.org/new/es/natural-sciences/environment/ecological-sciences/biosphere-reserves/ endenese fisheries: exploratory findings on environmental perceptions, fish effort, and overfishing in eastern indonesia 39 research communication where the current research takes place, poverty extends to one third of the population (monk et al. 1997; resosudarno and jotzo 2009). but, most significantly, limitations in management and development approaches have impaired the understanding of local fishermen's role in environmental degradation. a strict bioeconomic perspective has prevented the eradication of damaging fishing practices such as bombs and cyanide-potassium (lowe 2006). the continuous use of non sustainable practices has, in return, resulted in very limited foreign investment, a condition that further exacerbates poverty and environmental pressure (halim 2002). over the last decades, scholars have noted that fishery managers and government officers often work under the assumption that maximization and selfinterest are the main motivations behind the allocation of fishing effort (allison and ellis 2001; cordell 1974; perry et al. 2003). this assumption is deeply rooted in the idea that fisheries, when not regulated, are open access systems where everybody's property introduction fisheries in southeast asia have experienced an unprecedented expansion in the last half-century (semedi 2001). as a consequence, the catch per unit of effort has dropped significantly in many regions of the indian and pacific oceans (boomgaard 2005; butcher 2004, 2005; henley and osseweijer 2005). reports from conservation and intergovernmental organizations attribute stock depletion to overfishing and damaging fishing practices (ingles et al. 2008; unep 2008). in an attempt to regulate endangered resources, countries like indonesia have engaged in decentralization, community-based and ecosystem management approaches (satria and matsuda 2004; williams and staples 2010). many of these efforts have encountered difficulties in dealing with the large-scale illegal trade of aquatic resources (fox 2005; heazle and butcher 2007). they have also failed at recognizing the inequities in fishing capacity that are so common in eastern indonesia. in the province of nusa tenggara timur, endenese fisheries: exploratory findings on environmental perceptions, fish effort, and overfishing in eastern indonesia victoria c. ramenzoni author address: department of anthropology, the university of georgia. 259 baldwin hall, jackson street. athens, georgia, us. 30602. vramenz@uga.edu received: september 24, 2012 volume 4:39-51 published: march 8, 2013 © 2013 society of ethnobiology abstract: fishing fleets in south east asia have recently experienced unprecedented expansion. consequently, catches and regional diversity have dramatically decreased throughout the indian ocean. regional governments and conservation organizations blame the local fishermen and their use of damaging fishing practices for the present state of resources. however, many of these institutions endorse a narrow perspective on bioeconomic governance and human action (rational action choice) that compromises the understanding of resource use and exploitation among small-scale fisheries. over the last few decades, there is a growing recognized tradition that points to the importance of ecological systems of knowledge, uncertainty representation, and traditional skills, in conceptualizing processes of environmental decision-making and the likelihood of introducing successful sustainability practices. in line with this perspective, this article presents preliminary findings regarding resource use decision-making processes among endenese fishing villages in central flores island, indonesia. grounded on 22 months of ethnographic, experimental and ecological research (semistructured interviews, participant observation, visual surveys, probability and uncertainty assessments), and exploring local cognitive representations of marine processes, climate, ichthyology and the role of luck, this article discusses the current economic representations of small-scale fishers as avid maximizers. it concludes by emphasizing the need to further explore the role of mental models and beliefs regarding uncertainty in motivating fishing effort to design adequate conservation and governance programs. key words: small-scale fisheries, luck, uncertainty representation, decision-making, traditional ecological knowledge 40 research communication becomes nobody's (feeny et al. 1990; gordon 1954; mccay 1981). it also stems from the way human behavior is characterized by economic formalizations. bioeconomic models of maximum sustainable yield and optimal foraging theories or marginal value theorem (smith 1983; winterhalder and smith 2000) explain individual decisions and conservation practices through rational action choice (gowdy 2008). these models have been relatively successful in generating simple, parsimonious, and generalized explanations consistent, in some cases, with field observations and ethnography (winterhalder 1981, 1996). at the same time, optimal foraging theories (oft) have been widely criticized for remaining inattentive to the social embeddedness of decisionmaking processes concerning subsistence practices. critics have targeted oft's assumptions about optimality and rational action, stressing its restrictions in dealing with dynamic choices (foley 1985; gigerenzer 2008; gigerenzer and brighton 2009; houston et al. 1988; mangel and clark 1986; mccay 1981). remaining for the most part inattentive to advances in the studies of decision making under uncertainty (but see mangel 1990; mithen 1989, 1990; wilke 2006), the role of information as constraining efficiency has been left unexplored. oft has marginally addressed psychological and social preferences (aswani 1998). although it is indisputable that commercial fisheries in southeast asia are creating unnatural pressures on fish stocks (butcher 2004; ellis 2009; helfman 2007), the responsibility of small-scale fisheries in the current decline of marine biodiversity cannot be established with certainty. because decision making processes explaining fishing effort are multifaceted and extend beyond simple economics (bene and tewfik 2001; mcgoodwin 1990), it is necessary to address local interests, systems of values, and adaptation strategies in order to fully comprehend the impact of fishermen in their environment (allison and ellis 2001; ludwig et al. 1993; mc ilgorm et al. 2010). to that end, building from a cognitive and ecological anthropology perspective, this article presents preliminary findings regarding information, local ecological knowledge and decision making processes explaining fishing effort of endenese fishing communities in the island of flores, indonesia. positioned on the northern margins of the savu sea, ende has been known for its prodigious catch and marine biodiversity (fox 1977; monk et al. 1997; roos 1877; van suchtelen 1921; weber 1902). it has remained marginalized from investment and economic development (butcher 2004). but, with drops in production landings throughout the indo-pacific region, coral bleaching, and climate change, new plans have been drafted that include the creation of one of the largest marine protected areas in the coral triangle (tnc 2009). unfortunately, information on the state of marine resources in the savu is very fragmented. there is a dearth of knowledge on the way local communities use and represent the marine ecosystem (munasik et al. 2011) and a wide propensity to blame local fishermen for the current state of environmental degradation. in order to explore perceptions and decisions about the environment, resource use, and climate change, i conducted ethnographic research, using semistructured interviews and participant observation, in june-july 2009, november 2010-january 2011, and june 2011-december 2012 in pulau ende, ipy and arubara. preliminary findings indicate that the quantity of fish has decreased in ende bay over the last 50 years and that significant changes have been observed by the local fishermen in sea surface temperature and wave activity (badan pusat statistik kabupaten ende 1985-2011). in addition, findings suggest that decisions regarding fishing effort combine assessments of sailing conditions, knowledge of prey availability, and weather patterns. interviews regarding traditional knowledge and ecological assessments have showed that decision making is not conducted under conditions of perfect knowledge. the major explanation given for variability in resource exploitation and motivations to go fishing is luck (rezeki). there is not a clear notion of risk or of probability quantification. this latter finding challenges the univocal characterization of fishermen as optimizers and rational actors. it also suggests that studying local perceptions of environmental uncertainty is crucial when assessing the patterns of ecological variability of an area to design sustainable management strategies. ende ende city is a mid-sized port surmounting to approximately 17,000 people (badan pusat statistik kabupaten ende 2010), and the capital of the district. across the bay from the city is pulau ende, a small island that includes seven villages with a total of 8,000 people and about 1500 fishermen. coastal endenese have a complex origin. they reflect a mix between local hinterland groups (i.e., ata lio and ata nage keo`), javanese and chinese traders, 41 research communication bimanese warriors, sumbanese slaves, and migrant bugis, butonese and makassarese fishermen from sulawesi (dietrich 1983; knaap and sutherland 2004; nakagawa 1984, 1996; needham 1968, 1980; sareng orin bao 1969; tule 2004). islam spread in the 16th century through trade and resulted in the consolidation of buginese cultural traits to the expense of local characteristics (edjid 1979). buginese traits include a unique syllabic alphabet system named bahasa lota (banda 2005; roos 1877; van suchtelen 1921), complex descent myths (pelras 1996), food prescriptions, birth and wedding ceremonies, and an intricate symbolism and set of ritual practices that link social representations of the house and the boat (perahu, sampan) (chou 2003; sopher 1965; southon 1995). also among these traits is the practice of mencari rezeki or the search for fortune (nggae ka) as a way to explain one's decisions in all aspects of life (acciaioli 2004; pelras 1996). anthropologists have explored coastal endenese groups incidentally while studying kinship rules, magic, and agricultural practices of hinterland communities (forth 1998; nakagawa 1984, 1996; needham 1968; tule 2004). historians have devoted some attention to the illegal trade of slaves and pirating activities carried out by the endenese in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries (dietrich 1983; knaap and sutherland 2004; needham 1968, 1980). during this time, the endenese were a powerful force that engaged in commerce activities throughout the entire eastern indo-pacific region. after dutch military intervention in the early twentieth century, ende became famous as sukarno’s exile destination. at that time, endenese had already endured the transition to a local agricultural economy under colonial pressure and became both politically and commercially isolated. nowadays little seems to have changed. in comparison to other parts of indonesia like kalimantan or java, development programs have progressed at a slower rate in flores (resosudarmo and jotzo 2009). in ende, fishing is still carried out by traditional boats (sampan) or smaller motor boats with 4 ½ to 1 inch fishing nets. activities are mostly for subsistence or small-scale trade as there is no industry operating in the district or external investment to support the improvement of the fishing gear. bigger fish are sold at the town markets of mbongawani, senggol, and wolowona along with octopus (octopus spp. octopodidae), squids and scallops (amusium spp. pectinidae), manta rays (dasyatis spp. dasyatidae), mobula spp. mobulidae, myliobatidae spp. mobulidae, and sharks (alopia spp. alopiidae, charcharinus spp. charcharinidae, isurus spp. lamnidae), anchovies and sardines (sardinella gibbosa bleeker clupeidea, sardinella lemuru bleeker clupeidae, dussumeria acuta valenciennes clupeidea). a common list of species includes flying fishes (cypselurus spp. exocoetidae), sail fishes and marlins (istiophorus spp. istiophoridae, makaira indica cuvier istiophoridae, makaira mazarra lacepède istiophoridae, xiphias gladius linnaeus istiophoridae, istiophorus platypterus shaw istiophoridae), tunas (thunnus maccoyii castelnau scombridae, thunnus obesus lowe scombridae, thunnus tonggol bleeker scombridae), skipjacks (euthynnus affinis cantor scombridae, katsuwonus pelamis linneaus scombridae), needle fishes (tylosorus spp. belonidae), scads (caesio caerularea lacepède caesionidae, caesio cuning bloch caesionidae), snappers (lutjanus spp. lutjanidae), and grouppers (cromileptes altivelis innamura and yabe serranidae, eponephelus tauvina forsskål serranidae). traditional ecological knowledge and climate change: why optimization is not “rational” one of the key criteria among optimal foraging models and rational action choice is the idea that decisions are always made considering the whole set of alternatives at hand. optimization is the result of a sound evaluation of outcomes in terms of all possible options and their assigned probability (gigerenzer et al. 1999). from a cognitive approach, however, rational action choice entails a set of psychological skills and preferences that is far from being realistic (gigerenzer 2008; gladwin 1971, 1980; quinn 1978). for example, it implies the ability to have perfect knowledge about the environment or to clearly conceptualize the probability values of different choices and alternatives in terms of risk perception (mithen 1989, 1990). this misconstruction of skills and preferences is the result of a lack of studies on the cognition of fishing decision-making processes (bene and tewfik 2001; colfer et al. 1999). in marine environments, choice is always riddled with uncertainty (acheson and wilson 1996; hilborn and mangel 1997; mangel and clark 1983). the amount of fish present in a particular fishing spot cannot be readily or accurately ascertained, weather conditions are hard to predict, and probabilities are not always easily perceived (gladwin 1971; quinn 1978). dynamic ecosystems, rapid choices, and changing conditions in the socioeconomic environment all 42 research communication constrain the structure in which decisions need to be made and render the idea of an exhaustive consideration of alternatives implausible. far from perfect knowledge, research has shown that people rely on local mechanisms of prediction and ecological knowledge to secure livelihoods and adaptation (godoy et al. 2009; orlove et al. 2002; tucker 2007b). much of this knowledge has been formalized in systems of predictive cues that encompass fishermen’s experiences and observations over centuries (bjarnason and thorlindsson 1993; cordell 1974; paolisso 2002). in other cases, knowledge has remained implicit or embedded in cultural practices (dove 1993; rappaport 1968). over the last half century, with climate change and advanced environmental degradation due to intensification of extractive practices, ecological patterns have been altered. while uncertainty has affected the efficacy of local belief systems, in some regions this has not undermined their use. predictive cues are consistently incorporated into scientific forecasts among african and indian farmers to anticipate droughts and plan crops (see acharia 2010; pareek and trivedi 2010; roncoli et al. 2001, 2002). this has not been the case in ende. despite the fact that there are no available forecasts even at the regional level, former predictive mechanisms have become unreliable and their use by younger generations less frequent. but, as it will be argued later, this does not indicate that fishermen do not rely on environmental cues or that they remain unaware of environmental patterns and uncertainty sampling costs (van oostenbrugge et al. 2001). through interviews and surveys among endenese fishermen, i was able to determine that an informal system of weather forecasting and maritime conditions was in place well before the introduction of engines and fishing intensification in the 1980s. in conversations and fishing trips, i was able to record a thorough body of environmental and climatic information in terms of cues or signs of the marine ecosystem. the association of environmental indicators to fish stocks would permit a fisherman to estimate presence or absence of fish, weather events, and currents. in spite of being frequently used, this knowledge remains fragmented and to some level implicit making elicitation an arduous process. difficulties might be rooted in the fact that even older fishermen have now begun to challenge the certainty of predictions. thirty to forty years ago weather conditions could be determined with moderate exactitude before going to sea, and predictions on stocks and climate could extend to longer periods of time like seasons. nowadays, such knowledge is rare and might only be applicable if the frame in which decisions are made is modified or new patterns of variability can be detected that encompass previous cues. one good example of the changes in the efficacy of predictive knowledge can be found in the use of fishing calendars. according to most fishermen, it is widespread knowledge that fishing patches are selected on the basis of an annual calendar regulated by the monsoon seasons and moon phases that permits them to calculate the presence and abundance of certain species. in this system, winds and sea water temperature might be the most important factors determining catch, unit of effort, and sailing conditions. but as a consequence of increased climatic alterations, the onset of the dry and wet monsoon seasons has changed (see badan pusat statistik kabupaten ende for climatic data; aldrian and susanto 2004; hamada et al. 2002). this has brought many interviewees to mention the impossibility of relying on calendars anymore to establish with certainty the availability of fish species. they say, “ikan tidak kenal musim lagi”1 (“fish do not know seasons anymore”). in fact, in the 1980s, precipitation events would commonly start in october and continue until late march (badan pusat statistik kabupaten ende 19842010). these were preceded by a reduction of the strength in the eastern trade winds (angin timur) and an intensification of western and northern winds (angin barat, angin utara). with the wet monsoon, changes in currents and sea water temperatures would increase the availability of species like small tunas, squids, and anchovies. however, according to the fishermen, in the last 2 years the western winds, which inaugurate the wet season, lack strength. the onset of the rainy season has been delayed until december and shortened its duration. this seems to indicate a significant change in climatic patterns that affect marine species in terms of life histories and biomass. most significantly, it is the opposite of what would be normally expected as a result of the current transitional period (2010-2011) between el niño and la niña conditions, maybe signaling the beginning of new precipitation and temperature patterns. these environmental and climatic alterations not only affect coastal communities by increasing the fre 43 research communication quency of extreme events such as typhoons, destructive storms and beach abrasion. but they have also resulted in increased crop failures and reduced catches that have long term impacts on the population's morbidity and mortality rates. with changes in biomass affecting total catches and ultimately reducing incomes, families have lower possibilities of diversifying their diets and paradoxically consume less and less fish. environmental uncertainty combined to economic instability has created new challenges that many fishermen do not feel prepared to deal with. under these conditions, it would be reasonable to assume that the change in patterns of variability has affected the competency of traditional forecasting cues and contribute to their progressive disappearance as fishermen perceive their fallibility. yet, far from a simple interpretation, these interviews also suggest that previous weather-related knowledge and fishing experience have been reformulated and are still being consolidated in new associations and re-associations of cues. some fishermen indicated that they pay attention to stars and clouds (shapes, positions, movements and colors) and atmospheric phenomena like lightning to determine wind conditions that might affect fishing. in some cases, fishermen pay attention to the presence of marine life (zooplankton) to predict currents and winds, and to fishing feeding behavior to anticipate possible fishing spots. these cues might not be new, though the temporal decision making frame in which they are applied has changed. with fishing seasons presenting a higher uncertainty on the occurrence of winds and certain fish species, fishermen have begun to target multiple species by diversifying fishing tools. they have also incorporated some small innovations like the use of colorful baits, a practice that is common in other areas in sulawesi. and most significantly, they have altered their pattern of activities in the wet season. before, fishermen would remain at home for a period of forty days (in december, january, and february) while strong western and northern winds would prevent navigation. nowadays, fishermen go fishing throughout the year, staying occasionally for periods of one or two weeks when storms hit the region. the frequency of their trips has, thus, changed. in addition, with the changes in marine activities from trade to a more fishing based subsistence, their trips and duration have shortened considerably. however, the reason why optimization might not account for behavior in ende is not only in terms of cognitive skills and the demands that perfect knowledge imposes in dynamic contexts (high cognitive costs when decisions need to be quick in a fast changing environment). indeed, one might argue that changes in predictive systems might reflect an ongoing process of adaptation to develop more accurate representational beliefs and towards achieving optimization. one could also even argue that optimization towards catch maximization might occur under constraints, or that fishing effort could be best explained by satisficing or ameliorating principles (mithen 1989, 1990; simon 1957). but, as it has been the case for oft, such line of reasoning cannot be readily tested or empirically assessed (foley 1985; gigerenzer et al. 1999; gigerenzer and gaissmaier 2011). optimization might not be a rational choice according to endenese standards, as the main factor explaining the motivation to go fishing might lie not in a profit-driven mentality or in a risk-reduction perspective, but in a more comprehensive approach to uncertainty and life that defies a clear cut probability conceptualization. as a matter of fact, the most important decision an endenese fisherman has to face is to determine whether to stay fishing or to return given climatic conditions. this process, which combines the analysis of a number of cues like clouds, current strengths, and the behavior of other fishermen, is not single handedly explained by expertise or by the expectation of the fish to be caught that day (harapan). similarly, tools or fishing gear do not seem to be the main cause behind catch numbers. many interviewees when inquired about the role of previous experience and type of fishing equipment indicated that even those that have many years at sea or that employ motor boats with many nets can from time to time return empty handed. previous research has established that risk reduction and the avoidance of losses can be an important motivation behind the time spent fishing (ammarell 2002; van osteenbrugge et al. 2001). but in ende, some fishermen are willing to stay at sea under adverse conditions if the catch might be certain, whereas others might favor an early return even when conditions are safe and the fish are eating. therefore, evidence collected so far suggests that risk preference, experience, expertise, and gear do not completely account for the motivations inspiring fishing effort and decision-making. 44 research communication the major explanation that is willingly given for variability of fishing effort and success is luck (rezeki). this concept is rooted in islamic, endenese, and buginese traditional beliefs and rituals (acciaioli 2004; ammarell 2002; pelras 1996). its causality is complex. according to most interviewees, only god can determine the conditions in which luck occurs (“peraturan dikirim oleh allah”) and only he knows (“hanya allah yang tahu”). because marine environments, as well as any other ecosystem, are the result of god’s creation, they remain unpredictable or random in terms of human perception (“laut sembarang”). the ocean is but a big puzzle (“taka teki”). in spite of the highly variable conditions surrounding fishing, fishermen can still try to grasp a limited understanding of the ocean that permits them to catch what has been granted for their subsistence. to that end, luck, catch and climate are all related in a system of signs that is given by god to interpret. these climatic signs, described previously as a system of traditional knowledge, are not straightforward and their predictive validity is not fixed. they are effective only with a certain probability. thus, natural events are not completely predictable as such in this narrative of luck. the decision to go fishing is indeed inspired in the idea that luck cannot be procured by other means but being a hard worker (harus berusaha) and diligent (rajin). but, overall, one cannot do anything to increase luck with certainty, but go to sea and search for fortune (“rezeki tidak bias tambah, hanya mencari cari ikan”). formal practices that might result in better luck refer to respecting the daily five prayers (sholat) as established in the qur'an, and having a pure heart (hati murni). luck can also be favored from prayers on monday, thursday, and friday (jum'at) nights that involve the burning of wood in front of the house (kemenyan). furthermore, fishermen follow the adat (rules) set by the ancestors when building boats or venturing on new enterprises to sea, these are all connected to luck. dreams also hold an important place among some fishermen as they are considered an indication of future success sent by god. other ways in which luck is sent by god include the finding of precious objects (kulavu, barang gaib), though in some cases these might be connected to demons (djins). this practice is associated by more religious fishermen to pagan beliefs (kafir) from the time when the ancestors were around (nenek moyan) and is considered very close to sin (termasuk sirik, dosa). in fact, some informants indicated that they would rather have nothing to do with precious objects as they might provide short term luck at the expense of a huge loss (sometimes human life). according to them, the devil (iblis) walked the earth way before humanity, and has clever ways of deceiving people. if one transgresses god’s rules by engaging with magic objects risks eternal damnation for there is no forgiveness for such sin. the belief in magic objects as such is common among endenese that have connections with lionese groups or that reflect an endenese -lionese descent. finally, luck is also associated with following old adat rules when fishing for some species of coral fish (‘ikanasa’, serranidae and lutjanida spp.). according to such prescriptions, fishermen cannot talk, smoke, cook, or eat when fishing on one of these patches or they would risk making the fish angry. overall, it is interesting to observe, that next to the use of weather cues, this traditional body of knowledge and rules related to luck has become sparse among the newer fishermen who do not believe (“orang tidak percayaa lagi”) or follow the established rules (“tidak ikut peraturan dari dulu”). as one of the elder fishermen states, the lack of fish or failure in the catch can be the result of not respecting the former ways: “harus percayaa atau tidak dapat ikan. dulu biasa per bulan perahu penuh, sekarang tidak yakin. dua atau tiga hari lagi, habis” (“one must believe in order to catch fish. before, boats used to be full throughout the month when returning from fishing. now, after 2 or 3 days there is no more fish”). in conclusion, one could say that the evidence presented here is not entirely incompatible to explanations of fishing effort by maximization practices. at the individual level, risk preferences and non-verbal processes of probability perception (unconscious) might still result in optimization over the long term. however, it is crucial to emphasize that luck as the main motivation behind fishing effort places rewards in a future afterlife and not in the achievement of material success. in addition, this narrative of luck implies a certain attitude towards nature that shapes the perception of ecological patterns. but luck also defines suitable rules on how to interact with an environment and which expectations are valid. this, in turn, constrains decision-making processes and resource use practices. therefore, local perceptions of environmental un 45 research communication certainty and nature are key to understanding what lies behind resource exploitation, along with religious beliefs and cultural values. therefore, they should be addressed by government agencies and conservation institutions to design culturally sound management practices. i will further discuss the implications of these findings for rational theory and environmental policies in future articles. conclusions in summary, preliminary findings suggest the importance of ecological knowledge in fishing effort, decision-making, and the existence of different attitudes towards the use of marine resources in ende. exploratory interviews indicate so far that neither conservation organizations nor the local government actively incorporate local ecological knowledge when drafting management plans for ende, and they assume that fishermen are mostly driven by their own maximization of interests. nonetheless, in a world where climate change threatens to reshape the global ecology and economy of marine-human ecosystems (badjeck et al. 2009; cheung et al. 2009), conservation and management initiatives need to look at the local to understand why certain choices are made before assuming, as they usually do, that cost-benefit rationales apply uniformly. because complex problems require insightful solutions, conservation and governmental institutions should forge a multidisciplinary methodological and theoretical perspective to engage local needs and vulnerabilities. cognitive and behavioral studies of decisionmaking in small societies can inform such endeavors by telling about the local impacts of overarching policies and the strategies devised to represent environmental uncertainty (colfer et al. 1999; tucker 2007a). future research will explore these issues and ponder the importance of how different conceptions of the marine environment across generations and stakeholders (baselines) ultimately constrain local responses and livelihoods. acknowledgements this research was supported by the lemelson/ society for psychological anthropology predissertation fund, made possible by a generous donation from robert lemelson, the georgia oceans health initiative fellowship (noaa), and the dean's award from the university of georgia. also by a national science foundation dissertation improvement grant. declarations permissions: irb obtained and recently renewed through the university of georgia. permissions obtained from the indonesian government: ristek (kementarian riset dan teknologi indonesia) and propinsi ntt, kabupaten ende, kecamatan ende selatan. sources of funding: dissertation improvement grant from the national science foundation. lemelson fellowship from the society for psychological anthropology, american anthropological association. georgia oceans and human health fellowship from national oceanographic and atmospheric agency. the dean’s award from the university of georgia. conflicts of interest: none declared. references cited acciaioli, g. 2004. from economic actor to moral agent: knowledge: fate and hierarchy among the bugis of sulawesi. indonesia 78:147-179. acheson, j. m. and j. a. wilson. 1996. order out of chaos: the case for parametric fisheries management. american anthropologist 98:579-594. aldrian, e. and r. d. susanto. 2003. identification of three dominant rainfall regions within indonesia and their relationship to sea surface temperature. international journal of climatology 23(12):1435-1452. allison, e. h. and f. ellis. 2001. the livelihoods approach and management of small-scale fisheries. marine policy 25(5):377-388. ammarell, g. 2002. knowing when to set sail: practical 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of georgia in the environmental anthropology department. she is a nsfdig fellow and a gohi/noaa fellow. victoria is a behavioral ecologist who is interested in studying how cognitive skills are shaped by evolution and environments. her focus is on decision making under uncertainty, weather prediction, tek, climate change and small scale fisheries. notes 1 i use italics underscored to distinguish words in bahasa indonesia and endenese. 50 research communication appendix1.map. attribution: copyright by ewesewes at id.wikipedia under creative commons attribution-share alike 3.0 unported license. modified by victoria c. ramenzoni. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/file:lokasi_nusa_tenggara_timur_kabupaten_ende.svg 51 research communication appendix2.map. attribution: copyright by sadalmelik at id.wikipedia under creative commons attribution-share alike 3.0 unported license. modified by victoria c. ramenzoni. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/file:flores_topography.png image-based 3d modeling as a documentation method for zooarchaeological remains in waste-related contexts ethnobiology letters. 2015. 6(2):242-248. doi: 10.14237/ebl.6.2.2015.342. 242 research communication special issue on digital zooarchaeology al. forthcoming; de reu et al. 2014; cf. hodder 1999; katsianis et al. 2008). additionally, the field contexts can be made more accessible for analysis and discussion in future research as well as in field settings. the study site ҫatalhöyük is a well-known site in central anatolia. famous for, amongst other things, its architecture, wall paintings, and burials, the excavations at the site have provided intimate and unique insights into neolithic imagery, symbolism, mentality, and behavior (e.g., hodder 2006, 2011; hodder and meskell 2011; martin and russell 2000). the preservation of the archaeology at the site has made it excellent for the development and application of single-context excavation techniques as well as other methodological innovations. for a number of years, the ongoing research project at ҫatalhöyuk has included a team of digital archaeologists experimenting and testing new approaches to further implement digital technology for site documentation. both laser scanning and introduction this paper describes a case-study where the systematic use of image-based 3d modeling techniques was tested on faunal remains in an infill context. the aim was to evaluate the method with regard to its analytical value after excavation as well as its interpretative value in the field. the documentation of faunal remains, especially related to integration with field context information, is often left to the zooarchaeologist well after excavation. however, with image-based 3d modeling techniques the evaluation and interpretation of animal bones and their distributions in infill contexts can elucidate information and perspectives that may otherwise be overlooked. this can range from spatial linkages with other zooarchaeological materials or with features and multiple types of artifacts. by documenting infill materials in this way, new information can be provided through stepping into 3d space and by decreasing the conceptual distance between field and lab, which encourages new analytical and interpretive perspectives (berggren et image-based 3d modeling as a documentation method for zooarchaeological remains in waste-related contexts stella macheridis author address: department of archaeology and ancient history, lund university, box 192, 221 00 lund, sweden. email: stella.macheridis@ark.lu.se received: february 7, 2015 volume: 6(2):242-248 published: december 18, 2015 © 2015 society of ethnobiology abstract: during the last twenty years archaeology has experienced a technological revolution that spans scientific achievements and day-to-day practices. the tools and methods from this digital change have also strongly impacted archaeology. image-based 3d modeling is becoming more common when documenting archaeological features but is still not implemented as standard in field excavation projects. when it comes to integrating zooarchaeological perspectives in the interpretational process in the field, this type of documentation is a powerful tool, especially regarding visualization related to reconstruction and resolution. also, with the implementation of image-based 3d modeling, the use of digital documentation in the field has been proven to be timeand cost effective (e.g., de reu et al. 2014; de reu et al. 2013; dellepiane et al. 2013; verhoeven et al. 2012). few studies have been published on the digital documentation of faunal remains in archaeological contexts. as a case study, the excavation of the infill of a clay bin from building 102 in the neolithic settlement of ҫatalhöyük is presented. alongside traditional documentation, infill was photographed in sequence at each second centimeter of soil removal. the photographs were processed with agisoft photoscan. seven models were made, enabling reconstruction of the excavation of this context. this technique can be a powerful documentation tool, including recording notes of zooarchaeological significance, such as markers of taphonomic processes. an important methodological advantage in this regard is the potential to measure bones in situ in for analysis after excavation. keywords: image-based 3d modeling, field zooarchaeology, waste-related contexts, digital reconstruction ethnobiology letters. 2015. 6(2):242-248. doi: 10.14237/ebl.6.2.2015.342. 243 research communication special issue on digital zooarchaeology image-based 3d modeling are and have been used in this process (forte et al. 2012). for example, the use of image-based 3d modeling to document human burials at the site has been evaluated and is now common practice (knusel et al. 2013). since 2013 all documentation has been made digitally via pc-tablets as standard procedure, providing high-resolution records of fieldwork and site contexts (berggren et al. forthcoming; issavi and taylor 2014). the case study this case study presents the excavation of the infill of a clay bin (f 3698) from building 102 in the neolithic settlement of ҫatalhöyük (tung 2013). building 102 is located in the northern area of the site and is not fully excavated. this building was discovered in 2007 during excavations to prepare for the erection of a big shelter to cover this particular area. the clay bin infill was excavated in 2013, when excavation of the building was resumed (tung 2013). the bin was attached to an internal wall, and its infill was documented using traditional excavation and documentation (ibid. 2013). this feature was also recorded by means of image-based 3d modeling to provide a case study exploring the utility of this particular technique. the reason that the infill of this clay bin was considered suitable for documentation by image-based 3d modeling is that it was located directly underneath a larger room and could represent closing of the final phase of the house. the generation of a 3d model to figure 1. spiral “route” for photographic documentation. the round x-markers represent stops in the route for taking photographs of the feature. ethnobiology letters. 2015. 6(2):242-248. doi: 10.14237/ebl.6.2.2015.342. 244 research communication special issue on digital zooarchaeology display the room and the bin would illustrate the tangible and intimate connection of these two spaces. early in the excavation it was clear that at the top of the infill layer there was a large amount of wellpreserved animal bones compared to the condition of faunal remains previously discovered in this particular house. excavators recognized that this context provided an opportunity for a distinctive case study of how this documentation technique can be used to record spatial distributions of faunal remains in infill contexts. methodology the use of agisoft photoscan allows the generation of detailed three-dimensional models from sets of unordered images. it cannot replace the interpretative nature of plan drawings, but it provides a 3d model that has high resolution in terms of geometry and image quality (dell'unto 2014). when using this technique in the field, it is important to plan the use of it beforehand. even though application of the approach is not time-consuming, the area of interest and its close surroundings must be thoroughly cleaned and camera angles must not be changed abruptly when photographing. the use of a planned work-flow is thus highly recommended (de reu et al. 2014; dellepiane et al. 2013). work-flows regarding digital technologies on a site level are being formulated and constantly tested (i.e. de reu et al. 2014; dellepiane et al. 2013; katsianis et al. 2008). also, archaeologists already photograph contexts and findings in the field, often as complements to drawings, so it takes little time to adjust and freely work with this method. this specific context was relatively sheltered from changes in light and shading, which could present a real challenge in other settings. for this case-study a system camera (sony a58) with a preset resolution of 10 mp was used, without use of a flash. during the documentation of the excavation of the infill of the clay bin, some necessary steps were implemented in each set of photographs. after each second centimeter of soil removal, a series of 40-60 photographs were taken following a spirally route, illustrated in figure 1. we also set up 4-6 ground control points within and around the context in each set of images. we documented these with a total station, as opposed to measuring the distances between them (cf. de reu et al. 2013). this ensures that the measurements can later be correctly spatially referenced. also, we took extra photos of particular zooarchaeological remains to ensure detailed reconstruction. for example, horn cores in the middle of the infill were considered of interest to the excavators (figure 2). the technicalities and steps for processing imagebased 3d modeling can be found in other works (de reu et al. 2014; remondino and el-hakim 2006). here, processing involved data extraction, meshing and scaling following dellepiane et al. (2013:205). the software recognizes local features in the photos during data extraction by aligning the images and during calculation of the model. these photos are matched to calibrate and orient the images, resulting in a point cloud of a triangulated surface (de reu et al. 2014; dellepiane et al. 2013). meshing and coloring involves matching every pixel to recreate coordination in digital three-dimensional space. the triangulated surface is filtered to reduce noise, and all gaps in the model are closed. after this process, original colors are added to the model. scale is corrected using figure 2. sequence of seven 3d-models showing the progress of excavation. the sequence starts with the top layers of soil from the left to the right. the models are numbered from 1-7 in the bottom left corner. ethnobiology letters. 2015. 6(2):242-248. doi: 10.14237/ebl.6.2.2015.342. 245 research communication special issue on digital zooarchaeology markers from the context, allowing reconstruction of physical measurements. the model can easily be transferred to the project’s general coordination and spatial reference system in a gis (de reu et al. 2014; dellepiane et al. 2013). the 3d models for this study were processed in agisoft photoscan, version 1.0.0 (agisoft llc 2011). using this software it is possible to geo-reference the model using external ground control points (agisoft llc 2011). results in this case study, i highlight the faunal remains in an infill of a clay bin in one of the neolithic houses of ҫatalhöyük. figure 2 illustrates a sequence of seven 3d models documenting the removal of the infill in the clay bin in each excavation phase (each second centimeter). a total of 336 photographs were used to produce the models (roughly 48 images per model). compared to traditional documentation by plan mapping, this technique reduced the time in the field as it took about ten to fifteen minutes to photograph each sequence, including clean-up. the horn cores from cattle and wild sheep in the middle of the bin were reconstructed in detail in the model. the actual horn cores became fragmented when lifted from the soil but may, according to the excavators, represent the remains of something placed carefully within the bin (tung 2013). however, the horn cores could simply be infill material, such as refuse. the interpretation of the horn cores was refined by reconstructing the context at the same time as the next layer of soil was removed. their clear placement on top of each other is probably due to a conscious act, either during the usage phase or right before deposition (see tung 2013). the model is detailed, and might be useful in the future when reviewing the last phase of use and later the infilling of the house. discussion mapping the precise contextual locations of faunal remains by hand is sisyphean in terms of work effort. as illustrated in this case study, 3d-modeling enables re-assessment of context because any notes and maps detailing the recovery of faunal specimens can be reconsidered by returning to the model where the remains are documented in high resolution. digital approaches to archaeological documentation can potentially enable more detailed examination of spatial patterning even after remains have been removed from their excavation contexts. for example, as reported in this study, spatial patterning of faunal remains in infill contexts, where materials might be considered “waste” provides a basis for research concerning waste and refuse disposal patterns (see martin and russell 2000). these concepts are not only important in a taphonomic sense, but also in discussions of cultural/ritual behavior (i.e. hill 1995; marciniak 2005; orton 2012; thilderqvist 2013). this type of analysis can be strengthened by the photographic documentation approach presented in this study. more generally, research within virtual reality and the use of 3d modeling in archaeology holds great potential. in recent years, virtual collections as well as studies on osteometry and morphological differences figure 3. close-up snapshots from the models. the numbers in the top left corner indicate from which models they were taken in figure 2. ethnobiology letters. 2015. 6(2):242-248. doi: 10.14237/ebl.6.2.2015.342. 246 research communication special issue on digital zooarchaeology in 3d have been established (betts et al. 2011; macane 2012; niven et al. 2009; smith and strait 2008). one advantage of 3d modeling in zooarchaeology is an ability to measure faunal remains during excavation for purposes of analysis later. while this has been noted in this study, to argue for the continued implementation of image-based 3d modeling in field zooarchaeology, an evaluation of the accuracy and precision of measurements derived from 3d models is needed. this holds potential for producing new zooarchaeological knowledge since measurable bones can experience heavy erosion and breakage during excavation and curation, which may depend on the preservation condition of bone as well as environmental factors. an experiment focusing on what can be better preserved through application of 3d modeling would benefit the further development and implementation of such approaches in zooarchaeology. image-based 3d modeling can be useful as a detailed reconstruction technique of refuse contexts in which faunal remains are often abundant. the reconstruction can be of high value for field interpretation by archaeologists. compared to burials, infill layers are often not given the same degree of detailed documentation. in this sense 3d modeling makes it possible to return to the context to make spatial connections and associations among archaeological materials. 3d models can potentially be integrated with gis and spatial analyses of faunal remains to investigate possible clustering of remains for particular taxa or types of skeletal parts (berggren et al. 2015). similarly, such models may be used to investigate taphonomic histories of faunas. depending on the resolution desired, the time needed to generate models will differ. this might disturb the flow of the excavation (de reu et al. 2014). the amount of time needed to generate models will surely decrease with the growing capacity of computers and software. despite the many advantages, image-based 3d modeling should not completely replace other interpretive documentation methods, such as plan drawings, context description, and field journals (de reu et al. 2013; dell'unto 2014). the analytical value of the 3d model decreases greatly if other types of documentation are disregarded. for example, in this case study the model would be of no interpretive value if not connected to the field situation and the interpretations of the excavators. a formal guideline or practical handbook of image-based 3d modeling techniques is missing in archaeology, although dellepiane et al. (2013) have described a functioning workflow. english heritage has also produced a practical guide for laser scanning techniques within cultural heritage studies (english heritage 2011). for zooarchaeologists, it would be useful to have handbooks on image-based 3d modeling techniques, with guidelines regarding faunal remains in various archaeological situations, such as the documentation of animal burials and other ritual remains. conclusions this short paper has reviewed the use of image-based 3d modeling as a technique for documenting zooarchaeological remains in waste-related depositional contexts. as previously established, image-based 3d modeling is an effective tool in terms of timeand cost-effectiveness in the field. although 3d modeling should not be considered a replacement for traditional field documentation methods, it provides a higher resolution and visualization in three-dimensional space. with a thorough field assessment of taphonomic markers and other zooarchaeologically significant indicators, this technique can provide a good foundation for research on spatial association of artifacts and features, waste management, and the use of bone within living quarters. one great methodological advantage of this technique for the zooarchaeologist is an ability to measure bones during excavation for analysis later. despite these advantages, it would be helpful to have a set of guidelines for image-based 3d modeling in zooarchaeology, which should incorporate basic osteology, zooarchaeological methods, and taphonomy. acknowledgements i am grateful to the ҫatalhöyük research project and its director ian hodder for the opportunity to conduct this experiment. also, i wish to acknowledge my colleagues in the field and the staff at the site for help and encouragement. i am thankful to niccolo dell’unto for help with technical issues as well as providing thoughtful comments on earlier drafts. declarations permissions: not applicable. sources of funding: funding for electronic devices was provided by helge ax:son johnsons stiftelse. travel expenses were funded by längmanska kulturfonden. conflicts of interest: none declared. ethnobiology letters. 2015. 6(2):242-248. doi: 10.14237/ebl.6.2.2015.342. 247 research communication special issue on digital zooarchaeology references cited agisoft, llc. 2011. agisoft photoscan user manual, professional edition, version 1.0.0: agisoft llc. available at: http://downloads.agisoft.ru/pdf/ photoscan-pro_1_0_0_en.pdf. berggren, a., n. dell'unto, m. forte, s. d. haddow, i. hodder, j. issavi, n. lercari, c. mazzucato, a. mickel, and j. s. taylor. forthcoming. revisiting reflexive archaeology at ҫatalhöyük: integrating digital and 3d technologies at the trowel's edge. antiquity 89:433-448. betts, m. w., h. d. g. maschner, c. d. schou, r. schlader, j. holmes, n. clement, and m. smuin. 2011. virtual zooarchaeology: building a webbased reference collection of northern vertebrates for archaeofaunal 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archive_report_2013.pdf. verhoeven, g., m. doneus, c. briese, and f. vermeulen. 2012. mapping by matching: a computer vision-based approach to fast and accurate georeferencing of archaeological aerial photographs. journal of archaeological science 39:2060-2070. doi 10.1016/j.jas.2012.02.022. biosketch stella macheridis is a phd candidate in historical osteology, department of archaeology and ancient history. camels in asia and north africa: interdisciplinary perspectives on their past and present significance   book review  ethnobiology le ers. 2014. 5: 129‐131. doi: 10.14237/ebl.5.2014.261. 129  that the two camels have separate ancestors and that their separation is of significantly greater antiquity than the holocene timescale of human domestications (chapter by burger; ji et al. 2009). burger reviews the genetic evidence for the origins of the domestic camels, and highlights the advances being made in our understanding of these processes. this chapter covers a lot of ground, but the treatment occasionally feels a little too concise, for example burger hints at the modern mitochondrial dna evidence for dromedaries pointing to ‘two domestication scenarios’, but does not elaborate on what these are. the hybridization of the one-humped and twohumped camels by humans is the subject of faye and konuspayeva’s chapter. in a fascinating short study, they detail the social and economic significance of camel hybridization in modern kazakhstan. four chapters discuss aspects of the current populations of wild two-humped camels (c. ferus) in central asia. these are critically endangered, surviving only in small numbers in four discrete areas. the human impact on, and conservation challenges of, these animals are discussed by yadamsuren et al., lei et al., walzer et al., and silbermayr and burger. hybridization with the very large surrounding domestic population is one very serious threat to the wild camels, which has been recorded as deliberately initiated on occasion to improve the fitness of domestic stock (silbermayr and burger). the bactrian camel (c. bactrianus) is the subject of three chapters. returning to the difficult question of domestication, trinks et al. report analyses of mitochondrial dna of both archaeological and modern camels and argue that low genetic diversity in this volume is concerned with the old world camels: the extant population of wild two-humped camels (camelus ferus przewalski camelidae), the domestic two-humped bactrian camel (camelus bactrianus linnaeus camelidae), and the domestic one-humped dromedary (camelus dromedaries linneaus camelidae). it stems from an international conference organised by the two editors of the volume in 2010 at the austrian academy of sciences. conceived as a truly interdisciplinary meeting, this publication brings this approach to fruition in a rich and diverse account of the past, present, and indeed future, of camel-human relationships. the volume is composed of 26 chapters which, excluding the introduction by knoll and afterword by bulliet, are divided across four main sections. the first section of the book consists of three chapters dealing with the relationships between the old world camels, and in particular the origins and relationships of the domestic forms. this has long been an enigmatic question, in part due to the sketchy archaeological record. in the past, some scholars have argued that the two old world domestic camels were both descended from only one wild form, the two humped camel, based on the absence of a modern wild one-humped camel, the fact that bactrian camels and dromedaries produce fertile offspring when crossed, and observations in the late 19th century c.e. by l. lombardini that dromedaries passed through a two-humped stage in their embryonic development. this notion is now, however, convincingly refuted. the chapter by knospe et al. presents a study of foetal hump development that disproves the idea that dromedaries pass through a two-humped stage in their development. also, genetic studies show camels in asia and north africa: interdisciplinary perspec ves on their past and present significance eva‐maria  knoll  and  pamela  burger,  eds.  2012.  verlag  der  österreichischen  akademie  der wissenscha en  (austrian  academy  of  sciences  press), wien  (vienna).  pp.  298,  111  colour  illustra ons,  33  black‐and‐white  illustra ons. €45.00 (paperback). isbn 978‐3‐7001‐7244‐4.  reviewed by robin bendrey reviewer address: department of archaeology, university of reading, whiteknights box 226, reading, rg6 6ab, uk.  r.bendrey@reading.ac.uk  received: october 2, 2014  volume: 5:129‐131  published: november 13, 2014    © 2014 society of ethnobiology   book review  ethnobiology le ers. 2014. 5: 129‐131. doi: 10.14237/ebl.5.2014.261. 130  the modern domestic populations supports the idea of a single camel domestication centre. although the geographic origins of the domestic bactrian camel are still unclear, what is certain now from the dna evidence is that they did not descend from the extant wild c. ferus population, but from a separate twohumped ancestor (see also ji et al. 2009). moving from their population biology, to their social significance, two chapters – by lang and by chuluunbaatar – discuss the place of the camel in mongolian culture. by far the largest section of the book is committed to domestic dromedaries, starting with an up-todate summary of the zooarchaeological evidence for their domestication by h-p and m uerpmann. this is an excellent critical account of the subject, reflecting the substantial and long-term contribution of these authors to the archaeology of the arabian peninsula. the result is a robust understanding of when domestic dromedaries appear in southeast arabia, although we still do not have a good handle on precisely where, when and why dromedaries were first domesticated. other chapters further develop the history of dromedary use as transport animals in arabia. dostal’s thought provoking reflection links dromedary anatomy, riding technology and the regional significance of the bedouin in warfare and long distance trade. heiss considers south arabian camel caravans and in particular the 10th century ce accounts of al-hasan al-hamdānī who describes the equitable communal organization of caravans, which could consist of thousands of camels stretching over several miles. providing nuanced interpretations of ethnographic observations from the tihāma, in southwest arabia, gingrich identifies the essential roles of dromedaries in transport, powering wells and mills, and, importantly, symbolism. the significance of dromedaries to diverse modern human economies is reflected in a range of further contributions to this section: dromedary husbandry and use in syria (by tabbaa) and pakistan (by iqbal); camel milk production and use, in chapters by dioli and also younan and mwangi, and milk shelf life (by zubeir); and bakhsh et al. consider the position of both camel milk and urine in arabian folk medicine. ethnography also makes a significant contribution to the book, with fischer’s study of the imuhar nomads (also known as the tuareg) of south algeria, and varisco’s chapter on the ethnobotany of camel diet. abdussamad et al. present a photo-essay on camel phenotypes, reproduction and foetal wastage, and herd health in the nigeria-niger corridor: these are significant issues for boosting camelrearing here and improving food security. diverse other aspects are also considered, for example, tourist camel trekking in jordan’s desert area (chapter by shunnaq and shunnaq). as an interdisciplinary overview of the state of current knowledge and method in the study of the past and present old world camels, this book is highly recommended. it will be of interest to scholars across diverse disciplines, including archaeologists, historians, biologists, cultural anthropologists and conservationists. although some studies have been published before, it does represent a unique resource collected together in one place. the volume is generally edited to a very high standard, and has rich and copious colour illustrations, which although divorced from the text as a separate section at the back of the book add significantly to the volume in the diversity and quality of illustrations. as bulliet points out in his afterword to the volume, unlike the other old world major domestic ungulates that have spread around the globe, camel husbandry and use is largely restricted to its native habitats and those areas that share similar climatic extremes. bulliet argues that the economic utility of camels derives from their outstanding strength, tractability and stamina and their adaptation to extremely arid environments; but that the greater costs, in terms of human investment, of raising the slow-maturing dromedary in non-desert habitats, compared to other faster maturing domestic animals (see wilson 184, 135-136), makes them economically uncompetitive in these environments. this pragmatic blend of economic and ecological perspectives in explaining the modern distribution and use of camels links in with increasing understanding of the biogeography of human-animal relationships in the holocene (e.g. bendrey 2014; manning et al. 2012). understanding these processes in the longue durée has significant modern relevance for diverse communities contending with ensuring food security from pastoral farming in the face of changing regional climates (e.g. kayunyu and wanjohi 2014). this book represents an excellent starting point for the next wave of camel research. the volume highlights the vital role of old world camels in the human past and present – in particular in regional food production and transport contributions to warfare and long-distance trade and communication –   book review  ethnobiology le ers. 2014. 5: 129‐131. doi: 10.14237/ebl.5.2014.261. 131  and also potential contributions for the future. although the role of camels as transport animals is reduced in the modern world due to the rise of motorized transport, they clearly remain a powerful cultural icon. it is particularly in their adaptation to arid environments that their husbandry still holds great significance for human food production in marginal environments. references cited bendrey, r. 2014. population genetics, biogeography, and domestic horse origins and diffusions. journal of biogeography 41: 1441-1442. ji, r., p. cui, f. ding, j. geng, h. gao, h. zhang, j. yu, s. hu, and h. meng. 2009. monophyletic origin of domestic bactrian camel (camelus bactrianus) and its evolutionary relationship with the extant wild camel (camelus bactrianus ferus). animal genetics 40: 377–382. kagunyu, a.w. and j. wanjohi. 2014. camel rearing replacing cattle production among the borana community in isiolo county of northern kenya, as climate variability bites. pastoralism, 4(1): 1-5. manning, k., s. downey, s. colledge, j. conolly, k. stopp and s. shennan. 2013. the origins and spread of stock-keeping: the role of cultural and environmental influences on early neolithic animal exploitation in europe. antiquity 87: 1046-1059 wilson, r. t. 1984, the camel. longman, london and new york. cannabis: evolution and ethnobotany ethnobiology letters. 2015. 6(1):65. doi: 10.14237/ebl.6.1.2015.426. 65 book review regarding its legalization and recreational use. this is a book about the significance of cannabis in human history, with thoughtful speculations concerning its significance in prehistory and in human evolution that in time, whether proven right or wrong, will contribute to shaping future research. chapters three, four, five, six, and eight cover in detail, from a variety of perspectives, the uses of cannabis for fiber, food, oil, medicine, and feed, as well as its diverse uses in religious and recreational activities. each of these broad areas of use is rich in details, as for example, the fascinating discussion of the use of hemp fiber and the account of the worldwide religious significance of psychoactive cannabis. anyone interest in learning more about cannabis from any point of view will find this book well worth reading and an indispensable reference. it has the feel of a text book and tabletop book combined, and is equally suitable to these uses. in addition to the many excellent black and white and color photographs, there are also a number of engravings, paintings, drawings, diagrams, and botanical illustrations that add to the value of this book. the authors provide a timeline entitled ‘cannabis in history,’ an extensive bibliography, a thorough general index, and a number of helpful black and white and color maps which are essential to appreciating the global perspective this book presents and to following its broad historical sweep. cannabis: evolution and ethnobotany is a welcome addition to our knowledge of this very significant plant. much has been written about cannabis and robert clarke and mark merlin are well known for their contributions to this literature. but their book, cannabis: evolution and ethnobotany – a ‘labor of love’ as they call it, is a landmark publication in our knowledge of this important species. it is a comprehensive interdisciplinary study of the genus cannabis that is well-researched, readable, richly illustrated, and timely. it is indeed a study of the evolution and ethnobotany of cannabis, as indicated by its title and by content covering the ‘natural origins and early evolution of cannabis’ (chapter two), ‘hypotheses concerning the early evolution of cannabis’ (chapter 12), and discussion of ‘classical and molecular taxonomy of cannabis’ (chapter 11). what is not featured in the title, however, and yet is a fundamental feature of this interpretive summary that will make it of interest to a wide variety of readers, is the excellent historical perspective the book presents that links an ethnobotanical understanding of cannabis as a multipurpose plant to its worldwide human dispersal from its origins in central asia. cannabis is best known for its psychoactive properties, which is today its most widespread use. chapter seven discusses its psychoactive use in ritual and recreation, while chapter 13 looks at the ‘longterm’ coevolution of humans and cannabis, including a case made for the social benefits from its psychoactive properties. it would be a mistake, however, to think that the focus of this 434 page work is on the psychoactive uses of cannabis or the current debate cannabis: evolution and ethnobotany robert c. clarke and mark d. merlin. 2013. university of california press, berkeley. 456 pp. $95.00 (hardcover). isbn 978-0520-27048-0. reviewed by john rashford reviewer address: department of sociology and anthropology, college of charleston, 19 st. philip street, room 203, charleston, sc, usa. email: rashfordj@cofc.edu received: june 16, 2015 volume: 6(1):65 published: july 20, 2015 © 2015 society of ethnobiology shells on a desert shore: mollusks in the seri world. cathy moser marlett. 2014. university of arizona press, tucson. 304 pp. $75.00 (hardcover). isbn: 978-0-8165-3068-7. ethnobiology letters. 2015. 6(1):63‐64. doi: 10.14237/ebl.6.1.2015.328. 63 book review part i, “the settings,” invites readers to get to know and familiarize themselves with seri culture, language, and territory. in addition, part i offers a brief section on the author’s background, information resources and data, seri traditional knowledge, and technical notes. part ii, “mollusks in the seri culture,” is perhaps the most robust in terms of how the information is synthesized and presented. here, the reader plunges directly into seri ethnomalacology thanks to the vivid description of numerous biocultural roles that mollusks play within seri culture. starting with a brief explanation of the seri way of naming living kinds, moser marlett makes it clear that many of the taxonomic categories are covert and that seri do not name mollusks as a single taxonomic unit. the most valuable asset of this section is, without question, the intimate understanding of seri ways of naming. seri ethnotaxonomies may not be very descriptive or structured, but are full of remarkably sharp ethological descriptions. when the reader becomes aware that hant quixooa [what plans to fight] is the seri name for hermit crabs, he can only marvel on the profound ecological and intra-specific observations behind such a name. part ii deals with taxonomy and anatomy and subtly incorporates daily life aspects—mythology and folklore, magical practices and mortuary rituals, medicine, food, material culture, trade and commerce, and place names—in which mollusks play a part in seri life. it is a thorough and comprehensive section, yet also an easy to follow ethnography. part iii, “species accounts,” is perhaps the most attractive and conspicuous section. illustrated with many pictures and remarkable drawings, most of which are the author’s work, the section groups all of the mollusks known by the seri into classes— bivalvia, gastropoda, polyplacophora, scaphoda, and cephalopoda—then discusses the ethnomalacology of each of the species included in every class. the the oceans have played a vital role in sustaining human communities since the pre-neolithic era (marean et al. 2007). currently, global annual consumption of seafood amounts to an impressive 107 million tons a year (laurenti 2007). humans have also used marine biota as a source of weapons, tools, adhesives, tanning materials, pigments, adornment, musical instruments, recreation supplies, storage items, shelter, fuel, and medicines (narchi 2011). there are few societies in the americas in which marine ethnobiological knowledge is as vibrant and self-evident as that of the seri people of coastal sonora, mexico. the seri are the southernmost nomadic hunter-gatherer and fishing society in north america. having roamed much of the midriff island area of the sonoran desert for at least 2000 years, their culture is characterized by a seafaring tradition, an extensive use of marine resources, and an overall reservoir of ethnobiological knowledge not commonly found in hunter-gatherer literature. many talented researchers, including alfred l. kroeber, richard felger and gary nabhan, have worked among the seri. yet i cannot think of someone as knowledgeable of seri affairs as author cathy moser marlett. daughter of two linguistic experts on the seri language, cathy has spent long seasons in the seriland since her early childhood not only speaking the language, developing friendships, and experiencing seri culture as it evolves (see moser marlett 2000), but also meeting with many researchers from diverse disciplines who were hosted by her parents, making her a quintessential participant observer from an early age. all of these experiences and acquired skills have helped cathy give us a remarkable book on seri ethnomalacology. the book is divided into three sections, eight appendices and a foreword by desert ethnobotanist richard s. felger. shells on a desert shore: mollusks in the seri world cathy moser marlett. 2014. university of arizona press, tucson. 304 pp. $75.00 (hardcover). isbn: 978-0-8165-3068-7. reviewed by nemer e. narchi1,2 reviewer address: centro de estudios en geografía humana, el colegio de michoacán, cerro de nahuatzen 85, fracc. jardines del cerro grande, c.p. 59370, la piedad, michoacán, méxico. 2next generation sonoran desert researchers. email: nenarchi@gmail.com received: january 29, 2015 published: june 23, 2015 volume: 6(1):63-64 © 2015 society of ethnobiology ethnobiology letters. 2015. 6(1):63‐64. doi: 10.14237/ebl.6.1.2015.328. 64 book review section expands, details, and particularizes every aspect of seri ethnomalacology introduced in part ii, and it does so for each of the species included in the volume. i dare to say that if one would be willing to take this volume to the beach, species’ illustrations are so vivid and accurate that it could easily be used for field classification. in a digital era, when all books can be scanned into a single pdf file, roberto calasso (2013) has argued for the vital importance of personalized book covers: seductive images that can create a link between a given author and a diversity of readers. in this regard, the university of arizona press has chosen the perfect image for the book’s dust jacket. the elderly and tanned hands of victoria astorga showing her shell-made pottery tools generate excitement and curiosity without giving away the contents of the book. one thing i find problematic is the feeling that the full potential of the book has not been appreciated by a wider readership. critical praises in the back panel refer to the book as “essential reading for everyone interested in the seri” (e.a. anderson) and “... definitive work on seri mollusks, a subject scarcely scratched by earlier southwest ethnographers” (a.m. rea). while absolutely true, these praises fall short in that the significance of this volume goes beyond the seri or even the southwest. first and foremost, the volume represents a substantial addition to the limited literature on ethnomalacology worldwide; a meager 24 results can be obtained from a search using google scholar, web of science and the university of georgia’s gil database (narchi 2011). second, it contributes to the developing body of knowledge dealing with non-fisheries marine ethnobiology. third, it adds evidence against those views that consider hunter-gatherer ethnomedicinal systems to be limited and unsophisticated. lastly, it is a material example from which seri people can derive a sense of pride in their culture, knowledge, identity and territory. this book represents the accomplishment of a life’s observations and intimate exchange of ideas with seri collaborators and it surely is an important contribution to ethnobiology as a discipline. references cited calasso, r. 2013. l'impronta dell'editore. adelphi edizione, milan, italy. laurenti, g. 2007. fish and fishery products: world apparent consumption statistics based on food balance sheets 1961-2003. food and agriculture organization of the united nations, rome, italy. marean, c. w., m. bar-matthews, j. bernatchez, e. fisher, p. goldberg, a. i. r. herries, z. jacobs, a. jerardino, p. karkanas, t. minichillo, p. j. nilssen, e. thompson and i. watts and h. m. williams. 2007. early human use of marine resources and pigment in south africa during the middle pleistocene. nature 449:905-908. doi: 10.1038/ nature06204. moser marlett, c. 2000. a desemboque childhood. journal of the southwest (seri hands: a special issue) 42:411 -426. narchi, n. e. 2011. one knowledge, two conduits: the social, demographic, and toxicological factors that govern seri ethnomedicine. doctoral dissertation, university of georgia, athens, ga. using ethnotaxonomy to assess traditional knowledge and language vitality: a case study with the vaie people of sarawak, malaysia hidayati et al. 2018. ethnobiology letters 9(2):33–47 33 research communications populations adapt to their new ecosystems (van andel et al. 2014), indicate linguistic stratigraphy (bostoen 2007), solve important questions related to distribution of iconic trees (rangan et al. 2015), and unravel mysteries of domestication of food plants (donohue and denham 2009). drawing from a collaborative study conducted with the vaie people of sarawak in malaysia, this article demonstrates an additional dimension of folk taxonomy: the possibility of using folk names to assess a community’s tk and language vitality simultaneously (franco et al. 2015). the vaie people and language the vaie people, popularly known as ba’ie or bintulu, speak a language known by various names such as bintulu, ba’ie, or vaie (asmah 1983; ibrahim 1971). the community prefers to refer to themselves and introduction one of the major contributions of ethnobiology was the conceptualization in the 1960s of a theoretical framework for folk taxonomy (hunn 2007). three decades later, the concept of biocultural diversity was born, coinciding with a renewed academic interest in the synergy between indigenous languages, traditional knowledge (tk), and biological diversity. this concept paved the way for a new wave of research that focused significantly on the use of vernacular/folk names, analyzing them both from a linguistic and tk perspective (evans 1997; kakudidi 2004; turpin 2013; unasho 2013; zariquiey 2014). researchers have demonstrated that folk names are not mere lexemes, but condensed forms of knowledge with multiple applications. analyses of folk names have helped us understand how migrant using ethnotaxonomy to assess traditional knowledge and language vitality: a case study with the vaie people of sarawak, malaysia syafitri hidayati1, bibi aminah abdul ghani2, beena giridharan3, mohd zafri hassan4, and f. merlin franco5, 6* 1faculty of engineering and science, curtin university malaysia, miri. 2the faculty of language and communication, universiti malaysia sarawak (unimas), kuching. 3office of the pro vice chancellor, curtin university malaysia, miri. 4faculty of agriculture and food sciences universiti putra malaysia bintulu campus, bintulu. 5curtin university malaysia, miri. 6institute of asian studies, universiti brunei darussalam *tropicalforezt@gmail.com abstract this article demonstrates the potential of using ethnotaxonomy and nomenclature to assess the vitality status of indigenous languages and traditional knowledge at the ecosystem level. we collaborated with the vaie people of sarawak, malaysia, applying a mixed methodology approach that relies on free-listing to a large extent. we applied the traditional knowledge and language vitality (tralavi) index to assess traditional knowledge and language vitality against five major parameters, specifically: language priority, retrieval of information, knowledge erosion, lexical recognition, and social support for exchange of traditional knowledge. the results show that with a tralavi score of 0.84, the vaie language can be considered “safe”. individuals practicing the traditional occupation of fishing fared better (mean=0.90) than those of the non-fishermen group (mean=0.77). however, when the language vitality was assessed using the language vitality and endangerment assessment tool of unesco, the results indicate that the vaie language could potentially be in the “unsafe” zone, highlighting the differences between the ecosystem based approach of tralavi and the macro-approach of unesco. however, these approaches can be applied in a complementary manner to generate a more accurate portrayal of the language vitality scenario. received july 7, 2016 open access accepted september 11, 2017 doi 10.14237/ebl.9.2.2018.740 keywords folk names, vernacular names, language vitality and endangerment, linguistic ethnobiology copyright © 2018 by the author(s); licensee society of ethnobiology. this is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution-noncommercial 4.0 international public license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0), which permits non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. hidayati et al. 2018. ethnobiology letters 9(2):33–47 34 research communications their language as “vaie”. consequently, in this article the term “vaie” is used to refer to both the community and their language. traditionally, they practice a fishing system called panau where fishes such as parastromateus niger, atule mate, carangoides praeustus, carangoides armatus, and carangoides coeruleopinnatus are trapped using a lure made from nipah leaves (nypa fruticans wurmb). some researchers consider vaie to be a variant of the melanau language (asmah 1983), though blust (1974) and zaini (1989) consider it to bear little similarities to other melanau languages in the region. ethnologue too lists the language as a distinct one under the name “bintulu” (simons and fennig 2017), in concurrence with the emic consideration. most of the vaie people in bintulu maintain a diglossic situation in which malay and vaie languages are used for different purposes. besides native speakers, the vaie language is also spoken by a small section of other indigenous communities in bintulu. today, the vaie language is spoken in the kampung (villages) close to bintulu town, namely: kampung masjid, kampung sinong, kampung datuk, kampung sibiew, kampung baru, kampung jepak, kampung sebuan, kampung batu sepuluh, and kidurung. according to the department of statistics, malaysia, the total population of bintulu in the year 2010 was 183,892, with ibans comprising 42%, chinese 21%, melanau 12%, malays 10%, and bidayuh, indian, non-malaysians and other indigenous groups 14%. it is highly possible that vaie people were included under the melanau group, bringing the population to an estimated 23,000. our interviews with the vaie people indicate that the population may in fact number only around 18,000, qualifying it as a “small” community as defined by krauss (1991). the alliance for linguistic diversity (2015) considers vaie to be a “vulnerable” language (also see: ghani 2006). methodology we assessed language priority (criterion a), adeptness in retrieving information in both the autochthonous language and allochthonous language (criterion b), knowledge erosion (criterion c), lexical recognition (criterion d), and social support for exchange of tk (criterion e) by applying the tralavi index developed by franco et al. (2015). the study closely follows the methodology suggested by franco et al. (2015), except that plants have been replaced by fishes in the present study. as the community is traditionally a fishing community, we assumed that knowledge related to fishes would be common to all members of the community, and community members who have drifted away from the traditional occupation of fishing could show decline in tk related to fishes. the fieldwork for the research was undertaken in december 2014–february 2015 in collaboration with the vaie people of kampung kuala tatau, kampung segan, kampung sebuan, kampung jepak, kampung batu 10, kampung sebiew, kampung baru, kampung dato, kampung sinong, and kampung masjid, kidurong, and kampung asyakirin in the bintulu region. ethical clearance for the study was obtained from the curtin ethics committee (approval no. csea 041214, dated 4 december 2014), and a research permit was attained from the sarawak state planning unit prior to the commencement of the study. informed consent was obtained from each individual before the interview; the entire study conforms to the code of ethics of the international society of ethnobiology (2006). in addition, informal conversations were carried out with prominent individuals of the community to ensure that the methodology and outcome were culturally relevant, and reflected the community’s needs and concerns. fourteen knowledgeable individuals aged 59 and above (male n=8, female n=6), selected on the basis of their reputation as traditional knowledge holders, were invited to participate in open-ended interviews to elicit baseline information on the vaie culture, language, and tk. vaie tk on fishes, including folk names and their meanings, culinary recipes, totems, taboos, ecology, and folklore were documented through in-depth interviews. we used the international phonetic alphabet (ipa) to transcribe vaie fish names following ghani (1992), and the data were analyzed to develop an outline of vaie ethnotaxonomy and its nomenclatural system. in the second phase, 16 elders (male n=8, female n=8) above the age of sixty who did not participate in the previous phase were randomly selected and invited to free-list 25 fish names. this participant group was limited to only vaie people with vaie parents and vaie grandparents, to conform to the cultural definition of “vaie” prevailing within the community. from the interviews, 25 final candidate fishes were shortlisted on the basis of salience (table 1). open-ended conversations were carried out after the focused interviews to elicit tk on all fishes known to the vaie community. the shortlisted fishes were identified scientifically using field guides and identification hidayati et al. 2018. ethnobiology letters 9(2):33–47 35 research communications sheets (khiok and ali 2014; khiok and gambang 2009). the primary author then accompanied community members to various fish landing sites and local markets to collect specimens and to photograph the identified fishes; these photographs were later used as visual stimuli for criterion d. the third phase involved interviewing members of the younger generation identified through snowball sampling (luborsky and rubinstein 1995). since the community practiced fishing traditionally, fishing was considered a key indicator of their culture and the participants in this phase were divided into two clusters: cluster 1 was comprised of participants who were involved in the traditional profession of fishing (n=30, 20–50 years); cluster 2 (n=30, 20–50 years) was comprised of participants who were not involved in fishing as a profession. cluster 1 was comprised of 15 males who practiced fishing and 15 female participants whose husbands were fishermen. culturally, vaie women are not involved in fishing, yet they play an important supportive role in helping their husbands to grade fish according to their quality, and in converting them into value-added products. cluster 2 included five individuals who practiced fishing as a hobby, as well as their wives, in addition to people who did not practice fishing. participants were requested to answer a simple questionnaire for assessing language proficiency. the questions were: (1) what is your first language (l1)? (2) how many languages do you speak? (3) what is your second language (l2)? (4) my proficiency in vaie language is*… (5) my proficiency in (l2) is*… *note that questions 4 and 5 used a five point likert scale: very poor (1), poor (2), moderate (3), good (4), and very good (5). subsequently, semi-structured interviews were also conducted to elicit information required to calculate the traditional knowledge and language vitality index (tralavi), and results were tabulated following franco et al. (2015) for analysis. during the interviews, participants free-listed fish names both in l1 and l2; the time taken for free-listing was noted following franco et al. (2015). in addition, the results of the language proficiency questionnaire used by the participants were correlated with criteria a of the tralavi table to understand if the participants’ selfassessment reflected the actual extent of priority accorded to l1. criterion c of the tralavi assesses participants’ ability to interpret vernacular names, which becomes problematic in the case of fishes denoted by unanalyzable lexemes; participants with sound language and tk would not be able to provide the meaning for such names. to overcome this, a full rating was given for such lexemes provided that participants clearly identify the lexeme as “unanalyzable”. while the values for the tralavi table indicate the overall vitality status of the community’s language and tk, sub-analyses of the clusters and the genders provide insights into the intra -communal dynamics of the language and tk. to provide a comparative outlook of the linguistic vitality scenario, the tralavi values were then compared against that of the language vitality and endangerment (lve index) developed by the unesco ad hoc group on endangered languages, in 2003. further, an open-ended interview consisting of leads meant to elicit information required for the nine factors listed by the lve was carried out with the 60 respondents who had participated in the tralavi interviews. these results were also compared with that of tralavi. results and discussion as a fishing community, the vaie people regard fish as being culturally significant. all 25 fishes salient in the community are either fried, steamed, made into curry, or smoked/ salted for preserving. notable mentions were njen tengiriq (scomberomorus commerson and scomberomorus guttatus) consumed as a tonic/vitalizer by new mothers, njen tavai (wallago leerii) that is featured prominently in folklore connected to the origin of the vaie people, and njen gilau (clarias nieuhofii) and njen seqael (plotosus canius), which are considered toxic, thus requiring detoxification before consumption. a noteworthy feature of the shortlisted fish names is that the majority (20/25) of the lexemes used to denote the fishes were unanalyzable. the results of the study are presented in tables 1–3. on the basis of the average value obtained, the tralavi scale categorizes language and tk into dead (0), moribund (0.1–0.25), endangered (0.25–0.5), vulnerable (0.5– 0.75), and safe (0.75–1). with an average value of 0.84, the vaie language can be deemed in the “safe” category on the tralavi scale (table 2). this indicates that the vaie people have been adept in balancing their proficiency in l1 and l2 while at the same time maintaining their tk. in general, individuals from the fishermen group c1 did better (mean=0.90) than hidayati et al. 2018. ethnobiology letters 9(2):33–47 36 research communications no. vernacular name scientific name uses meaning of vernacular 1 njen ruay parastromateus niger (bloch, 1795) sold fresh, unaffordable fish around 20-35 myr/ kg. it is given three names according to its life stages and size. used to prepare umai raway. the stomach is used to prepare tagik (preserved in glass bottle). unanalyzable 2 njen tengiriq scomberomorus commerson (lacepède, 1800) sold fresh, smoked, or salted. commonly fried, cooked with turmeric, or as curry. preparation of pipos that is consumed by new mothers. unanalyzable scomberomorus guttatus (bloch & schneider, 1801) 3 njen jamah atule mate (cuvier, 1833) sold fresh. caught using the panau traditional fishing technique. preparation of umai. one of the favorite fishes of vaie. refers to the carangidae group 4 njen puqoq otolithoides biauritus (cantor, 1849) sold fresh, dried or salted. favorite fish; dried or salted, fried or cooked as curry. unanalyzable 5 njen buleng nemapteryx macronotacantha (bleeker1846) sold fresh and smoked. has a corrupted name njen proton saga. unanalyzable 6 njen piras setipinna breviceps (cantor, 1849) sold fresh. preparation of umai. the most favorite fish for making umai. sometimes also fried. unanalyzable 7 njen pay neotrygon kuhlii (müller & henle, 1841) sold fresh or salted. heart of the fish is highly priced. commonly cooked as curry, roasted, or as masak sambal. unanalyzable 8 qeret carcharhinus amblyrhynchos (whiteley, 1934) sold fresh. preparation of umai, commonly cooked as curry and soups. sometimes roasted without oil since the fish is oily. unanalyzable 9 njen seqael plotosus canius (hamilton, 1822) sold fresh. it is toxic and requires treatment before cooking. commonly cooked with coconut milk, curry, or masak sambal. unanalyzable 10 njen lata’ lobotes surinamensis (bloch, 1790) sold fresh. head is the favorite part, commonly cooked as curry or spicy-sour curry. some people also like to roast the fish. unanalyzable 11 njen gagog arius sp. sold fresh and smoked. has a corrupted name njen proton saga. unanalyzable table 1 twenty-five culturally salient fishes of the vail people. (continued on next page) hidayati et al. 2018. ethnobiology letters 9(2):33–47 37 research communications no. vernacular name scientific name uses meaning of vernacular 12 njen reman rastrliger kanagurta sold fresh or salted. commonly fried. abundant and always available in markets. unanalyzable rastrelliger brachysoma (bleeker, 1851) 13 njen taoq osteogeneiosus militaris (linnaeus, 1758) sold fresh or smoked. unanalyzable 14 njen tavai wallago leerii (bleeker, 1851) sold fresh. commonly cooked inside bamboo (pansuh). appears in the folklore connected unanalyzable 15 njen bageng arius maculatus (thunberg, 1792) sold fresh and smoked, has a corrupted name njen proton saga. unanalyzable 16 njen bibeq pampus argenteus (euphrasen, 1788) sold fresh. commonly fried for consumption. unanalyzable 17 njen da’ie kryptopterus kryptopterus (bleeker, 1851) sold fresh. commonly cooked without gut due to the high fecal content. considered as a favorite fish of chinese. da’ie= ta’ie = feces; the fish feeds on feces 18 njen kelapa lactarius lactarius (bloch & schneider, 1801) sold fresh or dried. abundant and always available in market. commonly fried or cooked with turmeric. kelapa= coconut; fish is as white as coconut meat. 19 njen selusong lates calcarifer (bloch, 1790) sold fresh. unaffordable fish around 35 myr/ kg. usually steamed, head preferred and unanalyzable 20 njen terupbuk tenualosa toli (valenciennes, 1847) sold fresh or salted following kuching culture. usually fried. unanalyzable 21 njen bengetot ilisha pristigastroides (bleeker 1852) sold fresh or dried and salted. usually made into the pickle “masak sambal” and roasted. makes a sound “tod” when caught. “tot”= sound tot; the fish produces a “tot” sound when caught. 22 njen gilau clarias nieuhofii (valenciennes, 1840) sold fresh and usually fried, cooked with coconut milk, and masak sambal. it is mildly toxic and has to be detoxified before consumption unanalyzable table 1 twenty-five culturally salient fishes of the vail people. (continued on next page) (continued from previous page) hidayati et al. 2018. ethnobiology letters 9(2):33–47 38 research communications no. vernacular name scientific name uses meaning of vernacular 23 njen qapaw epinephelus sexfasciatus (valenciennes, 1828) sold fresh. fish with one of the highest price tags; in huge demand for seafood restaurants. commonly prepared as masak sambal, curry, or fried. unanalyzable cepalopholis boenak (bloch, 1790) epinephelus areolatus (forsskål, 1775) 24 njen tuqol thunnus tonggol (bleeker, 1851) sold fresh or smoked. usually fried, cooked with turmeric, cooked as curry or with coconut milk. abundant and always available in marunanalyzable 25 njen alu-alu sphyraena barracuda (edwards, 1771) sold fresh, usually cooked as curry or with coconut milk. alu-alu = rice pestle; the fish is cylindrical and long as the pestle used to pound rice. table 1 twenty-five culturally salient fishes of the vail people. (continued from previous page) hidayati et al. 2018. ethnobiology letters 9(2):33–47 39 research communications pa cluster sex proficiency time (s) criteria tralavi score l1b l2c l1 l2 a b c d e 1 1 m 5 5 219 269 25 24 24 23 23 0.952 2 1 m 5 5 217 452 25 24 23 23 23 0.944 3 1 m 5 5 196 537 25 25 25 23 23 0.968 4 1 m 5 3 261 303 25 24 24 24 24 0.968 5 1 m 5 3 189 377 25 24 24 23 23 0.952 6 1 m 5 3 276 562 25 25 25 24 24 0.984 7 1 m 5 5 604 602 25 21 21 23 23 0.904 8 1 m 5 5 249 427 25 25 25 24 24 0.984 9 1 m 5 4 225 871 25 24 24 23 23 0.952 10 1 m 5 5 240 256 25 22 22 20 20 0.872 11 1 m 5 5 233 335 25 23 23 17 17 0.840 12 1 m 5 3 329 1050 25 21 21 19 19 0.840 13 1 m 5 5 114 233 25 22 22 17 17 0.824 14 1 m 5 4 128 267 25 25 25 21 21 0.936 15 1 m 5 4 147 150 25 24 24 25 25 0.984 16 1 f 5 5 267 332 25 25 25 22 22 0.952 17 1 f 5 5 161 338 25 24 24 21 21 0.920 18 1 f 5 5 178 234 25 24 24 20 20 0.904 19 1 f 5 5 905 745 25 23 23 19 19 0.872 20 1 f 5 5 360 891 25 25 25 20 20 0.920 21 1 f 5 5 334 863 25 25 25 18 18 0.888 22 1 f 5 5 303 189 25 24 24 21 21 0.920 23 1 f 5 5 224 180 25 24 24 18 18 0.872 24 1 f 5 5 283 319 25 24 24 17 17 0.856 25 1 f 5 5 385 413 25 22 22 16 16 0.808 26 1 f 5 5 233 315 25 24 24 18 18 0.872 27 1 f 5 4 365 716 25 23 23 16 16 0.824 28 1 f 5 5 114 120 25 22 22 13 13 0.760 29 1 f 5 3 211 gave up 25 24 24 20 20 0.904 30 1 f 5 3 236 gave up 25 22 22 15 15 0.792 (continued on next page) table 2 traditional knowledge and language vitality of vaie people. aparticipant, bvaie language, cmalay language,*part-time fishermen. hidayati et al. 2018. ethnobiology letters 9(2):33–47 40 research communications pa cluster sex proficiency time (s) criteria tralavi score l1b l2c l1 l2 a b c d e 31 2* m 5 3 447 861 25 23 23 21 21 0.904 32 2* m 5 5 199 462 25 24 24 23 23 0.952 33 2* m 5 5 220 308 25 24 24 22 22 0.936 34 2* m 5 5 447 867 25 23 23 22 22 0.920 35 2* m 5 5 207 209 25 25 25 23 23 0.968 36 2 m 5 5 259 242 15 23 23 20 20 0.808 37 2 m 5 5 200 252 25 21 21 6 6 0.632 38 2 m 5 5 233 180 15 23 23 15 15 0.728 39 2 m 5 5 772 347 0 20 20 13 12 0.520 40 2 m 5 5 368 316 15 23 23 13 12 0.688 41 2 m 5 5 247 293 25 25 25 19 19 0.904 42 2 m 5 3 364 335 15 25 25 15 0 0.640 43 2 m 5 5 364 335 15 25 25 15 15 0.760 44 2 m 5 5 262 618 25 24 24 20 20 0.904 45 2 m 5 4 309 154 0 22 22 20 20 0.672 46 2 f 5 5 181 334 25 24 24 24 24 0.968 47 2 f 5 5 675 304 0 24 24 17 17 0.656 48 2* f 5 5 287 349 25 23 23 22 22 0.920 49 2 f 5 2 468 1006 25 22 22 10 2 0.648 50 2 f 5 4 511 482 15 23 23 12 2 0.600 51 2 f 5 4 649 229 0 21 21 12 5 0.472 52 2 f 5 5 231 229 15 24 24 11 11 0.680 53 2 f 5 5 227 212 15 21 21 14 13 0.672 54 2 f 5 3 265 258 15 23 23 13 10 0.672 55 2 f 5 2 668 gave up 25 24 24 11 11 0.760 56 2 f 5 2 224 411 25 25 25 14 14 0.824 57 2* f 5 5 280 204 15 25 25 21 21 0.856 58 2* f 5 4 236 456 25 23 23 19 19 0.872 59 2* f 5 3 236 456 25 23 23 17 17 0.840 60 2* f 5 5 419 562 25 23 23 15 15 0.808 table 2. traditional knowledge and language vitality of vaie people. (continued from previous page) aparticipant, bvaie language, cmalay language,*part-time fishermen. hidayati et al. 2018. ethnobiology letters 9(2):33–47 41 research communications those who belonged to the non-fishermen group, c2 (mean=0.77). however, with a mean score of 0.77, the language and tk vitality of the non-fishermen group is only slightly above the score of 0.75 that would indicate a “vulnerable” status as per the tralavi scale. the results of the study can be further compartmentalized as below. language priority and retrieval of information (criteria a, b) the vaie people are generally proficient in more than one language. in addition to vaie, they may also be adept in melanau, iban, kedayan, or malay, with the malay being either standard malay, brunei malay, or both (edris and ghani 1992; ghani 2014). all 60 participants declared themselves as proficient in vaie in the language proficiency questionnaire. thirty-nine (65%) participants declared that they were “very good” in malay, while eight (13%) participants stated that they were “good” in malay (four from c1 and 4 from c2); ten participants (17%) regarded their proficiency in malay to be “moderate” (six from c1 and four from c2), and three participants (5%) rated their language skills in malay to be “poor” (all from c2). all participants who declared themselves not fully proficient in malay were above 40 years old, indicating greater acquisition of malay in the age group < 40. three respondents (one from c1 and two from c2) were unable to complete the list of 25 fishes in malay and withdrew from the survey after ten minutes. a weak correlation (r=-0.235) was found between self-assessed language proficiency and the time taken for free-listing in l1 and l2 (criteria a). this indicates that vaie people are unaware of the loss of proficiency in l1, with their l2 gradually replacing l1. this is ascertained from the fact that people who self-assessed their l1 proficiency as “very good” had difficulty in free-listing fish names in l1, but had little difficulty in l2. although the mean score for criteria a that assessed adeptness in bilingualism is 21.7, the non-fishermen group (c2) had a noticeably lower score of 18.3 than the group (c1, 25.0) who practice fishing. perhaps this is the beginning of a language shift in the case of vaie members who have moved away from their traditional occupation of fishing. however, both clusters returned similar scores for criterion b indicating that participants exhibited a healthy trend in retrieving information in l1. this could also mean that any shift towards l2 happening on the ground can be reversed with appropriate fishermen (c2) group, 53% of participants stated that interventions or measures. knowledge erosion (criterion c) as understood from the average values, participants from both the clusters did well in this criterion (c1=23.6; c2=23.3) indicating that knowledge erosion is not a concern at this stage. however, it should be noted that the majority of the fishes in the culturally salient list (20/25) were identified by unanalyzable lexemes by the community (table 1). this is a major drawback of the methodology noted during the course of study. although unanalyzable lexemes are a vital component of ethnotaxonomic systems, this criterion may not be reliable in situations where a large number of unanalyzable lexemes turn out to be salient. lexical recognition (criterion d) all participants reported that they were able to relate positively to the visual stimuli comprising of 25 fish images. participants from cluster 1 had a higher mean score of 20.1, while those in cluster 2 had a lower mean score of 16.6, indicating that individuals who followed the traditional occupation of fishing were more skilled in recognizing the species due to their constant interaction with the marine ecosystem and the diversity of fishes they came across. our study also found noticeable differences between the mean scores of males (c1=21.9, c2=17.8) and females (c1=18.3, c2=15.1). this phenomenon could be attributed to the fact that vaie women culturally play a supportive role in fishing, though it is predominantly the men who carry out the fishing activities. the inability to recognize visuals may not always correspond to lack of knowledge, as lack of familiarity with the medium (case et al. 2006), or lack of ability to feel the specimens (wester and yongvanit 2006), could also influence the ability to recognize specimens. our interviews also showed that vaie tk is gender sensitive with men specializing in areas such as the ecology and morphology of fishes while women are the custodians of knowledge related to the processing and grading of fish, recipes, and folklore. social support for exchange of tk (criterion e) of the total sample pool (c1 and c2), 65% reported that their parents were the primary source from which they had acquired tk. however, a cluster-wise analysis shows that all participants of the fishermen group (c1) had acquired their knowledge on fish (primarily) from parents and grandparents. in the non hidayati et al. 2018. ethnobiology letters 9(2):33–47 42 research communications they had acquired knowledge from the local markets where they procure fish, 31% from parents and grandparents, 3% from media, 2% from books and schools, and 11% from friends. this shows that for the community members who had experienced occupational shift, the market had become the main source of knowledge of fishes, though parents and family members continued to impart tk. the surveys undertaken at the three main markets of bintulu (pasar utama bintulu, pasar kampung baru, and pasar abf) show that malay, melanau, vaie, chinese, iban, and bahasa indonesia are the most frequently used trade languages depending on the ethnicity of the traders and consumers. it is known that people who migrate from various places, with different sets of tk and skills, adapt to new ecosystems while influencing each other (van andel et al. 2014). this feature was also observable at the markets studied, where vendors traded fish along with the knowledge and lexemes connected to them. two phenomena directly influencing tk and language noted in this study are: 1) the grouping of fishes and 2) the modification of fish names based on the market language. the grouping of fish is the clustering of fishes in the market for trade purposes. at these local markets, the terms satu tompok (one bundle), ikan campur (mixed fish) and ikan satu malaysia (one malaysia fish) are used to group multiple fishes. thus, satu tompok is a simple cluster of otherwise unrelated fishes put together in a plate, bucket, or simply heaped and sold together, while ikan satu malaysia is another group of unrelated fishes named after the popular “one malaysia” campaign of malaysia’s prime minister that emphasizes ethnic harmony, national unity, and efficient governance. consumers who buy these groups of fishes gradually develop a cognitive notion that these categories of fishes are related to each other. an example of a modified name is “ikan proton saga” meaning “proton saga fish”, used to group four different species such as osteogeneiosus militaris, nemapteryx macronotacantha, arius sp., and arius maculatus. proton saga is a popular car brand, produced by proton malaysia ltd., and fishes generally grouped under this name tend to have a larger head profile with a black-silver color, reminding people of the car brand. the vaie names for these fishes are njen buleng, njen taoq, njen gagog and njen bageng respectively. these two phenomena show how markets influence tk and language in the nonfishermen group (c2). an analysis of how markets contribute to the distortion of traditional knowledge related to fish names showed that markets were the source of 58% of inaccurate knowledge (modification/substitution of local folk names with non-local ones), and 53% of the correct knowledge related to fish names and identification. additionally, markets have also replaced 31% of fish names with names from languages other than vaie. of the total participants of both clusters, 97% (58 people) were married adults who reported active transmitting of fish knowledge to their children. participants from c2 reported their inability to acquire tk from the formal schooling they had undergone, and 20 participants of this cluster were of the view that the tralavi assessment helped them realize the limitations they had in terms of depth of vaie tk. interestingly, only 10% of the 60 respondents reported acquiring knowledge from folklore and taboos (c1 n=5 individuals, c2 n=1 individual). our baseline study documented very little information on folklore and taboos, indicating that a significant portion of this segment of tk and language may irrevocably be lost. the results for this criterion show that social interaction had been taking place, albeit at different levels, that are specific to the clusters. in the fishermen group, the traditional route of tk acquisition and transmission largely prevailed, while in the non-fishermen group, the market provided the main platform for knowledge acquisition. although rural markets are referred to as important sites for social interaction and exchange of knowledge (tumbuan et al. 2006; watson and studdert 2006), they open up greater possibilities of external knowledge infusion into the community, in the absence of community-driven conservation efforts. assessing vaie language vitality using unesco’s lve framework table 3 provides the summarized results of the language vitality assessment using unesco’s language vitality and endangerment index (lve). the results show that the language vitality scenario of the vaie language can be considered as largely “unsafe” despite the high language pride exhibited by the community. the results of lve indicates that intergenerational transmission, number of speakers, trends in language usage, response to new domains and education, policy support, and documentation are not on the side of the language and urgent intervention measures are required. hidayati et al. 2018. ethnobiology letters 9(2):33–47 43 research communications factor degree statement 1. intergenerational language transmission 4 (unsafe) all sixty participants declared that they speak vaie and are also involved in transmitting it to the younger generation. vaie children and families speak vaie as l1. however, our interviews show that the language usage is confined exclusively to the domains’ family and peer group (vaie to vaie), and transmitted incompletely between generations. thus, the vaie language falls into the unsafe (rating: 4) category, as suggested by the lve. 2. absolute number of speakers 18,000 (unsafe) spoken by around 18,000 individuals, vaie can be categorized as a small language community. 3. proportion of speakers within the total population 4 (unsafe) three participants reported that 60% of the community speak vaie, another three people reported 70%, 21 reported 75%, 11 reported 80%, 10 reported (85%), four reported 90%, and seven reported 95%. the maximum percentage of 100% was declared by just one participant. the mean value of 80% could be considered as the proportion of vaie speakers to the total vaie population, and can thus be categorized as “unsafe”. 4. trends in existing language domain 4 (multilingual parity) 1. malay becomes the primary language for official purposes 2. vaie is used in social domains 3.vaie people are bilinguals 4. the vaie believe that malay is the language of social and economic opportunity 5. response to new domain and media 1 (minimal) the vaie language is used only in a few new domains. of the 60 participants, 43 were of the view that vaie is used only in a few new domains and 17 stated that there were no new domains where vaie is applied. although we see the beginning of a progressive upward trend here, as we came across a few websites, blogs, social media pages using vaie, we provide a rating of “1” indicating a long way ahead. 6. material for language education and literacy 1 (little material) vaie orthography is known to the community and some material is being written. we could document only two books and a dictionary in vaie. participants were of the view that little educational materials are available in vaie despite the earnest efforts of a few community members. thus, we assign a score of “1”, indicating that little materials are available to the community in l1. table 3 results of the language vitality and endangerment index (unesco 2003). (continued on next page) hidayati et al. 2018. ethnobiology letters 9(2):33–47 44 research communications factor degree statement 7. governmental and institutional language attitudes and policies, including official status use 4 (differentiated support) malay is the national language government recognizes the vaie language the vaie language is mostly confined to domestic and social domains 8. community members’ attitudes toward their own language 5 (high language pride) immense language pride; all participants were of the view that the vaie language has to be promoted in all domains. participants link the vaie language with their identity, heritage and ecosystem. 9. amount and quality of documentation 1 (inadequate) only a few grammatical and short word lists exist; there are no known audio-visual recordings of vaie. people widely hold the belief that vaie is an orally transmitted language. (continued from previous page) table 3 results of the language vitality and endangerment index (unesco 2003). hidayati et al. 2018. ethnobiology letters 9(2):33–47 45 research communications conclusion the study concludes that the vaie language could be regarded as “safe” for the moment. however, closer scrutiny indicates that community members practicing traditional fishing demonstrate greater language and tk vitality than non-fishermen. although the results for the non-fishermen group indicate a “safe” status, the results hover close to the “vulnerable” status, indicating the need for intervention. an important outcome of the tralavi approach is the insight into knowledge transmission patterns within the community, as understood from criterion e. this provides opportunities for planning precise intervention measures for sustaining the vaie language and tk. as expected, tralavi provides an ecosystem level evaluation of the status of language and tk vitality. nevertheless, it addresses only one part of the question and ignores the external factors influencing language and tk vitality. in this study, the external factors influencing language vitality have been established only by the application of the unesco index that deals exclusively with language vitality. other limitations noted during the course of study are: 1) tracing the origin of fish names. our respondents often struggled to identify the loan words. in-depth interviews delving into the cultural background of the lexemes were helpful; a superficial application of the index would have been either insufficient or resulted in erroneous data. 2) elaborate fieldwork is required at least during the initial stage to document information on fishes. the lead researcher was living with the community for the entire course of the study which helped in expediting data collection. 3) as noted in franco et al. (2015), the tralavi approach may not be suitable for languages that are not ecosystem specific. in the vaie context, both the language and the tk are ecosystem specific. with due consideration to the abovementioned limitations, the study shows that tralavi can be successfully applied on the field to assess language and tk vitality, so as to complement existing indices such as the lve developed by unesco. declaration of conflicting interests we declare no conflict of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. acknowledgements we express our sincere gratitude to the ministry of education, malaysia and the firebird foundation for anthropological research for the generous funding and support. special thanks to prof. george n. appell of the foundation for his constant support and encouragement. we also thank the state planning unit, sarawak for permitting us to carry out this research. the fieldwork wouldn’t have been possible without timely help from prof. ian kerr, former pvc of curtin university, sarawak malaysia, prof. alvin w. yeo of isiti, universiti malaysia sarawak, prof. yudi samyudia, and mr. alex hiang boon chung of curtin university sarawak. we thank the bintulu district fisheries office and the persatuan nelayan kawasan bintulu for sharing valuable data and literature. special thanks to encik bolhassan bin ismail, encik mat bin suai, encik kapeh bin hosen, encik ibrahim bin saad, puan sahanian binti sulong, and all participants from the vaie community for accepting our invitation for collaboration and for participating in this study. this paper has also benefitted from the discussions the first author held with ms. savitri kurnia, formerly at culture and language studies, curtin university malaysia, and the suggestions received from dr. kathrina bte dp haji mohd daud of universiti brunei darussalam. funding this research received funding from the ministry of education, malaysia through its frgs scheme, and a 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primarily with lapita pottery producers (denham et al. 2012; sheppard 2011), although western micronesia (e.g., the mariana islands and palau) was settled separately by other austronesian speakers (carson and switzerland 2013; clark et al. 2006). the initial settlers of remote oceania all relied, to some extent, on imported domesticated plants of the malayo-oceanic tropics, which played a major role in the success of colonization (kirch 2000). in this sense, the archaeobotany of the region is foundational to understanding both human migrations and human-environment dynamics. analytical techniques while in much of the world, agricultural systems rely on domesticated cereals, remote oceania is a major introduction food production is a major topic of archaeological and anthropological research in the region known as the remote pacific (eastern melanesia, micronesia, and polynesia). this region encompasses a diversity of agricultural systems adapted to volcanic (high) islands and coral atolls. most food production here relies heavily on crops and animals that people transported with them when they originally settled these islands (kirch 2000). these imported products are largely drawn from an agricultural system that people living in the malayo-oceanic tropics had independently developed by 6950 cal bp (denham et al. 2003). although the amount of archaeobotanical publication in remote oceania and even the pacific in general is less than in locations such as southwest asia, china, or mesoamerica, interest in the relationship between people and plants in the region’s past has been of interest to researchers for decades. especially notable is botanist douglas yen’s work in the mid and late 20th century. in remote oceania, his extensive work includes the study of the early use of sweet potato (ipomoea batatas) in the pacific (e.g., rosendahl and yen 1971; yen 1974, 1990) and human-environment relationships on the polynesian outlier of tikopia (kirch and yen 1982). furtherarchaeobotanical approaches in the study of food production in remote oceania maureece j. levin1* 1archaeology center, stanford university, stanford, california, usa. *mjlevin@stanford.edu abstract this short topical review discusses recent archaeobotanical approaches to understanding food production in remote oceania (eastern melanesia, micronesia, and polynesia). the region presents some preservation and interpretative challenges, both due to the lack of cereal crops and the hot and humid climate that prevails through much of the area. nevertheless, archaeobotanical analyses provide insight into topics such the transport of crops between islands and anthropogenic environmental change. received january 27, 2017 open access accepted july 11, 2017 doi 10.14237/ebl.8.1.2017.882 keywords archaeobotany, archaeology, pacific islands, agriculture, food production, remote oceania copyright © 2017 by the author(s); licensee society of ethnobiology. this is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution-noncommercial 4.0 international public license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0), which permits non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. levin. 2017. ethnobiology letters 8(1):105–108 106 short topical reviews region where cereals were not a staple in dietary prehistory. instead, most of the domesticated staples are roots, tubers, or tree fruits. charred plant macroremains can be recovered successfully through flotation, although charred remains other than wood charcoal are less common in remote oceania than in most temperate regions. additionally, root and tuber macroremains (and, in most cases, tree fruits and nuts), cannot be quantified in the same way as cereals. however, they are present at some sites and can be useful in the study of subsistence. this is true of both tree crops (e.g., kahn and ragone 2013) and roots and tubers (e.g., ladefoged et al. 2005; ussher 2015). compounding this is the generally poor preservation of organic materials in the environments of the tropical remote pacific, which are largely (though not exclusively) warm and humid, often with acidic volcanic or alkaline coral sediments. for this reason, anthracological (wood charcoal) research has been a focus in remote oceania. for example, in new caledonia, dotte-sarout (2017; dotte-sarout et al. 2013) has demonstrated the presence of highly domesticated forests in the second millennium cal a.d.. in the marquesas islands, huebert has documented activities such as rapid changes in forest composition due to human habitation (huebert and allen 2016) and fuel use in earth ovens (huebert et al. 2010). murakami has long worked in anthracology throughout remote oceania, studying activities such as the development of agroforestry on kosrae, micronesia (athens et al. 1996), and the introduction of breadfruit (artocarpus altilis) to hawai’i in the 13th century a.d. (mccoy et al. 2010). in the temperate zone of remote oceania (new zealand and environs), maxwell has recently studied moriori managed forests on the chatham islands (e.g., maxwell et al. 2016). additionally, archaeobotanical work in remote oceania increasingly emphasizes plant microremain analysis. since the latter half of the 20th century, archaeologists working in this region have regularly used pollen from cores as complementary paleoenvironmental data. however, because wind-blown pollen grains are the most numerous and they provide a regional rather than strictly local signature, pollen is generally less useful than macroremains in direct dietary interpretation (but see also horrocks et al. 2003 for an example of the use of pollen from coprolites for dietary studies). phytoliths (silica bodies present in the structural part of many plants) and starch grains provide a more localized signature appropriate for questions about interand intra-site variability, crop processing, and specific agricultural practices. using multiple types of plant microremains, horrocks has published on plant introductions and use throughout the pacific region, including fiji (horrocks 2007), hawai’i (horrocks and rechtman 2009), and the mariana islands (horrocks et al. 2015), among other places. allen and ussher (2013), working on the marquesas islands, used starch to document the exploitation of several introduced plant species and to better understand tool use. research from tromp and dudgeon (2015) on dental calculus from rapa nui (easter island) also shows the importance of sweet potato to human diet in east polynesia prior to european contact. moreover, it highlights how taphonomic pathways are a crucial consideration in microremain analysis. as the inclusion of microbotanical analyses in remote oceanic food production research continues to become more standard, we can expect to see modifications of and improvements in our understanding of human movement and subsistence strategies within the region. multi-proxy investigation the use of multi-proxy methods to answer larger questions about food production in remote oceania is essential, especially because of the poor preservation in the humid tropics and the largely arboricultural economy. many archaeobotanical studies in the region use multiple types of plant remains to study past food production (e.g., horrocks et al. 2003, 2015; horrocks and rechtman 2009; levin 2016; tromp and dudgeon 2015; ussher 2015). as every class of archaeobotanical remains has its own limitations, a multi-proxy approach provides a more complete picture of food production in the past. larger projects, such as the hawai’i biocomplexity project (kirch et al. 2004; vitousek et al. 2004) have developed broad, interdisciplinary agendas, incorporating archaeobotanical data with other lines of evidence such as soil chemistry and landscape archaeology. the hawai’i biocomplexity project specifically investigated the prehistory of landscape use and sociopolitical systems on the hawaiian islands, much of which involved the study of terraced fields. these types of data are key to understanding the origins and spread of pacific subsistence strategies that enabled the settlement of remote oceania. while multi-proxy strategies are certainly not new or levin. 2017. ethnobiology letters 8(1):105–108 107 short topical reviews uncommon in many regions, a similar approach applied more broadly may yield new insights into the exploitation of roots, tubers, and trees, as well as human landscape management, even where other archaeobotanical data (such as charred seeds) are abundant. conclusion in conclusion, archaeobotany, while previously underutilized in remote oceania, has been growing at a rapid pace since the late 20th century. preservation can sometimes be an issue, due to the largely humid, tropical environment and coastal sites submerged by fluctuating sea levels. nevertheless, archaeobotanical data are yielding new information about the food production systems that pacific islanders introduced to new environments and the ways that human-plant relationships have enabled settlement and survival. ultimately, the field is moving towards a more integrated, multi-proxy approach, which will continue to remain important to answering the most pressing archaeobotanical questions in the region. acknowledgments this paper was greatly improved by comments from jaime kennedy, chantel saban, and katherine seikel, as well the editor, john m. marston, and two anonymous reviewers. any shortcomings or errors are my own. declarations permissions: none declared. sources of funding: none declared. conflicts of interest: none declared. references cited allen, m.s., and e. ussher. 2013. starch analysis reveals prehistoric plant translocations and shell tool use, marquesas islands, polynesia. journal of archaeological science 40:2799–2812. doi:10.1016/ j.jas.2013.02.011. athens. j.s., j.v. ward, and g.m. murakami. 1996 . 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seeded grass was an important component of the ritual feasts that took place at cahokia, as evidenced by the abundant remains recovered from sub-mound 51. the agricultural potential for maygrass lies in its ability to grow in poorly drained soils as an early-season crop in nonmediterranean climates. the marketing success of canary grass (phalaris canariensis linnaeus poaceae.), a close relative of maygrass, suggests that a similar market may exist for maygrass as alternative source of protein. in the second chapter, kristen j. gremillion frames a discussion of the eastern north american domesticate goosefoot (chenopodium berlandieri moquin -tandon amaranthaceae ssp. jonesianum smith & funk) within a larger discussion about the use of the chenopodium genus within the americas. goosefoot is related to the popular quinoa (chenopodium quinoa willdenow amaranthaceae) and kañawa (chenopodium pallidicaule aellen amaranthaceae), crops that are still grown today. goosefoot was a small seeded grass that thrived in disturbed habitats along riverbanks and on floodplains. domesticated chenopodium, a term that the author uses interchangeably with goosefoot, was found as early as the late archaic period (ca 1,000– 300 bc) and rose to prominence as a major cultivar in kentucky, illinois, tennessee, and ohio. eventually this crop was replaced by maize during middle in this edited volume, paul e. minnis and the chapter authors successfully illustrate how archaeological, ethnohistorical, and ethnobotanical data can be effectively synthesized to provide a detailed account of how ancient and extinct crops were used, as well as the potential they hold for diversifying global food stocks. the authors explore the ancient uses and contemporary large scale agricultural potentials of maygrass, goosefoot, sumpweed or marshelder, agave, little barley grass, chia, arrowroot, leren, and sama (or bitter vetch). minnis suggests that by looking to the past, researchers can “pre-screen” species in terms of looking for genetic material from ancient taxa that could be incorporated into new domesticated taxa. some of the crops discussed in this book, such as goosefoot, are no longer domesticated and used in agriculture and have reverted to their wild forms. other crops, such as chia and agave, are still cultivated today but not on enough of a scale to impact global food markets. the book is divided into an introduction and nine chapters. in the introductory chapter, minnis provides an excellent overview of why researchers and the general public should be interested in ancient crops and agricultural practices. the goal of this book is to make archaeological and ethnobotanical data about each taxa available for developing a global sustainable food base. this goal is achieved by constructing plant profiles of specific taxa, in which the authors: 1) describe the physiology, morphology, and ecology of the crops, 2) provide detailed archaeological and ethnohistoric data about their domestication (if known), widest distributions, and eventual disappearances, and 3) details of their potentials as major sources of food. new lives for ancient and extinct crops edited by paul e. minnis. 2014. the university of arizona press, tucson. 288 pp. $65.00 (hardcover). isbn: 978-0-8165-30625. reviewed by thomas c. hart reviewer address: department of anthropology, university of texas, 2201 speedway stop c3200, sac 4.102, austin, tx 78712, usa. email: tchart200@gmail.com received: february 8, 2015 volume: 6(1):116-118 published: august 19, 2015 © 2015 society of ethnobiology ethnobiology letters. 2015. 6(1):116‐118. doi: 10.14237/ebl.6.1.2015.344. 117 book review woodland period (ad 400–1000) and slowly disappeared altogether. gremillion then delves into the commercial success of quinoa in the western world, suggesting that the redomestication of goosefoot may have a similar popularity. gail e. wagner and peter h. carrington detail another eastern north american crop, sumpweed or marshelder (iva annua linnaeus asteraceae), in the third chapter. sumpweed is a large oily seed annual that thrived in disturbed habitats alongside other crops such as sunflower and maygrass. native americans ate wild versions of sumpweed starting in the middle archaic (cal 5970–4945 bc) and eventually domesticated it by the late archaic (cal. 3640–2880 bc). during its heyday in the late woodland (ad 300–1200) and early-middle mississippian/middle ceramic periods (ad 700–1400), sumpweed was grown from the mid-atlantic states westward to the great plains and until as late as the 1800s. exactly why this crop disappeared remains unknown. the value in redomesticating wild varieties of sumpweed rests in its ability to grow nutritionally valuable fruit/ seeds in high salt environments that can no longer support most crops. in the fourth chapter, suzanne k. fish and paul r. fish describe how agave (agave spp. linnaeus agavaceae) disappeared from the archaeological record in the border region of the southwest u.s. and northwest mexico. agave is a hardy succulent that thrives in very arid conditions and was widely cultivated during the prehispanic period among the hohokam of southern arizona. these taxa were grown at the edges of irrigated fields and in rock pile fields as a source of food, fiber, and alcohol. however, agave disappeared as a large-scale crop by the time of the spanish arrival. the authors suggest the hohokam were most likely growing agave murpheyi gibson agavaceae; although they acknowledge that numerous other agave taxa, such as agave delamateri hodgson & slauson agavaceae, may have also been cultivated in the region. the more recent interest in agave is the result of a growing popular demand for agave-based products such as tequila and agave syrup. the potential for agave to have an impact on the global food supply rests with its high productivity combined with an ability to thrive in degraded and arid environments. in chapter five, karen r. adams describes the importance of the small seeded, cool-season little barley grass (hordeum pusillum nuttall poaceae). little barley was grown throughout the southeast, midwest, and southwest u.s. from the terminal archaic up until the late prehispanic period. the majority of this chapter is focused, however, on exploring the archaeological record surrounding its domestication and use in the u.s. southwest—arizona in particular. the chapter touches on such topics as its taxonomy, evidence for domestication, geographical distribution in the prehispanic period, preparation and use, and nutritional value. the chapter also provides an interesting theoretical model for how it was originally domesticated. little barley holds great potential as a major source of food because the wild variety thrives throughout most of north america in many different ecosystems, making the domesticated variety more resistant to biotic and environmental changes than non-native crops. turning our attention southward towards mexico, in chapter six emily mcclung de tapia, diana martínez-yrizar, and carmen christina adrianomorán discuss the physiology, chemical properties, and archaeological, historical, and ethnobotanical evidence for prehispanic production and use of chia (salvia hispanica linnaeus lamiaceae). although the origins of chia domestication remain unknown, the earliest evidence for salvia species dates to around 3,000 b.p. at cerro juanaqueña in northwest chihuahua, mexico. chia is most widely known as a major component of the tribute made to the aztec empire. the authors, however, strive to move beyond discussions about its ceremonial importance within aztec society. chia is thought to hold great potential as an industrial product, an additive, or as a food product unto itself. continuing southward, deborah m. pearsall describes the taxonomy, distribution, and archaeological, historical, and ethnographic evidence for arrowroot (maranta arundinaceae linnaeus marantaceae) and leren [calathea latifolia (willdenow ex link) klotzsch maranthaceae]. arrowroot and leren are members of the marantaceae family and fall into the category of fleshy underground crops, a departure in discussion from earlier chapters that focus on seed crops. these two taxa were grown throughout the lowland neotropics of central and south america and the caribbean and are still cultivated today, albeit at a small scale when compared to other root crops such as manioc (manihot esculenta crantz euphorbiaceae), yam (dioscorea linnaeus dioscoreaceae), or sweet potato (ipomoeae batatas linnaeus convolvulaceae). ethnobiology letters. 2015. 6(1):116‐118. doi: 10.14237/ebl.6.1.2015.344. 118 book review the origins of domestication for these crops remains a mystery with the earliest evidence for marantaceae root crop use coming from san isidro, colombia, 9,250–8,500 cal b.c. leren and arrowroot were often considered to be “minor” crops in the past and were grown alongside “main” crops such as manioc and, later, maize (zea mays linnaeus poaceae). pearsall suggests that arrowroot and leren have the potential to contribute to sustainable agriculture in the lowland neotropics because they do not require processing to remove toxins (as is the case with many other fleshy underground crops), are pest resistant, and are fairly easy to grow within mixed farming systems. in chapter eight, steven a. weber and arunima kashyap discuss the evolution and decline in use of the small seeded crop panicum sumatrense roth ex. römer. & schultes poaceae in south and southeast asia. p. sumatrense, also known as little millet or sama, is a fast growing, early-maturing species that thrived particularly well in regions associated with summer monsoons such as gujarat, india. the earliest evidence for sama cultivation comes from the indus valley site of harappa (3,000–1,900 b.c.), pakistan. however, the origin of sama domestication remains unknown, as the authors note, because of the relatively new incorporation of archaebotanical recovery techniques into recent archaeological excavations. sama is recorded in the historical record as having a wide range of cultivation stretching from the himalayan foothills to the southernmost point of india. poorer farmers in the semiarid and mountainous regions of india grew it widely until as recently as forty years ago. however, it has since seen a decline in cultivation having been replaced by cash crops such as cassava, pineapple, and coffee. sama holds great potential as a significant food source because of its high nutritional value, low demands for management, and good productive returns. naomi f. miller and dirk enneking discuss in chapter nine the basic physiology, agronomy, and cultivation of bitter vetch [vicia ervilia (linnaeus) willdenow fabaceae] in the near east. bitter vetch was one of the original crops domesticated in the fertile crescent around the tenth millennium cal b.c. this important crop is often forgotten when discussing its more famous domesticated cohort members, such as wheat and barley. this legume is characterized by rapid germination, high protein content, and nonshattering pods, making it an appealing domesticate. this crop originally was grown throughout the the mediterranean, balkan, and caucasus regions, but has subsequently declined in use. currently, it is grown as source of fodder rather than a source of food for human consumption. bitter vetch is stress tolerant and pest resistant, making it a suitable candidate for agricultural revival. focused plant breeding efforts to improve crop yield combined with explorations of its pharmacological and qualitative properties may help bitter vetch go from a “boutique” health food item to a larger mainstay crop. overall, there are very few criticisms that i can offer of this book. the book is an excellent example of how archaeologists and ethnobotanists can lend their knowledge and expertise to ongoing discussions regarding crop diversity and sustainable agriculture. it provides a starting point for researchers interested in the ancient use and cultivation of maygrass, goosefoot, sumpweed or marshelder, agave, little barley grass, chia, arrowroot, leren, sama, and bitter vetch. it provides basic botanical and ecological information regarding each taxa crop, how each taxa was used in the past, and how these taxa may yet be used to diversify global food stocks. in addition, the book sets up a model for future collaborative publications that could bring together scholars to synthesize data about often forgotten about taxa from other parts of the world. overall, new lives for ancient and extinct crops is a valuable resource for archaeologists, ethnobotanists, agricultural scientists, and anyone interested in sustainable agriculture and how ancient plants might play an important role in the global food supply. the trouble with tek wyndham 2017. ethnobiology letters 8(1):78–80 78 editorial landscapes, a multitude of environments, and transform sources of life into ‘resources’ to be managed (looking horse 2016; nadasdy 2003; wyndham 2009). thus, the coagulation that is the phrase traditional ecological knowledge itself is an epistemic shortcut that allows for the oversimplified objectification of complex and varied processes. it cuts networks of relatedness and sheds context. but, as the use of the additional shortcut of its acronym form grows more popular and spawns a hundred offspring (wep, tfs, ik, lek, etc., see above), we could surely agree that by not even bothering to spell out the words traditional, ecological, and knowledge, writing or uttering tek instead, we lose all hope of remembering that we are communicating about living breathing relations. by using tek we are confessing to having chopped away the capillaries of connection and to be ok with placing our cauterized notions neatly in a box, tied and labeled as commodities. we tourniquet verbs into nouns. they are so much easier to sell that way. they can be sorted and stacked in piles and sold to conservationists, to policy planners, to government officials, even back to the people with whom they originated. the deep histories, the political realities, and the social inequities that likely adhere to the matter at hand can all thus be glossed over, elided, and seemingly depoliticized (nadasdy 1999). i remember that in my first year as a graduate student, i was shocked at how prevalent the use of acronyms and abbreviations was in the anthropology literature we read (predominantly those published after, say, 1980)—thus i was introduced to abm, sts, ant, and, yes, tek. some journals in the technical sciences have been so strict about word count that authors embraced acronyms to save those six, seven, or eight words in their total editorial count. people like to use field terms as a shortcut to a cloud of inter-related meanings. and these are shibboleths: i grew up in southern california loving to gather and consume weps, though they were a minority report in my family’s tfs. i might even venture to say that my experience as a posttoddler seeking out what we called indian chewing-gum, sour grass, soap root, and prickly pears sparked my enduring interest in tek, lek, ik, trem, and the few nexus, inspiring both a personal and scholarly process of unearthing the cmp in which my own life unfolds, studying with and learning from ips mainly in north, south and mesoamerica. great, right? to keep the trouble with ‘tek’ simple and selfevident, i will limit myself here to voicing two core objections to acronym creep in general, and for ethnobiology in particular. first, acronyms nominalize processes. secondly, the abundant use of acronyms obscures communication and, as a shibboleth, limits readership. my most throat-tightening grievance regarding tek is the way that term takes hostage the living, changing, evanescent, and emergent processes it pretends to describe as an abbreviation of ‘traditional ecological knowledge.’ the word traditional is derived from the action “of handing over…of transmitting an idea, concept or teaching” (oed 2016). the word has its critics but that is for another debate another time (e.g., see mallon 2010). ecological knowledge is a “condition of knowing something” (oed 2016) about the interrelationships between living entities and their environments. the phenomenological experience of traditional ecological knowing is inescapably relational and transactional, best characterized by the way it activates or mediates interaction. first nations and indigenous scholars have attempted to correct the ways settler/colonial academics try to turn these active, living relations of knowing and acting into simple data points that can be compared and integrated with traditional western modes of knowing (mika 2012; reo 2011; smith et al. 2016). somehow, by using a neat label and a gerund, it is easier to objectify people, other animals, plants, the trouble with tek open access doi 10.14237/ebl.8.1.2017.1006 copyright © 2017 by the author(s); licensee society of ethnobiology. this is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution-noncommercial 4.0 international public license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0), which permits non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. wyndham 2017. ethnobiology letters 8(1):78–80 79 editorial cmp colonial matrix of power few food-energy-water nexus gps global positioning system ied improvised explosive device ik indigenous knowledge ips indigenous peoples lek local ecological knowledge oed oxford english dictionary sts science & technology studies tek traditional ecological knowledge tfs traditional food systems trem traditional resource ecosystem management wep wild edible plant fortunately, ethnobiology letters and the journal of ethnobiology discourage acronyms, so we are usually in good company without them on these pages. references cited looking horse, a. 2016. important message from keeper of the sacred white buffalo calf pipe. indian country media network. 26 august. available at: www.indiancountrymedianetwork.com. accessed on december 10, 2016. mallon, s. 2010. against tradition. the contemporary pacific 22(2):362-381. mika, c. t. h. 2012. overcoming ‘being’ in favour of knowledge: the fixing effect of ‘mātauranga’. educational philosophy and theory 44(10):1080–1092. doi: 10.1111/j.1469-5812.2011.00771.x. nadasdy, p. 1999. the politics of tek: power and the “integration” of knowledge. arctic anthropology 36(1-2):1–18. nadasdy, p. 2003. hunters and bureaucrats: power, knowledge, and aboriginal-state relations in the southwest yukon. vancouver, university of british columbia press. oed (oxford english dictionary). 2016. “traditional” and “knowledge” entries. available at: www.oed.com. accessed on october 2, 2016. reo, n. j. 2011. the importance of belief systems in traditional ecological knowledge initiatives. the international indigenous policy journal 2(4). available at: http://ir.lib.uwo.ca/iipj/vol2/iss4/8. accessed on november 15, 2016. smith, l. t., t. k. maxwell, h. puke, p. temara. 2016. indigenous knowledge, methodology and they help create social in-group exclusivity, as do jargon or arcane vocabulary. in fact, i remember a first prick of self-satisfaction, of feeling part of an ingroup when i knew what tek stood for, and another student did not. (i humbly apologize to whomever that was!) that is not the way to create the next generations of scholars who can write clearly about complex ecological interrelationships. let’s agree to give up our (delusional) aspiration of showing that we know the passwords to some elite clique and just write out what we are trying to say. deep in the crust of our hearts we already know that there are no real kudos to be accumulated in the prestige-economy that is academia by taking these cognitive shortcuts. finally, the creep of the acronym is a warning symptom of a more pervasive militarization of daily life, including the daily life of academia. the us military uses over 600 acronyms and abbreviations in its internal and external communications (wikipedia 2016), explained by a justifiable need for quick, clear communications in the heat of battle, and in-group knowledge that contributes to linguistic and identity cohesion. for non-initiates, acronym-talk presents obstacles to understanding military commands or communiqués. academia has innocently adopted many military innovations (the hand-me-downs of computers, email, gps, drones, cargo pants, to name a few). but gentle reader, let us not mix up the ieds with the oeds. and if you are anything like me, when you are half way through an article you may no longer remember what the lonely letters of an acronym stand for. you find that you must search back through the piece to locate where the author first introduced the term. don’t let journal editors tell you that you must abbreviate for them to save a few tens of character spaces in layout. when you want to write or say tek, instead try for words that really get to the heart of the matter. your readers will notice and thank you. so, let’s keep the trouble with tek in mind, and all live hea.1 notes 1. authors working in the romance genre will know this common, infelicitous acronym for happily ever after. the other acronyms above were gleaned from published articles i have encountered recently, and stand for, in alphabetical order: ant actor-network theory abm agent-based modeling wyndham 2017. ethnobiology letters 8(1):78–80 80 editorial list_of_u.s._government_and_military_acronyms. accessed september 13, 2016. wyndham, f. s. 2009. spheres of relation, lines of interaction: subtle ecologies of the rarámuri landscape in northern mexico. journal of ethnobiology 29(2):271–295. mayhem: what is the role of methodology in producing indigenous insights? a discussion from mātauranga māori. knowledge cultures 4(3):131–156. wikipedia. 2016. list of u.s. government and military acronyms. available at: https:// en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ june 3, 2017 felice s. wyndham 290 stanton way, athens, ga, usa. fwyndham@ethnobiologyletters.org diversity and demographics of zooarchaeologists: results from a digital survey ethnobiology letters. 2015. 6(2):276‐284. doi: 10.14237/ebl.6.2.2015.469. 276 research communication special issue on digital zooarchaeology there were more women than men in the field of zooarchaeology – aka “bone people.” in fact, 50% of respondents to the initial survey—drawn from the subscribership pool of zooarchaeology research news,1 which included students and non-professionals—were women. the american anthropological association anthroguide,2 in contrast, listed all active anthropology departments, their faculty members, and other professional members of the american anthropological association. thus, the anthroguide told a different story: only 36% of zooarchaeologists were women, a figure that gifford-gonzalez noted reflected the same relative proportion of female archaeology phds for the previous decade. these figures represent a ‘gap’ of roughly 15% between degree attainment and professional status for women in zooarchaeology in the us and canada in the 1990s. when compared against the current anthroguide numbers, 48% of listed zooarchaeologists are men, while 52% are women (n=126) (american anthropological association 2015). for archaeology in general, by the mid-1990s, a survey conducted for the society for american introduction as specialists in the study of human-animal relationships in the past, zooarchaeologists are often concerned with determining the diversity of animal taxa, reconstructing population demographics, and evaluating species richness. this paper turns those concepts around on zooarchaeologists themselves, discussing the diversity and demographics (and yes, even “richness”) of those who identify as part of this community. the study was motivated by the nearly 25 year-old “zooarchaeology practitioner survey,” which was mailed to individuals in the usa and canada in 1991 and received approximately 122 responses over a period of several months. (giffordgonzalez, 1993, 1994). during the 1980s and early 1990s in the us, it was generally perceived that fewer women than men were professional archaeologists and that women who did work in archaeology tended to hold more laboratory and specialist positions, an assumption that carried a negative connotation (gero 1985, gifford-gonzalez 1994). in gifford-gonzalez’s 1991 survey, multiple respondents took the opportunity in the comments section to wonder whether diversity and demographics of zooarchaeologists: results from a digital survey suzanne e. pilaar birch author address: department of anthropology, university of georgia, 250 baldwin hall, jackson street, athens, ga 30602, usa. email: sepbirch@uga.edu received: september 10, 2015 volume: 6(2):276-284 published: december 18, 2015 © 2015 society of ethnobiology abstract: nearly 25 years ago, a “zooarchaeology practitioner survey” was distributed via conventional mail to individuals in the usa and canada and received 122 responses over a period of several months in 1991. now, a revised “demographics in zooarchaeology survey” provides an update to those data and assesses the current state of the field. the 2014 survey remained open for 3 months and received 288 responses from practitioners worldwide. global participation was made possible by hosting the survey online. key findings of the 1991 survey included disparities in employment rank for women despite similar levels of degree level attainment as men, a point which the 2014 survey sought to investigate. this trend appears to persist for those without the phd and at the highest levels of income for those holding a phd. in addition, the recent survey asked participants about their racial or ethnic identity in order to evaluate the demographic diversity of the discipline beyond sex, age, and nationality. data regarding topical and geographic research area were also collected and reflect a subtle bias towards working with mammals and a focus on research questions grounded in prehistory in europe and north america, followed by australia and southwest asia. results are compared with those of the earlier survey and membership information from the international council for archaeozoology. keywords: demographics, archaeology, diversity, gender, zooarchaeology ethnobiology letters. 2015. 6(2):276‐284. doi: 10.14237/ebl.6.2.2015.469. 277 research communication special issue on digital zooarchaeology archaeology (saa) showed that while slightly more than 50% of graduate students in archaeology were female (n=250), that number dropped to around 35% in the category of professional (n=1634) with a significant trend towards more women in younger age cohorts (zeder 1997) revealing a similar 15% gap in the transition from student to professional for women in archaeology. ten years later, a 2004 salary survey by the saa showed that these numbers had shifted only slightly, with 40% of professionals identifying as female (n=2143) (association research 2005) and continued disparities in career advancement and income levels for women. according to the national science foundation (2015), from 2006 to 2012, the proportion of women completing a phd in anthropology (including archaeology) in the united states increased by just over 10% (from 53% to 64%, n=625 in 2012). this trend of growth beginning in the region survey icaz region survey icaz africa 4 12 europe 128 207 botswana 0 1 austria 4 1 egypt 1 2 belgium 4 4 south africa 3 9 bulgaria 0 1 cyprus 0 1 asia 6 45 czech republic 0 2 armenia 1 1 denmark 2 7 china 0 8 estonia 0 1 india 0 8 finland 1 1 iran 0 3 france 12 34 israel 1 5 germany 8 20 japan 0 7 greece 5 1 lebanon 0 1 hungary 1 4 republic of korea 1 4 iceland 1 0 russia 2 4 ireland 1 3 sri lanka 0 1 italy 2 10 turkey 1 3 netherlands 1 7 norway 2 1 north america 100 195 poland 1 5 canada 16 29 portugal 5 3 mexico 0 9 romania 2 3 panama 0 2 serbia 2 4 puerto rico 0 1 spain 4 16 united states 84 154 sweden 5 3 switzerland 3 8 south america 13 81 united kingdom 62 67 argentina 10 55 bolivia 0 5 other brazil 2 3 multiple countries 3 chile 0 9 no response 15 colombia 1 5 peru 0 4 australia & oceania 19 29 australia 16 21 new zealand 3 8 table 1. distribution of zooarchaeologists by continent and country showing the number of survey respondents and 2014 icaz members. ethnobiology letters. 2015. 6(2):276‐284. doi: 10.14237/ebl.6.2.2015.469. 278 research communication special issue on digital zooarchaeology 1990s—and in some cases, a growing majority in the 2000s—has also been noted in the uk (aitchison and rocks-macqueen 2013) and europe (lazar et al. 2014) but not australia (ulm et al. 2005). as of december 2014, membership of the international council for archaeozoology (icaz) included both students and professionals, and stood at about 60% women. how are broader temporal and field-wide trends in education and employment reflected in the makeup of practicing zooarchaeologists? to address these questions, i designed and circulated an online survey in early 2014, which remained open for 3 months. the survey received 288 responses from practitioners worldwide, including large numbers of responses from the united states and canada. this enabled detailed assessment and comparison with the 1991 survey data for these countries of these disciplinary settings. based on the findings and interpretations of gifford-gonzalez (1993, 1994) the primary purpose of this updated survey was to assess the current numbers of women in the field, their educational attainment level, their rank, and their career satisfaction. responses were evaluated in relation to those expected based on earlier surveys and membership records as noted above, thereby providing a 23-year window into zooarchaeological demographics. in particular, this survey sought to investigate the previous finding that women had equal levels of education to men but did not hold an equal percentage of professional or senior positions, and therefore, that women earned less despite having a similar educational attainment level. however, interesting patterns also emerged in the comments section regarding job satisfaction and in evaluating racial and ethnic self-identification as well as attitudes towards this question. methods for this survey, the widespread use and availability of the internet and online data collection allowed for global participation. the survey was distributed using professional email listservs, websites, and social media outlets such as twitter and facebook. respondents completed one anonymous online survey via google forms, comprised of 20 questions. due to the anonymous nature of responses, an institutional review board exemption was granted by the brown university research protect ions office (#1309000919). a number of survey fields allowed for anecdotal responses or comments. following the survey period, data were tabulated and the results analyzed as percentages. the survey instrument is available as a supplementary file and can be accessed online on bonecommons (http://www.alexandriaarchive.org/bonecommons/ items/show/1986). participants agreed to a statement of consent that made clear that individual anonymous comments regional expertise first choice all first choice us & canada second choice all second choice us & canada africa 7 2 8 3 australia 45 0 1 0 central asia 0 0 3 0 europe 108 7 38 19 mesoamerica 4 3 4 4 north america 77 66 0 0 oceania 10 1 2 0 south america 13 0 5 3 south asia 0 0 3 2 southeast asia 2 0 9 1 southwest asia 40 17 5 3 other 5 3 5 5 table 2. geographical expertise for all respondents as well as those in the us & canada. figure 1. distribution of work placement (n=288). ethnobiology letters. 2015. 6(2):276‐284. doi: 10.14237/ebl.6.2.2015.469. 279 research communication special issue on digital zooarchaeology might be included in final publication of the survey. the survey was published in english only with the option to use google translate and targeted a global, professional audience (18 years and older). many of the survey questions derived directly from giffordgonzalez’s 1991 survey (gifford-gonzalez pers. comm.) to allow for comparison of the results and the potential identification of long-term trends. results respondents overall, a majority of the 288 survey respondents (57%) are women; this represents a shift from the 1991 results, which had a nearly equal number of responses from both men and women. the ratio of women to men in the sample closely resembled that of the membership in icaz (60%, n=563), although current membership status of respondents as of 2014 was not ascertained as part of the survey. in the us and canada, 61% of the respondents were women (n=100). participants hailed from 35 countries across 6 continents (table 1). the geographic distribution of respondents appears to be more representative for some regions than others; for example, while 62 survey participants listed their country of residence as the uk compared to 67 uk icaz members, some countries such as mexico (with 9 icaz members) are not represented in the survey. not all respondents gave a reply for each question. work placement and research focus based on survey responses, nearly half of zooarchaeological practitioners are based in higher learning institutions (45%), followed by research institutions such as museums (20%) (figure 1). approximately 11% work in non-governmental agencies (including cultural resource management firms) and 9% in government agencies. around 8% are self-employed, usually characterized as “freelance consulting” in the comments section. finally, a small number of respondents (6%) were either retired, hobbyists, or no longer pursuing zooarchaeology as a major career focus. the scenario is similar for the us and canada, with the most notable difference between research and teaching institutions; education made up 56% of work placement and research institutions only 13% (n=100). in addition, participants were queried as to whether their zooarchaeological employment was full time, part time, or intermittent. based on the us and canadian sample, about 27% of respondents carried out zooarchaeological work full-time, 29% part-time, and 44% intermittently (including field season and periodic work; n=97). of those, about 80% of full time and 60% of part time zooarchaeologists were women, while the intermittent category was evenly split. this suggests that a higher proportion of women are based in technician or research-only positions that tend to dedicate more time to faunal analysis but are also associated with lower pay rates and perceived status. the survey also documents trends in the geographical distribution of zooarchaeological research, including certain regions that have traditionally received more attention than others (table 2). for example, a majority of analyses focus on faunal material derived from sites in europe and north america and are carried out by researchers based in those regions, followed by australia and southwest asia. central asia, south and southeast asia, and the african continent as a whole are less well represented. figure 2. research topics among zooarchaeologist (n=288), predominantly focused on prehistory. figure 3. age of survey respondents in the us and canada. ethnobiology letters. 2015. 6(2):276‐284. doi: 10.14237/ebl.6.2.2015.469. 280 research communication special issue on digital zooarchaeology topical research areas followed categories set out in gifford-gonzalez’s 1991 question. the study of prehistoric mobile hunter-gatherers was the most common topical area of research focus among respondents, followed by prehistoric cultivators, historic economies, and then prehistoric sedentary hunter-gatherers; most zooarchaeologists work in prehistory (figure 2). some of the responses in the category of ‘other’ included those working on skeletal morphology, paleobiology, systematics, breeds, and pathology. there were no significant differences in research topics between women and men. survey respondents indicated that their analyses tend to focus on either mammals (50%) or a combination of mammals, birds, fish, and molluscs (40%), with small numbers specializing in each alternative category listed. this stands in contrast to giffordgonzalez’s earlier results, in which about 50% of respondents worked with combinations of animal classes and only 40% on mammals; there are less people working primarily on fish remains (3% from 6%) and more on birds (2%) and molluscs (3%) (from 1%). it did not appear that men or women tended to specialize more in any given taxa. degree level and age the majority of respondents hold phds or other advanced degrees. of the 57% of worldwide respondents who hold a phd, 53% are female and 42% are male (5% of respondents did not provide an answer). only 2% of practicing zooarchaeologists did not hold higher degrees, with 13% having at least a baccalaureate degree and 27% completing a master’s. for the us and canada, 58% of individuals had completed a phd, and those holding a phd were 57% female and 43% male. this presents a notable shift from giffordgonzalez’s 1991 results, where 68% of phds among zooarchaeologists were held by men and just 32% by women in the us and canada. of respondents in the us and canada, 33% of women and 20% of men are currently students-out of 28 total students, 20 were women and only 8 were men. there are also higher numbers of younger women in the profession today, particularly in their 20s and 30s, a likely reflection of the high proportions of female students. despite the lack of men in their 50s in the sample, there are more men in their 60s than women, individuals who were likely early to mid-career in the early 1990s. in general, the survey had a larger number of responses by younger individuals potentially caused by the higher tendency for younger respondents to participate in online surveys. this bias may be reflected in some of the degree attainment and salary data as well as a higher tendency for younger respondents to participate in online surveys. income if more women are now earning phds in (zoo) archaeology as documented above, are they entering professional positions at the same rates as men and are they getting paid the same? a majority responded to this question (figure 4, n=271) and of individuals in the lowest income bracket (earning $0-20,000 usd per year), 70% are women and 30% are men (n=104). the ratio of women to men for income brackets between $20,000-$80,000 are roughly equivalent, with slightly more women in each category, though overall numbers of individuals in these categories decreases with higher rates of pay. there are more men (55%) than women in the third highest category ($80,000100,000, n=29) but an equal number earning over $100,000 (n=14). because income levels and standards may vary substantially between the many countries represented, it is difficult to interpret the significance figure 5. percentages of men and women within each income bracket for the us and canada (n=98). figure 4. percentage of men and women within each income bracket (n=271). ethnobiology letters. 2015. 6(2):276‐284. doi: 10.14237/ebl.6.2.2015.469. 281 research communication special issue on digital zooarchaeology of these data as a whole. in the us in 2014, women in higher education earned an average of 21% less than men for equivalent positions (aauw report 2015). when data from this survey are parsed to include the us and canada only (figure 5, n=98), there remain more women than men in the lowest income category (72% and 28%, respectively, n=25). however, there is apparently more parity at median income levels, with an even 50% split in the $40,000-60,000 (n=16) and the $80-100,000 (n=10) income brackets. there are slightly more women at the highest income level (60%, n=10). these data indicate that the majority of the highest earners are located in the us and canada (10 out of 14 individuals), while the majority of the lowest earners (79 out of 104 individuals, or around 75%) are located outside these countries. because the survey documents more women in the field of zooarchaeology as a whole, it is logical to expect proportionally more women in each category. the fact that the lowest income bracket has the most women is problematic. does this discrepancy correspond with high numbers of low-paid (female) students or are women with higher degrees on average, more likely to be paid less than men for similar positions? when annual earnings are parsed by degree of education, it is possible to consider whether women and men at the same degree level earn the same. figures 6 and 7 indicate that regardless of sex, individuals with advanced degrees earn more than those with less advanced degrees, both globally and in the us and canada. extrapolating these results across the discipline, there are slightly more women with phds than men in the lowest earning category, and figure 6. comparison of salaries of women and men with the same degree attainment level worldwide (n=267). ethnobiology letters. 2015. 6(2):276‐284. doi: 10.14237/ebl.6.2.2015.469. 282 research communication special issue on digital zooarchaeology significantly more in the master’s, bachelor’s, and student levels. at the median income level of $4060,000, there appears to be parity for those individuals with a phd, bachelor’s, and among students, but not for those with a master’s degree. there are more women with phds earning in the $60-80,000 bracket than men. within the bracket of $80-100,000, however, there are still more men with phds both worldwide and the us and canada. gifford-gonzalez’s 1991 survey did not ask specifically about yearly earnings, but inferred that since more men held higher ranking positions, this presumably correlated with higher salaries. the shift to increased salaries for women is likely related to demographic changes occurring throughout the 1990s and early 2000s, as female students entered professional positions. however, considering the higher numbers of women overall, there is still a disproportionately greater number of women with advanced degrees earning at the lowest income bracket. it would seem that this inequity arises not from differential payment for individuals with phds, but from more unequal distribution at the lower degree levels, with men more often being paid more than women. on the related subject of job satisfaction, 16 out of 26 written comments submitted by women further figure 7. comparison of salaries of women and men with the same degree attainment level in the u.s. and canada (n=98). ethnobiology letters. 2015. 6(2):276‐284. doi: 10.14237/ebl.6.2.2015.469. 283 research communication special issue on digital zooarchaeology detailed their economic situation and touched on issues affecting their ability to conduct faunal analysis, such as childcare, lack of employment opportunities, and lack of pay, with many having to choose an alternate career path or volunteering their skills. in contrast, only two out of 19 comments written by men related a similar tone of job dissatisfaction; the majority tended to add more details about their research interests and work focus. this disparity may be a result of the a larger number of women who occupy lower-earning and freelance positions despite apparent parity at mid-income levels. race and ethnicity this survey response field did not offer a predefined set of choices in recognition of the fact that individuals of many different nationalities with different conceptions of race and ethnicity would be completing the survey. for instance, the u.s. census uses the terms white, black, american indian or alaskan native, asian, native hawaiian or pacific islander for race; hispanic or latino/a are defined as a category of ethnicity regardless of race (u.s. census 2013). i provide a breakdown of the most common answers using the conventions of the us census (table 3). responses that included white or caucasian are tallied together here as “white” (55%). a large percentage of europeans repeated their country of origin for the race/ethnicity category or stated “european” (19%). very few people identified as asian (2%) and latino/a regardless of country of citizenship (1%). no individuals self-identified as african-american or black, american indian or alaskan native, or native hawaiian or pacific islander. three individuals identified as having mixed asian-american heritage. in addition to not providing answers (18%), a small number of respondents (4%) took umbrage at the question, making statements like “i don't believe in this” and “really? sorry, i thought an anthropologist was doing this survey” or wrote “homo sapiens” or “human;” one response included “neanderthal.” race and ethnicity are social constructs, they matter and have real-life implications for millions of people who are systemically or individually discriminated against every day. to deny the existence of these socially constructed categories is a privilege in itself. it is relevant to consider the racial and ethnic diversity of zooarchaeologists as a group because such self-identification likely influences practices and perceptions in the field. discussion and conclusion opening the survey to global participation means that there are different norms across countries to be considered, but there are a number of trends in the data that can be compared with gifford-gonzalez’s previous survey as well as the data from the society for american archaeology in 1994 and 2004 (zeder 1997, association research 2005). it now does seem that a majority of the “bone people” are women; at least in us and canada, while there are still larger proportions of female students and women tend to be younger than men, the comparison of salary levels suggest that the situation has improved substantially over the last 20 years. though the number of countries represented in the current survey is exciting, the comparatively low representation of the global south in general is problematic, as is the underrepresentation of zooarchaeologists who are residents of certain regions of high research activity (e.g., southwest asia). icaz does support the development of local communities of zooarchaeologists in currently less well represented regions, and there are some discrepancies in geographic representation between the survey and icaz membership data as noted above and in table 1. though difficult to gauge across international borders due to differences in historical circumstance and population numbers, the general lack of racial and ethnic diversity in zooarchaeology, particularly in the us and canada sample, is also troubling. though zooarchaeologists have tended to focus less on the study of animal remains from historic periods, the growth of interest in human-animal studies within the humanities presents an intellectual opportunity that should not be overlooked. finally, while the online format of the survey made it accessible, with a higher response rate than the 1991 survey and an internationrace/ethnicity all us and canada european descent, no further information 56 0 white 157 85 asian and pacific islander 5 3 latino/a 4 0 no answer 52 9 other 14 3 table 3. self-identified race and ethnicity among zooarchaeologists. ethnobiology letters. 2015. 6(2):276‐284. doi: 10.14237/ebl.6.2.2015.469. 284 research communication special issue on digital zooarchaeology al scope, this work should not be considered exhaustive nor all-inclusive. rather, it should stand as part of an ongoing conversation about equity, representation, and inclusivity within and beyond the discipline of zooarchaeology. acknowledgements i would like to thank diane gifford-gonzalez for providing the original survey questions along with a copy of her initial report in zooarchaeology research news. sarah whitcher kansa and iain mckechnie provided valuable feedback on this manuscript, as did two anonymous reviewers, for which i am grateful. finally, i would also like to thank all those in the zooarchaeology community who responded and made this a successful survey. declarations permissions: an institutional review board exemption for this research was granted by the brown university research protections office (#1309000919). sources of funding: survey results were presented as a poster at the 2014 conference of the international council for archaeozoology with financial support from the foreign travel assistance program grant, office of the vice president for research, university of georgia. conflicts of interest: none declared. references aitchison, k., and d. rocks-macqueen. 2013. archaeology labour market intelligence: profiling the profession 2012-13. landward research. available at: http://www.landward.eu/2013/10/archaeologylabour-market-intelligence-profiling-the-profession2012-13.html. american association of university women (aauw). 2015. the simple truth about the gender pay gap. american association of university women. available at: http://www.aauw.org/resource/thesimple-truth-about-the-gender-pay-gap/. american anthropological association. 2015. 20152016 anthroguide. available at: http:// new.aaanet.org/publications/guide.cfm. association research, inc. 2005. 2005 salary survey. society for american archaeology. available at: http://www.saa.org/careers/2005salarysurvey/ tabid/253/default.aspx. gero, j. m. 1985. socio-politics and the woman-athome ideology. american antiquity 50:342-350. gifford-gonzalez, d. 1993. report on the zooarchaeology practitioner survey. zooarchaeology research news 12:3-15. gifford-gonzalez, d. 1994. women in zooarchaeology. archeological papers of the american anthropological association 5:155-171. lazar, i., t. kompare, h. van londen, and t. schenk. 2014. the archaeologist of the future is likely to be a woman: age and gender patterns in european archaeology. archaeologies 10:257-280. national science foundation. 2015. survey of earned doctorates. available at: https://ncses.norc.org/ nsftabengine/#welcome. ulm, s., s. nichols, and c. dalley. 2005. mapping the shape of contemporary australian archaeology: implications for archaeology teaching and learning. australian archaeology 61:11-23. u.s. census bureau. 2013. race. available at: http:// www.census.gov/topics/population/race/ about.html. zeder, m. 1997. the american archaeologist: a profile. altamira press, walnut creek. ca. notes 1zooarchaeology research news was an independent quarterly print newsletter edited and published by pam crabtree and doug campana between 1987 and 1994. 2the aaa guide to departments of anthropology was published by the american anthropological association beginning in 1962 and was titled the aaa guide between 1989-2010. it is now available online and in print as the anthroguide. biosketch suzanne e. pilaar birch is joint assistant professor in the departments of anthropology and geography and directs the quaternary isotope paleoecology laboratory at university of georgia. ethnobiological memoirs and memory stepp. 2016. ethnobiology letters 7(2):1–2 1 editorial special issue on memoirs and memory larger community perhaps no one has reflected more consistently throughout his career as nabhan, through numerous books as well as more recently a series of essays in the sister journal to this publication, journal of ethnobiology. other ethnobiologists have used at least part of an otherwise data oriented and scientific monograph to reflect on the personal. we seem to be most at home when publishing memoirs in the long form and from the long view. articles of the length more common to journals have been few and far between, either appearing in festschrifts or the occasional eureka moment emerging upon further reflection of field notes. a welcome change to this state of affairs comes from justin nolan and andrea pieroni (2013), who in recent years have started a series of memoir pieces derived from one's first time in the field in the journal of ethnobiology and ethnomedicine. this special issue of ethnobiology letters on memoirs and memory seeks to cherish the memoir, whenever written, and is based on a belief that the genre can make important contributions to the field of ethnobiology. additionally, it suggests that relatively short pieces can yield significant insights. the advantage of a journal like ethnobiology letters is that encourages shorter pieces and articles, while still maintaining peer review standards and high editorial quality. what follows here is memoir in the broadest sense, both reflection and a return to the past in the form of unpublished data. we all too often plunge headlong into the future without time afforded to rethink and reevaluate previous fieldwork. we would do well to learn from those of our collaborators who reckon the geometry of time not in a linear sense but rather circular. references cited davis, w. 1996. one river: explorations and discoveries in the amazon rain forest. simon & schuster, new york, ny. the memoir, as an inherently personal narrative, is sometimes seen at odds with scholarly writing that demands an objective and detached approach. however, the building block of memoirs is the same as what leads to scientific progress: detailed observations. the difference perhaps lies in the goals and aims, as well as the scientist’s preference for repeated observation versus unique or uncommon and thus anecdotal events. the personal insight becomes suspect and possibly unreliable for meaningful progress in the creation of knowledge. such a position is untenable given the reality of science as both an inductive and deductive experience. regardless, we have not carved out much space to allow for these sorts of reflections except perhaps at the end of a long and illustrious career. the scientific community has not always been kind to the memoir published too soon and thus supposedly tainted with an air of hubris. the first recorded use of the word memoir in the english language, according to the oxford english dictionary (simpson and weiner 1989), appears in 1659 where it used to mean a record of events or history written from the personal knowledge or experience of the writer, or based on special sources of information. in short, a written memory. the process of memoir writing calls into question the nature of memory itself. the observer reflects and observes herself through the fog of past recollections. yet, we all know the importance of taking good field notes with the expectation that some of what is observed may be useful later on with the benefit of hindsight and experience. a few notable monographs have appeared over the last few decades that could be classified as ethnobiological memoir sensu lato. these books have taken many forms and approaches-from the hybrid memoir/historical hagiography (davis 1996) to the swashbuckling adventure tale (plotkin 1993) to the redemptive and spiritual (nabhan 1993). out of our ethnobiological memoirs and memory open access doi 10.14237/ebl.7.2.2016.859 copyright © 2016 by the author(s); licensee society of ethnobiology. this is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution-noncommercial 4.0 international public license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0), which permits non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. stepp. 2016. ethnobiology letters 7(2):1–2 2 editorial special issue on memoirs and memory nabhan, g.p. 1993. songbirds, truffles, and wolves: an american naturalist in italy. pantheon books, new york, ny. nolan, j., and a. pieroni. 2013. recollections, reflections, and revelations: ethnobiologists and their “first time” in the field. journal of ethnobiology and ethnomedicine 9:12. doi: 10.1186/1746-4269-912. plotkin, m. j. 1993. tales of a shaman's apprentice: an ethnobotanist searches for new medicines in the amazon rain forest. viking, new york, ny. simpson, j. a., and e. s. c. weiner. 1989. the oxford english dictionary. clarendon press, oxford. december 29, 2016 john richard stepp department of anthropology, university of florida, gainesville, fl, usa. stepp@ufl.edu microsoft word pazhoohiebl2011.doc ethnobiology letters                                                                                                                    book review    63      mammalian diversity and matses ethnomammalogy in amazonian  peru. part 1: primates  robert s. voss and david w. fleck. 2011. bulletin of the american museum of natural history, number 351. pp.  81, 3 figures, 25 tables. free at amnh digital library issn 0003‐0090.  reviewed by farid pazhoohi1     reviewer address:  1  department of animal science, college of agriculture, shiraz university, shiraz, iran.  email: pazhoohi@gmail.com   received: september 5th 2011                                                                  volume 2:63‐64  published: september 27th 2011                                                   © 2011 society of ethnobiology    probably many people are not more familiar with the amazon than just knowing its name. how much do you know about the primates of these forests? do you want to take a tour of the region? are you interested in learning more about new world monkeys? if so, this book is for you. robert s. voss, a systematic mammalogist, and david w. fleck, an anthropological linguist, take readers on a journey through the amazonian forest, one of the most intact rainforests on planet earth. the journey begins in the peruvian department of loreto, an inaccessible and biologically unexplored region, where four rivers encompass a dense forest. with descriptions of geography, natural vegetation, rivers and landscapes, voss and fleck introduce readers to the anthropology of loreto. then they teach readers about the natural history of amazonian mammals, especially primates, between the yavari and ucayali rivers of northeastern peru. voss and fleck report on the taxonomic diversity of primates in their book which is the first issue published as part of a series on mammals in amazonian peru. voss and fleck collected 1145 mammalian specimens from nuevo san juan during their collaborative research. moreover, they examined external and craniodental measurements of primates and also corrected the faulty categorization of some subspecies. the authors combined their ethnobiological observations with another amazing source of information: the collective knowledge of native amazonian people about primates. the indigenous matses people who live in the yavari-ucayali interfluve are the community of focus in this ethnobiological study. this native amazonian tribe had their first contact with the outside world in 1969. matses still obtain much of their nutritional needs from traditional activities such as hunting. due to the importance of hunting expertise for their daily lives, matses are reliable observers of their surrounding fauna. matses have a rich “vocabulary for accurately communicating relevant natural history information” (p. 9). for example, in addition to the principal name for a species, a monkey might have three hunting names and a ceremonial name. voss and fleck also compile matses accounts of physical appearance, anatomy, sexual dimorphism, habitat preferences, troop size, social behavior, maternal behavior, vocalizations, communications, daily activities and sleeping patterns, predation and predator avoidance, eating and drinking resources for each of fourteen primate taxa that occur in that region. furthermore, the authors incorporate these data with matses terminology, classification, and hunting strategies for primates as well as the cultural significance of species. the authors, for example, describe matses’ interesting methods of hunting, their traditions and taboos for eating different species of primates, and the way they use some species as pets and some others’ canines as necklaces. an example is howler monkeys (alouatta seniculus atelidae l.); matses believe only older people are permitted to eat their meat. if a young person ate these monkeys, they would become lazy. “for this reason, matses do not hunt howler monkeys as frequently as they do other monkeys. the laziness induced by eating howler monkey meat can be cured with frog poison and by following a special diet” (p. 16). matses hunt howler monkeys by following their calls. they know that these animals “can be found in any primary forest habitat, but they do not come to abandoned swiddens” (p. 17). matses know that howler monkeys travel in male-led troops with fewer than ten individuals. and, as for howler monkeys eating behavior, matses say, “one monkey stays in the trees as a lookout, while the others make a hole in the bank of the mineral lick and ethnobiology letters                                                                                                                    book review    64    eat inside the hole” (p. 17). matses believe that if they hear the howls of these monkeys early in the morning, that day is going to be a nice day. matses know that these monkeys are those who wake up earlier than other monkeys in the morning. voss and fleck corroborate matses observations with scientific literature and conclude that, although some differences occur, matses knowledge of primate natural history seems to be accurate and consistent with scientific reports. this book should be referred to as a “report” because it is mostly devoted to descriptive and methodological summaries and review of the literature. the “book” looks like an extended research article or one chapter in another book. hence, it might seem to be for professional readers, but other individuals who would like to discover more about matses or new world monkeys would enjoy reading this book. indeed, this book is a great source for primatologists. anthropological perspectives on tooth morphology: genetics, evolution, variation ethnobiology letters. 2015. 6(1):8‐9. doi: 10.14237/ebl.6.1.2015.298. 8 book review ical chapter written by the late professor turner about his education and training along with the development of the arizona state dental anthropology system (asudas). the first section is composed of papers on genetics and evolution. in the last 20 years, our knowledge of the relationship between genetics and dental morphology has grown exponentially. this section is a welcome new addition, as these authors take on the important issues of developmental genetics, dental ontogeny, and chromosomal nondisjunction. the chapter by guatelli-steinberg is particular noteworthy on understanding phenotypic correlations associated with the carabelli’s trait. the third chapter explores the relationship between sex chromosome genes and tooth formation. the contribution by mizoguchi reports on the correspondence between environmental factors and the expression of morphological traits in the asudas system. to conclude this section, rizk and his colleagues provide a detailed introduction to studies that use geometric morphometric approaches to human tooth morphology highlighting connections between tooth shape and various environmental and developmental factors. in the second section, various authors focus on paleoanthropological research. in past volumes, fossil hominin dental morphology was of secondary importance and these chapters show how far the field has advanced in the past 60 years. the first chapter by schror and wood represents a novel approach to reconstruct the dental morphology in the last common ancestor of humans and apes. they explore the tooth crown morphology of modern humans as well the study of teeth is a diverse topic that has inspired a continuous flow of books in the last few decades. anthropological perspectives on tooth morphology is the latest compilation describing the state of research on the evolution of hominin and human dental morphology. this edited volume stems from a symposium organized by the editors in honor of regents’ professor christy g. turner ii, held at the 2010 annual meeting of the american association of physical anthropologists in albuquerque, new mexico. the standardization of dental nonmetric traits outlined in the arizona state university dental anthropology system (asudas) has been an important foundation for developing studies on dental morphology. the book is highly scholarly, and is an advanced treatment of dental morphology. all of the authors are dental anthropologists or specialists in related fields, most with many years of experience. the publication is composed of 21 chapters. the editors divide the contributions into three general sections: a genetic and evolutionary perspective (part i); fossil hominins and dental morphology (part ii) and a global perspective on recent human dental variation (part iii). some chapters focus on emerging techniques used in evaluating dental morphology including geometric morphometrics (gmm) and microfocal x-ray computed tomography. the volume editors, g. richard scott and joel d. irish, set the stage in their introduction through critical analysis of the history of dental morphology and the role that professor turner played in advancing this field. those looking for previous volumes on variation in modern human dental morphology with more detail may wish to look at scott and turner (1997 and 1988). the second chapter is a detailed autobiographanthropological perspectives on tooth morphology: genetics, evolution, variation g. richard scott and joel d. irish, eds. 2013. cambridge university press, cambridge. 612 pp., 107 black and white illustrations, 8 color illustrations, 47 tables. $120.00 (cloth), $96.00 (ebook). isbn: 978-1-10701-145-8. reviewed by tricia e. owlett reviewer address: department of east asian languages and cultures, stanford archaeology center, stanford university, stanford, ca 94305-2000, usa. email: towlett@stanford.edu received: december 11, 2014 volume: 6(1):8-9 published: march 6, 2015 © 2015 society of ethnobiology ethnobiology letters. 2015. 6(1):8‐9. doi: 10.14237/ebl.6.1.2015.298. 9 book review as extinct and fossil members of extant apes. martintorres and her colleagues further investigate the large sample of middle pleistocene hominin teeth from the site of sima de los huesos (sh) in northern spain. they focus upon finding intrapopulation variability within the earliest example of a hominin population with neanderthal features. in the next chapter, bailey and hublin address the issue of dental modernity by exploring what nonmetric dental traits set homo sapiens apart from earlier species of homo. they argue that it is impossible to list a set of traits that define the “modern” human dentition, as there is such a high degree of dental variation in modern h. sapiens populations. the final chapter in this section explores the potential of microfocal x-ray computed tomography which allows researchers to explore not just the external crown and root surfaces, but also the inside of a tooth. the third section of the book includes a large number of in-depth, specific bioarchaeological studies and presents a global view of variation in recent modern human populations. major geographic locations are covered including africa, europe, east and southeast asia, and the new world. in the course of the next ten chapters topics including peopling of remote islands, population interaction, and migration are discussed. the contributors successfully integrate broader large scale and regional questions of population origins with major evolutionary questions in dental anthropology. the first chapter by irish further expands upon afridonty in subsaharan africa, and scott explores unique features of the basque dentition. hanihara presents a novel approach to support the out of africa model, by utilizing an r-matrix based approach to correlate within group variability with geographic distance. the chapter by stojanowski synthesizes the long history behind studying native american dental morphology and tooth size. some chapters in this section expand upon previous studies, such as lee and zhang’s chapter that represents a concise and clearly formulated update of nonmetric dental traits of previous populations present in china and mongolia. in closing, edgar and ousley’s evaluation of forensic applications highlight the ability of tooth morphology to help identify unknown persons, and burnett and his colleagues illustrate the important potential pitfalls of tooth morphology studies that are related to tooth wear. criticisms of this volume are few. given the relatively high price of the book, some problems with the finished product should be noted. if i have any reservations about this collection of papers, it is that some of the writing is dense and jargon-heavy in some of the chapters, occasionally making lines of argument difficult to follow. despite these problems, the publication has enough interesting content to merit a qualified recommendation. overall, the text is a welcome addition to the literature on dental anthropology. the volume is generally edited to a very high standard, and has a high quality of illustrations distributed throughout the book. it will be of interest to scholars across diverse disciplines, including archaeologists, paleoanthropologists, biologists, and geneticists. ethnobiologists concerned with the role of environmental interactions in the history of human evolution will particularly find this book useful. as an interdisciplinary overview of the state of current knowledge and method in the study of tooth morphology, this book is highly recommended. references cited scott g. r. and turner c.g. ii. 1997. the anthropology of modern human teeth: dental morphology and its variation in recent human populations. cambridge university press, cambridge. scott, g.r. and turner c.g. ii. 1988. dental anthropology. annual review of anthropology. 17:99-126. nature’s pharmacopoeia: a world of medicinal plants. by dan choffnes. 2016. columbia university press, new york. 332 pp. narchi. 2017. ethnobiology letters 8(1):70–71 70 reviews sinensis), cacao (theobroma cacao), and tobacco (nicotiana tabacum). other chapters cover a) concepts of ethnomedicine, b) the regulation of drugs, c) the action of medicinal plants, d) the action of medicinal plants on the nervous system, e) a chapter on popular herbs, and finally, f) a chapter on the future of medicinal plants where the author makes the case for a promising future for ethnopharmacology as a source of drugs, drug precursors, and as an option for fair benefit sharing among local and global actors. in my opinion, the most valuable part of the book is found in chapter 1: concepts of ethnomedicine. unlike many other books including herbal manuals, phamacopoeias, and species-specific volumes, nature’s pharmacopoeia manages to offer a general description of the ecologies of traditional medicine as understood by peoples from east and south asia, the americas, and africa. after this general description, the author highlights some generic features shared by a majority of the medicinal systems described in the previous section of the chapter. one of the things that i find problematic in this section is the broad generalization that results from lumping together two or three medicinal systems by region while announcing them as continental medicinal systems within a section title. i completely understand the general, yet comprehensive nature of the book and applaud the effort in compiling and producing such an extensive piece. nonetheless, if we think of this book as a piece written for an audience with little background on the topic, then, the labeling of this section could misguide these naïve readers into thinking these medicinal systems are ubiquitous and homogenous throughout large areas, even continents. there are many reasons people undergo anthropological training. i am the type of anthropologist who was drawn to the discipline because of a nearly innate interest in natural medicines. therefore, when i first entered my office to find that dan choffnes’ book had finally arrived for me to review, i was very excited. i unwrapped the book and started looking through the index… but then my excitement started to morph into apathy as i thought i was looking at yet another book on phytochemicals whose main focus was psychotropics; one of many remakes of schultes and hoffman’s (1982) plants of the gods. this feeling of apathy followed me as i read the preface. i then ventured to read the introduction and my prejudice started to give way. perhaps it was the author’s intimate narratives of the life histories of plants, their physiology and capabilities to produce secondary metabolites in the midst of an ever-going chemical war. humans, the author claims, were able from the onset of our species to somehow detect the metabolites that plants used to wage war. humans were able to use these chemicals to procure healthcare and provide identities to their societies. in the long run, humans would ultimately develop a rich biocultural heritage for each human society. these affirmations convinced me to give the volume a deeper read. the book is comprised of 15 chapters, most of which are dedicated to exploring the sexy and mundane histories of legal and controlled psychotropic plants. the list includes: poppy (papaver somniferum), coca (erithroxylum coca), peyote (lophophora williamsii), wormwood (artemisa absinthium), hemp (cannabis sativa), coffee (coffea spp.), tea (camellia nature’s pharmacopoeia: a world of medicinal plants. by dan choffnes. 2016. columbia university press, new york. 332 pp. nemer e. narchi1* 1centro de estudios en geografía humana, el colegio de michoacán, la piedad, michoacán, méxico. *narchi@colmich.edu.mx received march 29, 2017 open access accepted april 14, 2017 doi 10.14237/ebl.8.1.2017.952 copyright © 2017 by the author(s) licensee society of ethnobiology. this is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution-noncommercial 4.0 international public license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0), which permits non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. narchi. 2017. ethnobiology letters 8(1):70–71 71 reviews it is true that some medicinal systems (e.g., umami, ayurveda or hippocratic-galenic views of health) expand through vast regions of the world and serve millions of peoples to this day. however, groups possessing unique and pragmatic medicinal systems that have little or no relationship with the spirit world (e.g., seri [comcaac] from sonora, mexico) are poorly represented throughout the section. i think it is these different, irreplaceable, and endangered medicinal systems, kept by small groups of people, that should be prioritized in future descriptions, essays, and research on medicinal systems because of their uniqueness and vulnerability. one theme that is present among the chapters dealing with psychotropic plants, and a thing that i deeply appreciate, is the critical treatment given to the demonization of these sorts of plants and substances. for instance, chapter 9 clearly sketches that the criminalization of marijuana has, since the late nineteenth century, served as a discursive arena in which right-wing actors have constantly attempted to link crime and ethnicity in rather deterministic ways. similar discussions can be found in the chapter dedicated to wormwood, a plant that, when used as a main ingredient in absinthe, allegedly contributed to the creation of many societal ills. in the end, wormwood-based absinthe was restricted and driven to near extinction. as i have already mentioned, chapters 5–13 were developed around single plants, most of which offer extensive literature reviews, something dan choffnes does admirably as he ventures into explaining the very general and widely known facts of these plants, but also those peculiar and minute details that make each of the individual histories of each organism interesting and flavorful. it is this meticulous style that i consider the most important contribution in the book and its spirit can be best seen in the 36 pages comprising chapter 14. in chapter 14, the author elaborates around 16 nutraceuticals and dietary supplements, including popularly used plants such as cranberries (vaccinium macrocarpon), garlic (allium sativum), ginseng (panax spp.), and valeriana (valeriana officinalis) along with other not-so-commercial plants such as horehound (marrubium vulgare) and kava (piper methysticum). i deeply value that besides the chemistry and natural histories involved, the author took the time to discuss the alleged—and sometimes controversial— therapeutic effects of each plant to contrast these with a research-grounded view of their physiological, pharmacological, and health related effects. in sum, nature’s pharmacopoeia is not the most authoritative piece on medicinal plants and it should not be, as this is far from the intention of this book, whose goals are to present an introductory piece for non-experts. the book excels at fulfilling these aspirations, as it provides the reader with wonderful illustrations that frame vivid and passionate narratives that manage to portray peoples and cultures as fundamental actors in the life history of each plant. references cited schultes, r. e., and a. hoffman 1982. plantas de los dioses: orígenes del uso de alucinógenos. fondo de cultura económica, mexico. pioneers in european ethnobiology ethnobiology letters. 2015. 6(1):212-213. doi: 10.14237/ebl.6.1.2015.482. 212 book reviews perspectives from gene anderson’s bookshelf knew his work on fish and fishing but nothing more about him, since his writings are largely in hungarian and many unpublished. there was the estonian mart mäger, whom i would dearly love to have met and worked with in far northeast europe. in short, this book is not only incredibly rich in detail, but the detail is fascinating, with most of it concerning quite unique and irreplaceable characters who saved vast amounts of knowledge that would otherwise be lost. my one criticism is that no distinction is drawn between ethnobiology and just listing plant and animal names. there is a difference. ethnobiology involves learning traditional and folk sciences as systems, with their own logic, order, representation systems, taxonomies, taxonomic principles, and theories. most of the pre-1950 scholars in this book, and some of the post-1950 ones, merely listed local plant and animal names with dictionary equivalents in learned languages. that can be a fine and valuable thing to do, but it isn’t ethnobiology. there were some stunning exceptions. the most amazing is bernardino de sahagún, who in mexico in the 16th century, with a team of aztec/mexica students, created modern ethnology (including ethnobiology) pretty much from scratch. steller did a pretty fair job too; he understood. many early 20th century scholars were transitional, and then with leaders like gunda and mäger we have full-blown ethnobiology. this is a distinction worth making, and discussing, if only because it is thought-provoking that people like sahagún (and, to go back even earlier, theophrastus and dioscorides) could independently come up with a pretty good idea of what in future became a whole science in itself. i am unable to tell from the book’s discussions of people i don’t know about—the polish and early italian writers, for instance—if they were my friends and collaborators on our ethnobiology textbook, ingvar svanberg and łukasz łuczaj, sent me this wonderful book, and i hereby alert ethnobiologists to its value and importance. it introduces us to a wonderful but often neglected world of ethnobiologists and precursors thereof. chapters cover spain, russia (several on early explorers), slovakia, hungary, estonia (two chapters!), italy, and other areas, with a chapter on early women ethnobiologists of the world (not just europe). how many of us knew there were first-rate ethnobiologists in estonia? the chapter on women is particularly interesting in showing how many early and excellent researchers were female, in spite of the facile stereotype that early ethnography was a white male preserve. sadly, the champions of women’s position have often had just as much vested interest in maintaining this myth as the champions of male privilege. to maintain an exaggerated story of discrimination, the very real presence of women has been written out of the record. (just to add a tidbit to that record, one of the women mentioned, matilda coxe stephenson, co-founded the women’s anthropological society of america, in 1885.) the early european ethnobiologists, and their forebears among explorers interested in plants and animals, include some fascinating and wondrous characters. there was nicholas monardes, stuck in his business in 16th century sevilla while others got to explore the new world, but constantly grilling every returning captain and merchant on what new plants and medicines they had found. there was georg steller, remembered in steller’s jay, steller’s sea lion, and so on—a fiery, independent soul, champion of indigenous rights, dead at a very young age (as too many early figures were). later, once ethnobiology was a “thing,” bela gunda practically wrote the book on hungarian and hungarophone ethnobiology; i pioneers in european ethnobiology edited by ingvar svanberg and łukasz łuczaj. 2014. uppsala universitet, uppsala, sweden. uppsala studies on eastern europe 4. 324 pp. $82.50 (paperback). isbn 978-9-15548-8-444. reviewed by eugene n. anderson reviewer address: department of anthropology, university of california, riverside, ca 92521, usa. email: eugene.anderson@ucr.edu received: august 31, 2015 volume: 6(1):212-213 published: december 19, 2015 © 2015 society of ethnobiology ethnobiology letters. 2015. 6(1):212-213. doi: 10.14237/ebl.6.1.2015.482. 213 book reviews perspectives from gene anderson’s bookshelf true ethnobiologists in the modern sense or just recorders of local lore. i would like to know. did any of them have a sense of inclusive folk sciences? we need more of this sort of intensive history. ibn battuta, avicenna and maimonides in the middle eastern tradition deserve very serious consideration, for instance. so does li shizhen, author of china’s standard traditional herbal, the bencao gangmu, published in 1593. so do many others. this book should stimulate research. meanwhile, it is an invaluable guide to unpublished and published but hard-tofind resources in europe’s far too-little appreciated naturalist and ethnoscientist traditions. the price is high; at least get your university library to buy it. applied zooarchaeology: five case studies. by steve wolverton, lisa nagaoka, and torben c. rick. 2016. eliot werner publications, clinton corners, ny. 130 pp. dombrosky. 2016. ethnobiology letters 7(1):104–105 104 reviews an honest, upfront consideration of data quality is necessary if (zoo)archaeological data are to have any impact on conservation/restoration science—a point that has received wide exposure in the broader scientific literature (see boivin et al. 2016; westaway and lyman 2016; zeder et al. 2016). the authors of applied zooarchaeology underscore this point, and explain that “one of the most important differences between environmental scientists and archaeologists is that the former have explicitly recognized policies and practices for ensuring data quality, or information that produces valid results” (p. 9). in other words, the people applied (zoo)archaeologists are writing for— restoration ecologists, wildlife managers, etc.—have legitimate concerns about the validity of archaeological data. thus, applied (zoo)archaeologists must constantly reaffirm why they know what they do at the most basic level, which means demonstrating that identifications are correct, that preservation is not an issue, and that the quantitative methods employed are appropriate. one of the other great things about this book is that it shows that while these are very real problems, they are by no means insurmountable. nowhere is this more clearly illustrated than in the second chapter. in this chapter, the authors tackle how the differential preservation of unionid— freshwater mussel—shells can be assessed to test if the species composition of a zooarchaeological assemblage is representative of a past mussel community. chapter six is my favorite chapter because it highlights professional encounters that steve wolverton had with wildlife managers and conservation i am a former student of two of the three authors of applied zooarchaeology: five case studies—steve wolverton and lisa nagaoka. they ignited and fostered my interest in applied zooarchaeology. so, i eagerly anticipated the release of this book, and jumped at the chance to review it. perhaps it would be predictable if i gave this book a positive review, but that is exactly what i am going to do anyway. the shamelessness of my positive review derives from three excellent characteristics of this book: it is concise, (zoo)archaeological data quality is a recurrent theme, and it serves as a guide for achieving interdisciplinary research. i do not only mean that this is a short book when i say that it is concise. the writing style is succinct, jargon is kept to a minimum, and each point is direct and cogent. in other words, applied zooarchaeology: five case studies is one well-written book. in no way, however, are deeper points sacrificed. for instance, a discussion about the philosophical merit of applied zooarchaeological research starts on page one. a book with such a clear writing style comes at an opportune time for archaeologists who study humanenvironmental impacts in deep time. if we are indeed living in a post-truth era (sensu keyes 2004), then questions related to how archaeologists should balance the integrity of their research while still effectively communicating its merits to the public have never been so important. in my opinion, applied zooarchaeology achieves just such a balance because limitations of the (zoo)archaeological record are clearly delineated, which puts the questions that can be addressed on firmer ground. applied zooarchaeology: five case studies. by steve wolverton, lisa nagaoka, and torben c. rick. 2016. eliot werner publications, clinton corners, ny. 130 pp. jonathan dombrosky1* 1department of anthropology, university of new mexico, albuquerque, nm, usa. *jdombrosky@unm.edu received november 26, 2016 open access accepted december 21, 2016 doi 10.14237/ebl.7.1.2016.832 copyright © 2016 by the author(s); licensee society of ethnobiology. this is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution-noncommercial 4.0 international public license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0), which permits non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. dombrosky. 2016. ethnobiology letters 7(1):104–105 105 reviews biologists. this chapter helps answer the question: how exactly do archaeologists take their research and make it mean something that helps solve actual conservation problems? in the subsection entitled “interactions with biologists,” three separate interactions with the professional biological community are recounted when wolverton was working to disseminate research related to differences in prehistoric and modern white-tailed deer body size in central texas. in his first interaction, he presented his research at the 2006 southwestern association of naturalists (swan) conference in colima, mexico. much to his chagrin, the crowd was not instantly won over by the novelty of zooarchaeological data or the deep time perspective; they were far more concerned about the appropriateness of archaeological data in answering the questions that they were interested in. in two subsequent interactions—one at a texas parks and wildlife department (tpwd) workshop in 2006 and a presentation to the department of biology at texas state university in 2007—wolverton continued to hone and improve his research by directly engaging in the issues of data quality that biologists were concerned about. the authors explain, “a fatal mistake would have been to dismiss questions about representative sampling” (p. 84). this chapter is great because it highlights the fact that this research is not—and should not be—just for archaeologists. we must put on our “anthropologist hats” (p. 82), listen to the legitimate concerns of the people we want to work with, and tailor our research accordingly. after reading this book, it becomes clear that a vague programmatic appeal about the utility of deep time to conservation/restoration science is simply not enough. the archaeological literature on humanenvironmental impacts and what it means for preserving or conserving biota has become somewhat redundant. it is assumed that when new archaeological research is completed, and novel humanenvironmental impacts are found, that these findings are inherently important for either managing, conserving, or restoring biodiversity in the future. for biologists—who are usually well-versed in thinking on evolutionary timescales—the dictum that “history matters” is a given; it is up to (zoo)archaeologists to show why and how it matters. this requires tackling local problems and demonstrating how (zoo) archaeological data can be integrated into conservation/restoration programs. applied zooarchaeology: five case studies shows how locally impactful, interdisciplinary historical ecological research can be achieved in a highly digestible way. as such, it is well worth the read. references cited boivin, n. l., m. a. zeder, d. q. fuller, a. crowther, g. larson, j. m. erlandson, t. denham, and m. d. petraglia. 2016. ecological consequences of human niche construction: examining longterm anthropogenic shaping of global species distributions. proceedings of the national academy of sciences 113:6388–6396. doi:10.1073/ pnas.1525200113. keyes, r. 2004. the post-truth era: dishonesty and deception in contemporary life. st. martin's press, new york. westaway, m. c., and r. l. lyman. 2016. the need to overcome risks associated with combining inadequate paleozoological records and conservation biology. proceedings of the national academy of sciences 113:e4757–e4758. doi:10.1073/ pnas.1609950113. zeder, m. a., t. denham, j. m. erlandson, n. l. boivin, a. crowther, d. q. fuller, g. larson, and m. d. petraglia. 2016. reply to westaway and lyman: emus, dingoes, and archaeology’s role in conservation biology. proceedings of the national academy of sciences 113:e4759–e4760. doi:10.1073/pnas.1610697113. beings of a feather: learning about the lives of birds with amazonian peoples jernigan. 2016. ethnobiology letters 7(2):41–47 41 research communications special issue on memoirs and memory people also recognize trees by noting which animal species use them for food and shelter. i first became aware of such interspecies relationships in a rather unfortunate way, when i brushed against the gallery forest tree tagkana (triplaris surinamensis) and was stung by the pseudomyrmex triplarinus ants that live symbiotically in the trunk. my appreciation for the extensive knowledge that aguaruna people have about bird-tree interactions came in a less dramatic way, but ultimately made an even deeper impression. my thesis fieldwork in 2004 alternated between walks in the forest with community members to observe and learn about trees firsthand and sitting on rainy days under thatched roofs with elders who named and described the trees they knew from memory. i was humbled when the most knowledgeable of them, brothers shugki and ashambai, gave over 200 names and then apologized for not being able to remember the rest. and indeed, they could describe these species in minute detail, from the from ethnobotany to ethnoornithology i first became interested in the field of ethnoornithology by an indirect route. i am not much of a birder, but i do find birds to be beautiful and fascinating animals. and, even though i take some pride in having observed species such as the royal sunangel (heliangelus regalis) and the andean cock-of-the-rock (rupicola peruvianus) in their natural habitat, i do not keep a life list or brag about such things in polite company. plants are my first love and it is through them that i became interested in how amazonian peoples understand avian behavior and the complex relationships birds have with other organisms. my dissertation work studied how the aguaruna of the peruvian department of amazonas recognize and identify local tree species. i found that they use a wide variety of morphological clues for distinguishing trees, including bark odor, sap color, leaf shape, and many others (jernigan 2006b). but there are important ecological clues as well. for example, local beings of a feather: learning about the lives of birds with amazonian peoples kevin jernigan1* 1ethnobotany program, university of alaska, fairbanks, ak, usa. *kjernigan@alaska.edu abstract this article is a memoir of the author's fieldwork experiences studying traditional knowledge of bird species in the peruvian amazon. it describes his growth as a researcher, in light of the practical and methodological challenges of carrying out this kind of work. it also relates how the author's thinking has evolved on questions of current theoretical interest in ethnobiology. the first section outlines how the author came to be interested in this topic while pursuing an ethnobotanical dissertation project. next, the discussion follows his work with the indigenous aguaruna and iquito peoples, learning about and documenting their understandings of the nesting, foraging and reproductive behavior of local avian species. on one hand, he found that local people provided details of these behaviors that match, in many ways, the counts of academic ornithologists. however, local interpretations of why these behaviors take place are often framed by some very different assumptions. the author uses victor toledo's tripartite framework of kosmos (overarching belief systems), corpus (cognitive categories), and praxis (set of practices) to discuss similarities and differences in aguaruna, iquito, and academic ornithology. he also discusses his progression of views on the topic of perspectivism and eventual preference for a theoretical framework favoring a polyontological approach to understanding amazonian ethnoecology. received june 15, 2016 open access accepted november 8, 2016 doi 10.14237/ebl.7.2.2016.726 keywords ethnoecology, perspectivism, peruvian amazon, aguaruna, iquito copyright © 2016 by the author(s); licensee society of ethnobiology. this is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution-noncommercial 4.0 international public license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0), which permits non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. jernigan. 2016. ethnobiology letters 7(2):41–47 42 research communications special issue on memoirs and memory appearance of the flowers and fruit to the odor and texture of the bark. for certain local trees, they listed dozens of bird species that feed on the fruits. for example, many kinds of toucans, cracids, and doves favor the aromatic fruits of tinchi, a general term for the lauraceae, while smaller birds such as manakins and tanagers feed off the berries of tseek (miconia ternatifolia in the melastomataceae). i wondered whether this knowledge was based more on direct observation or on generalization of behavior across categories. how do they weigh, for example, the size of the bird, its habitat, and its foraging level in the canopy when deciding what it is likely to eat? when i returned home, i forgot about these questions, as i faced the trials and tribulations of transcribing notes, analyzing data, and writing and defending the dreaded dissertation. i completed my ph.d. in anthropology from the university of georgia in 2006, and, suddenly, there were more things in life to think about than how people identify trees. i remembered my curiosity about aguaruna knowledge of bird diet and developed a research proposal to document this and other aspects of aguaruna ethnoornithology. happily, the national science foundation provided funding to carry out this new project. i was eager to go back and speak with my friends and mentors in communities where i worked. i thought fondly, for example, of an elder named kintambai. during my dissertation work, when i came to his village for the second time, after being away for several months, he wondered aloud whether i had failed my studies the first time and had to start over. perhaps, i thought to myself, his worries about my academic achievement would be magnified when i arrived yet again. learning about birds with the aguaruna and iquito i assembled a team of local collaborators in peru, and we planned to begin work with aguaruna villages in june, 2009. the day after i arrived in lima, however, i heard some news that would change my plans, at least for a time. a state of emergency had been declared and a conflict was escalating between the government of peru's president alan garcía, and the country's indigenous peoples over a new law that would grant international companies easier access to petroleum, minerals, and logging on land adjacent to native communities. the aguaruna people were particularly vocal in their opposition to the new law. there was a violent confrontation with governmental security forces and dozens from each side died. i called my friends in the region to see how they were doing and, luckily, none were hurt. not surprisingly, they recommended that i wait before coming to do work. i traveled to the rainforest city of iquitos to meet with some collaborators and discuss our plans. there, i learned of a documentation project that linguists christine beier and lev michael, then, at the university of texas, austin, were carrying out with some of the last speakers of the critically endangered iquito language (see beier and michael 2002). the 20 or so speakers, all over 50 years old, live mainly in the village of san antonio de pintoyacu, in the upper nanay region, some 60 km from the city of iquitos. i asked christine and lev if they could use an ethnobotanist in their project, and they welcomed me to join them. in addition to our ethnobotanical work, we also recorded knowledge of diet and other ecological information for a few dozen of the most common local bird species. one particularly fascinating bit of traditional ecological knowledge (tek) that iquito participants generously shared with us involves the species cusacuuni ácuta (oryctanthus alveolatus in the loranthaceae)—pigeon's ayahuasca. elder ema llona explained that the ruddy pigeon (patagioenas subvinacea) consumes the berries of this parasitic species and then becomes intoxicated, just as people do when they take the divinatory preparation ayahuasca. she even imitated how the birds sing for me to record. this explanation of animal behavior by analogy to human customs underscores a very important concept in amazonian ethnology and beyond. perspectivism (viveiros de castro 1998) posits that animals and people share the same cultural and social reality, while differing in their physical bodies. the idea has gained much popularity and has been very influential in research in the amazon and beyond (holbraad and willerslev 2007, kohn 2007, shepard 2014) and, indeed, my own work with amazonian peoples would show me many more instances that fit this ontological framework. several months later, when the situation in amazonas had calmed down, our team went to begin work in aguaruna communities. we arrived first in the villages of wichim and wawas, where people already knew and trusted me from my dissertation fieldwork. they welcomed us there, but we heard that the situation was still touchy in some places. they said jernigan. 2016. ethnobiology letters 7(2):41–47 43 research communications special issue on memoirs and memory there were villages where residents did not even let in veterinarians to vaccinate their animals due to fear that the government might be sending agents to root out people involved in the previous conflicts. the first task of the research, before we could ask detailed questions about birds' behavior, was simply to determine which species local people recognize and how they consider them to be related. so, we began the work with elders by doing the simple and useful task of freelisting. the aguaruna word píshak is the closest equivalent to the general category of 'bird' in english. we sat down with elders and asked them to name as many píshak as they could remember. this allowed us to have a list of local bird names to use as a springboard for many other questions, for example, about foraging and reproductive behavior. next, we asked elders to tell us which birds are kumpají — companions, a concept that groups together species considered to be related. we found that local people recognize such natural groupings as parrots, toucans, tinamous, and woodpeckers, based on commonalities of appearance and behavior (jernigan and dauphine 2008). we also observed avian species in extensive field excursions with study participants around the villages. this, along with the work of brent berlin (1992) and colleagues (boster et al. 1986), helped us understand how local bird names map onto scientific species. the issue is non-trivial, as there is not always a one-to-one correspondence between linnaean and local categories. for example, all of the five local woodcreeper species in genus xiphorynchus are subsumed under the single aguaruna name kuíntam. although people recognize that there are different kinds, this diversity is not visually striking (berlin 1992) or culturally significant (hunn 1982) enough to recognize with individual aguaruna names. another important part of understanding aguaruna ornithology was observing how they use and interact with birds on a daily basis. their favorite game are the tinamous and cracids, including currasows, guans, and chachalacas. however, even very small birds such as manakins and tanagers can be hunted and eaten. this fact was driven home for me in a powerful way, when an aguaruna friend and field assistant, stopped to eat the entire eggs from a hummingbird nest on one of our excursions. bird species with brightly-colored feathers, such as toucans and oropendolas, are especially valued for decorating the tawas, a traditional crown worn by men. at times, whole birds are put on these for decoration. others, such as the chuwag—turkey vulture (cathartes aura)—can be killed to make a hunting charm. some birds' vocalizations are considered to have divinatory power. the nocturnal calls of some owl species, for example, can be omens of death of a close relative. other species are kept as pets, particularly parrots (figure 1), toucans, woodpeckers, tanagers, cracids, and oropendolas. this is only a small sampling meant to give some idea of the breadth of aguaruna uses. after finishing work in wichim and wawas, we were able, with the help of local indigenous organizations, to visit a few communities where none of us had worked before. these included the villages of yangunga and tunants, on the upper marañón. the first thing that happened when we arrived in these new places—and, indeed, in any aguaruna village—is that people called a public meeting to discuss the proposed work. such meetings are an essential part of aguaruna society and allow people to voice their questions and concerns about issues that come up. i learned in my earlier dissertation research (jernigan 2006a) the importance of participation and transparfigure 1 pet blue-and-yellow macaw, village of santa maria de nieva, 2003. photo by kevin jernigan. jernigan. 2016. ethnobiology letters 7(2):41–47 44 research communications special issue on memoirs and memory ency, when i made a mistake that almost cost me the trust of another village. the elected leader—apu—of that village had approached me asking for some money that he said would be used to everyone's benefit. i later found out that he pocketed the funds. luckily, a local friend and collaborator convinced community members that i was not to blame and had learned my lesson. so, i kept this in mind at the meetings in yangunga and tunants. happily, both communities accepted our work, and we learned many interesting and valuable things there. amazonian and academic ornithology one of the first things i noticed, working with the aguaruna and iquito, is the many areas in which their knowledge of bird behavior and ecology agrees with the observations of academic ornithologists. this agreement should not be too surprising, considering that both the aguaruna and academic researchers gain much understanding and insight from extensive observation of birds in their natural habitats. of course, the manner of, and reasons for, making observations are not always the same. aguaruna elders' accounts of nesting and reproductive behavior would be quite familiar to an academic ornithologist. for example, wilson sakamaju tupika in the upper marañón community of yangunga described brood parasitism of species such as tsantsentse—giant cowbird (molothrus orizyvorus)—saying that, instead of making its own nest to care for its young, it simply lays its eggs in the nests of oropendolas (schulenberg et al. 2007). local amazonian people were able to describe, in detail, the particular fruits, invertebrates and other organisms that form the diets of bird species in their area. and, indeed, the author has already discussed elsewhere (jernigan and dauphine 2008) how their knowledge on this subject closely matches that of academic ornithologists. but this tek goes beyond merely naming the preferred diet of individual species. it touches on more complex ecological relationships. for example, aguaruna elders knew that toucans and aracaris play an important role in seed dispersal, but that many parrot species, such as tuwísh (pionus menstruus), are seed predators. similarly, iquito elders described how the siámuri (black caracara) eats ticks off the skin of ungulates such as tapirs. there are, however, some notable differences in academic and amazonian understandings of bird behavior. for instance, aguaruna cosmology recognizes the existence of beings that the scientific worldview does not. these could be understood as spirits, visions or legends, although, to the aguaruna, they are simply another part of the natural world. one example involves the puwi, an omnivorous parrot that is said to live in a remote location, four days journey on foot from one of our study sites. nestor reategui, an aguaruna friend and collaborator, described how he had traveled to the site and saw trees completely denuded of leaves. people living nearby told him that the birds feed at night and are quite capable of eating animals and humans as well. when i mentioned the puwi to academic ornithologists who work in peru, they were very skeptical. i must admit that i tend to feel the same way. however, if a specimen ever does turn up, it would not be the first time that academics learned a new bird species already well-known to the aguaruna. in one such case, an ornithologist recognized a new tanager species when a missionary gave him an aguaruna tawas—decorated crown. it contained a whole inchituch, and was given the latinized name wetmorethraupis sterrhopteron (lowery and o’neill 1964). so how can we best conceptualize the relationship between aguaruna and academic ornithology? victor toledo (2002) has called for organizing tek into three distinct but interrelated domains. these are: the corpus, knowledge and classificatory systems; praxis, the set of practices of a given culture, and kosmos, the overarching worldview including spiritual and moral ideas. the corpus of aguaruna and academic ornithology line up fairly well. aside from spiritual beings, the two systems often agree on the what of bird taxonomy and behavior. the question of why birds behave as they do is another story. that is where aguaruna and academic science really diverge. the aguaruna tend to view the reasons for avian behavior through a perspectivist lens. in other words, they interpret complex ecological relationships in terms of their own social and cultural reality. for example, some birds in their area such as kunchau— the white-plumed antbird (pithys albifrons) follow swarms of army ants to prey on insects and other small animals flushed out by the advancing column. according to academic ornithologists, those birds are simply taking advantage of the situation to forage. however, the aguaruna say they are actually directing the ants, that the ants are like their dogs. jernigan. 2016. ethnobiology letters 7(2):41–47 45 research communications special issue on memoirs and memory one broad similarity is that history plays an important role in both academic and aguaruna understandings of bird behavior. however, in the former case, it is evolutionary history, while in the latter it is augmatbau—traditional stories. one important augmatbau tells how birds once had human form. after winning a protracted struggle against a giant crab monster named unkaju, they held a celebration and transformed themselves into their current shapes. each reveler assumed a form corresponding to his appearance at the time. one man named achayap, for example, wearing a bright yellow tawas—crown—changed into the golden-headed manakin (pipra erythrocephala). another example to illustrate these different views of history involves lekking behavior. aguaruna collaborators told us how some local birds, for example, tashijim—white-bearded manakin (manacus manacus)—and ugkum—amazonian umbrellabird (cephalopterus ornatus)—engage in dances. they even gave detailed descriptions of the stereotypical movements of the species in question, matching those that academic ornithologists have published (schulenberg et al. 2007; sick 1993). however, rather than viewing this behavior as a competition between males for female mate selection, the aguaruna say that the birds were once people who enjoyed dancing and celebrating. once transformed into birds, they continued throwing parties just like they used to. this goes a long way toward explaining aguaruna perspectivism. birds act like people because they essentially are people. a few final thoughts when i returned home from peru, i was left to review my notes and to try to reconcile some fundamentally different ways of interpreting amazonian views of bird ecology. on one hand, many observations of the details of avian behavior fit well into a naturalistic view that would seem familiar to an academic ornithologist. on the other hand, one finds, digging deeper, that amazonian explanations for why birds act as they do relies on a much different view where birds and other animals share a social reality with humans (viveiros de castro 1998). indeed, the situation would only become more complicated in the following years as i became familiar with yet a third possible framework for understanding amazonian ornithology. i submitted an abstract based on my amazonian work to the 2013 meeting of the american anthropological association meeting in chicago. when i received my notice of acceptance, i found that my paper was placed within the theme of multispecies ethnography. this new way of looking at human-animal relationships draws heavily on social theory (kirksey and helmreich 2010, latour 2009). like perspectivisn, multispecies ethnography recognizes the agency of non-human animals, but it places more emphasis on the complex relationships, or entanglements, between various types of persons (kohn 2007, shepard 2014). learning about this new trend in anthropology brought to my mind a discussion i had with my aguaruna field assistant gregorio reategui. he explained how local people interpret a characteristic vocalization of the species bakantau—buckley's forest -falcon (micrastur buckleyi). aguaruna hear the words “ikagmak tae, ikagmak tae,” a warning that someone in the village will commit adultery. when i asked gregorio why the bird would wish to do this, he explained that it was possessed by a malevolent spirit called an iwanch who wants to sow discord. so, this in not a story about animals who share the same social reality as humans. rather, it is about complex and unequal relationships between intelligent beings with not only differing bodies, but also differing motivations. as i pondered the many things i learned during my work, i realized there were more examples that did not fit neatly into a perspectivist framework. one genre of aguaruna anen—magical songs—enlists the help of particular bird species to help in human romantic relationships. for instance, a woman can entreat the antpitta puampua (grallaria sp.) to find her far away husband and sing him a sad song that will make him homesick. a man who is sleeping with another man's wife can use another anen to invoke the power of the ukukui the ornate hawk-eagle (spizaetus ornatus) to scratch his rival if he should notice the infidelity. so rather than living in a parallel society, birds’ lives are often closely intertwined with human lives. i have not had the opportunity to return to peru since the project on bird ecology ended in 2010. in the meantime, i took a job at the university of alaska and my attention has since been focused greatly on the ethnobotany of the u.s. and russian sides of the bering strait. however, i do intend to return someday soon to the peruvian amazon to continue researching people's complex understandings of the natural world. when i do, i will go with an appreciation for the jernigan. 2016. ethnobiology letters 7(2):41–47 46 research communications special issue on memoirs and memory difficulty in fitting their knowledge into a single epistemological framework. rather, i will draw happily from naturalistic, perspectivist, and multispecies approaches when each is appropriate. perhaps the most important thing i have learned from my research experiences is the realization that one approach cannot explain everything. acknowledgments i would like to thank glenn shepard and brent berlin for many helpful comments and much encouragement in the work. thanks also to four anonymous reviewers for their many helpful suggestions. most of all, i thank the people of the communities wichim, wawas, tunants, cachiaco, kayamas, yangunga, and nuevo belice, where this research took place. tercero lirio gregorio reategui and nestor reategui were very helpful in their assistance with coordinating this research. declarations permissions: permissions to conduct this research were obtained from the university of alaska institutional review board, the ministry of agriculture in peru and from the native communities of wichim, wawas, tunants, cachiaco, kayamas, yangunga, and nuevo belice in peru. following the wishes of local communities and individuals who participated in this study, this paper does not use pseudonyms for local people. this is in keeping with the ethical principal of giving credit where it is due to the elders who have made the work described here possible. sources of funding: this study was funded by a national science foundation grant (0314289). conflicts of interest: none declared. references cited beier, c. and l. michael. 2002. la condición actual del idioma indígena iquito y las claves factores afectando al proyecto de su recuperación. available at: http://www.cabeceras.org/ iquito_informe_2002.pdf. accessed on 6/14/2016. berlin, b. 1992. ethnobiological classification: principles of categorization of animals and plants in traditional societies. princeton university press, princeton, nj. berlin b., j. s. boster, j. p. o'neill. 1981. the perceptual bases of ethnobiological classification: evidence from aguaruna jivaro ornithology. journal of ethnobiology 1:95–108. davies, c. w. n., r. barnes, s. h. m. butchard, m. fernandez and n. seddon. 1997. the conservation status of the cordillera de colán. bird conservation international 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anthropology of lowland south america (salsa) gothenburg, sweden, june, 26– 29. available at: https:// www.academia.edu/15538299/ old_and_in_the_way_jaguar_transformation_in_m atsigenka. accessed on 11/3/2016. sick, h. 1993. birds in brazil: a natural history. princeton university press, princeton, nj. toledo, v. m. 2002. ethnoecology: a conceptual framework for the study of indigenous knowledge of nature. in ethnobiology and biocultural diversity, edited by j. r. stepp, f. s. wyndham, and r. k. zarger, pp. 511–522. university of georgia press, athens, ga. viveiros de castro, e. 1998. cosmological deixis and amerindian perspectivism. journal of the royal anthropological institute 4:469–488. doi: 10.2307/3034157. rivers, fish, and the people: tradition, science, and historical ecology of fisheries in the american west. edited by pei-lin yu. 2015. the university of utah press, salt lake city. 160 pp. dombrosky. 2016. ethnobiology letters 7(1):38–41 38 reviews ing the prehistory of the eastern columbia plateau, and is a revealing example of how past peoples may have used animal resources amidst environmental change. mobility was an important option in mitigating environmental risk in the past, which is sobering given that current trends in population abundance and density may render this strategy useless in certain geographic areas. in the chapter by pei-lin yu and jackie m. cook, the authors develop techniques to infer the intensity of fish processing from lithic assemblages at sites where faunal remains might be absent or poorly preserved. by analyzing tabular fish-butchering tools from the kettle falls collection of northeastern washington state, they show that high numbers of low-cost raw materials with relatively little retouch are characteristic of intensive salmon processing sites. they conclude that “[t]hese expedient but highperforming tools may have been a collective form of ‘site furniture’ left by women intending to recover them season after season” (p. 89). yu and cook’s research is important for documenting variability in the intensity of fish processing in different cultural contexts, and could have implications for documenting areas where salmon populations thrived in the past. using lithic studies in this way may be of great interest to conservation biologists and wildlife managers. kevin j. lyons explains how to pick up the signature of past fisheries using ethnographic data and information about the life-histories of certain fish species in the pend orielle basin. in this chapter, lyons provides an excellent road map for determining the seven chapters in rivers, fish, and the people represent some of the most recent work in historical ecology on rivers associated with salmon populations in western north america, a resource of increasing conservation concern. one of the aims of historical ecology is to help solve current environmental and/or social problems by using a deep temporal perspective to understand human-environment interactions at different scales (armstrong and veteto 2015; balée 2006; szabó 2014). the archaeological record has much to offer historical ecology (hayashida 2005), shown by pei-lin yu and the contributors to this volume, in which they demonstrate how archaeological data can be used to better think about, interact with, and manage fisheries in the north american west. for example, mark g. plew and stacey guinn argue that the timing of different hunter-gatherer settlement patterns related to natural environmental perturbations that affected the productivity of the salmon fishery along the snake river in southwestern idaho. in short, they contend that a logistical foraging pattern coupled with intensive salmon fishing is best documented in the area during the late holocene (2000–150 bp) because this period is characterized by less environmental disturbance. conversely, preca. 2000 bp was characterized by seismic activity, fireinduced erosion, floods, and landslides that would have been pivotal in shaping the snake river channel, but that would have led to poor habitat conditions for salmon. thus, they posit, hunter-gatherers relied on more residential foraging during this period. this argument has important implications for understandrivers, fish, and the people: tradition, science, and historical ecology of fisheries in the american west. edited by pei-lin yu. 2015. the university of utah press, salt lake city. 160 pp. jonathan dombrosky1* 1department of anthropology, university of new mexico, usa. *jdombrosky@unm.edu received march 1, 2016 open access accepted march 22, 2016 doi 10.14237/ebl.7.1.2016.641 copyright © 2016 dombrosky; licensee society of ethnobiology. this is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution -noncommercial 4.0 international public license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0), which permits non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. dombrosky. 2016. ethnobiology letters 7(1):38–41 39 reviews the presence of a fishery. he details different kalispel fishing tools and methods, contemplates the preservation of such tools in the archaeological record, and discusses issues related to tool typology (i.e., set weight anchors vs. mauls). further, lyons shows that salmon were not the only preferred fish species consumed by the kalispel. he demonstrates that the life-histories of bull trout (salvelinus confluentus), westslope cutthroat trout (oncorhynchus clarki), and mountain whitefish (prosopium williamsoni) could have allowed these species to be intensively harvested. this chapter provides a model for recognizing past fisheries in the archaeological record, but it also forces researchers to think about what exactly a fishery is and how to detect one in the archaeological record in other regions. jason m. jones focuses on the exploitation of a freshwater mussel (family unionidae) species in the lower spokane river. he documents how the western pearlshell (margaritifera falcata) was procured and cooked at four different sites in the region. like lyons, jones highlights an often-overlooked food item. freshwater mussels represent an important component of riverine subsistence strategies and variations in their procurement could have implications for the study of past hunter-gatherer groups. in addition, unionids are one of the most threatened groups of animals worldwide (lydeard et al. 2004). studies such as the one carried out by jones in this volume have the potential to elucidate preimpoundment distributions of this imperiled fauna. several current themes in ethnobiology are touched on by michelle l. stevens and emilie m. zelazo, such as traditional ecological knowledge, traditional resource management, and fire ecology. they propose that fire management, by the plains miwok in the floodplains of the cosumnes river in central california, helped maintain the vegetation needed for making cultural materials such as baskets and fishing-related tools. further, fire management would have rejuvenated soils while also keeping the floodplain clear of overgrowth that could block habitat connectivity for juvenile fishes. by analyzing the ichthyofaunal record at four archaeological sites, the authors argue that juvenile taxa and taxa that prefer slow water settings dominate the assemblages. thus, intentional and somewhat large-scale habitat modification by prehistoric groups seems to be directly related to the over 1000 years of sustainable use of the cosumnes river fishery. although the contributions to this volume are great examples of the historical ecological approach, it was disappointing that none of the authors engaged with the growing literature concerning applied zooarchaeology (see lyman and cannon 2004; wolverton and lyman 2012). this is surprising in that some of the best examples of what archaeological data can provide conservation science, in the larger geographic region this book focuses on, have been intertwined with (butler and delacorte 2004), or explicitly contextualized in (mckechnie et al. 2014), an applied zooarchaeological framework. engaging more with the applied zooarchaeological literature might have also helped clarify a recurrent and confounding point in the book concerning the use of “frames of reference” to establish ecosystem reference conditions. binford’s (2001) “frames of reference” are invoked as the prime archaeological way to establish ecosystem reference conditions (sensu callicott 2002). yu laments that, “in order to describe system states at a given point in time, researchers try to unpeel intervening layers of historic impacts… but historical sciences are largely inductive, so that the inconsistent validity of empirical data reduces confidence in extrapolations” (p. 4). yu goes on to say that “scientific approaches can alleviate this problem by identifying historic variability and trends in healthy river ecosystems, using frames of reference to characterize a system’s dynamic properties (e.g., stabilizing mechanisms and thresholds), and proposing causal relationships. hypotheses can be tested and revised through field experiments, model simulations, and controlled observations of naturally occurring phenomena…” it is clear that yu, and other contributors to the volume, view “frames of reference” as the main archaeological device that helps solve issues with fragmentary, historically contingent datasets. i found the use of “frames of reference” puzzling for two reasons. first, binford’s conception of establishing frames of reference is explicitly linked to organizing a large body of both ethnographic and environmental data to interpret the archaeological past (binford 2001:3–4). thus, what binford was talking about was importing data from other areas of research to help support the explanatory prowess of archaeological interpretation. he was not concerned with going a step further and launching archaeological interpretations, gleaned from these frames of reference, into a future marred by habitat degradation, dombrosky. 2016. ethnobiology letters 7(1):38–41 40 reviews species loss, and global climate change. in other words, the “frames of reference” concept was not created with contemporary management and policy implications in mind. second, “frames of reference” is not the only way, as the volume would lead one to believe, that archaeological data can be useful in establishing ecosystem reference conditions. another approach is to use the presence, absence, or abundance of the remains of a species, that is of current conservation concern, at an archaeological site to establish reference conditions. such species-specific reference conditions, along with other forms of paleoenvironmental information, can then be enclosed in an ecosystem-level reference envelope (sensu nabhan et al. 2014). these kinds of interpretations, common in the applied zooarchaeological literature, are a valid use of the inherently historic, timeaveraged, and sometimes poorly preserved data that archaeologists have. indeed, using archaeological data in these sorts of ways has proved quite fruitful (see discussions in grayson 1981; lyman 1998; mckechnie et al. 2014; newsome et al. 2007; peacock et al. 2005; popejoy et al. 2016; randklev et al. 2010; rick and lockwood 2013). thus, it was somewhat shocking to read that “… the great variability, geographic scope, and time span of native life and river environments cannot provide fine-grained data points for current conditions, for example, the population of species that should be present for a given locality” (yu, p. 4) and “… faunal remains will always lack the probative weight to compel the restoration of endangered species’ habitats on their singular merits” (lyons, p. 122). these criticisms aside, as anna marie prentiss (p. 203) wraps up the book, she hits the nail on the head when she says, “… the chapters in this volume point us in new directions. they aptly illustrate the potential complexity of the archaeological record that accumulates at the intersection of local and regional ecology and historical tradition.” it is precisely the presentation of this sort of complexity, in the context of habitat degradation that characterizes rivers in the modern north american west, that makes this work a great contribution to the historical ecology literature. yu’s volume demands from its readers that they contemplate how the dynamic uses of past river ecosystems by first peoples can be applied to rapidly changing contemporary environments. references cited armstrong, c. g. and j. r. veteto. 2015. historical ecology and ethnobiology: applied research for environmental conservation and social justice. ethnobiology letters 6:5–7. doi:10.14237/ ebl.6.1.2015.313. balée, w. 2006. the research program of historical ecology. annual review of anthropology 35:75–98. doi:10.1146/annurev.anthro.35.081705.123231. binford, l. r. 2001. constructing frames of reference: an analytical method for archaeological theory building using hunter-gatherer and environmental data sets. university of california press, berkeley, ca. butler, v. l. and m. g. delacorte. 2004. doing zooarchaeology as if it mattered: use of faunal data to address current issues in fish conservation biology in owens valley, california. in zooarchaeology and conservation biology, edited by r. l. lyman and k. p. cannon, pp. 25–44. the university of utah press, salt lake city, ut. callicott, j. b. 2002. choosing appropriate temporal and spatial scales for ecological restoration. journal of biosciences 27:409–420. doi:10.1007/bf02704969. grayson, d. k. 1981. a critical view of the use of archaeological vertebrates in paleoenvironmental reconstruction. journal of ethnobiology 1:28–38. hayashida, f. m. 2005. archaeology, ecological history, and conservation. annual review of anthropology 34:43–65. doi:10.1146/ annurev.anthro.34.081804.120515. lydeard, c., r. h. cowie, w. f. ponder, a. e. bogan, p. bouchet, s. a. clark, k. s. cummings, t. j. frest, o. gargominy, d. g. herbert, r. hershler, k. e. perez, b. roth, m. seddon, e. e. strong, and f. g. thompson. 2004. the global decline of nonmarine mollusks. bioscience 54:321–330. doi:10.1641/0006-3568(2004)054[0321:tgdonm] 2.0.co;2. lyman, r. l. 1998. white goats, white lies: the misuse of science in olympic national park. university of utah press, salt lake city, ut. lyman, r. l. and k. p. cannon, eds. 2004. zooarchaeology and conservation biology. university of utah press, salt lake city, ut. dombrosky. 2016. ethnobiology letters 7(1):38–41 41 reviews mckechnie, i., d. lepofsky, m. l. moss, v. l. butler, t. j. orchard, g. coupland, f. foster, m. caldwell, and k. lertzman. 2014. archaeological data provide alternative hypotheses on pacific herring (clupea pallasii) distribution, abundance, and variability. proceedings of the national academy of sciences 111:e807–e816. doi:10.1073/ pnas.1316072111. nabhan, g. p., m. coder, and s. j. smith. 2004. woodlands in crisis: a legacy of lost biodiversity on the colorado plateau. bilby research center occasional papers no. 2. ralph m. bilby research center, northern arizona university, flagstaff, az. newsome, s. d., m. a. etnier, d. gifford-gonzalez, d. l. phillips, m. van tuinen, e. a. hadly, d. p. costa, d. j. kennett, t. p. guilderson, and p. l. koch. 2007. the shifting baseline of northern fur seal ecology in the northeast pacific ocean. proceedings of the national academy of sciences 104:9709– 9714. doi:10.1073/pnas.0610986104. peacock, e., w. r. haag, and m. l. warren. 2005. prehistoric decline in freshwater mussels coincident with the advent of maize agriculture. conservation biology 19:547–551. doi:10.1111/j.15231739.2005.00036.x. popejoy, t., s. wolverton, l. nagaoka, and c. r. randklev. an interpretive framework for assessing freshwater mussel taxonomic abundances in zooarchaeological faunas. quaternary international. doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/ j.quaint.2015.09.101. randklev, c. r., s. wolverton, b. lundeen, and j. h. kennedy. 2010. a paleozoological perspective on unionid (mollusca: unionidae) zoogeography in the upper trinity river basin, texas. ecological applications 20:2359–2368. doi:10.1890/09-1425.1. rick, t. c. and r. lockwood. 2013. integrating paleobiology, archeology, and history to inform biological conservation. conservation biology 27:45– 54. doi:10.1111/j.1523-1739.2012.01920.x. szabó, p. 2015. historical ecology: past, present and future. biological reviews 90:997–1014. doi:10.1111/ brv.12141. wolverton, s. and r. l. lyman, eds. 2012. conservation biology and applied zooarchaeology. university of arizona press, tucson, az. a note on the montessori of ethnobiology, hal conklin anderson. 2016. ethnobiology letters 7(2):3–5 3 interviews & reflections special issue on memoirs and memory minus two of them, hal welcomed sensations as indulgences even when they did not contribute to a task at hand, discriminating one specimen from another, for instance. one entire section of his threesection folk classification bibliography (conklin 1980) was devoted to the ephemeral, and one of the three subsections of this, to color (the other two to sensation and orientation in space and time). it is no opportunistic accident that hal submitted hanunoo color to analysis, to be shared so generously with wider publics. knowing hal’s penchant for color excused my own fieldwork experiments with plant dyeing during my initial fieldwork in norwegian lapland from 1971 to 1976. this entailed expanding the ethnobotanical inventory i had initially imagined to be the scope of my investigations—specifically lichens as a limiting resource for reindeer in winters. despite the saami themselves evincing little interest in plants (they are not motile, after all) or color (other than the imported aniline-dyed textiles of their “traditional” outfits). i persevered, despite being judged by saami friends as both silly and lazy, avoiding worthwhile tasks. eventually i had 700 samples of colored yarn. how to share, or use, this ethnographic by-product, though, could be an issue, as there was little justification for it, let alone ethnographic documentation (other than remarks like, can’t you get red, can’t you get blue?). but, aside from plants and color, hal was also an enthusiast of technologies, of how people built things of any size or shape or utility (a given, i guess), which then he could artfully reconstruct in scale models. he would enter every seminar like a confident juggler, laden with stacks of volumes, sheaves of specimens, and assemblies of scale models. so i would need to expand my ethnographic expertise in the direction of mastering more legitimately authentic saami skills. with the passing of harold c. conklin in february of 2016, many feel the loss of this foundational figure in ethnobiology while continuing to celebrate his accomplishments. i also miss him as a teacher, a person who eagerly shared his wisdom, hunches, and feelings with anyone in reach. for me, hal remains a teacher rather than a mentor. i seem to recall that hal bristled at the use of that now trendy term, an aversion that i came to share. ironically, a couple of years ago i agreed to submit a manuscript featuring hal for a volume to be entitled mentors and mentoring in the arts, humanities, and the social sciences, edited by frank a. salamone and marjorie snipes. partly given my ambivalence around the m-word, that manuscript bogged down and was not submitted until the very final deadline at the end of october 2015. i believe i sent a copy to hal, but since it was not acknowledged, i am not so sure; in fact, i believe i got cold feet imagining his critical eye, even if hopefully tempered by indulgent amusement. my title said it all: “harold c. conklin: the joy of ethnography—from eye to ear to mouth to hand, and beyond to within and without.” given that still forthcoming essay, i can be brief here. hal did not like attention drawn to himself, and quite emphatically discouraged any formal festschrift. only by working behind his back and with the help of jean conklin was i able to organize a symposium honoring him at the aaa meetings in 1991. in the seminar room at yale or out in the natural and cultural world that was his oyster, hal exuded observations about things near and far, about ideas recent or distant, and about sensations of the moment. no doubt endowed with more than the ordinary five senses, even more than seven plus-ora note on the montessori of ethnobiology, hal conklin myrdene anderson1* 1department of anthropology and program in linguistics, purdue university, west lafayette, in, usa. *myanders@purdue.edu received july 3, 2016 open access accepted september 14, 2016 doi 10.14237/ebl.7.2.2016.738 copyright © 2016 by the author(s); licensee society of ethnobiology. this is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution-noncommercial 4.0 international public license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0), which permits non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. anderson. 2016. ethnobiology letters 7(2):3–5 4 interviews & reflections special issue on memoirs and memory with that in mind, i apprenticed myself to one of the few individuals making a living from handicrafts—these of reindeer antler, bone, and sinew, and of burls from birch and of pewter thread. starting from scratch, even manufacturing my own tools, i fashioned a handloom otherwise for the weaving of belts and boot straps. with this, i designed a necktie for hal; it was a narrow one, with an even narrower stretch for around the neck. i selected the rarest of colors, the most precious a baby blue from bluebells, others greens, yellows, and tans. even though i had no model, the result appeared to be what i had intended, a tie, and i sent it off to hal. on this contribution to scholarship i received no editing, only thanks and a passel of queries about every aspect of the project. since then, during the 1980s right to my last visit with him in new haven in 2011 and up to his last aaa conference around 2013, whenever hal could anticipate seeing me, he would be wearing that tie! hal’s style of teaching was not a premeditated pedagogy, he just shared himself. on the one hand he emphasized the value in letting oneself be surprised by data, any and all of it. on the other hand, it was documentation-documentation-documentation, all the way down, up, back, and around. in that process, i will admit that wild data become tamer, domesticated, and locatable capta. i don't recall witnessing hal ever searching for anything; it was as though his innenwelt perfectly matched his personal and scientific umwelt. in the service of this ideal, hal would avail himself of every trick of the trade, these tools and toys always eagerly promoted with his students as well, who sometimes had to be enlisted to test products or find sources. there was a complicated time-date-serial numbering stamping implement, larger and much heavier than an egg-beater. hal thought every document, every specimen, had to be clearly marked as to time, place, and identity, this nuanced by as many informant voices as possible. and each category of data/capta, each roll of film, each tape, must be separately logged; don’t forget the time of day, or else one will have to infer that from shadows, and don’t forget to annotate with any abductions of the moment, about that ambient noise, the smudges and kludges of fieldwork. another contraption that hal imagined would eventually be appreciated by all of us students was a rolling extension ladder that could be situated to access every top shelf in a library or storeroom. hal himself researched the most perfect product, something he needed in the countless number of spaces he colonized in the several buildings of the anthropology department and then also in the nearby peabody museum. when it came to writing instruments, hal opted for permanent ink or a lead pencil. for the first bout of fieldwork for the dissertation, still in thrall of hal, and given the arctic setting, i had to sleep not only with the batteries for camera and tape-recorder, but also with my rapidograph and india ink, to keep everything thawed. when it came to paper, well, this would not be an opinion, but a fact. it happened that merriam-webster relied on hal for some of its specialized dictionary entries having to do with botany and the philippines. he would periodically receive drawers of 3 by 5-inch cards for the terms in question—but they were not cards, they were slips of paper. some were dated many decades in the past, conceivably even more than a century, but still crisp with erect corners. even though i selected yale’s department of anthropology in 1968 largely because of hal, i would not get to meet him until his return from the field in ifugao until 1969. that would be the earliest that i became aware of the importance of the correct paper. in hal’s methods course, we were all introduced to a particular paper that would be worthy of all our data collection; it was the paper he had discovered from merriam-webster's filing system, and could be ordered in many sizes from judd paper company in holyoke, massachusetts. about this time or the following year, however, judd paper company let their best customer besides merriam-webster know that they would be replacing this paper type with an equivalent one bearing a different label. merriamwebster had beaten hal conklin to the draw, securing the final warehouse-full for themselves. hal was seriously concerned; after all, nothing could be exactly the same, even with the same label, and this label had changed, perhaps from edgemont to greenwood or vice-versa, or maybe edgewood to greenmont, or vice-versa (hal would not tolerate such imprecision, but the internet has not been helpful in this detail). students already had a tradition of combining their paper orders so as to avail themselves of a price discount at 68,000 ... of the 3 by 5-inch slips (i still have some of my quota). they arrived in flat, rectangular clumps of about 2,000, wrapped in plain brown paper. the next step in hal’s course was an empirical anderson. 2016. ethnobiology letters 7(2):3–5 5 interviews & reflections special issue on memoirs and memory test of the properties of this already-deemed-perfect paper, according to our anticipated field conditions. but now, we had two species of paper product to test, rather than just the one. in addition, we always had to also involve a variety of writing instruments, just to demonstrate the obvious, that some would not be indelible, and even some that were, might not outlast our own limited lifetimes. for subsets of their experimental scribbles, some students simulated the amazon rainforest with different cycles of washing machines, or for realistic wear-and-tear, kept some slips in pockets with loose change, and i recall stuffing a bunch in a snowbank for the winter. at the end of the semester, we put our evidence together and admitted that a ball-point pen would not be suitable in the field, but a 2.75 lead pencil might be, only to be trumped by a fine-pointed rapidograph pen. between the edgewood and greenmont paper, however, it was a draw. i detected that this was a disappointment for hal, that he would have been more satisfied with a difference in either direction. he did, however, hold an ace, that in personal connections. he always had personal connections: many would be his interlocutors on the phone, day and night, covering every earthly timezone. in this case, his friend was a new curator of paper, no less, at the recently opened yale museum for british art. the good curator had kilns for this very purpose. hal contributed the paper samples, blind, and in return was assured, that all the way to a simulated period of 500 years, the two paper types were equivalent, in fact, indistinguishable. this is an example of hal just not letting go—an inspiration for others that seldom can be equaled. one reason the writing of this brief note has been so intimidating, is the example hal set in everything he tackled. when floyd lounsbury, his own mentor and eventual colleague of half a century died, hal embarked on one more ethnographic project, to document his friend, from birth onwards, even visiting wisconsin. to do so for hal would also be a fitting task for scholars down the line. at this moment, it will suffice to recognize hal’s contributions to our minds and styles of inquiry. when i first read his work before coming to yale, i thought of him as an ethnobotanist, then later as an ethnobiologist, finally as an ethnoecologist. and reviewing the diversity amongst his students’ research topics then and now ongoing, one might conclude that even ethnoecology will not exhaustively represent the breadth and depth of hal's fascination with the world. references cited conklin, h. c. 1980. folk classification: a topicallyarranged bibliography of contemporary and background references through 1971. department of anthropology, yale university, new haven, ct. ‘fish’ and ‘non-fish’ in lio and nage: folk-intermediates and folk-generics in the fish classification of two eastern indonesian peoples forth 2017. ethnobiology letters 8(1):61–69 61 research communications they apply to these fish are lexically quite different yet reveal a high degree of semantic correspondence, with mostly the same empirical features being employed to distinguish and designate the same ichthyological species or genera. qualifying an overall similarity between lio and nage fish classification, an important folk taxonomic difference lies in the fact that only lio expressly include these five generics as members of a named ‘folk-intermediate’ (sensu berlin 1992), a variety of folk taxon exemplified by english ‘bird-of-prey’ and previously characterized as typically being unnamed (forth 2016:31, 33–34). in this way, the present study draws attention to the folkintermediate as an underexamined component of folk taxonomies and as a relatively neglected topic in theoretical work on folk biological knowledge. also, concerning connections between classification and nomenclature, a close examination of similarities and differences between lio and nage fish taxa further contributes to an understanding of the folk-generic, especially regarding the relative influence of cultural and inherent perceptual factors (or ‘natural discontinuity’) in representing and naming generics, introduction in previous publications (forth 2012, 2016), i described how the nage people of flores island in eastern indonesia classify fish. occurring as a named life-form in nage taxonomy, ika (‘fish’) reflects proto -austronesian *sikan (blust 2002:125). at the same time, nage ika refers mostly to marine fish, creatures that are poorly known to this highland-dwelling people, and only implicitly does it incorporate five categories (or folk-generics, sensu berlin 1992) of freshwater gobies—all members of the suborder gobioidei—with which nage are far more familiar. the present article explores a comparable ethnoichthyological classification more recently investigated in the ethnolinguistically related but distinct lio region of east central flores, located some 120 to 150 km to the east of nage territory. a particular issue in lio classification concerns how the lio names denoting the five kinds of gobies correspond to nage names for what are evidently the same species. although nage and lio both belong to the ngadha-lio grouping of languages, the names ‘fish’ and ‘non-fish’ in lio and nage: folk-intermediates and folkgenerics in the fish classification of two eastern indonesian peoples gregory forth1* 1department of anthropology, university of alberta, edmonton, canada. *gforth@ualberta.ca abstract based on recent field research on flores island, this paper describes the classification of fish found among the lio people. formally, lio fish taxonomy closely resembles that of the nage of central flores, discussed in a previous paper (forth 2012), but differs insofar as several kinds of freshwater fish, all members of the gobioidei, are subsumed in a named folk-intermediate taxon labeled mbo. most attention is given to lio names for folk-generics included in this intermediate. these correspond to the same species and genera included in a nage folk-intermediate which, however, is unnamed. moreover, lio names for the component generics are clearly motivated by the same morphological and behavioral features as are reflected in nage names for the same generics, yet the lio names themselves are lexically quite different. these simultaneous classificatory similarities and nomenclatural differences are discussed with reference to the parts played by a common cultural heritage and natural discontinuity in the categorization of fish among these two ethno-linguistically related groups. received february 9, 2017 open access accepted may 18, 2017 doi 10.14237/ebl.8.1.2017.900 keywords ethnoichthyology, classification and nomenclature, folk-intermediates, folk-generics, flores island copyright © 2017 by the author(s); licensee society of ethnobiology. this is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution-noncommercial 4.0 international public license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0), which permits non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. forth 2017. ethnobiology letters 8(1):61–69 62 research communications categories that have usually been treated as the basic units of any system of folk taxonomy. obtained during three visits to flores between 2014 and 2016, information of lio fish classification was recorded in the districts of mego and paga, in the easternmost part of the lio region, and derives mostly from conversations with lio residents in the conjoined mego settlements of nua lolo and léke ba’i and in the south coastal villages of wara, ma’u lo’o, and wolo wiro. principal informants included eight men who regularly engaged in fishing, or did so in their younger years. ages ranged from 39 to 73; the mean age was 57.6 and the median was 59.5. research was mostly conducted within the region in which a dialect identified as ‘east lio’ is spoken (suryati et al. 2013). according to the same source, ma’u lo’o and wolo wiro villagers should be speakers of ‘central lio,’ but this appears to affect neither the names nor the forms of classification of freshwater fish discussed here. combined with general, non-directive ethnographic conversations, more directive questioning about freshwater fish was conducted employing a combination of lio and bahasa indonesia (the indonesian national language) and partly took the form of free-listing, requesting people to list the lio names of all fish and other aquatic creatures they knew that occurred in local rivers and streams. the same method was applied to sea fish. once names were identified, i asked informants to describe the form, appearance, and habits of the creatures each designated. information on both freshwater and marine fish was further obtained from observing specimens caught by fishermen. photographs were taken of specimens as an aid to questioning and matching these to linnean taxa. considerable assistance in identifying species from photographs was kindly provided by professor akihisha iwata, an ichthyologist at kyoto university and an internationally recognized specialist in the suborder gobioidei. very little has been published on flores freshwater fish. just over twenty years ago, kottelat (1994:422) stated that “we know nothing about the freshwater fish fauna” of nusa tenggara (the eastern indonesian region which includes flores), and there is no indication the situation has significantly changed since then. lio, nage, and fish in addition to speaking related languages, in terms of livelihood, indigenous social organization, and general culture, lio do not differ greatly from nage. like nage, lio are primarily cultivators, raisers of livestock, and sometime hunters. for present purposes, the most important difference is that the eastern lio i worked with live closer to the sea, specifically the sawu sea on flores’ south coast. villagers in nua lolo and léke ba’i, the source of most of my information on fish, are moreover traditionally allied with the coastal village of wara, located about four kilometers due south. wara men spend most of their time engaged in maritime fishing, and during the twentieth century nua lolo and léke ba’i villagers also would seasonally participate in fishing expeditions—either going out in vessels or catching fry (recognized by lio as the immature forms of gobies and other freshwater species) as they enter estuaries. in addition, nua lolo, léke ba’i and other inland mego villages are situated close to the river wajo (kali wajo), a major water course that empties into the sawu sea near wara. to the present, villagers regularly catch fish, eels, and crustaceans in the wajo, employing traditional traps, nets, and weirs and increasingly the environmentally harmful and dangerous method of shock-fishing with motor batteries (or, sometimes, small generators) and electric prods. somewhat in contrast to lio, nage exploit freshwater fish less than they once did, and especially in central nage (the region in which my ethnozoological studies have been concentrated) people claim the number of fish and other creatures available in local rivers and streams has significantly declined in recent years—in part due to the harmful modern technologies also employed in lio (forth 2012). but although fish numbers are now reduced, and their importance for subsistence has accordingly decreased, nage are still knowledgeable about the various local categories i describe in this study. within the unique-beginner (sensu berlin 1992) labeled ana wa (‘animal’), nage include ika (fish) as a named life-form. lio ika has the same status, although for lio, ‘animal’ in the most comprehensive sense is denominated by binata, an obvious adaptation of malay binatang (‘animal’) (arndt 1933; forth 2004). like its nage cognate, as a life-form taxon lio ika subsumes not just bony fish (osteichthyes) but also sharks (ika iu) and rays (ika pari)—both chondrichthyes or cartilaginous fish—and sea mammals, including whales (léla ngai), dolphins (lobu), and dugongs (called ruju, ika ruju, or ata ruju). also like nage, lio do not usually regard marine turtles (kéra) as ika (fish). i once recorded ‘ika kéra’ as an item of observed speech, but subsequent enquiries revealed that this is not a regular forth 2017. ethnobiology letters 8(1):61–69 63 research communications expression. and lio ika also does not include eels (nake)1, freshwater and saltwater crustaceans (kura, mongga, kojo), or cephalopods (octopuses, kubi, and squids, wenu). in both nage and lio classification, ika is polysemous, for in addition to denoting a life-form taxon, the term labels a less inclusive class of fish. among nage this class admits a further distinction of ‘sea fish’ (ika mesi, specifically marine bony fishes) and river fish (ika lowo), categories i have previously treated as folk-intermediates. the same distinction is recognized by lio, who express it with the same terms. moreover, contrasting to ika at the intermediate level in the classification of both groups are the several previously mentioned categories of freshwater gobies. nage describe these as forming a distinct, albeit unnamed folk-intermediate that i have previously called the ‘tebhu cluster’, after its bestknown member (forth 2012, 2016:211–216), and in view of this contrast they regularly state that gobies are not ika (‘fish’). previously, i interpreted the nage distinction not as referring to ika as a life-form (which includes sharks, whales, and dugongs as well as bony fish) but to ika as a folk-intermediate. in a remarkably similar way, lio also say the gobioidei are not ‘fish’ (ika), and whereas both groups commonly assert that ika are all creatures of the sea, like nage they nevertheless recognize a number of folk-generics called ika which occur in freshwater (see table 1). by all indications, among lio as well the gobies are distinguished from ika specifically at the intermediate level and not from the entirety of ‘fish’ (ika). one support for this are the numerous times i recorded lio as well as nage describing gobies as ‘fish’ (ikan) when speaking bahasa indonesia (see forth 2012). another is the general point that speakers of any language are often not conscious of, nor do they articulate, different contextual senses of single terms. in fact, the classificatory contrast between sea fish and freshwater fish—in these ethnographic instances represented solely by gobies—appears to be more widespread on flores island. for manggarai, the language of western flores, verheijen (1967) glosses ikang (a cognate of nage and lio ika) as ‘(sea) fish’ (bi ‘ikan (laut)’). similarly, a native speaker of biting, a dialect of eastern manggarai, informed me that ikang denotes only sea fish (including sharks) and some freshwater fish—apparently mostly recently introduced exotics (cf. forth 2016:212, 214)—whereas other freshwater fish are not classified as ikang2. it is by now sufficiently clear that lio fish classification is, in most respects, formally similar to that of the nage. but there is one important difference. whereas the five nage generics included in the ‘tebhu cluster’ do not compose a named intermediate, for the lio they do, since all five, and another two kinds i was unable to identify, are classified as members of a folk-intermediate lio named mbo. mbo is clearly cognate with nage bo in the name ana bo, a synonym of ana tebhu, the prototype of the five fish generics that compose the ‘tebhu cluster’3. in addition, lio further employ mbo polysemously, to label one of the folk-generics included in intermediate mbo (see table 2), and by all indications this is the same species nage name ana bo or ana tebhu. lio recognize the same physical and behavioral differences between mbo and ika (or specifically lio name linguistic notes and identification ka mbara ae described as a ‘clear white’ fish. arndt (1933) lists ika mbara simply as a ‘river fish’. the relevant meaning of mbara here may be ‘clear, transparent, translucent’; ae is ‘water’, ‘water course’ (cf. nage ika ae, river fish, a synonym of ika lowo). ika mbulo a fish numerous in river estuaries. (arndt, 1933, gives mbulo as ‘marine eel’ and ana mbulo as a ‘sea fish’). ika ro ro is ‘(to) sting, smart, be painful’. the fish is so named because being stuck by its sharp scales (or spines) is very painful. lio described the fish as resembling a catfish and say it cannot be caught with a hook and line, unlike other river fish (ika). ika seli watu the name means ‘slides, sticks between stones’. described as a brownish fish, very similar to a milkfish (indonesian ‘ikan bandeng’) chanos chanos (see figure 1a). ika ka’i kapa the name translates as ‘thick-scaled fish, fish with thick scales’. lio in léke ba’i described both this kind and the following as not occurring in local rivers but only at higher elevations, in deep pools of cold water. ika éwa nawa ēwa, ‘fish’s tail’; nawa, ‘freckle, liver spot, birthmark’ (arndt 1933). lio describe the tail as speckled. table 1 list of lio freshwater fish generics identified as ika. forth 2017. ethnobiology letters 8(1):61–69 64 research communications freshwater ika) as do nage, in regard to body shape, swimming habits, and so on (forth 2012, 2016:211). also, as fish occurring in often fast-flowing rivers and streams, mbo are mostly caught with weirs and traps, whereas ika occurring in rivers are usually caught with hook and line. there are, however, exceptions to this, since lio employ lines to catch one sort of mbo (specified as kose ena) while some ika occurring in rivers are also caught in traps. as i previously concluded for the nage tebhu cluster (forth 2012:27), therefore, the folk-intermediate lio label as mbo is evidently a fully-formed taxon based on morphological and behavioural features rather than simply a utilitarian or other culturally specific ‘special-purpose’ category (see berlin 1992:142–144). a list of the lio mbo fish, with identifications and descriptions, is found in table 2 (see also figures 1 and 2); a list of freshwater ika distinguished by lio appears in table 1. all the categories listed in table 2 can be explicitly named as mbo (e.g., mbo mata taka) or alternatively by the specific name alone (e.g., mata taka). as indicated, all these names are straightforwardly descriptive of a morphological or behavioural feature of the fish concerned. the same applies to the several categories of freshwater fish lio identify as ika, which are listed in table 1, although in these cases ika is a necessary component of each name. in addition to the five generics described in table 2, all of which i was able to observe, informants mentioned two other kinds of mbo. one is mbo bita. bita means ‘mud’, and indeed the fish is described as living in mud. the other is mbo kéle te’a, described as showing yellow (te’a) under the front fins (kéle is ‘armpit’). informants also described this fish as being ‘stupid’ and easy to catch, thus somewhat like mbo kole kanda. lio mbo has another use that requires attention. the several folk-generics included under mbo are among the aquatic creatures lio collectively designate with the standard expression kura mbo. this term, however, does not denote a taxon but a utilitarian category comprising two animal names, a type of construction extremely common in the languages of central flores (forth 2016:140–148). complementing mbo in this context, kura, ‘prawn, crayfish’ (cf. nage kuza), refers to several kinds of freshwater crustaceans. but, as lio themselves recognize, the class of edible creatures labelled kura mbo incorporates table 2 folk-generics lio identify as kinds of mbo. lio name identification, description, and linguistic notes mbo boka janga, or simply mbo a freshwater goby sicyopterus sp., gobiidae, suborder gobioidei. arndt (1933, s.v. boka) lists boka janga (transcribed boka dzan’a) as ‘twigs of janga’, the name of an unidentified plant or tree. verheijen 1990 gives lio (detu keli) janga as kleinhovia hospita. if the identification is correct, then the name apparently refers to some resemblance between the form or coloration of the fish and the leaves or bark of the tree. (mbo) mata taka loach goby rhyacichthys aspro, rhyacichthyidae, suborder gobioidei. informants correctly describe the fish as attaching itself to rocks on stream bottoms. possessing a flattened head and ventral mouth, the fish more specifically attaches itself to stones with its broadened pelvic and pectoral fins and head and snout (larson 2011:55). the name refers to this behaviour. mata is ‘eye; node; central part (of something)’; taka, is ‘to stick, adhere to’ (arndt 1933). (mbo) kia ri’a throatspine gudgeon belobranchus belobranchus, eleotridae. named after its relatively large head (kia is ‘head, cranium’; ri’a is ‘big, large’). (mbo) kose ena awaous sp., godiidae; so named because the fish lives in sandy stream beds (ena, ‘sand’; kose, ‘to fit closely, tightly into or between (two things)’) (arndt 1933). lio informants glossed the name with bahasia indonesia ‘masuk pasir’, ‘enters, goes into sand’, and indeed, the shape of the snout is adapted to precisely this behaviour (akihisha iwata 2015, personal communication). among the several kinds of mbo (gobies), lio say only these can be caught with a hook and line, like eels and freshwater ika (fish), whereas all other mbo are caught with weirs and traps. the species is not certain. monk et al. (1997) list three species for eastern indonesia (nusa tenggara and maluku): awaous grammepomus, a. personatus, and a. melacocephalus, the largesnout goby. (mbo) kole kanda unidentified, but may refer in part to females of belobranchus belobranchus. described as a ‘stupid’ fish, in the sense that it does not swim away when approached and is therefore easily caught. informants interpreted the name as referring to this characteristic. one man equated kanda with bi ‘kandang’ (enclosure, corral); arndt gives it as ‘basket’ or ‘cage for chickens’. he also lists kole as ‘to lay, set down (trans.)’. the sense, therefore, may well be that the fish stays in one spot, as though placed in a container. forth 2017. ethnobiology letters 8(1):61–69 65 research communications figure 2 a mbo or mbo janga (sicyopterus sp.); b mbo kose ena (awaous sp.); c mbo mata taka (rhyacichthys aspro) showing attachable ventral fins. photos: gregory forth. figure 1 a ika seli watu, a freshwater fish (lio ika); b mbo ki’a ri’a (belobranchus belobranchus); c nake or nake léro, eel (anguilla sp.) showing dark speckling on yellow ground color. photos: gregory forth. forth 2017. ethnobiology letters 8(1):61–69 66 research communications not only gobies and crustaceans called kura but equally includes eels (nake), which lio classify as neither mbo nor ika, as well as freshwater crabs separately named as mongga and kojo. on the other hand, the category excludes riparian frogs, although these too are eaten. in this regard, lio kuza mbo precisely corresponds to the nage composite kuza tebhu (crustaceans [and] tebhu fish), a somewhat less common alternative to nage kuza tuna (crustaceans [and] eels), which similarly denotes a utilitarian class comprising several kinds of edible freshwater creatures. as mentioned, the categories of mbo fish described in table 2 correspond to the five nage generics identified as members of the covert folkintermediate i call the ‘tebhu cluster’. because lio and nage, though related, are different languages, it is not particularly surprising that the names the two groups give to these are quite different. but while the nage and lio names are lexically distinct, semantically they reveal a number of interesting correspondences. the details of these are summarized in table 3. to complete this overview of lio fish fauna, more should be said about eels. distinguished from both mbo and ika, several kinds of freshwater eels recognized by lio are named together as nake ae or simply as nake. ae is ‘water’. nake is interesting, as the term has the more general sense of ‘meat’; thus, nake ae might be glossed as ‘water meat’. but while this literal sense may suggest a special importance (or former importance) for eels in the lio diet, its precise significance is uncertain. also worth noting is the use of nake in the ende region, to the west of lio (thus intervening between lio and nage), as a general term for ‘bird’ (forth 2006), and the use of cognates in nage and ngada as a term for ‘meat’ but without simultaneously denoting any particular kind of animal. having the further meaning of ‘meat’, as the term for ‘eel’ lio nake might be thought to possess a utilitarian flavour. however, this applies to the name rather than the taxon denoted, as is shown by the lio identification of several kinds of eels (nake) with names that mostly refer to physical features of the living creatures, and it is further noteworthy that these descriptors all qualify nake, rather than nake ae. named eel kinds are listed in table 4. partly in view of comparative evidence from nage classification (forth 2016:216–221), these several kinds can be taken as folk-specifics, with nake (or nake ae) then being interpreted as a folk-generic unaffiliated with any lifeform. discussion and conclusion lio naming of the several goby generics under a single label, mbo, supports my previous interpretation (forth table 3 lio and nage ichthyological and nomenclatural equivalents. note: these identifications supersede those given for nage categories in forth 2012. identification nage name gloss lio name gloss comments sicyopterus sp. ana tebhu or ana bo mbo (=mbo boka janga; see table 2) cognate with nage bo (unanalyzable) rhyacichthys aspro kaka watu ‘sticks to rocks’ mata taka ‘adhering face belobranchus belobranchus tebhu teke ‘gecko tebhu’, or ‘gecko goby’, so named because of its large head, comparable to a gecko’s kia ri’a ‘large head’ teke denotes large geckoes of the genus gekko in both nage and lio awaous sp. su lai ‘penetrates, enters sand’ kose ena ‘fits into, enters sand’ uncertain (may in part refer to females of belobranchus belobranchus) pusu ‘heart; navel; centre’ kole kanda ‘placed in a container, basket’ this equivalence is partly inferred by elimination. (nage have no explanation for pusu as a fish name.) forth 2017. ethnobiology letters 8(1):61–69 67 research communications 2012) of ‘the tebhu cluster’ as a covert folkintermediate in nage classification. in both cases, the two folk taxa coincide with the scientific taxon gobioidei (a suborder of the perciformes). moreover, this folk taxonomic concordance involves an identical distinction, within the life-form ika, between mbo and ika, the second term in this context denoting, like mbo, a less inclusive folk-intermediate. to be sure, the overall isomorphism of the two classifications contrasts with the designation, in the two languages, of fish-generics included in mbo and the nage tebhu cluster by lexically quite different names. as shown, however, the names are in several cases semantically similar since in each instance they refer to the same morphological or behavioral features of the fish kinds they identify. this coincidence raises a question. can these semantic resemblances and coexistent lexical differences be explained by linguistic relatedness (accompanied by necessary divergence) between lio and nage? or, do resemblance and divergence reflect other factors, more particularly some combination of a common perception of natural discontinuity among different members of the gobioidei, on the one hand, and of a shared cultural heritage, on the other. the evidence provides more support for the second interpretation. for if linguistic relatedness were sufficient to explain semantic resemblance between the nage and lio terms, one should expect the names to be more similar than they actually are. for example, whereas lio call belobranchus belobranchus ‘large head’ (see table 3), nage call the same fish ‘gecko goby’, thus identically focusing on the fish’s relatively large head, which they compare to that of the lizard. but, partly because the same term (teke) denotes large geckoes (gekko spp.) in both languages, there is no obvious reason why lio, also, should not have named this fish by reference to the gecko. (here it should be noted that herpetofauna of the lio and nage regions appear not to be significantly different.) to cite another example, nage ‘sticks to rocks’ (kaka watu) and lio ‘adhering face’ (mata taka), both alluding to the same behavior and both denoting the loach goby rhyacichthys aspro, describe the same distinctive feature of this fish but in quite different ways. and they do so, moreover, even though the lio name might equally have incorporated watu (the word for ‘rock(s), stone(s)’ in both languages), especially as lio, too, speak of the species as ‘adhering’ to rocks. like the presence in both languages of teke, watu, mata, and other identical terms besides, these differences further rule out loan translation (the process whereby speakers of one language adopt a term from another and render it employing their own lexicon4) as an explanation for simultaneous semantic resemblances and lexical distinctions between lio and nage fish terms. in fact, there is only one name which could suggest a loan translation, that of the fish lio call kose ena and nage call su lai, since both names approximately mean ‘enters into sand,’ referring to the species’ characteristic habit of immersing itself into sand at the bottom of rivers and streams (see table 3). however, in nage, ‘sand’ is both ena (as it is in lio) and lai, so had the name been adopted from lio (kose ena) one would expect the fish to be called ‘su ena.’ contrariwise, su occurs with much the same meaning in both lio and nage, so had lio adopted the term from nage, ‘su ena’ (rather than su lai) should be expected as the nage name. table 4 kinds of eels (nake or nake ae). lio name linguistic notes, description, and identification nake or ‘nake biasa’ (bahasa indonesia biasa, ‘common’) anguilla sp., also specified as nake léro. léro denotes a bright yellow. accordingly, lio describe this as a yellow eel with stripes, and also as aggressive (see figure 1c). nake) jai (or jaghi) described as a dark-colored eel with long ‘scales’ or ‘spines’ on the back, found especially in the wet season when rivers are in flood. transcribed as jaghi, the modifier may mean ‘unpleasant tasting’ (arndt 1933, s.v. jayi). (nake) nggélu a light-colored eel. the sense of nggélu in this context is unclear. (nake) lo léna a small eel described as possessing a ‘hard body’ and a rounded tail that looks very similar to the head, and as occurring in sand. lo can mean ‘trunk’; the sense of léna is unclear. (nake) lawi lolo a flat-bodied eel, long, and with sharp teeth. following arndt (1933, s.v. lawi), the name translates as ‘sorghum leaf’, and may therefore refer to the body shape. (this may be the same eel nage call hame; forth 2016:216.) forth 2017. ethnobiology letters 8(1):61–69 68 research communications before exploring the second, better supported interpretation of concurrent similarities and differences between the nage and lio names, it is useful to recall that all distinguish folk-generics. it is further relevant that such generics everywhere—in contrast to taxa at higher and lower levels of classification—constitute biological gestalts, meaning that “exemplars of the category come to mind as a picture of the entire plant or animal” (berlin 1992:60; hunn and brown 2011:326). thus, folk-generics compose the psychologically most salient and obviously distinct components of any fauna or flora. and insofar as perceiving something as a gestalt may be entailed in an apprehension of living things as possessing singular ‘essences’ (sensu atran 1990), then folk-generics can be called the most ‘essential’ of taxa. as well as the inherent discontinuity between the several associated fish kinds, this quality of the folkgeneric contributes significantly to an explanation of why, taxonomically and nominally, nage and lio distinguish the same fish in similar ways. yet perceptual factors are not sufficient to account for the semantic similarities among the lexically different names. for the character of these names additionally points to the common possession, by the two ethnolinguistically related but separate groups, of a fundamentally identical conception of the same ichthyological species and genera which, in each instance, involves a selective focus on the same empirical morphological and behavioral features. i should stress that the reference here is to names rather than taxa. thus, the interpretation does not contradict the characterization of folk-generics as gestalts; rather the selectivity reflected in the names concerns not the entirety of a mental image but part of a process of representation, specifically that part which is concerned with nominally distinguishing folk -generics from similar but in some perceptible ways contrasting generics. rather than similar names per se, it is this common representation of the same or similar creatures found in lio and nage territory that reflects the shared heritage of the two peoples, and this heritage, moreover, is more broadly cultural rather than simply linguistic. of course, culture is implicated also in straightforward differences between the two nomenclatures, for example between the lio name kole kanda and the nage name pusu (see table 3), which designate if not the same species then at least members of the same suborder (gobioidei). to what extent cultural variation might account for the fact that the nage tebhu cluster comprises just five intermediates whereas the lio folk-intermediate labeled mbo includes two further fish kinds (mbo bita and mbo kéle te’a)—thus a difference less of naming than of classification—is difficult to say, as the classificatory difference may owe more to regional differences in the occurrence of particular ichthyofauna. nevertheless, the present analysis has shown how a detailed study of folk classification among ethnolinguistically close yet sufficiently distant populations like nage and lio can more precisely reveal the operation of what we usually call ‘culture’, in relation to cognitive, linguistic, and zoological factors (or factors of perceptual salience; hunn 1999:47–48), in the representation of folk-generic taxa, and the development of folk zoological taxonomies generally. notes 1interestingly, however, ika can be used as an avoidance term when speaking of a wife’s mother whose name is nake. whereas nake is a female personal name, ika is not. 2the informant mentioned three examples, lengor or lenger, peper, and senggilo (a snakehead). lengor may denote eliotris fuscus (verheijen 1967), one of the gobioidei. 3as discussed elsewhere (forth 2016:55, 250), nage ana (child, person, member [of a collectivity]) occurs frequently in nage names for folk-generics that comprise small animals and especially non-mammals. lio do not conjoin ana and mbo, nor does ana so commonly occur in other lio animal names. it is also worth stressing that, whereas nage ana bo names a folk-generic, lio mbo designates both a generic and a folk-intermediate. 4a familiar example of loan translation is english ‘worldview,’ derived from the semantically similar but lexically mostly different german ‘weltanschaung.’ declarations permissions: none declared. sources of funding: social sciences and humanities research council insight grant (2-13-2017). conflicts of interest: none declared. references cited arndt, p. 1933. li'onesisch-deutsches wörterbuch. arnoldus-druckerei, ende, flores, indonesia. forth 2017. ethnobiology letters 8(1):61–69 69 research communications atran, s. 1990. cognitive foundations of natural history. cambridge university press, cambridge, united kingdom. berlin, b. 1992. ethnobiological classification: principles of categorization of plants and animals in traditional societies. princeton university press, princeton, nj. blust, r.a. 2002. the history of faunal terms in austronesian languages. oceanic linguistics 41:89– 139. forth, g. 2004. the category of ‘animal’ in eastern indonesia. journal of ethnobiology 24:51–73. forth, g. 2006. words for ‘bird’ in eastern indonesia. journal of ethnobiology 26:177–207. doi:10.2993/0278-0771(2006)26[177:wfbiei] 2.0co;2. forth, g. 2012. when is a fish not a fish: questions raised by a nage life-form category. ethnobiology letters 3:23–30. doi:10.14237/ebl.3.2012.41. forth, g. 2016. why the porcupine is not a bird: explorations in the folk zoology of an eastern indonesian people. toronto university press, toronto, canada. hunn, e. s. 1999. size as limiting the recognition of biodiversity in folkbiological classifications: one of four factors governing the cultural recognition of biological taxa. in folkbiology, edited by d. l. median and s. atran, pp. 47–69. mit press, cambridge, ma, and london, united kingdom. hunn, e. s., and c. h. brown. 2011. linguistic ethnobiology. in ethnobiology, edited by e. n. anderson, d. pearsall, e. hunn, and n. turner, pp. 319–333. wiley-blackwell, hoboken, nj. kottelat, m. 1994. ‘the fishes of the mahakan river, east borneo: an example of the limitations of zoogeographic analysis and the need for extensive fish surveys in indonesia’. tropical biodiversity 2:401–426. larson, h. k. 2011. systematics of the rhyacichthyidae. in the biology of gobies, edited by r. a. patzer, j. l. van tassell, m. kovacic, and b. g. kapoor, pp. 51–60. crc press, new york, ny. monk, k., y. de fretes, and g. reksodiharjo-lilley. 1997. the ecology of nusa tenggara and maluku. the ecology of indonesia series volume v. periplus editions, hong kong, china. suryati, m., and a. m. mbete, m. lauder, and m. dhanawaty. 2013. phonological and lexical varieties of lio language in flores, east nusa tenggara: a study of geographical dialect. ejournal of linguistics 6:1–27. verheijen, j. a. j. 1967. kamus manggarai i: manggaraiindonesia. martinus nijhoff, s-gravenhage, netherlands. verheijen, j. a. j. 1990. dictionary of plant names in the lesser sunda islands. pacific linguistics series d, 83. department of linguistics, research school of pacific studies, canberra, australia. paleoethnobotany and ancient alcohol production: a mini-review ethnobiology letters. 2015. 6(1):28‐31. doi: 10.14237/ebl.6.1.2015.378. 28 mini-review number of preparation steps that can be involved in alcohol production, including steeping, sprouting, pressing, mashing, drying, toasting, grinding, boiling, and distilling plant parts for a range of effects. there is also a wide range of botanical additives, including spices and herbs, which are used to boost flavor and aroma. because the beverage itself is unlikely to preserve in the archaeological record, archaeobotanists must infer ancient alcohol production by examining the structure and form of recovered seeds and examining the spatial context of recovery. for example, the process of malting, which involves soaking and sprouting grains in water to convert starches to sugar for fermentation, alters the form of the grain from its original state, which can be seen archaeologically. bouby et al. (2011) provide archaeobotanical evidence for malted barley (hordeum vulgare linnaeus poaceae) in the mediterranean region of france during the 5th century a.d. in their analysis of a single household context, the authors find a high density and ubiquity of barley (compared to other taxa recovered from a single household); moreover, 90% of these barley seeds show a similar state of induced germination. this evidence for germination, in addition to the lack of weedy species in the assemblage, suggests the grain was intentionally processed to remove unwanted taxa and then soaked to begin the process of fermentation. additionally, other artifactual data, including fermenting pots, ovens, grindstones, and areas to dry the sprouted grain—essentially, a beer-making toolkit— were also recovered from the household, lending further support to bouby et al.’s (2011) hypothesis. the cultural practices surrounding the production and consumption of alcoholic beverages represent a growing area of archaeobotanical inquiry. as a food, alcohol is of great importance to many cultures around the world and is of interest to researchers studying myriad issues, including gender, religion, identity, politics, status, labor, and economy (dietler 2006; jennings and bowser 2009; mcgovern 2009; smith 2008). however, it can be problematic to convincingly argue for the production of alcohol in the past using archaeological evidence. how can archaeologists demonstrate that ancient plants were used for making alcohol and not for some other purpose? to address this question, archaeobotanists have adopted a multi-scalar approach that incorporates several lines of evidence to address issues related to the production and cultural role(s) of alcoholic beverages in the past. these lines of evidence— macrobotanical (seeds, wood charcoal) and microbotanical1 (pollen, starch grains, phytoliths) remains, spatial contexts of plant use and discard, documentation of ethnohistoric practices, and the correspondence between plant ingredients and other artifacts— can be integrated to identify ancient production areas of fermented beverages. humans have been making alcohol for at least 10,000 years and have developed a variety of methods to produce it. generally, alcohol is produced when yeast converts plant starches and sugars into ethanol (alcohol) during the process known as fermentation. grains, tubers, roots, and fruits are commonly used to produce alcohol because they possess a readily available source of starches and sugars, though other ingredients (i.e. honey) can also be used. there are a paleoethnobotany and ancient alcohol production: a mini-review matthew e. biwer1* and amber m. vanderwarker1 author addresses: 1 department of anthropology, university of california, santa barbara, ca 93106-3210, usa. *corresponding author: mbiwer@umail.ucsb.edu received: march 18, 2015 volume: 6(1):28-31 published: may 5, 2015 © 2015 society of ethnobiology abstract: the production and consumption of alcoholic beverages in the past is an important consideration when addressing issues involving ancient food. however, successfully demonstrating that alcoholic beverages were produced in prehistoric contexts is problematic. as a result, archaeobotanists have developed a multi-scalar approach, incorporating multiple lines of evidence, to argue for the production of fermented beverages in the past. keywords: paleoethnobotany, archaeology, fermented beverages ethnobiology letters. 2015. 6(1):28‐31. doi: 10.14237/ebl.6.1.2015.378. 29 mini-review a similar technique of documenting changes in seeds as a result of the alcohol production has been used in the peruvian andes. archaeobotanists have found that when the drupes of the peruvian pepper tree (schinus molle linnaeus anacardiaceae), the key ingredient used in making the alcoholic beverage chicha de molle, are steeped and boiled in water prior to fermentation, they take on an irregular form that is distinct from the non-boiled globular fruit (sayre et al. 2012:236). similarly, in southern france the association of domesticated grape (vitis vinifera linnaeus vitaceae) seeds with crushed grape skins, pedicels, and rachis indicate that these grapes were not simply cooked at the site, but that the fruits were pressed prior to fermentation to extract the juice for wine production (figueiral et al. 2010). thus, the state of recovered seeds in both cases suggests brewing and fermentation took place, and also provides a means to evaluate the steps of each brewing process. in addition to the morphology of macrobotanical remains (e.g., evidence of sprouting, boiling, pressing), the association of macrobotanical remains with brewing contexts (i.e., the presence of large cooking and/or fermentation containers, grinding stones, cooking fires, lack of diversity in activities in the space, etc.) provides clues to which plants were used to produce alcohol and how they were processed prior to boiling and fermentation. in the moquegua valley of southern peru, archaeologists identified an ancient wari (a.d. 600-1000) brewery on the summit of cerro baúl, a provincial administrative center of the wari empire (moseley et al. 2005). this trapezoidal structure contains three separate rooms, each of which was identified as a distinct area for milling, boiling, and fermentation, respectively (figure 1). other evidence that supports the interpretation that this space was a specialized chicha beer production area includes: the presence of grinding slabs in the milling room, the remnants of large boiling/fermentation ceramic vats with a line of hearths lined paralleling the wall, the presence of stone pedestals used to support the vats in the boiling room, and the remains of drinking cups (keros) recovered throughout the structure. in addition, the recovery of thousands of boiled, desiccated, and carbonized schinus molle drupes, alongside carbonized maize (zea mays linnaeus poaceae) kernels and embryos (another ingredient in chicha production), suggests the brewers were steeping the molle fruits and grinding sprouted maize as part of the production process involved in making chicha (goldstein et al. 2009). microbotanical data have also been used to identify and document the production of fermented beverages. in particular, evidence from starch grains and phytoliths has been used to test the sugar stalk hypothesis put forth by smalley and blake (2003). these authors suggest early mesoamerican maize was initially cultivated not for its grain but rather for its stalk, which the authors argue would have been valued for its sugary pith, an attractive resource for the production of alcohol. piperno et al. (2009) recently tested this hypothesis by extracting and identifying phytoliths and starch grains from chipped stone tools and grinding stones recovered from an archaic-period (~7000 b.c.) site of xihuatoltla, located in the central balsas river valley of mexico; this location is significant as it has recently been identified as the origin of maize domestication in addition to being the home of maize’s wild ancestor, teosinte (zea mays ssp. parviglumis iltis & doebley poaceae) (buckler et al. 2006; fukunaga et al. 2005; matsuoka et al. 2002). the results of analysis conducted by piperno and colleagues indicate: a lack of teosinte starch grains and figure 1. the boiling room of the brewery excavated on the top of cerro baúl, moquegua, peru (photo courtesy of patrick ryan williams). ethnobiology letters. 2015. 6(1):28‐31. doi: 10.14237/ebl.6.1.2015.378. 30 mini-review phytoliths; the presence of starch grains and phytoliths from domesticated maize kernels; and no evidence of phytoliths or starch grains from the stalks of maize or teosinte (piperno et al. 2009:5020-5022). thus, the currently available microbotanical data from maize’s center of origin does not support smalley and blakes (2003) hypothesis that the grain was initially exploited for its sugary stalk to produce alcohol. another microbotanical study regarding maize fermentation uses phytoliths to assess the emergent role of domesticated maize (zea mays linnaeus poaceae) in formative-period (~800 b.c.) foodways of the titicaca basin in the south american andes (logan et al. 2012). the authors use a combination of phytolith data recovered from human teeth, ritual paraphernalia, ceramic pots, lithic tools, and contextual analysis of space (e.g., areas identified as public ritual spaces versus household contexts of daily food production) to assess the early uses of beer in the region. their results indicate a lack of phytoliths from the interiors of domestic cooking vessels, suggesting maize was not boiled or cooked as part of daily subsistence. instead, it appears that maize played a larger role in ceremonial and ritual activities, as indicated by the identification of maize glume and kernel phytoliths on: (1) grinding stones recovered near ceremonial spaces; (2) ritual paraphernalia, such as incense burners (incensarios); and (3) the teeth of human sacrifice victims recovered from ritual locations (logan et al. 2012:247-248). considering the phytolith evidence and spatial contexts in tandem, the authors argue that the earliest use of maize in the titicaca basin is most likely attributable to the production of chicha de maíz for consumption during ritual activities, rather than production for daily household consumption. we emphasize a multi-proxy approach to research on alcohol production because of the limitations inherent in using organic remains. relying primarily on paleoethnobotanical data to address the ancient production of alcoholic beverages is problematic because of the nature of plant preservation. how can archaeologists who work in areas with minimal or no botanic preservation find evidence for the production of fermented beverages? the presence and contexts of materials used to produce alcohol (hearths, grinding stones, ceramic vessels for boiling, fermenting, and storing of liquids) can be taken together with ethnographic evidence to assess whether or not alcohol could have been produced at a site. while archaeobotanical materials are useful for identifying the kinds of fermented beverages produced at the site, the spatial associations and contexts of production-related materials allow us to address the actual production process that ancient peoples used to ferment beverages. research focusing on the production of fermented beverages and their cultural significance in the past represents a small, but growing, area of paleoethnobotany. methodological developments in archaeobotany, in particular the analysis of phytoliths and starch grains, have been critical in advancing interpretive power, especially in very early production contexts in which the preservation of macrobotanical remains is poor (e.g., the balsas river valley case). by combining archaeobotanical data with artifactual data and information on the social/spatial contexts of use, archaeobotanists can continue to develop new ways to better conceptualize the production and consumption of alcoholic beverages in the past. references cited buckler, e. s., m. m. goodman, t. p. holtsford, j. f. doebley, and g. j. sánchez. 2006. phylogeography of the wild subspecies of zea mays. maydica 51:123134. bouby, l., p. boissinot, and p. marinval. 2011. never mind the bottle: archaeobotanical evidence of beer -brewing in mediterranean france and the consumption of alcoholic beverages during 5th century b.c. human ecology 39:351-360. dietler, m. 2006. alcohol: anthropological/ archaeological perspectives. annual review of anthropology 35:229-249. figueiral, i, l. bouby, l. buffat, h. petitot, and j. f. terral. 2010. archaeobotany, wine growing and wine producing in roman southern france: the site of gasquinoy (beziers, herault). journal of archaeological science 37:139-149. fukunaga, k., j. hill, y. vigouroux, y. matsuoka, j. sánchez, k. liu, e. s. buckler, and j. doebley. 2005. genetic diversity and population structure of teocinte. genetics 169:2241-2254. logan, a. l., c. a. hastorf, and d. m. pearsall. 2012. “let’s drink together”: early ceremonial use of maize in the titicaca basin. latin american antiquity 23:235-258. ethnobiology letters. 2015. 6(1):28‐31. doi: 10.14237/ebl.6.1.2015.378. 31 mini-review goldstein, d. j., r. c. coleman goldstein, and p. r. williams. 2009. you are what you drink: a sociocultural reconstruction of pre-hispanic fermented beverage use at cerro baul, moquegua, peru. in drink, power, and society in the andes, edited by justin jennings and brenda bowser, pp. 133-176. university of florida press, gainesville, fl. jennings, j., and b. bowser. 2009. drink, power, and society in the andes: an introduction. in drink, power, and society in the andes, edited by justin jennings and brenda bowser, pp. 1-27. university press of florida, gainesville, fl. matsuoka, y., y. vigouroux, m. m. goodman, g. j. sánchez, e. buckler, and j. doebley. 2002. a single domestication for maize, shown by multilocus microsatellite genotyping. pnas 99:6080-6084. mcgovern, p. e. 2009. uncorking the past: the quest for wine, beer, and other alcoholic beverage. university of california press, los angeles, ca. moseley, m. e., d. j. nash, p. r. williams, s. defrance, a. miranda, and m. ruales. 2005. burning down the brewery: establishing and evacuating an ancient imperial colony at cerro baúl, peru. pnas 102:17264-17271. piperno, d. r., a. j. ramere, i. holst, j. iriarte, and r. dickau. 2009. starch grain and phytolith evidence for early ninth millennium b.p. maize from the central balsas river valley, mexico. pnas 106:5019-5024. sayre, m., d. goldstein, w. whitehead, and p. r. williams. 2012. a marked preference: chicha de molle and huari state consumption practices. nawpa pacha 32:231-282. smith, f. h. 2008. the archaeology of alcohol and drinking. university press of florida, gainesville, fl. biosketches matthew e biwer is a ph.d student in the department of anthropology at the university of california, santa barbara. his work focuses on paleoethnobotany, culture contact, and foodways in the peruvian andes. amber m. vanderwarker is an associate professor of anthropology at the university of california, santa barbara. she has been involved in field and laboratory work in mexico, eastern north america, and peru. notes 1this review does not include those studies of chemical residue analysis of archaeological materials. felling ficus: the cultural status of fig trees in a rural assamese community, india ethnobiology letters. 2015. 6(1):89‐98. doi: 10.14237/ebl.6.1.2015.269. 89 research communication diversity and abundance of frugivorous birds visit networks of scattered fig trees, suggesting that this relationship remains intact (barua and tamuly 2011; caughlin et al. 2012; eshiamwata et al. 2006). the ecological benefits of figs in rural landscapes are dependent on their persistence as networks of scattered trees (manning et al. 2006). while many scattered tree ecosystems are declining globally (gibbons et al. 2008; ismail et al. 2014), scattered fig trees face a peculiar set of challenges due to their close connection to religious and cultural values in some societies (mawdsley et al. 1998; sitaramam et al. 2009). for example, in madagascar, scattered fig trees are not cut because they are associated with the ways of life and activities of ancestors (martin et al. 2009), while in india several fig species play an important role in hindu and buddhist beliefs (chandrakanth et al. 1990; dutta 2006; gadgil and guha 1993; kumar introduction fig (ficus spp. moraceae) trees are considered critical components of forest ecosystems across the tropics (lambert and marshall 1991; shanahan et al. 2001; terborgh 1986). as a result of their mutualistic relationship with pollinator fig wasps (agaoninae, chalcidoidea), fig populations produce fruit through-out all seasons of the year (kinnaird et al. 1996). they also produce very high volumes of fruit, which have unusually high concentrations of rare minerals (o’brien et al. 1998). these factors make fig trees important food resources for many frugivorous mammals and birds (shanahan et al. 2001). this interaction with frugivorous species is a major driver of seed dispersal in tropical forests and helps to determine the composition and relative abundances of plant communities (howe and miriti 2004). beyond forests, in human-modified landscapes, a high felling ficus: the cultural status of fig trees in a rural assamese community, india h. eden w. cottee-jones1* and robert j. whittaker1,2 author addresses: 1biodiversity research group, school of geography and the environment, oxford university centre for the environment, university of oxford, south parks road, oxford, ox1 3qy, united kingdom. 2centre for macroecology, evolution and climate, department of biology, university of copenhagen, copenhagen, denmark. *corresponding author: henry.cottee-jones@seh.ox.ac.uk received: october 17, 2014 volume: 6(1):89-98 published: august 19, 2015 © 2015 society of ethnobiology abstract: scattered fig (ficus spp. moraceae) trees are critically important for biodiversity conservation in tropical rural landscapes. by providing large fruit crops, they help maintain seed dispersal networks and facilitate forest restoration. the conservation of fig trees scattered across rural landscapes is therefore vital for the preservation of ecosystem services and biodiversity beyond the borders of protected areas. given the threats to scattered fig trees, it is increasingly important to identify potentially effective local conservation strategies that accommodate existing perceptions of their value. we used ethnographic techniques to assess the attitudes of villagers towards fig trees in the village of komargoan and its surroundings in assam, india. as reported for other parts of south asia, we found fig trees have significant sacred status, which included taboos against cutting them down. however, we discovered mixed and sometimes contradictory understandings of the religious attributes of fig trees, which were sometimes believed to be inhabited by gods or ancestral spirits. the benefits most commonly associated with fig trees by interviewees were their aesthetic beauty, large size, and shade during the daytime heat. when the presence of these trees incurred economic costs, their religious, aesthetic, and practical benefits were not sufficient reasons to prevent people from cutting them down, although often saplings would be planted in another place as compensation. unexpectedly, figs were only planted by respected members of the community, usually older men, who had sufficient social status. any conservation strategy aiming to sustain the abundance of figs in rural assam is more likely to be successful if these cultural views are taken into account. keywords: assam, conservation strategies, cultural values, ficus spp., sacred trees, scattered trees supplementary files available at ojs.ethnobiology.org/index.php/ebl. ethnobiology letters. 2015. 6(1):89‐98. doi: 10.14237/ebl.6.1.2015.269. 90 research communication et al. 2011). for example, in hindu tradition, ficus benghalensis l. rosales moraceae features regularly as a holy tree, and it is one of the trees that can be planted to avoid judgment in the afterlife (jain and kapoor 2007). for buddhists, ficus religiosa l. rosales moraceae is the most sacred tree, as it was under this tree that buddha received enlightenment (kunwar and bussmann 2006). while an understanding of cultural values is essential for effective species conservation in human landscapes (berkes 2004; chazdon et al. 2009; harvey et al. 2011), a deeper understanding of the local attitudes towards scattered fig trees in particular may be needed to ensure their conservation. fortunately, in some areas, such as northeast india, grassroots conservation movements are increasingly common, where local groups emerge to address issues of concern. near kaziranga national park in assam, for example, a group of conservation minded locals launched the successful naturalist for rehabilitation of snakes and birds initiative in 2008 (nrsb 2014). we sought to support similar locally-defined conservation initiatives by investigating how a culturally and ecologically important tree (figs), could fit with a conservation strategy at a practical level, while also contributing towards academic discourses on aligning local values with conservation priorities. with these objectives in mind, our research questions were: 1) what religious ideas do people attribute to fig trees?, 2) what are the local attitudes towards fig trees?, 3) what culturally informed strategies may be successful in boosting fig recruit-ment rates?, and 4) if a conservation body was interested in conserving fig trees in the study area, what local beliefs and norms should be taken into account when developing a strategy? figure 1. map of india, with the study location marked by the black box. ethnobiology letters. 2015. 6(1):89‐98. doi: 10.14237/ebl.6.1.2015.269. 91 research communication study site and methods the study was conducted from october 3 to decem-ber 9, 2012 and february 16 to june 22, 2013. the central field site was the village of komargoan at n26 38.221 e93 45.377 in the golaghat district of assam, northeastern india (figure 1). the climate is subtropical with a pronounced monsoon season from may to august. mean annual rainfall is high, with an overall average of 2,900 mm (gsi 2011). the majority of precipitation (approximately 76%) falls during the monsoon season. the temperature ranges from 4 to 19°c during the winter months (november to february) and 26 to 37°c during the summer (may to august), which is also accompanied by very high humidity (with a daily range of 55 to 95%). the original moist subtropical deciduous forest habitat was largely cleared following the local com-mercialization of tea production in 1840 (shrivastava and heinen 2007), resulting in the creation of an agricultural mosaic, with a heterogeneous assortment of smallholder rice cultivation, tea estates, and village home gardens (jadhav and barua 2012). komargoan is located at the junction of two major roads, the at road (national highway 37) and the dhodar ali road. at the time of the study, the population of the village was an estimated 1,462 (goi 2011) and the primary source of income was rice farming. rice paddies were owned by small-holder farmers, who sold the majority of their harvest at local markets. rice farmers also maintained small gardens (approximately 0.1 ha) around their homes, where they grew subsistence crops, such as banana (musa spp. l. zingiberales: musaceae), mango (mangifera indica l. sapindales: anacardiaceae), and jack fruit (artocarpus heterophyllus lamarck rosales: moraceae). some farmers supplemented their income by selling cash crops (particularly betel nut, areca catechu l. arecaceae), cow’s milk, or poultry. most farmers kept small numbers of cows and chickens, while some farmers also kept several ducks, pigs, and goats. houses in the village were mainly constructed of brick with tin roofing, and had bamboo fences surrounding the home gardens. to gain a deeper understanding of social relations between local people and scattered fig trees in the study area, detailed observation and open-ended interviews were conducted. ethnographic observa-tions centered on the experience of daily life within an ahom community in the village of komargoan. the ahom, the dominant social group in assam, are hindu and primarily speak assamese. in komargoan, the first author resided with a rice farming family in a recently constructed brick house with a temporary tin roof. their wealth was typical of the households in the area. they earned money from farming 1.5 ha of rice paddies, and otherwise produced milk, eggs, and fruit in their home garden for subsistence. during this time, the first author helped with the rice harvest, assisted with maintenance of the home garden, cooked, cleaned, and helped with tasks around the house, as well as eating and socializing with the household and neighbors. such participant observa-tion allowed this researcher to build rapport with the community, and to uncover implicit perspectives towards fig trees that were less apparent in partici-pants’ responses to interview questions. over the course of the study period, this research-er held discussions with members of the community in assamese, english, and in assamese through a translator (who was a native assamese and fluent english speaker). in cases where a translator was needed, the translator was trained in the importance of providing accurate and detailed accounts of the exchange, with ongoing orientation before and after translated encounters regarding how questions should be framed. although the use of a translator increased the formality of some discussions, interactions were still conversational, which enabled the first author to ask open ended questions. to complement the information gathered during participant observation and casual exchanges, we also conducted a series of 12 interviews with key inform-ants who we considered potentially able to offer additional in-depth insights based on their interactions with figs. these informants included women who lived in the proximity of fig trees, village elders, a witch doctor, a priest, and a tea estate manager. we asked each individual a series of 18 standard questions with open-ended responses (see supplementary questionnaire 1) and asked follow-up questions that arose during the course of the interview. interviews were conducted orally and lasted between 40 minutes to one hour. all interviews were transcribed by hand and two were recorded on video. as men are tradi-tionally considered to be heads of the household in komargoan, it was difficult to recruit female inter-viewees, and so nine interviewees were male. inter-viewees’ ages ranged from 29 to 80 years. the topics covered in each interview included: 1) the religious ethnobiology letters. 2015. 6(1):89‐98. doi: 10.14237/ebl.6.1.2015.269. 92 research communication significance of fig trees; 2) the benefits provided by fig trees; 3) the economic and environmental prob-lems associated with fig trees; 4) whether fig trees were cut down in the area; and 5) how people could be encouraged to plant more fig trees. interviewee names were codified to preserve anonymity and fictional names are used in this paper. although there are over 750 species of fig worldwide (berg and corner 2005), exhibiting a diverse range of growth strategies, including trees, shrubs, herbs, vines, and creepers (chaudhary et al. 2012), we confined our study to large, hemi-epiphytic tree species. these species were most readily identifia-ble as fig species by the local community, and they are also the focus of the ficus–frugivore conservation literature (lambert and marshall 1991; shanahan et al. 2001). fig species were identified in a survey of the study area, conducted by a professional botanist from the assamese non-governmental conservation organization aaranyak and a botanist from wild grass ecolodge, located near kaziranga national park. photographs of trees which could not be identified with certainty in the field were compared to herbarium specimens at the assam state botanical gardens. we adopted an inductive thematic approach to data analysis, in which meanings and key issues emerged from the data through the careful analysis of all records. notes from observations, informal conversations, formal interviews, and videos were used to generate a more comprehensive understand-ing of the emerging themes. religious status of fig in assam there was widespread acknowledgement among the residents of komargoan that fig trees are sacred. this finding is consistent with previous reports from the indian subcontinent (table 2) (chandrakanth et al. 1990; dutta 2006; gadgil and guha 1993; kumar et al. 2011; sitaramam et al. 2009). we observed temples or shrines were common features at the base of large ahot gos (f. religiosa) and bor gos (f. benghalensis) trees (table 1). these ranged from large modern temples to small shrines, consisting of red banners as gifts to the gods or even posters depicting a god. several villagers reported that gods lived in the fig trees (figure 2). for example, priest purshat, who was responsible for a temple at a large bor gos, explained that evidence for gods inhabiting fig trees could be found in the pure white waxy sap they produce when cut, which is the blood of gods. however, there was some variation in reports of which gods in particular inhabited fig trees. priest purshat described the god dangoria as the only god that inhabited the bor gos next to his temple. other villagers identified multiple gods inhabiting fig trees, while tika kunwar, a nepali immigrant, argued that only durgha, the god of power, inhabited fig trees. there was also some discrepancy over which fig trees held sacred value, with many reporting ahot gos to be the most important scientific name assamese name hindi name english name ficus altissima blume godha bor khunia council tree, lofty fig f. benghalensis l. bor gos barh indian banyan f. benjamina l. juripakri, chilu bor pukar weeping fig f. curtipes corner kotholua-jori blunt leaf fig f. elastica roxb. ex hornem. rubber gos, atha bor bargad indian rubber tree f. microcarpa l.f. silu bor kamarup indian laurel, chinese banyan f. racemosa l. dimoru gular cluster fig f. religiosa l. ahot gos peepal bo tree, peepal tree, sacred fig f. rumphii blume jori gos kabaipeepal mock peepal tree, rumpf's fig tree table 1. scientific, assamese, hindi, and english names of the large hemi-epiphytic fig species included in this study. komar‐goan village, assam. all fig species belong to the order rosales and the family moraceae. ethnobiology letters. 2015. 6(1):89‐98. doi: 10.14237/ebl.6.1.2015.269. 93 research communication species, despite priest purshat arguing that bor gos is the main god tree. a more widespread view, held by almost every interviewee, was that ancestors inhabited fig trees. there was some evidence that the sacred value of fig trees was tied to their age and size. for example, hondihiram phukon, a man who lived near a small fig tree, commented that ancestors did not live in this particular tree, as it was too young. the link between size and age, and the relationship between large old trees and sacred value may also help explain why slightly smaller species, such as chilu bor (ficus benja-mina linnaeus rosales: moraceae), were not reported to have religious or spiritual significance. further-more, temples and shrines were conspicuously absent from young and small trees. benefits of figs one of the major local uses of fig trees was tied to their sacred value, where the young branches of ahot gos would be harvested on hindu holy days for use in puja or worship. the branch would be placed in a temple or shrine as an offering to the hindu deities. we only observed the branches of f. religiosa used for this purpose. the most commonly cited benefit of scattered fig trees was the shade they provided, with almost all interviewees (10 out of 12) reporting that fig trees provided “cool air” (quote from mimpi majuli) and “a large shadow” (dulal borah) for people and livestock to shelter under during the daytime heat, when the temperature commonly exceed 35°c. this perception helps explain the occurrence of figs in open agricul-tural areas, such as paddy fields, and their abundance in public places, such as bus stops and junctions. many villagers also reported beauty to be a major benefit of fig trees. participants identified examples of beautiful fig trees, which tended to be old and very large specimens, usually with complex trunk patterns and aerial roots. indeed, the literal translation of bor gos, the assamese name for f. benghalensis, is “big tree”. in that sense, these beautiful local fig trees exhibited table 2. examples of representations by key informants concerning scattered fig trees in assam, india. comments and quotes are organized according to main interview topics. topic comments religious significance of fig trees “we attach red cloth to large fig trees as a gift to the gods” (hondihiram phukon, el‐der man who planted a f. religiosa tree) “even if a tree has no temple, it is still a holy tree, and people will pray there” (konkeswar dhekial, man who lives near a f. benghalensis tree) benefits provided by fig trees “trees don’t give us anything useful, except the leaves we use for puja” (gunin borah, elder man who lives near a f. religiosa tree) “i can’t think of illnesses that can be cured using a bor gos. i don’t know of anyone who uses it for sickness” (suno gogoi, village witch doctor) problems associated with fig trees “fig trees provide too much shade for tea to grow, and they provide places for insects to live, which eat the tea plants” (rajan surman, tea estate manager) “the bor gos drinks lots of water, so we cannot build a well near the tree. if the tree was removed there would be no problem. a well would have to be at least 9 meters deep to get water under that tree” (konkeswar dhekial, man who lives near a f. ben-ghalensis tree) whether fig trees were cut down in the area “if someone cuts down a fig they will be punished by the people, and the gods may kill him in revenge” (priest purshat, temple priest) “we would not cut down this fig, and we would not ask someone to cut it down for us. gods live in the tree.” (mimpi majuli, young mother living near a f. benghalensis tree) “if you want to cut a fig, you should first plant another tree nearby, otherwise the ancestors will be angry” (gunin borah, old man who lives near a f. religiosa tree) how people might be encouraged to plant more fig trees “fig trees are planted for your own happiness, but also for the good of the peo‐ple” (priest purshat, temple priest) “men who can plant fig trees should be about 60 years old” (probin saikia, rice farmer who planted a f. religiosa tree) ethnobiology letters. 2015. 6(1):89‐98. doi: 10.14237/ebl.6.1.2015.269. 94 research communication similar physical characteristics to heritage fig trees in southern china, which survive in urban areas as symbols of beauty and nature (jim 2004). while many sources identify medicinal properties of fig trees (dutta 2006; kumar et al. 2011; lansky et al. 2008;), the villagers we met did not seem aware of any illnesses that fig products could help prevent or cure. locals also did not eat fig fruit, although we regularly observed livestock eating fallen fruit. the wood was not used as a building material, for con-struction, or furniture, as the wood was said to be of very poor quality. villagers also said it burnt very poorly when used as firewood and was not worth cutting down for that purpose. disadvantages of standing fig trees despite their sacred position in assamese culture, residents’ perceptions of the disadvantages and costs of fig trees were apparent. their large canopies, which were favored in public spaces such as road junctions and markets, were often undesired on private land, where they would very effectively shade out crops and thereby reduce agricultural productivity. rajan surman, a manager at a 252 ha tea estate, commented that along with the extensive shade they produce, fig trees are also breeding areas for insect pests that can further reduce productivity. their extensive but shallow root systems were perceived as a problem for agriculture, creating a barrier to ploughs and compet-ing with crops for moisture and nutrients. the quantity of water fig trees drew from the soil was the focus of a complaint by the 70 year-old konkeswar dhekial, who commented that one could not place a pump well under or near a bor gos, as it would provide too much competition for water. this is a critical issue, as every house within reach of a groundwater source in komargoan and neighboring villages received its entire household water supply from a pump well. for these reasons, many villagers de-scribed fig trees as problematic species. figure 2. temple priest in front of a ficus benghalensis inhabited by gods. south of the village of komargoan, assam. photo: h. eden w. cottee-jones. ethnobiology letters. 2015. 6(1):89‐98. doi: 10.14237/ebl.6.1.2015.269. 95 research communication felling figs given the strong economic complaints made by locals about fig trees, it was interesting to hear their attitudes and stories about cutting fig trees down. during casual conversations, most komargoan villagers indicated that they did not cut down these trees. for example, while the researcher assisted a local woman with work in her home garden, she emphatically stated that komargoan villagers would never fell a fig tree. many other villagers similarly expressed concern about offending ancestors or angering gods by felling these trees. priest purshat reported that people who cut fig trees down may be punished or killed by the gods. the perceived power of the gods was also illustrated by the story of chandrajit tinta, a mother whose house neighbors a large bor gos. she described a dream where the gods who inhabited the bor gos were angry, as they did not like her boundary fence being so close to their tree, so the next day her husband moved the fence back by six meters. similar fears also influenced shana’s decision-making. her family lived under an enormous bor gos on a small hill, and she complained that during stormy nights they could not sleep as they were so worried the tree would break and fall on them. however, she said they were too scared to cut the tree down because ancestors live in it. some individuals had more pragmatic perspec-tives. for example, gunin borah said that if one needs to cut a fig tree down, another should first be planted for the ancestors. similarly, dyoti soika said before cutting down a tree one should pray at a fig tree and explain to the ancestors why it has to be harvested. other reasons given for cutting fig trees included preventing trees from encroaching on roads, stopping figs from tangling with power lines, and controlling excessive shading of small village gardens. even a professional local conservationist, jintu tumali, cut a mature fig tree down to improve productivity in his home garden. figure 3. standing ficus curtipes (corner rosales: moraceae) surrounded by cleared tea estate, east of the village of komar‐goan, assam. photo: h. eden w. cottee-jones. ethnobiology letters. 2015. 6(1):89‐98. doi: 10.14237/ebl.6.1.2015.269. 96 research communication an additional insight into the religious tensions over felling fig was provided by rajan surman as he stood in front of a recently cleared tea plantation. according to him, because tea plants become less productive after about 80 years, they are cyclically removed, replaced with nitrogen fixing plants for two years, and then new tea plants and shade trees are planted. before his plantation was cleared by bulldoz-er, rajan had a fairly dense cover of shade trees, including two figs. afterwards, all the tea plants and shade trees were absent with the exception of the two fig trees, which now stood completely exposed (figure 3). rajan reported that the bulldozer driver had refused to remove the fig trees because he considered them sacred. when asked whether he intended to leave them standing, rajan said that he would employ someone who did not share these beliefs and would be willing to cut the trees down. the wood, he said, would be used to make fence posts. although it did protect them initially, in this case the sacred status of fig trees was not sufficient to conserve the trees growing in the tea estate. the heterogeneity of local values uncovered here suggests that any conservation organization attempting to conserve scattered fig trees should be cautious of relying too heavily on their sacred status. planting figs the local reports we received regarding planting fig trees were also fairly complex. there was widespread support among villagers for planting fig trees and many people mentioned having such experience. figs were planted for a variety of reasons either by seed or cuttings from mature trees. probin saikia planted a fig by the road outside his house because he thought it would look beautiful when it was older. suno gogoi planted an ahot gos in front of his shop to prevent cars crashing into it, as had happened to a neighboring shop. hondihiram phukon planted an ahot gos at a road junction near his house to provide shade. gunin borah planted a fig tree on the banks of a stream to prevent erosion. interestingly, all of these people fall into a similar demographic, being fairly elderly men between the ages of 55 and 78. they, along with many others in the community, reported that only senior men (about 55 years or older) had the social status to plant fig trees, an act that is not trivial due to its association with gods and ancestors. in the study area, women and young men are not considered to have sufficient social status to plant figs. these attitudes may be changing, however. dulal borah, who is not religious but whose father planted an ahot gos tree, argued that anyone could plant a fig tree. bumon monda, a 32-year-old teacher, said that young people should be encouraged to plant all trees, including figs. when asked about fig planting in the area during an interview, ripu khonwar, a 27-year-old rice farmer, suggested that he would plant figs if seedlings were provided. indeed, if a conservation body did provide fig seedlings, several villagers said they would contribute the materials needed to make a small bamboo fence around saplings in the interest of restoring forests. however, any such intervention should again consider the range of opinions reported here over the significance of planting a sacred tree, to ensure it did not offend the senior men in komargoan society. conclusion the residents of the komargoan village in assam had a genuine interest in their environment, and sincere concerns about the loss of trees from their agricultural landscape. we gathered ethnographic data on a particular aspect of habitat loss and restoration, namely the conservation of scattered fig trees, in the hope that our research could help guide any locally driven conservation initiatives in the future. we found that fig trees were widely revered for their sacredness, which had implications for both the felling and planting of figs. while their sacred status should be considered by any local conservation initiative, secular values were also reported to be important for sustaining their presence in the land-scape. values linked to their aesthetic beauty and ability to provide shade may have played a critical role in determining their distribution in komargoan, as practical considerations also influenced tree cutting and planting: trees that provided too much shade over villagers’ home gardens were removed for economic reasons, while trees were planted in hot open areas to lower temperatures for practical reasons. therefore, at a local level, it may also be worth considering these perspectives in fig conservation. on a broader scale, the heterogeneity of view-points we documented about the sacredness of fig trees, the practical implications of removing them and who should plant them, suggested an important lesson for broader debates about aligning local values, or in this case religious beliefs, to conservation strategies (bhagwat et al. 2011). should a conservation initiative ethnobiology letters. 2015. 6(1):89‐98. doi: 10.14237/ebl.6.1.2015.269. 97 research communication design a strategy relying on the sacred status of fig trees to preserve them, it might run the risk of alienating some members of the community, and well as suffer vulnerability to practical concerns, such as their beauty and shade, which also drive fig popula-tion patterns. we therefore suggest that scholars recommending the alignment of religion with conservation take care to examine the local variations and economic incentives that may also exist, and which could perhaps undermine such an approach. acknowledgements the authors wish to thank maan barua, manju barua, barry and susan jones, a.j. tours and travel, and wild grass eco lodge for help facilitating this study. valuable field assistance was provided by biju hazarika, gokul munda, soano rajbonsi, nakib ali, and somnath borah. we are grateful to two anony-mous reviewers for their helpful comments on earlier versions of this manuscript. finally, we would like to extend our thanks to all the members of the komar-goan community who helped shape this study. declarations permissions: the research was conducted with approval from the departmental central university research ethics committee (curec) under reference soge c1a 14-99. permission to conduct this field work in india was granted by the high commission of india, under visa number 4246496. we obtained prior informed consent from all interviewees in the study, along with members of each household and local community who we interacted with on a regular basis. both interviewees who were filmed gave their prior consent to their responses being recorded in this fashion. sources of funding: cottee-jones was supported by a st edmund hall emden-doctorow postgraduate award and writing-up grant. conflicts of interest: none declared. references barua, m. and j. tamuly. 2011. conservation of figs and frugivores in assam, india. final project 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terborgh, j. 1986. keystone plant resources in the tropical forest. in conservation biology, the science of scarcity and diversity, edited by soulé, m. e., pp. 330-344. sinauer, sunderland, ma, usa. supplementary files available at ojs.ethnobiology.org/index.php/ebl. biosketches eden cottee-jones is a visiting research associate at the university of oxford, where he recently completed his dphil in geography and the environment. his research interests include conservation beyond protected areas, ficus–frugivore relationships, and tropical bird conserva‐tion. robert whittaker is professor of biogeography at the university of oxford. his current research interests focus on island biogeography and macroecology. in addition, rob has conducted extensive field research into ficus in krakatau, indonesia, including long distance seed dispersal and plant species assembly. the relative native: essays on indigenous conceptual worlds. by eduardo viveiros de castro. 2015. hau press, chicago. 366 pp. anderson. 2016. ethnobiology letters 7(1):42–44 42 reviews perspectives from gene anderson’s bookshelf beliefs about the priority of the social order occur worldwide among many peoples. this is a system of ideas found among the araweté, the people viveiros de castro studied in eastern brazil over many years, and mutatis mutandis among many other groups in greater amazonia. it is one form of the much wider native american conceptual system in which animals, plants, and natural objects are persons—either other-than-human or, as among the araweté, human in their own space and nonhuman only to our perspective. study of such “conceptual worlds” has been recognized as ontology since irving hallowell began to explore it seriously in the 1930s (hallowell 1955, 1960). viveiros de castro is explicitly in the hallowell tradition, and is one of the major figures in the “ontological turn” that has developed from it in recent years. he is also a lévi-straussian, noting that lévi-strauss’ thought is oversimplified and made too rigid in modern textbooks. other notably oft-cited authors are marilyn strathern and roy wagner, philosophic anthropologists who have developed highly sophisticated systems of ethnographic and ethnological theory. at a more remote level, viveiros de castro is a thoroughgoing kantian, in spite of his “growing dissatisfaction with the uncompromisingly kantian inspiration of our discipline” (p. 54). dissatisfied he may be, but only in that he sees a need to open up kantianism to accommodate amazonian and other indigenous philosophical views. the kantian framework of anthropology (kant 1978)—perception, representation, interaction, relationship, communication—is viveiros de castro’s framework. eduardo viveiros de castro has emerged as a leading thinker on human-nonhuman relationships, and, through that, human-human ones. he is most famous for explaining the idea of perspectivism, an indigenous amazonian view which he concisely defines on pp. 229–230: “the conception according to which the universe is inhabited by different sorts of persons, human and nonhuman, which apprehend reality from distinct points of view. this conception was shown to be associated to some others, namely: 1) the original common condition of both humans and animals is not animality, but rather humanity; 2) many animals species [sic], as well as other types of ‘nonhuman’ beings, have a spiritual component which qualifies them as ‘people’; furthermore, these beings see themselves as humans in appearance and in culture, while seeing humans as animals or as spirits; 3) the visible body of animals is an appearance that hides this anthropomorphic invisible ‘essence,’ and that can be put on and taken off as a dress or garment; 4) interspecific metamorphosis is a fact of ‘nature.’ 5) lastly, the notion of animality as a unified domain, globally opposed to that of humanity, seems to be absent from amerindian cosmologies.” in addition, the amazonians have a view that society and its divisions and marks existed before nature did. according to one group, the early spiritbeings made jaguars and tapirs out of wood, covered them with skins, and then painted tribal marks on them—the spots and stripes we now observe. similar the relative native: essays on indigenous conceptual worlds. by eduardo viveiros de castro. 2015. hau press, chicago. 366 pp. eugene n. anderson1* 1department of anthropology, university of california, riverside, usa. *eugene.anderson@ucr.edu received march 9, 2016 open access accepted march 22, 2016 doi 10.14237/ebl.7.1.2016.651 copyright © 2016 anderson; licensee society of ethnobiology. this is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attributionnoncommercial 4.0 international public license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0), which permits non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. anderson. 2016. ethnobiology letters 7(1):42–44 43 reviews perspectives from gene anderson’s bookshelf this book brings together lectures and papers he has produced over the last couple of decades. the first group deals largely with the classic problem of ethnography: fully and seriously joining with a really alien world of thought, and making it not only understandable but respectable: a serious challenge to western philosophy rather than a quaint butterfly for one’s “indigenous ideas” collection. fortunate are those ethnographers like knud rasmussen, richard atleo (2004, 2011), and gilberto balam (1992) who were raised in both native american and euroamerican worlds, and can move easily from one to the other without much need for adjustment. the rest of us need to think seriously about these questions. viveiros de castro is merciless to those who contrast “our knowledge” with “their belief,” and other unconsciously disparaging and dismissive language, and to the whole view of traditional thought that lies behind it. he has little use for unbounded relativism either; he does not think that tapirs are really humans or that their wallows are, in the tapirs’ view, beautiful, finely-adorned ceremonial halls (as the araweté maintain). he gives short shrift to anthropological praise of all the others over the west, saying, sarcastically, “somewhere along the line…the west got everything wrong, positing substances, individuals, separations, and oppositions wherever all other societies/cultures rightly see relations, totalities, connections, and embeddednesses” (p. 210). he sees the west as just another conceptual world, to be understood and evaluated, not singled out for put-downs. but he does recognize that the standard european view of “culture” as separate from “nature,” with animals being mere machines, is just as far from reality. we need to consider “native” views seriously, because they challenge our own concepts, and make us think about them more searchingly. maybe europeans are right about physics and bacteriology, but what about concepts like “religion,” “society,” and “kinship,” that are notoriously difficult and ill-defined? decentering our view requires finding out what the “natives” think about relationships, religion, cognition, kinship, the nonhuman world, and so on. so far, so good; all anthropologically-trained ethnobiologists do that. what is rarer is working out whole philosophic systems from the limited information we usually collect. again, native american ethnologists like atleo and balam can do this with ease and panache, but the rest of us have to worry, especially if we are not well-trained in western philosophy. viveiros de castro is quite aware of the difficulty of going from what is often unexamined practice by the “natives” to closely-examined interpretation by an outsider. one domain the amazonians make us think about is relationship. the book title alerts us to viveiros de castro’s abiding interest. he replaces “belief” with relationships between ideas and concepts. he focuses on kinship as the complex interplay of types of relationships and relating. he sees complex relationships between people and nonpeople— especially game animals—as the basis of the elaborate and sophisticated amazonian ideas about animal and plant personhood. most of the book consists of detailed studies on the kinship, hunting beliefs, and environmental knowledge of the eastern amazonian indigenous people, with comparisons drawn from elsewhere in the americas, and, less often, from around the world. new guinea is a particularly fertile source, but more because strathern and wagner worked there than because it is especially close to amazonia. space prevents going into detail, but this is the real meat of the book. a book made up of talks and short articles is bound to have two problems: repetition, and failure to go into real depth on any one thing. these problems do indeed surface in the work at hand. some of the essays that started as talks are more verbally impressive than deep. however, the essays on kinship, on perspectivism in general, and on concepts of “nature” in amazonia are extremely impressive displays of the best current thinking in cultural anthropology. in general, i agree with viveiros de castro’s positions, and am inspired to look even more searchingly at nonwestern cultures and their conceptual worlds. some of the lectures are humorous, making delightful reading. thus , on relationship: “anthropological concepts are relative because they are relational—and they are relational because they are relators” (p. 48). this playful phrasing covers a deep comment on the book’s central theme. in short, this book will challenge all your preconceptions, whatever those are, and also teach you a great deal about eastern amazonian concepts of the world. ethnobiologists uninterested in philosophy can spare themselves—it is not essential reading for a working ethnobiologist—but if you want to see how far contemporary anthropological theory can go into speculative and critical realms, this is your book. anderson. 2016. ethnobiology letters 7(1):42–44 44 reviews perspectives from gene anderson’s bookshelf references cited atleo, e. r. 2004. tsawalk: a nuu-chah-nulth worldview. university of british columbia press, vancouver, canada. atleo, e. r. 2011. principles of tsawalk: an indigenous approach to global crisis. university of british columbia press, vancouver, canada. balam pereira, g. 1992. cosmogonía y uso actual de las plantas medicinales de yucatán. universidad autónoma de yucatán, mérida, mexico. hallowell, a. i. 1955. culture and experience. university of pennsylvania press, philadelphia, pa. hallowell, a. i. 1960. ojibwa ontology, behavior, and world-view. in culture in history: essays in honor of paul radin, edited by stanley diamond, pp. 19–52. columbia university press, new york, ny. kant, i. 1978. anthropology from a pragmatic point of view. southern illinois university press, carbondale, il. historical ecology and ethnobiology: applied research for environmental conservation and social justice ethnobiology letters. 2015. 6(1):5‐7. doi: 10.14237/ebl.6.1.2015.313. 5 mini-review social sciences that challenges western nature-culture dualisms and sees humans and landscapes as inseparable and interrelated wholes (latour 2014); and increasing support for geological re-classification of the current epoch as the ‘anthropocene’ in recognition of the keystone role that humans play in socioecological earth systems (e.g. zalasiewicz et al. 2011). the applied focus is likely the most broadly relevant aspect of historical ecology and provides fertile cross-linkages with ethnobiology. in wolverton’s (2013) conceptualization of ‘ethnobiology 5,’ he calls for ethnobiologists to communicate the relevance of their research to help solve contemporary socioenvironmental issues. in the historical ecology research program, anthropologists are encouraged to broaden their research of local or indigenous knowledge by including ethnohistoric data (e.g. nabhan 2007); or by showing cultural memory, symbolism, and culinary practices are as important to agrobiodiversity conservation as official programs (e.g. veteto and welch 2013). in the field of archaeology, historical ecology allows scholars to make their research more relevant by contributing to contemporary environmental issues (balée and erickson 2006) and providing, for example, long-term zooarchaeological data for the reassessment of ecological baselines (mckechnie et al. 2014). ongoing and more classic research demonstrates how ethnobiologists, environmental anthropologists, historical ecology is a research program that focuses primarily on landscape as the unit of analysis and emphasizes the understanding of environmental change through deep time with an eye toward application in the present. by extending the timescale of landscape change, it is possible to create a more historically situated understanding of socioenvironmental interactions and patterns. such patterns can be used to help inform and initiate environmental conservation and social justice. since the early 1990s, historical ecology has been undertaken in various global contexts by ecologists, biologists, archaeologists, and anthropologists. crumley and balée have been the most visible advocates of historical ecology through their respective work n france and the amazon (balée 2013; crumley 1994). their unique but complimentary approaches to historical ecology—crumley trained in archaeology and balée in cultural anthropology— argue: (1) nearly all landscapes on earth have been affected by humans to differing degrees; (2) both human and natural phenomena that physically manifest in landscapes or immaterially in cultural memory can be studied as an integrative whole; and (3) knowledge of human-land use and change through time can and should be applied to contemporary issues (e.g., global climate change, indigenous sovereignty). these foci contribute to and reinforce two interrelated paradigm shifts in contemporary anthropology and geology: the ‘ontological turn’ in the historical ecology and ethnobiology: applied research for environmental conservation and social justice chelsey geralda armstrong1*, james r. veteto2 author addresses: 1department of archaeology, simon fraser university, 8888 university drive, burnaby, british columbia, v5a 1s6, canada. 2department of anthropology and sociology and cherokee studies program, 106a mckee building, western carolina university, cullowhee, north carolina, 28723, usa. *corresponding author: cdageralda@gmail.com received: january 11, 2015 volume: 6(1):5-7 published: march 6, 2015 © 2015 society of ethnobiology abstract: historical ecology provides a research program and toolkit for applied interdisciplinary research in ethnobiology. with a focus on long-term changes in built environments and cultural landscapes, historical ecology emphasizes the need for scientific collaboration between disciplines for more relevant and applied academic research—particularly in service to environmental conservation and social justice. keywords: historical ecology, ethnobiology, environmental change, applied ethnobiology, conservation, social justice ethnobiology letters. 2015. 6(1):5‐7. doi: 10.14237/ebl.6.1.2015.313. 6 mini-review and archaeologists are applying historical ecology to contemporary environmental issues. fairhead and leach’s (1996) groundbreaking work showed that indigenous land-use strategies in a west african forest-savannah mosaic create forest islands rather than furthering deforestation (as previously assumed by scientists, forest ecologists, and conservationists), contributing policy recommendations of significant importance to both environmental conservation and social justice. welch et al. (2013) have provided evidence for reversing assumptions of both development practitioners and conservationists in central brazil, using combined ethnographic and historical ecological data to show that indigenous burning practices in a fire-adapted cerrado biome are significantly more conducive to forest stability and vegetation recovery than fire suppression and agribusiness expansion. a historical ecology research program in peru utilized archaeological methods (pollen and soil analyses) to document relict agricultural features such as terraces, canals, and raised fields that exhibited excellent soil quality, good drainage, and buffers to frost risk (erickson 1998). archaeologists, agronomists, and communications experts subsequently worked with descendant communities to rehabilitate farming practices—based on insights from ancient agriculture—and their results proved to be more sustainable compared to contemporary europeanstyle farms after only a few seasons. in another important case study, archaeologists and paleoecologists (szpak et al. 2012) have used isotopic and zooarchaeological data (ca. 5200 years bp – ad 1900) to better understand the foraging ecology and historical range of locally extinct sea otters and help inform re-introduction programs on the pacific northwest coast of north america. human health in indigenous and local communities is intimately connected to the health of the environment and is another domain where historical ecology and ethnobiology are making significant contributions. the restoration or reinvigoration of sustainable cultural landscapes has had positive impacts on social well-being worldwide. barthel et al. (2013) combine social memory, traditional ecological knowledge, landscape features, and local environmental fluctuations to argue that land-sharing (instead of land-sparing) is a key variable for preserving biocultural diversity and promoting food sovereignty in communities across europe. a historical ecology orientation also informed experimental research that shows how anthropogenic non-western management in ancient intertidal terraces and clam gardens resulted in clam density and overall biomass increases (groesbeck et al. 2014). this work effectively demonstrates that viable food production and sustainable ecosystems can be simultaneously achieved, both in the past and (hopefully) in the present and future. furthermore, such research demonstrates that first nations communities have had long-term positive dialectical effects on contemporary (previously considered ‘wild’) ecosystems, providing evidence that can help indigenous people assert rights and access to traditional landscapes in the context of current sociopolitical realities. to date, historical ecology has been underutilized by ethnobiologists as a productive research program with notable exceptions (e.g. balée 2013). this may be a result of the lack of exposure historical ecology receives in academia (it is often taught, if at all, as a segment or sub-unit of advanced courses in geography, anthropology, and ecology). we can envision future and ongoing (e.g. human ecodynamics research center—herc; integrated history and future of people on earth—ihope; resilience in east african landscapes—real) long-term historical ecology projects that combine the strengths of cultural anthropology, archaeology, and biology/ ecology in a unifying ethnobiological approach. this approach has the potential to further expand our research into the applied realm, contributing to a future that is more environmentally sustainable and socially just. references cited balée, w. 2013. cultural forests of the amazon: a historical ecology of people and their landscapes. university of alabama press, tuscaloosa, al. balée, w. and c. erickson, eds. 2006. time and complexity in historical ecology: studies in the neotropical lowlands. columbia university press, new york, ny. barthel, s., c. l. crumley, and u. svedein. 2013. biocultural refugia: combatting the erosion of diversity in landscapes of food production. ecology and society 18:71. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.5751/ es-06207-180471. crumley, c. l., ed. 1994. historical ecology: cultural knowledge and changing landscapes. school of american research press, santa fe, nm. erikson, c. 1998. applied archaeology and rural develophttp://dx.doi.org/10.5751/es-06207-180471 http://dx.doi.org/10.5751/es-06207-180471 ethnobiology letters. 2015. 6(1):5‐7. doi: 10.14237/ebl.6.1.2015.313. 7 mini-review ment: archaeology's potential contribution to the future. in crossing currents: continuity and change in latin america, edited by m. whiteford and s. whiteford, pp. 34 -45. prentice-hall, upper saddle, nj. fairhead, j., m. leach. 1996. misreading the african landscape: society and ecology in a forest-savanna mosaic. cambridge university press, cambridge, uk. groesbeck, a. s., k. powell, d. lepofsky, and a. k. salomon. 2014. ancient clam gardens increased shellfish production: adaptive strategies from the past can inform food security today. plos one 9(3): e91235. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0091235. latour, b. 2014. another way to compose the common world. hau: journal of ethnographic theory 4:301-307. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.14318/hau4.1.016. mckechnie, i., d. lepofsky, m. l. moss, v. l. butler, t. j. orchard, g. coupland, f. foster, m. caldwell, and k. lertzman. 2014. archaeological data provide alternative hypotheses on pacific herring (clupea pallasii) distribution, abundance, and variability. proceedings of the national academy of sciences 111:807-816. doi:10.1073/ pnas.1316072111. nabhan, g. p. 2007. agrobiodiversity change in saharan desert oasis, 1919-2006: historic shifts in tasiwit (berber) and bedouin crop inventories of siwa, egypt. economic botany 61:31-42. doi: 10.1663/0013-0001(2007) 61[31:aciasd]2.0.co;2. szpak, p., t. j. orchard, i. mckechnie, and d. r. gröcke. 2012. historical ecology of late holocene sea otters (enhydra lutris) from northeastern british columbia: isotopic and zooarchaeological perspectives. journal of archaeological science 39:1553-1571. doi:10.1016/ j.jas.2011.12.006. veteto, j. r., and k. welch. 2013. food from the ancestors: documentation, conservation, and revival of eastern cherokee heirloom plants. in seeds of resistance/ seeds of hope: place and agency in the conservation of biodiversity, edited by v. d. nazarea, r. e. rhoades, and j. e. andrews-swann, pp. 65-84. university of arizona press, tucson, az. welch, j. r., e. s. brondízio, s. s. hetrick, and c. e. a. coimbra jr. 2013. indigenous burning as conservation practice: neotropical savanna recovery amid agribusiness deforestation in central brazil. plos one 8:e81226. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0081226. wolverton, s. 2013. ethnobiology 5: interdisciplinarity in an era of rapid environmental change. ethnobiology letters 4:21-25. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.14237/ ebl.4.2013.11. zalasiewicz, j., m. williams, a. haywood, and m. ellis. 2011. the anthropocene: a new epoch of geological time? philosophical transactions of the royal society a 369:835-841. doi:10.1098/rsta.2010.0339. biosketches chelsey geralda armstrong is a ph.d. student in the department of archaeology at simon fraser university. her work focuses on ecological archaeology and paleoethnobotany, ancient and modern plant genetics, and indigenous knowledge in the pacific northwest and eastern great lakes regions. james r. veteto is assistant professor and cherokee studies program faculty member in the department of anthropology and sociology at western carolina university. he is recent past president of culture & agriculture, executive director of the appalachian institute for mountain studies, and research associate at the botanical research institute of texas. his research is focused on three interrelated themes: sustainable agriculture, biocultural diversity, and food and culture; culture and climate change; and alternative political ecologies. http://dx.doi.org/10.14237/ebl.4.2013.11 http://dx.doi.org/10.14237/ebl.4.2013.11 microsoft word hovsepyan proofs.docx ethnobiology letters                                                              research communication   58  palaeoethnobotanical data from the high mountainous early bronze  age settlement of tsaghkasar‐1 (mt. aragats, armenia)  roman hovsepyan  author address: institute of archaeology and ethnography nas ra, 15 charents st., 0025, yerevan, armenia  roman.hovsepyan@yahoo.com  received: may 14th 2011                                                                                                                                                       volume: 2:58‐62  published: september 19th 2011                                                                                                               © 2011 society of ethnobiology abstract: palaeoethnobotanical  investigations  suggest  that at  least part of  the early bronze age population of tsaghkasar  was  settled  and  practiced  agriculture  in  the  high mountainous  zone.  people  there  appear  to  have  cultivated  hexa‐  and  tetraploid wheats  (probably bread wheat and emmer) and barley  (possibly hulled). bronze age agriculture  in  the southern  caucasus differs from earlier and later period when cultivation of pulses, oil‐producing plants, and other plants was common.  this emphasis on the cultivation and use of certain cereal grains at early bronze sites such as tsaghkasar can tentatively be  added to a constellation of practices associated with the kura‐araxes culture in the south caucasus.  key words: palaeoethnobotany, mountainous, bronze age, south caucasus  introduction the high elevation early bronze age (eba) settlement of tsaghkasar-1 was situated on the slopes of mt. tsaghkasar (a peak on the western flank of the massif of aragats), at an altitude of 2080 meters above sea level (n 40º 28’ 31”, e 43º 55’ 42”). the settlement belonged to the kura-araxes culture and dated to the last quarter of the 4th millennium bc. the settlement is comparably large, consisting of stone built structures occupying more than 10 hectares (avetisyan 2009). several storage pits and many agriculture-related tools, e.g. obsidian sickles, a bronze sickle, grinding stones, hand stones, have been excavated at the tsaghkasar-1 early bronze age settlement. the discovery of tools for harvesting and processing cereals in conjunction with storage pits supports supposition regarding the practice of local agriculture in the high mountainous zone of tsaghkasar during the early bronze age. this paper summarizes the results of a study with the primary aim of investigating the plant economy of the early bronze age population of tsaghkasar-1 settlement in the context of the vegetation cover of the settlement’s microregion. this investigation represents a new and significant synthesis of archaeobotanical and excavation methodologies in the exploration of early bronze age agriculture in the mount aragats region. materials and methods strategic sampling of archaeological sediments was undertaken to target archaeological contexts where deposition and preservation of plant remains was most probable. soil samples were collected from internal and external parts of buildings (in close association with walls) and from the soil contents of pits. eight (8) soil samples with a total volume of 510 liters were recovered and processed during the 2005 and 2008 excavation seasons. volumes of samples ranged from 10 to 60 liters, and averaged 30 liters. processing of samples was done in two stages to isolate as many ancient plant remains as possible. first, the samples were floated (0.25 mm mesh) to separate light fraction; most of the charred remains and some mineralized materials were recovered in this fraction. after flotation the heavy fraction was wet-sieved (1 mm mesh); rare charred specimens and the essential part of the mineralized remains were recovered in this fraction. the state of preservation of plant remains is relatively low at tsaghkasar-1; more than 136 carbonized or mineralized carpological specimens were recovered (the quantity of fragments of charred cereal grains are measured in milliliters (~2.7 ml) and are not included in the 136 units or in calculations of density; supplementary table). the density of carpological material ranges from 0 (i.e. empty samples) to 1.7 units per 1 liter sediment, with the average result being 0.17 ethnobiology letters                                                              research communication   59  figure 1.  location of  the  early bronze age  tsaghkasar‐1  settlement  (mt. aragats, armenia) and pits excavated at  the site.  units/liter (supplementary table). to supply a modern reference dataset for identification of the archaeobotanical materials, living cultivated and weedy plants were also collected from the vicinity of the tsaghkasar1 site. results and discussion the majority of the tsaghkasar-1 carpological material comes from two excavated pit features (uf31 & uf38; figures 1 and 2; supplementary table). pit uf31 was approximately 2.0 m deep and pit uf38 was 1.5 m deep. relatively high concentration of carpological materials in soil from the lower parts of pits (supplementary table) suggests that archaeobotanical materials were in situ at those levels. meanwhile, poorly preserved archaeobotanical material retrieved from other contexts, such as internal and external sides of buildings, suggests incidental deposition of material in these locations. identifiable cereal grains and other parts of the cereal spike are the only examples of cultivated plants at the site and consist of 56% of the identifiable carpological materials. in addition, there are also hundreds of unidentifiable fragments of cereal grains, with a total volume of 2.7 ml that could not be identified to the genus level (supplementary table). the cereal grains and grain fragments are charred and are preserved well enough to be identified as cultivated wheat (triticum) and barley (hordeum; poaceae). distinguishing between tetraand hexaploid species of wheat based on charred grains is problematic, especially due to several kinds of distortions and deformations that result from charring. charred wheat grains found in the tsaghkasar-1 early bronze age settlement belonged to tetraor hexaploid species, although their morphology is closer to bread wheat, triticum cf. aestivum s.l. (figure 2, 1-4). the remains of other parts of the wheat spike (e.g. rachis internodes and spikelet bases) are more informative and helpful for identification. the presence of naked (free-threshing) tetraor hexaploid wheat (triticum aestivum/turgidum) is confirmed by the remains of rachis internodes (supplementary table). several remains of spikelet bases suggest the presence of hulled wheat(s) (triticum sp.1; figure 2, 6). it is possible that the spikelet bases grouped under triticum sp.1 belong to emmer (triticum turgidum l. subsp. dicoccum (schrank ex schübl.) thell. = triticum dicoccum schrank ex schübler). one well-preserved specimen of a hexaploid wheat rachis internode confirms the presence of triticum aestivum s.l. (figure 2, 5). at least some (comparably well-preserved examples) of the identified cultivated barley (hordeum vulgare l.; figure 2, 7-8) grains belong to a hulled variety (or varieties). all samples from the tsaghkasar-1 site contain charcoal fragments and coprolites of small rodents, which are indirect indicators of large-scale grain storage (willcox et al. 2007). the presence of cereal chaff remains from storage pits may serve as additional evidence of local agriculture. the presence of hulled barley and bread wheat in the archaeological samples is also interesting from a diachronic ecological perspective; present populations of the modern tsaghkasar village and neighboring settlements at equivalent altitude (approx. 2000 m a.s.l.) cultivate hulled barley and bread wheat. published and available palaeoethnobotanical data from early bronze age archaeological sites in armenia and parts of the southern caucasus (lisitsina & prishchepenko 1977; hovsepyan 2009b; wasylikowa et al. 1991) suggest that two-rowed and six-rowed hulled barleys, common and club bread wheats, and emmer were the main field-crops cultivated in the region. this ethnobiology letters                                                              research communication   60  figure 2.  carpological remains from the early bronze age  settlement of tsaghkasar‐1  (mt. aragats, armenia). 1‐4 –  triticum  cf.  aestivum,  charred  kernels;  5  ‐  triticum  aestivum  s.l.,  charred  rachis  internode; 6  ‐  triticum  sp.1  (hulled),  charred  spikelet  fork;  7‐8  ‐  hordeum  vulgare,  charred  kernels,  9  ‐  polygonum  sp.,  charred nutlet;  10  ‐  galium sp., charred half mericarp; 11 ‐ alkanna orientalis,  biomineralized  erema;  12‐15  ‐  buglossoides  arvensis,  biomineralized eremas. notes: v  ‐ ventral  side,  l  ‐  lateral  side, d ‐ dorsal side.  pattern continued in the middle and late bronze ages and the early iron age (the period from the second half of the 4th to the beginning of the 1st millennium cal. bc), while in earlier (neolithic and chalcolithic) and later (middle iron age and after) periods pulses, oil-producing plants and other field-crops (e.g. millets for iron age) also were common (hovsepyan 2010b). the specialized agriculture during the early bronze age in the southern caucasus may have been influenced by the agricultural traditions of the preand early kura-araxes culture. it is likely that these groups lived in high montane territories and practiced specialized cereal cultivation to-some-degree influenced by severe natural conditions. during the subsequent expansion of the kura-araxes culture, agricultural traditions spread in tandem with material culture to conquered populations. this reconstruction is derived from many ethnographic examples in which strategically situated groups continue their traditional practices and oblige local populations to assimilate their own traditions (including agriculture) in new territories. weedy plants recovered from tsaghkasar-1 site are common in the modern flora of the study area and from prehistoric sites in armenia (supplementary table; hovsepyan 2009b). for example, the biomineralized erems of buglossiodes arvensis (boraginaceae; supplementary table; fig. 2, 12-15) are present in practically all archaeological sites in armenia. on the other hand, a single biomineralized nutlet of alkanna orientalis (fig. 2, 11; boraginaceae) at tsaghkasar-1 is the only archaeobotanical find of this genus in the territory of armenia (though it still grows at the site). species of rumex, polygonum (polygonaceae), poaceae, fabaceae (wild taxa), galium (rubiaceae), chenopodium (chenopodiaceae), scleranthus (caryophyllaceae), cyperaceae, malvaceae, the seeds of which were recovered in a charred state (polygonum: fig. 2, 9; galium: fig. 2, 10), also are still growing near the site. the discovery of scleranthus cf. annuus (caryophyllaceae) fruit at tsaghkasar-1 is remarkable, as it is rare in the archaeobotanical record. despite its rarity; palaeobotanical finds of s. annuus were also recorded from a high mountain peat-bog (near geghadzor, 2300 m a.s.l.) on the northern slope of mt. aragats (hovsepyan and gabrielyan 2002). scleranthus was also recorded (some charred fruits were found) from the early and late bronze age layers of the high elevation settlement of gegharot and from late bronze age layers at tsaghkahovit. finds of these wild plants help to clarify botanical aspects of the paleoenvironmental conditions of the aragats region during the bronze age. the assemblage of cultivated plants at tsaghkasar1 early bronze age settlement is similar to corresponding datasets from the contemporary settlements of gegharot and aparan-iii (hovsepyan 2009a, 2010a) in the same region, where inhabitants cultivated and consumed hulled barley, bread wheat and emmer. the site of gegharot is situated north of mt. aragats, at the northern boundary of the tsaghkahovit plain, at an elevation of 2100 m above sea level (hovsepyan 2009a; fig. 1), and site of aparan-iii is situated east of mt. aragats in the plain of aparan on the right bank of kasakh river, at 1860 m above sea level (hovsepyan, 2010a; fig. 1). linear distances between tsaghkasar-1 and these con-temporary sites are only 40-45 km, though the extreme topography makes effective distances somewhat greater. carpo-logical remains belonging to buglossoides arvensis, species of rumex, ethnobiology letters                                                              research communication   61  polygonum, galium, chenopodium and the poaceae, fabaceae, cyperaceae families are also recovered from the early bronze age settlements of gegharot and aparan-iii (hovsepyan 2009a, 2010a). unfortunately, poorer preservation and the relative scarcity of recovered plant remains at tsaghkasar-1 do not allow more detailed comparison between these sites. conclusions palaeoethnobotanical investigations suggest that, in the early bronze age, at least some of the inhabitants of the high mountain tsaghkasar-1 settlement were settled and practiced agriculture based on the cultivation of tetraand hexaploid wheats and barley. it appears that environmental conditions near the site in the early bronze age were similar to present: cultivated plants and weeds recorded for the early bronze age period of tsaghkasar grow there at present and there is not any evidence of environmental change. archaeobotanical data from tsaghkasar-1, in conjunction with data from other sites of the region, confirm that bronze age people of southern caucasus practiced agriculture specialized in the cultivation of cereals. the bronze age agriculture in southern caucasus differs from earlier, neolithic and chalcolithic, and later, iron age, agricultures, when cultivation of pulses, oil-producing plants, and other plants was common (hovsepyan 2010b). this emphasis on the cultivation and use of certain cereal grains at early bronze sites like tsaghkasar can tentatively be added to a constellation of practices associated with the kura-araxes culture in the south caucasus. acknowledgements the author is thankful to pavel avetisyan (inst. of archeology and ethnography nas ra), director of the tsaghkasar-1 excavations, for help in organizing fieldwork and for providing necessary information about archaeological contexts. the author thanks the anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments and constructive criticism of an earlier version of the paper as well as the ebl editors for assistance with the paper. references cited avetisyan, p. 2009. report of 2008 excavation season of tsaghkasar-1 early bronze age settlement. reports of archaeological field-work (2008) of institute of archaeology and ethnography nas ra, part 1, yerevan, pp. 189-194 (in armenian). hovsepyan, r. and i. g. gabrielyan. 2002. palaeocarpological finds from high mountainous peat-bog of mt. aragats (republic of armenia). ecological journal of armenia 2:17-22 (in armenian). hovsepyan, r. and g. willcox 2008. the earliest finds of cultivated plants in armenia: evidence from charred remains and crop processing residues in pisé from the neolithic settlements of aratashen and aknashen. vegetation history and archaeobotany 17:63-71. hovsepyan, r. 2009. the palaeobotanical remains from early bronze age gegharot (appendix 2). in: badalyan, r., a. t. smith, i. lindsay, l. khatchadourian, p. avetisyan, with appendices by b. monahan and r. hovsepyan. 2009. village, fortress, and town in bronze and iron age southern caucasia: a preliminary report on the 2003-2006 investigations of project aragats on the tsaghkahovit plain, republic of armenia. archäologischemitteilungen aus iran und turan 40:45-105. hovsepyan, r. 2009. field crops and common weeds at the territory of armenia in neolithic – iron age periods. unpublished doctoral dissertation, department of agriculture, armenian state agrarian university, yerevan (in armenian). hovsepyan, r. 2010. new data on agriculture of aparan-iii early bronze age settlement (armenia). biological journal of armenia 4:31-37. hovsepyan, r. 2010. preliminary data on the prehistoric agriculture of the southern caucasus (the main phases of development). paper presented at the 15th conference of the international work group for palaeoethnobotany. wilhelmshaven, germany (www.nihk.de). lisitsina, g. n. and l. v. prishchepenko. 1977. palaeoethnobotanical finds of caucasus and near east. nauka, moscow (in russian). wasylikowa, k., m. carciumaru, e. hajnalova, b. p. hartyanyi, g. a. pashevich and z. v. yanushevich. 1991. east-central europe. in progress in old world palaeoethnobotany, edited by w. van zeist, k. wasylikowa and k.-e. behre, pp. 207-239. balkema, rotterdam, brookfield. willcox, g., s. fornite and l. herveux. 2008. early holocene cultivation before domestication in northern syria. vegetation history and archaeobotany 17:313-325. biosketch roman hovsepyan  is  an  archaeobotanist  (phd  biology),  who is a research scientist at the institute of archaeology  and  ethnography  nas,  armenia.  he  is  fulbright  visiting  scholar  at  the  department  of  anthropology, ohio  state  university  where  he  is  doing  research  on  bronze  age  agriculture of the south caucasus.  ethnobiology letters                                                              research communication   62  supplementary table. carpological material from the early bronze age period tsaghkasar‐1 settlement  (from excavations in 2005 & 2008).  trench / uf  1/2  3/2  3/35 3/37  3/38  3/31  context  building  (str.1) building  (str.1) ‐ ‐  pit  pit  depth of samples, cm  ‐ ‐ ‐ 338  80‐90  130‐140 80‐90 200‐210 sample volume, liter  520 165 75 30 80  50  50 10 60 concentration of carpological finds, per 10 liter sediment*   2.62 0,3 0,1 1,0 0,0  1,2  17,0 2,0 5,7 plant taxa  finds  total  136 5 1 3 0  6  85 2 34 cultivated plants                         triticeae spp.  grains fragments (~, ml)  2,7 0,5 0,1 ‐ ‐  0,5  1,0 0,1 0,5 triticum sp.  grains  11 ‐ ‐ ‐ ‐  1  4 ‐ 6 internodes fragments  3 ‐ ‐ ‐ ‐  ‐  3 ‐ ‐ triticum sp.1 (hulled)  spikelet bases  4 ‐ ‐ ‐ ‐  ‐  4 ‐ ‐ triticum cf. aestivum s.l.  grains  19 1 1 ‐ ‐  ‐  17 ‐ ‐ triticum turgidum/aestivum (naked)  internodes fragments  16 ‐ ‐ ‐ ‐  ‐  14 1 1 triticum aestivum l. (naked)  internode  1 ‐ ‐ ‐ ‐  ‐  1 ‐ ‐ hordeum vulgare l.  grains  22 1 ‐ ‐ ‐  1  14 ‐ 6 weedy and wild plants                         buglossoides arvensis (l.) johnst.   (= lithospermum arvense l.)**  erems  13 ‐ ‐ ‐ ‐  1  10 ‐ 2 alkanna orientalis (l.) boiss.**  erem  1 ‐ ‐ ‐ ‐  ‐  1 ‐ ‐ rumex sp.  nutlets  8 ‐ ‐ ‐ ‐  ‐  ‐ ‐ 8 polygonum sp.  nutlet  1 ‐ ‐ ‐ ‐  ‐  ‐ ‐ 1 poaceae sp. (wild species)  grains fragments  5 ‐ ‐ ‐ ‐  ‐  4 ‐ 1 galium sp.  half mericarps  2 ‐ ‐ ‐ ‐  ‐  ‐ 1 1 scleranthus cf. annuus l.  fruit  1 1 ‐ ‐ ‐  ‐  ‐ ‐ ‐ chenopodium sp.  seeds  5 2 ‐ ‐ ‐  ‐  2 ‐ 1 fabaceae sp. (wild species)  seed  1 ‐ ‐ 1 ‐  ‐  ‐ ‐ ‐ cyperaceae sp.  nutlet  1 ‐ ‐ ‐ ‐  ‐  ‐ ‐ 1 malvaceae sp.  seed  1 ‐ ‐ ‐ ‐  ‐  ‐ ‐ 1 unidentified species  seeds  21 ‐ ‐ 2 ‐  3  11 ‐ 5 notes: * ‐ triticeae spp. grains fragments are not included in calculations  ** ‐ finds of boraginaceae taxa are biomineralized, others are charred.    data collection in zooarchaeology: incorporating touch-screen, speech-recognition, barcodes, and gis ethnobiology letters. 2015. 6(2):249‐257. doi: 10.14237/ebl.6.2.2015.393. 249 data, methods & taxonomies special issue on digital zooarchaeology barcode labels, alongside legible text, enable a rapid and accurate printing and recording of excavation ids. the cost of the label paper and scanner is easily offset by the time and errors an analyst can save by making this change. integrating this coded information to a spatial representation of anatomical elements (a simple gis), it is possible to design a data entry system where analysts can click or touch an anatomical zone or landmark, rather than memorizing codes. touch-screen or speech-recognition enabled databases are simple to design through the use of buttons, which prompt users for information and answer questions. the change from pressing “g” for goat to touching a labeled illustrated button, or speaking aloud its caption, can increase efficiency and reduce a significant amount of error. speechrecognition allows for hands-free recording and an investigator to remain focused on the material. none of these methods are innovative but the combination creates a synergetic data entry system with a wide range of potential use in various field and lab settings. however, it should be noted that, while the digital recording methods described below will reduce human errors, they will not entirely eliminate all forms of careless mistakes, nor the incorrect use of basic zooarchaeological methods. introduction modern technology commonly facilitates the process of archaeological data collection, especially on large datasets with thousands of entries. while research teams generally recognize the need for well-crafted, rigorous project-wide databases, too frequently individual researchers persist in using low-tech solutions (paper and pencil, train-of-thought word processing documents, or disorganized spreadsheets) for large datasets. zooarchaeological data recording is an essential, but time-consuming and tedious process. detailing the attributes of an individual bone specimen – and all its potential value for interpretation – into database format requires utilizing many arbitrary codes or ids representing excavation context, taxonomic status, anatomical location, tooth-wear stage, etc. (driver 1992; gifford and crader 1977; kansa and kansa 2013, 2014). the potential for transcription errors can be high, especially among zooarchaeological assemblages where analysts are working under budgetary and time constraints, or in challenging field settings. a variety of new digital approaches for data collection offer high potential for a dramatic improvement in efficiency in the lab as well as a substantial reduction in the potential for data-recording error that is inherent in conventional lab practices. data collection in zooarchaeology: incorporating touch-screen, speech-recognition, barcodes, and gis w. flint dibble author address: department of classics, university of cincinnati, po box 210226, cincinnati, oh 45221-0226, usa. email: dibblewf@mail.uc.edu received: april 14, 2015 volume: 6(2):249-257 published: december 16, 2015 © 2015 society of ethnobiology abstract: when recording observations on specimens, zooarchaeologists typically use a pen and paper or a keyboard. however, the use of awkward terms and identification codes when recording thousands of specimens makes such data entry prone to human transcription errors. improving the quantity and quality of the zooarchaeological data we collect can lead to more robust results and new research avenues. this paper presents design tools for building a customized zooarchaeological database that leverages accessible and affordable 21st century technologies. scholars interested in investing time in designing a custom-database in common software (here, microsoft access) can take advantage of the affordable touch-screen, speech-recognition, and geographic information system (gis) technologies described here. the efficiency that these approaches offer a research project far exceeds the time commitment a scholar must invest to deploy them. keywords: zooarchaeology, digital archaeology, archaeological database, touch-screen, database, gis, barcodes ethnobiology letters. 2015. 6(2):249‐257. doi: 10.14237/ebl.6.2.2015.393. 250 data, methods & taxonomies special issue on digital zooarchaeology although few zooarchaeologists have strong backgrounds in programming or database design, there is much that one can do to tailor applications to specific needs with minimum training (jones and hurley 2011). it is possible to adapt the methods described here to fields other than archaeology, zooarchaeology, or zoology. it is also possible to adapt these methods for other software (filemaker pro) and non-windows touch screen devices (android or ios); however, this requires a different set of software, coding, or database-design skills (e.g., see the blog paperlessarchaeology.com by john wallrodt for more suggestions on creating touch-screen filemaker pro databases). microsoft access (ms access) provides a database interface known to many current practitioners, and the tools presented below simply enhance the user interface within one’s own database. crucial skills utilized here include a basic knowledge (but not expertise) of relational database design and the ms access design interface, as well as a willingness to learn about coding specific actions (such as pressing a button) into an existing database. while it is impossible to predict which pieces of technology will become obsolete in the mediumto long-term future, the methods presented here do not necessarily require a change to the structure of the data or its need for archiving. given the inevitable challenges due to changing devices and software obsolescence, it is important that today’s scholars should try to “keep up” with technology in order to stay current in the scientific world. acknowledging these challenges, the methods presented here are designed to be low-tech, simple solutions in order to take advantage of current, widely available technology. redundant data collection process it is essential to first design one’s data recording process prior to designing a complementary digital system. i designed this database to facilitate my recording of ca. 20,000 zooarchaeological specimens over the course of two years from the sites of the athenian agora, azoria, and nichoria in greece. i developed the following step-by-step process (adapted from halstead 2014) with the intention of increasing efficiency and reducing identification and data-entry errors: 1) sort bags of zooarchaeological material into desired contextual assemblages (e.g., chronological, spatial, etc.) based upon research questions and preliminary observations. 2) label all potentially identifiable specimens (as determined by the project’s recording protocol) in each bag with a printed barcode tag containing a unique zooarchaeological id (e.g., stratigraphic unit + sequential number) 3) sort labeled specimens by anatomical element (e.g., humerus, femur), laid out on a table with all other specimens of the same anatomical element and the same contextual group. 4) sort each anatomical element by taxon (e.g., pig, sheep/goat, equid) with reference to a representative comparative collection. 5) sort each group into left vs. right vs. indeterminate sided. 6) if appropriate, sort each group by age or sex indicators, and/or proximal and/or distal halves. 7) determine minimum counts of each anatomical unit (e.g., proximal pig humerus). 8) following the project’s zooarchaeological recording protocol, record each specimen into the database, organized by the above contextual, anatomical, and taxonomical groupings. 9) repeat each step until the entire assemblage has been analyzed. as in an assembly-line, the analyst focuses on only a few redundant variables at a time. stackable trays or portable shelves enable a specialist to augment restricted table space, often needed for sorting large assemblages. by leveraging the redundancy in process and restricting the focus to just a few variables, it is possible to take advantage of existing technologies to improve and automate steps and correspondingly reduce operator error. human error a clear strength of an organized, efficient work flow that also takes advantage of digital approaches is a reduction in data-recording error. human mistakes are especially grievous when they involve archaeological context. such errors are common both when initially assigning ids and when repeatedly transcribing ids in the course of organizing, cataloging, analyzing and curating archaeological remains. digitally produced and recorded ids allow archaeologists to both reduce error and save time. these improvements can be demonstrated through identification and datarecording experiments. to understand the frequency and nature of human errors that occur during analysis, we conduct ethnobiology letters. 2015. 6(2):249‐257. doi: 10.14237/ebl.6.2.2015.393. 251 data, methods & taxonomies special issue on digital zooarchaeology ed several experiments. in the first, eight undergraduate students each labeled a collection of 40 lithics, not knowing they would be tested for error (dibble and dibble 2014). following this step, each student then transcribed 40 ids from their neighbor’s assemblage. finally, another student verified the transcribed ids against the labeled lithics. out of 320 total labeled lithics, 18 were transcribed incorrectly on the final sheet (a 5.6% error-rate). in another experiment, 25 participants (phd students and recent phds) each recorded the same set of 20 archaeological identification codes three times: once by hand, once with a keyboard, and once with a barcode scanner (figures 1). this resulted in 500 uniquely entered records recorded in triplicate. participants were aware that they would be timed and checked for errors. the author timed each participant’s data-entry with a stop-watch (figure 2, table 1). despite the fact that many participants said they would proceed slowly in order to avoid errors, they made frequent mistakes. illegibility was the leading cause of a 4.4% error-rate for the 500 handwritten ids, while typos presented a 2.6% error-rate for the 500 keyboard-input ids and a 0% error-rate for the 500 barcoded ids. these error rates can be compounded by the common excavation workflow, where a tag is first written out by hand (or a specimen labeled), and later keyed into a database. the above results are comparable to other published error rates from a variety of data-entry studies conducted in various professions where such rates fall around “a few percent” per cell on a spreadsheet (panko 2008a). for more complex, multi-step tasks, perhaps analogous to entering all the variables from an archaeological specimen, the error rate is generally far higher, ca. 30% of all records containing at least one error. furthermore, the ca. 80% error detection rates observed in most proofreading studies suggests that many errors are not caught (panko 2008b). taking this logic to its ultimate conclusion, it is probable that ca. 6% of all recorded specimens in any given assemblage contain some form of error ranging from minor to grievous typos. therefore, given the tenacity of human error, it is crucial – especially when considering the scale of archaeological data-entry – to design robust analytical workflows. ideally, these systems should be designed to minimize unconscious mistakes made when transcribing information onto data labels or databases. while some detailed suggestions are presented below, it is also recommended to use digital devices (calipers, scales, etc.) whenever possible since they can transfer data directly to the computer with few transcription errors (mcpherron and dibble 2002). barcoding archaeology printed barcoded labels is a simple method already in use on many archaeological projects for reducing errors and speeding up archaeological labeling and recording processes in the field and lab (dibble et al. 2007; dibble and dibble 2014; mcpherron and dibble 2002). labels can be custom designed to include whatever printed text one wishes, with a barcode at the bottom of a tag representing an archaeological provenience or ‘id’ (figure 3). figure 1. examples of handwritten mistakes from the timed data entry experiment. figure 2. the time results for the data entry experiment in a bar graph showing average time per id entered (25 participants entering 20 ids each) with standard deviation bars. ethnobiology letters. 2015. 6(2):249‐257. doi: 10.14237/ebl.6.2.2015.393. 252 data, methods & taxonomies special issue on digital zooarchaeology therefore, even if barcodes become obsolete, data are still recorded in the layout one wishes on a tag. it is possible to affordably print tags (with or without barcodes) on paper, mylar, polyethylene, or many other materials. due to the idiosyncrasies of archaeological cataloging, research, and curation systems it is important to approach label creation and id assignment in a project-by-project ad hoc manner. a printed labeling system needs to be robust enough to deal with potential joining fragments, “bags within bags,” and needs to readily integrate (through both textual and visual vocabulary) within the larger archaeological project. the barcode merely duplicates in a digitalreadable format the standard conventions of a project. automating the printing of tags can save a significant amount of time and reduce error. for example, from an archaeological context with 75 identifiable specimens, it is simple to instruct the computer to print tags for all 75 specimens at once, each with a unique-sequential id. this eliminates 74 chances to record an id incorrectly, and the printed labels can easily be checked as a block prior to assigning them to individual specimens and sorting the labeled specimens into larger contextual assemblages. in addition, scanning a barcode is a virtually error-free method for recording an archaeological id. the risk of scanning the wrong barcoded tag is the same as data-entering the wrong tag. the tag includes any text one wishes, therefore, it is still possible for anyone to visually inspect a tag or do manual data entry. a button-based database most database entry forms used in archaeology rely upon a combination of drop-down boxes or text boxes. while both are useful, neither truly solves the issue of typos. while restrictions on variables in dropdown boxes do limit spelling mistakes, they do not adequately prevent an operator from mistyping and participant typing errors writing errors scanning errors 1 211 1 140 3 30 2 217 165 56 3 146 128 4 37 4 267 215 1 70 5 172 125 3 47 6 243 1 165 55 7 234 2 119 1 35 8 230 1 155 1 48 9 160 142 1 50 10 230 114 1 45 11 243 175 50 12 201 1 161 50 13 220 232 32 14 145 123 34 15 158 115 33 16 308 1 170 1 45 17 200 2 138 1 36 18 198 184 46 19 126 110 2 21 20 134 1 157 32 21 167 110 2 38 22 400 1 168 85 23 209 145 42 24 124 1 156 1 35 25 225 1 176 36 total 5168 13 3788 22 1088 0 table 1. the results from the data entry experiment organized by participant, data entry type, and number of mistakes. ethnobiology letters. 2015. 6(2):249‐257. doi: 10.14237/ebl.6.2.2015.393. 253 data, methods & taxonomies special issue on digital zooarchaeology accidentally selecting a wrong choice from the restricted variables. typos are grievous errors to commit because they do not allow the effective querying of one’s results. in a very real sense, spelling counts when analyzing data. after all, archaeological codes include not only spatial context, but frequently a large variety of variables coded into alphanumeric shorthand make archaeological datasets difficult reading. while data validation routines can identify and sometimes clean problematic data (kansa and kansa 2014), certain similarly spelled words or codes, in addition to numerals are notoriously difficult to retroactively identify and fix. a simpler user interface involves designing a single recording form for each field in a table, including buttons on the data-entry form corresponding to the most common responses for the field (figure 4. clicking a button enters the data and proceeds to the next entry form. if the data table is extremely complex it is possible, through vba coding within ms access, to order the data entry process sequentially or create forms that adapt to the entry as it progresses. once designed, button-based databases are easy to use with touch-screen and speech-recognition software and hardware available on affordable new computers. buttons can be ‘pushed’ via clicking a mouse, touching a screen, or (if speech-recognition is activated) speaking aloud the caption (button captions in ms access are automatically ‘listened for’ by the native windows 7 and 8 speech-recognition software). figure 3. example barcoded labels designed in archcode, it is possible to create whatever template you want incorporating any fields in a table. figure 4. the design view for frm_species with buttons for each common taxon. ethnobiology letters. 2015. 6(2):249‐257. doi: 10.14237/ebl.6.2.2015.393. 254 data, methods & taxonomies special issue on digital zooarchaeology both touch-screen and speech-recognition are extremely easy to use as the verbal or tactile nature of data entry keeps the focus on the actual information one is recording, rather than struggling to transpose and type a code or awkward archaeological term. lastly, speech-recognition provides the added benefit of hands-free data-entry, meaning one’s concentration can remain unbroken from the archaeological specimen. the native windows 7 and 8 speech-recognition software is adequate for reliably recording information in english via buttons but is not adequate for recording ‘freehand’ sentences. since the speech-recognition software is “listening” only for the captions of the buttons, it can swiftly and accurately recognize complex terms (“carpometacarpus”) and distinguish between similar terms (“sheep goat” vs. “sheep” vs. “goat”). if the software is confused by a spoken command, it will ask the analyst for clarification. therefore, speech-recognition can only be relied on for specific pre-designed responses, but not for populating text boxes. integrating spatial-anatomical information within a database it is also possible to create a simple gis of spatialanatomical zones (e.g., crania, post-crania, hind limbs, etc.) overlain onto an illustration of a skeleton (figures 5 and 6) whereby anatomical zones are linked to a button-based database. this enables clickable buttons to be placed on an image on the data-entry form, approximating the size of each zone. figures 5 and 6 show zones defined for specific anatomical elements utilized for cutmark recording following anatomical templates provided by popkin (2005) and zones defined by dobney and rielly (1988) (also see orton 2010). these buttons and linkages can be adjusted depending on the focal species and eliminates the need to memorize, look-up, or mistype an arcane zone value. the buttons work with touchscreen or mouse. since the zones are saved in a standardized fashion (e.g., in a cutmark table), it is additionally possible to export these results to gis software and run explanatory spatial analyses illustrating which element was most well represented in a given assemblage or which element had the highest frequency of cutmarks. gis software can consider each zone as a polygon and there is no need to adjust them to a coordinate system (after all, each specimen is of a different size). it is necessary to record cutmarks within their own data table since there might be many cutmarks on each specimen. the example presented in figure 6 from the athenian agora illustrates the high frequency of chop marks evident on the proximal anterior tibiae (zone 4) from the removal of the patella (while no other zone had even 10 chops, the anterior zone 4 had 30 such examples). this butchery pattern, readily visualized through spatial analysis, highlights the introduction of a standardized butchery technique associated with the adoption of the cleaver in urban contexts during classical period athens (dibble 2014). this example of a gis visualization highlights the utility of combining different software while conducting data-entry and exploratory spatial (in this case anatomical) analyses in field and lab settings. time is money: the cost of a digital system surprisingly, according to the above timed studies of data-entry, it actually takes longer to use a keyboard to type out a unique archaeological id (a3102.03) than it does to write it out on paper (figure 2). cumulatively, it took 25 individuals 85 minutes to type 20 id codes each (500 total entries). ids or codes are often awkward to recall, let alone type, and thus they reduce time for zooarchaeological analysis. moreover, specialists frequently record the same id twice or more (the handwritten id associated with an object, its data, whether it has been photographed or not, etc.). therefore, each id in a hypothetical 10,000 specimen assemblage might be written or typed two to three times for a total of well over 50 hours of work. the experiment above suggests that scanning a barcoded id is approximately 400% faster than writing it, and 500% faster than typing it. in addition, this speed does not account for the mental distraction of typing in id codes, nor the time spent correcting figure 5. recording the spatial zone of a cutmark (photograph by jonida martini). ethnobiology letters. 2015. 6(2):249‐257. doi: 10.14237/ebl.6.2.2015.393. 255 data, methods & taxonomies special issue on digital zooarchaeology human mistakes. this also does not include, as mentioned above, the time saved in automating the printing of labels, rather than laboriously writing them out. therefore, while implementing this digital system incurs some up-front expenses, the amount of time an analyst saves should provide a financial cushion (fewer travel and cost-of-living expenses incurred over the course of a project). importantly, the analyst can carry forward the expenses in equipment and design time to future projects. the methods and materials described above are affordable to most scholars. touch-screen functionality requires a windows 8 handheld device with a touch-screen (ca. $400 usd) running ms access (academic license for office 365 ca. $70 usd). speech-recognition works better with an external microphone (ca. $30 usd). the expense of barcoding is also quite minimal, although this depends on what material one wishes the tags to be printed on. the program, archcode, co -designed by the author and harold l. dibble, is available for free at www.oldstoneage.com and has been tested on windows 7 and 8. archcode should require no additional coding but will read/write to a single table in a ms access database file (.mdb extension). it is possible to print out 10,000 labels on sticky label sheets to be integrated with each specimen in a small plastic bag for a total budget of under $500 usd. however, these might be destroyed in the course of a field-project and need replacement. figure 6. an example gis output of chop marks on tibias from the athenian agora (most chops derive from anterior zone 4 seen clearly in the accompanying photograph of a specimen taken by jonida martini). ethnobiology letters. 2015. 6(2):249‐257. doi: 10.14237/ebl.6.2.2015.393. 256 data, methods & taxonomies special issue on digital zooarchaeology indestructible, archival plastic tags (polyester, polypropylene, or polyethylene) incur a larger expense but solve the above problem. the tags are more expensive (ca. $600 usd for 10,000 tags) and a thermal-transfer printer ($300+ usd) and printer ribbons are required to print on archival quality tags. conclusion affordably incorporating 21st century technology within archaeological data recording systems serves to increase the efficiency of field and lab based research and to decrease the incidence of human errors. the only real expense is an investment in time prior to designing a large data recording project; however, this investment enables researchers to maximize their data recording time, leading to a net-gain in research capacity. the database described in this paper is available for download at paperlessarchaeology.com. hopefully, the examples presented above will convince scholars that it is worth the effort to create simple, yet powerful code to enhance one’s database by incorporating a variety of current technologies. each of these technologies need not replace a scholar’s current data structure but rather enhance the custom data entry interface. the utilization of barcodes, gis, touch-screen, and speech-recognition, combined with a minimum knowledge of software programming, can help create a robust and efficient data entry system. while none of these technologies are new to archaeology, investing time to creatively deploy such data management technology can save researchers significant time and reduce mistakes. improving the quantity and quality of zooarchaeological data will lead to stronger results and new research avenues. acknowledgments the development of the database and software described above was made possible due to research funding provided by the american school of classical studies at athens, the archaeological institute of america, and the university of cincinnati. laboratory supplies were provided by the malcolm h. wiener laboratory of the american school of classical studies at athens, the institute of aegean prehistory, and the azoria project. the undergraduate lithic labeling experiment was conducted by harold dibble. thanks are due to harold dibble, sarah kansa, iain mckechnie, john wallrodt, and two anonymous reviewers for comments on the paper. i also thank sarah kansa and iain mckechnie for encouraging the submission of this paper. declarations permissions: none declared. sources of funding: the study received funding from the american school of classical studies at athens, the archaeological institute of america, and the university of cincinnati. conflicts of interest: none declared. references cited dibble, w. f. 2014. urban butchery patterns from the athenian agora and azoria in greece. paper presented at the 12th international conference of archaeozoology: san rafael, argentina. dibble, w. f. and h. l. dibble. 2014. barcoding archaeology: digital methods for error-free and rapid labeling, data-entry, and 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accessed on february 2, 2015. panko, r. r. 2008b. the human error website. honolulu, hi: university of hawaii: available at: http://panko.shidler.hawaii.edu/humanerr/ index.htm. accessed on february 2nd, 2015. popkin, p. 2005. caprine butchery and bone modification templates: a step towards standardisation. internet archaeology 17. doi:10.11141/ia.17.2. wallrodt, j. 2015. paperless archaeology. available at paperlessarchaeology.com accessed on august 25, 2015. biosketch the paleobiolinguistics of domesticated manioc (manihot esculenta) 61  research communica on  eastern acre, brazil, and in immediately adjacent areas in lowland bolivia (schaal et al. 2006). populations of ssp. flabellifolia in northern south america are shown by léotard et al. (2009) not to be involved in domestication, and other species in mesoamerica and south america are ruled out by duputié et al. (2011). manioc can be lethally toxic if not prepared correctly. the presence of cyanogenic glucosides in the roots varies from less than 10 to more than 500 mg hydrogen cyanide (hcn) per kilo on a fresh weight basis; varieties with less than 100 mg/kg are considered sweet, and those with more are considered bitter (mckey et al. 2010) and require processing for consumption. while sweet and bitter varieties are difficult to distinguish morphologically, farmers typically are able to segregate bitter from sweet in their production systems (mckey and beckerman 1993). initial human selection probably favored the development of sweet varieties, which are more widely distributed in south america and through central america to mexico than bitter varieties (arroyo-kalin 2010). when food production systems started supplying significant proportions of human diets between 4000 and 3000 bp (piperno and pearsall 1998), bitter varieties were selected for toxicity to protect against pests and to provide higher yields (arroyo-kalin 2010). bitter varieties are most common in central and eastern amazonia and the guianas, with sweet varieties being more prevalent in paleobiolinguistics (pbl) employs the comparative method of historical linguistics to reconstruct the biodiversity known to human groups of the remote, unrecorded past (brown et al. 2013a; brown et al. 2013b).1 comparison of words for biological taxa from languages of the same language family facilitates reconstruction of the biological vocabulary of the family’s ancient proto-language. this study uses pbl to establish where and when domesticated manioc (manihot esculenta crantz, euphorbiaceae) developed significance for different prehistoric native american groups. this entails mapping in both time and geographic space proto-languages for which words for manioc reconstruct. the approximately 98 species of manihot are all native to the new world. there are two centers of diversity of manihot. one is in mesoamerica, which current evidence indicates may be the place of origin of the genus, with approximately 17 species; and the other is in brazil, with approximately 80 species (duputié et al. 2011). the only domesticated taxon is m. esculenta ssp. esculenta, which is derived from ssp. flabellifolia. this subspecies is widely distributed in tropical south america in seasonal open forests both north and south of the amazon basin, and extending into the brazilian savannas (allem 2002). work during the last decade establishes that ssp. esculenta was brought into domestication somewhere in what are today northwestern mato grosso, rondônia, and the paleobiolinguis cs of domes cated manioc (manihot esculenta) cecil h. brown1*, charles r. clement2, pa ence epps3, eike luedeling4, and søren wichmann5  author address: 1northern illinois university, 1700 scenic highway, #601, pensacola, fl, 32503‐6634, usa, 2ins tuto  nacional de pesquisas da amazônia, manaus, am, brazil, 3 university of texas at aus n, aus n, tx, usa, 4world agroforest‐ ry centre (icraf), nairobi, kenya, 5max planck ins tute for evolu onary anthropology, leipzig, germany.  *corresponding author: brown.cecil@yahoo.com   received: january 21, 2013  volume: 4:61‐70  published: june 26, 2013  © 2013 society of ethnobiology  abstract: paleobiolinguis cs  is  used  to  iden fy  on maps  where  and  when manioc  (manihot  esculenta)  developed  im‐ portance for different prehistoric groups of na ve americans. this  informa on  indicates, among other things, that signifi‐ cant interest in manioc developed at least a millennium before a village‐farming way of life became widespread in the new  world.   key words: archaeobotany, crop origins, historical linguis cs, na ve american indians, paleobiolinguis cs, plant domes ca‐ on, plant gene cs    mailto:brown.cecil@yahoo.com� 62  research communica on  years  before  present      proto‐language  proto‐word for  manioc (nr = not  reconstructable)  homeland center  geographic   coordinates      family affilia on    proto‐word  source  6591  otomanguean  *ya  18, ‐96.92  otomanguean  1  5498  popolocan‐ zapotecan  *ya  17.17, ‐96.17  otomanguean  authors  4274  totozoquean  *pisi:  19.92, ‐97.42  totozoquean  2  3149  zapotecan  *ko: yaka  17.17, ‐96.17  otomanguean  authors  3036  popolocan  *ya  18, ‐96.92  otomanguean  authors  2445  chiapanec‐mangue  *yáɂ  17.07, ‐92.73  otomanguean  3  2220  mayan  *tz’ihn  15.42, ‐91.83  mayan  4  1935  chinantecan  *ɂmal  17.92, ‐96.5  otomanguean  5  1676  zapotec  ko yaka  17.17, ‐96.17  otomanguean  authors  1649  quichean‐mamean  *tz’iin  15.42, ‐91.83  mayan  4  1596  mixe‐zoquean  *pisi  17.22, ‐96.03  totozoquean  6  1520  general aztec  *kwaw‐kamoʔ  18.35, ‐99.83  uto‐aztecan  authors  1492  greater mamean  *tz’iin  15.42, ‐91.83  mayan  4  1435  totonacan  *qoqšqḛwḭ  19.92, ‐97.42  totozoquean  7  1432  cholan‐tzeltalan  *tz’ihn  16.83, ‐92.83  mayan  4  1225  kanjobalan‐chujean  *tz’iin  15.83, ‐91.83  mayan  4  1148  cholan  *tz’ihn  14.81, ‐89.38  mayan  4  1058  chujean  *tz’in  15.92, ‐91.58  mayan  4  997  cha no  *ko: yaka  16.25, ‐97.38  otomanguean  authors  981  greater quichean  *tz’iin  14.78, ‐91.5  mayan  4  900  mixe  *kuhy‐piši  17.02, ‐96.07  totozoquean  6  802  kanjobalan  *tz’iin  15.83, ‐91.83  mayan  4  790  yucatecan  *tz’iin  20, ‐89  mayan  4  787  zoque  *pisi  16.9, ‐94.68  totozoquean  6  511  tzeltalan  *tz’in  16.83, ‐92.83  mayan  4  table 1. manioc‐term reconstruc on for proto‐languages of mesoamerica (southern mexico and northern central  america).  proto‐word source:  1. kaufman 1990   2. brown et al. 2011  3. rensch 1976  4. brown and wichmann 2004  5. rensch 1989  6. wichmann 1995    7. david beck, pers. com.  the basin’s headwaters (mckey and beckerman 1993). bitter varieties were also once common along coastal brazil, but now are rare. isendahl (2011) reviews the archaeobotanical evidence for cultivated manioc, with oldest dates of approximately 8000 bp for remains from the pacific coast of peru and low-elevations of the colombian andes, 5000 bp for lowland amazonian colombia, 7000 bp for panama, and 6500 bp for mexico. arroyo-kalin (2010) cautions that early dates for manioc may not always be m. esculenta, since the genus is widely distributed and other species may have been brought into domestication and later abandoned with the arrival of modern manioc. however, given that other manihot species are absent from coastal peru and the colombian andes (duputié et al. 2011), the 63  research communica on  earliest dates in these regions are likely to represent the introduction of m. esculenta from its center of domestication in southwestern amazonia. manioc-term reconstructions are presented for proto-languages of two major regions of the new world: (1) southern mexico and northern central america (henceforth mesoamerica) (table 1); (2) southern central america and south america (table 2). north america is not included in this analysis because manioc was a historical introduction there. the tables list major proto-languages of the americas widely regarded by historical linguists as demonstrated. some major proto-languages are not included because lexical information from daughter languages is not sufficiently available for drawing either positive or negative conclusions about maniocterm reconstruction. unfortunately, words for sweet and bitter varieties are insufficiently recorded in sources to permit a reconstructed distinction. in addition to identifying proto-languages with manioc terms and the terms themselves, the tables report proto-languages for which these terms are “not reconstructable” (nr). nr is a designation used when terms for manioc are present in all or most languages of a family, but, nonetheless, are not cognate and, hence, do not attest to a manioc term in their shared ancestral language. nr, then, never indicates that a term does not reconstruct because of missing data. dates for proto-languages presented in the tables are intended to be the latest dates at which these languages were spoken just before breaking up into daughter languages. these are calculated through use of automated similarity judgment program (asjp) chronology, a computational dating approach based on the lexical similarity of languages (holman et al. 2011).2 possible geographic coordinates for protolanguage homeland centers given in the tables are produced through automation using an algorithm for identifying the maximum lexical diversity within a language family (wichmann et al. 2010). the geographic center of lexical diversity of a family is assumed to correlate with where the family’s protolanguage was spoken. tables also give a linguistic figure 1. manioc‐term reconstruc on informa on from table 1 plo ed on map of mesoamerica.   64  research communica on  table 2. manioc‐term reconstruc on for proto‐languages of southern central america and south america.  years  before  present      proto‐language  proto‐word for  manioc (nr = not  reconstructable)  homeland center  geographic       coordinates      family affilia on      proto‐word source  7266  macro‐ge  nr  ‐11.3, ‐53  macro‐ge     4701  mataco‐guaykuru  nr  ‐22.5, ‐62.58  mataco‐ guaykuru     4461  southern arawakan  *kaniri  ‐10.33, ‐74.33  arawakan  authors  4400  chibchan  *ɂik, *ike  9.75, ‐83.42  chibchan  1, 2  4134  arawakan  *kani[tʰɨ]  1, ‐69.17  arawakan  3  4085  n arawakan  *kani[ ]  1, ‐69.17  arawakan  authors  3943  panoan‐tacanan  nr  ‐7.5, ‐75  panoan‐tacanan     3585  tupi  *mani  ‐8, ‐62  tupi  4  3518  caribbean n arawakan  *kani  12, ‐72  arawakan  authors  3310  salivan  nr  5, ‐67  salivan     3241  barbacoan  *ku‐  0.67, ‐79  barbacoan  authors  3178  zaparoan  *muɾɨha  ‐3.25, ‐74  zaparoan  5  3124  nadahup  nr  0, ‐69  nadahup     3023  ge  *kwyr  ‐15, ‐52.5  macro‐ge  6  2927  witoto‐ocaina  *hõɂ   ‐2.75, ‐71.75  witoto‐ocaina‐ nonuya  7  2909  guaykuruan  nr  ‐26.5, ‐59  mataco‐ guaykuru    2857  witoto‐ocaina‐nonuya  *hoɂ t  ‐1.25, ‐72.5  witoto‐ocaina‐ nonuya  8  2807  nambiquaran  *(wv3)lin’3  ‐12.75, ‐59.17  nambiquaran  9  2774  misumalpan  nr  13, ‐84.5  misumalpan     2731  talamancan  *ik  9.75, ‐83.42  chibchan  authors  2699  tucanoan  *kɨi  0.33, ‐70.25  tucanoan  10  2593  inland n arawakan  *kainhi, *kap(w)a‐ li, *mulhui  1, ‐69.17  arawakan  11  2503  venezuelan cariban  *kɨčere, *amaka  6.5, ‐66  cariban  authors  2433  southern guaykuruan  *piyok  ‐26.5, ‐59  mataco‐ guaykuru  authors  2414  north barbacoan  *ku‐  1.5, ‐78.25  barbacoan  authors  2412  cariban  *kï(č/t)ere, *wïj(u)  10.17, ‐72.75  cariban   12  2404  matacoan  nr  ‐22.5, ‐62.58  mataco‐ guaykuru     2271  boran  *pɨɨkkaá,  *paikoómɨ  ‐2.17, ‐72.33  boran  7,  authors  2219  purus  *kanшrш  ‐12.5, ‐69.33  arawakan  authors  2156  western tucanoan  *kɨi  ‐2.83, ‐72.5  tucanoan  authors  1931  chapacuran  *ɂakop  ‐13.43, ‐63.17  chapacuran  13  1853  panoan  *ɂatsa  ‐7.5, ‐75  panoan‐tacanan  authors  1853  pekodian  *u  ‐14, ‐55  cariban  authors  1850  tupari  *mani  ‐12.5, ‐62.5  tupi  authors  (con nued on next page)  65  research communica on  1821  southern ge  *kɯbɛ{d}, *kagre  ‐26, ‐52  macro‐ge  14  1780  mascoian  *seppo  ‐23.2, ‐58  mascoian  authors  1764  arauan  *po'a, *ximeka,  *kojo  ‐6, ‐70.5  arauan  15  1717  quechuan  nr  0.33, ‐78  quechuan  16  1712  monde  nr  ‐10.97, ‐61.13  tupi     1634  mainline panoan  *ɂatsa  ‐7.5, ‐75  panoan‐tacanan  17  1607  jabu   *murε  ‐12.25, ‐62.25  macro‐ge  18, 19  1590  tacanan  *kwawe  ‐13.33, ‐66.5  panoan‐tacanan  20  1569  harakmbet  *táare  ‐12.5, ‐70.5  harakmbet  21  1550  tupi‐guarani  *mani  ‐8, ‐62  tupi  5  1519  kampan  *kaniri  ‐10.33, ‐74.33  arawakan  authors  1480  munduruku  *masɨk  ‐7, ‐58  tupi  authors  1418  cayapa‐colorado  *kuhcu  0.67, ‐79  barbacoan  22  1402  guianan cariban  *kičere, *wɨi  3.25, ‐55.75  cariban  authors  1395  cabecar‐bribri  *ali  9.42, ‐83  chibchan  authors  1335  kakua‐nukak  *tũj  0.88, ‐69.56  kakua‐nukak  authors  1319  yanomam  *naši  3.5, ‐62.83  yanomam  authors  1291  guahiban  *newa, *bawá  6.5, ‐71.33  guahiban  23,  authors  1262  timbira  *kwɨr  ‐5.25, ‐46  macro‐ge  18  1241  eastern tucanoan  *kɨi  0.33, ‐70.25  tucanoan  authors  1185  kawapanan  *kiɂ  ‐5.5, ‐77  kawapanan  24  1169  pemongan  *kɨsera  4, ‐60  cariban  authors  992  taranoan  *wɨi  1, ‐73  cariban  25  974  quechua ii  *rumu  0.33, ‐78  quechuan  16  678  jivaroan  *máma  ‐2.5, ‐78  jivaroan  26  644  guaymi  *ho, *hi  8.67, ‐82  chibchan  authors  419  coconucan  *lo  2.5, ‐76.5  barbacoan  authors  414  witoto proper  *hu , *maika(hi)  ‐1, ‐73.5  witoto‐ocaina‐ nonuya  authors  389  mayoruna panoan  *ɂatsa  ‐4.42, ‐70.25  panoan‐tacanan  authors  years  before  present      proto‐language  proto‐word for  manioc (nr = not  reconstructable) homeland center  geographic       coordinates      family affilia on      proto‐word source  proto‐word source:  1. constenla 1981   2. constenla 1990   3. payne 1991  4. rodrigues 2010   5. lev michael, pers. com.  6. davis 1966   7. aschmann 1993  8. echeverri and seifart 2011  9. price 1978  10. chacon n.d.  11. ramirez 2001  12. sergio meira, pers. com.  13. angenot‐de lima 1997   14. jolkesky 2010   15. dixon 2004  16. willem adelaar, pers. com.  17. shell 2008  (con nued from previous page)  18. eduardo ribeiro, pers. com  19. van der voort 2007  20. girard 1971  21. ma eson 1972   22. moore 1962  23. chris an and ma eson 1972   24. pilar valenzuela, pers. com.  25. meira 2000  26. payne 1981   66  research communica on  family affiliation for each proto-language. the information reported in tables 1 and 2 is plotted on maps of figures 1, 2 and 3 to give a visual perspective on both the chronological and geographic distributions of reconstructed manioc terms. figure 3 is an enlargement of a highly congested area of the map of figure 2. as noted above, manioc was originally domesticated somewhere in southwestern amazonia (schaal et al. 2006). this area includes the presumed tupi homeland (noelli 1998; rodrigues 1964; walker et al. 2012; and see figure 2). nevertheless, the asjp date for proto-tupi is somewhat more recent (3585 bp, table 2) than dates for other south american groups, especially arawakan (4461-4085 bp, table 2). the arawakan homeland is near the 5000 bp-manioc remains reported from lowland colombian amazonia (isendahl 2011) and, thus, appears to reflect the dispersal of the crop from its center of domestication. from pbl analysis, there is no direct indication that speakers of any particular south american protolanguage were responsible for manioc domestication. while archaeological evidence attests to the presence of manioc in central america as early as 7000 bp (isendahl 2011), the earliest date for a protolanguage in the area having a manioc term, i.e., chibchan, is 4400 bp (table 2). this 2600-year discrepancy may be more apparent than real considering, for example, that asjp dates are minimum dates for proto-languages, i.e., latest dates at which ancestral languages were still spoken. the date for otomanguean, 6591 bp (table 1), of northern mesoamerica, corresponds well with the archaeological date of 6500 bp for the earliest remains of manioc in the area figure 2. manioc‐term  reconstruc on  informa on  from table 2 plo ed on map of southern central america and south  america.   67  research communica on  (isendahl 2011). notably, manioc reconstructs for all proto-languages of mesoamerica (figure 1), while this is not so for those of southern central america and south america (figure 2). in general, proto-languages for which manioc terms reconstruct are broadly distributed through lowland south america and mesoamerica, reflecting the crop’s dispersal throughout the neotropics from its origin in southwestern amazonia. asjp dates for these proto-languages, like archaeobotanical ones, indicate that domestication and dispersal of the crop occurred before the general development of a villagefarming way of life in the new world from 4000 to 3000 bp (piperno and pearsall 1998; smith 1992). acknowledgements we thank jan salick, doyle mckey, manuel arroyokalin, christian isendahl, two anonymous reviewers, and the editors for useful suggestions for improving this study. we are also grateful to willem adelaar, david beck, sergio meira, lev michael, eduardo ribeiro, and pilar valenzuela for supplying linguistic data. declarations permissions: not applicable. sources of funding: epps’ work on this project was supported by the national science foundation (hsd0902114). conflicts of interest: none declared. figure 3. enlargement of congested region (northwestern south america and adjacent areas) of map of figure 2.   68  research communica on  references cited allem, a. c. 2002. the origins and taxonomy of cassava. in cassava, biology, production and utilization, edited by r. j. hillocks, j. m. thresh, and a. 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para. emílio goeldi. ciências humanas 2:133-168. walker, r. s., s. wichmann, t. mailund, and c. j. atkisson. 2012. cultural phylogenetics of the tupi language family in lowland south america. plos one 7(4): e35025. doi:10.1371/ journal.pone.0035025 wichmann, s. 1995. the relationship among the mixezoquean languages of mexico. university of utah press, salt lake city. wichmann, s., a. müller, and v. velupillai. 2010. homelands of the world’s language families: a quantitative approach. diachronica 27:247–276. biosketches cecil h. brown is a linguis c anthropologist with  interests in ethnobiology, historical linguis cs, and  na ve american languages.  charles r. clement is a gene cist studying the origin and  domes ca on of na ve amazonian crops, and the  ethnobotany associated with anthropogenic soils and  70  research communica on  other domes cated landscapes.  pa ence epps is a linguist whose work inves gates  lowland south american languages from historical,  typological, and descrip ve perspec ves.  eike luedeling is an agricultural scien st mainly  concerned with projec on of climate change impacts on  agricultural and natural ecosystems and with the  development of appropriate adapta on strategies.  søren wichmann specializes in quan ta ve methods in  historical linguis cs and mesoamerican languages. he is  general editor of the journal language dynamics and  change.  notes 1this is the second pbl study published in ethnobiology letters, the first treating chili pepper (brown et al. 2013a). several others are projected. the method and theory of pbl is summarized in brown et al. (2013a) and discussed in substantial detail in several preceding papers (brown 2006a,b; brown 2010; brown et al. 2013b). the current paper and others that follow in ethnobiology letters will not repeat these discussions. 2occasionally, an asjp date for a proto-language may be older than a date for its own parent language. for example, proto-southern arawakan (4461 bp) has an asjp date older than that for proto-arawakan (4134 bp). this sometimes occurs in asjp chronology when a language group’s breakup is closely followed in time by the breakup of its immediate subgroup. the attested variability of asjp dates accounts for this apparent aberrancy (holman et al. 2011:872). << /ascii85encodepages false /allowtransparency false /autopositionepsfiles true /autorotatepages /none /binding /left /calgrayprofile (dot gain 20%) /calrgbprofile (srgb iec61966-2.1) /calcmykprofile (u.s. web coated \050swop\051 v2) /srgbprofile (srgb iec61966-2.1) /cannotembedfontpolicy /error /compatibilitylevel 1.4 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can be opened with acrobat and adobe reader 5.0 and later.) >> /namespace [ (adobe) (common) (1.0) ] /othernamespaces [ << /asreaderspreads false /cropimagestoframes true /errorcontrol /warnandcontinue /flattenerignorespreadoverrides false /includeguidesgrids false /includenonprinting false /includeslug false /namespace [ (adobe) (indesign) (4.0) ] /omitplacedbitmaps false /omitplacedeps false /omitplacedpdf false /simulateoverprint /legacy >> << /addbleedmarks false /addcolorbars false /addcropmarks false /addpageinfo false /addregmarks false /convertcolors /converttocmyk /destinationprofilename () /destinationprofileselector /documentcmyk /downsample16bitimages true /flattenerpreset << /presetselector /mediumresolution >> /formelements false /generatestructure false /includebookmarks false /includehyperlinks false /includeinteractive false /includelayers false /includeprofiles false /multimediahandling /useobjectsettings /namespace [ (adobe) (creativesuite) (2.0) ] /pdfxoutputintentprofileselector /documentcmyk /preserveediting true /untaggedcmykhandling /leaveuntagged /untaggedrgbhandling /usedocumentprofile /usedocumentbleed false >> ] >> setdistillerparams << /hwresolution [2400 2400] /pagesize [612.000 792.000] >> setpagedevice the role of myth in understanding nature pierotti. 2016. ethnobiology letters 7(2):6–13 6 perspectives special issue on memoirs and memory gation…it aims, like science, at perceiving and expressing ultimate truths, but the hypotheses of myth are framed as stories, not as equations, technical descriptions or taxonomic rules… a story so perceptive of reality that it might be rediscovered, like any law of nature, in almost any culture at any time” (bringhurst 2008:64, emphasis added). “the final goal of metaphor is myth, which is a narrative derived from taking the figurative literally” (charles simic cited in bringhurst 2008:67). thus, in discussing myth we should determine the relationship between story and metaphor. as an evolutionary ecologist, i believe that it must be recognized that metaphor is an important aspect of the western scientific tradition. metaphors dominate both biological research and the way biological phenomena are understood under the western tradition (pierotti 2011a:68). “contemporary philosophers have argued that scientific understanding, like all human underfor much of my adult life i struggled with the idea of how myth relates to my understanding of how the world functions. in books and educational settings, it seemed that the idea of myth was employed to discuss ideas that are ultimately false, or at least untrue, but that were still important to learn about. in some of my family experiences, however, i got the feeling that myth referred to traditional stories and beliefs that emerged from specific cultural traditions and ways of relating to nature. in this latter sense, myth is not false, but so profound that it is strongly linked to personal identities and understanding of human relationships to other aspects of the world. my current way of thinking is that “myth is a theorem about the nature of reality, expressed not in algebraic symbols or inanimate abstractions, but in animate narrative form” (bringhurst 2008:63). bringhurst further argues that “myth is…an alternative form of science…an alternative form of investithe role of myth in understanding nature raymond pierotti1* 1department of ecology and evolutionary biology, university of kansas, lawrence, ks, usa. *pierotti@ku.edu abstract use of metaphor embodies myth in western science and native american traditional knowledge traditions about understanding the “natural” world and the nonhuman “other.” using personal history, i compare a myth/metaphor from each intellectual tradition that shaped my thinking. cultural trains of thought and metaphors impacted these myths and shaped my way of thinking. from western scientific tradition, i examine the “balance of nature,” which dominated ecology and conservation biology from the 1850s until the 1990s. balance and stability underlie major models in contemporary ecology and population biology, especially in wildlife and fisheries management. before i trained as a western style evolutionary ecologist, the myth of wolf as creator figure in the traditions of numic peoples (shoshone, comanche, ute, paiute) was the indigenous creation myth that shaped my thinking. in the balance of nature, hidden metaphors are rooted in western economic thought, specifically capitalism. similar metaphors in numic peoples assume that humans are related ecologically to wolves, who served as teachers and guides. stories, rather than data, served to fix these concepts into each cultural tradition. although numic beliefs appear “irrational” to western society, they are more attuned to twenty-first century ecological and evolutionary thought than balance in nature, which lay at the root of western ecological ideas until the 1980s. i discuss how my experiences with changing environmental conditions combined with my work with indigenous peoples. exposure to philosophical and empirical approaches from ethnobiology led me to explore these themes. received june 19, 2016 open access accepted december 13, 2016 doi 10.14237/ebl.7.2.2016.729 keywords shoshonean, wolf, balance of nature, western science, traditional knowledge, myth copyright © 2016 by the author(s); licensee society of ethnobiology. this is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution-noncommercial 4.0 international public license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0), which permits non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. pierotti. 2016. ethnobiology letters 7(2):6–13 7 perspectives special issue on memoirs and memory standing, proceeds by way of providing metaphorical redescriptions of phenomena” (hesse 1974:62). native american traditional knowledge is typically presented in a metaphoric fashion, which has allowed some individuals of european ancestry to try to dismiss such knowledge as mere “stories” or “legends” (anderson 2013, pierotti 2011a). as i matured, i realized that these metaphors originate from indigenous philosophical and spiritual traditions that derive knowledge from careful observation of relationships. metaphorical stories lead to the fundamental indigenous principles that “all things are connected,” and “all things are related” (pierotti 2011a, b). examining western and native american ways of knowing allowed me to compare metaphors and emerging myths employed in each tradition. the stories involved allowed me to reconsider the meanings of “natural” and the nonhuman “other.” two important myths, one from each intellectual tradition were important in influencing my early ways of thinking. from the western scientific tradition, the myth of the “balance of nature” shaped my early training. this way of thinking led me to consider that natural populations and ecosystems exist in a state of equilibrium. this idea was important to my understanding of ecology and conservation biology. this was especially because i found such thinking in the writings of one of my early heroes, charles darwin. at the time, i regarded the balance of nature and equilibrium thinking not as myths or metaphors, but as descriptions of reality. these ideas underlay major models in ecology and population biology, and served as the basis of wildlife and fisheries management. while i was growing up i was told the story of how wolf served as creator figure in the traditions of numic peoples (shoshone, comanche, ute, paiute). as a boy i found this a fascinating story, which led to my interest in wolves, but as a college student i found the story hard to understand in any literal sense, and i clearly did not fit within the ecological tradition in which i was being trained. in consequence, i filed these stories aside until i began working with native american faculty and students at haskell indian nations university in the 1990s. during this same period, i became aware of gene anderson’s classic book, ecologies of the heart (1996). i was intrigued by how anderson presented the idea of “error” or possible irrationality in belief systems, because of mistakes in the metaphors hidden within them. i was intrigued by how anderson discussed how understanding these errors could lead to conflict or reconciliation. this led me to reconsider the stories i had heard as a boy with the education i had received as an ecologist in training. i thought it might be useful to examine my own apparently irreconcilable ideas to find the errors and irrationality they contained. balance of nature and equilibrium models “that there is a balance of nature is one of the most deep-seated assumptions about the natural world…” (kricher 2009: 1). by replacing “deep seated assumption” with “myth,” i could explore the irrational errors under the myth. the idea of balance in nature is powerful and logically intuitive. it underpins much of contemporary ecological thought, especially regarding the development of theory in population ecology. the balance of nature myth has been used to explain the functioning of natural ecological systems from ancient times. aristotle viewed balance as perhaps the single most important component of the cosmos. i found the error in teleological understanding of biological phenomena, which considered balance to be an expression of the mind of god. this was expressed in the idea that “to know god one should know nature.” such thinking underpinned the predarwinian conception of the immutability of species (kricher 2009) and showed that in the balance of nature, ecology allowed creationist thinking to enter through a back door. in the earliest days of modern science, there was no quantitative underpinning to any of these ideas concerning balance in nature. darwin assumed the existence of balance, which is implicit in his metaphor of the tangled bank. it is also explicit in his discussion of food webs and competition between species, “yet in the long-run the forces are so nicely balanced that the face of nature remains uniform for long periods of time” (darwin 1859:73; kricher 2009:65). such thinking continues to be invoked in popular culture. a recent study showed that american undergraduates believe this term is descriptive of real ecological systems (as did i in my undergraduate days), and continue to do so even after instruction in ecological science (zimmerman and cuddington 2007). despite such beliefs, as a scholar i came to recognize that, “the notion of a balance of nature is part observational, part metaphysical and not scientific pierotti. 2016. ethnobiology letters 7(2):6–13 8 perspectives special issue on memoirs and memory in any way” (kricher 2009:16). as ecology became increasingly mathematical, however, the idea of balance was transformed into the idea that natural systems are always seeking a state of equilibrium. in the first scientific studies in animal ecology, charles elton stated that he was “chiefly concerned with what may be called the sociology and economics of animals,” and that animals are “subject to economic laws” and defined food (calories) as the “currency” of animal economics (1927:vii, viii, 56). such thinking can be seen in all of the classic models of population dynamics derived from the lotka-volterra equations (kingsland 1985). my first major research project as an ecologist involved studying male and female parental roles in the western gull, larus occidentalis in the north pacific. gulls are monogamous, territorial birds that typically breed in colonies on islands (tinbergen 1953). i was trained as a typical western population ecologist steeped in the tradition of elton, david lack, and niko tinbergen, operating under the assumption that all individuals in a population or species were basically the same, and that if a territorial breeding bird was removed it would be readily replaced by a nonbreeder. tinbergen was my role model, having written the classic the herring gulls’ world. i collecting detailed data on 25 pairs of gulls over two years. i quickly learned that individual variation in ecology and behavior within and among pairs undermined the idea that members of a species were similar and could readily be replaced. the first year took place under fairly severe el nino conditions, where warmer less productive waters reduced availability of small fish and large plankton preferred by female gulls (pierotti 1981). males and females adjusted their schedules, so the behavior of individual pairs varied according to the foraging abilities and preferences of each parent. if a female took more time in finding food, her mate adjusted by spending more time sitting on the nest incubating the eggs. variation in parental care brought home two things: 1) the behavioral flexibility of individual gulls and pairs, and 2) the importance of environmental variation in determining behavior in relation to ecology. gulls could not anticipate from one year to the next what foraging conditions would be like. such findings did not fit the “balance of nature” and “constant environmental conditions” type of thinking in which i had been trained (pierotti 1981, 2011a). for my ph.d. i studied interactions among gulls, puffins, and humpback whales off the coast of newfoundland. this system was driven by variation in the availability of capelin (mallotus villosus), a small schooling fish that occurs in huge spawning aggregations during late spring and early summer. capelin are so abundant that my predecessors studying this system assumed that capelin abundance was uniform over an area of hundreds of square kilometers. in this study i employed optimal foraging theory (oft), developed during the 1970s. oft is derived from economic models designed to optimize income within capitalist systems. under oft, it is assumed that foraging organisms always prefer the food type that yielded the highest rate of caloric intake, which maximizes this currency (stephens and krebs 1986). i found that food choice varied temporally in relation to local habitat, and that gulls did not take the food types highest in calories, but the ones that allowed them to produce the healthiest offspring. switches in diet during the season related to the hatching of eggs and the presence of small chicks (pierotti and annett 1987, 1990, 1991). it became obvious to me that gulls had a very different view of the best diet was than did ecologists, animal behaviorists, or economists, and this was undermining my belief of the existence of a balance in nature. i had been trained to employ theory to support the data i was collecting in behavioral and evolutionary ecology. theory in these disciplines is based upon economic models employed as metaphors for what was presumed to be taking place in the economy of nature (elton 1927; worster 1993, 1994). linnaeus first presented this concept in 1749 in his work specimen academicum de oeconomia naturae (kricher 2009). the phrase was adopted by darwin in his origin of species, and codified by elton (1927). elton originated, and oft continued, the concept of “currencies,” in terms of calories. in addition, eltonian trophic dynamics speak in terms of “producers” and “consumers.” the logistic model, employed to examine lotka-volterra dynamics assumes a constant environment and a fixed “carrying capacity.” this model and its derivatives are the basis of wildlife and fisheries models, e.g. the notorious maximum sustainable yield (msy) models. msy thinking led to the crash of virtually all marine fisheries on a global scale and is considered to be one of the most misleading concepts in the field of ecology and fisheries management (finley 2011; holt pierotti. 2016. ethnobiology letters 7(2):6–13 9 perspectives special issue on memoirs and memory 1975; larkin 1977). continuing gull research in california, we found great variability among individuals across twelve breeding seasons (annett and pierotti 1989, 1999; pierotti and annett 1990, 1994). all our studies showed that metaphors derived from economic concepts were not useful and even misleading, because the systems were constantly changing as el nino events became more frequent, and the birds changed their behavior in attempts to track the changing conditions. wolf as the creator by the 1990s i was becoming frustrated by the theoretical and epistemological constraints imposed by western thinking. during this decade i obtained a tenure track university position, that included the opportunity to work with native american faculty and students at haskell indian nations university. these colleagues led me to reconsider concepts from my upbringing in new mexico, and the stories i had learned from my elders about thinking of all members of any species as individuals. what was considered to be the myths of native americans emphasized reciprocal relationships that they assumed to exist between humans and nonhumans. considering how this type of thinking could be applied to my ecological research led me to read the work of gene anderson, and started me on the path that led me to ethnobiology (pierotti 2011 a,b). one of the most important myths in the numic (shoshone, comanche, piute, ute) tradition is that wolf served as benevolent creator figure. this was one of the formative myths of my youth. as a professor, i recognized that indigenous peoples employed very different concepts of “creation” or “origin,” which related to environmental instability and fluctuations (pierotti 2011a). in the western tradition, when referring to humans, or even life itself, creation seems to refer only to first appearance of an entity. thus, creation is a single event, which leads to creationist thinking among religious westerners, and to the idea of single origins of life forms within the sciences. in contrast, native american creation stories refer to a series of events that are not located in specific periods of time, but instead are linked to a particular physical location where environmental conditions change in unpredictable ways. this forces these cultures to redefine themselves and develop new traditions and ways of coping with the new environmental conditions (pierotti 2011a). indigenous concepts of creation involve process, rather than a single event. it is recognized that humans existed prior to the events described as “creation,” thus multiple creation events are possible, and creation is still taking place in the modern world. working with indigenous people drove me to realization that many native american cultural traditions were being established at the end of the ice ages, when conditions were highly variable. in north america, the “first” humans had to contend with massive flooding, unpredictable freezes, and intermittent warming, while having to eke out a living by hunting and gathering while animal populations changed dramatically. deglaciation in the northern hemisphere began about 20,000 ybp (clark et al. 2009), which corresponds to most recent evidence concerning the timing of the peopling of the americas (dillehay et al. 2015; gibbons 2015). climate change has been a major driver of population size changes in both humans and nonhumans over the last 50,000 years (gibbons 2013; lorenzen et al. 2011; pennisi 2004; shapiro et al. 2004). thinking in this fashion led me to recognize that if creation stories deal with responses to changing environmental conditions, indigenous cultures were attuned to thinking about variability rather than stability in the environment. thus, any other species that helped them navigate these changes effectively was credited with great spiritual power, and in some circumstances, identified as the protagonist of a creation story. from this thinking it was only a short step to realize that the numic creation story i described above might be more than a colorful story, and could be a description of an important ecological relationship. wolves were considered to be of great cultural and spiritual significance to many indigenous american peoples (fogg et al. 2015; marshall 1995; schlesier 1987). wolves served as models for the concepts of community existing at both the single species and ecosystem level (bruchac 2003: 159; marshall 1995). like humans, wolves proved capable of associating with and maintaining cordial relations with other species, such as ravens. when i closely examined the stories from indigenous plains peoples of north american, it became clear that wolves were considered to be important teachers who helped humans in their efforts at hunting (fogg et al. 2015; schlesier 1987). “for some tribes, the first people include a noble, heroic figure, such as the wolf among the comanche, who foresees pierotti. 2016. ethnobiology letters 7(2):6–13 10 perspectives special issue on memoirs and memory the coming of humanity and plans a perfect, ideal world for them—until his brother coyote enters the scene as marplot” (bright 1987). it became obvious to me that the way the shoshone and comanche see the wolf and the coyote reflect their understanding of natural phenomena. wolf (pia is’a, pronounced pee’a eeesha) is seen as the creator figure, and coyote (is’a) is his/her little brother who, like many younger siblings, is constantly trying to improve upon its older sibling’s efforts (buller 1983; ramsey 1977; vander 1997). coyote is not seen as an evil figure. he/she is thought of more as mischievous; a sort of sub-creator, which is why he is described as the little brother of wolf and not as an opponent, except possibly in the intellectual sense. wolf was wholly beneficent; his acts of original creation made all things perfect and good. coyote, the mischievous til eulenspiegel of shoshonean folklore, was the spoiler of all things, however. his was the role of the transformer who undid the good works of his big brother. he brought hardship, travail and effort into the lives of men. he represented the force of evil as we (euroamericans) see it—an yet the shoshones in no way thought of him and his relationship with wolf as a conflict of good and evil. coyote was not bad, he was no more than wantonly mischievous (wallace and hoebel 1948:193–194). thus, in the tradition of the nuhmuh/newe (shoshone and comanche peoples) wolf was considered as the creator figure who created a perfect world (harney 1995:26; smith and hayes 1993). at times wolf lost patience with his creation, as in the paiute story, tracks of the creator (ramsey 1977:231). according to the numic tradition, wolf and coyote argued about how the world should function, with wolf desiring an idealized world in which death is only temporary, childbirth is easy and pleasant for women, and winter does not exist. in contrast, coyote thinks death should be permanent, childbirth should be difficult, and hardships and cold weather should be regular aspects of human experience (lily pete, in smith 1993:3–4). that canids would carry out a human-style dialog is clearly unrealistic, and reveals the metaphorical error in this tradition. nonetheless, this discussion reflects perceptions of the way the world actually functions (harney 1995; smith 1993). children are taught to emulate wolf and view wolf as a more sympathetic figure than coyote, however, it is coyote who presents the more realistic view of how the world truly functions. in the long run, it is obvious who will usually carry the day. even though they acknowledge the sadness that resulted from death, which they attribute to coyote’s thinking, the newe themselves recognize that “if it weren't for coyote there would be too many people now” (lily pete, in smith and hayes 1993:3). this recognition reveals the truth behind the troubling reality, and shows that the people recognize the risks of local human overpopulation on potentially limiting sources of food, water, and other resources. numic peoples were known to practice family planning hundreds of years before this became a concept in other cultural traditions (wallace and hoebel 1948). evaluating myth: balanced nature vs. lupine creator both the idea of balance in nature and of wolf functioning as a creator figure were myths essential to my development. for a time, i was inclined towards the balance of nature way of thinking, however, revisiting my roots after working with native american colleagues led me back to stories i had once considered to not be based in real phenomena. i was drawn to the balance of nature myth, because it seemed well thought out and grounded in reality. in contrast, the idea of wolf as a creator figure seemed to come from the realm of the imagination. the reality i understand today, however, is quite different. i now recognize that the balance of nature concept seemed logical, because academic scholars typically privilege ideas from the western philosophical tradition, and this was the tradition in which my university education took place. today, more careful examination on my part has revealed little of substance behind apparently rational western concepts, and the sources of bias that lead them to serious error. the metaphors that underlie the balance of nature come from the western european liberal tradition and economic capitalism. it is said that liberals have an easier time conceiving of the end of the world than of the end of capitalism (fawcett 2015). ecological theory is rife with economic metaphors, probably because most of its practitioners come from this liberal philosophical tradition. over the last few decades, modern ecological and evolutionary thinking has turned away from these economically driven metaphors into a more sophisticated and complex understanding of how environments and organisms interact through the study of what is now described as ecological developmental biology or eco/devo (gilbert and epel 2015; sultan pierotti. 2016. ethnobiology letters 7(2):6–13 11 perspectives special issue on memoirs and memory 2015). this new field argues that phenotypes arise through constant interaction with their environments, both external and internal, and that cooperative relationships among organisms are more important than competitive ones (pierotti 2011a). the idea of competition dominating ecology is yet another metaphor derived from capitalist economics, which assumes that competition is much more important than cooperation—a concept interpreted to have marxist overtones. in contrast, theory derived from eco/devo shares important thematic elements with the ideas that all things are connected and all things are related, which are defining myths of indigenous thinking (pierotti 2011a, b). by emphasizing cooperation as opposed to competition among species, native stories provide an intellectual framework within which i could appropriately consider the idea of wolves as cultural creators. as modern humans (homo sapiens) moved into new environments they had to figure out how to survive, a situation far from guaranteed as humans left the relatively mild climates of africa and moved into the more rigorous environments of europe, asia, and eventually north america, during times of intermittent glaciation. to do this effectively they adjusted their behavior and hunting techniques to cooperate with another social predator, that was already successfully exploiting these environments, the wolf, canis lupus. interacting and cooperating with wolves led to new cultural traditions and understandings (pierotti and fogg in press; schleidt and shalter 2003; shipman 2014, 2015). as the agent responsible for these cultural changes, wolves were identified as creator figures, i.e. the driving force behind a new way of living in an unpredictable and often harsh environment (pierotti 2011a). despite this new updated logic, this interpretation still reveals why it is typically assumed that myth is based upon erroneous assumptions. i have learned over decades that scholars from the western philosophical tradition have difficulty accepting that nonhumans could be crucial in shaping the cultural traditions of humans. this is especially true if humans did not initiate and control the dynamics of the interaction. anderson (1996) discusses such departures from apparent rational thought in terms of apparent “errors.” as anderson phrases it, “granted that error is ever with us, why pick one error over another” (1996:9). his answer is that humans in nonwestern traditions do not settle on useless approximations of facts. instead, they choose what he refers to as “useful errors,” which provide emotionally satisfying insights. to conclude, both the ideas of a balance of nature and of wolves as creator figures contain “useful errors.” each provides emotionally and aesthetically satisfying explanations of complex phenomena. the difference lies not in the myths themselves, but in the systems from which they derive their metaphors. capitalism, which underpins the idea of balance of nature, has proven to be inaccurate and inadequate in providing explanatory metaphors for evolutionary biology in the twenty-first century. in contrast, the idea of different species shaping one another’s behavior and ecological niches, from which culture can arise, has proven to be much more likely within the framework of contemporary thinking on evolution and ecology. what this suggests is that the ideas of relatedness and connectedness that are characteristic of indigenous thought (pierotti 2011a, b) can be more accurate reflections of how nature functions than are industrial age economic models and concepts. acknowledgements i thank gene anderson for providing inspiration and insight both through discussions and in his many writings, and also for coming up with the concept of “useful errors.” the writings of donald worster provided insight into issues underlying 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the southern and northern hemispheres, carrying implications for researching and achieving the sustainable and equitable management of forests. the varying citation dates demonstrate the longevity of these concerns. gendered governance globally, forests are mainly government-owned (86%), with a smaller proportion being privately (10%) or communally (4%) held (agrawal et al. 2008). in reality, the lines among these forms of ownership are blurred. formal and customary tenure regimes overlap and governance of ‘public’ forests is increasintroduction human gender relations shape natural resource use, management, and prospects for economic development that sustains people and the planet. this is firmly recognized in international agreements, such as the convention on biological diversity (1992), the declaration on the rights of indigenous peoples (2010), and the sustainable development goals (2015). yet, gender biases persist. these are reflected in forest science and result in inequitable, ineffective, and less efficient forest policies, programs, and interventions. we recently documented such biases and the relevance of gender relations to the field of forestry in two volumes (colfer et al. 2016). the first is a collection of current analyses on gender in forests whereas the second is comprised of classic articles in the field. building on these two volumes, we outline five persistent themes related to gender and forests, gender bias affects forests worldwide marlène elias1*, susan stevens hummel2, bimbika sijapati basnett3, and carol j. piece colfer3,4 1bioversity international, rome, italy. 2usda forest service, pacific northwest research station, portland, oregon, usa. 3center for international forestry research, bogor, indonesia. 4southeast asia program, cornell university, ithaca, new york, usa. *marlene.elias@cgiar.org abstract gender biases persist in forestry research and practice. these biases result in reduced scientific rigor and inequitable, ineffective, and less efficient policies, programs, and interventions. drawing from a two-volume collection of current and classic analyses on gender in forests, we outline five persistent and inter-related themes: gendered governance, tree tenure, forest spaces, division of labor, and ecological knowledge. each emerges across geographic regions in the northern and southern hemisphere and reflects inequities in women’s and men’s ability to make decisions about and benefit from trees, forests, and their products. women’s ability to participate in community-based forest governance is typically less than men’s, causing concern for social equity and forest stewardship. women’s access to trees and their products is commonly more limited than men’s, and mediated by their relationship with their male counterparts. spatial patterns of forest use reflect gender norms and taboos, and men’s greater access to transportation. the division of labor results in gender specialization in the collection of forest products, with variations in gender roles across regions. all these gender differences result in ecological knowledge that is distinct but also complementary and shifting across the genders. the ways gender plays out in relation to each theme may vary across cultures and contexts, but the influence of gender, which intersects with other factors of social differentiation in shaping forest landscapes, is global. received november 30, 2016 open access accepted january 17, 2017 doi 10.14237/ebl.8.1.2017.834 keywords gender bias, governance, tenure, gendered spaces, division of labor, ecological knowledge copyright © 2017 by the author(s); licensee society of ethnobiology. this is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution-noncommercial 4.0 international public license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0), which permits non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. elias et al. 2017. ethnobiology letters 8(1):31–34 32 short topical reviews ingly being decentralized and managed as common property by local communities, organizations, or private timber concessions (agrawal et al. 2008). power relations among the state, private sector, communities, and social relations within communities shape forest governance arrangements and institutions mediating how forest resources are to be used, sustained, and shared. gender and other factors of social differentiation, such as ethnicity, socioeconomic status, and age, play a critical role in determining who can participate in making decisions and reaping associated benefits. at the community level, poor men’s ability to actively participate in forest-user groups tends to exceed poor women’s (agarwal 2002; sunderland et al. 2014). reasons for women’s exclusion from these decision-making instances range from heavy competing demands for their time, to their limited access to information on forest management, and low levels of formal education in many rural contexts. women’s exclusion also results from their lack of a recognized role in public forums, and norms of silence leave them feeling out of place in this domain (agarwal 2002). similar exclusions may apply to marginalized groups, such as migrants and indigenous peoples, although the intersection between gender and social identity/ethnicity may pose additional challenges. such exclusions have implications for sustainable forest management, as the specific interests and expertise of excluded groups are ignored, and inequitable access to decision-making and benefits, forest stewardship is discouraged. more fundamentally, exclusion infringes on social justice and human rights to acquire information and participate in decision-making. gendered tree tenure tenure regimes govern who can access, use, control, and benefit from natural resources such as land or trees. rights to trees are complex, particularly in the global south where customary regimes—rooted in spiritual or social morals—prevail and can differ from rights to land (howard and nabanoga 2007). access to tree products is negotiated with the formal resource ‘owner’ and can be shared by many individuals (rocheleau and ross 1995). gender intersects with other social factors, such as marital and indigenous or migrant status, to determine who can plant, harvest or fell trees. women’s rights to land and trees are typically mediated by their relationship with men (mwangi et al. 2011): a husband, if married, or father in patrilineal systems, often an uncle in matrilineal systems. when land belongs to men, women are frequently prohibited from planting trees for themselves as this can be considered a land claim. due to their limited access to land, rural women are often highly dependent on common property resources such as forests (agarwal 2002; sunderland et al. 2014). gender differences are thus manifest with respect to planted versus spontaneously growing (or ‘wild’) trees and to the physical spaces where trees are located. they also shape access and use of native versus exotic species, different taxa, functional/use groups, and tree products used for subsistence or trade (fortmann and bruce 1988; howard and nabanoga 2007). different parts of the same tree can be harvested by different individuals in patterns typically following gender lines. for instance, men are generally responsible for climbing trees to collect honey and other forest products located at higher altitudes. they may harvest a tree’s bole whereas women will harvest the same species’ leaves for fodder, food, or medicine (pfeiffer and butz 2005). tree use, control, and benefits cannot be fully understood without adopting a gender lens because competing claims, exclusions, and negotiations in relation to tree products are embedded in gender and other social relations. gendered forest spaces gender relations play a key role in shaping the forest spaces men and women frequent and the ways they access these. for instance, in certain rainforest societies, men collect tree products in primary forests, whereas women gather in secondary forests and around the homestead (elias 2016). differentiated spatial patterns of forest use partly result from genderspecific access to transportation. men are typically able to access larger forest areas when they have access to bicycles, motorcycles, carts, or trucks. gender norms and taboos limit women’s access to certain forest areas, as do concerns for women’s safety, and socially determined household duties that require women’s presence near home (howard and nabanoga 2007). age, socio-economic status, and culture are among other factors that interact with gender to shape women’s and men’s movements and imprints on the forest. gender division of labor the gender division of labor relegates specific forestrelated activities to women and men, which is elias et al. 2017. ethnobiology letters 8(1):31–34 33 short topical reviews consistent with their responsibilities for maintaining and providing for their households. a global comparative study finds marked gender specialization in the collection and processing of most forest product categories (sunderland et al. 2014) with variability in gender roles observed across regions. for instance, women dominate the collection of firewood in asia and africa, but not in latin america. this division of labor influences women’s and men’s familiarity with, valuation of, and priorities for forest products (sunderland et al. 2014). the fact that many tree products require little to no labor to grow is important for women, who are typically time-limited (colfer et al. 1999). moreover, forest-related activities can often be interwoven with other livelihood activities. for instance, women multitask by gathering forest products while on their way to their fields. forest product processing may be carried out at home and in non-peak labor hours, which sits well with women’s competing work demands. although these features offer prospects for women in forest product value chains, they also contribute to maintaining the invisibility of women’s work, and their temporary or low wage employment in the forest sector. relatively low barriers to entry into forest product markets and women’s association with certain non-timber forest products that are gaining market value provide an entry point for value chain initiatives focused gender equity and women’s livelihoods (ingram et al. 2016). yet, they also carry risks of a male takeover as products traditionally reserved for women gain value (ingram et al. 2016). gender-differentiated knowledge gender norms that shape women’s and men’s ability to participate in forest governance, their tree tenure, spatial forest use, and division of labor result in gender-differentiated sets of knowledge about the forest. gender-specific use and knowledge of the forest may be linked to life form (annuals, short-lived perennials, long-lived perennials), taxa, parts of trees used, methods of forest-product processing, ecological processes, and more (pfeiffer and butz 2005). although gendered spheres of knowledge are distinct, they are also shared, complementary, adaptive and shifting amid current climate and socio-economic changes (elias 2016). for instance, male outmigration from many rural areas is causing responsibilities that were previously considered ‘male’ to fall to women (djoudi and brockhaus 2016). despite the extent of their knowledge repertoires (díaz-reviriego et al. 2016), “in many cultural and economic contexts […] women are […] seen as ‘minor’ actors, secondary to men who are presumed to be the knowledge holders, managers and preservers of most plant resources that are thought to be ‘valuable’, particularly to outsiders” (howard 2003:3). the invisibility and low value attributed to women’s knowledge results in research biases. it also perpetuates women’s exclusion and the omission of their knowledge from natural resource management policy and practice. conclusion in sum, gender relations directly affect forest use and management and local women and men derive benefits from these. this is evidenced in five interrelated (and non-exhaustive) thematic areas, where gendered patterns are observed in forests worldwide. the relationship between gender and each theme varies across cultures and contexts, and intersects with other factors of social differentiation to shape forested landscapes. careful attention to study design is desirable to promote science that is not genderbiased, but equitable and sustainable in forest management. acknowledgements the authors gratefully acknowledge earthscan/ routledge’s help in publishing an expanded version of these ideas in the introduction to colfer et al. (2017). declarations permissions: none declared. sources of funding: this research is funded by the cgiar research program on forests, trees and agroforestry, the cgiar fund donors (who-we-are/ cgiar-fund/fund-donors-2), and the united states forest service (usfs). conflicts of interest: none declared. references cited agarwal, b. 2002. the hidden side of group behaviour: a gender analysis of community forestry in south asia. in group behaviour and development: is the market destroying cooperation?, edited by j. heyer, f. stewart, and r. thorp, pp. 185–208. oxford university press, oxford, united kingdom. agrawal, a., a. chhatre, and r. hardin. 2008. changing governance of the world’s forests. elias et al. 2017. ethnobiology letters 8(1):31–34 34 short topical reviews science, new series 320:1460–1462. doi:10.1126/ science.1155369. colfer, c. j. p., r. l. wadley, and p. venkateswarlu. 1999. understanding local people's use of time: a precondition for good co-management. environmental conservation 26:41–52. doi:10.1017/ s0376892999000077 . colfer, c. p., b. s. basnett, and m. elias, eds. 2016. gender and forests: climate change, tenure, value chains, and emerging issues. earthscan/cifor, london, united kingdom. doi:10.4324/978131566624. colfer, c. p., m. elias, b. s. basnett, and s. s. hummel, eds. 2017. the earthscan reader on gender and forests. manuscript submitted to routledge, london, united kingdom. díaz-reviriego, i., l. gonzález-segura, á. fernándezllamazares, p. l. howard, j. molina, and v. reyes -garcía. 2016. social organization influences the exchange and species richness of medicinal plants in amazonian homegardens. ecology and society 21:1. doi:10.5751/es-07944-210101. djoudi, h., and m. brockhaus. 2016. unveiling the complexity of gender and adaptation: the ‘feminization’ of forests as response to droughtinduced men’s migration in mali. in gender and forests: climate change, tenure, value chains, and emerging issues, edited by c. p. colfer, b. s. basnett, and m. elias, pp. 150–168. earthscan/ cifor, london, united kingdom. elias, m. 2016. distinct, shared and complementary: gendered agroecological knowledge in review. cab reviews 11:1–16. doi:10.1079/ pavsnnr201611040. fortmann, l., and j. w. bruce. 1988. whose trees? proprietary dimensions of forestry. westview press, boulder, co. howard, p. 2003. the major importance of ‘minor’ resources: women and plant biodiversity. gatekeeper series 112. international institute for environment and development (iied), london, united kingdom. available at: http://lib.icimod.org/ record/11343/files/5202.pdf. accessed on september 15, 2016. howard, p., and g. nabanoga. 2007. are there customary rights to plants? an inquiry among the baganda (uganda), with special attention to gender. world development 35:1542–1563. doi:10.1016/j.worlddev.2006.05.021. ingram, v., m. haverhals, s. petersen, m. elias, b. s. basnett, and s. phosiso. 2016. gender and forest, tree and agroforestry value chains: evidence from the literature. in gender and forests: climate change, tenure, value chains, and emerging issues, edited by c. p. colfer, b. s. basnett, and m. elias, pp. 221–242. earthscan/cifor, london, united kingdom. doi:10.17528/cifor/006279. mwangi, e., r. meinzen-dick, and y. sun. 2011. gender and sustainable forest management in east africa and latin america. ecology and society 16:17. available at: http:// www.ecologyandsociety.org/vol16/iss1/art17/. accessed on september 15, 2016. pfeiffer, j. m., and r. j. butz. 2005. assessing cultural and ecological variation in ethnobiological research: the importance of gender. journal of ethnobiology 25:240–278. doi:10.2993/0278-0771 (2005)25[240:acaevi]2.0.co;2. rocheleau, d., and l. ross. 1995. trees as tools, trees as text: struggles over resources in zambrana-chacuey, dominican republic. antipode 27:407–426. doi:10.1111/j.14678330.1995.tb00287.x. sunderland, t., r. achdiawan, a. angelsen, r. babigumira, a. ickowitz, f. paumgarten. v. reyesgarcia, and g. shively. 2014. challenging perceptions about men, women, and forest product use: a global comparative study. world development 64:56–66. doi:10.1016/j.worlddev.2014.03.003. microsoft word barkerproof.doc ethnobiology letters                                                                                                                      perspective      58 archaeological protein residues: new data for conservation science  andrew barker    author address: university of north texas, department of biological sciences, denton, tx 76203  andrewbarker@my.unt.edu     received: august 15th 2010                       volume 1:58‐65  published: february 17th 2011                       © 2010 society of ethnobiology    abstract:  the  utility  of  zooarchaeological  data  for  addressing wildlife management  and  conservation  research  has  been  increasingly  recognized over  the past  two decades. as  the  field of  ‘applied  zooarchaeology’  continues  to grow, newfound  opportunities for discovery have arisen via collaborative  interdisciplinary approaches. the burgeoning field of proteomics,  in  particular, has provided numerous opportunities for enhancing the degree to which meaningful information can be recovered  from the archaeological record. archaeological protein residues can inform conservation biologists about paleobiogeography  and ecological/evolutionary history and thereby provide  insight  into wildlife management strategies.  in addition to pointing  out several cases where archaeological protein residues may be of benefit, i justify the use of protein residues in particular and  discuss areas for improvement.     key words: applied zooarchaeology, archaeological residue analysis, proteins, conservation biology    introduction zooarchaeological research has the potential to provide valuable data that are relevant to modern wildlife management, particularly in regards to species reintroduction or exotic species extirpation efforts (lyman 1996). by studying the biogeographic distributions of species and their interactions with humans during prehistoric times via zooarchaeology, a deep temporal perspective is revealed. this is important because evolutionary and ecological change occur on time scales that are longer than the human lifetime and than most written histories (callicott 2002), meaning that attempts to return an ecosystem to a ‘natural’ state require careful consideration of its history beyond the past few hundred years. following lyman (1996), many studies (e.g., cannon and cannon 2004; wolverton et al. 2007) have demonstrated the value of zooarchaeological data for addressing important conservation questions. however, the fragmentary nature of the zooarchaeological record, both in terms of the skeletal remains that are preserved over time in addition to the limited geographic areas over which zooarchaeological analyses have been conducted, can be a challenge. although continued development of methods for the identification of bone fragments and a growing appreciation for the importance of preserving and analyzing the zooarchaeological record go a long way toward addressing these challenges, new developments in the chemical analysis of organic archaeological residues, particularly those of proteins, show promise for providing an alternative line of evidence that can provide similarly valuable data. as revealed by the steady increase in archaeological publications dealing with residue analysis over the past twenty years (eerkens and barnard 2007), archaeologists are increasingly turning to the study of organic residues as a source of information about past cultures. artifact function, the origins of domestication, the extent of prehistoric trade networks and prehistoric diet, in general, have been revealed through studies examining a range of organic compounds including dna, lipids, proteins, and alkaloids. many of these compounds, particularly the more complex and fragile ones, such as dna and proteins, were originally assumed to preserve poorly over long periods of time. in some instances, this assumption has been verified by studies observing a poor degree of preservation in both experimental and archaeological samples (e.g., evershed and tuross 1996). however, other studies have successfully challenged this notion by demonstrating that under certain circumstances (e.g., cold, dry environments, rapid burial, sheltered contexts), these compounds can survive for periods much longer than anticipated. in one of the most surprising recent examples, collagen, a structural protein found in bones, was recovered and identified from a fossilized hadrosaur (brachylophosaurus canadensis) bone dated to approximately 80,000,000 years ago (schweitzer et al. 2009). this study and others that demonstrate the preservation of biomolecules in ancient and/or experimental samples suggest that the potential for ethnobiology letters                                                                                                                      perspective      59 figure 1. binding  tendencies of different protein  types  reported by  stevens  et  al.  (2010).  four different proteins  (bovine  serum albumin, bovine casein, bovine collagen and horse myoglobin), were cooked with ceramic at different ratios. amounts  listed to the right represent quantities of protein cooked with 40 g of ground ceramic. a mixture of all four proteins,  ‘mix’  and  an  unspiked  reference  sample,  ‘blank’  were  also  included.  the  spiked  ceramic  was  washed  repeatedly  to  remove  unbound protein and  remaining bound protein content was estimated via  total organic carbon  (toc) analysis. the  results  clearly demonstrate that proteins bind to clay matrices despite attempts at removal. recovery of meaningful ancient biomolecules is much greater than initially expected. insofar as conservation science is concerned, this revelation is important because it suggests the feasibility of using organic residues to gain insight into environmental history across broad spatial and temporal scales. as stated by loy (1983:1270), one of the pioneers of archaeological blood protein residue analysis, “ancient blood proteins from dated contexts will assist in paleozoological and protein-evolutionary studies. the results of this research make possible a better understanding of past animal distributions and [hu]man's use of those animal resources.” thus, the study of archaeological and/or paleontological organic residues may enable us to improve wildlife management strategies by providing information related to targets for conservation or restoration. in this paper, i discuss the relevance of archaeological protein residue analysis to wildlife management issues. beginning with a brief explanation of why protein is a suitable target molecule for studies of this type, i continue with examples of modern wildlife management issues that could be addressed via residue analysis and conclude with suggestions for research needed to further develop the potential of protein-based studies. protein residues there is room for debate about which type of residue is best for revealing meaningful information about past environments given the variety of residues that preserve in archaeological and paleontological samples. on one extreme, compounds such as dna or rna provide relatively clear species-level identifications of the residue-contributing organism(s). although seemingly ideal in this respect, the fragile nature of these compounds combined with their relatively low abundance may impede their survival over long periods of time (but see pääbo 1985; shanks et al. 2004). in addition, the successful examination of ancient dna requires that researchers implement stringent and potentially costly protocols in order to prevent the contamination of ancient samples with modern dna (kolman and tuross 2000). at the other extreme, compounds such as fatty acids, and lipids in general, are known to resist degradation due to their hydrophobic nature, which impedes microbial attack. further, their molecular abundance in organism tissues provides a greater ethnobiology letters                                                                                                                      perspective      60 statistical likelihood for their survival. however, the interpretive power provided by analysis of these compounds is limited by their non-specificity; in most cases lipids can only be sourced to very broad classes of organism such as ‘fish,’ ‘mammal’ or ‘seeds’ (malainey et al. 1999, but see mirabaud et al. 2007). although useful for addressing many relevant questions, these compounds have less to offer when fine-scale taxonomic discrimination across a wide variety of potential residue-contributing organisms is desired. between the extremes of dna and lipids are proteins. as important structural and functional components, proteins, like lipids, are abundant in organism tissues. more importantly, as a direct product of an underlying genetic code, the sequence of amino acids within individual proteins is highly specific and therefore capable of providing greater taxonomic resolution than lipids. additionally, many proteins are specific to particular tissues, meaning that it may be possible to determine not only which taxon, but which specific portions of a taxon, are present in an artifact. despite the assumption that proteins are poor candidates for preservation over time due to characteristics such as their hydrophilic nature (with the exception of proteins such as collagen, which are hydrophobic), susceptibility to degradation by microorganisms, and/or tendency to be modified when cooked, research, particularly by craig and collins (2000, 2002), suggests that a particular but common set of circumstances may counteract these sources of loss. specifically, it has been demonstrated that proteins bind to mineral, e.g., ceramic, matrices via the interplay of inter and intra-molecular non-covalent forces including ion exchange, water bridges, van der waal bonding, and hydrophobic interactions (figure 1). subsequently, these residues are difficult to remove and detect without the use of corrosive acids, strong detergents, and/or highly sensitive analytical equipment (craig and collins 2002; stevens et al. 2010). in addition to binding proteins, such matrices may also facilitate preservation by trapping organics within small pore spaces that restrict the access of microorganisms (brady and weil 2002:514) and/or within complex organic conglomerates (kleber et al. 2007). the result of these interactions, despite not being completely understood, is that proteins have been recovered from a variety of contexts in which they are closely bound to a mineral surface. schweitzer et al. (2009), heaton et al. (2009) and yohe et al. (1991), to give a few examples, verify that proteins survive in fossilized bone, ancient ceramic artifacts, and groundstone implements. although additional work is needed to fully evaluate the nature of protein-mineral interactions, these examples demonstrate that proteins bind to mineral matrices and that they can survive and be recovered after hundreds or even thousands of years. in sum, this potential, when combined with the identification specificity that proteins provide, suggests that ancient proteins are well-suited to provide meaningful information about past environments and humanenvironment interactions. case studies currently, there are no studies of zooarchaeological protein residues that can be called upon to illustrate the value of these residues for conservation biology and restoration ecology. therefore i am limited to describing several instances in which residue analysis could provide data that are unavailable via standard traditional zooarchaeological analysis, data that are critical to resolution of a modern conundrum in conservation biology. mountain goats in washington state—lyman (1996, 1998) discusses the status of mountain goats in olympic national park in northwestern washington state. although ‘introduced’ to the area in 1928, it is unclear whether this species should be considered as native or exotic. as lyman notes, this is due to two underlying issues. first, the national park service definitions of ‘native’ and ‘exotic’ are poorly constructed, leaving room for contradictory interpretations. second, however, is the fact that the paleozoological record from this region is poor, leaving park managers with little prehistoric data. this problem is compounded by the ambiguous, pre-1920’s historic record and conflicting public opinion today regarding whether or not extant goats should be eradicated. clearly, more information is needed to resolve this debate. at the 2009 society for american archaeology annual conference in atlanta, georgia, archaeological protein chemist caroline solazzo presented a summary of results from an ongoing project involving salish blankets. specifically, solazzo et al. (2009) used a proteomics-based method to identify the hair of contributing species found in late nineteenth to early twentieth century blankets from washington. testing for dogs, sheep and goats in particular, solazzo et al. convincingly demonstrated that the blanket fibers under study contained peptides derived from both sheep and goats. it is unclear whether solazzo et al. are aware of the debate regarding mountain goats in washington. however, considering that salish-speaking tribes are native to the olympic peninsula, it is relevant to ethnobiology letters                                                                                                                      perspective      61 suggest that the results presented by solazzo et al. may shed light on the issue of goats in the olympic goat controversy. simply put, if pre-1920’s salish blankets from the olympic peninsula can be shown to contain mountain goat hair, then a more convincing argument for the native status of this species in the area can be made. certainly, there are other factors that must be weighed if such evidence is to be used, such as the ability to distinguish mountain goat hair proteins from similar native or non-native species (e.g., ovis, capra sp.), or the likelihood that blankets were traded over long distances. nevertheless, the point here is not to suggest that solazzo et al. (2009) have provided a definitive answer to this particular issue, but rather to illustrate that useful biogeographic evidence can be obtained through archaeological protein residue analysis. missouri elk—in a similar vein, harpole (2004) reports on the difficulty of ascertaining the prehistoric status of the north american elk (cervus canadensis) in a proposed reintroduction area consisting of ten counties in southeastern missouri. although elk were certainly native to missouri in general, as suggested by paleozoological and historic records alike, debate exists regarding their native status within the reintroduction area. decision-making is hindered by a lack of evidence, with proponents seeming to favor reintroduction of elk for economic (e.g., hunting, tourism) rather than for ecological reasons. of the archaeological sites within the region that harpole considered, only one, the undated, mixeddeposit, open-air lepold site, was found to have elk remains. as harpole points out, this site is hardly representative considering that it lies east of the ozark escarpment in the mississippi river floodplain, an area that is considerably different from the proposed reintroduction sites. for the remaining sites, an important question must be addressed: are elk absent from the record because they were never there, or are they absent because the soil and weather conditions of the ozark plateau and surrounding areas are generally not conducive to the preservation of faunal remains? as previously discussed, the preservation of protein appears to be favored by sequestration in mineral matrices, particularly clays. ceramic artifacts, then, are ideally suited for protein residue analysis. in missouri, pottery is commonly recovered from archaeological sites, including sites on the ozark plateau (lynott et al. 2000). to date, no research has been conducted to ascertain the likelihood of protein survival in these artifacts, but the successful recovery of protein residues in this case would go a long way toward resolving the debate over the appropriateness of elk reintroduction efforts. pacific otters—as discussed by valentine et al. (2008), extensive hunting during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries led to drastic reductions in sea otter (enhydra lutris) populations in the eastern pacific ocean, particularly in oregon, where they were extirpated. attempted reintroductions of sea otters to this region have been largely unsuccessful despite more fruitful results in areas to the north, and recent research has provided several important clues as to why the oregon reintroduction failed. studies of morphological (wilson et al. 1991) and genetic (valentine et al. 2008) variation suggest that there are several distinct genotypes associated with three different subspecies of sea otter: the common sea otter (e. l. lutris), the southern sea otter (e. l. nereis), and the northern sea otter (e. l. kenyoni). in the case of oregon reintroduction efforts, a population of northern sea otters was transplanted from alaska. however, examination of the zooarchaeological record via morphometric (lyman 1988) and dna (valentine et al. 2008) studies demonstrated that this particular subspecies has never been common in oregon and that it is likely not well-suited to the unique environmental conditions of the oregon coast. instead, the extirpated populations more closely resemble southern sea otters currently living in california. although time will tell, the zooarchaeological evidence indicates that the latter taxon would provide better (that is, more likely to survive and reproduce) candidates for transplantation. i suggest that archaeological proteins may provide a supporting or alternative line of evidence in this, or similar cases. it is well-documented, for example, that particular proteins can vary in structure not only across but within species (zeidler 2000). such proteins perform the same essential function(s) and have similar structures. however, they feature subtle variations in amino acid composition as a result of genetic mutations, allowing them to be distinguished through relatively simple procedures such as gel electrophoresis. several studies (e.g., mateu-andrés 2004) have used these differences as a means of measuring overall genetic diversity in extant populations of threatened species. although archaeological samples would likely provide unique challenges, as discussed below, a similar approach could be used as a method for distinguishing different subspecies in the archaeological record. the real benefit is that samples could be obtained not just from skeletal remains or tissues, but from many other ethnobiology letters                                                                                                                      perspective      62   figure 2. representative mass spectrum  (top) and  recovered peptide sequences  (bottom)  from a ~750 year old  jackrabbit  tibia from the goodman point pueblo (5mt604). because jackrabbit is not included in typical protein databases, a match to  the european rabbit, oryctolagus cuniculus, was assumed to reflect a correct identification.   contexts (e.g., mineral matrices) where proteins have been demonstrated to preserve. further, using this method as an alternative to dna testing may reduce the associated cost and/or the amount of time and training required for sample processing (buckley et al. 2010; zeidler 2000, but also see cautionary comments). in sum, this strategy may represent an opportunity to gain meaningful evidence at a lower cost in the absence of well-preserved skeletal remains. other recent examples—several recent archaeological studies, despite not being tailored to address conservation questions in particular, suggest the plausibility of using protein-based approaches for revealing relevant information. for example, lc-ms analysis of a ~750 year old jackrabbit (lepus sp.) tibia from the goodman point pueblo (5mt604) site in southwestern colorado reveals the presence of intact collagen peptides (figure 2). although additional research is needed in order to establish appropriate reference databases, this result is important in that traditional zooarchaeological analyses have not always been able to distinguish between the various leporid species that are present in this region (see yang et al. 2005 for a successful dna approach). in another example, buckely et al. (2010), using mass spectrometry, recently developed a method for distinguishing between neolithic-era sheep (ovis sp.) and goat (capra sp.) remains on the basis of a single collagen peptide. the value of this technique, aside from its expense relative to dna-based methods, is that it provides a new means to distinguish between morphologically ambiguous (e.g., immature, highly fragmented) specimens from closely related species. insofar as the value of protein analysis to conservation science is concerned, this is clearly relevant. to summarize, the preceding examples have demonstrated the potential of protein residue analysis for addressing questions of wildlife management. however, the realization of this potential requires further method development and increased communication between archaeologists, analytical chemists, and conservation scientists. in the next section, i discuss several key issues that need to be addressed before protein-based studies can be applied to conservation science over broad temporal and/or spatial scales. future research despite some successes in the recovery and identification of archaeological protein residues, several limitations have hindered the widespread application of protein-based studies, most of which are rooted in the shortage of published methodological research (but see barnard et al. 2007; buckley et al. 2010; brandt et al. 2002; craig and collins 2000, 2002; solazzo et al. 2008; ethnobiology letters                                                                                                                      perspective      63 stevens et al. 2010). too often, it seems that the focus of residue research has been on providing archaeologically meaningful results rather than on addressing fundamental assumptions regarding the behavior of organic chemicals over long periods of time and the suitability of the analytical techniques that have been applied for recovering and identifying archaeological proteins. immunological assay, for example, has been employed in a number of cases with apparent success. despite these results, there is legitimate reason to question the utility of immunoassay given that ancient proteins are likely to be contaminated with a variety of proteins from other sources (e.g., soil bacteria) that can ultimately yield false positives (brandt et al. 2002), particularly if ample consideration is not given to testing the antibodies used. further, the denaturation, degradation, and/or modification of proteins due to cooking processes, bacterial activity or other sources of weathering may sufficiently alter proteins so that they no longer react with antibodies in an immunological assay (barnard et al. 2007). although not insurmountable, these challenges have not been adequately addressed via comprehensive analyses that detail the effects of these factors in terms of the success or failure of immunological techniques. multiple, independent analyses, as recommended by brandt et al. (2002), may remedy this problem to some degree, but further experimental research into the chemical behavior of degraded proteins will be essential to achieve acceptance by the scientific community at large. another limitation that has not been adequately considered is the influence of context on both the quality and quantity of preserved protein residue. to what degree, for example, do clay types differ in terms of their ability to sorb and preserve proteins? it is wellestablished that the plasticity, shrink/swell capability, and ion-exchange capacity of clays can differ greatly depending on the ratio of kaolinite to montmorillinite present (shepard 1956). however, most relevant archaeological publications dealing with the analysis of proteins in ancient and/or experimental samples typically do not include a detailed analysis of ceramic composition. this is understandable considering the workload involved in both protein and ceramic analyses. such cases represent a missed opportunity for collaboration between residue analysts and geologists/geoarchaeologists that would likely result in improved methodology. similarly, the effects of environmental conditions such as temperature, humidity and ph have not been considered in detail. most successful archaeological protein studies have been conducted on samples acquired from relatively cold, dry and/or anoxic environments, which makes sense considering that these conditions are known to favor the preservation of organic compounds. however, the limits of these variables have not been fully ascertained in experimental protein studies, particularly in regards to ph, a factor that could greatly influence both the type and quantity of ceramic-bound protein by altering the net charge of proteins and/or inhibiting/promoting their decay. without additional knowledge to this effect, sampling strategies are reduced to guesswork and key opportunities may be missed due to a potentially misguided assumption that proteins are not likely to preserve under certain conditions. lastly, much current research is limited by the failure to report quantitative data (but see craig and collins 2000, 2002; shanks et al. 2004; solazzo et al. 2008; stevens et al. 2010). without knowing quantitative information, such as the amount of protein that sorbs to ceramic matrices, the percentage of total protein recovered using different extraction strategies, the quantity of protein residues recovered from archaeological samples, or a probability estimate of a particular protein match, it is difficult to gauge the validity of results. these data are relatively easy to obtain via the use of total organic carbon analysis, spectrometric assays, statistical analyses, and other methods. it is therefore surprising that archaeologists have not taken full advantage of these strategies considering that they lend much-needed credibility to protein residue analysis. for future projects, it will be essential that such data are included in published reports so that comparisons can be made across studies. conclusion through discussion of these examples i have argued that protein residue analysis is a valuable form of paleobiological inquiry in conservation science. such research would enable better wildlife management by revealing a more accurate picture of prehistoric biogeography and of the interaction of prehistoric humans with past environments. although other residue types, including dna, lipids, and alkaloids, may provide similarly useful information, the unique characteristics of proteins, particularly in terms of their widespread occurrence and apparent potential for preservation within mineral matrices, make them ideal candidates for applied archaeological research. ethnobiology letters                                                                                                                      perspective      64 in order for this method of analysis to reach its fullest potential, however, scientists must turn their attention to developing a reliable and valid methodology. to accomplish this task, we need to challenge long-held assumptions, fill in the aforementioned gaps in knowledge, and promote multidisciplinary approaches. my critique is not an attempt to challenge or downplay important discoveries to date. rather, i seek to demonstrate the value of the work done while simultaneously pointing out areas for improvement. as these challenges are met, protein residue analysis will hopefully come to be seen not just as a method of studying the past, but as one of several valuable archaeological tools that can be used in the development of management practices that result in sustainable ecosystems. acknowledgements this work was sponsored in part by the national science foundation archaeometry technical development grant number 0822196. i thank steve wolverton, charles randklev, r. lee lyman and two anonymous reviewers for comments. jackrabbit specimens were provided by crow canyon archaeological center. barney venables and stan stevens assisted in protein extraction and lc-ms analysis. references cited barnard, h., l. shoemaker, o. e. craig, m. rider, r. e. parr, m. q. sutton, and r. m. yohe ii. 2007. introduction to the analysis of protein residues in archaeological ceramics. in theory and practice of residue analysis, edited by h. barnard and j. eerkens, pp. 216231. bar international series 1650. archaeopress, oxford, uk. brady, n. c., and r. r. weil. 2002. the nature and property of soils. prentice hall, nj. brandt, e., i. wiechmann, and g. grupe. 2002. how reliable are immunological tools for the detection of ancient proteins in fossil bones. international journal of osteoarchaeology 12:307-316. buckley, mike, sarah whitcher kansa, sarah howard, stuart campbell, jane thomas-oates and matthew collins. 2010. distinguishing between archaeological sheep and goat bones using a single collagen peptide. journal of archaeological science 37:13-20. callicott, j. b. 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equipment. american antiquity 56:659-666. zeidler, m. 2000. electrophoretic analysis of plant isozymes. biology 38:7-16. biosketch andrew  barker  has  a  master’s  of  science  in  applied  geography  emphasizing  environmental  archaeology,  and  he  is  a  phd  student  in  the  department  of  biological  sciences  at  the university  of north  texas.   his  research  focuses on proteomics  in  archaeological  residue  analysis  and metabolomics in toxicology.    << /ascii85encodepages false /allowtransparency false /autopositionepsfiles true /autorotatepages /none /binding /left /calgrayprofile (dot gain 20%) /calrgbprofile (srgb iec61966-2.1) /calcmykprofile (u.s. web coated \050swop\051 v2) /srgbprofile (srgb iec61966-2.1) /cannotembedfontpolicy /error /compatibilitylevel 1.4 /compressobjects /tags /compresspages true /convertimagestoindexed true /passthroughjpegimages true /createjobticket false /defaultrenderingintent /default /detectblends true /detectcurves 0.0000 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/hrv (za stvaranje adobe pdf dokumenata najpogodnijih za visokokvalitetni ispis prije tiskanja koristite ove postavke. stvoreni pdf dokumenti mogu se otvoriti acrobat i adobe reader 5.0 i kasnijim verzijama.) /hun 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<feff04120438043a043e0440043804410442043e043204430439044204350020044604560020043f043004400430043c043504420440043800200434043b044f0020044104420432043e04400435043d043d044f00200434043e043a0443043c0435043d044204560432002000410064006f006200650020005000440046002c0020044f043a04560020043d04300439043a04400430044904350020043f045604340445043e0434044f0442044c00200434043b044f0020043204380441043e043a043e044f043a04560441043d043e0433043e0020043f0435044004350434043404400443043a043e0432043e0433043e0020043404400443043a0443002e00200020042104420432043e04400435043d045600200434043e043a0443043c0435043d0442043800200050004400460020043c043e0436043d04300020043204560434043a0440043804420438002004430020004100630072006f006200610074002004420430002000410064006f00620065002000520065006100640065007200200035002e0030002004300431043e0020043f04560437043d04560448043e04570020043204350440044104560457002e> /enu (use these settings to create adobe pdf documents best suited for high-quality prepress printing. created pdf documents can be opened with acrobat and adobe reader 5.0 and later.) >> /namespace [ (adobe) (common) (1.0) ] /othernamespaces [ << /asreaderspreads false /cropimagestoframes true /errorcontrol /warnandcontinue /flattenerignorespreadoverrides false /includeguidesgrids false /includenonprinting false /includeslug false /namespace [ (adobe) (indesign) (4.0) ] /omitplacedbitmaps false /omitplacedeps false /omitplacedpdf false /simulateoverprint /legacy >> << /addbleedmarks false /addcolorbars false /addcropmarks false /addpageinfo false /addregmarks false /convertcolors /converttocmyk /destinationprofilename () /destinationprofileselector /documentcmyk /downsample16bitimages true /flattenerpreset << /presetselector /mediumresolution >> /formelements false /generatestructure false /includebookmarks false /includehyperlinks false /includeinteractive false /includelayers false /includeprofiles false /multimediahandling /useobjectsettings /namespace [ (adobe) (creativesuite) (2.0) ] /pdfxoutputintentprofileselector /documentcmyk /preserveediting true /untaggedcmykhandling /leaveuntagged /untaggedrgbhandling /usedocumentprofile /usedocumentbleed false >> ] >> setdistillerparams << /hwresolution [2400 2400] /pagesize [612.000 792.000] >> setpagedevice le bestiaire innu, les quadrupèdes. by daniel clément. 2012. presses de l’université laval, quebèc city. 548 pp. meilleur. 2016. ethnobiology letters 7(1):62–63 62 reviews red fox (vulpes vulpes) and many other species in between. for more than a generation, innu themselves, once known as montagnais, furnished the firsthand ethnographic accounts that clément has skillfully interwoven with innu myths and legends, relevant published ethnohistory and western scientific information. some of the analytical outcomes and conclusions of clément’s ethnozoological compendium are that extensive and highly-detailed folk knowledge exists among the innu of the major quadruped’s anatomy, behavior and classification; that this native animal knowledge permeates all aspects of innu practical and spiritual life; that a strong correspondence exists between innu and western science both in the classification and the anatomical and behavioral knowledge of the animals studied, though occasional significant differences were found; that so-called ‘covert categories’ at higher levels of classificatory inclusion were common within the innu zoological knowledge system; that on occasion, greater classificatory and ethological detail seemingly occurred in innu accounts of some animals when compared to those of western science; that along with an underlying folk classificatory structure based on observable perceptual distinctions in anatomy and behavior, innu also employed several other classificatory schemes when describing animal and human relationships and interactions; and that innu employed the ‘theory of signatures’ and ‘sympathetic magic’ extensively in their ontologies that account for the creation of the world and the myriad connections among animals and humans. le bestiaire innu, les quadrupèdes is unlike most books i’ve reviewed, as it resembles more an ethnozoological encyclopedia than a typical academic volume and, in fact, the author describes it as such early in the work. while the publication offers a typical introduction that provides ethnographic, historical and linguistic background along with a summary of the analytical framework, and a conclusion highlighting results, the chapters themselves—20 of them—are actually lengthy, data-rich vignettes, each of which could stand alone. collectively they present folk knowledge about quadrupedal animals drawn primarily from interviews with 12 innu, algonquianspeaking, hunter-gatherer/fisher-trapper communities located in the boreal forest of northeastern canada. each chapter-compendium provides a finely detailed description of a single species or of a small group of similar or closely related species, with meticulous depictions of their anatomy, behavior, range, habitat preference and reproductive biology, usually in this order. each animal or species group is analyzed contextually within a corpus of innu myths and legends and historical accounts, some dating to the 17th century, and by comparing innu and western scientific knowledge. the book’s format thus essentially combines what could easily be 20 independent species-by-species monographs into a massive compilation of innu ecological knowledge and the related cosmological beliefs that are associated with these same quadrupeds. the species accounts range from that of the diminutive mouse and related species (clethryonomys, microsorex, microtus, myotis, peromyscus, rattus, sorex, etc.) and squirrel (glaucomys, tamias, tamiasciurus) to caribou (rangifer tarandus) and black bear (ursus americanus), with wolf (canis lupus), le bestiaire innu, les quadrupèdes. by daniel clément. 2012. presses de l’université laval, quebèc city. 548 pp. brien a. meilleur1* 1laboratoire d’eco-anthropologie et ethnobiologie, musée de l’homme, paris, france. *brienmeilleur@aol.com received june 6, 2016 open access accepted june 8, 2016 doi 10.14237/ebl.7.1.2016.713 copyright © 2016 by the author(s); licensee society of ethnobiology. this is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution-noncommercial 4.0 international public license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0), which permits non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. meilleur. 2016. ethnobiology letters 7(1):62–63 63 reviews other than clément’s finely-detailed scholarship that contributes substantially to our understanding of the fast-disappearing traditional hunter-gatherer way of life, his compendium also has the potential to support innu cultural preservation and interpretation of northern boreal forest archaeological research. it adds significantly to our continually growing appreciation of the extent and the complexity of traditional ecological knowledge among native peoples in general. the invention of science: a new history of the scientific revolution. by david wootton. 2015. harper collins, new york. 784 pp. anderson. 2016. ethnobiology letters 7(1):55–58 55 reviews perspectives from gene anderson’s bookshelf our languages; it was an obscure portuguese term (descubrimento) that went viral after columbus. one might add (and i think wootton should have added) that europeans were also traveling to africa and asia more, and getting acquainted with a vast range of new plants and animals. of course aristotle, galen, and the other ancients had known nothing of these. meanwhile, great strides in anatomy, medicine, chemistry, physics, and other areas were being made. among new words that came later was “fact,” originally a term of medieval law, appropriated in the 17th century for one type of thing science is supposed to find. but science is also supposed to find “natural laws,” another new term. experiment, theory, hypothesis, and, later, probability also added to the language (p. 565 sums up hundreds of pages of history of these concepts). wootton has been characterized in some once-over-lightly reviews of taking a linguistic stance, but he is really interested in the scientific processes that led to the concepts that then had to have a name. his history is one of progressive “discovery” and “experiment.” these required new terms, and that is an important observation, but does not make his book a linguistic study. finally, wootton embarks on a devastating critique of the more extreme forms of relativism and social constructionism. clearly, science does find out stuff. it lets us do all kinds of things the ancients couldn’t do. america is real. chemistry works and alchemy doesn’t. (they were not distinguished until quite late; newton was still trying alchemy in the 17th century, though wootton emphasizes that he had to for those who are less than convinced by postmodernist claims that the scientific revolution never happened, and not convinced at all by the claims that science is a mere word game, this book is a river—not just an oasis—in the desert. david wootton robustly defends the old idea that the revolution begun by tycho brahe and galileo and led to victory by isaac newton was real and important. his opening sentence (p. 1) reads: “modern science was invented between 1572, when tycho brahe saw a nova, or new star, and 1704, when newton published his opticks, which demonstrated that white light is made up of light of all colors….” his final paragraph restates those dates, and adds the specific information: “science—the research programme, the experimental method, the interlocking of pure science and new technology, the language of defeasible knowledge—was invented between 1572 and 1704” (p. 571). i thought i knew english, but “defeasible” stopped me; the oed informs that it means “capable of being undone, ‘defeated’….” it is here a nod to karl popper’s famous argument that scientific statements must be capable of accepted disproof, but—perhaps more importantly—it flags the extreme importance of realizing that the ancients, even the near-divine aristotle, were often wrong, and the moderns had to check their knowledge. what was new, as francis bacon pointed out at the time, was that the authority of the ancients gave way to experimentation, exploration, testing, and research. wootton points out the enormous importance of columbus’ “discovery”—from a southern european point of view—of the americas, and the realization that they were a whole new vast realm. this, in fact, made the word “discovery” enter the invention of science: a new history of the scientific revolution. by david wootton. 2015. harper collins, new york. 784 pp. eugene n. anderson1* 1department of anthropology, university of california, riverside, usa. *eugene.anderson@ucr.edu received may 1, 2016 open access accepted june 8, 2016 doi 10.14237/ebl.7.1.2016.716 copyright © 2016 by the author(s) licensee society of ethnobiology. this is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution-noncommercial 4.0 international public license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0), which permits non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. anderson. 2016. ethnobiology letters 7(1):55–58 56 reviews perspectives from gene anderson’s bookshelf be a bit secretive about it, since it was losing ground). verification and disproof really do happen. however, wootton sometimes gets a bit carried away. he ascribes more extreme positions to modern “science studies” scholars than they really hold. latour, for instance, is less of a relativist that wootton says (p. 540). thomas kuhn was less dogmatic about his model (kuhn 1962) than wootton seems to think. but this is minor and debatable. more serious is wootton’s missing some “facts” of his own. minor, but revealing, is his claim that “mt. everest was…just as tall before it was named in 1865 as it was after it was named, but finding and sharing facts about everest required a naming process…there were no facts about everest before 1865” (p. 260). of course everest was named (jolmolungma, to be exact) and perfectly well known, mapped, and (up to a fairly substantial altitude) explored, and had been so for millennia. it was well known to tibetan and chinese science. again, arguing for “killer facts” (killing theories, that is), he says: “if i wanted to persuade you of continental drift, for example, i would point you to the classic papers on paleomagnetism and we could then go and make our measurements in the field” (p. 280). well, there were plenty of killer facts proving continental drift beyond reasonable doubt as early as the 1930s, and the paleomagnetic work was done in the 1960s, but most geologists were not convinced until around 1970 or later. very slow acceptance was driven by heavy investment in outmoded theories. nothing could more firmly prove kuhn’s points about “normal science” and occasional “revolutions,” or more thoroughly refute the more naïve claims of killer facts. indeed, to build a bit on kuhn, one can say that science requires error to advance. people have to propose wild theories, push the envelope, approximate, and outright guess, just to generate the new ideas that may someday develop into great science. this is why i am less hard than the organization “scientists” are on traditional peoples who explain earthquakes as the shaking of a giant animal underground, and explain sickness as the result of bad air currents. they are as correct as western science was on these issues 200 years ago. the problem comes, as wootton makes clear, when people refuse to test, refine, and build on these ideas. this makes us wonder whether wootton is too quick to dismiss the constructionist and relativist positions. showing that science does really advance useful knowledge does not prove it is immune to sociocultural pressures. wootton describes himself as a qualified constructionist, aware that science and scientific knowledge are indeed socially constructed; they are, however, constructed through interaction with external reality (whatever that is—best defined by some anonymous sage as “the stuff that refuses to go away when i stop believing in it”). this is true enough, but does not explain the specific errors, standpoints, biases, and other baggage that are inseparable from the dispassionate pursuit of truth. society and culture are unavoidably involved with this. wootton and his constructionist targets agree on one thing that i find impossible to believe: the idea that truth and social construction are mutually exclusive. no, truth almost has to be socially constructed. it takes a village to raise a child and establish a fact. it follows that scientific truths have a long social history, often one in which they developed from flagrant error, as chemistry did (in part) from alchemy and as theories of contagion by germs built on theories of contagion by bad air (“mal-aria”). this is, of course, quite different from pseudoscience— nonsense that was against all evidence from the start and that is propagated by public-relations gimmicks rather than experiment or evidence. true science is a social construction just as error is, and wootton seems to me to be quite wrong in denouncing those who see a need to explain both in social and cultural terms. in fact, wootton’s whole book is dedicated to explaining how people got to the truth, and it was a social process. still, wootton is obviously correct about the extreme importance of the scientific revolution and its invention of science as an institution, a calling, and a process. the key difference between the search for truth and a fall into error is exactly what made the scientific revolution a real revolution: a dedication to test all knowledge against experience, experiment, and evidence. one need only point to a fascinating close comparison case: china. china’s pre-1600 scientific knowledge developed at about the same rate as the west’s. it was equally stuck with its own ancients; the chinese classics were as rigidly followed there as aristotle and galen were in medieval europe. chinese scholars were equally loath to experiment or test—but equally prone to do so anyway, because of insatiable curiosity. china learned a great deal from the west, as the west did from china. all seemed one big happy anderson. 2016. ethnobiology letters 7(1):55–58 57 reviews perspectives from gene anderson’s bookshelf system. famously, all the three inventions that francis bacon thought were basic to the rising science of his time—the compass, gunpowder, and printing—were chinese inventions, learned late in the west. then, in the late 1500s, the west suddenly exploded. in 1572, china was about equal to the west in botany, astronomy (they had recorded a nova in 1054), physics, technology, medicine, everything. by the early 1600s, china was already hopelessly behind in some fields, and by the middle 1600s china was in the dust. one reason was the fall of the ming dynasty, which reduced china to bloody chaos and ended peaceful investigations for a long time. then the following qing dynasty was fiercely repressive, sending scholars back to the classics. meanwhile, the west suddenly leaped, while china kept cranking along at the same old rate. (see the many volumes of science and civilisation in china; also elman 2005, 2006.) similarly, the muslim world had a brilliant scientific tradition that anticipated much of europe’s later revolution (see beckwith 2013; starr 2013), but it collapsed in the turkic and mongol wars of the 1200s. wootton does not discuss these cases, but he gives us the best explanation to date of why and how the west developed as it did, rapidly surpassing these others. evidently, the enemy of truth is not error, but blind devotion to untested or untestable theories, as everyone from bacon to popper and wootton point out. this should sober those anthropologists that take seriously the wilder flights of french postmodernism. but was the west inventing science in the sense of systematic pursuit of useful knowledge about the external world? obviously not—china was indeed equal to the west in 1572, in most areas, and well ahead in some (notably nutrition). even the ancient greeks (oft derided by wootton, who finds aristotle especially wanting) did very well. wootton does not mention botany; in that area the greeks, notably theophrastus and dioscorides, did brilliant work that remains foundational to the field. medieval science in europe and elsewhere made significant strides in medicine and in such fields as falconry; frederick ii hohenstaufen (1943, latin original ca. 1250) wrote a book on that subject that is still used as an authoritative text, and he explains in detail the fully scientific methods he used, anticipating much of what wootton says was new 400 years later. indeed, as we ethnobiologists know, every culture and society on earth has science, in that all of them learn a great deal from interacting with the environment, accumulate this as best they can in developing knowledge, and systematize it through all those wondrous taxonomies, rules, cultural models, and other things we study. some even have terms more or less equivalent to post-1650 “science.” admittedly, it is easier to accumulate and share knowledge if you have writing, and much easier if you have printing (as wootton emphasizes—following bacon), but the chinese and central asians had printing and it did not enable them to leap forward. yet many indigenous nonliterate societies have very extensive knowledge bases learned through experience and non-written teachings. in fact, europe in the 1500s was not really taking as much advantage of printing as one might think. in science, for the most part, print books merely recorded oral knowledge. so i prefer to think of science as a human universal, and to use for post-1500 western science my friend randall collins’ useful term “rapid discovery science” (1998). using the term “science” for ancient greek geometry, astronomy, and so on is long established, and if that seems fair—which it does—then every culture has science. what the west did after 1500 was create a self-conscious science that was dedicated to finding out as much as possible, as fast as possible. wootton shows that the standard explanations for the rise of rapid discovery science are inadequate, and does not propose a new one. i can only add that science developed along with trade, commerce, and exploration, and also by religious diversity and controversy. it was set back by autocratic regimes whenever and wherever they arose. this cost of autocracy is the usual, and certainly at least partly true, explanation for china’s failure. italy was a leader in science when divided into city-states, and lost the lead when it was centralized. later, of course, science flourished in some large and centralized societies (like the united states), but not in really authoritarian ones. this is only a partial explanation, though, and we are left wondering. references cited beckwith, c. 2013. warriors of the cloisters: the central asian origins of science in the medieval world. princeton university press, princeton, nj. collins, r. 1998. the sociology of philosophies. harvard university press, cambridge, ma. anderson. 2016. ethnobiology letters 7(1):55–58 58 reviews perspectives from gene anderson’s bookshelf elman, b. 2005. on their own terms: science in china, 1550-1900. harvard university press, cambridge, ma. elman, b. 2006. a cultural history of modern science in china. harvard university press, cambridge, ma. hohenstaufen, f. ii. 1943. the art of falconry. translated and edited by c. a. wood and f. m. fyfe. stanford university press, stanford, ca. kuhn, t. 1962. the structure of scientific revolutions. university of chicago press, chicago, il. starr, s. f. 2013. lost enlightenment: central asia’s golden age from the arab conquest to tamerlane. princeton university press, princeton, nj. letter from the editors ethnobiology letters book review 12 jamaican food: history, biology, culture b. w. higman. 2008. university of west indies press, jamaica. pp. 580. $70.00 (cloth). isbn (cloth) 9789766402051. reviewed by john rashford1 reviewer address: 1 department of sociology and anthropology, college of charleston, charleston, south carolina 29424 received: september 18 th 2009 volume 1:12-13 published: august 3 rd 2010 © 2010 society of ethnobiology barry higman, distinguished historian and anthropologist of the caribbean, has produced what is to date the most authoritative account of the history, biology, and culture of jamaican food. it will be, no doubt, of great interest, not only to jamaicans, but to scholars in diverse fields, including the ethnobiological sciences. his interdisciplinary effort notwithstanding, higman tells us his “approach leaves out much and that readers may wish for more on the sociology of consumption, on the role of food in society and religion, in festivals and rituals, and in politics and culture” (p. xviii). his justification for this, quite reasonable i might add, is that there “is enough in these subjects to make another book” (ibid). higman also notes that the book could have been organized around nutrition or jamaican “dishes” and “their combination in meals,” but this would have made “difficult an analysis of origins and the story of particular ingredients, which,” he tells us, was his “primary objective” (ibid). instead, higman chose to structure his discussion around plants and animals as sources of jamaican food. there are two introductory chapters and three major sections with 2 to 4 chapters each. the first chapter begins with the question “why do jamaicans eat what they eat?” and in so doing, establishes a clear link to raymond sokolov’s broader question posed in his book why we eat what we eat: how the encounter between the new world and the old changed the way everyone on the planet eats (1991). the second introductory chapter starts by pointing out that the three principle ways jamaicans obtain food are from production based on their immediate environment, the introduction of exotic plants and animals, and trade, and it explores the choices of “what and what not to eat and drink” in jamaica based on “systems of supply” and “taste.” in this chapter higman introduces a broad overview of the island and its history that takes us from the original taino to the introduction of supermarkets and fast food outlets in the 1960s. following the introduction, part one focuses on the parts of plants used for food with four chapters covering roots, stems and leaves, fruits, and seeds respectively. the author’s comments on his choice of this approach are worth noting. he writes: “generally, all aspects of a particular plant have been discussed together, and the plant as a whole has been located with the part that dominates its uses” (p. xviii). this is important as it prevents what would otherwise have been a fragmented discussion of the different species of plants. part two deals with animals in the same way as plants and the discussion is organized around their groupings “into biological families.” the first chapter of this section focuses on molluscs, crustaceans, insects, and reptiles. the remaining three chapters cover fish, birds, and mammals. part one and two with their focus on plants and animals comprise the most substantial parts of this book. part three focuses on inorganic matter and has two short chapters. the first on salt, earth, and water and the second presents the conclusion. in his concluding chapter higman notes that it “may appear ironic that of the many foods consumed by jamaicans only a small proportion are indigenous,” especially when we consider that in “earlier times, the indigenous was far more important” (p.417). higman points out that the twentieth century saw a shift in the definition of jamaican food that was especially associated with changes in methods of processing, preparation, and cooking. prior to the late nineteenth century, the distinct method of cooking (“founded on the abundant supply of feral animals, particularly cows and pigs” [p. 418]) was barbecue and what is popularly known in jamaica as jerk. today, jerk is one of jamaica’s most well-known dishes. however, many of jamaica’s most familiar foods developed from the late ethnobiology letters book review 13 nineteenth century on, such as ackee and saltfish, rice and peas, stew peas, curry goat, patty, and bun. higman’s conclusion also touches (for the last time) on subjects that include the relation between jamaican food and jamaican identity and nationalism, the jamaica taste with its love of salt, sugar and spice, and the relevance of marvin harris’s “cost-benefit efficiency model” for explaining (whether in jamaica or around the world) why particular animals are eaten and others are not. the obvious importance of food to all people and its diverse links to other areas of their lives makes it an indispensable component of any genuine attempt to understand cultural similarities and differences. higman is well positioned to have written such an outstanding work on jamaican culture from the vantage point of food because his mastery of the subject goes well beyond published sources. he lived in jamaica for almost 30 years and taught history at the university of the west indies where he was also chair of the history department. although jamaican food was written at the australian national university’s history program (of the research school of social sciences), higman began systematic research for the book in the middle of the 1980s. barry higman is a delightful colleague and friend and i remember well our enjoyable and informative explorations of the jamaican landscape. the book is well illustrated with many black-andwhite drawings done by william murray, several useful maps, and 40 plates of beautiful late eighteenth-century watercolor paintings by reverend john lindsay depicting many of the edible plants and animals of jamaica. jamaican food is rich in citations with an excellent bibliography and a thorough index. the index, in particular, will make this book a valuable resource for all who are interested in jamaican foods and related subjects, and in the relationship between food and the making of our present world system. maternal knowledge and use of galactagogues in andean communities of cusco, peru monteban 2017. ethnobiology letters 8(1):81–89 81 research communications willing breastfeeders experienced postpartum hypogalactia, reduced milk production. pharmacological therapies such as metoclopramide, oxytocin, and domperidone are sometimes used to augment breast milk production, but safety concerns have limited their use (makari et al. 2014; paul et al. 2015; rossi and giorgi 2010). to augment breast milk production, a substantial number of women turn to galactogogues, substances thought to increase the supply of milk. among western australia women who were breastfeeding, 24% reported the use of herbal galactagogues (sim et al. 2015). in a study conducted in switzerland and canada, midwives reported high use of galactagogues among their patients (93% in switzerland and 100% in canada) (winterfeld et al. 2012). in australia, tawia (2014) explored the perspectives and attitudes introduction early exclusive breastfeeding has been linked to positive health outcomes such as the prevention of chronic diseases for the mother and child, the improvement of infant’s immunity, nutrient absorption, neurodevelopment, and maternal psychological well-being (american academy of pediatrics section on breastfeeding 2012). yet the widespread adoption of breastfeeding remains challenging (mortel and mehta 2013). women may experience difficulty with breastfeeding due to numerous biological, cultural, and social factors (balogun et al. 2015). one of the most commonly reported reasons for early breastfeeding cessation is inadequate milk production (gatti 2008; scott and colin 2002; tenfelde et al. 2013). chan et al. (2000) reported that 44% of mothers in their hong kong sample of maternal knowledge and use of galactagogues in andean communities of cusco, peru madalena monteban1* 1department of anthropology, university of georgia, athens, georgia, usa. *madamonteban@gmail.com abstract a commonly reported reason for early breastfeeding cessation is inadequate milk production. in response, women across the globe turn to galactagogues – substances used to increase the milk supply. andean women have traditional knowledge about the medicinal and nutritional properties of plants and animals that are considered good to eat during breastfeeding. this research explores the maintenance and use of galactagogues, and specifically the use of the andean flicker bird, within the wider framework of breastfeeding and nutrition policies in peru. to elicit maternal knowledge and use of galactagogues, semi-structured and free-listing interviews were conducted with 33 mothers. data analysis calculated the frequency and percentage of women reporting each type of galactagogue. in addition, thematic codes and relevant text passages were used in an iterative analytic process to document emerging themes. identified galactagogues included five plants and six animals. several galactagogues included protein-rich foods such as lamb meat and the andean flicker bird. the use of protein-rich galactagogues as solid food is reinforced by public health messages. however, galactagogues in the research communities are usually consumed as soups or drinks, which are less rich in proteins than solid meals. the potential role of liquid galactagogues in the maintenance of appropriate hydration levels during breastfeeding in an environment where safe drinking water is scarce is a new contribution to the existing literature. the results are relevant to the design of maternal and child health policies that comply with intercultural health premises that value and respect the knowledge and practices of andean peoples. received march 15, 2017 open access accepted june 14, 2017 doi 10.14237/ebl.8.1.2017.935 keywords traditional knowledge, public health policy, breastfeeding, water intake, maternal and child health, nutrition copyright © 2017 by the author(s); licensee society of ethnobiology. this is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution-noncommercial 4.0 international public license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0), which permits non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. monteban 2017. ethnobiology letters 8(1):81–89 82 research communications of breastfeeding women towards the use of herbal galactagogues. positive experiences with using these substances linked to women’s self-empowerment. perception of breastfeeding adequacy reportedly boosted participants’ confidence levels and resulted in psychological benefits. despite the scarcity of clinical data on the actual increase of breast milk production, many women continue to use natural galactagogues (forinash et al. 2012; zapantis et al. 2012). several researchers have surveyed galactagogues in different world regions, among them, brückner (1996) in europe, dandotiya et al. (2013) in india, othman et al. (2014) in malaysia, bnouham (2010) in morocco, and froemming (2006) and bussman and glen (2010) in peru. however, few efficacy studies have been conducted. a randomized clinical trial of 75 lactating women in egypt found that palm dates (phoenix dactylifera) and fenugreek (trigonella foenum-graecum) herbal tea enhanced breast milk production (sakka et al. 2014). gbadamosi and okolosi (2013) analyzed ten botanical galactagogues for their chemical constituents and antimicrobial activities finding that they had high protein, fiber, iron and calcium content, and antibacterial activity. in an animal study torabi gudarzi et al. (2008) found that cows fed with a mixture of fennel (foeniculum vulgare) and nigella (nigella sativa) increased daily milk yield compared to the control group. another study showed that extracts of banana (musa x paradisiaca) fruits increased serum prolactin levels significantly in female rats (mahmood et al. 2012). the molecular mechanisms underlying the action of herbal galactagogues remain unknown. recently, liu et al. (2015) showed in animal models that herbal galactagogues may increase milk secretion by regulating mammary glands’ expression and function of aquaporins (aqps –a family of membrane proteins facilitating water movement across cell membranes). nevertheless, the existing clinical evidence regarding the efficacy of galactagogues remains insufficient (zapantis et al. 2012). breastfeeding and maternal-child health policies in peru the duration of breastfeeding has declined by 0.6 months in rural areas of peru between 1986 and 2004, while an increase of 9.7 months occurred in urban areas. the duration increased by 6.3 months among mothers receiving prenatal care, and by 3.7 months among mothers who did not receive prenatal care (lutter et al. 2011). during the previous decade, public health policies introduced institutionalized perinatal care. in 2004, health clinics in the district of cusco adopted the peruvian ministry of health’s resolution lineamientos de nutricion materna (norms for maternal nutrition) to promote maternal and infant health (instituto nacional de salud 2004). this initiative mandates that mothers receive preand postnatal monitoring and that they participate in nutrition workshops. women receive information regarding health promotion and monthly rations of food consisting of rice (oryza sativa), oil, sardines, milk, fava beans (vicia faba) flour, quinoa (chenopodium quinoa), amaranth (amaranthaceae amaranthus), and oatmeal. these policies also promote the world health organization (who) guidelines for breastfeeding (who 1990), recommending exclusive breastfeeding until 6 months of age and complementary breastfeeding with solid food until 2 years of age. changes introduced by the peruvian ministry of health regarding maternal-child health have influenced the social relations in indigenous andean communities. until recent times, mothers decided whether to access public health services or to maintain the decisionmaking regarding infant care exclusively within the home with the assistance of family members. mothers’ breastfeeding decisions are shaped by social norms about nutrition (dettwyler 1987; piperata 2008). the period of lactation is energetically demanding for the mother and cultural practices such as food avoidance, decisions about when to start or end breastfeeding, or about supplementary feeding can mediate energy demands. the andean breastfeeding mother and child live amidst nutritional norms and practices, which includes a repertoire of knowledge about plants, animals, and minerals believed to provide additional nutrients. on the other hand, cultural practices may present aspects that counter adequate nutritional intake during this period (piperata 2008). from a public health perspective, it is of interest to develop intercultural initiatives that analyze consensus on local knowledge and practices. the use of galactagogues in the context of maternal-child health policies in latin america has not been studied. this article examines maternal knowledge and use of natural galactagogues in rural communities of cusco region, peru, within the broader context of current breastfeeding, nutrition, and public health policies. methods study location the research was conducted in cuyo grande and chawaytire, two indigenous rural communities in monteban 2017. ethnobiology letters 8(1):81–89 83 research communications cusco region, peru. the communities are located at 3400 and 4000 meters above sea level and have populations of 900 and 500 people, respectively. a public health clinic provides primary health care services in each community. residents are subsistence farmers who grow potatoes (solanum tuberosum), corn (zea mays), and other andean tubers and grains, and herd livestock. residents supplement livelihoods with activities relating to crafts and seasonal migration for jobs. data collection data collection proceeded from december 2011 to december 2013 and consisted of semi-structured interviews, observations, and free-listing techniques. semi-structured and free-listing interviews were conducted among 18 mothers of over 45 years of age, and identified by community members as knowledgeable about breastfeeding and child rearing. another set of semi-structured interviews was conducted among 15 younger mothers who were currently breastfeeding and represented diverse characteristics regarding educational level, number of children, household composition, household income, and religion. purposeful sampling was used to recruit participants. the interviews explored mother’s breastfeeding perceptions and experiences and the knowledge and use of galactagogues. observations were conducted in participants’ homes on four occasions, lasting 12 hours each and spanning from the child’s birth until reaching one year of age. the field notes contained information regarding the dynamics of child feeding and food consumption in the family. observations were also conducted sporadically in the two public health clinics with the aim of learning about the interplay of public health service providers with local clients. free-listing interviews were used to identify natural elements that mothers perceived as beneficial for breast milk production. the objective of freelisting is for informants to list as many items as they can in a domain of interest (bernard 2011). nonspecific prompting assisted respondents to recall additional elements. most participants had some degree of spanish language skills; however, quechua was their primary and preferred language. a native field research assistant from cuyo grande, who was bilingual in quechua and spanish, collaborated in data collection. the free-listing exercises and semi-structured interviews were audio recorded and lasted between 20 and 60 minutes. a second research assistant transcribed and translated the interviews from quechua to spanish. notes were taken during interviews and used to cross-check transcriptions to assure completeness and accuracy. in addition, a quechua language scholar from the city of cusco checked the accuracy of the translations. the institutional review board of the university of georgia provided ethical approval to conduct this study and participants provided their informed consent. in addition, elected officials from the participating communities provided permission to conduct the research. data analysis the analysis of interviews followed an inductive reasoning approach, using the narratives to build interpretations and meanings (riessman 2008). organizing concepts and categories were identified with an open codification scheme. the text coding was developed with atlas.ti (6.2). thematic codes and relevant text passages were used in an iterative analytic process to document emerging themes. each category was then analyzed in detail, cross checking coding strategies and interpretation of data between two independent analysts. content disagreements were discussed and the emerging insights provided for refining coding frames (barbour 2001). emerging themes were diverse and encompassed narratives about the transmission of knowledge regarding galactagogues, description and interpretation of the forms of use, involvement of household members, and perceptions about galactagogues’ effects. specific themes included liquids, transmission of knowledge, description of forms of use, experiences with use, perceptions regarding effects, hak’achu (andean flicker bird) procurement, and hak’achu use. the consistency of results was cross-checked with published data (froemming 2006), with andean ethnomedical concepts (graham 1997; larme 1998; mazzes 1968; frisancho pineda 2009), and through discussion with community members and research assistants (patton 2005). the household observation data were used to cross check the results of semi-structured interviews. field notes from observations in health clinics were analyzed to examine the involvement of clinics’ personnel in promoting the use of natural galactagogues. free-listing data provided the frequency and percentage of each type of galactagogue. free-list results were used to elicit from all women the type of monteban 2017. ethnobiology letters 8(1):81–89 84 research communications preparation used for consumption of each galactagogue. results knowledge and use of galactagogues table 1 shows the results of free-listings. mothers listed 13 galactagogues. five animals were mentioned, among them two mammals, sheep (ovis aries) and cow (bos taurus); two birds, the andean flicker (colaptes rupicola) bird or hack’achu, and chicken (gallus gallus domesticus); and one amphibian, the frog (ranidae rana). five plants were listed, quinoa, ch’uño or freeze-dried potato, an andean tuber named raqacha (arracacia xanthorriza), watercress (nasturtium officinale), and fennel. mothers also mentioned eggs and milk, and referred to the galactagogue effect of increasing the consumption of meat, soup, and food in general. the most frequently mentioned item was quinoa soup (67% of the mothers), followed by general soup consumption (60%). the free-listing results for mothers who were breastfeeding were similar to the listing of older mothers with the exception that mothers who were currently breastfeeding included oatmeal and did not mention frog, ch’uño, raqacha or watercress. galactagogues and hydration in the breastfeeding period respondents expressed awareness of the importance of breastfeeding and resorted to natural elements perceived to act as galactagogues when they thought that their breast milk supply was inadequate. in addition, observations in the local clinics showed that health personnel recommend the use of galactagogues, most often quinoa, when milk production was not sufficient. galactagogues were almost always mentioned in association with the manner in which they were consumed, for example, “hak’achu soup” or “quinoa drink.” most galactagogues were ingested as broths or drinks. a common practice consists of slaughtering a sheep and preparing a soup for the mother when a child is born. a local saying states that “without soup there is no milk.” soup is an essential component of any andean meal. however, when participants mentioned soup in general as a galactagogue they referred to its increased consumption. the lactating form main ingredient frequency of mention (%) soup quinoa 22 (66.6) soup lamb meat 11 (33.3) soup hak'achu (andean flicker bird) 10 (30.3) soup lamb sorqan (lung) 9 (27.3) soup chicken 2 (6.1) soup ch'uño (freeze dried potato) 2 (6.1)* soup lamb feet 2 (6.1) soup k’ayra (frog) 1 (3)* soup raqacha (andean root vegetable) 1 (3)* drink milk 17 (51.5) drink oatmeal 6 (18.2)** drink fennel 6 (18.2) drink quinoa 2 (6.1)** drink oqoruru (watercress) 1 (3) * solid quinoa 13 (39.4) solid meat 6 (18.2) solid vegetables 3 (9.1)** solid egg 2 (6.1) table 1 galactagogues listed by mothers in cuyo grande and chawaytire, peru (n=33). *galactagogues mentioned only by older mothers **galactagogues mentioned only by currently breastfeeding mothers monteban 2017. ethnobiology letters 8(1):81–89 85 research communications mother would thus consume one or more extra servings of a soup to support milk production. the andean medicinal system provides a basis for the use of liquids during the breastfeeding period. in this system, water is considered a cleansing and nourishing therapeutic element. on the other hand, dehydration and dryness are thought to impair the flow of essential body substances like milk (bastien 1985; hammer 2001). another aspect of andean medicine related to galactagogues is the use of “cold” or “hot” and “wet” or “dry” humoral elements to counter the effects of negative exposures (frisancho 2009). to prevent illness and to ensure the flow of vital substances in the body, individuals seek to maintain a diet that balances cold/hot and wet/dry humors (bastien 1987; graham 1997; hammer 2001; mazzes 1968). having soups or hot drinks with the expectation of increasing milk production could indicate that women attribute hypogalactia to exposure to dry or cold elements. thus, the galactagogues used in the andean health system are associated with the concept of like affects, i.e. milky and watery substances help in the production of milk. jelliffe and jelliffe (1978) note that many of the medical techniques, preparations and rituals used throughout the world are based on the “like affects like” principle. knowledge and use of the andean flicker bird as a galactagogue the use of the hak’achu was described by the first spanish chroniclers who stated that the inca appreciated its breast milk production properties, and its use continues to the present time (froemming 2006). we have not ascertained in this study that health clinic personnel recommend the use of the hak’achu as they did with quinoa. nonetheless, knowledge and use of the hak’achu continues among older and currently breastfeeding mothers. of the 18 older mothers interviewed, 9 heard of hak'achu but never tried it, 6 had tried it, and 3 stated that they had never heard of using hak'achu as a galactagogue. eight of the 15 currently breastfeeding mothers interviewed had heard of the hak’achu and 7 had eaten hak’achu soup to increase milk production. knowledge and use of this bird emerged as an analysis theme through the semi-structured interviews’ narratives. respondents reported that they only consume hak’achu in soup, and that they perceive a positive effect and were satisfied with the results. according to one woman (≥ 45 years old), “i ate hak’achu when i did not have milk […] it is good for having a lot of milk. i ate it when i had my first child.” a younger woman recounted: yes, i heard about the hak’achu. i even tried it twice. i ate it in soup, more the broth than the meat. it [the milk] increased a lot, like a cow. i even wanted my milk to dry up [a bit]. with my first child, [he/she] did not breastfeed for two hours and my breasts became swollen and hard, then i lost some of the milk. that is why i ate hak’achu [soup]. women reported knowing about the medicinal properties of the hak’achu through information provided by close relatives, often their mothers. other family members participated in catching the bird. according to one interviewee (≥ 45 years old): when i did not have sufficient milk, hak’achu was prepared, it is like chicken soup. my husband gathered many [birds]. with my older son, i had a lot of milk, but with my younger daughter i did not have milk…then, my mother told my husband to catch a hak’achu to increase the milk and my husband brought many to prepare the soup. using hak’achu depends on having a particular set of knowledge and skills. this knowledge persists in the study communities, and includes information about where to find the bird, about effective trapping strategies, and about the appropriate cooking techniques that finally produce a nutritious meal. short (1972) reported that the bird is found in the high altitude planes of peru, bolivia, chile, and argentina, burrowing under the earth or in rocky cliffs. froemming (2006:1) reported that “for cooking it, it is toasted, ground and prepared in the form of soup.” the narratives of our respondents provide support to these references. for example, according to one woman (≥ 45 years of age): in lloqlla [a community near the research site]…there were many [hak’achu], we used to go there at night and we trapped them near the ditches. we carried a flashlight…, they would approach us and we trapped them like hens. we trapped the fattest ones and freed the lean ones. for other households, the location of the bird’s habitat makes its use difficult. in others, knowledge monteban 2017. ethnobiology letters 8(1):81–89 86 research communications loss precluded its use. according to an older interviewee (≥ 45 years of age), "we were told [about hak'achu] but were not able to catch any because they live in the hills, in high places." as a younger woman reported, "my parents told me about the hak’achu, but i never tried it, i did not know how to catch it or where it lives?" other women reported familiarity with the properties of hak’achu but not using it in favor of other galactagogues. according to an older woman (≥ 45 years of age): grandpa would bring me a frog from the river. once it was cleaned we would boil it in a ceramic pot… together with lamb feet… it is good when you boil it [frog], it is like milk. i drank it because i did not have enough milk. consumption of this bird appears to be specifically linked to its galactagogue properties. mothers stated that the only use of the hak'achu was to increase milk production during breastfeeding. for example, according to one woman (≥ 45 years of age), "only those [women] that do not have milk drink hak'achu [soup], if they have [milk] what would they drink it for?" as exemplified by the above quote, participants’ narratives indicated that hak’achu is used in these communities in a sustainable manner as it is not indiscriminately consumed. similarly, froemming (2006) reports that “the bird is not hunted in large quantity.” discussion the participating mothers of cuyo grande and chawaytire highlighted the relevance and perceived efficacy of natural galactagogues. most of the galactagogues mentioned were introduced through colonization and incorporated into the local pharmacopeia. the importance attributed to breastfeeding by participants is consistent with public health policies. also in agreement with public health recommendations encouraging consumption of a protein-rich diet during lactation, most items mothers perceived to have galactagogue properties have high protein content. however, while public health policies recommend consuming proteins in the form of solid food, women in this study perceived the use of galactagogues in soup or drink preparations and increased consumption of soups and drinks in general as essential for promoting lactation. despite this divergence with public health policy, increased liquid consumption during breastfeeding may have a health promotion role in the andean communities. it is recommended that water intake increases from 2.7 to 3.8 liters per day while breastfeeding (bentley 1998; iom 2004). complying with water intake recommendations may have implications for people living in environments where safe drinking water is scarce. for example, rosinger (2015) reported that in the bolivian amazonia, tsimane women who were breastfeeding were more prone to dehydration than those who were not. in the andes, individuals are exposed to high levels of solar radiation and wind and access to safe drinking water is limited. water used in the homes comes from streams or wells. the consumption of boiled water in the form of soups or hot drinks may constitute a protective cultural adaptation, reducing the risk of dehydration and of exposure to pathogens present in untreated water supplies. the current norms for maternal nutrition (instituto nacional de salud 2004) promote the consumption of solid food with high protein content because nutrients are diluted in liquid preparations. however, this document does not presently expressly address need for increased water intake. it would be relevant to consider recommendations regarding liquid intake through safe preparations like soups or hot drinks among breastfeeding mothers. the exclusion of men in the study sample is recognized as a possible limitation. this research focused on maternal knowledge and use of galactagogues. however, mothers reported learning about the use and capture of the hak’achu from male relatives. it is possible that had men been interviewed, they may have mentioned additional galactagogues or provided further insight on the use of galactagogues in the research communities. this study provided evidence of persistence in maternal knowledge and use of natural galactagogues in andean communities. it contributes to the existing literature by analyzing knowledge and practices in the context of public health recommendations. i offer a new contribution to the literature by highlighting the potential role of galactagogues to (1) maintain appropriate maternal hydration levels during breastfeeding, which (2) yields sufficient milk for infant nutrition and hydration in a parching environment with limited clean water. the results are relevant for the formulation of maternal-child health policies that comply with intercultural health premises (paho monteban 2017. ethnobiology letters 8(1):81–89 87 research communications 2008) by valuing and respecting the knowledge and practices of andean peoples. previous research highlights the sometimes conflicting relationship between andean and biomedical knowledge (bastien 1987; crandon-malamud 1991; mathez-stiefel et al. 2012; miles and leatherman 2003). for example, mathez-stiefel et al. (2012) affirms that complementarities between andean and biomedical health care systems are mediated by the dominance of biomedicine as a global and state-supported system. maternalchild health policies should involve local participation and the recognition that power inequities can play a role in facilitating knowledge exchange. acknowledgements i am very grateful to the communities of cuyo grande and chawaytire and the mothers who participated in the research sharing their time and knowledge. my appreciation also goes to benedicta velásquez-yucra and valeria velásquez-yucra for their invaluable help in data collection and to the anonymous reviewers for providing exceptionally helpful comments that helped to improve this manuscript. declarations permissions: none declared. sources of funding: this research was supported in part by a u.s. department of education foreign language and area studies fellowship. conflicts of interest: none declared. references cited american academy of 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edited by j. d. koss-chioino, t. leatherman, and c. greenway, pp. 3–15. routledge, london, united kingdom, and new york, ny. monteban 2017. ethnobiology letters 8(1):81–89 89 research communications mortel, m., and s. d. mehta. 2013. systematic review of the efficacy of herbal galactogogues. journal of human lactation 29:154–162. doi:10.1177/0890334413477243. othman, n., r. a. c. lamin, and c. n. othman. 2014. exploring behavior on the herbal galactagogue usage among malay lactating mothers in malaysia. procedia social and behavioral sciences 153:199–208. doi:10.1016/j.sbspro.2014.10.054. pan american health organization (paho). 2008. una visión de salud intercultural para los pueblos indígenas de las américas. available at: http://new.paho.org/ hq/dmdocuments/2009/54visionsaludinterculturalpi.pdf. accessed on november 2016. patton, m. q. 2005. qualitative research. sage publications, thousands oaks, ca. paul, c., m. zenut, a. dorut, m. a. coudore, j. vein, j. m. cardot, and d. 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doi:10.1089/bfm.2011.0092. zapantis, a., j. g. steinberg, and l. schilit. 2012. use of herbals as galactagogues. journal of pharmacy practice 25:222–231. doi:10.1177/0897190011431636. ethnobotany and biocultural diversities in the balkans: perspectives on sustainable rural development and reconciliation. edited by andrea pieroni and cassandra l. quave. 2014. springer, new york. 255 pp. french. 2016. ethnobiology letters 7(1):74–75 74 reviews programs could make greater use of local plant genetic resources (e.g., apple and tomato cultivars), many of which are endemic. this interdisciplinary focus on biocultural diversity coincides with increased interest in the european union and united states in developing national ‘bioeconomies.’ a bioeconomy uses and manipulates biological resources to meet the needs of society and to solve global problems such as food security and sustainable energy production (ec 2006; karp et al. 2015). the bioeconomy emphasizes rural landscapes and rural development and using the natural resources found there to create jobs and the raw materials needed for innovation. by tapping into recent interest in the bioeconomy, ethnobotany, the economy, and biodiversity conservation could potentially become more closely linked—and mutually perpetuating—in the future. second, the book highlights local medicinal plant uses and their potential role in natural product development. this was most striking in chapter 2, where ferrier et al. analyze the plants used by the lukomir highlanders of bosnia and herzegovina to treat symptoms of diabetes. they demonstrate that vaccinium myrtillus and vaccinium vitis-idaea contain high levels of phenolics and saponins. they propose that pharmaceutical research could develop these plants as new treatments for diabetes. one of the merits of this study is the combination of ethnobotanical research with analytical methods from chemistry (e.g., high-performance liquid chromatography mass spectrometry). it serves as a reminder to ethnobotanists that without ‘hard evidence’ our research is often dismissed as anecdotal. to increase the impact of our do local plant use traditions matter in spite of globalization—and what role do they have to play in the 21st century? ethnobotany and biocultural diversities in the balkans takes us into southeast europe, into farms, kitchens, and pastures to understand the biological and cultural diversity of the region and how it can play a role in rural economic development. the book is divided into three parts: i. from folk medicine to the medicinal plant trade; ii. balkan traditional plant-based foods; and iii. building small-scale, environmentally and socially sustainable economies. the motivation behind the publication is, partly, the bosnian war (1992–1995). pieroni and quave’s introduction, and many chapters of the book, reinforce the idea that local ecological knowledge can contribute not only to survival in times of war but also socio-economic change. ethnobotany and biocultural diversities is timely for three reasons. first, it touches upon recent interest in ‘biocultural diversity’ in anthropology, geography, and international development (lyver et al. 2015; parrotta and trosper 2011). the focus here isn’t on defining biocultural diversity; indeed, a clear definition of the term is never given. however, the applied nature encompassed in the term is clearly emphasized in the book. a number of chapters focus on how local plants could be exploited economically. for example, menković et al. (chapter 11) argue that certain abundantly-available medicinal plants (e.g., vaccinium myrtillus l., juniperus communis l. subsp. alpina, achillea millefolium l.) could be collected by locals and sold commercially while stevanović et al. (chapter 12) propose that regional cuisines and plant breeding ethnobotany and biocultural diversities in the balkans: perspectives on sustainable rural development and reconciliation. edited by andrea pieroni and cassandra l. quave. 2014. springer, new york. 255 pp. katherine e. french1* 1department of plant sciences, university of oxford, oxford, united kingdom. *katherine.french@plants.ox.ac.uk received july 22, 2016 open access accepted august 15, 2016 doi 10.14237/ebl.7.1.2016.748 copyright © 2016 by the author(s); licensee society of ethnobiology. this is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution-noncommercial 4.0 international public license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0), which permits non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. french. 2016. ethnobiology letters 7(1):74–75 75 reviews research, and to do a service to the communities we work with, we need to move more in this direction, combining the physical sciences with anthropology. providing this type of data is probably the best way to ensure collaboration with others working in natural product development (e.g., chemists and pharmacologists) and even new biocontrol solutions (e.g., plant scientists). third, the volume highlights the connection between the landscape, natural resource availability, and plant use. for example, redžić and ferrier (chapter 9) highlight the biogeography of wild plant use in the western balkans during the bosnian war, demonstrating that local groups collected the majority of their wild plants from deciduous forests and grasslands. observations like these on the cultural value of specific ecosystems can inform conservation objectives and priorities. for example, in many parts of europe grassland biodiversity is under threat as many are abandoned or converted to intensive arable cultivation (hodgson et al. 2005). highlighting the cultural, nutritional, and economic value of these landscapes provides a powerful argument to underpin calls to conserve the biological diversity of these landscapes (e.g., for their crop wild relatives, birds, ecosystem services, etc.). the main contribution of ethnobotany and biocultural diversities in the balkans is to applied ethnobotany. we need more studies like this to show that the cultural use of plants matter: the traditions, stories, and myths people hold are intimately connected to the natural environment and can still have a role in the present (and future). the chapters are wellwritten and the figures (many of which are in color) enhance the text. students of ethnobotany and botanists of the balkans will find the book to be of great use. hopefully, we will see the applied projects hinted at in the text developed in future publications by the contributors. references cited european commission (ec). 2005. new perspectives on the knowledge-based bio-economy: conference report. european commission, brussels, belgium. hodgson, j. g., g. montserrat-martí, j. tallowin, k. thompson, s. díaz, m. cabido, j. p. grime, p. j. wilson, s. r. band, a. bogard, r. cabido, d. cáceres, p. castro-díez, c. ferrer, m. maestromartínez, m. c. pérez-rontomé, m. charles, j. h. c. cornelissen, s. dabbert, n. pérez-harguindeguy, t. krimly, f. j. sijtsma, d. strijker, f. vendramini, j. guerrero-campo, a. hynd, g. jones, a. romodíez, l. de torres espuny, p. villar-salvador, and m. r. zak. 2005. how much will it cost to save grassland diversity? biological conservation 122(2):263 –273. doi:10.1016/j.biocon.2004.07.016. karp, a., m. h. beale, f. beaudoin, p. j. eastmond, a. l. neal, i. f. shield, b. j. townsend, and a. dobermann. 2015. growing innovations for the bioeconomy. nature plants 1:15193. doi:10.1038/ nplants.2015.193. lyver, p., j. m. wilmshurst, j. r. wood, c. j. jones, m. fromont, p. j. bellingham, c. stone, m. sheehan, and h. moller. 2015. looking back for the future: local knowledge and palaeoecology inform biocultural restoration of coastal ecosystems in new zealand. human ecology 43:681–695. doi:10.1007/s10745-015-9784-7. parrotta, j. a., and r. l. trosper, eds. 2011. traditional forest-related knowledge: sustaining communities, ecosystems and biocultural diversity. world forest series vol. 12. springer science and business media, dordrecht, the netherlands. plurality in ethnobiology: a look towards 2017 welch et al. 2016. ethnobiology letters 7(1):106 106 editorial intolerance and populist extremism in europe and north america during the worst global migrant crisis since world war ii. there is continued violence toward indigenous peoples and their lands as economic and political pursuits trump local cultural and ecological values. academic publishing and the production of knowledge are in upheaval as the commercialization of science and commodification of scientific production escalate. against this backdrop, we close this issue of ethnobiology letters with our reaffirmation of the importance of all forms of diversity in this journal, our academic field, and the environmental and human contexts we study. we applaud ethnobiologists and scholars in related fields for their dedication to disciplinary and epistemological plurality in education and research institutions and publishing venues. we praise the high value currently placed on inclusive science through collaborative research and publishing. we acclaim the increasing availability of academic space for indigenous and minority voices. we are inspired by globalizing scientific discourse and its potential to bridge geographical, cultural, and political boundaries. we are proud to remain among the few journals offering true open access publication without asking authors or readers to pay fees. we take this opportunity to communicate our continued editorial dedication to these principles in 2017. diversity, especially biological and sociocultural, is central to many ethnobiologists’ academic perspectives and core values. it serves as a first principle for the study of human and non-human life in the broadest sense and helps provide meaning to many kinds of people interested in the wellbeing of humans and environments. these kinds of diversity are increasingly well-represented in ethnobiology letters and the society of ethnobiology’s other publications, journal of ethnobiology and contributions in ethnobiology. in their pages, ethnobiologists have documented biological diversity in past and present anthropogenic landscapes, explored the close connections between biodiversity and cultural diversity, celebrated the limitless diversity of ethnic identities and worldviews, and argued for the importance of actively promoting biodiversity through ethical conservation. as the end of 2016 draws near and we reflect on its surreal events in the united states and throughout the world, we are tempted to mourn the bleak future of diversity. we question how it will be affected by the seemingly fast pace and unforeseen directions of recent social and political change. as temperatures spike to unprecedented winter levels in the polar region, we read of the possibility that the next presidential administration of the united states may pull back from the promising paris climate agreement. we see examples of increasing religious december 30, 2016 james r. welch escola nacional de saúde pública, fundação oswaldo cruz, rio de janeiro, rj, brazil. welch@ensp.fiocruz.br john m. marston department of archaeology, boston university, boston, ma, usa. marston@bu.edu elizabeth a. olson history, sociology, and anthropology department, southern utah university, cedar city, ut, usa. elizabetholson@suu.edu plurality in ethnobiology: a look towards 2017 open access doi 10.14237/ebl.7.2.2016.861 copyright © 2016 by the author(s); licensee society of ethnobiology. this is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution-noncommercial 4.0 international public license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0), which permits non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. the ecology of pastoralism. edited by p. nick kardulias. 2015. university press of colorado, boulder. 272 pp. rokpelnis. 2016. ethnobiology letters 7(1):28–29 28 reviews as chang demonstrates, the reinterpretation and adaptation of past identities to today’s circumstances in central asia is highly ideological, both politically and intellectually, which creates further hurdles to a unified interpretation of pastoralism in space. the same applies to historical experience, as erik g. johannesson shows in his discussion of mortuary practices in late bronze and early iron age mongolia, where pastoralism carried a particular symbolic weight that, according to the author, far exceeded its livelihood role. michelle negus cleary provides counterarguments to a different kind of exaggeration—that of the strict separation and enmity between steppe pastoralists and settled oasis dwellers in late iron age central asia. using analysis of fortification typologies, negus cleary maintains that at various times pastoralists as well as agriculturalists would use the same fortifications, and thus settling down behind walls might as well be yet another expression of pastoralist adaptation. in the case of navajo herders, lawrence a. kuznar presents a more conventional route of adaptation away from agricultural settlement towards pastoralism driven by encroaching colonial interests and amplified by emergent global market forces. similar colonial and post-colonial adaptations among fulbe pastoralists in the chad basin are described by mark moritz, who calls for a nuanced understanding of the neo-patrimonial state government in which individuals in governmental agencies (rather than an abstract state) make decisions that the pastoralists have to reckon with. moritz argues that pastoralists seek integration into the patrimonial networks that permeate the state in order to ensure access to rangeland. the case for a careful adaptation one might compare academic and popular writing on pastoralists with that on geishas in japan. these two groups are routinely described as remnants of the past and are often pitied for the hardship of their daily lives and their livelihoods’ spiritual and economic incongruence with modernity. however, these groups capture imaginations and seemingly offer insights into the processes that construct societies through time. throughout the history of social sciences, pastoralists (broadly referring to people who rely on animal husbandry for a living) have been at the center of a range of heated debates on social arrangements and human use of natural resources. those debates would most definitely benefit from a more nuanced and clearer understanding of the ways pastoral communities function. the ecology of pastoralism, edited by p. nick kardulias and dedicated to the other initial editor, the prematurely deceased mark t. shutes, addresses various aspects of the highly flexible and adaptive human-ecosystem interaction cluster that is pastoralism. time and space are two fundamental challenges for the synthesis of a general theory of pastoralism: debates on the emergence of animal herding out of sedentary farming versus an evolutionary path from gathering to herding are complicated by the fact that herding takes different forms and possibly has had diverging development paths in different parts of the world. claudia chang’s personal account of her life’s work, from archaeology and participant observation of contemporary herding in greece to studying pastoralists in today’s kazakhstan, elegantly illuminates why we cannot take for granted that the motivations and actions of pastoralists have remained constant through time and space. the ecology of pastoralism. edited by p. nick kardulias. 2015. university press of colorado, boulder. 272 pp. kārlis rokpelnis1* 1school of life and environmental sciences, minzu university of china, beijing, china. *karlisr@yahoo.com received october 19, 2015 open access accepted january 8, 2016 doi 10.14237/ebl.7.1.2016.499 copyright © 2016 rokpelnis; licensee society of ethnobiology. this is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attributionnoncommercial 4.0 international public license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0), which permits non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. rokpelnis. 2016. ethnobiology letters 7(1):28–29 29 reviews and flexibility-focused understanding of pastoralism is further strengthened with examples of hunza vertical transhumance in pakistan presented by homayun sidky and kardulias’ description of island pastoralists in greece. nikolay n. kradin argues that flexible species assortments and opportunistic grazing approaches historically allowed for the formation of the amorphous hierarchies that could mount challenges to the strongest agricultural empires and then vanish seemingly overnight. mark t. shutes complements this notion by demonstrating that adaptations through animal husbandry continue to play a crucial role in community and individual identities in increasingly industrialized rural economies. shutes’ discussions of farmers’ adaptation to new realities in ireland show how transnational regulation and subsidy systems become additional, hardly predictable, factors to be added to the bundle of uncertainties that herd owners face as individuals who must maintain status and a community role. a world-systems analysis comes closest to serving as a unified theoretical framework for the volume. it seems that pastoralists’ ability to derive value and livelihood from lands unsuitable, or to borrow from james scott, unreadable to the state, serves well for collective and individual responses to marginalization and resource extraction. thomas d. hall synthesizes the chapters in this volume into a case for an understanding that living with herds, among other forms of adaptation and social organization, “can only be explained when embedded in a larger, inter-societal context” (p. 275; emphasis in the original). such a conclusion will hardly satisfy a reader looking for rules of thumb in understanding pastoralists today or in the past. but it truthfully reflects the confusing complexity researchers of pastoralists encounter on a daily basis. with no hint of idyllic musings, the volume brings the reader well beyond facile generalizations of pastoral life or any equivalent geisha romanticizing. those with a keen eye for ecological nuance, particularly detailed environmental indicators and ecosystem measurements, might call foul on using ‘ecology’ in the title since the focus of the volume is societal. the relatively limited attention paid to climate change comes as a surprise but can be understood as an editorial choice to pick a focus and stick with it. the omission of equilibrium versus nonequilibrium debate, however, significantly dents the ecological credibility and usefulness of the volume. regardless of this shortcoming, the ecology of pastoralism brings out nuances and at times can be a captivating read for anyone who enjoys piecing together complex puzzles. runne-beana: dog herds ethnographer anderson. 2016. ethnobiology letters 7(2):32–40 32 research communications special issue on memoirs and memory the distinct benefit of sharing virtually no common language with anyone, demanding alertness and imagination on my part. somehow i let it be known that i was seeking a reindeer-breeding family with whom to live, learn, migrate, work, play, and, hopefully, speak. one woman about my age stood out from the other possible hosts. she intuited that my companionship might combine the instrumental and the expressive: i could be a helpmate, a friend, a scapegoat, a status symbol, and, for the first few months of language-learning, an unhired hand. we both survived, to emerge as life-long friends (cf. anderson 1978, 1986). the nuclear family adopting me included two near-adolescent daughters, a younger son, and two dogs. the father-husband had a mature herding dog, bamse, and the older daughter had a younger dog, then just called runne. runne not only had a genuine saami name shared by most other red or auburn dogs, but his stature and deep coat were along the lines of the original spitz-samoyed-chow-related stock. while gray or spangled-coated dogs will be named ranne, related to the word for “gray,” ranes, no such semantic correspondence obtains for runne. roughly a fortnight after first approaching this potential host family, i returned to their two-room getting into the field in saapmi for but meeting a dog what every ethnographer knows she doesn’t know the ethnographer’s own identity, entourage (if any), and first contacts inevitably shape the resulting ethnographic project in interesting, unpredictable ways (agar 1996; ellen 1987). while i do not recall hearing of ethnographers with non-human companions, i can well imagine that many must have been in such a situation (cf. wengle 1988:56), and this paper concerns itself with a similar situation. runne-beana was a reindeer-herding dog who adopted me when i arrived in the field, facilitating my role as researcher while also enlightening me about saami culture. in fact, his assistance was crucial to every step (literally) of the first five years of intensive fieldwork and the subsequent now forty years of sporadic but regular annual investigations. although runne-beana died in 1983, he remains a topic in ongoing conversations and online discussions. runne introduces himself, as dogs do upon arrival in lapland (now often called saapmi) in february 1972 for dissertation research on saami reindeer management, i zeroed in on a north norway community of nomads and sedentaries. i had runne-beana: dog herds ethnographer1 myrdene anderson1* 1department of anthropology, purdue university, west lafayette, in, usa. *myanders@purdue.edu abstract saami society in lapland (now often called saapmi), particularly the seasonally-nomadic reindeer-breeding sector, is predicated upon mobility and autonomy of its actors. runne-beana, a talented reindeer-herding dog, exhibited both mobility and autonomy when allocating to himself a peripatetic ethnographer, on the first day of five years of doctoral dissertation fieldwork in arctic norway in 1972. that family’s and the wider community’s reactions to runne-beana’s behavior, and mine, highlight the tensions when mobility and autonomy compound with ideologies of ownership and control. at the same time, his companionship profoundly shaped all field relationships, engendering an understanding of dog culture as it is manifest in the herder/herding dog/reindeer triad and in the interpenetration of assumptions concerning child/dog enculturation. received june 14, 2016 open access accepted august 24, 2016 doi 10.14237/ebl.7.2.2016.725 keyword fieldwork reflections, saami, reindeer-herding dogs, reindeer management copyright © 2016 by the author(s); licensee society of ethnobiology. this is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution-noncommercial 4.0 international public license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0), which permits non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. anderson. 2016. ethnobiology letters 7(2):32–40 33 research communications special issue on memoirs and memory frame winter dwelling, somewhat apprehensive that they might have changed their minds or that i had misunderstood. i left my rucksack leaning on an outside wall. the house was filled with many persons, only a few coinciding with the family. my tentative friend welcomed me with interminable cups of coffee. at some point, still unsure of where or whether i would find shelter that night, or any other night, some youngsters burst into the room with an urgent message. i recognized the cognate loan of “ruck-sack” and the word beana, “dog.” one more cognate popped out, rhyming with “piss.” almost incredulous that i decoded the situation, i followed gestures to bring my rucksack indoors. that was when runne first staked me out as his special companion; it amused everyone else, but i, originally a “cat person,” was oblivious of his identity for some time. in the following months, integrated into a larger sii’da herding group of four related families and many times that number of herding dogs, i concentrated on recognizing persons and let the dogs sort themselves out later. runne asserts himself and gets a surname name, “dog” on that first spring migration, there was this particularly appealing dog who chose to be either pillow, quilt, or comforter for and to me. the girl who had runne as her own herding dog, unlike other owners, often fondled him and put him through parlor tricks. he would then look to me rather than to her for rewarding glances. i began to realize how many interesting affective triangles were under brew. although the dog appeared young and certainly acted that way, even to the extent of abruptly transferring his allegiance to me, i later discovered that he was in his third year. as runne attached himself more and more explicitly to me, i started referring to him and addressing him in a fashion habitually used for others of my companion-pets, specifying the species; he became runne-beana, ‘runne-dog’. other persons picked up on this nomenclature—perhaps due to a saami passion for novelty. it followed that my initial unique and superfluous position gradually transformed into one integral to larger and larger social groups, with this dog as my badge. six months later, having accompanied the reindeer and nomad families from the tundra to the coast on spring migration, i needed a separate and fixed field residence for research materials, and in order to be free to meet and travel with as many different sii’da herding groups as possible. i located a cabin-sized dwelling, and moved in with a burgeoning mass of notes, books, tapes, films, plant-presses, hides, and artifacts. at that time, runne-beana was “at work” on the range, herding reindeer. the daughter herself rarely spent long periods in herding activities because of school schedules, but would loan her dog to her father so that he could have the benefit of two helpers. each time runne-beana returned to the settlement, he sought me out and announced himself by howling outside my window. i first assumed the commotion to be friends or neighbors trying to frighten me by sounding like the dreaded wolf. i knew, however, that by the end of the second world war, the local wolf population had been wiped out, even though an occasional wolf might still stray over the russian or finnish border only to be killed as a predator. when i would go outside to confront the pranksters, i would only be greeted by runne-beana. in complaining about this habit of the dog, neighbors made almost as much noise as the dog. realizing that this was not “my” dog, and that he was an indispensable, contributing member to the subsistence activities of his natal and my original host family, i did little to encourage his joining me. at least, i did not feed him. it was impossible, however, not to appreciate his company and the attention we both received, some critical but much of it positive. a compromise routine developed, whereby runne-beana lived with me except when on assignment. the evening before a herding departure, children from the sii’da would be dispatched to locate, relocate, and detain the dog at his proper residence. he would be tied up until taken out to the tundra. unfortunately, runne-beana was adept at escaping any rope, chain, or confinement and would then return to me, where he would be scolded and sent back. eventually he learned not to show himself to me until his sii’da-mates gave up and left for the herd without him. however, my fieldwork kept me from my headquarters much of the time; if i were not away for hours or days, it could be weeks or months. whenever runne-beana returned to my cabin and could not rouse me by howling, or find me elsewhere by scent, he engaged the help of bamse, his closest dog-pal, the older dog, owned by the husband-father in his natal family. while bamse impressed few with his intelligence, anderson. 2016. ethnobiology letters 7(2):32–40 34 research communications special issue on memoirs and memory he possessed one skill that the younger, brighter runne-beana never had to master: bamse could open doors with a flick of the paw. on occasions when runne-beana could not find me at my cabin, he would return to his natal family and fetch bamse. the two would come to the cabin, and bamse would open the series of doors to enter the innermost room, my sanctum. there they made themselves comfortable on my bedding and books. upon my return, i would find doors flapping in the wind, and two (or more, up to a half-dozen) snug dogs inside, all happy to see me. runne-beana, however, preferred not to share my company with these others, and once i appeared, he contrived to drive them off. often i would be off again on ethnographic errands, accompanied by the jealous runne-beana and the lumbering bamse. on these trips, runne-beana took little time in dispatching bamse on some wild-goose chase so that the two of us could march on alone. typically, runne-beana would seemingly detect a scent worthy of first-order fascination. bamse took notice of this, but sniff and inhale as he might, only managed to look bewildered. as soon as bamse was hooked on the belief that there must be a scent to be found if he just tried hard enough, runne-beana would dart off in a line oblique to our path, and both dogs would disappear behind a barn guaranteed to be steeped in odors. evidently, bamse would be rewarded with scents worthy of figure 1 runne-beana engaged in ethnography, kautokeino, norway, 1979. anderson. 2016. ethnobiology letters 7(2):32–40 35 research communications special issue on memoirs and memory investigation, and runne-beana would trot back to fall into step with me, out of bamse’s line of sight. like most saami dogs, runne-beana expected to accompany his consort everywhere (cf. figure 1), and did not appreciate the norwegian regulations prohibiting dogs in the local store. while i taught him to understand various commands, including vurde, “wait,” he saw no reason not to accompany the very next patron into the store to find me, or he might sneak behind me so closely as not be noticed, by me. in such public settings, persons from his natal family and natal sii’da might recognize runne-beana and greet him; he would snub them, feigning nonrecognition. runne-beana establishes our reputation all this singular behavior and public exposure led to both runne-beana and myself being recognized far beyond our regular circuits, extending over hundreds of kilometers within an area of some 15,000 square kilometers. i became aware that independence, individuality, and innovation were indeed valued in saami culture. this applied to humans and dogs, and to reindeer and ethnographers as well. basically, whatever non-deleterious attributes first emerge in the ontogeny of an individual or relationship may be rewarded and utilized as markers. whether the noteworthy attributes are culturally positive, neutral, or negative, is of lesser consequence—just to be acknowledged as unique in some combination of traits is in itself flattering, contributing to the construction of self. one identifies, and is described, after the more memorable of ancestors in any generation, regardless of sex. the inventory of common names for either gender or humans, and for dogs of any gender, is limited. parental and grandparental names help disambiguate humans. dog names usually index color rather than sex, and are disambiguated when necessary by reference to the owner or to the larger sii’da group. family groups are seldom physically localized at any time or place. instead, members—often singly or in ever-changing constellations with each other and outsiders—go about the business of pastoralnomadism, exchanging news and gossip at every turn (cf. anderson 1978, 1986). one recognizes an approaching figure at a distance largely by the gestalt provided by human-dog combo, each of particular stature, gait, configuration, and color. i too could be recognized by the same method. even though runnebeana surely provided little more than redundancy given my assembly of traditional and nontraditional garb, persons always indicated that they recognized runne-beana and then deduced that the person must be me. the summer reindeer pastures in this region lie mostly along the coast in now norwegian-speaking regions. runne-beana and i figured as a pair here as well. the norwegian friends and trading partners of my original host family, and my own developing network of friends and trading partners, accepted our visits as a relief from their fishing and farming routines. they discussed runne-beana’s intelligence, traditional build, and independence, and occasionally “dog-sat” while i went off on an errand, even when i returned to the united states almost five years later. runne-beana goes international stud runne-beana was born (probably in 1969) and raised in norway, about 40 kilometers from the finnish border to the south. about 100 kilometers farther south, one is in sweden. the saami in the far north of all three countries speak the same dialect, intermarry, and even exchange pups, although the borders have been closed to reindeer traffic since 1851. runnebeana’s natal family, and doubtless he himself, had relatives in both finland and sweden. this family was also widely respected for its members’ personalities, integrity, and herding prowess. runne-beana continued to periodically herd with and without me, throughout the first 56-month stint of continuous fieldwork. dogs, like children in saami society, develop skills for which they are known, in a process best described as “ripening” (anderson 2000). neither dogs nor children receive explicit training or drills, but become actors as they choose and when they are inspired. consequently, no two dogs or persons ever share the same complement or quality of skills. just as humans everywhere learn language without being taught, saami children, and dogs, also learn skills by casual as well as careful observation, and trial-and-error, or elect to abstain from certain skills, which is always allowed (cf. anderson 1978; beach 1981). in general, an individual dog may be adept at driving a moving herd of reindeer or at monitoring a stationary herd; dogs may also prefer one or another kind of terrain. a herder might keep several dogs with him/her on the range, because of these differing skills and temperaments, and because to leave dogs at their seasonal dwelling might be inconvenient given the anderson. 2016. ethnobiology letters 7(2):32–40 36 research communications special issue on memoirs and memory interplay of leash laws, bitches in heat, and the like. (on one occasion on the tundra i encountered three herders inside a tent, but first burst out their thirteen dogs.) in work on the range, the herder’s commands generally coincided with dog maneuvers, but the combo might instead work at cross purposes, with stern consequences for the dog, even punishment, which would never be the case for children. in leisure, however, the human-dog team was tight-knit, sharing much of the same food and shelter as is available on the tundra. runne-beana preferred driving chores and medium topography; he disliked precipitous, rocky mountaintops and dreaded swimming in icy rivers. i learned he had experienced a few close calls in both environments. nevertheless, he had a commanding reputation as a herding dog, and as a fighter when need be. he possessed the lines of the pre-contact dog featured in early lithographs. few such dogs turn up anymore. i have discussed elsewhere more details about the social and psychological dynamics of canine reproduction, naming, working, and retirement (anderson 1986). a saami woman might maintain one breeding bitch. she exercises no selection of stud, for this settles itself suitably among the dogs themselves, to everyone’s amusement. in this region, only male dogs are retained as working dogs; female dogs may be equally suitable to herding, but their coming into heat would be disruptive. therefore, female pups are culled at birth, usually by hanging or drowning—both considered honorable ways of dying. very senile retired dogs may more likely die by fighting with younger dogs or succumb to accidents on thin ice or perish in bad weather. about four years into the first fieldwork period, i was visited by two helsinki women and three bitches in heat. they had been breeding saami herding dogs for nine years, 1,700 km away to the south, having an interest in maintaining or even re-constituting the attractive earlier phenotype. the women had contractual arrangements with persons in the helsinki area who housed bitches and cooperated in their breeding. the only studs to be selected were those recognized as herding dogs in lapland, so mating entailed long journeys from helsinki with bitches in tow. the indigenous saami owner of the stud dog would receive in return at least one male pup, and these would subsequently be monitored for herding aptitude. other male pups would be sold or distributed in the north, while female pups could either be sold as show dogs to fanciers in the south, or kept as breeding stock if there were reason to suspect they carried auspicious traits for reindeer management. their genealogical records and reconstructions were the earliest to document saami herding dogs in this northern region of saapmi. runne-beana’s reputation had reached helsinki, and his genes were wanted; he cooperated. i was promised a pup that i would give to runne-beana’s original mistress, but the pregnant bitch was killed by a car in helsinki. the natal family suspected that i had received payment for runne-beana’s sexual services, hoping to obtain some token, if only for conversation purposes. there ensued a brief period of animosity. yet, these new relationships—complicated, involving bitches that had to be smuggled back and forth over the finnish-norwegian border—paid dividends for all in terms of our heightened individual and collective profiles, and stories. fieldwork with and without runne-beana runne-beana—the-linguist in a sedentary setting an ethnographer cannot be all places at all times; in a nomadic one, the frustrations multiply by orders of magnitude. however, when runne-beana and i were separated, i often later received more detailed information about the events he experienced. with runne-beana as a partner, my own social sphere automatically expanded to include his. he confidently accompanied me through packs of aggressive members of his own species and on long treks in unmarked terrain. when lambs and reindeer calves graze on public lands during the summer, regulations prohibit dogs running loose. i observed these regulations to the letter, unlike most saami, who really could not deploy dogs on leashes in a herding setting. this brings up runne-beana’s skill as a language teacher. living among nomads leaves little opportunity for neat little language drills. one must simply speak, correctly or not. having chattered to runnebeana daily, and dreamt in the language at night, i could at least make mistakes smoothly. saami are pragmatic folk and do not worry about abuses of their language as long as the result is understandable or useful at some level. this absence of negative feedback plus the considerable time devoted to discourse with runne-beana, inevitably led to my perpetuating the same errors for years. similar sociolinguistic dynamics obtain with norwegian-speakers, at least in anderson. 2016. ethnobiology letters 7(2):32–40 37 research communications special issue on memoirs and memory the north. their amazement that anyone would learn their language swamps any inclination to provide corrective feedback. norwegians, though, still judge quirks in a foreigner’s speech, while among saami, idiosyncratic errors can also be chalked up to individuality and innovation, always positively regarded. runne-beana remained alert during any saami conversation, but appeared to block out any norwegian one. he also had definite judgments about individuals, without strictly discriminating along linguistic or cultural lines. in the presence of a person he disliked, he would tuck himself out of sight. with members of his natal family, whom he loved, the situation was ambivalent. he could fear their taking him away for work and responded by seeming bashful. saami devoted considerable time analyzing dog and reindeer behavior in anthropomorphic terms. through these discussions, i came to appreciate very soon the salient affective states and predominant rationales for behavior. runne-beana—the-ethnobotanist, or, stalking the elusive beadnag(a)-suoi-dni, “dog-grass” given my interest in all aspects of folk science—and having initially justified this research as ethnobotanical, focusing on winter-forage lichen as a limiting resource (anderson 1978)—i looked forward to elucidating the saami systems of classification, use, and belief with respect to plants and animals. plants posed a problem, for saami volunteered little, even about the most crucial of reindeer forage plants. nor did they consider vegetables particularly edible for humans. berries were another matter, but only children would sample berries beyond the two species having commercial value (anderson 2016). i later concluded that saami evince less respect for anything sedentary, persons as well as plants (anderson 1986). they assumed that the reindeer knew enough about botany to forage successfully, so plant identification was not a human concern. i noticed that like other dogs, runne-beana would browse on handy monocots that i had no reason to believe would belong to a single species. one of the few plant segregates saami could/would name and on which all saami agreed, was beadnag(a)-suoi’dni, “doggrass”; norwegians also agreed about this, calling it hundegress, “dog-grass”! usually this identification was assisted by a convenient canine. determined to apply myself to at least one research question with hope of resolution, i competed with runne-beana to collect some strands of this often mutilated and seldom tasseled grass. back at yale’s peabody museum after five years of collection, comparison revealed that all specimens were of a single species, dactylis glomerata. in this case, runnebeana and i had put in a lot of work for only one result. most of our fieldwork tended in the other directions, with the slightest input generating numerous questions, each leading to a tangle of explanations along with many dead-ends. runne-beana—the-political-economist issues of ownership and control rank paramount in saami society, on par with the emphasis on individuality and independence. obviously, tension can be expected between ownership, which may be elaborated by all manner of marks, myths, and behaviors, and control, which—despite safeguards and escalating countermeasures when ownership has not been respected—remains virtually impossible to ensure. in saami culture, all material items, and even social relations and oral chants (anderson 2015, beach 1981, paine 1994), are individually owned—and earmarked or initialed, on the one hand, or forged, hidden, or destroyed by an interloper, as the case may be. runnebeana belonged to my friend’s young daughter, who also became my friend. when the dog opted to adopt himself out to me, there were issues of ownership, of lack of control, and of pride for each of us to confront, and from many angles. fortunately, on the matter of face, episodes involving runne-beana tended to be tedium-relieving highlights in the community, and members of his natal family could easier maintain their dignity by chuckling along with others than by worrying about personal pride or even legal rights. the acceptance of the dog’s independent decision and the dialectic between ownership and control enlightened me as an ethnographer. some persons speculated as to whether or not i had purchased the dog, then wondering about the price. one channel of currency into the community was from tourism. persons were known to sell almost any item for almost any price, and to manufacture both traditional and nontraditional items strictly for this seasonal market. tourists seeing runne-beana were always attracted by his singular character and sociability; i then feared that he could actually be sold. one reason for this apprehension went beyond my own cultural hang-ups about living with someone else’s dog. retaliation and vengeance are amply anderson. 2016. ethnobiology letters 7(2):32–40 38 research communications special issue on memoirs and memory documented patterns of saami social behavior (beach 1981; paine 1994), as is a diluted version in teasing. both runne-beana and i were teased, for fun as well as viciously. i often had trouble understanding the rationale of the critical camp, comprised of individuals only remotely affiliated with runne-beana’s natal family. finally, i noticed that runne-beana, his original mistress, and myself were all three considered to be cultural deviants: we exhibited our devotion to each other. some observers might regard our aberrant behavior as unique and thereby accept it as appropriate in saami culture where singularity is valued; others with less intimate connection to us, could only be critical, even disgusted, by any overt show of affection, not to mention by my conscientious control of the dog during the seasonal leash period. yet, whatever the situation, the preferred and default strategy in this society is to take risks. survivors, including ethnographers, accumulate a lot of adventure stories this way. given nonhierarchical, lateral principles underlying saami social organization (beach 1981; pehrson 1957), social and antisocial acts often escalate with waves of exacerbating positive feedback. hence, reindeer theft, rustling, and poaching have been known to develop between two persons, relatives or not, or between two sii’da groups, to the extent that one party might even wipe out the holdings of the other (anderson 1978). contemporary versions of such escalating antagonistic behavior include the occasional unplugging of food freezers. but these are culturally marked actions, dampened by more general social disapproval and, potentially, recovered by rapid returns in reindeer management. consequently, the relationship between runnebeana and myself could easily have been a casualty of any number of cultural forces. the most serious to manifest involved some older children of several sedentary families. these children had been raised with the customary freedom and absence of social restraint characterizing their unique “ripening,” but in the case of non-nomads without the usual insurance provided by environmental push-back. until recently, saami children were basically raised first by nature itself, thence by a virtual village (anderson 1978, 2000). moreover, in a rapidly changing milieu, opportunities for mischief, theft, and vandalism steadily increased for sedentary children, who, unlike nomad children, had fewer competing healthy pastimes. nomads and sedentaries are interdependent, particularly between the saami nomads of the interior and the norwegian sedentaries at the coast near the reindeer’s summer pastures. however, between the nomads and saami sedentaries of the interior winter village, the relationship can be more antagonistic, with the sedentary voicing envy at the more free, traditional lifestyle of the nomad who often has more “real” as well as conventional wealth, partially given subsidies afforded reindeer management. because both runnebeana and i associated more with nomads, we were at risk for this type of resentment from sedentaries, the local majority. the sedentary children in question threatened to mistreat runne-beana, and on occasion were able to carry out violence with rocks, air-guns, and speeding vehicles. this was the main reason i could not simply transfer the dog back to his natal family when i left the field at the end of 1976, for runne-beana would predictably look for me at my last cabin, in a hamlet near these locally-labeled delinquents. after one of the more acrimonious altercations, the children made a threat that sent me reeling; i was forced to recall some of the older collections of folklore i had skimmed in foreign libraries many years before. runne-beana was promised the most excruciating death imaginable, that reserved for the despised wolf in former times—to be skinned alive and turned loose. i cannot finish that sentence. on closures: runne-beana in retirement and beyond the dissertation—“closure” short of death of any party during my final year in the field, i made every attempt to remain sedentary to work on the dissertation, a situation that was hard on both the dog and myself. at spring migration time, runne-beana was needed on the range, but i foresaw no way to apply myself to writing without his companionship. runne-beana stayed home with me, missing the opportunity to become a film star in marlin perkins’ “wild kingdom” documentary. as the time drew ever nearer for my first departure from the field, in the fifth year toward the end of 1976, i was at a loss as to resolving the proper placement of runne-beana, my closest friend and major consultant. for various reasons, i felt that continued full-time work with his natal family’s reindeer herd would decrease his lifespan and not necessarily contribute to his happiness. alternatively, anderson. 2016. ethnobiology letters 7(2):32–40 39 research communications special issue on memoirs and memory for the dog to join me in the united states could have the same result; worse yet, once out of norway, he could not return without undergoing a strenuous quarantine period. fortunately, at the time of packing the final crates, none other than runne-beana’s stud connections unexpectedly showed up from helsinki. these two women had a new proposition. they wanted to borrow runne-beana for a few months of stud service in the south. without fully realizing what was happening, i agreed, solving in many ways my immediate problem of his disposition. when runne-beana returned to the north from helsinki some five months later, shampooed and brushed, his natal mistress’s mother entered him in and won a ribbon at the first and perhaps only saami reindeer-herding dog show in the north, in the spring of 1977. photographs attest to his fine condition, but by the next following summer, after a year on the tundra under harsh working conditions, his age was showing. by this time, the dissertation out of the way, i intervened—behaving unilaterally and consequently in the best saami manner. i arranged for runnebeana’s retirement with a coastal farm family where he was guaranteed fish every day and plenty of attention from familiar folk. accusations of kidnapping only added to my reputation. this was, after all, how i had acquired the dog in the first place. the dissertation (anderson 1978)—neither ethnobotanical nor ethnozoological, but, following hal conklin’s not-so-secret passion, ethnoecological—had been dedicated to runne-beana and the various creatures assisting me along the way. each time i returned to the field, regularly each summer and for fourteen months during 1979–1980, i would borrow my retired companion and best collaborator for the duration. we would visit, trek, camp, and share in all the treats and hardships of field research. during an absence, around easter of 1983, runne-beana died in his fourteenth year, an unusually old age for these conditions. he was buried in a special place that i found difficult to visit, even though, annually, i am right there. between runne-beana’s demise in 1983, and the chernobyl disaster of 1986, there were years when it was very stressful to carry on with fieldwork, though i did and still do. muste-beana—runne-beana’s gift to america one of the two finnish friends once involved, decades before, with saami reindeer herding-dog breeding, contacted me early in june of 2004 with news. she was adopting a pregnant bitch, tulikki, who was a descendent of runne-beana, one of her favorite studs back in the day. tulikki’s genealogy showed five links back to my old dog, and the father dog had three. my friend assured me that she would save me the best of the litter. i already knew that come fall, following my usual summer fieldwork in lapland, i would attend an international interdisciplinary conference on culture, nature, semiotics, in tallinn and tartu, estonia—an overnight ferry from helsinki, and thence a short train ride to my finnish friend, and tulikki’s pups. i cleared my calendar for all contingencies, at least the ones i might anticipate. by email attachment, following the birth of nine pups on july 31, 2004, i followed the squirming brood, seemingly mostly black, whereas my old runne -beana had a distinctive auburn coat. then to celebrate their attaining six weeks of age, my friend sent me individual but unlabeled portraits. i had no idea as to which was “best of the litter,” although i had been told that it was a little spangled female. figure 2 muste-beana in finland at 6 weeks, before emigration to u.s.a. at 10 weeks. anderson. 2016. ethnobiology letters 7(2):32–40 40 research communications special issue on memoirs and memory i froze, fixating on a single portrait that resembled a baby bear. however, the image did not look “like a girl,” and was quite black, not spangled (figure 2). this was the state of affairs as i arrived in estonia. on the ferry to finland, i resigned myself to the fact that i had fallen in love with the wrong portrait. since i felt committed to adopt the reserved female, the only solution would be to adopt two dogs. with trepidation, i arrived in finland to meet “the best of the litter, my puppy,” and her siblings, including the tall, black, handsome muste-beana. all black dogs are named “muste,” in saami, by the way, but unlike “runne,” there is an etymological connection with finno-uralic words for “black” and even “ink,” although not in saami itself. little did it occur to me that muste-beana might have already been purchased, as indeed five other pups had been. but there he was, with two brothers and the best-of-litter sister. the four pups were given two elk knuckle bones, and i proudly witnessed muste -beana take ownership of the larger of the huge bones, drag it near a doghouse where there were some ready-dug holes, then position it in one, which was not nearly deep enough. i was thinking, oh, that’s what dogs do, they bury bones; however, he used the shallow hole as a fulcrum to aid his front paws in rotating the bone to best advantage. being a cat person, i was impressed. fast forward to 2016, muste-beana, and his sister, became 12 years old. his sister had been immediately adopted by a long-former student’s daughter when we arrived from finland, but this year she moved to upstate new york. however, muste-beana has a new friend. in spring 2016, coincidently from upstate new york, we adopted a blind colleague’s 13-year-old retired service dog, herself with vision issues. now muste-beana has someone larger than cats to herd. however, each december, he does pose with illuminated strings of harnessed reindeer that show up in neighborhood yards. notes 1this paper, exclusive the current closure, was presented at the symposium i organized for the 60th annual meeting of the central states anthropological society: “human-alloanimal social relations, (i), work and play, doggedly”; lincoln, nebraska, 26–28 april 1984. declarations permissions: none declared. sources of funding: none declared. conflicts of interest: none declared. references cited agar, m. 1996. the professional stranger: an informal introduction to ethnography, 2nd edition. academic press, san diego, ca. anderson, m. 1978. saami ethnoecology: resource management in norwegian lapland. unpublished doctoral dissertation, department of anthropology, yale university, new haven, ct. anderson, m. 1986. from predator to pet: social relationships of the saami reindeer-herding dog. central issues in anthropology 6:3–11. anderson, m. 2000. saami children and traditional knowledge. in ecological knowledge in the north: studies in ethnobiology, edited by i. svanberg and h. tunon, pp. 55–65. swedish biodiversity centre, uppsala, sweden. anderson, m. 2015. musing on nomadism: being and becoming at home on the reindeer range. in stories of home: place, identity, exile, edited by d. chawla and s. holman jones, pp. 17–30. lexington books, new york, ny. anderson, m. 2016. food trends through two generations amongst saami in arctic fennoscandia. in gender and food: from production to consumption and after, advances in gender research 22, edited by v. demos and m. texler segal, pp. 3–23. emerald, new york, ny. beach, h. 1981. reindeer herd management in transition: the case of tuorpon saameby in northern sweden. uppsala university press, uppsala, sweden. ellen, r. f. 1987. ethnographic research: a guide to general conduct, 2nd edition. academic press, new york, ny. paine, r. 1994. herds of the tundra: a portrait of saami reindeer pastoralism. smithsonian institution press, washington, dc. pehrson, r. n. 1957. the bilateral network of social relations in konkama lapp district. international journal of american linguistics (ii) 23.1. wengle, j. l. 1988. ethnographers in the field: the psychology of research. university of alabama press, tuscaloosa, al. trail trees: living artifacts (vivifacts) of eastern north america ethnobiology letters. 2015. 6(1):183-188. doi: 10.14237/ebl.6.1.2015.410. 183 perspective those who might follow behind (barr 2011:33). they also planted tree saplings with split trunks to mark watering holes, orienting the saplings to point in the direction of the water source. they even carved and painted tree trunks with scenes of everyday life. on their journey across north america (18041806), meriweather lewis and william clark noted culturally modified trees as evidence of indigenous presence. when their party approached the rocky mountains in 1805, they “saw several indian camps [and] trees peeled” (devoto 1953:160). as they returned to the united states, they again noted scarred trees in the bitter root mountains that had been “peeled by the nativs for the iner bark of which they scraped and eate [sic]” (devoto 1953:404). the “corps of discovery” in turn modified trees to mark trails, assist with river navigation, and memorialize their trip, including a series of arboglyphs that commemorated their brief occupancy at fort clatsop on the pacific coast (devoto 1953). basque immigrants in california and nevada left similar modifications of trees after their arrival to the area following the 1848 gold rush. many of them found a niche in shepherding and made carvings in aspen trees (populus tremuloides michaux salicaceae) during their leisure time. basque arborglyphs are widely distributed, with over 20,000 examples found to date, including names, icons, and even erotic introduction living trees historically modified by human populations, oftentimes referred to as “culturally modified trees” (cmts), are found throughout the north american landscape. these include trees modified by harvest activities and bark stripping (arno et al. 2008; jett 2005; josefsson et al. 2012; mobley and eldridge 1992) as well as pruning, coppicing, and pollarding (turner et al. 2009). some trees have also acted as trail and boundary markers and even mediums of art. of the various cmts, these latter examples are perhaps the most culturally significant because they exhibit the ways in which people have employed trees as living signs and symbols. many instances of native north americans’ use of trees to convey symbolic meanings appear in the anthropological and historical literature (e.g., parker 1912). creek warriors stripped bark from “conspicuous places” and “painted red and black hieroglyphics” as warnings to their enemies of further bloodshed (swanton 1928a:415). the creek also stripped bark and removed limbs from the eastern side of trees during healing rituals (swanton 1928b:665). among the choctaw, human bodies and trees could be marked with the same symbol as a way to alert strangers to the identity of the family who dwelled in the area (swanton 1928b:686). west of the mississippi river, the comanche placed tally marks on trees as they moved along trails, leaving signals for trail trees: living artifacts (vivifacts) of eastern north america nicholas c. kawa1*, bradley painter1, and cailín e. murray1 author addresses: 1department of anthropology, ball state university, burkhardt building 315, muncie, in 47306, usa. *corresponding author: nckawa@gmail.com received: may 26, 2015 volume: 6(1):183-188 published: september 17, 2015 © 2015 society of ethnobiology abstract: living trees historically modified by human populations, oftentimes referred to as “culturally modified trees” (cmts), are found throughout the north american landscape. in eastern north america specifically, indigenous populations bent thousands of trees to mark trails, and some of these still exist in the region today. in this article, we present a synthesis of current knowledge on trail trees, including their speculated functions, formation, and selection. we also examine the theoretical implications of these living artifacts (or vivifacts) and how they may open new avenues for investigation by archaeologists, environmental historians, and ethnobiologists. to conclude, we make a call for expanded public recognition and documentation of trail trees, discussing the need for their incorporation into forest and park management plans. keywords: culturally modified trees (cmts), trail trees, living artifacts, vivifacts ethnobiology letters. 2015. 6(1):183-188. doi: 10.14237/ebl.6.1.2015.410. 184 perspective images that lonely shepherds etched into the trunks of the region’s aspens (mallea-olaetxe 2001). in the eastern woodlands of north america, many different sources have reported on native americans’ use of trees as trail markers (allison 2005; amerson 1999; downes and samor 2011; elliott 1993; jannesen 1941; jordan 1997; mcclain 2006; ritzenthaler 1965; sander 1965; wells and wells 2011). much of this literature, however, is limited to journalistic pieces and non-academic publications, often produced by a small group of enthusiasts and self-published writers. in this article, we present the first comprehensive overview of trail trees of eastern north america, synthesizing current knowledge of these trees, including their speculated functions, formation, and selection. since these trees are considered “living artifacts” for which no technical designation currently exists, we also introduce the term vivifact. this concept should encourage archaeologists, environmental historians, and ethnobiologists, to open a broader investigation into the ways that living organisms modified by human populations continue to thrive in the environment while also reflecting its past use. to conclude, we urge for greater recognition of trail trees and other vivifacts, which can be documented and shared publicly through open-source databases online and incorporated into cultural heritage management plans. this is especially important as such trees are quickly disappearing from the north american landscape. the forms and functions of trail trees across eastern north america, trees bent in peculiar forms with severely angled trunks and deformed branches appear in many old tracts of forest (figure 1). these trees have taken on various names, including “trail marker trees,” “signal trees,” “thong trees,” “indian bent trees,” and simply “trail trees.” they have garnered special attention for once having served as blazes on paths traveled by native north americans. however, these trees do not conform to just one particular shape, and their morphology is said to vary depending on their past marking purpose (janssen 1941; jordan 1997). most trail trees are bent a few feet from the ground at an acute angle (jannsen 1941). these “standard” trail trees are identified as having once marked indigenous footpaths and travel routes. however, there is also documentation of “rider trees,” which were bent parallel to the trail path at the same acute angle, approximately eight feet off the ground to allow riders on horseback to easily spot them (jordan 1997). other trail trees are considered to be boundary markers. such “boundary trees” are bent with multiple branches forming acute angles, similar to a pitchfork or a candelabra, and define the borderline of a given territory or rangeland (mcclain 2006). many writers claim that native north americans also used living trees to indicate bodies of water, important landmarks, and burial sites. some argue that they even used such deformed trees to conceal objects in their nooks (jordan 1997). the bent leader branch of most trail trees is usually absent, either because it died off or was removed. the knob or end of the tree that is left remaining is commonly referred to as the “nose.” it has been suggested that the noses of such trees were expanded through the insertion of moss or other materials into the hollowed end (jordan 1997). trees with hollowed noses are sometimes referred to figure 1. an oak trail tree found on a private property in monterey, tn. photo by dennis downes (2001), reproduced under a creative commons attribution-share alike 3.0 unported license. ethnobiology letters. 2015. 6(1):183-188. doi: 10.14237/ebl.6.1.2015.410. 185 perspective as “message trees,” although their use for such a purpose appears to be wishful conjecture. as noted here, many of the past uses of trail trees are speculative. there is little direct documentation regarding the use and management of such trees by native north americans. still, it is widely recognized that indigenous peoples did use trees as markers, as has been found in other parts of the world (andersson 2005; carver 2001; drslerova and mikulas 2010; ostlund et al. 2003). and what is unique about these trees is that while they carry signs of the human past, they often outlive the very people who shaped them, remaining enduring features of the landscape. trail tree formation it is likely that native american populations experimented with a number of different materials to shape trail trees into their distinctive forms. branches, sinews, vines, and bundles of rocks tied to the tree have all been suggested as possible materials used in the process. although the precise methods employed were never historically documented, several different techniques have been proposed (amerson 1999; downes and samors 2011; elliott 1993; jordan 1997; mcclain 2006; ritzenthaler 1965). ritzenthaler (1965) reasoned that after a young sapling was bent toward the ground, its trunk was tied to a stake that was attached by sinew or animal skin. others have speculated that a bundle of rocks may have been used to weigh it down. it is also frequently claimed that a “y”-shaped stick (sometimes referred to as a “thong”) was used to support the sapling’s trunk, preventing it from bending too close to the ground while securing it firmly in place until the supporting stick rotted away or was removed (amerson 1999:54; elliott 1993). over time, the leader branch of the tree slowly died off or may have been cut off, where the “nose” then formed. trail tree biology and selection north america possesses a total of 652 known tree species (elias and sargent 1980). the majority of the trail trees that have been discovered and recorded in eastern north america can be reduced to just six of these. don wells, president of the mountain stewards organization in georgia, maintains a database of several hundred recorded trail trees that have been found throughout the eastern united states. his organization has determined that the most commonly used species is the white oak (quercus alba linnaeus fagaceae) followed closely by the red oak (quercus rubra linnaeus fagaceae) (wells and wells 2011:7; see also elliott 1993 and mcclain 2006). oaks are very strong yet pliable when young, allowing for easy manipulation by humans. although they grow slowly, they can live for several hundred years, which makes them ideal long-term markers. they also exhibit strong resistance to disease and insect infestations (petrides and wher 1998:281). it should be noted, however, that oaks represent a very large percentage of the hardwood trees used in the lumber industry, which means many trail trees are potential targets for economic exploitation. in addition to white and red oaks, the mountain stewards have identified trails marked by live oaks (quercus virginiana miller fagaceae), sweetgums (liquidambar styraciflua linnaeus altingiaceae), and tulip poplars (liriodendron tulipifera linnaeus magnoliaceae). in southern reaches of the midwest, the mountain stewards have also encountered a large number of pines that were bent in a similar manner, especially loblolly pine (pinus taeda linnaeus pinaceae). this is in contrast to western north america where native peoples primarily used the ponderosa pine (pinus ponderosa douglas ex c.lawson pinaceae). other hardwood trees were used as trail trees as well. these include hickories, maples, and elms (sander 1965). although hickories are not as resilient to insect infestations and decay as oaks (petrides and wher 1998:239), they are both strong and flexible, and evidence shows that hickory species were heavily utilized by native americans in the past (weeks et al. 2005:246). maples and elms (with a combined total of 20 species in north america) also have strong, pliant wood, although somewhat less than oaks or hickories, and frank reed grover noted in 1901 that the trail trees found along chicago’s north shore were mostly “large elms” (p.21). vivifact: a conceptual contribution an artifact is generally defined as “an object made or modified by human workmanship, as opposed to one formed by natural processes” (oed 2015). this includes, for example, stone tools, woven baskets, bronze sculptures, and cellular phones. living organisms, like trees, are generally excluded from this category. archaeologists also employ the term “ecofact” to refer to biological materials (e.g., pollen) that are found in the archaeological record, but are considered “natural remains” (oed 2015). lewis binford (1964) described ecofact as “the term applied to all culturally relevant nonartifactual data” which ethnobiology letters. 2015. 6(1):183-188. doi: 10.14237/ebl.6.1.2015.410. 186 perspective “can be broken down into subclasses representing different populations such as pollen, soil, and animal bone” (p.432; see also neustupný 1993). although binford’s definition is relatively open-ended, the subclasses he outlines consist of the remains of biological organisms found in the archaeological record. trail trees, which are essentially “living artifacts,” thus present a curious case that fits outside of traditional archaeological classification. they are living biological organisms that have been manipulated or modified by humans in the past, but continue to live on and persist in the environment. for this reason, we introduce the concept of the vivifact to occupy this categorical lacuna. in adopting this concept, we aim to encourage archaeologists along with environmental historians and ethnobiologists to investigate the ways by which human populations, and especially indigenous populations, have physically modified living organisms in the environment that continue to live on today. culturally modified trees are perhaps the bestknown examples of vivifacts. these include trail trees as discussed here, but also the scarred rubber trees (hevea brasiliensis müller argoviensis euphorbiaceae) of amazonia that were tapped to produce latex for the burgeoning tire industry in the early 20th century and, then later, for the allied powers during world war ii (dean 1987). others examples include cacti that exhibit carvings left by migrants during border crossings in the southwestern u.s. (sundberg and kaserman 2007) and the japanese bonsai, which illustrates that the production of vivifacts can be a distinctive art form itself (e.g. liang 2005). many other organisms modified by humans may be worthy of future investigation, from wild macaws with clipped wings to tortoises with perforated carapaces. landscapes that reflect past human modification and management, including clam gardens, may even be considered vivifeatures (see, for example, deur et al. 2015). rather than outline numerous lines of future investigation, our intention here is to simply draw attention to some of these living artifacts with the hope that they may open new paths of inquiry into human-environmental relations. conclusions since many of the trees historically modified by indigenous populations of north america are disappearing from the landscape, greater public recognition and documentation of these trees is needed. currently, the organization mountain stewards maintains a geo-database of trail trees identified in eastern north america, but these data are not available to the public. while the members of the organization are concerned that a public database could lead to undesirable attention or even destruction of these historic landmarks, we strongly believe that an open-source geo-database or geographic information system (gis) could help these trees gain greater public appreciation and support. it is important to highlight that the past uses of these trees is still largely speculative, and many of the trail trees identified today require more vigorous investigation to determine whether they are in fact the product of past human management or manipulation. clearly, every tree with a bent limb is not a trail tree. how to distinguish indigenous trail trees from aged trees with distinctive bends due to other forces will be important for cultural heritage management. the measurement and dating of trees in addition to consultation of the ethnohistorical record can aid in verification. the mapping of recognized trail trees in relation to identifiable historic trails and travel routes may also be necessary. lastly, dendrochronological analysis and research involving the coring of some recognized trail trees will help to identify distinctive characteristics related to stress and past use. to avoid the unnecessary destruction of living trees, this may be appropriate in the case of dying trail trees. in parts of canada, culturally modified trees are protected by law. under british columbia’s heritage conservation act, for example, culturally modified trees dating before 1846 have legal protections that prevent them from being logged (stryd 2001). however, such protections have been disputed and even overturned in the court of law (mcneil 2010). in the united states, the department of natural resources (dnr) can prohibit logging of areas that contain cultural resources, such as archaeological sites, but there is no specific state or federal legislation that protects culturally modified trees. while some parks and recreation areas feature signage that draws attention to culturally modified trees, their inclusion within forest and park management plans is sorely needed. lastly, trail trees, and other vivifacts mentioned above, would benefit from greater investigation by anthropologists, environmental historians, and ethnobiologists. since vivifacts are by definition “living artifacts,” we know that one day they will die. ethnobiology letters. 2015. 6(1):183-188. doi: 10.14237/ebl.6.1.2015.410. 187 perspective and for that reason, they require our attention now while they are still alive. references allison, r. b. 2005. every root an anchor: wisconsin’s famous and historic trees, 2nd edition. wisconsin historical society press, madison, wi. andersson, r. 2005. historical land-use information from culturally modified trees. unpublished doctoral dissertation, department of forest vegetation ecology, swedish university of agricultural sciences, 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cultural way of life that may soon be gone. mountain stewards publishing, jasper, ga. biosketches nicholas c. kawa is an assistant professor in the department of anthropology at ball state university. his research centers on human relationships to plants and soils in both brazilian amazonia and the american midwest. bradley painter completed his m.s. in anthropology with an archaeological focus at ball state university in 2015. his primary research interest is the use of geographic information systems (gis) for archaeological prospection. cailín e. murray is an associate professor in the department of anthropology at ball state university. she specializes in environmental ethnohistory, native american studies, landscape studies, and the impact of settler colonialism on indigenous belief systems about place. she has also done work on the historic impact of hydroelectric development on marine resources in the pacific northwest. food yields and nutrient analyses of the three sisters: a haudenosaunee cropping system ¬ mt.pleasant 2016. ethnobiology letters 7(1):87–98 87 research communications following questions: how much edible food, in terms of energy and protein, would haudenosaunee farmers have harvested from their fields, and to what extent would these plants have satisfied the nutritional requirements of their communities? would planting these three crops as monocultures, rather than a polyculture, affect their ability to satisfy food needs? the three sisters: a brief history carl sauer (1952:64) described the three sisters as “a symbiotic plant complex of north and central america without an equal elsewhere.” the three crops, whether grown individually or as a polyculture have a very long history across the americas (hurt 1987; landon 2008; sauer 1971). my focus here, however, is their cultivation in northeast north america. when europeans began to colonize north america, records from the sixteenth century describe an immensely productive agriculture based on maize, bean, and squash established from florida to ontario (sauer 1971). haudenosaunee agriculture was one of the first indigenous cropping systems reported by europeans. cartier (1993) in his voyages up the st. lawrence in 1534–1535 detailed the cultivation of the introduction intercropped maize (zea mays), bean (phaseolus sp.), and squash (cucurbita pepo), commonly called the three sisters, is a traditional agricultural system of the haudenosaunee (iroquois). fenton and trigger (1978:299) called it the “foundation of (iroquois) subsistence,” which enabled iroquois communities “to develop the institutions of sedentary life.” contemporary haudenosaunee scholars however view the cropping system as having significance far greater than subsistence. cornelius (1999:91) identifies “corn as a cultural center of haudenosaunee way of life.” she describes the ways in which corn, bean, and squash appear in ceremonies and oral texts, integrating natural cycles with haudenosaunee cultural traditions. researchers from multiple fields have examined its origins, history, socio-cultural aspects, agronomic characteristics, and agricultural productivity (hart 2003, 2008; lewandowski 1987; mt.pleasant 2006, 2011; mt.pleasant and burt 2010; parker 1910; sauer 1952). none, however, have examined the three sisters for its food yield, which i define as quantities of energy and protein produced per unit area of land. in this article i address the food yields and nutrient analyses of the three sisters: a haudenosaunee cropping system jane mt.pleasant1* 1horticulture section, school of integrative plant sciences, cornell university, ithaca, ny, usa. *jm21@cornell.edu abstract scholars have studied the three sisters, a traditional cropping system of the haudenosaunee (iroquois), from multiple perspectives. however, there is no research examining food yields, defined as the quantities of energy and protein produced per unit land area, from the cropping system within iroquoia. this article compares food yields and other nutrient contributions from the three sisters, comprised of interplanted maize, bean and pumpkin, with monocultures of these same crops. the three sisters yields more energy (12.25 x 106 kcal/ha) and more protein (349 kg/ha) than any of the crop monocultures or mixtures of monocultures planted to the same area. the three sisters supplies 13.42 people/ha/yr. with energy and 15.86 people/ha/yr. with protein. nutrient contents of the crops are further enhanced by nixtamalization, a traditional processing technique where maize is cooked in a high alkaline solution. this process increases calcium, protein quality, and niacin in maize. received june 13, 2016 open access accepted august 10, 2016 doi 10.14237/ebl.7.1.2016.721 keywords haudenosaunee, iroquois, three sisters, nutrition, nixtamalization copyright © 2016 by the author(s); licensee society of ethnobiology. this is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution-noncommercial 4.0 international public license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0), which permits non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. mt.pleasant 2016. ethnobiology letters 7(1):87–98 88 research communications three sisters in fields near present-day montreal. scholars believed until recently that the three crops, maize, bean, and pumpkin, arrived in the northeast as an intact cropping system sometime around 1000−1200 bp (ritchie 1973, 1980). more recent work by paleobotanist john hart (2003, 2007, 2008) has identified a very different history. according to hart (2008), edible squash appeared first in the northeast at the end of the third millennium bp, while maize was present in new york by 2270 +/35 bp. bean, however, did not arrive until late in the prehistoric period. hart (2008) concludes that the three crops were not grown as polyculture by the iroquois until after 700 bp. arthur parker (1910) provided the first academic description of the cropping system in his work entitled iroquois uses of maize and other food plants. relying primarily on information from haudenosaunee living in seneca and onondaga communities, parker described many of the social and cultural aspects of the crops and the agricultural practices used to grow them as a polyculture. parker (1910:91– 92) reported that the iroquois preferred to plant the three crops as a polyculture because it required less time and labor than planting the crops individually and because they believed the plants were “guarded by three inseparable spirits and would not thrive apart.” parker (1910) and waugh (1916) described more than a dozen varieties of maize and similar numbers of bean varieties (phaseolus vulgaris), as well many types of curcurbita pepo, including pumpkin, winter squash, melon, and cucumber grown in haudenosaunee communities. stephen lewandowski (1987) provided a thorough agronomic explanation of the cropping system, as well as a detailed description of its cultural and social context within seneca communities. my own work has focused on the agricultural productivity of the three sisters and the ways in which the system addresses issues of sustainability (mt.pleasant 2006, 2011; mt.pleasant and burt 2010). as a cropping system, the three sisters has two major components: 1) intercropped maize, bean, and squash; and 2) the use of mounds where the crops are planted. both components have significant effects in terms of productivity and sustainability (mt.pleasant 2006). each crop serves an important function; their integration into a single cropping system takes advantage of their differing and complementary growth habits, plant architectures, agronomic characteristics, and food values. these crops were planted in fields that were not plowed. the lack of tillage enhanced the sustainability of the cropping system as it dramatically decreased oxidation of soil organic matter and soil erosion, which preserved soil fertility (mt.pleasant 2011, 2015). research by mt.pleasant and burt (2010) found that maize yields were not affected by the presence of bean and pumpkin, yielding as well in the polyculture as in monoculture. however, bean and squash yields were greatly reduced when grown with maize compared to their yields in monocultures. they surmised that iroquois farmers would have grown their crops as a polyculture if they were primarily focused on maize production, but shifting priorities might lead them to grow any of these crops as monocultures. the iroquois also frequently traded their crops, so the need for each crop could vary substantially from year to year, depending not only on community’s domestic needs but also its external trade. this suggests that the iroquois may have typically inter-planted the three crops, but they could also have planted monocultures of the individual crops to meet specific needs. nutritional characteristics of maize, bean, and squash six major classes of nutrients are used to determine the overall nutritive value of foods: carbohydrates, fats, protein, vitamins, minerals, and water (otten et al. 2006). the main sources of energy, measured as kilocalories, are carbohydrate, fat, and protein. vitamins and minerals assist in the body’s metabolism of carbohydrate, fat and protein. in assessing the table 1 energy, protein, and water contents of maize, bean, and pumpkin. note: data from the usda national nutrient database (usda nnd 2016). crop energy (kcal/kg) protein (g/kg) water (g/kg) maize 3650 94 100 bean 3370 225 120 pumpkin flesh 260 10 26 pumpkin seed 5590 302 5 mt.pleasant 2016. ethnobiology letters 7(1):87–98 89 research communications three sisters for their nutritional contributions, i focus on energy and protein. food must supply sufficient energy for daily activities; once the energy requirement is satisfied, protein is used to provide amino acids, which are essential for cell and organ functions that affect many physiological processes in the body (otten et al. 2006). calcium, carotene, as the precursor to vitamin a, and niacin play important roles in the three sisters, and i include them in my assessment. most subsistence farmers rely on a cereal grain (wheat, rice, or maize), combined with a legume (bean, lentil, or pea), to provide the majority of their dietary needs. cereal grains such as maize are valuable because they produce large amounts of energy and modest amounts of protein (table 1). maize grain is easily transported and stored for long periods of time. bean typically yields much less than maize, but contains more than twice the protein (table 1). the amounts and proportions of essential amino acids determine protein quality. cereal grains and legumes are often referred to as incomplete proteins because neither has all nine amino acids essential for human diets (ronzio 2003). maize lacks lysine and tryptophan, but has sufficient methionine. in contrast, bean has little methionine, but contains higher levels of lysine (table 2). by mixing maize and bean, protein quality can be increased. according to the food and agriculture organization (fao) (1992) a ratio of 70% maize to 30% bean provides the appropriate mix of amino acids for a complete protein. although the haudenosaunee grew many types of cucurbits, winter squash (or pumpkin) is the most nutrient dense and is the focus in this discussion. i use ‘squash’ and ‘pumpkin’ interchangeably to refer to types whose fruits are relatively large, with firm orange or yellow flesh and thick rinds. pumpkin makes a substantial nutritional contribution. its flesh contains some calories and large amounts of vitamin a, while its seeds are very rich in both energy and protein. surprisingly, pumpkin flesh also contains protein, although much less than either maize or bean (table 1). similar to maize and bean, pumpkin protein is incomplete, but its amino acids can complement those in maize and bean to form a high-quality protein. the food values of maize and bean depend on when they are harvested. both crops can be eaten in the immature state, as sweet corn and green beans. harvesting these crops when they are immature, however, sacrifices significant food value (table 3). green beans contain very little energy or protein, but when harvested as mature dry beans, they become protein and energy powerhouses, with more than 100 times the energy and eight times the protein. when people eat green beans, they consume the pod, composed primarily of water and cellulose; the enclosed seeds are so small that they provide little nutrition. however, when the beans are fully mature and eaten as dried beans, the dried pod is discarded and only the mature seed is consumed with its rich store of energy and protein. regardless of when maize is harvested, people consume the seed (more accurately the kernel). if table 2 energy, protein, and water contents of maize, bean, and pumpkin. 1maize values from bressani 1958. 2bean values from wagh 1963. 3pumpkin flesh values calculated from data provided in usda national nutrient database (usda nnd 2016). 4pumpkin seed values from mansour 1993. amino acid maize1 bean2 pumpkin flesh3 pumpkin seed4 histidine 0.17 0.17 0.001 0.23 isoleucine 0.26 0.38 0.002 0.17 leucine 0.76 0.78 0.003 0.38 lysine 0.19 0.41 0.003 0.32 methionine 0.12 0.07 0.001 0.08 phenylalanine 0.23 0.36 0.002 0.25 threonine 0.19 0.27 0.002 0.17 tryptophan 0.03 0.08 0.001 0.10 valine 0.28 0.28 0.002 0.21 mt.pleasant 2016. ethnobiology letters 7(1):87–98 90 research communications harvested immature, the kernel consists mostly of water because translocation of carbohydrates and protein to the kernel is incomplete. its nutritional value is modest compared to mature maize kernels, which contain more than 40 times the energy and three times the protein as sweet corn. when maize and bean are picked green, most of the harvest is water; when fully mature, their water content plummets and food content increases dramatically (table 3). whole squash can be stored for many months in cold weather; it can also be sliced and dried for even longer storage. there is almost no mention in the historical record of the haudenosaunee eating the seeds of squash. neither parker (1910) nor waugh (1916) includes squash seeds in their monographs on iroquois foods. but it’s hard to imagine that the haudenosaunee would have ignored or discarded such a rich food source. the haudenosaunee did consume sunflower seeds, and given the similarities in size and texture, perhaps some references to sunflower seeds were in fact pumpkin seeds (parker 1911; waugh 1916). for this reason, i include the nutritional contributions from pumpkin seed here. methods the term food yield in this article refers to the amounts of energy or protein produced by crops grown on a specific area of land. it is calculated by multiplying the crop yield (kg/ha) at given moisture content by the amounts of energy and protein contained per kg crop at the same moisture content. in the us, maize and dried bean yields are typically reported at 15% and 12% moisture respectively. pumpkin yields however, are usually reported as fresh weights at harvest, which typically range from 90 to 95% moisture. the first step to determine food yield is to obtain the crop yield, given in kg/hectare, noting the water content at which the yield is reported. i obtained crop yields from previously published research (mt.pleasant and burt 2010), which provides estimates of maize, bean, and pumpkin yields obtained by haudenosaunee farmers in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. the article gives yield information for the crops planted as a polyculture and as monocultures from field research at two sites in new york over a three-year period. parts of the harvested crop yield cannot be eaten and must be subtracted before food yield is measured. maize kernels and bean seeds are almost completely edible; neither has husks or shells that are discarded before the crops are eaten. however, a significant portion of harvested pumpkin is rind and stem, which are not edible. pumpkin also consists of two foods, flesh and seeds, with very different nutrient profiles. consequently, these components must be evaluated separately. in the field experiments reported above, only weights of whole pumpkin were reported. to determine the amounts of pumpkin seeds contained within the whole pumpkin i used figures derived from the literature. in an experiment that examined weight of whole pumpkins and seed weight for nine pumpkin varieties (cucurbita pepo), researchers found that one kg pumpkin (fresh field weight) yielded 13 grams dry seed (walters 2006). using this ratio, i calculated amounts of dry pumpkin seed from the pumpkin yields in the data set. the usda national nutrient database estimates edible pumpkin flesh as 70% of the whole fresh pumpkin with the remainder being seeds, rind, and stem. i reduced the field weight of whole pumpkins by this amount to determine pumpkin flesh. table 4 provides crop yields in the three sisters and monoculture cropping systems, adjusted as described above. energy and protein contents of each food were obtained from the usda national nutrient database and are found in table 1. when pumpkin flesh is part of a diet that includes maize, bean, and pumpkin seeds, the small amounts of amino acids in its flesh can complement those in other foods to provide higher quality protein. thus, i include the crop food water (g/100g) energy (kcal/kg) protein (g/100g) maize sweet corn 76 86 3 corn grain 10 3650 9 bean green bean 90 31 2 kidney bean 12 3370 30 table 3 water, energy, and protein contained in maize and bean in immature and mature states. values are for uncooked foods. note: data from the usda national nutrient database (usda nnd 2016). mt.pleasant 2016. ethnobiology letters 7(1):87–98 91 research communications protein in pumpkin flesh in determining the amount of protein available in the three sisters and monocultures of the three crops. food yields in the three sisters polyculture and in crop monocultures were then calculated by multiplying each crop yield by its energy and protein content. this provides comparisons of food yields between monocultures of each crop and the three sisters. however, comparing food yields of the three sisters with those from each crop’s monoculture is not useful. haudenosaunee farmers would not have chosen between planting the three sisters and, for example, planting the entire field to bean monoculture. if they did not plant the three crops as a polyculture, they would likely have planted all three crops as monocultures in smaller areas of the same field, or in smaller separate fields. to capture more relevant comparisons, i calculated the food yields of what i call monoculture mixtures to distinguish them from a single crop monoculture planted on the entire field. for example, i compare food yields from one hectare of the three sisters to a monoculture mixture comprised of monoculture maize, monoculture bean, and monoculture pumpkin, each occupying 1/3 hectare. varying the portions of each crop within the monoculture mixture provides more information about how energy and protein yields vary in these systems, compared to the three sisters. i calculated table 4 maize, bean, pumpkin flesh, and pumpkin seed yields (kg/ha) from three sisters and monoculture cropping systems, adapted from mt.pleasant and burt 2010. pumpkin flesh and pumpkin seed yields modified as described in the text. 1maize and bean yields contain 10% moisture. 2pumpkin flesh contains 90% moisture. 3pumpkin seeds contain 5% moisture. cropping system maize1 bean1 pumpkin flesh2 pumpkin seed3 three sisters 2933 74 3513 68 monoculture 3258 786 13612 266 figure 1 energy yields (kcal/ha) of three sisters and monocultures of maize, bean, and pumpkin. mt.pleasant 2016. ethnobiology letters 7(1):87–98 92 research communications food yields for four monocultures mixtures with varying percentages of maize, bean, and pumpkin monocultures: 1) 33% maize, 33% bean, 33% pumpkin (33/33/33); 2) 50% maize, 25% bean, 25% pumpkin (50/25/25); 3) 80% maize, 10% bean, 10% pumpkin (80/10/10); and 4) 100% maize (100/0/0). to determine how many people could be supported by the food yields from each cropping system, i assumed an active adult needs 2500 kcalories/day and 60 grams protein/day (otten et al 2006). on a yearly basis, each adult would require 912,500 kcal and 22 kg of protein. results energy and protein figures 1 and 2 show energy and protein yields for the three sisters and for monocultures of maize, bean and pumpkin. the three sisters produced two to four times more energy than monocultures of bean and pumpkin, but only slightly more energy than maize monoculture (figure 1). the three sisters also produced more protein than the monocultures, with maize monoculture in second place (figure 2.) bean monoculture contained only 175kg/ha protein, but it also yielded much less: 800 kg/ha bean compared to more than 3000 kg/ha maize (table 3). figures 3 and 4 show energy and protein yields in the three sisters compared to four monoculture mixtures. the three sisters produced more energy (12.25 x 106 kcal/ha) and more protein (349 kg/ha) than any of the monoculture mixtures. across the monoculture mixtures, energy and protein increased as the percentage of maize increased. people supported the three sisters provides energy for 13.42 people/ ha and protein for 15.86 people/ha, more than any of the monocultures or monoculture mixtures (figure 5). maize monoculture is similar, with energy for 13.03 people/ha and protein for 14.05/ha. in contrast, the other monoculture mixtures support many fewer people, ranging from 7.15 to 11.25 people/ha for energy and 10.64 to 13.05 people/ha for protein (figure 5). discussion the energy production from maize reflects the nutrient density of its grain, which is further magnified by its large crop yield compared to bean and pumpkin. figure 2 protein yields (kg/ha) of three sisters and monocultures of maize, bean, and pumpkin. mt.pleasant 2016. ethnobiology letters 7(1):87–98 93 research communications figure 4 protein yields (kg/ha) by monoculture mixtures compared to three sisters. first number in monoculture mixture is percent area planted with maize; second number is percent planted with bean, and third number is percent planted with pumpkin. figure 3 energy yields (kcal x 106/ha) from monoculture mixtures compared to three sisters. first number in monoculture mixture is percent area planted with maize; second number is percent planted with bean, and third number is percent planted with pumpkin. mt.pleasant 2016. ethnobiology letters 7(1):87–98 94 research communications even though maize yields were slightly higher when grown in monoculture compared to the three sisters, additional energy from bean and pumpkin in three sisters compensated for the slightly lower maize energy in this cropping system. although the protein content of maize is modest, the large quantity of maize crop yield results in substantial food yield of protein. in the monoculture mixtures, energy and protein increased as the percentage of the field planted to maize increased. this demonstrates why many subsistence farmers plant maize as the foundation of their agricultural systems. maize, whether grown as a polyculture or monoculture, yields enormous amounts of energy and significant amounts of protein. in the three sisters, the protein from maize is further enhanced by protein contributions from bean and pumpkin. with the three sisters, farmers harvest about the same amount of energy as from maize monoculture, but they get significantly more protein yield from the inter-planted bean and pumpkin. this single result largely explains the value of the three sisters over monoculture mixtures; the system yields large amounts of energy and at the same time increases protein yields. although bean yields less compared to maize, it contains more than twice the amount of protein in every unit (table 1). this implies that subsistence farmers will grow bean, in spite of the lower yield, because of its high protein content. surprisingly, pumpkin monoculture supplies more protein than bean monoculture, largely because of the contribution of pumpkin seeds. pumpkin seeds contain significant amounts of essential amino acids while its flesh has very small amounts (table 2). a diet based on maize, bean, and pumpkin can meet peoples’ basic energy and protein requirements. however, i was also interested in assessing the extent to which these foods could supply some of the vitamins and minerals necessary for human health. pumpkin flesh is one of the richest sources of vitamin a; people regularly consuming even modest amounts of it would likely never be deficient in this important vitamin (table 5). bean and pumpkin seed contain more calcium than maize or pumpkin flesh, but figure 5 number of adults supplied annually with energy and protein from monoculture mixtures compared to the three sisters. first number in monoculture mixture is percent area planted with maize; second number is percent planted with bean; and third number is percent planted with pumpkin. mt.pleasant 2016. ethnobiology letters 7(1):87–98 95 research communications amounts of this mineral still appear to be insufficient. however, the calcium story is complex because it involves more than the nutritional content of the foods themselves. maize contains very small amounts of calcium and niacin (table 5), but processing and cooking greatly impacts these two nutrients. raw maize kernels are largely inedible for people. they must first be cooked before they can be consumed. many indigenous peoples in the western hemisphere, particularly in north america, prepared maize using a process called nixtamalization in which the kernels were soaked and/or cooked in an alkaline solution (blake 2015; coe 1994; katz 1975). in central america maize was first boiled with lime or lye, and then ground and formed into flat breads or tortillas, which were then cooked on a hot stone (briggs 2015). in eastern north america, and particularly within iroquoia, maize was frequently cooked with ashes from hardwood trees (briggs 2015; katz 1974; parker 1910). hardwood ashes contain large quantities of calcium and potassium, producing an alkaline solution similar to that from lime and lye. maize kernels with their very hard seed coats require hours of cooking before they are soft enough to chew easily. nixtamalization involves both heat and alkaline conditions that alter the kernels’ physical and chemical characteristics (trejo-gonzález 1982). first, the high ph solution hydrolyses cell walls of the pericarp, enabling its removal, which greatly reduces the cooking time needed to soften the kernel (gomez 1989). consequently, maize boiled in water with wood ash cooks much more quickly than maize cooked in water alone. the alkaline solution also causes chemical changes. calcium is a basic cation with a positive charge. after the maize pericarp is removed, the calcium cations are attracted to and held by the starch grains. thus, the calcium content of nixtamalized maize has 2 to 4 times more calcium than uncooked maize (trejo-gonzález 1982). the calcium available in nixtamalized maize, combined with that from bean and squash, would likely provide the minimum daily requirement for this mineral. both heat and the alkaline solution also affect proteins and amino acids within maize. the principal protein in maize is prolamin zein, which makes up more than 50% of its total protein. zein proteins are deficient in lysine and tryptophan, making them less valuable nutritionally (katz 1974). heat and the nixtamalizing solution decrease the solubility of zein proteins; at the same time nixtamalization increases relative amounts of lysine, tryptophan, histidine, methionine, and threonine. thus, compared to uncooked maize, nixtamalized maize has lower total protein, but it contains more essential amino acids, especially lysine, which greatly improves the quality of its protein and its nutritional value (bressani 1958; katz 1974; trejo-gonzález 1982). maize is also deficient in niacin, a b vitamin. tryptophan is a precursor to niacin; thus the shortage of niacin in maize is also linked to its lack of tryptophan (fao 1992; katz 1974). niacin deficiency causes pellagra, a disease associated with people whose diet consists primarily of maize, with no other protein-rich foods (blake 2015; briggs 2015; fao 1992; fussell 1999; katz 1974; roe 1973). nixtamalization increases available niacin in maize and also increases tryptophan, which allows more niacin to be formed. pellagra was widespread in many areas of europe in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, in the southeastern us in the early twentieth century, and still occurs today in poor populations of africa, asia, and latin america (fao 1992; rajakumar 2000; roe 1973). however, there is no evidence that it occurred among indigenous populations in the western hemisphere before colonization (fussell 1999; roe 1973). pellagra was absent in these populations because they consumed maize primarily in nixtamalized form. they also supplemented maize with bean, which contain tryptophan, as do pumpkin seeds. table 5 calcium, vitamin a, vitamin c, and niacin in maize, bean, pumpkin flesh, and pumpkin seed. crop calcium (mg/100g) vitamin a (iu/100g) vitamin c (mg/100g) niacin (mg/100g) maize 7 0 0.0 3.63 bean 83 0 4.5 2.11 pumpkin flesh 21 8513 9.0 0.60 pumpkin seed 46 15 1.9 4.99 rda1 1000 5000 60.0 15.00 1recommended daily allowance. data from usda dietary reference intakes (usda dri 2016). mt.pleasant 2016. ethnobiology letters 7(1):87–98 96 research communications even without nixtamalization, people who eat bean (and pumpkin seeds) with their maize consume highquality protein and sufficient niacin to prevent pellagra. conclusions intercropping maize, bean, and pumpkin provided a highly productive cropping system that largely satisfied the dietary needs of haudenosaunee communities. the anchor of the system, maize, is unique among cereal grains with its tall, robust plant architecture that produces large quantities of nutrient-dense grain. whether planted alone or with other crops, maize yields enormous amounts of energy and modest levels of protein. nixtamalization, cooking maize in an alkaline solution, further enhances maize’s nutrient profile by increasing calcium and niacin and improving the quality of its protein. haudenosaunee farmers took advantage of these characteristics by adding bean and pumpkin to their maize fields. bean and pumpkin seeds increased protein yield while pumpkin flesh provided large amounts of vitamin a. this polyculture cropping system yielded more food and supported more people per hectare compared to monocultures of the individual crops or monoculture mixtures. acknowledgements i thank susan travis phd rd for explaining many of the basic and finer points of human nutrition. her careful review of the article in draft form was enormously helpful; any errors that remain are mine alone. deborah ross, research support specialist in the department of animal science at cornell university, calculated amounts of essential amino acids in pumpkin flesh in table 2. declarations permissions: none declared. sources of funding: none declared. conflicts of interest: none declared. references cited blake, m. 2015. maize for the gods. university of california press, oakland, ca. bressani, r., and n. s. scrimshaw 1958. lime-heat effects on corn nutrients, effect of lime treatment on in-vitro availability of essential amino acids and solubility of protein fractions in corn. journal of agricultural and food chemistry 6:774–778. doi:10.1021/jf60092a009. briggs, r. v. 2015. the hominy foodway of the 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north american archaeological and paleontological assemblages. in the 1800s, the passenger pigeon was the most abundant bird species on earth, with a range across a large part of north america (figures 1a and 1b), but, largely from human overhunting, it became extinct by the early 20th century (greenberg 2014:1).2 september 1, 2014 marked the centenary of extinction for the passenger pigeon with the death of martha, the last living specimen who died in captivity at the cincinnati zoo (figure 1a). humans utilized the passenger pigeon as a food source that extended deep into antiquity up to the late 19th century (greenberg 2014), and archaeologists have regularly identified it in faunal assemblages (e.g., jackson 2005, neumann 1985, scott 2008). in contrast, remains of the harelip sucker (figure 2a) are seldom identified from archaeological faunas. introduction zooarchaeology increasingly employs advances in computer digital technology that expand its application not only in archaeology but also in wildlife management, conservation biology, and law enforcement (sims et al. 2011). this expansion reflects the wide diversity of zooarchaeological techniques as well as their relevant applicability beyond archaeology (see lyman 1996, 2012; wolverton and lyman 2012). through applied zooarchaeology, researchers are able to investigate the anthropogenic and natural processes that contributed to past environmental conditions in order to offer insight into appropriate long-term conservation and management challenges present in many regions of the world today. a key goal in applied zooarchaeology is to conduct research that increases understanding of the factors leading to animal extinctions and shifts in species distribution and abundance over time (lyman 1996:119). this paper contributes to this goal by creating three-dimensional (3d) replications, or “artifictions”1 using digital 3d scanning to create “artifictions” of the passenger pigeon and harelip sucker, two extinct species in eastern north america: the future examines the past bruce l. manzano1*, bernard k. means2, christopher t. begley3, and mariana zechini4 author addresses: 1university of kentucky, program for archaeological research, 1020a export street, lexington, kentucky 40506-9854, usa, 2virginia commonwealth university, department of anthropology, lafayette hall room 310, 312 north shafer street, richmond, virginia 23284-2021, usa. 3transylvania university, department of anthropology, hazelrigg hall room 105, 300 north broadway, lexington, kentucky 40508-1797, usa. 4 university of west florida, division of anthropology and archaeology, building 13, 11000 university parkway, pensacola, florida 32514, usa. *corresponding author: blmanz2@uky.edu received: march 16, 2015 volume: 6(2):232-241 published: december 18, 2015 © 2015 society of ethnobiology abstract: the virtual curation laboratory at virginia commonwealth university created 3d representations of digital morphological models, termed “artifictions,” of several bone elements from two extinct animals, the passenger pigeon (ectopistes migratorius linnaeus columbidae) and the harelip sucker (moxostoma lacerum jordan and brayton catostomidae). procuring recent comparative reference skeletons these species is extremely difficult. the creation of artifictions, 3d printed replicas of skeletal remains, aims to help researchers become familiar with the bones of harelip sucker and passenger pigeon to facilitate morphological identification of remains of these species within archaeological assemblages. here, we discuss the two species, the techniques used to create digital topological models of individual skeletal elements, and the obstacles encountered regarding 3d printed artifictions in zooarchaeology. keywords: skeletal elements, 3d printing, extinct species, passenger pigeon, harelip sucker ethnobiology letters. 2015. 6(2):232‐241. doi: 10.14237/ebl.6.2.2015.368. 233 data, methods & taxonomies special issue on digital zooarchaeology this species was once widespread throughout the east central region of the united states (jenkins 1980:407), which may suggest it has been under-identified in archaeological assemblages (figure 2c). indeed, based on their identification of 113 harelip sucker remains at eastman rockshelter (tennessee), manzano and dickinson (1991) urged researchers to become aware of the potential occurrence of this fish in faunas, but a lack of comparative specimens inhibited this effort. remains of extinct animal species are particularly difficult for zooarchaeologists to identify because researchers can only access comparative specimens obtained prior to extinction, partial specimens from archaeological and paleontological assemblages, or photographs and illustrations of key elements. to address this problem, this paper describes the development of a 3d scanning and printing process (see mccuistion 2013; means 2014, 2015a, b; means et al. 2013a, b; zechini 2014a, b, c, d) to produce replicas that can aid in identifying the skeletal elements of these two extinct species (see also mccuistion 2013; means 2014, 2015a, b; means et al. 2013a, b; zechini 2014a, b, c, d). this effort complements the increasing digital technological developments in archaeology discussed at the 11th international council for archaeozology (icaz): see papers in mckechnie and kansa (2011), the proceedings of the 2013 digital heritage international congress (e.g., heerlien et al. 2013, richter et al. 2013), as well as ahmed et al. (2014) and chapman et al. (2013). the virtual zooarchaeology of the arctic project (betts et al. 2011) utilized 3d scans to improve specimen identifications in the lab and/or field (betts et al. 2011), and has also established 3d scanning protocols that enable point-to-point morphometric measurements and size-based species identifications that are useful in studies of environmental change (klippel and parmalee 1982). use of comparative skeletal specimens from reference collections is an integral component of zooarchaeological standards for quality control (driver 1992, 2011). the artifiction replications described here improve on existing 3d models by offering a visual and physical representation of the size and shape of individual bones from these extinct species, which will increase their identification potential. the virtual curation laboratory at virginia commonwealth university has explored the issue of identification using 3d digital models versus printed replicas in informal discussions with established scholars and observed that virtual 3d models are challenging for some researchers to use, particularly among zooarchaeologists who utilize conventional comparative collections (lyman 2010). this situation occurs, in part, because the scale of digital models is based on the size of the screen upon which they are viewed, making identifications by direct comparison difficult. artifictions, however, can be scaled accurately and physically placed alongside actual skeletal elements to enable more direct visual comparison and identification of specimens, comparable to the use of a reference specimen from a comparative skeletal collection. additionally, the 3d scanned models can be used for species identification based on selected point-to-point morphometric measurements. figure 1. a) martha, the last passenger pigeon, (reproduced with permission from the smithsonian national museum of natural history, usnm #223979), b) distribution map for the passenger pigeon (1534-1894). solid line encloses area of normal distribution. dotted line encloses principal nesting area. solid circles represent causal or accidental occurrences (reproduced with permission from the university of oklahoma press; schorger 1955:257, figure 22), c) photograph of a male passenger pigeon skeleton housed in the smithsonian institution (specimen #18520) (reproduced with permission from the auk; shufeldt 1914:358). ethnobiology letters. 2015. 6(2):232‐241. doi: 10.14237/ebl.6.2.2015.368. 234 data, methods & taxonomies special issue on digital zooarchaeology ultimately, this method seeks to promote greater ability of zooarchaeologists to identify passenger pigeon and harelip sucker remains to help address 1) how frequent these two extinct species are in prehistoric and historic archaeological assemblages across their recorded habitat ranges, and 2) the species’ prehistoric population sizes and ranges compared to that recorded for them during the historic period. materials ectopistes migratorius (passenger pigeon) there appear to be only 16 complete skeletons and one partial skeleton of passenger pigeon in museum collections, whereas there are 1,532 known skins and mounts of this species in collections throughout the world, based on reports by hahn (1963), greenberg (2014:214) and schorger (1955:238-239). in his publication on the osteology of the passenger pigeon, shufeldt (1914:358-362) shows one of two photographs of a nearly complete passenger pigeon skeleton documented in the literature (figure 1c) along with the descriptions and measurements of several elements. schorger (1955: figure 10) shows a different photograph of the same skeleton from the smithsonian institution. other reports on passenger pigeon bones offer a few photographs, drawings, and measurements of key elements from paleontological contexts (howard 1937) or from skeletons collected before extinction with some comparison to elements from other columbidae (dodson 1950:39-40; pitelka and bryant 1942; shufeldt 1901). gilbert et al. (1981) is the only reference we obtained in the zooarchaeological literature that offers selected drawings and key measurements of passenger pigeon bones from collections at the university of missouri, american museum of natural history, university of kansas, royal ontario museum, and smithsonian institution. consequently, there are few literature sources and a limited amount of study reference specimens to help researchers identify passenger pigeon bones. researchers are compelled to the use difficult-to-obtain archaeological or paleontological specimens for their identifications. this void in reference specimens makes the production and employment of passenger pigeon ‘artifictions’ a promising approach to use in the identification of remains of this species within archaeological or paleontological faunal assemblages. to create passenger pigeon artifictions, the authors obtained post-cranial elements (table 1) from an archaeological site in the collections of the virginia museum of natural history. the graham-white site, a native american village located in roanoke county, virginia, had a few pit features where there were significant numbers of passenger pigeon bones (elizabeth moore, personal communication, 2014). we also selected two skulls, a sternum, and pelvic bones of passenger pigeon, collected during the 19th century (according to the catalog) for this study and scanned them in the division of birds at the smithsonian national museum of natural history. moxostoma lacerum (harelip sucker) the harelip sucker, moxostoma lacerum, renamed from lagochila lacera through research by smith (1992) is the figure 2. a) moxostoma lacerum (reproduced with permission from the smithsonian national museum of natural history, illustration #p14570). b) antero-ventral view of harelip sucker showing deep grooved divided lower lip. c) distribution of moxostoma lacerum showing historic collection sites (dots) and archaeological sites (stars): 1. eastman rockshelter (40sl34); 2. martin farm site (40mr20); 3. hays site (40ml139); 4.bailey site (40gl26). (figures 2b and 2c are from manzano and dickinson 1991 and were reproduced with permission from the illinois state museum). ethnobiology letters. 2015. 6(2):232‐241. doi: 10.14237/ebl.6.2.2015.368. 235 data, methods & taxonomies special issue on digital zooarchaeology first recorded freshwater fish to have become extinct in the united states in the early 20th century (jenkins 1980:407). the common name of harelip as noted by jordan and evermann (1896:106) is based on the divided lower lip and deeply grooved, nonprotrusible, and hooded upper lip of the fish (figure 2b). harelip suckers preferred medium to large warm streams of moderate gradient, relatively low turbidity and silt levels, commonly inhabiting long pools and slower runs (jenkins 1980:407). evidence suggests that this species visually foraged for their food rather than tactilely as do most other moxostoma (miller and evens 1965:476). its extinction likely stemmed from 19th century land clearing and agricultural practices that increased stream siltation and turbidity, preventing the species from effectively detecting food. although this species was once relatively common, curated skeletal remains of this species are extremely rare. sabaj et al. (1997: 254) record that jenkins (1994) lists only 33 extant nonfossil specimens mostly preserved in fluid and curated at ten museums and collected from no more than 20 capture locations for specimens collected from 1859 to 1893 (figure 2c). as a result, skeletal specimens are extremely limited in number. manzano and dickinson (1991:84) used one dry, partially disarticulated specimen that was then the only known comparative skeleton at the smithsonian national museum of natural history (usnm #26736). more recently, fink and humphries (2010:5) have used high resolution x-ray computed tomography (hrxct) to study another disarticulated skeleton (usnm #36189) at the smithsonian institution, focusing on the species’ unique oral skeletal morphology. the harelip sucker was first reported archaeologically in 1985 from the prehistoric martin farm site (40mr20) located in monroe county, tennessee (bogan and bogan 1985). manzano (1986) with assistance from william c. dickinson, who was familiar with the fish skeletons at the smithsonian institution, reported 113 harelip sucker remains from the eastman rockshelter (40sl34) located in sullivan county, tennessee. later, manzano and dickinson (1991) described the osteological characteristics of 13 harelip sucker cranial elements from the shelter, of which five (table 1, figure 3a-n) were 3d scanned to create the artifictions for this paper. methods for this analysis, bernard k. means and virginia commonwealth university undergraduate assistants at figure 3. five moxostoma lacerum elements recovered from the eastman rockshelter used for this study: supraethmoid (catalogue # erb3-2-18, a. dorsal, b. anterior), right maxillary (catalogue # erg3-5-84, c. lateral, d. mesial), left dentary (catalogue # er4-328, e. lateral, f. mesial; catalogue # erc4-6-31, g. dorsal, h. ventral); right hyomandibular (catalogue # erg3-6-91, i. lateral, j. anterior, k. mesial), left operculum (catalogue # erg4-2-103, l. lateral, m. mesial; catalogue # erf2-9-49, n. anterior fragment). ethnobiology letters. 2015. 6(2):232‐241. doi: 10.14237/ebl.6.2.2015.368. 236 data, methods & taxonomies special issue on digital zooarchaeology the virtual curation laboratory used a nextengine desktop 3d scanner to create 3d digital topological models of eight passenger pigeon and five harelip sucker skeletal elements (table 1) (means et al. 2013a, b; zechini 2014a, b, c, d). the scanned digital models were edited as required using the scanstudio program. this editing removes extraneous digital data that is recorded during scanning, such as the platform used to support each element as it is scanned, as well as digital noise that is generated during the scanning process. additionally, most elements require two scans to ensure complete recording of the element and these need to be digitally merged (means et al. 2013a). after editing, digital files of the 3d bone models were used to create the passenger pigeon and harelip sucker skeletal artifictions with a makerbot replicator 3d printer (figure 4a) with the surfaces of some painted with acrylics to give them a light tan bone appearance (figure 4b). discussion obvious problems with artifictions became immediately apparent during this project and relate to the recent development of 3d printing and its new application in zooarchaeology (weber and malone 2011). first, artifictions do not have the feel, weight, color, or detail of actual bone. second, some artifictions are not yet reproducible with current homebased 3d printers because certain elements, particularly thin ones such as fish bone, while able to be scanned, are difficult to generate into artifictions due to the limited resolution power of the noncommercial 3d printer used in this study3—and the challenge of removing supporting material (e.g., the base) from thin replicas. third, and related to the second point, the 3d printer made it difficult to replicate very small elements, such as individual passenger pigeon vertebrae. nevertheless, there are several positive outcomes that strongly support the application of artifictions in zooarchaeology, paleontology, and conservation biology (see means 2015b). first, this is the only noncommercial approach that will make available physical representations of skeletal elements from extinct species for quick distribution to a large number of researchers. second, producing artifictions results in a digital model that can be virtually measured for additional comparative purposes and that will always produce the same 3d replica, if printed out in the same manner on the same model of printer. third, possible damage to rare specimens is minimized with use of artifictions especially if the actual specimens are too fragile to endure the process of molding and casting. fourth, improvements in techniques, 3d scanning programs, and printing machines are increasing rapidly and promise to reduce the problems noted above. thus, the many competitors entering the market with new 3d scanners and printers on an almost weekly basis—especially for 3d printers— requires one to regularly keep abreast of the technological advancements through blogs, websites, and magazines (for example, see anderson 2014; gizmodo 2015). especially promising are efforts to make more inexpensive versions of stereo-lithographic apparatus (sla) or selective laser sintering (sls) printers suitable for consumer use. these types of printers offer the ability to print artifictions with taxon common name element side ectopistes migratorius passenger pigeon skull sternum coracoid left radius right carpometacarpus right pelvis left femur right tarsometatarsus right moxostoma lacerum harelip sucker supraethmoid maxillary right dentary left hyomandibular right operculum left table 1. elements 3d scanned to create artifictions. ethnobiology letters. 2015. 6(2):232‐241. doi: 10.14237/ebl.6.2.2015.368. 237 data, methods & taxonomies special issue on digital zooarchaeology greater resolution and fidelity than is possible with thermoplastic extrusion printers that are currently being used, such as the makerbots used to create artifictions for this study (see barnatt 2013 for details on these printing technologies). additional research such as fink and humphries’ (2010) use of high resolution x-ray computed tomography (hrxct) to examine the harelip sucker skeletal morphology of bones from the face, jaws, and pharynx to reconstruct a virtual skeleton shows great promise for generating artifictions. their work digitally disarticulated individual skeletal elements for 2d virtual examination but lacked a scale for comparison to actual specimens. future approaches using hrxct models in 3d digital form with a scale can generate artifictions from mounted passenger pigeon and fluid-preserved harelip sucker specimens. such a dual approach will enable more skeletons of these animals to be examined and greater documentation of intraspecific morphological variability. the documentation of these extinct species in archaeological contexts will enhance the estimation of their habitat ranges and how their prehistoric populations compare to the population sizes and ranges recorded for these species during the historic period. these topics are addressed for passenger pigeon remains present at prehistoric archaeological sites in the northeastern (neumann 1985) and southeastern (jackson 2005) united states. both reports model the archaeological presence of passenger pigeons within an ecological framework, consider changes in pigeon and human populations, and explore how changes in prehistoric and historic human use such as large-scale land clearance and agriculture possibly influenced passenger pigeon population size and distribution across the country. given the under-reporting of harelip sucker bones from archaeological contexts, it remains to be seen if an evolving ecological system model may also help explain the yet only marginally documented frequency of this species from prehistoric and historic sites within the united states. the remains of the harelip sucker should be found at archaeological sites along its preferred habitats mentioned above and its archaeological presence overall would indicate a clear streams near sites. jenkins (1970:537) wrote, however, that “even in prehistoric times [harelip sucker] populations may have been in precarious balance due to a dependency upon the clearest of waters,” which varied over time and across space with some coincident to prehistoric human land-use activities (peacock et al. 2005). humans during the historic period heavily impacted such stream water conditions that likely caused the extinction of the harelip sucker. consequently, additional observations of harelip sucker remains from archaeological sites represent opportunities to study the habitat range of a little known, extinct fish species. manzano and dickinson (1991:87) previously urged researchers to examine archaeological fish assemblages for harelip sucker remains using the element illustrations in their article but were unable to provide ready access to comparative specimens. in contrast, this report makes the same request with additional illustrations (figure 3a-n, see manzano and dickinson 1991) as well as the new approach of providing artifictions to help identify remains of this species in archaeological assemblages. efforts are currently underway to make these digital models available for download in the virtual curation laboratory section of the center for regional heritage research digital archive at stephen f. austin state university by august 2016 (vcl 3d collections 2015). like other 3d scans of zooarchaeological collections, artifictions will offer researchers an opportunity to determine if passenger pigeon and harelip sucker bones are in recovered faunal assemblages, increasing our knowledge about the distribution of these species. figure 4. a) five newly created 3d printed passenger pigeon femurs. b) digital zooarchaeologist rebecca bowman paints a printed passenger pigeon cranium. ethnobiology letters. 2015. 6(2):232‐241. doi: 10.14237/ebl.6.2.2015.368. 238 data, methods & taxonomies special issue on digital zooarchaeology acknowledgments we extend our thanks to dr. jay franklin (east tennessee state university) for the loan of the harelip sucker elements, dr. elizabeth moore (virginia museum of natural history) and brian schmidt (division of birds, smithsonian national museum of natural history) for access to the passenger pigeon specimens. thanks also are extended to william h. wilkerson (university of kentucky) for his expertise in photographing the harelip sucker elements. likewise, we extend our thanks to the many undergraduate vcu students working in the vcl for their continued efforts in this project. declarations permissions: figures 1a and 2a were reproduced with permission from the smithsonian national museum of natural history; figure 1b, was reproduced with permission from the university of oklahoma press, figure 1c, was reproduced with permission from the auk; figures 2b and 2c were reproduced with permission from the illinois state museum. sources of funding: us department of defense legacy program, number 11-334 to dr. bernard k. means, school of world studies at virginia commonwealth university. conflicts of interest: none. references cited ahmed, n., m. carter and n. ferris. 2014. sustainable archaeology through progressive assembly 3d digitization. world archaeology 46:137-154. anderson, s. 2014. make: magazine shootout names top 10 3d printers. available at: http://3dprint.com/23676/make-magazine-top-10printers. accessed on 11 may 2015. barnatt, c. 2013. 3d printing: the next industrial revolution. createspace independent publishing platform. betts, m. w., h. d. g. maschner, c. d. schou, r. schlader, j. holmes, n. clement and m. smuin. 2011. virtual zooarchaeology: building a webbased reference collection of northern vertebrates for archaeofaunal 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zooarchaeology: history, value, and use. in conservation biology and applied zooarchaeology, edited by s. wolverton and r. l. lyman, pp. 208-232. university of arizona press, tucson, az. manzano, b. l. 1986. faunal resources, butchering patterns, and seasonality at the eastman rockshelter (40sl34): an interpretation of function. unpublished master’s thesis, department of anthropology, university of tennessee, knoxville. manzano, b. l., and w. c. dickenson. 1991. archaeological occurrences of the extinct harelip sucker, lagochila lacera jordan and brayton (pisces: catostomidae). in beamers, bobwhites, and blue-points: tributes to the career of paul w. parmalee, edited by j. r. purdue, w. e. klippel and b. w. styles, pp. 8792. illinois state museum scientific papers, vol. 23, springfield, il. mccuistion, a. 2013. promoting the past: the educational applications of 3d scanning technology in archaeology. journal of middle atlantic archaeology 29:35-42. mckechnie, i. and s. w. kansa. 2011. transformations in digital communication and collaboration, recent perspectives from zooarchaeology. the saa archaeological record 11:15-18. means, b. k. 2015a. if they can build it will they come? using artifictions and ecofictions to teach the past. paper presented at the 48th annual conference of the society for historical and underwater archaeology, seattle, wa. means, b. k. 2015b. copycats: casting and molding versus 3d scanning and printing. the virtual curation laboratory. available at https:// vcuarchaeology3d.wordpress.com//?s=copycats. accessed on 1 august 2015. means, b. k. 2014. virtual curation and virtual collaboration. in blogging archaeology, edited by d. rocks-macqueen and c. webster, pp. 121-144. landward research, ltd. in association with succinct research and digtech llc. means, b. k., c. bowles, a. mccuistion and c. king. 2013a. virtual artifact curation: three-dimensional digital data collection for artifact analysis and interpretation. prepared for the department of defense legacy resource management program, legacy project #11-334. prepared by the virtual curation laboratory, virginia commonwealth university, richmond, va. means, b. k., a. mccuistion and c. bowles. 2013b. virtual artifact curation of the historic past and the next engine desktop 3d scanner. technical briefs in historical archaeology 7:1-12. available at: http://www.sha.org/assets/documents/ ethnobiology letters. 2015. 6(2):232‐241. doi: 10.14237/ebl.6.2.2015.368. 240 data, methods & taxonomies special issue on digital zooarchaeology technical_briefs_articles/virtualaritfacts.pdf. accessed on 1 august 2015. miller, r. j. and h. e. evans. 1965. external morphology of the brain and lips in catostomid fishes. copeia 4:467-487. neumann, t. 1985. human-wildlife competition and the passenger pigeon: population growth from system destabilization. human ecology 13:389-410. peacock, e., w. r. haag and m. l. warren. 2005. prehistoric decline in freshwater mussels coincident with the advent of maize agriculture. conservation biology 19:547-551. pitelka, f. a. and m. d. bryan. 1942. available skeletons of the passenger pigeon. condor 44:74-75. richter, a., v. petrovic, d. vanoni, s. m. parish, f. kuester and t. e. levy. 2013. digital archaeological landscapes and replicated artifacts: questions of analytical and phenomenological authenticity and ethical policies in cyberarchaeology. paper presented at the proceeding of the 2013 digital heritage international congress (digitalheritage), marseille, france. sabaj, m. h., k. s. cummings and l. m. page. 1997. annotated catalog of type specimens in the illinois natural history survey fish collection. illinois natural history survey bulletin 35:253-300. schorger, a. w. 1955. the passenger pigeon: it’s natural history and extinction. university of wisconsin, madison, wi. scott, e. m. 2008. who ate what? archaeological food remains and cultural diversity. in case studies in environmental archaeology, edited by e. reitz, c. m. scarry and s. j. scudder, pp. 357-374. springer, ny. shufeldt, r. w. 1901. on the osteology of the pigeons (columbae). journal of morphology 18:487512. shufeldt, r. w. 1914. osteology of the passenger pigeon (ectopistes migratorius). auk 31:358-362. sims, m. e., b. w. baker and r. m. hoesch. 2011. tusk or bone? an example of ivory substitute in the wildlife trade. ethnobiology letters 2:40-44. smith, g. r. 1992. phylogeny and biogeography of the catostomidae, freshwater fishes of north america and asia. in systematics, historical ecology, and north american freshwater fishes, edited by r. l. mayden, pp. 778–826. stanford university press, stanford, ca. virtual curation laboratory. 2015. vcl 3d collections. available at http://crhrarchive.sfasu.edu/ handle/123456789/53. accessed on 11 may 2015. weber, j. a. and e. malone. 2011. exporting virtual material culture: cheap and easy methods to preserve and share data. the saa archaeological record 11:15-18. wolverton, s. and r. l. lyman, eds. 2012. conservation biology and applied zooarchaeology. university of arizona press, tucson, az. zechini, m. 2014a. zooarchaeology in the 21st century. quarterly bulletin of the archeological society of virginia 69:29-36. zechini, m. 2014b. rocky raccoon: the application of 3d technology to zooarchaeology. pennsylvania archaeologist 84:19-22. zechini, m. 2014c. digital zooarchaeology: faunal analysis in the 21st century. unpublished undergraduate honors thesis in anthropology, school of world studies, virginia commonwealth university, richmond, va. zechini, m. 2014d. digital zooarchaeology: using 3d technology on archaeofaunal collections. quarterly bulletin of the archeological society of virginia 69:215228. notes 1“artifictions” is a term coined by the virtual curation laboratory to refer to printed replicas of archaeological remains (means 2014, 2015; means et al. 2013a, b; zechini 2014a, b, c, d). 2seminal works by schorger (1955) and greenberg (2014) offer researchers the life history of this important bird species. 3the maximum resolution is 0.1 mm for the makerbot replicator 2 (https://store.makerbot.com/ replicator2.html). biosketches bruce l. manzano is project manager at the program for archaeological research at the university of kentucky. ethnobiology letters. 2015. 6(2):232‐241. doi: 10.14237/ebl.6.2.2015.368. 241 data, methods & taxonomies special issue on digital zooarchaeology bernard k. means is director of the virtual curation laboratory and professor at the school of world studies at virginia commonwealth university. christopher t. begley is associate professor of anthropology and director of the exploration foundation at transylvania university. mariana zechini is a graduate student at the university of west florida and completed her b.a. from virginia commonwealth university focusing on 3d technology in zooarchaeology. why the porcupine is not a bird: explorations in the folk zoology of an eastern indonesian people. by gregory forth. 2016. university of toronto press, toronto. 375 pp. whitney. 2018. ethnobiology le ers 9(2):103–104 103 reviews animals including humans and nonhuman mammals (although nage recognize biological mammalian similarities between them). forth shows that nage animal taxonomy is based on universal cognitive principles of classification, based on perceived similarities. these systems align surprisingly well with the taxonomies of “western” biologists. there are several sections divided into chapters on categorically related animals; for example, part one of the book covers mammals, and is divided into “mammals of the village”, “never-domesticated mammals”, and “varieties of special-purpose classification”. these chapters provide ethnographic, zoological, linguistic, archeological, and historical data and reference animal names in nage, latin, and english, and provide international zoological information. the book is well-organized with a readable narrative. the nage also have systems of symbolic and utilitarian classification distinct from their general taxonomy. one such taxonomic record, an incongruity in the classification of porcupines, inspired the title of the book. although the nage recognize that the porcupine is a mammal, they refer to it with gender terms that are mostly used for birds (e.g., male porcupines are lalu, meaning rooster). forth uses this example to argue against a strict relativist approach that only sees differences among classifications as being based on deep symbolic meanings and associations. it could be that the porcupine is not a bird because it is poetically or aesthetically attractive for it not to be, or that it is not classed as a bird as deliberate nonsense. gregory forth is a professor of anthropology who has been conducting ethnographic fieldwork in indonesia for over thirty years. in the 1980s he became interested in the nage indigenous people living on the eastern indonesian islands of flores and timor because of their unique ritual funerary practices and water buffalo sacrifices (forth 1988, 1989). forth was fascinated by how the nage maintained these traditions although the majority of the populations had converted to catholicism. professor forth has a diverse body of work. his research is based largely on participant observation ethnography and direct conversations with people in the nage language and other local austronesian languages. his writing includes work in ethnozoology, ethnotaxonomy and classification (fontijne 2004; forth 1996, 1998a), local economy and ecology, religion, ritual, and mythology (forth 1988, 1991, 2008). forth studied local knowledge of varanus komodoensis (the komodo dragon) to demonstrate how local knowledge of this threatened species can contribute both to zoological investigation and conservation efforts. while conducting fieldwork on flores in the 1980s, forth documented nage taxonomic knowledge of the ebu gogo, which many believe may have been homo floresiensis that survived long enough on flores to influence local cultural memory (forth 1998b, 2005). why the porcupine is not a bird is a comprehensive analysis of folk zoology among the nage. it illustrates the nage taxonomic systems for animals, which includes three sub-taxa (excluding invertebrates): 1) flying animals; 2) snakes; and 3) fish and other why the porcupine is not a bird: explora ons in the folk zoology of an eastern indonesian people. by gregory forth. 2016. university of toronto press, toronto. 375 pp. cory w. whitney1* 1university of bonn, center for development research (zef), bonn, germany *cory.whitney@uni‐bonn.de received february 12, 2018 open access accepted february 16, 2018 doi 10.14237/ebl.9.2.2018.1204 copyright © 2018 by the author(s); licensee society of ethnobiology. this is an open‐access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution‐noncommercial 4.0 international public license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by‐nc/4.0), which permits non‐commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. whitney. 2018. ethnobiology le ers 9(2):103–104 104 reviews the title has another important meaning. it echoes ralph bulmer’s work why the cassowary is not a bird (1967). as with bulmer’s work, forth’s why the porcupine is not a bird is a work of great depth by a gifted and dedicated scientist. nevertheless, critical readers may identify several points where the book comes up short. first, it is regionally and intellectually very specific. it is a comprehensive look at the folk classification of the nage and central flores from a taxonomic perspective, a close and meticulous study about organizing information. secondly, the questions pursued in this work did not originate with the nage but are forth’s own concerns; it is essentially a work about comprehending indigenous knowledge in juxtaposition with western knowledge systems. critical readers should keep in mind that much of forth’s work in the region took place during a time when any political activity would have risked being banned from the country, jailed, or worse. possibly as a consequence of this constraint, forth fails to bring his experience to bear on issues of threatened traditional lifestyles or local ecology. since forth’s work began in the 1980s the local ecology of flores and timor has dramatically changed and the nage culture has nearly been lost, having been assimilated by other more dominant regional ethnic groups. an activist reader might be left wondering, had this been a study of their own design, what activities could have been undertaken to further the political aims, goals, and ethical concerns of the naga people. references cited bulmer, r., 1967. why is the cassowary not a bird? a problem of zoological taxonomy among the karam of the new guinea highlands. man 2:5–25. forth, g. 1988. fashioned speech, full communication: aspects of eastern sumbanese ritual language. in to speak in pairs: essays on the ritual languages of eastern indonesia, edited by j.j. fox, pp. 129–160. cambridge university press, cambridge, uk. forth, g. 1989. animals, witches, and wind: eastern indonesian variations on the “thunder complex”. anthropos 84:89–106. forth, g. 1991. construction sacrifice and headhunting rumours in central flores (eastern indonesia): a comparative note. oceania 61:257– 266. doi:10.1002/j.1834-4461.1991.tb01598.x. forth, g. 1996. nage birds: issues in the analysis of ethnoornithological classification. anthropos 91:89– 109. forth, g. 1998a. on deer and dolphins: nage ideas regarding animal transformation. oceania 68:271– 293. doi:10.1002/j.1834-4461.1998.tb02679.x. forth, g. 1998b. beneath the volcano: religion, cosmology, and spirit classification among the nage of eastern indonesia. brill publishers, leiden, netherlands. forth, g. 2004. guardians of the land in kelimado: louis fontijne’s study of a colonial district in eastern indonesia. koninklyk instituut voor taal land, leiden, netherlands. forth, g. 2005. hominids, hairy hominoids, and the science of humanity. anthropology today 21:13–17. doi:10.1111/j.0268-540x.2005.00353.x. forth, g. 2008. images of the wildman in southeast asia: an anthropological perspective. routledge, abingdonon-thames, uk. una isĩ kayawa: livro de cura do povo huni kuĩ do rio jordão. edited by agostinho manduca m. ĩka muru and alexandre quinet. 2014. jardim botânico do rio de janeiro and dante editores, rio de janeiro. 260 pp. coimbra. 2016. ethnobiology letters 7(1):24–25 24 reviews collected, and named by the huni kuĩ in their native language, hatxa kui. of this total, 109 plant samples were botanically identified and selected for inclusion in the book, accompanied by detailed descriptions of their healing properties, associated curing rituals, preparations, and uses (e.g., ritual bathing, topical applications, eye drops, etc.). over the last decade, several important books on the ethnobotany of indigenous peoples in brazil have become available. among the newer releases, i would highlight for its comprehensiveness and richness of description a monographic volume about the yanomami by anthropologist bruce albert and botanist william milliken (2009; see welch 2010 for a review). also, an edited volume by ethnobiologist moacir haverroth (2013) encompasses ten case studies focusing on the relationship between indigenous ethnobotanical knowledge and curing practices, based on research carried out by various authors among different communities in brazil. a possible common denominator between these two books, as well as other contributions to the ethnobotany of indigenous peoples in brazil, is their predominantly, if not purely, academic approach. in most previous work, field investigation was done by academic researchers with the aid of indigenous guides or plant specialists. the design and writing of such books more closely follows academic conventions, i.e., organization into chapters and subsections in accordance with standard ethnographic or botanical logic. in the case of una isĩ kayawa, the entire project departs from a very different perspective, intermingling over twenty kaxinawá (or huni kuĩ, their preferred ethnic self-designation, meaning real people) shamans from various villages dispersed along the jordão river, near the brazilian border with peru, held a series of workshops over the course of two years that aimed to document and exchange traditional knowledge about plants, particularly medicinal, as well as their associated stories and myths. one result of this collective effort is una isĩ kayawa, a nicely produced book that combines the expertise of huni kuĩ shamans with that of botanists from rio de janeiro botanical garden. agostinho ĩka muru was a famed shaman who, since the 1970s, accompanied his people’s saga of migration from rubber plantations (seringais), where they worked under slave-like conditions, back to their traditional territories, which are now officially recognized by the brazilian government. during these decades, he played a major role in safeguarding huni kuĩ cultural traditions, including chants, rituals, graphic designs, cotton weaving technics, foodways, and mythologies. ĩka muru wished to perpetuate his people’s knowledge in a book, like the “whites” do, as he often stated, so that huni kuĩ youth would forever have access to reliable information about key elements of their culture. in collaboration with botanist alexandre quinet from rio de janeiro, 21 experts on different plant families from renowned herbaria in brazil and abroad were invited by ĩka muru and other huni kuĩ shamans to participate in the project. through this collective effort involving indigenous plant experts and botanists, 351 plants types were recognized, una isĩ kayawa: livro de cura do povo huni kuĩ do rio jordão. edited by agostinho manduca m. ĩka muru and alexandre quinet. 2014. jardim botânico do rio de janeiro and dante editores, rio de janeiro. 260 pp. carlos e. a. coimbra jr.1* 1escola nacional saúde pública, fundação oswaldo cruz, rio de janeiro, brazil. *carloscoimbrajr@gmail.com received december 18, 2015 open access accepted january 8, 2016 doi 10.14237/ebl.7.1.2016.561 copyright © 2016 coimbra; licensee society of ethnobiology. this is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attributionnoncommercial 4.0 international public license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0), which permits non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. coimbra. 2016. ethnobiology letters 7(1):24–25 25 reviews traditional huni kuĩ knowledge of plants with leading -edge botanical science. back in the 1970s, as he travelled through rainforest trails to visit huni kuĩ communities dispersed along the rio jordão valley, ĩka muru observed, experimented, and recorded plants and plant knowledge among his own people. he recorded detailed plant descriptions and information about plant habits and uses in notebooks, which he kept in secrecy. in addition, ĩka muru recorded his own memories about the plants he saw during his travels and recollections of oral reports from shamans and plant specialists that lived during his youth. he went about this private project at a time when it was not easy to maintain traditional healing practices and rituals because his people lived under the rule of socalled rubber barons (barões da borracha), who viewed indigenous cultural traditions and expressions as challenges to their authority (iglesias 2010). as a watchful leader, ĩka muru worried about the continuity of huni kuĩ culture and society in face of the swift social and political transformations, to which younger generations seemed to him to be more vulnerable. in his own words: [...] we elders know more or less the meaning of each of these species, but these young people, they are now studying. [...] i was concerned, and still am. because our ancestors knew one hundred percent of what we know. the elders also studied a lot with them [...]. so, i was concerned about recording these stories. [...] because this material will no longer be hidden, as it was in the past. (pages not numbered in ĩka muru´s opening to the book). given this background, i see the book una isĩ kayawa as more than a rich contribution to amazonian ethnobotany. it is also the concretization of a dream, ĩka muru´s dream, to pass his and his peer shamans’ knowledge and secrets to future generations of huni kuĩ. shortly after the completion of the final workshop, shaman ĩka muru died among his close kin, never seeing the final work in print. references cited albert, b., and w. milliken. 2009. urihi a: a terrafloresta yanomami. instituto socioambiental, são paulo. iglesias, m. p. 2010. os kaninawá de felizardo: correrias, trabalho e civilização no alto juruá. paralelo 15, brasília. haverroth, m., ed. 2013. etnobiologia e saúde de povos indígenas. núcleo de publicações em ecologia e etnobotânica aplicada. universidade federal de pernambuco, recife. welch, j. r. 2010. review of urihi a: a terra-floresta yanomami, by b. albert and w. milliken with g. goodwin gomez. ethnobiology letters 1:18-19. microsoft word ander-yoon.doc ethnobiology letters                                                                                                                    book review    30    naming nature: the clash between instinct and science  carol kaesuk yoon. 2009. w.w. norton, new york. pp. 344, index, bibliography, illustrations.  $27.95(cloth). isbn  9780393‐061970.    reviewed by e. n. anderson1    reviewer address: 1department of anthropology, university of california, riverside, riverside, california 92521    received: november 28th 2009                                         volume 1:30‐32  published: august 31st 2010                       © 2010 society of ethnobiology    this is a pleasant book, a popular introduction to taxonomy. carol yoon, a science writer for the new york times, writes in an easy, popular style. the book tells the story of taxonomic thinking, with a little on traditional systems and the greeks, a great deal on linnaeus, and a quick overview of taxonomy since then. julian huxley gets at least a mention and ernst mayr gets high marks for introducing the biological species concept. she sees ernst mayr’s introduction of the new darwinian synthesis to systematics as a major breakthrough, but sees cladistics as the only real scientific taxonomy. before the cladists, taxonomy was a wasteland, with biologists imposing purely arbitrary views on the world, such as sterile arguments between lumpers and splitters and dry-as-dust museum classifications based on superficial appearances. the situation was saved by cladistics, which allowed first numerical scoring of traits and then proper use of genetic evidence to classify things right—according to biological evolution. yoon has absorbed the missionary enthusiasm of some cladists. her basic thesis is that humans naturally classify the world, and do a fairly good job, but keep coming up with categories like “fish” that are biologically incoherent. “fish” becomes a theme for the book; she traces the reclassification that makes us now realize that we humans (as well as birds, reptiles, and so on) form a clade with the bony fish, over against the clades of elasmobranch and agnathic fish. she also notes that mushrooms are closer to people than to plants. eventually, she comes to terms with the folk classification “fish,” and realizes that biological relationship is not necessarily the only reason for classifying. she discusses human information processing limits, such as the difficulty of knowing more than 500-600 things in one domain (p. 142), a point often made by eugene hunn (see esp. hunn 2008). she mentions interesting cases of people with brain trauma that cost them the ability to classify the biological world. they did not lose other classifications—so there does seem to be a specific mental module for biological taxonomizing. she also has very good things to say, toward the end of the book (pp. 272ff), about the need to reverse our current alienation from nature and our loss of knowledge and names. unfortunately, as many readers will already realize, her historical picture is a serious oversimplification of the real situation. popularizations can be pardoned for exaggerating conflicts and “breakthroughs,” but in addition yoon’s thin scholarship makes her more detailed accounts less convincing than the broad outline might suggest. folk taxonomy is an arcane topic (i have to admit), so it is no surprise that this is the least developed theme in the book. yoon uses the concept of umwelt to label the natural human tendency to classify nature in particular ways. (the subtitle more forthrightly calls it “instinct.”) the umwelt, for her, includes classification systems derived from ordinary experience. she gets the concept from jakob von uexkűll, but does not cite his deservedly classic work umwelt und innenwelt der tiere (1921), and has apparently gotten the idea from the secondary literature. the problem is that “umwelt” is a technical philosophical term for the perceived and experienced environment of an individual. uexkűll could speak of the umwelt of a sea urchin or dog because their experienced worlds are reasonably species-general. humans are not so easily stereotyped. my umwelt is very different from an inuit’s. more to the point, though, a classification system is a cultural representation of a linguistic entity that is derived from interaction of many individuals, each of whom has his or her own umwelt. so, when we study taxonomy, we are actually at least three layers away from the umwelt. classification systems reflect not only the innate ethnobiology letters                                                                                                                    book review    31    perceptual worlds of people, but also their cultural and linguistic worlds, and their immediate needs of the moment. a florist’s classification of roses is very different from a botanist’s; this difference has nothing to do with a pan-human umwelt and everything to do with the real personal umwelt and with cultural context. humans do, however, classify the world with remarkable consistency, as cecil brown has repeatedly demonstrated. (yoon cites brown, as well as brent berlin and scott atran.) the form-classes like “fish” and “tree” are worldwide. yoon is aware of this, but seems not to realize that traditional people are quite aware that there are differences between useful formclass characterizations and classifications based on biological closeness (however calculated). my chinese fisher friends in hong kong used yu “fish” to mean any free-swimming water animal. they knew perfectly well that cuttlefish—“fish” in both english and chinese—are more like octopi than like carp. they knew that porpoises were “like pigs inside” and acted more like mammals than like ordinary fish. cuttlefish and porpoises were fish because they swam, not because they belonged together in any other way. “tree,” also, is recognized by most people as a formclass rather than a biological entity; we know that trees can be dwarfed into bushes, and begin life as “herb”like seedlings. a classification system, in short, is about naming things in culturally useful ways. it does reflect innate human classifying tendencies, but it is not a simple reflex of anyone’s umwelt. interestingly, graham burnett’s trying leviathan (2007), which i recently reviewed in this journal, has all this right; burnett has a real feel for how people classify. yoon maintains that linnaeus more or less singlehandedly created scientific taxonomy. she dismisses earlier efforts, from aristotle onward, as basically local or folk systems based on that instinctive umwelt. this is less than fair to aristotle and his student theophrastus, who had quite good taxonomic sense. it is less fair to later writers from dioscorides to maimonides, who really understood the need for commonly understood names, and who defined international nomenclatures, providing full synonymies. they also had some glimmering of biological relationships; dioscorides grouped like with like when he reasonably could (see gunther 1934). maimonides’ stunning dictionary of medicines remains one of the great achievements in the history of taxonomy (maimonides 1979). moreover, linnaeus drew heavily on early modern scientists, notably john ray. one recent writer (birkhead 2008) even seems poised to give the self-effacing ray the credit for breakthroughs that the more selfpromoting linnaeus claimed and generally receives. (yoon retells the old stories about linnaeus’ arrogance and his giving ugly weeds the names of his opponents [p. 43]; this latter tale is based on a story that he so served johann siegesbeck [p. 131]; but that story is poorly documented in the original sources, and other alleged cases are not documented at all.) yoon’s claim that taxonomy wallowed in disarray until cladistics and molecular genetics came along, because of excessive dependence on the umwelt (see p. 110), is inaccurate. cladistics (in its diverse forms) has led to some major breakthroughs, but has not revolutionized taxonomy as much as some cladists would like to believe. certainly i was taught that “fish” are diverse, and i learned in freshman biology (over 50 years ago!) that i am closer to a carp than a carp is to a shark. the idea that classification should be on the basis of evolutionary relationships was already current in darwin’s day, and developed steadily from then on. the current tendency in taxonomy is to treat the molecular, genetic, and morphological traits as all useful information, and not to rely on any one set. lack of deep knowledge of the literature leads yoon into some strange charges. she blames mayr and his collaborator dean amadon for not bothering to explain why they classified larks as separate from pipits (p. 98), and uses this to maintain her claim that precladistic taxonomy was arbitrary; the actual reason was that mayr’s and amadon’s readers (of whom i was one, when their articles first came out) would have known that anatomical studies over many decades had shown these were different groups, so there was no need to summarize that. she also seems rather thin on why lumpers and splitters differ, and what the real issues are. the problem is not that people are arbitrary or that they are in the grip of the umwelt; the problem (as mayr explained extremely clearly in animal species and evolution, 1963) is that nature is not always neat. the taxonomic goal is to “carve nature at the joints” (cf. berlin 1992), but what if nature lacks joints in some cases? a good example that mayr mentioned is the case of the bullock’s and baltimore orioles (icterus bullockii and icterus galbula respectively). these birds meet in the great plains and sometimes hybridize, producing viable young. to mayr, this meant they should be lumped— they can fairly easily interbreed, therefore are not biologically separate. to others, the rarity of hybrids ethnobiology letters                                                                                                                    book review    32    suggests behavioral and ecological barriers. thus they were different species at first. then mayr, amadon and their contemporaries, imbued with the biological species concept, lumped them as the “northern oriole” (i. galbula, the two becoming i. galbula bullockii and i. galbula galbula). then after the retirement of biologists of mayr’s generation, the orioles were resplit. this has nothing to do with either the umwelt or arbitrary museum mentalities; it has everything to do with philosophical differences about what to do with genuine borderline cases and empirical reality of the biological world. such occasionally-hybridizing species are very common in nature, and cladistics does not really make them much easier to deal with. cladists tend to be splitters, on philosophic grounds; they want to recognize any evolutionarily different clade, even if it might be considered only an incipient one. but that merely kicks the problem down the street a little. there will always be boundary phenomena. this book is appealing, pleasant, and seductive. judging from comments on amazon.com, it is making taxonomy popular and interesting, something that is not always easy to do. this is commendable. unfortunately, however, the book’s limitations are such that it cannot be recommended for class use or reference. there is a major need for a good, broad-appeal book about this topic. i hope that readers of this review are motivated to write. references cited berlin, b. 1992. ethnobiological classification. princeton university press, princeton, nj. birkhead, t. 2008. the wisdom of birds: an illustrated history of ornithology. bloomsbury, new york . burnett, d. g. 2007. trying leviathan. princeton university press, princeton, nj. gunther, r. t. 1934. the greek herbal of dioscorides. oxford university press, oxford . maimonides, m. 1979. moses maimonides’ glossary of drug names. tr. f. rosner. american philosophical society, philadelphia. mayr, e. 1963. animal species and evolution. harvard university press, cambridge, ma. uexkűll, jakob von. 1921. umwelt und innenwelt der tiere. j. springer, berlin. the open science network in ethnobiology: growing the influence of ethnobiology ethnobiology letters. 2015. 6(1):1‐4. doi: 10.14237/ebl.6.2015.321. 1 editorial the osn was founded on the principle of an “open-philosophy,” with core efforts focused on supporting the development of a perpetual human network generating science curricula through team efforts of universities, science institutions, educators, and students. layered alongside the human network, osn formed a virtual network of resources using an open-group evaluation model similar to open-source software (figure 1). unlike a static repository of information, the web-based system’s technological capabilities are flexible enough to house the collective knowledge of both expert and user and change as knowledge and needs evolve. the broad project goals were three-fold: 1) build an interdisciplinary network to advance undergraduate biology education specifically as it regards the promotion or inclusion of ethnobiologically-based content. 2) build a web portal to facilitate continual exchange of educational techniques, materials, and experiences across institutional and international borders. 3) develop curriculum models that engage educators and students in scientific inquiry through ethnobiology. in line with these goals, osn has hosted 15 collaborative workshops, engaging a wide diversity of individuals, including botanists, ecologists, anthropologists, ethnobiologists, foresters, undergraduate students, graduate students, and ethnobiology educators in community colleges, universities, native american colleges, and botanical research institutions. the collective outcomes of these network building events are extensive, and most notably include: the literature is rife with calls for a path to connect students, especially non-traditional and minority students, with science (see, for example, bennett 2005, henderson et al. 2012, loving 1998, mcclatchey et al. 1999). since ethnobiology is the investigation of the interconnectedness of humans and environments, we argue that this makes it an ideal mechanism to guide students to see their relationship with both science and the natural world, a key component in stimulating students’ interest. yet ethnobiology is a relatively new field of study and ethnobiology scholars, often isolated in their disparate academic homes, can greatly benefit from collaborating on the development of ethnobiology education and resources. the open science network in ethnobiology (osn) is a dynamic “open science” network that promotes ethnobiological education through the use of web-based technologies and the continual exchange of educational techniques, materials, and experiences across institutional and international borders. the project was the brainchild of kim bridges and will mcclatchey, building on their successful ‘segues to science’ grant (2015). they partnered with pat harrison (currently interim ceo of botanical research institute of texas) to write the original osn grant funded (2009-2014) by the united states national science foundation (nsf) and the project is also a research coordination networks in biological sciences (rcn) undergraduate biology education (ube) award recipient. the co-authors of this editorial make up the elected officers of the current osn governing board. the open science network in ethnobiology: growing the influence of ethnobiology cassandra l. quave1,2*, keri barfield3, nanci ross4, karen c. hall3 author address: 1center for the study of human health, emory university, 550 asbury circle, candler library 107, atlanta, ga 30322, usa. 2department of dermatology, emory university school of medicine, 1518 clifton rd ne, cnr bldg., room 5035, atlanta, ga 30322, usa. 3botanical research institute of texas, 1700 university dr., fort worth, tx 76107, usa. 4drake university, biology department, olin hall, 2507 university, des moines, ia 50311, usa. corresponding author*: cquave@emory.edu received: january 6, 2015 volume: 6(1):1-4 published: january 22, 2015 © 2015 society of ethnobiology ethnobiology letters. 2015. 6(1):1‐4. doi: 10.14237/ebl.6.2015.321. 2 editorial 1) creation of the working document “the vision and change in undergraduate ethnobiology education in the u.s.a.: recommended curriculum assessment guidelines” (mcclatchey et al. 2013), that was written in response to an increasing demand for curricula in ethnobiology. written over a series of meetings, this document evolved from the interactions and input from 46 osn workshop participants, which self-identified as anthropologists (11), biologists (12), botanists (25), ecologists (12), area studies scientists (4) and ethnobotanists/ethnoecologists (31). it is modeled after the document of a similar name (brewer and smith 2011) that was a call to action from the american association for the advancement of science (aaas) for improving science curriculum development in undergraduate education. for osn, the ethnobiology working document contributes the missing element in most science education, the human component, and highlights the true interdisciplinarity of modern science. 2) launch of the econboted digital library with the society for economic botany, hosted by the lifediscoveryed digital library, and which will serve, together with the group’s website (osn 2015), as the repository for osn peer-reviewed ethnobiology educational materials. one of osn’s immediate aims is to grow this resource through the contributions of our membership. 3) inclusion of regular teaching workshops within meetings of the society for economic botany. 4) production of the edited book, innovative strategies for teaching in the plant sciences, which is composed of chapters contributed by osn members and on figure 1. a conceptual framework for the osn in ethnobiology. ethnobiology letters. 2015. 6(1):1‐4. doi: 10.14237/ebl.6.2015.321. 3 editorial topics actively discussed in prior collaborative workshops (quave 2014). in addition to hosting interactive workshops, osn has placed a significant amount of effort into outreach, making contact with and actively engaging 484 individuals from 57 academic institutions in osn events. osn related papers, workshops and sponsored booths have been presented at various scientific conferences, including meetings of the society of ethnobiology, society for economic botany, international society of ethnobiology, ecological society of america, botanical society of america, american society of plant biologists, association of southeastern biologists, life discoverydoing science education, rocky mountain sustainability and science network, and minorities in agriculture, natural resources and related sciences. as a consequence of the group’s activities and increased networking, 31 peer-reviewed papers were published, 2 books written, and 4 grants submitted. osn participants are passionate about ethnobiology and teaching. an intrinsic component of ethnobiology research is a recognition that priceless knowledge of the natural world is discovered through a myriad of cosmologies beyond the western scientific approach and that this knowledge is carried and passed down by many “non-scientific” cultures. as both scholars and educators, in many cases our teaching activities have been positively transformed by observations of the transfer of knowledge within cultures other than our own (hunn 2014). while these experiences enrich the lives of ethnobiologists, perhaps their greatest potential is toward informing positive change within classrooms that can translate to the broader world. since it is likely that no single cultural group holds the key to human survival, it is important that we continue to teach and learn from each other in respectful, honest, and open ways. some of the more significant, if perhaps less tangible, outcomes of osn have been the growth of integral relationships among the membership. while more difficult to quantify, this particular outcome resonates at the core of the osn philosophy of sharing and promoting the overall good of the discipline. for example, through osn events and activities over the past five years, a number of early career ethnobiologists have greatly benefited as scientists and educators from interactions with elder mentors, peers and network resources (in particular, teaching resources). collaborative research projects, teaching initiatives, field schools, research papers, grant proposals, and lasting friendships have been born. the lessons learned through these interactions have not only aided those engaged in osn activities, but have also impacted the broader scientific and academic community as the osn membership has brought back lessons learned to integrate into activities at their own institutions. moving forward, osn has put a lot of thought into how to sustain our present momentum in the absence of the significant funding that has supported the network until now. at its 2013 annual meeting, osn formed its own free-standing organization upon a unanimous vote of all attending members. the osn adopted bylaws and installed the organization’s first board of directors. in its bylaws, the mission of osn is to support improvements and development of ethnobiology educational opportunities with many communities, institutions, organizations and individuals. the stated objectives of osn are to: 1) support research-based teaching and learning practices. 2) make recommendations for curriculum standards for ethnobiology courses and program. 3) maintain an open-system, open-access approach to sharing resources as the foundational structure of osn. like all good projects, the collective efforts of osn have evolved with experience and there are clear challenges before us. this includes the primary challenge of obtaining peer-reviewed curricular materials from academics who generally receive no reward for their participation. a full accounting of challenges and solutions is out of the scope of this article, though mcclatchey and bridges (2014) have covered the topic well. ethnobiology, as defined by the society of ethnobiology, is “the scientific study of dynamic relationships among peoples, biota and environments.” this short, but sweeping definition, speaks volumes to the inherent interdisciplinarity of ethnobiology, which supports research that spans a broad spectrum from the pure to applied. the future success of osn is highly dependent upon the foundation of a robust and well-represented network of diversity in ethnobiology. the osn exists primarily to provide rigor in ethnobiological teaching, no matter the disciplinary home in which it resides. we believe osn can achieve this aim while also retaining a philosophy ethnobiology letters. 2015. 6(1):1‐4. doi: 10.14237/ebl.6.2015.321. 4 editorial of openness to other ways of seeing the world. it is with this document we particularly ask for your participation with the organization. this year, osn will host the “teaching tuesday” educational workshops and an evening event at the annual meeting of the society for economic botany, to be held in clanwilliam, south africa. osn will host its annual meeting this year in conjunction with the ecological society of america, to be held in baltimore, md. we would like to invite all interested individuals to attend our workshops this year to be held in conjunction with these meetings and to visit the osn website for more information and links to educator resources. in the beginning, interdisciplinarity was at the heart of the original grant that funded the osn. it continues to be our strength – please help us grow the influence of this interesting and important discipline! references cited bennett, b. c. 2005. ethnobotany education opportunities, and needs in the u.s.a. ethnobotany research & applications 3:113-121. brewer, c. a., and d. smith, eds. 2011. vision and change in undergraduate biology education: a call to action. american association for advancement of science, washington, dc. ethnobotany segues to science. available at: https:// sites.google.com/site/seguestoscience/history. accessed on january 9, 2015. henderson, f., i. vandebroek, m. j. balick, and e. j. kennelly. 2012. ethnobotanical research skills for undergraduate students of underrepresented minorities in stem disciplines. ethnobotany research and applications 10:389-402. hunn, e. 2014. to know them is to love them. ethnobiology letters 5:146-150. loving, c. c. 1998. cotes’ multicultural empowerment model and generative teaching and learning in science. science and education 7:533-552. mcclatchey, w. c., a. paul, t. flaster, and v. mcclatchey. 1999. an evaluation of educational trends in economic and ethnobotany. ethnobotany educational publication series 1:1-21. mcclatchey, w. c., and k.w. bridges. 2014. lessons learned in development of an interdisciplinary science curriculum support organization. in innovative strategies for teaching in the plant sciences, edited by c.l. quave, pp. 21-31. springer press, new york, ny. mcclatchey, w. c., g. e. wagner, k. hall, and p. d. harrison, eds. 2013. vision and change for undergraduate ethnobiology education in the u.s.a. open science network in ethnobiology. available at: https://drive.google.com/file/ d/0b6kzcbxuay3emjcxzml2vkxstmm/edit?pli=1 accessed on january 6, 2015. osn. 2015. the open science network in ethnobiology. available at: http://www.opensciencenetwork.org/ accessed on january 13, 2015. quave, c. l., ed. 2014. innovative strategies for teaching in the plant sciences. springer press, new york, ny. biosketches cassandra quave is an assistant professor of dermatology and human health at emory university with research interests in medical ethnobotany. keri barfield is the research programs manager at the botanical research institute of texas with research interests in ecology, botany, and ethnobiology education. nanci ross is an assistant professor of biology at drake university. her research interests are historical ecology and ecological ethobotany. karen hall is an applied ecologist with the botanical research institute of texas. her research foci is urban resilience and ethnobotany. https://sites.google.com/site/seguestoscience/history https://sites.google.com/site/seguestoscience/history https://drive.google.com/file/d/0b6kzcbxuay3emjcxzml2vkxstmm/edit?pli=1 https://drive.google.com/file/d/0b6kzcbxuay3emjcxzml2vkxstmm/edit?pli=1 http://www.opensciencenetwork.org/ traditional agroforestry systems and food supply under the food sovereignty approach hernandez et al. 2017. ethnobiology letters 8(1):125–141 125 research communications under this view, initiatives that apply and combine agroecology with indigenous knowledge systems have emerged (altieri 2009b). these initiatives have demonstrated that it is possible to improve food security while conserving natural resources and agrobiodiversity (altieri 2009b; pretty et al. 2003). food sovereignty (fsv) is a concept developed by the international peasants’ movement at the world food summit 1996 and states that in terms of food, every community has the right to define its own agricultural policies in order to achieve sustainable development and self-sufficiency goals (vía campesina 1996). fsv is based on locally produced species grown in diversified systems to obtain safe introduction intensive production systems, both crop and livestock-oriented, have disrupted and altered many natural ecosystems and traditional agroecosystems, where biodiversity has been replaced by monocultures designed for maximum short-term production (altieri and nicholls 2013; balvanera and cotler 2009; senanayake 2003). these highly simplified ecosystems are unstable, unsustainable, and poorly resilient since they use high amounts of external inputs (altieri and nicholls 2013; senanayake 2003). approximately 80% of the 1.5 billion hectares of global arable land are devoted to monocultures (nicholls et al. 2015). in mexico, 70% of the 20.8 million hectares are dedicated to industrial agriculture (inegi 2012). traditional agroforestry systems and food supply under the food sovereignty approach mariana y. hernández1, pedro a. macario1*, and jorge o. lópez-martínez2 1department of agriculture, society and environment, el colegio de la frontera sur (ecosur), chetumal, quintana roo, mexico. 2conacytecosur. chetumal, quintana roo, mexico. *pmacario@ecosur.mx abstract intensive production systems have damaged many natural ecosystems and have altered their capacity to provide ecosystem services such as climate regulation, soil fertility, and vector-borne disease control. therefore, these agroecosystems are unsustainable and poorly resilient. however, traditional agroforestry systems (tas) contribute to the conservation of biodiversity and to the provision of inputs for the maintenance of local populations. the objective of this study was to evaluate the contribution of the tas in the food supply under the food sovereignty (fsv) approach in three different ethnic groups. the study was conducted in three communities of different origin in the state of campeche, one maya tseltal-chol, the other mestizo and the third yucatec mayan. the theoretical-methodological framework of this research was based on agroecology. ethnographic methods and participatory research activities were carried out to describe and analyze the factors that strengthen fsv using five fsv indicators. our results present a description and analysis of resource access, current production models, patterns of consumption and food security, commercialization and participation in decision-making of these communities. traditional agroecological management practices are still preserved and native species are still being cultivated. farmers obtain about 55% of their food from tas. the consumption of food is influenced by the culture, the purchasing power linked to economic activities and government support. tas have played a strategic role for the survival of families but to ensure their contribution to fsv, it is necessary to articulate the actions of the sectors that share the same objective and encourage the active participation of communities in agricultural policies. received march 20, 2017 open access accepted july 31, 2017 doi 10.14237/ebl.8.1.2017.941 keywords traditional agroecosystems, agroecology, food consumption, food supply, participatory research copyright © 2017 by the author(s); licensee society of ethnobiology. this is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution-noncommercial 4.0 international public license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0), which permits non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. hernandez et al. 2017. ethnobiology letters 8(1):125–141 126 research communications and nutritious food (cuéllar and sevilla 2009; rosset and martínez 2004). it also considers farmers as guardians of biodiversity, managers of natural resources and custodians of traditional knowledge (rosset and martínez 2004). however, to successfully implement a fsv proposal, tools for analysis, communication and evaluation are needed (ortega-cerda and rivera-ferre 2010). these authors have categorized and structured five indicators: (i) access to resources: individual and community processes of access and control over resources in a sustainable way; (ii) production models: diversified local family production through traditional models of sustainable agricultural production; (iii) safety and food consumption: the right to the consumption of healthy, nutritious and culturally appropriate food from local producers and produced through agroecological techniques; ( iv) transformation and commercialization: peasants right to sell their products to supply the local population; (v) agricultural policies: peasants have the right to know, participate and influence local public policies related to fsv. on the other hand, agroecology is defined as: "the application of ecological concepts and principles to the design and management of sustainable agroecosystems" (altieri 2009a:26; gliessman 2007:18). this science is directly linked to the consolidation and defense of the proposals associated with fsv (cuéllar and sevilla 2009). agroecosystems under agroecological management can be reservoirs of biodiversity (perfecto et al. 2009), they contribute by reducing the pressure of deforestation of new areas for agriculture (moreno-calles et al. 2013) and they represent a sustainable alternative to the adaptation and mitigation of climate change (altieri and nicholls 2013; casanova-lugo et al. 2011). in particular, agroforestry systems keep groups of trees and crop species interacting in multistrata systems (nair 1993; sánchez 1995; wojtkowski 2002). the main function is to diversify production to obtain greater environmental, social and economic benefits, following the principle of sustainability (sodhi and ehrlich 2010). agroforestry can benefit biodiversity conservation in three ways: the provision of habitat for forest species in areas that have suffered significant historical deforestation, the provision of a landscape matrix that permits the connectivity of species that benefits migration and dispersal processes, and through the provision of livelihoods for local communities which may in turn relieve pressure on remaining areas of primary forest (sodhi and ehrlich 2010). in addition, agroforestry systems contribute to climate change mitigation through carbon sequestration (casanova-lugo et al. 2011; soto -pinto et al. 2010; verchot et al. 2007). in mexico, traditional agricultural systems and practices based on empirical knowledge developed by farmers are highly important because of their potential benefits, history, and diversification (hernández 1985; moreno-calles et al. 2014). the slash-and-burn milpa system (with a long period of non-cultivated land) where maize (zea mays l.), bean (phaseolus spp.), and squash (cucurbita spp.) are cultivated with many other crops, and the various types of home gardens: solar, calmil, ekuaro and traspatio (hernández 1985; morenocalles et al. 2014) are among the most significant practices of traditional agroforestry. this research regarding traditional agroforestry systems (tas) and fsv was conducted in three communities surrounding the calakmul biosphere reserve (cbr). moreover, the reserve faces the great challenge of reaching a balance between the conservation of its biological diversity and the survival of the human communities that inhabit it (bohn et al. 2014). based on the information above, we hypothesized that tas are a specific type of ecological agriculture and represent an important source of food to meet dietary needs of local populations. the present study aims to answer: what is the role of tas in the food supply under the food sovereignty approach? to achieve that, we worked towards two specific objectives: 1) describe and analyze the access to resources, models of production, the marketing mechanism and some of the agricultural policies implemented in our study area; and 2) determine per household the percentage of food per household that comes from tas. methodology study area this research was carried out in three communities that are part of the calakmul biosphere reserve (cbr) in campeche, mexico (figure 1). unión 20 de junio (mancolona) located to 43 km to the north of xpujil, the municipality, 20 de noviembre located 15.5 km to the southwest (18° 27' 06" n and 89 ° 18' hernandez et al. 2017. ethnobiology letters 8(1):125–141 127 research communications 25" w) and narciso mendoza located 33 km to the south (18 ° 13' 50" n and 89 ° 27' 12" w). this region’s climate is warm sub-humid ax '(w1) with an average annual temperature of 24.9 °c. mean annual rainfall varies from june to november, averaging 1,000–1,500 mm per year. the dry season is from december to april, with over 50 mm during january, which allows agricultural production in autumn and winter (pool et al. 2000; villaloboszapata and mendoza 2010). the phreatic level is between 60 to 300 m above sea level with high gypsum content, so the water is not suitable for drinking or irrigation. it has karst landscapes with high rates of permeability, causing water to drain intermittently (municipio de calakmul and proyecto prosureste gpz-conanp 2015). calakmul is in the intertropical convergence zone (itcz), which has periodic droughts and hurricanes, to which the peasants must adapt (vallejo et al. 2011). the most representative soils in the area are rendzinas, gleysols, vertisols and lithosols (inecol 1999; pool et al. 2000). calakmul contains the most extensive forest area of the mexican tropic, whose climatic and edaphic characteristics have the peculiarity of forming a mixture of forest landscapes: mainly medium semi-evergreen forest, sub deciduous forest, low forest and savannah floodplains (martínez and galindo-leal 2002; noriega-trejo and arteaga 2010; pool et al. 2000). calakmul is characterized by a constant fluctuation in the occupation of the land. the community is composed of settlers from 23 states of the country with a strong indigenous component (ellis and porter 2007; gurri et al. 2002). migration has contributed to the high cultural diversity in the region, and it has also created a vegetation mosaic with different types of land use, intensities, and types of production (bovin et al. 2000; municipio de calakmul and proyecto prosureste (gpz-conanp) 2015). nevertheless, these communities are in a region with poor soils and highly unstable rainfall, which leads to a low agricultural production (ellis and porter 2007). a subsistence-oriented peasant economy predominates throughout the study area, but they are figure 1 study area location. hernandez et al. 2017. ethnobiology letters 8(1):125–141 128 research communications increasingly integrated into a market economy. the main economic activities are agriculture and livestock production. animal husbandry is carried out in homegardens (91%) and the rest in pasture areas (gurri et al. 2002; municipio de calakmul and proyecto prosureste (gpz-conanp) 2015). there are also important groups that produce honey, allspice, chewing gum, resin, and chili. the total land area used for growing maize is more than 10,000 hectares with a production dedicated to selfconsumption and with yields of 0.8 ton/ha (municipio de calakmul and proyecto prosureste (gpz-conanp) 2015). maize, chihua squash, chili, and beans are cultivated in the milpa (gurri et al. 2002). the community unión 20 de junio (mancolona) has a total population of 449 inhabitants, 87% belong to an indigenous group. on 20 de noviembre there are 218 inhabitants and 39% indigenous people. finally, narciso mendoza has a population of 364 inhabitants and only 3% speak some indigenous language (inegi 2010). sampling design this study was conducted in three communities that represent three different cultural backgrounds: tseltal -chol mayan (unión 20 de junio), yucatec mayan (20 de noviembre) and mestizo (narciso mendoza). altogether nine families, three in each village, were chosen based on the ethnic origin and were identified for certain shared characteristics, namely: migrants, pluriactive families, and certain agricultural management practices. both communities and families were chosen using local knowledge and guidance from key actors. the sampling design was stratified to observe the differences in their food consumption and production. data collection the theoretical-methodological framework of this research was based on agroecology (altieri 2009a). ethnographic methods for the identification and analysis of social problems regarding fsv of the communities were used (hernández 1985). participant observation, semi-structured interviews, a field log, a diagnostic workshop and documentary research were also employed (chablé-can et al. 2015; huntington 2000; martin et al. 2010). the study was carried out from january to october 2016 (with a total of three previous visits in the area and six visits to families who decided to participate in the project with informed consent). to obtain data, the five indicators of fsv were taken as a guide (ortega-cerda and rivera-ferre 2010). additionally, based on what bello and estrada described (2011), six production and human-nature interaction systems were defined for the calakmul peasants: milpa, home garden (dooryard garden or solar), secondary vegetation (known as acahual), ranch (plot), and the forest (known as monte). a) access to resources. the first indicator considers the access to natural resources as water, land, forests, animals, seeds, infrastructure and basic services (ortega-cerda and rivera-ferre 2010). the data was collected using a field log, semi-structured interviews of key actors and participant families, field visits to the communities, and documentary research. b) production model. this indicator takes the use of traditional agroecological and sustainable practices into consideration, as well as diversified family production (ortega-cerda and rivera-ferre 2010). the information was collected using a field log, semistructured interviews, participant observation, and field visits to the agroecosystems. c) security and food consumption. origin of food, consumption of food, culturally appropriate food, and temporality of food were considered for this indicator (ortega-cerda and rivera-ferre 2010). the percentage of food produced in traditional agroecosystems, the forest, and non-local production systems was recorded using and adapting the dietary diversity tool (hoddinot 2001) in a participatory diagnostic workshop (chablé-can et al. 2015). to carry out this activity, families were summoned two days before. once in the workshop, family members wrote down in a piece of paper each of the foods they consume throughout the year, origin (production or purchase), the frequency with which they consume those food items and the season of the year in which those foods are produced. in terms of frequency, seven categories were made and a numerical value was assigned to each category: occasional (1), seasonal (2), monthly (3), every two weeks (4), weekly (5), three times a week (6), and daily (7). for every food item, a sum of frequencies was made by families and finally by cultural-ethnic group. regarding the origin of the food, the participants indicated the place of production and/or purchase. twenty-seven people between nine to 55 years old participated in the workshops. this technique allowed the social actors hernandez et al. 2017. ethnobiology letters 8(1):125–141 129 research communications to play an active role in the execution of the research process. d) transformation and commercialization. this indicator includes local marketing, direct selling or with a minimum of intermediaries (ortega-cerda and rivera -ferre 2010). to collect this data, we used semistructured interviews, participant observation, and some of the information was also derived from the participatory diagnostic workshop. e) agricultural policies. the last indicator considers participation in decision-making and peasant social organization related to food production, consumption, and commercialization (ortega-cerda and rivera-ferre 2010). this information was collected through semi-structured interviews of key informants and participant families, as well as documentary research. data analysis to organize, describe, and interpret the data collected in the field, the information was classified according to the corresponding fsv indicator using the qualitative method of data analysis described by miles and huberman (1994), which consists of three phases: data display, data reduction, and conclusion drawing and verification. this method was enriched with a coding tool (miles and huberman 1994; patton, 2002). the numeric values used to obtain descriptive statistics were analyzed with r studio software. results indicators of food sovereignty a) access to resources. the people from unión 20 de junio (la mancolona) arrived to campeche in 1978 but in 1989 when the calakmul biosphere reserve (cbr) was established, the community overlapped with the cbr core area. as a consequence, the community moved again to the cbr buffer zone, where nowadays, 60 small co-owners have private lands (mendez-lopez et al. 2014). the ejido narciso mendoza was founded in 1976 with 51 ejidatarios originating from tabasco and veracruz. the ejido extension is 3,979 hectares (barbosa et al. 2010). the ejido 20 of november was founded in 1970 with yucatecan mayas originating from dzitbalché, campeche. they are 100 ejidatarios and the ejido extension is 36,800 hectares (barbosa et al. 2010). access to water is limited, especially in times of drought. agriculture in the three communities is rainfed. with respect to water consumption for domestic use (table 1), most households obtain it from rainwater harvesting systems, either in the community or through water tanks at their homes. the only community that has water wells in their homes for the extraction of the resource is 20 de noviembre. families reported that during drought season they occasionally use domestic water to water some plants grown in the home garden. families conserve and grow their own seeds— some have even brought them from their places of table 1 food sovereignty indicator. access to resources: natural resources, infrastructure, and basic services. source: own elaboration based on the information obtained from the interviews and inegi (2010). *same as above. communityindigenous group resources water land/ forest seeds infrastructure and basic services unión 20 de junio (tseltal-chol mayan) community rainwater harvesting system (waterhole) private conserve and cultivate their own seeds. receive maize seeds from a governmental program. population with access to health service 94% and with schooling 93%. homes with electricity: 91%. connected to the municipality by highway. narciso mendoza (mestizo) piped water and rainwater harvesting per home and community ejidal * population with access to health service 59% and with schooling 90%. homes with electricity: 93% connected to the municipality by highway. 20 de noviembre (yucatec mayan) water well at home ejidal * population with access to health service 58% and with schooling 94%. homes with electricity: 96% connected to the municipality by highway. hernandez et al. 2017. ethnobiology letters 8(1):125–141 130 research communications origin. however, through the government machining program they are given improved maize seed. according to the social, economic and demographic indicators of the national population council (conapo), the three communities have a high rate of marginalization (conapo 2010). b) production model. the production model in the three communities follows a similar pattern of management with a considerable gender distribution of work. men usually work at the milpa, the ranch, or they go to the monte (mountain) looking for wood or hunting. women oversee home garden management, since their domestic activities require more time at home. within the milpa system, people still cultivate varieties of squash (cucurbita pepo), beans (phaseolus vulgaris), chihua (cucurbita argyrosperma), and xpelon (vigna unguiculata). however, improved maize seeds (zea mays) have been incorporated into this traditional system. another way of making milpa is through agroforestry systems, since some fruit and timber species have been established in combination with annual crops. when cultivating and maintaining traditional milpa, no fossil energy source is used since the family’s labor sustains the system. regarding home gardens, which are also known as solares, it was observed that it is also the family work that supports this system. in general, women are responsible for the management of home gardens, which includes activities such as watering, collecting garbage, sowing, and harvesting. however, men perform certain activities such as pruning and sowing annual crops. management practices include pruning trees, which is not done periodically, only when a heliophilous crop such as beans or maize is cultivated. no fertilization is carried out, and in more than half of the home gardens, plant litter and residuals of some crops are collected and burned. there is no composting of the organic waste generated in the domestic unit, since they use this waste to feed their animals. weeding is done by hand with the help of hoe or a machete. no problems related to severe pest attacks were reported, because as farmers mentioned, their chickens serve as a biological control method when feeding on insects. it is noteworthy that the ranch production model is the same as home gardens but on a larger scale. while in the monte only a hunting-gathering process is carried out. c) security and food consumption. a total of 127 foods consumed were registered, on average 60 foods per family. these foods were classified per origin (plant, animal, mineral, and industrial) and use (table 2 and table 3). origin of food from the 127 foods consumed, 70 (55%) are produced. of these 70, 55% come from home garden, industrialized animal origin mineral origin oil* egg* salt* sugar* chicken* mineral condiment* instant* coffee fish* soft drink* pork* pasta* cheese* bread* honey* cookies* beef wheat flour shrimp tuna turkey milk lard ham hunted animals chocolate duck sausage zats worm (arsenura armida) mayonnaise tinned fruit tinned beans sauce table 2 list and classification of foods consumed from animal, mineral and industrial origin. *higher frequency of consumption. source: own elaboration. hernandez et al. 2017. ethnobiology letters 8(1):125–141 131 research communications vegetal origin common name scientific name family condiment allspice* pimenta dioica (l.) merril myrtaceae achiote* bixa orellana l. bixaceae cumin cuminum cyminum apiaceae forestry edible guano (corazón) sabal japa arecaceae palma (corazón) no identification no identification ramón brosimum alicastrum swartz moraceae fruit trees lemon* citrus latifolia (tan.) rutaceae banana* musa sp. musaceae orange* citrus sinensis (l.) rutaceae coconut* cocos nucifera arecaceae tangerine* citrus reticulata rutaceae zapote mamey* pouteria sapota (jacq.) h.e. moore & stearn sapotaceae plum spondias sp. anacardiaceae papaya carica papaya l. caricaceae pineapple ananas comosus (l.) merr. bromeliaceae avocado persea americana lauraceae guaya melicoccus bijugatus sapindaceae mango mangifera indica anacardiaceae guaya de monte talisia olivaeformis (h.b. & k.) radlk. sapindaceae caimito chrysophyllum cainito sapotaceae tamarind tamarindus indica fabaceae anona annona purpurea annonaceae chicozapote manilkara sapota (l) van royen sapotaceae guava psidium guajava myrtaceae dragon fruit hylocereus undatus cactaceae soursop annona muricata annonaceae grapefruit citrus paradisi rutaceae apple malus domestica rosaceae bitter orange citrus aurantium rutaceae wild anona annona primigenia annonaceae ciricote cordia dodecandra boraginaceae kolop talisia floresi standley sapindaceae nance byrsonima crassifolia (l.) hbk. malpighiaceae zapote de monte pouteria unilocularis (donn. smith) baehni sapotaceae pear pyrus communis rosaceae star fruit averrhoa carambola oxalidaceae chicozapote inj. unidentified sapotaceae chóoch pouteria glomerata sapotaceae cocoyol acrocomia aculeata (jacq.) lodd. ex mart. arecaceae grosella phyllanthus acidus phyllanthaceae saramuyo annona squamosa annonaceae grains corn* zea mays poaceae beans* phaseolus vulgaris fabaceae rice* oryza sativa poaceae lentil* lens culinaris fabaceae chihua squash* cucurbita argyrosperma cucurbitaceae oats avena sativa poaceae cocoa theobroma cacao malvaceae table 3 list and classification of foods consumed from vegetal origin. (continued on next page) hernandez et al. 2017. ethnobiology letters 8(1):125–141 132 research communications vegetal origin common name scientific name family grains ibes phaseolus lunatus var. lunatus (ibe) fabaceae peanut arachis hypogaea fabaceae green beans phaseolus sp. fabaceae xpelon bean vigna unguiculata fabaceae native soy glycine max fabaceae vegetables onion* allium cepa alliaceae tomato* solanum lycopersicum l. solanaceae habanero pepper* capsicum chinense solanaceae potato* solanum tuberosum solanaceae chaya* cnidoscolus aconitifolius euphorbiaceae chayote* sechium edule cucurbitaceae coriander* coriandrum sativum apiaceae carrot* daucus carota umbelliferae cabbage* brassica oleracea var. capitata brassicaceae yucca* manihot esculenta euphorbiaceae sweet potato* ipomoea batatas convolvulaceae chili (various)* capsicum sp. solanaceae garlic* allium sativum alliaceae radish* raphanus sativus brassicaceae native squash* cucurbita sp. cucurbitaceae zucchini* cucurbita pepo l. cucurbitaceae chives* allium schoenoprasum alliaceae milpa tomate* lycopersicon esculentum p. mill. solanaceae jalapeño pepper* capsicum annum solanaceae macal* xanthosoma sagittifolium araceae cucumber* cucumis sativus cucurbitaceae watermelon* citrullus lanatus cucurbitaceae indian mustard brassica juncea brassicaceae peas pisum sativum l. fabaceae hierbamora solanum americanum mill. solanaceae cantaloupe cucumis melo cucurbitaceae nopal opuntia sp. cactaceae sugarcane saccharum officinarum poaceae chipilín crotalaria longirostrata h.et.a fabaceae parsley petroselinum sativum apiaceae cauliflower brassica oleracea var. botrytis brassicaceae jícama pachyrhizus erosus fabaceae yam dioscorea rotundata dioscoriaceae lemon grass cymbopogon citratus poaceae peppermint mentha sp. lamiaceae jamaica hibiscus sabdariffa malvaceae beetroot beta vulgaris subsp. vulgaris convar. vulgaris chenopodiaceae lettuce lactuca sativa asteraceae momo piper auritum kunth. piperaceae spinach spinacia oleracea chenopodiaceae alcaparra no identification no identification zucchini flower cucurbita pepo l. cucurbitaceae coconut flower cocos nucifera arecaceae (continued from previous page) *higher frequency of consumption. source: own elaboration with taxonomic data of fao 2006; herbario cicy 2010; loezadeloya et al. 2016; macario and sánchez 2003; zizumbo et al. 2011. hernandez et al. 2017. ethnobiology letters 8(1):125–141 133 research communications ranch, and/or milpa, while 33% is exclusively produced on home gardens, 7% on ranch and 5% in milpa. the purchased foods are 39 (34%), and people get them more frequently in distribuidora conasupo s.a. de c.v. (diconsa) and local grocery stores; they also get them at supermarkets, market, and sellers from the municipality. athough six (5%) of the 127 foods are produced regularly, people buy them in times of shortage, these are: maize (zea mays), bean (phaseolus vulgaris), egg, chicken (gallus gallus domesticus), banana (musa sp.) and tomato (solanum lycopersicum). finally, 6% is harvested or hunted in the forest or acahual. on average, the community that produces the most food is narciso mendoza (36), while the one that buys more food is 20 de noviembre (29) (figure 2). consumption of food the most frequently consumed foods are: oil, salt, corn (zea mays), onion (allium cepa), tomato (solanum lycopersicum), sugar, beans (phaseolus vulgaris), egg, rice (oryza sativa), instant coffee, habanero pepper (capsicum chinense), potato (solanum tuberosum), lemon (citrus latifolia), chaya (cnidoscolus aconitifolius), allspice (pimienta dioica), chicken (gallus gallus domesticus), chayote (sechium edule), banana (musa sp.), soft drink, cilantro (coriandrum sativum), carrot (daucus carota), cabbage (brassica oleracea), yucca (manihot esculenta), sweet potato (ipomoea batatas), orange (citrus sinensis), chili (various), fish (unidentified), garlic (allium sativum), coconut (cocos nucifera), pasta, pork (unidentified), bread, lentil (lens culinaris), radish (raphanus sativus), native squash (cucurbita sp.), zucchini (cucurbita pepo), chives (allium schoenoprasum), cheese, milpa tomato (lycopersicon esculentum), chihua (cucurbita argyrosperma), and jalapeño pepper (capsicum annum) (figure 3). it’s important to emphasize that even though habanero pepper (capsicum chinense) is one of the most consumed foods, only one third of the families (yucatec mayan) cultivate it. the main sources of animal protein in the communities are egg and chicken (gallus gallus domesticus), followed by pork (unidentified). animal husbandry takes place in home gardens. people can also buy meat in the community and occasionally in the municipality. in figure 4, we can see that the most consumed foods are bought in the store (41%), such as oil, salt, onion, tomato, sugar, rice, coffee, and potato, whereas 42% of the most consumed foods such as vegetables, fruit, cereals, legumes, condiments, eggs and chicken, come from home gardens, ranch, and/or milpa. the figure 2 origin of food: differences between communities. hernandez et al. 2017. ethnobiology letters 8(1):125–141 134 research communications other 16% is produced in the home garden (8%) or milpa (7%). however, in times of shortage these foods are purchased at the store. by contrast, 31% of foods with lower frequency of consumption come from home gardens and/or ranch and only 13% come exclusively from home gardens, due to the temporary nature of these foods. culturally appropriate food: particularities in food consumption according to the culture there are particularities in food consumption among ethnic groups (table 4). since the three populations are migrants, various plant species have been brought from their place of origin, thus people’s consumption habits are determined by those places and the adaptation to the environment in which they now live. for example, mestizo families from veracruz and tabasco consume shrimp, cacao (theobroma cacao), sugar cane (saccharum officinarum), chipilín (crotalaria longirostrata) and now they also include ramón (brosimum allicastrum) and ciricote (cordia dodecandra) (foods they started to consume when they arrived to the region) to their diet. yucatec mayan communities particularly consume achiote (bixa orellana), ibes (phaseolus lunatus), yam (dioscorea rotundata), and more processed foods such as soda, crackers, wheat flour, and tuna. the community unión 20 de junio is peculiar since it is located furthest from the municipality (43 km). people here do not consume as much industrialized food as in the other communities, and they do not consume dairy products. temporality of food home gardens are a highly important source of food since a lot of products are obtained here. however, milpa is more important since it is in this system where figure 3 foods with higher frequencies of consumption. figure 4 origin of foods with higher frequencies of consumption. hernandez et al. 2017. ethnobiology letters 8(1):125–141 135 research communications the most commonly eaten foods are cultivated, such as maize, beans, squash, and chili. the results of this study indicate that as long as the drought is not excessive, there is food availability into the home gardens and ranches all year. from march to june there is increased availability of produce from fruit trees. the harvesting of food in the milpa begins at the end of august with vegetables such as native cucumber, and ends in april with tubers like sweet potato (this period coincides with the rainy season). the period of food vulnerability specified by alayóngamboa (2014a), coincides with the results of this study, as well as the timing of the preparation of the terrain and the development of the milpa (table 5). the local maize production is insufficient due to long periods of drought. in the community of narciso mendoza, we recorded that the average yield is 0.73 t/ha, while the annual consumption per family is 1.9 t. thus, families need to buy 1.17 t to satisfy their corn consumption, as they also use this crop to feed their animals. given this problem, farmers take advantage of the rainfall in january, which allows agricultural production in autumn-winter, event that is colloquially known as tornamil by farmers. some farmers have even opted to plant maize, beans, and squash within the home garden. d) transformation and commercialization. there is also, but on a smaller scale, an important acquisition of locally produced food. the following foods are bought or shared between families and neighbors, and even sold in nearby communities: egg, lemon (citrus latifolia), chayote (sechium edule), banana (musa sp.), cilantro (coriandrum sativum), yucca (manihot esculenta), sweet potato (ipomoea batatas), orange (citrus sinensis), coconut (cocos nucifera), pork (unidentified), radish (raphanus sativus), zucchini (cucurbita pepo), milpa tomato (lycopersicon esculentum), chihua (cucurbita argyrosperma), achiote (bixa orellana), macal (xanthosoma sagittifolium), mandarine (citrus reticulata), mexican plum (spondias sp.), hierbamora (solanum americanum), caimito (chrysophyllum cainito), chipilín (crotalaria longirostrata), chicken (gallus gallus domesticus), carrot (daucus carota), cabbage (brassica oleracea), chili (various) (capsicum sp.), zapote mamey (pouteria sapota), indian mustard (brassica juncea), pineapple (ananas comosus), mangoe (mangifera indica), ibes (phaseolus lunatus), lettuce (lactuca sativa), and grosella (phyllanthus acidus). some foods are commercialized through foreign intermediaries who are responsible for collecting the products in the communities. there are also producer societies like the ones who produce allspice (pimienta dioica) and honey, which are already organized to sell their products. the most important commercialized foods are: lemon (citrus latifolia), allspice (pimienta dioica), cilantro (coriandrum sativum), radish (raphanus sativus), zucchini (cucurbita pepo), mandarine (citrus community-indigenous group foods unión 20 de junio (tseltal-chol mayan) chayote, banana, indian mustard, mango, green or tender beans, anona, lemon grass, hunted animals, and momo. there was no consumption of dairy products. narciso mendoza (mestizo) orange, chili (various), yucca, native squash, jalapeño pepper, macal, shrimp, avocado, cocoa, turkey, sugarcane, chipilín, parsley, jicama, dragon fruit, cumin, grapefruit, ramón and ciricote. 20 de noviembre (yucatec mayan) lemon, soft drink, coriander, cabbage, radish, zucchini, cheese, milpa tomato, cookies, achiote, watermelon, tortillas made of wheat flour, plum, tuna, oats, peas, ibes, melón, milk and yam. table 5 food production temporality in traditional agroecosystems. t = production time; p = moderate production; empty = no food availability; and r = presence of rainfall. source: own elaboration based on the information obtained from the field search and alayón-gamboa (2014a). table 4 particularities in food consumption according to the culture. *see table 3 for scientific names. jan feb mar apr may jun jul aug sep oct nov dec milpa t t t t t t t home garden/ranch p p t t t t p p p p p p alayón-gamboa, 2014 t t t t t t t rainy season r r r r r r r hernandez et al. 2017. ethnobiology letters 8(1):125–141 136 research communications reticulata), honey, cucumber (cucumis sativus), and pitahaya (hylocereus undatus). e) agricultural policies. existing organizations in food production and marketing are regional, some families from narciso mendoza and unión 20 de junio (la mancolona) are part of the organization for the commercialization of pepper xanich s.p.r. of r.l. which has 47 partners from 11 communities. on the other hand, there is the union of ecological apiculture societies of calakmul (usaec), which sells bulk honey to different buyers and commercial chains. usaec groups around 250 beekeepers distributed in 25 communities, including narciso mendoza. regrding participation in decision-making, the only participation is with respect to carrying out some programs implemented by non-government organizations, but there is no influence on local public policies about food production or food security. discussion a) access to resources the greatest vulnerability from lack of access to a vital resource comes during periods of drought in calakmul the area. however, the families practicing traditional agriculture have adapted to the local environment with a flexible strategy where losses in one subsystem are replaced by others with similar functions, as described by vallejo et al. (2011). the inhabitants of calakmul, due to migrations and long periods of drought, are still in the process of learning and adapting to the conditions of the forest. our finding resonates with what neulinger et al. (2013) found because they mention that migrants try strategies of cultivation of species that are native to their place of origin in order to guarantee their food supply. their knowledge about cultivation of some plant species that grow in the area is still incipient (municipio de calakmul and proyecto prosureste (gpz-conanp) 2015) and nowadays they are still experimenting with species that they bring from their place of origin, such as cocoa and coffee. b) production model traditional agroecological management practices are still preserved, native species are still being cultivated, and people do not rely heavily on external inputs to continue their production, which is also described by chi-quej et al. (2014). however, there is an evident need to reinforce the empirical knowledge of the farmers with current agroecological techniques and specific technical advice. the change from the milpa system to mechanized cultivation of maize could lead to a greater dependence on the use of non-renewable energies, and by doing so, energy efficiency and sustainability could be reduced, making the agroecosystems more vulnerable as mentioned by alayón-gamboa (2014b). a study conducted by alayón-gamboa (2014b) showed that traditional agroecosystems in calakmul are more energy-efficient compared to agricultural systems in transition towards the technification, given the fact that traditional agroecosystems are based on the synergistic use of solar energy and family workforce (alayón-gamboa 2014b; jianbo 2006). similarly, altieri (1999a) states that traditional agroecological systems are energy efficient and they have more stable levels of production per unit area over time, compared to those of intensive farming systems. according to chi-quej et al. (2011) it is necessary to take into account and to carry out international and national policies as strategies of local development. the ecological management of the territory program of the calakmul municipality and the strategy for the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity in the state of campeche indicate actions for the sustainable use of biodiversity, as well as the aichi biodiversity targets which are part of the strategic plan for biodiversity 2011–2020. however, it is still necessary to implement in the communities the actions outlined in these documents. c) safety and food consumption cahuich-campos (2012) found that farmers obtain about 77% of the ingredients necessary for the preparation of their food through these production systems, which differs from our results, since we found that 55% of the food that is produced comes from the home garden, the ranch and/or the milpa. this suggests that they are inherently related production systems. in this sense, food production is a network type system as it relies on several systems (rosado 2012). alayón-gamboa (2014b) points out that there is a high degree of energy exchange between these agroecosystems. according to terán (2011), milpa serves as the organizing axis for the rest of the production systems, since it is the arranging element of culture, due to each socio-cultural system (family or community) has its own dynamics, hernandez et al. 2017. ethnobiology letters 8(1):125–141 137 research communications establishes objectives and is organized so that its productive systems work and can be reproduced. our results are similar to the ones found by alayóngamboa (2014a), and terán and rasmussen (2009), who state that historically, and from the productive point of view, home gardens have played a strategic role for the survival of families, offering complementary food resources to milpa in good years, and essential ones in years of scarcity. thus, the multiple use strategy of natural resources contributes to improve farmers and their families in their quality of life (cahuich-campos 2012). as mentioned by chi-quej et al. (2014) and our results, not all species have the same cultural importance in the three communities, as factors such as the preference for consumption, the type of dishes they prepare and their purchasing power (linked to other economic activities or government support) are combined. at the present time, the change in eating habits threatens the permanence of home gardens (chi-quej et al. 2011). rosado (2012) mentions that when family gardens are lost, other traditional production systems, such as milpa, are lost as well, and the region diminishes its probability of achieving food sufficiency and sovereignty. it is necessary to preserve and consume traditional foods. an example of this was the publication of the calakmul regional recipes, whose objective is to spread and support the culinary culture (flores and gurri 2005). d) transformation and commercialization as our results indicate, there is a small-scale commercialization and intermediaries generally control it, although there are producers who already form part of associations that sell their products or even some of them sell them independently. existing mechanisms could be replicated and adapted for local marketing of surplus products from tas. the ecological management of the territory program of the calakmul municipality mentioned that one of the challenges is to identify commercialization channels so that the surplus products of tas could be sold (calakmul municipality and project prosureste (gpzconanp) 2015). e) agricultural policies on the other hand, fsv is threatened by government social programs that scatter the means of food production and food consumption by the inhabitants. the net impacts of these programs seems to be in the opposite direction to the objective for which they were designed and implemented (olvera et al. 2016; pérez et al. 2012). for example, studies from pérez et al. (2012) and olvera et al. (2016) reveal that the usual diet of rural communities has been affected by the introduction of modern processed foods. this is related to the increasing risks of diseases like obesity and type 2 diabetes mellitus. it has been observed that changes in diet are associated with the availability of money obtained in government social programs or by labor emigration (olvera et al. 2016). alayón-gamboa (2014a) mentions that high government support towards yucatec mayan communities by promoting artisanal activities, is discouraging the importance of agriculture as a means of diversifying income streams. the community 20 de noviembre is an example of this situation because families there buy more food than the families from the other communities, and this situation is also reflected in the plant composition of their gardens compared to the other study sites. in the three communities that are part of this study, despite having highly diverse home gardens, family consumption is focused on few plant species, as cahuich-campos (2012) and alayón-gamboa (2014a) also conclude. given this scenario, moreno et al. (2013) highlight the need to create and apply policies based on the context and the biocultural richness of the region. rosset and martinez (2004) suggest that government support should be given to farmers to stay on their land, conserve active rural economies, promote soil conservation, help maintain sustainable agricultural practices, and promote direct sales to local consumers and the adoption of a healthy diet (pérez et al. 2012). conclusions tas are a type of ecological agriculture, and represent an important source of food for the dietary needs of the local population. it is necessary to reinforce the production model in tas and to emphasize the importance of those modes of production among families to ensure their permanence. the production and consumption of food are embedded in a complex network that responds to changes in the pattern of rainfall and exogenous factors, such as government programs that are not in line with the reality of the social actors and local culture. hernandez et al. 2017. ethnobiology letters 8(1):125–141 138 research communications tas constitutes an important life strategy for the peasant families. however, to ensure the continued contribution of the modes to fsv, it is necessary to streamline the actions of the stakeholders that share the same objective. some of these participants are the academic sector, governmental organizations, nongovernmental organizations operating in the area, management of the biosphere reserve and peasant organizations. ensuring the livelihood provision of the local population can relieve the pressure on the remaining areas of primary forest. it would be advisable to orientate future research to highlight the ecological importance of tas and create adaptive production strategies due to changes in rainfall patterns in order to maintain and increase the productivity of tas. furthermore, it would be appropriate to encourage diversification in the consumption of plant foods, because despite the fact of having highly diverse productive spaces, families focus their consumption on few species, which leads to a dependency because they do not always have the necessary conditions to achieve its production and self-sufficiency. agricultural production must be focused on sustainable practices that allow the existence of natural ecological processes, conservation of biodiversity and at the same time provide diverse, nutritious and culturally appropriate food for the population. to this aim, the strengthening and promoting of agroecological practices play a key role. while it is necessary to meet the basic food needs of the population, it is also essential to ensure the sustainability of this provision as well as the maintenance of other ecosystem services. to achieve this, it is necessary to create a real coordination between the actions proposed in the ecological ordination program of the municipality of calakmul and the strategy for the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity in the state of campeche with the actions implemented with the secretariat of agriculture, livestock, rural development, fisheries and food (sagarpa), the ministry of rural development of the state of campeche, and the corresponding municipal departments. it is essential to guide government policies and programs towards the promotion of local economic development with the active participation of these populations through local organizations. one way to achieve this development in rural areas is by creating local production and consumption circuits where farmers' families sell their products and buy what they need in local populations, as there is potential production that can supply demand at the community level. such a task would allow the conservation and improvement of tas. the social unit for the production and organization of work is the family. it may be significant to consider scaling organizational leadership and decision-making at the community level for commercialization, which involves the creation and support of local markets, direct sales to the consumer, or with a minimum of intermediaries. acknowledgements we thank dr. fabien sylvain jacky charbonnier for his valuable comments and contributions to this article. we also thank the participation of the families in calakmul who welcomed us in their homes and shared part of their life with us. map collaboration by gisel puc is gratefully acknowledged. finally, we would like to thank albert chan dzul for bringing us closer to the families and to mario alberto santiago ortega for his support in the field. declarations permissions: permission was requested from the families involved, ensuring their free and informed participation. sources of funding: none declared. conflicts of interest: none declared. references cited american academy of pediatrics, section on breastfeeding. 2012. breastfeeding and the use of human milk. pediatrics 129:e827–e841. doi:10.1542/peds.2011-3552. alayón-gamboa, j. 2014a. contribución 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andrews and whybrow 2005; behrensmeyer 1991; bernáldez sánchez et al. 2008; borella and borrero 2010; cruz 2007; cruz and muñoz 2010; haynes 1988; hill 1979). additionally, these studies are useful for understanding taphonomic interactions within local ecological communities and their material consequences (marks, bone dispersals, etc.) (behrensmeyer 2007; blumenschine 1989; borrero et al. 2005). this paper summarizes the first results of a longitudinal taphonomic study set up to investigate the histories of four large ungulate carcasses that were deposited in different microhabitats of the salado river valley, mendoza, argentina (figure 1). the objective of these longitudinal studies is to explore the introduction taphonomy is the study of the processes that have acted on organisms during passage from the biosphere to the lithosphere (efremov 1940). it was first developed among paleontologists, but since the middle of last century, it has been adopted by archeologists interested in understanding the paleoecological context of hominin evolution and causes of bone modifications (behrensmeyer and kidwell 1985; brain 1967, 1981). longitudinal studies of carcass disarticulation and bone dispersion contribute to an understanding of how skeletal materials are naturally added to, subtracted from, and mixed within the archaeological record (borrero 2007; weigelt 1989). these studies focus on the variability of taphonomic processes within the same taxon in different landscapes (borrero 2007; nasti 2000), or on understanding inter-taxonomic differences within the same landscape (bernáldez sanchez et al. 2008; cruz and longitudinal taphonomic studies of mammal carcasses from the rio salado valley, mendoza, argentina clara otaola1* and alfonsina tripaldi2 1instituto multidisciplinario de historia y ciencias humanas (imhicihu), consejo nacional de investigaciones científicas y técnicas (conicet), buenos aires, argentina. 2instituto de geociencias básicas, aplicadas y ambientales (igeba), consejo nacional de investigaciones científicas y técnicas (conicet) and departamento de ciencias geológicas, universidad de buenos aires, buenos aires, argentina. *claraotaola@conicet.gov.ar abstract taphonomic studies aid in understanding the transition of organic matter from living contexts (the biosphere) to geological contexts (the lithosphere), and how agents and processes affect skeletal remains in the archaeological record. archaeological research in the atuel river valley, mendoza, argentina, has been carried out for several years. however, actualistic approaches to examine local and regional taphonomic processes have only been recently developed in this area. longitudinal studies of disarticulation and dispersion of bones from carcasses are presented here in order to understand how skeletal materials are naturally added to, subtracted from, and mixed within the archaeological record. in this paper we explore variability in the influence of taphonomic processes in different microhabitats of the valley and how these mechanisms impact the potential of mixing during bone deposition in the archaeological record. there are some qualitative differences between carcasses deposited in different landforms, showing that each place has its own taphonomic history, principally influenced by the geomorphic and ecologic processes that operate in different landforms. received september 5, 2015 open access accepted january 11, 2016 doi 10.14237/ebl.7.1.2016.478 keywords taphonomy, actualistic studies, mountain environments, zooarchaeology copyright © 2016 otaola and tripaldi; licensee society of ethnobiology. this is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution-noncommercial 4.0 international public license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0), which permits non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. otaola and tripaldi. 2016. ethnobiology letters 7(1):1–13. 2 data, methods & taxonomies variable influence of taphonomic processes in different valley microhabitats and how these mechanisms impact the potential of mixing during bone deposition in the archaeological record. archaeological research in the salado river valley has been carried out for several years (see lagiglia et al. 1994; neme 2007); however, this is the first study using actualistic approaches to examine local and regional taphonomic processes. in this paper, one goal was to analyze the influence of post-depositional processes on large mammal carcasses within different geomorphic contexts in a cold high-elevation environment. a second goal was to identify taphonomic variability in order to understand site formation processes through deposition of faunal remains within different landforms on the same river valley. methods and materials carcasses of cattle (bos taurus) and horses (equus caballus) with different degrees of skeletonization, disarticulation, and dispersion were selected for this taphonomic study. carcasses were found in four locations of the salado river valley (andes cordillera of mendoza, figure 1; table 1), within the patagonia phytogeographic region (cabrera 1971). the patagonian semidesert and steppe average 200 mm in annual precipitation, with a range of 120–600 mm (paruelo et al. 1998). most rainfall occurs during the winter. this desert is characterized by a xeric bushy steppe of mulinum spp., chuquiraga spp., and festuca spp., among others (cabrera 1971; roig et al. 2000). the study area is characterized by low shrub vegetation, mixed with grasses and occasional herbaceous steppe (capitanelli 2005). the general weather conditions in this area are defined as the desertic arid mountain climatic zone (abraham and rodriguez marínez 2000; capitanelli 2005). the locations of the carcasses present different sedimentological and geomorphological characteristics (figure 2a). the carcass observations were carried out in an area seasonally used by “puesteros,” traditional ranchers who live in the andes and nearby piedmont, and who practice seasonal transhumance (otaola et al. 2015). this means that the carcasses are deposited in an active herding area and that they might be affected by herding activities. the herded animals are usually goats, but cows and horses also are fed there. other domestic animals that live among them are dogs. regarding the native fauna, guanacos (lama guanicoe), pumas (felis concolor), and red fox (pseudalopex culpaeus) are the largest mammals present in the area. carcass 1 (c1; rock shelter carcass) was located about 55 m above the margin of arroyo colorado creek, 35° 13’ 07” south latitude and 70° 04’ 32.6” west longitude, at 2268 m asl (figure 1), under a rock shelter formed by mesozoic sedimentary rocks outcropping in a colluvial slope (hillslope gradient of 64–67%). according to information given by the local rancher mr. julio corales, this animal met its death due to starvation two years before our first observation. evidence of a recent campfire was found during one of the site visits indicating that the shelter is used by contemporary herders. c1 is located in a dynamic erosional and depositional setting, and some vegetation in the form of bushes grows nearby. the location is characterized by sediments of variable particle size (silt to pebble) from high-energy water currents around debris cones, in addition to rock fall and sedimentation from hillslope creep (figure 2b). some bones were partly buried, and in order to check if figure 1 location of the taphonomic longitudinal study areas in the rio salado valley, mendoza, argentina. satellite image source esri, digital globe. otaola and tripaldi. 2016. ethnobiology letters 7(1):1–13. 3 data, methods & taxonomies those bones were part of the skeleton of this carcass, a test pit was excavated in the shelter, the results of which are described below. carcass 2 (c2; wet meadow carcass) was located at 35° 13' 8.02" south latitude and 70° 4' 31.04" west longitude, 2045 m asl (figure 1). this carcass was found ~150 m from carcass c1, in a wet meadow developed at the apron of a steep colluvial slope (hillslope gradient of 64–67%) and approximately 25 m above colorado creek, a braided stream incising into glaciofluvial deposits; the nearby vegetation consists of grasses. the wet meadow receives water from a spring and forms a small pond that varies in size due to seasonal rainfall. the totally skeletonized carcass was deposited in silty sediments with ~40% angular pebbles, accompanied by abundant vegetation figure 2 a satellite view of the landscapes associated with the four carcasses analyzed in this study, b rock shelter carcass (c1), c wet meadow carcass (c2), d colluvial slope carcass (c3), e glacial moraine carcass (c4). the photos in the right column show the condition of the carcasses during the first stage of observations. satellite image courtesy of google earth. otaola and tripaldi. 2016. ethnobiology letters 7(1):1–13. 4 data, methods & taxonomies due to the humidity of the meadow (figure 2c). this animal met its death twelve months before our observations, according to the details given by the same local rancher. carcass 3 (c3; colluvial carcass) was deposited ~80 m above the braided plain of el desecho creek, at 35° 11' 54" south latitude and 70° 03' 48" west longitude, 2065 m asl (figure 1) on poorly sorted colluvium (silt-sand to angular pebbles) related to debris cones with a 28–35% hillslope gradient. according to local ranchers, this carcass was deposited twelve months before our first observation in 2008. vegetation near c3 is sparse, but present in the form of bushes and grasses. this carcass was less skeletonized than c1, c2, and c4, and most of the elements were articulated. archaeological materials were found in the surrounding area (figure 2d). carcass 4 (c4; moraine carcass) was deposited at 35° 06' 25.9'' south latitude and 70° 08' 48.4" west longitude, 2815 m asl (figure 1) at mid-slope of a high gradient hillslope (28–38%), ~130 m above the valley floor of a creek that drains to the west. c4 was deposited in a partially eroded glacial moraine composed of angular pebbles to fine boulders. the vegetation is sparse, with only some grasses from the patagonian steppe (figure 2e). study observations were planned in two stages. the first stage lasted one year and consisted of regular visits every three months at the midpoint of each season. in the second stage, observations were made once per year, during the summer. in this paper we present data from observations made during three summers, starting from the first observation (summer of 2009) in order to make comparisons at one-year intervals. all carcasses were in different stages of skeletonization, disarticulation, and dispersion at the start of the longitudinal observations (see figure 2, right column); however, our observations are useful for making comparisons about the speed at which many taphonomic variables affect skeletal remains in different microhabitats of this mountain landscape. the variables studied here include disarticulation, dispersion, weathering, burial (measured by the partly buried elements), post-depositional damage made by animals, and extent of fragmentation. in each area, carcass and bone dispersion were mapped. then, each of the skeletonized elements was tallied and analyzed following the same methodology we used for analyzing zooarchaeological specimens from archaeological sites in the region (otaola 2013). disarticulation was measured by tallying the minimum number of elements (mne) observed, and dispersion by measuring the extent of bone distribution. stages of disarticulation are described following cruz and muñoz (2010), and stages of dispersion follow hill (1979). burial process was evaluated by considering those bones that were partially buried (borrero et al. 1993) and bone weathering was estimated considering behrensmeyer’s (1978) scale. this measurement helps to describe the level of bone destruction since death and is related to the local conditions of temperature, humidity, and soil chemistry. the weathering scale proposed by behrensmeyer is a tool used to describe, in an ordinal scale, the level of destruction of the assemblages. the scale has six stages, ranging between 0 to 5, with bones in stage 0 characterized as bones with no signs of cracking, which still have grease and skin, and ligaments may cover part or all of the bone’s surface. on the other extreme of the scale, stage 5 describes bones almost destroyed, which are easily broken by moving (behrensmayer 1978:151). carcass # taxon landform slope date & cause of death c1 bos taurus rock shelter 64–67% 2007, starvation c2 equus caballus wet meadow 64–67% 2008, starvation c3 bos taurus colluvial slope 28–35% 2008, no data c4 bos taurus glacial moraine 28–38% no date, no data table 1 general information on the areas where the carcasses were deposited. mne carcass # 2009 2010 2011 c1 29 35 31 c2 49 3 11 c3 13 50 52 c4 13 9 13 table 2 mne of the four carcasses tallied in each observation. otaola and tripaldi. 2016. ethnobiology letters 7(1):1–13. 5 data, methods & taxonomies animal activities were evaluated through the examination of bone surface modifications, such as gnaw marks or trampling fractures, following criteria proposed by lyman (1994). these variables were then analyzed in terms of change over time within sites and spatial variability between carcasses. results bone element frequencies skeletal part frequencies at the beginning of the observations vary according to the original level of observed carcass skeletonization. rock shelter and wet meadow carcasses were the most skeletonized at the beginning of these studies and colluvial slope and moraine carcasses had more soft tissue surrounding bones (table 2; figure 3). the rate of carcass disarticulation varies by site. rock shelter (c1) and moraine (c4) carcasses maintained a consistent mne over the three years of observations. in contrast, there was a decrease in mne from the wet meadow carcass (c2) figure 3 modification of the carcasses across time. a mne, b bone dispersal, c number of bones partially buried, d percentage of bones with weathering present, e percentage of bones with carnivore marks present, f percentage of fragmented bone. otaola and tripaldi. 2016. ethnobiology letters 7(1):1–13. 6 data, methods & taxonomies over time, indicating that this microenvironment is highly dynamic. at initial observation, the colluvial slope carcass (c3) was in early stages of disarticulation; as a result, mne increased over time as more elements became skeletonized (figure 3a). dispersion once the elements became disarticulated from the carcass, the process of dispersion and/or burial began. this process is conditioned by the energy of depositional processes (mainly related to slope gradient), the kind of sediments, and animal activities that disperse skeletal elements in each area. in our observations, wet meadow (c2) and moraine carcasses (c4) had higher dispersion rates than those located in the rock shelter (c1) and colluvial slope (c3) areas. this difference is likely related to carcass location, as c4 lies at the mid-slope of a steep hillside and c2 on a wet meadow, a microenvironment with a high sedimentation rate due to frequent flooding. moreover, the wetland (c2) is a water source that attracts many animals, which contribute to the disarticulation of carcasses and the dispersion of bones. in addition, the drainage of the wet meadow likely contributed to the erosion and transport of bones. the rock shelter carcass (c1) is protected by the wall of the shelter, and the colluvial slope carcass (c3) was less disarticulated at the beginning of the observations because it was not fully skeletonized (table 3; figure 3b). bone modification bone damage is an important consideration for evaluating the potential loss of identifiability of faunal specimens. weathering, fragmentation, and carnivore damage are considered here. it is important to mention that snow covers all the carcasses during winter, and that c1 was covered by snow until springtime, as the shadow of the rock shelter prevents snow from melting quickly. at the beginning of the study each carcass had at least 80% of skeletonized elements weathered (table 4). lower stages were present in the first observations, and all stages in the last (figure 4). it is expected that weathering increases with time, and this was observed in c2 and c3. however, some differences were observed between carcasses. the carcass located in the rock shelter (c1) showed an increase in the number of bones weathered in the second observation, with all the elements weathered, but in the fifth observation there were some unweathered bones due to the re-exposure of previously buried specimens (figure 3d; figure 4). animal agents affecting carcasses produced carnivore (figure 5) and trampling marks on bone surfaces. in another taphonomic study carried out in this area, it was observed that carnivores are one of the main agents affecting animal bones in open-air sites (otaola 2014). the rock shelter carcass (c1) has only a few bones with evidence of carnivore gnawing, and the wet meadow carcass (c2) did not show any evidence of this kind of damage. the carcass located in the colluvial slope (c3) did not exhibit carnivore activity in the first observation, however, this changed in the second observation, when we observed the appearance of gnawing on some bones. the moraine carcass (c4) exhibited the most evidence of this kind of damage in the first two observations, but in the last one, there were no bones with gnaw marks (figure 3e; table 4), which suggests that they were carried away or completely destroyed. bones were not highly fragmented in most of the carcasses. c4 (moraine) produced the highest frequency of fragmented bones in all the observations. in the rock shelter carcass (c1), one of the bones was fractured in the second observation and only five elements were fractured by the end of this study. the table 3 dispersal of the carcasses measured in meters squared in each observation. dispersal (m2) carcass # 2009 2010 2011 c1 24 45 56 c2 110 82 320 c3 9 16 78 c4 240 450 580 table 4 bone modifications of the four carcasses analyzed in this study over three observation periods. weathering fragmentation carnivore marks carcass # 1st 2nd 3rd 1st 2nd 3rd 1st 2nd 3rd c1 23 79% 35 100% 27 100% 0 0% 1 3% 5 16% 1 4% 0 0% 0 0% c2 25 88% 3 100% 10 91% 6 13% 0 0% 0 0% 0 0% 0 0% 0 0% c3 12 92% 45 90% 48 92% 0 0% 2 4% 3 6% 0 0% 2 4% 2 3% c4 13 100% 9 100% 13 100% 7 54% 4 40% 7 64% 4 28% 3 30% 0 0% otaola and tripaldi. 2016. ethnobiology letters 7(1):1–13. 7 data, methods & taxonomies fractured bones included ribs with mechanical fractures, possibly caused by domestic animal trampling. in the wet meadow carcass (c2), intensive fragmentation was not observed, since the only fractured bones were registered in the first observation and no other fragmented bone was detected in the following examinations. finally, the colluvial slope carcass (c3) showed only two or three fractured bones in the second and third observations, respectively, which may have been caused by trampling by other domesticate ungulates (horses and cows) in the area (figure 3f). burial regarding the burial of skeletal elements in these different landforms, variability is also related to the geomorphic and sedimentary context of each carcass (table 5). in the rock shelter (c1), the amount of partially buried bones diminished over time. this area receives coarse-grained sediments that buried bones quickly and, at the same time, some of them were reexposed by animal bioturbation (figure 6). for the wet meadow carcass (c2), the number of specimens visible at the surface varied according to the seasonal variation of water level in the meadow. here, the accumulation of sediments caused rapid burial of most parts of the carcass. a similar burial pattern was observed at bahia san pablo, tierra del fuego with comparable waterlogged contexts in which elements were buried before becoming weathered (borrero 2007). carcass c3, located on a colluvial slope, exhibited a small amount of bone burial, which increased over time. finally, in the moraine context (c4), only two second phalanges appeared partially buried, and were recorded during the final observation (figure 3c). excavations near carcass 1 during the first observation of carcass 1, a long bone was emerging from the subsurface (figure 7a). a 1 m2 test pit was excavated in order to examine the depth of bone deposition. excavation followed artificial levels of 10 cm each. a total of four levels were excavated. in level one, two bone specimens figure 4 weathering observed in each carcass, considering the weathering stage (0–5; sensu behrensemeyer 1978) of each bone. c1 rock shelter carcass, c2 wet meadow carcass, c3 colluvial slope carcass, and c4 glacial moraine carcass. each bar represents the number of bones weathered in the different weathering stage tallied in each observation (one-year interval). otaola and tripaldi. 2016. ethnobiology letters 7(1):1–13. 8 data, methods & taxonomies were found: a rib and an unidentifiable bone, the first one was in stage 3 of weathering (sensu behrensmeyer 1978) and the other bone at stage 1. in the following level, six bos taurus bones were found and identified as being specimens from carcass 1 (figure 7b and c). the recovered elements in this level were a radius, metapodial, first and second phalanges, two tarsals, all of the same laterality and complete, without biotic modifications and unweathered, except for the distal portion of the radius which was the bone that was emerging from the surface. the deepest bone of the carcass was deposited 38 cm from surface, which shows that, at least, in that part of the shelter, 38 cm of sediments were deposited in two years, suggesting a high sedimentation rate. in level three, we found a peach pit, a carbon fragment, and a medium sized mammal rib. in the last level (level four), no other materials were found, so we decided to stop the excavation there. discussion the archaeological record displays an average of taphonomic conditions in which human, other biotic, and abiotic processes influence faunal remains (wolverton et al. 2014). some attributes of noncultural assemblages are virtually indistinguishable from attributes that archaeologists have believed to be created by human behavior alone, and others are now identifiable as non-cultural traits thanks to an extensive list of actualistic taphonomic studies carried out in the last decades. even though the present study has a lack of control of some variables, something which is expected from actualistic naturalistic studies (sensu marean 1995), it gives some clues that could help zooarchaeologists to build taphonomic models of the factors that could affect faunal record in rock shelters, wet meadows, colluvial slopes, and moraine settings. qualitative differences between carcasses deposited in the analyzed landforms are summarized in table 6. the context with the highest sedimentary depositional rate was the wet meadow (c2), followed by the rock shelter (c1), and finally the colluvial slope setting (c3) and the glacial moraine (c4), which have the highest slope gradient and are associated with carving and gullying. regarding taphonomic processes associated with vertical migration and burial, the wet meadow (c2) and the rock shelter (c1) are the most dynamic settings. in the rock shelter the potential mixing of archaeological materials with contemporary materials is high, as demonstrated by rapid burial of some elements but not others, even though horizontal movement of bones is limited by the shelter wall. vertical migration is more likely to occur due to sedimentary contributions from the colluvial slope and from faunal and human activities. the latter could be inferred by the presence of hearth ashes and gnaw figure 5 the carnivore damage present in carcass 1. figure 6 partly buried elements at carcass 1 location. table 5 partly buried bones observed in each carcass during three years of observations. partially buried carcass # 2009 2010 2011 c1 15 51% 15 42% 10 31% c2 5 10% 2 66% 3 27% c3 1 8% 2 4% 4 7% c4 0 0% 0 0% 2 15% otaola and tripaldi. 2016. ethnobiology letters 7(1):1–13. 9 data, methods & taxonomies marks on bones. in the wet meadow, vertical migration and horizontal movement were high, which indicates that mixing of archaeological deposits would be likely. however, because materials are buried somewhat rapidly, faunal preservation could be enhanced. as we mentioned above, in the moraine and colluvial contexts vertical migration is low. in these two sites, horizontal dispersion seems to be more problematic than vertical movement of carcasses and bones. the level of fragmentation and carnivore damage is not high for any of the carcasses. as shown in table 4, fragmentation was observed in a few elements of each carcass, and carnivore damage was low in three of the four carcasses with none in carcass 2. weathering was a main variable affecting bone preservation. as shown in figure 4, all carcasses have bones that reached stage 3 and carcasses 1 and 3 have a few bones that reached stage 4 in the final observation. from the information recovered in this study, it is possible to observe which processes predominate in each depositional context and make some comparisons with similar records in other parts of the world. rock shelters are places where animals die because they offer shelter, and this was observed in our study and in other areas of argentina (cajal and ojeda 1994; cruz 1999; rindel and belardi 2006). the hearth detected in the rock shelter where carcass 1 was deposited indicates that humans used this shelter as a refuge, and the presence of cattle bones suggests this place was probably used as shelter by animals too. in a taphonomic perspective, this implies a great potential for mixing of natural and cultural materials, and in this regard, it is necessary to consider the modifications a carcass suffers in a natural context like this. in our three-year study, we found little to no change in the number of bone specimens disarticulated from the carcass located in the rock shelter and no substantial weathering was observed. horizontal dispersal was low in comparison with the carcasses located in the wet meadow and in the glacial moraine. vertical migration was observed; a specific sequence of burial and re-exposure for some elements was recorded. the sediments surrounding the cranium of the carcass were partially removed by animals searching for nutrients within the carcass. evidence for excavation by carnivores was observed in other actualistic studies carried out in this area (otaola 2014). excavation at this site allows us to infer a high rate of sediment deposition and also demonstrate that there are differences in bone burial in this small area. over two years, some elements reached 38 cm in depth while others remained on the surface. this is different from table 6 qualitative variation of postdepositional processes measured in this study. carcass # variable c1 c2 c3 c4 landform rock shelter wet meadow colluvial slope glacial moraine taxon bos taurus equus caballus bos taurus bos taurus depositional rate high high low null weathering moderate high high low horizontal dispersion low high moderate high vertical migration moderate high low null figure 7 test pit near carcass 1. the bones observed in a and b are part of carcass 1 seen in c. otaola and tripaldi. 2016. ethnobiology letters 7(1):1–13. 10 data, methods & taxonomies what was observed in other actualistic studies of rock shelters, in which a thick layer of sheep dung prevented burial of bones (rindel and belardi 2006). in archaeological sites located in lacustrine deposits or on river margins, one of the usual questions concerns the origin of the bone assemblage and the role of water in the formation of the deposit (bonomo and massigoge 2004; gutiérrez and kaufmann 2007; kahlke and gaudzinski 2005; kaufmann and gutiérrez 2004). fluvial effects on faunal remains and the role of water in the formation of the faunal record have been closely studied (behrensmeyer 1975; fernandez jalvo and andrews 2003; gutierrez and kaufmann 2007; nasti 2005; trapani 1998; voorhies 1969) and it has been demonstrated that bones have different displacement potential according to size, shape, and density, and that bones behave differently if they are dry or wet and articulated or disarticulated when they contact the water (coard 1999). the carcass located in the wet meadow in our own study had articulated elements. in this case, the high energy of the wet meadow produced rapid bone burial. at the same time, fluvial processes and animal bioturbation produced significant horizontal displacement and vertical migration of elements. therefore, in this context there was greater potential for mixing of archaeological and modern materials than at the other taphonomic sites of this study. in the colluvial slope site, relatively rapid disarticulation and extensive horizontal dispersion of carcass portions took place. this landform also indicates a significant potential for horizontal mixing. weathering was more rapid in this context than in other landforms such as the glacial moraine and rock shelter, probably due to higher exposure to weathering factors. as already mentioned, the rock shelter and moraine carcasses spend more time per year under snow and the wet meadow carcass suffered rapid burial since it is deposited in a waterlogged place and exposed to surface weathering for less time (andrews and whybrow 2005). finally, in moraine deposits the course of disarticulation was slow, and almost no burial was observed. vertical mixing was less evident, but horizontal displacement was high. scattering of bones could have been produced by carnivores. weathering was light, but the slow burial rate decreases the potential for long-term preservation. the archaeological implications for similar landscape contexts, with sediments largely composed of coarse pebbles, indicate a high probability that zooarchaeological materials will be destroyed prior to burial, making preservation unlikely. as a result, we can expect only highly durable materials (e.g., lithic artifacts) to preserve well in such contexts. conclusions the aim of this survey was to gain some understanding of the rates of weathering, dispersal, and burial of bones in a desert mountain environment. there have been few long-term studies of this nature in these kinds of environments, so even though this ongoing study is based on four skeletons in four different contexts, it offers some insight into taphonomic processes. from our observations, we infer that each context has its own taphonomic history, principally influenced by the geomorphic and ecologic processes that operate in different landforms (see summary in lyman 1994, 2010). we summarize our key conclusions in three points: 1) weathering, as was observed in other longitudinal studies (andrews and whybrow 2005), is difficult to generalize because it depends on the degree to which bones have been buried or exposed. additional data on environmental variables are necessary for a better understanding of the effects of weathering in this area. the rainfall here averaged 200–600 mm per year and in some months snow covered the studied carcasses. in carcasses 1 and 4, the snow covered them for longer periods than carcasses 2 and 3, probably causing slower weathering. this hypothesis will be tested in future observations. 2) dispersal of bones depends on the slope of the place where the carcass is located, geologic agents acting where the bones are deposited, and carnivore activity (hill 1979). 3) burial does not follow unidirectional processes. on the contrary, while some elements get buried very quickly, others could be buried and later resurfaced by carnivores or others agents as was noted in carcass 1. the burial process depends on the sediments where the carcass was deposited and the geological agents acting in the geomorphology of the landforms. the study of the nature of contemporary bone accumulations in natural contexts will help to understand the interactions of several agents of past environments. the data generated from these otaola and tripaldi. 2016. ethnobiology letters 7(1):1–13. 11 data, methods & taxonomies assemblages may be used for constructing hypotheses concerning the processes that affect animals between death and fossilization (hill 1979). the conjunction of this kind of research with experimental actualistic studies where all the variables are controlled is necessary to construct unambiguous models of formation processes of the archaeological record in this area. such studies began a few years ago (corbat 2015; corbat and giardina 2014; otaola 2013) and we will continue developing this actualistic line of research. acknowledgements we thank the corales family for their hospitality during our fieldwork, and ramiro barberena, salvador paulides, adolfo gil, and gustavo neme for helping during fieldwork. we also thank steve wolverton and jonathan dombrosky who helped with the english writing and for their valuable comments on the content of this paper. the review of three anonymous reviewers are appreciated and helped to improve the manuscript. declarations permissions: all permissions for fieldwork were provided by the dirección de patrimonio cultural y museos de la provincia de mendoza. sources of funding: this work was possible thanks to financial support from the consejo nacional de investigaciones científicas y técnicas (conicet) and agencia nacional de promoción científica y tecnológica (anpcyt). conflicts of interest: none declared. references cited abraham, m., and f. rodríguez martínez, eds. 2000. recursos y problemas ambientales de zona árida. primera parte: provincias de mendoza, san juan y la rioja. caracterización ambiental. iadiza, mendoza, argentina. andrews, p., and j. cook. 1985. natural modifications to bones in a temperate setting. man 20:675– 691. doi:10.2307/2802756. andrews, p., and p. whybrow. 2005. taphonomic observations on a camel skeleton in a desert environment in abu dhabi. palaeontlogia electrónica 8. available at: http://palaeoelectronica.org/2005_1/andrews23/andrews23.pdf. accessed on january 28, 2016. behrensmeyer, a. k. 1975. the taphonomy and paleoecology of plio-pleistocene vertebrate assemblages east of lake rudolf, kenya. bulletin of the museum of comparative zoology 146:473–578. behrensmeyer, a. k. 1978. taphonomic and ecologic information from bone weathering. paleobiology 4:150–162. behrensmeyer, a. k. 1991. terrestrial vertebrate accumulations. in taphonomy: releasing the data locked in the fossil record, vol. 9, topics of geobiology, edited by p. a. allison and d. e. g. briggs, pp. 291 –335. plenum press, new york, ny. behrensmeyer, a. k. 2007. changes through time in carcass survival in the amboseli ecosystem, southern kenya. in breathing life into fossils: taphonomic studies in honour of c.k. 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medicine in the present. many folk medicinal practices were neglected and discontinued, and traditional knowledge was forgotten. “our grandparents knew more; now nobody cares about traditions,” one elderly man from tatev lamented. traditional folk knowledge (e.g., medicinal, agricultural, nutritional, architectural, etc.) was replaced both in an overtly imposed way through knowledge retrieved from books and official instructions from the government (e.g., bashkuev 2017) and in less apparent ways through printed propaganda (e.g., boldyrev 2017; mikhlin and kiryak 1985). sometimes, when it was impossible to negate the usefulness of medicinal plants and folk medicine in general, this knowledge was “officialized” and returned to people through propaganda or educational materials as part of soviet knowledge concerning medicine, production, and the household (e.g., eaton 2004; knaus and petroff 1982; medynskiy 1952: 96, 100, 109). mass media, especially printed sources including books, journals, and documents, were among the earliest and longest-lasting sources of introduction the attitude towards traditional knowledge and “official” sources as with the rest of the world, traditional ethnomedicinal knowledge is at risk in armenia and is gradually fading away due to migration, urbanization, and competition with modern medicine and pharmaceuticals. additionally, government propaganda in armenia and other soviet countries emphasized the importance of official education and science and belittled folk knowledge (e.g., allayarov 1993; boldyrev 2017; mikhlin and kiryak 1985; mirakyan 1930)1. the belief in the efficacy of traditional folk medicine and its various applications was considered backward (e.g., boldyrev 2017; khudabashian 1917a, 1917b; malkhasyan 1929; ohanyan 1917; etc.), and folk doctors (hakim—arabic word for doctor) were marginalized by mainstream society (e.g., eaton 2004; knaus, petroff 1982; phillips 2004; q.o. 1917). as a result, many people— especially the younger generations—tried to avoid folk medicine during the soviet period (e.g., ayvazyan 1927; boldyrev 2017; harutyunyan 1927; malkhasyan phytomedicinal knowledge and “official” sources in tatev (armenia) roman hovsepyan1*, nina stepanyan‐gandilyan2, and chris an stollberg3 1ins tute of archaeology and ethnography, yerevan, armenia. 2ins tute of botany, yerevan, armenia. 3hochschule wismar‐ university of applied sciences, technology, business and design, malchow/ insel poel, germany. *roman.hovsepyan@gmail.com abstract ethnographic inves ga ons in the villages of the tatev community in southern armenia reveal the posi ve a tude of the local community toward “official” sources (e.g., printed books, administra ve officials, and people of higher educa on) on herbal medicine and the beli ling of their own tradi onal ethnobotanical knowledge. although this may be a global phenomenon, we observe and discuss par cular reasons specific to the post‐soviet context as condi oned by poli cs and propaganda. nowadays, the local popula on gather and use a minimum of forty wild plants (ethnotaxa) mostly for nutri onal, medicinal, and aroma c (tea and flavoring) purposes. biological species of the tradi onally used medicinal plants of the tatev community were iden fied, and prepara on methods and purposes of the herbal remedies were recorded. the most frequently and tradi onally used medicinal plants of the tatev community belong to these genera: mentha, thymus, ziziphora, hypericum, knau a, arc um, plantago, tanacetum, rosa, and sambucus. received february 14, 2018 open access accepted april 8, 2019 doi 10.14237/ebl.10.1.2019.1266 published june 2, 2019 keywords folk medicine, books, tradi ons, epistemology, herbal market copyright © 2019 by the author(s) licensee society of ethnobiology. this is an open‐access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution‐noncommercial 4.0 international public license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by‐nc/4.0), which permits non‐commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. hovespyan et al. 2019. ethnobiology le ers 10(1):23‐34 24 research communica on this propaganda. because the government controlled all printed media during the soviet period (e.g., blium and farina 1998; markwick 2013; plamper 2001; venclov 1978; etc.), people began to consider all printed sources to be official. this strengthened the respect of the population toward printed sources. in this article we attempt to introduce the attitude of post-soviet armenian society toward the traditional knowledge of folk medicine, focusing on a case study of the community of tatev (figure 1), and address a similar phenomenon in trader-buyer relations in the local market. we do not claim that the special attitude of armenians and others from the soviet union concerning printed sources is unique. it is a common phenomenon and possibly related to a culture of respecting education. we suggest that soviet propaganda contributed to the belittling of traditional knowledge and strengthening the respect the population holds regarding printed sources. the market at the tatev monastery we chose the community of tatev for its large and diverse market of herbs. after the 2010 construction of the wings of tatev, an aerial tramway,3 a street market was established next to the gates of the medieval monastery of tatev, built in the 9th century ad (figures 2 and 3), in response to the rapid increase of tourism in the area. the market extends along the path leading to the medieval monastery and the vegetable oil-pressing factory. the main goods traded in this market are medicinal and aromatic plants, folk remedies, homemade products including various sweets, jams, drinks, spirits, dry yogurt, kinds of honey, handicrafts, and sometimes other village products like grains and fruits (figure 3). our investigation of the market is focused on discovering both traditional and recently learned ethnomedicinal knowledge. the market survives exclusively on trade with tourists, growing and shrinking depending on the season and flow of visitors, and no locals were figure 1 map of the studied region: tatev and neighbouring villages, syunik, armenia. the tatev community: tatev (n39° 23'8.79", e46°14'29.34"; 1500‐1670 m a.s.l.; popula on2–1042), tandzatap (n39°22'27.55", e46°15'27.78"; 1350‐1400 m a.s.l.; popula on2–103), svarants (n39°21'53.63", e46°13'3.52"; 1700‐1825 m a.s.l.; popula on2–283), halidzor (n39° 24'42.03", e46°17'31.46"; 1320‐1400 m a.s.l.; popula on2–602), shinuhayr (n39°26'3.13", e46°18'55.93"; 1470‐1550 m a.s.l.; popula on2–2598), khot (n39°26'34.02", e46°20'10.61", 1450‐1490 m a.s.l.; popula on2–890) and harzhis (n39° 26'6.40", e46°13'23.63"; 1700‐1750 m a.s.l.; popula on2–831). hovespyan et al. 2019. ethnobiology le ers 10(1):23‐34 25 research communica on observed buying any products there. interviews revealed that a small number of locals, including an elderly woman selling wild herbs and garden products (figures 3 and 4), were primarily responsible for initiating the market and that only later did it evolve into a tourist attraction. most of the vendors4 are locals from tatev and the surrounding villages. a networking system has formed among sellers so that the assortment of goods is similar, prices are agreed upon, and sellers support each other when necessary. sellers have at least a basic knowledge of the armenian, russian, and sometimes even english names of the plants they sell as well as each plant’s use and different preparations for remedies and prescriptions. methods the study area is situated in the south of the republic of armenia, in the region of syunik or zangezour, in the basin of the vorotan river (a tributary of the araxes river). we carried out our fieldwork in seven villages belonging to the tatev community (total population n=6107, practically all are armenians2) in the syunik region in armenia during june of 2017, and april and june of 2018 (figure 1). during our research we adhered to the code of ethics of the international society of ethnobiology (2006). we began our interactions with research participants by introducing ourselves, our work, and our plans. then, if we obtained their oral consent, we used semi-structured interviews and direct observations. we began our interviews in the tatev market, because it has the highest apparent concentration of medicinal plants and all the traders presumably possess knowledge about their use. there were 14 boutiques and a corresponding number of traders in the market. all the traders were women of armenian nationality from the tatev village, most of them 45–70 years old (two were younger, around 35, and one was older, over 80). these women all held secondary school education except the eldest, who held an elementary school education. all the traders of the tatev herbal market were interviewed regarding the plants they traded, their uses, preparation methods of the herbal remedies, gathering places, how they or their suppliers gather herbs, and the seasonality of the plants’ harvest. we also inquired about the origin of their knowledge, trading, and the history of the market, although only relevant information from the interviews is presented in this article. along with the process of conducting interviews, we collected samples of the medicinal plants sold in the market for further identification. then, we conducted semi-structured interviews with elderly and middle-aged people in tatev and in the neighboring villages. the majority of our research participants were over 40 years old. since it was suggested to us that women were the main bearers of traditional ethnobotanical knowledge in tatev, elderly women comprise a large portion of our interviews. in general, the occupations of the locals are centered on agriculture and farming. interviews occurred primarily in the yards or in the houses of the research participants and, in several cases, in the fields from which they gather plants (figure 5). the research participants were thus often able to show us particular plants they were discussing as the plants were dried/ conserved in the house or still growing in their natural habitat. in total we interviewed 76 locals, all ethnic armenians, including the traders from the market. the demographics of the interviewees are as follows: tatev: n=40 (♀27, ♂13); tandzatap: n=6 (♀5, ♂1); svarants: n=6 (♀5, ♂1); halidzor: n=11 (♀10, ♂1); shinuhayr: n=7 (♀4, ♂3); khot: n=4 (3♀, 1♂); and harzhis: n=2 (1♀, 1♂). after fewer than 10 interviews, we noticed that information regarding the assemblage of locally known medicinal plants, the purposes of their use, remedy preparation and utilization options and, in general, ethnomedicinal knowledge was mostly similar from one research participant to another, and from village to village. figure 2 the market at the tatev monastery (june 2017). hovespyan et al. 2019. ethnobiology le ers 10(1):23‐34 26 research communica on we consulted the flora of armenia as the principal reference to identify the collected herbarium material (takhtajyan 1954–2010). the selected herbarium material was registered and stored in the herbarium of the institute of botany in yerevan [ere]. results we documented around 40 ethnotaxa of wild plants that were traditionally used by the local population. these plants include around 80 biological species primarily from the following genera: allium, amaranthus, anthemis, arctium, asparagus, berberis, bryonia, carum, celtis, cephalaria, cerasus, chenopodium, cherophyllum, crataegus, echinops, falcaria, heracleum, hypericum, knautia, laser, lathyrus, malus, malva, mentha, papaver, plantago, polygonatum, portulaca, primula, prunus, pyrus, rosa, rumex, salvia, sambucus, satureja, tanacetum, thalictrum, thymus, trifolium, urtica, vicia, and ziziphora, as well as species of the apiaceae family. we assigned the plants to three main categories to distinguish among their primary uses: nutritional, aromatic (flavoring or tea), and medicinal. however, in most cases, there is no strict ascription to a certain group and the locals use the same plant for figure 3 the ar san market along the road to the tatev monastery (june 2017). primarily medicinal and aroma c plants and homemade products (jams, wines, vodkas, honeys, sweets, etc.) are traded here. hovespyan et al. 2019. ethnobiology le ers 10(1):23‐34 27 research communica on several purposes. often those plants which are primarily used for tea (aromatic) or food are also used for prophylactic healing and preventive purposes. in general, the locals consider all wild edible plants as useful and possessing healing features. for example, one man from tatev remarked, “we eat it [the plant] and it is also healthy”. the locals tend to believe that all edible plants have a positive effect, especially on the digestive system. usually they do not specify this effect, noting, “it is good for digestion/belly/ stomach/intestines.” when we asked them to be more specific, they said that, “it heals the stomach and intestines,” specifically helping to heal gastric and duodenal ulcers or relieving the pain caused by ulcers, clearing intestines, and stopping diarrhea. in this article, we present and discuss only the medicinal and aromatic plants. the locals of tatev and neighboring villages know and use 19 ethnotaxa of medicinal and aromatic plants, although the biological taxonomical composition of these plants is more diverse, representing 31 species. in other words, locals use the same name to refer to several plants that usually have a similar habitus (table 1). it is possible that the number of biological species might be higher as locals tend to identify the plants mostly at the biological genus level. members of the tatev community often use the entire aerial (aboveground) portion of the medicinal and aromatic plants, but preferred aerial parts without flowers for certain plants (table 1). infusion in water is the most common method of preparation for the recorded medicinal plants in the region, although preparation methods depend on the purpose of the plants’ use. the water infusions are used mostly to heal internal inflammations of the digestive, respiratory, and urinary-reproductive systems. the use of plants for their hypotensive effect and the regulation of blood pressure is the next most popular employment of these plants. some participants also eat the sour branches or leaves of medicinal plants (berberis, rumex, etc.) to lower their blood pressure. the spirit infusions and home-made vodkas have uses which are similar to those of water infusions. medicinal plants in tatev and the neighboring villages are also used to heal skin inflammations, joint pain, and, in some cases, to treat headaches (possibly associated abnormal blood pressure), and intestinal worms (table 1). our research participants’ knowledge of medicinal plants and folk herbal medicine was acquired from three primary sources: 1) their own family and community, 2) people from other communities (relatives from other regions, guests/visitors, tourists, etc., and 3) “official” sources (books, the internet, tv, local officials, etc.). information learned from the senior members of their family and community is considered traditional by our research participants. there are several pieces figure 4 traders from the ar san market at the gates of the tatev monastery presen ng informa on about the plants they trade (june 2017). hovespyan et al. 2019. ethnobiology le ers 10(1):23‐34 28 research communica on table 1 major medicinal and aroma c plants gathered and used by the popula on of tatev and neighboring villages (syunik region, armenia). plants’ local names scien fic names parts used prepara on remedies/uses tyakhtse / տյախծը mentha spp. (lamiaceae): m. longifolia (l.) hudson aerial parts water infusion an ‐inflammatory: diges ve, respiratory; an hypertensive, “good for heart” khorne / խորնը thymus spp. (lamiaceae): th. eriophorus ronn. th. rariflorus k. koch aerial parts water infusion an ‐inflammatory: diges ve, respiratory; an ‐ hypertensive ziziphora spp. (lamiaceae): z. clinopodioides lam. z. serpyllacea bieb. meshehamouk / մըշըհամուկ hypericum spp. (hypericaceae): h. perforatum l. h. linarioides bosse aerial parts with flowers water infusion an ‐inflammatory: diges ve, respiratory, urinary‐reproduc ve eghenthapa / ըղընթափա cephalaria spp. (dipsacaceae): c. gigantea (ledeb.) bobrov flowers water infusion an ‐inflammatory: respiratory knau a montana (bieb.) dc (dipsacaceae) krouth, kerenknathev / կռութ, կըռընկնաթև arc um spp. (asteraceae): a. palladinii (marc.) grossh. a. lappa l. leaves no prepara on, direct applica on to treat joint pain tekhtekorne / տըխտըկորնը leaves water infusion an ‐inflammatory: diges ve, urinary‐ reproduc ve no prepara on, direct applica on an ‐inflammatory: skin water infusion an ‐inflammatory: respiratory ramashka / «ռամաշկա» leucanthemum spp. (asteraceae): l. vulgare l. aerial parts with flowers water infusion an ‐inflammatory: diges ve anthemis spp. (asteraceae): a. triumfe i (l.) all. tanacetum spp. (asteraceae): t. parthenium (l.) sch. bip. plantago spp. (plantaginaceae): p. major l. tussilago farfara l. (asteraceae) no prepara on, direct applica on an ‐inflammatory: skin (con nued on next page) tsyeuthoran / ծյութորան satureja hortensis l. (lamiaceae) aerial parts water infusion against intes nal worms hovespyan et al. 2019. ethnobiology le ers 10(1):23‐34 29 research communica on table 1 major medicinal and aroma c plants gathered and used by the popula on of tatev and neighboring villages (syunik region, armenia). plants’ local names scien fic names parts used prepara on remedies/uses chaman / չաման carum spp. (apiaceae): c. carvi l. fruits water infusion an ‐inflammatory: diges ve zira / զիռա laser trilobum (l.) borkh. (apiaceae) fruits water infusion “good for heart”, to regulate blood pressure khendzoratsaghik / խնձորածաղիկ trifolium pratense l. (fabaceae) flowers water infusion “good for heart” khenkatsaghik, se‐ vakhot / խնկածաղիկ, սևախոտ origanum vulgare l. (lamiaceae) aerial parts with flowers water infusion an ‐inflammatory: diges ve; to regulate blood pressure mayramakhot / մայրամախոտ teucrium polium l. (lamiaceae) aerial parts with flowers water infusion an ‐inflammatory ankhos / անխոս bryonia spp. (cucurbitaceae): b. dioica jacq. roots spirit infusion “good for heart” water infusion an ‐inflammatory: diges ve; to treat joint pain young sprouts with leaves an ‐inflammatory: diges ve masour / մասուր rosa spp. (rosaceae): r. canina l. fruits water infusion an ‐inflammatory: respiratory khendeghne / խընդեղնը, pangi / պենգի sambucus spp. (adoxaceae): s. nigra l., s. ebulus l. fruits home‐made vodka an ‐inflammatory: diges ve, respiratory; to regulate blood pressure, to treat headaches sezne / սըզնը, halouch / հալուճ crataegus spp. (rosaceae): c. rhipidophylla gand. branches with leaves and flowers, fruits water infusion, ea ng without prepara on (fruits) “good for heart”, an hypertensive, to treat headaches (con nued from previous page) ketsoukhour / կըծուխուր berberis spp. (berberidaceae): b. vulgaris l. (=b. orientalis c. k. schneid.), b. integerrima bunge leaves, young sprouts, fruits water infusion, ea ng without prepara on an hypertensive tandz / տանձ pyrus spp. (rosaceae): p. caucasica fed. fruits water infusion, home‐made vodka, ea ng without prepara on an ‐inflammatory: diges ve (to treat diarrhea) hovespyan et al. 2019. ethnobiology le ers 10(1):23‐34 30 research communica on of evidence to suggest that the medicinal and aromatic plants in table 1 have been used by the locals of this community for at least the last few centuries. these include the presence and popularity of the local names, which is often different from the books; the widespread, persistent, and diverse folk medicinal practices; the narratives about or involving these plants, which have seen continuous use for at least the twentieth and twenty-first centuries; and research participants’ memories from childhood, including the stories told and retold by their grandparents and elders. traditional knowledge of folk herbal medicine is usually backed up by the experiences of research participants and their family members. however, the knowledge a research participant possesses does not always originate from their own family practices. in some cases, a medicinal plant traditionally used in the community is not very popular (such as bryonia dioica, the roots of which are difficult to dig up). in other cases, the preparation method is somewhat complicated and not available to everyone, as with a spirit made of sambucus ebulus. due to these obstacles and also due to differences in family customs, some of the research participants and their family members never used certain plants, never prepared certain remedies, used the remedy in another way, or used it for another purpose. however, they knew about the plants’ remedies, preparations, and uses, and attested that they are traditionally used plants in the community even if they themselves do not prepare and use them. in these cases, our research participants gave us information not only about the ethnomedicinal knowledge of their families, but also about the medicinal plants and phytomedicinal practices of their community in general. thus, they served as intermediaries between us and other members of their community and expanded the coverage of our knowledge. these research participants, who are bearers of community level figure 5 wild plant harves ng ac vi es of the locals (june 2017, armenia). the woman (v. tandzatap) gathered wild “tyakhtse” (mentha longifolia) and “chaman” (carum carvi) from her yard. the man in the center image (v. tatev) was col‐ lec ng “tseuthoran” (satureja hortensis) from a dry slope along the road from devil’s bridge to tatev village. the man in the right image (v. tatev) gathered “meshehamouk” (hypericum perforatum) from the meadows between tatev and tandzatap villages. hovespyan et al. 2019. ethnobiology le ers 10(1):23‐34 31 research communica on knowledge, often transmit that knowledge to younger generations. as our research participants attested, they learned about medicinal plants and folk medicinal practices from their parents, grandparents or other more experienced and usually older relatives and fellow villagers when they participated in or witnessed the gathering of plants. parents, grandparents, and other experienced relatives deliberately teach children and young members of the community during this activity. participants also witnessed plant conservation during winter storage or transportation, preparation, and use. otherwise, children and young members of the community learned plant knowledge from the discussions and knowledge exchanged within the community or heard the corresponding stories through oral lore. our research participants for the most part trust their traditional folk medicinal knowledge and believe in the medicinal efficacy of the plants they use, although sometimes they say the contrary when interacting with “officials”. the attitude toward the information our research participants receive from outside of their community depends on the source. they remembered the plants and herbal remedies about which people from other communities told them, but there was a certain skepticism about the efficacy and safety of these plants and their preparation (“i heard it from x but i am not sure / i do not know does it help or not.”). information from books is considered the most trustworthy. the attitude toward information from the internet and tv is equivocal and mostly depends on the educational level of the research participant; those with a higher educational level, usually also younger, trust tv and the internet less, while elderly people trust all kinds of “official” sources. nowadays, members of the tatev community learn about “new” (non-traditional) medicinal plants and phytomedicinal practices from books, tv, the internet, and other “official” sources. in this way, some novelties may sneak into the folk phytomedicinal practices of the community and these may be considered traditional if the source of knowledge becomes forgotten. we suspect that teucrium polium l. (lamiaceae), which is used as an anti-inflammatory remedy for the digestive system and has already become popular in this community, is such a case, as some of the families we worked with knew this plant but they did not remember it ever being used in their family or mentioned by their parents and grandparents. other wild plants little known or practically unknown to the members of the tatev community include achillea biebersteinii afan., a. millefolium l., artemisia absinthium l., cichorium intybus l. (asteraceae), pinus kochiana klotzsch ex k.koch (pinaceae), salvia verticillata l. (lamiaceae), scrophularia sp. (scrophulariaceae), syringa vulgaris l. (oleaceae), and tilia cordata mill. (tiliaceae). all medicinal and aromatic plants traditionally used in the community (table 1), as well as the above-mentioned (presumably novel) plants are traded in the tatev market. when questioning the traders of tatev market about medicinal plants, they almost always used official names of the plants and referred to books as sources of knowledge. in fact, all traders in the market have some illustrated popular handbook of medicinal plants on hand (such as hovhannisyan 2005 and ghazanchyan 2013; figure 4). suspecting that the traders’ knowledge might be derived from books and possibly that the traded plants were not traditionally used ones, we directly asked them: “did you know about these medicinal plants before?” or “were the locals using these medicinal plants in the past also?” although we referenced and showed the most popular medicinal plants in tatev while were asking the abovementioned questions, the answers were equivocal and confusing. some of the traders told us that they only recently learned about these plants from books and that they did not know about the useful features of those plants before. others attested that most of the plants for sale are popular for the region and are traditionally used as medicinal and aromatic plants. one of the traders, a woman, said: “we know these [medicinal and aromatic] plants very well and use them. our grandparents used them, but we prefer to learn about these plants from books.” our interviews and observations showed that the traders are carriers of traditional ethnobotanical knowledge, but they also enriched their knowledge about traditionally used medicinal and aromatic plants by using books. the traders learned about the above-mentioned “new” medicinal plants from books, from the internet, and from herbalists. we observed a similar situation in the villages as well; when we traveled to different locales and asked people to tell us about the medicinal plants they use, the locals often suggested that we read a corresponding book instead or tried to direct us to somebody with a higher education (teacher, agronomist, doctor, etc.), saying that he/she has hovespyan et al. 2019. ethnobiology le ers 10(1):23‐34 32 research communica on higher education (“he has read”) and will know about it and/or he/she may have books. when we ask them, “why don’t you want to tell us?” the answer was, “i have not learned/read it, i might not know about it.” locals often told us that they are “illiterate” meaning that they have not officially learned or read about the particular question. in one case, an interviewed elderly person wondered: “you are the man with higher education. you should tell me about them [medicinal plants]. instead, you come and ask me?” the investigations show that these regular people with primary or secondary school education, despite their humble, yet sincere, opinion about themselves, possess knowledge about the questions we asked. meanwhile, when we talked to someone with higher education and an official position, such as an agronomist or a teacher, they repeated information taken from books and suggested the books they learned from. we would like to highlight the fact that while introducing the plants, our research participants, who included traders, villagers with higher education, and many of the regular villagers, often used the official names of each plant and often gave preference to the russian names over the armenian ones, although all of them knew the local names. discussion why do some of the traders believe that they did not know these plants before? and why do many of the locals belittle their traditional ethnobotanical knowledge, transmitted through oral lore or direct learning, while overvaluing the books and fellow villagers with higher education or administrative positions? we believe that the reason is the particular attitude the locals of the community have toward written sources. this is especially true in the attitudes toward printed sources and the people who manage these sources, as they are able to understand and interpret the official language and terms. these terms are not familiar to most of the residents of the villages, despite the population being overwhelmingly literate. here we observe a phenomenon where locals consider only that information which they learn through reading written/printed sources to be “true knowledge”. in general, information presented in professional and popular-professional books published in the soviet period was systematic, well organized, rich, and precise. books and other printed sources had richer vocabulary and were accompanied by scientific terms and data, and they also lacked grammatical mistakes as all steps of publication were thoroughly controlled. this is because the texts and speech were composed by educated people who were representatives of the soviet authorities. these experts helped to make the typed texts more respectable to the general public. although printed sources are no longer controlled in the aftermath of the collapse of the soviet union and contemporary books can be published and distributed regardless of their quality, the generation of the soviet period still holds reverence for books. soviet printed propaganda, which highlighted the importance of education and official medicine while criticizing folk medicine, has contributed to the prestige of books and other official sources. while we are confident in this observation, we note that no members of the tatev community specifically mentioned soviet influence as a factor for this trust in written sources. we recorded a similar phenomenon in the trade at the market of tatev. sellers stated during our interviews that their buyers are primarily armenians from armenia and abroad as well as russians who buy medicinal plants and transport them to russia and other countries in which they live. meanwhile, foreigners, particularly from the eu, usa, and canada, are afraid that they may have problems with customs and hesitate to buy herbs. our observations in the market and our analysis of this difference in buyers’ attitudes showed that the buyers’ knowledge of medicinal and aromatic plants has a major decisive role in their choices (this conclusion is confirmed by the traders). armenians seem to know the traded herbs better than the foreigners. furthermore, they comprise the majority of herb buyers, as reported by the traders. in other words, people buy what they know and avoid unknown products. the traders of the market at tatev are already aware of this phenomenon and they have found solutions for the problem. one solution is the use of official names of the traded plants, with the expectation that this will make them more recognizable. the traders use official russian, armenian, and english names of herbs during their spoken interactions with buyers. additionally, the boxes and packs with herbs have stickers with official names of the plant in russian, armenian, or english. another solution is the use of popular illustrated or pop-science books about medicinal plants. almost all of the traders have such books on hand or borrow one from fellow traders. when a seller sees that the buyers have doubts about a particular plant and its use or that the buyer is not hovespyan et al. 2019. ethnobiology le ers 10(1):23‐34 33 research communica on satisfied with the verbal information the seller provides (such as the names and potential uses), the seller will take the book out, find the corresponding plant and show or read out the pertinent articles to lend authority to their claims and convince the customers to buy (figure 4). information from books is respected as official and definitive and is considered more trustworthy by both traders and buyers (the books’ validity is rarely doubted), so the traders of the market in tatev try to inform potential customers by using corresponding books on medicinal plants to sell their own goods. in order to increase the trust of buyers towards the traded herbs, the traders also state that the same plants (e.g., achillea, artemisia, cichorium, etc.) are sold in pharmacies as well (this also was controlled by the soviet government). the traders of the market also give free samples to potential clients to test in order to introduce the goods (herbs, food, drinks) they have for sale and to encourage the visitors to buy their products. using the strategy of implementing plants’ official names and introducing information from books appears to work better with russian tourists as opposed to foreigners of other nationalities. however, it seems that supplying buyers with information from books is much more effective when traders deal with armenians. conclusions we hypothesize that soviet propaganda against folk medicine is the reason that locals in the tatev community belittle their own traditional ethnomedicinal and ethnobotanical knowledge and overvalue the information presented in books or provided by people with higher education and by administrative officials. because official knowledge, education, and propaganda in the soviet period were controlled and distributed primarily via printed media since the earliest stages of the soviet period, regular people began to consider books and other printed sources to be more prestigious than their traditional knowledge. nowadays the same “official” sources contribute to the development of folk phytomedicine and the creation of corresponding “new traditions”. thus, after several decades, soviet propaganda, which was fighting against folk medicine using official sources, nowadays indirectly contributes to the enrichment and preservation of phytomedicinal knowledge and traditions. notes 1corresponding materials may be found in all early soviet period (e.g., 1920s) popular newspapers and journals related to medicine, health, household, and other spheres (e.g., healthy life, healthy lifestyle, health care fronts, female worker of armenia, etc.). 2 the official website of the administration of the syunik region with specific information about the tatev community. http://syunik.mtad.am/aboutcommunities/991/ (in armenian) 3tatever: wings of tatev. facts and advice. http://www.tatever.am/en/wings-facts-and-advice 4there is a counter-shop run by an owner from yerevan that re-sells products bought in yerevan or elsewhere (they advertise their products as being locally produced). acknowledgments we wish to thank all our research participants for their contribution to the current study and particularly samvel parsyan from v. tatev for his contribution and assistance with the organization of our field-work. salpi bocchieriyan copyedited the paper before the submission. declarations permissions: we informed our research participants that we are going to publish the results of our research including the information we got from them and the pictures, which we took with their permission. in many cases, our research participants especially asked to be photographed for further publication (e.g., the photos of those we submit as a part of our paper). sources of funding: none declared. conflicts of interest: none declared. references cited allayarov, kh. a. 1993. the history of traditional medicine in central asia. unpublished doctoral dissertation, scientific research center “medical museum” of the russian medical academy, moscow (in russian). ayvazyan, ye. 1927. the doctor in our village. female worker of armenia 11:28 (in armenian). bashkuev, v. yu. 2017. the confrontation between soviet and tibetan medicine in the late 1920s– early 1930s. power 2:157–162 (in russian). blium, a. v., and d. farina. 1998. forbidden topics: early soviet censorship directives. book history 1:268–282. hovespyan et al. 2019. ethnobiology le ers 10(1):23‐34 34 research communica on boldyrev, r. 2017. propaganda of health and hygiene in the ussr [web page]. available at: http:// 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2001. abolishing ambiguity, soviet censorship practices in the 1930s. the russian review 60:526–544. q.o. 1917. mailbox. healthy life 6-7:30 (in armenian). takhtajyan, a. l. ed. 1954–2010. flora of armenia. vol. 1–11 (in russian). venclov, t. 1978. ussr: stages of censorship. index on censorship 7:61–62. emerging environmental ethics for living with novel fire regimes in the blue ridge mountains fowler. 2018. ethnobiology letters 9(1):90–100 90 research communications special issue on ethics in ethnobiology recreational sites. disturbance management regimes in this region include the concrete actions performed by a succession of societies beginning with huntergatherers and horticulturalists in the prehistoric era, followed by euro-american settlers in colonial times, and then settler descendants as well as public and private land managers in the current era (fowler and konopik 2007). disturbance management regimes intervene in species composition and spatial structure (cox et al. 2016) in ways that influence ecosystem processes—such as succession, water circulation, carbon storage, and soil erosion—and function— including their protective, productive, and social roles. this article focuses on anthropogenic fire as a form of disturbance that, in the fall of 2016, had an unusually strong influence on landscapes in the blue ridge physiographic province of the southern appalachian mountains. the fall 2016 wildfire season caused immediate environmental changes and will likely have long-term effects as well. a spatially and temporally dense cluster of wildfires called the “blue introduction in a context of long-term ecological change fostered by multiple drivers of disturbance, people have been a key agent of change in the southern appalachian mountains for at least 12,000 years (delcourt and delcourt 2004). throughout the history of occupation, human actions together with environmental events (vayda 2009) have constituted the myriad disturbance management regimes (coughlan 2016) that have been shaping southern appalachian landscapes. environmental events that are typical forms of disturbance in the region are windthrow, rain, ice, drought, fungi (e.g., chestnut blight, beech bark disease), and insects (e.g., the hemlock woolly adelgid, balsam woolly adelgid, emerald ash borer, pine beetle) whose impacts cause significant ecosystem change. the most temporally persistent and impactful types of human actions in the region have been harvesting, burning, logging, grazing, and converting habitat from forested terrain to non-forested residential, commercial, and emerging environmental ethics for living with novel fire regimes in the blue ridge mountains cynthia t. fowler1* 1department of sociology and anthropology, wofford college, spartanburg, sc, usa. *fowlerct@wofford.edu abstract this article focuses on anthropogenic fire as a form of disturbance that is having an unusually strong influence on landscapes in the blue ridge physiographic province of the southern appalachian mountains. one series of significant disturbance incidents was the blue ridge complex, which was a dense cluster of wildfires that occurred during the fall of 2016. this article contains ethnographic information that i collected when the blue ridge complex fires were burning and thereafter through the use of participant observation at community gatherings, land management events, and recreational activities. i have also conducted one-on-one interviews with residents of the fire-affected region, land managers, and firefighters. in community gatherings and in conversations with others, people living in the blue ridge complex zone produced a collective ethical assemblage for living in a burning and burned landscape. the spatial and temporal patterns of burning in the fall of 2016 were so distinct from previous years that they may have redefined the blue ridge bioregion’s fire regimes. the proliferation of wildfires during the fall of 2016 also generated occasions for people to formulate their values related to one another, to their nonhuman co-residents, to fire, and to the overall mountainous landscape. received july 11, 2017 open access accepted february 12, 2018 doi 10.14237/ebl.9.1.2018.1049 keywords fire, ethics, pisgah national forest, nantahala national forest, blue ridge mountains, southern appalachia, copyright © 2018 by the author(s); licensee society of ethnobiology. this is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution-noncommercial 4.0 international public license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0), which permits non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. fowler. 2018. ethnobiology letters 9(1):90–100 91 research communications special issue on ethics in ethnobiology ridge complex”1 also fostered a reconfiguration of values among communities in the mountains of western north carolina (wnc), northwestern south carolina, and the portion of north georgia where the rock mountain fire burned. more than 20 wildfires burned approximately 100,000 acres of public and private land in wnc between october and december of 20162. fourteen of the blue ridge complex fires were human-caused (inciweb 2018). lightning is suspected of igniting the boteler fire on october 25, 2016, but the cause is officially still unknown (chávez 2016; hendershot 2017; inciweb 2018) as are the causes of an additional six of the 20 wildfires (inciweb 2018). the blue ridge complex comprised the especially active fall 2016 fire season, and emerged at a time when many people living in the blue ridge mountains experienced novel fire behavior in familiar landscapes. the spatial and temporal patterns of burning in the fall of 2016 were so distinct from previous years that they may have redefined the blue ridge bioregion’s fire regimes. as they witnessed their landscapes burning during the fires and observed the postfire landscapes, residents were provoked into thinking and talking about their morals related to one another, to their nonhuman co-residents, to fire, and to the overall mountainous environment. for about two months, while blue ridge residents were enmeshed in a burning landscape, they were also negotiating their ethical lives. in other words, the wildfires affected “aspects of people’s experiences and perceptions that they…draw on in the process of making ethical evaluations and decisions, whether consciously or not” (keane 2015:27 quoted in weiss 2017:2). the dramatic change in the blue ridge province’s fire regime occurred in spaces that have been undergoing significant social changes, with notable alterations in demographics, policies, and land use. ongoing environmental changes involve shifting annual and seasonal precipitation and temperature. shifts in demography and mobility are forces of change in wnc’s disturbance regimes as is evident in the ignition sites of the fall 2016 wildfire many of which were on or near roadsides. the fire management crews on the 2016 wildfires did not spend all of their time deep inside remote parts of these biodiverse, temperate forests, but instead exhausted their resources protecting “human assets” in the wildland urban interface (wui) along the boundaries of the national forests. more and more second-home owners, retirees, and homesteaders have been cutting driveways, building homes, sculpting naturalistic landscapes, rearranging fuels, and disturbing forests in the wildland urban interface. the national fire protection association’s firewise program is responding to the increase in population densities in the wildland urban interface by organizing neighborhood groups to install defensible space around their homes and to use flame resistant building and landscaping materials. changing disturbance regimes along the edges of the national forests in wnc causes changes to the composition, structure, and function of ecosystems within the national forests’ boundaries. alterations in fire regimes accompany shifts in human communities and in ecosystems. the unprecedented fall 2016 fire season is a case in point. collective values co-emerge with novel fire regimes much of the land burned by the fall 2016 humanignited fires in wnc was within the nantahala and pisgah national forests, which together occupy 1.31 million acres or 22% of wnc. when the forested slopes and valleys of the southern appalachians were burning in the fall of 2016, the actions that land managers took in response to the fires had immediate and long-term impacts on ecosystems. wildland firefighters were attacking fires by constructing firebreaks with small hand tools and large bulldozers, dropping retardant and water from helicopters, and burning off fuels in the fires’ paths using ground and aerial ignition techniques. while the first responders were local salaried and volunteer firefighters, as the fires grew beyond their capacity to control, fire management was turned over to federal incident management teams (imts); namely the southern area type 1 blue team, red team, and gold team; the sierra front type 3 team; and the central montana type 2 team. the imts—at the top of the massive federal fire management hierarchy— controlled operations and coordinated their activities with state agencies and local firefighters and law enforcers. at the same time, wildland firefighters were engaging with people outside of their institutional boundaries by hosting community meetings, receiving fanfare from schoolchildren and donations from volunteers, posting on social media, and providing news to journalists. other parties who involved themselves in fire management operations are fowler. 2018. ethnobiology letters 9(1):90–100 92 research communications special issue on ethics in ethnobiology residents of fire-affected areas, volunteers who donated supplies and their time to assisting fire crews, ngo stakeholders, and journalists. the united states federal government is increasingly building outreach into the standard modes of operation for land and fire management agencies. the 2012 planning rule shift to “collaboration throughout the planning process” (usda forest service 2018) partially explains the multiple public meetings and online comment periods that have been part of the ongoing nantahalapisgah forest plan development process. across the region, the imts who were managing the various wildfires in the blue ridge complex hosted community meetings in local gathering places. the imts on the ferebee, tellico, boteler, clear creek, pinnacle, party rock, and additional wildfires used the community meetings to inform local people about wildfire developments and fire management efforts. these community meetings were productive fora where residents of affected communities expressed their understandings of the roles of fire in their landscapes. at these meetings, community members discussed their values related to fire, the land, and a variety of other dimensions of their ethical lives. an illustrative community gathering was one called by the southern area red team (i.e., incident management team), which was the fire crew who managed the nantahala branch complex3. on november 13, 2016, the southern area red team held a community meeting for the tellico and ferebee fires. more than 200 residents of the fireaffected area gathered in the southwestern community college gymnasium. mike dueitt, the incident commander for the southern area red team, opened the meeting by describing the geography and behavior of the fire, and by outlining his crew’s tactics for managing it. dueitt predicted that the fires would continue burning unless and until a change in the weather brought at least 1.5 inches of rainfall to extinguish the flames. next, dueitt discussed the evacuation orders for residents living near the fires. after his presentation, dueitt invited the audience to ask questions. the first question from an audience member was, “how can we support you?” dueitt responded, “coming to this community meeting [is supporting us]. give money to the fire departments—this is the best way….best thing you can do is help us spread accurate information [about the fire].” another audience member shouted out to dueitt, “we have been praying for you.” dueitt responded, “your prayers and support are felt.” “this is the mountains,” was the immediate response from another audience member. the crowd of 200 people clapped in a show of their agreement with the man’s comment, to affirm their caring spirit, and to bolster the extension of support from the audience towards the firefighters. a seasoned firefighter from the united states southwest who was assigned to the tellico-ferebee fire reflected on the exchange between the firefighters and the community by saying, “i’ve fought fires all over the country for several decades now, and i’ve never felt this kind of community support anywhere. southern hospitality is really coming through.” this senior firefighter’s sentiments were echoed on november 13, 2016 in this message that was posted on “boteler and nantahala branch fires” facebook account: the welcome we have received in north carolina has been far and above anything we've experienced elsewhere. the citizens have opened their hearts and welcomed us to the community as if we were long lost family. this welcome has gone a long way toward making us all feel more at home and has lessened the ache we feel being away from our loved ones. thank you for showing us what "southern hospitality" means. you folks are the best (boteler and nantahala branch fires 2016). the interpersonal connections made during the tellico-ferebee community meeting led to the formation of a novel collective consisting of mountain residents and professional wildland firefighters from both nearby and faraway. some of the firefighters were permanent residents of the area with full-time positions working in the nantahala-pisgah national forest. the fire crews also included people who traveled from 42 different states in the united states to work on the wildfires. the firefighters’ respectful attitudes towards residents in the fire-affected areas was met by the residents’ extension of ‘southern hospitality’ towards the wildland firefighters who temporarily occupied and protected their territory. in fowler. 2018. ethnobiology letters 9(1):90–100 93 research communications special issue on ethics in ethnobiology a particularly enthusiastic display, 580 flag-waving schoolchildren cheered for firefighters on november 19, 2016 as they returned to headquarters after their day shift working on the tellico-ferebee fire. as an outcome of the community meeting, the audience and the wildland firefighters entered each other’s affective worlds. the community who lives in the landscape affected by the tellico-ferebee fire is merely one of many who established supportive relationships with wildland firefighter crews. numerous blue ridge mountain communities expressed their gratitude to wildland firefighting crews. schoolchildren in pickens county, south carolina created handmade thank you cards for firefighters working on the pinnacle mountain fire. across the region, residents displayed large thank you banners on churches, businesses, and community centers. they also donated money, food, and gear to imts and local fire departments, and volunteered in cafeterias and incident command posts. wildland firefighters and mountain communities entered each other’s affective worlds as an outcome of their various fire-driven interactions. these activities were manifestations of the relationships between people, fire, and place. different interest groups with varied interpretations of fire effects on blue ridge ecosystems in the wake of the fall 2016 wildfires, numerous interest groups expressed their opinions about the effects of fire in blue ridge mountain ecosystems. two processes became apparent as interest groups developed their interpretations of the postfire landscape. first, each interest group brought specific assumptions about the fire ecology of the southern appalachians to their endeavors to observe the wildfires’ effects. one group, the sanctuary guild4, was of the opinion that the wildfires negatively affected appalachian ecosystems. another group, blue vision, approached a postfire site with the hypothesis that fire benefitted appalachian ecosystems. both the sanctuary guild and blue vision selected acidic cove ecosystems (though these were two different coves) as places to search for information about the fires’ effects. both organizations chose mid-april as the time for their searches. both ngos especially sought to observe native spring ephemerals in acidic cove ecosystems as the means for determining whether or not the forests would recover from the wildfires. second, each group found the evidence they needed to support their hypotheses. to illustrate the ways the blue ridge complex validated both a fire-is-good ethic and a fire-is-bad ethic, i describe two group hikes that traveled through areas that were burned by blue ridge complex fires. although these are strongly contrasting environmental ethics, the postfire blue ridge landscape accommodated both sets of understandings about the roles of fire in the southern appalachians. the first group hike i describe is a hike in the site of the rock mountain fire hosted by the sanctuary guild, a national nonprofit conservation organization (ngo). the second hike i describe is in the site of the tellicoferebee fire hosted by the regional ngo blue vision. both hikes occurred early in the growing season that followed the fall fire season, and both were billed as opportunities to witness the effects of wildfires on the wildflowers that are popular among the region’s residents. sanctuary guild: one group’s interpretation of fires’ effects on an appalachian acidic cove forest on april 19, 2017, the sanctuary guild led an excursion they called “flowers after fires” to explore the early spring plant life in the wake of the humancaused rock mountain fire, which burned acres 24,725 acres (12,962 in georgia and 11,763 in north carolina) between november 9th and december 15th, 2016. the sanctuary guild’s two hike leaders, franklin and brook, approached the burned southern nantahala wilderness with the hypothesis that fire is detrimental to appalachian acidic cove ecosystems like the one traversed during this hike. in leading community members on the hike, the sanctuary guild was aiming to provoke them to question the “fire-isgood” platform promoted by the united states forest service who governs the southern nantahala wilderness and the nantahala and chattahoochee national forests that surround the wilderness. the sanctuary guild’s understanding of southern appalachian fire ecology is an alternative to the federal land managers’ platforms and is a critical assessment of, in franklin’s words, the “narrative that prescribed fire is good” for these forests. as the group of hikers gathered in a circle at the deep gap trailhead, franklin asked everyone to introduce themselves. after a round of introductions, franklin framed the hike in the location of the rock mountain fire as one instance in the larger category of human-caused disturbances in wilderness areas. he fowler. 2018. ethnobiology letters 9(1):90–100 94 research communications special issue on ethics in ethnobiology hinted to the hikers that he felt that fire and other types of disturbance negatively impacted southern appalachian forests, yet he stated that his opinion was incompletely formulated. whether wildfire or prescribed fire, franklin said, “there are more questions than answers. we don’t know what the effects [of the rock mountain fire] are. the narrative has been that prescribed burning is good. but we don’t really know.” then, franklin said, “let’s go see what we find,” and he led the group out of the parking lot and onto the appalachian trail for a 2.65-mile hike to the summit of standing indian mountain. along the course of the hike, franklin and brook pointed out evidence to support a hypothesis that fire has negative effects on the wilderness in the form of signs of soil erosion; fewer ephemerals than they had hoped to witness; stunted and deformed ephemerals (e.g., trillium grandifolium, large-flowered trillium); reduced density of ephemeral species (houstonia sp., bluets); stripped lower cambiums on shrubs (in e.g., rhododendrum calendulaceum, flame azalea); holes in the duff (figure 1); and scorched tree trunks. as the group of hikers progressed uphill, brook evaluated the postfire recovery of early-spring emergents in this north-facing cove. he said, “it doesn’t look like a lot is coming back and erosion is an issue. not a whole lot coming back for april.” franklin pointed out the fire’s effects on several fire sensitive tree species. he paused as he noticed a silverbell tree (halesia sp.) that was, “scorched but [nevertheless] leafing out.” in recognition of the fire sensitivity of silverbell trees, franklin said that the figure 1 a deep hole burned by the rock mountain fire in the organic duff layer, april 19, 2017. photo by cynthia fowler. fowler. 2018. ethnobiology letters 9(1):90–100 95 research communications special issue on ethics in ethnobiology species has thin bark. he added, “i would be surprised if it survives a year.” the hikers passed by numerous acer rubrum whose lower trunks had been scorched in the wildfire (figure 2). brook noticed, “scarring at their base.” he predicted, “we will probably see tree mortality [in their future].” the thin bark of acer rubrum indicates that the species does not tolerate fire well. even though the specimens here in the rock mountain fire site are starting to leaf out as they normally do in midapril, brook expects the longer-term effects of the fire to be that red maple becomes, “less dominant relative to [the more fire tolerant] oaks.” brook observed, “[the fire] killed the flame azaleas. they are all dead above the ground.” part way into the hike, the group paused near a fragmented stretch of bluets (figure 3) to listen to brook’s interpretations of this population of spring ephemerals. brook said, “this bluet population is affected. bluets usually grow in big mats. here in the burn, they only appear in areas where the moss didn’t burn. this is definitely because of the fire’s effects.” while they were gazing at the bluets, one of the hikers responded to the brook’s comment by saying, “it [the rock mountain fire] was coming [towards my house] from both directions. that is what was so upsetting.” this hiker conceptually connected the experiences she had while the fire was burning with her observations five months later of the fire’s effects on vegetation. for this hiker, the wildfire was responsible for both the sparseness of the bluets and the threats to her own wellbeing. she used the group’s observations of the bluets’ growing habits as an opportunity to describe one aspect of her relationship to not only wildflowers but also more generally to fire and to the spaces affected by them. the botanical world was causing her to reflect on her personal, and very human, vulnerabilities. for the hike leaders, the ephemeral clues they found in the southern nantahala wilderness confirmed what they had feared; namely, that wildfires negatively affect acidic cove ecosystems. the sanctuary guild’s hike leaders were reassured by the harm they witnessed in the biodiverse, mesic, deciduous forest. they found that fire negatively affected all of the cove forest’s strata: its trees, shrubs, herbs, and soils. fortunately, the rock mountain fire behaved in such a way as to create a mosaic patch pattern that scorched some spots, mildly burned other spots, and skipped yet other locales. in the latter “safe zones,” as franklin called them, the forest floor (figure 4) was carpeted with ramps (allium tricoccum), trout lily (erythronium sp.), and toothwort (cardamine sp.). to explain the growth of a vibrant cluster of squaw root (conopholis americana) (figure 5) brook said, “it’s in a really good spot.” franklin and brook concluded that the wildfire had harmed this beloved wilderness despite the contrary evidence that took form in a brilliant array of spring ephemerals. blue vision: an alternative interpretation of fires’ effects on the wesser creek acidic cove forest the blue vision hike called “flowers, fires, forests” that took place on april 15, 2017 was, like the “flowers after fires” hike, designed by an ngo to observe a wildfire’s effects on the early spring plants that emerged after the previous season’s wildfires. the hikers who participated in blue vision’s event walked two miles of the wesser creek trail, which is in the nantahala national forest. between november 3rd figure 2 acer rubrum showing fresh scars from the rock mountain fire, april 19, 2017. photo by cynthia fowler. fowler. 2018. ethnobiology letters 9(1):90–100 96 research communications special issue on ethics in ethnobiology and december 15th, 2016, the human-caused tellicoferebee fire burned 13,874 acres surrounding wesser creek (figure 6). the tellicoferebee fire was so difficult to control that the united states forest service closed wesser creek trail in november and evacuated residents in several nearby communities. the leaders of the hike through the tellicoferebee burn site were elijah and jeremiah, a field biologist and an ecologist, respectively, who both work for blue vision. elijah and jeremiah approached the postfire landscape with the idea that fire has the potential to benefit forests. elijah shared his understanding of fire with the hikers at the beginning of the event when one of the female hikers asked elijah, “the wildfires were incredibly destructive, weren’t they?” elijah responded, “well…i have a pretty long term view about fire.” without directly disagreeing with this the woman, elijah offered her a story about the fire history of the region. in his story, fires periodically burned through blue ridge landscapes during the pre-colonial and colonial eras until the early twentieth century when misguided land managers vilified and subsequently excluded fires from the forests. “people started putting out all the fires around here,” elijah said, and the forest’s ecology began to change for the worse. the moral of elijah’s story was that the blue ridge complex rightly reintroduced fire as a necessary mechanism for restoring healthy ecosystems to the region. as members of blue vision’s constituency, the hikers looked to the ngo’s staff to learn how to perceive fire’s effects in the wesser creek watershed. the participants in the blue vision event were as eager to walk in the woods as they were to observe the emerging wildflowers. jeremiah periodically paused to observe and describe the vegetation as he guided the line of hikers up wesser creek trail. together they paused to admire approximately 40 species of herbs, shrubs, and trees. the hikers interpreted the high number of species as support for their idea that fire promotes biodiversity. the hiking group noticed the scorch marks inflicted by the fire on several native plants. beech trees (fagus grandifolia) and black birch (betula lenta) appeared to be languishing due to the severity of the wildfire as it blew through the riparian cove. “these trees are cooked,” said jeremiah as he studied the roots of several beech trees. figure 3 hikers considering the postfire emergence of houstonia sp., april 19, 2017. photo by cynthia fowler. fowler. 2018. ethnobiology letters 9(1):90–100 97 research communications special issue on ethics in ethnobiology similarly, in noticing the burned roots of black birch trees, jeremiah said, “they may not have survived.” using evidence from two separate species, jeremiah eventually observed that, “fire discriminates against small trees.” also scorched by the wildfire were numerous specimens of the two ericaceous shrubs dog hobble (leucothoe fontanesiana) and rhododendron (rhododendron sp.). for the latter shrub, elijah interpreted the effects of fire as good for biodiversity. according to elijah, one hundred years ago, there would have been much less rhododendron. dead rhododendron will open the forest floor to light [thereby creating more favorable conditions for the germination of multiple other species]. rhododendron is bad for diversity. elijah’s conclusions about the fire sensitivity of two shrub species and jeremiah’s conclusions about the fire intolerance of two tree species did not add up to an overall anti-fire conclusion from them. elijah and jeremiah brought to the hike with them the opinion that fire has positive effects on blue ridge forests, and they interpreted the flora that was emerging merely four months after the tellicoferebee fire within this frame. individual hikers also came to blue vision’s event with presumptions about the ecology of the place and the role of fire there. elijah and jeremiah drew on fire ecology to define their own and their organization’s environmental ethics. this is similar to the way franklin and brook articulated their ethics by immersing themselves and their constituents in the site of the blue ridge complex. the two organization’s understandings of fire contrast with one another: blue vision promoted a fire-is-good platform and the sanctuary guild advocated a fire-is-bad stance. what is similar about both organizations is that they were able to find evidence to support their positions even while citing postfire phenomenon in acidic cove forests. yet, the contrasting opinions have very different implications for how people relate to fire and to the environment. discussion the postfire hikers on both the sanctuary guild and blue vision’s excursions formulated their positions in spaces they had only recently come to understand as flammable. the hikers combined their experiences while the fires were active with new experiences acquired while moving through the burned forests abloom with spring ephemerals yet still marked with char from the previous season’s wildfire. their emerging understandings of the wildfires’ effects in the blue ridge bioregion were negotiated in conversation with one another, and were influenced by their ngo guides. a particular environmental ethic, constructed as an effect of the fire, emerged among both the sanctuary guild and blue vision hikers. figure 4 ramps (allium tricoccum), trout lily (erythronium sp.), and toothwort (cardamine sp.) growing in the rock mountain fire site, april 19, 2017. photo by cynthia fowler. figure 5 squaw root (conopholis americana) thriving in a “safe zone” in the spring after the rock mountain fire, april 19, 2017. photo by cynthia fowler. fowler. 2018. ethnobiology letters 9(1):90–100 98 research communications special issue on ethics in ethnobiology this article has recounted the ways in which a seasonal proliferation of wildfires that provoked curiosity about their long-term effects generated occasions for people to formulate their values related to other people, to fire, and to the environment. the blue ridge complex spurred residents of the bioregion to consider “how one should live and what kind of person one should be” (keane 2015:20 quoted in weiss 2017:2). the atmospheres the wildfires created while they were burning and long after they extinguished have been particularly productive for the construction of people’s environmental ethics. residents of the blue ridge province have experienced numerous moments of ethical reflection since the unusual fall 2016 wildfire season. the formation of environmental ethics takes place within biosocial contexts, at individual and collective levels, and in private and group settings. in conversations with others during community gatherings, people living in the blue ridge complex zone produced a collective “heterogeneous, contingent, unstable, and partial” ethical assemblage for living in a burning and burned landscape (collier and ong 2005:12). wildfires exhibit great agency in prompting the reconfiguration of social groups and triggering community gatherings. ethnographic evidence from community gatherings in the blue ridge mountains demonstrates that wildfires inspire individuals and organizations to assemble for discussing fire and exploring landscapes. in these assemblies, people collectively construct their ethical lives in the processes of interacting with one another, nonhuman species, fire, smoke, and the myriad biosocial features figure 6 wesser creek in nantahala national forest, north carolina, april 15, 2016. photo by cynthia fowler. fowler. 2018. ethnobiology letters 9(1):90–100 99 research communications special issue on ethics in ethnobiology of their ecosystems. a novel fire regime and a novel social formation co-emerged in wnc in the wake of the fall 2016 fire season. notes 1a fire complex is multiple fires grouped together so wildland firefighters can manage them through one incident command team (ict). in the fall of 2016, wildfires were burning across the blue ridge physiographic province, including in western north carolina, northwestern south carolina, north georgia, east tennessee, and virginia. the focus in this paper, however, is on only those fires that burned in western north carolina, northwestern south carolina, and the portion of north georgia where the rock mountain fire burned. as a group, i refer to these wildfires in the carolinas and georgia as the blue ridge complex. 2more wildfires burned in the earlier months of 2016 and additional incidents occurred in the winter and spring of 2017. in total, the pattern of wildfires constituted a full year-long fire season rather than the dual late-winter/early-spring and fall wildfire season that is more typical for the region. 3the nantahala branch complex was a subset of the blue ridge complex that included numerous fires in the nantahala national forest. the nantahala branch complex was the most significant subset of fires during the fall of 2016 in the blue ridge physiographic province. 4“sanctuary guild” and “blue vision” are pseudonyms as are the names of individuals at their events. acknowledgments the blue ridge fire complex project relied on the willingness of numerous organizations and many individuals who are concerned about the southern appalachian environment. i use pseudonyms in this paper to identify these organizations and individuals because of the ethical issues that i discuss herein. i hope that i have already and will in the future adequately compensate the organizations and individuals who go by pseudonyms here through participating in the community events they organize, doing community engagement and volunteer work, collaborating through educational events, and advocating for meaningful causes. declarations permissions: this article contains a combination of information collected in one-on-one interviews and information documented during open social gatherings. i obtained verbal consent from all individuals who donated their time for one-on-one interviews. i did not obtain verbal consent from other participants who attended the community gatherings where i collected information. sources of funding: none declared. conflicts of interest: none declared. references cited boteler and nantahala branch fires. 2016. the welcome we have received in north carolina [facebook post]. available at: https:// www.facebook.com/botelerfire/. accessed on november 27, 2017. chávez, k. outbreak of wnc wildfires takes toll on wildlife, environment [web page]. available at: http://www.cit izen-times.com/story/news/ local/2016/11/18/outbreak-wnc-wildfires-takes-toll -wildlife-environment/93788956/. accessed on february 25, 2018. collier, s. j., and a. ong. 2005. global assemblages, anthropological problems. in global assemblages: technology, politics, and ethics as anthropological problems, edited by a. ong and s. j. collier, pp. 3– 21. blackwell publishing ltd, malden, ma. coughlan, m. r. 2016. wildland arson as clandestine resource management: a space–time permutation analysis and classification of informal fire management regimes in georgia, usa. environmental management 57:1077–1087. cox, l. e., j. l. hart, d. c. dey, and c. j. schweitzer. 2016. composition, structure, and intra-stand spatial patterns along a disturbance severity gradient in a quercus stand. forest ecology and management 381:305–317. delcourt, p. a., and h. r. delcourt. 2004. prehistoric native americans and ecological change: human ecosystems in eastern north america since the pleistocene. cambridge university press, cambridge, united kingdom. fowler, c., and e. konopik. 2007. the history of fire in the southern united states. human ecology review 14:165–176. fowler. 2018. ethnobiology letters 9(1):90–100 100 research communications special issue on ethics in ethnobiology hendershot, d. a perfect storm or the new norm? [web page]. available at: http://www.smliv.com/ features/a-perfect-storm-or-the-new-norm/. accessed february 25, 2018. inciweb. incident information system [web page]. available at: https://inciweb.nwcg.gov/. accessed february 25, 2018. keane, w. 2015. ethical life: its natural and social histories. princeton university press, princeton, nj. usda forest service. 2018. collaboration and public involvement [web page]. available at: https:// www.fs.usda.gov/main/planningrule/collaboration. accessed on february 25, 2018. vayda, a. p. 2009. explaining human actions and environmental changes. altamira press, lanham, md. weiss, j. z. 2017. ethics, value, and interaction: bridging natural and social histories in a semiotic framework [web page]. available at: http:// www.anthropology-news.org/?book-review=ethicsvalue-and-interaction-bridging-natural-and-socialhistories-in-a-semiotic-framework. accessed february 25, 2018. the great fossil enigma: the search for the conodont animal 37 book review specialized field. scholars debated whether to give the forms special form-class names (as trackways and burrows are named in latin) or whether to stick to proper linnaean names and hope an animal turned up to go with the teeth. of course, with nothing but minute teeth to go on, scientists could not be sure whether they were dealing with genera, species, families…. mammal paleontology experts will find this somewhat familiar, but with mammal teeth there are at least many living homologues. the conodonts were quite different from the teeth of any living animal. finally, in the 1980s, shadowy traces of condont animals began to appear, and by the early 1990s there were many of these, showing a small worm-shaped segmented animal with a notochord and something like a skull. it was clearly a primitive chordate, possibly an early vertebrate (there is still debate about whether to count it as a true vertebrate). it had rather large eyes, and swam around seizing prey with its savage little fangs. the interest of this to ethnobiologists lies in the story of scientists coming slowly to understand an animal known only from very strange teeth. no anatomical dissection, no bone measurements, no physiological studies—let alone dna. in other words, the scientists were pretty much on all fours with the maya or haida or pintupi of a thousand years ago. they did the best they could: they interacted constantly with the fossils and their contexts, and then with other scholars studying same. they then came up with tentative plans, ideas, guesses, hypotheses, and tested them against data that emerged with painful slowness. they developed labels-of-convenience, and fought over even those. they argued over every new revelation. this book on page 356, simon knell admits: “i positioned myself, like an anthropologist, on the edge of this scientific community….” no wonder the book is of interest to ethnobiologists. it is, in fact, something of an ethnobiology, or ethnopaleontology, of the world of conodont studies. knell is a museum studies specialist, and presents an account of a major mystery solved by paleontologists in field and museum. i remember telling my wife, many years ago, “they found the conodont animal!!” she said something like, “huh?” when i explained, her eyes glazed over and she found something else to attend to. the world is probably divided into those few hundred who worried about this animal and the other seven billion who did not. but the story makes fascinating reading for anyone interested in the classic ethnobiological question of how people classify life-forms and give names to them. conodonts first appeared as microscopic or nearmicroscopic fossils that looked like (what else?) little cone-shaped teeth. they first turned up in the mid19th century. more and more appeared, and knell says there are now literally millions of them in collections around the world. conodonts are extremely valuable to oil geologists and others who must give exact geological positions to specific strata. but the conodonts were not attached to anything. they were disembodied presences. this led to enormous speculation. were they from fish, primitive chordates, worms? one school even held that they were plant products (like overgrown phytoliths). more and more conodonts turned up, some simple, some fantastically elaborate in shape. whole schools of conodont studies appeared, with their journals and learned volumes, and “conodontology” became a the great fossil enigma: the search for the conodont animal simon j. knell. 2012. indiana university press, bloomington. pp. 440. $45.00 (cloth), 25 b & w illustrations. isbn 9780253006042. reviewed by e. n. anderson reviewer address: department of anthropology, university of california riverside. eugene.anderson@ucr.edu received: february 14, 2013 volume: 4:37-38 published: march 10, 2013 © 2013 society of ethnobiology 38 book review shows very clearly what scientists do when they cannot use their full range of laboratory techniques and manipulations. what they do is very similar to what skilled persons in traditional small-scale societies do. the differences between “bioscience” and “ethnoscience” are erased, or nearly so. this is certainly thought-provoking. as a former biology student, i have always been struck by the basic uniformity of science. the many obvious differences between a modern dna lab scientist and a maya woodsman labeling a new bird seem to me quite superficial. what matters is that both are interacting with the biotic world to come to increasingly good understandings. both use the same technique: interactive observation, with manipulation when possible. one has more specialized equipment, but both have basically the same eyes, hands, and brain. on the other hand, they come to quite different understandings in the end, because they have different scientific traditions. similarly, different schools of conodont studies in different countries (or states of the us) produced very different ideas about the condont animal. bioscience has its own cultures, and nationality affects these. knell grounds this understanding in the philosophy and history of science, with appropriate citations to edmund husserl, thomas kuhn, and the rest, but it is a point that can also be reached from cognitive psychology, as it has been in ethnoscience studies. this book has been criticized for lack of illustrations and lack of much detail about the people involved. it is also rather a mixed bag in terms of intended audience: sometimes knell appears to be writing for the masses, sometimes he assumes the reader knows paleontology quite thoroughly. these problems should not stop a determined reader interested in finding out how people classify lifeforms as they slowly learn more and more about them. toward an ethnoarchaeomalacology of achatina in east africa walz 2017. ethnobiology letters 8(1):90–96 90 research communications in east africa, researchers frequently recover land snail shell at sites attributed to ancient human communities and interpret such remains as natural residues of the environment or as the result of human subsistence (cf. shipton et al. 2016). such (non-) treatments of land snail debris undermine other potential meanings and interpretations of land snail shell in the archaeological record (walz 2010a). as archaeologists begin to address either land snail shell fragments or concentrations (middens or, more specifically, escargoteries) in late holocene (post-500 bc) african contexts, they should consider the remarkable analogical potential of contemporary africans’ uses of land snails. the recounted research documents ethnographic uses of land snails by mixed subsistence farmers and, to a lesser extent, agropastoralists who live in lowland northeastern tanzania. these observations help to build an emergent ethnoarchaeomalacology that attends to the socially embedded nature of land snail finds in archaeological contexts. study region at present, a diverse group of land snails populates mainland northeastern tanzania in the tanga and kilimanjaro regions (emberton et al. 1997; tattersfield et al. 1998; verdcourt 1952, 1972). the introduction mollusks have served as critical resources to humans at least since the pleistocene-holocene transition. shell remains are abundant at many holocene archaeological sites. further, the remains can be used to infer past environments and environmental changes, human diets, exchange among communities across landscapes and seascapes, bodily adornments, tools (when modified or used), and medicines. however, studies of past mollusks tend to emphasize environments and diets. moreover, freshwater bivalves and marine mollusks tend to receive greater attention from researchers than terrestrial gastropods. nevertheless, lubell et al. (1976) and goodfriend (1992) employ land snail remains to reconstruct environments in the mediterranean region in antiquity and other investigators assess land snail impacts to ancient diets in north africa and spain (girod 2003; guitierrez zugasti 2011; lubell 2004; waselkov 1987). in east africa, compared to other regions, studies of terrestrial gastropods and their uses among past and present human communities remain underdeveloped. items and debris of land snail shell at ancient sites in tropical africa continue to go underreported or are treated relatively simplistically by researchers. toward an ethnoarchaeomalacology of achatina in east africa jonathan walz1* 1coastal ecology and natural resource management, school for international training, zanzibar, tanzania. *jwalz.us@gmail.com abstract land snail shell is a material commonly identified in the late holocene archaeological record of eastern africa. typically, archaeologists designate land snail shell as a natural occurrence or as debris produced from human subsistence. ethnographic observations in lowland northeastern tanzania show that contemporary communities employ the soft parts and shells of land snails, particularly achatina fulica, for a range of everyday and special purposes. the array of land snail uses by mixed subsistence farmers and agropastoralists in the area documents the significance of a. fulica and other robust land snail species. present uses of land snails observed in tanzania offer a set of analogies that, when critically applied, can enrich archaeologists’ interpretations of land snail debris in antiquity. received july 28, 2016 open access accepted may 16, 2017 doi 10.14237/ebl.8.1.2017.751 keywords land snail, ethnoarchaeology, malacology, holocene, tanzania copyright © 2017 by the author(s); licensee society of ethnobiology. this is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution-noncommercial 4.0 international public license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0), which permits non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. walz 2017. ethnobiology letters 8(1):90–96 91 research communications mosaic environment of northeastern tanzania includes a coralline coast abutting the western indian ocean, the tropical catchment of the lower pangani (ruvu) river basin, components of the dramatic eastern arc range (the east and west usambara mountains and south pare hills), and the arid, interior maasai steppe. residents in the region include swahili town dwellers along the immediate coast, subsistence farmers (zigua, pare, and shambaa communities­—all northeast coast bantu language speakers) in the coastal hinterland, and agropastoralists (il-parakuyu communities—maa/eastern nilotic language speakers), who live in the more arid interior, outside of the tsetse fly zone that can threaten stock. there is great diversity in the cultural practices of these populations. data collection and results data about local communities’ use of land snails are derived from three years of observations and activities within and around the pangani (ruvu) basin in the lowland, coastal hinterland of northeastern tanzania. interest in land snails and their roles among contemporary east african communities arose as the result of two archaeological activities: 1) a systematic survey of 44 km2 of the landscape, during which living land snails, deceased land snails, and fragments of land snail shell were found on the surface of scores of holocene epoch archaeological sites and 2) excavations at two iron-using, farming (also known as “iron age”) archaeological sites: kwa mgogo and gonja maore (figure 1). the two sites date to the late -first and early-second millennia ad, as determined by multiple ams dates from charcoal samples (walz 2010b). the results of systematic surface survey and archaeological excavations yielded evidence of intact and fragmentary land snail shells as well as items made from land snail shell. collectively, excavations at kwa figure 1 map of the lower pangani (ruvu) basin in northeastern tanzania; survey areas 1–5 and sites of kwa mgogo and gonja maore marked. walz 2017. ethnobiology letters 8(1):90–96 92 research communications mgogo (in korogwe district, tanga region) and gonja maore (in same district, kilimanjaro region), sites positioned 100 km and 175 km, respectively, from the indian ocean coast, yielded more than 14 kg of land snail shell, among other archaeological items. at kwa mgogo, based on mni (minimum number of individuals)—determined from the number of shell whorls or opercula discovered of a species— fieldwork recovered 524 land snails. nine land snail taxa occur at the site. by weight, most identifiable specimens are achatina spp.: likely a. fulica, also known as the giant east african land snail. other prominent land snail species at kwa mgogo include lanistes ovum and pila ovata, especially in archaeological strata post-dating ad 900. l. ovum and p. ovata are moderately amphibious, requiring fresh water for sustenance and reproduction. both are gonochoristic. putatively, ancient residents collected the two mollusk species at nearby perennial or seasonal rivers and consumed them as food and/or used their soft body parts. this interpretation considers the completeness of their shells (whole or near whole and always unmodified, despite their fragility) as compared to the modified and more fragmentary character of the shells of a. fulica (figure 2). the archaeological assemblages at kwa mgogo and gonja maore (and other sites in northeastern tanzania and the abutting area of southeastern kenya, see biginagwa 2012; collet 1985; soper 1967) include intact shells of a. fulica and many fragments of land snail shell that likely result from non-human predation by banded mongoose (mungos mungo) and various rodents, birds, and carnivorous land snails (kasigwa et al. 1983). non-human predation leaves very fragmentary remains of shell clustered in small (< 0.25 m in diameter) mounds (by m. mungo). such predation results in individual shells with single or multiple small perforations on the whorls of land snail specimens (by rodents, birds, and carnivorous land snails). however, most strikingly, these assemblages also include a variety of human-made objects fashioned from the shells of a. fulica, including more than 1600 disc-shaped beads and their production debris. items of land snail shell include all stages of the bead making process: 1) near whole shells of a. fulica with multiple circular cut-outs, 2) circular bead preforms, 3) pierced circular bead preforms, and 4) completed beads (with smoothed edges made by grinding) (figure 3a, b). as of yet, however, it is unconfirmed whether land snail shell beads were detached by quartz microliths and smoothed by bead grinders of ceramic, as often is assumed in wider east africa. other implements made from the shells of the giant east african land snail include, but are not limited to, pierced ornaments of various shapes and sizes, spoon-like or scoop-like items, and shallow bowls with yet to be determined interior residues, preliminarily interpreted as either food residues, food additives, medicines, cosmetics, mastics, or hunting poisons. a. fulica regularly grows to more than 20 cm in length and more than 0.5 kg in weight. the shell thickness for adult a. fulica in the archaeological assemblage at kwa mgogo averages approximately 2 mm. its high visibility, ease of harvest, and robust shell explain human interests in the giant east african land snail through time. in ethnographic observations, residents in the regional lowlands collect such land snails from agricultural fields, trash middens, and rocky outcrops, localities where a. fulica congregates. land snails are called konokono (singular, swahili, a general designation for mollusks) and, less frequently, koa (singular, swahili, a specific designation for large land snails) (walsh 2015). the project encountered live and deceased specimens during transect surveys (which the project conducted for archaeological, not malacological, purposes). the natural frequency of a. fulica varies based on the season (more common during the rainy season and immediately thereafter), vegetation and soil types, and the presence of substantial human refuse. figure 2 land snail shell specimens excavated from kwa mgogo, tanzania: (left to right) a. fulica (partial), p. ovata, l. ovum, and limicolaria martensiana. walz 2017. ethnobiology letters 8(1):90–96 93 research communications during research in tanga region and eastern kilimanjaro region, at least one ethnographic case was observed of each of the uses of the giant east african land snail or (less frequently) other land snail species listed in table 1, either for their shells or soft parts. during structured and unstructured interviews, residents also spoke repeatedly about additional uses of land snails. discussion based on ethnographic observations, oral histories and traditions, and limited clues in historical and scientific literature (e.g., pilsbry 1919 for eastern central africa), scholars working in eastern africa should consider a range of potential interpretations for land snail shell debris at ancient sites. simplified treatments that lump such finds into categories like “natural occurrence” or “human subsistence” are likely to be partially, if not completely, erroneous. this is especially the case for large land snails, like a. fulica, with more robust and durable shells. for instance, the modified land snail shells excavated at kwa mgogo and gonja maore indicate a wide range of uses, for example as ornaments and household implements. patterns of manufacture and items’ inferred uses may closely parallel contemporary treatments based on observations of community practices. as with other cases in ethnoarchaeology, such as built architecture and pottery manufacture and use, the veracity of analogical arguments depends largely on the tightness of fit between present analogs and archaeological residues. regardless of the specific inferences, there will be both similarities and differences in practices tied to land snails across space and through time. in this region, personal adornments (e.g., beads) and household objects (e.g., spoons) continue to be figure 3 uses of land snail shells, ancient and modern (clockwise from upper left to lower left): a land snail shell disc beads and marine shells and beads from archaeological contexts; b shells, bead preforms, and finished beads from archaeological contexts; c a modern land snail shell used to harvest rice; d modern shells of a. fulica employed in alleged witchcraft (cm scales or compass for scale; all photos from northeastern tanzania). walz 2017. ethnobiology letters 8(1):90–96 94 research communications manufactured from land snail shell. however, the other contemporary uses previously noted offer additional hypotheses to be tested for continuity at kwa mgogo, gonja maore, and other archaeological sites. as an example, the high frequency of whole shells of a. fulica found in and around multiple human burials at kwa mgogo may signal that, like the zigua, ancient communities employed land snails to adorn graves and/or to venerate ancestors. narratives about mythical serpents, represented as nature spirits and ancestors in contemporary zigua cosmology (walz 2010b), also link to finds of concentrated and modified snake vertebrae at and near these same burials at the site. thus, preliminary indications also designate snakes as significant to communities in antiquity. in oral traditions, interviewees mention the use of a large land snail shell (modified at its apex) to call serpents. the archaeological context of such finds within the overall site lay-out and in relation to archaeological features, such as burials, can help to substantiate oral evidence. the modification of certain land snail shells, like those employed to call serpents, at kwa mgogo should be examined to test this hypothesis about cosmology across time. such methodological approaches present new possibilities for investigating the longevity of ritual practices by closely examining a. fulica shells in the archaeological record. in addition, archaeologists should look beyond the remarkable richness and variability of communities’ uses of the soft parts and table 1 contemporary uses of land snails in lowland northeastern tanzania. use specifics of use (form) [ethnolinguistic group] food as famine food (soft parts; not observed, but evident in oral histories and traditions) [zigua] subsistence tools as bait for catching freshwater fish (soft parts) [pare and zigua] as latches to secure freshwater fish traps (single modified fragment of shell spire in a “u” shape) [pare] to scare birds and other pests from agricultural fields (multiple large shells pierced with a bone tool along the shell lip and hung in contact) [pare and zigua] to hoe agricultural fields (single modified fragment of a large shell spire hafted to a wooden handle) [pare] to cut stems and detach seeds from grain crops, including varieties of rice (single modified small shell) [zigua] (figure 3c) household tools to smooth surfaces of unfired pottery (single modified fragment of a large shell spire) [zigua] as spoons (single modified fragment of a large shell spire with one end wider than the other) [pare, shambaa, and zigua] as containers to carry salt (single large shell) [pare and zigua] landscape markers to mark locations of hunting traps concealed in vegetation (single large shell pierced with a bone tool along the shell lip and hung in a low bush) [pare] to mark the intersection of two paths where the entrance to one path is hidden (single large shell pierced with a bone tool along the shell lip and hung in a low bush) [pare and zigua] to mark the boundaries of agricultural fields (multiple large shells spaced equidistantly) [pare] decorations as personal adornments (multiple pierced fragments of shell spire suspended on a cord) [il-parakuyu, pare, and zigua] to decorate the exteriors of wattle-and-daub residences of elder men (multiple fragments of shell embedded in daub) [zigua] to adorn human graves (multiple large shells) [shambaa and zigua] ritual implements as offerings left at spirit dwellings (single or multiple large shells) [shambaa and zigua] to call snakes (by blowing), locally represented as ancestors / nature spirits (single modified large shell pierced with a bone tool at the apex; not observed, but evident in oral histories and traditions) [zigua] to conduct healing and alleged witchcraft (multiple large shells) [pare, shambaa, and zigua] (figure 3d) walz 2017. ethnobiology letters 8(1):90–96 95 research communications shells of land snails to improve their ability to interpret sites. detailed taphonomic studies of sites with copious land snail shell debris (including those with middens or escargoteries) will enable more precise interpretations of the meaningfulness of distinct patterns of accretion (e.g., matteucci et al. 2007). focused actualistic studies of, say, banded mongoose behavior and its impact on land snail shell distribution is one recommendation (kasigwa et al. 1983). in the domain of culture, human objects fashioned from land snail shell may be reinterpreted with new significance (also see claassen 1998). in this light, brown (1995) proposes that land snail shell was used as a flux for iron smelting in southern kenya more than 500 years ago. regardless, the application of contemporary ethnographic observations to ancient sites and residues motivates transformed and enriched interpretations of a. fulica and other land snail remains in east africa. conclusion investigations in north africa and eurasia show that mollusk remains offer valuable insights about ancient environments and human subsistence. in africa, south of the sahara, terrestrial gastropods have been underreported and alternative interpretations of their use poorly developed by archaeologists. in eastern africa, the remains of land snails are common finds at holocene archaeological sites. contemporary observations coupled with critical considerations of archaeological remains can yield alternative interpretations of the presence and patterning of land snail shell. ethnographic observations of communities in northeastern tanzania document a wide range of everyday human uses and special purposes for terrestrial gastropods, a “first step” toward a robust ethnoarchaeology of land snails in east africa (see msemwa 1994 for marine mollusks). at the very least, an ethnoarchaeomalacology of a. fulica (and all durable land snails) raises new and important questions about an almost wholly overlooked type of material find documented at late holocene human settlements in east africa. but, researchers can achieve more than this by skillfully combining ethnographic investigation, heightened awareness and comprehension of land snails and indigenous ethnomalacologies, and archaeological practice receptive to the critical use of analogy. working with and among african communities enables an ethnoarchaeomalacology that can remake african pasts by attending to the socially embedded nature of objects. acknowledgements i offer gratitude to dr. peter kasigwa and samiu mbegu for their respective assistance with the laboratory and field aspects of this project. declarations permissions: tanzania commission for science and technology (costech) and the antiquities division, ministry of natural resources and tourism, tanzania provided research clearances. sources of funding: a fulbright-hays doctoral dissertation research abroad award supplied funding for field study and laboratory analyses in tanzania. conflicts of interest: none declared. references cited biginagwa, t. 2012. historical archaeology of the 19th century caravan trade in 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walz, j. 2010a. molluscs and late holocene archaeology in east africa. archaeo+malacology newsletter 17:1–3. walz, j. 2010b. route to a regional past: an archaeology of the lower pangani (ruvu) basin, tanzania, 500-1900 c.e. unpublished doctoral dissertation, department of anthropology, university of florida, gainesville, fl. the forest unseen: a year’s watch in nature. by david george haskell. 2013. penguin books, new york. 288 pp. wolverton. 2016. ethnobiology letters 7(1):64–66 64 reviews return to his home or office, and extensively research what he observed to learn more. the product is a series of reflexive, personal essays that are rich with biological information. what makes the book ethnobiological is that he placed himself as the human in the midst of his square-meter mandala. truly the book is a lyrical piece that captures this human’s interactions with the biota around him. although haskell worked from the inspiring template of old growth appalachian forest, my students and i established our own mandalas on campus, places that we would visit each week and, following haskell’s approach, journal, learn, and reflect upon those places. we published our essays as blog posts, which made it possible for students to share their essays with friends and family members. as this experience was deeply personal, the students were engaged, and their writing was of higher quality than what i am used to encountering in my university classes. haskell’s book is too rich to summarize in great detail; thus, i have chosen three examples—essays or sections thereof— that i found particularly inspiring. logged on january 21st of his year’s watch in nature, “the experiment” took place on an exceptionally cold winter day in southern appalachia. this essay is one that stands out for me because haskell decided to “experience the cold as the forest’s animals do” (p. 12) and thus disrobed down to his undergarments. in the 10 degree fahrenheit cold haskell chronicles the acute changes in his physiology, but what i recall most are his observations of carolina chickadees. after discussing feathers as insulation, he writes (p. 14): i picked up the forest unseen in the spring of 2014 and immediately concluded that it would be a great book for my ethnobiology class. moreover, it was not just a reading assignment, but it became the model upon which i base much of the course. the book is masterfully written by a truly fascinating biologist who allowed himself to become inductively enthralled by a postage stamp-sized piece of wilderness near his home. the book is premised on the author’s observations, in india, of the creation and destruction of a tibetan buddhist mandala. he saw the immediate linkage to ecology, that the world is ever-shifting and when we pay attention we witness emergent patterns, which become the basis for tremendously diverse biological and cultural expressions worldwide. haskell decided to use the mandala as a metaphor, and he constructed his own ecological mandala in the southern appalachian forest near his home in eastern tennessee. he determined to visit his square-meter mandala multiple times a month and often many times a week for an entire year. he would sit still and meditatively observe; it was to be participant observation with the local biological world. in the end he fashioned an ethnography of that square-meter mandala, one that is enriching to read and truly beautiful to behold. the book is laid out chronologically as he traversed the annual cycle. when i use the book in my classes, we cover the periods during which the course takes place. for example, when i teach the course in the spring semester, we read sections from january through may, following along week by week as the seasons change. during his annual journey, haskell would visit his mandala, key in on something of biological interest, make observations in a journal, the forest unseen: a year’s watch in nature. by david george haskell. 2013. penguin books, new york. 288 pp. steve wolverton1* 1department of geography and the environment, university of north texas, usa. *wolverton@unt.edu received july 27, 2016 open access accepted august 16, 2016 doi 10.14237/ebl.7.1.2016.750 copyright © 2016 by the author(s); licensee society of ethnobiology. this is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution-noncommercial 4.0 international public license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0), which permits non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. wolverton. 2016. ethnobiology letters 7(1):64–66 65 reviews shivering is also the chickadees main defense against the cold. throughout the winter, the birds use their muscles as heat pumps, shivering whenever the birds are cold and the birds are not active. slabs of flight muscles in the chickadees’ chests are the primary sources of heat. flight muscles account for about a quarter of a bird’s body weight, so shivering produces great surges of hot blood. humans have no comparably huge muscles in our bodies, so our experiences of shivering are weak in comparison. haskell (p. 15) recognized his status as a “tropical ape” once he was “stripped of his cultural adaptations” and attempted to invigorate blood flow through five minutes of jumping jacks, but there was a metabolic cost to his activity. the chickadee solves this problem through its sensitive eyesight, which is described in great detail, and that provides the means to detect hidden insects for food. in contrast, haskell must retreat to his warm kitchen. he confides that he is truly humbled by the chickadee, an “avian master of the cold.” my description of this essay is a mere abbreviation, one of the many enjoyable aspects of this book is that haskell relates small details to grand processes. in this essay, he traverses from personal experiences of the cold, to the physiology of chickadees, to the energy requirements of shivering, to the energetics of body size, and the cold adaptations related to the famous global pattern in animal body size known as bergmann’s rule. haskell maintains clear connections between the particulars of the biological world in his mandala, human experience, and complex systems and processes throughout the book. on april 2nd in the essay entitled “chainsaw,” haskell wanders away from his mandala to discover the source of the “mechanical whine” of a chainsaw. he determines that the source is a nearby golf course maintenance crew, and is somewhat distraught that the crew is pushing a downed tree over the edge of a cliff into the forest to dispose of it. the tree, he argues however, will provide new habitat for a multitude of lifeforms. later in the summer, on august 8th haskell would encounter two golf balls near the edge of his mandala, arrivals from shots gone array. he would struggle with the existential question of whether or not to remove these artifacts. should he “restore the mandala to ‘purity’” or confront that humans and our material culture are in some distant manner connected to the ecosystems we participate in? removal would not free the mandala of human impacts from air, water, sound, and even his own presence. he goes deeper (p. 158), again commenting on our status as a “clever primate”: as these able apes get better at controlling their world, they produce some unintended side effects, including strange new chemicals, some of which are poisonous to the rest of life. most apes have little idea of these ill effects. however, the better-informed ones don’t like to be reminded of their species’ impact on the rest of the world, especially in places that don’t yet seem to be overly damaged. i am such an ape. therefore, when a golf ball in the woods strikes my eyes, my mind condemns the ball, the golf course, the golfers, and the culture that spawned them all. in the end, however, humans are part of the biological world, and golf balls “do not end the cycle of matter” (p. 159). indeed, haskell asks, who knows the evolutionary potential of golf balls, plastics, and other forms of litter in the long run? he takes us from the lowly golf ball through the biological world to the scale of evolutionary change and geological time, not just putting humans within the biological world but in reference to its processes. there are over forty essays spanning the seasons in the forest unseen, and each ensnares the reader into the world of biology, but each is also ethnobiological, if not directly, then by inference as haskell references cognition, emotion, and connection willingly. i particularly enjoyed how he describes the biological diversity in flowers, how this relates to evolutionary strategies in pollination, and why this matters in the world. however, my favorite essay is “eft and coyote;” there haskell explores the folklore of wolves, and why they inspire such fear for humans, being symbolized as evil and exterminated in many areas of the world. the eerie howl of the wolf was already fearsome for european colonists when they arrived in the americas, and wolves were persecuted vigorously. in addition, habitat destruction contributed to the decline in north american wolves. he writes, “fated by their own specialization and by the fear of the colonists, they succumbed as the web was rewoven in the image of northern europe” (p. 152). what brought haskell to this reverie about wolves were the calls of coyotes near his mandala, and his descriptive contrast of the coyote to the specialized wolverton. 2016. ethnobiology letters 7(1):64–66 66 reviews wolf is my favorite line in the book, “coyotes prefer to dance over the food web rather than perch atop it” (p. 152). thus, the coyote took advantage of the rewoven tapestry of north america in the centuries after colonization in ways that wolves could not. eft and coyote provides gratifying ecological details and thoughtful inquiry well beyond these few quotes, but these types of descriptions are indicative of the lyrical passion that haskell developed during his year-long watch in nature. the forest unseen is a great read for the layperson with little knowledge of biology; it is also a gratifying read for the trained biologist because haskell reminds the expert of why we were fascinated by the biological world in the first place. however, i contend that the book is also a thrilling ethnobiological journey within the heart of the united states. this is so because haskell does not shy away from relating the forms of life and processes he meditates upon with what it means to be human. any person can experience the outdoors, anywhere in this increasingly urbanized world in the manner that haskell experienced his mandala. his reflexive essays demystify the sciences of ecology and biology, equating them to human experience. buy this book, read it, and share it, or better yet create your own mandala and write about it. the importance of insects in australian aboriginal society: a dictionary survey ethnobiology letters. 2015. 6:175‐182. doi: 10.14237/ebl.6.1.2015.399. 175 perspectives children would be satisfied with a comforter.” the seminal work on the indigenous people of the australian alps, the moth hunters (flood 1980), pays tribute to the vital role the bogong moth (agrotis infusa boisduval lepidoptera: noctuidae) plays as sustenance for the alpine people. these charismatic species are, however, but a few of the insects that were traditionally eaten. despite the fact that australia boasts the highest diversity of root dwelling lepidoptera consumed worldwide, indigenous australian uses and categorization of these insects remain largely absent from research on entomophagy (van huis et al. 2013:xiii, 20). indigenous australians also use insects for purposes other than food. recent linguistic and ethnobiological research reveals additional uses of insects as bait, medicines, poisons, adornments, toys, and technology, while also serving as indicators of meteorological and other ecological phenomena (turpin et al. 2013). across australia, insects feature in mythology, place names, personal names, and songs, including the large-scale ‘increase ceremonies’ that were once regularly performed to assist the proliferation of certain species (hercus 1992). in some regions, the collection and preparation of certain insects was shrouded in mystery and prohibitions (hercus 1989). these specialized and revered cultural practices allude to the economic significance of certain insects in traditional societies. a neglected area of ethnobiological research is the documentation of people’s knowledge and uses of insects (ethnoentomology), despite recent moves by the food and agricultural organization to highlight this key topic (van huis et al. 2013). insects are an important source of food in many cultures. they are also used for textiles (e.g., silkworms), pharmaceuticals, food coloring, musical instruments, and as pets; many are regarded as objects of beauty and are celebrated in poetry and song (van huis et al. 2013:6). unfortunately, in spite of decades of intense linguistic and anthropological research and documentation in indigenous australian societies, relatively little is known about the role of insects in those societies (yen 2005). the most familiar use of insects in australia is as a source of food, as exemplified by the witchetty grub (endoxyla leucomochla turner lepidoptera: cossidae),1 the honey from native bees (tetragonula spp. michener hymenoptera: apidae, austroplebeia spp. friese hymenoptera: apidae) and honey-ants (camponotus inflatus lubbock hymenoptera: formicidae). throughout much of australia, various insect larvae have comprised a significant part of traditional diets through time (tindale 1953, 1966; yen 2005:381). concerning the pitjantjatjara of central australia, tindale (1953:59) writes that “women and children spend much time digging for [witchetty grubs] and a healthy baby seems often to have one dangling from its mouth in much the same way that one of our the importance of insects in australian aboriginal society: a dictionary survey aung si1* and myfany turpin2 author addresses: 1school of languages and linguistics, university of melbourne, babel (building 139), parkville, vic 3010, aus. 2sydney conservatorium of music, the university of sydney, c41, nsw 2006, aus. *corresponding author: aung.si@unimelb.edu.au received: may 3, 2015 volume: 6(1):175-182 published: september 17, 2015 © 2015 society of ethnobiology abstract: the use of insects by indigenous societies is an understudied topic, but much useful information can be gleaned from field linguists’ dictionaries. in this essay, we explore published and draft dictionaries of selected australian aboriginal languages to report on the scope of insect use by coastal and desert communities. we found a number of insect orders exploited for food, medicine, and other uses, as well as a clear trend towards more reliance on edible insects among desert communities. the cultural importance of certain groups of insects can be correlated with a proliferation of associated vocabulary. we suggest that such groups may be regarded as cultural keystone taxa. keywords: edible insects, australian aboriginal languages, ethnoentomology, honeybee, moth larva, beetle larva ethnobiology letters. 2015. 6:175‐182. doi: 10.14237/ebl.6.1.2015.399. 176 perspectives in this essay, we survey dictionaries of indigenous australian languages to present an overview of patterns of insect use in communities from different parts of the continent. findings from relevant nonlexicographic publications are also discussed. dictionaries are widely regarded by linguists and aboriginal communities as repositories of not just linguistic, but also cultural information. lifestyle change, language loss, and the introduction of mainstream ‘city’ foods have conspired to drastically reduce entomophagy and the knowledge of traditional insect uses among indigenous australian communities. it is fair to say that in the not-too-distant future, dictionary entries may be the only indication that certain insects were once consumed or used in other ways. we hope that this essay will encourage field linguists, anthropologists, and ethnobiologists to pay more attention to documenting the insect knowledge of indigenous communities. the australian languages investigated this paper investigates the domain of insects in the central australian (desert) languages kaytetye (turpin and ross 2012), arrernte (breen 2000), and anmatyerr (green 2010). northern australian (coastal and floodplain) languages referred to in this paper include bininj-gunwok (garde, n. d.) and its kune dialect, rembarrnga (saulwick 2003), dalabon (evans et al. 2004), ndjebbana (green et al. 2007), yidiny (dixon 1991), and nunggubuyu (heath 1981) (figure 1). the first four languages occur in close proximity to each other in west arnhem land, while yidiny is spoken in cape york and nunggubuyu in southeastern arnhem land. the primary sources of data cited in this essay are field dictionaries of the languages named above. the languages were mainly chosen from parts of australia where the authors had carried out fieldwork. the dictionaries cited above represent, in most cases, the only dictionary ever produced of the respective languages. all invertebrate-related lexemes from each dictionary were first collated into a spreadsheet, along with definitions, anthropological notes, and example sentences in the target language (with translations). the entries were arranged according to broad taxon in order to detect general patterns in naming patterns and cultural significance. role of insects in australian aboriginal cultures the traditional aboriginal diet consists of many different types of insects. yen (2005) identifies the following groups of insects (or their products) that were known to be eaten by aboriginal people: 1) isoptera (termites) 2) hemiptera (scale insects) 3) hymenoptera (ants and bees) 4) orthoptera (grasshoppers, crickets, locusts) 5) coleoptera (beetles) 6) lepidoptera (moths) some insects or insect derived foods are still highly prized today, such as the honey-ant, lerp produced by a type of psyllid on the normanton box tree, honey, and witchetty grubs. some dictionaries of arnhem land languages name up to six honeybee types, although many fail to provide precise scientific identifications. an exception is garde’s (n. d.) bininj gunwok dictionary, which lists the following honeybee types: rdiwarrah (tetragonula hockingsi cockerell hymenoptera: apidae), yurdu (austroplebeia symei rayment hymenoptera: apidae), modjarnh (t. mellipes friese hymenoptera: apidae), and nabadyalk (tetragonula sp.). some desert languages distinguish cold weather honey, with its crystalized lumps, from honey obtained in warmer months (turpin & ross 2012:50). many name up to four different parts of the hive (green 2010). in kaytetye, the word ilperalke ‘native bee, honey’ is also a ‘sweet food’ classifier that figure 1. approximate location of aboriginal languages referred to in this paper. ethnobiology letters. 2015. 6:175‐182. doi: 10.14237/ebl.6.1.2015.399. 177 perspectives can go before the word for any type of sweet food (turpin & ross 2012:392). most commonly, the insects themselves are a source of food, as in the case of witchetty grubs. dictionaries of australian indigenous languages typically have at least one lexeme glossed as ‘witchetty grub’ (rem. mork; nun. guman mana, ngadan mana; dal. doluk). whether these represent a single or multiple species remains to be determined, due to a lack of scientific identification. desert languages such as kaytetye and anmatyerr have an abundance of terms that label edible insect larvae (this is not the case for the languages of arnhem land), with the dictionary of the former containing some 25 different names for edible lepidopteran and coleopteran insect larvae (turpin and ross 2012). most of these larvae have yet to be identified for an important practical reason: kaytetye folk nomenclature focuses solely on the larval forms (and so kaytetye speakers are only able to identify and name these forms), whereas formal scientific identification requires the adults of these species to be collected. the folk classification of honeybees and edible insect larvae is an interesting topic of research that has not been properly investigated in australian languages. insects and their products can be used as medicines, and we find that native honey bee larvae can be eaten to alleviate cold symptoms (turpin and ross 2012:100) and used as a medicine for itchy skin and sores (green 2010:52). ant and termite eggs (rem: jappuh) and even the hardened earth of the termite mound (kay, arr: ngkwepeye) can be consumed if one is feeling weak and shaky (dobson 2007). yidiny people recommend squeezing a handful of green tree ants (yid: jilibura) and drinking the resulting juice mixed with water and the ash of certain trees as a cure for headaches (dixon 1991). a flu remedy that makes use of green tree ants (dal: bodbarng) has also been reported from as far away as east arnhem land, among the dalabon people. across australia we find insects used as bait, such as the mole cricket (gryllotalpidae) in arrernte (breen 2000) and various unspecified worms (probably not insects) in yidiny (dixon 1991). the processionary caterpillar (juveniles of the bag-shelter moth ochrogaster lunifer herrich-schaffer lepidoptera: thaumetopoeidae) used to be spread out, by kaytetye people, in the nests of australian bustards (ardeotis australis j. e. gray otididae), making them easier to catch (turpin and ross 2012:378). as adhesives, we find that the resin from ant nests is used by many aboriginal people in manufacturing implements such as spear throwers. another material commonly used for this purpose, as well as in spears and didgeridoos, is the wax of certain types of native honey bee, such as the ground dwelling bee len in rembarrnga. the ant-lion (myrmeleontidae) is used as a toy in central australia (turpin and green 2014), as it is in some other parts of the world (van huis 1996). another role that invertebrates play is as indicators of events and resource availability. particular insect behaviors or presence can indicate the availability of some other species. for example, stridulation by various kaytetye and anmatyerr beetles (cerambycidae) is said to indicate the availability of yams and different types of edible grass seeds (turpin 2013:509). in arrernte, the length of the train of the processionary caterpillar is used to predict the severity of seasons (turpin et al. 2013:25). particular insects are also recognized as favored foods of certain larger animals and are regarded as indicators of the health and presence of yet other species. for example, kaytetye people regard witchetty grubs as the favored food of the bilby (macrotis lagotis reid thylacomyidae). this marsupial is believed to have a keen sense of hearing, enabling it to hear witchetty grubs chewing wood in the roots below, and so its telltale scratching is a sign that root-dwelling larvae are mature and rising to the surface. in arnhem land, the chirping of certain insects can be an indication of the availability of other kinds of food. cicadas (rem: dinadinah) can signal that green plums are ripe and can be gathered, and katydids (rem: jalna) tell people that cheeky yams are ready to be dug up. the loud buzzing of blowflies (rem: worrorlorl) is said to be a sign that there is a ‘devil’ or evil spirit nearby, as is the nighttime sound of a cricket (kay: anakapeltherreye) to kaytetye people. cultural and regional differences a comparison of the invertebrate-related entries in dictionaries of australian languages reveals a trend towards a greater number of lexemes related to edible insects in the languages of the arid inland region. while numerous insects are named in the dictionaries of coastal languages from northern australia, few entries explicitly mention that the insects they describe are eaten. as mentioned above, this contrasts with desert languages where numerous edible insect larvae are given unique names. many of the insects named in the northern languages are regarded as dangerous or nuisances. not surprisingly, it also appears that people ethnobiology letters. 2015. 6:175‐182. doi: 10.14237/ebl.6.1.2015.399. 178 perspectives from coastal areas favor the consumption of marine invertebrates (such as cockles, snails, oysters, and crabs), judging from the large number of lexemes that are used to name this diverse group of organisms. in the more arid parts of australia, edible insects traditionally occupied this culinary niche. an exception to this trend in the dictionaries examined so far appears to be the yidiny people of cape york who, in addition to their many words for edible marine species, also have numerous words for edible grubs and grub life stages (dixon 1991). the languages of arnhem land do possess the occasional word for an edible insect. the dictionary of coastal nunggubuyu (spoken by a coastal community in south eastern arnhem land) lists six words for insect larvae; although none of the entries explicitly state that they are edible, two words are glossed as ‘witchetty grub’ in english, implying that at least these organisms might be eaten by nunggubuyu speakers (heath 1981). in the slightly inland kune dialect of bininj gunwok (eastern arnhem land), the word for an edible wood dwelling larvae is dolek, and its counterpart in the neighbouring language rembarrnga (also inland) is morh. a type of edible larvae that lives in ‘ant beds’ or termite mounds is also named in both languages (kun. kurndi, rem. yarnung, mambuh). the coastal community of ndjebbana speakers (west arnhem land) recognize two kinds of edible insect larvae, one that lives in wood (ndj. warrángala) and one that is found in ant beds (ndj. ngúkarda). although the various communities of west arnhem land share many cultural and linguistic traits, there is anecdotal evidence of the existence of differences in what is or is not considered edible. the following example, though dealing with a non-insect invertebrate, is illustrative of the general phenomenon. the ‘mangrove worms’ (bivalvia) bankia australis (calman teredinidae) and bactronophorus thoracites figure 2. the gall formed by a coccoid insect (poss. cystococcus pomiformis), showing the large, featureless insect inside the right half and eggs lining the inner surfaces of both halves. photo by aung si. ethnobiology letters. 2015. 6:175‐182. doi: 10.14237/ebl.6.1.2015.399. 179 perspectives (gould teredinidae) are well known to the people of arnhem land (and likely many other coastal areas of australia) as a food source and are particularly important to the ndjebbana-speaking gunibidji people in and around the town of maningrida. ndjebbana has two words for ‘mangrove worm’, namely béwa ‘cheeky (i.e. bitter) mangrove worm’ and kangódjbaya ‘sweet mangrove worm’, corresponding to the two biological species named above. the ‘sweet mangrove worm’ is highly prized, and is said to have medicinal properties, as described in the following excerpt from the draft ndjebbana dictionary: this species is regarded as extremely wholesome. when the worms are taken from live wood, the red-colored wood shavings inside the worm's siphons are eaten. when the worms are taken from dead wood, the contents of the siphons are black and silty, like mangrove mud. in this case the contents are squeezed out before the worm is eaten. the worms can be eaten raw, straight from the wood… salty liquid also drips from the worms themselves. the worms together with this liquid are called “soup” by aboriginal people. the juice or “soup” is a prized part of the mangrove worm meal. it may be briefly heated on the fire before eating. this “soup” is the aboriginal cultural equivalent of chicken soup: wholesome and nourishing food at any time, but particularly good for invalids, the elderly, and anyone who needs easily digestible sustenance. it is also given to new mothers after childbirth to help bring in their breast milk. it is so effective for this purpose, that even the european midwives at the maningrida community health centre prescribe it for new aboriginal mothers (green et al. 2007). a bininj kun-wok term for ‘mangrove worm’ exists (djirdabbadj, from the kuninjku dialect; garde, n.d.), but this species would be absent from the traditional ranges of more inland dialects such as kune and mayali. it is perhaps not surprising then, that kune speakers do not consider ‘mangrove worms’ to be highly desirable food items. the classification of insects also varies between communities. one example is the coccid insect cystococcus pomiformis (froggatt hemiptera: coccidae), which lives on the desert bloodwood corymbia opaca (k.d.hill & l.a.s.johnson myrtaceae) in central australia. a similar insect species occurs in arnhem land on another bloodwood, but the taxonomic identities of the northern species are as yet unknown. the insect induces the host tree to form large, spherical woody galls colloquially known as ‘bush coconut’ in english. these are harvested and split open and the sap-filled insect and any eggs adhering to the inner wall of the gall are scraped off and eaten (figure 2). in central australia the white lining of the gall (kay: kwerlperlpe; arr: arrkirlpangkwerle) is also eaten and classified as a plant food, while the insect (kay: kathipe, arr: angure) is classified as kayte ‘edible insect larvae’. the kune word for the gall is dorddord and there is no distinct term for the insect or the eggs inside the gall (aung si, pers. obs.). the word dorddord is also a generic term for eucalyptus trees that bear woody gum nuts or seed capsules (garde n.d.). dorddord is categorized as a plant food, manme, by kune speakers. manme is also a generic term for ‘food’ in kune. however, in relation to dorddord, it is clear that its meaning is the more specific ‘plant food’. kune speakers therefore consider dorddord to be a plant product – this is in keeping with the observation that insect foods are less frequently consumed in this community than in desert communities. curiously, though, the clear liquid contained inside the body of the coccid inhabitant of the gall is labelled with words for body fluids rather than with a more neutral substance like ‘water’: mpwe ‘urine’ in kaytetye (turpin and ross 2004) and djikkano ‘milk’ in kune (aung si, pers. obs.). in dalabon, a language spoken to the south-east of kune territory, speakers do indeed call the edible insides of the gall ‘eggs’ (dal: dabuno) possibly in recognition of their insect origins (evans et al. 2004). insects as cultural keystone species our survey of australian language dictionaries indicates that some edible insects may be considered cultural keystone taxa for certain aboriginal societies (see also yen 2010). garibaldi and turner (2004:4) define these as “species that shape in a major way the cultural identity of a people, as reflected in the fundamental roles these species have in diet, materials, medicine, and/or spiritual practices.” in aboriginal australia, cultural keystone taxa (or, more accurately in this case, ethnotaxa) make up a considerable part of the diet and are celebrated in creation stories, ceremonial songs, and designs, as well as in personal and place names. among the insects, these are frequently honey-ants (c. inflatus), native honeybees, and various ethnobiology letters. 2015. 6:175‐182. doi: 10.14237/ebl.6.1.2015.399. 180 perspectives types of edible insect larvae, such as e. leucomochla. the mewal songline of the marrangu clan of northcentral arnhem land prominently figures the honeybee as the companion of an important spirit figure; honey and honeybees also play an important role in the funeral ceremony of this clan (elliott 1991). honeybees also feature in the creation stories, totems, songs, and rock art of central australia (moyle 1986). finally, bogong moths are an important food source not only for the people of the australian alps, but also critically endangered mammal species such as the mountain pygmy possum (burramys parvus broom burramyidae) (mansergh and broom 1994). in central australia, the witchetty grub is a cultural keystone species, being the preferred food out of some 25 uniquely named edible insect larvae. tindale (1953:59) observed their prominent role in the central australian aboriginal diet and the efficiency by which they could be obtained. both pitjantjatjara and arrernte people perform ceremonies to promote the abundance of these insects, as well as other types of edible insect larvae (gibson 2013:71; mulvaney et al. 1997; tindale 1953:59). the performance of these songs not only honor these species but are thought to play a role in making them more abundant and accessible. in turn, the ever present ancestral beings of these species are known to give songs to people, as in the case of a bull ant spirit (myrmecia nigriceps mayr hymenoptera: formicidae) giving a ceremonial song to a kaytetye woman (turpin and ross 2004). various types of edible insect larvae also appear in the creation stories of the wangkangurru people of the lake eyre basin (hercus 1989, 1992). recently, it has been proposed that large, frequently hunted marine vertebrates such as turtles and dugong be regarded as cultural keystone species for torres strait islander communities who live off the northern tip of queensland, australia (butler et al. 2012). these flagship species, it is suggested, can help foster cooperation between government agencies and indigenous peoples in developing and implementing fisheries management policies. lesser known insect species also have a claim to cultural keystone status, as they too have the potential to inform land management practices and foster cross-cultural engagement. we find a correlation between cultural keystone taxa (or ethnotaxa) and ethnotaxa that have a disproportionately large number of unique terms. both the witchetty grub and native bee have much specialized vocabularies, some of which makes its way into personal and place names through mythological affiliation. there are specific terms for bee eggs, excretions, hives, and parts of the hive. in contrast, there is only one word for ‘stick insect’ and no unique words associated with the lifecycle of stick insects. we might say that linguistic diversity surrounding an ethnotaxon suggests cultural keystone status. we find bees to be a cultural keystone taxon in both the coastal and inland regions; and edible lepidopteran and coleopteran larvae in the latter region. conclusion while there have been few focused studies on the uses of insects in australian aboriginal societies, our survey of linguists’ field dictionaries reveals that much useful, culturally and ethnobiologically significant information lies hidden within the pages of these publications. northern australian and central desert languages have numerous words for insects that are eaten, used as medicine, or that indicate important phenomena in the immediate environment. however, there are significant geographical differences, with a general trend towards higher levels of insect consumption in desert communities. attitudinal differences towards the palatability of certain insect species need to be kept in mind when generalizing about indigenous culinary practices, even in the case of geographically contiguous communities. our survey also reveals that greater efforts need to be made by linguists in the scientific identification of culturally important insects; this is particularly true of insects such as edible lepidoptera and coleoptera and native honeybees, which may be considered cultural keystone species. declarations permissions: university of sydney human research ethics approval (2015/081), university of queensland human ethics committee (approval 2006000385), northern land council entry and research permit (47331), and university of melbourne human ethics (approval 1340550). sources of funding: australian research council, australian institute of aboriginal and torres strait islander studies, and endangered languages documentation program, university of melbourne. conflicts of interest: none declared. ethnobiology letters. 2015. 6:175‐182. doi: 10.14237/ebl.6.1.2015.399. 181 perspectives references cited butler, j. r. a., a. tawake, t. skewes, l. tawake and v. mcgrath. 2012. integrating traditional ecological knowledge and fisheries management in the torres strait, australia: the catalytic role of turtles and dugong as cultural keystone species. ecology and society 17:34-52. breen, g. 2000. introductory dictionary of western arrernte. iad press, alice springs, northern territory. dixon, r. m. w. 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children’s game. anthropological linguistics 55:358-394. turpin, m. and a. ross. 2012. kaytetye to english dictionary. iad press, alice springs, northern territory. van huis, a. 1996. the traditional use of arthropods in sub-saharan africa. proceedings of the section experimental and applied entomology of the netherlands entomological society 7:3-20. ethnobiology letters. 2015. 6:175‐182. doi: 10.14237/ebl.6.1.2015.399. 182 perspectives van huis, a., k. van itterbeeck, h. klunder, e. mertens, a. halloran, g. muir and p. vantomme. 2013. edible insects: future prospects for food and feed security. food and agricultural orginization of the united nations, rome. yen, a. 2005. insects and other invertebrate foods of the australian aborigines. in ecological implications of minilivestock: potential of insects, rodents, frogs and snails, edited by m. g. paoletti, pp. 367388. science publishers, new hampshire. yen, a. 2010. edible insects and other invertebrates in australia: future prospects. in forest insects as food: humans bite back, proceedings of a workshop on asia-pacific resources and their potential for development, edited by p. b. durst, d. v. johnson, r. l. leslie and k. shono, pp. 65-84. fao regional office for asia and the pacific, bangkok. biosketches aung si is a biologist and linguist at the university of melbourne. he works in india, northern australia and myanmar. myfany turpin is a linguist and ethnomusicologist at the university of sydney, working on aboriginal languages of central australia. notes 1the term ‘witchetty’ probably comes from the south australian language arabana, where witjuti refers to a type of acacia. tindale (1953: 59) used the term ‘witchetty grub’ for the edible grub found in acacia ligulata benth. leguminosae. the species was originally described by turner (1915) as the cossid moth xyleutes leucomochla; it is now called endoxyla leucomochla. relative importance and knowledge distribution of medicinal plants in a kichwa community in the ecuadorian amazon doyle et al. 2016. ethnobiology letters 8(1):1–14 1 research communications and age-associated differences in plant knowledge may have an impact on the management of forests. research in the area of social ecology supports the idea that traditional knowledge, such as knowledge of the use of plants as medicine, impacts how indigenous people manage forest resources (berkes et al. 2000; colding and folke 2001). the objective of our study was to determine if, in fact, there are any gender or age-associated differences in medicinal plant knowledge among the payamino people. in addition, we aimed to determine the medicinal plants that are most important to the payamino people to more fully characterize payamino ethnomedicine and to identify species that might be candidates for further ethnobotanical, phytochemical, and pharmacological investigation. introduction san josé de payamino is a community of quijos kichwa-speaking people located in the ecuadorian amazon. the payamino people are revered by neighboring communities for their adherence to a relatively traditional lifestyle, which includes the use of plants as medicine (irvine 1987). the earliest account of payamino ethnobotany included notes on plant use and a list of plants collected in the payamino territory (irvine 1987). irvine delineated the role of payamino shamans as individuals trained in the use of medicinal plants, and who have more knowledge of, and experience with, medicinal plants than other members of the community. according to irvine, most members of the community have some basic medical knowledge, and she hypothesized that because of the traditional division of labor, gender relative importance and knowledge distribution of medicinal plants in a kichwa community in the ecuadorian amazon brian j. doyle1*, caroline m. asiala1, and diana m. fernández2 1department of biology and department of biochemistry, alma college, alma, mi, usa. 2national institute of biodiversity, national herbarium of ecuador, quito, ecuador. *doylebj@alma.edu abstract traditional knowledge, such as knowledge of the use of plants as medicine, influences how indigenous people manage forest resources. gender and age-associated differences in traditional knowledge may impact forest resource management because of the traditional division of labor. we interviewed 18 men and 18 women between 9 and 74 years old in san josé de payamino, an indigenous community of the kichwa ethnicity in the ecuadorian amazon, to determine if there are gender or age-associated differences in medicinal plant knowledge among the payamino people and to identify the most important species from a sample of medicinal plants. individuals were interviewed using a tablet that displayed images of 34 plants, which had been cited by traditional healers in the community. quantitative analysis provided insight into the relative importance of plants in the sample as well as the distribution of medicinal plant knowledge among members of the community. the most important plants were tradescantia zanonia and monolena primuliflora. these plants should be considered candidates for further investigation. there was a positive correlation between age and knowledge of medicinal plants, but no significant difference between genders. our results suggest that an interview method that relies on digital images can reveal differences in the importance of medicinal plants as well as provide insight into the distribution of traditional medical knowledge. while men and women are likely to manage forest resources similarly, younger members of the community may not have the same regard for forest resources as their elder counterparts. received august 24, 2016 open access accepted november 16, 2016 doi 10.14237/ebl.8.1.2017.777 keyword traditional medicine, ethnobotany, quichua, runa, payamino copyright © 2017 by the author(s); licensee society of ethnobiology. this is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution-noncommercial 4.0 international public license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0), which permits non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. doyle et al. 2016. ethnobiology letters 8(1):1–14 2 research communications recently, the most knowledgeable members of the community, the traditional healers (shamans and curanderos), were interviewed using a forest walk, or walk-in-the-woods, method (doyle et al. 2014). while an intensive forest walk interview may be appropriate for very knowledgeable participants, this approach is not practical for broader participation. forest walks are typically very time consuming and labor intensive, particularly when conducted in challenging settings, such as in the amazon. as an alternative approach, structured interviews that rely on plant images rather than fortuitously encountering plants in the forest allows for more efficient and consistent data collection (thomas et al. 2007). thomas et al. (2007) highlighted the advantages of using photographs of plants rather than voucher specimens or freshly collected plant material in ethnobotanical interviews. participants recognized 92–96% of photographs of plants that they had indicated and named during prior forest walk interviews but only 68–86% of voucher specimens. therefore, using images of plants proved to be an effective interview method. in the present study, we adapted the approach used by whitecloud et al. (2014) where participants were presented digital photographs of plants on an electronic tablet. the presentation of digital images has several advantages over printed images or voucher specimens. for example, the tablet provides a similar visual experience under most conditions. since most interviews are conducted in the homes of informants, which tend to be somewhat dark, the backlit screen, adjustable brightness, and zoom function of the tablet enable scrutiny of morphological characteristics under these conditions. furthermore, tablets allow one to take photographs and record audio and video during the interview process, and in fact, images taken in situ are immediately available for use in ex situ interviews. lastly, data can be entered directly into a spreadsheet figure 1 location of san josé de payamino relative to the nearest towns of coca and loreto and the sumaco napo galeras national park (timburi cocha 2015). doyle et al. 2016. ethnobiology letters 8(1):1–14 3 research communications or text document on the tablet, which allows for organization, analysis and digital archival of field notes at the study site. electronic tablets can be encased in a waterproof cover that does not interfere with the visibility or the interactivity of the screen. only one informant, a male 79 years of age, was excluded due to difficulty seeing the images. methods description of the study area san josé de payamino is located roughly 45 km west of coca (puerto francisco de orellana) in loreto canton, orellana province (figure 1). the community claims ownership of a 16,800 ha territory and is comprised of between 270 and 300 individuals in approximately 60 households (oldekop et al. 2012). the payamino territory lies within the buffer zone of the sumaco napo-galeras national park, which was designated in 2000 as a world biosphere reserve by unesco. the study area is predominantly lowland tropical moist forest (elevation is 300–400 m amsl (above mean sea level)) that is transitional between the andes foothills and the lower elevation region inhabited by kichwas along the napo river to the east. the high biodiversity of the region is attributed to this transitional geography (arias et al. 2012; innerhofer and bernhardt 2011). the payamino people practice subsistence farming, hunting, and fishing as well as small-scale farming of cash crops such as corn, rice, and cacao. anthropological and socioecological studies have been conducted in payamino first by irvine (1987), who conducted an extensive survey of the local flora, and more recently by oldekop et al. (2012a, b, 2013). interview method authorization to conduct our study was obtained from the institutional review board of alma college, and all necessary research permits and authorizations were obtained from the community of san josé de payamino and from the ministry of environment of ecuador under the auspices of the national museum of natural sciences of ecuador. interviews were conducted from may–june, 2014. participants were sought with the assistance of a community liaison, and all participants gave their informed consent. a parent’s signature was obtained for child participants. interviews were conducted in spanish, but in a few cases the community liaison translated between spanish and kichwa. the interviews were conducted individually whenever possible, although onlookers and secondary participants were sometimes present. the average duration of the interviews was approximately one hour. the interviews were semi-structured and based on the methodology described by alexiades (1996) as a plant interview or checklist interview with the exception that digital images were used as visual aids rather than live, freshly-collected, or dried plant material. vernacular names were not presented with the images because these names tend to correspond to the medicinal use of the plant (e.g. kiru jambi yura means tooth medicine stem). each participant was shown a series of plant images on an ipad mini 2 with a 7.9 in. retina display (apple, cupertino, ca). the name of the plant, the medicinal use, the preparation, and administration were recorded for each plant queried. the digital images, which were created by the authors in payamino, represented 34 species that were cited by eight payamino healers (men and women) during forest walk interviews from 2012-2014. voucher specimens were collected at the time the photographs were taken and were identified by staff at the national herbarium in quito (qcne) where the specimens are deposited. the catalog of the vascular plants of ecuador (jorgensen and león-yánez 1999) was used to facilitate identification, and the currently accepted scientific name of each plant was determined by consulting the plant list (2013). the 34 plants were selected from 60 species that had been identified as part of our ongoing ethnobotanical survey in payamino (doyle et al. 2014). they were cited by more than one of the traditional healers that had previously participated in forest walk interviews. thus, plants that are more likely to be integral to the payamino ethnomedical pharmacopoeia were chosen rather than plants that might be particular to an informant (giovannini 2015; vandebroek 2010). quantitative analysis several indices were utilized to identify plants from among the 34 plants in our sample that are most important in the traditional medicine of the payamino people. the first was the relative frequency of citations (rfc), which is simply the fraction of informants that recognized a given plant as medicinal (tardío and pardo-de-santayana 2008). rfc was calculated as follows: rfc = n / ni where n is the number of informants who cited any medicinal use for the plant and ni is the total number doyle et al. 2016. ethnobiology letters 8(1):1–14 4 research communications of informants (36). an rfc of one would indicate that all informants recognized the plant as medicinal and cited at least one use, whereas, an rfc of zero would indicate that no informants cited a medicinal use for the plant. the use value introduced by philips and gentry (1993a, b) and simplified by rossato et al. (1999) was calculated as a measure of the diversity of medicinal uses cited for a given species. uv is expressed as: uv = nr / ni where nr is the total number of medicinal use citations in all therapeutic categories for all informants, and ni is the total number of informants (36). use citations were divided into ten therapeutic categories, such that the theoretical maximum use value for a species is ten. this would require that all 36 informants cite a medicinal use in each of the ten therapeutic categories for a given species. fidelity level (fl), as described by friedman et al. (1986 cited in andrade-cetto and heinrich 2011), is used to determine the level of agreement among informants on a plant’s medicinal use. we calculated fl as follows: fl = np / n where np is the number of informants who reported a particular use for the species, and n is the number of informants who cited any medicinal use for the species. our fl differs from that used by friedman et al. (1986) in that we presented the informants with the plant images and asked them to cite uses rather than asking informants to cite plants that have a particular use. an fl of one would indicate that all informants that recognized the plant as medicinal cited the same medicinal use while an fl approaching zero would indicate that each informant that recognized the plant as medicinal cited a different use. although an fl may be calculated for each use cited for a particular species, only the medicinal use for which the fl was highest is reported here. the index of agreement on remedies (iar) is used to quantify the importance of plants for which there is consensus on more than one medicinal use (mootoosamy and mahomoodally 2014; mutheeswaran et al. 2011; vandebroek 2010). a variation on trotter and logan’s (1986) informant agreement ratio, the iar considers all cited usage categories. thus, a plant with a high number of citations in more than one use category may rank higher than plants with more citations in any single category. iar was calculated as follows: iar = (nr – na) / (nr – 1) where nr is the total number of use citations for a given species across all therapeutic categories and na is the number of cited therapeutic categories. the last index is a sum of the iar and rfc values and has a maximal value of two. it is intended to overcome the inherent limitations of each measure (hoffman and gallaher 2007; kvist et al. 1995). for example, if few informants recognize a plant image, but all those who do recognize the plant agree on its medicinal use, iar will be very high while the rfc will be low. alternatively, many informants might recognize a plant as medicinal, which would result in a high rfc, but if each informant cites a different medicinal use, then iar would be low. neither index on its own gives a sense of the importance of the plant. we decided that combining these two values gave the best measure of relative importance for our study because it takes into account the percentage of informants who recognized a given plant as medicinal as well as the level of agreement among informants on the medicinal uses of the plant, realizing that the most important plants may have more than one agreed upon use. statistical analysis all statistical analyses were performed with ibm spss statistics version 20 software. a p-value of less than 0.05 was considered to be statistically significant. spearman’s rank-order correlation analysis was done to determine if there was a correlation between age and the number of plants recognized as medicinal. we conducted fisher’s exact test to identify differences in rfc and fl of plant species among age and gender groups. results thirty-six interviews were conducted with an equal number of male and female informants between 9 and 74 years old. experts, such as individuals that would be considered shamans or curanderos, and non-experts were represented. the mean age of informants was 34 years, and the mean age of females (40 years) was 11 years ± 6 (se) older than the mean age of males. use citations were grouped into ten categories as listed in table 1 to facilitate quantitative analysis. doyle et al. 2016. ethnobiology letters 8(1):1–14 5 research communications the most often cited use category was aches and pains (120 citations) followed by injuries including bites and stings (107), respiratory ailments (74), gastrointestinal complaints (58), skin infections (42), tumores (40), mal viento (34), “other” (25), women’s health (25), and eye infections (11). the most frequently used plant part was the leaves (19 plants) followed by stems (6), latex (4), bark (3) and flowers (2). relative importance indices were calculated for each plant based on the responses of the participants (table 2). two of these indices, rfc and iar, were summed resulting in a numerical value that was used to rank the plants in order of importance. by this measure the five most important plants in the sample are urera baccifera, tradescantia zanonia, brunfelsia grandiflora, croton lechleri, and monolena primuliflora. we found that there was a positive relationship between age and medicinal plant knowledge as measured by the number of plants recognized as medicinal (figure 2), though there was no significant difference in medicinal plant knowledge between male and female informants. of the 34 plant species presented, both male and female informants recognized 14 plants on average. in order to identify any plants that might differ in importance depending on the age of the informant, informants were divided into three age groups (≤ 20, 21–39, ≥ 40). recognition of abuta imene as a medicinally useful plant (rfc) was significantly higher in the oldest age group than the youngest age group (p < 0.01). agreement on the medicinal use of b. grandiflora (fl) was higher in the older age group than in the middle age group. participants in the oldest age group mentioned b. grandiflora significantly more for treating colds than the other age groups (p < 0.05). in general, there was more agreement on use (fl or iar) among informants in the older age groups than the younger age groups. no species emerged as significantly different in importance between gender groups. discussion an interview method based on presentation of digital images on an electronic tablet enabled inclusion of a relatively large number of participants representing both genders and a wide range of ages. we determined that there was a positive correlation between age and knowledge of medicinal plants, but that there was no difference in knowledge between genders. in addition, the relative importance of species included in the study was determined through quantitative analysis of informant responses. interestingly, a plant that is used for wound healing, and that has yet to be extensively investigated, emerged as one of the most important plants. the plants that were most important to the payamino people among the 34 in our sample were identified through calculation of rfc, fl, uv, and iar indices. because only a subset of medicinal plants used by the payamino people are represented in our sample, it was not possible to calculate some relative importance indices such as informant consensus (trotter and logan 1986), which is a measure of use category description a—injuries bites, stings, cuts, burns, etc. b—gastrointestinal stomach aches, diarrhea, etc. c—respiratory fever, cold, cough, sore throat, etc. d—mal viento mal viento or mal aire refers vaguely to a bad feeling or ill health. some participants associated it with vomiting and/or having drank alcohol the night before. e—skin infections includes rashes and granos, a word used to describe spots, marks, or lesions on the skin f—aches/pains generalized pain, muscular pain, back/leg aches, headaches, toothaches, etc. g—tumores swollen pustule in the abdomen or other part of the body. h—women’s health menstrual cramps, lactation-inducing, birth control, and other conditions specific to women i—eye infections any condition described as making eyes itch, red, etc. o—other insomnia, sleepiness, dizziness, laziness or misbehavior in children, fussiness in babies, and other conditions rarely mentioned during the interviews table 1 medicinal use citations were organized into ten use categories. doyle et al. 2016. ethnobiology letters 8(1):1–14 6 research communications (c o n ti n u ed o n n ex t p ag e) ta b le 2 t h e 3 4 p la n t sp ec ie s in cl u d ed in t h e st u d y ar e li st ed in o rd e r o f d e cr e as in g c v ( fl + r fc ). t h e m o st f re q u e n tl y ci te d t h e ra p e u ti c u se c at eg o ry ( se e ta b le 1 ), m et h o d o f p re p ar ati o n , an d p la n t p ar t u se d a re a ls o i n d ic at ed . n a = n o t ap p lic ab le b ec au se t h er e w as n o p re d o m in an t re sp o n se . *l im p ia r re fe rs to t h e m et h o d o f fa n n in g o r sw atti n g th e aff ec te d in d iv id u al w it h le av es t o a ch ie ve s p ir it u al c le an si n g. * * m ai to r ef er s to t h e m et h o d o f co o ki n g b y w ra p p in g th e p la n t m at er ia l i n a h el ic o n ia le af a n d p la ci n g it in t h e as h es o f th e fi re p la ce . sc ie n ti fi c n am e k ic h w a n am e v o u ch e r # u se c at e go ry p ar t u se d p re p . / ad m in . r fc fl u v ia r r fc + ia r u re ra b a cc if er a ( l. ) g a u d ic h . e x w ed d . ( u rti ca ce a e) c h in i 2 3 3 4 3 8 m a l v ie n to le av es li m p ia r* 1 .0 0 .7 1 .2 0 .9 1 .8 7 tr a d es ca n ti a z a n o n ia ( l. ) sw . (c o m m el in a ce a e) k ilo n k ilo n 2 3 3 4 8 1 in ju ry la te x to p ic al 0 .8 1 .0 0 .8 1 .0 1 .7 4 b ru n fe ls ia g ra n d ifl o ra d . d o n (s o la n a ce a e) c h ir i w ay u sa 2 3 3 4 2 2 r es p ir at o ry le av es d ec o cti o n 0 .8 0 .6 1 .0 0 .9 1 .6 4 c ro to n le ch le ri m u ll. a rg . (e u p h o rb ia ce a e) ya w ar w ik i 2 3 7 5 6 7 r es p ir at o ry la te x o ra l 0 .8 0 .5 1 .0 0 .8 1 .5 7 m o n o le n a p ri m u lifl o ra h o o k. f . (m el a st o m a ta ce a e) k ir u j am b i y u ra 2 3 3 4 3 4 a ch es /p ai n s st em m as ti ca n t 0 .6 0 .9 0 .6 0 .9 1 .5 2 a b u ta g ra n d if o lia ( m a rt .) s a n d w it h ( m en is p er m a ce a e) ta ra t ar a 2 3 3 4 1 1 g i st em d ec o cti o n 0 .6 0 .8 0 .7 0 .9 1 .4 5 m o n st er a s p ru ce a n a ( sc h o tt ) en g l. (a ra ce a e) r ay a p an ga 2 3 7 5 5 7 in ju ry le av es v ap o r b at h 0 .6 0 .9 0 .6 0 .9 1 .4 5 p eti ve ri a a lli a ce a l . (p h yt o la cc a ce a e) c o n d is o 2 3 3 4 2 6 r es p ir at o ry le av es in tr an as al 0 .5 0 .7 0 .5 0 .8 1 .3 3 p h ilo d en d ro n c a m p ii c ro a t (a ra ce a e) a b is p a c h u p u p an ga 2 3 3 4 3 5 tu m o re s le av es m a it o ** / to p ic a l 0 .5 0 .5 0 .5 0 .8 1 .3 3 w it h er in g ia s o la n a ce a l ’h er . (s o la n a ce a e) a ta lp a ja ya p an ga 2 3 3 4 2 9 m a l v ie n to le av es to p ic al 0 .6 0 .7 0 .6 0 .8 1 .3 1 m a n so a s ta n d le yi ( st ey er m .) a .h .g en tr y (b ig n o n ia ce a e) sa ch a a jo 2 3 7 5 6 0 r es p ir at o ry le av es d ec o cti o n 0 .5 0 .8 0 .6 0 .8 1 .2 7 b eg o n ia r o ss m a n n ia e a .d c . (b eg o n ia ce a e) k ak a ta u p an ga 2 3 3 4 1 6 ey e in fe cti o n s le av es ex p re ss io n /o cu la r 0 .6 0 .5 0 .6 0 .7 1 .2 7 doyle et al. 2016. ethnobiology letters 8(1):1–14 7 research communications (c o n ti n u ed o n n ex t p ag e) (c o n ti n u ed f ro m p re vi o u s p ag e) sc ie n ti fi c n am e k ic h w a n am e v o u ch e r # u se c at e go ry p ar t u se d p re p . / ad m in . r fc fl u v ia r r fc + ia r p a ss ifl o ra v iti fo lia k u n th (p a ss ifl o ra ce a e) in d a p an ga 2 3 3 4 1 2 tu m o re s le av es v ap o r b at h 0 .4 0 .7 0 .5 0 .8 1 .2 7 el a p h o g lo ss u m r a yw a en se (j en m a n ) a ls to n (d ry o p te ri d a ce a e) zi n gr a p an ga 2 3 3 4 5 1 a ch es /p ai n s le av es v ap o r b at h 0 .4 0 .7 0 .5 0 .8 1 .2 6 p ip er s p . ( p ip er a ce a e) a rm ad ill o p an ga 2 3 7 5 5 0 a ch es /p ai n s le av es v ap o r b at h 0 .5 0 .7 0 .5 0 .8 1 .2 4 x a n th o so m a h yl a ea e en g l. & k .k ra u se ( a ra ce a e) m an d i 2 3 7 4 9 5 in ju ry st em to p ic al 0 .3 0 .8 0 .3 0 .9 1 .2 1 u n ca ri a g u ia n en si s (a u b l.) j. f. g m el . ( r u b ia ce a e) k as h a k ar a 2 3 3 4 1 4 a ch es /p ai n s b ar k d ec o cti o n 0 .4 0 .5 0 .5 0 .8 1 .1 9 c en tr o p o g o n lo re te n si s e. w im m . (c a m p a n u la ce a e) su le m a 2 3 3 4 1 5 sk in in fe cti o n s la te x to p ic al 0 .4 0 .8 0 .4 0 .8 1 .1 6 h el ic o n ia s p . ( h el ic o n ia ce a e) p ar i r iw a 2 3 7 5 1 4 in ju ry n a n a 0 .1 1 .0 0 .1 1 .0 1 .0 8 sy n g o n iu m p o d o p h yl lu m s ch o tt (a ra ce a e) yu tu ri p an ga 2 3 3 4 4 5 in ju ry la te x to p ic al 0 .3 0 .8 0 .3 0 .8 1 .0 8 d ic ra n o p yg iu m g ra n d if o liu m h a rl in g ( c yc la n th a ce a e) sa tu n 2 3 3 4 7 5 in ju ry st em to p ic al 0 .4 0 .7 0 .4 0 .7 1 .0 3 p ip er b el lid if o liu m y u n ck . (p ip er a ce a e) b as u p an ga 2 3 7 6 1 0 a ch es /p ai n s le av es n a 0 .3 0 .4 0 .3 0 .7 1 .0 1 o u ra te a w ill ia m si i j .f . m a cb r. (o ch n a ce a e) a m ar u n c as p i 2 3 7 5 3 3 in ju ry in n er b ar k d ec o cti o n 0 .2 0 .4 0 .3 0 .7 0 .9 4 p ip er m a cr o tr ic h u m c . d c . (p ip er a ce a e) u m a n an ay p an ga 2 3 7 5 7 1 a ch es /p ai n s le av es v ap o r b at h 0 .1 0 .8 0 .1 0 .8 0 .8 9 d ry m o n ia c o cc in ea ( a u b l.) w ie h le r (g es n er ia ce a e) a yk u c h u ch u 2 3 3 4 7 4 w o m en ’s h ea lt h fl o w er to p ic al 0 .2 0 .5 0 .2 0 .7 0 .8 6 doyle et al. 2016. ethnobiology letters 8(1):1–14 8 research communications (c o n ti n u ed f ro m p re vi o u s p ag e) sc ie n ti fi c n am e k ic h w a n am e v o u ch e r # u se c at e go ry p ar t u se d p re p . / ad m in . r fc fl u v ia r r fc + ia r c la vi ja w eb er b a u er i m ez (t h eo p h ra st a ce a e) p au sh i m u ly ej a 2 3 3 4 4 7 a ch es /p ai n s le av es d ec o cti o n 0 .2 0 .4 0 .3 0 .6 0 .8 5 so la n u m u le a n u m b itt er (s o la n a ce a e) c h u ru p aj u p an ga 2 3 3 4 8 6 g i le av es n a 0 .2 0 .5 0 .2 0 .6 0 .7 9 ta b er n a em o n ta n a s a n a n h o r u iz & p a v. ( a p o cy n a ce a e) si kt a yu ra 2 3 3 4 4 2 g i st em in tr an as al 0 .1 0 .8 0 .1 0 .7 0 .7 8 c o st u s a m a zo n ic u s (l o es .) j. f. m a cb r. ( c o st a ce a e) sa ch a w ir u 2 3 3 4 0 9 r es p ir at o ry st em m as ti ca n t 0 .3 0 .7 0 .3 0 .5 0 .7 5 th el yp te ri s b if o rm a ta ( r o se n st .) r .m . t ry o n ( th el yp te ri d a ce a e) is ta n d i 2 3 3 4 1 0 in ju ry b ar k to p ic al 0 .3 0 .4 0 .3 0 .5 0 .7 5 a n ib a s p . ( la u ra ce a e) p aj u p an ga 2 3 7 5 2 7 a ch es /p ai n s le av es v ap o r b at h 0 .3 0 .2 0 .3 0 .4 0 .6 9 p ip er p o p o re n se t re l. & y u n ck . (p ip er a ce a e) b as u p an ga 2 3 7 5 9 5 m a l v ie n to le av es v ap o r b at h 0 .3 0 .2 0 .3 0 .4 0 .6 8 eu ch a ri s m o o re i ( b a ke r) m ee ro w (l ili a ce a e) sa ch a c eb o lla 2 3 3 4 2 4 g i fl o w er n a 0 .2 0 .4 0 .2 0 .4 0 .6 5 a b u ta im en e (m a rt .) e ic h le r (m en is p er m a ce a e) c h al yu a p aj u p an ga 2 3 3 4 4 1 a ch es /p ai n s le av es d ec o cti o n 0 .1 0 .3 0 .1 0 .5 0 .5 8 doyle et al. 2016. ethnobiology letters 8(1):1–14 9 research communications agreement on which plants are most important for a particular usage category. it is possible that the most important plant for a given category is not included among our 34 plants. in the future, however, the current study could be conducted with different plant species such that the data set covered a larger portion of the payamino pharmacopoeia. our approach could also be augmented by incorporating additional methods such as freelisting to gather data on plants not included in the sample. there were no plants in our sample that were not recognized as medicinal by at least three informants, which suggests that the images were not seriously flawed in any way that would render the plants unrecognizable. nonetheless, it is a concern that the rfc might be to some extent a measure of the quality of the image rather than the value or importance of the plant. similarly, fl and iar are imperfect measures of importance because they depend on the assignment of use citations to various therapeutic categories (friedman et al. 1986). although several use categories are commonly used, other use categories may be culture-specific, and categorization of each use citation may not always obvious (heinrich et al. 1998). the number and inclusiveness of categories may also impact importance indices. when using fl as a measure of importance, an assumption is made that a plant with a single use is more important than a plant that is used for different purposes by different users, so the level of agreement on the most common use determines the plant’s importance. in contrast, iar takes into account the contribution of multiple different uses to a plant’s relative importance. a species may have a higher iar index than fl index if there is a high level of agreement on the plant’s use in more than one category. the iar would be lower than the fl if there is a high level of agreement in one category, but a low number of citations in multiple other categories. we reasoned that the sum of the iar and rfc would best represent the importance of each medicinal plant since this would account for the percentage of informants who recognize the plant as medicinal (rfc) as well as the level of agreement among informants as to the use or uses of the plant (iar). the five plants with the highest iar + rfc values were u. baccifera, t. zanonia, b. grandiflora, c. lechleri, and m. primuliflora. tradescantia zanonia and m. figure 2 location of san josé de payamino relative to the nearest towns of coca and loreto and the sumaco napo galeras national park (timburi cocha 2015). doyle et al. 2016. ethnobiology letters 8(1):1–14 10 research communications primuliflora have not been widely reported in the ethnomedical literature, so their relative importance in payamino ethnomedicine might not be expected. urera baccifera, b. grandiflora, and c. lechleri, however, are well-known medicinal plants that are commonly used throughout the region. urera baccifera is a stinging nettle that is used to treat aches and pains due to sore muscles, arthritis, stings and bites (bennett et al. 2002; davis and yost 1983; giovannini 2015; schultes and raffauf 1990). the affected region of the body is placed into contact with the plant’s urticating hairs, usually by tapping with the stem and leaves followed by massaging the affected area. urera baccifera is also used in ritual cleansing, and it is common to punish children with a swat of the stem. in the nearby town of loreto, u. baccifera was the third most frequent response when participants were asked which plant they harvested most recently for medicinal use (innerhofer and bernhardt 2011). the payamino people use the viscous sap of t. zanonia as a liquid bandage to treat injuries ranging from small cuts to large open wounds. although the plant does appear in the ethnomedical literature, its use as a cicatrizant is not widely reported. a hydroalcoholic extract of the sap of t. zanonia was demonstrated to be more effective at promoting wound healing in rats than the topical antibiotic and steroidal anti-inflammatory drug lamoderm (licuy-mamallacta 2013). the latex of t. zanonia is applied topically by the teribes of bocas del toro, panama for hemorrhage, but not for wounds (gupta et al. 2005). the quechua people of the chazuta valley in peru chew the aerial parts or boil them in water and drink the extract for cough suppression, referring to it as pampa llullu (sanz-biset et al. 2009). in the southern ecuadorian provinces of loja and zamora, the fresh stem of t. zanonia is prepared as an infusion and drunk for fevers (tene et al. 2007). although t. zanonia has been the focus of cytological studies, primarily on the effects of radiation on chromosomal aberrations, few phytochemical studies have been conducted on this species (anderson and sax 1936; chiriboga 1995; savage and pritchard 1969). a phytochemical screening of t. zanonia revealed the presence of alkaloids, sterols, and saponins, though the identities of these chemical constituents and their contribution to the cicatrizant activity of the plant are not known (chiriboga 1995). in payamino the leaves of b. grandiflora are boiled in water and drunk or administered as a vapor bath for fevers and body aches. the kichwa word chiri in the name chiri wayusa means “cold” and refers to the chill felt upon ingestion of the plant. the use of stem and root bark is common in other parts of the northwest amazon where it is one of the most important remedies for rheumatism (plowman 1977). the red latex of c. lechleri, for which this tree is named dragon’s blood or sangre de drago, is applied topically for cuts and wounds. in addition, a few drops of the latex are dissolved in water and taken for diarrhea. this traditional use as an anti-diarrheal has led to the development of the fda-approved drug crofelemer, a crude botanical drug comprised of the latex of c. lechleri. crofelemer is indicated specifically for diarrhea associated with antiretroviral drug use (yeo et al. 2013). monolena primuliflora is referred to as kiru jambi yura by the payamino people, a name which translates to tooth medicine stem. the stalk of the infructescence (scape) is chewed to relieve toothache. the sourtasting juice is also considered to be a useful thirst quencher. herbarium records indicate that in the highlands of northern ecuador the plant is used as an emetic to expel parasites (rios et al. 2007). monolena primuliflora is also reported to be used for flu, stomachache, conjunctivitis, and for snakebite (fierro et al. 2002). to our knowledge the phytochemistry and pharmacology of this species has yet to be explored. the similarity in the average number of plants identified by males and females provides an interesting insight into the culture and importance of traditional medicine of the payamino community. because men and women have different roles in payamino society, and their roles determine to some extent how they interact with plants, one would expect there to be differences in medicinal plant knowledge between genders (irvine 1987). the results of our study suggest that payamino men and women are equally knowledgeable about medicinal plants, a conclusion that is consistent with findings from other studies such as that conducted by browner and perdue in san francisco, mexico (1988). in contrast, voeks and leony (2004) found that women in bahia, brazil were much more knowledgeable about medicinal plants and traditional remedies than men. our results do not support the claim that payamino women know more about plants that are used in women’s health, such as for menstruation or childbirth (irvine 1987). of the 25 citations for women’s health, 12 were cited by female participants while 13 were cited by males. doyle et al. 2016. ethnobiology letters 8(1):1–14 11 research communications gender-dependent differences in knowledge of plants used in women’s health should be investigated further, however, since we did not include all plants used for women’s health in our study. furthermore, a larger sample size may be necessary to achieve statistical significance. since we were unable to demonstrate a difference in medicinal plant knowledge between sexes, it is unclear as to how men and women might manage forest resources differently based on their respective knowledge of medicinal plants. age, however, has been previously suggested as a predictor of medicinal plant knowledge (alencar et al. 2014; ayantunde et al. 2008; mathez-stiefel et al. 2012; quinlan and quinlan 2007), and younger individuals may not have the same regard for medicinal plants when managing forest resources. on one occasion during our fieldwork, we observed an example of the intergenerational difference in attitudes towards medicinal plants when an elder commented that, against his advice, his son cut down a medicinal plant when clearing forest to plant coffee. in payamino, irvine (1987) observed that people older than 40 years of age could identify more forest plants and knew more about their ecology and reproductive biology than did people who were 20 years old or younger. although some of the youngest informants were surprisingly knowledgeable, our study confirms that older individuals tend to know more about medicinal plants than do younger individuals in payamino, both in terms of their ability to recognize images of medicinal plants and agreement on their use. the community of san josé de payamino has only gained roadway access to nearby urban centers in the last ten years. while the road may offer more opportunity for education, employment, and sale of agricultural products, it may also have a negative cultural impact on the younger generation with regards to its willingness to learn about the traditional lifestyle of their parents and grandparents. the loss of traditional knowledge has implications for the health of the forest as well as for the health of community members. plants that are considered to be of value to the community are likely to be preserved along with the habitat in which these plants grow (berkes et al. 2000). further work to document medicinal plants of high importance in indigenous communities as well as to determine the distribution of knowledge of these plants among community members might guide education efforts that will positively impact community health and forest ecology. conclusion the use of digital plant images enabled efficient ethnobotanical data collection in a remote community in the ecuadorian amazon. quantitative analysis revealed that two relatively unstudied plants, t. zanonia and m. primuliflora, along with u. baccifera, c. lechleri and b. grandiflora, are the most important medicinal plants of those included in the study. there is a positive correlation between knowledge of medicinal plants and age, though there is no difference in knowledge between genders. how distribution of medicinal plant knowledge in payamino influences the management of forest resources is a topic that should be investigated further. acknowledgments we would like to express our gratitude to the community of san josé de payamino for their participation in this study and for their hospitality. we would also like to acknowledge the work of javier patiño, manager of the timburi cocha research station, and all of the alma college students who have contributed in various ways. this study was funded in part by a grant from the mcgregor fund, detroit, mi. declarations 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ontology from southern bahia devore 2017. ethnobiology letters 8(1):115–124 115 research communications oleoresin or “oil” (óleo) from the tree’s trunk. the term “mind” is employed to indicate a range of intentional and representational capacities such as sensation, emotion, perception, thought, and language. much research on animism in south america has focused on amerindian groups in amazonia, while much research on copaíba oil extraction has similarly focused on the amazon basin. this contribution highlights comparative evidence from nonindigenous and ethnically mixed rural families living among fragments of atlantic forest on the southern coast of bahia. the evidence is analyzed by unpacking the pragmatic presuppositions (lewis 1983; stalnaker 1999[1974]) that are embedded by prescriptions for extracting the tree’s oil. making these presuppositions explicit helps to specify different aspects of mind that are attributed to the copaíba tree. introduction contemporary anthropological research on animism has focused heavily on relations between indigenous peoples and vertebrate animals, as exemplified by viveiros de castro’s (1998:472) hunch that “the spiritualization of plants, meteorological phenomena or artefacts seems to me to be secondary or derivative in comparison with the spiritualization of animals… the extra-human prototype of the other.” santosgranero and collaborators (2009:3) offer a sustained challenge to the “derivative” hypothesis, while rival (2012:70) moves to enrich debates on animism by “refocusing the analytical lens on representations involving plants.” the present contribution moves along both these lines by examining attributions of mind to the copaíba tree (copaifera spp.), which can be inferred from certain rules or prescriptions for extracting a valuable the mind of the copaíba tree: notes on extractivism, animism, and ontology from southern bahia jonathan devore1, 2* 1department of the anthropology of the americas, university of bonn, bonn, germany. 2global south studies center, university of cologne, cologne, germany. *devorejd@umich.edu abstract this article analyzes ritualized prescriptions for harvesting oleoresin or “oil” from the copaíba tree in brazil. these harvesting prescriptions involve increasingly complex attributions of mind to the copaíba tree itself. the copaíba tree is widespread throughout the americas, and for centuries has been well-known for the medicinal oil that can be extracted from its trunk. in brazil, contemporary knowledge of the copaíba tree is bound up with colonial history and what were often destructive extractivist economies. whereas historical accounts of the copaíba tree are often limited to mechanistic descriptions for extracting oil, this article examines attributions of mind that harvesters make to the copaíba tree. these attributions can be read from procedures for extracting oil. such procedures are concerned with moon cycles, tree marking, sexual activity, and gaze. the article shows that such prescriptions have a wide transregional and interethnic distribution, from the amazon basin in northern brazil to the atlantic forest on bahia’s southern coast. new evidence from southern bahia also involves prescriptions concerning speech and naming, which presuppose that the copaíba tree is sensitive to intentionality and human language. these mind attributions are inferred through pragmatic analysis of the (ontological) presuppositions that are embedded by harvesting prescriptions. the contribution concludes with reflections on the implications of this presuppositional analytic approach for debates concerned with animism and the “ontological turn.” received april 21, 2017 open access accepted september 5, 2017 doi 10.14237/ebl.8.2.2017.965 keywords animism, extractivism, copaíba tree (copaifera spp.), atlantic forest, brazil copyright © 2017 by the author(s); licensee society of ethnobiology. this is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution-noncommercial 4.0 international public license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0), which permits non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. devore 2017. ethnobiology letters 8(1):115–124 116 research communications this study is a result of long-term field research (38 months since 2002) with members of squatter and agrarian reform communities that were established in bahia’s cacao zone at the end of the 1990s. these communities are comprised of families with long histories working as landless plantation laborers, sharecroppers, and itinerant day laborers. their lives have been variously shaped by legacies of colonialism and chattel slavery, and the contemporary realities of capitalism. for these families, spending much of their lives at the margins of society meant supplementing their livelihoods from the region’s forests, where they could forage, hunt, and access various other means of life. these means of life included the copaíba tree from which a valuable oil can be extracted and used to cure the aches and pains of plantation labor, among other things. the new and comparative evidence presented from southern bahia is modest, and is not the result of a systematic study of copaíba oil extraction in the region’s atlantic forest. the purpose of this study, then, is twofold. first, the study aims to foster comparative research on attributions of mindedness to copaíba trees and other plants in interethnic and transregional contexts. second, the study aims to advance a pragmatic (presuppositional) analytic approach that helps to move beyond rough-hewn terms common in literature on animism—such as “subjectivity” or “personhood”—without restoring problematic notions of a shared, stable, and coherent “culture” as “ontology” (mannheim 2016). the copaíba tree and its oleoresin the copaíba tree is widely known to produce an oleoresin that can be used for medicinal and various other purposes (dwyer 1951; veiga júnior and pinto 2002). in the contexts of brazilian ethnographic research and historical travel writing, the oleoresin is typically called an “oil” (óleo) and will be referred as such in this contribution.1 the copaíba tree is found throughout the americas, where its oil has been used in ethnomedicinal and ritual practices of diverse human populations (e.g., cohen 1984; maretto 2013)—possibly for thousands of years (see scheel-ybert et al. 2013). grandtner and chevrette (2014:156–158) count some 37 species of copaíba across both american continents, many of which occur throughout brazil. orthography for copaíba in historical documents is widely varied, including capaiba, capivi, copahiba, copahu, copahyba, copaïba, copaïva, copaüba, cupahiba, cupahyba, cupahybu, and cupauba. claude lévi-strauss (1952:261) includes the following: “‘copayba,’ ‘cabima,’ ‘curucay,’ ‘curaki,’ ‘purukai,’ ‘mawna,’ ‘mararen,’ and ‘maran.’” veiga júnior and pinto (2002:275–276) offer several other variations, and suggest that “copaíba” comes from an indigenous tupi term for “tree deposit” (cupa-yba). in brazil, the copaíba tree is commonly referred to as “oil wood” (pau de óleo, pau d’óleo, pau óleo), which similarly suggests that the tree is largely viewed as a host and locus of extraction (see figure 1). contemporary knowledge of the copaíba tree is entangled with brazil’s colonial history, where for centuries the tree’s oil has been sought after as one of the manifold drogas do sertão, or plant products that were extracted from brazil’s diverse biomes for export to europe (cleary 2001:83–85; dean 1995:130; roller 2010:460). historically, copaíba oil has been used as a “vehicle for paints, as a digestive, salve, antitoxin, and presumed cure for gonorrhea and elephantiafigure 1 copaíba tree with extraction panel near ituberá, bahia, brazil, 2009. this particular tree appears to have been subject to a mix of more radical and conservative extraction methods. photo by author. devore 2017. ethnobiology letters 8(1):115–124 117 research communications sis” (dean 1995:130), or as an ant repellent (e.g., bates 1863:96). copaíba continues to be an object of medical research for its potential antibiotic, antiinflammatory, antirheumatic, and antitumor properties (plowden 2004; veiga júnior and pinto 2002). recent research examines larvicidal activity of copaíba against the aedes aegypti mosquito, responsible for transmission of dengue fever, yellow fever, and the zika virus (mendonça et al. 2005), while other studies focus on the oil’s potential use in treating cutaneous lesions caused by leishmaniasis (oliveira dos santos et al. 2011). copaíba oil has also been identified as a potential biofuel, which has stimulated studies on factors affecting oil productivity (newton et al. 2011), optimal harvest cycles (klauberg et al. 2014), and sustainable harvesting methods (medeiros and vieira 2008). copaíba extractivist economies in brazil in different northern brazilian states, trade in copaíba oil fostered extractivist economies that were often powered by debt-burdened labor (e.g., see bates 1863:208–209). in the early 1860s, during his travels on the grajaú river in the northern state maranhão, the english explorer james w. wells (see figure 2, marker 1) describes an encounter with a “capitão dias” who was the “director, or superintendent” of an entourage of “his nude itambeira indians.” captain dias, wells (1886:283–284) recounts, was “appointed by the government to ‘catechise’ them, i.e., to take charge of them, and get them to work; the results are supposed to be entirely given to the use of the tribe, but i am told the capitão has a good business, for the labours of some 200 indians engaged in collecting balsam of copaiba, sarsaparilla, sapucaia nuts….” charles wagley and eduardo galvão (1948), and subsequently mércio pereira gomes (1977), describe the complex extractivist economy that became central to tenetehara social life in maranhão (see figure 2, marker 2). gomes (1977:196–239) provides a comprehensive account of copaíba oil trade in this region through the 1970s, including the involvement of a local agent with the indian protection service (or spi, serviço de proteção aos índios2). gomes (1977:231– 232) states that, beginning in 1952 or earlier, the main patron to the indians of that area…was the grajau [indian protection service] agent. he dealt both directly and indirectly with his clients. he travelled extensively to indian villages where he would arrange transactions and exhort the indians to watch ‘his’ cumaru trees, ‘his’ copaiba trees, ‘his’ ocelot skins, and the like. the agent also had three or four intermediaries who were spi functionaries in three strategic villages. in regions where coercive economic forces were at play, oil extraction may have intensified the destruction of copaíba trees through the use of radical harvesting measures, which could range from employing an ax to cut a large hole in the trunk to cutting the tree down altogether.3 already by 1872, gustavo dodt wrote that oil extraction on the gurupí river (see figure 2, marker 3), which forms much of the border between pará and maranhão, has “[u] nfortunately…proceeded with true vandalism about it, such that [the tree] is already largely exterminated in many places, and what remains will not escape being destroyed in a few years” (dodt 1939[1872]:161, author’s translation). dodt (1939[1872]:161, author’s translation) describes the extraction process: the oil is found in the heart of the tree, so it is opened with a chop from an ax that penetrates there, and that on average is 0.3 m figure 2 distribution of cited references to copaíba oil extraction. this map was created by the author using adobe illustrator and compiled from a base image of brazil available under a creative commons attributionshare alike 3.0 unported license. accessed on march 25, 2017. devore 2017. ethnobiology letters 8(1):115–124 118 research communications high and about 0.4 m in width. the tree cannot withstand such a wound, dies, falls and rots. how many secular copaubeiras have i not seen in those woods rotting on the ground! while the amazon basin around maranhão and pará appears as a primary site for extractivist copaíba oil economies, brazil’s coastal atlantic forest also figures into some historical texts. in 1820, the german prince maximilian of wied-neuwied (see figure 2, marker 4) described a “republic of blacks” that was formed by slaves who took control of two plantations near the contemporary coastal town of guarapari, espírito santo. of the mixed subsistence and trade economy that was eventually established by the revolting slaves, wied-neuwied (1820:154; cf. burton 1869:84) wrote: these negroes chiefly employ themselves in collecting some of the principal productions of these forests, such as the odoriferous peruvian, and copaiva, and another kind of balsam. the latter proceeds from a lofty tree, the pao de oleo. an incision is made in it, and when the sap flows the wound is filled with cotton, which imbibes the resinous matter: it is a common notion that the incision must be made at the full of the moon, and the oil taken away in the wane. the negroes, or indians, who collect this production, bring it for sale in small wild cocoa-nutshells, the opening of which at the top they close with wax. in 1823, on bahia’s southern coast near a small town called marahú (see figure 2, marker 5), baltazar da silva lisboa (1823:154, author’s translation) reported on the “existence of some monstrous oil woods of 140 and greater palms [palmos4] in length [30.8 meters] by 16 and 20 round [3.52 to 4.4 meters], ruined on the interior for the extraction of oil that the natives [naturaes] will sell in the pharmacies [boticas] in town.” according to a 1901 report compiled by the bureau of the american republics (bureau 1901:142), the state of bahia exported the following numbers of barrels of “copaíba oil” between 1897 and 1889: 1897: 29 barrels to the united states and 182 to germany 1898: 14 barrels to the united states, 10 to “england and colonies”, and 573 to germany 1899 (jan.–june): 22 barrels to the united states and 42 to germany by comparison, in 1889 the state of amazonas exported 11,061 kilograms of copaíba oil (bureau 1901:70). although the weight of the barrels exported from bahia is unclear, even a modest weight of 25 kilograms would put bahian exports on par with those of amazonas at the end of the nineteenth century. historical knowledge of the copaíba tree, as represented in colonial and expeditionary literature, began at the point of the oil’s sale and extended to the practical uses to which it could be put. much like the oil itself, indigenous and other local knowledge of the tree was itself viewed as an object of extraction. for those seeking to procure copaíba oil and other forest products, as dean (1995:130) notes, “[t]he difficulty remained of drawing from tribal peoples and frontier settlers their knowledge of the resources offered by the forest.” the wider cultural situation of these forest products, and the processes for extracting them from the plants that harbor them, remained comparatively veiled. perhaps for this reason, descriptions of processes for extracting copaíba oil are often limited to mechanical methods, incisions, penetrations. for example, alexander caldcleugh (1825:210; see figure 2, marker 6), an english colonial observer, noted that “in order to obtain the gum, the inhabitants puncture the bark, and affix a gourd to the place: in three or four weeks it is removed quite full.” prescriptions for extraction in northern brazil recent ethnobotanical research suggests that some methods of extraction may involve more than a mechanistic vision of the copaíba tree, involving different aspects of the tree’s responsiveness and even attributions of mind. plowden (2001, 2003, 2004; leite et al. 2001; shanley et al. 1998) describes several “ways a harvester should approach a [copaíba] tree” (plowden 2003:491; see figure 2, marker 7) to harvest the oil. the procedures and proscriptions attend to problems that may be roughly characterized as moon cycles, tree marking, sexual activity, and gaze. moon cycles as wied-neuwied conveyed above, plowden suggests that “[w]ould-be collectors are encouraged to harvest during the full moon…” (plowden 2004:732 citing leite et al. 2001). marking plowden reports that harvesters aim to “drill on the devore 2017. ethnobiology letters 8(1):115–124 119 research communications side of the tree where the sun rises, leans the most, or has the largest branch” (plowden 2004:732 citing leite et al. 2001). sexual activity plowden relates that a “man is warned to avoid sexual relations with his wife for a few days before seeking copaíba or have a menstruating or pregnant woman present while attempting harvest” (plowden 2004:732 citing leite et al. 2001; cf. plowden 2001:22–23 citing shanley et al. 1998). one implication here is that oil extraction is a gendered activity carried out by men. shanley and rosa (2004:153; see figure 2, marker 8), however, report on an interview with a woman who was involved in copaíba extraction in the 1960s, who similarly suggested that “pregnant women must never extract oil.” this may be related to abortifacient properties of copaíba oil: “one woman who had five children reported that she had prevented pregnancy during her childbearing years by ingesting 1–2 drops of copaíba oil daily” (shanley and rosa 2004:153). gaze plowden relates that “amazon forest people often say looking up into the canopy before attempting to harvest a tree causes the liquid to get sucked to the top” (plowden 2004:732 citing leite et al. 2001; cf. plowden 2001:22 citing shanley et al. 1998). shanley and rosa (2004:135) describe copaíba extraction among caboclos, or “rural peasant farmers of mixed indigenous, european and african descent,” on the capim river region just south of belém, pará. they report a similar rule “that extractors may not look up at the crown of the tree or the oil will disappear into the branches” (shanley and rosa 2004:153).5 veiga júnior and pinto relate similar methods for oil procurement among contemporary silviculturists, and write that “the [copaíba] tree ought to not be looked at directly (toward the canopy), under penalty of the tree drying and the oil going back into the ground” (veiga júnior and pinto 2002:275, author’s translation) rather than into the canopy. prescriptions for extraction in southern bahia over the course of research with landless squattersturned-smallholding farmers in bahia’s coastal atlantic forest—more than 1,000 kilometers from the states of amazonas, maranhão, and pará—i have recorded similar procedures and prescriptions for oil harvesters’ approach to the copaíba tree. moon cycles were a recurrent theme for extracting copaíba oil and other liquids, generally. moon cycles numerous people reported that “you can take tree oil on the full moon” (pode tirar óleos das árvores acima da [lua] cheia); that the full moon is the best time to “collect liquids, oil, bee’s honey” (colher líquido, óleo, mel de abelha); that the full moon “yields well, there’s more [to extract]” (rendoso, tem mais). on separate occasions, two unrelated and unacquainted men named jamie and damião provided more detailed and nearly identical accounts of procedures for extracting copaíba oil. jaime grew up on a small cacao farm near the municipality of ilhéus (see figure 2, marker 9) and variously identifies as moreno and “black” (negro). damião spent his early childhood on his family’s small cacao farm near the municipality of nova ibiá (see figure 2, marker 10) in the northwestern part of bahia’s cacao zone, and variously identifies as moreno and “white” (branco), while often describing his mother as “indian” (índia). both men described what damião characterized as “law[s] of nature” (lei da natureza) for extracting copaíba oil. marking to begin, you must identify what jaime called the “master branch” (galho mestre), which is the largest and lowest branch on the tree. after identifying this branch, damião explained that you must “mark the place” (marcar o lugar) on the trunk just below the branch. this is the spot where the tree will be tapped on a subsequent day, before and during which the following procedures must be observed: moon and day cycles damião explained that you must harvest “on the full moon” (na lua cheia; acima da cheia) and extract the oil “early in the morning” (de manhã cedo). sexual activity jaime suggested that you cannot have sexual “relations” (relaçoes) the night before harvesting copaíba oil. damião explained that you “can’t make love” (não pode namorar) and “can’t have sexual relations before going” (não pode ter relação sexual antes de ir). damião further specified that you must wait “three days without sex” (tres dias sem namorar), and that “the man has to be purified to take the oil” (o homem tem que tá purificado pra tomar o óleo). gaze both agreed that on the day when you return to tap the tree, you must approach with your head down. devore 2017. ethnobiology letters 8(1):115–124 120 research communications damião elaborated: “if you look up [at the tree], [the oil] won’t come out” (se você olhar para cima, não sai). speech both jaime and damião agreed that you cannot talk before and during oil extraction. as an example of proscribed speech, jaime offered the following declarative utterance: “look, here comes the oil!” (olha, vem o óleo!). damião explained that you should depart early in the morning “without talking with anyone” (sem falar com ninguém), elaborating that “[you can]not even say you’re going to take the oil, nor holler out” (nem [pode] falar que vai tirar o óleo, nem gritar). naming both jaime and damião explained, finally, that you cannot speak the name of the copaíba tree during oil harvest. damião suggested that “[you] can’t speak his name” (não pode falar o nome dele), referring to the name of the copaíba tree. damião concluded that if you break these rules, the tree will “dry up” (secar), and “that oil vanishes, it won’t appear” (some aquele óleo, não aparece). taken together, these extraction procedures from southern bahia overlap substantially with those that others report from northern brazil, suggesting transregional and interethnic diffusion of knowledge, while adding further and significant admonitions about speech and naming. a presuppositional analysis of extraction prescriptions what can be made of these various prescriptions and procedures for harvesting oil from the copaíba tree? taken together, as plowden (2004:732) suggests, they indicate the difficult, uncertain, and “problematic nature of copaíba harvest.” the different classes of admonitions, moreover, afford further inferences about the relational ontologies that are presupposed by those who attempt oil extraction. questions about moon cycles, or marking the locations and branches for extraction, may admit more or less mechanistic interpretations, as when low ocean tides produce ideal space-times within which to procure crustaceans and shellfish. questions concerning sexual purification imply that the copaíba tree may be differentially responsive to masculine and feminine gender qualities, although this may have less to do with the tree’s responsiveness to pregnant or menstruating women, than with attempts to protect or regulate human reproductive cycles, as is suggested by shanley and rosa (2004:153). questions of gaze, speech, and naming indicate further attributions about copaíba tree responsiveness that involve increasingly mind-like properties. gaze avoidance, by keeping one’s face down or by not looking up into the canopy, may be related to the avoidance of mutual perceptual awareness that a hunter (human or otherwise) might seek to avoid with prey. this reading can be motivated by comparative admonitions that some indigenous runa in the ecuadorian amazon make about the establishment of gaze between jaguars and human beings: “sleep faceup! if a jaguar comes he’ll see you can look back at him and he won’t bother you. if you sleep facedown he’ll think you’re [prey, meat]…and he’ll attack” (kohn 2013:1). in other words, the establishment of mutual perceptual awareness may undermine a potentially predatory (or extractive) relationship. more speculatively, and in a rather different direction, gaze avoidance may also convey something like a show of respect to the copaíba tree, which could be plausible in locations where intensive and destructive extractive economies did not develop. the limited available evidence makes it difficult to pursue this interpretation further. drawing on the linguistic concept of pragmatic presupposition, jaime’s and damião’s proscriptions concerning speech and naming can be read for tacit attributions of mind to the copaíba tree. pragmatic presupposition is concerned with whatever information is taken for granted for any assertion to be intelligible (lewis 1983; stalnaker 1999[1974]; see mannheim 2016 for a recent and pertinent exposition). such presuppositions are compelled by pragmatic aspects of language without needing to be made fully explicit. the assertion “the king of france is bald,” for example, presupposes that france has a king; not only that, but the assertion presupposes that “kingship” is a phenomenon, which is to say that presuppositions carry ontological commitments. if a presupposition is previously unknown, then an assertion brings it about conversationally (lewis 1983:234), which is to say that ontological commitments can change and shift. none of this requires acquiescence, prior agreement, shared beliefs, or even coherent (non-contradictory) sets of beliefs. for the present analysis, attention to pragmatic presuppositions is useful for making explicit tacit assumptions about the social and causal fabric of the world. devore 2017. ethnobiology letters 8(1):115–124 121 research communications proscriptions on speech (“without talking with anyone”; “holler[ing] out”) can be read as attempting to avoid sounds that could startle the tree and cause the oil to recede. these proscriptions minimally presuppose that the copaíba tree is acoustically attuned. the proscription of utterances that communicate an interest or intention to extract oil (“look, here comes the oil!”; “[you can]not even say you’re going to take the oil”) also suggests that some people may attribute sensitivity to the copaíba tree for intentional, directed, or purposive behavior within and near its environment. these proscriptions suggest that the copaíba tree may be sensitive to intentionality that is conveyed or represented through human language. the proscriptions on speaking the tree’s name (“[you] can’t speak his name”), finally, suggest that some people may also attribute an understanding of naming and reference to the copaíba tree. this reinforces the idea that some people may attribute sensitivity for human language to the tree. not only do human beings call the copaíba tree “copaíba,” but the copaíba tree itself has some degree of awareness or understanding that human beings refer to it as “copaíba,” “pau óleo,” or other names. this is evidenced (to jaime and daimão) by an inferred causal relation between uttering the tree’s name—no mere acoustic sound, and not just any part of speech—and undermining the oil harvest. precisely what is presupposed by jaime’s and damião’s proscriptions on speech and naming is indeterminate. questions of presuppositional indeterminacy are anticipated and accommodated by the concept of pragmatic presupposition (lewis 1983:244). but the indeterminacy is not boundless. stated negatively, jaime and damião’s prescriptions exclude the possibility that the copaíba tree is not sensitive to sound—and that is already something. stated positively, and as a matter of degree, their prescriptions presuppose that the copaíba tree is acoustically attuned—necessarily so—and that the tree may in addition be sensitive to intentional behavior and understand different aspects of human language (from phonology to proper names). making the range of possible presuppositions explicit at this stage of investigation is crucial for further research and systematic analysis. while numerous interpretations of proscriptions on gaze, speech, and naming are clearly possible, the present analysis suggests that further research on extractive processes with copaíba trees and other plants may provide a fruitful avenue for investigating quotidian forms of mindedness that people attribute to non-human lives and organisms. conclusion although the oil is still used in southern bahia, beliefs about copaíba oil extraction processes—like the trees themselves—are unevenly distributed, and few people today extract the oil themselves. while there is little evidence to suggest that there is or ever was widespread consensus about extraction procedures, this situation in southern bahia may parallel the “eroding knowledge” that shanley and rosa (2004:153) describe in the northern state of pará: “…few capimenses extracted oil for use. although demand and medical need for the oil still exists, harvest has largely discontinued. in part, this may be due to diminishing accessibility of the tree; copaifera spp. is a preferred tree of the timber industry.” indeed, damião suggested that many people who seek to harvest copaíba oil no longer follow the procedures that he and jaime described, as outlined above. instead, many people simply cut the trees down with chainsaws. damião explained that “many people don’t care about old things” (muita gente não liga pra coisa antiga), referring to the prescriptions for extraction, and he concluded: “they say it’s a fable, pure lies— but what i’m saying is true” (dizem que é uma lenda, mentira pura—mas o que eu tou dizendo é a verdade). are these presuppositions about the mindedness of copaíba trees expressions of a fragmenting, possibly indigenous (amerindian) knowledge, or perhaps a bricolage of practices and ideas? did admonitions about “name” and “speech” found in southern bahia develop in place, or might they have traceable genealogies to notions of trees and extraction that crossed the atlantic? these are difficult questions to answer. what seems clear is that there is no single community onto which these ideas map. what is interesting is that people from diverse backgrounds and disparate regions articulate strikingly similar (albeit not always identical) ideas about the copaíba tree’s mindedness, responsiveness, and perspective. the prescriptions for copaíba oil extraction do not involve or support claims about “radical alterity” and “incommensurable worlds” (see vigh and sausdal 2014 for a review), or special epistemic abilities that are found in some versions of amazonian perspectivism (e.g., indigenous shamans who “alone are capable of assuming the point of view of such [non-human] devore 2017. ethnobiology letters 8(1):115–124 122 research communications beings” [viveiros de castro 1998:472]). while copaíba oil extraction prescriptions do presuppose and instantiate different ontological claims (in the sense of “weak ontology” [see keane 2013]), they do not rely upon a division of ontological labor or an ontological separation of worlds. in this sense, the prescriptions are epistemically and ontologically open and available. this may help to explain their widespread distribution. this openness and availability may be accounted for by the presuppositional analysis that was pursued above. a central point about the pragmatic account of presupposition is that presupposed ideas need not be true or false, but rather accommodated within interactional contexts that involve people with one another and with other entities in the lifeworld. it need not be the case that the copaíba tree is or is not sensitive to sound or language. it does need to be the case that people involved in copaíba oil harvesting (and conversations about how to do so) presuppose that the tree has such sensitivity and mindedness. in this view, the animation of the copaíba tree (like animism generally) is a thoroughly interactional phenomenon among copaíba trees and oil harvesters, and among harvesters who deliberate about how to harvest oil from copaíba trees. anyone who acts upon prescriptions for copaíba oil harvest—no matter who they are, no matter if they only learned about them yesterday—ipso facto accommodates their ontological presuppositions (cf. lewis 1983:234). in one sense, then, the harvesting prescriptions and their ontological presuppositions are open and available.6 they are also open in a second sense. just as presuppositions do not require universal acquiescence, prior agreement, or shared belief, one set of presuppositions does not need to be consistent with other presuppositions or explicit claims of “authentic” belief. one and the same person may presuppose, accommodate, or articulate ideas— ontological, ethical, and otherwise—that are inconsistent within the same or across different contexts. it is easy to imagine (because so common) someone confessing something as an article of faith while acting or speaking in other ways that controvert such a confession. jaime’s or damião’s presuppositions about the copaíba tree may be consistent or inconsistent with other of their presuppositions, practices, or beliefs. such a state of (ontological) affairs is more likely the rule than the exception—unless one posits “prelapsarian” moments in human history when life was unspoiled, stable, and coherent. it makes less sense to ask what particular “ontology,” “theory,” or “tradition” people live by than to ask what ontological commitments their practices instantiate and accommodate. a presuppositional analytical approach helps to keep these questions open, not because answers cannot be given, but because it is unlikely that such questions will ever find single answers. notes 1from a chemical standpoint, the term “oil” is a misnomer. in its unprocessed state, copaíba oleoresin is comprised of resin and an essential oil that can be separated through distillation. 2as gomes notes (1977:5), the spi was the predecessor institution to brazil’s national indian foundation (or funai, fundação nacional do índio). 3these radical harvesting measures contrast with more conservative methods that involve boring small holes in the trunk of the tree. historical writers cited here variously refer to “incisions,” “punctures,” and “penetrations” that may refer to more or less conservative extraction methods. the success of conservative methods is not guaranteed in the way that tapping a rubber tree yields a predictable flow of latex. this may help to explain the adoption of more radical and destructive harvest methods in different contexts. 4as a measure of length, one palmo was equivalent to 22 centimeters. see miller (2000:253–256) for notes on colonial weights, measures, and coinage. 5shanley and rosa (2004:150) report similar proscriptions on gazing directly at fruits in the canopy of the uxi tree (endopleura uchi). 6there is a further consequence that can only be mentioned but not pursued here. claims concerning “radical alterity” or “incommensurable worlds” are not unbridgeable conditions of being, but differences that are presuppositionally accommodated and interactionally sustained. acknowledgements the author would like to thank his dear brother, eduardo garcía ramírez, for generously sharing his expertise in the philosophy of language over the years as well as for the purposes of completing this article. he would also like to express thanks to juan javier rivera andía for correspondence about the evidence and its theoretical import, and to the three reviewers who offered critical readings and constructive devore 2017. ethnobiology letters 8(1):115–124 123 research communications suggestions for revision of the initial manuscript. finally, the author would like to thank zola jesus for the song “run me out,” which played on repeat throughout the entire drafting of the initial manuscript. declarations permissions: informed consent was obtained from all participants in the study. this research was reviewed and approved by the institutional review board through the university of michigan’s human research protection program. sources of funding: different stages of fieldwork for this contribution were funded by the national science foundation, doctoral dissertation improvement grant (2009); fulbright-hays, doctoral dissertation research abroad (2009); american philosophical society, lewis and clark fund (2010); rackham graduate school, university of michigan, international research award (2010); and fulbright institute of international education (2003–2004). conflicts of interest: 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rivington, united kingdom. wied-neuwied, p. m. 1820. travels in brazil, in the years 1815, 1816, 1817. printed for h. colburn, london, united kingdom. dynamism in traditional ecological knowledge: persistence and change in the use of totora (schoenoplectus californicus) for subsistence in huanchaco, peru paredes and hopkins. 2018. ethnobiology letters 9(2):169–179 169 research communications knowledge that are able to cope with some degree of social change. the objective of this study is to highlight the dynamic quality of tek by describing the persistence and change in use of totora reeds for various economic activities by the fishing community of huanchaco, peru. in peru, globalization has produced “hybrid cultures” (burgos et al. 2003) resulting from the interaction of people from different cultures and with different identities. hybrid cultures are characterized as maintaining some aspects of local traditions and knowledge while incorporating new practices. the neo-liberal economic reforms of the late 1980s through the 1990s have accelerated this process through promoting trade liberalization that favors exchange between local and foreign markets (crabtree introduction a limited number of studies on traditional ecological knowledge (tek) have assessed the ability of these knowledge systems to cope with social and environmental change (athayde et al. 2017; reyesgarcía et al. 2014). generally, the focus on tek change is related to globalization, which can lead to major lifestyle changes through widespread exposure to new technologies and cultural practices and modification of the natural environment. historically, ethnobotanical studies have focused on how to capture the loss of tek that was often assumed to result from globalization processes (hanazaki et al. 2013), however, gómez-baggethun and reyes-garcía (2013) argue that this perspective is shortsighted and that tek should be studied as dynamic systems of dynamism in traditional ecological knowledge: persistence and change in the use of totora (schoenoplectus californicus) for subsistence in huanchaco, peru rossana paredes1* and allison l. hopkins1 1department of anthropology, texas a&m university, college station, tx, usa. *rossanaparedes88@tamu.edu abstract along the peruvian north coast, many towns depend on fishing for subsistence. the adoption of technological innovations has facilitated the extraction of marine resources from the pacific ocean by peruvian fishermen in recent years. however, some artisanal fishermen continue to rely on traditional ecological knowledge (tek) to create sea vessels using botanical resources. this is the case of the fishing community of huanchaco, a beachside town, where a reed locally known as totora (schoenoplectus californicus) is cultivated in sunken gardens and is principally used to construct caballitos de totora, reed sea craft. this reed is also used for other purposes that benefit the fishing community economically. the objective of this article is to highlight the dynamic quality of tek by describing the persistence and change in use of totora by the fishing community of huanchaco. participant observation techniques and individual interviews were conducted with 40 members of the fishing community. results show that they are currently using totora for three different purposes: the construction of sea craft, which facilitates the catching of edible marine resources for subsistence and sale, and the sale of reed mats and souvenirs for additional income. evidence from the recent past and the historical and pre-hispanic periods suggests that some aspects of the technology of reed vessel construction have persisted whereas others have been modified. the addition of souvenirs and a reduction in mat production have also been identified. these changes in tek highlight its dynamic quality, and are likely in response to economic and technological changes influenced by processes of globalization. received november 17, 2017 open access accepted march 2, 2018 doi 10.14237/ebl.9.2.2018.1176 keywords peru, traditional ecological knowledge, totora, sea craft, mats, souvenirs copyright © 2018 by the author(s); licensee society of ethnobiology. this is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution-noncommercial 4.0 international public license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0), which permits non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. paredes and hopkins. 2018. ethnobiology letters 9(2):169–179 170 research communications 2002). the dynamic quality of tek has been observed in northern peru where healers and the public react to increasing access to a global market by experimenting with newly available remedies while maintaining their healing traditions (bussmann 2013). studies of the dynamic quality of tek have primarily been carried out in amazonian and andean communities (balslev et al. 2010; paniagua-zambrana et al. 2017; pirker et al. 2012). however, along the peruvian coast, some communities have also shown that they are able to adapt their tek to changing socioeconomic conditions. in coastal peru, the diverse marine resources of the pacific ocean provide benefit to coastal communities. due to the moderate to extremely high primary productivity (150–300 gc/m2/yr) and the highly productive fisheries (accounting for 16%–20% of global fish captures) of the humboldt current (miloslavich et al. 2011), the economic activities of coastal peoples in this area are primarily based on their relationship with the sea. the technological revolution has influenced the fishermen’s traditions by motivating them to develop and adopt new fishing techniques and vessels through time. the large-scale fleet (with a hold capacity of more than 32.4 m3 per vessel) now dominates the fishing industry off the coast of peru and is composed mainly of industrial pelagic purse seiners and coastal trawlers (fao-un 2010). these large boats have allowed fishermen to extract a variety of marine resources in much greater quantities in comparison to small and artisanal boats. however, these processes of delocalization (pelto 1973) in the construction and use of specialized fishing vessels have not been adopted by fishermen in every coastal town. some communities have developed economic systems where different types of boats, from traditional vessels to those constructed using the latest technology, are used in combination to increase the efficiency and productivity of fisheries. on the peruvian north coast, there are still communities where artisanal fishermen build sea craft using plants that grow locally, despite the extensive changes that have taken place in latin america as the result of european colonization and the recent acceleration of globalization. this is the case of the town of huanchaco, where the fishing community relies on tek for the construction of reed vessels that are used to access edible resources from the sea. apart from fishing, local inhabitants depend on other economic activities, including those using plants, to support their families. more specifically, totora reeds (schoenoplectus californicus [c. a. meyer] soják), the most valuable botanical resource in the fishing community of huanchaco, are used by fishermen to make caballitos de totora, a boat used in fishing. the construction of the caballitos de totora has been described by rondón and colleagues (2003), and its importance in peru and local management strategies has been discussed by banack and colleagues (2004) previously. totora reeds are also used in other economic activities, such as the creation of mats of different sizes that can be used as beds, rugs, windbreaks, roofs, and materials for housing construction (heiser 1978). in addition, people who are no longer fishing devote most of their time to making tourist souvenirs from totora. methods and description of study region the study took place in huanchaco, a beachside town with a population of 68,104 (inei 2017) located in the la libertad region of northern peru (figure 1). the coast of peru is a sandy strip that lies between the pacific ocean and the andes mountains. in spots, the coastal desert is crossed by rivers flowing from the highlands that provide irrigation to crops cultivated in the valleys and slash the sands with patches of green (benson 2012). around huanchaco, both wild and cultivated botanical resources grow in habitats between the shoreline and inland territories (mctavish 2013). huanchaco was chosen for the study because it is one of the few towns in peru where totora reeds are still cultivated and used by people. totora reeds grow in sunken gardens, locally known as wachaques, located 4 km north of huanchaco in part of a protected reserve. extended families own portions of that land where they cultivate and harvest totora reeds using a traditional process (see banack et al. 2004). these families are part of the fishing community of huanchaco, where a total of 30 fishermen currently perform fishing activities. the traditional culture of huanchaco dates back to pre-hispanic times. during the initial period (1500 –1200 bce), the fishing community of gramalote settled in huanchaquito, a neighborhood of huanchaco, and exploited marine resources while following a marine-oriented ideology (prieto 2015). then, salinar (200 bce – 200 ce), gallinazo (200 bce – 300 ce), moche (100–700 ce), and chimu (1000–1400 ce) peoples continued to inhabit and use the huanchaco coastal port for daily embarkations (anhuamán 2014). the traditional fishing systems and the domestication of plants, together, promoted the paredes and hopkins. 2018. ethnobiology letters 9(2):169–179 171 research communications rise of political and social complexity in coastal peru (sandweiss 2009) and resulted in a continuation of huanchaco fishing activities during the inca empire and through the spanish conquest in 1572. during colonial times, huanchaco was an important port through which spanish people and merchandise entered the region, serving as a catalyst for culture change. technological innovations were introduced and pre-hispanic sea vessels started to be displaced by occidental types within the fishing communities (ortiz 2003). today huanchaco is divided into urban and rural areas. in the urban areas, most jobs are administrative and/or associated with providing public and private services, whereas in the rural areas artisanal fishing and totora cultivation are the most common means of subsistence (pulido 2010). the main economic activity in huanchaco is tourism, primarily due to its designation as a world surfing reserve in 2013 (save the waves 2015). people from around the world visit the town demanding services and facilities that meet international standards. as the tourism industry has grown in the region, it has provided increasing job opportunities that have attracted former fishermen and/or their sons. also, unsustainable fishing practices such as overfishing and sea contamination figure 1 location of huanchaco in northern peru. paredes and hopkins. 2018. ethnobiology letters 9(2):169–179 172 research communications (veneros 2008) have affected fishing performance and catchment, and forced some people to look for alternative economic activities to support their families. additionally, the political system has not always worked in favor of the fishing community. some of the previous mayors allowed for the expansion of the urban area to meet the tourism demand which reduced the availability of land for the cultivation of crops and totora by fishermen (pulido 2010). despite these changes and the reduction in fishermen as a result, approximately 30 families continue to fish using traditional vessels as their primary livelihood strategy. in the summer of 2017, we conducted unstructured interviews (irb 2017-0033m) and utilized participant observation techniques (spradley 1980) with 20 men and 2000 women over the age of 18 to become more familiar with the use of totora among the fishing community of huanchaco. people were asked how they used totora reeds in their daily subsistence activities. the information provided by the informants was grouped according to each totora use. results the fishing community uses totora reeds for three different economic purposes: the construction of caballitos de totora fishing boats, souvenirs, and mats. there is a clear gender division of labor in the growing and processing of totora in huanchaco for the production of these three different goods. men oversee the cultivation and harvest of totora, the construction of caballitos, and the creation of souvenirs, while women weave totora mats. the reason for this gender differentiation, according to the fishermen, is that women are not strong enough to cut, clean, and carry large amounts of reeds to construct the heavy and long caballitos de totora. women know where the sunken gardens are located but it is rare to see a woman around the protected reserve, especially taking care of the reeds that belong to their families. if women need totora reeds for the construction of mats or other activities, then they ask their spouses or male relatives for some or buy them at the local market. none of the participants have ever seen a woman making her own caballito; however, women sometimes assist with the process through acquiring construction supplies such as ropes and buoyant materials in the market. additionally, men have not been observed weaving mats. totora reed vessels the caballitos de totora are used as vessels for fishing in the pacific ocean (figure 2). the construction process takes at least two hours with two men working together and is divided into three stages. the fishermen take their time in constructing the vessel because they believe that the quality of the vessel can have a direct impact on their fishing performance. first, they separate the totora reeds into four bundles, two made of first-class reeds, 3 m long, and the other two of the second-class reeds, 2 m long. after this, they place a square piece of styrofoam in each bundle and tie them with a nylon rope, generating two longer “mother” bundles and two shorter “son” bundles. next, each son bundle is connected to each mother bundle by tightly wrapping each mother bundle in a spiral fashion (one clockwise and the other counter clockwise) with a nylon rope, which forms a pit where the son bundle is placed (figure 3a). finally, the two mother-son bundles are joined with a double twist nylon rope, making several knots along the caballito length and creating an upturned bow (figure 3b). the caballito is then ready to sail (figure 3c). the reed vessel lasts for approximately a month and then a new one needs to be fashioned. totora souvenirs elderly men and retired fishermen make souvenirs that they sell to the great number of tourists that visit huanchaco each year. artisans buy totora reeds and make different kinds of souvenirs such as earrings, key chains, refrigerator magnets, photo frames, and other figure 2 a man starting a fishing routine. paredes and hopkins. 2018. ethnobiology letters 9(2):169–179 173 research communications figure 3 fishermen constructing a caballito de totora. a son bundle is connected to mother bundle. b the two mother-son bundles are joined with a nylon rope. c the caballito is ready to sail. paredes and hopkins. 2018. ethnobiology letters 9(2):169–179 174 research communications ornaments that they sell in the artisan market. the most popular souvenir is a little version of the caballito, an ornament that can be used for decoration in a home or office (figure 4). the construction process is a faster and simpler version of the process for making the full size caballitos. four bundles of short totora reeds, two mothers of 15–20 cm long reeds and two sons of 5 cm long reeds, are needed to make a little caballito. the bundles are connected in the same fashion as the full size caballito de totora (figure 4a). once each son bundle is placed inside each mother bundle, the artisans finely sharpen the reeds on the end using a razor to get the upturned bow like the full-sized version. then, each piece is tightly wrapped in a spiral fashion in both clockwise and counter-clockwise directions to reinforce the caballito shape. finally, both bundles are connected using a fine blue or black nylon rope by making knots every centimeter (figure 4b). the artisans write on a little piece of totora “huanchaco – trujillo – peru” and attach it under the nylon strips (figure 4c). it takes about 15 minutes for each artisan to make a caballito souvenir. the artisans charge between 5 and 50 soles (between 2 and 16 us dollars) for their products depending on the type and size. totora as mats totora is the raw material in the weaving of mats, which are then crafted into handheld fans, artisanal mattresses, and material for house construction, especially roofs. currently, there is just one woman that makes and sells mats in the town. she is now over 60 years old and she has been making mats since she was young. therefore, her name is well known around the town, and everyone that needs a high quality and well-crafted mat goes to see her. she buys the totora reeds and shapes them according to her clients’ preferences. then, she starts twining the totora reeds by interweaving a cotton cord at intervals of 30 cm until the desired length is reached (figure 5). it takes all day for her to finish one small mattress (twin size). her perception is that this is a long time and is due to her advanced age. she can take up to five days to create a mat, depending on the purpose, the size of the mat, and the number of orders she receives. she charges an average of 30 soles (less than ten us dollars) for a 3 m x 4 m mat. discussion the dynamic quality of tek in response to economic and technological changes (gómez-baggethun and reyes-garcía 2013) is observed in the fishing figure 4 artisans creating a caballito souvenir. 4a: reed bundles are connected in the same fashion as the full size caballito. 4b: bundles are finely sharped, tightly wrapped and connected using a nylon rope. 4c: a “huanchaco-trujillo-peru” label is attached under the nylon strips. paredes and hopkins. 2018. ethnobiology letters 9(2):169–179 175 research communications community of huanchaco. tek related to totora use for subsistence has persisted and changed in response to the growing tourism industry, the reduction in availability of reeds, and the increasing accessibility of industrially produced materials that can be used in boat and house construction. totora continues to play an important role in economic strategies that support the subsistence of the fishing community in huanchaco. fishing community members have a direct relationship with totora reeds, understanding and processing the plant in different ways according to their gender roles. tek related to totora uses has persisted through time despite the changes that have taken place as the result of colonization and globalization. population growth and government prioritization of tourist activities have reduced the availability of arable land; however, the remaining fishermen have claimed an area exclusively for totora cultivation. also, colonization introduced the use of western sea craft but the local people developed a fishing system where different types of sea craft, industrial and artisanal, can be used (prieto 2016). the archaeological record provides evidence of continuity in aspects of the construction and use of caballitos de totora since prehispanic times. caballitos de totora were considered the principal means of water transportation for coastal people before the spanish conquest (lothrop 1932). the pottery from the chavin (850–300 bce), moche (100–700 ce), and chimu (1000–1400 ce) cultures portray daily activities of people and gods and includes the use of caballitos de totora for transit as well as for fishing within several coastal sites (baessler 1906; benson 2012; rostworowski 1981). larger caballitos represented in the moche iconography of san jose de moro are occupied by a female figure, the priestess, and male figures with supernatural attributes (castillo 2003; mcclelland et al. 2007). in addition, the paleoethnobotanical record of the gramalote site (1500–1200 bce) suggests the presence and perhaps cultivation of totora in the huanchaco surroundings. among these totora remains recovered are a 10-cm fragment of a small caballito de totora end showing totora reeds tied with a cotton rope (prieto 2015); pollen grains identified in sediment samples from two human occupations (paredes 2018); phytoliths identified from sediment samples and artifacts recovered from three human occupations (villanueva 2014); and fragments of cords, baskets, and mats made of totora and remains of the reed itself recovered during the last period of field excavations of the site (prieto 2015). totora reeds grow in humid marsh-like habitats, such as those found along the peruvian coast (fernández and rodríguez 2007). coastal peoples can cultivate and use totora in their daily activities, especially as a means of transportation that allows fishermen to interact with the resource-rich sea. the use of totora vessels in peru is favored by the coastal relief with numerous shallow coves that are not appropriate for anchoring large and heavy boats (prieto 2016). currently, totora reeds are used exclusively in seven fishing communities in northern peru: uripe, huanchaco, puemape, cherrepe, puerto eten, santa rosa, and pimentel, which are located within the la libertad and lambayeque regions (prieto 2016). in the recent past, totora vessels were also used in coves along the central and southern figure 5 a local woman weaving a mat. paredes and hopkins. 2018. ethnobiology letters 9(2):169–179 176 research communications peruvian coast, particularly along the chincha, cañete, asia, mala, chilca, lurin, and chillon valleys (edwards 1965; ortiz 1990; rostworowski 2004); however, people from those regions have replaced totora reed craft with boats constructed from more durable materials. the tek related to caballitos is considered an important part of the huanchaco cultural heritage and, in an effort to maintain it, children start interacting with reeds in the early years at school. they learn how to make small replicas of caballitos de totora as an art project. in addition, parents teach their children to sail using reed vessels, and when they become adolescents they start learning the construction process of the full sized caballito. rondón and colleagues (2003) have described in detail the process involved in the caballito construction and our observations indicate that the construction process has not changed in the intervening years. as a result, tek related to totora use in huanchaco continues to be transmitted from older to younger generations through observation as an embedded part of culture, much like mcmillen and colleagues (2017) found in hawai’i for knowledge storage and transmission on subsistence livelihood practices. on the other hand, tek on totora use has changed in response to new economic and technological conditions, highlighting the dynamic aspect of tek. although cultivation areas are limited, thus reducing the supply of totora, fishermen have not stopped constructing caballitos; instead they have replaced the reeds used as filling with styrofoam. the result is a more durable and buoyant caballito. in addition, nylon ropes have replaced the cabuya (furcraea andina trel.) ropes that fishermen previously used to tie the bundles of totora (rondón et al. 2003). the main reasons for that change is that nylon ropes are cheaper and more readily available than cabuya ropes. today, no cabuya plants are observed in the nearby habitats of huanchaco and the younger generation of fishermen have never heard of the plant. the archaeological record provides evidence of the use of cabuya in the creation of ropes and cordage since 1500 bce, as identified in the macrobotanical record of the gramalote site (prieto 2015). therefore, tek on totora use has changed through modifications in the construction process of the caballitos favored by the availability of new construction materials in the local market as the result of globalization. additionally, in search for extra income, fishermen have generated new tek of totora in that they now construct and sell souvenirs. the addition of souvenirs into their economic strategies compensates for declining fishing profits. the integration of tek into the tourist economy is also observed in northwest argentina where individual and community knowledge of textile craft production has adapted to new market demands (lambaré et al. 2011). in huanchaco, the fishing community now supplement their waning fishing profits by responding to the demand of tourists for local and innovative souvenirs that represent the huanchaco culture. the souvenirs represent the fishing activities, which are an important part of huanchaco identity, and provide evidence of the dynamic responses of tek to change within subsistence-based and place-based communities, as was observed in the adaptation of tek related to forecasting in the hawai’ian islands (mcmillen et al. 2017). finally, there is some evidence of loss of totora tek due to new construction technologies and changes in the economy of huanchaco. increased access to technologically advanced housing materials resulting from globalization has resulted in people replacing the use of totora mats with inorganic and more durable materials such as concrete, wood, and plastic. also, women prefer to perform other economic activities as they perceive that mat construction does not produce a sufficient income in huanchaco’s current economy. as a result, the knowledge of mat construction and use in building will likely not persist once the sole keeper of that knowledge passes on. conclusion the fishing community of huanchaco continues to work directly with totora reeds for their subsistence activities. totora has been used since pre-hispanic times in the construction of the caballito de totora and the creation of mats, and more recently in the development of souvenirs. totora tek has economic and cultural value for huanchaco people as the reeds generate income and represent a traditional building material emblematic of the northern region of peru. to cope with economic and technological changes, the fishing community of huanchaco has maintained some aspects of totora tek while changing other aspects. specifically, the techniques of caballito construction have persisted across generations, while some of the construction materials have changed; the use of totora in making souvenirs was developed; and a paredes and hopkins. 2018. ethnobiology letters 9(2):169–179 177 research communications reduction in mat production has occurred. thus, totora use in huanchaco reflects the dynamic quality of tek in response to social changes influenced by processes of globalization. acknowledgments this work was supported by a grant from the anthropology department at texas a&m university. we would like to express our gratitude to the fishing community of huanchaco for their participation in this study. we thank luis alexander urcia, an honored member of the fishing community, for his help and hospitality in the field. finally, we wish to express our gratitude to dr. vaughn bryant for his comments and suggestions during the preparation of this manuscript. declarations permissions: permission for this study was granted by the irb (2017-0033m) of texas a&m university and the fishing community of huanchaco. all participants provided their informed consent. sources of funding: this study was funded by a grant from the anthropology 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interviews & reflections special issue on ethics in ethnobiology tion and deportation (mother jones 2010). he further dehumanized members of the undocumented community by referring to them as “illegals” during his 24 years in office (color lines 2012; national public radio 2013; the new york times magazine 2015; think progress 2015). at a young age, i learned how this type of language chafed against and eroded any recognition of community members’ humanity. i see echoes of the words and acts of sheriff joe arpaio and arizona legislators in textbooks and scientific literature. as a student, scientist, and gardener, i was encouraged to embrace and use vocabulary produced by european invaders. we need to acknowledge the limitations of this vocabulary and create a language that accurately reflects scientific history. biologists shaped european colonization and european colonization shaped the future of biology. colonization created racialized concepts of who is “native” to america and who is not, an “us versus them” mentality predicated on white supremacy. identifying plants pre-1492 as “native” and post-1492 as “non-native” establishes a false narrative that american natural history began with the european invasion. the invaders claimed and named plants, cementing themselves as the “discoverers” of american flora. the “native plants” they “discovered” have over the course of several generations become “theirs” to protect—a convenient white, settler amnesia. although the terms non-native, invasive, exotic, and alien refer to plants introduced along with or after the european invasion, the non-native people who invaded, and other white settlers since, do not view themselves as exotic or alien. the use of this language by settlers reinforces a land-ownership history that masks the reality of land-dispossession perpetrated through violence, slavery, and genocide. alien. invasive. nuisance. foreign. noxious. non-native. exotic. native. i am a white arizonan who grew up during sb1070, the racist and xenophobic “show me your papers” legislation that tore families and communities apart. the arizona legislature designed sb1070, the support our law enforcement and safe neighborhoods act, to facilitate racial profiling by allowing law enforcement to ask for legal status and documents based on “reasonable suspicion” (american civil liberties union 2017; national public radio 2016). many states in america used sb1070 as a model for their immigration legislation. i also grew up in a community where voters elected former sheriff joe arpaio, a law enforcement official who built his reputation based on antiimmigrant rhetoric, barbaric treatment of people who are incarcerated, and predatory immigration raids (national public radio 2016). arizona voters elected joe arpaio for six terms before losing to paul penzone in the fall of 2016 and receiving a conviction of criminal contempt in federal court in 2017 for racial profiling (for which he was pardoned in august of 2017 by the president of the united states one week after the deadly white supremacist rally in charlottesville, virginia) (the new york times 2017). despite his losses in the recent election and in court, his legacy has had a lasting impact. he destroyed families and communities through incarcerathe words we use and the worlds we build sophie duncan1* 1department of geography, university of british columbia, vancouver, canada. *sophiesduncan@gmail.com received july 9, 2017 open access accepted july 20, 2017 doi 10.14237/ebl.9.1.2018.1045 copyright © 2018 by the author(s); licensee society of ethnobiology. this is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution-noncommercial 4.0 international public license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0), which permits non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. duncan. 2018. ethnobiology letters 9(1):9–12 10 interviews & reflections special issue on ethics in ethnobiology figure 1 the words we use and the walls we build is a collage made in the spring of 2017 and draws on source material from gardening magazines, ecology texts, and heirloom seed catalogues. this piece reflects how the white-picket fence american “dream” and the discourse about native and non-native plants embodies the violent, anti-immigrant, and racist rhetoric heard across america. the images included in this collage come from catalogues and magazines such as better homes and gardens, baker creek heirloom seeds, and annie’s heirloom seeds. duncan. 2018. ethnobiology letters 9(1):9–12 11 interviews & reflections special issue on ethics in ethnobiology continued use of and reliance on the language of european invaders reinforces oppressive nationalism and misplaced patriotism. as a plant scientist who has worked with native plant programs, i am familiar with a problematic yet dominant trope: we must protect our native landscape from foreigners. in both scientific and gardening communities, restoring landscapes with native plants has become a priority. i support this restoration effort but find the language associated with native plants problematic because the rhetoric i regularly hear mirrors the xenophobic and racist language endemic to the united states. the vocabulary used to describe plants is similar to derisive language frequently used by white settlers in reference to indigenous people, people of color, non-european immigrants, and refugees. additionally, seed catalogues exotify plants from other countries using pejorative language. for example, plants are described as “little oriental jewels,” “black and white minstrel flowers,” and “turk’s turban.” moreover, while employing marginalizing language to discuss plants from other countries, gardening magazines also rely on offensive slogans like “go native” to encourage gardeners to buy native plants. while some seed varieties’ such as “cherokee trail of tears bean” acknowledge the violent history of land dispossession in america, other varieties allude to use by native americans without acknowledging this past. in the accompanying art piece (figure 1), i also selected several seed varieties listed in heirloom seed catalogues that reflect racist and xenophobic language. thomas jefferson, one of america’s founding presidents, although often renowned as a progressive political thinker and skilled gardener, operated a plantation that profited from the labor of enslaved people. some of the descriptions of seed varieties featured in figure 1, advertise the fact that jefferson cultivated these varieties at his personal residence and plantation, monticello (smithsonian magazine 2012). these catalogues romanticize jefferson’s gardening to promote sales. however, these advertisements fail to acknowledge that jefferson was a slave owner who relied on the labor of enslaved people to operate his plantation. heirloom seed catalogues use phrases like “the way things were” and “tools of the past” to profit from a bucolic fable of american farming that erases the relationship between agriculture, land dispossession, and slavery. the connection i see between sb1070, former sheriff joe arpaio’s law enforcement policies, and plant vocabularies is not arbitrary. america’s current leadership seeks to build walls. it is true that walls can be made of chain-link, cement, or brick and mortar, but words can also create walls. it is unethical to ignore how scientific and gardening communities uphold and reinforce walls of their own. we need to stop relying on exclusionist and xenophobic vocabulary and sentiments. we have a responsibility to develop a vocabulary that resists violent rhetoric. a friend once explained to me that words have mass, especially if they are written down. they have a weight in this world. while we can calculate the scientific meaning of words like “invasive” in terms of its ecological impact, these words carry an additional weight: the weight of xenophobia, racism, and settler colonialism. references cited american civil liberties union. 2017. arizona’s sb 1070. available at: https://www.aclu.org/issues/ immigrants-rights/state-and-local-immigrationlaws/arizonas-sb-1070?redirect=feature/arizonassb-1070. accessed on june 28, 2017. color lines. 2012. the people of arizona won’t comply with hate. june 26, 2012. available at: http://www.colorlines.com/articles/peoplearizona-wont-comply-hate. accessed on july 29, 2017. mother jones. 2010. did sheriff joe arpaio’s antiimmigrant zeal kill david de la fuente? available at: http://www.motherjones.com/ politics/2010/08/sheriff-joe-arpaio-maricopacounty-sb-1070/. accessed on may 4, 2017. national public radio. 2013. in immigration debate undocumented vs illegal is more than just semantics. january 30, 2013. available at: http:// www.npr.org/sections/ itsallpolitics/2013/01/30/170677880/inimmigration-debate-undocumented-vs-illegal-ismore-than-just-semantics. accessed on may 2, 2017. national public radio. 2016. deal is reached on arizona's hardline immigration law, after 6-year fight. september 16, 2016. available at: http:// www.npr.org/sections/thetwoway/2016/09/16/494245921/deal-is-reached-onarizonas-hardline-immigration-law-after-6-yearfight. accessed on july 1, 2017. duncan. 2018. ethnobiology letters 9(1):9–12 12 interviews & reflections special issue on ethics in ethnobiology national public radio. 2017. 'america's toughest sheriff' joe arpaio goes on trial. june 26, 2017. available at: http:// www.npr.org/2017/06/26/534381348/americassheriff-or-community-destroyer-joe-arpaio-goeson-trial. accessed on june 28, 2017. smithsonian magazine. 2012. “paradox of liberty” tells the other side of jefferson’s monticello. january 31, 2012. available at: http:// www.smithsonianmag.com/smithsonianinstitution/paradox-of-liberty-tells-the-other-sideof-jeffersons-monticello-83738466/. accessed on july 20, 2017. the new york times magazine. 2015. the unwelcome return of “illegals”. august, 18, 2015. available at: https:// www.nytimes.com/2015/08/23/magazine/theunwelcome-return-of-illegals.html? mcubz=0&_r=0. accessed on july 29, 2017. the new york times. 2017. a guide to joe arpaio, the longtime sherriff who escaped strife. august, 27, 2017. available at: https:// www.nytimes.com/2017/08/27/us/joe-arpaiosheriff-pardon.html?\mcubz=0. accessed on may 27, 2017. think progress. 2015. the dehumanizing history of the words we use to describe immigrants. august 13, 2015. available at: https:// thinkprogress.org/the-dehumanizing-history-ofthe-words-weve-used-to-describe-immigrants18dd39c90459/. accessed on august 1, 2017. bad mothers and strange offspring: images of scrubfowl and sea turtles in eastern indonesia forth. 2020. ethnobiology letters 11(2):52-57 52 research communications of their similar reproductive behaviors—both creatures participate in a similar moral symbolism. found throughout flores island, the scrubfowl (specifically the orange-footed scrubfowl, megapodius reinwardt) is a megapode, which, true to its name, has big feet. in all other respects, and in regard to both size and bodily form, this largely ground-dwelling bird resembles a chicken. its most peculiar feature in the eyes of flores islanders is that it is an incubator. that is to say, it lays its eggs—and very big eggs at that— beneath huge mounds of earth, sand, and leaf litter that reach up to 4.5 meters in height and over 9 meters in diameter (jones et al. 1995:225), where it leaves the eggs to incubate. as a result, the young birds hatch without any attention from the mother bird. for this reason, nage describe scrubfowl as “laying eggs (but) not knowing how to sit on them” (telo be’o neke kéwo), or in another interpretation, “laying eggs on the ground, (but) brooding on a tree branch” (telo zale one awu, neke nama da’a kaju). this last specification reflects the local observation that, whenever the scrubfowls are seen—or, more often, heard—the birds are nearly always found in a tree. birds can communicate to humans, other birds, and to a variety of other creatures in their own voices. however, birds also communicate—to humans particularly—through metaphor: by way of their physical forms, activities, and indeed through their songs and cries, providing humans with ways of talking about a variety of topics, but especially other people. in a recent book (forth 2019a) i explore 566 animal metaphors employed by the nage people of flores island in eastern indonesia. nearly 180 of these incorporate 49 categories of birds, all of which are folk-generics corresponding to english terms like “crow,” “eagle,” and “kingfisher.” one finding of the book is that the large majority of nage bird metaphors, like animal metaphors in general, refer to human beings, and that many of these serve to convey moral ideas about proper and improper conduct. another finding is that synonymous or at least very similar metaphors can have very different kinds of animals as their vehicles—for example, a bird and a mammal or a bird and a reptile. the present discussion centers largely on florenese ideas concerning a bird, the scrubfowl, and a marine reptile, the sea turtle, and my aim is to show how—by virtue bad mothers and strange offspring: images of scrubfowl and sea turtles in eastern indonesia gregory forth1 1department of anthropology, university of alberta, edmonton, canada. *gforth@ualberta.ca abstract one way birds communicate knowledge to humans and facilitate communication among humans is through metaphors. a recent book discusses animal metaphors, nearly a third of which employ birds as vehicles, used by the nage people of flores island (eastern indonesia). as applied to human beings and human behaviors, bird metaphors reveal considerable overlap with other animal metaphors; thus, a full understanding of these requires additional attention to the metaphoric or more generally symbolic value of other sorts of non-human animals. emphasizing how knowledge of birds is shaped in some degree by an extra-cultural empirical experience of the creatures, the present discussion explores similar representations of a bird, the scrubfowl, and a marine reptile, the sea turtle, among people in several parts of flores. received july 12, 2019 open access accepted october 28, 2019 doi 10.14237/ebl.11.2.2020.1624 published december 4, 2020 keywords animal metaphor, moral symbolism, scrubfowl, sea turtles, flores island, indonesia copyright © 2020 by the author(s) licensee society of ethnobiology. this is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution-noncommercial 4.0 international public license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0), which permits non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. forth. 2020. ethnobiology letters 11(2):52-57 53 research communications these characteristics, all of which are empirically grounded, contribute to an image of scrubfowl hens as bad mothers who do not take sufficient care of their offspring. in accordance with the large size of the eggs (on flores weighing up to 140 grams, jones et al. 1995:226), and therefore the size of the chicks when they hatch, flores villagers say that newborn scrubfowl are large and strong enough to search for their own food. the observation is ornithologically well founded and, though i never heard flores islanders mention it specifically, newborn chicks are sufficiently mature to fly within hours of hatching (jones et al. 1995:8, 22; simpson and day 1993:311). both in nage and in the keo region, immediately to the south of nage, people claimed that, to ensure their independence, the mother birds will chase and peck at newborn chicks, and keo informants further asserted that, in the same context, parent birds will sometimes kill their young. although this last idea appears empirically less likely, it should be seen in relation to a practice of filial infanticide that is surprisingly widespread among a variety of animal species, including many birds. in fact, scrubfowl are better parents than flores people perhaps realize, for usually the males “manage the [nest] mound and control the incubating temperature” (simpson and day 1993:311), something they achieve “by digging a number of holes and testing the conditions” (leseberg and campbell 2015:97). but even if florenese are aware of this behavior (and i have no evidence that they are), they do not characterize scrubfowl males as caring fathers. in addition, several pairs sometimes use the same mound (mackinnon 1991; wallace 1922:120), another practice of scrubfowls that contrasts with the normal nesting behavior of other birds. whatever the truth is of scrubfowl parents attacking their young, all locally recognized behaviors of the bird motivate a nage metaphor referring to women who give birth and then desert or inadequately provide for their offspring. such women are thus described as “like scrubfowl that lay their eggs and just leave them” (bhia koko wodo telo ea telo ea). although observable attributes of the birds would appear to sufficiently account for nage selection of the scrubfowl for this metaphorical role, a certain irony (thus another device of verbal symbolism) is also discernible in the usage. in shape, size, and largely ground-dwelling habit, and its “loud crowing and cackling calls” (leseberg and campbell 2015:96), the bird closely resembles a chicken. yet in contrast to the scrubfowl, domestic hens are represented, particularly in nage metaphor, as the most maternal of birds. at this point a linguistic note is useful. the nage name for the scrubfowl, koko wodo, comprises two parts. the first is koko, an onomatope which replicates the bird’s cries and is almost identical to another onomatope, kako, “to crow (of a domestic cock).” the second, wodo, is the sole name for the bird in several florenese languages, as are cognates in other east indonesian languages, and appears to reflect a central-malayo-polynesian proto-term (forth 2010:238). in nage, wodo further refers to the practice of domestic hens sheltering chicks beneath their wings, a common behavior serving to protect their offspring. although this second meaning may reflect a different protoform, the two senses are nevertheless covered by a single nage word, and in view of their perception of female scrubfowl as bad mothers, it is likely that the irony is not lost on nage and that the birds’ overall resemblance to chickens further motivates the metaphor. apart from the metaphor, there is another symbolic usage, an obviously fantastic local idea concerning scrubfowl that is similarly connected with the birds’ seemingly poor maternal habits and the absence of any evident relationship between mother bird and offspring that becomes apparent from the very moment eggs are laid. on flores, the orangefooted scrubfowl is now considered rare and people describe its numbers as much reduced from perhaps a half century ago, when the birds and their nest mounds were more regularly encountered, and the mounds were exploited for their eggs. even so, people still recognize the birds as occurring both in highland areas and near the coast, where they appear to be more common. nage and other flores islanders further claim that when scrubfowl nest relatively close to the sea some of their eggs will hatch into sea creatures, while others hatch into scrubfowl and other land creatures depending on the direction in which the newborns emerge from the egg. according to one variant, scrubfowl chicks that hatch facing the sea will be sea creatures while those that face towards the land will be scrubfowl. offspring that take a form other than scrubfowl are the strange offspring to which i refer in my title. “strange” because they are alien in relation to their parents, belonging, according to nage forth. 2020. ethnobiology letters 11(2):52-57 54 research communications animal taxonomy, not only to other folk-generics but also to other life-forms (sensu berlin 1992). since snakes and similar creatures are among the animals said to emerge from scrubfowl eggs, some basis for the notion that other animals can hatch from these may be found in the actual occurrence of such creatures in or near scrubfowl nest mounds. in fact, snakes and monitor lizards—including komodo monitors or komodo dragons varanus komodoensis (lincoln 1974), found on flores as well as on komodo and small neighboring islands—are among the animals most likely to prey on scrubfowl eggs. however, another source of this idea may be local knowledge and similar beliefs concerning the nesting and parenting habits of another animal, indeed another reptile—the sea turtle. two species of sea turtle, the hawksbill turtle (eretmochelys imbricata [formerly chelonia imbricata]) and the green turtle (chelonia midas), occur in the waters around flores. both are exclusively marine creatures with flippers instead of legs and therefore move awkwardly on dry land. in fact, the only time sea turtles venture on land is when females leave the sea to lay their eggs in holes they dig in sandy beaches, which they afterwards cover with sand before promptly returning to the sea. exactly like scrubfowl, therefore, turtles are incubators. after laying, they neither brood their eggs, nor do the females attend to newly hatched young which, in the case of sea turtles, will immediately scurry to the sea. in east central flores, lio people mention how turtles are peculiar in this respect, since unlike all other marine creatures they live in the sea but lay their eggs on dry land. (frogs too might be considered similarly inconsistent, because as is generally known, they lay their eggs in water. adult frogs also spend much time in water, although they are equally at home on dry land.) flores islanders themselves are aware of the similar reproductive behavior of turtles and scrubfowl. but they add one more similarity when they claim that the eggs of turtles also do not hatch only young turtles. according to one version of the belief, it is only when a female turtle, after laying, returns to the sea and rests on the ocean floor facing out to sea that her young are eventually born as turtles (in one view, turtles and fish). on the other hand, if she faces in the opposite direction, that is, towards the land, her eggs will produce a variety of land creatures. unfortunately, i did not think to ask whether marine turtles might be among the animals that emerge from scrubfowl eggs when the newly hatched turn towards the sea. however, a man in the sikka region, in the eastern part of flores—and thus well to the east of nage and keo—included scrubfowl (rata wodon) among the land creatures that can emerge from turtle eggs. both turtles and scrubfowl—the eggs of which the females do not brood or protect by sitting on their clutches—are thus thought to produce offspring belonging to what islanders consider different lifeforms. it is as though the attendance of the mother animal is required throughout the period of gestation to ensure that all infants will be of the same folkzoological kind. regarding sea turtles especially, similar ideas are found on various indonesian islands. on flores, land creatures that can hatch from turtles’ eggs include not only snakes, monitor lizards, skinks, and rats, but also birds. the sikkanese notion that young scrubfowl can emerge from turtle’s eggs has already been noted. mentioned far more often than scrubfowl are birds that consume ripening crops, such as crows, quails, and munias (small finches that feed on grain). but the most commonly mentioned of all are cockatoos and parrots, birds which, together with crows, are notorious for ravaging fields of maize. why oviparous reptiles of other kinds might hatch from turtle eggs may seem relatively straightforward, but the birds require more attention. various flores people describe hawksbill turtles as having heads and mouths or snouts that are shaped like birds’ beaks—a resemblance enshrined, of course, in the species’ english name. more specifically, they say turtles have heads like cockatoos, a similarity reinforced for speakers of some flores languages by the fact that words for “turtle” and “cockatoo”, though evidently deriving from different protoforms, are similar or identical. the identity of names is taken furthest in dialects of nage from which the /r/ has disappeared, leaving kea as the word synonymously denoting both marine turtles (elsewhere in languages of the ngadha-lio group named kéra) and the cockatoo, which throughout flores is the yellowcrested cockatoo (cacatua sulpurea). when necessary, nage can distinguish turtles as kea mesi, “sea kea,” or as this is occasionally understood “sea cockatoo”; and cockatoos in central nage can be specified as kaka kéa, a name in some contexts reduced to kaka. nevertheless, the similarity remains, and nage themselves understand the partly identical names as reflecting the physical resemblance between turtles forth. 2020. ethnobiology letters 11(2):52-57 55 research communications and birds, and more specifically the resemblance of a turtle’s head to that of a cockatoo (forth 2016:224225). the precedence of cockatoos over turtles in this last formulation—the fact that turtles are compared to cockatoos rather than the other way round— reflects nage familiarity with cockatoos, birds seen often until they disappeared from many places two or three decades ago. by contrast, as inlanders or highlanders, nage rarely see marine turtles. clearly, the notion that young cockatoos and parrots can emerge from turtle eggs has a basis in the resemblance between the heads of the marine reptiles and the heads of psittacine birds. the idea that other avian crop pests and even rats can also hatch from the eggs might then be attributed to metonymy. that is, cockatoos and parrots, owing to their physical resemblance to turtles, are selected as the part that represents the whole, in this instance a utilitarian category comprising all creatures that do damage to crops. also, of note is a local notion encountered in several parts of flores, that pestilence of all sorts (including plague rats as well as birds) ultimately derives from the sea, so that the antidote must also come from the sea—a principle that finds expression in garden magic. however, this still leaves the question of snakes, monitor lizards, and skinks. as hinted earlier, the association with marine turtles might be traced to these reptiles being, like turtles, mostly oviparous. at the same time, monitors and snakes are great eggeaters, so the association could further be linked to the actual presence of these animals near sea turtle clutches. as mentioned before, snakes and lizards are among creatures florenese say emerge from scrubfowl eggs, and this idea too can be explained by the presence of these reptiles near scrubfowl nests. yet as this similarity should suggest, a more general explanation for creatures other than turtles hatching from turtle eggs and creatures other than scrubfowl chicks hatching from scrubfowl eggs lies in what flores islanders perceive as the poor parenting skills of both animals. in other words, the common theme is female animals, after laying, not sitting on their eggs and moreover giving no apparent care to their young after they are hatched, thus resulting in not all of their eggs producing young of the proper kind. it should also be recalled that young of the wrong kind are believed to hatch either when the mother animal faces in the wrong direction (toward the land for female sea turtles) or when an egg is inappropriately disposed. this incorrect orientation, as it were, adds to the perverse character of the adult creatures. in the case of marine turtles, the incorrect orientation recalls the representation of these reptiles as creatures that live entirely in the sea and yet, perversely in the local view, lay their eggs on land. as i have demonstrated elsewhere (forth 2017, 2019b), in the lio region especially, breaches of a major cosmological principle in which things of the land should be kept separate from the sea illuminate a number of local ideas and attitudes towards animals, including beliefs that associate them with spirits. despite their unusual reproductive behaviors neither marine turtles nor scrubfowl are, as far as i have been able to discover, identified with spirits (for example, earth spirits or sea spirits) in any part of flores. nor do the turtles serve as the vehicle for any metaphor motivated by the creatures’ egg-laying and parenting practices, or at least none that applies to humans— unlike scrubfowls, which provide the nage with a metaphor for bad motherhood. however, the symbolic value of the sea turtle’s peculiar parenting finds a definite expression in agricultural ritual, and in this context, one encounters another kind of verbal metaphor. bound up with their connection with cockatoos and parrots, and more specifically the belief that sea turtle eggs can give rise both to these birds and to other similarly pestilential creatures, the rites in question, mostly of a magical nature, are performed to lend protection to ripening crops. thus, in the lio region, after planting, people burn turtle shell inside a field to keep cockatoos, parrots, and pests of all sorts away. alternatively, they will bury turtle eggs, one each in the four corners of a field and in the center. these magical acts have a verbal component as well, for in accompanying ritual speech, lio cultivators do not refer to parrots and cockatoos by their ordinary names (in lio dialects wéka for cockatoos and tori for parrots [mostly the great-billed parrot tanygnathus megalorhynchos]). rather, they refer to these birds as turtles (kéra), a metaphor that not only alludes to the belief in pestilential animals deriving from turtle eggs, but possibly also suggests that the birds and other creatures are still, in some essential sense, turtles. discussion and conclusions the case of scrubfowls and sea turtles provides yet another illustration of how creatures quite unconnected in folk zoological taxonomy can be closely associated by virtue of their symbolic values. of course, symbolically as well, scrubfowls and turtles forth. 2020. ethnobiology letters 11(2):52-57 56 research communications are by no means completely identical. as seemingly bad parents, only turtles are believed to produce pestilential animals, especially in the shape of psittacine birds linked metonymically with all plague animals. this association is largely explained by an explicit physical resemblance between turtles and cockatoos and parrots. in contrast, scrubfowls have no such negative significance; the strange hatchlings believed to emerge from some of their eggs do not damage cultivated fields, nor do they negatively affect any human endeavor, and evidently as a result the scrubfowl plays no part in ritual. in addition, in flores garden-magic turtles provide their own antidote to the crop depredations they ultimately cause by way of their strange offspring, in the form of fragments of their shells or their eggs— a straightforward case of magical homeopathy. yet scrubfowls arguably do something similar. not only does the scrubfowl provide an identical model of bad parenthood, but like turtles they might be seen as making up for this by providing an antidote in the form of a metaphor, which in effect warns people against going the way of this peculiar bird. i close with remarks on animal transformation. partly because the idea of scrubfowl eggs hatching creatures of quite different species appears to be less well or widely known on flores, it is possible that the belief is derivative of an older and possibly more widespread belief concerning turtles. however that may be, as applied to either species, the notion of creatures laying eggs from which different kinds of animals can emerge suggests a comparison with what i have elsewhere called “transformation beliefs” (forth 2016). by this phrase i refer to the idea that certain animals, at some stage in their lives and usually when they become old, will change permanently into animals of a different kind. among nage, these transformations partly comprise metamorphoses recognized by professional zoologists, including tadpoles changing into frogs and caterpillars into butterflies. however, nage treat members of such pairs not as immature and mature specimens of a single kind but as distinct kinds (that is, different folk generics). with other animals, including mammals, birds (actually bats), several kinds of snakes, and eels (a particular kind of eel considered a transformation from russell’s vipers), the belief reflects morphological and behavioral similarities, recognized by nage themselves, between zoological source and product. with these animals, rather than complete metamorphosis, there is a noticeable continuity between the two creatures. in other cases, the transformation is explained instead by situational connections, also recognized by local people, between the two creatures, as for example the idea that tiny bats (microchiropterans) develop from large grubs found inside bamboo internodes that the bats themselves occupy, after entering through cracks. a comparable observation applies to turtles and scrubfowl insofar as some of the creatures claimed to hatch from their eggs can be found in proximity to scrubfowl nest mounds and buried clutches of turtle eggs. as demonstrated, however, in these instances the beliefs are more fully accounted for by local observation of the egg-laying habit of the mother animal and the lack of care given to their young, and specifically those young that maintain the same form as the parents. expressed another way, the discontinuity in the parent-infant relationship is consistent with the idea that some of the young will be creatures of a different kind, i.e., physically and especially morphologically discontinuous with the parents. again, it is this discontinuity that informs symbolic uses of scrubfowl and turtles—solely as metaphors advertising against poor maternal behavior among human females in the first case and as magical agents in the second. in this respect it is significant that a comprehensive study of nage animal metaphors (forth, 2019a) reveals that animals involved in other reputed transformations (such as grubs into bats, or tadpoles into frogs) do not serve as vehicles of nage verbal metaphors, nor do nage employ any of these creatures, actually or nominally, in ritual performances. ideas about scrubfowl might appear to contravert this generalization. but in fact they do not, for the bird’s value as a nage metaphor of human behavior is exclusively informed by their habit of laying eggs and then deserting them, not by the idea that some of these eggs might hatch as animals of a different kind—itself a belief (as opposed to a metaphor) grounded in the same egg-laying behavior. much the same goes for marine turtles. among the lio, the more prominent part played by this creature’s production of strange offspring motivates ritual activity, not any metaphorical reference to humans. and though in one ritual context the name of the turtle is metaphorically applied to cockatoos and parrots, this too is a usage not found in nage but only forth. 2020. ethnobiology letters 11(2):52-57 57 research communications in lio, where the scrubfowl metaphor appears to be absent. as regards animal metaphors and metamorphosis, it is finally worth remarking how, other than birds, most animals nage regard as laying eggs—including insects, fish, amphibians, and some reptiles (vipers are correctly regarded as bearing young live)—are not observed to brood these. additionally, some of these egg-layers figure in nage transformation beliefs (2016:278). like turtles, these animals too do not serve as vehicles of metaphors for negligent human parents, whereas scrubfowl do. if either scrubfowl or sea turtles appear to participate in a transformation of some sort, the transformation does not involve direct metaphorphosis from a hatched offspring in the way nage conceive of bats developing directly from grubs or frogs from tadpoles, and moreover from individuals they represent as already mature. rather, the creature of a different kind emerges from an egg, in the same way young cuckoos are believed to hatch from crow’s eggs—another nage idea, based on a partly mistaken interpretation of brood parasitism. elsewhere (forth 2016:280–281) i have distinguished the nage belief about cuckoos and crows from animal transformation on the grounds that they conceive of cuckoos as offspring of crows and not as metamorphoses from either crows or their eggs. the same applies to the strange offspring of turtles and scrubfowl, whose peculiar character is explained by the equally peculiar, and discontinuous, way the maternal parent lays and subsequently abandons its eggs. declarations permissions: none declared. sources of funding: none declared. conflicts of interest: none declared. references cited berlin, b. 1992. ethnobiological classification: principles of categorization of plants and animals in traditional societies. princeton university press, princeton, n.j. forth, g. 2010. what’s in a bird’s name: relationships among ethno-ornithological terms in nage and other malayo-polynesian languages. in ethno-ornithology: birds, indigenous peoples, culture, and society, edited by s. tidemann and a. gosler, pp. 223–237. earthscan, london. forth, g. 2016. why the porcupine is not a bird: explorations in the folk zoology of an eastern indonesian people. university of toronto press, toronto. forth, g. 2017. ethnographic reports of freshwater turtles on flores island: the possibilities of an undocumented chelonian species. herpetological review 48:304–310. forth, g. 2019a. a dog pissing at the edge of a path: animal metaphors in an eastern indonesian society. mcgill-queens university press, montreal. forth, g. 2019b. ethnographic evidence for the presence of the coconut crab birgus latro (linnaeus, 1767) (anomura, coenobitidae) on flores island, i n d o n e s i a . c r u s t a c e a n a 9 2 : 9 2 1 – 9 4 1 . doi:10.1163/15685403-00003912. jones, d. n., r. w. r. j. dekker, and c. s. roselaar. 1995. the megapodes. oxford university press, oxford. leseberg, n., and i. campbell. 2015. birds and animals of australia’s top end: darwin, kakadu, katherine, and kununarra. princeton university press, princeton, nj. lincoln, g. a. 1974. predation of incubator birds (megapodius freycinet) by komodo dragons (varanus komodoensis). journal of zoology 174:419–428. mackinnon, j. 1991. field guide to the birds of java and bali. gajah madah university press, yogyakarta, indonesia. simpson, k., and m. day. 1993. field guide to the birds of australia, 3rd edition. viking o’neill, ringwood, australia. wallace, a. r. 1922. the malay archipelago: the land of the orang-utan and the bird of paradise. macmillan, london. ethnobiology in one health quinlan and quinlan. 2016. ethnobiology letters 7(1):59–61 59 short topical reviews could be central to the ethnobiological spectrum, yet remains absent. one health research centers on zoonotic diseases, those transmittable between animals and humans (wolf 2015). the model traces human-animal contact in environmental context as the point of disease “spillover” to new species (woldehanna and zimicki 2015). zoonotic spillover drivers include (1) anthropogenic land changes, through construction, pollution or resource exploitation; (2) movement of hosts and pathogens to new environments via migration or trade of animals and animal products; (3) increased human-animal contact via human encroachment or intensifying animal production systems. ethnobiologists are experts at bridging the social and life sciences. agriculture, medicine, veterinary medicine, and public health have adopted one health (travis et al. 2014). it is also expanding in environmental science (barrett et al. 2011), and in anthrozoology (a.k.a. human-animal interaction studies, and human-animal studies), which normally examines human-animal relationships in western, industrialized cultural contexts (shapiro and demello 2010). one health would benefit from ethnobiology for its natural and social science perspective, consideration of deep-time connections between indigenous people and their landscapes, and its norm of rapport establishment. one health is a growing collaborative approach (keeling and rohani 2008) that recognizes human health as connected to the health of animals and the environment (cdc 2015). while the term one health is new, a long history of natural sciences– human health research precedes it (see schwabe 1984, zinsstag et al. 2012), most recently one medicine (sensu schwabe 1984), a movement to bridge research silos of human and animal health, as they share biological foundations. views of health as an outcome of a human-animal, socio-ecological system strengthened following 2003 animal-borne sars and avian influenza outbreaks (rock et al. 2009), and researchers swapped the one medicine term for the less clinical one health (zinsstag et al 2012). one health’s goal of work “at the interface of humans, animals, and the environment” (travis et al. 2014:28) is “home base” for ethnobiology, which similarly investigates dynamic relationships of cultures, biota, and environments. ethnobiology’s connection to human health is inherent, if not implicit. ethnobiology examines subsistence behaviors and landscape-based pursuits for ecosystem services (e.g., building supplies, food) with survival and well-being (health) as people’s ultimate goal. other ethnobiology, e.g., ethnoveterinary or ethnopharmacological, research is about ethnomedicine (health care). one health research ethnobiology in one health marsha b. quinlan1,2* and robert j. quinlan1,2 1department of anthropology, washington state university, pullman, usa. 2paul g. allen school for global animal health, washington state university, pullman, usa. *mquinlan@wsu.edu abstract the new one health concept is, essentially, the ethnobiology of health, addressing the interrelation of human, animal and environmental health. incited by 2003 outbreaks of animal-borne sars and avian influenza, one health’s multidisciplinary perspective complements growing international support for interdisciplinary research and health equity. one health needs researchers able to integrate social and cultural factors into health-related life science questions. received april 14, 2016 open access accepted august 13, 2016 doi 10.14237/ebl.7.1.2016.680 keywords ethnozoology, human-animal interaction, global health, animal health, emerging zoonoses, human-animal interface copyright © 2016 by the author(s); licensee society of ethnobiology. this is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution-noncommercial 4.0 international public license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0), which permits non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. quinlan and quinlan. 2016. ethnobiology letters 7(1):59–61 60 short topical reviews as with global health, ethnobiology’s subjects are regularly non-western, if not indigenous, and often among the large impoverished portion of the world’s population (krieger 2014). the poor are often malnourished, lack biomedical care, and live with structural political-economic conditions in which disease thrives. their interaction with animals is ancient and often essential to survival. emerging diseases of globalization often launch among the poor, particularly in the tropics (krieger 2014), and 75% of emerging human infectious diseases are zoonoses (woldehanna and zimicki 2015). one health research needs ethnobiologists doing extensive fieldwork in ecologies of poor populations and their animals, especially in the tropics. one health research involving ethnobiology per se remains virtually unknown, though some projects approach culture in the human-animal interface. four examples of social science (though not ethnobiology) application in one health follow. thumbi et al. (2015) tracked 1,500 households and their livestock in 10 western kenyan villages for one year. using disease and socioeconimic data, they found a strong relationship between a family’s illnesses and the number of livestock sicknesses and deaths in the same household. livestock ownership simultaneously improves households’ health and welfare status; yet increases transmission risk of zoonotic (animal-borne) pathogens from animals to humans, and development of antimicrobial resistance (thumbi et al. 2015). this groundbreaking work approaches ethnobiology, however the socioeconomic survey data present would benefit from observational and cultural data to indicate how people go about their animal interactions and why, when and where interactions or risks may occur. high rates of fatal diarrhea in lima, peru spurred investigation of behaviors and beliefs in families with toddlers and free-range domestic chickens in one shantytown. marquis et al. (1990) observed fowl and toddler activity, finding that children touched poultry feces many times, feces-to-hand and feces-to-mouth contamination were highly correlated, and feces contaminations were associated with the numbers of stools chickens deposited in the family’s house. mothers indicated that free-roaming fowl grow better, and a minority of them connected human health risk with poultry in the home. during a nipah virus outbreak in malaysia, chua (2003) observed that human logging displaced forest fruitbats to orchards near pigfarms. bats ate and dropped fruits on piggery roofs, from which locals collected rainwater for pigs. bat-contaminated fruits washed into to pigs’ water, creating a spillover from bats to pigs, then from pigs to humans. to investigate disease spillover potential among laotian hmong and lao-tai, woldehanna and zimicki (2015) generated dictionaries of local animal terms, then used recognition as an exposure proxy, as people are most familiar with animals they encounter most. interviews about animal interactions revealed culture-specific, age and gender risks. men hunt large animals, while women and children hunt rats and mice, with boys getting the most rodent bites and scratches; the two cultures have opposite hunting preference in avoidance of bats or nonhuman primates; and, they collect and handle feces of different species as fertilizer. global public health focuses intensely on antibiotic resistant bacteria (palmer and call 2013). veterinary antibiotics (va) create selective pressure for the evolution of resistant bacteria. antimicrobial resistance and va use among developing nation smallholders remains understudied though small-holders produce 80% of the world’s food. we, with anthropologist m. a. caudell, joined environmental microbiologists-epidemiologists d. r. call and m. subbiah, zoonotic modeler l. matthews, and others, to conduct explicitly ethnobiological one health research within three northern tanzanian culture groups. we find ethnicity, veterinary care sectors (professional, folk, popular), and livelihood strategies to strongly associate with va use and human va exposure. maasai pastoralists have lay use of over-the-counter vas, with little professional consultation. importantly for human health, they consume meat or milk from animals recently treated with vas. chagga farmers, in contrast, rely on professional veterinarians, and observe withdrawal periods before consuming meat or milk from animals recently treated with vas. arusha agro-pastoralists are intermediate between maasai and chagga in herding and va use. preliminary results indicate that ethnicity and associated milk handling behaviors correlate with prevalence of antibioticresistant e. coli. one health is presently addressing the link of animal and human health that rudolph virchow proposed a century ago (rock et al. 2009). each culture interacts with animals distinctively, and households decide on human-animal interactions in quinlan and quinlan. 2016. ethnobiology letters 7(1):59–61 61 short topical reviews these cultural contexts. such decisions have health consequences across species. engaging ethnobiology into medical science collaborations increases opportunities to propose ethnobiological research that contributes to global health. acknowledgments we thank doug call of wsu’s allen school for global animal health for collaboration and consultation. our one health study in tanzania is funded by the national science foundation deb–ecology of infectious diseases (grant # 1216040, d.r. call, p.i.). references cited barrett, m. a., t. a. bouley, a. h. stoertz, and r. w. stoertz. 2011. integrating a one health approach in education to address global health and sustainability challenges. frontiers in ecology and the environment 9:239–245. doi:10.1890/090159. cdc. 2015. one health. centers for disease control and prevention. available at: http://www.cdc.gov/ onehealth/index.html. accessed on august 1, 2016. chua, k. b. 2003. nipah virus outbreak in malaysia. journal of clinical virology 26:265–275. doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/s1386-6532(02) 00268-8. keeling, m. j., and p. rohani. 2008. modeling infectious diseases in humans and animals. princeton university press, princeton, nj. krieger, n. 2014. inequality, political ecology, and the future of infectious diseases. in anthropology of infectious disease, edited by m. singer, pp. 225–266. left coast press, walnut creek, ca. marquis, g. s., g. ventura, r. h. gilman, e. porras, e. l. miranda, l. carbajal, and m. pentafiel. 1990. fecal contamination of shanty town toddlers in households with non-corralled poultry, lima, peru. american journal of public health 80:146–149. doi:10.2105/ajph.80.2.146. palmer, g. h., and d. r. call. 2013. antimicrobial resistance: a global public health challenge requiring a global one health strategy. institute of medicine. available at: https://nam.edu/perspectives -2013-antimicrobial-resistance-a-global-public-health -challenge-requiring-a-global-one-health-strategy/. accessed on august 1, 2016 rock, m., b. j. buntain, j. m. hatfield, and b. hallgrimsson. 2009. animal–human connections, “one health,” and the syndemic approach to prevention. social science and medicine 68:991–995. doi:10.1016/j.socscimed.2008.12.047. schwabe, c. w. 1984. veterinary medicine and human health, 3rd edition. williams and wilkins, baltimore, md. shapiro, k., and m. demello. 2010. the state of human-animal studies. society and animals 18:307– 318. doi:10.1163/156853010x510807. thumbi s. m., m. k. njenga, t. i. marsh, s. noh, e. otiang, p. munyua, l. ochieng, e. ogola, j. yoder, a. audi, j. m. montgomery, g. bigogo, r. f. breiman, g. h. palmer, t. f. mcelwain. 2015. linking human health and livestock health: a “one-health” platform for integrated analysis of human health, livestock health, and economic welfare in livestock dependent communities. plos one 10:e0120761. doi:10.1371/ journal.pone.0120761. travis, d. a., p. sriamarao, c. cardona, c. j. steer, s. kennedy, s. sreevatsan, m. p. murtaugh. 2014. one medicine one science: a framework for exploring challenges at the intersection of animals, humans, and the environment. annals of the new york academy of sciences 1334:26–44. doi: 10.1111/ nyas.12601view. woldehanna, s., and s. zimicki. 2015. an expanded one health model: integrating social science and one health to inform study of the human-animal interface. social science and medicine 129:87–95. doi:10.1016/j.socscimed.2014.10.059. wolf, m. 2015. is there really such a thing as “one health”? social science and medicine 129:5–11. doi:10.1016/j.socscimed.2014.06.018. zinsstag, j., j. s. mackenzie, m. jeggo, d. l. heymann, j. a. patz, and p. daszak. 2012. mainstreaming one health. ecohealth 9:107–110. doi:10.1007/s10393-012-0772-8. urban pollution: cultural meanings, social practices ethnobiology letters. 2015. 6(1):114‐115. doi: 10.14237/ebl.6.1.2015.382. 114 book review irresponsible, ‘polluting others’. meanwhile young asian immigrants counteract this stereotype with volunteer litter removal initiatives. in the next chapter, damaris lüthi argues that concepts of im/ purity in kottar correlate with the physical world and are therefore more similar to scientific understandings rather than symbolic ones. inside homes and spiritual spaces, lower caste impurities are more dangerous than those from upper castes, which reinforces class and caste segregation. in the fourth chapter, susanna trnka describes the legacy of indo-fijian hindus, the second largest cultural group in fiji, who were brought there by the british as indentured servants. indo-fijians provided the physical labor for the “development” of the nation, while the british colonizers forced indigenous fijians to remain rural. through this separation, the “jungle” is seen as wild, encroaching, and indigenous; in contrast the city of suva is perceived as an advanced, modern, and clean place, in spite of actual physical pollution. in chapter 5, anouk de koning argues that in cairo, tropes of pollution and defilement are used to elaborate and contest new class configurations from egypt’s liberal era through the bodies of young upper-middle class women. the women’s experiences and contestations are linked to space and place as they negotiate their current positions shaped by gender and class. next, magnus treiber provides an ethnographic account of two different social establishments in asmara, eritrea. asmara is shaped by post-independence youth, students and young professionals, who draw on symbolic conceptions of pollution through a differentiation between “hangouts” and “bars”. in the seventh chapter, szabina kerényi looks at postcommunist social movement mobilization and collective action in budapest. she argues that memsocial science research on environmental pollution tends to focus on impacts from natural resource extraction in rural and remote areas, while studies on the urban environment often concentrate on technology, economics, and innovation. environmental anthropologists write about green spaces and gardens in cities, but have generally neglected the brown spaces. the 15th volume of the studies in environmental anthropology and ethnobiology series, entitled urban pollution: cultural meanings, social practices, presents an innovative collection of ethnographic case studies on perceptions of pollution in urban centers. the authors use mary douglas’ seminal work risk and blame (1966) as an entry point for examining pollution as a disruption of social order. to correct for what they see as douglas’ “unmitigated dualism” and “constructivist inclinations,” the editors set the intention in the introductory chapter to give equal weight to symbolic and physical pollution (dürr and jaffe 2010:5). they argue: [a] symbolic-material dualism only holds true up to a point, as these categories are, of course, overlapping and interrelated. the materiality and sociality of urban pollution are relational entities that produce each other—this relational materiality itself, as well as the hybridity of pollution, can be the focus of study (dürr and jaffe 2010:3). in the second chapter, eveline dürr examines how concepts of cultural pollution are revealed through discourse about environmental pollution in new zealand. settler “kiwis” place value on environmental and indigenous flora and fauna preservation, while describing asian immigrants as environmentally urban pollution: cultural meanings, social practices edited by eveline dürr and rivke jaffe. 2010. studies in environmental anthropology and ethnobiology, vol. 15. berghahn books, new york. 216 pp. $27.95 (paperback), $120.00 (hardcover). isbn 978-1-84545-692-4 (paperback), 978-1-78238-5080 (hardcover). reviewed by janelle marie baker reviewer address: department of anthropology, mcgill university, 855 sherbrooke street west, montréal, québec h3a 2t7, can. email: janelle.baker@mail.mcgill.ca received: march 21, 2015 volume: 6(1):114-115 published: august 31, 2015 © 2015 society of ethnobiology ethnobiology letters. 2015. 6(1):114‐115. doi: 10.14237/ebl.6.1.2015.382. 115 book review bers of urban social movements define pollution on overlapping material and abstract levels, as it is considered both ritually unclean and resulting from harmful practices in the urban environment. in chapter 8, johanna rolshoven employs a historical perspective of european discourse of the city to look at characterizations of cleanliness, sanitation, health, and morals that determine urban management. she finds that concepts of health and the city are fundamentally linked, reflecting society and space. next, in chapter 9, kathryn scott and her co-authors apply political ecology to the discourses and material conditions that shape the urban environment and reinforce existing power relations in glen innes, new zealand. the authors show that low-density housing is a symbol for the middle class, while high-density housing is equated with slums, even though more compact forms of housing have the potential to improve the lives of marginalized people living in glen innes. as aidan davison points out in the afterword, research on pollution is not cleanly separated into the various academic disciplines: “as the illegitimate offspring of technological systems, pollution appears to be the antithesis of ecological order and social order. the category of pollution threatens to pollute modern disciplines of knowledge by seeming to originate from neither the realm of nature nor the realm of culture” (davison 2010:198). in this context ethnobiologists are well-equipped to study pollution, as they are skilled in the interdisciplinary negotiations of researching human interactions with nature, in which measurable science and traditional knowledge need not be framed as opposing forces. however, if you are looking for a book on ethnobiology and pollution, urban pollution might not suit your needs. it leans heavily towards urban anthropology and away from presenting folk taxonomy, scientific results, or ecological or environmental data. in fact, the chapters fall short of the editors’ aforementioned intention to give equal weight to measurable conditions and cultural perceptions of pollution by focusing on symbolic pollution. nonetheless, academic inquiry often favors ecological systems outside of cities, in spite of the fact that now the majority of the global population lives in urban centers. a diversity of perspectives on environmental pollution in cities is a welcomed contribution and this volume presents a scholarly and rich selection that is worth consideration. references cited davison, a. 2010. afterword: impure thoughts on messy cities. in urban pollution: cultural meanings, social practices, edited by e. dürr and r. jaffe, pp. 198-201. studies in environmental anthropology and ethnobiology. berghahn books, new york. douglas, m. 1966. purity and danger: an analysis of concepts of pollution and taboo. routledge, london. dürr, e. and r. jaffe, eds. 2010. urban pollution: cultural meanings, social practices, volume 15. berghahn books, new york. validation of a non-targeted lc-ms approach for identifying ancient proteins: method development on bone to improve artifact residue analysis ethnobiology letters. 2015. 6(1):162‐174. doi: 10.14237/ebl.6.1.2015.294. 162 data, methods & taxonomies stevens et al. 2010) and a non-targeted liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (lc-ms) analysis to identify proteins in zooarchaeological bone from the american southwest. the results represent an important stepping stone in our research trajectory, in which we are moving from the recovery and identification of relatively well-preserved archaeological bone proteins to the analysis of, in comparison, poorly understood, poorly preserved, and lower-abundance archaeological protein residues from ceramic artifacts. although identification of bone proteins using mass spectrometry is common (see buckley and wadsworth 2014; cappellini et al. 2014; welker et al. 2015), our results are important for three reasons. first, they validate our methodology. while we have previously reported individual identifications made as part of method development (barker 2011, wolverton et al. 2014), this study represents the first comprehenintroduction mass spectrometry is a commonly used approach for identifying ancient proteins (e.g., mikšik et al. 2014; warinner et al. 2014). analysis of ancient bone proteins has witnessed substantial advancement during the last decade (see buckley and wadsworth 2014; cappellini et al. 2014; welker et al. 2015), some of which can be attributed to the peptide fingerprinting methodology, zooms, (buckley et al. 2009; 2010, 2014; van doorn et al. 2011) but which also relates to the general applicability of high throughput ms to bone (cappellini et al. 2012, 2014). in contrast, ms analysis of ancient protein residues from artifacts for the study of past subsistence has lagged (barker et al. 2012, barnard 2007; but see heaton et al. 2009; solazzo et al. 2008). to address this deficiency, our paper focuses on the analysis of bone proteins using the extraction methodology of barker et al. (2012; validation of a non-targeted lc-ms approach for identifying ancient proteins: method development on bone to improve artifact residue analysis andrew barker1*, jonathan dombrosky2, dale chaput3, barney venables1, steve wolverton4, and stanley m. stevens3 author addrersses: 1department of biological sciences, university of north texas, 1155 union circle #305220, denton, tx 76203, usa. 2department of anthropology, university of new mexico, msc01-1040, anthropology 1, albuquerque, nm 87131, usa. 3department of cell biology, microbiology and molecular biology, university of south florida, 4202 east fowler ave, isa2015, tampa, fl 33620, usa. 4department of geography, university of north texas, 1155 union circle #305279, denton, tx 76203, usa. *corresponding author: andrewbarker@my.unt.edu received: december 2, 2014 volume: 6(1):162-174 published: september 4, 2015 © 2015 society of ethnobiology abstract: identification of protein residues from prehistoric cooking pottery using mass spectrometry is challenging because proteins are removed from original tissues, are degraded from cooking, may be poorly preserved due to diagenesis, and occur in a palimpsest of exogenous soil proteins. in contrast, bone proteins are abundant and well preserved. this research is part of a larger method-development project for innovation and improvement of liquid chromatography – mass spectrometry analysis of protein residues from cooking pottery; here we validate the potential of our extraction and characterization approach via application to ancient bone proteins. because of its preservation potential for proteins and given that our approach is destructive, ancient bone identified via skeletal morphology represents an appropriate verification target. proteins were identified from zooarchaeological turkey (meleagris gallopavo linnaeus phasianidae), rabbit (lagomorpha), and squirrel (sciuridae) remains excavated from ancient pueblo archaeological sites in southwestern colorado using a nontargeted lc-ms/ms approach. the data have been deposited to the proteomexchange consortium with the dataset identifier pxd002440. improvement of highly sensitive targeted lc-ms/ms approaches is an avenue for future method development related to the study of protein residues from artifacts such as stone tools and pottery. keywords: archaeological chemistry, bone protein residues, ancient proteins, mass spectrometry ethnobiology letters. 2015. 6(1):162‐174. doi: 10.14237/ebl.6.1.2015.294. 163 data, methods & taxonomies sive evaluation of our methodology as applied to multiple taxa to identify ancient proteins from several sites. in contrast to bone proteins, which are protected in bone tissue and primarily derive from a single taxonomic origin, artifact protein residues are removed from original matrices, are likely to represent complex taxonomic input, and have potentially been modified and damaged to an unknown degree via cooking and other taphonomic processes. as a result, protein residues from such artifacts occur in trace quantities if they preserve, and, relative to bone, are likely to be composed of taxonomically diverse and less predictable mixtures. by analyzing bone identifiable to particular taxonomic groups using traditional zooarchaeological analysis (driver 1992, 2011; wolverton 2013), rather than residues from ceramics, we minimize these challenges such that we are able to efficiently validate our approach, which is ultimately tailored for the non-targeted analysis of taxonomically diverse mixtures. second, we analyze proteins from zooarchaeological bone excavated from contexts similar in age and location to those from which we seek to identify protein residues from archaeological cooking pottery. though this provides no guarantee of protein survival in associated ceramics, it confirms the potential for protein survival in this general context (southwestern colorado) and provides insight into the types of diagenetic processes that have occurred. finally, it is unethical to destroy cooking pottery artifacts for purposes of method development when we are certain that our approach can be verified through analysis of commonly recovered zooarchaeological bone that can be identified using skeletal morphology. this paper records the second stage of our method development process, which began with optimizing an extraction protocol (barker et al. 2012). here, this protocol is verified for application to ancient proteins from a tissue with high preservation potential (bone). subsequent applications of this approach will employ targeted lc-ms approaches that characterize trace quantities of artifact protein residues from experimental and archaeological contexts. this section is followed by a brief comparison of lc-ms to the more commonly applied immunoassay approach for identifying artifact protein residues. that section is followed by our methods, results, and discussion. immunoassay and lc-ms the most commonly applied approach in the realm of protein residue analysis is immunoassay (e.g., kooyman et al. 2001; lowenstein et al. 2006; marlar et al. 2000), which has the advantage of finding “a needle in the haystack” of protein residues (such as blood on stone tools or food proteins in cooking pottery) within a matrix of exogenous sources (e.g., soil microbe proteins). mass spectrometry approaches that provide a general scan of archaeological protein residues from cooking pottery, on the other hand, may not pinpoint original residues because exogenous proteins can overwhelm their signal (but see cappellini et al. 2010; heaton et al. 2009; nielsen-marsh 2005; solazzo et al. 2008). put simply, when using mass spectrometry, a morass of exogenous protein from soil bacteria can overwhelm the signals of more archaeologically meaningful residues leaving them undetected. this is not surprising given the observation of similar problems in ancient dna research (e.g., carpenter et al. 2013). a strength of mass spectrometry, however, is that whatever peptides are identified are probabilistically matched to records of peptide sequences in large digital archives, which provides statistical precision for characterizing protein residues. immunoassay approaches rely on antibody-antigen reactions, which if positive, signal the presence of a particular type of protein (e.g., human myoglobin). in analytical chemistry, a well-known problem with immunoassay is the issue of “non-specific binding” or “cross-reactivity” in which molecules other than the targeted protein react with the antibody, causing a false positive (graves 1988; waterboer et al. 2006), in addition to the general problems derived from protein deterioration (fogel and tuross 1999; van doorn et al. 2012). analytical chemists assess the probability of cross reactivity experimentally using analytes similar to the targeted protein, making sure there are not problems of nonspecific binding. an important problem with the application of immunoassay in archaeological residue analysis is that protein structures can become modified through diagenesis over time in variable microenvironments (grupe et al. 2000; van doorn et al. 2012; warinner et al. 2014). thus, the extent of the problem of crossreactivity may be difficult to gauge. due to the potential modification of proteins, immunoassay may produce false positive or false negative results. archaeological chemists who study protein residues are left with an uncomfortable compromise; immunoassay residue techniques are targeted, sensitive, and ethnobiology letters. 2015. 6(1):162‐174. doi: 10.14237/ebl.6.1.2015.294. 164 data, methods & taxonomies thus likely to detect residues if they are present at trace levels, but require that the researcher accept uncertainty about the problem of cross-reactivity. alternatively, the use of non-targeted mass spectrometry provides greater certainty concerning protein identification. however, this requires that the researcher compromise on the ability to detect trace amounts of archaeologically meaningful residues, as the entire suite of proteins/peptides in a given sample is analyzed at once, which increases background noise. one way to overcome this limitation is to advance technical development of protein mass spectrometry in archaeological chemistry as has already been accomplished for bone proteins (buckley et al. 2009; cappellini et al. 2014; van doorn et al. 2011). the limitations of immunoassay and the potential of lc-ms (sensu cappellini et al. 2014) warrant such method development and verification of our approach through identification of proteins from zooarchaeological specimens of known identity. methods the bone specimens analyzed in this study are from sites in the goodman point unit of hovenweep national monument in southwestern colorado that were excavated by crow canyon archaeological center, colorado, usa. a total of nine lagomorph ('l1' 'l9'), nine turkey ('m1' 'm9'), and four sciurid ('s1' 's4') specimens were selected from faunas recovered from four sites, harlan great kiva (5mt16805), thunder knoll (5mt16778), midway house (5mt16783), and monsoon house (5mt16808), that span the pueblo ii (ad 950-1150) and pueblo iii (ad 1150-1350) time periods of the american southwest (table 1). lagomorphs and turkeys were important components of prehistoric diet and are abundant in archaeological faunas; sciurid remains are less common (badenhorst and driver 2009; muir and driver 2002). all bone specimens were identified on the basis of diagnostic morphological characteristics and through comparison to reference materials housed in the university of north texas laboratory of zooarchaeology following standards published by driver (1992, 2011) and wolverton (2013). all specimens exhibited good preservation (e.g., intact or semi-intact long bones with glossy surfaces, flexibility, and the absence of cracking or burn marks). the protein residue extraction procedures used in this research were originally developed for the maximum quantitative recovery of protein residues from ceramic matrices (barker et al. 2012). their utility for bone protein extraction was preliminarily validated through previous attempts using individual samples of archaeological bone (see barker 2011; wolverton et al. 2014), but were here applied for the first time to a relatively large and diverse collection of specimens. briefly, we pulverized a portion of each bone sample in a sterile mortar and pestle. subsamples (250 500 mg) of this were placed in amber glass vials, and the protein solubilized in 2% sodium dodecyl sulfate (sds) (w/v) in milli-q water (mq) via exposure to high pressure and temperature (108oc) in an autoclave for 60 minutes. afterwards, solids were pelleted via centrifugation (14000g x 5 minutes). the supernatants were pipetted into new vials and centrifuged again to ensure the removal of all particulate matter. the final, clear, colorless to straw-colored solutions were concentrated and purified using amicon 3kd centrifugal filters (millipore part number ufc800324, billerica, ma, usa), with a total of three, 3 ml mq ‘washes’ to assist in the removal of non-protein contaminants (e.g., salts or bacterial metabolites). the concentration of sds used, in combination with the complex composition of the extracted solution (which presumably included fatty acids, nucleic acids, and decomposition products such as humic acids), resulted in micelle formation and/or other unidentified impediments to hinder flowthrough rates. though not problematic in terms of retaining proteins, as confirmed by experimental validation as well as discussion with the product manufacturer, this often resulted in centrifuge times longer than those recommended in the product guide. the final round of filtration was continued until the filtrate volume was between 200 and 500 µl, at which point the solution was gently agitated with a pasteur pipette and then transferred into a fresh microcentrifuge vial. of this final filtrate, 30 µl was further processed following the filter-aided sample preparation (fasp) protocol reported by wiśniewski et al. (2009), while the remainder was set aside as a reference specimen for future analyses. fasp kits (expedeon part number 44250, san diego, ca, usa) were used to purify and concentrate recovered proteins/peptides following the manufacturer's protocol. after elution of protein digestate, samples were acidified with formic acid, desalted with c-18 zip tips (millipore part number ztc18s096, billerica, ma, usa), and then evaluated using lc-ms. ethnobiology letters. 2015. 6(1):162‐174. doi: 10.14237/ebl.6.1.2015.294. 165 data, methods & taxonomies method blanks (to which no bone material was added) were processed alongside archaeological samples to evaluate contamination. given that samples were collected in the field and sorted by hand prior to receipt at the research facilities, we anticipated the presence of common contaminants such as keratins. further, the size, thickness and intactness (some were cracked open) of our specimens prevented the confident removal of exterior contamination via grinding or other means. however, we minimized any additional contamination by wearing latex or nitrile gloves during all lab procedures, by carefully preparing all reagents and equipment (e.g., washing glassware prior to use, heat-sterilizing mortars and pestles), and by performing all extraction and sample preparation procedures in a dedicated workspace at the university of north texas. lc-ms/ms analysis was conducted at the university of south florida using previously-reported protocols (see barker et al. 2012). raw data files were processed by extract_msn.exe through the mascot daemon (v.2.2.2) program. protein identifications were performed via the mascot search engine (matrix science, london, uk; v2.2.06) in which the extracted mass spectrometric data were searched against the swissprot database (v2013_07, 1068484 entries), with fragment ion mass tolerance of 0.80 da, parent mass tolerance of 2.5 da, trypsin as the digestion enzyme, and a maximum of 1 missed cleavage. carbamidomethylation was specified as a fixed modification. oxidation of proline and methionine, and deamidation of asparagine and glutamine were specified as variable modifications. peptide and protein identification probability values were generated via the peptide and protein prophet algorithms (keller et al. 2002, nesvizhskii et al. 2003). identifications were accepted for peptides if false detection rates (fdr) were less than 1.0%. for proteins, table 1. provenience and zooarchaeological information for rabbit (lagomorpha: l), turkey (meleagris gallopavo linnaeus phasianidae: m), and squirrel (sciuridae: s) samples included in this study. label element side site # study unit type stratum level time period (a.d.) l1 tibia r 5mt16805 masonry structure 1 approx. 1150 l2 femur r masonry structure 3* approx. 1150 l3 tibia r masonry structure 4 approx. 1000 l4 tibia l masonry structure 4 approx. 1000 l5 humerus r 5mt16778 midden 2 2 1060 – 1260 l6 tibia l midden 1 4 1060 – 1260 l7 femur r midden 1 3 1060 – 1260 l8 tibia l 5mt16808 masonry structure 1 1150 – 1280 l9 tibia r kiva 2 2 1245 – 1260 m1 coracoid r midden 1 5 1060 – 1260 m2 femur l midden 2 1060 – 1260 m3 humerus l kiva 3 1140 – 1260 m4 carpometacarpus r kiva 3 2 1140 – 1260 m5 tibia l masonry structure 1 1140 – 1260 m6 femur r 5mt16778 pit feature 1 1140 – 1260 m7 coracoid l midden 1 2 1060 – 1260 m8 humerus r midden 1140 – 1260 m9 carpometacarpus r midden 2 2 1060 – 1260 s1 mandible r 5mt16783 midden 2 2 1060 – 1260 s2 humerus r midden 2 4 1060 – 1260 s3 humerus l midden 2 3 1060 – 1260 s4 humerus l 5mt16805 great kiva 1140 – 1240 *some burrowing disturbance is evident. ethnobiology letters. 2015. 6(1):162‐174. doi: 10.14237/ebl.6.1.2015.294. 166 data, methods & taxonomies positive matches required a minimum of 3 identified peptides to acheive fdr values of less than 1.0%. further, our criteria for protein identification mirror those presented in cappellini et al. (2012) and in our previous research (stevens et al. 2010) in that, in addition to the above criteria, we consider 2 or more exclusive unique peptides (those that are sourced only to a given protein) as a positive indicator for the presence of a given protein (but see 'results' below). raw data files as well as processed scaffold files have been submitted to the proteomexchange consortium (http://proteomecentral.proteomexchange.org) via the pride partner repository (vizcaino et al., 2013) with the dataset identifier pxd002440 and 10.6019/ pxd002440, respectively. results in addition to common, and reasonably-expected, contaminants (e.g., human keratins) we identified a variety of unique proteins in archaeological samples and not method blanks (table 2). collagen alpha-1(i) chains were identified in all tested archaeological samples. matches to other collagen isoforms, most commonly collagen alpha-2(i), were also observed. the consistent recovery of collagens is not an unexpected result considering their hydrophobicity, which promotes preservation, as well as collagens' documented resistance to several sources of degradation (see child 1995; collins et al. 2002; dobberstein et al. 2009), and the number of previous studies that have successfully identified ancient bone collagens (e.g., buckley et al. 2014; van doorn et al. 2011; welker et al. 2015). some of the lagomorph samples also yielded noncollagen proteins (table 2). aside from keratins, which are possibly contaminants derived from handling during sample collection or processing, these include elongation factors tu and g, synapsin-1, eosinophil peroxidase, and tubulin alpha-1b. elongation factor tu, which does not meet our most stringent criteria for positive identification (only 1 exclusive unique peptide was identified), is sourced to burkholderia spp. these gram-negative bacteria are well -known mammalian pathogens that most commonly infect equus spp., but have been documented to infect humans, rabbits, and other mammals. though endemic in africa and asia, they are considered eradicated in north america (fritz et al. 2000; whitlock et al. 2007). assuming that this match is legitimate, it may be evidence of ancient disease. elongation factor g, sourced to agrobacterium radiobacter, is likely the result of contamination from soil; a. radiobacter is a common soil bacterium that has been used for agricultural purposes throughout the world (moore and warren 1975). we rule out synapsin-1 due to the poor quality spectra (limited sequence coverage and low signal-to-noise ratios) that were obtained (see proteomexchange supplementary material). eosinophil peroxidase and tubulin alpha-1b both occur in mammalian tissues. thus, our observed matches to these proteins may reflect their survival in ancient lagomorph remains (but see below). more surprisingly, though not unprecedented given the reports of a variety of blood and muscular proteins in zooarchaeological/paleontological bones (see ascenzi et al. 1985; cappellini et al. 2012; smith & wilson 1990; tuross 1991), we identified hemoglobin and ferritin proteins after relaxation of our match criteria (from 3 to 1 exclusive unique peptide while still maintaining a 1% peptide fdr and adjusting the protein identification probability to 95%). this filtering revealed additional blood-derived proteins in samples l1, l2 and l3 (table 3), as well as other protein matches of variable quality (not reported here, but see proteomexchange supplementary file). in particular, we identified hemoglobin beta, sourced to european hare (lepus europaeus pallas leporidae) in all three samples, and ferretin (light chain) sourced to european rabbit (oryctolagus cuniculus linnaeus leporidae) in l1 and l2 (figure 1a, b). the annotated ms/ms spectra clearly show high-quality matches based on visual inspection. additionally, while protein sequences for hemoglobin beta are available in the uniprot database for several organisms, including human, no sequence identity was observed for the identified tryptic peptides. this result indicates a higher probability match to l. europaeus. moreover, the ferretin (light chain) match seems to be specific to o. cuniculus based on the “similarity view” in the scaffold file. that both identified proteins are sourced to lagomorphs and that both are found in blood suggests the presence of preserved lagomorph blood residues in these samples. results also demonstrate modification of proteins/peptides. in particular, we observed oxidation of proline and methionine as well as deamidation of glutamine and asparagine (figure 2a). many such modifications occur endogenously (as posttranslational modifications). for example, enzymatic hydroxylation of proline residues in collagen is a key step in the stabilization of the collagen triple helix ethnobiology letters. 2015. 6(1):162‐174. doi: 10.14237/ebl.6.1.2015.294. 167 data, methods & taxonomies table 2. identified proteins for lagomorpha (l), meleagris gallopavo (m) and sciuridae (s) samples. numbers represent the count of exclusive unique peptides identified, with a value of 2 or greater indicating a positive match. for ease of viewing, closely homologous proteins are grouped as 'clusters.' thus, a match to a given cluster does not necessarily reflect the correct taxonomic assignment as listed here. the number in parentheses after the accession number reflects the total number of taxa included in that cluster. see the scaffold file (similarity view) that is available in the online supplementary material through proteomexchange for an expanded list of assignments. (continued on next page) protein accession number m1 m2 m3 m4 m5 m6 m7 m8 m9 collagen alpha-1(i) chain os=cynops pyrrhogaster co1a1_cynpy 3 5 1 3 6 3 4 1 6 cluster of collagen alpha-1(i) chain os=gallus gallus co1a1_chick [7] 36 53 36 47 58 57 58 8 56 cluster of collagen alpha-1(ii) chain os=bos taurus co2a1_bovin [4] 1 1 1 1 3 3 3 3 collagen alpha-1(ii) chain os=xenopus laevis co2a1_xenla 2 2 2 1 2 collagen alpha-1(ii) chain os=xenopus tropicalis co2a1_xentr 1 cluster of collagen alpha-1(xi) chain os=homo sapiens coba1_human 3 collagen alpha-1(xxvii) chain b os=danio rerio cra1b_danre 1 3 1 1 1 collagen alpha-2(i) chain (fragment) os=oryctolagus cuniculus co1a2_rabit 1 cluster of collagen alpha-2(i) chain (fragments) os=gallus gallus co1a2_chick 22 36 26 40 39 38 41 9 41 cluster of collagen alpha-2(i) chain os=canis familiaris co1a2_canfa [6] 1 3 1 7 10 8 6 1 9 collagen alpha-2(i) chain os=oncorhynchus mykiss co1a2_oncmy 2 2 2 3 2 2 cluster of collagen alpha-2(v) chain os=homo sapiens co5a2_human [2] 2 1 1 1 collagen alpha-3(v) chain os=homo sapiens co5a3_human 1 l1 l2 l3 l4 l5 l6 l7 l8 l9 collagen alpha-1(i) chain os=cynops pyrrhogaster co1a1_cynpy 1 2 1 1 1 cluster of collagen alpha-1(i) chain os=gallus gallus co1a1_chick [7] 39 16 26 26 35 26 32 25 17 cluster of collagen alpha-1(ii) chain os=bos taurus co2a1_bovin [4] 1 1 3 3 3 3 2 1 collagen alpha-1(ii) chain os=xenopus laevis co2a1_xenla 1 1 collagen alpha-1(ii) chain os=xenopus tropicalis co2a1_xentr 2 1 cluster of collagen alpha-1(xi) chain os=homo sapiens coba1_human 1 collagen alpha-1(xxvii) chain b os=danio rerio cra1b_danre collagen alpha-2(i) chain (fragment) os=oryctolagus cuniculus co1a2_rabit 3 2 3 2 3 4 3 2 1 cluster of collagen alpha-2(i) chain (fragments) os=gallus gallus co1a2_chick 3 1 1 1 1 1 cluster of collagen alpha-2(i) chain os=canis familiaris co1a2_canfa [6] 24 14 16 15 26 21 17 15 11 collagen alpha-2(i) chain os=oncorhynchus mykiss co1a2_oncmy 1 1 1 2 1 2 ethnobiology letters. 2015. 6(1):162‐174. doi: 10.14237/ebl.6.1.2015.294. 168 data, methods & taxonomies (and is therefore accounted for by search engines). however, other modifications maybe derived from natural diagenetic processes or even from laboratory procedures (grupe et al. 2000; mikšik et al. 2014; van doorn et al. 2012), and are therefore less predictable. as an example, a collagen-derived tryptic peptide from the sequence shown in figure 2a was identified with either an oxidized or non-oxidized methionine. the corresponding ms/ms spectra show the confident identification of both peptide species (figure 2 b and c). on one hand, the identification of anticipated diagenetic modifications in archaeological samples may provide support to the interpretation of identified proteins as being authentic. welker et al. (2015), for example, use glutamine deamidation ratios to support the interpretation of their identified residues as being legitimately ancient. on the other hand, variability in modifications, as influenced by differential microenvironments (see van doorn et al. 2012), makes successful identification more difficult; each unique modification results in a peptide/ion of a different molecular weight than the original, meaning that a collection of originally identical peptides will feature variable mass spectra once differentially modified. error tolerant search algorithms account for this issue, but require increased processing time/ power and may increase uncertainty of identification. to date, the potential problems arising from such modifications have not been fully addressed in regards to archaeological residues (but see cappellini et al. 2012; van doorn et al. 2011), but the ability to account for such modifications is an inherent strength of mass spectrometry-based approaches. in our non-targeted method, homology is clearly a potential problem. for lagomorph samples, collagen alpha-2(i) (fragment) was correctly identified as (continued from previous page) protein accession number l1 l2 l3 l4 l5 l6 l7 l8 l9 cluster of collagen alpha-2(v) chain os=homo sapiens co5a2_human [2] 3 2 1 2 1 4 collagen alpha-3(v) chain os=homo sapiens co5a3_human 1 3 cluster of elongation factor g os=agrobacterium radiobacter efg_agrrk 1 3 elongation factor tu os=burkholderia mallei eftu_burm7 (+8) 1 1 eosinophil peroxidase os=homo sapiens pere_human 1 4 1 cluster of keratin, type i cytoskeletal 10 os=homo sapiens k1c10_human 1 2 3 2 2 4 keratin, type i cytoskeletal 9 os=homo sapiens k1c9_human 5 1 1 3 1 2 4 cluster of keratin, type ii cytoskeletal 2 epidermal os=homo sapiens k22e_human [3] 3 1 1 2 2 1 5 2 cluster of synapsin-1 (fragment) os=canis familiaris syn1_canfa 2 3 tubulin alpha-1b chain os=bos taurus tba1b_bovin (+22) 1 3 s1 s2 s3 s4 collagen alpha-1(i) chain os=cynops pyrrhogaster co1a1_cynpy cluster of collagen alpha-1(i) chain os=gallus gallus co1a1_chick [7] 4 2 7 4 cluster of collagen alpha-1(ii) chain os=bos taurus co2a1_bovin [4] 1 1 collagen alpha-2(i) chain (fragment) os=oryctolagus cuniculus co1a2_rabit cluster of collagen alpha-2(i) chain (fragments) os=gallus gallus co1a2_chick 1 cluster of collagen alpha-2(i) chain os=canis familiaris co1a2_canfa [6] 4 3 1 ethnobiology letters. 2015. 6(1):162‐174. doi: 10.14237/ebl.6.1.2015.294. 169 data, methods & taxonomies originating from a lagomorph source (o. cuniculus) in 8 of 9 samples (with the last, 'l9' only containing one of the requisite exclusive unique peptides instead of two). for other samples, however, taxonomic specificity was less clear, with turkey, rabbit and squirrel collagens variously assigned to more than one potential taxonomic origins. nevertheless, strength of matches generally correlates with the degree to which a given match is taxonomically correct. for example, though the collagen alpha-1(i) recovered from the turkey samples contained some peptides that could be sourced to mouse (mus musculus linnaeus muridae), the highest numbers of exclusive unique peptides from these samples were sourced to junglefowl (gallus gallus linnaeus phasianidae), the most closely related taxon in the database that we searched. homology (but also the lack of taxonomically specific reference sequences) posed similar challenges in the identification of some of the non-collagen proteins recovered from lagomorph samples. eosinophil peroxidase, recovered from sample l2 (also in l1 and l3 if criteria are relaxed), is represented by four exclusive unique peptides. the assignment of these to a human, rather than lagomorph, source is based on a single amino acid substitution (lài) in one of the four recovered peptides (r.nqinaltsfvdasmvygsevslslr.l). however, because the lagomorph table 3. when search criteria are relaxed, two blood-derived proteins are observed in three lagomorph samples. numbers represent the count of exclusive unique peptides. protein accession number l1 l2 l3 hemoglobin subunit beta os=lepus europaeus hbb_lepeu 2 2 1 ferritin light chain os=oryctolagus cuniculus fril_rabit 2 figure 1. representative ms/ms spectra for tryptic peptides of (a) hemoglobin subunit beta (lepus europaeus pallas leporidae) and (b) and ferritin light chain (oryctolagus cuniculus linnaeus leporidae) found in our lagomorph bone specimens. ethnobiology letters. 2015. 6(1):162‐174. doi: 10.14237/ebl.6.1.2015.294. 170 data, methods & taxonomies figure 2. (a) sequence coverage (highlighted) of junglefowl (gallus gallus linnaeus phasianidae) collagen alpha-1(i) chain by sample m6. green highlighted amino acids have been chemically modified (oxidation – m, p) (deamidation – n, q). though proline hydroxylation occurs endogenously as part of post translational modification, the extensive modification of other amino acids supports the interpretation of the recovered residue as being ancient. (b and c) annotated ms/ms spectra showing a tryptic peptide derived from g. gallus collagen alpha-1(i) chain containing either b) a non-oxidized or c) oxidized methionine residue. the diagnostic peak representing neutral loss of methane sulfenic acid (64 da or m/z 32 for a +2 ion) increases confidence of identification for the oxidized methionine-containing peptide in c). interestingly, part of the bion series is isobaric with the y-ion series but only labeled as the corresponding b-ion even though fragment ion tolerance was ± 0.8 da. for example, the b7 ion in the oxidized form in c) is isobaric with the y6 ion but is only annotated as b7 by scaffold. the low mass accuracy and resolution of the linear ion trap in not able to distinguish between the bor yions; however, it would be expected, given the absence of internal basic residues at the n-terminal portion of the sequence, that the y ions would be the predominant signal. ethnobiology letters. 2015. 6(1):162‐174. doi: 10.14237/ebl.6.1.2015.294. 171 data, methods & taxonomies reference sequence is derived from o. cuniculus rather than a north american species, we cannot be certain that this assignment is correct. similarly, tubulin alpha -1b is highly conserved across species, as reflected by the large cluster size (see table 2), making it difficult to assign to specific taxonomic origin. the challenges of homology are well-known in this type of research, have previously been addressed by others (see buckley et al. 2009; 2010, 2014; van doorn et al. 2011), and are irrelevant to the proximate goals of our research; our successful identifications demonstrate that our experimentally-optimized method is applicable to archaeological proteins, that (some) proteins readily preserve under the contexts of our target study area (southwestern colorado) and that non-targeted methods can still be useful so long as issues of homology are considered. summary and conclusion we extracted and characterized proteins from zooarchaeological bone of known identity in order to verify an ability to classify ancient proteins using our non-targeted lc-ms approach. this approach had mainly been applied to artifact residues from tightly controlled cooking experiments (barker et al. 2012; stevens et al. 2010) or as identification of bone proteins from individual specimens (barker 2011; wolverton et al. 2014). our results indicate that our approach, which includes optimized extraction and solvent parameters from previous research (barker et al. 2012), leads to reliable identification of proteins when they are extracted from ancient bone. for example, we have been able to characterize multiple types of protein, including hemoglobin, and collagens (see also buckley and wadsworth 2014). taxonomic identifications vary according to the homology of the protein (how conserved it is across various biological taxa) and peptide sequences commonly recorded in databases (e.g., north american lagomorphs are identified as european hares and rabbits). our results add little to the growing literature on identification of collagen from bone via zooms; however, the merit of our results relates to the trajectory of method development in archaeological protein residue research in which this verification study is contextualized. the next phase of our research is to use the nontargeted approach employed in this study to analyze food and protein-mixture residues from pottery used in cooking experiments. in rare cases of exceptional residue abundance and preservation we expect that this non-targeted approach will aid in characterizing past dietary remains from cooking pottery. in most cases, however, we anticipate that dietary protein residues will occur in trace quantities due to the taphonomic processes (e.g., diagenesis) that occur when proteins are removed from their tissues of origin. another step forward will be to characterize commonly occurring protein residues from cooking experiments using the non-targeted approach employed here. this suite of commonly encountered proteins will be used to develop targeted lc-ms methods that are more sensitive and thus more likely to detect residues in trace quantities. the results presented here represent an important milestone, in that we can move forward along this research trajectory aware that this approach works well for identifying multiple types of ancient protein from bone. this process of method development has important implications for archaeological ethics; our research moves beyond the common archaeological practice of simply applying approaches from contemporary analytical chemistry to artifacts in hope of encountering preserved biomolecular residues. we do this through substantial efforts toward optimization and validation. such method development is expected in analytical chemistry and can only improve the potential for archaeological chemistry in the longterm. acknowledgments four anonymous reviewers provided detailed 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(2011), wolverton (2013), and wyndham et al. (2011) —prioritizes applied science, multidisciplinarity, respect for different knowledge systems, support of indigenous innovation, and cultural practices that increase the resilience of social-ecological systems. it also opens space for forward-looking approaches with a focus on problem-solving, guided by local values and different knowledge systems building upon earlier ideas promoted by posey et al. (1984) and beaucage and taller de tradición oral del cepec (1997). these approaches are biocultural, ecocultural, ecogastronomic, focal, and reciprocal because they recognize the linkages between landscape degradation, damage, and destruction of landscapes and the disappearance of values, knowledge, practices, and beliefs of landscape inhabitants (e.g., gavin et al. 2015; higgs 2003; janzen 1988; kimmerer 2011; martinez 2003; nabhan et al. 2010). notable for its absence within the proposal for an ethnobiology 5, is design, despite having a presence within anthropological responses to the representational crisis (rabinow et al. 2008). biocultural design (bd) is rooted in a perspective that local biological biocultural design: harvesting manomin with wabaseemoong independent nations valeria kuzivanova1* and iain j. davidson-hunt1 1natural resources institute, university of manitoba, winnipeg, manitoba, canada. *valeriakuzivanova@gmail.com abstract this essay describes how biocultural design (bd) was utilized to develop a manomin (wild rice, zizania palustris) harvest camp and the prospect of this approach to implement the principles reflected in recent calls for an ethnobiology 5. in this case, bd brought together knowledge, practices, and innovation within an intentional process of co-design to respond to the specific community aspirations of restoring relationships with manomin. the paper provides an overview of the benefits and challenges of using the practice of bd to re-establish wild rice harvesting. the information presented here is part of a larger initiative to restore manomin habitats, harvest practices, and consumption being undertaken by wabaseemoong independent nations, northwestern ontario, canada. received september 22, 2016 open access accepted january 8, 2017 doi 10.14237/ebl.8.1.2017.794 keywords biocultural restoration, wild rice, ethnobotany, anishinaabeg, canada copyright © 2017 by the author(s); licensee society of ethnobiology. this is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution-noncommercial 4.0 international public license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0), which permits non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. kuzivanova and davidson-hunt. 2017. ethnobiology letters 8(1):23–30 24 perspectives projects. tek also contributes to “intensely respectful emotional engagement with nature,” which is a prerequisite for long-term community involvement with biological materials (hunn 2014:148). moreover, tek includes processes of creativity and innovation as individuals navigate the contemporary environments of their lives, drawing upon their histories and cultural memories linking the past with possible futures (davidson-hunt 2003). bd is an incipient design practice. it will develop as it is applied in diverse contexts and through such application concepts, and methodologies will be refined as outcomes, benefits, and challenges are evaluated. in this case, bd provided an approach to support our community colleague who desired a reengagement with the practice of manomin (zizania palustris) harvesting by the anishinaabe (ojibway, ojibwa, saulteaux, chippewa) people of wabaseemoong independent nations, located in northwestern ontario, canada (figure 1). this community, like other anishinaabe communities of the boreal forest, has been harvesting wild rice as a dietary staple and a plant of spiritual, symbolic, and economic significance since before recorded time. in august or september, for several weeks, most community members moved to their wild rice camps for the harvest. then, they either processed—or finished—manomin to prepare it for consumption, or sold it green (unprocessed) to buyers. until the 1900s, anishinaabe harvesting and finishing had remained mostly subsistence-based and relatively stable. however, the twentieth century brought enormous ecological, socio-cultural, and economic changes that disrupted wild rice harvesting figure 1 geographic location of the wabaseemoong independent nations community. kuzivanova and davidson-hunt. 2017. ethnobiology letters 8(1):23–30 25 perspectives and decreased community involvement (kuzivanova 2016). residential schools where children lived separately from their families, the industrialization of wild rice production, the loss of land resulting from the establishment of whiteshell provincial park, and the introduction of welfare and other economic opportunities on reserve lands, disrupted the relationships wabaseemoong independent nations members had with manomin. wild rice habitats were negatively impacted by hydroelectric developments on the winnipeg river and its principal tributary, the english river, and an increase in hydroelectric power consumption. the disappearance of wild rice harvesting and finishing practices resulted in diminishing knowledge and a shift of values, especially the knowledge and values of the younger generation. this loss is one of the main grievances of wabaseemoong independent nations elders. biocultural design: an approach to biocultural restoration bd can be thought of as a problem-solving practice comprised of values that guide the selected methodologies. davidson-hunt et al. (2012) suggest that the design team should identify values that act as a set of guiding coordinates for the design process. they provide some general coordinates related to the composition of the design team and its operational principles, political support, and other key values. these guiding coordinates are not meant to be prescriptive, but rather provide the team with a way to ensure innovations are consistent with their values. they also allow opportunities for creativity to emerge from the participants, who work toward identifying activities to fulfill their aspirations. the first step undertaken in wabaseemoong independent nations was to form a design team made up of community members and co-led by v. kuzivanova and m. mcdonald, who was the initiator of the project in the community. then, the team identified the guiding coordinates for the project as shown in table 1. these coordinates drew upon the ideas from human-centered design (brown 2009; ideo 2009), capability sensitive design (oosterlaken 2009), and wild design that focuses specifically on biocultural restoration projects (higgs 2003; higgs and hobbs 2010). they also relied on local values, similarly to the values-focused approach described in reid et al. (2014). while we used bd as an overarching practice of innovation and problem solving, the specific methods—participant observation, interviews, and biophysical methods—allowed for the collection of data at the early stages of information gathering. this data was then utilized as part of design workshops to generate ideas and prototypes that responded to the initial aspiration of the project. biocultural restoration: outcomes besides the process of co-design itself, the main project outcomes referred to tek documentation, site selection, and the involvement of children and young people through the community school (see kuzivanova 2016 for details). the documentation of tek at the beginning of the project allowed for the description and comparison of the relationships between wabaseemoong independent nations members and manomin in the past and in the present, as well as identification of cultural and ecological historical reference conditions for the restoration process. the choice and documentation of the sites for restoration efforts was based on historical and biophysical data, as well as site accessibility. the school, as the main partner for the involvement of young people and children, incorporated knowledge about manomin in its formal and informal curricula. the inclusion of this culturally appropriate knowledge contributed not only to the establishment of the missing relationships between community members and wild rice, but also to ongoing efforts of school staff to implement approaches that can transform and decolonize their system of education. one of the end products of this project was a working prototype for a wild rice camp, which the project participants chose as the main platform for reestablishing relationships between community members and manomin due to its hands-on character and the direct involvement of participants. the wild rice camp took place in the wabaseemoong traditional land use area on september 15–18, 2014. its prototype extensively relied on community residents’ tek, included different traditional elements, took place at the selected site, and allowed for the participation of diverse community members: elders, social services department clients, teachers, and high school students. it also provided opportunities for visiting cultural sites, crossing old portages, and offering tobacco, which is a sacred gift traditionally used in ceremonies. overall, the camp contributed to restorying of the landscape through resurfacing memories that were shared by elders with the younger generations and re-encoding manomin values into the culture—an important process of biocultural restora kuzivanova and davidson-hunt. 2017. ethnobiology letters 8(1):23–30 26 perspectives ta b le 1 g u id in g co o rd in at es f o r th e w ab as ee m o o n g in d ep en d en t n ati o n s b io cu lt u ra l r es to ra ti o n p ro je ct . g u id in g co o rd in at e s ex p la n ati o n in t h e c o n te xt o f th is p ro je ct r e fe re n ce s d es ig n b ri ef a t th e st ar t o f th e p ro je ct a d e si gn b ri ef — a t w o -p ag e d o cu m en t p ro vi d ed b y a co m m u n it y re p re se n ta ti ve in n o ve m b er 2 0 1 3 — e st ab lis h ed t h e co n te xt o f th e s tu d y, p re lim in ar y re se ar ch o b je cti ve s, r es to ra ti o n o p ti o n s, a n d p o te n ti al f u tu re u se s o f m a n o m in . t h is d e si gn b ri e f fo llo w ed s ix m o n th s o f d is cu ss io n s b et w e en w ab as ee m o o n g in d ep en d e n t n ati o n s an d t h e u n iv e rs it y o f m an it o b a ab o u t p o te n ti al co lla b o ra ti ve w o rk . d av id so n -h u n t et a l. 2 0 1 2 th e m ai n t ea m a n d s u b te am s o f p ar ti ci p an ts w it h d iv er se sk ill s an d k n o w le d ge th e fi rs t d e si gn t e am w as e st ab lis h e d a t th e p re lim in ar y w o rk sh o p o n f eb ru ar y 2 0 1 4 . t h en , th ro u gh o u t th is p ro je ct , p ar ti ci p an ts w o rk ed in t e am s/ su b te am s an d p la ye d d iff er en t ro le s: te ac h er s fo cu se d o n t h e in vo lv em en t o f st u d e n ts ; w ild r ic e ca m p p ar ti ci p an ts t e st e d a n d p ro vi d ed a f ee d b ac k o n t h e p ro to ty p e f o r a w ild r ic e ca m p ; a d u lt s, e ld er s, a n d y o u n g p eo p le s h ar e d th ei r kn o w le d ge a n d p er sp ec ti ve s o n t h e re st o ra ti o n p ro ce ss . b ro w n 2 0 0 9 ; d av id so n -h u n t et a l. 2 0 1 2 v ar io u s fo rm s o f en ga ge m en t to r ec o n n e ct p e o p le w it h t h e ir la n d sc ap es c o m m u n it y re si d en ts t o o k p ar t in d iv er se a cti vi ti es , s u ch a s in te rv ie w s, w o rk sh o p s, e d u ca ti o n al ac ti vi ti es , a n d w ild r ic e ca m p — a f o u rd ay lo n g w ild r ic e h ar ve sti n g ev en t (f ig u re 2 ). m . m cd o n al d a n d t h e re se ar ch a ss is ta n t w e re a ls o c o m m u n it y lia is o n s an d h el p ed t ra n sc ri b e in te rv ie w s, tr ig ge r th e s n o w b al l s am p lin g p ro ce ss , p re p ar e w o rk sh o p s, c o n d u ct b io p h ys ic al s u rv ey s, a n d sp re ad t h e w o rd a b o u t ev en ts . h ig gs 2 0 0 3 ; h ig gs a n d h o b b s 2 0 1 0 sp ac es o f in sp ir ati o n , i d ea ti o n , an d im p le m en ta ti o n f ro m ga th er in g in si gh ts t o c re ati n g ac ti o n p la n s th e p ro je ct w en t fr o m a d es ig n b ri ef t o a p ro to ty p e f o r a w ild r ic e ca m p , t h e m ai n f u n cti o n al o u tc o m e o f th e p ro je ct . t h e d es ig n b ri e f w as t h e m ai n in sp ir ati o n t o o l. w it h in t h e s p ac e o f id ea ti o n , t h e p ar ti ci p an ts d o cu m en te d t ek , d e te rm in ed s it es f o r re st o ra ti o n e ff o rt s, id en ti fi e d p o ss ib ili ti es f o r th e sc h o o l i n vo lv em en t, a n d d e ve lo p e d a p ro to ty p e fo r a w ild r ic e c am p . w it h in t h e sp ac e o f im p le m en ta ti o n , t e ac h in g m at e ri al s w er e d e ve lo p e d f o r th e sc h o o l a n d a p ro to ty p e fo r a w ild r ic e ca m p w as t es te d . b ro w n 2 0 0 9 ; i d eo 2 0 0 9 m o vi n g fr o m d iv er ge n t th in kin g to c o n ve rg e n t th in ki n g d iv er se w ab as ee m o o n g in d ep en d e n t n ati o n s m em b er s w e re a sk e d v er y ge n e ra l q u e sti o n s o n th e re st o ra ti o n o p ti o n s in t h e d es ig n b ri ef a t th e b eg in n in g to c re at e ch o ic es . m an y o f th e in iti al re st o ra ti o n o p ti o n s, f o r in st an ce , c o n tr o lli n g w at e r le ve ls a n d u p gr ad in g ro ad s to r ic e fi el d s fe ll aw ay a s p e o p le r ea liz ed t h at p o ss ib ili ti es a lr ea d y e xi st e d t o h ar ve st r ic e w it h o u t in fr as tr u ct u re u p gr ad in g. b ro w n 2 0 0 9 ; d av id so n -h u n t et a l. 2 0 1 2 in te gr ati n g te k a n d w e st e rn sc ie n ce -b as ed k n o w le d ge b o th t ek a n d w e st e rn s ci en ce -b as ed k n o w le d ge w e re in co rp o ra te d in a ll p ro je ct p h as es a n d , th u s, b ro ad en e d t h e b io cu lt u ra l r es to ra ti o n p ro ce ss . h ig gs 2 0 0 3 ; h ig gs a n d h o b b s 2 0 1 0 p ro to ty p in g o f ev en t( s) /a cti vi ty (i es )/ p ro ce ss (e s) th e cu lm in ati o n o f th e id ea ti o n s ta ge a n d t h e w h o le p ro je ct w as a p ro to ty p e fo r a w ild r ic e ca m p — a d es ir ab le , f ea si b le , a n d v ia b le m o d e l t h at f u lfi lle d t h e p u rp o se s o f th e p ro je ct . b ro w n 2 0 0 9 ; i d eo 2 0 0 9 et h ic al e co lo gi ca l i n te rv en ti o n b as ed o n r es p ec t to e co sy ste m s th e si te c h o se n f o r fu rt h er r es to ra ti o n e ff o rt s an d f o r o rg an iz in g w ild r ic e ca m p s in 2 0 1 4 r eq u ir ed m in im al in te rv en ti o n e ff o rt s. t h e in iti al s it e su gg es te d in t h e d e si gn b ri ef w as d is m is se d d u e to t h e n e ce ss it y to r e p ai r th e c u lv er t st ru ct u re t o c o n tr o l w at e r le ve ls . h ig gs 2 0 0 3 ; h ig gs a n d h o b b s 2 0 1 0 fo cu s o n c ap ab ili ti es – o p p o rtu n iti es t h at a llo w p e o p le t o liv e th e ir li ve s in a v al u ab le m an n e r a ll co m m u n it y re si d en ts w er e gi ve n f re ed o m t o t ak e p ar t in t h e p ro je ct in g e n er al a n d t h e w ild ri ce c am p in p ar ti cu la r, a s w el l a s to s el l t h e ri ce t h e y h ar ve st ed o r ke e p it f o r p er so n al c o n su m p ti o n . t h e p ro je ct e xp an d ed p ar ti ci p an ts ’ c ap ab ili ti es a n d f o cu se d o n le ar n in g: a cq u is iti o n o f kn o w le d ge , s ki lls , n o rm s, a n d v al u es . o o st e rl ak e n 1 9 9 2 ; se n 1 9 9 9 kuzivanova and davidson-hunt. 2017. ethnobiology letters 8(1):23–30 27 perspectives tion (wabaseemoong wild rice project 2016). one of the elder male camp participants later explained the importance of this experience: we talked to each other… it’s like we lived in the past. we were kids again. we pictured our parents. i could visualize all the relatives from the community. i could see them and feel the connection… how empowering it is. it is really something. reflections on the approach: why biocultural design? a biocultural design approach links an established practice of design with the biological materials and capabilities available to communities to meet their aspirations. design practice has moved toward multidimensional approaches that recognize that many challenges do not have single solutions but rather are indeterminate and comprise holistic complexes of related elements, which require systemic thinking—known by some as wicked problems (buchanan 1992). bd incorporates such ideas from design but with a specific focus on how local biological materials can contribute to processes of innovation that systematically include ecological, economic, social, and cultural dimensions. we propose four benefits of using the bd approach for biocultural restoration projects: co-designing in a team, prototyping, the capability approach, and the action component, as well as one major challenge. first, bd is a process of co-design in a team, which means that the product, service, or the whole system is designed in collaboration with subteams of people who will use it in the future (burkett 2014). in the wabaseemoong independent nations case, design brought multi-aged community residents and university researchers together. the diverse knowledge, skills, and experience of community members and university researchers increased the amount of available expertise and the possibility of unforeseen outcomes. community elders were the main project guides who shared their knowledge about traditional manomin harvesting, finishing, and storage practices, identified the reasons for the disruption of these practices, informed the site selection process, showed how to make traditional equipment for the camp, and retold stories that were included in the educational process. community teachers shared ideas on how wild rice could be included in the curricula and organized high school students’ outing to the ricing site. young people, who were also viewed as knowledgeable individuals, reflected on the restoration process and the involvement of the students. the main challenge for the co-leads of the design team was to ensure that all points of view, opinions, ideas, and expertise were respected. respect, as one of the guiding coordinates of the design process, required the co-designers to actively ensure that diverse perspectives were stated and considered at the early workshops during the design and implementation of the manomin harvest camp and as part of the final evaluation. one more positive characteristic of design lies in the recognition that every idea generated is a potential prototype, which diversifies restoration projects and helps to avoid a rigid technocratic process. after the testing and improvement of prototypes, new prototypes emerge because prototyping inspires new ideas (brown 2009). as the first wild rice camp in 2014 was considered a prototype, it was adapted and improved in 2015 and 2016 based on the suggestions of the 2014 camp participants. in the future, this prototype may additionally be adapted and applied to other community initiatives targeted at self-determined development and cultural well-being through the awareness of the value of traditional foods, such as figure 2 i. fisher knocking manomin into the canoe, 2014. photo credit: valeria kuzivanova. kuzivanova and davidson-hunt. 2017. ethnobiology letters 8(1):23–30 28 perspectives wild game and blueberries. besides the wild rice camp, numerous other related prototypes were generated and implemented for educational programs and activities. some examples are educational posters for science and native language classes, elder-youth workshops, and a nine-minute video showing the whole process of ricing—wild rice harvesting and finishing—which can be found on the project facebook page (wabaseemoong wild rice project 2016). additionally, design is a re-affirming and capability-enhancing process. it identifies solutions that build upon existing capabilities (sensu sen 1999) rather than gaps between what is needed and existing capabilities (table 1). design also shifts the focus to appreciative inquiry, which considers people as having gifts and skills, treats organizations as capable, and focuses on the development of worthwhile ideas (burkett 2014). for example, the facilitation techniques used at the wabaseemoong independent nations design workshops were primarily targeted at setting goals and identifying advantages. as opposed to approaches that highlight what is missing, design expands capabilities and allows building confidence to incrementally address more challenging problems. another positive characteristic of bd is that it changes the dominant discourse of indigenous peoples as victims to one that can be constructed by participants themselves as doers. overall, design brings the needed action component to biocultural restoration and translates knowledge into practice by using applied research as part of the design process (higgs and hobbs 2010; wolverton 2013; wyndham et al. 2011). bd recognizes that cultural processes are the means by which knowledge becomes dynamic and meets contemporary needs by building upon the ecological and cultural endowments of people living upon the lands of their ancestors (davidson-hunt et al. 2012). a male elder and teacher from wabaseemoong independent nations powerfully expressed the idea of the dynamism of knowledge, which contributes to land stewardship: hopefully, in the future, students can go not just rice picking, but also participate in other activities and preserve wildlife because it involves everything: the water, the plants, the trees, all that is right there… that’s why we need to keep moving and protect this area … while bd can be used to recognize capabilities and catalyze action, it is an approach that requires time to realize the benefits, which is one of the main challenges. participation allowing for community ownership of project outcomes requires iterative cycles of visioning, gathering information, assessing potential opportunities, deciding upon pathways of action, and evaluating outcomes before implementing a solution. a young male teacher from outside the community, who also participated in the wild rice camp, pointed out this challenge: going back and ricing brought tears into the eyes of those who already have experience and memories… i feel that it hasn’t necessarily translated to the next generation yet. they don’t have this bank of memories and experiences to draw from … as this happens over years, you start to reclaim those experiences into the culture. that’s good and that’s momentum. the thing is just carrying forward this momentum to next year. the leadership provided by diverse community members allowed for such momentum. the camp was undertaken again in 2015 and 2016. conclusion ethnobiology 5 has opened a new space for the practice of ethnobiology. we offer this perspective piece not as a critique of ethnobiology 5 but as an addition of a practice that could provide a new approach for an ethnobiology of the contemporary. while still incipient as a practice, we suggest that design could infuse ethnobiology with a renewed vigor in supporting the co-production of knowledge about biological materials to respond to present challenges of indigenous and local communities. acknowledgments we would like to thank community members for their wisdom and hospitality. in spite of their sacred relationship to manomin, they accepted, trusted us, and allowed us to be involved. we would especially like to acknowledge marvin mcdonald, the main community research partner and the lead project co-designer, and his whole family, for being very supportive and caring in both professional and personal capacities. we also thank anonymous reviewers and the ebl editorial team for their constructive comments. this research became possible due to the financial support of the social sciences and humanities research council grants #890-2011-0113 and #435-2015-1478, pi davidson-hunt, the university of manitoba, and the kuzivanova and davidson-hunt. 2017. ethnobiology letters 8(1):23–30 29 perspectives government of manitoba. declarations permissions: research ethics and compliance approval certificate issued by the joint-faculty research ethics board (university of manitoba). sources of funding: social sciences and humanities research council grants #890-2011-0113 and #4352015-1478, pi davidson-hunt, the university of manitoba, and the government of manitoba. conflicts of interest: none declared. references cited apgar, j. m., j. m. ataria, and w. j. allen. 2011. managing beyond designations: supporting endogenous processes for nurturing biocultural development. international journal of heritage studies 17:555–570. doi:10.1080/13527258.2011.618250. beaucage, p., 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distortions in the final tale). polo was a talented observer, and his words about birds are worth repeating. above all, bird activities in central asia of that age meant falconry. among the “tartars,” for instance: “the women do the buying and selling, and whatever is necessary to provide for the husband and household; for the men all lead the life of gentlemen, troubling themselves about nothing but hunting and hawking, and looking after their goshawks and falcons…” (polo 1927:81). in shangdu, the summer capital that samuel taylor coleridge immortalized under the portuguese spelling of xanadu, there were “more than 200 gerfalcons [falco rusticolus] alone, without reckoning the other hawks” (polo 1927:94). when the emperor “goes thus a-fowling with his gerfalcons and other hawks, he is attended by full 10,000 men who are disposed in couples…. every man of them is provided with a whistle and hood, so as to be able to call in a hawk and hold it in his hand” (polo 1927:130). “there are also a great number of eagles, all broken to catch wolves, foxes, deer, and wild goats, and they do catch them in great numbers. but those especially that are trained to wolfthis paper introduces the ornithological world of the mongol empire. we have only a few sources for knowledge of mongol empire ethnoornithology, but fortunately they are revealing and interesting. they cover two areas: hunting, specifically falconry, and medicine. birds were used both to hunt and as game. when caught, they often became food, and were then evaluated in terms of the nutritional science of the age. significantly, these two fields—hunting and medicine—were not only fully scientific by the 13th century, but were subjects of major scholarly research and writing. presumably, farmers and country folk knew as much about wild and tame birds, including keeping fowl, but their knowledge is largely lost to us. marco polo and falcons let us begin, as students of medieval mongolia always seem to do, with marco polo. his travels through central asia and china are uniquely well recorded, but not unique; thousands of merchants thronged the silk routes of central asia in the mongol period. the mongol empire established peace throughout this vast realm. “indeed, it was said a virgin carrying a gold urn filled with jewels could walk from one end of the empire to another without being molested” (may 2012:109); a stock exaggeration, but indicating some real feeling about the time. birds of the mongol empire eugene n. anderson1* 1department of anthropology, university of california, riverside, usa. *eugene.anderson@ucr.edu abstract the mongol empire, the largest contiguous empire the world has ever known, had, among other things, a goodly number of falconers, poultry raisers, birdcatchers, cooks, and other experts on various aspects of birding. we have records of this, largely in the yinshan zhengyao, the court nutrition manual of the mongol empire in china (the yuan dynasty). it discusses in some detail 22 bird taxa, from swans to chickens. the huihui yaofang, a medical encyclopedia, lists ten taxa used medicinally. marco polo also made notes on mongol bird use. there are a few other records. this allows us to draw conclusions about mongol ornithology, which apparently was sophisticated and detailed. received june 6, 2016 open access accepted july 7, 2016 doi 10.14237/ebl.7.1.2016.715 keywords ethnoornithology, mongol empire, falconry, zoomedicine, medieval asia copyright © 2016 by the author(s); licensee society of ethnobiology. this is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution-noncommercial 4.0 international public license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0), which permits non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. anderson. 2016. ethnobiology letters 7(1):67–73 68 perspectives catching are very large and powerful birds, and no wolf is able to get away from them” (polo 1927:128). falconry with golden eagles (aquila chrysaetos) is still a fairly common practice in eastern mongolia and neighboring areas, largely among kirghiz and kazakhs. apparently the many other species of eagles found in that area are not used, since the goldens are in nature more specialized as large-mammal hunters. polo (1927:93) makes many other references to hawking and to game birds. for instance, at chagannor (white lake) in mongolia: “the…plains… abound with cranes, partridges, pheasants, and other game birds… there are five different kinds of cranes found in those tracts, as i shall tell you. first, there is one which is very big, and all over as black as a crow [hooded crane, grus monacha]; the second kind again is all white, and is the biggest of all; its wings are really beautiful, for they are adorned with round eyes like those of a peacock, but of a resplendent golden colour, whilst the head is red and black, on a white ground [japanese crane g. japonensis, the head pattern making the identification certain; probably including siberian crane, g. leucogeranus, but it does not have the head pattern]. the third kind is the same as ours [grus grus]. the fourth is a small kind, having at the ears beautiful long pendent feathers of red and black [demoiselle crane, grus virgo, an excellent description of a bird still common in mongolia]. the fifth kind is grey all over and of great size, with a handsome head, red and black [white-naped crane, g. vipio].” this description alone should clinch the certainty that marco polo did make his journey. no one who had not seen these cranes often could possibly describe them so well. the only problem is that the wings of the japanese crane do not have golden spots, but iron staining from the acid bog water on the breeding grounds can account for that. in that area was a valley where the mongols raised captive cators, defined as like great partridges. these were sandgrouse (syrrhaptes paradoxus), which are khata in arabic, that term being very widely used for them in central asia. polo has many other incidental notes on hawking and game birds, but nothing adds much more to the above accounts. he heard of, but did not visit, lands north of mongolia, including the merkit country where people ride on reindeer. still farther, there are “…the mountains…in which the peregrine falcons have their nests. and in those mountains it is so cold that you find neither man nor woman, nor beast nor bird, except one kind of bird called barguerlac, on which the falcons feed. they are as big as partridges, and have feet like those of parrots and a tail like a swallow’s, and are very strong in flight” (polo 1927:87–88). of course there were dozens of species of birds eaten by peregrines in northern siberia, so the barguerlac must remain unidentified. the emphasis on falconry in marco polo’s description of mongolian bird life reminds us that throughout eurasia hunting was not only an obsession of the nobles and a livelihood of the poor, but also a science. the distinguished mongolist thomas allsen has written a major book on the royal hunt (allsen 2001), showing that it was a way of showing power and might, as well as training for war (allsen 2006). the nobles maintained that it helped the peasants by eliminating wolves, bears, crop-eating herbivores, and other pests, but actually it deprived the peasants of game and above all of land. millions of acres in eurasia were tied up in hunting parks. china and mongolia eliminated these over time, to the benefit of farmers but the detriment of wildlife. friar william of rubruck in the mid-13th century also noted the falconry, but as a friar he was not concerned with it: “they have an abundance of gerfalcons… which they uniformly carry on the right hand” (rubruck 1990:85). falconry and the hunt in medieval europe falconry, and the ideal of the aristocrat as rider, hunter, and falconer, came to europe from central asia. it came above all with the huns, who famously harried the dying roman empire. they developed powerful states and ruled most of europe during the fall of the roman empire. the great germanic states such as visigothic spain and frankish france owe everything to hun conquests, organization, and intermarriage with germanic dynasties (kim 2016). falconry spread accordingly. after that, for the elite, hunting was life. an elizabethan english work, the institucion of a gentleman (anon, 1568, quoted almond 2003:33) puts it perfectly: “there is a saying among hunters that he cannot be a gentlemen [sic] which loveth not hawking and hunting, which i have heard old woodmen well allow as an approved sentence among them. the like saying is that he cannot be a gentleman which loveth not a dog.” certainly the mongols love their dogs, not just as hunters but, much more, as livestock and home anderson. 2016. ethnobiology letters 7(1):67–73 69 perspectives guardians. there is now a major movement in mongolia to maintain the breed of the beautiful and friendly (though protective) mongolian bankhar, a black-and-tan mastiff rather like a small bernese mountain dog and probably related to it (mongolian bankhar dog project). more to the point of the present paper, the level of scientific zoology that went into hunting seems absolutely incredible to anyone believing in the stereotypes of the “middle ages.” sadly, we have no major hunting texts from early mongolia or china. but in the west, some survive (e.g. edward of norwich 2005 [a reprint of a 1909 edition of a book from ca. 1410], based heavily on a french work by gaston phébus, count of foix, from the 1390s). by far the most ornithologically impressive is frederick ii of hohenstaufen’s de arte venandi cum avibus, translated as the art of falconry (hohenstaufen 1943). this amazing work, written around 1250, is still in print in various languages, and i have been told that it is still actually used by falconers as a working text. it involves serious, methodical science as good as a great deal of modern research. frederick tested theories, debunked old tales, and sought out information as a true scholar. he was not some isolated genius; his scientific work fits in with the aristotelian science that became popular in the middle east, and then in italy in the early 1200s. it is no accident that frederick was a close contemporary of genghis khan (1194–1250 and 1167–1227 respectively). one suspects that genghis could have written a similar book, had he ever had time to sit and write. frederick would have been the last to maintain he worked in isolation. he dedicated his book, significantly, to a neighboring muslim sultan who was also a scholar of falconry. in fact, the information came from all parts of eurasia. falconry linked the british isles and japan into one great information and trade network. gyrfalcons were particularly important as embodiments of contact. produced only in the arctic, they were traded everywhere, as marco polo’s account stated. the role of hunting and falconry in the development of science has never been adequately addressed (though see almond 2003). falconry became familiar enough that it entered the language in a metaphoric sense. a fairly common scam in old china, and still today, was for a man to promise a woman to a desperate wife-seeker for a fancy marriage fee. when the marriage fee forthcomes, the man and the woman disappear and are not seen again. he has flown her like a falcon (fang ying, “fly a hawk”) and she has returned to his hand (see sommer 2015:272–273). birds in mongol zoomedicine we now turn to the other great science of the medieval period: medicine. in china and mongolia, food was critically important and malnutrition frequent, and thus nutritional science was the most important branch of medicine. foods were evaluated according to their medicinal value. we thus have considerable information about the perceived medicinal values of birds. medicine had to be rational and scientific to have any value at all. in place of the preposterous nonsense found in popular accounts of the “middle ages,” we find throughout eurasia the dominance of the rational, enlightened, scholarly views of hippocrates and galen. they were not modern biomedicine, but they quite naturally evolved into it, because they were wholly naturalistic, thoughtful, and driven by careful observation under the guidance of theories that were progressively refined—in short, they were full-fledged science. they were not alone, however. they coexisted, and often blended, with many local traditions. some of these were rational and scientific; many were, instead, highly personalistic theories based on belief in spirits, witches, wizards, evil winds, and other supernaturals. in mongolia, hippocratic-galenic medicine from the west combined in the medieval period with chinese medicine coming from the east. both were informed by local mongolian practice, especially in the area of veterinary medicine and empirical zoology. we have about one-sixth of a huge medical encyclopedia, the “west asian medicine and formulary book” (huihui yaofang), surviving from this period (kong 1996; song 2000). what is left tells us nothing about how birds were used, but very fortunately it does include a list of the birds and other medical substances that were used. here is the list, as translated and identified by dr. paul buell, who has translated what survives of the book: the 19 birds mentioned in the huihui yaofang (from song 2000:112–113, translation in progress by paul buell and e. n. anderson), in order as in its table of contents (though there are, between “sandgrouse” and “peacock,” several miscellaneous non-avian animals): anderson. 2016. ethnobiology letters 7(1):67–73 70 perspectives  male chicken and female chicken  duck  pigeon  swallow  francolin  goose, unknown species  quail  sparrow  sand grouse  peacock  crane  swan  adjutant [leptoptilus javanicus in the arabic used, but here surely meaning a ciconia stork, which, unlike the adjutant, is native to central asia]  xunhu [to smoke + bird; unidentified]  lapwing, vanellus vanellus  ostrich  mūghāli, “shrew mouse,” presumably a kind of bat, since listed with birds, though “bat” is a separate category and put with the mammals  kite (or similar bird; general term)  vulture most of these are used today as strengthening or supplementing foods (bu pin) in chinese medicine. such foods are generally very high in protein and iron. while traditional chinese doctors did not know modern chemistry, they did know the presenting symptoms of malnutrition of all types, and were perfectly familiar with wasting and weakness caused by lack of meat and, above all, with the symptoms of anemia: pallor, weakness, easy tiring, and pale or thin blood, and so on. they knew from experience which foods treated these conditions best—those we would now identify as rich in protein and iron. among such foods, wild birds have pride of place. another and less biomedically confirmed characteristic of supplementing foods is that they should look weird or uncanny. if they were striking and impressive to mongol and chinese observers, the observers thought this meant that the foods in question had a great deal of powerful qi. qi basically means breath or air, but it is extended to mean the life force or life energy that animates us all (as in qigong and similar phrases). if an animal, plant, or even rock looks very striking and weird to a human, that means that the qi that animates it is particularly forceful and effective. thus, big, powerful, strange-looking birds like cranes and vultures were considered to be very high in qi, and thus effective at supplementing the qi of the eater. the birds in the list above are all of the sort now regarded as supplementing, and most are in current use as such; all are high in protein and iron, and the stork, ostrich, vulture, and kite are strange enough to be regarded as rich in the uncanny, spiritdense qi that is associated with weirdness and is believed to be very strengthening. in hong kong in the long-ago 1960s and 1970s, i have seen kites and vultures sold in medicine markets for exactly that reason. the other revealing text from the period is the yinshan zhengyao, or “important knowledge for drinking and feasting” (buell et al. 2012). this was the court nutrition manual, edited by the court’s head nutritionist, hu sihui, a turkic-speaker from west china. the book was published in 1330, about the same time as the huihui yaofang. a large part of it is given over to descriptions of the medicinal value of the foods and herbs it mentions. the birds mentioned in the yinshan zhengyao are under 24 taxa, each with a short description of its medical or nutraceutical value. only eight of these are shared with the huihui yaofang list; the other 11 in that book are strictly medicinal, whereas the yinshan zhengyao is a book about foods. here is the yinshan zhengyao list (summarized from buell et al. 2012):  greater golden-headed wildgoose (whooper swan, cygnus cygnus; the golden head is due to iron staining from iron mobilized by acids in the boggy lakes loved by these birds; it is a familiar sight to american swan-watchers)  lesser golden-headed wildgoose (tundra swan, cygnus columbianus)  mute swan (cygnus olor)  variegated swan (immature mute swan)  chinese domestic goose (the oriental swangoose, anser cygnoides)  wildgoose (anser spp.; “wildgoose” is one word and character in chinese, not cognate with or related to the word for the tame goose)  white crane (grus japonicus, again probably including g. leucogeranus) anderson. 2016. ethnobiology letters 7(1):67–73 71 perspectives  black-headed crane (grus nigocollis)  iranian crane (grus grus)  eurasian curlew (shuija, identified today as numenius arquata, but, from the illustration, evidently including other shorebirds and probably a general term for shorebirds)  chicken (gallus gallus / gallus domesticus; includes “food fowl” and “eared fowl”)  pheasant (“wild chicken,” phasianus spp.)  “mountain chicken” (uncertain; name is a general one for many game birds; illustration shows something that could be a koklass pheasant, pucrasia macrolopha, or a hazel hen tetrastes bonasia, or something similar.  mallard (anas platyrhynchos)  pintail (anas acuta)  mandarin duck (aix sponsa)  tufted duck (aythya fuligula)  pigeon (columba livia)  dove (streptopelia spp.)  great bustard (otis tarda)  collared crow (corvus torquatus)  common quail (coturnix coturnix)  sparrow (passer montanus and probably any similarsized bird)  bunting (emberiza spp.) birds were evaluated in terms of the heating/ cooling medical system, identified with hippocraticgalenic medicine in the west and with the yin-yang system in the east; the two traditions had fused in china by this time. hippocratic-galenic medicine reached china by the a.d. 500s, and under the mongols it was so well known that the abovementioned huihui yaofang actually claims (wrongly) that some of its formulas come from galen himself. birds that are heating are those that provide a lot of calories (body heat), or appear as if they should. cooling birds are those that are small or lean and provide little caloric energy. often, external signs were used, leading sometimes to wrong conclusions. for instance, spiciness or “hot” colors were taken to mean a food was heating; bland, “cool colored” foods were cooling. here is one of the fuller descriptions, the text on the swangoose: “oriental swangoose [meat] is sweetish in flavor, neutral [neither hot nor cold], and lacks poison. it benefits the five viscera. it is good for diabetes. meng shen says: ‘the meat is chilling in nature. a lot should not be eaten. it causes obstinate illnesses.’ the rihuazi says: ‘the green oriental swangoose: it is chilling in nature and has poison. if eaten it causes sores. the white swangoose lacks poison. its [meat] counteracts the heat of the five viscera and stops thirst.’ [its] fat makes the skin sleek and is good for regulating deafness. [its] droppings supplement the five viscera and augment qi. if one has an obstinate illness, too much should not be eaten” (buell et al. 2012:515). another good description is of pheasant meat. it “is sweetish-sour in flavor, slightly cooling, and has a small amount of poison. it is good for supplementing the center and augments qi. it controls leaking diarrhea. if eaten for a long time it causes emaciation. if eaten from the ninth to the eleventh lunar months it will augment slightly. if eaten during other months it causes one to suffer from the five hemorrhoids and various sores. it also cannot be eaten with walnuts, agaricus mushrooms, and tree ears” (buell et al. 2012:518). pheasant is still considered a supplementing, augmenting food. the references to poison are not to toxin; some bird meats are believed to potentiate or bring out any poisons already in the system, and thus “have poison” in an indirect sense. as the great li shizhen says of goose: “i have witnessed cases of toxins being activated by the eating of goose meat” (shizhen 2003:3725). i have very often encountered this belief today; people with cancer, for instance, avoid eating birds that “have poison,” not because the birds are poisonous themselves but because they would somehow activate the cancer. people did not bother to avoid these nontoxic but poison-potentiating birds unless they had cancer or similar chronic conditions. as is very often the case, doctors disagree about the qualities of foods, including most details about the goose; modern sources are even more varied. most seem to agree that pheasants are cooling and have some poison (shizhen 2003:3780–3783). mandarin duck also has some poison-potentiating capability, as does “mountain chicken.” the other birds lack poison—interesting in view of the modern belief that roosters are the most poison-potentiating of all foods. the birds that are heating or warming are swan, crane, black chicken, “mountain chicken,” quail, sparrow, and bunting. anderson. 2016. ethnobiology letters 7(1):67–73 72 perspectives neutral meats are swangoose, wildgoose, shorebirds, chicken except for black ones, mandarin duck, tufted duck, pigeon, dove, and bustard. cooling are pheasant and duck (domestic duck is downright chilling). it can be safely assumed that farmers, herders, and country folk in general, in old mongolia and china, knew far more. we have enough literary records to make it clear that they knew the species very clearly, with, usually, migration seasons, nesting data, conservation, uses (medicinal and otherwise), and all the other lore that rural people know about birds. contemporary ethnography confirms this, if one can back-project modern knowledge, but there has been a surprising lack of ethnozoological work in northeast asia (though see roux [1966]; a few other sources, notably arseniev [1996], have appreciable but scattered data). unfortunately, we have very little record of this. country folk could not write, and aristocrats rarely did. arab and persian writers produced books on hunting and hawking, but these are not translated. medicinal works add surprisingly little about birds to what is summarized above, though they have incredible amounts of data on herbs. only the paintings and poetic accounts of birds survive to tantalize us. paintings from china, japan, central asia and persia in the mongol period and for a few centuries after are often extremely exact ornithologically, making identification easy. arthur de carle sowerby (1940) recorded over 55 species he identified in chinese art, many of them well known in paintings and carvings by mongol times. they fall into several wellrepresented categories: birds of prey, storks, cranes, herons, and pheasants. dooryard birds like sparrows, mynas, and magpies are also common. the earlier paintings show clear direct observation—they were painted from life, or copied from paintings taken from life. alas, after 1700 the bird paintings rapidly become less accurate, especially in urban areas— making it sadly clear that china’s environmental decline had by then reached a point at which few artists knew their birds from direct field observation. conclusions on mongolian-bird relationships finally, the mongolian attitude toward birds deserves to be noted. a scottish missionary, james gilmour (1970:217), observed, “not only do their cattle and flocks receive expressions of sympathy in suffering, and such alleviation of pain as their owner knows how to give; but even the meanest creatures, insects and reptiles included, are treated with consideration. one of the best proofs…is the tameness of the birds… crows perch themselves on the top of loaded camels… hawks [black kites] sweep down in the market-place at urga, and snatch eatables from the hands of the unwary…and swallows, year after year, build their nests and rear their young inside the very tents of the mongols.” he adds that he discussed with a lama the fact that the swallows nesting in the latter’s ger live by taking the lives of flies, and the lama replied: “they have no udders, they have nothing but flies to feed their young on, and what can they do? hoarhe [alas!], dear little creatures” (gilmour 1970: 265). the respect and compassion exhibited here fit perfectly with what i observed in mongolia, and i quote it from another source partly to deflect any fears that i might be romanticizing; gilmour hated buddhism and animism and had no sympathy with their religious preference for not taking life. the conclusion is that we have seriously misjudged and underestimated medieval science. falconry and medicine were particularly well developed. falconry, and ornithology, remain strikingly close to frederick’s aristotelian approach. medicine has changed its paradigm since then, with the discovery of microbes in the 19th century, but galenic medicine is still very much alive. it is not only a folk tradition; it has become embodied in modern biomedicine through its relentlessly secular, rational approach and its concern with diet, exercise, rest, and maintaining a good mood. these sources i quote are the tiny tips of huge icebergs—the vast masses of empirical, constantly tested, experience-based, but often well theorized lore known to those who worked with hawks, hounds, herds, harts, hinds, and households, to say nothing of those who worked with fields, farms, foods, forests, and fresh waters, and those who worked with medicine, health, and healing. they kept alive the empirical and experimental approach that developed into modern science after aristotlean methods spread widely in the 1100s and 1200s. we are in their debt every minute of our lives, but we almost never know their names. i have quoted before, and will surely quote many times again, the passage from ecclesiasticus: “let us now praise famous men… and some there be, which have no memorial; who are perished, as though they had never anderson. 2016. ethnobiology letters 7(1):67–73 73 perspectives been; and are become as though they had never been born; and their children after them. but these were merciful men, whose righteousness hath not been forgotten… their seed shall remain for ever, and their glory shall not be blotted out.” ecclesiasticus 44:1, 8–13 appendix this is not to say that medieval zoology was all aristotelian science. far from it. sadly typical of the other extreme of mongol, and medieval, zoology is a story told to a european envoy to the mongols, giovanni di plano carpini. he was told that the mongols once found a land with monstrous women and no visible men, because “whoever was born female had a human form, while the males had a dog’s shape. when the tartars prolonged their stay in this country, dogs in another part of a river gathered in one place, and even though it was a very cold winter they all threw themselves into the water. after this they rolled uncontrollably in the dust so that the dust mixed with the water and froze onto them. they would do this repeatedly so the ice formed over them densely and then they attacked the tartars fiercely. when the tartars shot arrows at them it was as if they shot against rocks: the arrows rebounded and in fact their other weapons could do them no damage either. the dogs however did the tartars great harm and injured and killed many with bites and thus drove them from their borders…” (plano carpini 1996:61). plano carpini makes no secret of his skepticism about this. clearly, travelers’ tales, then as now, were not influenced by aristotle’s teachings on scientific accuracy. i have heard many equally fanciful stories all over the world, so let no one think that this sort of tall tale was peculiar to the middle ages. acknowledgements thanks very much to the ebl editorial team for careful editing. references cited allsen, t. 2001. culture and conquest in mongol eurasia. cambridge university press, cambridge, ma. allsen, t. 2006. the royal hunt in eurasian history. university of pennsylvania press, philadelphia. almond, r. 2003. medieval hunting. sutton publishing, gloucestershire. arseniev, v. k. 1996. dersu the trapper (dersu uzala). malcolm bur, trans. mcpherson and co, kingston, ny. buell, p. d., e. n. anderson, c. perry. 2012. a soup for the qan, 2nd edition. brill, lieden. gilmour, j. 1970. among the mongols. praeger, new york. hohenstaufen, f. 1943. the art of falconry. casey a. wood and f. marjorie fyfe, trans. stanford university press, stanford, ca. kim, h. j. 2016. the huns. routledge, london. kong, y. c., ed. 1996. huihui yaofang. china publishing house, hong kong. may, t. 2012. the mongol conquests in world history. reaktion books, london. mongolian bankhar dog project. available at: http:// bankhar.org. accessed on 9/2/2016. norwich, e. 2005. the master of game, edited by william a. baillie-grohman and f. n. bailliegrohman. university of pennsylvania press, philadelphia. plano carpini, g. 1996. the story of the mongols whom we call the tartars. erik hildinger, trans. branden, boston, ma. polo, m. 1927. the book of ser marco polo the venetian, edited by george parks. henry yule, trans. macmillan, new york. roux, j. 1966. faune et flore sacrées dans les sociétés altaïques. a. maisonneuve, paris. rubruck, w. 1990. the mission of friar william of rubruck. peter jackson, trans. hakluyt society, london. shizhen, l. 2003. compendium of materia medica (bencao gangmu). luo xiwen and the committee for the editing and publication of the english edition of compendium of materia medica, trans. foreign languages press, beijing. sommer, m. 2015. polyandry and wife-selling in qing dynasty china. university of california press, berkeley. song, x., ed. 2000. huihui yaofang kanshi (a critical translation of the muslim materia medica). zhonghua shuju, beijing. sowerby, arthur de carle. 1940. nature in chinese art. john day, new york. secwépemc people, land, and laws. by marianne ignace and ronald e. ignace. foreword by bonnie leonard. 2017. mcgill-queen’s university press, montreal and kingston, canada. 588 pp. anderson. 2018. ethnobiology letters 9(2):166–168 166 reviews perspectives from gene anderson’s bookshelf enough like “shuswap”—leaving off the ending -emc, “people”—to explain the alternative name. secwép comes from cwep, “spread out” (as explained on p. 121). an important feature of the book is the many long accounts and stories provided by elders, in the secwépemc language, with translations. these greatly increase the value of the work. the book begins with mythic beginnings, then moves to archaeology (with mike rousseau). a great deal of research is now available, showing long, steady development of technologically more complex cultures without dramatic changes. salish speakers may have moved in from the coast about 5,000 years ago. there is then a very detailed account of the language. secwépemctsín is one of the interior salish languages, members of a language family that dominates southern british columbia and western washington. it broke up into component languages over 5,000 years ago, with interior salish taking shape by 4,500 years past and secwépemctsín separating from its neighbors about 2,000 years back. their following chapters are on land use and management, transportation, and sense of place. the secwépemc, like other northwest coast peoples, managed the land intensively, taking care of resources. roots were harvested in such manner that the roots multiplied instead of being depleted. root and berry management was, in effect, cultivation. fire was carefully and strategically used to keep root and berry areas clear. fish were allowed to escape in numbers great enough to assure return. the fraser river sockeye runs in the early twentieth century were as secwépemc people, land, and laws continues the tradition of monumental ethnographies that characterizes the north american northwest. franz boas, his native consultants such as george hunt and william beynon, and his students and co-workers including john swanton, james teit, and edward sapir, produced major early works. more recent landmarks include eugene hunn and james selam’s (1990) n’chi-wana, the big river, nancy turner’s fivefoot shelf of books, and john alan ross’ (2011) the spokan indians. the northwest has seen a long succession of ethnographies that are not only comprehensive but are also innovative. moreover, they are based on particularly tight working relationships between ethnographers and native american consultants. sapir not only worked closely with tom sayach’apis, but wrote his biography (sapir 1922); partly in result, sayach’apis’ greatgranddaughter charlotte coté is now a respected professor of native american studies at the university of washington (see coté 1910). in the present case, the link led to marriage and to ron ignace’s subsequent phd. it also led to one of the best ethnographies in the anthropological field. the authors recount the story of the secwépemc, with help from many elders, and on some chapters from mike rousseau, nancy turner, and kenneth favrholdt. the secwépemc were previously known to canada as the shuswap. a recent video by ron ignace teaches hearers to pronounce the newer name as if spelled according to normal english rules, “sekweh-pemk,” but one traditional pronunciation sounds secwépemc people, land, and laws. by marianne ignace and ronald e. ignace. foreword by bonnie leonard. 2017. mcgill-queen’s university press, montreal and kingston, canada. 588 pp. eugene n. anderson1* 1department of anthropology, university of california, riverside, california, usa. *eugene.anderson@ucr.edu received august 7, 2018 open access accepted august 16, 2018 doi 10.14237/ebl.9.2.2018.1380 copyright © 2018 by the author(s) licensee society of ethnobiology. this is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution-noncommercial 4.0 international public license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0), which permits non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. anderson. 2018. ethnobiology letters 9(2):166–168 167 reviews perspectives from gene anderson’s bookshelf high as 160 million fish (footnote, p. 514); compare that with the dismal situation today. the largest run in recent years was 20 million in 2014 (lazaruk 2018). the worst was a miserable 853,000 in 2016. warming of the fraser river may kill most of the large run coming home in 2018 (johnson 2018). game was not overhunted; the effects of overhunting were well known. as elsewhere, myths, folktales, reminiscences, prayers, songs, and personal stories were used to teach and support the ideology of taking care of the people’s life sources. further chapters explain kinship, authority, boundaries, lands, and neighbors. the secwépemc had a well-defined land base, with known boundaries, but within it the various bands or local communities had a more fluid and negotiable tenure. secwépemc land belonged to the secwépemc as a whole, and theoretically anyone could fish, hunt, gather, and travel anywhere, though bands had some authority over their key resources. chapter 11 discusses the old religion and its survival through reinterpretation and fusion with christianity. traditional powers such as healing are slow to fade. beliefs in transformers, spirit sites and powers, and transformative events attenuate gradually. subsequent chapters describe the mounting disasters attendant on white settler invasion. lands were appropriated till there is almost nothing left. resources were destroyed. finally came the horrors of compulsory residential school attendance in the midtwentieth century, with its legacy of language and culture loss and appalling personal abuses. the authors are too merciful to go into details on this latter problem or on its effects. i shall respect their silence; most readers of this review will have some sense of the results of what we now recognize as a genocidal fascist policy. the secwépemc had their own ways of commenting. on pages 481–489, the ignaces recount several stories that gently but pointedly satirize the settler world and cut it down to size. the stories are largely adaptations of old forms of critical narration. the most interesting is a fusion of secwépemc folklore with a “jack tale.” jack tales are a widespread genre of folk fiction in which poor but clever jack wins the king’s daughter, usually by managing to perform three tasks that the king sets him, sure that jack will not accomplish it, but the king’s daughter falls in love with the lowly but clever lad and helps him win. these stories are french in origin (“jack” was originally jacques), though common in angloamerican folklore, and i suppose the secwépemc learned them from french-canadians. in the case related here, it is not jack but the secwépemc culture hero tllí7sa who gets the better of the “great chief red-cap” (a metaphor of the english). the story is a masterpiece of cultural fusion—secwépemc setting, french-originated tale. the last chapters are more hopeful, chronicling the indian rights movement among the secwépemc and the new plans for the future. the ignaces are modestly quiet about their enormous accomplishments in teaching the language to new generations and establishing a secwépemc museum and garden. their work in the cause of preserving and propagating secwépemc culture has been tireless, effective, and heroic. it deserves full recognition. this book is only the latest in a long series of major triumphs in the realm of cultural protection. they have also worked hard, along with thousands of other first nations people, to get land title recognized and get some return of land to groups callously robbed—whether at gun point or in law offices—by too many of the settlers. many of their calls for fairness echo those of james teit a century ago (see thompson 2007); depressingly, the land tenure situation has not greatly improved since his time. this ethnography is a full account of secwépemc life and culture, destined to become a classic in northwest coast studies. it is also a long and detailed demonstration of the value of secwépemc culture and the need to preserve that culture and the land and resource base that sustains it. references cited coté, c. 2010. spirits of our whaling ancestors: revitalizing makah and nuu-chah-nulth traditions. university of washington press, seattle, wa. hunn, e., and j. selam. 1990. nch’i-wana, the big river. university of washington press, seattle, wa. johnson, l. 2018. fraser river is now so warm it may kill migrating sockeye salmon [web page]. cbc news. available at: https://www.cbc.ca/news/ canada/british-columbia/sockeye-salmon-watertemperature-1.4771607. accessed on august 3, 2018. lazaruk, s. 2018. fraser river sockeye salmon fishing bonanza to start next week [web page]. vancouver sun. available at: https:// anderson. 2018. ethnobiology letters 9(2):166–168 168 reviews perspectives from gene anderson’s bookshelf vancouversun.com/news/local-news/fraser-riversockeye-salmon-fishing-bonanza-to-start-next-week. accessed on august 3, 2018. ross, j. a. 2011. the spokan indians. michael j. ross, spokane, wa. sapir, e. 1922. sayach’apis, a nootka trader. in american indian life, edited by e. c. parsons, pp. 297 –323. b. w. heubsch, new york. thompson, j. 2007. recording their story: james teit and the tahltan. canadian museum of civilization, ottawa, douglas and mcintyre, vancouver, and university of washington press, seattle, wa. what is your “phytolith load”? an examination of the potential for cross-contamination during phytolith extraction buffington et al. 2018. ethnobiology letters 9(2):65–74 65 research communications 2001). such contamination can risk misinterpretation of paleovegetation records, particularly when analyzing samples contemporaneous with the development of plant agricultural economies. phytolith analysis would benefit from a consensus on the potential for contamination during phytolith slide procedures. in this paper, we present the results of an experiment conducted to determine the rate of phytolith mobility in the laboratory during the mounting process (rosen and weiner 1994). we utilized twelve sediment-originating samples collected from multiple phases at an archaeological site— manayzah—dated to the early holocene (9000–7000 yrs bp) and another twelve samples from burned landscape surfaces spanning the early to middle holocene (7500–6000 yrs bp), all from the southern jol region of yemen (crassard et al. 2006; mccorriston et al. 2001). we utilized this subset due to the high volume and diversity of phytoliths recovered in other samples from these contexts introduction phytoliths—amorphous silica dioxide opal minerals formed in living plant cells, luminae, and intercellular spaces—are a useful proxy for reconstructing past ecologies and the development of landscapes, especially in terms of herbaceous taxa (piperno 2006). capable of producing localized signatures of past vegetative communities, phytoliths exhibit greater stability in sediments in comparison to other organic proxies such as pollen and starch grains. they exhibit little movement below the a horizon in a soil sequence and are durable to high thermal temperatures and acidic soil ph levels (fishkis et al. 2010a, 2010b; okamoto et al. 1957; rovner 1983). as such, they have been used to address a range of questions principally in archaeology, but also in paleontology, paleoecology, and geology (e.g., alexandre et al. 1997; gobetz and bozarth 2001; golyeva et al. 1995; rosen 1992). what is less studied is the threat posed by contamination during the extraction process itself in the laboratory (parr et al. what is your “phytolith load”? an examination of the potential for cross-contamination during phytolith extraction abigail buffington1*, andrew weiland1, julia arnold2, and drew arbogast3 1department of anthropology, the ohio state university, columbus oh, usa 2department of microbiology & department of molecular genetics, the ohio state university, columbus oh, usa 3department of ecology, evolution and organismal biology, the ohio state university, columbus, oh, usa. *buffington.27@osu.edu abstract phytoliths—amorphous opal silica bodies that form in living plant tissues—are assumed to be stable components of a soil matrix, minimally impacted by normal physical forces. this stability enables archaeologists to access an archive of prior vegetative landscapes when discrete horizons are recovered. however, there is a small chance of phytoliths moving in a laboratory setting via aeolian forces, especially after they have been isolated from other materials such as clay, organics, and carbonates, and when multiple samples are being processed simultaneously. as a result, an assessment of contamination risk on sample extraction is necessary for interpreting the results of phytolith analyses. we designed a study to test the potential for contamination on slides in two different locations of the phytolith laboratory. the results of our study inform how we can improve on phytolith processing protocols and analyses to reduce the potential effect of crosscontamination between samples. received june 22, 2017 open access accepted november 3, 2017 doi 10.14237/ebl.9.2.2018.955 keywords phytoliths, contamination, paleoethnobotany, sediment analysis copyright © 2018 by the author(s); licensee society of ethnobiology. this is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution-noncommercial 4.0 international public license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0), which permits non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. buffington et al. 2018. ethnobiology letters 9(2):65–74 66 research communications (buffington et al. 2017). first, we argue for the necessity of such a study based on a review of phytolith mobility research presented in previous analyses. next, we report the analyzed results of our experiment using univariate statistical methods, principally on the two variables: distance from the mounting locus and location of the process. last, we argue that risk of contamination in the laboratory may be significant to the interpretation of phytolith assemblages. the cleanliness of the laboratory may also be a crucial factor, and laboratories engaging in this research should conduct experiments following this protocol to determine their own contaminant threshold. literature review the phytolith record preserved in soil reflects the assemblage of local vegetation that once existed. a number of factors impact the integrity of these assemblages in the soil matrix: primarily, dust, as soils erode, and the process of extraction itself. while testing and documenting the effect of contamination on laboratory phytolith processing is rare in the literature, the possibility of such contamination occurring is mentioned in a number of phytolith studies (cabanes et al. 2011; horrocks 2005; lentfer & boyd 2001; parr 2002). this paper seeks to define a protocol for conducting contamination testing during the final phase of the extraction process, mounting, when phytoliths are isolated from other sediment components. phytolith mobility and taphonomy in soils after deposition, taphonomic processes affect the resulting sediment archive. while opal silica phytoliths feature a chemical bonding to surrounding sediments at the time of deposition, recent research has indicated there is low but consistent vertical mobility in soils (~40 cm depth) and horizontal mobility observable where fluvial forces (e.g., irrigation) are present (fishkis et al. 2010a, 2010b; madella and lancelotti 2012; piperno 2006). fishkis and colleagues (2010a, 2010b) found that the morphology and size of phytoliths can affect their translocation in soils (phytoliths with an aspect ratio >3 or an axis length of <7.5 μm increase with depth). therefore, we might expect smaller, squarer morphotypes to predominate in any contaminated slides. within soils, phytoliths do not necessarily remain in the same form as in their original deposition. opaline phytoliths are resistant to acid with ph > 3, but they are sensitive to alkaline sediments with ph ≥ 8, and may display dissolution pits and abrasion, which are fairly common in the sample set used in this analysis owing to the near uniformly calcareous bedrock (cabanes et al. 2011). re-absorption of phytoliths in silica gel formed by living roots commonly follows dissolution and abrasion previously described, especially in nonarchaeological samples where phytoliths provide a crucial source of silica for plants in soils. the risk of solubility is countered by quick burial of soils, as is the case with archaeological soils. aeolian forces and phytolith deposition phytoliths have been shown to be subject to movement by wind forces. this was first demonstrated in the 19th century when charles darwin collected dust captured by his sails on the beagle in 1833, and he and charles lyell sent sediment samples to c.g. ehrenburg to be examined (twiss 2001). opal phytoliths were identified in the dust along with pollen, spores, and diatoms, showing that phytoliths could be subject to aeolian forces (ehrenburg 1847). this effect is such that opal phytoliths have been found in ocean cores in the midatlantic ridge that originated from the savannah environs of africa (folger et al. 1967). phytoliths have also been found to move in higher concentrations during summer months when less moisture is present, although when anomalous winter storms like el niño take place, dust can also travel trans-continentally (twiss 2001). analysis of grass phytoliths from ocean cores near equatorial africa showed that the most abundant amount of phytoliths was found in the easternmost core, closest to the coast, demonstrating a gradient of the same forces with regularity (dieterhaas et al. 1973; parmenter and folger 1974). phytoliths are dispersed from sediments at an augmented rate by fire combustion. latorre and colleagues (2012) found that phytoliths are transported in aeolian deposits throughout the year in argentinian rangelands, with the highest concentration of phytoliths in the month when pasture burning occurs and precipitation is low. if phytoliths feature increased mobility on a macro scale while integrated in soils, phytoliths likely have increased mobility on a micro scale in the laboratory when isolated from other soil components and exposed to fume hood air circulation. objectives and hypotheses despite evidence of phytolith translocation, results of buffington et al. 2018. ethnobiology letters 9(2):65–74 67 research communications these studies are dependent on the assumption that the relative abundances of morphotypes are meaningful. diverse processes are utilized in the laboratory to extract the silica fraction from other soil components and this process theoretically should increase the rate of mobility of the silica particles, making them vulnerable to local aeolian forces or small amounts of spillage within the laboratory setting (madella et al. 1998; parr et al. 2002; rosen and weiner 1994). while investigation of phytolith laboratory contamination is infrequent (hart 2011; lentfer & boyd 1998), there are a number of contamination studies published on other plant proxies: starch grains and pollen. the recommendations prescribed by loy and barton (2006) are already implemented in our laboratory, with the exception of sterilizing implements post-use as phytoliths are not destroyed by heat and acid treatments as are starches. crowther and colleagues (2014) discussed the results of a thorough investigation into how to assess the starch contamination risk in a given laboratory and found that contamination must be monitored regularly. when multiple samples are being processed simultaneously the potential for intraor cross-study contamination could be significant; the purpose of this study is to explore and quantify this risk. this experiment will determine if contamination is (hypothesis 1 [h1]) present and (hypothesis 2 [h2]) if present, is recoverable during counting procedures (albert and weiner 2001). in the case that h2 is not rejected, a rate of contamination can be derived. if contamination is a result of aeolian forces, the fume hood should feature more phytoliths, and the distance from the locus of mounting should correlate with the number of phytoliths deposited. methods sampling the twelve phytolith samples used had been previously extracted from sediment and purified from clay, carbonates, and organics (rosen and weiner 1994). this extraction method involves separating 1 g (archaeological) or 5 g (paleoenvironmental) worth of sediment to the 0.25 µm size fraction in a sieve thoroughly cleaned with distilled water (milli-q type 1). hydrochloric acid (10%) is added to the sieved sediment in 50 ml tubes, followed by three rounds of centrifugation to remove carbonate material. when vials were exposed on the surface, they were covered with wax to prevent dispersion by aeolian forces. deflocculation follows with 15 ml of sodium hexametaphosphate applied to the remaining fraction in 600-ml vials. after drying, these samples were scraped and transferred to crucibles for charring at 500˚c in a muffle furnace for two hours. following charring, the fraction was added to 15-ml centrifuge tubes with 3 ml of sodium polytungstate. following heavy-liquid separation, samples were pipetted into 50 ml vials to dry. after drying and weighing the material in an analytical balance, the remainder was scraped into 1-dram vials. all siphoning was conducted with disposable glass pipettes. experiment design in this experiment, we aimed to test the effect of location and distance on risk of contamination. we tested 1) the analytical balance and 2) the fume hood (figure 1a–b) in the ohio state university department of anthropology near eastern archaeology and archaeobiology laboratory (neaal). distance was tested by placing blank slides at intervals of 15, 25, and 35 cm from the sample figure 1 a) balance setup and b) fume hood setup with xs marking the locations of contamination. the colors refer to the round number: red is round 1, blue is round 2, and green is round 3. buffington et al. 2018. ethnobiology letters 9(2):65–74 68 research communications (figure 1a–b) at both the balance and inside the fume hood, with one set of slides positioned at each distance to the right and left in each area. the maximum distance of 35 cm was chosen based on the dimensions of the fume hood and the balance counter. an additional slide was placed 5 cm behind the sample in both locations in order to test contamination at a closer range. the previously extracted samples were placed onto tared, blank slides and massed to approximately two milligrams of phytolith sediment. each slide containing a recorded mass of sediment was then mounted using six drops of entellan (fisher scientific rapid mount 500 ml) and mixed evenly with a toothpick. in our lab, we transfer entellan into smaller vials for use in mounting. a cover slip was placed on top of each slide and set aside to dry in the fume hood. after each archaeological sample was mounted, the blank contamination slides were then mounted following the same procedure but with two cover slips (one at either end of the slide) instead of one to ensure that any contamination on the slide was captured. this process was repeated three separate times using new slides directly from the package. furthermore, the test locations were thoroughly cleaned using distilled water and kimwipes (delicate task wipes 8400/cs) before and after each round, and individuals that prepared the slides wore a lab coat and latex gloves. following laurence and colleagues (2011), the general contamination in the lab was tested before and during the mounting process, when four slides with one milliliter of water each were placed in four corners of the laboratory within clean petri dishes; a single slide was placed inside the fume hood. each of these slides was left out in the laboratory for five hours which is concurrent with the maximum time required for mounting twelve samples. counting we used albert and weiner’s (2001) method for phytolith counting to determine if any crosscontamination was found while scanning transects, which were counted by column at 400x magnification. four transects were counted for each cover slip based on the previously determined average number of transects needed to count 300 single cells in manayzah samples. thus, eight transects in total were counted per slide for contamination slides. classification of phytolith morphotypes was conducted with the aid of the university of texas’ environmental archaeology laboratory reference slides and phytcore, a free open-source phytolith database. in order to quantify a standard contamination rate, we counted the twelve original manayzah samples in four random transects and calculated a value that accounts for the proportion of contamination in comparison to the total phytoliths that possibly could have resulted in contamination. this contamination rate is a percentage which takes the average number of the phytoliths per slide recovered from the contamination slides, adds this value to the average number of phytoliths per general contamination slide, and divides the sum by the figure 2 a) a cylindrical rod cell (likely indicative of cyperaeace) that was found on slide b35r b) a multicell that was found on slide 2f5b. scale bar equals 10 µm. buffington et al. 2018. ethnobiology letters 9(2):65–74 69 research communications average number of phytoliths from the mounted archaeological samples. results initial findings a total of 10 phytoliths were identified on eight out of 42 contamination slides while scanning randomized transects (average=0.238 phytoliths per slide). five slides were from the balance area and three from the fume hood area (figure 1a–b). every one phytolith occurrence on a slide when counting to 300 (in this experiment, four transects per cover slip) is extrapolated to account for 7.68 phytoliths if all 2304 fields were counted (x/300 * 2304); thus, each of the test slides with two cover slips could potentially have approximately 15.36 phytoliths. those 10 phytoliths on 8 slides may therefore represent 154 phytoliths in total. eight of the 10 phytoliths were identifiable to type. there were two cylindrical rods (figure 2a), two bulliforms, a single psilate long cell, a single sinuate long cell, a multicellular leaf/stem of a grass (figure 2b) and a mesophyll aggregate (madella et al. 2005). this pattern—the majority of phytoliths found having originated in herbaceous plants—fits the findings of the larger manayzah study. additionally, these slides reflected a d/p index (a ratio of scalloped types to poaceae types) in the same distribution: 0.260 for the mean of the larger study’s samples versus 0.125 for the contaminant slides; a chi-square test produced a pvalue of 0.666 (alexandre et al. 1997). this result confirms that the contamination slides represent the same population of vegetation as the larger study. as predicted, in the contaminated slides single cells were more common than multicellular types which also fits the results of the larger study: 0.25 (contamination study) vs. 0.237 (broader study) for the ratio of multicells to single cells with a chi-square test producing a 0.347 p-value. considering the small number of phytoliths discovered, we used the output of phytolith presence/absence as the dependent variable for our univariate statistical analyses described below. statistical analyses once we found support for h2, the alternative hypothesis that contaminant phytoliths were detectable through a standard counting protocol, we tested the significance of these results. our data were limited to 42 observations and were not normally distributed, limiting the number and types of tests we could perform. the observed data were separated into categorical variables of “location” and “distance” (table 1, figure 3a–b) in the statistics software spss 24. in this experiment, both variables category variable contaminated slides (n) phytoliths observed (n) mean number of phytoliths per slide location balance 5 7 0.33 fume hood 3 3 0.14 distance 5 cm 2 3 0.50 15 cm 1 1 0.08 25 cm 2 2 0.08 35 cm 3 4 0.25 round 1 6 8 0.57 2 1 1 0.07 3 1 1 0.07 side behind 2 3 0.50 left 4 5 0.17 right 2 2 0.11 table 1 summary of phytolith and slide data with respect to round, location, side, and distance. the number of contaminated slides, the number of phytoliths, and the mean number of phytoliths per slide are detailed with respect to variable. buffington et al. 2018. ethnobiology letters 9(2):65–74 70 research communications demonstrated patterned results when compared to the presence of phytoliths. however, a chi-square test of each variable produced p-values of 0.571 and 0.432, respectively, showing no statistical significance to these patterns. in contrast with our prediction, the mean number of phytoliths per slide by the balance was higher than the fume hood (p-value=0.251). in addition to the variables of location and distance related directly to our hypothesis, we tested other variables observed during the experiment. when considering distance (centimeters from the center of the mounting slide) as a variable, we also explored the effect of the direction of the slide location relative to the activity locus. the back slide may be favored for more contamination as they are nearest to the locus (5 cm) of mounting, but there are a smaller number of slides in this position (6 vs. 18 for the other positions), so contamination here is less likely. it is difficult to disentangle direction from distance in this experiment (figure 3b–c). regardless, when tested with a chi-square these patterns did not yield significant results (p-value=0.439). lastly, we considered the variable of “round,” as the first round featured eight phytoliths, while the second and third only featured one phytolith each. analysis of “round” and the presence of phytoliths produced a significant chi-square (p-value=0.021). during the first round a somewhat coagulated entellan mounting medium was utilized and may have played a role in the higher number of phytoliths (n=8) identified in this round versus the other two. general contamination the results of the four general contamination slides (1 ml water solution) yielded a single clearly identifiable phytolith: a monocot, multicell type (figure 4). this contaminant was recovered on the slide located in the corner nearest to the analytical balance where much of the isolated phytolith work is focused. otherwise, fibers and human hairs were the only other identified a b c d figure 3 mean amount of phytoliths with respect to a) location, b) distance, c) round, and d) direction/side. “round” is the only statistically significant variable (p-value=0.021). buffington et al. 2018. ethnobiology letters 9(2):65–74 71 research communications objects on these slides. this result suggests that while there is evidence of general phytolith presence in the environment of the laboratory outside of mounting processes, the incidence of this presence is exceedingly low. surprisingly, the slides laid out during the mounting process in the same locations as the general contamination test produced zero evidence of phytoliths. this result further suggests that while phytoliths are subject to aeolian force during the mounting process, the material resulting from general contamination outside of a short distance is very low in density. the lack of phytoliths recovered in the fume hood’s general contamination slides were particularly indicative of a finding that aeolian forces represent only a minimal force. contamination rate in order to factor in the risk of contamination in future analyses, we derived a standard value that utilizes the mean number of phytoliths per slide (mean per slide of the contaminated set + mean per slide of the general contamination set / mean mounted set per slide). the average number of phytoliths per contamination slide was 0.238 ± 0.082 per slide and 0.1 for the general contamination slides, whereas the average number of phytoliths for the mounted manayzah samples was 102.36 ± 12.46. the proportion of phytoliths resulting from contamination is thus 0.0033, which will be applied to future phytolith studies in the laboratory as a measure of material that may be a result of contamination. for example, at the rates of 300 single cells and 100 multicells as are commonly counted, this would equal about one phytolith per slide being of questionable origin (1.32). discussion phytoliths were recovered in visual scans and standard transect counts of slides, and are identifiable morphotypes. while contamination was recovered, the variables of location, side, and distance from the center point of the workspace were not correlated with contaminant phytolith density. we initially hypothesized that phytoliths may feature an enhanced aeolian sensitivity when isolated from other soil components in the laboratory (fishkis et al. 2010a; parr 2002). we suspected this would be heightened in the fume hood, where circulation of air is continuous and the slides are present for a longer period of time. our results demonstrate no significant patterning on the variable of location, related to neither presence of contamination nor number of phytoliths, indicating that these aeolian forces do not pose a significant threat to phytolith assemblage integrity. it also appears that human error in the mounting process cannot explain the presence of these phytoliths, either; when accounting for slide position—left, back, or right side of the work area—there were no significant patterns. each distance within each location featured at least one contaminated slide and the mean number of phytoliths is not significantly different between 5 cm and 35 cm distances (table 1). this result is dependent on the assumption that the source of contamination is the process of mounting rather than general contaminants in the laboratory. the presence of fibers, skin cells, and non-plant hairs suggest that contamination may have occurred due to contamination from the room’s environment in general. however, the results of the general phytolith presence test in the laboratory suggest that while there are phytoliths present in the general atmosphere they are too small in number (n=1) to explain the rate of contamination present on the experimental slides (n=8). supporting this hypothesis was the result that “round” demonstrated a significant chi-square for phytolith presence (p-value=0.021). the first round had more phytoliths (n=8) than the following two (n=1 in each). it is possible this is the result of the first round’s utilization of a mounting medium that was coagulated. this situation made mounting more difficult, and this may have resulted in enhanced figure 4 multicellular phytolith from one general contamination slide. scale bar equals 10 µm. buffington et al. 2018. ethnobiology letters 9(2):65–74 72 research communications contamination with phytoliths possibly being trapped in the material. if coagulated entellan remains an issue, then mounting this material alone could help determine if phytolith contamination is present within the entellan itself. the general airborne contaminant experiment demonstrated that while phytoliths are present in dust particles in the lab, the chance of these objects affecting phytolith counts are very low. in future studies, the use of a staining dye to distinguish between samples may provide further insight into whether the phytoliths come from crosssample contamination or from past studies conducted in the lab (fishkis et al. 2010a). this study utilized heterogeneous ancient sediments, the most common samples analyzed in this laboratory, but modern plant samples may reflect a narrower suite of possible morphotypes that could be a control for the resulting material collected (pers. comm., j. marston). it is also likely that reference material may feature higher deposition into the circulated air flow if these samples are treated by the dry-ashing method; we know combustion increases the release of phytoliths (latorre et al. 2012). these tests would allow us to achieve a better understanding of how phytoliths move and become archived in the laboratory. this study only tested the mounting step in the extraction process, although contamination may come into the sample at other steps, such as during the transfer to 15-ml centrifuge tubes for separation from the crucibles following oxidation. the rate of contamination our calculation derived (0.0033) provides us with a measure of potential for contamination during phytolith sample mounting: about one phytolith per slide when standard quantities are counted. we can use this value as a threshold at which evidence of potential domesticates or nonnative morphotypes can be measured against. we will also place a blank slide at the balance during future mounting to test the continued threat of contamination present in this location. while the measure itself is low, and the evidence of general phytolith content in the laboratory is lower still, we would recommend such an experiment being tested in each laboratory setting in order to assess the unique contamination risk present based on different protocols and different general cleanliness exhibited here. conclusion the goal of this study was to determine whether distance or location within work areas was more likely to correlate to higher phytolith mobility and cause problems of cross-contamination. while the finding of contamination in this study cannot be explained by distance or location alone, it is clear that within 35 cm a risk of cross-contamination is present and has the potential to affect phytolith counts and interpretation. the number of phytoliths recovered per slide was low. a maximum of two were found per slide, which represent up to 5.71 per cover slip area using our quantitative method (albert & weiner 2001). if these contaminants are morphotypes common to samples being analyzed from the same site, their presence is relatively inconsequential. for example, on a slide on which 300 single-cells are counted, containing 125 psilate long cells and 75 bulliforms, seven more of each morphotype would not greatly change interpretation of the assemblage. however, when processing samples from different archaeological sites or geographical regions, such a chance of contamination has the potential to affect ecological reconstruction or even vegetation history. the possibility of erroneously detecting the first domesticate in a region due to contamination between different temporal layers or geographical areas is of great concern. it is of utmost importance that thorough cleaning take place before and after weighing and mounting. we recommend that when conducting concurrent phytolith mounting processes a distance greater than 35 cm is utilized, temporal sequences are restricted, and samples from different regions are not processed simultaneously. due to the results of this study, this laboratory will hereto utilize a proportional measure (0.0033) as a phytolith threshold when encountering possible evidence of domesticates or unexpected foreign taxa. we propose that fellow phytolitherians conduct a similar preliminary test of the phytolith contamination vulnerability in their laboratory spaces. if rates derived are higher than one percent of the total phytoliths counted, we would suggest efforts are extended to reduce the effect of contamination (e.g., keep blank slides more than 35 cm away from the locus of mounting, regularly check dust input, move all soils to a different space). acknowledgements we would like to acknowledge the funding provided for this project’s laboratory space by the larsen research and travel grant in 2015 and the national science foundation dissertation improvement grant in 2016. we would like to acknowledge thomas c. buffington et al. 2018. ethnobiology letters 9(2):65–74 73 research communications hart, arlene rosen, and mark hubbe for sharing ideas and feedback in the development of this experiment’s research design and in testing its robustness. we would lastly like to thank joy mccorriston and kristen gremillion for supporting our research program in paleoethnobotany. declarations sources of funding: national science foundation doctoral dissertation improvement grant; larsen travel and research grant; alumni grants for graduate research and scholarship. references cited albert, r.m. and s. weiner. 2001. 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constructal theory ethnobiology letters. 2015. 6(1):80-88. doi: 10.14237/ebl.6.1.2015.420. 80 perspective scientists do not readily recognize the value of traditional knowledge is that traditional communities often package knowledge along with poetry, metaphor, art, religion, and all the wonders of the imagination (anderson 2013:48). interactions between indigenous peoples of the americas and western europeans have been described as “a war between those who think they belong to the world and those who think the world belongs to them” (bringhurst 2008:40). much of what is called western “science” might be more appropriately described as european ethnoscience (medin and bang 2014). i compare north american and australian indigenous ways of knowing concerning what constitutes a “living system” to two distinct approaches that emerged from but go largely unrecognized by western scholarly traditions. one, aristotle’s concept of the “soul” (as cited in leroi 2014), is a crucial taproot; the other, constructal theory, a recently proposed new law of thermodynamics (bejan and zane 2012), holds promise for important insights into reality is a single matter-energy undergoing phase transitions of various kinds… rocks and winds, germs and words, are all different manifestations of this dynamic material reality, or, in other words, they all represent the different ways in which this single matter-energy expresses itself (de landa 2000). even if it sometimes congeals into feldspar or amethyst, all rock is a flow. even if it sometimes congeals into an aphid or a dinosaur, all life is a flow (cohen 2010:62). ta panta rhei (all things flow) (simplicius, as cited in peters 1967:178). one issue arising frequently in ethnobiology is the tendency of western scholars to either misunderstand, or even reject knowledge traditions of indigenous peoples (anderson 1996, 2013; pierotti 2011). (p)art of the reason why western indigenous concepts of ‘living systems’: aristotelian ‘soul’ meets constructal theory raymond pierotti author address: department of ecology and evolutionary biology, university of kansas, lawrence, kansas 66045-2016, usa. email: pierotti@ku.edu received: january 28, 2015 volume: 6(1):80-88 published: august 14, 2015 © 2015 society of ethnobiology abstract: i examine similarities among the ways of thinking concerning the natural world of indigenous peoples of north america and australia and two aspects of western science from different historical periods. the first comparison is with constructal theory, a set of ideas and models recently developed to explain how ‘design’ arises in both biotic and abiotic systems. both traditions emphasize the importance of flow and motion and how these generate connections, not only within biotic systems, but also between biotic and abiotic phenomena. the second comparison goes back to the beginnings of the western scientific tradition, and involves the aristotelian concept of the ‘soul,’ an entity which is not considered to be supernatural, but more of an emergent property of living systems that also involves flow, especially of heat and air within living systems. both comparisons reveal that indigenous knowledge is thoroughly scientific, but not in the sense characterized by the baconian/cartesian tradition, which is more focused on mechanism and application to human affairs than to understanding how natural systems actually function. indigenous knowledge focuses more on relationships than on mechanisms, and thus is best compared to western scholarly traditions that also emphasize relationships and emergent properties. keywords: indigenous peoples, living systems, metaphysics, epistemology, aristotle, constructal theory, flow ethnobiology letters. 2015. 6(1):80-88. doi: 10.14237/ebl.6.1.2015.420. 81 perspective how nature functions. these concepts, although widely separated in time, converge on a view of living systems in which flows of energy, liquid, and heat, as well as any plastic phenomenon in open systems, generate a range of phenomena involving a sort of controlled entropy that generate structure and function at geological, meteorological, ecological, and physiological levels. these concepts are relevant to indigenous ways of knowing because one area of indigenous metaphysics regularly dismissed by western scholarship is that many indigenous peoples consider bodies of water, air (winds), and even stone to be “alive.” in the scientific view of western europeans, “living” systems are restricted to biological entities, i.e. plants, animals, fungi, protistans, bacteria, and perhaps viruses. i argue that this does not reveal a weakness on the part of indigenous knowledge traditions, but rather an overly restrictive concept of what “living” means in the western scientific tradition. in order to show this, i follow analytical techniques used to examine the scientific bases of indigenous ideas (anderson 1996:103-104): 1. look for practical information. 2. anything that does not look obviously practical and empirical should be analyzed to see if it is an ordinary, accurate observation described in a culturally unique way. … 3. [identify what are actually] empirical observations, confirmed by experience but explained by recourse to imaginary constructs. … 4. [consider if apparent] “errors” can be explained as logical deductions from known principles… 5. [recognize how] some counterfactual knowledge creeps into belief systems as the result of teaching devices [(e.g. stories) because the use of] myths and fables are great ways to teach morals [and ecological principles] to the young. … i begin by examining how some indigenous peoples consider abiotic factors (e.g. water, air, and rock) as ‘living’ especially when they are engaged in the process of “flow.” i then compare such concepts with ‘laws’ derived from constructal theory ‒ a theoretical and mathematical approach to understanding the nature of “life” and “living systems” ‒ and conclude by comparing aristotelian concepts to both constructal theory and indigenous beliefs. indigenous perspectives on abiotic entities there is evidence that many indigenous peoples have broader concepts of what constitutes a “living” entity than the standard western perspective, which limits such a definition solely to biological entities. for example, the traditional religion of the dine’ people places everything in an orderly and complex web of existence. every aspect has purpose and meaning. every effect has a cause and every cause has an effect. they see their world as bound by natural markers; all that exists within these boundaries is intimately related. “all life and geological formations are animated and connected by means of life giving holy winds. the same winds that bring life to humans give life to the four sacred mountains and surround each home site” (bitsuie 1995). the holy wind, like everything else in din’e bekeyah, obeys natural law (bitsuie 1995). wind existed first, as a person. when the earth began its existence, wind took care of it. wind exists beautifully, they say. back there in the underworlds, this was a person (grim 2015; mcneley 1981). stones are also abiotic entities to which some tribes attribute the status of “living.” one example is the relationship of the lakota people to stones, which comes from luther standing bear: “[m]an did not occupy a special place in the eyes of wakan tanka, the grandfather of us all…” (standing bear 1933, as cited in grim 2015). he refers to wakan tanka as tunkashila or grandfather. etymologically, tunkashila refers to rock, thus teaching about relatedness to all things is embedded in the lakota concept of rocks and stones as persons (grim 2015). this teaching is further reinforced by oral narratives, mythic cycles, which tell of the roles of stone in the emergence of the people and transformative life (grim 2015). in a similar fashion, laguna pueblo scholar leslie marmon silko writes, “rocks and clay are part of the mother … a rock has being or spirit, although we may not understand it” (silko 1996:27). for the cherokee people, the river, or “long man,” was always believed to be sacred. the practice of going to water for purification and other ceremonies was common. today the river or any other bodies of moving water, such as a creek, are considered sacred sites; going to water remains a respected ethnobiology letters. 2015. 6(1):80-88. doi: 10.14237/ebl.6.1.2015.420. 82 perspective practice by some cherokees (cherokee nation cultural resource center 2015). following this theme, the 2008 international indigenous water declaration states that, “we assert that water has a right to be recognized as an ecological entity, a being with a spirit and must be treated accordingly.” similarly, for canadian first nations, “water for aboriginal peoples is the basis of all life,” and “canada's aboriginal populations are profoundly linked to water and waterways for both physical and spiritual health” (government of canada 2010). such declarations demonstrate that recognition of abiotic entities as alive is a general concept, held by a wide range of indigenous nations. similar beliefs are found among australian indigenous peoples. “in indigenous (australian) belief systems, water is a(n)… elemental source and symbol of life” (langton 2009:45). people entering water, “[d]on’t swim in the middle—only at the end part, where it flows” (mowaljarlai 2001:80; emphasis added). spiritual traditions in relation to rock and land derive from a philosophy that establishes “interconnectedness of… animate and inanimate, whereby people, the plants and animals, landforms and celestial bodies are interrelated” (grieves 2008:364). aboriginal and torres strait islander people have spiritual connections to “land, sea, landforms, watercourses, [animals] and plant life, [which] exists through the law developed at the time of creation” (grieves 2008:369; parenthetical elements added); further, “[t]he law ensures that each person knows his or her relationships and responsibilities for other people (their kin), for country including water sources, landforms and species …” (grieves 2008:364). in particular, “the most highly sacred and dangerous are stones …held to be metamorphosed parts of the bodies on ancestral beings” (tonkinson 1978:106). song lines and the rainbow serpent, crucial aspects of australian aboriginal culture, are linked to flow, with the latter being associated with watercourses, rivers, and creeks (grieves 2008; rose 2000). clearly, there are many examples among indigenous peoples that indicate a more expansive view of what it is considered “living,” a perspective that can be accommodated within constructal theory. constructal theory: generation of shape and structure constructal theory (and law) was developed in the 1990’s to examine the question of “from what principle can geometric form be deduced?” (bejan 2000:1). similar structures such as “river basins and deltas, the air passages in our lungs, and lightning bolts” were traditionally regarded as random elements resembling one another because of coincidence (bejan and zane 2012:1-2). constructal law is needed because “the first two laws of thermodynamics do not account for nature completely” (bejan and zane 2012:19): nature is not made of black boxes. nature’s boxes are filled with configurations … [because] the second law commands that things should flow from high to low (energy states), the constructal law commands that they should flow in configurations that flow more … easily over time …if physics is to cover nature completely, it must be endowed with an additional first principle that accounts for the phenomenon of design generation and evolution everywhere and in everything. the constructal law is this new addition (bejan and zane 2012:19). constructal theory addresses three original topics within aristotelian metaphysics: the nature of being, first causes of things, and things that do not change (van inwegen and sullivan 2014). under constructal theory, geometric form is generated in natural systems that are internally “alive,” which emerges from flows and driving gradients, such as the physical phenomena temperature and pressure (bejan 2000; bejan and zane 2012). “living systems” resist entropy and are not in an internal state of equilibrium. the “living” world consists of limited numbers of shapes, such as branching “tree” networks, round cross sections, and inverse parabolas (i.e. cross sections of rivers, streams, and glaciers, which are everywhere). a single principle that accounts for them can be characterized as a “law” bridging the gap between physics and biology (bejan 2000:2). constructal law posits that for a finite-size flow system to persist (i.e. live) without attaining internal equilibrium (stasis = non-life), it must evolve in such a way that provides easiest access to internal flow. constructal theory holds that generation of design (pattern, rhythm) in nature is a phenomenon emerging from physics, and this phenomenon is covered by a principle (the constructal law): “everything that moves ethnobiology letters. 2015. 6(1):80-88. doi: 10.14237/ebl.6.1.2015.420. 83 perspective and morphs in order to flow and persist is alive” (bejan and zane 2012:155). the abiotic entities regarded as “alive” under indigenous traditions conform to the definition of life under constructal law. this is obvious for air and water, where constant flows and gradients of physical phenomena such as temperature and pressure generate the structure seen in river systems and weather patterns. even stone flows, especially in a molten state, or if it takes the form of flowstone, which are sheet-like deposits of calcite, a stable polymorph of calcium carbonate, formed where water flows down the walls or along the floors of caves (figure 1). indigenous peoples understand how some forms of stone generate geographic landforms from flowing materials. near grants, new mexico, lies el malpais national monument, a mass of rough and jumbled black rock, remaining from volcanic eruptions as recently as 500 ybp (mangum 1990). to local zuni, acoma, and dine’ peoples this area relates to creation stories of their peoples and they characterize this rock as “the coagulated blood of yé’iitsoh, a giant who terrorized people drinking from springs at the foot of tzoodził (mt. taylor)” (native(x) 2012). this metaphoric description of what is today hard, black stone as the coagulated version of flowing red substance suggests traditional knowledge experience of stone in a liquid, flowing state, illustrating points 2, 4, and 5 in the analytical technique described by anderson (1996:103-104), which describe how to deal with examples that seem contradictory to traditional western scientific approaches. a strength of constructal theory is that it negates the need to invoke random processes, such as fractal geometry, in the generation of structure and change within physical systems, because “chance and accident are the opposite of rationality … not knowledge, but figure 1. trail through lehman cave in great basin national park showing extensive flowstone formations. photo by national park service (public domain). ethnobiology letters. 2015. 6(1):80-88. doi: 10.14237/ebl.6.1.2015.420. 84 perspective an acknowledgment of its absence” (bejan and zane 2012:78). under constructal theory chance is regarded as a “code word for saying there is too much conflicting data, i.e. too many variables to make sense of the whole” (bejan and zane 2012:78). constructal law contends that despite the diversity in nature, everything involving movement concerns flow systems. given freedom, flow systems evolve over time to increase ease of movement; which accounts for patterns referred to as design (bejan and zane 2012:127). life conceived of as flow and movement generates “design,” which does not imply the presence of a “designer,” but instead emergent patterns or properties that follow similar rules to achieve similar patterns, which are “things that do not change” in the aristotelian sense (van inwegen and sullivan 2014). because patterns of flow follow the same rules does not mean they generate identical results. although constructal law focuses on construction and coalescence of entities into larger flow systems, each system shows individual differences. thus, “on the surface focus on differences makes sense …even if we look at single species we do not find two identical trees, branches, or even leaves” (bejan and zane 2012:128). thus, pattern generation under constructal law uses the same process to produce variable individuals. this perspective can be seen in indigenous thinking in the 1911 statement of okute, a teton lakota: animals and plants are taught by wakan tanka (the lakota creative force) what they are to do. wakan tanka teaches the birds to make nests, yet the nests of all birds are not alike. wakan tanka gives them merely the outline. some make better nests than others … some animals also take better care of their young than others... all birds, even those of the same species, are not alike … the reason wakan tanka does not make two birds, animals, or human beings exactly alike is because each is placed here to be an independent individual … i have observed leaves, trees, and grass, and i have never found two alike. they may have a general likeness, but on examination i have found that they differ slightly. it is the same with animals...with human beings …(mcluhan 1971:18). this same insight is described by bejan and zane (2012:152): “no two leaves on an oak are identical, but they perform similar functions as part of the same flow system … unique characters of individuals that compose a system are irrelevant to the character of the flow architecture.” all flow systems can be regarded as connected to and shaped by other flow systems. thus the constructal perspective involves synergistic networks moving liquids, heat, gases, or combinations thereof (e.g., from soil to atmosphere through trees) revealing that the biosphere, atmosphere, and hydrosphere are not separate entities, but interlocking systems that evolve design through this interaction (bejan and zane 2012:145). we see a very similar concept in the native american idea that “all things are connected” (pierotti 2011; pierotti and wildcat 2000). this relates in turn to the idea of winds and water being alive, as elements flowing through both abiotic and biotic environments. such flow systems generate only enough complexity for the size of the area involved, creating working architecture, in river systems, in canyons, also in vascular systems in plants and animals. if we examine how cellular, developmental processes generate body structures, we see that as bone grows, muscle tissue, nerve tissue, and blood vessels track the bone, supplying new cells with nutrients and stimulation (kirschner and gerhart 2005). anatomical structures show the same branching patterns of flow and movement seen in trees and in river drainages. thus all things are connected, and what connects them is flowing systems that emerge naturally to maximize efficient movement of nutrients, water, gases, and heat (bejan 2000). although constructal theory is relatively new to western science, it converges upon long held ideas, not only in many indigenous societies but in western systems of knowledge. the aristotelian concept of soul concepts involving life as defined through flow systems are evident in the beginnings of the western scientific tradition (leroi 2014). leroi is the first biologist to address the biologically scientific aspects of the aristotelian canon, demonstrating that according to aristotle, what distinguishes living forms from nonliving (abiotic) matter was presence of a “soul,” whose essence was based on metabolism and move ethnobiology letters. 2015. 6(1):80-88. doi: 10.14237/ebl.6.1.2015.420. 85 perspective ment, and constitutes the structural principle of the visible and material body of a plant or animal (including humans: bos 2003). for example, “since the soul is form, and in a sense immaterial … how can an immaterial soul effect, or in aristotle’s language, ‘move’ a material body? in fact it moves it through the agency of ‘organs’ or ‘instruments’ … the most important of (which) is the inborn pneuma” (rist 1985:35). pneuma, considered as slow fire involving the same chemical processes of oxidation, is the fifth element, after the basic four of water, earth, air, and fire. pneuma is also considered as the organon (instrumentation) of movement, the instrument that causes processes to start and stop in the bodily parts of a living creature, i.e. natural material instrumental for the soul to move the visible body (bos 2004). according to the aristotelian concepts of living systems, “all living things have an internal source of ‘vital heat’ … this internal fire, which is not the same as conventional fire, is sustained by nutrition. fire is always coming into being and flowing like a river” (leroi 2014:166). animals require ways to keep their “fires” under control, which involves flow of air through their systems, or pneuma (see above). aristotelian souls function as a set of interacting units, forming an integrated whole, involving negative feedback circuits (homeostasis). “[c]omponents come and go, therefore a key feature of living systems is how their components are connected together … interconnections between cells and cellular components define the essence of a living process” (leroi 2014:177). aristotelian systems function “… as a river, flowing up and down in a circle … partly of air and partly of water. by similar cause the winds blow as well—even the wind has a sort of lifespan” (leroi 2014:243). one source of difference between native american and western worldviews is that in the western tradition only humans possess souls (pierotti 2011). such thinking represents the legacy of baconian/cartesian thought, which underlies the positivist philosophical attitude towards science (leroi 2014), under which nonhumans lifeforms are considered to be machines and the primary way to understand life is to dismember (dissect) it and figure out the function of its parts (pierotti 2011). aristotle treats mental states (psyche) as physiological phenomena; therefore, the cartesian explanation of consciousness does not arise. aristotle’s work the soul is not a psychological treatise, but a statement about systems and control that enable life (bos 2003; leroi 2014:157). schrodinger defined life as a “system that feeds upon negative entropy” (leroi 2014), such an idea can allow us to link bejan’s constructal theory of “life” as a way of managing or counteracting entropy to create structure through a dynamic system. to aristotle, living things were “open systems” (cf. schrodinger’s negative entropy and bejan’s open systems): “we must understand [growing life forms] in terms of a constant flow of water. … this is how matter, of which flesh consists, grows: some is eroded in the flow and some arrives in addition” (leroi 2014:163; parentheses added, emphasis in the original). the preceding statement suggests that under aristotelian science there was no separation between mind and body. the three fundamental questions of philosophical thought (i.e. the nature of being, the first causes of things, and things that do not change) (van inwegen and sullivan 2014) generate the “soul” as an emergent property of the body whose existence ended at death (bos 2003; leroi 2014). in the seventeenth century metaphysics began to change from being a catch-all category for philosophical problems that could not be otherwise classified under epistemology, e.g. logic, ethics (van inwegen and sullivan 2014). the word “ontology” was invented to characterize the science of being as such, something the word “metaphysics” could no longer fill. philosophers began to distinguish “between “general metaphysics” (ontology), the study of being as such, and the various branches of “special metaphysics,” i.e. study of objects of special sorts, such as souls and material bodies” (van inwegen and sullivan 2014). this separation of the soul from the body, led to what we today identify as cartesian dualism. aristotle tried to convey that seasons, elements, even life itself, are all in some way unified, all are linked together in their coming to be and passing away (leroi 2014:244). aristotle understood that: 1) complex morphology and function require a primal source of order or information, i.e. consistent pattern formation, 2) these forms are dynamic, self-replicating systems, which 3) vary among kinds to yield diversity, and 4) exert power by modifying the flow of materials during development and in physiology (leroi 2014:299). this is comparable to indigenous ideas of connection, with wind (flowing air) being “alive,” and to constructal theory in which flow systems link together. ethnobiology letters. 2015. 6(1):80-88. doi: 10.14237/ebl.6.1.2015.420. 86 perspective aristotelian science was a primary casualty of the seventeenth century scientific revolution because of its synthetic perspective (leroi 2014:353). bacon was openly hostile to aristotle’s perspective. the baconian view was not to understand the world, but to change it; the proper object of study being the artificial rather than the natural. bacon considered aristotelian philosophy “barren for the production of works for the benefit of man” (leroi 2014; emphasis in the original). supporting such mechanistic approaches was descartes, who argued that nonhumans do not have souls, they are merely machines. descartes claimed that aristotle’s explanations are not merely wrong, but unscientific, based upon baconian logic that they are unmechanistic. aristotle was more sophisticated, less mechanistic, than bacon or descartes, because he saw that complex objects must be modeled on patterns found elsewhere, as in constructal theory and its comparison of the structure of circulatory and river systems. this is a crucial point: aristotelian concepts, constructal theory, and native american and australian indigenous knowledge do not recognize separation between mind (soul) and body. under such systems, metaphysics grades into epistemology [systems of knowledge, or “the study of how we know what we know” (medin and bang 2014:139)], indicated in the systems under discussion by shared emphasis on connection, both within biotic forms and between biotic and abiotic elements of ecosystems (pierotti 2011). in contrast, the baconian/cartesian tradition is founded upon the idea that the “soul” is immortal and only possessed by humans, setting up scientific traditions in which epistemology focuses on mechanism and human interests to the exclusion of all other forms of life—decoupling metaphysics from epistemology. today, we can recognize aristotle’s accomplishments, and his intentions, more clearly than previous ages because we have caught up with (rediscovered) him, as we are also discovering principles established by indigenous knowledge (pierotti 2011). a lesson every scientist knows or must learn is, “the practice of science demands a particular intimacy with the object of your investigations. you must know its form, its foibles … you must acquire a feeling for the organism. biologists must also have special places …for ideas do not come from nothing, they come from nature itself” (leroi 2014:375-376). unified nature, in which humans are simply one life form among many, is an ancient concept, probably going back to the beginnings of human thought. as the founder of western science, aristotle rejected the teachings of plato, and created his concept of the “soul,” not as a supernatural entity, but as an essential feature of biotic organisms (leroi 2014). aristotelian concepts, constructal theory and many indigenous peoples see life in the flow of matter and energy. as a yucatec mayan has stated, “without right mentality, it is easy to misjudge my people. we are not worshipping idols—we are honoring natural forces, energy” (least heat moon 2013:82). conclusions numerous points of convergence exist between the knowledge of american and australian indigenous peoples and aspects of western science (anderson 1996; medin and bang 2014; pierotti 2011). convergence of constructal theory and indigenous concepts of “living systems” are of interest because each independently arrived at the idea that life involves entities engaged in the phenomenon of flow. constructal theory involves mathematically sophisticated ideas that describe the dynamics of how liquids, gases, and even heat distribute themselves in nonrandom fashion. there are fewer similarities between indigenous thought and aristotelian concepts described, primarily because aristotle did not include abiotic elements as living systems. the similarities are greater between constructal theory and the aristotelian concept of life, because according to constructal law (and indigenous thinking) rivers, streams, winds, and lava flows share features with biotic entities that identify all of these as “living systems.” in addition, constructal theory and the examples of indigenous thinking discussed here emphasize individuality, while acknowledging that the processes involved in generating “living systems” are similar in nature and form. aristotelian concepts emphasize energy flows as the essential aspect of living systems, and that “soul” (life essence) and physiological function are basically synonymous, especially with regard to the flow of heat (internal fire or pneuma), and how this relates to movement of air and other materials within biotic systems (leroi 2014). the crucial points are that many cases of indigenous knowledge, often seen as “unscientific,” even by indigenous people themselves, share crucial themes ethnobiology letters. 2015. 6(1):80-88. doi: 10.14237/ebl.6.1.2015.420. 87 perspective (i.e., connection between biotic and abiotic systems and concepts of how living systems function) with both the beginnings of the western scientific tradition and with sophisticated contemporary ideas that link physics and biology in nonintuitive fashion. the examples of indigenous knowledge systems presented here are more similar to the modern, mathematically sophisticated approach than they are to the early ideas. this reinforces the argument that indigenous stories share a number of features with mathematical models, i.e. both are generalized and oversimplified, but provide heuristic tools for creating general rules that can be used to examine real life phenomena (pierotti 2011). references cited anderson, e. n. 1996. ecologies of the heart: emotion, belief, and the environment. oxford university press, ny. anderson, e. n. 2013. what shapes cognition? traditional sciences and modern international science. in explorations in ethnobiology: the legacy of amadeo rea, edited by m. quinlan and d. lepfsky, pp. 46-77. society of ethnobiology, denton, tx. bejan, a. 2000. shape and structure: from engineering to nature. cambridge university press, ny. bejan, a. and j. p. zane. 2012. design in nature: how the constructal law governs evolution in biology, physics, technology, and social organization. doubleday press, ny. bitsuie, r. 1995. holy wind and natural law. available at: http://www.indians.org/welker/ dineway.htm. accessed on march 29, 2015. bos, a. p. 2003. the soul and its instrumental body: a reinterpretation of aristotle’s philosophy of living nature. brill publishers, boston, ma. bringhurst, r. 2008. the tree of meaning: language, mind and ecology. counterpoint press, berkeley, ca cherokee nation cultural resource center. 2015. the traditional belief system. available at: http:// www.cherokee.org/aboutthenation/culture/ general/thetraditionalbeliefsystem.aspx. accessed on march 30, 2015. cohen, j. j. 2010. stories of stone. postmedieval 1:5663. doi:10.1057/pmed.2009.1. de landa, m. 2000. a thousand years of nonlinear history. swerve editions, ny. government of canada. 2010. water and canada’s original peoples. available at: http://www.ec.gc.ca/ eau-water/default.asp?lang=en&n=ba5125bf-1. accessed on march 29, 2015. grieves, v. 2008. aboriginal spirituality: a baseline for indigenous knowledges development in australia. the canadian journal of native studies 28:363 -398. grim, j. a. 2015. indigenous traditions and ecology. available at: http://fore.yale.edu/religion/ indigenous/. accessed on march 29, 2015. kirschner, m. w. and j. c. gerhart. 2005. the plausibility of life: resolving darwin’s dilemma. yale university press, new haven, ct. langton, m. 2009. freshwater. in background briefing papers: indigenous rights and water policy: perspectives from tropical northern australia, edited by lingiari foundation, pp. 43-64. lingiari foundation, broome, wa. least heat moon, w. (w. trogdon). 2013. here, there, and everywhere: stories from the road. little brown and co., ny. leroi, a. m. 2014. the lagoon: how aristotle invented science. viking press, ny. mangum, n. c. 1990. in the land of frozen fires: a history of occupation in el malpais country. southwest cultural resources center, santa fe, nm. mcluhan, t. c. 1971. touch the earth: a self-portrait of indian existence. promontory press, ny. mcneley, j. 1981. holy wind in navajo philosophy. university of arizona press, tucson, az. medin, d. l. and m. bang. 2014. who’s asking? native science, western science, and science education. mit press, cambridge, ma. mowaljarlai. 2001. yorro yorro: everything standing up alive (spirit of the kimbereley). magabal books, broome, wa. native(x). 2012. native art + portland. available at: http://www.nativex.net/blog/2014/10/28/nativeart-portland/. accessed on july 25, 2015. peters, francis e. 1967. greek philosophical terms: a historical lexicon. new york university press, ny. pierotti, r. 2011. indigenous knowledge, ecology, and evolutionary biology. routledge, ny. ethnobiology letters. 2015. 6(1):80-88. doi: 10.14237/ebl.6.1.2015.420. 88 perspective pierotti, r. and d. wildcat. 2000. traditional ecological knowledge: the third alternative. ecological applications 10:1333-1340. rist, j. m. 1985. on greek, biology, greek cosmology, and some sources of theological pneuma. prudentia 6:27-47. rose, d. b. 2000. dingo makes us human: life and land in an australian aboriginal culture. cambridge university press, ny. silko, l. m. 1996. yellow woman and the beauty of the spirit: essays on native american life today. simon and schuster, ny standing bear, l. 1933 (reprinted 1978). land of the spotted eagle. university of nebraska press, lincoln, ne. tonkinson, r. 1978. the mardujara aborigines: living the dreamtime in australia’s desert. holt, rinehart, and winston, ny. van inwagen, p. and s. meghan. 2014. metaphysics. in the stanford encyclopedia of philosophy,winter 2014 edition, edited by e. n. zalta. available at: http:// plato.stanford.edu/archives/win2014/entries/ metaphysics/. accessed on february 25, 2015. biosketch raymond pierotti (ph.d. dalhousie university) is associate professor of ecology and evolutionary biology at the university of kansas. coming together to toast and feed the dead in the cotahuasi valley of peru mayer et al. 2017. ethnobiology letters 8(1):46–53 46 research communications have served as a neutral gathering place to socialize during a tense period of change (jennings 2015b). excavation data from tenahaha suggest that the site was used only sporadically and for festivals associated with celebration, internment, and interaction with the dead (jennings 2015a:210). one particular aspect of life, plant use, at the site has not been the subject of previous publications. the macrobotanical data presented here confirm the site’s intermittent occupation. our analysis provides a greater understanding of the tenahaha’s spatial and temporal variation. in sum, the macrobotanical data recovered from tenahaha provide new insights into middle horizon plant use and food production. site background tenahaha is a four-hectare archaeological site that was first occupied during the second half of the middle horizon—a period spanning ad 850 to 1050 introduction the wari state was the major power during the middle horizon—a period spanning ad 600 to 1050—in the central andes. there has been significant research on the nature of the empire and its outposts (jennings and castillo 2014; schreiber 1992), but there has been less research on the domestic lives of people who lived during this time of considerable cultural change. located in the cotahuasi valley of southern peru (figure 1), the site of tenahaha was a wari-influenced ritual center founded during the middle horizon. although evidence for direct imperial control over the valley is weak (jennings and yépez álvarez 2015), village life was nonetheless shaped by wari ideas and ideals. the middle horizon was a period of surging population, social stratification, and foreign influence in cotahuasi (jennings 2015a), and tenahaha may coming together to toast and feed the dead in the cotahuasi valley of peru aaron jay mayer1*, matthew paul sayre1, and justin jennings2 1department of anthropology, university of south dakota, vermillion, sd, usa. 2royal ontario museum, toronto, on, canada. *aaron.mayer@coyotes.usd.edu abstract there has been little discussion on the macrobotanical remains from andean middle horizon sites. in this article, we present macrobotanical data from archaeological excavations at tenahaha, a small mortuary center in the cotahuasi valley of peru. while the people who attended tenahaha may not have definitively been wari, evidence suggests that they were likely influenced by the wari. our analysis revealed new insights into site use and the distribution of botanical staples during the andean past. people used plants differently across time and how people chose to utilize plant resources from their environment provides insights into cultural practices. the local plant staples of quinoa (chenopodium quinoa) and maize (zea mays) were found in high densities in concentrated areas of the site. in addition, local plants such as echinocactus (echinocactus sp.), tubers (e.g., solanum sp.), and the peruvian peppertree (schinus molle) were recovered in abundance. these remains provide insights into past public ceremonies and how the inhabitants used different areas of the site. the occurrence of sprouted maize and the fruit of peppertree in certain areas of the site seems to indicate ritual and/ or ceremonial use of chicha during the middle horizon (ad 600–1050). the analysis of these macrobotanical remains provides a glimpse into the importance placed on bringing people together to commemorate the dead within the ancient andes. received march 14, 2016 open access accepted december 22, 2016 doi 10.14237/ebl.8.1.2017.658 keywords paleoethnobotany, peru, middle horizon, food, ancestors copyright © 2017 by the author(s); licensee society of ethnobiology. this is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution-noncommercial 4.0 international public license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0), which permits non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. mayer et al. 2017. ethnobiology letters 8(1):46–53 47 research communications (jennings and álvarez 2015a). the site’s river bottom location is unusual since most people who lived in the pre-columbian highlands chose to live on valley flanks where they were closer to spring-fed agricultural terraces and camelid grazing lands (jennings 2006:363–365). the few rain-fed agricultural terraces associated with tenahaha were capable of sustaining only a few families, but the site is located near the geographic center of the valley along what would have been a major transportation route (jennings et al. 2015:88–90). tenahaha can be divided into a ceremonial/ residential sector and a mortuary component. our excavation revealed a collection of houses, storerooms, and open spaces that were built and experienced in a manner quite distinct from those seen in the valley’s middle horizon villages (jennings 2015:33–34; jennings et al. 2015). houses, for example, lacked patios and were sporadically occupied, holding little of the refuse associated with daily living (figure 2). the storerooms are a block of conjoined rooms rather than each being attached to a home. of note is area 18, an excavation unit that exposed two 1x1 m storerooms with raised doorways and two superimposed stamped earth floors containing wood charcoal dating to the late middle horizon period. area 19, a 5x3 m excavation unit bisecting the western wall of the western enclosure, covered the interior of the enclosure and an entrance that extends past a smaller, conjoined enclosure that was also filled with kitchen debris (jennings et al. 2015:78–79). built in an unsustainable location, tenahaha may have served as a meeting place rather than a village (jennings 2015a). feasts have a long-standing importance in the andes (jennings and bowser 1999), and multi-day celebrations of the dead were a common occurrence at the time of the spanish conquest (e.g., gose 2008:14–21; hastorf 2003; isbell 1997:38–100; ramírez 2005:23–142). with this in mind, we suggest that people from the valley flanks came with their dead to tenahaha. these rituals likely helped villagers in the cotahuasi valley adjust to the sweeping societal changes that were occurring in the region during the middle horizon, a difficult period of population growth due to competition for arable land resources, agricultural intensification, and incipient social stratification (jennings and álvarez 2015b; tung 2012). intermittent occupation of tenahaha is supported through relatively low macrobotanical counts as compared to other middle horizon macrobotanical studies at conchopata and cerro baúl (sayre et al. 2012). low macrobotanical counts also may be an effect of poor botanical preservation at tenahaha. yet, the lack of lithic debris often associated with stone tool use and food processing seems to show that tenahaha was not continually occupied. the absence of the daily manufacture of textile artifacts also seems to indicate sporadic use of the site as the reason for the absence of these common daily activities at tenahaha (jennings and álvarez 2015). large heavy implements were kept on site for occasional use in the production of feasts or rituals, which is evident from the grinding stones that were kept in place such as in area 18 (jennings and álvarez 2015). the macrobotanical remains recovered at tenahaha reflect dietary traditions in peru from the ancient past that continue into the present. the people who came to tenahaha ate a typical regional diet that included quinoa (chenopodium quinoa), tubers (solanum sp., potentially among others), amaranth (amaranthus sp.), beans (phaseolus sp.), maize (zea mays), and some wild fruits such as cactus fruits figure 1 landsat image showing the location of the tenahaha site in the cotahuasi-ocoña valley in southern peru. mayer et al. 2017. ethnobiology letters 8(1):46–53 48 research communications (opuntia sp.), bramble berries (rubus sp.), and peruvian peppertree, or molle, fruit (schinus molle) (jennings 2015:74; sayre et al. 2012). preliminary work shows maize, quinoa, bean, tubers, and molle played prominent roles in wari foodways in the ayacucho homeland, and these foods accompanied wari colonists when they traveled to new locales to construct their outposts (cook and parrish 2005; finucane 2008; finucane et al. 2006; goldstein et al. 2009; moseley et al. 2005; sayre et al. 2012). at tenahaha, food consumption differs from these known studies in comparison to other middle horizon sites. site use in regards to macrobotanical remains seems to indicate sporadic site occupation and observance at this funerary location. this study expands our understanding of past culinary practice in the middle horizon period. analysis excavators used “blanket sampling” across the site (adapted from pearsall 2000), recovering 8-liter, when possible, soil samples from multiple contexts within each excavation area (levels, features, burials, etc.). samples were processed using a motorized flotation system (a modified smap machine), with all light fraction residues bagged, labeled, and weighed. the heavy fraction was passed through a series of 2 mm, 1 mm, and 0.5 mm geologic sieves. botanical remains were taken from each sieve, with a low power stereoscopic microscope (6–25x) lit by a fiber optic light source used to help identify botanical remains. all wood > 2 mm was sorted, as well as seeds, parenchyma, and small pellet shaped dung > 0.5 mm (see pearsall 2000:107–108). the botanicals were all figure 2 tenahaha site map. mayer et al. 2017. ethnobiology letters 8(1):46–53 49 research communications charred and no desiccated materials were observed during sorting other than modern roots. the andean macrobotanical species were analyzed with comparative botanical collections from the university of south dakota, w. h. over museum, usda comparative seed material, online botanical databases, and the authors’ personal andean collection. low macrobotanical counts seem to show sporadic site use with a count of n = 6470 recovered from the site. we report the results of analysis on the 61 flotation samples that were collected from middle horizon contexts at tenahaha. density and ubiquity analysis of macrobotanical samples the volume of soil that was processed through floatation varied from 3 liters to 10 liters. the overall tenahaha site botanical count was n = 6470 from 347 liters of soil which equals a site average density of 18.64 macrobotanical remains/liter. the density of botanicals ranged from 0.1 to 197.33 macrobotanical remains per liter. the highest density of 197.33 is from sample 43 in area 19 with a quinoa count of 864. the second highest density was 165.33 from sample 3 in area 1, a tomb or funerary space with 1132 echinocactus seeds. the third highest density (101.25) was recovered from sample 18 in area 18. this was due to a high count of wood > 2 mm: 392 fragments. wood was the most ubiquitous taxon at 75% followed by echinocactus at 57%; quinoa was present in about half of the samples at 46% (table 1; see table 2 for count of finds by area). crops and other botanical remains quinoa some of the most abundant plant remains at tenahaha are the charred seeds of quinoa. culinary and agricultural practices in the central andes changed from the formative period (1800 bc–ad 200) into the middle horizon (ad 600–1050) (nash 2012). studies from the lake titicaca basin—which follows a different chronology—suggest that this transition of practices selected for more staples, such as quinoa, long before the rise of wari and tiwanaku (bruno 2014; whitehead and bruno 2003). the high ubiquity of quinoa at tenahaha seems to support this idea. there were 1286 quinoa seeds recovered at tenahaha. the highest count for quinoa (863) came from a single sample, no. 43 in area 19, which was a ceremonial context from level v (middle horizon). the next highest count was 65 from sample no. 46 in a storage context in area 18, adjacent to area 19. of the 28 samples from tenehaha with quinoa, 12 came botanical remain within site ubiquity (%) quinoa 46 maize kernels 16 maize sprout 5 maize cupule 11 parenchyma 34 solanceae 20 molle 20 echinocactus 57 small dung 23 wood 75 table 2 macrobotanical counts by area. table 1 ubiquity of macrobotanical remains from 61 samples. taxon 5t (34l) 24t (46l) 6d (13l) 7d (<1l) 8d (10l) 12d (5l) 21d (26.5l) 30d (4l) 18s (73l) 19c (49l) 20c (16l) 27c (8l) tomb 1 (17l) tomb 2 (10l) tomb 3 (34l) quinoa 5 63 1 3 218 995 1 maize kernel 3 8 4 1 16 1 maize sprout 1 2 maize cupule 69 23 1 parenchyma 3 5 82 1 26 3 12 3 5 7 3 solanaceae 11 1 1 243 2 molle 96 11 1 2 echinocactus 26 23 65 93 6 28 8 20 91 68 65 1143 18 dung 54 30 131 20 26 38 4 18 8 2 wood 14 140 2 264 4 1 1233 317 33 10 21 53 notes: columns are area numbers, followed by a letter that designates use type (t=terrace, d=domestic, s=storage, c=ceremonial). this information is followed by the number of liters recovered in the sample. mayer et al. 2017. ethnobiology letters 8(1):46–53 50 research communications from area 18 with a count of n = 218 or 17% of the total quinoa. another 10 samples came from area 19 led to a total count from area 19 of n = 995, or 77% of quinoa recovered from the tenahaha site. maize three sprouted maize kernels were identified in the botanical remains from tenahaha. two of them were recovered from area 19 and one from area 18. sprouted maize provides evidence for the production of chicha during the middle horizon. chicha de maize is made by germinating the kernels and then grinding them into flour and fermenting the liquid (moore 1989; jennings and chatfield 2009:207). chicha can be created to utilize and preserve the nutritional value of harvested grains (sayre et al. 2012). these drinks also often serve a social function, with the beverage being consumed in large quantities at weddings, funerals, work parties, and other events (goldstein and coleman 2004; jennings and bowser 2009; jennings and chatfield 2009; moseley 2005; sayre et. al. 2012). sixteen maize kernels were identified; seven were recovered from area 18 and three from area 19. there was a much higher count of cupules than kernels recovered at tenahaha (n = 78). fifty-four (69%) of the cupules came from area 18 and twentythree (29%) from area 19. the kernel to cupule ratio was 1:4.87. maize was sometimes kept on the cob for transport between occupational areas and the frequent presence of cupules at tenahaha demonstrates that maize was likely transported on the cob, and then the cob remains were used as fuel. solanaceae the solanaceae family is a particularly important plant family in south america. the iconic crops of potatoes, chili peppers, tomatoes, and tobacco are just some of the crucial crops that were important sources of food and social comforts in this region. potatoes are commonly planted from clones but many other economic plants in the family are planted from seed. the diversity of this family is not always represented in the macrobotanical remains as tubers may be identified as parenchyma. as we demonstrate below the large number of solanaceae seed remains recovered at tenehaha represent the importance of some of the lesser known species in this family. areas 18 and 19 had significant amounts of solanaceae. one of the largest samples from area 19, sample no. 43, was principally composed of seeds from the aguaymanto fruit (physalis peruviana). however, many of the remains from this family are not identifiable to the genus level. solanaceae seeds recovered were preserved by charring. from this determination, we cannot rule out wind-blown seeds or entry through bioturbation, and the carbonization of these remains through the burning of dung is a possibility as well. area 18 and especially area 19 had significant amounts of solanaceae. most areas that contained solanaceae seeds also contained quinoa. maize occurred less than echinocactus or quinoa in the presence of solanaceae. molle ethnographic studies in the peruvian andes documented the use of molle drupes to brew a form of chicha called chicha de molle (goldstein and coleman 2004). at the site of cerro baúl, near modern town of moquegua, thousands of molle seeds entered the archaeological record because of the mass production of chicha de molle for ritual feasting purposes during the middle horizon (moseley et al. 2005; sayre et al. 2012). the existence of molle seeds at tenahaha is intriguing and it is possible that chicha de molle was being produced there. eighty of the 118 molle were fragmentary but > 50% whole. however, only two molle seeds had a partial oily sheen of residue left upon them. this may be further evidence of the boiling process used to produce chicha that would have removed the oils (biwer and vanderwarker 2015:28). the ethnographic and ethnohistoric records indicate that the seeds might have been saved for other use after chicha production (goldstein and coleman 2004:525). the highest concentration of molle (52) comes from sample 46, in area 18. in addition to the high molle counts in area 18 a kernel of sprouted maize was recovered from sample no. 35, also in area 18. this may be a further line of evidence of chicha production in this area, whether chicha de molle or including molle as an ingredient in chicha de maize. echinocactus echinocactus was the most commonly recovered seed from tenahaha (n = 1748). it is not uncommon at archaeological sites for the ratio of wild plants to domesticated plants to be high and there are various modes of entry whereby seeds can enter a site (van der veen 2007). although no dung containing echinocactus seeds was observed, windblown entry and invasive weeds may be a possible means whereby mayer et al. 2017. ethnobiology letters 8(1):46–53 51 research communications these seeds entered the archaeological record. the seed testa was dull and many seeds were separated and these were charred. it is possible that some echinocactus seeds may have arrived in context due to windborne entry yet no other uncarbonized taxa were observed in this manner. in the laboratory, echinocactus seeds appeared charred and were cut open to make sure they were not modern. at higher elevations in the andes mountains trees do not grow well, wood becomes scarce, and llama dung is often sought and collected for fuel. burned dung is one mode of entry for extra-local seeds to enter the archaeological record. this cactus fruit is also known to be eaten by people (pearsall 2014). the locality with the highest concentration of echinocactus seeds in the samples was inside area 1 or tomb 1 (1132 or 65% of the echinocactus seeds recovered from tenahaha). it is currently not known why so many seeds were in this sample, perhaps the fruit was given as an offering or another mode of entry is possible. it is known that tombs were periodically opened in pre-conquest times and that the possibility of windblown deposition exists. more academic inquiry, research, and discussion into the high rate of the presence of echinocactus in the archaeological record in the southern andes is necessary. spatial comparison of macrobotanical remains domestic space area 7 was a domestic structure containing grinding stones, cookware, hearths, lithic debris, and garbage (jennings and alvarez 2015:59, 83). area 21 was a domestic area located near area 8 and the four flotation samples from these areas showed evidence of small dung, echinocactus, wood, and parenchyma. parenchyma is plant storage tissue, in these cases charred, and is thought to be associated with the production and consumption of tubers (pearsall 2000; hastorf and wright 1998). area 30 was a domestic area with an intermixing of materials from the middle to late horizon; plant foods recovered from flotation samples include quinoa, chenopodiaceae, solanaeceae, echinocactus, and parenchyma. storage area area 18 is a storage area from the middle horizon. eleven samples were analyzed and large quantities of botanical material was recovered, suggesting that this area may have been an important place for the production and storage of food and it could have been closely associated with the ceremonial area 19. plant foods were highly represented in comparison with other areas. quinoa, maize (kernels), maize cupules, parenchyma, and molle were found in area 18. ceremonial space area 19 was a middle horizon ceremonial space that was in close vicinity to area 18. the high quantities of botanicals associated with food and drink from area 18 may have been a product of serving people located in area 19 in ritual celebrations of the tenahaha necropolis. solanaceae seeds were also recovered in large quantities (243) from this area. interestingly, maize also was recovered from this area, with four kernels and 23 cupules, and the unique find of two sprouted maize kernels. these sprouts seem to suggest that the production and/or consumption of chicha de maize (moore 1989) and possibly chicha de molle in this ceremonial area. interpretations the excavations at tenahaha revealed a lack of house middens, patio groups, irrigation canals, and other features routinely associated with villages of this era. the site was instead organized around communal features, such as large storage facilities and open-air semi-subterranean enclosures. the paleoethnobotanical data presented here support this distinction; the areas with more evidence of food and drink remains are public rather than private locations. the distinctive nature of the site is perhaps most clearly demonstrated using the macrobotanical remains found in one of the storerooms (areas 18) and semi-subterranean enclosures (area 19). these two areas, with the highest concentrations of remains, appear to have been more closely associated with culinary practices than the two houses (areas 7 and 12) where few remains were found. in general, nonfood remains such as echinocactus, dung, and parenchyma were recovered in higher densities across space than were other seed food plants such as maize, molle, quinoa, and some members of the solanaceae family. the low density of food plants in domestic spaces is further evidence for the communal production of food and drink by those visiting tenahaha. conclusion although andean tombs are places where considerable food and drink could be consumed mayer et al. 2017. ethnobiology letters 8(1):46–53 52 research communications (benson and cook 2001; dillehay 1995), the paleoethnobotanical data from tenahaha suggest that most food was consumed in the communal areas downhill from these tombs, where alcoholic beverages were also likely produced and served. some food was brought into the tombs and some of this food was likely burned. yet for the most part, engagement with the dead consisted of the placing of individuals and offerings, and their movement between tombs (yépez álvarez et al. 2015:119–121). tenahaha was a middle horizon site dedicated to the celebration and internment of the dead. the tombs were closed at the end of the middle horizon, and the late horizon reoccupation was light with little paleoethnobotanical evidence for food consumption or plant processing activities. the evidence for middle horizon food production and consumption at tenahaha suggests that people brought most, if not all, of their food with them from their villages. they came together in a novel way to store, process, and serve a variety of dishes and drinks before or during mortuary ceremonies. for at least a few days at a time, villagers came together to create a larger community of the living and dead. acknowledgements the authors would like to thank the peruvian proyecto arqueológico collota (paco) and all involved with the project. we would also like to thank the university of south dakota for use of the archaeology laboratory, laboratory equipment and other resources. i would like to thank the society for american archaeology for opportunities to present findings that developed into this work. thank you to justin jennings for the chance to work on the paco macrobotanical samples. comments and guidance from reviewers and editors have greatly improved this paper. declarations permissions: we thank the peruvian ministry of culture for permission to work at the site (resolución directoral nacional nros. 977/inc and 828/inc). sources of funding: research at tenahaha was funded by the national science foundation (awards 9903508 and 0630081), as well as by the kircheis endowment fund, maya archaeology fund, and the louise hawley stone charitable trust at the royal ontario museum. conflicts of interest: none declared. references cited biwer, m., and a. vanderwarker. 2015. paleoethnobotany and ancient alcohol production: a minireview. ethnobiology letters 6:28–31. doi:10.14237/ebl.6.1.2015.378. bruno, m. c. 2014. beyond raised fields: exploring farming practices and processes of agricultural change in the ancient lake titicaca basin of the andes. american anthropologist 116:1–16. doi:10.1111/aman.12066. bruno, m. c., and w. t. whitehead 2003. chenopodium cultivation and formative period agriculture at chiripa, bolivia. latin american antiquity 14:339–355. doi:10.2307/3557564. cook, a., and n. parrish. 2005. gardens in the desert: archaeobotanical analysis from the low ica valley, peru. andean past 7:135–156. dillehay, t. d., ed. 1995. tombs for the living: andean mortuary practices. dumbarton oaks, washington, dc. doi:10.1525/aa.1996.98.4.02a00750. finucane, b. 2009. maize and sociopolitical complexity in the ayacucho valley, peru. current anthropology 50:535–545. doi:10.1086/599860. finucane, b., p. m. agurto, and w. h. isbell. 2006. human and animal diet at conchopata, peru: stable isotope evidence for maize. journal of archaeological science 33:1766–1776. doi:10.1016/ j.jas.2006.03.012. goldstein, d. j., r. c. coleman goldstein, and p. r. williams. 2009. you are what you drink: a sociocultural reconstruction of pre-hispanic fermented beverage use at cerro baúl, moquegua, peru. in drink, power, and society in the andes, edited by j. jennings and b. bowser, pp. 133–167. university of florida press, gainesville, fl. goldstein, d. j., and r. c. coleman. 2004. schinus molle l. 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archaeology 32:231– 282. schreiber, k. 1992. wari imperialism in middle horizon peru. anthropological papers 87, museum of anthropology. university of michigan, ann arbor, mi. tung, t. a. 2012. violence, ritual and the wari empire: a social bioarchaeology of imperialism in the ancient andes. university press of florida, gainesville, fl. van der veen, m. 2007. formation processes of desiccated and carbonized plant remains – the identification of routine practice. journal of archaeological science 34:968–990. doi:10.1016/ j.jas.2006.09.007. beyond depression? a review of the optimal foraging theory literature in zooarchaeology and archaeobotany jones and hurley. 2017. ethnobiology letters 8(1):35–42 35 research communications that anthropogenic resource depression is primarily evidenced in zooarchaeological, rather than archaeobotanical, data. the bases of this belief range from differences in human-plant relationships as opposed to human-animal ones to methodological differences (see for instance campbell and butler 2010a; deur and turner 2005; peacock and turner 2000; smith 2014; turner et al. 2000). while explanations vary, the impression that archaeobotanists are less likely to identify resource depression than zooarchaeologists is widespread. however, neither the dominance of resource depression in the zooarchaeological foraging theory literature nor the lack of evidence for resource depression in the archaeobotanical literature have been demonstrated through literature review. in fact, there is some evidence to contradict both these ideas (codding and bird 2015). foraging theory models are used by archaeobotanists and zooarchaeologists to explore themes other than resource depression; indeed, these models have been used archaeologically introduction the debate on the use of optimal foraging theory in archaeology—particularly in zooarchaeology and archaeobotany—has been heated in recent years, with critiques emerging in a variety of different contexts (e.g., codding et al. 2010; jones 2016a:9–22; reitz et al. 2009; smith 2015; speth 2013; zeder 2012, 2015a, b). while these critiques vary both in their natures and in the bases of their arguments, many of them concern, at least in part, the use of foraging theory to identify cases of prehistoric resource depression, or decreases in foraging efficiency based on the foragers’ own activities (here, we use resource depression in a large sense, including behavioral depression and microhabitat depression as well as exploitation depression; see charnov et al. 1976). zeder (2012:254) puts it succinctly: “in this way a broad spectrum diet, resource depression, and a decrease in foraging efficiency are all inextricably linked together, imbedded within the foundational assumptions of the oft world view.” similarly, some have suggested beyond depression? a review of the optimal foraging theory literature in zooarchaeology and archaeobotany emily lena jones1* and david a. hurley2 1department of anthropology, university of new mexico, albuquerque, nm, usa. 2university libraries, university of new mexico, albuquerque, nm, usa. *elj@unm.edu abstract the use of optimal foraging theory in archaeology has been criticized for focusing heavily on “negative” humanenvironmental interactions, particularly anthropogenic resource depression, in which prey populations are reduced by foragers’ own foraging activities. in addition, some researchers have suggested the focus on resource depression is more common in the zooarchaeological literature than in the archaeobotanical literature, indicating fundamental differences in the ways zooarchaeologists and archaeobotanists approach the archaeological record. in this paper, we assess these critiques through a review of the literature between 1997 and 2017. we find that studies identifying resource depression occur at similar rates in the archaeobotanical and zooarchaeological literature. in addition, while earlier archaeological applications of optimal foraging theory did focus heavily on the identification of resource depression, the literature published between 2013 and 2017 shows a wider variety of approaches. received september 5, 2016 open access accepted march 10, 2017 doi 10.14237/ebl.8.1.2017.786 keywords resource depression, optimal foraging theory, prey choice, zooarchaeology, archaeobotany copyright © 2017 by the author(s); licensee society of ethnobiology. this is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution-noncommercial 4.0 international public license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0), which permits non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. supplementary files available at ojs.ethnobiology.org/index.php/ebl/article/view/786 jones and hurley. 2017. ethnobiology letters 8(1):35–42 36 research communications to identify, among other things, instances of prehistoric sustainability (e.g., campbell and butler 2010b), cases of environmental rebound (e.g., jones 2016b), climate-driven changes in resource acquisition (e.g., broughton et al. 2008), and gendered foraging (e.g., zeanah 2004). on the other hand, in at least some cases archaeobotanical data have been used to support studies of resource depression (e.g., simms 1984). however, this evidence is anecdotal. it does not negate the possibilities that 1) other mechanisms for change identified are adjunct and subordinate to studies of resource depression in the foraging theory literature; and 2) archaeobotanical studies identify resource depression less frequently than zooarchaeological studies. to explore these possibilities, in this paper we consider the role resource depression and other topics within the zooarchaeology and archaeobotany optimal foraging literature have played over the last 20 years. we assess patterns in publications’ analytical foci overall, by subdiscipline, and through time. methods data collection we searched multiple databases of scholarly publications including anthropology plus, anthrosource, google scholar, web of knowledge, and worldcat to identify the relevant literature. our search criteria required any one of the following phrases: foraging theory, prey choice model, or patch choice model, in addition to some variation of any of the following terms: archaeology, archaeobotany, zooarchaeology. though the exact search differed slightly by database, the search logic can generally be represented as: ("optimal foraging theory" or "prey choice model" or "patch choice model") and (archaeology or archeology or paleoethno* or paleobot* or archaeobot* or zooarch* or archaeozoo*) the search was further limited by year to works published in 1997 or later, and by language to works written in english. our search strategy was deliberately broad and emphasized recall over precision (i.e., prioritizing not missing relevant articles over limiting irrelevant results). therefore, we assessed each article individually to exclude works in which foraging theory was mentioned only in passing, in which zooarchaeological and archaeobotanical data were not the basis of the overall argument, and/or which were purely conceptual. for reasons both practical (we could not obtain all the publications) and abstract (content was not designed as a “publication” per se), we excluded undergraduate theses, conference papers and posters, and non-peer-reviewed reports. duplicate results were frequent both within and across databases, with google scholar presenting particular challenges. google scholar might find the same article on the journal’s website, the authors’ webpages, social networking sites such as academia.edu, as well as in one or more institutional repositories. in some cases, the versions retrieved by google scholar were uncorrected proofs or otherwise different from the final published form. we used the version of record—that is, the final published form— whenever available. despite our focus on recall, our search undoubtedly missed relevant publications. works not included in the databases searched were, obviously, not found. additionally, indexing varies across publication and database. if the full text of the publication is not searchable, and the terms we searched for do not appear in the indexed fields (e.g., in title, abstract, keyword, or subject fields), the publication would not be retrieved even if the work was relevant. finally, in dealing with large results sets with significant duplication, human error was also likely a factor. our final dataset contained 244 individual articles, chapters, books, dissertations and theses, representing the work of more than 250 individual authors working on six continents (see supplementary dataset and bibliography). as these data are limited to those authors publishing explicitly within foraging theory, they cannot be used to study trends within zooarchaeology or archaeobotany overall. however, we believe they do provide a reasonable sample to understand the zooarchaeology and archaeobotany foraging theory literature. citations to these articles are provided in the supplementary files. analyses we read all publications in the dataset and recorded whether they used zooarchaeological data, archaeobotanical data, or both. “zooarchaeology” comprised any study using animal (vertebrate or invertebrate) remains as the basis of study, while “archaeobotany” included any study using plant data (pollen, phytoliths, macrobotanical data, etc.). jones and hurley. 2017. ethnobiology letters 8(1):35–42 37 research communications we then assigned each publication to at least one broad topical category (table 1). we developed the categories organically, based on the topics represented in the readings, eventually arriving at seven: anthropogenic resource depression, environmental/ climate change, patch choice/central place foraging, sustainability, domestication, culture and method. we chose not to make these categories mutually exclusive, so as not to underrepresent the presence of resource depression in the literature; a paper could be assigned to more than one category, and indeed most of them were. the resource depression category included papers which either identified anthropogenic resource depression in a specific instance or which did not rule it out. conversely, environmental/climate change papers invoked environment as the explanatory mechanism for change. patch choice and central place foraging were originally separate categories, but so many papers that used one also made use of the other that we decided to collapse them into a single category. the categories of sustainability, domestication, and culture all invoke human activity as a causal mechanism: to be classed as a “sustainability” publication, the paper had to explicitly use that term or claim a demonstration of forager conservation; domestication papers focused on either plant or animal domestication or husbandry, or some combination thereof; and culture papers identified other aspect(s) of human behavior as causal in subsistence patterns, including technology, settlement strategy, costly signaling, and/or gender. finally, method papers focused on the application of foraging theory to the zooarchaeological or archaeobotanical record. finally, we considered change in topic representation through time, using four broad time categories: 1997–2004 (number of papers = 49); 2005 –2008 (number of papers = 54); 2009–2012 (number of papers = 76); and 2013–2017 (number of papers = 65). a numerical summary of the categories represented by group can be seen in table 2; the full analytical dataset and associated bibliography are available as supplementary files. results there are significantly more zooarchaeological publications (n = 208) than archaeobotanical (n = 60) in our final dataset. twenty-four publications (or 10% of the total dataset) used a combination of zooarchaeological and archaeobotanical data, resulting in some overlap between these two categories. interestingly, the percentage of papers using a combination of data types remains consistent through time (1997–2004: 10%; 2005–2008: 8%; 2009–2012: 11%; 2013–2017: 11%). in the dataset as a whole, anthropogenic resource depression is the most common literature category (24%). however, resource depression is by no means as dominant as has sometimes been suggested; many of the other categories are also well-represented. patch choice/central place foraging analyses are present in 20% of the publications, and papers in all categories except domestication average over 10% of the dataset (figure 1; table 1). when zooarchaeological and archaeobotanical publications are considered separately, some interesting patterns emerge. resource depression is less common in archaeobotanical papers (19%) than table 1 descriptions of topical categories used in this analysis. category examples of topics overall n resource depression reduced foraging efficiency due to foragers’ own activities 85 domestication prey/patch choice approaches to domestication of either (or both) plants and animals 22 patch choice/cpf patch choice, central place foraging, and/or marginal value theorem approaches to understanding subsistence and/or resource use 70 sustainability sustainable use; conservation 37 environment/climate change connection between environmental variables and changes in prey choice and/or patch use 50 culture costly signaling; gender and risk; niche construction 39 method/theory prey ranking systems; patch reconstruction; ethnoarchaeology 54 jones and hurley. 2017. ethnobiology letters 8(1):35–42 38 research communications table 2 sample size by analytical category. 1the zooarchaeology and archaeobotany columns are not mutually exclusive; the number of papers using both methods can be found in the “both za and ab” column. category zooarchaeology1 archaeobotany1 both za and ab1 1997– 2004 2005– 2008 2009– 2012 2013– 2017 resource depression 75 20 11 20 20 28 16 domestication 10 15 4 3 8 3 7 patch choice/cpf 56 18 5 15 13 26 15 sustainability 30 10 4 4 11 8 13 environment/ 39 14 4 7 16 9 17 culture 33 15 7 11 10 12 8 method/theory 47 12 5 18 11 11 14 in zooarchaeological ones (26%), though not dramatically so (figure 1). more strikingly, papers focusing on domestication are more common in the archaeobotany literature (14%) than in zooarchaeology (3%) and, conversely, method papers are more common in zooarchaeology (16%) than in archaeobotany (11%). that the differences in categorical representation between the two subdisciplines are driven by these two categories is confirmed by a spearman’s rank-order correlation: when the categories of domestication and method are excluded, the distributions of categories in the zooarchaeology and archaeobotany literature are significantly correlated (rs = 0.90; p = 0.02). this suggests that, in this dataset, the differences between the zooarchaeology foraging theory literature and that in archaeobotany are not a result of more zooarchaeologists identifying resource depression; instead, they seem to reflect more foraging-theory oriented archaeobotanists publishing on domestication, while more zooarchaeologists explore methodological issues. the strength of this result suggests as well that the uneven sample sizes between the zooarchaeology and archaeobotany papers are not causing the difference. the distribution of categories through time highlights another interesting result (figure 2). while there are variations through time, the most striking trend is the apparent decrease in the number of resource depression papers in the period 2013–2017. between 1997 and 2012, papers identifying resource depression in some form comprised between 22–29% of all optimal foraging zooarchaeology and archaeobotany papers. in the period between 2013 and 2017, resource depression papers drop to 18%. a spearman’s rank order correlation suggests a difference in category rank from 1997–2012 and 2013 –2016 (rs = 0.57; p = 0.17). another pattern in the chronological analysis concerns the prevalence of method papers. method papers are relatively frequent in the period 1997–2004 (23%), diminish in frequency between 2005 and 2012 (2005–2008: 12%; 2009–2012: 11%), and then increase between 2013 and 2017 (16%). discussion three major patterns in optimal foraging research in zooarchaeology and archaeobotany emerge from these data: 1) differences between the archaeobotanical and zooarchaeological literature seem to reflect the prevalence of domestication and methods papers, rather than a willingness to identify resource depression; 2) studies identifying prehistoric resource depression appear to be decreasing in frequency in the last few years; and 3) methodoriented papers, which were relatively common between 1997 and 2004, have, after a period of decline, increased again. we discuss each of these findings below. first, our review suggests identification of resource depression appears in the archaeobotanical foraging theory literature at rates similar to its jones and hurley. 2017. ethnobiology letters 8(1):35–42 39 research communications appearance in the zooarchaeological foraging theory literature; the more significant difference in the foraging theory literature between these two disciplines is the prevalence of domestication publications in the archaeobotanical literature and that of methods-oriented papers in the zooarchaeological literature. there are several important caveats to this finding. as discussed in the methods section, our search was limited to foraging theory publications; it did not consider analyses taking place outside of this theoretical framework. the work of archaeobotanists who fully reject optimal foraging theory is thus not represented in this dataset. however, these data do allow us to say resource depression has been identified in both the archaeobotanical and zooarchaeological literature, which has previously been a matter of some debate. second, although resource depression has been widely identified in archaeological papers over the last decade, foraging theory has been used to explore many other topics as well. these data show resource depression is far from as dominant in the foraging theory literature as it has been portrayed. in addition, identification of resource depression has decreased in the most recent literature, while papers assigning sustainable practice or environmental change as the causal mechanism for subsistence change have increased. this trend may reflect any of several different factors: it may be a stochastic change, it may be the result of increased funding for climate-related work available from u.s. governmental agencies associated with the american recovery and reinvestment act of 2009, it may be due to foraging theorists responding to critiques. but it is also possible that, in intellectual approaches as in the biological figure 1 topics of foraging theory publications in archaeobotany, in zooarchaeology, and in both. jones and hurley. 2017. ethnobiology letters 8(1):35–42 40 research communications world, diversity increases with time. foraging theory in archaeology began with resource depression. should it be any surprise, thirty years later, that the richness of foraging theory approaches has increased? the third finding, that method papers are again on the rise in the foraging theory literature, lends some support to the idea that the decrease in identification of resource depression may be at least in part a response to critiques. the prevalence of method papers relatively early in the history of foraging theory in archaeology is reasonable: the first applications of a new approach necessitate methodological conversations and the decline of such publications in later years, as researchers come to agreement on methods, makes sense. however, the recent increase is a surprise. while this may be stochastic variation rather than a true trend, the correlation of these papers with the timing of the publication of critiques associated with niche construction theory (e.g., gremillion et al. 2014; mohlenhoff et al. 2015; smith 2015; zeder 2015b) is suggestive. studies identifying resource depression in the archaeological record have, without a doubt, been one of the major contributions of optimal foraging theory to archaeology more broadly. we do not wish to downplay the importance of such studies. instead, the goal of this paper has been, quite simply, to address the question of whether studies of resource depression are as dominant in the archaeological optimal foraging literature as critiques often imply. our data show that in the past two decades, regardless of time of publication or of subdiscipline, resource depression is far from the only application of foraging theory. however, there are numerous questions that remain about how foraging theory is represented in figure 2 topics of foraging theory publications from 1997 through 2017. jones and hurley. 2017. ethnobiology letters 8(1):35–42 41 research communications zooarchaeology and archaeobotany, which are beyond the scope of this paper but nonetheless intriguing. to what degree is the literature dominated by certain prolific authors? while this dataset shows a wide range of approaches to foraging theory from many different researchers, the influence of specific individuals is apparent in the raw data. similarly, while the publications assessed here are based on research around the world in a multitude of countries and contexts, there does appear to be bias towards research originating in north america and particularly, western north america. is this regional focus changing, and if so, how? finally, the relationship between foraging theory and niche construction in the literature is not merely one of conflict; indeed, as several of the articles cited earlier in this discussion show, many authors find these to be compatible approaches (e.g., broughton et al. 2010; piperno et al. 2017; stiner and kuhn 2016). historical ecology, resilience, and sustainability, similarly, are non-optimality-based approaches used by researchers who also use foraging theory (see discussions in giovas 2016; redman 2005; reitz 2004; reitz et al. 2009). to what degree are hybrid approaches increasing in the literature? these questions remain to be answered. for now, however, we can say with certainty that while foraging theory in zooarchaeology and archaeobotany may not be “beyond depression,” it is certainly more than depression. acknowledgments our thanks to elic weitzel and steve wolverton for the invitation to participate in the session in which this paper had its origins; to the participants and attendees of the “foraging theory: zooarchaeology and archaeobotany” session at the 2016 society for ethnobiology meetings in tucson, arizona for comments and initial feedback; to the exceptionally helpful 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v.2: the place and meaning of plants in indigenous cultures and worldviews. by nancy turner. 2014. mcgill-queen’s university press, montreal. 1056 pp. mardones. 2016. ethnobiology letters 7(1):30–31. 30 reviews world, the material is presented in a genuinely approachable and engaging manner. the content is grounded in observations and examples accrued from nearly 50 years of collaboration with indigenous botanical experts of northwestern north america. the overarching theme guiding the discourse is, “how can the lessons of ethnobotanical and ethnoecological knowledge and its modes of dissemination, transmission, and adaptation be applied as components of ongoing cultural revitalization and maintenance of biocultural richness?” (p. 402, v.2). illustrating the benefits of collaborative, multidisciplinary approaches to research, turner discusses the investigation of kwäday dän ts'inchi (long ago person found), with protocols developed through collaboration between scientists, government, and first nations, leading to positive research outcomes. turner examines transmission of knowledge, technologies, and resources, drawing insightful parallels between analyses of linguistic and botanical knowledge transmission, and specifically how the linguistics of plant naming can shed light on the cultural and economic processes of transmission of both botanical knowledge and plant material. utilizing soapberry (shepherdia canadensis) as one case example, a high degree of congruence in its naming is shown to be a factor of its cultural salience, which led to a host of innovations in production and processing technology, as well as cultural developments such as stories, songs, and narratives that further added to soapberpresently retiring from her tenure as distinguished professor of ethnoecology at the university of victoria, eminent canadian ethnobotanist professor nancy turner is actively involved with the global diversity foundation and the hakai institute. in addition to numerous accolades she has earned for her life’s work, including the distinguished economic botanist of the year in 2011 and the william l. brown award for excellence in genetic resource conservation in 2008, her recent book, ancient pathways, ancestral knowledge, was the recipient of the 2014 james a. duke excellence in botanical literature award. the two volume set distills over 40 years of ethnobotanical research in western canada, and will be an indispensable resource for students and scholars of ethnobotany and ethnoecology, land management and policy makers, and herbalists and wild food enthusiasts. perhaps most importantly, the volumes stand as an invaluable treasury and record of the unique biocultural heritage of and for the people and communities who shared their traditional knowledge with her over the years. with this book, turner aims to “contribute to the advancement of knowledge and understandings both about cultural adaptations to specific places and environmental situations and about influences of people on these places and ecosystems” (p. 411, v.2). while the scope of these two volumes is vast, addressing complex scales of interactions across time between people, plants, cultures, and the natural ancient pathways, ancestral knowledge: ethnobotany and ecological wisdom of indigenous peoples of northwestern north america. v.1: the history and practice of indigenous plant knowledge; v.2: the place and meaning of plants in indigenous cultures and worldviews. by nancy turner. 2014. mcgill-queen’s university press, montreal. 1056 pp. vanessa mardones1* 1department of biology, memorial university of newfoundland, st. john’s, canada. *vmardones@mun.ca received december 11, 2015 open access accepted february 24, 2016 doi 10.14237/ebl.7.1.2016.551 copyright © 2016 mardones; licensee society of ethnobiology. this is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attributionnoncommercial 4.0 international public license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0), which permits non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. mardones. 2016. ethnobiology letters 7(1):30–31. 31 reviews ry’s perceived value and prevalence as a food source. by illustrating the adaptive and dynamic processes of building knowledge, turner shows the importance of conceptualizing and strengthening social and environmental interconnections in support of positive change in biocultural systems, “to reformulate our behaviors in ways that will allow us to live more sustainably in the world we have inherited and to bequeath it to the future in a fully functioning, healthy, vibrant, and diverse state” (p. 411, v.2). among the indigenous peoples she worked with, professor turner found a pervasive perspective that “humans are only strands in the immense fabric of the universe” (p. 351, v. 2). humans are seen as an interdependent part of their local environments, engaged in reciprocal relationships with natural resources, mediated by cultural traditions. these observations bear meaningful implications for land management and policy, and are made accessible to the reader through tables that detail techniques and approaches for maintaining and enhancing plant resources. a fascinating exploration of the interrelationships between the environmental and social contexts and their combined influence upon the dynamics of cultural and technological innovations, this book brilliantly portrays "a story of increasing diversification and complexity—in the species used, in the implements devised, and the social and cultural contexts of their application" (p. 411, v.1). the book includes a range of useful and informative reference tables that detail plant names, uses, and management. this is a synthesis of sophisticated complexity that is both engaging and immersive, due to the wealth of practical and theoretical insights derived from decades of collaboration with traditional knowledge holders. patterns of variation in the seed morphology of iva annua var. macrocarpa, an extinct north american domesticate weiland and gremillion. 2018. ethnobiology letters 9(2):75–89 75 research communications yarnell 1972; yarnell 1981), quickly surpassing maximum wild dimensions (4.5 mm) in the late archaic period (5000 to 3000 bp) and increasing gradually thereafter. this study builds on yarnell’s legacy of using seed morphology to detect overall patterns in the domestication process. however, whereas yarnell was primarily concerned with the effects of natural selection on average seed and fruit size under domestication, we focus instead on variation in these traits. as yarnell (1981) notes, there are some exceptions to the trend of increasing mean achene size. rather than being considered problematic, however, these anomalies can be used to better understand the large-scale cultural behavior that drove selection in prehistoric gardens and fields. for example, phenotypic variability in traits such as seed size is expected to decline as the gene pool of the domesticate becomes increasingly isolated from that of the parent population, but ongoing hybridization introduction while volney jones and melvin gilmore were the first scholars to present strong evidence for the “eastern agricultural complex” (eac) originally proposed by linton (1924), richard a. yarnell pushed this research forward by accumulating a large paleoethnobotanical database in which he was able to identify patterns across time and space. as part of this effort, he adopted the procedure of regularly measuring seeds and fruits to identify morphological correlates of domestication in plants native to eastern north america. yarnell used average lengths of achenes (the dry fruit type characteristic of the aster family, asteraceae) from the handful of sites available at the time to demonstrate the domesticate status of the weedy annual marshelder or sumpweed (iva annua l.; in its domesticated form known as i. annua l. var. macrocarpa [s.f. blake] r.c. jackson). marshelder achene size increased over time in eastern north america (blake 1939; jackson 1960; smith et al. 1992; patterns of variation in the seed morphology of iva annua var. macrocarpa, an extinct north american domesticate andrew w. weiland1* and kristen j. gremillion1 1department of anthropology, the ohio state university, columbus, oh, usa *weiland.8@osu.edu abstract using measurements from archaeological achenes of the extinct north american cultigen marshelder (iva annua var. macrocarpa [s.f. blake] r.c. jackson), we quantitatively explore patterns of variation of fruit length and width across mid-continental north america. linear regression shows that while achene length and width increase significantly over time (length: p-value<0.0001, b=-126.04, r2=0.1037, width: p-value<0.0001, b=-230.85, r2=0.0964), overall, regions tend to show more variation. a high incidence of phenotypic variation among domesticated marshelder as measured by coefficient of variation may be a result of introgression with wild stands. an anova tukey post-hoc analysis of archaeological site samples resulted in homogeneous subsets which correspond to region with some overlap, interpreted as a cline. these results and the low numbers of wild-sized achenes in archaeological marshelder samples of eastern kentucky support human introduction of domesticated marshelder into this region. marshelder in the archaeological record reflects the longstanding mixed economies of hunting-gathering and agriculture used by indigenous communities of eastern north america. received may 26, 2017 open access accepted december 12, 2017 doi 10.14237/ebl.9.2.2018.990 keywords paleoethnobotany, seed morphology, archaeology, native north america, domestication copyright © 2018 by the author(s); licensee society of ethnobiology. this is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution-noncommercial 4.0 international public license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0), which permits non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. supplementary files available at ojs.ethnobiology.org/index.php/ebl/article/view/990 mailto:weiland.8@osu.edu weiland and gremillion. 2018. ethnobiology letters 9(2):75–89 76 research communications may interfere with this process (allaby 2010). in contrast, imported seedstock might be highly uniform morphologically when first introduced, with subsequent gene flow dependent upon human agency. to explore this variability, we analyze data from central lowland sites in central and southern illinois, ozark plateaus sites in arkansas and missouri, interior low plateaus sites in kentucky and tennessee, and appalachian plateau sites, mostly from the cumberland escarpment in kentucky (figure 1). in doing so, we can take advantage of the reports, notes, and publications that have accumulated since yarnell wrote his piece on sunflower and sumpweed achene size in the first volume of the journal of ethnobiology in 1981, and more can be said using quantitative methods to analyze these measurements. we use statistics to examine trends in average marshelder achene dimensions over time to further characterize the patterns identified in yarnell’s work (1972, 1981). we also consider the effects that reproductive isolation of a small initial gene pool might have had on the rate of change and range of variation in achene dimensions. these patterns may be useful for differentiating between cases of in situ gradual domestication and introduction of imported seedstock into new locations. figure 1 map of select sites discussed and their accompanying geophysical regions. blue=ozark plateaus, green=central lowlands, purple=interior low plateau, orange=appalachian plateau sites, mostly located in the cumberland escarpment. (basemap: national geographic, i-cubed 2013) weiland and gremillion. 2018. ethnobiology letters 9(2):75–89 77 research communications seed and fruit morphology of iva annua seed morphology can provide domestication researchers with much-needed information about the rates of change, patterns, and diffusion of domesticates (fuller et al. 2012; gremillion 1993; harlan et al. 1973; mueller 2017; smith 1985; yarnell 1981). phenotypic change observed in archaeobotanical evidence represents the genetic biophysical imprint resulting from the selective environment created by long-term human adaptive strategies. tracking this domestication process through morphological changes in the phenotype creates a window through which archaeologists can view the selective pressures created by prehistoric populations’ interactions with plants. researchers have undertaken analyses of this kind for several of the native crop plants known as the eac. several of these plants exhibit traits characteristic of the adaptive syndrome of domestication (fuller 2007; harlan et al. 1973), such as increased seed and fruit size and reduction of structures that inhibit germination (gremillion 1993; mueller 2017; smith 2006; yarnell 1972). seed size is believed to be under relatively strong selection in human-modified habitats because of competition between seedlings that favors rapid germination and large reserves of food for early growth (harlan et al. 1973), and the differing selective effects of germination in the richer, less risky environments created by anthropogenic landscapes and agroecosystems (leishmann et al. 2001). among the eac crops that demonstrate this trend is the weedy annual marshelder, which was most likely grown for its protein-rich oily kernels. over 50 years of study has demonstrated that selection for larger kernels and surrounding achenes took place under human influence between roughly 3620 and 600 years cal bp. the domesticated form of marshelder declined in human use in the late prehistoric around 600 cal bp, eventually becoming extinct, probably due to disuse and introgression with wild populations of this wind-pollinated species. wild marshelder, before its domestication—as today—had an average achene length of around 3 mm, never surpassing 4.5 mm (for an exception, see mueller et al. 2017), whereas domesticated marshelder often reached 9 mm, frequently documented with a mean sample length of 6 mm in archaeological samples (yarnell 1972, 1981). smith (1992) has demarcated the minimum measurement to consider marshelder domesticated at a mean of 4.0–4.2 mm long in an archaeological context. the earliest evidence of wild marshelder in an archaeological context comes from the titterington phase of the koster site in the illinois river valley and dates to 6055 cal bp (asch and asch 1978). mean length and width for these achenes fall well within the wild size range (2.3 x 1.9 mm, n length=284, n width=340) and well below the domesticate cutoff of 4.0–4.2 mm. other early examples from illinois include the cahokia interpretive center tract (ict) site (3321 bp) (nassaney et al. 1982), and titus horizon 2 (3335 bp) (asch and asch 1978). these findings indicate that free-living marshelder was present locally in the central lowlands, as it is today, a frequent colonizer of disturbed floodplain soils and anthropogenic habitats (asch and asch 1978; smith 1992). the earliest evidence for domesticated marshelder is from 44 achenes from feature 20 at napoleon hollow, dated to 3920 ± 40 cal bp (smith and yarnell 2009). these specimens averaged 4.2 mm in length. domesticated marshelder achenes at napoleon hollow and riverton (3370 ± 40 cal bp) sites in illinois predate its first appearance on the appalachian plateau of eastern kentucky, which comes from the hooton hollow rock shelter and has been directly dated to 3315 cal bp (gremillion 1996). the scarcity of marshelder in modern appalachian plateau flora (black 1963, cowan 1985) and the lack of wild-size marshelder from archaeological collections suggest that human intervention brought marshelder to the appalachian plateau, already in domesticated form. black (1963) and cowan (1985) claimed that there were no modern wild stands in kentucky. but, these publications predate electronic sources such as the usda plants (usda, nrcs 2017) website and many plant guides using updated surveys. while such sources correctly identify the presence of modern wild marshelder in many counties in states formerly thought to be outside its natural range, a systematic literature and herbarium review has yet to be executed detailing wild marshelder’s modern ubiquity and density in various regions. it seems that marshelder stands exist in the appalachian plateau, but not as densely or ubiquitously as in locations in the ozark plateaus (natalie mueller, personal communication). it is also difficult to determine what the existence of modern wild stands of marshelder means in terms of their prehistoric distribution. some anecdotal evidence that has yet to be tested points to marshelder’s weiland and gremillion. 2018. ethnobiology letters 9(2):75–89 78 research communications existence close to archaeological sites, which may represent remnant populations from human plantings. if this interpretation is accurate, the expanded metric database for marshelder should reveal the following patterns: 1. new data will support the inference that selection under human management drove an increase in achene length and a reduction of variance in this characteristic over time. 2. in locations where marshelder was domesticated from wild populations, or where domesticated marshelder was introduced into areas with wild populations, the trend to increased achene size and reduction of variability in this trait will be inhibited by ongoing hybridization. 3. in locations where marshelder was introduced as a domesticate, and wild marshelder was absent, variation in achene size should be relatively low because of reproductive isolation from wild populations. there should be a directional trend to larger achenes and low variability compared to locations where marshelder was domesticated from wild populations. 4. each regional population should have an achene size distribution, forming a geographical cline with domesticated marshelder in adjacent regions. materials and methods to evaluate this model of marshelder domestication, we have assembled a body of metric data from the mid-continental united states. this area has the longest history of systematically-collected plant remains and includes sites both within and outside the densest areas of marshelder’s modern natural range (black 1963; usda, nrcs 2017). this study incorporates raw data gleaned from site reports and published literature and uses averages and ranges of assemblages when raw measurements were not available. small samples (i.e., < 20n) were useful for mean length and width but in some cases, yielded a coefficient of variation (cv) that was probably artificially high. sample sizes were most useful for all tests used when they neared 100 n. in addition to publications (supplemental table 1), some measurements were gleaned from notes of the second author and spreadsheets compiled by george crothers (also available in supplemental table 1). crothers and faulkner (1991) reported statistical analyses of marshelder at the society of ethnobiology conference and graciously allowed us to make use of their unpublished data compiled for this presentation. in the case of courthouse rock, kentucky, weiland (2013) used a dissecting microscope with a reticule eyepiece at a magnification of 10x, which allowed for accuracy of measurement to 0.1 mm. desiccated, uncarbonized achenes were measured at the longest part along the center, from the proximal hilum to the distal end of the fruit. width was measured at the widest section of these relatively flat fruits. published works did not always describe methods of measurement, but as these are fairly straightforward we believe they are comparable. for carbonized remains from published works that did not already use a correction factor, we used the asch and asch (first described in stafford et al. 1985) method to correct carbonized measurements to approximate fresh achene and kernel measurements. per this method, achene length and width were divided by 0.90. for kernels without surrounding achene, the following formulas were followed to replicate uncarbonized seeds with achenes still attached: 1) uncarbonized achene length=1.36 x (carbonized kernel length) + 0.17 mm; 2) uncarbonized achene width=1.45 x (carbonized kernel width) – 0.06 mm. we analyze temporal trends and patterns of variation using anova with post-hoc analysis, linear regression, and comparing cv. quantitative analysis and graphic representations were made using r studio 1.0.153. different sets and subsets of our data were used based on the requirements of each analysis or figure. linear regressions using site mean (figures 2a and 2b) required a radiocarbon date associated with the marshelder sample (n=17). linear regressions using individual achene measurements (figures 2c and 2d) required length and width measurements for all achenes and radiocarbon dates associated with the marshelder sample: n=994 from 11 sites. the anovas testing period and region required individual achene measurements in samples exceeding 20 achenes and a context directly assigned a period by the excavators: n=994 from 11 sites. determining cv and 95% confidence intervals required that mean, n, and standard deviation (sd) be reported by analysts in samples exceeding 20 achenes: ten archaeological sites and 12 modern stands were used. figures 3a, 3b, 4a, and 4b showing achene length in relation to period and region required a site mean and a context directly assigned a period by the excavators: n=50. weiland and gremillion. 2018. ethnobiology letters 9(2):75–89 79 research communications figure 2 linear regressions of site mean achene measurements vs. years calibrated bp (a, b), and individual achene measurements vs. years calibrated bp (c, d). blue lines represent slope (b), and gray areas represent 95% confidence interval. a) linear regression for mean site achene length vs. years calibrated bp (n=17, t=-3.624, p-value=0.0025, b=-666.9, r2=0.4669) b) linear regression for mean site achene width vs. years calibrated bp (n=17, t=-3.187, p-value<0.00612, b=959.9, r2=0.4037) c) linear regression for achene width vs. years calibrated bp (n=994, t=-10.71, p-value<0.0001, b=126.04, r2=0.1037) d) linear regression for achene width vs. years calibrated bp (n=994, t=-10.26, p-value<0.0001, b=230.85, r2=0.0964). (continued on next page) weiland and gremillion. 2018. ethnobiology letters 9(2):75–89 80 research communications (continued from previous page) figure 2 linear regressions of site mean achene measurements vs. years calibrated bp (a, b), and individual achene measurements vs. years calibrated bp (c, d). blue lines represent slope (b), and gray areas represent 95% confidence interval. a) linear regression for mean site achene length vs. years calibrated bp (n=17, t=-3.624, p-value=0.0025, b=-666.9, r2=0.4669) b) linear regression for mean site achene width vs. years calibrated bp (n=17, t=-3.187, p-value<0.00612, b=959.9, r2=0.4037) c) linear regression for achene width vs. years calibrated bp (n=994, t=-10.71, p-value<0.0001, b=126.04, r2=0.1037) d) linear regression for achene width vs. years calibrated bp (n=994, t=-10.26, p-value<0.0001, b=230.85, r2=0.0964). weiland and gremillion. 2018. ethnobiology letters 9(2):75–89 81 research communications radiocarbon dates all dates are radiocarbon laboratory results calibrated in oxcal 4.2 online (bronk ramsey 2010), using the median and its two-sigma range. the presentation of this median rather than the range is used for input into statistical programs, and retained throughout the text for coherence. one exception to these calibrated radiocarbon dates is thor’s hammer, whose single radiocarbon date (from surface material) is inconsistent with archaeological indicators that point to an early late woodland period occupation. for this reason, thor’s hammer has been assigned the early woodland date of 1350 bp, so that its raw measurements could be incorporated into the regressions below. results we used linear regression to assess the statistical significance and rate of change in seed length and width over time for the 17 samples for which radiocarbon samples and site means were available. the closeness of fit of multiple measurements, expressed in the coefficient of determination (r2), shows how much of an effect chronological placement in years cal bp has on seed length and width. first, we tested whether length and width consistently had an effect on the other to see whether they indeed seemed to be evolving at the same rate. the fit was highly significant (p-value<0.001), at r2=0.89. the slope with width on the y-axis was b=1.46, and similarly, the covariance between length and width was consistent at all quartiles at 1.22. length (n=17, t=-3.624, p-value=0.0025, b=-666.9, r2=0.4669) and width (n=17, t=-3.187, pvalue<0.00612, b=-959.9, r2=0.4037) of marshelder achenes both increased statistically significantly, albeit gradually, over time (figures 2a and 2b). chronological placement explains about 40% of the variation in size. notice that although length and width correlate neatly in the other tests, when plotted directly against calibrated years bp, the rates of change expressed in the beta, or slope, differ notably. when interpreted literally, it would take an average of 667 years for marshelder achenes to grow one millimeter longer, while it would take an average of 960 years for achenes to grow one millimeter wider. because means can mask variation, we performed a similar analysis using individual achene measurements, which were available from 11 sites (figure 2c and 2d). for this set of samples—a smaller subset of the previous set of 17—length and width were not as good a fit to a linear regression when set against the other. although highly significant, (p-value<0.0001), the coefficient of determination was much lower, at r2=0.3387. the slope was b=0.038 and they covaried at all quartiles at 0.7362. using these raw seed lengths and widths, time accounted for only about 10% of the variation in length (n=994, t=-10.71, p-value<0.0001, b=-126.04, r2=0.1037) and width (n=994, t=-10.26, pvalue<0.0001, b=-230.85, r2=0.0964). the slope, interpreted as rate of change over years bp, was much lower than with the site means, at 126 years to grow a millimeter longer, and 231 years to grow a millimeter wider. average achene size therefore does increase significantly over time throughout the region, although it is only weakly correlated with time of deposition. perhaps this is why yarnell (1981) found that (achene length) x (achene width) was not always an accurate predictor of temporal placement. in our analysis, change in average achene size across time is a proxy for the evolutionary forces resulting from human intervention. in other words, time as measured in calibrated years bp, while not causal in and of itself, we use as a causal variable in our regressions. we assume that residual variation in size is due to regional, microclimatological, and seasonal effects such as average temperature, average rainfall, exposure to sunlight, and time of harvesting. such variables have the ability to affect plastic traits during seed and fruit development and may explain the relatively poor fit of achene metrics to the slope of the regression. sources of variation other than calibrated years before present could also include taphonomic factors from depositional contexts to recovery techniques. another reason for the poor fit may be ongoing gene flow from free-living wild marshelder populations. sympatric wild populations would likely have frequently contributed their windborne pollen to plants growing in garden plots. we explore these possibilities further in the next section. to assess patterns of size variation across time and space, we divided sites with marshelder into four regions: appalachian plateau, which includes the cumberland escarpment and two samples from the carolinas; inland low plateau, which includes western kentucky and tennessee; central lowlands, which includes the lower illinois river valley and the american bottom; and the ozark plateaus which include sites from missouri and arkansas. the sample size of mean lengths from each of yarnell’s 23 sites (1981) was increased to 50 by using his same sites, weiland and gremillion. 2018. ethnobiology letters 9(2):75–89 82 research communications figure 3 a) boxplot on strip chart of mean site achene length by archaeological period. boxplots show mean, interquartile range, and outliers of multiple sites per period (n=50) b) strip chart of mean site achene length by archaeological period (n=50). weiland and gremillion. 2018. ethnobiology letters 9(2):75–89 83 research communications incorporating new data, then assigning a period, as radiocarbon dates were not readily available for most site contexts. although some sites had multiple components, measurements were taken only from features with the period designation assigned by the excavators. it becomes immediately evident from plotting achene length (figures 3a, 3b) that the extreme differences between early wild-sized achenes in illinois, and later domesticates from throughout the region, has a large influence on the linear regression of achene size against time and the appearance of the trend. regional trends outside of the central lowland sites are not as pronounced as our regression analysis implies, and each has its own trajectory over time. domestication of marshelder and subsequent diffusion to other regions anthropogenically should result in each region having its own typical achene size distribution. domesticated marshelder would then form a cline with domesticated populations in adjacent regions. this hypothesis was tested by comparing the distributions of individual achene lengths in various samples. an anova tukey posthoc analysis revealed homogeneous subsets of sites mostly along regional lines (supplemental table 2, figures 4a and 4b). appalachian plateau sites cloudsplitter, hooton hollow, and newt kash have similar distributions, then newt kash overlaps with thor’s hammer, courthouse rock, and rogers/ haystack. interior low plateau sites are also in the same homogeneous subset, with salts cave (middle), salts cave (upper), and big bone cave all overlapping, and encompassing cold oak from the appalachian plateau. salts cave (middle) overlaps with many of the appalachian plateau sites as well. smiling dan, il overlaps with the appalachian plateau sites of hooton hollow and cloudsplitter. together these homogeneous subsets resemble and are interpreted as a cline. alred bluff, arkansas, collins, missouri, and cahokia-ict, illinois are all outliers to this apparent cline. in the case of terminal archaic features from cahokia-ict, the presence of wild-type marshelder explains its outlier status and contrast with the middle woodland smiling dan site in the same region. reasons for the separation of values from the two ozarks sites are not clear. however, the high-value end of the frequency distributions for interior low plateau overlaps with the low-value end for the appalachian plateau. this pattern suggests variation across a geographical cline, as would occur in the case of gene flow between adjacent populations of domesticated marshelder. a more macro-scale anova testing the effect of region on achene size reveals a similar pattern, albeit with less nuance and variation. each region is distinct from the others (p-value<0.0001), except when comparing measurements from interior low plateau sites to appalachian plateau sites (p-value=0.9564) (see figures 4a and 4b for visual representation). we hypothesized that seed size would show a trend towards decreased variation within each region that parallels the intensifying selective pressure of domestication and, in some areas, the absence of gene flow with wild populations. coefficients of variation (cvs) with 95% confidence intervals (steel and torrie 1980; verill 2013, verill and johnson 2007) were compared to show how phenotypic variability differs by site, region, time period, and domesticate status. a linear regression of cv against years cal bp proved not to be significant, (p-value=0.5996, r2=0.0259) with the sites used, showing that cv of phenotype does not reflect a reduction of achene size variation in any of the sampled sub-regions. modern wild populations (asch and asch 1978) are not too different in cv than their archaeological counterparts (figure 5). the cv for cahokia-ict is much higher than that recorded for some of the modern wild populations. although mean achene size increases over time, the regression analysis shows that intrapopulational phenotypic variation in marshelder achene size does not decrease as predicted and does not differ between domesticated and wild types found archaeologically. modern wild populations gathered from single stands can serve as a baseline that should capture variation as it exists in a particular time and place, eliminating the possibility that multiple populations are being sampled (figure 5). one obvious exception is the terminal archaic site of cahokia-ict. this site, again, is one of the earlier ones represented in the central lowlands, and the variation observed seems to be due to the presence of both wild and domesticated size achenes in the sample. alred bluff is within the range of variation of modern harvested stands, but the mean of marshelder lengths is second highest. fluctuations in variation of achene size are either due to introgression between wild and domesticated stands, archaeobotanical preservation, and/or problematic sampling between time periods. it is assumed that introgression in this case would result in the simultaneous existence of both the wild and domesticate form. archaeobotanical preservation is nearly impossible to control for in this regard. although there is no evidence that either cahokia weiland and gremillion. 2018. ethnobiology letters 9(2):75–89 84 research communications figure 4 a) density of various lengths of marshelder by region based on site means (n=50). b) boxplot of mean site achene length by region (n=50). boxplots show mean, interquartile range, and outliers of multiple sites per region. weiland and gremillion. 2018. ethnobiology letters 9(2):75–89 85 research communications fi gu re 5 c o effi ci e n t o f va ri ati o n ( c v ) fo r le n gt h o f m ar sh e ld e r ac h en es w it h 9 5 % c o n fi d e n ce i n te rv al s. h o llo w c ir cl e s in d ic at e c v ; ve rti ca l lin e s re p re se n t th e ra n ge b et w ee n u p p er a n d lo w er 9 5 % c o n fi d en ce in te rv al s o f c v . weiland and gremillion. 2018. ethnobiology letters 9(2):75–89 86 research communications ict or alred bluff had issues, problematic sampling and reporting are difficult to control for when using secondary data sets. admittedly, determining what a sample represents is at the core of the difficulty in using cv as a measure of domestication patterns. even in features where disturbance, sampling, and radiocarbon dates are not problematic, difficulty exists. does the archaeological sample represent a single deposit from one plant at one collection site, or does it represent multiple deposits from one or two hundred years of collection from many stands located in many different microclimates? cv, therefore, may be measuring any one of these scenarios, and not providing information about introgression or isolation. if marshelder measurements are assigned specific provenience and exist in a distinct temporal frame, then it is more likely to measure introgression. if it is introgression causing the high cv in alred bluff and cahokia-ict samples, then this provides more evidence for human introduction of marshelder into the appalachian plateau and interior low plateau. the relatively low cvs of appalachian plateau samples may indicate a lack of introgression, meaning that there were no wild stands with which to cross-pollinate. if there were few to no wild stands in the appalachian plateau, which seems likely given wild marshelder’s infrequent occurrences that far east today and the lack of wild-sized achenes in archaeological collections, then it is likely marshelder was introduced either through migration or cultural diffusion into that region. if the archaeological record of the appalachian plateau instead showed the wild form of marshelder spreading out of its natural range to new areas, we could argue for an unintended introduction, or a gradual evolutionary trajectory following a polyphyletic version of the floodplain weed theory of domestication. however, available evidence points to the process described in the floodplain weed theory (anderson 1956; harris 1990; smith 1992) taking place elsewhere. discussion while larger achenes are a trend, circumstances leading to larger marshelder achenes are not the same across eastern north america. some sites exist outside of the neat homogeneous subsets (supplemental table 2). alred bluff, arkansas and collins, missouri sites are outliers in the ozark plateaus, while cahokia-ict, illinois is an outlier from the central lowlands. these three sites could have introgressed with wild stands in the natural range of wild marshelder, while the overlap between the appalachian plateau and interior low plateau represents a similarity between domesticated marshelder populations, perhaps cross-pollinating somewhere in central kentucky, where the two domesticates came into contact, creating a cline of domesticated marshelder. marshelder is not abundant in the modern appalachian plateau. modern distribution has been extrapolated to prehistory (black 1963), implying a later introduction either by humans or flooding (smith et al. 1992). marshelder introduction to the appalachian plateau can be explained by one of the three following scenarios: 1) domesticated marshelder from the west was imported through human diffusion or migration, and maintained in its domesticate form; 2) wild-sized marshelder from the west was imported through human diffusion or migration, and plants responded to the new environment with larger achene size; or 3) wild-sized achene bearing plants were dispersed from the west without human intervention, and plants responded to the new environment with larger achene size. the first scenario seems most likely. the stability of achene size over time in the appalachian plateau with no dramatic increase in size supports the hypotheses of a human introduction of an alreadydomesticated marshelder. similarly, the comparatively “normal” cv provides evidence for a relatively homogenous population. this homogeneity is expected given the assumed lack of wild stands of marshelder in the appalachian plateau, which would have prevented gene flow and introgression between populations. unless there was a rapid and expansive selection against the wild form of marshelder, the expectation for the second two scenarios would be that wild plants responding to the new environment would phenotypically exhibit a mixture of traits characteristic of both wild and domesticated forms. therefore, we would expect a very high cv, which we do not observe in the appalachian plateau. allaby’s (2010:938) observation that domestication may not be possible without translocation of the plant out of its biogeographical range is most interesting for this discussion. is it possible that marshelder had to be imported into the geographic isolation of the appalachian plateau or elsewhere before it could be domesticated? could it have its natural range in the illinois river valley, and other parts of the mississippi river drainage, but achieve full domestication only after a bottleneck in a weiland and gremillion. 2018. ethnobiology letters 9(2):75–89 87 research communications geographically isolated region? domestication of plants necessitates some level geographic isolation, but rarely reproductive isolation to the point of speciation (harlan et al. 1973). there is no evidence that intensive harvesting of wild stands alone can have a genetic effect on populations of plants selected by humans (harlan et al. 1973; yarnell 1972). therefore, there must be some level of intentionality to the domestication process, either by: 1) moving a plant from its natural range; 2) changing the selective environment through land management; or 3) intentionally isolating domesticates from their wild relatives through garden plot location or harvesting practices. conclusion regardless of the origins of domesticated marshelder, the fact remains that it is ubiquitous in archaeological deposits that span multiple cultures and multiple subsistence strategies from the late archaic through the late prehistoric. marshelder is found in contexts representing a range of social forms, from the seminomadic peoples of eastern kentucky to the great cahokian polity. evidence suggests that it played a role in both immediate-return and delayed-return economies (woodburn 1982) and in contexts associated with hunter-gatherers and agriculturalists as classically defined. most of the societies using domesticated marshelder, however, belong to the “middle ground” of mixed subsistence strategies such as the “low-level food production” that characterizes a great deal of the prehistory of eastern north america, beginning in the late archaic (smith 2001). this reliance upon some crops that have been incorporated into a general hunting-gathering subsistence strategy is problematic for any attempt to replicate a unilineal model of food production. the archaeological record in general and seed morphology specifically contradict this stage of mixed economy as merely transitional. rather, evolution of marshelder achene size implies relatively large-scale manipulations of the landscape by people utilizing this crop. acknowledgements thanks to george crothers and charles t. faulkner for their generosity in passing on raw data. declarations permissions: not applicable. sources of funding: none declared. conflicts of interest: none declared. references cited allaby, r. 2010. integrating the processes in the evolutionary system of domestication. journal of experimental botany 61:935–944. doi:10.1093/jxb/ erp382. anderson, e. 1956. man as a maker 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saraiva martins, nelson menolli jr., carlos sanuma, lukas raimundo sanuma, marinaldo sanuma, oscar ipoko sanuma, and keisuke tokimoto. 2016. instituto socioambiental, são paulo. 108 pp. coimbra and welch. 2018. ethnobiology letters 9(2):309–311 309 reviews readers interested in ethnomycology and ethnobiology and with proficiency in written sanöma or portuguese will be introduced to 11 named sanöma edible mushroom ethnotaxa, corresponding to 15 scientific taxa, the majority of which were identified to species level following current mycological nomenclatural conventions. sanöma cultural knowledge is accompanied by careful review of previously published yanomami ethnomycological studies (fidalgo and prance 1976; prance 1973), presented in footnotes throughout the book and a dedicated table comparing different versions of native and scientific names. the book presents 15 botanically recognized taxa pertaining to seven genera. seven of these had not been reported previously in the yanomami literature: lentinula raphanica, lentinus bertieri, panus strigellus, pleurotus albideus, pleurotus djamor, polyporus phillipinensis, and polyporus aff. thailandensis. four species were published by botanists fidalgo and prance between 1976 and 1984: favolus brasiliensis, polyporus aquosos; polyporus tricholoma, and lentinus crinitus. another four species reported by fidalgo and prance (1976) have had their scientific names updated following contemporary nomenclature: hydnopolyporus fimbriatus (= h. palmatus), panus neostrigosus (= p. rudis), panus velutinnus (lentinus velutinus), and lentinus concavus (= pleurotus concavus). these sanöma fungi were identified with such taxonomic precision through the efforts of this is the second book in a series published by the instituto socioambiental that aims to be a comprehensive encyclopedia of sanöma yanomami foods. organized into five chapters, it focuses on the description, dietary uses, and agricultural contexts of wild edible fungi collected by the sanöma, a yanomami subgroup of approximately 3,000 people residing in 19 villages in a federal indigenous reserve in the awaris region, close to the brazilian border with venezuela. the volume’s uniqueness derives from its seamless integration of emic and botanical taxonomic information through rich description and numerous colorful photographs and illustrations exploring the role of mushrooms in yanomami food culture. it was produced by sanöma schoolteachers through a collaboration between the hutukara yanomami association, the instituto socioambiental, and the universidade federal de minas gerais. additional support and partnership were also provided by four brazilian scientific institutions, the tottori mycological institute in japan, and the royal botanical gardens, kew. a preface written by world famous yanomae shaman david kopenawa yanomami also contributed to the publication of this beautifully edited, hardbound, and illustrated volume that appeals to a broad audience. the book is entirely bilingual, with all texts fully reproduced in sanöma (a yanomami language) and portuguese. enciclopédia dos alimentos yanomami (sanöma): cogumelos. edited by resende maxiba apiamö, joana autuori, noemia kazue ishikawa, moreno saraiva martins, nelson menolli jr., carlos sanuma, lukas raimundo sanuma, marinaldo sanuma, oscar ipoko sanuma, and keisuke tokimoto. 2016. instituto socioambiental, são paulo. 108 pp. carlos e. a. coimbra jr.1* and james r. welch1 1escola nacional de saúde pública, fundação oswaldo cruz, rio de janeiro, brazil. *coimbra@ensp.fiocruz.br received september 30, 2018 open access accepted november 9, 2018 doi 10.14237/ebl.9.2.2018.1411 copyright © 2018 by the author(s) licensee society of ethnobiology. this is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution-noncommercial 4.0 international public license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0), which permits non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. coimbra and welch. 2018. ethnobiology letters 9(2):309–311 310 reviews knowledgeable yanomami field researchers, precise morphological analyses of voucher specimens by professional mycologists and botanists, and state-ofthe-art biomolecular taxonomic analyses carried out in brazilian and japanese mycology laboratories. in addition to edible fungi, the authors also present detailed information about their garden ecologies and substrate trees (standing, fallen, and stumps). emphasis is placed on the appearance of specific mushroom taxa at different stages of the garden cycle, including after initial felling of trees, after burning, and at different stages of garden management and regrowth. most of the host trees were identified to species or genus level and are presented in a table with native sanöma names and associated mushrooms. human ecologists, ethnobiologists, and ethnographers interested in food ecology will find in this book detailed explanations about the availability and use of wild mushrooms in a local amazonian swidden agricultural system. detailed information is provided for each ethnotaxon about where and when they grow, how they are gathered, and their culinary uses. according to the authors, no cultural dietary prohibition applies to mushrooms, although some are preferred by youth or preferentially collected by women or men, depending whether they grow in gardens, fallows, or forest areas. younger people prefer the more flavorful varieties, which they “...consider as satisfactory and nutritious as meat” (p. 27, our translation). the sanöma distinguish two kinds of hunger, translated as “protein hunger” and “carbohydrate hunger.” mushrooms are classified among foods that satisfy protein hunger, along with fish and game meat. depending on the variety, they are wrapped in leaves and roasted or boiled and thickened into a soup. to prepare a complete meal, they are combined with beiju (manioc) flatbread and cooked plantains. we are not aware of any other contribution to the ethnobiology of food of indigenous amazonian peoples that so effectively communicates the cultural relevance of edible mushrooms. published descriptions of mushrooms in indigenous amazonian diets are sparse, mainly addressing northeastern amazonian groups in colombia and venezuela near the brazilian border region (vargas-isla et al. 2013). for instance, numerous fungi and related ecological relationships are documented for the tukano, witoto, muinane, andoke, and yanomami ethnic groups (prance 1972; vasco-palacios et al. 2008). of particular note are the hoti in venezuela, whose knowledge and use of over 30 folk taxa of fungi made such an impression to ethnomycologists that they came to be described as a “mycophilic society” (zent et al. 2004). while addressing fewer fungus taxa, enciclopédia dos alimentos yanomami (sanöma): cogumelos stands out in comparison to these previous publications by foregrounding the emic culinary and ecological perspectives of its predominantly indigenous team of authors and researchers. another highlight of this publication is the exceptional quality of mushroom photography and illustration, including in loco images and representations of mushrooms in gardens and forests, agricultural settings, and culinary techniques. these features contribute to the book’s value not only as a unique theoretical contribution to amazonian ethnobiology and, more specifically, ethnomycology, but also as a useful field resource for ethnobiologists, human ecologists, anthropologists working among indigenous peoples in the triple frontier zone between brazil, colombia, and venezuela. it will also be appreciated by gourmet cooks and chefs because the instituto socioambiental markets this book in conjunction with the sale of small packets of mixed dry edible fungi collected by the sanöma yanomami in their forests and gardens (15g packets of whole mushrooms and 30g packets of powdered mushrooms). recipes for broths, cream and sauces are printed on the packet labels and published on the instituto socioambiental website, complementing the culinary descriptions included in the book. the book comes out at a particularly sensitive moment in the trajectory of brazilian public policies aimed at protecting biodiversity and traditional peoples’ intellectual property rights. the country’s unsettled stance of protectionism and paternalism towards indigenous peoples overlays its implementation of the convention on biological diversity by federal laws that are bureaucratically overzealous but lacking substantive protections for the people they ostensibly aim to protect. as noted by welch (2015:216), “…the new law may have been enacted through a process marred by major legal oversights, including inadequate previous consultation with indigenous peoples…” thereby frustrating both indigenous representatives and researchers. given this backdrop, the enciclopédia dos alimentos yanomami (sanöma) serves as an example of indigenous coimbra and welch. 2018. ethnobiology letters 9(2):309–311 311 reviews intellectual autonomy through collaborative research and scientific communication aimed at promoting conservation awareness and cultural respect in the non-indigenous brazilian public. kopenawa’s preface lucidly and eloquently situates the book’s sanöma authors’ efforts to publish traditional knowledge about local mycological diversity as a tool to address ethnocentrism and environmental degradation. as he (p. 17–18, our translation) explains, this book was also written because we yanomae and sanöma want to teach to nonindigenous people, using this non-indigenous tool, which is writing and paper. … we yanomami have great knowledge of the forest. we are the true experts of the forest. we want to demonstrate to non-indigenous people and make them respect our knowledge. we want to make them listen. this way non-indigenous people will learn, gain wisdom. … you non-indigenous people cut down the trees indiscriminately. you wreck the forest without thinking about the consequences. we yanomami do not do this. and because of this the mushrooms grow in the forest. by connecting the book’s rich ethnomycological detail to larger social and environmental challenges, kopenawa’s written words highlight that one of its greatest strengths is its viewpoint, which is artfully intercultural, reaching through and beyond disciplinary boundaries. references cited fidalgo, o., and g. t. prance. 1976. the ethnomycology of the sanama indians. mycologia 68:201–210. doi:10.2307/3758915. prance, g. t. 1973. the mycological diet of the yanomam indians. mycologia 65:248–250. doi:10.2307/3757814. prance, g. t. 1972. an ethnobotanical comparison of four tribes of amazonian indians. acta amazonica 2:7–27. doi:10.1590/180943921972022007. vargas-isla, r., n. k. ishikawa, and v. py-daniel. 2013. contribuições etnomicológicas dos povos indígenas da amazônia. biota amazônia 3:58–65. doi:10.18561/2179-5746/biotaamazonia.v3n1p5865. vasco-palacios, a. m., s. c. suaza, m. castañobetancur, and a. e. franco-molano. 2008. conocimiento etnoecólogico de los hongos entre los indígenas uitoto, muinane y andoke de la amazonía colombiana. acta amazonica 38:17–30. doi:10.1590/s0044-59672008000100004. welch, j. r. 2015. brazil’s new biodiversity law. ethnobiology letters 6:216–217. doi:10.14237/ ebl.6.1.2015.562. zent, e. l., s. zent, and t. iturriga. 2004. knowledge and use of fungi by a mycophilic society of the venezuelan amazon. economic botany 58:214–226. doi:10.1663/0013-0001(2004)058[0214:kauofb] 2.0.co;2. the charcoal quantification tool (chartool): a suite of open-source tools for quantifying charcoal fragments and sediment properties in archaeological and paleoecological analysis snitker. 2020. ethnobiology letters 11(1):103–115 103 data, methods & taxonomies greater access to digital microscopes and image analysis software has presented new opportunities for the development of digital charcoal quantification procedures (halsall et al. 2018; hawthorne and mitchell 2016; thevenon and anselmetti 2007). most digital charcoal analysis relies primarily on greyscale video or still images to isolate and quantify optically dense (i.e., dark-colored) charcoal fragments (halsall et al. 2018). while the functional advantages and disadvantages of automated and digital charcoal analysis have been evaluated in the literature (see whitlock and larsen 2001 for an overview), there has been relatively little engagement with the specific challenges (e.g., digital data creation, access, and curation) associated with digital data generated through these methods. to exacerbate these issues, introduction sedimentary charcoal is the primary proxy used in reconstructing past fire activity (whitlock and anderson 2003). charcoal accumulation observed at multiple spatial and temporal scales can provide insights into the bio-climatic drivers of landscape fire and regional vegetation dynamics (whitlock and larsen 2001), as well as anthropogenic influences on fire and fuel dynamics through intentional burning (bowman et al. 2011), fuel wood harvesting practices (nelle et al. 2013), and other long-term humanenvironmental relationships (bliege bird et al. 2018). visual counts and measurements at low magnification remain the standard method for quantifying charcoal fragment abundance across multiple disciplines (whitlock and anderson 2003). in recent years, the charcoal quantification tool (chartool): a suite of open-source tools for quantifying charcoal fragments and sediment properties in archaeological and paleoecological analysis grant snitker1* 1department of crop and soil sciences, college of agricultural and environmental sciences, university of georgia, athens, usa. *grant.snitker@uga.edu abstract sedimentary charcoal analysis is increasingly used in archaeological and paleoecological research to examine human-environmental relationships at multiple scales. the recent availability of low-cost digital microscopes and imaging software has resulted in the rapid adoption of digital image analysis in charcoal studies. however, most published studies include only minimal accounts of software configurations or utilize proprietary image analysis programs, thus hindering replication, standardization, and comparability of charcoal analyses across the field. in an effort to encourage replicable methods and a culture of open science, this paper presents the charcoal quantification tool (chartool), a free, open-source suite of charcoal and sediment quantification tools designed for use with imagej. chartool blends standard methods in visual and digital charcoal analysis to increase the analyst’s participation in identifying and measuring charcoal metrics. each chartool module is described and demonstrated in a vignette using sedimentary charcoal collected from the son servera study area, mallorca, spain. a suggested workflow, user-guide, scripted analyses for processing outputs, and download instructions are included as supplementary materials to this article. received october 6, 2019 open access accepted june 19, 2020 doi 10.14237/ebl.11.1.2020.1653 published september 18, 2020 keywords archaeology, paleoecology, charcoal analysis, image analysis, imagej, r copyright © 2020 by the author(s); licensee society of ethnobiology. this is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution-noncommercial 4.0 international public license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0), which permits non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. supplementary files available at https://doi.org/10.14237/ebl.11.1.2020.1653 snitker. 2020. ethnobiology letters 11(1):103–115 104 data, methods & taxonomies often-minimal descriptions of software configurations and the use of paywall-protected and proprietary image analysis software programs prevent replication, standardization, and comparability of charcoal analyses across research projects. limitations such as these are the focus of the growing interdisciplinary open science movement in the paleoecological (williams et al. 2018a), archaeological (marwick et al. 2017), and paleo-fire science communities (aleman et al. 2018). open science seeks to encourage new norms in research that emphasize data stewardship, analytical transparency, and reproducibility through practices of open access, open data, and open methods (bartling and friesike 2014; marwick et al. 2017). in an effort to align digital charcoal analysis with the principles of the open science movement, this paper presents the charcoal quantification tool (chartool), a suite of charcoal and sediment quantification tools designed for use with imagej (schneider et al. 2012), a free, opensource image and video analysis program. chartool is not an automated procedure for identifying charcoal fragments. rather, it is an open and flexible suite of tools for charcoal analysis that blend standard visual protocols (schlachter and horn 2010; whitlock and anderson 2003) and imagej functions common in digital methods (halsall et al. 2018) to assist an analyst in quantifying charcoal abundance, fragment size, and shape metrics. chartool also includes an optional workflow for an analyst to digitally record charcoal morphotypes and modules designed to quantify sediment properties, such as sediment color and mean clast size, from cores or excavated contexts. chartool is freely available1, utilizes scripted modules for both transparency and user-customization, and offers a set of standardized tools that can generate comparable datasets across multiple projects. previous methods for quantifying charcoal in archaeological and paleoecological research visual and automated methods for quantifying charcoal fragments traditional methods in microscopy for quantifying charcoal abundance rely on charcoal fragments’ visual properties (e.g., opacity, color, planar shape, visual anatomical, and cellular structures) and physical properties (e.g., fragility and breakage pattern) to make them distinguishable from minerals, insect exoskeletons, or other plant tissues under magnification (scott 2010). common procedures consist of visually or physically isolating charcoal fragments from sampled sediments and quantifying abundance by a count, area, or mass (schlachter and horn 2010; whitlock and larsen 2001). quantifying additional charcoal attributes, such as size class or fragment length, is accomplished using a stereoscope fitted with a measure scale (ali et al. 2009). in the early 1990s, horn et al. (1992) proposed automated digital image analysis as an avenue for improving the speed and replicability of quantifying charcoal abundance, including measures of both charcoal count and area. early applications of automated analysis were limited, as they required specialized microscope-mounted cameras with computer connectivity, proprietary imaging software, and multiple calibration trials to accurately isolate and quantify micro-charcoal (< 150 µm) fragments (earle et al. 1996; horn et al. 1992). today, access to greater computing power, higher resolution digital images, and a wider array of image analysis software has made automated and digital charcoal analysis increasingly common (crawford and belcher 2014; springer et al. 2012). scientists using these methods indicate that they can be faster than visual methods (whitlock and larsen 2001), can measure multiple metrics (table 1), such as fragment size class, aspect ratio, area, or volume (ali et al. 2009), and may be more accurate in quantifying micro-charcoal particles (< 200 µm) in some contexts (halsall et al. 2018). but the benefits of digital, automated image analysis should be considered within the context of its limitations. automated analyses commonly rely on a single greyscale threshold value to determine the presence and shape of dark colored charcoal fragments within a sample (thevenon and anselmetti 2007). however, removing an analyst’s discretion and expertise to single out charcoal fragments can lead automated methods to misidentify dark or opaque non-charcoal particles as charcoal (whitlock and larsen 2001). additionally, these methods may also underestimate charcoal fragment area or shape due to lighting conditions that lead to detection of darker colors within the center of charcoal fragments scaling to lighter colors at the edges. these processes may result in the non-detection of small fragments or misdetection of the edges of larger fragments (hawthorne and mitchell 2016). unfortunately, the use of proprietary software or unpublished opensource software configurations poses challenges in improving these existing digital methods and analytical workflows. snitker. 2020. ethnobiology letters 11(1):103–115 105 data, methods & taxonomies open science and digital data in archeology, paleoecology, and paleo-fire sciences open science is not, strictly speaking, a series of methods, standards, or a publication style. rather, open science is a fundamental change in the culture of creating knowledge that opens the process to a diverse and emergent community of stakeholders, each with their own values, priorities, and relationships to each other and the public (bartling and friesike 2014). this multidisciplinary discourse has coalesced around several central themes: 1) open tools for scientific collaboration, 2) open data for comparison and replication, and 3) open access to datasets, results, and the knowledge-creation process (faniel et al. 2018; marwick 2017; williams et al. 2018b). scholars within the multidisciplinary paleoenvironmental science community, including archaeology, paleoecology, and paleo-fire science, have critically engaged with these themes, adapting them to the specific challenges associated with the incompleteness of our datasets, the often-destructive nature of our data collection, and inter-dataset comparisons or syntheses needed to track long-term global environmental change (faniel et al. 2018; table 1 descriptions of metrics collected by chartool in the charcoal fragment quantification and morphotype recording module. description adapted from imagej user guide (schneider et al. 2012). metric description area area of selected pixels in calibrated units min minimum greyscale value max maximum greyscale value perimeter length of outside boundary of selected pixels in calibrated units bx x-coordinate of upper left corner of the smallest rectangle enclosing the selected pixels by y-coordinate of upper left corner of the smallest rectangle enclosing the selected pixels width width of smallest rectangle enclosing the selected pixels height height of smallest rectangle enclosing the selected pixels major length of the primary axis of the best fitting ellipse enclosing the selected pixels minor length of the secondary axis of the best fitting ellipse enclosing the selected pixels angle angle (0–180 degrees) of the primary axis of the best fitting ellipse enclosing the selected pixels circularity calculated as 4π × area ÷ perimeter2; a value of 1.0 indicates the selected pixels are a perfect circle; as values approach 0.0, the selected pixels are increasingly elongated feret feret's diameter of the selected pixels, which is the longest distance between any two points along the selection boundary feretx starting x-coordinate of the selected pixels feret's diameter ferety starting y-coordinate of the selected pixels feret's diameter feretangle angle (0–180 degrees) of the feret's diameter of the selected pixels to a line parallel to the x-axis of the image minferet minimum caliper diameter of the selected pixels aspect ratio aspect ratio of selected pixels; calculated as the major (primary) axis / minor (secondary) axis of the best fitting ellipse round roundness of selected pixels; calculated as 4 × area ÷ (π × major (primary) axis2) solidity solidity of selected pixels; calculated as area/convex area rectangularity calculated as perimeter ÷ ((width + height) × 2); a value of 1.0 indicates the selected pixels are a perfect rectangle; as values approach 0.0, the selected pixels are increasingly circular; as values surpass 1.0, the selected pixels are increasingly irregular in shape snitker. 2020. ethnobiology letters 11(1):103–115 106 data, methods & taxonomies williams et al. 2018a). as the community moves toward a culture of open science, we must consider the specific imperatives for digitized and born-digital data, together with the tools, methods, and analyses we apply to them. open data creation and digital data curation present multiple opportunities for the paleoenvironmental science community to eliminate much of the opacity surrounding digital datasets and amplify their ability to be shared, re-used, and reanalyzed. open data creation and curation emphasize broader access to analytical tools and methods, in addition to the data they generate, through the use of free and opensourced software, scripted analyses (such as analytical sequences written in r or python), and data repositories. not only does this approach provide greater equity in access to scientific tools and data for institutions around the globe without the resource capacity for equipment or technological expenditures, but it encourages greater research reproducibility and accountability (marwick 2017). these efforts are already underway in multiple disciplines; data repositories are currently curating and sharing data in archaeology (e.g., tdar [mcmanamon et al. 2017]; open context [kansa et al. 2020]; archaeology data service [wright and richards 2018]), paleoecology/ palynology (e.g., neotoma paleoecology database [williams et al. 2018b]; european pollen database [fyfe et al. 2009]); and paleo-fire science (e.g., global paleofire database [aleman et al. 2018]). these repositories represent substantial efforts toward data standardization and metadata creation that greatly amplify the potential for long-term data interpretability and re-usability (marwick 2017), in addition to providing opportunities for large-scale synthesis (hantson et al. 2016). unfortunately, many of the published methods and workflows for both visual and digital charcoal analysis do not align with the strategies for open data creation and data curation. a review of published charcoal analyses using digital methods reveals that most studies utilize 1) closed-source or proprietary software (crawford and belcher 2014; horn et al. 1992; thevenon and anselmetti 2007); 2) opensource software without accessible code for customized features (springer et al. 2012; umbanhowar jr. and mcgrath 1998); 3) limited descriptions of how image analysis or other automated methods were used to quantify charcoal (halsall et al. 2018; hawthorne and mitchell 2016); additionally, 4) no studies included access to curated digital data or scripted analyses via supplemental information or a digital repository. to meet the challenges of open science in charcoal analysis, current digital methods should be adapted to employ open-source software, replicable workflows, and integration with digital repositories for streamlining the transition from digital data creation and data curation. introduction to chartool and descriptions of modules the chartool suite of tools for imagej addresses these limitations by providing a standardized, digital workflow for quantifying charcoal fragments and sediment properties, scripted modules for transparency and customization, and data preparation for upload into a digital data repository. chartool operates as a macro extension for imagej and can be customized using imagej’s scripted macro language (see imagej developer information; rasband 2018). imagej is a freely available, open-source program used for scientific image analysis. originally introduced in 1987 as a simple yet powerful program for biological imaging on personal computers, imagej has thrived thanks to continued hosting of the project by the national institutes of health (nih) and an openaccess research community interested in adapting and developing the software for multidisciplinary applications (as reviewed in schneider et al. 2012). imagej is currently used in digital charcoal analysis (e.g., chrzazvez et al. 2014; halsall et al. 2018; hawthorne and mitchell 2016; springer et al. 2012); however, these published methods using imagej still do not provide adequate descriptions of the image parameters, plugins, or software version used, thus making replication and comparability difficult. chartool is composed of three modules for measuring charcoal and describing their associated sedimentary contexts. the modules include: 1) the charcoal fragment quantification and morphotype recording module, 2) the sediment color assessment module, and 3) the expedient sediment grain size estimation module. functionally, chartool occupies a unique position between traditional visual methods and digital, image-based methods for measuring charcoal fragments and sediments by using strategies from both approaches. for example, the charcoal quantification module relies on an analyst’s discretion in selecting charcoal fragments to be quantified before digitally measuring 21 metrics for each selected snitker. 2020. ethnobiology letters 11(1):103–115 107 data, methods & taxonomies fragment (table 1). the sediment quantification module also requires an analyst’s input to select areas of interest to summarize color values or sediment grain sizes from unprocessed or reserved sediments associated with charcoal samples. consequently, chartool is best described as a digitally-enhanced visual charcoal analysis workflow with outputs that are comparable to both visual selection and digital measurement methods. chartool is designed for use with a usbconnected digital microscope (with video output) or microscope eyepiece mounted microscope video camera. video microscope output enables an analyst to deploy a live video feed into imagej, allowing chartool modules and analyses to be applied to a live display that is adjustable in real time. chartool is currently written for imagej version 1.52k but is backward and forward compatible with other versions of imagej on macos, windows, and linux operating systems. a description of each chartool module is presented below. each module requires an analyst to enter metadata for each analyzed sample (e.g., sample number, analyst name, and depth interval), which is included when a chartool result table is exported. all tables are exported in a comma-separated values (.csv) file format. finally, a detailed digital workflow, a stepby-step user guide for installation and use of chartool in imagej, and r scripts for compiling, displaying, and uploading results to a digital repository are included as supplemental information. chartool, its source code, and all associated materials are freely available to download1. charcoal fragment quantification and morphotype recording module this module consists of the primary tools for quantifying and classifying charcoal fragments in chartool and functions using the following steps: 1) charcoal fragments are visually and/or physically identified by the analyst in the view window, 2) the targeted charcoal fragment is then selected by the analyst using a semi-automated edge-finding procedure, and 3) 21 metrics are measured and recorded for the targeted charcoal fragment. this process is repeated for all charcoal fragments encountered in a sample. see table 1 for descriptions of each metric. the user then has the option to classify each charcoal fragment into a morphotype category (table 2). see figure 1 for a visual sequence of this process. operationally, this module provides several improvements over previous charcoal analysis techniques in imagej. most previous techniques rely on fixed greyscale color value thresholding to create a binary classification of charcoal (darkest pixels) and non-charcoal (lighter colored pixels) within the image (e.g., crawford and belcher 2014; halsall et al. 2018; hawthorne and mitchell 2016; springer et al. 2012). greyscale values are substantially influenced by lighting conditions, variation in charcoal morphology, and the color of underlying sediment or organic material, which can lead to high rates of misclassification in automated procedures (whitlock and larsen 2001). for these reasons, chartool does not use an automated procedure. instead, chartool requires an analysis to first identify a charcoal fragment through the imagej viewing window using standard visual methods. upon clicking the fragment, chartool creates a selection around its border using an edgefinding procedure that identifies all connected pixels of similar greyscale value (figure 1). edge-finding tolerances are adjustable, in real time, for each fragment, meaning they can be altered based on table 2 chartool morphotype category based on the classifications described in enache and cumming (2006). shape modifier type description geometric compact type c fragments that are compact and angular in shape. no structure or wall porosity is visible. type s/b fragment that are compact and angular in shape. structure or wall porosity is visible, and the charcoal fragment is either fully black (type s) or partially black (type b). elongated type d elongated, branch-like fragments with ramifications or spikes. type f elongated, branch-like fragments without ramifications or spikes. irregular type m fragments that are irregular in shape with highly irregular porosity throughout. type p fragments that are irregular in shape without any visible interior structure. snitker. 2020. ethnobiology letters 11(1):103–115 108 data, methods & taxonomies figure 1 overview of charcoal fragment quantification and morphotype recording module workflow in chartool. a the analyst selects a particle they have identified as a charcoal fragment by clicking on it within the imagej viewing window. b after making any necessary adjustments to the selection, the analyst right-clicks to measure the fragment. c imagej then measures 21 metrics and initiates the morphotype selection window. after a morphotype category is selected, the morphotype is added to that fragment’s entry in the results table. snitker. 2020. ethnobiology letters 11(1):103–115 109 data, methods & taxonomies lighting conditions and charcoal color. this method decreases the likelihood edges or other light-colored portions of the fragment are excluded and provides an opportunity for the analyst to manual check the selection’s accuracy. unlike other applications of imagej in charcoal analysis which use still images (i.e., springer et al. 2012), chartool allows an analyst greater flexibility in identifying and quantifying charcoal fragments by applying thresholds, edge-finding, and calculating measurements through a live microscope video-feed. manipulating or repositioning the sample using a live video feed allows for adjustability in the edge-finding threshold values based on a charcoal fragment’s relation to background material and assists in identifying charcoal fragments that might not be recognizable from a single view or angle. if a charcoal fragment cannot be easily selected from the background material through a series of physical manipulations or changes in threshold values, the user has the option to manually trace the charcoal fragment using the freehand selection operation available through a keyboard shortcut in chartool. finally, chartool incorporates an optional charcoal fragment morphotype classification component for each charcoal fragment that is selected by the user. several studies have suggested that combustion conditions and fuels consumed during a fire determine the morphology and structure of charred fragments (courtney mustaphi and pisaric 2014; enache and cumming 2006; jensen et al. 2007; walsh et al. 2018). thus, charcoal fragment morphology is increasing used as a metric for estimating fuel sources and intensities of landscape fires. after the analyst encounters, selects, and measures a charcoal fragment, the morphotype classification workflow automatically opens a graphical window with a decision tree for classifying the fragment into a morphotype category. chartool currently uses the morphotype classification system developed by enache and cumming (2006), although users can update the classification system by augmenting the current categories or adding additional morphotypes to suit the needs of their research. sediment color assessment module this module allows an analyst to digitally assess the color of unprocessed or reserved sediments associated with charcoal in cores, excavations, or profile sampling. sediment color is related to mineral composition, organic matter content, or other sediment properties; when interpreted alongside charcoal metrics, sediment color can aid in evaluating depositional properties related to fire activity (nrcs soil survey staff 1999). sediment color is often evaluated in the field or in the laboratory using visual comparison to a color reference collection (i.e., the munsell soil color chart). the digital procedure in chartool offers an additional method for assigning color values by detected color values of each pixel in the image, thus enabling color descriptions to be part of a digital workflow. the sediment color module in chartool measures the mean red, blue, and green (rbg) color values for a selected area of the digital image within the current imagej viewing window. the module first individually evaluates the red, blue, and green color channels in each pixel before aggregating these values into a final mean rbg value. this process limits the influence of small variations in color or individual sediment particles, clasts, or inclusions, and diminishes the effect of particle shadows on the overall color values. the rbg output can easily be converted to hue, value, and chroma attributes within the munsell soil color system if desired for a particular analysis or visualization (see r scripts in supplemental material for an example using the munsell package). expedient sediment grain size estimation module grain size is also an important sediment property used to evaluate depositional processes and charcoal preservation (roos 2015). common pedological laboratory procedures for sediment grain size include dry sediment sieving, hydrometer measurement, and laser particle size analysis to determine the texture or proportional percentages of clay, silt, and sand grains within a soil, sediment, or lithozone (nrcs soil survey staff 1999). a growing number of paleo-fire studies are focused on alluvial sequences to evaluate watershed scale changes in fire history (see frechette and meyer 2009; roos 2015 for examples); in these contexts coarse-grained sediment fractions, such coarse sands, gravels, and pebbles, are indicators of high velocity deposition and erosion associated with fire activity in the watershed. in an effort to meet the needs of alluvial applications of charcoal and sediment analysis, the chartool sediment grain size evaluation module adapts imagej’s particle size analysis workflow to estimate average grain sizes for sand particles (63 µm) or larger. the module allows the user to digitally snitker. 2020. ethnobiology letters 11(1):103–115 110 data, methods & taxonomies adjust lighting conditions and color thresholds to identify as many particles as possible within the current field of view. once a user-specified minimum number of particle size measurements are made, the module exports all of the measurements as a .csv table. particle size summary statistics for each sample can be calculated using r or other statistical software. r scripts for visualization and data curation finally, to facilitate replication, data standardization, and data reuse, a series of r scripts are included with chartool to allow an analyst to process chartool outputs and visualize charcoal and sediment metrics in a vertical stratigraphic plot. an optional set of functions can be used to standardize chartool outputs for upload to the global paleofire database online data repository (international paleofire network 2020). these scripts are written in r, a free, open-source language and software for statistics and graphics, and implemented in rstudio, a free, opensource integrated development environment for r. these scripts are well-commented and provide line-by -line guidance for all scripted analyses related to chartool results. see the supplemental information for r, rstudio, and package versions used in these scripts. applying chartool to sedimentary charcoal data: a vignette from son servera, mallorca, spain as an example of how chartool may be utilized in a research context, the following vignette outlines the integration of chartool into sampling and laboratory processing methods common in archaeological and figure 2 sampling locations and watersheds within the leia son servera study area, mallorca, spain. probe 1a is indicated in the center of the study area. snitker. 2020. ethnobiology letters 11(1):103–115 111 data, methods & taxonomies paleoecological charcoal analysis. the purpose of this vignette is to demonstrate the types of data that can be collected and visualized using chartool. this example does not provide a stand-alone or comprehensive study, nor a step-by-step guide for using chartool. for a guide to using chartool, recommended workflow, and the scripted r analyses used to visualize chartool results and prepare them for upload to a data repository, the reader is directed to the supplemental material for this article. quantifying charcoal to reconstruct fire history related to land-use in the son servera, mallorca, spain in collaboration with the landscape, encounters, and identity archaeology (leia) project, an ongoing landscape archaeology field school facilitated by the university of washington (llobera 2019), a series of sediment probes were taken throughout watersheds within the son servera study area in northeast mallorca, spain. the objectives of leia project are to use pedestrian archaeological survey, targeted excavation, and high-resolution mapping of monumental sites to understand iron age (c. 1100– 550 cal. bce) settlement intensification, land-use, and trade in eastern mallorca (llobera 2019). to complement the archaeological research, this pilot paleoecological project is aimed to assess landscapescale deposition rates within the watershed and examine spatial and temporal variation in late holocene fire history as it relates to archaeological evidence for intensifying agricultural land-use. probe locations were selected using a landscapescale sampling strategy focused on alluvial sediments in nested watersheds to examine spatial and temporal variation in fire activity throughout the entire watershed (see figure 2 for sampling locations and watersheds). probes were placed at natural divisions/ branches in the watershed and in close proximity to areas evaluated for archaeological surface assemblages. priority sampling areas were identified through geological maps of holocene alluvial sediments near watercourses (or torrentes in catalan) and were limited to areas with little evidence of recent subsurface modification or disturbance due to cultivation (i.e., trenching, terracing, or filling). charcoal recovered from these alluvial sediments represent cumulative fire activity located upstream of the sample location. these materials moved downstream due to channel flow, sheet wash, and other fluvial processes until they were periodically deposited. figure 3 data from son servera probe 1a generated using the charcoal fragment quantification, sediment color assessment, expedient sediment grain size estimation modules in chartool and plotted using the ggplot2 and cowplot packages in r. note that samples between 68–72 cm could not be collected in the field and are omitted from the data below. snitker. 2020. ethnobiology letters 11(1):103–115 112 data, methods & taxonomies a 3 cm diameter soil push probe was used to sample sediments in 2 cm intervals in areas of the watershed with active deposition (e.g., bases of hillslopes and alluvial terraces). all sediments removed with the probe were photographed and described in the field. a total of four probes were collected during this study, but for brevity, only probe 1a (figure 2) will be discussed in this vignette. in the lab, sediment samples were subdivided into 2 cm3 samples and evaluated for color and grain size using the sediment color assessment and expedient sediment grain size estimation modules in chartool. subsamples were then processed for charcoal quantification using standard protocols outlined in whitlock and anderson (2003). these include deflocculating and chemically lightening organics using a 3% solution of h2o2 to visually isolate charcoal fragments. samples were then wet screened through 150 μm sedimentology sieves to remove the smaller sample fraction. samples were moved to petri dishes and allowed to dry at room temperature. once dried, the samples were analyzed using the charcoal fragment quantification module in chartool with a dino-lite pro ii 1.3megapixel digital microscope at 50x magnification. the morphotype classification option was not considered appropriate for the alluvial samples collected from son servera (see crawford and belcher [2014] for an overview on the effects of alluvial transport on charcoal morphology) and was not included in this example. visualizing and curating chartool results figure 3 illustrates a subsample of charcoal metrics and sediment characteristics that can be collected using the chartool. the goals of the leia project focus on identifying changes in fire history as they relate to land-use history, so the charcoal metrics highlighted here are divided into charcoal abundance, size distribution, shape categories, and sediment properties to capture any changes charcoal assemblage or sediment attributes related to changes in fire frequency, intensity, or spatial distribution. this figure was produced using the r script, rstudio project file, and associated packages. these are provided in the supplemental material, along with the original data collected using chartool, for the reader to use to replicate figure 3. to ensure that these data will be accessible and comparable to other charcoal datasets, they are standardized and formatted for upload to the global paleofire database (gpfd) using an r script included in the supplemental material. the gpfd is an online, digital data repository that provides public access to charcoal and other paleo-fire datasets. the repository aims to promote data standardization to facilitate greater data re-use for global and regional syntheses of fire activity and model validation (aleman et al. 2018). the database requires a user to specify metadata regarding the sampling location, context, and publications, along with the dataset’s sampling intervals, depths, available age-depth models, and standardized charcoal abundance measures. these data can be quickly and easily compiled and formatted using chartool and associated r scripts. conclusions the new norms of open science are highlighting the need for research practices that support open access, open data, and open methods. while quantifying charcoal fragments is a fundamental procedure in archeological, paleoecological, and paleo-fire research, current digital methods can suffer from a lack of transparency and replicability due to under-published workflows and software configurations, as well as the use of closed-source, proprietary imaging software. the charcoal quantification tool (chartool) offers one solution to these limitations by providing a suite of open-source and freely available tools for charcoal and sedimentary analysis in imagej. the digital approach used by chartool draws from the strengths of both visual and digital charcoal analysis methods, while also emphasizing open data creation and curation practices specific for born-digital data. researchers can build on chartool by customizing it to fit their specific research needs, while also contributing to the growing community of openscience scholars pushing for new norms in our research practices. notes 1all of the code and software needed to run chartool are available for download via github: https:// github.com/gsnitker/chartool; or using the following doi: http://doi.org/10.5281/ zenodo.1434478. additionally, a detailed workflow, user-guide, and r scripts for compiling, displaying, and uploading results from chartool to a digital repository are included as supplements to this article. acknowledgments i thank marcos llobera, nari miller, and the landscape, encounters, and identity archaeology (leia) project for assistance in collecting the samples snitker. 2020. ethnobiology letters 11(1):103–115 113 data, methods & taxonomies analyzed in this study. i also thank michael barton, christopher morehart, nahil ismail, and the other members of the laboratory of environmental anthropology and ethnobotany and the computational socio-ecological laboratory at arizona state university for their feedback while testing chartool. finally, i thank the three anonymous reviewers for their insightful comments. declarations permissions: none declared. sources of funding: this project was funded by national science foundation (nsf) dissertation improvement grant (award # 1656342) 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database, a multiproxy, international, community-curated data resource. quaternary research 89:156–177. doi:10.1017/ qua.2017.105. williams, j. w., d. kaufman, a. newton, and l. von gunten. 2018b. building and harnessing open paleodata. past global change magazine 26:49–49. doi:10.22498/pages.26.2.49. wright, h., and j. d. richards. 2018. reflections on collaborative archaeology and large-scale online research infrastructures. journal of field archaeology 43:s60–s67. doi:10.1080/00934690.2018.1511960. ethnoichthyology of fishing communities in the lower valley of ouémé in benin djidohokpin et al. 2020. ethnobiology letters 11(1):137–151 137 data, methods & taxonomies knowledge, traditional (ecological) knowledge, and local knowledge (castillo et al. 2018; lima et al. 2017; oishi 2016; seixas and begossi 2001). oberndorfer et al. (2017) highlight the importance of plants to circumpolar peoples and demonstrate the connections between plants, fishing, and people in the inuit community of makkovik, canada. drawing on indigenous methodologies, a local collective narrative traces the links between plants and various fishing activities and demonstrates the power of collective knowledge to connect people to their communities and to their surrounding environments. these studies provide a basis for understanding how the conceptualization of living organisms may be affected by different cultural backgrounds and individual expertise (medin et al. 2006). in such dynamic systems, fishers can detect changes in fish behavior, abundance, and distribution. fishing communities have been shown to have a wellestablished knowledge of fish biology and introduction human populations have always interacted closely with the ecosystems in which they participate, including aquatic resources, and they exhibit a diverse, nuanced, and deep knowledge of them (berkes 2008; turner and berkes 2006). many communities have developed complex systems of resource management and use that have encouraged social and ecological resilience. such local and traditional ecological knowledge can therefore be a source of information on the current status of resources, local ecosystem dynamics and environmental characteristics, species diversity, species behavior, and interactions among components of ecosystems. several terms have been used to describe the knowledge of local ecological systems, which is typically accumulated through a long series of observations and transmitted from generation to generation (berkes 2008; gadgil et al. 1993). these terms include native knowledge, indigenous ethnoichthyology of fishing communities in the lower valley of ouémé in benin, west africa gildas djidohokpin1*, edmond sossoukpè1, richard adandé1, juste v. voudounnou2, emile d. fiogbé1, and anne haour3 1laboratory of research on wetlands, department of zoology, faculty of sciences and technics, university of abomeycalavi, cotonou, republic of benin. 2aquaculture school of national university of agriculture, kétou, republic of benin. 3sainsbury research unit for the arts of africa, oceania and the americas, university of east anglia, norwich, united kingdom. *gdjidohokpin@gmail.com abstract ethno-ichthyological knowledge can improve fisheries management. this study covers interactions between ecological, morphological, and sociocultural aspects pertaining to the fish of the tovè river, which is located in the largest fishing area in the republic of benin (ouémé valley), west africa. in particular, data were collected on fishing methods and techniques, fishing equipment, and ichthyofauna by noting vernacular names followed by identification traits, taste and dietary value, medicinal use, and related knowledge of different species. through data related to names given locally to fish, this paper highlights the manner in which physical or behavioral traits are coded in terminology. most of these species have a high market value, either because they are considered to be delicacies and/or for their medicinal uses. the results suggest that ethno-ichthyological information can successfully be applied to improve fish conservation and fisheries management. received march 21, 2020 open access accepted september 23, 2020 doi 10.14237/ebl.11.1.2020.1686 published october 16, 2020 keywords ethnobiology, artisanal fisheries, indigenous fishing knowledge, tovè river, ouémé river copyright © 2020 by the author(s); licensee society of ethnobiology. this is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution-noncommercial 4.0 international public license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0), which permits non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. djidohokpin et al. 2020. ethnobiology letters 11(1):137–151 138 data, methods & taxonomies classification (see e.g., begossi and garavello 1990, paz and begossi 1996 for studies in brazil; johannes 1981 for a case study in palau, micronesia). such information, if interpreted using a biological sciences framework, may provide fruitful insights to biologists (johannes 1993). researchers have demonstrated that qualitative data from fishers complements scientific information gathered by conventional biological and ichthyological studies (johannes et al. 2000), improves decision-making (bergmann et al. 2004; berkes et al. 2001), and enhances the development of better conservation and management strategies for smallscale fisheries. for example, recently, a team of archaeologists, historical ecologists, and marine biologists used a local fishing community’s knowledge to identify shifting baselines and vulnerable coral reef fish species along the kenyan coast (buckley et al. 2019). another example is provided by the work of johannes (1981) which showed that pacific island fisher’s information regarding marine fish reproduction helped scientists in the management of fish stocks. the relationships of indigenous peoples to the ecosystems they live in not only reflects an intimate knowledge of the ecology of those systems, but the deep structure of their beliefs about their role in the world, their cosmology and values, and their social institutions and relationships (berkes 2008). despite the examples cited above, fisher’s knowledge has not yet been formally incorporated into management policies for marine environments (bergmann et al. 2004; leite and gasalla 2013; silvano and begossi 2010) or in the freshwater realm (allison and badjeck 2004). this is partly because agencies and academics lack appreciation of the importance of such ethno-ichthyological data. in addition, conventional management approaches tend to undervalue fisher’s knowledge in various ways (castillo et al. 2018). research has been limited by a shortage of experts in the field, cultural barriers, and changing political and institutional scenarios (baigún 2015; castillo et al. 2016). this poor level of understanding of biological folk knowledge is problematic, not least because such knowledge is under threat from the disappearance of indigenous people and their customs, as well as from the influence of urbanization and the market economy on resource-use strategies (johannes 1978; posey 1983; wester and yongvanit 1995). in this context, ethno-ichthyological studies can serve as a valuable management tool, bringing to light information that can provide both guidelines for biological research (marques and wanderley 1991; poizat and baran 1997) and as a quick and costeffective way to assess biological data (chapman 1987; johannes 1981). to contribute to this developing set of research, the present paper will focus on the interactions between the ecological, morphological, and sociocultural aspects around the fish of the tovè river in southern benin, west africa. it is the first study of its kind in this region, and one that might be helpful for fisheries management and the wellbeing of fishing communities there. the tovè river is a tributary of the lower valley of the ouémé river, the largest river in benin and today considered the second most fertile valley in the world after the nile in egypt (undp benin 2015). it was chosen as a case study due to its significance to its waterside communities with respect to fishery and agricultural zones. the species in the tovè river are usually harvested by local people using gillnets and represent a high-value food source. this echoes the situation in benin more widely: the resources offered by the various rivers and water bodies are varied (e.g., comprising fish, mollusks, and crustaceans) and these are intensively used by communities. they account for almost 35% of the needs estimated at 113,000 tons per year of animal protein (fao 2008). among these resources, fish alone account for 31.9% (fao 2008). this paper will introduce the study area and data collection strategy, then present the names used to designate fish, their possible origin, fishing techniques, and different uses of fish. the results are then discussed, first within the context of the tovè river and the wider ouémé system of which it is a part of, and then more globally. methodology study area the tovè river is located in southern benin and lies in the lower part of the ouémé river, the largest river basin in benin. with an approximate length of 1km, and an average width of 3m, the tovè river rises in the swamp of tovè at tovègbamè and flows into the ouémé river (figure 1). the tovè river is entirely representative of the much larger ouémé with respect to its specific diversity (djidohokpin et al. 2017). with its vast flood plains, the lower ouémé valley favors an important colonization by fish (lalèyè et al. 2007). fishing in this area has been practiced for thousands of years and is carried out by toffin, wémè, and goun communities. this activity remains artisanal djidohokpin et al. 2020. ethnobiology letters 11(1):137–151 139 data, methods & taxonomies figure 1 the study area of the project, which is located in the lower valley of ouémé in benin, west africa. djidohokpin et al. 2020. ethnobiology letters 11(1):137–151 140 data, methods & taxonomies with the use of various gear and fishing techniques (sohou et al. 2009). some portions of the river are intensively and repeatedly exploited for fishing. they were chosen for the present study based on their proximity to fisher’s agglomerations, their accessibility and the existence of a landing stage, and proof of the effectiveness of the fishing activity. three fishing areas (sites 1, 2, and 3) have been identified that met the relevant criteria (figure 1). sampling and data collection fish were collected monthly from october 2015 to september 2016 (djidohokpin et al. 2017). sampling was mainly based on artisanal fishery catches. collected specimens were taken to the laboratory of research on wetlands (lrzh), department of zoology, faculty of science and technology at the university of abomey-calavi and were identified using identification keys (djidohokpin et al. 2017). following the identification process, the species chosen as a focus of this study were those which were abundant in the river (djidohokpin et al. 2017) and were primarily known for their market value. participatory observation was undertaken on fishing activities on the landing stages of selected fishing areas on both long-term and distant fishing expeditions, and daily fishing activities close to the village. during this participation, data was collected on fishing methods and techniques, on fishing equipment, and on ichthyofauna by noting their local name, food and medicinal use, and any the other relevant knowledge of the different species. according to berlin (1973, 1992), folk genera constitute groups of animals or plants that are easily recognized on the basis of a large number of broad morphological characteristics, usually described using primary names (monomials). distinguishing folk species, on the other hand, requires more detailed observation on the basis of very few morphological characters, and they are typically described using binomials (i.e., the generic name is modified by an adjective which usually describes some obvious morphological character) (berlin 1973, 1992). in the present study, the analysis of folk and scientific systems of classification had the scientific species and the folk genus as the basic taxa, as proposed by berlin (1973). interviews were carried out with men and women who fish now or had fished in the past. a standardized questionnaire (see table 1 for an example questionnaire) was developed and the questions were asked in a manner understandable to the fishers interviewed, who were allowed to answer taking as much time as they wanted. the duration of interviews varied, depending on the knowledge and time constraints of the interviewees. the number of interviewees varied slightly according to the different fish species and because some people could not complete the questionnaire. table 1 sample questionnaire. total interviews with fishers = n. table 2 fish species (including family and local names) used in the interviews. scientific name family local name common name parachana obscura channidae hotoun african obscure snakehead clarias gariepinus clariidae asson common catfish brycinus longipinnis characidae agontcha african longfin chrysichthys auratus claroteidae djan golden nile catfish heterotis niloticus osteoglossidae houa african bonytongue sarotherodon melanotheron cichlidae wè blackchin tilapia synodontis schall mochokidae gloé wahrinda malepterurus electricus malapteruridae zègbin electric catfish labeo senegalensis cyprinidae adahoué african carp hepsetus odoe hepsetidae kaka-adou african pike question 1. name of interviewee 2. gender 3. place of residence 4. what is the local name of this fish? 5. what is the origin of the vernacular name? 6. traditional uses of fish a. do you eat this species? b. do you use the species in traditional medicine? djidohokpin et al. 2020. ethnobiology letters 11(1):137–151 141 data, methods & taxonomies table 3 origins of vernacular names for fish species used for interviews. reasons for local name local name scientific name picture of species denomination motivated by physical appearance denomination motivated by resemblance to the snake hotoun parachana obscura denomination motivated by resemblance to the cat asson clarias gariepinus denomination motivated by the prominence of a fanshaped dorsal fin agontcha brycinus longipinnis denomination motivated by the prominence of a mouth covered with scabies adahoué labeo senegalensis denomination motivated by the prominence of a dented head djan chrysichthys auratus denomination motivated by the presence of electric organs zègbin malepterurus electricus denomination motivated by the presence of a shield on the body gloé synodontis schall denomination motivated by the presence of a black spot on the operculum wè sarotherodon melanotheron (continued on next page) djidohokpin et al. 2020. ethnobiology letters 11(1):137–151 142 data, methods & taxonomies results the selection criteria listed above enabled the selection of ten species from different families corresponding to 52% of the families, 34% of genera, and 22% of the species reported in the river during previous studies (djidohokpin et al. 2017). the simple random sampling method was used to select to 150 men and 30 women for interviews, corresponding to about 80% of the residents who fished in the eight small villages studied: gouti, assrossa, abalo, zoungbomè, allanzoumè, aname-kindji, lokossa, and agbakon located along the ouémé river and its tributaries. in the ouémé valley, fishers gather in small groups of the same ethnicity, forming small villages. the villages chosen for this study are those with a real impact on the river, considering, among other things, the relative importance of fishing among income-generating activities, the demographic weight of each village, the geographic position in relation to the river, and dominant socio-cultural groups that fish on this river. local fish names the general name for a fish in fon is hwevi. names also exist for broader groups. for example, dò hwevi refers to benthic fish. freshwater resources of the valley of the ouémé are extremely diverse, and so are the ichthyological knowledge systems that are conceived by the indigenous fishers. local names of fish may correspond to biological species or biological families or may include fish of different families and combinations of species. local and scientific names are listed in table 2. only the most commonly spoken dialect in the study area, wémè, a fon language, has been retained for the study. indeed, the fishing community of the study area is mainly made up of wémènu and related ethnic groups (97.3%), with a minority of aïzo and adja (1.4%), and yoruba (1.2%) immigrants (adéoti et al. 2018). origins of vernacular names the processes that explain ethno-ichthyological denominations by traditional populations derive from a detailed knowledge of fish morphology. in general, denominations summarize the physical or behavioral traits of fish. for this reason, fishers recognize or name species according to different characteristics associated with ecological, morphological or biological traits (table 3). fishing methods from simple angling carried out individually to sophisticated dams and platforms built collectively, the fishers of the tovè river have elaborated and sometimes borrowed a valuable diversity of fishing methods from other groups. fishing equipment and techniques are used by these fishers to remove fish and other fish resources from the river for marketing, healing, and/or consumption. nine fishing equipment, techniques and methods were recorded on the tovè river. the fishing equipment and techniques are described in table 4 with special reference to their ecological knowledge. food and medicinal uses of fish fishing work in this area is often gendered. when the fishers land their catch, they, often a male, sell it to the first link in the circuit: his wife or another woman. these women resell the same fish to traders who come to landings very early in the morning or in the reasons for local name local name scientific name picture of species denomination motivated by denomination motivated by its habit of hiding under swamp vegetation houa heterotis niloticus denomination motivated by the sound it emits when caught kaka-adou hepsetus odoe (continued from previous page) djidohokpin et al. 2020. ethnobiology letters 11(1):137–151 143 data, methods & taxonomies table 4 fishing equipment and techniques frequently used in the study area. fishing equipment local name fishing method and technique picture frequency of use fish-trap owou traps made with palm or split bamboo ribs, arranged along a palm branch palisade to capture fish. the frame is surrounded by a 1.2cm multifilament nylon net of knot -node knots in which 2–4 openings are made laterally. [+++] branch parks acadja device made from branches and floating vegetation which attracts schools of fish that feed on it and hide there. nets are then stretched around the field to enclose the fish. [+++] fish-hook alonouhou fishing rod with a baited hook. it is mostly used by women and children from the bank. [++] (continued on next page) djidohokpin et al. 2020. ethnobiology letters 11(1):137–151 144 data, methods & taxonomies fishing equipment local name fishing method and technique picture frequency of use looming net tokpokonou nets sunk to the bottom with weights and walked by a group of fishermen. [++] gillnet soovi a rectangular cloth with the lower lines weighted with lead or baked loaves of clay. the mesh varies between 5–30mm and spreads between 35–40m to a depth of between 1– 2m. [++] net hawk assabou flared conical shapes with a rope attached to the top of the cone (5–10m). these are mounted on site using multi-filament nylon thread. the small mesh varies from between 10– 30mm, the larger mesh is between 15–25mm). they are launched into the water and after a few minutes the net is raised. [+] (continued on next page) (continued from previous page) djidohokpin et al. 2020. ethnobiology letters 11(1):137–151 145 data, methods & taxonomies fishing equipment local name fishing method and picture frequency longline mlin main line of about 80cm, to which branchlines are attached. the lines have a main wire along which many branchlines are attached at regular intervals each with baited hooks on the end. [+] barrels gbadja barrels are 75cm long, pierced with a hole (15cm radius) and covered with a 50mm mesh then baited with a chrysichthys. the sound emitted by the chrysichthys attracts others which then also become trapped. two fishermen will go back 3 days later to remove the contents using a 5–8m rope attached to a stake which holds the barrel. [+] giant landing net dobah this is a large circular landing net mounted on a wooden frame attached to a long handle. it may have small (5–8mm between the knots) or large mesh (20–30mm between the knots). [+] (continued from previous page) [+++]very common. [++]common. [+]rare. djidohokpin et al. 2020. ethnobiology letters 11(1):137–151 146 data, methods & taxonomies evening. this second group of intermediaries may or may not be wholesalers. either way, they transport the fish to the nearest market, using baskets with a circular lid. as a result of these transactions, the price of fish is increased, because each group wishes to derive the greatest possible benefit. some fishers prefer to eliminate the intermediaries, and entrust the sale to their wives, who reserve a small part for their own consumption and sell part of the fish on the local or regional market, or alternatively transform the goods before the sale to different customers in order to bring in more profits. this fish processing is a necessity for profitability once consumer taste is taken into account; it is not a speculative choice. several methods are used, namely smoking, salting-drying, or frying. although the wémènu capture fisheries serve first and foremost to provide animal protein for their own subsistence diet, they also to a lesser extent take part in this trade and constitute a secondary source of cash income. indeed, the first source of income for local populations is agriculture, and this absorbs most of the available labor. after that, come other secondary activities, such as fishing, especially during the rainy season. in the study area, three categories of fishers share the aquatic resources of the ouémé river and surrounding rivers. we distinguish professional fishers (92%), who devote themselves exclusively to full-time fishing; occasional or seasonal fishers (5%), especially young people, who also engage in other activities in the primary sector; and finally amateurs (3%), consisting of beginners and those who enjoy recreational fishing (adeoti et al. 2018). all fish species in the tovè river are used for subsistence and/or medicinal purposes. listed in table 5 are the species concerned and an indication of their medicinal or food use. discussion this study represents the first assessment of the ethno -ichthyological knowledge of the lower valley of the ouémé (benin) and demonstrates that a large number of binomial names were associated with mostly morphological and ecological attributes. morphology was the most frequent category drawn upon to identify fish at the specific level in the folk nomenclature; specific-level names were dominated by morphological attributes such as color. for example, wè is the local name for sarotherodon melanotheron; wĕ means ‘white’ in fon, and the term here relates to the belly of this fish which is often white (see the picture in table 3). as we discuss below, analogies to things, animals, and, to a lesser extent, shape also occur; names referring to habitat are also important for identifying specific fish. this is comparable with other ethno-taxonomic studies in small-scale fisheries (aigo and ladio 2016; batista et al. 2016; begossi et al. 2008; castillo et al. 2018; clauzet et al. 2007). the most salient phenotypic and behavioral characteristics of a species are usually reflected in taxonomies. for example, regarding parachana obscura, informants compare the livery of this fish with the skin of the reptile. here, they echo ichthyologists who retain the trait “serpentiform” as one of the diagnostic characters of this fish. similarly, clarias gariepinus refers table 5 uses for tovè river fish. scientific name local name food use medicinal use parachana obscura hotoun [+++] [++] clarias gariepinus asson [+++] brycinus longipinnis agontcha [++] chrysichthys auratus djan [+++] heterotis niloticus houa [+++] sarotherodon melanotheron wè [+++] synodontis schall gloé [++] malepterurus electricus zègbin [+++] labeo senegalensis adahoué [+] hepsetus odoe kaka-adou [+] [+++]very common. [++]common. [+]rare. djidohokpin et al. 2020. ethnobiology letters 11(1):137–151 147 data, methods & taxonomies to a fish called african catfish, and which is often compared to the domestic cat because of its barbels. this resemblance justifies the association with the term asson, or cat, given locally to this fish. brycinus longipinnis is a species that, as its latin name indicates, has a characteristic, almost fan-shaped dorsal fin. this peculiarity lies at the origin of its recognition and its local denomination. informants describe labeo senegalensis as the fish with scabies in the mouth. the inflamed mouth suggests a relationship with the local term adahoué, which designates smallpox, and is characterized by the appearance of pustules on the body. chrysichthys auratus refers to a species of fish that villagers described by reference to its dented head. the particular shape of the head is therefore the characteristic that distinguishes this species from others. the order to which chrysichthys belongs, siluriformes, also indicates a relationship with the skull since, according to froese and pauly (2017), the characteristics that allocate a fish to the order of siluriforms are those of the skull and the swim bladder. the villagers use the term zègbin to refer to malepterurus electricus; this is a species with an electric organ surrounding the whole body. the expression zègbin comes from a group of vernacular words which are zĕ meaning “to rise” and gbìngbán which means “clumsily.” these two associated expressions convey the unpleasant consequences of touching the fish. this description is consistent with that of the ichthyologists who define malepterurus electricus as an electric catfish with a large electrical organ along its body. it is the ability of heterotis niloticus to find refuge under the vegetation of swamps and in fish holes which gives it the name houa, which means hiding. this observation is in line with that of micha and frank (1976) who state that, naturally, this species occurs mainly in the littoral zone where it can find the abundant plant cover necessary for its reproduction. freshwater resources of benin are extremely diverse (lalèyè et al. 2004), and so are the ichthyological knowledge systems of indigenous fishers. the fauna of the wetlands of southern benin consists of a variety of species adapted to the various natural conditions of this biotope. we observed that this induces a high diversity in fishing methods, fishing equipment, and techniques (table 4). similar findings resulted from studies conducted by attingli et al. (2017), chikou (2006), and lalèyè et al. (2007), who presented a comprehensive inventory of fishing gear and techniques in the study area. each site is exploited on a seasonal basis, but the cumulative diversity of fishing areas ensures fish are continuously caught throughout the year. for instance, several catfish of the clariidae family take refuge in temporary burrows as an adaptive response to water deoxygenation during the dry season (chapman et al. 1994), and fishing methods have been devised accordingly. this functional typology puts special emphasis on the water level which is understood by local communities to be the most seasonally varying environmental parameter. ichthyological science puts forward the fundamental role of the water level in the ecology and behavior of inland rainforest fish in search of available habitats that are mediated by seasonal rains (chapman 2001). taking optimal advantage of the watershed, fishers have acquired extensive expertise in adjusting their fishing methods, including diurnal versus nocturnal; permanent versus ephemeral; opportunistic versus controlled; male, female, or mixed; adults versus children; solitary versus pairs; and trinomial or groups including dozens of protagonists. fishers distinguish different nets by the size of the mesh, which is calculated using the finger width as a standard unit of measurement. the majority of gillnet fishers possess nets with a 2.5-finger sized mesh that serves for the capture of smallto mediumsized fish for household consumption; very few fishers have larger mesh nets (3.5 to 4-finger sized), which are more adapted to the capture of large fish with scales for the market economy. the beginning of the rainy season is the optimal time for gillnetting because it offers a compromise between the abundance of fish and the more difficult conditions for net stretching. these are the techniques deployed for the longest period in the fishing areas of the ouémé valley. the barrel gbadja and nasses of are of lesser importance and are used over relatively short periods. these two devices are removed at the latest three days after their installation in order to extract the contents. the appearance of the gbadja, a new type of fishing gear, reveals a dynamic in the sophistication of fisher’s gear and techniques, which is currently directed towards a more random catch. this could be explained by the progressive decline in output reported by some writers in some years (chikou 2006; imorou toko 2007; lalèyè et al. 2007; welcomme 1971). these fishing management practices and adaptation strategies are developed by fishers to cope with the disappearance of certain fish djidohokpin et al. 2020. ethnobiology letters 11(1):137–151 148 data, methods & taxonomies species, the reduction in the size of the fish taken, the high cost of fish, and the decrease in the abundance of species suitable for processing by drying and smoking. hook fishing mostly occurs alongside other fishing activities. it is a means of catching small fish, which in turn serve as bait for catching larger fish via more substantial methods. for instance, women occasionally hook fish during the dry season as a side activity to dam fishing. whatever the season, longlines are installed in the deep parts of rivers. this is a solitary male activity carried out by fishers who own a canoe. a hundred small gangions are fixed to a long lead rope tied to the branch of an overhanging tree. pebbles serving as ballasts are tied to each gangion, and hooks are baited with the flesh of small fish or crab. during daylight, the fisher visits the longline continuously. when they realize that a gangion has caught a fish, they tie stretches of bamboo to delay hauling in the fish. while desperately trying to swim away, the fish will become tired by the resistance of the floating bamboo. nocturnal longlines are installed at sunset following the same method but are visited only once before sunrise. fishing gear appears primarily linked to the size of the target species and the seasons, although a more focused study in future would allow an exploration of whether there is also any particular association with specific fish species. different types of fishing gear are chosen as fishers plan their fishing activities throughout the year, modulating or combining their various fishing methods in accordance with seasonal water level fluctuations and their incidence on watercourse microhabitats. as stressed by colfer et al. (1999), increased effort should be made to analyze indigenous ways of perceiving time and scheduling activities accordingly. all the fish species in the tovè river are used both for subsistence and for medicinal purposes. the sale of fish may occasionally occur in local markets, but the primary goal of fishing is not aimed at the market economy or at the creation of wealth and income. it is to secure dietary regimes by supplying protein-rich and tasty wild food. preferences and aversions can be explained by cultural and ecological factors: the availability of the resource, the position of the species in the food chain, or through the importance of these species in the economy and social relationships within the community. for example, the catfish (clarias gariepinus) is a preferred food in the fishing community, reflecting a complex interplay of symbolic and cultural factors, as well as materialistic or functional factors, such as the environmental abundance of this resource in the region. although caught primarily as a source of animal protein for their own diet, fishers also take part in this trade to a lesser extent, which constitutes a secondary source of cash income. some species of fish such as malepterurus electricus are not the subject of a specific fishing strategy. most of these species are used in traditional medicine for the treatment of diseases or for occult practices, so it creates great excitement for the fisher who catches them. the fishers sell these fish for a high price to traditional healers. the fish then undergoes a transformation according to the medical or mystical use for which it is intended. for example, investigations indicate that malepterurus electricus is used for the treatment of epilepsy, sexual disorders in men, difficult childbirth, and convulsions. parachana obscura is very often used by traditional healers as a magical tool to prevent women from committing adultery. as neuenschwander et al. (2011) pointed out, the mystical properties attributed to these types of fish can act as an aphrodisiac. conclusion the present study reinforces the argument that folk taxonomy represents a valuable and necessary information source, particularly in a large river domain where fish biodiversity is a relevant issue and governmental agencies often lack the reliable human resources needed to tackle multi-species fisheries management. these results confirm that fishers do retain an important body of knowledge that could support faster and more affordable management initiatives. moreover, fishers could certainly contribute with additional information where there are no official statistics. fishers can enhance our understanding of marine ecosystem dynamics and of fisheries in general, which is not easily or cheaply achieved solely by conventional approaches. the wémènu have elaborated a great variety of fishing techniques that mediatize their extensive knowledge regarding fish ecology, diet, and behavior, in relation to diversified aquatic microhabitats. most fishing methods are performed in very specific time and place. each fishing practice requires a proper choice of fishing ground and an adjusted technique. djidohokpin et al. 2020. ethnobiology letters 11(1):137–151 149 data, methods & taxonomies it is also imperative to document and interpret fisher's folk knowledge, especially in the tropics, to enable scientists to work together with fishers in devising measures aimed at conserving both fish and fishing cultures. finally, further studies should take a closer look at the differences in ethno-ichthyological knowledge between the generations in order to protect and conserve their history in print. acknowledgments the author is grateful to all who made this study successful. sincere thanks go to the british academy which financed a writing workshop (award ww19 \100199) during which the first author benefited from the mentoring of the editors of journals and academics, 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community lore in northeastern thailand. journal of ethnobiology 15:71–88. how to carry out a democratic ethnobotanical study carlessi. 2019. ethnobiology letters 10(1):113–119 113 perspectives the community created a work group, occasionally inviting external colleagues to participate. over two years, the work group produced several audiovisual and printed materials, such as booklets including ceremonial chants, celebration calendars, interviews with longstanding and newer community members, photographic exhibitions of ceremonies and important historical moments, a documentary (unfinished at the time of writing), and a virtual platform to make these materials available to the public. the project was called “a teia” (the web), as the group understood that the history they wished to (re) tell—that of the círculo de irradiações espirituais de são lázaro (ciesl; saint lazarus spiritual irradiation circle), coordinated by pai alexandre—actually involved several other interwoven circles that encompass both human and non-human stories. in order to capture the concept of a “circle” as describing a collective, it must be emphasized that afro-brazilian religious cosmologies consider beings other than humans—such as trees, plants, seas, rivers, introduction in early 2014, i began an ethnobotanical study among an afro-brazilian religious community in the city of são paulo, brazil. at that time, two interests guided my research: first, to learn about the flora employed in umbanda1 religious practices; and second, to analyze the scope of rituals observed during ethnographic fieldwork. therefore, the approach established at the outset of the study, both by the academics accompanying me and by the umbanda practitioners who kindly welcomed research into their temple, was to proceed by identifying and classifying plant specimens according to methods of scientific knowledge production. at the time, the temple was undertaking measures to safeguard its intangible cultural heritage in preparation for two celebratory occasions: the 60th anniversary of the terreiro’s2 foundation (as well as a change of address upon occupying a new facility), and an homage to the community’s present religious leader, who had completed 18 years of leadership. to establish a registry of its cultural heritage, members of how to carry out a democratic ethnobotanical study pedro crepaldi carlessi1* 1centro de estudos de religiosidades contemporâneas e das culturas negras, university of são paulo, são paulo, brazil. *pccarlessi@gmail.com abstract this contribution aims to share some experiences and methodological considerations that arose during an ethnobotanical research project with an afro-brazilian religious community in the city of são paulo, brazil. by presenting ontological features of plants used in religious practices, and the ways relations are created within this religious cosmology, this work opens a discussion about the political commitments of doing contemporary ethnobotanical science. when the ways of being and living in communities considered “traditional”—here referring to afro-brazilian religious communities, and specifically to the umbanda afro-brazilian religion—are treated as equally valid, questions arise about the reaches of our own scientific practices, creating possibilities to construct practices and policies that preserve these communities’ vitality in the face of the overwhelming imposition of colonialism. in this sense, ethnobotanical research is at an analytical crossroads that can give the field an advantage over the political paralysis of the sciences and over the clandestine politicization of science as the spokesperson for a singular nature. these considerations lead to self-reflection on scientific expertise and democratic ways of producing knowledge about plants in plural cultural contexts. received march 7, 2019 open access accepted september 9, 2019 doi 10.14237/ebl.10.1.2019.1547 published december 4, 2019 keywords cosmopolitics, ethnobotany, science studies, sacred leaves, umbanda copyright © 2019 by the author(s); licensee society of ethnobiology. this is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution-noncommercial 4.0 international public license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0), which permits non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. carlessi. 2019. ethnobiology letters 10(1):113–119 114 perspectives oceans, cemeteries, forests, and even the ground and walls of the temple—to play active social roles in daily life. as i was told by pai alexandre in the first months of fieldwork, “in an umbanda temple, everything speaks.” i did not participate in this initial work group. my involvement started in a subsequent phase when the plant registry was being established. nevertheless, when i presented my research proposal to the terreiro leadership, they asked me to make the scientific names of the plants available to the work group. once the community was established in their new facility with a much larger garden, they became interested in using this nomenclature in a brochure for newcomers to the religion, as well as to produce signs conveying both the local and corresponding scientific names of each plant in their garden. by building knowledge and information within and about the terreiro, the search for scientific legitimacy is a feature of umbanda’s historical trajectory. this extends back to the 1920s and 1930s, when middle-class kardecists, a group of spiritists emerging from the metropolis of southern and southeastern brazil, began to infuse their practices with afro-brazilian religious elements (silva 2005). through this process, ritual elements that were previously marginalized, such as the use of alcoholic drinks, tobacco, and other offerings, were either banned or justified. these judgements were based on the moral standards of the dominant classes at the time, who employed the powerful discourses of modern sciences to form legitimate discourses of their own. indeed, the biologists accompanying my research viewed the botanical taxonomy work as a prerequisite to scientific activity. without it my research would be fated to failure, as it would not offer a valid and scientifically assured reference for the plants being presented to me by community members. methods and dilemmas the “scientific names” were employed by both parties aiming at a nomenclature intended to be universal. as such, this work not only required me to carry around a field notebook—the traditional companion of ethnographic practice—but also to employ established methods of botanical collection. i chose the “dry method” (fidalgo and bononi 1989), in which collected plants are placed in a standard field press and dehydrated in an herbarium oven. every time i recorded a new plant in my field notes, i collaborated with the terreiro members to help familiarize me with it. i then collected specimens, in whole or in part, and took them to the são paulo city herbarium to be taxonomically identified and classified. there is no doubt that scientific knowledge is hegemonic (agrawal 1995; carneiro da cunha 2007); after all, it is even employed in religious discourses. this hegemony is signaled by the term itself, science, that directly refers to modern western knowledge, while references to other forms of knowledge take the prefix ethno-. to be democratic, we must say that every science is necessarily ethnoscience. however, as observed by oliveira (2012:17), this qualitative distinction is still used to enlarge the gap between “us” and “them”, where only “them” is marked by ethno-. this prefix, at the most popular sense, serves as a caveat that implicitly diminishes the value of the term it qualifies, at least in the eyes of contemporary science. it follows from these observations that the demands to include scientific nomenclature, which came from both the scientific and religious parties, led me to a dangerous theoretical-methodological position. as i accommodated the requirements of botanical science, i implicitly adopted the synthetic category “plant” as conceptualized within a scientific cosmovision. in this way, i would be restricted to translating the meanings given by umbanda practitioners into terms recognizable within botanical discourse. the espada-de-são-jorge, for example, is recognized among botanists as sansevieria trifasciata. the plant is always given the same name in ciesl; however, depending on the plants growing around it, the location, time, and prayers done during the collection, the plant undergoes ontological changes, such that each espada-de-são-jorge becomes very different from others. not only does the plant’s meaning shift in the ritual, but more importantly, so does the nature of its existence in the world. as such, these plants can be rendered either dispensable or integral to religious services according to the relational system that characterizes them. following the advice of my colleagues in the terreiro, i collected two samples considered to be distinct, but considered by my botanist colleagues as the same species of “plant”. the problem with this approach is that it attempts to legitimize local knowledge by appealing to scientific concepts, trying to make the former comparable and carlessi. 2019. ethnobiology letters 10(1):113–119 115 perspectives compatible with a western scientific framework. this practice is at the very least anthropocentric and limiting, granting science the right to define reality without questioning its claims. this is incompatible with the goals of any analysis that aims to be democratic, or at least honest, about the different ways of being in the world. between the terreiro and the herbarium the movement between the terreiro and the herbarium, however, was interesting, as each new plant presented to the botanists triggered many exchanges. there were often small crowds of scientists interested in saints, herb baths, and the whole new world that these plants were bringing into the lab. this was a key moment in my research. the botanists were astonished with the religious flows carried by these plant samples, making them very different from the other plants in their collections. similarly, as the collection proceeded, members of the terreiro became interested in my academic practice. taxonomic practice requires collection of plants bearing flowers or fruits, structures that are indispensable to botanists’ work. however, these structures are less often considered in the classification systems used in afro-brazilian religious practices, which mainly focus on leaf characteristics. furthermore, the botanical method was not able to acquire plants as they were presented to me. in the umbanda religion, plants have auras and accompanying gods, which are realities that field presses and newspaper sheets used in botanical research do not capture. the term “realities” is appropriate because this experience is irrefutable: the invisible universe usually attributed to “culture” is, to afro-brazilian practitioners, part of what scientists call “nature.” in afro-brazilian religious cosmology, the plants do not end at the surface of their leaves, but instead permeate and extend beyond the material universe or “kingdom plantae” (carlessi 2015). beyond simply an exercise in how we categorize the world, these observations reinforce the argument that both the ideas of “nature” and “culture” are fluid and elaborated differently by particular social groups, including the scientific community. in a series of publications, bruno latour demonstrates (latour 1987, 1999; latour and woolgar 2013) how laboratory practices interpret the world in order to understand and explain “nature,” transforming the reality of material things not only epistemologically, but also ontologically. a careful look at ethnobotanical3 practice—the entries in fieldwork notebooks, the selection of specimens, collection, transportation, separation, sanitization, drying, and finally classification, now as a taxon—shows how the botanical method gradually transforms plant reality, ruling out some attributes of the world described by the interviewees during the fieldwork as “culture.” toward this end, at the herbarium, an extensive network of microscopes, magnifying glasses, pruning shears, field presses, herbarium ovens, and cataloging sheets is used to elaborate a new meaning for the plants under study, cutting away parts of the previous meanings (or relational properties) they held in their relationships with afro-brazilian religious practitioners. ethical agreements and the production of legitimacy efforts to preserve the terreiro’s ways of being were compromised by the western official mechanisms that had to be observed to produce social legitimacy. in order to conduct this research, it was necessary to comply with laws concerning what the brazilian state terms “traditional knowledge associated to genetic property”4. in the year before the fieldwork began, the study proposal was presented to pai alexandre and a statement of consent was agreed. however, the consent that ultimately allowed this research to be conducted was not granted by the religious leader himself, but by one of the entities that manifest in his body, through the process of spiritual incorporation. here i present an excerpt from the meeting in which we discussed this agreement: pai alexandre: have you already talked to seu sete? [referring to exú sete sepulturas, one of the leading spiritual entities in the terreiro]. me: not yet. nevertheless, i spoke with maria padilha [another important entity in the religious community]. pai alexandre: and what did she say? me: she said that if i do not do a good job she will kill me (laughs). pai alexandre: well, now it's definitely authorized! this excerpt illustrates the issue of what kind of social legitimacy must be employed in a democratic study concerning different ideas of what we call “social.” contracts, as legalized forms of exchange, create legalized subjects to represent collectives. in carlessi. 2019. ethnobiology letters 10(1):113–119 116 perspectives brazil, although the afro-brazilian communities' ways of living are legally recognized by the 1988 federal constitution, scientific research carried out in their territories and others generally described as “traditional” faces the challenge of adjusting legality to legitimacy, especially in communities whose notion of “social” is more extended than usually recognized. confined by a western political ontology developed in the seventeenth century, how can we deal with this contradiction without being reductionist? whenever they were materially present through the process of incorporation, i sought to introduce the research to the entities who, together with humans, lead this religious community. i tried to include them in the research in the same way i did with the humans. i presented the documents recognized by the brazilian state as tools of legitimacy. these were mostly replaced by agreements imposed by the entities themselves, reflecting their unique negotiating power. i tried to respect them as parties to negotiation, adopting a political attitude of enhanced cooperation. to build a political ontology, it is necessary recognize collectives in their true context instead of finding them ready-made. making democracy among cosmologies i believe it is necessary to go beyond simply pointing out differences between the ways of being adopted by afro-brazilian and scientific communities—a first effort in building a democratic ethnobotanical study—and construct practices and policies that preserve these communities from the overwhelming imposition of westernism. one of the current challenges in brazilian environmental law, from the standpoint of afrobrazilian religious communities, is guaranteeing access to public green areas for religious practices. contact with conserved flora is essential for these practices, and afro-brazilian communities have legitimately demanded this legal protection from the state. however, such access has been controversial and sometimes criminalized based on claims and complaints that offerings lead to the degradation of these areas. this amounts to an institutionalized mechanism of environmental racism (moutinho-dacosta 2013). indeed, the notion of “ecology” in these communities is broader than westerners generally recognize. ethnobotanical studies have shown that the daily practices of afro-brazilian religious communities are related to the growth and preservation of metropolitan green areas (rêgo 2006; voeks 1997). innovative paths to environmental education and management practices have also been built based on these groups’ worldviews (rocha et al. 2014). likewise, the afro-brazilian conceptualization of the body and plant-based healing (amaral 2009; barros and napoleão 1999; carlessi 2017) is in line with international demands for expansion of health care approaches beyond mainstream practices. in brazil, ethnobotanical studies focusing on this issue offer possibilities for recovering neglected knowledge of afro-brazilian practices, as well as helping to build more democratic public health policies (castor 2015; mello and oliveira 2013). these efforts not only pose epistemological and ontological challenges, but they also have ethical and political dimensions. contemporary authors have sought to demonstrate how the theoretical movements in the social sciences and humanities, which advocate for an ontological approach to human-nonhuman relations, can engage with the field of ethnobiology. they argue that such an encounter would be fruitful in expanding the possibilities and scope of this research area. daly et al. (2016) discuss how human-plant relations might be re-conceptualized and theorized using a “botanical ontology” approach. they demonstrate how radically divergent human-plant lifeworlds are constructed in different societies. in the same line of thought, ludwig (2018) shows that the focus of ethnobotanical research has changed since the early 1980s, shifting the debate about folkbiological cognition to other institutions and fields of knowledge. however, through a contemporary and highly influential theoretical framework, ludwig demonstrates how a novel conversation about cognition has fueled research about human-plant relationships in different societies from an integrative perspective. following the insights produced by this reanalysis of the classical conceptual frameworks, devore (2017) analyzes ritualized instructions for harvesting oleoresin or “oil” from the copaíba tree in brazil. this work demonstrates how plants can be sensitive to human language and intentionality, thus demonstrating certain attributes that in western worldviews are otherwise thought to be unique to humans. building on these observations, the methodological experiences shared in this research show that the ways of being and living in communities considered “traditional”—here referring to afro-brazilian carlessi. 2019. ethnobiology letters 10(1):113–119 117 perspectives religious communities, and specifically to the umbanda afro-brazilian religion—when treated as equally valid, enable self-reflection about our own scientific practices and assumptions. in this sense, ethnobotanical research is at an analytical crossroads that can give the field an advantage over the political paralysis of the sciences and over the clandestine politicization of science as the spokesperson for a singular nature. conclusion: fieldwork does not fit in the field press in this contribution, i have tried to revisit the paths covered in the development of this ethnobotanical research, sharing dilemmas and reflections related to the construction of a research study that respects many ways of being in the world. in order to carry out a democratic ethnobotanical study, i addressed a set of premises that are politically related to the choice and application of methods. these must be politically committed to the particular cosmologies under study. i suggest that any attempt to conduct a democratic ethnobotanical study begins by questioning the possibilities and scope of the discipline itself. as shown in this work, even the material boundaries of a plant's body, as they are understood in western thought, did not fit precisely into the umbanda’s conception of a plant’s existence. perhaps instead of compressing ethnobotanical concepts into comparative models appropriate for taxonomical science, we can create new analytical models that forgo the universality characteristic of modern thought, and embrace more of the particularities that the world constantly presents. moreover, instead of merely translating the umbanda practitioner’s knowledge into western scientific language, i insist on a stronger recognition and validation of the umbanda practitioners' worldviews, and thus a democratization and leveling of hierarchies between worldviews. this fieldwork was democratized in its day-to-day processes of gaining consent, not only from the human practitioners, but from the entire social network (for example, from religious entities). this widened the circle of stakeholders and consent-givers to the various social beings that take part in the concretely lived reality of these communities. the cosmopolitical ties of ethnobotanical practices are what is being democratized. if the “reality” of what we generally call “nature” continues to be defined through the optics of modern science, then ethnobotanical work might commit to deconstructing this model of a singular world, merely interpreted in different ways in different cultural contexts. as we question the terms, categories, and alliances of the scientific endeavor, we find that science is yet another ethno­science that can be disassembled and analyzed. such an attitude is required for a deeper revision of the assumptions of the scientific endeavor, and for establishing democratic parity among sciences that are all ethnosciences. notes 1umbanda is one of the most popular afro-brazilian religions. its practices merge elements related to the worship of orishas, brazilian popular catholicism, and healing practices of brazilian natives. the umbanda became organized in its current form at the beginning of the twentieth century and spread from the brazilian southeast to the entire national territory. today, the umbanda religion can be found in many countries in the americas and europe. 2afro-brazilian religious temple. 3although this category has varied in the literature, the “human-plant” relationship continues to prevail. ethnobotany has been shown to be a specific form of knowledge production operated by researchers interested in the cultural nuances attributed to plants or in the biological particularities of plants used by different human groups. 4according to item ii of article 2 of brazilian law 13,123, may 20, 2015: “information or practices of indigenous groups, traditional communities or traditional farmers regarding the properties or direct or indirect uses associated with genetic heritage.” traditional knowledge associated with genetic heritage is related to nature, living beings and the environment, and is part of the ancestral practice of certain ethnic groups. this knowledge integrates the brazilian cultural heritage and, in the scope of scientific research, is accessed through a technical judicial process that safeguards the rights and benefits associated with knowledge of real or potential value. this assurance, however, is controversial when hybrid notions such as tradition, nature, and community— among many others—are used without considering the cosmopolitical disparities that these terms may assume. carlessi. 2019. ethnobiology letters 10(1):113–119 118 perspectives acknowledgments to my colleagues at the são paulo herbarium who kindly welcomed part of this research and taught me a lot. special thanks to sumiko honda and ricardo josé francischetti garcia. declarations permissions: iphan authorization number 01450.004819/2014-14 and federal university of são paulo ethics committee approval for fieldwork number 610.407. sources of funding: none declared. conflicts of interest: none declared. references cited amaral, r. 2009. xirê!: o modo de crer e de viver no candomblé. pallas, rio de janeiro, brazil. agrawal, a. 1995. dismantling the divide between indigenous and scientific knowledge. development and change 26:413–439. doi:10.1111/j.14677660.1995.tb00560.x. carneiro da cunha, m. 2007. relações e dissensões entre saberes tradicionais e saber científico. revista usp 75:76–84. carlessi, p. c. 2017. jeitos, sujeitos e afetos: participação das 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10(1):113–119 119 perspectives bringing. ambiciência 10:43–64. doi:10.5935/ ambiencia.2014.01.04. silva, v. g. 2005. candomblé e umbanda: caminhos da devoção brazileira: selo negro, são paulo, brazil. voeks, r. a. 1997. sacred leaves of candomblé: african magic, medicine, and religion in brazil. university of texas press, austin, tx. identifying turtle shell rattles in the archaeological record of the southeastern united states gillreath-brown and peres. 2017. ethnobiology letters 8(1):109–114 109 short topical reviews possibility of their being a turtle shell rattle or other turtle shell artifact (e.g., bowl, cup, or effigy). further, equifinality is a major contributor to the identification issue surrounding fragmentary turtle remains (lyman 2004). several types of activities, such as food preparation or rattle construction, could lead to the same taphonomic state—similar looking turtle shell specimens. therefore, we integrate information about turtle shell rattles from ethnographic and ethnohistoric accounts of turtle shell rattle use and archaeological occurrences of turtle rattles to give researchers a foundation for evaluating fragmentary turtle remains and understanding turtle shell rattles in archaeofaunal samples in the southeastern united states. proper identification of chelonian remains is important for data quality and archaeological interpretation. since turtle shell rattles are generally associated with ritual, ceremonial, and mortuary activity, proper identification is important for indigenous groups, who may be able to claim cultural items under the native ameriturtle or tortoise (testudines) shell rattles are percussion instruments used by indigenous peoples in ceremonial contexts to keep rhythm and are symbols of group beliefs (jackson and levine 2002; figure 1). turtle or tortoise shell rattles occur throughout the united states, ranging from california to new york to florida (brown 2011). however, in this article, we concentrate on turtle shell rattles in the southeastern united states, and particularly on the difficulty of identifying turtle shell rattles in the archaeological record. they are known from archaeological, ethnographic, and ethnohistoric records of native americans in the southeastern united states, and remain part of native american life among groups such as the cherokee, shawnee, muscogee (creek), tsoyaha (yuchi), chickasaw, and seminole. archaeological chelonian (turtles and tortoises) remains are usually assumed to be related to subsistence activities without qualifying or eliminating the identifying turtle shell rattles in the archaeological record of the southeastern united states andrew gillreath-brown1* and tanya m. peres2 1department of anthropology, washington state university, pullman, wa, usa. 2department of anthropology, florida state university, tallahassee, fl, usa. *andrew.d.brown@wsu.edu abstract the construction of rattles from turtle (testudines) shells is an important consideration when distinguishing between food and non-food uses of archaeological turtle remains. however, the identification of turtle shell rattles in prehistoric contexts can be quite challenging. equifinality is a major problem for being able to distinguish rattles from food refuse, particularly when a carapace is not burnt or modified. in addition, diversity, abundance, and distribution of chelonian taxa varies throughout the southeastern united states, creating differential access for indigenous groups. thus, multiple lines of evidence are needed from archaeological, ethnographic, and ethnohistoric records to successfully argue for the production and use of turtle shell rattles in the prehistoric southeastern united states. in this article, we present examples of turtle shell rattles in the southeastern united states to highlight their function and use by indigenous groups, the construction process, and several common characteristics, or an object trait list, that can aid in the identification of fragmentary turtle shell rattle remains. accurate functional identification of turtle remains is important for identifying turtle shell rattle artifacts and may be of interest to indigenous groups claiming cultural items under the native american graves protection and repatriation act (nagpra). received may 10, 2017 open access accepted september 18, 2017 doi 10.14237/ebl.8.1.2017.979 keywords turtle, rattle, terrapene carolina, zooarchaeology, southeastern united states, ethnography copyright © 2017 by the author(s); licensee society of ethnobiology. this is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution-noncommercial 4.0 international public license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0), which permits non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. gillreath-brown and peres. 2017. ethnobiology letters 8(1):109–114 110 short topical reviews can graves protection and repatriation act (nagpra). in the southeastern united states, indigenous groups exploited and used a diverse range of chelonian taxa, including, but not limited to, eastern or common box turtle (terrapene carolina), ornate or western box turtle (t. ornata), common or north american snapping turtle (chelydra serpentina), mud turtles (kinosternon spp.), musk turtles (sternotherus spp.), river cooter (pseudemys concinna), eastern painted turtle (chrysemys picta picta), pond or common slider (trachemys scripta), and softshell turtles (apalone spp.)1. however, southeastern indigenous groups would have had differential access to any given taxa, depending on the distribution and availability within their local environments, though trading is also a possibility. therefore, some indigenous groups would have had an easier time collecting turtles for rattle construction. through a review of several ethnographic and archaeological cases, we developed an object trait list of five common characteristics of rattle manufacturing that can be used to distinguish turtle shell rattles from subsistence remains, including: ceremonial, ritual, or burial association; turtle species preference; carapace and plastron representation; modifications; and rattle implements (brown 2011). rattle forms in the southeastern united states include parallel handheld and body (or shackle) types (figure 1). rattles are commonly constructed from eastern box turtle (t. c. carolina) shells. the ethnographic record gives in-depth information on crafting rattles, the function of rattles, and representative examples of the object trait list. the shawnee, cherokee, and absentee of oklahoma and the eastern band of cherokee used turtle shells to craft parallel handheld rattles that relate to magical songs, typically sung by a male shaman (dodd 2002:13 –14; voegelin 1942; figure 1a). the rattles were also used by cherokee shawnee false face impersonators. false faces were people that led dances and would use turtle shell rattles to help stave off disease and protect houses (voegelin 1942:467). voegelin (1942:467) describes the “tortoise shell hand rattles” as using a wood turtle (glyptemys insculpta) for rattle construction; however, this species is found in the northeast united states. in the ethnographic literature, “tortoise” is sometimes used for t. carolina spp. (e.g., parker 1909:79), as they appear tortoise-like (turtle extinctions working group 2015:16). to prepare the rattle, the turtle was boiled in water, the inside of the turtle shell cleaned out, and the plastron and carapace were sun dried, enabling the carapace and plastron to figure 1 examples of two types of turtle shell rattles. a parallel handheld rattle. figure produced by bailey gillreath-brown. b historic body rattle. courtesy mcclung museum of natural history and culture, university of tennessee, knoxville, tennessee. photo by andrew gillreath-brown. c chickasaw turtle shell leg shakers. image by the chickasaw nation department of communications and community development (1994). all rights reserved. for permissions and other rights under this copyright, contact the chickasaw nation. gillreath-brown and peres. 2017. ethnobiology letters 8(1):109–114 111 short topical reviews remain in one piece (voegelin 1942). holes were then drilled around the edges so that buckskin could be used to tie the carapace and plastron together. the rattle implements, typically quartz crystals or small rocks, were placed inside of the shell. next, a roundpiece of wood, which was tapered at one end, was inserted through the bottom to the top, then a wooden peg was fitted around the top tapered end (figure 1a). shawnee, cherokee, and absentee of oklahoma used terrapene spp. to create body rattles or shackles, which are used by younger women, as opposed to the handheld rattles that are used by mostly men (brown 2011; jackson and levine 2002; voegelin 1942; figure 1b–1c). the body rattle has been associated with various ceremonies and dances, such as the garfish dance, green corn ceremony, ribbon dance, and the stomp dance (dodd 2002:14; howard 1968:90; jackson and levine 2002). body turtle shell rattles can be tied directly to the arm or leg with cordage; thus, the shells may or may not have holes drilled in the carapace and plastron (brown 2011:figure 12; figure 1b). in the southeastern united states, chickasaw, cherokee, muscogee (creek), and tsoyaha (yuchi) women tied together six to ten rattles made from t. c. carolina shells (fradkin 1990:424; speck 1911). these were attached to a piece of hide, such as deer (odocoileus spp.) or woodchuck (marmota monax), that was then fastened to the dancer’s legs (figure 1c). these are sometimes called shackles or leggings. since the turtle shells were tied together and then attached to hide, the shells had drilled holes. pebbles, freshwatable 1. description and interpretation of turtle shell rattle object traits and relationship to turtle remains. object trait* description and interpretation ceremonial, ritual, or burial association rattles are used in ceremonies and rituals that include many dances. rattles are interred in burials, possibly with the people that used them in the ceremonies and rituals. however, turtle shell specimens found in ceremonial and ritual contexts could also be a result of ritual feasting**. turtle species preference t. carolina is the preferred and dominant chelonian taxon for rattle construction in the southeastern united states. it is unclear whether box turtles can be consumed, since they consume mushrooms that are poisonous to humans (brown 2011:4). carapace and plastron representation only the carapace and plastron are used in rattle construction. in a subsistence context, there would be a broader range of skeletal representation. modification rattles are intentionally (e.g., drilling) and unintentionally (e.g., stress striations or polish) modified (brown 2011:10–11). drilling is the most common rattle modification and has at least two functions, allowing sound to exit the container and cordage to pass through the holes so that the shell can be tied to the arm or leg, or attached to animal skin (hide). some modifications, such as drilling, polish, stress-striations (from use), and wear from rattle objects, cordage, clothing, body, or hide, might be evidence of rattles. in contrast, other modifications, such as cut marks, scoring and snapping, butchery, and thermal alteration, might be associated with food remains. rattle implements pebbles, freshwater drum (aplodinotus grunniens) molariform teeth, and seeds are a few of the implements used in rattles to create the signature rattle sound. the implements are sometimes found in direct association with turtle shells. however, due to taphonomic issues, the implements may preserve but not the turtle specimen. further, some implements may be discarded in excavations. *when evaluating turtle shell specimens, we recommend that multiple traits be present to make the case that a given specimen functioned as a rattle instead of for food. **individual traits can also be used to further evaluate another trait. for example, to distinguish between rattles (or another turtle artifact) and feasting, turtle species preference and skeletal representation could be used to understand whether a species would have been eaten and whether the skeletal elements represented a closer association with rattle or food deposition. gillreath-brown and peres. 2017. ethnobiology letters 8(1):109–114 112 short topical reviews ter drum (aplodinotus grunniens) molariform teeth, or possibly other small implements like seeds, were placed inside to create the signature rattle sound when shaken (brown 2011). james adair (1775) provides one of the earliest rattle accounts, probably about the chickasaw, with whom adair had begun trading with in 1744. adair (1775:97, 170) describes the rattles as small shells filled with white pebbles or beads and tied to a piece of white deerskin, then tied to each leg, which were worn by women. archaeologically recovered rattles mainly occur in the traditional homelands of indigenous groups known from ethnographic and ethnohistoric records. for example, rattles were discovered at the warren wilson and coweeta creek sites in southwestern north carolina (rodning and moore 2010), homeland of the cherokee and close to the muscogee (creek) and tsoyaha (yuchi). turtle shell body rattles have been recovered from archaeological contexts throughout the southeastern united states (brown 2011; lewis and kneberg 1970). the body rattles have three to five holes drilled into the shell, which allows for the shell to be tied to the arm or leg (brown 2011:figure 2; lewis and kneberg 1970:126– 127). it is unclear whether prehistoric rattles may have been bundled together and attached to a material like hide. however, the presence of many turtle shell rattles in single burials suggests a legging style design. a woman in burial 7 at the hiwassee island site in tennessee may have worn the turtle shell rattle leggings. excavators noted ten turtle shell rattles at her legs (lewis and kneberg 1970:126–127). however, in burial 89, the turtle shell rattles were positioned around both upper arms of a young female (lewis and kneberg 1970:148). archaeologically, complete or near-complete turtle shell rattles are known from mortuary associations, though fragmentary turtle remains are rarely identified as anything other than food waste. therefore, the question is whether fragmentary turtle remains represent food, rattles, other types of artifacts, or even a combination of uses. fragmentary turtle remains often have no signs of modification associated with food preparation (e.g., burning or butchering), making the presence of turtle specimens in archaeofaunal assemblages difficult to interpret. other problems stem from the amount of turtle fragments at archaeological sites. the number of identified specimens (nisp) can be very high for turtle remains, which stems from how easily turtle specimens are disarticulated. further, while elements can be easily identified, interdependence can still be a major issue. contexts with a broad range of skeletal parts may be more likely to represent discarded subsistence remains; however, the refuse could be from rattle preparation. in that case, according to the object trait list above, the carapace and plastron would not be present since they would be used in rattle construction. rattle implements are also subjected to biases (brown 2011). river pebbles may have been discarded as soil during excavations and seeds may not have preserved in the archaeological record. dietary turtle remains and turtle shell rattles cooccur at archaeological sites; however, differences in context may provide some insights into the mode of turtle shell deposition. coweeta creek is a late prehistoric and protohistoric settlement located in macon county, southwestern north carolina. for general turtle remains at the site, vanderwarker and detwiler (2000) report a nisp of 297, including 113 unidentifiable turtle, and an mni of 19 for t. carolina, k. subrubrum (eastern or common mud turtle), and c. serpentina, which were recovered from pit features, townhouse floors, and mound fill. various turtle elements (e.g., humerus, dentary, vertebra, scapula, pubis, and femora) were discovered in different contexts such as pit features and structure floors; further, about 27 carapace/plastron fragments were burned or calcined. turtle shell rattles were mostly confined to burials and only consisted of carapace and plastron elements; however, above floor 5 of the coweeta creek townhouse mound, a t. carolina carapace fragment had a drilled hole and was polished. the townhouse is public architecture and may have also been a place for public ritual (rodning and vanderwarker 2002). three turtle shell rattles were discovered at the site in two burials of young adult women, of which the rattles had associated pebbles2 given that rattles are predominantly associated with burial, ceremonial, and ritual contexts (and possibly a public ritual space), the co-occurrence at the site highlights the differences in context between dietary and rattle remains. research focusing on turtle shell rattles represents an overlooked research topic in archaeology and zooarchaeology. however, by using multiple lines of evidence from zooarchaeological data, the object trait list (ceremonial, ritual, or burial association; turtle species preference; carapace and plastron representation; modifications; and rattle implements), ethno gillreath-brown and peres. 2017. ethnobiology letters 8(1):109–114 113 short topical reviews graphic and ethnohistoric data, and other studies, turtle shell rattles can be successively identified in the archaeological record in the southeastern united states (table 1). further, with a firm quantitative and qualitative base, we can begin to have substantial discussions on the functions of turtle shells as rattles and their potential to be claimed under nagpra. notes 1the geographic distribution of different turtle species can be accessed through the iucn red list (http:// www.iucnredlist.org/). also, see turtle taxonomy working group [p. p. van dijk, j. b. iverson, a. g. j. rhodin, h. b. shaffer, and r. bour]. 2014. turtles of the world, 7th edition: annotated checklist of taxonomy, synonymy, distribution with maps, and conservation status. in conservation biology of freshwater turtles and tortoises: a compilation project of the iucn/ ssc tortoise and freshwater turtle specialist group. chelonian research monographs 5(7):000.329–479, edited by a. g. j. rhodin, p. c. h. pritchard, p. p. van dijk, r. a. saumure, k. a. buhlmann, j. b. iverson, and r. a. mittermeier. doi:10.3854/ crm.5.000.checklist.v7.2014. 2from visual examination of an image of the burial 43 turtle shell rattle, it is possible that the rattle had at least one drilled hole, but the remains were not wellpreserved and have now been repatriated (https:// rla.lib.unc.edu/rla/record/91485/context/specimen). source: research laboratories of archaeology, university of north carolina, chapel hill, north carolina. acknowledgements we are grateful to dr. christopher b. rodning for additional information on the coweeta creek burials and turtle shell rattles. we are thankful to dr. amber m. vanderwarker for providing and answering questions about the coweeta creek faunal data. we thank dr. r. p. stephen davis jr. and the research laboratories of archaeology, university of north carolina, chapel hill, nc, for providing additional documentation on the coweeta creek burials that helped better inform the rattles. we thank the chickasaw nation for allowing us to use their image. the authors gratefully acknowledge the ebl editors and production and editorial assistant, and three anonymous reviewers for their very constructive comments. however, any omissions or errors are the authors’. declarations permissions: bailey gillreath-brown gave permission to use figure 1a. mcclung museum of natural history and culture granted permission to use gillreathbrown’s photo in figure 1b. the chickasaw nation granted permission to use their image in figure 1c. sources of funding: this research was funded in part by a 2011 undergraduate research experience and creative activity (ureca) grant (account #224500) through the undergraduate research center at middle tennessee state university. conflicts of interest: none declared. references cited adair, j. 1775. the history of the american indians. edward and charles dilly, london, united kingdom. brown, a. 2011. an exploration of turtle shell rattle manufacture in the mississippian period. anthropology senior thesis, department of sociology and anthropology, middle tennessee state university, murfreesboro, tn. doi:10.13140/ rg.2.1.2675.5921. dodd, c. k. 2002. north american box turtles: a natural history. university of oklahoma press, norman, ok. fradkin, a. 1990. cherokee folk zoology: the animal world native american people (1700–1838). garland publishing, new haven, ct. howard, j. h. 1968. the southeastern ceremonial complex and its interpretation. missouri archaeological society, memoir 6, columbia, mo. jackson, j. b., and v. l. levine. 2002. singing for garfish: music and woodland communities in eastern oklahoma. ethnomusicology 46:284­–306. doi:10.2307/852783. lewis, t., and m. kneberg. 1970. hiwassee island: an archaeological account of four tennessee indian peoples. university of tennessee press, knoxville, tn. lyman, r. l. 2004. the concept of equifinality in taphonomy. journal of taphonomy 2:15–26. parker, a. c. 1909. secret medicine societies of the seneca. american anthropologist 11:161–185. doi:10.1525/aa.1909.11.2.02a00010. rodning, c. b., and d. g. moore. 2010. south appalachian mississippian and protohistoric mortuary practices in southwestern north carolina. 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spread of humanity: first checklist and review of extinct pleistocene and holocene chelonians. in conservation biology of freshwater turtles and tortoises: a compilation project of the iucn/ssc tortoise and freshwater turtle specialist group. chelonian research monographs 5(8):000e.1–66, edited by a. g. j. rhodin, p. c. h. pritchard, p. p. van dijk, r. a. saumure, k. a. buhlmann, j. b. iverson, and r. a. mittermeier. doi:10.3854/ crm.5.000e.fossil.checklist.v1.2015. vanderwarker, a. m., and k. r. detwiler. 2000. plant and animal subsistence at the coweeta creek site (31ma34), macon county, north carolina. north carolina archaeology 49:59–77. voegelin, e. w. 1942. shawnee musical instruments. american anthropologist 44:463–475. doi:10.1525/ aa.1942.44.3.02a00110. eastern shoshone and northern arapaho traditional ecological knowledge (tek) and ethnobotany for wind river reservation rangelands friday and scasta. 2020. ethnobiology letters 11(1):14–24 14 data, methods & taxonomies individuals. generally, in indigenous thought, people see themselves as families and communities instead of individuals (aragon 2007; miller 2009). pierotti and wildcat (2000:1335) said, this way of thought includes: (1) respect for nonhuman entities as individuals, (2) the existence of bonds between humans and nonhumans, including incorporation of nonhumans into ethical codes of behavior, (3) the importance of local places, and (4) the recognition of humans as part of the ecological system, rather than as separate from and defining the existence of that system. introduction although researchers, policy makers, and natural resource managers have begun to recognize the longterm value of traditional ecological knowledge (tek; also known as indigenous ecological knowledge or iek) for managing natural resources (berkes et al. 2000; davis and ruddle 2010). tek, as a way of knowing, is an accumulation of place-based knowledge, practice, and belief about relationships between living beings and their environment that is transferred to subsequent generations through indigenous cultural practices (berkes et al. 2000). not all indigenous members of a tribe have the same ecological knowledge base nor is it a standardized comprehensive account equally shared by all eastern shoshone and northern arapaho traditional ecological knowledge (tek) and ethnobotany for wind river reservation rangelands colleen friday1 and john derek scasta1* 1department of ecosystem science and management, university of wyoming, laramie, usa. *jscasta@uwyo.edu abstract the need to affirm and revitalize cultural knowledge of native plant communities is imperative for indigenous people. this ethnobotanical study documents traditional ecological knowledge (tek) structured from an indigenous paradigm by exploring the connection between plants collected in two high-elevation basins and tribal members on the wind river indian reservation (wrir). we sought to qualitatively understand the plant resources by looking through the lens of indigenous language and perspectives. existing names of the basin plants in both the eastern shoshone and northern arapaho languages were compiled through an ethnobotanical literature review, seven in-person interviews with eastern shoshone and northern arapaho tribal members, and attendance at language workshops. we documented 53 eastern shoshone and 44 northern arapaho plant names, respectively. historical impacts of past federal indian policy eras have shaped tek as it currently exists within tribal communities. both tribes used and had indigenous names for northern sweetgrass (hierochloe hirta ssp. hirta), bitterroot (lewisia rediviva), junipers (juniperus ssp.), and bearberry or kinnikinnick (arctostaphylos uva-ursi). the resiliency of tek is attributed to the perseverance of indigenous people continuing to practice and teach traditions. the historical context specific to both the eastern shoshone and northern arapaho tribes and their languages are important for enhancing our current understanding of the ethnobotanical tek of plants on the wrir. recognizing the value of ethnobotanical tek and incorporating it into natural resource management plans and decisions can bridge diverse perspectives on land use for meaningful collaboration with tribal communities. received october 5, 2019 open access accepted march 2, 2020 doi 10.14237/ebl.11.1.2020.1654 published may 11, 2020 keywords high-elevation basin, ethnobotany, eastern shoshone, northern arapaho copyright © 2020 by the author(s); licensee society of ethnobiology. this is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution-noncommercial 4.0 international public license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0), which permits non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. friday and scasta. 2020. ethnobiology letters 11(1):14–24 15 data, methods & taxonomies the recognition of such bonds between humans and nature has also been shown for indigenous people in many other countries (clarke 2016; wu 2015). pierotti and wildcat (2000) report that for many tribes, “[d] espite both forced and voluntary relocations, [they] have taken their tek with them, which has allowed them to survive these experiences and establish sacred places in their new homes.” the role that plant communities have in indigenous culture is a fundamental tek concept with implications for climate change, food security, and natural resource management (kuhnlein 2014; reid et al. 2014). conceptually quantifying the culturally important native plants can provide a unique lens to better understand indigenous land use perspectives, as demonstrated by davis (2019) for the palouse prairie in the pacific northwest united states. globally, natural resource managers in crosscultural contexts have collaboratively created frameworks to incorporate tek into adaptive management strategies in places, such as australia, new zealand, north america, and india (flanagan and laituri 2004; holmes and jampijinpa 2013; o'donnell and talbot-jones 2018; walsh et al. 2013). such approaches may provide a more equitable role for american indian tribes given the conflicted history with government (whyte 2013). during the reservation era (1850s–1890s), tribal people were held on reservations and forbidden to practice tribal traditions, although this does not mean that people did not continue with traditions and ceremonies in secret (wilkins and stark 2017). the assimilation era (1870s–1930s) incorporated christian ideologies and took children to off-reservation boarding schools. this government-imposed relocation obstructed oral transmission of cultural knowledge to future generations, which resulted in knowledge loss over time (charbonneau-dahlen et al. 2016). tek in the form of indigenous languages has experienced parallel threats and resilience. during the assimilation period, non-indigenous linguists learned indigenous languages and translated them into written forms (cowell et al. 2014; salzmann 1960). however, for indigenous people, the combination of tribal children being prevented from learning indigenous language, and the passing away of older generations of fluent speakers, led to the disappearance of numerous spoken indigenous languages (charbonneau-dahlen et al. 2016). the primary purpose of this study was to document the connection between plants in two highelevation basins with tribal members on the wind river indian reservation (wrir) by presenting taxonomically accurate scientific names coupled with tribal names and uses. methodology study area history the eastern shoshone and northern arapaho tribes reside on the wrir of wyoming. the 1868 fort bridger treaty established the shoshone reservation for the eastern shoshone tribe (trenholm and carley 1964; wshpo 2020). in 1878, the northern arapaho were placed temporarily on this reservation after the 1868 treaty of fort laramie (stamm 1999; trenholm and carley 1964). placement of the northern arapaho at wind river subsequently became permanent. the eastern shoshone tribe was compensated for the dividing of their reservation after a 1937 supreme court case against the us federal government (no tribes or state governments were named as defendants in the case) (murray 1996; shoshone tribe of indians v. united states 1937; trenholm and carley 1964) and the name of the reservation was changed to wind river indian reservation (trenholm and carley 1964). study design ethnobotanical information specific to the eastern shoshone and northern arapaho tribes was compiled through literature review, field sampling of voucher specimens, referencing archival documents, and interviews (campbell n.d.; cowell 2004; martin 2010; shimkin 1947). our specific focus in this study was on two high-elevation basins that are of particular importance from an ethnobotanical perspective. a combination of researching linguistic sources and following up on information that tribal contacts provided was used to compile ethnobotanical information specific to the eastern shoshone and northern arapaho. we proceeded as follows: literature searches were conducted prior to interviews; translation occurred concurrently with native speakers when possible, through the use of written texts, and through consultation with other linguistic and/or plant experts as necessary; and plant pictures were offered during interviews as needed or requested. the ethnobotanical information gathered is not a comprehensive list of all historically-used plants by the eastern shoshone and northern arapaho people in the study area, but rather is on only plants identified in known vegetation inventory studies conducted in friday and scasta. 2020. ethnobiology letters 11(1):14–24 16 data, methods & taxonomies the saint lawrence and paradise basins. linguistic sources included shimkin’s (1947) 1937–1938 ethnogeography study of the wind river shoshone, the yellowstone national park, grand teton national park, and national elk refuge areas study (wshpo 2020), the university of colorado arapaho plant names and uses (cowell 2004; cowell et al. 2012, 2014), and north american indian medicinal and food uses books (shoshone and arapaho; moerman 2009 and 2010). ethnobotany via in-person interviews and conversations in-person knowledge exchange was sought from elders in the wind river tribal communities using human subject research methods approved by the university of wyoming (uw) – institutional review board (irb; protocol #20171206cf01794). seven individuals consisting of four eastern shoshone tribal members and three northern arapaho tribal members were interviewed about their general knowledge relating to plants or existing resources. this effort included the eastern shoshone cultural center located in fort washakie, wy. the tribal elder working at the center recommended the eastern shoshone working dictionary as a resource for plant names (center et al. n.d.). in july 2018, a community contact recommended the restoring shoshone ancestral foods project as a source of information about plants traditionally used as food sources by shoshone people. meetings and informal trainings took place at the uw cent$ible nutrition program of the wrir extension office in fort washakie, wyoming. we visited the office and were provided information about the project as well as a list of the english common names of plant species and some of their uses and preparation processes, which corroborated knowledge previously collected from the literature review. in august 2018, an eastern shoshone tribal elder traveled to the research field site in saint lawrence basin and spent the day reviewing identified plants and reconciling them with entries in the shoshone dictionary and his personal knowledge of the shoshone language. in march 2018, the lead researcher attended a two day arapaho language workshop held at the university of colorado (uc) boulder. the workshop focused on techniques for teaching the language in western structured classrooms. participants also had the opportunity to request elders to add words to the dictionary through providing them with an english word and its context so that the elders could formulate its name in arapaho. in may 2018, a one day arapaho language workshop was held at the native american education, research, and culture center on the uw campus in laramie, wyoming. this workshop had a very low attendance due to a death of an arapaho elder on the wrir. in may 2018, an interested northern arapaho elder who did not know much about plants and their associated names referred me to online resources stored on the uc website. this online resource portal no longer exists at the time of this writing. the arapaho names that were documented from the website were crosslisted and verified by the publication plants and plant names in arapaho life and language (cowell 2004). ethnobotanical information for the saint lawrence and paradise basins plant uses the methodology of plant collection such as season, frequency, and location will not be shared to protect the natural resource and tribal knowledge (cowell 2004). therefore, information regarding what plant parts are used and how they are gathered and prepared has been generalized and is applicable to both the eastern shoshone and northern arapaho tribes. the gathering and preparation processes of plants can be applied to individual plants used for food, medicinal, and/or ceremonial uses. moerman (2010) listed approximately 32 plant food use categories. we note eight categories of traditional food use: beverage, seasoning, gravy, sweetener, preserves, vegetable, winter food, and starvation food (cowell 2004; moerman 2010). medicinal and ceremonial use information is restricted to individuals whom have received that knowledge through oral traditions, dreams, visions, or directly through cultural activities (cowell et al. 2014; wshpo 2020). generalized medicinal use categories that are not deemed confidential include immune system booster, pain reliever, anti-inflammatory, cold remedy, pediatric aid, lung health, disease specific applications, and veterinary aid (cowell 2004; moerman 2009). eastern shoshone the classification of the shoshone language is under the uto-aztecan language family as a northern utoaztecan, central, numic language (miller 1984; shimkin 1947). the shoshone language consists of four dialects: western, northern, eastern, and goshute (fowler 2009). for the eastern shoshone, friday and scasta. 2020. ethnobiology letters 11(1):14–24 17 data, methods & taxonomies we identified 53 total plant species (1 grass, 31 forbs, 17 shrubs, and 4 trees) found in the vegetation inventory of the two basins according to their common english name, scientific name, the eastern shoshone name, english translation of the shoshone name, and/or whether the plant has any medicinal, food, traditional arts and crafts, casual, or ceremonial use to the shoshone people (table 1). the shoshone names were phonetically spelled for ease of pronouncing the names by a non-fluent shoshone speaking individual. of the 53 plant species noted, 12 had some use documented but no eastern shoshone name, including: fireweed (chamerion angustifolium) and antelope bitterbrush (purshia tridentata) (food and medicinal use respectively). some species were noted for more than three uses, including bastard toadflax (comandra umbellata; tribal name unknown), common juniper (juniperus communis; wah•pee), and limber pine (pinus flexilis; yoo•ryn•woen•goe•vee). regarding use, 29 species had medicinal uses, ten species had food uses, ten species had traditional art and craft uses (including dye, nets, and arrows specifically), eight species had casual uses, and 30 species had ceremonial uses. northern arapaho the arapaho language is one of four subdivisions of the traditional classification of the algonquian language family and considered to be one of the three great plains algonquian languages (salzmann 1960). at some point the arapaho language separated from the algonquian family and has become quite different in its phonetics (cowell et al. 2014). the way the arapaho language adds prefixes and suffixes to a word stem forms long, complex words equivalent to english sentences, which can make translation difficult but can provide great linguistic insight (cowell et al. 2014). the arapaho language is further divided into northern arapaho (wyoming) and southern arapaho (oklahoma) (cowell et al. 2014; salzmann 1960). although the northern arapaho were placed on the wrir, there are names in the arapaho language for saint lawrence basin (hehii sio’huu noo, meaning “wash basin”). the ridge dividing saint lawrence from paradise basin is called windy ridge (heet hee sei nii coo too yoo’ meaning “windy hill”). these names indicate stories connected to place through their language and are intended as detailed descriptions. for northern arapaho, we identified 44 total plant species (2 grasses, 1 grass-like, 26 forbs, 11 shrubs, and 4 trees) found in the vegetation inventory of the two basins according to their common english name, scientific name, the northern arapaho name, english translation, and plant uses (table 2). regarding use, 12 species had medicinal uses, 12 species had food uses, 12 species had traditional art and craft uses with several used for dye and one for arrows, three species had casual uses, and four species (2 shrubs and 2 trees) had ceremonial uses. some plants had multiple arapaho names such as common yarrow (achillea millefolium; no’outihi’and nonooke’einou’u), bitterroot (lewisia rediviva; neniicisoxu’oo’ wooxcoo’), and bearberry (arctostaphylos uva-ursi; noh’uwunobiise’ noh’uwuno) (campbell n.d.; cowell 2004). comparison of cultural names and uses many plant species were found to have indigenous names from both tribes, but this was not always the case with variation between the tribes. for grasses and grass-like plants, both tribes had a name for northern sweetgrass (shoshone bah•seep [bah may refer to water and seep may refer to willows and collectively may refer to locations where the plant can be found]; arapaho (s) no’oxu’and (p) ni’oxu’uno [translation “good grass”]) and medicinal and ceremonial use in common. only the arapaho had a general term for grass (woxu’) and a name for mountain rush (juncus articus ssp. littoralis; hotohine; translation unknown). for forbs, both tribes recognized many of the same species (including common yarrow, nodding onion [allium cernuum], wild chives [allium schoenoprasum], sego lily [calochortus nuttallii], bluebell bellflower [campanula rotundifolia], fireweed, sulphurflower buckwheat [eriogonum umbellatum var. majus], virginia strawberry [fragaria virginiana], elkweed or monument plant [frasera speciosa], bitterroot, bluebells [mertensia ciliata], and spearleaf stonecrop [sedum lanceolatum]). spearleaf stonecrop had indigenous names, translations, and uses for both tribes (shoshone oh•hah•yap [translation “yellow, has”]; arapaho hoteibii3hiit [translation “sheep food”]). even if a forb was recognized by both tribes, indigenous names were not necessarily determined in all cases. for example, for fireweed (chamerion angustifolium), we determined an arapaho name and translation (xoowoo [translation “ceremonial lance”]) but could not determine a shoshone name or translation. in some cases, both tribes recognized similar plants but with different levels of details about species such as for thistles (cirsium species), friday and scasta. 2020. ethnobiology letters 11(1):14–24 18 data, methods & taxonomies ta b le 1 s h o sh o n e n am e s an d u se s o f p la n ts i n h ig h -e le va ti o n b as in s o n t h e w in d r iv er i n d ia n r es er va ti o n i n w yo m in g, u n it ed s ta te s. g ro u p ed b y p la n t fu n cti o n al g ro u p a n d t h en a lp h ab eti ca lly b y sc ie n ti fi c n am e. u se s in cl u d e m ed ic in al ( m ), f o o d ( f) , a rt s & c ra ft s (a & c ), c as u a l u se ( c u ), a n d c er e m o n ia l ( c ). c o m m o n e n gl is h n am e sc ie n ti fi c n am e sh o sh o n e n am e tr an sl ati o n m f a & c c u c g ra ss n o rt h er n s w e et gr as s* h ie ro ch lo e h ir ta s sp . h ir ta b ah •s e ep ** x x fo rb co m m o n y ar ro w a ch ill ea m ill ef o liu m h ah •r ee n •a yn •g ah ** x x x n o d d in g o n io n a lli u m c er n u u m gu h n k ** x x w ild c h iv es a lli u m s ch o en o p ra su m gu h n k ** x x b al lh ea d s an d w o rt a re n a ri a c o n g es ta u n kn o w n u n kn o w n x x al p in e sa ge b ru sh a rt em is ia s co p u lo ru m b o e• h o e• v ** x x x m ilk ve tc h s p p . a st ra g a lu s sp p . ya h n •g ah n • ge e •y a ** se go li ly c a lo ch o rt u s n u tt a lli i se e• go e to e• n •z e e• ya p b el ly b u tt o n x b lu eb el l b el lfl o w er c a m p a n u la r o tu n d if o lia d o e• sa h •ti n •g ee • sa h •p w h it e, r ef er s to o d o r n w in d ia n p ai n tb ru sh c a sti lle ja a n g u sti fo lia ay n •g ah •y a• h ay n t re d , h as ye llo w in d ia n p ai n tb ru sh c a sti lle ja fl a va u n kn o w n u n kn o w n x gi an t re d p ai n tb ru sh c a sti lle ja m in ia ta m o e• h ah • gw ah •r ah n d m u ch , o d o r x x su lp h u r in d ia n p ai n tb ru sh c a sti lle ja s u lp h u re a u n kn o w n u n kn o w n d o u gl as ’ d u st ym ai d en c h a en a cti s d o u g la si i u n kn o w n u n kn o w n x fi re w ee d c h a m er io n a n g u sti fo liu m u n kn o w n u n kn o w n x c an ad a th is tl e c ir si u m a rv en se d o y• ya h •b o e• gk m o u n ta in t h is tl e x x b as ta rd t o ad fl ax c o m a n d ra u m b el la ta u n kn o w n u n kn o w n x x x x ta p er ti p h aw ks b ea rd c re p is a cu m in a ta yh am •b ah •w u h rn ca rr o t, s ta n d in g x x tw o lo b e la rk sp u r d el p h in iu m n u tt a lli a n u m d o o •p o o i• to e• n •z ee •y ap b la ck e ye , b lo ss o m x – d ye x su lf u rfl o w er b u ck w h ea t er ig o n u m u m b el la tu m v a r. m a ju s b ah •v o e •h o e• s re fe rs t o fl ex ib le x x x al p in e go ld en b u ck w h ea t er io g o n u m fl a vu m o h •h ah •b ah •v o e •h o e •s ye llo w , fl ex ib le x cu sh io n b u ck w h ea t er io g o n u m o va lif o liu m u n kn o w n u n kn o w n x v ir gi n ia s tr aw b er ry fr a g a ri a v ir g in ia n a d o y• ya h •a yn •g ah •p ah •d yn gk m tn ., r ed , b lo ss o m el kw ee d /m o n u m en t p la n t fr a se ra s p ec io se u n kn o w n u n kn o w n x x b la n ke tf lo w er g a ill a rd ia a ri st a ta d o y• ya h •o h •h ah •y ap m tn , y el lo w , h as u ta h s w ee tv et ch h ed ys a ru m b o re a le b y• h ah n •d u h •k ah •p b ee ’s f o o d b itt er ro o t le w is ia r ed iv ia g ah n ** x x x le w is fl ax li n u m le w is ii ay •f e e• d o e •n •z e e• ya p b lu e, w ild r o se x b lu eb el l’s ( b ro ad le af ) m er te n si a c ili a ta ay •f e e• b y• h y• d b lu e, f al lin g si lk y p h ac el ia p h a ce lia s er ic ea b ee •y ah •z o e •n ah re fe rs t o s tu ck o n fl o w er y p h lo x p h lo x m u lti fl o ra u n kn o w n u n kn o w n x – d ye x sp ea rl ea f st o n e cr o p se d u m la n ce o la tu m o h •h ah •y ap ye llo w , h as (c o n ti n u ed o n n e xt p ag e ) friday and scasta. 2020. ethnobiology letters 11(1):14–24 19 data, methods & taxonomies c o m m o n e n gl is h n am e sc ie n ti fi c n am e sh o sh o n e n am e tr an sl ati o n m f a & c c u c sh ru b b ea rb er ry /k in n ik in n ic k a rc to st a p h yl o s u va -u rs i n ew • w u h •b o w n h in d ia n , t o b ac co x x p ra ir ie s ag ew o rt a rt em is ia f ri g id a b o e• h o e• v ** x b ig s ag eb ru sh a rt em is ia t ri d en ta ta b o e• h o e• v ** x x ye llo w r ab b it b ru sh c h ry so th a m n u s vi sc id ifl o ru s ze e• ya h • ve e ra b b it , b ru sh x x co m m o n ju n ip er ju n ip er u s co m m u n is w ah •p e e ** x x – n et s x x r o ck y m o u n ta in ju n ip er ju n ip er u s sc o p u lo ru m w ah •p e e ** x x x x an te lo p e b itt er b ru sh p u rs h ia t ri d en ta ta u n kn o w n u n kn o w n x w ax c u rr an t r ib es c er eu m d u h n •g w ee p ** x x – a rr o w s x p ri ck ly c u rr an t r ib es la cu st re h o e• ah • vo e• go e •m p re fe rs t o b er ry x sti ck y cu rr an t r ib es v is co si ss im u m h o e• ah • vo e• go e •m p ** x p ri ck ly r o se r o sa a ci cu la ri s ay n •g ah •d o e •n •z e e• ya h re d , r o se x x w o o d s’ r o se r o sa w o o d si i ze e• ya h m •p b lo ss o m x x a m er ic an r ed r as p b er ry r u b u s id eu s ay n •g ah •p o e •g o e •m p re d , b er ry x x ru ss et b u ff al o b er ry sh ep h er d ia c a n a d en si s ay n •k o e• m ** x x sp in el e ss h o rs eb ru sh te tr a d ym ia c a n es ce n s u n kn o w n u n kn o w n x d w ar f b ilb er ry v a cc in iu m c es p it o su m d ay •d o o •a y• fe e• b o e •g o e• m p b la ck , b lu e, b er ry x x b o g b lu eb er ry v a cc in iu m u lig in o su m d ah •t se ep ** tr e e su b al p in e fi r a b ie s la si o ca rp a u n kn o w n u n kn o w n x en ge lm an n s p ru ce p ic ea e n g el m a n n ii b ah •s o o ** x x lo d ge p o le p in e p in u s co n to rt a w ah n •d ah •y o o •g w ee m e eti n g p o le s, s itti n g x x x x lim b er p in e p in u s fl ex ili s yo o •r yn •w o en •g o e • ve e lim p , p in e x x x x x (c o n ti n u ed f ro m p re vi o u s p ag e ) n o t u se d x u se d ** n o e n gl is h t ra n sl ati o n * n o t fo u n d in 2 0 1 7 -2 0 1 8 s tu d y friday and scasta. 2020. ethnobiology letters 11(1):14–24 20 data, methods & taxonomies ta b le 2 a ra p ah o n am e s an d u se s o f p la n ts i n h ig h -e le va ti o n b as in s o n t h e w in d r iv e r in d ia n r es er va ti o n i n w yo m in g, u n it ed s ta te s. g ro u p e d b y p la n t fu n cti o n al g ro u p a n d t h en a lp h ab eti ca lly b y sc ie n ti fi c n am e. u se s in cl u d e m ed ic in al ( m ), f o o d ( f) , a rt s & c ra ft s (a & c ), c as u a l u se ( c u ), a n d c er e m o n ia l ( c ). (c o n ti n u ed o n n e xt p ag e ) c o m m o n e n gl is h n am e sc ie n ti fi c n am e a ra p ah o n am e tr an sl ati o n m f a & c c u c g ra ss gr as s p o a ce a e sp p . w o xu ’ gr as s n o rt h er n s w e et gr as s* h ie ro ch lo e h ir ta s sp . h ir ta (s ) n o ’o xu ’; ( p ) n i’o xu ’u n o go o d g ra ss x x g ra ss -l ik e m o u n ta in r u sh ju n cu s a rti cu s ss p . l itt o ra lis h o to h in e u n kn o w n x fo rb co m m o n y ar ro w a ch ill ea m ill ef o liu m n o ’o u ti h i’; n o n o o ke ’e in o u ’u sq u ir re l’s t ai l; th ey h av e w h it e h ea d s x x – d ye n o d d in g o n io n a lli u m c er n u u m x o u ce n sk u n k tu rn ip x w ild c h iv es a lli u m s ch o en o p ra su m x o u ce n sk u n k tu rn ip x x ro sy p u ss yt o e s a n te n n a ri a r o se a u n kn o w n u n kn o w n x a st er a st er a ce a e sp p . si is iiy ei n o xu ’; b iih ce yi n o o ’o o ’ p la n t, p o ss ib ly a st er ; fl o w er h ea d o f as te r x se go li ly c a lo ch o rt u s n u tt a lli i se n ei ’o w u u 3 ee t “n o se /f ac in g” p la n t b lu eb el l b el lfl o w er c a m p a n u la r o tu n d if o lia c ee ’e in o o n i’ fo u n d b el ls (r ed ) p ai n tb ru sh s p p . c a sti lle ja s p p . k o u h u yo o ’ sti ck y x – d ye fi re w ee d c h a m er io n a n g u sti fo liu m x o o w o o ce re m o n ia l l an ce th is tl e c ir si u m s p p . to o xo ’o o ’ th ey a re s h ar p x b as ta rd t o ad fl ax c o m a n d ra u m b el la ta u n kn o w n ( lo st k n o w le d ge ) lo st b lu e x – d ye b u ck w h ea t sp p . er io g o n u m s p p . b iis ci h in co w s m o ke x su lp h u rfl o w er b u ck w h ea t er io g o n u m u m b el la tu m v a r. m a ju s h o n o o ko 3 o o ku n u ’ w h it e ey e x v ir gi n ia s tr aw b er ry fr a g a ri a v ir g in ia n a h it ee h ib in o h ea rt -s h ap ed b er ri es x el kw ee d /m o n u m en t p la n t fr a se ra s p ec io sa u n kn o w n u n kn o w n x x x n o rt h er n b ed st ra w g a liu m b o re a le u n kn o w n u n kn o w n x – d ye fa b ac ea e sp p . h ed ys a ru m ; m el ilo tu s sp p . 3 iik o n w o n iih iih o ’; w o n iih iih o ’ gh o st p ea ; p ea b ea n b itt er ro o t le w is ia r ed iv iv a n en iic is o xu ’o o ’; w o o xc o o ’ h o llo w r o o t; b ad t as te x x b is cu it ro o t sp p . lo m a ti u m s p p . c ee ’e te i’i sp h er ic al e d ib le ta ll fr in ge d b lu eb el ls m er te n si a c ili a ta c ee n ee te en e e’ ei n o u ’u it h as b lu e h ea d s lo co w e ed s p p . o xy tr o p is s p p . si is iiy ei b ii3 h iit sn ak e fo o d x – a rr o w litt le fl o w er p en st em o n p en st em o n p ro ce ru s w o o ku u n o ’ p lu m es p h lo x sp p . p h lo x sp p . to o xu ’o o ’ sh ar p le av es sp ea rl ea f st o n e cr o p se d u m la n ce o la tu m h o te ib ii3 h iit sh ee p f o o d x se n ec io n ea e sp p . se n ec io n ea e sp p . n ih o o n o xu ’ ye llo w m ed ic in e h em lo ck w at er p ar sn ip si u m s u a ve c ec ee ce i’ u n kn o w n friday and scasta. 2020. ethnobiology letters 11(1):14–24 21 data, methods & taxonomies (c o n ti n u ed f ro m p re vi o u s p ag e ) n o t u se d x u se d ** n o e n gl is h t ra n sl ati o n * n o t fo u n d in 2 0 1 7 -2 0 1 8 s tu d y c o m m o n e n gl is h n am e sc ie n ti fi c n am e a ra p ah o n am e tr an sl ati o n m f a & c c u c sh ru b b ea rb er ry /k in n ik in n ic k a rc to st a p h yl o s u va -u rs i n o h ’u w u n o b iis e’ ; n o h ’u w u n o sm o ke p la n t b er ri es ; b ea rb er ri e s x – d ye x p ra ir ie s ag ew o rt a rt em is ia f ri g id a n o o kh o o se ’ w h it e sh ru b x x – d ye sa ge b ru sh s p p . a rt em is ia s p p . n o o kh o o se ’ w h it e sh ru b x x ra b b it b ru sh c h ry so th a m n u s sp p . n o o ku ’u u si i ra b b it -b u sh es x co m m o n ju n ip er ju n ip er u s co m m u n is c ee h ’e e; se e3 ib in o ’; to ’s e e3 n ee d le s/ le av es ; b e rr ie s o r co n es ; ** x x r o ck y m o u n ta in ju n ip er ju n ip er u s sc o p u lo ru m b e’ 3 ei in o ’o re d in si d e w ax c u rr an t r ib es c er eu m b en iis o o n o ’ h ai ry / fu zz y x p ri ck ly c u rr an t r ib es la cu st re h iw o xu u ye in o ’ el k ro se s x w o o d s’ r o se r o sa w o o d si i ye in iis ; ye in o ’ ro se h ip b u sh ; b er ri es x x x – d ye ru ss et b u ff al o b er ry sh ep h er d ia c a n a d en si s h o o xe h ib in o b u ll b er ri es w ill o w s p p . sa lix s p p . (s ) yo o ko x; ( p l) y o o ko xu u ; n o o ku yo o ko x; b ee xu yo o ko x w ill o w (s ); w h it e w ill o w ; b ig w ill o w x tr e e su b al p in e fi r a b ie s la si o ca rp a n ii’ ib o o o ti ’ go o d s m e ll x en ge lm an n s p ru ce p ic ea e n g el m a n n ii n ii’ ib o o o ti ’ go o d s m e ll x lo d ge p o le p in e p in u s co n to rt a n o o ku se e3 p al e o r gr ey p in e x x lim b er p in e p in u s fl ex ili s h is e e3 p in e x friday and scasta. 2020. ethnobiology letters 11(1):14–24 22 data, methods & taxonomies buckwheats (eriogonum species), and phlox (phlox species). for thistle as an example, one tribe recognized the plant generally (arapaho tooxo’oo’ [translation “they are sharp”]) while the other tribe recognized the plant more specifically (shoshone name for canada thistle [cirsium arvense] doy•yah•boe•gk [translation “mountain thistle”]). in some cases, only one tribe recognized a plant species with an indigenous name and use. for example, the shoshone name for tapertip hawkbeard (crepis acuminata), yham•bah•wuhrn translates as “carrot, standing;” and for twolobe larkspur (delphinium nuttallianum), doo•pooi•toe•n•zee•yap translates as “black eye, blossom”, but no names were found for arapaho for these two species. finally, for forbs, both tribes recognized a different genus of perennial legumes commonly recognized to be poisonous to cattle. arapaho recognized locoweed generally (oxytropis species) as siisiiyeibii3hiit (translation “snake food) and shoshone recognized milkvetch generally (astragalus species) as yahn•gahn•gee•ya (translation unknown). specific use of locoweed for arrows was indicated by the arapaho. for shrubs, all species recognized by arapaho were also recognized by shoshone with the exception of willows (salix species; western shoshone includes terms for willows including sehepi, seep, etc.). the arapaho had several names referring to willows ([s] yookox, [pl] yookoxuu, nookuyookox, beexuyookox) with different descriptions affiliated with different translations (“willow[s]”, “white willow”, “big willow”). shrub species recognized by both tribes included bearberry, prairie sagewort (artemisia frigida), sagebrush (artemisia species although shoshone specifically recognized big sagebrush [artemisia tridentata]), rabbitbrush (chrysothamnus species although shoshone specifically recognized yellow rabbitbrush [chrysothamnus viscidiflorus]), common juniper, rocky mountain juniper (juniperus scopulorum), wax currant (ribes cereum), prickly currant (ribes lacustre), wood’s rose (rosa woodsii), and russet buffaloberry (shepherdia candensis). both tribes use a single name for prairie sagewort and sagebrush (shoshone boe•hoe•v [translation unknown; pohopi means sagebrush in western shoshone]; arapaho nookhoose’ [translation “white shrub”]). the translation for several shrub species was related to berries, as for example bearberry (arapaho noh’uwunobiise’ and noh’uwuno [translation “smoke plant berries”, “bear berries”]), common juniper (arapaho see3ibino’ [translation “berries or cones”]), and prickly currant (shoshone hoe•ah•voe•goe•mp [translation referring to berry; pokompih is western shoshone for currant or berry]). both tribes indicated the use of bearberry for smoke or tobacco (shoshone new•wuh•bownh [translation “indian tobacco”]; arapaho noh’uwunobiise [translation “smoke plant berries”]). specific uses for shrubs included nets (shoshone for common juniper), arrows (shoshone for wax currant), and dyes (arapaho for bearberry, prairie sagewort, and wood’s rose). five shrub species were only recognized by the shoshone. for trees, both tribes recognized the same four species but translations and uses varied. for subalpine fir (abies lasiocarpa), no shoshone name or translation was found (evergreens in general are wonkopi[n] in western shoshone) and medicinal use was indicated, but arapaho call it nii’iboooti’ (translation “good smell”) and ceremonial use was indicated. for engelmann spruce (picea engelmannii), shoshone call it bah•soo (translation unknown, although paso or pahso means sweet in western shoshone; casual and ceremonial use indicated) and arapaho call it the same as subalpine fir with ceremonial use indicated. for lodgpole pine (pinus contorta), shoshone call it wahn•dah•yoo•gwee (translation “meeting poles” and “sitting”) with four of five use categories indicated; arapaho call it nookusee3 (translation “pale or grey pine”) with arts/crafts and casual use indicated. for limber pine (pinus flexilis), shoshone call it yoo•ryn•woen•goe•vee (translation “limp” and “pine”) with all five use categories indicated; arapaho call it hisee3 (translation “pine”) with food use indicated. our comparative findings demonstrate tribalspecific knowledge for different plants and their associated indigenous names and uses. this is particularly relevant for the wind river indian reservation, which is shared by the tribes and is important for restoration and preservation of each tribe’s unique linguistic and traditional ecological knowledge. conclusion recognizing the value of traditional ecological knowledge (tek) in contemporary natural resource management can serve as a resource for additional studies. definitions and broad examples of tek, as well as the historical context of impacts of past federal indian policy eras such as reservation and assimilation, are essential to demonstrating how friday and scasta. 2020. ethnobiology letters 11(1):14–24 23 data, methods & taxonomies current tek has been historically impacted and shaped. for example, this is likely why there are common and recognized plant species for which no tribal name has been confirmed. this study documented ethnobotanical tek resources connecting the eastern shoshone and northern arapaho, respectively, to the plant communities of high-elevation basins of the wrir. historical context specific to each tribe and their languages gives fuller meaning to the 53 eastern shoshone and 44 northern arapaho names of plants that this study was able to compile for the saint lawrence and paradise basins. with this qualitative resource available, future work on the wrir could move to a more quantitative approach to better understand the individual variation across peoples to develop ethnobotanical tek education strategies for future generations to further enhance cultural reclamation and preservation. tek represents additional ways indigenous people connect with land and resources and studies such as ours are critical because ethnobotanical uses, and understanding may be diminishing in the modern era. acknowledgments we recognize and thank the members of the eastern shoshone and northern arapaho tribes on the wind river indian reservation of wyoming usa. declarations permissions: none declared. sources of funding: funding provided by the bureau of indian affairs (bia) agreement number a17ac00019. conflicts of interest: none declared. references cited aragon, 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and h. d. matthews. 2014. indigenous climate change adaptation planning using a values-focused approach: a case study with the gitga'at nation. journal of ethnobiology 34:401-425. doi:10.2993/0278-0771-34.3.401. salzmann, z. 1960. two brief contributions toward arapaho linguistic history. anthropological linguistics 2:39–48. shimkin, d. b. 1947. wind river shoshone ethnogeography. university of california press, berkeley, ca. shoshone tribe of indians v. united states. 1937. 299 u.s. 476, no. 216, supreme court of the united states. stamm, h. e. 1999. people of the wind river: the eastern shoshones, 1825-1900. university of oklahoma press, norman, ok. trenholm, v. c., and m. carley. 1964. the shoshonis: sentinels of the rockies, no. 74. university of oklahoma press, norman, ok. walsh, f., p. dobson, and j. douglas. 2013. anpernirrentye: a framework for enhanced application of indigenous ecological knowledge in natural resource management. ecology and society 18:18. doi:10.5751/es-05501-180318. whyte, k. p. 2013. on the role of traditional ecological knowledge as a collaborative concept: a philosophical study. ecological processes 2:7. doi:10.1186/2192-1709-2-7. wilkins, d. e., and h. k. stark. 2017. american indian politics and the american political system. rowman and littlefield, lanham, md. wshpo. 2020. wind river indian reservation interpretive plan for the eastern shoshone and northern arapaho. wyoming state historic preservation office. available at: https://wyoshpo.wyo.gov/index.php/ files/834/interpretive % 20plans/1241/wind % 20river%20interpretive%20plan.pdf. accessed on april 17, 2020. wu, x. 2015. wild edible plants and pilgrimage on wudang mountain. journal of ethnobiology 35:606– 628. doi:10.2993/etbi-35-03-606-627.1. brazil’s new biodiversity law ethnobiology letters. 2015. 6(1):216‐217. doi: 10.14237/ebl.6.1.2015.562. 216 editorial provisional measure 2186-16 (brazil 2001), which also sought to implement parts of the convention on biological diversity but was overwhelmingly criticized for discouraging biological and ethnobiological research, innovation, and international collaboration (da silva 2015; escobar 2015). in particular, the new law facilitates research and commercialization of products by eliminating federal authorization for most kinds of research and clearly specifying the quantities, beneficiaries, and mechanisms of benefit sharing. in fact, it gives a free pass for past irregularities and noncompliance with provisional measure 2186-16, forgiving applicable fines for activities regularized within one year. differently than the provisional measure 2186-16, which required prior federal authorization to conduct ethnobiological research, the new law stipulates registration through an online system at any time before depositing collections, publishing results, or commercializing products. simply completing this registration is expected to generate an electronic declaration of legal compliance irrespective of whether an endeavor actually follows the spirit of the law or was duly approved by study communities. in other words, compliance will be reduced to an administrative act by the interested researcher, company, or other party. however, until this registry system is designed and implemented along with other provisions of the law, it is unknown at this stage whether additional protections will be incorporated. benefit sharing, which will be tracked in a publicly accessible online system, is to be fixed at 0.1 to 1% of annual net receipts and deposited in a special governmental fund. exemptions and exceptions are contemplated for pre-consumer products, intermediaries, small producers, traditional farmers, and upon special request by interested parties for the sake of economic competitiveness. non-monetary benefit sharing is also allowed. in 1992, 168 countries signed the convention on biological diversity, a multilateral treaty addressing conservation, sustainable use, and benefit sharing of genetic and biodiversity resources. with the exception of the united states, all united nations member states, including brazil, have ratified the treaty. in april 2015 brazil’s legislature passed law 13123, known as the new “biodiversity law” (brazil 2015), which came into effect on november 17, 2015 and regulates the country’s internal mechanisms for complying with the treaty, including measures addressing access to genetic resources and related traditional knowledge, as well as equitable sharing of benefits resulting from their commercial use. the move was applauded by representatives of some important public institutions in brazil as a victory for researchers (da silva 2015) and for indigenous and traditional peoples (tolentino and assis 2015). despite receiving praise from some quarters, the new law may have been enacted through a process marred by major legal oversights, including inadequate previous consultation with indigenous peoples, as required by the international labour organization convention no. 169 on indigenous and tribal peoples (távora et al. 2015). in fact, indigenous and traditional peoples, with the support of many academic societies and international organizations, issued a letter of repudiation arguing that they were not consulted and their interests were insufficiently addressed (ascom/consea 2015). furthermore, since its ratification, statutory implementation stalled late this year, perhaps in part because the country’s indigenous and traditional peoples boycotted the public consultation process. according to cristiane julião of the articulation of indigenous peoples and organizations of the northeast, “they brought us just to say yes. and we said no” (diniz 2015). in some respects, the new biodiversity law seeks to improve upon brazil’s previous biodiversity law, brazil’s new biodiversity law james r. welch author address: escola nacional de saúde pública, fundação oswaldo cruz, rua leopoldo bulhões 1480, rio de janeiro, rj, 20911-300, brazil. email: welch@ensp.fiocruz.br received: december 20, 2015 volume: 6(1):216-217 published: december 21, 2015 © 2015 society of ethnobiology ethnobiology letters. 2015. 6(1):216‐217. doi: 10.14237/ebl.6.1.2015.562. 217 editorial many will be surprised by the new law’s reach, which encompasses all research and use related to genetic information (plant, animal, and microbial species, among others) encountered anywhere within the national territory, continental shelf, territorial sea, or exclusive economic zone. this includes, for example, such diverse types of studies as taxonomy, description of new species, biological inventories, ecology, biogeography, and epidemiology (da silva 2015). access to associated traditional knowledge covered by the law includes not only original research with identifiable peoples and communities, but also studies of information originated from “unidentifiable” populations or obtained from secondary sources, such as publications, inventories, films, and other records. noncompliance with the new law is punishable by fines up to r$100,000 and r$100,000,000 for individuals and businesses, respectively, as well as seizure of collections and products. in addition to provoking strong negative reactions by a long list of indigenous organizations, passage of the new biodiversity law has led to a temporary regulatory quagmire. because law 13123 has yet to be implemented by means of specific decree but nevertheless already revoked provisional measure 2186-16, as of the publication of this editorial there are no specific guidelines or protocols in effect for many aspects of ethnobiological research in the country. consequently, researchers must temporarily operate without knowledge of the requirements to which they will be subjected regarding prior informed consent, project registration, public deposit of findings, and handling of genetic material. criticism aside, there appears to be ample political will to implement brazil’s new biodiversity law. doing so will take time and may lead to further chaos as research, development, and commercialization continue in the absence of specific statutory guidelines. but the real test of the law’s success will be after implementation, when it becomes apparent if its vast scope and lack of protections of indigenous and traditional peoples’ rights lead to abuses. in the meantime, however, researchers can rest assured that the former quasi-criminalization of routine academic research and fair commercial use in brazil is now a thing of the past. references cited ascom/consea. 2015. moção critica projeto sobre a biodiversidade. available at: http:// www4.planalto.gov.br/consea/comunicacao/ noticias/2015/marco/mocao-critica-projeto-sobre-a -biodiversidade. accessed on december 17, 2015. brazil. 2001. medida provisória nº 2.186-16, de 23 de agosto de 2001. available at: http:// www.planalto.gov.br. accessed on december 17, 2015. brazil. 2015. lei nº 13.123, de 20 de maio de 2015. available at: http://www.planalto.gov.br. accessed on december 17, 2015. diniz, m. 2015. ‘nos trouxeram só para dizer sim’, diz indígena sobre a lei da biodiversidade. available at: http://agenciabrasil.ebc.com.br/ direitos-humanos/noticia/2015-10/nos-trouxeramso-para-dizer-sim-diz-indigena-sobre-lei-da. accessed on december 17, 2015. escobar, h. 2015. brazil cuts red tape stifling biodiversity studies. science magazine 348:952-953. doi: 10.1126/science.348.6238.952. silva, m. 2015. a nova lei da biodiversidade e seu impacto na área de pesquisa. available at: http:// agencia.fiocruz.br/nova-lei-da-biodiversidade-e-seuimpacto-na-área-de-pesquisa. accessed on december 17, 2015. távora, f. l., h. j. f. neto, l. m. c. póvoa, k. kässmayer, l. b. g. souza, v. m. pinheiro, f. basile, and d. m. n. carvalho. comentários à lei nº 13.123, de 20 de maio de 2015: novo marco regulatório do uso da biodiversidade (texto para discussão nº 184). núcleo de estudos e pesquisas/ conleg/senado, brasília. available at: http:// www.senado.leg.br/estudos. accessed on: december 17, 2015. tolentino, l., and l. assis. 2015. sancionado o marco legal da biodiversidade. available at: http:// www.mma.gov.br. accessed on december 17, 2015. biosketch james r. welch is associate professor of human ecology and health at the national school of public health, rio de janeiro, and co-editor of ethnobiology letters. his anthropological research focuses on the interface between environment, culture, and health among indigenous peoples in brazil. plant-based solutions to global livestock anthelmintic resistance french. 2018. ethnobiology le ers 9(2):110–123 110 perspec ves 2011; karesh et al. 2012; patz et al. 2000; semenza and menne 2009). anthelmintic resistant parasites affecting livestock can also spread to humans (e.g., through hybridization of parasites affecting livestock and those affecting humans, as in the case of schistosomiasis and fascioliasis), leading to billions of dollars in economic loss and thousands of human lives every year (king et al. 2015; waller 2006). this is particularly severe in developing countries due to over-use/misuse of anthelmintics, poor sanitary conditions, and shared land and water use among livestock and humans (king et al. 2015). the use of synthetic anthelmintics also has wider ecological and economic effects. synthetic anthelmintics reduce soil invertebrate diversity (spratt 1997; strong 1993). for introduction anthelmintic resistance in livestock is increasing globally. in the usa, south america, and south africa, current pharmaceutical anthelmintics (e.g., benzimidazoles, avermectins) are now completely ineffective in many regions (kaplan and vidyashankar 2012; shalaby 2013; vatta and lindberg 2006). in the uk and northern europe resistance is also on the rise, but complete resistance has yet to occur (taylor et al. 2009; traversa and von samson-himmelstjerna 2016). climate change and global trade have also increased helmintic infections in livestock by increasing the abundance of specific zoonotic parasites (or their hosts), and by introducing new parasites into new regions (fayer 2000; fox et al. plant‐based solu ons to global livestock anthelmin c resistance katherine e. french1* 1department of plant sciences, university of oxford, oxford, uk *katherine.french@plants.ox.ac.uk abstract anthelmin c resistance in livestock is increasing globally. livestock intes nal parasites now develop resistance to synthe c anthelmin cs within 2–10 years, collec vely cos ng billions of dollars annually in lost revenue around the world. over‐reliance on commercial drugs and dips and changes in livestock management prac ces are key drivers of this trend. to date, current research has focused on iden fying new anthelmin cs from bacterial and fungal sources or even synthesizing new drugs that target parasite metabolism or reproduc on. plant‐derived anthelmin cs are a promising alterna ve, yet to date major research funders and scien sts have overlooked this op on. un l the mid‐20th century, rural communi es relied on plant‐based methods of controlling livestock parasites. these methods include feeding livestock specific medicinal plants and trees, grazing livestock on herbal leys, and changing where livestock grazed based on ecological factors (e.g., flooding) that increased parasite burdens. many historic texts and ethnological accounts record the ethnobotanical knowledge of rural communi es and the plants they used to control livestock intes nal parasites. some tradi ons persist today yet the farmers, graziers, and shepherds who hold this knowledge are rapidly disappearing and with them perhaps a poten al long‐term solu on to anthelmin c resistance. this short perspec ve piece will cover recent research using ethnobotanical data as a means to iden fying poten al new anthelmin cs; the morphological, physiological, and metabolic effect of plant secondary metabolites on parasites; and an overview of “best prac ces” which can reduce bias in assessments of plant bioac vity and increase reproducibility of test results. this will hopefully bring recent advances in ethnobiology, chemistry, and ecology to new audiences, and, poten ally, spark new interest in using medicinal plants to improve livestock health. received may 19, 2017 open access accepted february 19, 2018 doi 10.14237/ebl.9.2.2018.980 keywords drug‐resistance, livestock, local ecological knowledge, conserva on, ecology copyright © 2018 by the author(s) licensee society of ethnobiology. this is an open‐access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution‐noncommercial 4.0 international public license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by‐nc/4.0), which permits non‐commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. supplementary files available at ojs.ethnobiology.org/index.php/ebl/ar cle/view/980 french. 2018. ethnobiology le ers 9(2):110–123 111 perspec ves example, lab and field studies suggest anthelmintic residues in livestock dung reduce beetle populations by decreasing egg production and increasing larval mortality (cook et al. 2017; numa et al. 2012; ridsdill-smith 1993). international and national initiatives support the development of new preventative or therapeutic alternatives1, but current research continues to focus on developing chemical solutions that deactivate specific genes or proteins in parasites that disrupt ability to feed, nicotinic acetylcholine receptors (nachr), and fertility (hotez et al. 2010; kaminsky et al. 2008; sabatelli 2010). exploiting the diversity and bioactivity of plant secondary metabolites may be a viable alternative. plants naturally produce over 60,000 chemical compounds to deter herbivores, to destroy microbial pathogens, and to communicate with other organisms like pollinators (wink 2010). before the creation of synthetic anthelmintics by drug companies in the mid20th century, humans relied on plants to control livestock intestinal parasites (corley and godley 2011). in europe, medieval herbals and 17th–19th century printed books are filled with descriptions of plants fed to livestock to expel parasites. today, many small farmers and pastoralists around the world continue to use plants to treat livestock diseases. for example, in south africa aloes are the premier anthelmintic (beinart and brown 2013). in northern europe, small farmers still value old “traditional” pastures rich in medicinal herbs and legumes for the perceived anthelmintic qualities of specific wild plants (french 2017). because many of these plants are actively consumed by livestock within traditional agropastoral systems, their toxicity and environmental effects are likely low. yet these traditions are rapidly disappearing and with them perhaps a potential long-term solution to anthelmintic resistance. this short perspective piece will cover recent research using ethnobotanical data as a means to identifying potential new anthelmintics; the morphological, physiological, and metabolic effect of plant secondary metabolites on parasites; and an overview of “best practices” which can reduce bias in assessments of plant bioactivity and increase reproducibility of test results. this will hopefully bring recent advances in ethnobiology, chemistry, and ecology to new audiences, and, potentially, spark new interest in using medicinal plants to improve livestock health. phyto-anthelmintics: old plants, new leads over the past ten years the number of publications on plants used to treat livestock parasites has doubled (figure 1). an increasing resistance to traditional synthetic anthelmintics may be responsible. the majority of these publications are from india, although there are a surprising amount of publications from the us and uk. most research is published in the journals relating to parasitology, pharmacology, veterinary sciences, and plant sciences. a phytochemical database run by the united states department of agriculture (usda) contains 1,029 plants with 58 different chemicals with anthelmintic properties (united states department of agriculture 1992-1996) (supplementary materials table 1). the top five plants with the highest number of anthelmintic compounds are achillea millefolium, dryopteris filix-mas, peumus boldus, rosmarinus officinalis, and salvia officinalis. although the database contains plants from around the world, the majority of these are cultivated or economic plants and many wild plants (even common ones) are excluded. for example, many wild legumes found in british meadows (e.g., lathyrus pratensis, vicia cracca) are absent. in addition, many indigenous plants recently evaluated for anthelmintic qualities are not found in the database. one solution would either be to actively maintain this phytochemical database by allowing users to upload data, or to create a new open-access database specifically for anthelmintic plants. perhaps one of the most surprising aspects of anthelmintic plants is that they are often common (figure 2). for example, bartha et al. (2015) found that villagers in romania used allium sativum bulbs, cucurbita pepo seeds, daucus carota ssp. sativus roots, and quercus petraea and quercus robur nuts to treat pigs, cattle, and horses. similarly, in northern europe many of the plants reported by farmers and pastoralists to have anthelmintic properties are wild plants commonly growing in pastures and meadows (waller et al. 2001). in addition, a number of studies have shown that the bark, fruits, and nuts of many trees found in traditional rangeland and pasture systems and which are naturally consumed when livestock are ill (zoopharmacognosy) have anthelmintic properties. for example, many of the plants found in arid rangelands of jordan contain plants such as achillea fragrantissima (lavender cotton), artemisia judaica (wormwood), and thymus bovei, which have antiparasitic properties according to bedouins (al-tabini french. 2018. ethnobiology le ers 9(2):110–123 112 perspec ves et al. 2012; landau et al. 2014). in british columbia (canada), juniperus communis (juniper), pinus ponderosa (pinaceae) (yellow pine), and symphoricarpos albus var. laevigatus (snow berry) branches are used against endoparasites and liver fluke (lans et al. 2007). the same plants (or another from the same genus) are also used as anthelmintics in geographically dispersed regions. for example, juniper is used to treat liver fluke in canada, as mentioned above, while the leaves of juniperus excelsa are used by the wakhi pastoralists of afghanistan (soelberg and jäger 2016). other anthelmintic plants with widespread, cross-cultural use include: urtica dioica (nettle), mentha pulegium (penny royal), digitaria abyssinica (couch grass), salix spp., and carica papaya (pawpaw) (nabukenya et al. 2014). ethnobotanical research can contribute to the identification of which plants might contain figure 1 trends in natural anthelmin c research. a) publica ons on plants with anthelmin c proper es have tripled in the past ten years. b) the countries producing the majority of these papers are india, brazil, usa, pakistan, england, and south africa, all places where anthelmin c resistance is a prime agricultural and economic issue. c) most research on an‐ thelmin c plants occurs within the fields of parasitology, pharmacology, veterinary sciences, and plant sciences. all charts were generated using web of science data using search terms “anthelmin c” and “plants” (accessed: june 3, 2016). french. 2018. ethnobiology le ers 9(2):110–123 113 perspec ves anthelmintic properties, as well as how they are prepared. this local knowledge is a form of metadata: time of collection, method of preparation, and dose can direct metabolomic, pharmacological, and epidemiological research (silva et al. 2014). however, this knowledge is a finite resource. the widespread use of synthetic anthelmintics has spurred the decline of traditional anthelmintics in livestock management around the world in favor of feeds such as maize, soy, and cereals which increase daily live weight gain (bartha et al. 2015). farmers who switch from raising local breeds to crossed/exotic livestock breeds and/ or increase herd sizes due to governmental incentives also switch from local ethnoveterinary medicines to pharmaceutical alternatives (nabukenya et al. 2014; vatta and lindberg 2006). decreased medicinal plant availability due to environmental changes or restricted access to natural sources (e.g., by limiting grazing rights) have also contributed to this change (beinart and brown 2013; nabukenya et al. 2014). how phytochemicals affect parasites ethnobotanical data serve as a guide, but not a basis, for plant-based anthelmintic research. without further chemical analyses and in vitro and in vivo tests, these data remain “hearsay”. advances in chemical identification using multiple methods from mass spectrometry (liquid-chromatography mass spectrometry , gas -chromatography mass spectrometry) can aid in identifying the secondary metabolites found in medicinal plants. it can also lead to the discovery of new molecules that could serve as drug leads. research within the past ten years suggests that plants with anthelmintic properties affect multiple morphological, physiological, and metabolic targets. plant secondary metabolites with anthelmintic figure 2 plants rich in anthelmin c compounds. plants store anthelmin c compounds in vacuoles, resin ducts, and tri‐ chomes (phytoan cipins) and produce other compounds in response to pathogenic a ack (phytoalexins). to date, plants with the greatest number of anthelmin c compounds are common, widespread, and thus, highly studied. from le to right: (a) salvia officinalis (b) rosmarinus officinalis (c) achillea millefolium (d) dryopteris filix‐mas and (e) peumus boldus. all im‐ ages are available in the public domain (cc0). french. 2018. ethnobiology le ers 9(2):110–123 114 perspec ves properties reduce motility, create epidermal lesions, degrade esophagus and gut tissues, decrease egg production in females, inhibit eggs from transforming into larvae, and cause death within 24–72 hours (see table 1). of all the plant secondary metabolites, phenolic compounds show the highest level of bioactivity against parasitic worms. phenolic compounds inhibit proteins and include flavonoids, coumarins, and condensed tannins (wink and schimmer 2010). condensed tannins have received the most attention, and international research programs such as the eu-wide legume-plus initiative have sought to develop new breeds of tanninenriched lucerne and sainfoin (http:// legumeplus.eu/). however, feeding livestock tannindense feeds (>7% dry matter) can have detrimental effects including reduced growth rate (hoste et al. 2006). in addition, lucerne contains phytoestrogens (coumestans) which can reduce livestock fertility (smith et al. 1979). lucerne and sainfoin seeds are also expensive and the latter requires fertile, moist calcareous soils to grow. these factors may limit the geographic range and farmer uptake of these plants. selecting a range of plants with different anthelmintic bioactive compounds, instead of one or two, could be a more effective strategy to control livestock parasites. this approach would also satisfy the other dietary needs of livestock (e.g., sugar, protein, fiber, and macro and micro minerals). the synergy of metabolites found in any given plant, and those found among plants in complex mixtures, may be more effective together than when purified, isolated, and tested on their own in vitro and in vivo. a recent ethnoveterinary study reported that 70% of all practices in the study area relied on more than one plant (bartha et al. 2015). for example, the metabolites in table 1 each target different parts of helminth physiology and/or reproductive cycle. however, to date no study has established whether the efficacy of anthelmintic plants is due to multiple phytochemicals working together. statistical approaches developed to assess the activity of multidrug therapies in cancer research could be used to determine synergistic activity. for example, the “mixlow” method combines: (1 multiple nonlinear mixed-effects models, (2 the lowe index, and (3 confidence intervals for the lowe index to investigate drug interactions (boik et al. 2008). the potential synergistic efficacy of plant secondary metabolites differs remarkably from current anthelmintics under development (table 2). current ac vity psm reference inhibit energy metabolism tannins (de macedo et al. 2015) cause epidermal lesions adenine, ascorbic‐acid, chymopapain, caricain, genistein, glycyl endopep dase, lutein, malic‐ acid, papain (duke 1992; piluzza et al. 2014; vieira et al. 2001) decrease motor ac vity tannins, saponins (athanasiadou and kyriazakis 2004; hoste et al. 2006; williams et al. 2014) terpenoids (athanasiadou and kyriazakis 2004) caffeic acid (cowan 1999) inhibit transforma on of eggs to larvae tannins (athanasiadou and kyriazakis 2004) table 1 func on of plant‐secondary metabolites with anthelmin c proper es. “ac vity” refers to the antagonis c func on of specific metabolites against microbiota and/or helminths. in the table, “psm” = plant secondary metabolite (or metabo‐ lite class). french. 2018. ethnobiology le ers 9(2):110–123 115 perspec ves synthetic anthelmintics target particular dna regions, proteins, or biosynthetic pathways (e.g., chokepoints) using synthetic chemicals, proteins from other parasites, or metabolites produced by bacteria and fungi. however, the problem with all of these approaches is the specificity of the anthelmintic under development. by focusing on one target, anthelmintic resistance will continue as parasites evolve and evade current drugs. how rapidly this resistance occurs varies: some studies report resistance in 10 years, while more recent studies have reported resistance to the newest anthelmintics within 2 years (buckingham et al. 2014). hotspots of resistance may also emerge in areas where anthelmintics are used heavily (e.g., multiple does per year) and for both humans and livestock (king et al. 2015). although many studies report the efficacy of plant-based anthelmintics in vitro and in vivo, the negative results reported from experimental research should also lend a word of caution. for example, githiori et al. (2003) tested seven local plants used to treat anthelmintic infections in kenya and found that only one (ananas comosus) had weak in vitro activity. in addition, a recent study found that when goats and kids were fed a commercial herbal feed supplement containing a mix of several herbs traditionally used as vermifuges (artemisia absinthium (wormwood), allium sativum (garlic), juglans nigra (black walnut), cucurbita pepo (field pumpkin), artemisia vulgaris (mugwort), foeniculum vulgare (fennel), hyssopus officinalis (hyssop), and thymus vulgaris (thyme)) at a dose of 19 g for three days, the supplement failed to control intestinal parasites (burke et al. 2009). this suggests that other factors, including amount of plant consumed (dose and length of administration), the effects of manufacturing and packaging, and even metabolite stability may influence the bioactivity of such supplements. developing best practices many studies on the anthelmintic properties of plants use very different methodological procedures. different practices—from the initial collection of plant material, to method of metabolite extraction, to assay-design—can introduce bias (of false positive or false negative results). the following provides some suggestions for “best practices” which can help standardize the evaluation of plant bioactivity and increase reproducibility. 1. preparation of plant material: plants should be collected at the same time of day (if collected over an extended period) and dried outside in the shade or indoors in a drying room for 48 hours to one week. if plants are collected for metabolomic analysis, at least 4 replicates of each plant from each site are needed. alternatively, freezing plants in liquid nitrogen (in falcon tubes) followed by lycophilization as soon as plants are collected will preserve the metabolite composition (asami et al. 2003; de torres et al. 2010). in addition, plants prepared in this way are easier to homogenize into a fine powder which will increase the exposure of plant cell walls to the solvent of choice. although oven drying is widely practiced, this can lead to loss of aromatic metabolites (e.g., terpenes). 2. assay selection: agar and broth dilution assays can be used to establish the minimal inhibitory concentration (mic) and lethal concentration (lc) values of a crude extract on helminths. in agar assays, a petri dish is seeded with nematodes and e. coli (their food source) and then exposed to a plant extract. however, many metabolites (e.g., essential oils) do not travel through agar very well which may lead to false negatives. in broth dilution assays, 96-well microtiter plates are filled with a nematode growth medium, nematodes (e.g., 10–50 l-4 stage adults), and the crude extract under assessment (garvis et al. 2009). the advantages of the 96-well plates are that many compounds can be assayed against nematodes in different life stages (e.g., eggs, larvae, adults) at once and the system can be semi-automated. screening parasites at different life stages can nuance our understanding of how these plant compounds work; some might be effective at halting egg production, while others interfere with larvae growth and development. a copas biosorter can be used to distribute a specific number of nematodes at a given life-stage into each well in a matter of seconds. identification of nematode survival can be established by counting under a microscope. this process can be automated using the wormassay protocol, where a high definition camera is attached to an inverted microscope to detect parasite motility and the captured images are analyzed using specially-designed algorithms (marcellino et al. 2012; storey et al. 2014). when feasible, using the latter method will provide more accurate, reproducible results. 3. fractionation: fractionation takes a specific amount of plant material and extracts metabolites french. 2018. ethnobiology le ers 9(2):110–123 116 perspec ves table 2 non‐plant based anthelmin cs. current anthelmin cs are synthesized from specific lead chemicals, microbial me‐ tabolites, or parasi c worms and their ac vity is based on one specific target. type source ac ve agent target reference chemical 1‐dimethyl‐4‐ phenylpiperazinium (dmpp) synthe c chemical nico nic agonist (kaminsky et al. 2008) albendazole synthe c chemical eggs (taylor et al. 2013) amino‐acid deriva‐ ves (aad) synthe c chemical nematode‐specific clade of ace‐ tylcholine receptor subunits affec ng movement, growth and viability (kaminsky et al. 2008) benzimidazoles synthe c chemical α‐ and β‐tubulin monomers (demeler et al. 2013) dasa nib synthe c chemical protein kinases (taylor et al. 2013) diethyllabamazine (dec) synthe c chemical eggs (taylor et al. 2013) flavopiridol synthe c chemical protein kinases (taylor et al. 2013) invermec n synthe c chemical eggs (taylor et al. 2013) levamisole synthe c chemical subtype of nico nic acetylcholine receptor (nachr) (kaminsky et al. 2008) neomycin synthe c chemical protein kinases (taylor et al. 2013) vaccine dictyocaulus spp. x‐irradiated l3 l3‐stage adults (hotez et al. 2010) echinococcus granulosus recombinant pro‐ teins eg95 (hotez et al. 2010) fasciola hepa ca cathepson l egg produc on and viability (sabatelli 2010) fasciola hepa ca an ‐h‐gal‐gp diges on (sabatelli 2010) necator americanus protein‐2 unspecified (sabatelli 2010) necator americanus apr1 inhibit parasite feeding by neu‐ tralizing enzyme ac vity (hotez et al. 2010) pichia pastoris gst1 inhibit parasite feeding by neu‐ tralizing enzyme ac vity (hotez et al. 2010) microbial arthrobotrys conoides secondary metabo‐ lites larvicidal (falbo et al. 2015) arthrobotrys musiformis secondary metabo‐ lites larvicidal (acevedo‐ramírez et al. 2015) bacillus circulans spore crystal sus‐ pension larvicidal (sino et al. 2012) bacillus thuringiensis cry5b p38 mitogen‐ac vated protein kinase; nico nic acetylcholine receptor (nachr) agonist (cappello et al. 2006; hu and aroian 2012; urban et al. 2013) bacillus thuringiensis cry21a nico nic acetylcholine receptor (nachr) agonist (hu and aroian 2012) (con nued on next page) french. 2018. ethnobiology le ers 9(2):110–123 117 perspec ves (con nued from previous page) table 2 non‐plant based anthelmin cs. current anthelmin cs are synthesized from specific lead chemicals, microbial me‐ tabolites, or parasi c worms and their ac vity is based on one specific target. type source ac ve agent target reference microbial bacillus thuringiensis var. kurstaki spore crystal suspension larvicidal (sino et al. 2012) bacillus thuringiensis var. israelensis spore crystal suspension larvicidal (sino et al. 2012) bacillus thuringiensis var. osvaldocruzi spore crystal suspension larvicidal (sino et al. 2012) clonostachys candelabrum 7 metabolites (five roselipins, linoleic acid, and auran ogliocladin) diacylglycerol acyl transferase 2 (ayers et al. 2010) duddingtonia flagrans chlamydospores larvicidal (larsen 2000; waghorn et al. 2003; waller 2006) monacrosporium salinum secondary metabolites larvicidal (liu et al. 2015) monacrosporium thaumasium secondary metabolites larvicidal (vilela et al. 2013) bacillus thuringiensis cry14a growth and development (wei et al. 2003) french. 2018. ethnobiology le ers 9(2):110–123 118 perspec ves using a variety of solvents (e.g., ethanol, acetone, chloroform, methanol, water). each solvent will cause plant cells to release different categories of metabolites based on polarity and hydrophilicity. when combined with metabolomic analysis of each fraction, this approach is a good way to identify highly active components. however, these approaches, specifically fractionation, may overlook the synergistic role of metabolites in killing parasites. if screening of fractions is performed, combining all fractions as one treatment could be a way to quickly assess any potential synergistic activity. 4. in vivo tests: plants showing anthelmintic activity in vitro may not show the same activity in vivo. while a number of studies slaughter livestock used in in vivo experiments, there are more humane alternatives. fecal egg counts can be conducted weekly or monthly during a grazing experiment (taylor et al. 2009). no livestock are harmed in the process and vets can check livestock weekly to ensure those receiving herbal/plant-based therapeutics did not contract a life-threatening parasitic infection. in addition to conducting fecal egg counts, the number of eggs and/or larvae in soil cores and on grass samples can also be performed to establish whether there are changes in the abundance of parasites where animals are grazing depending upon treatment type (e.g., synthetic anthelmintic, bioactive forages, herbal supplement, etc.) (lopes et al. 2016). implications for agriculture and conservation the potential role of plants with potential anthelmintic properties has important ramifications for agriculture and conservation. first, a greater emphasis could be placed on cultivating these plants. for example, in semi-natural ecosystems, grazing activities could center around when these plants are in flower. in more sedentary agricultural systems, these plants could be included in pasture and/or meadow seed mixes. second, many plants used within ethnoveterinary systems are indigenous and may be under threat. some plants traditionally given to livestock (or naturally grazed) to control parasites are considered “weeds” that are removed to achieve conservation objectives (lans et al. 2007). for example, conservation groups often cut down willow from wet pastures and juniper from chalk grasslands in the uk. conservation activities could promote the active use of these plants to sustain local populations. future directions what role should ethnobiological research play in the development of new anthelmintics? as this short perspective piece has shown, ethnobotanical and ethnozoological research has shed light on the vast array of plants which could potentially be added to pastures and feed supplements to naturally prevent and control parasitic infection. plants could thus provide a sustainable alternative to traditional synthetic anthelmintics. however, further figure 3 fodder trees boost livestock health and increase pastoral sustainability. acacia nilo ca (le ) and salix spp. (right) trees contain condensed tannins and other polyphenols with established an ‐parasi c proper es. livestock grazing in more natural pasture systems (e.g., rangelands, wood pasture) naturally consume the pods and bark (respec vely) of these trees when ill. plan ng more trees with anthelmin c proper es could help control livestock endoparasites, reduce inputs (water, fer lizer) needed to feed livestock, and provide environmental benefits like soil stabiliza on and flood control. all images are available in the public domain (cc0). french. 2018. ethnobiology le ers 9(2):110–123 119 perspec ves interdisciplinary and rigorous research on plant-based anthelmintics is needed. we need to establish the natural availability of secondary metabolites in specific ecosystems (e.g., pastures, rangelands) and specific plants. we also need to establish whether the metabolomic composition of these plants changes over time. to prevent needless replication of research and to make this data accessible to end-users (e.g., farmers), such research should be made publicly available. future research could concentrate on identifying species which could be used as anthelmintic fodder trees. these would provide perennial forage and may be suitable to regions experiencing high levels of aridity and/or flooding (figure 3). for example, in the middle east the pods of acacia trees (e.g., acacia nilotica) contain saponins and proanthocyanins (abdel-farid et al. 2014). these trees are drought-resistant and provide a good source of forage when other grasses, forbs, and herbs have disappeared. in the uk, willow trees (salix spp.) contain high levels of salicylic acid and proanthocyanidins (agnolet et al. 2012), and cattle roaming natural pastures often actively consume the bark of the tree when ill (french 2017). because these trees are also good for mitigating flooding, planting more of them would have both economic and environmental effects. more research could also investigate whether aqueous solutions made from plant crude extracts could be applied to highly infected pastures to reduce parasitic load. finally, further interdisciplinary research on parasite ecology and livestock health should record and integrate local ecological knowledge into regional programs for controlling parasite outbreaks. for example, farmers and graziers can provide information on how changes in the weather (e.g., increased flooding) and animal husbandry practices (e.g., over-stocking) may increase/decrease parasitic infection in livestock. this information could be analyzed along with environmental, climatological, and hydrological information in geographical information systems (gis). while perhaps optimistic, further interdisciplinary research into the bioactivity of plants traditionally used to manage parasites—and incorporation of these plants into current agricultural systems—could reduce the rise of livestock anthelmintic resistance globally. notes 1these include: sustainable control of parasites in sheep (scops) (http://www.scops.org.uk/); the responsible use of medicines in agriculture alliance (ruma) (http://www.ruma.org.uk/); the antiparasitic resistance management strategy (arms) of the fda in the usa; and the world health organization global action plan (gap) on antimicrobial resistance (http://www.who.int/ antimicrobial-resistance/en/). declarations permissions: not applicable. sources of funding: none declared. conflicts of interest: none declared. references cited abdel-farid, i.b., m.g. sheded, and e. a. mohamed. 2014. metabolomic profiling and antioxidant activity of some acacia species. saudi journal of biological science 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and 262 million individuals annually (worm et al. 2013). in this scenario, sharks have become one of the most versatile and valuable fishery resources, serving as an important protein source in developing countries and contributing towards human food security (bornatowski et al. 2018a; dulvy et al. 2017), defined by the united nations as “when all people at all times have physical and economic access to introduction sharks belong to the class chondrichthyes and play a crucial role in marine ecosystems, acting as ecological stabilizers due to the evolutionary pressure they exert on their prey (heupel et al. 2014). most shark species exhibit k-strategist characteristics, with a limited capacity for population recovery and are, therefore, naturally susceptible to overfishing (dulvy et al. 2017; ward-paige et al. 2012). in fact, most shark populations are currently under serious threats, with close to a quarter of all species at risk for extinction (dulvy et al. 2014). however, despite their high vulnerability, shark fishing has intensified worldwide historical shark meat consump on and trade trends in a global richness hotspot márcio l. v. barbosa‐filho1,2*, rachel ann hauser‐davis3, salvatore siciliano4, thelma l. p. dias5, rômulo r. n. alves5, and eraldo m. costa‐neto6 1universidade estadual de santa cruz, departamento de ciências biológicas, programa de pós‐graduação em zoologia, salobrinho, ilhéus, brazil. 2universidade federal rural de pernambuco, programa de pós‐graduação em etnobiologia e conservação da natureza, recife, brazil. 3laboratório de avaliação e promoção da saúde ambiental, ins tuto oswaldo cruz/ fiocruz, rio de janeiro, brazil. 4laboratório de enterobactérias, in tuto oswaldo cruz/fiocruz, rio de janeiro, brazil. 5universidade estadual da paraíba, departamento de biologia, campina grande, brazil. 6universidade estadual de feira de santana, departamento de ciências biológicas, feira de santana, brazil. * tobiomar@hotmail.com abstract shark catches have increased worldwide, threatening the survival of several species. this study describes historical trends concerning shark consump on and commercializa on by ar sanal fishers in northeastern brazil. semi‐ structured ques onnaires were applied and respondents pointed out that sharks used to be locally regarded as low‐quality fish in the past and rejected by fish consumers, with low fisher consump on frequency. however, this has changed in recent decades, as a total of 95.4% (n=62) of the ques onnaire respondents reported currently consuming shark meat, while 61.5% (n=40) highlighted its high quality. in addi on, most interviewees (90.8%; n=59) reported decreasing numbers of sharks caught over me, following worldwide trends, leading to decreased fisher access to shark meat. because of this, most respondents (70.7%, n=46) now consider it more advantageous to sell the sharks they catch than to consume them. in addi on, the local commercializa on of these fish is currently based on immature coastal species (<1 m). thus, economic and biological studies on local shark popula ons are suggested in order to preserve local fisher culture and ensure food security for ar sanal fisher communi es and a long‐term sustainable fishery and conserva on of exploited species. received march 11, 2019 open access accepted june 21, 2019 doi 10.14237/ebl.10.1.2019.1560 published november 5, 2019 keywords local ecological knowledge; food security; elasmobranchs; small‐scale fisheries; brazil copyright © 2019 by the author(s) licensee society of ethnobiology. this is an open‐access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution‐noncommercial 4.0 international public license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by‐nc/4.0), which permits non‐commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. supplementary file available at ojs.ethnobiology.org/index.php/ebl/article/view/1560 barbosa‐filho et al. 2019. ethnobiology le ers 10(1):97–103 98 research communica on sufficient, safe and nutritious food to meet their dietary needs and food preference for an active healthy life” (united nations 2014). in addition, they are also a source of luxury items in several countries: e.g., in the form of shark fin consumption (fowler et al. 2005). thus, urgent conservation measures aiming at both shark protection actions and human food security maintenance are required, the latter focused primarily on poor and developing countries (dulvy et al. 2017). ethnozoological information is considered essential for animal conservation strategy planning, as human activities have been identified as the main causes of direct and/or indirect threats to many animal groups, especially vertebrates (alves and souto 2015). in this sense, ethnoichthyological studies are paramount for the development of sustainable shark use, allowing for ichthyofaunal resource preservation and fishing culture maintenance (begossi et al. 2017; castro et al. 2016; pinto et al. 2015). thus, to achieve long-term sustainable use of a particular faunal resource, an ecological perspective must be applied in order to assess and understand the mechanisms and motivations that guide the human-faunal connection—in this case, sharks—including fisher shark knowledge, uses, and management (barbosafilho et al. 2017). shark research in brazil has increased in recent years, but studies focusing on the human dimension of shark fishing are still scarce, both in the country (barbosa-filho et al. 2014) and worldwide (simpfendorfer et al. 2011). in this context, this study analyzed historical shark meat consumption and trade trends by fishers in southern bahia, northeastern brazil, and discusses possible conservation strategies, linking these data to the livelihood and food security maintenance of artisanal fishers in this coastal area. materials and methods the present study was carried out in fishing communities located along the coast of the state of bahia, in northeastern brazil. southern bahia is a priority conservation area, as it encompasses both the coastal marine biome and the atlantic rainforest, and is considered a major biodiversity hotspot (tabarelli et al. 2005). specifically concerning the marine environment, this region is also noteworthy as one of the main worldwide functional diversity endemism and shark species richness hotspots (lucifora et al. 2011). the study area includes the cities of ilhéus, una, and canavieiras, comprising approximately 175 km of coastline (14°24'31" s and 39°00'57" w to 15°49'09" s and 38°53'46"w) and about 242,000 inhabitants. marine fisheries in this area present a strong artisanal and cultural character (barbosa-filho and cetra 2007; erler et al. 2015), with traditional knowledge applied to catching shelf-break reef fish with high commercial value spanning over four centuries (olavo et al. 2005). at least 13 marine landing sites and/or communities (figure 1) are located in the study area, where fish capture efforts are the prevailing activity. semi-structured interviews were performed between february and october 2012, totalling 65 respondents. all interviews were recorded by means of a digital recorder, yielding a total of 70 hours and 20 minutes of recordings. respondent selection was carried out through a network of native experts figure 1 fishing communi es along the coast of the state of bahia, northeastern brazil, where interviews were conducted with ar sanal fishers regarding shark consump on and marke ng. barbosa‐filho et al. 2019. ethnobiology le ers 10(1):97–103 99 research communica on (marques 2001), comprising reputable people recognized by the community as having a broad cultural knowledge concerning fishing activities. in addition, interviewees were also required to have experience in catching sharks in the region for at least 15 years. the applied form is available as a supplementary file. a qualitative approach was used to examine fisher knowledge regarding shark uses by integrating various individual competencies in which all provided information was considered. a quantitative approach was also performed through descriptive statistical techniques, primarily focusing on the frequencies of fisher responses. the main species consumed and marketed by the participants were recognized by comparing common names cited by respondents to those reported in the scientific literature (figueiredo 1977, gadig 1994; pinto et al. 2015), and also by assessing specific information for the state of bahia (giglio et al. 2015; queiroz and rebouças 1995). results and discussion the popular and scientific names of the most consumed shark species marketed in the study area according to the fishermen are displayed in table 1, alongside their conservation status, both in brazil (decreed by ordinance 445) and worldwide. a total of 95.4% (n=62) of the questionnaire respondents reported currently consuming shark meat, while 61.5% (n=40) highlighted its high quality, attributing this to good taste, smoothness, and lack of bones, corroborating reports indicating that shark meat demands overall have increased worldwide (dent and clarke 2015). brazil is the world's largest fish meat importer (dent and clarke 2015) and it is suspected as acting as a channel for the global shark carcass flow (bornatowski et al. 2018b). several populations living in urban centers have also displayed increasing interest in consuming shark meat in the country (bornatowski et al. 2018a). for several years, shark meat in bahia was considered low quality meat (peixe de terceira) or muamba (characterizing a product of dubious origin) and therefore, displayed rather limited commercial value. corroborating this, several fishers reported receiving these fish as gifts from boat owners in the past. therefore, sharks were usually consumed only by fishers and their families and by the local population, comprising an important food source. however, these fish have been gradually upgraded to the status of high-quality fish (peixe de primeira), leading to dramatic changes in shark meat catches and consumption by local bahia fishers. most interviewees (90.8%; n=59) reported a decrease in the number of sharks caught over time, following worldwide trends, where initial shark abundance has been replaced by a rapid population collapse, leading to decreased fishing yields (stevens et al. 2000). thus, shark access has become increasingly difficult for fishers, leading to increased market value. in this scenario, most respondents (70.7%, n=46) consider it more advantageous to sell captured sharks than to consume them, hindering fisher access to shark meat, particularly for those who do not own vessels. therefore, fishers now complain they have lost the right to consume this product. local artisanal fishers in southern bahia have different uses for shark byproducts such as meat, liver, jaws, teeth, cartilage, and even gills. these include common name species iucn status brazil status cação‐galha‐preta carcharhinus limbatus not threatened n/a** panã‐galha‐preta sphyrna lewini endangered cr*** panã‐branca sphyrna zygaena vulnerable cr panã‐pintada sphyrna buro least concern cr panã‐amarela sphyrna tudes vulnerable cr cação‐bico‐doce rhizoprionodon porosus least concern n/a** cação‐viola pseudobatos percellens* not threatened n/a** *this species belongs to the superorder batoidea, but is considered a shark by the interviewees assessed herein; **not available; *** cri camente em perigo (= cri cally endangered). table 1 main shark species consumed and marketed by fishers in southern bahia, brazil. barbosa‐filho et al. 2019. ethnobiology le ers 10(1):97–103 100 research communica on consumption, commercialization, and zootherapeutic, decorative-aesthetic and recreational applications. however, some of these historical uses, such as the use of liver oil for the treatment of human skin diseases or its commercialization for ethnoveterinary use in riding animals, are no longer observed. this may be due to the aforementioned lower regional frequency of local large shark catches observed in recent years, while other uses, such as fin commercialization, were non-existent 30 years ago and are currently being carried out at alarming rates (barbosa-filho et al. 2017). concerning shark size, most informants (86.9%, n=53) stated that the shark value per kilo is higher when the animal is less than one meter in length (locally termed cações or caçonetes) (figure 2), ranging between r$6.00 (us$1.60) (r$3.68= us$1.00, in 30 january 2019) and r$20.00 (us$5.40). on the other hand, the market price of large sharks per kilo ranges from r$3.00 (us$0.80) to r$8.00 (us$2.17). for many species, individuals less than one meter in length have not yet reached reproductive age (castro 2000). regionally, immature sharks are preferred because they have the most tender and tasty meat, according to the interviewees. these preference motifs differ from those reported by musick (2005), who, in a worldwide study on the different ways of using these fish, points out that small sharks are preferred for meat consumption because they generally display lower urea and mercury concentrations in relation to larger individuals. however, despite the consumption preference for younger specimens leading to serious implications for the conservation of these animals, the lack of scientific studies furthering into this shark consumption perspective hampers an adequate discussion of the subject. thus, actions aiming at educating fishers to the fact that they are capturing immature individuals should be adopted, as well as instructing them about the potential ecological impacts of capturing these animals in the juvenile phase. in addition, since sharks generally exhibit specific biological characteristics, such as late maturation, low fecundity, and low reproductive frequency, they become intrinsically susceptible to fishing impacts (stevens et al. 2000). on the other hand, sharks are essential elements for the balance of these ecosystems, both in the control of prey populations and in exerting a strong evolutionary pressure when consuming old and diseased animals (myers et al., 2007). in this sense, serious impacts to ocean ecosystems are currently noted due to the loss of apex predatory sharks, contributing to the occurrence of trophic cascades (baum and worm 2009; myers et al., 2007) and trophic downgrading (estes et al., 2011) in these environments. given this context, the need to alert local fishermen to socioenvironmental concerns regarding the capture and consumption of juvenile sharks becomes even more urgent. given that 54 species of marine elasmobranchs are currently threatened with extinction in brazil, representing 37% of all species (icmbio, 2018), it is paramount to adopt campaigns aimed at discouraging shark meat consumption in the country. sharks as a food source are one of the most expensive edible items in southern bahia (barbosa-filho et al. 2017; giglio et al. 2018) and, historically, shark meat has always been noted as an important protein source for underprivileged people in coastal areas located in figure 2 small sharks for sale at a street market in ilhéus, bahia. photo credit: márcio l. v. b. filho, septem‐ ber 2012. barbosa‐filho et al. 2019. ethnobiology le ers 10(1):97–103 101 research communica on northeastern brazil (lessa et al. 1999). studies focusing not only on natural resource diversity, but also on their uses concerning human nourishment can generate relevant information regarding adequate resource management and conservation actions, while improving the nutritional and dietary status of these communities at the same time (begossi et al. 2006; bortolomial et al. 2018; van vliet et al. 2018). in addition, the lack of studies on human ecology applying this approach emphasizes the need for scientific efforts capable of integrating biological and ecological information with socioeconomic issues. actions aiming at raising public awareness for the need to consume fish species comprising healthy stocks are also highly recommended, as a fear of fish stock collapses is necessary in order to incorporate consumer preferences into conservation strategies (mcclenachan et al. 2016). alterations in ecological (decreasing catches), social (greater number of fishers employed on third party vessels instead of working on their own), and economic (higher local market shark value) spheres have significantly altered shark consumption trends among fishers. the current difficulty fishers face in consuming shark meat highlights an aspect that has not yet been adequately considered in conservation biology studies, namely food security threats. this is caused due to decreased dietary diversity, which in turn depends on natural resources that are currently suffering abundance declines and/or extinction processes; in this case, sharks. further studies are required in order to expand the present knowledge concerning southern bahia local community diets, since reports suggest that the main commercially valued marine fish stocks are dwindling in this area (bender et al. 2013). conclusions the results reported herein reinforce previous findings reporting the use of sharks as a common practice in several brazilian localities, suggesting a widespread practice in the country. shark byproducts are used in multiple ways in southern bahia and the impacts of these applications should be adequately assessed and contextualized. information in this regard should be considered when implementing conservation plans, especially concerning highly exploited shark species. the information provided herein will aid in boosting conservation efforts regarding this important zoological group, both due to its significant ecological importance and its contribution to human population food security and the biocultural heritage of coastal fishing communities. acknowledgements we would like to thank the zoology post-graduate program (uesc) for logistical support. a special thank you goes to fábio hazin for reviewing and giving valuable ideas for improvement of the manuscript; to christine del vechio koike for reading, proposing improvements, and helping to translate this text; to sérgio c. moreira for having drawn the map of the study area. special thanks go to all fishers who took part in this study by providing interviews. declarations permissions: this study was carried out under the santa cruz state university ethics committee for researches involving humans number 01244412.3.0000.5526, obtained via the brazilian platform website. sources of funding: conselho nacional de pesquisa (cnpq) (master’s fellowship granted to m. l. v. barbosa filho, under no. 132919/2011-7) and capes projeto ciências do mar. conflicts of interest: none declared. references cited alves, r. r. n., and w. m. s. souto. 2015. ethnozoology: a brief introduction. 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ward-paige, c. a., d. m. keith, b. worm, and h. k. lotze. 2012. recovery potential and conservation options for elasmobranchs. journal of fish biology 80:1844–1869. doi:10.1111/j.10958649.2012.03246.x. worm, b., b. davis, l. kettemer, c. a. ward-paige, d. chapman, m. r. heithaus, s. t. kessel, and s. h. gruber. 2013. global catches, exploitation rates and rebuilding options for sharks. marine policy 40:194–204. doi:10.1016/ j.marpol.2012.12.034. traditional arid lands agriculture: understanding the past for the future. edited by scott e. ingram and robert c. hunt. 2015. the university of arizona press, tucson. 392 pp. gillreath-brown. 2016. ethnobiology letters 7(1):99–103 99 reviews for example, karen adams examines the origins and development of maize (zea mays) and possibilities for future adaptation or adoption of particular maize varieties that might be more productive in drier conditions. systematic studies on the productivity of indigenous maize landraces under varying conditions can help productivity estimates under those conditions. if a crop is likely to fail in a given year, then steps such as irrigation or planting a more droughttolerant variety could prevent crop failure. jonathan sandor and jeffrey homburg (chapter 2) suggest that in some instances it is possible to differentiate between soils cultivated in prehistory, and those that have never been cultivated (p. 72–75). for example, the mimbres agricultural soils had lower carbon and more compaction, whereas non-cultivated soils had higher carbon and less compaction. soils are part of a dynamic system inextricably linked to water and nutrients. in many cases, prehistoric people were able to maintain the soil (e.g., replenish nutrients) through various methods (e.g., flooding and runoff). a more nuanced understanding of past soils in agricultural settings is an exciting research area because it has the potential to illuminate different agricultural strategies, and their attendant knowledge systems, in a wealth of spatiotemporal contexts. nonindustrial farmers could still profitably apply ancient/ indigenous practices such as flooding and run-off farming. gary huckleberry’s chapter focuses on landscape changes and how those link to climate change. paleotemperature reconstruction has been difficult in the sw/nw, so much so that the intergovernmental archaeological research on arid lands agriculture has typically focused on the how, when, and where of agriculture. traditional arid lands agriculture offers a fresh perspective by synthesizing past research and also presenting new methods and directions for future arid lands agricultural research. the authors in this edited volume explore what is still unknown about agricultural systems processes. in recent years, archaeologists have begun to connect their research to larger global climate change discussions. the book aims to understand past and contemporary agricultural systems in the united states southwest and northwestern mexico (or sw/nw) and what those systems mean for the future of agriculture, water management, and policy, among other things. the chapters flow together seamlessly—a rarity for edited volumes. in twelve chapters, the authors respond to four main questions posed by editors scott ingram and robert hunt: “what do we not know about a specific topic related to traditional agriculture? why do we need to know more? how can we know more? what research questions can we pursue to know more?” (p. 3). these questions implicitly recognize the vast amount of archaeological and ethnological literature on agriculture in the sw/ nw (e.g., dominguez and kolm 2005; ford 1992; huckell et al. 2002; mabry 2002, 2005; muenchrath 1995; muenchrath et al. 2002; nabhan 1979; phillips 2009; vierra and ford 2007; werth 2007; wills 1995). however, as the authors reveal, archaeology and ethnography have still more to contribute to modern and future societies, as well as to their disciplines. traditional arid lands agriculture: understanding the past for the future. edited by scott e. ingram and robert c. hunt. 2015. the university of arizona press, tucson. 392 pp. andrew gillreath-brown1* 1washington state university, pullman, wa, usa. *andrew.d.brown@wsu.edu received october 21, 2016 open access accepted november 11, 2016 doi 10.14237/ebl.7.1.2016.810 copyright © 2016 by the author(s); licensee society of ethnobiology. this is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution-noncommercial 4.0 international public license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0), which permits non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. gillreath-brown. 2016. ethnobiology letters 7(1):99–103 100 reviews panel on climate change excluded the sw/nw from their figure on post-glacial temperature changes (p. 90; jansen et al. 2007:figure 6.9). one of the reasons that paleo-temperatures are so difficult to track in the sw/nw is that the floodplain dynamics for small and large rivers may be influenced by different weather patterns. for example, larger rivers such as the rio grande may be influenced by el-niño-southern oscillation—contributing to snowmelt. however, smaller rivers such as the santa cruz are more affected by local monsoon patterns (i.e., north american monsoon). huckleberry presents a great many references for paleoenvironmental reconstruction of lowand high-frequency temperature records. it can be difficult to determine drought impacts on agricultural systems in floodplain areas, although areas at the upper parts of streams may have been more resilient to drought whereas downstream may have been much more strained. this chapter shows the potential for new research on post-glacial climate changes in the sw/nw that could provide much needed baseline temperature data. larger weather systems impact local scale weather patterns; however, the extent and relationship between the two scales are not well understood. culture, technology, population, and environment collectively have a complex set of relationships that can affect how people choose agricultural strategies, settlement patterns, and whether they adopt and adapt new strategies for coping with change. scott ingram develops a technique he calls “archaeological vulnerability assessment” (p. 145), to try to identify the conditions (e.g., population levels, conflict, and environment) that prompt human behavioral responses to dry periods. for example, different groups may or may not depopulate across a region. the rate and intensity at which climate conditions affect population movements or shifts may allow for a more thorough understanding of the processes surrounding human behavior and long term climatic trends. along similar lines, robert hard et al. focuses on the relationship between agricultural strategies (mostly rain-fed farming) and degree of aggregation in chihuahua, mexico. numerous social, demographic, and environmental variables can affect aggregation. it may be beneficial to have a larger labor pool for farming; however, if productive farmland is more dispersed, then it may be more beneficial to not aggregate. suzanne fish and paul fish explain the complex processes surrounding the development of new or the adaptation of old agricultural subsistence strategies when people aggregate. richard ford and roxanne swentzell underscore the importance of learning from the past and present by discussing the beliefs behind agricultural practices and the different water-management strategies for agriculture within the northern southwest, especially northern new mexico. their research explores how communities organize themselves and how that organization can serve water management strategies. such social considerations are important for understanding the distribution of farming knowledge within kin-based communities. the organization and dissemination of farming knowledge may be helpful for contemporary small farming communities. in a related fashion, archaeological information has helped modern pueblo people to reconnect with ancient farming techniques, contributing to the rise of permaculture. maize has been the dominant focus of attempts to retrodict crop productivity (e.g., benson et al. 2013; kohler 2012) due to the wide acceptance that maize was the dominant component in the sw/nw prehistoric diet; beans, squash, cotton, and ruderals have not been given similar research attention. alan sullivan argues that we should think beyond the “corn paradigm” (p. 273), especially since the evidence for maize agriculture in the grand canyon area is more ambiguous than in most other portions of the southwest. through fire, past indigenous groups in the grand canyon area may have actively promoted ruderals instead of maize. robert hunt explores how irrigated mesoamerican crops (i.e., maize, beans, squash, and cotton) are affected by changes in water availability in the sonoran desert. this has important implications for understanding prehistoric farming systems and how people adapted. some plants that we have long viewed as weeds or as unimportant may prove to be extremely useful to people in stressful times. although not mentioned by sullivan, it would be interesting to extend hunt’s methods to the growing requirements and water thresholds of ruderals under varying environmental conditions to understand ruderal productivity. kyle woodson focuses on ways to refine our approach on estimating past streamflow from present streamflow (i.e., retrodiction) and flooding, since the timing and magnitude of floods are difficult to determine from retrodictions. flooding could have had negative impacts on hohokam irrigation canal infrastructure. by refining streamflow retrodiction gillreath-brown. 2016. ethnobiology letters 7(1):99–103 101 reviews methods and explicitly stating retrodicted data limitations, researchers could then critically use the data to address questions about how humans coped with flooding and how flooding may have affected infrastructure. while flooding can have negative impacts, floods of short duration and small magnitude may play a positive role in replenishing soil nutrients and moisture. appropriate irrigation infrastructure allows people to take advantage of episodic flooding and precipitation to turn a seemingly nonor lowproductive environment into a productive one, as in the extremely dry environment of the atacama desert in chile (parcero-oubiña et al. 2016). michael adler explores the role of archaeologists in ‘litigation-based research’ for groups wanting to establish water rights. canal irrigation in the northern rio grande is not as well-understood as in the hohokam case in southern to central arizona. archaeologists have been relying upon modeling to explore various questions such as food production. ground truthing is needed to increase “our empirical knowledge of spatial and temporal diversity in water management techniques” (p. 222). dating canals through use of 14c, ams, and osl is the main way to determine when the canals were created. archaeologists should be cautious and thorough in their review of irrigation structure data when contributing to water rights cases. “utilitarian archaeology,” which focuses on how archaeological data and research can contribute to solving modern problems, is becoming more important as funding and scientific agencies desire to see the merit of archaeological research beyond the discipline itself. in paul minnis’ conclusion to the book, he gets to the heart of the matter when he says, “instead of the present being used to help us understand the past, the past is used to help solve specific problems in the present” (p. 364). although the authors engage with climate in very creative ways, i was dissatisfied with the lack of discussion on the different types of drought and the varying levels of impact on agricultural systems. huckleberry does, however, discuss larger scale climatic patterns. for example, ingram (p. 133–134) does distinguish the difference between the use of drought and dry-periods—the former being defined as an extended period of water shortage which has detrimental effects on the physical environment and/ or people, and the latter defined by specific precipitation or temperature thresholds. while the term dryperiod is a less loaded term than drought, it is important to understand the different types of drought, which are meteorological, agricultural, hydrological, and socioeconomic (quiring 2009). different kinds of droughts may have affected people, crops, and vegetation in different ways. the authors cover a wide range of agricultural topics, however, these are limited in scope to either specific geographic regions or the range of a topic (e.g., dryland farming focus in chapter 2). the volume editors and contributors are explicit about these limitations throughout the book, though the hope is that the methods explained here can be applied to other arid regions. herein lies the great potential for many new research projects surrounding traditional arid land agriculture. the book will be useful for researchers looking for new projects or refining old projects, for newcomers to arid lands agriculture, for archaeological background research on arid agriculture, for modern and prehistoric subsistence strategies, and for government and policy-makers aiming to create a sustainable future. researchers have been taking on the challenges of using new methods to understand past agricultural systems and the relationship between people and agriculture (e.g., bocinsky et al. 2016; brown 2016; d’alpoim guedes et al. 2015). the authors creatively highlight a bright future for archaeological research, as well as for ethnography and ethnobiology (e.g., nabhan 2016). the studies in this book not only help us to gain a better understanding of past agricultural practices in many different arid contexts, but the larger impacts of being able to study long-term change using various disciplines (e.g., hydrology, geomorphology, soils, climatology) will allow for these studies to be applied to modern needs. references cited benson, l. v., d. k. ramsey, d. w. stahle, and k. l. petersen. 2013. some thoughts on the factors that controlled prehistoric maize production in the american southwest with application to southwestern colorado. journal of archaeological science 40:2869–2880. doi:10.1016/ j.jas.2013.03.013. bocinsky, r. k., j. rush, k. w. kintigh, and t. a. kohler. 2016. exploration and exploitation in the macrohistory of the pre-hispanic pueblo southwest. science advances 2:e1501532. doi:10.1126/ sciadv.1501532. gillreath-brown. 2016. ethnobiology letters 7(1):99–103 102 reviews brown, a. d. 2016. looking outward from the village: the contingencies of soil moisture on the prehistoric farmed landscape near goodman point pueblo. master’s thesis, department of geography, university of north texas, denton, tx. available from unt digital library: http:// digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/ metadc862755/. doi:10.13140/ rg.2.2.17680.00004. d’alpoim guedes, j., s. w. manning, and r. k. bocinsky. 2015. a 5,500-year model of changing crop niches on the tibetan plateau. current anthropology 57:517–522. doi:10.1086/687255. dominguez, s., and k. e. kolm. 2005. beyond water harvesting: a soil hydrology perspective on traditional southwestern agricultural technology. american antiquity 70:732–765. doi:10.2307/40035872. ford, r. i. 1992. an ecological analysis involving the population of san juan pueblo, new mexico, with a new introduction. garland press, new york, ny. huckell, b. b., l. w. huckell, and k. k. benedict. 2002. maize agriculture and the rise of mixed farming-foraging economies in southeastern arizona during the second millennium bc. in traditions, transitions and technologies: themes in southwestern archaeology, edited by sarah h. schlanger, pp. 137–159. university of colorado press, boulder, co. jansen, e., j. overpeck, k. r. briffa, j. c. duplessy, f. joos, v. masson-delmotte, d. olago, b. ottobliesner, w. r. peltier, s. rahmstorf, and r. ramesh. 2007. paleoclimate. in climate change 2007: the physical science basis. working contribution of working group i to the fourth assessment report of the intergovernmental panel on climate change, edited by s. solomon, d. qin, m. manning, z. chen, m. marquis, k. b. averyt, m. tignor, and h. l. miller. cambridge university press, cambridge, united kingdom and new york, ny, usa. available at: https://www.ipcc.ch/ publications_and_data/ar4/wg1/en/ch6.html. accessed on october 14, 2016. kohler, t. a. 2012. modeling agricultural productivity and farming effort. in emergence and collapse of early villages: models of central mesa verde archaeology, edited by t. a. kohler and m. d. varien, pp. 85–112. university of california press, berkeley, ca. mabry, j. b. 2002. the role of irrigation in the transition to agriculture and sedentism in the southwest: a risk management model. in traditions, transitions, and technologies: themes in southwestern archaeology, edited by s. h. schlanger, pp. 178–199. university of colorado press, boulder, co. mabry, j. b. 2005. diversity in early southwestern farming and optimization models of transitions to agriculture. in subsistence and resource use strategies of early agricultural communities in southern arizona, edited by m. w. diehl, pp. 113–152. anthropological papers, no. 34. center for desert archaeology, tucson, az. muenchrath, d. a. 1995. productivity, morphology, phenology, and physiology of a desert-adapted native american maize (zea mays l.) cultivar. ph.d. dissertation, department of agronomy, iowa state university, ames, ia. available at: http://lib.dr.iastate.edu/rtd/10967/. accessed on september 19, 2016. muenchrath, d. a., m. kuratomi, j. a. sandor, and j. a. homburg. 2002. observational study of maize production systems of zuni farmers in semiarid new mexico. journal of ethnobiology 22:1–33. nabhan, g. p. 1979. the ecology of floodwater farming in arid southwestern north america. agro-ecosystems 5:245–255. doi:10.1016/0304-3746 (79)90004-0. nabhan, g. p., ed. 2016. ethnobiology for the future: linking cultural and ecological diversity. university of arizona press, tucson, az. parcero-oubiña, c., p. fábrega-álvarez, d. salazar, a. troncoso, f. hayashida, m. pino, c. borie, and e. echenique. 2016. ground to air and back again: archaeological prospection to characterize prehispanic agricultural practices in the highaltitude atacama (chile). quaternary international. doi:10.1016/j.quaint.2015.12.050. phillips jr, d. a. 2009. adoption and intensification of agriculture in the north american southwest: notes toward a quantitative approach. american antiquity 74:691–707. quiring, s. m. 2009. developing objective operational definitions for monitoring drought. journal of applied meteorology and climatology 48:1217–1229. doi:10.1175/2009jamc2088.1. gillreath-brown. 2016. ethnobiology letters 7(1):99–103 103 reviews vierra, b. j., and r. i. ford. 2015. foragers and farmers in the northern rio grande valley, new mexico. kiva 73:117–130. doi:10.1179/ kiv.2007.73.2.002. werth, l. c. 2007. characterization and classification of native american maize landraces from the southwestern united states. retrospective theses and dissertations. paper 14628. department of agronomy, iowa state university, ames, ia. available at: http://lib.dr.iastate.edu/cgi/ viewcontent.cgi?article=15627&context=rtd. accessed on september 19, 2016. wills, w. h. 1995. archaic foraging and the beginning of food production in the american southwest. in last hunters-first farmers: new perspectives on the prehistoric transition to agriculture, edited by t. price and a. gebauer, pp. 215–242. school of american research press, santa fe, nm. use of cetaceans as bait in southern bahia, brazil, by expert fishermen that market shark fins: a lucrative trade and two threatened zoological groups barbosa-filho et al. 2018. ethnobiology letters 9(2):12–18 12 research communications purposes (read 2008; robards and reeves 2011). robards and reeves (2011) point out that the scenario of cetacean exploitation by humans is highly complex, geographically broad, taxonomically diverse, and strongly linked to cultural and economic issues. in brazil, small and large cetaceans have been used historically as food, bait, in traditional medicine, as energy sources, and to manufacture handicrafts and amulets (alves and rosa 2008; barbosa-filho et al. 2016a; brum et al. 2015; morais et al. 2016; siciliano 1994; tosi et al. 2009). the exploitation of large cetaceans in the country began in the seventeenth century. historical data demonstrate that the producintroduction anthropogenic impacts on aquatic ecosystems are a major threat to cetaceans worldwide. several species in this group are susceptible to pollution in aquatic environments, environmental degradation, impacts from fishing, and increase in boat traffic (di beneditto et al. 2010; read 2008). nevertheless, there is little scientific information regarding the life histories of most small cetacean species; therefore, they are listed as “data deficient” by the international union for conservation of nature (schipper et al. 2008). every year, hundreds of thousands of whales and dolphins are killed by intentional and incidental catches and used for commercial and subsistence use of cetaceans as bait in southern bahia, brazil, by expert fishermen that market shark fins: a lucrative trade and two threatened zoological groups márcio l. v. barbosa-filho1,2, rebeca m. f. barreto3, salvatore siciliano4, cecilia i. seminara1*, and eraldo m. costa-neto5 1programa de pós-graduação em zoologia, campus universitário soane nazaré, universidade estadual de santa cruz, ilhéus, ba, brazil. 2programa de pós-graduação em etnobiologia e conservação da natureza, campus dois irmãos, universidade federal rural de pernambuco, recife, pe, brazil. 3colegiado de ciências biológicas, universidade federal do vale do são francisco, petrolina, pe, brazil. 4fundação oswaldo cruz, laboratório de enterobactérias (labent), rio de janeiro, rj, brazil. 5departamento de ciências biológicas, universidade estadual de feira de santana, feira de santana, ba, brazil. *ceciseminara@gmail.com abstract in brazil, despite the existence of a federal law prohibiting the capture and harassment of marine mammals, the use of fat as fishing bait has been reported. however, the processes of obtaining and using bait have not been described for southern bahia state. the objective of this study was to learn how these processes occur in populations of fishermen along the southern coast of the state and how to minimize the negative impacts on the cetacean population. semi-structured interviews about shark fishing and use of cetaceans as bait were conducted with 65 shark fishers from ilhéus, una, and canavieiras municipalities in brazil. data were analyzed using descriptive statistics with percentage distributions. fishermen emphasized the adipose tissue of dolphins, whales, and porpoises as preferred bait for catching sharks. of our sample, 81.5% of fishers knew about the use of fat as bait and 56.9% knew someone who had caught cetaceans. regarding beached whales, 67.7% reported knowing of their use and 20% had used them. this study shows the interrelation of people’s use of two zoological groups: cetaceans as bait, which represents a threat to the group, and sharks for commercialization, a group in which 75% of species are endangered. it shows the ecological impacts of these interactions. protection measures will only be effective when they approach the local culture in an integrated manner by considering traditional customs that have developed from centuries of exploitation. received march 31, 2017 open access accepted july 17, 2017 doi 10.14237/ebl.9.2.2018.953 keywords ethnobiology, ethnoecology, artisanal fishing, shark fishing, cetacea copyright © 2018 by the author(s); licensee society of ethnobiology. this is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution-noncommercial 4.0 international public license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0), which permits non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. barbosa-filho et al. 2018. ethnobiology letters 9(2):12–18 13 research communications tion of whale oil to meet the demands of the energy market was notable (morais et al. 2016). more recently, despite the legal prohibition of harassing and fishing all cetaceans (federal law no. 7643, december 1987), the use of cetacean fat as bait has been described in the scientific literature (cosentino and fisher 2016). in brazil, the fat is generally used to fish for certain river species (brum et al. 2015; iriarte and marmontel 2013) and sharks (barbosa-filho et al. 2016a; siciliano 1994). on the other hand, obtaining this material usually occurs from incidental (rosa et al. 2012; zappes et al. 2009) or intentional (barbosa-filho et al. 2016a; brum et al. 2015; siciliano 1994) catches. siciliano (1994) recorded the use of large and small cetaceans as bait in shark fisheries along the bahia coast. more recently, barbosa-filho et al. (2016a) described the practice of harpooning dolphins for use as bait in local shark fisheries, because shark fins are highly valuable (barbosa-filho et al. 2016b). however, contemporary processes of use and storage of incidentally captured dolphins, as well as beached whale carcasses, have not been described and discussed regionally. thus, the present study aimed to provide answers to the following questions: (1) what are the processes for using cetacean blubber as bait among fishermen in southern bahia? (2) how can these impacts be minimized to conserve local populations of cetaceans? materials and methods before we started collecting data, a proposal for this study was evaluated and approved (caae 01244412.3.0000.5526) by the ethics committee for research involving humans at the universidade estadual de santa cruz. furthermore, considering that the research was partially conducted inside the figure 1 map of the surveyed area in central-south bahia state, brazil, showing the fishing communities where interviews were conducted. barbosa-filho et al. 2018. ethnobiology letters 9(2):12–18 14 research communications canavieiras marine extractive reserve, which is a federal marine protected area, the project was authorized (reference #33276-1) by the national system of information and authorization on biodiversity (sisbio). at the beginning of each interview, we informed the fishermen that his anonymity would be protected. data were collected by means of 65 semi-structured recorded interviews with male fishermen. all participants live in the 13 communities located in the municipalities of ilhéus, una, and canavieiras in brazil (figure 1). the interviews focused on shark fishing, using local cetaceans as bait, and past and present uses of whale and dolphin for this purpose. participants were selected through simple stratified sampling (albuquerque et al. 2014) by identifying a network of specialists (marques 2001) that had over 15 years of experience fishing sharks locally. other criteria for selecting interviewees included interest in participating and living in the region. in 2013 and 2014, the principal researcher gave public lectures presenting the research results at the headquarters of the fishermen's associations (in serra grande and atalaia), in bars where the local fishermen often meet (in the community of queimada, at mamoã beach, and são miguel), at the headquarters of colony z-19 in ilhéus and colony z-20 in canavieiras, at a public school in the community of acuípe, at the residence of a fisherman of the pedras de una community, at the headquarters of the extractive marine reserve of canavieiras, and at porto do areal in canavieiras. in addition, several presentations were given to individual participants, usually at fishing piers or in their homes. to analyze the knowledge of the fishermen, we used the model of integrating various individual competencies (marques 2001), in which all information supplied was considered. quantitative analysis involved descriptive statistics with percentage distributions. figure 2 guiana dolphin (sotalia guianensis) carcass found in southern bahia, showing removed fat, generally used as bait. photo: pat ecosmar. barbosa-filho et al. 2018. ethnobiology letters 9(2):12–18 15 research communications results most of the fishers (93.8%; n = 61) reported the frequent practice of using fishing baits. when asked which baits do sharks prefer, the blubber of three ethnospecies of cetaceans was mentioned: 56.9% (n = 37) mentioned golfinhos (dolphins), 49.2% (n = 32) mentioned baleias (whales), and 43.1% (n = 28) mentioned toninhas (porpoises). when asked specifically about the ethnospecies of small cetaceans, 81.5% (n = 53) of interviewees reported having knowledge about local use of fat as bait. moreover, 56.9% (n = 37) of participants knew a fisher who had caught, intentionally or incidentally, at least one small cetacean. this fact is made explicit in participant statements: “dolphin bait is the one that sharks like the most.” (t., 52 years old) “the meat is red and releases an oil. the sharks go crazy ...it’s with whale and dolphin that they catch the most.” (w., 47 years old) “whale meat. dolphin also has a lot of oil, but the best is whale bait.” (f., 31 years old) when stranded and killed in fishermen's nets, specimens of small cetaceans are chopped with knives and the fat layer is cut into small pieces to be used on hooks. according to interviewees, the animal carcasses are quickly returned to the sea because fishermen are afraid of being caught by inspectors. thus, on some occasions, lacerated animal carcasses wash up on the beaches (figure 2). one interviewee described how a small cetacean caught in a fishing net was used: “they had already taken dead dolphins in the net, cut slices, and used it as bait.” (b., 42 years old) as for large beached cetaceans (locally called “whales”), the body is often chopped by the fishers with machetes to use the blubber as bait. whales were reported to be used for this purpose by 67.7% (n = 44) of informants. however, only 20% (n = 13) admitted having used this type of blubber, while nine said they had buried pieces of fat near a beach for subsequent use. the fishermen emphasized that blubber is better when it is extremely rotten (advanced putrefaction stage) because sharks are attracted to the smell. the process of burying the adipose tissue (blubber) of a beached whale was reported as follows: the fisher takes large pieces of fat, puts salt on them, buries them in large bags, and digs them up when needed. according to interviewees, this fat can be used up to five years after being buried. nevertheless, there are fishermen who currently recognize the institutional prohibition of handling carcasses washed up on beaches. regarding sharks, 59 (89.1%) of interviewed fishermen reported a decrease over the years in the number of these animals in the fisheries. of these, 32 (48.3%) reported perceiving that the fisheries of these animals had declined 80% or more. among the main reasons reported for decreases in catches were shrimp trawling (57.0%; n = 37), catching sharks to harvest the fins (43.0%; n = 28), lobster fishing with nets (35.0%; n = 23), and excess use of gill nets (19.0%; n = 12). respondents frequently complained that shrimp trawling occurred in areas and times prohibited by law. in this context of local threats to cetacean and shark species, fishermen point out the need for more frequent inspections in the region, which they considered quite rare and ineffective. “what is lacking for preservation is frequent inspection, otherwise they will continue to run out.” (r., 52 years old) presentation of research results around 200 people attended the meetings to present the study results, including fishermen, professionals who deal in some way with fishing in the region, students, and other people. not all invited interviewees could attend the presentations. on these occasions, in addition to presenting the main interview findings, information was also presented about the ecological conditions of the main species caught in the region, impacts of some types of fishing reported in the study area, and other types of threats which directly or indirectly affect regional fishing. in addition, global data on the threat status of the main zoological groups with which fishermen interacted were highlighted in order to clarify and raise awareness among fishermen about the need to conserve marine animals. at the end of each presentation, there were discussions with the fishermen about the information presented. there was abundant exchange of information between the researcher and participants in the barbosa-filho et al. 2018. ethnobiology letters 9(2):12–18 16 research communications discussions. participants expressed satisfaction with the presentations, especially local fishermen, who complain that some researchers conduct interviews but do not return to present their results. participants demonstrated interest in establishing a dialogue with the scientific community and government organizations to denounce predatory practices in the region and to construct alternatives that generate greater income from the fisheries in sustainable ways. discussion because catching and harassing cetaceans is prohibited in brazil, it is possible that some of the participants in this study preferred to deny the use of cetaceans as bait. it was difficult to infer the cetacean species reported by interviewees because the common names used by brazilian fishers refer to multiple taxa (souza and begossi 2007). batista et al. (2012) monitored beaches along the coast of ilhéus between 1997 and 2007 and recorded 36 stranded cetaceans belonging to ten species: sotalia guianensis (17), megaptera novaeangliae (6), physeter macrocephalus (3), ziphius cavirostris (3), steno bredanensis (2), globicephala macrorhynchus (1), orcinus orca (1), peponocephala electra (1), stenella clymene (1), and feresa attenuata (1). southern bahia has a history of small scale fishing with hand lines for over four centuries (olavo et al. 2005). presently, this practice retains its artisanal character. besides hand lines, fishing is done using gillnets and longlines with bait caught by the fishers (barbosa-filho et al. 2014). cetacean blubber is often used as bait for longline fishing. several studies with artisanal brazilian fishers have reported the use of cetaceans as fishing bait (rosa et al. 2012; siciliano 1994; zappes et al. 2009). in amazonia, for example, all body parts of the amazon river dolphin (inia geoffrensis) are commonly used for piracatinga (calophysus macropterus) fishing (brum et al. 2015). recent studies have shown that recent population declines of this small cetacean are strongly related to piracatinga fishing (iriarte and marmontel 2013). câmara (1889) reported that in the recôncavo baiano region, whale “ladder”, a hard part of the animal’s ventral region, was used as bait and when salted could be used “from year to year” to catch sharks. this report illustrates the old and recurring cultural practice of fishermen using cetaceans to catch sharks. the practice of burying pieces of whale fat had not been recorded among brazilian artisanal fishermen. scientific studies have pointed out inherent health risks associated with improper handling of marine mammal carcasses (hunt et al. 2008; siciliano et al. 2016). cutting up beached cetacean carcasses for bait could negatively impact their conservation by removing pieces of the carcass that could be collected for biopsies used to elucidate threats to the group (di beneditto et al. 2010). rosa et al. (2012) point out that the main problems related to the conservation of small coastal cetaceans in brazil are lack of regular monitoring of catches and beached individuals, as well as lack of knowledge about population sizes. for these reasons, the red book of the brazilian fauna threatened with extinction (mma 2008) notes that fishing interactions are one of the main threats to cetaceans nationally. therefore, environmental agencies and the academic community are expected to formulate environmental and sanitary education initiatives for local fishermen as a way to discourage them from using cetaceans that are caught incidentally or stranded on beaches. the present study reports the use of another zoological group under strong anthropogenic pressure: the elasmobranch fish. globally, about 75% of the 1,041-existing species of sharks and rays are threatened with extinction (dulvy et al. 2014). the group is also threatened along the brazilian coast, a main global hotspot of elasmobranch diversity (lucifora et al. 2011), mainly due to the impact of artisanal and industrial fishing (bornatowski et al. 2014). in southern bahia, fishing for elasmobranch species (barbosa-filho et al. 2014; giglio et al. 2015) has existed for centuries and continues in different forms. although fishermen from southern bahia often have refined ethnobiological knowledge about sharks (barbosa-filho et al. 2014; barbosa-filho and costaneto 2016), some of their environmental perceptions may continue to threaten these animals (barbosafilho et al. 2014). for example, some local fishermen report that sharks moved away from the southern region of bahia because non-selective fishing diminished their local food supply (barbosa-filho and costa -neto 2016). these circumstances suggest the importance of raising awareness among local fishermen about the threats to these fish. the present study shows the interrelation of two distinct zoological groups, cetaceans and elasmobranchs, which are closely related in the culture of marine fishing in southern bahia. barbosa-filho et al. barbosa-filho et al. 2018. ethnobiology letters 9(2):12–18 17 research communications (2016b) argue that shark conservation requires studies about social, economic, and ecological impacts of fin commercialization by brazilian fishermen, as well as discussions about its possible prohibition. it is also possible that a ban on the commercialization of shark fins would have positive effects on the conservation of cetacean species used as bait. it is necessary to carry out further studies to ascertain whether the educational interventions about these two zoological groups, carried out in 2013 and 2014, had measurable effects in relation to fishermen’s knowledge and practices. effective protection measures will only occur when these aspects of local culture are addressed in an integrated way, considering traditional customs that resulted from centuries of exploitation. declarations permissions: the study was approved by the ethics committee for research involving humans at universidade estadual de santa cruz (number 01244412.3.0000.5526). sources of funding: m. l. v. barbosa filho received a master’s fellowship (number 132919/2011-7) from the conselho nacional de desenvolvimento científico e tecnológico (cnpq). conflicts of interest: none declared. references cited albuquerque, u. p., l. v. f. c. cunha, r. f. p. lucena, and r. r. n. alves. 2014. methods and techniques in ethnobiology and ethnoecology. springer, new york, ny. albuquerque, u. p., l. v. f. c. cunha, r. f. p. lucena, and r. r. n. alves. 2014. methods and techniques in ethnobiology and ethnoecology. springer, new york, ny. alves, r. r., and i. l. rosa. 2008. use of tucuxi dolphin sotalia fluviatilis for medicinal and magic/ religious purposes in north of brazil. human ecology 36:443–447. doi:10.1007/s10745-0089174-5. barbosa-filho, m. l. v., and e. m. costa-neto. 2016. conhecimento ecológico local de pescadores artesanais do sul da bahia, 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a. andriolo, f. oliveira, and e. l. monteiro-filho. 2009. potential conflicts between fishermen and sotalia guianensis (van bénéden, 1864) (cetacea, delphinidae) in brazil. sitientibus série ciências biológicas 9:208–214. kumeyaay ethnobotany: shared heritage of the californias. by michael wilken-robertson. 2018. sunbelt publications, san diego. 281 pp. narchi. 2019. ethnobiology letters 10(1):16–17 16 reviews ethnography, and language. the section transports the reader into a land of diverse landscapes and biota. the section also offers a vivid description of the rapid changes suffered by the peoples of baja california since european contact and up to the 21st century. kumeyaay origin mythologies are well presented and allow readers to fully appreciate a deep connection between people, plants, and environment. these narratives are followed by a recollection of traditional kumeyaay economic landscapes along with a brief introduction to the plant material culture and materia medica (botanicals used in the practice of medicine). lastly, the section describes contemporary kumeyaay communities in mexico. in addition, a thorough explanation of the language’s linguistic ties, pronunciation, and current status is offered. section two begins by building on the sources and methods used throughout the research. i appreciate the author’s detailed writing that attests to the methods he used for collecting data, details the nature and quality of archival material, and acknowledges the strengths and limitations of the methods and sources used. the second part of this section presents the plant materials collected. the author focused solely on kumeyaay and ko’alh use of native plants. his criteria are thoughtful and sound as most of the plant communities in northern baja california have existed since the early holocene, potentially representing some of the first human-plant interaction in the region. in addition, a number of these plants are currently endangered, and the author expects to raise public support for their conservation along with deeper appreciation for the environmental services these plants provide. the second part of this anyone traveling from san diego, california to ensenada, mexico will be mesmerized by the coastal shrub landscapes of the california floristic province, the patches of sonoran desert vegetation, and how these contrast with the pacific ocean to the west. some 1300 years ago, these landscapes were occupied by western yuman hunter-gatherers such as the kumeyaay. presently, kumeyaay descendants live in scattered populations along the northernmost part of baja california and in san diego county. after 1848, kumeyaay territories were altered by the imposition of a binational border. this process gradually forced kumeyaay communities in mexico and the united states to adopt different political, cultural, and economic structures. presently, mexico-bound kumeyaay represent a relatively small group of some 600 people in five rural indigenous communities in baja california. among these, some 70 people are fluent speakers of their language, most of them elders or middle aged. language and knowledge loss among kumeyaay youth would be enough to make a case for the uttermost importance for research such as that portrayed in kumeyaay ethnobotany. the book is divided into nine chapters, plus an introduction and an appendix. these chapters range from describing baja california prehistory to offering ways in which to put living knowledge to work. for the purpose of this review, i will cluster the book into three major sections. section one helps the readers to get to know and familiarize themselves with the rich environmental, ecological, and anthropological settings of the baja california peninsula, kumeyaay ethnohistory, current kumeyaay ethnobotany: shared heritage of the californias. by michael wilken-robertson. 2018. sunbelt publications, san diego. 281 pp. nemer e. narchi1* 1centro de estudios en geografía humana, el colegio de michoacán, la piedad, mexico. *narchi@colmich.edu.mx received february 8, 2019 open access accepted march 19, 2019 doi 10.14237/ebl.10.1.2019.1521 published april 17, 2019 copyright © 2019 by the author(s); licensee society of ethnobiology. this is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution-noncommercial 4.0 international public license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0), which permits non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. narchi. 2019. ethnobiology letters 10(1):16–17 17 reviews section, the catalog of native plants and their uses is the longest chapter of the book. over 130 pages long, the chapter summarizes information on the past and present uses of 47 plants. one of the most remarkable examples is coast agave (agave shawii), an ancient source of food and fiber. the ethnobotanical entries are not limited to portraying the knowledge of the 16 highly valuable informants that the author relied on, as these also include ethnohistorical and ethnoarchaeological information from other sources. while i think it is impressive to generate such a vast amount of intimate knowledge for 47 plants, i am convinced that section three represents what is really important from this research. the section takes a bold stance, asking: “what is worthy within this research for the future?” here, the applied anthropological practice of the author through the years answers the question. for example, his involvement in the planning and maintenance of a community museum and botanical gardens in tecate, baja california, a place designed and managed through active participatory community involvement. additionally, ethnobiological research becomes relevant, as the section shows, when research results, activism, and advocacy help to ensure that indigenous plant specialists and traditional artisans and teachers can regularly transmit their knowledge in their own communities. these local conversations and plans can then permeate into local, regional, and national imaginaries so as to extinguish long-held perceptions of ‘development’ with associated notions of stateimposed solutions for environmental degradation. finally, the high aesthetic value of the illustrations in the book cannot go unmentioned. the publishers have gone above and beyond with regards to paper and printing quality, allowing for the reader’s immersion in beautiful and vivid daily life scenes among the kumeyaay through the lenses of the author and other three talented photographers, including those of california state university professor deborah small. as an anthropologist, i have always been strongly biased towards appreciating research dealing with small societies and disappearing languages. these interests become especially strong when research revolves around the biocultural strategies that nonagriculturalists have developed to adapt and thrive under harsh environmental conditions. that is the case of michael wilken-roberton’s kumeyaay ethnobotany. a book whose main contribution lies not in presenting a wonderful and millennial people-plant relationship, which it does, but in raising a scientifically sound argument that can be, and should be, used in reviving local traditions and cultures while also advocating for the highly pertinent inclusion of ethnobiological knowledge in the conservation of postglacial socio-ecological systems as delicate as those found in the southern california-northern baja california complex. learning about extraordinary beings: native stories and real birds pierotti. 2020. ethnobiology letters 11(2):44-51 44 research communications arguments about deterioration of information (marshall 1995). kelly (2017:10) argues that “outsiders,” i.e., anthropologists, or even ethnologists, are not properly initiated, and “will not be taught the songs nor told the stories that encode the critical information.” “the reason these stories appear simplistic (and overly anthropomorphic) is that they are usually the versions told to children,” and, “as the children are initiated into higher and higher levels of the society, they are taught more details (that build upon) these first stories,” which allows them to function as structures on which to base future learning. according to kelly (2017:11), “taking public indigenous stories as indicative of the depth of knowledge is equivalent to judging western (science) solely (on the basis of) texts found in the children’s section of bookshops.” the same is true of many popular versions of stories told by indigenous peoples around the world including barry lopez’s crow and weasel (1990), or the beautifully illustrated stories by paul goble. these works tell very simplified versions of long, complex, and sometimes brutal and sexually themed stories, one complex issue when working in ethnobiology is determining the empirical bases that underpin oral traditions (basso 1996; kelly 2017; vansina 1985). euro-americans often assume that oral traditions are prone to change with repeated telling to such a degree that any information they contain becomes corrupted; euro-americans could be characterized as treating oral traditions as if they are equivalent to the game of telephone (marshall 1995). a recent study of australian aboriginal oral traditions, however, argues that these are very powerful when employed according to traditional cultural norms (kelly 2017). orality is about “making knowledge memorable,” and uses “stories, songs, and dances to retain vast stores of factual information” (ong 2002). this allows the coding of knowledge about plants, animals, resource use and land management, and geology. “indigenous cultures memorized everything on which their survival—physically and culturally—depended” (kelly 2017:xii). when survival depends upon accurate retention of knowledge, strong selection ensures that mistakes are not made during transmission, which counters learning about extraordinary beings: native stories and real birds raymond pierotti1* 1department of ecology and evolutionary biology, university of kansas, lawrence, usa. *pierotti@ku.edu abstract oral traditions of indigenous american peoples (as well as those of other indigenous peoples) have long been discussed with regard to their reliability as metaphorical accounts based upon historical knowledge. i explore this debate using stories to discuss the importance of the role of corvidae in indigenous knowledge traditions and how these stories convey information about important socioecological relationships. contemporary science reveals that corvids important in cultural traditions were companions to humans and important components of the ecology of the places where these peoples lived. ravens, crows, jays, and magpies are identified as having special roles as cooperators, agents of change, trickster figures, and important teachers. canada (or gray) jays serve as trickster/creator of the woodland cree people, wisakyjak. magpies won the great race around the black hills to determine whether humans would eat bison or vice versa. i analyze these stories in terms of their ecological meaning, in an effort to illustrate how the stories employ dramatic settings to encourage respect and fix relationships in the sociocultural memory of the people. received august 20, 2019 open access accepted april 24, 2020 doi 10.14237/ebl.11.2.2020.1640 published december 4, 2020 keywords oral tradition, traditional knowledge, corvids, ravens, magpies, jays, trickster, creator copyright © 2020 by the author(s) licensee society of ethnobiology. this is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution-noncommercial 4.0 international public license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0), which permits non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. pierotti. 2020. ethnobiology letters 11(2):44-51 45 research communications which also contain substantial information concerning ecological themes. there are more complete published versions of such stories (e.g., bright 1993; mourning dove 1990), however, even these stories have often been censored before publication, especially with regard to sexual content. although her work is often identified as authentic, mourning dove was one of the most heavily edited native american authors. her works were changed considerably by her editor, l. v. mcwhorter: “…at times scholars will not know if they are reading mcwhorter or mourning dove…unless they are very familiar with the primary documents” (brown 1993:70). mcwhorter enlisted hester dean guie to help with the shaping of mourning dove’s traditional stories, which they envisioned as a series of children’s bedtime stories. as a result, all mentions of sex and violence were eliminated, and most of the “legends” were simplified and shortened. mcwhorter was an active editor, removing moral points, “superstitions,” and creation stories. mourning dove’s classic book coyote stories (1933) included editing credits to guie and mcwhorter. numerous stories as published in this work were unrecognizable to the colville-okanagan elders who originally told them (nisbet and nisbet 2010). in this paper i argue that stories told as part of these traditions convey important information concerning socioecological relationships between humans and nonhumans (pierotti 2011). in previous work i have concentrated on stories and traditions dealing with large, carnivorous mammals such as wolves and bears (pierotti 2011; pierotti and fogg 2017). here, i concentrate on stories concerning cooperative relationships between humans and birds of the family corvidae. methodology and study group i follow the methodology on interpreting traditional indigenous stories that we employed in assessing stories of indigenous americans and australians in our book the first domestication (pierotti and fogg 2017:8–11), which relies upon methods developed by gould (2003) and anderson (1996:103–104). my goal is not to argue that the stories i include refer to actual historical events. when i refer to historical veracity, the point i am trying to make is that the antiquity of these stories reveals the attitudes that indigenous peoples had towards other species hundreds or even thousands of years ago. western science has only recently acknowledged the extraordinary capabilities of some nonhumans that indigenous knowledge has long taken for granted. when i make reference to megafauna, the purpose is to establish that the peoples had interactions with species that have been extinct for thousands of years, which clearly establishes the antiquity of the story. other stories i recount may only go back several hundred or a few thousand years, but they clearly predate the knowledge and understanding of the western scientific tradition, and the existence of “nations” of any kind on any continent. one of the less appreciated components of oral traditions among native americans is the role of avian contemporaries. among birds, one group stood out for the way they were recognized as important components of many cultural traditions: the family corvidae, which in north america includes ravens and crows (genus corvus: 2–3 species of raven; 4 species of crow), magpies (pica: 2 species), jays (5 genera; 10 species), and the nutcracker (nucifraga columbiana). these species have been characterized by scientists who study them as avian primates (r. balda, personal communication) because of all birds, corvidae seem to show the most complex social behavior and highest intelligence (heinrich 1999; savage 1995), a position held by higher primates among mammals. corvids and some parrots are capable of cognitive feats comparable to those of great apes, and corvid brains contain very large numbers of neurons, at densities considerably exceeding those found in mammals (olkowicz et al. 2016). the corvidae indigenous americans were fully aware of the unusual nature of this group of birds, and granted at least two species (common raven, corvus corax and gray jay, perisoreus canadensis) status as cultural heroes, creators, or tricksters, an honor attributed among mammals only to wolves and bears, the most significant carnivores with which these peoples co-existed (pierotti 2011). raven (corvus corax) ravens are one of the most intelligent and interactive species, both with humans and wolves. heinrich (1999) describes them as “wolf-birds” because of the close association readily observed between these two species, and argues that “as far as raven was concerned, man, the new predator, was probably just pierotti. 2020. ethnobiology letters 11(2):44-51 46 research communications a surrogate wolf who also usually hunted in packs” (heinrich 1999:243). i suspect that, combined with their high intelligence, this cooperative relationship with both humans and wolves lies at the root of the respect shown to ravens by indigenous peoples as illustrated in the following story. an important creation story concerning ravens comes from the apache, and emphasizes a theme of cooperation during difficult times (cordova 2007:11): a long time ago the people were hungry…in the midst of this despair, ravens began to appear among the people…“these ravens know where to find food” said the people. the people initially hatched a plan to capture and force a raven to tell them how to find food. this plan failed, as the captive refused to speak, and grew weak under restraint, forcing the people to release the raven. when they released him, the raven was joined by his entire family, who led the people to a herd of buffalo. at this point it is recounted that “many other ravens rose to greet the people (saying), welcome.” after gathering enough food, the people decide to return to their homeland. on the return trip, cordova (2007:11–13, emphasis added) said that, …they encountered a large raven…[who] spoke to them: “it is our way to share what we have with others. many times we invited you to come with us and you ignored our invitation. our children played among you… they had come to invite you and wanted only that you should follow them. you would not do that. there will come a time…when our peoples will not speak directly to one another. we will have different languages, different homes, but we will always experience hunger. that is the way of beings on this earth. the next time our children come among you, do not ignore them. they have come to invite you to a feast.” this story reveals how indigenous peoples were forced to learn how to communicate with nonhumans by understanding nonhuman forms of communication, e.g., following birds such as ravens who would lead them to places where food was available. it also refers to a time when direct dialog was considered possible between humans and nonhumans, perhaps because humans regarded themselves as more similar to nonhumans in early times. for some tribes and first nations, raven could be considered a creator figure who showed humans who were entering a new habitat, on a new continent, how to survive. what is most significant, however, is that these stories emphasize the same point made by heinrich (above), concerning how ravens interact with cooperatively-hunting species such as wolves and humans because these species may be less skilled at finding food items, but they are much better at killing. such stories effectively counter arguments made by euro-americans that indigenous peoples using “buffalo jumps” to kill bison ended up “wasting” food when more buffalo were killed than could be eaten or processed by humans alone (e.g., krech 1999:135–155). there was waste only if one fails to consider all the participants in the hunt. wolves, ravens, and magpies had all participated in the hunt, and in the case of the wolves even participated in the killing. as a result, they were entitled to feed as well (fogg et al. 2015; pierotti 2011; pierotti and fogg 2017). “waste” as defined by euro-americans seems to mean that persons other than humans were able to feed. to them, only human use of food or other material counts as proper use. for indigenous peoples this food was shared with cooperating relatives, including non-human species, a concept totally alien to europeans. indigenous peoples regarded their cooperators as fellow beings and as relatives who shared the space where they all lived together (anderson 1996; pierotti 2011). ravens may have been even more important to peoples in the arctic and pacific northwest where they guided humans to caribou and other prey (pierotti and fogg 2017), and were considered to function as both creator and trickster figures (pierotti 2011). this dual role emerged because the peoples considered raven to be important, but also a figure of mischief and even clownish behavior. this reflects the playful nature of this species (heinrich 1999), as much or more as their powerful ecological role. the koyukuk people of southwest alaska regard ravens as spiritually powerful, but they are made uneasy by contemporary ravens’ tendency to “penetrate the human sector of the world” (nelson 1983:30). they feel that ravens should be “out on the land, where they belong” (nelson 1983:31). scavenging around human settlements reduces their power and reveals how without traditional shamans, both people and birds become separated from the raven power. this reflects the impact of contemporary living conditions pierotti. 2020. ethnobiology letters 11(2):44-51 47 research communications upon the oral tradition. in koyuk traditions, as with the apache above, ravens helped to find game when they were hunting by flying overhead and “then toward an animal that is visible from above, calling ggaagga (animal)” (nelson 1983:83). as one koyuk (nelson 1983:83) reported: we were hunting along the river…me and a couple of young boys. a raven flew over us real low, and i told the boys to watch closely where it went, so it might lead us to something. it went across to the far bank and flew right along above the edge. we followed it with the boat and, sure enough, we came onto a bear standing on top of the bank. we shot it right there. black-billed magpie (pica pica) magpie is included among honored relatives because this species is credited with a powerful strategy that succeeded in winning an important victory for the two-leggeds (which include both birds and humans) against the four-leggeds (mammals other than humans), in the history of tribes on the great plains. this involves a story about what is referred to as “the great race,” in which humans and bison competed to determine which species would be the predator and which the prey (goble 1991; grinnell 1926). the two-leggeds and the four-leggeds each chose their champions: a young human male for the two-leggeds and a young bison cow, named slim walking woman for the four-leggeds (goble changes the bison to a male). they raced around the paha sapa (black hills) in a valley the cheyenne call the race track, today known as buffalo gap (grinnell 1926). all two-leggeds and four-leggeds were allowed to participate, so the story recounts how all these species were scrambling around the valley that surrounds paha sapa for several days, providing a wealth of ecological and behavioral information about the various participants. bison was well ahead, but failed to realize that magpie had surreptitiously landed on her /his back (goble version), or had gotten into the lead as others tired and won easily (grinnell’s grittier version). as they neared the finish line magpie swooped off bison’s back and beat her/him to the finish line, ensuring that humans could eat bison for the foreseeable future (goble 1991). as compensation for this helpful act, magpies are immune from human harm, and are always allotted a share of kills made by humans (grinnell 1926). this story is obviously metaphorical; however, it is meant to fix in human minds how dependent humans have been upon magpies over their cultural history. one obvious consequence was that after this victory, humans took to wearing feathers as an expression of solidarity with their fellow two-legged relatives. grinnell’s version includes animals collapsing from exhaustion and bleeding from their lungs, which is said to explain why the ground in the valley is stained red to this day. gray jay (perisoreus canadensis) as a young boy, i was fascinated by gray jays, but never could figure out why their common name in the north was whiskyjack. while living in canada, i sought out stories from canadian first nations and learned that canadian cree have a trickster/hero known as wisakyjak (also wisakedjak) (ballantyne 1991). to the cree peoples, wisakedjak is a shapeshifter who frequently appears as the gray jay, a benevolent trickster, teacher, and messenger of the forest. to many northern first nations, the appearance of a gray jay in the morning is a good omen; its chattering and whistles serve as early warnings to hunters of the presence of nearby predators. gwich’in guides in the yukon tell of gray jays singing while flying from tree to tree to lead a lost and starving hunter home. anishinaabe scholar niigaan sinclair (2016) writes about this species, which goes by many names. to the cree, she is wisikejack; to the french, she is mésangeai du canada. to the english, she is gray jay. sinclair (2016) states that “to my people…she is gwiingwiishi” (figure 1): gwiingwiishi lived with us since the beginning. she is a life giver, a trick player and one of the smartest beings in creation. everything she does challenges thought and perception, gifting teachings of responsibility, relationships and life. many say she is a foodstealer, but she is brave in her fearlessness, bright in her mistakes. she is kind to those who are kind back, harder on those who need a dose of humility. she is the best parts of all parts. unlike many birds, she stays among our lodges all year, watching, playing and calling for our attention constantly. she is fierce in her protection of her family and community, travelling only with her relatives and taking care of her young... gwiingwiishi is a great, pierotti. 2020. ethnobiology letters 11(2):44-51 48 research communications wise teacher…there is an old story telling of her abilities to give gifts. one day long ago, our great trickstertransformer nanabozho changed himself into gwiingwiishi and sat in a tree above two blind brothers as they began to share a meal. as the first man reached for a piece of meat, gwiingwiishi flew down and stole it. startled, the man asked his brother if he had taken his meat. the brother replied no, reaching for a piece himself. as he was about to place the food in his mouth, gwiingwiishi flew down and stole it, too, then returned to the tree to watch. the brothers accused one another of stealing, arguing with fear that one was trying to hurt the other. just before they came to blows, gwiingwiishi let out a huge laugh. suddenly, the two men realized that nanabozho was playing a trick, teaching them to not let petty things come between them. nanabozho transformed back into a human but left a spirit of play and gift giving within gwiingwiishi, something she still shares today (sinclair 2016). according to the cree peoples, wisakyjak was clearly familiar with megafauna. in one story he/she avenges the death of his/her brother wolf at the paws of a giant lynx (almost certainly a reference to sabretooths, smilodon spp.). in a connected earthdiver story, he/she kills the last giant beaver, casteroides spp., which threatens the raft on which he and other refugees from a flood (probably referring to the formation of lake agassiz at the end of the last ice age; fisher et al. 2002) are riding. this allows wisakyjak to employ diving mammals to go the bottom of the lake to retrieve soil that could be used to rebuild land for terrestrial organisms to re-inhabit. what should be obvious at this point is that wisakyjak represents more to indigenous peoples of the northern woodlands than just p. canadensis, although this corvid species has become the figure 1 the gray jay—or whiskey jack or canada jay—features prominently in the traditional stories and art of indigenous peoples such as the anishinaabe, to whom it is gwiingwiishi. (sources: artwork, mark nadjiwan; photo, steve phillips/can geo photo club). pierotti. 2020. ethnobiology letters 11(2):44-51 49 research communications contemporary image of this trickster-transformer figure. brightman (1993) describes wisahkichak (there are dozens of alternate spellings) as being able to transform into a fly, a goose, and a moose. sinclair (2016), quoted above, states that the anishinaabeg trickster-transformer nanabozho can transform into the gray jay, gwiingwiishi, when the trick requires the behavioral attributes of this species. this suggests that perisoreus can be considered to be, at the very least, a significant aspect of the wisahkichak identity (figure 2; see also video [treaty6 productions 2018]). the attributes sinclair ascribes are to the bird itself, not the humanoid figure discussed by brightman (1993). nor are these the attributes shown in illustrations by ballantyne (1991). there is conflation of human and nonhuman characters in these stories, with the nonhumans behaving both as their “modern counterparts” and as shapeshifters. brightman (1993:39) states, “cree say that stories with exclusively animal characters describe events that occurred earlier than those in stories of the trickster and other humanoid heroes.” this seems a bit oversimplified, however, because tricksters often interact with animal characters in events supposed to represent very early times, such as the earthdiver story recounted in ballantyne (1991), which is a creation story. brightman’s interpretation seems more in line with the temporally oriented thought patterns of euro-americans, rather than the time-free spatially oriented stories of indigenous peoples (deloria 1992). as i have discussed elsewhere concerning europeans and tricksters: once europeans arrived in north america as residents, a number of the tribes began to associate them with the concept of trickster, apparently because their motivations seemed unclear and because they tended to consider things as being important that indigenous people thought were marginal or peripheral (ballinger 2004; hyde 1998). they were obviously human but seemed trapped between adulthood and childhood, and quite immature in their attitudes and relationship with truthful speaking. this concept seems to have been intended as a mild reprimand, because trickster stories are often told to show how it is proper to live (or not live), as with the discussion about death and reincarnation. nonetheless, dealing with europeans was deadly serious, even if it had humorous overtones. a more subtle and indigenous definition is provided by ramsey (1999:27–29): the trickster is an imaginary hyperbolic figure of the human…whose episodic career is based on hostility to domesticity, maturity, good citizenship, modesty, and fidelity… given to physical disguises and shapechanging; and who in his clever self seeking may accomplish important mythic transformations of reality, both in terms of creating possibility and of setting human limits. from a structural standpoint, tricksters are important mediative figures. ramsey’s use of the term mediative implies a dynamic interposing of the mind between polar opposites, allowing it to hold on to both; this does not mean “compromise or reconciliation,” but a continuing process of the mind, rather than a transitional step towards a conclusion (pierotti and fogg 2017:182). figure 2 illustration of story told in ballantyne (1991) with gray jay replacing humanoid figure of wisakedjak. groove soldier productions, edmonton, alberta, canada. pierotti. 2020. ethnobiology letters 11(2):44-51 50 research communications conclusion the oral tradition is a crucial component of both cultural and physical survival among indigenous peoples around the world. in north america, such traditions make frequent use of birds to exemplify important themes. in the cases i employ, all of the birds are important to the peoples culturally, and are also extraordinary species who teach humans about the value of cooperation between and among species. in addition, all of these stories involve dramatic circumstances, i.e., avoiding starvation and establishing long term ecological relationships. the drama may seem unrealistic, but the relationships and resolutions are not. corvids are recognized by western science for their intelligence and complex behavioral repertoires (heinrich 1999; savage 1995). it is important to recognize that native peoples were very consistent in identifying species with complex social behavior and ecological significance as major figures within their oral traditions. the values these stories teach are not simple lessons, as in aesop’s fables, but they demonstrate connection, respect, and how to live properly in a world filled with nonhuman beings. these stories function in a metaphorical fashion, in that the dramatic settings represent a way of both serving as mnemonic devices, while encouraging their recipients to be respectful and to consider the bird species featured as important individuals with great skills. marshall (1995:8) states: the first peoples…understood that they had a power to understand…likewise they knew that other species (also) had abilities that (made them unique compared to other life forms)…in other words, the first peoples did not see their ability to reason or understand as anything that made them superior; instead it was simply their key to survival. they used this understanding of the skills of nonhumans to craft the stories that made up their oral traditions, as a way to code knowledge and stimulate memory in ways that aided in their survival (kelly 2017). acknowledgments i thank nicole sault for extensive discussion of this topic and guidance. i also thank violet cordova (apache) and niigaan sinclair (anishinaabe) for providing wonderful accounts of important stories. finally, i thank mark nadjiwan (anishinaabe), stephen phillips, and groove soldier productions, edmonton, alberta for granting permission to use their wonderful images as illustrations. declarations permissions: none declared. sources of funding: none declared. conflicts of interest: none declared. references cited anderson, e. n. 1996. ecologies of the heart: emotion, belief, and the environment. oxford university press, new york. ballantyne, a. 1991. wisakyjak and the new world. p.g. downes, trans. penumbra press, waterloo, canada. ballinger, f. 2004. living sideways: tricksters in american indian oral traditions. university of oklahoma press, norman, ok. basso, k. 1996. wisdom sits in places. university of new mexico press, albuquerque, nm. bright, w. 1993. a coyote reader. university of california press, berkeley, ca. brightman, r. 1993. grateful prey: rock cree humananimal relationships. university of california press, berkeley, ca. brown, a. k. 1993. looking through the glass darkly: the editorialized mourning dove. in new voices in native american literary criticism, edited by arnold krupat, pp. 274–290. smithsonian institution press, washington, d.c. cordova, v. f. 2007. how it is: the native american philosophy of v.f. cordova, edited by k. d. moore, k. peters, t. jojola, and a. lacy. university of arizona press, tucson, az. deloria, v. jr. 1992. the spatial problem of history. in god is red, edited by v. deloria jr., pp. 114–134. north american press, golden, co. fisher, t. g., d. g. smith, and j. t. andrews. 2002. preboreal oscillation caused by a glacial lake agassiz flood. quaternary science reviews. 21:873–78. doi:10.1016/s0277-3791(01)00148-2. fogg, b. r., n. hernandez, and r. pierotti. 2015. relationships between indigenous american peoples and wolves 1: wolves as teachers and guides. journal of ethnobiology 35:262–285. pierotti. 2020. ethnobiology letters 11(2):44-51 51 research communications goble, p. 1991. the great race. aladdin, division of simon and schuster, new york. gould, s. j. 2003. the hedgehog, the fox, and the magister's pox. harmony books, new york. grinnell, g. b. 1926. by cheyenne campfires. yale university press, new haven, ct. heinrich, b. 1999. the mind of the raven: investigations and adventures with wolf-birds. harper collins, new york. hyde, l. 1998. trickster makes the world: mischief, myth, and art. north point press, new york. kelly, l. 2017. the memory code: the secrets of stonehenge, easter island, and other ancient monuments. pegasus books, new york. krech, s., iii. 1999. the ecological indian: myth and history. w.w. norton and co., new york. lopez, b. 1990. crow and weasel. north point press, san francisco, ca. marshall, j. iii. 1995. voices in the wind. in on behalf of the wolf and the first peoples, pp. 133–152. red crane books, santa fe, nm. mourning dove. 1990. coyote stories. bison books, university of nebraska press, lincoln, ne. nelson, r. 1983. make prayers to the raven. university of chicago press, chicago, il. nisbet, j., and c. nisbet. 2010. mourning dove (christine quintasket). [web page]. available at: h t t p : / / w ww. h i s t o r y l i n k . o r g / i n d e x . c f m ? displaypage=output.cfm&file_id=9512. accessed on august 14, 2019. olkowicz, s., m. kocourek, r. k. lučan, m. porteš, w. t. fitch, s. herculano-houzel, and p. němec. 2016. birds have primate-like numbers of neurons in the forebrain. pnas 113:7255–7260. doi:10.1073/pnas.1517131113. ong, w. j. 2002. orality and literacy: the technologizing of the word, 2nd edition. routledge, new york. pierotti, r. 2011. indigenous knowledge, ecology and evolutionary biology. routledge, new york. pierotti, r., and b. fogg. 2017. the first domestication: how wolves and humans co-evolved. yale university press, new haven, ct. ramsey, j. 1977. coyote was going there: indian literature of the oregon country. university of washington press, seattle, wa. savage, c. 1995. bird brains: the intelligence of crows, ravens, magpies, and jays. sierra club books, san francisco, ca. sinclair, n. 2016. anishinaabe stories about the mischievous, wise gray jay. canadian geographic. [web page ] . ava i l ab l e a t : h t tps :// www.canadiangeographic.ca/article/anishinaabestories-about-mischievous-wise-gray-jay. accessed on august 14, 2019. treaty6 productions. 2018. wisakedjak and the first mother storyhive pitch [video]. november 30, 2018. available at: https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=idnr8l3xv0q. accessed on april 24, 2020. vansina, j. 1985. oral tradition as history. university of wisconsin press, madison, wi. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/the_hedgehog,_the_fox,_and_the_magister%27s_pox http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/the_hedgehog,_the_fox,_and_the_magister%27s_pox ethno-ornithology of the mushere of nigeria: children’s knowledge and perceptions of birds pam et al. 2018. ethnobiology letters 9(2):48–64 48 research communications them is, therefore, crucial to the role they will play in the future when they are faced with the challenges and responsibilities for its management (hunn 2002). many studies have shown that children’s environmental knowledge is declining as more children spend time away from nature (e.g., charles and louv 2009; louv 2008; medin et al. 2006; singer et al. 2009), resulting in a number of behavioral, emotional, and psychological phenomena which louv has collectively termed nature deficit disorder (louv 2008). while one might expect this phenomenon to be more widespread in urban settings and less in rural areas (see tuan 2012), study after study is revealing the same pattern of knowledge loss in children in both urban and rural situations (e.g., clements 2004; cruz-garcia 2006; somnasang and moreno-black 2000). as turner et al. (2000) observed, young people introduction the conservation of biodiversity has gained impetus in recent years as one of the greatest global concerns through the creation of the united nation’s convention on biological diversity (cbd) in 1992, the un declaration of the year 2010 as the international year of biodiversity, and the years 20112020 the decade of biodiversity (un 2011). however, the effectiveness of conservation action in any location depends largely on how interested local people are in nature, their terms of engagement with it, and their level of environmental literacy (hunn 2002). as the hope and future of any society, and the future custodians of the earth, children are an essential focus for conservation education and engagement. how children perceive the world around ethno-ornithology of the mushere of nigeria: children’s knowledge and perceptions of birds grace pam¹*, david zeitlyn2, andrew gosler1,2 ¹edward grey institute of field ornithology, department of zoology, university of oxford, uk. 2school of anthropology and museum ethnography, university of oxford, uk. *grace.pam@zoo.ox.ac.uk abstract mushere children’s ethno-ornithology was surveyed from october to november 2015 to find out their level of bird knowledge—as well as whether and how children valued and learned about birds—in order to determine the potential role such knowledge might play in mushere biodiversity conservation. methods included picture elicitation exercises, freelisting, and semi-structured interviews. our results revealed a limited knowledge of birds in mushere children, and that bird knowledge was gendered. girls learned through observation, while boys learned through practical bird-related activities. learning was mostly horizontal for boys but vertical and/or oblique for girls; the most reported learning mode was through oral tradition. farmland and garden birds were the most common groups, with birds in the families columbidae and estrildidae having the highest salience and frequency of mention. we suggest that this reflects the importance of ecological salience, since both groups are relatively locally abundant. the children also had a limited knowledge of cultural beliefs and uses of the birds, but valued birds as important. we argue that how much children will know and learn about any biological domain will be determined by the cultural attitudes and perceptions of that domain, and the cultural importance attached to it. we conclude that the limited knowledge of birds in mushere children reflects mushere cultural indifference (ornithoapatheia) to birds. we suggest that a consistent and deliberate conservation education program that will work towards encouraging ornithophilia, the love of birds, and biophilia, the love of nature, in mushere children could be beneficial. received march 14, 2017 open access accepted september 27, 2017 doi 10.14237/ebl.9.2.2018.931 keywords ethno-ornithology, mushere, children, ornithoapatheia, biodiversity conservation copyright © 2018 by the author(s); licensee society of ethnobiology. this is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution-noncommercial 4.0 international public license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0), which permits non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. mailto:grace.pam@zoo.ox.ac.uk pam et al. 2018. ethnobiology letters 9(2):48–64 49 research communications in many cultures nowadays are far less knowledgeable about their traditional ecological knowledge (tek) because modes of transmission of knowledge have been threatened by changes in lifestyle. within a theoretical framework of ethnobiology, however, folk naming and classification may be driven by ecological and other kinds of salience (gosler 2017, hunn 1999), in addition to the perceptions and connectedness of a people to nature. given the significance of birds in promoting biodiversity conservation, we set out to assess the potential of using children’s ethno-ornithological knowledge as the foundation for encouraging children’s engagement with nature and participation in its conservation. most studies relating to children’s ethnobiological knowledge have centred on their ethnobotanical knowledge (e.g., cruz-garcia 2006; guimbo et al. 2011; martinez-rodriguez 2009; o’brien 2010; quinlan et al. 2016; wyndham 2010; zarger and stepp 2004). few studies have looked specifically at the ethno-ornithological knowledge of children (see bonta 2003) and, to the best of our knowledge, none exist that focus entirely on ethnoornithology of children; we hope to contribute in this area. there is good evidence that the close association with nature found in many cultures around the world often translates into children having considerable tek of plants and animals at a young age. for example, the tzeltal-maya of mexico are known to have great depth of knowledge of their plants and animals, with their children knowing over 100 plant names by the time they are nine years old (casangrade 2004; hewlett and cavalli-sforza 1986; hunn 2002; quinlan et al. 2016; stross 1973; zarger 2009, zarger and steppe 2004). in addition, the mushere people’s relationship to their flora and fauna has not been studied or reported previously, especially with regards to children’s local environmental knowledge; we hope to make a contribution in this area also. understanding the human-environment interactions in all habitat types and societies is important for better understanding and conservation of the world’s biodiversity. as daugherty (1978) observed, the importance of a domain to people depends on how much importance and attention, or indifference, they give to that domain. in this paper, we report on the bird domain as it is perceived and valued by mushere children and discuss the implications of these findings for nature conservation. our earlier study on mushere ethnoornithology (pam et al. in prep.), revealed an indifference towards birds, which we termed ornithoapatheia, contrasting with bonta’s (2003) ornithophilia and ornithophobia hypotheses (also, peintner et al. 2013; wasson and wassson 1957). it is difficult to know how widespread such an indifference to birds is in nigeria due to limited data. however, a study conducted in kwara state, western nigeria by weliange et al. (2015) reported a relatively rich ethnoornithological knowledge relating to the cultural significance of birds. although the actual number of species recognized in that study by locals was only twenty, they reported a richer cultural knowledge among the yorubas of the south-western part of nigeria held in their folklore, proverbs, and rituals. our studies with the mushere led to the present research on mushere children’s ethno-ornithological knowledge. in particular, we wanted to understand the place of birds as perceived by mushere children. the central question therefore was: is bird knowledge children’s knowledge? if so, how might it be used to encourage nature conservation in mushere? also, since understanding how children learn is important (zarger 2009), we also ask the following questions which are pertinent to the understanding of the cultural transmission of knowledge: what are the methods/modes of tek acquisition and transmission among mushere children? what factors influence the acquisition and transmission of tek? how does children’s knowledge differ from adult knowledge? finally, we ask, what birds do mushere children know and why? elsewhere in the world, birds have successfully been used to foster a conservation ethos and to encourage participation in conservation. since, for example, birdlife international and its partners in different countries around the world have successfully advocated for biodiversity conservation through birds (e.g., williams et al. 2014), it is easy to assume that birds will be favored everywhere. however, developing a genuine partnership in a communityparticipatory project necessitates that conservation practitioners work with what the people already know and value. nigeria has been reported as one of the countries in africa with more traditional uses of birds (cocker 2000; nikolaus 2000; williams et al. 2014); how do these uses translate in terms of cultural bird valuing? as bonta (2003) observed, a conservation project could miss a lot by not recognizing the thoughts and feelings of locals towards their avifauna. pam et al. 2018. ethnobiology letters 9(2):48–64 50 research communications might children differ from adults in their perceptions and valuing of birds, and perhaps even exhibit more local knowledge of birds? indeed, there might be a special relationship between children and birds that tends to fade with adulthood (bonta 2003; cobb 1969). if this were indeed the case, conservation action might be most readily effected through children’s education. methods mushere is in the bokkos local government area of plateau state, north-central nigeria. it is located at 9˚ 9’ 0” n, 9˚ 3’ 0” e, across a total land area of 870.25 km², with an estimated adult population of 37,000 residing mostly in fourteen mushere villages. the mushere are one of the tribes occupying the southern side of the jos plateau. the northern part of their tribal area is on the open high plateau at around 1200 m asl, while the southern part extends through the maze of hills and valleys through which the plateau descends to the benue valley lowlands in the south, at about 300m asl—there is no escarpment in this area. the jos plateau has a considerable effect on rainfall in areas adjacent to it. the western edge and nearby areas have considerably higher rainfall than other places in nigeria at the same latitude, with a tendency for a slightly longer rainy season. this means that forest naturally occurs within this belt, which extends round to the western part of the southern edge of the plateau. this is not merely gallery forest, as is found elsewhere at this latitude, and most land within this belt is southern guinea savannah. the mushere practice a subsistence farming culture; the main occupation of the mushere people is agriculture, growing millet (pennisetum glaucum), fonio (digitaria sp. [locally called accha]), maize (zea mays), guineacorn (sorghum bipolar), and sesame (sesamum radiatum). a few parents of the children we studied also worked as civil servants in addition to farming and had at least a primary school education. the predominant religion of the mushere is christianity, although a few older individuals are traditionalists (mushere et al. 2007). the mushere are an understudied group, and published information concerning their history is scarce. students were selected from across six mushere secondary schools who were in their first, second, or third years of secondary school, and between the ages of 12 and 15 years. all respondents claimed to be christians. we interviewed 56 secondary school children from three mushere communities (garah, kawel, and ik’ngwakap). other research has shown that by this age, children are able to attain an average adult level of competency in their knowledge of plants and animals (cobb 1969; hunn 2008; kreutz 2015; wyndham 2010; zarger 2002). in addition, individuals in mushere culture are considered children up to the age of 15 years, and an adult capable of raising a family from the age of 16 onwards. furthermore, our decision to limit participation to this age group was based on prior knowledge working with children during our time in mushere. we found that children under the age of 12 years could not make meaningful contributions as they were very shy, and were not able to communicate freely with the researchers, probably due to language barriers and their low level of exposure to “strangers”. wyndham (2010) made similar observations in her work with rarámuri children, observing that children who attended school were more confident and willing participants in her research than those who lacked any formal schooling, with some of them declining to participate in her research. the interview environment was a classroom in each of the participating schools, where we were supplied with a table and chairs where we interviewed each respondent. using semi-structured interviews, we collected information on their socio-demography, free -lists of birds, tek of birds, as well as bird-related mushere stories and songs. free listing is important in finding out where to concentrate effort in applied research (bernard 2000). it also has the advantage of giving the researcher a good picture of the overall perceptions, or knowledge, of a domain using relatively few respondents. a purposive sampling technique (bernard 2000; tongco 2007) was used in selecting participants. this deliberate, non-random, non-probability approach allows the researcher to select participants based on predetermined criteria that fit the purpose of the research (bernard 2000). in our case these included a willingness to participate in the research, individuals who possessed some knowledge of birds, and lastly, those who had the ability to communicate and share their knowledge of birds. using a picture elicitation exercise (bignante 2010; epstein et al. 2006; kellert 1984; si 2016; weliange et al. 2015), in which each respondent was shown a colored picture of a bird, we asked each respondent to identify twenty-two bird species previously recognized from the adult free-lists as culturally salient. we were pam et al. 2018. ethnobiology letters 9(2):48–64 51 research communications careful to ensure that pictures were of high resolution and quality, and that children had no trouble recognizing two-dimensional images. we interviewed each respondent in isolation, to ensure privacy and independence in answering questions. all interviews were conducted in hausa language with our mushere interpreter translating into mushere any aspects that seemed unclear to a respondent. all respondents were bilingual, speaking mushere and hausa languages, with most also able to communicate in english. all scientific bird identifications and naming followed the birdlife international guidelines (birdlife international database, 2017). the time spent with each child during interviews was 30–45 minutes. the interview protocol involved using the first three minutes learning about the background of the respondents, and giving information on the general procedure for the exercise. this helped them become better settled for the interview, which many first approached like an examination situation, showing some nervousness. by emphasizing to the children that we were eager students, willing to learn about their relationship and knowledge of birds, we put them in the teacher’s position, a method that proved effective by making them more relaxed and settled for the interviews. respondents were also asked to share everything they knew and could recall about the local bird names, ecology, uses, cultural beliefs, stories, and/or songs related to each bird. the responses were written down in our field data sheets and later transferred into an excel spreadsheet, making sure that each respondent had a unique identification code. results of the children’s free-lists, which were analyzed using the anthropac 4.0 software (borgatti, 1996), are presented in table 1. recognition scores were assigned to each child for every bird identified (1 for correct identification and 0 for wrong or unidentified bird species), bringing the maximum recognition score per respondent to twenty-two (table 2). although we had a seemingly small, non-random sample in that it was restricted to ages 12–15, we have no reason to doubt that it gives a good representative sample of mushere children’s bird knowledge. results and discussion out of 56 children surveyed, 34 were boys (61%) and 22 (39%) were girls. about half of the children were 12 years old (n=24; 14 boys, 10 girls; 43%), while 22 (13 boys, 9 girls; 39%) were 13 years old, five (9%) were 14 years old, and another five (9%) were 15 year item frequency (%) average rank salience mbul 92.9 2.60 0.75 tidit 78.6 3.02 0.60 mbulkan 57.1 5.38 0.28 fyem 46.4 5.50 0.23 yiyi 41.1 5.53 0.19 nayakar (kwom) 39.3 4.23 0.24 ngupiya 37.5 5.81 0.16 nilip 35.7 5.00 0.17 yerkong 35.7 5.95 0.16 yerdang 32.1 5.17 0.17 njakan 30.4 5.35 0.16 nanaan 28.6 5.69 0.13 canary 23.2 3.46 0.16 table 1 free-list results of children’s most salient bird species (see table 2 for identification). pam et al. 2018. ethnobiology letters 9(2):48–64 52 research communications folk name scientific name common name mbul columbidae pigeons and doves (columbidae) tidit estrildidae, especially lagonosticta senegala (linnaeus 1766) and uraeginthus bengalus (linnaeus 1766) firefinches, especially the red-billed firefinch and red-cheeked cordonbleu mbulkan columbidae: treron calvus (temminck 1808) african green pigeon fyem falco tinnunculus (linnaeus 1758) common kestrel yiyi or guguk strigidae/ tytonidae owls including the barn owl nayakar or kwom pternistis bicalcaratus (linnaeus 1766) double-spurred francolin yerdang or dadak (children alone mostly refer to it as dadak, a name unknown to adults; yerdang literally means bird of tail, referring to its long tail. why children choose a different name is unknown, as they do not know what dadak means). colius striatus (gmelin 1789) speckled mousebird yerkong (literal: bird of bank, referring to its hole-nesting behaviour along banks) merops bulocki (vieillot 1817) red-throated bee-eater ngupiya bubulcus ibis (linnaeus 1758) cattle egret nannan emberiza tahapisi (smith 1836) cinnamon rock bunting nilip euplectes franciscanus (isert 1789) northern red bishop keleng accipiter badius? (gmelin 1788) shikra “canary”(children do not know its folk name, surprisingly, it is known by its common name) crithagra mozambica (müller 1776) yellow-fronted canary njakan ardeidae herons gopang ptilopachus petrosus (gmelin 1789) stone partridge ngoro corvus albus (müller 1776) pied crow kuljem scopus umbretta (gmelin 1789) hamerkop ndibin or ndighim ploceidae, especially ploceus cucullatus (müller 1776) weaverbird, especially known is the village weaver. “bitree” (a name only used by children, unknown to the adults) passer griseus (vieillot 1817) northern grey-headed sparrow tau nectarinidae sunbirds jingjit ? ? zar or jar buphagus africanus (linnaeus 1766) yellow-billed oxpecker chilchap hirundinidae swallows table 2 children’s folk bird names generated from free-listing exercises organized according to their frequency of mention. (continued on next page) ? = species unidentified and unknown *bats were continuously mentioned as birds by children, although they had no knowledge of any uniqueness of the bats; adults, however, mentioned that bats were a special category of “birds” because they are not considered true birds **both domestic chickens and ducks were classified as birds. pam et al. 2018. ethnobiology letters 9(2):48–64 53 research communications folk name scientific name common name *ndin or shizhik chiroptera bats kadukul ? ? kajukut ? ? **nishogor or koshokor ? wild duck/domestic ducks pukul accipritidae eagles kakajukut ? ? bulguguk ? ? dudut ? ? dem numida meleagris (linnaeus 1758) helmeted guineafowl yer-am (yer=bird; am=water) ? water bird (common name for all water birds) **ko’o gallus gallus (linnaeus 1758) domestic chicken nigiya necrosyrtes monachus (temminck 1823) hooded vulture gulak pycnonotus barbatus (desfontaine 1789) common bulbul langlakap caprimulgidae nightjars table 2 children’s folk bird names generated from free-listing exercises organized according to their frequency of mention. (continued from previous page) ? = species unidentified and unknown *bats were continuously mentioned as birds by children, although they had no knowledge of any uniqueness of the bats; adults, however, mentioned that bats were a special category of “birds” because they are not considered true birds **both domestic chickens and ducks were classified as birds. pam et al. 2018. ethnobiology letters 9(2):48–64 54 research communications olds. almost all respondents (n=51, 31 boys, 20 girls; 91%) were born in a mushere village and had lived there while growing up, the remaining five (4 boys, one girl; 9%) were not born in a mushere village, but claimed to have spent their formative years in mushere. this meant that our study sample was made up entirely of children who had spent all of their formative years in the mushere community. also, 98% of respondents claimed their parents were farmers, while the remaining 2% claimed their parents were both farmers and civil servants. results from the free-list analysis (table 1) revealed children’s knowledge included primarily garden birds and species commonly found around their homes. out of 38 folk names generated from the lists, we considered only 13 species to be culturally salient; these included species whose frequency of mention was 20% or more. the species with the highest frequency of mention was mbul (doves [columbia]: 92.9% of respondents), followed by tidit (referring to both redbilled firefinch [lagonosticta senegal] and red-cheeked cordon-bleu [uraeginthus bengalis]: 78.6%), and african green-pigeon (treron calvus: 57.1%). apart from these 13 species, all other bird species mentioned had frequencies below 20%. a complete list of bird species mentioned and their corresponding scientific and common names, (birdlife international database zone 2017) where known, is presented in table 2, while a list of the bird species used in the picture elicitation exercise and children’s recognition scores are presented in table 3. overall, the results revealed a relatively low tek of birds in children, when compared with ethnobotanical knowledge results of children elsewhere (grasser 2016; lozada 2006; mcdade et al. 2007; quinlan et al. 2016; zarger and stepp 2004). however, when the results are compared with children’s bird knowledge around the world, mushere children are found to know a similar or greater number of birds as children elsewhere. for instance, a study of british primary school children’s knowledge of birds revealed that 55% of children could not name three of britain’s most common garden species, while a quarter could not identify birds such as the robin (erithacus rubecula) and house sparrow (passer domestics), which are common and widespread and have been culturally salient in the uk (smith 2016, gosler 2017 appendix 1). another british study of children’s nature knowledge (balmford et al. 2002) revealed a similar trend, where children in primary schools between the ages of 4 and 11 years could hardly name common british plants and animals including birds, but could name precisely pokémon characters from pokémon flashcards. likewise, in switzerland, lindemann-matheis and bose (2008) found that when over 6,000 young people (8-18 years) where asked to name organisms in their immediate environments, they could only name an average of five plants and six animals, and across all the age groups most of these were unspecified taxa such as birds, grasses and trees. compared to these examples, the results from the present study might not be surprising, as they are consistent with a globally observed trend of declining children’s bird knowledge. indeed, ballouard et al. (2011), lindemann-matheis and bose (2008, 2002), bebbington (2005), and balmford et al. (2002) had made similar observations, remarking that the public’s ability to identify organisms was limited. even though certain researchers (e.g., bang et al. 2007; patrick and tunnicliffe 2011), claim that children from developing countries are usually more knowledgeable about nature and hold greater ecological understanding than children from developed countries, our results do not completely agree with this assertion. people’s nature knowledge should be taken as being context-dependent: it might be true for some areas of the world, but not true for others. patrick and tunnicliffe (2011) observed that in countries where children and adults are not in touch with nature, there seems to be a generally low awareness about environmental issues and a general lack of interest, care, and even apathy for the environment, an assertion which our results substantiate. none of the children we interviewed showed any ethno-ecological knowledge of birds beyond knowing a few local bird names. they were also limited in their knowledge of cultural uses and associations of birds. most of the children (36%) when asked could not describe any cultural use of birds, while 30% reported using birds as pets and selling some (figure 1). it is possible that their understanding of the term “cultural use” may have affected their responses, since they seemed to perceive birds only in terms of importance rather than use. when asked for an example to state the importance of birds, eating birds was mentioned more; when asked to describe how birds are utilized it became harder to respond, despite the use of our mushere interpreter. it may be that this was a culturally inappropriate way to ask the question, or it may be revealing an even deeper issue: for example, pam et al. 2018. ethnobiology letters 9(2):48–64 55 research communications common name scientific name total recognition score for species (%) males % females % scarlet-chested sunbird chalcomitra senegalensis (linnaeus 1766) 15 32 18 speckled mousebird colius striatus (gmelin 1789) 34 71 46 double-spurred francolin pternistis bicalcaratus (linnaeus 1766) 37 82 59 african grey hornbill lophoceros nasutus (linnaeus 1766) 5 12 5 cinnamon-breasted bunting emberiza tahapisi (smith 1836) 29 71 23 black-crowned tchagra tchagra senegalus (linnaeus 1766) 0 0 0 stone partridge ptilopachus petrosus (gmelin 1789) 10 26 5 hooded vulture necrosyrtes monachus (temminck 1823) 11 21 18 *common barn-owl tyto alba (scopoli 1769) 55 100 96 *purple heron ardea purpurea (linnaeus 1766) 42 77 77 **village indigobird vidua chalybeate (müller 1776) 5 9 14 *laughing dove spilopelia senegalensis (linnaeus 1766) 51 97 86 **bronze mannikin spermestes cucullata (swainson 1837) 1 0 5 *red-billed firefinch lagonosticta senegala (linnaeus 1766) 46 88 77 yellow-fronted canary crithagra mozambica (müller 1776) 23 62 23 *cattle egret bubulcus ibis (linnaeus 1758) 50 97 82 hamerkop scopus umbretta (gmelin 1789) 34 62 59 village weaver ploceus cucullatus (müller 1776) 18 44 14 pied crow corvus albus (müller 1776) 28 59 36 african green-pigeon treron calvus (temminck 1808) 16 44 5 helmeted guineafowl numida meleagris (linnaeus 1758) 3 3 9 *northern red bishop euplectes franciscanus (isert 1789) 42 85 64 table 3 list of birds used in picture elicitation exercise in the order they were presented to respondents and the corresponding recognition scores of boys and girls for each bird species. note: total score per respondent=22, total number of respondents=56. *notice only 6 species stand out in the bird recognition test with more than half of respondents from both groups recognizing them; notice especially how almost all respondents recognize the barn owl (tyto alba) due the negative cultural belief and association **also note how male scores are higher than females’ in all except three major cases: the village indigobird, the bronze mannikin, and the helmeted guneafowl. although in three other cases, scores are similar: purple heron, blackcrowned tchagra, and hammerkop. pam et al. 2018. ethnobiology letters 9(2):48–64 56 research communications that their unique perception of birds does not fit in a domain of cultural usefulness, in the sense that they interpret “useful”. when we asked respondents what birds were kept as pets, only the yellow-fronted canary (crithagra mozambica) was mentioned. it is also the only species regularly traded, although one child mentioned selling a double-spurred francolin (pternistis bicalcaratus). only 18 children (32%) could recall a local bird story (and the same story was repeated all the time about mbul, the dove). no birdrelated folk song was recorded (except the call of mbul, the kukuruk-kukuruk which they all gave as a folk song). this could suggest that birds have never been prominent in the mushere culture and therefore do not feature in their folktales and songs, or that changes in lifestyle have affected the old tradition of story-telling as a method of preserving and transmitting information and knowledge. we believe that a combination of the two causes might be responsible for the observations, since neither could most adults, and especially elders, recall any birdrelated stories, claiming they had forgotten the stories as their grandchildren no longer spend time with them to encourage story telling. as bisin and verdier (2001) hypothesized on the economics of cultural transmission and the dynamics of preference: parents socialize and transmit only preferred cultural traits to their offspring, and birds in this case might not be a preferred domain for the mushere. in addition, religious and cultural worldviews (cosmological worldviews) might be possible contributors to the observed low tek of birds (see houde 2007 for a figure 1 children’s perceived cultural uses of birds. pam et al. 2018. ethnobiology letters 9(2):48–64 57 research communications detailed report on effects of these factors), but as these two factors were not part of the present study we cannot draw conclusions on this. another interesting observation was that certain birds mentioned in the free-lists were not recognized in the picture elicitation task (table 3). while we accept that birds might be hard for children to identify from pictures, we do not think this was the case, as every bird picture was clear, and they showed no signs of difficulty in recognizing from pictures the birds they knew. it could be that the children know the names of certain birds, but cannot identify them in the field. one species in particular, the blackcrowned tchagra (tchagra senegalus) went completely unrecognized by both male and female respondents, an observation similar to that of the adults who only recognized its call but not the bird itself. although it was culturally salient in the adults’ free-lists, it did not feature on children’s free-lists even though some adults had cultural stories associated with the species. the bird is common in mushere, as it appears in every visit in our records of mushere birds. adults also agreed that it is a common farm bird (as its mushere name suggests yokmar: “bird of farm”) mostly recognized by its call and considered a loquacious bird, but since we did not play birdcalls to the children, we could not verify whether they might have recognized it from its call. despite this limited bird knowledge, in response to the question, “are birds important or not figure 2 children's gendered perceptions on why birds are/are not important. pam et al. 2018. ethnobiology letters 9(2):48–64 58 research communications important to you?” 50 (89%) claimed that birds were important, five (9%) thought birds were not important, and one (2%) thought some but not all birds were important. when further asked, “why do you think they are important or not important?” 73% (27 boys, 14 girls) thought birds were important because they serve as food (“we eat them”), 9% (3 boys, 2 girls) claimed birds are important for their aesthetic values (“birds are beautiful, i love their songs”) while 7% (1 boy, 1 girl) mentioned the harmful uses of birds (“they destroy crops, some cause diseases, they are destructive”). further, 2% (1 girl) reported that birds serve as companions (“they are pets”), 7% (3 boys, 1 girl) reported that birds are used for food/money (“we eat them, we sell some”) while 5% (1 boy, 2 girls) did not think birds were important due to anthropocentric reasons (“birds are not human, they have no usefulness”), figure 2. although children may have stated that birds were figure 2 children's gendered perceptions on why birds are/are not important. children’s perceived cultural uses of birds. figure 3 children’s gendered reported sources of tek acquisition/transmission. pam et al. 2018. ethnobiology letters 9(2):48–64 59 research communications important because they were being cooperative to someone with an interest in birds, the responses were varied and we think these responses are interesting because they indicated other perceptions, and especially that some of the children regarded birds in terms of their aesthetic values, not only as food. it is important to state that the free-listing method may have been partly responsible for the low bird naming ability recorded here. it requires that an individual call to mind all the items within a given category of interest spontaneously and out of the normal context in which the species is encountered, so that the likelihood of forgetting many items known to the individual might likely be high. it is important to bear these in mind, therefore, when interpreting the results. how do the children learn about birds? our results revealed that girls learned primarily through vertical and oblique transmission (one or both parents, one or both grandparents) while transmission was more horizontal for boys (older siblings and friends) although a few boys reported learning from their fathers, none reported having learnt about birds from his female relatives or friends (figure 3). these gendered differences in transmission methods were statistically significant (pearson chisquare=32.71, df=7, p-value < 0.001). all the boys we interviewed had catapults, which they use at playtime to hunt for birds, or shoot them for pleasure. hunting birds is therefore a gendered activity, giving boys the advantage of knowing and encountering more birds than do girls. the boys in our sample shared how during such periods they learn about birds, from their older siblings and friends with whom they spend their playtime. by “comparing notes” when they make a catch, they learn about the various birds in their environment. sometimes, however, they take the bird home, where older siblings or fathers help in identifying the birds. the most reported mode of tek acquisition for boys was through oral transmission/practice, 30 (54%), while transmission modes for most girls was through oral/observation, 20 (36%). these reported modes of tek acquisition by boys and girls differed statistically (pearson chisquare=37.41, df=1, p-value < 0.001). girls claimed that they learned mostly from their mothers or grandmothers and sometimes their fathers by observation, especially when a bird comes to the house, or when they are out in the “bush” (referring to the woods) collecting firewood, or farming. they claimed that at such times, they have opportunities to learn from listening as adults converse about a bird or by asking questions when they see one. girls’ learning is therefore more passive than is that of the boys (figure 2). this observation is comparable with the pattern bonta (2013) observed in honduras where hunting is a male domain, and therefore males knew more bird names than did females. girls in his study encountered birds that were common around their homes, gardens, and other places such as rivers where domestic chores take them. they knew fewer bird names than did the males, but had more detailed knowledge of the activities of such birds than did the males who knew nothing about what birds were doing (bonta 2013). is bird knowledge children’s knowledge? overall, children’s bird knowledge was limited. whereas adults knew a little more than bird names from our previous findings (pam et al. in prep), and could give some ecological and behavioral information about a few bird groups or species, children seemed to know nothing about the birds beyond the names. the difference in knowledge between adults and children differed significantly (mann-whitney u=3,236.50, s. e.=436.18, p-value < 0.05). the mean recognition score for girls was 8.23 ± 3.3 sd, while boys had a mean recognition score of 11.32 ± 3.2 sd; boys therefore had significantly higher recognition scores than girls (pearson chisquare=24.59, df=12, p-value < 0.05). further, testing of their free-listing ability showed no significant difference in knowledge between boys and girls (pearson chi-square=14.67, df=8, p-value > 0.05). although it could be argued that adults generally know more than children due to their age and experience, we think that bird knowledge in mushere may not be children’s knowledge. this limited knowledge in children could be because of a general ornithoapatheia (cultural indifference; see mapes et al. 2000; wasson and wasson 1957; peintner et al. 2013, for a similar cultural orientation regarding fungi: mycophilia and mycophobia) observed in adults, whom children invariably rely on for knowledge acquisition, or because of a lack of interest in children themselves to learn about birds and nature, or a combination of both. our ethnographic data lend support to both hypotheses, as elderly mushere respondents often expressed their indifference to birds, and commented pam et al. 2018. ethnobiology letters 9(2):48–64 60 research communications also that children must be willing and interested in birds to want to learn about them. a few adults lamented that the young were less interested in nature these days, but more interested in endeavors that will fetch ready cash, and in schooling. another explanation for the observed limited tek might be through the theoretical framework for ethnobiological classification described by hunn (1999), in relation to the importance of ecological salience, taxonomic salience, and size, but our data do not completely support all these models. ecological salience seemed to play an important role in the naming ability of children, as the two most salient bird groups (estrildidae and columbidae) were also the most frequently encountered birds in our inventory list of the mushere. however, taxonomic salience also seemed to be a factor in children’s naming ability, as they could name most of the twenty salient species, which adults had previously named, though this varied by gender. we do not however have sufficient evidence from our data to prove that size was a major factor in their recognition and naming of birds, as the recognition exercises were based on already identified salient bird groups/ species. our studies of adult mushere knowledge suggest however that size might not be a limiting factor in bird tek here, but that tek of birds might be driven more by a lack of cultural appreciation of birds, probably as a result of religious or cosmological worldviews (e.g., houde 2007). this aspect will require further investigation. children usually learn from adults by adopting the attitudes and values they learn from them (tuan 2012). however, growing up in a rural environment may not necessarily mean that children will automatically learn about nature if adults at home and school do not help them to learn and appreciate it (tuan 2012). it has been shown that knowledge of nature is learned by children in an environment of social and experiential learning; being actively involved in out-door nature activities along with family and friends (chawla 1988; gallios et al. 2015; gaskins 2010; niskac 2013; rogoff et al. 2007; zarger 2010). hunn (2002) showed that learning natural history comes readily to children, particularly when there is reinforcement of what they are learning from older members of their community. the culture of the mushere does not encourage much socialization between children and adults, as children and adults do not normally do much together, and learning mostly takes place in work environments, where birds may not be the objects of attention. similar observations have been reported by timyan (1988) and law (1999), who observed that children in west africa spend most of their day together, away from parents, and it is usually the role of older siblings both to play with, and care for, the younger children. what children will learn, and how they learn it will depend on the cultural and familial relationships that exist, which are also strongly influenced by the local maintenance systems (gallios et al. 2015; whiting and whiting 1975) such as changes in the social, economic, and even biophysical environment from that which their parents experienced. adults in mushere, as elsewhere in the world, are faced with the demands of a global economy and the desire to have their children receive formal education, which is seen as the “ticket” to a brighter and better future. tek may no longer seem useful in such a context. similarly, time spent in nature observing it might seem to be wasted since it is not directly linked to survival and maintenance, and sharing such knowledge with the younger generation might then not be considered worthwhile. this takes us back to the central question: can birds be used to encourage children in biodiversity conservation in mushere? we argue that although there seems to be an indifference towards birds, it is possible to engage the mushere through a birdfocused/nature discourse, as humans naturally have a sense of kinship with nature and children can easily be taught to appreciate nature (tuan 2012). this research forms part of a community-based conservation approach in the conservation efforts at mushere, which include working with the communities to establish a community forest reserve in the dulu-mushere forest. we have started carrying out nature education activities, and sharing the fascinating life of birds with the children. it was a priceless experience watching the reactions of different individuals, both adults and children as they handled binoculars for the first time, and viewed birds through them! this is just one of the many methods we intend to use in the conservation work among the mushere. we believe that a sustained approach in education, and generally presenting a different perspective on birds and the ecosystem services they provide, could help bring about an attitudinal change towards birds and nature generally, in addition to pam et al. 2018. ethnobiology letters 9(2):48–64 61 research communications encouraging an appreciation for the mushere’s own linguistic and cultural connections with nature by providing contextualized nature education materials. in a study comparing attitudes of adults and children towards wildlife in the united states, kellert (1985) found that children had a greater natural tendency to be affectionate and interested in animals than did adults, whose attitudes were more utilitarian. kellert also observed that those children who engaged in bird watching or hunting, or belonged to wildlife clubs, were more predisposed towards, and knowledgeable about, nature than were other children. these results suggest how it is possible for mushere children to improve their present knowledge by building on what they already know, through nature educational activities adapted to reflect the local language, culture, and environment. if a child learns to enjoy nature through birds, this change can then affect others within her or his sphere of influence and potentially the world. as s/he grows up to be a nature-conscious individual, s/he will not only influence biophilia (nature-love) in others, but will treat nature as a gift and a responsibility, and not only as a resource. acknowledgements the authors are grateful to all the mushere children who shared their knowledge and to mr kopmak dickbit nguseng for his assistance in facilitating contacts with schools and parents. we thank also pastor haggai ezekiel kyesyil, our local field assistant and interpreter, for his invaluable assistance. we are grateful to all parents of participants and the participating schools, especially the head teachers and staff of zokret academy, kawel and unity better life college kawel and the cocin church leadership in the study areas for their support. we are grateful to felice wyndham for her invaluable contributions in the early planning of this work. we also thank philip hall of the leventis foundation for supplying binoculars to assist with ornithological work with the children. thanks to eden creation care initiative (ecci) nigeria for support with logistics. finally, we should 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learning the environment. in the anthropology of learning in childhood, edited by d. f. lancy, j. c. bock, and s. gaskins, pp. 341–370. altamira press, walnut creek, ca. ancient ocean crossings: reconsidering the case for contacts with the pre-columbian americas. by stephen c. jett. 2017. the university of alabama press, tuscaloosa. 508 pp. carvajal contreras. 2018. ethnobiology letters 9(2):250–252 250 reviews mechanisms that could explain these similarities. he does, however, consider some ecological and social dynamics to strengthen his case for why similarities occur. the author wants to "destigmatize" the concept of cultural diffusion and allow multiple specialists to discuss and consider the evidence for contact in a more creative way. thus, jett not only proposes the possibility of independent developments, but also hypothesizes that this diffusion is the result of contact between populations. i agree with jett, both in the present and in the past, the transfer of information occurred between different social groups and was an important factor in cultural evolution. however, theorists in archeology and anthropology have highly debated the presence of artifacts and ideas in places that are thought to not have had contact. some of these ideas or objects are intrinsic impulses of human nature that developed in parallel; for others, they are the products of internal social contradictions or due to environmental influences; finally, some scientists believe that these innovations are independent results of human agency (storey and jones 2011). both jett's approach and other approaches to the presence of ideas, artifacts, and other cultural features use a reductionist view to approach the complexity of cultural evolution. my personal view is that human activities and cultural evolution are not only responses to stimuli, but are the satisfaction of biological needs or a search to establish equilibrium. human activities and the transmission of information and therefore culture evolution must be understood as part of stephen jett’s ancient oceans crossings is a complete, simple, and straightforward text that compiles historical and archaeological information about transoceanic contacts between the western and eastern hemispheres before 1492. the book is a first step towards revising several lines of evidence and ideas surrounding sea trips and pre-columbian contacts. this very personal book not only shows the development of stephen jett’s academic life and motivations, but also transforms this author into a generalist social scientist interested in the diverse disciplines of anthropology, history, climatology, genetics, navigation, and several others. the story of his life, partially revealed in this book, led to questions about and academic inquiries into the cultural similarities observed in different human groups across oceans. the author relates his experiences to academic influences in the preface. in the first paragraphs, jett emphasizes, in a modest way, that his purpose is not to review the theory of culture history or return to the notion of diffusion as an explanatory tool. jett approaches the problem of inter-oceanic contacts, using a "forensic" approach where he collects abundant evidence of these interactions, emphasizes navigation capabilities, and reasons for crossing the oceans. however, i believe jett makes hyperdiffusionist theoretical claims and sets out to support a personal belief. he aims to show similarities in traits or cultural characteristics of certain human groups and their subsequent transmission to other cultures made through sea contacts. this disregards other ancient ocean crossings: reconsidering the case for contacts with the pre-columbian americas. by stephen c. jett. 2017. the university of alabama press, tuscaloosa. 508 pp. diana rocío carvajal contreras1* 1facultad de estudios de patrimonio cultural, carrera de arqueología, universidad externado de colombia, bogotá, colombia. *diana.carvajal@uexternado.edu.co received june 27, 2018 open access accepted september 29, 2018 doi 10.14237/ebl.9.2.2018.1352 copyright © 2018 by the author(s) licensee society of ethnobiology. this is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution-noncommercial 4.0 international public license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0), which permits non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. carvajal contreras. 2018. ethnobiology letters 9(2):250–252 251 reviews complex and open dynamic systems. diverse interactions between humans involve adaptation to the environment and over time, human groups are interwoven with others in increasingly complex interactions that imply acceptance or rejection of artifacts, ideas, and technologies in unpredictable ways, which set diverse cultural trajectories (bentley and maschner 2007). in the first section, intellectual obstacles to the notion of early transoceanic contacts, the author reflects on common perceptions about transoceanic contacts between the old and new worlds. these preconceptions are related to the consideration that the pre-columbian human groups did not have the technical skills to navigate or the motivation or the geographic knowledge to carry out long-distance trips. he shows that these ideas originate with contemporary scientists’ and not historical, including christopher columbus’ contemporaries, who imposed not only geographical barriers, but also ideas to human movements in the past. in this first part, jett provides information about how populations might have had knowledge of the ocean currents, weather conditions, how to stay alive while on high seas, and mentions a number of cases of accidental trips overseas. he argues using a transdisciplinary approach with data of the absence or presence of diseases, domestic resources, or technological developments that respond to the inter-oceanic contacts between groups. jett also suggests the acceptance or rejection of such elements in very particular social and historical contexts. moreover, he discusses the reason for the inconsistency of data. on the one hand, the problems of preservation, the nature of the evidence of these contacts, and the silence of the historical record show the discontinuity of the records. on the other, he points out the problems to evaluate the existence or the extent of contacts between human groups of both hemispheres, which is due to lack of a characterization of what objects and practices are diagnostic to identify these exchanges and the implications of those exchanges to understand cultural evolution. in the second part, means: the types and availabilities of watercraft and navigation, his purpose is to counter our "terrestrial" and eurocentric vision of the world by showing us the environmental knowledge required for the construction of boats and navigation skills required to cross the oceans. the author proposes to reevaluate trips such as those undertaken by homo erectus and the pre-norse and columbian journeys. he summarizes different types of boats used in the past—their advantages and technical limitations—strategies for compass and star navigation, and the use of reference points such as the color of seawater and knowledge of atmospheric patterns and animal behaviors. the next section, motives for ocean crossings, systematically evaluates the reasons why human groups chose inter-oceanic trips. this is a problematic topic but the author tries to understand the mentalities of the human groups that were pushed or pulled to make forays into these “liquid territories” by religious, political, social, and natural phenomena. this series of chapters show that in the past and now, global interconnectedness has promoted and accelerated migration. the fourth section, opportunity and exchange, is specifically about the concrete evidence for interoceanic contact. the organized and updated data present the facts of those sea contacts suggesting other times and locations in asia, america, and australia and suggest broad impacts at the cultural level and the translocation of plants and animals. the linguistic, artifactual, biological, pathological, and genetic evidence is used to try to establish differences and similarities present in interactions of human groups in both hemispheres. with multiple lines of evidence from the remains themselves, texts, and iconographic representations, jett encourages readers to check their common sense with the presence of domestic animals, diseases, parasites, cultigens, and hallucinogenic plants on both sides of the atlantic and critically rethink beliefs that human beings were unknown to each other in the past. he pinpoints the recent molecular evidence of group movements and treponematosic diseases, which are evidence of historical relationships between populations on a global scale. no one method for interpreting the past—in this case, inter-oceanic travel—works for all historical cases. for jett, cultural developments are explained by diffusion. for the vast majority of historians and archaeologists, this explanation for the dissemination of knowledge and technology is viewed with caution in the best of cases and seen with skepticism in the case of inter-oceanic contacts before the vikings. it is criticized as a vision of being biased by the notion of cultural evolution (fagan 2006; kehoe 2003; storey and jones 2011). for historians, archaeologists, carvajal contreras. 2018. ethnobiology letters 9(2):250–252 252 reviews geographers, and other scientists, this book allows us to revisit how we understand development and change in human groups and the theoretical frameworks with which we analyze them. in conclusion, this book revisits some questions: is the presence of cultural artifacts in common a result of innovative creation or are they copies of other cultures? do we understand societies as isolated entities or as a network of relationships? how should we include environments in our understanding of cultural change? references cited bentley, r., and h. maschner. 2007. complexity theory. in handbook of archaeological theories, edited by h. bentley, h. maschner, and c. chippendale, pp. 245–270. altamira press, lanham, md. fagan, g. 2006. archaeological fantasies: how pseudoarchaeology misrepresents the past and misleads the public. routledge, london. kehoe, a. 2003. the fringe of american archaeology: transoceanic and transcontinental contacts in prehistoric america. journal of scientific exploration 17:19–36. storey, a., and t. jones. 2011. diffusionism in archaeological theory: the good, the bad, and the ugly. in polynesian in america: pre-columbian contacts with the new world, edited by t. jones, a. storey, e. matisoo smith, and j. ramirez aliaga, pp. 7–24. altamira press, lanham, md. moral ecology of a forest: the nature industry and maya post-conservation. by josé martínez-reyes. 2016. university of arizona press, tucson. 216 pp. anderson. 2017. ethnobiology letters 8(1):142–143 142 reviews perspectives from gene anderson’s bookshelf actual situation, needs, or capabilities. the plan thus fails, and is forgotten. meanwhile, tres reyes continues to exist in substantial poverty. in 2009, the community barred further action by ngos, but cannot stop annoying and erratic interference by mexican government agencies. josé martínez-reyes’ findings are similar to many of those who have worked in nearby communities, including: ueli hostetler (1996), amber o’connor (o’connor and anderson 2017), and myself (anderson 2005; anderson and medina tzuc 2005), among others. hostetler describes the resulting “project fatigue” caused by the pattern mentioned above. having worked over a 25-year period in nearby chunhuhub, i can testify to josé martínez-reyes’ accuracy and insight. he is a first-rate ethnographer with a solid command of languages, previous research, and the field situation. i know tres reyes somewhat, know some of the people martínez-reyes mentions, and followed some of the plans and ngo activities he discusses. occasionally i know some back stories; for instance, he discusses the heavy hand of the amigos de sian ka’an (“friends of the sian ka’an reserve”) as one of the heavy-handed, clueless ngos. i recall that at first this was an idealist local group with sensible ideas, but the local leadership was muscled out by remote bureaucrats, leading to the problems martínez-reyes accurately describes. he provides an excellent and well-organized theoretical framework drawn from literature on ethnoecology, moral economy, moral ecology, and critical studies of conservation. especially useful is “moral ecology” is a term recently coined in parallel with the term “moral economy.” it certainly is the right term for the resource management strategies of the yucatec maya, for whom proper dealings with plants, animals, and the landscape is at the heart of ethical and moral behavior. josé martínez-reyes has worked for many years in the tiny, isolated community of tres reyes, quintana roo, mexico. this community has the bad luck to be situated on the border of the vast sian ka’an nature reserve, a major biosphere reserve and a point of pride for quintana roo. tres reyes depends on milpa agriculture, plant gathering, and hunting, and thus affects the forest next to and even within the reserve. this has put it in the sights of government agencies and ngos who try to prevent or regulate farming, hunting, and other local activities. like other traditional maya, the people of tres reyes have a thoroughly sustainable system, supported by ethical and religious teachings that range from careful fire control when the milpa is burned to taking no more animals than the game herds can spare. ceremonies that have lapsed in more modern communities, such as the ch’a chaak to bring rain and the loj ts’oon to renew hunting luck (which involves minimizing overhunting), still serve to keep tres reyes in balance with its surroundings. all this has meant little to outside agencies, which follow a typical pattern: a project—often good in concept, but poorly planned and implemented—is imposed on the local people. some initial funding is provided, but not maintained. the local people try to adapt, but no one listens to them or attends to their moral ecology of a forest: the nature industry and maya postconservation. by josé martínez-reyes. 2016. university of arizona press, tucson. 216 pp. eugene n. anderson1* 1department of anthropology, university of california riverside, usa. *eugene.anderson@ucr.edu received september 21, 2017 open access accepted september 21, 2017 doi 10.14237/ebl.8.1.2017.1119 copyright © 2017 by the author(s) licensee society of ethnobiology. this is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution-noncommercial 4.0 international public license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0), which permits non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. anderson. 2017. ethnobiology letters 8(1):142–143 143 reviews perspectives from gene anderson’s bookshelf recent latin american thought, such as the work of arturo escobar, enrique leff, and victor toledo, who have described similar situations and theorized the conflict between powerful but ignorant government or nongovernmental groups and less powerful but far more aware people on the land. the critical work of writers like james igoe and dan brockington is also important. martínez-reyes sees much of the problem as “neoliberalism,” but only an attempted land grab by a local millionaire was “neoliberal” in the usual sense of the term (i.e., private enterprise run amok). the rest of the problem is better seen through max weber’s view of bureaucracy: a powerful, impersonal force, taking on a life of its own, often intruding on local agency. james scott’s writings on the dysfunctions of modern states (notably scott 1998) are useful here. ethnobiologists will not only profit from the tight, well-constructed theoretical framework herein, but from the superb descriptions of hunting and milpa making. the future is cloudy. “post-conservation” might well mean no conservation—instead, the progressive destruction of the forest and agricultural system as is happening widely in the yucatan peninsula today. hunting is almost certainly unsustainable now in the tres reyes area, despite ceremonies. the game is thoroughly shot out of most of the yucatan peninsula, and yucatan state has saved its deer only by truly draconian conservation measures. better management will come only when government agencies listen to local people, take them and their knowledge seriously, and invest time on the ground working with communities. such a future is currently unlikely, given the rush to turn all of quintana roo into a macro-cancun. having done research in the area, i am extremely glad to see an excellent ethnography that makes major theoretical contributions as well as practical applications. references cited anderson, e. n. 2005. political ecology of a yucatec maya community. university of arizona press, tucson, az. anderson, e. n., and f. m. tzuc. 2005. animals and the maya in southeast mexico. university of arizona press, tucson, az. hostetler, u. 1996. milpa agriculture and economic diversification: socioeconomic change in a maya peasant society of central quintana roo, 19001990s. doctoral dissertation, university of berne, switzerland. available from university microfilm international dissertation express (umi no. 9701056). o’connor, a., and e. n. anderson. 2017. k’oben: three thousand years of the maya hearth. rowman and littlefield, lanham, md. scott, j. 1998. seeing like a state. yale university press, new haven, ct. eastern sumbanese bird classification and nomenclature: additions and revisions forth. 2016. ethnobiology letters 7(1):45–52 45 data, methods & taxonomies there i made brief trips to rindi, located about 70 km southeast of waingapu, and to the interior district of lewa. on the basis of information collected during this revisit i am now able to fill gaps in the data published in 2000 and to provide corrections to provisional identifications. i also review several general findings regarding the structure and content of eastern sumbanese folk taxonomy of birds. the eastern half of sumba island reveals a high degree of linguistic uniformity and although several dialects can be identified these are mutually intelligible. the kambera dialect is the main dialect of eastern sumbanese. it is therefore used as a lingua franca in other eastern regions and was the dialect employed by both onvlee and kambera in their respective dictionaries and in translations of the new and old testaments, in the production of which both men assisted. although revealing influence from the more distinct dialect of mangili, spoken to the south of rindi, the rindi dialect itself differs only slightly from kambera. rather more distinct from both is the dialect of lewa, a region located some 60 km southwest of waingapu. nevertheless, in this case the in an article published in journal of ethnobiology (forth 2000), i examined the classification of birds found in the eastern region of the indonesian island of sumba. for this purpose, i drew on named categories of birds recorded in dictionaries by kapita (1982) and onvlee (1984), both of whom drew primarily on linguistic and taxonomic data recorded in the 1920s by the dutch zoologist k.w. dammerman. also included was information i myself recorded on sumbanese bird knowledge during ethnographic fieldwork conducted in the district of rindi in 1975–76. although the material reviewed in that article was sufficient to determine the main features of eastern sumbanese bird classification and nomenclature, as i indicated, several lacunae remained both in regards to names for several kinds of birds and international scientific taxa associated with sumbanese names. in june–july and again in august of 2015, i was able to pay further visits to sumba, where i stayed for a total of nearly three weeks, lodging in the traditional settlement of parai liu, located in the kambera district, some two kilometers east of the main port town of waingapu on sumba’s northeast coast. from eastern sumbanese bird classification and nomenclature: additions and revisions gregory forth1* 1department of anthropology, university of alberta, canada. *gforth@ualberta.ca abstract expanding on previously published research into folk classification of birds in the eastern part of the indonesian island of sumba, this article reports new information on bird categories and classification recorded by the author in 2015. new folk taxa are described and identified and scientific identifications for previously reported taxa are added or revised. information on local bird classification from the kambera region is compared with data recorded in the 1970s in the district of rindi, and these are shown to reveal only minor differences. employing berlin’s well-known analytical scheme, the main features of the taxonomy are summarized and totals are enumerated for monotypic and polytypic folk-generics and both named and unnamed (covert) folk-intermediates. additional information is provided concerning symbolic uses of bird categories, including bird names used as place names and local beliefs about nightjars (camprimulgus spp.) which correspond to ideas encountered on the ethnozoologically better-known neighboring island of flores. received december 24, 2015 open access accepted march 18, 2016 doi 10.14237/ebl.7.1.2016.572 keywords bird classification, folk taxonomic analysis, bird names, sumba island, eastern indonesia copyright © 2016 forth; licensee society of ethnobiology. this is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attributionnoncommercial 4.0 international public license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0), which permits non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. forth. 2016. ethnobiology letters 7(1):45–52 46 data, methods & taxonomies differences are not great and in general the naming and classification of birds found in kambera, rindi, and lewa is broadly similar. what differences exist are noted below. in each location, information on birds was derived from ethnographic conversations with individuals and small groups. more directive questions concerning particular birds and bird names were put to 14 men and one woman mostly selected opportunistically—seven from kambera; five from rindi, and three from lewa. of the total, three informants (including the woman) were 65 or older; six were between 55 and 64; three were between 45 and 50; and the remaining three were in their thirties. in kambera most information was provided by a man aged 67 years, locally regarded as especially knowledgeable about birds. all informants were fluent in local dialects of eastern sumbanese as well as in the indonesian national language (bahasa indonesia). all had received some schooling, mostly at the primary level, while most younger informants had attended secondary school. as might be expected, older informants were more knowledgeable about indigenous categories. questioning was conducted in a combination of bahasa indonesia and eastern sumbanese, in which i gained fluency during my doctoral fieldwork conducted from january 1975 to december 1976. newly recorded and revised folk-generics new named categories and identifications recorded in 2015 are listed below in alphabetical order: ahu ramuku, egret egretta spp., bubulcus ibis. kambera informants described the bird as resembling herons (nggokaria) and occurring mostly in wet rice fields, but being smaller than herons and having white plumage. the name translates as “pool, pond dog” (ahu, dog; ramuku also refers to a buffalo wallow) and is reminiscent of ahu omangu (‘forest dog’), a euphemism used for monkeys when speaking of the primates in the presence of pregnant women. there is no indication that ahu ramuku is a subordinate taxon subsumed in nggokaria, otherwise denoting larger kinds of herons. nggokaria are recognized as varying in size and color of plumage but the birds thus designated were nevertheless described as composing a single “kind” (indonesian jenis). kapita (1982) and onvlee (1984) both list ahu ramuku as a term for ‘sandpiper’ in mangili (kapita’s native district in southeastern sumba). kambera informants, however, contradicted this identification. nor had anyone heard pipi, the term both onvlee and kapita give for “sandpiper,” used as the name of a bird, and i was able to confirm that the sole term for sandpipers in kambera was kahuhu (forth 2000). while on the topic of water birds, it may also be noted that australian pelicans pelecanus conspicillatus, which are irregular visitors on sumba (coates and bishop 1997:233), are known only as pelikan, the indonesian variant of the english name. kapiru, bee-eater merops spp: blue-tailed bee-eater m. superciliosis or rainbow bee-eater m. ornatus, two similar species both common on sumba. the name was given by informants in reference to a bee-eater observed near parai liu in august 2015. kambera people described kapiru as colorful birds with a long thin bill and a “spine” in the centre of the tail; as occurring most often near bodies of water (including the nearby kambaniru river); and as digging holes in earthen banks in order to nest—all features that accurately characterize bee-eaters. as noted in forth (2000), kapita identifies kapiru as a pitta—small, round, short-tailed and relatively long-legged colorful birds of the family pittidae—presumably referring to the elegant pitta pitta elegans, the only species recorded for sumba (coates and bishop 1997). that onvlee also understood kapiru as referring to a pitta is clear from the fact that his dutch gloss, “grondlijster” (literally “ground thrush”), is an (older) dutch term for pittas (olivier 1931). there is, however, no indication that sumbanese regularly apply the term to pittas as well as to bee-eaters. not only are the two birds morphologically and behaviorally very different, but a photograph of a pitta shown to parai liu informants was not recognized as resembling any local bird, nor did my description of the distinct form of pittas elicit any response. pittas, moreover, are shy and secretive birds that inhabit forest floors (coates and bishop 1997:390), and they are therefore likely to go unnoticed by most sumbanese. mabihi (kambera; in lewa mabihu) a small rail (rallidae), probably the white-browed crake poliolimnas (amaurornis) cinerea. although this name is listed in forth (2000), it is not identified. kambera informants described mabihi as a water bird often found in paddy fields. according to a more detailed description, the plumage is mostly gray or light brown, possibly with some darker brown; the legs are long; and the bill is quite long. sometimes but not invariably the leg color is yellow. the birds build nests in reeds forth. 2016. ethnobiology letters 7(1):45–52 47 data, methods & taxonomies or grass in or near rice fields where they lay four to six eggs. sumbanese hunt the birds by catching them at night with kerosene lamps, the light of which transfixes the birds so they can easily be killed with a stick or club. the name mabihi appears to comprise ma-, the relative pronoun (that, which, that which), and bihi, denoting a sucking sound made with the lips (onvlee 1984), a descriptive label consistent with vocalizations recorded by coates and bishop (1997) for the whitebrowed crake poliolimnas cinerea and other rails. informants contrasted mabihi to two larger members of the rallidae, both frequently found in or near water: kulu kawaki (given by onvlee as the red-legged crake rallina fasciata) and yàpi (see forth 2000). kambera informants described yàpi, denoting a moorhen gallinula tenobrosa or g. chloropus, as much larger birds than mabihi and with “dark” or “black” plumage. mànja wai, nightjar (kambera and lewa; cf. rindi panyonga makaweda), probably most often referring to the savannah nightjar camprimulgus affinis. responding to my descriptions of this morphologically and behaviorally very distinctive bird, kambera informants compared the bird’s appearance to that of an owl and further described nightjars as birds encountered only at twilight or after dark, when they can be seen either in flight or sitting on the ground (including on asphalt roads). one man related how mànja wai will alight on the ground “like a bird dropping dead or injured from the sky” but when one approaches the bird, it will immediately take off, thus making the species extremely difficult to catch. similar accounts of nightjars quickly taking flight when approached were recorded in lewa and also in rindi, where a different name for the bird refers specifically to this behaviour (see below). all of the foregoing corresponds to the appearance and behaviour of nightjars. kambera informants further described the bird as typically occurring in “cool or cold places,” a description which apparently refers to the fact that sumbanese encounter nightjars at night and usually in flat, open areas including savannahs and bare ground far from vegetation and exposed to winds. the characterization may also be reflected in the name. mànja can be interpreted as a contraction of mànjaku or mànjalu, both meaning “cool,” whereas wai is “water.” although no one i asked knew what mànja wai ate or where they go in the daytime, in fact nightjars feed on flying insects, many of why occur over bodies of water. however, the birds are by no means always found near water, and it is possible that, in this context, wai has some other sense or derivation. referring to their appearance only at night and lack of evidence regarding their diet or daylight habits, one man described nightjars as strange creatures, even comparing them to spirits and speculating that, at sunrise, the birds might transform into some other creature. probably adding to their mystery is the local idea that nightjars are legless. two men spontaneously reported this feature, though immediately afterwards both qualified it by stating that the bird does have legs but that these are extremely small. this representation is of comparative interest as it is also encountered among the nage people of flores, the large island located to the north of sumba, where people similarly alternate between describing nightjars as legless and as birds possessing very small legs (forth 2004). the nightjar is also called mànja wai in the district of lewa, where people claimed that the birds are able to see thieves and that the noctural cry of a nightjar indicates that thieves are abroad. interestingly, the same symbolic significance was attached to the nightjar’s cry by sumbanese questioned in 1999 in kupang (timor) who gave the bird’s name as landu witu (forth 2000). this term, however, was unknown to everyone i questioned in 2015, so its status remains uncertain. responding to my descriptions of the bird, people in rindi identified the nightjar as panyonga makaweda, thus correcting a provisional identification of the name as referring to a kind of bat. confirming my translation of the name as “fools elderly people” (forth 2000), rindi informants explained the name as referring to the characteristic behavior of nightjars encountered in the evening: anyone seeing a specimen resting on the ground might think it is dead or injured, but when a person approaches more closely the bird immediately takes flight, thus “fooling” the observer. why it should be old people who are specified in the nightjar’s name, however, no one could say. informants confirmed that nightjars are not classified as bats (panii), even though sumbanese classify both as “birds” (mahawurungu) and recognize both as creatures that are exclusively active at night. folk-intermediates mostly from information recorded in rindi, i previously identified several folk-intermediate taxa (sensu forth. 2016. ethnobiology letters 7(1):45–52 48 data, methods & taxonomies berlin 1992) each incorporating a number of bird generics (forth 2000). these can now be reviewed. diurnal raptors. like rindi people questioned in the 1970s, kambera informants described ikitu as a general category subsuming the following individually -named diurnal raptors (hawks, eagles, or falcons): 1) ikitu barangguku (“white-throated ikitu”), the brahminy kite haliastur indus (cf. rindi ikitu marakuku, forth 2000). 2) mbaku, identified as ikitu which live near the sea and catch fish. however, one informant distinguished between mbaku tehiku (“sea mbaku”) and mbaku, the first term then specifying the whitebellied sea eagle haliaetus leucogaster and the osprey pandion haliaetus—both identified from photographs. if this distinction is made consistently, mbaku alone should then apply to eagles or other large raptors which occur only inland. the same distinction was recorded in rindi in the 1970s (forth 2000:177) although there mbaku tehiku was identified only with h. leucogaster. 3) tariku, identified as a falcon that flies extremely fast and appears as it were out of nowhere to take chickens (unlike larger raptors whose attacks, informants said, can be anticipated). the further specification that tariku will sometimes just ‘cut off the head’ of domestic fowls recalls the nage (central flores) idea that the falcon they name bele teka, “sharp wing,” uses its wing like a sickle to decapitate fowls (forth 2016). 4) kapàha, a small falcon, described in parai liu as hovering, and eating small chickens and grasshoppers, a characterization that would confirm the bird’s earlier identification as the moluccan kestrel falco moluccensis (forth 2000:174). while onvlee (1984) lists kola as an otherwise unidentified small raptor, sumbanese questioned in kupang, in 1999, described the bird as a raptor almost as large as an eagle (forth 2000:188). all i learnt in kambera was that kola is not a local bird name but a term employed in the interior district of mahu for large raptors which kambera speakers call ikitu. consistent with this, i have never recorded kola (also glossed by onvlee as ‘speckled, flecked’) as a bird name in rindi. information recorded in kambera supports my earlier, provisional interpretation of kuu as denoting the black-winged kite elanus caeruleus hypoleucos (forth 2000:175) but i am unable to confirm this identification. parrots. kambera informants identified the psittaciformes labeled kaka (yellow-crested cockatoo cacatus sulphurea), kàriku (eclectus parrot eclectus roratus), katàla (great-billed parrot tanygnatltus megalorynchos) and pirihu (rainbow lorikeet trichoglossus haematodus) as all belonging to a “single group” (satu kelompok, indonesian). the way in which this was initially revealed is worth elaborating. translating kàriku with indonesian burung nuri (parrot), one man quickly qualified this by stating that there are two kinds (of kàriku): kàriku and pirihu, of which kàriku was the larger. later, he described both katàla and kaka as also forming a single group with kàriku and pirihu. (no one was familiar with a fifth category, wowangu, denoting the red-cheeked parrot geoffroyus geoffroyi; see forth 2000). as kambera informants pointed out, all these birds were trapped in former times because all could be trained to talk. a visual expression of the standard pairing of pirihu (rainbow lorikeet), and kaka (yellowcrested cockatoo) in sumbanese ritual speech is shown in figure 1. in my earlier study i stated that the five named parrot categories recorded for eastern sumbanese (here including wowangu) “do not compose a distinct intermediate grouping—or at least not one that is named” (forth 2000:173). information from kambera mostly qualifies this statement: they do compose a recognized folk-intermediate taxon albeit one which, like many folk-intermediates, is covert. larger columbiformes. in forth (2000) i described larger columbiformes as composing a single intermediate taxon named rawa, a term which also polysemously designates a member specified as rawa kamukumu, the green imperial pigeon ducula anea. composing a total of six, all names distinguishing kinds of rawa similarly comprise rawa plus a modifier, but how many taxa these distinguish remains unclear in view of the treatment of some as synonyms of others (forth 2000:178-79). this may suggest that rawa in the most inclusive sense could alternatively be interpreted as a polytpic folk generic incorporating a number of named folk-specifics. however, in view of the rindi representation of the imperial pigeon as a bird quite distinct from other rawa, and because this species and other large columbiformes (e.g. rawa tana, the emerald ground-dove) possess quite different symbolic and metaphorical profiles, it seems reasonable to treat the several rawa—or some of them at least—as distinct folk-generics (see also forth 2012 regarding dhéke [rat, mouse] as a named intermediate among the nage of central flores). forth. 2016. ethnobiology letters 7(1):45–52 49 data, methods & taxonomies information on larger columbiformes recorded in kambera in 2015 is comparable to what i recorded in rindi in 2000, although two rindi names (rawa ratu and rawa kakoruku) were not recognized by kambera informants. binomials of rawa given by kambera informants included rawa nggawi, an obvious variant of rindi rawa kawi which previously seemed unique to rindi (forth 2000:178) and which may refer to the endemic sumba green pigeon treron teysmannii. all this is consistent with the status of rindi speech as a variant of kambera, in which regard it is noteworthy that, in both cases, speakers are often aware of differences in regional usage. while expressing doubt as to its veracity, one man mentioned the indigenous idea that rawa kamukumu, the green imperial pigeon ducula aenea, is unable to alight on the ground as it would die it did so. the same idea applies to the imperial pigeon in the keo region of south-central flores (where this bird is also named rawa). by contrast, among the nage, who reside immediately to the north of keo, inability to alight on the ground is attributed to the asian paradise-flycatcher terpsiphone paradisi, specifically in opposition to the brown quail coturnix ypsilophora, which is described as unable to perch in trees. confirming forth (2000:168), none of the information recorded in kambera suggested that smaller doves labeled mbàra (see below) are included in the grouping labeled rawa. thus, insofar as rawa denotes a polytypic folk-taxon—either a folk-intermediate or folk-generic—this obviously does not include all columbiformes known to the eastern sumbanese, and since all pigeons and doves are, for example, killed and eaten, there appear to be no cultural criteria which, in addition to size, could explain the classificatory separation of larger and smaller kinds (rawa and mbàra). bats. contrary to an earlier suggestion that bats may compose a “possible intermediate” (forth 2000:171), with panii designating both flying foxes (pteropus spp.) and a larger class additionally including smaller species, information from kambera tends to confirm my alternative interpretation of panii as labeling a single folk-generic subsuming all bats. responding to questions, a kambera informant described panii ru kaluu (meaning “banana leaf bat”) as simply denoting immature specimens of larger bats; the term, however, more likely refers to microchiropterans that frequent banana trunks, thereby distinguishing a folk-specific subsumed in panii interpreted as a folk-generic (see onvlee 1984; also the rindi contrast of panii bokulu and panii kudu, terms which simply mean “large bat” and “small bat,” forth 2000:180). according to the same informant, panii palinju wiki (“bat that fouls itself”), another phrase recorded by onvlee, refers simply to a general habit of bats, as they normally rest hanging upside down and so regularly urinate (palinju) on themselves. if this is correct, then rather the name of a taxon, the expression is probably a metaphor which refers to certain kinds of human behaviour. since the primary referent of pahomba, another term given in rindi for a kind of small bat (forth 2000:180), is in fact a kind of spirit, i am now inclined to understand its earlier reported application to bats as a reference to small chiropterans as animal forms these spirits can assume, rather than as a name for a distinct bat ethnotaxon. as noted above, panyonga makaweda, a term not known in kambera, actually refers in rindi not to a bat but to the nightjar. another correction concerns an earlier suggestion that the name panii (or paní in onvlee’s transcription), also the word for “to speak, talk,” designates bats by reference to the chattering vocalization of flying foxes (forth 2000:180). as a reference to bats, panii reflects pmp *paniki, “flying fox” (blust 2002:107), and as shown by distinct cognates of panii as the term for “bat” and in the sense of “to speak” in western sumbanese languages, the two senses evidently reflect figure 1 plaque in front of the offices of the regency of sumba timur (east sumba) showing cockatoos (kaka) on the left and lorikeets (pirihu) on the right. beneath the bird figures are written the complementary phrases kaka makanguhuru//pirihu pauli which in formal speech refer to large groups of people gathered together to prosecute an important undertaking (g. forth). forth. 2016. ethnobiology letters 7(1):45–52 50 data, methods & taxonomies different protoforms. furthermore, in the sense of “to speak” eastern sumbanese panii is apparently constructed of a root (ni) plus the commonly fused prefix pa(cf. klamer 2009:254). polytypic generics and folk-specifics although the subject of polytypic generics (folkgenerics comprising two or more folk-specifics, sensu berlin 1992) was not addressed in forth (2000), the earlier evidence revealed three instances: mbàra, ‘small dove’, comprising two named specifics (mbàra manu and mbàra nggela), mbaku, “eagle, large hawk,” insofar as the category admits a distinction of mbaku tehiku and at least one other kind of mbaku, and rendi (‘duck’), comprising at least two specifics. as discussed above, rawa (pigeon, larger dove) can now be understood as another instance of a polytypic generic, as can panii (bat). as mentioned in forth (2000:174), people in rindi stated there were two unnamed kinds of terns (sterninae), karata, while a sumbanese informant interviewed in 1999 in kupang similarly described a “pure white” kind of tern, which is found near inland waters, and a cream-colored kind “with dark marks on the back of the head” which occurs in coastal regions. how exactly these may align with the several species of terns occurring on sumba i am unable to determinate. nevertheless, karata, can be provisionally interpreted as another polytypic generic, albeit one comprising two covert (unnamed) folkspecifics. information recorded in kambera in 2015 revealed five additional polytypic folk-generics. these include: 1) kahiku (kingfisher), subsuming two kinds: kahiku luku, “river kahiku,” typically found near rivers or other bodies of water, and other kingfishers, simply called kahiku. here, then, we have another instance of the common polysemy whereby a single term labels both a more inclusive generic and a folk-specific. as kahiku luku was described as having a red bill, the name may specifically refer to the stork-billed kingfisher halcyon capensis, whereas the usual referent of kahiku (without qualification) is most likely the collared kingfisher halcyon chloris, whose bill is mostly dark-gray. the nominal distinction is comparable to the nage (central flores) contrast of fega ae (“water, river kingfisher,” h. capensis) and fega wolo (“hill, dry land kingfisher”), the second term usually denoting the white-rumped kingfisher caridonax fulgidus, another species with a red bill (forth 2004). 2) powa (quail). kambera informants mentioned two kinds of powa, a larger sort named powa manu and a smaller called powa ndau. here, we find another use of manu, “chicken, domestic fowl” gallus gallus, to distinguish the larger or largest of two or more kinds. examples recorded in forth (2000) include rawa manu, mbàra manu, and rendi manu, labeling respectively larger kinds of pigeons, doves, and ducks. i was unable to establish a relevant sense for the contrasting modifier ndau, in powa ndau. onvlee’s gloss “(covered in) mould, fungus” (1984) suggests it could refer to plumage, but then the term would have to be construed, according to onvlee’s transcription, not as ndau but nda’u. 3) wàngi (owl). in forth (2000) wàngi is identified, following onvlee, as specifically denoting the barn owl tyto alba. according to kambera informants, however, it applies to two distinct kinds of owls, including one with striped or mottled plumage, but neither sort is distinguished by name. here, then, we apparently encounter another instance of covert folk-specifics, and since coates and bishop (1997) list only three confirmed species of owls for sumba—two belonging to the tytonidae (barn owls) and one to the strigidae (the sumba boobook ninox rudolfi, an island endemic)—the two covert taxa very likely correspond respectively to members of these two owl families. 4) kaka (yellow-crested cockatoo cacatua sulphurea citrinocristata; the endemic sumbanese subspecies is also known as the citron-crested cockatoo). kambera people speak of two sorts of cockatoos: kaka and kaka ratu (ratu denotes an indigenous religious or ritual leader). kaka ratu was described as a cockatoo which a long crest which can be either orange or pink. on the other hand, onvlee (1984), says the binomial refers to a cockatoo with red eyes. either way, as there is only one species of cockatoo on sumba, and moreover just one subspecies (coates and bishop 1997), kaka and kaka ratu cannot distinguish different ornithological taxa, and since red eyes are specific to females (at least in some subspecies of cacatua sulphurea; www.parrots.org/encyclopedia/yellow-crestedcocackatoo, site accessed 16 december 2015), the partly distinct names may, as onvlee’s description would suggest, instead reflect sexual differences, forth. 2016. ethnobiology letters 7(1):45–52 51 data, methods & taxonomies thereby constituting an instance of “overdifferentiation” in folk biological taxonomy. 5) kàriku (eclectus parrot eclectus roratus cornelia). forth (2000) describes rindi people as recognizing kàriku muru and kàriku rara (‘green’ and ‘red’ kàriku) as respectively males and females of a single species. while eclectus males and females are indeed respectively green and red, kambera informants interpreted the terms as labeling two distinct taxa, each including both males and females, and thus confirming dammerman’s report (1926a:213-14) on sumbanese bird classification. in that case, the categories reveal another instance of over-differentiation, comparable to that suggested by the contrast of kaka and kaka ratu. miscellaneous addenda manginu labels a folk-intermediate comprising a large number of small passerine birds, some further distinguished by name (forth 2000). at present, the most common kind found in the kambera region, including the town of waingapu, is apparently the tree sparrow (passer montanus). these ubiquitous birds, which throughout indonesia occupy the same ecological niche as do house sparrows (passer domesticus) in europe and north america, arrived on sumba in 1949 (coates and bishop 1987:494). i do not recall seeing any during my two-year sojourn in 1975–76 (hence they are not mentioned in forth 2000) nor is their presence reflected in onvlee’s or kapita’s dictionaries. during my recent stay in parai liu (kambera) i often observed specimens of the great tit (parus major), a bird not mentioned in forth (2000). the birds are noticeably smaller and less colorful than european or japanese conspecifics. while tree sparrows can be distinguished as manginu kani (forth 2000:177), so far as i could discover great tits are known only as manginu. the name toturu laka, given by onvlee (following dammerman 1926) for the lesser coucal (centropus bengalensis), was not recognized in kambera. curiously, the only name i recorded for the coucal in 2015, offered by just one informant, was kutuku, which by all other accounts denotes another large dark cuckoo, the australian koel eudynamis everetti. as another name listed for the coucal in forth (2000) is the nearly identical tutuku, ‘kutuku’ in this context is probably a simple error. the informant, however, remarked how certain of the bird’s vocalizations were produced with the anus, an idea previously recorded for the coucal on sumba (forth 2000) as well as among the nage of flores (forth 2004), thus indicating that the reference was this bird rather than the koel. as indicated above, karata, terns (sterninae), occur not only in coastal areas of sumba but also near inland bodies of water. the settlement which now forms the administrative centre of the modern regency (kabupaten) of lewa—a region of lakes, ponds, and paddy fields located in sumba’s interior plateau—is called pameti karata, “death of the terns,” taking its name from a reputedly historical incident in which a flock of terns, flying overhead, suddenly died and fell to the earth. the well-known tale relates no more than this, and i heard no reason—mystical or otherwise—for the birds’ sudden demise. this is one of the few instances in which birds lend their names to places in eastern sumba; other examples, both designating uninhabited locations, include hibu kaka (“cockatoo’s nest[s]”) and hibu mbaku (“eagle’s nest”). among the numerous named patrilineal clans that populate the region, i have only ever come across one which takes its name from a bird. this is wàngi rara (“red owl”), a binomial which, it should be noted, does not definitely designate either of the covert owl folkspecifics mentioned above. summary and conclusions additional data recorded in 2015 do not significantly affect the outline of eastern sumbanese folk taxonomy published in forth (2000). recent field information affirms ikitu (diurnal raptors), manginu (small passerines), and rawa (larger columbiformes) as named intermediates while revealing an additional, unnamed (covert) intermediate: “parrots.” including panii (bat, now interpreted as a generic rather than an intermediate taxon) as well as three recently identified instances (kahiku, kingfisher; powa, quail; and wàngi, owl), polytypic folk-generics now number ten. of these, kaka and kàriku (each comprising two folkspecifics, kaka and kaka ratu and kàriku rara and kàriku muru) are further included in the unnamed ‘parrot’ intermediate. consistent with this taxonomic elaboration is the prominent occurrence of various parrot generics in eastern sumbanese symbolic genres, more particularly in myth and parallelistic ritual language (forth 2000:181-84; see also figure 1 above) —a point lending support to a view of folkintermediates as often reflecting ‘cultural’ associations (e.g. atran 1983). forth. 2016. ethnobiology letters 7(1):45–52 52 data, methods & taxonomies a review of 56 eastern sumbanese bird names recorded in forth (2000) suggests that 50 denote folkgenerics. to these may now be added the two new generics (denoting egrets and nightjars) recorded in 2015, as well as the single bat generic, panii, thus bringing the total to 53. of these, ten, or 18.87%, are interpretable as polytypic folk-generics. the figure for the nage of central flores is nine out of 68 bird generics, or 13%. new data brings the number of sumbanese bird folk-intermediates to four, of which three are named. the comparable nage figure is six, which includes three named and three unnamed intermediates (forth 2016:167). in both respects, therefore, eastern sumbanese bird taxonomy is quite comparable to what is found among the more thoroughly researched nage. acknowledgements i am grateful for the assistance of numerous people during my 2015 visit to sumba, but especially to domu hunggurama (aka boku lewa), umbu angga, and umbu mana, his wife sarah hobgen, and their extended family, who provided accommodation and hospitality in parai liu. special thanks are also owed to drs. bernardus retang wohangara, a native of the village of lambanapu, who supported my visa application and put me in touch with several prospective informants. declarations permissions: none declared. sources of funding: social sciences and humanities research council insight grant (2013-2017). conflicts of interest: none declared. references cited atran, s. 1983. covert fragmenta and the origin of the biological family. man 18:51–71. berlin, b. 1992 ethnobiological classification: principles of categorization of plants and animals in traditional societies. princeton university press, princeton, nj. blust, r. 2002. the history of faunal terms in austronesian languages. oceanic linguistics 41:89– 139. coates, b. j., and k. d. bishop. 1997. a guide to the birds of wallacea: sulawesi, the moluccas and lesser sunda islands. dove publications, alderley, australia. dammerman, k. w. 1926. soembaneesche dieren en plantennamen. tijdschrift voor indische taal-, land en volkenkunde 66:205–239. forth, g. 2000. eastern sumbanese bird classification. journal of ethnobiology 20:161–192. forth, g. 2004. nage birds: classification and symbolism among an eastern indonesian people. routledge, new york, ny. forth, g. 2016. why the porcupine is not a bird: explorations in the folk zoology of an eastern indonesian people. university of toronto press, toronto, canada. kapita, o. h. 1982. kamus sumba/kambera-indonesia. percetakan arnoldus, ende, indonesia. klamer, m. 2009. the use of language data in comparative research: a note on blust (2008) and onvlee (1984). oceanic linguistics 48:250–263. olivier, j. 1931. inheemsche taxonomie. de tropische natuur 20:1–4. onvlee, l. 1984. kamberaas (oost-soembaas)-nederlands woordenboek. foris publications, dordrecht, holland. evolutionary ethnobiology. edited by ulysses paulino albuquerque, patricia muniz de medeiros, and alejandro casas. 2015. springer international publishing, cham. 197 pp. pierotti. 2018. ethnobiology letters 9(2):266–268 266 reviews individuals and cannot be passed or exchanged among individuals. this issue should be important in a book that deals with evolutionary aspects of ethnobiology; however, it is barely addressed, perhaps because many references concerning basic evolutionary ideas are basic evolution texts. little original research in evolutionary biology is cited, suggesting that many authors are not really conversant with modern approaches to evolution. this issue is particularly apparent with co-editor alejandro casas as lead author in chapter 3, evolution of humans and by humans, which is primarily a basic review of human evolution of little relevance to ethnobiology. numerous grammatical errors in this and the following chapter impede appreciation of the material presented, e.g., in chapter 3, we read, “but in addition, it has been discussed evidence of bones apparently scratched (?) by tools associated to australopithecus” (p. 23, emphasis added). we are later told that, “humans select species desirable and undesirable within the system and act in consequence let standing or removing them, respectively” (p. 27). the term ‘fire’ is used where the word ‘burn’ is correct, e.g. “people used to fire recurrently forest i am an evolutionary biologist who turned to ethnobiology over 20 years ago, so it was with considerable excitement that i initially received this book on evolutionary ethnobiology. this book is promoted by springer as “the first comprehensive book about evolutionary ethnobiology written in english;” the accuracy of this statement depends on how one defines ‘evolutionary’ in an ethnobiological context, especially if biological and cultural evolution are conflated to the degree that they are in this book. one area where this conflation becomes problematic is in the use of the term ‘adaptation,’ which has different meanings in the two domains. in biological evolution, adaptations are typically considered to be morphological or physiological and result from interaction between an organism’s genome and environment. in cultural terms, however, adaptations are almost exclusively behavioral in nature. in both cases, the adaptive feature should allow the organisms with the trait to have greater rates of survival and/or reproduction. in cultural evolution, the adaptation resides not in an individual organism, but in a community, involving potential group selection, creating a conceptual conflict: in biological evolution adaptations are attributes of evolutionary ethnobiology. edited by ulysses paulino albuquerque, patricia muniz de medeiros, and alejandro casas. 2015. springer international publishing, cham. 197 pp. editor's (felice wyndham) note of correction (august 2021): after publication of the above review, it was brought to our attention that aspects of the framing of the review were found to be objectionable. we have subsequently edited the review to omit the final section which referenced the editors/ authors regional affiliations or possible cultural aspects of scholarship. in particular, the term “scholars of color” was noted as unwelcome in a latin american context. as editor i should have caught this as a north-americanist framing that doesn’t translate well, for which i apologize. i thank both the review author and the volume authors for bringing this issue into a wider conversation that we can all learn from (see albuquerque et al.’s reply and pierotti’s response, as well as the editorial in vol 12 no 1: https://doi.org/10.14237/ ebl.12.1.2021). raymond pierotti1* 1department of ecology and evolutionary biology, university of kansas, lawrence, usa. *pierotti@ku.edu received august 16, 2018 open access accepted october 5, 2018 doi 10.14237/ebl.9.2.2018.1381 copyright © 2018 by the author(s) licensee society of ethnobiology. this is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution-noncommercial 4.0 international public license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0), which permits non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. https://doi.org/10.14237/ebl.12.1.2021 https://doi.org/10.14237/ebl.12.1.2021 pierotti. 2018. ethnobiology letters 9(2):266–268 267 reviews areas” (p. 28). i do not like criticizing writers whose first language is not english; however, i found the lack of grammatical editing unacceptable in a book priced at over $100. i do not really blame the authors, but i am surprised at the lack of basic editing and proofreading, which leaves the authors looking less capable than they surely are. publishers need to edit and proofread, especially when marketing expensive books. poor editing is also problematic in chapter 4, evolutionary ecology and ethnobiology, which could be the core chapter of the book. no major works on evolutionary ecology are cited, only evolution textbooks. grammatical errors continue as they refer to “vomiting” plants, rather than “vomit-inducing” (p. 39 and table 4.1). these errors mean that the reader must often stop and reread sentences to figure out meanings, e.g., we are told that “…achievements (of the green revolution) have been polemic and motive of extensive discussion” (p. 53, emphasis added). another topic of major interest that goes unexamined in this book is the potential for cultural transmission between nonhumans and humans, in which humans observe and copy the dietary or medicinal preferences of other animals. this issue should have been included in the discussion of influences of the environment on natural resource use (chapter 10), criteria for medicinal plant selection (chapter 11), use patterns of medicinal plants (chapter 12), and biological and cultural bases of medicinal and food plants (chapter 13). instead, this book concentrates solely on human examples and potential impacts on human evolution, which are often vague and confusing. failure to include non-human animal examples limits the usefulness of this volume. using only plant examples precludes consideration of evolutionary or cultural interactions between humans and other animals. there is no discussion of the roles of hunting or observation in food acquisition and the various authors appear to assume that humans interact almost exclusively with nonmotile lifeforms. for example, in chapter 13, when discussing human digestive enzymes, we read, “these enzymes played an important role in human adaptation to the chemical environment to which the first hominids were exposed” (p. 179). this leaves the impression that the first hominids were created in situ and had not been evolving for millennia as did other primates—an odd image to present in a book purporting to deal with evolution. it is well established that chimpanzees (pan paniscus and pan troglodytes), among numerous other species, can self-medicate (deroode et al. 2013; huffman 1997; shurkin 2014). several united states tribes indicate that they learn about which plants to use for food or medicine from bears: “in many tribal traditions the bear is recognized as the ‘plant gatherer,’ bestower of the secrets and mysteries of plants” (bruchac 2003; rockwell 1991:6); particularly relevant to the question of how humans made decisions about which plant species to use (pierotti 2011). in addition, there is evidence from indigenous peoples around the world that they learned a wide range of skills, including hunting, from wolves (canis lupus) (pierotti and fogg 2017). as a result, discussing how plant knowledge is acquired as involving only humans (or hominids) themselves seems to be a less than complete approach to this complex topic. several chapters warrant serious consideration. in particular, chapter 5 on evolutionary approaches to ethnobiology does an admirable job of explaining how modern phylogenetic approaches can be used to assess data from ethnobiological studies by comparing use patterns of plants among cultures in relation to the evolutionary relationships among the plants themselves. this chapter emphasizes the importance of using approaches from several disciplines to generate novel and unexpected insights. chapter 6 addresses the use of niche construction theory (nct) (odling-smee et al. 2003) to look at relationships among species, including humans. nct is based on the discovery that species in ecosystems often modify ecosystem functions in ways that impact the use patterns of other species (e.g., beavers). ironically, this chapter again focuses solely on humans, even though the concepts behind nct were developed using non-humans. other issues discussed at some length are the relationships and patterns of use between food and medicinal plants (chapters 10–14). it is argued that medicinal uses probably emerged from plants first used as food, but this seems to ignore the distinction between preventive medicine and treatment of illness or injury. it seems likely that nearly all plant foods are used for purposes of health, although some may only be used to treat ailments. the authors argue that fruits are examples of plant foods not used for medicinal purposes, disregarding the vitamins and anti-oxidizing agents found in many fruits. pierotti. 2018. ethnobiology letters 9(2):266–268 268 reviews i have not identified specific authors in most comments, as these chapters predominantly have numerous co-authors, averaging more than five authors on twelve of fourteen chapters, rendering it difficult to associate specific ideas with any individual. the editors are among the multiple co-authors, with lead editor albuquerque co-authoring ten chapters and second editor medeiros co-authoring seven, all with albuquerque. only chapter 7, on knowledge transmission and cultural evolution is single authored. chapter 12 has two authors, lead editors medeiros and albuquerque. there is an earlier version of this book, published in 2013 in portuguese as etnobiologia: bases ecologicas e evolutivas, also edited by albuquerque, who coauthored seven of its eight chapters. thus, albuquerque has generated 19 publications, including the two books themselves as distinct publications, from this enterprise. in consequence, we have a book published by a major press that presents a very narrow perspective on how ethnobiology interacts with evolution. references cited bruchac, j. 2003. our stories remembered: american indian history, culture, and values through storytelling. fulcrum press, golden, co. de roode, j. c., t. lefèvre, and m. d. hunter. 2013. self-medication in animals. science 340:150–151. doi:10.1126/science.1235824. huffman, m. 1997. current evidence for selfmedication in primates: a multidisciplinary perspective. yearbook physical anthropology 104:171– 200. odling-smee, f. j., k. n. laland, and m. w. feldman. 2003. niche construction: the neglected process in evolution. princeton university press, princeton, nj. pierotti, r. 2011. indigenous knowledge, ecology and evolutionary biology. routledge, taylor and francis group, new york and abingdon, united kingdom. pierotti, r., and b. fogg. 2017. the first domestication: how wolves and humans co-evolved. yale university press, new haven, ct. rockwell, d. 1991. giving voice to bear: north american indian rituals, myths, and images of the bear. robertsrinehart, niwott, co. shurkin, j. 2014. animals that self-medicate. proceedings of the national academy of sciences 111:17339 –17341. doi:10.1073/pnas.1419966111. trees, knots, and outriggers: environmental knowledge in the northeast kula ring. by frederick h. damon. 2017. berghahn, new york. 375 pp. townsend. 2018. ethnobiology le ers 9(2):101–102 101 reviews deals with the sago orchards (metroxylon sagu) and their relationship to meadows: the dense thickets of grass and ferns that are the only un-forested areas of the island, with leached soils that are highly acidic and high in aluminum. sago starch is an important food in the lean seasons for farming. chapter four centers on another set of trees: the several species of calophyllum. six types are locally distinguished—each with different properties and uses as well as growing conditions—challenging systematists at the herbaria to which damon submitted specimens and resulting in the description of new species by peter stevens. muyuw attention to several species of calophyllum, particularly for the properties of the grain of their wood, leads into the final third of the book, which deals with the use of flora in the construction of seagoing outrigger canoes. more than once, i found myself wishing that the book had been split into two books at this point: one book on trees and a second on boats, edited to include some discussion of the materials used in their construction. i suspect that most ethnobiologists are unlikely to persist through the discussion of tying knots, weaving sails, and on into the detailed structure of boats. a sailor, skipping those lengthy chapters on trees, could not fully appreciate the choice of boat-building materials. these decisions are of life-threatening significance as the wrong materials may cause a mast or rudder to “explode” in high winds and heavy seas. the amount of detail amassed after a few chapters is beyond holding in a reader’s memory, though an improved glossary and index would help. in the early 1990s, mid-career social anthropologist frederick damon re-invented himself as an environmental anthropologist for a series of visits to his original field site on muyuw (woodlark) island, papua new guinea, where he had made several previous trips to study kinship and exchange in the 1970s and 1980s. at the same time, he broadened the scope of his work from the kula ring region in milne bay province off the east coast of papua new guinea to include china, as he worked toward encompassing a world-system linked by austronesian-speaking seafarers. this bold double move is documented in the book under review. although damon does not use the term landscape ecology (preferring the term historical ecology), we might categorize the first two-thirds of the book with either term. muyuw is a raised coral island with a volcanic core. its forests are heavily modified by agriculture and now also by logging and mining exploration. chapter one deals in detail with the three types of fallow period distinguished in the muyuw language and the trees related to garden planning. it reports muyuw planting of the gwed tree (rhus taitensis) to enhance or “sweeten” the soil of gardens. extensive efforts to determine how gwed improved the yield of the yams (dioscorea esculenta) planted adjacent to it were inconclusive, though it seemed most likely that it addressed potassium deficiency. chapter two deals with muyuw classification and categorization of trees in general. chapter three describes the use of trees to name and characterize places or ecological zones. in this chapter damon trees, knots, and outriggers: environmental knowledge in the northeast kula ring. by frederick h. damon. 2017. berghahn, new york. 375 pp. patricia k. townsend1* 1department of anthropology, university at buffalo, buffalo, ny, usa *pkt@buffalo.edu received november 27, 2017 open access accepted december 10, 2017 doi 10.14237/ebl.9.2.2018.1177 copyright © 2018 by the author(s); licensee society of ethnobiology. this is an open‐access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution‐noncommercial 4.0 international public license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by‐nc/4.0), which permits non‐commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. townsend. 2018. ethnobiology le ers 9(2):101–102 102 reviews chapter five is titled vatul, vines. after listing the 44 vines collected or described, it deals primarily with the use of vines in tying, particularly in constructing boats, but also in making fishnets and string figures. deep into his discussion of vines and knots in muyuw, damon tells the self-deprecating story of the slurs he suffered by tying two ends of a cord with sip vinay, the granny knot he usually makes, rather than with sip tawau, the square knot he needed to be taught during his fieldwork. nowhere in the text or index are line drawings or english terms for these knots given. not until the reader digs through photographs published online is any of this clear, and then perhaps only to readers who learned knots as a scout. this anecdote epitomizes the challenges that make trees, knots, and outriggers nearly unreadable, at least for scholars working outside the kula ring. the text is liberally sprinkled with vernacular terms that are rarely given an english gloss. there is no glossary, and the index is less helpful than it might be. further, the text lacks diagrams of knots, boats, or trees, and the line drawings promised in the preface failed to appear with the photographs on the web site: https:// pages.shanti.virginia.edu/trees_knots__outriggers/ table-of-contents/ (accessed november 27, 2017). nevertheless, this reader persisted, determined to recognize instructive analogies with mainland papua new guinea ethnobotany. the granny-knot anecdote hints at another feature of damon’s writing, which is the thorough recounting of his discovery process, both in the field and in his travels to meet other scholars at their home institutions and conferences. those who have undertaken similar projects, even on a small scale, will appreciate damon’s discussion of the ethnobotanical discovery process, but it burdens the text with yet more complexity and might better have been discussed in a separate publication, as a memoir or case study on field methods. chapter six describes the internal structure of the anageg, the seagoing outrigger sailing canoe, even now being replaced by dinghy and outboard motor. discussing the construction of mast, outrigger float, keel, strakes, ribs, rudder, and decorative carvings, damon returns to the properties of trees that make them suitable or unsuitable for each part of the boat. again, the scarcity of line drawings makes this difficult going for the landlubber. as an ethnobiologist damon sees himself as the mediator between two sets of experts on trees: the pacific islanders he revisits over a period of forty years, and the botanists in herbaria at harvard and lae who work with his voucher specimens. disagreements among his teachers are recounted, illustrating the variability among individuals in the acquisition of traditional knowledge as well as ecological variability and cultural specialization throughout the northeast kula ring region from the trobriands to muyuw. this specialization enables people to thrive despite the challenges of multi-year variation in the el niño southern oscillation. this is rich data from long and wide-ranging fieldwork and deserving of more analysis and editing into more digestible form. without that, it is likely to remain on the bookshelves of a small set of specialist libraries. eating the landscape: american indian stories of food, identity, and resilience ethnobiology letters. 2015. 6(1):25‐27. doi: 10.14237/ebl.5.2015.316. 25 book review to the culture of the people and the mutual respect they have for the environment that surrounds them. his knack for telling a story is so strong that my (stevens’) 4-year-old-daughter enjoyed listening to me read it, and asked for his stories rather than her usual bedtime stories of cinderella and snow white. this ability to reach a child is important in the retention of our many indigenous cultures. her unusual request for reading material brought me back to the times when i would rather listen to my grandmother tell a story than go play games with my friends. as an indigenous scholar with deep roots in his home community, enrique salmón has become one of the most important voices in the renaissance of traditional knowledge of indigenous peoples and the significance of this knowledge in allowing us to understand the world. salmón opens the book with the chapter, “in my grandmother’s kitchen,” in which he paints a strong and personal picture by providing intimate details about his family and the many social gatherings where food was the center of the interactions. this chapter connects the reader to the book with stories that define the author, while opening up a dialogue with the reader, and providing a basic model for the rest of the book. many indigenous people have gained their cultural knowledge from their grandparents, so the opening chapter helps indigenous people relate to the book and lets nonindigenous readers see where his story begins. as an example, his account of families competing for who makes the best tamales is a concept that i am sure many families share, whether it is tamales or some other type of food. for my family and community, it is corn soup. as an indigenous woman living away from her ceremonial home, language, culture, and original people while i (stevens) attend school, i sometimes find myself lost in this big world. when you are away from the things that have helped define you since your youth, it is easy to forget who you are and what you stand for. when this happens people sometimes turn to their language, ceremonial/social songs, or to the stories of their people in order to reconnect them to their culture. i am different, however. when i (stevens) feel like i am losing who i am, as a hotinoshonni woman, i turn to food. i grew up with white corn and wild berries as a staple to my diet. they were served at every ceremony and social gathering. so this is where i find solace. when i eat these and other foods i have grown up with, i am returned to those moments in the longhouse; hearing the songs, the feeling of the floorboards jumping beneath my feet from the passionate dancing, the laughter of my elders as they tell jokes too fast in the language for the children to understand, the smell of wood burning under the huge pot of corn soup, watching my chiefs and faithkeepers close their eyes and retell the stories of our people and thanking the creator for all that we have. those are the moments i miss, those are the moments that remind me who i am, and as odd as it may sound, the food i eat evokes those moments. while many people overlook the connection that food has to your identity, enrique salmón exemplifies the art of storytelling while reinforcing that very idea. in eating the landscape: american indian stories of food, identity, and resilience, salmón takes you through a world of indigenous food and how it is tied directly eating the landscape: american indian stories of food, identity, and resilience enrique salmón. 2012. university of arizona press, tucson. 160 pp.. $17.95 (paperback). isbn: 978-0-8165-3011-3. reviewed by lois stevens1 and raymond pierotti2* reviewer addresses: 1indigenous studies program, university of kansas, 1410 jayhawk boulevard, lawrence, ks 66045. 2department of ecology and evolutionary biology, university of kansas, 2041 haworth hall, 1200 sunyside avenue, lawrence, ks 66045. *corresponding author: pierotti@ku.edu received: october 18, 2013 volume: 6(1):25-27 published: march 27, 2015 © 2015 society of ethnobiology ethnobiology letters. 2015. 6(1):25‐27. doi: 10.14237/ebl.5.2015.316. 26 book review i (stevens) remember when my mother, who was working on revitalizing her traditional self after being away from it for so long, made her first pot of corn soup for one of the ceremonies. the entire longhouse community was going to have this soup and she had overcooked the corn to the point where the kernels popped, in a way. she was devastated and embarrassed to bring it to the longhouse; however, she held her head high and brought it in even though she knew she would get teased. most of her peers and i ended up loving the soup, and although she still got teased, it was all in good faith. it is stories like these and many others that bring communities together. my mother was trying to reaffirm her place in the traditional community and was embarrassed by her attempt, but the community leaders reminded her that it is not about how good she made the food, but about how much feeling she put into it. many indigenous people have gained their cultural knowledge from their grandparents or community elders in a similar manner, so this opening chapter helps indigenous people relate to the book and lets non-indigenous readers see where his story begins. continuing through his narrative, salmón brings the reader smoothly through the examples of how food is connected to various aspects of a culture, using examples from the u.s. southwest, as well as northwest mexico. he stresses the idea that a sustainable future full of good and safe food is dependent on the knowledge of small farmers such as the ones he describes in his book. there are traditional indigenous methods that have sustained our people for years before this creation of mass-produced agriculture came along. salmón tells us how indigenous groups today are working to continue these practices within the modern frame and encourages the idea of more communities engaging in the idea for the betterment of our people and the planet. there is an unhealthy relationship between politics, economics, and our modern food system. salmón’s intention with this book is to debunk this economic relationship and to instead tell stories of interconnected relationships among the landscape and the food we eat along with how we perceive our own identities. until we acknowledge this connection, we will be stuck in this unhealthy relationship with our food and our communities. a theme salmón develops early in the text is the importance of stories, which provide metaphors and cultural models that can be employed to interpret and understand interactions between the human and nonhuman elements of the community. this theme was also developed by pierotti (2011), who emphasized the similarity between the stories of indigenous peoples and theoretical models employed in western science. both traditions employ metaphor as a means of understanding basic principles that can then be used to interpret specific interactions and phenomena. an important difference between these traditions emphasized by salmón is that western cultural history tends to focus upon heroes, i.e., human figures that dominate action. in contrast, in salmón’s rarámuri culture, history is focused on the landscape, or place, and the “heroes” are plants, nonhuman animals and children, who share the landscape rather than dominating it. given this premise, it is obvious why this approach appeals to children, even though it represents profound and complex concepts. to illustrate this theme, salmón points out that the rarámuri classification scheme includes the concept of gendered plants, which can be nourishing and sustaining, such as corn, assume the role of a mother-in-law such as tobacco, or represent “quarrelsome” species, such as the brazil wood (haematoxylon brasiletto karst. leguminosae), a plant with strongly antimicrobial and antibacterial properties, whose antagonistic chemical actions exemplify its personality. in contrast, male plants include conifers, oaks, beans, squash, peyote, and datura. overall the rarámuri are part of an extended ecological family tied together by the concept of iwígara, or shared spirit, which implies ancestry and origins in common. this makes this worldview inherently both evolutionary in concept and ecological in spirit (see also pierotti 2011). at its root, iwigá means soul, life force, and breath, and everything that breathes (respires) is considered to have a soul and to share the same breath, a metaphor that is literally true if we consider the relationship between photosynthesis and respiration and the role these processes have had in shaping the world and all of the life within it. moving to other cultures, salmón discusses the puebloan peoples and their ability to deal with drought. this is an important theme because these peoples have developed a thriving culture in a climate that is not conducive to agriculture by developing their own forms of drip irrigation and soil development such that, rather than being depleted, the areas where they grow crops have higher soil quality than ethnobiology letters. 2015. 6(1):25‐27. doi: 10.14237/ebl.5.2015.316. 27 book review surrounding areas rather than lower soil quality, as is typically observed in us large scale agriculture. salmón concentrates on a case study of the hopi, who, because of their truly wise use of the land, regard the superficially arid landscape of the colorado plateau, as being a place that cares for and protects the people. they believe that they emerged from the land and that the land models responsible behavior, so that to lose the land is the same as losing one’s own flesh and sense of well being. this discussion puts flesh on the bones of vine deloria’s metaphor of indigenous people being spatially (locally) oriented, in contrast to the temporal orientation of western civilizations (deloria 1982). the next group discussed by salmón is the yaqui of the sonora desert, where salmón continues to explore the theme of relationships among human and nonhuman. he argues that indigenous paradigms suggest that the human-nature relationship requires mutual participation in the “dance of life,” in contrast to the western concept of the natural world as an inert mass of chemical compounds, which reflects the idea of plant personality being expressed through chemically driven physiological interactions above. the yaqui deer dances and songs are used to illustrate this theme. he continues his theme of the importance of metaphors and their importance to understanding how land-based cultural traditions enhance diversity, through interpreting the daily realities of landscapes. to salmón, metaphors offer glimpses into the most fundamental aspects of a culture, including its language, which he sees as a reflection of the landscape in which it develops. he links loss of languages on a global scale to concurrent losses in biodiversity, and explores this theme by discussing how humans can enhance their landscapes and increase local diversity rather than reduce it. thus deer songs are thus seen as being conversations between the singer, the deer, and the nonhuman world, because the singer must maintain a constant connection with this world in order to sing the songs properly. this is a crucial component of the oral tradition, because when texts “transform nature into silent and static symbols void of being-ness and vitality…nature ceases to breathe and loses its color and dynamic, un-resting personality” (p. 76). the next to last chapter provides an account of the seri (comcaac) people of sonora and the importance of song in their culture, a theme also emphasized by gary nabhan in his book singing the turtles to sea (nabhan 2003). a seri singer salmón met on the hopi reservation at an event organized by nabhan told salmón he had been expecting him and needed to impart some songs to him, but these songs could only be learned in the country where the seri live. the seri regularly break into song, and their performances were featured at the international ethnobiology congress in montpellier, france. this compliments the theme in the chapter on the yaqui, by emphasizing the importance of song and language in cultural relationships with their local environments. the final chapter, “the whole enchilada” points out that the human mind can verbalize only that which it has experienced, and that when our inner self begins its journey it becomes aware of a world that we eventually come to reflect. experiences become knowledge, and both are inseparable from our bodies, language, and way of life. this provides insight into the statement that “(traditional knowledge) is not really ‘knowledge’ at all; it’s more a way of life” (kluane first nation member quoted in nadasdy 2003:63). the issue that nadasdy (and his kluane colleagues) seem to want emphasized is that to the kluane people, hunting is a way of life, and that hunting consists of everything from the first thoughts about when to start, through the kill and the ultimate preparation, on to ultimate allotment of the “meat” that is gathered as a part of the hunting process (pierotti 2011). salmón is making a similar argument by contending that our foods, our language, and our ways of understanding are closely tied to the places where we live and the experiences we have in those places. references cited deloria, vine, jr. 1992. god is red: a native view of religion. north american press, golden, colorado. nabhan, g. p. 2003. singing the turtles to sea: the comcaac (seri) art and science of reptiles. university of california press, berkeley. nadasdy, p. 2003. hunters and bureaucrat: power, knowledge, and aboriginal-state relations in the southwest yukon. ubc press, vancouver. pierotti, r. 2011. indigenous knowledge, ecology and evolutionary biology. routledge, new york. humans, dolphins, and porpoises: investigations at the par-tee site, seaside, oregon, ad 100–800 loiselle. 2020. ethnobiology letters 11(1):58–66 58 research communications tee site (35clt20) in oregon as a case study. this analysis builds on previous research at the par-tee site investigating whether whales were actively hunted, scavenged, or perhaps both (losey and yang 2007; sanchez 2014; wellman et al. 2017). here, i focus on the use of delphinidae and phocoenidae families (except for the orca, orcinus orca, which has been studied elsewhere [wellman et al. 2017]), placing the data in the broader context of other subsistence and technological remains from the site. i focus on three primary questions: 1) what small cetacean species are present in the par-tee collection?, 2) were the residents of the par-tee site hunting small cetaceans or taking advantage of stranded individuals?, and 3) if hunted, then what technology was used to acquire them? par-tee site background and chronology the par-tee site was a semi-sedentary settlement (colten 2002) located about 15 miles south of the columbia river on the pacific coast (figure 1). partee is located where the clatsop and tillamook tribes overlapped and it is unknown how this boundary may have shifted throughout the occupation of the region, but a report prepared by arbolino et al. (2005) for a introduction archaeological literature on marine mammals, particularly in the pacific northwest and eastern pacific, focuses primarily on the acquisition and use of baleen whales and pinnipeds. systematic hunting of whales and other cetaceans was relatively rare in the human past, requiring specialized tools, complex social organization, and communal or cooperative hunting and processing strategies regardless of acquisition strategy. in north america, outside of the arctic, only a few groups are documented to have hunted large cetaceans (e.g., nuu-chah-nulth, makah [huelsbeck 1988; mcmillan 2015]). pinnipeds are considered some of the highest-ranking prey choices of prehistoric coastal peoples (hildebrandt and jones 1992) and their importance in the diet of coastal groups cannot be overstated (see colten 2002; hildebrandt and jones 2002). however, the extent to which smaller cetaceans (dolphins and porpoises) were hunted or used as a resource is understudied in the pacific northwest, often overshadowed by the research conducted on whales and pinnipeds. to investigate the importance of dolphins and porpoises as a resource in the region, i use the parhumans, dolphins, and porpoises: investigations at the par-tee site, seaside, oregon, ad 100–800 hope loiselle1* 1department of anthropology, university of washington, seattle, usa. *hloisell@uw.edu abstract small cetaceans are understudied compared to whales and pinnipeds even though they represent a high -ranking prey choice when available in the environment. building upon previous faunal analyses at the par-tee site, seaside, oregon that investigated whaling, this analysis of dolphin and porpoise remains suggests that people were hunting small cetaceans between ad 100–800 on the oregon coast, especially harbor porpoise, which was found significantly more than any other cetacean species at the site. the quantity of small cetacean bone is unlikely to be the result of only acquiring stranded individuals. while there is no direct evidence of hunting, ethnographic literature and archaeologically recovered hunting technologies like harpoons provide insight into the means by which these species may have been hunted. received november 14, 2019 open access accepted july 1, 2020 doi 10.14237/ebl.11.1.2020.1662 published august 14, 2020 keywords cetaceans, zooarchaeology, whaling, pacific northwest copyright © 2020 by the author(s); licensee society of ethnobiology. this is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution-noncommercial 4.0 international public license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0), which permits non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. loiselle. 2020. ethnobiology letters 11(1):58–66 59 research communications repatriation claim determined the par-tee site to be tillamook; inter-marriage, trading, and linguistic mixing were all recorded in the region (arbolino et al. 2005; sanchez 2014). par-tee was excavated, along with the nearby palmrose and avenue q sites, from 1967–1977 by george phebus and robert drucker (phebus and drucker 1979). approximately 256 units were excavated from par-tee, making it one of the largest excavations conducted in the pacific northwest south of ozette (losey and yang 2007). the site was excavated in arbitrary 12-inch (30.5 cm) levels and divided into four quadrants (nw, ne, sw, se). excavated sediments were screened through ¼ inch (6.35 mm) mesh. following excavation, the recovered material was curated at the smithsonian institution’s museum support center in suitland, maryland. the par-tee assemblage has over 7,000 artifacts and over 113,000 faunal remains (colten 2015; phebus and drucker 1979). bilaterally and unilaterally barbed harpoon points were recovered from the site, along with 148 toggling harpoon valves that are similar to those historically used for pinniped or salmon hunting (moss and losey 2011; sanchez 2014). a new bayesian chronology for the site was established by sanchez et al. (2018) using dates obtained from cervid bones throughout the assemblage. the authors concluded that the main occupation of par-tee was over a span of ~700 years figure 1 location of the par-tee site on the pacific coast, south of the columbia river mouth. loiselle. 2020. ethnobiology letters 11(1):58–66 60 research communications from ad 100–800, likely with an intense occupation from ad 400–650 (sanchez et al. 2018). the small cetacean remains analyzed in this paper date to this ~700-year occupation. there is also a later use of the site dated to ~ad 1490–1635 in which it seems the shell midden was used as a burial site; the human burials were shallow inhumations, interred in the shell midden after site abandonment (arbolino et al. 2005; sanchez et al. 2018). previous faunal research at par-tee colten (2015) conducted a faunal analysis of six units at par-tee with near-complete stratigraphic profiles, identifying a large number of species from different taxonomic categories including: marine, aquatic and terrestrial mammals, birds, and fishes. he found that 20.54% of the total nisp was marine mammal and believes that a large portion of the “undifferentiated mammal” category (22.09% nisp) is also marine mammal, indicating the importance of these taxa for subsistence. terrestrial mammals by comparison were only 4.27% of nisp. fish were an important part of the subsistence practices of people at par-tee, making up 39.08% of the nisp. these analyses demonstrate that the people at par-tee were extremely adept at maritime-focused subsistence activities. building on colten’s original analysis, losey and yang (2007), sanchez (2014), and wellman et al. (2017) studied whale exploitation at the par-tee site. a whale phalanx with an embedded bone harpoon point was recovered at the site, and losey and yang (2007) used ancient dna to identify both the whale species and the bone used to manufacture the harpoon point. results indicate the harpoon was made of local elk (cervus elaphus) bone and the whale was a humpback (megaptera novaeangliae) (losey and yang 2007). the elk harpoon point corroborates ethnographic observations by drucker (1951) that the tillamook used elk points to stab whales under the flipper and cut the tail tendons. since the elk point was embedded in a whale phalanx, it is possible that the hunter was aiming for under the flipper and missed, instead striking the flipper itself. based on this locally manufactured elk point, they suggest that opportunistic hunting was occurring at par-tee. the point does not appear to be a specialized whaling harpoon and no definitive evidence of whaling tools were found like those at known whaling sites (i.e., ozette) (losey and yang 2007). wellman et al. (2017) likewise concluded that some opportunistic hunting was occurring at par-tee, but argue that use of stranded individuals may have been more common. using modern stranding records as a point of comparison, wellman et al. (2017) suggest that the proportion of humpback (32.1%) to gray (eschrichtius robustus; 60.7%) whales recovered archaeologically is best explained by the residents of par-tee focusing on scavenging rather than hunting. humpback whales spend more time offshore than species like gray whales, often sinking when dead before they can reach the shore, and thus, this is the species that potentially appeared in the midden from occasional hunting activities since their beaching is a rare occurrence (norman et al. 2004). methods to address the questions posed about small cetacean hunting at par-tee, small cetacean remains were separated from the par-tee mammalian faunal assemblage and cataloged. the six units already analyzed by colten (2015) and the bone artifacts were not reanalyzed here. each element was cataloged and remains associated with the provenience and storage information for replicability. i identified the remains independent of their association with other cetacean remains (following driver 2011), to minimize the potential for identification by association. identifications were made using the department of vertebrate zoology marine mammal collection at the smithsonian institution’s museum support center table 1 nisp and mni of identified small cetacean species. common name species nisp mni dolphin/ porpoise sp. delphinidae/phocoenidae 290 dolphin sp. delphinidae 36 pacific white-sided dolphin lagenorhynchus obliquidens 6 1 bottlenose dolphin tursiops truncatus 15 2 porpoise sp. phocoenidae 71 harbor porpoise phocoena phocoena 895 28 dall's porpoise phocoenoides dalli 27 2 total 1340 33 loiselle. 2020. ethnobiology letters 11(1):58–66 61 research communications following guidelines in porcasi and fujita (2000), glassow (2005), and cooke et al. (2016). i compared each element to multiple individuals of different ages and sexes from each species to account for intraspecies variation. i also examined each element for cut marks, animal gnawing, and other modifications, such as burning. to examine whether the species composition of the archaeological small cetacean assemblage is consistent with species on the landscape today, i compared the archaeological data to modern stranding data. stranding, in this case, refers to the process whereby a cetacean washes up on shore, either dead or alive. sometimes strandings of multiple individuals occur and very rarely, a mass stranding of many individuals will occur. the vast majority of stranding events in oregon and washington are of dead animals (norman et al. 2004). while some argue that stranding records are of little value in evaluating prehistoric whaling activity because of drastic postwhaling-era shifts in populations of species (mulville 2002), dolphins and porpoises were not the direct target of whaling activities, and as such, stranding records can still be a useful starting place for understanding general trends in their stranding occurrences. results zooarchaeological results i identified 1340 elements belonging to the delphinidae and phocoenidae families (table 1). the most common taxonomic categories were harbor porpoise (phocoena phocoena; nisp 895) and dolphin/ porpoise (delphinidae/phocoenidae; nisp 290). dall’s porpoise was also identified (phocoenoides dalli; nisp 27). the majority of identified porpoise elements were vertebrae (nisp 693), followed by cranial fragments (nisp 162; table 2). i also identified elements belonging to bottlenose dolphin (tursiops truncatus; nisp 15) and pacific white-sided dolphin (lagenorhynchus obliquidens; nisp 6), though in much smaller quantities than porpoises. no cut marks or hunting indicators (e.g., embedded harpoons) were found directly on the bone, nor was there evidence of burning. the only noted damage came from trowels or other digging equipment where the bone had been scratched or nicked, probably during excavation. these marks had not had time to accumulate dirt from the ground, indicating their recent occurrence. no animal gnawing marks were observed on the bones, which might have been expected if a stranded individual had remained on a beach for a few days before being brought back to the site. stranding record comparison all four dolphin and porpoise species recovered from the archaeological assemblage are species known to strand along the washington and oregon coasts (norman et al. 2004). the ratio of species in the faunal assemblage closely matches the stranding record, dominated by harbor porpoise with a few dall’s porpoises and the occasional bottlenose or pacific white-sided dolphin (norman et al. 2004). table 2 element distribution. *vertebral epiphyses and fragments. element delphinidae/ phocoenidae delphinidae l. obliquidens t. truncatus phocoenidae p. phocoena p. dalli cranial frag. 107 2 0 0 1 148 0 periotic 0 0 1 1 33 0 0 tympanic 0 0 1 0 37 0 0 mandible 0 0 0 0 0 2 0 maxilla 0 0 0 4 0 8 0 atlas 5 0 0 0 0 28 0 humerus 0 0 0 0 0 2 0 sternum 0 0 0 0 0 3 0 vertebra 131 21 4 10 0 675 24 phalanx 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 premaxilla 0 0 0 0 0 3 0 other* 47 12 0 0 0 26 3 total 290 36 6 15 71 895 27 loiselle. 2020. ethnobiology letters 11(1):58–66 62 research communications there were also no stratigraphic levels with an exceptionally large number of a particular small cetacean or punctuated presence of small cetaceans, ruling out a mass stranding; the stranding record also indicated no mass strandings of these species (norman et al. 2004). diachronic analysis a diachronic analysis of the small cetacean remains from par-tee is not possible at this time. of the four units securely dated by sanchez et al. (2018), only two had intact stratigraphy. the sample size of small cetacean remains in these units is too small to lead to any meaningful interpretation. discussion element distribution of a species in the archaeological record is often used to study whether an animal was hunted or scavenged and whether this occurred nearby or far away from the main residential site. however, the ability to use boats to tow the carcasses of either hunted or scavenged small cetaceans limits the application of ethnoarchaeological studies on the transport of terrestrial mammals (o’connell et al. 1988) as an analog for element distribution in this study (ames 2002). when a terrestrial mammal is hunted far away from the residential site, certain elements may be expected to be left behind during initial processing versus transported back based upon a balance of nutritional value and the effort required to conduct such processing and transport (o’connell et al. 1988). however, with aquatic hunter-gatherers like those who inhabited the columbia river mouth region, most animal processing seems to occur at the residential site because when hunting on the open water it is impractical or impossible to butcher on site, and thus the whole animal is floated or dragged behind the boat home (ames 2002). additionally, a number of features specific to small cetacean skeletons greatly impacts the element distribution found at par-tee. unlike with most terrestrial mammals and pinnipeds, the flipper (forelimb) of small cetaceans is not weight bearing and the bone is mostly cancellous, with the point of articulation between the scapula and humerus the densest part of the limb (cozzi et al. 2009). the survival rate of forelimb elements of small cetaceans was low at par-tee and not necessarily because forelimbs were removed prior to arrival at the site. the vertebrae are dense in many small cetacean species because they are the most important part of locomotion, and as such, need to be able to withstand substantial pressure and movement (cozzi et al. 2009). abundance of vertebrae in the midden then, is probably because of both the abundance in the skeleton as well as especially high survivability due to density. the periotic and the rostrum are also extremely dense in many cetacean species (cozzi et al. 2009). the lack of limb bones, ribs, and sterna in the assemblage is thus probably due to quicker degradation of less dense bones, rather than their original absence in the midden, while high density of the periotic, cranial fragments, and vertebrae allowed for their preservation. element distribution in relation to meat-utility of certain portions of the body can also provide insight into how an animal was acquired and used. savelle and friesen (1996), in a meat-utility study of harbor porpoise, determine that the highest ranked portions of the porpoise’s body are the middle and posterior part of the vertebral column, with the cranium, flippers, and anterior vertebral column comparatively low ranking. the skull especially contains a lot of gristle and mostly consists of inedible material (savelle and friesen 1996), though the bones could potentially be used for manufacturing or other purposes. at partee, elements from both cranial and post-cranial parts of the body were identified, suggesting that whole individuals were butchered at the site (table 2). in their harbor porpoise meat-utility study, savelle and friesen (1996) noted that the meat peeled easily away from the vertebrae, explaining the lack of cut marks on the bone. there may have been meat processing cut marks on ribs or other elements that do not preserve well archaeologically. in differentiating between hunting and scavenging and nearby or far-away acquisition, element distribution is not particularly useful for small cetaceans. instead, the quantity of small cetacean bone provides the most evidence for hunting over scavenging. porcasi and fujita (2000) and glassow (2005) argue that dolphin hunting occurred on the california channel islands, particularly during the middle holocene based upon a significant number of dolphin bones identified from middens on santa cruz island, san clemente island, and santa catalina island. similarly, at the site of playa don bernardo on pedro gonzalez island, panama, a large quantity of dolphin bones was recovered from a shell midden dating to 6200–5600 bp. cooke et al. (2016) argue that they were acquired via hunting. loiselle. 2020. ethnobiology letters 11(1):58–66 63 research communications at par-tee, a large proportion of the faunal assemblage was identified as dolphin or porpoise. while a complete faunal analysis has not been completed, the partial analysis by colten (2015) suggests that small cetaceans were acquired 20% as often as pinnipeds. though they do not outnumber pinnipeds (as dolphins did in some of the channel island assemblages), it seems extremely unlikely that such a substantial proportion of marine mammals exploited would be from stranded individuals. further lending support to the idea that small cetaceans at par-tee were hunted, drucker (1965), though writing about groups further north than the tillamook, notes that numerous cultures along the pacific northwest coast hunted small cetaceans; they were a nutritious food source, containing valuable flesh and oil (mcmillan 2015). analysis by sanchez (2014) of tillamook and clatsop ethnographic records found that 10.3% of accounts mentioned whales and porpoises, while 7.3% mentioned sea lions and seals, indicating the importance of marine mammal resources. ray (1938) states that dolphins and porpoises were common in the chinook region, even going up into the columbia river to pursue fish, and that the people there would spear and eat them when given the chance. in fact, lewis and clark made some of the earliest scientific observations of the harbor porpoise in the northeast pacific ocean at the mouth of the columbia river (osmek et al. 1996). like salmon, the harbor porpoises would swim upriver to follow herring and other fish into the shallow, coastal waters during summer months (osmek et al. 1996). identification of dolphin and porpoise hunting at the par-tee site demonstrates the antiquity of the practice in the region and modern scientific observations of harbor porpoise in the region provide insight into the location and seasonality of the hunting. while it seems likely that dolphins and porpoises were hunted, the question as to how they were hunted remains unanswered. there are no remains of embedded harpoons or other artifacts in the small cetacean remains recovered from par-tee to provide direct evidence of hunting. cooke et al. (2016) hypothesize that the dolphins found at playa don bernardo were driven with sound onto the beach as seen ethnographically in the solomon islands or using nets into a narrower body of water where they may be speared as at mawaki, a late-early to early-middle jomon period site in japan. here, there was an exceptionally large number of dolphin bones compared to other coastal east asian sites (itoh et al. 2011). in the strata with abundant dolphin bones, stone arrows and knives were found, hypothesized to be used for dolphin hunting and butchery. geoarchaeological analysis revealed that the strata containing the dolphin bones also corresponds temporally with the presence of a lagoon and deep inlet that may have been used for driving dolphins ashore (itoh et al. 2011). in the channel islands, the dolphin remains did not appear in punctuated layers, as would be expected from multiple natural mass strandings or driving of large groups, but rather appeared throughout the middle-holocene cultural strata (glassow 2005; porcasi and fujita 2000). though the par-tee dolphin and porpoise remains lack direct evidence of hunting, presence of off-shore and near-shore migratory and resident pinnipeds, like northern fur seals and other large otariids, in the faunal assemblage (colten 2015) suggests that the people of par-tee likely also had the capability to hunt small cetaceans using the same technology and were intimately familiar with their marine environment. the artifact assemblage contains a number of harpoons that, while not large enough for whaling (moss and losey 2011; sanchez 2014), could have been used to hunt smaller marine mammals like seals and porpoises. this idea is supported by later ethnographic literature from the region. in the northern and central nootkan tribes, drucker (1951:26) writes about sealing harpoons: “it served him for hair seal, sea lions, porpoises, and in late times for fur seal hunting.” further north, mcmillan (2015), with reference to the nuu-chahnulth sites of ts’ishaa, huu7ii, and t’ukw’aa, all containing substantial amounts of dolphin and porpoise bone (frederick 2012; frederick and crockford 2005), suggests that the knowledge and expertise acquired in hunting small cetaceans may have helped the development of technologies for hunting large, baleen whales. conclusion in studying the small cetaceans of par-tee, i started with three questions: 1) what small cetacean species are present in the par-tee collection?, 2) were the residents of the par-tee site hunting small cetaceans or taking advantage of stranded individuals?, and 3) if hunted, then what technology was used to acquire them? loiselle. 2020. ethnobiology letters 11(1):58–66 64 research communications the answer to the first question is straightforward. in the par-tee assemblage i identified four species of small cetacean: harbor porpoise, dall’s porpoise, bottlenose dolphin and pacific white-sided dolphin. harbor porpoises were by far the most abundant. bottlenose dolphins are considered rare off the northwest coast today, though were found in this study. interestingly, at the nearby, slightly older site of palmrose, a large number of bottlenose dolphins were also identified (colten 2015). this might suggest a range shift of the bottlenose dolphin through time. the answers to the second and third questions are less straightforward. the abundance of small cetacean remains suggests that while porpoise or dolphin hunting does not appear to have been a specialty at par-tee, as it was at some california channel island sites (glassow 2005; porcasi and fujita 2000) and mawaki (itoh et al. 2011), the residents of par-tee were more frequently hunting than scavenging the small cetaceans. small cetaceans, particularly harbor porpoise, have been known to frequent the mouth of the columbia river to pursue prey (osmek et al. 1996), providing an ideal opportunity for people to hunt them. the presence of harpoons at par-tee and mention of small cetaceans in regional ethnographic literature further lends support for this explanation. while given comparatively little attention in archaeological and ethnographic literature compared to whales and pinnipeds, dolphins and porpoises likely played an important role in the diet of coastal people, potentially providing food security when other marine mammal populations were depleted. when considering the strategies used to hunt small cetaceans and investigating the hunting versus scavenging of them, the frameworks used to understand pinniped hunting are more applicable than those used to understand whaling or terrestrial hunting. future studies should not underestimate the importance of these species in the diet of prehistoric coastal people around the world. acknowledgments i thank teresa hsu and john ososky for help with accessing nmnh collections, hollis miller and ben fitzhugh for their feedback on drafts of the manuscript, barnet pavao-zuckerman and george hambrecht for their advice during the early stages of this analysis, and the anonymous reviewers for their substantial feedback. i am especially grateful to torben rick, whose guidance, patience, and mentorship made this research possible. declarations permissions: none declared. sources of funding: part of my time at nmnh was supported by a smithsonian minority award. conflicts of interest: none declared. references cited ames, k. 2002. going by boat: the forager-collector continuum at sea. in beyond foraging and collecting: evolutionary change in hunter-gatherer settlement systems, edited by b. fitzhugh and j. habu, pp. 17– 50. kluwer and plenum press, new york. arbolino, r. d., s. d. ousley, e. bubniak-jones, and national museum of natural history (u.s.) repatriation office. 2005. reassessment of the cultural affiliation of human remains and funerary objects from seaside, oregon at the national museum of natural history, smithsonian institution. repatriation office, national museum of natural history, 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jasc.1996.0067. wellman, h. p., t. c. rick, a. t. rodrigues, and d. y. yang. 2017. evaluating ancient whale exploitation on the northern oregon coast through ancient dna and zooarchaeological analysis. journal of island and coastal archaeology 12:255–275. doi:10.1080/15564894.2016.1172382. mentoring is an intellectual pillar of ethnobiology flachs et al. 2019. ethnobiology le ers 10(1):104–108 104 editorial issues with discrimination and abuses of power. but more than other academic disciplines, contemporary ethnobiology is practiced with and strengthened by close, respectful working relationships. indeed, our society’s most popular recent work (e.g., bonta et al. 2017; randrianandrasana and berenbaum 2015) showcases scientific research designed and led by indigenous and female scholars. there is no ethnobiology without elders or diverse voices. their absence would doom some of our best scholarship, particularly that based in ethnobiology 5 (wolverton 2013), in which research builds socioecological theory while addressing the moral and political need to strengthen coalitions that support local knowledge and sovereignty to live with rapid shifts in ecological, political, and economic opportunities for communities around the world. to do ethnobiology requires field research, respectful exchanges of knowledge, team-based collaboration, and, above all, careful mentoring. discussions regarding collaboration and ethics are cornerstones of contemporary ethnobiology (medinaceli 2018; solae ethics committee et al. 2018). as such, we offer our thoughts on the lessons ethnobiology brings to mentorship and accountability while outlining some of the specific steps we are taking as an academic and practicing community. codes are important ethnobiology as a discipline is increasingly and rightfully concerned with ethical collaborations between researchers and knowledge-holding communities, as discussed in a recent special issue of ethnobiology letters edited by cynthia fowler and scott herron (2018), to name one of many discussions. authors in that collection and a recent review of anthropology field experiences (nelson et al. 2017) note the value of strict codes of conduct and oversight that give students and faculty clear direction for their behavior and practice. spurred by these external and internal concerns, the society of there is a lot being written right now, and rightfully so, about bad mentorship. like media companies and the government, academic researchers also abuse the power they hold. personal relationships can be leveraged, established figures can face little oversight for inappropriate behavior toward junior colleagues, and these hurtful and harmful interactions are written off by administrations as the singular deeds of bad actors rather than a systemic power imbalance that requires systemic change. victims are frequently gaslighted and forced to continually question their own feelings. there are several reasons why this should trouble ethnobiologists. the prevalence of mentors who discriminate, abuse, or otherwise discourage researchers of all career stages with whom they collaborate damages the field for years to come. abuse in academia is pervasive, with 948 resolved and ongoing cases in the academic sexual misconduct database (libarkin 2019). bestselling authors such as robin kimmerer reflect on being told that science is “not for them” (kimmerer 2015), while a recent and wellpublicized survey of anthropology field research experiences noted that an unacceptable 72.4% of participants directly observed or heard about inappropriate sexual remarks or harassment at their most recent or notable field site (clancy et al. 2014). each time that major research institutions systematically marginalize female researchers (wadman 2018), academic conferences struggle to expel serial abusers (wade 2019), laboratory leaders dismiss gender imbalances as states of nature (conradi 2019), and senior faculty use tenure to defend themselves against transgressions that have nothing to do with their intellectual freedom (anderson 2018), we lose promising and valuable perspectives in favor of an abusive status quo. ethnobiology relies on community partnerships and relationships between elders or other knowledge keepers and students. our society of ethnobiology (society), like all academic organizations, has its own mentoring is an intellectual pillar of ethnobiology open access doi 10.14237/ebl.10.1.2019.1656 copyright © 2019 by the author(s) licensee society of ethnobiology. this is an open‐access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution‐noncommercial 4.0 international public license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by‐nc/4.0), which permits non‐commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. flachs et al. 2019. ethnobiology le ers 10(1):104–108 105 editorial ethnobiology recently drafted a code of professional conduct for its members. the discussion of how our society might craft an appropriate code of conduct for our members began around the time of the 2018 combined annual conference of the society of ethnobiology and the society for economic botany (seb) in madison, wisconsin. in preparation for the joint conference, we circulated the recently adopted seb code of conduct to conference registrants in may 2018 (society for economic botany 2018). the code of conduct was discussed at the society board meeting in madison, as it was throughout the conference, and continued as a priority for the society’s board in the months that followed. the society president at the time, cynthia fowler, led a subcommittee on the task of constructing the “society of ethnobiology code of professional conduct for meetings and other soe events” during the following months. at the 2019 annual conference in vancouver, canada, fowler and vice president sarah walshaw held open forum workshops, which allowed conference attendees to share ideas, concerns, and suggestions for the society of ethnobiology code of conduct. in the process of preparing and drafting the code of conduct, society members also explored ways of creating safe spaces and inclusivity at our meetings and events. the code of professional conduct remains a work in progress, as the committee continues to solicit input and advice from members. we hope it will be ready for ratification by the membership at the 2020 annual conference in cedar city, utah. as social and ecological researchers, we recognize that our institutions are built through daily practices. that is, our codes and ethical programs must be lived and modeled by senior and junior members. unlike many of the larger disciplinary conferences our members attend, the panel discussions at the annual conference of the society tend to have large audiences, in part because they are not overscheduled, but also because there is an institutional culture of attending talks and listening to sessions. thus, emeriti professors can learn about cutting-edge research by students and students can learn professional expectations from senior colleagues. through this atmosphere, we aim to foster a sense of sharing and respect that encourages audience members to attend entire sessions. the society conference invites a diversity of voices, ranging from academic to non-academic, industry, and indigenous, with the understanding that many people fall into several of these categories. because ethnobiology is inherently interdisciplinary, field research teams share training and expertise, and the resulting academic writing shares credit and authorship. this helps to maintain the understanding that everyone’s contributions are valuable in our discipline. we see the results of this practice in our publications, and over the last five years research articles published in regular issues of ethnobiology letters have had an average of three authors, including many students. demystifying academic progress academic achievement is dominated by the quest for ever more publications, grants, and scholarly products that establish our voices in the field. published peerreviewed research and grant success, or at least the potential to achieve such, is a requirement to attain most academic and research positions, and yet many students and junior scholars have little experience with peer review or the publication process. in many cases, this is because students and junior scholars are still exploring new approaches in their research agendas. mentors have a responsibility to step in and encourage mentees to pursue their interests along a more focused academic path by emphasizing the importance of clear deliverables, i.e., publications or conference presentations. as qualitative social science warms to the idea of multiple authorship, mentors can take pride in second-authorship that results from these collaborations. outside of academia, many ethnobiologists communicate with a broad audience that may include specialists across a wide range of disciplinary backgrounds. collaborative projects build in feedback systems where speakers can hone the art of communicating with different audiences. writing pedagogy is becoming an increasingly important part of students’ training through the spread of writing labs, revision-based course assignments, and professional development training at universities. often, junior faculty credit writing groups as essential to their dissertation process, and the national center for faculty diversity and development recommends writing groups as a way to reinforce accountability and achievable goals at the faculty level as well (national center for faculty diversity and development 2019). writing groups not only help researchers organize their data, they create a space to build comradery and provide a framework to support ongoing writing at all stages (silvia 2019). through these groups, writers learn how to give and flachs et al. 2019. ethnobiology le ers 10(1):104–108 106 editorial receive peer review that is specific, actionable, and constructive. as with the larger craft of writing itself, this process eases some of the initial stress that junior scholars experience in submitting articles to peerreviewed journals, presses, and other venues. to promote the type of writing often done more readily by early-career scholars, ethnobiology letters publishes “short topical reviews” that are particularly friendly to well-focused studies such as those often completed by students, and the society blog “forage!” has developed a list of best practices and prompts for interested new writers. similarly, journal clubs play well to the interdisciplinary strength of ethnobiology as an academic field, because ethnobiological researchers must become comfortable explaining their work to an audience outside that of their disciplinary training. when such a group reads work by ecologists, an audience that may include taxonomists, botanists, and political ecologists learns to bring their particular perspective to the issues at hand. such groups foster interdisciplinary collaboration by providing the initial space for new cross-disciplinary discussions to emerge. in such settings, the space itself is critical. mentors have a special role in these groups by ensuring that group members feel comfortable giving and receiving critiques. this may mean that mentors have to coach group members on respectful dialogue, and it will require mentors to model this behavior themselves. through deeply personal gestures, mentors may ease some of the vulnerabilities in a writing group by sharing their own process and some of their own setbacks—no senior faculty member has been unscathed by an unkind review. the opposite circumstance, in which mentors fail to make the group a comfortable space, where criticism is vague, or where junior members are punished in their institutions for a low number of publications or grants without being assisted by senior colleagues to join projects or working groups, is sure to discourage innovation and curb the field’s intellectual growth. just showing up to these events is an expenditure of time and resources by mentors and junior members. by creating comfortable spaces in which to grow intellectually, we achieve academic benchmarks without the mystery and stress than can surround career advancement. hopefully, this creates a richer, more positive experience for everyone involved. promoting positive field experiences much ethnobiological research and practice is done within communities, with groups of nonethnobiologists, and at the intersection of natural and social science approaches. ethnobiological field schools, disciplinarily focused on sharing ecological knowledge, empowering local communities, and expanding academic understandings of humanenvironmental relationships, can be an invaluable way to recruit future ethnobiologists and cement ongoing partnerships. students benefit from the chance to try new methods and approaches, while partner communities have the opportunity to complete laborintensive projects or assess ongoing programs. by modeling what community partnerships, professional behavior, and responsible research look like, mentors shape both student and community visions of ethnobiology. many faculty and senior research members of our society take students into the field with them where they collaborate on research projects. these trips typically include between one and four graduate students who are collecting data either as part of the advisor’s larger research program, or for their own research for a thesis or publication as part of the team. the funding sources for smaller research trips with a mentor can come through existing research grant funds, soliciting institutional research or student-mentoring grants, student-solicited research grants, or pre-existing institutional funds. the national science foundation has offered a series of field-school programs and methods workshops to enhance and supplement the training provided in the traditional graduate school setting. by taking junior scholars and students into field experiences in places as diverse as the bolivian amazon or rural namibia, they give hands-on and direct mentoring of the utility of various anthropological field research techniques while also being exposed to the ways that responsible and ethical community relationships are established and maintained. various universities and institutions also sponsor summer field schools, such as the annual ethnographic field school in belize led by douglas hume. in kampsville, illinois, the center for american archaeology has introduced a combined ethnographic and archaeological field school where students ask similar questions about human-environmental relationships in past and present contexts. this field flachs et al. 2019. ethnobiology le ers 10(1):104–108 107 editorial school is fully funded for participants and kept small to encourage hands-on learning and introduce students to research as a profession. here, farmers are invited to the research and students are trained to see them as partners in historical preservation and ongoing ecological stewardship. research on student experiences with field schools is unambiguous (clancy et al. 2014; nelson et al. 2017): mentors must provide clear rules of conduct, have a chain of accountability, and treat all participants with respect, in order for the field school to run successfully. however, students can have a positive experience even while community partners desire different kinds of interaction, as described in guthman’s (2008) study of well-meaning college students working to improve community gardens and food options in california. as facilitators, mentors have a responsibility to ensure both that students learn and that community leaders are active collaborators in creating a research plan that meets their needs. planting seeds much of this editorial has focused on the important role that mentors play in creating spaces: spaces where ideas can germinate, people with different disciplinary assumptions can talk to one another, and where partner communities trust the people with whom they share their knowledge. like planting seeds, this work must be active, in which some of the emphasis is removed from students by asking mentors to volunteer space, time, and recruitment to diversify the academy. one such model comes from the santa fe institute, which gives space and freedom for people of many disciplines to work through research plans, and to collaborate and discuss with one another. if a goal of contemporary ethnobiology is to bridge traditional academic boundaries, broaden the community of ethnobiologists, and put that knowledge to use to solve pressing environmental and social crises (wolverton 2013), then mentors have an outsized responsibility in facilitating this work. in modeling how to conduct research and speak across disciplines, ethnobiology mentors can provide an umbrella under which a range of interdisciplinary scholars work toward conservation and human rights. the society’s recent distinguished ethnobiologist honorees, including nancy turner, gary nabhan, gene hunn, gene anderson, steve emslie, steve weber, and jan salick, have all worked to create such spaces at the intersection of social and ecological inquiry. furthermore, their acceptance speeches have credited their own mentors, including both formal academic researchers and elders and other knowledgeholders with whom they have worked. although this has been a largely celebratory editorial, the creation of sustainable mentoring infrastructure remains extremely important if we are to make good on the promise of diversity and inclusion in the scholarly umbrella of ethnobiology. codifying, institutionalizing, and, yes, funding mentoring activities is essential to sustaining these gains in the age of neoliberal university education that values particular metrics of productivity while devaluing other activities as wasted time. it is not enough to simply remember the mentors who helped us. let us build the systems to pay it forward. references cited anderson, n. 2018. academia’s #metoo moment: women accuse professors of sexual misconduct. washington post, may 10, 2018, sec. education. available at: https://www.washingtonpost.com/ local/education/academias-metoo-moment-womenaccuse-professors-of-sexualmisconduct/2018/05/10/474102de-2631-11e8874b-d517e912f125_story.html. accessed on december 1, 2019. bonta, m., r. gosford, d. eussen, n. ferguson, e. loveless, and m. witwer. 2017. intentional firespreading by “firehawk” raptors in northern australia. journal of ethnobiology 37:700–718. doi:10.2993/0278-0771-37.4.700. clancy, k. b. h., r. g. nelson, j. n. rutherford, and k. hinde. 2014. survey of academic field experiences (safe): trainees report harassment and assault. plos one 9:e102172. doi:10.1371/ journal.pone.0102172. conradi, p. 2019. alessandro strumia: the data doesn’t lie—women don’t like physics. the sunday times, march 24, 2019, sec. news review. available at: https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/ alessandro-strumia-the-data-doesnt-lie-women-dontlike-physics-jl0bpfd9t. accessed on december 1, 2019. fowler, c. t., and s. herron. 2018. the long program for ethics in ethnobiology. ethnobiology letters 9:1–3. doi:10.14237/ebl.9.1.2018.1356. guthman, j. 2008. bringing good food to others: investigating the subjects of alternative food flachs et al. 2019. ethnobiology le ers 10(1):104–108 108 editorial practice. cultural geographies 15:431–47. doi:10.1177/1474474008094315. kimmerer, r. w. 2015. braiding sweetgrass: indigenous wisdom, scientific knowledge and the teachings of plants. milkweed editions, minneapolis, mn. libarkin, j. 2019. academic sexual misconduct database. academic sexual misconduct database [web page]. available at: https://academic-sexualmisconduct-database.org/. accessed on december 1, 2019. medinaceli, a. 2018. taking an early step in ethnobiological research: a proposal for obtaining prior and informed consent from indigenous peoples. ethnobiology letters 9:76–85. doi:10.14237/ebl.9.1.2018.1054. national center for faculty diversity and development. 2019. faculty diversity [web page]. available at: https://www.facultydiversity.org/. accessed on december 1, 2019. nelson, r. g., j. n. rutherford, k. hinde, and k. b. h. clancy. 2017. signaling safety: characterizing fieldwork experiences and their implications for career trajectories. american anthropologist 119:710– 22. doi:10.1111/aman.12929. randrianandrasana, m., and m. r. berenbaum. 2015. edible non-crustacean arthropods in rural communities of madagascar. journal of ethnobiology 35:354–83. doi:10.2993/etbi-35-02-354-383.1. silvia, p. j. 2019. how to write a lot: a practical guide to productive academic writing. second edition. apa lifetools, washington, dc. society for economic botany. 2018. code of conduct [web page]. available at: http://www.econbot.org/ home/governance/code-of-conduct.html. accessed on december 1, 2019. solae ethics committee, armando medinaceli, eréndira j. cano, arturo argueta, and olga lucia sanabria. 2018. latin american society of ethnobiology’s code of ethics. ethnobiology letters 9:86–89. doi:10.14237/ebl.9.1.2018.1121. wade, l. 2019. #metoo controversy erupts at archaeology meeting. science, april 15, 2019. doi:10.1126/science.aax7037. wadman, m. 2018. salk institute settles last of three gender discrimination lawsuits. science, november 21, 2018. doi:10.1126/science.aaw1383. wolverton, s. 2013. ethnobiology 5: interdisciplinarity in an era of rapid environmental change. ethnobiology letters 4:21–25. doi:10.14237/ ebl.4.2013.11. december 4, 2019 andrew flachs department of anthropology, purdue university, west lafaye e, usa. aflachs@purdue.edu elizabeth a. olson department of history, sociology, and anthropology, southern utah university, cedar city, usa. elizabetholson@suu.edu john m. marston department of anthropology, boston university, boston, usa. marston@bu.edu andrew gillreath‐brown department of anthropology, washington state university, pullman, usa. andrew.d.brown@wsu.edu science and civilisation in china. vol. 6, biology and biological technology. part iv: traditional botany: an ethnobotanical approach. by georges métailié. translated by janet lloyd. 2015. cambridge university press, cambridge, united kingdom. 748 pp. anderson. 2017. ethnobiology letters 8(1):43–45 43 reviews perspectives from gene anderson’s bookshelf and use was equaled only by the amazing shiu-ying hu, who recently passed away after a career of more than 80 years (she died in 2012 at the age of 102; see hu 2005). most of the book consists of summaries of the herbals, by topic, with their ideas on plant classification, sex, horticulture (as opposed to agriculture, covered in bray 1984), growth, flowering, development, and other topics. also treated is the arrival of plants from the rest of the world to china, and the european exploration and exploitation of china’s plants. this, a superbly done history of european plant exploring from the renaissance on, is my favorite part of the book. the book is beautifully and copiously illustrated with the better plates from the classic chinese herbals, as well as some early european works and métailié’s own fine photographs. if you can afford it, it’s worth the money just as a fine work of bookmaking. métailié takes ethnobotany as a theoretical mark, but he does not mean quite what we usually mean in the society of ethnobiology. he references a few modern sources, but relies largely on edward lee greene’s history of botany, originally written in 1909, when only john harshberger’s original definition of the field was in play (harshberger 1896). métailié has kept up with modern developments in plant classification and taxonomy, but does not appear to be current with other approaches in contemporary ethnobotany. also, though he has much field experience in china, he does not draw significantly on that. he confines his attention to premodern china— georges métailié’s long-awaited monograph on the history of chinese plant science is now available at last. i use the words ‘plant science’ because métailié’s main point of theory herein is that china never had botanical science—that field has been peculiar to the western world since ad 1600, and, through expansion, the rest of the world since about ad 1800. chinese plant knowledge before that date was very comparable to europe’s: it consisted of a great deal of empirical knowledge—factual or fantasy— recorded in long herbals that copied extensively from sources going back to ancient times (theophrastus in europe, han dynasty writers in china). after 1500, europe began to move in a different direction, and after ad 1600 progressive innovations in thought, such as modern taxonomy, which began with ray and others, not linnaeus, and methodology/technique (e.g., microscopes), made western and later all world botany a fully modern science. métailié thus provides a history of chinese herbals, continuing an earlier section on botany (needham et al. 1986; see also bray 1984) in this series. this makes the present work a bit difficult to use, since one must read that earlier section to get the full story. in any case, métailié covers the chinese and western literature on chinese plants with incredible thoroughness and detail. this work is not only a vast and indispensable reference, it is an awe-inspiring masterpiece of scholarship. métailié’s knowledge of chinese herbals and western studies of chinese plants is unexcelled, and his knowledge of chinese plant life science and civilisation in china. vol. 6, biology and biological technology. part iv: traditional botany: an ethnobotanical approach. by georges métailié. translated by janet lloyd. 2015. cambridge university press, cambridge, united kingdom. 748 pp. eugene n. anderson1* 1department of anthropology, university of california, riverside, usa. *eugene.anderson@ucr.edu received november 10, 2016 open access accepted december 2, 2016 doi 10.14237/ebl.8.1.2017.840 copyright © 2017 by the author(s) licensee society of ethnobiology. this is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution-noncommercial 4.0 international public license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0), which permits non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. anderson. 2017. ethnobiology letters 8(1):43–45 44 reviews perspectives from gene anderson’s bookshelf china before european botany reached and influenced it in the nineteenth century ad. the book is much more a work of traditional historical and philological scholarship. it is none the worse for that—we need thorough reviews of literature—but not a place to seek theoretical or field-driven advances in ethnobiological studies. in its separation of traditional chinese and modern western botany, this book breaks sharply, even dramatically, with the earlier work by needham et al. (1986) in this series. needham was, famously, a champion of the view that—as métailié quotes him— there is only one unitary science of nature, approached more or less closely and built up more or less successfully and continuously, even if very slowly, by the several groups of mankind from age to age. this means that we could expect to trace an absolute continuity between the first beginnings of astronomy and medicine in ancient babylonia or ancient egypt…to the break-through of late renaissance europe… and onward (métailié 2015:7, quoting needham 1978:110). needham was famous for his lifelong and militant view that science was one. modern historians of science, however, are just as militant in defending the view that it is not, and that every scientific tradition and subtradition is “incommensurable” (kuhn 1962) with every other. this view has already caused friction within volume 6 of this series; nathan sivin, in his posthumous edition of needham’s work on chinese medicine (needham et al. 2000), has taken needham to task even more sharply than métailié does. needham saw science as the accumulation of empirically correct knowledge about the world, tied together with ever more refined and tested ideas and theories. modern historians of science, exemplified by kuhn, sivin, and métailié, see science as a set of essentially different theoretical paradigms. scientists may use empirical knowledge as substrates, or they may not (they may invent cycles and mermaids). but they are using clearly and sharply demarcated and separate theories. métailié can justify this in the chinese case by showing that rather little theoretical knowledge crossed to china on the silk roads, however many actual plants did. western botany influenced china a small amount with the jesuit missionaries in the seventeenth century ad, but basically did not come to or influence china until the mid-nineteenth century ad. it should be noted, however—and here métailié is surprisingly quiet, in contrast to his thoroughness in other parts of the book—that a tremendous amount of empirical knowledge of plants did travel by the silk roads (anderson 2014). to me, and this is a personal view, the truth is somewhere in between, but closer to needham’s. science seems to be basically a matter of collecting empirical knowledge and understanding it according to theories and hypotheses that are inevitably tentative and that change with time. both the knowledge and the theories travel widely, change with time, blend and merge, develop according to new data. science simply does not consist of a set of steel-walled towers that have nothing to do with each other and no possibility of mutual influence. (nor did kuhn say so. i believe sivin and métailié would agree with this if challenged—but they write as if it were the case, though sivin is more extreme than métailié on the point.) the whole question is similar to current discussions of ‘culture,’ in which anthropologists see culture as a vast braided river, while cultural-studies scholars often see ‘cultures’ as steel-walled spheres that can bounce off each other but cannot interact except through exploitation or colonialism. on the other hand, métailié is obviously right that there was a huge foucaultian ‘rupture’ around ad 1600, when european scholars began to subject botanical knowledge to the combination of aggressive knowledge-seeking and aggressive, self-conscious theory-building that were beginning to make profound changes in astronomy and medicine. by ad 1700, botany in europe most certainly looked different from plant knowledge in china. europe had the beginnings of the formal, rigorous binomial classification system (ray and willoughby were doing it well before linnaeus). botanists had microscopes, herbaria, dissecting kits, serious theories of plant ‘natures,’ and research gardens. (many of us remember going through the oldest surviving research garden, at montpellier, france, when we went to the international society of ethnobiology meetings there.) what my former colleague randall collins calls “rapid discovery science” (collins 1998) had come. as métailié says, it did not really reach china till the nineteenth century ad. while it was very different from chinese plant knowledge, i feel more comfortable than does métailié about calling the latter ‘botany’ (at least we can agree on ‘ethnobotany’). métailié does show that anderson. 2017. ethnobiology letters 8(1):43–45 45 reviews perspectives from gene anderson’s bookshelf the chinese had a set of theories (rather more than he discusses, but that is another story). he shows they had systematic accurate knowledge of plants, that they recorded it, and that they subjected it to theoretical interpretation and discussion. the theories were wrong, by our standards, but they were no worse than the theories guiding european botany in ad 1500. in fact, they were often similar theories, since transmission over the silk roads did in fact occur. one recalls that the changes that brought about the scientific revolution after ad 1600 had a long history, and that history included a gradual development from ideas and projects much like china’s. i doubt if john parkinson and john ray in the seventeenth century ad thought they were constructing a totally new world ‘incommensurable’ with that of theophrastus and dioscorides (see e.g. morton 1981 on the history of botany). in short, i see ‘science’ as including anything people do that involves the orderly, theory-based collection and ordering of empirical knowledge, whether or not the theory is correct by our standards. i do, however, see modern international science as sharply different from the traditional sciences. it is defined by some really different things: high technology (from microscopes to atom-smashers), mathematical or quasi-mathematical modeling, and self-conscious theory-testing through replication and falsification. it developed slowly between ad 1600 and 1800, or even later. it is an international enterprise; it was never ‘western’ science, since even in ad 1600 it drew heavily on near eastern science. modern international science is a new and specialized way of learning, but it is not all of ‘science.’ references cited anderson, e. n. 2014. food and environment in early and medieval china. university of pennsylvania press, philadelphia, pa. bray, f. 1984. science and civilisation in china, vol. 6. biology and biological technology, part 2, agriculture. cambridge university press, cambridge, united kingdom. collins, r. 1998. the sociology of philosophies: a global theory of intellectual change. harvard university press, cambridge, ma. greene, e. l. 1983. landmarks of botanical history. stanford university press, stanford, ca. harshberger, j. w. 1896. the purposes of ethnobotany. botanical gazette 21:146–154. hu, s. 2005. food plants of china. chinese university of hong kong, hong kong, china. morton, a. g. 1981. history of botanical science. academic press, london, united kingdom. needham, j. 1978. address to the opening session of the xvth international congress of the history of science, edinburgh, 11 august 1977. british journal for the history of science 2:103–113. needham, j., l. gwei-djen, and h. hsing-tsung. 1986. science and civilisation in china, vol. 6. biology and biological technology, part 1, botany. cambridge university press, cambridge, united kingdom. needham, j., l. gwei-djen, and n. sivin. 2000. science and civilisation in china, vol. 6. biology and biological technology, part 6, medicine. cambridge university press, cambridge, united kingdom. dilemmas of representation in contemporary environmental anthropology: documenting dynamite fishing in southeastern tanzania raycraft. 2018. ethnobiology letters 9(2):289–298 289 perspectives once again erupted like a small volcano. “wanatumia baruti,” whispered one of the young fishers next to me: “they are using bombs.” my observations of dynamite fishing in the mnazi bay-ruvuma estuary marine park in the mtwara region of tanzania do not constitute a unique ethnographic experience. christine walley (2004) has previously described hearing these thunderous booms with unnerving regularity in the marine areas around mafia island, tanzania’s first marine park. the unmistakable sound of dynamite fishing has historically been so frequent in coastal tanzania that it has even been referred to as the “wimbo wa taifa” (“the song of the nation”) in some public discourses (kalangahe and slade 2014:3). the question of why dynamite fishing persists in southeastern tanzania, inside the boundaries of a multiple-use marine protected area (mpa), is deeply complex. it is a question that i will loosely address in the pages that follow; however, this is not the primary aim of this paper. instead, i use this ethnographic vignette as a reflexive exercise for thinking critically about the role of participant observation in contemporary environmental anthropology. i consider its utility as a method introduction while conducting ethnographic fieldwork in a coastal tanzanian village in 2014 and 2015, i spent many mornings walking along the shoreline between mnazi bay and the ruvuma river, which marks the southern border with mozambique. people often curiously asked me in kiswahili, “je, unafanya nini leo asubuhi?” (“what are you doing this morning?”), to which i would always reply with a smile, “natembea tembea kwa mazoezi” (“i’m just walking around for exercise”). during these strolls, i often paused to chat with local fishers as they prepared to depart for the day in their dug-out canoes. on one particular morning, i stopped to speak with a group of young men, who were searching for octopus in the shallow tide pools that formed during low tides. as we began talking, we were interrupted by a loud boom from the ocean, and i looked up to see a huge splash adjacent to a small boat about 200 feet from the beach. at first, i was confused, thinking that a whale had breached directly next to the boat. as i continued to watch, however, one of the two young men in the boat stood upright and casually tossed a stick of dynamite into the water next to them. the surface dilemmas of representation in contemporary environmental anthropology: documenting dynamite fishing in southeastern tanzania justin raycraft1* 1department of anthropology, mcgill university, montreal, canada. *justin.raycraft@mail.mcgill.ca abstract this paper draws from an ethnographic vignette of dynamite fishing in southeastern tanzania. i consider the utility of participant observation as a method for examining ecologically destructive practices, especially in contexts where such activities are illegal or prohibited by conservation regulations. i raise self-reflexive critiques, internal to my home discipline of anthropology, and discuss the methodological, ethical, and analytical challenges of attempting to document cases of dynamite fishing and other related phenomena of pressing environmental concern. ultimately, i maintain that participant observation remains a valuable tool for documenting and explaining environmentally destructive activities. received september 21, 2017 open access accepted june 19, 2018 doi 10.14237/ebl.9.2.2018.1115 keywords participant observation, ethnography, destructive fishing practices, illegal activities, moral terrains, interpretive anthropology copyright © 2018 by the author(s); licensee society of ethnobiology. this is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution-noncommercial 4.0 international public license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0), which permits non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. raycraft. 2018. ethnobiology letters 9(2):289–298 290 perspectives for examining ecologically destructive practices, especially in contexts where such activities are illegal, or prohibited by conservation regulations. i situate my own vision of a geertzian (1973) model of environmental anthropology within the broader “umbrella” of ethnobiological scholarship (wolverton 2013:21). while ethnobiology addresses, in a general sense, the relationships between people and their environments across space and time, wyndham et al. (2011) also envision the field as a “creative place,” where diverse scholars can intellectually congregate to discuss issues of significant social and ecological concern (wyndham et al. 2011:111; see also hunn 2014). in a contemporary setting, ethnobiology 5 has become a forum for scholarly debate, criticism, and creativity (nabhan et al. 2011). this interdisciplinary-turn has been shaped by an awareness of the fact that human-environment relations are complex and dynamic and require a “spectrum of approaches” to garner well-rounded understandings of social and ecological phenomena (gavin et al. 2015:140; saslis-lagoudakis and clarke 2013). research in ethnobiology must also continue to address wide scholarly audiences to ensure that its relevance for addressing global environmental concerns is not overlooked (wolverton 2013). in this paper, i direct my commentary towards anthropologists, archaeologists, geographers, political ecologists, philosophers, and conservation biologists alike, a readership united by the cross-disciplinary “bridge” of ethnobiology (nabhan 2009:3). however, i focus in particular on the ethnographic endeavour. i revisit theoretical critiques, internal to my home discipline of anthropology, to consider the place of participant observation in contemporary ethnobiological scholarship. i discuss the methodological, ethical, and analytical challenges of attempting to document cases of dynamite fishing and other related phenomena of pressing environmental concern. in particular, i express apprehension about the potential for ethnographers to contribute to the formation and maintenance of environmental narratives. i am deeply interested in demarcating space for participant observation as a concrete method in “conservation social science” (bennett et al. 2017:93)1. however, i remain critical of the extent to which ethnographers can become implicated in the production of what james clifford (1986) refers to in writing culture as “partial truths” (clifford 1986:1, 7). while the majority of this paper is reflexive in scope, i ultimately contend in my concluding section that there is value in taking an ethnographic approach to documenting dynamite fishing and other related phenomena. accurately and thoughtfully representing ecologically destructive practices is a challenging task, but can be beneficial if ethnographers are able to understand the webs of meaning in which their subjects are “suspended” (geertz 1973:5). ethnography and ethnobiology wyndham (2009) discusses the benefits of taking an ethnographic approach in the field of ethnobiology, highlighting the ways that ethnography can invoke the “subtle ecologies of everyday experience,” or the inter -relational spheres and “lines of interaction” that exist between humans, landscapes, and other forms of life (wyndham 2009:272). certainly, long-term participant observation of everyday life offers a unique form of scholarly insight. malinowski’s (1922) famous approach to moving “off the verandah” and into the village is fundamental to the discipline of anthropology. as malinowski (1922) showed, doing fieldwork in situ is an essential step in attempting “to grasp the native’s point of view, his relation to life, to realize his vision of his world” (malinowski 1922:25). within the field of ethnobiology, participant observation has many methodological advantages. it enables researchers to directly observe what people do, rather than what they say they do. furthermore, gathered data is organic and intertwined with everyday activities and not shaped by artificial methodological constructs. put simply, participant observation can be an essential tool for any field researcher who seeks to understand exactly what is going on in a given setting. unlike subtle ecologies, however, dynamite fishing is acute and visibly jarring, and consequently demands a different form of ethnographic engagement. participant observation in the context of dynamite fishing can be a risky endeavour both physically and politically. even the boldest of ethnographers may be forced to forgo favret-saada’s (2012:437) notion of an embodied form of participation observation that is “outside” of representation and “inside” of experience while off the verandah, ethnographers may have to settle for on the beach, rather than in the boat with stick of dynamite in hand. in such cases, an interpretive approach is essential. entering the muddy waters of interpretation as we turn our attentions towards ecologically destructive practices, we must remain cognizant of the raycraft. 2018. ethnobiology letters 9(2):289–298 291 perspectives politics surrounding our contributions to discourses of environmental degradation; the further we stray into applied environmental arenas, the greater the gravity of our attempts to grapple with the “crisis of representation” that has troubled ethnographers since the interpretive turn (marcus and fischer 1986:7). if we are to also situate contemporary environmental anthropology in relation to the post-structural turn in political ecology, we must also attend to the ways in which nature is socially and politically produced (escobar 1999; latour 2004). narrative representations of the environment can contribute to the reification of new nature/society hybrids, processes which can benefit select few, at the expense of many (fairhead and leach 1995; raffles 1999). narratives are inherently political, and as such, we can never overlook the relationships between representation and power. in many ways, this paper raises more questions than answers. my ethnographic experiences have led me to reconsider my own positionality in attempting to discuss these topics with some semblance of authority. one of my recurrent concerns is how do we, as ethnographers, negotiate ambiguity? as blaikie (1989) points out, attempts to elucidate the drivers of social and environmental change are often shrouded in uncertainty. as ethnographers with refined observational skillsets, we are often highly attuned to the visible dimensions of social life. but which components of our field sites are we truly seeing? where are our blind spots located? literature in political ecology reminds us that the observable social dimensions of micro-localities are embedded within wider multi-scalar and multi-temporal political and economic arenas, which frame individual subjectivities and behaviors, and ultimately, the trajectories of social and environmental change (see for example boelens et al. 2016). often our interlocutors are unwilling to openly discuss their engagements in illegal or prohibited activities, out of fear of facing repercussions for their transgressions. in such cases, the narrative accounts that we can elicit from respondents via interviews and focus group discussions are less revealing than our own observations of their behaviours. but such forms of observation often demand a degree of discreteness on behalf of the ethnographer. what are the ethical terrains of covert observational tactics? sometimes, we are simply not able to gain access to the social worlds of illegal activities. in such cases, we must make our interpretations from a safe distance, based only on what we can observe. but there is danger in venturing into the muddy waters of interpretation. without insights into the true intentionality behind peoples’ social actions, we as ethnographers run the risk of projecting our own schemata and conceptual frameworks onto the social phenomena that we observe. if we carefully consider geertz’s (1973) and ryle’s (1971) notion of “thick description,” we realize that ethnography is not simply about describing detailed social scenes, but attempting to systematically explicate the layers of meaning that underlie the intentionality behind social action (see geertz 1973:6-7). without insights into the ways in which people make sense of their surroundings and lived environments, we may actively cast shadows over constituent parts of the whole picture. after all, even the most beautifully crafted ethnographies, imbued with seamlessly articulated logical reasoning, can quite simply be wrong 2. how do we as ethnographers decide which narratives are afforded authority, and in such cases of mutual exclusivity, which ones are marginalized? narratives often function to make complex problems seem more manageable (fairhead and leach 1995). however, despite our best attempts to create order from disorder, variability and unpredictability often reign supreme. the reality, of course, is that in most cases of social and environmental change, we are dealing with complexity that supersedes the comprehensiveness of singularized narratives (blaikie 1989). an attempt to unpack the drivers of dynamite fishing in coastal tanzania, for example, demands attention to the multiplicity of narratives at play, some of which exist in harmonious polyphonies, and others that are set in direct conflict with each other (see katikiro and mahenge 2016). as ethnographers who must operate under perpetual conditions of uncertainty and ambiguity, we must make conscious decisions about which stories we choose to legitimize through our scholarly writing. morality and positionality the complex moral conundrums that arise while doing ethnography are certainly familiar across ethnobiological fields. while ethnobiology is multidisciplinary and diverse, one of its unifying tenets is its emphasis on ethics (gilmore and eshbaugh 2011; hardison and bannister 2011). it is a field that demands reflexive attention to how various agents are involved in acquiring and mobilizing environmental raycraft. 2018. ethnobiology letters 9(2):289–298 292 perspectives knowledge (hunn 2014). if there exists an “ethnobiological perspective,” it is one that is thoughtful and situated (wolverton et al. 2014:125). as scholarship in environmental justice demonstrates, moral terrains (webs of value associated with place) are layered and inter-relational (see figueroa and waitt 2008, 2010). these sets of values exist relative to the approaches of local communities, scientific disciplines, and individual researchers (see wolverton et al. 2016). such considerations bring up significant questions about the ways in which ethnographers should position themselves in discussions about ecologically destructive practices. certainly, we must retain our ethical responsibilities to protect the interests of the human subjects with whom we work. this is particularly important in contexts where people are engaging in illegal activities that could subject them to direct punishments from governing authorities. this is further complicated by the fact that the stories that subjects share with ethnographers may diverge tremendously from the public accounts forwarded by conservationists and state officials. in the case of my fieldwork, villagers told stories of environmental injustice and livelihood insecurity (see also kamat 2014). the marine park’s top-down governance structure and restrictive conservation regulations engendered widespread experiences of socioeconomic vulnerability and political marginalization. given the ethical responsibilities that i, as an anthropologist, have to my subjects, should this not feature prominently into the narrative account that i produce? as hunn (2014:149) reminds us, long-term participant observation with communities often instills an “intense emotional engagement” with our subjects, and a desire to “deflect those social, economic, and political forces that would undermine the foundations of their lives and livelihoods”. in contexts where local communities face significant political marginalization and must bear the costs associated with environment change, the importance of integrating the moral terrains of communities into research is paramount (gilmore and young 2012). engagement with these sets of values can open “moral gateways” that pave the way for social and environmental change that is beneficial for local communities (waitt et al. 2007:261). even so, collaboration is never simple. such an approach demands “rigor and self-reflexivity” given its potential to privilege the views of some people, and ignore those of others (gilmore and young 2012:24). such processes can serve to replicate pre-existing inequalities or even create new divisions within and across communities. and what about the other subjects who inhabit the world? if i am, for a moment, to entertain viveiros de castro’s (1998) multinaturalist notion that the world comprises a diversity of persons, both human and non-human, who wield a universal capacity for subjective apprehension, do i not have a duty to consider the impacts of dynamite fishing on affected wildlife? as an increasing number of scholars (see for example bubandt and tsing 2018; gan et al. 2018; ghosh 2016; haraway 2016; kohn 2013; latour 2004; tsing 2015) turn their attentions towards the entanglements of life on earth in the current anthropocene, do we not have a wider moral imperative to consider the destructive impacts of these activities on other nonhuman beings? what about my own personal dispositions, not as an anthropologist, but as an individual? i wield my own moral compass, my own sets of interests, and of course, my own concerns. i am, above all else, partial in my stances on most matters. hunn (2014:149), for example, describes how his own inclinations as “an avid birder” came to shape his relationships with his subjects while living in the field. as a passionate scuba diver, i feel a very strong visceral reaction to the sight of someone tossing a stick of dynamite into a coral reef ecosystem. i cannot help but think about the potentially irreparable damage such behaviours can have on coral substrates. i imagine what the blastdamaged reefs look like beneath the surface of the ocean. as an individual and as a diver, i consider dynamite fishing to be devastating. difficulties in representing the drivers of dynamite fishing in some ways, the narrative is simple, and in other ways, it is complex. i can clearly situate myself on the side of the moral fence that opposes dynamite fishing. in relation to this basic ethical stance, i could carve out a research regime aimed at unpacking the drivers of dynamite fishing, so as to contribute to attempts to stop it. but even this is an immensely complicated pursuit. dynamite fishing, after all, is not a homogenous process. it occurs in several different forms throughout coastal tanzania. in northern tanzania, dynamite fishers are often from “influential” and politically well-connected families, enabling them to avoid significant repercussions if their boats are raycraft. 2018. ethnobiology letters 9(2):289–298 293 perspectives intercepted by authorities (wells 2009:22). in the kilwa district, dynamite fishers are often financed by powerful elites who provide funding for boats, fridges, and dynamite (guard and masaiganah 1997). this model involves “ice boats,” which are used to transport dynamite catches back to dar es salaam via high speed motorboats, equipped with insulated ice coolers (guard and masaiganah 1997:759). walley (2004:55) describes a similar trend near mafia island. in the mtwara region of southeastern tanzania, the model can be quite different. there, young dynamite fishers often operate in pairs, out of dug-out canoes (darwall and guard 2000)3. in general, these young men are not particularly invested in fisheries for livelihood and likely view dynamite fishing as a means of securing a better life for themselves and their families. after all, dynamite can be purchased quite cheaply “from known dealers,” who acquire it from roadside construction projects or quarries (see guard and masaiganah 1997:761). compared to other fishing methods, dynamite fishing can result in significantly larger catches. thus, it offers an immediate opportunity to generate significant profits with little start-up capital. these three models of dynamite fishing differ in terms of the underlying localities of power that drive the practice. the former two are driven by wellconnected elites, the latter, by marginalized people living on the political periphery of the state. even these brief descriptions constitute gross oversimplifications. in attempting to document acute cases of dynamite fishing, important questions arise as to the extent to which we should emphasize agency or structural constraints in our interpretations and explanations of causality. in reflecting on my time spent living in a coastal village in rural mtwara, i recall a conversation i had with an individual one evening, as we sat beneath a neem tree, sipping our cups of chai. juma4 was born in the commercial capital of dar es salaam, but had been living in mtwara for some time, given its proximity to the coastal border with mozambique, where he conducted an informal trading business. as we sat together, he described to me his ambition to set up a mile-long, fine-mesh gill net by anchoring two large boats off the shores of the beach and stretching the net between them. he explained excitedly how he would leave the net in place for weeks at a time and that he could only imagine the vast numbers of fish that he would be able to catch. he clapped his hands together enthusiastically as he thought aloud about the considerable profits he would make from selling these imagined catches in the main market in mtwara town. admittedly, i was rather taken aback by his proposition, as i considered the vivid juxtaposition between this form of destructive fishing and the large-scale marine conservation effort that was ongoing inside the marine park’s catchment area. curious, i asked him whether the hypothetical fear of repercussions would deter him from ever acting on his ambitious plan. to this, he replied quite simply: “it’s worth the risk! i’ll be rich5!” his response to this question highlights a simple consideration that cannot be overlooked: that there are significant material benefits for people to fish in destructive ways. such potential economic gains can motivate people to openly transgress fishing gear regulations, despite the potential repercussions of doing so. as he alludes to, the possible payoffs associated with the activity often justify the risk of being caught and punished by park rangers or other governing authorities. from an observer’s standpoint, it is easy to simply attribute these material motivations to greed. such an interpretation of this individuals’ motivations, however, runs the risk of overemphasizing the psychological dimensions of his ambition, while myopically obscuring the structural factors that have influenced his way of thinking. his set of values is embedded in a neoliberal socioeconomic and political landscape that emphasizes the responsibility of individual citizens to take measures to safeguard their own security, health and well-being. destructive fishing provides a potentially rapid route for individuals to accumulate capital that can be used to secure the basic resources that are necessary for subsistence. this individual’s life had been directly shaped by poverty. as a young boy, he had dropped out of school to work on the streets of dar es salaam, where he would buy and sell dvds for a miniscule profit; he would use these profits to buy milk and bread. since then, he has continued to engage in informal business ventures and petty roadside trading in the absence of accessible formal employment opportunities. put simply, the economic structures that have shaped the trajectory of his life have led him to consider destructive fishing as a feasible livelihood option to earn an income and escape the grips of poverty. this individual’s story elucidates the importance of situating cases of ecologically destructive practices in relation to the political and economic conditions that frame individual decision-making (see raycraft raycraft. 2018. ethnobiology letters 9(2):289–298 294 perspectives 2018). disentangling the rational cost-benefit analyses of individual actors from the structural constraints on agency engendered by conditions of extreme poverty is very challenging. often, the line between those individuals motivated by the prospect of excessive profits and those who are engaging in short-term survival strategies for basic subsistence is difficult to demarcate from the perspective of a detached observer. given the relative lack of formal employment opportunities for uneducated people living in rural tanzania, however, the structural economic drivers of destructive fishing cannot be overlooked. this is especially true in rural mtwara, where poverty is particularly widespread. furthermore, we cannot disregard the fact that landscapes are both material and symbolic (moore 1998). when ecologically destructive practices take place inside the boundaries of protected areas, we must consider the extent to which such acts of transgression reflect simple attempts to fulfil basic material needs or whether they constitute politically charged acts of resistance. to add further ambiguity, how do we effectively describe contexts where moral economies of subsistence blur the lines between livelihood practices and acts intended to facilitate political mobility? david hoffman (2014) and george holmes (2007) have effectively applied james scott’s (1985) work on everyday forms of resistance in their analyses of the reasons why people engage in both subtle forms of foot-dragging and overt forms of protest in response to conservation projects. to what extent does the visibility of these actions relate to their political undertones? acts undertaken at night avoid direct surveillance, enabling actors to mitigate potential repercussions from governing authorities (scott 1985). those which occur in broad daylight could reflect more open forms of protest. when an act of dynamite fishing occurs in broad daylight, within the catchment area of a marine park, is it simply an exploitative act aimed at generating profits? or could we consider it an overt act of protest, given its public visibility, and the meanings it holds in relation to the conservation regulations intended to restrict the practice? as katikiro and mahenge (2016:10) suggest, some fishers in tanzania may “use illegal and destructive fishing methods to secure control over resources”. this to me speaks to the importance of geertzian (1973:9) attempts to differentiate the twitch-like acts, driven by basic material motivations, from the “winks upon winks upon winks” that carry layers of symbolic meaning in relation to social and political context. multidimensionality and multidirectionality this consideration serves as an important reminder of the fact that human-environment relations are inherently multidimensional (lepofsky et al. 2017). turner and berkes (2006) note that there are multiple, multi-scalar pathways through which people come to understand and relate to the environment; people acquire environmental knowledge in myriad ways and environmental practices emerge over time. without attending to inter-relational processes of learning and knowledge acquisition, ethnographic interpretation becomes even more murky. attempting to document the “multidimensionality” of human-environment relations in a manner that is respectful, accurate and ethically grounded is deeply challenging (lepofsky et al. 2017:449). as an observer of dynamite fishing, i was forced to form a mental narrative with little triangulation from the perspectives of the dynamite fishers and other involved agents. in writing about such an experience, it became particularly challenging to address diverse moral terrains, especially those which remained unknown to me. this methodological critique is not new. as malinowski (1922:3–4) wrote almost a century ago, “in ethnography, the distance is often enormous between the brute material of information—as it is presented to the student in his own observations, in native statement, in the kaleidoscope of tribal life— and the final authoritative presentation of the results”. in my case, the “kaleidoscope” of interwoven moral terrains underlying dynamite fishing was very difficult to explicate. these were further complicated by limits on the duration of my fieldwork, my modest linguistic skills, and my background as a scuba diver. anthropology itself is a discipline wrought with conflict—at once seeking an object of study, while constantly adapting to shifting moral positionalities (rabinow 2007). for ethnographers, such tensions can invoke deeply transformative self-reflexive critiques, highlighting the multidirectionality of ethnobiological scholarship. attempts to arrive at ethnographic truths demand philosophical attention to the range of ethical possibilities associated with doing fieldwork. perhaps the most meaningful insights gained through ethnography are the internal contradictions that arise in the mind of the ethnog raycraft. 2018. ethnobiology letters 9(2):289–298 295 perspectives rapher, which complicate singular narratives and nuance explanations of causality. contradictions, after all, are deeply embedded within our global political and economic landscape. upon returning home following my fieldwork, a picture that had previously felt quite clear to me became riddled with holes in my knowledge. faced with practical questions about how property regimes and systems of tenure had changed as a result of conservation policies, i at times questioned whether i had actually grasped anything consequential at all during my fieldwork. i have since, however, come to terms with the fact that ethnographies are “bricolages,” fashioned from observable vignettes and anecdotes and woven together with a scholarly precision that perhaps does not capture the empirical messiness of social life on the ground (levi-strauss 1962:21). conclusion in thinking critically about the role of participant observation in contemporary ethnobiological scholarship, i continually return to geertz’s (1973) classic model of interpretive anthropology. despite its shortcomings and representational challenges, participant observation provides the bridge across which ethnographers can begin to understand the internal logics of their subjects’ social worlds. certainly, our own moral codes and dispositions as ethnographers should feature into our narrative representations of ecologically destructive practices. we are, after all, humans ourselves. but while we will always be subjective to some degree in our scholarly approaches, i believe that we, as social scientists, also have an unwavering responsibility to be empirically accurate. to do so, we must attempt to understand the intentionality behind observable actions and the social, structural, and psychological forces that bear upon them. to me, the essence of the ethnographic endeavour takes orbit around the fundamental need to engage in “imaginative acts” of interpretation, as we sift through the various layers of significance that influence visible behaviours (geertz 1973:15). perhaps the most meaningful ethnographic analyses of dynamite fishing and other related phenomena are those that unassumingly attempt to differentiate the “winks from twitches,” even when uncertainty renders this a seemingly impossible task (geertz 1973:16). notes 1my use of the phrase “conservation social science” here is born out of a paper by nathan bennett et al. (2016) in biological conservation, in which the authors outline the contributions of various social science disciplines to the field of conservation. 2in an extreme case, clifford (1986:28-30) discusses the controversy over florinda donner’s work “shabono,” which was considered by many within the field of anthropology to be a fabrication. 3dynamite catches in coastal mtwara are often sold directly in the markets of mtwara town. 4all subject names in this paper are pseudonyms. 5juma spoke some english, acquired through his background in informal trading. acknowledgments an earlier draft of this paper was presented at the conjoined 2017 international union of anthropological and ethnological sciences (iuaes)/ canadian anthropology society (casca) meetings in ottawa, canada. i am grateful to the panel participants for their feedback. i would also like to thank steve wolverton, whose constructive comments on the piece helped to provide analytical texture, and elizabeth olson for her editorial help in shepherding this piece towards publication. i owe special thanks to vinay kamat for his tireless support as a graduate supervisor, especially while i was conducting fieldwork. declarations permissions: ethics approval for fieldwork was issued by the ubc behavioural research ethics board (approval number h14-01713). the permit to conduct research in tanzania was issued by the tanzania commission for science and technology (costech) (research permit number 2013-240-er2008-68). sources of funding: fieldwork was supported by a joseph armand bombardier scholarship (cgs-m) from the social sciences and humanities research council of canada. the author was supported by a vanier canada graduate scholarship while preparing this article. conflicts of interest: none declared. raycraft. 2018. ethnobiology letters 9(2):289–298 296 perspectives references cited bennett, n. j., r. roth, s. c. klain, k. chan, p. christie, d. a. clark, g. cullman, d. curran, t. j. durbin, g. epstein, 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issue features the work of a diverse group of researchers employing digital techniques in zooarchaeology (a.k.a. archaeozoology). zooarchaeology is the study of animal remains in the archaeological record (e.g., bones, teeth, shells, antlers, horns, and similar tissues, as well as biomolecular remains, such as proteins and ancient dna). the study of these remains informs understanding of past human activities and human influenced environments. seven papers by eighteen authors from europe and north america showcase digital research spanning three continents that includes research on fish, mammals, and birds as well as an introspective examination of zooarchaeologists themselves. these papers emerged from a symposium at the international council for archaeozoology conference, which took place at the museo de historia natural de san rafael in mendoza, argentina in september of 2014. this gathering of the global community of zooarchaeologists offered a chance to showcase new techniques and technologies that address a variety of key research questions. improved data sharing a prominent theme explored in this special issue is the improvement of data sharing across zooarchaeological research settings and digital platforms. while ‘big-data’ approaches aim to standardize large-scale datasets, archaeologists are also realizing the im“anthropology begins with people and ends with people, but in between there is plenty of room for computers” – a quote attributed to claude lévi-strauss by eric wolf (1964:52). introduction digital techniques and technologies are an increasingly pervasive medium for ethnobiological and archaeological scholarship in the 21st century. a plethora of computational tools and information technologies are constantly being developed, refined, and repurposed by anthropologically oriented researchers to better collect, assess, and advance knowledge within and beyond disciplinary boundaries. it is also the case that relatively recent digital platforms and initiatives are being abandoned at an increasing rate due to technical obsolescence or lack of funding (law and morgan 2014). keeping track of these developments is key to understanding the pace and scope of digitally enabled archaeological research. with this special issue, we intend to provide a snapshot of how researchers in this sub-field are using digital tools to address a range of problems which have broader relevance in both archaeology and ethnobiology. as famously stated in the quote above, anthropology’s abiding interest in studying human relationships can usefully involve computers and this need not detract from the discipline’s core subject matter (wells 2014). such a sensibility has broadly underwritten transformative developments in disciplinary knowledge over the past 50 years and today is well represented by several digital initiatives and approaches within the discipline of archaeology, many of which have relevance in ethnobiology. some examples from the quickly expanding archaeological data snapshots of digital scholarship in zooarchaeology: introduction to the special issue iain mckechnie1,2,3*, sarah whitcher kansa4, and steve wolverton5 author addresses: 1department of anthropology, 1218 university of oregon, eugene, or 97403, usa. 2hakai institute, department of archaeology, simon fraser university, 8888 university drive, burnaby, bc v5a 1s6, canada. 3present address: department of anthropology, university of victoria, 3800 ring road, victoria, bc, v8p 5c2, canada. 4alexandria archive institute & open context, 125 el verano way, san francisco, ca 94127, usa. 5department of geography, university of north texas, 1155 union circle 305279, denton, tx 76203, usa. *corresponding author: iim@uvic.ca received: december 15, 2015 volume: 6(2):218-223 published: december 18, 2015 © 2015 society of ethnobiology ethnobiology letters. 2015. 6(2):218‐223. doi: 10.14237/ebl.6.2.2015.556. 219 editorial special issue on digital zooarchaeology portance of quality and accuracy of data collected by different practitioners and the challenge of incompatible datasets (jones and gabe 2015). the paper by sarah kansa (2015) describes how zooarchaeologists variously collect and document their data (or fail to do so) and how this variation can be a major impediment to disciplinary progress as it inhibits collaboration between researchers and perpetuates information silos specific to individual projects. most importantly, kansa (2015) shows there is a productive solution to this conundrum that does not require imposing a single ‘best’ documentation system requiring a highly time consuming reanalysis. rather, she shows how the use of “linked open data” and data editing make it possible to integrate taxonomic and taphonomic data from diverse sources without compromising the original specificity of a particular database or altering vital internal structure of an individual dataset. such a careful cross referencing takes considerable effort, attentiveness, and quality control, but once designed, strengthens the potential for data to be scaled up for a given region. this initiative has the potential to enable comparisons between a large number of existing databases without learning project-specific code. kansa specifically discusses an example where this was successful across a large group of independent zooarchaeologists conducting research in turkey (arbuckle et al. 2014). the study is part of the larger open context project6, which is demonstrating the benefits of designing digital systems that can reconcile a diverse range of highly specific disciplinary terminologies. in an era where researchers face a burgeoning legacy of zooarchaeological information, there is a crucial need for attentiveness to incorporating previously compiled datasets and ensuring these retain as much detail as possible. this approach has implications beyond the confines of zooarchaeology in that it is relevant for comparing similarly diverse ethnobiological data such as cultural and linguistic taxonomies of plant and animal species. the paper by bruce manzano et al. (2015) employs 3d scanning and printing to produce lifesized representations of skeletal elements for two rarely identified animal species: the passenger pigeon (ectopistes migratorius) and a fish colloquially referred to as the ‘harelip sucker’ (moxostoma lacerum). as manzano and colleagues describe, both species have considerable significance in conservation biology and environmental management but are poorly identified from zooarchaeological contexts. this is unlikely to be a result of a lack of archaeological occurrences but rather, a reflection of the rarity of skeletal specimens in comparative collections with which to identify archaeofaunal remains. such rarity is well known for the passenger pigeon, which was a famously prodigious bird throughout north america before its extinction in the early 20th century (greenberg 2014). however, the harelip sucker is a less prominent species that had a similarly pervasive and ecologically important distribution in rivers and streams throughout southeastern north america. the species became extinct during the industrial and agricultural transformation of waterways in the midwest and southeast, likely due to increased turbidity. it is notable that the disappearance of both species coincides with habitat loss associated with the expansion of industrial agriculture. this particular research contribution represents a vital step in stimulating greater awareness of these particular species within zooarchaeology, thereby adding to a growing body of literature highlighting the merits of zooarchaeological data in historical ecology and conservation biology (e.g., kittinger et al. 2014; lyman and cannon 2004; wolverton and lyman 2012). improved data collection another theme explored in this special issue is a concern with improved digital data collection in zooarchaeology. the contribution by stella macheridis (2015) explores the role that photogrammetry (or 3d photography) has for interpretive spatial analyses of faunal remains deposited in household contexts at ҫatalhöyük, a large early argricultural settlement and unesco world heritage site in turkey. macheridis shows how repeat photography processed through commercially available software can produce three dimensional color visualizations of specific features within an archaeological site undergoing excavation. she walks readers, step-by-step, through digital documentation producing a three-dimensional, highresolution photographic model that allows researchers to consider numerous important spatial variables during analysis. this includes the orientation of zooarchaeological remains, their spatial proximity within site features and among skeletal specimens, to integration of vertical and horizontal provenience data that can be considered in reference to other features and artifacts. such modeling provides an effective means to reconstruct feature contexts after excavation, a time consuming process that holds important potential for taphonomy and architectural reconstruction. ethnobiology letters. 2015. 6(2):218‐223. doi: 10.14237/ebl.6.2.2015.556. 220 editorial special issue on digital zooarchaeology the paper by flint dibble (2015) details the use of bar coding software to increase the efficiency and accuracy of zooarchaeological data collection, enabling an efficient transition from field to lab to data generation. dibble has developed a versatile data collection system that promises to make zooarchaeological data collection more efficient using a relatively inexpensive setup consisting of barcode scanners, thermal printers, standard database software (ms access), as well as a tablet computer. barcodes are paired with labels involving clearly typed provenience information, streamlining data entry and minimizing transcription errors. speech recognition software and anatomical visualizations of osteological elements can further speed data entry. as a result, dibble’s data collection tool allows analysts to spend more time actually identifying bones. despite the upfront investment required for adopting such a system, this approach reaps time saving benefits and enables more sophisticated spatial and quantitative analyses. this parallels several other initiatives in archaeology that take advantage of available technology for improved information management (e.g., austin 2014; fee et al. 2013; parker and eldridge 2014). improving analytical capacity perhaps because zooarchaeologists comprise a small global community, they have become adept at employing technical tools from other disciplines to improve analytical capacity in their own. this special issue boasts two distinct contributions from researchers drawing on technical tools from the medical sciences, examining the potential for 3-dimensional characterizations of skeletal elements on a microscopic level. the paper by francesco boschin et al. (2015) uses microct scanning to characterize the changes to mammalian bone that occur during burning at high temperatures (above 600 °c), while the paper by moretti et al. (2015) investigates the cross-sectional variability in cutmarks produced by different types of stone tools. boschin et al.’s (2015) microct research represents a technical advance to the long history in zooarchaeological research on burning as a taphonomic process that changes the characteristics of bone and archaeological interpretations that hinge on such observations (lyman 1994). numerous studies have characterized color changes in bone at various temperatures (e.g., david 1990; shipman 1988). the work that boschin and colleagues present uses higher resolution data to confirm previous studies on changes in bone structure associated with burning, such as recrystallization (munro et al. 2007; stiner et al. 1995). they use this increased resolution as an opportunity to revisit specific questions such as how to determine whether or not dark (or light) coloration of bone is due to initial burning (i.e., during the biostratinomic phase of taphonomic histories) or from staining during burial (i.e., the diagenetic phase). these types of taphonomic research problems are critical to large scale questions concerning the origin of certain forms of human behavior and are also relevant outside of archaeology in the realm of forensics (herrmann and bennett 1999). the authors provide imagery of the types of microstructural changes that occur with burning at different temperatures; their research represents a step forward in that it shows how a new tool can examine and distinguish the effects of both ‘natural’ (diagenetic) and cultural processes (e.g., active burning). these three dimensional scans have the potential to be shared online and examined further from different perspectives. indeed, researchers are increasingly placing such 3d models online for subsequent analysis and replication (e.g., berger, et al. 2015; maschner, et al. 2011). the paper by erika moretti et al. (2015) uses 3d microscopy to analyze experimental cut marks on animal bones and characterize how tool types, as well as the application of force that created the cut, influence the nature of cut marks on bones. here they employ an experimental archaeology approach, using modern animal bones in order to inform the analysis of ancient cut marks on bones from a palaeolithic archaeological site in grotta paglicci, italy. the authors produced cut marks on modern animal bones with various stone tools; by analyzing the marks with a 3d digital microscope, they were able to make a highly detailed comparison of metrics and profile data on the micro-morphology of the cut marks. this work reveals analytical power of such microscopic analyses, enabling precise quantification of extremely small mark dimensions and numerous cross sectional profiles within a single cut mark. their results indicate that this approach is especially useful for distinguishing between different lithic tool types; however, it is more difficult to determine the type of motion used to make the cuts and whether the cuts were made on fresh, boiled, or dry bone. this work demonstrates the promise of combining experimental zooarchaeology with 3d microscopic analysis and raises numerous other avenues for future research projects utilizing this technology. ethnobiology letters. 2015. 6(2):218‐223. doi: 10.14237/ebl.6.2.2015.556. 221 editorial special issue on digital zooarchaeology improving understanding of disciplinary practitioners zooarchaeology, indeed archaeology, ethnobiology, and scholarly research in general, has long explored the changing demographics of science and academia (e.g., bardolph 2014; wolverton et al. 2015; wyndham et al. 2011). clearly the demographic profile of zooarchaeology is expanding and changing, which is coincident with shifting gender representation in graduate programs in anthropology and archaeology (e.g., american anthropological association 2015; lazar et al. 2014). suzanne pilaar birch (2015) provides a detailed analysis of the current state of zooarchaeology, whose sub-disciplinary demographics have not been thoroughly considered since the 1990s (gifford-gonzalez 1993, 1994; zeder 1997). further, due to important improvements in digital survey technology, pilaar birch was able to solicit the survey globally, while previous efforts concentrated on the us and canada. some important trends elucidated in birch’s (2015) study include: increased representation of women in zooarchaeology but a simultaneous association with greater numbers of women in lowerincome positions; the observation that most zooarchaeologists identify themselves as “european” or “white;” and that there are regions of the world, such as the global south, in which there appear to be few active zooarchaeologists, and alternatively other highly researched regions which have few local professionals. thus, the professional profile of zooarchaeologists has much to accomplish in terms of achieving a fair and balanced representation, whether considered in terms of gender, ethnicity, and/or geography, despite that trends appear to be heading in that direction. summary collectively, the range of topics and technological applications explored in this special issue provides a current snapshot into the disciplinary interests of zooarchaeologists with respect to new digital technology. while it by no means represents a comprehensive perspective, it reveals some of the breadth of what is a very diverse and rapidly changing scholarly landscape. we are grateful to have papers in this symposium published in the society of ethnobiology’s journal ethnobiology letters, which has a broad mandate and readership and meets gold open access standards. with its focus on understanding humanenvironment relationships, the society for ethnobiology is well placed to showcase a broad range of developments that bridge studies of plants, animals and people’s concepts and uses of each. all forms of ethnobiological scholarship face challenges in organizing and comparing datasets where information limits communication across fields and perspectives. while it is difficult to keep up with developments in respective subfields in anthropology and biology, cooperation between aligned societies, such as the society of ethnobiology and the international council for archaeozoology, recognize the spirit of furthering and enriching interdisciplinary dialogue about human conditions past and present. acknowledgements we thank the individual contributors for their patience and hard work on their submissions. we are grateful to have had the support of the 2014 icaz organizing committee in argentina, particularly maria gutiérrez, gustavo neme, and luis borrero as well the society of ethnobiology for supporting the publication of this special issue in ethnobiology letters. we further thank the many anonymous reviewers and original contributors and conference participants who energized the 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the digital archaeological record: the potentials of archaeozoological data integration through tdar. saa archaeological record 11:22-25. stiner, m. c., s. kuhn, s. weiner, and o. bar-yosef. 1995. differential burning, recrystallization, and fragmentation of archaeological bone. journal of archaeological science 22:223-237. wells, j. j. 2014. keep calm and remain human: how we have always been cyborgs and theories on the technological present of anthropology. reviews in anthropology 43:5-34. wells, j. j., e. c. kansa, s. w. kansa, s. j. yerka, d. g. anderson, thaddeus g. bissett, kelsey noack myers and r. carl demuth. 2014. web-based discovery and integration of archaeological historic properties inventory data: the digital index of north american archaeology (dinaa). literary and linguistic computing 29:349-360. wolf, e. r. 1964. anthropology. prentice-hall, englewood cliffs. wolverton, a., l. nagaoka, and m. wolverton. 2015. breaking in: women’s accounts of how choices shape stem careers. stylus press, sterling, va. wolverton, s. and r. lee lyman, eds. 2012. conservation biology and applied zooarchaeology. university of arizona press, tucson. wyndham, f. s., d. lepofsky, and s. tiffany. 2011. taking stock in ethnobiology: where do we come from? what are we? where are we going? journal of ethnobiology 31:110-127. zeder, m. a. 1997. the american archaeologist: a profile. altamira press, walnut creek. notes 1digital index of north american archaeology http://alexandriaarchive.org/projects/dinaa/ (wells, et al. 2014) 2the digital archaeological record http:// core.tdar.org (spielmann and kintigh 2011) 3the archaeology data service http:// archaeologydataservice.ac.uk (richards, et al. 2011) 4canadian archaeological radiocarbon database http://www.canadianarchaeology.ca (chaput, et al. 2015) 5spatial archaeometry research collaborations http://sparc.cast.uark.edu 6www.opencontext.org biosketches iain mckechnie is a sshrc postdoctoral fellow and hakai institute scholar whose zooarchaeological research focuses on the pacific northwest coast. he is an incoming assistant professor in the department of anthropology at the university of victoria. sarah whitcher kansa directs the non-profit alexandria archive institute, working with researchers to publish open access data with open context. steve wolverton is an archaeologist and ecologist in the department of geography at the university of north texas. he is one of the founding editors of ethnobiology letters, and his research focuses on the intersections between zooarchaeology, ethnobiology, and conservation biology. “buying a pig in a poke”: the problem of elasmobranch meat consumption in southern brazil ethnobiology letters. 2015. 6(1):196-202. doi: 10.14237/ebl.6.1.2015.451. 196 research communication fisheries have large impacts on marine ecosystems worldwide (e.g. pauly et al. 2013; worm et al. 2013), with overfishing serving as the primary threat to many marine organisms, including sharks and rays (jackson et al. 2001). elasmobranch populations, however, face a variety of additional threats, including habitat degradation, pollution, and climate change (e.g. simpfendorfer et al. 2011). the estimated number of chondrichthyan fish threatened by extinction exceeds the number of birds and is comparable to mammals (dulvy et al. 2014; kyne et al. 2015). despite their ecological importance (ferretti et al. 2010; heithaus et al. 2008), sharks and rays remain an important protein source for poorer communities worldwide (wildaid 2007), with many communities in such countries as mozambique, costa rica, india, sri lanka, borneo, and brazil depending on small-scale fisheries for subsistence. on the other hand, in many countries because shark meat is viewed as a lowquality meat, unlinking the name “shark” or “ray” from the commercialized meat is frequently necessary to overcome consumer prejudice (bornatowski et al. introduction sharks, skates, and rays (elasmobranchii) are widely distributed and comprise a group of approximately 1,100 species (compagno 2005). although the number of elasmobranchs is small compared to some other groups of vertebrates, they exhibit reproductive strategies that can be quite elaborate and complex (wourms 1977), rivaling those of highly derived tetrapods (carrier et al. 2004). several reproductive characteristics of elasmobranchs, such as long generation times, slow growth rates and low reproductive rates (cahmi et al. 1998), make them especially susceptible to overexploitation (hall 1999) and extinction (dulvy et al. 2014), and there is extensive evidence of population declines for several species worldwide (heithaus et al. 2008; worm et al. 2013). these declines may have grave consequences for human populations since elasmobranchs occupy high positions in food webs and, therefore, act as important regulators of lower trophic levels and play a fundamental role in marine ecosystems (e.g. bornatowski et al. 2014a; ferretti et al. 2008; heithaus et al. 2008). “buying a pig in a poke”: the problem of elasmobranch meat consumption in southern brazil hugo bornatowski1*, raul rennó braga2, carolina kalinowski2, and jean ricardo simões vitule2 author addresses: 1instituto de pesca, avenida av. bartolomeu de gusmão, 192, santos, são paulo, 11030-906, brazil. 2laboratório de ecologia e conservação, dea, setor de tecnologia, universidade federal do paraná, curitiba 19020, brazil. *corresponding author: anequim.bio@gmail.com received: july 16, 2015 volume: 6(1):196-202 published: november 18, 2015 © 2015 society of ethnobiology abstract: in brazil, the demand for sustainably certified seafood is increasing and retailers have promised to source all seafood from sustainable sources by 2015. in the southern portion of the country, elasmobranch meat is sold as cação, and consumers are often unaware that cação refers to any type of elasmobranch. the present study used questionnaires to investigate the lay public’s knowledge of elasmobranch meat sold in a brazilian city. shoppers were surveyed at supermarkets in curitiba, the largest city in southern brazil. the study revealed that people do not link commercialized cação meat to sharks and rays (elasmobranchii), with more than half of respondents who claimed to have already eaten cação did not think they had ever eaten shark or ray. the educational profile of interviewees suggests that this lack of knowledge may be even more common in other segments of brazilian society. therefore, we suggest that ecological information about elasmobranchs should be included in brazilian elementary and high school curricula. such a measure has the potential to modify behavior, create awareness, and stimulate responsibility throughout society, with the primary goal of reducing shark meat consumption and, ultimately, guaranteeing the long term conservation of marine resources. keywords: conservation, environmental education, elasmobranchs, fisheries management, food mislabeling, supermarkets ethnobiology letters. 2015. 6(1):196-202. doi: 10.14237/ebl.6.1.2015.451. 197 research communication 2013, 2014b; vannuccini 1999). additionally, shark consumption is of great concern to human health because the meat contains high levels of heavy metals (lead and mercury) due to biomagnification (escobarsánchez et al. 2011; lopez et al. 2013; pethybridge et al. 2000). while the global shark fin trade has decreased since the 2000s, the shark meat (sharks and rays) trade increased by 42% from 2000 to 2011, with brazil being a major importer of shark meat (dent and clarke 2015). brazilian markets label shark meat as cação and restaurants also use cação rather than tubarão (shark) in identifying their dishes (bornatowski et al. 2013). consumers are often unaware that cação refers to shark and ray meat. this mislabeling may preclude people from taking healthand/or conservationrelated decisions concerning the consumption of elasmobranch meat and thus interfere with efforts to reduce consumption or redirect consumption towards non-threatened species (barbuto et al. 2010; bornatowski et al. 2013; jacquet and pauly 2008). the purpose of the present study was to investigate by means of questionnaires the lay public’s knowledge of elasmobranch meat sold as cação in a large city in southern brazil. our results highlight the poor state of knowledge in this region concerning this seafood. additionally, the study may help advance efforts to inform consumers of the threatened status of elasmobranchs. material and methods we used semi-structured questionnaires to survey 104 individuals between june and october, 2014, at supermarkets in curitiba. with 1.8 million inhabitants, curitiba is one of the ten largest cities in brazil, the largest city in the southern region, and has the fourth highest human development index in brazil (ibge 2015). it is located nearly 110 km from the atlantic ocean, and therefore is a major market for the regional marine fishery. individuals surveyed during the study were chosen from people in the fish section of the supermarkets on saturday mornings between february and october 2014. as part of the survey, we initially collected information regarding the sex, age, and education level of the interviewed person. subsequently we asked questions to evaluate consumers’ knowledge concerning shark meat. these questions were: 1) do you eat fish? 2) have you eaten cação meat? 3) have you eaten shark meat? 4) have you eaten ray meat? 5) to your knowledge, cação corresponds to which kind of animal? (more than one answer was possible: any fish species, a marine fish, a shark species, several fish species, a small or young shark, a boneless fish, and a ray species.) 6) what do you take into account when purchasing fish meat? (more than one answer was possible and the options were: health issues, environmental/ecological issues, taste, price, social issues involving fisheries, and knowledge of the meat’s origin.) 7) of the options given, which type of fish do you prefer to eat? which do you eat most frequently? (more than one answer was possible. options included portuguese common names of fish that are commonly commercialized in brazil: "salmon", "hake", "tilapia", "cação", "cod", and "flatfish".) two final questions were asked to evaluate the individual’s basic knowledge of the issues surrounding the fishing and conservation of sharks and rays: 8) why are sharks and rays fished? (more than one answer was possible and the options were: meat sale, fishing trophy, finning, meat exportation, gamefish, medicinal purpose, and to prevent shark attack.) 9) did you know that 25% of elasmobranch species are under threat of extinction? results of the 104 respondents, 57% were male and 43% female. regarding education level, 54% of respondents had an undergraduate or graduate degree, while 22% had not attained an undergraduate degree. a high degree of inconsistency was observed when comparing responses given for shark, ray, and cação meat consumption. the majority of interviewees (61%) claimed they ate cação but not shark, or ate rays but not cação (56%) (figure 1). in response to the question “cação corresponds to which kind of animal?”, 42% said that it is “a marine fish,” 27% “a shark,” 21% “a small or young shark,” and 10% “any fish species.” the question “what do you take into account when purchasing fish meat?” revealed that the choice ethnobiology letters. 2015. 6(1):196-202. doi: 10.14237/ebl.6.1.2015.451. 198 research communication of fish meat depends, mainly, on taste (100%), followed by health issues (64%), and cost of the meat (20%). only 12% indicated concern with the social issues involving fisheries. based on the question “which type of fish do you prefer to eat?”, the most preferred fish was salmon (69%), followed by tilapia (52%), and flatfish (41%). cação was the least common response (18%). the most consumed fish was salmon (66%), followed by tilapia (49%), and flatfish (23%). here again, cação was indicated least frequently (11%). in response to the question “why are sharks fished?”, 66% indicated for “meat sale,” 46% for finning, and 28% for sport fishing. additionally, 69% of respondents indicated they did not know that one quarter of elasmobranch species are under threat of extinction. discussion sharks attract attention and provoke curiosity because of their iconic nature, due in part to the fact that they are presented in the popular media as “dangerous” animals (gross 2014). it seems, however, that there is considerable resistance to shark conservation, especially among the general public. informing society about the ecological importance of sharks and rays and about the magnitude of the threat they currently face is paramount if we wish to increase the effectiveness of conservation measures by overcoming this resistance and correcting common misperceptions (simpfendorfer et al. 2011). a lack of appropriate labeling of seafood products is observed worldwide and threatens the society and ecological segments (barbuto et al. 2010; jacquet and pauly 2008; lamendin et al. 2015). fish names are commonly replaced or adulterated by the fisheries and food industries, and people are often not capable of distinguishing between taxa because the meat is sliced and packaged prior to sale (barbuto et al. 2010; lamendin et al. 2015). fraudulent representation or mislabeling of fish, including sharks and rays, has been recorded in some countries (e.g. barbuto et al. 2010; jacquet and pauly 2008; lamendin et al. 2015; smith and benson 2001; wong and hanner 2008), highlighting the impacts on the figure 1. questions that assessed the knowledge of respondents about shark/ray and cação meat consumption in southern brazil. 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 eat cação but not shark/ray eat shark/ray and cação eat neither shark/ray nor cação eat shark/ray but not cação fr eq ue nc y (% ) shark ray 63 58 20 25 19 17 2 4 ethnobiology letters. 2015. 6(1):196-202. doi: 10.14237/ebl.6.1.2015.451. 199 research communication economy and ecosystem services (jacquet and pauly 2008). the present study reveals that in the city of curitiba, southern brazil, many people do not link commercialized cação meat with sharks and rays. furthermore, about half of respondents who reported having eaten cação did not think they had ever eaten shark or ray. this inconsistency in fish consumers’ responses demonstrates that they perceive cação to be some other type of marine fish. however, it was unclear as to which species that might be. the high level of education of interviewed people raises concern given that the scenario for the whole country might be even worse. intentionally or not, attaching the name cação to any shark species (and to some rays) in commercial contexts in southern brazil may impose a barrier to conservation measures addressing consumption of protected shark species (jacquet and pauly 2008). according to the brazilian consumer protection code (nº 8078/1990) (brasil 1990), misleading product descriptions is a crime. responses regarding consumers’ fish preferences demonstrate that despite being identified as cação to overcome consumer resistance on eating elasmobranch meat, it was still among the least preferred fish. thus, correct labeling of elasmobranch meat as shark or ray could reduce its consumption in brazil even further. on the other hand, because our results come from highly educated supermarket shoppers, as shown by our results on education level, in a large city in southern brazil, further research is necessary to evaluate the consumption preferences of other cities and regions, as well as other segments of the brazilian population. for example, as documented in other parts of the world (wildaid 2007), poorer communities in some coastal regions in brazil may rely more on shark meat as a cost effective protein source than was documented in our study. actions taken to educate the lay public about the importance of shark conservation may not be effective in reducing the demand for shark meat and fins from the fisheries industry (dell'apa et al. 2014); this failure contributes to the continuation of high fishing pressure on sharks and rays (dent and clark 2015; dulvy et al. 2014). this conclusion is corroborated by our results regarding what consumers take into account when choosing fish meat. considering that nearly 20% of respondents expressed concern about environmental problems, increasing awareness of the ecological problems faced by sharks and rays might stimulate some people to avoid eating shark meat. however, some people may continue to eat cação if they are unaware that this word refers to shark meat. therefore, certification programs such as the marine stewardship council (msc) and eco-labels, may help the consumers to choose more sustainable seafood products (jacquet and pauly 2008; lamendin et al. 2015; sampson et al. 2015; von der heyden et al. 2010). the establishment of speciesspecific commodity codes can facilitate trade monitoring of protected species, and also inform end consumers. seven elasmobranchs were listed in the 2013 convention on international trade in endangered species of wild fauna and flora cites conference of parties (cop16) (i.e. lamna nasus bonnaterre lamnidae, carcharhinus longimanus poey carcharhinidae, sphyrna lewini griffith & smith sphyrnidae, s. zygaena linnaeus sphyrnidae, s. mokarran rüppell sphyrnidae, and manta spp. bancroft mobulidae). these species are found in southern brazilian waters. with cites oversight, the international trade of these species should only take place if the meat is shown to be obtained legally and sustainability. knowledge of this should be available to consumers. ecological information provided through educational campaigns can promote long-term changes in people's awareness, environmental knowledge and attitude development (cooke et al. 2013; farmer et al. 2007; van der ploeg et al. 2010). on the other hand, the failure to engage the public in conservation and management issues can impede efforts to stem the biodiversity loss (cooke et al. 2013). therefore, we suggest that ecological information about sharks and rays, their role in ecosystems, and the risks to human health associated with their consumption due to high levels of heavy metals should be included in brazilian elementary and high school curricula. such a measure has the potential to modify behavior, create awareness, and stimulate responsibility throughout society, with the primary goal of reducing shark meat consumption and, ultimately, guaranteeing the long term conservation of marine resources. unfortunately, because of the rapid decline of several shark populations worldwide, there is an urgent need for conservation actions (dulvy et al. 2014). thus, prompt implementation of labeling and educational campaigns is required to inform consumers which animals they are consuming and what are the associated risks. for instance, successful education ethnobiology letters. 2015. 6(1):196-202. doi: 10.14237/ebl.6.1.2015.451. 200 research communication campaigns in the philippines transformed people’s attitudes concerning crocodile conservation and led to the elimination of intentional crocodile killing (van der ploeg et al. 2010). modifying the behavior of all segments of elasmobranch commerce is essential for preventing ecological and social consequences (jacquet and pauly 2008). a key step in achieving such changes could be consumer pressure resulting from greater consumer awareness about the risks of consuming inadequately identified products. potentially, this would cause supermarkets to buy only identified fish meat, which would in turn lead to the need for fish specialists to be present on fisheries landings. in addition, inspection by the brazilian institute of environment and renewable natural resources (ibama) should reinforce the supervision upon markets and sellers, especially after the recent publication, which identifies approximately 39% of chondrichthyan species as threatened in brazil (peres et al. 2013). finally, the overall high educational profile of participants in our study suggests that lack of knowledge concerning cação may be even more common in segments of brazilian society with lower education levels and other socioeconomic indicators. the next step should be conducting investigations about elasmobranch knowledge and consumption in other regions of brazil. although many consumers may be willing to consider the conservation consequences of their daily actions and food consumption, our study suggests they currently lack information necessary for making such decisions. acknowledgments we thank dr. james nienow for reviewing our english. declarations permissions: none declared. sources of funding: bornatowski was supported by the são paulo research foundation grants (fapesp, process number 2013/25930-0); kalinowski was supported by the national council for scientific and technological development (cnpq); braga was supported financially by the coordination for the improvement of higher education personnel (capes); vitule was supported financially by the national council for scientific and technological development (cnpq). conflicts of interest: none declared. references barbuto, m., a. galimberti, e. ferri, m. labra, r. malandra, p. galli and m. casiraghi. 2010. dna barcoding reveals fraudulent substitutions in shark 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40:194-204. wong, e.h.k. and r. hanner. 2008. dna barcoding detects market substitution in north american seafood. food research international 41:828-837. wourms, j.p. 1977. reproduction and development in chondrichthyan fishes. american zoologist 17:379– 410. biosketches hugo bornatowski works with biology and ecology of elasmobranchs. his research is focused on food webs and trophic modelling. raul rennó braga is a ph.d. candidate conducting research on fish biology and ecology. he is particularly interested in aquatic invasions and trophic interactions. carolina kalinowski is an undergraduate student interested in studies of elasmobranchs. jean ricardo simões vitule is professor of zoology at the universidade federal do paraná. his research is focused fish ecology, especially aquatic invasions. genotoxic profile and morphological variation of the amanita rubescens complex: traditional knowledge for safe consumption in mexico hernández-rico et al. 2019. ethnobiology letters 10(1):76–85 76 research communications 2001; montoya et al. 2003, 2014). traditional collectors’ criteria for identification of edible mushrooms are based on form, color, consistency, habitat, developmental stage, and season (guzmán 1999; hernández-rico 2011; hung et al. 2015; jiménez-gonzález et al. 2013; montoya et al. 2003; romero-bautista 2007). however, there have been reported cases of poisoning associated with misidentification by inexpert consumers, who possess inaccurate or insufficient knowledge (hernández-rico 2011). in general, identification criteria to distinguish edible from poisonous species seem to rest not on detailed recognition of the second set but precise knowledge of the first (ruan-soto 2018). some authors suggest that edible mushrooms in the amanita rubescens complex in north america introduction mushrooms are outstanding for their diversity and traditional uses that provide economic, cultural, and nutritional benefits. as a result, there is abundant traditional knowledge concerning mushrooms’ nomenclature, ecology, management, use, conservation, and identification (bandala et al. 2014; gry and anderson 2014; mariaca-méndez et al. 2001). mushroom consumption in mexico is regionally variable with preferences for some local species that are found in traditional markets: amanita aff. caesarea, a. rubescens, boletus edulis, cantharellus cibarius, lactarius indigo, morchella esculenta, ramaria sp., russula brevipes, and ustilago maydis, among others (bandala et al. 1997; estrada-martínez et al. 2009; herrera and guzmán 1961; mariaca-méndez et al. genotoxic profile and morphological variation of the amanita rubescens complex: traditional knowledge for safe consumption in mexico griselda nallely hernández-rico1, pablo octavio-aguilar1*, roberto garibay-orijel2, and leticia romero-bautista1 1centro de investigaciones biológicas, universidad autónoma del estado de hidalgo, mineral de la reforma, hidalgo, méxico. 2laboratorio de sistemática y ecología de micorrizas, instituto de biología, universidad nacional autónoma de méxico, coyoacán, méxico. *pablo_aguilar9900@uaeh.edu.mx abstract wild mushrooms are important to the nutritional health and economic subsistence of rural populations in mexico, but inaccurate identification of mushrooms has led to reported cases of poisoning. the aim of this study is to establish genotoxic profiles of mushrooms of the putative amanita rubescens complex and to link those profiles with morphological attributes that suggest a correct identification of mushrooms, in order to prevent poisoning. several combinations of amplification products (ama, pha, pop1, and pop2 genes) were identified in a. rubescens fungi sold in traditional markets; these genes are related to the presence of toxic polypeptides and its enzymatic regulators. the sequences correspond to a previously reported toxic gene family (msdim). all samples with the complete toxic gene profile presented reddish to dark-brown sporomes; this is the only attribute that visually distinguishes samples with toxic potential. our results suggest that the mushrooms sold in traditional mexican markets do not correspond to the a. rubescens complex. we conclude that morphological variability allows for identification of edible and inedible mushrooms. received february 7, 2018 open access accepted may 23, 2019 doi 10.14237/ebl.10.1.2019.1259 published september 4, 2019 keywords ethnomycology, genotoxic profile, edible mushrooms, α-amanitin, phallacidin copyright © 2019 by the author(s); licensee society of ethnobiology. this is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution-noncommercial 4.0 international public license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0), which permits non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. supplementary files available at ojs.ethnobiology.org/index.php/ebl/article/view/1259 hernández-rico et al. 2019. ethnobiology letters 10(1):76–85 77 research communications constitute different taxa than the european species or cryptic (morphologically similar but genetically distinct) species (tulloss and lindgren 1994), which probably have different toxic profiles. most of the toxins in amanita have been studied and described, with α-amanitin (blocks protein synthesis) and phallacidin (hepatoand nephrotoxic), which are both in the msdim toxic gene family (anderl et al. 2012), as identified by their effects and general location at the genus level. however, it is unknown whether the edible amanitas, such as those belonging to the a. rubescens complex, have genes associated with the expression of α-amanitin and phallacidin but less toxic allelic variants that make them safe to consume after cooking. in addition, the activation of toxic genes requires the presence of enzymatic regulators (pop1 and pop2) that transform the protoxin into its active form (luo et al. 2010). genetic variation, including toxic genes, usually causes phenotypic changes that can be appreciated at a glance; identifying morphological features that allow the discrimination of toxic and non-toxic genotypes should help to prevent poisoning (anderl et al. 2012; cai et al. 2014; feregrino et al. 2013; hallen et al. 2007; kendrick 2000; lima et al. 2012; luo et al. 2010). the aim of this research was to identify the presence of genes associated with toxicity in mushrooms of the a. rubescens complex sold for human consumption and to associate genotoxic profiles with morphological variation to establish a putative diagnostic attribute that can be used for safe consumption. materials and methods sampling thirty sporocarps (i.e., the fruiting body of the fungi) of a. rubescens specimens were collected from five regions of hidalgo, mexico (acaxochitlan, huasca, mineral del chico, pachuca, and omitlan), which include places with and without traditional consumption of these mushrooms (table 1; figure 1). the samples were described, and locality, associated vegetation type, and other data were recorded. the biological material was kept in the mushroom collection of the autonomous national university of mexico (unam). dna extraction the standardized system of phenol-chloroform extraction, based on a modification of gardes and bruns' (1993) method, was used. dry samples were processed in a laminar flow hood. amm2 tissue fragment was put in a 1.5 µl microcentrifuge tube, submerged in liquid nitrogen, and macerated with a microbiological handgrip inside the tube. the macerate was suspended in 800 ml of ctab 2x and incubated in a water bath at 65°c for one hour, moving the tubes every 20 minutes. six hundred ml of chloroform-isoamyl alcohol (24:1) was added, mixed, and centrifuged at 13,000 rpm for ten minutes. cold isopropanol (0.6 x) was added to the supernatant, mixed gently for a minute, and centrifuged as above. the pellet was cleaned with 500 ml 70% ethanol, dried, resuspended in 60 ml of dh2o, and stored at 20°c. the quality and concentration of dna was assayed by spectrophometry (bio spectrometer basic®). amplification markers specific to α-amanitin (walton et al. 2004), phallacidin (hallen et al. 2007), and two regulatory genes named pop (luo et al. 2010) were used. as positive controls of the amplification, its1f, its4, and β-tubulin markers were used (white et al. 1990). total reaction volume was 15 ml, consisting of 8.84 ml of dh2o, 2.5 ml of 10 x buffer (200 mm tris–hcl, ph 8.4, kcl 500 mm), 0.16 ml of dntps (2 mm), 0.3 ml of mgcl2 (50 mm), 1 ml of each primer (50 mm), 0.75 u of taq polymerase (promega®), and 1 ml of dna sample. the amplification conditions were 94°c for 8 minutes of initial denaturation, 35 cycles at 94°c for 30 seconds, 57°c for 30 seconds, 72°c for 1 minute, and 72°c for final amplification. the product evaluation was made by electrophoresis on acrylamide gels at 15%, over 50 minutes at 90 v. pcr products table 1 sample sites description and its traditional use of the a. rubescens complex. municipality locality vegetation edible common name acaxochitlan la montaña viviente and las terrazas pine-oak no crazy fungus huasca cerro del zembo oak sometimes unnamed mineral del chico mineral del chico cedar no unnamed pachuca san miguel cerezo market pine-oak yes chiquita brisket or small cake omitlan omitlan oak yes chiquita brisket hernández-rico et al. 2019. ethnobiology letters 10(1):76–85 78 research communications were used for two subsequent rounds of nested pcr with the primers proposed by hallen et al. (2007; supplementary table 1). final pcr products of the six samples with a complete genotoxic profile and two probed toxic fungi (amanita aff. verna and a. aff. virosa) were sequenced (macrogen®), aligned (mega 7.0.26; kumar et al. 2015), and compared with the genbank database (blast-ncbi). morphological analysis macroand micromorphological attributes were described, with continuous (data that can take any value) and discontinuous (variation that can fall into a number of categories or classes) morphological data separated (table 2). the macromorphological data were 1) pileus (cap): form, color, ornamentation, color of ornamentation, texture (discontinuous data), thickness of the context, diameter, and number of grooves (continuous data); 2) stipe (stem): form, color, ornamentation, color of ornamentation, texture (discontinuous data), thickness of the context, and length and width of the stipe (continuous data); 3) lamella (gills): color, frequency, and edge type (discontinuous data); and 4) ring: form, color, and position (discontinuous data). the micromorphological data were: 1) melzer´s reaction (amyloid or inamyloid); 2) spore size (length and width); and 3) basidia size (length and width), which are attributes for taxonomic description of mushrooms according to largent and baroni (1988). analysis continuous morphological attributes were used to group the samples based on ward’s method of amalgamation with euclidean distances. discontinuous morphological attributes were grouped by simple linkage with gower’s distances, specific to the diverse nature of attributes. the genetic matrix with a specific amplification of genes related to toxicological profile was grouped by upgma (unweighted pair group method with arithmetic mean) clustering based on jaccard’s distances (amplified presence-absence data set; lloyd 2016). for all generated trees, the standard number of groups was obtained by the bootstrap method at 10,000 steps. paired distance matrix (genetic with jaccard’s distances, morphological by euclidean distance for continuous data and gower’s distances for discontinuous data) were correlated with a mantel test to establish a correspondence between the genetic profile and morphological traits, following figure 1 geographic locations of the sampling sites of a. rubescens complex mushrooms. hernández-rico et al. 2019. ethnobiology letters 10(1):76–85 79 research communications transformation of the data with the formula z = (x μ)/σ, where x is the original distance between individual, μ is the average distance, and σ is the deviation of the distance. this transformation was used to orthogonalize the magnitude of the distances. results molecular analysis grouped the mushrooms in two clades and one isolated individual from pachuca de soto with its1f as the unique amplified gene (figure 2a). individuals in the first group mostly amplified only to the control genes (seven individuals in black ¥), while some individuals presented one or two toxic profile genes (three individuals in orange †). the second group consisted of six individuals from the pachuca market that amplified to all toxic profile genes and controls (ama, pha, pop1, pop2, its1f, and β-tubulin) (red ‡), as well as some individuals with black (¥ four individuals) and orange († nine individuals) profiles as described above. a partial fragment of dna flanked by the nested primers was obtained for α-amanitin (268.9 ± 17.25, rank 236–287 bp) and phallacidin (96.75 ± 2.94, rank 96–98 bp, supplementary table 2) in the six samples with the complete genotoxic profile from pachuca de soto (red group) and positive controls (a. aff. verna and a. aff. virosa). the first amplified sequence in the red group of a. rubescens corresponds to a. pallidorosea α-amanitin gene cds (84%, kc778580.1), a. exitialis αamanitin gene cds (71%, kf813063.1), and a. fulginea α-amanitin gene cds (71%, kc778575.1). positive controls (a. aff. verna and a. aff. virosa respectively) amplified correspond to the α-amanitin gene from a. pallidorosea (84% and 82% identity, kc778580.1), a. phaloides (both 79%, kc778577.1), a. fulginea (78% and 79%, kf552088.1), and a. exitabilis (68% and 79%, kf813063.1). the second amplified sequence of the red group corresponds to phallacidin (pha1) partial genes from a. biosporigera (identity 86%, eu196141.1), a. virosa (84% fn555144.1), and a. exitalis (84% kc778564.1). controls (a. aff. verna and a. aff. virosa respectively) correspond to partial phallacidin genes from a. biosporigera (82% and 81%, eu196143.1), a. virosa (80% and 79%, fn555144.1), and a. exitalis (78% and 76%, kf813064.1), all of them poisonous. the grouping by simple linkage with gower’s distances showed four groups (figure 2b). all individuals with the complete genotoxic profile are included in the second group. the distinctive feature of the group was the reddish color of the stipe group 1 group 2 group 3 group 4 pileus color brown reddish-brown brown brown pileus form convex convex convex depressed pileus ornamentation fibrillas verruca verruca without ornamentation color of the pileus ornamentation reddish-brown reddish-brown darkbrown without ornamentation color of the pileus context pink beige beige pink texture of the pileus context spongy fleshy fleshy spongy stipe color pink cream cream pink stipeform claviform cylindrical claviform cylindrical stipe ornamentation fibrillas fibrillas fibrillas fibrillas color of the stipe ornamentation pink reddish* pink pink color of the stipe context without color pink pink pink texture of the stipe context fibrous spongy spongy fibrous lamella color beige cream cream cream frequency of the sheets close together close together close together close together edge of thelamella sawing sawing fimbriated fimbriated ring form fragile membranous membranous membranous ring color beige cream cream beige ring position subapical apical subapical apical spores form ellipsoids ellipsoids ellipsoids ellipsoids spores staining (melzer's reaction) amyloid amyloid inamyloid amyloid table 2 categorical traits of the groups formed by the simple linkage agglomerative method of mexican a. rubescens complex. all genotoxic profiles are included in the group 2. *exclusive characteristic of group 2. hernández-rico et al. 2019. ethnobiology letters 10(1):76–85 80 research communications figure 2 geographic a molecular grouping using the upgma method, b simple linkage grouping with gower’s distance of morphological discontinuous data, and c ward grouping with euclidian distances of continuous morphological variables. red samples (‡) showed all molecular amplifies including genotoxic and positive controls of a. rubescens complex in hidalgo, orange samples (†) showed one to three genotoxic markers, black samples (¥) only showed positive control amplifies. hernández-rico et al. 2019. ethnobiology letters 10(1):76–85 81 research communications ornamentation. in general, all individuals with complete or partial genotoxic profile had a darker reddish coloration (table 2; figure 3). the ward’s grouping showed three morphological groups associated with sporome size (figure 2c). the smaller mushrooms are grouped in the third group, although they have wide stretch marks on the pileus; the largest mushrooms are grouped in the second group, and do not have stretch marks on the pileus. the first group is made up by medium size mushrooms (table 3). however, none of these morphological groups are related to the genotoxic figure 3 samples of a. rubescens complex with reddish color detail. a gnhr-1 (ama, pha positive), b gnhr-4 (ama, pha positive), c gnhr-9 (complete genotoxic profile), d gnhr-16 (only pop1 negative), e gnhr-18 (only pha negative), and f gnhr-29 (no toxic profile). the reddish color of the sample with the complete profile is highlighted (c), the brown color of the samples with a partial genotoxic profile (a, b, d, e) and the light color of the negative sample (f). group 1 group 2 group 3 macromorphology minimum diameter of the pileus (mm) 48.2 ± 16.22 78 ± 24.97 6.94 ± 20.2 maximum diameter of the pileus (mm) 81.8 ± 27.2 102.5 ± 19.89 80.67 ± 23.1 stretch length (mm) 0.8 ± 2.04 0 1.06 ± 1.9 context of the pileus (mm) 6 ± 1.79 5.67 ± 0.52 6.11 ± 3.4 minimum longitude of the stipe (mm) 91.5 ± 39.24 0 0 maximum longitude of the stipe (mm) 114.2 ± 32.31 92.5 ± 18.06 70.5 ± 42.1 minimum width of the stipe (mm) 13.2 ± 3.71 0 0.72 ± 3.1 maximum width of the stipe (mm) 13.8 ± 10.09 14 ± 2.1 13.22 ± 5 context of the stipe (mm) 16 ± 4.69 14 ± 2.1 13.22 ± 5 micromorphology minimum longitude of the spore (µ) 7.4 ± 0.92 7.33 ± 0.5 7.4 ± 0.5 maximum longitude of the spore (µ) 10.4 ± 1.07 9.73 ± 0.25 10.43 ± 1 minimum width of the spore (µ) 5.9 ± 0.46 5.72 ±0.44 5.64 ± 0.5 maximum width of the spore (µ) 8 ± 0.84 7.92 ± 0.48 7.81 ± 0.8 minimum longitude of the basidia (µ) 25.7 ±2.31 22.57 ±1.76 21.22 ± 6 maximum longitude of the basidia (µ) 35.3 ± 2.55 32.87 ± 2.37 31.16 ± 8.7 minimum width of the basidia (µ) 9 ±0.49 7.58 ± 1.45 7.27 ± 2 maximum width of the basidia (µ) 11.7 ± 0.84 10.28 ± 1.32 10.07 ± 2.7 table 3 description of the groups formed with euclidean distances obtained from continuous traits of the a. rubescens complex. hernández-rico et al. 2019. ethnobiology letters 10(1):76–85 82 research communications profile. finally, the mantel test showed no correlation between genetic and morphological distances. discussion our results show that edible fungi from hidalgo markets are different from the european a. rubescens complex because they show high variability in the presence or absence of genes associated with toxicity, which are totally absent in a. rubescens sensu stricto as defined based on the european taxa. one group from pachuca was positive for all analyzed genes (ama, pha, pop1, pop2, and the positive controls its1f and β-tubulin) that correspond to the sequenced toxic genes in other amanita species of the section phalloidae. several samples have different combinations of analyzed genes, but these genotypes showed no clear relationship with morphological variation. however, qualitative morphological analysis showed that the reddish to dark-brown color of sporomes is a possible attribute associated with a partial or complete genotoxic profile. the presence of genes responsible for the expression of toxins in the a. rubescens complex suggests that they are potentially dangerous; the complex is accordingly assigned to section phalloidae, where most species are toxic (cai et al. 2014). the variability of combinations in genotoxic profiles could relate to deletions and/or duplications in the copy number of the sequences ama and pha, which give rise to hypervariable regions that code for different peptides of between seven to ten amino acids (hallen et al. 2007). however, we cannot assume that the fungi really are toxic, as it is unknown which genes are expressed and to what extent. to elucidate toxicity, assays by liquid chromatography mass-spectrometry (parnmen et al. 2016) for the detection of expression products are necessary. the fact that the ama and pha genes are absent in non-toxic fungi in section phalloidae (hallen et al. 2007) suggests that the mushrooms consumed in hidalgo are mistakenly identified as species within the a. rubescens complex, or that some edible non-toxic mushrooms in section phalloideae conserve the potential to express toxicity. in addition, fungi can have other compounds that result in poisoning in combination with alcoholic beverages or some foods. for example, coprinus atramentarius has coprine, which in combination with alcohol causes pain and sickness (graeme 2014; gry and andersoon 2014; jo et al. 2014). in particular, a. rubescens presents a thermolabile toxin called rubescenslysin, which interacts with phospholipids in cell membranes, generating intracellular hemolysis, cardiotoxicity, and adverse effects in the central nervous system. the sequence of genes associated with this toxin is not yet known, so no appropriate molecular markers are available (odenthal et al. 1982; seeger and wachter 1980). with respect to the categorical traits associated with the presence of ama, pha, pop1, and pop2 genes; the distinctive attribute for recognizing a potentially toxic mushroom is the dark reddish stipe ornamentation (table 2; figure 2b). the other five recorded traits are shared between groups that present partial genotoxic profiles. however, in general, it could be said that more intense reddish-browncolored mushrooms tend to have more genes associated with toxicity. on the other hand, morphological variation of the continuous characteristics did not show any structure that would allow for the identification of toxicity. traditional sellers group mushroom according to size for pricing; attributes such as size, width, and weight that are traditional criteria of the vendors do not appear to be related to toxicity (burrola-aguilar et al. 2012; hernández-rico 2011; rodríguez-muñoz et al. 2012). conclusions women are the main fungal collectors in the central mountainous region of hidalgo. in general, the criteria for choosing edible fungi vary across regions, so some cases of mycetism in acaxochitlan and real del monte have removed a. rubescens from local diet. our results suggest modifying the traditional criteria for the selection of edible fungi, those similar to a. rubescens, by considering the color intensity. in addition, the possibility of horizontal transfer of msdim genes and/or the preservation of toxic potential in the genome of a. rubescens (from hidalgo, at least), brings into question the viability of continuing consume this fungus. in conclusion, these results show that a macromorphological characteristic, color, is associated with a complete or partial genotoxic profile among edible fungi identified as a. rubescens. this is not yet a solid guideline for the collection of guaranteed edible mushrooms. in order to develop more conclusive recommendations for traditional mushroom collectors and vendors, these results must be replicated using a larger sample size, and the evaluation of toxicity must hernández-rico et al. 2019. ethnobiology letters 10(1):76–85 83 research communications considerer traditional collectors’ criteria used to form morphological groups. however, these results are a significant contribution to developing restrictive criteria (intense reddish-brown-colored mushrooms) for the avoidance of potentially toxic fungi. acknowledgments we thank the women of the high region of hidalgo, who allowed us to live together and learn from their traditional knowledge. we also thank conacyt for the grant to the first author and infr-252807 for financial support. declarations permissions: none declared. sources of funding: conacyt grant to gnhr and infr-252807 project. conflicts of interest: none declared. references cited anderl, j., h. echner, and h. faulstich. 2012. chemical modification 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tkaczand l. lange, pp. 127–162. kluwer academic, new york. white, t. j., t. bruns, s. lee, and j. taylor. 1990. amplification and direct sequencing of fungal ribosomal rna genes for phylogenetics. in pcr protocols: a guide to methods and applications, edited by m. a. innis, d. h. gelfand, j. j. sninsky, and t. j. white, pp. 315–322. academic press, new york. rice, agriculture, and the food supply in premodern japan. by charlotte von verschuer. translated and edited by wendy cobcroft. routledge, new york. 356 pp. anderson. 2018. ethnobiology le ers 9(2):105–106 105 reviews  perspec ves from gene anderson’s bookshelf the book has a chinese subtitle meaning “five grains in cultural transformation” or “the five grains in history”). “five grains” is a traditional chinese phrase, borrowed by japan some 1,500 years ago or more, that can mean any mix of rice, millets, wheat, barley, and soybeans. early ceremonies for the emperor and the gods used various mixes of plant foods. overly generalizing translations of texts from as early as the 13th century led to privileging rice over the other grains. in the process of reviewing rice in japanese history, von verschuer provides a dense, statisticspacked work drawing on every line of evidence from archaeology and ethnography to poetry and folksong. japanese of premodern times ate, drank, and breathed poetry, and most of it used images from nature and agriculture. almost every crop and cultivation process is mentioned somewhere, often in short poems that lament the writer’s situation in a rural setting far from his or her true love. von verschuer covers every aspect of agriculture in exhaustive detail, from the latest archaeological investigations to modern swiddening. apparently the practice of swiddening was once important and widespread, but survives now only as re-enactments of past practices for tourists. she is particularly detailed on medieval agriculture: technology, crops, yields, milling and preparation, social contexts, everything. one can learn when cotton was introduced (799 ce), how rice was taken off the ear (by pulling sheaves between chopsticks—a slow and laborious process), and which wild plants were gathered. the book is extremely dense with factual the author summarizes the aim of this book as “to situate irrigated rice cultivation in the overall context of the crops grown in premodern japan. we have put forward a number of facts regarding the coexistence of rice growing and dry cereal cultivation, the practice of swidden farming, the gathering of plant foods, the relative proportion of cultivated and wild plants in the diet, and finally the cultural portrayal of rice and the other cereals” (296). the role of rice in japan has been controversial. in general, the japanese have privileged its importance, and the importance of irrigation. they have considered rice as japan’s staple, and even as japan’s “self” (ohnuki-tierney 1993, a work not cited by von verschuer). a long-standing countercurrent has pointed out that many other foods were important over time, notably foxtail millet (setaria italica), common millet (panicum miliaceum), barnyard millet (echinochloa crus-galli), wheat, barley, buckwheat, and soybeans. a vast number of roots, tubers, leaves, seeds, nuts, fruits, and other products also contributed. animal food was always rare, except for fish along coasts. this counter-narrative has been well known for some time in the west, even in some popular works (e.g., frédéric 1973), but most people, japanese and western, likely continue to think of japan as rice-dependent. charlotte von verschuer has analyzed the evidence and found that rice has been important since the dawn of japanese civilization, but provided only about one-quarter of the total food supply depending on the period, region, and conditions. she stresses the frequency in older sources of the “five grains” (in fact rice, agriculture, and the food supply in premodern japan. by  charlo e von verschuer. translated and edited by wendy cobcro .  routledge, new york. 356 pp.  eugene n. anderson1* 1department of anthropology, university of california, riverside, ca, usa. *eugene.anderson@ucr.edu received february 10, 2018 open    access accepted february 10, 2018 doi 10.14237/ebl.9.2.2018.1261 copyright © 2018 by the author(s) licensee society of ethnobiology. this is an open‐access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution‐noncommercial 4.0 international public license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by‐nc/4.0), which permits non‐commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. anderson. 2018. ethnobiology le ers 9(2):105–106 106 reviews  perspec ves from gene anderson’s bookshelf detail. an appendix lists 144 species of plants that were important food or industrial crops. scientific names (sometimes obsolete) as well as names in japanese, english, french, and german are provided. they include some items new to me, including nothosmyrnium japonicum, a carrot-family plant that was apparently an important food in the old days. outside of the few obsolete scientific names, this book is highly accurate and up-to-date, and provides a thorough survey of the field. anyone interested in east asian food, ethnobotany, or agriculture needs to have this book on their shelf as a reference. references cited frédéric, l. 1973. daily life in japan at the time of the samurai, 1185-1603. e.m. lowe, trans. charles e. tuttle co., tokyo, japan. ohnuki-tierney, e. 1993. rice as self: japanese identities through time. princeton university press, princeton, nj. ethnobotany and agrobiodiversity: valuation of plants in the homegardens of southwestern uganda whitney et al. 2018. ethnobiology letters 9(2):90–100 90 research communications tal stresses (fao 2011) and are preferred for their high drought resistance, natural regeneration, ease of management, fast maturation, and plantlet availability (tabuti 2012). still, there are many underutilized food plants in uganda (tabuti 2012). as homegardens in the region decline, mainly due to social and economic pressures (buyinza 2009), more commercial crops are planted with more intensive management and species richness, leading to abundance decreases (scales and marsden 2008). many traditional plants in such smallscale farming systems are in danger due to overharvesting, destructive harvesting, pests and diseases, and extreme weather such as droughts (tabuti 2012). potential exists for the expansion of homegardens in uganda and the subsequent promotion of plants as traditional food and nutrition, e.g., to encourage farmers to plant and utilize indigenous plants in circa introduction homegardens are species-rich agroforestry systems containing many cultivated and wild plants (kumar and nair 2004). they have a unique vertical structure that is an important part of the productive capacity (buyinza 2009; niñez 1985; figure 1). the homegardens of uganda are ideal locations for the study of plant and human interactions regarding traditional knowledge and conservation (figure 1). they are complex farming systems (whitney et al. 2017) that have been optimized to meet multiple needs with high levels of plant diversity that maximize resources in environments with limited access to resources and markets (fao 2011). the traditional plants that the homegardens contain are used primarily for food (fao 2011). they grow in a wide diversity of farm niches (eilu et al. 2007) close to homesteads and in young fallows (tabuti et al. 2011). they act as risk insurance against environmenethnobotany and agrobiodiversity: valuation of plants in the homegardens of southwestern uganda cory w. whitney1,2*, joseph bahati3, and jens gebauer1 1rhine-waal university of applied sciences, faculty of life sciences, kleve, germany. 2university of kassel, faculty of organic agriculture sciences, witzenhausen, germany. 3makerere university, college of agricultural and environmental sciences, kampala, uganda. *cory.whitney@uni-bonn.de abstract homegardens are species-rich agroforestry systems with a high diversity of associated traditional knowledge. these systems are an important part of food security for rural marginalized poor around the world, particularly in the humid tropics. despite the high diversity and cultural importance, little is known about the livelihood-relevant plant diversity contained in the homegardens of southwestern uganda. here we employ the quantitative ethnobotany indices use reports (ur) and the cultural importance index (ci) to describe the importance of plants and plant types in the region’s homegardens. data is based on inventories of 102 homegardens in the greater bushenyi from 2014 and reveals 225 useful plant species in 14 different use categories with 3,961 ur, 54% for food, 15% for economic uses, and 11% for medicine. the findings highlight the importance of homegarden plants for subsistence farming households and indicate that they are important places for conservation of botanical agrobiodiversity that should be considered part of the conservation movement in uganda. efforts to conserve both botanical and food system diversity in the extremely rich but rapidly deteriorating regional socio-cultural and ecological systems should consider homegardens for their role in conservation of plants and preservation of traditional knowledge. received october 17, 2015 open access accepted december 14, 2017 doi 10.14237/ebl.9.2.2018.503 keywords agroforestry, conservation, quantitative ethnobotany, traditional knowledge copyright © 2018 by the author(s); licensee society of ethnobiology. this is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution-noncommercial 4.0 international public license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0), which permits non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. whitney et al. 2018. ethnobiology letters 9(2):90–100 91 research communications situm conservation (tabuti et al. 2011) and thereby minimize future losses of native biodiversity (scales and marsden 2008). a better understanding of the dynamics of homegarden systems is essential to formulate these solutions so that they are ecologically sound, economically appropriate, and socially relevant (buyinza 2009). furthermore, as much of the traditional ethnobotany knowledge is held by the elderly and is in danger of not being transmitted to younger generations, there is a need to capture this knowledge before it is lost (luoga et al. 2000; tugume et al. 2016). quantitative indices in ethnobotany are important for assessing the livelihood-relevance of plants and thereby the relationships between people and the natural systems that surround and support them (ahoyo et al. 2017; prance et al. 1987; whitney et al. 2014). the homegardens of uganda are important examples of such systems. they contain a variety of plants with multiple uses and could be explored for their conservation relevance. the current investigation sought to assess the varied aspects of botanical species diversity and ethnobotanical knowledge (cf. carlson and maffi 2004; alexiades and sheldon 1996) and to describe the current species composition of homegarden cropping systems to provide baseline data for future work. the specific aim was to describe the ethnobotany of homegarden diversity and the relationship to different plant types. such descriptions will allow future analysis of timerelated changes (cf. bruelheide et al. 2003), assessment of the degree of genetic erosion (cf. buerkert et al. 2006; hammer and laghetti 2005), and reveal potential interventions for conservation. materials and methods the homegardens investigated are in a collection of districts known as the greater bushenyi in the highlands of southwestern uganda (figure 2). the region’s elevation ranges from valleys of 910 m and mountain peaks of 2,500 m above sea level. the natural botanical diversity is of a transitory zone between the tropical moist broadleaf forests of figure 1 a typical multilayered ugandan homegarden structure showing approximate heights for a diversity of edible species. adapted from (whitney et al. 2017) artwork by carolyne nakaketo. plants numbered: 1. carica papaya, 2. solanum betaceum, 3. artocarpus heterophyllus, 4. solanum tuberosum, 5. manihot esculenta, 6. zea mays, 7. mangifera indica, 8. ocimum gratissimum, 9. solanum lycopersicum, 10. musa spp., 11. psidium guajava, 12. ipomoea batatas, 13. passiflora spp., 14. amarathus spp., 15. solanum aethiopicum, 16. xanthasoma spp., 17. physalis peruviana, 18. cucurbita spp., and 19. capsicum spp. whitney et al. 2018. ethnobiology letters 9(2):90–100 92 research communications equatorial africa (congolian forests) and the drier savannas and open woodlands of the forest belt, interspersed with the rich floral diversity of high altitude swamps (van breugel et al. 2015). the region receives 1,500–2,000 mm rainfall a year and has mean annual temperatures between 12 °c and 30 °c. homegardens in the region are dominated by bananas and intercropped with coffee with a variety of staples, fruits, vegetables, medicinal plants, trees for fuel figure 2 map of 102 homegardens in forest-edge, wetland-edge, and recently deforested areas of uganda’s greater bushenyi region showing plant species richness and use reports (ur) for plants. map adapted from whitney et al. (under review) and created using r’s ggmap (kahle and wickham 2013). whitney et al. 2018. ethnobiology letters 9(2):90–100 93 research communications wood, with some additional livestock (goode 1989; oduol and aluma 1990; whitney et al. 2017). we undertook ethnobotany fieldwork for this study as part of a larger regional homegarden assessment (whitney et al. 2017). nine villages were randomly selected through a stratified, random design along the forest-edge, wetland-edge, and recently deforested areas in the greater bushenyi. randomized village selection was done with the help of chief administrative offices of greater bushenyi and subsequent randomized homegarden selection was done with the help of the chairperson of each of the nine villages. together we randomly selected eleven to twelve homegardens within each of the nine villages (n = 102) and visited each of them at the end of a rainy season in 2014. our approach was to gather ethnobotany information together with homegarden managers by following the walk-in-the-woods method (phillips and gentry 1993a, 1993b). several visits were made to each household to generate a list of all useful plants in each homegarden (median richness = 27, range = 10– 57) and a complementary list of uses. homegarden areas, locations, and cropping patterns were recorded during these visits via walk-through with gps and map sketching (cf. whitney et al. 2016). plant species of ethnobotanical importance (plants useful to farmers1) were recorded with scientific names as well as local runyankole, rukiga, and luganda names and identified with the help of botanists from makerere university, kampala. botanical specimens of all species were conserved in field presses for the collection of the makerere university herbarium (mhu). plants were classified according to their life-forms (types), i.e., annual forbs and grasses, perennial forbs and grasses, shrubs, trees, palms, and vines (including all trailing and climbing plants) (see whitney et al. 2017). we used collaborative plant use categorization, based on the diversity of 14 different active plant uses among farmers: 1. food and drink, 2. economic uses, 3. medicine, 4. technical uses, 5. ornamental, 6. fencing, 7. firewood, 8. timber and building material, 9. shelter, 10. hygienic, 11. animal feed, 12. sharing, 13. pesticide, and 14. manure for soil fertility (table 1). distribution of ur across the different uses and plant types was plotted with the circlize package in r (gu et al. 2014). all data were uploaded digitally in the field and subsequently imported into the r programming environment (r core team 2016). data were analyzed using quantitative ethnobotany indices table 1 description of 14 use categories and sum of use reports (ur) and cultural importance index (ci) for 225 plants in 102 homegardens in southwest uganda. *153 of the total of 225 plant species were cited in more than one category category description ur ci plants* food eating and drinking, food, juice, staples and casual foods, occasional foods 2,145 2.337 136 sale economic uses, sales and income generation 604 0.658 67 med. medicinal uses for acute illnesses and general health 426 0.464 142 tch. technical uses such as filtration for the wine production, brooms, tools, whipping sticks etc. 267 0.291 74 orn. ornamental, considered decorative or attractive (generally a secondary use) 150 0.163 51 fnc. planted fences and fencing materials 117 0.127 21 fir. firewood 99 0.108 35 ti. timber and building materials 44 0.048 20 shl. shade and shelter from wind and sun, storms 34 0.037 25 hyg. hygiene, used to make soap and used for washing up 33 0.036 19 a. animal feed, generally goats, pigs and cows 23 0.025 11 s. shared and bartered, generally planted for the use of neighbors and children 13 0.014 11 pt. pesticide, against insects and other pests 4 0.004 4 m. manure, used for soil fertility, in compost, n-fixation, mulching and other soil nutrition uses 2 0.002 2 whitney et al. 2018. ethnobiology letters 9(2):90–100 94 research communications family botanical name ur ci musaceae musa (aaa-eahb group) 169 0.184 musaceae musa (ab group) 134 0.146 musaceae musa (aaa group) 131 0.143 asparagaceae draceana fragrans 120 0.131 lauraceae persea americana 120 0.131 musaceae musa (aab group) 116 0.126 rubiaceae coffea canephora 99 0.108 araceae xanthosoma sagittifolium 95 0.103 myrtaceae psidium guajava 88 0.096 poaceae saccharum officinarum 88 0.096 euphorbiaceae manihot esculenta 81 0.088 anacardiaceae mangifera indica 80 0.087 leguminosae phaseolus vulgaris 79 0.086 caricaceae carica papaya 73 0.080 cucurbitaceae cucurbita pepo 71 0.077 moraceae artocarpus heterophyllus 71 0.077 solanaceae solanum aethiopicum 69 0.075 solanaceae solanum anguivi 65 0.071 passifloraceae passiflora edulis 65 0.071 solanaceae solanum lycopersicum 61 0.066 bromeliaceae ananas comosus 58 0.063 myrtaceae eucalyptus grandis 58 0.063 rosaceae eriobotrya japonica 55 0.060 solanaceae physalis peruviana 55 0.060 solanaceae capsicum frutescens 54 0.059 amaranthaceae amaranthus hybridus 52 0.057 euphorbiaceae euphorbia tirucalli 51 0.056 rubiaceae coffea arabica 49 0.053 musaceae musa (abb group) 48 0.052 amaranthaceae amaranthus dubius 45 0.049 table 2 the 30 plants with the highest cultural importance index (ci) score and number of use reports (ur) in 102 homegardens in southwest uganda. (kufer et al. 2005; phillips and gentry 1993a, 1993b; prance et al. 1987). our analysis concentrated on two use values indices (phillips and gentry 1993a, 1993b; prance et al. 1987). the first was the use report (ur), which we used to quantify ethnobotanical information to obtain values for the calculation of analytical indices. the total ur per species is the sum of all the times that individual respondents named the species for a specific use category and the sum of all those categories. for example, five farmers had annona senegalensis, two of whom used it as a fruit, two for its medicinal leaves, one for technical uses, and one for its protection from wind and sun. this gave a. senegalensis a total ur of six although it was only present in five gardens. we used the ur to calculate the cultural importance index (ci) (tardío and pardo-desantayana 2008) for each species, to allow for the identification of the relative importance of different plant species. ci was calculated by dividing ur by the number of informants (tardío and pardo-desantayana 2008). results findings based on the quantitative ethnobotany indices highlighted the importance of ugandan homegarden plants for multiple livelihood uses for the 102 households interviewed. respondents introduced 225 different plant species that were important for the family1. these were divided into the 14 different use categories leading to 3,961 ur. median ur per homegarden was 16.5, with a range of 2–65. nearly half of all ur were for food (54%), followed by economic uses (15%) and medicine (11%) (table 1). whitney et al. 2018. ethnobiology letters 9(2):90–100 95 research communications the 30 plants with the highest ci score (0.049 or greater) included 4 annuals and 11 perennials, 1 liana, 8 shrubs and 6 trees. those plants with higher ci scores were used for multiple purposes across several homegardens (e.g. musa2 solanum and xanthosoma spp.) (table 2). notably, the gathering of these data required a considerable amount of trust, patience, and time, since some of the farmers were traditional healers who were guarded about their traditional plant names and uses. the diversity of uses of plant types across different use categories is an indication of the importance of these plant types for ethnobotany and biodiversity (figure 3). ur was rather evenly spread for trees and shrubs, whereas, forbs, herbs, and other plants had many uses in a single category. the homegardens contained a total richness of 66 species of useful perennial forbs with a total ur of 530 and a range of 0–4 ur per garden. they also contained 59 species of trees with a total ur of 512 (range 0–5), 54 shrubs (total ur = 655, range 0–4), 22 annual forbs (total ur = 95, range 0–4), 14 vines (total ur = 46, range 0–4), six perennial grasses (total ur = 8, range 0–5), three annual grasses (total ur = 13, range 0–1), and a single species of palm, wild date palm (phoenix reclinata), with two ur (technical and ornament) (figure 3). discussion and conclusions our findings illustrate the multipurpose nature of homegarden botanical diversity. this echoes some of the results of past studies that point to the role of plant genetic diversity as a factor differentiating plants in homegardens from those in the fields (gessler and hodel 2010). this distinction may be especially important when considering the value of cultivated diversity beyond purely economic measurements. our use of the well-established quantitative ethnobotany use value indices ur and ci (kufer et al. 2005; phillips and gentry 1993a, 1993b; prance et al. 1987; tardío and pardo-de-santayana 2008), allowed us to gather comparable baseline data. the most versatile of all the plants in the study included six trees and eight shrubs (table 2). these, together with other woody species, accounted for a large portion of the total species found (59 trees and 54 shrubs; figure 3), and for 33% and 26% of ur respectively. this was similar to past ethnobotany studies in uganda showing the importance of 29 woody species for benefits to the environment and future generations, and as building materials, firewood, food, medicine, sales, shade, soil amendments, timber, and as a wind break in the west (nyamukuru et al. 2015), and 51 woody plants used mostly for construction, energy, food, foraging, medicine (human and veterinary), and technology in the east (tabuti 2012). similarly, in eastern tanzania 133 woody species were used for charcoal, firewood, medicine, and poles (luoga et al. 2000), and in the central region of benin, 79 woody species were used for bark-cloth, charcoal, firewood, foraging, fruit, income, medicine, poles, shade, and timber (ahoyo et al. 2017). the 225 useful plant species in the homegardens fit into 14 different use categories, the most important of which was food (ci 2.3; table 1). these findings also concur with past studies regarding the importance of ugandan homegardens for food and nutrition security (remans et al. 2011; whitney et al. under review). many of the plant species in this study were also used for medicinal purposes (142 species, 11% of ur; table 1). this finding is similar to an ethnobotany study of traditional healers and herbal medicine collectors in central uganda who used 190 medicinal species (tugume et al. 2016), a study of families in southwest kenya, which found 330 medicinal species (johns et al. 1990), and an ethnobotany study of semipastoralists in southern ethiopia who used more than the 57 medicinal species (teklehaymanot and giday 2010). this was also similar to an ethnobotany survey in northern cape province, south africa, which found 64 species with a variety of uses, many of which were medicinal (de beer and van wyk 2011). these useful plants were divided among many layers of the homegarden vertical structure (figure 1). whitney et al. (2017) describes the vertical structure of the region’s homegardens according to plant life-form types. trees form an upper layer; shrubs form a second layer together with perennial forbs and vines; and other perennial and annual forbs form two lower layers (cf. figure 1). our findings show that these different plant types have distinct ethnobotany importance. trees and shrubs were distributed relatively evenly across a variety of uses (seven and 12 use categories respectively; figure 3). other plant types were less diverse, e.g., 78% of ur for annual forbs and 59% of ur for perennial forbs were in the single use category food (figure 3). these findings offer insights into the dual ecological and cultural role that woody plants play in the whitney et al. 2018. ethnobiology letters 9(2):90–100 96 research communications figure 3 distribution of 3,961 use reports (ur) among the eight plant types and 14 different use categories in 102 homegardens in southwest uganda. eight plant types (top half of circle) include (left to right): perennial forbs (p.forb), shrubs (shrub), trees (tree), annual forbs (a.forb), perennial grasses (p.grass), vines (vine), annual grasses (g.), and palms (p.). use categories (bottom half of circle) include (left to right): sharing (s.), animal feed (a.), manure for soil fertility (m.), timber and building material (ti.), fencing (fnc.), pesticide (pt.), firewood (fir.), shelter (shl.), ornamental (orn.), technical uses (tch.), hygienic (hyg.), medicine (med.), economic uses (sale), and food and drink (food). scale numbers around the circle indicate ur. whitney et al. 2018. ethnobiology letters 9(2):90–100 97 research communications homegarden structures. this strength may be increased if farmers are offered more access to planting materials for more multipurpose trees and shrubs to increase the multilayered structure. to the degree homegardens mimic the neighboring forest ecosystems, they can provide ecosystem services and play a potentially important role in the reforestation of the region. the many ecological and social benefits stemming from the high diversity of homegardens, and other similar agroforestry systems, have been demonstrated in srilanka, where homegardens held similar biomass to wild areas (mattsson et al. 2013), in thailand, where shifting cultivation practices were replaced with highly diverse sedentary agriculture in homegardens (boonkird et al. 1984), and across indonesia, sri lanka, and vietnam where high diversity homegardens provide rural people with important ecosystem services (mohri et al. 2013). the current investigation illustrates the botanical and ethnobotanical diversity of homegardens in uganda. it describes the current species composition and multilayered nature of homegarden cropping systems. this provides baseline data for future work and could be followed with future analysis of timerelated changes and recommend interventions. the quantitative ethnobotany tools applied here may be useful for future studies seeking more holistic metrics as indicators of important factors such as cultural value. such approaches could be beneficial for future studies seeking to gather in-depth local knowledge about botanical resources. they could also be used to formulate interventions to minimize future losses of native biodiversity and traditional ethnobotany knowledge. the farmers who manage homegardens are engaged in growing a wide range of useful plants (cf. figure 1), including many native species. regional and national movements that seek to conserve botanical diversity in the extremely rich eco-systems of uganda should consider homegardens, both for their role in circa-situm conservation of ecological diversity and for the preservation of associated traditional knowledge. supporting homegarden managers may prove to be a useful strategy for conservation of the rich botanical agrobiodiversity and agroforestry structures of homegardens. this may be especially important in areas at rainforest and wetland edges such as those in greater bushenyi. notes 1categorization by active uses only left some plants out of our analysis. these excluded plants that were mostly weeds, including 3,139 individual plants of around 233 species from six families (some of these remain unidentified). some plants were excluded from the analysis because they had been recently introduced to the gardens but had not yet produced anything of benefit to the household, e.g., three gardens had plantlets of artocarpus heterophyllus, one garden had carica papaya, two had citrus sinensis, one had eriobotrya japonica, one had mangifera indica, six had persea americana, three had psidium guajava, one had solanum lycopersicum, and one had vangueria apiculata that had not yet produced any fruit (table 3). 2musa of the aaa and aaa-eahb groups tended to be used as starchy staples whereas musa ab, aab, and abb groups tended to be eaten fresh (sweet) or made into juice, beer, or alcohol (whitney et al. 2016). acknowledgements this research was financially supported by the federal ministry of education and research (bmbf), within the collaborative research project globe-reload (031a247b). the work was approved by the ugandan national council for science and technology (registration number: a 477), the office of the table 3 non-weed plants that were excluded from the analysis because of non-use; 36 stems of eight plant species found in 102 surveyed homegardens in southwest uganda. family botanical name number of stems number of gardens anacardiaceae mangifera indica 1 1 caricaceae carica papaya 3 1 lauraceae persea americana 10 6 moraceae artocarpus heterophyllus 5 3 myrtaceae psidium guajava 9 3 rosaceae eriobotrya japonica 1 1 rubiaceae vangueria apiculata 2 1 rutaceae citrus sinensis 5 2 whitney et al. 2018. ethnobiology letters 9(2):90–100 98 research communications president of uganda and the approval of the local regional district coordinators and chief administrative officers of bushenyi, rubirizi, and sheema. we also thank antonia nyamukuru, carolyne nakaketo, dr. eike luedeling, dr. john tabuti, dr. katja kehlenbeck, dr. mary namaganda, and olivia wanyana maganyi for their advice, feedback, and support throughout this study. declarations permissions: permission/ethical approval granted by the ugandan national science foundation (registration number: a 477), the president’s office, regional district coordinators, chief administrative officers, local chairpersons, and farmers. sources of funding: this study was funded by the german federal ministry of education and research (bmbf). conflicts of interest: none declared. references cited ahoyo, c. c., t. d. houehanou, a. s. yaoitcha, k. prinz, a. e. assogbadjo, c. s. g. adjahossou, f. hellwig, and m. r. b. houinato. 2017. a quantitative ethnobotanical approach toward biodiversity conservation of useful woody species in wari-maro forest reserve (benin, west africa). environment, 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tanzania, uganda and zambia). version 2.0. available at: http://vegetationmap4africa.org. accessed on march 09, 2016. whitney et al. 2018. ethnobiology letters 9(2):90–100 100 research communications whitney, c. w., e. luedeling, j. r. s. tabuti, a. nyamukuru, o. hensel, j. gebauer, and k. kehlenbeck. 2017. crop diversity in homegardens of southwest uganda and its importance for rural livelihoods. agriculture and human values 35:399–424. doi:10.1007/s10460017-9835-3. whitney, c. w., e. mukiibi, c. nakaketo, j. gebauer, a. m. rietveld, and k. kehlenbeck. 2016. addressing post-harvest losses during traditional banana fermentation for increased food security in southwest uganda. poster presented at tropentag, september 18–21, 2016. vienna, austria. available at: http:// www.tropentag.de/2016/abstracts/ posters/465.pdf. accessed on december 15, 2017. whitney, c. w., m. m. v. vang sin, g. le hong, c. vu van, k. barber, and l. tran thi. 2014. conservation and ethnobotanical knowledge of a hmong community in long lan, luang prabang, lao people’s democratic republic. ethnobotany research and applications 12:643–658. doi:10.17348/era.12.0.643-658. whitney, c. w., e. luedeling, o. hensel, j. r. s. tabuti, m. krawinkel, j. gebauer, and k. kehlenbeck. under review. the role of homegardens for food and nutrition security in uganda. available from cory.whitney@unibonn.de. how toxic is milkweed when harvested and cooked according to myaamia tradition? everest et al. 2019. ethnobiology letters 10(1):50–56 50 research communications particularly interested in the cultural practices of the myaamia. they are historically centered in northern indiana, and many still live there. many myaamia people also live in northeastern oklahoma on reservation lands. the miami tribe of oklahoma is the seat of the federally-recognized tribal government. despite the fact that a. syriaca is believed to contain toxic levels of cardiac glycosides, contemporary myaamia people continue to harvest wild, young shoots of milkweed, prepare them by traditional methods passed down through generations, and use them as food without any known ill effects (gonella 2007). myaamia elders mention no negative effects, but instead describe health benefits of eating milkweed after a long, sedentary winter, and report enjoying the taste of milkweed cooked much like asparagus. background asclepias syriaca (common milkweed) grows ubiquitously in the midwestern united states and has many established and potential uses (gaertner 1979). for example, one a. syriaca latex-related compound was found to have cytotoxic effects with breast cancer cells (araya et al. 2012). schlegel et al. (2011) also suggested numerous reported beneficial nutritional uses of a. syriaca. in fact, a. syriaca has been used for centuries by native north americans for fiber, medicine, and food (cheatham and johnston 1995; moerman 1988; whitford 1941). native groups using milkweed for food include, but are not limited to the tsalagi, anishinaabe, haudenoshonee, lakota, menominee, and myaamia (densmore 1974; gilmore 1911; gonella 2007; hamel and chilotsky 1975). we are how toxic is milkweed when harvested and cooked according to myaamia tradition? michael a. everest1*, michael p. gonella2, holly g. bowler1, and joshua r. waschak1 1department of chemistry, westmont college, santa barbara, usa. 2department of environmental horticulture, santa barbara city college, santa barbara, usa. *meverest@westmont.edu abstract asclepias syriaca l. (common milkweed) is known to contain sufficient amounts of cardiac glycosides, which are known to be toxic to humans. nonetheless, it is traditionally used for food by native americans, including the myaamia people of indiana and oklahoma. in order to test the hypothesis that traditional horticultural and culinary practices prevent the myaamia from ingesting toxic levels of cardiac glycosides, we have determined the level of glycosides (digitoxin equivalent) in a. syriaca 1) in various parts of the plant, 2) at various heights for pre-reproductive plants, and 3) before and after cooking according to traditional myaamia procedures. plants were grown, harvested, dried, ground, and extracted twice with ethanol. the amount of digitoxin-equivalent glycoside in plant extract was determined spectrophotometrically using 2,2’,4,4’-tetranitrodiphenyl, a selective derivatizing agent. we find that all parts of the plant contain significant levels of cardiac glycosides at all stages of growth. plants harvested as young shoots for food, the common practice of the myaamia, contain slightly lower levels of cardiac glycosides when compared to the leaves and stems of older, taller plants. moreover, the toxicity is significantly reduced by the traditional myaamia cooking procedure—a repeated boiling with several changes of water. therefore, it appears as though the risk of glycoside poisoning from traditional myaamia use of milkweed for food is moderated by their harvesting practice and traditional cooking procedure. received january 4, 2019 open access accepted may 7, 2019 doi 10.14237/ebl.10.1.2019.1487 published august 6, 2019 keywords botany, cardiac glycosides, toxins, food plants, food preparation copyright © 2019 by the author(s); licensee society of ethnobiology. this is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution-noncommercial 4.0 international public license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0), which permits non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. everest et al. 2019. ethnobiology letters 10(1):50–56 51 research communications the myaamia have highly specific cultural practices pertaining to the use a. syriaca for food. specifically, they only harvest early spring shoots less than 25 cm in height and with more than four leaves. to cook, they boil the shoots, changing the water more than once (gonella 2007). due to the specificity of harvesting methods used by the myaamia, including exact time of harvest and stage of growth harvested, and the lack of any known negative health effects, we hypothesized that traditional harvesting and preparation methods allow them to avoid toxic levels of cardiac glycosides, thereby rendering this otherwise toxic plant nutritious. to test this hypothesis, we determined the amount of digitoxinequivalent cardiac glycosides in a. syriaca 1) in various parts of the plant, 2) at various heights, and 3) before and after cooking according to traditional myaamia procedures. methods plant growth and collection seeds were collected along public roadsides in northeastern indiana. a. syriaca is not present on myaamia reservation lands in oklahoma due to its intentional eradication by non-myaamia farmers who owned the land before myaamia tribe ownership, and who considered it a noxious weed. an herbarium specimen for a. syriaca is housed at the miami tribe of oklahoma archives in miami, oklahoma. for the studies comparing different parts of raw plant material, seeds were planted in sunshine growth media #4, germinated in a greenhouse on the santa barbara city college campus, and maintained at 24.2°c until leaves appeared. seedlings were then placed in outdoor, raised, experimental plots of similar solar exposure, soil type, and watering regime. plants were collected whole, and excess dirt (and insects, where applicable) was removed manually. the mid-height of each plant was ascertained, to analyze the “upper” and “lower” portions separately. cooking a. syriaca glycoside levels of cooked a. syriaca shoots were measured using 20 immature (pre-reproductive), newly emerging shoots of wild plants collected along public roadsides in northeastern indiana. these shoots were selected according to myaamia practice: only shoots less than 25 cm high and having no more than 4 leaves were harvested. the shoots were weighed, boiled twice for ten minutes, with fresh water added for the second boil (gonella 2007). excess water was shaken off, and cooked plant material was weighed wet. plant preparation for raw and cooked samples, plant specimens were dried in an oven at 45–60°c for approximately 24 hours, ground to a fineness of 60 grit in a mill grinder, and stored in sealed glass vials. we initially used an extraction procedure similar to that of rasmann et al. (2009), but significant variation in results caused us to suspect that the extraction procedure was not removing all the glycosides from the plant material. after testing several different methods, we performed extraction as follows: 40–100 mg of ground plant material was suspended in 10.00 ml of ethanol in a 50 ml erlenmeyer flask and shaken overnight in an incubator shaker maintained at 50°c. the solid plant material was separated from the extract by vacuum filtration, and resuspended in 10.00 ml of fresh ethanol. this second suspension was shaken again overnight at 50°c, filtered, and the two extractions were combined and diluted to 25.00 ml with ethanol. in some test trials, a third extraction showed measurable, but minimal, amounts of glycoside remain in the plant material after two extractions. moreover, this double-extraction procedure yielded similar results, but required much less material, when compared to plants extensively extracted with ethanol in a vacuum soxhlet apparatus. ethanol was either 90% anhydrous, denatured, spectrophotometric grade; 200 proof acs reagent grade; or 190 proof hplc grade. determination of glycosides the amount of cardiac glycosides present in the plant extract was determined with a spectrophotometric assay in which the glycosides were selectively derivatized with 2,2’,4,4’-tetranitrodiphenyl (tndp), resulting in an intensely colored meisenheimer complex (brower et al. 1972; rasmann et al. 2009). tndp was synthesized according to the procedure reported by brower et al. (1972). for the determination itself, 675 μl of plant extract, 1.00 ml of 0.1 m naoh, and 1.00 ml of ethanol (blank) or 1.00 ml of plant extract (sample) were added to a small test tube, rapidly mixed, and incubated in a 25°c water bath for ten minutes. the absorbance of the blank and sample solutions was determined in a nicolet evolution 300 uv/vis spectrophotometer at 618 nm, the peak of the meisenheimer complex absorption. standards were prepared from pure digitoxin in ethanol. they everest et al. 2019. ethnobiology letters 10(1):50–56 52 research communications were treated in the same way as the plant extracts in the spectrophotometric assay. therefore, although the botanical samples contain several different cardiac glycosides, we assume that tndp forms a complex with all of them, that these complexes all have the same extinction coefficient as the digitoxin complex, and we therefore report digitoxin-equivalent cardiac glycoside. we initially attempted to perform the analysis on a small scale in 96 well plates, as has been demonstrated by rasmann et al. (2009), but we found that the well plates were rapidly and inconsistently fouled by a white substance (likely related to plant latex), which made the results irreproducible. even in the procedure described above, white deposits were frequently observed on the cuvette walls, and the cuvettes had to be frequently and meticulously cleaned. such deposits were never observed on the digitoxin standard samples. results glycoside abundance vs. immature plant height ten immature (pre-reproductive) plants were harvested at several stages of growth having heights between 100 and 170 mm. as shown in figure 1, the amount of digitoxin-equivalent glycoside per dry plant material was 1.5 ± 0.5 mg/g (reported error is the standard deviation of five measurements each on 10 plants). the correlation coefficient from linear regression was 0.02, strongly suggesting that amount of glycoside is uncorrelated with plant height. this is a very small sample size for biological specimens that may include significant natural variability, so we cannot completely rule out some correlation in a large population of plants, but plant height does not appear to be a major factor in cardiac glycoside abundance for young plants. glycoside abundance vs. part of plant several mature plants were separated into various parts: rhizomes, stems (upper and lower), leaves (upper and lower), and actively growing tops. the amount of cardiac glycoside in the plant material was determined separately for each section, and averaged across all plants. the results are displayed in figure 2. each plant was extracted once, and each extract was measured four times. for example, we had upper leaves from four plants, extracted each plant once, and performed the complexation reaction and spectrophotometric analysis four separate times on each extract for a total of sixteen measurements. the figure 1 digitoxin-equivalent cardiac glycoside content in shoots of a. syriaca as it depends on shoot height. error bars are the standard deviation for five measurements on each plant. the horizontal line at 1.5 mg/g indicates the average cardiac glycoside abundance in these shoots. everest et al. 2019. ethnobiology letters 10(1):50–56 53 research communications variance in the data between plants was comparable to the variance of the four measurements for each plant. the stems tended to have the highest glycoside levels at approximately 2.5 mg/g dry plant, the leaves and tops had lower glycoside levels at approximately 1.0 mg/g. we also measured the glycoside levels in the flowers from one plant, and found it to be 0.65 ± 0.03 mg/g dry plant (error is standard deviation of four measurements). rhizomes had the lowest glycoside levels at just over 0.5 mg/g. all reported values are mg digitoxin-equivalent cardiac glycoside per gram dry plant material. the measured rhizome and stem glycoside levels are somewhat lower than values previously reported for “roots” and “shoots” by rasmann et al. (2009), who found values closer to 4–5 mg/g. it is currently unclear whether this discrepancy is owing to differences in the plants themselves or differences in the measurement protocol. in light of figure 2, it is interesting to note that the shoots measured, above (figure 1), have glycoside levels intermediate between the actively growing tops and the stems of tall plants. effect of cooking on glycoside abundance finally, the amount of cardiac glycoside was determined in plant material before and after cooking according to traditional myaamia procedure. the amount of cardiac glycoside in cooked and uncooked immature plants is displayed in figure 3. after drying, uncooked a. syriaca shoots contained 1.44 ± 0.14 mg/ g dry plant material and cooked shoots contained 1.1 ± 0.1 mg/g dry plant material. therefore, roughly 25% of the original glycoside content is removed by repeatedly boiling in fresh water. cooked shoots contain a significantly higher percentage of moisture (90%) when compared to uncooked shoots (85%). therefore, owing to the greater water content in the cooked shoots, the amount of cardiac glycoside per gram wet plant decreases even more than the amount of cardiac glycoside per gram dried plant upon cooking: 0.20 ± 0.03 mg/g for uncooked and 0.09 ± 0.02 mg/g cooked. for these results, the reported error is the 95% c.i. for a total of 40 measurements figure 2 amount of digitoxin-equivalent cardiac glycosides in various parts of a. syriaca. values given are mg digitoxinequivalent cardiac glycoside per gram dried plant material. the number of different plants measured for each part is given in parenthesis. error bars indicate standard deviation of the average measurements for each plant. everest et al. 2019. ethnobiology letters 10(1):50–56 54 research communications on 7 raw plants and 34 measurements on 5 cooked plants. three measurements were rejected because of visible detritus on or in the cuvettes during the spectrophotometric determination. the cooked shoots are similar in appearance and texture to asparagus, for which a typical serving size is 90 g. if one were to eat a similar size serving of a. syriaca cooked and harvested according to myaamia tradition, one would be ingesting approximately 8 mg of digitoxin-equivalent cardiac glycosides. discussion we initially hypothesized that the myaamia traditions pertaining to the timing of the harvest of a. syriaca were steering them toward plants that were in a stage of growth when they were less toxic. specifically, because myaamia only harvest relatively short, immature plants for food, similar to asparagus shoots, we expected to find lower amounts of glycoside in shorter plants compared to taller plants, and possibly that the stems contained less glycoside than the leaves. this initial expectation was only partly confirmed by the data. although, as can been seen in figure 1, the amount of glycoside does not correlate significantly with plant height for plants harvested when they are between 100 and 170 mm tall, and the small shoots were found to have significantly lower levels of cardiac glycosides than the stems and leaves of taller plants (figure 2). if the myaamia were to consume the stems of taller rather than the shorter, relatively immature shoots, they would be exposed to levels of glycoside levels significantly higher than what they get in their traditional practice. moreover, as shown in figure 3, the abundance of glycosides in a. syriaca is further reduced by the traditional cooking procedure in which the plant material is repeatedly boiled in several portions of fresh water. the cooking procedure reduces the amount of cardiac glycoside in dry plant material to approximately two-thirds of the original value. because cooked plant material also has a higher water content, the cooking procedure reduces the cardiac figure 3 amount of cardiac glycosides in a. syriaca before (“raw”) and after (“cooked”) cooking according to myaamia tradition. error bars are the 95% c.i. everest et al. 2019. ethnobiology letters 10(1):50–56 55 research communications glycoside level in cooked plant material to about half of what it is in raw shoots. however, the amount of cardiac glycosides in a. syriaca shoots that have been cooked according to myaamia tradition still contains 0.1 mg per gram undehydrated plant. therefore, even a modest serving of 10 g of cooked plant material would contain 1 mg of digitoxin-equivalent cardiac glycoside. this amount already exceeds the amount that might be prescribed by a physician for a heart condition, and is therefore physiologically active. according to the hazardous substances data bank, “healthy adults may develop symptoms after acute ingestions of more than 2 to 3 mg, but rarely develop life-threatening toxicity with acute ingestions of less than 5 mg. ingestions causing cardiac arrest in healthy adults are generally 10 mg digoxin or more.” therefore, a serving of 100 g of cooked a. syriaca, despite having significantly lower levels of cardiac glycosides than the stems of plants, could potentially have sufficient glycoside to cause a serious medical issue. nonetheless, despite gonella’s (2007) ethnographic research, we are unaware of any reports of ill effects suffered by myaamia who have consumed cooked a. syriaca. this discrepancy could be explained in several ways. first, through the use of the shoots for food over generations, they may, as a population, have become more resistant to the physiological effects than other populations. we doubt this to be the case because myaamia have, on occasion, shared this food practice with non-myaamia individuals (including m. gonella, one of the authors), and there are no reports of any ill effects on nonmyaamia individuals. second, the toxicology data may be wrong. we doubt this to be the case because there are other documented reports of small amounts of cardiac-glycoside containing plants causing serious injury or death. third, the negative effects of the toxins may be mitigated because the shoots are used as food for a very short period of the year— approximately two weeks—so the total quantity ingested is limited temporally. finally, our measured values may be upper-bounds on the amount of glycoside, rather than an exact determination, owing to limitations of the tndp assay. there could be some poorly understood optical or chemical interference from the highly-colored background or latex precursors. for example, there could be a nonphysiologically active glycoside or other butenolide containing compound present in a. syriaca that is capable of reacting with tndp and absorbing at our wavelength of interest. this final hypothesis could be confirmed or amended by repeating the analysis with a complementary analytical method, such as liquid chromatography (ikeda et al. 1995), lc-ms (grosa et al. 2005; tor et al. 2005; wang et al. 2000), or more sophisticated methods (li et al. 2010). conclusions there appear to be several aspects of myaamia traditional use of a. syriaca that prevent eaters from receiving as much cardiac glycoside as is present in raw plants. the first is that they only harvest and use the shoots, which have roughly half of the glycoside content of taller-stemmed plants. furthermore, the traditional cooking procedure removes approximately half of the cardiac glycosides that are present in uncooked shoots. acknowledgments several students made significant contributions to the early efforts of this project, including claire berchiolli, chris schene, clay garris, erin levoir, kalvyn ngo, sarah clark pierson, and shane rowan. this work has been done in cooperation with the myaamia center at miami university. we are grateful for their support and encouragement to pursue this research. declarations permissions: none declared. sources of funding: mae was supported by the nishimura faculty research fund and other professional development grants at westmont college. mpg was supported by the miami 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components of various insects and their derivatives contribute to their immunological, analgesic, anti-inflammatory, antibacterial, diuretic, anesthetic, and antirheumatic properties (cherniack 2010; costa neto 2002, 2005; lupoli 2010). larva of the rhynchophorus palmarum is traditionally used as both food and medicine in tropical areas of the western hemisphere, including the amazon rainforest (defoliart 1993). several studies indicate that many ethnic groups and indigenous peoples from the continental amazon, including countries such as venezuela, peru, paraguay, ecuador, colombia, and brazil, use larva of the r. palmarum on a regular basis introduction a multitude of cultures around the world use insects and the substances extracted from them as therapeutic resources to treat an array of lifethreatening conditions (costa neto 2005). mesopotamian cuneiform writings and texts from approximately 5,000 years ago indicate the use of fireflies, mantis, and other unidentified insects to treat diseases (lupoli 2010; mazars et al. 2004). some cultures in china also started using insects in folk healing many years ago. some chinese people continue to use over 300 species of insects from 14 orders, 63 families and 70 genuses in their traditional medicine practices, thus employing the greatest reported diversity of medicinal insects worldwide (feng et al. 2009; lupoli 2010). other parts of the world, including south america, also use insects as healing agents. for example, in brazil, up to 82 types of insects are known to be used for medical purposes (costa neto et al. 2006). rhynchophorus palmarum used in traditional medicine in the peruvian amazon cesar delgado1*, rosa romero2, rosa vásquez espinoza3, marcial trigozo1, and rocio correa1 1programa de investigación en biodiversidad, instituto de investigaciones de la amazonía peruana, iquitos, perú. 2departamento de lenguas nativas y extranjeras, universidad nacional de la amazonía peruana, iquitos, perú. 3program of chemical biology, university of michigan, ann arbor, usa. *cdelgado@iiap.gob.pe abstract ethnoentomological research focuses on the wealth of knowledge about insects used by indigenous communities. here, we examine the medicinal use of insects, with a particular focus on rhynchophorus palmarum, also known as suri, by indigenous peoples in the peruvian amazon. between january 2014 and november 2015, a semistructured survey was conducted in six communities belonging to kukama-kukamiria, tikuna, and awajum ethnic groups. each participant answered three key questions: i) what insects do you use to treat your diseases; ii) what diseases do you treat; and iii) how do you treat each disease? a total of 63 people were interviewed. over half of the interviewees from the three ethnic groups mentioned using the larva of the r. palmarum for medicinal purposes. the oil of the larva is used to treat more than ten diseases, particularly respiratory illnesses. chemical analysis of the larvae indicates the presence of linoleic and linolenic acids, which confer antimicrobial and anti-inflammatory properties. received february 22, 2018 open access accepted october 30, 2019 doi 10.14237/ebl.10.1.2019.1271 published december 10, 2019 keywords insects, beetle, larvae, ethnomedicine, peru copyright © 2019 by the author(s); licensee society of ethnobiology. this is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution-noncommercial 4.0 international public license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0), which permits non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. delgado et al. 2019. ethnobiology letters 10(1):120–128 121 research communications – making it the most widely used medicinal insect in the amazon rainforest (cartay 2018; casas et al. 2018; cerda et al. 2001; costa neto and ramos 2006; delgado et al. 2007, 2008; dufour 1987; manno et al. 2018; onore 2005; paoletti et al. 2000; sancho et al. 2015; santos 2011; vera and brand 2012). unfortunately, only a limited number of scientific studies document the amazonian larva of the r. palmarum’s modes of use and healing properties. some of these investigations describe bolivian communities using the insect to treat respiratory illnesses (bourdy et al. 2000); peruvian indigenous groups consuming it to treat rheumatism, pulsaria, and respiratory diseases (delgado 2008); and brazilian indigenous peoples using the larva to reduce fever and treat headaches and boils (almeida 2005; alves and alves 2011; alves and días 2010). the objectives of our research were to: 1) document modes of use for larva of the r. palmarum in three peruvian amazonian indigenous groups’ traditional medicine practices, and 2) summarize current knowledge about the larva’s chemical and biochemical composition. this report expands the scientific literature on amazonian medicinal insects and their use in folk medicine, while serving as a narrative review regarding the chemical level investigation of larva from the r. palmarum to understand its medicinal value. methods the study was conducted from january 2014 to november 2015 in six communities belonging to three ethnic groups, including the kukama-kukamiria community of nuevo pumacahua (-4.9226, -73.6827) and flor de castaña (-4.7701, -73.5978), requena province, loreto region; the tikuna community of chimeria (-4.1684, -70.0432), and santa rosa de cacao (-3.8999, -70.4759), mariscal ramón castilla province, loreto region; and the awajum community of pampa entsa (-4.5293, -78.4620) and shamatak grande (-4.5802, -78.4805) condorcanqui province, amazonas region (figure 1). from a linguistic figure 1 map of the study areas. figure by cesar delgado. delgado et al. 2019. ethnobiology letters 10(1):120–128 122 research communications perspective, the kukama-kukamiria belong to the tupí-guaraní family and the awajúm to the jíbaro family, while the tikuna are considered an independent group belonging to the tikuna family (minedu 2013). currently, most members of these communities are bilingual – they speak spanish and their native languages. these communities are all characterized by the presence of a subsistence economy, relying on horticulture, fishing, hunting, and gathering vegetables and fruits to feed themselves and their families. some of them also raise chickens, pigs, and cattle. figure 2 commercialization of suri in local markets surrounding the indigenous communities surveyed. a extraction of the suri oil in the nanay market located in the kukama-kukamiria community; b suri oil in a plastic bottle ready for commercialization in the nanay market. a 40 ml bottle costs usd 3.09; c roasted suri ready for consumption with tacacho or bananas. photo by cesar delgado. delgado et al. 2019. ethnobiology letters 10(1):120–128 123 research communications semi-structured surveys were designed for interviews with people over the age of 50, and were mostly carried out in spanish. whenever necessary, a bilingual local school teacher or community leader translated the questions into the native language of the community. each interviewee was shown 24 x 17 cm photographic sheets that portrayed the adult and larval stage of r. palmarum to ensure the right species was recognized and identified. the survey included three specific questions: 1) what insects do you use to treat diseases, 2) what diseases do you treat, and 3) how do you treat each disease? these open-ended questions were designed to facilitate dialogue with the interviewee, and allow interviewers to gain a unique perspective into individuals’ traditional use of insects as medicines. results and discussion suri in nutrition and food larva of the r. palmarum, traditionally known as suri, live in the stipe of native and non-native amazonian palm trees species and feed on decaying organic materials. in order to obtain suri, the indigenous people first cut palm trees down and make lateral cuts in the trunks where they deposit masato (fermented yucca mass manihot esculenta) or urine (delgado et al. 2008). this practice aims to increase the production of larvae in each tree by attracting the largest possible number of adult insects to the trunk to encourage mating and, consequently, increase the number of eggs laid. larvae harvesting takes place approximately two to four months after cutting the tree down (cartay 2018; delgado et al. 2008). exact timing varies according to the tree species and season. during the larva farming period, community members periodically monitor the larva population’s development by listening for the humming noise produced by individual larvae. they also protect the trunk from external factors like the sun. if the trunk is exposed to intense insolation, the organic materials that larvae feed on become dehydrated, and, eventually, the larvae will die. although suri grows in thirty-one vegetable species (sanchez et al. 1993), the indigenous people prefer to collect larvae from the native palm tree mauritia flexuosa (delgado et al. 2008), because they claim the larvae grow better, provide more protein, and have improved healing properties. cerda et al. (2001) reported that the r. palmarum larvae raised in m. flexuosa have greater protein content and higher calcium, phosphorus, magnesium, and potassium levels as compared to r. palmarum larvae growing in other palm trees. in a ten meter-long m. flexuosa trunk, indigenous peoples collect approximately 224 larvae and 12.1 grams of protein per larva. thus, each of these trunks produces close to three kilograms of protein. cartay (2018) performed studies with the peruvian amazonian bora and yagua indigenous communities and determined that they could produce approximately 500 larvae per trunk. this suggests that suri contributes six kilograms of protein per trunk in these communities. however, r. palmarum is not eaten by all indigenous groups in the amazon rainforest (paolleti et al. 2000). in some communities, suri is used as a food source only during the wet season when fishing and hunting are affected by the heavy rains (cartay 2018). indigenous people typically prefer to eat the r. palmarum larvae over the adult insect. when consuming the adult insect, they remove the wings, head, and legs. unlike the adult, the larvae are eaten whole, either raw, grilled, boiled, or in patarashca (larvae packed in banana or “bijao” (calathea lutea) leaves). sides may include yucca, banana, or native potatoes. other individuals use the suri as an ingredient to season their food. currently, suri is sold in local markets and tourist restaurants in the peruvian amazon’s large cities, including iquitos and pucallpa fatty acid dué el al. 2009 vargas et al. 2013 sancho et al. 2015 myristic (c14:0) 2.54 2.27 2.80 palmitic (c16:0) 40.44 43.65 28.00 palmitoleic (c16:1) not reported 1.01 1.20 stearic (c18:0) 1.99 8.52 5.90 oleic (c18:1) 46.71 41.57 59.20 linoleic (c18:2) 6.24 1.93 1.10 linolenic (c18:2) not reported 1.05 0.30 table 1 comparison of the fatty acid composition (%) of the digestive fat content (cgd) of the r. palmarum larva represented as a percentage. delgado et al. 2019. ethnobiology letters 10(1):120–128 124 research communications (cartay 2018; delgado et al. 2008). when sold in markets, suri is often served fried or grilled on wooden sticks and comes with yucca, banana, tacacho, fariña, or macambo toasted seeds (theoborma bicolor) (figure 2c). due to its high levels of protein, fat, and calories, suri is an important component of the local diet. protein content varies from nine to 13 grams per 100 grams of fresh weight. fat varies between 22 to 38 grams per 100 grams. the caloric content in suri is between 188 to 310 calories per 100 grams (delgado et al. 2008; vargas et al. 2013). in other areas of the amazon, studies report protein content reaching up to 25 grams per 100 grams of dry weight (cerda et al. 2001; doufor 1987). seven fatty acids, including linoleic and linolenic acids, have been found in suri (dué et al. 2009; sancho et al. 2015; vargas et al. 2013; table 1). moreover, 19 amino acids and nine essential amino acids, including lysine, isoleucine, leucine, valine, threonine, and phenylalanine have been identified in the larva (cerda et al. 2001; manno et al. 2018; vargas et al. 2013). additionally, r. palmarum contains vitamins and minerals, including vitamin a in the form of retinol and vitamin e. retinol and vitamin e levels can reach up to 85 micrograms and 44 micrograms per 100 grams of dry weight respectively. minerals found in suri include calcium, potassium, phosphorus, sodium, and iron (cerda et al. 2001). using these values, and considering standard nutrition requirements, a child between seven and 11 years old would need to consume 20 suri larvae a day in order to meet the recommended levels of daily protein intake and 23% of the suggested levels of retinol. eating five larvae would satisfy the recommended daily levels of vitamin e intake. suri in medicine interview answers were collected from 63 people (78% male and 22% female): 27 responses were from the kukama-kukamiria communities (81% male and 19% female), 21 responses were from the tikuna communities (85% male and 15% female), and 15 responses from the awajun community (60% male and 40% female). the first question on the survey ask about insects used to treat diseases, to which respondents mentioned 29 insects used in traditional medicine—many of them used alone, and others used in combination with vegetable structures from different species (leaf, bark, and root). individuals from the three different indigenous groups mentioned suri among their first responses (figure 3). notably, there was homogeneity in the use of the specimen (p < 0.001; chi-square test). however, various peruvian amazon communities call suri by different names. for example, in the kukama-kukamiria dialect, suri is known as miriti-ura; in tikuna and awajum-bukin, it is called boxõ. the majority of interviewees acknowledged using suri primarily to cure, treat, and prevent diseases. therefore, the second survey question (“what diseases do you treat?”) was modified to focus on the use of suri and read “what diseases do you treat with suri?”. the kukama-kukamiria and the tikunas use suri mainly to treat diseases associated with the respiratory system (flu, colds, coughs, and asthma), while the awajum use suri to treat scurvy (figure 3). however, we found homogeneity in the use of suri to treat respiratory disease in all three ethnic groups (p < 0.001; chi-square test). in addition, some interviewees from the three indigenous groups reported using suri to cure rheumatism, dislocations (crippled), whooping cough (also known as pertussis), and tuberculosis. members of the tikuna and kukama-kukamiria communities also mentioned using suri to heal pulsaria. more than 90% of interviewees mentioned ingesting live suri or using it as an oil to treat the diseases mentioned above. to extract suri oil, indigenous peoples place the larva in a pot or frying pan over a fire until the larva is completely melted and figure 3 use of suri in traditional medicine in three ethnic groups of the peruvian amazon. a percentage of people who use suri to treat different diseases; b percentage of people who use suri oil to treat respiratory diseases. figure by cesar delgado. delgado et al. 2019. ethnobiology letters 10(1):120–128 125 research communications only the cuticle remains (figure 2a). older people in the communities extract the oil by exposing the suri to the sun on a metal plate (can or calamine). as we have shown, some indigenous communities in the amazonian countries use r. palmarum larvae for traditional medicine practices (almeida 2005; alves and días 2010; alves and alves 2011; bourdy et al. 2000; delgado et al. 2008). suri’s high usage in sparked its entry into the market economy. local markets surrounding the communities are now commercializing suri, albeit in an informal manner (figure 2b,c). suri and essential fatty acids studies on the chemical composition of r. palmarum oils reported the identification of up to eight saturated and unsaturated fatty acids, supporting the high nutritional value of this species. these studies were conducted in different jungle areas worldwide, including côte d'ivoire (dué et al. 2009; gbogouri et al. 2013), the peruvian amazon (vargas et al. 2013), and the ecuadorian amazon (sancho et al. 2015; table 1). suri oil contains high levels of palmitic and oleic acid, as well as moderate levels of linoleic and linoleic acids. thus, it is possible to imagine that the fatty acid chemical composition present in the suri oil contributes to its nutritional and medicinal value and thus, helps explain why the inhabitants of the communities surveyed report the efficacy of using suri to treat illnesses. the most important essential fatty acids for human health are linoleic acid (ω-six series) and ɑlinolenic acid (ω-three series). linoleic acid is a polyunsaturated fatty acid utilized in the biosynthesis of arachidonic acid. this acid is enzymatically derived into some prostaglandins – active lipid compounds involved in inflammation (dewich 2009). similar to linoleic acid, ɑ-linolenic acid is an essential fatty acid because the human body is not capable of synthesizing it from food. thus, humans must acquire it through diet for proper health. through a series of desaturation and elongation reactions, ɑ-linolenic acid derives into docosahexaenoic acid and eicosapentaenoic acid, two important acids in the regulation of inflammatory conditions. thus, linoleic and ɑlinolenic acids play an important role in cytoprotection and anti-inflammation of the human body (pinazo-duran and boscá-gomar 2012; valenzuela et al. 2011). some studies have shown that the consumption of these two essential fatty acids may be effective in the treatment and prevention of various diseases including cardiovascular diseases, neurodegenerative diseases, inflammation, cancers, rheumatoid arthritis, and ischemia or reperfusion injury (valenzuela et al. 2011). futhermore, palmitic acid is the most common saturated fatty acid in animals (waite et al. 1962) and plays a key role in various fundamental biological functions. it is also an important component of human breast milk, and previous studies have suggested it is critical for proper infant health (innis 2016). additionally, animal studies have shown that this saturated fatty acid has mild antiatherosclerotic and antioxidant properties (elagbar et al. 2016). another important fat in human diet is oleic acid, a monounsaturated ω-nine fatty acid. previous studies suggest that the consumption of oleic acid may slow the progression of the fatal condition adrenoleukodystrophy and may reduce the risk of coronary heart disease (lopes et al. 2010). most common diseases: symptomatology and treatment respiratory diseases were treated by ingesting suri oil (in volume equivalent to three larvae) three times a day for five to seven days. some acknowledged continuing the treatment until the illness was completely eradicated. in addition, they mentioned rubbing the oil in their hands until warm and then rubbing the oil over the chest of the patient. they explained that an increase in temperature when rubbing the oil led to better penetration of it into the affected body part. finally, to treat tuberculosis, interviewees recommended continuing the treatment for a minimum of six months. in the awajum community, scurvy is frequently detected in children one to three years old, presenting as ulcerations on the lips and gums and, in some cases, producing small hemorrhages. the treatment consists of removing the skin and head of the suri and using the bait to rub the affected parts (lips and gums) until a blackish coloration forms on the patient’s skin. treatment should be done for a minimum of three days or until the ulcers heal. survey respondents mentioned that pulsaria is the result of a disorderly diet and develops because people eat their food at inconsistent times or fast for several hours or days. the disease produces pain and a burning sensation in the mouth of the stomach. health care professionals working in rural communities, report that patients with these symptoms typically have stomach ulcers. the delgado et al. 2019. ethnobiology letters 10(1):120–128 126 research communications treatment consists of rubbing suri oil over the patient’s stomach at night for seven days or more. interviewees mentioned that rheumatism is caused by “cold disease.” they describe “cold disease” as the most common symptom of rheumatism and mention that “cold disease” occurs because community members remain wet for extended periods of time due to fishing and farming activities, working for multiple hours of in constant rain. the local treatment for rheumatism is to place suri oil in a spoon or a can and heat it to its boiling point. the hot oil is then applied to the affected joint. on the other hand, the treatment for dislocations is to warm up suri oil by rubbing it on the hands and immediately rubbing it over the dislocated area while adding pressure and repeating this process until the dislocated bone goes back into place. some interviewees reported that the treatment for dislocations may be accompanied by prayers. conclusions suri (or r. palmarum) is the insect most widely used by the indigenous groups interviewed for this research. suri complements the local indigenous diet and provides high levels of protein, vitamins, and essential fatty acids. the species we studied is used to treat more than ten diseases, primarily respiratory diseases, such as cough, asthma, whooping cough, and colds, but also tuberculosis, rheumatism, and scurvy dislocations. the interview results and literature review support the use of suri in traditional medicine and suggest that suri’s healing properties, as reported by the indigenous communities, may be explained by the presence of fatty acids in suri, primarily due to the high composition of the precursors of essential fatty acids: linoleic (series ω-six) and linolenic (series ωthree) acids. over time, suri may play a pivotal role in the economic development of the peruvian amazon’s ethnic communities due to the rapid increase in suri consumption and commercialization. it is necessary to carry out further chemical and pharmacological studies about suri as well as other insects present in the amazon rainforest because given the high biodiversity of their environment, novel natural products may be isolated from these insects. discovering previously unknown compounds may help expand chemical diversity as well as improve drug development efforts to treat various health conditions. acknowledgments the study was carried out with funds from the amazon biodiversity program of the instituto de investigaciones de la amazonía peruana (iiap). we thank all the participants in the study, especially the indigenous communities, kukama-kukamiria, tikuna, and awajum communities, for their collaboration in the field work. voucher specimens were deposited in the referential biodiversity collection of the instituto de investigaciones de la amazonía peruana. declarations permissions: the amazon biodiversity research program, part of the instituto de investigaciones de la amazonía peruana, approved this research within the n°31-2014/iiap and 31-2015/iiap projects. permits to access and carry out research in the communities were obtained prior field work. the peruvian government’s national forestry and wildlife service granted permits to collect biological materials. sources of funding: the research was funded by the instituto de investigaciones de la amazonía peruana (iiap). project n° 31-2014/iiap and n° 31-2015/ iiap. conflicts of interest: none declared. references cited almeida, a. v. 2005. prescrições zooterápicos indígenas brasileiras nas obras de guilherme piso (1611–1679). atualidades em etnobiologia e etnoecologia, edited by a. g. c. alves, r. f. p. lucena, and u. p. albuquerque, pp. 47–601. sociedade brasileira de etnobiologia e 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ethnozoological communication and coordination in the brazilian cerrado welch. 2020. ethnobiology letters 11(1):38–44 38 research communications depending on the vegetation type (welch 2014). even when fire is not employed, a’uwẽ group hunts can involve large numbers of individuals coordinating group hunting efforts over large areas (welch 2015). the collaborative techniques employed with and without fire are similar. individual and small group hunting is also practiced, although less so in recent decades. today, hunting is accomplished with firearms by adults and clubs by youth, as the last bow and arrow hunters died in recent years. the yields are shared with hunting companions according to strict protocols (welch 2014) and delivered to hunters’ wives and mothers-in-law for roasting and further sharing according to a’uwẽ notions of food reciprocity. group hunts are used to acquire any kind of desirable game, not just those addressed in the introduction group hunting is a productive subsistence activity for many indigenous peoples with adequate access to territorial and game resources. among the a’uwẽ (xavante) of central brazil, ritualized hunting of game animals has been documented since nearly two centuries ago (pohl 1837). multiple early accounts and my own more recent research associate burning the landscape with large group hunts involving upwards of 50 to 75 hunters at any given time (welch 2014). group hunting is usually conducted using fire as a tool, although i have accompanied several group hunts that did not employ burning the vegetation. the use of fire is determined by diverse factors, including the availability of hunting grounds that have been left unburnt for appropriate lengths of time, which range from one to three or four years, a’uwẽ (xavante) hunting calls: a vocal repertoire for ethnozoological communication and coordination in the brazilian cerrado james r. welch1* 1escola nacional de saúde pública, fundação oswaldo cruz, rio de janeiro, brazil. *welch@ensp.fiocruz.br abstract group hunting is a productive subsistence activity for many indigenous peoples with adequate access to territorial and game resources. a’uwẽ (xavante) group hunts can involve large numbers of individuals coordinating group hunting efforts over large areas. a’uwẽ group hunting and hunting with fire are sophisticated endeavors requiring years of preparation, ample discussion, and post-hunt analysis. their hunting calls are stylized expressions following established vocal conventions to communicate complex information over long distances between hunters in order to follow, flush, dispatch, and carry game. this discussion is based on recordings provided by the late a’uwẽ elder and leader tsidowi wai'adzatse’ in 2006. he wished that the calls be documented so younger individuals will have means to recall them. i address how indigenous a’uwẽ hunters in the brazilian cerrado communicate over long distances with hunting calls that encode rich ethnozoological information. after introducing the topic and context, i begin with a presentation of five ethnozoological calls tsidowi demonstrated, which he considered the complete repertoire of a’uwẽ hunting calls. following these short descriptions, i discuss some of the vocal qualities observed in the calls (without conducting a full linguistic analysis), the ethnozoological information they encode, and their prospects for continued use into the future within the context of group hunting with fire. received march 30, 2020 open access accepted may 4, 2020 doi 10.14237/ebl.11.1.2020.1688 published june 4, 2020 keywords ethnozoology, food acquisition, sound ethnobiology, indigenous peoples, south america copyright © 2020 by the author(s); licensee society of ethnobiology. this is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution-noncommercial 4.0 international public license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0), which permits non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. supplementary files available at https://doi.org/10.14237/ebl.11.1.2020.1688 welch. 2020. ethnobiology letters 11(1):38–44 39 research communications hunting calls presented here. whereas large social animals, such as white-lipped peccary (tayassu pecari), are especially desirable because large amounts of game meat can be acquired in short periods of time, other preferred animals are also killed, such as deer (blastocerus dichotomus, mazama americana, mazama gouazoubira, and ozotoceros bezoarticus), tapir (tapirus terrestris), giant anteater (myrmecophaga tridactyla), collared peccary (pecari tajacu), and smaller animals (e.g., ground birds, hystricognaths, armadillos, and tortoises). these hunting practices have been criticized for causing animal depopulation and deforestation, but available evidence suggests the opposite: a’uwẽ group hunting and hunting with fire do not measurably impact game populations (prada 2001; villalobos 2002) and have neutral to positive effects on vegetation cover (welch et al. 2013). group hunting in a’uwẽ society hunting throughout amazonia has been and remains important not just for subsistence, but sociality, reciprocity, and socialization. a’uwẽ group hunting and hunting with fire are sophisticated endeavors requiring years of preparation, ample discussion, and post-hunt analysis (welch 2014, 2015). the kind of preparation required to transform youth into group hunters is culturally defined as a slow process initially involving only indirect participation by pre-initiates (wapté) of approximately adolescent age in hunting activities in order to permit them time to observe experienced hunters. slightly older youth in the novitiate men’s age category also listen during men’s meetings and thereby gain knowledge of what is involved in planning a group hunt and the lessons emerging from elders’ post-hunt critiques. the first event in the long series of rituals that comprise the a’uwẽ rites of passage into adulthood is a weeks-long ritualized group hunt with fire, during which preinitiates accompany their mentors and elder hunters, often for the first time, in order to observe hunting, tend camp, and carry game animals and thereby begin the process of becoming hunters by imitating adult hunting behaviors (welch 2015). this educational process reflects and contributes to what is considered the good and proper social upbringing of young men in a’uwẽ society, which will transform them into respectful and responsible husbands and fathers. thus, collective action required for a group hunt reaffirms social ties, interdependence, and provides contexts for leadership. additionally, large prey animals are shared, contributing to the celebration of many of life’s important events as well as mitigating subsistence. large game animals are usually hunted in groups in order to acquire large quantities of meat to give as gifts for weddings and different kinds of rites of passage (welch 2014). in all cases, they are ultimately repartitioned and distributed to the entire village. distributions considered satisfactory should be composed only of large game animals (mainly peccaries, tapir, deer, and giant anteaters) and be sufficiently ample for everyone to partake and thereby participate in the celebratory mood. smaller game animals killed during group hunts are taken home by the individual hunters who dispatched them for domestic consumption and sharing. group hunting strategy is especially challenging to ascertain as an observer, as it is learned through observation and imitation and is rarely articulated explicitly in a’uwẽ discourse, except during post-hunt analysis conversation. in fact, certain aspects of ritualized interaction between hunters are explicitly hidden from young hunters so that they might discover them on their own through well-intentioned ridicule, a learning technique considered more effective than overt instruction (welch 2014). hunting strategy involves diverse dimensions deriving from the need for coordination, as previously described for a 2005 hunt involving fire: “combining intimate knowledge of game behavior and the local terrain with tracking skills and a complex set of hunting calls, they efficiently articulated their efforts throughout an area measuring approximately 60 km2” (welch 2015:196). the coordination and communication involved in group hunting pertain to some but not all hunting activities, and individual and small group hunting requires fewer coordination tools, especially because participants are not dispersed throughout large territories. during group hunts, including those employing fire, coordination is especially important in locating and reaching game animals, scattering or driving them towards hunters awaiting at a distance, and carrying them back from the hunt. during individual hunts, collective action is most important for digging burrowing animals out of the ground and carrying large animals back to the village. hunting calls the hunting calls i mention are tools unlike those used by contemporary sport hunters in the united states, which are noisemakers intended to imitate animal calls and thereby attract animals to the hunter. welch. 2020. ethnobiology letters 11(1):38–44 40 research communications they are also unlike umutina hunting calls designed to imitate and attract animals, such as birds or monkeys, in the brazilian amazon (schultz 1953). they are more appropriately compared with communication between hunters by whistling documented in lowland south america. the aché of paraguay whistle to one another to call for and respond to the need for help to dig out a paca burrow or when a single hunter encounters a group of social animals best hunted by a group (hill and hawkes 1983). communication by whistling sentences is used by hunters to communicate complex ideas among the karitiana and gavião in the brazilian amazon (moore and meyer 2014). a’uwẽ calls are also comparable to hunting horn calls used since medieval times in europe. the hunting horn is among the earliest lip-reed instruments, used by hunting parties to coordinate tracking and to signal in which direction the game would flee (heater 1995). with time, playing the hunting horn became an essential skill and a symbolic mark of nobleman status, while hunting horns eventually became a musical instrument used in orchestras. similar to hunting horn calls and indigenous hunting whistling, a’uwẽ hunting calls are a stylized expression following established vocal conventions to communicate complex information over long distances between hunters in need of or able to provide assistance. also, like indigenous whistling and hunting horn calls, the information encoded in a’uwẽ hunting calls is ethnozoological. this discussion is based on recordings provided in 2006 by the late a’uwẽ elder and leader tsidowi wai'adzatse’. he wished that the calls be documented so younger individuals will have means to recall them. his desire to preserve them speaks to their cultural value beyond their use as mere hunting tools, but also to their importance as symbolic markers of ethnic identity. similar to the process by which hunting horn call competency came to signify noble status among welsh male youth (heater 1995), the ability to effectively vocalize hunting calls during group hunts has become a marker of a’uwẽ traditionalism, hunting competency, and ability to provide healthful food for one’s family. thus, it is one of the hunting skills a young hunter learns before he is allowed to carry a bow and arrow or firearm during a hunt. children practice hunting alone with play bows and arrows, but it is only later in life as pre-initiates that they usually begin learning during group hunts by tending camp and carrying game meat, while novitiate adults accompany the hunt with clubs rather than firearms or bows. these youth learn by accompanying elder hunters, who allow them to make hunting calls when appropriate situations arise. thus, by the time they are mature men, they should be prepared to hunt alone or lead group hunts and use hunting calls appropriately. in this paper, i address how indigenous a’uwẽ hunters in the brazilian cerrado communicate over long distances with hunting calls that encode rich ethnozoological information. i begin with a presentation of five ethnozoological calls demonstrated by tsidowi, which he considered the complete repertoire of a’uwẽ hunting calls (recordings 1–5). each short description is accompanied by an audio file which may be used for noncommercial purposes if properly cited according to the creative commons attribution-noncommercial 4.0 international (cc by-nc 4.0) license. following these short descriptions, i discuss some of the vocal qualities observed in the calls (without conducting a full linguistic analysis), the ethnozoological information they encode, and their prospects for continued use into the future. please note that all call names are comprised of the name of the animal to which it pertains followed by the term for call (’mãhöri). as there may be more than one call for the same animal, each carrying a different message, there may be more than one call with the same call name and one call with more than one name. recordings 1–5 are available as electronic supplementary material with this article. recording 1 call name: uhö’mãhöri animal: white-lipped peccary (tayassu pecari) purpose: come assist in chase context: this is the first of two uhö’mãhöri (whitelipped peccary calls). when a tracker spots a band of peccary and needs help to give chase, he does not begin pursuit immediately. instead, he removes himself to a safe distance where his calls will not alert the animals but will travel far, such as in a tree several hundred meters from the waterway where the white-lipped peccaries were observed. this call for assistance is repeated loudly and continually for as long as it takes for enough people to arrive, which may take some time if people are dispersed at a welch. 2020. ethnobiology letters 11(1):38–44 41 research communications distance. once enough people have gathered, the calls are discontinued, and pursuit begins. if enough time has passed, it is possible that the peccary band has moved locations and it may be necessary to relocate it by tracking recent movements. recording 2 call name: utö’mãhöri animal: tapir (tapirus terrestris) purpose: help carry animal context: this is the first of two utö’mãhöri (tapir calls). this recording includes the hunter’s calls and responses. the caller has killed a tapir and requires help carrying the meat because it is too large an animal for one person to carry alone. after the initial call soliciting assistance, the responder indicates he is on his way. he expects to be paid with the head of the animal he helps carry. usually younger men respond because after the hunt they are expected to give presents of meat to their parents-in-law, but they may not have killed their own game. recording 3 call name: pati’mãhöri and poze’mãhöri animal: giant anteater (myrmecophaga tridactyla) and marsh deer (blastocerus dichotomus) purpose: help carry animal context: this call may be used for either giant anteater or marsh deer. the caller has killed an animal and requires help carrying the meat because the animal is too large for one person to carry alone. recording 4 call name: warã wãwe’mãhöri animal: giant armadillo (priodontes maximus) purpose: help digging animal out of its hole context: the caller has come across a giant armadillo holed up underground. help is needed to dig out the animal. recording 5 call name: uhö’mãhöri and utö’mãhöri (name depends on which animal is hunted) animals: white-lipped peccary (tayassu pecari) and tapir (tapirus terrestris) purpose: coordinate chase of fleeing animals context: this call may be used for either whitelipped peccary or tapir and is therefore the second uhö’mãhöri call and the second utö’mãhöri call. this recording includes alternating hunting calls and regular lexical vocal communication. this call is used when additional hunters are required to help give chase to a white-lipped peccary or tapir that escaped a smaller group of hunters. specifically, help is needed by positioning hunters at specific strategic positions. in this example, the caller tells other hunters that: (1) a band of peccary ran downriver; (2) then escaped and ran upriver; (3) is now running toward another group of hunters that can be positioned to dispatch them, and (4) whoever responds first will share the meat and everyone will eat well today. discussion a recent publication calling for renewed emphasis on the ethnobiology of sound (wright 2017) was partially answered by a special issue of the journal of ethnobiology entitled “ethnobiology through song” (fernándezllamazares and lepofsky 2019). an ethnobiology of sound should, however, contemplate yet more diverse dimensions of the “soundscape.” the a’uwẽ soundscape includes diverse genres of vocal expressions, ranging from ritualized forms of discourse to wails and songs (graham 1984, 1986, 1995). hunting calls should also be added to this list. in addition to this repertoire of five hunting calls, tsidowi also demonstrated two other calls that are only tangentially related to hunting. these were a call for help in the event of an accident, such as a snakebite, and call advising that enemies have been spotted. these additional calls are not presented in this article. the existence of only five hunting calls pertaining to five major game animals begs the question of why other game animals lack hunting calls. unlike many other amazonian societies that preferentially hunt small mammals and birds (milton et al. 1991), the a’uwẽ prefer to hunt large game mammals because, from their point of view, they are tastier and less encumbered by the dietary restrictions characteristic of small game animals, which are welch. 2020. ethnobiology letters 11(1):38–44 42 research communications believed to be dangerous for people of reproductive age and to slow down runners and make younger adults lazy (leeuwenberg and robinson 2000; maybury-lewis 1967; welch 2014). notably, they do not eat monkeys, which are a common game animal among many other amazonian societies. smaller deer (mazama americana, mazama gouazoubira, and ozotoceros bezoarticus) and collared peccary are among the preferential game animals without hunting calls. smaller deer were reported to not require hunting calls because one person can carry the entire animal without assistance and because they are too alert, making noisy calls disadvantageous. this is because hunting calls are made as loud as possible, at the top of one’s lungs, in order to reach people as far as away as possible. collared peccaries do not require calls because they are small enough to be carried and because, according to the a’uwẽ, they are largely solitary in the cerrado, making coordinated group hunting unnecessary (although they will be killed during group hunts if encountered). additionally, the giant anteater has no call to chase because, simply, the a’uwẽ say they do not run. with the exception of portions of recording 5, the other call recordings demonstrate that xavante hunting calls are largely what linguists might call “non -verbal” or “non-lexical” vocal expressions because they do not contain words (anikin et al. 2018). this interpretation would incorrectly align them with emotional vocalizations such as laughs, cries, and screams. they might also be called “vocables,” sounds with no lexical meanings, which would interestingly align them with navajo ceremonial singing (frisbie 1980) and the confederate rebel yell (read 1961). however, my central argument is that a’uwẽ hunting calls carry specific meanings, which leads us to the conclusion that they should instead be considered verbal or lexical vocal expressions, much as is bororo whistling (aytai 1979) and the previously mentioned hunting communication by whistling among the aché, karitiana, and gavião (hill and hawkes 1983; moore and meyer 2014). i make this preliminary assertion based on an ethnographic reading of their contents without a detailed linguistic analysis of their composition. considering the data presented here, i identify eight kinds of explicit or implicit ethnozoological information encoded in a’uwẽ hunting calls, grouped into three categories (table 1). for experienced hunters, these messages would be relatively simple to communicate using regular spoken language, but they would be less effective in terms of carrying long distances and succinctness. recording 5 is less succinct than the others, but this is mainly because it includes the responder’s regular lexical speech. the portions of recording 5 made by the caller contain an astonishingly complex set of information considering its brevity, namely, the animal taxon (white-lipped peccary), three animal movements (ran downriver, then ran upriver, then ran toward another group of hunters), the strategy of positioning hunters in the direction towards which the peccaries are running, and the reward of sharing the meat and table 2 eight kinds of explicit or implicit ethnozoological information encoded in a’uwẽ hunting calls. ethnozoological information encoded in a’uwẽ hunting calls explicit or implicit category ethnotaxon of game animal spotted or killed explicit characteristics of game animal size of animal implicit characteristics of game animal need for assistance explicit kind and quality of hunting assistance needed urgency explicit kind and quality of hunting assistance needed animal’s location and direction; how it got there; where hunters should be positioned explicit kind and quality of hunting assistance needed intention to share meat; sense of happiness and responsibility implicit social relations involved in providing assistance intention to assist; desire to receive compensation explicit social relations involved in providing assistance kinship ties to hunter calling for help; part of animal desired in compensation implicit social relations involved in providing assistance welch. 2020. ethnobiology letters 11(1):38–44 43 research communications contributing to community well-being because everyone will eat well. conclusions tsidowi recorded these calls because he believed they were in danger of being forgotten and lost to future a’uwẽ hunters. indeed, as fewer a’uwẽ men choose to hunt to feed their families, there is a risk of loss of cultural ecological information, including hunting calls. in my observation, as younger people choose to hunt less, group hunts employing fire are the only kind of hunt that essentially all young and adult males continue to participate in, making it the most important venue for them to learn hunting calls and other forms of hunting tools and collaboration skills (welch 2014). thus, hunting with fire is becoming a symbol of a’uwẽ identity and an indispensable opportunity for youth to learn about not only the process of hunting, but also the kinds of collectivity, respect, and reciprocity it entails. this knowledge and these values help enable people to make a living as well as making life meaningful. my evaluation of their current status is that recordings 1–4 continue to be used widely, even by infrequent hunters, but that recording 5 has become specialized knowledge of experienced hunters. some infrequent hunters, who prefer to participate only in group hunts employing fire, may respond to hunting calls but not have opportunities to produce them. women, who do not hunt large game, are also familiar with at least the first four calls through exposure near villages or gardens or while travelling throughout the territory with men. these recordings have been returned to the community so that everyone, including young apprentice hunters, may hear them, imitate them, and put them into use according to the culturally appropriate a’uwẽ method of learning to hunt. acknowledgments i thank the late tsidowi wai’adzatse’ for demonstrating the hunting calls and huatá wameru otomopá for interpreting the calls and their hunting contexts. i also thank all a’uwẽ residents of pimentel barbosa, etênhiritipá, and novo paraíso villages for their consistent support of our research collaboration. carlos coimbra and anonymous reviewers made substantial comments that improved the quality of this paper. declarations permissions: this study was conducted during fieldwork with permissions from the tulane university institutional review board, the comissão nacional de ética em pesquisa, and the fundação nacional do índio. it was registered in the brazilian sistema nacional de gestão do patrimônio genético e do conhecimento tradicional associado (sisgen) under registry number abda88d. sources of funding: fieldwork was supported by the fulbright commission (ddraf no. p022a040016) and the conselho nacional de desenvolvimento científico e tecnológico (cnpq 422844/2016-0). conflicts of interest: none declared. references cited anikin, a., r. bååth, and t. persson. 2018. human non-linguistic vocal repertoire: call types and their meaning. journal of nonverbal behavior 42:53– 80. doi:10.1007/s10919-017-0267-y. aytai, d. 1979. a linguagem de assobio dos índios bororo e karajá. publicações do museu municipal de paulínia 7:1–23. fernández-llamazares, á., and d. lepofsky. 2019. ethnobiology through song. journal of ethnobiology 39:337–353. doi:10.2993/0278-0771-39.3.337. frisbie, c. j. 1980. vocables in navajo ceremonial music. ethnomusicology 24:347–392. doi:10.2307/851149. graham, l. r. 1984. semanticity and melody: parameters of contrast in shavante vocal expression. latin american music review 5:161–185. graham, l. r. 1986. three modes of xavante vocal expression: wailing, collective 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mamíferos na reserva xavante do rio das mortes, mt, brasil. doctoral dissertation, universidade de brasília, brasília, brazil. welch, j. r. 2014. xavante ritual hunting: anthropogenic fire, reciprocity, and collective landscape management in the brazilian cerrado. human ecology 42:47–59. doi:10.1007/s10745-0139637-1. welch, j. r. 2015. learning to hunt by tending the fire: xavante youth, ethnoecology, and ceremony in central brazil. journal of ethnobiology 35:183–208. doi:10.2993/0278-0771-35.1.183. welch, j. r., e. s. brondízio, s. s. hetrick, and c. e. a. coimbra jr. 2013. indigenous burning as conservation practice: neotropical savanna recovery amid agribusiness deforestation in central brazil. plos one 8:e81226. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0081226. wright, c. c. 2017. towards an interdisciplinary focus on sound in ethnobiology research. ethnobiology letters 8:58–60. doi:10.14237/ ebl.8.1.2017.788. midwives and mothers: the medicalization of childbirth on a guatemalan plantation. by sheila cosminsky. 2016. university of texas press, austin. 303 pp. thiel and quinlan. 2019. ethnobiology letters 10(1):14–15 14 reviews knowledge” (p. ix). accordingly, this book will be useful to interdisciplinary audiences, including ethnobiologists, anthropologists, reproductive health specialists, latin americanists, those in gender studies, international development, and guatemalan and maya lay people and traditional healers seeking affirmation and documentation of this ethnomedical heritage. cosminsky defines medicalization as the process by which biomedicine gains dominance over traditional ethnomedical practice. the book then outlines the levels at which medicalization affects guatemalan midwifery practice. the author neither denies biomedical benefits nor endorses all midwifery practices. rather, she teases apart complex issues of power and control to illustrate, with ample concrete examples, the effect of medicalization on midwifery practice in guatemala. for instance, first-time mothers must give birth in hospitals, and midwives are legally barred from assisting with births at home. cosminsky weaves compelling ethnoecological and ethnobotanical information alongside the main themes of medical anthropology and midwifery. in chapter 2, she shows the direct interrelationship of social and ecological characteristics of finca (plantation) life across four decades, from its basis in unequal land distribution to specific notes on subsistence and sugar and coffee cash-crop production systems. for example, the author highlights the changing role of women in subsistence, as coffee harvesting and pig raising—historically women’s activities that contributed to female drawing on four decades of research, medical anthropologist sheila cosminsky (professor emerita of rutgers university, camden, nj) distills careerlong research into a comprehensive monograph on guatemalan midwifery. midwives and mothers journeys over time to describe changes in midwifery practice on a mixed maya-ladino plantation (population 690 in 1970, 313 in 2010) on guatemala’s pacific coast. the ethnography is positivist, reflexive, ecological, and critical. it compiles and contextualizes local medical ethnobotany including ethno-obstetrics, as the local midwifery tradition spans into family health beyond the western obstetric realm of preand perinatal maternal care. the ethnography draws on medical anthropology, ethnobiology, political ecology, and gender studies to show the changing role of midwives in cultural contexts in which traditional medical practices increasingly interface with biomedical ones. the process of medicalization is the central theme that cosminsky builds. she points to the contested power between (1) biomedical clinicians and practices and (2) midwives and midwifery. readers gain a clear understanding of the culturalhistorical foundations of the dynamics between the medical worldview of traditional guatemalan midwifery compared to local applications of western biomedicine. cosminsky contributes her immense stores of ethnography of traditional treatments— mostly ethnobotanical—that she documents partly from “concern for midwives” as guatemala experiences “gradual loss of midwifery midwives and mothers: the medicalization of childbirth on a guatemalan plantation. by sheila cosminsky. 2016. university of texas press, austin. 303 pp. amanda m. thiel1* and marsha b. quinlan1 1department of anthropology, washington state university, pullman, usa. *amanda.thiel@wsu.edu received february 13, 2018 open access accepted march 11, 2019 doi 10.14237/ebl.10.1.2019.1264 published april 17, 2019 copyright © 2019 by the author(s); licensee society of ethnobiology. this is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution-noncommercial 4.0 international public license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0), which permits non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. thiel and quinlan. 2019. ethnobiology letters 10(1):14–15 15 reviews autonomy in a patriarchal society—are not presently a viable income option on the plantation. this shift results in “not only the loss of money but also the loss of community and agency” that differentially hurts women due to economic and gender matters on the finca (p. 48). further, cosminsky’s approach bridges ethnobotany with other disciplines by describing and contrasting the roles and activities of two midwives, doña maría and her daughter, siriaca. for example, doña maría provides new mothers with a postpartum bath, using humorally hot herbs. in the subsequent generation of midwives, siriaca also administers baths but allows women to choose whether they want herbs and a hot or warm bath. these practical changes are symbolic of the changing midwife role, and illustrate a cultural compromise—a midwife who allows choices of herbs and temperatures—which “undermines the cultural logic of the hot-cold principle and the authoritative knowledge of the midwife” (p. 171). medicalization is changing midwifery’s functions and role, and cosminsky makes this clear amid rich ethnomedical and ethnobotanical descriptions. one of mothers and midwives’ greatest achievements is the clear characterization of the differences between the ethnomedical and biomedical models. midwifery serves the entire reproductive cycle, from prenatal and perinatal, to postnatal care. the midwife supports the woman and her family socially, spiritually, and physically. in guatemalan biomedicine (as elsewhere), doctors’ and nurses’ roles form a relational hierarchy, with midwives below biomedical personnel, and pregnant women below that. consideration for social dynamics in the woman’s family or community and their effect on her pregnancy experience, and for associated financial strain, is absent from the biomedical model. physicians are almost always men with little regard for cultural modesty surrounding the shame of female genitalia exposure within the patients’ ethnomedical model. biomedical practice provides prenatal and delivery care, while largely neglecting postpartum. clinicians make frequent use of advanced technologies and interventions, focus on disease treatment rather than prevention, violate hot-cold humoral principles, and caution against using herbs, the latter often with contradictory rationale about herbs’ effectiveness. the differences between biomedical and midwifery practice are clearly impacting women’s health care in rural guatemala. another achievement of the book is its rich description of various elements of midwifery practice, from lifestyle prescriptions and ethnoanatomical disease etiology to treatment of spiritual, social, and physical issues affecting the woman and infant. appendices itemize specific illnesses and ethnobotanical treatments with a comprehensive catalogue of plants. cosminsky lists these plants according to local common names, scientific names, and uses. in email correspondence with dr. cosminsky, we learned of the challenges she underwent in the documentation and deposit of botanical voucher specimens. after losing her first plant press—gifted to her by dr. richard schultes—in a nyc taxi on her way home from fieldwork, she persevered to re-collect botanical vouchers on subsequent trips to guatemala, and deposited them at the field museum in chicago. the documentation of these practical elements of midwifery and ethnobotany supports the author’s aim to capture knowledge before it is lost. in her closing remarks, cosminsky admits feeling “a small amount of optimism” about the future of midwives in guatemala and hopes their knowledge and practices will survive to form part of “a more pluralistic and holistic reproductive health system” (p. 248). midwives and mothers brings to light the issues inherent in the medicalization of traditional midwifery practice and embodies an ethnoecological approach to the study of culture change. the book may well empower the next generation of social scientists, medical personnel, and policy makers to encourage more holistic and pluralistic reproductive healthcare in guatemala, and beyond. fermentation and the ethnobiology of microbial entanglement flachs and orkin. 2019. ethnobiology le ers 10(1):35–39 35 short topical reviews microbiopolitics, which focuses on the political ramifications of living with microbes as allies and threats; and multispecies environmental humanities, which views human relationships through and with microbes. neo-cultural ecology, microbiopolitcs, and the environmental humanities neo-cultural ecology approaches, in the spirit of work of julian steward and robert netting, ask about the biological mechanisms by which human-microbe interactions shape and are shaped by diet and environment in an iterative feedback loop. neocultural ecology scholarship indicates how malleable both the human microbiome can be as well as the microbial ecologies that humans influence, citing significant microbiome differences between smallscale rural and industrialized urban human populations (e.g., tyakht et al. 2013; yatsunenko et al. 2012). with increasing attention to biomedical questions of probiotics and health, much fermentation scholarship is dominated by questions introduction fermentation provides a way for ethnobiologists to imagine microbial worlds and question proand antibiotic entanglements with microbes, but the microbial linkages to food, knowledge, health, and heritage remain underdeveloped. kitchens and gardens influence microbial ecology in dramatic and complex ways because humans manage agri-food systems: humans domesticate species, change habitats, and process foods in ways that have distinctive effects on microbial communities in our homes, our foods, and our guts. ethnobiologists have a unique contribution to this growing research into human-microbial relationships. fermentation in particular draws attention to craft food-making, taste and identity, and the practice of traditional ecological knowledge that sustains distinctive microbial ecologies. in this short topical review, we discuss three key themes in the current research around fermentation relevant to ethnobiologists: neo-cultural ecology, which understands landscapes and the human body itself as microbial ecologies shaped by cultural practices; fermenta on and the ethnobiology of microbial entanglement andrew flachs1* and joseph d. orkin2 1department of anthropology, purdue university, west lafaye e, usa. 2ins tut de biologia evolu va, csic‐universitat pompeu fabra, barcelona, spain. *aflachs@purdue.edu abstract fermenta on preserves and transforms foods through autochthonous or introduced microorganisms. fermenta on is of special interest to ethnobiologists because it relies on place‐ and prac ce‐based knowledge, local flora and microbial taxa, is sensi ve to cultural and ecological condi ons, and illuminates the interac ons through which communi es shape and are shaped by the world around them. in this short topical review, we discuss recent anthropological and ethnobiological research into fermenta on, arguing that this topic deserves further a en on during the current moment of microbial interest across social and natural sciences. we present a typology of scholarship on human ‐microbial rela onships that delineates three intellectual camps in this literature: neo‐cultural ecology, microbiopoli cs, and the environmental humani es. in light of biomedical and scien fic a en on to microbes—not only as threats but also as complex and beneficial actors in our lives—it is crucial to understand how socioecological prac ces including growing, preparing, and consuming fermented foods sustain microbial communi es, heritage foodways, and human wellbeing. received january 2, 2019 open access accepted june 17, 2019 doi 10.14237/ebl.10.1.2019.1481 published july 18, 2019 keywords fermenta on, ethnozymology, microbiome, foodways, mul species copyright © 2019 by the author(s) licensee society of ethnobiology. this is an open‐access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution‐noncommercial 4.0 international public license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by‐nc/4.0), which permits non‐commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. flachs and orkin. 2019. ethnobiology le ers 10(1):35–39 36 short topical reviews of healthy and unhealthy microbial encounters. medical literature shows it is possible for diet in general and fermented food products in particular to influence microbial ecologies in the human gut (e.g., david et al. 2014), a point seized by corporate actors branding their foods as healthy (derrien and van hylckama vlieg 2015). moving from the scale of the human body to the scale of anthropogenic landscapes, similar research asks how microbes might define particular tastes, landraces, and microclimates. this has implications for food scholars trying to pin down how and why local tastes and knowledge shape distinct foodways. in neo-cultural ecology scholarship, terroir, the place-specific quality of food, is reimagined as a distinct microbial landscape that results from aggregated culinary and agricultural management decisions (belda et al. 2017; nabhan 2010; paxson 2013). classic cultural ecology scholarship faced criticism from political ecologists who argued that this scholarship (1) gave too much credit to environmental conditions as the key determinant of cultural practices and (2) underplayed the historical and political conditions that shape human-environmental interactions. to counter this, neo-cultural ecology approaches to human-microbe relationships ask how humans might ideally live in partnership with microbes (lorimer 2016), and recognize how structural forces like state regulation, antibiotic overuse, or artisanal markets might influence which humans partner with which microbes (paxson 2013). certainly, the combination of cultural and environmental forces works quickly on the microbial scale. for example, human microbial ecologies change rapidly in response to diet and local environmental exposure, as shown by immigrants to the us whose gut microbiomes come to resemble lifetime residents (vangay et al. 2018). fermentation, with its complex impacts on microbial ecologies inside and outside human bodies, illuminates how biological and sociopolitical mechanisms become entangled when they shape and are shaped by larger environments. microbiopolitics, particularly as developed by heather paxson (2013), focuses on the political ramifications of microbial encounters. this literature calls attention to how people and states seek to live with microbes: either as threats that must be destroyed because they disrupt healthy relationships, or as potential allies in the human quest for wellbeing. microbiopolitics, following michel foucault’s biopolitics, describes the sorts of microbial risks that communities and regulatory apparati allow through food safety regulations, moral judgements over hygiene, and governance in everyday actions. microbiopolitics approaches take louis pasteur’s 19th century food and safety protocols as a major point of departure in the regulation of microbial life, because pasteur warned that microbes in the wild were potentially harmful and disruptive of otherwise healthy and productive social relationships. where pasteurian logic argues that microbes legitimate and even necessitate state and citizen interventions in hygiene, post-pasteurians, as paxson terms the rawmilk enthusiasts and artisanal cheesemakers with whom she works, discriminate between microbial encounters. some good, or commensal, microbial interactions can be normal, healthy, and potentially lucrative while other bad, or disruptive, relationships cause harm. these differences in the ontological politics of microbes intersect with larger questions about how humans should interact with each other. in a worldview where microbial interactions are inherently dangerous, food panics like e. coli outbreaks reveal the fragility of state hygienic regulations. home fermenters, along with commercial producers of kombucha or raw-milk cheese beholden to food safety laws, argue that some microbial entanglement can be positive (katz 2016; paxson 2013) and question the extent to which regulations protect citizens and craft producers versus agribusiness corporations (spackman 2018). in both cases, ethnobiologists can contribute to these arguments by understanding how human and microbial ecologies shape one another. some post-pasteurians see renewed interest in microbes as providing new models for citizenproducers to make sense of the world and reframe, or promote regulations that reframe, microbial discourse away from perilous and discrete to promising and entangled (paxson and helmreich 2014). where neo-cultural ecology asks about the biological mechanisms by which microbiomes change and microbiopolitics draws attention to regulatory and market forces governing how humans and microbes interact, scholarship from the environmental humanities investigates how human existence is made plural through entanglements with microbes. through microbial interconnections this literature reimagines homo sapiens as “homo microbis” (helmreich 2015), presenting a challenge to think of being human as flachs and orkin. 2019. ethnobiology le ers 10(1):35–39 37 short topical reviews being a good ecosystem (benezra, destefano, and gordon 2012). humanistic literature that destabilizes the human body as a self-contained unit takes inspiration from the “holobiont”, an evolutionary ecology concept wherein humans, and all complex multicellular eukaryotes, are understood to be assemblages of host organisms and their associated microbes (bordenstein and theis 2015). from this perspective, evolutionary forces (e.g., natural selection and genetic drift) act on the phenotypes arising from the organismal assemblage and the totality of its multispecies genomic information, or “hologenome”. viewing organisms as multispecies assemblages, the holobiont concept extends a lamarckian evolutionary logic wherein subsequent generations inherit externally acquired microbes along with their corresponding genomes and fitness effects (bordenstein and theis 2015). thus to be human is to enter into a multispecies partnership, where some microbes are welcome allies for wellbeing and some are dangerous, but where an absence of microbes is unnatural and undesirable (lorimer 2016). while some ethnobiologists may hesitate to engage with the political machinations of food safety regulations that dominate microbiopolitics research, environmental humanities scholarship emphasizes pungent and hyper-local cultural keystone ferments through which communities and ethnic groups stake claims to identity (yamin-pasternak et al. 2014). some microbes are used to make nationalist arguments, as when korean food scientists analyze microbial ecologies to argue that kimchi is uniquely korean and not japanese (jang et al. 2015). others enlist microbes to make food sovereignty arguments, like the claim that bulgarian yogurt (yotova 2017) and ghanaian dawa-dawa (ham 2017) provide unique health benefits through unique lactobacillus bacteria, a way to fight against the grain of an industrializing and homogenizing global food system. along with signalling group identity, many ferments are live cultures and are exchanged through starters and brines. because they carry the well-wishes and recipes of the givers with them, such exchanges are classic anthropological gifts imbued with social meaning (jasarevic 2015; katz 2016). like the heirloom seeds or recipes discussed in much ethnobiological literature, gifts of ferments and starters invite recipients to join in a shared ecological practice and culturally significant taste. each of the three perspectives we have discussed offers ethnobiologists a way to understand microbes at the nexus of local agroecological management, food practices, and human wellbeing. neo-cultural ecology approaches draw attention to how kitchens and gardens shape microbial ecology from human to landscape scales through culinary and agricultural practices. microbiopolitics introduces a political ecology approach to fermented ecosystems, drawing attention to which regulatory structures protect whom, and at what cost. finally, scholarship in the environmental humanities, interested in evolution and multispecies entanglements on the microbial scale, reimagines fermented foods as landscapes and bodies as ecosystems shared and cohabited by multiple organisms. applying ethnobiology to fermentation and the microbiome ethnobiologists are centrally concerned with the ways that we shape the environment and the environment shapes us, exploring interconnections between diet, identity, and ecological relationships. in addition to scholarship documenting cultural and biological diversity through fermented food recipes, ethnobiologists have a chance to use fermentation to contribute to “ethnobiology 5” (wolverton 2013), in which research builds socioecological theory while strengthening local knowledge and sovereignty to help communities live with rapid shifts in ecological, political, and economic opportunities around the world. just as the spread of industrialized agriculture and rural outmigration threaten in situ conservation of biodiversity and the cultural knowledge that sustains it, so too do these factors threaten local starters, encourage pasteurian regulation, endanger specialized tools and knowledge that promote microbial refugia, and marginalize local food cultures (sõukand et al. 2015). as ethnobiologists cassandra quave, andrea pieroni, and gary nabhan have argued most prominently, the loss of either specialized ethnozymological knowledge or local hosts for autochthonous bacteria can disrupt practiceand place -based food security for communities that use fermented foods to bolster food security, foster culturally important tastes, or anchor connections between food, identity, and health (nabhan 2010; quave and pieroni 2014; sõukand et al. 2015; svanberg 2015). flachs and orkin. 2019. ethnobiology le ers 10(1):35–39 38 short topical reviews this brief review essay offers a typology of recent scholarship that distinguishes between research that (1) asks how cultural practices shape distinctive microbiomes within human bodies and across anthropogenic landscapes; (2) calls attention to the political and ideological dimensions of hygiene regulation; and (3) focuses on how microbes help people rethink what it means to be human or draw cultural and ethnic boundaries. fermentation offers ethnobiologists a lens through which to draw from and contribute to these conversations. the ethnobiology of fermentation can foster theoretically rich and politically engaged research, exploring how local knowledge vested in a community shapes a dynamic ecosystem at multiple scales and creates possibilities for further cultural expression. local variation in cultigens, food preparations, soils, and waters likely impacts microbial ecology, especially in the context of wild fermentation from autochthonous lactic acid-producing bacteria. by stressing local social and global political conditions under which these microbial relationships can exist, ethnobiologists can describe the complex feedback loops that shape microbial landscapes. finally, an ethnobiological approach to fermentation and the microbiome can contribute to in situ conservation at various scales by celebrating taste, knowledge, health, and place as daily practices opposed to the homogenization of foods and ecologies through modernist industrialization. declarations permissions: none declared. sources of funding: joseph d. orkin is supported by the beatriu de pinós 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heath, b. warner, j. reeder, j. kuczynski, j. g. caporaso, c. a. lozupone, c. lauber, j. c. clemente, d. knights, r. knight, and j. i. gordon. 2012. human gut microbiome viewed across age and geography. nature 486:222–27. doi:10.1038/ nature11053. yotova, m. 2017. the “goodness” of homemade yogurt: self-provisioning as sustainable food practices in post-socialist bulgaria. local environment 23:1063–74. doi:10.1080/13549839.2017.1420048. traditional uses of plants in the tolfa–cerite–manziate area (central italy) ethnobiology letters. 2015. 6(1):119-161. doi: 10.14237/ebl.6.1.2015.288. 119 research communication by romans (third century bc) (vander poppen 2008). it belonged to the papal states from the eighth century to the nineteenth century. the area has always had a rural character despite its proximity to the city of rome and its suburbs (salvati and sabbi 2011). today, this rural area is famous for cattle breeds (e.g., the maremmana) but local farmers also raise horses, sheep, and other animals. over time, people in the study area have developed a complex corpus of ethnobiological knowledge and traditions. this knowledge has only been explored in the ethnobiological literature once by p. m. guarrera and m. chiavoni over a period spanning from 1980 to 1990 (guarrera 1994). despite the fact that only a part of the territory was surveyed (tolfa mountains and canale monterano) and documented uses were limited to medicinal and food plants, the study by guarrera (1994) suggested the presence of a rich body of ethnobiological knowledge. the current study is nested within a broader research project aimed at exploring ethnobotanical knowledge in italy (e.g., caneva et al. 2013; guarrera 2006) and has two aims: introduction local, traditional, or indigenous knowledge of plant uses is rapidly disappearing in many areas of the world (cox 2000). this is especially evident in several european countries, where such knowledge evolved over centuries of human use of the environment (pardo-de-santayana et al. 2010). despite this recent cultural erosion, ethnobotanical research in europe is still limited in comparison with other regions, especially for studies exploring plant uses other than medicine and food. many ethnobotanical studies have been carried out in italy over the last few decades (guarrera 2006). the majority of these studies focused on medicinal plant uses. despite the fact that researchers have hypothesized contamination of local ethnobotanical knowledge either with ancient medicinal treatises or neoteric knowledge (leonti et al. 2009; pardo-desantayana et al. 2010), many studies continue to highlight interesting and novel plant uses. in this ethnobiological study, we focus our attention on the tolfa-cerite-manziate area. the territory has been inhabited over time by protoetruscans, etruscans (seventh century bc) and then traditional uses of plants in the tolfa–cerite–manziate area (central italy) paolo maria guarrera1, valentina savo2, 3*, and giulia caneva3 author addresses: 1istituto centrale per la demoetnoantropologia, ministero dei beni e delle attività culturali e del turismo, piazza marconi 8-10, 00144 rome, italy. 2hakai institute, simon fraser university, 8888 university drive, burnaby, bc v5a 1s6, canada. 3department of science, university roma tre, viale marconi 446, 00146 rome, italy. *corresponding author: vsavo@sfu.ca received: october 17, 2014 volume: 6(1):119-161 published: september 2, 2015 © 2015 society of ethnobiology abstract: traditional knowledge of local plant uses is rapidly fading away, especially in rural mediterranean areas. we carried out ethnobotanical research in 2010-2011 in order to investigate the local knowledge of wild plants in the tolfa– cerite–manziate area of italy (latium, district of rome). we carried out a total of 45 semi-structured interviews with farmers, herders, and fishers. here, a simple diachronic comparison is made between the current study and a previous one conducted in some of the villages of the study area to highlight potential losses of traditional knowledge of local plants. we documented a total of 102 plant species, belonging to 48 families, along with their uses (excluding food uses). we also reported some non-plant based remedies that were primarily used in veterinary medicine. some plant uses, especially for making handicrafts, have not been reported previously (e.g., those of celtis australis l. cannabaceae, betula pendula roth betulaceae). many plant uses are no longer remembered in the area, which indicates a loss of local ethnobotanical knowledge. keywords: ethnobiology, folk remedies, cultural erosion, latium ethnobiology letters. 2015. 6(1):119-161. doi: 10.14237/ebl.6.1.2015.288. 120 research communication to document information on current ethnobotanical knowledge of people in the tolfa–cerite– manziate area (including plant uses that are often neglected such as those related to handicraft making, domestic and agro-pastoral uses as well as ritual use). to compare the data collected in this study with those reported in guarrera (1994), which dates back to the 1990s and to other studies in the latium region in order to identify loss of knowledge and novelty in plant uses. extensive data on food plants are reported in a separate article. study area the investigated area covers the northern part of the nuts-3 prefecture of rome (latium, central italy) with a total surface of 556 km2 (figure 1). the area is located between longitude 11° 44’-12° 11’ and latitude 41°55’-42°14’. as part of an ancient volcanic system, the area is bounded by mountains (monti cimini and monti sabatini) and by the tyrrhenian sea. the landscape is featured by a mosaic of plains, hills and low mountains (the highest elevation of the tolfa mountains is the monte delle grazie, 616 m a.s.l.). mountains are partially of volcanic origin and formed by older sedimentary deposits of flyschoids (angelelli and faramondi 1995; devoto and lombardi 1977). the alluvial plain of the tiber river constitutes part of the lowlands of the area (salvati and sabbi, 2011). the climate is mediterranean with some areas at the edge of the temperate belt (savo et al. 2012). the average long-term (1951-2007) annual rainfall totals 805 mm, while the average annual medium temperature is 15.5 °c [climate data were obtained from the cra-cma (2012)]. however, decreases in precipitation coupled with an increase of temperature have been recorded in recent years (savo et al. 2012). the vegetation landscape is characterized by a mosaic of pastures, cultivated land, and woodland. a figure 1. geographical position of the study area with names of the municipalities. ethnobiology letters. 2015. 6(1):119-161. doi: 10.14237/ebl.6.1.2015.288. 121 research communication majority of the landscape persists as natural or seminatural habitats (fanelli et al. 2007), despite the occurrence of fires (especially during the summer) and the relatively high human presence (urban sprawl from the city of rome). the typical mediterranean landscape has been preserved in some stands, including meadows with wild cynara cardunculus l. asteraceae and grasslands with sulphurous springs. most of the woodlands are composed of broad-leaf species (e.g., fagus sylvatica l. fagaceae, quercus robur l. fagaceae, castanea sativa mill. fagaceae), especially on hillsides (anzalone 1961; di pietro 2010; spada 1977). the area includes many sites of the natura 2000 network and sites of community importance (sci) (habitats directive1). a large part of the study area is covered by scattered towns and villages. some industrial areas are located in the southern lowlands close to the city of rome, while rural areas are more abundant in the western part of the study area (salvati and sabbi, 2011). methods ethnobotanical survey and analysis of data the tolfa–cerite–manziate area includes 9 municipalities: allumiere, anguillara sabazia, bracciano, canale monterano, cerveteri, manziana, santa marinella, tolfa, and trevignano romano (figure 1). these municipalities span from the coast to an inland hilly area bordering bracciano lake (of volcanic origin). we collected data on plant uses between 2010 and 2011 through semi-structured interviews without time limits (bernard 1988). we used a purposive sampling technique (bernard 1988) by selecting informants among people with a close relationship with the local environment. when approaching a village, we approached elders sitting on benches, people at senior centers, or people working on their land. in some cases information on potential informants was also solicited from local bartenders. informants were selected among farmers, shepherds (butteri), fishers and housewives (who generally cultivate at least a home garden). during our field surveys, we performed 45 interviews. each informant was first presented information about the aims of the study and prior informed consent (rosenthal 2006) was requested verbally before starting the interview. consent was also requested to conduct interviews using an audio recorder and to photograph plants and eventually handicrafts or herbal preparations. interviews were conducted following the ise code of ethics (ise 2006). interviews were structured in two parts. the first part of the interview was aimed at collecting personal data on the informants (age, job, place of residence). the second part of the interview was focused on the relationship of the informants with plants and concerning how informants were using plants. specifically, we recorded data on the vernacular name of the species, the description of uses, and the parts used. we also recorded if informants used fresh or dried plants and if they used plant species in combination with others. in addition, we recorded how mixtures are prepared and doses related to plant uses (especially of medicinal plants). in this paper, we report all plant uses with the exception of food uses (table 1, table 2): medicinal, veterinary, handicraft, domestic, ritual uses, games, agro-pastoral, and antiparasitic uses. plant uses were categorized following the classification suggested in signorini et al. (2013), with the addition of the category for anti-parasitic uses, which was not considered in that work. we also reported non-plant based uses, which are mostly remedies used in human and veterinary folk medicine (table 3). we gathered the plants used and noted by the informants. all the plants that were mentioned were taken into account even if noted by a sole informant. plant species were identified following the “flora d’italia” (pignatti 1982) with use of updated scientific nomenclature (theplantlist.org 2014). the reported plant uses were then qualitatively compared to those reported in a previous study (guarrera 1994) conducted in a region partially overlapping with the study area. similar comparisons done in other regions are reported in di tizio et al. (2012) and pieroni et al. (2013). methods used in this study were similar to those used in the guarrera (1994) even though that study was mainly focused on medicinal and food plants and was conducted at a different time and in a smaller area. the small set of data did not allow for quantitative analyses so, for this reason, we only performed a qualitative comparison of lists of plant species and plant uses. as an example, the use of s. nigra to make blowguns was documented in guarrera (1994) but it was also reported by informants in the current study. other plant uses were generally similar, such as the use of olive oil for tending burns in our study and for treating insect bites ethnobiology letters. 2015. 6(1):119-161. doi: 10.14237/ebl.6.1.2015.288. 122 research communication ta b le 1 . l is t o f fo lk u se s o f p la n ts ( m e d ic in al , v e te ri n ar y, a n ti -p ar as iti c, h an d ic ra ft s, d o m es ti c, a gr o -p as to ra l, ri tu al u se s, g am e s) . sc ie n ti fi c n am e v e rn ac u la r n am e p la n t p ar t p la n t u se c at e go ry an d d e sc ri p ti o n 1 , 2 n o . o f in fo rm an ts 3 v ill ag e 4 te ve ri n a5 c io ci ar ia 5 a cq u ap e n d e n te 5 fa m ily a d o xa ce ae sa m b u cu s n ig ra l . sa m b u co st em g a m *: t o m ak e b lo w gu n s b a l, t r y le av es a g r -p a : l ea ve s as fo d d er a a n fr u it s d o m + : j u ic e to d ye cl o th es a a l fr u it s d o m * : j u ic e to m ak e in k a a l, a n y fa m ily a m ar yl lid ac ea e a lli u m c ep a l . c ip o lla b u lb m ed : p eo p le u se d to e at la rg e am o u n ts o f a . c ep a an d a . s ati vu m t o cu re t h e sp ag n o la fl u ( te rr ib le in fe cti o u s d is ea se sp re ad d u ri n g th e fi rs t w o rl d w ar ) a a n a lli u m s a ti vu m l . a io b u lb m ed : s e e a . c ep a a a n b u lb a g r -p a : m in ce d ga rl ic a s b ir d se ed fo r ch ic ks a c r b u lb m ed : g ar lic n ec kl ac e s w er e m ad e fo r ki d s to w ea r as an th el m in ti c a a n x x y b u lb v et *: g ar lic a s b ir d se ed t o c u re d is ea se s o f p o u lt ry a m a x fa m ily a n ac ar d ia ce ae p is ta ci a le n ti sc u s l. le n ti sc h io b ra n ch es , re si n m ed *: in t h e p as t, b o ile d a n d u se d t o h ea l t o o th ac h e (m o u th w as h es ) a a l (c o n ti n u ed o n n ex t p ag e) ethnobiology letters. 2015. 6(1):119-161. doi: 10.14237/ebl.6.1.2015.288. 123 research communication (c o n ti n u ed f ro m p re vi o u s p ag e) sc ie n ti fi c n am e v e rn ac u la r n am e p la n t p ar t p la n t u se c at e go ry an d d e sc ri p ti o n 1 , 2 n o . o f in fo rm an ts 3 v ill ag e 4 te ve ri n a5 c io ci ar ia 5 a cq u ap e n d e n te 5 b ra n ch es d o m : b ra n ch e s to b in d b u n d le s o f fi re w o o d a c r fa m ily a q u if o lia ce ae ile x a q u if o liu m l . tr en ta ve cc h ie w h o le p la n t r it * : i n t h e p as t, th e w h o le p la n ts w er e u se d a s c h ri st m as t re es a c m , m a y fa m ily a p ia ce ae a p iu m g ra ve o le n s l. se d a n o st em m ed +: t h e st em w as b o ile d a n d ea te n a s d iu re ti c a to st em m ed : t h e st e m w as b o ile d a n d ea te n a s la xa ti ve a b r fo en ic u lu m v u lg a re m ill . fi n o cc h ie lla w h o le p la n t m ed : d ec o cti o n w as d ru n k fo r it s re fr e sh in g p ro p er ti e s a sm x fa m ily a ra ce ae a ru m it a lic u m m ill . g ià ve ro le av es a g r -p a *: b o ile d le av es a s fo d d er f o r p ig s a c m x fa m ily a ra lia ce ae h ed er a h el ix l . ed er a le av es a g r -p a : f o d d er f o r co w s a a n le av es m ed : b o ile d le av es w er e m ix ed w it h b re ad c ru m b le s an d p u t o n w o u n d s a a n fa m ily a st er ac ea e c a le n d u la a rv en si s m . b ie b . a er ia l p ar ts a g r -p a : a s a ga la ct ag o gu e fo r co w s a c m (c o n ti n u ed o n n ex t p ag e) ethnobiology letters. 2015. 6(1):119-161. doi: 10.14237/ebl.6.1.2015.288. 124 research communication (c o n ti n u ed o n n ex t p ag e) (c o n ti n u ed f ro m p re vi o u s p ag e) sc ie n ti fi c n am e v e rn ac u la r n am e p la n t p ar t p la n t u se c at e go ry an d d e sc ri p ti o n 1 , 2 n o . o f in fo rm an ts 3 v ill ag e 4 te ve ri n a5 c io ci ar ia 5 a cq u ap e n d e n te 5 c o ta ti n ct o ri a ( l. ) j. g a y s. l. c a p ez zò n e, ca p o zz ò n e fl o w er h ea d s r it : i n lo ca l fl o ra l ca rp et co m p o si ti o n s (i n fi o ra te ) b a l m a tr ic a ri a c h a m o m ill a l . c a m o m ill a fl o w er h ea d s m ed *: m o u th w as h e s w it h in fu si o n t o c u re so re t h ro at ( sti ll in u se ) a c m x fl o w er h ea d s m ed *: d ec o cti o n ag ai n st in te sti n al p ai n a a n , c r x x p ic ri s sp . st ra m a a er ia l p ar ts a g r -p a : f o d d er f o r h o rs es a b r si ly b u m m a ri a n u m ( l. ) g a er tn . se ed s, d ry p la n t a g r -p a +: s e ed s w er e u se d f o r fe ed in g an im al s a a n x ta n a ce tu m b a ls a m it a l . sa n ta m a ri a fl o w er h ea d s r it : i n t h e ri tu al w at er f o r th e sa in t jo h n f ea st a lo n g w it h l . a n gu sti fo lia , a . ti n ct o ri a a n d le av es o f j. r eg ia ; o r w it h t . p a rt h en iu m , l ea ve s o f j. r eg ia a n d fl o w er s o f h . p er fo ra tu m b a l x x y ethnobiology letters. 2015. 6(1):119-161. doi: 10.14237/ebl.6.1.2015.288. 125 research communication (c o n ti n u ed f ro m p re vi o u s p ag e) sc ie n ti fi c n am e v e rn ac u la r n am e p la n t p ar t p la n t u se c at e go ry an d d e sc ri p ti o n 1 , 2 n o . o f in fo rm an ts 3 v ill ag e 4 te ve ri n a5 c io ci ar ia 5 a cq u ap e n d e n te 5 m a tr ic a ri a fl o w er s r it * : i n t h e ri tu al w at er f o r th e sa in t jo h n f ea st a lo n g w it h le av es o f j. re g ia , fl o w er s o f h . p er fo ra tu m a n d ar o m ati c h er b s (e .g ., t . b al sa m it a) . th e w at er is v er y fr ag ra n t b a l x y fa m ily a sp ar ag ac ea e r u sc u s a cu le a tu s l. p u n g it o p o b ra n ch es d o m : t o m ak e b ro o m s a a n , t r fr u it s m ed : o n ce u se d t o cu re t h e sp ag n o la fl u a a n fa m ily b et u la ce ae b et u la p en d u la r o th w o o d d o m : t o m ak e m o rt ar s (u se d f o r p o u n d in g sa lt ) a c m c a rp in u s b et u lu s l. c a rp in e w o o d d o m : t o m ak e ch ar co al , s ee a . u n ed o a b r o st ry a c a rp in if o lia s co p . c a rp in e w o o d d o m : t o m ak e ch ar co al , s ee a . u n ed o a b r fa m ily b ra ss ic ac ea e b ra ss ic a o le ra ce a l . v er za le av es m ed *: l ea ve s w er e p u t o n t h e w o u n d s as b an d ag e a a l x b ra ss ic a r a p a l . s .l. le av es , tu rn ip s a g r -p a : f o d d er f o r co w s a c m r a p h a n u s ra p h a n is tr u m l . r a m o ra cc io p la n t a g r -p a : f o d d er f o r ra b b it s a a n (c o n ti n u ed o n n ex t p ag e) ethnobiology letters. 2015. 6(1):119-161. doi: 10.14237/ebl.6.1.2015.288. 126 research communication (c o n ti n u ed f ro m p re vi o u s p ag e) sc ie n ti fi c n am e v e rn ac u la r n am e p la n t p ar t p la n t u se c at e go ry an d d e sc ri p ti o n 1 , 2 n o . o f in fo rm an ts 3 v ill ag e 4 te ve ri n a5 c io ci ar ia 5 a cq u ap e n d e n te 5 fa m ily c an n ab ac ea e c a n n a b is s a ti va l . c a n a p a fi b er s d o m : u se d t o re p ai r cr ac ks in b ar re ls . o n ce t h e p la n t w as cu lti va te d in c an al e m o n te ra n o b c m fi b er s fi sh -h : t o r ep ai r cr ac ks in b o at p la n ki n g a a n fi b er s a g r -p a +: t o m ak e h al te rs f o r p ac k an im al s a b r fi b er s d o m + : t o m ak e b ed s h ee ts a a n fi b er s fi sh -h +: o n ce cu lti va te d t o m ak e ro p es , i t w as so ak ed in w at er f o r a w ee k b e fo re u se b a n , b r y fi b er s fi sh -h +: t h e n et s o f th e fi sh er m en o n ce w er e m ad e w it h h em p a a n fi b er s g a m : to m ak e sm al l p e lle ts f o r b lo w gu n s b a l, t r c el ti s a u st ra lis l . w o o d h a n : t h e w o o d b en d s ea si ly . r in gsh ap ed o b je ct s (r o cc ett e) w er e m ad e w it h t h e ve ry fl ex ib le w o o d f o r m u le s ad d le s an d o th er p ie ce s o f th e sa d d le c a l, a n , c m , p o zz a rà g o (a l, c m ), p o n za rà g o (b r ), b u zz a ra co (c m ,c r , m a ), p u zz a rà g o (t r ) c r , t r (c o n ti n u ed o n n ex t p ag e) ethnobiology letters. 2015. 6(1):119-161. doi: 10.14237/ebl.6.1.2015.288. 127 research communication (c o n ti n u ed f ro m p re vi o u s p ag e) sc ie n ti fi c n am e v e rn ac u la r n am e p la n t p ar t p la n t u se c at e go ry an d d e sc ri p ti o n 1 , 2 n o . o f in fo rm an ts 3 v ill ag e 4 te ve ri n a5 c io ci ar ia 5 a cq u ap e n d e n te 5 w o o d h a n : t o m ak e co n n ec ti n g ro d s an d p ie ce s o f m o w er s, s in ce t h e p la n t h as a v er y h ar d a n d e la sti c w o o d a tr w o o d h a n : t o m ak e sh ep h er d c an e s. d u ri n g th e p ro ce ss th e w o o d is st re n gt h en ed u si n g fi re a a n fa m ily c ar yo p h ill ac ea e si le n e vu lg a ri s (m o en ch ) g ar ck e c iu fo lé tti (b r ), c iu fo lé tt o (c m ) fr u it s g a m +: t h e em p ti ed f ru it s ar e u se d a s w h is tl e s b a n , b r , c m y p la n t a g r -p a : f o d d er f o r p ig s a b r fa m ily c o n vo lv u la ce ae c o n vo lv u lu s a rv en si s l. c u rr io la , g ri o la a er ia l p ar ts a g r -p a : f o d d er f o r ra b b it s an d b o re s. in t h e p as t al so f o r h en s a c r x fa m ily c o rn ac ea e c o rn u s m a s l. c rò g n o lo , c rò g n el o , c ro g n à le w o o d h a n *: t h e w o o d is u se d t o m ak e d iff er en t h an d icr aft s (s ti ck s, h an d le s, h o o ks a n d sh ep h er d c an e s) . th e p ro ce ss o f m ak in g ca n es is si m ila r to t h e o n e d es cr ib ed f o r c . a u st ra lis b c m y (c o n ti n u ed o n n ex t p ag e) ethnobiology letters. 2015. 6(1):119-161. doi: 10.14237/ebl.6.1.2015.288. 128 research communication (c o n ti n u ed f ro m p re vi o u s p ag e) (c o n ti n u ed o n n ex t p ag e) sc ie n ti fi c n am e v e rn ac u la r n am e p la n t p ar t p la n t u se c at e go ry an d d e sc ri p ti o n 1 , 2 n o . o f in fo rm an ts 3 v ill ag e 4 te ve ri n a5 c io ci ar ia 5 a cq u ap e n d e n te 5 fa m ily c u cu rb it ac ea e ec b a lli u m e la te ri u m ( l. ) a . r ic h . sc h iz za ve le n i fr u it s g a m : k id s sq u ee ze d t h e fr u it to m ak e it e xp lo d e a a l fa m ily c yp er ac ea e sc ir p o id es h o lo sc h o en u s (l .) so ja k g iò n co st em d o m : t o m ak e sm al l b as ke ts (f u sc el le ) fo r ri co tt a a c m fa m ily d io sc o re ac ea e d io sc o re a c o m m u n is ( l. ) c ad d ic k & w ilk in r a fa n o , a b b ò ie le fr u it s m ed *: f ru it s w er e ru b b ed o n to t h e sk in t o c u re b ac ka ch e a a l x x y fa m ily e ri ca ce ae a rb u tu s u n ed o l . c er a sa m a ri n a w o o d d o m : f ir ew o o d a a l er ic a a rb o re a l . b ru g o ( a l) , sc o p a m a ri n a ( c m , c r ) w o o d d o m : u se d a s fi re w o o d a n d t o m ak e ch ar co al ( th e w o o d w as p u t in a h o le o n t h e gr o u n d , l ea vi n g sm al l a p er tu re s fo r ae ra ti o n a n d t h en th e w o o d w as le ft b u rn in g ve ry sl o w ly ) b a l, b r w o o d d o m : w o o d w as ca rv ed t o m ak e fi gu ri n es a c m ethnobiology letters. 2015. 6(1):119-161. doi: 10.14237/ebl.6.1.2015.288. 129 research communication (c o n ti n u ed f ro m p re vi o u s p ag e) (c o n ti n u ed o n n ex t p ag e) sc ie n ti fi c n am e v e rn ac u la r n am e p la n t p ar t p la n t u se c at e go ry an d d e sc ri p ti o n 1 , 2 n o . o f in fo rm an ts 3 v ill ag e 4 te ve ri n a5 c io ci ar ia 5 a cq u ap e n d e n te 5 r o o t h a n : t h e ro o ts w er e ca rv ed t o m ak e sm o ki n g p ip es . t h e ro o t is h ar ve st ed d u ri n g w in te r, c le an ed an d p ro ce ss ed (s o m eti m e s p ip e s w er e al so co m m er ci al iz ed , e. g. , i n a l) b a l, c m , c r a er ia l p ar ts r it : d u ri n g w in te r, b u n d le s o f er ic a w er e u se d t o m ak e b o n fi re s fo r th e fe as t o f o u r la d y o f lo re to a a l b ra n ch es r it : a s m al l b ro o m o f er ic a w as p u t b eh in d d o o rs t o ke ep t h e “e vi l e ye ” aw ay a a l fa m ily e u p h o rb ia ce ae eu p h o rb ia c h a ra ci a s l. er b a m o ra , tu tu m a g liu a er ia l p ar ts fi sh -h *: t h e p la n t w as u se d f o r ill eg al fi sh in g in f re sh w at er b as in s (m ar sh es , d ic h e s) b c r , s m a er ia l p ar ts m ed *: u se d f o r co m p re ss es in c as e o f to o th ac h e a b r fa m ily f ab ac ea e c er a to n ia s ili q u a l . se ed s a g r -p a : f o d d er f o r liv e st o ck a sm ethnobiology letters. 2015. 6(1):119-161. doi: 10.14237/ebl.6.1.2015.288. 130 research communication (c o n ti n u ed f ro m p re vi o u s p ag e) (c o n ti n u ed o n n ex t p ag e) sc ie n ti fi c n am e v e rn ac u la r n am e p la n t p ar t p la n t u se c at e go ry an d d e sc ri p ti o n 1 , 2 n o . o f in fo rm an ts 3 v ill ag e 4 te ve ri n a5 c io ci ar ia 5 a cq u ap e n d e n te 5 c yti su s sc o p a ri u s (l .) l in k sc o p a , sc o p ija ( a n , c m ), sc o p ò n e (a l, tr ) st em s a g r -p a *: s te m s w er e u se d t o m ak e h u ts ( p ar ac én to li) in t h e p as t c a l, a n , c m , t r y fl o w er s r it : to m ak e fl o ra l ca rp et s (i n fi o ra te ) (s e e s. ju n ce u m ) a c m m ed ic a g o s a ti va l . er b a m ed ic a p la n ts in fl o w er a g r -p a +: g al ac ta go gu e fo r co w s a a n x o n o b ry ch is v ic iif o lia s co p . su lla a er ia l p ar ts a g r -p a : f o d d er f o r liv e st o ck a sm r o b in ia p se u d o a ca ci a l . m a rr ù ca (a l, b r , c m ), a gà ce (a l) w o o d h a n : t o m ak e h an d le s, r ai lr o ad ti es a n d t o m ak e sh aft s o f sm al l h an d ca rt s a c m w o o d h a n : t o m ak e h an d le s o f h o es a b r w o o d d o m : t o m ak e ca rv in g fo rk s to s ti r th e ac q u ac o tt a (a lo ca l t yp ic al s o u p ) a a l le av es a g r -p a : l ea ve s as fo d d er f o r ra b b it s a a n sp a rti u m ju n ce u m l . g in es tr a , m a g g io (c m ) st em v et : o n ce , b u lls w er e ca st ra te d u si n g th e st e m a b r st em a g r -p a *: o n ce , st e m s w er e u se d t o ti e vi n es a n d to m at o es ( it is p u t in w at er b ef o re t h e u se in a l) c a l, a n , b r , c m , tr y ethnobiology letters. 2015. 6(1):119-161. doi: 10.14237/ebl.6.1.2015.288. 131 research communication (c o n ti n u ed f ro m p re vi o u s p ag e) (c o n ti n u ed o n n ex t p ag e) sc ie n ti fi c n am e v e rn ac u la r n am e p la n t p ar t p la n t u se c at e go ry an d d e sc ri p ti o n 1 , 2 n o . o f in fo rm an ts 3 v ill ag e 4 te ve ri n a5 c io ci ar ia 5 a cq u ap e n d e n te 5 st em d o m * : o n ce , t o m ak e th e fu sc el le (c o n ta in er s fo r ch ee se o r ri co tt a) a c m st em d o m + : t o b in d b u n d le s o f fi re w o o d a a l fl o w er s r it * : o n ce , fl o w er s w er e u se d t o m ak e fl o ra l c ar p et s (i n fi o ra te ) o n t h e c o rp u s c h ri sti d ay (a ls o o n t h e a sc en si o n d ay in c m ). f lo w er s o f c . sc o p a ri u s a n d p et al s o f r o sa s p . p l. w er e al so u se d to c re at e sh ap e s an d d ra w in gs o n th e st re et s c a l, b r , c m , t r y tr if o liu m in ca rn a tu m l . c a p o ro ss o a er ia l p ar ts a g r -p a : g al ac ta go gu e fo r liv e st o ck a a n tr if o liu m p ra te n se l . tr if o g lio a er ia l p ar ts a g r -p a : g al ac ta go gu e fo r liv e st o ck a a n ethnobiology letters. 2015. 6(1):119-161. doi: 10.14237/ebl.6.1.2015.288. 132 research communication (c o n ti n u ed f ro m p re vi o u s p ag e) sc ie n ti fi c n am e v e rn ac u la r n am e p la n t p ar t p la n t u se c at e go ry an d d e sc ri p ti o n 1 , 2 n o . o f in fo rm an ts 3 v ill ag e 4 te ve ri n a5 c io ci ar ia 5 a cq u ap e n d e n te 5 fa m ily f ag ac ea e c a st a n ea s a ti va m ill . w o o d d o m * : t o m ak e th e cu ri àt o ( fl ai l) , u se d t o p o u n d ce re al s o r to m ak e th e va t (p is ta rò la o r p es ta rò la ) fo r p re p ar in g w in e a c m w o o d h a n *: t o b u ild b ar re ls b b r , c m , tr y w o o d h a n +: t o m ak e th e w h ee l t o s h ar p en kn if es a n d s ic kl e s; to b u ild h an d le s an d c ei lin gs a c m y w o o d d o m * : t o m ak e fu rn it u re c a l, a n , c m , t r y w o o d d o m + : t o m ak e b ea m s an d t ab le s a a n , c m lo gs a g r -p a *: p o le s fo r vi n e s a c m w o o d d o m + : w o o d is u se d f o r b u ild in g fe n ce s, s h u tt er s, w in d o w f ra m e s a b r le av es d o m : l ea ve s ar e u se d t o c le an a n d p er fu m e b ar re ls o f ch es tn u t w o o d . le av es a re b o ile d w it h le av es o f p . p er si ca a n d o f j. re g ia a b r , m a (c o n ti n u ed o n n ex t p ag e) ethnobiology letters. 2015. 6(1):119-161. doi: 10.14237/ebl.6.1.2015.288. 133 research communication (c o n ti n u ed f ro m p re vi o u s p ag e) sc ie n ti fi c n am e v e rn ac u la r n am e p la n t p ar t p la n t u se c at e go ry an d d e sc ri p ti o n 1 , 2 n o . o f in fo rm an ts 3 v ill ag e 4 te ve ri n a5 c io ci ar ia 5 a cq u ap e n d e n te 5 b ar k g a m *: p ie ce s o f b ar k ca n d et ac h fr o m t h e tr u n k d u ri n g sp ri n g. t h is b ar k w as u se d t o m ak e th e p et a (a sm al l t ru m p et ) a a l le av es d o m * : l ea ve s ar e w ea ve d t o m ak e a h at t o s ta y fr es h d u ri n g th e su m m er a a l le av es g a m : l ea ve s w er e ro lle d t o m ak e ci ga re tt e s a a l sh o o ts d o m : t o b in d b u n d le s o f w o o d a a l w o o d fi sh -h : t o m ak e o ar s a a n , t r fa g u s sy lv a ti ca l . fa g g io w o o d d o m : t o m ak e ch ee se f o rm s a c m lo gs a g r -p a : t o m ak e p lo u gh s a c m w o o d d o m : t o m ak e a si e ve ( cr iv el lo ) fo r ce re al s; t h e w o o d is e as ily b en d a c m x w o o d h a n : t o m ak e th e cà vo le ( ta p s fo r b ar re ls ) an d t h e p la n k o f th e sh o em ak er a c m w o o d h a n +: t o b u ild se ve ra l h an d ic ra ft o b je ct s a b r sh o o ts d o m * : t o b in d b u n d le s o f fi re w o o d a a l (c o n ti n u ed o n n ex t p ag e) ethnobiology letters. 2015. 6(1):119-161. doi: 10.14237/ebl.6.1.2015.288. 134 research communication (c o n ti n u ed f ro m p re vi o u s p ag e) (c o n ti n u ed o n n ex t p ag e) sc ie n ti fi c n am e v e rn ac u la r n am e p la n t p ar t p la n t u se c at e go ry an d d e sc ri p ti o n 1 , 2 n o . o f in fo rm an ts 3 v ill ag e 4 te ve ri n a5 c io ci ar ia 5 a cq u ap e n d e n te 5 w o o d d o m * : t o m ak e fu rn it u re a a l, c r q u er cu s ce rr is l . c er ro g al ls m ed +: t o p re p ar e an o in tm en t to ap p ly o n w o u n d s b a l, c m w o o d h a n : t o m ak e ra ilr o ad ti es ( ve ry h ar d w o o d ) a c m w o o d fi sh -h : t o b u ild b o at s a tr w o o d d o m : t o b u ild fu rn it u re a a n w o o d d o m + : f ir e w o o d (f u el f o r m ak in g b re ad ); a m o n g th e b es t w o o d s fo r th is p u rp o se ( a l) b a l, b r w o o d a g r -p a : t o m ak e b ea m s an d p o le s (r es is ta n t) a a n q u er cu s ile x l. el ce ( a n , b r ), e rc e (a l, t r ) w o o d d o m * : f ir e w o o d (f u el f o r m ak in g b re ad ); t h e b es t w o o d f o r th is p u rp o se ( a l) b a l, b r w o o d h a n : t o m ak e ra ilr o ad ti es ( ve ry re si st an t) a tr q u er cu s p u b es ce n s w ill d . c er q u a ( a l, a n , b r , c m ) g al ls m ed +: t o p re p ar e an o in tm en t to ap p ly o n w o u n d s b a l, c m x w o o d d o m + : f ir e w o o d (f o r m ak in g b re ad ) c a l, b r , c m y w o o d h a n +: t o m ak e ca n es a c m w o o d d o m + : t o m ak e ch es ts a c m ethnobiology letters. 2015. 6(1):119-161. doi: 10.14237/ebl.6.1.2015.288. 135 research communication (c o n ti n u ed f ro m p re vi o u s p ag e) (c o n ti n u ed o n n ex t p ag e) sc ie n ti fi c n am e v e rn ac u la r n am e p la n t p ar t p la n t u se c at e go ry an d d e sc ri p ti o n 1 , 2 n o . o f in fo rm an ts 3 v ill ag e 4 te ve ri n a5 c io ci ar ia 5 a cq u ap e n d e n te 5 a co rn s a g r -p a *: f o d d er fo r sh e ep a n d h o rs es , b u t al so f o r b o re s a b r x y w o o d a g r -p a : t o m ak e p lo u gh s a c m y b ra n ch es fi sh -h : f o r w av in g fi sh t ra p s a a n w o o d h a n *: t o m ak e ra ilr o ad ti es a c m w o o d fi sh -h *: t o b u ild b o at s a a n , c m q u er cu s su b er l . b ar k h a n : t o m ak e th e cu p el le ( sm a ll b ar re ls ) an d p ie ce s o f ap ia ri es a a l b ar k fi sh -h : t o m ak e fl o at s sm b ar k d o m : t o m ak e sh o es a a l fa m ily h yp er ic ac ea e h yp er ic u m p er fo ra tu m l . sa n g io va n n i fl o w er s r it : i n t h e ri tu al w at er f o r th e sa in t jo h n f ea st ( se e t. p a rt h en iu m ) a a l fa m ily j u gl an d ac ea e ju g la n s re g ia l . w o o d d o m : t o m ak e fu rn it u re . i t is co n si d er ed a va lu ab le w o o d a c m , t r y ethnobiology letters. 2015. 6(1):119-161. doi: 10.14237/ebl.6.1.2015.288. 136 research communication (c o n ti n u ed f ro m p re vi o u s p ag e) (c o n ti n u ed o n n ex t p ag e) sc ie n ti fi c n am e v e rn ac u la r n am e p la n t p ar t p la n t u se c at e go ry an d d e sc ri p ti o n 1 , 2 n o . o f in fo rm an ts 3 v ill ag e 4 te ve ri n a5 c io ci ar ia 5 a cq u ap e n d e n te 5 le av es d o m : l ea ve s ar e u se d t o c le an w o o d en b ar re ls . le av es a re b o ile d w it h le av es o f p . p er si ca a n d o f c . sa ti va . t h e d ec o cti o n is a ls o u se d t o e lim in at e b la ck c o lo u ri n g ag en ts a b r , m a le av es r it : i n t h e ri tu al w at er f o r th e sa in t jo h n f ea st a lo n g w it h t . p a rt h en iu m , t . b a ls a m it a , l . a n g u sti fo lia a n d o th er a ro m ati c h er b s b a l x y fa m ily l am ia ce ae b a llo ta n ig ra l . s u b sp . fo eti d a ( v is .) h a ye k c im ic e w h o le p la n t a g r -p a : f o d d er f o r go at s a c m ethnobiology letters. 2015. 6(1):119-161. doi: 10.14237/ebl.6.1.2015.288. 137 research communication (c o n ti n u ed f ro m p re vi o u s p ag e) (c o n ti n u ed o n n ex t p ag e) sc ie n ti fi c n am e v e rn ac u la r n am e p la n t p ar t p la n t u se c at e go ry an d d e sc ri p ti o n 1 , 2 n o . o f in fo rm an ts 3 v ill ag e 4 te ve ri n a5 c io ci ar ia 5 a cq u ap e n d e n te 5 c lin o p o d iu m n ep et a ( l. ) k u n tz e m en tu cc ia se lv a ti ca a er ia l p ar ts a -p a r *: b u n ch e s o f c . n ep et a a re h u n g in o rd er t o k ee p m o sq u it o e s aw ay (t h e eff ec t is te m p o ra ry ). t h e p la n t is r u b b ed o n th e n ec k o f h o rs e s w it h v in eg ar t o ke ep h o rs efl ie s aw ay ( b u t th e re p el le n t eff ec t is al so t em p o ra ry , si n ce it c o u ld la st u p t o a n h o u r an d a h al f) . h u n te rs a ls o u se d t h is p la n t d u ri n g h u n ti n g tr ip s to k ee p in se ct s aw ay . h u n te rs u se d t o b ri n g a b o tt le o f vi n eg ar w it h b ra n ch es o f c . n ep et a in it ) a b r x la va n d u la a n g u sti fo lia m ill . sp ig h ett a in fl o re sc e n ce s a -p a r *: in t h e o ld en ti m e s, p eo p le k ee p b u n ch es o f th is p la n t am o n g lin en (f o r b o th t h e sc en t an d t h e an ti p ar as iti c p ro p er ti e s) . so m e ti m es b u n ch es w er e ca n d ysh ap ed a a l, c r x ethnobiology letters. 2015. 6(1):119-161. doi: 10.14237/ebl.6.1.2015.288. 138 research communication (c o n ti n u ed f ro m p re vi o u s p ag e) (c o n ti n u ed o n n ex t p ag e) sc ie n ti fi c n am e v e rn ac u la r n am e p la n t p ar t p la n t u se c at e go ry an d d e sc ri p ti o n 1 , 2 n o . o f in fo rm an ts 3 v ill ag e 4 te ve ri n a5 c io ci ar ia 5 a cq u ap e n d e n te 5 in fl o re sc e n ce s r it * : i n t h e ri tu al w at er f o r th e sa in t jo h n f ea st ( se e j. re g ia ) a a l x sa lv ia o ffi ci n a lis l . sa lv ia le av es m ed : l ea ve s ar e ru b b ed o n t ee th t o cl ea n t h em a b r x x y fa m ily l au ra ce ae la u ru s n o b ili s l. a llo ro le av es m ed *: d ec o cti o n as d ig e sti ve a a l x x x le av es m ed : d ec o cti o n f o r so re t h ro at a c r fa m ily l in ac ea e li n u m u si ta ti ss im u m l . li n o se ed s m ed *: h o t co m p re ss es t o c u re b o ils a c r x se ed s m ed : h o t co m p re ss es f o r w o u n d s a a n se ed s v et : s e ed s w er e p re se rv ed o ve r th e w in te r. s ee d s w er e so ak ed in w at er an d t h en f ed t o sh ee p a n d c o w s as d ig es ti ve a a n se ed s v et : b o ile d s e ed s as p u rg ati ve a m a x fi b er s o f th e st e m d o m + : t o m ak e ro p es a n d s h ee ts ( it w as o n ce cu lti va te d in c m an d a n ) a a n fa m ily m al va ce ae m a lv a s yl ve st ri s l. m a lv a , m a rm o la le av es m ed *: d ec o cti o n as la xa ti ve a b r x y ethnobiology letters. 2015. 6(1):119-161. doi: 10.14237/ebl.6.1.2015.288. 139 research communication (c o n ti n u ed f ro m p re vi o u s p ag e) (c o n ti n u ed o n n ex t p ag e) sc ie n ti fi c n am e v e rn ac u la r n am e p la n t p ar t p la n t u se c at e go ry an d d e sc ri p ti o n 1 , 2 n o . o f in fo rm an ts 3 v ill ag e 4 te ve ri n a5 c io ci ar ia 5 a cq u ap e n d e n te 5 a er ia l p ar ts m ed *: d ec o cti o n d ru n k fo r it s re fr e sh in g p ro p er ti e s in c as e o f st o m ac h a ch e c a l, b r , c m , c r , m a , s m x x y a er ia l p ar ts , le av es m ed *: m o u th w as h e s w it h th e d ec o cti o n ag ai n st t o o th ac h e b b r , c r , m a x x y le av es m ed : d ec o cti o n (r ef re sh in g) f o r re d u ci n g th e sw el lin g (f ati gu e ) o f le gs a tr a er ia l p ar ts , le av es a n d yo u n g b u d s m ed *: c o m p re ss es w it h t h e d ec o cti o n (a n ti -i n fl am m at o ry ) ag ai n st d en ta l ab sc e ss es . f re sh o r co o ke d le av es w er e al so c h ew ed f o r th e sa m e p u rp o se c a l, b r , c m , t o x x y a er ia l p ar ts m ed *: c o m p re ss es o f th e b o ile d p la n t o n p im p le s as re so lv en t b a n , t o x x a er ia l p ar ts m ed +: c o o ke d a n d p u t o n w o u n d s a a l le av es m ed : c ru sh ed a n d m ix ed w it h b re ad cr u m b s o n w o u n d s a a n a er ia l p ar ts v et *: d ec o cti o n o f ae ri al p ar ts a n d c . d a ct yl o n t o c u re liv e st o ck a b r y ethnobiology letters. 2015. 6(1):119-161. doi: 10.14237/ebl.6.1.2015.288. 140 research communication (c o n ti n u ed f ro m p re vi o u s p ag e) (c o n ti n u ed o n n ex t p ag e) sc ie n ti fi c n am e v e rn ac u la r n am e p la n t p ar t p la n t u se c at e go ry an d d e sc ri p ti o n 1 , 2 n o . o f in fo rm an ts 3 v ill ag e 4 te ve ri n a5 c io ci ar ia 5 a cq u ap e n d e n te 5 ti lia s p . p l. fl o w er s m ed *: in fu si o n o f c . l em o n a n d t ili a sp . p l. as s ed ati ve , fo r co ld a n d c o u gh a c m x x fa m ily m o ra ce ae fi cu s ca ri ca l . fi co ( b r , to ), f ic ò gn a (c m ) sy co n ia m ed *: d u ri n g th e su m m er , s yc o n ia w er e su n d ri ed . d u ri n g th e w in te r th ey w er e b o ile d al o n g w it h a p p le s to c u re c o ld a n d co u gh b b r , t o x x y b u d s v et *: o n ce , b u d s w er e p u t in t h e m o u th o f co w s in ca se o f ty m p an is m b ec au se t h e b itt er ta st e o f th e la te x co u ld h el p w it h d ig es ti o n a c m x b ra n ch es (s ap ) d o m * : u se d t o cu rd le c h ee se a b r fa m ily o le ac ea e fr a xi n u s o rn u s l. o rn el lo b ar k m ed : d ec o cti o n ag ai n st in te sti n al p ai n a c r w o o d d o m * : t o m ak e ch ar co al ( se e a . u n ed o ) o r as fi re w o o d [ n o t re al ly v al u ab le ac co rd in g to s o m e in fo rm an ts ( b r )] a a n , b r b ar k d o m : t o b in d b u n d le s o f fi re w o o d a c r ethnobiology letters. 2015. 6(1):119-161. doi: 10.14237/ebl.6.1.2015.288. 141 research communication (c o n ti n u ed f ro m p re vi o u s p ag e) (c o n ti n u ed o n n ex t p ag e) sc ie n ti fi c n am e v e rn ac u la r n am e p la n t p ar t p la n t u se c at e go ry an d d e sc ri p ti o n 1 , 2 n o . o f in fo rm an ts 3 v ill ag e 4 te ve ri n a5 c io ci ar ia 5 a cq u ap e n d e n te 5 le av es a g r -p a *: f o d d er fo r co w s a a l w o o d a g r -p a : t o m ak e p o le s fo r vi n e s a tr o le a e u ro p a ea l . o liv o le av es m ed *: s ev er al le av es in d ec o cti o n to c u re h yp er te n si o n b b r , t o x o il v et : m ix ed w it h sa lt a n d v in eg ar , i t w as g iv en t o c o w s in c as e o f ty m p an is m a m a o il m ed +: o il w as m ix ed w it h b re ad cr u m b s an d p u t o n b u rn s a a n le av es a g r -p a *: f o r th e in ve rn ìle ( w in te r fo d d er f o r liv e st o ck ) a b r y w o o d d o m * : f ir e w o o d (b u t n o t u se d f o r co o ki n g) a c m , t r w o o d d o m : t h e b es t w o o d t o m ak e ta b le s, b u t al so u se d f o r o th er p ie ce s o f fu rn it u re a tr b ra n ch es d o m * : t o m ak e b as ke ts ( w it h f re sh b ra n ch es ) a c m ethnobiology letters. 2015. 6(1):119-161. doi: 10.14237/ebl.6.1.2015.288. 142 research communication (c o n ti n u ed f ro m p re vi o u s p ag e) (c o n ti n u ed o n n ex t p ag e) sc ie n ti fi c n am e v e rn ac u la r n am e p la n t p ar t p la n t u se c at e go ry an d d e sc ri p ti o n 1 , 2 n o . o f in fo rm an ts 3 v ill ag e 4 te ve ri n a5 c io ci ar ia 5 a cq u ap e n d e n te 5 o il r it * : f is h er m en h av e th ei r th ro at an o in te d w it h b le ss ed o il o n t h e d ay o f sa in t b ia gi o (t h e sa in t p ro te ct o r o f a n gu ill ar a) a a n o il r it + : t o r e m o ve th e ev il ey e a a n , c m o il d o m * : t h e so ap w as m ad e w it h re si d u al s o f th e o il m ak in g, a lo n g w it h ca u sti c so d a an d b o n es a tr fa m ily p ap av er ac ea e p a p a ve r rh o ea s l. p a p a n à ra p et al s m ed *: d ec o cti o n as s ed ati ve a a l x x y a er ia l p ar ts v et : t h e p la n t w as cr u sh ed f o r p re p ar in g co m p re ss es f o r an im al s w it h sw el lin g, t h e p la n t w as m ix ed w it h p o rk f at b ec au se it so ft en ed t h e sk in , th en it w as r u b b ed o n to t h e sk in o r ap p lie d a s a b an d ag e a b r fr u it s g a m : k id s u se d t h e fr u it s to in k (o r m ar k) t h e sk in ( to p ro d u ce a s m al l st ar ) a c m y ethnobiology letters. 2015. 6(1):119-161. doi: 10.14237/ebl.6.1.2015.288. 143 research communication (c o n ti n u ed f ro m p re vi o u s p ag e) (c o n ti n u ed o n n ex t p ag e) sc ie n ti fi c n am e v e rn ac u la r n am e p la n t p ar t p la n t u se c at e go ry an d d e sc ri p ti o n 1 , 2 n o . o f in fo rm an ts 3 v ill ag e 4 te ve ri n a5 c io ci ar ia 5 a cq u ap e n d e n te 5 fa m ily p in ac ea e p in u s p in ea l . p in o b ar k fi sh -h : t h e b ar k w as u se d t o p re p ar e a d ec o cti o n w h ic h w as t h en u se d t o d ye n et s in a b ro w n co lo r (o n ce n et s w er e m ad e w it h n at u ra l fi b er s) b a n , s m , tr fa m ily p la n ta gi n ac ea e p la n ta g o la n ce o la ta l . o re cc h ia d i p ec o ra ( b r , tr ), m a zz a n co lli (a n ) st em a g r -p a : d ri ed st e m s w er e o n ce u se d t o ti e to m at o es a a n , b r a er ia l p ar ts a g r -p a : f o d d er f o r liv e st o ck a tr y p la n ta g o s p . p l. (p . la n ce o la ta l ., p . m a jo r l. ) p ia n ta g g in i le av es m ed *: l ea ve s w er e ru b o n to t h e sk in in ca se o f in fl am m ati o n ca u se d b y b it es o f b ee s o r m o sq u it o s a a l x x y fa m ily p lu m b ag in ac ea e p lu m b a g o e u ro p a ea l . c a p ri n el la a er ia l p ar ts v et : d ri ed a er ia l p ar ts w er e so ft en ed in w ar m w at er a n d u se d t o m ak e co m p re ss e s to r ed u ce t h e sw el lin g o f d o m es ti c an im al s a b r ethnobiology letters. 2015. 6(1):119-161. doi: 10.14237/ebl.6.1.2015.288. 144 research communication (c o n ti n u ed f ro m p re vi o u s p ag e) (c o n ti n u ed o n n ex t p ag e) sc ie n ti fi c n am e v e rn ac u la r n am e p la n t p ar t p la n t u se c at e go ry an d d e sc ri p ti o n 1 , 2 n o . o f in fo rm an ts 3 v ill ag e 4 te ve ri n a5 c io ci ar ia 5 a cq u ap e n d e n te 5 a er ia l p ar ts v et : t h e cr u sh ed ae ri al p ar ts w er e ap p lie d o n w o u n d s an d c ru st s ca u se d b y th e yo ke a m a fa m ily p o ac ea e a ru n d o d o n a x l. c a n n a c u lm v et : c o w s co u ld d ie q u ic kl y aft er in ge sti n g fr e sh p la n ts o f m . s ati va . fa rm er s u se d a kn if e to m ak e a sm al l i n ci si o n in t h e gu t o f th e an im al an d t h en t h e ca ve cu lm o f th is p la n t w as in se rt ed in t h e in ci si o n f o r al lo w in g th e ga se s p ro d u ce d b y th e fe rm en ta ti o n t o fl o w s lo w ly a sm c u lm v et : t h e cu lm w as u se d a s a su p p o rt fo r b an d ag e (a lo n g w it h c o w d u n g) f o r sh ee p a b r c u lm d o m * : t o m ak e b as ke ts (c a n n is tr à ri ); a ls o w it h s . a lb a (c m ) o r u . m in o r (a n ) c a n , b r , c m , s m y c u lm fi sh -h : a b ig t o o l (r a tt o ), m a d e w it h w ea ve d c u lm s, w as u se d f o r fi sh in g a c m ethnobiology letters. 2015. 6(1):119-161. doi: 10.14237/ebl.6.1.2015.288. 145 research communication (c o n ti n u ed f ro m p re vi o u s p ag e) (c o n ti n u ed o n n ex t p ag e) sc ie n ti fi c n am e v e rn ac u la r n am e p la n t p ar t p la n t u se c at e go ry an d d e sc ri p ti o n 1 , 2 n o . o f in fo rm an ts 3 v ill ag e 4 te ve ri n a5 c io ci ar ia 5 a cq u ap e n d e n te 5 a ve n a s a ti va l . b ia d a fr u it s a g r -p a : f o d d er f o r p o u lt ry a c m fr u it s a g r -p a : f o d d er f o r d o n ke ys a a l c yn o d o n d a ct yl o n ( l. ) p er s. r a m ìc ci a , g ra m ìc ci a , g ra m ig n a r o o t m ed *: t h e d ec o cti o n w as d ru n k to c u re se ve ra l ga st ro in te sti n al p ro b le m s, li ve r d is ea se s an d in fl am m ati o n s (a ls o re fr e sh in g) c a l, b r , c m , t o x x x y r o o t m ed *: d ec o cti o n as d iu re ti c fo r re n al p ro b le m s an d cy sti ti s b a l, a n , b r x x x y r o o t v et : d e co cti o n w it h le av es o f m . sy lv es tr is t o c u re liv e st o ck a b r h o rd eu m v u lg a re l . fr u it s a g r -p a *: f o d d er fo r p o u lt ry a c m so rg h u m b ic o lo r (l .) m o en ch sa g g in a a er ia l p ar ts d o m * : t o m ak e b ro o m s (i t w as cu lti va te d in m ar gi n al a re as , th en , w h en t h e p la n t w as d ry , t h e fr u it s w er e el im in at ed ) a b , c m tr iti cu m a es ti vu m l . fr u it s a g r -p a : f o d d er f o r h en s a a l x c u lm d o m : i n t h e o ld en ti m e s, b ed s w er e co ve re d w it h s tr aw a a l ethnobiology letters. 2015. 6(1):119-161. doi: 10.14237/ebl.6.1.2015.288. 146 research communication (c o n ti n u ed f ro m p re vi o u s p ag e) (c o n ti n u ed o n n ex t p ag e) sc ie n ti fi c n am e v e rn ac u la r n am e p la n t p ar t p la n t u se c at e go ry an d d e sc ri p ti o n 1 , 2 n o . o f in fo rm an ts 3 v ill ag e 4 te ve ri n a5 c io ci ar ia 5 a cq u ap e n d e n te 5 c u lm a g r -p a : i t w as u se d t o b u ild h u ts (p a ra cé n to li) a a l g er m in at ed s e ed s r it * : d u ri n g ea st er , se ed s o f ce re al s w er e p la n te d a n d gr o w n in t h e d ar k, so t h ey w o u ld re m ai n w h it e. t h ey w er e th en u se d a s o ff er s to t h e ch u rc h a to ze a m a ys l . g ra n o tu rc o se ed s a g r -p a : a s b ir d se ed s fo r p o u lt ry a m a x fa m ily p o ly go n ac ea e p o ly g o n u m a vi cu la re l . c o rr eg g io la a g r -p a : f o d d er f o r ra b b it s a c m r u m ex c ri sp u s l. r ù m ic e le av es m ed *: t h ey w er e ro lle d u p ( as a ro u la d e) a n d p u t u n d er e m b er s. t h e ex te rn al p ar t w o u ld b u rn , b u t th e in n er p ar t w as u se d t o p re p ar e a p o u lti ce , w h ic h , m ix ed w it h p o rk f at , w as p u t o n c ys ts a sm x le av es m ed *: l ea ve s w er e p u t o n p im p le s a tr x fa m ily r an u n cu la ce ae c le m a ti s vi ta lb a l . v it a b b ia st em a g r -p a *: t o ti e p la n ts a b r v it à b b ie st em g a m *: t o m ak e ci ga re tt e s a a l, c m ethnobiology letters. 2015. 6(1):119-161. doi: 10.14237/ebl.6.1.2015.288. 147 research communication (c o n ti n u ed f ro m p re vi o u s p ag e) (c o n ti n u ed o n n ex t p ag e) sc ie n ti fi c n am e v e rn ac u la r n am e p la n t p ar t p la n t u se c at e go ry an d d e sc ri p ti o n 1 , 2 n o . o f in fo rm an ts 3 v ill ag e 4 te ve ri n a5 c io ci ar ia 5 a cq u ap e n d e n te 5 fa m ily r h am n ac ea e p a liu ru s sp in a -c h ri sti m ill . a cà ci o ( a n ), m a rr u ca (c m ) le av es a g r -p a : o n ce , fo d d er f o r ra b b it s a a n w o o d h a n : t o m ak e ra ilr o ad ti es a c m fa m ily r o sa ce ae a g ri m o n ia e u p a to ri a l . w h o le p la n t m ed : d ec o cti o n t o cu re d ia rr h o ea a c m c ra ta eg u s la ev ig a ta ( p o ir .) d c . / c . m o n o gy n a ja cq . fl o w er s m ed *: in fu si o n a s se d ati ve a c m m ed : i n fu si o n a s d ig es ti ve a a l x m a lu s d o m es ti ca b o rk h . m el o fr u it s m ed *: t h e d ec o cti o n o f d ri ed sl ic es o f th e fr u it t o cu re s o re t h ro at an d c o u gh . s ev er al d iff er en t fr u it s w er e d ri ed a n d m ix ed t o p re p ar e th is d ec o cti o n ( p . a rm en ia ca , p . p er si ca ) c a l, c m , to x x y p ru n u s a rm en ia ca l . a lb ic o cc a fr u it s m ed : d ri ed f ru it s to p re p ar e a d ec o cti o n f o r so re th ro at a n d c o u gh (s e e m . d o m es ti ca ) a c m ethnobiology letters. 2015. 6(1):119-161. doi: 10.14237/ebl.6.1.2015.288. 148 research communication (c o n ti n u ed f ro m p re vi o u s p ag e) (c o n ti n u ed o n n ex t p ag e) sc ie n ti fi c n am e v e rn ac u la r n am e p la n t p ar t p la n t u se c at e go ry an d d e sc ri p ti o n 1 , 2 n o . o f in fo rm an ts 3 v ill ag e 4 te ve ri n a5 c io ci ar ia 5 a cq u ap e n d e n te 5 p ru n u s a vi u m ( l. ) l. c er a se w o o d d o m * : t o m ak e w ri ti n g d e sk s, ta b le s, f u rn it u re , cu p b o ar d s (s o m e w o o d p ar ts a re u se d a ls o t o re st o re o ld fu rn it u re ). t h e w ild ch er ry w as a ls o u se d f o r th e sa m e p u rp o se s a b r , c m y p ru n u s p er si ca ( l. ) b a ts ch p es ch e fr u it s m ed : d ri ed f ru it s to p re p ar e a d ec o cti o n f o r so re th ro at a n d c o u gh (s e e m . d o m es ti ca ) a c m le av es d o m : l ea ve s u se d to c le an w o o d en b ar re ls . l ea ve s ar e b o ile d w it h le av e s o f j. r eg ia a n d o f c a st a n ea s a ti va b b r , m a , tr y p yr u s co m m u n is l . p er o w o o d d o m : t o m ak e fu rn it u re a c r r o sa c a n in a l . fl o w er s r it * : t o p re p ar e a ri tu al w at er f o r th e sa in t jo h n f ea st a c m x y fl o w er s r it * : i n lo ca l fl o ra l ca rp et co m p o si ti o n s (i n fi o ra te ) a lo n g w it h fl o w er s o f s. ju n ce u m a n d o f a . ti n ct o ri a a a l ethnobiology letters. 2015. 6(1):119-161. doi: 10.14237/ebl.6.1.2015.288. 149 research communication (c o n ti n u ed f ro m p re vi o u s p ag e) (c o n ti n u ed o n n ex t p ag e) sc ie n ti fi c n am e v e rn ac u la r n am e p la n t p ar t p la n t u se c at e go ry an d d e sc ri p ti o n 1 , 2 n o . o f in fo rm an ts 3 v ill ag e 4 te ve ri n a5 c io ci ar ia 5 a cq u ap e n d e n te 5 r u b u s u lm if o liu s sc h o tt r o vo , r o g o , le r ò g h e le av es m ed *: l ea ve s, so m eti m e s w it h th e ad d iti o n o f ch ew ed b re ad o r p o rk f at ( o r o liv e o il) , a p p lie d o n p im p le s c a l, a n , b r , c m , c r , t r x x le av es m ed *: o n w o u n d s to s ta n ch b lo o d , al so w it h g ra te d p o ta to es b a l, m a x x y le av es m ed : l ea ve s, a lo n g w it h p o rk f at , w er e ap p lie d o n to t h e sk in t o r em o ve th o rn s a a l, c m x x le av es , b ra n ch es a g r -p a : f o d d er f o r d o n ke ys a a l fr u it s m ed *: a m ed ic in al ja m w as p re p ar ed to c u re c o u gh ( fo r ch ild re n ) a tr x sa n g u is o rb a m in o r sc o p . su b sp . b al ea ri ca ( b o u rg . e x n ym an ) m u ñ o z g ar m . & c . n av ar ro a er ia l p ar ts a g r -p a +: f o d d er fo r h en s a a n so rb u s d o m es ti ca l . so rv e fr u it s m ed *: e at en ag ai n st d ia rr h o ea a tr fa m ily r u b ia ce ae r u b ia p er eg ri n a l . r ù b b ia ( a l) , ta cc a là cc i (t r ) a er ia l p ar ts v et *: a ft er la b o r, co w s w er e fe d w it h th e ae ri al p ar ts o f th is p la n t to fa ci lit at e th e ex p u ls io n o f th e se co n d a ( p la ce n ta ) b a l ethnobiology letters. 2015. 6(1):119-161. doi: 10.14237/ebl.6.1.2015.288. 150 research communication (c o n ti n u ed f ro m p re vi o u s p ag e) (c o n ti n u ed o n n ex t p ag e) sc ie n ti fi c n am e v e rn ac u la r n am e p la n t p ar t p la n t u se c at e go ry an d d e sc ri p ti o n 1 , 2 n o . o f in fo rm an ts 3 v ill ag e 4 te ve ri n a5 c io ci ar ia 5 a cq u ap e n d e n te 5 a er ia l p ar ts a g r -p a : u se d a s fo d d er a c m fa m ily r u ta ce ae c it ru s lim o n ( l. ) o sb ec k fr u it s m ed : m o u th w as h e s w it h th e ju ic e to c u re so re t h ro at ( sti ll to d ay ) a c m x y r u ta s p . r u ta p la n t m ed : i t w as g iv en to k id s to s m el l a s an th el m in ti c a a n x x x fa m ily s al ic ac ea e p o p u lu s n ig ra l . p io p p o (c m ), a lb u cc io (a l) w o o d d o m : t o m ak e fu rn it u re a c m w o o d fi sh -h : t o b u ild b o at s a tr sa lix a lb a l . sa lic e (c m , sm ), s àl ce (a l) b ra n ch es m ed : i n t h e o ld en ti m e s, p eo p le u se to c h ew a s m al l p ie ce o f w ill o w (b itt er ) to r ed u ce st o m ac h a ci d it y a tr b ra n ch es v et *: p ie ce o f w ill o w ( b itt er ) w er e p u t in t h e m o u th o f liv e st o ck in c as e o f ty m p an is m a m a , t r x b ra n ch es d o m * : t o m ak e b as ke ts a n d h am p er s. so m e ti m es in te rw o ve n w it h a . d o n a x a n d u . m in o r c a l, a n , c m , c r , sm y ethnobiology letters. 2015. 6(1):119-161. doi: 10.14237/ebl.6.1.2015.288. 151 research communication (c o n ti n u ed f ro m p re vi o u s p ag e) (c o n ti n u ed o n n ex t p ag e) sc ie n ti fi c n am e v e rn ac u la r n am e p la n t p ar t p la n t u se c at e go ry an d d e sc ri p ti o n 1 , 2 n o . o f in fo rm an ts 3 v ill ag e 4 te ve ri n a5 c io ci ar ia 5 a cq u ap e n d e n te 5 b ra n ch es a g r -p a +: t o b in d b u n d le s o f fi re w o o d ; t o ti e to m at o es t o s ta ke s b a l, b r y fa m ily s ap in d ac ea e a ce r ca m p es tr e l. st u cc h io w o o d h a n : t o m ak e p ie ce s o f th e sa d d le a m a a ce r o p a lu s m ill . s u b sp . o b tu sa tu m ( w a ld st . & k it . e x w ill d .) g am s a ce ro b ia n co yo u n g sh o o ts h a n : t o m ak e p ar t o f sm o ki n g p ip e s a c m (1 -2 y ea rs o ld ) w o o d d o m + : t o m ak e ta b le s a c m fa m ily s cr o p h u la ri ac ea e v er b a sc u m s p . b a rb a ra sc h io , b a rb a ra ss io a er ia l p ar ts fi sh -h *: c ru sh ed an d t h ro w n in t h e w at er in o rd er t o st u n fi sh es ( le ss st ro n g eff ec t o f e. ch a ra ci a s) . t h e p o w d er o f th e d ri ed p la n t w as m ix ed s lo w ly in to th e w at er b c r , m a , c m ethnobiology letters. 2015. 6(1):119-161. doi: 10.14237/ebl.6.1.2015.288. 152 research communication (c o n ti n u ed f ro m p re vi o u s p ag e) (c o n ti n u ed o n n ex t p ag e) sc ie n ti fi c n am e v e rn ac u la r n am e p la n t p ar t p la n t u se c at e go ry an d d e sc ri p ti o n 1 , 2 n o . o f in fo rm an ts 3 v ill ag e 4 te ve ri n a5 c io ci ar ia 5 a cq u ap e n d e n te 5 fa m ily s o la n ac ea e h yo sc ya m u s a lb u s l. se ed s m ed : s e ed s w er e ro as te d a n d t h en th e fu m e s w er e in h al ed a ga in st to o th ac h e. it is a p o is o n o u s h er b , th er ef o re t h e sm o ke is c ap tu re d w it h a s p o o n a n d m ai n ta in ed f o r a sh o rt ti m e in t h e m o u th b a l so la n u m t u b er o su m l . p a ta ta tu b er s m ed *: p o ta to sl ic es w er e p u t o n in fl am ed ( re d ) ey e s a c r x tu b er s m ed *: g ra te d tu b er s o n b u rn s a c r y fa m ily u lm ac ea e u lm u s m in o r m ill er o lm o b ar k m ed *: d u ri n g re ap in g, w h en o n e cu t h im se lf o r h er se lf , t h e b ar k w as ti ed a ro u n d th e w o u n d . “ o n ce i cu t m ys el f, i p u t a b an d ag e o f el m tr ee : t h e ly m p h an d t h e b ar k st an ch ed d ir ec tl y th e b lo o d a n d m ad e th e sk in d ry ” c a l, b r , c m , t o x x x y ethnobiology letters. 2015. 6(1):119-161. doi: 10.14237/ebl.6.1.2015.288. 153 research communication (c o n ti n u ed f ro m p re vi o u s p ag e) (c o n ti n u ed o n n ex t p ag e) sc ie n ti fi c n am e v e rn ac u la r n am e p la n t p ar t p la n t u se c at e go ry an d d e sc ri p ti o n 1 , 2 n o . o f in fo rm an ts 3 v ill ag e 4 te ve ri n a5 c io ci ar ia 5 a cq u ap e n d e n te 5 g al ls m ed *: g al ls gr o w in g o n e lm tr ee c o n ta in a liq u id c al le d o il o f sa in t je an ( o lio d i sa n g io va n n i) in a l, w h ic h is a p p lie d o n w o u n d s c a l, c m , c r x x y b ar k v et +: t o c u re w o u n d s o f d o m es ti c an im al s a a l b ar k v et +: f o r fr ac tu re s o f an im al s th at w er e n o t to o se ri o u s. t h e in ju re d p ar t w as c o ve re d w it h p o rk f at , b an d ag ed , a n d ca st ed u si n g th e b ar k o f el m -t re e a a l w o o d a g r -p a +: it is u se d to m ak e p lo u gh s an d y o ke s o f co w s a c m y yo u n g b ra n ch es fi sh -h *: t o m ak e b as ke ts (c a n n is tr à ri ) o r fi sh tr ap s, a ls o w it h a . d o n a x o r s. a lb a c a n , b r , c m , c r y w o o d h a n : t o m ak e ga te s; w h en t h e w o o d h as b ee n se as o n ed it g et s h ar d a b r ethnobiology letters. 2015. 6(1):119-161. doi: 10.14237/ebl.6.1.2015.288. 154 research communication (c o n ti n u ed f ro m p re vi o u s p ag e) (c o n ti n u ed o n n ex t p ag e) sc ie n ti fi c n am e v e rn ac u la r n am e p la n t p ar t p la n t u se c at e go ry an d d e sc ri p ti o n 1 , 2 n o . o f in fo rm an ts 3 v ill ag e 4 te ve ri n a5 c io ci ar ia 5 a cq u ap e n d e n te 5 b ra n ch es fi sh -h : u se d t o m ak e a p ar t o f th e cu cù lli ( a fi sh in g to o l, so rt o f fi sh in g n et s tr u ct u re ) a a n b ar k d o m : t o b in d b u n d le s o f fi re w o o d a c r fa m ily u rti ca ce ae p a ri et a ri a ju d a ic a l . p a n a ta ra (c m , m a , sm ), p a lla tà n a (a n , c m , c l) , p a n ic a ri a , p a n a tà ri a (a l) a er ia l p ar ts v et : d e co cti o n ap p lie d o n w o u n d s w it h a c lo th a m a le av es m ed *: l ea ve s w er e p la ce d o n p im p le s as r es o lv en t a sm x a er ia l p ar ts a g r -p a *: f o d d er fo r h en s th at a re ea ge r o f th is p la n t b a n , c m , c r x a er ia l p ar ts d o m :* l ea ve s (w h ic h a re r o u gh ) w er e m in ce d a n d p u t in si d e b o tt le s an d d em ijo h n s. b o tt le s w er e sh ak en , w as h ed an d r in se d . so m e ti m es , l ea ve s w er e u se d a lo n g w it h e gg sh el ls b a l, c m y u rti ca d io ic a l . o rti ca a er ia l p ar ts a g r -p a *: m in ce d ae ri al p ar ts , m ix ed w it h b re ad a n d so m e h o t w at er , a s b ir d se ed s fo r tu rk ey s (a s a h ea lt h y fo o d a n d fo r th ro at d is ea se s) b b r , c r , m a x y ethnobiology letters. 2015. 6(1):119-161. doi: 10.14237/ebl.6.1.2015.288. 155 research communication (c o n ti n u ed f ro m p re vi o u s p ag e) 1 fo r m ed ic in al p la n ts , t h e h ea lt h p ro b le m f o r w h ic h t h e p la n t is u se d is a ls o p ro vi d ed . 2 p la n t u se c at e go ri e s: m ed = m ed ic in al u se ; v e t = ve te ri n ar y u se ; a -p a r = a n ti -p ar as iti c u se ; f is h -h = u se o f th e p la n t fo r fi sh in g o r h u n ti n g; h a n = h an d icr aft u se ; d o m = d o m e sti c u se ; a g r -p a = a gr o -p as to ra l u se ; g a m = g am es ; r it = r it u al u se . 3 n u m b er o f in fo rm an ts : a = 1 -2 in fo rm an ts ; b = 3 -5 in fo rm an ts ; c = m o re t h an 5 in fo rm an ts . 4 v ill ag es : a l = a llu m ie re ; a n = a n gu ill ar a; b r = b ra cc ia n o ; c m = c an al e m o n te ra n o ; c r = c er ve te ri ; m a = m an zi an a; s m = s an ta m ar in el la ; to = to lf a; tr = t re vi gn an o r o m an o . 5 r e fe re n ce s: t e ve ri n a: a m ic i 1 9 9 2 ( x ); c io ci ar ia : c ic co d ic o la 1 9 9 5 ( x ); a cq u ap en d en te : g u ar re ra e t al . 2 0 0 4 ( y) a n d g u ar re ra e t al . 2 0 0 5 ( x ). *s am e o r ve ry s im ila r p la n t u se s to t h o se d e sc ri b ed in g u ar re ra ( 1 9 9 4 ). +d iv er se p la n t u se , b u t in t h e sa m e ca te go ry o f u se a s d e sc ri b ed in g u ar re ra ( 1 9 9 4 ). u se s w it h o u t sy m b o ls a re n o ve lti e s in c o m p ar is o n w it h g u ar re ra ( 1 9 9 4 ). sc ie n ti fi c n am e v e rn ac u la r n am e p la n t p ar t p la n t u se c at e go ry an d d e sc ri p ti o n 1 , 2 n o . o f in fo rm an ts 3 v ill ag e 4 te ve ri n a5 c io ci ar ia 5 a cq u ap e n d e n te 5 a er ia l p ar ts a g r -p a +: b o ile d le av es w er e fe d t o h en s to m ak e th e m p ro d u ce a la rg er am o u n t o f eg gs a c r fa m ily v io la ce ae v io la s p . p l. v io le tt e d i p a sq u a a er ia l p ar ts ( in fl o w er ) r it : v io le ts o f ea st er w er e p u t o n a p la te , n ea r th e ea st er e gg s a a n fa m ily v it ac ea e v iti s vi n if er a l . v in eg ar (w it h s al t) v et : v in e ga r w as gi ve n t o d ri n k to liv e st o ck , in to xi ca te d b y ea ti n g so m e ri ve ri n e p la n ts (c a n n u cc ia d i f o ss o ) a sm ethnobiology letters. 2015. 6(1):119-161. doi: 10.14237/ebl.6.1.2015.288. 156 research communication and skin lesions in guarrera (1994). plant uses recorded in this study were also compared to those reported in other case studies conducted in the latium region (guarrera 2006 and references therein) in order to identify points of convergence and to evaluate differences in the local ethnobotanical knowledge. these comparisons were not quantitative considering that previous studies were conducted with different research methods (including distinctive foci of specific plant uses), study times, and geographic research areas (mustafa et al. 2012). results according to our survey, the ethnobotanical knowledge of the tolfa–cerite–manziate area comprises the use of 102 plant species (table 1). in table 1, the names of the species are reported along with their vernacular names, plant parts, category of use, number of citations and the locality where the plant is used. moreover, we report the detailed explanation of the most recent plant uses along with a comparison with plant uses reported in other studies of the latium region, including that by guarrera (1994). species belong to 48 families, the majority of families (28) include only one species, while rosaceae (12 species) and poaceae (eight species) are prominently represented families. many plants have more than one use within and across categories. several plants have similar uses in other areas of the latium region, while some plants and their uses have not been previously reported in those areas. the locality that shares the highest number (74) of plant uses is that of acquapendente (guarrera et al. 2004, 2005). in our survey, we recorded a total of 239 different plant uses, among which many (125) have not reported before for the area, some (86) are similar to the same use as reported in literature, several (28) are different but in the same usage category (table 2). the ten non-plant based remedies are reported in table 3. a total of six remedies are used in veterinary medicine and six in human medicine. many previously-recorded plant uses are no longer practiced or are no longer common in the memories of individuals in the local communities. plants and remedies that are no longer used include: barbarea vulgaris r. br. brassicaceae for cough, dittrichia viscosa (l.) greuter asteraceae for haemorrhoids, or phillyrea latifolia l. oleaceae for toothache (guarrera 1994). today, the plants mentioned for toothache are p. lentiscus (a similar use is known for vallecorsa, southern latium), e. characias, m. sylvestris and h. albus (the last three uses were also reported by guarrera 1994). in some cases, a specific medicinal use is no longer practiced because the disease is no longer present. for example, malaria has been locally eradicated and the antimalarial decoction of 100 cloves of garlic (a. sativum) in a liter of vinegar (v. vinifera) is no longer remembered or used. in other cases, plants are used less frequently because of reduced availability on the landscape. informants mention that, in the past, m. chamomilla was abundant in local meadows and fields but now it is difficult to find this officinal herb due to the use of herbicides. agro-pastoralism is important in the tolfa–cerite –manziate area, and, not surprisingly, veterinary uses category of plant use number of species number of plant uses new plant uses1 similar plant uses2 alternative plant uses3 human medicine 33 60 23 33 4 veterinary medicine 16 19 12 5 2 anti-parasitic 2 2 0 2 0 agro-pastoral 42 46 30 10 6 handicrafts 14 20 14 3 3 domestic 34 52 25 18 9 fishery or hunting 11 15 9 4 2 games 8 8 4 3 1 rituals 14 17 8 8 1 table 2. uses of plants in each category, with details on their novelty or similarity to other studies. 1new plant uses that have not been reported before for the area. 2similar or same plant uses as reported in literature. 3alternative plant uses that are different but in the same use category. ethnobiology letters. 2015. 6(1):119-161. doi: 10.14237/ebl.6.1.2015.288. 157 research communication of plants are vivid in the memories of local community members. some veterinary remedies seem to be unique to the area when compared with bibliographic data from guarrera (2006). examples include the ancient use of s. junceum for castrating bulls and the use of p. europaea (caprinella) to cure the swelling in domestic animals. although the practice of feeding cows with r. peregrina for expelling the seconda (placenta) has been previously mentioned in guarrera (1994), it is known only in the tolfa – allumiere area (guarrera 2006). some plants are used to feed livestock to improve their health as a sort of veterinary nutraceutical. c. arvensis along with several herbs of the fabaceae family are used to feed cows for their galactagogue properties. local farmers of the area believe that feeding poultry with s. minor subsp. balearica, but also u. dioica, could increase egg production. additionally, if hens were making soft eggshell, some rubble (canale monterano) or eggshell (allumiere) were mixed with fodder. anti-parasitic uses are very few. only two plants, c. nepeta and l. angustifolia, are mentioned by the informants. these two plants, like other lamiaceae, are aromatic and thus have repellent properties (guarrera 1999). on the other hand, the use of artemisia absinthium l. asteraceae as a repellent for cows, horses and other animals (guarrera 1994) is no longer remembered. local inhabitants were used to diversify their diets with some fish caught in marshes, ditches, or the bracciano lake. some fishing practices now illegal entailed the use of plants for narcotizing fish in small water basins (e. characias and verbascum species). several species of the genus euphorbia and verbascum are used for the same purpose in many other italian areas (guarrera 2006). local people also used lime (canale monterano) for catching fish. table 3. non-plant based uses (mostly remedies in human and veterinary medicine). name plant use category, description and ailment cured1 no. of informants2 village3 water form hot springs med: applied on wounds a al egg white med: the egg white was put on a tissue and then placed on the swollen part a cr soapy water vet: used to heal wounds caused by pack-saddle a al milk med: once, it was used to wash the face to make it shine a an hot cinder med: to cure throat ache it was placed on the chest in the evening while lying in bed, the following morning throat ache was healed a cm pyrite vet: in the area there are rocks that contain sulphur. they were used to reduce the inflammations of cow feet a al clays of solfataras med/vet: to cure wounds of humans and animals, and mange (raspo) (skin infections of dogs) a al, ma cuttlebone (osso di seppia) vet: to cure an eye diseases of animals (periodic ophthalmia) called occhio bianco or bianchella or male della luna. it was grated and sprinkled into the eye a sm thermal water (in bagnarello) med/vet: this water (at a temperature of 40° c) was used to heal wounds of horses and humans (within two days) a to pork fat (sugna) vet: for wounds and bruises caused by pack-saddle a ma, sm lime fish-h: used for illegal fishing in fresh water (where the flow is not too strong) a cm 1plant use category: med = medicinal use; vet = veterinary use; fish-h = use of the plant for fishing or hunting 2number of informants: a = 1-2 informants 3villages: al = allumiere; an= anguillara; cm = canale monterano; cr = cerveteri; ma = manziana; sm = santa marinella; to = tolfa ethnobiology letters. 2015. 6(1):119-161. doi: 10.14237/ebl.6.1.2015.288. 158 research communication many plants were used while working in the fields or at home. some plant uses are already known for other italian regions (e.g., the use of s. alba or s. junceum for tying vines [the name spartium comes from the greek σπαρτον = rope]). e. arborea, used to make smoking pipes and other objects, is locally named brugo, which is the vernacular name of another plant of the ericaceae family [calluna vulgaris (l.) hull ericaceae] that does not grow locally. however, e. arborea is also called scopa marina (marine broom), because it is used to make brooms. another way to connect a plant to a use in the area was the creation of proverbs like: “l’ornello fa il fuoco bello” (anguillara) which means “the manna-ash tree (f. ornus) makes a beautiful fire” because the plant is used as firewood. many species are widely used either because they are common or have special technical properties. the invasive species r. pseudacacia, the common castanea sativa or quercus sp. pl. are among the species with the highest number of domestic uses as well as the rare f. sylvatica. these species are mainly used for their wood. some plant uses that have never been reported in the ethnobiological literature are potentially unique to the area, such as those of c. australis or of b. pendula. c. australis is widely used and appreciated in the area for its strength and flexibility, but it is rarely used in other italian regions even though it has a large distribution. this plant also has many different names in the area, some of which are new according to the ethno-linguistic work by penzig (1924). in contrast, b. pendula is a rare species that has a limited distribution in italy. in some cases it was possible to highlight, in a direct way, a potential loss of information. saponaria officinalis l. caryophyllaceae was widely used all over italy to do laundry (guarrera 2006). this plant grows everywhere in the area but was never mentioned by informants even if it was present during the interviews. this could indicate a loss of knowledge or eventually an absence of use, since some informants reported the practice of making soap from cinder and pork fat. another potential loss of a use is that of p. aviculare (correggiola): the name comes from the correggioli, which are the leather strips or laces to bind the shoes, but this use was not mentioned during our interviews. the report of plants used for games is very rare for the area but also for italy (guarrera 2006). castanea sativa was used to make a small trumpet called peta (one of these trumpets is displayed at the museo nazionale delle arti e tradizioni popolari in rome). the same use of castanea sativa is also reported for this species in northern italy (guarrera 2006). in the tolfa–cerite–manziate area, people preserve various ritual uses of plants (in their memories or in their current daily life). several aromatic plants (e.g., t. balsamita, h. perforatum, j. regia) were put in water overnight (between the 23rd and 24th of june), and this ritual water was used to wash the face on the morning of the saint john feast (24 june) as a substitute for the very ancient rituals of the summer solstice. many plants are still used to make floral carpets (infiorate) during the corpus christi feast but also for easter rituals. evil eye, bad luck and witches were kept away in different ways (e.g., with rituals using olive oil or putting a small broom of e. arborea behind the main door) together with the erba croce (probably verbena officinalis l. verbenaceae, as reported for acquapendente [guarrera et al. 2005]). discussion our investigation on the ethnobotanical knowledge of the tolfa–cerite–manziate area highlighted some new interesting uses of plants but also a potential loss of this knowledge. for example, the plant uses of c. australis or of b. pendula have not been previously reported in literature. our comparison with a previous study in the area (which had different foci of research and areas of investigation) suggested a loss of knowledge. while it is not possible to quantify this loss, our results support a decrease of knowledge about medicinal uses of plants. considering that the study area of guarrera (1994) was more limited than ours, the number of medicinal plants that are no longer recalled is considerable. we believe that it is still important to document ethnobotanical knowledge so it can be realized how much of this knowledge is disappearing especially in places where technology and modern lifestyles are replacing traditional practices. local knowledge (ethnobotanical or ecological) is part of the social memory (sensu folke et al. 2005) of a socio-ecological system such as that of the tolfa– cerite–manziate area. the preservation of this local knowledge (and social memory) is important for sustainable management of the environment and for dealing with future socio-ecological changes (adger et al. 2005; johnson and hunn 2010). in a general context of rural depopulation and local knowledge erosion, it is fundamental to define strategies to counteract these trends. practical solutions to sustain ethnobiology letters. 2015. 6(1):119-161. doi: 10.14237/ebl.6.1.2015.288. 159 research communication rural livelihoods and foster the resilience of local knowledge in the tolfa–cerite–manziate area could entail the re-evaluation of traditional practices, food preparations, and handicraft making for tourism. this could generate some revenue for local population and reduce the loss of the rich local knowledge of the area. acknowledgments voucher specimens are preserved at the istituto centrale per la demoetnoantropologia (rome). we are very grateful to the people of the tolfa–cerite– manziate area who shared their ethnobotanical knowledge with us. thanks are due to yarissa matossoto (university of central florida) for helping in some field surveys. we are grateful to francois salomone (university of roma tre) for providing figure 1. thanks are due to kamen mackay for checking the english language. many thanks are due to the provincia di roma and to the university roma tre for granting this research within the project “le specie vegetali tipiche del comprensorio tolfetano-ceritemanziate di uso tradizionale e valutazione delle loro potenzialità economiche”. declarations permissions: prior informed consent to carry out interviews was requested verbally to each informant. sources of funding: the provincia di roma and the university roma tre supported this study through the project “le specie vegetali tipiche del comprensorio tolfetano-cerite-manziate di uso tradizionale e valutazione delle loro potenzialità economiche.” 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postdoctoral researcher at simon fraser university. her research focuses on human– environment relationships (ethnobotany, tek, environmental changes). giulia caneva is a full professor at university roma tre. her research interests include ethnobotany, mediterranean vegetation, and cultural heritage protection. notes 1http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/en/txt/ p d f / ? u r i = c e l e x : 0 1 9 9 2 l 0 0 4 3 20070101&from=en nutritional properties of native plants and traditional foods from the central united states kindscher et al. 2018. ethnobiology letters 9(2):214–227 214 research communications improve the nutritional quality of modern diets while recognizing the value of traditional knowledge and practices by encouraging use of these wild foods today. by “traditionally” used foods, we mean those that were eaten for centuries prior to contemporary history and consisting mostly of native plant species and some naturalized species, such as dandelions, thought to have arrived in north america with early european colonists (sanchez 2007). native americans relied on wild plant foods for millennia prior to the development of the eastern agricultural complex around 1800 bce and cultivated the seed crops, lambsquarters and marsh elder, as well as sunflowers, squash, little barley, and erect knotweed (gremillion 2004; smith and yarnell 2009). maize, beans, and new varieties of squash from mexico, which were gradually adopted between 2000 and 200 bce, became more widespread during the woodland period and were the dominant crops by 900 ce throughout much of north america, which extended introduction many food sources utilized in the past by native american people are no longer consumed, despite their potential to provide high amounts of many nutrients that could benefit human health. archaeological evidence indicates seeds of native lambsquarters (chenopodium berlandieri) and marsh elder (iva annua) were once cultivated as a part of the eastern agricultural complex and used extensively in the midwest and great plains, but these are no longer used as food (asch and asch 1977; black 1963; gremillion 2004; kindscher 1987). other foods, such as “greens” from chenopodium, amaranthus, and even common milkweed (asclepias syriaca) are not consumed as much as they were decades ago by native americans. many of these food sources may be more nutritious than foods we currently eat (e.g., phillips et al. 2014), particularly with regard to protein and fiber content, of which the importance for health in human diets, is well-known (nestle 2006). therefore, there is a tremendous opportunity to nutritional properties of native plants and traditional foods from the central united states kelly kindscher1*, leanne martin1, steve corbett2, and david lafond3 1kansas biological survey, university of kansas, lawrence, usa. 2kansas health institute, topeka, usa. 3lafond food technology llc, galesburg, usa. *kindscher@ku.edu abstract traditional foods of indigenous people are a potential untapped source for providing nutritious dietary options in the modern world. the rising popularity of indigenous foods such as amaranth in recent years suggests that these foods can become a popular part of a healthy diet in the united states. traditional knowledge of indigenous people can form the basis for using wild food resources. this research provides data on 50 plant species common to the central united states that are abundant sources of dietary protein and fiber, and used traditionally by native american tribes. many species show promise with high amounts of protein and fiber being found in lamb’s quarters, nettles, grass seeds, and buffalo gourd seeds. these results honor traditional knowledge. in addition, many of these species could be cultivated using techniques similar to those existing for commercial grains and vegetables. seeds and/or greens of these wild plants could easily be incorporated into the diets of many more people, improving modern diets, and the nutritional quality of food products. received january 4, 2018 open access accepted august 6, 2018 doi 10.14237/ebl.9.2.2018.1219 keywords fiber, protein, native plants, ethnobotany, wild foods, indigenous diet copyright © 2018 by the author(s); licensee society of ethnobiology. this is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution-noncommercial 4.0 international public license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0), which permits non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. supplementary files available at ojs.ethnobiology.org/index.php/ebl/article/view/1219 kindscher et al. 2018. ethnobiology letters 9(2):214–227 215 research communications well into the historic period (hart and lovis 2013; scarry and scarry 2005; smith 1989; smith and yarnell 2009). consumption of these various traditional foods declined during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries with the influx of euro-american foods and market subsistence (mihesuah 2003). new plant foods could promote human health and well-being through use as protein sources. individual average protein intake in the united states is close to recommended amounts, though consumption of protein sources varies greatly relative to current recommendations. most commonly consumed sources of protein are beef, chicken, pork, processed meats, and eggs. united states government recommendations encourage consuming more nutrient-dense foods, including leaner and lower sodium protein sources as a means to achieve healthier eating habits. more vegetableand seedbased sources of protein are encouraged (us dhhs 2015), which would resemble a more traditional diet. new and under-used dietary fiber sources could address the need to increase human consumption of fiber. insoluble and soluble sources of fiber are important for a healthy diet. less than ten percent of the united states population consumes recommended levels of fiber (moshfegh et al. 2005; us health and human services 2015). the addition of fiber to the diet is important for a variety of health reasons, including reducing the risk of certain types of cancer, improving gastrointestinal health, improving glucose tolerance and insulin response, and improving feeling of fullness for appetite suppression (slavin 2008). current information on what constitutes a healthy diet recognizes traditional food knowledge and encourages reconsideration of wild foods. we know little about the nutritive values of many indigenous foods and how they compare to each other and to commonly consumed modern foods, although there have been some studies, such as phillips et al. (2014), who examined ten species from the northern plains, and kuhnlein (2000) who studied traditional diets in canada and documented the difficulties of studying traditional foods. the midwest and great plains are rich in biological diversity and traditional knowledge of native plants (kindscher 1987, 1992). and overall from these studies and others, current information on what constitutes a healthy diet indicates that many of the foods known from the ethnography and archeology of indigenous communities would be welcome additions to contemporary cuisines. the objectives of this research were to: 1) identify and collect native and a few naturalized plants that were traditional indigenous foods and have potential as commercial healthy food products; and 2) analyze the plants for dietary fiber and protein content. materials and methods species selection we used ethnobotanical, phylogenetic, and chemical evidence to maximize the likelihood of finding native or naturalized plants with high values of fiber and protein. specific to the ethnobotany approach, we used our native medicinal plant ethnobotany database (kindscher et al. 2013a) that we created for great plains and midwest plants to look for species that were traditionally used by indigenous cultures for food, and that might contain high levels of protein or fiber. our database documents regional native american ethnobotany and it currently has 21,000 medicinal, edible, dye, fiber, and other uses recorded for nearly 1,450 plant species. we also used daniel moerman’s (2013) database, which is a national ethnobotany database that includes medicinal and edible uses for some plant species that were not in our database. with this combined list, we used dr. duke's phytochemical and ethnobotanical databases to determine whether there were any leads to finding proteinand fiber-rich plants and included those and related species for confirmatory testing (usda 2013). these databases have information compiled on species-specific traits, such as their chemistry. for the phylogenetic approach, we considered species lacking extensive ethnobotanical records on their use as food, but that have the potential to be important food sources based on knowledge about closely related species. for example, psyllium seed, commonly used as a fiber source, is a eurasian species of the genus plantago, so we tested seeds from a native plantago species. plant species were also selected based on previous chemistry research indicating safety. for example, even though jimsonweed (datura sp.) plants appeared to have high protein content, as well as other interesting chemistry discovered previously (zhang et al. 2013), we did not pursue this plant due to its poisonous properties (preissel 2002). for all plant species collected, we used our ethnobotany database to compile a table of the most common food use of kindscher et al. 2018. ethnobiology letters 9(2):214–227 216 research communications the plant part collected, and the total number of food and medicinal uses listed (supplementary table 1). species collection and analyses plant materials from 50 targeted species were collected in the midwest, great plains, or southwest during the 2013 growing season, or grown at the native medicinal plant research garden (bosnak et al. 2012). the scientific name, taxonomic authority, plant part collected, voucher specimen number, geographic coordinates, and date of collection for each plant collection were recorded. voucher specimens were deposited in the r. l. mcgregor herbarium at the university of kansas. appropriate plant parts were prepared for dietary assays by reducing plant material to small pieces and air drying at room temperature. seed chaff was removed using screens. crude protein, total dietary fiber, soluble fiber, and insoluble fiber were analyzed for each plant part by the american institute of baking in manhattan, kansas. they ground the plant material and conducted duplicate fiber and protein analyses on all samples using the following methods: a. aacc 46-30.01 crude protein (standard deviation 0.5)—combustion method (based on aoac method 992.23). crude protein was estimated by multiplying nitrogen (n) by a factor of 6.25. b. aacc 32-07.01 soluble, insoluble, and total dietary fiber (enzymatic gravimetric method, mes-tris buffer; standard deviation 1.0). this corresponds to aoac method 991.43. duplicate tests were averaged from each sample. we grouped material by seeds, vegetable material (e.g., roots, leaves, and shoots), or fruits and calculated average protein and fiber content for each group. when possible, we compared values of protein and dietary fiber from plant parts we tested to values for plant-based foods that are commonly consumed in the united states. to do this, we searched for commonly consumed plant-based foods in the usda national nutrient database (2016), recorded protein and dietary fiber values listed in the database, and compared them to results from our species. protein and dietary fiber values in the usda database were presented in grams per 100 grams of plant material. usda database values were converted to percentages n protein total dietary fiber soluble fiber insoluble fiber seeds 17 13.70 (4.66 – 26.53) 41.64 (4.26 – 64.41) 0.97 (0.00 – 9.42) 40.67 (3.83 – 64.41) vegetable 25 13.04 (2.40 – 36.72) 43.76 (5.80 – 72.36) 5.53 (1.00 – 22.72) 37.74 (2.75 – 71.17) fruits 8 8.60 (2.43 – 13.47) 27.65 (7.32 – 45.03) 2.15 (0.00 – 5.64) 25.52 (6.27 – 45.03) table 1 average (range) percentage values of protein, total dietary fiber, soluble fiber, and insoluble fiber for seeds, plant vegetable material, and fruits. figure 1 average percentage values of protein, soluble fiber, and insoluble fiber for seeds, plant vegetable material, and fruits. kindscher et al. 2018. ethnobiology letters 9(2):214–227 217 research communications sc ie n ti fi c n am e c o m m o n n am e p la n t p ar t te st e d * p ro te in to ta l d ie ta ry f ib e r so lu b le f ib e r in so lu b le f ib e r a m a ra n th u s a re n ic o la sa n d h ill a m ar an th se ed s, s ep al s, a n d c h aff 1 3 .6 0 2 0 .4 5 0 .2 4 2 0 .2 1 c h a sm a n th iu m la ti fo liu m in d ia n w o o d o at s se ed s gl u m es , a n d c h aff 1 2 .2 2 4 7 .9 9 0 .0 0 4 7 .9 9 c h en o p o d iu m b er la n d ie ri p it se ed g o o se fo o t se ed s, p er ic ar p a n d c h aff 1 6 .5 7 3 7 .1 6 1 .8 5 3 5 .3 0 c h en o p o d iu m f re m o n ti i fr em o n t’ s go o se fo o t se ed s, p er ic ar p , a n d c h aff 9 .7 3 5 3 .5 5 0 .3 2 5 3 .2 4 c u cu rb it a f o eti d is si m a b u ff al o -g o u rd se ed s 2 6 .5 3 3 3 .7 6 0 .3 2 3 3 .4 4 ec h in o ch lo a m u ri ca ta ro u gh b ar n ya rd gr as s se ed s, g lu m e s, a n d c h aff 9 .6 4 4 1 .3 9 0 .0 0 4 1 .3 9 iv a a n n u a an n u al m ar sh e ld er se ed s an d c h aff 1 4 .6 6 4 9 .9 0 1 .3 4 4 8 .5 6 p a sp a lu m fl o ri d a n u m fl o ri d a p as p al u m se ed s, g lu m e s, a n d c h aff 1 0 .7 0 3 9 .4 6 0 .0 1 3 9 .4 6 p ip to ch a eti u m fi m b ri a tu m p in yo n r ic eg ra ss se ed s, g lu m e s, a n d c h aff 1 2 .1 9 4 4 .5 6 0 .0 0 4 4 .5 6 p la n ta g o r u g el ii b la ck se ed p la n ta in c ap su le s, s e ed s 1 4 .3 6 5 6 .1 8 9 .4 2 4 6 .7 6 q u er cu s m a cr o ca rp a b u r o ak se ed s (f ru it a n d p er ic ar p ) 4 .6 6 4 .2 6 0 .4 3 3 .8 3 se ta ri a g ri se b a ch ii g ri se b ac h ’s b ri st le gr as s se ed s, g lu m e s, a n d c h aff 1 1 .7 5 4 5 .2 1 0 .0 0 4 5 .2 1 so rg h a st ru m n u ta n s in d ia n gr as s se ed s, g lu m e s, a n d c h aff 1 1 .1 7 5 2 .0 9 0 .0 0 5 2 .0 9 sp o ro b o lu s a ir o id es al ka li sa ca to n se ed s, g lu m e s, a n d c h aff 1 8 .2 6 3 3 .3 8 2 .6 3 3 0 .7 6 tr id en s fl a vu s p u rp le to p t ri d en s se ed s, g lu m e s, a n d c h aff 1 9 .4 9 3 3 .9 3 0 .0 0 3 3 .9 3 tr ip sa cu m d a ct yl o id es ea st er n g am ag ra ss se ed s, g lu m e s, a n d c h aff 6 .0 8 6 4 .4 1 0 .0 0 6 4 .4 1 yu cc a g la u ca so ap w e ed y u cc a se ed s 2 1 .3 5 5 0 .2 7 0 .0 0 5 0 .2 7 c o m m o n ly c o n su m ed s p ec ie s, f o r co m p a ri so n t o a b o ve a ra ch is h yp o g a ea p ea n u t se ed s 2 4 .3 5 8 .4 0 n a n a c h en o p o d iu m q u in o a q u in o a, u n co o ke d g ra in s 1 4 .1 2 7 .0 0 n a n a fa g o p yr u m e sc u le n tu m b u ck w h ea t g ra in s 1 3 .2 5 1 0 .0 0 n a n a li n u m u si ta ti ss im u m fl ax se ed s e ed s se ed s 1 8 .2 9 2 7 .3 0 n a n a o ry za s a ti va ri ce , b ro w n , m ed iu m gr ai n , r aw g ra in s 7 .5 4 3 .6 0 n a n a p ru n u s d u lc is al m o n d s n u ts 2 1 .1 5 1 2 .5 0 n a n a sa lv ia h is p a n ic a ch ia s ee d s, d ri ed se ed s 1 6 .5 4 3 4 .4 0 n a n a se ca le c er ea l ry e g ra in s 1 0 .3 4 1 5 .1 0 n a n a se sa m u m in d ic u m se sa m e se ed s se ed s 1 7 .7 3 1 1 .8 0 n a n a tr iti cu m a es ti vu m w h ea t, h ar d r ed s p ri n g g ra in s 1 5 .4 0 1 2 .2 0 n a n a tr iti cu m a es ti vu m w h ea t, s o ft w h it e g ra in s 1 0 .6 9 1 2 .7 0 n a n a ze a m a ys m a ys co rn , y el lo w g ra in s 9 .4 2 7 .3 0 n a n a ta b le 2 a ve ra ge p e rc e n ta ge s o f p ro te in a n d t o ta l d ie ta ry , so lu b le , an d i n so lu b le fi b e r co n te n t o f se e d s te st ed . p ro te in p e rc e n ta ge s a re e xp re ss ed a s n itr o ge n ( n ) x 6 .2 5 . th e h ig h e st fi ve v al u e s fo r ea ch c at eg o ry a re in b o ld . p ro te in a n d fi b er v al u e s o f co m m o n ly c o n su m e d g ra in s, s ee d s, a n d n u ts a s in d ic at ed b y th e u sd a n ati o n al n u tr ie n t d at ab as e (2 0 1 6 ) ar e lis te d f o r co m p ar is o n . n o te t h at s o lu b le a n d in so lu b le fi b er d at a w e re n o t av ai la b le f ro m t h e u sd a d at ab as e. kindscher et al. 2018. ethnobiology letters 9(2):214–227 218 research communications scientific name common name plant part tested protein total dietary fiber soluble fiber insoluble fiber achillea millefolium common yarrow leaves 16.41 46.70 7.99 38.71 amaranthus palmeri carelessweed leaves 32.17 46.90 9.59 23.45 artemisia dracunculus wormwood leaves, flowering buds 15.97 49.56 7.84 41.73 asclepias syriaca common milkweed young flower heads in bud 20.63 37.03 4.71 32.33 callirhoe involucrata purple poppy mallow roots 6.89 34.45 1.00 33.45 camassia angusta prairie camas bulbs 4.41 39.32 22.72 16.60 chenopodium album lambsquarters leaves 24.86 34.93 4.04 30.89 cichorium intybus* chicory roots 2.40 38.59 4.72 33.88 cirsium altissimum tall thistle leaves 16.91 48.67 4.68 44.01 cirsium undulatum wavyleaf thistle roots 7.80 59.80 2.23 57.57 dalea candida white prairie clover roots 5.42 72.36 1.20 71.17 echinacea angustifolia echinacea stems, leaves, flower heads 6.80 58.87 1.63 57.24 ephedra trifurca longleaf jointfir stems and leaves 7.01 59.93 1.80 58.14 gaura parviflora velvetweed roots 3.61 70.35 2.30 68.06 glycyrrhiza lepidota american licorice roots 10.37 53.10 1.45 52.38 helianthus tuberosa jerusalem-artichoke tubers 12.55 5.80 3.05 2.75 lactuca canadensis canada lettuce leaves 16.97 41.08 7.34 33.74 ligusticum porteri oshá leaves 15.18 46.23 8.22 38.01 mentha spicata* spearmint leaves, stems 5.98 53.30 3.44 49.86 oenothera biennis evening primrose leaves 11.78 12.45 4.10 8.36 portulaca oleracea little hogweed leaves, stems, flowers, seeds 10.06 55.55 5.60 49.95 solanum tuberosum* (for comparison) potato roots (tubers) 8.22 7.10 na na taraxacum officinale * dandelion roots 4.86 31.90 16.20 15.70 trifolium pretense* red clover flower heads 18.41 41.13 3.11 38.86 urtica dioica nettle leaves 36.72 40.93 5.46 35.47 table 3 percentages of protein and total dietary, soluble, and insoluble fiber content of vegetable parts tested from native or naturalized plants. values for all protein and fiber are averages from duplicate tests. protein percentages are expressed as nitrogen (n) x 6.25. the highest five values for each category are in bold. no dried vegetable species (except potato listed below) were available for comparison in the usda national nutrient database (2016). for comparison to our results, which were analyzed as percentages. protein values from the usda database that consisted of multiplying n by a factor other than 6.25 are indicated as such. a limitation of this approach is that protein and fiber percentages of our plant materials were analyzed and reported on a 100% dry matter basis, but the usda database typically reports data for foods in the form in which they are consumed. therefore, we report commonly consumed food data for grains, seeds, and dried fruits only, to be most comparable to our results. we do not report commonly consumed vegetable data, since none of the vegetable data from the usda database are reported on a dry matter basis. results we found that many plants contained high amounts of protein and fiber (tables 1–7), with seeds having the greatest levels of protein and insoluble fiber (figure 1). on average, seeds contained 5% higher protein content than vegetables and 59% higher protein content than fruits (table 1). total dietary fiber often closely ranked with insoluble fiber levels. vegetables contained 5% higher total dietary fiber values than seeds and 58% higher total dietary fiber values than fruits (table 1). soluble fiber was nearly six and three times higher on average in vegetables than in seeds and fruits, respectively, and insoluble fiber was 8% and 59% higher in seeds than in kindscher et al. 2018. ethnobiology letters 9(2):214–227 219 research communications vegetables and fruits, respectively. the highest ranked species within each food group often had higher or comparable values of protein and fiber compared to values of similar commonly consumed plant-based foods (tables 2 and 4). out of all species tested, nettle (urtica dioica) leaves had the highest percentage of protein (table 5), white prairie clover (dalea candida) roots had the highest percentage of total dietary and insoluble fiber (table 6), and prairie camas (camassia angusta) bulbs had the highest percentage of soluble fiber. overall, blackseed plantain (plantago rugelii) had the highest combined ranks of percent protein, soluble fiber, and insoluble fiber (table 7). seeds many of the seeds tested had very high protein and fiber content compared to commonly consumed species (table 2). buffalo gourd (cucurbita foetidissima) seeds had the highest protein content, which was higher than any of the commonly consumed species. soapweed yucca (yucca glauca) had the second highest scientific name common name plant part tested protein total dietary fiber soluble fiber insoluble fiber asimina triloba common pawpaw fruits 5.33 7.32 1.05 6.27 diospyros virginiana common persimmon fruits 1.93 16.46 0.00 16.46 physalis longifolia longleaf groundcherry fruits 9.05 16.44 1.00 15.44 proboscidea louisianica ram’s horn young green pods 13.47 28.21 5.64 22.58 prosopis glandulosa honey mesquite pods 11.96 44.21 1.92 42.30 prunus virginiana chokecherry fruits 2.43 17.67 0.64 17.03 rhus trilobata skunkbush sumac fruits 10.84 45.03 0.00 45.03 ribes aureum var. villosum golden currant fruits 7.17 34.67 4.80 30.02 commonly consumed species, for comparison to above na apples, dried, sulfured, uncooked fruits 0.93 8.70 na na na apricots, dried, sulfured, uncooked fruits 3.39 7.30 na na na blueberries, dried, sweetened fruits 2.50 7.50 na na na cherries, tart, dried, sweetened fruits 1.25 2.50 na na na cranberries, dried, sweetened fruits 0.17 5.30 na na na figs, dried, uncooked fruits 3.30 9.80 na na na peaches, dried, sulfured, uncooked fruits 3.61 8.20 na na table 5 plants with the highest percentages of protein. table 4 percentages of protein and total dietary, soluble, and insoluble fiber content of fruits tested from native or naturalized plants. values for all protein and fiber are averages from duplicate tests. protein percentages are expressed as nitrogen (n) x 6.25. the highest five values for each category are in bold. protein and fiber values of commonly consumed dried fruits as indicated by the usda national nutrient database (2016) are listed for comparison. note that soluble and insoluble fiber data were not available from the usda database. scientific name common name plant part tested average protein urtica dioica nettle leaves 36.72 amaranthus palmeri carelessweed leaves 32.17 cucurbita foetidissima buffalo-gourd seeds 26.53 chenopodium album lambsquarters leaves 24.86 yucca glauca soapweed yucca seeds 21.35 asclepias syriaca common milkweed flower heads 20.63 kindscher et al. 2018. ethnobiology letters 9(2):214–227 220 research communications protein content, which was closely aligned with protein content of almonds. purpletop tridens (tridens flavus), alkali sacaton (sporobolus airoides), and pitseed goosefoot also ranked high in protein. bur oak (quercus macrocarpa), eastern gamagrass (tripsacum dactyloides), rough barnyardgrass (echinochloa muricata), and fremont’s goosefoot (chenopodium fremontii) ranked lowest (less than 10%) in protein for seeds, near the value for yellow corn. twelve of the seventeen species’ seeds tested had total dietary fiber values higher than commonly consumed species. the highest value was found in eastern gamagrass seed, which had nearly double the total dietary fiber of chia (salvia hispanica) seeds. blackseed plantain, fremont’s goosefoot, indian grass (sorghastrum nutans), and soapweed yucca, along with several other species, also had very high values. eastern gamagrass, fremont’s goosefoot, indiangrass, and soapweed yucca also ranked high in insoluble fiber, as did annual marsh elder (iva annua). blackseed plantain had the highest percentage of soluble fiber, which was over 3.5 times higher than the next highest species, alkali sacaton. pitseed goosefoot and bur oak ranked third and fourth highest for soluble fiber and fremont’s goosefoot and buffalo gourd seeds tied in rank for fifth. eight species of seeds did not contain any soluble fiber. bur oak ranked poorly overall in total dietary and insoluble fiber compared to the other native species, with a total dietary fiber content similar to commonly consumed medium grain raw brown rice. table 7 top 10 plants that ranked highest for both protein and fiber content. plants were ranked independently for percent protein, soluble fiber, and insoluble fiber, then ranked by the sum of the three independent ranks. table 6 plants with the highest percentages of soluble and insoluble fiber. those plants with the highest levels of insoluble fiber also had the highest levels of total dietary fiber. scientific name common name plant part tested soluble fiber insoluble fiber total dietary fiber top 6 insoluble fiber dalea candida white prairie clover roots 1.20 71.17 72.36 gaura mollis velvetweed roots 2.30 68.06 70.35 tripsacum dactyloides eastern gamagrass seeds 0.00 64.41 64.41 ephedra trifurca longleaf jointfir stems 1.80 58.14 59.93 cirsium undulatum wavyleaf thistle roots 2.23 57.57 59.80 echinacea angustifolia echinacea stems, leaves, flower heads 1.63 57.24 58.87 top 6 soluble fiber camassia scilloides prairie camas roots 22.72 16.60 39.32 taraxacum officinale colo dandelion roots 16.20 15.70 31.90 amaranthus palmeri carelessweed leaves 9.59 23.45 46.90 plantago rugelii blackseed plantain seeds 9.42 46.76 56.18 ligusticum porteri oshá leaves 8.22 38.01 46.23 achillea millefolium common yarrow leaves 7.99 38.71 46.70 scientific name common name rank plantago rugelii blackseed plantain 1 urtica dioica nettle 2 artemisia dracunculus wormwood 3 amaranthus palmeri carelessweed 4 achillea millefolium common yarrow 5 cirsium altissimum tall thistle 6 ligusticum porteri oshá 7 lactuca canadensis canada lettuce 8 trifolium pratense red clover 9 (tie) portulaca oleracea little hogweed 9 (tie) kindscher et al. 2018. ethnobiology letters 9(2):214–227 221 research communications vegetables many species for which we tested leaves, tubers, roots, or other vegetative parts (i.e., vegetables) had very high protein and fiber content (table 3). species with high protein content did not necessarily have high fiber content, and vice-versa. nettle leaves contained the highest percentage of protein, followed by carelessweed (amaranthus palmeri) leaves, lamsquarters leaves, young common milkweed flower heads, and red clover (trifolium pretense) flower heads. chicory (cichorium intybus) roots contained the lowest protein percentage, followed by velvetweed (gaura parviflora) roots, prairie camas bulbs, dandelion (taraxacum officianalis) roots, white prairie clover roots, spearmint (mentha spicata) leaves and stems, echinacea (echinacea angustifolia) stems, leaves, and flower heads, purple poppy mallow (callirhoe involucrata) roots, longleaf jointfir (ephedra trifurca) stems and leaves, and wavyleaf thistle (cirsium undulatum) roots. these all contained less than 10% protein. white prairie clover roots, velvetweed roots, longleaf jointfir stems and leaves, wavyleaf thistle roots, and echinacea stems, leaves, and roots had the highest total dietary fiber and insoluble fiber values. velvetweed roots and white prairie clover roots had higher values of total dietary and insoluble fiber than any other vegetable, seed, or fruit tested. prairie camass had extraordinarily high soluble fiber content, much higher than dandelion roots or carelessweed leaves, which ranked second and third highest, respectively. oshá (ligusticum porteri), also called porter’s licorice root, leaves and common yarrow leaves ranked fourth and fifth in soluble fiber. fruits all but two species of fruit tested had higher values of protein than commonly consumed dried fruits, and all but one had substantially higher values of total dietary fiber than commonly consumed species (table 4). young green pods of ram’s horn (proboscidea louisianica) were the top source of protein out of all fruits, followed closely by honey mesquite (prosopis glandulosa), skunkbush sumac (rhus trilobata), longleaf groundcherry (physalis longifolia), and golden currant (ribes aureum var. villosum). these species contained nearly or over double the percent protein of all commonly consumed species. skunkbush sumac fruits contained the highest total dietary fiber content, all of which was the insoluble form. honey mesquite pods contained the second highest percentage of total dietary fiber and insoluble fiber. ram’s horn pods were the top source of soluble fiber, followed by golden currant, honey mesquite, common pawpaw (asimina triloba), and longleaf groundcherry. discussion we found that many seeds, vegetable material, and fruits, both native and a few naturalized foods, contained very high amounts of protein and fiber. in many cases, foods we tested contained higher amounts of protein and fiber than comparable commonly consumed foods, particularly for seeds and fruits. this indicates great potential for using these wild foods to increase protein and fiber intake both in traditional cultures and the general population. ethnobotanical properties and cultivation potential of top ranked plants are discussed below. also four notable species are discussed below because they have potential to benefit health based on their high protein and fafiber values relative to commonly consumed foods and could be simultaneously valuable from an economic perspective pending further research on production and harvest. seeds eastern gamagrass is a notable species (figure 2), with a long history as food, and once considered as a possible progenitor of corn (eubanks 1997), though recent evidence suggests it is not (matsuoka et al. 2002). it is native to tallgrass prairies of the central united states and into central mexico. the seeds have an ancient use as food and were found stored in bundles in the remains of ozark bluff-dwellers cave figure 2 eastern gamagrass (tripsacum dactyloides) seeds still joined together and as individuals. kindscher et al. 2018. ethnobiology letters 9(2):214–227 222 research communications habitations (gilmore 1931), which may be 2,000 years old. however, the seeds are hard to prepare because the hulls are very tough and thick. we ground up both the hull and endosperm for testing, which resulted in our highest amount of total dietary fiber. this plant has been studied by the land institute in salina, kansas as a possible perennial grain crop (jackson 2002; jackson and dewald 1994). it is an important forage crop and seeds are available through commercial sources. while not nearly as productive as corn, it has seeds about a fourth the size of corn and production techniques have been established as it is harvested mechanically for the native grass seed industry. buffalo gourd, which contained the highest protein content, is a common perennial plant in disturbed areas throughout the west and is a wild gourd or squash for which both root and seeds were consumed by indigenous people (bemis et al. 1978). it contains bitter compounds, so desirability is likely lower. production of small fruits is substantial and would be similar to pumpkin in that seeds would have to be removed from small fruits, cleaned, and dried. the high-protein seeds of soapweed yucca also have undesirable compounds (saponins) that add a soapy taste to the seeds (kindscher 1987). purpletop tridens is a common grass of prairies and old fields and could be readily cultivated and harvested mechanically, similarly to how other native grass seed is produced. it does not have a specific tribal use, but like most all native grasses it was gathered as food (kindscher 1987). the seeds are somewhat smaller than commercial millet seeds. alkali sacaton seeds were gathered as food by hopi and other indians in the western united states (whiting 1939), but they are very small and the grass is typically found on alkali and salt-effected soils. pitseed goosefoot seeds and greens were widely used as food (fritz el al. 2017). other species of seeds had high fiber values. blackseed plantain is closely related to european plantains, which have high fiber values (sosulski and cadden 1982). fremont’s goosefoot was used figure 3 pitseed goosefoot or lambsquarters (chenopodium berlandieri) leaves and young shoots. kindscher et al. 2018. ethnobiology letters 9(2):214–227 223 research communications (historically) interchangeably with pitseed goosefoot. indiangrass is a native tall grass that is used in conservation plantings and the seeds are already cultivated. however, the seeds are relatively small. finally, annual marsh elder, an important prehistoric midwestern food (black 1963) is not very suitable for cultivation as its pollen can produce allergic reactions, much like the closely-related ragweed (ambrosia) species (epstein 1960). vegetables pitseed goosefoot (chenopodium berlandieri) is a notable species (figure 3) as its leaves ranked high in protein. this native annual is highly productive and harvest could be mechanized, much like alfalfa hay for dried greens. it should be noted that closely related quinoa (chenopodium quinoa), which is somewhat more productive, is currently being grown commercially in the san juan valley of colorado for its seeds. and the greens could be harvested in great quantity, treating it like a hay crop with mechanical harvest. its history of use by native americans is likely under-reported because wild greens were not sufficiently investigated at the time of contact (kindscher 1987). in addition, the species are easily confused, so taken together the following tribes used chenopodium greens: alaskan natives, apache, cherokee, hopi, iroquois, kiowa, lakota, sioux, miwok, navaho, ojibwa, omaha, paiute, papago, pawnee, pima, potawatomi, and zuni (kindscher 1987; moerman 2011). seeds of chenopodium species were recognized by the zuni as one of their ancient foods (stevenson 1915). the seeds show up in numerous archeological sites, some dating to several thousand years ago, and the species was a cultivar of the eastern agricultural complex (asch and asch 1977; fritz and smith 1988). the leaves of nettles (urtica dioica), another notable species (figure 4), had the highest protein value and have numerous uses as food and medicine in both the old and new worlds (moerman 2013 lists 222 uses). nettle (urtica dioica) is a well-known species native to both eurasia and north america. it was used extensively across america as food by the figure 4 nettles (urtica dioca) leaves and young shoots growing in our mulched research garden. kindscher et al. 2018. ethnobiology letters 9(2):214–227 224 research communications iroquois and mohegans in the northeast, the skagit, makah, and hoh in the northwest, and alaskan natives (moerman 2013). the plants are a highly productive perennial, inhabit wet/moist soils, easily cultivated, and very large yields could be harvested with equipment, similar to that used for alfalfa. they have a unique taste that is rich and pleasant. carelessweed, (amaranth palmeri), was used as a cooked green and the seeds were valuable to native americans as food (kindscher 1987). common milkweed flower buds or young leafy tops are an important cultural food today for use in soup among the potawatomi, omaha, and winnebago in our region (gilmore 1977; kindscher 1987). red clover flower heads are also widely used in teas and tea blends. other species contained high amounts of fiber. white prairie clover roots were used as food and as a sweetener (kindscher 1987), but it is slow growing and roots, which are not large, would likely need to grow at least two years before they could be harvested. velvetweed roots were a minor component in native american diets (moerman 2013). longleaf jointfir was used as a tea plant (moerman 2013). it tastes like green tea, but lacks caffeine, and is a slowgrowing shrub. wavyleaf thistle roots have extensive food use and the plants are easily grown. echinacea, mainly known for its medicinal use (kindscher 2016), is included in some fruit juices for its healthpromoting properties. it is typically wild-harvested because it grows slowly under cultivation. also, it has a slightly acrid taste. prairie camas has starchy bulbs that were eaten (thoms 2008). they are closely related to the camass used by native peoples in the pacific northwest. we found no studies that explored cultivating this species. dandelion roots are not native, but have extensive use by native americans and europeans as food and medicine (moerman 2013). carelessweed leaves have considerable soluble fiber, are easy to grow, and quite productive. oshá leaves are used in the southwest as a parsley substitute (kindscher et al. 2013b). oshá has considerable appeal among hispanics and native americans in the southwest and mexico for its medicinal roots. it is rather productive, but only grows at high elevation. fruits young green pods of ram’s horn (proboscidea louisianica) (figure 5) are notable for their pods which when young, were a common cooked vegetable of native americans from the great plains to the southwest and were eaten by the apache (castetter 1935), cahuilla, havasupai, and papago (moerman 2013). ram’s horn is an unusual annual plant, with a musty smell and whose mature, curled pods have long claws. the fibers of the mature pods were tough and used in basketry (kindscher 1987). this plant is a common weed in fields, has substantial yield of its pods, and could be cultivated to have substantial yields per acre, but harvest of it tender young pods might be difficult for mechanical harvest. honey mesquite is a small tree of the southwest plains and deserts and its pods containing young seeds were consumed widely (castetter 1935). highly productive in the wild, as trees can produce substantial, but varied, yields, it is proposed as a “new” desert food crop (hodson 2001). acidic skunkbush sumac fruits were used as a tart food (kindscher 1987) and grow on small bushes. golden current was consumed widely in the great plains and southwest and has been cultivated in a minor fashion, with varieties adapted to home gardens (kindscher figure 5 ram’s horn (proboscidea louisianica) pods ready to eat. kindscher et al. 2018. ethnobiology letters 9(2):214–227 225 research communications 1987). chokecherries (prunus virginiana) were the most important wild fruits to indians of the great plains (kindscher 1987). these shrubs have been cultivated and are relatively productive. finally, long-leaf ground cherry fruits have been used by many tribes as food in the great plains and southwest and contain potent anti-cancer compounds (kindscher et al. 2012; zhang et al. 2011). conclusions many of the plants tested contain protein and fiber at amounts superior or comparable to commonly consumed foods. identification of plant species with novel protein and fiber sources could raise awareness of wild plants and traditional knowledge and cultivation and/or harvest of these plants could become both commercially viable and competitive in the world market. of particular note is the recognition of indigenous food practices as not only successful, but beneficial to a modern dietary intake. introducing these indigenous plant foods to the wider public has value beyond simply their appeal as food. promoting the indigenous origins of the foods acknowledges the subsistence innovations of the native americans beyond corn and honors their ancient and traditional knowledge of native foods. it represents another important contribution of native american culture to the wider world and evidence of their healthier and more sustainable cultural practices. tribes today may be particularly interested in these plants and how they might be used to improve the health and economic welfare of their tribal members. for modern use of these plants as foods, future studies on the energy content and economics of cultivation of the plants will be important next steps. acknowledgments several staff and students associated with the kansas biological survey helped with this work including kirsten bosnak, rachel craft, amy isenburg, jessica lackey, quinn long, and hillary loring. we appreciated the american baking institute office and staff in manhattan, kansas who helped us with nutritional testing. funding for our work was provided by the kellogg company and university of kansas strategic initiative. declarations permissions: none declared. sources of funding: university of kansas, strategic initiative fund (supporting staff time); and kellogg company (supporting field collection, growing, and lab testing). conflicts of interest: none declared. references cited asch, d. l., and n. b. asch. 1977. chenopod as cultigen: a re-evaluation of some prehistoric collections from eastern north america. midcontinental journal of archaeology 2:3–45. bemis, w. p., l. d. curtis, c. w. weber, and j. berry. 1978. the feral buffalo gourd, cucurbita foetidissima. economic botany 32:87–95. 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v. w. day, k. kindscher, m. s. cohen, and b. n. timmermann. 2013. antiproliferative withanolides from datura wrightii. journal of natural products 76:445–449. doi:10.1021/ np300766p. supplementary files available at ojs.ethnobiology.org/index.php/ ebl/article/view/1219 saccharomyces cerevisiae fermentation effects on pollen: archaeological implications dozier. 2016. ethnobiology letters 7(1):32–37 32 research communications individual grains or the pollen profile of honey as fermented into mead, beer, or wine. fermented honey beverages in the archaeological record the development of fermented beverages in prehistory is of particular interest to archaeologists worldwide, as these technologies are associated with feasting societies, increasing social complexity, domestication of cereals, and the intensification of ceramic technocomplexes (braidwood et al. 1953; hayden 2009; hayden et al. 2013; smalley and blake 2003). honey is a prized commodity in many cultures and is a common source of sugar in a variety of fermented beverages, such as beer, wine, and mead. humans have been exploiting the byproducts of honeybees (apis mellifera) for at least the past 8500 years (roffetsalque et al. 2015). both beeswax and honey are incredibly useful bee products; honey is particularly introduction a recent food science paper (roldán et al. 2011) found that the addition of pollen while brewing mead resulted in higher alcohol content, as well as an improvement in taste. the authors conclude that pollen acts as a nutrient for saccharomyces cerevisiae, the most common brewing yeast. while palynologists have long understood that ethanol does not alter the structure of pollen grains (pollen is often stored in ethanol), no direct study has looked at how s. cerevisiae metabolism affects pollen grains. a variety of bacteria and fungi are known to obliterate pollen from soil samples (goldstein 1960; havinga 1967). if brewing yeast consumes or alters the pollen in fermented beverages, prior arguments built on palynological assessments of fermented beverages may be unfounded. the research presented here observed pollen grains through the fermentation process to see if yeast metabolism altered the sporopollenin of saccharomyces cerevisiae fermentation effects on pollen: archaeological implications crystal a. dozier1* 1department of anthropology, texas a&m university, college station, usa. *cdozier@tamu.edu abstract pollen is the reproductive agent of flowering plants; palynology is utilized by archaeologists because sporopollenin, a major component in the exine of pollen grains, is resistant to decay and morphologically distinctive. wine, beer, and mead have been identified in the archaeological record by palynological assessment due to indicator species or due to a pollen profile similar to that recovered from honey, a common source of sugar in a variety of fermented beverages. while most palynologists have assumed that pollen grains are resistant to alcoholic fermentation, a recent study in food science implies that pollen is a yeast nutrient because pollen-enriched meads produce more alcohol. the experiment presented here explores the potential distortion of the pollen record through fermentation by brewing a traditional, pollen rich mead with saccharomyces cerevisiae. in this experiment, the pollen grains did not undergo any discernible morphological changes nor were distorted in the pollen profile. any nutrition that the yeast garners from the pollen therefore leaves sporopollenin intact. these results support palynological research on residues of alcoholic beverages and confirms that the fermentation process does not distort the pollen profile of the original substance. the paper concludes with the potential and limits of palynological study to assess fermentation within the archaeological record. received de cember 24, 2015 open access accepted march 9 , 2016 doi 10.14237/ebl.7.1.2016.573 keywords archaeological palynology, fermentation, me ad, fermented beverages, melissopalynology supplementary files available at ojs.ethnobiology.org/index.php/ebl/rt/suppfiles/573/290 copyright © 2016 dozier; licensee society of ethnobiology. this is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attributionnoncommercial 4.0 international public license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0), which permits non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. dozier. 2016. ethnobiology letters 7(1):32–37 33 research communications important as one of the few sources of simple sugars available without processing. hayden et al. (2013:108– 109) convincingly argue that the yeasts required for early fermentation probably originated either in honey or on acorn shells. many early fermented beverages included at least some honey to increase the available sugars for yeast (and thereby increase alcohol content), perhaps to inoculate (introduce the yeast or fermenting microorganism) the beverage, and undoubtedly for taste (mcgovern et al. 2003). the consumption of alcoholic beverages is interpreted from the archaeological record when indicator pollen species are found in ceramic residues and within coprolites (moe and oeggl 2014). vitis vinifera (grape) pollen has been used as a marker to distinguish wine amphorae from other storage vessels in mediterranean shipwrecks (arobba et al. 2014; gorham and bryant 2001; jacobsen and bryant 1998). high concentrations of filipendula ulmar ia (meadowsweet) pollen in coprolites has been interpreted as alcohol consumption as the plant is historically known to have been used as a flavoring agent in mead production (moe and oeggl 2014). the presence of cereal pollen has also been used to interpret ale and mead production (lagerås 2000). this interpretive framework of looking for an indicator species only allows for confirmation of previously understood fermentation processes. honey contains an extremely high concentration (and often diversity) of pollen grains, some of which are only commensal species-pollinated taxa. diversity of commensal species-pollinated pollen has been used to identify honey and mead (kvavadze et al. 2006; rösch 1999). extensive review by guerra-doce (2014) indicates that a number of researchers in europe have exploited palynology, the study of pollen grains, to identify potentially fermented beverages. she highlights studies that utilize palynology to identify mead and beer (see supplementary file 1). no studies in north or south america have taken this approach; apix honey bees were only introduced after the columbian exchange (whitfield et al. 2006), although stingless bees (meliponini) were exploited by the maya for honey in the creation of a mead called balché (bruman 2000:91–93). melissopalynology melissopalynology describes pollen found within honey (jones and bryant 1992, 1996; low et al. 1989; todd and vansell 1942). pollen is the reproductive agent of flowering plants; pollen grains have a wall containing sporopollenin that protects gametophytes during fertilization in spermatophytes. angiosperms and gymnosperms use pollen to distribute genetic material between individuals, which aids in genetic diversity and the ability for a species to adapt to changing conditions. luckily for archaeologists, sporopollenin is resistant to destruction over time and pollen grains can often be identified to species with use of light microscopy and computer-aided microscopy, such as sem. pollen is sequestered in/on plant reproductive organs (including fruits), sometimes released airborne, and carried by commensal species. pollen does seem to provide some kind of nutritional value to brewing yeasts (roldán et al. 2011). methods in order to assess the effect that fermentation had on a pollen profile, i brewed a simple mead (honey wine) and tracked pollen profile and morphological integrity through the fermentation process. mead as shown in table 1, the only ingredients used in this mead were water, honey, yeast, and pollen pellets. industrial honeys, such as was used in this experiment, are commonly micro-filtered to remove pollen and other particles—a misconception in the industry maintains that pollen can engender crystallization (bryant 2014a). therefore, pollen pellets were added in proportions close to roldán et al. (2011)’s methods to ensure the presence of pollen in the mead. the pollen pellets contained a variety of common north american taxa with a variety of sizes and morphological traits. material amount source water 10 l fort worth, tx municipal water honey 2512 g fermentap, concord ca pollen pellets 192 g the wealth savings center, valley stream ny dry yeast (s. cerevisiae) 2 g lalvin bourgovin rc212, denmark table 1 materials used to m ake mead in this study. dozier. 2016. ethnobiology letters 7(1):32–37 34 research communications the honey and water were brought to a sanitizing threshold of 71 °c to create the must (the preinoculated substrate). the must was then cooled and the pollen pellets added and mixed thoroughly. the must was inoculated with s. cerevisiae yeast and left to ferment in a sealed, food grade plastic tub for seven days at 22–28 °c. the specific gravity of the mead dropped from original gravity of 1.081 to a final gravity of 1.007; therefore, the resulting mead obtained approximately 9.71-10.50% alcohol by volume, consistent with mead characteristics. the mead finished with a standard reference method (srm) color of 15, a rich golden light brown. pollen sampling several samples of the mead were taken through the brewing process to track the pollen profile. two 50 ml samples were taken before inoculation (referred to as must) and two more 50 ml samples were taken after fermentation had completed (referred to as mead). the must/mead was stirred well before sampling to ensure no settling of pollen out of the samples. the four samples were frozen before analysis at the texas a&m palynological research laboratory. pollen analysis samples were analyzed adopting standard melissopalynological procedures (jones and bryant 1996) at the texas a&m palynological research laboratory. ten ml subsamples were taken from each of the mead/ must samples, to which one lycopodium tablet (18583 spores/tab) was added. the water source for the mead/must was not tested for pollen as pollen was intentionally added to the must; however, all equipment within the texas a&m palynological research laboratory is regularly tested for pollen contamination and the laboratory distilled water is pollen-free, so no pollen was added subsequent to fermentation. the samples were then centrifuged at 3500 rpm for two minutes, the same time and speed for all of the subsequent washes. the supernatant liquid was decanted and the samples were washed with 7 ml of glacial acetic acid. a standard acetolysis regime was followed whereas 7 ml of a 1:9 ratio of sulfuric acid to acetic anhydride was added to each sample and heated for 10 minutes at 80 °c. the samples were stirred occasionally before being washed with 7 ml of glacial acetic acid. the samples were then washed in water and ethanol (jones and bryant 2004) before seven drops glycerin were added per sample and the samples were mounted to a slide. one slide from each sample was analyzed under light microscopy. at least 200 grains were analyzed from each sample, as is standard practice and statistically secure (barkley 1934). broad identifications were made to assign pollen grains to taxonomic family or genera, but exact identifications were irrelevant. rather, the relative frequency of different pollen types was the most important facet to understand if and how the yeast used the pollen as a nutrient. supplemental data file 2 contains the raw counts of taxa and their relative frequencies. results pollen preservation in the must and mead samples was phenomenal and no damage to pollen walls was observed under light microscopy. figure 1 indicates the diversity of pollen taxa recovered. figure 2 illustrates the relative frequencies of the different pollen types; no significant differences in the pollen profiles of any of the samples were observed following fermentation. figure 1 a mead sample prior to processing. note presence of yeast cells around pollen grains. b & c mead sample after acetolysis. no damage to pollen exines. note pollen and spore diversity. dozier. 2016. ethnobiology letters 7(1):32–37 35 research communications discussion while roldán et al. (2011) found the addition of pollen increased lipids and other nutrients for s. cerevisiae that resulted in higher ethanol production (indicating yeast metabolism of pollen grains), the individual exines of pollen grains and pollen profile of honey remained unchanged under light microscopy through fermentation. any nutrition that the yeast garners from the pollen therefore leaves sporopollenin intact; differentiation between unaltered and fermented food residues based on palynological analysis alone is unlikely. it is possible that minor damage to sporopollenin may be visible under scanning electron microscopy (sem). this study did not have the resources to pursue this possibility, which may be an avenue for future research. the research presented here supports interpretations of honey in archaeological residues through palynological analysis (kvavadze et al. 2006; lagerås 2000; moe and oeggl 2014; rösch 1999). as always, though, archaeologists and paleo(ethno)botanists need to remain cognizant of other taphonomic processes (bryant and hall 1993; cushing 1967; havinga 1967) that may affect the palynological record. for example, wetting and drying cycles are known to destroy pollen grains (campbell and campbell 1994). with secure context and proper control sampling, however, palynological analysis of possibly fermented residues have the potential of greatly informing the archaeological record. palynological assessments may provide additional paleoenvironmental insights beyond identifying honey utilization because pollen in honey profiles can reflect some aspects of local environments (bryant 2014b; kvavadze et al. 2006; rösch 1999). conclusions a simple mead (honey wine) was brewed to assess if pollen grains are affected by fermentation processes. palynological analysis of both must (pre-fermentation) and mead (post-fermentation) indicates that no damage to the pollen exine occurs and there are no figure 2 relative frequencies of pollen types. no significant differences in pollen type frequency are seen among the four samples. dozier. 2016. ethnobiology letters 7(1):32–37 36 research communications differences in the pollen profile through the brewing process. this study confirms that fermented beverages contain the same pollen profile as their unfermented bases, which supports previous interpretations of honey from archaeological residues (kvavadze et al. 2006; lagerås 2000; moe and oeggl 2014; rösch 1999). this study implies that palynological analysis alone cannot differentiate between unaltered and fermented honey residues under light microscopy. however, pollen profiles of honey can indicate some aspects of the local environment (bryant 2014b); therefore, palynological assessment of archaeological residues of foods made with honey may yield reliable paleoenvironmental data. acknowledgements i would like to thank the texas a&m university palynological research laboratory, and especially dr. vaughn bryant jr., for guidance and support 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ojs.ethnobiology.org/index.php/ebl/rt/ suppfiles/573/290. http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v527/n7577/abs/nature15757.html#auth-65 traditional techniques for the management of cactaceae in the americas: the relationship between use and conservation pedrosa et al. 2018. ethnobiology le ers 9(2):276–282 276 short topical reviews 2016; larrea-alcázar 2008). cacti are one of the few sources of water available to human populations during periods of prolonged drought (calvacanti and resende 2007). the usefulness of cacti to human populations in these adverse environmental conditions favors the development of a close relationship between the two, which often takes the form of intentional or unintentional management (blancas et al. 2013). people select species of cactaceae for use based on characteristics that offer a means of supplying the demand of consumption, with various types of harvesting and management practices that may or may not keep cacti intact (casas et al. 2001). the intentional selection of favorable characteristics in different species is established by local people. such practices include the protection of individuals in in situ or ex situ environments, which can lead to future phenotypic changes (casas et al. 2007). conservation of biodiversity in tropical forests has allowed for a co-management system carried out by the government and local communities, recognizing that cultural perception is an important introduction traditional societies throughout the world have developed relationships with natural resources and established methods for their management, which are shaped according to local needs. these cultural practices reflect the types of interactions that occur between humans and their natural resources (blancas et al. 2013). these interactions have important impacts on the diversity and distribution of nonhuman species, particularly plants. therefore, the vast knowledge that traditional populations possess regarding different forms of exploitation and management of natural resources, especially plants, is the subject of numerous ethnobotanical studies (albuquerque and hanazaki 2010; lopes 2017). among plants commonly managed by human populations are cacti (cactaceae), which are used mainly during seasonal drought for human food, animal fodder, and medicine (casas et al. 2014; lucena et al. 2015). cacti possess adaptive characteristics that allow them to grow and survive in conditions of low humidity typical of arid and semiarid regions (godínez-álvarez 2003; ferreira et al. tradi onal techniques for the management of cactaceae in the americas: the rela onship between use and conserva on kamila marques pedrosa¹, camilla marques lucena1, reinaldo farias paiva de lucena2, and sérgio de faria lopes3* ¹post‐graduate in environmental development, universidade federal da paraíba, joão pessoa, brazil. 2laboratory of ethnobiology and environmental sciences, universidade federal da paraíba, joão pessoa, brazil. 3laboratory of ecology and conserva on of neotropical dry forests, universidade estadual da paraíba, campina grande, brazil. *defarialopes@gmail.com abstract humans have used and coexisted with cac in arid regions of north and south america for thousands of years. species of the family cactaceae possess physiological adapta ons to arid and semi‐arid climates that have allowed them to be used as a resource throughout the year by tradi onal peoples. the objec ve of this review is to present informa on on the uses and management of species of cactaceae in the various regions of the americas. this review provides informa on relevant to conserva on policies regarding this important resource for local popula ons in semi‐arid regions. to fully understand how management can influence cac conserva on, a knowledge gap regarding the tradi onal management of cac needs to be addressed. received september 21, 2017 open access accepted september 7, 2018 doi 10.14237/ebl.9.2.2018.1117 keywords cac , local ecological knowledge, ethnobotany, management, conserva on copyright © 2018 by the author(s) licensee society of ethnobiology. this is an open‐access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution‐noncommercial 4.0 international public license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by‐nc/4.0), which permits non‐commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. pedrosa et al. 2018. ethnobiology le ers 9(2):276–282 277 short topical reviews component for directing conservation actions (diegues 2000; norton 2001). this is especially true because the management techniques and methods adopted by local populations reflect adaptive ecological strategies that concentrate efforts to conserve resources important to the local economy (tickton et al. 2002). management of cacti species by local communities contributes to their distribution and species richness, which serve to ensure the economic and sociocultural success of the communities. however, improper exploitation can negatively affect management and increase risks to cacti populations (velásquez-mila et al. 2011). the objective of the present review was to gather information on the types of uses and management of species of cactaceae in various regions of the americas. this review provides information relevant to conservation policies regarding this important resource for local populations in semi-arid regions. cactaceae: species richness and distribution in the centers of cacti diversity the family cactaceae is part of a group of perennial xerophilous plants with morphological, physiological, and functional adaptations that allow them to survive in hot climates (sbrissa et al. 2012). physiologically, species of cactaceae are characterized by crassulacean acid metabolism (cam), which is a specific type of metabolism that enables them to obtain high concentrations of co2 (carbon dioxide) at night while the stomata are open, and store the carbon for photosynthesis during the day, when the stomata are closed; this reduces the loss of water to evapotranspiration (taiz and zeiger 2010). due to adaptations to the environmental stresses caused by the edaphoclimatic conditions of the different regions where cacti are found, cacti have a competitive advantage in environments where water is a limiting factor, such as arid, semi-arid, and micro-epiphytic habitats (taiz and zeiger 2010). species of cacti possess thorns, which are modified leaves that protect against predator attack and prevent dehydration due to the loss of excessive water through high leaf surface area. in addition, the roots of cacti give them an advantage in water storage (sbrissa et al. 2012). their fruits vary in shape and size, and can be capsulate, tomentose, spiny, and scaly; white, red, yellow, or blue in color (abreu 2008); carnose or dry; and dispersed by animals or by abiotic factors such as wind and water (duarte et al. 2013). there are about 2,000 species of cactaceae across 124 genera distributed in tropical and temperate regions of the americas (north, central, and south america) (rego et al. 2012), with four main centers of diversity (taylon in oldfield 1997): the united states, mexico, the andean region, and brazil (figure 1). however, some species of cacti are found on other continents, such as rhipsalis baccifera ((j.m. muell.) stearn), which has been recorded on continental africa, madagascar, and sri lanka, where it is suspected to have been introduced by migratory birds (cavalcante et al. 2013; cerutti 1984). species of cactaceae are distributed from canada in north america south to the region of patagonia in southern south america, including some caribbean islands (hunt and taylor 1990). in central america, cactaceae is most diverse and widely distributed in mexico, where there are around 900 species; mexico is considered the second most diverse center of cacti in the world. another center of diversity is the andes of south america, mainly in peru and bolivia (taylon in oldfield 1997). brazil is considered the most diverse center of cacti in south america, with about 39 genera and 260 species, 187 of which are endemic (zappi et al. 2016), with the state of bahia being the center of diversity (castro 2008). in brazil, cacti are distributed among environments of caatinga (a type of tropical dry forest ), tropical forest, cerrado, rock outcrops, and restinga forests (cruz 2011). in central brazil, species of the family cactaceae occur on rocky outcrops in the cerrado, and in some areas of the pantanal (zappi et al. 2011). the west-central region of the country has 33 recorded cacti species, of which six are endemic; southern brazil has a diversity of epiphytic cacti and is considered the second largest center of diversity in the country, but with only eight endemic species (pan 2011). the caatinga ecoregion in the interior of northeast brazil has the greatest number of individuals and species of cacti and the best edapho-climatic conditions for their growth (bernardes 1999). sixtytwo species of 19 genera of caatinga cacti have been identified (moro et al. 2014; zappi et al. 2016). of these, pilosocereus pachycladus f. ritter, cereus jamacaru dc, and pilosocereus gounellei (fac weber) are the species most used by local populations (male and female farmers [duque 2004]). rural human populations in the semi-arid regions of brazil farm and raise livestock as their main subsistence; however, pedrosa et al. 2018. ethnobiology le ers 9(2):276–282 278 short topical reviews the climate does not favor economic security throughout the year, which causes people to use cacti to meet their needs (duque 2004). in the absence of pasture, species of cactaceae are used for animal fodder and have become a strong cultural component of these traditional populations (lucena et al. 2015). human uses of cacti in the americas species of cactaceae are of potential use to human populations in several regions of the world (blancas et al. 2010; casas et al. 2014; fuentes 2005; lucena et al. 2012). the continuous manipulation of species by local communities for beneficial morphological and physiological characteristics contributes to their domestication, as is the case with the columnar cactus stenocereus stellatus ((pfeiff.) riccob) in mexico (casas et al. 1999). one of the earliest records of a domesticated cactus species is from mesoamaerica (casas et al. 2003). historical records in mexico from 1200 to 1400 years ago document a diversity of interactions between people and forest resources, with an emphasis on the cultivation and management of cacti for agricultural purposes (casas et al. 2011). this relationship between local populations and their plant resources still occurs, and has been documented by several recent ethnobotanical studies (lins-neto et al. 2012; lucena et al. 2015). recent studies in mexico (blancas et al. 2010; casas et al. 2001), cuba (fuentes 2005), colombia (fernández-alonso 2006), the united states (apadoca 2001), and brazil (lucena et al. 2012, lucena et al. 2013; lucena et al. 2015) have investigated the management of cacti (casas et al. 1997, 2006; lucena et al. 2013; pérez-negron et al. 2007) by different ethnic populations (local and traditional groups) who have used the resource for a variety of purposes (lins-neto et al. 2012). the need for, and abundance of, cacti relate to how they are used in the local culture and economy (lucena et al. 2015). mexico is characterized by an ancient culture of use and commercialization of cacti, wherein traditional populations use them primarily for human consumption (casas et al. 2006). records for the tehuácan-cuicatlán valley, which is the center of origin of columnar cacti, document the use of cacti as food by local populations beginning 1400 years ago (casas 2002; macneish 1967). in addition, there are records of very early ceremonial use of cacti in mesoamerica, especially with regard to mescaline. mescaline is a naturally occurring psychedelic alkaloid known for its hallucinogenic effects comparable to those of lsd and psilocybin. it occurs naturally in the peyote cactus (lophophora williamsii), the san pedro cactus (trichocereus pachanoi), and other members of cactaceae (crosby and mclaughlin 1973). the san pedro cactus has been used for healing and religious divination in the andes mountains for over 3000 years, with strikingly realistic imagery found in early chavín culture (ca. 900 bce) (burger 1992; bussmann and sharon 2006). in the semi-arid region of brazil (northeastern brazil), traditional human populations are usually farmers who use the parts of cacti that are most useful for rural construction (such as slats for houses and hedges) and as fodder for animals, since they are one of the few plant resources available throughout the year (lucena et al. 2012; lucena et al. 2013). the fruits of cacti are used in human food and in the manufacture of sweets (lucena et al. 2015), with cladodes and rackets being used for animal fodder (figure 2). traditional management of cacti some species of cacti may be undergoing involuntary or unintentional management by traditional communities, specifically by the selection of individuals with characteristics that meet the demand of consumption, and which can be maintained with different types of exploitative cuttings (casas et al. 2001). the intentional selection of favorable characteristics, by means of protecting certain individuals over others, can lead to phenotypic changes (casas et al. 2007). in this way, local populations perform management techniques with cacti that preserve desirable (e.g., sweet, fleshy, and large fruits, large cladodes and rackets, fast growth) and/or eliminate undesirable phenotypes (e.g., cacti that do not have parts useful to the local population) depending on the particular edapho-climatic conditions of a given region (blancas et al. 2010; casas et al. 2006; 2017; lucena et al. 2015). traditional management can be done in two distinct ways, in situ or ex situ, both of which favor plant abundance or diversity, and may include strategies including deforestation, burning, or even irrigation of desirable species (casas et al. 2014). the strategies used change according to the biocultural issues present in a community, and can vary from vegetative propagation of the species to the reduction of competition from non-useful plants (blancas et al. 2009; clement et al. 2010; gonzález-insuasti et al. 2007), by means of practices that employ selection pedrosa et al. 2018. ethnobiology le ers 9(2):276–282 279 short topical reviews criteria aimed at eliminating undesirable phenotypes and increasing the availability of the preferentially used plants (blancas et al. 2013). in situ management is when plants are managed in their natural environments, and has three manifestations: tolerance, protection, and promotion. tolerance is when the aim is to preserve individuals of the desired species before the preparation of the land (casas et al. 1997, 2001, 2006). protection is when competitors that may harm the species of interest are eliminated (e.g., pest removal), thereby guaranteeing and/or expanding useful plants (casas et al. 1997, 2001, 2006). management by promotion facilitates an increase in the number of individuals using techniques applied in their natural habitat, such as the application of fertilizers, manure, or compost, and the preparation of the soil and pruning (casas et al. 1997, 2001, 2006). on the other hand, ex situ management occurs within the anthropogenic fields with individuals being propagated through sowing and/or transplantation (casas et al. 1997a). ex situ management evolves over time through the selection of phenotypes that offer advantages, even when there are events that decrease the number of cacti (gonzález-insusti and caballer 2007). it also involves the selection of species for different types of exploitation (casas et al. 2006). in brazil, research concerning cacti management is emerging due to their importance in local economies and cultures, and the corresponding selection of individuals with economically viable characteristics (arellano and casas 2003). this kind of management has been recorded in the northeast region by lucena et al. (2012, 2013, and 2015), who have sought to understand how traditional management techniques have contributed to the processes that determine genetic variation, as well as the possible domestication of cereus jamacaru d.c. (mandacarú); c. jamacaru is one of several species of cacti that is used intensively by local populations in the semi-arid regions of brazil. lucena et al. (2015) point out that the overexploitation of cacti species, together with a lack of reforestation projects, has led to environmental problems that could result in decreased abundance of some species, including c. jamacaru. other types of management were also found in the brazilian semi-arid region by pedrosa (2018), who recorded management in natural environments (in situ), with the application of partial use and burning of the vegetative parts of the cacti in order to provide fodder for domestic animals. on the other hand, they found that species in domestic environments (ex situ) were positively affected by techniques that protected and promoted them, which favored their development and increased population density. these activities are linked to the ornamental value that cacti species provide to the local culture, thus facilitating their propagation and conservation. understanding how local practices can improve sustainable livelihoods is essential for maintaining the natural cycle of local biodiversity within varied socio-ecological contexts. perspective for conservation regions that harbor cacti tend to be in socioeconomically developing countries. these regions lack established conservation practices, especially regarding cactaceae, for which there are species that are of conservation priority. this is the case for species of the genera discocatus, melocactus, uebelmannia, and parodia (zappi et al. 2011), which are on the official endangered list of the ministério do meio ambiente brasileiro (brazilian ministry of the environment 2013). by linking the need for conservation to local biocultural knowledge, traditional management can be used as an alternative approach to conservation. this is especially relevant for cacti because they are currently suffering pressure from destruction of habitat for agricultural purposes and the unrestrained use of cacti to meet rural needs. from this perspective, investigations into the processes and patterns of distribution, use, and management of cacti species are increasingly needed, particularly as climate change contributes to more severe droughts in arid and semi-arid regions. furthermore, cacti conservation and management needs to be investigated carefully, taking into account risks to the genetic variability of cacti species. acknowledgements sérgio de faria lopes thanks the cnpq for the productivity grant awarded. declarations permissions: none declared. sources of funding: cnpq (conselho nacional de desenvolvimento científico e tecnológico) conflicts of interest: none declared. pedrosa et al. 2018. ethnobiology le ers 9(2):276–282 280 short topical reviews references cited abreu, d. d. s. 2008. germinação e morfo-anatomia do desenvolvimento em melocactus ernestii vauper e m. paucispinus heimem r.j. paul (cactaceae). unpublished master’s thesis, instituto de botânica, universidade de são paulo, são paulo, brazil. albuquerque, u. p., and n. hanazaki. 2010. recent developments and case studies in 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[web page]. available at: http://floradobrasil.jbrj.gov.br/jabot/ floradobrasil/fb70. accessed on may 10, 2017. reclaiming native hawaiian knowledge represented in bird taxonomies gomes. 2020. ethnobiology letters 11(2):30-43 30 data, methods & taxonomies lead to new understandings of natural phenomena. in a study of a fijian fishing community on vanua levu, golden et al. (2014:1–2, 11) found that information in that community regarding the use of resources, ecosystem change over time, and population dynamics of at-risk species held valuable potential to inform future management practices. for indigenous peoples, tek can also serve to record and document oral traditions. a study by hidiyati et al. (2018:45) of vaie language speakers in malaysia found active practitioners of tek had “greater language vitality” than community members who were not as involved in traditional practices. such studies can assist as resources for cultural revitalization in westernized indigenous societies. study location the hawaiian islands, an archipelago found in the pacific ocean, is regarded as the most isolated high island archipelago on the planet and hosts an astonishingly unique biota. of particular note is the native avifauna, which demonstrates a high level of endemism. while the hawaiian avifauna is introduction can an understanding of the folk classification systems and nomenclature of indigenous peoples be reclaimed after a major language shift and westernization? for decades the field of ethnobiology has strived to utilize folk taxonomy, classification, and nomenclature to provide insight into the social and cognitive similarities and differences between unrelated cultures (berlin et al. 1973:214–215, 227). as presented in this study, folk taxonomies (or folk classifications) are defined as the ways people categorize and classify organisms in the world around them based on both perceived discontinuities and practical purposes (atran 1999:316; hunn 1982:831, 840). in addition, berlin (1973:259) explains that nomenclatural studies are “devoted to the description of linguistic principles of naming the conceptually recognized classes of plants and animals in some particular language.” folk nomenclature systems can therefore be seen as collective systems used by people for naming and describing different forms of life, in that context. studies of traditional ecological knowledge (tek) such as folk taxonomy and nomenclature can reclaiming native hawaiian knowledge represented in bird taxonomies noah j. gomes1* 1hilo, usa. *noahjgomes@gmail.com abstract this paper examines three examples of native bird classification systems historically used by the aboriginal peoples of the hawaiian islands. the goal is to better understand indigenous linguistic hierarchies in the taxonomic structure and nomenclature systems that were formerly utilized by these colonized peoples. three specific manuscripts from two native historians and a foreign naturalist are analyzed to better ascertain how these systems may have worked, despite the dearth of data on the comprehensive knowledge of bird hunters and ritual specialists. the utilitarian basis of these systems is shown to have potential practical application for the ongoing cultural and linguistic revitalization of the native hawaiian people. the perspectives and reasoning behind these systems could be used as a tool for reviving traditional relationships with the unique ecosystems of hawaiʻi. further research in the large but diffuse archives of hawaiian language manuscripts may eventually expand our understanding of hawaiian folk systematics. received february 29, 2020 open access accepted june 22, 2020 doi 10.14237/ebl.11.2.2020.1682 published december 4, 2020 keywords hawaii, birds, nomenclature, taxonomy, classification, tek, folk taxonomy, ethnobiology copyright © 2020 by the author(s) licensee society of ethnobiology. this is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution-noncommercial 4.0 international public license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0), which permits non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. gomes. 2020. ethnobiology letters 11(2):30-43 31 data, methods & taxonomies represented by a depauperate number of taxonomic families, the specific diversity is unusually high. at least 74 of the 109 known endemic bird species are now extinct due to anthropogenic causes. most of the remaining native bird species have declined drastically in numbers and are now rarely encountered by the majority of the local population (reed et. al. 2012:881). while in many remarkable ways the indigenous human population (kanaka maoli) that historically interacted closely with the hawaiian avifauna has maintained its traditions and strongly influenced the continual influx of foreigners to hawaiʻi, they have also acculturated to western society in the 230+ years since their first contact with british captain james cook. tremendous changes to hawaiian religious, political, and educational systems, as well as diaspora, foreign immigration, and a history of depopulation via epidemics from foreign diseases have irrevocably altered the social structure of modern hawaiʻi. in addition, large changes to hawaiʻi’s ecological landscapes, especially in the inhabited lowlands, have destroyed habitat for most extant native birds, removing them from the human experience. as a result, few kānaka maoli now have a close working relationship with the native avifauna. the highly skilled bird hunters who possessed multi-generational cultural knowledge of native birds have all been dead for generations. this failure of tek to be transmitted to the living generation of kanaka maoli is largely due to the historical factors given above, particularly the social and economic changes that may have made other occupations more practical for kānaka maoli to pursue, and the dramatic continuous decline of native birds. in modern hawaiʻi, most native forest birds have either become extinct or are in danger of extinction, and much of the traditional knowledge about them has not been utilized in living memory (abbott 2012; emerson 1895:111). any modern study of kanaka maoli ethno-ornithology must therefore rely heavily on the few historic accounts that exist on the subject. unfortunately, relatively little ethnographic work was done to specifically record kanaka maoli ethno-ornithological knowledge before the experts passed away. there are numerous diffuse references to tek related to native hawaiian birds in archival and 19th century hawaiian language newspaper accounts, as well as in traditional chants, but very few of these sources are focused explicitly on hawaiian birds, and many remain difficult for researchers to access and analyze. methods data collection the kānaka maoli are in the midst of a decades-long cultural and linguistic revitalization that began in the late 1960s largely through song and hula (dance), which eventually grew to include politics, celestial navigation, and many other traditional and modern subjects (tachihata 1994:202). birds in particular were historically utilized for food, feathers, and religious ceremony (gomes 2015:1, 66, 230), something which is reflected in the folk taxonomy and nomenclature of native hawaiian birds. as many kānaka maoli revive indigenous ways of knowing and living, an examination of what perspectives people in previous generations had of native hawaiian birds could prove valuable. in this paper i examine three of the best remaining sources for this information. these accounts are among the most focused on tek regarding native hawaiian birds, and are notable for explicitly listing the different ethno-taxonomic categories to which these birds belong. the writings of early kānaka maoli historians, david malo and kepelino teauotalani, are utilized to reconstruct their native bird folk taxonomies. the work of english naturalist robert c. l. perkins on native hawaiian bird nomenclature and folk taxonomy is also examined and compared to the work of the aforementioned indigenous scholars. while there were several foreign naturalists that studied native hawaiian birds in depth during the 19th and early 20th centuries, perkin’s account is unique for the depth to which he describes the avian nomenclature system of the kānaka maoli experts in his time. david malo david malo was born in keauhou, kona, hawaiʻi sometime around 1793 to kānaka maoli parents aoao and heone. while we do not know where malo obtained his specific information on birds, one of malo’s major mentors was noa ʻauwae, an aliʻi (nobleman) who was an expert in the old histories and genealogies. malo was a student of the early calvinist christian missionaries at their school at lāhaina, maui, where he became literate and began recording hawaiian history. he was a well-respected man in his time for his knowledge of hawaiian history and service to his community (emerson in malo 1951 (1898):vii-xiii; lyon 2012:67). gomes. 2020. ethnobiology letters 11(2):30-43 32 data, methods & taxonomies malo’s work, moʻolelo hawaiʻi, is considered one of the most important writings on classical hawaiian culture and history that exists today and informs the reader on a variety of topics from religious ceremony and the traditional divisions of earth, sea, and sky, to traditional games and stories. written sometime during the 1840s, it was published posthumously as an english translation by dr. nathaniel emerson in 1903 (lyon 2012:30–31; murabayashi and dye 2010:12). the original hawaiian-language manuscript was not published until 1987 by malcolm nāea chun (lyon 2012:70, 72). for this paper, i have elected to use a soon-to-be-published version of malo’s original hawaiian-language manuscript edited by kapali lyon and charles langlas (2013 (1853)), which strives to further preserve the meaning of obscure hawaiianlanguage terminology from an original hand-written manuscript located in the bernice pauahi bishop museum archives. analysis of malo’s folk taxonomy malo (2013 (1853):75–85) presents his information on hawaiian birds in list form, which probably derives from the old kanaka maoli scholarly practice of listing lengthy amounts of information through chant. his descriptions are very brief, usually just giving the name of the bird, its folk taxonomic class, some small note on its physical appearance and habits, whether or not the bird was palatable, and perhaps the name of the method used to hunt it. in spite of the lack of depth to malo’s information, it is incredibly valuable as a rare legitimate and explicit source of indigenous insight on this subject. table 1 and figure 1 show birds described by malo in the folk taxonomic classifications to which he has assigned them. i have arranged these classifications in their presumed taxonomic ranking according to his descriptions. there are three levels of ranking in this hierarchy, given from the largest and most general to the smallest and most specific. each level of ranking may have multiple classifications within it. some classifications have more than one synonymous title given by malo. all given synonyms are included. i have included the current latin names for all identifiable folk species listed when possible. many birds listed by malo appear to be birds whose identity cannot be adequately determined at this time (as is the case for the seabirds mōlī and kaʻupu, which are often considered today to be synonyms for phoebastria immutabilis but are clearly very different birds in both figure 1 malo’s bird folk taxonomy. gomes. 2020. ethnobiology letters 11(2):30-43 33 data, methods & taxonomies category folk species in this category unique beginner terrestrial animals (holoholona) life forms pigs (puaʻa) puaʻa (domestic pig; sus scrofa domesticus) dogs (ʻīlio) ʻīlio (dog; canis familiaris) crawling creatures (nā mea kolo) non-volant invertebrates and small vertebrates such as: ʻiole (polynesian rat; rattus exulans) moʻo kaʻalā (skinks; emoia impar and cryptoblepharus poecilopleurus) moʻo kāula (gekoes; lepidodactylus lugubris, hemiphyllodactylus typus typus, and hemidactylus garnotii) domestic birds (nā manu laka) moa (domestic chicken; gallus gallus domesticus) wild birds (nā manu hihiu) all other birds “birds” not eaten (nā manu ʻai ʻole) all other flying animals are considered a kind of “bird” (manu) as well. these are specifically mentioned: ʻōpeʻapeʻa (hawaiian hoary bat; lasiurus cinereus semotus) pinao (dragonflies and damselflies; order odonata) ʻōkaʻi (a large, nocturnal moth in suborder heterocera) lepelepeohina (an insect in either suborder rhopalocera or heterocera, perhaps a butterfly such as vanessa tameamea) pulelehua (suborder rhopalocera or heterocera, perhaps a butterfly such as vanessa tameamea) nalo (various flies; order diptera) nalo paka (family evaniidae) the ʻuhini (grasshoppers and relatives; family acrididae) is included in this classification, though malo notes that it was actually eaten. genera under the life form nā manu hihiu sea-diving birds (nā manu luʻu kai) all birds in the categories “birds that live in the mountains and fish in the sea,” and “birds from the sky/birds from the sea.” small birds that only dwell in the forest / smaller wild birds (manu liʻiliʻi noho ma ka nāhelehele wale nō/ manu hihiu liʻiliʻi iho) ʻōʻū (psittirostra psittacea), ʻōmaʻo (myadestes obscurus), ʻōʻō (moho sp.), mamo (drepanis pacifica), ʻiwi (drepanis coccinea), ʻapapane (himatione sanguinea), ʻākihipōlena (unknown), ʻula (unknown), uʻa (unknown), ʻākohekohe (palmeria dolei), mū (unknown), ʻamakihi (chlorodrepanis virens), ʻakihialoa (akialoa sp.), ʻelepaio (chasiempis sp.), ʻiao (unknown), kākāwahie (paroreomyza flammea), kē (unknown), larger wild birds (manu hihiu nui aʻe) nēnē (branta sandvicensis), ʻalalā (corvus hawaiiensis), pueo (asio flammeus sandwichensis), ʻio (buteo solitarius), moho (porzana sandwichensis) fresh and salt water pond birds (manu loko wai a loko kai) ʻalae (gallinula chloropus,sandvicensis, fulica alai), koloa (anas wyvilliana), ʻaukuʻu (nycticorax nycticorax), kūkuluaeʻo (himantopus mexicanus knudseni), kioea (numenius tahitiensis), kōlea (pluvialis fulva) sub-genera under the genera nā manu luʻu kai birds that live in the mountains and fish in the sea (manu noho mauna a lawaiʻa kai) ʻuaʻu (pterodroma sandwichensis), kīkī (unknown), ʻaʻo (puffinus newelli) liʻoliʻo (unknown), ʻouʻou (bulwelria bulwelrii), pūhaʻakakaiea (unknown), koaʻe (phaethon sp.), ʻoio (unknown, perhaps anous sp.) birds from the sky / birds from the sea (manu mai ka lewa mai/manu mai ke kai mai) kaʻupu (unknown), ʻuaʻukēwai (unknown), ʻā (sula sp.), mōlī (unknown), ʻiwa (fregata minor), noio (anous minutus), kala (onychoprion lunatus) table 1 malo’s bird folk taxonomy. gomes. 2020. ethnobiology letters 11(2):30-43 34 data, methods & taxonomies malo and teauotalani’s respective descriptions), or are birds which have not been attributed to any species described by ornithologists. it should be noted that indigenous epistemologies do not always align with western epistemologies (helmreich 2005:115), and so some of these mystery birds might be names for different genders or stages of development for known bird species. these unidentified birds are simply labeled “unknown” in parentheses. all names in table 1 and figure 1 appear as printed in the edited text by lyon and langlas (2013 (1853)). i have chosen not to include english names for the birds in the tables and figures of this paper. the latin and hawaiian names provided are less likely to cause confusion on the identity of the birds, since these are the names normally used by ornithologists familiar with these species. many of these species also have no english name. berlin et. al. (1973:260–261)—and also later atran (1999:316)—detailed the classic five-level hierarchy of folk taxonomy. the folk taxonomies given by malo and teauotalani do not correspond exactly to the classic system (mainly because they include an additional level i have opted to call “subgenera”), but i have included the classic hierarchy here as a reference to further understand how folk taxonomies are ordered. in the classic hierarchy of folk taxonomy there are five taxonomic levels. these are: 1. unique beginner: the taxon that includes all other taxa. classifications like “plants and animals” or “living things” are examples of such a category. 2. life form: the broadest classification with easily recognized groups based on broadly recognized morphological characteristics. taxa such as “tree,” “bird,” “herb,” “mammal,” and “fish” are this type of classification. 3. generic: a broad classification that begins to distinguish organisms by smaller discontinuities in nature that can still be easily recognized. examples of folk genera in american english culture include “maple,” “deer,” and “duck.” 4. specific: taxa that are distinguished by relatively few, specific features. examples of this might be silver maple,” “mule deer,” or “mallard.” 5. varietal taxa: distinguished by characteristics not readily apparent to most uneducated observers. varietal taxa are not common in folk taxonomies. in american english culture good examples of varietal taxa are unique crop varieties. the hawaiian folk taxonomy given by david malo provides a unique beginner in the form of holoholona (terrestrial animals). this includes all terrestrial vertebrates and invertebrates. iʻa, or fresh and salt water life (including algae and corals), appear to be considered part of a completely separate taxonomy. it is not clear if there is an allencompassing hawaiian concept of “living thing,” inclusive of both land and aquatic life. inanimate objects also may have spirits and thus, “life” in traditional hawaiian belief. certain rocks are believed to be capable of reproduction and even independent motility under specific circumstances (beckwith 1970 (1940):88; handy and pukui 1972:28). at the life form level, malo’s taxa include puaʻa (pigs), ʻīlio (dogs), nā mea kolo (“crawling creatures,” non-volant invertebrates, rats, skinks, and geckos), manu hihiu (wild flying creatures, including birds and arthropods), and manu laka (domestic flying creatures, a monotypic taxa consisting solely of the chicken [gallus gallus domesticus]). while all of these taxa are interesting to examine, the life form taxa of manu hihiu and manu laka are of greatest concern to this study. it is from the next level of the folk generic that malo (and also teauotalani) diverge from the classic folk classification hierarchy. here we find folk generic and what i call “folk sub-generic” categories either descriptive of major obvious natural discontinuities, or of the function of the folk bird specifics that fall underneath them. while most of these categories are based on the utilitarian function of the bird to humans (such as palatability, use of feathers for garments, etc.), they may also be inclusive of the function that the bird has to the greater ao holoʻokoʻa (the world), that is to say, the function the bird has in the ecosystem. below the folk generic and sub-generic categories are the various folk species of birds which roughly correspond to linnean taxonomy for hawaiian bird species. malo does not give varietals, though teauotalani does in his respective taxonomy. kepelino teauotalani kepelino teauotalani was born in kailua, kona, hawaiʻi around the year 1830 to namiki and kahulilanimaka. his parents were early catholic converts and teauotalani was educated by catholic gomes. 2020. ethnobiology letters 11(2):30-43 35 data, methods & taxonomies priests. he later wrote letters and articles for the catholic newspaper, hae katolika. though his full given name appears to have been “zepherin kuhopu kahoalii kameeiamoku kuikauwai” he signed his writings under the name “zepherin teauotalani” (“kepelino keauokalani” in modern hawaiian orthography). teauotalani’s work on birds, huli-toa manu havaii, appeared as part of his hoiiliili havaii series in hae katolika between 1859 and 1860. in this work teauotalani explicitly provides the folk taxonomic category of each bird he lists. though it is a primary source well known to some researchers, huli-toa manu havaii has never been officially translated into english or published in its entirety (beckwith in teauotalani 2007 (1932):1–7). analysis of teauotalani’s folk taxonomy teauotalani’s (1859) brief descriptions in huli-toa manu havaii are perhaps the most detailed accounts that we have from a kanaka maoli scholar about indigenous perspectives on birds. while malo spends just four pages describing hawaiian birds, teauotalani’s treatise is 22 pages long. later authors would base their work largely on teauotalani’s writings. unfortunately, many of teauotalani’s descriptions are still tantalizingly short and often difficult to understand from the perspective of a modern reader. like malo, some of his bird descriptions also appear to be of birds that cannot be clearly reconciled with those described by the early western naturalists who visited hawaiʻi. also similar to malo’s work, teauotalani’s writings usually list the birds by name, give a description of their physical appearance and habits, palatability, and the methods by which they were caught. occasionally he provides additional information. teauotalani and malo provide a similar number of bird folk categories. teauotalani gives eight and malo gives nine, though their classifications are not exactly the same. teauotalani’s categories are arguably more anthropocentrically utilitarian than malo’s. for example, his categories nā manu ʻaina (birds which are used for meals), and nā manu aliʻi (royal birds, in reference to the use of these birds’ feathers by hawaiian royalty) both clearly reference the utilitarian importance of birds. teauotalani does not explicitly give a unique beginner category for this taxonomy, though it can be understood that the unique beginner is manu, all flying creatures. he describes three categories at the life form level, nā manu o ka uka (birds of the uplands), nā manu ʻano ʻelepaio or nā manu lawaiʻa (ʻelepaio (chasiempis sp.) natured birds or “fishing birds”), and nā manu o ka ʻāina (birds of the land). he has three main genus level categories that he names, and one sub-genus category. unlike malo, the only non-avian manu he lists is ʻōpeʻapeʻa (the bat), which, along with the enigmatic and unidentified aukuu pili aina, is not categorized. a brief explanation must be given for the name of the category nā manu ʻano ʻelepaio. the ʻelepaio are a group of endemic old-world flycatchers whose diet mainly consists of various forest invertebrates. the reason why a category entirely composed of seabirds and shorebirds would be named after a small forest bird is because in kanaka maoli tradition, one of the more common calls of the ʻelepaio sounds like the phrase, ʻono ka iʻa! (fish is delicious!), which implies that the ʻelepaio is asking the listener to give the bird some fish to eat. to the listener, it is as if the ʻelepaio, a bird of inland forests, is too lazy to go down to the sea and get some fish for itself. instead it asks the listener to do it for them. the name of this category references that all birds listed within it eat aquatic organisms. table 2 and figure 2 give teauotalani’s hawaiian bird folk taxonomic system. i have refrained from adding glottal stops (ʻokina) and macrons (kahakō) to teauotalani’s given bird names. ʻokina and kahakō are standard in modern hawaiian orthography but i do not want to be presumptuous of the possible pronunciations and meanings of some of these names, especially for birds that remain unidentified. each folk bird species is only listed in every classification to which is has been specifically assigned. if a bird appears in a lower ranking but kepelino does not specifically name it in the higher ranking that it also falls under, i do not list that bird in the higher ranking. other than these changes i have followed the same rules in providing information on teauotalani’s system as in table 1 and figure 1 for malo’s system given above. robert cyril layton perkins r. c. l. perkins was born in badminton, gloucestershire, england on the 15th of november, 1866, to charles mathew perkins, an anglican priest, and agnes martha beach thomas. as a boy perkins had a strong interest in entomology, which was encouraged by his family. they did however also encourage him to join his father’s profession as a minister. he went to college for a degree in classics at oxford. after his education perkins eventually gomes. 2020. ethnobiology letters 11(2):30-43 36 data, methods & taxonomies answered a request for applicants to journey to the hawaiian islands to do zoological surveys, posted by the sandwich islands committee of the british association for the advancement of science (evenhuis 2007:27–30, 49–51). though his personal interests were mainly entomological, much of the survey work in hawaiʻi involved bird collecting. perkins also at least occasionally hired kānaka maoli guides to assist him into the deep and still wild hawaiian forests (ibid.:293–300). he undoubtedly gained some skill in ʻōlelo hawaiʻi (the hawaiian language) through his work, though exactly how fluent he was is uncertain. we are fortunate that years after his zoological surveys perkins published some of the ethnoornithological knowledge that he possessed in the aves section of his work fauna hawaiiensis. most important to this paper is the organized analysis perkins gives on hawaiian bird classification and nomenclature. analysis of perkin’s folk nomenclature perkins was a keen observer, and we owe much of our knowledge of the historical ecology of hawaiʻi to his writings. this aptitude for noticing detail led him to develop a theory of what he believed to be a hawaiian “...crude, and often erroneous, classification.” (perkins classification folk species in this classification life forms birds of the uplands (nā manu o ka uka) akihialoa (akialoa sp.), ula (1) (unknown), hoe (unknown), omao (myadestes obscurus), moho (porzana sandwichensis), mamo (drepanis pacifica), iiwi (drepanis coccinea), amakihi (chlorodrepanis sp.), alokele (unknown), elepaio (chasiempis sp.) ʻelepaio birds / fishing birds/birds of the sea (nā manu ʻelepaio / nā manu lawaiʻa / nā manu o ke kai) aa (unknown), iwa (fregata minor), olokele (unknown), kioea (numenius tahitiensis), ula (1) (unknown), ula (2) (unknown), ao (puffinus newelli), aukuu (nycticorax nycticorax), uvau (pterodroma sandwichensis), koae koo ula (phaethon rubricauda), noio (anous sp.), kolea (pluvialis fulva, arenaria interpres, tringa incana), kala (onychoprion lunatus), kone (unknown), kaupu (unknown), akihikeehiale (unknown) birds of the land (nā manu o ka ʻāina) io (buteo solitarius), pueo (asio flammeus sandwichensis), nene (branta sandvicensis), koloa (anas wyvilliana), alala (corvus hawaiiensis), alae (gallinula chloropus sandvicensis, fulica alai), hulimaia (unknown), moa (gallus gallus domesticus), kolea (pluvialis fulva, arenaria interpres, tringa incana) [birds not assigned a category] aukuu pili aina (unknown), opeapea (lasiurus cinereus semotus) genus under the life form nā manu o ka uka birds that eat lehua flowers (nā manu ʻai pua lehua) akihialoa (akialoa sp.), ula (unknown), akakane (himatione sanguinea), mamo (drepanis pacifica), ou (psittirostra psittacea) genus under the life form nā manu o ka ʻāina birds of fresh water / duck-natured birds (manu o ka wai / nā manu ʻano koloa) alae (gallinula chloropus,sandvicensis, fulica alai), [probably also koloa (anas wyvilliana) due to the name of the category] birds which are used for meals (nā manu ʻaina) hulimaia (unknown), uvau (pterodroma sandwichensis), nene (branta sandvicensis), koae koo ula (phaethon rubricauda), koloa (anas wyvilliana) genus under the life form nā manu o ka ʻāina and nā manu ʻelepaio owl natured birds (manu ʻano pueo) pueo (asio flammeus sandwichensis), iwa (fregata minor), io (buteo solitarius) sub-genus level under the genus nā manu ʻai pua lehua royal birds (nā manu aliʻi) mamo (drepanis pacifica), oo (moho sp.), iivi (drepanis coccinea) table 2 teauotalani’s bird folk taxonomy. gomes. 2020. ethnobiology letters 11(2):30-43 37 data, methods & taxonomies 1903:394). though he considered his system of bird name categories to be a taxonomic one, today we would more properly term this system as one of folk nomenclature. though a system of naming conventions is not outright described by teauotalani, malo, and other hawaiian writers, teauotalani does make mention of the reasons why several particular birds were named (teauotalani 1859:11–12, 14, 16, 18 –19, 22, 24, 26–29). these reasons align perfectly with some of the classifications that perkins proposes. for example, teauotalani (1859:14) gives an explanation for the naming of the ʻalalā (corvus hawaiiensis), “a o tona inoa ua tapaia mamuli o te ano o tana tani,” “and as for its name, it is called so because of the nature of its call.” certain others of perkins’ classifications are not mentioned as naming conventions by any kānaka maoli authors, but this does not mean that they do not necessarily still exist. the specific classifications, with explanations in perkins’ (1903:394–395) own words, are as follows: (1) names given from peculiarities of structure or plumage, e.g. akihialoa (hemignathus) [now akialoa sp.] from its long, sharply-pointed beak; nukupuu (heterorhynchus) [now hemignathus sp.] from its hill-like (i.e. strongly rounded) bill; palila from its aberrant grey plumage. such names are often compounded with a beak (lit. jaw) e.g. akekee [“crooked beak”], amakihi [“bent beak”], akohekohe [“beak with a tuft”] (2) onomatopoeic names, e.g. alala (corvus), elepaio (chasiempis), and oo (moho or acrulocercus). such names may have an applicable meaning as well as imitating the cry of the bird, e.g. kioea (numenius), which is onomatopoeic and at the same time refers to the height at which the bird stands from the ground.(3) names derived from [read: descriptive of] the nature of the sounds uttered by the bird, e.g. apapane (himatione), akikeke (oreomyza bairdi) [now oreomystis bairdi], kakawahie (o. flammea) [now paroreomyza flammea], &c. (4) called after a person, amaui (phaeornis) [now myadestes sp.] maui’s bird. (5) after colour of plumage and habits, ula-ai -hawane (ciridops), the red bird that feeds on the hawane (pritchardia). further analysis of additional hawaiian bird figure 2 teauotalani’s bird folk taxonomy. gomes. 2020. ethnobiology letters 11(2):30-43 38 data, methods & taxonomies names suggests that this basic model of hawaiian bird naming conventions should be further modified. as perkins himself mentioned, many birds whose names are derivative of their physical characteristics have names specifically in reference to their “jaws” (“ā” in hawaiian), that is to say, their beaks. there are a large enough number of birds with these kinds of names to merit the categorical recognition of this type of naming. additionally, perkins redundantly lists bird plumage as being criteria for both his first and fifth categories. with this in mind i propose the following modifications to his system of folk naming conventions:  his category 1 should be further divided into two sub-categories, one for birds named in relation to their beak (subcategory “a”), and one for birds named in relation to their plumage or other body characteristics (subcategory “b”).  his categories 2 and 3 should be lumped into a single overarching category of “names for calls,” with the original two categories still respectively represented as subcategories. onomatopoeic names are identified as subcategory “a,” while names descriptive of the sounds birds make are now identified as subcategory “b.”  category 4, though rarely encountered, should remain the same.  category 5 should be changed strictly to encompass names related to bird habits, as plumage is now included as a sub-category under category 1. placing plumage in two separate categories would obviously be redundant. the modified system of naming conventions can now be read as follows (note there are now only four categories): (1) names given from peculiarities of appearance. (1a) names given from peculiarities of a bird’s beak. (1b) names given from peculiarities of a bird’s plumage or other body characteristics. (2) names given from sounds birds make. (2a) names onomatopoeic to sounds a bird makes. (2b) names descriptive of sounds a bird makes. (3) names given after a person, whether historic, legendary, or holy in nature. (4) names given after particular habits a bird has. table 3 classifies several known kinds of hawaiian birds according to the categories and subcategories proposed above for this system of naming conventions. this is not an exhaustive list, but serves to illustrate examples of this system. note that many birds have names that fall into multiple categories or subcategories. there are also many birds whose names do not clearly fall into any particular category, but this category hawaiian name (latin name) 1 a. ʻākiapōlāʻau (hemignathus munroi), ʻākihialoa (akialoa sp.), ʻiʻiwi (drepanis coccinea), ʻalae nūkea (fulica alai), ʻalae ʻula (gallinula chloropus sandvicensis), ʻamakihi (chlorodrepanis sp.), nukupuʻu (hemignathus affinis, h. hanapepe, h. lucidus), ʻākohekohe (palmeria dolei), ʻākekeʻe (loxops caeruleirostris), ʻākepa (loxops sp.) b. mamo (drepanis pacifica), kioea (numenius tahitiensis), palila (loxiodes bailleui), ʻulaʻaihāwane (ciridops anna), hunakai (calidris alba) 2 a. ʻelepaio (chasiempis sp.), ʻōʻō (moho sp.), kioea (numenius tahitiensis), ʻalalā (corvus hawaiiensis), ʻuaʻu (pterodroma sandwichensis), ʻio (buteo solitarius), nēnē (branta sandvicensis) b. ʻalalā (corvus hawaiiensis), ʻākikeke (oreomystis bairdi), kākāwahie (paroreomyza flammea), ʻakakani 3 ʻāmāui (myadestes woahuensis; myadestes myadestinus), manuokū (gygis alba) 4 ʻaukuʻu, ʻōmaʻo (myadestes obscurus), kūkuluaeʻo (himantopus mexicanus knudseni), kioea (numenius tahitiensis), hunakai (calidris alba), ʻōʻōnukuumū (drepanis funera), ʻākepa (loxops sp.), ʻōʻū (psittirostra psittacea) table 3 examples of perkins' system of naming conventions. gomes. 2020. ethnobiology letters 11(2):30-43 39 data, methods & taxonomies may simply be due to a modern lack of understanding of the birds, their names, and the intricacies of the hawaiian language. this is particularly true of the many birds that became extinct long ago, about which we have very little information. discussion evidence of diverse taxonomies and a unified nomenclature given the brief and limited nature of the information that malo and teauotalani provide in their writings on birds, the fact that they both thought that it was important to include the utilitarian taxonomic categories of the birds in their work is evidence that utility is important to the kanaka maoli worldview on birds. in spite of this apparent agreement between both authors, there are a number of differences in the way they each chose to categorize birds in their writings. it is difficult to explain the differences in the way malo and teauotalani chose to categorize their respective taxonomies. unfortunately, neither author cites a source for his knowledge. both authors were born in districts that were within just a few miles of each other (keauhou, kona and kailua, kona respectively, on hawaiʻi island), but it is not clear if their bird knowledge came from informants within their own families or from elsewhere. malo was considerably older than teauotalani, so it is possible that the differences could be inter-generational, but it seems unlikely that the understanding of bird taxonomy among hawaiians would have changed that radically in such a short period of time. it is very possible that there were simply a wide variety of opinions on the matter of the relationships that different types of manu had with each other due to differing levels of expertise according to descent group and other affiliations or levels of access to traditional knowledge. in his treatise on hawaiian bird hunting, nathaniel emerson (1895:103) noted: the methods used by one hunter in the capture of the birds differed from those used by another. they also varied somewhat, no doubt, in different districts, on the different islands, at different seasons of the year and even in the different hours of the day. one could probably say that other general traditions related to birds were similarly diverse. while the different bird classification systems given by malo and teauotalani indicate diversity of thought, there appears to have been something of a consensus on the general ideas of a hawaiian bird nomenclature. the nomenclature proposed by perkins aligns with teauotalani’s information. though not every one of his classifications can be corroborated by teauotalani’s treatise, what information does exist on the naming of birds within it supports perkins’ conclusions on kanaka maoli bird nomenclature. for example, according to teauotalani (1859:21, 28) ʻākihialoa (akialoa sp.) is named for its long, curved beak. likewise, the kōlea (pluvialis fulva) has an onomatopoeic name deriving from its call. it seems doubtful that teauotalani would have directly influenced perkins’ proposal, since teauotalani died in 1878 and perkins did not arrive in hawaiʻi until 1892 (beckwith in teauotalani 2007:vi– viii; evenhuis 2007:31–39, 49–52). it is also unlikely that perkins would have read or even come across teauotalani’s work, which was published in hawaiian language newspapers first in 1859–1860, and then in an edited form in 1863 by g.w. kahiolo. it seems more likely that at least some of perkins’ knowledge came from the kānaka maoli bird hunters that he mentions working with in his journals. historical utility the system of nomenclature proposed by perkins shows, among other things, the importance of onomatopoeia in the names of some birds. forth (1998:189) emphasized the importance of onomatopoeic names in his study of the nage, an indigenous people from indonesia. ibarra et al. (2020:90, 95) did an extensive study of the use of onomatopoeia in bird names around the world. they found that the widespread use of onomatopoeia in bird names may allow people in many cultures to “see” birds that normally would not be readily physically observable. as many birdwatchers around the world could tell you, it is often much easier to detect a bird by sound than by sight, simply because birds often don’t want to be seen. additionally, berlin and o’neill (1981:259), in their study on onomatopoeic bird names used in the folk taxonomies of the aguarana and huambisa peoples of peru, have previously hypothesized that onomatopoeic names serve as mnemonic devices in recognition of vocal animal species among non-literate populations. the system of hawaiian naming conventions proposed by perkins supports the idea of mnemonics as a learning strategy, showing other practical mnemonic methods of naming that an oral society may utilize to easily memorize the organisms in their environment. gomes. 2020. ethnobiology letters 11(2):30-43 40 data, methods & taxonomies mnemonic devices are a common learning strategy in other aspects of hawaiian culture besides nomenclature. other authors have discussed the use of mnemonics in traditional hawaiian poetry style (kimura 2002:40), and others still have recognized the importance of place-names in maintaining cultural and historical knowledge (oliveira 2009:1–3). yet the kanaka maoli use of mnemonics in the categorization of living things is something that appears to have not yet been recognized by modern academics. an argument can also be made that the utilitarian names of the categories in malo and teauotalani’s folk taxonomies can also serve as learning devices that remind the learner about the general behaviors of the birds within those categories. while the names of malo’s categories are rather obvious, such as nā manu hihiu (literally “wild birds”), teauotalani’s are interesting because they are often arguably more anthropocentric and poetic. for example, the category of nā manu aliʻi (royal birds) not only records that these are birds whose feathers are important for creating feather garments for the aliʻi, but also that these birds were dominant over other forest birds, much like the aliʻi were to their fellow humans. the manu aliʻi were all primarily nectavorous and would directly compete with each other for flower nectar. a natural pecking order developed where the mamo (drepanis pacifica) was the most dominant species, chasing the others away from its preferred feeding territory. next in line was the ʻōʻō (moho sp.), which in turn would chase away the ʻiʻiwi (drepanis coccinea) from preferred flowering trees. the ʻiʻiwi would lord over the smaller and less brilliantly colored ʻamakihi (chlorodrepanis sp.) and ʻapapane (himatione sanguinea), who were at the bottom of the pecking order. it is interesting that this order of dominance mirrors the perceived value of the feathers of these species to the kanaka maoli, with the mamo being the most valuable and also the rarest naturally occuring species, and the ʻamakihi and ʻapapane the least valuable and also the most commonly occuring species in the forest (emerson and iwaiwa 1894; teauotalani 1859:22). similarly, the category of nā manu ʻano pueo includes birds grouped together because of their shared quality of stealing prey from humans or other birds, and because of their excellent long distance eyesight. categorizing birds together based on multiple factors like this perhaps could have helped a young novice bird hunter to retain key information about his quarry. potential for cultural and linguistic revitalization can an understanding of hawaiian perspectives in folk taxonomy and nomenclature be reclaimed through these three primary sources? though there are many pieces of information that are missing from these writings that leave a number of questions, a degree of understanding of the classical hawaiian ideas on these subjects can and should be revived from these and other primary sources. reviving these ideas is beneficial to the kanaka maoli community as a whole and can lead to better stewardship practices of natural resources such as birds by both kānaka maoli and non-native conservationists. in hawaiʻi today, many kānaka maoli are still aware of the importance of onomatopoeia in bird naming conventions, but the other naming conventions identified here are usually less well known or forgotten by most people outside of academic circles. likewise, i have only very rarely heard reference to any of the folk taxonomic categories given by malo and teauotalani, and again only from a handful of scholars. it is notable that the official new hawaiian language names given to certain bird species whose original indigenous names were lost have incorporated some of the less widely known naming conventions. the poʻouli (melamprosops phaeosoma) was given a name by mary kawena pukui in reference to the dark mask-like plumage on its head. likewise the modern name of the kiwikiu (pseudonestor xanthophrys) given by the hawaiian language lexicon committee refers to the peculiar parrot-like shape of its beak, as well as its call. i am also a native hawaiian cultural practitioner who has been involved in the naming of a few species of hawaiian birds and the revival of the old names of other hawaiian bird species, particularly the old name ʻalawī for loxops mana, an endangered species from hawaiʻi island. the fact that these conventions are still being used in the naming of certain birds is a hopeful and important one. as noted by hidiyati et al. (2018:45), practitioners of traditional arts (in this case traditional naming) are more likely to have stronger cultural and linguistic vitality. developing the community understanding of the lexicon of the hawaiian language as it relates to the peculiar environment and ecologies of hawaiʻi is likely to contribute to the continued success of the ongoing hawaiian cultural renaissance. kanaka maoli have occupied the hawaiian archipelago for approximately a thousand years (athens et al. gomes. 2020. ethnobiology letters 11(2):30-43 41 data, methods & taxonomies 2014:144–155). the collective experiences of the ancestors of the kanaka maoli have always been molded by the unique ecosystems of hawaiʻi. revitalization of not only the traditional names and categorizations of the native avifauna, but the perspectives and reasoning behind the origin of those names provide an opportunity to reclaim a piece of the kanaka maoli ancestral heritage that can inform future actions and decisions for them as a people. if anything, a deeper understanding of folk taxonomy and nomenclature justifies kanaka maoli conservation of and access to the dwindling endemic biota of hawaiʻi. as these systems show, there is potentially great value in the utility of native hawaiian birds for cultural revitalization and sustainability. the linguistic and cultural revitilization of the kanaka maoli also benefits efforts to conserve natural resources in hawaiʻi. practical knowledge of ecosystem management that has been developed over generations can provide scientists with valuable data, though the importance of indigenous spiritual practices should also not be discounted. lyver and moller (2010:259–261) explain that removing nonecological components from indigenous knowledge systems effectively dumbs down the effectiveness of indigenous natural resource management strategies. long-term human commitment to sustainable resource use requires indigenous values of reciprocity, mutual responsibility, and the agency of indigenous peoples to steward their own resources. while this study focuses largely on the utility of native hawaiian birds, other authors have demonstrated the significant spiritual, sacred, and kinship relationships that kanaka maoli have with birds. in particular, amante-helweg and conant (2009:59–79) as well as conant (2005:278–284) give several examples of birds in legendary lore, as ancestral guardians, and the sacred importance of featherwork in kanaka maoli society. though this paper has laid out the beginnings of an understanding of these folk taxonomic and folk nomenclature systems, further research and analysis of the diffuse array of hawaiian language archival material may eventually yield more insight than can be concluded from these three important sources of information at this time. since this paper focuses largely on the utilitarian aspect of hawaiian folk taxonomy, it would be especially exciting to continue research in folk taxonomy from a more symbolic and spiritual perspective in the future. it would also be interesting to study similar naming and taxonomic conventions for other kinds of organisms in hawaiʻi and it would be worthwhile to compare the use of mnemonics in organisms to the use of similar learning conventions in place names, poetic style, and the naming of other aspects of the ao holoʻokoʻa. such a comparative study may reveal further inferences about kanaka maoli philosophy and worldview that are not readily apparent. declarations permissions: none declared. sources of funding: none declared. conflicts of interest: none declared. references cited abbott, i. a. 2012. recollections of a family tradition of bird catching. introduction to ethnobotany series. available at: https:// www.youtube.com/watch?v=ef1h_hu_eoe. accessed on may 25, 2020. amante-helweg, v. l. u., and s. conant. 2009. hawaiian culture perand forest birds. in conservation biology of hawaiian forest birds: implications for island avifauna, edited by thane k. pratt, carter t. atkinson, paul c. banko, james d. jacobi, and bethany l. woodworth, pp. 59–79. yale university press, new haven, ct. athens, j. s., t. m. rieth, and t. s. dye. 2014. a paleoenvironmental and archaeological modelbased age estimate for the colonization of hawaiʻi. american antiquity 79:144–155. doi:10.7183/0002-7316.79.1.144. atran, s. 1999. folkbiology. in the mit encyclopedia of the cognitive sciences, edited by r. wilson and f. keil, pp. 316–317. mit press, cambridge, ma. beckwith, m. 1970 (1940). hawaiian mythology. university of hawaiʻi press, honolulu, hi. berlin, b. 1973. folk systematics in relation to biological classification and nomenclature. annual review of ecology and systematics 4:259. berlin, b., d. e. breedlove, and p. h. raven. 1973. general principles of classification and nomenclature in folk biology. american anthropologist 75:214–242. berlin, b., and j. p. o’neill. 1981. the pervasiveness of onomatopoeia in aguaruna and huambisa bird names. journal 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2014. combining natural history collections with fisher knowledge for community -based conservation in fiji. plos one 9:1–12. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0098036. gomes, n. 2015. meha ka leo i ka nahele: he noiʻina i ka poʻe kāpili manu o ke au kahiko. master’s thesis, ka haka ʻula o keʻelikōlani college of hawaiian language and literature, university of hawaiʻi at hilo, hilo, hawaiʻi. available at: https://pqdtopen.proquest.com/ pubnum/1597904.html. accessed on june 14, 2020. handy, e. s. c., and m. k. pukui. 1972 (1958). the polynesian family system in ka-ʻu, hawaiʻi. charles e. tuttle company, tokyo, japan. helmreich, s. 2005. how scientists think; about ‘natives’, for example. a problem of taxonomy among biologists of alien species in hawaii. journal of the royal anthropological institute 11:107–128. hidiyati, s., b. a. a. ghani, b. giridharan, m. z. hassan, and f. merlin franco. 2018. using ethnotaxonomy to assess traditional knowledge and language vitality: a case with the vaie 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doi:10.1177/117718010900500206. perkins, r. c. l. 1903. vertebrata. in fauna hawaiiensis or the zoology of the sandwich (hawaiian) gomes. 2020. ethnobiology letters 11(2):30-43 43 data, methods & taxonomies isles, edited by d. sharp. university press, cambridge, united kingdom. reed, m. j., d. w. desrochers, e. a. vanderwerf, and j. m. scott. 2012. long-term persistence of hawaii’s endangered avifauna through conservation-reliant management. bioscience 62:881 –892. doi:10.1525/bio.2012.62.10.8. tachihata, c. 1994. hawaiian sovereignty. the contemporary pacific 6:202. teauotalani, z. 1859. hoiliili havaii: he mau hana, olelo, manao, e pili ana i to havaii nei, pepa 3: he vahi huli-toa manu havaii. pai-palapala katolika. teauotalani, z. 2007 (1932). kepelinoʻs traditions of hawaii. martha warren beckwith, trans. bishop museum press, honolulu, hi. publishing in ethnobiology letters in 2018 marston et al. 2018. ethnobiology letters 9(2):283–288 283 editorial provide a completely free publication venue for scholars: there is no cost to submit or publish an article, and all articles published are available free of charge through an open-access online platform and creative commons license. in a world where both reputable publishers and “predatory journals” (beall’s list 2018; bohannon 2013) seek often significant article processing charges (apc) to enable open access to published articles, whether or not actually peer reviewed, ebl maintains a rigorous single-blind peer review process and a free-to-publish venue for disseminating ethnobiological research with no barrier to publication for authors regardless of institutional or personal financial resources. submission categories since 2010, the editors have periodically assessed and restructured ebl’s submission categories to take advantage of new opportunities and to expand the scope of the journal to reflect the diversity of scholarly work in ethnobiology. in 2011, we commissioned our first “featured reprint” (driver 2011) together with new scholarly commentary, furthering our mission of making key articles available through open access and facilitating academic dialogue. the following year, vougioukalou (2012) provided the first contribution to a new, non-peerreviewed article category (beyond book reviews), “interviews & reflections,” which provides a venue for communication with scholars and elders, as well as personal reflections, obituaries, and opinion pieces. our newest category of peer-reviewed article appeared in 2015 (armstrong and veteto 2015) as “mini-reviews” (now “short topical reviews”), with the aim of synthesizing the most relevant literature on a narrowly defined topic of significant interest to ethnobiologists. limited to 1,500 words and 15 cited references, short topical reviews are our most focused publication format and have proved popular in scholarly research and teaching alike. ethnobiology letters was launched in 2010 with the goal of providing a free-to-publish, open-access, online venue for short peer-reviewed articles in ethnobiology (wolverton et al. 2010). over the course of nine volumes, which comprise 12 issues, published since that date, ethnobiology letters has grown and changed, with new editors, authors, and submission categories. we write this editorial to highlight those changes, as well as to report submission and review metrics for the journal since the inception of our online journal management system. we describe the current status of ethnobiology letters and plans for the future of the journal. changes to ethnobiology letters since 2010 origins and aims of the journal the scope of ethnobiology letters (abbreviated henceforth ebl), as laid out by the original editors steve wolverton, cissy fowler, and david cozzo in their 2010 introductory letter, is “a peer-reviewed journal for short papers on topics related to ‘the study of human and plant and animal interactions’” (wolverton et al. 2010:1), which is to say the entire field of ethnobiology. the journal is sponsored by the society of ethnobiology, which created ebl following the annual board meeting in 2010 to address several identified needs: 1) a publication venue for important data and research that do not fit the mission of the journal of ethnobiology to “publish full-length, problem oriented articles” (wolverton et al. 2010:1); 2) a publication venue for short papers in ethnobiology, defined here as papers less than 5,000 words, and especially less than 3,000 words, in length; 3) a forum for rapid publication and dissemination of research without being constrained by semi-annual or quarterly print publication schedules; and 4) a new home for book reviews that previously resided in the journal of ethnobiology where the number of pages and research articles that could be published is limited. an additional goal of ebl that endures today is to publishing in ethnobiology letters in 2018 open access doi 10.14237/ebl.9.2.2018.1432 copyright © 2018 by the author(s); licensee society of ethnobiology. this is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution-noncommercial 4.0 international public license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0), which permits non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. marston et al. 2018. ethnobiology letters 9(2):283–288 284 editorial special issues in 2015, ebl also published its first special issue, marking the first time that the journal published multiple issues in a calendar year. since 2015, three guest-edited special issues have appeared, focusing on themes as varied as digital zooarchaeology (mckechnie et al. 2015), memoirs and memory (stepp 2016), and ethics in ethnobiology (fowler and herron 2018). special issues have arisen from sessions at the annual conference of the society of ethnobiology, as well as other collaborations and working groups, and the editors of ebl are always willing to discuss potential special issue projects with interested guest editors. in order to balance the workload of our staff, and serve the greater needs of our readers and authors, we currently limit ebl to only one special issue per calendar year. reviews termed “book reviews” until 2016, now “reviews,” ebl now accepts reviews of multiple categories of media, including films, exhibits, and other forms of academic presentation. reviews are written by all levels of contributors and types of ethnobiologists; we have found that students working on post-graduate degrees take the opportunity to write a review as they are early in their scholarly career. these reviews include also a special series, initiated in 2015, that acknowledges the work of one of our most prolific book review authors, eugene anderson. anderson authored the first review to appear in ebl (anderson 2010) and has contributed 19 reviews published in ebl to date. we have highlighted these reviews through the special section “reviews: perspectives from gene anderson’s bookshelf” since 2015. ethics and copyright in 2012, ebl introduced a “publication ethics and malpractice statement” (ethnobiology letters 2018a), which lays out the responsibilities of authors, reviewers, and editors to ensure that ethical standards are properly handled throughout the publication process (welch 2012). this policy requires the disclosure, by all parties involved, of any conflicts of interest, and simultaneously requires and protects the originality of work submitted by authors. authors are required to submit an “ethics declaration” (ethnobiology letters 2018b) alongside every manuscript submission that certifies 1) the originality of the work submitted, 2) that all authors are responsible for its content, 3) that ethical standards to protect research participants’ rights have been followed, 4) that all required institutional and governmental permissions have been received. on the declaration form, authors declare potential conflicts of interest, including sources of funding and formal permissions; this information has also been included in the endnotes of all articles published beginning in 2012. the editorial board of ebl follows best practices in publication ethics by adhering to the “core practices” (formerly the “code of conduct for journal editors”) of cope, the committee on publication ethics (cope 2018). with guidance from cope, we address issues including allegations of academic misconduct, authorship disputes, and conflicts of interest when related questions come before the editorial team. while ebl has been an open-access journal since its inception, originally copyright of all articles was retained by the society of ethnobiology, in keeping with standard journal practices and the policy of the journal of ethnobiology. in 2015, however, the editorial board made the decision to assign the author copyright for articles published in 2016 and beyond, and then began to publish articles under the creative commons attribution-noncommercial 4.0 international public license (cc by-nc 4.0; creative commons 2018), “which permits others to use, distribute, and reproduce the work non-commercially, provided the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal are properly cited” (ethnobiology letters 2018c). simultaneous with this change, ebl and the society of ethnobiology used their copyright authority for all articles published between 2010–2015 to apply the creative commons attributionnoncommercial 4.0 international public license to those works. as a result, authors are granted a nonexclusive license to reuse and repost their work in a non-commercial setting, provided that they properly cite the original publication of the article in ebl. adopting a creative commons license has brought ebl in line with other leading open-access journals and expanded the rights of authors while ensuring open access to ebl articles in perpetuity. submissions to ebl 2014–2018 at this point, nearly one decade into the publication of ebl, we have taken the opportunity to review our submission statistics, year by year, to track the growth of the journal and how well ebl serves its mission to publish shorter format scholarly research in ethnobiology. the metrics below reflect submissions marston et al. 2018. ethnobiology letters 9(2):283–288 285 editorial to the journal since january 1, 2014 (table 1); in mid2013 we adopted the open journal systems (ojs) online journal management platform, which provides a full record of all manuscripts submitted to the journal, but only from that date forward. to adjust for the missing half year of 2013, we present here results only from january 1, 2014 through september 19, 2018, when these data were compiled. articles are categorized by the year in which they were submitted, regardless of when a final decision was made on the manuscript, which in some cases occurred in a subsequent calendar year. several trends are evident in these data. first, overall growth in the number of submissions mirrors a similar trend in the increased number of articles accepted for publication. overall acceptance rates for articles deemed eligible for peer review by the editors, however, have remained consistently above 75% despite the growth in submissions (figure 1). we believe this is due to two factors: 1) our stringent initial editorial review, which consistently removes 1/3 to 1/2 of all submissions as inappropriate for the journal or of insufficient quality to allow peer review, and 2) our open-access, online format that enables us to publish the full range of ethnobiological research without space constraints. our editorial philosophy is to encourage submissions that highlight the full global diversity of ethnobiological research, rather than focusing only on “high-impact” or “high-profile” research. ebl serves the ethnobiological community and publishes sound ethnobiological research, as recognized through peer review, that fits the scope of the journal. ebl has maintained a similar structure for the editorial team of three co-editors, a reviews editor, and two editorial assistants since its inception, excepting periods of turnover. the society of ethnobiology has generously supported the costs of the journal (web maintenance and editorial assistant salaries) since its inception and matched the growth of ebl with increased funding. future growth of the journal, however, may be limited by both financial limits and time constraints on editors, which may affect acceptance rates. for the time being, however, the editorial team remains focused on publishing all sound short-format submissions in any area of ethnobiology. recommendations for authors given that the majority of articles submitted to ebl not published in the journal are initially declined by an editor without peer review, we would like to clarify the primary reasons that we reject article submissions at that early stage. the most common reasons for summary rejection (in no particular order) are: quality of english, relevance of the research question/scope of study, and lack of fit. as a free-to-publish, openaccess journal we attract many submissions from international authors for whom english is not their first language. we welcome international contributions, and work with authors to copy-edit final accepted manuscripts, but we do require that submissions adhere to the conventions of academic written english needed to permit effective peer review. we encourage our international authors to work with native or highly proficient english-language speakers to improve manuscripts prior to initial submission, including but not limited to the manuscript editors listed on the society of ethnobiology website (ethnobiology.org/ publications/manuscript-editing). a greater challenge, for both native and nonnative english speakers, is designing research around a clear central question or scope of study. ebl does not simply publish data, but research: data acquired with clear goals that speaks to broader questions of inquiry sought by the range of disciplines that conduct ethnobiological research. peer-reviewed articles successfully published in ebl articulate with a table 1 submissions to peer-reviewed sections of ebl (excludes submissions to non-peer-reviewed sections: editorials, reviews, interviews & reflections; also excludes mistaken/duplicate submissions), including special issues, between january 1, 2014 and september 19, 2018. note that many 2018 submissions were still in peer review at the time these statistics were compiled, so the number of peer-reviewed submissions accepted will almost certainly increase. year of submission number submitted of which peer reviewed of which accepted 2014 30 20 15 2015 39 26 21 2016 46 23 20 2017 59 40 31 2018 36 20 6 marston et al. 2018. ethnobiology letters 9(2):283–288 286 editorial relevant published literature and are written clearly around a central focal topic or question. submissions that present ethnobiological data without sufficient context are commonly rejected by editors without peer review. we do not typically publish articles focused on the pharmacological activity of plants unless these are clearly embedded in an ethnobiological question or literature; the results of surveys and assays alone do not fall within the scope of the journal. we additionally reject articles that fail to meet the ethical standards of ebl. we do not publish material that has been previously published, in whole or in part, especially when that material is not marked as a direct quotation. respect for the rights, knowledge, and practice of the people and communities with whom we conduct research is paramount to the society of ethnobiology, and so we do not publish scholarship that lacks appropriate permissions or does not follow ethical standards related to research participants’ rights. we acknowledge that such standards vary internationally and work with authors when possible to assuage potential concerns and misunderstandings. finally, we occasionally reject articles on the grounds that they do not fit the submission standards for ebl. we publish short articles, and some longer pieces may be better suited to the journal of ethnobiology or to other journals that accept longer text and/or more figures, tables, and references cited. for figure 1 change over time in number of peer-reviewable articles submitted to and published in ebl, with acceptance rates (of all submitted articles, and of those deemed eligible for peer review by editors) expressed as percentages. note that many 2018 submissions were still in peer review at the time these statistics were compiled, so the acceptance rates reflected above for that year are artificially low and will almost certainly rise. figure reflects data in table 1. marston et al. 2018. ethnobiology letters 9(2):283–288 287 editorial example, a manuscript that relies on ten figures to make its argument is unlikely to be a good fit for ebl, where we limit research communications to a maximum of two figures and three tables. ebl in 2019 and beyond the most recent development for ebl is our inclusion in jstor’s new open-access archive (jstor 2018). inclusion in jstor’s popular academic journal portal boosts the visibility of ebl and provides a full mirrored collection of our articles in pdf form. this service is free to the journal and thus offers only additional benefits to authors. while ebl articles are hosted only on our website and on jstor, our journal is fully indexed and searchable through several leading indexing services: doaj (the directory of open access journals; doaj 2018), the emerging sources citation index of web of science (clarviate analytics 2018), scopus (scopus 2018), and ebsco academic search premier (ebsco 2018). as a member of the emerging sources citation index, we have met the minimum duration of continuous publication necessary to be placed under consideration for an impact factor from web of science, which we believe will further broaden the visibility and appeal of ebl. notably, our citation score, as rated by scimago’s journal rank, has displayed a long-term upward trend, indicating increased attention to ebl articles within scholarly publications (scimago 2018). our next planned change to the journal is an upgrade to the new version of the ojs platform, currently in version ojs 3.1 (public knowledge project 2018). the new version of ojs meets modern web standards for use and accessibility, and will significantly improve ease of use for authors and reviewers, as well as our editorial team. we have delayed in upgrading, however, as ojs has still not enabled the “books for review” feature which we reply upon in ojs 2.4, so we will lose important functionality with the upgrade. we are likely, however, to move to ojs 3.1 in 2019 with or without this feature, and will work with the entire ebl community to ensure that the transition is a positive one for all users. the editorial team remains committed to further the scholarly needs of the global ethnobiology community, and we welcome feedback from past, current, and potential future authors and reviewers regarding future directions for ebl in 2019 and into the second decade of the journal. acknowledgments we thank the past editors (david cozzo, cissy fowler, james welch, and steve wolverton) and editorial assistants (jonathan dombrosky, amy hoffman, and amy pittsenbarger) of ebl for building the journal to what it is today. references cited anderson, e. n. 2010. review of material choices: refashioning bast and leaf fibers in asia and the pacific. roy w. hamilton and b. lynne milgram, eds. 2008. fowler museum at ucla, los angeles. pp. 187, bibliography, index, copious color illustrations. $30.00 (paper). isbn-13 9780974872988. ethnobiology letters 1:3. doi:10.14237/ebl.1.2010.80. armstrong, c. g., and j. r. veteto. 2015. historical ecology and ethnobiology: applied research for environmental conservation and social justice. ethnobiology letters 6:5–7. doi:10.14237/ ebl.6.1.2015.313. beall’s list. 2018. beall's list of predatory journals and publishers [web page]. available at: https:// beallslist.weebly.com. accessed on september 12, 2018. bohannon, j. 2013. who's afraid of peer review? science 342:60–65. doi:10.1126/ science.342.6154.60. clarviate analytics. 2018. master journal list [web page]. available at: http://mjl.clarivate.com/cgibin/jrnlst/jlresults.cgi? pc=master&word=*ethnobiology% 20letters. accessed on september 29, 2018. cope. 2018. core practices [web page]. available at: https://publicationethics.org/core-practices. accessed on september 26, 2018. creative commons. 2018. attributionnoncommercial 4.0 international [web page]. available at: https://creativecommons.org/ licenses/by-nc/4.0/. accessed on september 26, 2018. driver, j. c. 2011. identification, classification and zooarchaeology. ethnobiology letters 2:19–39. doi:10.14237/ebl.2.2011.32. doaj. 2018. ethnobiology letters [web page]. available at: https://doaj.org/toc/2159-8126. accessed on september 26, 2018. ebsco. 2018. academic search premier: magazines and journals [web page]. available at: https:// marston et al. 2018. ethnobiology letters 9(2):283–288 288 editorial www.ebscohost.com/titlelists/aph-journals.htm? _ga=2.125905931.708486030.15382445261227439838.1517411842. accessed on september 29, 2018. ethnobiology letters. 2018a. publication ethics and malpractice statement [web page]. available at: http://ojs.ethnobiology.org/index.php/ebl/ about/editorialpolicies#custom-1. accessed on september 26, 2018. ethnobiology letters. 2018b. ethnobiology letters ethics statement [web page]. available at: https:// ethnobiology.org/sites/default/files/ ebl_ethics_declaration_v2013.pdf. accessed on september 26, 2018. ethnobiology letters. 2018c. open access policy [web page]. available at: http:// ojs.ethnobiology.org/index.php/ebl/about/ editorialpolicies#openaccesspolicy. accessed on september 26, 2018. fowler, c. t., and s. herron. 2018. the long program for ethics in ethnobiology. ethnobiology letters 9:1–3. doi:10.14237/ebl.9.1.2018.1356. jstor. 2018. ethnobiology letters [web page]. available at: https://www.jstor.org/journal/ ethnlett. accessed on september 26, 2018. mckechnie, i., s. w. kansa, and s. wolverton. 2015. snapshots of digital scholarship in zooarchaeology: introduction to the special issue. ethnobiology letters 6:218–223. doi:10.14237/ ebl.6.2.2015.556. public knowledge project. 2018. open journal systems [web page]. available at: https:// pkp.sfu.ca/ojs/. accessed on september 29, 2018. scopus. 2018. ethnobiology letters [web page]. available at: https://www.scopus.com/ sourceid/21100232418. accessed on september 29, 2018. scimago. 2018. ethnobiology letters [web page]. available at: https://www.scimagojr.com/ journalsearch.php? q=21100232418&tip=sid&clean=0. accessed on september 29, 2018. stepp, j. r. 2016. ethnobiological memoirs and memory. ethnobiology letters 7:1–2. doi:10.14237/ ebl.9.1.2018.1356. vougioukalou, s. a. 2012. an interview with elisabeth hsu on plants, health and healing: on the interface of ethnobotany and medical anthropology. ethnobiology letters 3:91–95. doi:10.14237/ebl.3.2012.55. welch, j. r. 2012. ethics in ethnobiology publication. ethnobiology letters 3:96–97. doi:10.14237/ ebl.3.2012.30. wolverton, s., c. fowler, and d. cozzo. 2010. introducing ethnobiology letters. ethnobiology letters 1:1–2. doi:10.14237/ebl.1.2010.59. november 1, 2018 john m. marston department of anthropology, boston university, boston, usa. marston@bu.edu andrew flachs department of anthropology, purdue university, west lafayette, usa. aflachs@purdue.edu elizabeth anne olson department of history, sociology, and anthropology, southern utah university, cedar city, usa. elizabetholson@suu.edu do indigenous american peoples’ stories inform the study of dog domestication? mech. 2019. ethnobiology letters 10(1):69–75 69 perspectives such information by examining the relationships between indigenous american peoples and wolves. these authors synthesized published stories and historical accounts about the interactions between indigenous american peoples and wolves. the authors believed that these stories “…provide insights into the process of domestication of wolves, and such stories may indicate at what stage different peoples were in their relationship with wolves” (fogg et al. 2015:262). in addition, pierotti and fogg (2017) and fogg et al. (2015:263) argue that indigenous peoples continued to interact similarly with wolves until recent times and that these people’s stories from the last few centuries might inform our investigations about ecology and evolution of “culturally important species.” dog domestication did not take place in north america, however, so whatever these north american stories actually portrayed would not necessarily have applied to the eurasian cultures within which dogs were domesticated (shannon et al. introduction details about many aspects of dog domestication from wolves (canis lupus) are regularly debated, and the application of molecular genetic methodology has recently fostered these debates (janssens et al. 2018). information about dog domestication is important to studies of human history because the dog was the first domesticated animal. determining when, where, and how dog domestication began provides valuable insight into the evolution of human culture. an important gap in the question of how dogs were domesticated from wolves focuses on the nature of the relationship between early humans and wolves. although much is known about the nature of current relationships (fritts et al. 2003), little is known about such relationships 14,500 yrs bp (pierotti 2012), when the earliest dogs are known (janssens et al. 2018, 2019). thus, any information that might shed more light on the subject would be valuable. fogg et al. (2015) and pierotti and fogg (2017) attempted to add do indigenous american peoples’ stories inform the study of dog domestication? l. david mech1* 1u.s. geological survey, northern prairie wildlife research center, jamestown, usa. 2u.s. geological survey, the raptor center, university of minnesota, st. paul, usa. *mechx002@umn.edu abstract i discuss the article “relationships between indigenous american peoples and wolves 1: wolves as teachers and guides” (fogg et al. 2015) and the book “the first domestication: how wolves and humans coevolved” (pierotti and fogg 2017). the article proposed that published stories about interactions between indigenous american peoples and wolves (canis lupus) provide insight into wolf-human relationships as humans began domesticating wolves. in the book, the authors offer a theory of how wolves and humans coevolved by building on the information in the article and the authors’ long experience with captive and pet wolves, wolf-dog hybrids, and dogs. i (1) present arguments and evidence that question the value of indigenous american stories for drawing conclusions about the relationship between early humans and wolves 14,000 yrs bp; (2) demonstrate how indigenous american stories contradict documented information about wolf biology, behavior, and known interactions with humans; and (3) point out important information not considered by the authors about wolf attacks on humans and the importance of rabies in the wolf-human relationship. open access doi 10.14237/ebl.10.1.2019.1474 received december 18, 2018 accepted april 9, 2019 published september 2, 2019 keywords american indians, canis lupus, dog domestication, indigenous peoples, myths, wolves copyright © 2019 by the author(s); licensee society of ethnobiology. this is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution-noncommercial 4.0 international public license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0), which permits non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. mech. 2019. ethnobiology letters 10(1):69–75 70 perspectives 2015; thalmann et al. 2013; vonholdt et al. 2010; wang et al. 2013). the stories and accounts that fogg et al. (2015) and pierotti and fogg (2017) included all feature regular, positive interactions between indigenous people and wolves, with the wolves teaching the humans how to hunt, caring for injured humans, feeding them, etc. (see below). based on the assumptions that such positivity between wolves and early humans existed, and relying considerably on non -peer-reviewed literature (haber and hollerman 2013; jans 2015 marshall 1995; smith 1978), pierotti and fogg (2017) proposed details of how dogs were domesticated. if these offerings are to truly inform us, it is important to determine the degree to which both the fogg et al. (2015) stories and historical accounts, and other information presented by pierotti and fogg (2017) evince the view that some 14,000 yrs bp wolves and humans had a similar type of positive relationship. the objective of this article is to critically examine the stories and accounts of fogg et al. (2015) and the other information presented by pierotti and fogg (2017) in view of what has been documented about wolf ecology, behavior, and interactions with humans. wolf interactions with humans the wolf regularly feeds on all species of animals within its range (peterson and ciucci 2003) except on humans, of whom it is usually afraid (fritts et al. 2003; karlsson et al. 2007; mech 1970). the wolf’s fear of humans, even though the animal is capable of killing them, must have resulted from selection acting on the wolves’ enduring competition and negative interactions with humans (shipman 2015). the animal has long had a reputation for being dangerous to humans, however, both in the old and new worlds, at least in part because it can carry rabies (mech 1970; mech and boitani 2003; young and goldman 1944). indigenous american peoples’ fear of rabid wolves is well documented (fritts et al. 2003; lopez 1978; young and goldman 1944), although pierotti and fogg (2017) do not discuss this point. even non-rabid wolves are capable of killing humans and in recent times non-rabid wolves have killed many children in india (jhala and sharma 1997; rajpurohit 1999; shahi 1983) and even a few adults in some areas (butler et al. 2011; linnell et al. 2002; mcnay 2002). in at least some of these cases wolves have eaten the humans. historically, wolves in most areas have been persecuted by humans (fritts et al. 2003; lopez 1978; mech 1970; young and goldman 1944). this duality that wolves were generally afraid of humans but sometimes attacked and ate them also pervaded into the period during the settlement of north america by europeans (lopez 1978; young and goldman 1944 and references therein). given this long-standing danger of wolves to hominids and the necessary animosity between the two, any proposal that a friendly relationship developed requires extraordinary evidence. the evidence summarized by pierotti and fogg (2017:34) is “…thirty years of research experience watching wolves and their interactions with humans and with one another…” combined with material collected by pierotti (2011a, b) and by fogg et al. (2015). the 30 years of experience cited, however, involved not free-ranging (wild) wolves, but captive and pet wolves, wolf x dog hybrids (some of which were castrated), and dogs (pierotti 2011a, b). besides the obvious problem of extrapolating behavior of captive and pet wolves and dogs to wild wolves, two other issues arise about observing wolf x dog hybrids. one is that many claimed hybrids are really dogs sold fraudulently to obtain higher prices (dogster 2014). the second is that claimed wolf x dog hybrids are often erroneously thought to contain higher amounts of wolf than they actually do. this is because breeders erroneously believe, for example, that backcrossing a 50% wolf and 50% dog with a 100% wolf yields a 75% wolf, and so on with further backcrossing. however, the actual amount of wolf in any individual hybrid can only be known in the f1 generation. purported amounts of wolf in individual backcrosses are based on average amounts for populations rather than individuals. it is possible in any individual backcrossing that the 50% genes coming from the hybrid could be 100% dog in the backcross. in this respect, pierotti and fogg (2017:252) write of an 11/16 hybrid without mentioning that such a claim cannot be validly made. thus, observations of such animals or any other wolf x dog hybrid might only be reflecting the behavior of dogs. nevertheless, pierotti and fogg (2017) spend much of their book discussing hybrids. it is true that at least some wolves raised as pets can be friendly and endearing (fentress 1967; mech 1970; pierotti and fogg 2017). especially endearing are wolf pups. however, pups hand-raised by humans must be obtained before four weeks old (fentress 1967), preferably before three weeks old, for them to mech. 2019. ethnobiology letters 10(1):69–75 71 perspectives be tractable enough for humans to handle (klinghammer and goodman 1987; kubinyi et al. 2007). older wolves are impossible to tame (woolpy and ginsburg 1967). wild wolves at three weeks old have just begun to come outside the den, and at four weeks old still spend much of their time in the den. occasionally an individual wild wolf will begin frequenting human campsites or dwellings, attracted by food, garbage, or dogs. in some of these cases, humans will then leave food for them and eventually begin throwing food to them. in one case, a wild wolf was attracted to dogs and people walking their dogs and became tamer and tamer (jans 2015). although the details are unknown, this wolf was also certainly fed as it became tamer. when such wild wolves become conditioned to feeding from humans, they also habituate to them and seem friendly. however, in many cases, those wolves having lost their innate fear of humans are often the ones that attack people (fritts et al. 2003; linnell et al. 2002; mcnay 2002). neither fogg et al. (2015) nor pierotti and fogg (2017) reported on these studies. considering the fogg et al. (2015) stories, no explanation was offered as to why the relationships between indigenous americans and wolves featured in them were exceptions to the way wolves and humans have interacted as enemies and competitors for millennia (shipmen 2015), and for why these peoples were not afraid of the rabies wolves carried. rabies was pervasive on every continent except antarctica for all of recorded history (hatami 2012), so hominids likely would have had a tradition of fearing, avoiding, and killing wolves for that reason alone. as discussed above, indigenous americans were affected by rabid wolves and feared them because of it. young and goldman (1944:158) indicated that “the indians were fully cognizant of the disease and greatly feared it.” lopez (1978:123) wrote about a blackfeet man that “rabies was a real reason to fear wolves, for there were few more horrible deaths.” according to fritts et al. (2003: 291), “wolves were hunted and trapped by many native american tribes, often with rituals and apologies to the spirit of wolves, but rarely with rancor or guilt.” reasons for skepticism thus, as a biologist who has studied wolf biology, behavior, interactions with humans, and conservation for 60 years, it is hard for me to understand how wolves could have been so unafraid and friendly toward humans and vice versa during the period and in the region covered by fogg et al. (2015). or were the animals named as wolves really dogs? fogg et al. (2015) did indicate that some tribes considered the two animals as the same. if the accounts in question did involve dogs rather than wolves, then what value would the stories in question provide for inferences about how early humans interacted with wolves? only where a wolf population lived without exposure to hominids for centuries and then was gradually exposed to them, such as in north america’s high arctic during the past few centuries, could wolves perhaps lose their fear of humans. even then or there, wolves would have remained competitors, potential prey, and rabies carriers when they did encounter humans. regarding the high arctic, the vast region generally north of 75o north latitude, few people inhabited the million km2 area for centuries, so most wolves in that area would never have seen a human. during the past several decades, when scientists and weather-station personnel visited or lived in a few scattered communities in this region, many had very close encounters with wolves (mech 1988, 2017; miller 1978, 1995; munthe and hutchinson 1978; parmalee 1964). the wolves were curious but did not recognize humans as prey, behavior that attests that the species must have so consistently been harassed by humans that only those that did not recognize humans as prey survived. however, the more-or-less fearless behavior of this wolf population toward humans has not been documented at any other time or place. everywhere else, evidence is strong that wolves and humans feared each other. other reasons to conclude that the stories related by fogg et al. (2015) do not reflect reality is found by comparing the stories’ details with what is known about basic wolf biology. for example, some of the accounts in fogg et al. (2015) involve wolves teaching humans how to hunt. the methods that wolves use to hunt vary considerably depending on type of prey, habitat, and season, but most wolf hunts are failures and most successful hunts depend greatly on wolves running down their prey at speeds of up to 56 km/hr (mech 1970; mech et al. 2015). except for a few isolated cases of wolves possibly ambushing hares (lepus arcticus) chased by packmates, there is little evidence that wolves employ particular strategies that might be useful to humans (mech et al. 2015; peterson and ciucci 2003). mech. 2019. ethnobiology letters 10(1):69–75 72 perspectives regarding cooperation with others that wolves allegedly taught the tsitsistas of the great plains (schlesier 1987:35, cited by fogg et al. 2015), it is true that wolves hunt cooperatively. that cooperation, however, consists primarily of the whole pack chasing prey until they catch up, often single file. then, especially with the largest prey, such as moose (alces americanus) or bison (bison bison), one wolf grabs the prey by the nose while the others tear at its rump. even with smaller prey such as deer (odocoileus spp.), multiple wolves attack at once (mech et al. 2015). it is hard to understand what about this approach would be new or innovative to human hunters that wolves would be teaching them. it is true that in cases where wolves only wound prey, hominids perhaps could have finished them off sooner than the wolves. however, of the hundreds of observations of wolves hunting, only one resulted in wolves only wounding their prey and leaving, and that case involved one of the largest wolf prey, moose (mech 1966). another friendly wolf behavior featured in some of the stories or historical accounts related by fogg et al. (2015) is wolves taking care of humans in trouble. one such account based on grinell (1926) and hampton (1997, cited by fogg et al. 2015:268) related to the sand creek massacre in 1864 in the colorado territory: . . . two cheyenne women and their children escaped and took refuge in a cave under a bluff. after night fall, a male wolf entered the cave and lay down beside them. afterwards, the wolf traveled with them, stopping to rest wherever they did, showing that its behavior was not simply coincidental. one woman addressed the wolf, telling it of their need for food, after which the wolf led them to a freshly-killed buffalo. for several weeks, the wolf remained, catching food and protecting them from potential human and nonhuman enemies. including the communication between the woman and the wolf, the behavior of this single wolf fits nothing we know about such wolves. if this animal were an individual pack member, it would have returned within a few days to its pack (demma and mech 2009). if it were a true lone wolf, it would have been traveling far and wide seeking a mate (mech and boitani 2003). the above examples typify the numerous stories that fogg et al. (2015) relate about indigenous american peoples’ interactions with wolves. from these narratives, the authors drew several conclusions. for example, fogg et al. (2015:279) state that “… through much of the evolution of human hunting practices, wolves took the lead in initiating hunts.” knowing what we do about wolf hunting behavior from biological studies, humans following wolves on hunts would not have been very efficient because prey often detect wolves early and flee, and most wolf hunts are unsuccessful (mech et al. 2015). fogg et al. (2015:278–279) also state that humans served as pupils in need of instruction, casting different light on the idea of how domestication may have proceeded, in that humans are at best partners, or students, of wolves and…the process of domestication in all human societies involved long running respectful relationships with free-living wolves. the last statement is not documented, and the contention of respectful relationships itself during domestication has been challenged above. further, the all-inclusive aspect of the statement, “in all human societies,” would require considerable documentation, none of which was provided. pierotti and fogg (2017) also concluded that wolves acted as sentinels, but it is unclear how they could have done so. wolves do bark in alarm, but primarily in defending their dens or rendezvous sites (harrington and mech 1978). lastly, the authors accepted hyde’s (1968) claim of villages guarded by hundreds of wolves, even though the largest wolf pack ever documented included 42 wolves, and such a large pack is extremely rare (mech and boitani 2003). because wolf packs are basically territorial families that defend their territories lethally (cassidy et al. 2015; mech 1994; mech and boitani 2003), it would be highly unnatural for there to be an assemblage of hundreds. fogg et al. (2015:262) summarized the conclusions they reached from the stories they collected, arguing for “…a co-evolutionary reciprocal relationship between homo sapiens and canis lupus that existed from the early days of tribes until at least the nineteenth century.” however, in view of the discrepancies pointed out above, these conclusions should be regarded as speculative at best, and the notion that american indigenous peoples’ stories provide information about dog domestication must be viewed with much skepticism. mech. 2019. ethnobiology letters 10(1):69–75 73 perspectives conclusions pierotti and fogg’s (2017) book is based primarily on the material presented by fogg et al. (2015), as well as by pierotti and fogg’s (2017) experience with nonwild wolves, wolf x dog hybrids, and dogs. however, this current article (1) presents arguments and evidence that question the value of such information for drawing conclusions about the relationship between early humans and wolves 14,000 yrs bp, (2) demonstrates how indigenous american stories contradict documented information about wolf biology, behavior, and interactions with humans, and (3) points out important information not considered by the authors about wolf attacks on humans and the importance of rabies in the wolf-human relationship. thus, it is difficult to accept pierotti and fogg’s (2017:280) conclusion that “as long as humans considered themselves fellow predators of wolves, we lived comfortably with them,” or that a “… coevolutionary relationship developed between two species that found one another compatible and was probably initiated by the wolves, to whom the humans eventually responded in a cooperative fashion” (pierotti and fogg 2017:3–4). acknowledgments i thank luc janssens for suggestions to improve an early draft of this article, and to the anonymous reviewers who kindly provided valuable advice on the appropriate style for this article. declarations permissions: none declared. sources of funding: u.s. geological survey. conflicts of interest: none declared. references cited araya, j. j., k. kindscher, and b. n. timmermann. 2012. cytotoxic cardiac glycosides and other compounds from asclepias syriaca. journal of natural products. 75:400–407. doi:10.1021/np2008076. butler, l., b. dale, k. beckmen, and s. farley. 2011. findings related to the march 2010 fatal wolf attack near chignik lake, alaska. wildlife special publication, adf&g/dwc/wsp-2011-2, palmer, ak. cassidy, k. a., d. r. macnulty, d. r. stahler, d. w. smith, and l. d. mech. 2015. group composition effects on interpack aggressive interactions of gray wolves in yellowstone national park. behavioral ecology 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poyarkov, n. a. poyarkov, jr., s. tang, w. zhao, y. gao, x. lv, d. m. irwin, p. savolainen, c. wu, and y. zhang. 2013. the genomics of selection in dogs and the parallel evolution between dogs and humans. nature communications 4:1860. doi:10.1038/ncomms2814. woolpy, j. h., and b. e. ginsburg. 1967. wolf socialization: a study of temperament in a wild social species. american zoologist 7:357–363. young, s. p., and e. a. goldman. 1944. the wolves of north america. american wildlife institute, washington, dc. agricultural sustainability and environmental change at ancient gordion. by john m. marston. 2017. university of pennsylvania museum press, philadelphia. 224 pp. rowan. 2018. ethnobiology letters 9(2):263–265 263 reviews volume promises to make use of the data rather than simply present it, as unfortunately remains the case with many archaeobotany publications. in the end the volume does answer these questions, but it is on a rather broad level and at times the discussion gets tangled up in an overuse of theory and repetitious writing. the first chapter introduces the aims and methodological approach of the volume and presents crucial information on the site, its chronology, and its lengthy excavation history. the second chapter is dedicated to an overview and explanation of the two theoretical models that will be employed and integrated throughout the remainder of the text: behavioral ecology and resilience thinking. behavioral ecology, when used in archaeological contexts, relates to foraging theory, and in the specific context of the monograph, to the production of food through agriculture and animal husbandry. resilience thinking looks at the relationship between ecological systems and social systems, in other words the reciprocal relationships between humans and environments. the description of each theoretical framework is simultaneously detailed and vague in that the history of the theories and their current functions are thoroughly presented, but almost no examples or hypotheticals are employed to demonstrate how they would work in an archaeological context. similarly, it would have been helpful to see these theories integrated with past and current archaeological schools of thought since marston often criss-crosses the boundaries between processual and postprocessual archaeology. the ancient site of gordion, located in central anatolia (turkey), is composed of a citadel mound, a lower town, an outer town, and multiple tumuli or burial mounds. although population density varied over the centuries, the site was occupied consistently from the early bronze age until the late roman period or roughly 3000 bc until the fifth century ad. after a period of almost total abandonment, the urban center and surrounding region were resettled during the thirteenth to fourteenth centuries. john marston is an archaeobotanist who has studied the plant material from gordion for over a decade. while both he and fellow archaeobotanist naomi miller (marston 2010; marston and miller 2014) have published several articles on various archaeobotanical and environmental aspects of the site, this book combines both pre-existing and new data sets to present and analyze all the archaeobotanical and wood charcoal material collected from the 1985–2005 excavation seasons. the volume consists of six chapters, two appendices, and two extensive online appendices that provide the reader with all the raw data, displayed on a sample by sample basis. the volume presents one of the largest and chronologically most extensive data sets from turkey and is a rare example of an archaeobotany monograph. the volume seeks to answer two questions; namely which agricultural strategies were employed at gordion and what was the reciprocal relationship between environmental change and human decision making with regards to land-use practices? these are pertinent questions and the agricultural sustainability and environmental change at ancient gordion. by john m. marston. 2017. university of pennsylvania museum press, philadelphia. 224 pp. erica rowan1* 1department of classics, royal holloway, university of london, egham, uk. *erica.rowan@rhul.ac.uk received august 29, 2018 open access accepted october 5, 2018 doi 10.14237/ebl.9.2.2018.1391 copyright © 2018 by the author(s) licensee society of ethnobiology. this is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution-noncommercial 4.0 international public license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0), which permits non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. rowan. 2018. ethnobiology letters 9(2):263–265 264 reviews the third chapter combines geomorphological, phytogeographical, meteorological, and paleoclimate proxy data to create a detailed reconstruction of past climate and landscape around gordion for the length of its occupation history. while extremely thorough in terms of research and data collection, it is a long chapter that would have benefited from a more succinct presentation of the material. the following chapter begins with a description of the methodological approach used to collect and identify the site’s wood charcoal before moving on to a discussion of local vegetation and then finally presenting the results. focussing on diachronic changes in wood use, marston is able to demonstrate that extensive use of juniper during the late bronze age results in changes to the local forest structure and subsequently pine and oak become the most common wood types in all later periods. depositional and spatial analysis of the charcoal also reveals juniper and pine to be the preferred construction materials for large buildings while oak tended to be used for smaller domestic structures. local wood types that could be collected with the least amount of effort were used for fuel, apparently regardless of activity type (e.g., hearth, kiln, and religious offering). for reasons that remain unclear, the author chose only to look at hand-picked charcoal and did not include large fragments collected from flotation. the absence of the flotation charcoal seems to have limited the ability to distinguish fuel selection practices as sampling for flotation often took place in areas with obvious patches of charring, thereby reducing the volume of charcoal available for analysis. similarly, a discussion of the burning characteristics and qualities of each wood type was missing as were any references to robyn veal’s (2009, 2012) similar and extensive work on pompeii. the fifth chapter moves away from charcoal to look at the archaeobotanical remains. following a thorough discussion of diet, the chapter then turns to an assessment of agricultural risk management strategies such as crop diversification and the longterm impact of agriculture and grazing on the surrounding environment. making excellent use of a combination of geology and weed seed data, marston is able to show that more intensive agricultural practices, such as irrigation, are introduced during the middle and late phrygian periods due to rapid population increase. the roman period is characterized by intensive bread wheat production and extensive animal grazing that led to overgrazing and increased alluviation of the local sakarya river. the final chapter succinctly summarizes all the previous chapters and differentiates between environmental and cultural drivers of change. it is in this final chapter that the book really demonstrates its value to both ethnobiology and archaeology as the complicated and reciprocal relationships between humans, environments, culture, and climate becomes readily apparent. that i am an archaeologist reviewing this monograph in an ethnobiology journal highlights the interdisciplinarity of the book and the current direction of archaeobotanical research. the integration of behavioral ecology and resilience thinking is one of the more novel aspects of the volume. however, its core strength lies in the full presentation of both the charcoal and archaeobotanical material and on marston’s ability to interweave a growing body of paleoclimate data with his own findings to paint a clear picture of human and environmental change at gordion over roughly 3000 years. the volume nevertheless suffers from some drawbacks. firstly, the intended audience of the book is not clear and that had a significant impact on the writing style and presentation. at times there is far too much background information for the archaeobotanist or archaeologist familiar with archaeobotany but not enough for an ethnobiologist or reader unfamiliar with archaeological practices. consequently, both too much and too little space is spent on background information which breaks up the flow of the discussion and leads to repetitious writing. additional site photographs, building plans, and seed and charcoal images would have benefited all readers. moreover, while the use of theory is integral to archaeology, the conclusions drawn from the data did not, in this reviewer’s opinion, require the complicated theoretical frameworks presented in chapter 2. instead, it would have been more valuable to see the integration of other forms of material culture from the site, such as ceramics, and a more lengthy discussion of the role and interaction of gordion with broader cultural and political trends taking place in ancient anatolia and the wider mediterranean. although the book focuses on human decision making, the intense focus on the environmental data, revealing changes that happened over several centuries, leaves the reader feeling detached from the site and its inhabitants. it is only in the concluding chapter that gordion is finally put rowan. 2018. ethnobiology letters 9(2):263–265 265 reviews back into its broader social framework. despite these drawbacks, the volume is a good demonstration of how environmental archaeology and archaeobotany is moving beyond the simple taxa list and a powerful reminder that neither climate nor culture can ever be factored out of a discussion on human decision making, past or present. references cited marston, j. 2010. evaluating risk, sustainability, and decision making in agricultural and land-use strategies at ancient gordion. unpublished doctoral dissertation, interdepartmental graduate program in archaeology, university of california, los angeles, ca. marston, j., and n. miller. 2014. intensive agriculture and land use at roman gordion, central turkey. vegetation history and archaeobotany 23:761–773. doi:10.1007/s00334-014-0467-x. veal, r. 2009. the wood fuel supply to pompeii: an environmental, historical and economic study: 3rd c. bc to ad 79. unpublished doctoral dissertation, department of archaeology, university of sydney, sydney, australia. veal, r. 2012. from context to economy: charcoal as an archaeological interpretive tool, a case study from pompeii 3rd c. bc to ad 79. in more than just numbers? the role of science in roman archaeology, journal of roman archaeology supplement no. 91, edited by i. e. schrüfer-kolb, pp 19–52. portsmouth, ri. fonio (digitaria exilis (kippist) stapf): a socially embedded cereal for food and nutrition security in senegal diop et al. 2018. ethnobiology le ers 9(2):150–165 150 research communica ons small-scale family farms cannot invest in costly adaptative strategies, climate change may increase their vulnerability. one way to buffer this is to promote agricultural diversification (lin 2011). for introduction climate change may have negative impacts on agricultural production (kumar and sharma 2013; lobell and gourdji 2012; ward et al. 2014). because fonio (digitaria exilis (kippist) stapf): a socially embedded cereal for food and nutri on security in senegal baye maga e diop1,2, mame codou gueye1*, codjo emile agbangba1,3, ndiaga cissé1, monique deu4,5, omar diack2,6, amadou fofana5, ndjido ardo kane6,7, khadidiatou ndoye ndir8, ibrahima ndoye2, ablaye ngom2, chris an leclerc4,5, marie piquet7,8,10, yves vigouroux9, leila zekraoui7,8,10, claire billot4,5, adeline barnaud7,8,10 1centre d'etude régional pour l'améliora on de l'adapta on à la sécheresse (ceraas), ins tut sénégalais de recherches agricoles (isra), thiès escale, thiès, sénégal 2laboratoire de biotechnologies végétales, faculté des sciences et techniques, université cheikh anta diop de dakar (ucad), dakar‐fann, sénégal 3laboratory of biomathema cs and forest es ma ons, faculty of agronomic science (fsa), university of abomey‐calavi, 03 bp 2819, cotonou, bénin 4cirad, umr agap, f‐34398 montpellier, france 5agap, univ montpellier, cirad, inra, montpellier supagro, montpellier, france 6centre na onal de recherche agronomique (cnra), ins tut sénégalais de recherches agricoles (isra), bambey, diourbel, sénégal 7laboratoire na onal de recherches sur les produc ons végétales, ins tut sénégalais de recherches agricoles (isra), centre de recherche de bel air, dakar, sénégal 8laboratoire mixte interna onal adapta on des plantes et microorganismes associés aux stress environnementaux (lmi lapse), centre de recherche de bel air, dakar, sénégal 9département de produc on végétale, ecole na onale supérieure d’agriculture (ensa), université de thiès, bp a296, route de khombole, thiès, sénégal 10unité mixte de recherche diversité et adapta on des espèces (umr diade), ins tut de recherche pour le développement (ird), université de montpellier, montpellier, france *mcodougueye1@gmail.com abstract agricultural diversifica on with neglected and underu lized species is a viable way to sustainably increase the produc vity of agrosystems. understanding the social, cultural, and ecological roles of these species is crucial for their promo on. white fonio (digitaria exilis), a neglected cereal endemic to west african sahelian countries, is recognized as a crop for the future due to its cultural, nutri onal, and economic values. in this study, we described fonio farming systems in senegal through an ethnobotanical approach. as expected in family farming systems, farmers largely prac ced diversified subsistence agriculture on small plots and relied on local seed exchange networks. the importance of fonio varied among agroecological zones, ethnic groups, and gender. in the groundnut basin, where agriculture is more mechanized, late‐ maturing landraces of fonio are cul vated as a cash crop rather than a staple crop. however, in southern senegal, where food shortages are recurrent, fonio is more widespread and the cul va on of both early‐ and late‐maturing landraces contributes to local food security. these differences also reflect the cultural status of fonio: different among ethnic groups and more important for women than for men. finally, the regressive dynamics of fonio cul va on in most regions emphasizes the need to develop integrated conserva on and promo on strategies that take into account the diversity of social and agronomical roles of the plant. received august 2, 2017 open access accepted june 14, 2018 doi 10.14237/ebl.9.2.2018.1072 keywords family farming system, neglected and underu lized species, cereals, agricultural diversifica on, ethnobotany copyright © 2018 by the author(s) licensee society of ethnobiology. this is an open‐access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution‐noncommercial 4.0 international public license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by‐nc/4.0), which permits non‐commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. supplementary files available at ojs.ethnobiology.org/index.php/ebl/ar cle/view/1072 diop et al. 2018. ethnobiology le ers 9(2):150–165 151 research communica ons this purpose, neglected and underutilized species (nus) can play an important role (hall and rudebjer 2016). the growing interest in nus also reflects an increasing trend in agriculture to develop new crops for local markets and exportation (padulosi et al. 1999). in this paper, we focus on white fonio (digitaria exilis stapf), a neglected crop endemic to west african sahelian countries (portères 1976), the cultivation of which extends from 8° to 14° n latitude and from senegal in the west to lake chad in the east (cruz et al. 2011). for the lambo and akposso in togo, the dogon in mali, and the peul, bassari, bedik, and koniagui in senegal and guinea, fonio has great cultural value: it is the main food during traditional ceremonies such as marriages, baptisms, sacrifices, or funerals (adoukonou-sagbadja et al. 2006; de lestrange and passot-guevara 1981; dieterlen 1955; gessain 1989). fonio has a large diversity of local varieties (landraces) that differ in terms of life cycle duration; landraces with the shortest life cycle (less than two months) could thus play a useful role in preventing food shortages (blench 2012; gessain 1989; gomila and clarkson 1983; portères 1955). figure 1 map of senegal showing the loca ons of the three study zones. points symbolize the ethnic iden ty of the villag‐ es (based on the main ethnic group per village) surveyed in the groundnut basin (gb), in eastern senegal (es) and in casa‐ mance (c). diop et al. 2018. ethnobiology le ers 9(2):150–165 152 research communica ons in addition, fonio is considered to be one of the tastiest and most nutritious cereals in africa (jideani 1990). it contains a very low level of gluten, and while it does not have a high protein content, all twenty amino acids are present, in particular two essential ones (methionine and cysteine) which are lacking in most major cereals such as wheat, rice, sorghum, and barley (vietmeyer et al. 1996). fonio can thus contribute to nutrition security, an increasing concern for all countries (asfaw 2006; popkin et al. 2012). all these properties allow for the potential to generate significant financial returns for farmers, and, significantly, for women, who are traditionally involved in transformation and marketing (paraïso et al. 2011; usaid 2008). the southern region of senegal has a long tradition of fonio cultivation (portères 1955). the recurrence of food shortages in this region (lo 1998; ndao 2004) suggests that early maturing fonio landraces could have strategic importance (portères 1955; ruskin et al. 1996). however, cultivated on small areas (0.25 to 1 ha, after cruz et al. 2011), it remains a marginal cultigen representing less than 1% of overall cereal production in senegal (ansd 2014a). moreover, only 20% of the fonio marketed and consumed within the country is produced locally (usaid 2008). for all these reasons, fonio has received particular attention in diversification policies (fall and lo 2009). until now, research has mainly focused on technical itineraries and mechanization (gueye et al. 2015; kanfany et al. 2016), neglecting seed management and farmers’ practices related to their perceptions of fonio diversity (diedhiou 2008). the objective of this study was to characterize the socio-cultural and ecological role of fonio and its cultivation in senegal. we describe the agrosystems integrating fonio and the related agricultural practices. we then analyze the seed management system and uses of fonio to give a comprehensive view of the recent dynamics of fonio cultivation. methods study areas the study was conducted in the fonio-producing regions of senegal (central and southern senegal) which are a tropical climate zone, between latitudes 12° 18' and 13° 55' north. these regions are characterized by climatic and agronomic differences and, to a lesser extent, by the ethnic composition of their populations (figure 1). the first region is located in groundnut-producing basin (gray 2002) in central senegal. this region, known as groundnut basin (gb), is characterized by relatively flat topography and a sahelo-sudanian climate (mean annual rainfall 724 mm). major crops are groundnut (arachis hypogaea), cultivated mainly as cash crop, pearl millet (pennisetum glaucum), and sorghum (sorghum bicolor subsp. bicolor). these species are sometimes associated with cowpea (vigna unguiculata), condiments (hibiscus esculentus, capsicum annuum, c. frutescens), sorrel (hibiscus sabdariffa) and livestock raising (pélissier 1966). agriculture is mainly performed under rainfed conditions (fewer than 2% of agricultural households practice irrigation [ansd 2014a]) and is oriented towards a market economy led by groundnut (pélissier 1966). it is highly heterogeneous in terms of ethnic occupation, with wolof populations cohabiting with mandingo, peul, serer, and koniagui groups in the west, and in the east with mandingo and peul (gessain 1989; pélissier 1966). the last two regions are located in the southern part of senegal. the south of the oriental senegal region (os) is characterized by the highest and hilliest reliefs in the country. climate is sub-guinean with average annual rainfall of 1,103 mm. agriculture is mainly rainfed (fewer than 1% of agricultural households practice irrigation [ansd 2014b]) and thus conducted from may to november. agriculture is dominated by cereals: maize (zea mays), sorghum, african rice (oryza glaberrima), and fonio. however, local production of these cereals does not cover food needs (ndiaye 2000). livestock raising is a marginal activity and is conducted mainly by the peul (chataigner 1963; ndiaye 2000). this area is dominated by the malinke, associated with the bedik, bassari, and dialonke. the last region is the casamance (c), partly isolated from the rest of senegal by the narrow strip of gambia. it is characterized by a flat relief. the climate is sudano-guinean, with mean annual rainfall of 1,048 mm. the soils are relatively clayey and humus rich. agriculture is mainly rainfed (ansd 2014b), dominated by sorghum, maize, and african rice and combined with large livestock production (pélissier 1966). population density is low and ethnic composition of the population is heterogeneous. mandingo and balant populations predominate in the diop et al. 2018. ethnobiology le ers 9(2):150–165 153 research communica ons west, while the peul and koniagui are located in the east (fanchette 1999b; pélissier 1966). village and farm surveys villages were chosen with the help of officers of the agricultural extension services (regional rural development divisions drdr) in order to cover the geographical distribution of the fonio growing area and to represent the diversity of ethnic groups growing fonio. given that each crop can be considered a social object, attention was paid to select villages of medium size for farmers to belong to the same social exchange unit. surveys were thus conducted in 28 villages: six villages in the groundnut basin, seven in oriental senegal and 15 in casamance (figure 1), with an average population of 475 (± 229) inhabitants. in each village, interviews with ten randomly selected individuals were performed, followed by a focus group discussion. special attention was paid to achieving a 50% sex ratio per village. a total of 132 women and 138 men were interviewed with the help of drdr agents for translation. at the village level, the questions focused on 1) village history, 2) the modernization of agriculture, evaluated through the use of mechanization, 3) the livestock, evaluated through cattle raising: low numbers of cattle (<10), medium (10-50) and high (>50), 4) the distance from local markets, 5) the relations with extension services officers and non-governmental organizations (ngos), 6) the state of fonio cultivation (increase, regression, or stability), 7) the association of species and landraces of fonio in the field, 8) and the three most consumed species. at the level of individual farmers, information collected was related to 1) age and ethnicity, 2) names of all cultivated species and their uses (selfconsumption or sale), 3) names of abandoned species and the year in which each was abandoned, 4) areas devoted to fonio, 5) the relative importance of fonio (surface rank and citation rank in relation to other cereals) and its use (self-consumption or sale), 6) fonio sowing and harvesting periods, 7) growth cycle of each fonio variety, 8) seed selection (yes or no), and 9) seed origins: first source of acquisition and most recent source of acquisition (family, neighbors, markets, and others). statistical analyses based on the ethnic group of each farmer, seventeen groups (supplementary table 1) were represented, of which eight encompassed more than five farmers. subsequent analyses were performed on these eight ethnic groups (89% of the farmers). means and frequencies were calculated from data obtained from the surveys in order to describe agroecological zones, ethnic groups, and gender balance. tests were carried out to evaluate the effects of region, ethnicity, and gender on the studied variables: generalized linear model (glm) with binomial error distribution was performed for binomial qualitative variables, while glm with poisson error distribution was performed for quantitative variables. for all generalized linear models, only the significant second order interactions were retained in the final model. the model was followed by the “backward” procedure coupled with a chi square test, to determine the model values that maximize the probability of obtaining the observed data. when the factor was significant for the frequency data, the pairwise comparisons for proportions was implemented under the fmsb package (nakazawa and nakazawa 2015) and the pairwise.fisher.test function with bonferroni correction was used to evaluate the difference between the pairs’ modalities at the significance level of 5%. for quantitative data, tukey hsd paired comparison test of mean with bonferroni correction was performed. to evaluate the citation rank (based on the principle that the most frequently cited species that appear at the top of the list are considered culturally more important than those lower on the list [borgatti 1999]) and area rank of fonio in relation to other cereals, an automatic classification of incomplete multivariate rank data (jacques and biernacki 2014) using the rankcluster function implemented in the rankcluster package (jacques et al. 2014) was performed. the probability that two farmers do the same ranking, π, is a scale parameter ranking between 0.5 and 1. ranking is considered homogeneous when π tends towards 1. all analyses were performed using software r 3.2.5 (r core team 2015). results and discussion our results showed that in regions where fonio is cultivated, agriculture relied on family farming systems: primarily oriented towards subsistence, performed in small plots, and combining diverse crops with livestock. in these systems, fonio played different roles, from a crop buffering against food shortage, to a staple or cash crop, driven by different diop et al. 2018. ethnobiology le ers 9(2):150–165 154 research communica ons management practices and by differences in the status accorded to the plant by different ethnic groups. integrated family farming systems as expected under family farming systems, farmers maintained high levels of agricultural diversity for consumption and used low levels of technology (altieri 1999; bellon 2004; jarvis et al. 2008). furthermore, agriculture was mainly associated with livestock, except in two villages (table 1). thirty-three different species were recorded (figure 2). the most cultivated species were sorghum, pearl millet, fonio, maize, and rice, together with groundnut (figure 2). each farmer cultivated on average five species (min=1, max=12, ± 2.2; table 1) with significant variation among ethnicities (chisquared test, df=7, p-value=0.002; table 2). bedik farmers cultivated fewer species (3.12 ± 2.55) than did malinke (6.81 ± 2.56) or mandingo (5.77 ± 2.58) farmers. women (5.5 ± 2.36) cultivated significantly more species than men (4.8 ± 2.01; chi-squared test, df=1, p-value=0.012). the larger diversity among women may be explained by their involvement in home garden management, where a large diversity of crops can be observed (howard 2003). however, no difference among agroecological zones was observed (chi-squared test, df=2, p-value=0.815). no matter the species, the home-consumption rate was high (between 50 to 100%) except for dessert banana (musa sp) and cotton (gossypium hirsutum), which were entirely used as cash crops. there was no difference in species consumption between regions except for groundnut (arachis hypogaea) and maize (zea mays). groundnut was entirely self-consumed in the oriental senegal, while only partly in casamance (74%) and in the groundnut basin (74%). the difference was less striking for maize, which is entirely consumed in the southern senegal (oriental senegal and casamance) and less consumed in the groundnut basin (92%) (supplementary table 2). the level of modernization of agriculture (table 1), measured by the level of mechanization per village, gba osb cc al tude (m) 31 152 34 rainfall (mm) 724 1103 1048 temperature (°c) 27 28 27 climate type sahelo‐sudanian sub‐guinean sudano‐guinean rela onship with sdr and gnos 57% 100% 86% distance to local markets (km) [range] 5.14 [0–15] 21.33 [0–70] 15.40 [0–80] mechanized agriculture 50% 14% 13% livestock scored [range] 2.57 [1–3] 2 [0–3] 2.53 [0–3] no. of species 22 26 27 mean no. of species per farmer (sd) 5.16 (2.24) 4.97 (2.59) 5.22 (2.10) mean area of fonio per region (sd) 0.69 (0.65) 0.36 (0.27) 0.88 (1.04) % of farmers growing fonio 49% 76% 73% table 1 characteris cs of the three agro‐ecological zones and the farming systems. a groundnut basin b oriental senegal c casamance d 3=high livestock; 2=medium livestock; 1=low livestock; 0=no livestock. diop et al. 2018. ethnobiology le ers 9(2):150–165 155 research communica ons figure 2 species frequency. figure shows the percentage of farmers who cul vated each species by region. white=fonio, gray=other species. diop et al. 2018. ethnobiology le ers 9(2):150–165 156 research communica ons was low in southern senegal (14% in oriental senegal and 13% in casamance). in this region, away from major large cities, agriculture dynamics reflects the limited impact of government policy (fanchette 1999b; stirling 2012). in contrast, in the groundnut basin, half of the farmers benefited from the generalization of mechanization in this region (couty 1991). cultivation of fonio fonio was mainly cultivated in pure culture fields (70% of the villages) as in togo (adoukonousagbadja et al. 2006). it was sometimes (30%) associated with sorrel (hibiscus sabdariffa) or gombo (hibiscus esculentus), as in guinea, mali, and burkina faso (cruz et al. 2011). while 33 different landraces of fonio were collected in our study, each farmer cultivated only a few landraces (1.15 ± 0.39) without significant differences in terms of landrace number among region, ethnicity, or gender. fonio is only cultivated during the rainy season on small plots (mean 0.74 ha ± 0.91), compared to sorghum (1.25 ha ± 1.14) and pearl millet (1.58 ha ± 1.17), which are grown on larger plots (figure 3). it occupied the fourth largest area after rice, sorghum, and millet, and before maize (π=0.6). sowing is performed at the beginning of the rainy season, from may to july (figure 3). early sowing allows fonio to successfully compete with weeds. in southern senegal and casamance, where the rainy season begins earlier, some farmers start sowing in early may, while in the groundnut basin, sowing is mainly performed in july. in all regions, the early maturing landraces are harvested between august and september while the late maturing ones are mainly harvested in october. after the harvest, grains are kept in barrels in granaries and are consumed during the year as long as they are available while keeping part for the next season’s seed. staple food, crop providing insurance against food shortage, or cash crop? fonio was cultivated by 74% of the farmers surveyed, with significant variation among regions (49% in groundnut basin, 76% in oriental senegal, and 73% in casamance; chi-squared test, df=2, p-value=0.004). furthermore, the size of fonio fields were significantly different between both ethnic groups and region (chisquared test, df=7, p-value=3.86 x 10-5, and chisquared test, df=7, p-value=0.004, respectively). these differences emphasize the relative roles and cultural importance of fonio in local agrosystems. in the groundnut basin, where agriculture is more mechanized and people are less vulnerable to food shortage, fonio is mainly considered a cash crop: no villages cited fonio in the three main consumed figure 3 fonio sowing (a) and harves ng (b) periods in rela on to rainfall (anacim 2015). le y axis: % of farmers, right y axis: rainfall (mm). gray=% of early‐maturing landraces, black=% of late‐maturing landraces. diop et al. 2018. ethnobiology le ers 9(2):150–165 157 research communica ons et h n ic gr o u p s n o . o f fa rm er s n o . sp ec ie s (s d )a a re a (h a) ( sd )d fo n io cu l va te d (% )b fo n io ab an d o n ed (% )c se lli n g fo n io ( % )e fi rs t se ed s o u rc es o f fo n io ( % ) a ll g b o s c fa m ily m ar ke t n ei gh b o r o th er s b al an t 2 4 2 4 5 .6 2 (1 .4 6 ) 0 .7 7 (0 .3 7 ) 7 9 5 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 b as sa ri 8 7 1 5 .2 5 (3 .1 9 ) 0 .2 3 (0 .0 9 ) 7 5 2 5 1 4 1 0 0 0 0 0 b ed ik 8 8 3 .1 2 (2 .5 5 ) 0 .4 4 (0 .4 1 ) 6 5 3 7 3 7 1 0 0 0 0 0 d ia lo n ke 8 8 4 .2 1 (2 .1 6 ) 0 .7 5 (0 .4 3 ) 1 0 0 0 2 9 2 9 7 1 0 0 k o n ia gu i 2 2 4 1 8 4 .4 2 (1 .8 1 ) 0 .5 1 (0 .3 4 ) 8 2 1 0 2 5 7 9 1 6 5 0 m al in ke 2 1 2 1 6 .8 1 (2 .5 6 ) 0 .3 7 (0 .2 1 ) 7 7 0 0 6 7 6 2 2 1 m an d in go 7 7 2 0 1 2 4 5 5 .7 7 (2 .5 8 ) 1 .2 3 (1 .4 1 ) 6 6 1 3 1 6 7 9 1 3 6 2 p eu l 7 1 1 3 5 8 4 .7 0 (1 .6 6 ) 0 .4 8 (0 .3 4 ) 6 0 2 1 4 9 4 6 2 1 3 1 2 ta b le 2 c h ar ac te ri s cs o f ag ri cu lt u ra l s ys te m s am o n g th e s tu d ie d e th n ic g ro u p s w it h a f o cu s o n f o n io . g b =g ro u n d n u t b as si n , o s= o ri e n ta l s en e ga l, c =c as am an ce . a m ea n n u m b er o f sp ec ie s cu l va te d p er f ar m er ( st an d ar d d ev ia o n ) b % o f fa rm er s cu l va n g fo n io c % o f fa rm er s h av in g ab an d o n ed f o n io c u l va o n d m ea n ar ea o f a fo n io fi el d e % o f fa rm er s se lli n g fo n io . diop et al. 2018. ethnobiology le ers 9(2):150–165 158 research communica ons crops and over 58% of the farmers sold a part of their harvest. ethnic groups that traditionally cultivate fonio (koniagui, mandingo, and peul) are a minority under the influence of the wolof who favor millet and sorghum (pélissier 1966). among the minority ethnic groups, mandingo cultivate fonio on larger areas than do the peul (1.23 ± 1.41 ha vs 0.48 ± 0.34, p-value=0.011). they cited it as the second most important species, while it is only the fourth most important for the peul (table 3). since the order in which items are enumerated is not arbitrary but reflects their cognitive importance (borgatti 1999; henley 1969), this explains the higher level accorded to fonio by mandingo. in contrast, in southern senegal (oriental senegal and casamance), fonio cultivation was more widespread (tables 2 and 3). farmers in casamance cultivated in larger areas than in oriental senegal (0.88 ± 1.04 ha vs. 0.36 ± 0.27 ha, p-value=0.008). the lack of relief and the wide availability of soil in casamance on the one hand, and the physical constraints of rugged terrain in oriental senegal, on the other hand, could explain the differences observed between c and os regions. these differences also reflect a difference in cultural status of the fonio, more pronounced among the mandingo where fonio is the “source of life”, and even more significantly among bassari, bedik, and koniagui, where it enters the divinatory rites (dieterlen 1955; gessain 1989). for 89% villages in southern senegal (mandingo, balant and koniagui), fonio represents a staple food consumed all year long. in southern senegal, food shortages are recurrent (lo 1998; ndao 2004), and the cultivation of both earlyand latematuring landraces (figure 3) is one action in a strategy of resilience. fonio thus plays an important role in local food and nutrition security. despite the presence of the major players in post-harvest transformation in southern senegal like the eigs (economic interest groupings) involved in the transformation and marketing of fonio (cissoko 2016), a restricted number of farmers reported selling a part of their harvest (14% and 17% in oriental senegal and casamance, respectively). the fonio dedicated to local and urban markets in this area may thus be coming from other areas of production, such as guinea, which supplies more 70% of the fonio marketed in senegal (usaid 2008). this constitutes a deficit for producers and exposes the financial, technical, and social insufficiencies of the major players in post-harvest transformation (gaucher 2014). ethnic group area rank / cita on rank πa fonio maize pearl millet rice sorghum balant 3/3 4/4 5/2 2/5 1/1 0.63/0.65 bassari 4/2 2/5 5/4 1/1 3/3 0.77/0.78 bedik 4/1 3/2 ‐ 2/3 1/4 0.74/0.80 dialonke 1/2 1/2 ‐ ‐ ‐ 0.60/0.60 koniagui 3/1 4/4 1/5 5/3 2/2 0.71/0.70 malinke 4/4 5/5 2/2 1/3 3/1 0.76/0.71 mandingo 2/2 5/5 3/4 4/3 1/1 0.58/0.60 peul 4/4 3/3 1/1 5/5 2/2 0.63/0.67 table 3 rela ve importance of fonio among cereals cul vated for each ethnic group. a probability that two farmers do the same ranking diop et al. 2018. ethnobiology le ers 9(2):150–165 159 research communica ons a crop for women’s empowerment women appear to be key actors in fonio cultivation. with the exception of the bedik, where men are at least equally involved (as already stressed by gomila and ferry 1966), women are more involved than men in the cultivation of fonio; it is significantly more cultivated by women (79%) than men (59%) (chisquared test, p-value=0.002). while men cultivated fonio on larger areas (0.77 ± 0.83 ha) than women (0.62 ± 0.56 ha) (chi-squared test, p-value=0.045), women dedicated larger areas among cereals to fonio (second rank of area, π=0.66 vs third rank of area, π=0.7) and cited fonio as the second most important species among cereals; for men, it was only the fourth most important (π=0.67 vs π=0.71) (table 4). this preponderance of women is explained by the fact that the cultivation of fonio requires little physical effort but does demand meticulous and repeated operations during weeding and post-harvest operations, care often relegated to women (howard 2003). in addition, women are the main actors of eigs (economic interest groupings) for the processing and sale of fonio (cruz 2014), and fonio represents a source of financial income. finally, women ensure, through the cultivation of fonio, good nutrition for their family (kerr 2005). however, since women and men are engaged in both different and complementary ways in the cultivation of fonio, their combined actions are necessary to the success of the food system as a whole. mobilizing both men and women and promoting interaction between them is fundamental to increase production of fonio, which would thus increase economic interest in the crop and food security (kerr 2005). circulation of seeds reliance on the local seed exchange network was the gender fonio maize millet rice sorghum πa cita on rank women 2 5 4 3 1 0.68 men 4 3 1 5 2 0.71 area rank women 2 5 3 2 1 0.66 men 3 4 1 5 2 0.70 table 4 rela ve importance of fonio among cul vated cereals between genders. a probability that two farmers do the same ranking figure 4 change in the nature of the first acquisi ons of fonio seeds. black=acquisi on from rela ves, gray=acquisi ons from market and ngos. diop et al. 2018. ethnobiology le ers 9(2):150–165 160 research communica ons most widespread means of acquiring fonio seed. the majority of farmers (85%) acquired seeds for the first time through their relatives: parents (73%) or neighbors (12%). after this first acquisition, farmers mainly kept a part of their harvest to produce their own seeds for the next season. in 2013, 99% of the sown seeds originated from previous harvests. these methods of seed acquisition ensure seed quality and a reduction in transaction costs (almekinders et al. 1994; bellon 2004). however, the seed circulation pattern is changing, giving a larger importance to markets (14%) and to a lesser extent to ngos (1%) as seed sources (figure 4). seed sources varied significantly among ethnic groups (chi-squared test, p-value=0.002), with dialonke farmers (71%) more concerned by this new form of seed acquisition than farmers belonging to the balant, bassari, or bedik groups (0%) (table 2). these changes can be linked to an increased use of markets or to the dismantling of traditional social institutions, as in ethiopia (samberg 2013). indeed, in the specific case of the dialonke, this change could result both from the loss of rigor in their chieftaincy system (albenque 1967) and their proximity to a market (on average 2 km). it can also be linked to social rules, as for mandingo farmers (13%), who find it difficult to ask their neighbors for seed, at the risk of losing their dignity (niane 1989). markets thus appear to be important sources of seed acquisition and contribute to diffusion of seeds among ethnic groups (wencelius and garine 2014). non-governmental organizations and farmer organizations represented potential seed sources whose contributions are likely to increase in the near future. in the groundnut basin, usaid through the project wulanafa in the eastern part, and the farmer organization union of mininky valley ecological committees (ucem) in the western part, have contributed to distribution and processing of fonio seeds in four of the six villages surveyed in this region. in oriental senegal villages, usaid through the projects wulanafa and yajeende have contributed to distribution and processing of fonio in four of the six villages surveyed. in casamance villages, the activities of padaer (support program for agricultural development and rural entrepreneurship), which have followed those of usaid since 2013, were noticed in two of the 15 villages surveyed. however, the low contribution of these ngos (1%) as seed sources despite their strong involvement in the villages could be linked to the lack of confidence in the seeds provided, confidence being a fundamental aspect to ensure reliable information about the seed (badstue et al. 2006). that is why farmers prefer growing their own seeds or to acquire seeds from a supplier they know (hodgkin et al. 2007; lipper et al. 2009). this shows that seed distribution strategies must take into account social and cultural factors as well as the characteristics of innovation (pannell et al. 2006). the seeds distributed by ngos only concerned a restricted number of local landraces (three out of 33 landraces encountered in senegal; cissoko 2016), and did not include information on the characteristics of the landraces. this lack of reliable figure 5 frequency of abandonment of fonio cul va on (% of farmers) and rainfall trend (mm) from 1999 to 2013 (anacim 2015). diop et al. 2018. ethnobiology le ers 9(2):150–165 161 research communica ons information did not favor their adoption. thus, despite efforts by the state and by development agencies to supply farmers with seeds, these efforts remain insufficient (cissoko 2016). the implementation of seed distribution is recent; the impacts of seed distribution on fonio diversity and conservation should thus be further documented. dynamics of fonio cultivation in two-thirds of the villages (68%), farmers noted a decline in the cultivation of fonio during recent years. furthermore, while 86% of farmers reported having cultivated fonio at least once during their life, only 74% grew it in 2013, exhibiting a dropout rate of 12% , of which 8.9% occurred in 2012, a year preceded by a decrease in rainfall (figure 5). this decline, spatially heterogeneous (figure 6), was mainly due to lack of seeds (36%), tedious post-harvest processing (36%), and disinterest of young people (21%) in favor of more productive species such as pearl millet or sorghum, or even for alternative activities such as gold panning in the oriental senegal, and reduced rainfall (7%). one-third (32%) of the villages experienced an increase in fonio cultivation. farmers referred to the importance of fonio during food shortage periods (71%), the ease with which it can be grown, and the opportunity to sell fonio to eigs (29%). indeed, in villages where eigs are involved in the processing of fonio, the revaluation of the price of fonio (400 fcfa for paddy fonio and 1000 to 1200 fcfa for transformed) increased its production, as shown by cissoko (2016) in oriental senegal, where production attained 1000 kg/ha in some villages. conclusion fonio is definitely a socially-embedded cultigen. indeed, only certain ethnic groups traditionally cultivate it, and it is always present in specific ceremonies. it is also used in different ways, driving differences among ethnics in its cultivation: when fonio is used as a cash crop, famers focus more on late-maturing landraces, whereas when it is used to ensure food security, seeds are acquired within the social group and mainly early-maturing landraces are cultivated. in southern senegal where ethnicities traditionally growing fonio predominate, fonio is an essential crop in their agrosystems. fonio represents a food of choice as part of a sustainable development policy. it is widely integrated in the regions’ agrosystems and has characteristics that make it ideal for food and nutrition security and for the empowerment of women. the regressive dynamics of fonio cultivation in most regions suggests the need to develop integrated conservation and promotion strategies that must take into account the diverse social and agronomical roles of the plant. acknowledgements we are thankful to the west africa agricultural productivity program (waapp/ppaao 2a) for funding research activities (cera58id06 se to m.c. gueye and the phd thesis of b.m. diop). we also thank farmers and local authorities for their consent and collaboration. we acknowledge angélique berger (cirad) for data collection. we thank the team of the agropolis resource centre for crop conservation, adaptation and diversity (a flagship project of agropolis foundation) and the plantadiv project (anr) for constructive discussions on methodological aspects. declarations permissions: not applicable. sources of funding: we are thankful to the west africa agricultural productivity program (waapp/ppaao 2a) for funding research activities (cera58id06 se). conflicts of interest: none declared. references cited adoukonou-sagbadja, h., a. dansi, r. vodouhè, and k. akpagana. 2006. indigenous knowledge and figure 6 changes in 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also resulted in changes to the chemical environment and peoples’ exposure to pollutants, which affect and contaminate soils and water resources (grimm et al. 2008). in this regard, we need to deepen our understanding of the effects of changes in the quality of the food resources consumed by local communities. an increase in contaminants due to urbanization and industrialization affects the quality of species used for food and medicine, which can be contaminated with chemical residues due to polluted water in introduction ethnobiology and ethnoecology focus on the knowledge, perceptions, and practices of human communities with the surrounding environment, for example by studying artisanal fishing and local communities. these communities perceive and interact with the environment, and systematically use its resources for food, medicine, rituals, and other purposes (bordeleau et al. 2016). food, in particular, is of great cultural, social, and nutritional importance for communities that depend directly on the availability and quality of these resources (bordeleau et al. 2016). however, over the last several decades, ethnobiological studies around the world have shown increasing changes in local knowledge and practices due to urbanization and industrialization (aswani and exploring the interfaces between ethnobiology and ecotoxicology: a novel approach graziela dias blanco¹*, natalia hanazaki¹, suelen maria beeck cunha¹, marta jussara cremer², and mari lucia campos³ ¹department of ecology and zoology, federal university of santa catarina, florianopolis, brazil. ²department of biological sciences, university of the joinville region, são francisco do sul, brazil. ³department of soils and natural resources, state university of santa catarina, lages, brazil. *graziblanco@gmail.com abstract in recent years, increases in urbaniza on and industrializa on have led to an increase in contaminated areas, which directly affect tradi onal, indigenous, and local communi es who use natural resources for food and medicine. we present a discussion about the use of food resources from areas contaminated with heavy metals and focus on two case studies in southern brazil. in the first case study, we interviewed 194 residents about the use of plants as food resources or medicine in areas adjacent to abandoned mines, and thus poten ally contaminated with heavy metals. in the second case study, we interviewed 39 fishers about the consump on of fish resources from areas poten ally contaminated by industrial ac vi es. we also asked about their percep ons regarding contamina on, changes in the landscape, and health problems that could be related to contamina on. although people are aware of contamina on, consuming local plants and sea food has not stopped because some of these prac ces are directly linked to their cultural iden ty; addi onally, there might be a lack of public recogni on toward contamina on. the combina on of ethnoecological and ecotoxicological studies is necessary to assess environmental problems caused by heavy metals, as well as concerns about food security and the health of local communi es. received january 11, 2019 open access accepted january 13, 2020 doi 10.14237/ebl.11.1.2020.1493 published may 20, 2020 keywords food security, heavy metals, ethnoecology, ecotoxicology, local communi es copyright © 2020 by the author(s) licensee society of ethnobiology. this is an open‐access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution‐noncommercial 4.0 international public license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by‐nc/4.0), which permits non‐commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. blanco et al. 2020. ethnobiology le ers 11(1):29‐37 30 research communica ons basins, rivers, and estuaries (fao 2017) and directly affects quality of life and health. the use of contaminated environments by fisheries, for example, can be related to risks to the health of fishers (rios et al. 2011). this is due to the periodic and systematic consumption of polluted aquatic resources (e.g., due to industrial waste, sewage, heavy metals, and widespread use of pharmacological substances). these pollutants can cause cumulative and serious health effects such as deep cutaneous lesions (ribeiro et al. 2015). according to järup (2003), these risks are likely related to the passive, chronic effects of long-term exposure rather than the sporadic exposure of contaminated food. according to the u.s. agency for toxic substances and disease registry (atsdr), the most potentially problematic inorganic pollutants for human health are as (arsenic), hg (mercury), cd (cadmium), pb (lead), and cr (chromium). these elements may be present in water resources, soil, and air, and may be associated with disease prevalence in humans (atsdr 2018; hess 2018). for example: the ingestion of food contaminated with as, even at low levels, can be related to diabetes (grau-perez et al. 2018); long-term ingestion of hg can affect the neurological system (hess 2018; kim et al. 2016); cd exposure affects the renal system and increases the probability of gestational diabetes mellitus (madrigal et al. 2019; xing et al. 2018); and pb damages the central nervous system and impairs the functions of lysosomes in neural cells (gu et al. 2019). an increase in contaminated areas also harms the quality of food resources (aswani and sabetian 2009). ecotoxicological studies blame this increase in contaminated areas on mining practices, the use of pesticides in agriculture, and the wide use of pharmaceutical products (elibariki and maguta 2017; shia et al. 2018). although these authors report different environmental effects depending on the contamination, all report one factor in common: the presence of human communities near contaminated areas. in several situations, indigenous peoples and local communities are among the most affected communities (khlifi et al. 2014). this situation was observed in local communities in china (guan et al., 2017), northern europe (tóth et al. 2016), canada (chan and receveur 2000), and in latin america, with indigenous peoples and fishers (luo et al. 2013; miller and villarroel 2018; villegas et al. 2018). heavy metals, both in soil and water, are among the most environmentally challenging contaminants due to their capacity for bioaccumulation along the trophic chain—where they accumulate in tissues and change metabolic routes—and their impacts on the environment (ali et al. 2013; carolin et al. 2017). the greater the proximity of areas with easily accessible resources, the greater the probability that these areas will be visited and exploited for their resources (gaoue et al. 2017). however, the overlap of contaminated areas with areas that provide resources is worrying. pinheiro et al. (2000) noted this concern for the contamination of food resources by heavy metals due to the process of gold mining in amazonian rivers, which uses hg as an amalgam to separate gold particles. this is a problem because the hg is processed by sedimentary bacteria and released as methylmercury, becoming bioavailable in the aquatic environment and accumulating in the food chain. currently, hg is a major contaminant of amazonian rivers, reaching several trophic levels in this ecosystem (almeida-rodrigues et al. 2019; anjos et al. 2016). consequently, there has been an increase in the exposure to this metal in riverine populations, such as fishers, due to the consumption of contaminated fish (anjos et al. 2016; pinheiro et al. 2000). silvano and begossi (2016) explored the trophic levels of targeted fish consumed by artisanal fishers as well as the hg content of these fish species, and emphasized the importance of linking local knowledge to ecotoxicology research. in a study in amazonia, boischio (1996) also showed that traditional knowledge is important to identify foci of contamination for fishery resources consumed by riverine people. this link between local knowledge and ecotoxicology can contribute to improving the management of aquatic ecosystems, revealing the potential for new applications of fishers’ knowledge to ecotoxicology, which could improve management of aquatic ecosystems and strengthen fishers’ political status (silvano and begossi 2016). we add to this potential the paramount importance of focusing on the health of users, since exposure to contaminants can have dramatic long-term implications (colborn et al. 1993). we contribute a novel approach to explore the interfaces between ethnobiology and ecotoxicology based on two ongoing studies of similar situations: an blanco et al. 2020. ethnobiology le ers 11(1):29‐37 31 research communica ons area highly contaminated by mining, characterized by the extraction of coal; and an estuarine area with a history of industrial, agricultural, and sedimentation problems. in both regions there are areas traditionally used for the extraction of resources that are affected by contamination from nearby economic activities. in southern brazil, several communities have been exposed to heavy metals. the state of santa catarina is one of the main coal extractors and has the highest concentration of mining in the country (klein 2006). mining occurs very close to residential areas and several settlements and cities have been formed around or over the mines (sizenando 2011). in abandoned areas in these places, there are medicinal and food plants (klein 2006). on the northern coast of santa catarina, babitonga bay is an estuary that serves as a nursery for many marine species, including estuarine residents and dependents, and is an extremely important area for artisanal fishing. in this region, problems such as sedimentation, changes in hydrodynamics, domestic effluents, and agricultural and industrial effluents from metallurgical and textile industries caused the sedimentation of heavy metals and their availability throughout the entire trophic chain (cremer et al. 2006). the gravity of this situation is evidenced by the high levels of heavy metals found in fishery resources of babitonga bay (tureck et al. 2006). methods we focus on two regions of the state of santa catarina, in southern brazil, where there are areas contaminated by heavy metals and a high density of fishers and local communities. the first is the santa catarina carboniferous basin, between the municipalities of ararangua and lauro muller, where we conducted interviews in five municipalities (lauro muller, siderópolis, urussanga, criciúma, and treviso) and focused on plant resources used. the second is babitonga bay, comprising six municipalities (são francisco do sul, itapoá, araquari, joinville, garuva, and barra do sul), where we interviewed artisanal fishers from são francisco do sul and focused on fish resources (figure 1). we selected at least two local communities from each municipality of the carboniferous region, located within a maximum radius of 300m from the of coal extraction core (e.g., near the contaminated areas). all areas visited have been mined in the past but are no longer in use. in each community, we visited every home and interviewed at least 51% of resident families. at babitonga bay, we choose fishing communities located on a gradient of exposure to sources of contamination, from the interior of the bay (near industrial areas) to the bay opening to the sea. we selected respondents by the peer recommendation method (davis and wagner 2003) and snowball sampling (bernard 2006), including fishers who agreed to participate and met the following criteria: fish within babitonga bay for at least 10 years; 2) have a link with the territory they live in; and 3) have been consuming marine resources from within babitonga bay for at least 10 years. in the two regions, after prior informed consent, we used semi-structured interviews and guided tours with the interviewees to sites where plants and seafood are collected to understand the main resources consumed and for what purposes (in the case of medicinal plants). interviews occurred between january and february 2018 in the carboniferous basin and between june and october 2017 at babitonga bay. the central question for the carboniferous basin interviews was if the interviewee figure 1 areas of study in the state of santa catarina, brazil. a: loca on of the fishing communi es that were interviewed in babitonga bay. dots indicate loca on of fishing communi es b: loca on of local communi es that were interviewed in mined areas. dots indicate the local communi es located in the deac vated coal min‐ ing areas of the carbonifera region (in gray). blanco et al. 2020. ethnobiology le ers 11(1):29‐37 32 research communica ons collected plant species from the mining area, and for what purposes. at babitonga bay we interviewed only fishers, and we asked interviewees about which species were fished or collected for direct consumption. we also asked about their perceptions related to contamination (including awareness about mining areas and landscape changes in the case of plants, and awareness about contaminated spots and pollution in the case of fisheries), as well as possible health issues related to this contamination. for all interviews, we also collected socio-economic data (such as gender, age, length of residence). interviews were done by g. d. blanco, s. m. b. cunha, and a team of trained interviewers from the human ecology and ethnobotany laboratory between december 2017 and february 2018. we conducted 194 interviews in the carboniferous basin, in contiguous areas to abandoned mining sites. in total, 136 women and 57 men were interviewed. at babitonga bay we did 39 interviews, with 8 women and 31 men. plants were identified based on collected and archived botanical specimens (collector numbers g. d. blanco 90–120) and aquatic animals were identified based on literature (costa et al. 2011; lopes 2015; martins 2011; medeiros et al. 2010; villar et al 2011) and showing photographs of the organisms to the interviewees. results collecting plants where charcoal was mined the predominant age group was between 45 and 65 years old and the average age was 53 years old. among the interviewees, 22% had always lived in the area. for the others, the average length of on-site living was around 30 years. more than half of the interviewees collect medicinal or food plants in the surrounding areas and more than 90% also plant species in areas around their homes, which can have contaminated soil. most cited that the species used were achyrocline satureioides (45% of the interviews), baccharis spp. (28%), plectranthus barbatus (25%), citrus spp. (23%), mentha arvensis (23%), and psidium guajava (14%). the main purposes of medical uses were treating digestive, infectious, and parasitic diseases (54% of respondents) orally with an infusion. when asked about knowledge of the number of mining areas that existed near the places where they lived, almost 80% of the respondents said they knew at least one area and reported environmental (observed changes in the landscape) and health (problems related to respiratory diseases) impacts. artisanal fishing and presence of heavy metals the predominant age group was between 46 and 54 years old and the average age was 51 years old. the species cited as most consumed were mugil curema (28 interviews), mugil liza (28 interviews), micropogonias furnieri (25 interviews), litopenaeus schmitti (24 interviews), crassostrea brasiliana / c. rhizophorae (19 interviews), and callinectes danae / c. sapidus (19 interviews). fishers (14 interviews) reported avoiding areas that they thought had general pollution or heavy metal pollution (2 interviews). respondents referred to resource-related problems and said they avoided cockle (anomalocardia brasiliana) or crab (ucides cordatus) because they consider them to be contaminated with heavy metals or fecal coliforms. in the three communities, interviewed fishers mentioned 18 diseases or health problems, which were categorized according to the world health organization (who), including high blood pressure, endocrine problems, nutritional and metabolic diseases, and diseases of the eye and adnexa. discussion in both areas, we observed the consumption of resources with risk of contamination by heavy metals. in the carboniferous basin, coal extraction leads to the contamination of surface layers of the soil with pyrite, soil acidification, and increasing concentrations of metals (e.g., aluminum, iron, manganese, copper, nickel, arsenic, lead, cadmium, and zinc) to toxic levels (campos et al. 2003; masto et al. 2017). it also contributes contaminants of dust particles and other toxic substances that are released during the extraction process, impairing abiotic and biotic components of the ecosystem, including humans (masto et al. 2017). the practice of coal extraction contaminates soil and water resources and releases heavy metals which, if consumed, can cause acute and chronic intoxication and impact the functioning of the nervous system. (masto et al. 2017; oliveira-filho et al. 2017). the human communities near these areas are at greater risk and are likely to be contaminated due to ingestion, inhalation, or skin contact (masto et al. 2017). this result is alarming, since studies in other countries of south america, as well as in the united states, europe, india, china, and korea showed that plant species associated with medicinal or food use have bioaccumulating potential, including baccharis crispa, baccharis sarothroides, mentha arvensis, and psidium blanco et al. 2020. ethnobiology le ers 11(1):29‐37 33 research communica ons guajava (manikandan et al. 2015; menezes et al. 2013; oti 2015). at babitonga bay, previous studies have found disturbing levels of contaminants in fishery resources (cremer et al. 2006; tureck et al. 2006). resident populations of the franciscana dolphin (pontoporia blainvillei), which is at a high trophic level, showed high levels for octocrylene (gago-ferrero et al. 2013) and pcbs (dorneles et al. 2013) in this area. however, links between fishing and consuming seafood with contaminants have not been investigated. our results show that fishers are at risk of contamination due to the consumption of several species. for example, among the species most consumed are oysters (crassostrea brasiliana / c. rhizophorae), which had a cadmium level of 3.08 ppm (tureck et al. 2006). this is above the maximum limit (0.05 mg.kg-1) established by the mercosul technical regulation (anvisa 2013) for raw, frozen, or chilled fish, except for bonito, carapeba, eel, mullet, mackerel, sardines, tuna and flatfish (0.10 mg.kg-1), bluerunner and swordfish (0.30 mg.kg-1), cephalopod and bivalve mollusks (2.00 mg.kg-1), and crustaceans (0.50 mg.kg-1). historically, contamination of soil and water resources has been treated solely as an environmental problem (lu et al. 2015), but it is imperative to address the public health and food security of local communities. the increase of contaminated areas in the last decades aggravates this situation, especially with the contamination of resources used by indigenous peoples and local communities (elibariki and maguta 2017; pinheiro et al. 2000). among the contaminants present in the environment, heavy metals are an environmental and public health challenge (silva and ferreira 2015). according to lu et al. (2015), prolonged exposure to areas contaminated with heavy metals may contribute to a range of diseases related to digestive system problems, miscarriages, and an increased risk of cancer, especially in the digestive tract. this worrying situation is even more serious for local communities who rely on those resources, since the quality of the environment is essential for their cultural identity and is closely linked to the livelihood and the quality of life of these groups (bordeleau et al. 2016). this is the reality of artisanal fishing of babitonga bay and local communities of the coal belt of santa catarina. although these communities perceive the contamination of the areas, fishing and collecting food resources still occur and these practices are closely linked to the local food culture and subsistence. however, it is possible that the risk of diseases due to contamination by heavy metals has increased, as observed in other regions (vega et al. 2018), so further studies about this subject are needed. when analyzing this from the point of view of trophic webs, the presence of persistent contaminants, such as heavy metals, can reach the entire ecosystem. in environments where the soil is contaminated, the plant species are the first to absorb the contaminants and these may be passed on to the people who consume them (lu et al. 2015). the same can occur in estuaries and mangroves, which are nursery areas for many species (e.g., crustaceans and fish). nursery areas are also suitable for the accumulation of heavy metals in the sediment, which become bioavailable to living things (pinheiro et al. 2012) and the people who consume these organisms. we have argued toward a new perspective, yet we are revisiting carson’s (1962) argument in her seminal silent spring: how can we as humanity be allowed to poison ourselves? bioaccumulation and biomagnification are not new issues in science (e.g., flinders 2006). more than two decades ago, colborn et al. (1993) warned of the long-term dangers of a number of environmental contaminants, including to heavy metals. they also showed the problems and difficulties in isolating the causes of environmental contamination that may have multiple sources in a world increasingly dependent on chemical byproducts. the multiple causes cannot be used as an argument towards the lack of concrete evidence of contamination. addressing the ecotoxicology problems of contaminants, such as heavy metals directly related to mining, industrial, and port activities is only the beginning of the task to understand and avoid the health risks of historically marginalized and vulnerable populations often featured in ethnobiology studies. the risk of heavy metal contamination in the food of local communities is a reality. for this reason, as a new approach to this issue, we suggest a threefold strategy of investigation. first, researchers must identify potential sources of contamination (such as mining and industrial activity in our case) and collect local ecological knowledge about resource use, resource contamination, and environmental contamination. second, researchers should collect samples of potentially contaminated resources, which blanco et al. 2020. ethnobiology le ers 11(1):29‐37 34 research communica ons may be based on local knowledge, and analyze them for the degree of contamination. third, researchers should correlate local perceptions about health problems with cross-sectional health data, if available, to investigate the prevalence of diseases and symptoms that can be related to environmental contamination. the presence of such as fishermen and indigenous people and local communities in contaminated areas should be treated as a matter of food security and public health. the increase in contaminated areas that overlap with vulnerable populations is a reality and must be treated efficiently and with different approaches. for example, duarte et al. (2016) combined ecotoxicological studies of ucides cordatus and measures of population density, showing how multi-level biological responses can reflect the conservation status of mangrove areas with different degrees of human impacts. combining different approaches can help explain the effects of pollution on human health. ethnoecological and ethnobiological studies help in this debate by highlighting the resources consumed and the places where they are obtained, as well as perceptions about symptoms and diseases that may be related to contamination. acknowledgements we are grateful to p. f. corrêa, e. rocha, h. souza, m. cabral and f. moraes for support in data collection, and to c. soares for comments in a previous version of this text. declarations permissions: in order to carry out the present research, the necessary authorizations were obtained with cepsh (ethics commitee on research with human beings of universidade federal de santa catarina, processes number 71339817.7.0000.0121 and 0660217.1.0000.0121). all interviewees signed a free informed consent term. sources of funding: this study was financed in part by the coordenação de aperfeiçoamento de pessoal de nível superior—brasil (capes)—finance code 001. nh and mjc thanks to cnpq for their research productivity scholarships (309613/2015-9 and 10477/2017-4). conflicts of interest: none declared. references cited ali, h. e. k., and m. a. sajad. 2013. phytoremediation of heavy metals—concepts and applications. chemosphere 91:869–881. doi:10.1016/ j.chemosphere.2013.01.075. almeida-rodrigues, p., r. g. ferrari, l. n. dos santos, and c. a. c. junior. 2019. mercury in aquatic fauna contamination: a systematic review on its dynamics and potential health risks. journal of environmental sciences 101:1–14. doi:10.1016/ j.jes.2019.02.018. anjos, m. r., n. g. machado, m. e. p. da silva, w. r. bastos, m. r. miranda, d. p. carvalho, m. h. mussy, i. b. b. holanda, m. s. biudes, and j. a. fulan. 2016. 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archaeology, heritage, and moral terrains: two cases from the mesa verde region wolverton et al. 2016. ethnobiology letters 7(2):23–31 23 research communications special issue on memoirs and memory villages not be excavated; thus, archaeologists and those who claim pueblo heritage commonly adopt different positions about what ought and ought not to be done in terms of archaeological research. contrasting identities and narratives about ancestral pueblo culture leads to questions about whether or not it is ethical to pursue archaeological research without deeper involvement by members of pueblo society during research design (figueroa 2015). in this paper, we provide a conceptual space for engaging archaeological ethics developed from environmental philosophy. we introduce five concepts—moral terrains, restorative justice, collective continuance, ethical transformation, and lived ethic—illustrating how these have been useful in our interdisciplinary scholarship that spans environmental ethics, archaeological science, and pueblo heritage. as part of this edited volume on fieldwork memoirs, we narrate two short case studies told from the point of view of an archaeological scientist to illustrate how introduction archaeologists have established narratives about ancestral pueblo culture and mesa verde prehistory based on over a century of fieldwork, laboratory research, and synthesis (see recent syntheses by glowacki 2015; kohler et al. 2008; kohler and varien 2012; ortman 2012; varien 1999 among many examples). important research questions include: what led to the depopulation of the mesa verde region at approximately ad 1300? where did the ancestral pueblo people migrate to, and what were the drivers of migration (cameron 1995, 2006; glowacki 2015; ortman 2012)? in contrast, pueblo scholars sustain narratives about the ancestral pueblo past that center on their cultural identity (naranjo 1995, 2006; suina 2002; swentzell 2015). movement and migration are part of pueblo identity, and villages in the mesa verde region were not abandoned and are still occupied by ancestors. clearly, members of contemporary pueblo societies prefer that ancient archaeology, heritage, and moral terrains: two cases from the mesa verde region steve wolverton1*, robert melchior figueroa2, and porter swentzell3 1department of geography and the environment, university of north texas, denton, tx, usa. 2school of history, philosophy, and religion, oregon state university, corvallis, or, usa. 3indigenous liberal studies, institute for american indian arts, santa fe, nm, usa. *wolverton@unt.edu abstract multiple cultural identities converge in mesa verde archaeology. archaeologists have engaged research questions for the last half century, leading to cultural reconstructive summaries about how pueblo people lived prior to migrating out of the mesa verde region. the importance of this narrative centers on the identity of the researcher as an archaeologist. an increasingly recognized narrative among archaeologists is that of pueblo identity, in which contemporary pueblo people claim mesa verde villages and landscapes as part of their heritage. generally speaking, pueblo people and archaeologists navigate separate moral terrains, which pose multiple obstacles for both archaeologists and pueblo people pertaining to the past, present, and future of the mesa verde region. a conceptual framework from environmental philosophy opens a platform for reconciliation by providing a relational narrative that empowers pueblo identity and recalibrates archaeology. this environmental justice lens is applied to two archaeological research narratives, one centering on chemical analysis of biomolecular artifact residues and the other on paleohydrology and pueblo farming. received april 29, 2016 open access accepted september 14, 2016 doi 10.14237/ebl.7.2.2016.695 keywords archaeological ethics, moral terrains, environmental justice, heritage, mesa verde, lived ethic copyright © 2016 by the author(s); licensee society of ethnobiology. this is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution-noncommercial 4.0 international public license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0), which permits non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. wolverton et al. 2016. ethnobiology letters 7(2):23–31 24 research communications special issue on memoirs and memory our interdisciplinary fieldwork prompted and encouraged an ethical transformation. our position is that ethical codes in archaeology are more than sufficient for guiding scholarship; however, the personal experiences of archaeologists are diverse, which is why detailing personal narratives is important. this diversity may include archaeologists who are unaware of ethical codes or, in contrast, those who interpret such codes in a variety of ways from a pure focus on the merits of archaeological science, to community archaeology, to activism in heritage ethics. the experience of the archaeologist varies according to cultural identity, training, region, and experience. in writing this memoir we do not present the model of how to engage issues of heritage ethics, though our work has normative implications that can be considered as researchers find these insights relevant to their own investigations. thus, it is our model for engaging heritage ethics that we hope will be useful for others. there is a long history of scholarship in archaeological ethics1, which we do not review in this short paper. instead, we explore one example of an ethical code that we consider to be representative, detail the aforementioned concepts from environmental philosophy, share two case-study narratives, and discuss the implications of our fieldwork related to the philosophical framework we provide. however, first it is important to introduce our interdisciplinary project, its history, goals, and previous scholarly products. sushi in cortez this paper developed out of a project summarized in our book sushi in cortez: interdisciplinary essays on mesa verde (taylor and wolverton 2015), which concerned multiple visits to archaeological sites in the mesa verde region during 2011 with a documentary filmmaker, a landscape photographer, an environmental philosopher (figueroa), a poet, an american indian scholar (swentzell), and an archaeologist (wolverton). the project was inductive, asking: “when we do fieldwork together, what topics arise and how does this influence the way we do research?” we began by providing introductions to our scholarly approaches through shared presentations during the months preceding fieldwork. thus, it was clear that the filmmaker engaged ethical frameworks concerning what stories she should and should not tell. similarly, from philosophy an environmental justice focus quickly became embedded in group conversations, and we learned that photographers really do reflect upon the ethics of photos “taken” from a place. additionally, the inclusion of a pueblo scholar required that we engage questions of heritage. the sushi project provided fertile ground for discussion of archaeological ethics. this memoir communicates how our process of engaging archaeological subject matter (in this case site visits) led to a shift in the role of ethics in research for the archaeologist on the team. our site visits are discussed throughout the book, so we have omitted them here for the sake of brevity; the two case studies we discuss embody moral problems that surfaced for the archaeologist and became parts of the conversation during the sushi project. indeed, the sushi group was inductive and interdisciplinary to the extent that it shined an ethical spotlight on multiple dimensions of archaeological research. most significantly, few archaeologists (perhaps none) go into the field (more precisely, their field of scholarship) with both a native person and a trained ethicist. the results were transformative. codified ethics how an archaeologist interprets a code of ethics is an individual decision. there are multiple codes for archaeologists concerning how to engage in research that protects archaeological resources and how to interface with local peoples who may or may not be affected by research. the register of professional archaeologists (rpa 2016), the society for american archaeology (saa 2016), the world archaeological congress (wac 2016), and the archaeological institute of america (aia 2016a), for example, have codes that relate to their missions and membership demographics. these represent “codified ethics” that can serve as guideposts for the choices that researchers make. three types of ethical codes in archaeology address claims about indigenous heritage: consent, respect, and mutual accommodation. as an illustrative example, the aia code of professional standards part ii sections 2, 3, & 4 convey how local heritage claims should be addressed (aia 2016b): 2) plans for fieldwork should consider the environmental impact of the project and its overall effects on local communities. 3) for field projects, archaeologists should consult with appropriate representatives of the local community during the planning stage, invite local participation in the project, and regularly inform wolverton et al. 2016. ethnobiology letters 7(2):23–31 25 research communications special issue on memoirs and memory community members about the results of research. 4) archaeologists should respect the cultural norms and dignity of local inhabitants in areas where archaeological research is carried out. the legitimate concerns of people who claim descent from, or another connection with, cultures of the past must be balanced with disciplinary objectives and means. such considerations should be taken into account in designing the project’s strategy. archaeologists who are aware of these types of standards, however, may simply be considering their research from a disciplinary point of view—what we describe later in the paper as an “archaeological moral terrain.” for example, on our team, wolverton intimated “of course the archaeological questions i have and data i seek are of fascination and thus of merit?” “do i think that local people have any reason to be concerned about my interests?” “i am not intending to do harm, and i certainly am not studying any burials, am rarely involved in excavation, i do lab work, collections-based research, and applied research that benefits the world.” from a disciplinary perspective such research goals, in many ways, align with codified ethical standards. for example, an archaeologist who works with materials from collections in museums would arrange permissions and research plans with museum administrators and collection managers. that those collections already exist, are housed in museums, and tend to be under-researched may have fueled the archaeologist’s interests; therefore, potential heritage claims of local people were not at the forefront of research design. application of codified ethics in archaeology are thus diverse because whether or not to address heritage claims represents a choice made by the archaeologist during research design. indeed, there is no standard requiring that archaeologists solicit informed consent prior to approaching a research problem as there is in ethnography (gilmore and eshbaugh 2011; hardison and bannister 2011). this may simply relate to the fact that ethnographers directly communicate with living people and archaeologists address research on cultural materials, making obligations to living peoples seem indirect. the interests of local peoples are easier to envision when proposing research that requires excavation, particularly given the implications of the native american graves protection and repatriation act in the united states (e.g., fine-dare 2002; tsosie 2012; watkins 2014). this became increasingly clear during the sushi project because the team’s archaeologist has multiple ongoing research projects in the mesa verde region; in particular, there were philosophical concepts from environmental justice that we discussed, in the field and after, which can serve as guideposts for implementing codified ethics. moral terrains our ethicist has also collaborated with australian geographer gordon waitt to build what they call “the uluru project,” which has introduced the concept of moral terrains in their research on the importance of uluru-kata tjuta national park (formerly known as ayer’s rock; figueroa and waitt 2008, 2010; waitt and figueroa, et al. 2007). moral terrains are webs of values that exist in reference to particular places for members of cultures and establish a sense of belonging through heritage (proctor 1995; proctor and smith 1999; see douglas [2014] for a discussion of cultures within science). thus, the settler australian may view uluru as a place of national pride and desire to visit and climb the rock, a national pastime. the aboriginal heritage concerning uluru occupies a separate moral terrain in which history, law, and a moral ecology are embedded in the rock. thus, anangu indigenous law is clear: “we don’t climb,” which conflicts with the national pastime that has become a pilgrimage for settler australians. moreover, climbing the rock remains a colonial incursion under the guise of a tourist attraction. the anangu have established multiple guided walks that discuss their heritage, and figueroa and waitt (2008, 2010) discuss how this enables a transformation in environmental identity for many people from various backgrounds, such that people who sought to climb may change their mind. in that decision tourists provide a narrative account that assists in determining the extent to which the park’s pedagogical arm of reconciliation (between the anangu and settler australians) is effective. our use of moral terrains in this paper is heuristic; however, moral terrains are complex, embodied, and often undisclosed or taken for granted. they present conflicts of environmental justice for different communities, as evidenced when colonial practices are taken for granted explicitly because the colonial moral terrain embeds a lived ethic of power, denial, backgrounding, and radical exclusion (plumwood 2002). environmental justice is called upon to reconcile the conflict that colonialism presents for heritage and identity. uluru is a valuable case because the power wolverton et al. 2016. ethnobiology letters 7(2):23–31 26 research communications special issue on memoirs and memory dimensions of moral terrains are obviated if tourists disrespect the clear requests of the anangu to avoid climbing. however, as a site of national and aboriginal reconciliation, today the park invokes a moral terrain upon which restorative justice can be accomplished, for instance by phasing out the climb while imparting alternatives, such as viewing platforms and rerouted access to include the anangu cultural center and base trail, or by relocating the main parking lot away from the foot of the climb. here, we outline an “archaeological moral terrain” in contrast to “a moral terrain from pueblo heritage.” in reality, one lives many moral terrains across many spaces, just as one is socially located across many identities. such multiplicity may promote gateways to combine moral terrains for transformative benefits of environmental justice, but can also create prominent formations of overlapping domination. disclosing the contours of power around a moral terrain may require an ethical transformation (which was certainly the case for wolverton). the concept of moral terrains has become exceptionally important in our mesa verde research, to which we return to in the next section. restorative justice the opportunity for settler australians to transform environmental identity associated with uluru through joint management of the park is important for establishing environmental justice; such a practice establishes a respectful relationship and clearer understanding of injustices that occurred through the lived experiences of a colonial history related to the park. the result is that uluru is still a national park, but one that has more than a recognized aboriginal claim and that also offers the opportunity for transformation and sharing of heritage. this recognition and reconciliation process is known as restorative justice. there are nuanced components to this type of environmental justice that should be noted. first it acknowledges anangu heritage concerning uluru as part of their “collective continuance” (figueroa 2001; whyte 2013) through explicit recognition that their well-being is connected to that place through their heritage, which has an impact on present and future identity and heritage for all who interact with uluru. second, those who are visiting uluru who are not anangu have the opportunity for an ethical transformation concerning how they conceive of the place in terms of heritage and identity. because this transformation is based on sharing heritage, it is not a codified ethic but a lived ethic (camenisch 1983; leahy 1986). a lived ethic can be informed by a code, such as “we don’t climb,” but it represents the impacts of choices that are actually made related to values (webb 2015). the anangu refuse strong-arm enforcement tactics to restrict the climb, because reconciliation requires the capacity to transform the relations from one’s own lived ethics and moral capacity. such experiences may reinforce a codified ethic or prompt it to be changed to more accurately map onto relevant moral terrains. in our work in the mesa verde region during the sushi project, it became increasingly clear that we were inhabiting more than one moral terrain and were encountering the collective continuance of pueblo heritage in the same places where nationalized and global heritages are claimed—for example at mesa verde national park, which is a world heritage site. although hopi and other pueblo people are important in shaping the park’s narrative for tourism like the anangu at uluru, it became clear that the archaeological ethic of the team’s archaeologist had never been shaped in reference to pueblo collective continuance, causing wolverton’s lived ethic to shift. at this point in the paper we transition to a personal narrative in the first person by wolverton in order to describe two case studies of his research. we use those examples to describe how his lived ethic transformed. protein residues from archaeological cooking pottery the first example stems from nsf funded research in which a collaborative group of biologists, chemists, and archaeologists developed methods for extracting molecular protein food residues from cooking pottery. much of this work has been done experimentally, and the audience is referred to barker et al. (2012, 2015) and stevens et al. (2010) for details. for the purposes of this paper, suffice it to say that we used experimental cooking pottery to develop our approaches. then, once optimized, we applied the approach to archaeological pottery from many areas of the world, including to corrugated cooking pottery from ancient pueblo sites in the mesa verde region. our original approach can be described as a non-targeted (or full mass) scan for any and all types of protein, which can be quite specific to taxon or even to tissue. our approach produced a substantial series of negative results, detecting no meaningful proteins, with one exception—a match for a human intestinal cell protein. it would turn out that this was a false wolverton et al. 2016. ethnobiology letters 7(2):23–31 27 research communications special issue on memoirs and memory positive, but two moral terrains came together during the weeks following the identification. we had been working from the moral terrain of archaeological science, and it had not entered the realm of possibility that we might encounter human remains within pottery. operating from a scientific framework, we had been conceiving of the project as concerned with subsistence. the work had been worth doing because it represented substantial method development, and the archaeological potential would add a new approach with which to study past diet and environments. in terms of codified ethics, we had not considered whether or not we would encounter human remains, because we did not conceive of biomolecular remains as human. this became an oversight when we encountered those claiming pueblo heritage who embody a distinctive moral terrain, into which we had clumsily wandered. the pottery we studied had been entrusted to us by crow canyon archaeological center, who had excavated the materials. they have a native american remains policy that required us to report our unanticipated (and frankly unwanted) finding. i recall lamenting, “why could not our first protein hit have been from beans or turkey?!” per policy, we reported our finding to the native american advisory group at crow canyon. in the process, we stopped our work and awaited their reaction, discussion, and recommendation. the members of the advisory group noted that disturbance of human remains of any kind is problematic as part of their collective continuance requires that their ancestors not be disturbed. wandering into this moral terrain through the “excavation of pottery fragments” (however inadvertent it was to us) demonstrated that the type of study we were doing is not a subsistence study to pueblo people but is more akin to study of human burials. it was distressfully conveyed to us that pueblo people do not have a tradition to handle repatriation: archaeological recovery of human remains presents them with a problem for which they have no reaction option. our group, in collaboration with crow canyon, has revised their human remains policy to incorporate biomolecular research, stating that much like with skeletal burials, human remains will not be targeted for study. however, it was becoming increasingly clear that codified ethics about envisioning and communicating the potential impacts of research on local communities may require not just determining from a distance whether or not there appears to be a potential problem, but rather during project design communicating about most or all research to see if there could be concerns, thus transforming a codified ethic such as that of the aia into a lived ethic. concepts from environmental justice and ethics, such as moral terrains, help articulate the need for and practice of such a lived ethic. this would become even clearer related to a second project, also nsf funded, also in the mesa verde region, also in collaboration with crow canyon. remote sensing of garden landscapes the village ecodynamics project (vep) through washington state university has modeled human population growth, subsistence resource abundance, soil parameters, site location, and climate change in the mesa verde region during the last decade (kohler et al. 2008). the vep approach is coarse in scale geographically, and colleagues and i developed a proposal to zoom in its resolution to individual villages, to examine the farming landscape at the scale at which farmers would have encountered it. we have been particularly interested in factors, such as soil moisture, type, depth, climate, and local hydrological regimes, related to the potential for maize crop failure in periods leading up to the depopulation of mesa verde at roughly ad 1300. part of our research relies on ground-truthing soil moisture data to be used to estimate the wilting point of plants under different scenarios. this validation is accomplished by studying experimental farm plots at crow canyon where hopi and zuni farmers have planted and tended crops for several years—enter moral terrains. we were operating within the scientific, archaeological terrain of seeking to understand the past because the matter of what led to depopulation of the mesa verde region continues to be an intriguing question of high significance. through modeling and remote sensing, we envisioned ourselves as far removed from contemporary pueblo people and that our study would not have an impact on them. this was despite my earlier experience with protein residues, but we simply saw no overlap. during one research trip to crow canyon in may of 2015, a graduate student and i expanded and renovated one of the farm plots and installed digital soil moisture and temperature sensors with data loggers. we did this the same week that hopi farmers arrived to plant corn in the crow canyon gardens. crow canyon does weekly educational programs, and wolverton et al. 2016. ethnobiology letters 7(2):23–31 28 research communications special issue on memoirs and memory we were asked to talk about our nsf project as were the farmers about planting out at the gardens. i described our project much like i have here, and the hopi farmers briefly discussed their means of planting and how they pray for the corn to grow and to become successful by harvest in the fall. later i would hear that the hopi farmers were taken aback by our description of our project, with sentiments that “one should not talk about crop failure when one is planting corn.” this, i would later find out is a sign of disrespect to the corn. many pueblo groups assign personhood to corn, and terms used to describe growth in corn are the same as those used to describe growth of children. inadvertently, i had intruded upon an unknown (to me) moral terrain. other statements were made as well, such as “corn is for eating not for measuring,” which later i would find out relates to the fact that to finish its life cycle and for hopi to finish their obligations in terms of harvest it must be prepared and eaten in certain ways, and honored. in a second trip that summer, i would share time with one zuni man who tends the maize in the crow canyon plots each day. he visits each corn plant, touches it, encourages it, and honors it as he tends the garden. this moral terrain is one of intimacy and respect. i found myself thinking of my own neglected garden at home, which for me is a luxury. it would have thrived if i had paid but a fraction of the attention and care into it that this person had at crow canyon. as a result of these and other experiences, i came to recognize what a colleague terms a “goldilocks dilemma” in this and other facets of my mesa verde archaeological research. i find myself settling into one research problem or another from the moral terrain of archaeological science, the one that is comfortable, the one that fits in terms of ethics and interests, only to find later that i am also occupying the moral terrain of someone else’s heritage. this has led to a substantial transformation in my lived ethic. discussion if collective continuance of heritage embodied in the cultural and environmental identities of pueblo people is to be considered, we cannot pretend that science has no impact. however, if we envision that mesa verde archaeological science occupies a moral terrain with codes, values, and currencies for success and that its rules may not uniformly match those of the moral terrain held by contemporary pueblo people, we have a starting point for a fair and honest conversation about what types of archaeological research should and should not be pursued. to do this, however, means that archaeologists must be willing to share ownership of the places and materials of the field, such as parks, sites, and artifacts, as well as the research process (marshall 2002; tullie 2007), which is something that our codified ethical standards prompt us to consider. what would restorative justice look like in the mesa verde region? much like with the anangu, it must be collaborative but also allow for selfdetermination of the roles that pueblo heritage will play in archaeological research design. in the american southwest, the native american advisory group at crow canyon is novel as it represents a council of indigenous community members who can deliberate research agendas and outcomes at the center. however, the group is established hierarchically within the center, and not as an independent, selfdirected pueblo heritage council. additionally, the advisory group focuses primarily on crow canyon’s research, which might or might not include collaboration with archaeologists from other research institutions. thus, the products of the advisory group, though beneficial and transformative in terms of archaeological ethics for those in the crow canyon community, do not emulate a professional standard analogous to establishing informed consent as an ethnographer. a contrast is clear in this regard, as ethnographers embrace codified standards that require informed consent for use of information from research that impacts people in communities they interact with: see, for example the codes of ethics for the international society of ethnobiology (ise 2016) and the society for applied anthropology (sfaa 2016). archaeologists have determined their own codes, which encourage informed consideration with members of local communities prior to research. practice, however, is left to the archaeologist, who may be working from the disciplinary moral terrain of archaeology. thus neither the professional standard nor the cultural infrastructure (beyond that of crow canyon) exist in this area of the american southwest for a sustainable conversation about indigenous heritage that challenges the lived ethic of the archaeologist. rather, whether or not the archaeologist’s lived ethic is engaged to the level implied in ethical codes depends upon the experiences of each archaeologist. a self-determined pueblo heritage council would be wolverton et al. 2016. ethnobiology letters 7(2):23–31 29 research communications special issue on memoirs and memory one that is not initiated and designed through an archaeological research institute or a scholarly society, but instead would represent the collective continuance of pueblo culture. such a council would formally challenge archaeologists to engage codified ethics at a deeper level. indeed, these types of councils and organizations have been important for empowering indigenous groups in other parts of the united states and the world (marshall 2002). for the archaeologist, operating mainly from the moral terrain of science, holding dialogues related to environmental heritage with local peoples represents a serious challenge, which we do not wish to trivialize. our perspective is not that archaeological research design should be in the hands of non-archaeologists; rather, we hold that there is an ethical imperative to establish dialogues with local peoples when multiple heritage claims exist. in our experience, establishing dialogues with pueblo people has not constrained opportunities for practicing archaeological research, but has had an important outcome of clarifying the potential harmful impacts of how research might be communicated and contextualized. a goal should be to achieve balance among empowering archaeological research, welcoming conversations with local people, and reducing the potential for unintended harm. the approach we adopted in the sushi project highlights the importance of viewing archaeological ethics from multiple viewpoints. poets, filmmakers, and photographers, for example, do not value the rendition of mesa verde prehistory told from the perspective of archaeology above that of the contemporary pueblo person with expertise in traditional knowledge about their own heritage (references in taylor and wolverton 2015). as a result, for an archaeologist visiting these places with an ethicist, a pueblo person, and other scholars, the collective continuance of pueblo heritage could not be ignored. the two examples presented here are indicative of how this experience enabled recognition of distinctive moral terrains and when, like goldilocks, archaeologists might naively find themselves in someone else’s house. correspondingly, the experience in terms of archaeological ethics has been much more than “something that is learnt as a list of rules in the classroom” (giblin et al. 2014:132). rather, the result is that a lived ethic can more fully embody a codified ethic, prompting one to ask before entering. in addition, this sets the stage to ask what is it about other peoples’ heritage that is so intensely fascinating to archaeological scientists, particularly when those questions tend to be asked only from the moral terrain of archaeology. notes 1for examples of classic studies in archaeological ethics see green (1984), lynott and wylie (1995), swidler et al. (1997), and zimmerman et al. (2003). contemporary treatment of heritage ethics can be found in atalay et al. (2014) and meskell (2015). colwell and joy (2015) provide particularly salient treatment of ethics related to archaeology and pueblo heritage. acknowledgments thank you to shawn collins, margie connolly, donna glowacki, sarah payne, gustavo neme, and dana lepofsky for thoughtful conversations about this paper in addition to researchers at crow canyon archaeological center. three anonymous reviewers provided critiques of this paper that helped us improve it. declarations permissions: none declared. sources of funding: site visits for sushi in cortez were partially funded by the center for the study of interdiscipinarity and the department of geography and the environment at the university of north texas. the protein residue research was funded by the national science foundation archaeometry technical development grants 08221896, 0905020, and 1112615. the soil moisture case study is funded by national science foundation archaeology grant 1460122. conflicts of interest: none declared. 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available at: http:// worldarch.org/code-of-ethics/. accessed on 10/24/2016. zimmerman, l. j., k. d. vitelli, and j. j. hollowellzimmer, eds. 2003. ethical issues in archaeology. rowman altamira, lanham, md. ethnobotanical study of the mexican laurel in el chico national park, mexico: a quantitative perspective ortega-meza et al. 2019. ethnobiology letters 10(1):1–13 1 research communications used by humans and understanding how local people select, use, and manage plants, and why (gaoue et al. 2017), and documenting the knowledge that human populations have about them. this type of knowledge should be applied in conservation, since it provides real and functional information on the use and management of useful species and vegetation as a whole (shrestha and medley 2017). this information could be used to generate public policy and by decision makers and policy makers (albuquerque et al. 2009). this applies mainly to species with economic and cultural importance (including symbolic importance) that contribute to human welfare (albuquerque et al. 2009). ethnobotany also enables the necessary tools to be generated to promote sustainable use of plant resources (gómez-pompa 2001; lópez-gutiérrez et al. 2014; pío-león et al. 2017). additionally, ethnobotany research potentially introduction the success of human populations has depended in part on their knowledge and manipulation of their environment, an aspect in which plants play a fundamental role (pardo de santayana and gómez 2003). several researchers have studied the importance of plants to rural communities: how the plants are managed, their diverse uses, and the best conservation methods. however, special attention should be given to the uses of species in natural protected areas (npas), as in most cases conservation in protected areas does not take into account the cultural contexts in which these uses have evolved (tuxill and nabhan 2001). ethnobotany has clear applications to conservation science in several aspects. it is fundamental for identifying the diversity of plants ethnobotanical study of the mexican laurel in el chico national park, mexico: a quantitative perspective daniela ortega-meza1*, maría teresa pulido-silva1, joari costa de arruda2, and carolina joana da silva2 1instituto de ciencias básicas e ingeniería, centro de investigaciones biológicas, universidad autónoma del estado de hidalgo, pachuca de soto, hidalgo, mexico. 2centro de estudos em limnologia, biodiversidade e etnobiologia do pantanal, universidade do estado de mato grosso, cáceres, mato grosso, brazil. *labetnobiologiauaeh@gmail.com abstract this study was conducted in two villages of el chico national park (ecnp), mexico, to document the uses of litsea glaucescens (mexican laurel) by the local population and to identify actors with knowledge about the species using quantitative ethnobotanical techniques. fifty-five semi-structured interviews were conducted to obtain a free-list about the specific uses of the laurel, to analyze its importance among the social group under study, and to use social networking to identify individuals within the community who had particular knowledge about the plant. we found a total of 25 specific uses for the plant, which have different levels of importance for the people of the ecnp. the most common use was seasoning, while medicinal and cultural uses had a lesser importance. use of the seed of the laurel as a material for handcrafts is recorded for the first time in this study. the social network showed that there was a relationship between the actors interviewed from the two communities. they are identified as having some relationship to the plant or knowledge about it, but the actors who produce it are the most prominent. an analysis of the specific uses of the laurel and those with knowledge about it is considered indispensable for generating specific management and harvesting strategies for the species, which will be able to contribute a local perspective to its conservation. received october 19, 2018 open access accepted january 29, 2019 doi 10.14237/ebl.10.1.2019.1427 published april 15, 2019 keywords free-list, natural protected area (npa), quantitative ethnobotany, social network, mexican laurel copyright © 2019 by the author(s); licensee society of ethnobiology. this is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution-noncommercial 4.0 international public license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0), which permits non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. ortega-meza et al. 2019. ethnobiology letters 10(1):1–13 2 research communications encourages conservation from an etic and emic perspective (pío-león et al. 2017). in mexico, a variety of plants are used by communities residing within npas (pulido and cuevas-cardona 2013). these plants provide multiple benefits, as they are grown not only for commerce, but also for daily household use (alexiades and shanley 2004). however, there are few npa management plans that address the conservation of plants that are considered useful or valuable either because of their subsistence value or because of their ceremonial and social importance (tuxill and nabhan 2001). the value and importance of useful plants can be classified according to their contribution within the traditional culture of a given human group and can be evaluated from two perspectives. the first is to determine the number of useful plants in a location overall, and the second is to learn the actual or potential applications of a given plant (turner 1988). there are a number of methods for determining the importance of different species or families of plants. these methods include quantitative techniques; for example, measuring cultural significance through the use of indices (turner 1988), relative importance and use value (phillips and gentry 1993), or the importance of a given use based on its frequency and the order in which it is mentioned, as is the case of smith’s salience index (borgatti 1996). these methods have enabled the relationship between people and plants to be investigated effectively. however, in order to understand the importance of a species from the local perspective, it is also necessary to understand the relationship between the members of the human groups studied, who are the users of these resources. social networks are useful for locating information about the capacity for intercommunication and organization among the members of a group, as well as for finding out individual actors’ perceptions of other members and their own positions within the group (boster et al. 1987). this study evaluates the importance of specific uses of mexican laurel (litsea glaucescens) in two communities (villages) in ecnp. the mexican laurel grows wild in the abies religiosa (“oyamel”) forest of this natural protected area and has been classified as in danger of extinction under the mexican nom-059semarnat-2010 standard (semarnat 2010). ethnobotanical information on the main uses of a plant (in the current case mexican laurel), and the relationship between users of the plant and those with knowledge about it will enable the importance of the species and its specific uses to be determined and interpreted by local residents in terms that they consider significant (turner 1988). of the 7,800 non-timber species identified in mexico's cold temperate forests, mexican laurel is one of the five non-timber forest products considered to have high potential for development (conabio 1998). its uses include medicinal uses, namely infusions for the relief of chest congestion, cough, maladies of the ear, various gastrointestinal diseases, intestinal pain, postpartum uterine contractions, sterility and dysmenorrhea, as well as ceremonial uses (jiménez-pérez et al. 2011). in recent years, the plant has been discovered to have properties for treating stress-related conditions (guzmán-gutiérrez et al. 2014). as a seasoning, it is sold as bundles of dry leaves together with thyme, marjoram, and oregano, and used to flavor pasta, fish, and tomato sauce dishes (dávila-figueroa et al. 2011; jiménez-pérez et al. 2011). while the species is harvested illegally in the ecnp and sold (personal observation and confiscations by environmental authorities), part of the supply is produced legally in two wildlife management units (umas in spanish) in carboneras, where it is financially supported by semarnat. this study is focused on knowledge about the mexican laurel and the traditional and domestic uses given to the species. it is the first detailed study of the uses of this plant in mexico and the first time these uses have been ranked according to the importance they have for the local communities that use them. given the findings of previous research, it was expected that medicinal uses would prevail in the study area since the communities in the studies are rural. religious uses were also expected to predominate, especially easter week festivals, as in other parts of the country. the use of mexican laurel in easter celebrations is one of the most studied (lópez-gutiérrez et al. 2010; montañez-armenta et al. 2011; ortiz-quijano 2016). additionally, this study was carried out in the ecnp, a key area for mexican laurel production at the national level because of the outstanding organoleptic quality of the plants grown here. the objectives of the present study were: 1) to evaluate the most important specific traditional uses of the plant among the study communities, based on ortega-meza et al. 2019. ethnobiology letters 10(1):1–13 3 research communications the free-listing technique and 2) to analyze the social network among the members of the communities to identify the relationships between the people who are recognized for having some type of knowledge about the uses of the mexican laurel. the goal is to contribute to documenting the ethnobotanical knowledge on the species, which will be useful both for making management decisions in the context of npas and for helping maintain traditional knowledge among the local mestizo people. methods study area the ecnp is located in the state of hidalgo, mexico, with an area of 2,739 hectares, covered mostly (62.9%) by “oyamel” forest, which is where most of the mexican laurel populations are located. there are seven towns in the ecnp (conanp 2005; figure 1), with a total population of 6,721. the local population is of mestizo origin (inegi 2010). ethnobotanical information was collected in carboneras and pueblo nuevo. these two towns are different in age. carboneras was one of the first communities founded in the region (1876–1897), during a mining boom, and has a population of 1,226 (inegi 2010). pueblo nuevo was founded between 1965–1980 and has a population of 753 (inegi 2010). it should be noted that the purpose of the study was not to compare them, but to broaden the potential for discovering different uses for the mexican laurel in the study area. the main occupations among the male residents are subsistence agricultural production for selfconsumption, mainly in agricultural plots and figure 1 study locations: carboneras, municipality of mineral del chico and pueblo nuevo, and municipality of mineral del monte, hidalgo. ortega-meza et al. 2019. ethnobiology letters 10(1):1–13 4 research communications common lands, masonry, and trade, in addition to gardening or factory work in the city of pachuca. the women are homemakers or domestic employees in pachuca. fifty-five percent of the interviewees said they worked at more than one job. both communities offer tourism services, but none of the respondents make a living in this industry. data collection before the fieldwork started, a meeting was held with the authorities of the two towns, to obtain consent for the interviews. a total of 55 interviews were conducted, from may to august 2017. the sample size was determined by the collector’s curve (krebs 1989). this curve gives the number of interviews that are needed to have enough information about the topic under consideration. when the curve stabilizes, it indicates that the universe of the sample is not altered even if more interviews are added (figure 2). in this case, the collector’s curve stabilized at interview 54, leading to the decision to conduct a total of 55 interviews. thirty interviews were conducted in carboneras and 25 in pueblo nuevo. twenty-six men and 29 women were interviewed. to ensure anonymity, the interview subjects were identified by initials (bernard 2006). the interview subjects were selected using the snowball method (bernard 2006). the snowball method is initiated by locating a key informant. subsequently, interviews were continued with the actors named in the snowball process. however, in six cases the subjects did not nominate others, and in other cases they nominated people who had already been interviewed, so it was decided to include six more people who had mexican laurel in their gardens, yards, or plots of land, under the assumption that they had knowledge about the plant. in addition, 11 young people under 30 years of age were selected to subsequently investigate knowledge transmission. the interviews were divided into three age ranges (15–30, 31–60, >60), to represent young people, adults, and seniors. it should be noted that although the actors were interviewed on the basis of previously established methods, they were targeted according to specific characteristics, such as originating from the communities and being of either sex. the interviewers did not seek to interview merchants but rather local users of the plant or people who were mentioned as being related to it according to other actors. while the interviews were conducted with local users of the plants, the method applied could potentially include legal or illegal traders of mexican laurel, as did happen. ethnobotanical information about the mexican laurel was gathered using a semi-structured interview (albuquerque et al. 2014; bernard 2006). the interviewer first asked about the socio-economic characteristics of the interview subject, and then elicited a free-list (bernard 2006) of the uses given to the laurel and the parts of the plant used for these purposes. at the end of the interview, the subject was also asked about other actors who could potentially provide information about the topic. the free-listing technique consists in listing all the terms mentioned by the actors interviewed on the domain of interest, which are recorded in the order in which they state them. to ensure that the interviewer and the interview subject were talking about the same object, a branch of mexican laurel was presented as a visual stimulus (bernard 2006). one hundred percent of the informants recognized the plant. data analysis the free-list was analyzed using smith’s salience index by means of the anthropac 4.0 program (borgatti 1996). this index assigns the highest values, close to one, according to the frequency and order by which the terms are mentioned in the list. it enables them to be classified by their importance. notable breaks or discontinuities occur between the numerical figure 2 collector curve. x axis: number of persons interviewed. y axis: number of uses mentioned. ortega-meza et al. 2019. ethnobiology letters 10(1):1–13 5 research communications values of the elements with greater or lesser salience (gravlee 2002). based on the results of the free-list analysis, multidimensional scaling (mds) was applied based on the jaccard index, using the past 3.0 program (hammer et al. 2001). this locates the different uses in a hyperdimensional space as a function of their similarity according to the number of times they are mentioned (romney and weller 1984). the uses of mexican laurel reported in the interviews were classified into four categories modified from castañeda and albán (2016) as follows: seasoning, used to add flavor and aroma to various dishes; medicinal, used to treat or prevent diseases; cultural, used in social or ritual activities; and craft production, in which the seed is used for manufacturing items by hand. information provided by informants about other members of the community was noted, graphed, and analyzed using the ucinet 6.403 and netdraw 2.120 programs (borgatti 2002), which allowed us to draw a social network of the actors. this network shows that the greater the number of mentions of a given actor by other members of the network, then the greater the recognition of that actor in the social group with respect to a particular topic (laumann and pappi 1973). each actor is represented by a symbol whose size represents the degree of recognition that other actors assign them. the lines that join the actors of the network can be unior bi-directional; that is, nomination may or may not be reciprocal. disconnected nodes in the network represent people who were not mentioned by other actors. results uses of mexican laurel in communities in the ecnp of the actors interviewed from the study communities, 100% acknowledged that the plant was used in their homes. the use most mentioned was seasoning (95%); 53% mentioned cultural uses, 42% mentioned medicinal uses, and only 2% of those interviewed mentioned crafts. these results contrast with those given by the quantitative analysis of the smith index. simultaneously taking into account both the order in which a use is mentioned, as well as the frequency, it enables the uses, in this case from a local perspective, to be ranked more precisely. this is the case of cultural uses. although they were mentioned by more than half of the actors (53%), they were often named near the end of the free-list, and the interview often had to be focused (bernard 2006) before the actors could identify, remember, and mention these uses. the actors mentioned 25 specific uses of the mexican laurel, from which the smith index was calculated. five groups could be registered in the freelist, identified by gaps or breaks in the value of the index. use of the plant for pickling chile peppers had the highest value (0.655), indicating that it has the greatest importance in the study localities. the second break is between the use of the laurel in foods based on tomato sauce (0.364), fish (0.351), pasta (0.296), and chicken broth (0.265), suggesting that these are also important uses. less important were its uses for mixiotes (0.210), tinga (0.192), and mole (0.186), as well as medicinal use for teas (0.200) shown by the third break. the first three groups are made up of culinary uses, while the first medicinal use does not emerge until after the third break. the fourth break is between medicinal use in baths to cure espanto and remove bad energy (0.179), as well as postpartum baths (0.176) and in dishes such as picadillo (0.165) and pozole (0.152). the other 12 specific uses in the final group were mentioned infrequently, and in last place on the free-list, indicating that they are not very important in these communities. among these uses are the seven religious uses that are made of the plant in the study communities (table 1). the multidimensional scaling diagram (mds) grouped the uses of the mexican laurel according to the greater frequency of mentions and the similarity of the answers among the interviewees who mentioned them. in this case, the uses as seasoning were grouped together, confirming the importance of the species in this category rather than for medicinal or cultural uses (figure 3). social network of knowledge and uses of mexican laurel the social network identified two individuals with specialized knowledge of the mexican laurel in carboneras and showed that there is a relationship between the informants. the network was made up of the 55 interview subjects. these actors named at least one other person and up to seven (with the exception of the six actors who did not name anyone else), making up the network of relationships between persons who use or know the species in the study localities. the disconnected nodes (15) in the network correspond to people who have some relationship or knowledge about the plant because they have the plant growing in their garden, backyard, or plot of ortega-meza et al. 2019. ethnobiology letters 10(1):1–13 6 research communications land although they were not necessarily mentioned by other actors, in addition to some young people not taken into account by seniors and vice versa (figure 4). the network shows mainly unidirectional relationships; that is, recognition between actors is not always reciprocal. it also demonstrates that there is a relationship between actors in pueblo nuevo and in carboneras. the social network shows a concentration around the actor bbm, who was mentioned by 16 others. this person was the central interviewee of the network, and was followed by the actor vmg, with nine mentions and gfo and pvp with eight mentions each. it should be noted that bbm and vmg are recognized in both towns as experts on the mexican laurel in carboneras, as they are the promoters of the two umas. these actors, were the only ones identified as trading in mexican laurel. in general, the actors with the highest number of mentions were identified as having some relationship with the mexican laurel tree and, therefore, according to the interview subjects, had the most knowledge about the plant. it is notable that of the 40 connected actors in the network, 20 were women and 20 were men, which indicates that both genders have knowledge about the uses of the plant. adults were the age group most mentioned in the social network (19), followed by seniors (13) and eight young people. young people, despite being mentioned less than other age groups, are already identified by other actors as knowing about the plant. discussion local uses of mexican laurel this is the first study focused on investigating the specific uses of litsea glaucescens in mexico, specifically in the ecnp. the quantitative results showed that its uses as a seasoning are the most common and most important (95%) in the ecnp, while medicinal and figure 3 diagram of multidimensional scaling (mds) of reported uses of mexican laurel. each point represents one use: circles = seasoning, triangles = cultural, and squares = medicinal. use in the december 12 festival and as material for handicrafts was not included in the mds, since they behave as outliers. the meaning of the symbols are found in table 1. ortega-meza et al. 2019. ethnobiology letters 10(1):1–13 7 research communications ta b le 1 f re e -l is t an d s m it h in d ex o f u se s o f la u re l i n c ar b o n er as a n d p u eb lo n u ev o . c at e go ry sp e ci fi c u se a b re vi ati o n p la n t p ar t u se d fr e q u e n cy (% ) n = 5 5 a ve ra ge ra n ge sm it h in d e x d e sc ri p ti o n se as o n in g p ic kl ed c h ile p ep p er s c v le av es 7 6 .4 1 .9 3 0 .6 5 5 w h o le o r le n gt h w is e sl ic ed c h ile s, u su al ly ja la p eñ o s, co o ke d in v in eg ar w it h o n io n s an d c ar ro ts , se as o n in g to m at o s au ce c j le av es 5 6 .4 4 0 .3 6 4 a b as ic m ex ic an s au ce , s er ve d w it h a v ar ie ty o f d is h es . se as o n in g fi sh p e le av es 6 9 .1 5 .3 9 0 .3 5 1 u su al ly c o o ke d in b ro th w it h v eg et ab le s o r gr ill ed o n co al s in a lu m in u m f o il al o n g w it h o th er in gr ed ie n ts . se as o n in g p as ta s p a le av es 5 6 .4 5 .1 3 0 .2 9 6 m ad e w it h w h ea t fl o u r, c o o ke d w it h h er b s to e n h an ce th e fl av o r. se as o n in g c h ic ke n s o u p c p le av es 6 3 .6 6 .4 0 .2 6 5 b ro th c o n ta in in g p ie ce s o f ch ic ke n a n d a ss o rt ed v eg e ta b le s. se as o n in g m ix io te s m x le av es 4 0 6 .1 4 0 .2 1 m ea t se as o n ed w it h a s p ic y ru b , s te am ed t o ge th e r w it h n o p al c ac tu s p ad d le s en p ap ill o te in a s h ee t o f m e m b ra n e st ri p p ed f ro m a p u lq u e m ag u ey le af . m ed ic in al te a t le av es 3 2 .7 4 .7 2 0 .2 in fu si o n o f la u re l l ea ve s u se d t o r el ie ve c o u gh o r ga str o in te sti n al p ro b le m s. se as o n in g ti n g a tg le av es 4 3 .6 7 .3 3 0 .1 9 2 st ew o f sh re d d ed c h ic ke n in a t o m at o , o n io n , g ar lic an d c h ip o tl e ch ile s au ce . se as o n in g m o le m l le av es 3 8 .2 6 .2 9 0 .1 8 6 a m ex ic an s au ce c o n si sti n g m ai n ly o f ch ile p ep p er s, sp ic e s, g ro u n d n u ts a n d s ee d s. m ed ic in al b at h s to c u re e sp an to an d e lim in at e b ad en er gy . b 1 b ra n ch es 2 7 .3 4 0 .1 7 9 b at h s in te n d ed t o e lim in at e n eg ati ve a sp ec ts f ro m t h e b o d y, u si n g a co m b in ati o n o f p la n ts t h at in cl u d e th e la u re l a n d fl o w er s. m ed ic in al p o st p ar tu m b at h s b 2 b ra n ch es 2 3 .6 3 .3 1 0 .1 7 6 b at h s in te n d ed t o e lim in at e co ld f ro m t h e b o d y o f a w o m an w h o h as g iv en b ir th , u si n g a co m b in ati o n o f p la n ts t h at in cl u d e th e la u re l, si n ce it is c o n si d e re d a h o t h er b . se as o n in g p ic ad ill o p d le av es 3 6 .4 7 .1 5 0 .1 6 5 h as h m ad e w it h g ro u n d m ea t, c ar ro ts , p ea s an d p o ta to es . se as o n in g p o zo le p z le av es 4 0 7 .9 1 0 .1 5 2 a t ra d iti o n al m ex ic an a n d c en tr al a m er ic an s o u p m ad e fr o m h o m in y, k n o w n a s ca ca h u az in tl e, a n d c h ic ke n o r p o rk m ea t, a lo n g w it h o th er in gr ed ie n ts . c u lt u ra l d ay o f th e d ea d 2 n b ra n ch es 1 6 .4 2 .2 2 0 .1 3 2 m ex ic an c e le b ra ti o n , w h ic h h o n o rs t h e d ec ea se d a s th ey r et u rn t o v is it t h ei r liv in g re la ti ve s. n o ve m b er 1 an d 2 . se as o n in g g ri lle d m ea t/ ra b b it c a le av es 1 4 .5 3 .5 0 .1 1 2 m ai n ly b ee f o r ra b b it g ri lle d o n a b ar b ec u e. (c o n ti n u ed o n n ex t p ag e) ortega-meza et al. 2019. ethnobiology letters 10(1):1–13 8 research communications c at e go ry sp e ci fi c u se a b re vi ati o n p la n t p ar t fr e q u e n cy (% ) n = 5 5 a ve ra ge ra n ge sm it h in d e x d e sc ri p ti o n se as o n in g p o rk b ra is ed in la rd an d p ic kl ed p ig s fe et c c le av es 1 2 .7 5 .1 4 0 .0 8 2 v ar io u s p ar ts o f th e p ig a re b ra is ed in la rd ; t h e p ig ’s fe et a re b o ile d , a n d v in eg ar a n d v eg et ab le s ar e ad d ed . c u lt u ra l ea st er w e ek ss b ra n ch es 1 8 .2 6 .5 0 .0 8 1 c at h o lic f e sti va l t h at c o m m e m o ra te s th e p as si o n , d ea th a n d r es u rr ec ti o n o f c h ri st . m ar ch o r a p ri l. b ra n ch es o f la u re l a re b le ss ed o n p al m s u n d ay a n d p la ce d in t h e ar ch es o f th e ch u rc h es t o s ym b o liz e th e tr iu m p h an t en tr an ce o f c h ri st in to j er u sa le m . c u lt u ra l c an d le m as 2 f b ra n ch es 1 2 .7 6 .7 1 0 .0 6 1 c at h o lic f e sti va l c el eb ra ti n g th e p re se n ta ti o n o f th e c h ri st c h ild a t th e te m p le . f e b ru ar y 2 . se as o n in g b a rb a co a w it h la m b b lo o d b s le av es 1 0 .9 4 .5 0 .0 5 9 m ea t, u su al ly la m b , i s co o ke d in a fi re p it d u g in to t h e gr o u n d a n d c o ve re d w it h m ag u ey le av e s. w h en t h e c u lt u ra l r el iq u ia s r b ra n ch es 1 0 .9 6 .1 7 0 .0 5 3 b ra n ch es o r b o u q u et s o f d iff e re n t p la n ts a re m ad e fo r ce rt ai n r el ig io u s fe sti va ls a n d t ak en t o t h e ch u rc h t o b e b le ss ed . t h ey a re t h en t ak en t o h o m es a n d p la ce d b eh in d t h e d o o r. w h en t h e w ea th er is b ad t h ey a re b u rn ed t o c al m t h e st o rm o r to a sk f o r go o d h ar ve st s. m ed ic in al a ro m ati ze a n d s an iti ze . a d le af 9 .1 4 .8 0 .0 4 8 th e le af is c h ew ed t o f re sh en t h e b re at h . c u lt u ra l h o ly c ro ss d ay 3 m b ra n ch es 7 .3 6 .7 5 0 .0 2 9 c at h o lic f e sti va l i n w h ic h c ro ss e s ar e d ec o ra te d w it h fl o w er s, r ib b o n s an d o th er p la n ts in cl u d in g th e la u re l. c u lt u ra l fu n er al w re at h s d b ra n ch es 1 .8 1 0 0 .0 0 6 u se d t o d ec o ra te w re at h s an d a rc h es p la ce d o n g ra ve s. h an d ic ra ft n ec kl ac e s a t se ed s 1 .8 3 0 .0 0 6 th e se ed s o f th e la u re l a re p ie rc ed in t h e ce n te r so th at t h ey c an b e th re ad ed o n to a r ib b o n o r th re ad . c u lt u ra l d ay o f o u r la d y o f g u ad al u p e 1 2 d b ra n ch es 1 .8 1 1 0 .0 0 4 c at h o lic f e sti va l c el eb ra te d o n d ec e m b er 1 2 in v en er ati o n o f th e v ir gi n o f g u ad al u p e, p at ro n s ai n t o f m ex ic o . th e la u re l i s u se d a s a d ec o ra ti o n . (c o n ti n u ed f ro m p re vi o u s p ag e) ortega-meza et al. 2019. ethnobiology letters 10(1):1–13 9 research communications religious uses have medium and low importance, respectively, among this social group. this suggests that in the study area, its use as seasoning is the most frequent but also the first to be mentioned by the interview subjects, which could be due to the fact that the mexican laurel plays a part in satisfying basic human needs through its use in food (castañeda and albán 2016), an aspect that supports the idea that food is a cultural element that tends to be strongly maintained. the results again show that religious uses of the mexican laurel are of less relative importance. this result suggests that there may be a lack of interest among the population regarding certain cultural practices, or specifically an influence from other religious practices in which the use of particular elements from nature is not as important (ortizquijano 2016). these results contrast markedly with other ethnobotanical studies that found religious uses during easter week to be among the main uses of mexican laurel. this is the only use described in detail in the ethnobotanical literature (lópez-gutiérrez et al. 2010; montañez-armenta et al. 2011; ortiz-quijano 2016) and in some cases there is even a bias toward investigation of religious uses for this species. in our study, 47% of the actors interviewed did not mention religious uses of the plant. however, our results showed that religious uses are the least important from the viewpoint of the local people, even though there are seven religious uses recorded for the ecnp, which is 28% of the total number of uses. it should be noted that although, as already mentioned, the mexican laurel is used in palm sunday celebrations, its final use is as a culinary seasoning, since the branches are subsequently taken home, stored, and used in the kitchen (field observation). on the other hand, it is notable that the plant is indeed harvested for this purpose not far from the ecnp (13 km). this is for the cabalgata laurelera (the mounted procession of the laurels held annually for more than 100 years), which sets out from nopaltepec (state of mexico) and rides to tezoantla, hidalgo (lópez-gutiérrez et al. 2010). in this particular instance, the plant plays an important role in this easter week festival, and approximately 120 kg of mexican laurel was harvested at 2017 for this figure 4 social network of knowledge about uses of mexican laurel in carboneras (black) and pueblo nuevo (gray). gender: triangle = male and circle = female. the size represents the importance of the actor in the study community with respect to the actor’s knowledge of the study species. ortega-meza et al. 2019. ethnobiology letters 10(1):1–13 10 research communications celebration (field observation). however, it should be noted that there is no comparison between the amount harvested for this festival and the amount confiscated, which was up to 1,200 kg per occasion, harvested for sale in mexico city (exp. pfpa/20.3/8c.17.5/0001-17. procuraduría federal de protección al ambiente, delegación hidalgo). it is clear that the pressure on the species is related to illegal harvesting for trade, while harvesting for easter week is not an important threat in the ecnp. these facts lead us to reject the hypothesis (proposed in this study) that medicinal uses would prevail in the study area since the communities in the studies are rural. religious uses were also expected to predominate, especially easter week festivals, as in other parts of the country. in contrast, the uses as a seasoning were the most common and most important in the study area, while medicinal and religious uses had a marginal importance, according to the quantitative approach applied. medicinal uses had an intermediate level of importance in this study, which would seem to contradict the results of other studies on the use of these plants. previous studies recorded that while indigenous communities use them as sustenance, their medicinal use is more important for mestizo communities (beltrán-rodríguez et al. 2014). our results could be due to the fact that the laurel is not seen as a food in itself. moreover, since the study communities are relatively close to the hidalgo state capital, the residents have access to other health care services. the use of mexican laurel seeds to make handcrafted necklaces is recorded for the first time in this study; however, this use is rare among the people surveyed, and the necklaces are not produced for sale. the food uses of mexican laurel are seen as the most important for the study communities. given this, the people of carboneras and pueblo nuevo should be the main promoters of plant conservation, since it is not only a local species but one that is central to their way of life, especially through food. including local knowledge will enable the generation of techniques for the management and sustainable use of the plant (blancas et al. 2013). specifically, the uma owners are locally recognized as the main actors in the management of the mexican laurel, so they could lead in the implementation of local and federal conservation strategies, interventions, and conservation based on communities and local rules according to the needs of the people for pursuing their livelihoods (berkes 2007). in tehuacán valley, there are people authorized to harvest the leaves, branches, or trees of the mexican laurel, while those who break this rule are fined (blancas et al. 2013). practices and communal regulations of this type are imperative in ecnp to guarantee sustainable use of the species. implications of the social network the importance of the research methods used is also reflected in the structuring of the social network of people involved with the species. they can be identified as those who know about its uses. it can be seen clearly that the actors who received the highest number of mentions were the two people (bbm and vmg) who are responsible for the umas dedicated to the production of laurel. this suggests that the people who directly manage the species are most widely recognized by the other members of this social group, probably because they are closer to the plant. the network also showed that local authorities were mentioned, which suggests that people identify them as having greater access to information about local resources because they are authorities (reyes-garcía et al. 2008), or, as in this case, because they are the ones authorized to provide this information. this shows that these actors play different critical roles in the network and this is why they stand out from the other actors (mesquita 2008). the social network also identifies a relationship between the two villages, which could be due to their proximity and to the high degree of kinship among residents, as well as to similar socioeconomic characteristics. it should be noted that in addition to the fact that there were people who did not nominate anyone else during the interviews, some of the actors were also reluctant to provide information on uses of the plant. this is one of the problems that can arise when social phenomena are investigated using the snowball method (biernacki and waldorf 1981). in this case, it relates to a study of a plant which people are not willing to talk about, as was also the case of montañez -armenta et al. (2011) in their study of the mexican laurel in aguascalientes. people in the study communities identified restrictions on the use of mexican laurel, a species in danger of extinction. they are aware of supervision of the species promoted by national park officials, known to local people as los verdes (the greens) and the ortega-meza et al. 2019. ethnobiology letters 10(1):1–13 11 research communications federal officials, known as los azules (the blues). although prior data indicated that there are actors involved in illegal sales of mexican laurel (field observation), these were not reported by any of the informants; people only talked about others who dealt with the plant legally, through its production in the umas. it should be added that there was little time to build rapport in each interview (bernard 2006). it is necessary to highlight the difference between lists of uses of a given plant (or lists of useful plants) —widely used in ethnobotany—and the results obtained through quantitative tools, particularly because methodological rigor is necessary to make contributions to science (phillips and gentry 1993). a list of uses alone does not make it clear which are more used or whether the uses are current or not. sometimes distinguishing the latter is not the objective and therefore a simple list is a valuable technique. in contrast, quantitative tools such as the smith index order the uses in a natural way, suggesting the importance that they have in the ways of life of a specific social group (morais et al. 2009). with the smith index, the uses cited with greater frequency and those that are mentioned first indicate what is most present in their memory and what is most significant, because it is what they currently use or because it is most important to them (morais et al. 2009). the items located at the end of the list are the least remembered, which shows that they are not as important as the ones that are mentioned earlier, and they might even not be current uses. it may mean that they were probably important for people in the past, but are no longer, so it takes the actors longer to remember them, because they may be in disuse. conclusions this study shows the importance of the uses of mexican laurel and enabled the persons involved with these uses and possessing knowledge about the plant to be identified. the social network shows the relationship between members of the study communities, not only among the members of a single community but also between members of the two communities. the network diagram also shows the actors who are clearly identified as having some relationship with the plant, among them the owners of umas or actors with some authority in the communities, whom the people identify as those with access to information. the uses of mexican laurel as a seasoning stand out in this study, which agrees with studies where it is given great importance because it is a traditional seasoning typically used in mexican cuisine. this is different from other regions, where its uses for religion and traditional medicine are reported as more important. even so, it can be observed that the communities around the national park make use of this species and it is part of their daily life. acknowledgments the authors thank the residents and authorities of the communities of carboneras, mineral del chico, pueblo nuevo, mineral del monte, for the information they provided, as well as maría del consuelo cuevas cardona and adriana gómez aiza for their valuable comments. declarations permissions: none declared. sources of funding: this study was supported by conacyt through the phd scholarship of the first author (no. 594488), and by conacyt project cb271837, 280901, 293914, through the “red temática de productos forestales no maderables: aportes desde la etnobiología para su aprovechamiento sostenible”. conflicts of interest: none declared. references cited alburquerque, u. p., t. a. de sousa araújo, m. a. ramos, 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doi:10.1659/mrdjournal-d-15-00081.1. turner, n. j. 1988. the importance of a rose: evaluating the cultural significance of plants in thompson and lillooet interior salish. american anthropologist 90:272–290. doi:10.1525/ aa.1988.90.2.02a00020. tuxill, j., and g. p. nabhan. 2001. people, plants and protected areas: a guide to in situ management. sterling, london. latin american society of ethnobiology’s code of ethics solae ethics committee et al. 2018. ethnobiology letters 9(1):86–89 86 featured reprints special issue on ethics in ethnobiology collaboration between members of both societies. this mou was approved by soe and solae and was signed on may 13, 2017 during the 40th annual meeting of the society of ethnobiology in montreal, canada. following the elaboration of the solae code, we began the process of implementing the code of ethics in collaboration with institutions and local people. as part of this initiative, and as a follow-up to the consultation process, in february 2016 the first international forum for the defense and protection of the collective biocultural heritage, in villa de tututepec, oaxaca, mexico (primer foro internacional por la defensa y protección de la herencia biocultural colectiva en villa de tututepec, oaxaca, méxico) took place with the participation of diverse indigenous groups from mexico and colombia. more recently, the universidad de san carlos of guatemala, non-profit organizations in guatemala and mexico, and some local (community) governments are considering implementation of the solae code of ethics as part of their regulations. table 1 shows how the solae code of ethics has developed through time. in the future, the solae ethics committee will continue our discussions, dialogues, and revisions to the current version of the code of ethics. the ethics committee is constantly looking for additional opportunities to open spaces for dialogue, discussion, and implementation of the solae code of ethics. as part of our commitment to share and engage in dialogue with other communities and ethnobiologists that work or would like to engage in research in latin america, in the following paragraphs we present the english version of solae’s code of ethics (without its original introductory section). we hope this publication is a step forward towards the introduction since its creation in 2008, the latin american society of ethnobiology (sociedad latinoamericana de etnobiología―solae) has hosted discussions and encouraged reflections on ethics in ethnobiological research as one of its main priorities. at the third solae conference in la paz, bolivia, in 2012, members from mexico, bolivia, and colombia formed an ethics committee to draft a solae code of ethics regulating ethnobiological research and activities implemented by latin american ethnobiologists and others who intend to undertake research in the region. from 2012 to 2015, the ethics committee has held several meetings and organized sessions in which ethnobiologists, representatives from local communities, and indigenous peoples to provide opportunities for discussion and dialogue. during this period, the ethics committee developed three preliminary versions of the code of ethics (versions 0, 1, and 2). in september 2015, during the fourth solae conference in popayan, colombia, we submitted a revised version for consideration by the solae general assembly. the newest version was voted on, accepted, and adopted by the general assembly as the official solae code of ethics. the new solae code appeared soon thereafter in a special edition of the journal etnobiología (solae 2016). as part of solae’s commitment and intention to collaborate with ethnobiologists from other parts of the world, in 2016, solae’s ethics committee invited the society of ethnobiology (soe) to cocreate a memorandum of understanding (mou) between the societies. solae’s goal for the mou is to strengthen and encourage communication and latin american society of ethnobiology’s code of ethics solae ethics committee1, armando medinaceli1*, eréndira j. cano1, arturo argueta1, and olga lucia sanabria1 1latin american society of ethnobiology (solae), mexico city, mexico. *manduche@gmail.com received september 21, 2017 open access accepted october 8, 2017 doi 10.14237/ebl.9.1.2018.1121 copyright © 2018 by the author(s); licensee society of ethnobiology. this is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution-noncommercial 4.0 international public license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0), which permits non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. solae ethics committee et al. 2018. ethnobiology letters 9(1):86–89 87 featured reprints special issue on ethics in ethnobiology ta b le 1 t im el in e o f th e so la e co d e o f e th ic s. 2 01 2 2 01 3 2 0 1 4 2 0 1 5 2 0 1 6 2 0 1 7 c re ati o n o f th e so la e’ s et h ic s c o m m itt ee in l a p az , b o liv ia v ir tu al c o n su lt ati o n s c o n su lt ati o n s, e th ic s se ss io n s, a n d c o u rs es in g u at em al a, m ex ico , a n d b ra zi l sc h ed u le d s e ss io n s an d c o n su lt ati o n s in ec u ad o r, c h ile , a n d p er u p ro p o sa l o f m o u b etw ee n s o la e an d so e at t h e 3 9 th s o e an n u al m ee ti n g in tu cs o n , a ri zo n a m o u b et w e en s o la e an d s o e si gn ed a t th e 4 0 th s o e an n u al m ee ti n g in m o n tr ea l, c an ad a fi rs t m ee ti n g o f th e et h ic s c o m m itt ee in m éx ic o c it y c o n su lt ati o n s an d p re se n ta ti o n s in m ex ic o , g u at em al a, an d c o lo m b ia v ir tu al w o rk in c o lla b o ra ti o n w it h s o ci eti es in c o lo m b ia , ec u ad o r, a n d c h ile fo rm u la ti o n o f c o e v er si o n 2 c o e ac ce p te d a n d ad o p te d b y th e g e n er al a ss em b ly a t th e iv s o la e co n fe re n ce 1 st r ev is io n o f c o e m ad e at v s o la e co n fe re n ce in q u it o , ec u ad o r fo rm u la ti o n o f c o e v er si o n 0 sp ec ia l e th ic s se ssi o n s w it h l ati n a m e ri ca n e th n o b o ta n y gr o u p p re se n ta ti o n w it h p ar tn er o rg an iz ati o n r ed l ati n o am er ic an a d e b o ta n ic a p re se n ta ti o n o f c o e v er si o n 2 a t th e iv so la e co n fe re n ce in c o lo m b ia so la e’ s c o e (o ffi ci al ve rs io n ) is p u b lis h ed in e tn o b io lo gí a v o l. 1 4 , n o . 1 fo rm u la ti o n o f c o e v er si o n 1 so ci eti es in b ra zi l, m ex ic o , c o lo m b ia , an d e cu ad o r o ffi ci al ly ad o p t th e so la e c o e c o e v er si o n 1 is p u b lis h ed in e tn o b io lo gi a v o l. 1 3 solae ethics committee et al. 2018. ethnobiology letters 9(1):86–89 88 featured reprints special issue on ethics in ethnobiology goal of benefitting local communities and indigenous peoples in latin america. comments, questions, and suggestions are welcome, and should be directed to the coordinators of the solae’s ethics committee: armando medinaceli (manduche@gmail.com) and eréndira cano (erecano@gmail.com). principles commitments 1. all people engaged in ethnoscientific research who are members of the latin american society of ethnobiology (solae) commit to become familiar with, respect, comply with, enforce, spread, and stimulate discussion about the principles in this code of ethics in their professional work. 2. all members of solae participating in research and ethnoscientific work recognize the historically unjust circumstances and the economic, political, cultural, social, and educational oppression experienced by indigenous peoples and local, traditional, and afro -descendent communities of latin america and the caribbean. thus, we commit to respect, safeguard, recognize, and value the integrity of local identities, as well as to disseminate their cultural richness, promote respect for their culture, the right to safeguard territories, and the collective biocultural patrimony belonging to the indigenous peoples and local, traditional, and afro -descendant communities from latin america and the caribbean. responsibilities 3. prior to the start of any study/research, a process of obtaining free prior and informed consent will be carried out with individuals, communities, or associations with whom the study will be conducted, recognizing and respecting local, regional, and traditional regulatory systems, internal or customary laws, and in general any locally recognized regulatory system. this agreement must accompany the study or investigation from its beginning. it shall provide objective, clear, and accurate information in local terms and language to individuals, communities, and local authorities of the region regarding the project or program to be carried out, the experience and specialties of the researcher, colleagues, or research team, as well as the institution to which they belong and entities providing support and resources. 4. before starting ethnoscientific research, researchers should know and familiarize themselves with the cultural context of the study location and region, as well as local normative systems, to conduct their work in accordance with these norms, responding to local demands, particularities, or needs. prior agreements made with local or regional authorities and organizations regarding ethnoscientific research activities (biological, ethnobotanical, ethnomycological, ethnozoological, ethnoagricultural, ethnobiological, ethnoecological, among others) will be respected in the event they already exist. 5. it is a mandatory responsibility that as their research develops, ethnoscientists offer constant and accessible information (based on the principle of free prior and informed consent) about the progress and stages of the study or investigation. rights 6. it is recognized that populations with whom research is undertaken have the rights, according to their cultural patterns, to preserve their privacy, protect secrets about their history, religion, cosmovision, and politics involving natural resources, as well as to enforce respect for their local norms regarding access to knowledge, sacred practices, sites, natural resources, spirits, and in general, the behaviors and practices of specialty knowledge holders. 7. researchers must be conscientious with regard to the applicability and impacts of the investigation and will consult villages, communities, and people with whom research is conducted about its importance, applicability, and short, middle, and long term impacts, as well as legal or customary means to grant, deny, or revoke any approval, consent, or permit for undertaking research. parents or legal guardians will be responsible for granting consent for the participation of children and adolescents during the research process, in accordance with the laws regarding children and adolescents in each region or country. 8. if there exist intentions of commercial use of research results, they should be explicitly stated in prior signed agreements with the population involved, and they should be framed according to local regulations and norms, as well as national solae ethics committee et al. 2018. ethnobiology letters 9(1):86–89 89 featured reprints special issue on ethics in ethnobiology and international laws, which should favor the defense of traditional knowledge associated with biological and genetic resources. at no point should the researchers make use of ethnoscientific information for their own, institutional or private economic benefit without prior written and signed authorization. 9. if a collaborative research project is established by mutual agreement, according to the conditions mentioned above, local participants should be included as co-authors, co-researchers, collaborators, or experts. the outdated term “informant” should be replaced by more appropriate terms according to the functions performed in new projects. dissemination and communication 10. all means of disseminating obtained ethnoscientific information must be included in prior consensual agreements with the people involved. these agreements must be made in collective participation spaces through consensus by the local population and researchers and formulated with clarity and precision in the medium, format, and language that is locally acceptable. 11. it must be guaranteed to all people involved in ethnoscientific research that such collaboration will not be used to cause any prejudice or discrimination against individuals, the community, or third parties. 12. the right to collaborative intellectual property and, therefore, to authorship and co-authorship of cultural productions and territory by people and populations is recognized. publication, dissemination, and authorship of data should be determined through consultation and prior consent with communities within the study region, according to the local norms, signed or documented using locally accepted formats, and following national and international norms regarding ancestral peoples, their intellectual production, collection of genetic varieties, and registration of patents, as well as forms and means of disseminating traditional knowledge, with or without commercial ends. 13. ethnoscientists have the right to maintain the confidentiality of their sources and not disseminate information without authorization by the people and local communities who participate in the research. 14. care will be taken at all times to ensure an ethnobiological investigation does not put at risk any access, protection, usufruct, property, conservation, or safeguarding, as appropriate, of the territory and tangible and intangible property of the group or community that participates in the research. 15. relationships within the research team, as well as with people from indigenous villages and local communities, should promote respect, equality, and good treatment, and avoid any discriminatory conduct or violence based on gender, social status, belonging to ancestral groups, ethnic selfidentity, affective preference, age, nationality or precedence, religious belief, profession or occupation, health condition, or different physical abilities. 16. in cases where people from local communities are not active participants in the ethnoscientific research, the study should have clear and precise mechanisms for obtaining permission, sharing, and exchanging information that are previously and collectively agreed upon and registered in signed documents in accordance with locally accepted mediums and formats. 17. in the case of research undertaken within disputed territories, ethnobiologists should recognize efforts to defend ancestral territories and the collective biocultural patrimony and commit to not impede them. acceptance, adoption, and updating 18. this solae code of ethics should be promoted for adoption by its member ethnobiologists, other scientif ic societies, non-governmental organizations, as well as academic institutions that undertake ethnobiological work in latin america. likewise, knowledge and acceptance of this code of ethics will be promoted and disseminated among local, indigenous, peasant, and afrodescendant communities. the solae code of ethics will be consulted and reviewed by a committee between conferences and revisions or ratifications presented for approval by the solae general assembly during each new solae conference. references cited solae (sociedad latinoamericana de etnobiología). 2016. código de ética. etnobiologia 14(1). pineapple among the indigenous nambikwara: early twentieth century photographic documentation from central brazil coimbra and welch. 2020. ethnobiology letters 11(1):67–75 67 perspectives in the region that is today brazil, presence of pineapple in the food of indigenous peoples was noted early by the portuguese and other european explorers, who described the presence of the plant in indigenous gardens and around villages along the atlantic coast and in the interior. descriptions of the fruit were always eloquent as, for example, in the case of the record left by the naturalist jean de léry (1880:251), who travelled along what is now the brazilian coast in the middle of the sixteenth century: … when ripe, the ananas turns bluish-yellow in color and exhales the fragrance of raspberry that [one] can smell it from a distance; as for the taste, it melts in your mouth, and is naturally very sweet … besides the numerous descriptions that exalt the introduction for the non-indigenous world, the “discovery” of the pineapple occurred in 1493, when, on the occasion of his second trip to tropical america, columbus and his crew disembarked on the caribbean island of guadalupe (french west indies) and soon entered into contact with the original population of the archipelago. among the trophies chosen by columbus for presentation to his king were pineapple fruits, which he named pinã de indes (pine of the indians). since this encounter, the pineapple quickly disseminated among the principal kingdoms of europe and, by the end of the sixteenth century, was cultivated pantropically, having been introduced to diverse european colonies in africa and tropical asia (d’eeckenbrugge et al. 2018). pineapple among the indigenous nambikwara: early twentieth century photographic documentation from central brazil carlos e. a. coimbra jr.1* and james r. welch1 1escola nacional de saúde pública sergio arouca, fundação oswaldo cruz, rio de janeiro, brazil. *carloscoimbrajr@gmail.com abstract in the region that is today brazil, presence of pineapple in the food of indigenous peoples was noted early by the portuguese and other european explorers, who described the presence of the plant in indigenous gardens and around villages along the atlantic coast and in the interior. the objective of this paper is to contribute to the ethnobotany and history of pineapple in south america, particularly central brazil, based on the first known photographic documentation of the use of pineapple in the diet of an indigenous society: the nambikwara in the northwestern region of the state of mato grosso, brazil. the pineapple’s presence in nambikwara villages immediately caught the attention of the early explorers and fermented nambikwara “pineapple wine” enjoyed enormous success. the photographic record presented here was produced on the occasion of one of the first scientific expeditions sponsored by the brazilian government in the early twentieth century, the commission for the construction of telegraph lines from mato grosso to amazonas (better known as the “rondon commission”). all photos presented here were taken by major thomas reis during a visit to the nambikwara-mamaindê village, in the cabixi river region, in northern mato grosso, during the expedition undertaken from 1913 to 1914. they show many details of how pineapples (ananas ananassoides) are processed, including the familiar setting of a child playing beside her working mother. as these four images suggest, unexplored archival materials offer great potential for conducting visual historical ethnobotanical studies of topics that are otherwise invisible in the academic record. received may 18, 2020 open access accepted june 27, 2020 doi 10.14237/ebl.11.1.2020.1703 published september 15, 2020 keywords historical ethnobiology, ananas, indigenous peoples, brazil, ethnobotany, agricultural plants copyright © 2020 by the author(s); licensee society of ethnobiology. this is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution-noncommercial 4.0 international public license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0), which permits non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. coimbra and welch. 2020. ethnobiology letters 11(1):67–75 68 perspectives olfactory, aromatic, and aesthetic properties of the fruit, there are also pictographic registers, generally ink drawings, that leave no doubt about the presence of pineapple in the diets of different indigenous groups from central america and the antilles to the central part of south america, in the region of the triple frontier of brazil-paraguay-bolivia extending westward to the coast of today’s peru, eastward to the northeastern coast of brazil, and southward to the northeast of argentina (baker and collins 1939; clement et al. 2010, d’eeckenbrugge et al. 2018; schultes 1990). early travel logs and botanical accounts by europeans explorers and missionaries in colonial brazil documented extensively the presence of fruit juices and fermented beverages in the diets of numerous indigenous groups, especially among tupi peoples along the atlantic coast (lima 1975; noelli and brochado 1998). in these cases, fermentation of beverages made of starchy staples (e.g., maize and manioc) was achieved through the use of spittle. documentation of such beverages in central brazil, especially among non-tupi groups such as the nambikwara, is less common, as is the use of spittle to ferment fruit juices. diverse sweet fruit juices, often called “wines,” were consumed unfermented or fermented without the use of spittle, relying on naturally occurring yeast (lima 1975). the objective of this paper is to contribute to the ethnobotany and history of pineapple in south america, particularly central brazil, based on the first known photographic documentation of the use of pineapple in the diet of an indigenous society: the nambikwara in the northwestern region of the state of mato grosso, brazil. context the photographic record presented here was produced on the occasion of one of the first scientific expeditions sponsored by the brazilian government in the early twentieth century, a few years after the proclamation of the republic. during this period, the government invested heavily in exploring the interior of the country, both from the point of view of its geography and cartography, as well as its botany, zoology, anthropology, and living conditions and health of the rural populations. in addition to scientific inquiry, many of these expeditions also played strategic roles in terms of recognizing international borders and integrating the interior of brazil through the extension of telegraph and rail networks. it is in this context that the commission for the construction of telegraph lines from mato grosso to amazonas (better known as the rondon commission) is situated. it aimed to integrate, by means of telegraph, the then-capital rio de janeiro with the north of brazil (diacon 2004; maciel 1998; sá et al. 2008). from the scientific point of view, the rondon commission produced more than a hundred technical reports authored by eminent naturalists of the time who accompanied teams of engineers and workers during the many stages of the project of opening trails, documenting rivers, and installing lines and telegraph posts. in addition to these reports are many hundreds of photographs and meters of film made by the rondon commission under responsibility of major luiz thomaz reis (lasmar 2011). in the years from 1910 to 1920, it was not a simple task to produce photographic documentation in remote outdoor environments. it was necessary to transport bulky and heavy cameras by boats and mules or horses, in addition to glass negatives requiring tremendous care to avoid breaking during the trips. rondon (1946:4) himself highlighted the challenges faced by the commission's photographers during long trips to the interior of the country: … it is worth remembering the effort that, in the majority of cases, represents photographic documentation in the rough hinterlands. heavy packages then made of sheets of glass that escaped falling apart in pieces on the rough transport by land or crossing waterfalls and rapids, where so many canoes, materials, and precious lives were forever entombed, it was almost by miracle that they arrived at our photographic cabinets in the cities! the pineapple and the nambikwara of northwest mato grosso among the hundreds of plants that attracted the attention of the scientists who participated in the rondon commission, pineapple aroused particular interest, perhaps due to the diversity of wild or semidomesticated varieties found in areas of savanna grasslands, abandoned indigenous gardens, or even on the outskirts of villages and settlements. for example, according to observations by the botanist frederico carlos hoehne, who was a member of the rondon commission and also participated in the rooseveltrondon expedition, “large clumps of ananas sativus coimbra and welch. 2020. ethnobiology letters 11(1):67–75 69 perspectives var. microstachys … abound on the outskirts of the city of corumbá,” in the triple border region of brazilparaguay-bolivia (hoehne 1914:34). at that time, corumbá, on the banks of the paraguay river, was a mandatory stop for any party heading north. it was about 1,000 km north of corumbá, after many weeks of travel through dense scrub, grasslands, and dense gallery forests, that the commission came into contact with the nambikwara, at the time known as “indians of the north mountains” (“índios da serra do norte”). the term nambikwara (also written nambiquara or nhambiquara) was introduced in the anthropological literature after the rondon comission encountered multiple groups of linguistically and culturally related indigenous peoples who continue to inhabit the extreme north of mato grosso and the south of rondônia states. according to price (1978), the nambikwara linguistic family can be divided into three large linguistic groups that continue to be spoken today. presently, the total population is estimated to be approximately 2,500 distributed in relatively small villages located in federally recognized indigenous reserves in three ecological zones: cerrados, the headwaters of the guaporé river, and the transition zone between the cerrado and amazon forest at the headwaters of the pimenta bueno and jurena rivers (costa 2009). historically, the nambikwara have what might be called a two-sided fame. in the first place, they were contacted by cândido mariano da silva rondon in the beginning of the twentieth century and studied by prominent anthropologists edgard roquette-pinto and claude lévi-strauss. in the second place, they were the focus of international media attention in the 1960s and 1970s due to the severe epidemics they suffered, invasions of their lands, and sharp depopulation from approximately 5,000 in the early twentieth century to 550 after less than 50 years of contact, according to demographic analysis undertaken by price and cook (1969) and price (1994). thus, conditions among the nambikwara today are very different than they were a half century ago. the pineapple's presence in the villages immediately caught the attention of the early explorers: “in the backlands of mato grosso, in the serra do norte region, the indians use [pineapple fruits] to make juice and alcoholic beverages” (hoehne 1937:107). this drink seems to have been a success among rondon commission workers, as reported by roquette-pinto, another member of the commission: “a liqueur, thus taken from the wild pineapple, enjoyed an honorable reputation among the telegraph line workers” (roquette-pinto 1919:241). two decades later, lévi-strauss (1948:368) travelled along rondon’s telegraph lines and visited the nambikwara, where he described a “slightly alcoholic beverage … prepared of wild pineapples mixed with water.” five decades later, in an interview with anthropologist beatriz p. moisés (1999:11) in his laboratory at the museé de l’homme in paris, lévistrauss vividly expressed his “olfactory memory” (as he called it) about the expeditions he carried out in northwest brazil: i remember, for example, that after the nambikwara, we were heading towards [rio] madeira, and it was not yet the amazon rainforest, it was more grasslands, a kind of dry forest, and suddenly, mounted on the horse, i saw a field of wild pineapples on the ground. it was enough to lean very low, without dismounting, to pluck the fruits and eat them. it is one of the gustatory and olfactory sensations that remained with me because it was not like the pineapple we know, it was a pineapple with an absolutely extraordinary raspberry smell … it was none other than theodore roosevelt, who co-headed the expedition named after himself and his army colleague, colonel cândido rondon (the roosevelt-rondon expedition), who wrote one of the most interesting reports about the pineapple wine made by the nambikwara. one day, roosevelt’s son, kermit roosevelt (roosevelt 1914:234), while a couple of miles from our tents, came across an encampment of nhambiquaras, … kermit, after the manner of honest folk in the wilderness, advanced ostentatiously in the open, calling out to give warning of his coming. … the nhambiquaras received kermit with the utmost cordiality, and gave him pineapple-wine to drink. on another occasion, when describing a nambikwara house, roosevelt (1914:239) pointed out that “inside were their implements and utensils, such as wicker baskets (some of them filled with pineapples).” the nambikwara “pineapple wine” enjoyed enormous success among members of the rondon commission, undoubtedly because, in addition to its coimbra and welch. 2020. ethnobiology letters 11(1):67–75 70 perspectives agreeable flavor, its alcohol content could reach elevated levels. although our photographic essay shows the production and consumption of unfermented pineapple juice or “wine,” natural fermentation without the use of spittle was common among the nambikwara and many other indigenous peoples. analyses by lima (1975:181) of indigenous fermented pineapple juice from northeast brazil showed ethanol levels often surpassing 7%, making it among the most inebriating of the alcoholic beverages encountered in indigenous societies by any travelers in the interior of brazil in past centuries. in the words of marcgrave, naturalist of the dutch court installed in recife in the seventeenth century, who travelled extensively throughout the then province of pernambuco, the “wine” denominated nanaî “is produced from the extremely precious fruit known as naná … this beverage is stronger and more easily intoxicating” (marcgrave 1942:274)1. figure 1 nambikwara-mamaindê indian woman crushing wild pineapples (“índia nhambiquara mamaindê socando abacaxis silvestres”). source: índios do brasil (rondon 1946:20). coimbra and welch. 2020. ethnobiology letters 11(1):67–75 71 perspectives the photographs the consumption of pineapple, whether grown in gardens or collected in abandoned fields or in the tropical savannas, is mentioned by early explorers and anthropologists for other ethnicities in mato grosso, as well as in eastern paraguay and bolivia. most references are mere mention in ethnobotanical lists of useful or food species. however, in no other case of an early expedition or contemporary research was it possible for us to locate photographic or contextualized ethnographic documentation that captures the use of pineapple as a food or drink. thus, these four photographs constitute the only known published photographic ethnobotany of indigenous nambikwara pineapple use. the exact scene captured by these images may also be viewed in a film directed by major l. thomaz reis (1932). all photos presented here were taken by major reis during a visit to the nambikwara-mamaindê village, in the cabixi river region, in northern mato grosso, during the expedition undertaken from 1913 to 1914. the photos were digitized from the first volume of the series of three photographic albums entitled índios do brasil (rondon 1946), whose glass negatives are on file at the museu do índio in rio de janeiro. the original caption of each photograph is reproduced with our translation. the sequence reproduced here shows a scene in the village, where a woman crushes (figure 1), extracts (figure 2), and drinks (figure 3) fresh unfermented pineapple juice while a child plays with collected fruits around the wooden mortar (figure 4). in addition to depicting this basic sequence, the graceful photographs have additional ethnobotanical and ethnographic value. considered as a set, they show many details of how pineapples are processed, including the familiar setting of a child playing beside her working mother. figures 1 and 4 show the relatively small size of the pineapples, some smaller than the woman’s hand, as well as the shape of the small wooden mortar used to crush the fruits. figures 1–3 show the versatility of receptacle sizes, shapes, and functions (gourd bowls to collect juice and hold fruit pulp, and a ceramic bowl2 used as a drinking receptacle), as well as the woman’s dress and ornamentation, which include a waist band, upper arm bands, and necklaces made of monkey teeth and tucum palm nut (astrocaryum sp.) beads. figure 4 shows the dress and ornamentation of the child (upper chest figure 2 extracting juice from pineapples for drinking. cabixi river (“espremendo os abacaxis para bebida. rio cabixi”). source: índios do brasil (rondon 1946:20). figure 3 nambikwara-mamaindê woman drinking pineapple juice (“mulher nhambiquara mamaindê bebendo o suco de abacaxi”). source: índios do brasil (rondon 1946:21). coimbra and welch. 2020. ethnobiology letters 11(1):67–75 72 perspectives band, upper arm bands, and bracelets), as well as a characteristically nambikwara wicker carrying basket (known in the native language as hatisu; costa 2009) made with thin strips of taquara (merostachys spp., family poaceae), a kind of bamboo widely used for basketry by indigenous peoples in central brazil. what is the species of the nambikwara pineapple? there is considerable debate about the botanical identity of the species belonging to the genus ananas and its multiple cultivated or semi-domesticated varieties (baker and collins 1939; camargo 1943; smith 1955). it is not our aim in this article to discuss in detail the extensive botanical literature on this plant. however, based on the most recent review of the genus ananas made available by the flora do brasil project led by the rio de janeiro botanical garden, the nambikwara pineapple3 shown in the photographs and described by botanist f. c. hoehne in 1914 as ananas sativus var. microstachys is now considered an outdated synonym of ananas ananassoides. ananas comosus also occurs in the region (forzza et al. 2015). in recent decades, large areas of territory previously covered by savannahs have been replaced by pastures with exotic grasses and monoculture of grains and sugar cane, causing great loss to native flora and fauna (vanwey et al. 2013). the indigenous peoples that traditionally exist in the cerrados, such as the nambikwara, also suffer pressure from the farms that surround their lands, even though their reserves are legally demarcated (souza and martini 2000). for example, the threat posed to human health by pesticides and fertilizers used on farms, often carried by the wind or leachate to the headwaters of rivers after the rains, is continuous (hunke et al. 2015; schwartzman et al. 2013). the occurrence of nearly annual wildfires of great proportions, the main fuel of which is the african grasses introduced as forage for figure 4 nambikwara-mamaindê child, playing with wild pineapples (“criança nhambiquara mamaindê, brincando com abacaxis silvestres”). source: índios do brasil (rondon 1946:21). coimbra and welch. 2020. ethnobiology letters 11(1):67–75 73 perspectives cattle pastures, has become another constant threat to the indigenous territories of the region (welch and coimbra jr. 2019). from the point of view of ethnoknowledge in younger generations, particularly related to plants, the impacts of ongoing threats including radical changes in the landscape and the reduction of biodiversity are evident. in the mid-1980s, anthropologist david price conducted extensive demographic and socioenvironmental surveys in nambikwara territory, as a consultant to the world bank, on the eve of an immense contract that this organization would sign with the brazilian government for the construction of highways and the promotion of agricultural colonization along an imaginary line that stretched for about 1800 km, connecting cuiabá to porto velho (price 1989). this development zone, known as the polonoroeste project, essentially followed the trail of the old telegraphs, whose posts still hung surrounded by vegetation. nambikwara villages were dispersed in one of the areas considered a priority for development, located in the northwest of mato grosso, one of the hot spots of the expansion of soy monoculture in brazil today. using the title of the book written by price on leaving the bank, the nambikwara were there “before de bulldozer” and were consequently overrun by the development effort, with many villages left just a few meters away from the newly redirected and paved br-364 highway (price 1989). perhaps surprisingly, one of the cultivars of a. comosus is recognized in brazil today as the “rondon pineapple” (cabral 1999; sousa 1995). according to agronomist felisberto c. camargo of the campinas agronomic institute, his seedlings were brought from the north of mato grosso in the early twentieth century and planted in the botanical garden of rio de janeiro in a flower bed designed to showcase a collection of bromeliads from the rondon commission. this flower bed was subsequently abandoned and taken over by brush until, during a visit to the garden in 1930, camargo, inspecting the tangle of vegetation, became interested in a bromeliad, which he did not yet know would develop at the campinas agronomic institute’s experimental gardens into a showy plant with “[edible] fruit, rich in juice … leaves without thorns or almost smooth” (camargo 1939:324). it is ironic to imagine that the “rondon pineapple,” most likely from some nambikwara village or garden and brought to rio de janeiro, now contributes to the production of hybrid pineapples of commercial value. conclusion unfortunately, these photographs of nambikwara pineapple processing were not accompanied by explanatory or interpretive text (rondon 1946). equally unfortunate is the general lack of ethnographic attention to the pineapple among the nambikwara. even texts based on data from the 1970s only mention pineapples in passing (aspelin 1979; costa 2009), while more recent texts addressing food plants among this ethnic group do not mention pineapples at all (miller 2018), suggesting they have been overlooked or their use was discontinued, perhaps as a collateral effect of the changes accompanying the arrival of settlers, highways, and agribusiness. what we are left with in the published record are these insightful images and comments by early explorers praising nambikwara and other indigenous ethnic groups’ “pineapple wine” for its flavor and potentially inebriating qualities. without these records and the four photographs highlighted in this article, knowledge of pineapple use among the nambikwara and other indigenous peoples in amazonia would be lost. there are, however, hundreds upon hundreds of unpublished texts, illustrations, and photographs deposited by early explorers to the interior of brazil in various archives at museums and research institutions, which potentially contain additional materials that have yet to be accessed. as these four images suggest, these unexplored materials offer great potential for conducting visual historical ethnobotanical studies of topics that are otherwise invisible in the academic record. notes 1na’na: word of tupi origin that gave origin to the portuguese-language lexicon “ananas,” commonly used to refer to wild varieties of pineapple, principally in the interior of brazil (in portugal, all pineapples are designated ananas). the tupi word nana-y (or nanaî) designates any beverage (fermented or not) made from any variety of pineapple (na’na) (see carvalho 1987; cunha 1982). 2according to costa (2009:116), the nambikwara production of pottery was discontinued sometime after the 1970s. 3the nambikwara name for pineapple is kuáhlu coimbra and welch. 2020. ethnobiology letters 11(1):67–75 74 perspectives according to oberg (1953) or, according to rondon (1947), coaré. rondon called attention to terminological differences depending on the nambikwara interviewee, which could reflect linguistic or dialectical diversity between the various nambikwara “groups,” which was only clarified many years later by price (1978). declarations permissions: this study was registered in the brazilian sistema nacional de gestão do patrimônio genético e do conhecimento tradicional associado (sisgen) under registry number a874a57. sources of funding: none declared. conflicts of 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paulo, brazil. souza, i. m., and p. r. martini. 2000. reservas indígenas e fronteiras agrícolas na chapada dos parecis (mt): uma análise temporal por imagens tm-landsat. estudos avançados 14:251–264. doi:10.1590/s0103-40142000000300020. vanwey, l. k., s. spera, r. sá, d. mahr, and j. f. mustard. 2013. socioeconomic development and agricultural intensification in mato grosso. philosophical transactions of the royal society b: biological sciences 368:20120168. doi:10.1098/rstb.2012.0168. welch, j. r., and c. e. a. coimbra jr. 2019. indigenous fire ecologies, restoration, and territorial sovereignty in the brazilian cerrado: the case of two xavante reserves. land use policy 104055. doi:10.1016/j.landusepol.2019.104055. collecting food, cultivating people: subsistence and society in central africa. by kathryn m. de luna. 2016. yale university press, new haven. 332 pp. whitney. 2018. ethnobiology le ers 9(2):321–322 321 reviews relationships to plants, animals, and material objects that these cultures depended on. her story covers the history of south central africa across nearly three millennia up to the recent pre-colonial past. in de luna’s work we learn how political innovation in pre-colonial african farming societies depended on developments in food collection. farmers' investment in food collection spurred the spread of crops in the savannahs of central africa, as in many other parts of the ancient world. she gives a compelling argument against a linear understanding of the history of food production and politics. hunting and fishing were not the remnants of a primitive economy that supplemented agricultural diets. rather, agriculture supported innovations in hunting and fishing technology. in this way, new categories of fame and prestige (mainly for men) were established and the culture changed over time. the first part of the book presents a useful summary of literature that demonstrates the persistence of evolutionary models in historical discussions of subsistence. it outlines the use of comparative linguistics in reconstructing the deeper history of oral societies. chapters two through five provide a chronological history of the first bantuspeaking peoples in the region, starting some three thousand years ago. we learn of the social and political lives of the proto-botatwe speakers, the first occurrences of cereal agriculture and metallurgy around 750 ce, the role of cultural standing gained from fishing, hunting, and wild collecting from 750 to 1250 ce, and that the region became a central frontier from 750 to 1700. kathryn de luna is an assistant professor in the department of history at georgetown university and faculty member in the african studies program in the school of foreign service. her recent work collecting food, cultivating people: subsistence and society in central africa stitches together her long-term and in-depth linguistic and ethnographic research of the botatwespeaking ancestors of the tonga people of zambia. the study draws on the findings of archaeologists, climate and ecological historians, and historical linguists (including de luna’s own rich work). in her book she uses reconstructed proto-vocabularies, ethnography, archaeological artifacts, genetic maps, and studies of past climates and related shifts to provide new interpretations of linguistic and archaeological history. this makes for a fascinating read and an important contribution to the field. de luna pieces together a rich historical narrative of botatwe-speaking people and their linguistic predecessors, specifically the way they spoke about society, work, each other, and their role in hunting, fishing, wild-collection, and agriculture. her story shows how innovation and adaptation helped the botatwe to thrive in their changing social and environmental conditions. de luna’s work tells of the links between many social and ethnoecological phenomena such as the ecological landscape, hunting and wild collection, fame, talent, political authority, gender, language, and personhood. in particular, she describes the role of masculinity (in individual distinction and group association) and the role that it played in the development of cultural and political practices. she also outlines the importance of the collec ng food, cul va ng people: subsistence and society in central africa. by kathryn m. de luna. 2016. yale university press, new haven. 332 pp. cory w. whitney1* 1university of bonn, department of hor cultural sciences, bonn, germany *cory.whitney@uni‐bonn.de received august 20, 2018 open access accepted october 5, 2018 doi 10.14237/ebl.9.2.2018.1384 copyright © 2018 by the author(s) licensee society of ethnobiology. this is an open‐access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution‐noncommercial 4.0 international public license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by‐nc/4.0), which permits non‐commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. whitney. 2018. ethnobiology le ers 9(2):321–322 322 reviews de luna’s book may be of interest to language historians as well as those who study modern social and political movements. other readers with more diverse interests may be left with a hunger for linkages between these historical findings and the modern day. reference to modern day descendants of the botatwe speakers and the issues that they face would have been useful for grounding the work in current affairs. perhaps there are lessons for modern society from these ancient stories. currently the region is experiencing unprecedented loss of food culture and traditional foods, which many international agreements and development policies do not seek to address. poverty and the damaging nature of modern capitalism and post-colonialism upend the lives of the descendants of botatwe-speakers. given de luna’s indepth knowledge of the region and the topic it would be useful to have her input on current development perspectives and the role of present day masculinity and “anti-subsistence” development agendas. one can only hope that this will be the subject of some of her future formal or informal writing. fisher-foragers amidst the reeds: loptuq perception of waterscapes in the lower tarim area svanberg and ståhlberg. 2020. ethnobiology letters 11(1):128–136 128 research communications understanding, as well as linguistic reflections concerning the environment, becomes an even more complex process when we are dealing with a historical perspective, especially for cultures that have already disappeared (ståhlberg and svanberg 2017). from the end of the 1870s to the beginning of the 1930s, around a dozen travelers to central asia mentioned the loptuq, a small group of turkicspeaking fisher-foragers in the lower tarim river area of eastern turkestan (now xinjiang, china) in their publications (see ståhlberg and svanberg 2010, 2017). the loptuq were previously unknown internationally, while local knowledge about them was mostly sketchy. only a few traders and some turki (now uighur) oasis dwellers visited the loptuq settlements. the lop nor (lop lake) region had been politically and culturally important until some 1,500 years earlier and then abandoned. in the nineteenth century, it was very sparsely inhabited, but the deserted ruins of ancient loulan attracted international discoverers (see hopkirk 1980). the socalled great game (expansion efforts of several introduction toponyms, hydronyms, and animal and plant names are important sources for our understanding of human perceptions of and relations with the environment. they are often witnesses to societal, environmental, and even climatic change, as they constitute historical landmarks and records. besides researching classification, naming, and the usefulness of different taxa, ethnobiologists also need to study human perceptions of the landscape to acquire deeper knowledge about the human-environment relationship and biota management (cf., cunningham 2001; nolan 2006; johnson and hunn 2011). the cultural and linguistic aspects of ecosystem services still remain a largely unexplored territory, and they extend far beyond toponyms. vegetation and animal life are plentiful and varied, and so are the linguistic expressions referring to them (millennium ecosystem assessment 2005). linguistic materials never stand alone, and they should be analyzed together with their cultural, economic, and social contexts. toponyms and other environmental namings are also subject to change over time. mapping out knowledge and fisher-foragers amidst the reeds: loptuq perception of waterscapes in the lower tarim area ingvar svanberg1* and sabira ståhlberg1 1institute for russian and eurasian studies, uppsala university, uppsala, sweden. *ingvar.svanberg@ires.uu.se abstract toponyms and hydronyms encode important information about human perceptions of the environment in a specific context. this article discusses the loptuq, a group of turkic-speakers, who until the 1950s lived as fishers-foragers at the lower tarim river, eastern turkestan (contemporary xinjiang, china), and their use of common reed (phragmites australis) as an example for the close connection between language, culture, social relations, economic activities, and human perceptions about the surrounding environment. operating in lakes and swamps for their economic activities (fishing, hunting, foraging, and occasional transport), exploring and observing vegetation and animal life, the loptuq developed and transmitted information through naming their habitat. today both their habitat and the earlier knowledge have disappeared, but the perceptions and uses of resources can at least partly be reconstructed through foreign explorers’ narratives and field notes. received may 9, 2020 open access accepted august 31, 2020 doi 10.14237/ebl.11.1.2020.1701 published october 6, 2020 keywords cultural keystone species, ecosystem services, hydronyms, local knowledge, mental map, toponyms copyright © 2020 by the author(s); licensee society of ethnobiology. this is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution-noncommercial 4.0 international public license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0), which permits non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. svanberg and ståhlberg. 2020. ethnobiology letters 11(1):128–136 129 research communications states, chiefly great britain, russia, and qing china) in central asia brought political agents, spies, explorers, and adventurers into the region, but also travelers, who constructed their scientific fame upon the (re)discovery of historical sites buried for centuries in the desert sands. among the foreign visitors, only sven hedin (1865–1952) recurrently stayed with the loptuq. hedin studied the lop nor region carefully, meticulously recording hydronyms and toponyms during his mapping activities. gathering plants, he was able to at least partly identify the local toponyms based on plant names. during his first expedition in 1896, hedin explored the lower tarim river region, lived in loptuq reed huts, and “spoke their own language, eating the food they ate, and was almost as poor as themselves” (hedin 1898b:898). during his next expedition in 1899–1902, he stayed with the loptuq for more than a year (hedin 1904, 1906). hedin made a third and last visit to them in 1933 (hedin 1940). hedin’s materials have until now rarely been utilized for ethnobiological research, but they yield important information (hällzon et al. 2019; ståhlberg and svanberg 2010). aim, sources, and methods this study discusses the relations between toponyms and human perceptions of the environment with an example from a less known ecological setting, the waterscape. waterscapes and marshes are seldom understood. in many areas of the world, they are classified as wastelands and often systematically deconstructed, as more attractive or profitable use of the areas are preferred, or for political reasons (cf., rendón et al. 2019). we examine loptuq perceptions of their waterscape environment through naming and use of reed, highlighting through this example the importance of linguistic materials in ethnobiology for understanding local knowledge in a historical context. common reed (phragmites australis) was a significant resource for the loptuq. the reed belts provided many and varied ecosystem services, including provisional (e.g., food, energy, raw materials, and ornamental), regulating (habitat for food, fish, and birds), and cultural (language expressions, toponyms, and mental maps). reed use exists in several other areas of the world (e.g., köbbing et al. 2014; prigarin 2015; storå 1985), but the loptuq utilization has not been previously studied. we have chosen samples of reed-related toponyms, as they are abundant reflect how the loptuq perceived their main ecological settings and identify important locations for economic activities and the transmission of knowledge and social relations. our study is an effort to reconstruct and thus preserve, at least in some aspects, a way of life that is now lost. for the loptuq, like for many other small groups in central asia, documentation is highly deficient or one-sided, which makes the piecing together of scraps of information into a serious challenge for the scientist; yet it is not an impossible task, which our study illustrates. among the foreign and local visitors to the loptuq, only one, sven hedin, had an interest in documenting the loptuq’s view of their surroundings (cf., jarring 1997). he was also sufficiently competent linguistically and scientifically, and his extensive field notes contain thousands of toponyms and hydronyms, as well as notes on their meanings, which include data on fauna, plant-life, trapping, fishing methods, and dwellings. these notes are mainly found in his diaries, which have been systematically analyzed and published by the turkologist gunnar jarring (1997). we have also used the published works of hedin, which provide detailed descriptions of the landscape and human activities in the lop marshes and reed belts (hedin 1898a, 1900, 1904, 1906). other travel reports are considered when relevant; the narratives and scientific reports by nikolay przewalsky, mikhail pevtsov, gabriel bonvalot, fernand grenard, ellsworth huntington, albert von le coq, aurel stein, and sergei malov, have been used in our earlier studies on the loptuq (hällzon et al. 2019; ståhlberg and svanberg 2010, 2017). the methods used in this article are ethnobiological and ethnohistorical. western science-based societies have been criticized for simplifying ecosystems in order to manage them. local knowledge also tends to be simplified or largely ignored (peloquin and berkes 2009). cultural, social, and economic activities are, however, closely connected with language, perceptions of the environment, and the use of resources. therefore, the different aspects must be analyzed together. further, in the case of the loptuq, the concept of traditional ecological or environmental knowledge is problematic. we cannot assert that there was a tradition, or the concept needs to be revised. the sources cover only about fifty years in the life of a highly adaptive group. following alternating river waters and lakes in the desert, the loptuq had to change and assimilate new svanberg and ståhlberg. 2020. ethnobiology letters 11(1):128–136 130 research communications data faster than, for instance, oasis farmers. their environmental knowledge and use of resources changed during the short-documented period, partly due to ecological changes and partly due to increasing contact with the outside world, mainly traders, a dozen foreign travelers, and increasing state control. with the changes in habitat and subsequently also local knowledge, we can suppose that the perceptions about the environment underwent modifications, but to what degree and how remains an open question. geography and population the tarim river is an endorheic river, almost 2,000 kilometers long, flowing eastward through the taklamakan desert in eastern turkestan. nikolay przewalsky was the first foreign explorer to visit the lower reaches of the river in 1876–1877. he found a terminate lake known as kara koshun filled with fresh and brackish water. fishermen living in reed huts and using dugout canoes for fishing and transport inhabited the shores of this considerable lake (przewalsky 1878). loptuq (‘lop people’), exonym loplik, was a small linguistically and culturally distinct group of turkicspeakers (for their origins, history, and administration, see ståhlberg and svanberg 2017). they lived in a remote region between the taklamakan and kumtag deserts with few contacts to the outside world, except seasonal visits by itinerant traders and some exchange with their turki neighbors. the loptuq subsisted on fishing, hunting, and gathering in contrast to the oasis farmers, and they transported occasional traders and foreign travelers with their canoes (ståhlberg and svanberg 2010, 2017). the tendency toward seclusion, especially from turki farmers, was mainly due to a figure 1 map of the lop nor region, eastern turkestan (xinjiang). drawing 1933 by folke bergman, member of the last expedition organized by sven hedin. legend: ruiner = ruins; gammalt vakttorn = old watch-tower; gravar = graves; bulak = well; ördeks nekropol = ördek’s necropolis; nya lop-nor = new lop nor (actually the position of the lake from 1921 to 1971). source: sven hedin foundation, stockholm (from bergman 1935). svanberg and ståhlberg. 2020. ethnobiology letters 11(1):128–136 131 research communications fear of contagious diseases, but the loptuq also avoided the oases because turki feudal lords exploited them as workforce in the fields (hoppe 2006; svanberg 1987). by the 1880s, the quantity of animals and fish had begun to decline in the lop nor region (figure 1). several loptuq moved to oases settlements, changing their subsistence to agriculture and animal-breeding. droughts in central asia have been on the increase since the mid-1800s (pevtsov 1895). the process of salination and expansion of the deserts also continues today (ståhlberg 2004). in the early twentieth century, the tarim river changed its course and caused the terminal lake to alter its location between the lop nor dried basin, the kara koshun dried basin, and the taitema lake basin. the shifts caused an international debate among scholars as to the exact location of the terminal lake. in 1921, due to human intervention, the lake shifted its position to the lop nor basin (hörner and chen 1935). the ecological conditions discussed in this article were present before the last change took place. today, the previous loptuq habitat has been destroyed. the enormous chinese immigration to xinjiang since the 1950s increased the need for arable land and irrigation, and the waters of the tarim river were deflected from its course (mischke et al. 2020; zhang 2006). plant and animal life decreased critically or disappeared. the people’s republic of china used the lop nor dried basin for nuclear tests until the end of the 1990s, and it is not suitable for human settlement anymore (ståhlberg and svanberg 2017; hällzon et al. 2019). the descendants of the previously riverand lake-dwelling groups have been displaced in villages and in the oasis towns of miran (chinese: milan) and charklik (ruoqiang) at the southern rim of the taklamakan desert, far from their original habitat (hoppe 2006). a few remnants of loptuq culture still exists in their music, but lifestyle, traditions, and language have been replaced by uighur just within a couple of generations (abdurehim 2014; trébinjac 2017). loptuq language and culture should be considered critically endangered, if not already extinct (abdurehim 2016; hällzon et al. 2019). waterscape subsistence the climate of the lower tarim river area was harsh around a century ago with a mean january temperature of –10°c and july average temperatures of +28°–+30°c. rain and snow were very rare and farming was almost impossible due to salt in the soil (ståhlberg and svanberg 2010; see also ståhlberg 2004). sandstorms, buran, occurred regularly, sometimes lasting for weeks. during winter and spring, icy winds from the north and north-west swept the area (hedin 1898b; meserve 1992; pevtsov 1895). during the three winter months (january to march), this wind could reach a strength of ten on a ten-grade scale. the loptuq called it qara buran ‘black storm’, since it “carried atmospheric particles, which darkened the sky and caused dusk to appear at midday” (hedin 1896:503). during other seasons the atmosphere was comparatively calm, and the winds were weak and of short duration (hedin 1896). in 1877, the loptuq lived mainly on fishing and foraging (przewalsky 1878). their mode of subsistence depended on the lake and river habitat, and the changing water conditions. the loptuq mostly fished, but also trapped waterfowl with snares and consumed the meat either fresh or preserved. they gathered common reed, locally called qamïš, for huts, fuel, and furniture. the clothes and nets were manufactured by the fibers of the lop hemp (čege, čige; apocynum pictum) gathered in spring and fall along the riverbanks (pevtsov 1895; przewalsky 1878). when sven hedin visited in the 1890s, the loptuq still mainly fished, hunted ducks, gathered ducks’ eggs, and foraged reed shots for food. some households had taken up shepherding due to the changing environmental conditions, including the falling river and lake water levels (hedin 1898b). few plant species were available in the loptuq habitat (for details on their plant knowledge, see hällzon et al. 2019). common reed and lop hemp might be regarded as cultural keystone species (platten and henfrey 2009). čigelik ‘apocynum-region’, čigelik quduq ‘apocynum well’, and other similar toponyms indicated where lop hemp grew (jarring 1997). a fairly common plant was also southern cattail (typha domingensis) locally called jäkän (przewalsky 1878). hedin observed that the villagers of tikenlik (‘thistle place’) subsisted on fish, wild duck meat, duck and goose eggs, and the stalks and sprouts of jäkän. many places were known as jäkänlik ‘cattail place’, for instance jäkänlik-köl (‘cattail lake’) (hedin 1904). there was at least one turqomaqtïq köl ‘sedge lake’ (hedin 1906; malov 1956; cf., hällzon et al. 2019). a couple of tamarisk species, locally known as julƴun (tamarix spp.), played an important role for simple craft, which is indicated by several place names svanberg and ståhlberg. 2020. ethnobiology letters 11(1):128–136 132 research communications (jarring 1997). berries of the wild oleaster tree (elaeagnus angustifolia) were harvested by the loptuq as food (hedin 1904; katanov and menges 1933). the tarim river and its lakes were rich in fish, with several native species (walker and yang 1999). mikhail pevtsov (1895) recorded around 1890 that the loptuq distinguished between five economic important species of fish: balkhash marinka (schizothorax argentatus [locally known as εgεr baliq ‘saddle fish’]); tarim schizothoracin (schizothorax biddulphi [ottur baliq]); kashgarian loach (hedinichthys yarkandensis [tεzεk baliq ‘dung fish’]); scaly osman (diptychus maculatus [it baliq ‘dog fish’]); and big-head schizothoracin (aspiorhynchus laticeps [minlai bεliq]). a couple of other, not yet identified fish species are mentioned by a few other travelers (hällzon et al. 2019; jarring 1998). hedin (jarring 1997) and malov (1956) mentioned laqu as a fish with big head, the biggest kind of fish in the lakes. it might be the same as minlai (probably a chinese loanword; mianli) for aspiorhynchus laticeps (hällzon et al. 2019). a few other fish names have been recorded, but they still evade the possibility to be identified scientifically. contemporary loptuq descendants do not know them, and at present newly introduced, often invasive, species have replaced them (walker and yang 1999). fishing activities were reflected in many ways in the waterscape toponyms. the loptuq regularly placed fish traps, manʤar, in the reed belts (jarring 1997). the fish traps were fastened to two poles stuck onto the bottom of the canal (hedin 1904). a manʤar baši ‘fish trap head or top’ was the uppermost place in the channel for setting the fish trap (hedin 1904). the fish they caught found their way into toponyms, for instance tinačïnï kötörmesü ‘portage of the tini fish’ (hedin 1904), laquluq köl ‘lake of the laqu fish’, semilaqu köl ‘lake of the fat fish’, and juƴan-balïq köl ‘lake where big fish are found’ (hedin 1904, 1906; jarring 1997; malov 1956). the waterscape also attracted mosquitoes. a place known for the abundance of mosquitoes, kümüt (malov 1956), was known as kumutluk (hedin 1904). fishing took place from early spring to late fall. the spawning-season was in may, when the fish swam down the river to the lakes. during this month, the loptuq had their most active season. they set nets and traps in the lakes and from their dugout canoes. the canoes, kemi, were skillfully maneuvered by men as well as women standing upright and driving the fish into the nets. the greater part of the fish captured during the spring was dried in the sun for winter storage. after cleaning and removing the entrails, the fish were dried unsalted. the stock fish were stored indoors in reed huts (hedin 1900; pevtsov 1895). the canoes varied very much in size: the largest hedin (1898b) observed was over eight meters long and ¾ meter broad. his own canoe was about six meters long, but hardly more than half a meter across. three men, “working hard”, were able to hew a kemi out of a fresh poplar trunk (toghrak; populus euphratica) in five days. the tree had to be sound at heart and free from cracks. the loptuq never used sails, but always paddled, using an oar with a thin, broad blade. they called their oar gädʒaq, “which they ply with great strength and dexterity” (hedin 1898b:890). for transport of people and freights, they used large canoes and double canoes, qoš kemi (jarring 1997). the waterscape and especially the reed belts were not only a habitat for fish, but also for different kinds of mussels, snakes, crabs, and several kinds of fowl. on dry land, wild boar, wolves, foxes, weasels, and hares roamed. the caspian tiger (panthera tigris tigris), is now extinct, but it appeared sometimes in the reed belts and was hunted mainly for fur (hedin 1898b; pevtsov 1895; przewalsky 1878). in the lower tarim river area, one place was called jolbarš äsildi ‘where the tiger was killed’ (jarring 1997). itinerant chinese traders were willing to pay a high price for tiger meat, a costly ingredient in traditional chinese medicine, and the loptuq hunted or poisoned the animals and sold the meat (le coq 1928). reed resources, utilization, and management the loptuq fished and hunted in the reed belts, along the riverbanks and in the marshlands of the smaller lakes in the waterscape. common reed, an aquatic gramineous perennial, was abundant in the habitat and of crucial importance for subsistence. a belt of gigantic reed, “each fully 25 feet [7.6 meters] in height and measuring 2–¼ inches [5–0.6 cm] in circumference at the surface of the water, stretched diagonally across the lake,” hedin (1898b:898) noted. reed provided invaluable services to the loptuq. the plant not only supplied them with construction materials and fuel, but the young sprouts were used as food. in fall, panicles were gathered for making beds. in summer, fresh panicles were harvested to produce a tough, viscous mass used as sugar (przewalsky 1878). reed were also a part of loptuq rituals. corpses were placed on a stretcher made of reeds and osiers, and svanberg and ståhlberg. 2020. ethnobiology letters 11(1):128–136 133 research communications the corpses were covered with more reeds at burial. in some cases, graves were covered with sand rather than reed (bonvalot 1891; hedin 1900). the loptuq lived in permanent or semipermanent hamlets comprising 10–20 households, spread out along the riverbanks. the most prevalent type of dwelling was the qamïš uj ‘reed hut’. it was constructed on a rough framework of poplar logs tied together. the logs in the corner were called tuluk, the roof beams baraj, while smaller joints were called čäsijagač. on the log framework, bundles of reed were tied in a vertical position. the flat roof was also made of reed and the ground inside the hut was covered with reeds. in the middle of the floor, there was a fireplace. the reed houses consisted of several rooms; some were used mainly for storing stockfish and smoked duck. reed also provided fuel (hedin 1900; littledale 1894; przewalsky 1878). a more modest hut for fishermen and shepherds was the satma, built of poles, boughs, brushwood, and bundles or reed (hedin 1898b, 1940; przewalsky 1878). the loptuq managed the reed belts to improve their economic activities in several ways. one of the most important methods was the creation and maintenance of channels in the thickets for fishing and transport. hedin (1898b:908) observed: were it not for the narrow channels which the lop men keep open, these forests of reed would be absolutely impassable; even the channels (čapƴan) would grow over in one year, if the young sprouting reeds were not pulled up by the roots in spring. as a rule a čapƴan is about a yard wide, and it is lined on both sides by reeds as hard and impassable as boarded walls, not less than fifteen or sixteen feet [more than 4.5 meters] high. in several places the reeds are tied together in standing sheaves, or bent back, so as not to fall forward and choke up the lode or channel. every channel would at some point open into a round water basin with half a dozen lagoons. when the canoe appeared in the open space, “the boatmen dipped in their oars and made her skim across the open pool like wild duck, so that the water hissed off her bow, and i could not help fancying that in a minute or so we should dash our heads against a wooden wall”, hedin (1898b:909) described his experience (cf., pevtsov 1895). however, the reeds bent apart “like curtains,” and the canoe glided unharmed into the next narrow tunnel. the primary object of these channels, which intersected each other in every direction and created “a labyrinth maze”, in which a stranger would “infallibly be lost”, was not transport. they were used for catching fish. hedin (1898b:909) noted: “we rowed over hundreds and hundreds of nets, and in the clear transparent water underneath i could see countless shoals of fish. we caught a few as we went along, and cooked them.” each family had its own fishing channel, in which members alone were entitled to set their nets (hedin 1898b); this was probably a measure to avoid conflicts and overfishing. the loptuq used the same vessels both in the reed belts and on open water. hedin (1898a:257) wrote that the loptuq spend half of their lives in their long, narrow canoes. … noiseless and swift as fishes, the light canoes glide over the dark blue bosom of the lake, with its reed-hidden shores and its playfully curling eddies. for transport they used larger canoes. a tiny canoe could get through the channels easily, but bigger and heavier boats had to slowly work their way through. out on the open lake, the rowers generally knelt down, but among the thick reeds, they stood up to see better, punting the canoe along. as a rule, there were two oarsmen. the one in the rear usually stood upright to be able to see over the head of the one in front (hedin 1898b). for the loptuq, who had learned since childhood to navigate and move in the thickets, the reed “forests” provided no obstacle. when the channel became too narrow, the boatmen laid down their oars and forced the boat onward with their arms, using the reeds as a prop. for a stranger not accustomed to this kind of waterscape, the experience could be disturbing. hedin (1898b:910) confessed we were completely shut in on all sides. not a drop of water was visible; it was entirely hidden by the reeds and the boat. into that dark, close, hot tunnel, not a gleam of sunshine penetrated. i drew a sigh of intense relief when we at length emerged from the watery defile and emerged upon the last open lake, with its surface crumpled by the breeze. most explorers were puzzled about how the loptuq found their way through the labyrinths of channels (see for instance hedin 1898b). ellsworth huntington (1907:246) supposed hat svanberg and ståhlberg. 2020. ethnobiology letters 11(1):128–136 134 research communications perhaps their ability originates from the necessity of keeping in mind the exact length and direction of the multitudinous and intricate canals and little lakes of the reedy swamp”, possibly the locations of the channels and lagoons, combined with regular navigation and management of the channels helped the loptuq to create a detailed mental map of their specific reed belt. reed played a crucial role in the cognitive reality of the loptuq, and this is reflected in the many toponyms where reed, qamïš, is a component, such as qamïš algan köl ‘lake where reed was fetched’ and qamïšluq bulaq ‘reed spring’ (jarring 1997). many of the channels or canals were named after the owner or person connected with them, setting down social rules and fishing and utilization rights, but also responsibility for taking care of it. hedin recorded more than thirty personalized channel names (jarring 1997). abdal čapƴan indicated ‘abdal’s canal’, gadaj čapƴan ‘gadaj’s canal’, and istam čapƴan ‘istam’s canal’. some channels were named after events that had occurred there or according their shape or condition, such as qum čapƴan ‘sandy channel’ or čoŋ čapƴan ‘big channel’ (jarring 1997). a passage for carrying canoes over land was known as kötörma, and such places were named for instance usaƴ kötörma ‘wide portage’, but also according to a person, abass kötörmesu ‘abas’ place for carrying canoes’ (hedin 1904). conclusions the naming of the waterscape environment helped the loptuq to pinpoint, describe, and transmit information. the toponyms can today be seen as a history book and mental map of the lop nor area at the end of the nineteenth and beginning of the twentieth century, seen through the eyes of the local inhabitants, the loptuq. important ecological, economic, and social information, crucial for a fishing -hunting-foraging culture subsisting on a waterscape, were embedded in the toponyms and hydronyms and other expressions for the environment. the abundance of different reed-related names reflected the importance of reed in loptuq everyday life, culture, collective memory, and understanding and perception of their surroundings. ecological names form the majority, reflecting for instance the abundance of plants or mosquitoes, or the outward aspect of a place. the economic aspect was reflected in among others fish-based hydronyms. social information was supplied by personal names, which indicated who had the right to fish or use resources, such as reed, from a specific spot, but they also indicated who was responsible for taking care, managing, and keeping a channel open for canoe traffic. channels belonged to a person or a family, but everybody could use them for transport and moving through the reed belt. experience-based toponyms, such as the place where a tiger had been killed, are the least frequent names, but they open up an interesting view into loptuq perceptions. tigers were usually poisoned; a place noted for tiger killing means probably that someone (or several hunters) had met and killed a living tiger there, a dangerous feat to remember. possibly the name was also given as a warning that this was a locality tigers might roam in. sven hedin recorded thousands of toponyms, but there were certainly many more, which changed over time and place. we can and should also assume that both the local knowledge and the linguistic reflections of environmental understanding was in a constant process of change among the loptuq, who moved with the shifting waters. today, these once concrete markers are gone and survive only in old maps and travel narratives. the loptuq traditional culture and knowledge, as well as the language have since changed, but the sources can still tell us something about the lop nor waterscape and the perceptions the loptuq created about it. the example of the loptuq shows that the concept of traditional knowledge is problematic when analyzing a highly adaptable group. linguistic materials cannot be divided from their cultural, economic, and social contexts, but must be analyzed from a holistic perspective, which applies also for ethnobiological data. our knowledge can never be complete, but we can at least to some extent reconstruct different kinds of perceptions, even from already extinct cultures and on the basis of very limited sources, to enrich our understanding about human survival and subsistence in challenging environments. declarations permissions: none declared. sources of funding: none declared. conflicts of interest: none declared. references cited abdurehim, e. 2014. the lopnor dialect of uyghur: a descriptive analysis. university of helsinki, helsinki, finland. svanberg and ståhlberg. 2020. ethnobiology letters 11(1):128–136 135 research communications abdurehim, e. 2016. an endangered turkic variety in china: the lopnor dialect of uyghur. in endangered turkic languages, iii: interdisciplinary approaches, edited by s. eker and ü. ç. şavk, pp. 357–370. international turkic academy, ankara, turkey. bergman, f. 1935. newly discovered graves in the lop-nor desert. in hyllningsskrift tillägnad sven 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wolverton. 2015. the university of utah press, salt lake city. 155 pp. veteto. 2017. ethnobiology letters 8(1):72–77 72 reviews appropriation? is it ethical?) in the contemporary global landscape of hotly contested terrains including identity politics, social justice, environmental degradation, cultural misunderstanding, and many other issues. wolverton identifies himself as the ‘glue’ of the research team, handling many of the logistics, and makes a decision to silence himself as an archaeologist. he feels his expertise should be silenced in order to allow other narratives to manifest outside of the specialized knowledge of an archaeologist who works in the region. this selfcensoring is interesting in that it plays off another self -censoring that is practiced by swentzell, the native puebloan expert, who by necessity of expectations and norms in his community, cannot share certain domains of knowledge with the group. we are left with a situation where the two foremost experts on mesa verde, wolverton and swentzell, are holding back. indeed, as we learn later in his essay, swentzell is initially suspicious of wolverton (and rightly so, given the contentious history between pueblo peoples and archaeologists) and as we learn in wolverton's essay, he is intimidated and a bit threatened by the presence of swenztell, whom he invited to the research team after colleagues and team members suggested that having a native expert on board would be crucial to the project. thankfully wolverton followed their advice, as swentzell ends up being the heart of the team, grounding the endeavor from an indigenous perspective. the silencing is an effective strategy, as i suspect the project would have taken an entirely different (and less interesting, less exploratory) tone had it been led by an expert who sushi in cortez: interdisciplinary essays on mesa verde, coedited by david taylor and steve wolverton, documents one of the more unique academic experiments that i am aware of. it is a project that brought together six individuals to experience mesa verde, a bioregion of rich cultural and ecological complexity located in the four corners area of the southwestern united states. the idea was to get experts in different disciplines together in a significant archaeological and historical landscape, to reflect on and challenge each other's perspectives, hoping to forge new understanding and meaning in a type of edgework achieved through interdisciplinary banter, engagement, and outside-the-box thinking. the participants included taylor, a writer and poet; wolverton, an archaeologist and environmental scientist; steve bardolph, a photographer and graphic designer; porter swentzell, a native educator from santa clara pueblo in new mexico; melinda levin, a documentary filmmaker; and robert figueroa, an environmental philosopher. the volume is a compendium of six essays written individually by project team members. in "making sushi and producing the mesa verde project," wolverton starts out the book with a selfreflective tone that is characteristic of the entire work. in cultural anthropology, we might term this ‘reflexivity,’ ‘autoethnography,’ and the work-as-awhole, ‘multi-vocal.’ the authors are not constrained by such categories. the main thrust of the volume includes much of what makes up contemporary cultural anthropology: deep reflections on what it means to be a researcher (e.g., is it colonialism? is it sushi in cortez: interdisciplinary essays on mesa verde. edited by david taylor and steve wolverton. 2015. the university of utah press, salt lake city. 155 pp. james r. veteto1* 1department of anthropology and sociology, western carolina university, cullowhee, nc, usa. *jrveteto@email.wcu.edu received may 11, 2017 open access accepted may 24, 2017 doi 10.14237/ebl.8.1.2017.973 copyright © 2017 by the author(s) licensee society of ethnobiology. this is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution-noncommercial 4.0 international public license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0), which permits non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. veteto. 2017. ethnobiology letters 8(1):72–77 73 reviews was smug in his own archaeological construction of mesa verde history. however, the perspective from archaeology was not completely silent as wolverton gave basic historical background lessons to the team in skype classroom pre-trip presentations and provided precursory introductions as the group arrived on-site at different pueblo ruins. nevertheless, there is a tension present in wolverton’s participation, which is different from but shares some solidarity with the tension that swentzell experienced. wolverton argues extensively against the traditional return on investment (roi) strategies of contemporary universities. he maintains that rois can stifle creativity and enjoyment in our work. sushi in cortez was initiated to send a group of scholars from different disciplines into the field to experience a landscape together. an entirely inductive exercise with no predictable outcome. thus, it was nearly certain the project would never receive funding from institutions such as the national science foundation. such as it was, the team was fortunate that the center for the study of interdisciplinarity at university of north texas (unt), the home institution at the time of four project members (taylor, wolverton, levin, figueroa), was experimental enough to fund such a ‘fuzzy’ endeavor. i agree with wolverton's critique and disillusionment with rois, particularly as encouraged by funding agencies steeped in the sociologic of late vulgar neoliberal capitalism. however, as an applied scholar who believes that research in the current global context of crisis should be oriented toward environmental conservation and social justice (see veteto and lockyer 2008, 2015; armstrong and veteto 2015; lockyer and veteto 2013), i was struck by a vignette in this book's prologue. prior to going into the field, four members of the team (the unt cohort mentioned above) organized an interdisciplinary panel on research as storytelling at the 2010 meeting of the society of ethnobiology in victoria b.c., canada. during the discussion, a first nations man raised his hand and conveyed that he was offended because he “had come to this panel because his people have real-world problems and are trying to face current environmental crises; he had hoped to gain some tools from our panel to help him, and he felt he had gained nothing but anecdotes and intimation that he was clearly outside the academy, offered mainly from texans” (p. xv). ouch; biting and relevant criticism! it echoed some of the questions in my mind as i read this book. here we have a team composed of an ethnobiologist, a poet, a philosopher, an indigenous educator, a documentary filmmaker and photographer, and all we get out of the project is a cool place to hang out and some stories? what about applied collaborations to help conserve the biocultural heritage of mesa verde? particularly, now, in the context of a us political regime that is threatening to dismantle the national park system and desecrate sacred native sites on treaty lands in the service of natural resource exploitation? such concerns were put to rest as i read further and learned about applied work inspired by the project being done by bardolph and his students to promote lake superior herring as a local, sustainable food source and the work of three team members (wolverton et al. 2016) calling for a self-determined “pueblo heritage council” to be involved in all stages of planning and approval for archaeological projects to take place in the mesa verde region. actual realworld results; this shows that providing an openended spaces for interdisciplinary reflection and interaction can make positive change even if that isn’t the stated goal! the second essay, by steve bardolph, is “spinning in circles.” bardolph created panoramic photographs which are stunning if seen in person or via the sushi in cortez webpage on the university of utah website. through his panoramic method, bardolph tries to, “…emulate a japanese garden, at once presenting an awe-inspiring and complete whole, as well as a lush tapestry of individual details spread across singular moments in time” (p. 30). his essay is presented as a “non-linear narrative of broken tiles” with the intent of creating “a colorful and informative picture of my interaction with interdisciplinarity and the ancient pueblo landscape and how my research, thoughts, and teaching have changed as a result” (p. 31). although i don’t think he achieves non-linearity in his essay such as a reader might experience, for example, in reading pueblo writers such as leslie marmon silko (e.g., 2006) or simon ortiz (e.g., 1992), bardolph’s approach to photography is refreshingly insightful and potentially ground-breaking. his panoramic approach attempts to overcome both 2-d reality and the colonizing gaze: typical landscape photos, partly due to physics, the lens, and the nature of light, adopt a renaissance perspective, flattening three-dimensional space into an ideal cropped veteto. 2017. ethnobiology letters 8(1):72–77 74 reviews window, much like a painting with one-point perspective. they can also adopt a “magisterial gaze” and can imply the ethos of “manifest destiny” the conquering journey west, especially when taken from scenic overlooks. they can obscure, ignore, or warp points of reality. traditional photos can make the landscape (or cliff dwelling within it) into something of a commodity (p. 35). to achieve the desired effect, bardolph, from a carefully considered and chosen spot, starts at the horizon taking photographs in a clockwise spinning rotation, pivoting his feet a degree or two at a time. he takes 20–40 photos before he returns to his point of origin and completes a row. the camera is then pointed up or down a little bit and the process is completed again, up to fifteen different rows of pictures. at butler wash in the study region, bardolph spun in place for more than an hour and took 600 photos. later, back at his studio, he organized the images into a “shimmering overall perspective” and printed the re-construction into a 20 ft by 5 ft collage. in addition to the weblink mentioned above, there is a full-color foldout in the book. the result is spectacular. i am struck by how the 360-degree panorama, created by spinning in circles, enacts art that is noticeably, from my interpretation, closer to indigenous world-views that typically see time as non-linear, either circular or spiraling. it is also closer to our everyday experience of reality as 3d and non-linear. i think bardolph has created art that is loyal to the mesa verde landscape, and is perhaps more attuned to and respectful of the native cultures that have lived there for thousands of years. the third essay in the collection, “two trips to a brewpub: stories toward interdisciplinary thinking” is by david taylor, a writer/poet steeped in the bioregional and eco-agrarian american poetry tradition. those roots and influences appear immediately with a quote from wendell berry to start the essay and engagement with the words and ideas of berry and eco-poet gary snyder throughout. taylor’s literary essay is wide-ranging as it explores interdisciplinarity, community, landscape, story, university architecture, the potential formation of a new type of university (‘astrofalfa’­­—a utopian future university and joke shared by the group throughout), monty python, and craft beer. as an anthropologist-poet, the topic that struck me most was his insightful discussion of ethnopoetics and the challenges that field presents. he draws on snyder’s (1977) conceptualization of “the politics of ethnopoetics.” snyder’s approach is that the urgent task of ethnopoetics is to translate the poetry of indigenous people so that members of expansionist imperialist cultures can better understand their humanity and thus be less exploitative. taylor takes snyder’s thinking a useful step forward when he begins to question his borrowing of topics from swenztell and the mesa verde landscape and incorporating them into his poetry during the project. “in borrowing from him, i am also taking, and the poetry i offer in return heightens the risk of arrogance, imperialism, and, equally bad, the mistreatment of a friend” (p. 61). these are poignant concerns in the current (and any) socio-politicalcultural-context and is indicative of the challenges, concerns, and issues that each of the team members face in trying to both learn from and be respectful of swentzell’s culture and teachings. i assume the issues in this particular collaboration were worked out to the satisfaction of both parties as swentzell and taylor remain friends and have presented and published together on the results. the discussion of ethnopoetics and ethics is timely and important. tensions and challenges and moments of illumination, camaraderie, and collaboration resulted in some beautiful poetry by taylor, as evidenced in the last stanza of his poem “butler wash” (p. 69): water is the dream of rock, not merging, but already singular, as air imagines itself in summer fire, waiting on the wooded ridge above, fire erodes to stone, air follows the riverbed, in spirals of entering or leaving, a fluteplayer of lightning strikes lifting birds and butterflies to flight. in the fourth essay of the collection, “irrigating astroalfafa” by porter swentzell, we encounter an individual at the heart of the entire endeavor. swentzell begins with an account of various waves of euro-american invasions and colonialisms from spanish to mexican and american incursions. the resulting pueblo society has experienced significant cultural loss (for example, in a 2005 survey, only 1 out of 300 children in his village spoke the tewa language fluently) yet retains many of their traditional practices veteto. 2017. ethnobiology letters 8(1):72–77 75 reviews relative to other native american tribes. swentzell is from santa clara pueblo (khap’o owingeh), one of six tewa-speaking pueblos in northern new mexico. the tewa people of santa clara number more than 3000 active members and trace their ancestry back to the archaeological sites in the mesa verde bioregion in tribal oral traditions. throughout the essays of other team members and this contribution by swentzell, the reader encounters an individual of profound native knowledge and deep moral authority. as mentioned above, swentzell is bound by the ethical guidelines of his tribe to refrain from sharing certain domains of knowledge with outsiders, particularly key aspects of tewa spirituality. these prohibitions stem from multiple sources, not the least being historical persecution experienced from spanish, mexican, and american christians. the sharing of knowledge is not to be taken lightly. historically, inappropriate cultural sharings by pueblo people have resulted in a range of repercussions from their home communities, from ostracism and banishment to loss of property and even, in rare circumstances, death. the reader is left feeling fortunate to benefit from swentzell’s participation. what he has deemed appropriate to share is deeply insightful and of potential benefit to all of us currently living in a world-out-of-balance. swentzell offers unique insight about the archaeological sites the team is visiting. for him, the sacred mesa verde landscape consists of not merely ‘sites’ or ‘ruins’, but places imbued with living memory where people lived out rich and multifaceted lives for generations. indeed, when such history is present, people are forever part of that place, meaning they are actually still there: “the ground still murmurs with the treading of their feet, and the air carries the sounds of their voices and songs” (p. 76). swentzell offers a non-western way of interacting with the landscape that is outside the normative experience of other team members. he interprets extreme weather events at their first two site visits (a rare tornado and unseasonable cold weather) not as amoral climatic occurrences, but opportunities to reflect, be humble, and break down barriers that may hinder the group from accomplishing their goal of interdisciplinary interaction and collaboration. the playful term ‘astrofalfa’ emerged as the team encountered fields of green alfafa growing in the desert. they joked it would be the ‘miracle crop’ of the future (much as genetically modified corn ‘is’ today) that would solve any issue facing humanity, creating a myriad of commercial products—soft drinks, tires, houses, animal feed, and more. “‘astrofalfa’ also represented a critique of the superficiality, commodification, and placelessness that seem to be pervasive in much of today’s world” (p. 81). characteristic of the reflexive tone of the volume, swentzell questions his own role in the commodification of culture and place, particularly as he had accepted cash payment for his role in the project. the fictional astrofalfa concept also serves as a jumping off point for some serious reflections on modernity and sustainability. in 2012, the research team gathered for a public presentation of their project at the university of north texas in denton, 40 miles outside of dallas at the northern apex of the dallas-fort worth metroplex. this experience affected swentzell more profoundly than the pueblo sites he had been visiting since childhood. in his own words: as i was leaving yesterday i was struck with a feeling of fear mixed with urgency. the endless rows of chain-restaurants interspersed with big-box stores looked not only formidable, but also unstoppable. as the plane banked over the urban sprawl my eyes were caught by the turquoise glitter of all the backyard swimming pools. landing in new mexico, i felt afraid for my homeland… seeing such an overt flexing of corporate power is rare for me. in santa clara pueblo i can ignore many issues with relative ease. i am not used to being in a place where these issues are tenaciously present. i am left pondering what our endgame as human beings is (p. 87). again consistent with his (recognized, not claimed) role as the member of the group most likely to provoke profound moral questioning, swentzell recognizes his own role in the consumption and destruction of the world (he is, after all, making the observation while simultaneously hurtling through the sky in an enormous metal object propelled by jet fuel) and points to the honest sharing of perspectives and collaboration experienced by the mesa verde research team as a positive model for dealing with the socioecological problems currently facing the world. the fifth essay, “location/fraction: documenting storytelling in mesa verde” is by veteto. 2017. ethnobiology letters 8(1):72–77 76 reviews melinda levin. through a documentary short film, levin sought to tell ‘a’ story of mesa verde not ‘the’ story of mesa verde. she makes an interesting comparison between the collapse of mesa verde culture in 1300 and current socio-ecological crises: …the impressive and evocative rise and collapse of a vast community haunts me with similarities of present-day environmental, agricultural, and self-identity challenges worldwide, including in this corner of the united states. i see a few too many parallels in terms of drought, external forces impacting successful agricultural practices, foreign species invasion, and the sustainability of cultural traditions. these challenges and our human response make them a good story (p. 92). the film itself, location/fracture, available through the book website and on youtube, is a nineminute collage of images: highways, cliff dwellings, mesa bluffs, rocks, the sun, highway dividing line, petroglyphs, clouds, desert rain pools, tourists, caves, highway signs, semi-trucks, creeks, and canyon panoramas. these images are accompanied by audio that i would describe as haunting/eerie punctuated briefly by nasa communication, a presidential statement on human rights, and native flute music. there are various quotes from mesa verde team members throughout the film, focused variously on the juxtaposition of tradition and modernity, deprivileging archaeology, human-landscape interactions, and conflicting gendered park ranger narratives. the film is effective and reminds me of the experimental 1982 film koyaanisqatsi by godfrey reggio that explores deep contrasts between traditional culture and modernity set to the music of philip glass. after watching location/fracture, the main theme i came away with was dissonance, a theme reflected throughout the essays of sushi in cortez. the final essay of the collection is “fire in the rain: exploring the moral terrains of mesa verde” by robert figueroa. well known for his work on environmental justice (ej), figueroa explores related themes throughout. he does so in relationship to his interactions with swentzell, which set the context for the essay. discussing much of what, as an ethnoecologist, i would consider tek (traditional environmental knowledge) and then going beyond into ej, figueroa constructs concepts to help us understand different aspects, stakeholders, and relationships inherent in the mesa verde landscape: moral terrains, environmental heritage, environmental identity, collective continuance (borrowed from native scholar kyle whyte), transformative justice, principle of immediacy. to the non-specialist, these terms might seem like disciplinary jargon, but figueroa explains them clearly and relates them well to topics in the book. i will use his concept of moral terrains (developed with gordon waitt) as an example. in short, landscapes in which we live or visit are terrains of multiple moral perspectives. the experience of mesa verde landscapes might be decidedly different for a pueblo native elder, an archaeologist, a corporate ceo tourist, or park ranger. the essays in this volume illustrate different moral terrains experienced by team members according to their discipline, personal experience, and heritage. figueroa uses this concept to enact what anthropologists might call multi -vocality to de-center dominate narratives. furthermore, he foregrounds counternarratives embodied by indigenous people (particularly swentzell), and calls for an independent indigenous council for consultation on archaeological projects conducted in the mesa verde bioregion, from conception—not after key decisions have been made (see also wolverton et al. 2016). a central question alluded to and discussed throughout this volume centers on narratives surrounding the ‘collapse’ of mesa verde culture in 1300 ad. archaeologists focus primarily on material and political explanations for collapse and subsequent migration southward: climate variability, drought, soil exhaustion, overpopulation, political conflict, warfare, etc. a tewa perspective, as narrated by swentzell, tells a different story: the people simply decided to leave because they had strayed too far from their original teachings and purposeful moral way of living. they sought to journey to a new place, creating a new society and world-in-balance. in terms of the concepts introduced by figueroa, they left to create a new environmental heritage based on a transformation of their collective environmental identity. the tensions between these two moral terrains, occupied by archaeologists and pueblo native peoples, is discussed throughout sushi in cortez. as an outside reader, i am left wondering if they are in complete conflict. if, as swenztell suggested in his essay, human actions are intimately interconnected veteto. 2017. ethnobiology letters 8(1):72–77 77 reviews with the environment and climate, could climate variability/change (see wolverton et al. 2014), drought and other such variables be correlated with the degeneration of human moral society? could factors such as overpopulation, political conflicts, and warfare also be signs that ancient pueblo peoples have strayed from their original spiritual/moral teachings? if this is the case, and archaeological and native narratives are telling different aspects of the same story, i think the principle area of divergence lies in the agency of the actors. according to archaeological explanations, ancient mesa verde people had no choice but to vacate their communities as material factors forced their hand. in pueblo accounts, the people chose to leave because they had strayed too far from the right way of living. in other words, they exercised agency in changing their way of life. if this is indeed so, and we are to take the pueblo account seriously (which the authors do), then it’s an historical example that provides hope for humanity as we currently face monumental social and ecological challenges. perhaps we can choose a different way of life, just as the ancient people who left mesa verde did. and perhaps interand transdisciplinary projects like sushi in cortez provide a partial roadmap that suggests listening, on an equal playing field, to people of varying backgrounds from different disciplines and widely divergent ways of thinking, might be a good place to start. references cited armstrong, c. g., and j. r. veteto. 2015. historical ecology and ethnobiology: applied research for environmental conservation and social justice. ethnobiology letters 6:5–7. doi:10.14237/ ebl.5.2014.313. lockyer, j., and j. r. veteto. 2013. environmental anthropology engaging ecotopia: bioregionalism, permaculture, and ecovillages. berghahn books, new york, ny. ortiz, s. j. woven stone. 1992. university of arizona press, tucson, az. silko, l. m. 2006. ceremony, penguin classics deluxe edition. penguin books, new york, ny. snyder, g. 1977. the old ways: six essays. city lights books, san francisco, ca. veteto, j. r., and j. lockyer. 2008. environmental anthropology engaging permaculture: moving theory and practice toward sustainability. culture and agriculture 30:47–58. veteto, j. r., and j. lockyer. 2015. applying anthropology to what? tactical/ethical decisions in an age of global neoliberal imperialism. journal of political ecology 22:357–367. available at: http:// jpe.library.arizona.edu/volume_22/ vetetoandlockyer.pdf. accessed on may 11, 2017. wolverton, s., k. j. chambers, and j. r. veteto. 2014. climate change and ethnobiology. journal of ethnobiology 34:273–275. doi:10.2993/0278-077134.3.273. wolverton, s., r. m. figueroa, p. swentzell. 2016. archaeology, heritage, and moral terrains: two cases from the mesa verde region. ethnobiology letters 7:23–31. doi:10.14237/ebl.7.2.2016.695. firearms effects on tsimane’ hunting and traditional knowledge in bolivian amazonia medinaceli and quinlan. 2018. ethnobiology letters 9(2):230–242 230 research communications ecologically sustainable in lowland south america at current human population densities (levi et al. 2009; shepard et al. 2012). introduction of firearms among tropical forest hunters, however, can have multiple effects on conservation of natural and cultural resources. in the neotropics, firearms substantially improve short-term hunting efficiency relative to bow -hunting—greater probability of kill per encounter and returns in kgs per hour hunting (alvard and kaplan 1991; gurven et al. 2006; hames 1979; see also jerozolimski and peres 2003). improved efficiency, however, comes with multiple “externalities” or hidden costs. neotropical gun hunting appears to deplete game species in short periods of time. a large-scale, 10-year study of amazonian subsistence hunting has shown that vertebrate biomass was reduced from 1200 kg/km2 in areas with little hunting pressure to 200 kg/km2 in areas under intense gun hunting, even with stable and declining human populations (peres 2000). models and simulations based on ethnographic data for amazonian hunting indicated that limited use of firearms can drive prey populations to local extinction introduction wild fauna are the main protein source for many indigenous amazonian groups (robinson and redford 1991), and hunting is central to their cultural dynamics and lifestyle based on specialized knowledge and skills passed down over generations (carniero 1974; rosélis et al. 2000; vickers 1984). for amazonian indigenous groups hunting is strongly linked with masculine identity and it is the most prestigious subsistence activity (alexiades 1999; gurven and von rueden 2006). prestige related to hunting may decline with acculturation (von rueden et al. 2008), which could influence conservation of traditional knowledge. key behaviors central to traditional hunting identity include 1) learning to make hunting equipment, 2) hunting skills developed through years of constant practice, and 3) acquisition of traditional ecological knowledge of plants and animals (zent 2007). all of these key behaviors may have been altered by the introduction of firearms in amazonia. hunting with traditional technology appears to be firearms effects on tsimane’ hunting and traditional knowledge in bolivian amazonia armando medinaceli1* and robert j. quinlan1 1department of anthropology, washington state university, pullman, usa. *armando.medinaceli@wsu.edu abstract subsistence hunting is a key activity for indigenous amazonian people. traditional tsimane’ bow hunting was strongly affected by the introduction of firearms over 30 years ago. tsimane’ of bolivia maintain traditional hunting techniques with bows and arrows, sometimes in conjunction with modern firearms. this study explores tsimane' perceived costs and benefits of bowversus gun-hunting. we consider cultural conservation in addition to factors typical in ecological comparisons of traditional and introduced hunting technologies. firearms are expensive and less reliable than bows and arrows. costs of purchasing firearms requires market engagement and surplus production to generate cash. tsimane’ do not identify overhunting as one of the costs of firearms; though multiple studies show reduced game populations in areas under moderate to intense gun-hunting pressure. in sum, tsimane’ identify multiple benefits to traditional hunting technology, while firearms have a strong effect of the loss of knowledge regarding fabrication of bows and arrows, and present a challenge to tsimane’ cultural identity as bow-hunters. received november 11, 2017 open access accepted may 12, 2018 doi 10.14237/ebl.9.2.2018.1154 keywords tsimane’, traditional hunting, firearms, bolivia, amazonia copyright © 2018 by the author(s); licensee society of ethnobiology. this is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution-noncommercial 4.0 international public license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0), which permits non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. medinaceli and quinlan. 2018. ethnobiology letters 9(2):230–242 231 research communications over a single human lifetime, and gun-hunting pressure may be acute for primate prey species (levi et al. 2009, 2011; shepard et al. 2012; cf. alvard 1995; see also cronin et al. [2016] and kümpel et al. [2008] for gun-hunting effects on primates in west and central africa). costs of gun-hunting beyond wildlife conservation are less well documented, though studies suggest effects on traditional livelihoods and social relations. firearms and ammunition are costly and oblige subsistence hunters to engage in cash economies that can alter traditional livelihoods (hames 1979; harner 1972). costs of firearms and ammunition can also motivate prey choice for large species, complicating conservation efforts (jerozolimski and peres 2003:420; siren and wilkie 2016). firearms can substantially increase the lethality of conflicts between people (descola 1994:228; hames 1979:228), potentially straining traditional social controls. firearms can drastically alter individual social status when there is differential access to them (holmberg 1969:274–276). the introduction of firearms can erode traditional patterns of cooperative hunting (hames 1979). studies focused on emic perceptions of firearms and gun hunting are especially scarce, though fragments (sometimes indexed, sometimes not) appear embedded in ecological studies and broader ethnographies. even less well documented are effects of gun-hunting on conservation of ethnobiological knowledge and traditional technology. firearms are now ubiquitous among hunters in the neotropics (jerozolimski and peres 2003); however, traditional bow-hunting continues alongside gun-hunting in some remote areas like tsimane’ communities in bolivian amazonia, described here. we focus on tsimane’ perceptions of gunversus bow-hunting to help fill gaps in the ethnographic record. we examine the locally perceived costs and benefits of bows and guns, and consider effects of firearms on the conservation of tsimane’ traditional knowledge. we find that although firearms are more efficient than traditional bows and arrows, gunhunting contributes to a loss of traditional knowledge and alters tsimane’ identity. in their own words, the use of firearms “does not represent what a tsimane’ hunter really is.” methods and setting tsimane’ have been described as foragerhorticulturalists (e.g., gurven et al. 2006) with subsistence practices including hunting, gathering, and fishing of wild resources along with production of domestic crops. they usually construct settlements along rivers and more recently along roads (reyesgarcia et al. 2012). staple crops from swidden horticulture include manioc, rice, and plantain. tsimane’ are active hunters particularly of wild mammals including peccaries, pacas, deer, and monkeys, and fish for pacu, pintado, and bagre. more detailed descriptions of tsimane’ culture and society can be found in ellis (1996) and reyes-garcia (2001). this study includes two tsimane' villages in beni department of bolivia: cuchisama (20 households), located along the maniqui river, and san luis chico (21 households), along the quiquibey river inside the pilon lajas biosphere reserve. these villages were chosen for their remote location where traditional hunting with bows and arrows is still common. they are among the most distant communities from market towns in both basins (the beni and maniqui river basins). initial study identified topics of local importance used to develop a research proposal presented to tsimane’ people including free, prior, informed consent in consultation with local villagers and regional authorities. the design was informed by principles of collaborative ethnography (lassiter 2005) and indigenous epistemologies (kovach 2009; smith 1999). all study activities were carried out following latin american society of ethnobiology (solae 2016) and international society of ethnobiology (ise 2008) codes of ethics. all fieldwork was conducted by am. fieldwork proceeded through participant observation, semi-structured and informal interviews with tsimane’ volunteer consultants, and focus groups [3 in cuchisama and 2 in san luis chico] that included hunters and non-hunters (especially women). am directly observed [~40] hunting and fishing excursions which provided opportunities for informal interviews. of all 40 semi-structured interviews in total, 18 (13 male, 5 female) were implemented in cuchisama and 22 (15 male, 7 female) in san luis chico. results and discussion in 20 households at cuchisama, there were five shotguns and three .22-caliber rifles that are sometimes shared among relatives and friends. in 21 households at san luis chico, there were eight shotguns and two .22 rifles. some people do not own medinaceli and quinlan. 2018. ethnobiology letters 9(2):230–242 232 research communications firearms nor a bow so they buy ammunition and borrow a gun when they need it. traditionally tsimane’ hunting trips are almost exclusively men’s activities, usually carried out alone or in company of a close relative. in the past, hunting trips could take several days, but today most trips are one day; rarely, a group (usually a family) hunts for two to three days. studies of other amazonian groups describe hunting as a social activity, where groups of people organize and participate in cooperative hunting trips (e.g., vélez sosa 2004). occasionally a hunting party includes more than two people (usually two adults and one or two children). figure 1 (top) tsimane’ traditional bow; (bottom) tsimane’ arrows (from top to bottom: comora, shaft, ton’, ijme’/ yajsi’). tsimane’ arrow ijme' ton’ comora yajsi' type of arrow head long and narrow pointy head sharp blade and wide head (bamboo) blunt head very long, pointy, and heavy head prey species medium animals (e.g., pacas and small monkeys) big animals (e.g., deer and tapir) birds fishing table 1 tsimane’ arrows used for traditional hunting. medinaceli and quinlan. 2018. ethnobiology letters 9(2):230–242 233 research communications tsimane’ hunting trips can include dogs, but in the focal villages here, hunting with dogs is not common. only one family in san luis chico reported owning hunting dogs. in cuchisama, only three households reported owning dogs for hunting. other families own dogs, but they are not used nor trained for hunting. during fieldwork in cuchisama, only two hunting trips included dogs. no hunters from san luis chico reported hunting with dogs during this fieldwork. some women participate in hunting, most commonly as companions to their husband. women rarely hunt without men. women sometimes opportunistically catch and kill small animals using a machete or bare hands while engaged in other work. as a tsimane’ woman from cuchisama reported: one afternoon i was washing clothes on the river when my son told me that a ‘jochi’ (paca) was about to cross the river, and once i saw the paca i grabbed my machete and i went after the animal, since they cannot swim fast, i caught up with it and hit it in the head, and that is how i hunted it. tsimane’ indicated that traditional hunting almost exclusively used bows and arrows. four different types of arrows are used for hunting (figure 1), depending on the species hunted (table 1). hunters commonly carry more than one kind of arrow. hunters carry a minimum of four arrows. consultants reported carrying approximately ten arrows in case some arrows need to be left behind temporarily to pursue game after the first shot. the tsimane’ identify several areas in their territory for hunting, usually areas close to water, and salitrales (naturally occurring saltlicks). these hunting areas are preserved and respected by all villagers and are not used for agriculture or other activities. a typical hunting trip begins in the morning, with a walk from 45 minutes to several hours duration from the village into hunting areas. in hunting areas, tsimane’ hunters take on a stealthy gait, carefully making their way through the forest observing signs and listening for game. if there are two hunters, then when an animal sound or recent sign is identified they will signal to each other (using hand signals and/or sounds) to indicate the location and species, and how they should proceed. when close enough to the prey, they will shoot an arrow. if the animal is killed, then hunters decide whether to continue hunting or not. if the animal is not killed with the first shot, then a hunter will shoot more arrows until the animal is killed or escapes. subsequent shots occur after chasing a wounded animal. studies in similar amazonian groups indicated that bow-hunters may require 30 shots per kill (alvard and kaplan 1991). night hunting follows a similar pattern, but requires a flashlight which is used only if an animal is identified and is close enough to shoot. firearms focus groups indicated that the introduction of firearms into cuchisama and san luis chico occurred more than 30 years ago. at first guns were a novelty and something interesting to try. traders who brought firearms into tsimane’ territory claimed they were more efficient and reliable than traditional bow and arrows. eventually firearms became very common in some areas. many tsimane’ wanted to hunt with guns, but the cash cost was (and is) a limiting factor preventing many tsimane’ from transitioning to firearms (see also hames [1979] for yekwana). in many cases, tsimane’ purchase guns with loans from traders or through agreements that involve cash and other goods (crops, hunted meat) and especially “jatata” (palm fronds for roof thatching in high demand). introduced firearms are usually single-shot, breakaction, 16-gauge shotguns, or .22-calibre single-shot rifles. shotguns are generally preferred, but according to tsimane’, rifles are more accessible and cost less, although they are less effective than shotguns. tsimane’ developed skills and substantial familiarity with shotguns to the point that they now sometimes modify cartridges to include an additional chunk of lead, making them more effective for large animals (e.g., deer and tapir). firearms currently are only available through traders or at retail stores in the closest market town. prices range from bs 1600 (~ usd 230) to bs 2500 (~ usd 360), depending on point of purchase. purchasing from traveling traders is the most common way of obtaining guns, which requires less travel time and money for transportation to market towns (two to three days downriver for some villages). due to high prices, tsimane’ still have limited access to firearms. therefore, they often buy bullets or cartridges and borrow a gun from a relative or friend. many firearms are very old and have been medinaceli and quinlan. 2018. ethnobiology letters 9(2):230–242 234 research communications handed down from elders, parents and grandparents, and “westerners” (loggers [often illegal], rubber tappers, and cattle ranchers) that roamed tsimane’ territory in past decades. these old and heavily used firearms are sometimes prone to malfunction (see hames [1979] for similar reports for yekwana). reflection process group discussions were organized among hunters and non-hunters including women who specialize in some aspects of bow construction (medinaceli 2017). both hunters and non-hunters discussed the introduction of firearms and developed two questions to be answered by the participants: 1) why are we using firearms, and 2) are firearms better than our traditional bows and arrows? we organized more focus groups to answer these questions. somewhat unexpectedly tsimane’ focus groups could not answer the first question unambiguously: why are we using firearms? tsimane’ from cuchisama and san luis chico both seem to lack a general consensus concerning why they accepted the introduction of firearms. in this reflexive process, people agreed that they needed a detailed analysis of the causes and consequences of firearms as the new norm. this led to an informal cost/benefit analysis regarding the uses of firearms versus traditional bows and arrows. informants identified eight points of comparison regarding firearms versus bows and arrows (table 2). 1. cost of guns: for the tsimane’ who have little regular income, nor much experience interacting with the western market economy, money is a problem. after thinking a lot, i see that my bow and arrows are better to use than the shotgun or rifle. i can make my own bow and arrows, it does not cost me money. my cousin is in debt because he bought a shotgun and cartridges, and now he is constantly paying little by little to the tradesman. he still owes some, and is really struggling to pay. in general, am observed that most people (about 80%) had some debt related to gun hunting. even though the number of gun owners is small, many people buy ammunition and then borrow a gun, thus most people have firearms related debt. 2. cost of bullets vs. arrows: sometimes when i use my bow and arrows, i lose some arrows or they break. but if that happens, there is no problem, because i always have some chuchio* and chonta* in my house, so i can make more arrows. but if i run out of bullets for my shotgun, i need to buy them, and they are expensive. therefore, i think it is better to use bows and arrows, that way i do not need to spend money purchasing bullets (figure 2). [*chuchio is a type of bamboo used to make the shaft of an arrow. chonta is a palm used for making bows and arrows.] hardwood for arrows and bow construction (genus bactris, used for both) does not appear to be a limiting factor. tsimane’, however, are choosey about selection of a particular tree for bows or arrows, but the bactris genus is relatively common (medinaceli 2017). tsimane’ points of comparison bows and arrows firearms 1. cost (in $) of weapon none* $$$ 2. cost (in $) of bullets/arrows none* $$$ 3. cost (in $) of maintenance none* $$$ 4. effectiveness when shooting very effective (shoots every time), has reduced “knockdown” power sometimes does not shoot (not good), but has excellent knockdown 5. quietness (to prevent animals to run away) very quiet very loud (not good) 6. shoot from a long distance no yes (rifle) 7. bullets/arrows returned possibly** no (positive) 8. effect in the tsimane’ culture supports our culture as hunters changes our culture *tsimane’ from cuchisama and san luis chico do not consider their time as an expense. **it was reported that rarely an arrow that misses the target could be thrown back if the prey is a monkey. table 2 analysis of cost and benefits between traditional bows and arrows vs. firearms. medinaceli and quinlan. 2018. ethnobiology letters 9(2):230–242 235 research communications 3. reliability of firearms: tsimane’ noted that guns are not always reliable in humid tropical forests. hames (1979) reports similar issues for the ye’kwana of venezuela, even with relatively well maintained firearms. one tsimane’ explained, i own a shotgun, but sometimes when i go hunting it does not want to shoot, it breaks fairly often. several times i was very close to a group of troperos (wild boars) and my shotgun did not shoot. i was disappointed. if i had a bow and arrows that day, for sure i would have some meat for my family. i already tried to fix my shotgun, but is not the same, i have to send it to rurre so it can get fixed, but that costs me money, and every time that it gets ruined to get it fixed means more money. i think i will ask my uncle to teach me how to make a bow, when i was young i was really good at shooting with the bow and arrows, but i do not know anymore how to make one. it is difficult to assess the causes and rates of firearm failures in remote, small-scale populations. most tsimane’ shotguns follow the simplest breakaction, single-shot, breech loading pattern common in amazonia. high humidity can cause multiple problems in arms and ammunition including stuck firing pins, malfunctioning extractors, bad primers, and damp powder. heavy usage can wear out firearms surprisingly quickly especially regarding compacted (shortened) or bent firing pins, and weakened and broken trigger and hammer springs. failure rates are likely to be especially high where cleaning tools and solvents are less accessible. more complicated repeating and semi-automatic .22-calibre rifles are even more prone to failure probably from a combination of mechanical complexity, corrosive .22calibre rim-fire primers, and high humidity. it is not uncommon to find firearms that have been retired from service because of unreliability. 4. cost of repairs: my rifle gets stuck often and it does not want to shoot. i do not know what it is, but every once in a while [it] does that. we tried to fix it here [in the village] but we cannot do it. the trader has to take it to somebody figure 2 right after successful fishing shots. medinaceli and quinlan. 2018. ethnobiology letters 9(2):230–242 236 research communications who can fix it, but that costs a lot of money. but even though it’s expensive, i have to pay somehow, because i do not have a bow and arrows; it is a long time since i used one. sometimes when my rifle is not working i borrow a bow and arrows to go hunting, i am still good at it, but i cannot make one [a bow] anymore, it’s difficult. i have to ask somebody to teach me how to make one, or on my own i will try to make one, because my rifle only gives me trouble, plus i still owe the trader and he charges me more and more every time. 5. loud gunshots versus quiet arrows: the loud report of a gunshot is an important consideration. if a gun-hunter misses, then nearby animals will flee because of the noise. if a bow-hunter misses, then he can usually shoot again. several amazonian studies mention this consideration for gun-hunting (alvard 1995; hames 1979; harner 1972). hames (1979) estimates that the report from a shotgun carries for up to 2km in amazonian forests. interviewees explained it thusly: when we go hunting with the shotgun you have to be completely sure about not missing your target, because if you see an animal and get desperate and try to shoot and miss, you miss all opportunity for that day, because the shotgun is really loud when shooting, and all animals run far away escaping the noise. therefore you only have one shot, after that you cannot shoot anymore. if you miss but still want to get some meat, you will need to walk a lot, chasing the animals. if you are hunting with bow and arrows it is easier, because if you miss a shot, you can just laugh, then you can shoot again, then in the second shot for sure you get something, because we cannot miss twice. 6. effective range: in most cases the bullet or shot from a firearm travels further than arrows. hames (1979) estimates that a yanomamo bow has an effective range of about 21–25m, compared to 25– 43m for a shotgun. a .22-caliber rifle with a typical “long-rifle” cartridge has a maximum effective range of about 70m beyond which the bullet has drastically reduced energy (hampton et al. 2016:282). tsimane’ say that even at long distances, a rifle has more power to kill or gravely wound small animals compared with bows and arrows. when i take my rifle hunting, the good thing is that i can shoot from far away, but you have to be good at it and not miss. on the other hand, if i go hunt with my bow and arrows i have to get closer to the animals, and sometimes it is difficult to get close to them. 7. arrows returned by prey: an interesting and surprising point, repeated several times during fieldwork, is that some primate species actually throw arrows back at hunters: one day two of us were hunting. we went close to the lake because over there there are always groups of marimonos (spider monkeys) and maneches (howler monkey). we were walking and saw a group of marimonos on the trees. we chased them and when they were quiet, we shot with the bows and arrows. i hit one but i only hit his arm, then the marimono took the arrow from his arm and threw it back at us. 8. effect on local identity: this point was identified early in the fieldwork, and it is one reason for pursuing more in-depth discussions of tsimane’ hunting and fishing tools (figure 3). during a focus group, several participants commented that gun-hunting was causing tsimane’ to lose their traditional identity: “we are tsimane’, we are traditionally hunter and gatherers. but now using firearms, we are becoming shotgun hunters, that is not what a true tsimane’ is.” this comment started a long discussion that recurred during participant observation and informal interviews. loss of identity related to gun-hunting was commonly considered a problem for tsimane’. tsimane’ people from cuchisama and san luis chico identified six points of comparison in which traditional bows and arrows are superior to firearms medinaceli and quinlan. 2018. ethnobiology letters 9(2):230–242 237 research communications for hunting compared with two advantages for firearms. informants from both villages reached a consensus that gun-hunting is not better than traditional bow-hunting. importantly, tsimane’ did not include game conservation as an emic concern regarding gun-hunting, contrasting with findings from ecological studies showing substantial game depletion with gun-hunting (cronin et al. 2016; kümpel et al. 2008; levi et al. 2009, 2011; peres 2000; shepard et al. 2012). this lack of concern may be because these conservation effects are not yet readily observable. based on comparisons of game offtake in gunand bow-hunting communities in peru, alvard (1995) indicated that gun-hunting is not detrimental to game conservation. reyes-garcia (2001) reports similar offtake in gunand bow-hunting intensive tsimane’ communities. however, comparison of kill rates upon encounter and return rates per hour for gunand bow -hunting (alvard and kaplan 1991) suggests there may be lower game encounter rates in intensive gunhunting areas indicative of reduced game biomass. regarding alvard’s (1995) findings, shepard et al. (2012:258) suggested that in 15 years after introduction of firearms, gun-hunting return rates may have fallen to a comparable level with bow-hunting: the “short-term benefits of shotguns are counterbalanced by more severe local-game depletion, such that bow hunters and gun hunters ultimately spend the same amount of time hunting for a given return”. once the tsimane’ themselves perceive the long-term effects of gun hunting on prey species, it may be too late to address the problem. after the focus group and interview comparisons of bows and firearms, am supplemented this data with additional interviews and an analysis of other costs associated with the fabrication or purchasing guns and bows/arrows (table 3). interviews indicate that despite multiple downsides of firearms among tsimane’, their use has increased over time, resulting in less bow-hunting. people that still used bows as their main tool for hunting also occasionally used a firearm. however, people who used firearms as their main hunting tool stopped using bows completely, which suggests a loss of specialized knowledge required for bow/arrow manufacture and bow-hunting. research in more acculturated tsimane’ communities indicates a substantial decrease in importance of tool manufacture for social status (von rueden et al. 2008). traders visiting tsimane’ communities may have a strong influence, and they promote firearms (and other tools) as more effective than traditional tsimane’ tools and as symbols of development. in fact, purchase of rifles and shotguns appears to signal social status in more acculturated tsimane’ communities (godoy et al. 2007). however, purchasing manufactured goods was not associated with tsimane’ wellbeing and was positively associated with regret (godoy et al. 2010). traditional hunting is learned from a young age (e.g., gurven et al. 2006; zent 2007) and tsimane’ children learn about hunting in part through play with toy bows and arrows which used to be the main toy for boys. currently children play with plastic toys (trucks, planes, dolls, weapons, etc.) thus slowly changing their focus and interest from traditional skills-based play. direct observation indicated that teenagers learn to use firearms beginning at 14–15 years of age, usually with adult supervision. by the age of 17 or 18 tsimane’ men begin using firearms for hunting without supervision. in comparison, children use bows as a toy from an early age (usually to shoot lizards or insects) and they can hunt or fish without figure 3 tsimane’ shooting a traditional bow and arrow. medinaceli and quinlan. 2018. ethnobiology letters 9(2):230–242 238 research communications adult supervision as young as 9 or 10 years old. currently more than 40% of children (between 4 to 14 years old) in both villages did not play with bows and arrows and cannot make them. making bows and arrows tsimane’ also mentioned that with the introduction of firearms there is a reduction in bow fabrication. about 10% of adults (16 years of age and older) in cuchisama, and 30% of the adults of san luis chico report not knowing how to make bows and arrows. knowledge loss regarding the fabrication of bows and arrows seems to be affected solely by the introduction of firearms, since all interviewees report targeting the same animal species regardless of the type of weapon used. the process of making bows and arrows is traditionally a family affair, since every family member has a role in their manufacture, though usually only the head of the household and the male children will use them. table 4 shows the roles of family members in the fabrication of traditional bows and arrows. women’s knowledge about fabrication of bowstring and puñipuy’ (traditional glue used to secure feathers to arrows, and to keep cotton thread from shifting when used to support the attachment of arrowheads to the shaft, and also for the nock or grip of the arrows) seems to be unaffected, mainly because string and glue are tools also used for other purposes other than fabrication of bows and arrows (figure 4). conclusions in amazonia, conservation of cultural traditions is increasingly urgent, due mainly to external factors such as urbanization, conservation strategies (i.e., protected areas), illegal activities (i.e., logging), and introduction of the market economy. these factors are changing traditions at the core of amazonian cultures. the tsimane’ of cuchisama and san luis chico identify the introduction of firearms as a challenge to their cultural identity. gun-hunting has firearms cost benefit gun usd 230–360 purchased from tradesman or when visiting the market town  maintenance price of repair plus time to travel to the market town or for the tradesman to arrive and return fixed (no need to learn how)  bullets cost of ammunition plus time to travel to the market town or for the tradesman to arrive and return purchased from tradesman or when visiting the market town bows and bowstring  collecting the wood from 1 to 4 hours no money required acquired knowledge and skill  skill/experience years of learning and practicing no money required acquired knowledge and skill  making the bow 3 to 4 hours no money required acquired knowledge and skill  collecting the material for the bowstring from 30 min to 2 hours no money required acquired knowledge and skill  making the bowstring 30 min to 1 hour no money required acquired knowledge and skill  skill/experience years of learning and practicing no money required acquired knowledge and skill arrows  collecting the wood from 1 to 4 hours no money required acquired knowledge and skill  skill/experience years of learning and practicing no money required acquired knowledge and skill  making the arrow 1 to 2 hours no money required acquired knowledge and skill table 3 analysis of cost and benefits between traditional bows and arrows vs. firearms. medinaceli and quinlan. 2018. ethnobiology letters 9(2):230–242 239 research communications resulted in a substantial loss of indigenous knowledge for tool manufacture and hunting techniques. the quest for firearms has led tsimane’ into considerable debt they cannot afford in order to purchase guns and ammunition and to pay for repairs. this expense requires a shift from subsistence horticulture and hunting to production of surpluses for market sales. widespread gun-hunting has also resulted in the loss of traditional skills acquisition through play with toy bows and arrows. other aspects of traditional hunting practice appear to remain intact. tsimane’ bow and gun hunters both indicate using magical items (like amber), refraining from sex before hunting, and hunting based on dreams to increase hunting success. however, change in hunting technology likely has some influence on tsimane’ prey choice similar to reports for other neotropical hunters (jerozolimski and peres 2003:420; siren and wilkie 2016), and loss of specific bow-hunting and traditional manufacturing knowledge and skills. figure 4 finishing the fabrication of an ijme’, tsimane’ arrow to hunt small animals. activity person in charge collecting materials household head (male) and children bow household head rope women glue women arrows older children cotton women table 4 role of family members in the elaboration of tsimane’ bows and arrows. medinaceli and quinlan. 2018. ethnobiology letters 9(2):230–242 240 research communications focus groups concluded that tsimane’ are hunters and part of being a tsimane’ hunter is using bows and arrows. they also concluded that all members of the villages should become familiar with the use and fabrication of bows and arrows. even though tsimane’ indicated that the use of the traditional bow and arrows has more benefits than firearms, firearms are still making their way into tsimane’ villages, replacing traditional hunting tools. from our observations in the field and from the reports from tsimane’ research participants, it seems the tsimane’ deal with external pressure to become more market integrated. in san luis chico, a market town is relatively accessible, and merchants are persistent and persuasive. on the other hand, there is pressure to maintain traditions and tsimane’ identity as tropical forest hunters. we hope this study might help promote some balance between western market integration and traditional livelihoods. also, given the effects of gun-hunting on traditional knowledge, economics, and cultural identity—in addition to effects on game conservation—we suggest development and implementation of collaborative strategies to recover traditional hunting practices and knowledge associated with them. declarations permissions: "collaboration agreement" between researchers and tsimane' authorities and the villages involved. oral agreement based on tsimane' traditional norms and customs and following codes of ethics from ise and solae. sources of funding: none declared. conflicts of interest: none declared. references cited 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diagnostico del uso de fauna silvestre en las veredas mundo nuevo, el manzano y la jangada en la reserva forestal protectora de los rios blanco y negro en el municipio de la calera (cundinamarca colombia). memorias: manejo de fauna silvestre en amazonía y latinoamérica 330– 335. vickers, w. 1984. the faunal components of lowland south american hunting kills. interciencia 9:366–376. von rueden, c., m. gurven, and h. kaplan. 2008. the multiple dimensions of male social status in an amazonian society. evolution and human behavior 29:402–415. doi:10.1016/ j.evolhumbehav.2008.05.001. medinaceli and quinlan. 2018. ethnobiology letters 9(2):230–242 242 research communications zent, e. 2007. el yo-cazador: perforaciones, prescripciones y seres primordiales entre los jodï, guayana venezolana. amazonía peruana 30:111– 139. medicinal plants of tecopatlán, jalisco, mexico: description of the uses and environmental availability gutiérrez alonso et al. 2020. ethnobiology letters 11(1):118–127 118 research communications and processes of humans’ interaction with the surrounding environment. ethnobiologists are interested in the ways that humans interact with their environments, including their perceptions of the environment, their own conservation priorities, and uses of natural resources. the environment, in this analytic context, should be understood as a biocultural landscape, made up of biotic and abiotic factors, creating a complex system of interactions and flows of energy (zonneveld 1989). biocultural landscapes are comprised of both internal and external relationships, so understanding the factors that affect those relationships is important for conservation or development programs. today, contemporary mexican communities in rural areas are not indigenous communities alone. many are also mestizo. the individuals who live in rural areas may not have the same historical-cultural relationship to the landscapes that they occupy, but this does not mean that they do not value the land or introduction culture plays an important role in attempts to conserve natural environments and promote sustainable development. human societies actively modify their environments, and likewise environments impact and help shape human societies. traditional knowledge refers to the accumulation of empirical knowledge, obtained through observations, experiences, and practical activities, and has developed over time allowing indigenous societies and horticulturalists to survive, and even flourish, in diverse environments. such knowledge is often called traditional ecological knowledge (tek) and has been studied by ethnobiologists including toledo (1992:6), who defined the field as "the study of relations between cosmos (beliefs and symbolic representations), corpus (environmental awareness) and praxis (the behaviors that lead to the appropriation of nature).” much of the tek and landscape features that we encounter today are products of these long histories medicinal plants of tecopatlán, jalisco, mexico: description of the uses and environmental availability adrian gutiérrez alonso1, elizabeth anne olson2*, judith cevallos espinosa1, and jesús juan rosales adame1 1natural resources and ecology department, university of guadalajara, south coast campus, autlán, mexico. 2department of history, sociology, and anthropology, southern utah university, cedar city, usa. *elizabetholson@suu.edu abstract the non-indigenous, mestizo, ejido (communal agricultural land) tecopatlán is located in the municipality of autlán de navarro, jalisco, in the influence zone of the sierra de manantlán biosphere reserve (smbr). the primary purpose of this research was to characterize traditional knowledge of medicinal plants held by residents of tecopatlán in relationship to the land use patterns of the ejido. we interviewed 34 people, selected by convenience sampling, to identify their knowledge of medicinal plants and the local environment. informants reported a total of 72 medicinal species, belonging to 45 botanical families, distributed across 67 genera. of the plants recorded, 55 were exogenous and 19 were native species. informants were surveyed regarding common ailments and the plants used to treat those ailments. the most common ailments reported include diabetes, coughs, kidney problems, nerves, stomach pain, insomnia, cancer, and stroke. the land use patterns described by community members reveal specific areas of the local environment that have the most commonly used medicinal plants. received june 27, 2019 open access accepted march 16, 2020 doi 10.14237/ebl.11.1.2020.1614 published september 29, 2020 keywords traditional ecological knowledge, medicinal plants, ethnobotany, mexico copyright © 2020 by the author(s); licensee society of ethnobiology. this is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution-noncommercial 4.0 international public license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0), which permits non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. gutiérrez alonso et al. 2020. ethnobiology letters 11(1):118–127 119 research communications have unique knowledge about the sustainable management of rural areas where they reside. in this era of globalization and the rapid transmission of ideas and resources, we must acknowledge the multidirectional flows of tek, as well as the accompanying flow of people. in mexico, a lack of viable economic opportunities in rural communities often leads to rural-to-urban migration (wilson 2010). furthermore, cano and colleagues (2016) point out that scholars have shown the links between migration and the alteration of local ecosystems, including a decrease in ecosystem integrity. in the sierra of manantlán region of mexico, traditional knowledge has been eroding due to processes of acculturation and out-migration. these processes are byproducts of governmental policies in the region that do not adequately consider cultural heritage and local values associated with tek and plants (benz et al. 1994; olson 2014). national policies are not alone responsible for the social and cultural changes in mexico, since globalization puts incredible pressure on rural and small-scale landholders to produce high yields with low overhead costs. when faced with global market competition, migration to local, regional, and even international urban centers becomes a viable alternative. through the political, social, and economic processes associated with colonization, modernization, and globalization in mexico, much of the tek has been eroded (gomez 1993). a clear example of this is the loss of indigenous languages, which comes about with acculturation and the extensive outmigration that frequently accompanies government policies and programs which are not in tune with the needs of indigenous communities (benz et al. 1994; olson 2014). the loss of tek is facilitated by the outmigration from rural areas to urban regions, changes in consumption patterns (such as use of drugs and alcohol; zitnow 1990), and habitat destruction and modification. in this context, it is important to identify and support tek to inform communities’ use and management of natural resources. documentation of tek is an essential part of the process of improving conservation and development programs for mexico, as it provides critical information and promotes awareness of tek through the research process (ituarte lima 2007; jardel and benz 2004). while figure 1 location of the ejido of tecopatlan and sierra of manantlán biosphere reserve. gutiérrez alonso et al. 2020. ethnobiology letters 11(1):118–127 120 research communications research has been conducted to demonstrate the wealth of tek held in indigenous communities, we know considerably less about tek in rural mestizo communities of mexico (casas et al. 2016). the research presented in this article was carried out in the mestizo town of tecopatlán, jalisco, which is located in the influence zone of the sierra of manantlán biosphere reserve (smbr). the smbr has explicit goals related to natural resource conservation, community development, and the safeguarding of local cultural heritage (olson 2014). the purpose of this research was to document tek and land use strategies in tecopatlán, and through the research process augment awareness of pathways to sustainable development that are community-based in this region of mexico. the research is communitybased, included the community throughout the stages of the research process, sought an equitable relationship between researchers and participants, and was reflective of a community need to identify current land use strategies and tek (olson 2014). being a community-based research project, we sought to produce information on land use patterns that can inform future land management strategies. in this article, we report and describe the tek held by community members in tecopatlán in relationship to land use patterns. research site the ejido of tecopatlán is located approximately 20 km southeast of the city of autlán, which is the municipal seat of autlán de navarro, jalisco, within the smbr. it is a community that is not indigenous, but rather of families who identify as mestizo. tecopatlán is located in the influence zone of the smbr, and also in the municipality of autlán – a major urban market center. this means that there is simultaneously pressure to conserve biodiversity and work toward community development, whilst community members are also implicated in the market economy of autlán (figure 1). the vegetation in tecopatlán is characterized by oak forest (55%) and pine-oak forest (32%) (rzedowski 1978; vazquez et al. 1995). the climate ranges from warm-subtropical to temperate and semihumid climate zones, and the average annual rainfall ranges from 900 mm in drier parts of the north, to 1800 mm in areas of higher elevation (vazquez et al. 1995). the total population of the ejido of tecopatlán is 58 people. the main road is unpaved, and there is no public transportation. the primary economic activities in the ejido are livestock tenure and seasonal agriculture for sale and consumption within the household. public services were severely limited at the time of the research, with only electricity being available in the ejido and no access to potable water or a sewage system. due to the remote location of the ejido, there was no local school, and children travelled to a neighboring community (el chante), where the nearest primary school was located (instituto nacional de estadística y geografía 2010). materials and methods prior to beginning the data collection, the permission of the local governing body and the community was obtained. the consulate of the tecopatlán ejido granted permission to conduct the research, after which an informational meeting was held for the entire community. the primary data collection was conducted by gutiérrez (2015), who held the community meeting to explain the purposes of this research, including the type of data that would be collected, and to answer questions from the community members. there were two primary components of data collection: (1) semi-structured interviews and guided hikes with informants to identify tek and record knowledge of medicinal plants, and (2) a participatory workshop in the community wherein data were collected to characterize the landscape zones and their uses in the ejido. participants were recruited by convenience and snowball sampling since we were interested in finding key informants who do have knowledge of medicinal plants. key informants were recruited by word-ofmouth at the introductory community meeting to which the entire community was invited, where gutierrez made a presentation about this research project. later, convenience sampling was used but gutierrez found greater success recruiting participants by snowball sampling, taking referrals to individuals who were suggested by interviewees because of their reported knowledge of medicinal plants. qualitative data were obtained via semi-structured interviews that lasted between fifteen and thirty minutes. guided hikes were frequently undertaken by gutierrez after the semi-structured interview, adding between forty-five minutes to two hours, depending on the distance hiked to find the plants. interviewees were asked, "what medicinal plants do you know?," gutiérrez alonso et al. 2020. ethnobiology letters 11(1):118–127 121 research communications which was followed-up with questions about whether or not they had used each plant, and if so, for what purpose. then, at the conclusion of the semistructured interview, gutierrez went on a hike with the interviewee during which the interviewee would identify specific plants that had already been mentioned during the interview. not all participants agreed to go on the guided hike. sometimes, during the walk, interviewees were able to identify more plants than previously mentioned, adding additional information regarding the names and uses of plants. some plant samples were collected during the guided hikes for the purpose of identification at the botany laboratory at the university of guadalajara, south coast campus (cucsur). there were no voucher specimens collected for the purposes of this research (due to limited local capacity and resources for housing them). all of the interview data were entered into a database, which was used to generate a complete list of the plants identified, the common and scientific names, and the reported uses. other individual characteristics of each informant were also recorded in the database and were used to generate descriptive statistics regarding the distribution of medicinal plant knowledge in the community of tecopatlán. during the semi-structured interviews, the various uses of local flora, landscape management strategies, and landscape usage were also recorded. interviewees were asked to characterize the different areas of land that are found throughout the ejido and to characterize it and the primary uses for each land area. no maps were used during this time, but informants used geographical and landmark references to describe different terrains in the ejido. later, after collecting the initial information about the different zones from community members, a participatory community workshop was held (to which the entire community was invited) and ten adults attended. during the participatory community workshop, a map was sketched on a drawing board and community members delineated the various types of landscape zones found throughout the ejido, which was also linked to the potential uses of each zone (table 1). there were five principal landscape zones identified by the community members: (1) household gardens, (2) rangelands, (3) slash and burn fields in the forest, (4) agricultural fields, and (5) firebreaks, or buffer zones between landscape types. results altogether, 34 community members participated in this study, of which 13 were women and 21 were men, with an average age of 52.4 years. almost all of the women (12) are housewives, and only one woman works in retail; most of the men (17) are farmers. most of the study participants (29) are from tecopatlán, and only 5 were born elsewhere. a total of 72 plants were reported for having medicinal or healing uses by the study participants (table 2). when asked how frequently they use medicinal plants, the main response was once a month (29%), followed by daily (21%), and weekly (12%; figure 2). of the 72 species recorded, 54% are herbaceous, 38% are trees, and 8% are shrubs (table 3). in zone altitudinal range (m) vegetation characteristic vegetation type soil type environmental condition low 1000–1300 thin tdf sandy hot gf beach wet-hot half 1400–2000 thick of compact temperate of-pf mud cold high 2000–2500 pf mud cold-wet table 1 local classification of environmental conditions and soil type of each space. tdf, tropical deciduous forest; gf, gallery forest; of, oak forest; pf, pine forest. figure 2 frequency of use of medicinal plants by informant. gutiérrez alonso et al. 2020. ethnobiology letters 11(1):118–127 122 research communications table 2 list of 72 medicinal plants identified by informants with scientific names. common name (spanish) familia scientific name no. of informants listing plant salvia labiatae hyptis albida 16 conguerán phytolaccaceae phytolacca icosandra 12 campanillo rubiaceae hintonia latiflora 11 cola de caballo equisetaceae equisetum arvense 9 garañona labiatae satureja macrostema 9 chintuza asteraceae guardiola tulocarpus 8 encino colorado fagaceae quercus ssp. 8 madroño ericaceae arbustus xalapensis 7 hierbabuena lamiaceae mentha piperita 6 espinosilla polemoniaceae loeselia mexicana 6 gordolobo asteraceae gnaphalium bourgovii 4 caña de indio costaceae costus pictus 4 capulin rosaceae prunus serotina ehrenb. subsp. capuli 4 cuatalaca salicaceae caesaria arguta 4 flor de tila o sirimo theaceae ternstroemia lineata 4 lechuguilla agavaceae agave maximiliana 3 hierba del arlomo asteraceae baccharis trinervis 3 peyote de cerro asteraceae roldana sessilifolia 3 guamuchil fabaceae pithecellobium dulce 3 huevos de zopilote solanaceae solanum ferrugineum 3 palo santo anacardiaceae amphipterygium adstringens 2 estafiate asteraceae artemisia ludoviciana subsp. 2 palo mulato euphorbiaceae jatropha platyphylla 2 tabardillo fabaceae calliandra ssp. 2 aguacate lauraceae persea americana 2 guayaba myrtaceae psidium guajava 2 fresno oleaceae fraxinus udhei 2 jenjibre zingiberaceae zingiber officinale 2 palo maria clusiaceae calophyllum brasiliense 2 cirguelilla/ciruela anacardiaceae spondias purpurea 1 cola de iguana o espada asparagaceae sansevieria trifasciata 1 palo rosita apocynaceae stemmadenia tomentosa 1 prodigiosa asteraceae brickellia cavanillesii 1 retama o amargosilla asteraceae calea urticifolia 1 arnica asteraceae heterotheca ssp. 1 hierba del venado asteraceae porophyllum punctatum 1 gabardillo asteraceae piqueria triflora 1 anis asteraceae tagetes filifolia 1 begonia begoniaceae begonia ssp. 1 berro palmita boraginaceae phacelia platycarpa 1 papaya caricaceae carica papaya 1 tuna blanca cactaceae opuntia ssp. 1 epazote chenopodiaceae chenopodium graveolens 1 laurel clethraceae clethra rosei 1 cazahuate (or bejuco) convolvulaceae ipomoea bracteata 1 siempre viva de castilla crassulaceae sedum ssp. 1 berro cruciferae rorippa nasturtium-aquaticum 1 cedro crupressaceae cupressus ssp. 1 huizache fabaceae acacia farnesiana 1 (continued on next page) gutiérrez alonso et al. 2020. ethnobiology letters 11(1):118–127 123 research communications addition, 74% are wild and native, 22% are introduced cultigens, and 4% are wild and introduced. the medicinal plants that were most frequently used by informants were sage (hyptis albida), button pokeweed (phytolacca icosandra), yellow quina or copalchi (hintonia latiflora), té de monte (tea of the mountain, satureja macrostema), chintuza (guardiola tulocarpus), and horsetail (equisetum spp.). we also had informants report the medical problems they encountered. of the health problems most commonly encountered, we asked informants specifically which ones were treated with medicinal plants. the most commonly reported ailments treated with the various medicinal plants included: diabetes, cough, kidney problems, nerves, stomach pain, insomnia, cancer, and strokes. regarding the parts of the plant that are used, informants reported that the leaves are used from 56% of the species, bark is primarily used from 19% of the species, the flower is used from 18% of the species, and for 18% of the species, the whole plant is used (figure 3). the most common methods of preparation were infusions (water-based) and macerations. the other primary area of data collection occurred through a participatory community workshop, during which landscape zones were identified and characterized. through this participatory workshop, it became clear that community members are acutely aware of their surroundings, as they were able to describe the geomorphological units (i.e., the terrain), as well as the classification of coverage and vegetation characteristics (figure 4). the community workshop process is shown in figure 5, depicting the dynamic process of discussion and consensus building that took place. (continued from previous page) common name (spanish) familia scientific name no. of informants listing plant encino blanco fagaceae quercus castanea 1 nogal juglandaceae juglans major 1 oregano lamiaceae origanum vulgare 1 mirto lamiaceae salvia microphyla 1 albahaca lamiaceae ocimun basilicum 1 laurelillo lauraceae litsea glaucescens 1 tepehuaje leguminosae lysiloma acapulcense 1 ortiga o quemadora loasaceae gronovia scandens 1 guacima malvaceae guazuma ulmifolia 1 neem meliaceae azadirachta indica 1 barbudillo moraceae dorstenia drakena 1 suelda opiliaceae agonandra racemosa 1 pasiflora o granada china passifloraceae passiflora edulis 1 hierba del zorrillo phytolaccaceae petiveria alliacea 1 hierba del golpe plantaginaceae scoparia dulcis 1 lanten plantaginaceae plantago australis 1 tachinole plumbaginaceae plumbago scandens 1 tejocote rosaceae crataegus pubescens 1 nispero rosaceae eriobotrya japonica 1 zapote blanco rutaceae casimiroa sapota 1 ruda rutaceae ruta graveolens 1 tomatillo solanaceae solanum ferrugineum 1 sabila xanthorrhoeaceae aloe vera 1 oak forest gallery forest pine forest orchard tropical deciduous forest % herbaceous 10 5 1 13 10 54 trees 8 4 4 5 7 38 shrubs 1 0 1 0 4 8 table 3 distribution of species by vegetation types. gutiérrez alonso et al. 2020. ethnobiology letters 11(1):118–127 124 research communications during the community workshops, we also sought to identify the primary zones where the medicinal plants were collected and learn how those landscape zones are managed (gutiérrez et al. 2015). characterizations of landscape zones and management as depicted in figure 4, land in the lowlands or grasslands is used primarily for household gardens. in the household gardens, foods and some medicinal plants to be consumed within the household are cultivated. the proximity of these gardens to the house make them perfect for growing a variety of fruits, cooking herbs, medicinal herbs, ornamental plants, and shade trees. of the medicinal plants grown in household gardens, peppermint (mentha piperita) was the most common. rangelands at lower elevation are primarily used for cattle grazing and may or may not be arable. rangelands in lower elevations are plots left to fallow or which have been temporarily converted into pasture areas. for example, as the rainy season begins—but before the farmer plants—cattle may be brought into a low area rangeland to graze and thereby aid in the preparation (clearing) of the plot for planting. similarly, after harvest when the dry season begins, the farmer may reintroduce cattle to consume the surplus of the harvest. there are also rangelands in the mid-range elevation areas where naturally occurring grasses can often endure for several months after the beginning of the rainy season. cattle can stay at the mid-range elevation for approximately eight months, during which time farmers continually manage the herds. figure 3 parts of the medicinal plant used by informants. figure 4 schematic representation of the distribution of natural resources and productive area of each passage of the ejido tecopatlán. diagram based on gerritsen (2010). gutiérrez alonso et al. 2020. ethnobiology letters 11(1):118–127 125 research communications fallow cultivation fields are part of the rotating seasonal agricultural system where “slash and burn” is utilized. in tecopatlán, the fallow fields are found primarily on the slopes of the hillsides nearest the populated central area. milpa is commonly practiced, wherein corn, beans, and squash are grown together in the field. after harvesting, animals (particularly cattle) are brought in to graze on the leftover plant materials. agricultural plots are located in the lowlands, and are also utilized to grow milpa, of which some of the produce is sold, but most is consumed within the household. finally, the firebreak, or buffer zone, is located in the highlands amidst pine or mixed forests. this landscape zone is managed by community members following the recent guidance of the national commission on forests (conafor). conafor has embarked on national programs that pay for environmental services and have instructed community members to make strategic lines on the hillside and remove vegetative litter and undergrowth to make a barrier to stop wildfires. discussion in this study, we found that participants were very familiar with the landscape zones, including the use and management of the different landscape types. furthermore, we found that individuals held a considerable amount of medicinal plant knowledge when compared to prior studies in this community and region (benz et al. 2000). it seems logical that older individuals would carry more medicinal plant knowledge since they have had more cumulative life experience. in tecopatlán, the older generation is more likely to have lived an agrarian lifestyle (depending directly on the land for subsistence) for their entire life. de niz (1989) recorded 135 species in the same region of the smbr, with species from the taxonomic families labiatae, leguminosae, and compositae being the most common. de niz also found that the tropical deciduous forest, temperate forests, and household gardens were where the highest number of medicinal species were found. by comparison, we documented 72 medicinal plant species, and the three figure 5 photos of the participatory workshop to characterize the landscape zones and management strategies in tecopatlán. photos courtesy of a. gutiérrez. gutiérrez alonso et al. 2020. ethnobiology letters 11(1):118–127 126 research communications families that were most common were asteraceae, lamiaceae, and rosaceae. the landscape types with the highest number of medicinal plants that we recorded match what de niz reported. the correlation between the types of landscape and vegetation, between our study and de niz’s, could be because individuals tend to visit those landscape zones most frequently. benz and colleagues (1994) showed that these particular vegetation areas have higher plant diversity. additionally, in tecopatlán, these ecosystems are closer to the town. our study findings also resonate with those of garcía valdez and flores (2008), who reported the most common illnesses for which medicinal plants were used included diarrhea, cough, stomach pains, fever and indigestion. the present study reflected the same illnesses, with the exception of fever and indigestion, but the inclusion of bruises and cancer. hyptis albida was the species most frequently common and curing most diseases in both studies our study and that of garcia and flores (2008). the data reported by de niz (1989) and paredesflores and colleagues (2007) indicated the household garden as the source of the largest proportion of medicinal plants species. however, our findings indicate that the household garden was the third-most common landscape area that sourced medicinal plants. conclusions studies such as this, which document traditional knowledge, are key components of strategies to help conservation and promote the sustainable use of natural resources. our findings contribute to the other existing data on tek in the smbr that supports the importance of community-based conservation strategies. by incorporating community members in the process of identifying management strategies for different landscape zones, the biosphere reserve will be able to fulfill the broad mission for which it was formed: advancing sustainable community development, supporting indigenous cultural heritage, and promoting ecological conservation. acknowledgments the authors would like to recognize the contributions of our friend and colleague, francisco javier santana michel, who passed away before this article was written and submitted for press. mr. santana michel gave extensive assistance in identifying the plants for this project, as well as other guidance regarding the trajectory of the fieldwork. the authors are very grateful to the community of tecopatlán, who have participated in this research through their generosity of time, knowledge, and spirit. declarations permissions: local community was consulted and agreed to participate (verbal assent). sources of funding: none declared. conflicts of interest: none declared. references cited benz, b. f., f. j. santana m., r. pineda l., j. cevallos e., l. robles h., and d. de niz l. 1994. characterization of mestizo plant use in the sierra de manantlán, jalisco-colima, méxico. journal of ethnobiology 14:23–41. benz, b. f., j. cevallos e., f. santana-michel, j. rosales a., and s. graf-montero. 2000. losing knowledge about plant use in the sierra de manantlán biosphere reserve, mexico. economic botany 54:183–191. doi:10.1007/bf02907821. cano, m., b. de la tejera, a. casas, l. d. l. barrientos, and r. garcía-barrios. 2016. conocimientos tradicionales y prácticas de manejo del huerto familiar en dos comunidades tlahuicas del estado de méxico, méxico. revista 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envenomation recorded in injuries caused by these organisms. accidents usually produce an extremely painful injury that frequently causes necrosis and ulceration in tissues underlying the wound, due to the proteolytic action of the venom. additionally, there is the possibility of retaining fragments of stingers in the wound, as well as triggering an infectious process (antoniazzi et al. 2011; haddad et al. 2004; lameiras introduction the family potamotrygonidae comprises the only group of elasmobranchs restricted to freshwater environments (carvalho et al. 2011; compagno and cook 1995). they are divided into four genera: paratrygon, potamotrygon, plesiotrygon, and heliotrygon. they have approximately 38 species occurring in the major river systems of south america (carvalho et al. 2016; cruz 2009; fricke et al. 2020; garrone neto and haddad 2010). three potamotrygonidae species inhabit the juruá river basin, an important waterway in state of acre: paratrygon aiereba, potamotrygon motoro, and potamotrygon marquesi (lasso et al. 2013; silva and loboda 2019) (figure 1). freshwater stingrays present similar habits to marine species, presenting one or more stingers injuries caused by freshwater stingrays in the western amazon: folk medicine and beliefs greiciane amorim da silva1, aline nayara poscai2*, and andré luis da silva casas3 1programa de pós-graduação em saúde coletiva. campus universitário rio branco, universidade federal do acre, rio branco, brazil. 2laboratório de pesquisas de elasmobrânquios, universidade estadual paulista “júlio de mesquita filho”, praça infante dom henrique, são vicente, brazil. 3laboratório de anatomia e fisiologia comparada, campus cruzeiro do sul, universidade federal do acre, estrada do canela fina, cruzeiro do sul, brazil. *aline.poscai@gmail.com abstract the envenomation caused by freshwater stingrays is one of the most frequent injuries related to aquatic animals in south america. such injury is severe with skin necrosis as a probable result of the sting and subsequent intense pain. here, we characterized the accidents caused by freshwater stingrays in juruá valley, acre, brazil, with reports of people who had suffered injuries. data collection was performed in nearby communities in the juruá river and its tributaries through a semi-structured questionnaire. bathers and fishermen were the main group affected, and injuries were mainly in the lower limbs. the results were similar to those previously reported for other regions of brazil, except for the treatment applied. severe pain, edema, erythema, necrosis, and ulceration of the wound are some of the symptoms reported by the injured population. most of the treatment is based on folk remedies, such as human urine, hot boiled egg, medicinal plants, and nonprescription drugs. in most cases, injuries usually occur in remote areas which favor the use of folk remedies, but the accidents are still neglected by the population itself because of the low lethality. therefore, educational activities and prophylactic measures should be carried out with a standardization of first aid and late measures. in addition, the correct use of medicinal plants and folk remedies could be a strong ally to ensure a safe and affordable care for the population. received may 7, 2019 open access accepted april 3, 2020 doi 10.14237/ebl.11.1.2020.1586 published may 11, 2020 keywords ethnobiology, potamotrygonidae, medicinal plants, juruá river copyright © 2020 by the author(s); licensee society of ethnobiology. this is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution-noncommercial 4.0 international public license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0), which permits non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. da silva et al. 2020. ethnobiology letters 11(1):1–13 2 research communications et al. 2013). in most cases, injuries cause a temporary or permanent physical incapacity, and the injured may develop sequelae in the affected limb (haddad 2004; lameiras et al. 2013). lethal wounds occur mainly in cases in which stingers reach vital organs (antoniazzi et al. 2011). in brazil, stingray accidents are considered a public health problem (evangelista and azevedo 2016; haddad 2003; haddad et al. 2013; sá-oliveira et al. 2011). according to the information system for notifiable diseases (sinan), most of the injuries caused by fish in the country involved freshwater stingrays, especially from the potamotrygonidae family (reckziegel et al. 2015). the most affected people are fishermen, who are handling these animals daily, and bathers, especially during the dry season (haddad et al. 2004). these accidents are considered underreported, as they occur predominantly in remote areas (garrone neto and haddad 2010; haddad 2003; reckziegel et al. 2015). currently, therapeutic approach is basically the use of analgesics, anti-inflammatories, warm water, and antibiotics to prevent secondary infections, gangrene, and tetanus (garrone neto and haddad 2010; lameiras et al. 2013). however, places that have access to health services are scarce or non-existent, therapies based on popular beliefs and natural products are often the only affordable and low-cost alternative available, but few studies have focused on folk medicine (bussmann and sharon 2006; dey et al. 2017; haddad et al. 2013; lima et al. 2019; matias et al. 2013; schmeda-hirschmann et al. 2014). thus, ethnobiology is crucial to identify strategies used by traditional populations, as well as to understand their figure 1 species with occurrence in the state of acre. a potamotrygon motoro, b paratrygon aiereba with tail mutilation (photograph by andré luis da silva casas in 2014), and c potamotrygon marquesi (adapted from silva and loboda 2019). da silva et al. 2020. ethnobiology letters 11(1):1–13 3 research communications relationship with the available biological resources, through their beliefs, oral tradition, non-verbal language, and all knowledge systems (albuquerque et al. 2019). therefore, the present study aimed to characterize injuries caused by freshwater stingrays through interviews and a questionnaire with populations of three municipalities in the mesoregion of juruá valley, in the western amazon (acre, brazil). furthermore, this study emphasizes the cultural knowledge in the use of natural resources and folk medicine to treat injuries through the documentation of their beliefs and perceptions about the accidents. methods study location the state of acre is located in the extreme north of brazil, in the western brazilian amazon, occupying an area of 153.194 km2. it is composed of 22 municipalities and divided into two large mesoregions: acre valley and juruá valley (instituto brasileiro de geografia e estatística 2010; rodrigues et al. 1997). the latter has approximately 129,170 inhabitants and comprises the municipalities of cruzeiro do sul, mâncio lima, rodrigues alves, marechal thaumaturgo, porto walter, tarauacá, feijó, and jordão (rodrigues et al. 1997). figure 2 fish market calixto alves in cruzeiro do sul municipality. b interviews being conducted with the local population nearby fish market calixto alves. c–d interviewees with the questionnaire in the fish market calixto alves. photographs by andré luis da silva casas, 2014. da silva et al. 2020. ethnobiology letters 11(1):1–13 4 research communications the study included populations predominantly composed of riverside inhabitants near juruá river and its tributaries and fishermen. riverside communities are located in rural areas, riverbanks, or lakes, in which the people depend on hunting, fishing, agriculture, and the sale of natural products for subsistence (gama et al. 2018; instituto brasileiro de geografia e estatística 2010). the region is also known for its intense fishing activity that contributes to local and regional commerce, being an important sector for economy, with a high number of commercial and subsistence fishermen (santos and santos 2005). most of these activities occur in riverside communities far from the main urban centers, known as rubber plantations or seringais. a symbolic, cultural, and historical heritage from rubber plantation activities has dictated the acre state economy and colonization since the beginning of the twentieth century (carneiro 2015). data collection interviews proceeded between 2014 and 2015 and were based on the active search for cases in riverside communities, fishermen's associations, fish markets, and health units in the municipalities of cruzeiro do sul, mâncio lima, and rodrigues alves (figure 2). in this study, individuals that have suffered freshwater stingray injuries were considered. the interviews were semi-structured, including questions about the characteristics of the accident and the use of folk remedies to treat injuries, detailing what they were, use, purposes, and therapeutic effectiveness according to the interviewed. in addition, free interviews and informal conversation were carried out, where graphic material from books by haddad (2008) lasso et al. (2013), were shown as additional material in an attempt to identify the species involved in the accidents. analyses descriptive analysis of freshwater stingray accidents was carried out, in which the frequency distribution (absolute and relative) were analyzed according to gender, activity, seasonality, period of the accident, search for medical care, injury site, symptoms, sequel, locality, treatment, type of treatment, and medicinal plants. survey data was entered into 2016 microsoft excel and analyzed statistically in the statistical package for the social science (windows version 22.0). scientific nomenclatures of the botanical species were verified with the databases of tropicos (2020). characteristics category n (%) gender female 29 (22) male 103 (78) activity fishing 51 (38.7) recreation 69 (52.3) others 12 (9) seasonality summer 107 (81) winter 25 (19) period of the accident morning 49 (37.1) afternoon 70 (53) evening 13 (9.9) search for medical care yes 26 (19.7) no 106 (80.3) injury site upper limbs 3 (2.3) lower limbs 128 (97) trunk 1 (0.7) symptoms1 bleeding 20 (15.1) chronic pain 125 (94.7) edema 107 (81) erythema 107 (81) necrosis 74 (56) ulcers 57 (43.2) fever 9 (6.8) vomit 3 (2.3) sequel yes 36 (27.3) no 96 (72.7) locality urban area 39 (29.5) semi-urban area 31 (23.5) rubber plantations 55 (41.7) unreported 7 (5.3) alternative treatment yes 111 (84) no 21 (16) type of alternative treatment2 plants 34 (30.6) others 67 (60.4) unreported 10 (9) table 1 the characteristics of accidents caused by freshwater stingrays in the juruá valley, brazil, between 2014–2015. 1frequency of citation. 2data on the 111 cases that opted for alternative treatment. da silva et al. 2020. ethnobiology letters 11(1):1–13 5 research communications results accidents and beliefs related to freshwater stingrays a total of 132 interviews were conducted, including 29 women and 103 men. the accident involving freshwater stingrays was described as emotionally unpleasant, extremely painful, and a long-term recovery experience. accidents occurred mainly during leisure (52.3%) and fishing (38.7%) activities, while the period corresponding to the ebb and flow of rivers represented the highest number of cases (81.0%). about 90.0% of accidents occurred during the day, especially in the afternoon (53.0%). the largest number of cases (41.7%) occurred in rubber plantations. the most affected limbs were lower (97.0%), upper (2.3%), and the trunk (0.7%), more specifically the hip (table 1). in most cases, the sting was considered unexpected and aggressive. the main symptom was pain (94.7%), characterized as unbearable and uninterrupted, with reports of fainting and lack of control of the urethral and anal sphincters. edema and erythema were reported by 81% of the individuals, while 56.0% reported skin necrosis, and 43.2% reported wound ulceration (figure 3). at least 9.1% of the victims reported systemic symptoms, such as fever (6.8%) and vomiting (2.3%). in addition, 27.3% reported sequelae such as long-term pain, numbness, tremors, and amputations of the affected limb (table 1). the average duration of wound healing was three months. considering the severity of the injury, it is natural that the trauma produces a feeling of fear, which combined with misinformation, generates many beliefs and myths associated with freshwater stingrays and the injuries caused by them. some people, for example, described them as “aggressive and treacherous” animals, that hide in the water to attack anyone who crosses their path. others mentioned the existence of a “mother stingray” in the region that “embraces” people and is capable of turning over canoes and boats to kill by drowning. some people also claim that the best way to “escape” from the stingers is to take the seed of a plant called jarina (phytelephas macrocarpa) with them, which theoretically would keep stingrays away. in addition, freshwater stingrays are considered to be a “hinder” because, according to fishermen, they repel other fish, as well as damage the fishing lines by either ripping of breaking the fishing gear. due to the extreme fear that surrounds these animals, many stingrays are killed or have their tails mutilated to remove stingers, being thrown back into the rivers. few fishermen reported returning the intact animal to its habitat when caught, while the majority stated that they prefer to kill or cut its tail to prevent future accidents. besides this, the interviewees stated that they occasionally feed on stingrays. curious figure 3 the injuries caused by freshwater stingrays. a injury observed in a victim from mâncio lima, acre, with edema, erythema, and infection caused by the sting. b secondary infection and ulceration on the right foot of a victim from rodrigues alves, acre. c victim presenting a seven-day lesion, with ulceration, necrosis, and infection. photographs by greiciane amorim da silva, 2014 . da silva et al. 2020. ethnobiology letters 11(1):1–13 6 research communications reports from fishermen, regarding the consumption of these fish, claim that residents of rodrigues alves municipality developed the “fishing with their feet,” in which they prefer to be stung rather than lose the animal, ensuring food. folk medicine and use of medicinal plants to treat injuries caused by freshwater stingrays thirty-four interviewees (30.6%) reported that the use of plants for phytotherapeutic purposes in the region is common to treat symptoms. twenty species of medicinal plants were mentioned, among them, tobacco (nicotiana tabacum [11.9%]), caapeba (cissampelos glaberrima [8.9%]), and copaíba (copaifera officinalis [8.9%]). leaves and sap were the most used parts of the medicinal plants being mentioned 19 and seven times, respectively. regarding traditional use, infusion was cited 13 times, followed by direct application, mentioned nine times, and bath, referred eight times. the main purposes of using plants were to heal (34.4%), to decrease edema (24.1%), to reduce pain (17.2%), cleaning the wound (13.7%), and blood stagnation (3.4%). according to reports, plants were prepared in their own houses. the people demonstrated uncertainty about the time of use, dosage for adults and children, possible side effects, and contraindications of the plants. all respondents who used these plants stated that they received recommendations from relatives or friends, and they believe that the use of these plants is more beneficial than pharmaceutical drugs. table 2 describes the plant species mentioned for the treatment of injuries caused by freshwater stingrays in the mesoregion of juruá valley, acre, with details of the family to which they belong, scientific name, local popular name, vegetable drugs, form of traditional use, and purpose of use. in addition, 64 interviewees mentioned the use folk remedies on the wound, based on recommendations from friends and/or relatives, such as sweetened condensed milk, human urine, boiled egg, pipe ashes, breast milk, hot coffee grounds, sand, hot soap of manioc flour, gasoline, termite smoke, salt water, sebode-holanda (an animal oil), and boiled soap. some also stated that the best remedy to treat the symptoms was to heat the stinger (the same that injured) and place on the wound. some beliefs reported by the interviewees consisted in placing the affected limb in the female intimate parts of a virgin, theoretically relieving pain caused by the injury. two interviewees claimed to have performed this practice by the recommendation of family members and described it as ineffective. discussion in the studied areas, fishermen and bathers were mainly affected, which can be attributed to the intense fishing activity, both professional and amateur, and leisure related to the hydrographic basins of the region. in this context, most accidents occurred during the ebb and flow of rivers, a period in which recreational and fishing activities intensify, facilitating contact with the animal. according to diaz (2008), while waders and undersea divers are most commonly stung on the lower extremity, fishermen are predisposed to injuries in the upper extremity sustained when disentangling stingrays from fishing hooks and trawl nets. since freshwater stingrays are commonly found hidden in the sand, near margins or in places with a depth less than two meters, the most affected areas were the lower and upper limbs, in which people often stepped on them or due to careless handling (evans and davies 1996; garrone neto and haddad 2009; haddad 2008). as observed, these accidents resemble the reports regarding the literature on stingray accidents in other brazilian regions and worldwide (e.g., clark et al. 2007; costa et al. 2020; diaz 2008; evans and davies 1996; garrone neto and haddad 2010; garrone neto et al. 2005; haddad et al. 2004, 2012, 2013; isbister 2001; myatt et al. 2018; pierini et al. 1996; reckziegel et al. 2015; russell 1959; sá-oliveira et al. 2011). regarding the severity of the injuries, actually, several studies show the venom intensity present in the stingers of the specimens of potamotrygonidae family and their ability to cause pain, edema, erythema, necrosis, and ulceration of the wound (barbaro et al. 2007; haddad et al. 2004; magalhães et al. 2006; monteiro dos santos et al. 2011; pedroso et al. 2007). according to domingos et al. (2011), the severity of the injury is also due to the mechanical action of the stingers, which, in addition to introducing the venom, causes an injury of irregular laceration that allows bacteria to enter, resulting in secondary infections. the majority of the victims generally live in remote areas and go to the health service later, only when complications evolve. these accidents are considered a problem for the inhabitants of the region but are underestimated by the population itself da silva et al. 2020. ethnobiology letters 11(1):1–13 7 research communications because of their frequency and low lethality (garrone neto and haddad 2010; haddad 2003; reckziegel et al. 2015). pierini et al. (1996) carried out a survey of accidents caused by venomous animals in the juruá valley, acre, and as reported, in many hospitals of brazilian amazonian regions, the most common cause of seeking care after freshwater accidents were stingrays. recently, casas et al. (2016) reported 39 incidents in the first months of 2014 related to freshwater stingrays in the western brazilian amazon. some people reported beliefs involving freshwater stingrays, resulting in mutilation and slaughter of these species in the region. however, they are not animals that usually attack humans, using their stingers only in self-defense (haddad et al. 2013). they have an ecological importance within the amazon ichthyofauna, as they serve the ecological role of apex predators, contributing to the balance and dynamics of their natural environments (de oliveira et al. 2016; duncan et al. 2010). some beliefs related to stingrays, such as the maori culture and polynesian people, consider these animals sacred and divine (te kete ipurangi 2020). for the kamaiurá, brazilian indigenous people from the upper xingu river, stingrays are used in a ritual of power and strengthening of sorcerers. in addition, practices of feeding the spirit of the stingray were thought to be a means of avoiding being hurt by them during fishing (junqueira 2004). although it is not considered a common practice in the region, it was reported that freshwater stingrays are used as food resource. the use of these animals for food purposes is still treated, in many places, as a taboo or atypical. in trobriand islands, for example, beliefs involving stingrays make its consumption table 2 plants used on the stings treatment in the juruá valley, brazil, 2014–2015. plants scientific name used parts prepare form application n (%)1 pineapple ananas comosus straw juice anti-inflammatory 1 (2.9) açacu hura crepitans sap direct application analgesic 1 (2.9) açaí euterpe oleracea bark and sap scrape and direct application anti-inflammatory 1 (2.9) rosemary rosmarinus officinalis leaves bath and infusion cleaning and healing 1 (2.9) cotton gossypium herbaceum leaves and bark bath and cataplasm cleaning 2 (5.9) garlic allium sativum small bulbs cataplasm cleaning 1 (2.9) arnica arnica montana leaves infusion anti-inflammatory, cleaning and analgesic 1 (2.9) buriti mauritia flexuosa sap direct application healing and analgesic 2 (5.9) caapeba cissampelos glaberrima leaves infusion anti-inflammatory 3 (8.9) cashew anacardium occidentale nut oil healing and cleaning 2 (5.9) castanha-dopará bertholletia excelsa nut oil healing and antiinflammatory 1 (2.9) onion allium cepa bulb cataplasm analgesic and healing 1 (2.9) chicória cichorium endivia leaves bath cleaning 2 (5.9) copaíba copaifera officinalis sap direct application healing 3 (8.9) corama bryophyllum pinnatum leaves bath and infusion anti-inflammatory and healing 1 (2.9) crajiru arrabidaea chica leaves infusion healing 2 (5.9) lemon citrus limon juice direct application anti-hemorrhagic 2 (5.9) malva malva sylvestris flower and leaves infusion healing 1 (2.9) mastruz chenopodium ambrosioides leaves bath anti-inflammatory and healing 2 (5.9) tobacco nicotiana tabacum leaves infusion and compress analgesic 4 (11.9) 1frequency of use. da silva et al. 2020. ethnobiology letters 11(1):1–13 8 research communications forbidden for the inhabitants (meyer-rochow 2009). on the other hand, riverside populations of santa isabel do rio negro and barcelos, in the state of amazonas, avoid the consumption of elasmobranchs. they consider by taste, smell, and appearance, an unpleasant meat, even causing aversion by the association with the “bad smell” of urine (silva 2007). in the rio negro basin, also in the amazon, rays are caught for consumption, being eviscerated and exported to markets in the southeast of brazil (araújo 2005; duncan et al. 2010). many interviewees reported using folk remedies on the wound. this type of therapy is also cited by haddad et al. (2012), who carried out a study about fish accidents, including stingrays, in the state of são paulo. the interviewees reported the use of gasoline, human urine, herbs, chrome mercury, tobacco, garlic, olive oil, alcohol, and a catfish eye placed on the wound as treatments. in another study, haddad et al. (2013), stated that the treatment of wounds caused by freshwater stingrays is associated with various folk remedies, superstitions, and legends. among them are human urine, catfish eye, and placing the affected area in female external genitalia, described as an infallible method for pain control, according to the interviewees. the use of urine, herbs, oils, and specific herbal medicines were also pointed out for the treatment of injuries (sá-oliveira et al. 2011). in a recent study carried out in the western brazilian amazon, accidents with stingrays were the third most frequently reported, and the first aids measures applied by the riverside population were for example, placing the wound into the female genitalia, sweetened condensed milk, coffee grounds with cotton tea, coffee powder, acaçu milk (hura crepitans), hot asphalt, and termite mound smoke (costa et al. 2020). although it is very common, the use of products and substances without professional indication or guidance is not recommended, since it can aggravate the clinical condition (lameiras et al. 2013). there is no definitive and truly functional therapy for these accidents, although control of the clinical situation can be helpful. since the late fifties, a standard procedure for treatment of stingray injuries was well established. according to russell (1959), injuries should be irrigated, and a procedure to remove the remaining integumentary sheath was recommended. after that, a qualified person should apply a constriction band above the wound and submerge the extremity in hot water. currently, it is recommended to remove fragments, wound cleaning, immersion of the injured limb in hot water, tetanus prophylaxis, local anesthetic, and systemic analgesics. garrone neto and haddad (2009), cited that a patient can be treated with resting, intense washing with soap and water, sedatives, and topical antibiotic therapy. considering that many health professionals do not receive training on the subject in undergraduate courses or in the course of professional activity, it is important to disclose information of this nature (garrone neto and haddad 2010) and also to report those accidents. in the present investigation, the use of medicinal plants was also mentioned as a viable alternative to treat the injuries. the diversity of plants in the region and its use for medicinal purposes in the culture is an important factor to be considered when discussing the use of alternative therapies for treatment. according to lewinsohn and prado (2002), it is estimated that brazil has 15–20% of the world species diversity in its territory, mainly in the amazon. the majority is used and cultivated by traditional forest populations for therapeutic and medicinal purposes. in the amazon, 800 plant species have economic or social value, and of these, 190 are fruit, 20 oil plants, and hundreds of medicinal plants (santos et al. 2014; vieira 1999). since the declaration of alma-ata in 1978, the world health organization (who) considers medicinal plants as important tools of pharmaceutical care. several who communications and resolutions express the agency's position on the need to enhance the use of these drugs in the health system (assis et al. 2007; ministério da saúde 2009, 2015). the brazilian ministry of health (ms) has policies and programs that support the use of medicinal plants and herbal medicines in basic health care (ministério da saúde 2009, 2012), being an important source of treatment, especially in remote areas. knowledge about the use of medicinal plant species to treat diseases is passed on from generation to generation from the oldest civilizations (garlet and irgang 2001), being often the only therapeutic resource for many communities and ethnic groups, especially in the amazon (azevedo and silva 2006; cunha 2005). therefore, the use of medicinal plants as an accessible alternative to treat injuries caused by freshwater stingrays should be considered. further studies will be needed to validate several therapeutic forms, emphasizing their correct use, risks, and the da silva et al. 2020. ethnobiology letters 11(1):1–13 9 research communications need for confirmation of species before their use. this would ensure a safe, affordable, and inexpensive care for accidents in isolated locations and would support the ms national policy on medicinal plants and medicinal products (pnpmf), promoting the sustainable use of biodiversity, the development of the chain production, and domestic industry (ministério da saúde 2012). however, studies aiming to understand the use of medicinal plants and alternative treatments are necessary in the region in order to raise important information on the applications of potential medicines (ministério da saúde 2009, 2012). conclusion the injuries caused by freshwater stingrays in the juruá valley region resemble other studies, in which mainly fishermen and bathers are injured, especially during the ebb and flow of the rivers. the lower limbs are the most affected sites, and among the symptoms reported are severe pain, edema, erythema, necrosis, and ulceration of the wound. the beliefs of the population reveal fear and a perception of an aggressive animal, which attacks unnecessarily, resulting in mutilation and slaughter of these species in the region, indicating the lack of knowledge about the animal and its ecological importance. the use of folk medicine to treat injuries shows a high number of individuals who often seek these treatments without any insight or professional guidance, highlighting the misinformation about the pathophysiology of the injury, prophylaxis of accidents, first aid, and proper treatment of the injury. however, the use of medicinal plants as an alternative for the treatment of injuries has proven to be a strong ally to guarantee safe and affordable care, but it should be further investigated. furthermore, additional studies on the use of medicinal plants in the region are still necessary, especially because there is a lack of health services to these populations that are generally far from the main urban centers. in addition, it is recommended to elaborate on strategies for the conservation of freshwater stingrays through education of riverside population, emphasizing the importance of maintaining the biodiversity of these species. acknowledgments we would like to thank fundação de amparo à pesquisa do estado do acre (fapac) for the scientific initiation scholarship awarded to the first author, and everyone who contributed directly or indirectly to this work, and to connor neagle and mariana martins for the review of the manuscript. declarations permissions: all the people interviewed in this research agreed to provide the given information. sources of funding: fundação de amparo à pesquisa do estado do acre (fapac). conflicts of interest: none declared. references cited albuquerque, u. p., a. l. b. nascimento, g. t. soldati, i. s. feitosa, j. l. a. 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lewinsohn, t., and p. i. prado. 2002. biodiversidade brasileira: síntese do estado atual do conhecimento. editora contexto, são paulo, brazil. lima, c. m. s., m. a. fujishima, b. e. f. santos, b. p. lima, p. c. mastroianni, f. f. o. sousa, and j. o. silva. 2019. phytopharmacovigilance in the elderly: highlights from the brazilian amazon. evidencebased complementary and alternative medicine 3:1–12. doi:10.1155/2019/9391802. magalhães, k. w., c. lima, a. a. piran-soares, e. e. marques, c. a. hiruma-lima, and m. lopesferreira. 2006. biological and biochemical properties of the brazilian potamotrygon stingrays: potamotrygon cf. scobina and potamotrygon gr. orbignyi. toxicon 47:575–583. doi:10.1016/ j.toxicon.2006.01.028. matias, e. f. f., e. f. alves, b. s. santos, c. e. s. souza, j. v. a. ferreira, a. k. l. s. lavor, f. g. figueiredo, l. f. lima, f. a. v. santos, f. s. n. peixoto, a. v. colares, a. a. boligon, r. a. saraiva, m. l. athayde, j. b.t. rocha, i. r. a. menezes, h. d. m. coutinho, and j. g. m. costa. 2013. biological activities and chemical characterization of cordia verbenacea dc. as tool to validate the ethnobiological usage. evidence-based complementary and alternative medicine 164215:1–7. doi:10.1155/2013/164215. meyer-rochow, v. b. 2009. food taboos: their origins and purposes. journal of ethnobiology and ethnomedicine 5:18. doi:10.1186/1746-4269-5-18. ministério da saúde. 2009. relatório do 1º seminário internacional de práticas integrativas e complementares em saúde – pnpic. ministério da saúde, secretaria de atenção à saúde, departamento de atenção básica, brasília, brazil. ministério da saúde. 2012. práticas integrativas e complementares: plantas medicinais e fitoterapia na atenção básica/ministério da saúde. série a. normas e manuais técnicos, cadernos de atenção básica, n. 31. secretaria de atenção à saúde, departamento de atenção básica, brasília, brazil. ministério da saúde. 2015. relação nacional de plantas medicinais de interesse do sus 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doi:10.1016/j.toxicon.2007.06.004. pierini, s. v., d. a. warrell, a. de paulo, and r. d. g. theakston. 1996. high incidence of bites and stings by snakes and other animals among rubber tappers and amazonian indians of the juruá valley, acre state, brazil. toxicon 34:225–236. doi:10.1016/0041-0101(95)00125-5. reckziegel, g. c., f. s. dourado, d. garrone neto, and v. haddad jr. 2015. lesões causadas por animais aquáticos no brasil: uma análise dos dados presentes no sistema de informação para doenças de notificação obrigatória. revista da sociedade brasileira de medicina tropical 48:460–467. doi:10.1590/0037-8682-0133-2015. rodrigues, e. b., a. s. brito filho, m. l. m. nascimento, e. c. oliveira, j. v. c. paula, and r. m. lima. 1997. estatística 1996, acre. secretaria de estado de planejamento do estado do acre, rio branco, brazil. rosenberger, l. j. 2001. phylogenetic relationships within the stingray genus dasyatis (chondrichthyes: dasyatidae). copeia 3:615–627. doi:10.1643/00458511(2001)001[0615:prwtsg]2.0.co;2. russell, f. e. 1959. stingray injuries. public health reports 74:855–860. doi:10.2307/4590595. santos, g. m., and a. c. m. santos. 2005. sustentabilidade da pesca na amazônia. estudos avançados 19:165–182. doi:10.1590/s010340142005000200010. da silva et al. 2020. ethnobiology letters 11(1):1–13 13 research communications santos, m. r. a., m. r. lima, and c. l. l. g. oliveira. 2014. medicinal plants used in rondônia, western amazon, brazil. revista brasileira de plantas medicinais 16:707–720. doi:10.1590/1983084x/13_102. sá-oliveira, j. c., e. a. costa, and f. p. s. pena. 2011. acidentes por raias (potamotrygonidae) em quatro comunidades da área de proteção ambiental-apa do rio curiaú, macapá ap. biota amazônia 1:74– 78. doi:10.18561/2179-5746/biotaamazonia.v 1n2p. schmedahirschmann, g., c. delporte, g. valenzuela-barra, x. silva, g. vargas-arana, b. lima, and g. e. feresin. 2014. anti-inflammatory activity of animal oils from the peruvian amazon. journal of ethnopharmacology 156:9–15. doi:10.1016/ j.jep.2014.08.010. silva, a. l. 2007. comida de gente: preferências e tabus alimentares entre os ribeirinhos do médio rio negro (amazonas, brasil). revista de antropologia 50:125–179. doi:10.1590/s0034-770120070001 00004. silva, j. p. c. b., and t. loboda. 2019. potamotrygon marquesi, a new species of neotropical freshwater stingray (potamotrygonidae) from the brazilian amazon basin. journal of fish biology 95:594–612. doi:10.1111/jfb.14050. te kete ipurangi. 2020. matauranga maori [web page]. available at: http:// eng.mataurangamaori.tki.org.nz/support-materials/ te-reo-maori/maori-myths-legends-andcontemporary-stories/whaitere-the-enchantedstingray. accessed on march 14, 2020. tropicos. 2020. tropicos.org: missouri botanical garden [web page]. available at: http:// www.tropicos.org. accessed on january 27, 2020. vieira, r. f. 1999. conservation of medicinal and aromatic plants in brazil. in perspectivas sobre novas culturas e novos usos, edited by j. janick, pp. 152– 159. ashs press, alexandria, va. ethnobiology for the future: linking cultural and ecological diversity. edited by gary paul nabhan. 2016. arizona university press, tucson. 309 pp. white. 2018. ethnobiology letters 9(2):305–306 305 reviews conservation. for example, indigenous conceptualizations of plant domestication and diversification can potentiate multicultural conservation or participatory breeding efforts involving crop or crop wild relative diversity. similarly vital to such efforts is the discussion of autobiology, or the “ethnobiology of us”, which comprises chapter 4, in which readers are encouraged to explore the ethnobiological terms and principles that guide their own lives and cultures. next, the one-size-fits-all approach of certain diets (e.g., the modern paleolithic diet) is critiqued in chapter 5, which explores the medically meaningful variation between modern humans and our common ancestors and what this may mean for modern diets. the understudied ethnobiology of microorganisms (e.g., those in fermenting vats, vinegar mothers, human guts) is thoughtfully discussed in chapter 6. ethnophenology and climate change are examined in chapter 7, providing thought-provoking examples of ethnophenological indicators (e.g., gooseberry bushes coming into their full leaves is a sign that it is time to start planting corn) that will likely spark many new research projects. the second section discusses tools or methods which can help explore some of the types of major questions introduced in section one. this section begins with chapter 8 detailing a case study of the colorado plateau ecoregion to better explore interactions between biological diversity, ethnolinguistic diversity, and multicultural conservation initiatives. changes and continuities in desert oasis agrobiodiversity are investigated in chapter 9, in part through the historical analysis of ethnobiology for the future: linking cultural and ecological diversity takes readers on a vibrant journey across the current state of ethnobiology and its diverse contributions to the world. brimming with powerful case studies, overviews of many major contemporary issues in ethnobiology, and much food for thought in general, the evocative writing style of nabhan and colleagues is sure to captivate readers from any background, academic or otherwise. drawing upon insights collected from decades of diverse analytical perspectives, nabhan and colleagues have assembled this collection of essays to increase the depth and breadth of ethnobiological research and to bolster our capacity to explore the ethnobiosphere. the circumstances of many young and aspiring ethnobiologists are addressed directly. each of the book’s 20 chapters asks us to imagine a different facet of the discipline, providing an enjoyably diverse yet cohesive reading experience with intelligent topical transitions. the book itself is divided into the three primary sections described below. in the first section, nabhan and colleagues explore major contemporary questions in the field of ethnobiology. chapter 1 analyzes the current state of ethnobiology as a field of study, its lingering limitations, and strategies for improvement. chapter 2 focuses on emerging disciplinary trajectories, particularly the blending of political ecology and ethnobiology. chapter 3’s discussion of the differences and similarities among indigenous science, citizen science, and professional science is an especially important read, particularly for those of us working on biocultural diversity research and ethnobiology for the future: linking cultural and ecological diversity. edited by gary paul nabhan. 2016. arizona university press, tucson. 309 pp. john robert white1* 1department of anthropology, tulane university, new orleans, usa. *jwhite30@tulane.edu received september 11, 2018 open access accepted november 10, 2018 doi 10.14237/ebl.9.2.2018.1399 copyright © 2018 by the author(s) licensee society of ethnobiology. this is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution-noncommercial 4.0 international public license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0), which permits non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. white. 2018. ethnobiology letters 9(2):305–306 306 reviews missionary archives. chapter 10 details some important barriers to traditional ecological knowledge transmission, emphasizing the importance of placebased learning and hands-on activities. chapters 11 and 12 explore effective conservation strategies targeting many place-based heritage foods and heirloom seeds and the importance of effective collaboration between their diverse actors. the multidisciplinary approach to the study of crop domestication, which is reviewed and expanded on in chapter 13, exemplifies the hybrid vigor of thoughtful interdisciplinary project design. specifically, chapter 13 explores the origin of domesticated chili pepper (capsicum annuum) in mexico via biogeographic, archeological, paleolinguistic, and climatic perspectives. finally, while ethnobiology has often been misconstrued as an exclusively historical science, chapter 14 outlines the disciplines’ true predictive power through a study of condor recovery and anthropogenic landscape modifications. in the third section, ample room is left to an understudied yet crucial question, namely, how ethnobiologists can communicate more effectively with other scholars and society in general. chapter 15 presents a particularly powerful story about a seri sea turtle hunter, the collapse of a sea turtle population when local knowledge escaped local hands, and the collaborative conservation efforts seeking to improve human relations with these weeping creatures the seri classify as a type of human. this chapter details the stunning extent of some traditional ecological knowledge and its importance to research and conservation projects (e.g., see the seri science discussion on sea turtle biology, ecology, and the associated reactions from other scientists). chapter 16 discusses “ghosts of evolution” (i.e., ecological anachronisms) through a discussion of the ethnozoological work of paul martin and the evolutionary and cultural forces that shape organisms and landscapes. in chapter 17, nabhan discusses the unique and immensely important parque de la papa, an in situ crop conservation effort among quechua speakers in peru, which any student of agrobiodiversity or conservation should familiarize themselves with (see also the excellent agrobiocultural conservation research and resources from the native seeds/ search initiative and web portal). similar conservation projects are sorely needed in other hearths of crop domestication and centers of plant diversity (e.g., amazonia). aspiring community-based or in situ crop and crop wild relative conservation projects can learn much from these two highly effective initiatives. chapter 18 explores how communications between many scientists, poets, novelists, and literary critics studying the environment have eroded over time, and what can be gained from bridging this current fissure. readers will then find themselves transported into one whirlwind of a spice odyssey (chapter 19), beginning in the arabian deserts, where unique chemical ecologies and landscape modifications helped birth the global trade in aromatics some 3,000 years ago. this chapter’s discussion of one of the most sought-after incenses in the world, frankincense (boswellia sacra) of the hojar fusoos quality, known to its collectors simply as “milk” (luban in arabic), will leave many mouths watering. this final section closes with chapter 20, which discusses the ethnobiology of post-apocalyptic dystopias by engaging with major questions in translational science (e.g., how to express the values, benefits, and facts of a science to intraculturally and interculturally diverse audiences without “dumbing information down”). this chapter suggests some popular book genres (e.g., climate fiction) may provide help. building off the interrelated themes of its preceding chapters, the afterword of ethnobiology for the future expands upon its discussion of ongoing problems in the discipline and discusses strategies through which we may more effectively address them. this concluding section also contains a helpful collection of current academic programs in ethnobiology and a great overview of major names in the field’s development, which many will appreciate. like each of the prior chapters, every new reading of this section can result in new and insightful observations. in sum, nabhan and colleagues have written another thoroughly enjoyable book, sure to be a key text in ethnobiological literature. fruit from the sands: the silk road origins of the foods we eat. by robert n. spengler iii. 2019. university of california press, berkeley. 392 pp. anderson. 2019. ethnobiology letters 10(1):109–110 109 reviews perspectives from gene anderson’s bookshelf in eastern europe and much of central asia throughout early history. at some obscure but quite recent time, it was replaced by rye in eastern europe—a major agricultural revolution that seems to have gone little noticed, though tax and farm rolls from tsarist russia would surely reveal the details. high-yield, heat-adapted wheats replaced it in central asia quite recently. spengler provides up-to-date information on the genetics, origins, and spread of both broomcorn and foxtail millet, as well as rice, wheat, and barley. foxtail millet never amounted to much in central asia; it needs china’s hotter, wetter climate. rice, however, was grown where there was warmth and ample water, though that limited it to a few river valleys. apples originated in what is now eastern kazakhstan, near the city of almaty, formerly almaata, “father of apples.” the name commemorates a local johnny appleseed, though, not the original domestication events. once again, genetics, origin, and spread are well described. apricots originated in central asia, somewhere between turkey and china—wild ones are widespread. wine grapes, originally from the east black sea coastal areas, spread and flourished. most of the common fruits and nuts of the near east and eastern europe became established and important. central asia’s oasis cities today consume incredible quantities of them. stall after stall in any market is taken up with dried ones, and fresh ones in season. one wonders how even cities of a million or more could eat so many strawberries, cherries, apricots, and the rest. tashkent writings in english on central asian food have tended to emphasize meat and dairy, because of the romantic identification of the region with herders and nomads. yet central asia has an ancient and highly developed agricultural sector, and was the source of apples, apricots, and other plants, including varieties of carrots, melons, and nuts. robert spengler, a young archaeobotanist with much experience in the region, has produced an excellent guide to the plant foods and their history. he personally excavated and identified many of the remains he describes. the book focuses on genetics and archaeology, but also covers history, as well as modern production. sections cover grains, legumes, grapes and apples, other fruits and nuts, vegetables, spices, oils, and tea. the book begins with a description of central asia and its plants, quoting many arab geographers as well as european explorers. spengler points out that “until the first millennium bc, much of southern central asia was a lush expanse of short, shrubby forest, which included wild pistachio, almond, cherry. …the piedmont of central asia was once covered in forests of sea buckthorn (hippophae rhamnoides)…” (pp. 12–13) and other fruit trees. emphasized also is the role of irrigation, always important, but developed in the medieval period to an extremely high standard, with innovations now used worldwide. the first plant discussed is broomcorn millet, which spread slowly from china, where it was domesticated around 6000 bce; by 2000 bce, it had reached europe. long unsung, it was the staple food fruit from the sands: the silk road origins of the foods we eat. by robert n. spengler iii. 2019. university of california press, berkeley. 392 pp. eugene n. anderson1* 1department of anthropology, university of california, riverside, usa. *gene@ucr.edu received august 9, 2019 open access accepted november 8, 2019 doi 10.14237/ebl.10.1.2019.1636 published december 4, 2019 copyright © 2019 by the author(s); licensee society of ethnobiology. this is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution-noncommercial 4.0 international public license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0), which permits non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. anderson. 2019. ethnobiology letters 10(1):109–110 110 reviews perspectives from gene anderson’s bookshelf has so many fruit trees planted as yard and street trees that it is almost a food forest. no one seems to mind the staining of pavement and cars by the thousands of mulberry trees that drop varicolored fruit in may. quite the reverse; the trees develop a pronounced browse line at the height of an average person’s reach. spices are less abundant and important, but the silk road (or silk routes—there were parallel tracks) was as important for them as it was for silk. tons of spices and medicinals—originally the same category— traveled by camel across the vast deserts, sky-reaching mountains, and lush oases. almost half a century ago, i watched a camel caravan crossing an 11,000-foot pass in afghanistan, an impressive sight. such was trade until very recently. there are a few errors in this book. the most obvious, unfortunately and mistakenly cited to me, translates the chinese word fan as “rice” (p. 89). fan means any cooked grain used as a staple food or substrate for other food (made dishes, cai). in south china, fan is virtually synonymous with cooked rice, but rice has its own species name, dao, and fan originally applied largely to cooked millet. another error occurs on p. 13, where those fruit forests are said to have given way to “lizards, snakes, and desert saxaul trees (haloxylon).” this is not the case. saxaul grows in the hottest, driest deserts, where fruit and nut trees do not survive. far from replacing food trees, saxaul is itself threatened, by firewood cutting and the like. what has replaced the fruit and nut groves is rough grazing. the forests have been cleared, mostly long since the first millennium, for pasture. i have seen isolated fruit trees standing in otherwise sheep-cropped grass in several central asian countries. one more error worth noting is the idea that the chinese word usually translated “wine” really means, basically, grape wine (p. 262). jiu has always meant any sort of alcoholic liquid. for the first few thousand years of its career as a word, it meant ale, mostly made from millet. grape wine reached china around 2000 years ago, and was duly called “grape jiu.” similarly for other liquors, and even for medicinal alcohol; tincture of iodine is “iodine jiu.” aside from these points, the book is highly scientific and accurate, and very valuable. it corrects the imbalance of lore in western food literatures, and brings to the world an extremely rich and productive agricultural tradition. the photographs, largely taken by the author, are revealing and important. robert spengler was a student of michael frachetti and the society of ethnobiology’s former editor naomi miller, and his work is top-flight archaeobotany. the long program for ethics in ethnobiology fowler and herron. 2018. ethnobiology letters 9(1):1–3 1 editorial special issue on ethics in ethnobiology urban ethnobiologist. we offer travel awards for students, indigenous peoples, and ethnobiologists from outside of north america. for the forty-first annual conference, we attracted nearly $25,000 from the cultural anthropology program of the national science foundation, portions of which we used to cover the conference travel expenses for students, indigenous people, and persons living outside of the united states. and canada, as well as for the five speakers in the plenary session on indigenous food sovereignty. we are grateful to eve emshwiller and david spooner from the local organizing committee at the university of wisconsin for leading the nsf application as well as to the president of the society for economic botany, gayle fritz, for her contributions to the application. soe has jointly met twice with society for economic botany and once in association with the international society of ethnobiology (ise), which has allowed us to reach broader audiences. as the board presidents, fowler and herron have supported efforts to increase the diversity of our membership by including tribal peoples in the meetings and by meeting on tribal lands in cherokee, north carolina in 2014. the society overall and its meetings have become more inclusive due to these investments and outreach efforts. a third tactic for improving the ethics-related services that soe provides to its membership is hosting innovative ethics workshops and traditional paper sessions at our annual conferences. during the may 2016 meeting at the university of arizona, fowler and herron, organized an ethics in ethnobiology lab (eelab). during the may 2017 meeting at the montréal botanical gardens, fowler and herron hosted an evening workshop and supported the double session engaging communities & ethics in context: the process of initiating research hosted by armando medinaceli and eréndira cano. the authors of the papers in this special issue participated in these conference activities. the collection of papers in this special issue of ethnobiology letters emerges from an intentional multiyear concentration on ethics by the board of trustees of the society of ethnobiology (soe). since 2015, scott herron, who was soe’s president from 2015– 2017, and cynthia fowler, soe’s president from 2017 –2019, have been working together to explore ethics in ethnobiology via three main strategies. one of the board’s strategies is to engage in current issues in ethnobiology both inside and outside of the academy. standing with humans and nonhumans who suffer social and environmental injustices is ethically imperative. to be ethical means to advocate for or against particularly pressing and relevant issues. in 2016–2018, the board took the following actions:  became a participating organization in the global campaign for the empowerment of indigenous women for zero hunger,  established a memorandum of understanding with the latin american society of ethnobiology (solae),  issued a statement on the foreign entry executive order,  declared that soe stands with standing rock and the standing rock sioux tribe in their fight as a sovereign nation against multinational dakota access pipeline and its developers,  and denounced the murder of berta caceres and gustavo castro soto’s incarceration. a second strategy enacted by the board for bringing more attention to ethics in ethnobiology has been to maximize inclusivity. the soe board has increased financial support for key categories of existing and potential future members through its growing portfolio of fellowships and awards. the board supports an annual graduate ethnobiology research fellowship for an indigenous ethnobiologist, a researcher of ecological knowledge, and an the long program for ethics in ethnobiology open access doi 10.14237/ebl.9.1.2018.1356 copyright © 2018 by the author(s); licensee society of ethnobiology. this is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution-noncommercial 4.0 international public license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0), which permits non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. fowler and herron. 2018. ethnobiology letters 9(1):1–3 2 editorial special issue on ethics in ethnobiology the workshops and sessions at our annual conferences generated notable decisions and outcomes. a discussion about soe’s own code of ethics has resulted in the decision—originally made in 2010 through collaboration between soe and ise and then reaffirmed in 2016—to adopt ise’s code of ethics as its own. soe and ise continue to collaborate. kelly bannister has been a prime mover in the ise ethics program and, from that position, is able to give readers of her article in this special issue both some background and some advice for the future evolution of ethnobiological ethics. kelly also participated in the eelab where she challenged us to continue exploring, “how soe and ise can work together in supporting indigenous resurgence and enacting sovereign health, food, research, and governing systems.” soe’s ethics compel us to network with organizations whose values coincide or complement ours. one outcome of this is a memorandum of understanding (mou) with the solae. solae has its own code of ethics, which readers of this special issue can see in solae ethics committee et al. (2018). armando medinaceli from the solae ethics committee has participated in soe’s ethics activities and, during the 2016 eelab, he shared with the group that the solae code of ethics emphasizes free prior informed consent, community authorship, and communities’ rights to their territories. like solae and ise, we feel that, as a professional academic organization, soe is obliged to provide a code of ethics. yet even with the adoption of the ise code, we do not intend for the society to dictate how you conduct research. at the same time, we advise ethnobiologists to proceed in particular ways; for example, we urge you to develop respectful, mindful, reciprocal, long-term relationships with your collaborators. during the 2016 eelab, jessica dolan shared these thoughts about the centrality of relationships in ethnobiological ethics: relationships that happen in the course of research are real relationships. they may be short, long, deep, shallow. they have a life of their own and the researcher is not always the one in power or control of objectives. relationships cannot be neatly contained within the grant cycle, degree cycle, or any institutional timeline. researchers must take care of themselves to be able to be truly reciprocitous with members of indigenous and local communities. verna miller (pepeyla) told us during the 2016 eelab that “we are obliged to take care of our resources.” fowler and herron would like to add “ourselves and each other” to verna’s sentiment about caring for resources. we encourage conversation so that together we can search for answers to the seemingly endless ethics-related questions and grapple with the omnipresence of ethical concerns. we support ethnobiologists as they navigate the multilayered ethics of individuals, families, tribes, communities, institutions, nation states, and transnational organizations. we recognize the diversity of identities, knowledges, and cultures that exists among ethnobiologists and our collaborators. we recognize the existence of myriad written and unwritten codes, rules, regulations, and such. we recommend that researchers tailor their ethics for each layer and to each group of collaborators. as an outcome of the soe board’s emphasis on ethics, this special issue of ethnobiology letters represents the diversity of our members. this special issue captures the diversity of the authors’ backgrounds and approaches to ethics. ashley blazina shares her interview with verna miller (pepeyla), a member of the nlakapamux first nation and the president of ise. sophie duncan’s manifesto links common and scientific botanical terminology with racism, nationalism, and colonialism, which she illustrates with the brilliant collage on the cover of this special issue. kelly bannister draws on the rich history of this discipline to encourage the transformation to ethnobiological ethics as praxis. nicole sault offers her insights from the perspective of a scholar-activist. will and bhavana tuladhar-douglas recount the challenges that married couples face when they conduct research in the wife’s native community. shebitz and oviedo provide a lesson plan about ethnobiological ethics for teachers who would like to use the case study method in their classrooms. letitia mccune advocates for indigenous peoples’ rights to their cultural relatives, especially seeds. armando medinaceli and his co-authors frame the reprint of the solae code of ethics with some background on the development of our partner-organization’s ethics program. in a separate article, armando presents readers with a proposal for ethical ways to obtain consent from indigenous people. fowler describes fowler and herron. 2018. ethnobiology letters 9(1):1–3 3 editorial special issue on ethics in ethnobiology the ways environmental ethics emerge in local communities when they are faced with dramatic disturbances in their social and environmental worlds. we intend for the collective tone of the papers in this special issue to be more inclusive and less prescriptive. what we really wanted to do in curating these papers was to foster a genuine, good-hearted conversation, not to publish a set of diatribes. we hope you see that this special issue reflects the board’s goals to engage in advocacy, to increase inclusivity, to facilitate discussion about ethics, and to build disciplinary expertise in ethics. we also hope that you will join the conversation and help us as we continue exploring ethics in ethnobiology in the upcoming years. fowler and herron as, respectively, the current president and immediate past president have made explicit efforts to steer the society’s vision towards ethics. we would like to acknowledge the many people who have contributed to the ongoing construction of an ethics program. we are grateful to the editors of ethnobiology letters for allowing us to coedit the special issue and for their hard work in preparing the papers for publication, especially james welch and andrew gillreath-brown. we acknowledge the many other society members who might have authored papers because of their experience and interest in ethics, but who were not included in this issue. we do not intend this to be an exhaustive compilation of essays by ethnobiologists who care about ethics. we recognize that many more readers of ethnobiology letters have important, insightful, and innovative contributions to make. many perspectives that are not published here are worth publicizing. if this rings true to you, consider submitting your work for publication in ethnobiology letters and for presentation in conference sessions. we welcome you to volunteer to be a member of the ethics and advocacy committee. we especially need help with becoming more active in supporting underrepresented groups and those who do not already have much support. we encourage you to contribute and participate in any ways that suit you. the society wants to create space for your ethicsrelated ideas and activities. the future is up to you. we want to continue working with you in the spirit of learning with and listening to the society’s membership so that we can construct a participatory and collaborative ethics program. as an anonymous participant in the 2016 eelab said, “we are people working together for common goals and common values.” references cited solae ethics committee, a. medinaceli, e. j. cano, a. argueta, and o. lucia sanabria. 2018. latin american society of ethnobiology’s code of ethics. ethnobiology letters 9:86–89. doi:10.14237/ ebl.9.1.2018.1121. july 12, 2018 cynthia t. fowler department of sociology and anthropology, wofford college, spartanburg, sc, usa. fowlerct@wofford.edu scott herron department of biological sciences, ferris state university, big rapids, mi, usa. herrons@ferris.edu cotton and wool: textile economy in the serakhs oasis during the late sasanian period, the case of spindle whorls from gurukly depe (turkmenistan) kossowska-janik. 2016. ethnobiology letters 7(1):107–116 107 research communications hectares in area and is 13 meters high. six seasons of excavations (2010–2015) were conducted by the polish-turkmen archaeological mission directed by professor barbara kaim from the university of warsaw.1 the site was identified as a parthiansasanian (third century bc to seventh century ad) qala: a fortified residence, widely considered typical of central asian oasis settlements (kaim 2011:207). trenches were excavated in different parts of the depe: on the highest, southwestern area (sectors 10i– 10j, 11f–11ł, and 12f–12k), where the presumed landowner's residence was probably located; the northwestern part (sectors 6i-6j and 7i); the lowest part (5m–5n, 6n, and 7n); and on the fortification wall (2n, 5r–5s, 13i, and 14i). the spindle whorls discussed here were found both on the surface and in most excavated trenches dating to the late sasanian (sixth to seventh centuries ad). contexts were dated by ceramic analysis, as typical for late sasanian to early islamic sites in this region.2 of course, some whorls from the surface and near-surface excavations could be residual and date to later periods. remains of islamic occupation from eleventh century ad (gurukly shaheri) are at the base of gurukly depe (różańska-kardaś 2013), but gurukly depe was not occupied at that time. the oldest datable material introduction spindle whorls are not the most spectacular objects found by archaeologists, which is probably why they are so seldom discussed at length in archaeological publications. however, these finds deserve more attention as the collected data can yield important information about ancient societies. a study of these artifacts can help determine what was being spun at the site, therefore what fiber materials were used in a region. dimensions and weight of spindle whorls determine thickness of yarn and these parameters differ according to the fiber chosen for spinning. in this paper, i examine spindle whorls found at gurukly depe, turkmenistan, during the late sasanian period (sixth to seventh centuries ad), to try to establish whether wool or cotton was spun there. gurukly depe gurukly depe is an archaeological site located in the serakhs oasis in southern turkmenistan on the border with iran, approximately 100 km from the afghan border (figure 1). the oasis was inhabited at least from neolithic times. from the achaemenid period up to the muslim conquest, the region was part of several iranian empires. gurukly depe is a rectangular depe (flat-topped mound) covering 2.8 cotton and wool: textile economy in the serakhs oasis during the late sasanian period, the case of spindle whorls from gurukly depe (turkmenistan) dominika maja kossowska-janik1* 1antiquity of southeastern europe research centre, university of warsaw, warsaw, poland. *dominikakossowska@yahoo.pl abstract gurukly depe is an archaeological site located in the serakhs oasis in southeast turkmenistan, excavated since 2010 by the polish-turkmen archaeological mission directed by professor barbara kaim from the university of warsaw. most investigated structures date to the late sasanian period. at the site 102 spindle whorls were found. based on their dimensions and weight i propose that most them were likely to have been used to spin cotton. this evidence provides another indication of cotton agriculture in central asia before the muslim conquest. received april 17, 2016 open access accepted october 20, 2016 doi 10.14237/ebl.7.1.2016.682 keyword spindle whorls, cotton, turkmenistan, gurukly depe, sasanian empire copyright © 2016 by the author(s); licensee society of ethnobiology. this is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution-noncommercial 4.0 international public license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0), which permits non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. kossowska-janik. 2016. ethnobiology letters 7(1):107–116 108 research communications from the surface is dated between the seventh to eighth centuries ad. general information about spinning and spindle whorls spindle whorls are normally symmetrical, circular objects with a perforation in the center (figure 2). they were used to spin: i.e., to form continuous threads by pulling out and twisting fibers. although there are many methods of spinning (e.g., handspinning without any equipment), the most popular method—since prehistoric times in the old and new world—was spinning by twisting a stick (spindle) weighted with a whorl (forbes 1956:152). the spindle is usually a straight, slightly tapered stick, which was normally made of wood, but sometimes of bone or metal. no spindles were found at gurukly depe, which suggests that they had been made of perishable materials. there are two places where the whorl may be attached to the spindle, at the top or bottom (rarely in the middle). these may relate to the way the spindle was used: for instance, if the spindle is turned on the thigh it is preferable to mount the whorl at the top, because hands roll the shaft of the spindle below. however, for drop spinning it is more convenient to install a whorl at the bottom (carington smith 1975:76). drop spinning is the most popular type of spinning a spindle. unspun fiber is often bound upon a distaff (smooth stick) held in the left hand, while the right hand draws out the staple (i.e., the fiber), which is twirled by the spindle rotating in mid-air. the whorl serves as a flywheel, keeping the spindle in circular motion. drop spinning is a very frequent method of traditional flax and wool spinning. however, for spinning delicate yarn like cotton, the most appropriate technique is to rotate the spindle horizontally with fingers in mid-air or on a thigh, or to use a vertical spindle supported in a small bowl (carpenter et al. 2012:386; conlee 2000:346–347; crowfood 1931:19, 41–42). some yarn must be spun with more force, some with less, and at slower or faster speeds. these decisions depend on the length, thickness, and strength of the fiber, and on thickness of the yarn desired. for example, wool staple is much shorter than flax fiber. therefore, to get a high number of twists in the resulting thread, woolen thread must be spun with a spindle that rotates much faster than a spindle with linen (flax) thread. however, cotton fiber is shorter and more delicate than both woolen and linen fibers, so the speed of spindle rotation must be faster. if a spinner has one type of fiber and wants to make thicker and thinner threads she/he must spin figure 1 map showing location of gurukly depe (1) and cotton seed finds in central asia from merv (2) and kara-tepe (3). kossowska-janik. 2016. ethnobiology letters 7(1):107–116 109 research communications the former slower than the latter. a critical component is the whorl, as the weight and shape of spindle whorls have an influence on the kind of yarn spun. moment of inertia the ability of bodies to stay in a rotary motion around a given axis is dependent on bodies’ mass and distance from the axis of rotation (radius). the product of those two parameters determines the value of the mass moment of inertia. in the case of a body consisting of set of points, like a whorl, this function is much more complicated (chmielewski and gardyński 2010:870–871; verchecken 2009:257–270). nonetheless, while investigating the mass moment of inertia of spindle whorls, the most important values are the mass, radius, and height of the whorl. the higher the moment of inertia, the slower and longer the rotation of the spindle. therefore, cotton, as a fiber with a short staple, requires light whorls, while flax must be spun with a rather heavy whorl. moreover, the weight of a spindle is dependent on the strength of the fiber. if the staple is thin and delicate, it is not possible to spin it with a heavy weighted spindle. the weight of the spindle should be adequate to tighten yarn just enough, but not too strongly. archaeological evidence relating whorl size and fiber choice textiles in central asia and iran dating to the sasanian or post-sasanian periods include only wool, cotton, silk, and sporadic linen fabrics (belenitskij et al. 1963; hansman and stronach 1970:142–155; kurbanov and teplyakova 2014).3 there are no heavy whorls at gurukly depe, which are needed to spin heavy fibers such as hemp and flax, as described in the results below. this is hardly surprising, as the sandy soils of the serakhs oasis are not conducive to the cultivation of flax. there is also no evidence for the use of other important bast fibers like sunn hemp, jute, kenaf, and nettle in the region (good 2012:124). here i consider the archaeological evidence for distinguishing whorls used to spin wool and cotton, and briefly consider silk in the concluding section of this article. the steppe landscape of turkmenistan is perfect for breeding sheep and goats. therefore, wool fiber certainly was readily available at gurukly depe. according to jill carington smith (1975:80–81) 10–40 g is the optimal weight for spindle whorls used to spin woolen thread.4 christine kimbrough, in her doctoral dissertation (2006), distinguished four groups of whorls used for making different woolen yarns: 8–19 g (2.5–5 cm in diameter) whorls could be used to spin delicate thread from short-staple sheep or goat hair; 20–35 g (3–4.9 cm in diameter) could be used to spin delicate thread from long-staple sheep fiber; 20–35 g (5–7 cm in diameter) could be used to produce medium thread from short-staple sheep fiber; and 36– 60 g (5–7.5 cm in diameter) could be used to spin medium thread from long-staple sheep fiber (after chmielewski 2009:125-126). thanks to experiments conducted by technicians from the danish national research foundation’s center for textile research at the university of copenhagen, it has been shown that it is possible to spin woolen thread with a whorl weighing about 4 g (mårtensson et al. 2006). this thread was extremely thin and delicate. it is doubtful that such light whorls were used to spin wool in the past. karina grömer (2005:109–110) spun woolen threads using original spindle whorls from hallstatt. whorls weighing 8–20 g were ideal for obtaining a thread 0.2–0.7 mm thick. textiles made of 0.1–0.2 mm woolen threads are known from few excavations (e.g., maik 2012:73). these textiles were extremely thin and probable luxuries. therefore, although it is possible that very light whorls were used to spin wool, it is more likely that they were used to spin cotton. mary parsons (1972), in her analysis of spindle whorls from the valley of figure 2 some examples of spindle whorls. photo by barbara kaim. kossowska-janik. 2016. ethnobiology letters 7(1):107–116 110 research communications mexico, suggests that whorls weighting 1–13 g and measuring 1.5–3.8 cm in diameter were used to spin cotton. very similar observations were made by michael e. smith and kenneth g. hirth (1988:350) in their study of spinning in western morelos (mexico), where they proposed that spindle whorls for spinning cotton weighed approximately between 2–18 g. light spindle whorls were discovered at some sites of the peruvian coast where cotton was cultivated. for example, at the pajonal alto (nasca) site, whorls of 0.6–10.8 g, measuring 1.01–2.92 cm in diameter, were found. some of them were discovered with a spindleshaft in them alongside cotton yarn (conlee 2000: 340–347). the results of cotton spinning research in mesoamerica and south america can also be applied to studies of the history of weaving in central asia, despite the fact that american species of cotton (gossypium hirsutum and gossypium barbadense) have a longer staple than old word cotton (gossypium herbaceum and gossypium arboreum). unfortunately, to date there are very few archaeological or ethnographic studies that explore whorl weights used in old word cotton spinning. archaeologists have found some spindle whorls in kot diji phase (2800–2600 bc) contexts at the harappa culture site of mohenjo daro. they can be divided into three groups: small, medium, and large (kenoyer 2010:table 9.2). those from the first group weigh between 5.9 g and 13.9 g and have an average diameter of 2.4–3.0 cm. it is probable that they were used to spin cotton, an indigenous fiber for the indus valley. spindle whorls have been excavated at meroitic sites, where cotton cultivation was introduced in the first to second centuries ad, but most of this material has not yet been examined. only whorls from abu geili have been studied carefully (yvanez 2016). the site is dated to the late meroitic period. no cotton seeds have been discovered at this site, despite carbonized sorghum seeds being attested (yvanez 2016:173). however, cotton seeds and spindle whorls were both found at the sasanian site of erk kala at merv, turkmenistan. their weight is similar to mesoamerican spindle whorls: 1.5–12 g.5 analysis of spindle whorls from gurukly depe at gurukly depe, 102 possible spindle whorls were found. however, about 30% of them are partially preserved whorls. they were mostly made of baked clay with mineral or organic components (92 specimens) but sometimes of stone (8) or pierced pottery sherds (2). there are two main problems with investigating spinning and spindle whorls. first, not all artifacts that look like spindle whorls are spindle whorls. they might have been used as tools for other purposes or worn as beads. secondly, as mentioned by elizabeth w. barber (1991:303), any symmetrical object can serve as a flywheel, even if it had a different original application. in this analysis, i consider as spindle whorls as all symmetrical, round objects with a standardized perforation in the center. figure 3 typology of spindle whorls found at gurukly depe. kossowska-janik. 2016. ethnobiology letters 7(1):107–116 111 research communications typology whorls can be divided into five groups: discoid (d), conical (c), spherical (s), biconical (b), and ovoid (o) (figure 3). almost half (47 %) of whorls from gurukly depe are conical in shape. the ratio of spherical and discoid whorls is nearly equal: 22% (s) to 24% (d). the last two types are very rare: biconical only comprise 4% of total whorls and ovoid 3%. shapes of whorls within the groups are very diverse. there are whorls with flat (a) or concave (b) bases, flattened tops (2) or concave bottoms (3), etc. moreover, the whorls from gurukly depe are not standardized in relation to diameter and height (figure 4). in fact, it is hard to find two identical objects. the distinctions identified in figure 3 are not more than a rough attempt to make a typology of these spindle whorls. ornamentation some whorls were made more carefully, some more carelessly, but only ten whorls are ornamented. eight of these are clay objects and two are of stone. the well elaborated conical shape whorl (gr11/6j/025) has incised radial wedge-shaped lines on the base. similar wedges decorate the upper part of two whorls (gr10/p/6 and gr14/11f/46). a conical whorl (gr11/12i/031) has a circular line motif on the base. one whorl (gr10/p/4) is spherical, with a flattened top, and its bottom is ornamented with ray patterns. four conical shaped whorls (gr14/11l/40, gr14/5s/14, gr14/11f/36, and gr14/10i/09/1) are decorated with molded circular lines. the most ornamented whorl (gr14/11f/47) is decorated with geometrical motifs at the bottom and on the sides. figure 4 diameters and heights of whorls found at gurukly depe. kossowska-janik. 2016. ethnobiology letters 7(1):107–116 112 research communications diameter and height there is no distinct division between smaller and bigger spindle whorls found at gurukly depe (figure 4). in all five groups, there are variations in whorls dimensions and weights. generally, the diameter of spindle whorls ranges from 1.5 to 5.8 cm, with discoid whorls 2.1–5.8 cm in diameter, spherical 1.5–4.0 cm, conical 2.3–4.3 cm, biconical 3.0–4.1 cm, and ovoid 1.7–3.1 cm. depending on whorl shapes they are of various heights. discoid whorls are 0.6 to 1.7 cm high, conical 0.5 to 2.6 cm, spherical 0.5 to 2 cm., biconical 1.5 to 2.1, and ovoid 0.8 to 1.6. among these variables, the most significant is the relation between diameter and height, the distinguishing factor between whorls used for different spinning tasks. two whorls of the same weight but different dimensions have distinct moments of inertia, so the smaller the radius and greater the height, the smaller the moment of inertia. if so, it is not surprising that the smallest whorls found at gurukly depe are spherical. they would rotate very fast and they are perfect for preparing thin and delicate threads. perforation diameter robert liu (1978:97) noticed that the smallest spindle whorl perforations are 3–4 mm in diameter, but most common are perforations of 7–8 mm, with the largest at 10 mm. spindle whorl perforations at gurukly depe extend from 5–8.5 mm in diameter, with the majority measuring 7–8 mm. it is worth mentioning that the diameter of the perforation is not proportional to the size of a whorl. all spindle whorls have central perforations. in general, the perforation is rather cylindrical, however sometimes it tapers slightly towards the top. the difference between perforation diameter at the bottom and top of a whorl does not exceed one mm. it is worth noting that not only the weight and shape of the whorl is important to the spinning process, but also the parameters of the spindle shaft itself. there are no spindles from gurukly depe, but because of the standard sizes of whorl perforations, it is known that spindles had a standard thickness of 7–8 mm and probably a standard weight of 3–5 g. weight as mentioned above, the most important factor that influences whorl performance is weight. whorls from gurukly depe are relatively light, with weights ranging from 1.9–25.5 g (figure 5).6 only three specimens are figure 5 reconstructed weight and diameter of whorls found at gurukly depe. kossowska-janik. 2016. ethnobiology letters 7(1):107–116 113 research communications 40–60 g in weight (gr14/11f/47, gr14/p/09, and gr14/12g/01), but it is not certain if they served as spindle whorls. among partially preserved objects this value is estimated. therefore, to avoid any ambiguity, quantitative analyses were undertaken using only complete objects, and, separately (figure 5), complete and partial whorls. both graphs are very similar: most whorls weigh 3–9 g. approximately 90% of all specimens are lighter than 18 g. cotton in pre-islamic turkmenistan there is no direct evidence for cultivation of cotton during the late sassanian or early islamic periods at the serakhs oasis. after the arab conquest, in the ninth to tenth centuries ad, the merv oasis (ancient margiana), located in eastern turkmenistan, was one of the main centers of cotton production, of such quality that it was one of the persian export goods (serjeant 1972:87–92). however, archaeologists participating in the international merv project have found cotton seeds at the sites of gyaur kala and erk kala in merv. seeds are dated as early as the middle (fourth to fifth centuries ad) and late sassanian (sixth to seven centuries ad) periods (herrmann et al. 1993:56, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998). early cotton seeds were also identified at the site of karatepe in khorezm, uzbekistan. they were found in third to fifth century ad contexts (brite and marston 2013). when examining cotton seeds, it is not possible to determine cotton species, but central asian cotton was most likely gossypium herbaceum var. persicum. g. herbaceum was domesticated in central africa or more probably in the arabian peninsula, where the oldest cotton seeds date to the achaemenid period (sixth century bc) (bouchaud et al. 2011).7 due to limited archaeobotanical data, it is hard to say when cotton cultivation began in central asia and the near east. based on archaeological data, an increase in cotton use took place during the parthian period (c. 250 bc–225 ad) in the near east. cotton textiles were imported from arabia, egypt, and probably india, but it is probable that only in this period did cotton start to be introduced to the near east and central asia as a crop. what was being spun at gurukly depe? the analysis of the weights and dimensions of spindle whorls found at gurukly depe suggests that the majority, if not all of them, could have served to spin cotton thread. if the weights and dimensions of whorls for spinning cotton are similar in asia and mesoamerica, then it seems reasonable to suggest that all whorls weighting 1–18 g and measuring 1.5–4.0 cm in diameter could have been used for cotton yarn production. up to 90% of whorls found at gurukly depe in the late sasanian period fit in this range. except for the three very heavy specimens mentioned above, the largest whorls are only slightly heavier and larger. it cannot be ruled out that they served in doubling or plying (twisting some threads together to make a thicker one) of cotton threads. production of woolen yarn is probable, but not certain. only 57% of whorls found at gurukly depe weight more than 8 g, and are appropriate for spinning wool fiber as well. furthermore, according to the division made by kimbrough (2006), most of the whorls could have been used to produce only delicate threads made of short-staple sheep or goat wool. there are only a few examples of whorls of the size appropriate for spinning medium-thickness woolen yarn. in the late sasanian period, mulberry silk (produced by the silkworm, bombyx mori) weaving was also possible in the area of present-day turkmenistan. in the fifth century ad, when, according to legend, a chinese princess had smuggled mulberry seeds and silkworms to khotan (currently in xinjiang, western china), production of silk spread all over central asia (forbes 1956:53), but the technology of silk production did not spread west of china until the sixth century ad (good 1995:960). generally, silk thread is reeled from the cocoon without the need for spinning.8 although a light spindle could be used to double threads, most often silk thread was wound, doubled, and spooled by a rotating wooden reel or hand spindle wheel, which could have been known in china as early as the shang period (1750–1100 bc) (needham and kuhn 1988:158–159). that traditional mechanism is still used by traditional turkmen craftsmen (ovezov 1959:169–187). even if silk was produced at gurukly depe, silk thread was possibly made by using perishable wooden tools without ceramic or stone whorls. conclusions evidence from gurukly depe does not exclude wool or goat hair yarn production, but this analysis suggests that cotton fiber could have played a major role the textile economy of the late sasanian period at gurukly depe. further investigation of gurukly depe, including flotation, zooarchaeological analysis, and further spindle whorls analysis, and at other sites in turkmenistan will verify this hypothesis and provide new information about cotton cultivation in the pre-islamic world of central asia. kossowska-janik. 2016. ethnobiology letters 7(1):107–116 114 research communications notes 1the excavations were financed by research grant no. 2012/07/b/hs3/00908 from the national science center. 2barbara kaim, personal communications. 3flax was known in persia since neolithic times. it was still cultivated in most parts of the iranian plateau during medieval times (wulff 1966:178). 4jill carington smith (1975:80–81) carried out experiments and made ethnographic observations in greece. both findings were similar: whorls used to spin wool should weigh 10-40 g. m. ryder conducted similar ethnographic observations in afghanistan and noted that afghan nomads used whorls weighing 8-33 g to spin different qualities of woolen yarn (after chmielewski 2009:125). 5st john simpson, personal communications. 6in general, the weight of spindle whorls range from 1–150 g (liu 1978:90). 7but is still unknown whether they were the species gossypium herbaceum or g. arboreum. 8wild silk has been spun, but there is a lack of historical and archaeological evidence that spinning was used in early times in central asia (good 1995:959). acknowledgements i would like to thank my mentor professor barbara kaim and the team working at gurukly depe for their help in documentation. declarations permissions: none declared. sources of funding: none declared. conflicts of interest: none declared. references cited barber, e. j. w. 1991. prehistoric textiles: the development of cloth in the neolithic and bronze ages with a special reference to the aegean. princeton university press, princeton, nj. belenitskij, a. m., i. b. bentovich, and v. a. livshits. 1963. kamchatnye tkani s gory mug sovetskaja etnografija 4:108–119. bouchaud, c., m. tengberg, 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1972. islamic textiles: material for a history up to the mongol conquest. librairie du liban, beirut, lebanon. smith, m. e., and k. g. hirth. 1988. the development of prehispanic cotton spinning technology in western morelos, mexico. journal of field archaeology 15:349–358. doi:10.1179/009346988791974466. verchecken, a. 2009. the moment of inertia: a parameter for the functional classification of worldwide spindle-whorls from all periods. in north european symposium for archaeological textiles x, edited by e. b. andersson strand, m. gleba, u. mannering, and c. munkholt, pp. 257–270. oxbow books, oxford, united kingdom. kossowska-janik. 2016. ethnobiology letters 7(1):107–116 116 research communications wulff, h. e. 1966. the traditional crafts of persia: their development, technology, and influence on eastern and western civilizations. mit press, cambridge, massachusetts, and london, united kingdom. yvanez, e. 2016. spinning in meroitic sudan: textile production implements from abu geili. a journal of nubian studies 3:153–178. around the world in 80 plants: an edible perennial vegetable adventure in temperate climates. by stephen barstow. 2014. permanent publications, east meon. 304 pp. grabowska-zhang. 2016. ethnobiology letters 7(1):26–27 26 reviews the book is, refreshingly, tailored for the cool climate gardener. alys fowler (p. xi) rightly points out in the foreword: “if he can grow it; so can you.” however, barstow’s plants are not cold specialists, and many species he describes have wide geographical ranges, so even gardeners in mediterranean-type climates can pick up new additions to their diet. more importantly, by focusing on perennial plants, this book opens up options for those unwilling or unable to take on the intensity of annual vegetable growing. there is definitely a place for this type of publication in promoting a varied diet and sustainable home food production. sure, this volume might only reach adventurous gardeners, and perhaps their dinner guests. but all change has to start somewhere. and it is a good start, because the recipes may only come from the next town over, or a generation away, and thus perhaps still familiar to industrialized inhabitants of europe and north america. barstow’s contagious enthusiasm, conveyed through his descriptions, stories, and historical accounts, made me fling the book aside in mid-sentence and rummage through my cupboards for a muslin cloth to make dock pudding (p. 262), before realizing it would be another ten months before the ingredients are in season again. the book most prominently features european plants from various regions that yield three separate chapters. two chapters cover asia and australia, and one chapter focuses on the americas. surprisingly, africa was omitted altogether. this is so surprising because cold tolerant african vegetables have been grown in temperate climates, such as members of the amaranthaceae family. however, barstow clearly i hope you like garlic. for the community of sustainability-minded gardeners and permaculture enthusiasts this was the most anticipated publication of the year 2014. this fascinating catalogue of useful plants has roots in the author’s personal story. a native of the british isles, thirty years ago stephen barstow found himself in a far flung corner of norway, where he could find precious little to satisfy his vegetarian diet. and so his quest for useful, tasty, perennial plants that would thrive in cool climates began. in 284 pages, stephen barstow takes us on a thrilling, mouth-watering voyage through the continents, focusing on perennial leafy vegetables and “edimentals”—a term he uses for edible plants that wouldn’t be out of place in an ornamental garden. but the book is not a field-guide, gardening manual, or a cookbook; instead it strikes a pleasing balance of information, storytelling, and serious academic referencing, peppered with the occasional traditional recipe. the reader is introduced to interesting specimens, such as the altitude-sickness-curing garlic of the sherpas (allium wallichii), and the plant that protects the māori from cancer (sow-thistle, sonchus spp.). there are plenty of examples of historical and current cultural practices for nearly all of plants described. barstow’s careful attention to citing his sources makes this book a useful reference to inspire further research, especially if you are interested in the ethnobotany of allium. this genus features in the book quite prominently, comprising nearly a quarter of the species described. this is exciting for me, but perhaps not everyone’s cup of tea. around the world in 80 plants: an edible perennial vegetable adventure in temperate climates. by stephen barstow. 2014. permanent publications, east meon. 304 pp. ada grabowska-zhang1* 1department of zoology, university of oxford, south parks road, oxford, ox1 3ps, uk. *ada.grabowska@zoo.ox.ac.uk received september 25, 2015 open access accepted january 8, 2016 doi 10.14237/ebl.7.1.2016.492 copyright © 2016 grabowska-zhang; licensee society of ethnobiology. this is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution-noncommercial 4.0 international public license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0), which permits non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. grabowska-zhang. 2016. ethnobiology letters 7(1):26–27 27 reviews states that the book covers eighty of his favorite vegetables, a small sample of the great collection he curates and writes about on his website (edimentals 2016). my only reservation with this book is that cultural references are sometimes clumsily handled in a way that might offend readers. i was a little taken aback by references to ‘eskimos’ outside of historical quotes. that is something that should at least have been picked up by the editor. otherwise the book is nicely published, with informative, and sometimes beautiful, photographs on every page. and yes, plenty of garlic. references cited edimentals. 2016. available at: http:// www.edimentals.com/blog/. accessed on: february 6, 2016. http://www.edimentals.com the archaeobotany and ethnobotany of portuguese or white crowberry (corema album (l.) d. don) lópez-dóriga. 2018. ethnobiology letters 9(2):19–32 19 research communications huge variation in fruit crop (from tens to tens of thousands of fruits; piazzon et al. 2012). the fruits are spherical white or pink-white berries between 5 and 10 mm in diameter (figure 1, a). seed size is positively correlated with fruit size and germination occurs after one to four years’ dormancy (larrinaga and guitián 2016). a wide range of frugivores introduction corema album (portuguese crowberry, ericaceae) is a long-lived evergreen understory shrub which rarely grows more than 1 m in height. fruiting starts in spring and the fruits ripen in summer but remain on the plants until autumn (álvarez-cansino et al. 2013) or even winter (marques 2007). female shrubs show a the archaeobotany and ethnobotany of portuguese or white crowberry (corema album (l.) d. don) inés l. lópez-dóriga1* 1environmental archaeology department, wessex archaeology, salisbury, united kingdom. *i.lopezdoriga@wessexarch.co.uk abstract portuguese crowberry (corema album (l.) d. don) is a shrub considered endemic to the atlantic coastal dunes of the iberian peninsula. for many reasons, among which the most prominent are habitat loss and competition from invasive species, but possibly also due to overexploitation, the survival of several of its populations is now compromised. by promoting the identification of its archaeobotanical remains and gathering information about its past uses, the current need for conservation is emphasized. the plant has been exploited for its berries since at least the early neolithic and the species features in a number of historical written sources. archaeological sites located within its current natural distribution area have yielded relatively abundant archaeobotanical finds. this evidence suggests that its distribution area was much larger in the past and has decreased rapidly in recent decades. its archaeological importance may be misrepresented due to issues with identification, particularly outside its current distribution area. it is hoped that this paper will contribute to a higher identification rate of archaeobotanical remains of this plant, eventually leading to a more thorough recognition of its past importance and contributing to its present conservation. resumen la camariña (corema album) es un arbusto considerado auctóctono de las dunas de la costa atlántica de la península ibérica. varias de las poblaciones de esta planta están actualmente en peligro de extinción por una serie de razones entre las que destacan la destrucción del hábitat, la sobreexplotación y la desventaja competitiva frente a especies invasoras. este artículo tiene como objetivo facilitar la identificación de esta planta en el registro arqueológico, y recopilar evidencias de su uso en el pasado y para su conservación presente. las sociedades humanas han explotado las bayas de esta planta desde, al menos, el neolítico inicial. existen abundantes citas de su hallazgo en yacimientos arqueológicos localizados dentro de su área de distribución actual y en fuentes históricas. diversas evidencias apuntan a que este área de distribución fue mucho más amplia en el pasado y que se ha visto rápidamente reducida en épocas recientes. la importancia de esta planta ha podido estar infravalorada debido a problemas de identificación, particularmente fuera de su área de distribución actual. se espera que este artículo contribuya a incrementar las identificaciones arqueobotánicas de esta planta, el reconocimiento de su importancia en el pasado y recoger datos que puedan ser utilizados en la prevención de su extinción. received july 29, 2017 open access accepted february 8, 2018 doi 10.14237/ebl.9.2.2018.1069 keywords plant macroremains, iberia, wild plant gathering, maritime archaeology, biodiversity conservation, endangered species. copyright © 2018 by the author(s); licensee society of ethnobiology. this is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution-noncommercial 4.0 international public license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0), which permits non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. lópez-dóriga. 2018. ethnobiology letters 9(2):19–32 20 research communications (lizards, deer, rabbits, and hares, foxes, boars, badgers, blackbirds, and seagulls) are important agents for the dispersal of the seeds (figure 1, b-c), either through defecation or regurgitation (calviño-cancela and martín-herrero 2009). rodents and passerines are also important seed predators (figure 1, d; piazzon et al. 2012). each fruit has three (exceptionally four or two) elongated seeds, ± 500 µm in length, with a thick woody endocarp. the seeds have six dorsal vittae, a roughly elliptical section, and a convex ventral side in which the hilum and an orifice are located (figure 1, e-i; aedo and castroviejo 2012; bugalhão and queiroz 2005; pérez-jordà et al. 2017; queiroz and mateus 2011; villar 1993)1. wood, leaf, and stem anatomy are described by carlquist (1989) and queiroz and van der burgh (1989), and pollen grain morphology by kim et al. (1988) and mateus (1989). the uniformity of ericaceae pollen grains and wood may prevent precise taxonomic determinations of both where poor preservation of seeds and fruit occurs. the portuguese crowberry is endemic to the southern european atlantic coast; it is vulnerable or at risk of disappearance due to habitat loss, competition from invasive species, and possibly overexploitation (clavijo et al. 2002; gil lópez 2011; sánchez garcía 2000). the genus corema is distributed on both sides of the atlantic ocean, showing a typical amphi-atlantic distribution pattern (león-gonzález et al. 2013). its habitat is coastal, ranging from sea level up to 50 masl. it is frequently associated with stone pine (pinus pinea) and juniper (juniperus phoenicea) formations, and other plants such as lentisc (pistacia lentiscus), heather (calluna vulgaris), rockrose (cistus crispus, halimium sp.), and gorse (ulex sp.). it is drought-adapted and thrives in a broad range of habitats (álvarez-cansino et al. 2013), from bare stabilized sand dunes to cliff systems. its current distribution (figure 2) is mostly limited to the azores archipelago and the iberian peninsula, from the north of galicia to gibraltar in the south, where several place names derive from the common name of the plant (fernández de la cigoña 1988; gil lópez 2011). due to its endangered status, many are concerned with understanding trends in the distribution and reproduction of the population (e.g., álvarez-cansino et al. 2013; fernández de la cigoña 1988). several pieces of evidence could hint to a much wider distribution in the past: a pleistocene find in britain (parfitt et al. 2005), the success of the introduction in a wider area of possibly naturalized populations in western france (bock 2016; lainz 1971; villar 1993), an isolated relict population in the mediterranean coast of the iberian peninsula (aguilella and laguna 2009), some potentially native populations, now possibly extinct, in the north of africa (euro+med plantbase 2016), and the current distribution of empetrum nigrum, a very closely related taxon. within this current distribution, only two populations of portuguese crowberry remain with male and female individuals in all age ranges, while the other populations are isolated and composed of old individuals and are thus condemned to extinction unless conservation measures are taken (aguilella and laguna 2009). figure 1 corema album: a) berries (by júlio reis); b, c) bird (blackbird, b, and seagull, c) pellets with seeds (by maría calviño cancela); d) ant-predated seeds (by maría calviño cancela); e) dorsal and ventral view of a fresh seed; f) defleshed fruit with three seeds; g) dorsal and ventral view of archaeological charred seed from s. pedro de canaferrim (lópez-dóriga 2015-2016); h) archaeological charred crushed fruit from lapiás das lameiras (lópez-dóriga 2015-2016); and i) lateral and transversal view of archaeological charred seed from s. pedro de canaferrim. lópez-dóriga. 2018. ethnobiology letters 9(2):19–32 21 research communications the edible berries of the portuguese crowberry have been highly appreciated and exploited in contemporary times (gil lópez 2011). it is thus possible that over-exploitation may have contributed to its endangered status. current archaeobotanical research is expanding the record on the importance of this plant in human culture, dating back as far as the early neolithic (sixth millennium cal bce). still, its archaeobotanical importance is likely imperfectly understood due to misidentification resulting from a lack of awareness of its potential presence in the archaeological record. the purpose of this paper is to gather data about the past uses of this plant as well as its archaeological distribution, in order to demonstrate its longstanding importance in human subsistence, and to facilitate further identifications in the archaeological record that may aid in understanding its past distribution and the extent of the human impact leading to its current status. the use of environmental archaeological data, including both zooarchaeological and archaeobotanical evidence, can contribute essential information for biodiversity conservation (e.g. wolverton and lyman 2012), as has been already shown for the case of ancient crops (e.g. padulosi et al. 1996). material and methods in this paper, all published records of archaeological finds of c. album have been compiled (table 1, figure 2), including sites with both charred and waterlogged preservation of plant remains. in addition, some previously unpublished references have been cited. the archaeological contexts and archaeobotanical assemblages are summarily described with the purpose of discussing the taphonomic processes involved. all finds described were recovered at archaeological sites where specific techniques for the retrieval of plant remains were employed, specifically sediment processing with small meshes (minimum 0.3 or 0.25 mm), either by flotation (lópez-dóriga 20152016), wet-sieving (bugalhão and queiroz 2005), or wash-over (carruthers 2014). ethnobotanical references on past uses have been compiled with the aim of understanding the extent of the human interactions with this plant, since the scope of these uses may have been greatly reduced in recent times as a result of its endangered status and limited distribution. these references have been mostly obtained through historical metasearch engines, both for scientific and vernacular nomenclature, including a wide range of variations and synonyms (table 2). nomenclature follows the flora iberica (castroviejo 1986-2012) for wild plants and traditional archaeobotanical literature for domesticated cereal taxa. archaeobotanical evidence remains of portuguese crowberry have been found in the archaeological record in different forms (both macro and microremains) and preserved by different processes (waterlogging and charring), from a range of sites dating from the palaeolithic to the modern period in western europe (table 1). non-woody plant macroremains the earliest record of crowberry is fossil plant macroremains, found where the plant is no longer figure 2 current and potential distributions of corema album with plotted archaeological records. note: the potential distribution is a minimum estimate based on the current distribution areas recorded in most references (aedo and castroviejo 2012; álvarez-cansino et al. 2013; boratyński and de la puente 1995; marques 2007), including relict (aguilella et al. 2009) or successfully introduced and naturalized (bock 2016) populations outside the frequently cited range. lópez-dóriga. 2018. ethnobiology letters 9(2):19–32 22 research communications ta b le 1 s u m m ar y o f th e o cc u rr e n ce s o f c o re m a al b u m p la n t m ac ro re m ai n s in t h e a rc h ae o b o ta n ic al r e co rd . si te lo ca ti o n c h ro n o lo gy ty p e o f ev id e n ce ty p e o f p re se rv ati o n ty p e o f d e p o si t sa m p lin g q u an ti ty (s e e d to ta l / f ru it to ta l) r ef e re n ce s pa ke fi el d k es si n gl an d u n it ed k in gd o m p le is to ce n e m ac ro re m ai n (s ee d s) fo ss il c h an n el ? ? pa rfi tt e t al . 2 0 0 5 sã o p ed ro d e c an af er ri m si n tr a, p o rt u ga l ea rl y n eo lit h ic (c a . 5 4 0 0 c a l b c e) m ac ro re m ai n (s ee d s) c ar b o n iz ed p it w it h d o m es ti c re fu se 9 5 % s ed im en t 6 /1 ló p ez -d ó ri ga 2 0 1 5 -2 0 1 6 la p iá s d as la m ei ra s si n tr a, p o rt u ga l ea rl y n eo lit h ic (c a . 5 2 0 0 c a l b c e) m ac ro re m ai n (s ee d s) c ar b o n iz ed p it w it h d o m es ti c re fu se 9 5 % s ed im en t 9 /0 ló p ez -d ó ri ga 2 0 1 5 -2 0 1 6 za m b u ja l to rr es v ed ra s, p o rt u ga l c h al co lit h ic m ac ro re m ai n (w o o d ) c ar b o n iz ed ? u n kn o w n % — h o p f 1 9 8 1 a lc al ar p o rti m ã, p o rt u ga l c h al co lit h ic m ac ro re m ai n (s ee d s) c ar b o n iz ed d o m es ti c re fu se 7 9 s am p le s 4 /1 0 sti ka a n d h ei ss 2 0 1 4 c al le c o n ce p ci ó n h u el va , s p ai n p h o en ic ia n ( 9 th 8 th c en tu ri es c al b c e) m ac ro re m ai n (s ee d s) w at er lo gg ed d o m es ti c re fu se & n at u ra l ac cu m u la ti o n ? 1 1 s am p le s (u n kn o w n % ) 1 4 5 /0 pé re zjo rd à et al . 2 0 1 7 a lt o d a v ig ia li sb o n , p o rt u ga l a n d al u si an (o ld er t h an 1 2 th ce n tu ry c e) m ac ro re m ai n (s ee d s) c ar b o n iz ed p it s w it h d o m es ti c re fu se 1 0 s am p le s (u n kn o w n % ) + 1 7 s am p le s o f a to ta l o f 8 7 l. (1 0 0 % ) 1 3 (* )/ 0 je su s et a l. 2 0 1 7 n ú cl eo a rq u eo ló gi co d a r u a d o s c o rr ee ir o s li sb o n , p o rt u ga l a n d al u si an ( 5 th 9 th c en tu ri es c e) m ac ro re m ai n (s ee d s) w at er lo gg ed c es sp it 2 5 0 c m 3 (~ 7 % ) 4 /0 b u ga lh ão a n d q u ei ro z 2 0 0 5 (c o n ti n u ed o n n ex t p ag e) lópez-dóriga. 2018. ethnobiology letters 9(2):19–32 23 research communications si te lo ca ti o n c h ro n o lo gy ty p e o f ev id e n ce ty p e o f p re se rv ati o n ty p e o f d e p o si t sa m p lin g q u an ti ty (s e e d to ta l / f ru it to ta l) r ef e re n ce s c as a d o s b ic o s li sb o n , p o rt u ga l m ed ie va l m ac ro re m ai n (s ee d s) w at er lo gg ed c es s an d d o m es ti c re fu se 5 s am p le s o f 1 0 0 -2 0 0 g . (u n kn o w n % ) ? q u ei ro z an d m at eu s 2 0 1 1 n ew p o rt m ed ie va l s h ip (s h ip 4 6 7 ) n ew p o rt , u n it ed k in gd o m la te m ed ie va l (fi ft ee n th ce n tu ry c e 1 4 6 8 ) m ac ro re m ai n (s ee d s) w at er lo gg ed sh ip c ar go / d u n n ag e 3 1 s am p le s an aly ze d o f 0 .1 57 .6 l. ( u n kn o w n % ) 1 1 (* )/ 0 c ar ru th er s 2 0 1 4 p ra ça d o m u n ic íp io li sb o n , p o rt u ga l m o d er n ( 1 6 th ce n tu ry c e) m ac ro re m ai n (s ee d s) w at er lo gg ed g u lly w it h d o m es ti c re fu se ~5 % ? m at eu s, q u ei ro z an d v an le eu w aa rd en 2 0 0 3 (c o n ti n u ed f ro m p re vi o u s p ag e) (* ) a lt o d a v ig ia : as t h is is c u rr en tl y u n d er s tu d y, a b so lu te n u m b er s ar e n o t ye t av ai la b le ; n ew p o rt m ed ie va l s h ip : th e n u m b e r o f c o re m a al b u m s ee d s m ay b e an u n d er es ti m ati o n s in ce a t o ta l o f 1 0 9 s am p le s w er e as se ss ed b u t o n ly 3 1 w er e an al yz ed a n d q u an ti fi ed . th e o ri gi n al r ef er en ce f o r p ra ca m u n ic íp io i s n o t ac ce ss ib le a n d t h e se co n d ar y re fe re n ce d o es n o t m en ti o n t h e q u an ti ty . lópez-dóriga. 2018. ethnobiology letters 9(2):19–32 24 research communications present, in interglacial deposits in the british isles (parfitt et al. 2005). charred plant macroremains determined as c. album have been found at the early neolithic sites of são pedro de canaferrim and lapiás das lameiras in sintra, portugal (lópez-dóriga 20152016). abundant detached seeds, a crushed fruit (a crust of three seeds attached to a fleshy thin mesocarp), and a possible whole crowberry fruit were found at these sites. the remains were misidentified as crataegus sp. in a preliminary presentation of results (lópez-dóriga 2015-2016). the assemblages from which this taxon was recovered were rich in remains from domesticates, particularly naked wheat (triticum aestivum/t. durum/t. turgidum) and naked barley (hordeum vulgare var. nudum), and both emmer (triticum dicoccum) and einkorn (triticum monococcum) were present in small quantities. a range of legumes, including wild (medicago sp./melilotus sp./trifolium sp., vicia cf. cracca) and possibly domesticated species such as garden pea and broad bean (pisum sativum, vicia faba), were also identified. remains of other fruits in the assemblages belonged to dwarf palm (chamaerops humilis), black nightshade (solanum nigrum), and possibly deadly nightshade (cf. atropa belladonna). seeds of wild plants included oat grass (avena sp.), crucifers (brassica sp./sinapis sp.), goosefoot (chenopodium sp.), and mallows (malvaceae). the assemblages were recovered from the fills of a series of pits in which the by-products of domestic activities had been discarded. radiocarbon dates on some of the cereal crop remains have provided a chronology of occupation in the second half of the sixth millennium cal bce (ca. 5400 for lapiás das lameiras and ca. 5200 for são pedro de canaferrim). several charred fruit and seeds of c. album have also been identified at the chalcolithic settlement of alcalar in southern iberia (portimão, portugal; stika and heiss 2014). full publication of these results is in preparation (stika, in prep.). more than one hundred waterlogged seeds of c. album have been identified at calle concepción, huelva, spain (pérez-jordà et al. 2017). this phoenician site dates to the transition from the ninth to the eight century cal bce, with the majority of the plant remains being preserved by waterlogging, and only minimal examples of charred preservation. the earliest evidence of arboriculture in the iberian peninsula has been firmly attested in the area of huelva in the assemblages from concepción and núñez méndez. the two sites comprise longcultivated, or intensively managed, fruit tree species such as grape (vitis vinifera), olive (olea europaea), and fig (ficus carica), as well as new exotic species such as almond (prunus dulcis), pomegranate (punica granatum), and melon (cucumis melo). the cultivated fruit taxa scientific vernacular english castilian galician portuguese french corema album portuguese crowberry camarina marmaeira camarinha corèma blanc corema alba portugal crakeberry camarine camarineira camarinheira genièvre doux empetrum album white crowberry comarina caramineira camarine à fruits blancs empetrum lusitanicum white-berried heath camarillera camariñeira camarigne blanche empetrum erectum camariña caramiñeira camarine blanche erica erecta baccias candidis caramiña grande bruyere à baies blanches erica baccifera lusitanica camariñera euleucum album table 2 common synonyms of scientific and vernacular names for corema album. lópez-dóriga. 2018. ethnobiology letters 9(2):19–32 25 research communications dominate both assemblages but other domesticated taxa, such as cereals (barley, wheat, and broomcorn millet [panicum miliaceum]), legumes (lentil [lens culinaris], pea, and broad bean) and oil plants (flax [linum usitatissimum], poppy [papaver somniferum]) are also present. c. album is presented amongst the list of wild edible fruits recovered at the site, which could have been intentionally exploited as well as have accumulated naturally, along with dwarf palm, stone pine, and pine (pinus halepensis/pinaster), oak (quercus sp.), blackberry (rubus ulmifolius), myrtle (myrtus communis), and lentisc. a long list of other wild plants, ruderals, and weeds were also identified. núcleo arqueológico da rua dos correeiros (lisbon, portugal) is a site that evidences occupation from the fifth to the nineteenth centuries ce. a few waterlogged seeds of c. album were recovered in a small sediment sample taken from the bottom layer of a roman tank reused as a cesspit during the andalusian period (bugalhão and queiroz 2005). although the type of preservation of organic remains on site is not specified, the nature of the assemblage, including insect remains and the density of fruit remains in the soil, suggests anoxic conditions such as waterlogging. other plant macroremains in the assemblage are dominated by fruit remains, including fig, black mulberry (morus nigra), grape, plum (prunus domestica), raspberry (rubus idaeus), strawberry (fragaria vesca), melon (cucumis melo), and cucumber (cucumis sativus); also present are fiber or oil plants such as flax, flavorings, such as wild celery (apium graveolens), and other wild plants, such as goosefoot, common chickweed (stellaria media), heath (erica sp.), and grasses (including poa annua). several carbonized seeds of c. album have also been identified in samples obtained from pits at the andalusian site alto da vigia, praia das maçãs, sintra, portugal (jesus et al. 2017). this multiperiod site, with occupation evidence from a roman sanctuary to a sixteenth century ce tower, preserved the remains of an andalusian ribat (hospice) occupation until the twelfth century ce. although the andalusian evidence is truncated due to the reuse of the construction stone for the postmedieval tower, copious deposits pointing to the preparation and consumption of shellfish in hearths were identified, in addition to four pits with charred plant remains. three of the pits exhibit the typical pear or bell-shape associated with storage functions, and were poor in plant remains (n=<20); the fourth pit was rectangular in plan and was exceptionally rich in plant remains (more than 50,000 in 4 small samples). the study was ongoing at the time of publication, so no absolute numbers were available for the features, but remains belonging to more than 15 taxa had been identified, including grains of cereals such as wheat, barley, and broomcorn millet, as well as possible weeds such as catchfly (silene sp.), cornsalad (valerianella sp.), and heath leaves. casa dos bicos (lisbon) is an urban site containing medieval deposits of possible mixed faecal and domestic rubbish origin, in which waterlogged seeds and pollen grains from portuguese crowberry were found (queiroz and mateus 2011), together with many other taxa including fruits and nuts, flavourings and other wild and cultivated plants, and fish remains. other plant remains in the deposit include fruits and nuts such as stone pine, walnut (juglans regia), acorn, almonds, plums or cherries (prunus spp.), olive, fig, strawberry, black mulberry, grape, raspberry, and blackberry. in addition, seeds from aromatic herbs, such as parsley (petroselinum segetum), wild celery, coriander (coriandrum sativum), rosemary (rosmarinus officinalis), lavender (lavandula pedunculata), thyme (thymus sp.), mint (mentha pulegium), myrtle, cowbane (cicuta virosa), and black mustard (brassica nigra) have been found. other food plant remains included broomcorn millet, carrot (daucus carota), and cauliflower (brassica oleracea), while a range of wild plants, considered potential weeds, such as purslane (portulaca oleracea), stinging nettle (urtica dioica), knotgrass (polygonum aviculare), goosefoot, and pigweed (amaranthus sp.) were also present. at the newport medieval ship site (ship 467), wales, united kingdom, waterlogged seeds of c. album have also been recovered (not identified at the time of publication, and therefore referred to as “unidentified common items b” in carruthers 2014, but subsequently identified by carruthers as crowberry, pers. comm.). these seeds were possibly associated with dunnage (vegetation used as packaging and located in the bottom of the ship), or may have originated from edible berries consumed on the ship and present as sewage. the majority of the plants recovered from the samples likely originated from southern portugal or spain. there are several pieces of evidence to suggest this is the region from which the ship originally set sail and the archaeobotanical assemblage is entirely consistent with this geographical area. the vegetation probably used as lópez-dóriga. 2018. ethnobiology letters 9(2):19–32 26 research communications dunnage consisted of heathers from species from southern europe (juniperus navicularis or j. oxycedrus, calluna vulgaris, and erica spp.), together with bracken (pteridium aquilinum), broom (genista/cytisus), gorse spine (ulex sp.), hawthorn (crataegus sp.), birch (betula pendula), alder (alnus glutinosa), and willow (salix sp.). other plant remains present in the assemblages appear to have been discarded food waste or spillage from previous cargoes, and were also indicative of a southern european, probably iberian, diet: broomcorn millet, pomegranate, walnut, grape, fig, stone pine nut, and possibly olive and cherry or plum. in addition, cereals such as rye (secale cereale), hard/ rivet wheat (t. durum/t. turgidum), and oats; legumes such as pea and broad bean; and fruits such as hazelnut (corylus avellana), apple (malus sylvestris), and blackberry were found. components found in smaller quantities included aromatic herbs such as fennel (foeniculum vulgare), wild celery, coriander, crucifers, carrot, and teasel (dipsacus sp.), as well as flax, hemp (cannabis sativa), and hop (humulus lupulus). finally, the site praça do município in lisbon, with deposits dated to the sixteenth century, provided waterlogged c. album fruit or seed remains (mateus, queiroz and van leeuwaarden 2003). the deposit has been characterized as part food detritus, with possible faecal contribution, and was rich in other fruits such as fig, grape, cherry, plum, and blackberry. other archaeobotanical evidence pollen grains have been reported at several holocene archaeological sites and non-archaeological cores from the sixth millennium onwards in iberia, such as el asperillo, huelva, spain (stevenson 1984), among others, and locations in southern portugal (queiroz 2004). charred and uncharred leaf-needles, preliminary identified as erica sp. but admittedly potentially from crowberry (stika, pers. comm.), have been found at core drillings on deposits formed during the fifth millennium cal bce in the rio sizandro, torres vedras, portugal (dambeck et al. 2010). undetermined ericaceae-type leaves, again admittedly potentially from crowberry (carruthers, pers. comm.) have been also recovered at the newport medieval ship site (ship 467) (carruthers 2014). a wood charcoal find of c. album has been reported in the anthracological samples from the 1970s excavations at the chalcolithic hillfort site of castro do zambujal, torres vedras, portugal (hopf 1981), together with wood charcoal from pinus sp., quercus sp., olea europaea, arbutus unedo, crataegus sp., pistacia sp., vitis vinifera, fraxinus sp., chamaerops humilis, cistus sp., alnus sp., celtis australis, populus sp., tilia sp. and viscum album. unfortunately, the charred plant remains from those samples were not analyzed and therefore it is not known if crowberry seeds or fruits were also present. some of these woody taxa were also found as remains of seeds and fruits in the samples from the new excavations (beginning in the 1990s) in different areas of the site (stika, pers. comm.), but seeds or fruit of c. album. ethnobotanical evidence current use corema album bears an edible fruit that can be eaten raw or cooked and which has been widely consumed in recent times and has even been the object of trade (fernández de la cigoña 1988). they have also been important foodstuffs for poor homesteads, as testifies their vernacular name of hunger herb (herba da fame), shared with other plants in galician (sóñora gómez 1994). the berries have a fresh, acidic taste and are often used as appetizers; they can also be made into acidtasting lemonades, jams, and liquors (león-gonzález et al. 2013). they have been eaten as part of a meal comprising milk and bread (sóñora gómez 1994). they can be gathered from july to december (fernández de la cigoña 1988). furthermore, fruits and fruit-derived beverages have been traditionally used as an antipyretic to treat fevers and as a vermifuge against pinworm infections (font quer 1985), and have proven effective against oxidative stress related diseases (león-gonzález et al. 2013). the dry woody branches of c. album have been used as fuel in kitchens and ovens due to the wood’s high calorific power and its pleasant smell, which is thought to purify the air; brooms of tied branches have been also used to sweep floors and in floral ritual compositions, as it is believed they bring good luck (fernández de la cigoña 1988). it has been hypothesized that the genus name corema of greek origin might be related to their use as brooms (villar 1993 in castroviejo 1986-2012), for which they are particularly useful because the branches do not lose the leaves until long after drying (sóñora gómez 1994). alternative etymological explanations suggest lópez-dóriga. 2018. ethnobiology letters 9(2):19–32 27 research communications the name derives from homaria or jomaría (meaning red) (colmeiro 1870). it has been used as an ornamental green fill plant (sóñora gómez 1994), particularly in religious ceremonies (fernández de la cigoña 1988). portuguese crowberries are prominent in folklore songs and toponyms (sóñora gómez 1994), as well as in legends. despite all the above, the plant's presence in ethnobotanical compilations of the iberian peninsula is infrequent or vague (de cortes sánchezmata and tardío 2016). historical sources the distribution of portuguese crowberries across the atlantic coast of the iberian peninsula has been recorded in the botanical literature since the eighteenth century (sóñora gómez 1994). since 1779, when it was first introduced to the united kingdom at the royal botanic gardens of kew, and during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, it was grown as an ornamental shrub and featured in a wide range of popular nursery books (e.g., sweet 1826). the plant was also grown in france (kept in greenhouses in winter; desfontaines 1809), and contemporary botanical dictionaries suggest the plant was also known in germany and italy. the fruits have traditionally been made into a refreshing acidic drink (desfontaines 1809; brehm 1880-1883) used as an antipyretic (baillon 1867; bellynck and segovia y corrales 1883-1885) and as a vermifuge (gomez de ortega 1784); its leaves were also used against scurvy (hurtado de mendoza 1840). in estremadura, a region in southern portugal, crowberries gathered at dawn on the last sunday of august were thought to have special healing properties (pimentel 1899). in galicia, northern portugal, and southern spain, the berries were intensively gathered for commercial purposes during the first half of the twentieth century, when the distribution of the plant was broader (gil lópez 2011). the branches have also been used as fuel in pottery production (gomez de ortega 1784). discussion portuguese crowberry plant remains, in different preservation conditions, feature in several archaeological contexts across and outside of the current natural distribution area of the taxon, in sites with occupation deposits from the early neolithic to the medieval period. most of the archaeological records of c. album have originated in sites located within contemporary or recent distribution areas with only two finds recorded outside this area. it is, however, noteworthy that the current distribution likely does not accurately reflect the original breadth of distribution which may have stretched over a much larger area (figure 2) based on a wide range of evidence, such as relict populations (aguilella and laguna 2009; euro+med plantbase 2016) and recent naturalizations (lainz 1971; bock 2016). it is not only the references to the plant in the ethnobotanical historical literature that seem to have decreased in the last centuries, but also the scientific literature, produced throughout the last half century, which has witnessed progressive disappearance of portuguese crowberry at an alarming pace (e.g., álvarez-cansino et al. 2013; boratyński and de la puente 1995; marques 2007). this has led to the inclusion of the species in regional red lists of threatened species (aguilella and laguna 2009) and to research focused on the possible causes of its disappearance (clavijo et al. 2002; gil lópez 2011). the oldest find of c. album in the archaeobotanical record is a pleistocene fossil find in the midlands, united kingdom, dated to 700,000 yrs (parfitt et al. 2005). this find could either evidence a much wider past distribution or the existence of events of long-distance dispersal by endozoochory. an alternative and remotely possible explanation for this find could be a rare case of contamination with recent material, potentially present in the area due to so-called “reintroduction” efforts (which consider the species to be previously native) that seem to have been made in the past century (fernández de la cigoña 1988), or due to its widespread cultivation as an ornamental plant two centuries ago (sweet 1826). though an accidental presence may account for this particularly early find, it is unlikely to be the case in other archaeobotanical records, since portuguese crowberry is and has been historically considered a useful plant in many respects: for medicinal, technological, or culinary purposes, whether raw, cooked, or transformed in products like jams and liquors (gil-lópez 2011). still, an accidental pathway should always be considered as a possibility for its presence in archaeological deposits, due to the potential arrival of the seeds in animal droppings or within the digestive system of hunted animals. unfortunately, (from the archaeologist's point of view), as the plant is adapted to endozoochory, excreted seeds are usually intact (calviño-cancela, lópez-dóriga. 2018. ethnobiology letters 9(2):19–32 28 research communications pers. comm.; piazzon et al. 2012; with the exception of badgers, which destroy them, fedriani and delibes 2009) and no macroscopic differences can be seen between digested and undigested seeds. preservation does not vary according with differences in seed gutpassage time, in lizards (piazzon et al. 2012), gulls, blackbirds, rabbits, and hares (calviño-cancela and martín-herrero 2009). although the positive identification of pellets might be easily carried out, the only secure method for ruling out animal dispersal in the case of detached seeds would depend on potential microscopic traces which need to be further researched. still, the contextual information for most of the archaeological finds to date is, in the case of the seeds, strongly suggestive of human intentionality. it is difficult to ascertain what type of technological uses could have been made of the branches and stems through the charred wood fragments (hopf 1981), which only indicate the likely final use as fuel. archaeologically, the culinary use potentially documented as early as the early neolithic in the case of lapiás das lameiras, where a pressed berry was found (lópez-dóriga 2015-2016). further finds in assemblages with other edible plant remains and processing byproducts, such as early neolithic s. pedro de canaferrim (lópez-dóriga 2015-2016) or chalcolithic alcalar (stika and heiss 2014) are also evocative of its intentional exploitation. due to its recovery within an assemblage of plant remains strongly suggestive of arboricultural practices (pérezjordà et al. 2017), it can be hypothesized that c. album might have also been the object of some sort of management in phoenician times, together with grapevines, olive trees, pomegranates, and almond trees. two exceptionally well preserved medieval deposits in lisbon, rua dos correeiros (bugalhão and queiroz 2005) and casa dos bicos (queiroz and mateus 2011), which were dominated by waterlogged assemblages of edible taxa with a very likely sewage origin, have provided unmistakable evidence of the use of the plant in andalusian times. more examples have probably been found in other assemblages studied by these authors but for which grey literature reports are currently unavailable. in rua dos correeiros, a few seeds from a sediment sample accounting for just 7% of the total volume of the deposit could involve more than 50 seeds of crowberry in the whole deposit. the andalusian case of alto da vigia (jesus et al. 2017) is still under study and an interpretation cannot yet be made; however, the carbonized remains of crowberries, together with those of cereals, is strongly suggestive of processing. portuguese crowberries were still exploited in the sixteenth century in lisbon, as attested in the assemblage recovered from a gully with domestic refuse in praça do município (mateus et al. 2003). in addition, crowberry remains have been recently identified in the case of the newport medieval ship site (reported as “unidentified common items b” by carruthers 2014), found in wales, united kingdom, but containing a cargo from the iberian peninsula. as carruthers points out, the remains could correspond to sewage and the use of the berries as food, or the use of the branches as dunnage. a further, potentially more interesting explanation would be their deliberate use as an anti-scurvy medicine, a function recorded in some historical references (hurtado de mendoza 1840). this interesting find suggests the possibility of encountering the plant outside its natural distribution area as an object of trade, especially via the sea. given the importance and the range of iberian maritime trade in late medieval and early modern history, the potential presence of the taxon in the archaeological record is very high for many different parts of the world. the role played by c. album in human interactions with the wild plant resources might have been until now undervalued due to scientific bias: crowberry remains found in archaeobotanical samples have likely remained in the category “indeterminate” or “unidentified” (e.g. carruthers 2014). although the plant remains can turn up far removed from the current habitat, as the case of newport has shown, archaeobotanists knowledgeable in more general floras would have not necessarily been aware of its existence due to the fairly limited current distribution of the taxon and its rarity in modern botanical reference collections. in addition, difficulties in the taxonomic determination of wood remains and pollen grains from the ericaceae and related families (queiroz and van der burgh 1989, kim nilsson and praglowski 1988, mateus 1989) hamper the identification of other types of remains in the archaeological record. further work is needed to correctly understand the past history of this plant, both for a better comprehension of its role in human subsistence but also for an additional insight into its current conservation problems. this work should include revisions of unidentified plant remains from assemblages of maritime archaeological origin from lópez-dóriga. 2018. ethnobiology letters 9(2):19–32 29 research communications anywhere with trading connections with the iberian peninsula and southwestern france, as well as from deposits of those regions themselves. ethnobotanical references from earlier periods, such as andalusian agricultural texts, also need to be researched further. conclusions corema album has been an important plant in human culture since the holocene, as attested in archaeological, historical, and ethnobotanical sources, and it still plays an important role, particularly in the folklore of older generations. its historical importance is still not fully understood as it is possible the taxon has not always been correctly identified in the archaeobotanical record, nor cited in generalist ethnobotanical sources. this relative rarity of references is potentially a result of the limited current distribution of the plant and the lack of awareness among researchers from outside its habitat range. unfortunately, this limited current distribution is likely a result of the species being currently threatened, due to a variety of reasons such as habitat loss and competition from invasive species, and possibly over-exploitation. this paper has reviewed the botanical, archaeobotanical, and ethnobotanical literature, with the aim to promote the identification of the taxon in the archaeobotanical record. it is also hoped that this paper has served to raise awareness of the need to preserve this important plant in our biodiversity heritage. notes 1comparative reference material for the identification of c. album seeds is available at the laboratório de paleoecologia e arqueobotânica of the directorate general for cultural heritage (dgpc, lisbon, portugal), at the departament of environmental archaeology of the research center of biodiversity and genetic resources of the university of porto (portugal), at the bioarchaeology laboratory of the cantabria international institute for prehistoric research of the university of cantabria (spain), at the institute of botany of the university of hohenheim (germany) and at the environmental department at wessex archaeology ltd. (salisbury, united kingdom). institutions qualifiying for collaboration through the index seminum may obtain reference material from the seed bank of the tapada da ajuda botanical garden in lisbon (banco de sementes parque botânico da tapada da ajuda). seeds gathered from the wild may be purchased (subject to seasonal availability) in semillas cantueso s.l. acknowledgements i thank banco de sementes parque botânico da tapada da ajuda for making seeds of c. album available within the framework of index seminum; maría calviño cancela for sharing information and pictures and discussing the dispersal of c. album by endozoochory; wendy carruthers, leonor peñachocarro, guillem pérez-jordá, hans-peter stika, and carmen martínez varea for discussing their finds; joão tereso, and andrés teira brión for checking for the appearance of crowberry (although to no avail) in their archaeobotanical assemblages; dorian q fuller and members of the iberian carpology group for encouragement; phoebe olsen for editing my english; and the universidad de cantabria for the phd program (2009-2013) where this research started. i also thank three anonymous reviewers for the insightful comments and suggestions to improve an earlier version of this paper. declarations permissions: not applicable. sources of funding: none declared. conflicts of interest: none declared. references cited aedo, c. and s. castroviejo. 2012. proyecto anthos: sistema de información de las plantas de españa [web page]. url: http://www.anthos.es/ dispatch.es.html. accessed on july 17, 2017. aguilella, a. s. f. and e. laguna. 2009. catálogo valenciano de especies de flora amenazadas. colección biodiversidad 18: conselleria de medi ambient, aigua, urbanisme i habitatge. generalitat valenciana, valencia. álvarez-cansino, l., m. zunzunegui, m. díaz barradas, o. correia, and m. esquivias. 2013. effects of temperature and rainfall variation on population structure and sexual dimorphism across the geographical range of a 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https://www.bioversityinternational.org/index.php?id=244&tx_news_pi1%5bnews%5d=148&chash=7de9d50f97676192303fc08a19002211 https://www.bioversityinternational.org/index.php?id=244&tx_news_pi1%5bnews%5d=148&chash=7de9d50f97676192303fc08a19002211 lópez-dóriga. 2018. ethnobiology letters 9(2):19–32 32 research communications european association of archaeologists. istanbul, turkey. sweet, r. 1826. hortus britannicus: or a catalogue of plants cultivated in the gardens of great britain, arranged in natural orders. w. simpkin and r. marshall, london. sóñora gómez, f. x. 1994. a camariña (corema album) en galicia. braña, revista de la sociedade galega de historia natural 1:13–25. wolverton, s. and r. l. lyman, 2012. introduction to applied zooarchaeology. in conservation biology and applied zooarchaeology, edited by s. wolverton and r. l. lyman. university of arizona press, tucson, az. aboriginal biocultural knowledge in south-eastern australia: perspectives of early colonists. by fred cahir, ian d. clark, and philip a. clarke. 2018. csiro publishing, clayton, australia. 334 pp. svanberg. 2021. ethnobiology letters 12(1):12–13 12 reviews wales. various aboriginal peoples and tribes lived and live in the area, including the bangerang, barrabool, daungwurrung, djadjawurrung, gunditjmara, gurngulag, kurnai, and wadawurrung. many of the region’s diverse languages are extinct or dormant today. after british settlement, much indigenous knowledge was lost as aboriginal peoples were forced to abandon their hunting and gathering lifeways. they were separated from their land when they had to live more restricted lives on mission reserves. today, data about indigenous knowledge are to be found in various archival materials, journals, dictionaries and unpublished reports. the sources used in this book are records from travelers or colonists who lived in the region before and during the early phases of european colonizing in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century, and who interacted with the australian aboriginal communities. using multiple sources is an essential research method among ethnobiologists in order to find scattered information about historical activity contexts between humans and the biota. that is true for this publication—the authors seem to have made a great effort to use every source available on the topic. throughout the book’s fifteen chapters, indigenous australians’ past complex relationships with their environments, spiritual life, and biocultural knowledge is described and analyzed. the first chapter discusses totemic life, followed by chapters on terrestrial and water spirits. five further chapters discuss means of subsistence and aboriginal this book immediately thrilled me. in recent years, i have devoted myself to researching the lop people in the tarim basin, nw china, a group of formerly fisher-foragers that used to live in the desert area of innermost asia. in my research, i used historical data provided by various western travelers to the region, but it has been difficult to obtain a more comprehensive picture about their environmental knowledge. for that reason, i am intrigued by this historical study of the biocultural knowledge of aboriginal peoples in southeastern australia as recorded by early european colonists. the book presents extensive data while also providing a broad picture of the hunter-forager cultures of colonial era south-eastern australia. aboriginal biocultural knowledge demonstrates that historical research of hunter-forager cultures is possible, and that important data can be obtained from the sources compiled by early colonists and explorers. indigenous voices are almost absent in this study. nevertheless, the amount of information extracted from outsider sources is very rich. three of the authors are historians with extensive experience in source criticism, and the fourth is a social anthropologist-ethnoscientist. through meticulous research, fred cahir (historian), ian d. clark (historian), sarah mcmaster (historian), and philip a. clarke (anthropologist and ethnobiologist) provide us with a detailed description of various aspects of aboriginal life in south-eastern australia. this is a biocultural region located south of lower murray, riverland, maillee and south east of south australia, all of victoria and southern new south aboriginal biocultural knowledge in south-eastern australia: perspectives of early colonists. by fred cahir, ian d. clark, and philip a. clarke. 2018. csiro publishing, clayton, australia. 334 pp. ingvar svanberg1* 1institute for russian and eurasian studies, uppsala university, uppsala, sweden. *ingvar.svanberg@ires.uu.se received june 14, 2020 open access accepted november 11, 2020 doi 10.14237/ebl.12.1.2021.1712 published january 8, 2021 copyright © 2021 by the author(s); licensee society of ethnobiology. this is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution-noncommercial 4.0 international public license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0), which permits non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. svanberg. 2021. ethnobiology letters 12(1):12–13 13 reviews environmental understandings. important are the chapters on plant food, animal food (birds, fish, invertebrates, and reptiles were important for these foragers), healing, and how the aboriginal population satisfied material needs, such as clothing, housing, and transport. in an interesting chapter, the historian sarah mcmaster co-authored a piece about fire management practices. other topics discussed in detail in the book are perceptions of time, knowledge about the skyworld, and seasonal calendars. while the aim of each chapter is to summarize the ethnographic information available on each topic, the research also reveals historical evidence of the complex asymmetrical relationships between early european settlers and aboriginal people. for example, it describes the implications of the interplay between indigenous and european knowledge systems and how this affected and changed the relationship and lifestyles of both groups. i would like to conclude this brief report by pointing out that it is rare for ethnobiologists to provide such an in-depth study extending beyond information about the use of food and medicine of animals and plants. i learned many interesting things about aboriginal cultures and their interaction with the landscape and biota in australia. i found the information about healing and traditional medicinal procedures derived from the historical sources valuable and fascinating. likewise, the chapter on water is full of interesting details. i hope this study can serve as model for researchers in regions such as europe and inner asia where historical research of this type could provide insights into the pre-industrial peasants’ and nomads’ biocultural knowledge, which is a relatively unexplored topic. this book will be a useful reference for cultural ecologists, ethnobiologists, and anyone concerned with australian history. bumblebee honey in the nordic countries svanberg and berggren. 2018. ethnobiology le ers 9(2):312–318 312 research communica ons rufa l.—has been used to flavor “ant schnapps” (myrbrännvin), i.e., spirits flavored with formic acid. it has a long tradition both as a remedy and as an appreciated flavored liqueur; it is occasionally still made (linder 2001). although the peasantry in nordic countries has usually appreciated bumblebees, these taxa have played a minor role in folk biology. however, we have a record that a mixture was made in a bottle of salt along with the first bumblebee sighted in spring. this bumblebee salt was then given to cattle before they ate the first fresh grass in summer. this was believed to make them return from grazing in the forest to the farm at the end of the day (odstedt 2004). recent ethnobiological investigations have revealed that children are still eating the sweet ingluvies (the crop) from day-flying moths of the genus zygaena and its mimic, the nine-spotted moth, amata phegea l., in carnia in northeastern italy (zagrobelny et al. 2009). hungarians in central europe have consumed the honey stomachs of blackcolored carpenter bees, xylocopa violacea l. and x. valga gerstäcker (ulicsni et al. 2016). harvesting of honey introduction cultural habits and local knowledge are changing fast, and many traditions and foraging activities that interest ethnobiological research are losing ground. there are, for instance, very few data documented about traditional food habits that include insects and insect products in europe. israeli zoologist shimon fritz bodenheimer (1951) mentions in his now-classic review of human entomophagy that cockchafers, melolontha spp., were eaten by children or used as famine food in certain areas of italy and ireland. grasshoppers were eaten in russia as well as by the tatars of crimea in the nineteenth century. adult scarab beetles, amphimallon pini (olivier 1789), were eaten by people in wallachia and moldavia, while peasants in lombardy ate the amphimallon assimile (herbst 1790). fascinating habits can be discovered through historical documents. in sweden, we can read in the written folklife records kept in the ethnographic and folklore archives about interesting products that were traditionally gathered and still are, to some extent. formic acid—produced from red wood ants, formica bumblebee honey in the nordic countries ingvar svanberg1 and åsa berggren2 1ins tute for russian and eurasian studies, uppsala university, uppsala, sweden. 2department of ecology, swedish university of agricultural sciences, uppsala, sweden. ingvar.svanberg@ires.uu.se abstract research in historical ethnobiology can provide informa on about li le known and seemingly insignificant prac ces in the past. the u liza on of insect products as a foodstuff is a rare custom in europe and data on this prac ce are scarce. from nordic countries, we have informa on about producing ant schnapps with the help of the red wood ant, formica rufa l., which has been used both as a remedy and as a drink. honey and beeswax were once gathered in the forests from wild honey bee colonies, but have been replaced with products from the domes c honey bee, apis mellifera l. another product, once a well‐known and appreciated sweet, especially among children, was nectar gathered from bumblebee nests. collec ng the nectar from bumblebee nests is an ac vity that has been prac ced within living memory in many parts of the nordic countries. this seems to be an ancient prac ce da ng back at least a millennium that has survived un l recently. it is an example of how methods and sources established within historical ethnobiology can be used to gain knowledge on the past as well as possible future uses of available biological resources. received august 20, 2018 open access accepted october 20, 2018 doi 10.14237/ebl.9.2.2018.1383 keywords foraging, insect products, historical ethnobiology, wild foods, entomophagy copyright © 2018 by the author(s) licensee society of ethnobiology. this is an open‐access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution‐noncommercial 4.0 international public license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by‐nc/4.0), which permits non‐commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. svanberg and berggren. 2018. ethnobiology le ers 9(2):312–318 313 research communica ons and wax from wild or feral honey bee colonies is known from many parts of europe, including scandinavia, but is now probably a nearly extinct practice. the western honey bee, apis mellifera l., is the only species of honey bee native to europe. its colonies have been harvested since antiquity (bodenheimer 1951; crane 1999; kohl and rutschmann 2018; sandklef 1946). apiculture in the nordic and neighboring countries has relied for centuries on the domestic honey bee for honey and wax production as well as for pollination (sandklef 1946; van engelsdorp and meixner 2010; williams et al. 1995). the custom of children sucking the sweet crops of bumblebees seems to be widespread in europe, according to bodenheimer (1951). an insignificant but interesting product is “bumblebee honey”, the nectar that the bumblebees store in their nests, which has been collected by children in denmark, finland, iceland, norway, and sweden. this nectar was an important sweet substance before apiculture was introduced with the arrival of christianity in the nordic countries (bernström 1972; svanberg 2006b). aim and methods records of human interactions with invertebrates exist, but research in the field in the nordic countries is rare. the data found in archives and in scattered notes in older literature are invaluable sources when it comes to mapping the diversity of the pre-industrial peasantry’s relationship to the biota in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries (svanberg 2006a, 2006b, 2007, 2008, 2017, 2018). this study is focused on the hunt for and use of bumblebee honey; its approach is ethnobiological (anderson 2011). understanding the emic folk view of insects, including their naming, classification, and use, is an ultimate goal of an ethnobiologist (posey 1986). research in historical ethnobiology can provide us with information about little-known and seemingly insignificant practices in the past (medeiros 2016). although there are elderly individuals in sweden who still remember gathering bumblebee honey, it is not a custom that has survived. when we search for information about robbing bumblebee nests, we have to use historical sources. there are several kinds of sources: dialect word collections, folk life records, topographic literature (including travelogues), and zoological literature (nilsson 2008; svanberg 2006a, 2006b). with the help of ethnographic records in printed sources, dictionaries, and records in the ethnographic and folklore archives in sweden (located in härnösand, lund, and uppsala), this article sets out to review and analyze the gathering of nectar from bumblebee nests in the nordic countries. questions we aim to answer include: in which areas did this practice exist? who was gathering the nectar, and when did it take place? the interaction between bumblebees and humans is a biocultural domain that has been little studied to date. our study will contribute to ethnobiological understandings of how populations use wild insects as food and medicine. bumblebees, honey, and nests there are about 250 species of bumblebees described in the world and most are found in the cooler parts of the northern hemisphere (falk 2015). the nests of bumblebees are built in various places, such as tree trunks, tussocks, and holes in the ground. a fertilized over-wintered queen usually builds her nest in early spring. nest sizes differ among species, where the heath bumblebee (bombus jonellus kirkby) has small nests (50 workers), and the red-tailed bumblebee (b. lapidarius l.) and the buff-tailed bumblebee (b. terrestris l.) have fairly big nests (several hundred workers) (cederberg 2012; falk 2015). the queen and later the workers forage for nectar and pollen, which they bring home to the nest as food for larvae. “bumblebee honey” or “bumblebee mead” have been the common folk names in the nordic languages for this nectar. however, these folk names refer to stored nectar, which is not the same type of honey as that from honey bees. in some species, the collected nectar is stored in small honey pots made of wax. in the pots, the nectar becomes more concentrated due to evaporation. bumblebees have been found to be able to use their sense of smell and taste to examine the components of and nutrients in their food (ruedenauer et al. 2015). the bumblebees are therefore able to use the honey stored in the pots for information on the current availability of nectar sources (dornhaus and chittka 2005). nectar gathered from some plants may contain toxic compounds (adler 2000). studies have shown a variation in aversion behavior to toxic compounds among species, where bumblebees show less discriminatory behavior (tiedeken et al. 2014). humans can also be negatively affected by toxic compounds in the honey they consume (jansen et al. 2012). still unknown is whether toxic composites are present in bumblebee honey. if they are, other svanberg and berggren. 2018. ethnobiology le ers 9(2):312–318 314 research communica ons questions arise such as how commonly they occur and whether their presence has affected people’s practice of gathering bumblebee honey. knowledge about where the different bumblebee species usually placed their nests would have been useful for human hunters. traditional knowledge on where to find the nests could have incorporated weather variations between seasons that would affect the suitability of different localities for the bumblebees. the data show that there existed a folk taxonomy of bumblebees and also local ideas and uses for bumblebee products (brøndegaard 1985; svanberg 2006b). denmark about 29 species of bumblebees are known in denmark (gbif 2018). danish ethnobotanist vagn j. brøndegaard has compiled data from denmark on the harvesting and use of nectar from bumblebee nests. the honey was usually harvested from the bufftailed and red-tailed bumblebee. the practice seems to have been especially common on jutland. when young herdsmen were walking in the shrub landscape they searched for bumblebee nests and sometimes they gathered enough honey to bring back home. one record from western jutland in the 1870s describes a haymaker finding a bumblebee nest in the meadow. he used a stick to remove the moss-roof from the nest. the cells were taken out. those with larvae were put back in the nest, while those filled with bumblebee honey were harvested. after sucking out the honey, the empty cells were returned to the nest. finally, the moss-roof was returned to its original location. some nests were very rich in honey and sizable pieces could be brought back home to the farm and eaten with the early morning porridge (davregrød). it was sometimes eaten in buckwheat porridge as a dessert after a supper. from other areas in denmark, there are records that bumblebee honey was used in courtship. young lads offered the honey to girls as a romantic gesture, according to records from the skive area on jutland in the late nineteenth century. children sometimes sucked honey straight from the nests with the help of a drinking straw made of grass. in the very dry summer of 1868, the nests contained a lot of honey, which was harvested by farmers in central denmark (brøndegaard 1985). finland and estonia in finland and estonia, about 38 and 19 species of bumblebees, respectively, are recorded (gbif 2018). there are notes about the gathering and knowledge of “bumblebee honey” (homolhonong) from the nowvanished swedish-speaking areas along the estonian coastal areas, but the records are few (danell 1951). bumblebee honey was also known as “bumblebee mead” (humlemjöd) in the swedish-speaking areas of finland (ahlbäck 1992). there is also evidence that the ethnic estonians and the ethnic finns hunted honey in bumblebee nests (linnus 1939). iceland iceland has about four species of bumblebees (gbif 2018). a native species is the heath bumblebee, which has probably been in iceland since the end of the last ice age. harvesting of nectar from bumblebee nests is mentioned in eighteenth century sources. both egil olufsen in his travelogue and natural historian nicolai mohr have passages about locals robbing honey from the bumblebee nests (olafsen and povelsen 1772). according to mohr, bumblebees were common in the northern part of iceland, and the honey was gathered by inhabitants and used as a remedy for all kinds of diseases (mohr 1786). we have not been able to find any recent information on the use of bumblebee honey. norway there are about 36 bumblebee species in contemporary norway (gbif 2018). the norwegian peasants in hadeland in the southeastern part of the country used to call the nectar found in the nests of the buff-tailed bumblebee “honey mead” (humlemjød) and the small stores or honey pots were known as “honey mead barrels” (humlemjødtønder) (hammer 1797:181). sweden there are about 40 species of bumblebees known in sweden (cederberg 2012). in the traditional taxonomy, the peasants differentiated between two to four kinds of bumblebees. they believed that the bumblebee nest was ruled by a “bumblebee king” (humlekonung). in the folk biology, animal societies reflected the hierarchies that existed in human society. sources from around 1600 ce already mention this hierarchy of the bumblebee society (svanberg 2006b). the swedish poet frans michael franzén (1772– 1847) refers in the 1820s to a proverbial expression “also in bumblebee nests there is some honey” (svanberg 2006b). folk data about svanberg and berggren. 2018. ethnobiology le ers 9(2):312–318 315 research communica ons “bumblebee honey”, also known as “bumblebee mead” (hommelmjöd) in some dialects, are found in folk life records and dialect word lists in several provinces of northern sweden: hälsingland, jämtland, medelpad, ångermanland, and västerbotten (rietz 1867; wennberg 1873; nordlander 1933; nilsson 2008). bumblebee honey has been gathered in various parts of sweden. there is one record from örkelljunga in skåne that bumblebee honey has been gathered there (lund: luf 10 127). in addition, the south sami in västerbotten know about bumblebee honey (sjulsson 1979). it seems to have been commonly used as a sweet for children. responses on a questionnaire sent out in the late 1920s from the folklore archive in uppsala (ifos) indicated that the bumblebee honey was eaten on the spot or gathered by children to spread on bread (anonymous 1928). it was known as “bumblebee honey”, humlehonung (dalsland: ulma 10467; småland: ulma 2534, ulma 5736, ulma 5077, ulma 2203:7, ulma 2879:24, ulma 2856:3, ulma 12 734, ulma 24 656; södermanland: ulma 3287; uppland: ulma 2639:1; värmland: ulma 3147, ulma 22 936, ulma 2859:11, ulma 2148:4; västergötland: ulma 2264:5, ulma 6072, ulma 1653; västmanland: ulma 4512), “bumble mead”, humlemjöd (jämtland: ulma 3619), “bumblebee sweet”, humlesöta (hälsingland: rietz 1867; wennberg 1873), “bumblebee goodies”, humlegott (gotland: ulma 4031; gustavson 1940), and “mossmice honey” messmösshonung (västmanland: ulma 2056). some reported that bumblebee honey had a sweeter taste than honey bee honey and especially children preferred it if they could get hold of it. usually children found bumblebee nests during haymaking. from ransäter in värmland, professor gösta bergman recalled from his childhood in 1905 that they used to suck out the honey from the nest with the help of a straw (ifos: ulma 3146:2). there are also some data of the use of bumblebee honey as a folk remedy. there is a record from frostviken in the province of jämtland that ear pain (otitis media) was cured with the help of bumblebee honey that was put in the ear (tillhagen 1958). a record from dorotea parish in västerbotten in 1917 reports that bumblebee mead (hommelmjön) was mixed with liquor in a bottle and used to clean wounds (murberget: lmv-m1302a). this practice is also known from the province of ångermanland at the end of the nineteenth century (modin 1886). other countries in europe eva crane (1999) suggests that the practice of hunting bumblebee nests for honey was quite widespread among subsistence farmers in europe. ethnologist and ethnobiologist béla gunda (1968) gives several examples from the carpathian area and hungary. in western transdanubia, bumblebee honey was harvested using a digging stick (gunda 1968; cf. gunda 1949). in some villages in transylvania, peasants lured bumblebees to nest in artificial cylindric “bumble houses” made of earthenware. these were kept in villages and peasants harvested the honey from time to time (gunda 1968). irish children also hunted bumblebee nests in connection with haymaking (crane 1999). as william shakespeare reminds us, individual bumblebees could be caught for the contents of their honey-sacks. in his play, a midsummer-night’s dream (act 4, scene 1), we read: “monsieur cobweb; good monsieur, get your weapons in your hand, and kill me a red-hipped humble-bee on the top of a thistle; and, good monsieur, bring me the honey-bag” (shakespeare 1874). crane (1999) suggests that the lines probably refer to the red-tailed bumblebee. in 1912 the dedicated apiculturist and entomologist frederick william lambert sladen published a small book about how to keep bumblebees (which he calls humble-bees) in captivity, in specially made nests adapted to fit their behavior. he concludes that under favorable conditions bumblebees store honey, “the flavour of which, as most schoolboys know, is excellent” (sladen 1912:6). unfortunately, each nest produces very small amounts. quite a few bumblebee colonies would be needed to be able to harvest honey in any quantity (sladen 1912). in old moravia, there was a folk saying connected with bumblebee honey: if you take the honey from the bumblebees in the field, without anyone seeing it, and bring it to the altar, you will find a rich treasure (grohmann 1864). bumblebee honey was also used in various folk religious customs in germany and france (riegler 1932). from outside of europe, we have records of children harvesting honey from bumblebee nests in japan and rural north america (ransome 1937). svanberg and berggren. 2018. ethnobiology le ers 9(2):312–318 316 research communica ons effect on bumblebees from harvesting there are no studies available on the effect of harvesting honey from bumblebee nests on the bumblebees themselves. however, it is possible that removing stored nectar can have a serious impact on the bees, especially their ability to raise larvae. nonhuman mammals and birds, as well as other insects, predate nests. to reduce the success of intruders, the bumblebees defend their nest by attacking and stinging the robbers (cederberg 2012). the honey is not only used as food for both adult bumblebees and larvae, but provides the energy that enables them to keep the colony around the 30° c (86° f) temperature required for brood development (cartar and dill 1991). previous findings have shown that colonies that run out of honey cannot keep the brood warm, and also that their behavior towards intruders changes. bumblebees low on energy and faced with intruders large (e.g., mammals) or small (e.g., parasites) do not attack to the same degree (cartar and dill 1991). a colony with depleted resources could therefore be more vulnerable to predators. conclusion it is easy to forget that before sugar became readily available in the market, sweet substances were rare among the peasantry in nordic countries. sugar was still a luxury in rural areas in the nineteenth century (nelson and svanberg 1993; svanberg et al. 2012). bee keeping existed in some areas, but many people did not have access to honey and honey products (sandklef 1946). gathering activities (as opposed to fishing, fowling [including egg harvesting], and hunting) for wild food were rather limited among the pre-industrial peasants of nordic countries (erixon 1951). however, children are fond of sweets and it seems to have been a widespread practice in northern europe to suck nectar from flowers (klintberg 2012; łuczaj 2012). it seems that many practices connected with utilizing insects as a food source are connected with children’s traditional knowledge of the biota (anderson 2000; svanberg 2001). it is easy to understand that the bumblebee nectar stored in the nests offered a pleasant treat for any finder, young or old. as several sources say, the appreciation was so large that people actively searched for the nests. because bumblebees, unlike honey bees, have annual rather than perennial colonies, they do not store large amounts of honey. thus, bumblebee honey is unlikely to become or be developed into a commercially viable product. several species of bumblebees are declining because of current land use with low availability of flowering plants and heavy use of pesticides (falk 2015). for some of these species, pressure from honey harvesting could be negative. as far as we know, bumblebee honey is not harvested any more in the nordic countries. nevertheless, the word itself has new life. this is thanks to the popular swedish author torgny lindgren (1938–2017), whose books are translated into many languages. the västerbotten dialect word for bumblebee honey is the title of his famous novel hummelhonung (1995) (english translation sweetness, german translation hommelhonig), making the word well known among modern readers. declarations permissions: none declared sources of 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i. h., p. padjus, e. pärn, m. rootslane, and j. susi. 1995. a history of beekeeping in estonia. bee world 76:18–30. doi:10.1080/0005772x.1995.11099234. zagrobelny, m., a. l. dreon, t. gomiero, g. l. marcazzan, m. a. glaring, b. lindberg møller, and m-g. paoletti. 2009. toxic moths: source of a truly safe delicacy. journal of ethnobiology 29:64–76. doi:10.2993/0278-0771-29.1.64. the winged: an upper missouri river ethno-ornithology. by kaitlyn moore chandler, wendi field murray, maría nieves zedeño, samrat miller clements, and robert james. 2017. the university of arizona press, tucson. 129 pp. hooper. 2019. ethnobiology letters 10(1):57–58 57 reviews one of the weaknesses of this volume is the authors’ choice not to incorporate more natural history in their analysis. for example, in the section concerning bird qualities and horticulture, the authors write that the term ‘blackbird’ probably refers to a host of different species that generally resemble one another, such as the brewer’s blackbird (euphagus cyanocephalus), the common grackle (quisalus quiscula), and the brown-headed cowbird (molothrus ater). earlier, the authors describe the role of generic blackbirds with successful horse raiding. of the three species listed, brown-headed cowbirds are the only species that has a strong relationship with grazing mammals. this species is known to forage on insects disturbed by herding mammals. in addition, during the breeding season cowbirds will make daily trips between nesting sites and foraging areas (scott et al. 1992). therefore, it is likely that brown-headed cowbirds are the species associated with success in horse raiding. by incorporating more natural history they could have more thoroughly demonstrated how indigenous knowledge, belief, and practices concerning birds have strong connections to observed phenomena. one of the major claims of this book is that birds are culturally significant as messengers. this role is placed within a spiritual and symbolic perspective and the winged: an upper missouri river ethno-ornithology is a product of research aimed to inform land managers about the relationships between native americans and birds of the northern watershed of the missouri river. the authors use a relational framework to produce an “anthropological inquiry into the society of people and birds.” after the introductory chapter, chapter two describes the geography and ethnic groups of the upper missouri. the authors’ research focused on the blackfoot, assiniboine, mandan, hidatsa, arikara, and crow nations. the rest of the book addresses seven themes: what are birds’ roles in creation stories; the qualities of birds; birds as messengers; imagery of birds; birds’ role in material culture; and hunting/trapping of birds. throughout, the authors successfully connect previously discussed aspects of birds to the current topic. the connection of eagles to thunder gods is discussed in chapter three, and in the following chapters that connection informs the understanding of eagles as messengers, their meaning in art, how their parts are used in ceremony, and how they are hunted. the authors’ success in showing how traditional beliefs and stories inform other aspects of human-bird relationships is impressive. the authors make good use of photos. there are 47 colored plates of the birds. black and white photos of museum artifacts illustrate topics being addressed in the text. the winged: an upper missouri river ethno-ornithology. by kaitlyn moore chandler, wendi field murray, maría nieves zedeño, samrat miller clements, and robert james. 2017. the university of arizona press, tucson. 129 pp. david a. hooper1* 1department of anthropology, university of montana, missoula, usa. *david1.hooper@umontana.edu received june 7, 2019 open access accepted july 8, 2019 doi 10.14237/ebl.10.1.2019.1604 published august 6, 2019 copyright © 2019 by the author(s); licensee society of ethnobiology. this is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution-noncommercial 4.0 international public license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0), which permits non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. hooper. 2019. ethnobiology letters 10(1):57–58 58 reviews exemplified through traditional stories. the presentation of how biology, ecology, or behavior connects to birds’ roles as messengers is limited. a clear example of how bird behavior conveys messages is how, for the mandan, hidatsa, and arikara, spring migration of water fowl, specifically canada goose (branta canadensis), indicated when to plant, which reflects a correlation between spring migration and favorable conditions for successful agriculture. other forms of communication are clearly more symbolic. according to many tribes, black-billed magpies (pica hudsonia) are the high god’s messenger, because they often come near human habitations and overhear conversations. in my opinion, other examples of birds conveying information presented as symbolic are based on biology. for example, if american robins (turdus migratorius) and meadowlarks (sturnella spp.) are singing nearby, warriors knew that no threat was present. these descriptions remind me of “bird language” — approaches for interpreting birds, and other animals, behaviors to further one’s perceptions of their surroundings (young 2012). by focusing on the symbolic nature of birds as messengers the authors are following a current trend in ethnoornithological research. my limited experience with bird language has increased my perception of individual birds as “non-human agents”, a term the authors use in describing the relational framework they use to structure the book. while it is unclear why there is a relationship between observing bird behavior and acknowledging their agency, i think that if the field were to ethnographically investigate how “bird language” concepts are implemented in different cultures, we might develop a more nuanced understanding of birds as non-human agents. the recent review by wyndham and park (2019) indicates that ethno-ornithologists may include this nuanced approach in future research of birds as messengers, and if this happens the value of the winged will increase. the book would have benefited from additional editing. for me, the most jarring mistake was on page 36, where the heading “doves” is missing, so one paragraph describes the qualities of cranes and the next is about doves. once aware of this possibility, i found it easy to work around. the laws directing how managers address the impacts on cultural and natural resources often cause them to focus on archaeological concerns when addressing native american concerns. managers of the upper missouri river area can use the winged to identify how impacts to birds may affect native american communities, potentially helping improve working relations. part of my interest in reviewing this book was to see how it could be used in a course on the ethnobiology of montana. i found it to be a good way to introduce concepts of ethnobiology and ethno-ornithology using local montana examples. while i raised some concerns about the winged, i found it a valuable resource for managers and educators alike. references cited scott, d. m., p. j. weatherhead, and c. d. ankney. 1992. egg-eating by female brown-headed cowbirds. the condor 94:579–584. wyndham, f. s., and k. e. park. 2018. “listen carefully to the voices of the birds”: a comparative review of birds as signs. journal of ethnobiology 38:533–549. doi:10.2993/0278-077138.4.533. young, j. 2012. what the robin knows: how birds reveal the secrets of the natural world. houghton mifflin harcourt, boston. working together to carry water: research ethics when one of two parents is indigenous tuladhar-douglas and tuladhar-douglas. 2018. ethnobiology letters 9(1):44–58 44 perspectives special issue on ethics in ethnobiology from wiser friends and buttressed with theory and history where appropriate. the examples we have chosen are not only cautionary, though many of them are. rather in the way austin used infelicities to expound a theory of language (austin 1975), these episodes use the negative space of difficulties to show what does work, or perhaps to show a work in progress. what remains might be called the play of kinship. the transmission of culture across our tangled node in this particular extended family is sometimes transformed into academic practice, sometimes into activism and advocacy, and often is just about getting along with grandparents, cousins, children, gardens, dogs, and local deities. it would be possible to analyze our cheerful predicament through positionality (e.g., ahmad 2004), but we feel that positionality is not an adequate framework either to engage the specific challenges of indigenous relatedness, nor the lack of moral seriousness apparent in the original question. there are ancestors and children here! kinship has long been theorized as a structuring principle by anthropologists, but here we would like to foreground kinship as a basis for research ethics. inevitably this connects to larger discussions around kinship ecology (kimmerer 2011) and place (basso 1996; ingold 2000), but for now our goals are more modest1. we hope to confront prejudice, exploitation, and this essay began with an email exchange. letitia mccune wrote to ask if we had any opinions on a question that had been raised during a discussion of research ethics in ethnobotany. the question was, ‘if you marry into a traditional culture from another country and traditional knowledge is passed down to you as part of lineage rules of culture, then what permits/agreements do you need in order to use that information?’. this question seemed to us to convey troubling misunderstandings of who indigenous and traditional communities are and where they live, of the moral qualities of kinship, and of the purpose of research ethics, and therefore to require a response that was more than a theoretical argument. our initial answer at that stage, just a long email, was framed as a series of examples drawn from our experiences, each intended to make the point that, while outside researchers may make do with permits and agreements, families are subject to a wholly different moral calculus based on kinship obligations. letitia mccune and cissy fowler encouraged us to transform that email into a full-length essay. we have carried this question with us through a year of conversations and writing about cultural transmission and ethics within an extended family across multiple generations. the resulting essay still has a core structure of autobiographical anecdotes, extended by insights working together to carry water: research ethics when one of two parents is indigenous will tuladhar-douglas1* and bhavana tuladhar-douglas1 1situgyan consulting limited, aberdeen, united kingdom. *will@tending.to abstract what are the ethical challenges and opportunities for a household where one parent is indigenous and the other not? this article uses events from one family history to explore how social and political contexts in both the country of indigenous origin and the country of residence drive research ethics. it argues that research ethics for such parents should be framed within the ethics of transmitting indigenous culture for the family within a transnational indigenous lineage. received july 24, 2017 open access accepted november 24, 2017 doi 10.14237/ebl.9.1.2018.1064 keywords newar, indigenous, research ethics, transnational, kinship, marriage copyright © 2018 by the author(s); licensee society of ethnobiology. this is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution-noncommercial 4.0 international public license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0), which permits non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. tuladhar-douglas and tuladhar-douglas. 2018. ethnobiology letters 9(1):44–58 45 perspectives special issue on ethics in ethnobiology commodification. we also try to show how much fun we have as a family within a kin network—the extraordinary support we exchange even with quite distant relatives, and the compassion, wisdom, love, and hope that we have been so fortunate to enjoy. we would like to acknowledge the constructive and supportive feedback we have had at several stages, from our families, from letitia mccune and cissy fowler, from colleagues at the 2017 csvpa workshop in vilm, and from two anonymous peer reviewers. our particular household was created when bhavana, an indigenous newar woman, married will, a californian who had studied newari for many years. as is often the case for marriages that link cultural traditions, we married twice: once in a legal ceremony in oxford, a ritual that granted political and legal status; and once in a far more elaborate ceremony attended by relatives from both side at the vajrayogini shrine in pharping, nepal, that actually created kinship. not long after, we two moved to scotland when will got a post in anthropology of religions at the university of aberdeen. our three children have been born and grown up mostly in northeast scotland but sometimes, when we were undertaking extended research, in nepal mandala, the traditional newar domain of central nepal. frequent videochats between our kitchen in aberdeen and the kitchen in pharping exchange recipes for food, remedies for illness, and ordinary neighborhood news. birthdays in our family take a long time. to begin with, every person has two possible birthdays: the tithi, determined by traditional newar astrology, or their western calendar birthday. depending on the offset between the lunisolar calendar in nepal and the western calendar, these can be almost a month apart—but we decided, some years ago, just to celebrate one birthday for each person even though we do calculate the exact date for both. then there are the rituals. in california and in scotland, one must have a cake which is decorated with candles, and the flames on these candles actually have to be blown out with the mouth. newars find the prospect of polluting any flame (pure) with exhalation (impure) deeply distasteful, but this has become our single permitted family exception to that rule. there is also a requirement to give quite a few presents to the person having a birthday, and they may well want to have some sort of social event such as going to a ‘party palace’ with their friends—this can involve long negotiations with other parents. the newar rituals are simpler: the eldest woman (nakhī), after she has performed all the usual morning rituals as well as a gaṇadyaḥ worship, assists the child in performing a simple pūjā (worship) of gaṇadyaḥ, the remover of obstacles. then she pours taḥlā (sesame balls) over the child's head, and presents them with yoghurt, a dried fish, a bit of aylāḥ (brandy), an egg, and a flower plus £1.01 in coins and a gwe (the nut of areca catechu l.) on a new piece of clothing2. by choice, we don't eat fish or drink brandy in our house, so the dried fish has been replaced by buttered toast cut in the shape of a fish and the brandy by that week's exciting fizzy drink; and because ours is only a small household, both parents help with the ritual, though properly it is women's business. certain birthdays do need longer rituals and more specially prepared items, but those are relatively rare. it goes without saying that the parents must fast from waking until all the rituals are finished, though a cup of coffee does occasionally slip in. those western rituals require much more complicated food: the baking of a cake, which can take hours depending on which cake is wanted, and a special dinner—and between the birthday cake, the taḥla, the pūjā, the party palace, the presents….it can be a bit overwhelming. when we are in nepal, the situation is reversed. there are no party palaces in our town, and the first bakery with ready-made cakes only opened a few months ago. however, it is necessary to carry out a more complete set of newar rituals with the help of various members of the extended family, many of whom then walk to various shrines with appropriate offering plates. a few years ago, we two parents said that we were just not going to do all the rituals. the children had none of it. they made it clear that every single one of those rituals are part of who they are, no one of them is optional, and it's not a proper birthday in our family without all the fuss, bother, and rituals3. given the challenges that our children face every day growing up tulādhars in scotland, it seems to us that they deserve all the support and special rituals we can give them, even if it means a few exhausting days for us. conducting research as us is also like that. bhavana is a nardevī tulādhar, an indigenous newar; will was born in california, and his sister describes him as ‘having lived in asia for half his life’. we live and work in scotland, and nothing became easier— either in research or in ordinary life—because will married into bhavana's family, or because bhavana took on a husband who wasn't newar, or because we tuladhar-douglas and tuladhar-douglas. 2018. ethnobiology letters 9(1):44–58 46 perspectives special issue on ethics in ethnobiology live in scotland. while it might seem as though marrying a foreign anthropologist could help transform an indigenous person into an ‘anthropologist,’ or that marrying in grants a researcher some kind of special access to indigenous knowledge without the onus of seeking permission, in fact the opposite is true. rather than a license to exploit, marriage across the line between indigenous and outsider is a constraining entanglement. at its best, it is an agreement to abide by the highest standards that either side brings to the marriage; but there are also risks and attacks. intolerance is a feature of every community. our particular family is a site of tremendous creativity, but it is also a point of vulnerability and many of the choices we have made are, of necessity, defensive: we have learned to protect our children, ourselves, our extended family, and our informants from what might otherwise be ordinary interactions with students, colleagues, universities, and governments. in this essay, we will explore some of the political contexts and ethical challenges that confront a family where both parents conduct research together but one has married into the other's indigenous community. rather than proceeding from abstract principles we will use a few stories from our mutual history (with names masked or changed appropriately) to illustrate the challenges and opportunities that we encounter and how we approach them. newars first, though, let us clarify a few issues around kinship and terminology. newars are one of the more confusing indigenous communities for folk who expect all indigenous communities to be small-scale hunter-gatherers. they are an ancient, urban, literate, and fragmented community that was in its origins highly diverse (gaenszle et al. 2016:264–266). newar civilization had its center in the great city-states of central nepal, but extended across a wider agricultural hinterland and included exclaves in asian market cities such as lhasa, shigatse, and patna. the kathmandu valley and its environs hosted a complex society that was united by a common language and ritual system, though never politically united. it constantly attracted new immigrant clans. newars themselves recognize that many lineages are exogenous; some buddhist priestly families living in the great monasteries of kathmandu or lalitpur point to their origins in eleventh century bengal, when refugees from the great monastic universities fled to the relative shelter of the kathmandu valley. other groups, such as jyapu or balami, regard themselves and are regarded by other newars as the original inhabitants of the valley. still others, such as the longsettled kashmiri muslims or the high-caste south indian brahmins who look after the shrine at paśupati, do not now identify themselves as newars even though they speak the language and follow the social rules that other newars do (gellner and quigley 1999). newar social organization finds its natural scale in the guthi, an endowed association that often combines locality, caste, and lineage membership (toffin 2005). many guthis are funeral cooperatives. others with more heterogeneous membership exist for pilgrimages, religious rituals, heritage preservation, or to look after specific shrines. an oft-repeated newar definition of a newar is ‘someone who speaks newari and belongs to a guthi’. in the 1760s when the gorkhali kings overran the central himalayas and created their empire, the dynamic and complex newar civilization was reduced at a stroke of the sword to a subject population, treated as largely homogenous and profoundly inferior in the legal and cultural norms of the new state of nepal (hofer 1979). this military and political subjugation, brutally enforced, defined the newars as an indigenous community who slowly developed a sense of themselves as a single ethnicity (gellner 1986, 1991; gellner et al. 1997; quigley 1987). across the nineteenth century, newars reacted to subjugation: they reinforced their transnational connections in tibet and india and established new regional trading centers across the central himalayas. newar language printing emerged in india, to the fury of the gorkhali rulers, and newar poets and activists in nepal were imprisoned or exiled. in the 1960s, after the closure of tibet and the opening up of nepal, newars began to emigrate. there are now important newar transnational communities around san francisco, boston, london, and sydney, and many smaller diaspora communities elsewhere. in diaspora, the guthi has become a structure through which newars build regional associations for the performance of rituals and the preservation of language. at the same time, the country of nepal is still firmly controlled by caste hill hindu elites (see below), to the detriment of newars and many other indigenous communities who make up about a third of the population of modern nepal. tuladhar-douglas and tuladhar-douglas. 2018. ethnobiology letters 9(1):44–58 47 perspectives special issue on ethics in ethnobiology newar women, although they grow up in a nominally virilocal society, have extraordinary freedom compared to other women in nepal. as part of growing up they undergo ritual marriages to powerful beings, such that their eventual marriage to a man is only their most recent. unlike almost all other women in asia, newar women thus have the free right of divorce and suffer no stigma of widowhood. moreover, although newar women usually move to their husband's father's home on marriage, they and their families must return to her home for many rituals. women retain strong connections to their brothers—who are necessary participants in their children's life cycle rituals—as well as to their own mother's brother (gellner 1991; gutschow and michaels 2008; compare to bennett 1983) from all this it will be gathered that our marriage cannot easily be described as marrying in or marrying out. will became a jillaju, a son-in-law, an advocate, and scientist working with and for specific newar lineages and communities. sometimes he counts as newar, and sometimes he doesn't. bhāvanā might have married out and disappeared if she were not a committed and occasionally pugnacious newar cultural activist who found an ally and a partner when she married—but marrying out is complicated for a newar woman in gorkhali nepal. newar women are remarkably powerful but the deeply patriarchal structure of nepalese law means that neither she nor her children will ever have the same legal rights in the newar homeland as her brother's children will: they cannot have a nepalese passport, own property, or inherit from her father. every negotiation for a residency visa, a business license, or a tax document exposes her to a stream of bluntly racist and sexist commentary from officials, along with incessant demands for exorbitant bribes. indeed, the first time we tried to fly from nepal to the united kingdom together in 2003, bhavana was stopped by airport officials as, under nepalese law, no unmarried woman under the age of 35 could leave nepal without her father's permission. children born in newar families become fully newar adults through a sequence of grounded social rituals that weave them into lineages connected to places, deities, manners and obligations (lewis 1994). by deliberately preserving bhavana's lineage name (tuladhar), by using the language with our children and teaching them manners, by performing all the appropriate coming-of-age rituals for each of our children, through sponsoring traditional vajrācārya buddhist priests to perform some of those rituals, and through observing the appropriate annual rituals, we have become a diaspora newar family with passionately felt roots in the kathmandu valley. we consulted with several generations of bhavana's relatives before taking on the name tuladhar. each of the children has a proper newar sanskrit buddhist name alongside their western name, so that they can do rituals as nameable people and can be named in ritual documents. our children speak and understand newari, hear newar buddhist stories at bedtime, and are strongly connected to their mother's family and various shrines in pharping and kathmandu. where it has been possible we have gone back to nepal for rituals. in 2007, we sponsored a lengthy ritual in nepal that defined our home in aberdeen as a place where it was possible to perform rituals correctly. and when it is impossible, we have jointly pored over ritual texts and memories to find some proper way to wake up the landscape and fill it with the bodhisattvas and protectors who will look after our family. we watched, helpless, as the 2015 earthquake destroyed shines we knew and loved, and we were unable to be there to respond to the immediate tragedy or the subsequent scandalous corruption. and we carry on, listening to the recordings from our fieldwork, asking elders for help through facebook or email, taking turns making the tea and coffee while trying to make sense of a manuscript, staying up late with the children explaining, again, why it's okay for them to dodge awkward questions about newar identity or rituals in class sometimes but they must never, ever forget who they really are. the category of indigenous in nepal and scotland the claim that newars in general, or tuladhars as a special kind of newar, are indigenous is a claim to a certain privileged status on the world stage, made within a context of oppression, violence, and struggles for constitutional recognition in the modern state of nepal as well as a millennia-long history of dwelling in the region around what is now the kathmandu valley. this claim is based both on political oppression and on ecological ethnicity, two criteria among a shifting set that recur in attempts to define or negotiate the term ‘indigenous’ (cadena and starn 2007; corntassel 2003; gomes 2013; parajuli 1998; postero 2013). tsing captures the peculiarity of this term: ‘promising contradictions’ of ‘authenticity and invention, tuladhar-douglas and tuladhar-douglas. 2018. ethnobiology letters 9(1):44–58 48 perspectives special issue on ethics in ethnobiology subsistence and wealth, traditional knowledge and new technologies, territory and diaspora’ (tsing 2007:33). corntassel reminds us that ‘the dilemma over “who is indigenous” has become increasingly politicized as indigenous peoples have attained a distinct legal standing under international law’ (corntassel 2003:76). this journal capitalizes the word ‘indigenous’ as a mark of respect—and, perhaps, as a way of signifying and asserting ethnobiology's own cheerfully hybrid disciplinary relationship with indigenous and local peoples. that should not be mistaken for an essentialist claim that indigenous is the same everywhere, nor that the term indigenous exhausts the kinds of community who also deserve that respect. de la cadena and starn (2007:4) note that …indigeneity emerges only within larger social fields of difference and sameness; it acquires its “positive” meaning not from some essential properties of its own, but through its relation to what it is not, to what it exceeds or lacks. … indigenous cultural practices, institutions, and politics become such in articulation with what is not considered indigenous within the particular social formation where they exist. indigeneity, in other words, is at once historically contingent and encompassing of the nonindigenous—and thus never about untouched reality. that relationality is challenged and balanced by a deep connection to place/territory/country that is utterly specific to each indigenous community, asserted by corntassel thus: ‘a close relationship with their ancestral homelands/sacred sites, which may be threatened by ongoing military, economic or political encroachment or may be places where indigenous peoples have been previously expelled, while seeking to enhance their cultural, political and economic autonomy’ (corntassel 2003:92). parajuli was one of the first theorists to link indigenous stewardship of place to political disenfranchisement and coined the term ‘ecological ethnicity’ to capture the connection (parajuli 1998). attachment to place includes the mobile experience of nomads and transhumant pastoralists (omitted by parajuli), communities that are among the first to be denied access to their places by nation-states and landlords. the particular claim that tuladhars, as newars, are indigenous is one of many jostling in a red-hot himalayan mesh of other claims about ethnicity, religion, language, culture, history and ecology, some of which see newars as complicit in oppression, and some of which set different segments of newar society against each other (for a survey of newar castes, see gellner and quigley 1999). for tuladhars, even the sense of dwelling is problematic. among newars, many subgroups such as jyapu or balami are sedentary agriculturalists, but tuladhars have always been transnational caravaneers building trade routes and bazaars across asia, adapting to shifting economies, legal regimes and boundaries, whilst deeply tethered through rituals and kinship to just one newar city, kathmandu4. hence the models of sedentarism, nomadism or transhumance cannot capture how tuladhars inhabit and create place. it is not just that the term indigenous is deployed in varying contexts; theorizing about indigeneity must also be historically and geographically contextualized. much of the theory put forward by indigenous scholars is written in a specific kind of postcolonial context, usually in the americas, australia or oceania5. in asia, colonization was never only perpetrated by outsiders from europe. most asian states portray themselves as former colonies, not as colonizers or settler states. nonetheless, many countries such as bangladesh, taiwan, china, and east timor can list both european and asian colonial powers among their prior oppressors; while thailand and nepal, both countries with significant indigenous communities, proudly identify themselves as never having been colonized. these histories are used to produce academic policies and theoretical regimes that distinguish national identities. for example, the category of indigenous exists, with legal backing and academic institutions to support it, in taiwan. the 2007 basic law for indigenous peoples has the ‘ultimate goal of establishing parallel ‘nationhood’ institutions in legislation, judiciary, education, and so on among indigenous communities’ (huang and liu 2016). by contrast, in the people's republic of china all citizens belong to one or another nationality, even though the han are explicitly recognized as having a superior and civilizing role to play, and the term indigenous is discouraged. this variety of political, environmental, and theoretical contexts poses an interesting challenge for tuladhars theorizing their own status: a tuladhar family, up until 1960, would typically have had permanent shopfronts and warehouses in tibet, tuladhar-douglas and tuladhar-douglas. 2018. ethnobiology letters 9(1):44–58 49 perspectives special issue on ethics in ethnobiology nepal and india. in our own family, there are cousins who have been, since 1960, of tibetan nationality with chinese citizenship. while diaspora kinship is now a shared experience for many indigenous communities, it is not an acquired but an original feature of tuladhars as indigenous. in contrast to clifford's formulation of a tension between autocthony and diaspora (2007:205), tuladhars have always inhabited a complex landscape: ancestral homes in a kathmandu which is more ancient and original that the nepalese state that conquered it; shops and homes in other bazaars across what have only in the past decades become nepal, china, and india; perilous passages in between; and constant communication among all those. for us, then, living outside nepal as one link in a transnational extended family, tuladhar kinship both generates a sense of separation from the sacred geography of kathmandu and furnishes a set of strategies that tuladhars have always used to manage that separation. we do not teach our children to be indigenous: we teach them that they are tuladhars (and also, as it happens, douglases). the rights and responsibilities to undertake rituals, kinship, manners, language, deportment, gendering and many other disciplines of body, speech and mind which we try to exemplify and transmit to them flow from being tuladhars. it is only when someone outside asks, ‘what is tuladhar?’ that we teach them to invoke the term ‘indigenous’ in order to explain, using cosmopolitan categories, why it is that we don't blow out candles, or do speak to each other using a different language, and all the other differences. some of those differences are carried over from how tuladhars behave in nepal, and some are part of the toolkit of transnational tuladhars, and some of them are our own improvisations crafted together with the children in response to the scottish context where we now live. ernest gellner called nepal a ‘conquest empire’ (gellner 1978), a state that was created when one petty kingdom conquered many other regional polities. while there are long conversations about imperialism and post-colonialism in asia, we do well to remember that many modern asian states are the descendants of successful asian empires, structurally and historically determined by the subjugation of indigenous peoples. nepal is dominated by the caste hill hindu elites (hereafter chhe) (lawoti 2008:366). as lawoti shows, the effect of democracy since 1990 has actually been to further marginalize indigenous communities while shifting the balance of power between two elite castes, from the chetri (ideally kings, and traditionally connected to the old palace elite) to the bahun (ideally priests, now party leaders of every political party). scotland itself is a contested field. scotland's own history locates it both as successfully resisting english rule and as participating in the british colonial project. in recent referenda showed that almost half the population voted for independence from the rest of the united kingdom and a substantial majority voted (against the rest of the united kingdom) to remain part of europe. in the years leading up to the independence referendum of 2014, a vision of scotland as a welcoming and egalitarian nation emerged, and this vision appealed strongly to many immigrants from asia. research done by will for the royal society of edinburgh in 2010 showed that immigrants from sri lanka and thailand had a strongly positive view of scottish government. this view was explained by asian immigrants as deriving from an immigration program initiated by the scottish government that encouraged international students finishing any higher degree to stay in the country to look for skilled work, but asian immigrants also perceived the scottish government as making great efforts to extend the social welfare net to immigrant families. by contrast the united kingdom government was identified with dawn raids by the immigration authorities, who sent undocumented immigrants to detention facilities and then deported them6. this optimistic view of scotland connects to the divided opinions of the non-immigrant community. xenophobia and hostility to immigrants is very strong among those scots who voted against independence and for brexit, while pro-independence and antibrexit voters still call for an inclusive and diverse society. neither the united kingdom nor scotland has any legal protection in place for indigenous communities as part of anti-discrimination laws. this is doubly ironic, given that england was one of the great colonial powers and that scots have reflected long and hard on their complicity-and-oppression through the colonial period, especially after the acts of union in 1707 (calloway 2008). many anglophone former colonies do have some legislation and even treaties governing their relationship with the indigenous communities that dwelled in the tuladhar-douglas and tuladhar-douglas. 2018. ethnobiology letters 9(1):44–58 50 perspectives special issue on ethics in ethnobiology landscapes that colonists appropriated. both in scotland and in canada we have spoken with first nations scholars and activists who are proud of their scottish ancestry. yet the term ‘indigenous’ is toxic in scotland's own debates. used with respect to the scottish situation, it evokes right-wing, white, anti-immigrant nationalist networks such as the english defence league. on occasion, we have encountered research students from eastern europe who subscribed to racialist theories about pure scottish blood—both historically and politically a terrible mistake. so unreflective is the conversation here that otherwise well-intentioned colleagues assert that because they are british, they are indigenous. bhavana's experience in public situations is that she is identified as asian and has to manage misperceptions and sometimes abuse as an asian person7. only afterwards might there be an opportunity to assert her indigenous identity, and it involves quite a bit of explaining. we have come to call this ‘double discrimination’. it should not be surprising, then, that some of our challenges come at the interface with institutions, including the city of aberdeen and the university of aberdeen. in scotland, the perception of nepal is as a romantic destination for adventure tourists and the source of the gurkha regiments; from a university perspective, it's a niche market for international recruitment. as with many diaspora communities, elite nepalese outside nepal are often able to capture the diversity agenda in their new countries while simultaneously suppressing subaltern voices. a widely recognized, but little addressed, problem in education and policy around diversity in scotland is that the identification of diversity stops at the level of nationality. problems of inequality and oppression in countries of origin are largely ignored. there is almost no discussion of indigenous peoples whether from regions which are popularly perceived to have indigenous communities such as brazil or australia, or from asian countries where the internal oppression of indigenous communities is so thoroughly established that it appears seamless and untroubling to the outside world. this lack of recognition is apparent to all sides in the diaspora community and facilitates the oppression of indigenous folk even in diaspora. aberdeen, traditionally conservative and remote, was never a destination for commonwealth immigration. however, because of the oil industry and eu mobility, there are now a number of immigrant communities and the region is still struggling to adapt. as a result of ex-gurkha settlements as well as university recruitment through chhe networks, there is a complex nepalese community in aberdeen. the diversity agenda at the city level was quickly colonized by caste hill hindu elites, who were able to establish an official ‘nepalese and himalayan association’ in 2005, recognized by the city, that consisted entirely of chhe families. during 2015, our daughter's final year in primary school, all parents were invited to come along for a meeting run by the city council about governance and support for diversity at her school. bhavana went along, curious to see what would be presented. the meeting began with an introduction to the parents’ council and the city diversity programs. after that, representatives spoke about specific communities in aberdeen and what each community was doing to protect their culture and language. there was a scheduled presentation from a chhe parent at the school who spoke at length on behalf of, and about, the nepalese community in aberdeen. he described how the nepalese association had been putting great effort into protecting nepalese culture and nepalese language and described the city's support for hindu rituals and the nepali language. once he was finished with his talk, bhavana stood up and, very carefully, pointed out that the nepali speaking community in aberdeen was not representative of nepal. they did not support indigenous languages or celebrate any indigenous rituals. she mentioned that some of the ex -gurkha gurung families had said that they felt as though they were still in nepal—oppressed—even though they were actually in scotland, and that they had worked around the city-sponsored association to build networks with other gurungs to support their culture. “all of our indigenous cultures and our languages were excluded”, she argued. she said that she was nonetheless glad that her daughter was in scotland and at this school because we were freely able to speak and write our language at home and in the street, we had newar guthis here, and we had the support of the school to represent newar culture to the other students in our daughter's class. when the meeting was over, the representative of the official nepalese society followed bhavana into the school yard. he was frustrated, and spoke with a fixed smile in nepali to ensure that others could not understand his words or intentions. he challenged tuladhar-douglas and tuladhar-douglas. 2018. ethnobiology letters 9(1):44–58 51 perspectives special issue on ethics in ethnobiology bhavana: why did she care at all about indigenous languages? he told her that she should not care about indigenous languages or culture. he gave her an example from scottish schools. pointing at our daughter's school, he said, “you should look at these scottish schools. scottish people do not teach their children in scots, do they? everything is taught in english; you see my point?” he went on: “our nepali language was inherently religious and pure. it is related to the sanskrit language. we bahuns are the highest caste and are pure like the sanskrit language. scottish people may speak their language in their homes or with their friends but in school the scots language has no value. thus, languages other than nepali are also not important”8. looking straight into her eye he said, “you should not ask these scottish people to help protect newar culture and language— these people whose own language and culture were under english dominion could not help and did not care.” he made his point. what is remarkable about this incident is not just the venom showed by the chhe representative, but their cynical appropriation of united kingdom politics to present indigenous immigrants in scotland as doubly subjugated. precisely because policies around discrimination in scotland—whether at the level of the city or, indeed, the university—stop at the national level, elites from nepal can mobilize the structures of united kingdom politics to replicate their privilege at the expense of others. although the european court of human rights does not have a good track record on indigenous rights (gismondi 2016; kovacs 2015), it is at least some recourse. with the looming threat of brexit, racist incidents in general are on the rise in the united kingdom and unless scotland can find a way to remain in the european union it is likely that the legal and social disenfranchisement of indigenous immigrants in scotland will get significantly worse over the next decade. while we have always been active members of our school's community, and work closely with the head teacher and others, they were surprised by the exchange we report above. our daughter has moved on to secondary school and now our middle son is at that same school. compared to other indigenous communities, even among newars, tuladhars are mobile and transnational. facebook discussion among tuladhars often involve 20th century photos from lhasa or darjeeling (as well as kathmandu)—discussions which involve participants in australia, the united states, europe, and japan. this inherent mobility does give tuladhars a power, at least conceptually, to escape from the confines of oppression by a single state. inasmuch as the term indigenous is deployed against a state in the hope of international status, tuladhars can choose their identity as transnational caravaneers as an alternative to the term indigenous. we do not know how our children will position themselves, though we can provide them with resources. we do know, from them, that when the term indigenous is used in classes it is associated with stereotypes of hunter-gatherers in tropical jungles and they are unwilling to identify themselves as indigenous in that context. fortunately, tuladhars have a strong inventory of children's culture: there is a special range of newar language that one speaks with children, and a considerable inventory of children's games—games with string, with seeds, with counters, and hand games. one of the simplest is called ‘nyalā byāñ’, ‘fish or frog’, and it's a game in which one person slowly waves an extended index finger in front of another, saying nyalā nyalā... when the other player goes to grab the index finger, the first player quickly substitutes a thumb in order to trick their opponent into grabbing the thumb instead—saying byañc! we began to play this game with our son in the queue before school, and soon other children took it up. it has become something that only his class knows how to do: in the morning queue of restless children, one child will hold up a tantalizing finger and say nyāla nyāla and soon half the queue is trying to catch fingers. that has led to any number of questions: what is your language called again? can you see mount everest from your house? how high up is his grandfather's home? what's the word for bird? other languages come out, igbo or shona or filipino or polish, and recognition that this is the same language in which we bid him ‘stay well’ (bā̃laka disã) ā̃ and he bids us ‘go well’ (bā̃laka jhāsã) when he goes into class. his class has been immunized against the kind of discrimination that bhavana endured in that same playground. while this is not an answer to the systematic problems that confronted bhavana that day, it is a constructive response. the elements of identification are language and games, aspects of culture, and do not require our son to label himself as indigenous or take sides in a debate about janajāti politics in nepal that may never actually concern him. tuladhar-douglas and tuladhar-douglas. 2018. ethnobiology letters 9(1):44–58 52 perspectives special issue on ethics in ethnobiology taking sides for will, the obligations of kinship sometimes mean choosing sides between academic colleagues and newar activists. newar lineages transmit, among many other things, the oldest surviving tradition of sanskrit buddhism (and tuladhars are staunch buddhists). the manuscript collections held in scholarly families are of tremendous significance for the study of ancient as well as modern south and central asian ritual, medicine, philosophy and history. indeed, for many scholars the only interesting thing about newars is their manuscripts; contemporary rituals, writing, innovations and the contemporary scholarly community are ignored. will has spent many years reading and using these manuscripts together with newar scholars and buddhist priests, in sanskrit and in modern or older forms of newari. since the late 1990s, he has been involved in various discussions about how to encode the distinctive newar writing system called newa lipi within unicode. newar cultural activists have argued that any unicode implementation of newa lipi must treat distinctively newar breathy consonants (such as mha and lha) not as conjuncts, but as single sounds. looked at from the perspective of printing on a page or a screen, this is a pointless distinction; but for newar cultural activists, it matters that sounds found in newari but not in indo-aryan languages like sanskrit or nepali are treated as first-order items. a comparable question would be whether it is acceptable to treat ‘w’ as just two ‘v’ characters in writing english, or if it needs its own representation as a letter. icelandic retains the character þ for a 'th' sound shared with english, but modern english has lost this glyph and uses two characters to write the single sound. in 2014, progress was being made at last towards realizing a unicode standard for the newari script. however, a meeting between key newar scholars and a font programmer who had worked on other south asian scripts broke down acrimoniously. will received an email from western colleagues asking him to please urge the various newar factions to accept the programmer's proposals. he responded with a long email, defending the right of newar activists to disagree with each other and outsiders about their script, including the following: no technology is neutral: all technologies encode and reproduce power relations and cultural assumptions. you could read ivan illich, or foucault, or even my own articles on this. the unicode standard is no different. what is at stake here is the integrity and dignity of indigenous knowledge. it would be boring, but easy, for me to list the reasons why it matters very, very much to newars in particular that they control the way in which their civilization is represented. in the past century, people have been beaten, imprisoned, exiled and died for using these scripts—not just people, my own children’s uncles and aunts. another colleague then replied, saying: it's fine by me if some people self-identifying as newars want to discuss the script indefinitely; that's a wonderful luxury. the problem for others is that the script is not their sole business and never will be. it's a vehicle for sanskrit, maithili, tibetan. it's so much more than a racially delimited construct. in reply, will quoted from the un declaration on the rights of indigenous peoples (undrip), article 13: indigenous peoples have the right to revitalize, use, develop and transmit to future generations their histories, languages, oral traditions, philosophies, writing systems and literatures (emphasis added) through this testy exchange, will put himself firmly on the side of newar scholars and activists, and against one group of academic colleagues. as is clear from the exchange, some philologists do not accept the validity of ‘indigenous’ as a category for newars, nor the right of newars to their own transmitted knowledge, nor the right of newars to decide who are their kin. the ethical framework for ethnobiology, as also undrip, strongly asserts the sovereign right of an indigenous community to do as they wish with their knowledge and to determine their own membership; but actually endorsing that position and siding with one's adopting indigenous community means accepting that one's academic reputation will change irrevocably. the gaps in values and understanding here are not, actually, best analyzed in terms of indigenous and non-indigenous. rather, they are between philological approaches to texts as disembodied universals that happen to find material form in more or less convenient vehicles, and sociological approaches that analyze the inscribed power of writing, memory, copying, recitation and so tuladhar-douglas and tuladhar-douglas. 2018. ethnobiology letters 9(1):44–58 53 perspectives special issue on ethics in ethnobiology forth that constitute a text as an historically situated event; between colonial approaches to discovered texts that need rescue, protection and decipherment and post-colonial approaches that aspire to read with (but not at or for) those who steward a living recitation and copying tradition; and between globalizing technologies of encoding that render the text legible and kinship relations to inherited knowledge practices that generate meaning. we observed that the lack of recognition for indigenous people is a serious challenge in dealing with the city of aberdeen and/or the city schools. the university of aberdeen has a similar blind spot; although it has an excellent collection of anthropologists scattered across three schools, the university's own policies on diversity are haphazard and poorly implemented. like many neoliberal universities, university management prefers to buy prepackaged diversity training courses, rather than engage with the potentially challenging expertise of their own academic staff. it is no surprise that there is no recognition of indigenous peoples in the administrative processes of the university. in august 2015, not long after the nepal earthquake, will received one of the highest honors that a foreign scholar of newar culture can receive. for well over two decades of careful research into newar language, history and culture, he was awarded a hanapau from the cultural network matina. he and our daughter travelled to london, where our daughter won an award for singing a traditional newar song accapella, and will gave a rather boring speech in newari. he regards it as the highest honor he is ever likely to receive, and when he was told that he might be given the award he began to work with the university's public relations office on publicizing the award. in the united kingdom publicity is one metric of research effectiveness—a feature of audit culture— and academics and their universities often seek different goals through publicizing the same event. in this case, we felt the award could be a powerful tool for highlighting the disproportionate effect of the devastating 2015 earthquake on newar and tamang settlements and monuments, a proposal which the matina award committee endorsed. in that same month, he had been appointed director of the university's confucius institute. colleagues in china were delighted by yuan dynasty and silk road connections to newar scholars, merchants, priests and artists, and were deeply concerned about the earthquake. first local officials along the border, and eventually the central chinese government, had mobilized a great deal of effective aid for communities in nepal in the immediate aftermath of the earthquake, and were well aware that indigenous mountain communities had ben disproportionately affected. yet in aberdeen, the university public relations office was afraid that a story about indigenous communities might offend the chinese government9. in this case, the universal and globalized category of indigenous occluded important differences. no announcement was ever made. learning to be gatekeepers we often work together training students in theory, himalayan area studies, research methods and language skills. will was invited to join a research network some years ago, and to help supervise a promising phd student, who soon began to work with both of us. after several months of training this student, it was agreed that they should make an initial trip to nepal to explore their possible fieldwork site. we made arrangements through a business owned by bhavana's family and negotiated with family and friends to set up the best possible initial trip, on the firm understanding that this student would not actually undertake interviews or fieldwork as they had not established a protocol with any community of informants. we worked through our network of contacts to find elders who might work with them if they conducted themselves well on this first trip. the student had not submitted any research ethics approval paperwork, had no free and prior informed consent (fpic) paperwork, and had agreed on the clearest possible terms that they were simply going out to get a feel for the landscape and have a look at some communities where they might later return to establish a proper research agreement and conduct research. late in the arrangements, a second phd student on the same research network attached themselves to the field trip. this student had not been trained by us, and had no training in ethnobiological research methods, protocols or ethics. there was nothing we could do to prevent this student from going along, but they refused to attend any of the pre-trip training. as this student had a background in bioprospecting but no experience working with indigenous or local communities we felt unease. within hours of reaching nepal the phone calls began: the students were acting like imperial collectors. they had pressured our own tuladhar-douglas and tuladhar-douglas. 2018. ethnobiology letters 9(1):44–58 54 perspectives special issue on ethics in ethnobiology family members and forced their way into our own research sites. we were told that they were shouting at informants, accusing them of hiding information, and demanding to know the ingredients for traditional medicines. we immediately rang all our informants and extended family and warned them that there was trouble. the situation went steadily downhill from there: even after being warned directly, they insisted on collecting samples without permission from the nepalese government, insisted on conducting interviews with no prior protocols in place, and caused shock and anger across several indigenous communities. the phd student we had trained on cultural sensitivity turned our training upside down: they barged uninvited into kitchens and asked for names and samples of ingredients. the elders who were watching them reported their behavior to us, and we apologized endlessly for having created such a mess. the interloping phd student staged an extremely public row with the owners of a hotel we knew well, and it was only through arranging a substantial bribe on the spot that a relative was able to keep the student out of prison. on their return, the sponsoring university initially refused to pay for the cost of the expedition and we had to resort to lawyers to recover as much of the costs as we could. it seemed to us that we had been used, not just by the research students, but by other researchers in the network who suspected we had unusual access to important networks of knowledge and had instructed their students to use us. this was not the only time we had misjudged enthusiastic students, but this time it caused anger and embarrassment across a broad network of kin and colleagues. since then, we have strictly separated our research from training research students, who now work in other places such as scotland or china. if this essay reads as a somewhat grim catalogue of errors, it is in part because we are still learning how to be wise gatekeepers. muddling through with those select cautionary tales in hand it is clear that the play of kinship gives us rituals, games, food, manners and so much more, along with a tremendously rich research field; but it also imposes vulnerabilities and limits. neither the simple civilities of life—such as the hope that one will escape discrimination and abuse—nor the complexities of academic life—such as being able to publish copiously, attract enthusiastic students, and depend on one's university to demonstrate the relevance of critical research—are provided through this kind of partnership. at every turn, we review our research and our data to make sure we are not exposing anything we have promised to keep hidden, and we consult with each other to be sure that what we submit for publication will support our elders, informants, teachers, colleagues and children. work proceeds slowly, and often doesn't fit well with disciplinary expectations. we endure criticism from some scholars within the newar community, because what we do publish often doesn't suit their political agendas or personal ambitions. in return, though, we have been honored to be asked to undertake genuinely important research, and that has found funding from sympathetic funding bodies. another story is in order. in 2006–2007, we had a small amount of funding to study the use of bats as medicine among newars. during this research, will was told repeatedly by newar informants who used traditional medicine to interview a specific community of traditional pharmacists; when he finally worked out who they were, he realized that the community already knew him, and were not-so-distant relatives of bhavana. this most extraordinary community are the bania, who have managed the trade networks in materia medica across the himalayas and much of asia for at least a thousand years, and have managed to keep out of the political spotlight and yet close to the centers of power for two hundred years so as to get on with its business. after a series of initial conversations, the bania formally requested us to write their history. it took years to get funding for the project, but from 2010-13, we were able to work with the bania and track their trade and medical networks across three hundred years and many long trails. doing this required all our skills, and we are patiently continuing the research and writing up the results into a substantial two-volume monograph in english and newari. this project was an unusual choice for a western funder, in this case the wellcome trust, because the framework for the project came from the community itself10. once we had the funding, we worked with two senior members of the community to request a meeting of the guthi in order to review our plans and secure approval. amrit man singh bania, a professor of botany, agreed to co-author the monograph with us on the understanding that we include, and exclude, specific material from the final volumes. the bania tuladhar-douglas and tuladhar-douglas. 2018. ethnobiology letters 9(1):44–58 55 perspectives special issue on ethics in ethnobiology elders asked for specific chapters and specific confidentialities. as we settled into the project, it became clear that our unusual position as a partnership and a family offered them a mix of skills, sensitivities and vulnerabilities—our children became very fond of their sweets, and between polyglot marketplaces and ancient manuscripts, we found our language and research skills sorely exercised. it was very clear that we were trusted to recognize and manage awkward social facts that were brought to the surface because of our research. at times, when stories came flowing out hotly debated between two rival storytellers, it took both of us and two recorders to make sense of what we were hearing. at times, a swift kick under the table made it clear that the conversation had strayed into sensitive territory and further questions were inappropriate. it helped that bhavana shared the nuances of elegant urāy newari with the bania, but also helped that we were clearly both constrained by a sometimes awkward bond of kinship to them; and it definitely helped that between the two of us we could usually track down obscure terms across the half-dozen languages that bania routinely use. the fieldwork happened in shops, on trails, in busses and cafes, sometimes with the bania themselves and sometimes with the collectors and middlemen whose networks the bania expertly steward. although we wish we had been able to produce the monograph very soon after the end of fieldwork, we also know that to honor the trust and investment of the bania, we have to do it right. there was a day, well up the side of a steep mountain, when we fell to talking about identity. our party included bhavana's father, bhavana, will, and two of our children, one still in a baby backpack. we were walking with amg, a veteran collector and trader in medicinal herbs, and op, a remarkable local collector who, others said, had been suckled by the mountain itself, as well as a cook and eight porters. we fell to discussing the economics of expeditions and trekking. amg pointed at a stone and said, ‘now that stone, that stone is authentic and organic.’ every single one of us, if you cared to pick at the details, was dodgy—questionable parentage, a business that had a reputation for smuggling and fraud, a whole trekking party of people whose economic survival depended on the construction of knowledge as authentic. this comment paralyzed us with laughter and cracked open a cornucopia of authenticity: for the rest of the trip, we ate only authentic and organic packet noodles, spoke only authentic and organic words, and removed genuinely authentic and organic leeches from our legs. that moment has, for us, come to stand for the playfulness of family research, as well as the obstacles and vulnerabilities we face. visitors to nepal, whether anthropologists, tourists, or international agencies are constantly seeking a retreating image of authentic and natural places and people, and that elusive desire powers a complex economy that creates many livelihoods. for an anthropologist authenticity is won through the rituals of fieldwork, but its value is only realized through objectifying institutions of higher education and publication. as a hybrid and transnational household working at ethnobiology within an indigenous family, we straddle those two processes. in addition to a sustainable livelihood and academic reputation, the value we seek to create is constrained and generated by a third gap, the gap between rights and responsibilities11. we two parents in our household both have the responsibility to research, steward, adapt and transmit newar rituals, knowledge, values and practices from parents and elders to our children, and we are teaching our children to accept and uphold that same responsibility. yet between bhavana and will, bhavana alone has the right to decide whether to expose those practices and knowledge to a wider community as part of our work. while marrying into an indigenous family may, if that family chooses, assign responsibility for knowledge, values and practices to the in-married spouse, it does not in any way convey rights to the control or dissemination of that knowledge. if research and publication or teaching—or any other form of commodifying culture, such as selling works of art—is a source of income for that new household, then clear communication in both languages and absolute respect for prohibitions or subtler boundaries are vital. at the same time, the possibilities for new kinds of collaboration and adaptation soar beyond the ethical foundations on which such a marriage must be built. notes 1for other anthropologists who have not been welded through the rituals of marriage, it might also point to discussions of how anthropologists are located in their host societies by virtue of the social location of their actual host families; and in the nepalese case, it certainly points towards the literature on fictive kinship (mīt) and on adopting outsiders through tuladhar-douglas and tuladhar-douglas. 2018. ethnobiology letters 9(1):44–58 56 perspectives special issue on ethics in ethnobiology younger brother worship (messerschmidt 1982). but we are married with children, and the difference is that there is no longer one outsider connected to a community (a ‘leaf node’), but the constant responsibility of colluding to transmit culture up and down the family (‘circulation through the growing trunk’). 2this set of food offerings is called sagã and, with minor variations, is also used at other rituals. see gellner (2003). 3compare baumann's study of birthday rituals among south asian immigrants in london (1992). 4a number of histories and ethnographies document tuladhar families, including a number of works by todd lewis (e.g., lewis 1984, 1993); but the most powerful expression of this polytopy is the novella the letter that would not burn by a tuladhar writer, chittadhar ‘hridaya’ (tuladhar and lall 2002). 5the 2007 volume indigenous experience today, arising from a wenner-gren symposium, draws on a number of sites in asia and africa to helpfully challenge many assumptions. 6the nepalese community, which is relatively small, was the only asian immigrant community in scotland that voted against independence, as became clear to us through discussions and social media at the time. this may be because the nepalese migration to the united kingdom was ex-gurkha soldiers; both nepalese immigrants and british citizens use the gurkhas as a way to explain nepalese presence in the united kingdom. 7this is comparable to the experience of british hindus, who have adopted the label ‘british hindu’ in order to distinguish themselves from ‘british asians’, which in britain usually means muslims of pakistani origin or descent. see ramji (2008) for a good discussion of gender, color and labelling in britain. 8in fact there are a range of programs designed to encourage the use of scots (in northeast scotland, doric) or gaelic in scottish schools, but our particular school has a substantial immigrant population and directs its resources towards english for speakers of other languages. 9in 1993, the university of aberdeen awarded an honorary doctorate of laws to the dalai lama. in 2005, after a complaint from a chinese student, the photograph of that ceremony was removed from the university's offices but then reinstated (elsewhere) following protests. 10research led by the community under study is an ideal enshrined in the code of ethics for ethnobiologists; but funding priorities in the united kingdom are usually set by government agendas (for state funding bodies) or expert panels, or else is awarded to the proposals of individual academics. the wellcome trust, whose usual business is large-scale medical research, was remarkable in its 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ethnobiology nepal. tsing, a. 2007. indigenous voice. in indigenous experience today, edited by m. cadena and o. starn, pp. 33–68. berg, oxford, united kingdom. tuladhar, c. h., and k. lall. 2002. letter from a lhasa merchant to his wife. robin books, new delhi, india. the sea is my country: the maritime world of the makahs. by joshua l. reid. 2015. yale university press, new haven, ct. 400 pp. 101 reviews mackin. 2017. ethnobiology letters 8(1):101–102 imposed on a blank space and a simple society. instead, settler-colonial structures were grafted onto an already existing political and economic structure, an indigenous trade network of varied peoples with historical relationships, diplomatic customs, and, sometimes, volatile power dynamics. building on the borderlands scholarship of adelman and aron, anzaldúa, and truett, reid clearly delineates the remnant layers in borderlands power structures. reid goes on to demonstrate how indigenous agency persists through this hybrid structure up to a tipping point in 1850, when a series of compounding events—multiple diseases, loss of key native leaders, increased numbers of settlers, and solidifying borders both geographic and political—began to erode native power. in reid’s telling, the makahs are not victims whose static culture has disappeared. they have adapted new technologies and opportunities on their own terms. carrying the story into the current era, reid illustrates makah adaptation to colonial legal and economic structures as they both fight to recover their traditional whale harvesting rights and engage in the marine extraction industry on their own terms while maintaining their position of power. reid states, “by mixing their labor with the ocean through customary marine practices, makahs transformed the sea into their country” (147). this pattern happens time and time again in which “holding their ground” is a matter of holding onto their relationship with place. power and place are embedded. reid carefully walks the reader through the “shifting balance of power” in native marine and terrestrial spaces and calls out a very basic but subtly perpetuated myth that indian “savagery” explained violent attacks on settlers. he sets the record straight in the sea is my country: the maritime world of the makahs, joshua reid presses back against myths of indigenous history and firmly scribes the name of the makahs on the map. with an unrelenting pursuit through two centuries of history, reid holds tightly to the thread of native resistance as it slowly unravels and then strengthens again. concerned with the balance of power between settlers and natives, reid explores consecutive eras of colonial interaction including the fur trade, the solidification of borders and nation state infrastructures, and marine resource extraction. all the while, reid reaches deep into the sources of historical understanding to balance the written record with scholarly evidence for native motivations, such as cultural norms and existing intertribal relationships. importantly to the field of ethnobiology, he arrives at a view of the deep connection the makah had to the sea, their country, and how—embedded in a web of marine and terrestrial relationships—the makah maintained their power and livelihood. the first myth that reid contends with is that of the blank map. he builds a view of the complexity of native borderlands and webs of intertribal power and control that existed before the arrival of non-natives. reid is curious about what comprises “tribal space.” he concludes that it is a mix of native inertia, attributes of place, and the larger web of relations— human and non. tribal space also becomes a marine space through time, with an imaginary boundary line of emerging nation states running through it. exploring indigenous borderlands as well as settlercolonial borderlands, reid dispels the myth that settler-colonialism was a cut-and-paste arrangement in which a new political and economic system was the sea is my country: the maritime world of the makahs. joshua l. reid. 2015. yale university press, new haven, ct. 400 pp. jill f. mackin1* 1department of history and philosophy, montana state university, bozeman, mt, usa. *jill.mackin@montana.edu received august 4, 2017 open access accepted august 24, 2017 doi 10.14237/ebl.8.1.2017.1075 copyright © 2017 by the author(s) licensee society of ethnobiology. this is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution-noncommercial 4.0 international public license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0), which permits non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. 102 reviews mackin. 2017. ethnobiology letters 8(1):101–102 that the makahs were “exercising sovereignty over indigenous spaces.” following the native and nonnative competition for resources, the makahs both discouraged settlement around cape flattery while taking advantage of the trade opportunities settlers presented. there is a constant negotiation between settlers and natives as territorial presence, trade arrangements, and mutual threats of violence are navigated. finally, and most importantly, reid debunks the myth of an all-powerful colonial presence and reveals the complex interdependent relationship that existed in the cača-di borderlands, which is a 500-mile stretch of marine space significant to native sociocultural networks. settler colonists were dependent on natives for their indigenous knowledge that supported their vitality in the region. reid gives great credence to the efficacy of indigenous knowledge. for example, knowledge of weather, seasons, biota, and ocean currents, perfected over generations spent in the same place, guided the makahs as they honed appropriate technologies and techniques in support of their livelihood. newcomers relied on natives for food and fuel (whale oil) as well as their highly developed skills and tools in the marine environment. knowledge is power for the makahs in that settler colonial dependency on native know-how gave the makahs bargaining power in the treaty process and lesser transactions of power. reid acknowledges what few do: the essential reliance settler colonists had on native people in their colonial endeavors. he goes so far as to say that the colonial endeavor was dependent on native participation. by demonstrating how the people of the cape combined customary practices with new opportunities and technologies to succeed on their own terms in the settler-colonial world, reid turns “dependency theory” on its head. nuancing his discussion of indigenous knowledge, reid delves into the makah worldview, which “equated spirituality with responsible stewardship” (148). the spiritual beliefs and practices, which guided makah life and whaling, were starkly different from those of the colonial system. from the makah perspective of a “sacred ecology,” they saw themselves as relatives of the non-human actors in their environment. the makah recognized a “responsibility to maintain balanced relationship with the non-human people of the region” (153). from the earliest interactions between natives and non-natives throughout the treaty period and native recovery of whaling practices in the 1990s, misunderstandings of cultural differences such as the native kincentric viewpoint and the gift economy that balanced power through acts of reciprocity, lead to fundamental breakdowns in cross-cultural exchange. examining the relationship of the makah to their marine and terrestrial spaces, borderlands dynamics, pressure on resources including the makah food supply and trade goods, spiritual beliefs and customary practices, reid holds on tightly to the thread of resistance and the changing tide of native agency in the colonial context. he demonstrates how by taking advantage of trade opportunities and participating in the extraction industry, the makah integrated colonial practices into their own customary lifeways as a strategy of survival in the context of a fierce competition for resources. reid emphasizes that the makah, through the persistence of their leadership in negotiation with the us government, preserved their relationship with the sea, and engaged the settlercolonial world on their own terms. the power that they retained in this process allowed the makah to hold “enough power” to complicate imperial processes and hang on to their own destiny. reid’s nuanced view stands as a shining example for scholars writing indigenous-environmental history, one that dispels familiar myths perpetuated by both historical sources and previous scholarship. exploring environments through water: an ethno-hydrography of the tibesti mountains (central sahara) musch. 2021. ethnobiology letters 12(1):1–11 1 research communications emerging discipline of ethno-hydrology (cf. ruth et al. 2019; vargas-velázquez 2019; west et al. 2016), knowledge about how water organizes space and how it allows orientation (cf. gladwin 1970; hutchins 1995:67; istomin and dwyer 2009) comes into focus in what we could label “ethno-hydrography.” such a graphy of water (and, through water, of space in general) allows the understanding of environments, including their resources and the ways to travel through them. discussing cases of the teda’s hydrography of the tibesti, i show how the aim of ethno-hydrography is not principally the cartography of watercourses, but the holistic and dynamic mapping of environments, which include different kinds of topographic features, non-human beings, natural resources, and ways to travel through. as a methodological tool, i use a kind of ethnographic participatory mapping. in fact, the holistic understanding of always-changing environments requires rather the dynamic tool of mapping than a fixed cartography. according to followers of the human turn in geography, maps have to be understood as “practices,” and they “proceed from action” (kitchin et al. 2009:1). such actionoriented perspectives in mapping try to situate introduction when ethnographically exploring river systems in the tibesti mountains (northern chad) and among teda, its inhabitants, one could put the accent on water as a resource. in fact, water, as a prerequisite for the existence of life, is especially relevant in hyper-arid deserts, such as the central sahara (figure 1). however, rivers in the tibesti do not have water every year; even in years when precipitation is sufficient, they have water only during a relatively short period of time. thus, if people attach importance to river courses, it is not only because they sometimes have water; rather rivers seem to contribute to their understanding of the environment. this idea is also expressed in a study of spatial orientation among reindeer herders (istomin and dwyer 2009). here, rivers are an essential feature in describing and understanding space. there seems to be a growing interest in the relationship between humans and bodies of water in social science in general (e.g., gagné and borg 2016; hastrup and hastrup 2016) and in ethnobiology in particular (e.g., silvano et al. 2007). while the perception and valorization of water and the access to it as a resource represents a major concern of the exploring environments through water: an ethno-hydrography of the tibesti mountains (central sahara) tilman musch1* 1department of cultural studies and ethnology, university of bayreuth, bayreuth, germany. *tilman.musch@uni-bayreuth.de abstract an ethno-hydrography, studying the organization of space through water, can provide a key to understanding how people conceive their environments in a holistic way. based on mapping as a dynamic process, different representations of river systems among the tubu teda, who live in the tibesti mountains (central sahara), are described in this paper. i first discuss a large-scale subdivision of the mountains into drainage basins, and then representations of a sub-regional and local river system, including an engraving on a sandstone rock. finally, i discuss these case studies in the context of holistic experiences of environments and the dynamic processes of mapping. received june 7, 2020 open access accepted december 7, 2020 doi 10.14237/ebl.12.1.2021.1709 published january 8, 2021 keywords teda, central sahara, tibesti, water, natural resources, mapping copyright © 2021 by the author(s); licensee society of ethnobiology. this is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution-noncommercial 4.0 international public license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0), which permits non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. musch. 2021. ethnobiology letters 12(1):1–11 2 research communications representations “in the flow of a broader process of knowledging including crucial pragmatic dimensions” (söderström 2005:14). the “transitory,” “fleeting,” “relational,” and “context-dependent” character of maps means that “they are always mappings” (kitchin and dodge 2007:331). i start with a rough picture of the drainage systems and watersheds of the entire mountain range (figure 2), then move on to the particular case of the river system around aozu (also: oozu; french: aouzou) in the north (figure 3), and finally conclude with a “prehistoric” map on a sandstone block (figure 4). on the basis of these cases from the tibesti, i provide keys to how people understand their environments in a holistic way through the mapping of river systems, what we could call an “ethno-hydrography.” regional background the tibesti is a mountain range shaped by volcanism, the main phase of which was in the neogene. the area reaches roughly from the 24° latitude in the north to 19° latitude in the south. some of its mountains— called emi in the language of the teda—exceed 3,000 meters, and the emi kussi, at 3,415 meters, is the highest mountain in the central sahara. the hydrographic boundary between the lake chad basin in the south and the mediterranean basin in the north runs across ēy domma, a relatively small mountain in the central part of the tibesti (figure 2). annual precipitation in the entire mountain range, which increases with altitude, is extremely low, resulting in arid to highly arid environmental conditions (grunert 1975:9). at the same time, strong differences in precipitation quantities were observed on the northern, western, and southern flanks of the mountains, which are due to the varying influence of tropical-monsoonal and ectropical-cyclonic air masses (grunert 1975:9). this results in relatively abundant precipitation in the southwest of the massif, with a maximum in august, while in the north, precipitation, which is at its maximum in may, is much lower. annual precipitation can vary significantly. for figure 1 regional map of the central sahara, approximately delimited by the tibesti, air, and ahaggar. the blue rectangle corresponds to figure 2, and the red one to figure 3. source: google maps, modified by the author. musch. 2021. ethnobiology letters 12(1):1–11 3 research communications example, bardai had 60.7 mm in 1966 and 0 mm in 1970 (heckendorf 1972). plateaus, called tarso, are around or above 2,000 meters and thus receive sufficient precipitation for steppe-like vegetation to develop (gabriel 1973:11–14). the annual average temperature for bardai has been calculated at 23.5°c, although it can reach a maximum of 40°c in the summer months. night frosts can occur at high altitudes, especially in january (grunert 1975). the low humidity and high noon temperatures lead to potentially high evaporation rates (heckendorf 1972), which, especially in the case of rivers draining to the north such as the yebbige and the bardage, lead to some water loss in their middle reaches, and much greater loss in their lower reaches. this usually causes rivers to dry up before they leave the mountains (grunert 1975:12). as the sahara dried out over millennia, it is assumed that living creatures found sanctuary in the tibesti and other mountainous massifs (air, ahaggar). it is likely that neolithic cultural elements spread from here to other saharan and north african sites (cf. caneva 1993; garcea 1993). the tibesti may have been inhabited for thousands of years by a population from which, with the arrival of migrating groups, the present teda were formed. the teda, a group of the tubu people, are organized today in 33 clans (arbi) with one supreme chief, the derde. they are speakers of a western saharan language (tedaga) and live in northwestern chad, southern libya, and northeastern niger. in the past, there have been repeated migrations of groups to the tibesti (fuchs 1961:91). but groups also left the tibesti, because of the scarcity of resources here, to take advantage of neighboring pasture grounds, such as those to the west of the mountain range (e.g., tchigai plateau), as also those to its east (ennedi). methods this study of the river systems of the tibesti is part of an ethnographic research project on space and time in the central sahara and among the teda, which i have been conducting in the northeast of niger and northwest of chad (here mostly in the tibesti mountains) since 2014 (e.g., musch 2015, 2017, 2019). repeated visits to communities and peoples allow me to discuss my findings with them, to discover collectively new aspects to be explored and, if figure 2 a drainage systems of the tibesti. sketch by mahadi shahã from the author’s notebook (faya, march 31, 2020). sketch completed with toponyms by the author. b satellite imagery of the tibesti mountains. the view corresponds to mahadi’s sketch. source: google maps, modified by the author. musch. 2021. ethnobiology letters 12(1):1–11 4 research communications necessary, to adjust my approach. first steps towards genuinely collaborative research have been made by co-writing a paper with mahama, a “local” scientist from dirkou in niger (musch and sedike 2019). the results presented here are based on several periods of fieldwork totaling nine months in chad and the tibesti between 2017 and 2020. in particular, participant observation and data collection between 2019 and 2020 helped to produce the bulk of this study. when researching perceptions of space or orientation, i joined people as a co-traveler and engaged with them in conversations about environments we travelled through and about methods of wayfinding. travelling thus became an important methodological tool. travelling not only allows space to be experienced concretely, but it also provides opportunities when travelers are detached from everyday social relationships and constraints, and therefore have time for the concerns of the researcher (cf. spittler 1998:30–31). the concrete experience of space during travel was complemented by a “cartography” of space in the form of participatory ethnographic mapping done on the sand or in my notebook. however, the tool being used as well as the result was not a map, but mapping itself. as explained above, i understand the latter as a dynamic and always ongoing process (cf. kitchin et al. 2009:1; kitchin and dodge 2007:331) in which i am engaged with my research participants. mapping includes not only the drawing which may be produced but, it is constituted by actions like drawing, discussing, explaining, contesting, showing environmental features of the surroundings, etc., as also by the experience of travelling itself. in particular, for ethnobiological and environmental science, participatory mapping can be an important tool for researching “environmental change and challenges” experienced by local communities (gilmore and young 2012:6) or ecosystem services (hodbod et al. 2019). both travelling and mapping are two elements of a whole: travelling is part of mapping and vice versa. all of the maps presented here were made in situ, except for the sketch of the tibesti’s drainage system (figure 2a), drawn in faya (borku). i did, however, gather a similar but less complete sketch in aozu, and in other locations, like bardai, features of the drainage system were explained orally to me, which is also a kind of mapping. in order to engage with people in the process of mapping in the given socio-cultural context, it is not necessary to ask them explicitly for drawings such as those reproduced here. when a local person tries to explain the environment to a foreigner, it is natural for him to draw a map, to comment on it, to discuss it with others, to show features of the surrounding environment, etc. explaining issues by mapping seems figure 3 a the drainage system of aozu. sketch by adoum togoi from the author’s notebook (aozu, november 2, 2019). the inset shows anner’s sand drawing of the yebbige-omu junction (on the route, november 2, 2019). photo by the author. photo and sketch modified by the author. b the lower drainage system of the taanua; the inset shows the yebbige-omu junction; both pictures correspond to figure 3a. source: google maps, modified by the author. musch. 2021. ethnobiology letters 12(1):1–11 5 research communications also to be the way that mapping practices are transferred to children. working by participant observation means, especially in a setting where the number of cotravelers is limited, one cannot “select” interlocutors according to preliminarily established criteria. the researcher has to engage with whomever happens to be there. since such an enterprise takes place under the eyes of everyone, co-travelers point out those among them who know the environment best and who are experienced in wayfinding. these are usually adult men whose life experiences make them experts, like those listed here who drew maps for me: anner torso (aged about 50) is a merchant from aozu who travels frequently between libya and bardai; adoum togoi (aged about 50), also from aozu, spent his childhood herding camels and is now doing business in aozu and libya; and mahadi shahã (60–70 years old), born in eastern tibesti, where teda live close to dõza, another tubu-group, a recognized camel-guide with an excellent sense of direction, now cultivating his own garden in faya (borku). others (see acknowledgements) contributed to the research by more general information on teda history and culture, by explaining further perceptions of space and time, or simply by confirming or nuancing what has been said by somebody else. the ethnographic data obtained from these men was then supplemented by or triangulated with those of “academic” geography. this included a geographic map published by dalloni after an expedition to explore the tibesti in 1934. it is of course true that such a map played a role in colonial land appropriation, but it has the advantage that it contains a much larger number of (however often “frenchified”) toponyms than contemporary geoor hydrographic maps. for the latter, i mainly referred to hydrogeological map sheets at the scales 1:500,000 and 1:200,000, the result of a joint project by the chadian ministry of hydraulics and the swiss confederation, which are figure 4 engravings on the sandstone rock of aozu (photo by the author). inset: satellite imagery of the greater aozu area. source: google maps, modified by the author. musch. 2021. ethnobiology letters 12(1):1–11 6 research communications freely available from the internet (reseau 2020). remote sensing was also used, and satellite imagery with the usual google maps resolution for the area provides a sufficiently detailed picture of the terrain to resolve discrepancies between the drawings and hydrogeological maps. results during travels, i frequently asked teda about the extensive topography of the tibesti, and they often put the accent of their explanations on hydrographic features. they unanimously explained me that the mountains drain in four main directions and that the watersheds originate at a volcano called ēy domma approximately in the center of the mountainous massif. on different occasions, two of them—adoum and mahadi—probably noticed that the abstractness of an oral depiction had to be completed by more concrete means. they picked up my notebook and my pen in order to map this hydrography on paper. this drawing was accompanied by a discussion between me and the respective research participants and interrupted by my own questions—an interactive process. when mapping the watersheds in my notebook, mahadi depicted them with a kind of cross (figure 2a). he pointed out its axes and explained that they represent the watersheds, with their meeting point in the center of the cross. he marked the latter, as well as three important places (bardai, zoumri, and mudroã), with a dot. in his drawing, the tibesti mountains are symbolized by a kind of circle, which the four river systems leave. the latter end in four dry delta fans called arrâĩ (nw), taanua (n), gererdu (se) and madagâda tigi (s). they are symbolized on the map by circles. mahadi also drew three lines that unite to form the taanua but left them without comment. they are striking, because the sub-regional drainage basin of the taanua in the following map of adoum is in fact also made up of three local river systems, and the engraving on the sandstone block in aozu also shows three lines. an important element of the spatial understanding shown in mahadi’s map are the four dry delta fans into which the mountain rivers drain. as he explained after having finished his drawing, they have provided the teda with rich grazing grounds for camel husbandry, which, due to limited resources in the mountains, would not have been possible on a large scale in the tibesti itself. according to oral reports, the dry delta fan of the taanua, for example, offered excellent grazing areas for centuries, but droughts since the 1970s and probably also warfare and landmines (libyan occupation of the aozu strip in 1973; the chadian-libyan border war in 1986/87) seem to have caused many pastoralists to abandon this area. on the other hand, the two southern dry delta fans seem still to be well frequented by camel pastoralists from different teda clans, as also by tubu from other groups. what is remarkable about mahadi’s map is that he did not draw the three calderas of tarso yega, tarso voon, and tarso toon, as well as the shield volcano of tarso tieroko, which are important in their dimensions and thus as markers (cf. figure 2b). rather, he located the meeting point of the watersheds at ēy domma, a relatively small geographical feature. as already mentioned, the hydrographic boundary between the lake chad basin in the south and the mediterranean basin in the north runs in fact through this point. the watershed between two southern sub-regional drainage basins which drain into the dry delta fans of madagâda tigi and gererdu also runs through ēy domma, and the watershed between the northern basins of taanua and arrâĩ is located just slightly north of this point. although the tibesti can still be subdivided hydrogeographically into further sub-regional drainage basins, this teda hydrography which only points out four of them is sufficient to include the most important valleys (in tedaga: enneri [singular]) in terms of size and length, which also contain important settlement sites. these are the valleys of zumri, widinger, and bardage (with the oases zumri and bardai) draining to the northwest, the valleys of yebbige and aozu (with the oases aozu and yebbi bu) draining to the north, the miski valley (with the oases miski and, in its upper course, mudroã) draining to the south, and the valleys of šarda and maro (with, in their upper reaches, the gubon oasis and the medicinal springs of soborom) flowing into the soŋga valley and then draining to the southwest. the second map (figure 3a), drawn by adoum, is part of a mapping process which took place in response to my questions about a map engraved in sandstone found in aozu (figure 4, described below). in order to explain to me how aozu’s people locate this map in a broader topographic context, adoum— assisted by other locals, one of whom had shown me the sandstone engraving the day before—tried to explain to me the sub-regional river system that drains musch. 2021. ethnobiology letters 12(1):1–11 7 research communications into the dry delta fan of the taanua. again, adoum, when feeling that the abstractness of an oral description was not sufficient, picked up my notebook and my pen and drew the present map. a notable feature is the extreme abstraction of adoum’s map: the valleys and their tributaries, as well as their relations to each other and their geographical position, can only be roughly identified. as adoum explained, his map allows us to distinguish three local river systems, all of which flow into the taanua: on the right, that of the yebbige with two of its tributaries, the bru and the omu. in contrast to the topographic map, on which the enneri omu flows into the enneri yebbige near the upper course of the latter, the two rivers join on the map only at the lower course of the enneri yebbige. on the left, one can identify the river system of aozu with the valleys of aozu, erbi, and ndoge. in the middle, adoum drew and named three valleys, which could not be exactly located on the geographic map despite extensive research. the satellite imagery shows in fact a third local river system draining into the taanua between those of aozu and yebbige, but this soon disappears into a sandy plain. on dalloni’s (1934) map there is no such third river system, but it appears on the contemporary map of reseau (2020). however, the latter indicates only the names “togou” and “sougouyi” for the valleys there, and not those adoum mentioned. one of the latter (oy/oye) occurs in fact as a toponym near ēy domma in the far south of the taanua drainage basin. the inset of figure 3a shows a strip map drawn in the sand. this map was made by anner, who was driving our car back from aozu to bardai. i had asked him about our exact location. he thus explained orally, by the help of the map and by gestures towards the surrounding mountains and valleys, that we had left aozu in a south-easterly direction, travelled along the enneri yebbige, and then turned east into the enneri omu. anner’s sand drawing reproduces “realistically” the slight curves of the enneri yebbige and the enneri omu pointing to the east. the last map presented here (figure 4) is a possibly “prehistoric” engraving at the southern end of aozu village, where the path leads to the nearby date palm grove. three separate lines are engraved on the horizontal surface of a sandstone rock; next to them are inscriptions in arabic script probably from the last decades and the drawing of a camel. in the immediate vicinity of the rock are further engravings, mostly on vertical surfaces, whose variety of themes suggests that they come from very different periods of saharan rock art (camels, giraffes, human representation, and, further away, cattle), and thus may be between 2,000 (the earliest for camels) and perhaps 9,000 or more (for giraffes) years old (cf. le quellec 2013). the age of the map can hardly be determined. the collective memory of aozu’s inhabitants has neither retained the occasion for which this map was made, nor any of the times when it might have been used. looking at the map, one notices the prominent bend of one of the two outer lines, which makes it possible to identify it as the enneri of aozu. the latter, after having left the oasis, runs first to the northwest and then turns to the northeast. the other two valleys probably represent the enneri erbi and the enneri ndoge. this hypothesis is confirmed by inhabitants of the oasis stating that the engraving represents the local river system of aozu. however, the hypothesis that it represents not the local river system, but the subregional one of the taanua with its three confluents (as it is shown on adoum’s map and perhaps by the three unexplained lines on mahadi’s sketch) cannot be completely excluded. what was the use of the engraved map of aozu’s valleys? as nobody remembers when and how it was created or used, there are two hypotheses: either the map was used in order to explain the topography to travelling foreigners, or it served as a support in order to materialize claims on valleys made by different groups, as discussed below. the engraved map is highly abstract, and the lines end before they join. according to the map’s orientation in situ, the confluence of the valleys takes place in the west and not, as is actually the case, in the north. however, this may have something to do with the surface texture and orientation of the rock or with the engraver’s own understanding of his work. even when contemporary sand maps are drawn, often no attempt is made to have points on the map match geographical points. thus, the map on the ground may be drawn so that the area showing north actually lies to the geographical east. such correspondence, however, is always conserved when, after giving the abstract explanation with the help of a map, the way is explained to the traveler with the outstretched hand and through references to landmarks and time (cf. musch 2015). musch. 2021. ethnobiology letters 12(1):1–11 8 research communications discussion mapping is one of the practices of human spatial experience. the manifold examples of “prehistoric” maps in rock art (e.g., delano smith 1982; doolittle 1988:46–47) allow the hypothesis “that humanity was making maps prior to the invention of writing or even to the agricultural revolution” (stea et al. 1996:351– 52). it seems difficult or impossible to date the engraved map of aozu. however, the fact that local collective memory does not retain any idea about its creation and use allows us to conclude that the engraving is very old. its similarity to current sketches of river systems suggests that there may be a continuity in the perception of space through the representation of water. the extreme abstraction of the teda’s maps allows us to compare them with similar attempts to represent space, made by completely different cultures, such as “stick-charts,” made of sticks tied together (wise 1976:15), or “strip map[s],” in which lines are drawn into the substrate (burland 1947:288; maceachren 1986). such maps have neither scale nor indications of orientation or a frame of reference (golledge 1999:13), but depict space in a way that “anyone knowing the country” could understand which specific features are being referred to, as burland (1947:288) states in regard to similar representations of river systems. the latter statement must, however, be put into perspective. in fact, a finely calibrated orientation is hardly necessary if a traveler follows a river, because the topography already gives the direction, and a deviation from the path should only rarely occur. this could be an explanation why all maps of river systems shown here for the tibesti are highly abstract. in the introduction, i underlined that the graphy of water is not principally a cartography of watercourses, but “the holistic and dynamic mapping of environments, which include different kinds of topographic features, non-human beings, natural resources, and ways to travel through.” the examples given show what is meant by such a “holistic and dynamic” mapping. hydrographic knowledge forms the basis for knowledge of the occurrence, use, and ownership of natural resources, which is all the more important where such resources are scarce. in fact, the valleys (figure 5) represent a topographical feature of particular interest to the local population because they harbor natural resources. in many valleys, as well as in their dry delta fans at the edge of the mountains, grazing land is found. in other valleys, date oases and oasis gardens exist, and, in the past, wild fruits, such as those of citrullus colocynthis (awur), aristida pungens (moyugu), panicum turgidum (guši), and others, as well as firewood, mainly from acacia tortilis ssp. raddiana (tehi), also represented important resources. for this reason, valleys are regarded by teda groups as their respective territories (baroin 1988:205). furthermore, since 2013, gold, found in placer deposits of the valleys, has become an important resource of the teda. in this contemporary case of resource exploitation, the ownership of a valley still belongs to a particular group. mahadi’s explanation does not primarily have the abstract goal of describing watersheds in the tibesti. rather, his purpose is to explain where rivers and riverbeds lead: to the rich grazing grounds that allow the keeping of large camel herds in places close to the mountains. similarly, the exact knowledge of the sub figure 5 two examples of valleys in the tibesti: a the enneri zumri, b a small mountain valley near the village of gubon. musch. 2021. ethnobiology letters 12(1):1–11 9 research communications regional and local river systems that the former herdsman adoum possesses does not serve as abstract hydrography, but implicitly includes knowledge of where resources can be found and who can harvest them. valleys are also important because they represent travel routes for the highly mobile teda (cf. chapelle 1982:172–176). they do not only allow orientation in space, but rather provide a navigable terrain in often impassable mountains. thus, in an enneri a pedestrian, a camel rider, or, in many places, also a car, can move relatively easily. and there is a strong link between ownership over and social organization of natural resources in space on the one hand and the ability of travelling through space on the other. as i have shown in a prior paper, the claim on scarcely or not-at -all-inhabited desert spaces is not made through permanent presence, but through the ability to travel in such spaces, including the capacity of orientation (musch 2017). traveling in valleys is what we did when returning with anner from our visit to aozu along the enneri yebbige and the enneri omu. in the latter, i asked anner to explain to me where we were traveling. thereupon he drew for me the map in the sand and commented on it. what is important is not the sandmap itself, which the wind will soon blow away, but the context of action where mapping becomes a dynamic tool based on the sand-graphy, on speech, gestures, and on surrounding environmental vistas. one can imagine cases where the way is less evident or where different alternative ways are available that have to be discussed by the travelers. then mapping becomes a much more interactive and dynamic process. one may think that the engraved stone map can serve as an example for a fixed map and that it may be difficult to speak of “mapping” in this context, since we do not know the circumstances under which it was created. however, two peculiarities allow us to place the map in a context of action. first, it is so abstract that it is of little use to allow orientation in space or to materialize claims of ownership without oral explanations and discussions. one can therefore imagine that travelers discussed their route by means of this map, or that they asked locals for explanations, or (in the case that the map materialized claims of ownership), that it was a device used to discuss collectively the access to and the use of valleys by different groups. in this way the engraved stone map was always actualized anew through processes of mapping. the map adoum drew in order to explain the stone engraving to me is an example of such an actualization of this map in a context of action, and the participatory mapping carried out with mahadi is another example of how a well-established cartography is actualized in an interactive context of mapping. one can also state that the “prehistoric” map is apparently located in a prominent place where artists left their engravings as long as 9,000 or more years ago, and where people are still applying graffiti. the neighboring engravings of giraffes, cattle, camels, and the contemporary graffiti in arabic script can all be seen as representations of changing natural and social environments (humid savannah, steppe, desert, and the closeness to contemporary libya). such representations of environments can be considered as the “appropriation of landscapes by means of rock art” (lenssen-erz 2012) done by mobile people, which is close to the above mentioned appropriation of wide desert spaces through the ability to travel through them and knowledge of their orientation. the rocks where the map and the other engravings can be found could thus embody a millennia-old and stillongoing process of mapping which is holistic in time and space. environments are not stable, but change, due, for example, to seasons, global climate, social action, or just the different ways in which people represent them. an ethno-hydrography, as i have outlined it, is thus based on processes of mapping rather than on fixed maps. the main topographic features on which ethno-hydrography relies are rivers and valleys (though in other geographic contexts they may be oceans, lakes, etc.). however, the focus in ethnohydrography lies not on water itself, but on how the water organizes environments. ethno-hydrography thus aims to provide keys to how people understand their surroundings through the graphy of water in a given space. acknowledgments i would like to thank all the teda with whom i am carrying out my research for their always great hospitality. for information and support when preparing the present paper, i thank especially mahama abalaiyi, djiddi allahi, hitti allatchi, senoussi koki, mahadi shahã, djiddi tchagam, brahim tchouma, adoum togoi, anner torso, and souleymane yaya. i would also like to thank chadians musch. 2021. ethnobiology letters 12(1):1–11 10 research communications and chadian institutions for their hospitality and cooperativeness. not least, i thank the german gerda henkel foundation which since 2018 has financed my research among the teda, and norm mundhenk for improving the language of the present text. declarations permissions: written research and travel permits from the republic of chad. oral permissions from local chiefs, elders, and commoners to whom research is always presented in a preliminary form. sources of funding: gerda henkel stiftung, germany. conflicts of interest: none declared. references cited baroin, c. 1988. gens du roc et du sable. les toubou. hommage à charles et marguerite le cœur. cnrs, paris. burland, c. a. 1947. american indian map makers. the geographical magazine 20:285–292. caneva, i. 1993. pre-pastoral middle nile: local developments and saharan contacts. in environmental change and human culture in the nile basin and northern 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cartography in the marshall islands. the canadian cartographer 13:11–20. doi:10.3138/k644-3525-1227-0wh7. viking games and saami pastimes: making balls of fomitopsis betulina svanberg and lidström. 2019. ethnobiology le ers 10(1):86–96 86 research communica on synonymous for the balls used in games (matras 1955). in the late thirteenth century, old norse prose translations of various “chansons de geste” about charlemagne and his twelve peers, known as karlmagnús saga ok kappa hans, mention a soft ball (sǫppr) which was a ball that was soft enough to grip and throw (bjarnarsson 1905; unger 1860). in several norse medieval ballads, the word sopp was used for a ball in various ball games (bugge 1858; landstad 1853). in 1973 the saami author sara ranta-rönnlund (1903‒1979), who comes from a conservative laestadian christian reindeer herding family of leaváš čearru in the province of norrbotten, wrote about outdoor games that amused the saami children during her childhood. many of these games were considered sins by her laestadian parents. one such game was a kind of ball game, in which they used large, soft bracket fungi that grow on the trunks of mountain birch trees (betula pubescens var. pumila). the bracket was shaped with a knife (ranta-rönnlund 1973). the ball used by sara and other saami children was made from the birch bracket or birch conk, fomitopsis betulina (syn. piptoporus betulinus). making such balls was a practice among the norse people, introduction play elements in a culture are important for human beings, as has been pointed out by the dutch historian johan huizinga (1949). in pre-industrial society, many activities required an intimate familiarity with local biota (lévi-strauss 1962). this is also reflected in the material culture connected with traditional games. traditional games involved the use of implements made of local biological resources. today, most of the time-honored knowledge about local biota is losing ground in contemporary urban and post-industrial societies like those in scandinavia. nowadays, there is little demand for this kind of knowledge. however, children’s play with plants and other biological organisms sometimes reveals the customs and practices of older times (anderson 2000; łuczaj and kujawska 2012; svanberg 2001, 2007; svanberg et al. 2011; zarger and stepp 2004). balls (old norse knǫttr) were used in violent ball games by adults during the viking age and early medieval times. these balls seem to have been made of wood or other hard materials (bjarnarsson 1905; götlind 1934). however, children probably used softer materials, even though their games could also be violent (høeg 1971). the old norse word for fungus (bracket) was sǫppr, which was also viking games and saami pas mes: making balls of fomitopsis betulina ingvar svanberg1* and isak lidström2 1ins tute for russian and eurasian studies, uppsala university, sweden. 2department of sport science, malmö university, sweden. *ingvar.svanberg@ires.uu.se abstract ethnomycology is the study of the bio‐cultural aspects of human‐fungal interac ons. this ar cle discusses the involvement of the bracket fungus fomitopsis betulina within the material culture of tradi onal games. with a par cular focus on the nordic countries, the aim is to review and analyze the use of simple balls made of bracket fungi. we argue that the fungi ball can be considered the precursor of the rubber (and the gu a‐percha) ball. moreover, the replacement of fungi balls with rubber balls marks, to a certain extent, a temporal transi on from tradi onal folk games with roots in pre‐ industrial society to modern sports in which balls and other equipment received a more standardized shape. received march 19, 2019 open access accepted may 31, 2019 doi 10.14237/ebl.10.1.2019.1565 published november 5, 2019 keywords bio‐cultural domains; bracket fungi; childlore; cultural context; ethnomycology; ball games; tradi onal games copyright © 2019 by the author(s) licensee society of ethnobiology. this is an open‐access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution‐noncommercial 4.0 international public license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by‐nc/4.0), which permits non‐commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. svanberg and lidström. 2019. ethnobiology le ers 10(1):86–96 87 research communica on nordic (swedish, norwegian) peasants and the saami in sápmi, probably occurring as early as the viking age (liestøl 1919; matras 1955). they shaped the brackets into balls by cutting them with a knife. occasionally, such balls are still made (høeg 1974; kjellström 2000; klintberg 1998; olsson 2009). methods and objectives ethnomycology is the study of the bio-cultural aspects of human-fungal interactions (yaminpasternak 2011). research in historical folk mycology and folk knowledge can provide us with information about little known practices in the past (svanberg 2007; medeiros 2016). data found in archives and in scattered notes in older literature are invaluable sources when it comes to mapping the diversity of the pre-industrial local people’s relationship to the biota in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries (svanberg 2018). this study is focused on the use of brackets in traditional games. we will also briefly review other uses of some bracket fungi on the scandinavian peninsula. for this research, we are using a qualitative method where ethnographic description plays an important role. there are several kinds of sources: ethnological monographs, folk-life records, mycological literature, philological studies, and topographic literature (svanberg 2010). with the help of ethnographic records in printed sources, dictionaries, and records in the folklore archives in sweden (located in härnösand, stockholm, and uppsala), this article sets out to review and analyze the cultural context and use of simple balls made of bracket fungi. in addition, other kinds of homemade figure 1 freshly made balls of fomitopsis betulina (photo by isak lidström). svanberg and lidström. 2019. ethnobiology le ers 10(1):86–96 88 research communica on balls are briefly considered. we will also describe the ball games wherein such balls were used. bracket fungi in the nordic folk biology bracket fungi, also called shell fungi or polypores, are a distinctive category of fungi, which were important in scandinavian pre-industrial society, sometimes even later. it constitutes a polyphyletic group that was long perceived as a fungus family (polyporaceae). however, recent molecular studies have resulted in its division into several different orders (hibbett et al. 2007). commonly bracket fungi parasitize tree trunks and branches, although some are terrestrial and form mycorrhiza with trees. an example of the terrestrial form is the forest lamb (albatrellus ovinus) which is nowadays an edible mushroom appreciated in sweden (svanberg 2018). a few bracket fungi taxa were by tradition culturally salient in northern scandinavia (høeg 1974; svanberg 2018). polypores have been used for health-related, technical and other purposes, including balls in children’s games. some species are common and widely distributed in boreal areas of the northern hemisphere (jaederfeldt 2004). the use of some of the taxa, such as birch conk, f. betulina, and tinder bracket, fomes fomentarius, is known to occur across vast areas (allen and hatfield 2004) and since ancient times. pieces of fruiting bodies from both of those taxa were, for instance, carried by the mummified body known as ötzi the iceman who lived 5300 years ago and was discovered in the ötztal alps (alpi venoste) on the border between austria and italy (peintner and pöder 2000; tunón and svanberg 1999). the fruiting body of f. betulina has a rubbery texture which becomes corky with age. ethnobiological data from the pre-industrial scandinavian peninsula indicates that this fungus has had various medical uses. for instance, charcoal produced from it has been used as an antiseptic agent (høeg 1974; klintberg 1998; peintner and pöder 2000; svanberg 2018). in eighteenth-century västergötland, it was used in that province’s folk veterinary medicine against a bacterial disease (locally known as rödsot) in sheep (svanberg 2018). in addition, the data show that this fungus has been used for nonmedical purposes, such as protecting metal blades from rust, sharpening razors, and as toys, cork, or pin cushions (fries 1864; linnaeus 1755; retzius 1806; ifos: ulma 28641). in flora svecica, linnaeus noted that the birch conk was used instead of cork to stopper bottles (linnaeus 1755; retzius 1806). according to rothof (1762), well-dried birch conk could be used as floats on fishing nets and fishing lines. in nineteenth-century småland, the soft part of the fungus was cut into pieces and used by children in the village schools to erase what they wrote on their slates (klintberg 1998). the fruit body could also be shaped to make dolls’ heads (olsson 2009). tinder bracket, fomes fomentarius, primarily a holarctic taxon, is found all over europe, north africa (including the canary islands), asia, and north america. it has been widely used across the northern hemisphere to make amadou, a kind of tinder (manninen 1933; harding 2008). the species’ common name accurately reflects the historic role of the true tinder fungus in making and transporting fire. among the saami, it was also burned on the skin in the manner of moxibustion (steen 1961). in the collection of the royal armoury (livrustkammaren), stockholm, there are a few textiles made of f. figure 2 birch conk, fomitopsis betulina (photo by isak lidström, 2019). svanberg and lidström. 2019. ethnobiology le ers 10(1):86–96 89 research communica on fomentarius, as well as a jacket, a cap, and a bag. it has also been used as a styptic by surgeons, barbers, and dentists (roussel et al. 2002; svanberg 2018). other taxa used by the locals in scandinavia are false tinder conk, phellinus igniarius, used for making tinder (allen and hatfield 2004; linnaeus 1737; svanberg 2018). its smoke was regarded by local users as effective against mosquitoes (høeg 1974; linnaeus 1737). scented bracket fungus, haploporus odorus, has a fragrant aniselike scent which persists even after drying. it has been used by peasants in northern sweden to flavor snuff, bread, brown cheese, and rice pudding (svanberg 2018). the male saami youth used it as fragrance (linnaeus 1737), while the peasants in northern sweden used it for its pleasant scent in storage chests (svanberg 2018). balls and ball games ball games have been played by humans since ancient times. classical literature, iconographic evidence, and ethnographic descriptions recount a great variety of ball games from various parts of the world (culin 1907; nordenskiöld 1912; o’sullivan 2012). several ball games are mentioned in ancient greek and roman literature, sometimes even with detailed descriptions of the rules. among these pastimes, the physically demanding ball game harpastum, in which two competing teams on a divided field struggled to keep the ball on their side, was most likely inherited by the romans from the greeks (harris 1972). the ancient nordic peoples also played ball games. one of the golden horns of gallehus, dated from fifth-century denmark, depicts a man throwing a ball. several mentions of knattleikr (which literally means “ball game”) in the icelandic saga literature confirm that ball games occurred frequently even during the viking age in scandinavia (martin 2003; thurber 2015). like the vikings, these games could get violent. the third chapter of the legendary saga (fornaldarsögur) about mythical kings, bósa saga ok herrauðs, written around 1300, mentioned “soppleikr.” however, from the context one can assume that the ball was not soft and the game was not for weaklings: “there was one time when the king’s men had a ball game (at hirðin hafði soppleik), and people were playing with much energy, and the action came to bosi. he responded roughly, and the arm of one of the king’s men was dislocated. the next day he broke the foot of another. on the third day two men went after him and many of them shoved him. he struck the eye out of one of them with the ball (ló hann þá augat ór einum með soppinum), and felled another and broke his neck” (trans. george l. hardman in hardman 2011). humans have long found enjoyment in throwing, kicking, hitting, catching, and bouncing a ball, this simple piece of technology. before the introduction of rubber produced by the rubber tree (hevea brasiliensis) from south america, balls were made of wood, leather, animal hide, and swine-bladders (and other domestic mammal’s bladders). from the 1840s, natural rubber became the main raw material for making balls, although among the scandinavian peasantry and the saami the practice of making simple homemade balls survived until the twentieth century (bjurman 1980; kjellström 2000; lönnqvist 1970; vold halvorsen 1983). the traditional manufacture of balls has varied from place to place. one common method was to make a cover by sewing together a couple of pieces of leather. the cover was then stuffed with various materials such as cloth, rags, cowor horsehair, pigs’ bristles and star moss (tortula ruralis) (brøndegaard 1978; knudsen 1922; lidström 2017; tillhagen and dencker 1949). several travelers reported watching ball games in action. in 1673 the german-swedish scholar johannes schefferus described a game played by the saami of northern scandinavia (sápmi) with a ball as “big as a fist, made of leather, and stuffed with hay” in his comprehensive work lapponia (the history of lapland) (mehl 1949; schefferus 1673). italian explorer guiseppe acerbi witnessed how the saami played a game “with a leathern ball stuffed hard” during his travel to the north cape in the late eighteenth century (acerbi 1802). norwegian priest knud leem described a saami ball game saying that the ball was “covered with hide and stuffed with hair, straw, rags, or the like” in his old but informative account of the saami people in finnmark (leem 1767; mehl 1949). the saami reindeer herder anta pirak remembered balls stuffed with sand (pirak 1933). other documents mention other ways to make balls. until recently, many balls in scandanavian countries were made by wrapping wool thread around a cork or other hard material, such as stone, lead, or wood (falk ytter 1868; knudsen 1922; lönnqvist 1970; tillhagen and dencker 1949; wessman 1962). a different way to make balls occurred after the slaughter of cattle. these balls were made by scraping vertebrae into round shapes and subsequently boiling svanberg and lidström. 2019. ethnobiology le ers 10(1):86–96 90 research communica on them in lye in order to make them soft (nm: eu 10381). however, in some games, especially the traditional bat-and-ball games, a hard core was necessary for the ball to be hit high and far. this required a somewhat different manufacture as is described in an account from the danish island of mors: the core was made of cow hair soaked in urine, thereafter heated in water and coated with tar. finally, a cover could be embroidered around the core (knudsen 1922). balls of this sort were not only objects for play but also small pieces of artwork, as is evident from the beautiful embroidery with patterns in different colors (knudsen 1922). balls made of bracket fungi seem to be exclusive to scandinavia in europe, and are known from norwegian, swedish, and saami ball games (høeg 1974; manker 1947; kjellström 2000). according to ethnographer toivio immanuel itkonen (1941), the saami in inari in northern finland made balls of birch fungi, which they boiled in ash lye, after which they were formed into balls that became very elastic. ethnobotanist ove arbo høeg gives several examples from twentieth century norway of how people, especially boys, made balls of birch brackets to play with. during world war ii when there was a shortage of rubber balls, they used brackets instead. if the bracket balls became hard and dry, they soaked them (høeg 1974). there are occasional records from denmark that boys played soccer with a bracket ball during world war ii (brøndegaard 1978). there are also notes about the use of birch brackets for making balls among the hungarians in transylvania (papp et al. 2017), as well as records from indigenous people in north america. for instance in canada, the stól:ō and haisla of british columbia used brackets in various ball games (turner 1998). games using bracket-balls a common game among the saami who lived around the lule river in the first half of the nineteenth century was simply called “bat ball” (råttot). few details of this game have been left to posterity, but in her 1918 published dissertation, sigrid drake mentions that the ball was made of a white bracket (svappa) and covered with chamois. a bat (ratto-muor), and a goal (radja) were used in the game (drake 1918), indicating that the pastime was a variant of a game usually known in the scandinavian countries as “longball” (danish: langbold; swedish: långboll), an old and widespread traditional bat-and-ball game similar to american baseball. many variants of longball have gone by different names, such as söt och sur (“sweet and sour”) and tre slag och ränna (“three strikes and run”) in sweden. however, some basic principles of the game can be mentioned. the playing field is in the shape of a rectangle, approximately 30 to 50 meters long, in which the short sides mark the borders that figure 3 a nineteenth century ball made of birch conk at ma sudden’s saami handicra school. nordic muse‐ um collec on nm 42852a (photo courtesy of the nordic museum, stockholm). figure 4 a ball made of birch conk used in 1898 by finn‐ ish‐speaking children in the area between haparanda and piteå in northern sweden (photo courtesy of the nordic museum, stockholm). svanberg and lidström. 2019. ethnobiology le ers 10(1):86–96 91 research communica on distinguish two bases—the home base and the running base—from the fielding area. two teams position themselves at the bases, the batting team at the home base and the fielding team at the running base. the aim of the fielding team is to win the position of batting team, while the aim of the batting team is to defend its position at home base. the game starts when a pitcher from the fielding team tosses the ball to a batsman of the batting team who, after a successful hit, starts running from the home base to the running base. if someone from the fielding team manages to catch the ball before it touches the ground, the teams switch bases. at both bases, the batsman and his team members are considered safe, but as soon as they run on the field between the two bases, they risk being “burned”: in other words, hit with the ball by any member of the fielding team. as soon as this happens, the teams switch sides (götlind 1934; hellspong 2000; tillhagen and dencker 1949). although balls made of leather, cork, and wool thread have been most popular with people playing longball, birch conk was nonetheless used in large parts of sweden from the province of lapland in the north (drake 1918), to björkvik parish in södermanland (nm: eu 32006), and stenestad parish in skåne province, southern sweden (nm: eu 7579). a variant of longball was recorded by erik lehmann from hallingeberg parish, småland province. in this game called spele boll (play ball), the ball was made either of rags wrapped in cloth or of soft birch conk (nm: eu 10714). in a record from frändefors parish, dalsland province, informant anders jansson describes the game under the name slå boll (bat ball) and states that the best balls were made of fungi that grew on birch or swedish whitebeam, sorbus intermedia (nm: eu 20893). playing longball was a common and very old practice in the pre-industrial society of nordic countries. although the word “longball” was unfamiliar at the time, all the accounts of saami ball games from the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries cited above are most likely variants of the game. this is true at least regarding the account provided by the norwegian priest knud leem (1767). the games mentioned by schefferus (1673) and acerbi (1802) seem simpler since no base running procedure is provided in the descriptions. previously, it was often argued that longball was a game of nordic origin (balck 1886; maigaard 1941). however, such a claim seems obsolete as it is obvious that the game in different variants and under different names has occurred in large parts of europe and outside, even back in antiquity (craven 1978; dehass and droulias 2010; gini 1939; mendner 1956; møller 1997; riordan 1986/1987). in 1930 p. m. lundin recorded a very old and rare ball game from an old man from the swedish parish of laxviken, jämtland province. the participants were divided into two teams and stood in two lines, facing each other. a pitcher tossed the ball to a batsman of his own team. the batsman was to strike the ball as hard as possible against the other team so that it could break through the opponents’ line. the other team’s job was to defend their line, and if the batsman could rebound the ball, so much the better. balls made of birch conk were particularly useful in this game, since they were hard and bounced very well (nm: eu 866). the birch conk’s elasticity provided an obvious advantage in games where the ball was supposed to bounce. a record describing the common folk game figure 5 the birch conk balls are boiled in ash lye (photo by isak lidström, 2019). svanberg and lidström. 2019. ethnobiology le ers 10(1):86–96 92 research communica on bollstå stated that the ball was thrown at a wall and needed to bounce back as far as possible: for this, a birch conk core was wrapped with cloth and covered with wool thread (nm: m 7548). the previously mentioned game, described by the saami author sara ranta-rönnlund, also underlines how unsurpassed the birch conk was if the objective was to make a ball with bounce. the game was simple but nevertheless required certain skills. with a stick of the right size, the ball could be hit straight up in the air. the aim was then to keep it in the air with additional new hits (ranta-rönnlund 1973). in 1915 ethnologist levi johansson recorded the outdoor game peta boll from his informant anna kristina berglund in the village of åkrogen, graninge parish, ångermanland province. mrs. berglund as a child used balls made of fresh birch conk to play the game (murberget: lmv-m 265). the game peta boll i grop was a very common folk game in the preindustrial society. in the center of the play area was a pit in the ground around which several smaller holes were dug in a circle—one hole fewer than the number of participants. all participants were equipped with a wooden stick. one participant was selected as the ball player, whose aim was to get the ball into the pit. the other participants—the defenders—wanted to prevent this from happening. however, they were supposed to defend not only the pit at center of the playing field, but each of them also protected one of the smaller holes by keeping the end of their stick in it. when a defender tried to hit the ball with his stick, he also risked being deprived of his own hole, if the ball player managed to put his own stick into it. when this occurred, positions were changed so that the defender who lost his hole became the new ball player. this also happened if the player managed to strike the ball and hit (bränna) any defender with it (götlind 1934; hellspong 2000; tillhagen and dencker 1949). in the mid-nineteenth century, ethnologist and teacher pehr arvid säve from the swedish island of gotland recorded the same game from his informant catharina b. östman. the game was called laika bränn-båll (which should not be confused with the very popular bat-and-ball game brännboll which is still played in sweden today). laika bränn-båll was played with a ball made of birch conk (säve 1948; see also nm: eu 2648). another record describing this game also mentions a ball of birch conk, called vitsyppa in the local vernacular (swedish province of jämtland). according to informant per persson from grimnäs parish, the material from the birch conk could easily be kneaded to form a ball, which after drying became durable and pleasant to handle (nm: eu 41254). evidence of balls made of birch conks for playing this game is also known from the swedish provinces of västergötland (nm: eu 2661) and småland (nm: eu 2954). after studying records describing the game of peta boll i grop, it is clear that the materials used to make the ball varied greatly, and birch conk was not as common as a lathed ball of wood. simpler materials could also be used, such as a stone (hellspong 2000) or a potato (nm: ifgh 2810-1932-1863). as a traditional folk game, peta boll i grop was widespread in various parts of europe (brewster 1957; hellspong 2000; knudsen 1932). the name of the game varied not only from country to country but also from village to village. often the name was a description of the practice, for instance, the name peta boll i grop means literally “poke the ball into the pit”. however, in several accounts from different parts of europe, the ball symbolized a swine and the player represented the swineherd. in the 1920s in denmark the game was still known as so i hul, which literary means “sow in hole” (knudsen 1932; møller 1997). among the swedish-speaking population on the estonian island of naissaar/nuckö, the game was called svin-späl and the task of the ball player was to ker svine (“drive the swine”) (ifos: ulma 19435). brewster (1957) provides several examples of this swine symbolism from russia, poland and eastern europe. conclusion our impression is that fungi balls were not used as commonly in traditional ball games of the nordic countries as leather balls stuffed with materials such as corks, rags, hay, or cloth. however, as a result of this overview, it is clear that the birch bracket had particular benefits, which other materials lacked. in simpler games, which required a ball with a lot of bounce, the elastic property of the birch conk was very useful. in more advanced games, such as longball, more effort was put into the manufacture of the ball, which could include sewing a leather case, stuffing the ball, and even embroidering the case with patterns in different colors. a characteristic of balls made of birch conk was that they were easy to make: the only tool needed was a knife. in the vast majority of the accounts studied, the balls consisted of birch conk only. some accounts, svanberg and lidström. 2019. ethnobiology le ers 10(1):86–96 93 research communica on however, reveal that the balls could be covered with a case of leather (drake 1918) or that the fungi functioned only as a core to produce a ball with bounce (nm: m 7548). another impression is that fungi balls belonged to a traditional practice of folk games, in which participants manufactured their own equipment for use in games (hellspong 1990). the fungi ball can thereby be considered the precursor of the rubber (and the gutta-percha) ball, which was not homemade but produced by specialists and obtained by those who used it (cf. nm: eu 32006). a record from dalsland province in sweden states that as soon as rubber balls could be purchased, fungi balls were no longer used (nm: eu 20893). it is interesting to note, however, that in times of commodity crisis, such as during the world wars, people still knew how to make fungi balls as substitutes for leather or rubber balls, even in the sport of soccer (høeg 1974). to conclude, the replacement of fungi balls with rubber balls marks to a certain extent a temporal transition from traditional folk 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columbia press, vancouver. unger, c. r. 1860. karlamagnus saga ok kappa hans: fortællinger om keiser karl magnus og hans jævninger: i norsk bearbeidelse fra det trettende aarhundrede. h.j. jensen, christiania. vold halvorsen, k-b. 1983. litt om leiketøy i eldre tid. by og bygd 29:79–92. svanberg and lidström. 2019. ethnobiology le ers 10(1):86–96 96 research communica on wessman, v. e. v. 1962. finlands svenska folkdiktning 8: lekar och spel. svenska litteratursällskapet i finland, helsingfors. yamin-pasternak, s. 2011. ethnomycology. fungi and mushrooms in cultural entanglements. in ethnobiology, edited by e. n. anderson, k. adams, d. pearsall, e. hunn, and n. j. turner. pp. 213– 230. wiley-blackwell, hoboken, nj. zarger, r. k., and j. r. stepp. 2004. persistence of botanical knowledge among tzeltal maya children. current anthropology 45:413–418. doi:10.1086/420908. animals through chinese history: earliest times to 1911. edited by roel sterckx, martina siebert, and dagmar schäfer. 2019. cambridge university press, cambridge, uk. 277 pp. anderson. 2021. ethnobiology letters 12(1):14–15 14 reviews perspectives from gene anderson’s bookshelf the dog stories here anticipate albert payson terhune by several centuries, telling of dogs that saved their masters—sometimes at the expense of their own lives. tigers are sometimes sensitive to human virtue, refraining from devouring good people. crows and monkeys show devotion not so much to people as to their own parents and elders, feeding them and grieving when they die. dr. knapp points out that the less obviously exaggerated stories are probably accurate; crows, monkeys, and dogs do show care, grief, and mutual aid. a minor fault is translating one noble dog’s name, diwei, as “true tail”; di is surely used here in its literal sense of an archery bullseye target, not in the metaphoric meaning (which is the same as that we know in english as “hitting the bullseye”). the dog evidently had a target-shaped spot on his tail. this is followed by a study of the cat in china: “walking by itself: the singular history of the chinese cat,” by t. h. barrett and mark strange (pp. 84–98). the domestic cat came rather late to china, probably introduced by buddhists from the west. it moved from granary protector to beloved pet. “bees in china: a brief cultural history,” by david pattinson (pp. 99–117), starts with ancient ideas about feng, wasps. the book of songs already discusses wasps getting caterpillars to feed their larvae, and stinging humans. bees and honey did not emerge, at least in writing, “until the second century ce” (p. 99) and were extensively discussed after the fourth century. they were not called honeybees, mifeng (lit. “honey wasp”), until a century later. (i can add this edited volume deserves the attention of anyone interested in comparative ethnozoology. it includes a short introduction, followed by 12 chapters on various aspects of chinese animal knowledge. like most edited volumes, it is uneven in quality, but the chapters are all well done, and several are outstanding. they are not thematically united, so must be considered as separate items. the first chapter, “shang sacrificial animals: material documents and images” by adam schwartz (pp. 20–45), is a specialized introduction to animals sacrificed during the shang dynasty (ca. 1500–1050 bce). the usual domestic animals were sacrificed, but particularly interesting here is reporting the recent identification of the zhi—long considered mythical and imaginary—as the tibetan antelope and gazelle (collectively ling in later usage). animals were shown in art in highly stylized ways, making identification difficult. the following chapter, roel sterckx’ “animal to edible: the ritualization of animals in early china” (pp. 46–63), reveals in fascinating detail the exceedingly complex ways that animals were turned first into sacrifices to gods and ancestors and then into food for the living. this was still an issue when i lived in hong kong almost 60 years ago: a sacrificed animal could not be simply cut up and eaten; its body had to be managed in reverent and ritualized ways. third is keith knapp’s “noble creatures: filial and righteous animals in early medieval confucian thought” (pp. 64–83). chinese adore stories about virtuous animals as much as americans do. some of animals through chinese history: earliest times to 1911. edited by roel sterckx, martina siebert, and dagmar schäfer. 2019. cambridge university press, cambridge, uk. 277 pp. eugene n. anderson1* 1department of anthropology, university of california, riverside, usa. *gene@ucr.edu received october 14, 2020 open access accepted november 11, 2020 doi 10.14237/ebl.12.1.2021.1731 published january 8, 2021 copyright © 2021 by the author(s); licensee society of ethnobiology. this is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution-noncommercial 4.0 international public license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0), which permits non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. anderson. 2021. ethnobiology letters 12(1):14–15 15 reviews perspectives from gene anderson’s bookshelf that mi for honey is an indo-european loanword, cognate with miel in romance languages, so the concept of beekeeping for honey is very possibly an introduction from the west at about this time. the chinese bee, apis cerana, is different from the western a. mellifera, and exploring which ones were kept at what time is a project for the future.) the idea of bees as an organized society ruled by a “king” also appeared around this time; as in the west, the ruler was automatically assumed to be a king, not a queen. the hive became a model for human society, just as in the west (yet more reason to suspect influence). this chapter is an important contribution to ethnoentomology. “where did the animals go? presence and absence of livestock in chinese agricultural treatises” (pp. 118–138) is by the brilliant historian of agriculture francesca bray. she shows the rise of importance of animals in the relevant books, with horses notable in later imperial collections. “animals as text: producing and consuming ‘text-animals’” by martina siebert (pp. 139–159) reviews animals in literary sources, especially pulu, ‘treatises and lists,’ in this case meaning monographs on particular animal species, especially their presence in earlier literary sources. imperial chinese scholars loved to collect prior wisdom about all subjects. horses, cats, and tigers are selected as case studies here, with thorough reviews of literature on them. even goldfish get worthy attention. dagmar schäfer and han yi contribute “great plans: song dynastic (960–1279) institutions for human and veterinary healthcare” (pp. 160–180). this is a comprehensive review of veterinary medicine and its relation to human treatment in a period when medicine was dramatically changing in china, with more scientific ideas developing and more influence from the western world beginning to come in. the song state was highly involved in the process. “animals in nineteenth-century eschatological discourse” by vincent goossaert (pp. 181–198) is a truly fascinating study of predictions of the end of the world, or at least the destruction of the chinese state, as a consequence of mistreating, killing, and eating animals. vegetarianism and avoidance of violence to animals had come with buddhism long ago, been adopted and to some extent developed independently by confucian and daoist thinkers, and become established as a common folk view. radical rebels such as the taipings in the nineteenth century saw killing animals as leading to ruin; fewer extreme vegetarians and less sectarian individuals had more moderate views, such as the sinfulness of killing dogs and cattle because of their usefulness to humans. many older chinese and japanese still will not eat beef for this reason. this paper is an important contribution to studies of nuanced attitudes toward vegetarianism and animal respect. “reconsidering the boundaries: multicultural and multilingual perspectives on the care and management of the emperors’ horses in the qing” by sare aricanli (pp. 199–216) is a study of horse management in a dynasty where manchu speakers ruled, han chinese speakers were the majority, and mongol and turkic speakers were often the horse experts. the non-han languages had incredibly complex horse terminology; every part of the horse, every possible pathology, and every color variant had its name. in manchu, for instance, a hasrun sirga is a white horse with red spots around its nose and eyes. this chapter provides dozens of terms in several languages. horse-keeping in qing times must have required a battery of language experts. folk taxonomy scholars will want to learn those languages and get at the sources. “animals as wonders: writing commentaries on monthly ordinances in qing china” by zheng xinxian (pp. 217–232) deals with the highly technical matter of names for calendric periods in the chinese calendar. many are named after animal activities, e.g., “insects awaken,” and these had to be squared with local experience. finally, mindi schneider provides “reforming the humble pig: pigs, pork and contemporary china” (pp. 233–243), a short essay on the rise and triumph of pig-raising in the modern world. china has followed the west in transitioning from local farms and households to huge industrial-style operations, to the discomfort of gourmets and traditionalists. the entire book is of considerable interest to ethnozoologists but is far enough outside the usual ethnobiology citation universe that i feel a need to call it to everyone’s attention. the articles by knapp, pattinson, groossaert, and aricanli may be particularly interesting to anyone studying cognition of animals in cross-cultural perspective, but all the articles are valuable contributions that review a large and arcane literature that can be hard for nonexperts to access. the plant hunter: a scientist’s quest for nature’s next medicines. cassandra leah quave. 2021. viking, new york. 371 pp. baker. 2022. ethnobiology letters 13(1):77–78 77 reviews people already practicing research as ethnobiologist. quave’s sacrifices, challenges, and accomplishments are relatable, and her reflections elicit pain, joy, and frustration. her accounts of infections, physical pain, surgeries, childhood bullying, grief, and birth of her first child during hurricane katrina made me sob. conversely, i had belly laughs during several of quave’s reveling personal stories, such as when a medicine man tricked quave, later when she and her team cleaned monkey feces and a mouse guillotine out of her first lab space, then when her father’s world wrestling federation footage came on after her film she made for her eighth grade science fair, and during references to rumphius’s misadventures, including when her supervisor used the late botanists’ field tragedies to demonstrate quave didn’t have it so bad. i also yelled aloud when reading about several incidents at the bird bath—the family-owned laundromat. one of the most gut-wrenching moments for me was reading about the origin of the congenital defects in quave’s skeletal system. the source of her surgeries, amputation, infection, and more infections and surgeries to date. her father was exposed to the jungle defoliant agent orange during the conflict in vietnam, the poison did not discriminate, and quave is one of thousands of children born with “constellations of birth defects” (2021:340). those, like quave, who were born with birth defects including missing bones (quave was born without a right fibula), shortened limbs, and neural tube defects, have not yet been offered any benefits from the us veterans health administration to cover the hundreds of thousands of the book, the plant hunter: a scientist’s quest for nature’s next medicines is quite possibly the first female -authored full-length ethnobiological memoir (see stepp 2016), in which ethnobotanist cassandra quave begins her life story with her ancestral roots, describes her childhood, and her path to becoming a leading medical ethnobotanist, bringing us to present day. quave presents the reader with an intimate view of life as a woman in science with a disability, through emotional and physical challenges, rewards, and relationships (see nolan and pieroni 2013). presenting the value of ethnobotany in the form a memoir makes for a gripping and accessible read, or listen, as the book is available as an audiobook, narrated by the author. in its accessibility, the plant hunter is a perfect text for undergraduate ethnobotany students, as it demonstrates the value of ethnobotany, while exposing the novice to the reality of life in the field to the laboratory. the plant hunter provides a history and context of ethnobotany and ethnopharmacology with rich ethnographic examples, including people and plants from the places currently known as southeastern usa, peruvian amazon, italy, albania, and kosovo. quave explains research ethics, including informed consent, intellectual property, and biopiracy. we also learn about how herbaria are underrated, but extremely valuable. ultimately, this memoir exposes, from a deeply personal and sometimes graphic account, the urgent threat of antibiotic resistance. while i intend to assign this book to my undergraduate students, the book is also enriching for the plant hunter: a scientist’s quest for nature’s next medicines. by cassandra leah quave. 2021. viking, new york. 371 pp. janelle marie baker1* 1anthropology, athabasca university, athabasca, canada. *janelleb@athabascau.ca received april 23, 2022 open access accepted october 6, 2022 doi 10.14237/ebl.13.1.2022.1820 published december 7, 2022 copyright © 2022 by the author(s); licensee society of ethnobiology. this is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution-noncommercial 4.0 international public license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0), which permits non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. baker. 2022. ethnobiology letters 13(1):77–78 78 reviews dollars in cost each person has paid for surgeries, health care, and prosthetic devices. quave reflects on her relationship between her scientific passion and her disability when talking about her fellow “one-legged hunter,” zidan, who lost his leg from a land mine along the albanian-kosovo border (2021:304-305): perhaps my bond with zidan was about more than war and a love for nature and hunting—it was also a sense of knowing what few others seemed to recognize, knowing in our bones the consequences of destroying nature. i’d gleaned this from our long interview discussions. wars have been fought throughout the millennia, and as humans continue to battle over the limited resources this planet has to offer, there is no end in sight. the damage to humankind doesn’t end with the signing of peace treaties; nature’s scars will continue to haunt us in most unexpected ways. zidan and i shared a respect for the awesome nature of plants. upon witnessing quave’s experiences with skin infections, one cannot help but admire that she is now an associate professor of dermatology and human health at emory university. her research relies on traditional ethnobotanical knowledge of medicinal plants to find antibiotic properties and fight the terrifying trend towards global antibiotic resistance. quave’s mostly male colleagues, who prefer chemical drug discovery, often fail to appreciate her remarkable ability to “do” ethnobotany and laboratory analysis, a rare combination of skills. in this context, quave does not shy away from hard truths. in “chapter 10: billy fell off the swing,” the reader learns that a young quave pushed a relentless bully called billy off the swing, just as she is unseating the patriarchy in science through words rather than force now. we meet professor toad, professor creeper, and professor snake, characters who are all too familiar to women who have worked twice as hard to gain recognition in academia. even if a reader is uninterested in stomping through the mud and riding donkeys up mountains in search for medicinal plants, they will find this book difficult to put down, as the story of inequities in science is one we all need to hear. references cited nolan, j., and a. pieroni. 2013. recollections, reflections, and revelations: ethnobiologists and their “first time” in the field. journal of ethnobiology and ethnomedicine 9(12):np. doi:10.1186/1746-4269 -9-12 stepp, j. r. 2016. ethnobiological memoirs and memory (editorial). ethnobiology letters 7(2):1–2. doi:10.14237/ebl.7.2.2016.859 world views and the concept of “traditional” pierotti. 2018. ethnobiology letters 9(2):299–304 299 perspectives contemporary museum collections with the concept of “type specimens” (pierotti 2011). until very recently, all american university graduates were required to take a two-semester series on western civilization and its traditions, which firmly implanted the idea of static world views into our most educated citizens. a contemporary, albeit extreme, example can be seen in a discussion of how to deal with the alleged “religion of environmentalism” by a group that calls itself capitol ministries, where drollinger (2018) argues, to think that man can alter the earth’s ecosystem — when god remains omniscient, omnipresent and omnipotent in the current affairs of mankind — is to more than subtly espouse an ultra-hubristic, secular worldview relative to the supremacy and importance of man. a factor that often goes undiscussed in the examination of contemporary ethnobiological and environmental discussions involving indigenous peoples is differences in the basic parameters of worldviews, and whether these views are static or dynamic. static worldviews are largely a creation of western civilization, where reliance on a combination of greek philosophy from the socratic tradition with christian, or at least monotheistic, religious precepts means that it is typically assumed that humans cannot make major changes in how the world functions. the roots of this thinking lie in the ideas of plato, particularly the concept of platonic ideals, which assume that the physical world is an illusion from which little reliable information can be gathered. one conclusion of such thinking was that change and variation were only illusions. the only real things were the ideas or forms, which were considered to be ideal or essential, an idea that lives on in world views and the concept of “traditional” raymond pierotti1* 1department of ecology and evolutionary biology, university of kansas, lawrence, usa. *pierotti@ku.edu abstract whether individuals hold static or dynamic worldviews underlies a number of contemporary controversies, including evolution/creationist debates, the reality of climate change, and application of treaty rights by indigenous cultures. in this last case the debate is often framed in terms of whether or not indigenous cultures are still using traditional methods when engaged in hunting, fishing, or harvesting. my purpose is to evaluate these issues by arguing that traditional means quite different things in different cultural traditions. in western cultures, whose roots lie in static worldviews, e.g., those put forth by aristotle and descartes, traditional tends to mean unchanged or perhaps timeless. in indigenous cultures, which typically have dynamic worldviews, traditional (a western concept), implies that technologies employed, knowledge bases, and even ceremonial practices can change when conditions require. western thinking assumes that use of the word traditional implies that such concepts or knowledge are of the past and thus unchangeable and irrelevant to the contemporary world. non-indigenous investigators have contended that traditional and change are contradictory concepts and that “[traditional] carries the unacknowledged connotation that the item in question is in decline, thus in need of being preserved.” in indigenous thinking, the term traditional implies primarily that such knowledge and its related concepts have been in existence for a lengthy time, precisely because their ability to incorporate new observations and information has kept them fresh and relevant. i discuss these alternative concepts in the contexts of treaty and land rights and contemporary conservation concepts of biodiversity. received september 3, 2018 open access accepted october 12, 2018 doi 10.14237/ebl.9.2.2018.1394 keywords traditional, indigenous beliefs, western beliefs, world view, static, dynamic copyright © 2018 by the author(s) licensee society of ethnobiology. this is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution-noncommercial 4.0 international public license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0), which permits non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. pierotti. 2018. ethnobiology letters 9(2):299–304 300 perspectives such an argument might be considered humorous, if its precepts did not so clearly underlie the thinking of at least one of the major political parties. this dichotomy underlies a number of contemporary controversies, including debates over evolutionary versus creationist thinking, the reality of climate change, and application of treaty rights by indigenous cultures. the first of these is most obvious; darwinian evolutionary thinking obviously involves change that takes place independent of human actions. much of the conflict between western monotheistic religions and evolutionary thinking results from the fact that western monotheism is very much a static worldview compared with the very dynamic view of the world adhered to by evolutionary biologists. the static nature of pre-darwinian scientific thought, along with an obvious link to platonic ideals, can be seen in the “paradigm of ‘natural theology’ (which) held that god displayed both his existence and his attributes of benevolence and omniscience in the optimal design of organic form and the maximal harmony of local ecosystems” (gould 2002:338). gould (2002:338) points out how darwinian thinking introduced a dynamic worldview in opposition to a static one by refuting ‘natural theology’ and that: evolutionary theory fractured this equation of existence with optimality by introducing the revolutionary idea that all anatomies and interactions [among species] arise as transient products of complex histories, [rather than] as created optimalities (emphasis added). in the twenty-first century, human caused climate change has risen to rival evolution as a source of controversy between religion and science, basically for the reasons outlined above. namely this concept of climate change implies clearly that the world can be altered dramatically through the actions of humans, and so if they take such changes seriously, humans might be able to slow or even reverse this process. in contrast, many contemporary climate change deniers no longer deny its existence, but argue that humans are helpless to do anything about it. an example can be seen in the response of a resident of redding, ca, regarding recent massive wildfires in california, where wilson (2018) states, it’s “obvious”… “look at the trees around you right now. the leaves are falling out of the trees when they shouldn’t be. the environment is changing, and it’s changing everywhere.” but that doesn’t mean he thinks it possible to do anything about it. “the good lord has to fix it. we’re not capable of it.” such thinking may be less scholarly in its wording. however in attitude, it is functionally equivalent to the concepts described above by drollinger. a more concrete example of a static world view can be seen in the case of tangier island, a large sandbar in chesapeake bay that is disappearing as a result of sea level rise and resultant erosion. the citizens of tangier are christian conservatives, who refuse to accept that climate change is happening and pray that either god or the government will save them, when neither is likely to happen (swift 2018). such critiques and denial of human as the cause of climate change illustrate clearly that such attacks are clearly rooted in the norms of a static worldview. as an example, drollinger (2018) states, god says he will continually renew the face of the earth until he forms a new heaven and a new earth in the end times (rev. 21:1). in the thousands of years of climate history since these words were recorded, the veracity of god’s promises have (sic) proven to be reliable. so, who then should we trust? it follows that we can all rest assured and whol­ ly rely on god’s aforementioned promises per ­taining to his ability and willingness to sustain our world’s ecosystem. most scholars are somewhat familiar with the basic dynamics concerning conflicts of this nature, and may find it surprising that i include controversies over treaty rights invoked by indigenous peoples as fundamentally similar in structure to these debates among euroamericans. my reasoning is that in cases involving treaty rights, it is often argued that, because they have acculturated to some degree with euroamerican values and ways of life, that indigenous peoples are no longer employing traditional methods of hunting, fishing, gathering, and as such their established treaty rights should no longer be applicable. an example i observed personally was the claims that ojibwe people taking walleye outside of euroamerican imposed fishing seasons are not traditional because contemporary ojibwe fishermen use electric lights instead of torches and fiberglass boats rather than birchbark canoes (see also nesper 2002). similar arguments have been made about the makah nation’s request to be allowed to resume taking gray whales after this species was removed pierotti. 2018. ethnobiology letters 9(2):299–304 301 perspectives from the federal endangered species list (sullivan 2000). contemporary makah drive cars and watch television, therefore euroamericans who identify as conservationists contend that they are asking for special privileges not available to other citizens (sullivan 2000). arguments often become quite heated over such issues, with death threats being made: environmentalists in washington state left voice-mail messages consisting of firing a revolver on the answering machines of the makah tribal council (sullivan 2000). to evaluate these issues concerning indigenous treaty rights it is crucial to recognize that the concept of traditional means quite different things in euroamerican and indigenous cultures, which relates directly to the thoughts and actions of euromericans’ persistent inclination to hold and defend static worldviews even in the new millennium. i (pierotti 2011:14) have previously written of euroamerican attitudes towards indigenous (native) peoples that, it seems likely that most people of european ancestry assume that traditional describes only those conditions that existed when a tribe was initially visited and first described by europeans. this contains the tacit assumption that indigenous peoples remained essentially unchanged and uninfluenced by any other cultures prior to european contact, (which) is the social equivalent of a creationist perspective. this is clearly the situation with the attacks on ojibwe peoples by walleye enthusiasts in wisconsin and minnesota (nesper 2002). in such situations indian people are apparently assumed to exist in two alternative states: 1) the way they were at first contact by europeans, and 2) some altered state in which they are either disappearing or have changed to some new state in which they are no longer recognizable as the indigenous peoples of the americas. in my experiences with ethnobiologists, i have found that they do not make this mistake, although wildlife and fisheries biologists make such mistakes in a regular manner, along with many euroamericans who identify as conservationists. in western cultures, whose roots lie in static worldviews, traditional is assumed to mean unchanged or perhaps timeless. western thinking assumes that use of the word traditional implies that such concepts or knowledge are of the past, unchangeable, and irrelevant to the contemporary world, although there is still a tendency to employ such terminology when referring to traditional family values or to women’s traditional roles in society. one important issue driving this type of worldview is that within western concepts of reality and their religious traditions, it is always assumed that the ultimate power or goal is external to the earth, i.e., god is to be found in heaven, in “created optimalities” (gould 2002:338), or humans achieving the kingdom of heaven after living a good life. another driving force in western thought is the assumption of progress, which is considered to represent god’s will, which is the only acceptable form of change. human ingenuity is important to driving progress, but this also assumes that humans must exploit nature to progress. thus, western thinking assumes that use of the word traditional implies that such concepts or knowledge are of the past and unchangeable, and probably irrelevant to the contemporary world. most contemporary ethnobiologists have moved well beyond such concepts, although such language can still be found, i.e., the contention that traditional and change are contradictory concepts, and that “[traditional] carries the unacknowledged connotation that the item in question is in decline, thus in need of being preserved” (a. tanner, personal communications in pierotti 2011:11). traditional is a western concept, which has been imposed on indigenous peoples, complete with accompanying baggage. indigenous cultures tend to regard the way they do things as a “way of life” (nadasdy 2003:63). such cultures typically have dynamic worldviews, which allows them to assume that the technology employed, knowledge bases, and even ceremonial practices can change when conditions require (watson-verran and turnbull 1995). in my experience from working with dozens of indigenous people from a multitude of cultures, rather than assuming that power or ultimate goals are external to the earth, power and goals are considered to come from the earth itself and in living well with the earth and its nonhuman residents. progress might take place, especially in the form of new technologies. however, the goal of these cultures is not simply to progress, but to persist and survive in the conditions in which they find themselves (pierotti 2011; taylor et al. 2005). these traditions did not assume a controlling deity, “…they always have and still do recognize the earth as a living being, as a relative, as pierotti. 2018. ethnobiology letters 9(2):299–304 302 perspectives generative, as sacred…” (kidwell et al. 2002:54). indigenous peoples recognize both themselves and other species with which they interact as being, “transient products of complex histories” as described by gould (2002:338), because they are aware of having shared those “complex histories” with their fellow beings (pierotti 2011). the absence of a controlling deity, combined with concepts based on long-term relationships with nature and the nonhuman world, allowed these peoples to adjust to changes in the environment, and to assume that humans as part of this world had the ability to alter it or change it on their own terms. indigenous traditions do not assume progress, but are always ready for change in the environment. if it works in the present it is fine, but the environment is always subject to change; because they are part of that environment, these cultures must also be ready to change as needed (pierotti 2011). as a result of their focus on local affairs (deloria 1992: 114–134), indigenous cultures are centered on the earth itself and their relationship with it. they can change the earth or respond to its changes through their powerful connections to the earth and the local ecosystem, e.g., through the use of controlled burning (boyd 1999). if the environment changes they will change with it, while trying as hard as possible to maintain their ways of life. this is actually one method which indigenous people employ to cope with the european invasion. many tribes think that if they outlasted the ice age, they can outlast european civilization and one of their major goals is to keep europeans from exterminating their important relatives, i.e., wolves, bears, salmon, bison, deer (see nadasdy 2003; pierotti 2011). as a result, the way in which indigenous peoples employ the western concept of traditional (as in traditional ecological knowledge or tek) is to recognize that such knowledge and its related concepts have been in existence for a lengthy time, precisely because their ability to incorporate new observations and information has kept them fresh and relevant. not only is individual responsibility paramount in how society is regulated, but individuals can have profound impacts on nature through irresponsible or disrespectful behavior. the gitxsan and wet’suwet’en peoples of british columbia tell a story of how their cultural center was destroyed by landslides after some young men were disrespectful in their treatment of mountain goats (oreamnos americanus), whom they had been hunting (glavin 1998). in response, the goats brought down the side of a mountain on the community of dimlahamid, forcing the people to alter their society. regardless of whether one accepts the literal truth of this story, the important lesson here is that the culture assumed that behavior by individual members could result in devastating environmental change. it is important to emphasize at this point that although i characterize the standard western worldview as being static in nature, i realize this is an oversimplification. in a similar fashion, i also recognize that now that adherence to christianity has become so commonplace within many indigenous groups, many indigenous people have adopted static worldviews through the practice of colonialism and assimilation. given this state of affairs, there are now, and probably always have been, a number of europeans and euroamericans who through education and knowledge have come to accept and endorse dynamic views of how the world functions. in my experience, this last group consists primarily of scientists, climate scientists, geologists, ecologists, and evolutionary biologists, along with a smattering of other academics and professional scholars. surprisingly, i have also learned that there are a large number of academics from a wide range of disciplines who continue to adhere to major aspects of static world views. this of course includes the relatively small number of creationist scientists, who can sometimes be found in departments of molecular biology or biochemistry. a more troubling aspect, however, is how static thinking has crept into conservation biology and environmental science. to many people of european ancestry, conservation means preserving an imagined state of idealized nature, in which no humans have ever set foot. to achieve this goal, conservationists have encouraged the removal of indigenous peoples from lands where these peoples were probably responsible for the diverse conditions and rich ecosystems that exist (dowie 2009). europeans and euroamericans seem to have a perpetual fantasy about the existence of nature untouched by humans (pierotti 2011). this is a classic example of how a static world view is being applied to one of the most important issues of our time. chapin (2004:21) said that, in late 2002, the director of the wwf latin america program told me flatly, in reference pierotti. 2018. ethnobiology letters 9(2):299–304 303 perspectives to the amazon basin, “we don’t work with indigenous people. we don’t have the capacity to work with indigenous people…”. a ci [(conservation international)] biologist who works with the kayapó in the lower xingu region of brazil told me: “quite frankly, i don’t care what the indians want. we have to work to conserve the biodiversity.” this last comment may sound crass, but it accurately represents the prevalent way of thinking within the large conservation organizations (see dowie 2009 for detailed examination of this theme). although it may seem that this is a fairly esoteric debate at some levels, i contend that it has serious implications for indigenous peoples, and that we, as ethnobiologists, should work to see that we and our students recognize the harmful impacts of static thinking. at one level, indigenous dynamic world views are treated as if they were primitive, and it is assumed by people holding static world views that these people have not had any new concepts or discoveries since initial contact with europeans. as an example, during a presentation at a symposium on rethinking the ecological indian in 2001 on indigenous relationships to the natural world, i pointed out some sophisticated ecological and microevolutionary concepts contained within statements made by a teton lakota in 1911 (pierotti 2011:78). shepherd krech, author of the controversial book, the ecological indian, questioned me about the likelihood that these concepts had been learned through contact with europeans. my response was to point out that these were relatively modern concepts that had not existed in 1911, when evolutionary thinking was in eclipse, and ecology was not yet a well-developed branch of science. what struck me, however, was that scientific aspects of indigenous knowledge always had to be attributed to european influences, even at times when indigenous understanding of ecological principles was much more sophisticated than that of virtually all euroamericans. even today, a significant majority of euroamericans reject evolutionary thinking; a significant minority also reject climate change, yet these naïve attitudes are considered mainstream views and discussed seriously in public forums. in contrast, if indigenous peoples express sophisticated understanding of relationships among species and wish to re-establish claims over the land they protected and maintained for millennia, it is assumed that they must have learned such thinking from europeans who had no understanding of such concepts, and most of whom still lack such understanding. if indigenous people wish to resume hunting and fishing rights concerning species that they managed carefully, they are told that they are no longer real or true indians if they choose to employ modern technologies that increase their efficiency and reduce suffering of their prey. in addition, their lives, and even their cultures, are threatened by people who think they are protecting biodiversity, when it is the dominant culture whose actions threaten this biodiversity, and many conservationists assume that indigenous people are equivalent in their thinking to their own greed-driven culture. declarations permissions: none declared. sources of funding: none declared. conflicts of interest: none declared. references cited boyd, r., ed. 1999. indians, fire, and the land in the pacific northwest. oregon state university press, corvallis, or. deloria, v. 1992. god is red. north american press, golden, co. chapin, m. 2004. a challenge to conservationists. world watch magazine 17:17–31. dowie, m. 2009. conservation refugees: the hundred year conflict between global conservation and indigenous peoples. mit press, boston. drollinger, r. 2018. the bible and policy [web page]. capitol ministries. available at: https://capmin.org/ coming-to-grips-with-the-religion-ofenvironmentalism/. accessed on august 15, 2018. glavin, t. 1998. a death feast in dimlahamid. new star books, vancouver. gould, s. j. 2002. i have landed: the end of a beginning in natural history. harmony books, new york. kidwell, c. s., h. noley, and g. e. tinker. 2002. a native american theology. orbis books, maryknoll, ny. nadasdy, p. 2003. hunters and bureaucrats: power, knowledge, and aboriginal state relations in the southwest yukon. ubc press, vancouver. nesper, l. 2002. the walleye war: the struggle for ojibwe spearfishing and treaty rights. university of nebraska pierotti. 2018. ethnobiology letters 9(2):299–304 304 perspectives press, lincoln, ne. pierotti, r. 2011. indigenous knowledge, ecology and evolutionary biology. routledge, taylor and francis group, new york and london. sullivan, r. 2000. a whale hunt: two years on the olympic peninsula with the makah and their canoe. scribner press, new york. swift, e. 2018. chesapeake requiem: a year with the watermen of vanishing tangier island. harper collins publishing, new york. taylor, l., g. k. ward, g. henderson, r. davis, and l. a. wallis. 2005. the power of knowledge, the resonance of tradition. aboriginal studies press, canberra, australia. watson-verran, h., and d. turnbull. 1995. science and other indigenous knowledge systems. in handbook of science and technology studies, edited by s. jasanoff, g. e. markle, j. c. peterson, and t. pinch, pp. 115–139. sage publications, thousand oaks, ca. wilson, j. 2018 surrounded by fire, california politicians question links to climate change [web page]. the guardian. available at: https:// www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/ jul/31/california-wildfire-climate-change-carr-fire. accessed on august 16, 2018. zooarchaeological approaches to the identification of bone fat production in the archaeological record peres. 2018. ethnobiology le ers 9(2):107–109 107 short topical reviews zooarchaeological analyses or interpretations. for the most part, equifinality is to blame for the lack of research into identifying this ancient and nearuniversal activity, though this can be overcome with a multivariate approach (bar-oz and munro 2004). in reviewing the published literature, a number of studies provide the methods necessary to demonstrate the presence of bone grease rendering in archaeofaunal assemblages. making fat extraction data a routine practice in zooarchaeology numerous zooarchaeological studies have shown that bone fat extraction is an identifiable and quantifiable cultural activity (morin and soulier 2017; mulville and outram 2005; outram 2001), yet few projects regularly collect the necessary data to understand this at the site or regional level. zooarchaeologists typically collect a standard set of data from every assemblage, including taxon, element, portion/ completeness, count, bone weight, and modifications. these data can then be analyzed for markers of marrow extraction and/or grease production (table 1). the reader is referred to previous studies for indepth descriptions of specific methodologies and approaches (bar-oz and munro 2004; binford 1978; karr 2015; outram 2001; prince 2007; wolverton et al. 2008). mammals have two types of bone: cortical globally, fats procured from mammal bones were an important nutritional, medicinal, and industrial resource. bone fat extraction is a way to maximize all parts of a prey animal and can be identified in the archaeological record. there are many reasons hunter-gatherer economies included bone grease as a dietary staple; nutritionally it is dense in energy and fatty acids and is an important source of trace vitamins and minerals. it aids in the digestion of protein, thiamine, and liver glycogen and prevents those who consume a diet high in lean meats from developing protein poisoning (church and lyman 2003; speth 2010; speth and spielmann 1983; vehik 1977). from ethnographic and historic documents we know that bone grease was used industrially for tanning hides, fuel, tallow, skin or hair lotion, mosquito repellant, in medicinal recipes, in paints, and for polishing bone and stone implements (battle 1922; grinnell 1972). the earliest evidence for marrow extraction is from plio-pleistocene sites in africa (blumenschine and madrigal 1993; bunn 1981) with more recent work showing marrow and grease extraction to be an important part of numerous economies across the globe (bar-oz and munro 2004; karr et al. 2014; outram 2004; parmenter 2015; peres 2018; speth and spielmann 1983). however, the identification of bone grease and fat processing is not part of routine zooarchaeological approaches to the iden fica on of bone fat produc on in the archaeological record tanya m. peres1* 1department of anthropology, florida state university, tallahassee, fl, usa *tanya.peres@fsu.edu abstract mammal fat is an important industrial product and ingredient in culinary dishes and medicines the world over, yet evidence for its use is not o en iden fied in the archaeological record. i first give a brief overview of the importance of bone fats to subsistence and industrial economies. i follow this with criteria for iden fying these ac vi es archaeologically. this review concludes with why the iden fica on of such ac vi es is important to our understanding of ancient foodways. received march 19, 2018 open access accepted may 22, 2018 doi 10.14237/ebl.9.2.2018.1291 keywords zooarchaeology, resource intensifica on, food insecurity, cuisine, foodways copyright © 2018 by the author(s) licensee society of ethnobiology. this is an open‐access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution‐noncommercial 4.0 international public license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by‐nc/4.0), which permits non‐commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. peres. 2018. ethnobiology le ers 9(2):107–109 108 short topical reviews and cancellous. cortical bone is the dense and compact outer surface that protects the inner cavities of bones such as the diaphyses (shafts) of long bones. these inner cavities are where bone marrow, congealed fat deposits, is stored. cancellous, or trabecular, bone is the inner layer of bone and is spongy in appearance. the epiphyses (ends) of, and some portions inside, long bones are made up of cancellous bone. bone grease is found in the spongy epiphyses of long bones and in the cancellous centra of vertebrae, ribs, carpals, tarsals, patellae, innominates, and crania. if large mammal bones in a given faunal assemblage were processed only for meat, we would expect to have a majority of intact long bones free of green bone fractures. these bones would be readily identifiable to taxon, element, side, etc. in an assemblage that was processed for bone marrow, we would expect to see a pattern of long bones fractured and splintered or spiral fractured as a result of being struck and broken open while still fresh, resulting in splintered shafts and relatively unharmed epiphyses. in an assemblage where bones were also processed for the fat stored within the cancellous portions, we expect further damage and crushing to be apparent. the most efficient and effective way to maximize grease extraction is to crush cancellous bones into small pieces, boil them in water for several hours, then skim the fat off the top (church and lyman 2003). indeed, discrete areas for this activity have been identified at several sites from the american great plains (baker 2009; karr et al. 2014). importance of bone fat to ancient economies archaeologists need to document evidence of bone fat extraction to better understand ancient economies. these data allow us to understand the differential processing of various taxa and how they were meat only marrow extrac on grease produc on taxa large mammals large mammals large mammals, though visual iden fica ons may be difficult element representa on intact longbones longbones, vertebrae vertebra, cancellous epiphyses modifica ons no fractures, fragmenta on, or splinters breaks on green/fresh bone (fracture freshness index) intensity of fragmenta on: heavily fragmented extent of fragmenta on: iden‐ fiable diaphyses with no or one epiphysis spiral‐fractured longbones diaphyses or epiphyses with bash marks bone flakes/splinters context found in numerous contexts sheet midden, features recovered with associated tools (anvils, hammerstones) and features (hearths) recovered in associa on with grease residue discrete deposit of fragmented bone table 1 categories of criteria in archaeological studies of bone marrow and fat processing. peres. 2018. ethnobiology le ers 9(2):107–109 109 short topical reviews important to a community (i.e., some animals may have been important sources of subcutaneous fat, meat only, or bone and antler raw material). we can use bone fat data to assess changes in food preferences or harvesting methods over time. in many cases bone marrow and/or grease extraction is part of an overall intensification of subsistence resources. intensification may be due to population increase, environmental changes, or some combination thereof. ultimately, the goal of archaeological research is to provide more information about the cultural activities that took place at a given site. the zooarchaeological identification of the processing of animals for bone fats will enhance our understanding of how animals were incorporated into ancient cuisines, medicinal remedies, and industrial goods. acknowledgements i offer thanks to the three anonymous reviewers and john marston for their helpful comments and suggestions on an earlier version of this paper. declarations permissions: not applicable. sources of funding: none declared. conflicts of interest: none declared references cited bar-oz, g. and n.d. munro. 2004. beyond cautionary tales: a multivariate taphonomic approach for resolving equifinality in zooarchaeological studies. journal of taphonomy 2:201–221. binford, l. 1978. nunamiut ethnoarchaeology. academic press, new york, ny. blumenschine, r.j., and t.c. madrigal. 1993. variability in long bone marrow yields of east african ungulates and its zooarchaeological implications. journal of archaeological science 20:555– 587. doi:10.1006/jasc.1993.1034. bunn, h.t. 1981. archaeological evidence for meateating by plio-pleistocene hominids from koobi fora and olduvai gorge. nature 291:574–577. doi:10.1038/291574a0. church, r.r., and l.r. lyman. 2003. small fragments make small differences in efficiency when rendering grease from fractured artiodactyl bones by boiling. journal of archaeological science 30:1077–1084. doi:10.1016/s0305-4403(03)00010-4. karr, l.p., a.e.g. short, l.a. hannus, and a.k. outram. 2014. a bone grease processing station at the mitchell prehistoric indian village: archaeological evidence for the exploitation of bone fats. environmental archaeology 20:1–12. doi:10.1179/1749631414y.0000000035. morin, e. and m. soulier. 2017. new criteria for the archaeological identification of bone grease processing. american antiquity 82:96–122. doi:10.1017/aaq.2016.16. mulville, j. and a. outram. 2005. the zooarchaeology of fats, oils, milk, and dairying. oxbow, oxford, uk. outram, a.k. 2001. a new approach to identifying bone marrow and grease exploitation: why the “indeterminate” fragments should not be ignored. journal of archaeological science 28:401–410. doi:10.1006/jasc.2000.0619. peres, t.m. 2018. splitting the bones: marrow extraction and mississippian period foodways. in baking, bourbon, and black drink: foodways archaeology in the american southeast, edited by t.m. peres and a. deter-wolf, pp. 30–50. university of alabama press, tuscaloosa, al. prince, p. 2007. determinants and implications of bone grease rendering: a pacific northwest example. north american archaeologist 28:1–28. doi:10.2190/na.28.1.a. speth, j.d. 2010. the paleoanthropology and archaeology of big-game hunting: protein, fat, or politics? interdisciplinary contributions to archaeology. springer, new york, ny. doi:10.1007/978-1-4419-6733-6. speth, j.d., and k.a. spielmann. 1983. energy source, protein metabolism, and hunter-gatherer subsistence strategies. journal of anthropological archaeology 2:1-31. doi:10.1016/0278-4165(83) 90006-5. vehik, s.c. 1977. bone fragments and bone grease manufacturing: a review of their archaeological use and potential. plains anthropologist 22:169–182. doi:10.1080/2052546.1977.11908805. wolverton, s., l. nagaoka, j. densmore, and b. fullerton. 2008. white-tailed deer harvest pressure and within-bone nutrient exploitation during the mid-to-late holocene in southeast texas. before farming 2008:1–23. doi:10.3828/ bfarm.2008.2.3. taking an early step in ethnobiological research: a proposal for obtaining prior and informed consent from indigenous peoples medinaceli. 2018. ethnobiology letters 9(1):76–85 76 perspectives special issue on ethics in ethnobiology regarding the protection and conservation of biological diversity, developed the convention of biological diversity (cbd). it was finalized in 1992 and put into practice by 1994. this convention is relevant to ethnobiological and anthropological research since it reflects issues related to the conservation of the world’s biodiversity while supporting and allowing traditional and cultural practices and uses of the resources (articles 8j and 10c) by indigenous peoples and local communities (united nations environmental programme 2003). by the 2000s, nations of the world were engaged in a continuous discussion regarding indigenous peoples, the environment and climate. in latin america, this represented a clear change in the politics of the region. indigenous peoples became empowered, and for the first time had strong representation supported by the national governments of brazil, peru, argentina, bolivia, and ecuador. introduction in this paper, i want to portray the importance of engaging communities in an appropriate and ethical way as a first step towards implementing an ethnobiological research/study. i begin by showing some of the legal and academic regulations and guidelines that offer ethnobiologists some tools to initiate this process, while also encouraging reflection on the importance of obtaining the prior and informed consent from the communities with whom we collaborate. the universal declaration of human rights adopted by the un’s general assembly in 1948 provided regulations concerning equality for all peoples in the world. this declaration makes explicit the universality of human rights to all people, regardless of where people live and who they are (united nations 1948). by the late 1980s, the united nations environment programme, in response to issues taking an early step in ethnobiological research: a proposal for obtaining prior and informed consent from indigenous peoples armando medinaceli1,2* 1latin american society of ethnobiology (solae), mexico city, mexico. 2department of anthropology, washington state university, pullman, wa, usa. *manduche@gmail.com abstract based on my own experiences from the field, in this paper i reflect on my work in bolivia and guatemala, collaborating with the tsimane’ and q’eqchi’ peoples, respectively. the aim of this reflection is to propose a set of guidelines for an early step in ethnobiological research. i understand an early step of research to be obtaining prior, informed consent of the peoples with whom we collaborate; a step i argue should be formalized and included as part of research proposals and documents (publications) resulting from the research. this guideline is offered simply as a reference for encouraging researchers to engage with the collaborating communities in a proper, ethical, and respectful way as a first step in our fieldwork. this proposed guideline, while motivating researchers to engage in this process, also encourages them to adapt and modify the guideline to the particular local situation where the planned research will take place. the proposal responds to local customs and traditions, while also following critical ethical guidelines for ethnobiological research, as well as national and international policy relevant to our field of research. it is therefore relevant to any region and community of collaborators where research takes place. received july 17, 2017 open access accepted december 15, 2017 doi 10.14237/ebl.9.1.2018.1054 keywords ethnobiological research, prior and informed consent, ethics, policy copyright © 2018 by the author(s); licensee society of ethnobiology. this is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution-noncommercial 4.0 international public license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0), which permits non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. medinaceli. 2018. ethnobiology letters 9(1):76–85 77 perspectives special issue on ethics in ethnobiology global discussions in the early 2000s resulted in the creation of the united nations declaration on the rights of indigenous peoples (undrip) in 2008. this declaration supports the rights of indigenous peoples to land and territory, and respect for their traditions, while also incorporating the principle of free prior and informed consent, and recognizing the self-determination of the indigenous peoples and local communities. in 2010, the nagoya protocol on access to genetic resources and the fair and equitable sharing of benefits arising from their utilization to the convention on biological diversity emerged as a supplementary agreement to the cbd. the nagoya protocol commenced in 2014 (united nations environmental programme 2017). the paragraphs described above show some of the international agreements from a policy standpoint that regulate involvement of indigenous peoples and local communities. these policies therefore regulate academic research that involves the participation of indigenous peoples of the world. from an academic perspective, several examples of institutions and policies regulate anthropological and ethnobiological research. in 1988 the international society of ethnobiology (ise) was created, aiming to recruit ethnobiologists in support of the struggles of indigenous peoples and local communities while engaging in ethnobiological research. the creation of the ise’s code of ethics followed; a living document that offers guidelines for ethical approaches to ethnobiological research. this document is under constant discussion and review, which is discussed and approved in general assembly during their biannual conference (international society of ethnobiology 2008). the american anthropological association also offers ethical guidelines for anthropological research through its code of ethics (coe) that was approved in 1998 and has its focus on anthropological research within the united states (american anthropological association 2012). the latin american society of ethnobiology (solae) is the regional academic authority for ethnobiological research. solae recently finished and approved its code of ethics in 2015. its coe aims to be a companion to the ise’s coe while also touching upon issues that respond to the demands of indigenous peoples and local communities of the region. all of these mechanisms are relevant to ethnobiological research. use and respect of them should be encouraged within academia. an introduction to the policy relevant to our academic research should be incorporated at the university level, and when possible, some training, through examples, in the implementation of such mechanisms should be undertaken. in the following paragraphs, i will describe my most recent experiences using policy and ethical mechanisms for the implementation of ethnobiological research with the tsimane' in bolivia and the q’eqchi’ in guatemala. obtaining consent obtaining consent from the tsimane’ – bolivia with over 10 years of collaborating with the tsimane’ and by the time i was planning my current project, i was very familiar with the local traditions and customs and their social and political structure. in those years, i also learned more about “western” resources available to me for research involving indigenous peoples, including the new bolivian national constitution (cpepb 2009), bolivian law of the mother earth (ley no. 300 2012), universal declaration of human rights (united nations 1948), convention on biological diversity (united nations environmental programme 2003), united nations declaration on the rights of indigenous peoples (united nations 2008), and international society of ethnobiology code of ethics (ise 2006). i also became involved in the work of creating a code of ethics for solae. this process started with visits to the communities where i intended to work. we discussed the research ideas and agreed on the topic of research. i received the authorization of the tsimane’ regional authorities. history shows that as a result of bureaucratic practices and corruption, encouraged by outsiders interested in their land and resources, tsimane’ authorities mostly grant permission to researchers engaging in quid pro quo relationships. in my case, in an attempt to break this type of relationship, i took a different approach. i engaged in a negotiation where i explained my proposed research (several times) and my approach based on co-inquiry, collaboration and following indigenous epistemologies. thus, i was aiming for a research that would be beneficial for the villages, the regional authorities, and myself. medinaceli. 2018. ethnobiology letters 9(1):76–85 78 perspectives special issue on ethics in ethnobiology in engaging in these consent discussions, i highlighted the ethical guidelines i was following (ise’s and solae’s codes of ethics), while also demonstrating that i was attempting to respond to international regulations such as undrip, as well as national laws that favor indigenous peoples such as the tsimane’ (national constitution of bolivia [cpepb 2009], and law of the mother earth, bolivia [ley no. 300 2012]). after long negotiations (several meetings within a month), we reached an agreement in which i was granted their consent and permission to implement my research. this agreement included a set of regulations about the rights and responsibilities of all people involved in the research, respect for local traditions, respect for local scheduling, and other considerations. also, i agreed to ask for consent from each participant, ask the parents for consent for the participation of children, and perform periodical presentations of the project’s progress to the regional authorities and the participating villages, at their request. the agreement also forbade my consumption of alcoholic beverages while working on my research. additionally, i agreed to train the authorities on computer use and grant writing, and i contributed by writing proposals, official letters, etc. to seal the agreement, i offered a document to be signed, but as they said: us the tsimane’ always create oral agreements among ourselves, and we trust one another, that is how we agree on things, by talking. but if somebody does not follow the agreement we will also punish that. therefore, this process concluded with an oral agreement that remains valid until the results of the research are returned and approved by the villages and authorities. finally, it was decided that we would make the agreement a live document, in order to make changes or additions, if needed. while implementing my research, i organized meetings where we would discuss the possible formats in which the results from my research would have a better impact and be more locally beneficial. we agreed on a video documentary, possible booklet for school use, copies of published papers and their translation into spanish when needed, the creation of a mobile exhibit, and presentation of results at regional and international congresses to share our experience of collaboration. the process to obtain permission and consent in total took approximately four weeks. even though this seemed like a long time, it created a stronger bond between the tsimane’ and me, and strengthened our friendship and trust. the process was incredibly enriching for me and my research, and also demonstrated to the tsimane’ that academic research can be respectful, sensitive, and beneficial to all parties involved. the tsimane' benefited from the return of the results from my research in the formats i mentioned above which are considered relevant and locally useful. as a researcher, i benefited from the publications of scientific articles, making public presentations to share this collaborative experience, and from strengthening the relationship with the tsimane' people, which helped further my research interests in the region. obtaining consent from the q’eqchi’ – guatemala in 2016, i engaged in research in guatemala, a new environment and culture for me as a researcher. for this project, i was not able to organize a previous visit to the village where i intended to work, so i contacted a guatemalan colleague familiar with the village and with years of experience working in the region. with his help, i could introduce, in a letter, my idea and intention to collaborate with one q’eqchi’ village. once they accepted my proposal to work in their village, i organized my visit. in advance, i studied the national regulations, local traditions, and social and political structures of the q’eqchi’. upon arrival to the village, i had a meeting with the local authorities. in the meeting i introduced myself, and explained my intentions and the proposal in more detail. i asked for their permission to implement my research, making sure to explain clearly all details of what my research would entail; my collaborative approach, the methods to be used, and my intention to include children as participants. once we held the meeting, i was asked to present all points of our agreement in written format. i presented the document to the authorities and left the village for three days to give them space to review and discuss the points discussed for the agreement. on my return, i presented the final version of the document and they granted me permission and we signed the agreement. i was asked to present, once more, the proposal and whole idea of research to the general assembly of the community. medinaceli. 2018. ethnobiology letters 9(1):76–85 79 perspectives special issue on ethics in ethnobiology our agreement includes 12 points, highlighting the rights of people to choose to participate or not as part of my study; consent to carry out activities with children within the school compound during regular school hours; commitment to return results of the research in formats predetermined in discussion with villagers, as well as new ones that could emerge during the research; agreement that researchers are not allowed to consume any alcoholic beverages while conducting fieldwork or any activities related to the research and the duration of the agreement spanning until all results from research are returned and accepted by the villagers and authorities. as part of my commitment of contributing to the community, we agreed on my contribution to local initiatives, for which i gave a training session on proposal and grant writing. i also contributed to the writing of a proposal for a community-led project regarding the sustainable management of cacao. all processes of authorization and agreement took seven days. during fieldwork, i had meetings and discussions with villagers about the possible formats for the results from this research, making sure that they become useful and have a positive impact on the whole village. we agreed to the creation of posters to be displayed in the village and at the local school, a booklet about the local uses of plants and animals to be presented as a complementary resource for school activities, and spanish translations of any publication resulting from research. making connections both experiences of obtaining permission and consent for implementing my research were based on international legal regulations, codes of ethics for ethnobiological research, and recognizing and respecting local customary regulations and formats for the creation of agreements and granting permits. both processes demonstrate that including such procedures as the first step in preparation of any study is extremely beneficial for both researcher and ‘collaborators’. benefits for the villages may include their empowerment by getting involved in decision making processes, such as deciding to take the research in a direction that is locally important and relevant; suggesting and contributing to the decision of the types, formats, and uses of the information resulting from research, including the possibility for co-authorship of publications. this process creates a sense of real collaboration and ownership of the research. locals understand that they have the authority to regulate and control research activities, and this supports the self-determination of their villages. it also helps them feel more comfortable and engaged with academic research, as long as the agreements are fully respected and accomplished. for the researcher, the benefits include creation of research that is academically and scientifically innovative (through a truly collaborative approach), research publications (that could include coauthorship with indigenous or local peoples), public presentations to distinct fora (academic or not) that are supported by the villages where research took place, a bonding experience with locals that ensures future collaborations and access to continue research activities on the region. overall, with this approach i aim to ensure short and long term benefits for all parties involved. as part of the collaboration and search of mutual benefits, reciprocity becomes an important aspect. reciprocity ensures true collaboration and mutual benefit. it can involve tasks or negotiations that are not necessarily directly related to the research, but can be of mutual benefit. for instance, when in the agreement created with the tsimane’, i agreed to contribute to the regional authorities and local communities by offering training sessions on computer use, and on proposal and grant-writing for their own local research initiatives or development projects. i was also asked to collaborate in the writing and review of the resolutions from community meetings, and to offer free transportation to villagers any time i came and went to the villages. in exchange, in the reciprocity context, villagers would offer help as guides without any charge for forest excursions or visits to other villages. in the case of the q'eqchi' village in guatemala, i was asked to contribute my knowledge and skills in the elaboration of a proposal for a locally managed project regarding cacao production, while discussing and explaining the process of elaboration of a proposal. as part of the reciprocal arrangement, my research partner and i were granted lodging in the village at no cost throughout the duration of fieldwork. the benefits of reciprocity can be seen from multiple standpoints. from an academic stand point, communities commit to participate and contribute as much as possible to the research. from a logistical standpoint, lodging or other arrangements and costs may be agreed upon. from a community perspective, communities benefit not only from the results from research, but also in medinaceli. 2018. ethnobiology letters 9(1):76–85 80 perspectives special issue on ethics in ethnobiology other aspects, such as training in computer use, grant writing, or other applicable skills. this prior informed consent should be included in research education and training at universities, not only because it is beneficial and respectful, but also because in many cases is required by the law or international treaties. therefore, as academics, we should respect and follow these guidelines and make explicit in our research the approach we used to obtain permission and consent. how to engage ethically with indigenous peoples with my growing interest in the ethics of ethnobiological research and my strong commitment to respecting customs and traditions of the local communities with whom i collaborate, i realized that, during all my years as a student and participating in several projects, i have not had any kind of formal guidance regarding how to engage the people with whom i want to collaborate. feeling somehow unprepared has encouraged me to focus on finding the best, most appropriate way to engage with local people being respectful of their own norms while also being able to share and transmit my own message to create a space of real collaboration between researcher(s) and collaborators. following the experiences presented above (and others from past work), i came to realize that even though i was collaborating with different indigenous groups in distinct geographical regions, each with their own set of traditional norms and regulations, the consent agreements i reached basically followed a similar structure. this represents an opportunity to utilize those experiences of engaging communities to obtain their consent and permission to implement a research project, and organize them into one format that summarizes all aspects discussed and agreed between myself, as the researcher, and the communities, as collaborators. therefore, i decided to create a set of guidelines that has helped me when initiating my past and current research projects. i present the guidelines here with the hopes that it will help other ethnobiologists as a baseline for the incorporation of this process as a first step to ethnobiological research. while not a definitive recipe or set of instructions, this guideline is intended for researchers (especially first time fieldworkers or early career ethnobiologists) as a reference scheme, which can be adapted and modified to make it appropriate and accepted locally, always considering the local norms and customary regulations. this approach will facilitate the daunting experience of having to figure out how to adequately approach a group of people in the most respectful and ethical manner. a guideline for obtaining consent and permission for fieldwork every time i start a new research project/study, i made it a norm for myself to begin by creating a formal agreement with the village(s) with whom i will collaborate. this consent agreement is based on their traditional norms and regulations while also responding to guidelines and regulations by which, as an ethnobiologist and a responsible researcher, i should abide. regulations such as the codes of ethics from ise and solae, but also undrip, cbd, and others. this is the early first step to my research. i came up with a format that encompasses the different consent agreements i created in the past collaborating with different indigenous peoples of latin america. table 1 summarizes the proposed format, but in the following paragraphs i discuss briefly the basic structure of my proposed guidelines. terms and conditions in all cases, when starting to discuss the creation of an agreement between myself (or team) as the researcher, and the villagers (authorities, representatives, etc.) as the collaborators of the research, we discuss the terms and conditions of the agreement. explaining clearly what is entailed as part of the agreement, and as much as possible framing the agreement within the activities that will be considered part of the research. terms and conditions include a detailed explanation of the duration of research, making sure to explain that research can change in duration because of unforeseeable factors. also, it is important to make clear that some activities not planned originally can become a component of the research. this component of the agreement also includes a statement of “revision”, meaning that the agreement can be revised and modified as it becomes necessary. this revision should always be with the authorization and agreement of all parties involved in the research. research summary usually when meeting with collaborators, a presentation of the research proposal should take place. this presentation should be a detailed medinaceli. 2018. ethnobiology letters 9(1):76–85 81 perspectives special issue on ethics in ethnobiology st e p c o n te n t c as e 1 ( ts im an e ’) c as e 2 ( q ’e q ch i’) 1 . t er m s a n d c o n d iti o n s p ar ts in vo lv ed in t h e re se ar ch c o n ta ct in fo rm ati o n o f re se ar ch er (s ) sc o p e o f th e ag re e m en t d u ra ti o n o f th e ag re e m en t o p en t o r ev is io n w it h in t h e d u ra ti o n o f re se ar ch a ll it em s co ve re d a ll it em s co ve re d 2 . r es ea rc h /s tu d y su m m a ry ti tl e o b je cti ve s (b u lle t p o in ts ) d u ra ti o n ( fi el d w o rk a n d w ri ti n g o f re su lt s) fu n d in g so u rc es p la n n ed a cti vi ti e s (m et h o d o lo gy ) r es p o n si b ili ty a ll it em s co ve re d a ll it em s co ve re d 3 . d is se m in a ti o n a n d p ro p er ty ri g h ts p la n n ed a n d p o te n ti al o u tc o m e s fr o m re se ar ch a u th o rs h ip a n d c o -a u th o rs h ip d is cu ss ed a n d n o te d o n t h e ag re e m en t. v id eo m o b ile e xh ib it p u b lic p re se n ta ti o n s b o o kl et sc ie n ti fi c p u b lic ati o n s to b e re vi se d o n ce a ll re su lt s ar e an al yz ed . d is cu ss ed a n d a gr ee d t h at a u th o rs h ip f o r sc ie n ti fi c p u b lic ati o n s w ill b el o n g to t h e re se ar ch er s an d w ill b e p u b lis h ab le a ft er re vi si o n a n d a p p ro va l o f th e m an u sc ri p t b y th e lo ca l a u th o ri ti es . 4 . c o m m u n it y a n d re se a rc h er (s ) b en efi ts h o w p ar ti ci p an ts ( vi lla ge s, in d ig en o u s gr o u p , e tc .) w ill b en efi t fr o m r es ea rc h , an d w h at is r es ea rc h er g o in g to d o t o en su re t h is a gr ee m en t to c re at e a vi d eo d o cu m en ta ry to b e u se d a s a sc ie n ti fi c p u b lic ati o n a s w el l a s lo ca lly a t th e lo ca l a n d r eg io n al sc h o o ls . c re ati o n o f a b o o kl et t h at a cc o m p an ie s th e vi d eo d o cu m en ta ry . v ill ag er s re q u e st ed t o r e se ar ch er t o w o rk o n t h e d is tr ib u ti o n a n d e xh ib iti o n o f th e vi d eo a n d r es ea rc h r e su lt s w id el y to d iff er en t fo ra . el ab o ra ti o n o f in fo rm ati ve p o st er s, o f se ver al a sp ec ts o f re se ar ch t o b e d is p la ye d o n t h e vi lla ge . o n go in g d is cu ss io n f o r th e cr ea ti o n o f a co m m u n it y ga rd en f o r th e el e m en ta ry an d m id s ch o o l. v ill ag er s h av e co n tr o l o ve r re se ar ch a cti vi ti es , t h ey c an r eq u e st p re se n ta ti o n s, re p o rt s o f w o rk p ro gr es s. v ill ag er s d ec id e an d a p p ro ve f o rm at s fo r th e re tu rn o f th e re su lt s. 5 . p o te n ti a l r is ks d es cr ib e th e p o te n ti al r is ks f o r p ar ti ci p an ts d er iv ed f ro m r e se ar ch ex p o su re o f th e vi lla ge s an d v ill ag er s d is cu ss ed a n d n o r ea l r is ks id en ti fi ed . ta b le 1 s u m m ar y o f gu id e lin e s fo r o b ta in in g p ri o r an d in fo rm e d c o n se n t. (c o n ti n u ed o n n e xt p ag e ) medinaceli. 2018. ethnobiology letters 9(1):76–85 82 perspectives special issue on ethics in ethnobiology st e p c o n te n t c as e 1 ( ts im an e ’) c as e 2 ( q ’e q ch i’) 6 . r o le o f re se a rc h er (s ) fu lfi ll o b je cti ve s an d p la n n ed a cti vi ti es th o ro u gh ly w h ile r es p e cti n g lo ca l n o rm s, tr ad iti o n s an d ti m e s. fu lfi ll o b je cti ve s an d a cti vi ti e s. o ff er p ro gr es s re p o rt s an d p re se n ta ti o n s w h en e ve r re q u es te d b y th e ts im an e’ fu lfi ll ta sk s re q u es te d a s re ci p ro ci ty ( i.e . tr ai n in g o n g ra n t w ri ti n g, c o m p u te r u se , et c. ) su p p o rt o n w ri ti n g an d r ev ie w in g co m m u n it y m ee ti n g re p o rt s r es ea rc h er r eq u ir ed t o f u lfi ll o b je cti ve s an d c o m m itt ed t o t h e re tu rn o f re su lt s in a gr ee d f o rm at s (p o st er s, t h es es , p ap er s, e tc .) fu lfi ll ta sk s re q u es te d a s re ci p ro ci ty s u ch as g ra n t w ri ti n g fo r th e lo ca l n g o , o ff er su p p o rt o n o th er lo ca l i n iti ati ve s (i .e . ca ca o p ro d u cti o n p la n ) 7 . r o le o f p a rti ci p a n ts p ar ti ci p ati o n is v o lu n ta ry . c o m m it m en t to p ar ti ci p at e in a cti vi ti e s re la te d t o t h e re se ar ch ev er y p er so n t h at d ec id e s to p ar ti ci p at e en su re s to m ak e ti m e fo r p ar ti ci p ati o n . ev er y p er so n t h at d ec id e s to p ar ti ci p at e, en su re s to m ak e ti m e fo r p ar ti ci p ati o n . 8 . p a ym en ts ty p es o f p ay m en t to t ra n sl at o rs , h el p er s, p ar ti ci p an ts ( if a p p lic ab le ) a gr ee m en t fo r tr an sl at o r’ s p ay m en t. a gr ee m en t th at r e se ar ch e r w ill c o n tr ib u te fo o d a n d s h ar e m ea ls w it h t h e h o st fa m ily a ss ig n ed . a gr ee m en t th at lo d gi n g fo r re se ar ch er s is fr ee o f co st . a gr ee m en t th at m ea ls w ill b e p ay ed t o t h e h o st f am ily a ss ig n ed . a gr ee m en t th at in vi ta ti o n t o o th er m ea ls b y o th er f am ili e s w ill n o t b e p ai d . 9 . s ig n a tu re s si gn in g th e ag re em en t b y re se ar ch er (s ), re p re se n ta ti ve s fr o m lo ca l c o m m u n iti es an d /o r au th o ri ti es if c o m m u n it y p re fe rs a n o ra l a gr ee m en t, cr ea te a c o m p an io n d o cu m en t fo r re se ar ch er (s ) re co rd fo llo w in g lo ca l c u st o m s an d a s re q u e st ed b y th e ts im an e’ , t h is is a n o ra l a gr ee m en t. w ri tt en a n d s ig n ed a gr e em en t, a s re q u es te d b y au th o ri ti es a n d lo ca l v ill ag er s. (c o n ti n u ed f ro m p re vi o u s p ag e ) medinaceli. 2018. ethnobiology letters 9(1):76–85 83 perspectives special issue on ethics in ethnobiology explanation of all activities that will take place, and the commitment expected from all participants. depending on where the research will take place, at times the use of simpler language or a translator will be required to make sure that the project is completely understood. this presentation will become the summary of the research as a second component of the agreement. a presentation and discussion of the research at the beginning of fieldwork is not enough. i believe that having a detailed written summary of the research within the consent agreement contributes to avoiding doubts or concerns about activities or components of research while fieldwork takes place. in addition, it gives collaborators the opportunity to have a tool for reviewing, evaluating and controlling project progress, especially long-term projects. when work will be carried out by a team of researchers, it is recommended to have information of the researcher who is going to oversee each activity/ methodology of the project, including contact information to facilitate and encourage communication between participants and researchers. dissemination, property rights, benefits, and risks when discussing and presenting the research with communities, a couple of topics often arise. the first one can be summed in the following question: what are the benefits that the proposed research project will bring to the participants, the villages and/or the region? this is a recurrent question that we, as researchers, should ask ourselves when creating our proposals. usually researchers have a clear understanding of the benefits of their research, but that does not necessarily imply what the benefits will be for the local communities. i believe that it is important to think in advance about what the research will bring to the local people and communities. to answer this question, we must be careful and honest with our own views. an ideal research project should be beneficial to both the researcher(s) and the collaborators (local communities), but the benefits for each may be vastly different. thus, explaining and discussing the possibilities should be an important component of the consent agreement (for more on benefits, refer to the examples presented above). the second topic to which we must respond is: what is going to happen with all the information resulting from the research? it should also be mentioned if the resulting information will be taken away, published, or returned to the local context, and if so, in what formats? this is an issue that should be open to discussion. it is known that while carrying out research, it often happens that we (researcher and collaborators) realize that certain components or preliminary results can be beneficial for either one of the participants. therefore, the consent agreement should maintain this component as open, i.e., with some initial expected goals (e.g., publications and books), but open to discussion and revision based on new priorities (e.g., responding to current situations and conflicts) that might arise during the implementation of research. talking about the benefits of research is just one side of the coin; the other side, often not well appreciated, involves the potential risks that a particular research project can bring to the local communities and collaborators, as well as the researchers. therefore, consent agreements should have a section where risks can be made explicit. this will potentially alleviate any problems that could arise simply due to the implementation of research. this is an honest approach accepting that not every project is completely harmless, or that it is almost impossible to foresee what the research could offer or cause. the role of everyone involved when starting my first independent projects as an undergraduate student, at times i experienced a lack of participation and commitment of some of my collaborators, especially when invited to meetings or other activities. at times, they just skipped an activity because they were not fully aware of their role and responsibilities within the project, and also some collaborators were not aware of my own commitment and responsibilities within the project. therefore, for future projects i started discussing explicitly the nature of responsibilities i have to the research, the local people (respecting their traditions, customs), and the kind of commitment expected from participants (researcher and collaborators), even though their participation is voluntary. levels of involvement and participation in a project usually vary widely, starting from funders who do not really get involved with fieldwork, to the researchers who are fully involved and in charge of every step of the research process, to local participants/collaborators that will participate in some activities during fieldwork, and others that will possibly be involved in the complete process, such as medinaceli. 2018. ethnobiology letters 9(1):76–85 84 perspectives special issue on ethics in ethnobiology key informants, translators, communal authorities, etc. making clear all these aspects of research is important, because it ensures the respect and commitment of everyone who decides to get involved in the research process. payments, signatures depending on the type of research and according to what is accepted within the local context, at times people will receive payments, either for participating in the research or for offering other services (e.g., food, translation, and guides). any type of payments should be expressed in the consent agreement to avoid potential conflicts with and between paid and unpaid participants. when research/studies do not involve any type of payment or compensation to participants, it also should be stated clearly, once more to avoid any potential conflict. finally, once more following local regulations and to formalize the consent agreement, the locally accepted format for the agreement is the recommended one to follow. in my own experiences, most people then demand a written and signed agreement. but other formats that are locally and traditionally accepted also give validity to the agreement, such as oral agreements. when participants/collaborators acknowledge that an oral agreement is the appropriate and traditionally accepted format for providing consent, then the agreement should follow this format. conclusions to facilitate the use of this proposed format, table 1 summarizes the structure of the consent agreement process. the agreement should follow the local norms and customs as much as possible, while also responding to any regional, national or international regulations that affect the implementation of the research/study. as mentioned above, this format is simply an encouraging guide in engaging communities as a first step of our research, and not as a set format. working in different geographical, cultural and political contexts, following just one format can become problematic, but having this guideline that aims to cover the basic topics to organize an acceptable consent agreement can be beneficial. i encourage ethnobiologists, anthropologists, and any researcher to understand the importance of implementing the process of engaging communities as a formal step of their research, to make it explicit in their research proposals, as well as in their publications or any format that results from their research. i strongly believe that to make our research more ethical, we should include an explanation of the steps followed for obtaining the consent from people we collaborate with as part of any resulting publication, from scientific to non-scientific (books, posters, brochures) to masters theses and phd dissertations. the use of this guideline should be preceded and accompanied at the very least with a detailed review of the codes of ethics from the international society of ethnobiology (ise, 2006), and the latin american society of ethnobiology (solae, 2016). declarations permissions: none declared. sources of funding: none declared. conflicts of interest: none declared. references cited american anthropological association. 2012. ethics statement. available at: http:// ethics.americananthro.org. accessed on february 9, 2017. constitution politica del estado plurinacional de bolivia (cpepb). 2009. ups editorial, la paz bolivia. international society of ethnobiology ise. 2006. ise code of ethics (with 2008 additions). available at: http://ethnobiology.net/code-ofethics/. accessed on january 24, 2017. ley no. 300. ley marco de la madre tierra y desarrollo integral para vivir bien. 2012. gaceta oficial de bolivia. nagoya protocol on access to genetic resources and the fair and equitable sharing of benefits arising from their utilization (abs) to the convention on biological diversity available at: www.cbd.int/ abs/about/. accessed on march 15, 2017. solae, sociedad latinoamericana de etnobiología, 2016. código de ética. etnobiología, 14(1). distrito federal, mexico. united nations environmental programme (unep). 2003 convention on biological diversity text and annexes. booklet. montreal, canada. united nations environmental programme (unep) 2017. convention on biological diversity. medinaceli. 2018. ethnobiology letters 9(1):76–85 85 perspectives special issue on ethics in ethnobiology available at: www.cbd.int/. accessed on march 14, 2017. united nations. 1948. universal declaration of human rights. available at: http://www.un.org/ en/universal-declaration-human-rights/. accessed on february 10, 2017. united nations. 2008. united nations declaration on the rights of indigenous peoples. available at: https://www.un.org/development/desa/ indigenouspeoples/declaration-on-the-rights-ofindigenous-peoples.html. accessed on february 9, 2017. neocolonial thinking and respect for nature: do indigenous people have different relationships with wildlife than europeans? pierotti and fogg. 2020. ethnobiology letters 11(1):48–57 48 perspectives this premise derives from the fact that all dogs and wolves are considered to be members of the same species, canis lupus, including dingoes, siberian laiki, and many other forms that bear little resemblance to the unequivocally domestic dogs found in numerous contemporary human societies (wilson and reeder 1993). one point emphasized by mech (2019:69) is that we fail to “point out important information not considered by the authors about wolf attacks on humans … in the wolf-human relationship.” this is simply not true, as in our introduction (pierotti and fogg 2017:23), we make the following series of statements: a crucial point is that the social bond between humans and wolves that changed introduction although david mech is a scholar with 60 years of experience investigating the behavior and ecology of wolves; however, he seems to employ a typological, essentialist vision of wolves as the basic logic for his arguments about our work (mech 2019). to mech, it seems that attribution of any potentially negative behavior (aggressive behavior directed at humans) by a wolf, whether it lives in india, europe, or north america, means that the potential for such behavior exists in every individual wolf and that this dynamic defines the human/wolf relationship. in addition, mech (2019) seems to argue that there is a sharp division between dogs and wolves with little or no overlap, ignoring the basic premise stated in our book the first domestication (pierotti and fogg 2017) that “all dogs are wolves, but not all wolves are dogs.” neocolonial thinking and respect for nature: do indigenous people have different relationships with wildlife than europeans? raymond pierotti1* and brandy raelene fogg2 1department of ecology and evolutionary biology, university of kansas, lawrence, usa. 2indigenous nations studies program, university of kansas, lawrence, usa. *pierotti@ku.edu abstract we respond to mech (2019) “do indigenous american peoples’ stories inform the study of dog domestication” and point out a number of errors and omissions in mech’s essay. these include: 1) assuming that the behavior of all wild wolves is the same, and can be characterized according only to mech’s personal experience; 2) assuming that the domestication of wolves took place in only a single location at one time (14,000 yrs bp); 3) misrepresenting the statements and findings of other scholars; 4) assuming that all wolves that have ever encountered humans have experienced persecution; and 5) dismissing all accounts of interactions with wolves by indigenous americans. the last of these is particularly egregious and seems to represent a form of neocolonial thinking, in which only accounts and findings by europeans are considered to be acceptable evidence. mech’s own work on ellesmere island seems to support the idea that wolves can be curious and unthreatening to humans. we suggest that this might be the only actual time mech interacted with true canis lupus. in addition, mech’s statements on wolf attacks and the significance of rabies are shown to be misleading. as a result, mech’s work, especially his questioning of the validity of indigenous knowledge, which often provides crucial insights into some aspects of ethnobiological research, represents a critique of methods employed by scholars within the discipline of ethnobiology, whereas, as a wildlife biologist, mech seems to lack knowledge of the principles of ethnobiology. received january 17, 2020 open access accepted june 3, 2020 doi 10.14237/ebl.11.1.2020.1674 published august 1, 2020 keywords wolves, canis lupus, indigenous peoples, neocolonialism, misrepresentation copyright © 2020 by the author(s); licensee society of ethnobiology. this is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution-noncommercial 4.0 international public license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0), which permits non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. pierotti and fogg. 2020. ethnobiology letters 11(1):48–57 49 perspectives into domestic dogs is the source of both major pleasures and major conflicts between humans and their canid companions. large domestic dogs have the anatomy of serious predators, combined with a confidence in their interactions with humans that can lead to aggression and serious conflict. … we discuss the ‘danger’ presented by various breeds, including wolves and wolf-dogs and challenge a number of points of received thinking, including the notion of the equivalency of ‘wild’ and ‘dangerous’. a major aspect of the danger from a canid is associated with size above all else, which is to be expected in dealing with large predatory animals … the great enigma of the first domestication (is that) wolves and dogs are so affectionate and seem willing, if not driven, to create strong and persistent social bonds that it becomes easy for humans to anthropomorphize and idealize these four-leggeds that share our lives so easily. yet they remain predators, highly evolved carnivores, and they know how to kill. in making such statements, we assumed that anyone reading the book, and paying attention, would recognize that we are fully aware that conflicts arise regularly between humans and canids. cesar milan’s television show the dog whisperer is based entirely on behavioral conflicts between homo sapiens and canis lupus in the contemporary world. this raises another issue with mech’s paper. he writes as if only wolves have been known to show aggression, and even predatory attacks, towards humans. it is well established that dogs, especially large aggressive breeds, are much more dangerous to humans than are wolves (pierotti and fogg 2017:225–226; sacks et al. 2000). as we pointed out (pierotti and fogg 2017:237, emphasis added): europeans (and euro-americans) are easily convinced that wolves are vicious, destructive killers, especially of human children, despite the fact that no wild—or even purebred captive— wolf has ever been implicated in the death of a child in north america. we have shown how such language creeps into accounts by scholars involved in studies of domestication. domestic dogs, especially the molosser breeds, kill orders of magnitude more children than wolf-dogs have ever been accused of doing (sacks et al. 2000). in this response, we begin by laying out what we perceive as the main issue—what is a dog—and discuss why our work places emphasis on captive and pet wolves, and wolf x dog crosses. the term hybrids, used by mech (2019), is inaccurate, because hybrids involve crosses between species, and we study crosses between members of the same species, and wolf-like dogs. we then examine a number of the arguments made by mech and show that although he makes a few solid points, much of his argument relies upon unjustified speculation, colored by an attitude that at best represents a neocolonial way of thinking. what is a dog? as we argued in the first domestication, the real question in looking at co-evolution between humans and wolves is trying to establish the point at which the transformation occurs and humans cease thinking of their canid companions as wolves and start thinking of them as dogs—a domestic form under human control (pierotti and fogg 2017). if the definition of a dog is simply a wolf that lives with humans, we have a conundrum, because different cultures define their canid companions according to their own experiences, and the question becomes, who gets to make this distinction? we argue that indigenous peoples around the world, including indigenous north americans, australians, siberians, and the ainu of japan, probably did not make this distinction until they encountered europeans who imposed their cultural norms. because they were writing the books, europeans chose their terminology, rather than that of indigenous peoples. as a consequence, today most people seem to operate under the assumption that a canid that lives with humans is a dog, regardless of how the people with whom it lives regard its identity. one of us (pierotti) has spent the last 30 years traveling around north america as an expert witness and conducting public outreach, trying to explain this conundrum whenever local authorities decide that a canid possessed by some person or family is a wolf and, therefore, represents a danger to the community. chapters 9–11 in the first domestication (pierotti and fogg 2017) represent our attempt to evaluate this situation and propose a possible resolution. in every case, pierotti was able to identify the animals as obvious dogs, even though in most cases, alleged wolf experts had identified the animals in question as wolves. pierotti and fogg. 2020. ethnobiology letters 11(1):48–57 50 perspectives an obvious case of such a conflict arose in alberta, canada in the early 1990s. the animal in question was a 150-pound male dog that superficially resembled a wolf and had been identified as a pure wolf by alberta’s provincial wolf biologist (a canadian equivalent of the position that mech has held; details of the case can be found in pierotti and fogg 2017:210–212). in the enclosure next to the male was his full sibling, a female who the provincial biologist readily dismissed as a dog, primarily because her tail curled above her back, whereas the male’s tail was straight (see pierotti and fogg 2017:figure 9.3). this case was easily resolved by pointing out the dog features of the male, and everyone, including the provincial biologist, seemed to be satisfied with the outcome. in almost every case in which pierotti has participated, people who consider themselves to be experts in wolf identification seem to base their idea of what a wolf looks like on images from the media, in which obvious dogs are generally used to portray wolves. this should not be an issue with mech, who clearly is expert at knowing what wolves look like from many years of observation and handling animals. mech seems to have little experience, however, with the boundary zone, where animals can live as both wolves and dogs (in the sense that they hunt with and sometimes live with humans). as one example, the ainu of japan (walker 2005:85–86, cited in pierotti and fogg 2017:141) tried to reproduce or encourage “wolf traits in their own dogs … through both accidental and intentional breeding.” … in at least one ainu village they “tried domesticating wolves,” which involved ainu caring for wolf pups in their village for about two years (until adulthood). once the wolves had become accustomed to people, the ainu “allowed them … into the mountains alone to hunt and kill deer, after which the wolves returned to the villages.” the practice of living with individual canis lupus that are free to come and go from an indigenous community is also found among indigenous australians (canis lupus dingo, see chapter 6 in pierotti and fogg 2017:125–142) and is also known from accounts provided by various native american peoples (pierotti and fogg 2017:143–165). exactly how canids behaving in this manner should be classified is pretty much an open question; it seems, however, that indigenous peoples seem to regard them as wolves when they live on their own and dogs when they live with people, as in this ainu poem (walker 2005:90): therefore, simply put a dog, even if you kill one, should not be sent in the direction of the ocean. its ancestors are wolves. it should be sent in the direction of the mountains. that’s the lesson of this story. mech seems to struggle with the concept of an animal which is both a dog and a wolf, depending upon its socioecological context. this is clear in his statement that “dog domestication did not take place in north america, however, so whatever these native american stories actually portrayed would not have applied to the eurasian cultures within which dogs were domesticated” (mech 2019:70). this statement reveals typological thinking, as well as ignorance of the history of american dogs. the salish people of the pacific northwest had wool dogs and camp dogs, both of which were morphologically distinct from wolves millennia before europeans arrived in north america (barsh 2016; crockford 1997). there are dog breeds created by indigenous peoples in both north and south america, even if these lines appear to be extinct in the present (leathlobhair et al. 2018). chichimec, the actual name of the aztecs, literally means people of the dog (brinton 1868). many tribes on the american plains had large wolf-like dogs, which may or may not have been tamed wolves (fogg et al. 2015; pierotti and fogg 2017:143–165). these results show that dogs have been domesticated several times in various parts of the world and native americans and their ancestors participated in such traditions. humans are still creating new breeds of dog from wolves, although mech states that this event happened only once 14,500 years ago. mech seems to think that because contemporary genetic work suggests that contemporary domestic dog breeds originated in eurasia, no indigenous americans were capable of carrying out domestication, which ignores a considerable literature on native americans and their canid companions. in our thinking, the boundary between wolf and dog is fluid and ever-changing, a process that began around 40,000 years ago (see also shipman 2015) and continued in north america until the last few pierotti and fogg. 2020. ethnobiology letters 11(1):48–57 51 perspectives hundred years. this is why we focus our work on canids that straddle this boundary, e.g., tamed wolves, socialized wolves, crosses between wolves and dogs that resemble wolves, and the various breeds of wolflike dog. this is where evolution is happening and where we can see the changes that living with humans induces in canis lupus. neocolonial perceptions one major subtheme of mech’s essay is his tendency to dismiss any knowledge or information that comes from indigenous americans. he argues that “reasons to conclude that the stories related by fogg et al. (2015) do not reflect reality is found by comparing the stories’ details with what is known about basic wolf biology” (mech 2019:71). as an example, mech (2019:72) states, in reference to a wolf that helped a group of cheyenne women and children, including the communication between the woman and the wolf, the behavior of this single wolf fits nothing we know about such wolves. if this animal were an individual pack member, it would have returned within a few days to its pack... if it were a true lone wolf, it would have been traveling far and wide seeking a mate. despite this claim, in 22 accounts that discuss results from radio-tagging wolves around the world described by wolf biologists (thiel et al. 2015), almost all describe wolves that wandered alone for months or even years at a time. more to the point, cheyenne women and children fled the sand creek massacre on november 29, 1864, which is a time of year when wolves are not breeding and more likely to be wandering. this is not a myth thousands of years old, but a recent account provided by these women in recent historical time (contemporaneous with the american civil war). it is unclear to us why mech misrepresents this fundamental fact of wolf behavior, other than to try and denigrate an account reported by cheyenne people, which is linked to a major historical, traumatic event and explains how some women and children were able to escape a genocidal massacre. wolves are social animals and were familiar with the cheyenne, who were one tribe that showed great respect for wolves (fogg et al. 2015 and references therein). it hardly seems surprising that a lone animal might join a group of humans for several weeks. the male wolf, romeo, around juneau, alaska, returned alone yearly for almost a decade, interacting with humans and their dogs, and not seeking a mate, rather than returning to a pack (jans 2015). what mech seems to mean is, based on his rather limited experience of the possible range of wolf behavior, animals do not behave in the way described by the cheyenne women. mech also seems to assume that because wolves have been known to occasionally attack humans that this means they are rarely if ever social with humans. wolves also attack and kill other wolves, yet no one suggests this means that wolves are never social with each other. recently, hansen wheat and temrin (2020:1) reported on wolf sociality with humans, particularly the response of wolf pups to humans, which reveals that three 8-week-old wolf puppies spontaneously respond[ed] to social-communicative behaviors from an unfamiliar person by retrieving a ball. this behavioral expression in wolves has significant implications for our understanding and expectations of the genetic foundations of dog behavior. importantly, our observations indicate that behavioral responses to human social-communicative cues are not unique to dogs. we reported similar results: “wolf behavior expert benson ginsburg states: ‘it is my experience that if you put your hand into a pen with newborn wolves, a certain percentage will come immediately and never want you to leave... as adults, the social ones can become sociable to humans’” (pierotti and fogg 2017:224). another example mech (2019: 71) uses is that “some of the accounts in fogg et al. (2015) involve wolves teaching humans how to hunt.” we do indeed report such accounts and stand by our arguments. mech (2019:71) goes on to state: the methods that wolves use to hunt vary considerably depending on type of prey, habitat, and season, but most wolf hunts are failures and most successful hunts depend greatly on wolves running down their prey at speeds of up to 56 km/h. … there is little evidence that wolves employ particular strategies that might be useful to humans. on this point we beg to differ: humans entering new lands need to learn the available prey and which techniques are most useful depending upon the habitat and season. who better to learn this from than pierotti and fogg. 2020. ethnobiology letters 11(1):48–57 52 perspectives the other cooperatively hunting large mammal that is present? to support this point, we examine a wellestablished knowledge set from a well-studied indigenous people, the iinisskimm knowledge of the blackfoot (nitsitapi) of the american west. one important example of a technique that wolves employed that humans needed to learn was how to control bison to herd them over cliffs, or to drive them into deep snow, where they could be easily killed (pierotti and fogg 2017:146, 149). the blackfoot people were known for their skills and long -standing tradition of employing buffalo jumps or pisskan (barsh and marlor 2003). barsh and marlor (2003:581) investigated the close relationship, dismissed by mech, that “blackfoot learned to live together and hunt bison in social groups from wolves, and refer to their ancestors as ‘the wolf people’ … (their) stories … draw attention to an important ecological fact: wolves drive bison.” barsh and marlor (2003:585) spend several pages discussing this ecological relationship and argue that the blackfoot “observed wolves, recognized the usefulness of wolves’ knowledge, and then imitated wolves’ behavior to insert themselves into the existing bisonwolf relationship without significantly changing it.” this illustrates the knowledge and science that lies behind the stories that, in mech’s words, “do not reflect reality” and that there exists “little evidence that wolves employ particular strategies that might be useful to humans” (mech 2019:71). we find it hard to understand how a scientist can claim that the reality of another culture must be false or nonexistent, because it does not agree with his version of how the world functions, based on studying wolves in the northern boreal forest. this attitude cuts to the core of many issues on which we conduct careful scientific research as ethnobiologists. mech’s attitude reflects a neocolonial perspective in which, as one western scientist, robert earle johannes (1989:5), has put it: imagine people who confidently assume they can best describe and manage the natural resources of an unfamiliar region alone— ignoring local hunters, who know every cave and waterhole and the movements and behavior of a host of local species. such, historically, has been the custom of most scientists and natural resource managers working in unfamiliar environments. the world of indigenous americans is a very unfamiliar environment for mech, however, he plows through, ignoring indigenous beliefs and stories, because “the stories related by fogg et al. (2015) do not reflect reality … found by comparing the stories’ details with what is known about basic wolf biology” (mech 2019:71). the assumption under which mech (2019:71) operates is that as a biologist who has studied wolf biology, behavior, interactions with humans, and conservation for 60 years, it is hard for me to understand how wolves could have been so unafraid and friendly toward humans and vice versa during the period and in the region covered by fogg et al. (2015). mech may well have 60 years of experience, which we admire and salute, however the blackfoot have at least 6,000 years of living with and observing wolves, and the cheyenne have traditions that go back at least 15,000 years (schlesier 1987). western science, as it currently defines itself, is a relatively recent philosophical development and functions best at very small and very large scales (e.g., molecular and planetary levels), where it is possible to transcend the obvious limitations of the human ability to directly observe phenomena and where investigators are most dependent on technology to provide data (alessa 2009; lewontin 2001). indigenous perspectives are most effective in observing and describing wholes (as opposed to parts), because they operate at the level of human perception and concentrate on functional relationships and co-evolutionary processes rather than structure (alessa 2009; barsh 2000; pierotti 2011). as barsh (2000:162) notes, “when indigenous people move through a familiar landscape, they augment their ability to monitor ecological processes by observing behavior of species with more acute senses.” similarly, alessa (2009:250) remarks that for indigenous people “the consequences (of failure) are not the ridicule of one’s peers, or the failure to get research grants, they are sickness, suffering, and death.” mech seems to assume that his 60 years of research into wolves means that he has seen every possible variation on the theme of being a wolf, and more importantly that any wolf that has encountered humans has experienced persecution by these humans. mech’s experience consists primarily of studies of wolves in northern minnesota and michigan, and several years of work on arctic wolves pierotti and fogg. 2020. ethnobiology letters 11(1):48–57 53 perspectives on ellesmere island. in regard to the latter study, mech (2019:71, emphasis added) states that: only where a wolf population lived without exposure to hominids for centuries and then was gradually exposed to them, such as in north america’s high arctic during the past few centuries, could wolves perhaps lose their fear of human … [for example, on ellesmere island] the wolves were curious but did not recognize humans as prey, behavior that attests that the species must have so consistently been harassed by humans that only those that did not recognize humans as prey survived. however, the more-or-less fearless behavior of this wolf population toward humans has not been documented at any other time or place. everywhere else, evidence is strong that wolves and humans feared each other. in contrast to mech’s statements, anthropologists working in the same area state that the first human inhabitants of ellesmere island were small bands of inuit drawn to the area for peary caribou, muskox, and marine mammal hunting in approximately 2000– 1000 bce (schledermann and mccullough 2003). the ellesmere inuit were hunting caribou and muskox, activities in which wolves were also engaged, suggesting that these species probably regularly encountered each other over the last two millennia. mech (2019:71) claims that “the species [arctic wolves] must have so consistently been harassed by humans that only those that did not recognize humans as prey survived.” were these wolves consistently harassed, presumably by humans, or had this population “lived without exposure to hominids for centuries” (mech 2019:71)? these statements are inconsistent with one another. based on his twentieth century experiences with persecuted wolves, mech presumes to tell us how indigenous americans might have acted with wolves that had not experienced persecution. this is a crucial point, because for thousands of years wolves and humans were co-inhabitants of much of north america, yet the accounts from these peoples show no fear or hostility of, or inclination towards persecution of, wolves. more to the point, mech’s own experience with wolves he identified as unpersecuted, on ellesmere island, shows an experience much more like those we describe, despite his own acknowledged fear. in mech’s own article in thiel et al. (2015:217, emphasis added), we find the following description of his reaction to being investigated by the alpha male wolf: he even frightened me, the one time in my then forty-six years studying wolves that i had been afraid of one … when brutus ambled around behind me where i could not see him, i had second thoughts … for a minute or two, i became truly frightened. … “you know dean, for the first time in my life i am truly afraid of a wolf,” i uttered to my companion. i had thought, that i might jump or whirl around, possibly triggering some predatory move. … each second brutus stayed behind me seemed endless until he finally moseyed back around to my side where i could see him. he then strolled some twenty feet from us, lay down and howled. my fear was all for naught and i ended up feeling foolish. perhaps even more important, the “wolves” studied by mech in minnesota and the upper midwestern united states are probably wolves admixed with coyotes (hailer and leonard 2008; vonholdt et al. 2011; wilson et al. 2009). coyotes are less social than wolves and assuming that admixture may influence behavior, this may explain why the minnesota wolves studied by mech are less social and more fearful than the actual wolves he studied on ellesmere island. further evidence supporting this line of thinking comes from mech himself (mech 2013), where he reports that a wolf he tracked in northern minnesota for eleven years, and relied upon for crucial data, weighed between 56 and 60 pounds, which is very small for a timber wolf, but appropriately sized for a coyote/wolf hybrid. to us what seems more likely is that the wolves on ellesmere were curious about humans and respectful, but not fearful, much like the situation that prevailed when humans first came to north america. if humans were not aggressive towards wolves, the wolves had no need to have conflict with them and they would not have been persecuted. mech makes a great deal of “the wolf’s fear of humans, even though the animal is capable of killing them, must have resulted from selection acting on the wolves’ enduring competition and negative interactions with humans” (shipman 2015, cited in mech 2019:70). the citation of shipman on this theme says a great deal about mech’s perception and understanding. shipman’s (2015) work is titled the invaders: how humans and their dogs drove neanderthals to extinction, in pierotti and fogg. 2020. ethnobiology letters 11(1):48–57 54 perspectives which she makes an argument similar to ours in the first domestication—cooperative alliances formed between modern humans and early dogs (wolves) in europe and asia around 40,000 bce. as do we, shipman argues for multiple occurrences of the domestication of wolves, and she does not hold to the 14,500 yr bp date like mech. in fact, her basic premise would be invalidated if early domestication events had not taken place around 40,000 bce. the point on which mech (2019:70) cites shipman, “wolves’ enduring competition and negative interactions with humans” is not part of her argument, which assumes that cooperation between wolves and humans made the combined species superior competitors and allowed them to survive and prosper at a time when many large mammals were going extinct in their shared ecosystem. of the eight species of large-bodied carnivore (two canids, three felids, one hyena, and two hominids; shipman 2015:figure 9.3), wolves and humans are the only species who survived the pleistocene in eurasia. far from supporting mech’s argument, her work actually refutes it. this inappropriate and inaccurate citation of shipman’s work, and carelessness in the documentation of these crucial points, detracts from mech’s argument. for example, he makes a big deal about the importance of rabies in north america, however, a simple google search could have revealed to him the work of velasco villa et al. (2017:221), where they state that historical records and phylogenetic analysis of multiple virus isolates indicate that, before the arrival of the first european colonizers, rabies virus was likely present only in bats and skunks. canine rabies was either rare or absent among domestic dogs of native americans, and first arrived when many new dog breeds were imported during the period of european colonization. this is a serious error on mech’s part, given his emphasis in the abstract and the text on “important information not considered by the authors about wolf attacks on humans and the importance of rabies in the wolf-human relationship” (mech 2019:69). the final issue relates to his insistence that we ignored “important information [concerning] wolf attacks” (mech 2019:73). mech cites linnell et al. 2002 as his primary source. this admirable study summarizes a good deal of information but reports very little of importance to our work. the basic conclusions of linnell et al. (2002:5, emphasis in original) are: in those extremely rare cases where wolves have killed people, most attacks are by rabid wolves, predatory attacks [in europe and india] are aimed mainly [at] children, attacks in general are unusual but episodic, and humans are not part of their normal prey. when the frequency of wolf attacks on people is compared to that from other large carnivores or wildlife in general it is obvious that wolves are among the least dangerous species for their size and predatory potential. … the risks of wolf attacks in europe/ scandinavia (and also north america) today appear to be very low, as recent cases are rare, despite increasing numbers of wolves. this hardly sounds like headline material, despite mech’s emphasis. in north america, where mech’s knowledge and experience are located, linnell et al. (2002) basically show that after eliminating errors— dog bites and attacks mistakenly reported as wolfcaused, flat out false reports (including several cases covered in chapter 10 of pierotti and fogg 2017:221– 247)—there is little evidence. one widely cited russian report is believed to be a fake, cooked up by an anti-wolf activist who managed to get stalin’s ear. linell et al. (2002) report fewer than ten attacks in the united states and canada combined, of which two resulted in fatalities, one by eastern coyotes (wolf/ coyote hybrids) on cape breton island and another in alaska by wolves. in both cases the victims were small adult women, which although tragic does not represent the epidemic that mech implies. mech places excessive emphasis on fear (including his own as demonstrated above), attacks, competition, and predation, and no emphasis on respect and cooperation. as we argue in the first domestication, cooperation is actually more common than competition and respect is the basis of the way that indigenous peoples choose to deal with the nonhuman world. mech ignores this and his article seems to be an effort to reinstall fear in its readers, which we reject. his arguments are counter to the usual approach taken within the discipline of ethnobiology of respect for the views of indigenous peoples and their accounts. summary we believe we have refuted all three of the charges pierotti and fogg. 2020. ethnobiology letters 11(1):48–57 55 perspectives advanced by mech (2019): 1) arguments and evidence that question the value of indigenous american stories for drawing conclusions about the relationship between early humans and wolves at 14,500 yrs bp; 2) that indigenous american stories contradict documented information about wolf biology, behavior, and known interactions with humans that were not known to persecute wolves; and 3) information not considered by the authors about wolf attacks on humans and the importance of rabies in the wolf-human relationship. the first of these points is irrelevant because we were employing the ethnobiological tradition and examining how basically benign relationships between humans in indigenous cultures and wolves could exist. mech misrepresents and distorts pat shipman’s (2015) work on wolves and early modern humans, which supports our arguments. the second point seems to represent a neocolonial and questionable perspective, simply arguing that all evidence presented by indigenous americans is false if it presents a view of wolf behavior alternative to mech’s expectations, because he assumes that all interaction between humans and wolves must be hostile, as illustrated to his reaction to being sniffed by a male wolf as quoted above. the third point is misleading because, as we revealed, rabies was not an issue in wolves until europeans arrived in north america (velasco-villa et al. 2017) and wolf attacks in north america are very infrequent and rarely fatal. one troubling aspect of this entire situation is that dave mech is in many ways responsible for the positive image that many americans now have of wolves. it seems that mech (2020) has now turned away from wolves and currently advocates for state regulation of wolf populations: i believe that the way wolves should be managed is which ever way each state decides. individual citizens have individual opinions about wolf management. state legislatures and departments of natural resources must balance all these many conflicting views while ensuring that their wolf populations survive but conflict minimally with humans. as long as the wolf is no longer endangered in a particular state, i support that state’s approach to managing its wolves. in idaho and wyoming, at least, this almost certainly means a return to extermination outside of national park boundaries. ironically, indigenous peoples such as the nez perce in idaho and the chippewa in wisconsin have stepped forward to fill the gap mech has created (pierotti and fogg 2017:289): all tribes in wisconsin have requested that no wolf hunts take place and no hunters be allowed to kill wolves on tribal lands. … some tribes have gone well beyond simple requests, employing serious leverage. in retaliation for wolf hunts, six bands of chippewa in northern wisconsin declared their intention to spear a near-record number of walleyes during the annual spring harvest, terminating a 1997 agreement with the state and effectively shutting down the sport fishing season (fogg et al. 2015). such actions resulted because the relationship between the state and tribes has become increasingly strained, primarily because the tribes strongly opposed opening a wolf hunting and trapping season starting in 2012. we find it encouraging that the very peoples whose cultural legacy and beliefs mech disparages and dismisses in his paper are the ones who are trying to save the species that mech dedicated his life to studying and is now condemning to the ministrations of state governments. declarations permissions: none declared. sources of funding: none declared. conflicts of interest: none declared. references cited alessa, l. n. 2009. what is truth? where western science and traditional knowledge converge, in the alaska native reader: history, culture, politics, edited by m. s. t. williams, pp. 246–251. duke university press, durham, nc. barsh, r. l. 2000. 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coast of brazil, where local communities of caiçara people inhabit the atlantic forest (a region with high biodiversity). over the past 40 years, with the intensification of tourism and urbanization, and the establishment of protected areas, caiçara communities have been expressing their concerns to maintain their rights to their traditional territory and cultural practices, including canoe making. multi-scale initiatives involving policy makers, researchers, and caiçara have emerged to help protect this practice. at the policy level, caiçara canoes were recognized as tangible and intangible cultural heritage of the rio de janeiro state (iphan 2013; rio de janeiro 2016), and an ongoing process seeks to recognize them as part of the intangible cultural heritage in brazil (németh 2011). researchers have generated knowledge on aspects of canoes and canoe making and called social media users to identify canoe makers in a collaborative digital map1 (denadai et al. 2009; maldonado 2004; németh 2011). communityintroduction dugout canoes have special significance as a cultural product for local, traditional, and indigenous peoples worldwide (gilmore et al. 2002; orofino et al. 2017). they are a means of transportation of people and goods in more remote areas, where access by land is often difficult. they also play an important role in the subsistence of small-scale fishers who depend on them to ensure their food security. despite this, researchers have been reporting declines in the practice of canoe making, with concerns that the traditional knowledge associated with this cultural practice may get lost or eroded. the decline of canoe making is related to the complexity of this skill (lee et al. 2001), the lack of access to natural resources (paula et al. 2019), the increase of aluminum boats (orofino et al. 2017), the influence of western education (brosi et al. 2007), and the discouragement the youth face when learning this practice (németh 2011). all these issues relate to the current scenario in paraty, on the understanding canoe making as a process of preserving cultural heritage debora peterson1*, natalia hanazaki2, and fabiana li3 1natural resources institute, university of manitoba, winnipeg, canada. 2department of ecology and zoology, universidade federal de santa catarina, florianópolis, brazil. 3department of anthropology, university of manitoba, winnipeg, canada. *deborapeterson@yahoo.com.br abstract canoes are deeply ingrained elements of the caiçara culture, not only for their historical and current practical uses, but also for their socio-cultural outcomes. caiçara people are the descendants of europeans, africans, and indigenous peoples who inhabit parts of the atlantic forest in the southern and southeastern coast of brazil. despite this, canoe making has been declining in several caiçara communities, while many ongoing initiatives have attempted to encourage the maintenance of this practice. this article explores some of the caiçara-canoe relationships within the juatinga ecological reserve, in southeastern brazil. we discuss how canoes are an appropriate technology for some fishing techniques, and are thus not easily replaced by fiberglass or aluminum boats. we also explore some socio-cultural dimensions of canoe making in light of the relationships of caiçara canoe makers and fishers with the forest and with other community members. this article contributes to a growing body of knowledge to protect elements of caiçara identity, including initiatives to help maintain canoes, canoe making, and the people involved with them. received january 1, 2019 open access accepted june 24, 2019 doi 10.14237/ebl.10.1.2019.1363 published august 6, 2019 keywords ethnoecology, food security, traditional knowledge, caiçara, brazil copyright © 2019 by the author(s); licensee society of ethnobiology. this is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution-noncommercial 4.0 international public license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0), which permits non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. peterson et al. 2019. ethnobiology letters 10(1):59–68 60 perspectives based initiatives, such as canoe racing, also help raise awareness of the significance of canoes for caiçara identity. this article aims to contribute to current initiatives to maintain the caiçara cultural practice of canoe making. researchers have documented the cultural practices associated with canoe making, favored tree species, and canoe-related stories (denadai et al. 2009; maldonado 2004; paula et al. 2019). but there are also other aspects of the caiçaracanoe relationship that can be highlighted. this article takes an ethnoecological approach to (1) discuss the caiçara reliance on canoes for specific fishing techniques and food security, (2) examine how canoe making may help maintain people-forest connections, and (3) consider how both canoes and canoe making may help maintain relationships between caiçara people. the research presented in this article is part of a larger project that aimed to understand how traditional people can participate more effectively in the management of protected areas. the juatinga ecological reserve, established in 1992, was chosen as the study site due to its current political significance. to comply with the current brazilian environmental law for protected areas2, the reserve has been undergoing a process of recategorization into a new protected area status that allows for the sustainable use of resources and participation of traditional people. we employed a set of research methods that included ethnographic fieldwork, semi-structured interviews with canoe makers, participant observation, and a multi-stage photovoice process conducted with members of a caiçara community in the juatinga ecological reserve. in each corresponding section, the research methods will be described in greater detail along with the results of the study. the caiçara people and the juatinga ecological reserve the juatinga ecological reserve is located in paraty, rio de janeiro state, in the atlantic forest. it is home to approximately 1,500 people, the majority caiçara. the caiçara are mixed-heritage descendants of europeans, africans, and the tupinambá indigenous people, and have for many generations engaged in subsistence activities such as shifting agriculture, subsistence hunting, plant harvesting, basket making, wood carving, and fishing. their inherited fishing cultural practices include the use of plant fibers to make fishing nets and baskets, the use of numbing plants to capture fish, and carving techniques to make dugout canoes (mussolini 1980). in a study on the diversity of plant knowledge in praia do sono, brito and senna-valle (2012) found that caiçara participants (men and women) had extensive ethnobotanical knowledge of the plants of this reserve. people’s relationships with the landscape have been influenced over time by the establishment of protected areas, the presence of land grabbers, and the increase of tourism activities in the region. these factors contributed to cultural changes in the communities within the reserve. land tenure became a major concern to many caiçara in the reserve as land grabbers engaged in legal disputes with them over their traditional land, forcing many people to migrate to other regions in paraty. the establishment of the reserve followed a top-down management approach, adding conflicts over traditional land as cultural activities, such as shifting agriculture and hunting, became forbidden. tourism contributed to changes in the local economy as people became more involved with tourism-related activities (e.g., working and managing local restaurants, camping, and transporting tourists). other changes (e.g., incorporation of industrialized food in the local diet) were also significant, but for some caiçara in the reserve, they play a smaller threat to the caiçara culture—beliefs, values, social structure, economy, and arts—when compared to former examples (sinay et al. 2019). changes in technology are also evidenced by an increasing number of fiberglass or aluminum boats in the communities. sinay et al. (2019) reported that all adult men of one community in the reserve (martim de sá), had changed their canoes to motorized fiberglass or aluminum boats by 2015 to facilitate access to markets and tourists in paraty. caiçara canoes: an appropriate technology photovoice is a participatory method which involves providing people with cameras and asking them to identify and represent images that illustrate their own reality (castleden et al. 2008). photovoice was conducted with six caiçara participants with diverse roles—artisan, community leader, small-scale farmer, church representative, park ranger, environmental educator, and local tourism guide—in praia do sono, a community located in the juatinga ecological reserve (for a detailed description of photovoice data collection see peterson et al. under review-a). praia do sono was chosen because it has the easiest access to downtown paraty, which facilitated photo printing, peterson et al. 2019. ethnobiology letters 10(1):59–68 61 perspectives and it is probably the most impacted community by tourism expansion in the reserve. participants were selected based on the following factors: (1) time living in the community or around the reserve (at least 10 years), (2) willingness to take part in this research, (3) interest in photography, and (4) interest in talking about conservation. the participants were asked to take photos in response to the research question: what do you understand as conservation? photos were then used to guide individual interviews with participants. the word “canoe” was the second most cited (n = 254) in the photovoice process, surpassed only by the word “community.” from the 44 photos chosen by participants to prompt photovoice interviews, seven photos portrayed canoes (figure 1). participants used these photos to talk about the cultural significance of canoes, the practice of passing canoe making knowledge to youth, and the aesthetics of canoes in their landscape. when asked why canoes are so significant for the caiçara people in the reserve, one participant remembered that, in the past, they were the only means to bring goods to some places in the reserve. this participant noted that the transportation of goods would still rely on canoes if they did not have access to fiberglass boats. the juatinga ecological reserve is a remote peninsula, and access to most of the eight communities and twelve smaller settlements located there is difficult (figure 2). there are no roads connecting these communities, so people walk to them on trails or access them by sea. figure 1 photos of canoes taken by photovoice participants of the praia do sono community in the juatinga ecological reserve (2015–2017). peterson et al. 2019. ethnobiology letters 10(1):59–68 62 perspectives the seascape is a variable environment that impacts people-canoe relationships. sheltered or open waters influence the characteristics of canoes (and paddles), while the availability and behavior of the fish species influence fishing practices. the northern communities of the reserve are mostly in sheltered waters, in an inlet called mamanguá. although subjected to high variation in sea tides, this inlet has mostly good navigation conditions. fiberglass and aluminum boats, as well as canoes, are important for both fishing and transportation within this inlet. in mamanguá one can find small canoes (~2–3 m) used for traveling from the docks to anchored canoes within the inlet; canoes for other fishing techniques (~4–5 m), and canoas de voga, the biggest canoes (more than 7 m), used mostly for the transportation of goods. the southern communities, in contrast, are in the open sea, often facing rough sea conditions. in these communities, fiberglass and aluminum boats are currently used for transportation and sometimes for fishing, whereas canoes are commonly used for squid, mullet and cerco3 fishing. squid jigging canoes are the smallest (~3–4 m), canoes for mullet fishing are slighted bigger (~4–5 m), and canoes for cerco fishing are the biggest ones (~5–7 m). as the tradition of canoe making is declining, many people see canoes slowly giving way to more modern watercraft, such as motorized fiberglass and aluminum boats. although this may be a possible scenario for some places, in the reserve the caiçara canoes were mentioned as the best technology for some of the local fishing techniques, mullet fishing being one example. the mullet fishing happens every year from may to august with social, economic, and cultural importance for fishers in the southern and southeastern coast of brazil (abreu-mota et al. 2018). canoes with paddle propulsion are more suitable to surround the mullet schools because they are more silent than motorized fiberglass boats. a photovoice participant (translated here and elsewhere by dp) explained this: ...with mullet, with any fish species... it is difficult to go fishing with the engine working. because it [the school of fish] submerges and goes away. in this way, the canoe is better for this fishing technique. because it is not noisy, they [fishers] go out fishing with paddles. the [sound of the] engine frightens the fish… fishers [in fiberglass boats] will not surround them [the schools]. they use the fiberglass boat to cover larger distances... and for when they use tangle nets... they place it one day and go visit it one day later. to surround a mullet school... you cannot use the engine, you cannot make noises. these ideas relate to the notion of appropriate technology, which implies that technology should serve the needs of people (schumacher 1973)—in this case, the need for a silent watercraft. furthermore, caiçara canoes are small, simple, capital-saving, usercentered, and have a sustainable approach, which comply with schumacher’s criteria for appropriate technology (1973). similarly, the waimiri atroari indigenous people from the amazon found aluminum boats unsuitable for fishing with bows and arrows in the flooded forest (milliken et al. 1992). part of this unsuitability was figure 2 main walking trail (bold dashed line) and waterways (grey dashed line) to access communities and small settlements (with less than 50 people) within the juatinga ecological reserve. paraty mirim and vila oratório are important communities as they are close to the reserve and have access road to downtown paraty. map prepared by g. g. orofino. peterson et al. 2019. ethnobiology letters 10(1):59–68 63 perspectives related to the size of these boats and the difficulty of maneuvering them in that environment. small canoes were found to be more appropriate to the waimiri atroari because they enabled fishers to approach the prey without ripples or noises, which may scare the fish away. as fish was the major source of protein for them, having the appropriate technology was imperative to assure their daily diet (milliken et al. 1992). orofino et al. (2017) found no consensus for the preference in watercraft among the azorean descendants of southern brazilian coast. they found that some people favored canoes due to their properties, such as buoyancy, perceived safety advantage, and quietness, which facilitates fishing. in contrast, other people preferred the fiberglass or aluminum boats due to their easier maintenance and because there was no need for environmental authorizations to access the trees and no dependence on the few canoe makers to obtain a vessel. canoe making: people-forest connections people-forest connections are influenced by the degree of exposure people have to forest resources, which in turn, can contribute to greater ethnoecological knowledge. as an example, women, who are usually more involved with traditional medicine, retain greater knowledge of medicinal plants than men (aswani et al. 2018). on the other hand, men highly engaged with forest activities usually retain greater knowledge of forest resources than women do (aswani et al. 2018). the ethnoecological knowledge of tree species— such as the ability to identify suitable species for canoe making—and peoples’ observations of forest dynamics may reveal how canoe making influences people-forest connections. table 1 shows the number of species used for canoe making by various communities in brazil, displaying a range of six to 42 species of trees. in this study, participants cited a higher number of species for canoe making than what was previously found in the literature for the reserve (brito and senna-valle 2012). canoe makers cited 14 tree species suitable for every type of canoe needed in the juatinga ecological reserve. purposive sampling may have contributed to this as the method helped select caiçara with knowledge of resources for, and practice in, canoe making specifically. in addition, the snowball method helped identify other participants with a similar profile within praia do sono, three other communities (ponta negra, cruzeiro, and baixio), and one small settlement (cairuçu das pedras), covering different locations in the reserve. twelve canoe makers took part in semi-structured interviews with questions regarding preferences for resources, landscape use, knowledge of forest resources, and knowledge transmission. ethnographic fieldwork was conducted with five canoe makers, who helped to identify species, allowing for participant observation and partaking in local experiences in the forest. plants used for canoe making were identified with the help of specialists and the literature (e.g., flora do brasil 2020). the knowledge held by canoe makers is valued by other caiçara people. one photovoice participant used a photo (figure 1) to talk about this knowledge as necessary for conservation: …they [canoe makers] end up creating several, several things so they do not take the tree in the [wrong] moon, because otherwise it [the canoe] will rot. it seems like a way [to say] to you not to make it [wrong], to respect. but everything has a certainty. everything has a certainty in what they are talking about. table 1 key references on canoe making with number of species used by each group. setting and human group number of species used for canoe making key references búzios, brazil caiçara 7 begossi et al. 1993 amazonia, brazil waimiri atroari 10 milliken et al. 1992 ubatuba, brazil caiçara 25 maldonado 2004 paraty, brazil caiçara 7 borges and peixoto 2009 ubatuba, brazil caiçara 20 denadai et al. 2009 paraty, brazil caiçara 6 brito and senna-valle 2012 multiple cities, brazil azorean descendants 18 roque 2017 multiple cities, brazil caiçara and azorean descendants 42 paula et al. 2019 paraty, brazil caiçara 14 this study peterson et al. 2019. ethnobiology letters 10(1):59–68 64 perspectives regardless of the way it is being talked about. it has to be [made] sort of exactly how they say, otherwise it does not work. a canoe, for example, will not last years if you take out the tree during the time that is not good for removing the tree. it [the knowledge] is not taught as a rule, it is taught with stories, it is passed on through stories. this is certainly why we have everything there, due to this teaching process, right? this is part of the way it is today, the way it is preserved… because it is what we have said, they know exactly where the trees are. they know what is there and where they are keeping them, which is as if they were keeping them [the trees]. to conserve is for them a way of keeping them. people observe potential trees for canoe making as they journey through the forest. they monitor their growth, their health, the abundance of certain species, and any possible natural or human disturbances. one community member, for instance, called attention to a xylophage white larvae that has been eating the wood of one of the significant species for canoe making in the region, the sclerolobium denudatum (ingá-amarelo in portuguese). as trees of this species are being attacked by these larvae, he is concerned with what may happen with the affected trees. he made other canoe makers aware of the presence of these larvae, asking them to monitor the s. denudatum in the forest whenever possible. this resembles a disturbance that occurred in past years, which was mentioned by some participants, where the trees of schizolobium parahyba (garapuvu in portuguese), started dying in the region. people noted the disturbance but did not know the reason for the mortality. in their research, callado and guimarães (2010) estimated that climatic anomalies were most likely the responsible factors for the mortality of s. parahyba on an island near the reserve. the ecological knowledge that is built from people-forest connections can contribute to forest conservation. the local forest management practices, such as selecting a tree that best fits the canoe maker’s needs, and the local observations of potential forest disturbances and alterations within the landscape, such as the presence of xylophagic pests in trunks are some examples of how this knowledge can provide insights for local conservation. caiçara canoes and canoe making: peoplepeople connections canoe making may also contribute to social connections within the caiçara community. this was noted by the specialists of the instituto do patrimônio histórico e artístico nacional (national institute of historic and artistic heritage) as the reason why caiçara canoes should be considered as intangible cultural heritage in addition to tangible cultural heritage (iphan 2013). one of the best-known social events related to canoe making is the puxada de canoa (also called mutirão), a collective effort (usually carried out by the canoe maker’s friends and relatives) to pull the pre-shaped tree trunk down from the forest (peterson et al. under review-b). there are, however, other cultural dimensions of canoes and canoe making that are important to acknowledge. first, canoe making encourages people to plan and organize cultural events such as canoe racing (denadai et al. 2009). these events have been important to reunite caiçara people from communities along the brazilian coast and partaking in these meetings contributes to the development of social cohesion and a caiçara identity. in august 2018, praia do sono had its first canoe racing with men, women, youth, and children from different communities participating in different categories. second, local stories are told by community members about canoes and canoe making. some of them relate to adventures in the canoe making process, others about experiences during fishing or transport, and yet others follow the history of canoes inherited through generations. the practice of telling stories helps to disseminate environmental knowledge and local guiding principles across generations and between members of communities (berkes 2018), and it is advocated as a tool for biodiversity conservation practice (fernández -llamazares and cabeza 2018). third, canoes have aesthetic and recreational value for community members in the reserve’s landscape, which are within ecosystem cultural services, and contribute to people’s well-being (millennium ecosystem assessment 2005). finally, the exchange of knowledge among community members is important to the exchange of information between harvesters about potential trees for canoe making in the landscape. evidence of such exchange was mentioned by peterson et al. (under review-b) in regard to caiçara people in the reserve. peterson et al. 2019. ethnobiology letters 10(1):59–68 65 perspectives as people often conduct different harvesting activities, which requires the use of multiple forest habitats within the reserve, their knowledge of the resources in the forested landscape may vary, and these variations may help canoe makers and others to access resources from different locations. conclusions this article highlights some of the reasons why canoes and canoe making should be encouraged among traditional and indigenous peoples in this reserve and elsewhere. there are fishing techniques that cannot be performed with motorized fiberglass or aluminum boats because they are noisy and less maneuverable. hence, these boats are not entirely a substitute for dugout canoes. fishing is the most important livelihood activity for food security in paraty (hanazaki et al. 2013). in the reserve, the use of canoes to fish for mullet and other species provides the caiçara with a diet staple and livelihood diversification. if canoes are not available in the reserve, fishers will have to search for them elsewhere, or even change some fishing practices. caiçara canoes are an important component for cultural practices and are fundamental to a caiçara identity. thus, they need to be protected as a tangible cultural heritage associated with an immaterial knowledge. a diversity of initiatives can help to protect them. for example, intergenerational activities involving the elders and youth could be implemented to restore and paint the existing canoes. such measures can extend the lifetime of canoes but are sometimes not taken because of the price of these services. canoe making also needs to be protected as intangible cultural heritage. the complex process of canoe making requires knowledge of the best trees for carving, the availability of resources in the landscape, and the local regulations governing access to these resources. this detailed knowledge, along with some of the people-forest connections, may get eroded, as has been happening elsewhere (orofino et al. 2017). as canoe makers are the ones who have the practical skills, theoretical knowledge, and canoe making techniques, they should participate in the different processes of canoe protection that seek to encourage the sustainability of this cultural practice—for instance, educational actions with youth, and meaningful participation in policy decisions regarding the legal use of trees in the reserve. the combination of different knowledge systems (e.g., traditional and academic) can contribute to efforts to maintain the cultural aspects of canoe making and encourage conservation. one way to do this is through knowledge co-production, a collaborative process that aims to use the range of knowledge available to help solve problems (armitage et al. 2011; tengö et al. 2014). as this research shows, caiçara forest knowledge can provide clues that can help researchers to investigate forest dynamics in the atlantic forest, a region that demands substantial conservation efforts. this combination of knowledge systems may prompt better ecological and social outcomes in the management of resources, especially in the case of protected areas. our findings illuminate how canoe making contributes to practices that shape peoples’ landscape, identity and food security. given that many caiçara communities have had their resources curtailed for conservation reasons, our findings are particularly important to support caiçara peoples’ rights to access forest resources that are significant to maintain the local practice of canoe making. notes 1this collaborative map is online: https:// tinyurl.com/yywgznq5. accessed on may 28, 2018. 2the snuc law stands for sistema nacional de unidades de conservação and was enacted in july 2000. this law regulates the brazilian protected areas and divides them into 12 categories (five strictly protected areas and seven sustainable use areas), depending on the objectives of protection, land tenure, use and management of resources, research and tourism activities. as the “ecological reserve” category was not included in the snuc law, the juatinga ecological reserve needs to be recategorized. 3cerco is a stationary fishing technique brought into the juatinga ecological reserve by japanese immigrants in the 1970s–1990s (mussolini 1980). acknowledgments we would like to thank the participants from the juatinga ecological reserve who shared their knowledge and provided their valuable time to this research. this study was financed in part by the conselho nacional de desenvolvimento científico e tecnológico (cnpq) 444343/2014-8 and by the coordenação de aperfeiçoamento de pessoal de nível superior brazil (capes) finance code 001. d. p. https://tinyurl.com/yywgznq5 https://tinyurl.com/yywgznq5 peterson et al. 2019. ethnobiology letters 10(1):59–68 66 perspectives thanks to capes, oas and idrc/crc for funding for doctoral research and for fieldwork. n. h. thanks to cnpq for a research productivity scholarship (309613/2015-9). we thank to i. j. davidson-hunt, c. j. idrobo, f. berkes and v. s. fonseca-kruel for early insights and discussions. we thank to l. l. de paula, g. g. orofino, r. h. ludwinsky, t. v. roque for sharing their knowledge in field and laboratory, and p. fiaschi for helping with plant identification. specimens were deposited in the herbarium flor at the federal university of santa catarina and the herbarium eafm of the federal institute of science and technology of amazonas, in manaus. declarations permissions: this project was approved by the research ethics board of the university of manitoba (jfreb j2012:155) and inea, the state governmental agency that regulates the ecological juatinga reserve (research permit inea 051/2015). the ethics code protocols of the international society for ethnobiology were followed throughout the research process. informed consent was obtained from research participants prior to data collection. sources of funding: this study was financed in part by the conselho nacional de desenvolvimento científico e tecnológico (cnpq) 444343/2014-8 and by the coordenação de aperfeiçoamento de pessoal de nível superior brasil (capes) finance code 001 (doctoral research award to dp), organization of american states (oas) for funding for fieldwork, cnpq (productivity grant for nh 309613/2015-9), the idrc/crc international research chairs initiative (a. begossi/f. berkes), and the canada research chairs program (http:// www.chairs.gc.ca). conflicts of interest: none declared. references cited abreu-mota, m. a. d., r. p. medeiros, and r. p. noernberg. 2018. resilience thinking applied to fisheries management: perspectives for the mullet fishery in southern-southeastern brazil. regional environmental change 18:2047–2058. doi:10.1007/ s10113-018-1323-9. armitage, d., f. berkes, a. dale, e. kochoschellenberg, and e. patton. 2011. co-management and the 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s13280-014-0501-3. food production in native north america: an archaeological perspective. by kristen j. gremillion. 2018. society for american archaeology, the saa press, washington, dc. 194 pp. veteto. 2021. ethnobiology letters 12(1):32–34 32 reviews continuum for food production strategies as opposed to the stale hunter-gatherer, horticulturalist, agriculturalist, industrialist typologies of yesteryear. again, a welcome and necessary approach that is consistent with much contemporary work by archaeobotanists. the rest of the book is an overvieworiented look at pre-columbian food production strategies in major bioregions of native north america, including a chapter on post-contact food production and the changes wrought by european colonization, followed by a concluding synthesis. chapter 2 is dedicated to examining the eastern agricultural complex (eac). the eac is a suite of annual seed/container crops that were domesticated and cultivated in certain areas of the eastern woodlands starting about 5000 bp and carrying into the era of large-scale transition into maize (zea mays) cultivation around 1300–1100 bp. in-depth explorations of what contemporary research can tell us about botany and ecology of five major eac species (iva annua, chenopodium berlandieri, helianthus annuus, cucurbita pepo var. ovifera, and polygonum erectum) is provided, in addition to sections on: chronology and culture history; the eac in north american prehistory; ecological and cultural processes of initial domestication and dispersal; and food production during the woodland period. one question i always have for archaeobotanists: what is the role of american groundnut (apios americana) and sunchoke (helianthus tuberosus) in eac subsistence? apios the last sentence of kristen j. gremillion’s food production in native north america: an archeological perspective reads, “movements are afoot to bring diversity and sustainability back to modern agriculture, and perhaps will lead us to a greater appreciation of ancient agricultural traditions like those of native america” (2018:144). as an applied ethnobotanist, agroecologist, permaculturalist, and activist engaged in such movements (campbell and veteto 2015; lockyer and veteto 2013; veteto and lockyer 2008), researching native food production strategies for potential incorporation into contemporary alternative agricultural and foraging sustainable livelihoods was exactly why i was interested in reading the book. i was not disappointed, as gremillion’s work proved to be a useful summary and overview accessible to nonarchaeological specialists. in the introduction and first chapter, gremillion lays out her theoretical framework which “does not argue for a single dominant causal factor or argue for identical historical pathways to food production: instead, it looks at those pathways as historical enactments of cultural, evolutionary, and ecological processes that affect human societies worldwide” (2018:x). i think this is a wise approach as most scholars at this point realize that nearly every phenomenon we study is mesmerizingly complex and unlikely to be explained by old-fashioned grand theorizing. the book also proposes a coevolutionary food production in native north america: an archaeological perspective. by kristen j. gremillion. 2018. society for american archaeology, the saa press, washington, dc. 194 pp. james r. veteto1,2* 1department of anthropology and sociology, western carolina university, cullowhee, usa. 2appalachian institute for mountain studies, giduwagi-appalachia bioregion, burnsville, usa. *jrveteto@email.wcu.edu received june 28, 2020 open access accepted december 24, 2020 doi 10.14237/ebl.12.1.2021.1714 published february 22, 2021 copyright © 2021 by the author(s); licensee society of ethnobiology. this is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution-noncommercial 4.0 international public license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0), which permits non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. veteto. 2021. ethnobiology letters 12(1):32–34 33 reviews americana shows up in appendix a and is mentioned in passing as appearing in archaeological sites, but h. tuberosus is entirely absent. the under-coverage of both species is understandable given the preservation difficulty regarding tubers in the archaeological record, but historical and contemporary ethnobotanical literature (though spotty) point to usage of both plants. in permaculture, they are important native perennial tubers in contemporary agroecology systems in the southern appalachian bioregion. chapter 3 shifts focus to maize introduction and dispersal in the united states southwest via mexico around 4300 years ago. like crop introductions elsewhere, the uptake of maize by southwest native communities was patchy and variable in terms of rate of increase of use vis-à-vis other preexisting foraged and broadcast seed foodways. sections of the chapter take us through maize uptake chronologically: early agricultural period communities (4000–1800 bp) and diversification/intensification/social change (ad 200 –1400). in a subsection entitled “the subsistence role of maize,” gremillion (2018:49) writes, the temporal gap between the initial introduction of maize (1500–2000 bc) and the emergence of economics based largely on food production (ad 500–1000) is sometimes cited as evidence for a lengthy period of use as a dietary supplement rather than a staple. conflicting archaeological arguments on “…whether maize was added incrementally in such a way as to be compatible with high mobility or adopted by comparatively sedentary populations already positioned to invest in farming” are explored. as a longtime student of hopi oral tradition, these and related passages really caught my eye. hopi oral history, as relayed through the late dan evehema and other elders, contends that after emerging from a previous world, the hopi engaged in lengthy migrations whereby they planted corn and waited for harvest before they moved their encampments for further migration, following this patten until founding the village of old oraibi in ad 1100 (mails and evehema 1995). could hopi accounts be both fairly consistent with archaeological data and provide a viable model of causation that has been absent from previous explanatory frameworks? as a cultural anthropologist and non-expert on the southwest, i am not the one to answer this question, but i think consulting indigenous historical accounts is advisable, whenever possible and ethically appropriate. in chapter 4, gremillion follows the spread of maize across north america to the eastern woodlands and examines the rise of ‘the three sisters’ crop complex (zea mays, phaseolus spp., and cucurbita spp.). consistent with previous chapters, context and chronology are provided, followed by various sections exploring routes and means of introduction, explaining the ‘long delay’ in uptake congruous with the southwest, transition to maize-based diets and characteristics of maize agricultural systems, and maize in the mississippian. the scant treatment of mississippian period (circa ad 750–1540) maize agriculture (1.5 pages) is curious, considering it is the most prevalent and intensive era with widespread maize-induced cultural upheaval leading to extensive mound-building, social hierarchy, tribute, and trade. there is a voluminous literature available for further exploration. an interesting point made by gremillion was the possible ceremonial continuance of certain eac crops such as goosefoot (c. berlandieri) and maygrass (phalaris caroliniana) in the context of maize mound-builder societies, as evidenced by their inclusion in a submound borrow pit at cahokia that indicates communal meals. the ceremonial-use hunch by gremillion is supported by ethnographic evidence in other world contexts—for example, the continued cultivation of ‘relict crops’ such as job’s tears (coix lachryma-jobi) and italian millet (setaria italica) in contemporary upland southeast asian farming systems (dove 1999). such crops can simultaneously serve several purposes: ceremony, record of agricultural history, famine foods in times of climatic variability and change, and a useful insight to permaculturalists in the anthropocene-era of climate crisis. turning to non-agricultural societies in chapter 5, gremillion examines foraging, incipient domestication, and intensification of wild resources in the pacific northwest and great basin. consistent with work by contemporary pacific nw ethnoand archaeo-botanists, gremillion points out that previous work lacking in ethnographic sophistication by boasian and evolutionary anthropologists has needed correction to more accurately understand pacific nw native cultures as active food producers and not merely forager-fishers. plant and aquatic resources such as camas (camassia quamash), northern rice root (frittillaria camschatscensis), wapato (sagittaria latifola), berry patches, and clam gardens were intensively veteto. 2021. ethnobiology letters 12(1):32–34 34 reviews managed by native peoples and in some instances qualify as incipient domesticates. other species such as beaked hazelnut (corylus cornuta) and crabapple (malus fusca) not mentioned in the text have been shown by recent research to have been grown in pacific northwest native orchards (armstrong 2017). in the great basin, i was fascinated to learn that native groups broadcast annual seed crops (chenopodium spp., achnatherum hymeniodes, and mentzelia albicaulis) in eac-like fashion, as reported ethnographically by cultural ecologist julian steward, who also observed irrigation of several native plant species in the early twentieth century. many such food production strategies in the pacific northwest and great basin were invisible to invasive europeans, particularly perennial systems, as colonists were accustomed to only grain and livestock growing qualifying as ‘agriculture.’ in fact, the native people of these bioregions were practicing what we now call permaculture and were highly effective at it. the enormous and irrevocable impact of settercolonial invasion on native foodways is reviewed in chapter 6. an important point driven home by gremillion is that adoption of european plant species was uneven and that interior groups, in particular, were quite selective in the food production practices they incorporated into their systems. animal husbandry was nearly uniformly rejected, sometimes for hundreds of years, until it was forced upon native groups in a christianized effort to turn them into jeffersonian yeoman farmers. exotic livestock was reviled for its tendency to overrun native gardens and intensively managed wild resources and forced fencing-in of valued food plots. since the only evidence of pre-european animal domestication were turkeys in some locales in the southwest, this was nearly unanimously a foreign practice to native north americans. plant species that fit harmoniously into pre-existing native foodways and agroecosystems were enthusiastically adopted, including peaches, apples, cherries, watermelons, sweet potatoes, and many others. a helpful synthesis of material presented in the book is provided in chapter 7. for scholars interested in the origins of agriculture, intensive management of wild resources, and native north american subsistence, this book is of great value to those of us who are not archaeobotanists. food production in native north america is a pithy overview of this important topic and i highly recommend it to anyone wanting a better understanding of how humans have sustainably nourished themselves for millennia on turtle island. references cited armstrong, c. g. 2017. historical ecology of cultural landscapes in the pacific northwest. doctoral dissertation, department of archaeology, simon fraser university, canada. campbell, b. c., and j. r. veteto. 2015. free seeds and food sovereignty: anthropology and grassroots agrobiodiversity conservation strategies in the us south. journal of political ecology 22:445–465. doi:10.2458/v22i1.21118. dove, m. r. 1999. the agronomy of memory and the memory of agronomy: ritual conservation of archaic cultigens in contemporary farming systems. in ethnoecology: situated knowledge/located lives, edited by v. d. nazarea, pp. 45-70, university of arizona press, tucson, az. lockyer, j., and j. r. veteto. 2013. environmental anthropology engaging ecotopia: bioregionalism, permaculture, and ecovillages. berghahn books, new york. mails, t. e., and d. evehema. 1995. hotevilla: hopi shrine of the covenant—microcosm of the world. marlowe and company, new york. veteto, j. r., and j. lockyer. 2008. environmental anthropology engaging permaculture: moving theory and practice toward sustainability. culture and agriculture 30:47–58. doi:10.1111/j.1556486x.2008.00007.x. does cognition still matter in ethnobiology? ludwig. 2018. ethnobiology letters 9(2):269–275 269 perspectives of use practically has been treated [...] almost as an embarrassment”. the institutional dynamics in ethnobiology have changed rather dramatically since the early 1980s. while ethnobiology has become less engaged with general debates about cognitive universality and cultural relativity, new research priorities have emerged around issues such as agroecology, climate change, conservation management, food security, knowledge rights, and political self-determination (nabhan et al. 2011). following hunn’s (2007) periodization of four phases in ethnobiology, wyndham et al. (2011:124) therefore envision the development of an “ethnobiology 5” in which “the field plays a heightened role in addressing the needs of a world coping with rapid ecological change and shifting political economies”. furthermore, wolverton (2013:22) specifies this idea of an emerging fifth phase that creates an “expansive future for ethnobiology [...] beyond its traditional disciplinary homes in anthropology and biology, moving toward human geography, environmental philosophy, political ecology, conservation biology, and related fields with more explicit ideological missions.” introduction ethnobiology is commonly defined as a transdisciplinary field that integrates heterogenous methods from biological taxonomy and cognitive science to political ecology and indigenous studies. despite this transdisciplinary identity (e.g., anderson 2012; wolverton 2013), the current state of ethnobiology is far from unified as researchers tend to prioritize methodological perspectives along their heterogenous disciplinary backgrounds. in the united states, much of the institutionalization of ethnobiology coincided with the emergence of the cognitive sciences and was entangled with more general ambitions of cognitive anthropology and ethnoscience (hunn 2007). just as the “cognitive revolution” motivated the search for linguistic and psychological universals, much of american ethnobiology in the 1960s and 1970’s aimed for universals in human reasoning about the biological world (ludwig 2018). in fact, the influence of these cognitivist concerns became so dominant that hunn (1982:831) argued for a reconsideration of the “utilitarian factor” and suggested that “the fact that cultural knowledge of the natural world might also be does cognition still matter in ethnobiology? david ludwig1* 1knowledge, technology, and innovation group, wageningen university and research, wageningen, netherlands. *david.ludwig@wur.nl abstract ethnobiology has become increasingly concerned with applied and normative questions about biocultural diversity and the livelihoods of local communities. while this development has created new opportunities for connecting ethnobiological research with ecological and social sciences, it also raises questions about the role of cognitive perspectives in current ethnobiology. in fact, there are clear signs of institutional separation as research on folkbiological cognition has increasingly found its home in the cognitive science community, weakening its ties to institutionalized ethnobiology. rather than accepting this separation as inevitable disciplinary specialization, this short perspective article argues for a systemic perspective that addresses mutual influences and causal entanglement of cognitive and non-cognitive factors in socioecological dynamics. such an integrative perspective requires a new conversation about cognition in ethnobiology beyond traditional polarization around issues of cognitive universals and cultural relativity. received june 22, 2018 open access accepted august 31, 2018 doi 10.14237/ebl.9.2.2018.1350 keywords cognitive ethnobiology, cognitive science, ethnobiology 5, applied ethnobiology, ethnobiological theory, interdisciplinarity copyright © 2018 by the author(s) licensee society of ethnobiology. this is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution-noncommercial 4.0 international public license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0), which permits non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. ludwig. 2018. ethnobiology letters 9(2):269–275 270 perspectives the absence of any cognitive and psychological research in wolverton’s list of disciplines is not surprising but reflects a shift in emphasis toward applied and normative concerns in ethnobiology. furthermore, the decisively local character of many of these concerns tends to motivate questions about the particularities of specific socio-ecological systems rather than questions about cross-cultural invariance and underlying cognitive structures. for example, concerns about food security of a particular indigenous community will often connect more straightforwardly to the economics of agricultural intensification, the dynamics of soil degradation, and the politics of indigenous self-determination rather than questions about the universality of the categorization of plants or cross-cultural invariance of inductive reasoning about causality. one consequence of this development is a striking absence of cognitive perspectives in many characterizations of the state and future of ethnobiology. this does not mean that cognitivist research on folkbiology has vanished. although questions about folkbiological cognition appear increasingly relegated to the periphery of “ethnobiology 5”, they have found a new institutional home in the cognitive sciences and have been connected to heterogenous issues from foundational debates about cognitive modularity (atran and medin 2008) and essentialism (gelman 2003; sousa et al. 2002) to their implications for issues such as childhood anthropocentrism (waxman and medin 2007), learning about environments (zarger 2011), or folk categories of race (machery and faucher 2005). for example, consider atran and medin’s influential research program that integrates ethnobiological concerns with debates about the modular structure of human cognition and the specific hypothesis of an innate module of folkbiological cognition. while their synthesizing the native mind (2008) has been widely discussed in the cognitive sciences (e.g., bender and beller 2011; glushko 2008; keil 2010; waxman et al. 2014), there is a striking absence of substantial engagement in journals and conferences of institutionalized ethnobiology. four decades after hunn warned about a neglect of the “utilitarian factor” through the dominance of cognitivist perspectives, it has therefore become time to invert his warning by reconsidering the role of the “cognitive factor” in an ethnobiological community that has shifted its focus increasingly towards applied and normative concerns. while some of these developments are unique to the ethnobiology community, they also need to be situated in more general dynamics of institutional separation that reflect conflicting ideas about the role of cognition in the human sciences. for example, shifting attitudes toward cognitive factors in ethnobiology are closely entangled with the changing relationship between anthropology and the cognitive sciences. while the emergence of cognitive ethnobiology in the united states was part of a larger trend towards cognitive anthropology during the “cognitive revolution” of the 1960s (hunn 2007), the position of anthropology in the cognitive sciences has become increasingly precarious. for example, beller et al. (2013) ask whether anthropology should be still considered part of cognitive science and emphasize that the dominance of cognitive psychology has marginalized field work-based methods and ethnographic description beyond the lab. as a result, beller et al. diagnose that “anthropology is deserting, and is being deserted by, the other cognitive sciences just at the point where the role of culture is increasingly recognized as of prime relevance for the science of human cognition” (2013:343). while there is a story about the marginalization of anthropology in cognitive science, there is also an inverted story about the marginalization of cognitive perspectives in anthropology. simultaneously to the institutionalization of the cognitive sciences, anthropology increasingly developed an identity as a discipline that addresses culture “not [as] an experimental science in search of law but [as] an interpretive one in search of meaning” (geertz 1973:5). geertz’s influential account of “thick description” explicitly positioned itself in contrast to both ethnoscience and cognitive anthropology. as hunn (2018:427) argues, “the cognitive foundations of culture—the heart of the cognitive anthropology of the 1960s and 1970s—was dismissed as ‘psychology,’ and thus not properly ‘cultural’ (geertz 1973:11). the subsequent postmodern turn abandoned formal comparative empirical research—the hallmark of cognitive anthropology—in favor of hermeneutics.” of course, there has never been a complete isolation of anthropology from cognitive perspectives with researchers from bateson (1972) and ingold (2000) to ellen (2006) and bloch (2012) developing ludwig. 2018. ethnobiology letters 9(2):269–275 271 perspectives various integrative programs. however, there still remains a clear case for mutual marginalization in the mainstream of both disciplines that can provide instructive lessons for the current state of ethnobiology. first, ethnobiology may be on an analogous path of institutional separation that leaves cognitive and non-cognitive research increasingly isolated from each other. furthermore, one may embrace this separation as a tense but ultimately necessary process of disciplinary specialization. ethnobiologists share a focus on the relations between local communities, biota, and environments, but researchers from different fields have very different questions about these relations that demand equally different methods. a botanist may wonder whether ethnotaxa can guide the identification of new species with dna barcoding methods. a political ecologist may wonder how agricultural intensification interacts with labor conditions of an indigenous community. a cognitive psychologist may wonder whether cross-cultural comparisons of ecological reasoning can shed light on human adaptation to complexity and uncertainty. these questions can all guide legitimate research projects even if they ultimately have relatively little to contribute to each other. there are some important lessons in this case for disciplinary specialization and a more resolute pluralism about disciplinary concerns can avoid unproductive priority disputes between ethnobiologists with different disciplinary backgrounds. however, an entirely fragmented vision of ethnobiology also obscures why ethnobiology matters in the first place. one does not need to embrace a fully unified vision of ethnobiology to think that the field should aim for more than only the sum of insights from its disciplinary parts. indeed, a core motivation for ethnobiological research is the recognition that many relevant issues can only be addressed through the entanglement of biological, cognitive, and sociocultural factors that remain isolated in more narrow disciplinary research. dynamics of “biocultural” (wyndham et al. 2011) or “socio-ecological” (hidayati et al. 2015) systems can only be understood if the causal interaction of highly heterogeneous factors such as soil chemistry, spiritual beliefs, economic pressures, plant categories, deforestation, agricultural practices, ecological reasoning, and migration patterns are taken into account. if such a systemic perspective on the interaction between biological, cognitive, and sociocultural factors is a core task of ethnobiology, an isolation of cognitive perspectives from the applied and normative concerns of “ethnobiology 5” runs the risk of undermining the raison d'être of ethnobiology through disciplinary fragmentation. and indeed, there is an alternative way of thinking about the role of cognition in ethnobiology that recognizes the value of disciplinary specialization but also the relevance of investigating the entanglement of cognitive factors and wider dynamics in socio-ecological systems. a systemic perspective on causal interactions between biological, cognitive, and sociocultural factors provides opportunities for more integrative research but also comes with challenges for researchers with different disciplinary perspectives. first, there is the challenge of overcoming stereotypes of cognitive science as antagonistic to applied and normative concerns about local socio-ecological dynamics. a sufficiently rich understanding of such dynamics requires attention to the causal roles of cognitive factors through categorization, reasoning, and perception that often remain neglected because of disinterest or even hostility towards cognitive perspectives in discourses of cultural anthropology and social sciences. at the same time, such an integration also requires that cognitive scientists take the systemic character of multi-directional causal interactions seriously rather than focusing on the priority of cognitive factors as the foundation upon which sociocultural diversity is built. of course, there are plenty of cases in which cognitive factors ground sociocultural phenomena just as there are cases in which sociocultural factors shape cognitive phenomena. however, there are clear limitations of cognitivist programs that think of themselves primarily as providing the universal foundations upon which cultural diversity is built. first, negotiations of priority encourage ideological (e.g., “cognitivist” vs. “culturalist”) confrontations about the relation between disciplines and methodologies. if the interaction between biological, cognitive, and sociocultural factors is approached through questions of priority, there is little hope that the heterogeneous community of ethnobiologists can find a common starting point. second, priority questions often obscure the reciprocal character of causal interactions in socio ludwig. 2018. ethnobiology letters 9(2):269–275 272 perspectives ecological systems that can be empirically explored without settling general disputes about cognitivist and culturalist programs. while it is true that many prominent cognitivist approaches develop ambitious foundational programs from berlin et al.’s (1973) general principles of classification to atran and medin’s (2008) biological module of the mind, many of their insights can be appreciated without commitment to their entire theoretical frameworks and without getting stuck in general controversies about the merits of universalism and relativism. for example, substantial parts of atran and medin’s work (e.g., on devolution of biological knowledge, about inductive reasoning, or about folkecology) provide important lessons for ethnobiologists no matter where they stand in ongoing controversies about the “modularity of mind” (barrett 2105). rival (2018:428) is therefore entirely right to emphasize that “atran’s and medin’s highly original programme” deserves more attention in ethnobiology because it is concerned “with the pragmatics of reasoning in the fire of social action.” to illustrate this point, consider atran and medin’s (2008) folkecological research on cognitive strategies in agroforestry regimes in the guatemalan lowlands of el petén. addressing cognitive and sociocultural factors in agroforestry practices of three communities (native itza’ maya, spanish-speaking immigrant ladinos, and immigrant q’eqchi’ maya), atran and medin develop a complex picture of the relation between biological, cognitive, and sociocultural factors. given rapid deforestation in el petén, one of their core findings is that native itza’ maya practiced sustainable agroforestry while immigrant q’eqchi’ maya practices were largely insensitive to the long-term survival of the lowland forest. cognitive factors come into play as a partial explanans for these differences as itza’ and q’eqchi’ employed different mental models with equally different assumptions about the relation between animals, plants, and humans. for example, there were not only substantial quantitative but also qualitative differences in itza’ and q’eqchi’ reasoning about ecological relations between animals and plants. while q’eqchi’ understood these relations as unidirectional with plants providing food for animals, itza’ emphasized their reciprocal character with animals affecting plants in multiple ways such as seed dispersal and fertilization. while cognitive factors contribute to the explanation of itza’ and q’eqchi’ agroforestry, they can themselves be partly explained in terms of different sociocultural practices. atran and medin found that itza’ culture emphasizes and strongly values expertise about the forest in a way that “information about the forest appears integrally bound to intimate patterns of social life as well as to an experiential history traceable over many generations” (2008:212). in the context of q’eqchi’ communities, atran and medin did not find similar sociocultural patterns and they argue that “continued corporate and ceremonial ties to the sacred mountain valleys of the q’eqchi’ highlands do not imply a corresponding respect for lowland ecology” (2008:212). in other words, their comparative study does not only address the role of cognitive factors in affecting ecological phenomena but also accounts for the role of sociocultural factors in affecting cognitive phenomena. furthermore, these sociocultural factors are themselves not brute facts but can be related back to factors such as the adaptation of itza’ and q’eqchi’ cultures to their native lowland and highland environments. several lessons can be drawn from this short example. first, cognitive factors matter for applied and normative concerns about local environments and livelihoods that drive “ethnobiology 5”. differences in mental models and ecological reasoning guided itza’ and q’eqchi’ interactions with the forest and a neglect of these factors obscures important causal factors for understanding agroforestry practices. indeed, this point is not restricted to atran and medin’s work in guatemala but has emerged from many other studies on folkbiological categories. for example, medin et al.’s (2006) study of the folkbiology of freshwater fish starts with traditional concerns in cognitive ethnobiology about category formation but explores how differences in categorization of fish interact with ecological expertise. furthermore, one can find similar lessons in other areas of research including berkes’ (2018) classical articulation of “traditional ecological knowledge” that is highly sensitive to how local categories—including the infamous “eskimo word for snow”—can function as repositories of ecological knowledge. finally, consider anderson’s (1996) discussion of feng-shui as an “ecology of the heart” that relies on the interaction between cognitive ludwig. 2018. ethnobiology letters 9(2):269–275 273 perspectives and emotional factors in co-producing chinese practices of landscape planning through aesthetic perception and care. all of these studies share the basic insight that investigation into cognitive factors such as categorization, perception, and reasoning is often of crucial relevance for understanding applied issues such as sustainable hunting, farming, and fishing practices. a general neglect of cognitive factors would therefore not advance but rather obstruct the applied and normative agendas of “ethnobiology 5”. a second lesson from atran and medin’s case study is the importance of a systemic perspective on mutual influences and causal feedback loops rather than linear priority ordering. in the case of itza’ and q’eqchi’ agroforestry, for example, cognitive and ecological factors can both be cause and effect for each other. on the one hand, atran and medin’s analysis of mental models addresses how cognitive factors guide local interventions in ecosystems. on the other hand, differences in mental models are not only causes but also effects of ecological phenomena as itza’ and q’eqchi’ reasoning has been shaped by their native lowland and highland environments. similar cases for mutual influence can be made with regard to sociocultural factors such as itza’ accounts of forest spirits that shape agroforestry practices but can also be described as being shaped by cognitive and ecological factors such as the pressure to adapt a sustainable use of forest resources (see also albuquerque et al. 2015). understanding of itza’ and q’eqchi’ agroforestry therefore requires modeling of a complex system of interacting causal factors rather than linear ordering of causal factors through cognitive foundations of sociocultural phenomena (or vice versa). third, many of these dynamics can be empirically investigated without requiring prior agreement about foundational controversies about issues such as cognitive universals and cultural relativism. for example, much of atran and medin’s analysis of itza’ and q’eqchi’ reasoning can be appreciated without agreement on their general nativist framework of modularity of mind. the applied and normative concerns of ethnobiology 5 often require close attention to cognitive factors but much of the relevant evidence about local categorization, reasoning, and perception can be integrated in different theoretical frameworks. of course, this does not mean that these theoretical frameworks are without practical relevance and foundational assumptions about cognitive universals and cultural relativity will clearly affect modeling of causal pathways between interacting factors. however, it is simply a mistake to assume that no progress can be made until everyone agrees on these issues. this short perspective article has argued that we need a new conversation about cognition in ethnobiology that challenges the increasing institutional separation between cognitive perspectives on folkbiology and normative concerns of “ethnobiology 5”. by proposing a systemic perspective that focuses on multi-directional causal interactions, the article sketched an alternative to priority disputes about the relation between biological, cognitive, and sociocultural factors. such an integrative perspective can lead not only to more adequate models of socio-ecological dynamics but also provide opportunities for better connecting ethnobiology with the state of both cognitive sciences and anthropology. current developments in the cognitive sciences can provide ethnobiologists with fruitful theoretical resources as illustrated by the increased prominence of research on cognitive diversity across cultures (bender and beller 2016; henrich et al. 2010) and extensive debates about embodied, embedded, and situated cognition (shapiro 2014). this literature demonstrates that the current state of the cognitive sciences has much more to offer to current ethnobiology than a continuation of tired controversies about universalism vs. relativism. instead, a vast body of empirical research has come to focus on cognitive processes within local contexts and provides currently underexplored resources for addressing cognitive factors in socio-ecological dynamics as well as their implications for issues such as agricultural and conservation practices in ethnobiology. further impulses for a novel conversation about cognition can be found in anthropological theory. for example, ingold (2000:167) has emphasized the practical significance of cognitive factors and argued for the need to “re-embed perception and cognition within the practical contexts of people’s ongoing engagement with their environments in the ordinary course of life.” while such a practice-oriented perspective on cognition is rarely explored in ethnobiology (interesting exceptions include rival 2014; villagómez-reséndiz 2017), it provides ludwig. 2018. ethnobiology letters 9(2):269–275 274 perspectives resources for bridging overly abstract cognitivist approaches and theoretically underdeveloped discussions in applied ethnobiology. furthermore, following ingold’s practice-oriented focus on cognition also provides a novel angle for connecting ethnobiological research to current controversies about the “ontological turn” (see also daly et al. 2016; ludwig 2016) that engage with issues such as the boundaries of cognition in animist perspectives (descola 2013, kohn 2013, viveiros de castro 2012). to sum up, a reconsideration of cognitive factors does not undermine the applied and normative concerns of “ethnobiology 5”. on the contrary, a novel conversation about cognition can provide ethnobiologists with crucial resources for understanding socio-ecological dynamics and for integrating their research with wider debates from “situated cognition” to the “ontological turn”. declarations permissions: none declared. sources of funding: none declared. conflicts of interest: none declared. references cited albuquerque, u. p., p. m. medeiros, and a. casas. 2015. evolutionary ethnobiology. springer international publishing, switzerland. anderson, e. n. 2011. ethnobiology: overview of a growing field. in ethnobiology, edited by e. n. anderson, d. pearsall, e. hunn, and n. turner, pp.1–14. wiley-blackwell, new york, ny. anderson, e. n. 1996. ecologies of the heart: emotion, belief, and the environment. 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adaptation sault. 2020. ethnobiology letters 11(2):58-68 58 perspectives underworld, while others are connected with geographical features of the land or specific spirits and deities. these relationships are exemplified in flags, shields, coins, totems, headdresses, and jewelry, as well as songs, dances, and stories. much has been written about bird communication in various forms and contexts, usually in the sense of the meanings attributed to the introduction the sounds birds make include calls and songs, but there are other ways that birds are heard beyond physical utterances and fluttering feathers. human societies from nations to clans recognize birds for their special powers. some groups claim particular bird species as their representatives, hoping to draw upon avian powers. certain species are associated with either war or peace, the heavens or the bird stories from latin america: lessons on change and adaptation nicole sault1* 1sally glean center, palo alto, usa. *nicole@sallyglean.org abstract when people hear bird sounds, they understand them on various levels that are interpreted according to cultural context. among indigenous cultures of latin america, avian voices are understood in relation to group identity, kinship affiliation, and personal experience, such as dreams and vision quests. birds are recognized as social actors with their own voices that express intentions, desires, needs, and responsibilities. certain birds may impart messages to specific people, and stories of these personal interactions represent both traditional values as well as individual explanations for what the bird communicated. these experiences are incorporated into the dynamic relationships people have with birds, the ancestors, the landscape, and spirit beings, and assist in addressing both cultural and climatic changes. this essay presents stories from mexico, costa rica, and peru, and shows how individuals interpret bird communications according to cultural values that relate to their personal situation. these avian messages gain new meaning and urgency during periods of dramatic change, like the current climate crisis. as people seek creative responses to survive, relationships with birds provide resiliency. resumen cuando las personas escuchan los sonidos de las aves, los entienden por varios niveles que se interpretan de acuerdo con el contexto cultural. entre las culturas indígenas de américa latina, las voces de las aves se entienden en relación con la identidad grupal, la afiliación de parentesco y la experiencia personal, como los sueños y las búsquedas de una visión. las aves son reconocidas como actores sociales con sus propias voces que expresan intenciones, deseos, necesidades y responsabilidades. ciertas aves imparten mensajes a personas específicas, y las historias de estas interacciones personales representan tanto valores tradicionales como interpretaciones particulares de lo que el ave les comunicó. tales experiencias personales se incorporan a las relaciones dinámicas que las personas tienen con las aves, los antepasados, el paisaje, y los seres espirituales. estas experiencias también se relacionan con cambios culturales y climáticos. este ensayo presenta historias de méxico, costa rica y perú, que muestran cómo las personas interpretan las comunicaciones de las aves de acuerdo con los valores culturales que se relacionan con su situación personal. estos mensajes de las aves adquieren un nuevo significado y urgencia durante los periodos de cambios dramáticos, como la actual crisis climática. a medida que las personas buscan respuestas creativas para sobrevivir, las relaciones con las aves proporcionan resiliencia. received april 1, 2020 open access accepted july 17, 2020 doi 10.14237/ebl.11.2.2020.1689 published december 4, 2020 keywords indigenous peoples, oral tradition, climate crisis, mexico, costa rica, peru copyright © 2020 by the author(s) licensee society of ethnobiology. this is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution-noncommercial 4.0 international public license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0), which permits non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. sault. 2020. ethnobiology letters 11(2):58-68 59 perspectives appearance or behavior of particular bird species, such as eagles, hummingbirds, doves, or owls. yet, research has shown that the meanings conveyed by the appearance and behavior of bird species vary from one culture to another, and can be interpreted in contrasting ways depending on details of the birds’ behavior and the personal history of the observer (forth et al. 2010; hull and fergus 2017; hunn 2008). within a particular culture, avian-human relationships have enduring meanings that are transmitted over generations because they resonate with a group’s history and values. meanwhile, individual human experiences continue to enter oral traditions and writings. when human-avian interactions are narrated to others, the newer stories are heard in reference to past meanings that resonate to recent events, individual encounters, and changing circumstances. new stories of personal experiences build on their antecedents and continue to teach succeeding generations about heeding bird messages that instruct, advise, warn, and guide. rather than a boundary separating traditional stories from more recent ones, there is a continuous flow of meaning that enriches both, for time is recognized as cyclical and round. stories of recent origin gain validity from previous narratives, which in turn are recalled as relevant to contemporary life, as illustrated here by examples from the zapotec of mexico, the bribri of costa rica, and quechua-speaking peoples of peru. these three stories show how birds are still heeded as messengers, harbingers, advisors, teachers, and protectors. as the zapotec poet irma pineda affirms, “our stories will be reborn/ you will not see me die” (sullivan 2012:45). methods while my research in latin america began decades earlier, the focus on ethno-ornithology began in 2002, while i was teaching at the university of costa rica and visiting bribri communities. methods were mainly qualitative and included literature reviews, consultations with local scholars and authorities, visits to museums, photographs, walks with bird guides, participant observation in daily activities and ceremonies, extended interviews, and group discussions. i presented my work in spanish at conferences in costa rica and peru and read early versions of manuscripts to the people i worked with in order to consult with them. permission from local authorities and consultants was obtained whenever possible. for the first story by pedro chávez garcia, who is from a valley zapotec village, when i asked permission to publish his story he agreed and asked that his full name be used. the second story is from ana balma, a bribri woman from the talamanca region of southeastern costa rica. she shared her stories with me and has also published stories in an edited volume (bozzoli et al. 1982). the third story was published previously by the author, cronwell jara jiménez, of piura in northern peru, but the background to the story is based on interviews i conducted with him. he is delighted to have his work recognized and thanked me for acknowledging what he and his wife are doing to encourage storytelling and recover traditional stories. i sought out stories that depict how people relate to birds in reference to cultural traditions and the contemporary context. these three stories were selected because they illustrate how bird meanings are significant for people’s lives and guide their responses to current issues, whether natural disasters related to climate change or socio-cultural changes they are adapting to and/or resisting. the three stories embody ongoing truths that are maintained through oral tradition and still relevant today, addressing a sense of urgency for discerning how to proceed when faced with uncertainty. the stories are exemplars of a larger corpus that provides a context for interpreting personal experience and broader societal events. while the experience of a particular bird’s behavior may be unique, these avian narrations and commentaries show how the three authors perceive each story within a larger context that amplifies their meaning and guides the narrator’s response, as well as influencing family and friends. the past guides us in the present and illumines the future. a fabric of feathers in latin america, birds are woven into the fabric of life. feathers are used in weavings, shields, headdresses, wands, rattles, and prayer offerings (espejo ayca 2015; filloy nadal 2019; giuntini 2006). at the national level birds are represented in flags, such as the eagle on the cactus of the mexican flag. at the local level birds are honored and celebrated, expressing totemic relationships to ancestors belonging to descent groups like clans or as members of extended kin networks. people are also connected to particular birds through personal experience. sometimes people seek sault. 2020. ethnobiology letters 11(2):58-68 60 perspectives out certain kinds of birds for their spiritual meaning, to learn a song or chant, and for guidance in assessing an undertaking or journey. less documented or understood are the relationships established when birds appear to an individual to advise or teach something. such a relationship with a bird may be limited to one occasion that is fleeting or become ongoing, as will be described below. even if the relationship between bird and human is not reenacted beyond the initial event, the relationship may be relived and perpetuated in the stories of the family that enter into the memory of oral tradition as the descendants retell what occurred. when birds are recognized for their spiritual significance, the powers they embody can imbue a family with a sense of the bird’s ongoing presence and protection or assistance. the sound of these birds’ voices reverberates along channels of inter-species communication beyond the limits of human hearing, for these voices are apprehended at a deep level that connects ancestors with their descendants and with the spirit beings of forests, mountains, and waters. bird wisdom among the zapotec of mexico the ancient zapotec civilization honored birds in many forms, such as in the post-classic stone register celebrating the marriage of lady qualaala xopa, which depicts birds carrying jewels in their beaks to represent the sacred knowledge of the ancestor guardians who have “elite knowledge that was vital to the society’s well-being” (flores-marcia 2015:95). the significance of birds continues in songs, omens, poetry, and stories (sault 2016). the zapotec poet antonio lópez pérez refers to his language as a bird “that runs/ in the mountains/ walks upon the feet/ of children, old people” (sullivan 2012:45). my research among zapotec of the oaxaca valley in southeastern mexico provided various accounts of birds that have significance in both positive and negative ways. for example, the vermilion flycatcher (pyrocephalus rubinus)—or, in local spanish, venturilla— figure 1 huipil blouse with bird and animal design. tacuate, mixteca. oaxaca, mexico 2018. sault. 2020. ethnobiology letters 11(2):58-68 61 perspectives means good luck when the male flycatcher shows his day-glow scarlet breast. however, when he shows his black back this is inauspicious. another auspicious bird people often pointed out is the great kiskadee (pitangus sulphuratus) or pecho amarillo (yellow breast). when the bird’s yellow breast is shown this means good luck (buena suerte). in asking people about birds, i was interested in the general meanings for the community, but also individual variation among villagers, as shown by their personal accounts of bird encounters. one story stood out in particular, about a small yellow bird the storyteller called el pájaro cartero (the bird letter carrier). as agency is attributed to birds and this one is referred to by the speaker as “he,” i am translating the reference to the bird as “who” rather than “it.” the same attribution of agency holds for birds in other regions. this story is about faith in the wisdom of a particular bird and was told to me by pedro chávez garcia. (we could not identify exactly which species of bird this was). pedro said: when i was ten years old, in 1962, my grandfather pointed out to me a small yellow bird that hopped about in a tree and called out, drawing attention. my grandfather explained to me that the bird came to announce that a letter for him had arrived. you see, my aunt and the other relatives in mexico city would write to my grandfather and send the letters to a furniture store in oaxaca city, where my grandfather would go to pick them up. there were no telephones then, but the little bird told him whenever a letter arrived, hopping in the tree by the house and singing. each time the bird visited my grandfather, he would go into the city and there would be a letter waiting for him. pedro’s commentary on the story was: “la naturaleza avisa pero no ponemos atención.” (nature tells us, but we don’t pay attention. translation mine.) he noted that all around us there are signs and messages, but often we ignore them, especially nowadays. pedro’s grandfather could not read the letters or write one himself, and there were no telephones. yet by understanding that birds can be messengers, he knew how to “read” the bird’s message, just as others knew how to “read” the moon and the clouds for predicting the weather and earthquakes. for this zapotec family, the story of the bird letter carrier reinforces the belief that if you attend to the world around you and trust in the wisdom of birds—what they are trying to teach you—then you will be rewarded. while the story is unique to this family, their belief in the bird’s powers grows out of an older and broader understanding of other beings having power for both good and bad. this contemporary story echoes past events and demonstrates key values that are reinforced with each narration. the story also illustrates the variation in bird meanings that are dynamic and resilient, adapting to changed conditions through particular meanings that still connect with older traditions. generosity and reciprocity in costa rica the bribri represent the largest indigenous group in costa rica today, with a long and rich history in the talamanca region of the southeast. their respect for birds is reflected in avian images of gold or stone and ancient ceramic pieces. bribri leaders wore headdresses with bird feathers and necklaces with images of birds made of gold (fernández and sánchez 2009). the power of birds continues to be expressed in chants, dances, medicine, clan names, paintings, and stories (bonatti 2003; guevara 2004; sánchez 1996–1997; sault 2016). many people told me stories about birds who can be helpful or harmful, as depicted in the sacred stories of traditional myths or related regarding contemporary events. the stories, songs, and dances show how birds like parrots, hummingbirds, and vultures can advise, protect, or even rescue people. some stories depict how a person is assisted by a bird in a special way. for example, the bribri say that turkey vultures (cathartes aura) can help orphans and honorable people by providing food. ana balma told me her own particular experience of this, which her sons and other relatives corroborated. she said when you are planting seeds in the forest, if turkey vultures fly over or rest in the trees, you can call out to them for help. one day when she was planting corn and beans in a cleared patch of the forest, turkey vultures flew over. as an orphan, she asked the vultures to have pity on her. she called to them and sang: “usted está viajando, usted trae semilla, usted me da su semilla y yo le doy la mía.” (you are traveling. you carry seeds. give me some of your seeds, and i will give you some sault. 2020. ethnobiology letters 11(2):58-68 62 perspectives of mine; author’s translation). as ana told me: “you do an exchange. you ask the turkey vulture, not other vultures, because the turkey vulture migrates and each being carries food along to eat—seeds and water for the journey to faraway places north” (interviewed february 28, 2007, author’s translation). where she planted corn and beans, a month later squash plants appeared, though she had not planted any squash seeds. the squash grew strong and vigorous, giving the family much to eat. her family said they knew the squash were a gift because no one had ever planted there before and ana had sowed only corn and beans. these were the gifts of the turkey vultures to an orphan. due to the current uncertainty in weather patterns, drought, and flooding, both wild and domestic plant foods are not as reliable as once before, so the help of vultures and other animals has greater urgency. this story exemplifies bribri beliefs about the sacred power of vultures, who performed key roles at the time of creation and have healing powers (palmer et al. 1992; sánchez pereira and bozzoli vargas 1997– 1998). ana’s response to the gift of the turkey vultures is in keeping with bribri beliefs and practices that recognize birds as beings with special knowledge and abilities with which sibö (god) has endowed them (bonatti 2003; fernández and sánchez 2009; guevara 2004; sánchez pereira and bozzoli vargas 1997–1998; sault 2010). her story is unusual for outsiders in that we do not associate vultures with seed-eating, but for the bribri vultures are sacred teachers and protectors who are generous in their gifts of song, dance, and seeds. they are messengers or embodiments of sibö (god), and their connection to seeds resonates with the bribri, as their origin myths say the first people came from corn and the bribri still think of themselves as precious kernels of corn. birds guide people in planting and gathering, hunting and fishing, or undertaking journeys. people attend to bird calls, migrations, and absences, for the changes induced by the global climate crisis have affected birds as well as people and plants. when ana beseeched the vultures for help, she was acting upon long-held beliefs that birds and other animals can assist people who are honorable or hinder those who break taboos and otherwise flaunt social norms. she perceived her ability to communicate with the vultures within a larger context of birds as messengers, guides, helpers, healers, and guardians. a story that draws on older traditions guides people today in adapting to changing circumstances, such as unseasonal weather and flooding that affect homes and crops. while circumstances vary over time, the underlying values are maintained and reinforced. this exemplifies how traditions are dynamic, helping to sustain and encourage people in times of dramatic change and conflict. reclaiming voices of wisdom and justice in peru in latin america, of the many birds recognized for their powers and abilities the majestic andean condor (vultur gryphus) is especially honored as a being of great power and wisdom. in keeping with what garibaldi and turner (2004) call “cultural keystone species,” the condor is what one could call a “cultural keystone bird” who represents the central values of many andean cultures and is honored for their ability to mediate, protect, and teach. ornithologists describe condors as having no voice, making only hisses and grunts. however, in the andes the condor is recognized as having a variety of different “voices.” condor feathers produce an airy sound as the birds rise on the thermals. there is also a long tradition of using the feather quills and bones of condors to make musical instruments that create a mournful sound. figure 2 bribri carved gourd with parrot, talamanca, costa rica 2019. sault. 2020. ethnobiology letters 11(2):58-68 63 perspectives condors are prominent in andean songs, dances, dreams, and ceremonies, for they represent the spirits of mountain deities or apus. condors are the embodiment of these deities, sent as their messengers (bastien 1985; jara jiménez 1990; sánchez garrafa 2005:68; sault 2016). from the mountains of machu picchu to the coast of paracas, condors are depicted in textiles, ceramics, carvings, astronomy, medicine, place names, kinship and politics (gordillo 2000; ibarra et al. 2012). through condor rituals, relationships with the mountains are maintained in equilibrium (sánchez garrafa 2005:209). ceremonies are performed for condors because they represent the sacred mountains that can either send rain clouds or detain them. condors have “voices” in many cultural forms— voices that are powerful for their dignity, wisdom, and authority. in some highland communities, the staff of office for a village official is decorated with a silver head of a male condor as the arbiter of justice. the power of condors is recognized and honored not only throughout the andean highlands but also along coastal areas, as condors travel back and forth between these two ecological zones. from their mountain nesting areas, they soar down to the coast to forage on the carcasses of sea mammals, birds, and fish, as well as the afterbirth from seals. people told me the condors also come to skim the foam off the waves, which represent the water that will return to the mountains through clouds and rain. people walk down from the altiplano highlands to the seashore, making pilgrimages to honor and celebrate this connection to the sea, where they gather seaweed and fish eggs to take back home for ritual meals. the condors are part of this watery cycle, as they fly back and forth from high to low through the clouds as harbingers of the precious rains, soaring before the storms that gather in the mountains. given this association of condors with the coastal areas as well as the mountains, it is not surprising that condors play an important role in the coastal region of northern peru in places such as in piura. cronwell jara jiménez, from piura, describes how the condor is the totem of the clan condori (1990). he has written in detail about condors in this region, drawing upon the stories handed down by his grandmother, his mother, and a cousin who lived in the mountains above piura during the 1920s and 1930s. as he told me, “i would listen to their stories and write them down. one day i decided to be a writer” (interview in lima, peru, december 29, 2013). he was twelve years old when he made this decision and was encouraged by his father. he told me that in the past certain men with spiritual power were allowed to catch condors for ceremonies. the condor would then be carried through the streets on an anda (portable platform), and people made offerings of silver and images of tiny deer (interview in lima, peru, december 29, 2013). jara jiménez explained that in piura there was a special group of men who were trained by the grandfathers for organizing and presiding over these condor ceremonies. the condor was later sacrificed (sacrificado) to remove the wing bones and make flutes. some said that it was wrong to kill the condor, who is a divinity (una divinidad), and they released the condor after the procession through the streets. then the condor would fly back to the mountains. jara jiménez said: los apus, allí está la casa del espíritu de la divinidad, el condor (the mountain deities, there is the house of the spirit of the divinity, the condor; author’s translation). figure 3 contemporary rock painting of male andean condor (vultur gryphus) in chaparrí, lambayeque, coastal peru 2014. sault. 2020. ethnobiology letters 11(2):58-68 64 perspectives inspired by the stories from his early life in piura, jara jiménez (1990) depicts the power of condors in his book, don rómulo ramirez, cazador de cóndores (don romulo ramirez, hunter of condors; author’s translation). the story revolves around the dilemma of a traditional condor hunter who is told to capture one for a ceremony, but decides that this would be wrong and refuses. he is incessantly pressured by the community to capture a condor, and what unfolds in the story is the drama around these conflicting forces and the condor’s response. with sadness, jara jiménez told me how people are forgetting the ceremonies and do not practice them anymore. the stories are not always passed down and are lost. this is why he and his wife, cecilia granadino, feel called to gather the stories of the elders, record them in their original languages like quechua, and publish them in these languages as well as in spanish. the goal they have embraced is to recover and share these stories about condors, frogs, spiders, rain, and other personages, as in the book stories of our quechua grandparents: recovering oral tradition (granadino 1993, translation mine). in these stories the cultural values of respect, cooperation, and reciprocity are portrayed and re-valued. while jara jiménez draws on the oral tradition within his community to present the stories and develop dramatis personae, he both honors the cultural values and explores the tensions that modern life presents in the andes. people on the street stop figure 4 condor dancers, universidad nacional del altiplano (students from the national university of the altiplano) in puno, peru, september 15, 2011. the women in black hats represent female condors and the men in red caps represent male condors. sault. 2020. ethnobiology letters 11(2):58-68 65 perspectives him to express how the power of his writing has affected them because they say it represents peruvian reality. meanwhile, he and granadino are using the written word to record and recover the oral traditions of other regions, with the permission and blessing of the spiritual leaders. they exemplify the ways in which oral and literate traditions can enrich and sustain each other. first voices and silences people still share sacred stories of the creation— when birds appeared before humans. many cultures explain that people first learned to talk from birds, and that birds are the intermediaries with the deities. back then people and birds could transform into one another, and humans could still understand the language of birds (march 1898:209). among the ancient cultures of mexico, it was the custom for people to live with birds, especially ones thought to be capable of human speech (aguilera 2001, cited in guirao-cruz et al. 2014:108). there are some who continue to communicate with birds and share bird talk stories. bird talk is recognized on many levels—interpreted for prognosticating weather or death and disease, bearing messages, witnessing solemn occasions, or auguring good luck and well-being (wyndham et al. 2018). for the embera of panama (kane 2015:35), bird songs and calls are located between the invisible and the human worlds as they inform people of new birth and impending death. because songs and calls depart and are distinct from the avian bodies that produce them, they can travel across the space of the imagination as well as physical space. bird talk is not unidirectional from birds to people, as people also talk to birds in various ways. as individuals people communicate with birds on a oneto-one basis, and in groups community members address birds in ritual contexts officiated by local leaders. for example, in the andes it is generally recognized that people talk to condors, hawks, and many other birds through words, songs, dances, and ceremonies (bastien 1985; granadino 1993). in sicily they say that certain people can talk to crows and are privy to their secrets, believing that crows “communicate the latest news on the doings of human beings since they have a clear view—a bird’seye view, in fact—of the whole” (camilleri 2007:129). stories encode the wisdom of birds as to how the world is construed and teach people the ways of right living. stories also connect people with place, reaffirm their connection to the ancestors, and represent spiritual relationships that define their cultural identity (o’brien lyver and moller 2010:242). but as tideman et al. (2010:5) have noted: too often, ethno-ornithological knowledge is reported from the perspective of an outsider and therefore appears to be in some way devalued. the terms legends, fables, tales, myths and stories are frequently used for indigenous knowledge, but not always in a way that engenders respect or an understanding of the place of birds in cultures. yet the power of stories cannot be overestimated. for many indigenous peoples of north america, “renewal ceremonies, the telling and retelling of creation stories, the singing and resinging of the songs, are all humans’ part in the maintenance of creation” (little bear 2019:2). among the mãori of new zealand, oral narrative reinforces the power of the ancestors “to discipline those who do not uphold the correct practices” (o’brien lyver and moller 2010:253). this relationship with birds and other beings involves the practice of what the mãori call kaitiakitanga or environmental guardianship (2010:242, 246). in southeastern mexico, the zoque of tapalapa, chiapas, say that the quetzals (pharomachrus mocinno) are their protectors and companions who provide them with blessings and keep away evil spirits (guirao -cruz et al. 2014:112, 115). these cultures emphasize mutual responsibility with birds and other beings, including the land. birds communicate through calls, songs, feather vibrations, and tapping patterns. they also communicate through silences. bird silences can indicate danger, disapprobation, and loss. silence can also mean the absence of birds, and people interpret this as an indication of the state of the land. for the zoque of mexico, the call of the quetzal is related to the sound of the trees (aguilera 2001, cited in guiraocruz et al. 2014:111). the absence of the sounds of quetzals means that the health of the forest has been harmed (2014:113). around the world the sounds of birds are disappearing, and human beings are a major factor— by killing birds, destroying their habitat, and failing to honor them and perform ceremonies. since 1970 there are nearly three billion fewer birds in north sault. 2020. ethnobiology letters 11(2):58-68 66 perspectives america (lambert 2019). a key factor is the global climate crisis, about which scientists recognize birds as important indicators. worldwide, birds are respected for their ability to warn of such disasters. among the ikoot (huave) of san mateo del mar in oaxaca, mexico, calls of birds announce changes in the climate. such birds include the double-striped thick-knee (b. bistriatus) known locally as the alcaraván or berelele and the calandrias (icterus spp.) (cruz jacinto et.al. 2014:160). in peru the indicators of global climate change, disasters and flooding are swallows, known as vencejos, golondrinas, or santa rosita (sotíl galindo 2008:99). peruvian biologist gilmar vergara explained to me that violeteared hummingbirds (colibri coluscans) announce the arrival of the rainy season. but he has noted disturbing alterations in their behavior, with delays in their arrival and their songs sung out of season. he observes that “there will be no rain. everything is altered by the phenomenon of climate change” (vergara, interviewed on october 20, 2015 in cusco, peru). in 1962, rachel carson warned us of the silent spring. what happens when avian voices are suppressed, like the voices of indigenous peoples in the americas? what are the consequences of knowing birds only through books or videos? what is altered when bird stories are no longer told and shared? at the united nations climate summit, mãori representative from the indigenous peoples organizations, kera sherwood-o’regan (goodman 2019), spoke to the need for hearing stories that have long been ignored: when you silence us, you deny yourselves learning from our ways, and you continue to sideline those who have real solutions for all communities. we are experts on climate. we are the kaitiaki, the stewards of nature. we know the legitimacy of our voices, and it’s about time that you recognized it, too. hear our stories. learn our histories. stop taking up space with your false solutions and get out of our way. birds communicate through both sound and silence, by their presence and by their absence. when birds are understood as an integral part of creation, people recognize that there are consequences for failing to heed these voices and silences. birds are generous, giving us gifts of beauty, sustenance, and wisdom. the role of birds in bearing omens and warnings has long been recognized, and in these times of dramatic climate crisis their messages and teachings carry even greater urgency. rather than ignoring avian voices and indigenous teachings that have been handed down over generations, may we listen to what the birds are trying to tell us through their voices, their silences, and the stories. acknowledgements in gratitude to the original peoples of latin america, in particular the zapotec, bribri, and quechuaspeaking peoples, who shared their knowledge and wisdom with great generosity and patience. in particular i want to thank maría eugenia bozzoli, orlando bedoye, and peter reynolds. thanks also to the organizers of the annual meetings of the society for ethnobiology, held in vancouver, british columbia, canada in 2019. an earlier version of this material was presented at a session i organized for the meetings there on “avian voices in song, story, wisdom, and warning.” all photographs were taken by the author. declarations permissions: permissions obtained. sources of funding: none declared. conflicts of interest: none declared. references cited bastien, j. w. 1985. qollahuaya-andean body concepts: a topographical-hydraulic model of physiology. american anthropologist 87:595–611. bonatti, j. g. 2003. el zopilote: caquero y psicopompo. ii congreso sobre pueblos indígenas. universidad de costa rica, san josé, costa rica. camilleri, a. 2007. the patience of the spider: an inspector montalbano mystery. s. sartarelli, trans. penguin, new york, ny. originally published in italian, pazienza del ragno. 2004. sellerio editore, palermo, italy. bozzoli vargas, m., c. cubero venegas, m. sánchez perreira, a. calderón saravia, and j. segundo sánchez. 1982. tradición oral indígena costarricense, relatos bribris de kekoldi, provincia de limón. volumen iv, año ic, número 1–2. universidad de costa rica, san josé, costa rica. cruz jacinto, m. a., m. a. vásquez–dávila, p. colunga garcía–marín, and m. p. jerez salas. 2014. aspectos etnoecológicos de la ornitofauna entre los ikoot de san mateo del mar, oaxaca, méxico. in aves, personas y culturas. estudios de etno–ornitología 1, sault. 2020. ethnobiology letters 11(2):58-68 67 perspectives edited by m. a. vásquez–dávila, pp. 151–167. conacyt/itvo/carteles editores/utch, oaxaca, méxico. fernández, p. e., and j. sánchez. 2009. aves de piedra, barro y oro en la costa rica precolombina/ birds of stone, clay and gold in pre-columbian costa rica. fundación museos del banco central, san josé, costa rica. filloy nadal, l. 2019. de la pluma y sus usos en mesoamérica. arqueología mexicana 159:18–23. flores-marcia, x. m. 2015. a history of guelaguetza in zapotec communities of the central valleys of oaxaca, 16th century to the present. doctoral dissertation, university of california, los angeles, california. available at: https://escholarship.org/ content/qt7tv1p1rr/qt7tv1p1rr.pdf. accessed on april 24, 2020. garibaldi, a., and n. turner. 2004. cultural keystone species: implications for ecological conservation and restoration. ecology and society 9:1. doi:10.5751/es-00669-090301. giuntini, c. 2006. precolumbian and ethnographic featherwork from the andes and amazon in the metropolitan museum of art. nuevo mundo mundos nuevos 1457. doi:10.4000/nuevomundo.1457. goodman, a. 2019. cop25 was a failure, but activists’ collective organizing at the talks was unprecedented. democracy now. 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people: contemporary trends in archaeobotany ethnobiology letters. 2015. 6(1):203-207. doi: 10.14237/ebl.6.1.2015.442. 203 book review he designs a mathematical method to compare samples from multiple populations using seed densities and also attempts to define which measures are most likely to survive post-depositional processes. after applying the formula to samples from korea, the author reflects on how using comparable samples is essential when making cultural inferences about how botanical remains were used. gyoung-ah lee gives the reader a means to improve sampling decisions in the laboratory, to minimize time spent in analysis, and to assure comparability between archaeobotanical assemblages. the second chapter by luc vrydaghs, paul de paepe, katrien rutten and ernie haerinck is a detailed study of regional exchanges in south-eastern arabia during the late pre-islamic period, using phytolith analysis. their study is a methodological reflection on a new proxy: phytoliths from ceramic thin sections show consistency between phytolith, petrographic and chemical data from different clay samples. the study demonstrates that plant microfossil analyses are direct evidence of pottery manufacture and regional exchange. there are fewer problems with the context of these samples than with other archaeological studies of trade, exchange, and source provenance (tykot 2004). the results challenge our assumptions concerning the choices potters made and regional pottery exchanges. closing this methodological section is the chapter examining agriculture and climate change in antiquity, by alexia smith. this article starts with our current concerns about global warming and its impact on food production. she compares information from southwest asia during the bronze and iron ages related to climatic changes and their effect on agricultural activities, using regional databases and since the 19th century, there has been a long tradition of analyses and interpretation of plant remains from archaeological contexts. many of those analyses have emphasized biological aspects and have been limited in many cases to a list of presence or absence of botanical remains. in recent years paleoethnobotanical analyses have had much more of an anthropological orientation (butzer 1982). the anthropological perspective not only looks at socioecological dynamics of the use of wild plants and food production but also seeks to improve theoretical frameworks, recovery techniques and develop new methodologies such as dna, phytolith, and starch analysis (archila et al. 2008; vanderwarker and peres 2010). ancient plants and people: contemporary trends in archaeobotany is edited by members of a new generation of archaeobotanists: marco madella, carla lancelotti, and manon savard. after discussions about the meaning of archaeobotanical work during a symposium of the international work group for palaeoethnobotany in 2013, in holland, they decided to bring together the work of twenty researchers from different parts of the world, writing about ethnology, ethnoarchaeology, taphonomy and genetics in charcoal, phytoliths, seeds and fruits analyses, within relevant environmental and social contexts. the volume is comprised of 14 chapters and organized into four sections: methodologies in archaeobotany, case studies in archaeobotany and vegetation history, social archaeobotany and genetics in archaeobotany. in this review, i highlight the main contributions of each chapter in terms of themes, theory and methodology. the first chapter is sample size estimation and inter-assemblage quantification in archaeobotany by gyoung-ah lee. ancient plants and people: contemporary trends in archaeobotany edited by marco madella, carla lancelotti, and manon savard. 2014. the university of arizona press, tucson. 316 pp. $70.00. isbn 978-0-8165-2710-6. reviewed by diana rocío carvajal-contreras reviewer address: facultad de estudios de patrimonio cultural, carrera de arqueología, universidad externado de colombia, calle 10ª #3-15 este, bogotá, colombia. email: diana.carvajal@uexternado.edu.co received: july 3, 2015 volume: 6(1):203-207 published: december 8, 2015 © 2015 society of ethnobiology ethnobiology letters. 2015. 6(1):203-207. doi: 10.14237/ebl.6.1.2015.442. 204 book review published data. smith believes that the data may be biased due to the fact that it comes from different sources and has been analysed by various people. she recommends integrating records of flora and fauna in order to compare ancient climates and dates and their relationship to human activities. finally, she reflects on the interrelationship between climate change and agriculture, and how the collapse of societies may be understood as the result of a more complex process involving the adaptation of people to climate change, rather than the result of a single cause. this methodological proposal gives ways to refine the analyses and approach the problematic of climatic change and the emergence of agriculture on different levels. firstly, for future research, smith takes into consideration both temporal and geographic scales. secondly, her exercise of comparing multiple data sources allows the possibility of applying statistical tools, not only to create comparable data sets but also to correlate cultural and biological factors. finally, from a theoretical point of view, the interpretations of the relationship between climate change and agriculture, rather than focusing either on monoor multi-causality, re-directs the questions to the specific capacity for resilience and adaptation of each human group in the face of both environmental and social changes. the second major section, case studies in archaeobotany and vegetation history, starts with sara walshaw’s work on the archaeobotanical evidence of swahili urban food production. walshaw concludes, after comparing botanical with linguistic and ethnohistorical data, that swahili food production occurred at a household level and was integrated with asian exchange networks. her chapter is a comprehensive study of plant food production and the use of indigenous resources in sub-saharan africa. walshaw integrates the analysis of plant remains from archaeological sites in the specific context of east africa with other data sources such as linguistics and history. in an economic framework, walshaw touches upon universal anthropological topics such as diffusion of knowledge and acculturation processes. danièle martinoli explores the use of the optimal foraging model in relation to the exploitation of plants by hunter-gather communities in oküzini and karain b in anatolia. the author uses this model as an interpretative aid to understand the absence of small seeds in the archaeological record as the cumulative product of day-to-day human decisions favouring nuts and roots, guided by a set of microeconomic optimizing principles. martinoli reflects on the need to improve the identification of plants in archaeological contexts in order to re-think the interaction between ancient human groups, and the exploitation of plants for food and surrounding environments. this application of behavioural ecology to the study of human agency and interaction with the environment is an interdisciplinary incursion by martinoli to explain cultural change in anatolia. as zeder (2009) points out, anatolia, as part of the near east, has the oldest and most comprehensive record of culture change related to agricultural origins. however, few case studies have used models from evolutionary biology. martinoli´s chapter shows that the optimal foraging models have something to offer in understanding the transition from foraging to farming in the near east. naomi miller evaluates climate reconstruction in west asia in relation to the origins of agriculture and the collapse of societies. she uses diverse data such as ancient texts, archaeological, and botanical data to conclude that the interactions between farmers and pastoral nomad communities, plants, and climate are highly complex. firstly, the most important result of her chapter is the emphasis on how archaeobotanical data demonstrates the impact of human populations in ancient iran. secondly, her comparisons question the geographical spread of the younger dryas and its role in the collapse and resilience of west asian communities. miller´s results lead to a better understanding of how ancient agricultural societies fared under a fluctuating climate and regionally diverse environmental conditions. finally, she gives a cautionary note about methods and interpretative models of the near east, given their unsuitability to accommodate the multi-causal responses of human societies to high variability in natural and processrelated effects in mesopotamia. this concern is also shared in isotopic studies (maxwell et al. 2014; riehl et al. 2014). following a similar line, simone riehl´s study presents a case of the relationships between environment and crop husbandry in syria during the late bronze and early iron ages. she bases her archaeobotanical study on the remains of wild plant taxa. using correspondence analysis, the author concludes that the wild plant taxa not only reflect crop husbandry practices but are also the result of ethnobiology letters. 2015. 6(1):203-207. doi: 10.14237/ebl.6.1.2015.442. 205 book review differences in climate, vegetation and soil type at the sites. in other words, archaeobotany helps clarify how the environment is influenced by people. the use of multivariate statistical tools places this study beyond classical archaeobotanical research of the composition of woodland vegetation and the use of dung through time as an additional source of information. the author is aware of various methodological challenges such as different geographical areas of plant production, absence of radiocarbon dates and limited botanical samples. riehl´s chapter is an important contribution to the under-investigated area of the western central levant. her investigation fills research gaps concerning the late bronze and iron age economic and environmental history of southern syria. kristen gremillion´s chapter deals with the role of crop diffusion on the cumberland plateau in north america. the author believes that a key aspect of cumberland plateau´s agriculture is not only influence from mesoamerican knowledge but the various alternative indigenous farming systems that were adapted to particular ecological conditions. her study is an example of how north american studies of plant production have gradually shifted from description to explanation. since beginning this study in 2004, gremillion has shown that the origins and spread of agriculture in kentucky was complex and this complexity becomes increasingly apparent as data accumulates. in previous studies gremillion used behavioural ecology models along with opportunitycost arguments to generate and evaluate predictions about the circumstances in which cultigens were adopted at the cumberland plateau. therefore, to address the limitations of models, the author uses migration and diffusion, not as they are used within the culture-historical paradigm, but rather as a complement that best explains observed data in kentucky. she posits that migration and diffusion were mechanisms that shaped autochthonous developments in the transition to farming on the cumberland plateau. dorian fuller, chris stevens and meriel mcclatchie discuss the analytical implications of charred plant assemblages from crop remains as a result of incidental loss or waste disposal from routine activities. in my opinion, this is the most interesting article in the book because, from archaeobotanical, taphonomical and transcultural points of views, the authors question the relationship between context and archaeological assemblages based on how and why plant remains become charred and deposited within archaeological contexts. this article includes diagrams of crop processing activities, potential variables affecting pre-depositional, depositional, postdepositional stages of charred assemblages, and the relationship between cereal disarticulation assemblages. using the content of the assemblages themselves, the authors suggest that archaeobotanical remains could be a result of recurrent activities of crop processing, storage strategies, craft production, and dung burning activities. the remains studied were from iron age ireland, britain and neolithic villages in south india and pakistan; the studies question the assumption that assemblages reflect the function of the context itself. the authors observed differences in composition of archaeobotanical assemblages, including phytolith morphotype frequencies, crop processing stages, and frequency of botanical remains. these were later compared and interpreted to understand aspects of social organisation, in particular the timing of food production, procurement, and storage activities. in chapter ten, marco madella briefly explores the role of plants and food choices in indus civilizations and the factors involved in those choices. in the author's opinion, these factors are environmental and social aspects whose dynamics determines the exploitation of plant resources such as rice production. based on this case study, madella suggests that the adoption of rice is either a result of environmental changes that create shortages of staple autochthonous foods or a social consequence to higher surpluses and the legitimation of roles of social display in the harappa culture. the central argument of this article is that most studies examine archaeobotanical rice as an indicator of human ecology, food procurement strategies, and economic systems. the acquisition and use of rice should also be considered in the context of the belief systems of human groups. the next chapter, by rita scheel-ybert and maria dulce gaspar, presents a rare archaeobotanical study from the brazilian coast, which diverges from the common ‘laundry list’ studies attached to old reports. plant remains, specifically dead wood, were used in the past to produce charcoal now found in brazilian sambaquis (shell mounds), which the authors studied with archaeobotanical and taphonomic techniques. these botanical remains are interpreted to be a result ethnobiology letters. 2015. 6(1):203-207. doi: 10.14237/ebl.6.1.2015.442. 206 book review of prehistoric sustainable exploitation of the surrounding landscape during a long period of climatic variations. the study of various shell mounds on the coast of brazil provides an unprecedented paleoenvironmental reconstruction for this region and also gives alternative insights into the use of plant remains as fuel and food consumption. the conservation of several plant fragments in sambaquis shows that plants were far more important in the diet of ancient residents than is considered usual for people who exploited aquatic resources. these results contradict the normative view that groups using aquatic resources are nomadic societies subject to climatic change (archila et al. 2008). instead, these sedentary groups show a higher sociocultural complexity and had territorial stability. finally, the fourth section discusses the relationship between genetics and archaeobotany and begins with an article by yo-ichiro sato. this author, based on genetic studies and the use of statistical tools such as discriminant function, suggests that the cultivation of incipient oryza japonica was carried out in the middle and lower basins of yangtze river. according to dna analyses, the author re-evaluates old theories, such as those that suggest that rice originated from one common source. this study shows that indica and japonica belong to two different races from different domestication events and both were the result of changing environmental conditions that pushed people to begin rice cultivation. the next chapter is another genetic study by kenichi tanno who questions that six-row barley was derived from two-row cultivated barley. the general assumption is that increase in seed production was a common goal during the domestication of cereal crops. using an experiment to determine the origin of six-row barley, he implies that it might be derived from two independent mutation events from two-row barleys. furthermore, the author suggests the need for more archaeological evidence and collaborative genetic studies to confirm when and where this happened and to elucidate the origin of barley. archaeogenetic studies in plants have entered a new stage of maturity due to recent applications and technologies, which help to understand plant evolution and their interaction with human agricultural selection. additionally, archaeogenetics and computational models have changed the understanding of the origins of domestic plants as a relatively simplistic origin scenario to a complex process in which plants also adapted to human environments (allaby et al. 2015). the last chapter by linda scott cummings suggests that environmental factors, such as humidity, could influence the size of internal structures of maize kernels, specifically the size of phytoliths. the author based her conclusions on experiments, statistical analysis, ethnographic data, and comparisons with cobs from archaeological contexts from the united states. cummings suggests that maize phytolith genetics might help us to understand not only diffusion and origins of maize but also social aspects such as human lineages, relationships in human populations, settlement patterns, as well as migration and trade. the last decades have revealed new insights into the phenotypic variation and plasticity of maize. archaeobotanical and genetic studies of the process of maize domestication and diffusion has shown a contradiction between evidence supporting the earliest cultivation in the lowlands and the genetically ancestral position of mexican highland maize (van heerwaarden et al. 2011). this chapter is one of few works that addresses plastic responses by maize to perturbations from environment and human factors, which could contribute to resolving this contradiction and help to reassess the data from genetic studies alongside social considerations. this compilation of contemporary work explores the interactions between human beings and plants by examining archaeological evidence from ecological and evolutionary perspectives (gremillion 1997) and social and post-processual perspectives. my only criticism is that this compilation of articles does not consider other centers of domestication in the americas and focuses on cereals, wood, and seeds. despite this, the volume will be a valued addition to the libraries of geographers, cultural anthropologists, botanists, ecologists, archaeobotanists, environmental archaeologists, and students who are interested in the changing relationships between human and plant populations. references cited allaby r., r. gutaker, a. clarke, n. pearson, r. ware, s. palmer, j. kitchen and o. smith. 2015. using archaeogenomic and computational approaches to unravel the history of local adaptation in crops. philosophical transaction b, royal society 370:20130377. doi:10.1098/rstb.2013.0377. ethnobiology letters. 2015. 6(1):203-207. doi: 10.14237/ebl.6.1.2015.442. 207 book review archila, s., m. giovannetti and v. lema. 2008. arqueobotánica y teoría arqueológica: discusiones desde surámerica. universidad de los andes, facultad de ciencias sociales, departamento de antropología, ces. ediciones uniandes, bogotá, colombia. butzer, k. 1982. archaeology as human ecology: method and theory for a contextual approach. cambridge university press, cambridge, united kingdom. gremmillion, k. 1997. people, plants, and landscapes: studies in paleoethnobotany. university of alabama press, tuscaloosa, al. maxwell, t., l. silva and w. horwath. 2014. using multi-element isotopic analysis to decipher drought impacts and adaptive management in ancient agricultural systems. proceedings of the national academy of science of the united states of america 111(45):e4807-e4808. riehl, s., k. pustovoytov, h. weippert, s. klett and f. hole. 2014. drought stress variability in ancient near eastern agricultural systems evidenced by δ13c in barley grain. proceedings of the national academy of science of the united states of america 111 (34):12348–12353. tykot, r. 2004. scientific methods and applications to archaeological provenance studies. in physics methods in archaeometry: proceedings of the international school of physics "enrico fermi", volume 154 edited by m. martini, m. milazzo, and m. piacentini, pp. 407432. ios press, amsterdam, netherlands. vanderwarker, a. and t. peres. 2010. integrating zooarchaeology and paleoethnobotany: a consideration of issues, methods, and cases. springer, new york, ny. van heerwaarden, j., j. doebley, w. briggs, j. glaubitz, m. goodman, j. sanchez and j. rossibarra. 2011. genetic signals of origin, spread, and introgression in a large sample of maize landraces. proceedings of the national academy of science of the united states of america 108(3):1088-1092. zeder, m. 2009. evolutionary biology and the emergence of agriculture: the value of co-opted models of evolution in the study of culture change. in macroevolution in human prehistory: evolutionary theory and processual archaeology, edited by a. prentiss, i. kuijt, and j. chatters, pp. 157-210. springer, new york, ny. http://www.pnas.org/search?author1=toby+m.+maxwell&sortspec=date&submit=submit http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/?term=weippert%20h%5bauth%5d http://ebooks.iospress.nl/bookseries/proceedings-of-the-international-school-of-physics-enrico-fermi http://ebooks.iospress.nl/bookseries/proceedings-of-the-international-school-of-physics-enrico-fermi http://link.springer.com/search?facet-creator=%22ian+kuijt%22 a quantitative method for evaluating contemporary cultural uses of birds: a case study from mexico ávila-nájera et al. 2020. ethnobiology letters 11(2):5–19 5 research communications and beliefs of local communities (alves and souto 2015). ethno-orthithology considers the relationship between humans and birds. in the americas, areas of high cultural and biological diversity frequently coincide (costa-neto et al. 2009) and are reflected in arts, beliefs, knowledge, cuisine, musical instruments, and clothing (toledo and barrera-bassols 2008). wild birds often feature in human diets, and their plumage and body parts are prized for aesthetic reasons and they are appreciated for their song (anderson and introduction wildlife can have an economic value, but habitats and species also possess distinctive social, ecological, psychological, and ethical values (cuéllar soto 2017). studying the close associations and interactions between people and animals can demonstrate the values and cultural significances that different communities place on particular species (alves et al. 2018). such ethnozoological knowledge is useful when developing long term conservation plans that not only protect wildlife, but also sustain the practices a quantitative method for evaluating contemporary cultural uses of birds: a case study from mexico dulce maría ávila-nájera1, barbara j. tigar2*, zaira zavala-sánchez3, pedro zetina-cordoba4, and ricardo serna-lagunes5 1departamento de investigación, universidad intercultural del estado de méxico, san felipe del progreso, méxico. 2school of pharmacy and biomedical sciences, university of central lancashire, preston, uk. 3facultad de ciencias agropecuarias y ambientales, universidad autónoma de guerrero, iguala, méxico. 4universidad politécnica de huatusco. unidad académica de biotecnología y agroindustrial. huatusco, méxico. 5unidad de manejo y conservación de recursos genéticos. facultad de ciencias biológicas y agropecuarias, peñuela, méxico. *btigar@uclan.ac.uk abstract this study evaluates the relationship between people and birds in mexico, a country where high cultural and biological diversity are reflected in the close associations between people and natural resources, recorded since prehispanic times. it systematically reviews 1041 records of cultural use of wild birds in mexico published between 1996–2017 and analyzes patterns of contemporary use of avifauna. it classifies information for 252 birds by grouping uses of species and families into 11 categories and quantifies overall use with a cultural value index (cvi). the data show that birds have a high cultural value as food, pets, and for medicinal uses (312, 235, and 119 records, respectively), particularly in the state of chiapas. large edible birds had the highest cvis and included plain chachalacas (ortalis vetula; 9.72), black-bellied whistlingducks (dendrocygna autumnali; 6.65), crested guams (penelope purpurascens; 6.25), and great currasows (crax rubra; 6.23), with the cracidae family recorded as favored gamebirds. conspicuous, brightly-colored birds had high cvis, including keel-billed toucans (ramphastos sulfuratus; 6.50), red-lored amazons, (amazona autumnalis; 6.03), and allied species, which were traded or kept as pets despite legal protection. the high cvis of barn owls (tyto alba; 5.45) were related to medicinal uses, and mourning doves (zenaida macroura; 5.69) were mainly used as gamebirds. wild bird populations face increasing pressure from habitat loss and overexploitation. we propose that evaluating the ethnological significance of wildlife with indices like cvis can quantify the distinctive needs of rural communities, which when combined with information on conservation status can develop more sustainable species management plans. received august 28, 2019 open access accepted july 18, 2020 doi 10.14237/ebl.11.2.2020.1644 published december 4, 2020 keywords wildlife, ethnozoology, ethno-ornithology, psittacidae copyright © 2020 by the author(s); licensee society of ethnobiology. this is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution-noncommercial 4.0 international public license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0), which permits non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. supplementary files available at https://doi.org/10.14237/ebl.11.2.2020.1644 ávila-nájera et al. 2020. ethnobiology letters 11(2):5–19 6 research communications medina-tzuc 2005). birds also feature in myths, rituals, art, and architecture relating to cycles of rebirth and renewal (anderson 2017; hull and fergus 2017; sault 2016). in latin america, birds are considered highly symbolic—especially hummingbirds and vultures, which are thought to predict life and death events (sault 2016)—with magical powers believed to be conferred to anyone eating or possessing particular species or products (anderson and medina-tzuc 2005). for centuries, indigenous americans have made ceremonial regalia from feathers not only for their decorative qualities but also for their supposed connection to the spirit world. those wearing feathers were thought to be able to fly, sing, and display like a bird, and could serve as sacred deities between human and other worlds (costa-neto et al. 2009). in prehispanic aztec culture brightly-colored iridescent feathers were highly prized, and hummingbird, quetzal, and male mallard plumage was incorporated into cloaks and shields of elite warriors, and pasted onto skin at festivals (riedler et al. 2012). however, long-held cultural attitudes that traditionally prevented the overexploitation of natural resources are being lost, including beliefs by the ch'orti' maya in guatemala about supernatural powers of birds (hull and fergus 2017), and traditional maya ideology in the yucatan that encouraged a shared responsibility for sustainably managing communally-held natural resources such as game birds (anderson and medinatzuc 2007). mexico is highly biodiverse with about 11% (n=1,115–1,150) of extant global bird species, including 194–212 endemic species (navarro-sigüenza et al. 2014). much of its avifauna is threatened, with 26–44% of bird populations (berlanga et al. 2017) and up to 57% of bird species (n=655) considered to be at risk (ortiz-pulido 2018). avian species richness is highest in the inter-mountain habitats along the gulf of mexico and the yucatan peninsula, with endemism peaking in the western mountain ranges and sierra madre oriental (navarro-sigüenza et al. 2014). many bird populations are in decline owing to recent human activities (ortiz-pulido 2018), and endangered bird populations considered both at risk and possessing high cultural significance are considered to be especially vulnerable to over-exploitation (tábara 2006). this study aims to evaluate the relationship between people and birds in mexico by analyzing patterns of contemporary cultural use of avifauna. this is achieved by quantifying the extent of cultural use of birds using a cultural value index (cvi) developed for ethnobotanical studies (turner 1988) and recently applied to ethnozoology (ávila-nájera et al. 2018). cvis synthesize the detailed ethnological knowledge contained in multiple sources and generate a quantitative indicator of a species’ or taxa’s cultural relevance, which can indicate its risk of exploitation. cvis can be used to incorporate cultural attitudes into conservation management of endangered wildlife populations, and for comparative studies of use and exploitation of species from different regions or following environmental or demographic changes. methods we carried out a systematic search for relevant journal articles, books, theses, and online publications in scopus, the web of science, and the national consortium of scientific and technological information resources (conricyt). we used english and spanish search terms relating to the cultural value or significance of, attitude towards or specific use of, wild birds in mexico and extracted records and relevant information for the 20-year period 1996–2017. we stored records in ms excel and corrected synonyms using berlanga et al. (2017), and extracted species’ mexican conservation status from the nom-059-semarnat-2010 (semarnat 2010). records were assigned to one or more of 11 categories of cultural use as used by ávila-nájera et al. (2018). these were: food, pets, trade, ornamental, artisanal, magic-religious (including belief in spiritual power [anderson 2017]), medicinal purposes, killed for sport or recreation (hunted for pleasure), considered harmful or dangerous, or considered to have other benefits. we quantified the overall cultural significance of each species using a cultural value index (cvi) (figueroa–solano 2000, derived from the index of cultural significance [turner 1988]) via the equation: cvi = σ (iu + fm + vut), where  iu (intensity of use) = (number of uses for each species from all sources / total number of uses for all species from all sources) x 100,  fm (frequency of use) = (number of records [times a species is mentioned] of all uses for each species from all sources / total number ávila-nájera et al. 2020. ethnobiology letters 11(2):5–19 7 research communications of records of all uses for all species from all sources) x 100,  vu (use value) = (number of records for each species of a single use from all sources / total number of records of a single use for all species from all sources) x 100, and  vut (total use value for each species) = sum of vu for all uses / total uses. we also calculated cvis for bird families by substituting the data for species in the equations above with the combined data for all species in a family. results we found 56 publications documenting cultural uses of birds from over 300 sites in 21 mexican federal states, based on more than 500 interviews (figure 1, and supplementary table 1). most records of cultural use originated from chiapas (n=212), followed by oaxaca (n=79), and the estado de méxico (n=51) (figure 1). there were records for 252 bird species figure 1 location of the 21 mexican federal states (labelled 1–21) with records of cultural uses used to calculate cultural value indices (cvi) for 252 bird species. shading indicates the number of independent sources used to calculate the cvi, where light gray is <5 (1, aguascalientes; 3, ciudad de méxico; 4, colima; 6, durango; 7, estado de méxico; 8, guerrero; 9, guanajuato; 10, jalisco; 11, michoacán, 12, morelos; 13, oaxaca; 14 puebla; 15, quintana roo; 16, querétaro; 17, san luis potosí; 18 sinaloa; 19, tabasco; 20, veracruz; 21, yucatán). dark gray is nine (2, campeche). black indicates 12 sources (5, chiapas). ávila-nájera et al. 2020. ethnobiology letters 11(2):5–19 8 research communications table 1 names and classification (order and family of bird species) with their national conservation status (where e = endangered, t = threatened, p = subject to special protection measures and i = insufficient data [semarnat 2010]), and iucn status (where nt= near threatened; lc= least concern; vu= vulnerable; en= endangered), the total number of uses reported and total number of records for each species in mexico (from 1996–­2017) and the cultural value index (cvi). spe­ cies with a cvi >5 are highlighted in light gray. (continued on next page) order conservation status nom-ecol-059 conservation status iucn number of reported uses number of records of cultural uses cvi family species tinamiformes tinamidae tinamus major t nt 6 14 3.24 crypturellus boucardi t lc 1 5 0.79 crypturellus cinnamomeus p lc 5 11 2.64 anseriformes anatidae dendrocygna autumnalis i lc 9 22 6.65 dendrocygna bicolor i lc 3 6 1.78 branta canadensis i lc 1 1 0.29 aix sponsa i lc 3 3 1.15 anas acuta i lc 1 1 0.29 anas platyrhynchos i lc 1 3 0.54 cairina moschata e lc 6 18 4.33 bucephala albeola i lc 2 2 0.84 lophodytes cucullatus i lc 1 1 0.34 oxyura jamaicensis i lc 2 4 1.35 galliformes cracidae ortalis vetula i lc 9 47 9.72 ortalis poliocephala i lc 3 5 1.84 ortalis leucogastra p lc 2 2 0.60 penelope purpurascens e lc 7 27 6.25 penelopina nigra e vu 3 4 1.12 oreophasis derbianus e en 3 3 0.99 crax rubra t vu 7 33 6.23 odontophoridae dendrortys macroura t lc 1 3 0.54 philortyx fasciatus i lc 2 6 1.34 colinus virginianus i nt 6 12 2.94 colinus nigrogularis i lc 4 7 1.96 callipepla squamata i lc 2 2 0.63 callipepla gambelii i lc 2 2 0.69 callipepla douglasii i lc 1 1 0.29 cyrtonyx ocellatus t vu 2 2 0.60 cyrtonyx montezumae p lc 2 3 0.76 dactylortyx thoracicus p lc 1 1 0.29 odontophorus guttatus p lc 2 5 0.97 phasianidae phasianus colchinus i lc 3 4 1.12 meleagris ocellata t nt 7 25 5.44 meleagris gallopavo i lc 2 3 0.81 ávila-nájera et al. 2020. ethnobiology letters 11(2):5–19 9 research communications (continued on next page) (continued from previous page) order conservation status nom-ecol-059 conservation status iucn number of reported uses number of records of cultural uses cvi family species phoenicopteriformes phoenicopteridae phoenicopterus ruber t lc 1 1 0.40 podicipediformes podicipedidae tachybaptus dominicus p lc 1 1 0.40 podilymbus podiceps i lc 1 1 0.29 columbiformes columbidae columba livia i lc 3 9 1.88 patagioenas flavirostris i lc 5 11 2.62 patagioenas fasciata i lc 1 3 0.54 patagioenas nigrirostris p lc 1 1 0.29 streptopelia roseogrisea i lc 1 1 0.30 columbina inca i lc 4 14 2.68 columbina passerina i lc 4 6 1.64 columbina talpacoti i lc 3 5 1.19 clavaris pretiosa i lc 1 2 0.42 geotrygon montana i lc 1 1 0.29 leptotila verreauxi i lc 6 11 2.85 zenaida asiatica i lc 5 10 2.45 zenaida macroura i lc 7 26 5.69 cuculiformes cuculidae crotophaga sulcirostris i lc 5 8 2.64 morococcyx erythropygus i lc 1 1 0.29 geococcyx velox i lc 4 7 1.99 geococcyx californicus i lc 3 4 1.06 piaya cayana i lc 2 2 1.08 caprimulgiformes caprimulgidae nyctidromus albicollis i lc 2 3 1.13 antrostomus badius i lc 1 1 0.34 antrostomus salvini i lc 2 2 2.02 antrostomus vociferus i nt 3 3 1.04 apodiformes apodidae cypseloides niger i vu 1 1 0.74 streptoprocne zonaris i lc 1 1 0.40 aeronautes saxatalis i lc 1 1 0.70 trochilidae archilochus colubris i lc 1 1 0.34 atthis ellioti t lc 1 1 0.48 amazilia beryllina i lc 2 2 0.82 amazilia tzacatl i lc 2 2 0.70 amazilia violiceps i lc 1 1 0.39 ávila-nájera et al. 2020. ethnobiology letters 11(2):5–19 10 research communications (continued on next page) (continued from previous page) order conservation status nom-ecol-059 conservation status iucn number of reported uses number of records of cultural uses cvi family species gruiformes rallidae aramides cajanea 4 6 1.83 gallinula chloropus i lc 1 1 0.29 fulica americana i lc 1 2 0.42 charadriiformes recurvirostridae himantopus mexicanus i lc 1 1 0.29 charadriidae charadrius semipalmatus i lc 1 1 0.29 jacanidae jacana spinosa i lc 1 1 1.27 scolopacidae numenius phaeopus i lc 1 1 0.29 limosa fedoa i lc 1 1 0.29 calidris minutilla i lc 1 1 0.29 actitis macularius i lc 1 1 0.34 tringa semipalmata i lc 1 1 0.29 laridae thalasseus sandvicensis i lc 1 1 0.29 ciconiiformes ciconiidae mycteria americana p lc 1 2 0.53 suliformes phalacrocoracide phalacrocorax brasilianus i lc 2 2 0.60 pelecaniformes pelecanidae pelecanus occidentales i lc 1 1 0.29 ardeidae tigrisoma mexicanum p lc 2 2 0.70 ardea alba i lc 6 8 3.41 egretta thula i lc 3 4 1.56 egretta caerulea i lc 3 3 1.00 bubulcus ibis i lc 2 2 0.95 butorides virescens i lc 2 2 0.69 nycticorax nycticorax i lc 1 1 0.34 nyctanassa violacea i lc 2 2 0.69 cathartiformes cathartidae coragyps astratus i lc 5 19 4.61 sarcoramphus papa e lc 2 3 0.99 cathartes aura i lc 5 13 3.29 accipitriformes pandionidae pandion haliaetus i lc 1 1 0.55 ávila-nájera et al. 2020. ethnobiology letters 11(2):5–19 11 research communications (continued on next page) (continued from previous page) order conservation status nom-ecol-059 conservation status iucn number of reported uses number of records of cultural uses cvi family species accipitridae harpia harpyja e nt 3 3 1.24 accipiter striatus p lc 1 1 0.29 buteogallus anthracinus p lc 1 1 0.30 rupornis magnirostris i lc 7 11 4.32 parabuteo unicinctus p lc 1 1 0.30 pseudastur albicollis p lc 1 1 0.55 buteo jamaicensis i lc 3 3 1.33 strigiformes tytonidae tyto alba i lc 9 13 5.45 strigidae megascops trichopsis i lc 4 4 1.52 megascops guatemalae i lc 1 1 0.48 megascops barbarus e vu 1 1 0.48 megascops cooperi p lc 1 1 0.48 pulsatrix perspicillata t lc 1 1 0.29 bubo virginianus i lc 2 3 1.54 glaucidium brasilianum i lc 7 8 4.25 athene cunicularia i lc 1 1 0.74 strix virgata i lc 3 3 1.18 strix fulvescens t lc 1 1 0.74 aegolius ridgwayi e lc 1 1 0.74 trogoniformes trogonidae pharomachrus mocinno e nt 3 3 1.18 trogon caligatus i lc 2 2 0.70 trogon mexicanus i lc 2 2 0.78 trogon collaris p lc 3 4 1.23 coraciiformes momotidae momotus mexicanus i lc 3 3 1.10 eumomota superciliosa i lc 1 1 0.34 alcedinidae megaceryle torquata i lc 2 2 0.69 chloroceryle amazona i lc 1 1 0.40 piciformes ramphastidae aulacorhynchus prasinus p lc 3 3 1.09 pteroglossus torquatus p lc 5 15 3.47 ramphastos sulfuratus t lc 7 32 6.50 picidae melanerpes formicivorus i lc 2 2 0.69 melanerpes pygmaeus i lc 2 2 0.74 melanerpes aurifrons i lc 3 6 1.50 dryobates scalaris i lc 1 2 0.51 ávila-nájera et al. 2020. ethnobiology letters 11(2):5–19 12 research communications (continued on next page) (continued from previous page) order conservation status nom-ecol-059 conservation status iucn number of reported uses number of records of cultural uses cvi family species dryocopus lineatus i 4 6 1.75 campephilus guatemalensis p lc 3 5 1.24 colaptes auratus i lc 1 1 0.34 falconiformes falconidae micrastur semitorquatus p lc 6 7 2.41 herpethoteres cachinnans i lc 4 5 1.76 falco sparverius i lc 2 2 0.64 psittaciformes psittacidae bolborhyncus lineola t lc 2 2 0.80 myiopsitta monachus i lc 1 1 0.30 brotogeris jugularis t lc 3 5 1.47 amazona auropalliata e en 3 3 1.14 amazona oratrix e en 4 11 2.82 amazona autumnalis i en 8 26 6.03 amazona albifrons p lc 5 17 3.76 aamazona xantholora t lc 5 14 3.12 amazona farisona e nt 5 11 2.82 eupsittula canicularis p lc 5 10 2.65 eupsittula astec p lc 4 5 1.53 eupsittula nana p nt 4 8 1.98 ara militaris e vu 3 3 1.00 ara macao e lc 5 18 3.94 rhynchopsitta pachyrhyncha e lc 1 1 0.40 rhynchopsitta terrisi e en 1 1 0.40 forpus cyanipygius p nt 1 1 0.40 psittacara strenuus t 2 4 1.07 psittacara holochlorus t lc 3 3 1.10 passeriformes tyrannidae attila spadiceus pr lc 1 1 0.74 myozetetes similis i lc 2 2 0.82 megarynchus pitangua i lc 1 1 0.48 myarchus tuberculifer i lc 1 1 0.48 myarchus yucatanensis i lc 1 1 0.48 pyrocephalus rubinus i lc 1 1 0.48 pitangus sulphuratus i lc 3 3 1.13 myiodynastes luteiventris i lc 1 1 0.30 tyrannus melancholicus i lc 2 2 0.74 tyrannus couchhi i lc 2 2 0.82 tityridae pachyramphus aglaiae i lc 1 1 0.30 cotingidae cotinga amabilis t lc 1 1 0.34 ávila-nájera et al. 2020. ethnobiology letters 11(2):5–19 13 research communications (continued on next page) (continued from previous page) order conservation status nom-ecol-059 conservation status iucn number of reported uses number of records of cultural uses cvi family species pipridae chiroxiphia linearis p lc 2 3 0.84 corvidae calocitta colliei i lc 1 2 0.44 calocitta farmosa i lc 3 3 1.00 psilorhinus morio i lc 7 9 4.05 cyanocorax yucatanicus i lc 3 3 1.03 cyanocorax yncas i lc 3 3 1.10 cyanocorax beecheii e lc 1 1 0.30 cyanocitta stelleri i lc 3 3 1.25 aphelocoma californica i lc 5 5 1.82 aphelocoma ultramarina i lc 1 1 0.39 corvus corax i lc 3 4 1.39 hirundinidae petrochelidon fulva i lc 1 1 0.34 hirundus rustica i lc 1 2 0.51 turdidae sialia mexicana i lc 1 1 0.39 sialia sialis i lc 2 2 0.70 myadestes occidentalis p lc 1 3 0.57 myadestes unicolor t lc 1 1 0.30 catharus mexicanus p lc 1 1 0.30 catharus dryas t lc 1 1 0.30 turdus rufopalliatus i lc 2 2 0.70 turdus rufitorques t lc 2 2 0.70 turdus migratorius i lc 3 4 1.47 turdus infuscatus t lc 1 1 0.30 turdus grayi i lc 3 4 1.23 mimidae melanotis caerulescens i lc 2 2 0.70 toxostoma curvirostre i lc 2 3 0.83 toxostoma crissale i lc 1 1 0.30 toxostoma longirostre i lc 1 1 0.30 mimus gilvus i lc 3 4 1.58 mimus polyglottos i lc 1 3 0.57 sturnidae sturnus vulgaris i lc 1 1 0.30 bombycillidae bombycilla cedrorum i lc 1 3 0.57 ptiliogonatidae ptiliogonys cinereus i lc 2 2 0.70 phainopepla nitens i lc 1 1 0.30 passeridae passer domesticus i lc 1 1 0.30 fringillidae chlorophonia occipitalis i lc 1 1 0.30 ávila-nájera et al. 2020. ethnobiology letters 11(2):5–19 14 research communications (continued on next page) (continued from previous page) order conservation status nom-ecol-059 conservation status iucn number of reported uses number of records of cultural uses cvi family species euphonia affinis i lc 1 1 0.30 euphonis elegantissima i lc 1 1 0.39 coccothraustes vespertinus i vu 1 1 0.30 coccothraustes abeillei i lc 1 1 0.30 haemorhous mexicanus i lc 2 2 0.70 spinus psaltria i lc 2 2 0.70 spinus tristis i lc 1 1 0.30 spinus pinus i lc 1 1 0.39 spinus notatus i lc 2 2 0.70 passerellidae aimophila ruficeps i lc 1 1 0.39 chondestes grammacus i lc 1 1 0.39 junco phaeonotus i lc 1 1 0.30 zonotrichia leucophrys i lc 1 1 0.30 icteridae amblycercus holosericeus i lc 3 3 0.72 psarocolius montezuma p lc 5 6 3.00 icterus gularis i lc 4 4 1.49 icterus mesomelas i lc 1 1 0.30 icterus galbula i lc 1 1 0.30 icterus bullockii i lc 1 1 0.30 icterus spurius i lc 1 1 0.30 icterus parisorum i lc 2 2 0.70 agelaius phoeniceus i lc 2 2 0.70 molothrus aeneus i lc 4 5 1.66 molothrus ater i lc 2 2 0.70 molothus bonariensis i lc 1 1 0.30 dives dives i lc 3 4 1.39 quiscalus mexicanus i lc 5 14 3.26 parulidae geothlypis poliocephala i lc 1 1 0.30 basileuterus rufifrons i lc 1 1 0.39 cardinalidae piranga bidentata i lc 1 1 0.39 piranga rubra i lc 1 1 0.39 cardinalis cardinales i lc 5 12 3.03 cardinalis sinuatus i lc 1 1 0.30 pheucticus ludovicianus i lc 1 2 0.44 pheucticus melanocephalus i lc 1 1 0.30 pheucticus chrysopeplus i lc 2 2 0.70 amaurospiza concolor e lc 1 1 0.30 cyanocompsa parellina i lc 3 3 1.10 passerina ciris p lc 1 2 0.44 passerina caerulea i lc 2 2 0.70 passerina leclancherii i lc 1 1 0.30 passerina versicolor i lc 2 2 0.70 ávila-nájera et al. 2020. ethnobiology letters 11(2):5–19 15 research communications representing 22 avian orders, 52 families, and 179 genera. populations of 72 species (28.4%) listed in table 1 are endangered, but for the majority of species (71.6%) there is insufficient data to ascertain their current conservation status in mexico. birds with the highest cvis (cvi in parentheses) were the plain chachalaca (ortalis vetula; 9.72), blackbellied whistling-duck (dendrocygna autumnalis; 6.65), keel-billed toucan (ramphastos sulfuratus; 6.51), crested guan (penelope purpurascens; 6.25), great curassow (crax rubra; 6.23), red-lored amazon (amazona autumnalis; 6.03), barn owl (tyto alba; 5.45), mourning dove (zenaida macroura; 5.69), and ocellated turkey (meleagris ocellata; 5.44). four of these species, c. rubra, p. purpurascens, m. ocellata, and r. sulfuratus, also have the highest number of cultural uses (table 1). families with notably high cvis were psittacidae (29.2), cracidae (24.9), and columbidae (19.7), followed by anatidae (16.5) and ramphastidae (11.6) (figure 2). the most common reasons for catching birds were for food (312 records), pets (235 records), and medicinal uses (119 records) (figure 3). the most frequently taken food species, o. vetula (24 records), c. rubra (20 records), and p. purpurascens (17 records), all belong to the family cracidae. the most common pets were o. vetula, r. sulfuratus, and a. autumnalis (all with 9 records). the highest number of records of medicinal use were for the black vulture (coragyps astratus; 13 records), turkey vulture (cathartes aura; 9 records), great-tailed grackle (quiscalus mexicanus; 5 records), and common pigeon (columbina livia; 5 records). species belonging to three genera in unrelated families, passerina (cardinal birds), icterus (new (continued from previous page) order conservation status nom-ecol-059 conservation status iucn number of reported uses number of records of cultural uses cvi family species passerina amoena i lc 2 2 0.70 passerina cyanea i lc 2 5 1.10 passerina rositae a nt 1 1 0.30 thraupidae thraupis episcopus i lc 1 1 0.30 volatinia jacarina i lc 2 2 0.70 cyanerpes cyaneus i lc 1 1 0.30 tiaris olivaceus i lc 1 2 0.44 sporophila torqueola i lc 2 3 0.83 saltator atriceps i lc 1 1 0.40 world orioles), and amazona (parrots), experienced high levels of use (7, 6, and 6 species from each genus, respectively). avian families with high patterns of use were corvidae (10 uses, but no beneficial use); anatidae, ardeidae, columbidae, cracidae, icteridae, strigidae, and tytonidae (all 9 uses); accipitridae, cuculidae, falconidae, odontophoridae, and psittacidae (all 8 uses); and picidae, phasianidae, ramphastidae, and tinamidae (7 uses, figure 2). discussion overall, this study emphasizes the incredibly high diversity and ongoing cultural significance of birds in mexico. nearly a quarter of the bird species we evaluated were valued for at least one cultural use, and some had multiple uses. a quarter of species of notable cultural value are considered endangered in mexico, but the conservation status of many mexican species probably underestimates their vulnerability because we lack sufficient data to determine whether their populations are in decline (semarnat 2010). indeed, ortiz-pulido et al. (2016) express concern about the conflicting information that informs the conservation status of many mexican birds, which means that many species probably lack adequate legal protection. the high cvis of some birds reflect extensive levels of use (total number of records) as well as a variety of cultural applications for species such as o. vetula, r. sulfuratus, and p. purpurascens, of which two species are known to be endangered in mexico (semarnat 2010). the data for the cvis originated from 21 of the 33 mexican states, with high levels of cultural use particularly in tropical areas that also have high biodiversity and avian endemism ávila-nájera et al. 2020. ethnobiology letters 11(2):5–19 16 research communications (navarro-sigüenza 2014). however, the limited nature of the available literature means that our analyses do not cover all mexican regions to the same extent, indicating the need for further ethnozoological research. the most frequent cultural uses of birds were for food, pets, or medicines, which together far outnumber the records for other cultural uses. documented records of wild birds as everyday foodstuffs have existed in mexico since the aztec codices (valadez 2003); they continue to have high dietary significance for rural communities like those in the yucatan, where large birds like c. rubra and m. ocellata are the most valuable and frequently-consumed game after large mammals (anderson and medinatzuc 2005). the major food species we identified are all large cracids (o. vetula, c. rubra, and p. purpurascens), and although c. rubra is listed in the iucn red list status as “of least concern,” it is believed to be under pressure from the international pet trade and human consumption (birdlife international 2018). this observation emphasizes how indices of conservation status depend upon the availability of reliable population data which may differ at national or regional levels. we suggest that cvis can help identify species that appear to be widely distributed and relatively abundant across their range, but which are in need of further study and/or protection on a regional or national level. more species were valued as pets than for food, including 19 psittacidae (parrot) species, echoing the global popularity of parrots, parrotlets, and macaws. a. autumnalis was the most frequently mentioned pet and is another mexican bird for which we lack accurate population data. however, overcollection for the pet-trade has resulted in severely depleted populations of rarer, higher-value psittacids across much of their ranges (alves et al. 2013). in mexico, 13 of the 20 endemic psittacid species are under threat (pires 2012), and parrots, including species listed in table 1, are sold in rural mexican markets despite their protected status (roblero-morales 2008) and are exposed to high levels of risk during capture and transport. this suggests that cvis can identify the species and groups most at risk of overexploitation for particular purposes, and draw attention to species whose populations are not currently considered to be endangered. other popular pets with high cvis include o. vetula, keel-billed toucans, r. sulfuratus, and several small brightly-colored cardinals and songbirds. many of these birds are regularly traded in rural mexican markets, including those that are colorful (cardinalis cardinalis, passerina cyanea, and passerina ciris) and songbird species (spinus psaltria, sporophila torqueola, and tiaris olivaceus) (gonzález-herrera et al. 2018). roldán-clará et al. (2017) report that trade in passerines (orden passeriformes) is focused on the mexican domestic market. pet trade-driven figure 2 cultural value index (cvi) (black-filled bars) and total number of uses (unfilled bars) for bird families using information from total records of cultural uses of species belonging to each family, published between 1996–2017 in mexico. ávila-nájera et al. 2020. ethnobiology letters 11(2):5–19 17 research communications extinctions of tropical birds have been reported elsewhere and are linked to the demise of at least 13 indonesian species (eaton et al. 2015). this suggests that the pet trade needs to be more closely monitored, particularly for species where legal protection is not being enforced (anderson and medina-tzuc 2005; roblero-morales 2008). high levels of medicinal use were recorded for two vultures (c. astratus and c. aura), as well as greattailed grackles (q. mexicanus), barn owls (t. alba), mourning doves (z. macroura), and common pigeons (c. livia). this probably stems from ancient beliefs about vultures and owls as bearers of bad omens (anderson and medina-tzuc 2005; jacobo-salcedo 2011), and from the ubiquity and abundance of doves and pigeons, making them readily available for ritual and other purposes. birds are extremely popular study subjects, so we know more about their ecology and conservation status than other terrestrial vertebrate taxa, making the state of avifauna a good indicator of overall ecosystem condition (birdlife international 2018). local knowledge and attitudes towards natural resources are factors behind the success or failure of many conservation initiatives (alves et al. 2018; white et al. 2011). this suggests that cvis could be particularly useful for species where we lack population data (like many mexican birds) because they indicate a level of demand and identify cultural uses linked to the collection or culling of wild species. cvis are also figure 3 number of species of birds (unfilled bars) and number of records for each category of use of birds (black bars) in mexico grouped into 11 classes (food, pet, trade, ornamental, artisanal, magical religious, harmful, medicinal, sport hunting, recreational, or other beneficial use) from records published between 1996 and 2017. ávila-nájera et al. 2020. ethnobiology letters 11(2):5–19 18 research communications relevant to species that historically benefitted from the protection offered by communally-held lands such as traditional mexican ejidos, where communities operated a system of access rights and tenure that prevented overuse. there is considerable concern that such practices are being lost or ignored (anderson and medina-tzuc 2005). in addition to the spatial or countrywide approach used here, cvis could be applied to make temporal comparisons among species or taxa, particularly following demographic change or habitat loss in an area. therefore, use-value estimates can help inform decisions concerning the sustainable management of well-studied taxa whilst also benefitting the wider ecosystem and supporting local community efforts to sustainably manage natural resources (alves and souto 2015; 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conservación 2:18–29. the protection of indigenous peoples’ seed rights during ethnobotanical research mccune. 2018. ethnobiology le ers 9(1):67–75 67 perspec ves  special issue on ethics in ethnobiology the farmers, gardeners, and cultivators from whom they were collected. this scenario contrasts with patent rights enjoyed by commercial seed companies and plant breeders, which specify who can buy, sell, distribute, and use seeds and genetic resources. these mechanisms permit patent holders to limit use of seeds and plants used in developing their products if they are sufficiently similar. it is likely commercial seed companies and breeders would be concerned with measures protecting local and indigenous peoples’ seed rights if they were to result in reduced access to genetic resources for developing new varieties. such considerations continue to increase the chances of exploitation (posey 2005) as genetic resources and traditional agricultural knowledge are transferred to developed nations and biotechnology centers (brush 2005). traditional and indigenous farmers have seed rights concerns (for example, la via campasina 2012) that include the ongoing ability to grow out their seeds each year as well as the right to enter into access and benefit sharing agreements even if their seeds or introduction in the debate over patenting of seeds and availability of the world’s seed germplasm for research and community gardening, insufficient attention is given to intellectual property rights of local and indigenous communities that develop plant varieties over generations. this situation is gradually improving with recognition of these rights in international agreements and transfer agreements between the worlds’ large seed banks. ethnobiologists can play an essential role in promoting these efforts through rigorous documentation during all phases of research. nevertheless, the question remains, can these peoples’ rights be protected through the multiple stages of distribution and use in the name of promoting biodiversity? advocates of biodiversity and climate change preparation seek seeds as genetic resources representing the world’s biodiversity. as in the past, they are often housed in national and international seed banks without specifying what will be done with them via access and benefit sharing agreements with the protec on of indigenous peoples’ seed rights during  ethnobotanical research  le a m. mccune1* 1botanydoc llc, tucson, az, usa. *le amccune@gmail.com abstract recogni on of the importance of biodiversity for global food security and the community food sustainability movement has helped increase awareness of seed rights. interna onal trea es created to ensure the world’s access to seed biodiversity address access to seed banks for breeding purposes. ethnobotanists are o en required to deposit research plant specimens with government seed banks or herbariums. if indigenous peoples’ plants are then used developing patented varie es, are their rights recognized? these rights depend upon recogni on of indigenous peoples as plant breeders, prior informed consent (pic) protocols, access and benefit sharing (abs) agreements via material transfer agreements, and benefits returned to indigenous and local communi es per the nagoya protocol. to ensure such rights to gene c material and associated intellectual property rights, documenta on of these agreements and links to the people and communi es from which they originated needs to occur at first collec on and throughout subsequent research, conserva on, and breeding programs. received august 6, 2017 open    access accepted april 11, 2018 doi 10.14237/ebl.9.1.2018.1076 keywords farmers rights, intellectual property rights, seeds, sovereignty, patents, indigenous peoples copyright © 2018 by the author(s); licensee society of ethnobiology. this is an open‐access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution‐noncommercial 4.0 international public license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by‐nc/4.0), which permits non‐commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. mccune. 2018. ethnobiology le ers 9(1):67–75 68 perspec ves  special issue on ethics in ethnobiology other genetic resources are used by commercial entities to patent new varieties. for these purposes, local and indigenous farmers should be considered plant breeders on equal standing to commercial seed companies, since they have developed their plants over generations for resilience under particular environment conditions, including climatic fluctuations such as drought, as well as specific local diseases and insect pests. these are the kinds of characteristics plant scientists are interested in accessing and incorporating into their own (limited access) seeds through breeding or biotechnology programs. laws in many countries allowing plant breeders and seed companies to decide who can distribute and use their seeds, largely stem from the international union for the protection of new varieties of plants, plant variety protections, and subsequently the u.s. patent system (see elvin-lewis 2006; gepts 2004). interest in seed biodiversity among grassroots organizations and home gardeners has led to seed swaps and libraries running up against seed laws designed to protect plant breeders. who protects traditional farmers’ and breeders’ rights? if their seeds are freely distributed at these venues and thereby obtained by commercial seed breeders, their rights to enter into access and benefit sharing agreements could be lost. what can be done in these instances to protect local peoples’ intellectual property rights while also promoting biodiversity? this paper focuses on this issue, especially with regard to commercial seeds developed without innovation and new varieties developed from traditional ones. international agreements two of the key international agreements addressing seed rights are the international treaty on plant genetic resources for food and agriculture (also known as the seed treaty) and the nagoya protocol. the seed treaty was developed by the united nations food and agricultural organization (fao 2001). this accord put 64 major food and feed crops into the public domain under government control, usually in national seed banks. in this context, public domain availability signifies access from the holding country conditioned upon certain standard agreements. if a plant breeder or seed company from one country desires access to the wheat or rice varieties, for example, of another seed treaty signatory country, they must contact that country’s seed bank and fill out their standard material transfer agreement. this is a legal document that includes a multilateral system of compensation (mls). in the mls, if one develops a commercial product from the country’s seeds (for example, a patent or certificate), a percentage of the profit (usually 0.5%) must be returned to the mls international pool, which distributes these monies to selected conservation and agricultural programs that do not necessarily benefit the seeds’ originators. the nagoya protocol is an offshoot of the convention on biological diversity agreement (convention on biological diversity 2010), elaborated in 2010 and taking effect in 2014–2015. this agreement specifically focuses on indigenous and local communities (termed ilcs) and the importance of prior informed consent (pic) and access and benefit sharing agreements (abs), especially as they relate to genetic resources, including those from plants. these agreements and the use of the associated genetic resources in all forms of research going forward are monitored by national and international abs clearing houses along with any patents that result from these agreements. the large international farmers’ rights organization la via campesina is comprised of 182 farmer organizations, representing over 200 million farmers in 81 countries. this organization has formally spoken out against the seed treaty and its multilateral system of compensation for lacking benefits for its members (la via campesina 2011). la via campesina has characterized this system as promoting theft of their seeds, considering it grants them no rights to determine how their seeds are used and no access to their materials held in the seed banks. this large organization defends the benefits of its members’ peasant seed systems over those they see as controlled by seed corporations. more recent statements from la via campesina have suggested it is more hopeful about the nagoya protocol, although skeptical that the abs clearing houses will have adequate power to monitor and enforce agreements (la via campesina 2016). as the nagoya protocol makes headway in signatory countries, additional challenges arise in reconciling jurisdictions and regulations to ensure and monitor compliance without undue burden or complication. in some countries, the multilateral system of compensation remains in effect, utilizing narrow protection categories based in the dominant cultures’ notions of resources, mccune. 2018. ethnobiology le ers 9(1):67–75 69 perspec ves  special issue on ethics in ethnobiology knowledge, and justice (halewood et al. 2013; oguamanam 2011). the patent system whereas many countries in the international community are signing and ratifying the nagoya protocol and its focus on abs systems, the united states is not a party to the convention. in the us, seed rights are derived through the patent system. while a true patent is now reserved for cases of unique production (often using biotechnology), two other forms of protections are afforded to plant breeders. these include united states department of agriculture (usda) plant variety certificates and utility patents, which limit the use of seeds by allowing plant breeders and seed companies to determine who can sell, buy, distribute, and use their genetic resources (elvin-lewis 2006; gepts 2004). unfortunately, small local farmers and breeders rarely employ these protections because their cost can be prohibitive. they also require protected plants to produce uniform and stable lines while local community farmers often have biodiverse landraces whose genetic variability impart resilience to environmental changes. unfortunately, the united states system recognizes and protects monocultures rather than biodiverse crop lines. inherent to the patent system are some protections, including the usda examiners’ database and the application form “disclosure of the origin of genetic resources” (elvin-lewis 2006). the database is a compilation of notes and publications that describe prior art, which in patent law is any information or knowledge of items similar to that being patented, especially that which is publicly available before the patent request. these include descriptions of seeds previously created and used by peoples of the world, which theoretically precludes their being patented by someone else. patent application forms also solicit disclosure of the origin of genetic resources, including how a new variety was created. answers to the questions in this section could permit the examiner to determine if new or novel seeds are substantially different from those that were used to create them. in addition, they could help the examiner determine if plants used in seed development have access and benefit agreements associated with them that might restrict their use or require return of benefits. unfortunately, this section does not appear to be mandatory. the classic example of the enola bean plant variety certificate illustrates the importance of these patent application disclosures (dutfield 2003; garcia 2007). this certificate was obtained by a bean breeder from colorado after buying a bag of beans (phaseolus vulgaris) from a vendor in mexico and conducting minor crosses to stabilize the yellow color of one of the beans from the bag. he then applied for certification of the yellow bean, which he called “enola.” however, the yellow beans in the bag he purchased are a staple food in mexico. as a result of the certificate, mexican farmers suddenly faced royalty fee charges when they tried to export their yellow beans to the united states, as they had been doing for many years. in addition, established united states growers and distributers of the yellow beans faced lawsuits. despite abundant evidence that the patent/ certificate application should have been revoked, doing so took almost 10 years. in the meantime, mexican farmers lost revenue. as compared to agricultural seeds, indigenous peoples’ medicinal plants have faced an even longer history of misuse, eventual recognition of rights, and creation of mechanisms to protect those rights. some classic examples of biopiracy of medicinal plants include patenting of traditional indigenous uses of neem (azadirachta indica) and turmeric (curcuma longa) from india (dutfield 1999; garcia 2007). subsequently, india began documenting and registering national traditional plant uses and varieties in order to have evidence of prior art to fight such patents. as the world increasingly recognizes the benefits of indigenous peoples’ and local farmers’ plants for their potential drought, disease, and pest resistance, these genetic resources are at greater risk of biopiracy. the agreements used for potential pharmaceutical products derived from indigenous peoples’ medicinal plants and associated intellectual property deserve to be similarly used for the genetic resources potentially used for developing new patentable varieties of agricultural plants. upon collection through my experience researching the native seeds/ search seed bank collection for potential future accessions, subsequent work on their board focusing on intellectual property and farmers’ rights issues, and as ethics chair for the society for economic botany, it became apparent to me that the issues discussed here—recognition of the rights to seeds and associated traditional knowledge—can be mccune. 2018. ethnobiology le ers 9(1):67–75 70 perspec ves  special issue on ethics in ethnobiology strengthened through rigorous documentation at the time seeds and/or plants are first collected. community protocols can be addressed by any number of methods (bannister 2008) and research agreements (cuerrier et al. 2012; fediuk and kuhnlein 2003; scott and receveur 1995). records of agreements regarding ongoing rights to collected plant material should be documented and must accompany seed and plant specimen transfers, along with other formal research agreements with local communities and countries. ideally, the individual(s) providing seed or plant specimens should be identified and it should be documented if these materials were grown on tribal lands and if local community leaders were aware of the acquisition. agreements should be attached to the collection sheet along with documentation of any restrictions to associated traditional knowledge. in addition, it is important that documentation be placed in seed banks, herbariums, or other publicly accessible repositories regarding understandings of the provider’s plans for the specimens, including how they will be stored, transferred, or distributed. some of the objectives detailed above may be accomplished by adding supplementary information on the back side of a typical collection sheet describing the seed/plant, the collection location, and how it was grown. this additional information could include the identity of the individual or community that provided the material and indicate whether any agreements are in place regarding uses, restrictions, or intended distribution. figure 1 presents an example of how some of this information could be recorded and accompany more formal agreements (native seeds/ search 2015a; cetaf 2015). the donor or provider could list restrictions on this form, such as sacred properties and requirements that the indigenous or local name must be retained or that seeds may only be grown on tribal soil. it is also possible that donor’s or provider’s cultural representatives may stipulate no restrictions other than free access to seeds, which also must be well documented to avoid future misunderstandings. the provider and collector should sign the collection sheet with copies of this sheet retained by both collector and provider. upon deposit in a seed bank or herbarium, copies of collection notes should be held in a permanent archive to preserve access to all agreements, restrictions, and links to the tribal entity. when a collection is included in catalogues, permanent links to the originators of the plants or seeds and any associated agreements must be provided. these methods insure researchers and the usda examiner’s office have easy access to all of the information necessary to avoid improper patenting or certification by third parties of plants and seeds as though they were new varieties that can be restricted in this manner. when plant specimens are placed in an herbarium, methods are needed to continually link them back to the donor or provider and original breeders. even after the collection sheet is deposited, annotation labels can be placed on the specimen sheet with links to other notes, documents, or agreements (hodgson 2002). ethnobotanical information can also be included on the herbarium sheet (bye 1986). these steps are of increasing importance considering the nagoya protocol’s requirement of ongoing documentation of all uses of genetic resources after acquisition and the possibility of extracting dna from herbarium specimens using contemporary technologies. seed bank protections what can seed banks do to protect farmers’ and cultivators’ seed rights? my familiarity with this topic derives from training in plant science and working at a biotechnology company that was subsequently acquired by monsanto. this question is particularly relevant when seeds housed in a seed bank are transferred to other institutions from which they might be removed and used. most large national and international seed banks use the standard material transfer agreement (smta) mandated for use by parties in signatory countries of the seed treaty. this is a legally binding agreement that stipulates how transferred seeds are to be used and often includes the mls of compensation of benefits. other ways of restricting access to seeds in a seed bank include so-called “black boxes.” theoretically, only the donor or provider of a “black box” deposit held in a seed bank can access the seeds within such a box. however, as illustrated by the svalbard’s doomsday vault/global seed bank and usda seed bank, the contracting parties may be required to sign an agreement stipulating that these same seeds are freely available for research. not all seed banks require this exemption to black box restrictions. for example, the missouri botanical garden’s material transfer agreement (mta) states (missouri botanical garden 2010: paragraph 1): mccune. 2018. ethnobiology le ers 9(1):67–75 71 perspec ves  special issue on ethics in ethnobiology figure 1 an example of informa on that could be included on the back side of collec on sheets. mccune. 2018. ethnobiology le ers 9(1):67–75 72 perspec ves  special issue on ethics in ethnobiology samples will not be made available for bioprospecting endeavors, screening for genes of interest in agricultural or applied research, or any other potential commercial application. in addition, many seed banks do not distribute seeds to individuals. this restriction became an issue for la via campasina, which wanted their represented farmers to have ongoing access to their deposited seeds (la via campesina 2012). nevertheless, this blanket restriction may serve as a protection against individual representatives of seed companies gaining access to seeds that otherwise would require formal written agreements with a breeding company. the usda also has a so-called “restricted use materials” list that presumably influences what type of mta is used (if any). even small seed banks can continue to promote the protection of seed rights by rigorously documenting where seeds are sent (including such inhouse programs as native seeds/search’s free seed program for native americans). the creation of permanent transfer and distribution records databases could decrease potential confusion arising when, for example, hopi seeds from the southwestern united states are found growing on seminole lands in florida. such records provide traceable links that may be availed if seeds fall in the hands of breeders seeking plant variety certificates as well as to assist researchers studying the origins of particular agricultural varieties. small seed banks should also have policies in place for handling requests from plant breeders and corporate seed companies. these policies could include such resources as a standard rejection letter and an mta specifying how seeds are to be used. many seed banks utilize the smta, but mtas may also vary substantially. a non-standard approach is exemplified by native seeds/search’s innovative printing of a mini-mta on their seed packets and mailings, including the following statement (native seeds/search 2015: paragraph 4): acceptance of these seeds is an agreement that these seeds will not be used for commercial breeding with a patent outcome unless there are written agreements with the originators of the seeds in ns/s’s collection. this approach is similar to the open source seed initiative’s subsequent placement of a pledge on their seed packets. this statement restricts patents and promotes acknowledgement of source material (kloppenburg 2014: paragraph 4): …by opening this packet, you pledge that you will not restrict others’ use of these seeds and their derivatives by patents, licenses, or any other means. you pledge that if you transfer these seeds or their derivatives you will acknowledge the source of these seeds and accompany your transfer with this pledge. the language “breeding with a patent outcome” and “or their derivatives” is instrumental for recognizing that plants’ many genetic forms may be used for restrictive purposes. open source seeds, a german nonprofit organization, has used similar language in a legal license to use its seeds (kotschi and rapf 2016). the license requires that any future use or modification of their seeds, whether for profit or not, must remain open access. this organization intends for its line of open access seeds to be an alternative to privatized seeds, such as those restricted by patents and plant variety protection certificates. while open source statements and licenses help mitigate against the privatization of seeds and promote farmers’ rights to use them, they do not address benefit sharing. plant breeders may easily obtain seeds for the purposes of creating and commercializing products, but additional measures are required to ensure that their originators share in the derived benefits. for example, if hybrids are developed from seeds with drought, disease, pest resistance, the families or communities that originally developed them over generations should be recognized and formally included in agreements. statements on seed packets, use licenses, and mta should be included with seed packets traded at seed swaps and distributed through seed libraries, especially if there exists any chance the seeds originated from indigenous peoples or other communities that may have, or desire to have, abs agreements. seeds are valuable seeds and plants developed over generations by indigenous peoples and local communities around the world have unique properties acquired through stewardship and traditional breeding strategies and associated with the lands and cultures where they originated. these properties may include genetic resources to resist drought, water logging, salt, and pests. they may also have desirable flavor, nutritional, and medicinal properties. as the heritage food revival mccune. 2018. ethnobiology le ers 9(1):67–75 73 perspec ves  special issue on ethics in ethnobiology increases the diversity of food supplies in some regions and countries, awareness is increased regarding food and seed sovereignty, as well as the dangers of improper patenting of indigenous peoples’ heritage foods and crops (nabhan 2016). ethnobotanists can help protect farmers’ and indigenous communities’ rights to their own unique plant varieties. in fact, it has been argued that the survival of ethnobiology and anthropology depends on recognizing and compensating this type of traditional knowledge (posey 1990). ethnobiologists’ role in conservation includes thorough documentation and archiving of biodiversity and associated traditional knowledge, along with honoring the rights of indigenous peoples, as set forth in the united nations declaration on the rights of indigenous peoples (wilder et al. 2016). it is precisely this type of documentation that can assure appropriate repatriation of seeds to communities who need or desire access to their traditional plant resources (nazarea 2013). although seed saving activities and seed libraries continue to multiply in the united states and help promote awareness of locally adapted seeds (campbell and veteto 2015), greater recognition is also needed of seeds’ origins and their potential exploitation by commercial interests. the seed packet statements and licenses mentioned in this article illustrate the kinds of methods that can be used to increase awareness and help prevent exploitation of indigenous peoples’ agricultural knowledge and resources. considering that seed banks often lack documentation and characterization of their collections derived from traditional peoples (brush 2005), important steps to reinforce these peoples’ rights include documenting understandings and agreements made when specimens were first collected and including them with deposits to seed banks and herbariums. when ethnobiologists publish, they should include documentation of seed and plant collection histories and links to associated agreements, thereby increasing the chances they are included in the usda plant variety protection office database. these are the kinds of information needed to prevent patenting of indigenous and local farmer’s seeds and facilitate overturning of inappropriate restrictive plant certificates. additionally, ethnobotanists may be called upon to identify plants or seeds and serve as expert witnesses when potential misuse occurs. irrespective of whether seed collectors, ethnobotanists, and originators and donors of seeds agree with the kinds of patents discussed in this article, or whether or not the individuals providing specimens prefer to remain anonymous (swiderska et al. 2009), documentation should be in place that establishes links to any ilcs or use agreements, even those that allow unrestricted biotechnology access. lack of accessible documentation may lead to uncertainty about whether agreements were honored or biopiracy intentionally was committed by the collector that resulted in a loss of seed rights. seed sovereignty rights are improving, and so shall control of these traditional resources through local seed banks and legal mechanisms, as exemplified by international recognition of the nagoya protocol. through their ability to reinforce these rights via improved documentation, as described above, ethnobiologists can effectively advocate for indigenous peoples and their seed rights1. notes 1for more information on seed rights, the author suggests reading works by g. dutfield, d. a. posey, s. a. laird, c. fowler, p. r. mooney, and g. p. nabhan, among others. regarding other methods of intellectual property protection for indigenous peoples, see drahos and frankel (2012) and swiderska et al. (2009). declarations permissions: none declared. sources of funding: none declared. conflicts of interest: none declared. references cited bannister, k. 2008. non-legal instruments for the protection of intangible cultural heritage: key roles for ethical codes and community protocols. in protection of first nations cultural heritage: laws, policy, and reform, edited by c. bell and r. k. paterson, pp. 278–308. ubc press, vancouver, canada. brush, s. b. 2005. protecting traditional agricultural knowledge. washington university journal of law and policy 17:59–109. bye, r. 1986. voucher specimens in ethnobiological studies and publications. journal of ethnobiology 6:1– 8. mccune. 2018. ethnobiology le ers 9(1):67–75 74 perspec ves  special issue on ethics in ethnobiology campbell, b. c., and j. r. veteto. 2015. free seeds and food sovereignty: anthropology and grassroots agrobiodiversity conservation strategies in the us south. journal of political ecology 22:357–465. cetaf. 2015. standard material transfer agreement (mta1) for provision of material with no change in ownership. available at: nagoyaprotocol.myspecies.info/node/3. accessed on july 2, 2018. convention on biological diversity. 2010. the nagoya protocol on access to genetic resources and the fair and equitable sharing of benefits arising from their utilization (abs) to the convention on biological diversity [web page]. available at: https://www.cbd.int/abs/about/ default.shtml/. accessed on may 31, 2017. cuerrier, a., a. downing, e. patterson, and p. s. haddad. 2012. aboriginal antidiabetic plant project with the james bay cree of québec: an insightful collaboration. journal of enterprising communities: people and places in the global economy 6:251–270. drahos p., and s. frankel. 2012. indigenous people’s innovation: intellectual property pathways to development. the australian national university press, canberra, australia. dutfield, g. 1999. intellectual property rights, trade and biodiversity: the case of seeds and plant varieties. iucn project on the convention on biological diversity and the international trade regime. iucn, gland, switzerland. available at: http://www.sristi.org/material/mdpipr2003/ mdpipr2003cd/m5%20intellectual% 20property%20rights.pdf. accessed on may 31, 2017. dutfield, g. 2003. protecting traditional knowledge and folklore: a review of progress in diplomacy and policy formulation. intellectual property law: articles on cultural expressions and indigenous knowledge. intellectual property rights 4. available at: http://www.iprsonline.org/resources/docs/ dutfield%20-%20protecting%20tk%20and% 20folklore%20-%20blue%201.pdf. accessed on january 9, 2018. elvin-lewis, m. 2006. evolving concepts related to achieving benefit sharing for custodians of traditional knowledge. ethnobotany research and applications 4:75–96. doi:10.17348/era.4.0.75-96. fao. 2001. international treaty on plant genetic resources for food and agriculture [web page]. available at: http://www.fao.org/plant-treaty/overview/en/. accessed on may 31, 2017. fediuk, k., and h. v. kuhnlein. 2003. indigenous peoples and participatory health research [web page]. world health organization, geneva, switzerland. available at: http://www.who.int/ethics/ indigenous_peoples/en/index14.html. accessed on may 31, 2017. garcia, j. 2007. fighting biopiracy: the legislative protection of traditional knowledge. berkeley la raza law journal 18. doi:10.15779/z38m378. gepts, p. 2004. who owns biodiversity, and how should the owners be compensated? plant physiology 134:1295–1307. doi:10.1104/ pp.103.038885. halewood, m., e. andrieux, l. crisson, and j. r. gapusi, j. wasswa mulumba, e. kouablan koffi, t. yangzome dorji, m. raj bhatta, and d. balma. 2013. implementing ‘mutually supportive’ access and benefit sharing mechanisms under the plant treaty, convention on biological diversity, and nagoya protocol. law, environment and development journal 9:68–96. hodgson, w. c. 2002. voucher specimens and their importance to ethnobotanical studies. unpublished manuscript, desert botanical garden herbarium, phoenix, az. kloppenburg, j. 2014. the unexpected outcome of the open source seed initiative's licensing debate [web page]. available at: https:// opensource.com/law/14/5/legal-issues-opensource-seed-initiative. accessed on may 31, 2017. kotschi, j., and k. rapf. 2016. liberating seeds with an open source seed (oss) license. working paper. agrecol. guggenhausen [web page]. available at: http://www.opensourceseeds.org/ en/licence. accessed on may 31, 2017. la via campesina. 2012. the bali seed declaration. views, experiences and best practices on the implementation of farmers’ rights submitted by contracting parties and relevant organizations. the international treaty on plant genetic resources for food and agriculture, fao, rome. available at: http://www.fao.org/3/a-bb912e.pdf. accessed on may 31, 2017. la via campesina. 2016. industry benefits but does not pay its dues. patents are an assault on mccune. 2018. ethnobiology le ers 9(1):67–75 75 perspec ves  special issue on ethics in ethnobiology genetic resources [web page]. available at: https://viacampesina.org/en/industry-benefitsbut-does-not-pay-its-dues-patents-are-an-assaulton-genetic-resources/. accessed on june 12, 2018. missouri botanical garden. 2010. missouri botanical garden dna bank material transfer agreement. available at: http:// www.missouribotanicalgarden.org/plant-science/ plant-science/william-l-brown-center/wlbcresources/wlbc-databases/dna-bank.aspx. accessed on may 31, 2017. nazarea, v. d., r. e. rhoades, and j. andrewsswann. 2013. seeds of resistance, seeds of hope: place and agency in the conservation of biodiversity. university of arizona press, tucson, az. nabhan, g. p. 2016. conservation you can taste: heirloom seed and heritage breed recovery in north america. in ethnobiology for the future: linking cultural and ecological diversity, edited by g. p. nabhan, pp. 184–196. university of arizona press, tucson, az. native seeds/search. 2015. safe seeds, organic practices, gmos [web page]. available at: https:// shop.nativeseeds.org/pages/safe-seeds-organicpractices-gmos. accessed on may 31, 2017. native seeds/search. 2015a. accession sheet/ accession intake form. native seeds/search, tucson, az. oguamanam, c. 2011. genetic resources & access and benefit sharing: politics, prospects and opportunities for canada after nagoya. journal of environmental law and practice 22:87–124. posey, d. a. 1990. intellectual property rights: what is the position of ethnobiology? journal of ethnobiology 10:93–98. scott, k., and o. receveur.1995. ethics for working with communities of indigenous peoples. canadian journal of physiology and pharmacology 73:751 –753. doi:10.1139/y95-099. swiderska k., a. argumedo, y. song, j. li, r. pant, h. herrera, d. mutta, p. munyi, and s. vedavathy. 2009. protecting community rights over traditional knowledge: implications of customary laws and practices [web page]. key findings and recommendations 2005-2009. report number 1459iied. international institute for environment and development, london. available at: http://pubs.iied.org/14591iied/. accessed on june 12, 2018. wilder, b. t., c. o’meara, l. monti, and g. p. nabhan. 2016. ethnoscience, the “oldest science”. in ethnobiology for the future: linking cultural and ecological diversity, edited by g. p. nabhan, pp. 184–196. university of arizona press, tucson, az. vanilla landscapes: meaning, memory, and the cultivation of place in madagascar. by sarah r. osterhoudt. 2017. nybg press, bronx, ny. 180 pp. gagnon. 2018. ethnobiology letters 9(2):228–229 228 reviews symbolic and sensory portals into the histories of peoples’ lives and of the community, spanning not only annual cycles of cultivation but also generations. this addresses her multi-layered research questions that ask how people at once cultivate crops, meaning, and memories within their agroforestry fields and also why traditional farming systems and ecological diversity have persisted in this place while they have faded in surrounding areas. this is a truly interdisciplinary work encompassing multiple methodologies and theoretical perspectives. no doubt, this is in part a reflection of osterhoudt’s training from the yale combined phd program in anthropology and forestry and environmental studies, additionally paired with a joint degree from the new york botanical garden. osterhoudt states that part of her mission is to further integrate perspectives from anthropology, such as humanistic studies of memory and power, with the technical work of research in economic botany. this is an important task, though not an easy one. at times, it feels as though the two perspectives are working in different directions in the text. the ethnographic portion appears mostly in the first half of the book while the botanical data and analysis is mostly in the second. osterhoudt comments on this decision, saying that she initially sought to integrate the two but that the result was unsatisfactory to her. thus, she separated them, conceptualizing the successive approaches as “landscape fugues,” drawing on a musical metaphor: a subject introduced in one part and taken up by another part with interweaving here sarah osterhoudt writes about memory— individual and collective, pleasant and troubled—as narrated by residents of imorona, madagascar through the elements of local landscapes, trees and plants. osterhoudt is an assistant professor of anthropology at indiana university. her relationship with smallholder farmers in madagascar began in 2005 as a peace corps volunteer. she later returned to conduct research in anthropology and economic botany, focusing on the social dimensions of agroecological landscapes, the subject of this monograph. the book opens with a vignette about an experience osterhoudt had relatively early on in her time in imorona. she was brought to an agroforestry field where the vanilla flowers had just begun to bloom and was instructed by an elder to “look!” at a single flower. vanilla is the most important cash crop of the area. upon regarding the man’s expression— one of wonder—she realized that she “was not seeing the same flower that he was seeing” (p. 3). her study in many ways is a journey leading up to the moment several years later when she again looks at a vanilla flower and is able to “see it,” not in exactly the same way her consultant, papa armand saw it, but with a transformed view. this is achieved through countless hours spent with consultants in agroforestry fields and in other locations, listening to the stories evoked by aspects of the landscape such as the life event that a particular tree marks or the legacies of colonialism and resistance recalled by the rocks on a certain beach. she comes to understand the importance of these elements, including the central vanilla flower, as being vanilla landscapes: meaning, memory, and the cultivation of place in madagascar. by sarah r. osterhoudt. 2017. nybg press, bronx, ny. 180 pp. terese gagnon1* 1department of anthropology, syracuse university, syracuse, usa. *tvgagnon@syr.edu received july 30, 2018 open access accepted september 16, 2018 doi 10.14237/ebl.9.2.2018.1365 copyright © 2018 by the author(s) licensee society of ethnobiology. this is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution-noncommercial 4.0 international public license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0), which permits non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. gagnon. 2018. ethnobiology letters 9(2):228–229 229 reviews elements (p. 61). while i appreciate the challenge of integrating such material, i could not help feeling disappointed that in the final form the two approaches run mostly parallel rather than mingling to productively trouble the waters of the respective traditions. there is great potential for innovative insight in bringing these two modes of inquiry further into dialogue and osterhoudt is in a special position to deliver it. that said, the skill and knowledge required to approach the field as both a cultural anthropologist and an economic botanist are truly impressive. and osterhoudt does bring her perspective from one to bear on the other. she does this, for example, by identifying the importance of plants as mediators of social life and history for residents of imorona— something another anthropologist may have missed— and by addressing critiques of both methodological practices, such as what latour would call the “black box” of scientific knowledge production (latour 1988). her main thesis is that the capacity of plants to hold various meanings and evoke memories for people may be a central reason for the persistence of ecological diversity, alongside economic and historic factors. furthermore, osterhoudt engages with the ontological turn but does so differently than many others. in contrast to ontological writers who spill much ink mulling complex theories of personhood but provide relatively little grounded evidence to support them, ousterhoudt’s approach is refreshingly rooted. she and her colleagues in imorona carefully measure trees, calculate diversity indices in farmers’ agroforestry vanilla fields, and meticulously catalogue 97 tree species and 73 herbaceous species, including information on local names and uses. for these reasons her work will likely be both familiar and of interest to ethnobiologists, particularly those concerned with madagascar or agroforestry generally. because the vanilla crop she discusses is grown through agroforestry and sold as a valuable export, this study may be particularly useful to those interested in relationships between biodiversity, traditional agricultural practices, and the global market. this work provides impressively rich data and grounded insights about the diverse trees and plants grown in agroforestry fields, as well as about human social life and history in the area. if the up-close view of agro-ecology delivered in the form of charts and graphs could be further integrated with theoretical conclusions about the memories and meanings contained in plants, in the form of greater and more detailed ethnographic descriptions, then the outcome would be even more groundbreaking than it already is. i hope many will follow osterhoudt’s lead so that scholars and their audiences may increasingly come to see plants with changed eyes, as osterhoudt describes is the outcome of years of apprentice with her colleagues in imorona. that is, as radically connected to humans and their life projects. references cited latour, b. 1988. science in action: how to follow scientists and engineers through society. harvard university press, cambridge, ma. biosocial synchrony on sumba: multispecies relationships and environmental variations in indonesia. by cynthia t. fowler. 2016. lexington books, lanham. 137 pp. franco. 2018. ethnobiology letters 9(2):307–308 307 reviews folk and scientific classification systems are just an example. fowler’s biosocial synchrony on sumba is a subtle reminder for ethnobiologists/anthropologists to view indigenous beliefs and knowledge systems from the perspective of the respective communities. are anthropologists also capable of adopting the perspectives of the non-living? fowler answers her own question by employing what she calls a “manipulation of perspectives” to promote an understanding of biosocial beings from the perspectives of seaworms, their worshippers, the celestial bodies, and human bodies. fowler’s arguments draw strength from the huge volume of data collected since 1997 in collaboration with the kodi people of tana nale or the land of seaworms, effectively interweaving ethnography, astronomy, marine biology, and ecology. the crux of the book is based on ingold’s theory of biosocial becomings, and the author has successfully portrayed how indigenous understandings see no boundaries between the living and the non-living, the close and the distant, or nature and culture. the alignments of the sun, moon, and the earth influence the mating behavior of the seaworms which in turn influence the ritualistic, dietary and agricultural calendar of the kodi people. kodi identity rests on their relationship with the seaworms, who are recognized as “fully realized selves” (p. 21) in contrast to the formal western notion of seeing non-human animals as lower beings. in fact, many kodi believe that they are descendants of entities who were partly we call them dumb animals, and so they are, for they cannot tell us how they feel, but they do not suffer less because they have no words. ― anna sewell, black beauty almost one hundred and forty years after black beauty was published, we have evidence to show that nonhuman animals such as horses can read our facial expressions and also remember our respective emotional state (proops et al. 2018). we are just beginning to understand the role of mycorrhizal networks in sustaining forests (gorzelak et al. 2015), the relevance of folk taxonomy in discovering new species (geissmann et al. 2010), the importance of considering polyherbal formulations instead of principal ingredients (sar et al. 2018), and the influence of lunar cycles on pollination of certain plants (rydin and bolinder 2015), while we are still undecided if lunar cycles have an influence on human psyche and wellbeing (chakraborty 2013; owens and mcgowen 2006). although perhaps none of the above would surprise a member of an indigenous community, any claims related to the above would have been laughed off by most in the scientific fraternity a few decades ago. except, perhaps, for that unique breed of researchers called ethnobiologists who spend their life working with indigenous peoples, understanding their knowledge and way of life. yet, we should remember that a good number of us have been caught in an eternal quest for scientific validation of traditional/indigenous/local knowledge systems—the numerous research articles comparing biosocial synchrony on sumba: multispecies relationships and environmental variations in indonesia. by cynthia t. fowler. 2016. lexington books, lanham. 137 pp. f. merlin franco1* 1institute of asian studies, universiti brunei darussalam, brunei darussalam. *merlin.francis@ubd.edu.bn received august 9, 2018 open access accepted september 5, 2018 doi 10.14237/ebl.9.2.2018.1374 copyright © 2018 by the author(s) licensee society of ethnobiology. this is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution-noncommercial 4.0 international public license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0), which permits non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. franco. 2018. ethnobiology letters 9(2):307–308 308 reviews non-human and continue to affirm their connection through kinships. fowler argues that the swarming of kodi at the sumba reefs during seaworm spawning season is a manifestation of their desire to socialize with the polychaetes. the human rhythms run parallel to that of the moon with whom the humans engage in a reciprocal relationship. thus, the various lunar phases are associated with the good and bad of kodi life. the position of the moon signals to the kodi priests the commencement of the spawning season, while the spawning of seaworms indicate that it is time for the young men to woo their lovers on the beaches close to seaworms. the kodi calendar that is based on the moon and the seaworm rhythms determines landscape and seascape modification activities that include agriculture, harvesting of worms, horticulture, arboriculture, animal husbandry, forestry, hunting, gathering, and fishing. thus, kodi and the polychaetes, together with the moon, 384,400 km away, are all ecosystem engineers. the book makes many crucial contributions to ethnobiology beyond biosocial theory. like hoskins (1993), fowler’s work also recognizes the importance of seaworms in the kodi lunar calendar and the institution of calendar keepers (seaworm priests). yet, she does not delve explicitly into the importance of calendars, as hoskins (1993) did, and leaves it to the reader to tease out the significance of calendars from the voluminous data presented. thus, it could be said that the book also adds to the growing volume of literature on indigenous calendars. for ethnobiologists interested in folk taxonomy, transtaxa such as biri koni and mother seaworm will be of immense interest. mother seaworm is a seaworm; she is also a spirit and ancestor with various niches such as near shore, deep water, ocean, atmosphere, or land. biri koni was once a human who was elevated to the rank of spirit through sacrifice. she is also the sum total of all domesticated crops including job’s-tears, maize, leafy greens, sorghum, rice, and cassava. the occurrence of transtaxa that exist fluidly across various categories otherwise considered separate has rarely been studied. the same applies to doublegendered taxa such as great mother great father that are commonly encountered in southeast asia but often overlooked. the positioning of the sun, the moon, and the seaworms along with the kodi as ecosystem engineers will be of interest to ethnobiologists studying human niche construction. fowler’s book is a comprehensive treatise on kodi cosmology, traditional ecological knowledge, folklore, beliefs, and language, which also makes it important for the study of biocultural diversity—a key term that is, however, not used in this book. references cited chakraborty, u. 2014. effects of different phases of the lunar month on humans. biological rhythm research 45:383–396. doi:10.1080/09291016.2013.830508. geissmann, t., n. lwin, s. s. aung, t. n. aung, z. m. aung, t. h. hla, m. grindley, and f. momberg. 2011. a new species of snub-nosed monkey, genus rhinopithecus milne-edwards, 1872 (primates, colobinae), from northern kachin state, northeastern myanmar. american journal of primatology 73:96–107. doi:10.1002/ajp.20894. gorzelak, m. a., a. k. asay, b. j. pickles, and s. w. simard. 2015. inter‐plant communication through mycorrhizal networks mediates complex adaptive behaviour in plant communities. aob plants 7:plv050. doi:10.1093/aobpla/plv050. hoskins, j. 1993. the play of time: kodi perspectives on calendars, history, and exchange. university of california press, berkeley, ca. owens, m., and i. w. mcgowan. 2006. madness and the moon: the lunar cycle and psychopathology. german journal of psychiatry 9:123–127. proops, l., k. grounds, a. v. smith, and k. mccomb. 2018. animals remember previous facial expressions that specific humans have exhibited. current biology 28:1428–1432. doi:10.1016/ j.cub.2018.03.035. rydin, c., and k. bolinder. 2015. moonlight pollination in the gymnosperm ephedra (gnetales). biology letters 11:20140993. doi:10.1098/ rsbl.2014.0993. sar, t. k. s., i. samanta, a. mahanti, s. akhtar, and j. r. dash. 2018. potential of a polyherbal drug to prevent antimicrobial resistance in bacteria to antibiotics. scientific reports 8:10899. doi:10.1038/ s41598-018-28966-x. histoire et voyages des plantes cultivèes à madagascar avant le xvie siècle. by philippe beaujard. 2017. karthala, paris. 415 pp. anderson. 2018. ethnobiology letters 9(2):245–246 245 reviews perspectives from gene anderson’s bookshelf plants and plant names reflect this history. bananas, for instance, are generally called by the east african name akondro (from bantu kondo and variants), but also by the malayo-polynesian word fontsy, including a variant ontsy that comes from a south sulawesi language (see p. 164 and the map on p. 158). sometimes the latter names are used as modifiers of akondro, to name varieties. the term kida, from india, is found in madagascar; the bahasa indonesia word pisang gives rise to a couple of local descendants, and arabic terms have also gotten into the banana vocabulary. rice, the staple food, has an even more complicated linguistic history. the standard word vary for rice (plant and grain) comes from south kalimantan, but may be dravidian originally. other words associated with rice come from other indonesian languages. fary, a local word, looks like a form of vary, but is actually a derivative of the protoaustronesian word pajey for the rice plant (p. 89). various african sources provide terms for rice varieties, cultivation practices, and other rice-related matters. trematrema for a swidden field (in northeast madagascar), for instance, is swahili tematema, “to cut down, clear.” conversely, the swahili word wari for cooked rice is indonesian, possibly via madagascar (p. 92). sugarcane is also generally called fary, “rice (plant),” for obscure reasons. it provides us this beautiful bit of folk poetry—just enjoy the sounds (fox 1990:318–319): hianao fary manga filalaon-jaza izaho fary fotsy fanala hetaheta you are the blue sugarcane, plaything philippe beaujard has recently brought madagascar into the world. the media, from sober biology journals to movie cartoons, tend to portray this huge island (the “eighth continent” to some) as the ultimate periphery—a remote and exotic other world. dr. beaujard has shown that madagascar was in the past a crossroads in the indian ocean, a place whose history is tightly linked with the rest of the planet. this in turn is part of our resurgent attention to the “maritime silk roads,” the historic trade routes of the indian ocean. dr. beaujard has recently written a monumental two-volume monograph on this subject (beaujard 2009, 2012; also see anderson 2018) and is planning to translate it into english. in the present work, dr. beaujard has presented a comprehensive and thorough historical study of plant genetics, plant origins, and plant names for the crops that came to madagascar from asia and africa. the island was settled from indonesia at some point shortly before the modern era, but more settlement from both indonesia and africa followed, with a steady stream of migrants in the early medieval centuries. indonesian voyagers reached the mainland african coast even earlier, perhaps by 1000 bce, bringing the standard southeast asian crops, many of which reached madagascar from africa rather than directly from indonesia. the malagasy language is basically a south kalimantan (borneo) language, but it has acquired countless loanwords from other indonesian languages and from east african bantu, arabic, and other trade languages of the indian ocean world. though it is one language, it has many dialects, and these have their own histories. those on the coasts are especially influenced by african and arabic terms. histoire et voyages des plantes cultivèes à madagascar avant le xvie siècle. by philippe beaujard. 2017. karthala, paris. 415 pp. eugene n. anderson1* 1department of anthropology, university of california, riverside, usa. *gene@ucr.edu received july 2, 2018 open access accepted september 16, 2018 doi 10.14237/ebl.9.2.2018.1357 copyright © 2018 by the author(s) licensee society of ethnobiology. this is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution-noncommercial 4.0 international public license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0), which permits non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. anderson. 2018. ethnobiology letters 9(2):245–246 246 reviews perspectives from gene anderson’s bookshelf of children; i am the white sugarcane, the slaker of thirst. yams, especially dioscorea alata, are ovy, the reflex of the standard indonesian ubi (“o” represents /u/ in malagasy). an apparently mysterious word kambary is used for some yams and locally for sweet potatoes. garlic has an african name, tomgolo, from a bantu word for a root or bulb (p. 187–188). it is now sometimes tongologasy “malagasy bulb” to distinguish it from the tongolovazaha, “bulb brought by the white people,” the ball onion. these are only a few names from the dozens of names and 55 plant species covered in the book. garden domesticates include obscurities such as plectranthus rotundifolius (an african root crop known as country potato) and calophyllum inophyllum (a widespread timber tree known as the alexandrian laurel balltree with medicinal uses). dr. beaujard provides thorough and up-to-date accounts of the origins, genetics, and uses of these plants, making this book often the most current general work on the botany of african and south asian crops. thorough details on local medical uses make an otherwise almost unretrievable local lore available to the world. dr. beaujard’s ability to command an incredible amount of detail is excelled only by his ability to synthesize the material with style and brilliance. madagascar is currently suffering an ecocatastrophe as bad as any in the world. a rapidly expanding population, a weak government, and a worldwide market for precious woods, vanilla, and other commodities is reducing the country to ruin. lemurs are endemic to madagascar; there are over 80 species; all are threatened or endangered. similar diversity and threat characterize the chameleons. the unique dry-forests of the southwest, rich in endemic species, are disappearing. madagascar’s population only recently became dense, so intensive land use has not been the rule. roving cattle-herding dominates much of the island. swiddening is rarely as carefully controlled and managed as it is in mexico or southeast asia. dooryard gardens, though they are the home to many domesticates, are spottily developed. for further thoughts see “madagascar on my mind” and “the tropical food security garden” on my website (www.krazykioti.com). these and dr. beaujard’s book reference much of the relevant literature. indonesia’s intensive dooryard garden culture, with its layered tree canopies and highly diverse crops, has taken root in africa only in zanzibar, where one can imagine oneself in java or sumatera. it could easily be developed in madagascar. dr. beaujard’s book could be an important resource for future improvement. it would allow madagascar to develop an intensive horticulture that would greatly increase food production while releasing land for nature reserves. the book is so good that readers are advised to dust off their high-school french and dig in. references cited anderson, e. n. 2018. review of les mondes de l’océan indien. vol. 1: de la formation de l’état au premier système-monde afro-eurasien; vol. 2: l’océan indien, au coeur des globalisations de l’ancien monde. journal of world-systems research 24:266–271. doi:10.5195/jwsr.2018.777. beaujard, p. 2009. les mondes de l’océan indien. de la formation de l’état au premier système-monde afro -eurasien (4e millénaire av. j.-c. – 6e siècle apr. j.c.), vol. 1. armand colin, paris. beaujard, p. 2012. les mondes de l’océan indien. l’océan indien, au coeur des globalisations de l’ancien monde du 7e au 15e siècle, vol. 2. armand colin, paris. fox, l. 1990. hainteny: the traditional poetry of madagascar. associated university presses, cranbury, nj. kajika frogs (buergeria buergeri) as premium pets during the japanese modern monarchical period hoshina. 2020. ethnobiology le ers 11(1):96–102 96 research communica on singing orthoptera—except for meloimorpha japonica (de haan 1844)—at normal pet shops and summer festivals. moreover, present-day japanese newspapers seldom report the prices of pet insects. in contrast, in the modern monarchical period, fireflies and various singing orthoptera were usually sold at summer festivals (hoshina 2017b, 2018a), and newspapers often mentioned the prices of these coveted pets. in addition, those newspaper articles included b. buergeri prices (hoshina 2018c). therefore, i examined the prices of b. buergeri that were kept as pets during the modern monarchical period and have recorded some cultural insights relevant to this frog. the aim of the present study is to show how the value of b. buergeri as a pet animal in japanese culture changed from the modern monarchical period to the present. methods in japanese history, the period between 1868 and 1945 (following the edo period) is known as the modern monarchical period. during this period, many newspaper publishing companies were established, and newspapers became popular among ordinary japanese people. in this study, i look at the prices of b. buergeri, which were kept as pets, as they appeared in newspaper articles from the modern monarchical period. introduction in japan, there are 48 known frog species (amphibia: anura), including invasive species (matsui and maeda 2018). most frogs inhabit ponds, wetlands, and rice paddies. however, a small number of frog species are found in streams. these include the kajika frog (buergeria buergeri) (figure 1), which lives in mountain streams, an uncommon habitat for japanese frogs. male and female b. buergeri are about 4 and 5–7 cm long, respectively. b. buergeri are well known for their cry (fi fi fi fi fi), which can be heard mainly in the summer and sounds like a song. their songs can be heard on the website of the museum of nature and human activities (hyogo 1997). the japanese name of the frog is kajika-gaeru, two words that mean “deer in a river” and “frog”, respectively, because the frogs’ cry is thought to resemble that of a deer. this frog’s nickname is “songstress in a clean stream,” although only males can sing. during the japanese modern monarchical period (1868–1945), almost all frog fanciers reared b. buergeri exclusively in order to listen to their songs (hoshina 2018c). in previous studies, i examined prices for pet insects, such as japanese fireflies and crickets, as they appeared in newspaper articles from the modern monarchical period (hoshina 2017b, 2018a). currently, people in japan cannot buy fireflies and kajika frogs (buergeria buergeri) as premium pets during the japanese modern monarchical period hideto hoshina1* 1faculty of educa on, university of fukui, fukui city, japan. *hhoshina@f‐edu.u‐fukui.ac.jp abstract this study reviews ar cles about the prices of kajika frogs (buergeria buergeri) in eight japanese newspapers published between 1884 and 1938. frog prices have been converted to present‐day united states dollars (us$). the frogs had a wide range of prices. premium individuals, in par cular, were o en sold for us$1,000–2,000. in this paper, i discuss the reasons why excep onal individuals were traded at a high price in the market, although kajika frogs were a common na ve species. other topics, such as the presenta on of frogs as gi s to royal families, are also discussed. received january 7, 2020 open access accepted april 17, 2020 doi 10.14237/ebl.11.1.2020.1672 published september 18, 2020 keywords japanese singing frogs, newspaper ar cle, pet shop, price, rearing containers copyright © 2020 by the author(s) licensee society of ethnobiology. this is an open‐access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution‐noncommercial 4.0 international public license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by‐nc/4.0), which permits non‐commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. hoshina. 2020. ethnobiology le ers 11(1):96–102 97 research communica on i mainly conducted research in two newspapers: yomiuri shimbun (still in circulation) and tokyo asahi shimbun (now called the asahi shimbun) from japan’s modern monarchical period. the japanese word shinbun means newspaper. in addition, i referred to the tokyo yokohama mainichi shinbun, mainichi shinbun, yorozu chôhô, miyako shinbun (the present-day tokyo shinbun), un-yu nippô, and chûô shinbun. except for the miyako shinbun, the other newspapers are defunct. many newspaper articles contained information on the prices of b. buergeri, which were kept as pets, in tokyo’s market, methods for rearing them, and other matters. the main currency types used during japan’s modern monarchical period were yen and sen. one yen was equivalent to 100 sen. eventually, the sen was taken out of circulation, and the only official japanese currency at present is the yen. prices varied depending on the period; therefore it is very difficult to have a real sense of the original prices when indicated in sen. consequently, i converted modern monarchical prices into present-day united states dollars, an international standard currency. the price of a tokyo asahi shimbun copy in the modern monarchical period ranged from 1–4 sen. in contrast, the average price of a newspaper copy in contemporary japan ranges from 100–160 yen. the current yen/us dollar exchange rate (december 2019) is about 110 yen per dollar. therefore, i very roughly estimated that the tokyo asahi shimbun cost us$1 per copy. for example, the tokyo asahi shimbun (1 sen per copy at the time) reported in 1890 that the price of a b. buergeri was 1– 1.5 yen (100–150 sen). based on this information, i very roughly estimated the price of the frog to be us$100–150 in 1890. in table 1, the nine newspapers yomiuri shimbun, tokyo asahi shimbun, tokyo yokohama mainichi shinbun, mainichi shimbun, yorozu chôhô, miyako shinbun, un-yu nippô, and chûô shinbun have been abbreviated as ym, ta, tym, ma, yr, mi, un, and ch, respectively. for instance, when i cite a newspaper article from december 8, 1941 in yomiuri shimbun, i describe the authentic article as ym. 12. 8. in the table. in the main text, i cite the newspaper article as (yomiuri shimbun 1941), and the date, title, and page number of each article is noted in the references. all articles used in this study were examined by reading reprinted editions or microfilms, not the original papers. page numbers of some articles are unclear. results and discussion b. buergeri sold at a wide range of prices i found many articles on the prices of b. buergeri sold in tokyo’s market in the eight newspapers that were published between 1884 and 1938 (table 1). table 1 shows that the prices of b. buergeri ranged from cheap to very expensive. all commercial b. buergeri were living frogs. a prime individual was often sold for us$1,000–2,000. for contrast, in 1886, the daily pay of a carpenter was about 0.4 yen (us$40) (morinaga 2008). it follows that commoners could not buy such expensive frogs. in contemporary japan, these frogs cost about us$10–20 in pet shops that specialize in reptiles and amphibians. now, b. buergeri are commonly found in mountain streams in suburban areas, and in the countryside, where people can hear them sing; the japanese ministry of the environment has not classified this species as endangered. during the modern monarchical period, this frog must have been more common than it is now. for example, b. buergeri were even found in some numbers at the tama river in tokyo in those days (tokyo yokohama mainichi shinbun 1885; yomiuri shimbun 1927b), although now the frog has been designated a prefectural endangered species (bureau of environment, tokyo metropolitan government 2013). so, why was this frog often very expensive during late monarchical times despite being relatively common? frogs collected from particular localities were treasured among fanciers in tokyo. in those days, the frogs collected from kamogawa river, kyoto were the most valuable, followed by those collected from shizuoka and yamanashi (yomiuri shimbun 1902, 1903b). in contrast, the frogs collected from saitama and chiba were considered to be inferior singers figure 1 buergeria buergeri. photo credit: kazunori ka‐ wauchi, may 2009. hoshina. 2020. ethnobiology le ers 11(1):96–102 98 research communica on (miyako shinbun 1907; tokyo asahi shimbun 1910; yomiuri shimbun 1903b). in short, frogs collected in western japan were more popular among fanciers than those collected in eastern japan (figure 2). these frog evaluation differences were directly reflected in the prices. rich fanciers looked frantically for frogs from kyoto in the market, and these sold at much higher prices (yomiuri shimbun 1903a). kyoto frogs were particularly highly esteemed by fanciers because these frogs were the subject matter of poems by great poets at kyoto in the heian period (794–1192) and considered the best singers of all the b. buergeri (usui 1989). of course, there is no zoological basis for these evaluations. rather, these high evaluations of kyoto frogs reflected tokyo citizens’ longing for the ancient capital of kyoto. old and fat frogs were valued and traded at high prices in the market (tokyo asahi shimbun 1921a; yomiuri shimbun 1903b), as large frogs could sing better than small ones. individuals kept in captivity for a long time had a higher value than those recently collected from rivers. when wild frogs were captured from fields and put in rearing containers, they did not sing immediately. however, frogs that had adapted to living in rearing containers over the course of several years sang very well. in 1903, an old individual worth year frog price (yen) rela ve value in usd authority1,2 1884 0.24–10 24–1000 ym. 6. 14. 1885 0.15–3 15–300 tym. 6. 19. 1886 0.1–20 10–2000 ma. 7. 2. 1887 0.13–0.5 13–50 ym. 7. 28. 1890 1–1.5 100–150 ta. 6. 26. 1892 0.3–0.5 20–33 ym. 4. 24. 1892 0.15–5 10–333 ym. 8. 14. 1895 0.5–1 33–67 yr. 6. 20. 1897 0.2–0.5 20–50 ta. 6. 22. 1900 0.25–1 17–67 yr. 6. 11. 1902 0.05–0.28 3–19 ta. 6. 8. 1902 0.2–1 13–67 ym. 6. 8. 1903 0.25–10 17–667 ta. 5. 31. 1903 0.1–30 7–2000 ym. 6. 27. 1904 0.15 10 ym. 7. 11. 1905 0.2–30 13–2000 ym. 6. 23. 1907 0.15–0.3 8–15 mi. 5. 28. 1909 0.5 25 mi. 8. 26. 1910 0.03–0.25 2–13 ta. 7. 6. 1912 0.05–0.1 3–5 ta. 4. 8. 1917 0.5–8 25–400 un. 6. 19. 1919 0.1–7 5–350 ch. 6. 27. 1920 0.4–5 13–167 ym. 6. 5. 1921 0.4–5 10–125 ym. 5. 7. 1922 0.4–5 10–125 ym. 6. 3. 1924 0.5 17 ym. 7. 11. 1926 0.5–15 17–500 ta. 7. 1. 1938 0.15 4 ym. 6. 22. table 1 the annual prices of b. buergeri. 1ym, tym, ma, ta, yr, mi, un, and ch are abbrevia ons of newspapers. see text in methods. 2 the two numbers of newspaper ar cles in authority are month and day. the years published have been omi ed. see year in the first column. hoshina. 2020. ethnobiology le ers 11(1):96–102 99 research communica on us$667 had been kept for seven or eight years (tokyo asahi shimbun 1903). in addition, during japan’s modern monarchical period, it was very difficult for fanciers to breed frogs from eggs or tadpoles. therefore, keepers bought young and small frogs and nurtured them until they grew to a large size. to summarize, frogs that were collected from kyoto, kept for a long time, and attained a large size were traded at a very high price. in contrast, small and young frogs that were captured in eastern japan and sold in the market as soon as they had been collected from the rivers were cheap pets. rearing methods of b. buergeri by fanciers there were almost no pet shops that specialized in reptiles and amphibians during the modern monarchical period. b. buergeri were sold in pet shops that also offered singing orthoptera, birds, and goldfish, and sometimes they were even sold in candy stores (yomiuri shimbun 1892; yorozu chôhô 1900). in contemporary japan, frog keepers usually feed the frogs with cheap crickets and mealworms that are bred as food for tropical fish, reptiles, amphibians, and birds. during the modern monarchical period, fanciers collected wild spiders and earwigs to feed their frogs, as insects for frogs were not commercially bred in those days. according to fanciers’ rearing manuals, they gave their frogs 5–10 small insects per day (hoshina 2018c). one of the difficulties in keeping temperate frogs is overwintering. as winter approached, the fanciers prepared clay bottles and put fallen leaves, stones, and a small amount of water into them. then, they put the frogs into the bottles and buried them in the ground under the floor (tokyo asahi shimbun 1937b; yomiuri shimbun 1903c). in addition, during the 1920s, some keepers reared frogs in greenhouses during the winter and succeeded in having them sing throughout the year (tokyo asahi shimbun 1921b). rich fanciers were very particular about rearing containers. they prepared containers made from black stones or put charcoal into them because they preferred black-ish to white-ish frogs (tokyo asahi shimbun 1937c; yomiuri shimbun 1927b). of course, fanciers knew well that frogs could change their dorsal colors, to a certain extent, to blend in with the background. in 1878, specialized frog rearing containers were sold out in osaka (figure 2). some eager keepers reluctantly went to tokyo just to get containers (yomiuri shimbun 1878). fanciers were affectionate towards their frogs. some fanciers mourned the loss of their pet frogs and held funerals for them (tokyo asahi shimbun 1917). a limited market for b. buergeri in the modern monarchical period, newspapers often reported on a shortage of b. buergeri for sale (tokyo asahi shimbun 1902; yomiuri shimbun 1884). the reason was that the number of b. buergeri circulating in the market was too small. for example, in 1887, the number of b. buergeri shipped from yamanashi (figure 2) to tokyo’s market was only three hundred (yomiuri shimbun 1887). breeding b. buergeri was a hobby for rich people because the price was high, and the rearing of frogs took a great deal of time and money. therefore, the b. buergeri market was relatively small in comparison to the market in pet animals and insects as a whole, even though the unit price of b. buergeri was high. in this respect, the b. buergeri trade contrasts with the trade in singing orthoptera, which were pet insects for common people. for example, in 1930, one company breeding singing orthoptera shipped over a hundred thousand insects to tokyo’s market (hoshina 2017a). figure 2 map of japan, with loca ons men oned in the text. hoshina. 2020. ethnobiology le ers 11(1):96–102 100 research communica on it was fortunate for the conservation of the wild population of b. buergeri that the market in these frogs was limited. in the modern monarchical period, a large number of fireflies were overhunted by professional services and delivered to buyers such as festival sponsors, department stores, and railway companies (hoshina 2018a, 2018b). for example, in 1922, one company collected ten million wild fireflies and shipped them to tokyo’s market (hoshina 2018b). at that time, fireflies were very cheap; therefore, one department store could stock a few million fireflies for free gifts to customers (hoshina 2018b). naturally, in the modern monarchical period, the population of japanese fireflies was rapidly reduced by overhunting (hoshina 2018b). in contrast, b. buergeri could escape overhunting because a relatively small number of them were collected from rivers and sold in the market. for this reason, b. buergeri is still a common species in japanese mountain streams. moreover, the fact that the unit price of b. buergeri was high was also fortunate for the conservation of their regional genetic variation. in the modern monarchical period, sponsors often bought hundreds of thousands of fireflies for a festival. they would be brought them from the country to the city and released there for mass appreciation. it is possible that the artificial transportation of many fireflies from a distant area caused problems of genetic disturbance (hoshina 2018b). however, it would have been challenging to prepare over 10,000 b. buergeri for festivals in the city, even if the sponsors were large department stores and railway companies, because b. buergeri were expensive. consequently, it is believed that the genetic disturbance of b. buergeri did not arise in the modern monarchical period. at present, geographical differentiation in b. buergeri is confirmed by morphological and molecular biological studies (matsui and maeda 2018; ueda et al. 1998), and generic disturbance of this frog has not been reported. moreover, the national institute for environmental studies recorded japanese native thirteen species of frogs introduced to other area where they did not originally inhabit in japan, but b. buergeri is not listed among them (sarashina and yoshida 2015). b. buergeri presented to the emperor during the modern monarchical period, royal families were sometimes presented with river frogs from ordinary people. for example, in 1885 one merchant offered an expensive frog to the ministry of the imperial household (tokyo yokohama mainichi shinbun 1885). emperor taishô (1879–1926; reigned from 1912– 1926) loved river frogs. he visited mie prefecture in 1900 when he was crown prince and found many frogs in isuzu river. he was delighted and ordered his retainers to catch two frogs (tokyo asahi shimbun 1900). crown prince taishô was worried that frogs presented to him by a loyal subject would not sing at all in a pond of the imperial palace. however, they began singing in 1909 and he was satisfied with their beautiful songs (yomiuri shimbun 1909). emperor shôwa (1901–1989; reigned from 1926– 1989), who succeeded taishô, was a renowned biologist and interested in various life forms. in 1913, when emperor shôwa was crown prince, he went on an excursion to tama river with 140 schoolmates and enjoyed listening to the songs of river frogs. furthermore, he was presented with about 100 frogs from local elementary school students (tokyo asahi shimbun 1913). he donated them to emperor taishô after going back to the imperial palace (imperial household agency 2015). in 1927, people in mita village around tokyo collected several thousand river frogs, selected 110 top class individuals, and presented them to the ministry of the imperial household. these frogs were released at a pond at the imperial palace (yomiuri shimbun 1927a). b. buergeri songs broadcast live by a radio station japanese radio broadcasting began on march 22, 1925 (takeyama 2002). in the 1930s, radio stations often broadcast songs of wild river frogs recorded live on the spot (miyako shinbun 1936, 1937; tokyo asahi shimbun 1937a, 1938, 1939; yomiuri shimbun 1939). if it happened to rain during a recording, the stations broadcast singing by human singers as opposed to frogs. change in japanese people’s favorite pets before and after world war ii according to research on new york state pet shops in 1998–1999, the average price of eight native frog species was us$5 and the most expensive frog, scaphiopus holbrookii, cost us$20 (horn 2003). in contrast, in a certain japanese pet shop that currently specializes in amphibians, five native frog species, including b. buergeri, are sold at an average price of us$21. the most expensive species, bufo gargarizans hoshina. 2020. ethnobiology le ers 11(1):96–102 101 research communica on miyakonis, costs us$48, and b. buergeri costs us$11. in this japanese pet shop, most frog species are foreign and several are sold for us$300 at most. considering all of the aforementioned points, it could be concluded that b. buergeri, which cost more than us$1,000 during the modern monarchical period, were at a premium, although they were common native species. in the edo period (1603–1868), living b. buergeri were already sold as pets in what were then the three biggest cities, edo (present tokyo), osaka, and kyoto (kanô 2011). wealthy people in the modern monarchical period succeeded in breeding b. buergeri. moreover, investment in railway infrastructure after 1868 enabled the transportation of b. buergeri from distant areas, and rearing techniques for the frogs were also improved. furthermore, the general public began to enjoy b. buergeri songs through radio broadcasting, although they could not breed the frogs themselves. a culture of familiarity with b. buergeri was certainly developed in the modern monarchical period. however, japanese people’s favorite pets were clearly different during the modern monarchical period and after world war ii. japanese fanciers formerly reared singing orthoptera, fireflies, and river frogs out of love (hoshina 2017a, 2018b, 2018c), therefore they did not mind if their pets had a somber appearance. on the contrary, in contemporary japan, many frog fanciers focus on pretty and colorful foreign species, such as the argentine horned frog (ceratophrys ornata), rather than native species. moreover, contemporary insect fanciers do not breed singing orthoptera of modest appearance, but attractive foreign stag and rhinoceros beetles (hoshina 2019). contemporary japanese frog and insect fanciers select their pets for their appearance rather than emotional reasons. declarations permissions: this study was carried out under the university of fukui research ethics committee. sources of funding: this work was supported by jsps kakenhi grant number jp18k00254. conflicts of interest: none declared. references cited bureau of environment, tokyo metropolitan government. 2013. red data book tokyo. bureau of environment, tokyo metropolitan government, tokyo. available at: http://tokyo-rdb.jp/index.php. accessed on april 8, 2020. horn, s. m. 2003. a survey of new york state pet stores to investigate trade in native herpetofauna. herpetological review 34:23–27. hoshina, h. 2017a. cultural orthopterology in the japanese modern monarchical period. the memoirs of the research and education center for regional environment, university of fukui 24:75–100. hoshina, h. 2017b. the prices of singing orthoptera as pets in the japanese modern monarchical period. ethnoentomology 1:40–51. hoshina, h. 2018a. the prices of fireflies during the japanese modern monarchical period. ethnoentomology 2:1–4. hoshina, h. 2018b. the history of buying and selling, and releasing 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nature and human activities, hyogo. 1997. buergeria buergeri [web page]. available at: https://www.hitohaku.jp/material/l-material/frog/ zukan/kajika.html. accessed on april 8, 2020. sarashina, m., and t. yoshida. 2015. predation impacts of four invasive frogs in hokkaido, japan, assessed by an index of relative importance. japanese journal of conservation ecology 20:15–26. doi:10.18960/hozen.20.1_15. hoshina. 2020. ethnobiology le ers 11(1):96–102 102 research communica on tokyo asahi shimbun. 1900. crown prince. published on march 29, 1900. tokyo asahi shimbun. 1902. notes of pet insects. published on june 8, 1902. tokyo asahi shimbun. 1903. various pet insects. published on march 31, 1903. tokyo asahi shimbun. 1910. notes of pet insects. published on july 6, 1910. tokyo asahi shimbun. 1913. crown prince at tama river. published on march 8, 1913. tokyo asahi shimbun. 1917. funerals of small birds and buergeria buergeri. published on september 24, 1917. tokyo asahi shimbun. 1921a. 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doi:10.2108/02890003(1998)15[615:gdiajs]2.0.co;2. usui, m. 1989. frogs. hôsei-daigaku-shuppankyoku, tokyo. yomiuri shimbun. 1878. no titles. published on july 19, 1878. yomiuri shimbun. 1884. buergeria buergeri. published on june 14, 1884. yomiuri shimbun. 1887. the price of buergeria buergeri. published on july 28, 1887. yomiuri shimbun. 1892. the price of buergeria buergeri. published on august 14, 1892. yomiuri shimbun. 1902. a market of buergeria buergeri. published on june 8, 1902. yomiuri shimbun. 1903a. merchants of pet insects. published on march 20, 1903. yomiuri shimbun. 1903b. breeding methods of buergeria buergeri. published on june 27, 1903. yomiuri shimbun. 1903c. breeding methods of buergeria buergeri. published on june 30, 1903. yomiuri shimbun. 1909. buergeria buergeri at imperial palace. published on june 28, 1909. yomiuri shimbun. 1927a. buergeria buergeri presented to the ministry of the imperial household. published on july 8, 1927. yomiuri shimbun. 1927b. singing buergeria buergeri. published on july 12, 1927. yomiuri shimbun. 1939. chorus of buergeria buergeri from yokote and sendai. published on june 6, 1939. yorozu chôhô. 1900. insect shops. published on june 11, 1900. linguistic influence on russian and american ethnobiological categorization ežůăŷ�ğƚ�ăů͘�ϯϭϭϵ͘��ƚśŷžďŝžůžőlj�>ğʃğƌɛ�ϭϭ;ϭϳ͗ϭθ-ϯϯ ϭθ zğɛğăƌđś��žŵŵƶŷŝđăɵžŷɛ speakers, who more often appear to use “linguistic” or “other” unknown criteria. scope of the present study comparing russian and english language speakers from an ethnobiological perspective is especially fruitful for two main reasons: first, unlike english, russian nouns are tri-classified by gender (masculine, feminine, and neuter), and further subdivided by “animacy” into an animate or inanimate, unmarked, dichotomous category. the animate category contains all members of the kingdom animalia. exceptions include the ambiguous status of microorganisms like protozoa (beresford 1965:54). most americans, unfamiliar with the russian language, express surprise upon learning that when inquiring about an animal (for example, a dog), one asks “who is that?” rather than, as in english, “what is that?” animacy also plays a significant grammatical role in russian (e.g., serving as a masculine subgender in the accusative case). while many other languages make use of gender distinctions (e.g., french, german, etc.) or have noun classes (e.g., swahili, kikuyu, etc.), russian has both. for more on the cognitive roots of gender introduction linguistic ethnobiology represents an integral component of research in the study of human interactions and understanding of the natural world (hunn and brown 2011). achieving cross-cultural understandings of folk classification systems embodied in human languages is crucial to the advancement of ethnobiology as a discipline (berlin 1992; brown 2001; nolan and robbins 2001). while a number of studies recognize the importance of various kinds of linguistic features when eliciting and constructing folk biological classifications (e.g., baker 2003:109; kilarski 2013; zubin and kopke 1986), relatively few empirical field studies actually demonstrate their semantic reality. here, we report the findings of a recent investigation of the cognitive categorization of plant and animal names in russian and american english. several compelling and consistent differences of ethnobiological interest were revealed. in particular, american english speakers appear to employ phenotypic (morphological/phylogenetic) criteria more frequently when categorizing both animate and inanimate folk biological taxa than do russians >ŝŷőƶŝɛɵđ�/ŷňƶğŷđğ�žŷ�zƶɛɛŝăŷ�ăŷě��ŵğƌŝđăŷ��ƚśŷžďŝžůžőŝđăů� �ăƚğőžƌŝnjăɵžŷ :ƶɛɵŷ�d͘�ežůăŷϭ͕��ŝŷă��ăƌğɛśğǀăϯ͕�ăŷě�dŝđśăğů��͘�zžďďŝŷɛϯ ϭ�ğɖăƌƚŵğŷƚ�žĩ��ŷƚśƌžɖžůžőlj͕�hŷŝǀğƌɛŝƚlj�žĩ��ƌŭăŷɛăɛ͕�&ăljğʃğǀŝůůğ͕�h^�͘�ϯ�ğɖăƌƚŵğŷƚ�žĩ�zƶɛɛŝăŷ�ăŷě�^ůăǀžŷŝđ�^ƚƶěŝğɛ͕� hŷŝǀğƌɛŝƚlj�žĩ�dŝɛɛžƶƌŝ͕��žůƶŵďŝă͕�h^�͘�ϯ�ğɖăƌƚŵğŷƚ�žĩ��ŷƚśƌžɖžůžőlj͕�hŷŝǀğƌɛŝƚlj�žĩ�dŝɛɛžƶƌŝ͕��žůƶŵďŝă͕�h^�͘ ύžnjăƌŭɛăŷƚśƌžλŵɛŷ͘đžŵ �ďɛƚƌăđƚ� /ŷ�ƚśğ�zƶɛɛŝăŷ�ůăŷőƶăőğ͕�ŷžƶŷɛ�ăƌğ�đůăɛɛŝįğě�ďlj�őğŷěğƌ�ăŷě�ăŷŝŵăđlj͕�ǁśğƌğăɛ�ŝŷ��ŷőůŝɛś͕�ŷžƶŷɛ�ăƌğ�ŷžƚ͘�hɛŝŷő� ƚƌŝăě-ɛžƌƚɛ� žĩ� ŷăŵğɛ� ĩžƌ� ďŝžůžőŝđăů� ăŷě� ŷžŷ-ďŝžůžőŝđăů� ƚădžă͕� ă� đžŵɖăƌŝɛžŷ� žĩ� ƌğɛƶůƚɛ� ɖƌžǀŝěğě� ďlj� ŷăɵǀğ� ɛɖğăŭğƌɛ� žĩ� ďžƚś� ůăŷőƶăőğɛ�ƌğǀğăůɛ�ƚśăƚ�đžőŷŝɵǀğ�đăƚğőžƌŝnjăɵžŷɛ�žĩ�ăŷŝŵăƚğ�ăŷě�ŝŷăŷŝŵăƚğ�ŷžŵğŷđůăƚƶƌăů�ĩžƌŵɛ�ěŝīğƌ�ɛŝőŷŝįđăŷƚůlj�ďğƚǁğğŷ� ɛɖğăŭğƌɛ�žĩ�zƶɛɛŝăŷ�ăŷě��ŵğƌŝđăŷ��ŷőůŝɛś͘�^ɖğăŭğƌɛ�žĩ��ŵğƌŝđăŷ��ŷőůŝɛś�ăɖɖğăƌ�ƚž�đăƚğőžƌŝnjğ�ŷăŵğɛ�ĩžƌ�ůŝǀŝŷő�ŷžƶŷɛ�ŵžƌğ� ďlj�ɖśğŷžƚljɖğ�ƚśăŷ�ěž�zƶɛɛŝăŷɛ͕�ǁśž�ŝŷ�ƚƶƌŷ�ăɖɖğăƌ�ƚž�đůăɛɛŝĩlj�ŷžƶŷɛ�ŵžƌğ�ĩƌğƌƶğŷƚůlj�žŷ�ƚśğ�ďăɛŝɛ�žĩ�ůŝŷőƶŝɛɵđ�ĩğăƚƶƌğɛ�ɛƶđś� ăɛ�őğŷěğƌ͘�dśğɛğ�ƌğɛƶůƚɛ�ăƌğ�ďğůŝğǀğě�ƚž�ďğ�ɖğƌɵŷğŷƚ�ƚž�ƚśğ�ğůŝđŝƚăɵžŷ�ăŷě�đžŷɛƚƌƶđɵžŷ�žĩ�ĩžůŭ�ğƚśŷžďŝžůžőlj�ƚădžžŷžŵŝğɛ �͘ zğđğŝǀğě�:ăŷƶăƌlj�ϭϰ͕�ϯϭϭϵ kw�e��������^^ �đđğɖƚğě�dăƌđś�ϯϭ͕�ϯϭϭϵ �k/�ϭϭ͘ϭϰϯϯϳͬğďů͘ϭϭ͘ϭ͘ϯϭϭϵ͘ϭϰϵϳ wƶďůŝɛśğě�dălj�ϯϭ͕�ϯϭϭϵ <ğljǁžƌěɛ� $)"0$./$�� /#)*�$*'*"4ѷ� $)"0$./$��'�/$1$/4ѷ��*'&�/�3*)*($ .ѷ��*")$/$*)��)���'�..$!$��/$*)ѷ��-$���.*-/.� �žɖljƌŝőśƚ�ξ�ϯϭϭϵ�ďlj�ƚśğ�ăƶƚśžƌ;ɛϳ� ůŝđğŷɛğğ�^žđŝğƚlj�žĩ��ƚśŷžďŝžůžőlj͘�dśŝɛ� ŝɛ�ăŷ�žɖğŷ-ăđđğɛɛ�ăƌƚŝđůğ�ěŝɛƚƌŝďƶƚğě�ƶŷěğƌ�ƚśğ�ƚğƌŵɛ�žĩ� ƚśğ��ƌğăƚŝǀğ��žŵŵžŷɛ� �ƚƚƌŝďƶƚŝžŷ-ežŷ�žŵŵğƌđŝăů�ϰ͘ϭ�/ŷƚğƌŷăƚŝžŷăů�wƶďůŝđ�>ŝđğŷɛğ�;śƚƚɖɛ͗ͬͬđƌğăƚŝǀğđžŵŵžŷɛ͘žƌőͬůŝđğŷɛğɛͬďlj-ŷđͬϰ͘ϭϳ �͕ǁśŝđś�ɖğƌŵŝƚɛ�ŷžŷ-đžŵŵğƌđŝăů�ƶɛğ �͕ěŝɛƚƌŝďƶƚŝžŷ �͕ ăŷě�ƌğɖƌžěƶđƚŝžŷ�ŝŷ�ăŷlj�ŵğěŝƶŵ �͕ɖƌžǀŝěğě�ƚśğ�žƌŝőŝŷăů�ăƶƚśžƌ�ăŷě�ɛžƶƌđğ�ăƌğ�đƌğěŝƚğě �͘ ežůăŷ�ğƚ�ăů͘�ϯϭϭϵ͘��ƚśŷžďŝžůžőlj�>ğʃğƌɛ�ϭϭ;ϭϳ͗ϭθ-ϯϯ ϭϵ zğɛğăƌđś��žŵŵƶŷŝđăɵžŷɛ in russian see kravchenko (2002), and for more on the role of animacy in russian, see klenin (1983). the second reason the study is ethnobiologically significant is that without a “control group” it can be difficult to demonstrate specific influences on cognition and categorization. in order to gain conviction that specific cognitive decisions are in fact being influenced by certain linguistic features (and not others), it helps to be able to make systematic comparisons with languages not recognizing these same features. american english is such an example with regard to gender and animacy in russian. methods to avoid respondent tedium, a small sample of eight common words representing both human/nonhuman animate and living/non-living inanimate categories featuring both male and female russian genders were selected. neuter was excluded because of few, if any, animate examples. these terms are displayed in table 1. the method of triad-sorts (weller 1998) was deployed to measure cognitive similarities and differences in words. an array of all possible triads of words was first constructed and each respondent was then asked to: “select the one item most different from the other two” in each triad. this choice indicates that the unselected pair is the most similar. since the number of different triads is equivalent to determining c(n, r) where c = n!/ (r!(n-r)!), when the total number of c combinations of n items taken r at a time, the number of different triads of the eight words in the matrix return 56 possible combinations. the 56 noun-triads and instructions were translated into russian and administered to a sample of 56 russians. most live in the saratov region of southwestern russia. the mean and median age were 20.1 and 19, respectively, and 86% were female. a comparable american sample of 53 respondents at the universities of arkansas and missouri, 64% of whom were female with mean and median ages of 24.5 and 21, respectively, were also surveyed in the study. of special ethnobiological interest are the comparative responses of russians and americans to the animate pair (dog-bear) and the inanimate pair (flower-grass). the noun deemed “most different” in each triad reflects differentiations with respect to gender (e.g., masculine or feminine), phenotype (e.g., grass and flower, dog and bear), or other (e.g., random choice, symbolic). to illustrate accordingly, the following underlined terms indicate how items are deemed as most different from the other two on the basis of gender (dog-house-bear, flower-water-grass), phenotype (dog‑house-bear, flower-water-grass), and other (dog-house-bear, flower-water-grass). results and discussion using a difference of proportions statistical test, the results in tables 2 and 3 below indicate that: (1) overall, americans make significantly more similarity pairings by phenotype than russians. they also show that this is true with respect to both the animate (dogbear) and the inanimate pairs (flower-grass). for example, table 3 shows that 61% of the time russians pair bear and dog when flower is the third item, while americans paired bear-dog 89% of the time, indicating that americans use a phenotype criterion significantly more (p-value<0.001); (2) russians make significantly more similarity pairings by gender than 'ğŷěğƌ �ŷŝŵăƚğ /ŷăŷŝŵăƚğ dăůğ &ăƚśğƌ ,žƶɛğ �ğăƌ &ůžǁğƌ &ğŵăůğ džƚśğƌ tăƚğƌ �žő 'ƌăɛɛ dăďůğ�ϭ�dăƚƌŝdž�žĩ�zƶɛɛŝăŷ�őğŷěğƌ�ăŷě�ɛƶďőğŷěğƌ�đůăɛɛŝͳ įđăɵžŷɛ͘ �ăƚğőžƌlj z� �� z/� �/� zd �d wśğŷžƚljɖğ ϭ͘ϲϭ ϭ͘θϯ ϭ͘ϲϵ ϭ͘ϵϭ ϭ͘ϲϰ ϭ͘θϳ 'ğŷěğƌ ϭ͘ϲϭ ϭ͘ϭθ ϭ͘ϭϳ ϭ͘ϭϰ ϭ͘ϭϵ ϭ͘ϭϲ kƚśğƌ ϭ͘ϯϭ ϭ͘ϭϱ ϭ͘ϭϰ ϭ͘ϭϭ ϭ͘ϭϳ ϭ͘ϭϳ z��сzƶɛɛŝăŷ��ŷŝŵăƚğ͕���с�ŵğƌŝđăŷ��ŷŝŵăƚğ͕�z/�сzƶɛɛŝăŷ�/ŷăŷŝŵăƚğ͕��/�с�ŵğƌŝđăŷ�/ŷăŷŝŵăƚğ͕�zdс�zƶɛɛŝăŷ�džƚăů͕� �dс�ŵğƌŝđăŷ�džƚăů͘ ύ�ůů�đăƚğőžƌŝđăů�ěŝīğƌğŷđğɛ�ďğƚǁğğŷ�zƶɛɛŝăŷ�ăŷě��ŵğƌŝđăŷ�ɖƌžɖžƌɵžŷɛ�ăƌğ�ɛƚăɵɛɵđăůůlj�ɛŝőŷŝįđăŷƚ�ɖ-ǀăůƶğфϭ͘ϭϭϭ͕�ğdžđğɖƚ� ďğƚǁğğŷ�žƚśğƌ�z/��ăŷě��/��;ɖ-ǀăůƶğхϭ͘ϭϱϳ͘ dăďůğ�ϯ�kǀğƌăůů�ɖƌžɖžƌɵžŷăů�đăƚğőžƌlj�đžŵɖăƌŝɛžŷɛ͘ ežůăŷ�ğƚ�ăů͘�ϯϭϭϵ͘��ƚśŷžďŝžůžőlj�>ğʃğƌɛ�ϭϭ;ϭϳ͗ϭθ-ϯϯ ϯϭ zğɛğăƌđś��žŵŵƶŷŝđăɵžŷɛ do the americans on these same triads. this is true with respect to both the animate (dog-bear) and the inanimate pairs (flower-grass). for example, 18% of the time, within the same triad, russians pair bear with flower (same gender) whereas americans do the same only 2% of the time which is significantly less (p -value<0.01); and (3) russians make significantly more similarity pairings by “other” criteria than do americans. this also true for the animate pair (dogbear) but not for the inanimate pair (flower-grass). considered together, the results appear to provide modest but consistent support for the proposition that, with respect to russian, linguistic noun gender distinctions play a role in cognitive ethnobiological categorization. in general, about 20% of cognitive choices appear to reflect a gender influence. curiously, this is rather close to kirk and burton’s (1976) finding that approximately 27% of their results using triad sorts of “flying animals” were based on kikuyu noun classifications. more extensive research employing other cognitive measures and larger samples of a variety of words and respondents needs to be undertaken in the future. other gendered languages could also be investigated along similar lines. it is important to recognize that at this point, our project deals only with perceived similarities and differences in objects antecedent to actual behavioral categorization and classification. considering these auspicious results, a more thorough field investigation using increasingly precise, recognized classification techniques and measures (e.g., pile-sorts, cf. weller 1998) should be conducted. after a thorough review, rhoades et al. (2010:25) conclude: “a robust finding in folk biological research is that across the world’s cultures, individuals categorize and name animals (as well as plants) in fundamentally similar ways.” our research is clearly commensurate with this insofar as both groups are similar in assigning the bulk of the similarities among species to phenotype (overall, 87% in the case of dăďůğ�ϯ��žŵɖăƌŝɛžŷɛ�žĩ�ɖăŝƌŝŷőɛ�ďlj�ɖśğŷžƚljɖğ�ăŷě�őğŷěğƌ͘ �ăƚğőžƌlj dśŝƌě�/ƚğŵ zƶɛɛŝăŷ�;eϳ й�zğɛɖžŷěğŷƚɛ �ŵğƌŝđăŷ�;eϳ й�zğɛɖžŷɛğɛ wśğŷžƚljɖğ͗��ŷŝŵăƚğ�;ěžő–ďğăƌϳ ŵžƚśğƌ ϯϯ ϱϵй ϰϭ ϳϱй śžƶɛğ ϯϳ ϰθй ϰϯ θϭйύύύ ňžǁğƌ ϯϰ ϲϭй ϰϳ θϵйύύύ ǁăƚğƌ ϰϭ ϳϭй ϰϰ θϯй ĩăƚśğƌ ϯϯ ϱϳй ϰϯ θϭйύύ őƌăɛɛ ϯϱ ϲϯй ϰϱ θϱйύύ wśğŷžƚljɖğ͗�/ŷăŷŝŵăƚğ�;ňžǁğƌ–őƌăɛɛϳ ěžő ϰϯ ϳϳй ϰθ ϵϭйύ ŵžƚśğƌ ϯϳ ϲϲй ϰθ ϵϭйύύ śžƶɛğ ϯϱ ϲϯй ϱϭ ϵϰйύύύ ǁăƚğƌ ϯϱ ϲϯй ϰϲ θϵйύύ ĩăƚśğƌ ϰϯ ϳϳй ϰθ ϵϭйύ ďğăƌ ϯϵ ϳϭй ϱϭ ϵϰйύύ 'ğŷěğƌ͗��ŷŝŵăƚğ�;ěžő–ďğăƌϳ ŵžƚśğƌ ϭϵ ϯϰй ϭϯ ϯϯй śžƶɛğ ϲ ϭϭй ϭ ϭй ňžǁğƌ ϭϭ ϭθй ϭ ϯйύύ ǁăƚğƌ ϭϭ ϯϭй θ ϭϱй ĩăƚśğƌ ϭϭ ϭθй ϭ ϯйύύ őƌăɛɛ ϭϯ ϯϭй ϯ ϰйύ 'ğŷěğƌ͗�/ŷăŷŝŵăƚğ�;ňžǁğƌ–őƌăɛɛϳ ěžő ϵ ϭϲй ϯ ϲй ŵžƚśğƌ ϵ ϭϲй ϭ ϭйύύ śžƶɛğ ϭϯ ϯϭй ϭ ϯйύύ ǁăƚğƌ ϭϯ ϯϭй ϰ θй ĩăƚśğƌ θ ϭϰй ϯ ϰй ďğăƌ θ ϭϰй ϯ ϰй wƌžďăďůğ�ɖƌžɖžƌɵžŷăů�ěŝīğƌğŷđğ͗�ύɖ-ǀăůƶğфϭ͘ϭϱ͕�ύύɖ-ǀăůƶğфϭ͘ϭϭ͕�ύύύɖ-ǀăůƶğфϭ͘ϭϭϭ ežůăŷ�ğƚ�ăů͘�ϯϭϭϵ͘��ƚśŷžďŝžůžőlj�>ğʃğƌɛ�ϭϭ;ϭϳ͗ϭθ-ϯϯ ϯϭ zğɛğăƌđś��žŵŵƶŷŝđăɵžŷɛ american english and 64% in the case of russian). nonetheless, this statistic also reveals a significant difference between the two languages, leaving a lot to be explained. on the basis of our results, we believe a substantial amount of this difference (roughly 20%) can be attributed to the difference in structure between the two languages. in the future, greater attention needs to be invested in discovering the nature of the residual category of “other” choices. indeed, more data need to be collected and analyzed regarding folk biological categories to determine the reasons and subjective bases for various categorization processes. this could presumably be initiated simply by asking respondents to explain why they made the choices they did in any classification task. many questions also arise concerning how linguistic features (e.g., gender and animacy) may influence cognitive processes (e.g., categorization and discrimination). perhaps it is as dilkina et al. (2007:219) assert, that “linguistic information helps shape semantic representations throughout development.” if so, multilinguals, for instance, who did not speak russian originally, might be expected to cognize members of folk biological categories in different ways. it is worthy to note that research along these lines has recently been undertaken (e.g., hrzica et al. 2015). looking ahead, more investigations along similar lines with other gendered languages are indicated. we think these findings are also congruent with the linguistic relativity hypothesis (lucy 1997), insofar as they offer evidence of the influence of language on thought along the lines suggested by sapir (mandelbaum 1949) and whorf (carol 1956). the practical benefits of these inquiries include understanding more about the role language plays in biological information processing and, importantly, how to facilitate better cross-cultural and crosslinguistic acquisition, communication, and understanding. notes 1american english does extend gendered pronouns “she” and “he” to nouns in tropes such as: “she’s a sturdy sailing ship”; “she’s a dependable gun”; “mother nature”; “father time”; “she’s our nation”, etc. 2“dog” and “bear” exist at the folk generic rank, and “flower” and “grass” at the intermediate level; while these terms may differ subtly in rank, they were chosen as they are easily perceived and readily recognized by respondents. acknowledgements we wish to thank margaret robbins for her help collecting data at the university of missouri and aleksandr pakhomov for assisting in collecting and processing the russian data. declarations permissions: none declared. sources of funding: none declared. conflicts of interest: none declared. references cited baker, m. 2003. lexical categories: verbs, nouns, and adjectives. cambridge university press, cambridge, uk. beresford, m. 1965. complete russian course for scientists. clarendon press, oxford, uk. berlin, b. 1992. ethnobiological 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tortoises (chelonoidis sp.) and sea turtles (e.g., chelonia mydas) provided a source of dietary relief and survival from poor-quality foods kept and served on vessels traveling long-distances to reach san francisco, and these same animals were also kept by miners as pets, food, and entertainment (conrad and pastron 2014; conrad et al. 2018). for more entrepreneurial spirits, australian imported kangaroos (macropodidiae) provided entertainment, and likely the occasional bite to eat (conrad 2017). thousands of people who migrated to san francisco and northern california during this era clearly experienced animals in new ways, whether through food or otherwise, just as these animals experienced humans, and environments, in very new and shocking ways. one of these novel gold rush-era experiences involves humans and the animals they imported from central america and south america: parrots and monkeys. a gold rush menagerie the bustling, tumultuous residents of early 1850s san francisco were undoubtedly shocked by the arrival of introduction animals experienced all of the trials and tribulations of california’s gold rush. whether it was local wild game, domesticates, or exotic imported species, the exploitative nature of san francisco’s human populace between 1849 and 1860 created enormous demand for animals, their products, curiosities, and entertainment. primarily, this demand focused on animals for food—a pattern supported by archaeological evidence from the gold rush-era (conrad et al. 2015a)—but animals also filled several other social niches. domesticated cattle (bos taurus), pigs (sus scrofa) and sheep (ovis aries) were dietary staples (soulé et al. 1854). cats (felis catus) and dogs (canis familiaris) were kept as pets and provided a means to eradicate rats (rattus sp.). rats provided a convenient source of societal-wide empathy; everyone suffered from rats, everyone tried to kill rats. local oysters (ostrea lurida) reminded immigrants from the eastern united states of home, albeit not nearly as delectable as those found from home itself (i.e., crassostrea virginica; booker 2006). hunting elk (cervus canadensis), deer (odocoileus hemionus), birds, fish, and all other wild creatures provided economy through the the monkeys and parrots of gold rush-era california cyler conrad1,2* 1environmental protection and compliance, los alamos national laboratory, los alamos, nm, usa 2department of anthropology, university of new mexico, albuquerque, nm *cylerc@lanl.gov; cyclerc@unm.edu abstract as immigrant gold miners migrated en masse to san francisco and northern california during the gold rush-era (ca. 1849–1855), they experienced new animals. stopping in ports throughout central and south america, these argonauts saw, felt, smelled, heard, and occasionally consumed, mammals, birds, reptiles, and many more creatures, which were wholly exotic to those species found at home. two types of animals that the gold rush populace encountered during this era include parrots and monkeys. although found throughout tropical environments in areas far distant from northern california, these animals became quickly imported to san francisco during the early 1850s. a wild, turbulent gold rush-era helped facilitate the importation of these exotic animal types, both for comfort and entertainment, as they helped provide a source of companionship for miners unaccustomed to the shock of 1850s northern california. received march 29, 2021 open access accepted february 2, 2022 doi 10.14237/ebl.13.1.2022.1758 published march 8, 2022 keywords san francisco, human-animal interaction, parrot, monkey, exotic animal, animal trade copyright © 2021 by the author(s); licensee society of ethnobiology. this is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution-noncommercial 4.0 international public license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0), which permits non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. conrad. 2022. ethnobiology letters 13(1):20–26 21 perspectives fifty parrots and five monkeys on the brigantine democrazia, 50 days direct from el realejo, nicaragua, on march 15, 1853 (anon 1853c). understood in context of the city’s dreary, wet, disorganized, and hectic conditions during the gold rush, the vibrant colors and loud vocalizations of parrots would likely have drawn awe-struck crowds to the wharf. nicaragua has four parrot species that may have been imported, including the scarlet macaw (ara macao), and all of these species have bright, colorful plumage. during this same arrival, one of three nicaraguan primate (i.e., monkey) species arrived (or perhaps individuals from several species), including either the mantled howler (alouatta palliata), white-faced capuchin (cebus imitator), or geoffroy’s spider monkey (ateles geoffroyi). it is not difficult to imagine that once landed in san francisco these monkeys likely inspired fascination to the gold rush populace. although it is possible that portions of the immigrant gold rush population were familiar with these animals through travel across central america or south america en route to san francisco (delgado 1996), for most prospective miners they were animals of fascination, perhaps only understood through stories, drawings, or circuses from home. a large portion of immigrant miners arrived from the eastern united states, and this era was approximately two decades prior to the establishment of what we know today as formal zoos during the 1870s. therefore, to a large portion of the human population, parrots and monkeys represented unknown, rare, exotic species from far-away places, and yet they were now in san francisco. certainly, this importation was for amusement and menagerie. their representation in historical records supports this interpretation—and suggests that parrots and monkeys likely arrived before and after the democrazia landed in gold rushera san francisco. for example, after a fire that swept through san francisco on june 22, 1851, an advertisement placed in the daily alta california requested help finding a lost “black brazilian monkey” (anon 1851b). it is unclear if this monkey was the same owned by a french immigrant named jean allesore, “who is usually seen with a hand-organ and a monkey,” in san francisco (anon 1851d). or take the april 17, 1851, fair at lee’s exchange in sacramento, california, where monkeys were displayed and it was noted that, “[h]e takes a good look at the monkey, and departs, satisfied that he has got his money’s worth” (anon 1851a). at least one hand-organ, red-jacketed monkey appears to be commonly referenced in san francisco during the gold rush (anon 1852b, see 1852c and 1854g in conrad 2021). one traveler reminisced (anon 1850b): i happened to be seated, at the time, in the bar-room of one of the hotels, in conversation with a friend, when the sounds of an instrument associated with so many familiar recollections fell like the strains of some long forgotten, but cherished voice upon my ears. i rushed out to behold the adventurous savoyard who had traversed half the globe to charm the savage natures of this wild and lawless region with the dulcet tones of his instrument…the dear little automatons, that had excited my wonder and admiration as a child, were pirouetting, as of old, upon the instrument, and the attendant monkey clambering from post to pillar, grinning his at the numberless presents of fruit or biscuit that he received…the melodious strains of his instrument never failed to arouse the enthusiasm of the homesick, whilst the tricks of the monkey served to amuse the leisure of the rough miners who were incapable of entering into the feelings inspired by his music. during the gold rush era, monkeys appear continuously referenced as a form of pet or entertainment. one individual sued another when her pet monkey and fox were reportedly stolen in san joaquin, california (anon 1852e). an advertisement for local “amusements” in san francisco indicated the presence of the “national circus,” including “jack robinson and his monkey!” (anon 1852f). a second monkey was lost in june 1852 from the “hotel francaise” with a request for return and reward in local papers (anon 1852g). by 1854, a “professor” traveled through northern california with his “excruciating music of his harmonic establishment, and the vagaries of his monkey” (anon 1854a, see 1854e and 1854f in conrad 2021). by late 1854, northern california newspapers described an individual “parading about leading a horse attached to conrad. 2022. ethnobiology letters 13(1):20–26 22 perspectives a soda wagon, a diminutive monkey being perched on the back of the animal” (anon 1854h). imported primates clearly held a role in the social fabric of california’s gold rush. parrots also appear in gold rush-era historic records, but often in the context of pets lost or stolen. these birds were treasured and valued. numerous advertisements published between 1850–1854 request help and offer rewards for lost parrots. descriptions include, “a parrot, with a red breast, wing and tail clipped,” a “blueish grey parrot with a red tipped tail,” a “beautiful green parrot with a red head,” a “small bird, green color, with blue and yellow feathers on the head, her wings tipped with red,” a “king parrot, lead color, with pink breast,” and “[a] large parrot or macaw, with red and yellow feathers,” among several others (see anon 1850a, 1850c, 1851c, 1852a, 1852h, 1852i, 1853b, 1853d, 1854b, 1854c, 1854d in conrad 2021). in one case, the return of a “king parrot” lost on november 3, 1852, was offered a $20 reward – ten days later this reward increased to $50 (see anon 1852j and 1852k in conrad 2021). later 19th century zooarchaeological-based records from san francisco also support the presence of exotic parrots in northern california. in one example, excavation of a privy context dating to the 1870s included the recovery of bones belonging to a lilac-crowned parrot (amazona finschi), likely kept as a figure 1 1856 drawing of the “cobweb palace” in san francisco. image courtesy of lauren menzies and the society for california pioneers. conrad. 2022. ethnobiology letters 13(1):20–26 23 perspectives pet (praetzellis and praetzellis 2009). a second context dating to the 1870s–1880s also included the bones of a blue cheeked amazon (amazona dufresniana), again, likely kept as a pet (william self associates, inc. 2019). parrots provided a source of companionship during this time. discussion while written records and archaeological samples enable a reconstruction of the relationship between humans, parrots and monkeys in gold rush-era california, a drawing published in 1856 showing the “cobweb palace” in san francisco helps visualize these experiences (figure 1). the cobweb palace was constructed in 1855 and was described as, “famous in its way as the old curiosity-shop of charles dickens,” (anon 1892) suggesting that it is a location where one might expect to find exotic animals during this period. as the drawing depicts, a large crowd of individuals stand outside the establishment in the street along with two dogs, a large pig, a single, elegant-looking parrot—possibly a scarlet macaw based on the tail feather morphology—and six monkeys, which appear to be both indifferent, and equally terrorizing, to the crowd. individuals appear captivated by the monkeys and annoyed with their antics. for the parrots and monkeys imported from central and south america, or perhaps elsewhere (the “king parrot” may be an australian king parrot table 1 a non-exhaustive list of animals imported into san francisco and northern california during the gold rush era (see conrad 2021 for supplemental references). this list primarily focuses on wild-caught animals (e.g., not cattle, sheep/goats, pigs, horses, chickens, and others). numerous types of fish and other seafood were also imported during this period and are not included here (see conrad et al. 2021 for details). “?” indicates possible reason for use based on the historic record. animal origin use current basis for record reference galapagos tortoise galapagos islands subsistence archaeological/historical conrad and pastron 2014; conrad and gibbs 2020; conrad et al. 2015a sea turtles eastern pacific ocean subsistence, entertainment? archaeological/historical conrad and pastron 2014; conrad et al. 2018; conrad et al. 2015a oysters pacific northwest and the eastern united states (atlantic ocean) subsistence archaeological/historical booker 2006; conrad et al. 2015b kangaroos australia entertainment, subsistence? historical conrad 2017 atlantic cod atlantic ocean subsistence archaeological/historical conrad et al. 2021 parrots central/south america/ australia entertainment, pet archaeological/historical this study monkeys central/south america entertainment, pet historical this study seashells pacific ocean (and possibly elsewhere) keepsake, gift? archaeological/historical conrad et al. 2015a grizzly bear oregon unknown historical anon 1852d (see also kennedy et al. 2018) "tame" deer central america unknown historical anon 1853a canary birds east asia (hong kong) unknown historical anon 1853a swedish leeches sweden (and elsewhere in europe) medicinal historical anon 1856 conrad. 2022. ethnobiology letters 13(1):20–26 24 perspectives [alisterus scapularis]), arrival in san francisco during the gold rush era was likely shocking and undesired, but for their human captors this translocation was an exciting necessity. whether captive as pets, or for economic prosperity, gold rush immigrants exploited these animals and relied on their interaction. historic and archaeological records support this type of human-animal relationship during the 1850s in northern california, given evidence supporting the importation and exploitation of a variety of nonnative species for food or otherwise. in many ways, the long-distance voyages required to arrive in san francisco and the gold fields, the unfamiliar food, sights, smells, and weather, the lack of family, and the lack of an established social network, suggest that the gold rush populace relied on animals—regardless of type—for their bond and companionship (e.g., spencer et al. 2006). animals filled a void created by the often-overwhelming experience of the gold rush era, and it was the exoticness of this time that enabled the exoticization of these human-animal interactions. evidence from the eastern united states also supports this record. for example, zooarchaeological analysis of bird skeletal remains from a privy at the heyward-washington house in charleston, south carolina, confirmed the presence of a blue-fronted or turquoise-fronted amazon parrot (amazona aestiva) dating to the early 19th century (zierden et al. 2019). charleston, like san francisco during and after the gold rush (delgado 2009), was a seaport city and global center of commerce. international connections established by trade and mercantile activities brought figure 2 a late-19th or early-20th century photograph of the “cobweb palace” in san francisco. courtesy of christina moretta and the san francisco history center, san francisco public library. conrad. 2022. ethnobiology letters 13(1):20–26 25 perspectives exotic goods to these locations, and exotic animals quickly became entangled with this trade (see grier 2006). animals, pets or otherwise, were viewed as prestige items and commodities within these contexts. it is thus not surprising that gold rush immigrants managed to import such non-native and unfamiliar animals into northern california (table 1). and, while the modern ‘wild’ parrots of san francisco (bittner 2007) almost certainly do not relate in any way to these imported gold rush birds, the long-term record of exotic animals present in northern california speaks to the social structure created by, and evolved from, these human-animal relationships established during the gold rush era (figure 2). later 19th century importation of bear paws from southwestern canada into the san francisco bay area is an excellent example of the long-term continuation of these processes (kennedy et al. 2018). monkeys and parrots now join kangaroos, galapagos tortoises, sea turtles, oysters, and likely several other animals that lived, witnessed, and experienced this significant time in california’s history. acknowledgments thank you to kale bruner and allen pastron for making this research possible. i am also grateful to archival support provided by martha zierden, lauren menzies and the society for california pioneers, and christina moretta and the san francisco history center, san francisco public library. as always, thank you to the california digital newspaper collection managed by the center for bibliographic studies and research, university of california, riverside, for facilitating access to archival newspaper collections. thank you to two anonymous reviewers and maria bruno for providing invaluable feedback on earlier drafts of this manuscript. declarations permissions: none declared. sources of funding: none declared. conflicts of interest: none declared. references cited bittner, m. 2007. the wild parrots of telegraph hill. three rivers press, new york, ny. booker, m. m. 2006. oyster growers and oyster pirates in san francisco bay. pacific historical review 75(1):63–88. doi:10.1525/phr.2006.75.1.63. conrad, c. 2017. kangaroos and the california gold rush. california history 94(3):62–65. doi:10.1525/ ch.2017.94.3.62. conrad, c. 2021. compendium for the paper the monkeys and parrots of gold rush-era california. doi:10.17605/osf.io/6y7q8. conrad, c., and a. pastron. 2014. galapagos tortoises and sea turtles in gold rush-era california. california history 91(2):20–39. doi:10.1525/ch.2014.91.2.20. conrad, c., k. w. gobalet, k. bruner, and a. g. pastron. 2015a. hide, tallow 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(2019) compared plant uses between the canadian iñuit villages of nain and kangiqsualujjuaq, finding only a 56% overlap in vascular species used, with more divergence in medicinal than edible species. the authors believe more research is needed to distinguish whether the differences are due more to knowledge erosion in recent times or to long-standing cultural divergence. of particular note is sveta yamin-pasternak’s (2007) extensive research on ethnomycological attitudes and practices on the seward peninsula (alaska) and in eastern chukotka (russia). she found that russian introduction arctic ethnobotany and changing foodways although cross-cultural ethnobotanical studies in the arctic region are rare (llano 1956; yamin-pasternak 2007), they have much potential. flora of the circumpolar regions shows great similarities at the species and, especially, genus level (walker et al. 1994). this provides an excellent opportunity to compare the role of these species in regions whose cultural, economic, and political conditions vary widely. some pioneering studies have already begun this work. in an early example, llano (1956) examined traditional uses of lichens along with their importance as a primary food source for reindeer herds of indigenous peoples of scandinavia, russia, gathering “mouse roots,” among the naukan and chukchi of the russian far east kevin jernigan1*, olga belichenko2, valeria kolosova2, darlene orr3, and maria pupynina4 1cross-cultural studies program, university of alaska, fairbanks, usa. 2department of environmental sciences, informatics and statistics, università ca' foscari, venice, italy. 3ethnobotany program, university of alaska, fairbanks, usa. 4department of languages of russia, institute for linguistic studies, st. petursburg, russia. *kjernigan@alaska.edu abstract the authors worked from 2014–2016, with 67 naukan and chukchi participants in six villages on the subject of “mouse roots,” a category of edible plants, including tubers of five species, taken from caches of microtus voles. only eight out of 44 chukchi and none of the naukan respondents said that they still actively gather these foods. however, 43 out of 44 chukchi and 21 out of 23 naukan participants still possess specific knowledge of the process, for example: how to find nests, proper techniques and etiquette for gathering, storage, preparation, or botanical identity of species found. this reflects the rapid cultural changes that occurred during the soviet period, including collectivization and consolidation of the population into larger villages. the maintenance of knowledge about resources that no longer play a large role in subsistence never-the-less aids in the resilience of local people to potential economic hardship and food insecurity. this particular relationship between humans, rodents, and plants provides an opportunity to examine the strengths and limitations for applying the concept of perspectivism in this cultural setting. these chukotkan “mouse root” traditions show commonalities with similar practices among the neighboring iñupiaq and central alaskan yup’ik communities. most notably, species gathered from rodent nests are similar on both sides of the bering strait as are rules for how to show proper respect to the animals when gathering. however, methods of preparation differ significantly between chukotkan and alaskan cultures. open access doi 10.14237/ebl.10.1.2019.1605 received june 18, 2019 accepted october 7, 2019 published december 14, 2019 keywords ethnobotany, traditional knowledge, wild edibles, chukotka, chukchi, naukan, perspectivism copyright © 2019 by the author(s); licensee society of ethnobiology. this is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution-noncommercial 4.0 international public license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0), which permits non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. jernigan et al. 2019. ethnobiology letters 10(1):129–138 130 research communications influence has had a profound effect on perceptions in chukotka about the edibility and desirability of local mushroom species, while neighboring alaskan cultures continue to consider many of the same species inedible and even dangerous. in this same comparative spirit, the authors are currently completing a multi-year project (2014–2019) (nsf grant number 1304612) on edible and medicinal plant traditions among the naukan and chukchi of the russian far east and the central alaskan yup’ik. the work examines whether there are more similarities in ethnobotanical traditions between two societies speaking closely related languages and sharing a deep historical root (naukan and central alaskan yup’ik), or between two societies speaking unrelated languages, but sharing the more recent influence of the dominant russian culture (naukan and chukchi). the current article focuses on one piece of the larger research, the tradition of gathering tubers, roots, and stem bases from rodent caches for human consumption. this subject is significant because: 1) it highlights the relationship between ethnobotanical knowledge and practice over a particularly economically and politically tumultuous period, and 2) it illustrates the ways in which a perspectivist world view (viveiros de castro 1998) has been both maintained and lost since the early writings of ethnographers such as kjellman (1882) and bogoraz (1904). gathering plant foods from rodent nests has been noted as a part of traditional subsistence among peoples of the arctic (jones 2010), sub-arctic (jernigan et al. 2015), and other regions (nabhan 2009). despite passing mentions, few articles have focused specifically on this practice. in one exception, nabhan (2009) described how the seri of northern mexico take legumes and cactus fruit from pack rat (neotoma albigula) middens, allowing them to extend the availability of these plant foods beyond their typical season. ståhlberg and svanberg (2010) made an important historical analysis of gathering from the nests of vole and lemming species among peoples of siberia and the russian far east. the authors argue that these practices were widespread in indigenous societies of those regions up to the eighteenth century, but appear to have been discontinued after the nineteenth century. however, brief references in the ethnobotanical literature (ainana and zagrebin 2014; menovshchikov 1974) indicate that this tradition has survived longer in the russian region of chukotka. here, we present the first detailed look at this subject among the chukchi and naukan peoples, along with a comparison of similar practices in neighboring societies (ainana and zagrebin 2014; jernigan et al. 2015; jones 2010). ethnographic setting we worked in the chukotskiy district of chukotka in the extreme northeast of russia (figure 1). the naukan and most of the chukchi population of this region reside in coastal villages, where subsistence activities center around hunting sea mammals, including the gray whale (eschrichtius robustus), walrus figure 1 the study region and surrounding areas. jernigan et al. 2019. ethnobiology letters 10(1):129–138 131 research communications (odobenus rosmarus), spotted seal (phoca largha), and bearded seal (erignathus barbatus). fishing, hunting game, and gathering of wild plants also play an important role for both peoples (jernigan et al. 2017). ethnographers (kerttula 2000; kozlov et al. 2007) have typically drawn a cultural distinction between the coastal chukchi and those who live in the interior as nomadic reindeer (rangifer tarandus) herders. however, the coastal villages where we worked also show some influence from the interior traditions due to mixed marriages, as well as because some still have reindeer herding brigades left over from soviet times (krupnik and chlenov 2013). russian contact began with seventeenth and eighteenth century explorers semyon dezhnev and vitus bering. the earliest ethnobotanical account came from frans reinhold kjellman’s (1882) work with the coastal chukchi in 1878–1879. bogoraz's (1904) more general chukchi ethnography contains descriptions of subsistence and briefly mentions the gathering of tubers from rodent caches. russian political dominance in the study region solidified during the soviet period. this brought collectivization of reindeer herders and sea mammal hunters into brigades, along with consolidation of the population into larger villages and the closure of smaller ones. this process particularly affected the naukan people, who were concentrated, by this time, in a single village (also called naukan or nevuqaq). when that village was closed in 1958, everyone was forced to move to adjacent villages (krupnik and chlenov 2013). these processes accelerated acculturation, leading to changes in diet, spiritual practices, and language loss. the chukchi language (chukotko-kamchatkan family) is currently considered “severely endangered,” while naukan (iñuit-yupik-unangan family) is “critically endangered” (unesco 2010). these designations figure 2 high-ground tundra where people search for “mouse roots,” with the village of neshkan in the background. photo by kevin jernigan. jernigan et al. 2019. ethnobiology letters 10(1):129–138 132 research communications mean that the youngest generations are not learning the languages. the soviet period also saw an increased focus on ethnobotanical work here. for example, sokolova (1961) and mimykg avtonova (1992) documented plant uses among the coastal chukchi of eastern chukotka. however, relatively little work was done with the naukan. dobrieva et al. (2004) listed names for plants in their naukan dictionary, while mimykg avtonova (1992) and menovshchikov (1974) documented some uses of edible species. despite the negative aspects of soviet rule for cultural survival, this era also brought a great deal of economic development and support from the central government, including support for the food supply. so, the breakup of the soviet union in 1991 caused considerable economic hardship in the following decades. the survey of living conditions in the arctic (andersen et al. 2002) found widespread dissatisfaction in chukotka with cost of living, job opportunities and availability of goods in local stores. this situation has led to a renewed reliance on local food sources, as well as innovations in how these local foods are stored, prepared, and consumed (kozlov et al. 2007). documenting the continuing importance of plants to these societies in the postsoviet context (ainana and zagrebin 2014; yaminpasternak 2007) is especially urgent. methods the research took place from 2014–2016 in the villages of lorino, lavrentiya, uelen, inchoun, enurmino, and neshkan (figures 1 and 2). before starting the fieldwork, we obtained permission from the institutional review board of the university of alaska, and from local governmental authorities in russia to carry out the work. the project conforms to international society of ethnobiology ethical guidelines (2006), and prior informed consent was obtained from all study participants. our team began in each participating village by meeting with local people at community centers, museums, and hunting organizations to discuss the project goals, answer questions, and solicit suggestions or concerns related to the research activities. study participants were recruited based on contacts made during these initial meetings, and then we used a referral sampling method (cabanting and perez 2016). we worked with 44 coastal chukchi participants, ranging in age from 30 to 81 (mean = 58). since naukan participants are from a single village and mostly older people still identify as naukan, our sample of naukan participants was smaller. we did not interview people who have one or more naukan parents or grandparents, but did not identify with the naukan culture. if more of those people did identify as naukan, we would have potentially had a larger sample. we interviewed 23 naukan people, ranging in age from 30 to 86 (mean = 65), including 63% of all remaining full speakers of the naukan language (jernigan et al. 2017). research methods involved semi-structured interviews and participant observation of collection and use of local species. as part of our broader interviews, we asked people to freelist foods gathered from rodents’ caches. we also asked how people locate the caches, along with details about the gathering process and how these foods are prepared. voucher specimens collected for the wider project include the five “mouse root” species mentioned in this article. these are housed at the herbarium of the komarov botanical institute in st. petersburg, russia, where they were identified with the help of botanist vladimir razzhivin. table 1 plants1 identified as “mouse roots.” family genus species voucher # chukchi name chukchi rank naukan name naukan rank use by adjacent cultures2 crassulaceae rhodiola integrifolia kajr18 juŋew saqlak 4 cyperaceae eriophorum angustifolium kajr17 pelqumret 1 pelkumraq 2 cay fabaceae hedysarum hedysaroides kajr29 mijmij 2 unataq 1 cay, in montiaceae claytonia acutifolia kajr45 pˀopoq 4 kegtaq ch polygonaceae persicaria bistorta kajr12 әpˀet 3 neqenllaq 3 ch, in 1species ids conform to the plant list (2013). 2cay = central alaskan yup’ik (jernigan et al. 2015), in = iñupiat (jones 2010), ch = chaplinsky yupik (ainana and zagrebin 2014). jernigan et al. 2019. ethnobiology letters 10(1):129–138 133 research communications results and discussion table 1 shows the species that study participants said they gathered from rodents’ nests and their relative importance for the two cultures. collectively, these are known in local russian as мышиные корешки (or little mouse roots). although biologically imprecise, this term is particularly salient, since nearly everyone in the region is fluent in russian, and the language plays an important role in cross-cultural communication. in chukchi, the term pelqumret1 refers both to these foods in general and to tubers of eriophorum angustifolium more specifically. naukan participants gave peknet2 as a general term. the species gathered correspond fairly well between naukan and chukchi participants with the sedge e. angustifolium and legume hedysarum hedysaroides (figure 3) being the most important overall. all genera in our study, except rhodiola, were also cited as gathered from rodent caches in ethnobotanical studies with at least one adjacent culture (ainana and zagrebin 2014; jernigan et al. 2015; jones 2010). bogoraz (1904) reported that the chukchi of his day gathered the tubers of claytonia, hedysarum, and polygonum species, among others. he did not specify, however, which species were taken from rodent nests and which were gathered directly where they grew. ethnographic (ståhlberg and svanberg 2010) and biological (batzli and henttonen 1990; iucn 2019) evidence suggest that the principal rodent species people gather from in this region is the root vole (microtus oeconomus). participants’ descriptions of the nest layout, plant species stored, and summer gathering activities (figure 4) are all consistent with that species. the arctic lemming (dicrostonyx torquatus) and the lemming vole (alticola lemminus) are other notable rodents present in this region. however, their diet and nesting habits (batzli and jung 1980; chester 2016) do not correspond as well to the descriptions people gave. figure 3 digging for h. hedysaroides in lorino. this species, reported as an important “mouse root,” is now more commonly gathered by hand. photo by kevin jernigan. jernigan et al. 2019. ethnobiology letters 10(1):129–138 134 research communications we examined the academic literature to see whether the plant species mentioned in our interviews were also observed in biological field studies of m. oeconomus diet. while there appears to be no research in chukotka, studies done in adjacent regions do help corroborate our ethnographic information. most notably, biologists (batzli and henttonen 1990) working in arctic tundra at toolik lake in alaska reported finding tubers from e. angustifolium, a hedysarum species, and persicaria bistorta in root vole caches, giving independent support, at least for the species that study participants most commonly mentioned. similarly, zoologists nikiforov and chibyev (2015) report finding polygonum spp. and sedges in the genus carex in root vole caches in the central sakha republic. only eight out of 44 chukchi respondents said that they still actively gather mouse roots, while none of the naukan did. however, a much larger number from both groups remember the practice from their younger days. forty-three out of 44 chukchi and 21 out of 23 naukan participants still possess specific knowledge of the process. for example, they described how to find nests, proper techniques and etiquette for gathering, storage, preparation, or the botanical identity of species found. many of the participants of both groups, who no longer gather mouse roots, described doing so when they were younger, with their parents or grandparents. people gave several kinds of reasons for not gathering now. first, some, who gathered as children, are no longer sure of their ability to find nests. second, others simply do not consider mouse roots a necessary or preferred resource, stating that there is no need to gather wild tubers, when potatoes are available in stores. to further illustrate this point, when the potato became available from russian traders, the chukchi gave it the name kәmçek, which also refers to the wild species claytonia tuberosa. third, some of these species, particularly h. hedysaroides, can also be harvested directly where they grow (figure 3). figure 4 summer foraging activity of the root vole. photo by kevin jernigan. jernigan et al. 2019. ethnobiology letters 10(1):129–138 135 research communications fourth, change in overall worldview also seems to be a factor, which will be discussed further below. gathering of mouse roots occurs in september or october, after the voles have completed their winter harvest, but before substantial snow cover. on rare occasions, when food was scarce, people would also try to harvest in the spring. both men and women go out and search with their feet for hollow spots on the tundra. they use a digging-pick called a wiŋәr in chukchi and siklaq in naukan (dobrieva et al. 2004; see figure 3 for a modern example) to peel back the tundra and access the subterranean caches. participants described how rodents would often separate different roots in different chambers. sometimes they would even find things in the nest that people find inedible. rules for proper harvesting of mouse roots are similar between chukchi and naukan participants and indeed, show many parallels with what has been reported (jernigan et al. 2015) for neighboring alaskan societies. traditions governing proper gathering can be understood within the framework of perspectivism (viveiros de castro 1998), a world-view which posits that animals and people share the same cultural and social reality, while differing in their physical bodies. although this concept was first developed in amazonian ethnography (århem 1993; viveiros de castro 1998), it has since been applied in other regions of the world, including the circumpolar north (hill 2018; willerslev 2004). there has recently been scholarly debate about the strengths and weaknesses of applying this concept to arctic and subarctic cultures. for example, willerslev (2004) discussed the limitations of perspectivism in conceptualizing human-animal relationships among the upper kolyma yukaghir, particularly for hunters identifying with their prey. laugrand (2015) observed that one of the main complications in applying perspectivism to present-day canadian iñuit hunters is the degree to which their traditional worldview and spirituality have been influenced and transformed by christianity. work on northern perspectivism has not focused much on plants. in one exception, jernigan et al. (2015) noted that the cup’ik of chevak, alaska draw an explicit parallel between each of the kinds of plant food they gather from vole nests and each type of seal that they hunt. they say that mice have their own seals in the form of the roots they collect. we now continue the discussion with our work in chukotka. when asked about proper gathering of mouse roots, naukan and chukchi participants most commonly cited the need to leave something in exchange for the rodents. the chukchi preferred leaving bread, animal fat, or meat as a gift, while naukans most often mentioned meat and tobacco. although people stressed that this gift is purely symbolic and not meant to provide significant sustenance, the practice is never-the-less considered important. some people said this is done to avoid offending the animals, while others compared it to buying something in a store. one person even left a coin. people who continue the practice of reciprocity when gathering mouse roots still take perspectivist reasoning seriously. however, the reasoning given by people who do not gather mouse roots illustrates the weakening and replacement of this worldview by a more materialistic one. some say, for example, that they are disgusted by this food, or feel sorry for the voles. this suggests a different kind of relationship, in which, rodents are not part of the same social reality as humans. another example relates to bogoraz’s (1904) observation that the chukchi of his day told him that voles have shamans and that these gather special roots that they employ just as humans used amanita muscaria mushrooms. however, none of the people we interviewed said that mice have shamans. to be sure, people also said there are currently no human shamans in their villages. the central alaskan yup’ik (jernigan et al. 2015) and the iñupiat of the kotzebue region (jones 2010) follow similar rules when collecting mouse food. elders from those regions reported that they do not take all the roots from the caches and leave a symbolic offering of food, such as dried fish. ståhlberg and svanberg (2010) also noted these two customs in their research on historical gathering of mouse roots in siberia and the russian far east. chukchi participants most commonly eat mouse roots with sea mammal fat, especially rendered seal oil. one popular dish, particularly for e. angustifolium, is svitkeret, boiled walrus meat. many also eat these foods with mulemul (‘blood’) or welmulemul (‘aged blood’) from seals or reindeer. another dish of the tundra chukchi is called qemeerˀәn, made by mixing greens, blood, and mouse roots such as e. angustifolium, and putting that in a reindeer stomach which can be frozen for later use. one elder fondly recalled the resulting stomach cut open with a filling jernigan et al. 2019. ethnobiology letters 10(1):129–138 136 research communications dotted with mouse roots as being “like snickers [candy bar].” naukan respondents most commonly ate mouse roots with seal oil. people also boiled them in sea mammal fat when they lived in naukan. in contrast, the neighboring central alaskan yup’ik often eat mouse roots cooked in soup, or mixed with sugar and oil or animal fat in a dish called akutaq (jernigan et al. 2015). conclusion although native foods are certainly still a marker of indigenous identity in chukotka (yamin-pasternak 2014), just as they are among other arctic cultures (cuerrier et al. 2019; jones 2010), that does not mean these customs are static. some, like the “mouse roots” we discuss here, appear to be declining, while others, such as mushrooms (yamin-pasternak 2007), have been added as a significant part of traditional subsistence. however, current trends do not necessarily point to the inevitability of the disappearance of mouse root harvest. although a fairly small number of chukchi and none of the naukan participants still gather these tubers, a large majority of both groups still remember details of the process passed from older generations. indeed, researchers (quave and pieroni 2015; turner and turner 2008) have pointed out the significance of traditional ecological knowledge (tek) that is preserved even in the face of discontinued practice, noting that such reservoirs of knowledge increase the resilience of local people to economic hardship and food insecurity. indeed, many participants in our study spoke of a resurgence of plant harvesting in the tough years following the breakup of the soviet union. the chukotkan traditions we have documented here have significant parallels and some notable differences with those of neighboring alaskan groups (jernigan et al. 2015; jones 2010). there is a significant overlap in species gathered from rodents in both regions, while some differences may be due to the relative prevalence (cavm team 2003) of tundra types. another notable similarity on both sides of the bering strait is in the protocol for gathering, particularly in giving a symbolic gift to the rodents in exchange for food taken. however, previous work (jernigan et al. 2015) suggests that the tradition of gathering from rodent nests is more actively practiced in some parts of alaska, especially among the yup’ik of the lower kuskokwim river and bering sea region. this particular relationship between humans, rodents, and plants also provides an opportunity to examine the advantages and limitations of applying the concept of perspectivism in this cultural setting. although some study participants clearly still value a reciprocal relationship with the rodents, where food, tobacco, and even coins can be given in exchange for roots, others espouse a more materialistic view. the authors are currently looking at this issue in greater detail among the central alaskan yup’ik to expand the discussion of the plant traditions of the bering strait region. future work could also explore this subject in other adjacent locations such as little diomede and the seward peninsula, which both had a high degree of historical contact with the naukan and chukchi. notes 1here we use the simplified version of the international phonetic alphabet used in some scientific publications on the chukchi language (e.g., dunn 1999). 2we employ the naukan orthography used the naukan yupik eskimo dictionary (dobrieva et al. 2004). acknowledgments we especially wish to thank the study participants in the villages of lavrentiya, lorino, uelen, inchoun, enurmino, and neshkan, who participated in this research and generously shared their time and knowledge with us. we also thank gennady zelensky for helping with the logistics of work in chukotka and vladimir razzhivin for assistance with identification of the botanical voucher specimens. thanks also to the beringia national park and the chukotkan autonomous region of russia for allowing the work to take place. we are grateful for the comments of two anonymous reviewers who gave useful suggestions for improving the article. declarations permissions: human subject approval was obtained from the university of alaska, fairbanks institutional review board (irb) (approval #465620-1), prior to beginning work. permission was obtained from the government of the chukotka autonomous region and from the beringia national park. sources of funding: the research was funded by the national science foundation’s arctic social science program, grant number 1304612 . jernigan et al. 2019. ethnobiology letters 10(1):129–138 137 research communications conflicts of interest: none declared. references cited ainana l. i., and i. zagrebin. 2014. edible plants used by siberian yupik eskimos of southeastern chukotka peninsula, russia. national park service, shared beringian heritage program, anchorage, ak. andersen, t., j. kruse, and b. poppel. 2002. survey of living conditions in the arctic: inuit, saami and the indigenous peoples of chukotka (slica). arctic 55:310–315. doi:10.14430/arctic713. århem, k. 1993. ecosofia makuna. in la selva humanizada: ecologia 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university of alaska, fairbanks. yamin-pasternak, s., a. kliskey, l. alessa, i. pasternak, p. schweitzer, g. k. beauchamp, m. l. caldwell, l. frink, c. giordano, e. v. golovko, and s. ellix katz. 2014. the rotten renaissance in the bering strait: loving, loathing, and washing the smell of foods with a (re)acquired taste. current anthropology 55:619–646. doi:10.1086/ 678305. the flora of azulejos in maranhão, brazil menezes et al. 2021. ethnobiology letters 12(1):94–102 94 data, methods & taxonomies sculpting elements from nature, especially plants, is an ancient habit throughout human history. a multidisciplinary approach to studying these objects can reveal much more than their shapes and colors. plants are underappreciated compared to animals in many aspects of people’s lives. wandersee and schussler (2001) coined the term “plant blindness”— introduction the history and habits of a group of people can be investigated from the images they produce within the historical, social, political, and economic contexts in which they were created. perhaps most prominently, the greeks, romans, and egyptians used images to express feelings, their perception of the world, and nature (costa and carvalho 2011). painting or the flora of azulejos in maranhão, brazil leandro r. menezes1, alícia b. ewerton1, amanda l. garcia1, susana s. dominici2, fabiane r. fernandes3, lívia flávia a. campos2,3, lucas c. marinho1* 1departamento de biologia, universidade federal do maranhão, são luís, brazil. 2programa de pós-graduação em design, universidade federal do maranhão, são luís, brazil. 3departamento de desenho e tecnologia, universidade federal do maranhão, são luís, brazil. *lc.marinho@ufma.br abstract the azulejo (tile) styles from the iberian peninsula and other regions in the new world are strongly influenced by muslim aesthetics. many of the azulejos in maranhão, brazil, depict plants and plant parts, but little is known about their species identity. in this paper, we investigated the origin of 94 plants species illustrated on the azulejos in maranhão based on their phytomorphic elements. among them, twenty-five were from asteraceae and eight were from rosaceae. most of the pieces are of portuguese origin and the illustrations on the azulejos show a european lifestyle. for brazilians, there was certainly no sense of belonging since the illustrations depict characteristics that are different from what is seen locally. although the phytomorphic illustrations do not reflect local flora, azulejos have become the most characteristic symbol of maranhão. our research provides a preliminary data base upon which future works can be based to propose new prints of maranhão plants and create digital guides that link historical information with botanical identifications. resumo o estilo azulejar aplicado da península ibérica e outras regiões no novo mundo tem forte influência da estética muçulmana. muitos azulejos no maranhão, brasil, retratam plantas e partes delas, mas pouco se sabe sobre a identidade das espécies retratadas. neste trabalho, investigamos a origem de 94 espécies de plantas ilustradas nos azulejos do maranhão com base em seus elementos fitomórficos. entre eles, vinte e cinco eram de asteraceae e oito de rosaceae. a maioria das peças é de origem portuguesa e as ilustrações dos azulejos mostram um estilo de vida europeu. para os brasileiros, certamente não havia sentimento de pertencimento, uma vez que as ilustrações retratam características diferentes do que se vê localmente. embora as ilustrações fitomórficas não reflitam a flora local, os azulejos tornaram-se o símbolo mais característico do maranhão. nossa pesquisa fornece uma base de dados a partir da qual trabalhos futuros podem ser feitos para propor novas estampas de plantas maranhenses e criar guias digitais que relacionam informações históricas com identificações botânicas. received april 22, 2021 open access accepted august 30, 2021 doi 10.14237/ebl.12.1.2021.1764 published october 8, 2021 keywords ceramics, portuguese flora, botanical illustration, tiles palavras-chave cerâmica, flora portuguesa, ilustração botânica, azulejos copyright © 2021 by the author(s); licensee society of ethnobiology. this is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution-noncommercial 4.0 international public license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0), which permits non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. menezes et al. 2021. ethnobiology letters 12(1):94–102 95 data, methods & taxonomies also referred to as plant awareness disparity (sensu parsley 2020)—to describe “the inability to see or notice the plants in one’s own environment” (wandersee and schussler 2001:3). based on data from the state of maranhão, brazil, this kind of plant awareness disparity also occurs with the botanical elements on most portuguese tiles, or azulejos. in other words, many studies have been conducted with azulejos as objects from a quantitative perspective of origins and preservation whereas there is little interest in the artistic elements, plant identities, and historical context of these azulejos. the data: azulejos of são luís island azulejos are commonly found on the historical buildings in maranhão (lima 2012) especially on the são luís island (also known as ilha grande or big island). these buildings often trace back to the 18th and 20th centuries and are primarily constructed by the portuguese. as the capital of maranhão, são luís endured several rounds of colonization from the portuguese, the french, and the dutch. são luís was first invaded by the portuguese in the 16th century, who failed to colonize the area because of the resistance from indigenous people. in 1612 the french founded the municipality of são luís, in honor of king louis ix, and maintained a friendly relationship with the indigenous people. in 1615 the portuguese reconquered the province, but the absence of slave labor and incipient agriculture made it difficult for the settlers to remain in the region, since the portuguese who ventured into american lands needed slave labor for agricultural production. in 1641 the dutch invaded but it was subsequently colonized by the returning portuguese. today, são luís is recognized as an architectural heritage of humanity and a national reference for facade azulejos (pereira 2012). the historic center of são luís includes about 5600 properties listed by the government, with varied architectural styles (fig. 1a–b, figueiredo et al. 2012). azulejos were first introduced to são luís around 1778 (historian domingos vieira, in silva filho 1980), but they did not gain popularity until the 19th century. this sudden interest is attributed to the aesthetic improvement of the azulejos on facades used to protect houses from winter rains during six months of the year (silva filho 1998). between 1843 and 1879, various shipments of portuguese azulejos arrived on são luís island, of which about 90% came from lisbon (fig. 1c) and others came from porto (alcântara 1980). in the 19th century when the azulejo production diminished in portugal, some commercial houses resold azulejos from other european countries to brazil (e.g., germany, belgium, france, the netherlands, and england) (castro and oliveira 2012). these azulejos are also found in smaller quantities in maranhão. due to the historical value, diversity, and preservation, the united nations educational, scientific and cultural organization nominated the historic center of são luís as a cultural heritage of humanity. the botanical illustrations on the azulejos gonçalves (2019:136) defined the term phytomorphic as an “ornament or decorative motif with morphological characteristics similar to plants”. this term was later applied to wooden structures (burlamaqui neto 2019) and masonry (fig. 1d). in other works (e.g., correia 2005; cardeira 2015; casimiro and sequeira 2018; gonçalves 2019) this kind of ornamentation is also called vegetalista. at the beginning of the 11th century, the paintings on the azulejos from the iberian peninsula and the new world reflected a strong influence of muslim aesthetics (mudéjar) in that phytomorphic elements were mixed with geometric compositions (casimiro and sequeira 2018). gonçalves (2019) attributed the improvement of geometric, symmetrical and phytomorphic patterns to the muslim rubric of alcoranic prohibition of human illustrations in the works. before the 16th century, azulejos in portugal largely came from the spanish-moorish region and had colors applied as pigmented enamel. many azulejos circulated in portugal during that time came from talavera, spain. in the 17th century, the production of standardized portuguese azulejos began to occur, including some with plant illustrations in their composition (fares 2012). phytomorphic elements are present in relief or flat on azulejos. the relief azulejos usually have phytomorphic decorations with branches, flower buds and flowers. the malmequer (as the portuguese call some flowers of the sunflower family) is commonly featured in this type (see fig. 1d, ferreira et al. 2012; araújo 2015). on the other hand, flat azulejos are more common in brazil (gonçalves and curval 2008; lima 2012), painted by hand or decorated using a stamping technique (estampilha). these azulejos have a huge number of geometric and/or phytomorphic shapes (araújo 2015). more abstract phytomorphic elements are referred to as stylized phytomorphic (or menezes et al. 2021. ethnobiology letters 12(1):94–102 96 data, methods & taxonomies vegetalist) elements (cardeira 2015), which connect and interact with geometric shapes that also make up the pieces. phytomorphic elements in other works investigations of azulejo illustrations revealed the origin, production techniques, construction standards and state of conservation. analysis of their content was little explored in brazil. chaud and parreira (2020) created a panel of the cerrado (a phytogeographic domain of brazil) and installed at the hospital das clínicas at the federal university of goiás, goiânia, brazil. the panel illustrated the typical vegetation of this region, providing a public artistic experience that arouses the feeling of belonging. figure 1 tiled buildings in the historic center of são luís, maranhão, brazil (a-b), and portugal (c-d). manor houses (solares) a: on estrela street and b: on portugal street; c: building in lisbon, the detail shows the phytomorphic elements, leaves and flowers of roses; d: pena palace, sintra, the detail shows the floral ornamentation, in masonry, on the edge of the window and azulejos with a phytomorphic element pattern. photos: l.c. marinho. menezes et al. 2021. ethnobiology letters 12(1):94–102 97 data, methods & taxonomies costa et al. (2014) also investigated the fauna and flora on the azulejo panels of colégio de santo antãoo-novo, in lisbon, portugal. the authors recognized 44 animal and plant entities, of which trees, shrubs and herbs were the most diverse, although they were used only as decorative elements. though not identified to the species level, common horticultural species such as cypresses, oaks, palms were recognized (costa et al. 2014). in addition to azulejos, plant forms are also used and investigated in other types of artwork. teixeiracosta et al. (2018) identified the plant species present in the stained-glass windows of the dr. joão barbosa rodrigues botanical museum, in são paulo, brazil, wrote a brief history of useful plants in brazil, and identified six species of orchids in the central panel and another 28 species positioned around the central panel. moreover, in the context of the botanical museum, teixeira-costa et al. (2018) discuss the relevance of these illustrations for the dissemination of scientific knowledge. lisbon’s national museum of ancient art (mnaa) published the itinerary for botanical iconography of its collection (mnaa 2020), in which approximate botanical identifications were made. in this report, mnaa briefly discussed the role of plants in christian symbology, pagan gods (i.e., the work "hércules capturando cérbero" 1560–1561), and commercial activities (i.e., the work "o descobrimento da índia" 1504–1530). the azulejos in maranhão have been increasingly used for education and research, although there is still much more to be done with respect to the immaterial aspects of the azulejos: their relevance, beauty, history, and especially, what the azulejos represent for the people of maranhão. this paper is the result of our research into the origin and identification of the species illustrated on azulejos in maranhão. our analyses are based on extensive literature searches and provide novel insights into: i) which botanical groups are most represented; ii) whether the plants are native or exotic to brazil; iii) the origin of azulejos with phytomorphic decorative styles; iv) the relationship between the plants and the people who produced them; and v) the connection between these illustrated plants part of the culture of the people from maranhão. methods the inventário do patrimônio azulejar do maranhão by lima (2012, inventory of the tiled heritage from maranhão, in free translation) includes images of all azulejos on são luís island and in historic cities in the state of maranhão, brazil, as well as information on the location, state of conservation, origin, dimension, and technique of azulejo production. the images were examined to identify phytomorphic elements. after the first screening to locate the phytomorphic elements, we adopted the method of association and approximate identification, where images were compared to taxonomic groups from the countries of origin in order to identify them to the lowest possible taxonomic level. for portuguese species, which are in greater numbers, the flora-on: flora de portugal interactiva (2014) website was used to compare portuguese species with the illustrations. results the inventory of tiled heritage from maranhão includes 452 types of azulejos, of which most are representations of religious themes and geometric shapes; only two pieces illustrate animals (swans). among the 452 types, 94 azulejos (~21%) contain phytomorphic elements. 56 azulejos had their images associated with a botanical taxonomic group and seven images were identified to the species level. the remaining 31 pieces could not be identified to any specific taxonomic group. many of illustrations were created with an artistic touch, and often using combined features from multiple species. the family asteraceae (the sunflower family) was predominant and recognized in 25 azulejos, followed by rosaceae (the rose family) with eight identified specimens (fig. 2a). most of the pieces that have phytomorphic elements come from portugal and england (fig. 2b). the azulejos from germany and england are most accurate with a wealth of details depicted by the decalcomania technique (figs. 3e, g, h, 4b). this decoration technique gained its popularity in england in the middle to late 18th century. asteraceae, rosaceae (fig. 3h) and geraniaceae (the family of geraniums) were the most common families in british azulejos. asteraceae (fig. 4) and geraniaceae (fig. 3e) were the families represented in the german azulejos. the botanical elements of the azulejos in maranhão were especially rich in tapete-type and cercadura coverings. tapete-type coverings are decorated azulejo panels, which are known for their repetition of colors and coverage of entire walls (castro 2012). the outer bar forms a border (cercadura) of just one row of menezes et al. 2021. ethnobiology letters 12(1):94–102 98 data, methods & taxonomies azulejos that makes the covering look like a carpet (tapete). in the cercadura, it is common to find illustrations such as folhas-em-cadeia (leaves-in-chains) and renda-portuguesa (portuguese lace). discussion among the 94 azulejos (~21% of the total) with phytomorphic elements, 56 had images associated with a botanical taxonomic group and seven pieces were completely identified to the species level. each of the seven pieces has at least one of the following three species: rosa canina l. (rose); vitis vinifera l. (grapevine); or tulipa sylvestris l. (tulip). although they occur in brazil (flora do brasil 2020), rose and grapevine are cultivated species from the old world. the only species of tulip grown in brazil, tulipa gesneriana l. (dutilh and campos-rocha 2020), is not similar to the species illustrated on the azulejos. the azulejo that represents the family liliaceae comes from portugal (fig. 3f) and the image is similar to tulipa sylvestris, a species native of portugal. the disposition of the leaves and the color used in the composition of the print were characteristic of tulipa sylvestris (fig. 3f). although most illustrations were identified to the family level, three pieces could be recognized only as monocots, a relatively broad taxonomic group, since there was not enough detail. when multiple plant species were presented in a single azulejo, the sunflower family asteraceae was always one of them. in the middle of the 19th century, this family was common in relief azulejos and became the dominant decorative motif (ferreira et al. 2012; araújo 2015). its dominance among prints can also be associated with the great diversity of the group, which has more than 25,000 species and a worldwide distribution, even in temperate countries. the arrangement of the figure 2 a: taxonomic groups identified from illustrations on azulejos in maranhão (n=452). b: countries of origin of maranhão azulejos that have phytomorphic elements in their illustrations. figure 3 examples of azulejos in maranhão with phytomorphic elements and the corresponding plant group. a: apocynaceae; b: brassicaceae; c: convolvulaceae; d: fabaceae; e: geraniaceae; f: liliaceae; g: linaceae; h: rosaceae; i: vitaceae. photos: a,d,f: a.j.pereira; b: p.v. araújo; c: c.a. aguiar; e,g: m. porto; h: m. henderson; i: r. tandon. azulejos from lima (2012). a-g from floraon: flora de portugal interactiva, distributed under creative commons license (cc by 4.0); h-i from unsplash. menezes et al. 2021. ethnobiology letters 12(1):94–102 99 data, methods & taxonomies ligulate flowers (flowers with fused petals in tongueshape) around a rounded disc with small tube flowers (see fig. 4a, c) is typical of this family. in some prints flowers resembled a brush-like structure from the side view (see fig. 4b). in these cases, there were usually compositions with leaves, which also made the identification easier. rosaceae ranked second (fig. 2a) in abundance among azulejos (n = 8, fig. 3h). their rose-like flowers and compound, serrate leaves are very characteristic of the family. all illustrations were related to rosa canina, the most common rose species in cultivation. the number of petals illustrated differ from the native species of the genus. the genus rosa has flowers with five petals, but the cultivated specimens have a proliferation of petals caused by the cultivation and manipulation of the morphology of crossings. it is common in cultivated species to design the morphology from crosses between specimens with desired characteristics. the clear tendency was to illustrate plants that were observed and handled on a daily basis and had ornamental appeal, such as asteraceae (fig. 4), rosaceae (fig. 3h) and liliaceae (fig. 3f), and with economic value, such as brassicaceae (cabbage and broccoli, fig. 3c), fabaceae (beans and soy, fig. 3d) and vitaceae (grapevine, fig. 3i). this tendency provided another means for identification. castro et al. (2014) also recognized that the azulejo panels at the colégio de santo antão-o-novo also illustrated everyday scenes, which have the most biological illustrations, including common plant species, such as cypresses, pine trees, grasses, and representatives of the family cucurbitaceae (e.g., melons and pumpkins). many flowers are tetramerous (with four petals) in the shape of a cross (fig. 3b). although there was no additional evidence, this floral structure is commonly associated with family brassicaceae (fig. 3b). species in this family have four petals arranged as a cross, which gives them their name cruciferae. the economic importance of this clade as vegetables and garden ornaments makes this assumption coherent. our study demonstrates that the phytomorphic elements in the pieces are related to the countries of origin, mainly portugal and england (fig. 2b) even though some of the azulejos were produced after the diversity of brazilian flora was known. this result is different from what was found by teixeira-costa et al. (2018) for the illustrations in the stained-glass windows of the museum of the botanical institute of são paulo, where all parts of the stained glass were produced in brazil and, therefore, represent brazilian species, with the exception of the fungus amanita muscaria (l.) lam. that is native to asia and europe. the presence of approximately 20% of the azulejos with phytomorphic elements contrasts with figure 4 examples of azulejos in maranhão with illustrations of asteraceae. azulejos from lima (2012). photos: a,c: a.j.pereira; b: m. porto from flora-on: flora de portugal interactiva, distributed under creative commons license (cc by 4.0). menezes et al. 2021. ethnobiology letters 12(1):94–102 100 data, methods & taxonomies the almost absence of animals represented on the pieces. only two azulejos, of unknown origin, contain species of swans (cygnus sp.), demonstrating that plant awareness disparity was not present during the production of azulejos. the representation of swans follows the same pattern as plants, since the swans are completely white and completely white swan species are not native to brazil. final remarks: azulejos, plants and people for brazilians, the phytomorphic illustrations on the azulejos in maranhão did not provide a sense of belonging, since the elements are out of context with characteristics that differ from what is seen locally. this is not surprising because the azulejos were produced in portugal, germany, england, and other european countries. despite colonizing various places in the world since the 15th century (pataca 2016; nogueira 2000; linhares et al. 2018), the process of portuguese territorial expansion occurred with greater intensity in the 19th century (nogueira 2000; linhares et al. 2018). in this way, it seems unlikely that exotic plant species were never of interest to the artists who designed azulejos. ironically, throughout the colonization process, the plants illustrated on the azulejos were brought by the europeans to maranhão and had a long-term impact on the lives of local people. many of these introduced species were naturalized in brazil and used as medicine and food crops (prazeres 1891; linhares et al. 2019). although the phytomorphic illustrations do not reflect local flora, azulejos have become the most characteristic symbol of maranhão (dominici 2021). our research provides a preliminary data base upon which future works can be based to propose new prints of maranhão plants and create digital guides that link historical information with botanical identifications. acknowledgments we thank the conselho nacional de desenvolvimento científico e tecnológico (cnpq-brazil) for awarding undergraduate fellowships to abe (grant #112595/2020-0) and alg (grant #152701/2020-6). we also thank patrícia sperotto for helping with the illustrations of lianas and the flora de portugal interactiva team for making images of plants in the field available. we also thank the anonymous reviewers for their invaluable contributions, and dr. liming cai for critical reading of an earlier version of the manuscript. declarations permissions: the images from flora-on: flora de portugal interactiva are distributed under creative commons license (cc by 4.0), and from unsplash are distributed under unsplash license. all authors agreed to participate and read the final version of the manuscript. sources of funding: none declared. conflicts of interest: none declared. references cited alcântara, d. 1980. azulejos portugueses em são luís do maranhão. fontana, rio de janeiro. araújo, s. i. s. b. 2015. a conservação do azulejo de fachada na cidade do porto: as práticas de reabilitação de edifícios com fachadas azulejadas. master’s thesis, instituto politécnico de tomar, porto, portugal. available at: https:// comum.rcaap.pt/handle/10400.26/13739. accessed on april 20, 2021. burlamaqui neto, l. s. 2019. um éden nos trópicos: as projeções do paraíso em um móvel colonial. revista investigações 32:410–426. available at: https:// periodicos.ufpe.br/revistas/inv/article/ view/240511. accessed on april 20, 2021. cardeira, a. q. 2015. a coleção de azulejaria antiga da faculdade de belas-artes da universidade de lisboa. master’s thesis, universidade de lisboa, lisboa, portugal. available at: https:// repositorio.ul.pt/handle/10451/23907. accessed on april 20, 2021. casimiro, t. m., and j. l. sequeira. 2018. dois conjuntos de azulejos hispano-mouriscos. o tejo e a igreja do senhor da boa morte (século xvi). cira-arqueologia 6:243–253. available at: https:// www.cm-vfxira.pt/cmvfxira/uploads/document/ file/2189/9.pdf. accessed on april 20, 2021. castro, l. m. p. m. 2012. tipo de revestimento azulejar. in inventário do patrimônio azulejar do maranhão, edited by z. m. c. lima, pp. 34–46. santa marta, são luís, maranhão. castro, l. m. p. m., and v. c. l. oliveira. 2012. procedência. in inventário do patrimônio azulejar do maranhão, edited by z. m. c. lima, pp. 52–54. santa marta, são luís, maranhão. chaud, e. m., and s. r. parreira. 2020. uma janela para o cerrado: patureza e arte. botânica pública 1:14–18. available at: https://botanica.icb.ufg.br/ menezes et al. 2021. ethnobiology letters 12(1):94–102 101 data, methods & taxonomies p/24641-botanica-publica-edicao-atual. accessed on april 20, 2021. correia, l. n. 2005. decoração vegetalista nos mosaicos portugueses, edições colibri, lisboa. costa, a. m., and r. s. carvalho. 2011. a floresta antiga admirada entre quatro paredes. iberne 88:18–19. costa, a. m., r. s. carvalho, and l. m. carvalho. 2014. a fauna e a flora nos azulejos do antigo colégio de santo antão. um exemplo de aprofundamento de inventário. in a herança de santos simões: novas perspectivas para o estudo da azulejaria e da cerâmica, edited by s. v. flor, pp. 211 –237. edições colibri, lisboa. dominici, s. s. 2021. reconhecimento e memória: um estudo sobre cegueira botânica e os azulejos do centro histórico de são luís – ma. master’s thesis, universidade federal do maranhão, são luís, brazil. dutilh, j. h. a., and a. campos-rocha. 2020. liliaceae. in flora do brasil 2020. jardim botânico do rio de janeiro. 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figure 2). in the pacific northwest, individuals have been observed at elevations ranging from 0–300 m and remain active in water temperatures between 1–2°c and 38°c. the species must have colonized the puget sound after the deglaciation of the region at the end of the pleistocene (hays et al. 1999; spinks and shaffer 2005). this allopatric population may have formed when a pyroclastic event from mount rainer created a introduction the western pond turtle, actinemys marmorata (formerly clemmys marmorata; crother et al. 2003; feldman and parham 2002), is the only freshwater turtle native to western washington. with an estimated population of 250–350 individuals in washington, it is currently listed by the state as an endangered species (hays et al. 1999); limited genetic variation in modern populations combined with anthropogenic impacts seriously threatens the survival of this species (gray 1995; spinks and shaffer 2005). conservation efforts would benefit from a more thorough understanding of the historic dynamics of the species, especially at the northernmost extent of its range where a. marmorata is more likely to have been impacted by long-term climatic changes that may affect reproductive rates, duration of hibernation, and availability of food resources. the archaeofaunal record may be used to establish the prehistoric biogeography of the species by providing critical temporal and geographic data in the absence of adequate paleontological datasets. considering the role turtles and their relatives play in many foraging societies as a subsistence resource and often in ceremonial realms, it is expected that their remains should be recovered from archaeological deposits. if archaeology and biogeography of the western pond turtle (ac nemys marmorata) in the puget sound region jacob l. fisher1* 1department of anthropology, california state university, sacramento, ca *jlfisher@csus.edu abstract the modern distribu on of the western pond turtle (ac nemys marmorata) is discon nuous, with a historic but ex rpated popula on in the puget sound region that was isolated from popula ons south along the columbia river. to be er understand this distribu on, a review of the archaeological literature for the puget sound region was conducted to determine the prehistoric biogeography of the species in the puget sound area. western pond turtles are nearly absent from the regional archaeological record, represented at best by four tenta ve specimens. this may be explained by extremely low popula on levels throughout the holocene at the northernmost extent of its range. received january 11, 2018 open access accepted may 8, 2018 doi 10.14237/ebl.9.2.2018.1228 keywords zooarchaeology; ac nemys marmorata; conserva on biology; biogeography; washington state copyright © 2018 by the author(s) licensee society of ethnobiology. this is an open‐access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution‐noncommercial 4.0 international public license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by‐nc/4.0), which permits non‐commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. fisher. 2018. ethnobiology le ers 9(2):180–188 181 research communica ons barrier from columbia river populations about 4,700 bp (hays et al. 1999:3). the earliest scientific specimens of western pond turtle, obtained in 1841, originate from the puget sound region (baird and girard 1852:177). there is low genetic variability in the northern populations of a. marmorata, supporting evidence of a recent holocene expansion of their range (gray 1995; janzen et al. 1997; spinks and shaffer 2005). moreover, spinks and shaffer (2005) note that the puget sound population does not conform to the general pattern of north-south genetic divergence, and it appears that this population is less closely related to the columbia river populations than it is to populations further south. the oregon, washington, and mojave river populations display a high degree of genetic similarity that reflects a lack of dispersal and gene flow and may be a consequence of habitat fragmentation (gray 1995; lovich and meyer 2002; spinks and shaffer 2005). throughout this range, pond turtle populations continue to dwindle due to a variety of factors, including habitat fragmentation, competition with non-native species, and possibly a lack of genetic variability. by the 1980s, puget sound populations were nearly extirpated with only isolated individuals observed in the 1990s. hays and colleagues (1999:ix) state that commercial exploitation of pond turtles for consumption in the late 1800s likely reduced the puget sound population to unsustainable levels by the 1930s, but they provide only a personal communication as support. they note that cooper observed that turtles were “common in freshwater ponds and rivers west of the cascades” in the 19th century (cooper 1859), and that their historic abundance was later questioned by storer (1937) based on his observations several decades later. hays et al. (1999) offer three reasons for the scarcity observed by storer in the 1930s: (1) elusiveness due to the wary nature of the species, (2) low population numbers at the northernmost limit of its range, or (3) historic reductions that occurred prior to collecting activities in the 1930s (hays et al. 1999:16). hays and colleagues implicitly favor the lattermost explanation. the possibility that western pond turtle populations were always low may be investigated using the archaeological record. there has been great success in the use of archaeofaunal data to establish the prehistoric biogeography of a variety of species (e.g., dombrosky et al. 2016; fisher 2012). turtles are commonly exploited as a subsistence resource by small-scale foragers, and their abundance and distribution in the archaeological record should be a reflection of the prehistoric population dynamics in response to environmental change at northern latitudes. if a. marmorata historic populations were large enough to be commercially exploited, as alleged by hays and colleagues (1999), they are expected to occur in archaeological deposits at relatively high rates throughout the late holocene. on the other hand, if populations were always low, archaeofaunal specimens should be rare. archaeological expectations despite their relatively small package size, turtles arguably are attractive as a prey species due to the ease of capture and the low processing costs. in the southern range of a. marmorata, native californians harvested turtles using underwater traps and nets specifically made for this purpose or captured them by hand by diving (e.g., latta 1999). a. marmorata may also be collected on land during the winter and summer months when they leave the water to hibernate or aestivate, and females (and their eggs) could have been gathered when encountered during nesting season. females nest in relatively predictable locations, favoring areas with sparse and low vegetation, hard and dry soil, and above the floodplain (holland 1994). additionally, there may be some degree of nest site philopatry, with females returning figure 1 western pond turtle from california. by yathin s. krishnappa cc by‐sa 3.0, h ps:// commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=21284381. fisher. 2018. ethnobiology le ers 9(2):180–188 182 research communica ons some of the earliest archaeological assemblages. the european pond turtle (emys orbicularis) appears early in the italian middle paleolithic, circa 55,000 years ago (stiner et al. 2000); this species is genetically and behaviorally similar to a. marmorata (spinks and shaffer 2005). likewise, there is a high frequency of turtle and tortoise specimens in north american clovis period sites dating to ca. 11,050 to 10,800 radiocarbon years ago (waguespack and surovell 2003). in eastern washington, the painted turtle (chrysemys picta) comprises over half of the reptile and amphibian remains (total nisp=2,746) in northern columbia plateau assemblages dating to 7000–150 bp (butler and campbell 2004). the species of interest here, a. marmorata, appears in early holocene sites along the santa barbara coast (erlandson 1994), and its use by native californians and oregonians is well to their birthplace to nest, and as a result, modern populations tend to be male-biased due to predation on nesting females (holland 1994). this predictable behavior would allow easy gathering by people who knew that this resource would be available around the month of june. it is also likely that turtles were fortuitously acquired during other subsistence activities such as fishing. once obtained, it is unlikely that people would have disposed of them unless there were significant processing costs. judging from ethnographic data from california, where turtles were often simply placed over hot coals and consumed without any further preparation (e.g., loeb 1926), the post-encounter processing costs are likely to be very low. the potentially low costs of acquiring and processing turtles would explain why turtles are frequently found throughout prehistory, including in figure 2 approximate historic range (circa 1850) of ac nemys marmorata in washington (adapted from hays et al. [1999: figure 1]) and select loca ons men oned in text. cb=cornet bay, da=daishowa america site, bs=bay street midden, jp=judd peak rockshelter, d1=duwamish no. 1 site, nl=nisqually lake. fisher. 2018. ethnobiology le ers 9(2):180–188 183 research communica ons established ethnographically (e.g., latta 1999; loeb 1926). in addition to serving as a subsistence item, turtles may also enter the archaeological record as artifacts used for ritual and utilitarian purposes, such as turtle-shell rattles or bowls (e.g., gillreath-brown and peres 2017). such artifacts may be curated for long periods of time and transported great distances, complicating the general assumption that archaeofaunal remains represent local turtle populations. for example, specimens of a. marmorata that exhibit polishing and drilling indicative of nonfood use have been found in western nevada, making it difficult to determine whether they represent local populations or were transported as artifacts over the sierra nevada crest from california (hattori 1982). isolated specimens found well beyond the historic range of a taxon likely represent curated artifacts. prehistoric record of actinemys marmorata in puget sound considering the antiquity of turtle use, the potential importance of turtles as a dietary resource, and the reported commercial harvesting in the historic period, one would expect a. marmorata to be relatively conspicuous in the puget sound archaeological record. published reports and gray literature (i.e., cultural resource management reports) on excavations throughout western washington were reviewed to identify archaeological occurrences of a. marmorata in an effort to establish the prehistoric distribution of the species. only four sites have possible turtle remains, two of which are identified specifically to a. marmorata (figure 2). one specimen is a single plastron fragment found at cornet bay (45is31b) on the north end of whidbey island in deposits dating from circa 2500 bp to historic contact (weasma 1991). cornet bay is approximately 80 km north of the northernmost historical occurrence of a. marmorata. hays and colleagues (1999) suggest that the individual could have been transported for food. however, the identification of the specimen as a. marmorata is questionable, as the original report states: “the plastral fragment in the [cornet bay] fauna does not conform exactly to the few specimens of [a. marmorata] at hand” (weasma 1991:10). it is possible that this specimen is instead c. picta obtained as an artifact from eastern washington. considering that both species are of the same family (emydidae), the lack of conformity with a. marmorata may be due to misidentification. unfortunately, the cornet bay specimen could not be located for evaluation in the site collection housed at the burke museum, university of washington. the second specimen identified as a. marmorata is from the bay street shell midden (45kp115), a site on the kitsap peninsula that dates between ad 1150 and 1750 (lewarch et al. 2002). although it is listed as a. marmorata, it is unknown how this assessment was made. notably, both sites contain relatively late deposits. there are two additional occurrences that were not specifically identified as a. marmorata. at the daishowa america site (45ca415), one fragment of turtle carapace was found in a stratum dating to 880 ± 60 to 590 ± 80 bp, but it is only listed as testudinidae (lewarch et al. 1992). this site is located near port angeles on the north shore of the olympic peninsula, far outside of the historic range of a. marmorata. the testudinidae family consists of tortoises, none of which occur in washington state. the order testudines includes all turtles, tortoises, and terrapins; considering that sea turtles have been observed in the region historically, this specimen may instead be from the family cheloniidae. the fourth possible archaeological occurrence of turtle in western washington is from judd peak rockshelter south (45le222), where it is recorded that specimens from “a large frog or toad and possibly turtle” were present in contexts dating between 5970 ± 100 to 310 ± 50 bp (daugherty et al. 1987). no further information is available on this material. in each of the four cases, there is a significant degree of uncertainty in the identification that may be addressed using skeletal morphology, genetics, or zooms. it may also be significant that the two cases that explicitly note the skeletal part involve carapace or plastron fragments, the portion that is often transformed into cultural artifacts that may have traveled great distances through exchange networks from eastern washington or the columbia river. the near absence of prehistoric a. marmorata specimens in the puget sound region may reflect some challenges when using the archaeological record to reconstruct prehistoric biogeography: turtle remains may not be present due to taphonomic processes, or remains that are recovered were not correctly identified as turtle due to research biases. the acidic soils of the northwest coast are not favorable for bone preservation, and most vertebrate faunal remains come from shell middens. yet, a fisher. 2018. ethnobiology le ers 9(2):180–188 184 research communica ons absence in ethnographic texts is found with the nisqually. hays and colleagues (1999:16–17) note that there are native accounts of gathering turtle eggs at nisqually lake, and that the nisqually name for the lake translates to “place where the turtles come from”; hays et al. (1999) provide no source for this information. smith (1941:207) states that the name of nisqually lake is “yicáxtcabc,” but provides no translation. reporting on the survey of the northern pacific railroad route in 1853 to 1855, cooper (1859) noted that a. marmorata was found in the vicinity of fort steilacoom, approximately 15 km from nisqually. further, cooper (1859:292) notes that turtles are called “el-la-chick” by the nisqually, and turtles are transcribed to “?álәšәk” in a lushootseed dictionary (bates et al. 1994:368). this appears to be a cognate of ~alashik, the term for turtle in the sahaptin language spoken on the lower mid-columbia river above the dalles (e. hunn, pers. comm.). certainly, the absence of turtles in ethnographic literature does not necessitate a real absence in the environment. for example, bettelheim (2005:27) notes that western pond turtles do not appear in thomas jefferson mayfield’s account of the yokuts in san joaquin valley of california and only cursory mention of the species is made in frank latta’s accounts of the yokuts. this is in spite of large turtle populations in the region and their common occurrence in archaeofaunal assemblages of the region. however, considering that turtles are a common element of oral tradition and stories elsewhere on the pacific coast and interior northwest (e.g., beavert 1974), it is likely meaningful that turtles are conspicuously absent from oral tradition and imagery in the puget sound region. understanding the contradiction if the observed rarity of a. marmorata is reflective of the actual population densities of this species in the region, the discrepancy between the prehistoric and historic records of abundance must be addressed. four possible explanations are offered: (a) predation pressures maintained low population densities; (b) there was a late onset of environmental conditions favorable to a. marmorata reproduction; (c) there was a historic introduction into the region; and (d) the unverified report of commercial exploitation is incorrect and historic populations were in fact low. prehistoric predation pressures could have maintained low turtle population densities, with a historic rebound occurring due to environmental significant number of such sites have been excavated in the region and these are frequently located near habitats of a. marmorata. it thus seems unlikely that the near absence of turtles in the archaeological record is due to taphonomy. alternatively, turtle specimens may be recovered but not be correctly identified in the region due to research biases. herptofaunal remains are often deemphasized in zooarchaeological training and analysis. for example, olson states in a zooarchaeology methodology section of one report: “the final category is undetermined/other. this includes all those faunal items that could not be distinguished into the above broad size categories plus reptile remains” (olson, in schalk 1980:263, emphasis added). when specimens are identified as being turtle, they are often only identified to a nonspecific level, such as “turtle” or “testudinidae” (see schneider and everson 1989 for similar critique). even when specimens are identified to the species level, it is often done on the basis of modern distributions and not diagnostic skeletal morphology. this is problematic for a variety of reasons (driver 2011), and the practice is counterproductive for biogeography studies due to the inherent circularity. to evaluate the potential influence of methodological research biases, the unidentified vertebrate and invertebrate faunal assemblage from the duwamish no. 1 site (45ki23) were searched for a. marmorata specimens. this site was selected due to its location and the presence of abundant faunal remains. this large shell midden is located on a lowlying terrace on the west bank of the duwamish river in seattle, washington, close to the historic mouth of the river (blukis onat 1987). the location and presence of wetland species in the assemblage suggests that ideal habitats for the western pond turtle would have been present. four occupations spanning at least 1000 years (ad 670–1700) are represented, providing a significant time span for understanding potential changes in western pond turtle abundances through time, if present. no turtle specimens were discovered among the unidentified remains (n≥ 10,000 specimens). ethnographic record of actinemys marmorata in puget sound a literature review of the ethnography for the puget sound region resulted in a single mention of turtles (drucker 1955, 1965; haeberlin and gunther 1930; smith 1940, 1941). the single exception to the fisher. 2018. ethnobiology le ers 9(2):180–188 185 research communica ons changes brought forth by catastrophic human population declines. resource depression of taxa with low recruitment rates frequently occurs as a result of increases in human population densities, sedentism, and territoriality. when human populations radically decline, the reduction in hunting pressures allows previously depressed resources to rebound. in western north america, protohistoric rebound has been identified in artiodactyl, fish, and shellfish populations in california and lower columbia valley of oregon (e.g., butler 2000; fisher 2018). an argument that invokes climate-induced environmental change is similar to protohistoric rebound, and the two explanations are not exclusive of one another. temperature has an effect on sex ratios in turtle populations due to temperature-dependent sex determination (christie and geist 2017; geist et al. 2015), and western pond turtles on the central california coast appear to mature more rapidly than species in eastern north america (and presumably more northern latitudes) due to the warmer, mediterranean climate (germano and rathbun 2008). cooler conditions during the little ice age (c. ad 1350–1850) were likely unfavorable to a. marmorata reproductive rates, and populations may have rebounded with climatic warming beginning in the mid-19th century. there are several problems with these two scenarios. first, there is no evidence for resource depression outside of the lower columbia valley despite high human population densities in the pacific northwest (butler and campbell 2004). second, it is expected that turtle specimens would be consistently found, albeit rarely, in the archaeological record and mentioned in ethnographic literature if they were locally present. in regards to climate, remains should be recovered in earlier deposits when more favorable conditions were present, such as during the preceding medieval climatic anomaly (c. ad 950–1300). third, a population rebound would require reproductive rates that are unlikely to be met by this temperate species at its northernmost limit. modern, post-little ice age conditions are not necessarily favorable to the species considering that current conservation efforts are hampered by the cool summer temperatures that slow embryo development and decrease the likelihood that hatchlings will survive to adulthood (hallock et al. 2016). bearing this in mind, it is doubtful that rebound would occur rapidly enough to account for historically recorded abundances. the discontinuous distribution of the species and rare observations in the archaeological and ethnographic record may be best explained by a historic introduction. such introductions of western pond turtles have been suggested elsewhere based on genetic and historic data, including the populations in british columbia and the carson, truckee, and humboldt rivers of nevada (bury et al. 2008; spinks and shaffer 2005). the san francisco turtle market obtained a. marmorata in the thousands from the central valley and north coast ranges of california in the late 1800s, with the earliest documented commercial exploitation in 1863 (bettelheim 2005). the introduction of a. marmorata to western great basin rivers undoubtedly occurred during the mid19th century, possibly by miners from the california goldfields (hattori 1982). certainly, a recent introduction would explain the lack of latitudinal genetic divergence. the puget sound population appears to be more closely related to northern california populations than the more geographically proximate columbia river population (spinks and shaffer 2005:table 2). furthermore, the two archaeological specimens identified as a. marmorata both come from sites with relatively late prehistoric or early historic era deposits. yet, western pond turtles were present in the puget sound region by 1841 when the species was first described; if an introduction occurred, it must have taken place prior to this date. such a possibility was previously suggested by storer, who notes: “as turtles are now quite likely to be transported from place to place by irresponsible persons the need for checking the situation in western washington at an early date is evident” (1937:67). the hudson bay company established fort nisqually in 1833 and was active in northern california about this time, and it is feasible that turtles were transported north and ultimately released into the wild. notably, it may not be a coincidence that the single ethnographic mention of turtles comes from the nisqually in the vicinity of the hudson bay company post. as with the first two scenarios, one problem with this explanation is that a presumably small introduced turtle population would have had to increase very rapidly to account for high historic abundances. this leads to the fourth explanation for the contradiction: the premise that populations were historically large enough to support commercial exploitation is incorrect. as previously noted, hays and colleagues (1999) state that commercial exploitation was the primary cause for the initial demise of western fisher. 2018. ethnobiology le ers 9(2):180–188 186 research communica ons washington turtle populations, noting the lucrative market in 1890s san francisco. however, no historic records are provided as support. to address this deficiency, an online search of newspaper archives from the puget sound region using key terms “turtle” and “terrapin” was conducted through washington state library (https://www.sos.wa.gov/library/ newspapers_wsl.aspx#historic) and newspapers.com. while turtle soup, turtle doves, and the expression “turning turtle” (a capsized vessel or turned automobile) were common hits, there was not a single reference to local exploitation of turtle populations. considering this, we may “turn turtle” on the premise that puget sound populations were abundant in the 19th century and conclude that the vague historic baseline of high population abundance is simply incorrect until evidence to the contrary is brought forth. instead, the bulk of the evidence indicates that the abundance of western pond turtles in the puget sound region was always low, if not an early historic introduction. conclusions the dietary use of chelonians is so well established in other regions, even in some of the earliest human economies, that it is notable that a. marmorata is nearly absent in puget sound archaeological collections and the ethnographic literature. four possible turtle specimens have been recorded in western washington, two of which are identified as actinemys marmorata. significant problems are present with their identification, including the lack of attempts to identify chelonian specimens to the lowest taxonomic level possible and the use of historic distributions to make identifications. as others have noted (e.g., driver 2011; wolverton 2013), there must be methodological rigor in species identification and reporting. in particular, the use of historic distributions is a major hurdle in our ability to employ archaeofaunal assemblages for addressing prehistoric biogeography questions. future work should reexamine the four tentative archaeological specimens to confirm the species identification combined with direct radiocarbon dating to determine whether western pond turtles were prehistorically present in western washington. even if the previously reported specimens are identified as western pond turtle that date well before the historic era, the extreme rarity of a. marmorata indicates that the population was never abundant in the puget sound region. acknowledgements burke museum graciously provided access to the cornet bay and duwamish no. 1 collections. don grayson provided early guidance on this research. eugene hunn provided assistance with translations. matthew bettelheim and ben fisher provided much appreciated insight on western pond turtle exploitation and natural history. gissel ruiz and rachel davies graciously reviewed earlier drafts of the manuscript. lastly, i thank three anonymous reviewers for their insights. declarations permissions: not applicable sources of funding: not applicable conflicts of interest: none declared references cited baird, s.f. and c. girard. 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76 research communications modern transportation, ease of accessibility along logging road networks, and increased economic benefits have led to increased hunting pressures (bennett et al. 2000; pangau-adam et al. 2012). human innovations in technology have fueled cultural advancement, but also expanded wildlife utilization in tropical forests (chin 2001). three pieces of legislation exist for wildlife conservation in malaysia: the sarawak wild life protection ordinance (swlpo) 1998 in sarawak, wildlife conservation enactment (wce) 1997 in sabah, and wildlife conservation act (wca) 2010 in peninsular malaysia. the wce and wca are rather comprehensive and have been recently amended, whereas swlpo is currently being reviewed by the relevant authorities (mohd-azlan 2014). local communities in sarawak are allowed to hunt unprotected species (e.g., bearded pig [sus barbatus], introduction hunting can be unsustainable in many areas, including in indigenous hunting areas when hunting pressure is unacceptably high (pangau-adam et al. 2012; robinson and bennett 2000). humans have used animals for food, medicine, garments, tool manufacturing, as well as cultural-religious practices (bennett et al. 2000; melo et al. 2014; mohd-azlan and fauzi 2006). likewise, terrestrial vertebrate fauna have been utilized for various reasons, including subsistence, economy, pest control, as well as cultural needs (bennett et al. 2000). such uses have often affected targeted species, sometimes leading to their endangerment, especially those with low density and/ or slow reproductive rates (melo et al. 2014; pangauadam et al. 2012). moreover, increases in human population, improved hunting techniques and gear, wildlife hunting and utilization in ulu baleh, sarawak, malaysian borneo melynda cheok ka yi1 and jayasilan mohd-azlan2* 1faculty of resource science and technology, universiti malaysia sarawak, sarawak, malaysia. 2institute of biodiversity and environmental conservation, universiti malaysia sarawak, sarawak, malaysia. *azlan@unimas.my abstract poaching is one of the greatest immediate threats and a serious conservation challenge facing wildlife in borneo. mediumto large-sized mammals, while charismatic, are hunted for consumption and sale. this study focuses on wildlife hunting and utilization of selected communities in a remote area in sarawak, conducted using interview surveys within communities who hunt wildlife in ulu baleh. the calculated hunting pressure index in ulu baleh (2.24) is considered low compared to other parts of sarawak. local communities are dependent on wildlife protein and medicine. even though the common hunting offtake included the bearded pig and deer species, for the hunter’s own consumption, hunters were opportunistic in taking non-target species and selling surplus meat. lack of awareness of the implications of unsustainable hunting and difficulty in monitoring by the relevant authorities appear to be the main challenges to wildlife conservation in the area. this paper highlights the lack of research documenting wildlife utilization in the ulu baleh region and the implication of these results are particularly important for future adaptive wildlife management, especially for species of conservation importance in sarawak. received september 8, 2019 open access accepted june 12, 2020 doi 10.14237/ebl.11.1.2020.1647 published september 15, 2020 keywords hunting, conservation, wildlife utilization, ulu baleh, sarawak copyright © 2020 by the author(s); licensee society of ethnobiology. this is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution-noncommercial 4.0 international public license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0), which permits non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. supplementary files available at https://doi.org/10.14237/ebl.11.1.2020.1647 cheok ka yi and mohd-azlan. 2020. ethnobiology letters 11(1):76–84 77 research communications deer [rusa unicolor], muntjacs [muntiacus spp.], and mousedeer [tragulus spp.]) outside protected areas for personal consumption under the swlpo 1998. many anthropological and ethnographic hunting studies have been conducted in tropical forest regions. hunting pressure for subsistence tends to decrease with economic improvement of local communities, along with changes in traditional culture, which in turn has the potential to reduce hunting pressure on the target species, which can be especially important in fragile forest patches (byers et al. 2001; wadley and colfer 2004). some local communities, however, are dependent on wildlife in the interior parts of sarawak (ka-yi and mohd-azlan 2018). by undertaking interviews and surveys with local communities, information on wildlife distribution, hunting pressure, and dependency of the communities on these mammals can be obtained. previously, we compared hunting intensity in the interior regions of sarawak (ka-yi and mohd-azlan 2018). in the present communication, we examine wildlife usage and levels of dependency by local communities in the ulu baleh region, as there is limited information on the subject in this area. methods study location baleh is accessible by both land and river (figure 1). transportation has recently improved, with logging roads entering the area since the early 2000s. the fastest and more affordable mode of transport takes eight hours (depending on river flow) on an express boat from sibu, with a transit stop at kapit town, before heading towards the baleh river and reaching putai (the final stop of the commercial express boat). another few hours are spent overland in an off-road figure 1 map showing the study sites that includes one long house, two huts, and a logging camp in the ulu baleh region bordering kalimantan, indonesia. cheok ka yi and mohd-azlan. 2020. ethnobiology letters 11(1):76–84 78 research communications vehicle, depending on the destination. a large area in ulu baleh towards the kalimantan border has been gazetted as the baleh national park (mohd-azlan et al. 2019). logging activities were previously operational within the area and there is a proposal to build a hydropower dam with an elevation of 220 m around putai, located after entawau. indigenous tribes such as the iban and kenyah populate this area, although the population and number of longhouses are sparser than in the kapit region. wildlife and non-timber forest product utilization can be seen around the study area, where the villagers hunt and collect natural resources, such as rattan and timber. there is a single logging camp and long house with several farm huts near the study area. the logging camp consists of both locals and outsiders who occasionally hunt in this area. even though anthropogenic activities can be seen around the longhouses, higher impact occurs from conventional commercial logging concessions, such as alteration of natural forest structures by harvesting trees and the construction of logging roads and skid trails. most of the riverine forest is in pristine condition due to the fulfilment of buffer zone requirements, although there are traces of old and active logging activities near some areas. the river water becomes clearer as one moves upriver to ulu baleh; it becomes muddier, however, when it rains due to logging activities upriver. the types of vegetation differ between logging concessions and forests near longhouses. the logging concessions consist of logged mixed dipterocarp forests, where logging activities were ongoing during this study, including some forests that had been logged multiple times by a logging company. the forests surrounding the longhouse are mostly temuda, secondary forests or planted with crops, including rice and both vegetables and fruit-bearing trees: e.g., durian (durio spp.), black olive or dabai (canarium odontophyllum), cassava (manihot esculenta), star gooseberry (phyllanthus acidus), and sweet leaf (sauropus androgynus). data collection the survey asked about hunting patterns by the communities in long singut, ulu baleh, which consist mainly of sarawakian indigenous peoples, with the kenyah being the majority in this study. the hunting interview involved the completion of a guided questionnaire (supplementary material) in conversation with all individuals with recent hunting experience (within the last 2 weeks) within the study areas, in order to obtain information on hunting patterns, the importance of hunting to their livelihoods, and any issues related to hunting activities. the elderly and women were excluded from the interviews, as they no longer hunted or were not involved in hunting, respectively. two types of community data were collected: demographics and individual hunting pattern data. interview structures follow according chin (2001). interviews were carried out between may 2015 and march 2016. illustrations from a field guide to mammals of borneo by payne et al. (2007) were used for identification of animal species. the interviews were conducted rather informally in the local native language, accompanied by an interpreter, or in malay. individual hunting interviews were conducted in an attempt to obtain more accurate details on the hunting patterns in a community (e.g., hunting effort and yield). each interview involved the completion of a questionnaire administered to the hunter referring to both recent hunting trips and prior hunting trips in general; this questionnaire is attached as supplementary material. the interview was structured to focus on (1) hunting technique, (2) hunting duration, (3) hunting intensity, (4) weapon used, (5) distribution of cryptic animal species, and (6) socio-demographics. analyses data from interviews on hunting were processed using microsoft excel 2010 and ibm spss statistics version 21 to produce relevant diagrams and pie charts. hunting area was assessed from the interviewees based on maps, distance, and time taken on average for the hunters during their trips. the hunting areas were estimated according to the time taken for a hunter to cover the hunting ground. one hour of travel approximates a distance of one kilometer travelled in hill forests, when averaged to include stops, from which the approximate size of a hunting area was estimated (chin 2001). an index of estimated relative hunting pressure was used to assess the relative intensity of hunting in an area. it is derived by estimating the number of hunters who have access to an area and dividing it by the square of the distance from their settlements to the nearest edge of their hunting area (bennett et al. 2000). the distance is squared because the condition acknowledg cheok ka yi and mohd-azlan. 2020. ethnobiology letters 11(1):76–84 79 research communications es that individuals scatter over an area, not in a single straight line. the assumptions are: 1) hunting pressure is equal in all directions from each community, and 2) hunting pressure decreases uniformly with increasing distance from the settlements. thus, hunting pressure on an area of the community (h) is population of community × % community who hunt / (average distance of community from hunting area)2 (table 1). results a total of 28 respondents were interviewed in ulu baleh, focusing on male respondents who have hunting experience. respondents were approached with the help of a local guide, who knows the hunting communities well. the majority of village community members have emigrated to the nearest town; due to urban migration, there are not many families still living in the interior of ulu baleh. the full community normally will only come back during festive seasons such as gawai (the harvest festival) or over christmas. all of the respondents were nonmuslims (christians, buddhists, or folk religions). the mean size of the respondents’ families during normal days is four (ranging from 1 to 6; table 2). on average, the families in the surveyed areas earn approximately usd 270 (range between usd 120 to usd 480) per month, with monthly expenses of usd 177 (range between usd 24 to usd 400). the respondents reported that a majority do not have stable incomes (68%), i.e., they are self-employed (small grocery shop owners) and farmers (mainly corn, pineapples, paddy, sweet potatoes, and cassava). most villagers work on the farm or hunt for their family’s subsistence. however, 32% of the respondents work or have worked in the past with the private sector (e.g., oil and gas, logging, and plantation companies). in general, many hunters hunted consistently throughout the year while less than half of the respondents depended on prior knowledge for hunting. most of the hunters hunt whenever they want (89%), i.e., without specific seasons, during their spare time. only 4% of hunters hunt specifically during paddy season, partly for pest control. hunting duration was difficult to determine, as the hunters return once they have killed an animal or target species. however, a considerable number of the respondents spent over one day in hunting (52%). the hunters use several hunting methods: traditional hunting methods (spears, nets, snare traps, or cage traps, categorized together at 25%) and firearms table 1 hunting pressure in ulu baleh, list of major ethnicity, size of population, percentage of hunters of the local population that hunt, and approximate distance from hunting ground. 1the distance to hunting ground was taken from the mean range of overall time taken to hunt. 2standard deviation. 3standard error of the mean. *the chinese and melanau were employed by logging companies. ethnicity population % of hunters mean distance from hunting ground (km)1 std. dev.2 s.e.m.3 hunting pressure index kenyah, iban, *chinese, *melanau 170 8.24 2.5 2.5 1.45 2.24 table 2 socio-demographic characteristics of the respondents. value in parentheses is the approximate exchange rate for usd during the study period. 1minimum value. 2maximum value. 3standard deviation. 4standard error of the mean. parameters mean min1 max2 std. dev.3 s.e.m.4 size of household 4 2 6 1.1 0.21 household income in myr/month (usd) 1100 (260) 500 (120) 2000 (480) 739.37(177.80) 139.73(33.60) monthly expenses in myr/month (usd) 739 (177) 100 (24) 1700 (400) 788.97(187.72) 149.10(35.85) cheok ka yi and mohd-azlan. 2020. ethnobiology letters 11(1):76–84 80 research communications (purchased or self-made shotguns). hunting dogs were also observed throughout the survey, where two to nine dogs were brought together during hunting. hunting dogs were useful in detecting and flushing out animals and easing the capture or killing of these animals. several transport types (boat, car, and motorcycle) were used, incorporated with walking for several hours after reaching hunting areas. many hunted for personal use (subsistence and cultural, 85%). in general, the bearded pig is the main target species (figure 2); its meat is more sought after for consumption as well as sale. bearded pigs have been the most preferred prey and a major form of bushmeat consumed by non-muslims (caldecott 1986; corlett 2007; kirupaliny and mohd-azlan 2012). according to most of the respondents, bearded pigs and deer were hunted the most, mainly because of their body mass and taste. an adult bearded pig and sambar deer would earn the hunter approximately usd 720 and usd 900, respectively. other species killed during hunting expeditions can be considered as non-target species that are killed opportunistically. knowledge of the use of rhino (dicerorhinus sumatrensis) parts as medicine in this area indicates the perception and past dependency of the local community on this species despite its local extinction for decades (labang 1987). at least three species of mammals were utilized for medicinal purposes by local communities: porcupine (hystrix brachyura), binturong (arctictis binturong), and sun bear (helarctos malayanus) (table 3). the gall bladders of these three species were believed to be a panacea, especially for curing pain from injuries or gastric conditions. chinese medicine was also included in the table as the pangolin’s scales (manis javanica) and porcupine’s body parts (e.g., quills, bezoar stone) were hunted for sale to chinese buyers, who act as traders, according to the interviews conducted. despite the differences in ethnicity, the methods used in preparation of the animal derivatives appear similar in sarawak (kirupaliny and mohd-azlan 2012; mohd-azlan and fauzi 2006). whole pangolins can fetch up to usd 16 per kg and sometimes range from usd 25 to usd 28 per kg. pangolin scales can be sold for up to usd 300 per kg figure 2 the frequency of overall hunted species from the respondents reported in percentages. cheok ka yi and mohd-azlan. 2020. ethnobiology letters 11(1):76–84 81 research communications (usd 300 to usd 190) in the black market. typically, pangolins are caught using a net, which is long and about a meter tall, set up from the ground along ridges or animal pathways, sometimes reaching 30 m in length. these nets were set opportunistically and non-target species, such as muntjac, mousedeer, porcupine, or even juvenile bearded pig, can occasionally be strangled and sometimes killed. the gall bladders of sun bears were kept for private use or sold illegally for usd 36 each. on many occasions the hunters reported that they would run away from sun bears, as they were known to be more aggressive, especially during parenting periods. however, sun bears that come to farms or in chance encounters are shot, as the hunter believes an injured sun bear can become hostile. the meats are smoked and can be sold for usd 2 to usd 4 per kg. clouded leopards (neofelis diardi) were killed opportunistically. the skins were kept by the hunters as trophies, but the canines and claws were sold for usd 24 and usd 5 each, respectively. clouded leopard skins can fetch from usd 50 to usd 500 each and their skulls with teeth attached can be sold for up to usd 500 on the local black market (mohdazlan et al. 2017). table 3 roles of several mammal species utilized as zootherapeutic sources according to the local communities from the surveyed areas. 1iucn red list status: least concern (lc), critically endangered (cr), vulnerable (vu). 2last official record in sarawak was tracks found in ulu baram at the border with kalimantan in 1987 by david labang, but the tales of its medicinal value being passed on to the current older generations. 3tcm or traditional chinese medicine. common local (ethnic) scientific parts used methods medicinal value swlpo 1998 iucn status1 porcupine landak (iban) setung buang (kenyah) hystrix brachyura gall bladder boil hot water, dip the dried gall bladder into the water, then drink gastric protected lc gall bladder stone (or bezoar) panacea for cancer, fever, infections3 pangolin tengiling (iban) am (kenyah) manis javanica scales panacea for cancer, invigorate blood, reduce swelling3 protected cr binturong enturun (iban) kitan/kitan buang (kenyah) arctictis binturong gall bladder boil with hot water and honey, then drink cure pain (from falls) protected vu sun bear jugam (iban) buang (kenyah) helarctos malayanus gall bladder soak in hot water, then drink gastric, and cure pain protected vu rhino2 temedo/ pemeto (kenyah) dicerorhinus sumatrensis horn scratch a bit into warm water, then drink fever totally protected cr cheok ka yi and mohd-azlan. 2020. ethnobiology letters 11(1):76–84 82 research communications bezoar or “stones” from animals such as porcupines, tufted ground squirrels (rheithrosciurus macrotis), and langurs (presbytis spp.) were sold for usd 14 per inch, depending on the quality and size of the bezoar. one hunter in ulu baram was given usd 7,200 for a large bezoar he got from a porcupine. the probability of the animal bearing the bezoar is higher if the fur or quills of the animals appear to be unhealthy. therefore, the hunter will not burn the fur or quills of these animals. porcupines are hunted by dogs, which can detect the nest, and the hunter then smokes out the porcupines. cage traps baited with cassava or local cucumber were also used to catch porcupines. discussion and conclusions the communities in ulu baleh hunt in nearby areas. this might be due to the availability of animals or the ease of accessibility due to prior logging activity. the hunting pressure index in ulu baleh (2.24; table 1) is lower compared to pelagus (14.68) and ulu baram areas such as ba’buboi (7.34), long main (3.96), and long sabai (2.89) (chin 2001; ka-yi and mohd-azlan 2018). factors behind this difference may include the reduced extent of logging in ulu baleh, which is recent compared to ulu baram, and differences in human population densities. activities associated with logging can significantly increase animal harvest rates and the probability of unsustainable hunting (bennett and robinson 2000; robinson et al. 1999). improvement of local economies can lead to increases in commercial hunting, as areas become more accessible with the building of roads and increased networks to urban areas (bennett and robinson 2000; milner-gulland and bennett 2003). in the past, indigenous people used traditional techniques to hunt for subsistence. the use of modern firearms improves hunting efficiency; hence many non-target wildlife species are hunted opportunistically. therefore, it is important to regulate and monitor such activities at many levels. in view of this, understanding the community’s knowledge regarding the use of animals is a crucial step in designing conservation strategies, as this knowledge reflects the values and attitudes adopted by a community or population regarding local fauna (melo et al. 2014). approximately 62% of animals hunted received protection status from swlpo 1998. killing any totally protected or protected animal in sarawak can result in a maximum fine of usd 12,000 or usd 2,400, respectively, under swlpo 1998. thus, some interviewees may not have disclosed all of their activities, as some of the hunting could have been illegal, involving protected species. therefore, species that receive protection status from swlpo 1998 are potentially underrepresented in this study. local villagers are, however, allowed to defend themselves and their property from wildlife under section 42 of the ordinance, provided that they give the information to the nearest officer as soon as possible. failure to do so will be penalized with three months in jail and a fine of usd 240. the apparent reasons for local communities’ use of zootherapeutic sources included lack of knowledge about medical resources, difficulty in accessing other medicines, as well as belief in zootherapeutic effectiveness in curing diseases. all of the respondents stated that they learned about the use of zootherapeutic agents from the elderly, who may have gained the knowledge from the chinese who have worked in the past at the logging concessions nearby. private ownership of lands in sarawak was instituted in the form of leases in 1875, mainly for the benefit of timber enterprises which included the chinese (kaur 1998). the locals who know the value of these zootherapeutic parts of the animals sell them to agents in the nearest town (putai or kapit) for cash. the excess meat of these animals is used as a protein source. the communities studied are generally dependent on the wildlife near their area for meat, as accessibility of commercially available meat sources is relatively difficult in these areas. many individuals surveyed also appear unaware of the protection status of many wildlife species. however, the data from this study cannot be used to fully understand the correlation between hunting and hunted animals throughout ulu baleh as the hunting efforts were not observed over multiple seasons. there are several areas in which more study is needed to fully understand the hunting system along with its effects on wildlife populations and their habitats in this remote area. a systematic survey would help in determining the impact of hunting and effects of forest use on wildlife populations, which includes the need to know about the extent of recent cultural transformation (i.e., loss of traditional ecological knowledge especially amongst the youth, exposure to world religions, and consumerism) and how those changes relate to wildlife use. cheok ka yi and mohd-azlan. 2020. ethnobiology letters 11(1):76–84 83 research communications acknowledgments we would like to thank the involved local communities of ulu baleh, ministry of education, animal resource science and management programme, faculty of resource science and technology, unimas, institute of biodiversity and environmental conservation unimas, elite honor camp of the wtk group of companies, sarawak forestry corporation and forest department sarawak [permit no.: nccd.907.4.4(jld.12)-41]. we would also like to thank sarawak energy berhad [grant no.: gl(f07)/seb/2014/03(04)] for their support of this study. lastly, we would like to thank the anonymous reviewers and journal editors for their valuable comments, which greatly improved our manuscript. declarations permissions: the manuscript has been read and approved by all named authors and that there are no other persons who satisfied the criteria for authorship but are not listed. informed consent was given by all interviewees involved in the study. sources of funding: sarawak energy berhad [grant no.: gl(f07)/seb/2014/03(04)]. conflicts of interest: none declared. references cited ainana l. i., and i. zagrebin. 2014. edible plants used by siberian yupik eskimos of southeastern chukotka peninsula, russia. national park service, shared beringian heritage program, anchorage, ak. bennett, e. l., a. j. nyaoi, and j. sompud. 2000. saving borneo’s bacon: the sustainability of hunting in sarawak and 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wildlife densities in primary and production forests in the upper baram, sarawak. unpublished master’s thesis, faculty of resource sciences and technology, universiti malaysia sarawak, malaysia. corlett, r. t. 2007. the impact of hunting on the mammalian fauna of tropical asian forests. biotropica 39:292–303. doi:10.1111/j.17447429.2007.00271.x. kaur, a. 1998. a history of forestry in sarawak. modern asian studies 32:117–147. doi:10.1017/ s0026749x98003011. ka-yi, m. c., and j. mohd-azlan. 2018. preliminary analysis on the hunting activities in selected areas in interior sarawak. malaysian applied biology 47:37– 43. kirupaliny, s. b., and j. mohd-azlan. 2012. wildlife utilization survey in selected areas of sarawak. in natural resources in the tropics, 2012 (ntrop4): sustaining tropical natural resources through innovations, technologies and practices, edited by m. e. wasli, h. sani, f. b. ahmad, s. mohamad, l. p. teen, l. k. soon, and m. sidi, pp. 256–261. faculty of resource science and technology, universiti malaysia sarawak (unimas), sarawak, malaysia. labang, d. 1987. chasing a rhinoceros. family tree [sarawak forestry department] 13:12–15. melo, r. s., o. c. silva, a. souto, r. r. n. alves, and n. schiel. 2014. the rrole of mammals in local communities living in conservation areas in the northeast of brazil: an ethnozoological approach. tropical conservation science 7:423–439. doi:10.1177/194008291400700305. milner-gulland, e. j., and e. l. bennett. 2003. wild meat: the bigger picture. trends in ecology and evolution 18:351–357. doi:10.1016/s0169-5347(03) 00123-x. cheok ka yi and mohd-azlan. 2020. ethnobiology letters 11(1):76–84 84 research communications mohd-azlan j. 2014. wildlife conservation legislations in malaysia: evolution and future needs. in: rimba 3: sustaining livelihood through prudent utilization and management of natural resources, edited by a. a. tuen, j. mohd-azlan and j. grinang, pp. 13–22. unimas publication, kota samarahan, sarawak, 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sustainable hunting in tropical forests. in hunting for sustainability in tropical forests, edited by j. g. robinson and e. l. bennett, pp. 13– 30, columbia university press, ny. robinson, j. g., k. h. redford, and e. l. bennett. 1999. wildlife harvests in logged tropical forests. science 284:595–596. doi:10.1126/ science.284.5414.595. wadley, r. l., and c. j. p. colfer. 2004. sacred forest, hunting, and conservation in west kalimantan, indonesia. human ecology 32:313–338. doi:10.1023/b:huec.0000028084.30742.d0. the wonder of birds: what they tell us about ourselves, the world, and a better future. by jim robbins. 2017. spiegel and grau, penguin random house, new york. 352 pp. sault. 2018. ethnobiology le ers 9(2):319–320 319 reviews world (pp. 81–83). the royal rooster has become a commodity and suffers at human hands. the actual costs of factory farmed chicken are hidden by keeping consumers unaware of the inhumane treatment of the chickens, the workers, the farmers who work as sharecroppers living below the poverty line, and the manure that pollutes land and water, leading to dead zones at sea (pp. 84–85). a central problem of the book is that the author does not follow through on the goals he sets and contradicts his stated aim. the preface argues that “it’s time to be more inclusive and more creative, to peer beneath the surface to vastly broaden our scope, to consider other ways of seeing and being in the world, and to reframe our perspective of nature, which will ultimately make us a far more resilient species” (p. xviii). he calls for an ethno-ornithological approach that can deepen our relationship to birds through indigenous teachings. however, after claiming that birds offer us alternative perspectives on the world and the issues we face, he then expounds on the material benefits birds offer. although the details of bird anatomy and behavior are intriguing, he justifies appreciation for birds by describing how this knowledge of birds can be used for medicine and engineering, such as understanding brain function and designing better planes and trains or paint (p. 26). he seems to believe people will appreciate birds because they are useful— for search and rescue missions (p. 239), for preventing or treating disease (p. 217), and reducing pests (p. 222). the author also ignores the pet trade this book explores the mystery and beauty of birds. there are chapters full of suspense— exploring avian enigmas such as flocks synchronizing their movements in murmurations, chickadees transferring complex information using calls with syntax, and migrations of arctic terns traveling 12,000 miles. other chapters provide fascinating detail on the aerodynamics of feathers that transmit information through skin attachments, avian eyesight with ultraviolet perception and magnetoreception, and extreme physiology that enables birds to endure great heights and depths with freezing temperatures. the author’s love for birds shines throughout the book and he writes in an engaging style. each chapter begins with an elegant illustration by d.d. dowden and quotes from dickinson, thoreau, john lennon, and mehmet murat ildan. unfortunately, the scientific names of the birds are not included. the author describes what birds provide through food, feathers, dispersal of seeds and pollen, reducing insect pests, and guidance to people with advice or warnings. birds “maintain ecosystem function and resilience” by “balancing the world” (pp. 109; 114). robbins wants people to understand and appreciate birds because people conserve what they love. he addresses the types of emotional connection people have with birds and their power to heal. through “wings over america,” at-risk teens and imprisoned youth in washington, d.c. are introduced to falcons and taught how to protect these magnificent birds. yet, robbins laments that we have lost a sense of the sacred—of the cosmic egg as the origin of the the wonder of birds: what they tell us about ourselves, the world, and a be er future. by jim robbins. 2017. spiegel and grau, penguin random house, new york. 352 pp. nicole sault1* 1sally glean center, palo alto, california. *nicole@sallyglean.org received september 13, 2018 open access accepted november 11, 2018 doi 10.14237/ebl.9.2.2018.1404 copyright © 2018 by the author(s) licensee society of ethnobiology. this is an open‐access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution‐noncommercial 4.0 international public license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by‐nc/4.0), which permits non‐commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. sault. 2018. ethnobiology le ers 9(2):319–320 320 reviews and the political context of avian research, such as government funding for research that is later used for warfare (e.g., drone technology). while robbins presents fascinating interviews with experts engaged in complex research, a second problem with the book is that he strays into technical areas where he lacks the ability to assess the credibility of the claims put forward in primatology, evolutionary theory, human genetics, neurophysiology, psychiatry, linguistics, and kinship. at times he presents the findings of a particular investigator without discussing contradictory evidence and competing theories that both ethno-ornithology and anthropology could provide. for example, in chapter 13, the bee-eaters: a modern family, he digresses into a long discussion of human families, stepparents, incest, genetic testing and the selfish gene theory, and loses his way in the halls of genetic determinism. regarding the great apes he states that they “do not time travel mentally” and are “slaves, in essence, to a perpetual now” (p. 161). how does he know this? as there are no footnotes or references, it is difficult to evaluate such claims that ignore abundant evidence to the contrary. his evidence is so selective that it could mislead readers who lack the scientific background for evaluating the arguments, as alternative interpretations are omitted, including environmental or cultural factors. in chapter 17, the transformational power of birds, he analyzes the attraction of bird watching in relation to the psychology of repressed fear. explaining interest in birds as fear of death and the desire for immortality is unconvincing, as the cultural associations of birds vary, and the same bird species may represent death in one society and life in another. some people fear owls, for example, while others treasure them as guardians. it would be enlightening if instead of interviewing so many university researchers he devoted greater space to indigenous knowledge. he traveled to the flathead indian reservation in montana to talk to a field biologist studying owls and describes this man’s research and personal history with birds, but never asks any of the local people about what owls mean in their culture or for them personally. the spiritual dimensions of birds and their symbolic meaning cross-culturally are left until the end, and the discussion fails to explore the implications for taking such perspectives seriously. when he relates bird myths of the mapuche and yaghan in chile that portray the need for cooperation, he misses the point. these myths are not only about reciprocity in relationships between humans, but about relationships between humans and other beings, including birds. kinship is the model for these relationships, which implies responsibilities toward them. when people say they are related to birds this is not simply metaphorical, but represents a greater reality that indigenous peoples apprehend as spiritual. the most poignant section of the book relates how the kaluli of indonesia map their world through birdsong. anthropologist steven feld portrays this as a form of crying with poetry. stories are sung from the point of view of each species of bird flying through the forests and valleys (p. 218–219). these birds are held to be ancestors who carry the spirits of departed relatives to the next world. the kaluli regard the birds so highly that they protect a tract of forest where no hunting is allowed, so that the birds may flourish. but exxon is now building a gas pipeline in the region (p. 219). how will the birds and the ancestors respond? these stories about the need to cooperate and share lead to the question: what are we doing for birds? they bring us countless gifts, yet what do we give them? providing a chapter on actions people could take to address these issues, and documenting successes in protecting birds would have been helpful, for after reading about the enormous threats to bird survival, the reader is left with an overwhelming sense of frustration and helplessness. threatened biodiversity and traditional ecological knowledge: associated beliefs, customs, and uses of herpetofauna among the ’are’are on malaita island, solomon islands ethnobiology letters. 2015. 6(1):99‐110. doi: 10.14237/ebl.6.1.2015.389. 99 research communication language, that a given culture, including modern science, has for its biodiversity.” from this perspective, ethnobiodiversity and tek provide a strong foundation for successful living in natural and cultural environments and form the ‘glue’ that encourages social cohesiveness and creates cultural identity as a basis for sustainability (bennet 2000; dutfield 2006; fao 2011; hviding 2005; thaman 2009; thaman et al. 2010, 2013). tek is essentially wisdom, knowledge, and information learned through common experience, passed on from generation to generation, and used in decision making, planning, and the management of biodiversity among other resources that are critical and beneficial to life in subsistence communities (merculieff 2000). tek is the basis for people’s livelihoods and sustainability, as well as their maintenance of cultural, economic, and traditional practices introduction as e. o. wilson (1992:343) stressed, we are in the midst of the sixth “great extinction spasm of geological time,” caused mainly by human degradation of the environment. thaman (2002, 2008a, b, 2013) has also stressed that there is a parallel “extinction event” relating to the loss of traditional ecological knowledge of biodiversity. huntington (2000:1270) defined traditional ecological knowledge (tek) as “the knowledge and insights acquired through extensive observation of an area or species,” which is usually shared orally. for thousands of years indigenous peoples have used tek to survive, build, and maintain their unique cultures (bennet 2000; fao 2011; thaman et al. 2010). with specific reference to ethnobiodiversity, thaman (2008b:103) has defined such knowledge as “the beliefs, knowledge, uses, customs, management systems, taxonomy and threatened biodiversity and traditional ecological knowledge: associated beliefs, customs, and uses of herpetofauna among the ’are’are on malaita island, solomon islands edgar john maeniuta pollard1*, randy thaman2, gilianne brodie3, and clare morrison4 author addresses: 1solomon islands campus, university of the south pacific, p.o. box r241, honiara, solomon islands. 2school of geography, earth science and environment, faculty of science, technology and environment, university of the south pacific, laucala campus, suva, fiji. 3school of biological and chemical sciences, faculty of science, technology and environment, university of the south pacific, laucala campus, suva, fiji. 4school of environment, griffith university, gold coast campus, g24 parklands drive, southport, queensland 4222, australia. *corresponding author: edgarjmp@gmail.com received: april 10, 2015 volume: 6(1):99-110 published: august 24, 2015 © 2015 society of ethnobiology abstract: for many societies, including those in the rapidly urbanizing pacific islands, local biodiversity is threatened and traditional ecological knowledge (tek) is in danger of being lost. herpetofauna, in particular, are globally threatened, along with their associated cultural knowledge and beliefs. the aim of this study was to examine the species richness and conservation status of herpetofauna and associated tek among the ’are’are on malaita island, solomon islands. questionnaire surveys were used to collect information about local perceptions and knowledge regarding frogs, skinks, and geckos, as well as their forest habitats. local informants were distributed equally between sexes and age groups. a total of 18 different species of frogs and lizards were recorded and characterized. seven distinct cultural uses were identified. informants above the age of 60 exhibited greater herpetofaunal knowledge, as measured by number of species identified, with males demonstrating knowledge of slightly more species than females. our results show that action is warranted to document and preserve community tek in the solomon islands as step towards preserving biodiversity and supporting cultural conservation. keywords: herpetofauna, frogs, lizards, tek, ’are’are, solomon islands supplementary files available at ojs.ethnobiology.org/index.php/ebl. file:///c:/users/jon/documents/ebl/volume%206/pollard%20et%20al/pollard_preproof_final.docx#_enref_2#_enref_2 file:///c:/users/jon/documents/ebl/volume%206/pollard%20et%20al/pollard_preproof_final.docx#_enref_11#_enref_11 file:///c:/users/jon/documents/ebl/volume%206/pollard%20et%20al/pollard_preproof_final.docx#_enref_12#_enref_12 file:///c:/users/jon/documents/ebl/volume%206/pollard%20et%20al/pollard_preproof_final.docx#_enref_29#_enref_29 file:///c:/users/jon/documents/ebl/volume%206/pollard%20et%20al/pollard_preproof_final.docx#_enref_29#_enref_29 file:///c:/users/jon/documents/ebl/volume%206/pollard%20et%20al/pollard_preproof_final.docx#_enref_18#_enref_18 file:///c:/users/jon/documents/ebl/volume%206/pollard%20et%20al/pollard_preproof_final.docx#_enref_14#_enref_14 file:///c:/users/jon/documents/ebl/volume%206/pollard%20et%20al/pollard_preproof_final.docx#_enref_2#_enref_2 file:///c:/users/jon/documents/ebl/volume%206/pollard%20et%20al/pollard_preproof_final.docx#_enref_12#_enref_12 file:///c:/users/jon/documents/ebl/volume%206/pollard%20et%20al/pollard_preproof_final.docx#_enref_12#_enref_12 file:///c:/users/jon/documents/ebl/volume%206/pollard%20et%20al/pollard_preproof_final.docx#_enref_29#_enref_29 ethnobiology letters. 2015. 6(1):99‐110. doi: 10.14237/ebl.6.1.2015.389. 100 research communication (bennet 2000; fao 2011; thaman et al. 2010). thaman (2002, 2013) identifies the loss of traditional knowledge as a major threat to biodiversity preservation. thaman and hviding (2005) argue that, if the traditional names, taxonomies, uses, and management systems of biodiversity are lost, the impetus for the conservation of these natural resources at the community level is also lost. in melanesia, tek and cultural practices have developed and evolved over millennia, resulting in interactions and relationships with the environment that are based on time-depth, qualitative, holistic, and oral approaches (caillaud et al. 2004; merculieff 2000; walker-painemilla et al. 2010). indigenous people have used traditional knowledge, skills, customary laws, taxonomic systems, and traditional practices to sustainably utilize their rich natural resources as a basis for adaptation to change (lauer and aswani 2010; thaman 2013; walker-painemilla et al. 2010) and biodiversity conservation (berkes 2004; huntington 2000; walker-painemilla et al. 2010). herpetofauna (amphibians and reptiles) play functionally important roles in energy flow and nutrient cycling in ecosystems and culturally important roles in many societies (pough et al. 1998). amphibians, which are usually abundant, are of global conservation concern because of their well-documented widespread decline and often threatened status (bennett 1999; bishop et al. 2012; smith and rissler 2010; stuart et al. 2004). reptiles face a similar fate but are less well documented scientifically (bombi 2009). due to the cultural and ecological importance and distinctiveness of herpetofauna, traditional communities, particularly those living in forests, wetlands, or other suitable habitats, commonly have deep knowledge of amphibians and reptiles not shared by scientists and conservationists. this traditional knowledge, the focus of the current survey, can provide a basis for better understanding the cultural and ecological importance and conservation status of herpetofauna. this tek potentially may be used in collaboration with scientific knowledge for a more figure 1. map showing the location of the solomon islands and malaita. file:///c:/users/jon/documents/ebl/volume%206/pollard%20et%20al/pollard_preproof_final.docx#_enref_2#_enref_2 file:///c:/users/jon/documents/ebl/volume%206/pollard%20et%20al/pollard_preproof_final.docx#_enref_12#_enref_12 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file:///c:/users/jon/documents/ebl/volume%206/pollard%20et%20al/pollard_preproof_final.docx#_enref_25#_enref_25 file:///c:/users/jon/documents/ebl/volume%206/pollard%20et%20al/pollard_preproof_final.docx#_enref_5#_enref_5 file:///c:/users/jon/documents/ebl/volume%206/pollard%20et%20al/pollard_preproof_final.docx#_enref_5#_enref_5 ethnobiology letters. 2015. 6(1):99‐110. doi: 10.14237/ebl.6.1.2015.389. 101 research communication holistic approach to the conservation management of herpetofauna and other natural resources. study site the solomon islands, the third largest archipelago in the south pacific, is located between 6-12º s latitude and 155-168º e longitude (figure 1) and is composed of a double chain of approximately a thousand islands extending over 1450 km in a south-easterly direction (mueller-dombois and fosberg 1998). as a nation state, the solomon islands are located 1,800 km northeast of australia. the total land area is approximately 28,785 km² (mueller-dombois and fosberg 1998) and the country has rich marine resources with a total marine area of around 1.3 million km² (gough et al. 2010). malaita island, the focus of this study, is the third largest and fourth highest island in the solomon islands. it is oriented in a northwest to southeast direction about 60 km northeast of the main island of guadalcanal (polhemus et al. 2008). the island is about 190 km in length and approximately 40 km wide at its widest point. dominant landforms include “steep, narrow ridges, fluvial plains, karst mountains, valleys, swamps and coastal landforms” (moore 2007, phcg 2008). lagoons are also a common feature of the island, with the lagoons of the lau (renowned for its artificial islands), langa langa (renowned for its shell money) and ’are’are (known for its expansive mangrove forests) constituting some of the most widely recognized features of malaita province internationally (moore 2007). daily temperature ranges from 25°c to 32°c with high humidity and an annual average rainfall of 5,000 mm/year (moore 2007). with a total land area of approximately 4,200 km² and roughly 33 persons per square kilometer, malaita has the highest population density of the solomon islands and is home to roughly a third of the total solomon islands population of approximately 560,000 (moore 2007). almost all of malaita is still under customary land tenure system and most malaitans depend on subsistence agriculture (filardi et al. 2007). malaita is comprised of 14 language group areas (figure 2). the ’are’are language area in the south covers the largest land area on the island (approximately 25%). the tai ward within the ’are’are area was selected as the study location for the present study because (i) it has a relatively low population density and (ii) native vegetation was relatively intact until the commencement of logging operations in the early 2000s, after which subsequent heavy degradation took place throughout the region. ’are’are human population demographics the age and gender demographics of the ’are’are, based on the 2009 national census (sinso 2011), show a young population (figure 3), of which 52.9% is below the age of 20. this scenario is typical of most of the solomon islands in that year. there is an obvious reduction in population numbers between the ages of 15 and 24, probably due to temporary migration due to education or work. the population of older individuals is small, with only 5.8% over the age of 60. figure 2. map of malaita highlighting the ’are’are lingual group. file:///c:/users/jon/documents/ebl/volume%206/pollard%20et%20al/pollard_preproof_final.docx#_enref_19#_enref_19 file:///c:/users/jon/documents/ebl/volume%206/pollard%20et%20al/pollard_preproof_final.docx#_enref_19#_enref_19 file:///c:/users/jon/documents/ebl/volume%206/pollard%20et%20al/pollard_preproof_final.docx#_enref_19#_enref_19 file:///c:/users/jon/documents/ebl/volume%206/pollard%20et%20al/pollard_preproof_final.docx#_enref_13#_enref_13 file:///c:/users/jon/documents/ebl/volume%206/pollard%20et%20al/pollard_preproof_final.docx#_enref_13#_enref_13 file:///c:/users/jon/documents/ebl/volume%206/pollard%20et%20al/pollard_preproof_final.docx#_enref_21#_enref_21 file:///c:/users/jon/documents/ebl/volume%206/pollard%20et%20al/pollard_preproof_final.docx#_enref_23#_enref_23 ethnobiology letters. 2015. 6(1):99‐110. doi: 10.14237/ebl.6.1.2015.389. 102 research communication methods community questionnaires were designed and interviews were conducted to record local ’are’are individual’s perceptions, knowledge, and uses of herpetofauna (see supplementary questionnaire 1). semi-structured questions were used to solicit information regarding the animals and uses respondents thought were most important. response information was translated by the authors into the most relevant scientific taxa and assigned to use categories. a pilot study trialling the questionnaire was conducted in august 2011 and the modified survey in september 2011, december 2011, and march 2012. ten villages within the tai ward were selected based on ease of access and residents’ willingness to participate. with the assistance of an interpreter, a total of 30 interviews were conducted in the ten villages (three per village). overall, 10 questionnaires were conducted with individuals over the age of 60, 10 with individuals between 30 and 60, and 10 with individuals under 30. a gender ratio of 15 females to 15 males was imposed. survey respondents were selected unsystematically, with the first 3 informants to accept our invitation in each village being interviewed. herpetofauna species were identified by the authors based on local descriptions by interviewers, photographs taken by the authors and shown to interviewees, and standard taxonomic keys (mccoy 2006; pikacha et al. 2008). while the questionnaire covered a wider range of issues than those covered in this paper, it included specific questions relating to the tek of local herpetofauna species (see supplementary questionnaire 1). results informant’s knowledge of frogs and lizards by age and sex a total of 18 distinguishable frog and lizard species were identified and described by interviewees. the average number of frogs and lizards known to informants and the associated tek they described figure 3. age and gender demographics of the ’are’are, based on the 2009 census (sinso 2011). file:///c:/users/jon/documents/ebl/volume%206/pollard%20et%20al/pollard_preproof_final.docx#_enref_17#_enref_17 file:///c:/users/jon/documents/ebl/volume%206/pollard%20et%20al/pollard_preproof_final.docx#_enref_17#_enref_17 file:///c:/users/jon/documents/ebl/volume%206/pollard%20et%20al/pollard_preproof_final.docx#_enref_20#_enref_20 ethnobiology letters. 2015. 6(1):99‐110. doi: 10.14237/ebl.6.1.2015.389. 103 research communication varied between sexes and age groups (table 3). males and females over the age of 60 demonstrated the greatest knowledge of frogs, with an average of 6.4 species described per informant. males below the age of 30 showed the greatest knowledge of lizards, with an average of 7.4 species mentioned per informant. overall, males of almost all ages demonstrated more knowledge of herpetofauna than females. in the over 60 age group, however, males and females on average identified the same number of species. on average, male informants identified 12.5 frogs and lizards, whereas females identified 10.8. the most frequently identified species were discodeles guppyi boulenger ceratobatrachidae, corucia zebrata gray scincidae, rana kreffti boulenger ranidae, and emoia pseudocyanura brown scincidae. the least frequently identified were sphenomorphus bignelli schmidt scincidae, emoia atrocostrata duméril & bibron scincidae, and emoia cyanogaster lesson scincidae. all identified species had unique names in the local vernacular language (table 1). herpetofaunal cultural uses seven main traditional use categories for the 18 herpetofauna species were identified by the authors from interview responses (table 1). these were 1) food, 2) trade, 3) totemic (including spiritual importance), 4) medicine, 5) magic (including signs of good or misfortune), 6) folklore, and 7) fishing. fifteen species were reported to be used as food. some of these, such as d. guppyi, batrachylodes vertebralis boulenger ceratobatrachidae, c. zebrata, and cyrtodactylus salomonensis rösler, richards & gunther gekkonidae, were reported to be important feast or ceremonial foods. platymantis solomonis boulenger ceratobatrachidae, platymantis guppyi boulenger ceratobatrachidae, and e. cyanogaster were important foods for domestic cats and snakes. three species were used in trade, with b. vertebralis and p. guppyi being traded as cooked foods and c. salomonensis for the live exotic pet trade overseas. five species were used medicinally, with d. guppyi and ceratobatrachus guentheri boulenger ceratobatrachidae used to prevent and/or cure snake and centipede bites. platymantis guppyi, litoria thesaurensis peters hylidae, and c. guentheri were used to stop bed-wetting in children. e. pseudocyanura was used to prevent facial hair growth. ceratobatrachus guentheri was also used to treat children with swollen stomachs. five species were used for magic, with c. zebrata and e. atrocostrata being used as sacrifices in ancestral worship and gehyra oceanica lesson gekkonidae and e. cyanogaster used as good luck charms. four species were mentioned in folklore or stories. for example, it was told that if a person stepped on a b. vertebralis in the forest, a tree may fall on the person. five species were identified as totems or species of spiritual importance, with p. guppyi and r. kreffti being considered taboo among certain tribes. an evil spirit was said to take the form of emoia albofasciolatus gunther scincidae. also, the presence of d. guppyi and c. guentheri in gardens was reported to increase garden fertility. five species were also used as bait for fishing, with juvenile r. kreffti being used for catching eels. see table 2 additional details regarding ’are’are uses of herpetofauna species. discussion the 18 species of frogs and reptiles identified represent 65% of the known herpetofauna recorded from malaita (mccoy 2006; pikacha et al. 2008) and 86% of the herpetofauna recorded from the ’are’are area (pollard 2014). this high level of species recognition, in conjunction with rich knowledge of their associated uses and cultural values among interviewees, indicates the ’are’are community has a strong relationship with herpetofauna. this finding was somewhat unexpected due to the relative rarity of some of these species in the coastal areas currently inhabited by most of the local communities. it also highlights the relative strength of the status of tek in ’are’are society. all 18 species are listed as least concern on the iucn red list, with the exception of cyrtodactylus salomonensis, which is listed as near threatened due to low area of occurrence and illegal trade of adults (iucn 2013). as shown above, males tended to exhibit more herpetofauna knowledge than females, probably age/sex group frogs lizards males < 30 years 4.4 ± 0.9 (3-5) 7.4 ± 1.8 (5-9) females < 30 years 3.6 ± 0.5 (3-4) 4.6 ± 2.3 (2-8) males 30-60 years 5.8 ± 2.0 (4-8) 6.6 ± 0.9 (6-8) females 30-60 years 5.2 ± 3.1 (2-10) 7.0 ± 1.6 (5-9) males > 60 years 6.4 ± 1.3 (5-8) 7.0 ± 1.6 (5-9) females > 60 years 6.4 ± 2.3 (3-8) 6.4 ± 1.7 (4-8) table 1. mean numbers of frog and reptile species identified by local community informants during surveys, with standard deviations (± 1 sd) and response ranges. n = 5 for all age/sex groups. ethnobiology letters. 2015. 6(1):99‐110. doi: 10.14237/ebl.6.1.2015.389. 104 research communication table 2. number of ’are’are interviewees who identified each herpetofauna species, by traditional use category, malaita, solomon islands. key to food use categories: food, species was or is used for human food; trade, species was or is used as an item for barter and exchange; totemic, species considered taboo or sacred to a particular tribe; medicine, species used for curing of ailments; magic, species used as good luck charm, for magic, or sorcery (black magic); folklore, species mentioned in cultural stories or myths; fishing, species used in fishing, mainly as bait. scientific name local vernacular name(s) no. of interviewees who identified each species number of interviewees (maximum 30) food trade totemic medicine magic folklore fishing discodeles guppyi boulenger ceratobatrachidae pari 27 26 0 3 2 0 0 0 batrachylodes vertebralis boulenger ceratobatrachidae hahaia 10 10 2 0 0 0 2 0 ceratobatrachus guentheri boulenger ceratobatrachidae oripasu 17 17 0 0 15 5 3 0 platymantis guppyi boulenger ceratobatrachidae otohao 14 14 2 5 11 0 0 0 rana kreffti boulenger ranidae pina iki, ten ten 22 21 0 7 0 0 0 2 platymantis weberi schmidt ceratobatrachidae kori niu 13 13 0 0 0 0 0 0 platymantis solomonis boulenger ceratobatrachidae ka’aka’a 4 4 0 0 0 0 0 0 litoria thesaurensis peters hylidae taramena 2 2 0 0 2 0 0 0 emoia pseudocyanura brown scincidae ikiko asi 24 22 0 0 2 3 0 0 corucia zebrata gray scincidae unu 26 26 0 0 0 5 6 0 emoia nigra jacquinot & guichenot scincidae paruparu 26 0 0 0 0 0 0 3 gehyra oceanica lesson gekkonidae kuma nima’asu 27 21 0 0 0 7 0 0 cyrtodactylus salomonensis rösler, richards & günther gekkonidae rarani 17 15 5 0 0 0 6 0 eugongylus albofasciolatus günther scincidae oru oru 16 11 0 7 0 0 0 0 prasinohaema virens boulenger scincidae ikiko ota 12 12 0 0 0 0 0 3 (continued on next page) ethnobiology letters. 2015. 6(1):99‐110. doi: 10.14237/ebl.6.1.2015.389. 105 research communication because males spend more time in the forest hunting and collecting, as compared to females, who spend more time in food gardens and at home. the data also indicate a pattern of greater knowledge with increasing age. older informants had the most in-depth traditional knowledge, thus underlining the potentially threatened state of this knowledge among the younger generation. this observation may also be because some herpetofauna (primarily frogs) are less common near current coastal settlement areas, whereas past settlement areas, where many older informants grew up, were located in inland areas with higher herpetofauna species richness (pollard et al. 2014). with subsequent migration to coastal sites resulting from movement to christian settlements for educational and economic reasons (keesing 1967), less time may be spent by informants in habitats with high herpetofauna diversity. alternatively, the younger generation may still need time to learn, acquire, and accumulate this knowledge. however, interestingly, younger males had the greatest knowledge of lizards, which suggests that they had sufficient time to gather and learn traditional knowledge. a potential limitation of this analysis, however, is the small sample size employed and potential lack of statistical significance. traditional knowledge and use of fauna ’are’are traditional knowledge of 18 species of frogs and lizards (table 1) includes seven main categories of traditional uses, which are similar in number to those reported in a study by lohani (2011) in nepal, with six categories of traditional uses for 49 animals. there was also considerable overlap with lohani (2011) with regard to use classification types, although lohani (2011) mentioned the use of animals for weather forecasting but did not mention their use for fishing or trade. globally, reptiles have been identified as having important traditional medicinal uses (alves et al. 2008). this is also true for the ’are’are, for whom we recorded medicinal uses for one lizard and four frog species. there is a paucity of published literature on traditional knowledge involving frogs and lizards, particularly in the pacific region, which further highlights the importance of the information collected and presented in the present study. hviding’s (2005) publication of traditional knowledge of marine and coastal natural resources among the marovo lagoon people is the only similar work of this nature from the solomon islands. in his publication, the local names and associated stories of more than 1,000 species are presented with information on their habitats. loss of traditional knowledge globally, cultural diversity, including tek and people’s ability to recognize, name, and classify species (i.e. local taxonomic expertise), is threatened by a set of related processes including westernization, urban drift, and changing lifestyles (brosius and hitchner 2010; caillaud et al. 2004; walker-painemilla et al. 2010). as stated by caillaud et al. (2004:35) “the survival of traditional knowledge is vital to ensure sustainable conservation of [natural] resources in melanesia”. therefore, traditional knowledge involving, but not limited to, herpetofauna requires active documentation and preservation to facilitate biodiversity conservation objectives, sustainable resource use, and sustainable societies, especially at the community level. there is a strong need for conservation of both biodiversity and its interrelated traditional knowledge (keppel et al. 2012; pollard et al. 2014). the present study documented a difference in traditional knowledge held according to age, with the younger generation (< 30 years) demonstrating less knowledge than the oldest generation (> 60 years). similar findings were encountered by lohani (2011) scientific name local vernacular name(s) no. of interviewees who identified each species number of interviewees (maximum 30) food trade totemic medicine magic folklore fishing sphenomorphus bignelli schmidt scincidae ikiko maamtoru 8 0 0 0 0 0 0 6 emoia atrocostrata duméril & bibron scincidae ikiko haho 6 0 0 6 0 0 0 2 emoia cyanogaster lesson scincidae iko ma 3 2 0 0 0 1 0 0 (continued from previous page) file:///c:/users/jon/documents/ebl/volume%206/pollard%20et%20al/pollard_preproof_final.docx#_enref_16#_enref_16 file:///c:/users/jon/documents/ebl/volume%206/pollard%20et%20al/pollard_preproof_final.docx#_enref_1#_enref_1 file:///c:/users/jon/documents/ebl/volume%206/pollard%20et%20al/pollard_preproof_final.docx#_enref_1#_enref_1 file:///c:/users/jon/documents/ebl/volume%206/pollard%20et%20al/pollard_preproof_final.docx#_enref_6#_enref_6 file:///c:/users/jon/documents/ebl/volume%206/pollard%20et%20al/pollard_preproof_final.docx#_enref_6#_enref_6 file:///c:/users/jon/documents/ebl/volume%206/pollard%20et%20al/pollard_preproof_final.docx#_enref_7#_enref_7 file:///c:/users/jon/documents/ebl/volume%206/pollard%20et%20al/pollard_preproof_final.docx#_enref_30#_enref_30 file:///c:/users/jon/documents/ebl/volume%206/pollard%20et%20al/pollard_preproof_final.docx#_enref_30#_enref_30 file:///c:/users/jon/documents/ebl/volume%206/pollard%20et%20al/pollard_preproof_final.docx#_enref_7#_enref_7 ethnobiology letters. 2015. 6(1):99‐110. doi: 10.14237/ebl.6.1.2015.389. 106 research communication table 3. descriptive summary of ’are’are uses of herpetofauna. (continued on next page) species detailed uses discodeles guppyi food: this frog was an important protein component in bush diets. it was especially eaten during feasts and usually cooked by roasting. it was usually hunted during rains by listening for its call. march is said to be the best month to catch this frog. informants reported that snapping a twig when encountering this frog will render it immobile, as it will think one of its legs has broken. another technique involved using a whistle made from a stick that produces a sound to which this frog responds. it was also eaten by domestic dogs and cats. totemic: it was considered a totem to certain tribes and believed to bring fertility to gardens if present. consumption of this frog was prohibited by tribes holding this belief. medicine: bones of this frog were rubbed against children’s bodies to prevent snake and centipede bites. batrachylodes vertebralis food: this frog was eaten, sometimes being cooked in bamboo stems. traditionally an important food for feasts, an auapu (important woman) would eat it to signify that feasting may begin. trade: this highly valued species, with seasonal harvesting taboos, was traded and could be bought with pata-ni-hanua (traditional shell money). folklore: if its legs were broken when caught, a tree was believed to fall on you in the forest. ceratobatrachus guentheri food: this frog was gutted before being roasted and consumed as an important feast food. magic: the bones were reported to be used in mato’oha (sorcery) to bring luck and to increase garden fertility. medicine: the species was also used as a medicine for opa-opo (swollen stomach) and to treat bedwetting in children by rubbing against the child’s stomach. its urine was also drunk to heal stomach illnesses. its saliva could be used to treat snake and centipede bites. folklore: in one traditional story, this frog was responsible for protecting an area in the mountains from being destroyed by black magic, as evidenced by the presence of a distinctive uphill jutting, known as hurakaia. platymantis guppyi food: this frog was caught in traps made from folded leaves, roasted, and eaten. it was also preyed upon by snakes. trade: the species was used in trade, exchange, and commerce. medicine: it was used to prevent bedwetting by rubbing the frog on a child’s stomach or making the frog urinate on a child’s head. totemic: this frog was regarded as a koe maea (taboo frog) and was considered a totem to certain tribes, with its call believed to signal death if found calling near a house. rana kreffti food: this frog was eaten. totemic: some tribes were not allowed to eat this frog, as it was their totem and could signal death or sickness if heard calling or found in the house. it was also used to determine the thoughts and feelings of ancestral spirits. fishing: juvenile frogs were used as bait for catching eels. platymantis weberi food: this frog was eaten. platymantis solomonis food: this frog was eaten. litoria thesaurensis food: this frog was eaten and is also preyed upon by cats and snakes. medicine: this frog was used to rub against a child’s stomach to prevent bed-wetting. emoia pseudocyanura food: this lizard was opportunistically hunted, often being roasted and eaten. fishing: it was used as fishing bait. medicine: it was used by young boys to rub against their faces and thereby prevent facial hair growth. ethnobiology letters. 2015. 6(1):99‐110. doi: 10.14237/ebl.6.1.2015.389. 107 research communication and cruz-garcia (2006), who reported younger people had less knowledge than older people of animals and their traditional uses. in these previous studies, the reasons mentioned for reduced knowledge among younger participants included: 1) decreased “knowledge transmitting events” and interactions between the older and younger generations, which is also a plausible reason for the ’are’are situation, although we did not collect information on this issue (cruz-garcia 2006; lohani 2011); 2) decreased availability or increasingly threatened status of wild food plants and animals, which may also applicable to the ’are’are; 3) social stigmatization by which tek is viewed as unimportant and leads to lack of interest among younger people; and 4) school attendance, which limits time for traditional knowledge acquisition (cruz garcia 2006; lohani 2011). school attendance, potentially limiting tek acquisition time, occurs on malaita, where children attend mission schools based in coastal communities. because tek generally may grow and expand through time, space, and experiences, we assume that as individuals get older their knowledge will also increase. the reduced knowledge in younger generation documented in the present study may therefore be the result of fewer learning experiences, not necessarily because knowledge is being lost. this may also result in a shift in tek distribution, whereby younger generations have greater in-depth knowledge and experience regarding coastal landscapes, in contrast to forest landscapes, where the majority of terrestrial herpetofauna are found. for example, a study focusing on marine tek might find that younger people have greater knowledge than older individuals. the current study found that most tek was held by older informants, especially those who spent a significant part of their lives in forest or inland habitats, as opposed to those who grew up in coastal settlements. our results show that tek, although (continued from previous page) species detailed uses corucia zebrata food: this lizard was hunted and eaten, being considered to have tasty greasy meat. although an important source of protein in the past, it is now becoming rare. magic: this lizard was also used in sacrifices for ancestral worship. folklore: this lizard was said to cohabit with the opossum (phalanger orientalis pallas phalangeridae), which is said to be its natural enemy. emoia nigra fishing: this lizard was used as fishing bait. gehyra oceanica food: this lizard could be eaten. magic: this gecko was used as a good-luck charm for gambling. cyrtodactylus salomonensis food: this lizard could be eaten and was an important feast food. folklore: disobedient children would often be frightened by parents, who old them that if disobedient, their eyes would turn into the eyes of a rarani. it was also claimed that this lizard had the ability to find gold. trade: currently, this lizard is valued in honiara at around sbd$500 for sale in the exotic pet trade. a few men have devised traps to catch this lizard. eugongylus albofasciolatus food: this lizard could be eaten and was usually cooked in bamboo leaves. totemic: it is a totem for some tribes, signalling death. if encountered, certain evil spirits were believed to take the form of this lizard, causing childbirth difficulties and insanity in victims. prasinohaema virens food: this lizard could be eaten. fishing: it was used as fishing bait. sphenomorphus bignelli fishing: this lizard was used as fishing bait. emoia atrocostrata fishing: this lizard was used as fishing bait. totemic: it was a totem and taboo animal for certain tribes, being used in traditional sacrifices. emoia cyanogaster food: this lizard could be eaten and was also preyed upon by cats, birds, and snakes. sorcery: the bones were used as good luck charms in gambling. file:///c:/users/jon/documents/ebl/volume%206/pollard%20et%20al/pollard_preproof_final.docx#_enref_10#_enref_10 file:///c:/users/jon/documents/ebl/volume%206/pollard%20et%20al/pollard_preproof_final.docx#_enref_16#_enref_16 file:///c:/users/jon/documents/ebl/volume%206/pollard%20et%20al/pollard_preproof_final.docx#_enref_10#_enref_10 file:///c:/users/jon/documents/ebl/volume%206/pollard%20et%20al/pollard_preproof_final.docx#_enref_16#_enref_16 file:///c:/users/jon/documents/ebl/volume%206/pollard%20et%20al/pollard_preproof_final.docx#_enref_16#_enref_16 ethnobiology letters. 2015. 6(1):99‐110. doi: 10.14237/ebl.6.1.2015.389. 108 research communication likely threatened, also persists, continues to be produced, and thrives through application (i.e., if tek ceases to be applied, both it and associated biodiversity may be lost) (charnley et al. 2007). as thaman (2013:23) stressed in relation to the loss of traditional taxonomic expertise and the conservation of threatened species, “if we can’t name them and don’t know them, we may lose them.” conversely, if species are disappearing, the knowledge will disappear with them in a negative feedback loop. if traditional knowledge and practices involving herpetofauna cease to be practiced and shared, associated oral information may also be threatened with extinction. for example, methods of capturing and cooking frogs could be lost along with the traditional customs and stories that mention them. the conservation of biological species and their associated tek must therefore be considered of equal importance. recuperating the citation from e. o. wilson at the opening of this paper, the sixth biodiversity extinction crisis is clearly upon us (wilson 1992). paralleling this biological phenomenon is an ethnobiodiversity extinction crisis involving a loss of tek and associated taxonomic expertise that may be more serious for humanity than the actual extinction of biological taxa. this is a somewhat hidden crisis that undermines attempts at community conservation as a basis for sustained human wellbeing, particularly for rural biodiversity-dependent and landowning communities, such as those of the ’are’are in the solomon islands. acknowledgments we thank the people of ’are’are, who are custodians of their traditional ecological knowledge and shared the richness of this knowledge with us. we also thank the translators and guides who helped us administer the questionnaire. declarations permissions: none declared. sources of funding: the university of the south pacific research office and the fste research committee provided the 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international, arlington, va. wilson, e.o. 1992. the diversity of life. harvard university press, cambridge, united kingdom. supplementary files available at ojs.ethnobiology.org/ index.php/ebl. biosketches edgar j. m. pollard’s expertise and interests include biodiversity and conservation, herpetofauna, use and documentation of traditional ecological knowledge and pacific histories and cultures. randy thaman is an emeritus professor of pacific islands biogeography at the university of the south pacific. areas of expertise are ethnobiology, conservation, sustainable island development, biodiversity, agroforestry, food systems, and traditional environmental knowledge. gilianne brodie is an associate professor in biology at the university of the south pacific. areas of expertise are island biodiversity, conservation, invertebrates, taxonomy and merging traditional indigenous knowledge into mainstream science, and natural resource management. clare morrison is a research fellow in the school of environment, griffith university. areas of expertise are conservation, herpetofauna, taxonomy, local capacity building, and sustainable use of natural resources. doing conservation differently: toward a diverse conservations inventory gillette et al. 2023. ethnobiology letters 14(2):1–9 1 perspectives special issue on diverse conservations al. 2020; knight et al. 2019; massarella et al. 2021). the global institutional conservation apparatus is based on such mentalities and practices, with their clear links to capitalism, colonialism, racism, and a centuries-long history of “protecting nature” from certain kinds of people, often black, brown, and poor, while ensuring a wealthy white overclass’ access (see brockington et al. 2008; kashwan et al. 2021; rudd et al. 2021). the contributions to this special issue, developed from a panel at the anthropology and conservation conference co-hosted by the royal anthropological institute and the society of ethnobiology in october 2021, collectively argue for what we, borrowing gibson-graham’s diverse economies framework, call “doing conservation differently.” gibson-graham’s “weak theory”—so called because it refuses to extend explanation too widely—(gibson-graham 2008:619) introduction many scientists and environmental activists argue that the scale and scope of contemporary conservation must increase dramatically if we are to halt biodiversity declines and sustain a healthy planet (e.g., allan et al. 2022; wilson 2016). conservation’s “basic and central aim” is “preventing the irreversible loss of life” and other forms of environmental harm to ensure the wellbeing of the earth’s human and nonhuman denizens (hambler and canney 2013:2; see also knight et al. 2019). yet exactly what this should look like is a question that elicits intense debate. some scholars have criticized mainstream conservation for being reductionist, grounded in a western worldview that separates humans from the environment, and advocating exclusionary “fortress”like preservation measures that harm indigenous peoples and local communities (e.g., bartel et al. 2020; berkes 2004; brockington et al. 2008; delacámara et doing conservation differently: toward a diverse conservations inventory maris boyd gillette1*, daniela shebitz2, and benedict singleton3 1 school of global studies, university of gothenburg, gothenburg, sweden. 2school of environmental and sustainability sciences, kean university, union, usa. 3school of global political studies, malmö university, malmö, sweden. *maris.gillette@gu.se abstract many scientists and environmental activists argue that the scale and scope of contemporary conservation must increase dramatically if we are to halt biodiversity declines and sustain a healthy planet. yet conservation as currently practiced has faced significant critique for its reliance on reductionist science, advocacy of “fortress”-like preservation measures that disproportionately harm marginalized communities, and integration into the global capitalist system that is the root cause of environmental degradation. the contributions to this special issue, developed from a panel at the anthropology and conservation conference co-hosted by the royal anthropological institute and the society of ethnobiology in october 2021, collectively argue for what we, borrowing from gibson-graham’s diverse economies framework, call “doing conservation differently.” by bringing marginalized, hidden, and alternative conservation activities to light, researchers can contribute, in the spirit of gibson-graham’s work, to making these diverse conservations more real and credible as objects of policy and activism. this special issue contributes to inventorying the diverse conservations that already exist, which opens new spaces for ethical intervention and collective action. received july 11, 2022 open access accepted november 3, 2022 doi 10.14237/ebl.14.2.2023.1835 published may 31, 2023 keywords change, conservation science, diverse economies, ethnobiology, indigenous and local knowledge copyright © 2023 by the author(s); licensee society of ethnobiology. this is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution-noncommercial 4.0 international public license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0), which permits non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. gillette et al. 2023. ethnobiology letters 14(2):1–9 2 perspectives special issue on diverse conservations —adopts an experimental rather than a critical orientation. and eschews the impulse for a single grand action strategy. this theory has been enormously influential for a wide range of social scientists committed to undermining capitalism’s hegemony (e.g., amoamo et al. 2018; beacham 2018; cameron and gibson 2020; foley and mather 2016; gibson et al. 2015; gibson-graham, et al. 2013; gibson-graham and dombroski 2020a, b; gibsongraham and roelvink 2011; jehlička and daněk 2017; sharp et al. 2022; snyder and st. martin 2015; wynnejones 2014). working in a wide range of contexts, these scholars inventory the many non-capitalist economic practices that already exist, indeed making up the majority of economic activities around the world. case studies potentially of interest to ethnobiologists explore barter and gardening for household provisioning (e.g., jehlička and daněk 2017), community supported agriculture/fisheries (e.g., beacham 2018; snyder and st. martin 2015), cultural ecotourism and fish-waste conservation guided by indigenous values and rights (e.g., amoamo et al. 2018; sharp et al. 2022), livelihood farmers’ resistance to payment for ecosystems services projects (wynne-jones 2014), and collectively-owned catch shares in which revenues are reinvested in local communities (e.g., foley and mather 2016). scholars working within this paradigm make marginalized, hidden, and alternative economic activities more real and credible as objects of policy and activism (gibson -graham 2008:618). by “reading for difference”— deviations from and contradictions to neoliberal capitalist norms—diverse economies research contests the dominant political-economic system, focuses attention on human and human–nonhuman interdependencies, and invites us to rethink our place in the world, including as scientists (see also cameron and gibson 2020; gibson et al. 2015; wynne-jones 2014; snyder and st. martin 2015). crucially, this scholarship suggests that resources to guide transformative change are already present in the world around us. as editors of this special issue, we present these articles as a step toward a “diverse conservations inventory” (see gibson-graham and dombroski 2020a:8) of non-hegemonic conservation practices that nurture subjectivities, languages, and communities of conservation grounded in a new recognition of interdependence, the ethical centerpiece of gibsongraham’s approach. the case studies provided here show that “doing conservation differently” requires expanding our understanding of what counts as knowledge or “science.” it demands researchers who embrace new subject-positions and engage in practices that diverge from conventional understandings of conservation and/or scientific research. finally, departing from a range of mentalities and contexts, the “diverse conservations” represented here advance practices of “connection-amidstdifference” (see gibson-graham and miller 2015:10) that acknowledge and respect our existential interdependence. recognizing conservation knowledge/science expanding understandings of what counts as conservation science by recognizing conservation knowledges developed outside western academic settings is fundamental to doing conservation differently. many scholars have noted the tendency in conservation to prefer expert-based approaches in which expertise is synonymous with western science (e.g., bartel et al. 2020; berkes 2004; chua et al. 2020; rudd et al. 2021). yet as ethnobiologists and other researchers have pointed out, indigenous peoples and local communities often have “particularly special knowledge about their homeplaces, the species that occur there, the changes that have taken place over the years, and the close, interdependent relationships among people and other life-forms” (turner et al. 2022:632). some scholars use the language of the western academy to emphasize the value of indigenous and local knowledge for conservation, describing this place-based erudition as grounded in hypothesis testing, evidence gathering, causal explanation, inductive generalization, and ampliative interference (weiskopf 2020:2; see also berkes and berkes 2009). others point out that indigenous and local knowledges can have their own epistemological and ontological foundations (e.g., berkes 2018:chapters 5-7; blaser 2009; lopez-maldonado 2022; cf. cebrián-piqueras et al. 2020). long histories of sustainable, ethical interactions between specific human and non-human communities should make the conservation value of these knowledges self-evident, as do their persistence and adaptability in the face of pasts and presents dominated by colonial and capitalist expansion (see, e.g., beaulieu-guay 2022; berkes 2018). as such, they need neither resemble western science nor be assessed in its terms. as we note above, scholars who work in the diverse economies framework argue that seeing economic heterogeneity is key to undermining gillette et al. 2023. ethnobiology letters 14(2):1–9 3 perspectives special issue on diverse conservations capitalism’s hegemony and bringing new worlds into being. similarly, our diverse conservations initiative takes recognizing heterogenous conservation knowledges as an essential step toward countering a hegemonic global conservation apparatus. guided by gibson-graham’s weak theory, our diverse conservations approach eschews a grand strategy for embracing heterogenous conservation sciences and adopts instead an experimental orientation. for example, in acknowledging indigenous and local knowledges as conservation knowledges, some authors stress the similarities between these and western science in their empirical evidence base and observational methodologies. keleman, sá, and temudo (2023:10–21) point out in “rooted in the mangrove landscape” that diola children have ethnoichthyological knowledge that is ignored by mainstream conservation scientists. the diola village in the cacheu region of northern guinea-bissau where the authors conducted ethnographic research is regarded as part of a marine biodiversity hotspot not least because of its mangroves which host shelterand spawning grounds for migrating fish. local children, particularly boys, have specialized knowledge relevant for biodiversity conservation because of their participation in fishing (boys) and fish marketing (girls), as well as other mangrove-related activities such as swimming, rice cultivation, hunting (boys) and wild edible plant collection. in keleman et al.’s words, mangroves are “a natural learning ground” for environmental stewardship in this community. however, rather than deploying children’s knowledge for participatory biomonitoring and mangrove conservation, conservationists largely ignore it. children’s ethnoichthyological knowledge is further threatened by the area’s integration into a cash economy and the intrusion of foreign religions. other authors emphasize the independent epistemological and ontological foundations of indigenous and local knowledges, but tactically adopt language from western science to “translate” their value for conservation scientists, if only to demonstrate the lacunae that exist in western ways of knowing. for example, mcguire and mawyer (2023:22–36) draw on ethnoecological research conducted along the rural puna coastline on the island of hawaiʻi to reveal the unseen in mainstream coastal conservation. they emphasize indigenous knowledge as an autonomous system which includes “mediators between human and more than human worlds, between conception and perception, mind and action, rights and obligations.” scrutinizing contemporary and historical ʻōiwi practices, they show that sea salt (paʻakai)— an “unseen presence” in mainstream coastal conservation—operates as an indicator for biodiversity, marking dependent biota communities such as certain types of seaweeds, marine invertebrates, and fish. paʻakai in many respects guides ʻōiwi practitioners’ engagements and interactions within coastal environments, and sea salt has an essential role in coastal ecologies. by attending to ʻōiwi practices and understandings, mcguire and mawyer argue, mainstream conservationists and sustainability scientists could learn to see their blind spots and co-create a richer, more expansive practice of coastal care. diverse conservation subjectivities elicit new practices gibson-graham describes a diverse economies approach as “co-implicated processes of changing ourselves/changing our thinking/changing the world” (2008:618). by recognizing the value of heterogenous conservation knowledges, ethnobiologists and other conservation scientists “change the world” by “changing our thinking,” performing into being new subjectivities and concomitantly new relationships and practices. as many of the contributions to this special issue demonstrate, the subject-position of “(western) scientific expert” which developed under modernity metamorphoses into new roles in conservation projects attentive to indigenous and local knowledges. several studies envision researchers, practitioners, and local peoples as strategic allies who collaborate on conservation initiatives in which all participants have much to teach and to learn (see also malmer et al. 2020:84–85; rose 2018). to adopt this scientist subjectivity, researchers must be(come) conscious of the political and economic ramifications of their work and explicitly promote conservation activities that consider the needs, concerns, and visions of all participants. in their study of secondary forests in costa rica’s northern zone, shebitz, agnew, kerns, oviedo, and ha (2023:37–46) envision a new relationship between local medicinal knowledge and conservation that could guide a more expansive notion of conservation. two pioneer trees (vismia macrophylla and pentaclethra macroloba) are fast-growing actors in local deforested areas that restore soil fertility and facilitate tropical forest recovery. local residents, who have limited access to western medical professionals or facilities, gillette et al. 2023. ethnobiology letters 14(2):1–9 4 perspectives special issue on diverse conservations use these tree species to prevent fungal skin infections. yet although v. macrophylla and p. macroloba play a key role in reforestation and have important pharmaceutical utility for area residents, costa rica’s secondary forests are not recognized as conservation objects. the authors argue that local ethnobiological knowledges should join mainstream conservation science in informing conservation decision-making in this area. crucially, this is not only a matter of expanding tropical forest protection to secondary forests. rather, policymakers should also design economic incentives for landowners in order to ensure that a politically-attuned conservation prioritizes local medicinal uses rather than feeding these species into global pharmaceutical markets. in “the challenges of symmetrical dialogue,” bollettin, ludwig, and el-hani (2023:47–55) describe a series of engagements in which local people from two fishing communities in bahia state, brazil, and an interdisciplinary research team work together on biodiversity and education initiatives that support intercultural dialogue, mutual learning, and selfdetermination as well as conservation. the awareness that science is implicated in power regimes informs the design of this reciprocal, action-oriented research project. heterogenous knowledges, including local environmental knowledge and academic knowledges from the humanities, social sciences, and natural sciences, are brought together in “symmetrical dialogues” (or more symmetrical, compared to mainstream conservation practice) to inspire innovation, including new curricula and new modes of oceanographic and ecological research. this strategic alliance has been transformative for all participants, not least the scientists who learned to “do conservation research differently,” including by broadening their research practice to include pressuring government officials to involve their community partners in conservation decision-making and tourism planning. as the authors write, working to achieve symmetrical dialogues provides a tool for researchers to question their goals, make their presuppositions explicit, and ultimately align their concerns and priorities with those of the community. sandroni (2023:72–82), whose research concerns the brazilian atlantic forest in bahia state, organizes her contribution around the insight that “different actors have different access to the discursive power to define what should be understood as environmental degradation, its causes and solutions.” she scrutinizes discursive disputes about biodiversity conservation between state and non-governmental institutions, on the one hand, and the tupinambá indigenous people, on the other, arguing that conservation scientists and practitioners in this area must revise their practices to take power relations into account. state actors and non-governmental organizations frame environmental degradation as deriving from all social actors’ lack of knowledge and propose conservation “solutions” that are “blind” to colonial histories or contextual specificities. in this conservation practice, particular species, defined in global indicators, should be used for biodiversity monitoring and preservation measures. for the tupinambá, environmental degradation relates to land use that is controlled by big landowners, miners, and other “outsiders.” as such , the solution is recognizing indigenous land claims. sandroni points out that both narratives position themselves as challenging dominant perspectives by advocating for forest conservation. if the diverse actors in the bahia atlantic forest could expand this positioning to encompass an in-depth, historically-specific understanding of knowledgepower relations, “changing our thinking” could become the basis for a strategic alliance between all parties and a new practice of “convivial conservation.” in their contribution, bosco and thompson (2023:56–71) describe the skarù·ręʔ food forest project, which adopts a reconciliation-based and decolonial conservation approach and has expanded tribal food sovereignty and community health while facilitating learning among and between local members of the tuscarora nation and participating scientists. the skarù·ręʔ food forest project initiated a collaboration between a non-indigenous horticulture researcher and skarù·ręʔ (tuscarora nation) community members centering around the contributions of temperature nut trees to indigenous food sovereignty and nature-based science approaches to climate change and biodiversity conservation. guided by principles of reconciliatory science (bosco’s host university, cornell, lies upon stolen haudenosaunee land), the project prioritized reciprocal relationships, meaning that the researcher’s role extended beyond data extraction. the project successfully redistributed financial resources to expand food sovereignty conversations among a wide audience, enrich the local area with nut, fruit, and medicinal plants, and create a living compendium of gillette et al. 2023. ethnobiology letters 14(2):1–9 5 perspectives special issue on diverse conservations culturally relevant nut resources useful to researchers and community members alike. conservation being-in-common doing conservation differently reconfigures the community of conservation to promote what diverse economies theory terms “being-in-common” or “connection-amidst-difference” (gibson-graham and dombroski 2020a:19; gibson-graham and miller 2015:9). this orientation to conservation emphasizes more-than-human interdependence and flourishing— a goal that little resembles the global conservation approach institutionalized today (see kashwan et al. 2021; rudd et al. 2021). conservation being-incommon, as indicated in several of the special issue’s case studies, entails acknowledging non-humans as community members, rather than treating nonhumans as conservation “objects.” many ethnobiologists and other scientists have pointed out that local and indigenous knowledge traditions often emphasize “nurturing responsible relationships among humans and non-humans” (reyes-garcía et al. 2022:86). “relational” or “kincentric” understandings of the environment include “nature” in the community, with attendant requirements for ethical practice (turner, cuerrier, and joseph 2022). this directly affects conservation initiatives. nadasdy’s 2011 study of an attempt by kluane hunters of the yukon, canada, to collaborate with western scientists to manage the wolf population is a case in point. the kluane regard “human-persons” and “wolf-persons” as sharing a community, which entails norms for conduct that diverge sharply from those of the scientists. to the scientists’ consternation, the kluane objected to plans to sterilize wolves rather than kill them. sterilization suggested human dominance and ownership of the wolves, whereas killing the wolves (culling) acknowledged the wolves’ full personhood. when the scientists could not accept the implications that the wolves’ community membership had for conservation practice, the collaboration failed. conservation connection-amidst-difference, as this introduction has repeatedly shown, also means sharing or ceding conservation decision-making power to human actors who have previously been marginalized and disenfranchised in the global conservation apparatus. acknowledging the expertise of indigenous and local peoples catalyzes this transformation, which changes the relationships and structure of the conservation community and in turn affects the broader socio-political regime within which conservation is located. given that the goal of a diverse economies/diverse conservations approach is dismantling hegemony, doing conservation differently can— and perhaps should— create tension and conflict. we do not regard this as negative; as other research emphasizes, the dominant mode of conservation also entails conflicts (see bartel et al. 2020; brockington et al. 2008; kashwan et al. 2021; rudd et al. 2021; west 2006). in the conclusion to this special issue, singleton and gillette (2023:83–91) spotlight how redefining conservation knowledge has socio-political consequences for the conservation “community” by applying michael thompson’s rubbish theory (2017) to the volume’s case studies. rubbish theory is a model of social valuation that links the classification of “objects” (things, people, ideas) to how society is structured. the authors use rubbish theory concepts to scrutinize the extent to which the various conservation engagements described in the special issue attempt to “level” existing social hierarchies and work toward a more egalitarian order, or instead modify them while nevertheless upholding status positions such as the expert western scientist. ultimately, they argue that calls for pluralizing knowledge are calls to change society. the question then is: how far do we wish to go? doing conservation differently: towards an inventory of diverse conservations ethnobiologists turner, cuerrier, and joseph, drawing on their own research and the findings of the intergovernmental science-policy platform on biodiversity and ecosystem services (ipbes), argue that we must move away from mainstream conservation approaches and embrace “valid alternative ways of knowing and being” (2022:639). they warn that the “consequences of not initiating change, innovation and diversity in our choices and approaches in relation to other species and the ecosystems we share … [are] dire” (639). as a discipline, ethnobiology has since its inception viewed indigenous and local environmental knowledges as “valid alternative ways of knowing and being.” the contributions to this special issue reflect this orientation, while also starting a process of inventorying what “change, innovation, and diversity in our choices and approaches in relation to other species and the ecosystems we share” can look like. central to the diverse conservations we document here are recognizing expert knowledges from outside gillette et al. 2023. ethnobiology letters 14(2):1–9 6 perspectives special issue on diverse conservations the academy— the kinds of knowledges that ethnobiologists have long argued are important—and conducting research in partnership with local and indigenous communities. in these collaborations, the researcher strives to be aware of and consider the political and economic consequences of any given initiative. this requires adopting new scientist subjectpositions and modifying how scientific research is conducted, what gibson-graham describes as changing ourselves and changing our thinking. this in turn, if initially only in a modest way, affects the structure and relations of the conservation “community,” with implications for the broader power arrangements within which conservation takes place. many argue that making such changes is essential if we wish to achieve progress toward greater human and environmental well-being (e.g., kashwan et al. 2021; knight et al. 2019; rudd et al. 2021), or what we, using the diverse economies framework, term conservation being-in-common. this special issue seeks to perform into being a conservation unbound from global forces of colonialism and capitalism (cf. brockington et al. 2008). in our view, the articles comprising this special issue facilitate our collective ability to do conservation with a greater awareness of and care for the web of relationships upon which conservation is ultimately founded. by disseminating research that exemplifies new collective identities for academic conservationists, we advance, if only incrementally, the fundamental, systemic change to conservation practice that many scholars believe is long overdue. done differently, conservation exhibits creativity in engaging with diverse contexts, conflicts and knowledges, while conservation practitioners gain an awareness of the complex and uneven consequences of their actions in dynamic situations. the diverse conservations described here challenge scholars to imagine new roles and broaden their practices in the service of better environmental and social outcomes. as co-editors, ethnobiologists, and environmental social scientists, we submit that a diverse conservations inventory can be part of “changing the world.” acknowledgments the authors would like to thank three helpful anonymous reviewers and editor andrew flachs for their comments and suggestions on how to improve this introduction. gillette gratefully acknowledges funding from formas 2018-00251 for her participation. declarations permissions: none declared. sources of funding: none declared. conflicts of interest: none declared. references cited amoamo, m., k. ruckstuhl, and d. ruwhiu. 2018. balancing indigenous values through diverse economies: a case study of māori ecotourism. tourism planning & development 15:478–495. doi:10.1080/21568316.2018.1481452. allan, j., h. p. possingham, s. atkinson, a. waldron, m. di marco, s. h. m. butchart, v. m. adams, w. d. kissing, t. wordsell, c. sandbrook, g. gibbon, k. kumar, p. mehta, m. maron, b. a. williams, k. r. jones, b. a. wintle, a. e. reside, and j. e. watson. 2022. the minimum land area requiring 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4:627–651. doi:10.1002/pan3.10321. weiskopf, d. 2020. representing and coordinating ethnobiological knowledge. studies in history and philosophy of science part c: studies in history and philosophy of biological and biomedical sciences 84:101328. doi:10.1016/j.shpsc.2020.101328. gillette et al. 2023. ethnobiology letters 14(2):1–9 9 perspectives special issue on diverse conservations west, p. 2006. conservation is our government now. the politics of ecology in papua new guinea. duke university press, london. wilson, e. o. 2016. half-earth: our planet's fight for life. liveright publishing, london. wynne-jones, s. 2014. ‘reading for difference’ with payments for ecosystem services in wales. critical policy studies 8:148–164. doi:10.1080/19460171.2013.857474. does climatic seasonality of the caatinga influence the composition of lins neto et al. 2021. ethnobiology letters 12(1):44–54 44 data, methods & taxonomies delimit the local domain of medicinal plant knowledge (see quinlan 2005). some assumptions have been made by different authors when applying the free list technique (see smith 1993; quinlan 2005). for example, in free lists, it is important to consider how often a given item appears and the order in which it is cited in different lists. this is because the most important items for a group tend to be the most frequently cited and listed first (smith 1993; quinlan 2005). this set of items ordered through memory retrieval provides a starting introduction the free list is a key data collection tool in ethnobiological studies (cardoso et al. 2017; miara et al. 2019; quinlan 2005), representing a quick and very efficient way to access the repertoire of items (e.g., resources) in a given domain of knowledge in a human group (quinlan 2005). for example, a research participant could be invited to list all the medicinal plants that people in a given community use. by compiling all lists of medicinal plants produced by community residents, it is possible to does climatic seasonality of the caatinga influence the composition of the free lists of medicinal plants? a case study ernani machado de freitas lins neto1,2*, silvana vieira dos santos3, and washington soares ferreira júnior4 1programa de pós-graduação em ciências da saúde e biológicas, universidade federal do vale do são francisco (univasf), campus petrolina, pernambuco, brazil. 2programa de pós-graduação em ecologia humana e gestão socioambiental (ppgecoh), departamento de tecnologia e ciências sociais (dtcs) campus iii da universidade do estado da bahia, bahia, brazil. 3colegiado de ciências da natureza, universidade federal do vale do são francisco, campus de senhor do bonfim, bahia, brazil. 4laboratório de investigações bioculturais no semiárido, universidade de pernambuco (upe), campus petrolina, brazil. *ernani.linsneto@univasf.edu.br abstract the free list is a key data collection tool in ethnobotanical studies. for this reason, it is currently receiving a great deal of attention regarding possible methodological limitations. to this end, we aim to investigate the influence of climatic seasonality of the caatinga ecosystem on the composition of free lists of medicinal plants provided by people from a rural community located in the northeast region of brazil. people were asked the same trigger question (which medicinal plants do you know?), during the rainy and dry seasons. comparing the plant lists described during both periods (68 plants), respondent salience in the rainy period was significantly higher than the dry period. however, similarities can be observed between the two lists, especially with respect to their composition and the continued importance of hortelã (mentha sp.) and alecrim (lippia sp.), which maintained prominent positions during the rainy and dry seasons. the general analysis of the free lists revealed that there were no significant differences due to temporality, especially in relation to plants with a higher salience value. since these plants are found mainly in homegardens, it is possible to deduce that the daily conduct of activities in these environments is stimulating and keeping plants in homegardens active in people’s memory. however, much still needs to be investigated about the free list technique in ethnobotanical data collection, especially with regard to the influence of seasonality on stimulating seasonal diseases. received february 11, 2020 open access accepted december 24, 2020 doi 10.14237/ebl.12.1.2021.1678 published march 15, 2021 keywords salience index, relative importance index, dry forest, ethnobotany copyright © 2021 by the author(s); licensee society of ethnobiology. this is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution-noncommercial 4.0 international public license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0), which permits non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. supplementary files available at https://doi.org/10.14237/ebl.12.1.2021.1678 lins neto et al. 2021. ethnobiology letters 12(1):44–54 45 data, methods & taxonomies point for the development of many ethnobiological studies. for this reason, the scientific community has increasingly focused on this data collection technique, seeking to understand its operation and limitations in order to improve this tool progressively (e.g., sousa et al. 2016). although it is one of the main techniques for collecting ethnobiological information, few investigations test the free list in different socioecological contexts to assess whether the lists can respond, for example, to seasonal variations in climate. when considering seasonal environments, resource availability and human strategies linked to the environment may be distinct at different seasons in the same year (campbell et al. 1997; shankar et al. 1998). ramos and albuquerque (2012) showed that the composition of firewood used might differ in a rural community in different seasons (rainy and dry), while diseases may vary in incidence due to changes in temperature and humidity at different times of the year (ong et al. 2018; wu et al. 2016). changes in disease incidence throughout the year may also affect the use of medicinal plants in different seasons and, in this case, affect the order and frequency of citation of medicinal resources in free lists. for example, the study by sousa et al. (2016) observed that the order of remembered items and the composition of free lists of medicinal plants is associated with the recent use of resources. thus, we investigate the following question: in environments with marked and seasonal climatic variations, is the composition of free lists affected by seasonality? we expect to find differences in plant positions when comparing the rainy season with the dry season in the caatinga, a seasonally dry tropical forest. a second question then arises: do the most figure 1 map of the municipality of campo formoso-ba with emphasis on the district of tuiutiba, where the study was conducted. lins neto et al. 2021. ethnobiology letters 12(1):44–54 46 data, methods & taxonomies versatile plants show less variation in their positions over time? given that recent usage may be important in the composition of the list, it is expected that these very versatile plants will also be widely used at different times of the year. methods study area the study was conducted in the rural community of tuiutiba, belonging to the municipality of campo formoso (figure 1). tuiutiba district, which is about 15 kilometers away from campo formoso, is typically rural, having its main agricultural activities based on maize, beans, and cassava, as well as commercial activities, although the locality also has a strong potential for emerald mining. the climate is dry subhumid with rainfall reaching up to 900 mm. it has a dense tree vegetation with fragments of seasonal forests. all residents who agreed to participate in the study were invited to sign the informed consent form (icf). this study was approved by the univasf research ethics committee (caee nº: 87412418.2.0000.5196). data collection the study was conducted at the district headquarters of the tuiutiba, where there are approximately 300 households. almost all residencies were visited, however only 22 residents agreed to participate in the study. these residents are adults responsible for their residence or willing to participate in the research. it is noteworthy that there was a great hesitation of people to participate in the research, mainly due to the need to return for a new interview. however, as houses were being visited, we asked residents “which people in the community are very knowledgeable about medicinal plants?” by asking this question, we found that the majority of the 22 informants who agreed to participate in the study, 14 of the people who fall between the ages of 40 to 90 years old, are recognized locally as “experts” on medicinal plants. in this way, we were able to minimize the problem of low sampling since the list of plants generated at both times was produced from people with a closer relationship with the plants. like this, we collected socioeconomic data related to age, gender, residence time in the locality, and monthly income from participants. ethnobotanical data collection was divided into two stages. in the first stage, the free list technique was applied during the rainy season from june to september 2018. at the time, participants were asked to list the medicinal plants they use and/or know from the triggering question: which medicinal plants do you know? each plant was recorded strictly in the order in which it was cited by the participant. in possession of the list provided by each informant, a semi-structured questionnaire was applied with questions directed to the use of each mentioned plant, such as: which disease is this plant indicated for?, where do you collect it?, and which part do you use? this same procedure was repeated for the dry season, which was carried out from january to march 2019. in the dry season, the same people from the previous stage were invited to participate. for the second stage, only 19 people participated, three people fewer than the survey undertaken during the rainy season. data analysis based on the free lists, the salience of the plants cited as medicine was analyzed from the salience index (si), which considered the frequency of citation and the average position of the items in the lists obtained (smith and borgatti 1997) based on the following formula: si = (∑((li rj + 1)/li))/n where si = salience index, li = size of the list where the term is cited, rj = position of the item in a given list li, and n = total number of lists (or interviewed). this way, the most salient items involve a high citation in several lists and are primarily remembered. the si was calculated for plants from both dry (considering the 19 lists obtained in this period) and rainy (considering the 22 lists obtained) season lists. each plant could then have two distinct salience values. in addition, we employed the protocol proposed by chaves et al. (2019) to identify the most salient plants by comparing the observed salience with a null model derived from randomization in the free lists of medicinal plants. this analysis involves a new proposal to identify statistically salient plants from free lists. the null scenario was produced from the generation of 1000 simulated populations, each containing the same number of participants and plants from the studied community, but with a randomization of the frequency and order of plant citation in the free lists. in this way, the plant salience values obtained from each simulated population were used to construct a null distribution. in this sense, the observed values of salience of each plant (in each lins neto et al. 2021. ethnobiology letters 12(1):44–54 47 data, methods & taxonomies season) were compared with the values obtained in the null distribution. details of the stages in this analysis can be found in chaves et al. (2019). thus, the observed salience values that stand out significantly from those expected by the null model involve the most salient plants in the studied community (see chaves et al. 2019). then, the plants were divided into three groups: the first formed by plants that had significantly high salience values in relation to the null scenario; a second group includes the observed values that do not differ from the null scenario; and the third group of plants comprises plants whose salience values are significantly low compared to the null model. this group probably includes the least prominent medicinal plants for the participants. all stages of this analysis were carried out for both the dry season and the rainy season separately and were performed using r, version 3.4.3, (r development core team 2018) and the script developed is available as supplementary material online (supplementary material – r markdown). it should be noted that it is necessary that the script salience_v2.r, be present in the directory folder, otherwise the analysis will not run. the script salience_v2.r is available as supplementary material in chaves et al. (2019) (function labeled as salience). this analysis was important for the selection of the most important plants in the two periods analyzed, allowing a quick and easy reproducibility comparison. the paired t-test was applied to compare the two final lists produced in the two evaluation periods. the present analysis focused only on the set of species that stood out in the dry or rainy period in relation to the salience values to assess whether the species with the highest salience in the community can be different depending on the period of the year in which the free lists are applied. in this case, when demonstrating that the salience of these species can be changed at different times of the year in the same community, this may suggest that we need to be concerned with the time of data collection through free lists in markedly seasonal environments. from this test, we evaluated whether the species that remain prominent over time show greater therapeutic salience compared to species that do not remain prominent in different evaluation periods. to compare the lists in the two periods, dry and rainy, a paired t-test at 5% probability was used. this analysis was performed using the program r version 3.4.3 (r development core team 2018) and the script developed is available as supplementary material online (supplementary material – r markdown). to answer our second research question, the relative importance index (bennett and prance 2000) was applied to evaluate the versatility of each ethnospecies mentioned. for this calculation, it is assumed that the importance of a plant is linked to the number of therapeutic indications and body systems it meets. the index ranges from 0 to 2, where ethnospecies with values closer to 2 are considered more important. the calculation is based on the following formula: ri = nbs + np where ri = relative importance of a given species; nbs = number of body systems; being calculated by the number of body systems that a given species is indicated divided by the number of body systems that the most versatile species is indicated for treatment; and np = number of therapeutic indications; being calculated by the number of therapeutic indications of a given species divided by the number of therapeutic indications that the most versatile species is indicated for treatment. despite the construction of the free list in two stages, only the information collected in the rainy season was considered to calculate the relative importance of the plants, due to the higher number of plants cited in this period. to perform the ri calculation, a simple function was built in the r environment called ri_mp.r, described in the supplementary material. results from the interviews, 140 and 85 ethnospecies were recorded for the rainy and dry seasons, respectively. of these, 73 were cited exclusively in the rainy season, 18 were cited exclusively in the dry season, and 67 were cited in both periods. from the second list (dry season), seven species showed significantly higher salience values than the random scenario (p < 0.05). in this case, we selected the seven most salient species from the two lists produced (rainy and dry seasons) that stood out in relation to the null model (figure 2). in order of decreasing salience index (si), the following stand out in the list of the rainy season (table 1): hortelã (mentha sp.) (is = 0.565) followed by malvão (pavonia sp.) (is = 0.456), arruda (ruta graveolens) (is = 0.428), capim-santo (cymbopogon citratus) (is = 0.418), alecrim (lippia sp.) (is = 0.386), ervacidreira (melissa officinalis) (is = 0.371), and sweet lins neto et al. 2021. ethnobiology letters 12(1):44–54 48 data, methods & taxonomies orange (citrus sp.) (is = 0.222). in the list produced during the dry season (table 1), hortelã (mentha sp.) remained in the first position (is = 0.563) followed by erva-cidreira (melissa officinalis) (is = 0.364), alecrim (lippia sp.) (is = 0.306), mastruz (chenopodium ambrosioides) (is = 0.243), água-de-alevante (malva sp.) (is = 0.211), arruda (ruta graveolens) (is = 0.203) and capim-santo (cymbopogon citratus) (is = 0.197). comparing the lists in these two periods (table 1), considering only the plants that appeared in both lists (68 plants), the salience in the rainy period was significantly higher than the dry period (t = 3.6735, df = 67, p-value = 0.0004768) (figure 2). however, similarities can be observed between the two lists, especially with respect to their composition, specifically hortelã and alecrim, which maintained their prominent positions during the rainy and dry seasons. among the plants that showed significantly high salience values in relation to the null model in the dry period (7 plants), six also showed prominence in the salience values during the rainy season. the rainy season presented a higher number of species that stood out in relation to the high salience values (12 plants) when compared to the dry season. however, even with the observed reduction in the number of species with significantly high salience values in the dry season, it concentrated on species also with high salience in the rainy season. only águade-alevante (malva sp.), which was prominent in the dry season, did not show a significantly higher salience value than the null model during the rainy season. in the rainy season, six plants presented significantly higher salience values than the random scenario, which do not appear to be prominent in the dry season, such as malva (pavonia sp.), sweet orange (citrus sp.), manjericão (ocimum basilicum), sabugueiro (sambucus australis), goiaba (psidium guajava), and alumã (vernonia sp.). when assessing the relative importance of ethnospecies, it was found that the ten most important, in descending order of relative importance index (ri), are: hortelã (ri = 2.000), manjericão (ri = 1.727), alecrim (ri = 1.651), capim-santo (ri = 1.561), limão (ri = 1.561), malvão (ri = 1.561), goiaba (ri = 1.379), laranja (ri = 1.303), arruda (ri = 1.227), and erva-doce (ri = 1.197). of these, six are among the most prominent ethnospecies, highlighting again hortelã and alecrim, which remained in the first and third position, respectively. regarding the uses attributed to the prominent species only in the rainy season, we observed that they are mainly indicated for the treatment of diseases of the gastrointestinal system (diarrhea, liver, and intestine problems) and the respiratory system (influenza) with leaves being the main part used. an exception is the sabugueiro, which has its flowers used instead. these plants are primarily found in the backyards of the houses, according to participants. the six most prominent ethnospecies that remain in the two evaluated periods are mainly used to treat figure 2 salience of medicinal plants in the rainy and dry period. a scatterplot showing medicinal plants with higher values of salience, which differ from the null model, in the rainy (quadrants 1 and 2) and dry (quadrants 2 and 4) seasons. quadrant 3 has the other plants (with salience values that do not differ from the null model and the lowest values, which differ from the null model). acronyms of plants in quadrants 1, 2, and 4: hor = hortelã; ale = alecrim; arr = arruda; c_sa = capim santo; e_ci = erva cidreira; mas = mastruz; mal = malvão; lar = laranja; manj = manjericão; goi = goiaba; alu = alumã; sab = sabugueira; and ag_al = água de alevante. b whisker plots of the paired t-test of the salience of the 68 medicinal plants mentioned in both the dry and rainy seasons. lins neto et al. 2021. ethnobiology letters 12(1):44–54 49 data, methods & taxonomies respiratory system diseases (influenza, cough, sore throat, and bronchitis, particularly hortelã and alecrim), gastrointestinal disorders (belly ache, particularly arruda), for the treatment of wounds and inflammation (mastruz) and as soothing (mainly capim santo and erva cidreira). the most used part of these ethnospecies are the leaves, consumed mainly in the form of teas, infusions, or syrups. all informants reported the collection of the six plants in residential areas, with 86% collecting in their own backyards and the remaining 14% collecting exclusively in neighbors and/or parents’ backyards. informants indicated that they use, whenever necessary, the previously mentioned medicinal species. these results, finally, suggest that the two groups of plants, which remained detached in the two periods and those that stood out only in the rainy season, do not differ in their uses, parts used, or in relation to the place of collection. comparing the final lists of the two periods in relation to plants that had significantly low salience ethnospecies (species name) uses part used si rainy p value is dry p value ri água de alevante (malva spicata) flu, heart and blood pressure leaf, flower 0.076 0.369 0.211 0.006 0.606 alecrim (rosmarinus officinalis) syrup, hair loss, fever, body aches, cough, flu, sore throat, soothing and diabetes leaf 0.385 0.000 0.306 0.000 1.651 alumã (vernomia sp.) heartburn, gas, weight loss, bowel, liver and stomach pain leaf 0.162 0.023 0.035 0.217 0.879 arruda (ruta graveolens) menstrual cramps, stomach ache, intestinal cramps, praying, gas, stomach ache, sitz bath and spiritual healing leaf 0.428 0.000 0.203 0.009 1.228 babosa (aloe vera) cancer and hair loss leaf 0.050 0.386 0.058 0.448 0.606 capim santo (cymbopogon citratus) soothing, kidneys, insomnia, urinary tract infection, blood pressure, belly ache, immunity leaf 0.418 0.000 0.197 0.012 1.561 erva cidreira (melissa officinalis) soothing, stomach ache, gases, poor digestion and blood pressure leaf 0.371 0.000 0.367 0.000 1.121 goiaba (psidium guajava) diarrhea, slimming, nausea, blood pressure, hair loss and teething bark, fruit, leaf young, leaf 0.169 0.016 0.079 0.384 1.379 hortelã (mentha sp.) stroke, stomach ache, headache, numbness, fever, flu, syrup, evil eye, cough, menstrual cramps and sore throat leaf 0.565 0.000 0.562 0.000 2.000 laranja (citrus sp.) soothing, headache, fever, flu, syrup and coughing fruit, leaf 0.222 0.002 0.055 0.419 1.303 malvão (pavonia sp.) bronchitis, belly ache, flu, bloating, syrup, coughing and infection leaf 0.456 0.000 0.155 0.051 1.561 manjericão (ocimum basilicum) syrup, bathing, earache, headache, hair loss, diabetes, pressure and food leaf 0.183 0.009 0.099 0.246 1.727 mastruz (chenopodium ambrosioides) injury, infection, inflammation, bruises, lung and worm leaf 0.218 0.002 0.243 0.002 1.045 sabugueiro (sambucus australis) syrup, chicken pox, flu and cough flower, leaf 0.170 0.016 0.033 0.187 0.864 table 1 list of medicinal plants with significative salience values (si) (rainy and dry seasons) and relative importance (ri) obtained from information shared by people from the tuiutiba community, campo formoso, bahia. lins neto et al. 2021. ethnobiology letters 12(1):44–54 50 data, methods & taxonomies values (p < 0.05), we observed that 21 plants had low salience values in the rainy season and six in the dry period. moreover, neither of these plants was repeated in both periods (table 1). this indicates that the group of plants of lesser prominence are distinct in two close periods of free-list data collection, which is different from that observed for the species with high salience. discussion the temporal variation, according to the results presented above, did not influence the composition of the free lists when considering some of the most salient and versatile medicinal plants, since six of the seven plants that stood out in the dry season also had high salience values in the rainy season. this result corroborates the findings by ramos and albuquerque (2012), who observed that the use of a small set of very important plants used locally as fuels did not vary between the dry and rainy period over a year of monitoring in a human group in northeastern brazil. although the research by ramos and albuquerque (2012) considered uses for different purposes, a comparison with our results suggests that climate seasonality does not affect the use of some important plants and, in parallel, the salience of these resources over a year. our findings about the plants with lower salience values, which were very different in the two periods studied, supports this suggestion. however, a number of plants with higher values of salience in the rainy season did not stand out in the free lists during the dry season. these plants share characteristics with the group that stood out in both periods, being highly versatile, indicated for diseases of the gastrointestinal and respiratory system, and mainly found in the backyards of houses. in relation to versatility, we observed that certain highly versatile plants may present an outstanding salience at a certain time of the year (rainy season), but not at another (dry) period. in this case, it would not necessarily be the versatility that would lead to these differences in the two periods. although they share certain characteristics, other factors may be important in medicinal use, such as therapeutic efficiency and organoleptic properties. other research suggests that perceived taste and smell are important in indicating plants for disease treatment (brett and heinrich 1998; geck et al. 2017) and that plants perceived as more palatable may be more commonly used by people for certain diseases (santos et al. 2018). in addition, the perception of therapeutic efficiency of a species may favor its use over other plants for different diseases (santos et al. 2018). it is possible that, in addition to the shared characteristics, the interaction with other important properties in medicinal use (organoleptic and therapeutic efficiency) can explain why certain locally relevant plants did not stand out in the two periods studied. perhaps these plants are not as palatable or efficient when compared to those that showed significantly high salience values in both periods. in this sense, the six species that presented higher salience values in both periods probably have a combination of characteristics (that we were not able to define here) that result in a better return on medicinal use (see albuquerque et al. 2019). these species resemble the “traditional first aid kit,” as a small set of species maintained by people who are indicated for the treatment of the most common diseases (see menendez-baceta et al. 2015; pardo-desantayana et al. 2015). furthermore, it is possible that these species make up the so-called “structural core” of the medical system studied. the structural core was defined by ferreira júnior and albuquerque (2015) as a set of plants that have important characteristics in medicinal use that favor the structure and functionality of the local medical system. in this case, the six plants that stood out in the two periods have important characteristics with respect to their use, accessibility, versatility, and treatment for important groups of diseases, considering that gastrointestinal and respiratory diseases tend to be fairly cited by different human groups in the brazilian semiarid region (see albuquerque et al. 2007) and in other regions of the world (bradacs et al. 2011; giovannini 2015; güler et al. 2020; monigatti et al. 2013; suárez 2019). in this case, other characteristics may be linked to these plants that justify their high salience values in the two periods, as mentioned in the previous paragraph, but which were not evaluated in the present study. in addition, ferreira júnior and albuquerque (2015) hypothesize that the structural core represents a component of the system that varies little over time, due to its importance. this may further reinforce the idea that the six prominent plants make up the structural core. this may reflect human adaptive strategies in their interactions with resources in the environment, so that more important resources are favored in memory during the elaboration of the free lists, which leads to the idea of adaptive memory (see nairne et al. 2007; sandry et al. 2013). when evaluating the idea of adaptive memory in the context lins neto et al. 2021. ethnobiology letters 12(1):44–54 51 data, methods & taxonomies of medicinal plants, silva et al. (2019) performed an experiment with university students to memorize cards with information on medicinal plants indicated for the treatment of diseases and, after a period of distraction, participants were asked to remember the information previously presented (silva et al. 2019). the authors found that priority-remembered plants were previously known to participants, regardless of whether they were linked to dangerous diseases or not. this suggests that having previous experience with a resource may favor its memorization. in turn, these plants can be mentioned more in the first positions of the free lists, favoring their salience. thus, considering that respiratory tract diseases are quite cited in both periods studied, especially in the rainy season, maintaining a repertoire of plants to fight such diseases is an important adaptive strategy. in addition, these plants are quite affordable for people and are versatile, which may suggest that they are widely used. this use favors people's experiences with these plants, allowing them to be ranked in the top positions on different free lists. this idea also corroborates the explanation proposed by the socioecological theory of maximization, which indicates that human groups build social-ecological systems through cognitive and behavioral mechanisms to favor their survival by decreasing costs and maximizing returns on their interactions in different environments (albuquerque et al. 2019). the indication of more salient plants that have important characteristics for the treatment of diseases (versatility and accessibility) reflects a strategy for people to deal with diseases. similarly, ensuring the availability of these frequently accessed resources is also prudent. in this sense, plants with higher salience values are available in the residential yards of the tuiutiba community. in the current social organization of the community, it is a woman’s task to maintain the backyards, resulting in their daily contact with the plants located in this environment. thus, it is concluded that such continuous stimulation is also responsible for the immediate memorization of the plants (sousa et al. 2016) used in the treatment of respiratory tract and related disorders. in this sense, this most recently used memory associated with a particular disease, as well as the spatial context of the backyards, are crucial in the development of autonoetic memory associated with the use of medicinal plants (kahana 1996; mickes et al. 2013; sousa et al. 2016; spiller and unsworth 2011). it should be noted that the findings of the present paper cannot be generalized to the entire study community or to other communities, due the limitations such as the small number of research participants. however, by applying the free list technique under two climatic conditions with the same set of people, it was possible to observe certain plants with differential salience values at both moments. this may be an indication that the importance of a plant (measured by the salience) for a given group of people interviewed may vary, depending on when the interviews are taking place. in this case, in addition to seasonality, other factors can influence the composition of free lists, such as the place where the interviews are conducted (see miranda et al. 2007) or aspects related to the participants’ memory (brewer 2002). thus, we think that much still needs to be investigated about the free list technique in ethnobotanical data collection (sousa et al. 2016). however, seasonal climatic conditions provide a particular environment for the development of certain diseases for which a specific plant repertoire is employed. these, in turn, have their availability and access guaranteed in highly anthropogenic environments, like backyards, where they are managed for on-demand use. further studies need to be conducted, especially in the longer term, to provide more detailed information on the dynamics of knowledge and use of medicinal plants in the composition of free lists. finally, it is important to indicate that we use the ethno-species unit since, based on sousa et al. (2016), knowledge is individual, and the informant will not name the same species differently at different times. anyway, to ensure that the informants were referring to the same plant, all plants that stood out in relation to the salience values were identified through comparisons with material in existing herbariums, consultations with experts, and references in specialized literature. however, it is possible that the same participant indicated two different names for the same plant in the two periods of application of the free lists, which would limit the findings particularly for plants that did not stand out in the salience values. acknowledgments the authors would like to thank the community “tuiutiba” for the reception and support during the lins neto et al. 2021. ethnobiology letters 12(1):44–54 52 data, methods & taxonomies field stages. this study was financed in part by the coordenação de aperfeiçoamento de pessoal de nível superior brazil (capes) finance code 001. 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weiskopf 2020; ludwig and el-hani 2020). in anthropology, conservation biology, and education, for instance, the question of how to dialogically engage diverse epistemologies and ontologies has been the subject of recent debates (bartlett et al. 2012; holbraad et al. 2014; kimmerer 2013). despite being recognized as crucially important for engaging complex social-environmental dynamics, introduction this article articulates an ethnographically inspired approach to collaboration in fishing communities in northeast brazil that aims at symmetrical dialogue among diverse actors. carrying out joint research involving both academic researchers and local community members requires sustained reflection on methods, strategies, translations, and engagements involved in collaborative practices. reflexivity is particularly demanded when research-action plans are characterized by both interdisciplinarity that brings together diverse academic traditions and transdisciplinarity that involves not only academic but also nonacademic actors, leading to proliferation of attitudes, goals, and procedures that need to be navigated through symmetrical dialogues. in this article, we discuss how collaborations and dialogues about challenges of symmetrical dialogue: reflections on collaborative research in northeast brazil paride bollettin1,2*, david ludwig3, and charbel n. el-hani4 1department of anthropology, faculty of science, masaryk university, czech republic. 2graduate studies program in social sciences, são paulo state university, brazil. 3wageningen university, netherlands. 4federal university of bahia and national institute of science and technology in interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary studies in ecology and evolution (inct intree), brazil. *paride_bollettin@msn.com abstract this article explores ways to promote symmetrical dialogue among knowledge-practices of artisanal fishing communities, primary education teachers, and academic researchers in the state of bahia, brazil. we describe multiple engagements in an interand transdisciplinary project that integrates research, educational, and conservation activities in two communities living in an estuarine ecosystem. most community members dedicate their efforts to fishing activities, harboring wide knowledge about local biocultural diversity. the project promotes collaborative inclusion of local expertise and knowledge in school activities, while also striving for the inhabitants’ inclusion in the planning of protected areas. the collaboration aims at symmetrical dialogues between researchers and communities that support self-determination in local school education and biodiversity conservation. challenges to such symmetrization, including disagreements and tensions among diverse actors, not only appear in encounters of local and academic knowledge, but also within the interdisciplinary project involving natural sciences, social sciences, and philosophy. received july 12, 2022 open access accepted january 9, 2023 doi 10.14237/ebl.14.2.2023.1836 published may 31, 2023 keywords symmetric dialogues, ethnobiology, ethnography, collaboration, transdisciplinarity copyright © 2023 by the author(s); licensee society of ethnobiology. this is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution-noncommercial 4.0 international public license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0), which permits non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. bollettin et al. 2023. ethnobiology letters 14(2):47–55 48 research communications special issue on diverse conservations symmetrical dialogues involve several challenges, opening up spaces for encounters and frictions between knowledge-practices (tsing 2005), which can be related with alternative presuppositions (devore 2017), and the emergence of alternative concepts (menon 2022). we conceive of these spaces as “contact zones” (pratt 2008) that can not only harbor domination and oppression, but also “lead to new arrangements of culture and power” (tsing 2005:5). we contend that educational, ethnobiological and conservation projects—which are our main focuses of interest—require sustained efforts to symmetrize local and academic knowledge-practices. it is important to recognize differences in power structures, such as the differential access to adequate salaries and formal recognition (fraser and honneth 2003), associated with these knowledge-practices. this is a starting point for the construction of effective dialogue, recognizing the possibilities offered by the plurality of epistemologies and cognitive constructions (santos 2010), and moving towards the affirmation of a multiplicity of knowledge-practices (chilisa 2019). in this dialogical context, it is possible to consider the relations between diverse knowledge-practices in terms of epistemological, ontological, and axiological “partial overlaps”, involving attention both to possible approximations (“overlaps”) and possible differences (“partialities”) (ludwig and el-hani 2020). the former can offer fruitful ground for shared experiences, reciprocal learning, and knowledge coproduction. the latter highlights the importance of normative and political positioning of researchers and also opens up opportunities to learn from deep differences between stakeholders (el-hani 2022), including the prospect of mobilizing heterogenous concepts and meanings in socio-environmental conflicts (xikrin and bollettin 2022). the project the project is part of initiatives of the national institute of science and technology in interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary studies in ecology and evolution (inct in-tree), supported by brazilian funding agencies. generally speaking, the project aims at “understanding and developing general and science education in intercultural situations characterized by a heterogeneity of ways of thinking”. more specifically, it focuses on science education as a trading zone (galison 1997) of local and academic knowledge that is often hierarchically structured but should also open up to opportunities for symmetrical exchange. the academic team is composed of heterogeneous researchers from brazil, italy, namibia, and the netherlands, encompassing biologists, philosophers, anthropologists, museologists, social scientists, ecologists, oceanographers, and science education researchers. the project began in 2016, initially in the fishing community of siribinha, and was then in 2017 extended to the nearby fishing community of poças. these communities are located just six kilometres apart in the estuary of the itapicuru river. both are part of the municipality of conde, on the northern coast of the state of bahia, brazil. they have around 500 and 800 inhabitants, respectively. most members of the communities descend from small numbers of families who moved from other fishing villages located upstream on the river. the goal of the project is to move from research “in” communities to research “with” communities, deepening mutual understanding of the knowledge-practices proper to different actors, in order to promote inclusive and dialogical educational and conservation practices. close collaboration with local schoolteachers since the project has led to the emergence of a “community of practice” (wenger 1998), in which local teachers act as mediators in bridging fishing and school knowledge. the educational initiatives carried out at local schools have been producing promising results in relation to the promotion of knowledge dialogues. for example, one of the outcomes has been a book presenting local stories collected by students among their families and other community members, including elders. these stories provided the bases for students to write and illustrate “cultural tales” (valderrama-pérez 2016) gathered in the book, edited with the teachers at the villages’ schools, and currently under preparation for submission to a university publishing house (el-hani 2022; silva 2022). the book connects local narratives, which have been gradually underemphasized over generations, with school teaching and learning, and creates situated backgrounds for intercultural dialogue between local and school and academic knowledge, as the stories typically relate to local history and environment, as well as to fishing knowledge and practices. the communities of siribinha and poças until the 1990s, siribinha and poças did not have a road connecting them with the rest of the municipality, and the river provided the only mode of bollettin et al. 2023. ethnobiology letters 14(2):47–55 49 research communications special issue on diverse conservations transportation. with the construction of the road, the communities began to undergo important transformations, including the establishment of activities predominantly linked to beach tourism. the local tourist industry has had diverse social and environmental impacts on the two communities, as well as caused an increasing influx of people from outside who moved to live there, in a process of gentrification (harris, 2008). siribinha attracts a greater number of tourists than poças, as it is closer to the most valued local beach at the mouth of the river. although impacted by tourism and gentrification, the two communities have maintained their fishing culture, recruiting youngsters as artisanal fishers and shellfish gatherers, thereby passing on different knowledge-practices from older to younger generations. these knowledge-practices are related to the jangadeiros (raftsmen) tradition, spread along the coast of north-eastern brazil, as a product of cultural interactions between indigenous peoples, enslaved africans, and portuguese settlers (diegues 1999). in the last 50 years, differentiation in fishing techniques grew between the two communities: in siribinha, people mostly fish the coastal estuaries (as local people say, “baixo mar”), while people in poças fish both estuaries and the deep sea (“alto mar”) using bigger boats, leading to larger financial returns for fishers in the latter community. these differences in fishing practices shaped disparities in tourism flows, contributing to increasingly distinct sociocultural and economic profiles of the communities. until recently, there were municipal schools in both communities. both were multi-grade primary schools, with students of different years in the same room, while also serving as day care centers. the former school had four and the latter five teachers, all with higher degrees in pedagogy, as the first generation of teachers from the communities to obtain university degrees. recently, the siribinha school was closed, and students and teachers were relocated to the school in poças. this allowed for a reduction of the multi-grade classrooms, with only one remaining. all of the teachers are engaged members of the communities and almost all of them are fishers’ daughters. moreover, most have been or are still engaged in collecting shellfish. while curricula tend to neglect local knowledge in favor of basic school contents, the life histories of the teachers enable them to connect different bodies of knowledge in their classes. these connections have been significantly facilitated, however, by the collaborative work between local teachers and researchers in the project. intercultural dialogue and highlighting the silencing of local cultures in school curricula have been subjects of continuous discussion, and educational innovations for intercultural education have been developed and implemented in the classrooms (el-hani 2022; silva 2022). the region where the communities live is characterized by the presence of well-preserved mangroves (guimarães et al. 2019) and thicket-like shrub forests growing on sand dunes (known as restingas), as well as beach vegetation and anthropic environments, such as coconut plantations and pastures (tng et al. 2021). this plurality of ecosystems, in which fishing communities carry out different practices for obtaining resources, is also home to a number of endangered species, such as the capuchin monkey (sapajus xanthosternos) and the greybreasted parakeet (pyrrhura griseipectus), recently reported in the region by the project team (félix et al. 2022). the richness of species and the good conservation of local ecosystems have prompted the interest of the municipality to take measures for environmental preservation, with a view toward generating income through nature tourism. in 2018, a municipal integral conservation unit was created in the itapicuru estuary, called the siribinha peninsula natural monument. this is part of a conservation policy being implemented by the municipality, which may eventually result in a mosaic of protected areas, including both integral and sustainable use conservation units, in which human economic activities are either totally excluded or partially allowed, respectively, according to the brazilian national system of units for nature conservation (snuc 2000). while on the one hand, this policy can benefit local socioecological systems by conserving ecosystems and the contributions they provide to the communities, on the other, such policies can exclude them from making decisions about the management of at least part of their territories. the communities’ inclusion in decision-making processes about this environmental conservation plan is a relevant asset to strengthen their (relative) decision-making autonomy. consequently, an additional focus of the project is to collaborate with the communities for empowering their participation in the development of this bollettin et al. 2023. ethnobiology letters 14(2):47–55 50 research communications special issue on diverse conservations conservation policy. members of the project are in continuous dialogue with the municipality’s secretary of environment and economic development, advocating for bottom-up decision-making processes about conservation. this strategy has created some space for the communities to be heard, with limitations resulting from the fact that the local government is not strongly committed to including local knowledge and interests but are pushed by the researchers to do so. examples of project activities in this section, we discuss three examples from students enrolled at the federal university of bahia to illustrate the dialogical dynamics in the project, in order to illustrate how important it is that researchers working in and with communities become ethnographically sensitive. the first example is offered by an undergraduate student in oceanography, clara kalil dourado coelho (2022), whose work focuses on beach rocks covering part of the coast in front of poças, with the aim of discussing the “ecosystem services” provided by them. however, during the environmental tragedy of the unsolved oil spill that affected the brazilian coast in 2019-2020 (lourenço et al. 2020), her direct participation in beach-cleaning activities, selforganized by local people, changed the relations between her and community members, from relatively more distanced to more personal. partnership relations and trust between community members and the researcher were thus deepened, allowing clara to explore a diversified panorama of beach rock use: not only as tools and instruments for fishing and building, but as semiotic tools for elaborating community memories and discussing current environmental problems. while the multifaceted relations between the community and beach rocks were not invisible while conceptualizing the research proposal from a distance, clara’s research was shaped by the deeper understanding she obtained from the interactions with community members while cleaning up the oil spill (coelho 2021). the social, pragmatic, and symbolic dimensions of the beach rocks, as part of the community’s life and practices, also transformed clara’s disciplinary outlook from oceanography as she became immersed in local narratives and practices. as an example, we can consider the history of negão das pedras, as a being described by some community members as responsible for reorganizing the rocks on the beach at night. while no one sees him, for community members, he provides an explanation for why rocks undergo changes over time. this history is thus directly related with the erosion caused by the increasing sea level. beyond the diversity of fish and crustaceans available for fishing in the beach rocks, and their economic and subsistence value, it is also evident how the rocks represent a relevant medium for accessing local perceptions of environmental dynamics. as clara increasingly understood the significance and implications of beach rocks for the community, this allowed her to bring contributions from coastal and marine environmental education (ghilardi-lopes and berchez 2019) to the dialogue and collaborative work with local teachers. the second example is offered by a master’s student in history, philosophy, and science teaching, juliana de oliveira fonseca, who recently defended her dissertation (fonseca 2021), focused on fishing techniques and practices used in poças. in her study, juliana collected descriptions of diverse techniques used in different environments for fishing: big boats, cast nets, traps, hooks, etc. her analysis of the changes in these techniques was oriented toward a description of a historical trajectory in which the inclusion of new techniques affected the outcomes of fishing and the relations with the local ecosystem. semi-structured interviews, originally the core methodology for the research, were complemented by personal relations made possible by the close proximity with local people after participation in the oil clean-up, as in the case described above. participant observation thus became an increasingly central methodology in her work, as the meaningful relationships built with community members expanded the range of shared experiences that juliana could develop with them. what emerged as a result was the specificity and polysemy of local experiences of the co-presence of diverse fishing techniques. this enabled her to access local discussions about transformations occurring over the years as well as the social differentiation produced by this diversified panorama. in this way, she was able to add another layer of complexity to her discussion of fishing techniques, addressing current concerns, claims and dynamics experienced by the community that were shared with her in living experiences beyond formal interviews. moreover, collaboration with teachers in the community of practice enabled her to contribute to a collective reflection on the local history developed in their teaching activities. an activity aimed at bringing more elements of the history of the bollettin et al. 2023. ethnobiology letters 14(2):47–55 51 research communications special issue on diverse conservations community, its knowledge-practices, fishing activities and their transformations into the formal education of the new generations. the third example is from a doctoral student in ecology, vitor renck, who recently defended his dissertation (renck et al. 2022a; renck et al. 2022b), focusing on possible dialogues between knowledge about local fish among siribinha fishers and academic ichthyologists. he developed a careful survey of how fishermen classify fish species, inquiring into partial overlaps with academic-scientific taxonomies. in collaboration with the fishermen, he also built ethnobiological and ethnoecological models of their knowledge about fish morphology, behavior, interactions, etc. this effort, which clearly reflects academic concerns in its questions, methods, language, and data analysis, was importantly affected by the engagement with local people. by taking his interlocutors seriously as traditional experts, he moved from ideas of “validating” fishers’ knowledge vis-à-vis academic-scientific knowledge to questions such as, “what if?” and “what does it imply?” one example concerns the spawning period of different species of centropomus (locally known as robalos), during which it is forbidden to fish for this species. according to official fishing regulations, the specific period of restriction for capturing these fish (“closed season”) does not generally match the one identified by fishermen as spawning periods. starting from a disciplinary perspective in ecology, the encounters with fishers’ knowledge and livelihoods expanded the scope in transand interdisciplinary directions. on the transdisciplinary side, vitor came to recognize fishers as experts with nuanced understandings of biodiversity and ecological dynamics in the itapicuru estuary. as this expertise is at the core of local livelihood practices but in tension with official regulations, vitor found himself increasingly confronted with issues beyond ecology and engaged interdisciplinarily with policy studies and social science questions about participatory governance. this has led to a recently submitted manuscript (renck et al., forthcoming) and a policy brief advocating for the inclusion of fishing communities in the elaboration of closed season regulations through participatory processes. symmetrizing research collaborations it is widely recognized that social-environmental crises require interand transdisciplinary approaches that can account for a wide range of entangled environmental and social factors (ludwig et al. 2022). siribinha and poças exemplify this dynamic through the interplay of issues such as conservation of biodiversity in mangroves and restinga forests, livelihood practices such as sustainable fishing, environmental and science education in the local school, and environmental policies that tend to be externally imposed on the communities. navigating this complexity requires diverse forms of academic and non-academic expertise. despite this need for interand transdisciplinary approaches, collaborations between diverse stakeholders often remain deeply unequal and shaped by dominant actors and interests. this happens, for example, when academic actors remain in control of goals and methodological choices in education and conservation projects involving local communities. in the cases presented here, the ethnographic inspired effort allowed the researchers to take care of the relevance of the inclusion of interlocutors for defining research objectives and related ethical dimensions. the project has been shaped by the ambition of creating more equitable exchanges through more symmetrical dialogues. it is not based on the illusion that full symmetry can be achieved between actors in very different social positions such as university researchers and community members. this recognition of positionality does not mean, however, that more parity between knowledge-practices cannot be pursued and perhaps achieved. moreover, the very recognition of positionality and inequalities is an important asset for placing them under continuous critical scrutiny. for instance, through our engagement in collaborative work with local teachers, we systematically aimed at and effectively relinquished part of our control over goals and methodological choices. the educational initiatives that have been developed generally intend to fulfil three goals, one brought about by the university researchers (related to intercultural dialogue), and two by the local teachers (reinforcing students’ self-esteem as community members and necessarily integrating intercultural dialogue with the curricular teaching goals). all three examples from the previous section, as well as several other ongoing research programs within the project, show how collaboration, partnership, and engagement with local people can have symmetrizing effects in reconfiguring research strategies, aims, and results. part of this process has been the recognition of community members as bollettin et al. 2023. ethnobiology letters 14(2):47–55 52 research communications special issue on diverse conservations experts about the local environments, fauna and flora, different forms of fishing, community histories and changes, including their entanglements with livelihoods and environments. another part has been interdisciplinary inquiries responsive to the complex local panorama, as exemplified by students departing from biological research but increasingly focusing on local historical narratives and policy as core research concerns. an important element of this interdisciplinary broadening is that local perspectives have emerged in the dialogues without a previous definition of “specialists”. instead, each specific research trajectory developed from its own situated experiences and interactions, as the researchers deepened specific relations: with fishermen, shellfisher women, and people using the beach rocks. such experiences approximated the experience of “heterodoxical awareness” (devore 2021) and “curiosities” (bollettin 2021), proper of ethnographic efforts. if the ethnographically inspired approach enabled researchers to develop proximity with local people, other influences have been produced by the municipality’s elaboration of the environmental conservation plan. one of its elements is the promotion of nature tourism in the estuarine environment, such that the local communities and the municipality can have income sources other than beach tourism that has been generating local social and environmental impacts. the municipality has thus been focusing on the scenic beauty of the itapicuru estuary, and the endangered and rare bird species found there, with contributions from knowledge produced by the project. project researchers intervened by dialoguing with municipal actors to support a more participatory approach to conservation planning that could engage local communities in a more bottom-up manner. this is a key element in our interventions related to the conservation and tourism planning process. there has been some effort by the municipality to use such a participatory approach, but within limits resulting from the fact that their managerial approach is typically top-down. the researchers have been the major, if not the only, factor pushing them in the direction of bottom-up decision-making processes. the emphasis on participation of local people in the definition of project aims and research activities reinforced an affirmative approach that community members translated partially into their claim for more participatory relations with the municipality, although truly accomplishing this remains a challenge in the face of a rather hierarchical decision-making structure. it remains a chief concern of the project to empower the local communities to participate in the conservation decision-making processes and in the management of related touristic activities, also including a discussion of the economic impacts of these. one example is the training of local birdwatching guides, all of them fishermen, which led to their specific certification by the municipality, based on training by the project team and by municipal employees (for instance, for first-aid practices in the field). they take interested tourists through local environments to show the birds inhabiting them, while talking about their local descriptions and other knowledge, keeping and disseminating their local names, while exercising care for the birds’ conservation. close collaboration between researchers and fishers, teachers, and other dwellers of siribinha and poças, is at the core of the project goals. the fact that our academic endeavor is perceived as an activity oriented toward the effective engagement of local people in research-action entails the need for ethical and political positioning. to briefly illustrate this point, we quickly point to a few interrelated activities. first, we carried out an ethnobiological study of plants used by the siribinha community as medicine, for food, and in manufacturing fishing artefacts and building houses (tng et al. 2021). after this study, which involved “traditional experts” identified by community members, the project pursued an educational goal in which local students did their own inquiries into uses of plants in the communities, which will eventually culminate in a “garden of local plants” on the school grounds. this garden will play an educational role by helping to strengthen local knowledge about plants, which is threatened by the fact that several stewards of this knowledge are elders, and some of their knowledge seems to be eroding over time. the garden also provides a springboard for intercultural dialogue between local knowledge on plants and scientific knowledge presented in schools. this activity has been interrupted by the pandemic, when the area for the garden was being cleaned by teachers, students, and other community members, but is planned to be resumed in 2023. the overall perspective of the project is one of continuous approximation between diverse goals, anthropological, educational, ecological, but mostly bollettin et al. 2023. ethnobiology letters 14(2):47–55 53 research communications special issue on diverse conservations between academic and local knowledge-practices. such an ambitious working program involves several challenges, at both political and epistemological levels. while the project aims at symmetrization around diverse knowledge-practices, it also highlights the importance of reflexivity regarding the limitations of integration and consensus building. many disagreements and tensions remain among stakeholders. for example, academic concerns regarding conservation and sustainability do not always align with community members’ reliance on the environment for livelihood activities, including fishing and tourism. furthermore, academic research methods and local epistemic practices often diverge and interact with equally different background beliefs, values, and worldviews. finally, academics and community members remain in very different socioeconomic positions that shape collaborative dynamics and power structures. this means that researchers should be constantly challenged to take a step back from their aims, questions, and methods, so that more symmetrical efforts may be established. in navigating symmetrization efforts and their limitations, two core reflections appear as crucial for discussing the possibilities offered by “partial overlaps” between distinct knowledge systems (ludwig and el-hani 2020). first, once we recognize that different actors hold expertise about distinct environmental and social phenomena, it can be shown how the dialogue between their knowledge-practices is not only possible but can also be epistemically productive. the examples mentioned above show how taking local expertise seriously enriches dialogical possibilities and leads to interventions that align with concerns and needs of the communities. this includes the incorporation of fishers’ expertise in formulating policies that respect local reproductive periods of fish and educational practices that highlight local knowledge rather than only “formal” school curricula. however, overlaps between knowledge-practices always remain partial, bringing important limitations for dialogical efforts. to conclude this brief overview, it is important to underline how an ethnographically inspired approach makes it possible to place academic and local knowledge-practices on a more equal footing, in more symmetrical and participatory relations. this does not mean only to acknowledge the intellectual property of specific knowledges, but rather to challenge academic discourses by making research aims, questions, and methods accessible for negotiation with the community. symmetrization provides a tool for making presuppositions explicit and aligning them with concerns and priorities of the communities themselves. to achieve this goal, it is crucial to build relations based on trust, as provided by long-term conviviality and direct and participatory engagement, which are the grounds of an ethnographically inspired approach. the future development of the project will provide useful information for verifying the effectiveness and long-standing relations the team has been able to build up. meanwhile, complementary studies comparing potential results from ethnographically inspired and other methodological approaches, as well as the possibility of moving the collaboration further into academic writing (as another intermingled aspect of ethnography), could offer important results for developing adequate epistemological, ontological, ethical, and political strategies for supporting the participation, self-determination, and protagonism of local communities. acknowledgments we thank the support of the brazilian national council for research and technology (cnpq) (grant number 465767/2014-1), coordination for the improvement of higher education personnel (capes) (grant number 23038.000776/2017-54), and state of bahia research funding foundation (fapesb) (grant number inc0006/2019) for inct in-tree. dl’s research has been supported by an erc starting grant (851004 local knowledge) and a nwo vidi grant (v1.vidi.195.026 ethnoontologies). we are supported by a project approved at cnpq universal call 28/2018 (grant number 423948/2018-0). in 2020, the project also obtained financial support from the ministry of foreign affairs of the italian government through a call for anthropological research funds (grant number 88584/20). cneh also thanks cnpq (grant number 307223/2021-3) for a productivity in research grant. declarations permissions: none declared. sources of funding: brazilian national council for research and technology (cnpq) (grant number 465767/2014-1), coordination for the improvement of higher education personnel (capes) (grant number 23038.000776/2017-54), state of bahia research funding foundation (fapesb) (grant bollettin et al. 2023. ethnobiology letters 14(2):47–55 54 research communications special issue on diverse conservations number inc0006/2019) for inct in-tree, erc starting grant (851004 local knowledge) and a nwo vidi grant (v1.vidi.195.026 ethnoontologies), cnpq universal call 28/2018 (grant number 423948/2018-0), ministry of foreign affairs of the italian government (grant number 88584/20), cnpq (grant number 307223/2021-3). conflicts of interest: none declared. references cited bartlett, c. marshall, m., and marshall, a. 2012. twoeyed seeing and other lessons learned within a co-learning journey of bringing together indigenous and mainstream knowledges and ways of knowing. journal of environmental studies and sciences 2:331–340. doi: 10.1007/s13412-012-00868. bollettin, p. 2021. multispecies curiosities and ethnographies. anthropologia integra 12:19–27. chilisa, b. 2019. indigenous research 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indeed, their operations are driven by profit. yet, this introduction nurseries propagate, cultivate, and offer plants for sale. the species grown in a nursery can vary, but the most common iteration is a retail nursery that sells plants for the garden. historical place names throughout the british landscape suggest to the longstanding presence of plant nurseries. names such as impyard, from the old english imp ‘sapling’ and geard ‘enclosure’, were first recorded during the reign of henry i (1100–1135) and continued in use through the nineteenth century (harvey 1974). these early nursery gardens likely cultivated seedling, saplings, and other hardy trees for use in grafting and different types of agriculture. in britain, the nursery trade proliferated following european exploration and colonization of the globe in the early modern period. the growth of the nursery industry in sixteenth-century britain also saw the emergence of a new merchant class known as nurserymen, who were defined by their involvement in the trade of plants and seeds. this term is first recorded in 1629 (harvey 1974; oed 2022). the “long hard-ſounding latin name[s]”: applying historical ethnobotany to the loddiges plant nursery (1818–1830) ethyn maki1*, 1independent scholar *understatedpalm@gmail.com abstract despite their potential, nursery stock catalogs have been overlooked in previous ethnobotanical studies. here, this gap is addressed by surveying nursery-based plant knowledge cultivated within the historic british loddiges nursery through an analysis of their stock catalogs dating from 1818 to 1830. employing a historical ethnobotanical approach, the topics of categorization, nomenclature, and sourcing practices in the loddiges nursery are examined while also exploring the methodological considerations of utilizing nursery stock catalogs in ethnobotanical research. findings underscore the pragmatic nature of nursery-based plant knowledge, offering insight into the relationship between nurserymen and the plants they cultivated. this essay aims to clarify how sources such as stock catalogs can enrich historical ethnobotanical investigation and broaden the scope of ethnobotanical research to include topics such as commercial plant nurseries. received january 17, 2024 open access accepted may 18, 2024 doi 10.14237/ebl.15.1.2024.1877 published july 29, 2024 keywords historical research, plant nurseries, archival research, horticulture, plant names copyright © 2024 by the author(s); licensee society of ethnobiology. this is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution-noncommercial 4.0 international public license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0), which permits non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. maki. 2024. ethnobiology letters 15(1):30–40 31 research communications perspective eclipses the role nurseries play as places for the generation and dissemination of plant knowledge. nursery-based plant knowledge is formed through daily encounters between the people of a nursery and their stock of plants. this knowledge is evidenced in feats such as propagating and introducing novel, unknown species into cultivation in britain. the ability to acquire, develop, and implement new plant knowledge underpinned what harvey (1974), in his study of the nursery trade, termed “plantsmanship.” an expansive take on nursery operations and nursery-based plant knowledge aligns with prior research on the subjects. coulton (2018) similarly acknowledged the dual nature of the trade in the eighteenth century; nurseries did not exist solely as commercial ventures but also as sites for the cultivation of specialized plant knowledge. a rich network of plant nurseries operated in eighteenth and nineteenth-century london and the nearby home counties. the trade would come to be dominated by the loddiges family during this time. the loddiges are primarily known as a group of georgian-era nurserymen who operated a plant nursery in middlesex from c. 1771 to 1852. the former loddiges nursery, in what is now the london borough of hackney, was a world-class institution; it possessed at one time the world’s largest hothouse and introduced countless species into british gardens. the loddiges nurserymen exemplify how plant knowledge is produced against a backdrop of commercial operations in a nursery. for example, the loddiges nurserymen were amongst the first to successfully commercially cultivate orchids through their experiments with natural cultivation techniques, i.e., the cultivation of orchids on trees and bark as epiphytes, as they are found growing in situ (solman 1995). similarly, the loddiges nurserymen played a role in propagating victorian-era pteridomania, fern fever, through their experimentation with cultivation methods that mimic a plant’s original growing conditions, in collaboration with dr. nathanial ward and his famed terrarium, the wardian case (see keogh 2020; solman 1995). this nursery-based plant knowledge and its development is of interest to ethnobotanists, who study the relationship between plants and humans. contemporary and historical plant nurseries have been overlooked as research subjects in ethnobotany. the loddiges nursery, famed for the breadth of its operations, offers a promising lead as a potential source of historical nursery-based plant knowledge. however, it also raises important methodological concerns: how can nursery-based plant knowledge be accessed via a historical ethnobotanical approach? of the many research approaches that fall under the umbrella of ethnobotany, the historical ethnobotanical approach allows for a deeper understanding of historical human-plant relationships by using written and iconographic records (medeiros 2020). numerous studies employ this approach as an analytical tool to analyze a diverse range of humanplant encounters (see dafni et al. 2020; kalle and sõukand 2012; petran, dragos, and gilca 2020; and the related “botanico-historical approach” of heinrich et al. 2006). while sometimes only explicitly termed, the historical ethnobotanical approach has been utilized extensively within the discipline. for example, using popular literature, pardo-de-santayana et al. (2006) implemented a related approach to characterize ethnobotanical realities in sixteenthcentury spain. authors continue to advance the idea that historical ethnobotanical findings remain relevant to contemporary theoretical and methodological discussions in the discipline (see kalle and sõukand 2023; silva et al. 2014). in the case of nineteenth-century nurserymen, particularly the loddiges family, the bulk of surviving historical sources available for historicalethnobotanical analysis are catalogs and other stock lists. the limited set of sources from the loddiges nursery presents theoretical and methodological challenges. these relate to the fact that it is difficult to parse out any cultural or nursery-based plant knowledge from a stock list; they are purely economic and quite dry. rather fortuitously, the loddiges nursery published both regular stock catalogs and, for some time, an accompanying illustrated guide that offered information on certain featured species available for sale. it has been stated that these two loddiges sources together are of “unique historical value” for establishing the dates and locations of introduced plants into the loddiges nursery (solman 1995:50). accordingly, the loddiges nursery publications must also offer a promising starting point for an ethnobotanical investigation into nursery-based plant knowledge. what, if any, plant knowledge can be gleaned from analyzing the two loddiges nursery publications in tandem? furthermore, what maki. 2024. ethnobiology letters 15(1):30–40 32 research communications methodological possibilities are offered by utilizing stock catalogs as a primary data source in historical ethnobotanical research? methods study location this study focuses on the loddiges family plant nursery, active from c. 1771 to 1852. the nursery was situated in the rural and marshy historical county of middlesex, now within the hackney borough of greater london. the loddiges nursery cultivated and maintained a large, varied stock but was primarily known for their tender, exotic plants. the loddiges nursery also produced a series of text and image-based publications to advertise their stock (stafleu and cowan 1981). their primary publication was a text-based stock catalog that ran from 1777 to 1849. a pictorial, encyclopedic supplement to the text-based catalog, the botanical cabinet, was published monthly from may 1817 to march 1831. issued as fascicles, subscribers could bind a year’s periodicals to create an authoritative guide on the nursery’s flora. three institutions preserve the primary historical sources consulted in this study: the society of antiquaries library, london; canterbury cathedral’s archives and library, canterbury; and the hackney archives, london. the society of antiquaries preserves the bulk of unpublished material, including catalogs and the personal effects of the loddiges nurserymen, sourced from a bequest by dr. conrad loddiges (d. 1949), a descendant of the nursery’s founder. the canterbury cathedral library preserves a full copy of the loddiges periodical, the botanical cabinet, and many other sources relating to natural history and the history of botany. facsimiles of many loddiges publications, including those analyzed here, can be found online using the biodiversity heritage library. as only the 1818, 1820, 1823, 1826, and 1830 loddiges catalogs correspond to editions of the botanical cabinet, these years were selected to maximize the amount of extractable data. from these sources, two features were chosen for further analysis: the names of nursery plants and the provenance of nursery plants. however historically valuable these sources are, they do not provide a fully fleshed out picture of the loddiges nursery’s operations and the full extent of nursery-based plant knowledge. what they relate to a modern reader is the conceptual organization of plants by the nurserymen, the provenance of their stock, and glimpses of the knowledge produced by the loddiges nurserymen. data collection historical ethnobotany utilizes documentary analysis to understand human-plant interactions through historical and archival sources. these primary sources act as the material manifestations of a given research subject (medeiros 2016). this property of historical sources affords an understanding of the milieu in which they arose. from 1818–1830, the loddiges nursery catalogs list certain plants with a number following their name, corresponding to an entry in the catalog’s illustrated companion, the botanical cabinet. due to the expense of producing a richly illustrated periodical like the botanical cabinet, it can be assumed that it featured the species deemed by the loddiges nurserymen to have the highest probability of cost recoupment. to a researcher, these specimens represent the most coveted plants in the loddiges’ collections, providing a convenient sample from which to draw broader conclusions about ethnobotanical knowledge. after compiling plants listed in the catalogs and locating their corresponding entry in the botanical cabinet, discernable mentions of dates and locations were extracted (n=567 & n=1012, respectively) and used to establish the provenance of the nursery’s stock. the names and classification of each listed plant were then collected from their corresponding entry in the catalogs. these data were then compiled into a database of the loddiges’ entire stock from 1818 to 1830. analyses from the loddiges data, extracted dates were averaged for each catalog year to understand the rate at which plants entered the nursery and cultivation. location data was used to generate a heat map to visualize the geographic distribution of the loddiges’ stock. the theoretical basis for analyzing plant names in the loddiges nursery is partly drawn from the concept of cultural domains. cultural domains are categories of knowledge shared amongst members of a culture, encompassing the different categories of human interactions and possessing a “hierarchical taxonomic structure” (borgatti 1994, 1998). on analyzing historical ethnobotanical data, medeiros contends that through the social frameworks of memory, a historical source can maki. 2024. ethnobiology letters 15(1):30–40 33 research communications division name example kitchen garden seeds* • graines pour le jardin potager [f.] • küchengarten saamen [g.] sandwitsche gartenbohne ‘sandwich common bean’ bulbs for the floral trade* • les fleurs des floristes [f.] • blumen [g.] verschiedene sorten nelken ‘different types of bulbs’ greenhouse plants • plantes des serres à orangerie [f.] • gewächshaus pflanzen [g.] amerikanische grosse aloë ‘large american aloe’ (= agave americana) fruit trees* • les arbres fruitiers [f.] • obst und fruchtbäume [g.] nektarinen oder glatte pfirschen ‘nectarines or smooth peaches’ hothouse/stove plants • plantes des serres chaudes [f.] • treibhaus pflanzen [g.] kleine melonendistel ‘small melon thistle’ (= cactaceae) palms* sabal umbraculifera (= sabal bermudana) hardy perennials asparagus verticillatus filices* dicksonia antarctica hardy trees and shrubs • arbres et arbrisseaux durables, qui endurrent les rigueurs de nos hyvers [f.] • harte bäume und stauden die hier im freyen wachsen common heath (= calluna vulgaris) summer garden seeds* • graines de toutes sortes de plantes fibreuses, tubereuses et bulbeuses [f.] • saamen von sommergewächsen [g.] nelken ‘carnations’ plants with fibrous, bulbous and tuberous roots* • plantis fibrosis, bulbosis, et tuberosis [l.] • des plantes à racine fibreuse, bulbeuse et tubereuse [f.] • harte zafigte zwiebeln und knollengewächsen/von zaserichten, knolligen un zwiebelgewächsen [g.] crocus officinalis (= crocus sativus) seeds from local and north american hardy trees and perennials growing outdoors* • graines des arbres et arbrisseaux americains, et de notre païs qui endurrent les reigueurs de nos hyves [f.] • saamen von hiesigen un nord-amerikanischen harten bäumen und stauden die im freyen wachsen [g.] annona triloba (= asimina triloba) grass and herb seeds for animal fodder* • graines des gramens et plantes pabulaires [f.] • saamen von grësern/saamen von græsern u. futterkræutern [g.] luzerne ‘alfalfa’ (= medicago sativa) table 1 the loddiges nurserymen used 13 horticultural divisions to classify and categorize plants in their stock catalogs (1777–1849). the name of each division is given in english, followed by its name in german [gr.], french [fr.], or latin [l.] as appears in the catalogs. an asterisk indicates divisions that appear in two or fewer catalogs (*). a taxonomic identification and gloss is provided if possible. all spellings have been modernized. maki. 2024. ethnobiology letters 15(1):30–40 34 research communications indicate the presence of a relationship between individual memories and collective social memory; in this case, horticultural knowledge, the body of knowledge shared and contributed to by eighteenth and nineteenth-century nurserymen. these memories, or testimonies, shrouded in historical uncertainty, can find meaning when “placed in relation” with each other in a “universe of constructed data” drawn from the other primary historical sources of the study (2016:21). in interactions between nurserymen, their suppliers, and clientele, a consistent and mutually agreed-upon plant name was necessary to conduct trade, and in a large nursery, these names totaled in the thousands. plant nurseries in nineteenth-century britain and their plant names are fruitful sources for exploring the cultural domain of knowledge and learning in a horticultural context. unfortunately, the content of this cultural domain is not readily accessible for ethnobotanical analysis due to the limitations of historical sources and the absence of living research collaborators. the basis for analyzing cultural domains lies in free listing, an elicitation technique where an informant provides a mental inventory of a given domain from memory (for example, vogl and puri 2004). freelist inventories allow the researcher to understand how knowledge is shared and conceptualized amongst a group of people. the inventories of plants reproduced in stock catalogs do not come from memory and, consequently, are not freelists; they function to systematically organize nature according to the needs of commerce. medeiros contends, however, that interpreting documents through the historical ethnobotanical approach helps to characterize “the socio-cultural community of [the time studied] by revealing its shared knowledge and values” (2010:137). thus, because the loddiges catalogs list the stock of plants and seeds available at their nursery, they must also offer insight into how plants were named and conceptually organized amongst nurserymen and their clientele. moreover, any further naming and classification of plants apart from their taxonomically assigned specific and generic epithet in the nursery reflects the horticultural-culture of the time and its body shared knowledge. results the conceptual organization of nursery plants every nursery plant needed a unique name to identify it to the nurserymen and their customers. the loddiges nurserymen formulated plant names through linnaean taxonomy and a vernacular classification system. loddiges nurserymen conceptually understood and organized plants through a latin binomial of genus and species that also belonged to a larger class and order of life forms as prescribed by floral morphology and the systema sexuale of linnaeus. horticultural characteristics defined a subordinate class beyond species. the loddiges catalogs include many plants with these types of varietal names. for example, foliis variegatis refers to variegated foliage, and lutea planta refers to a golden, yellow-colored plant. apart from their latin binomial or popular name, plants in the loddiges nursery were also understood as belonging to broader groups based upon their culture in britain. the first two loddiges catalogs grouped plants into “divisions” (1777, 1787), a practice that continued in all subsequent catalogs. these divisions were formed around characteristics relating to the plant and its growing conditions, namely frost and cold tolerance (table 1). some divisions were used infrequently, while others were used for all catalogs. additionally, certain divisions were strictly taxonomic. an example is the division “palms,” comprising members of the palm family (arecaceae), as well as some members of the cycad family (cycadaceae). unsurprisingly, palms also belonged to the division “hothouse” plants in britain’s temperate climate. these examples illustrate the relative complexity of plant names and their conceptual organization in the loddiges nursery. for example, a palm species was known by its latin binomial, horticultural division(s) (“hothouse” and “palm” plant), and perhaps even a varietal name inscribed in latin. apart from novel, exotic species, the loddiges nursery also offered for sale plants commonly known by only a popular name. the naming of these plants contrasts with other catalog species, such as those grown in greenhouses and hothouses. rare plants were desired out of novelty and scholarly pursuit and were known only by latin binomials. conversely, plants referred to with vernacular names were cultivated in kitchen gardens and small plots for subsistence and market trade. different naming conventions demonstrate that nurserymen were “peculiarly sensitive to the plant needs of an emerging maki. 2024. ethnobiology letters 15(1):30–40 35 research communications middle class” (alcorn 2020:19) and could tailor how they named plants to better suit their clientele. this responsiveness is evidenced in the loddiges catalogs that list species with economic and alimentary uses, which are more attractive to the middle class, using only vernacular names (see 1777, 1787 editions) (table 2). the vernacular names published in the 1783 stock catalog were formed through a composition of primarily two to three elements. the core of a loddiges vernacular name consists of a plant name root, to which various descriptive elements could be added (table 3). as the nursery entered the nineteenth century, it began to specialize more in exotics, plants known solely by a latin binomial, and the use of common names tapered off in the catalogs. non-linnaean names are found in highest abundance in the earliest editions of the nursery’s catalogs, a period associated with the nursery’s founder, joachim conrad loddiges (1738–1826), before the business came to be known as loddiges & sons. to illustrate the importance of more popularly known names, of the 1783 stock catalogs’ 10 divisions, all but one division employ the use of vernacular names. the variation seen in vernacular names points towards a more distinctive approach to structuring and conceptualizing nursery-based plant knowledge, operating alongside a more structured and complementary linnaean taxonomy. the descriptive elements used in vernacular names fall into seven categories: 1) colors, 2) geographic locale, 3) morphology, 4) objects, 5) qualities, 6) scarcity, and 7) use (table 4). these descriptive elements signified to the customer important qualities related to the plant, such as its appearance, growth habit, and use. the two coexisting naming conventions employed in the loddiges nursery, taxonomic and horticultural, can be outlined as follows, using an example from the 1818 edition of the botanical cabinet, the flowering tree camellia japonica var. alba plena (figure 1). the conceptual organization of plants in the loddiges nursery begins with the domain of nursery plants. each nursery plant also belonged to a “division” of plants. divisions related to the plant’s culture in britain’s cool climate. thus, the sometimes table 2 these vernacular names were randomly selected from the multilingual 1783 edition of the loddiges stock catalog as examples of plants with economic and alimentary uses. english glosses are provided from the french and german names listed in the catalog. an approximate taxonomic identification is also given. division names in catalog kitchen garden seeds ‘canterbury bean’ (fabaceae sp.); ‘kidney bean’ (phaseolus vulgaris); ‘salsify’ (tragopogon porrifolius); ‘yellow purslane’ (portulaca sp.) bulbs for the floral trade ‘ranunculus’ (ranunculus sp.); ‘tulip’ (tulipa sp.); ‘primrose’ (primula vulgaris) grass and herb seeds for animal fodder ‘timothy grass’ (phleum pratense); ‘red clover’ (trifolium pratense) table 3 in the loddiges stock catalogs, vernacular plant names are composed of a root, to which descriptive elements could be attached. these examples were randomly selected from the 1783 edition of the loddiges stock catalog to illustrate the composition of their nursery’s plant names. the categories of the name’s descriptive elements are also given in parentheses. catalog name plant name root descriptive element(s) descriptive element(s) “yellow sea flax” flax yellow (color) sea (geographic locale) “many jointed indian fig” indian fig many jointed (morphology) “toothache tree” tree toothache (use) “dwarf hedge-hog aloe” aloe dwarf (morphology) hedge-hog (morphology) maki. 2024. ethnobiology letters 15(1):30–40 36 research communications frost-intolerant camellia spp. was assigned to the division of “greenhouse” plants. each species in the catalogs belonged to a class and order based on its reproductive morphology, in the case of c. japonica var. alba plena, class monadelphia (plants with all stamens in each flower fused) and order polyandria (plants with many stamens inserted in their receptacle). they were then given a latin binomial. some species, like c. japonica, exist in various horticultural forms. a third, varietal epithet in latin was given to such examples. like all others in the botanical cabinet, a finely produced color image accompanied the written description of camellia japonica var. alba plena. popular divisions were given special consideration in the catalogs, such as the division “hardy perennials”. species in this division are marked with symbols relating to the plant’s height, quality, and “signatures”. intuitively, these symbols aided in interpreting what curtis termed the “hard-ſounding latin names” that “tend to discourage” cultivation (1783:15), a phenomenon similarly observed by the loddiges nurserymen, who listed more popularly known alimentary and economic plants with vernacular names instead of hard-sounding latin names. included for the “les amateurs,” the lovers of plants, “qui auront la bonté de m’honorer de leurs ordres…” [who will be kind enough to honor me with their orders…] (loddiges 1783:viii), these names and symbols were for the enthusiast gardener, those “not botanists by profession,” to assist in making informed decisions in the planning and management of their gardens. in their catalogs, the loddiges nurserymen make clear that the knowledgeable and informed placement of plants in a garden is critical. the nurserymen strove to ensure their customers, regardless of botanical or scientific prowess, could make knowledge decisions in the garden. these symbols and names were offered, lest one may fall victim to “tous les inconveniens et incongruités de pluſieurs jardins, òu l’on ne manque pas de voir des petits arbuſtes occupant la place, à la quelle ſe devroit trouver un arbre de haute futaye,” [all the inconveniences and incongruences of many gardens, where one never fails to see small shrubs occupying the place where a tall tree should be found] (1783:vii). the provenance of nursery plants the provenance of the loddiges catalog’s stock shows a dynamic and internationally connected nursery. some plants offered for sale by the loddiges were introduced into cultivation in europe many years, decades, or even centuries prior. the process of bringing a plant to the nursery began with the collectors and correspondents who extracted the most desirable plants from their habitat. these plants were then sent to the loddiges, where they were cultivated in the nursery’s grounds and later offered for sale. while the loddiges’ stock focused on regions like south africa, australia, and the united states, the nursery sold plants collected from all continents except antarctica. during 1818–1830, the average date of introduction for a plant in the loddiges nursery was 1798 (table 5), suggestive of the amount of time it took for a species to enter cultivation and the marketplace following collection. despite this lag, newly discovered species introduced from across the globe could quickly find themselves under cultivation. the 1826 and 1830 catalogs list plants introduced into cultivation merely a year prior. several entries in the botanical cabinet also mention species introduced into cultivation and later lost into horticultural obscurity. table 4 these descriptive elements were randomly selected from the 1783 edition of the loddiges stock catalog to offer examples of the eight different categories that encompass loddiges vernacular plant names: 1) color, 2) geographic locale, 3) morphology, 4) objects, 5) qualities, 6) scarcity, and 7) use. category descriptive elements color scarlet; cinereous; fleshcoloured geographic locale tartarian; pennsylvanian; indian, guernsey; maritime; hottentot morphology saw leaved; variegated; rosemary leaved; pear shaped objects torch qualities sugar; viscous; wild; true scarcity common use soap; physick maki. 2024. ethnobiology letters 15(1):30–40 37 research communications evidently, when lesser-known plants fell out of fashion, their presence in british gardens could effectively disappear (bohn 1850). along with dates of introduction, some of the botanical cabinet entries also reference the country from which plants were collected and introduced. at least 56 countries supplied the loddiges nursery with plants, revealing a rich network of international correspondence and trade (figure 2). the five countries most collected from were south africa (n=340 mentions), australia (n=192), the united states (n=87), china (n=47), and brazil (n=39). the analysis of the loddiges nursery stock’s provenance reveals a largely unexplored connection between the historic plant nursery and the exploration and colonization of tropical and temperate areas. indeed, the history of british and european colonialism is intimately rooted in the extraction and movement of natural capital, especially in the form of economically valuable plants (brockway 2002; deloughrey 2007). it is not a coincidence that the loddiges’ stock focused extensively on plants from south africa, australia, and north america, regions recently explored and colonized by european powers. to illustrate this point, the holy roman emperor, joseph ii, sent imperial gardener georg scholl to collect plants in the southern hemisphere and the south african cape for the royal botanical garden in the late eighteenth century (nelson and oliver 2004). scholl would later regularly correspond with the loddiges nurserymen and would also be responsible for introducing several species of cape heathers (erica spp.) into the nursery, a genus that was a primary focus of the business. connections to other former colonial locales continue through regular loddiges correspondent william roxburgh. while working as a botanist, he helped introduce many indian species into the nursery, and connects the loddiges to the development of economic botany in the indian subcontinent (see axelby 2008; sangwan 1992; thomas 2006). discussion while the loddiges nursery is well studied in the context of gardening and horticultural history, ethnobotanists have yet to notice its significance. just as “the place of the nursery trade… in the history of botany remains underappreciated” (alcorn 2022:732), so too does the place of the trade, nurserymen, and their stock catalogs as ethnobotanical research subjects. the loddiges catalogs and their illustrated supplement, the botanical cabinet, are unique and valuable data sources on nursery-based plant knowledge; they preserve traces of their creators and the environment in which they were produced. despite being limited by the nature of these sources, this historical ethnobotanical analysis of the loddiges nursery’s catalogs presents a wealth of findings related to the nursery. this helps further an figure 1 the conceptual organization of the loddiges plant names can be outlined as follows. on the right is an example using a species from the 1818 edition of the botanical cabinet, camellia japonica var. alba plena. maki. 2024. ethnobiology letters 15(1):30–40 38 research communications understanding of the environment in which the nursery operated and historical human-plant relationships more generally. the surviving catalogs of the loddiges nursery also reveal their work in importing exotic novel plants into britain. while the loddiges cultivated plants introduced from across the globe, the catalogs reveal that the nursery specialized in certain geographic areas, particularly the cape region of south africa. the rate at which plants entered the loddiges nursery and cultivation varied greatly. while the loddiges catalogs contain elements of nursery-based plant knowledge, they cannot furnish a fully comprehensive view of the vast body of plant knowledge held by the nurserymen. instead, what the catalogs can reveal is the conceptual organization of plants in the nursery and the different types of nomenclature employed by the nurserymen. beyond the scientifically defined name of class, order, genus, table 5 each year of the 1818-1830 botanical cabinet is shown under the heading “catalog years”. the average date of all plant introductions is given for each catalog year, along with the earliest and most recent account of a plant introduction in each catalog year. catalog years average date earliest date most recent date 1818 1791 1731 1815 1820 1793 1731 1818 1823 1797 1610 1821 1826 1802 1665 1825 1830 1804 1714 1829 figure 2 this heat map shows the total number of times a country is mentioned in the 1818-1830 editions of the loddiges catalogs and the botanical cabinet, as indicated by the scale in the left corner. maki. 2024. ethnobiology letters 15(1):30–40 39 research communications and species, plants were also understood through vernacular names. the loddiges nurserymen used richly descriptive vernacular names to suit their diverse clientele’s needs. apart from these different types of names, plants also belonged to divisions that related to their culture in britain’s temperate climate. these divisions were, for the most part, not taxonomic and instead reflect the horticultural-culture of the time. as plant nursery stock catalogs have yet to be studied by historical ethnobotanists and ethnobotanists more generally, this study presents a theoretical framework and methodology for engaging with the nursery-based plant knowledge. this knowledge is reflected and codified in seemingly mundane and overlooked sources, for example the stock catalogs of a late-georgian era plant nursery. these contributions see their home in a growing body of literature on historical ethnobotany, widening the dimensions of ethnobotanical research to include topics such as the history of nurseries, nurserymen, and horticulture. moreover, the study reinforces the place of plant nurseries as valuable sites for ethnobotanical research. while driven by profit, through daily encounters with plants, nursery work intrinsically leads to the production of specialized knowledge, especially in the case of novel, exotic plants coming into a nursery’s grounds. the extent of the loddiges nursery’s international operations clearly attests to the work undertook by the nurserymen to understand and successfully grow their plants, producing and disseminating nursery-based plant knowledge along the way. these findings broaden the scope of historical ethnobotanical research to include unexplored areas such as historical commercial plants nurseries, and invite a host of other historical sources, like stock catalogs, to be examined more critically. acknowledgements i would like to thank the librarians and archivists of the society of antiquaries of london, the hackney archives, and especially canterbury cathedral for their help in locating and accessing materials. declarations permissions: none declared. sources of funding: none declared. conflicts of interest: none declared. references cited alcorn, k. 2020. from specimens to commodities: the london nursery trade and the introduction of exotic plants in the early nineteenth century. historical research 93(262):715–733. doi:10.1093/ hisres/htaa025. alcorn, k. 2022. ‘his utter unfitness for a commercial collector’: sponsorship of exotic plant collecting in early nineteenth-century britain. journal of the history of 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doi:10.1080/03058034.2017.1340247. curtis, w. 1783. catalogue of the british, medicinal, culinary, and agricultural plants: cultivated in the london botanic garden… sold by b. white, sewel, robinson, payne and debrett, london. dafni, a., t. petanidou, i. vallianatou, e. kozhuharova, c. blanché, e. pacini, m. peyman, z. d. stevanovic, g. g. franchi, and g. benítez. 2020. myrtle, basil, rosemary, and three-lobed sage as ritual plants in the monotheistic religions: an historical-ethnobotanical comparison. economic botany 74:330–355. doi: 10.1007/s12231-01909477-w. deloughrey, e. m. 2007. globalizing the routes of breadfruit and other bounties. journal of colonialism and colonial history 8(3):1–32. available at: https:// english.ucla.edu/wp-content/uploads/deloughrey maki. 2024. ethnobiology letters 15(1):30–40 40 research communications -globalizing-the-routes-of-breadfruit-2008.pdf. accessed on may 20, 2024. harvey, j. 1974. early nurserymen. phillimore, london. heinrich, m., j. kufer, m. leonti, and m. pardo-desantayana. 2006. ethnobotany and ethnopharmacology—interdisciplinary links with the historical sciences. journal of ethnopharmacology 107:157–160. doi:10.1016/j.jep.2006.05.035. kalle, r., and r. sõukand. 2012. historical ethnobotanical review of wild plants of estonia (1770s–1960s). acta societatis botanicorum poloniae 81 (4):271–281. doi:10.5586/asbp.2012.033. kalle, r., and sõukand, r. 2023. historical ethnobotany: interpreting the old records. plants 12: 3673. doi:10.3390/plants12213673. keogh, l. 2020. the wardian case: how a simple box moved plants and changed the world. university of chicago press, chicago. loddiges, c. 1777. a catalogue of plants and seeds which are sold by conrad loddiges, nursery and seedsman, at hackney, near london… c. heydinger, london. loddiges, c. 1787. a catalogue of plants and seeds which are sold by conrad loddiges, nursery and seedsman, at hackney, near london… printed for the author, london. medeiros, m. f. t. 2010. historical ethnobotany: an approach through historical documents and their implications nowadays. in recent developments and case studies in ethnobotany, edited by u. p. de albuquerque and n. hanazaki, pp. 87–99. nupeea & sbee, recife. medeiros, m. f. t. 2016. historical ethnobiology. in introduction to ethnobiology, edited by u. p. albuquerque and r. nóbrega alves, pp. 19–24. springer, new york. medeiros, m. f. t. 2020. historical ethnobiology. elsevier, cambridge. nelson, e., and e. oliver. 2004. cape heaths in european gardens: the early history of south african erica species in cultivation, their deliberate hybridization and the orthographic bedlam. bothalia 34(2):127–140. doi:10.4102/ abc.v34i2.427. oed (oxford english dictionary). 2022. “nursery, n. and adj.”. oed online. oxford university press. pardo-de-santayana, m., j. tardío, m. heinrich, a. touwaide, and r. morales. 2006. plants in the works of cervantes. economic botany 60(2):159–81. doi:10.1663/0013-0001(2006)60[159:pitwoc] 2.0.co;2. parkinson, j. 1629. paradisi in sole paradisus terrestris. h. lownes & r. young, london. petran, m., d. dragos, and m. gilca. 2020. historical ethnobotanical review of medicinal plants used to treat children diseases in romania (1860s–1970s). journal of ethnobiology and ethnomedicine 16(15):1–33. doi:10.1186/s13002-020-00364-6. sangwan, s. 1992. natural history in colonial context: profit or pursuit? british botanical enterprise in india 1778–1820. in science and empires, edited by p. petitjean, c. jami, and a. m. moulin, pp. 281–298. springer, dordrecht. silva, t. c., medeiros, p. m., balcazár, a. l., sousa araújo, t. a., pirondo, a. and m. f. t. medeiros. 2014. historical ethnobotany: an overview of selected studies. ethnobiology and conservation 3 (4):1–12. doi:10.15451/ec2014-6-3.4-1-12. solman, d. 1995. loddiges of hackney: the largest hothouse in the world. the hackney society, london. stafleu, f. a. and cowan, r. s. 1981. taxonomic literature: a selective guide to botanical publications and collections with dates, commentaries and types. scheltema & holkema, bohn. thomas, a. 2006. the establishment of calcutta botanic garden: plant transfer, science and the east india company, 1786–1806. journal of the royal asiatic society 16(2), 165–177. doi: 10.1017/ s1356186306005992. vogl, c. r. and r. k. puri. 2004. tools and methods for data collection in ethnobotanical studies of homegardens. field methods 16(3):285–306. doi:10.1177/1525822x04266844. tangatatau rockshelter: the evolution of an eastern polynesian socio-ecosystem. edited by patrick vinton kirch. 2017. ucla cotsen institute of archaeology press, los angeles. 326 pp. levin. 2018. ethnobiology letters 9(2):243–244 243 reviews dating technology to sites in east polynesia pointed toward considerably later settlement than many researchers had previously argued. although kirch initially was skeptical of these changes, he did come around to accepting the weight of the evidence. his straightforward discussion of this change, and the dating issues that still remain for mangaia, truly represent what the internal correction mechanisms of evidence-based research should look like. at this time, humans appear to have settled the island approximately 1000 years ago. as is typical of kirch’s work, the analysis and interpretation of archaeological materials leans towards human adaptations to island environments. the level of detail in some chapters, which is de rigueur for specialist reports and essential for reproducibility, may be tedious for non-specialists who are not particularly interested in the texture and color of soil layers or the criteria used for species identification. in this sense, it is not an ideal read for a popular audience or introductory class. however, this is also not the intended purpose. for archaeologists in ethnobiological specializations like zooarchaeology and archaeobotany, it is useful to get this level of detail in a work that also treats a single site so broadly. three chapters from multiple authors deal with faunal material recovered from the site: one chapter each for vertebrates (other than fish), fish, and invertebrate remains (primarily, but not exclusively, mollusks). virginia butler’s fish photographs are large and exceptionally clear, which is likely to make her chapter interesting and useful for ichthyoarchaeologists. only one chapter is devoted to plant remains. in the late 1980s and 1990s, archaeologist patrick kirch and his interdisciplinary team conducted fieldwork on mangaia, the southernmost of the cook islands in eastern polynesia. much of this work centered on the tangatatau rockshelter, which has an exceptionally rich archaeological record. while they published most of this research in scholarly journals in the 1990s, the volume reviewed here represents a comprehensive final report of the research. furthermore, with nearly three decades of perspective, the report presents not only initial analyses, but also considerable reanalysis of the original research on mangaia, in light of theoretical and methodological advances. kirch and his colleagues present their work in a standard archaeological site report format, including introduction and background (three chapters), data and analysis in considerable detail (ten chapters), ending with an island chronology and some broader synthetic conclusions (one chapter). the introductory chapters are written in an approachable, almost chatty style, peppered with personal anecdotes that bring the process of doing field archaeology to life. mangaia has a unique geology, with a very old, almost circular central volcanic core, surrounded by continuous upraised coral. these physical factors have led to inland adaptations by humans, as well as use of a plethora of caves and rockshelters. the dating of human settlement of mangaia has been a point of contention in the past. debates within pacific islands archaeology on the timing of settlement began soon after the mangaia fieldwork; the application of chronometric hygiene and ams tangatatau rockshelter: the evolution of an eastern polynesian socioecosystem. edited by patrick vinton kirch. 2017. ucla cotsen institute of archaeology press, los angeles. 326 pp. maureece j. levin1* 1archaeology center, stanford university, stanford, usa. *mjlevin@stanford.edu received august 1, 2018 open access accepted september 21, 2018 doi 10.14237/ebl.9.2.2018.1371 copyright © 2018 by the author(s) licensee society of ethnobiology. this is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution-noncommercial 4.0 international public license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0), which permits non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. levin. 2018. ethnobiology letters 9(2):243–244 244 reviews given that the described collection of archaeobotanical materials was not particularly systematic, which was typical for archaeological work at the time in the pacific, this seems appropriate. even still, the team did recover a plethora of plant remains resulting in a number of insights about terrestrial plant food production and non-food use of plants such as candlenut (aleurites moluccana). here, too, the photographs are by-and-large fantastic. three chapters deal with the abundant artifactual remains from the rockshelter, an assemblage dominated by shell fishhooks and adzes; the latter two of the artifact chapters deal with each of these two classes of artifacts individually. one final data chapter covered the other sites located and excavated during fieldwork in brief. while tangatatau rockshelter had the most persistent occupation of any site studied during fieldwork, these other sites place tangatatau and its assemblage in a broader mangaian context. notably, one site contains evidence of a large amount of human remains in a clear midden context, consistent with ethnohistoric discussions of cannibalism. the final chapter discusses the sequence and broader implications, both in mangaian and eastern polynesian context. although the proposed phases of settlement are artificial, the use of site names rather than descriptive english words to name the phases helps to avoid overinterpretation, a point that kirch explicitly discusses. the synthesis examines the stresses of human activity on the old volcanic island. notably, older volcanic islands tend to have lower levels of soil nutrients, which has contributed to the vulnerability of mangaia’s ecosystems. early in the island’s settlement, there was widespread deforestation of the endemic forests as humans engaged in horticultural practices and extirpated bird species and the pacific flying fox (pteropus tonganus). these pressures may have been what prompted mangaians to remove pigs from the island and also could be related to the interpersonal violence apparent in the human remains in a midden. types of marine resources used changed over time as well. the interconnectedness of environmental and social shifts are examined in detailed narrative form. the quality of the printed hardcover book is excellent and the coated paper works well with its image-laden content. it is unclear why, with this level of production quality, all the images are greyscale or black-and-white. nevertheless, even the greyscale photographs help to bring the process of doing archaeology to life. overall, this volume is an excellent example of synthetic, multi-proxy analysis in environmental archaeology. it is a worthwhile addition to a book collection for any ethnobiologist interested in diachronic analysis of human adaptations to insular environments. skookum root: ethnobotany of hellebore (veratrum viride) in northwest british columbia armstrong. 2018. ethnobiology letters 9(2):197–205 197 research communications flowering it is often confused with similar looking species which tend to grow nearby such as false solomon’s seal (maianthemum racemosum l.) and twisted stalk (streptopus spp.). indigenous peoples throughout british columbia recognize hellebore as an important medicinal plant and as one of “the most violently poisonous plants on the northwest coast” (pojar and mckinnon 1994:113; turner 1995). several poisonous alkaloids are especially present in young shoots and there are myths about careless people bathing with hellebore who then experienced violent seizures and even death (jaffe et al. 1990). in chinook, (a historical trade language in the pacific northwest), hellebore is known as skookum root (translated as strong and powerful), referring to the potent properties of the v. viride rhizome and roots. given its lethal, curative, and spiritual properties, harvest protocol and uses of hellebore among first nation communities are highly specified and respected. methods in northwest british columbia, all indigenous communities report the use of v. viride for medical and supernatural or spiritual purposes (burton 2012; gottesfeld and anderson 1988; turner 2004). using ethnographic and historic documents, an overview introduction wild hellebore (veratrum viride var. eschscholzianum; skookum root, green false hellebore, indian poke, indian hellebore, herein hellebore) is a native perennial herbaceous plant that grows throughout british columbia, canada and is valued by all first nation communities where it grows (turner 1995). combining ethnographic, historic, linguistic, and ecological information, this research provides an overview of the utilitarian, spiritual, and cultural uses of hellebore on the pacific northwest coast. the focus of this research is on the western variety of hellebore, veratrum viride var. eschscholzianum, which grows in moist areas such as riverbanks and wetland meadows and in the subalpine (average 1330 m elevation) (klinkenberg 2013). hellebore grows from large rhizomes that produce new shoots each year. the stems can grow up to three metres, with branched, terminal inflorescences of pale green or yellow-green star-shaped flowers, and barrel-shaped capsule fruits (figure 1). all species have broad oblong to elliptical shaped leaves with obvious parallel veins that clasp at the base. not to be confused with the unrelated true hellebore (helleborus l. spp.; ranunculaceae), v. viride is a member of the melanthiaceae family (previously liliaceae) and before skookum root: ethnobotany of hellebore (veratrum viride) in northwest british columbia chelsey geralda armstrong1* 1department of anthropology, national museum of natural history, smithsonian institute, washington dc, usa. *cdageralda@gmail.com abstract this research considers some of the uses and harvest protocols of one of the most important medicinal plants for indigenous peoples throughout british columbia, vertarum viride (skookum root, green false hellebore, indian poke, indian hellebore). the medicinal qualities of v. viride are well respected given its equally powerful ability to paralyze and kill. using botanical, ethnographic, ethnohistoric, and linguistic data, a broad overview of hellebore is provided for the northwest coast of north america, followed by an in-depth consideration of gitxsan harvest protocol, witnessed through participant observation. received march 25, 2018 open access accepted july 8, 2018 doi 10.14237/ebl.9.2.2018.1298 keywords ethnobotany, green false hellebore, pacific northwest, traditional ecological knowledge, veratrum viride copyright © 2018 by the author(s); licensee society of ethnobiology. this is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution-noncommercial 4.0 international public license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0), which permits non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. armstrong. 2018. ethnobiology letters 9(2):197–205 198 research communications and compilation of v. viride uses and nomenclature in northwest british columbia is provided. to supplement and build on this work, i participated in a traditional harvest of the plant in august 2016 and paired this participant observation with semistructured interviews with two gitxsan knowledgeholders. because harvest protocols differ from community to community and because few people even harvest the plant anymore, i present a qualitative reflection on a one-time v. viride harvest. as such, i make no claims to universal or objective harvest protocols. written, audio, photo, and video recordings were used to document the two-day harvest and processing with tony mclean, a gitxsan language speaker and knowledge holder. like other ethnographic research that focuses on the first-hand knowledge of a single practitioner (e.g., deur et al. 2015), i report on the techniques and protocols that mclean was raised on and practiced. the harvest was conducted with the tam giist cultural camp, a traditional “back to the land” camp in a remote area on wilp guxsen lax‘yip (guxsen house territory). two camp participants, a male (40 years old) and a young woman (14 years old) also joined the harvest. before driving to the subalpine location where the plant was harvested, mclean demonstrated the proper protocols and techniques for harvest and processing. when we arrived at the harvest location, we watched mclean harvest the plant. then the young woman and i went to harvest the plant together in a separate location. the rhizome was processed as a group activity the following day. mclean approved all notes and recordings and the manuscript was presented to him for consent before submission to publication. mclean’s knowledge is not proprietary gitxsan knowledge, and as such wider consent (e.g., from all seven gitxsan villages/ provincial municipalities), was not sought. the harvesting methods and protocols reported here are specific to mclean, his gitxsan cultural heritage, and the bioregion he inhabits. this is a qualitative study figure 1 wally morgan (gitxsan) standing with a large thicket of v. viride. photo by chelsey g. armstrong. armstrong. 2018. ethnobiology letters 9(2):197–205 199 research communications p e o p le n am e 1 p ra cti se s/ u se s so u rc e s g it xs an sg an jik s, s k’ an t s’ ik s (p la n t) a n d m e lgw as xw m al gw as xw ( ro o t, “ so m et h in g b u rn t” ) sg an t s’ ik s an d m u lg w as xw a re v ar ian t sp e lli n gs u se d in t ex t as t h ey a re fr o m a g ti xs an -s p ec ifi c o rt h o gr ap h y. r o o t is m as h ed , w et , a n d a p p lie d f o r b lo o d p o is o n , b o ils , u lc er s, le av es u se d in s w ea t b at h f o r “l am e p la ce s” sm it h 1 9 2 6 g ra te d r o o t ad d ed t o la u n d ry w at er t o p u ri fy a n d c le an se c lo th in g. g o tt es fe ld a n d a n d er so n 1 9 8 8 r o o t gr o u n d a n d u se d a s sn u ff f o r si n u s jo h n so n 1 9 9 7 r o o t/ r h iz o m e st ee p e d in b at h f o r sk in c o n d iti o n s w ils o n e t al . 1 9 8 4 r o o t/ r h iz o m e b u rn t an d s m o ke u se d f o r b ad d re am s, fl u , a n d r h e u m ati sm sm it h 1 9 2 6 sm o ke u se d t o a ss is t th e sp ir it o f sl ee p w al ke rs t o r et u rn t o t h e b o d y p ro p er ly . g o tt es fe ld a n d a n d er so n 1 9 8 8 sm u d ge u se d t o t re at s tr o ke o r m en ta l i lln e ss a n d t o c o u n te ra ct o r re p el jo h n so n 2 0 0 6 h ei lt su k aʔ aú xw sú lí r h iz o m e u se d f o r lu ck a n d a s sk in w as h , c o m p re ss f o r sp ra in s, b ru is es a n d ed w ar d s 1 9 8 0 u se d in te rn al ly w it h g re at c ar e ed w ar d s 1 9 8 0 c le an a n d d ri ed , u se d t o w ar d o ff b ad m ed ic in e an d f o r jo in t an d p ai n r el ie f el ro y w h it e, p er so n al c o m m u n ic ati o n 2 0 1 8 h ai sl a h ʔá u xw su li, h ʔá u xw si w al i r h iz o m e u se d a s am u le t fo r lu ck ll o yd s ta r (l es lie m ai n j o h n so n p er so n al c o m m u n ic ati o n 1 9 8 7 ) r h iz o m e is b u rn t as a s m u d ge t o d ri ve a w ay e vi l s p ir it s, ll o yd s ta r (l es lie m ai n j o h n so n p er so n al c o m m u n ic ati o n 1 9 8 7 ) r o o t in fu si o n s w as u se d t o t re at v ic ti m s o f th e 1 9 1 8 in fl u en za e p id em ic tu rn er 2 0 1 4 h ai d a gw aa yk ’y aa , g w aa yk ’y a (r o o t) a n d gw aa yk ’y a h lk ’a ’ii ( p la n t) u se d a s a tr an q u ill iz er a n d p ai n k ill er tu rn er a n d d av id so n 2 0 0 4 o n e re p o rt o f a p er so n w h o w as c u re d o f tu b er cu lo si s b y p la ci n g d ri ed r o o t u n d er t h e to n gu e p o ja r an d m ac ki n n o n 1 9 9 4 u se d m e d ic in al ly b y sh am an s an d f o r p ro te cti o n tu rn er 2 0 0 4 n is ga ’a ts ’ik s sm al l p o rti o n o f th e ro o t u se d f o r to o th ac h es p o ja r an d m ac ki n n o n 1 9 9 4 a p p lie d t o p ic al ly a s an ae st h eti c to e as e p ai n . s im m er ed r o o t va p o u rs in h al ed c o u gh s. r o o ts m as h ed in to s al ve t o h el p s ki n d is o rd er s. b at h s w it h th e ro o t h el p r el ie ve it ch in g, f o r re la xa ti o n . b u rt o n 2 0 1 2 r o o t/ rh iz o m e m ix ed w it h d ev il’ s cl u b t o s m u d ge b ef o re h u n ti n g. s ee d s b u rt o n 2 0 1 2 tl in gi t sh ík sh ( “h o llo w s te m m e d p la n t” ) d ec o cti o n o f th e ro o t w as u se d f o r m en st ru al c ra m p s, t o t re at b al d n es s, em m o n s 1 9 9 1 m ed ic in e u se d f o r co ld s p o ja r an d m ac ki n n o n 1 9 9 4 in fu si o n w it h r o o t w as d ra n k as a n in to xi ca n t fo r a d ee p s le ep em m o n s 1 9 9 1 ts im sh ia n h u u łe n s r h iz o m e w as u se d w it h “ fe rn r o o ts ” to m ak e p o w er fu l s u p er n at u ra l m ed ici n e o f w o lv er in e c o ve a n d m ac d o n al d 1 9 8 7 :8 0 –8 1 ts im sh ia n o f so u th ea st a la sk a (o ri gi n al ly , m et la ka tl a, b ri ti sh c o lu m b ia ) u se d t h e ro o t fo r sc al p d is ea se a n d s n u ff f o r si n u s in fe cti o n s an d t re at in sa n it y g o tt es fe ld a n d a n d er so n 1 9 8 8 ta b le 1 p ra cti ce s an d u se s o f h e lle b o re in t h e n o rt h w e st b ri ti sh c o lu m b ia 1 w h ile m o st c o m m u n iti es h av e th ei r o w n o rt h o gr ap h y an d n o rm s fo r sp el lin g, in o rd e r to b e co n si st en t al l p la n t n am e s lis te d h e re a re b as ed o n a n a d ap te d a p a s ys te m ( se e tu rn er 2 0 1 4 :a p p en d ix 2 b ). g it xs an s p e ci fi c re fe re n ts a re u se d in t ex t. armstrong. 2018. ethnobiology letters 9(2):197–205 200 research communications with one key expert interlocutor. given the lethal nature of the plant, the harvest and use of v. viride should not be undertaken without proper expertise, nor should universal harvest protocols be inferred from this research. historical and ethnographic overview there is no known paleoethnobotanical evidence of hellebore in the archaeological record. this is likely due to preservation biases—the rhizome and roots utilized by most communities would not likely preserve given their fleshy organic form. however, historically the use of veratrum species is known around the world. toxicologists suggest that alexander the great may have died as a result of ingesting the closely related white hellebore (veratrum album) (schep et al. 2014). a similar species of california hellebore (v. californicum) was among the list of new plants first recorded in the early settler chronicles of lewis and clark (1997). during his fieldwork in the early 1920s, harlan smith noted the ubiquitous use of the false green hellebore rhizome among both upriver and downriver gitxsan communities (smith 1926). while some people, like mclean, continue to harvest the plant, its use in recent years has declined. lieutenant george thornton emmons, who carried out ethnographic fieldwork with tlingit peoples in the 1880s and 1890s, recorded the use of hellebore as an intoxicant (emmons 1991). anthropologists marius barbeau and william beynon (ts’ymsen/tsimshian) reported on the use of hellebore among ts’ymsen halayt (shaman, medicine person) in very sacred and powerful ways (cove and macdonald 1987). however, ts’ymsen people who are not considered halayt today utilize hellebore for medicinal and spiritual purposes. in gitxsan, the term sgan ts’iks refers broadly to the entire hellebore plant, while the word mulgwasxw is reserved more specifically for the rhizome once it is harvested and used for medicine (johnson 1997). while it has been recorded that some first nation peoples have used the leaves as a poultice, the rhizome and fleshy roots that grow from the rhizome are the most used and desired parts of the plant. most of the active compounds reported on in western medical literature for v. viride are from the roots rather than rhizome (johnson 2006). an overview of the practices and uses of hellebore in northwest british columbia is presented in table 1. hellebore roots have anti-louse and fungicidal properties, which make it effective for treating various skin ailments. tonics, infusions, and teas are made by some people for internal cleansing (turner 2014). there are also analgesic and counterirritant chemicals present that make it a valuable topical treatment for arthritis, swelling, aches, and pains (johnson 1997; turner 2014). in the recent past, the most frequently reported medical use in gitxsan country was as a snuff to clear sinuses. johnson (1997) also observed violent sneezing followed by excessive mucous discharge after her wet’suwet’en friends inhaled the powdered rhizome. haida peoples believe that almost any disease can be cured by hellebore (pojar and mackinnon 1994) and it is considered one of the most important herbs in use among gitxsan peoples (gottesfeld and anderson 1988). however, today, the rhizome is most commonly used for cleansing and as a fumigant (or smudge). as a gitxsan knowledge holder, tony mclean notes that “people smudge with sage or sweetgrass, but that’s not our way…mulgwasxw [hellebore] is what we smudge with, it’s what grows here.” gottesfeld and anderson (1988) noted its use as a stovetop smudge among gitxsan elders for purifying the home (or to kill germs). it is also used to smudge before hunting and trapping. mclean notes that he smudges his gun with mulgwasxw before using it to hunt. it is not only used for utilitarian medical purposes but also for spiritual protection. the root/ rhizome is carried as an amulet for luck by many coastal peoples (turner 2014). nisga’a literature also notes both medicinal and spiritual uses of hellebore (see burton 2012). sim’oogit ginwax, abraham davis said that, …the part that is soaked for medicine is the roots. the way it is used as a rubbing liquid. you rub ts’iks [hellebore] all over your body and it protects or immunizes you from getting injured: or it neutralizes any other medicine, which might be used on you by someone else, like your enemies for instance. this medicine has been used by the nisga’a since time immemorial, especially during the war-times. the potent and powerful properties of this special plant warrant careful use and harvest. in most ethnographic references to hellebore, it is emphasized that ingesting the roots will paralyze and kill (burton armstrong. 2018. ethnobiology letters 9(2):197–205 201 research communications 2012; emmons 1991; johnson 1997; smith 1997). the plant contains numerous poisonous/toxic alkaloids (e.g., veratrine, verastrasine, veratramine, and veratrin) that can cause burning sensations, hallucinations, headaches, and central hypotension causing death (jaffe et al. 1990; kingsbury 1964). ingesting even a small amount of the plant can cause a loss of consciousness, followed by death (turner 1995:139). a heiltsuk woman reported to me in 2014 that in the early twentieth century, her kin once used too much of the root infusion in his bath, whereupon he was paralyzed and died immediately. in western medicine, v. viride was previously used as an anti-hypotensive. in the mid-twentieth century, clinical trials showed that ingesting the powdered rhizome significantly reduced elevated blood pressure in patients with essential hypertension (elek et al. 1953; fried et al. 1950). its use fell out of favour because of adverse effects (e.g., seizures and temporary paralysis; see jaffe et al. 1990 and senthilkumaran et al. 2014). various species of veratrum, including v. viride were also used as a garden insecticide called “hellebore”, used against hemipteran and homopteran pests of fruits and vegetables (shepard 1951). harvest in the last seventy years, the influence of residential schools, ongoing colonialism and displacement of people from their homelands and territories has probably shifted how hellebore is perceived and used. however, traditional remedies continue to be used by elders and community knowledge holders in gitxsan country today. some gitxsan peoples continue to harvest hellebore in the late summer and early fall. gottesfeld and anderson (1988) note that the root was harvested in conjunction with hunting trips after its leaves senesce. at the end of august 2016, i joined three gitxsan community members to harvest hellebore rhizomes/roots, mulgwaxsw. following strict protocol from mclean’s experiences, we fasted the day of the harvest and bathed in cold water the morning before the outing (full submersion in kitseguecla lake). two experienced men led the harvest and one young gitxsan woman took part in the harvest for her first time. after prayers, and smudging with mulgwaxsw, we began the harvest. we drove for two hours from the tam giist cultural camp, up an old logging road, and into to the subalpine. after exiting the truck, mclean made a digging implement from a young alder tree (rubus incana). this improvised digging stick was important, as mclean told the group before the harvest, because “you cannot use metal to dig the root, once metal touches the root it loses its power”. we targeted a hellebore plant that grew in a high elevation meadow surrounded by three dozen other hellebore plants in a large thicket on a southwestfacing slope above kitseguecla lake. the plants were particularly large, growing up to 2.5m when they usually grow <1m. on the same mountainside, black huckleberry (vaccininum membranaceum) and soapberry (shepherdia canadensis) were in full fruit and we picked the berries into old yogurt containers as we watched mclean begin the mulgwaxsw harvest. he began by cutting the large leaves down from the plant before making contact with the soil. mclean loosened the soil with the alder digging stick for twenty minutes before getting on the ground and digging into the earth with his hands (figure 2). a thick mat of organic litter grew tightly around the rhizome and it took almost one hour for mclean to free the rhizome from the earth, wavering between his hands and digging stick to untie the soil’s rich networks of microfauna, mycorrhizae, and other organic materials. after observing mclean, the other female harvester and i went to another plant in the thicket and began the harvesting process on our own. we dug for an hour, taking turns with the digging stick and using our hands, besieged by the dense tree roots enveloping the hellebore. once the rhizome was removed, we smudged the root, cleaned the digging implement, and back filled the hole (figure 3). we figure 2 tony mclean loosens soil around the base of the plant. photo by chelsey g. armstrong. armstrong. 2018. ethnobiology letters 9(2):197–205 202 research communications were instructed to only take the smallest chunk of the rhizome while the others were returned to the soil where the plant will continue to produce new shoots the following season. turner notes widespread selective harvesting of hellebore in other parts of the pacific northwest and that the regeneration of hellebore shoots can occur from fragments left in the ground (2014:2–192). during our harvest, we observed that the large and well-spaced plants were doing better than others (i.e., they were larger and looked healthier than other patches of hellebore on the territory). previous and ongoing harvest of hellebore at this specific location, by other gitxsan peoples, may have led to phenotypic responses: digging helps aerate the soil and selective harvesting of the small rhizomes (such as what mclean practiced) over the long-term, may have contributed to increased plant vigour. after the harvest, we stayed in the subalpine and gathered more berries. after fasting for the harvest, we were happy to consume the berries and share stories with one another before returning to the camp. once we drove back to the lake (around dusk) we combined our mulgwaxsw and gently washed them with water, then broke them into smaller pieces before they were left to dry. the following day, all the roots, shoots, and buds were broken off the rhizome by hand (figure 4). while processing the rhizome, youth from the camp were encouraged to watch us work and ask questions about the harvest. smaller pieces were cut into discs and dried a second time — the discs would be used for smudging. larger pieces were left as amulets to be stored in dark, dry places. both types of mulgwaxsw (for amulets and for smudging) were split equally amongst the harvesters and the cultural camp participants and instructors. the harvest practices recorded here are gitxsan specific and come from tony mclean’s personal experience and teachings. it is widely understood that related communities can have different sets of figure 3 mulgwaxsw (v. viride rhizome) after harvest and before processing. some people will remove the rootlets and let them dry for smudging. here, the rhizome is the desired part of the plant. photo by chelsey g. armstrong. armstrong. 2018. ethnobiology letters 9(2):197–205 203 research communications practices for the same plant, even if they are in the same bioregion (anderson 2016). for example, heiltsuk people harvest aʔaúxwsúlí (hellebore root) in the spring before flowering, while neighbouring and related haisla people harvest it in the fall. although diverse practices are recorded, hellebore’s distinctive qualities, potentially drastic products, and similarity of uses among many groups suggest that medicinal qualities of hellebore were discovered long ago and spread (shared) rapidly throughout the region (turner 2014:369). conclusion the purpose of this paper is to publish some of the intricacies, protocols, and collate references of hellebore harvest for future generations. as settlercolonialism continues to affect numerous communities in british columbia, community members often ask me about this plant; how it was used, how grandparents harvested it, and how it protected people from harm. guided by tony mclean’s knowledge and experiences, and ethnographic and botanical evidence, this paper provides a brief overview and compilation of information about this special plant for people who wish to know more but cannot freely access the information. while this is meant to be an informative contribution, it should not be entirely instructive — that is, elders and knowledge holders should always give harvest guidance with specific knowledge to place and harvest protocol. this compilation is meant to assemble and compare uses of such a powerful plant and share how many communities throughout british columbia’s northwest respect it. readers are encouraged to appreciate the diversity of practices and respect the profound power found in this remarkable plant. figure 4 mulgwaxsw (v. viride rhizome) cleaned after harvest and processing. note the large terminus scars from old shoots and small scars where rootlets were attached. photo by chelsey g. armstrong. armstrong. 2018. ethnobiology letters 9(2):197–205 204 research communications acknowledgments i want to sincerely acknowledge and thank tony mclean for allowing me to join the harvest and encouraging the dissemination of this practice with his gitxsan community. i would also like to thank leslie main johnson for reading the manuscript, natasha lyons for discussions about the manuscript, and to mulgwaxsw/v. viride, a very skookum plant to be appreciated and respected! declarations permissions: all interviews and participatory observations were conducted with permission by the attendant knowledge holder (tony mclean) and under the simon fraser university department of research ethics (dore), [2015s0179]. sources of funding: social science and humanities research council (sshrc) northern scientific training program (nstp). conflicts of interest: none declared. references cited anderson, e. n. 2016. caring for place: ecology, ideology, and emotion in traditional landscape management. left coast press, walnut creek, ca. burton, c. m. a. 2012. wilaat hooxhl nisga'ahl [galdoo'o][ýans]: gik'uuhl-gi, guuń-sa ganhl angoo gam´ using plants the nisga'a way: past, present and future use. doctoral dissertation, environmental studies, university of victoria, victoria, canada. available from proquest dissertations and theses database (ns28331). cove, j. j., and g. f. macdonald. 1987. tsimshian narratives i: tricksters, shamans and heroes. canadian museum of civilization, ottawa, canada. deur, d., a. dick, k. recalma-clutesi, and n. j. turner. 2015. kwakwaka’wakw “clam gardens”. human ecology 43:201–212. doi:10.1007/s10745-015-9743-3. edwards, g. t. 1980. bella coola indian and european medicines. the beaver 311:4–11. elek, s. r., j. d. mcnair, and g. c. griffith. 1953. veratrum viride—hypotensive and cardiac effects of intravenous use. california medicine 79:300–305. emmons, g. t. 1991. the tlingit indians, edited by frederica de laguna. university of washington press, seattle, wa. fried, j., h. l. white, and o. wintersteiner. 1950. the hypotensive principles of veratrum viride. journal of the american chemical society 72:4621–4630. doi:10.1021/ja01166a080. gottesfeld, l. m. j., and b. anderson. 1988. gitksan traditional medicine: herbs and healing. journal of ethnobiology 8:13–33. jaffe, a. m., d. gephardt, and l. courtemanche. 1990. poisoning due to ingestion of veratrum viride (false hellebore). journal of emergency medicine 8:161–167. doi:10.1016/0736-4679-9090226. johnson, l. m. 1997. health, wholeness, and the land: gitksan traditional plant use and healing. doctoral dissertation, department of anthropology, university of alberta, edmonton, canada. johnson, l. m. 2006. gitksan medicinal plantscultural choice and efficacy. journal of ethnobiology and ethnomedicine 2:29. doi:10.1186/1746-4269-229. kingsbury, j. m. 1964. poisonous plants of the united states and canada. prentice-hall, englewood cliffs, nj. klinkenberg, b. 2013. developing ecological frameworks for bc vascular plants: analyzing bec plot data [web page]. available at: http:// ibis.geog.ubc.ca/biodiversity/eflora/. accessed on march 20, 2018. lewis, m., and w. clark. 1997. the journals of lewis and clark, vol. 31. houghton mifflin harcourt, boston. pojar, j., and a. mackinnon. 2004. plants of the pacific northwest coast. partners publishing group, holt, mi. schep, l. j., r. j. slaughter, j. a. vale, and p. wheatley. 2014. was the death of alexander the great due to poisoning? was it veratrum album?. clinical toxicology 52:72–77. doi:10.3109/15563650.2013.870341. shepard, h. h. 1951. pyrethrins, rotenone, and miscellaneous plant extractives. in the chemistry and action of insecticides, edited by h. h. shepard, pp. 144–190. mcgraw-hill, new york. smith, h. i. 1926. gitksan ethnobotany. unpublished manuscript prepared for the national museum of canada. national museum of canada, ottawa, on. armstrong. 2018. ethnobiology letters 9(2):197–205 205 research communications smith, h. i. 1997. ethnobotany of the gitksan indians of british columbia, edited by b. d. compton, b. rigsby, and m. l. tarpent. canadian museum of civilization, hull, canada. senthilkumaran, s., r. meenakshisundaram, and p. thirumalaikolundusubramanian. 2014. plant toxins and the heart. in heart and toxins, edited by m. ramachandran, pp. 151–174. doi:10.1016/ b978-0-12-416595-3.00005-0. turner, n. j. 1995. food plants of coastal first peoples. ubc press, vancouver, canada. turner, n. j. 2014. ancient pathways, ancestral knowledge: ethnobotany and ecological wisdom of indigenous peoples of northwestern north america, 2 vols. mcgill-queen's university press, montreal, canada. turner, n. j., and f. e. davidson. 2004. plants of haida gwaii. sono nis press, winlaw, canada. wilson, s., p. pierre, m. howard, and g. russell. 1984. some medicinal remedies of the gitksan people. unpublished manuscript, kitsegukla band council, kitsegukla, canada. at home on the waves: human habitation of the sea from the mesolithic to today. edited by tanya j. king and gary robinson. 2019. berghahn books, new york and oxford. 392 pp. narchi. 2022. ethnobiology letters 13(1):27–28 27 reviews towards building a narrative of ocean crisis, which has outcasted the imminently anthropological endeavor of understanding at depth those human-environmental interactions emerging in coastal, marine, and oceanic environments, 2) coastal communities result from continuous processes occurring in dynamic places lived in and created by people, and finally, 3) peoples and places emerge through interaction, movement, and activities (which, when combined, create local ecological knowledge) rather than by occupying an external and passive medium, either on land or at sea. five chapters deal with archaeological research; the remaining ten are more aligned to cultural anthropology and discuss a variety of topics that include community dynamics, tasks, movement and skill of fishing, and coastal livelihoods. the chapters hold detailed and substantial work which, supported by more than 50 figures, manage to give the reader a more intimate sensation of spatiality and movement. among those chapters dealing with archaeological research, i personally enjoyed cristián simonetti’s chapter “drawing gestures: body movement in perceiving and communicating submerged landscapes”. what makes this chapter special is the subject of study, which is not the submerged landscape studied by underwater archaeologists, but the underwater archaeologists themselves. more specifically, the ways in which archaeologists appropriate an underwater landscape by means of relying on silent underwater communications to convey meaning to what they can visually experience underwater. these observations challenge mainstream becoming a diver is not only dependent on learning how to calculate proper diving times or how to correctly perform safety stops to avoid decompression. to become a diver, one must master the social production of diving ecosystems. the former is done by signifying and representing a four-dimensional reality where sandy sea floors, rocky bottoms, and coral walls help make underwater environments relatively intelligible and familiar for novice and expert divers alike. the diver’s immersion creates a bilateral interaction between the diver and the liquid medium that results in the creation of both an underwater world and a diver. the livelihoods and identities of divers and other coastal peoples, e.g., fishers, tourists, surfers, and mollusk gatherers, are shaped by a marine world that they construct daily. the logical premise that the sea is not a harsh and uninhabited frontier, but a dynamic playground that is malleable through human interaction and keeps evolving within a changing environment while contained by pulsating and permeable boundaries, lays at the very heart of the edited volume at home on the waves. through 15 chapters and 392 pages, the book brings together a total of 27 authors who rely on historical, archaeological, and anthropological tools and approaches that align with tim ingol’s (2011, inter alia) idea of life as wayfaring. the authors flesh out three main points in the book: 1) the prevailing state of environmental emergency present in the world’s oceans has attracted social scientists’ attention at home on the waves: human habitation of the sea from the mesolithic to today. edited by tanya j. king and gary robinson. 2019. berghahn books, new york and oxford. 392 pp. nemer e. narchi1* 1centro de estudios en geografía humana, el colegio de michoacán, la piedad, mexico. *narchi@colmich.edu.mx received july 3, 2021 open access accepted november 1, 2021 doi 10.14237/ebl.13.1.2022.1781 published april 27, 2022 copyright © 2022 by the author(s); licensee society of ethnobiology. this is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution-noncommercial 4.0 international public license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0), which permits non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. narchi. 2022. ethnobiology letters 13(1):27–28 28 reviews research on gestures to affirm that absent properties of the landscape are not conveyed by mental, selfcontained representations, but concurring with ingold, by performing open movements and gestures contingent to the flow of their own thoughts. in a different vein, but with a similar feeling, penny mccall howard explores the outcomes of task making and movement in chapter 2 “working grounds, producing places, and becoming at home at sea”. howard presents the reader with a comprehensive description on the production of scottish underwater places. these places, despite not being related to any point of land, have been named as a result of deep subjective connections and sociable work practices performed by the very fishermen that, by working on these grounds and forming strong bonds with these places, have created them. there are many aspects of this chapter that, in my view, make a major contribution and excellent teaching material. the chapter i found to be the most impressive was by mccall howard. she set the bar high in exemplifying what a true immersion in participant observation should look like. the many ways in which the author has engaged with fishers, not only by interviewing them or having a colloquial conversation at the pub, but also by becoming a trawler who had also decided to establish her home on the waves in six different harbors. such a committed way of participating, that also resonates with ingold’s (2017) ideas of participant observation as an educational experience, give the author profound and intimate insights into why scottish fishers build significant relationships through their interactions with underwater places. all papers within the volume show a sensitivity to ongoing problems of the malleability of the physical boundaries where coastal people (sensu latto) and the potential dangers arising from describing coastal livelihoods and (especially) places as unproductive. final confessions: initially trained in the field of earth sciences, i have always been relatively skeptical about phenomenological anthropology. however, in reading many of these chapters, i have found that the view of phenomenological anthropology that tim ingold has inspired is not removing experience from cognition. instead, it is summing up both experience and cognition in a pragmatical way to move throughout the world. this became clear to me when i realized that nearly all my friends and colleagues in the fields of oceanography and biology were capable of extracting the meaning from those hand gestures reproduced by sophie cäcilie elixhauser in chapter 5 “moving along: wayfinding, following, and nonverbal communication across the frozen seascape of east greenland” and used by inuit hunters to identify specific animals. nearly all those colleagues easily recognized a buoyant seal when presented with a closed fist pointing upwards. there is something in reading about these simple gestures that makes them part of the environment with which people engage, whether we love the existence and use of hypotheses driven research or not. at home on the waves is a valuable resource for anyone interested in coastal livelihoods, environmental knowledge, and community engagement. references cited ingold, t. 2011. being alive: essays on movement, knowledge and description. routledge, london. ingold, t. 2017. anthropology contra ethnography. hau: journal of ethnographic theory 7:21–26. doi:10.14318/hau7.1.005. from ethical codes to ethics as praxis: an invitation bannister. 2018. ethnobiology letters 9(1):13–26 13 perspectives special issue on ethics in ethnobiology new form of responsible science that works with native peoples for a better future, and not just treats them as subjects for the advancement of white man’s science” (posey 1990 as reprinted in posey 2004:5, emphasis in original). from those origins in belém, largely through posey’s bold conviction and dedication, an ongoing commitment by ethnobiologists from around the world was set in motion to bring global attention to indigenous issues related to biocultural diversity and to work towards creative solutions for their redress. one of the most notable of these achievements was development of a code of ethics by the ise, which remains a foundational reference point in biocultural ethics1 to this day. since those beginnings, global public awareness and ethical guidance for research involving indigenous and local communities, cultural knowledge and associated biodiversity has evolved significantly. for example, within ethnobiology and in “as we learn together, the journey offers the sacred gift of humility.” (iwama et al. 2009:7) ethics is an important element of ethnobiology, and ethnobiology is an important learning space for understanding cross-cultural and interdisciplinary research ethics. indeed, ethnobiologists have collectively influenced ethical thought, policy and practice from local to international levels since at least the late 1980s, with the founding of the international society of ethnobiology (ise) in 1988. at the close of the first ise congress (belém, brazil) involving hundreds of delegates from 35 countries, founding members created the declaration of belém, a statement of guiding principles that represented “the goals and ideals of ethnobiologists and ethnobiology in an international context” (berlin 1990 as quoted in international society of ethnobiology, nd). darrell posey called the declaration of belém “nothing short of an urgent call for [a] new ethic.” he proclaimed it as “a challenge to ethnobiologists to lead the way in a from ethical codes to ethics as praxis: an invitation kelly bannister1* 1polis project on ecological governance, centre for global studies, university of victoria, victoria, canada. *kel@uvic.ca abstract ethical guidance for research involving indigenous and traditional communities, cultural knowledge, and associated biological resources has evolved significantly over recent decades. formal guidance for ethnobiological research has been thoughtfully articulated and codified in many helpful ways, including but by no means limited to the code of ethics of the international society of ethnobiology. we have witnessed a successful and necessary era of “research ethics codification” with ethical awareness raised, fora established for debate and policy development, and new tools evolving to assist us in treating one another as we agree we ought to within the research endeavor. yet most of us still struggle with ethical dilemmas, conflicts, and differences that arise as part of the inevitable uncertainties and lived realities of our crosscultural work. is it time to ask what more (or what else) might we do, to lift the words on a page that describe how we should conduct ourselves, to connecting with the relational intention of those ethical principles and practices in concrete, meaningful ways? how might we discover ethics as relationship and practice while we necessarily aspire to follow adopted ethical codes as prescription? this paper brings together willie ermine’s concept of “ethical space” and darrell posey’s recognition of the spiritual values of biodiversity with a unique selection of insights from other fields of practice, such as intercultural communication, conflict resolution and martial arts, to invite a new conceptualization of research ethics in ethnobiology as ethical praxis. received july 20, 2017 open access accepted february 15, 2018 doi 10.14237/ebl.9.1.2018.1060 keywords ethical space, biocultural ethics, research ethics, ethical guidelines, ethical praxis copyright © 2018 by the author(s); licensee society of ethnobiology. this is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution-noncommercial 4.0 international public license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0), which permits non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. bannister. 2018. ethnobiology letters 9(1):13–26 14 perspectives special issue on ethics in ethnobiology many fields, the language of research “subjects” has been superseded with “participants,” new standards for what constitutes “consent” have been established, due acknowledgement of knowledge holders and equitable benefit-sharing have become expectations, and intentional efforts have been made in methodology to evolve research in participatory, collaborative and indigenous-led directions. formal guidance for ethnobiological research has been thoughtfully articulated in helpful ways, including but not limited to the ise code of ethics (2006). many ethnobiologists have been involved in these necessary exercises of codifying ethical expectations, raising ethical awareness and creating new tools to assist in understanding how we ought to treat one another within the research endeavor. these are important accomplishments within ethnobiology and more broadly. yet many of us, perhaps especially those situated within a university, still struggle with ethical dilemmas, conflicts, and differences that arise as part of our “humanness”—those inevitable uncertainties and lived realities of our cross-cultural work involving people and the natural world. austin (2008:749) underscores the important role of ethical guidelines in health research to minimize risks, maximize benefits and uphold crucial principles such as free, prior and informed consent, but she expresses a vital insight: “from a relational ethics perspective, … although these guidelines are necessary, they are insufficient.” similarly, gavazzi (2012)’s work in clinical psychology recognizes that ethics are not equal to ethical codes. he promotes a “positive” rather than “remedial” approach to ethics, advocating ethics as more than just a set of rules and codes that need to be memorized.” gavazzi (2011) describes ethics as “alive every day in our professional lives.” likewise, bergum and dossetor (2005) underscore a set of ethical principles as necessary, objective, general structures that are inadequate on their own, but needed to support us in the primary goal of fully attending to ethics within specific relationships. holding in mind the duality of ‘achievement’ and ‘insufficiency’ within a relational ethics framework, i posed the following questions in a presentation at the 39th annual conference of the society of ethnobiology entitled “reimagining research ethics: a relational approach to codes of ethics for ethnobiologists” (bannister 2016):  is it time to ask what more—or what else— might we do?  how do we lift the words on a page that describe how we ought to conduct ourselves, to connect more directly with the intention of those ethical principles and practices in concrete, meaningful ways?  how do we discover ethics as relationship while we necessarily aspire to follow agreed ethical codes as prescription? in this paper, i explore the question of “what else,” motivated by a sense of convergence in the concept of “ethical space” as articulated by cree philosopher and educator willie ermine (ermine 2000, 2015) and darrell posey’s recognition of the spiritual values of biodiversity. after providing a brief history of ethical codification in ethnobiology, i explore ethical space in more depth from a relational ethics perspective (austin 2008; bergum and dossetor 2005; haslebo and haslebo 2008) and draw parallels from a unique combination of other fields of practice, such as intercultural communication, conflict resolution and martial arts. i offer initial ideas and an invitation to reimagine research ethics in ethnobiology as not just compliance with ethical practices, but as an art and practice that could lead us to articulating a new ethical praxis. ethics is commonly understood to refer to the values and principles that guide behaviors towards others. however, ethics has many meanings in society today and may be interpreted differently by each of us. in this paper, i draw upon multiple understandings. one is ethics as a formal branch of western philosophy that seeks to resolve questions of human morality and involves concepts of right and wrong, or just and unjust. in this regard, my particular focus is applied ethics, specifically research ethics policy and practice. i also call on understandings of ethics at a more fundamental level as our capacity to know what harms or enhances the wellbeing of sentient creatures, which manifests in how we choose to relate to one another and the natural world2. this understanding has been shaped through exchanges with indigenous colleagues and mentors, as well as my exposure to eastern philosophical traditions. it is through our potential to experience and hold multiple perspectives on ethics in a biocultural context that i see ethnobiologists as well-placed, even obliged, to continue to meet posey’s 30-year-old challenge to lead the way in responsible science that works with bannister. 2018. ethnobiology letters 9(1):13–26 15 perspectives special issue on ethics in ethnobiology indigenous peoples for a better future. this paper is an attempt to share some emerging thoughts and ideas, and encourage further thoughtful reflection and exchanges, to assist in the goal of continuing to expand our perspectives and understandings of ethics. research ethics codification in ethnobiology research ethics commonly involves codification of agreed rules of conduct intended to guide the research endeavor through difficult moral questions. research ethics codification over the last few decades has led to the development of ethical guidelines and codes of ethics within many disciplines and professions. in some countries (e.g., canada, usa, new zealand, australia), adherence to national ethics standards for research involving humans is a formal requirement of university research (see hardison and bannister 2011 for a historical overview of research ethics as related to ethnobiology). as noted, ethics codification in ethnobiology took root in 1988 with the declaration of belém at the ise’s first congress and aspirations to create an ethics committee. a priority issue raised by posey was intellectual property rights (ipr). posey expressed his hope that the 1990 ise congress would be “the next step toward the development of a position of ethnobiologists toward ipr and the ‘just compensation’ of native peoples for their knowledge,” and that “both the society of ethnobiology and the international society of ethnobiology will take the intellectual lead-as well as appropriate actions-toward the development of a new ethic that serves as a model for other disciplines” (posey 1990:97–98). ise members agreed to develop the first ever code of ethics for ethnobiologists at the fourth congress in 1994 (lucknow, india). under posey’s direction, it was anticipated that the code of ethics would be completed within a year. significant progress was made in developing drafts at the 1996 and 1998 congresses. however, despite best efforts of the ise ethics committee, challenging circumstances delayed the process, including a need to reconcile controversies among ise members related to claims of bioprospecting and biopiracy in the late 1990s and early 2000s (for example, see shebitz and oviedo 2018, this volume). posey’s untimely death in 2001 was a setback in many ways, putting completion of the ise code of ethics on hold until the process was revived in 2004 at the 9th ise congress in canterbury, kent, uk. a special session was held to formally reaffirm the commitment of ise members (bannister, 2004). after a 10-year process of development involving hundreds of individuals from many different cultures and backgrounds, from all regions of the world, the ise code of ethics was unanimously adopted by members in 2006 (chiang rai, thailand) with minor additions made in 20083. the ise code of ethics (2006) remains in place to this day with goals “to facilitate ethical conduct and equitable relationships, and foster a commitment to meaningful collaboration and reciprocal responsibility by all parties.” it offers 17 principles and 12 practical guidelines, and emphasizes the underlying value of mindfulness, described as “an obligation to be fully aware of one’s knowing and unknowing, doing and undoing, action and inaction.” the adoption process for the ice code of ethics included an ongoing commitment to continual review and affirmation. extensive discussion about revising the ise code of ethics took place leading up to and during the 2010 congress in tofino, british columbia, canada. however, for a number of practical and principled reasons, members at the 2010 congress decided that, despite evolving language and terminology, the ise code of ethics represented a robust aspirational document and should remain intact with only non-substantive minor updates. an online ratification process is currently open to all ise members with an invitation to endorse an updated version with minor changes4. much volunteer effort to date has gone into sharing the ise code of ethics and making it accessible in eight languages. the society of ethnobiology, the society for economic botany, and the latin american society of ethnobiology (among other societies and organizations) have also dedicated attention to discussing and developing ethical guidance and resources. each of these groups adopted the ise code of ethics (in current or modified form), creating a sense of collective ethical aspiration among ethnobiologists and a shared platform for future ethics innovation. beyond codification, towards ethical space in recent years, the ise ethics program has endeavored to ground its work in the concept of “ethical space” (bannister and solomon 2009; bannister and wyndham 2014) as articulated by cree philosopher and educator, willie ermine (ermine bannister. 2018. ethnobiology letters 9(1):13–26 16 perspectives special issue on ethics in ethnobiology 2000, 2007; ermine et al. 2004). ermine introduced this concept to the realm of research ethics through his master of education thesis “a critical examination of the ethics in research involving indigenous peoples” (ermine 2000). ermine borrowed the term “ethical space” from roger poole (1972) and applied it to the “intersection where the two worlds of indigenous and western peoples meet” (ermine 2000:8). ermine (2000:9) explains his original inspiration as follows: poole (1972) has remarked in his book towards deep subjectivity that there exists an ‘ethical space’ when two sorts of space interact. ethical space is created when the intentions of two entities structure space between them in two different ways, and when the sets of intentions confront each other then ‘ethical space is set up instantaneously’ (poole 1972:5). ermine (2000:27) draws a parallel with poole’s idea of ethical space and applies it to “…the confluence of the two societies and the critical juncture where the indigenous mind meets with western thought.” he suggests: “this 'ethical space' is potentially a productive and appropriate position from which to express and negotiate an ethical order in research that crosses cultural borders” (ermine 2000:9). ermine (2000:18–19) refers to ethical space, not as common ground but as a place between worldviews, an “abstract space” created when the intentions of two entities “confront each other.” these different intentions are “guided by a past that includes memory, values, interests, and the actions validated by our communities.” thus, this space affords the opportunity to be reflective about personal convictions and how these formed perceptions influence our intentions about the 'other'. this confrontation of worldviews sets up the conditions by which negotiation is necessary in order to arrive at ethical interaction. he goes on to propose that ethical space offers possibilities for new models of research and knowledge production that are co-developed through respectful negotiation in this cross-cultural interaction. the contribution of ermine to research ethics has not remained abstract in canada. an unprecedented shift was catalyzed when ethical space was formally incorporated into national research ethics policy in 2007 for health research involving indigenous peoples, referred to as the cihr guidelines (canadian institutes of health research 2007). moreover, in 2010, ethical space was included as an underlying concept within a new chapter (chapter 9) on research involving indigenous peoples in canada, as part of comprehensive national ethics guidelines for all university research, called the tri-council policy statement: research involving humans, version 2 (tcps2) (canadian institutes of health research, natural sciences and engineering research council of canada, and social sciences and humanities research council of canada 2014)5. according to the cihr guidelines, ethical space should frame the entire research endeavor through “a series of stages of dialogue beginning with the conversations prior to the design of the research, through to the dissemination of results and perhaps even afterward.” the cihr guidelines encourage a continual questioning of “is this ethical?” requiring “a dialogue about intentions, values and assumptions throughout the research process” (canadian institutes of health research 2007:17). alongside national ethics guidelines, it has become increasingly common in canada for indigenous communities and indigenous organizations to develop and articulate their own standards for ethical research based on their own principles, values and beliefs (for some canadian examples see assembly of first nations 2009 and bannister 2009). as in the ise code of ethics, both the cihr guidelines and tcps2 chapter 9 underscore the importance of understanding and following indigenous community research guidelines and protocols as an integral part of ethical practice. regarding the co-creation of ethical space by communities and researchers that is promoted in both the cihr guidelines and tcps2 chapter 9, brant castellano and reading (2010) note that challenges are inevitable when meeting across differences in worldviews, needs, and expectations. they encourage embracing this tension through “dialogue undertaken with an ethical commitment to mutual benefit and good relations” calling such a commitment “a powerful instrument to prevent violations of human dignity” (brant castellano and reading 2010:14). these descriptions of ethical space strongly resonate with bergum and dossetor’s (2005) perspective from a relational ethics approach. they bannister. 2018. ethnobiology letters 9(1):13–26 17 perspectives special issue on ethics in ethnobiology describe the relational space as a nourishing dwelling place for self and other, a space that enables us to be together in our difference and diversity, with an irreducible respect for one another. they recognize a need to nurture the relational space to make ethical practice possible. they acknowledge the value and necessity of ethical principles as the means to come to know ethical practice, but view the nature and significance of relationship as fundamental to enacting ethical practice as an art, moment by moment. inspired by all of the above, i was curious to explore ethical space more fully and more tangibly, beyond inspirational academic articles and the negotiated words of policy documents. in 2015, i had the privilege to organize a national policy conference as part of the intellectual property issues in cultural heritage project6, funded by the social sciences and humanities research council of canada. the working better together conference on indigenous research ethics7 strategically brought together 80 canadian indigenous and non-indigenous academic and community researchers, educators, practitioners, policy analysts and administrators (including willie ermine, marlene brant castellano and several ethnobiologists) to explore what it really means–and what it takes–to work collaboratively in indigenous research, using ethical space as a foundational concept. the next section provides selected verbatim highlights from ermine’s keynote presentation on ethical space at the conference. such contributions of ermine and others (discussed subsequently) have deeply inspired and informed my thoughts on connecting with the relational intention of our ethical principles and practices. my choice to quote ermine rather than briefly paraphrase is intentional; his unique articulations have been key to shifting my understanding of ethical space from aspiration and reified notion to practice. my goal here is for readers to have an opportunity to experience ermine’s words for themselves. dancing particles – ethical space revisited in his keynote address entitled “dancing particles,” ermine (2015) offered a provocative elaboration of ethical space as an encounter of energetic or spiritual dimensions. a mouse loves another mouse, a grass loves a grass, a tree loves a tree, that mountain has ethics to love the other mountain. and us humans, we really have to love each other. so the ethical space is connected to these ideas … how we treat each other as human beings. this is the very basis of ethics. so when we talk about ethics, then we have to go into the moral arena where we start talking about our values, where we start talking about our spirituality. the task today is to link up this idea of ethics and turn it into a sort of energy that we [feel] …as we [encounter] each other. … the ethical space is about the encounter of strangers. … what is the response when we meet this other? what we call ‘other’ as has been written about in academia, when we see other races, other genders perhaps, other classes of people, other nationalities, other people with different bodies, and all these differences that come into play. ermine (2015) identified different levels and types of encounters­–exchanging names or following social prescriptions–as examples of superficial encounters, compared with meeting one another at a more conscious level of awareness. he pointed to an all too common “incompetence” in our intercultural encounters that creates an obstacle in our ability to relate to one another. he asked us to consider how we work through these obstacles across our differences – or if we do? how do we link the ideas of ethics and moralities when there’s these boundaries that we carry? one of the questions … [about ethical space] … is ‘what do we do with ‘it’?’ it’s not an ‘it’. what we’re trying to do is center and focus this idea of ethics, as it lies within each and every one of us—within our spirit, within our inwardness. that’s where it needs to be powerful, that’s where it becomes powerful. we cannot ‘use’ ethics, it’s not a noun. it’s in here somewhere [referring to inside oneself]. ermine (2015) continued: linking up this idea of ethics is something that each one of us has and is responsible for. we go through these ideas that ethics has to do with the human spirit—which is unseen, and the unseen is the unknown. we cannot work with something we can’t see; we can’t manipulate it, so we have a hard time working with it. nevertheless, when we look at the spiritual level, a spirit inside each and every one of you can see the spirit of another bannister. 2018. ethnobiology letters 9(1):13–26 18 perspectives special issue on ethics in ethnobiology person. these are the teachings that we go through with our old people, our spiritualists. that the spirit can, in fact, see the other spirit. … if we can [relate to one another] to that level, then we have a different paradigm or a different formulation that we can work with. ermine included a novel interactive component as part of his conference presentation, inspired by a combination of cree understandings of “health” with theory from particle physics. his demonstration enabled participants to experience firsthand what he referred to as “dancing particles” or a sense of animation of one another’s spirit. so dancing particles—this is the central point when talking about ethics; we have to keep exploring this whole field. it takes a discussion of ethics as an ‘it,’ as a noun, and turning it more into an energy, like in the exercise we did this morning. and start connecting it to a spirituality that everybody has. then we’re talking about ethics. … and we know that the universe operates on those principles. …when we’re talking about the ethics, it’s at this level that things really start to happen, that the critical mass of energies, of spiritual people working together can produce profound results. spiritual values of biocultural ethics ermine’s message on the fundamental nature of ethics brings to mind posey’s writings on the cultural and spiritual values of biodiversity, which i believe partly motivated posey’s sense of need to establish a new ethic in ethnobiology. posey (1999: 4, emphasis in original) states: although conservation and management practices are highly pragmatic, indigenous and traditional peoples generally view this knowledge as emanating from a spiritual base. all creation is sacred and the sacred and secular are inseparable. spirituality is the highest form of consciousness, and spiritual consciousness is the highest form of awareness. in this sense, a dimension of traditional knowledge is not local knowledge but knowledge of the universal as expressed in the local. in indigenous and local cultures, experts exist who are peculiarly aware of natures organizing principles, sometimes described as entities, spirits or natural law. thus, knowledge of the environment depends not only on the relationship between humans and nature, but also between the visible world and the invisible spirit world. since posey’s time, within and beyond ethnobiology, i have experienced in myself and observed in others a greater awareness of and respect for spiritual dimensions of biocultural knowledge and knowledge systems. these understandings, as posey notes, are linked with a universality emanating from the ‘laws of nature,’ and worldviews based in the interconnection of the natural world and all sentient beings across spatial and temporal scales. for example, anishnabe elder and spiritual leader, dave courchene of the sagkeeng first nation (manitoba, canada) teaches that “natural law is the first rule of spirituality,” and that spirituality and ceremony are a fundamental part of the principles and values that need to underlie our biocultural activities (courchene as quoted in bannister 2017:22–23). dr. leroy little bear (2000:77–78) explains that there is no animate/ inanimate dichotomy in aboriginal languages; all things are animate and imbued with spirit in aboriginal philosophy. “if everything has spirit and knowledge, then all are like me. if all are like me, then all are my relations.” to some extent, this awareness is reflected in the ise code of ethics. for example:  the principle of traditional guardianship recognizes “the obligation and responsibility of indigenous peoples, traditional societies and local communities to preserve and maintain their role as traditional guardians of these ecosystems through the maintenance of their cultures, identities, languages, mythologies, spiritual beliefs and customary laws and practices”;  the principle of confidentiality includes “a responsibility to be aware of and comply with local systems for management of knowledge and local innovation, especially as related to sacred and secret knowledge”; and  the principle of respect “recognizes the necessity for researchers to respect the integrity, morality and spirituality of the culture, traditions and relationships of indigenous peoples, traditional societies, and local communities with their worlds.” bannister. 2018. ethnobiology letters 9(1):13–26 19 perspectives special issue on ethics in ethnobiology yet compared to ermine’s (2015) view of crosscultural ethics as fundamentally an encounter at the energetic level and a relationship of spiritual dimensions, the treatment of spirituality8 within the ise code ethics is relatively passive and prescriptive, one might say ‘two-dimensional’. as i asked at the onset, is it time to ask what more, or what else? is there an opportunity within ethnobiology today to lift those two-dimensional words of the ise code of ethics off the page in a three-dimensional way so that they come alive–even animate one another’s spirits? in addition to adhering to our agreed formulas for how to be ethical, can we discover together, and intentionally practice, ethics as relationship? maybe some of us already are? if so, can we (the broader ethnobiology community) gather these ways of being with one another to articulate and share more widely a new ethical praxis for our biocultural research and education? from ethical prescription to ethical praxis my suggestion to cooperatively articulate an ethical praxis in ethnobiology is inspired by sorrells’ (2015) intriguing model of “intercultural praxis,” which is based in a critical social justice approach to intercultural communication9. sorrells (2015:48) defines intercultural praxis as “a process of critical reflective thinking and acting … that enables us to navigate the complex and challenging intercultural spaces we inhabit interpersonally, communally, and globally.” sorrells (2015:48) does not seek to just teach an understanding of intercultural communication but to also support us in practicing “a way of being, thinking, analyzing, reflecting, and acting in the world in regard to cultural differences.” she recognizes that differences are real and that they are inevitably situated within relations of power. the key intention of her model is to “understand and address the intersection of cultural differences and hierarchies of power in intercultural interactions.” sorrells’ model is designed as a circular or spiral process (rather than linear) with six interrelated ports of entry (sorrells 2015:49–58):  inquiry (curiosity; willingness to learn without judgment; openness to allow our way of viewing and being in the world to be challenged);  framing (awareness of the limiting frames of reference from which we view and experience the world; intentional development of our perspective-taking capacity);  positioning (understanding the locations from which we speak, listen, act, think, and make sense of the world relative to others; questioning whose knowledge is privileged; understanding knowledge as socially and historically constructed and produced in relation to power);  dialogue (understood as a relationship of exchange that embraces a tension inherent in reaching across difference; holds the potential to be changed by one another; requires a quality of communication and connection between parties; allows for the possibility of new meaning and understanding);  reflection (intentional introspection and observing oneself in relation to others; the capacity for these to alter our perspectives and actions);  action (joining our increased understanding with responsible action, through a range of simple or complex creative and transformational forms or tactics). these six entry ports offer direction to our ways of thinking, reflecting, and acting in relation to our intercultural experiences, allowing us to attend to the complex, relational, interconnected, and often ambiguous nature of our experiences (sorrells 2015:49). i find sorrells’s insights from intercultural communication highly relevant to ethics in ethnobiology, but i do not naively promote an outright adoption of sorrells’s model by ethnobiologists. rather, i suggest the model is one compelling and timely example to stimulate a discussion within our field of how we envision our ethical aspirations today, and what we might create through a concerted effort to articulate a biocultural ethical praxis building on ethical space and informed by relational ethics and intercultural praxis. barriers to ethical praxis i acknowledge the complexity of my suggestion situated within the academic system or other institutional hierarchies of power, since the researcher -community relationship itself is but one of the dimensions at play. moreover, i recognize that the bannister. 2018. ethnobiology letters 9(1):13–26 20 perspectives special issue on ethics in ethnobiology ethical space concept may be far less familiar, let alone a referential concept within ethics policy, outside of canada. the institutionalization of research ethics may inadvertently be an impediment given ethics is largely siloed within universities. for example, human research ethics review systems are an administrative aspect of university research, with their own policies, processes, and checkbox-like requirements typically fulfilled by researchers in advance, and removed from the people and places that they are meant to protect. ethical theory and education are often communicated separately from research ethics review through courses. ethical principles may be given extensive consideration in research design, but (outside of ethics review) are often met in real time with real consequences ad hoc if they arise. research ethics offices and ethics review boards at any given institution may or may not be viewed as facilitative bodies for ethical research. if not, we might ask why not, and consider what role we might have in informing, encouraging and evolving the ethics review process within our institutions. the opportunity to serve on an institutional research ethics review board may be one such possibility. ethical challenges to a project may arise from other administrative units (e.g., research services, finance, legal counsel, technology transfer) related to contract development, financial transfers, risk management and intellectual property for a given project. while there is a wide spectrum of research ethics administration, implementation and regulation across institutions and across countries, the typical siloed approach to ethics contributes to a disconnect that impedes translating ethical theory and principles into thriving practices. by ‘thriving practices,’ i am not referring to doing everything morally right or just, according to a western philosophical framework­; i generally assume we do our humanly best to understand and behave according to appropriate ethical expectations and that most of our shortcomings are unintentional or uniformed. rather, i invoke an understanding of ethics along the perspectives shared by ermine and courchene – which i understand at a profoundly fundamental level as a way of being, and a way of being with others. another institutionalized hurdle is a tendency towards over emphasis on “remedial ethics.” a bias in western ethics is the focus on minimum standards to prevent harm, intended to protect people, as well as to limit risk and liability for associated institutions. within a ‘though shalt not orientation,’ gavazzi (2012) questions whether our fear of doing something wrong limits our opportunities to do good. an example might be focusing on dutiful design of consent forms that meet institutional criteria with hopes for an efficient research ethics review approval, rather than sufficient attention to maximizing participation and striving to enhance conditions that support trust and quality of relationships with research collaborators. this includes coming to an understanding of what is the most fitting way to provide the opportunity for, and evidence of, ongoing consent throughout the project. gavazzi (2012) points out that focusing on ethical standards alone is based on an incomplete view of ethics. in contrast (but not dismissing ethical standards), the “positive ethics” approach that he promotes moves away from “the punishing and anxiety-producing components of ethics.” it aims for the ceiling rather than the floor, and explicitly recognizes the value of our selfawareness, self-care and emotional competence as having important roles in relational ethics. thus, expression of a new ethical praxis in our biocultural research may require us to educate about, advocate for, and support creation of ethical space in the systems within which our research is embedded. identifying hurdles and creating navigational aids through them is also part of the collaborative ethics work ahead. concrete examples of facilitating ethical space at an organizational level are emerging in canada. one compelling story is that of the alberta energy regulator, a government organization that sought the leadership of dr. reg crowshoe (piikani nation), a well-known blackfoot ceremonialist and proponent of ethical space (aer 2017). elder crowshoe’s organizational approach supports linking worldviews but strives to avoid simply incorporating and integrating indigenous processes with those of mainstream institutions. systems remain parallel to retain their integrity and ways are sought to authentically link these parallel systems through “cultural translation” 
and “cultural interpretation” (aer 2017:14). the aer process had a transformative effect at individual and organizational levels–making real an understanding that in ethical space, learning how to be together precedes deciding what to do together. further insights are found in the organizational ethics approach taken by haslebo and haslebo (2012) bannister. 2018. ethnobiology letters 9(1):13–26 21 perspectives special issue on ethics in ethnobiology who apply relational ethics to institutional change using a social constructionist and appreciative perspective. the organizational change frameworks and methods shared by elder crowshoe and haslebo and haslebo (2012) may serve as helpful resources to deepen a ‘how to’ understanding within our affiliated institutions. opportunities in ethical praxis–getting personal as ermine (2015) and sorrells (2015) have pointed out, and as discussed in this paper, ethics is not just ‘out there’ codified in our research and professional worlds. ethics is also personal, within each one of us– animating one another, inviting us to develop and practice more awareness and competencies in the every day. but competencies in what, specifically? what are we missing? i have been particularly struck with the realization that much ethnobiological research, by its nature, involves explicit or implicit intercultural conflict and negotiation, yet this is not something most researchers receive training in, or professional support to work through. ermine (2015) underscored a type of “incompetence” in the encounter of strangers that is exacerbated within intercultural spaces, forming a barrier in our potential to relate to one another. sorrells’s intercultural praxis model emerges from explicit recognition of this ‘barrier’ and the need for awareness and competencies in embracing it. i believe understanding and embracing this phenomenon is an integral part of ethics. the question of how is personal and may be different for each of us. my own pursuits are informed by writings, conversations and experiences with indigenous colleagues and elders over many years. they are also profoundly influenced by training in zen-based conflict resolution (e.g., hamilton 2013, 2017; lenski 2014) and the martial art of aikido10. my study of aikido is not only technical (i.e., physical techniques for self-defense), but includes exploring the underlying philosophical and spiritual principles of aikido as an art and as an embodied practice of conflict resolution. i offer some personal observations from my own exploration of ‘how’ that are part of a larger work in progress on ethics as an art and practice—what i have coined “embodied ethics” (bannister and goreas 2014). related to the interpersonal barriers and incompetencies that ermine (2015) pointed out in encounters with strangers, diane hamilton’s (2013) work in zen-based conflict resolution affirms and acknowledges that our human ego-based sense of identify strives to maintain a separation between self and other. along the lines of sorrells’s (2015) entry port of “framing,” hamilton’s methods support and encourage developing the capacity to relax our egoic boundaries of identity enough to fully accept the tensions inherent in holding multiple perspectives with more grace and ease. developing this fundamental capacity is the basis for being with the other and deepening our skills in listening and communicating. however, listening itself is an uncommon art that requires learning and practice. drawing on his mastery of aikido, richard moon’s (fifth degree black belt) work on “extraordinary listening” is premised on the principle that “listening is an act of intent” (moon 2000:23)11. moon (2000:20) challenges us and offers training to “become a student of listening,” claiming that “the world changes when we change the way we listen.” his methods are based in listening beyond words and hearing another beyond the limits of our cognitive interpretation. beyond listening, darnell (1991) underscores the misunderstood role of silence within intercultural encounters. darnell (1991:89) describes the bias of “the loud-mouthed whiteman” within conversation, and shares helpful insights or “postulates” from implicit cree communicative systems. for example, “co-presence” defines social occasions; talking is a side-effect rather than the focus, and silence is considered respectful under many conditions. everyday interaction (in the secular domain) is structured around people being co-present; co-presence may involve talk, but its presence or absence does not change the nature of what is felt to be going on (darnell 1991:91). she goes on to explain (darnell 1991:92): respect for another human person is often expressed by silence. … silence is understood to be full (not needing to be filled up by talk or even activity) and complete in itself. sorrells (2015) explicitly recognizes intercultural communication as an embodied experience, acknowledging that our misunderstanding, misconceptions and biases about others are exchanged and expressed through our physical bodies. paul linden’s (sixth degree blackbelt) aikido-based somatic methods for “embodied peacemaking” reveal the role of our limbic response to distress at the physiological level, which influences our degree of bannister. 2018. ethnobiology letters 9(1):13–26 22 perspectives special issue on ethics in ethnobiology competence at the interpersonal and intercultural scales. simply put, anxiety reduces our capacity to listen and learn. linden’s (2007) work focuses on understanding and developing the ability to consciously override the innate stress response of flight/fight/freeze, using physical practices to create a body state of calm alertness. in essence, linden’s approach enables one to become aware of, and choose not to be controlled by, the normal physical and emotional distress elicited during encounters with others. daniel siegel’s (2011, 2016) pioneering work in the field of interpersonal neurobiology offers an intriguing lens to situate ourselves within intercultural encounters as “me,” “we,” and “m/we” at the level of energy and information flow through our nervous systems. he claims that an understanding of the ‘self’ as separate is a form of impaired integration because we are all differentiated as a ‘me’ but we are all linked as a ‘we’. he describes the ‘self’ as an interconnected system and the body as one node. he explores how to honor individuated differences while acknowledging our interconnectedness to everyone and everything else, suggesting our existence is better conceptualized as ‘m/we’. the parallels in siegel’s concepts and terminology with ethical space and ethics as an expression of energetic or spiritual dimensions are particularly intriguing. many other concepts and fields of inquiry and practice are also relevant but not discussed here due to space limitations: nonviolent communication (e.g., rosenberg 2012, 2015), emotional intelligence (e.g., goleman 2011; salavoy and mayer 1990), indigenous healing (e.g., ross 2014), cultural humility and safety (e.g., fnha, nd; gallardo 2013), healing justice and emotional justice (e.g., walia 2013), intercultural hospitality (esteva and prakash 1998; kuokkanen 2013). building and sharing a wider body of references and practical resources seems a helpful step in continuing to evolve our understanding of biocultural ethics and ethical praxis. an invitation to ethical praxis almost thirty years ago, after the declaration of belém, darrell posey voiced his passionate conviction that ethnobiologists were well placed to “take the intellectual lead, as well as the appropriate actions, towards the development of a new ethic that serves as a model for other disciplines” (posey 1990 as reprinted in posey 2004:6). at the time, he claimed that now more than ever, dialogue must take place between disciplines and peoples. it will take our best minds from all fields and cultures to find socially and ecologically viable options for the survival of the planet. one might ask if ethnobiology is capable of such miraculous tasks. the only response can be: if we do not try, who will? today, developing a model of ethical praxis applied to ethnobiological research has the potential to offer a concrete methodological and self-reflective tool for deepening critical reflection and navigating through our intercultural complexities and incompetencies at a deeper level that is not overtly recognized in most of our biocultural research approaches. the perspective shared in this paper can be taken as a new invitation to ethnobiologists for another round of innovation in ethics. the invitation is not to develop more ethical guidance, but to make more of the guidance already shared with us, from within and outside our discipline as well as our cultural and spiritual traditions–and to draw on the “sacred gift of humility” (iwama et al. 2009:7) in sincerely considering how to co-develop our biocultural ethics as praxis. notes 1i respectfully acknowledge the treatment and definition of biocultural ethics published by rozzi (2012, 2013) and rozzi and massardo (2011). in this article, i use the term in a way that is largely consistent, but is more generalized and flexible. 2 my use of “sentient” in this paper is intended to be consistent with indigenous authors such as ermine (2015) and others in referring to sentient beings as extending beyond just humans and other creatures that are shown to have the capacity to “feel” based on western science. while important to the topic of biocultural ethics, it is beyond the scope of this paper to discuss different notions and cultural assumptions of sentience. for an example of such a discussion, see natcher
et al. (2007). 3for a brief history of the ise code of ethics, see http://www.ethnobiology.net/what-we-do/coreprograms/ise-ethics-program/code-of-ethics/briefhistory/. 4 for information and to access the ise code of ethics ratification, see: http://www.ethnobiology.net/ code-ethics-ratification/#!form/coeratification. 5for transparency, the cihr guidelines and tcps2 http://www.ethnobiology.net/what-we-do/core-programs/ise-ethics-program/code-of-ethics/brief-history/ http://www.ethnobiology.net/what-we-do/core-programs/ise-ethics-program/code-of-ethics/brief-history/ http://www.ethnobiology.net/what-we-do/core-programs/ise-ethics-program/code-of-ethics/brief-history/ http://www.ethnobiology.net/code-ethics-ratification/#!form/coeratification http://www.ethnobiology.net/code-ethics-ratification/#!form/coeratification bannister. 2018. ethnobiology letters 9(1):13–26 23 perspectives special issue on ethics in ethnobiology chapter 9 indirectly influenced, and were indirectly influenced by, the concurrent international process to develop a code of ethics in ethnobiology, led by the international society of ethnobiology (ise). the connection between these three policy initiatives is through participation of the author as a member of the respective working groups and advisory committees for each process. namely, i have been a member of the aboriginal ethics working group (aewg) from 2004–2007 which developed the cihr guidelines; a member of the panel on research ethics-technical advisory committee on aboriginal research (pre-tacar) from 2005–2008 which advised on tcps2 chapter 9 (2008); the chair of the ise ethics program from 2004–present; and the facilitator of the ise code of ethics development process. 6for information about the intellectual property issues in cultural heritage project, see http:// www.sfu.ca/ipinch/. 7for information about the working better together conference on indigenous research ethics, see indigenousresearchethics2015.wordpress.com or http://www.sfu.ca/ipinch/events/ipinch-events/ working-better-together-conference-indigenousresearch-ethics/. 8i acknowledge the terms “spiritual” and “spirituality” have diverse meanings and may be confusing or uncomfortable for some readers due to religious or other connotations. my intention is to be true to the voices of posey and ermine in their use of these terms as a way to encourage thoughtful reflection and discussion within the biocultural ethics discourse. 9sorrells’s (2015) model of intercultural praxis is accessible online via google play https:// play.google.com/store/books/details? id=eapicgaaqbaj&source=ge-web-app. 10aikido is typically described as a peace-based japanese martial art founded by morihei ueshiba with a dual practical goal of self-defense and protecting an attacker and oneself from injury. the emphasis on technique, philosophy, and spirituality varies greatly among the many different styles of aikido worldwide. see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/aikido. 11moon describes “extraordinary listening” as an inquiry into effectively transforming communication, thinking, and the way we create our world. see www.extraordinarylistening.com. acknowledgements i am grateful to the many teachers, elders, colleagues, and practice partners who have encouraged and supported my interest in ethics as an embodied practice. most notably, i thank marlene brantcastellano and willie ermine for their years of inspiration beyond words and for comments on a draft of this paper. i also thank cynthia fowler, george nicholas, john welch, scott m. herron, james r. welch, and several anonymous reviewers for feedback that encouraged, challenged, and strengthened the final version. i acknowledge the pivotal role of the intellectual property issues in cultural heritage project (led by george nicholas, with funding from the social science and humanities research council of canada) in providing intellectual, physical, and financial space to explore ethical space through the working better together conference on indigenous research ethics. declarations permissions: none declared. sources of funding: social sciences and humanities research of canada. conflicts of interest: none declared. references cited alberta energy regulator. 2017. voices of understanding – looking through the window. alberta energy regulator, calgary, canada. available at: http://www.aer.ca/documents/about -us/voiceofunderstanding_report.pdf. accessed on jan 2, 2018. assembly of first nations. 2009. ethics in first nations research. afn environmental stewardship unit, ottawa, canada. available at: http://www.afn.ca/uploads/files/rpresearch_ethics_final.pdf. accessed on jan 2, 2018. austin, w. 2006. engagement in contemporary practice: a relational ethics perspective. texto e contexto enfermagem 15:135–141. austin, w. 2008. relational ethics. in the sage encyclopedia of qualitative research methods, edited by l. given, pp. 749–750. sage publications, thousand oaks, ca. bannister, k. 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44:113–126. posey, d. 1990. intellectual property rights: what is the position of ethnobiology? journal of ethnobiology 10:93–98. posey, d. a. 1999. introduction: culture and nature – the inextricable link. in cultural and spiritual values of biodiversity, edited by d. a. posey, pp. 1– 18. intermediate technology publications, london. posey, d. a. 2004. introduction to ethnobiology: its implications and applications. in indigenous knowledge and ethics: a darrell posey reader, edited by k. plenderleith, pp. 1–6. routledge taylor and francis group, new york. poole, r. 1972. towards deep subjectivity. harper and row, new york. rosenberg, m. 2012. living nonviolent communication. sounds true, boulder, co. rosenberg, m. 2015. living nonviolent communication: a language of life, 3rd edition. puddle dancer press, encinitas, ca. ross, r. 2014. indigenous healing: exploring traditional paths. penguin books, toronto. rozzi, r. 2012. biocultural ethics. environmental ethics 34:27–50. rozzi, r. 2013. chapter 2: biocultural ethics: from biocultural homogenization toward biocultural conservation. in linking ecology and ethics for a changing world: values, philosophy, and action, edited by r. rozzi, s. t. a. pickett, c. palmer, j. j. armesto, and j. b. callicott. springer, netherlands. doi:10.1007/978-94-007-7470-4_2. rozzi, r., and f. massardo 2011. the road to biocultural ethics. frontiers in ecology and the bannister. 2018. ethnobiology letters 9(1):13–26 26 perspectives special issue on ethics in ethnobiology environment may:246–247. doi:10.2307/41149773. salavoy, p., and j. mayer. 1990. emotional intelligence. imagination, cognition and personality 9:185–211. shebitz, d., and a. oviedo. 2018. learning from the past: reflecting on the maya-icbg controversy in the classroom. ethnobiology letters 9:60– 67. doi:10.14237/ebl.9.1.2018.1095. siegel, d. 2011 mindsight. the new science of personal transformation. bantam books, new york. siegel, d. 2016. mind: a journey to the heart of being human (norton series on interpersonal neurobiology), 1st edition. w. w. norton and company, london. sorrells, k. 2015. intercultural communication: globalization and social justice, 2nd edition. sage publications, thousand oaks, ca. walia, h. 2013. undoing border imperialism. ak press, chico, ca. in memoriam: steven alec weber emslie. 2020. ethnobiology letters 11(1):45–47 45 interviews & reflections in 1973, graduating with his b.a. in 1976. as an undergraduate he worked on various field projects, including excavations at the archaic tuchness site in eastern arizona and an underwater palaeoindian site in florida with dr. charles hoffman. after graduating, he became a crew member for field surveys directed by contract archaeology offices at nau and the museum of northern arizona. by 1977, he was working for the arizona state museum on various survey and excavation projects, then was hired by peter pilles at the u.s. forest service, coconino county, in march 1978, where we first met. over the summer and by fall 1978, steve developed a strong interest in ethnobotany and palynology and began working towards a master’s degree in the lab of dr. richard hevly at nau to extract pollen from archaeological soil samples, including those we had collected that summer at elden pueblo. it was also that summer when steve and i began meeting for beers after work and when i learned what a great conversationalist he was, whether the topic was archaeology, biology, or politics. steve would often begin a long discussion with a question, not one with a simple answer, but one that included deep thought on how to proceed in a given situation and how it might lead you to contradict your own beliefs. thus, we formed a bond of friendship that lasted a lifetime. in summer 1979, steve went to shasta-trinity national forest to be an archaeological technician for the mccloud district, california, where he completed surveys, wrote reports, and developed sampling designs for surveys and excavations. it was that summer when he lost his spleen, and very nearly his life, when a logging truck illegally passed him from behind as he was making a left turn. the truck steven alec weber passed away quietly and surrounded by family on january 14, 2020 from als, a disease he lived with for several years that he once described to me as a “new life experience.” that characterization of a crippling disease accurately reflects steve’s upbeat personality. not one to be overwhelmed or depressed by his condition, he embraced it and lived with it to the end, making the most of the time he had left. steve was born in san francisco on march 4, 1954 and raised in orinda, california. his interest in archaeology was piqued in 1969 by a year-long stay in turkey with his family when they visited numerous archaeological sites. after graduating from miramonte high school in 1972, he entered the anthropology department at northern arizona university (nau) in memoriam: steven alec weber steven d. emslie1* 1department of biology and marine biology, university of north carolina, wilmington, usa. *emslies@uncw.edu received june 4, 2020 open access accepted june 4, 2020 doi 10.14237/ebl.11.1.2020.1708 published june 28, 2020 copyright © 2020 by the author(s); licensee society of ethnobiology. this is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution-noncommercial 4.0 international public license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0), which permits non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. emslie. 2020. ethnobiology letters 11(1):45–47 46 interviews & reflections smashed into the driver’s side of the car, and it took steve several months to fully recover, but he returned to flagstaff that fall and continued his master’s research, graduating in july 1981 with a thesis titled “a palynological interpretation of the sinagua and their changing environment” (weber 1981). during this same period, steve and i initiated a business in flagstaff in 1979 for archaeobotanical and zooarchaeological analyses for contract archaeologists. we also established a non-profit society of ethnobiology, with steve as its first president, in 1981 to continue efforts to bring together ethnobiologists at annual conferences that i had been involved in initiating through prescott center college beginning in 1978. the history of these conferences and the subsequent establishment in 1981 of the journal of ethnobiology and the society of ethnobiology are fully described elsewhere (emslie 2018). steve then left to begin his ph.d. in anthropology at the university of pennsylvania in fall 1982. before he left, he had begun work editing his first book, havasupai habitat, an ethnography from a. f. whiting’s unpublished notes, that he co-edited with p. seaman and was published by university of arizona press in 1985 (weber and seaman 1985). steve and i continued to meet at annual ethnobiology conferences over the next decade. he completed his ph.d. in 1989 and began a teaching appointment as a visiting assistant professor at franklin and marshall college. in 1994, he was hired as an assistant professor at washington state university (wsu) vancouver where he remained for the rest of his career. throughout this time steve had numerous accomplishments, the first in being awarded a fulbright scholar award for research in pakistan that led to his seminal work on indus ethnobotany at harappa (see d’alpoim guedes and fuller 2018 for a review of this work). during his career, he published three books, 19 peer-reviewed papers, and numerous book chapters, while dividing his time between research and administrative duties. at wsu, steve served as associate director of the college of liberal arts (2005–2006), director of research and graduate education (2006–2007), and associate chair of anthropology (2008–2012). in 2017, he was recognized as a distinguished ethnobiologist by the society of ethnobiology at its 40th annual meeting. the fact that this society is still active and strong today is largely due to his leadership over the years. in 2017 a special symposium was held in his honor at the annual meeting of the society for american archaeology where many of his former students contributed papers. a special issue of the journal of ethnobiology was dedicated in his honor in 2018. up until his death, steve remained active in his research and department and never wavered in his dedication to his students. in october 2019, when seriously ill, he made the effort to attend the defense of his last ph.d. student at wsu. he has publications that are currently in press, while others will be submitted by co-authors in the near future. steve never gave up and was productive to the end. when visiting him during this period, our long conversations continued and i will miss those the most. once, when needing something to read at his house, i found a copy of writings by marcus tullius cicero (2019) and read his essay “laelius on friendship” that i realized was a perfect eulogy for how i remember steve: … how could a life be “livable” which does not rejoice in the mutual good wishes of a friend? what is sweeter than to have someone with whom you dare to discuss everything, as if with yourself? how could there be great joy in prosperous things, if you did not have someone who would enjoy them equally much as you yourself? disasters would be hard indeed to bear without someone who would bear them even more heavily than yourself. finally, other things which are sought after are individual advantages for entirely individual things: riches that you may use them, resources that you may be looked after, honors that you may be praised, pleasures that you may enjoy them, health that you may be free from pain and make use of the gifts of the body; friendship contains very many things: wherever you turn, it is present, it is shut out from no place, is never unseasonable, never troublesome; thus we do not use water, we do not use fire, as they put it, in more contexts than friendship. a fund in steve’s memory has been established by the society of ethnobiology at https://ethnobiology.org/ about/in-memory-steven-weber. emslie. 2020. ethnobiology letters 11(1):45–47 47 interviews & reflections references cited ainana l. i., and i. zagrebin. 2014. edible plants used by siberian yupik eskimos of southeastern chukotka peninsula, russia. national park service, shared beringian heritage program, anchorage, ak. cicero, m. t. 2019. laelius on friendship [web page]. wikisource, trans. available at: https:// en.wikisource.org/wiki/ translation:laelius_on_friendship. accessed on june 16, 2020. d’alpoim guedes, j., and d. q. fuller. 2018. steven a. weber: an interdisciplinary visionary in paleoethnobotany. journal of ethnobiology 38:464– 468. doi:10.2993/0278-0771-38.4.464 emslie, s. d. 2018. steven a. weber and the birth of the society of ethnobiology. journal of ethnobiology 38:456–463. doi:10.2993/0278-0771-38.4.456. weber, s. a. 1981. palynological interpretation of the sinagua and their changing environment. unpublished master’s thesis, department of anthropology, northern arizona university, flagstaff, az. weber, s. a., and p. d. seaman, eds. 1985. havasupai habitat: a. f. whiting's ethnography of a traditional indian culture. university of arizona press, tucson, az. learning from the past: reflecting on the maya-icbg controversy in the classroom shebitz and oviedo. 2018. ethnobiology letters 9(1):59–66 59 perspectives special issue on ethics in ethnobiology discuss “ethnobiology, biocultural diversity and benefits sharing”. berlin stated that: "we intend to face head-on several difficult issues relating to benefits sharing resulting from biodiversity research. we believe there will be an important sharing of ideas during this week" (aaas 2000). while a discussion of biocultural diversity and benefits sharing did take place, unfortunately the ise conference revealed to the ethnobiological community that there was much local and international opposition to the maya-icbg project. many of the conference participants were actually protesting the work that dr. berlin and his colleagues were conducting in chiapas by accusing the ethnobiologists of exploiting indigenous people and privatizing their knowledge. they claimed that commercially using medicinal plants conflicted with the collective traditions and religions of the maya. as a young ethnobiologist at the time, the confrontation that occurred at the conference and was directed at a leader in the field of ethnobotany was both troubling and influential. at that point in my life, i had a romanticized view of the work that ethnobiologists do faculty perspective, daniela shebitz in the late 1990s, the maya-icbg (international cooperative biodiversity group) was one of the major bioprospecting projects in chiapas, mexico and was designed to incorporate traditional knowledge into pharmaceutical research. the researchers hoped to benefit indigenous communities economically and technologically while conserving plants and traditional knowledge. the primary investigator of the mayaicbg project was university of georgia professor of anthropology dr. brent berlin, who was one of the founders and past presidents of the international society of ethnobiology (ise). i had just started my second year of my master’s degree program in the fall of 2000 when i traveled to georgia for the first united states-based conference of the ise. dr. berlin was the main organizer of the event, and i had come to recognize him as a leader in the field of ethnobiology based on his decades of remarkable work with the maya. the ise conference was intended to bring together scientists and indigenous people from throughout the world to learning from the past: reflecting on the maya-icbg controversy in the classroom daniela shebitz1* and angela oviedo1 1school of environmental and sustainability sciences, kean university, union, nj, usa. *dshebitz@kean.edu abstract in the 1990s, the maya-icbg (international cooperative biodiversity group) was one of the major bioprospecting projects in chiapas, mexico and was designed to incorporate traditional knowledge into pharmaceutical research. the researchers had hopes of benefiting indigenous communities economically and technologically while conserving plants and traditional knowledge. unfortunately, the project experienced local and international opposition who accused the project of exploiting indigenous people and privatizing their knowledge. we present a teaching module in the form of an interrupted case study in which participants learn about the ethnobotanical study that shifted from one of promise to one of controversy. the history of the development of the case study over the past decade is told from both a faculty and a student perspective. the purpose of this perspective article and of our case study in general is to bring the conversation of ethics to the forefront of ethnobiology. although the maya-icbg project was brought to a close in 2001, the case study is still relevant in both a historical context and as a means to discuss ethics and prior informed consent. received august 30, 2017 open access accepted january 6, 2018 doi 10.14237/ebl.9.1.2018.1095 keywords case study, maya-icbg, prior informed consent, bioprospecting, chiapas, mexico copyright © 2018 by the author(s); licensee society of ethnobiology. this is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution-noncommercial 4.0 international public license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0), which permits non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. shebitz and oviedo. 2018. ethnobiology letters 9(1):59–66 60 perspectives special issue on ethics in ethnobiology and had not truly considered the complexities of working with indigenous people. throughout the conference, there were meetings between the various stakeholders that were open to all conference participants. i did not know any other attendees personally at the time, but in the 17 years that have elapsed, i have come to learn that many of my current colleagues, mentors, and friends were also present in those meetings, either as part of a panel or in the audience. it turns out that most of the attendees who i have come to know well were also influenced by the confrontations that occurred at the conference and have carried lessons that they learned through the meetings with them. i have since become a professor who teaches about and conducts research in the field of ethnobiology. while i have never had the opportunity to work in mexico, lessons i have taken from the maya-icbg program have become woven through my research. in particular, i have come to realize that there are countless perspectives on a given project. there are often many factors that are beyond an individual’s control as a researcher to consider when designing and implementing a project that can make a seemingly simple project become complex. importantly, while guidance and tools are available to ethnobiologists, it is essential to recognize that there is not one correct way to conduct a study. each situation is different based on place, political climate, environment, local, regional economy, and of course the people involved. over the past decade, i have been teaching an undergraduate upper-division course entitled “medicinal botany” at kean university in new jersey as part of the environmental biology program. most students in that class have not had an anthropology course, nor have they had the opportunity to conduct research with people. while i had first incorporated the maya-icbg project as part of a lecture, i quickly realized that this material is better presented as an interactive case study. case studies allow instructors to not just transfer knowledge to students, but to help them build their own knowledge in a contextual, social and interactive manner (nath 2005). the first method used was to divide the students into groups involved with the fate of the maya-icbg project, and each had to argue their perspective based on assigned readings. presentations were followed by a discussion about the strengths of each stakeholders’ points. after learning about different case study techniques, one of the students in the class (the co-author on this paper), was inspired to turn the maya-icbg controversy into a format that could be adapted for use in other classes. we wrote up the project as an interrupted case study, through which information is presented piecemeal to students to mimic the way that scientists actually analyze problems (herreid 2005). as with problem-based learning (pbl), the interrupted case method involves incrementally revealing information to students working in groups and engages all students in problem solving. the difference from pbl is that the interrupted method can be presented in one long class period rather than over a greater number of days (herreid 2005). my student and i developed the case study based on publicly available information as we did not have any background information from the researchers, indigenous people, or other stakeholders involved. we fully acknowledge that there is a wealth of information and perspectives that is not available through publications and websites, but we limited our case to publicly available information in order to present an abridged version of this complex project. while this approach may be perceived as being too simplistic by those individuals who were involved, we are bringing the case study forward as a means to initiate a conversation which we hope will be held in classrooms across the world. in this paper, we will present a summary of the case study to provide background information while emphasizing that we do so with great respect for both the researchers and the indigenous people involved with the maya-icbg project. we acknowledge that there are great risks associated with taking an extraordinarily complex event in history and summarizing it not only for the original case study, but even more so here. however, we present it simply so that readers can understand the basis of this project and the controversy around it as a teaching tool and a means to start a much longer conversation about ethics. student perspective, angela oviedo i first heard about the maya-icbg incident in the “medicinal botany” course previously described as being an undergraduate course at kean university. like many of my classmates, i had not heard of the incident prior to the assignment. while the memory seemed to be fresh in dr. shebitz’s mind, my peers and i were toddlers at the time of the conference. at first, therefore, it seemed unusual to learn about a historic study that failed, rather than succeeded. the shebitz and oviedo. 2018. ethnobiology letters 9(1):59–66 61 perspectives special issue on ethics in ethnobiology case study platform at the time was one of roleplaying in which each “team” of students represented either the researchers, the maya communities, the opposing parties (compitch and rafi, described below), or the partners in the icbg project (ecosur and the pharmaceutical company). once the class presented their perspectives, we began to see how multifaceted the event was, and how difficult it would have been for this project to succeed. after the course, i became interested in scientific integrity and wanted to explore the history of the maya-icbg project further. i worked with my mentor to develop a different way for presenting this case, in a format that would unfold before the student’s eyes. in this manner, they could truly begin to understand how even though there was great promise and hope at the beginning of the project, there were many elements at play that led to its premature ending. i quickly came to understand that to many students this would provide an important lesson in understanding how even well-developed studies can end abruptly, and how important it is to consider the many players involved in a project. after a draft of the interrupted case study was written, we presented it to the medicinal botany course that met the year after mine. through the feedback of my peers, we continued to modify the case to incorporate their suggestions for improvement. the process of receiving critical evaluations of the case that i had worked diligently on for a year was important for my professional development and was incredibly rewarding. my growth continued when we submitted it for publication through a national database so that it could be publicly available (see below). starting a discussion about ethics by using past real-life events is not only appropriate but provides a great history lesson to those aspiring to enter the field of ethnobiology. prior to completing our work, i had not heard of bioprospecting or the icbg (international cooperative biodiversity groups). i now have not only learned of the incident itself and about the people directly involved, but i also learned of the social and political elements that come into play while working with indigenous communities. i hope that with this teaching case study the students not only learn about the ethical procedures involved, but also about the people and organizations involved and come to understand the importance of having an ongoing open discussion about ethics in the field. summary of the case study the case study takes part in five stages, from the project’s inception to its untimely conclusion. the case is available in its entirety through the national center for case study teaching in science (oviedo and shebitz 2018) and is appropriate for undergraduates in various majors pertaining to ethnobiology. the main goal is to teach about the complexities associated with bioprospecting and reasons for an ethnobotanical project’s success or failure. in addition to the five stages, the complete case study includes teacher’s notes, discussion questions for each of the stages with possible answers, and a list of references for further information. below we summarize the case study as a teaching tool, but we emphasize that we are simplifying an already condensed version of the controversy surrounding the maya-icbg project. we present the summary here so that readers may be introduced to the material and to invite them to learn more about it through either our complete case study or through their own research and experiences. the instructors are first asked to define key terms and provide background information before introducing the case study. the case can be completed during two or three consecutive classes, with each period having one or two stages based on the length of discussion. there are five major sections, with discussion questions provided for each section. for each stage, there are three separate time slots: 1) an independent evaluation, 2) small group discussions, and 3) an open classroom discussion. below we summarize each of the five stages so that you may further understand the background information and the structure of the classroom tool. stage one the students learn that the icbg program was established by the national institute of health (nih), national science foundation (nsf), and united states agency for international development (usaid) to stimulate the field of bioprospecting and provide models for the sustainable use of biodiversity (berlin and berlin 2004; nigh 2002; rosenthal 1997). drs. brent berlin and elois ann berlin, both anthropology professors from the university of georgia, first applied for icbg funding in 1992 based on work they began in 1987 (berlin et al. 1999). this original proposal was rejected primarily because there was not a private industrial partner that was well suited to handle the large-scale pharmaceutical analysis shebitz and oviedo. 2018. ethnobiology letters 9(1):59–66 62 perspectives special issue on ethics in ethnobiology that the team proposed (berlin et al. 1999; berlin and berlin 2004; nigh 2002). when the berlins applied again in 1997, they intended to continue research that they had been conducting in the five years that elapsed since the first proposal (berlin et al. 1999). this time, the maya-icbg was awarded a five-year grant involving the following partners: 1) the university of georgia, 2) el colegio de la frontera sur (ecosur), the host institution in chiapas with local researchers in fields ranging from botany to economics and rural development, and 3) molecular nature limited (mnl), a pharmaceutical firm with expertise in plant natural products chemistry, biochemistry, botany, and business. the major goals of the maya-icbg were to discover, isolate, and evaluate agents from medicinal plants with a significant potential to aid human health and the financial status of the maya people. they also planned to initiate surveys of the plants in the chiapas highlands by municipality and enhance and support research training by developing a modern natural products laboratory to advance drug discovery and strengthening academic exchange between the university of georgia and mexico (berlin et al. 1999). stage two students are given background information on the berlins’ previous research, the goals of the maya icbg project for the collaborating communities, and the social organization the highland communities of chiapas. the sociodemographics of the communities greatly contribute to the complexity of this study. approximately 8,000 villages and 900,000 maya individuals are present in the highlands of chiapas, most of whom live in poverty and are divided by religious and political conflict. importantly, they lack local authorities that are allowed to speak on behalf of all community members, making it exceptionally challenging to gain prior informed consent (pic) to conduct the study with each community (bjorkan and qvenild 2010; rosenthal 2006). berlin and berlin (2004) argued that the project went through an extensive process of obtaining pic from the communities based on the convention on biological diversity (cbd) guidelines for ethical bioprospecting research. in order to receive pic, the maya-icbg developed a theatrical performance to explain the project to the community leaders in their native languages (berlin and berlin 2004a). the skits included information about the purpose of the project, the manner in which information would be collected, and laboratory procedures that would be used on the biological material gathered (berlin and berlin 2004). leaders from 47 communities, along with the council of traditional indigenous doctors and midwives from chiapas (compitch), were invited to see the presentation and tour the laboratories and gardens located at ecosur (berlin and berlin 2004; nigh 2002; soto 2000). attendees were then provided with summaries of the project’s goals and proposed benefit sharing program, both in spanish and their indigenous language (berlin and berlin 2004). attendees returned to their communities and discussed in assemblies the possibility of participating in the project. the maya-icbg performed the skits at each community that expressed interest (bjorkan and qvenild 2010). elections were held and 46 out of 47 communities agreed to participate. participants were then asked to sign formal agreements, although the individuals who signed varied by community since the icbgs request for proposals stated that all projects were to respect local customs (berlin and berlin 2004; rosenthal 1997). those who signed consent forms ranged from heads of households to elected community leaders (berlin and berlin 2004). after consent was granted, the maya-icbg planned to establish a nonprofit association protection of maya intellectual property rights (promaya). promaya was to consist of individuals selected by participating communities to distribute any future revenue to develop community herbal gardens, scholarships, and other activities to improve social and cultural well-being (berlin and berlin 2004a). although actions taken by the maya-icbg in terms of pic were intended to maintain harmony among participating parties, several organizations began to question their activities. stage three this is the stage in which the opposition reacts to the project and students begin to understand the complexities associated with pic. compitch argued that there was a lack of regulations designed for bioprospecting in mexico. their perspective was that the project should not continue until such regulations were formulated (nigh 2002). compitch formed a partnership with a canadian ngo, the rural advancement foundation international (rafi) to run a campaign against the maya-icbg (berlin and berlin 2004; nigh 2002; rosenthal 2006). perhaps the greatest disagreement in terms of this shebitz and oviedo. 2018. ethnobiology letters 9(1):59–66 63 perspectives special issue on ethics in ethnobiology study is over how pic was attained. rafi and compitch argued that the pic obtained by the maya-icbg did not adequately represent participant communities and involved a lack of respect for local historical processes for decision-making (bjorkan and qvenild 2010). in reference to the term “prior”, the opposition claimed that biological samples resources were obtained before authorizing signatures were acquired since the berlins had been conducting research in the area for decades before the project started (hardison 2000). when the aspect of “informed” is examined, the opposition claimed that there was a bias when presenting the project’s activities to the local communities. they state that the maya-icbg failed to inform the community through official assemblies and instead informed individual families through theatrical performances. they argued that there was also a failure to disclose all possible local and global impacts the project might have (hardison 2000). finally, in terms of “consent,” the opposition challenged the maya-icbg’s claim to having achieved written consent from all participating members as a result of the locals not having been adequately informed (hardison 2000). the opposition declared that participating communities did not have the power to give consent over biological and intellectual resources that were shared among many communities. they argued that all chiapas communities should have been approached (berlin and berlin 2004; hardison 2000). while it was clear that efforts of obtaining pic were made, through this stage of the case study, the students read about how difficult it is to determine exactly who can grant the consent when there are hundreds of communities in the region that are either directly or indirectly influenced by the research. stage four students now see that despite the efforts of the mayaicbg to convince the opposition of the great benefits that the indigenous people would gain from the project, their work was forced to a standstill when the maya-icbg was asked by the governor of chiapas to redesign their project’s methods (action group on erosion 2001; berlin and berlin 2004). for the remaining three years of the grant, the nih allowed the project to focus on developing new procedures for obtaining pic. the new plan included workshops led by mexico’s prominent biodiversity experts that would familiarize the maya with environmental policy (berlin and berlin 2004). this new proposal was presented to the opposition, but was rejected immediately (action group on erosion, 2001; berlin and berlin 2004; nigh 2002). by then, the opposition had gained more followers, including mexican intellectuals and international ngos (berlin and berlin 2004). due to the negative publicity, the host institution ecosur withdrew from the project and the project therefore ended in october of 2001 (action group on erosion 2001; anderson et al. 2002; nigh 2002; berlin and berlin 2004). the opposition portrayed the maya-icbg project as an example of how the united states was trying to exploit mexico, how scientists would steal traditional knowledge, and how indigenous rights were being usurped (berlin and berlin 2004). the maya-icbg scientists, however, argued that the opposite was true and that the ngos who opposed their project took local community autonomy away from the indigenous communities that agreed to participate even though they had no legitimate authority to speak for them (berlin and berlin 2004). as bjorkan and qvenild (2010) stated, the scientists involved associated with the maya-icbg and the ngo opposition both claimed to have the best interests of the indigenous communities in mind. while the maya-icbg wanted to bring development and knowledge preservation to the indigenous communities, compitch and rafi wanted to protect the indigenous culture and knowledge, and to protect the biological resources from “biopiracy and the greedy scientists” (bjorkan and qvenild 2010:198). stage five through this final stage, students see that resolving legal and ethical dilemmas such as that of pic may prove to be problematic since no single standard or law will easily suit all international ventures. in addition, many countries such as mexico do not have laws established to protect the traditional knowledge of indigenous communities (andrzejewski 2010; garcia 2007). reflections as ethnobiologists, our desire to work with and learn from other communities is often met with scrutiny, fear, and trepidation. these concerns are all too often well-founded and based on prior instances where knowledge held by community members was taken from them and their rights violated by outsiders. projects may be rejected by the indigenous communities even though ethnobiologists feel as shebitz and oviedo. 2018. ethnobiology letters 9(1):59–66 64 perspectives special issue on ethics in ethnobiology though they are taking great precautions to protect the people they are trying to work with, as was the case with the maya-icbg project. many of those who are familiar with the berlin’s perspective argue that the maya icbg program was fraught with opposition before it even started that would have made it difficult, if not impossible, to succeed. their position is that the project was not developed with any malicious intent or lack of ethics. to the contrary, the researchers had a clear desire to empower the indigenous people, not to exploit them as the opposition argued. it is understandably frustrating to analyze the maya-icbg controversy in hindsight and still not know what could have been done differently to ensure that the project would succeed. after the berlins’ first icbg proposal was rejected for not including a partnership with the private pharmaceutical corporation, they included mnl to handle largescale analysis of samples. it is important to note, however, that the opposition argued against knowledge obtained from individual maya being patented by researchers or by foreign pharmaceutical companies, such as mnl. furthermore, there was great concern that the collective knowledge of the maya communities in chiapas was being privatized without the pic of individuals. by establishing promaya, the berlins hoped to manage benefit sharing with the maya communities and obtaining pic (berlin and berlin 2004; soto 2000). the many layers of complexity make it impossible to know at this point whether anything could have been done differently to yield a successful project. that said, there are a number of essential lessons from the case study that can transcend the classroom and influence our understanding of what makes an ethnobiological research project complex. first, in terms of pic, is that there is a lack of uniformity and government structure between indigenous communities. the method of consent mapping onthe-ground is very different from the idealistic notion of consent that can be written and read about. in this particular example, researchers believed that they were using the most culturally appropriate method of obtaining consent through the theatrical performances for community representatives first, and then for the communities that expressed interest. however, the indigenous communities found fault with their pic techniques. in general, pic is formulated differently for each institution and community. it is therefore misguided to assume that one can impose a method used by a community for acquiring pic onto another community. also, timing is incredibly pivotal for the ultimate success or failure of a project since no research happens in a historical vacuum. during the late 1990s when this project was occurring, much was changing not only in central america, but also globally in terms of international research permits, border policies, and international efforts to protect biodiversity. at the same time, this maya-icbg project was specific to mexico and to that particular time in history, during which there was political unrest in the region. therefore, had it been conducted elsewhere or at any other time, it is likely that there would have been different results. there are levels of influence ranging from the very local to the global that can influence the outcome of each individual project. the untimely end to this project was partially due to disagreement about whether communities that use the same biological resources must all consent before bioprospecting can take place. biological resources and indigenous knowledge of those resources often do not fall neatly within geographic or political borders or community boundaries. while many issues remain, there has been significant evolution in biodiversity law and policy at community, national, and international levels around the world since the maya-icbg project. one notable and relevant shift involves the completion in 2006 of the ise code of ethics, which was in an early draft form and still under development at the time the icbg-maya was active. specific to the topic of consent, the draft code of ethics included the “principle of prior informed consent and veto” that recognized “prior informed consent of all peoples and their communities must be obtained before any research is undertaken.” it went on to say: “providing prior informed consent presumes that all potentially affected communities will be provided complete information regarding the purpose and nature of the research activities and the probable results” (personal communication with ise ethics program co-chair, kelly bannister, based on archived ise documents; italics added for emphasis). in the ensuing years, the ise code of ethics underwent significant changes based on extensive input from its members (international society of ethnobiology nd). in the final version, which was unanimously adopted by membership vote in 2006, the specific guidance on consent was changed to the shebitz and oviedo. 2018. ethnobiology letters 9(1):59–66 65 perspectives special issue on ethics in ethnobiology “principle of educated prior informed consent” and referred to “all directly affected communities.” it also included recognition that “prior informed consent requires an educative process that employs bilingual and intercultural education methods and tools, as appropriate, to ensure understanding by all parties involved” (ise coe 2006 with 2008 additions; italics added for emphasis). input on the draft code of ethics was received from ise members, including the berlins, and discussed at a special ethics session held at the 2004 ise congress in canterbury, uk (bannister et al. 2004). through the willingness of the berlins to share their challenges with the ethnobiology community, lessons from the maya-icbg contributed positively to changes in the ise code of ethics (personal communication with ise ethics program co-chair, kelly bannister). the revisions to the ise code of ethics can be interpreted as supportive of the berlins’ view that it is unrealistic to expect that consent should be obtained from all communities where the same biological resources might potentially be found (berlin and berlin 2004). the ise code of ethics promotes consent as “an ongoing process that is based on relationship and maintained throughout all phases of research.” this shift in the ise code of ethics represents lessons that the organization learned from the maya icbg controversy and likely presents a possible solution to the kind of situation presented in the case study. over the past decade, there have been additional efforts to protect not only the rights of indigenous people, but also of the culturally important resources upon which they depend. the 1992 cbd recognized sovereign control over biological resources by nation states. the nagoya protocol was adopted in 2010 as a supplementary agreement to the cbd to provide a transparent legal framework for the implementation of fair and equitable sharing of benefits out of the utilization of genetic resources. it also covers tek associated with genetic resources such as plants and the benefits that arise from their use (convention on biological diversity 2018). after the adoption of the nagoya protocol, a stringent research protocol was established by mexico’s secretariat of environment and natural resources (semarnat) that requires detailed permits for the collection of biological samples and specimens to be granted by the mexican government. the purpose of this perspective article and of our case study in general is to bring the conversation of ethics to the forefront of ethnobiology. although the maya-icbg project was brought to a close in 2001, the case study is still relevant in both a historical context and as a means to discuss ethics and pic. we argue that it is essential to not only report on instances where projects went as hoped and both the researchers and the local communities benefited, but it is equally important to learn from situations in which projects were not carried out successfully. exploring past studies and asking questions about their relevance today is especially useful for students looking to one day conduct their own field work. this case study is not intended to discourage them from pursuing their interest in ethnobiology, but to show the importance of understanding the perspectives of the multiple stakeholders that often exist within a region. acknowledgements we acknowledge dr. brent berlin for reviewing the original case study for the national center for case study teaching in science, and are grateful to dr. kelly bannister and dr. liz olson for sharing their knowledge, experience and insight with us. declarations permissions: none declared. sources of funding: none declared. conflicts of interest: none declared. references cited aaas (american association for the advancement of 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accessed on january 8, 2018. nath, j. l. 2005. the roles of case studies in the educational field. international journal of case method research and application xvii 3:396–400. nigh, r. 2002. maya medicine in the biological gaze: bioprospecting research as herbal fetishism. current anthropology 43:451–477. oviedo, a. c., p. r. field, and d. j. shebitz. 2018. indigenous knowledge and the search for medicine: controversy in chiapas. national center for case study teaching in science, university at buffalo, state university of new york, buffalo, ny. available at: http://libweb.lib.buffalo.edu/ cs/collection/detail.asp?id=960&case_id=960. accessed on january 8, 2018. rafi (rural advancement fund international). 2000. stop biopiracy in mexico! [web page]. available at: http://www.gmwatch.org/en/news/ archive/2000/8836-rafi-stop-biopiracy-in-mexico24102000. accessed on january 8, 2018. rosenthal, j. 1997. integrating drug discovery, biodiversity conservation, and economic development: early lessons from the international cooperative biodiversity groups. in biodiversity and human health, edited by f. grifo and j. rosenthal, pp. 281–201. island press, washington, dc. rosenthal, j. 2006. politics, culture, and governance in the development of prior informed consent in indigenous communities. current anthropology 47:119–142. soto, j. c. 2000. pukuj: biopirateria en chiapas. san cristobal de las casas, chiapas, mexico. una hiwea, o livro vivo. edited by agostinho manduca m. ĩka muru. 2012. literaterras and faculdade de letras da universidade federal de minas gerais, belo horizonte. 284 pp. – and – una shubu hiwea: livro escola viva do povo huni kuĩ do rio jordão. 2017. edited by itaú cultural. itaú cultural, são paulo, and dantes editora, rio de janeiro. 76 pp. serrano de almeida penedo. 2022. ethnobiology letters 13(1):18–19 18 reviews through their shamans and students. this book compiles huni kuĩ’s traditional stories and the description of the research about medicinal plants by each of the participating shamans. these three books have many common features. they depict a process of cultural documentation of the huni kuĩ people living in jordão, and they are all driven by older shamans. all the books have huni kuĩ authorship and are a result of the desire of the huni kuĩ to record their culture and medicinal plant knowledge for younger generations. the last point uniting these three books is the direct or indirect influence of the shaman agostinho. for a long time, agostinho desired to record the traditional knowledge accumulated by him and the other elders, as he was afraid that this knowledge would be lost with his and the elder’s deaths. his goal was to create a written record of their knowledge for the younger huni kuĩ generations (coimbra jr 2016). although agostinho passed away before the conclusion of the una isĩ kayawa book, it did not stop the book from being published. recently, after the death of the shaman agostinho, the book una shubu hiwea was published. its main organiser was shaman manoel vandique kaxinawa dua busa, who serves as the current in 2016, coimbra published in this journal a very comprehensive review of the 2014 book una isĩ kayawa: livro de cura do povo huni kuĩ highlighting the importance of this work that describes the use of 109 medicinal plants by the huni kuĩ and traditional stories and texts about these medicinal plants and their cure process. the book was organised through the partnership among the huni kuĩ shamans and the botanist alexandre quinet, from the rio de janeiro botanical garden, with shaman agostinho as the main organiser. before publishing this book, shaman agostinho organised the book una hiwea–the living book, as the result of a partnership with the languages department from federal university of minas gerais (ufmg). many plant names, information on all kinds of illness that affect the huni kuĩ people from the jordão river, and their traditional stories were recorded in this book. four shamans organised a chapter each on their work with the medicinal plants. in 2017, the book una shubu hiwea–the living schoolbook was published. it covers the works of the huni kuĩ shamans from all villages in the jordão municipality, acre, brazil. this is the same region from the former two books. all 36 villages along the jordão and tarauacá rivers were part of this project, una hiwea, o livro vivo. edited by agostinho manduca m. ĩka muru. 2012. literaterras and faculdade de letras da universidade federal de minas gerais, belo horizonte. 284 pp. – and – una shubu hiwea: livro escola viva do povo huni kuĩ do rio jordão. 2017. edited by itaú cultural. itaú cultural, são paulo, and dantes editora, rio de janeiro. 76 pp. thiago serrano de almeida penedo1* 1 escola nacional de botânica tropical, instituto de pesquisas jardim botânico do rio de janeiro, rio de janeiro, brasil. *serranoapenedo@gmail.com received august 16, 2021 open access accepted october 28, 2021 doi 10.14237/ebl.13.1.2022.1789 published january 29, 2022 copyright © 2022 by the author(s); licensee society of ethnobiology. this is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution-noncommercial 4.0 international public license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0), which permits non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. serrano de almeida penedo. 2022. ethnobiology letters 13(1):18–19 19 reviews coordinator of the huni kuĩ shamans from the jordão river and was involved in the development of the other books. through this publication we can see that agostinho’s dream lives on and it is shared mostly by the older shamans. these texts offer invaluable teachings for people interested in the amazonian peoples’ cosmovision, specifically regarding the use of medicinal plants. these books also highlight another crucial point— the huni kuĩ shaman are researchers and carry out their own research. they know and understand the surrounding biodiversity, classify it, and give it names. regarding medicinal plants, they observe the patient’s symptoms, test the plants, take notes in their notebooks, and use the plants again for validation. this is all in the books, especially una shubu hiwea which presents how each shaman take their notes. as stated by vandebroek et al. (2011), knowledge is power, and for the huni kuĩ, the forementioned books shows that traditional knowledge is being used for local empowerment in benefit of the community. they are, in this manner, a rich source of knowledge and a good example that should be followed by academic researchers and professionals working in partnership with originary peoples or traditional communities. references cited coimbra, c. e. a. 2016. una isĩ kayawa: livro de cura do povo huni kuĩ do rio jordão. by agostinho m. m. ĩka muru and alexandre quinet. 2014. jardim botânico do rio de janeiro and dantes editora, rio de janeiro. 260 pp. ethnobiology letters 7:24–25. doi:10.14237/ebl.7.1.2016.561. vandebroek, i., v. reyes-garcía, u. p. de albuquerque, r. bussmann, and a. pieroni. 2011. local knowledge: who cares? journal of ethnobiology and ethnomedicine 7:1–7. doi:10.1186/1746-4269-735. whale snow: iñupiat, climate change, and multispecies resilience in arctic alaska. by chie sakakibara. 2020. university of arizona press, tucson. 304 pp. koskey. 2022. ethnobiology letters 13(1):68–69 68 reviews which are rooted in local culture and communicated through culturally specific metaphors and idioms. by exploring these through the author’s experiences, the reader is introduced to a world rich with cultural context and relationship-based social and ecological description. due to chie sakakibara’s development of personal relationships with the people of utqiaġvik, alaska, until recently known by its colonial name, barrow, she was included in many community events, enabling a deeper and more accurate understanding of the customs and traditions surrounding the whale. referred to as a notion of “cetaceousness,” the whaling cycle is characterized as multidimensional, with human–whale relations fundamental to the process, which itself is an ever-changing, living tradition. this is a centrally important point that is emphasized throughout the work: tradition is not stagnation, it is not a relic of the past, but it is custom as inherited tradition from past generations, interpreted in relation to current conditions. unlike other similar research that focuses on multispecies communities that often are presented with the human element artificially removed, chie sakakibara recognizes the centrality of humanity in social and ecological conditions, and this was accomplished in a local, iñupiaq context through the author’s description of her experiences living in northern alaska and according to iñupiaq ways of life. by using her experiences and her cultural knowledge learned through these, sakakibara frames with valuable context the notions of multispecies titled after the children’s book uqsruaġnaq (“whale snow”; edwardson et al. 2004), the lived stories of the research of chie sakakibara are presented in her unique and insightful multispecies ethnography also called whale snow. although the character amiqqaq in uqsruaġnaq is fictional, the excitement that he expresses when his family catches a bowhead whale (balaena mysticetus) is like the feeling that is shared by iñupiaq people of alaska’s north slope when a bowhead whale is sighted and caught. as vividly described by sakakibara in whale snow: iñupiat, climate change, and multispecies resilience in arctic alaska, the successful catch and bringing in of a whale is celebrated throughout the community, and throughout the region news of a catch travels quickly. but as is made apparent in the children’s book uqsruaġnaq, there is much more to catching a whale than spotting, hunting, and transporting it back to the community, and this concerns the spirit-of-the-whale itself. chie sakakibara, too, is careful to consider the spiritual aspects of the whale, and she appropriately does this from within the context of the local iñupiaq worldview. this enables the reader to better understand the spiritual role and reality that the whale plays in iñupiaq culture, and its importance in a larger socioecological context. the whale itself is understood and explained to the reader as a microcosm of existence itself, and its role as a nonhuman person in the natural and social environments is described. as with all aspects of human culture, everything carries multiple meanings to the observer, whale snow: iñupiat, climate change, and multispecies resilience in arctic alaska. by chie sakakibara. 2020. university of arizona press, tucson. 304 pp. michael koskey1* 1center for cross-cultural studies, indigenous studies graduate programs, university of alaska fairbanks, fairbanks, usa. *mskoskey@alaska.edu received june 11, 2022 open access accepted july 21, 2022 doi 10.14237/ebl.13.1.2022.1823 published november 21, 2022 copyright © 2022 by the author(s); licensee society of ethnobiology. this is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution-noncommercial 4.0 international public license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0), which permits non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. koskey. 2022. ethnobiology letters 13(1):68–69 69 reviews communities and relationships within their appropriate iñupiaq cultural and worldview contexts. as a result, a deeper understanding of human customs and socioecological process are attained, and the interdependent relationships between these are revealed. through the contextualized stories of relationships within an iñupiaq worldview, the cultural value of the whale is described, as are the values that accompany behaviors associated with the whaling cycle, but these are also associated with the behaviors of daily social life. included are notions of reciprocity (mutual and interdependent sharing) and respect (treating others as one would want to be treated), alongside deference, humility, and inclusiveness. these values are importantly communicated through stories that are passed across generations, and that contain ancient local, traditional, indigenous knowledge about place, people, and events; these are critically important for the contextualization of interrelatedness of all aspects of the socioecological environment. an understanding of the interrelation and interdependency of all aspects of life is symbolized by the whale (particularly the bowhead whale) as a mythical creature—a creature who is more than its body and mind. responsible for and representing transformations in the world, whales are described in whale snow in terms of the role they play in all aspects of iñupiaq ways of life, including its social importance and impacts to the community. sakakibara does this by taking a multispecies ethnographic approach, within an ecological context, to demonstrate how humans interact with other entities (living and nonliving), how these relations came to be, and how and why they came to be characterized as they are. by exploring these multispecies interactions, interdependencies, and relatedness, sakakibara shows the reader how these intimate relationships enable humans to survive and thrive in otherwise difficult environments. this is immediately applicable to climate change concerns of resiliency and adaptation in the present, as this local, traditional, indigenous knowledge has successfully sustained populations for millennia. chie sakakibara’s multispecies ethnographic and ecological approach to understanding the central role of the whale—especially the bowhead whale—in iñupiaq culture is unique and refreshing, recognizing the self-imposed limitations to deep understanding by artificial categorization and isolation of research subjects. by this approach, sakakibara describes and demonstrates iñupiaq cultural success through resiliency based on deep knowledge of the relationships between the entities of the land, sky, and waters—human and otherwise. and though this relationship-based deep understanding is being disrupted by current conditions of climate change, the knowledge is, and always has been, predicated on the interdependency between species that has always characterized successful survival in the arctic. in no way a static tradition, local traditions of indigenous knowledge continue to change in response to changing local conditions, and their flexibility and resilience is based on the practical concerns of everyday life and respecting the needs for all life. by the iñupiaq adaptation and continuation of these traditions, they continue to be the authentic decisionmakers in their own inherent sovereignty, and this is central to the stories found in the chapters of sakakibara’s whale snow: iñupiat, climate change, and multispecies resilience in arctic alaska. references cited edwardson, d. d., a. patterson, and j. harcharek. 2004. uqsruagnaq: whale snow. charlesbridge, watertown, ma. sakakibara, c. 2017. people of the whales: climate change and cultural resilience among iñupiat of arctic alaska. geographical review 107:159–184. doi:10.1111/j.1931-0846.2016.12219.x. plants and health: new perspectives on the health-environment-plant nexus. edited by elizabeth anne olson and john richard stepp. 2016. springer, switzerland. 175 pp. 103 reviews mcalvay. 2017. ethnobiology letters 8(1):103–104 cases from latin america where elements of different health systems are selectively adopted in a piecemeal fashion, while laplante (chapter 2) asserts that “javanese” medicine is actually the result of cultural layerings of animist, hindu, buddhist, islamic, and bioscientific components. stepp (chapter 7) propounds the idea of importing diversity indices from ecology to better understand the asymmetrical distribution of medicinal plant knowledge in and across communities. plants and health also provides an important update to anthropological theory in ethnobiology. while the recent works of ontological and multispecies anthropologists like kohn, tsing, and viveiros de castro depend heavily on examples of human-plant and human-environment interactions, ethnobiology as a discipline is rarely explicitly mentioned and certainly not foregrounded in their discourse. this volume takes steps to actualize the potential contributions of ethnobiology to these movements. nearly every chapter thoroughly treats ontologies surrounding the body, causality of disease, diagnosis, and treatment. laplante (chapter 2) applies the “becomings” of deleuze and guattari and ingold’s (2011) interpretation of lefebvre’s “meshwork” to emphasizes the interpermeability of the barriers differentiating women from the plant medicines they express juice from. ferenczi (chapter 6) also draws on “becomings” and “meshwork” to fruitfully explore the entanglements of bribri, afrocaribbean, tica, and western canadian ontologies of people and plants. anderson (chapter 1), laplante (chapter 2) and bridges (chapter 4) dissect nuanced plants and health is comprised of ethnographic case studies which harness recent theoretical developments in anthropology and extend the field of ethnobotany still further beyond its origins in lists of plant uses. emerging from a session at the 2014 american anthropological association meeting with a similar name, the authors use examples of planthuman interactions to explore medical pluralism, tradition, authenticity, health sovereignty, neoliberalism, ontology, and other themes. this volume stands out for three major contributions. first, it embraces the complexity arising at cultural interfaces by engaging with dynamic medical pluralism. second, it demonstrates the rich potential of ethnobiology to be informed by, and contribute to, theoretical trends in anthropology such as multispecies ethnography and the ontological turn. third, it investigates the nuanced relationships of neoliberalism, the state, and human interactions with medicinal plants with sometimes surprising outcomes. plants and health departs from oversimplified narratives on globalization, binary indigenous/ biomedical modes of healing, and monolithic constructs of “medical knowledge,” instead engaging with the complexity of interacting medical systems. olson (chapter 5) argues that terms like “cultural diffusion,” “colonization,” and “cultural borrowing,” are insufficient to characterize the processes involved in the translation of healing systems across cultures. anderson (chapter 1) invokes latour’s (2004) actornetwork theory to interpret these dynamic hybridities. anderson (chapter 1), bridges (chapter 4), olson (chapter 5), and ferenczi (chapter 6) all demonstrate plants and health: new perspectives on the health-environment-plant nexus. edited by elizabeth anne olson and john richard stepp. 2016. springer, switzerland. 175 pp. alex mcalvay1* 1department of botany, university of wisconsin-madison, madison, wisconsin, usa. *alexmcalvay@gmail.com received september 6 , 2017 open access accepted september 10, 2017 doi 10.14237/ebl.8.1.2017.1100 copyright © 2017 by the author(s) licensee society of ethnobiology. this is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution-noncommercial 4.0 international public license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0), which permits non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. 104 reviews mcalvay. 2017. ethnobiology letters 8(1):103–104 (if not untranslatable) health concepts like ik’ among the yucatec of mexico, rasa in java, as well as samay and shinzhiyachina among the runa of ecuador. these same authors argue that western biomedicine fails to acknowledge the multidimensional benefits to wellbeing arising from plant-human interactions. laplante (chapter 2) and bridges (chapter 4) highlight local concepts of strengthening and health maintenance from plants that depart from treatmentcentric ontologies, and bridges (chapter 4) demonstrates how medicinal plants strengthen social ties as well as physical bodies in napo runa communities. the volume also deftly examines the roles of neoliberalism, globalization, and the state in humanplant relationships. in the complimentary works of mcnamara (chapter 3) and bridges (chapter 4), we see examples of sometimes counterintuitive consequences of neoliberalism and market economies on empowerment and disempowerment. mcnamara argues that the bangladeshi government and certain ngos are acting in a neoliberal manner by encouraging citizens to become self-sufficient in medicinal plant production and consumption. on first sight, this appears to be empowering, but mcnamara (chapter 3) argues that this is a neoliberal reassignment of responsibility for healthcare to individuals by an inadequate state. bridges (chapter 4) demonstrates how employing ethnomedical knowledge to treat illnesses arising from wage labor is a galvanizing act of resistance in ecuadorian napo runa communities. ferenczi (chapter 6) politicizes colonial and decontextualized ethnomedical tourism in costa rica and its impacts on ontologies of nature and culture. as a whole, this volume positions ethnobiology as a rich realm for leading edge anthropological inquiry in cultural interchange, ontology, and political economy. the complimentary expertise of olson and stepp enhance the volume and the lively, diverse offerings of the chapters are stimulating both individually and taken together as a complete work. each chapter adds nuance and challenge to monolithic concepts in ethnomedicine and global health, portending a dozen future lines of inquiry for anthropological ethnobotany. references cited ingold, t. 2011. being alive: essays on movement, knowledge and description. routledge, london and new york, ny. latour, b. 2004. politics of nature: how to bring the sciences into democracy. c. porter, trans. harvard university press, cambridge, ma. traditional use of dasylirion acrotrichum in the construction of floral arches for the festival of san jerónimo, in coatepec, veracruz, mexico torres-martínez et al. 2020. ethnobiology letters 11(1):85–95 85 research communications traditional community institution that originally served as a mechanism to ensure that people were kept at the same socio-economic level by preserving social exchange and cooperation and to strengthen links and commitments within the community (korsbaek 1987). the mayordomo is a male of moral prestige in the community; he must show appreciation and respect for the church and its patron saint. it is also necessary for him to have access to sufficient economic resources to meet the costs incurred by this responsibility. offerings in the form of arches allude to the european triumphant arches that marked the entrance of a noble or deity (madrazo and urdapilleta 2008). in mexico, the floral arches of today are the result of syncretism between catholicism and pre-hispanic introduction many mexican religious festivals use plants to make offerings. they have been offered since pre-hispanic times as a tribute to the nobility. they symbolized prestige and represented the wealth of the indigenous high society (mendoza-zaragoza 2010). these offerings consisted of carpets, garlands, crowns, collars, and arches, which were made with leaves of maize, and wild and cultivated flowers, as well as bird feathers. with the spanish conquest and adoption of the catholic faith, the tradition was modified, and thus the offerings began to be made in honor of catholic saints in religious festivals (mendozazaragoza 2010). the priests organized groups of the faithful into mayordomías, or “people’s commissions,” to collect the donations required to financially support the organization of the festivities. the mayordomía is a traditional use of dasylirion acrotrichum in the construction of floral arches for the festival of san jerónimo, in coatepec, veracruz, mexico guadalupe torres-martínez1, citlalli lópez binnqüist1, evodia silva rivera1, and noé velázquez-rosas1* 1centro de investigaciones tropicales, universidad veracruzana, xalapa, veracruz, mexico. *nvelazquezro@gmail.com abstract in mexico, floral arches are commonly constructed as offerings in religious festivals. the plants required for fabrication of these arches are currently in great demand, which could affect the species involved. the objective of this study was to document the traditional management of dasylirion acrotrichum (cucharilla) as used in the construction of floral arches during a festival of great religious and community significance held every year in coatepec, veracruz, mexico. the construction method of floral arches was documented, and the possible repercussions of this practice on the wild populations of this species were analyzed. in coatepec, the mayordomía is a non-rotational traditional organization system, through which each arch is produced. this system guides the construction activities of the floral arch, which are shared among different actors with various degrees of experience and responsibility. we reveal that between 250 to 270 plants (ultimately using around 60% of this number) are used to produce the main arch. likewise, it was documented that during plant collection there are rules observed to avoid extraction of juvenile specimens, especially those that do not have the quantity or quality of leaves required. the social, ritual, and ecological basis of the mayordomía represent an opportunity to build a strategy aimed at regulating the extraction of culturally relevant plant species, and it can also help to improve collection techniques and to encourage sustainable management. that is why we argue that dasylirion acrotrichum must be understood and studied from a systemic, interdisciplinary perspective. received january 14, 2020 open access accepted july 30, 2020 doi 10.14237/ebl.11.1.2020.1673 published september 15, 2020 keywords culturally significant plant, biocultural resource extraction, religious offerings, traditional community institution copyright © 2020 by the author(s); licensee society of ethnobiology. this is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution-noncommercial 4.0 international public license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0), which permits non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. torres-martínez et al. 2020. ethnobiology letters 11(1):85–95 86 research communications indigenous tradition (chiva-beltrán 2012). for the indigenous and mestizo people, these offerings are a spiritual link between man and the divinities, representing the source of reciprocity between the petitions of mankind and the sacred world (gómezmartínez 2013). at present, in some patronal festivals of central veracruz, floral arches are the main offering made by the people to the saints in gratitude for blessings received during the year. during these patronal festivals, the “mayordomía” system of organization remains in practice. in the annual patronal festival of san jerónimo, which takes place on september 29 in coatepec, veracruz, an arch, known as the arco mayor, is constructed to adorn the main entrance of the parish church (figure 1). this arch is the largest and most important offering of the festival and is constructed using plants collected in the surrounding area, including pine (pinus spp.), bamboo (arundo donax), vine (vitis spp.) and liquidambar (liquidambar styraciflua), which are utilized in the structure of the arch (figure 2a). the adornments of the arch consist of the inflorescences of heliconias (heliconia spp.), bromeliads (tillandsia multicaulis, t. punctulate, and t. usneoides), cypress leaves (cupressus spp.), and the “cucharilla” or great desert spoon (dasylirion acrotrichum) (haeckel 2008; torres-martínez 2016; figure 2b). d. acrotrichum has for decades been extracted from alchichica, puebla, since it grows exclusively in the semiarid regions of mexico. in coatepec, the tradition of the floral arches is a source of pride and identity. this is why it has been integrated as an offering in other churches and chapels during their religious festivals (torresmartínez 2016). tourism in coatepec has increased since 2016, when the town was awarded with the “pueblo mágico” distinction (“a town that, through time and in the face of modernity, has conserved, valued and defended its historical, cultural and natural legacy” [velarde-valdez et al. 2009:81]). motivated by this recognition, in the last few years, the construction of floral arches has spread to schools and to some restaurants during the festival (torres-martínez 2016). this phenomenon has caused an increased demand for the plants used to create the floral arches. for example, in the neighboring municipality of xico, it is reported that more than 30 floral arches are constructed every year (mata-labrada 2011). in 2008, it was recorded that approximately 70 arches were constructed in the municipalities of coatepec, teocelo, acajete, and tlalnelhuayocan (haeckel 2008). the high demand for these resources could diminish the wild populations in the collection sites, as has been suggested by other studies, in which the plants for floral offerings are extracted from increasingly distant locations (beltrán-rodríguez et al. 2012; mata-labrada 2011, 2013). one of the negative consequences of plant shortage is the substitution of natural materials for artificial elements in the ornamentation of the floral arch. in the state of hidalgo, the cucharilla has been substituted with plastic or cloth flowers (lópez-gutiérrez 2010). various authors agree that replacement of elements of the arch detracts from the purity and value of the offering in cultural terms (lópez-gutiérrez 2010; mendozazaragoza 2010). increased extraction of plant resources can have negative effects on natural populations, including alterations to the physiology, vital rates, and genetic diversity (ticktin 2004). this has been recorded in tillandsia macdougallii and t. violaceae (mondragónchaparro and ticktin 2011), sabal yapa (pulido et al. 2007), euphorbia antisyphilitica (martínez-ballesté and mandujano 2013), chamaedorea radicalis (endress et al. figure 1 floral arch adorning the main entrance of the parish church in the annual patronal festival of san jerónimo in coatepec, veracruz. torres-martínez et al. 2020. ethnobiology letters 11(1):85–95 87 research communications 2006), agave potatorum (torres et al. 2015), agave inaequidens(valenzuela-zapata et al. 2011), and brahea dulcis (pavón et al. 2006). over-extraction has a relatively greater impact on species of slow growth and restricted distribution, as is the case with d. acrotrichum. this study documents the traditional management of d. acrotrichum for production of the arco mayor of coatepec for the patronal festival of san jerónimo. of all the plants used in this offering, d. acrotrichum is the only one endemic to mexico (rzedowski 2006) and is also threatened. construction of the arch under the direction of the mayordomía is described, and an analysis made of how the system of social organization and locally adopted practices can contribute to in situ conservation and sustainable management of wild plant populations in the sites where they are being extracted. methods the process of construction of the arco mayor for the festival of san jerónimo in coatepec, veracruz was studied over three years (2013, 2014, and 2016). the stages followed by the social actors who participate in the management of d. acrotrichum were recorded through participant observation and the application of semi-structured interviews (sensu martin 2000). twenty -five semi-structured interviews were applied to adult men (between 20–70 years old), whose role is to collect materials and to elaborate the floral arch. in addition, three in-depth interviews were made with the mayordomo, padrinos, and the owner of the site of extraction. figure 2 elements that make up the floral arch: a structure (arundo donax [ad], liquidambar styraciflua [ls], and pinus spp. [p]) and b ornamental (leaf and inflorescences of tillandsia spp. [t], leaf of dasylirion acrotrichum [da], vitis spp. [v], and inflorescences of heliconia spp. [h]). torres-martínez et al. 2020. ethnobiology letters 11(1):85–95 88 research communications study species d. acrotrichum belongs to the family asparagaceae (figure 3); it is a perennial, polycarpic, and dioecious plant of slow growth. it has leaves with spines on the edges, grouped into rosettes, which widen at the base, overlapping each other. each individual can present multiple stems produced through vegetative growth (bloger 1994). it is distributed in the arid and semiarid zones of mexico, found on well-drained gravelly soils, on the slopes of hills and gullies of xerophyllous scrub. it is commonly known as “cucharilla”, due to the fact that the base of the leaves is whitish, broad and concave, similar to a long-handled spoon. d. acrotrichum collection site d. acrotrichum was collected in the locality of alchichica, located on the semiarid high plateau zone of the municipality of tepeyahualco, in the state of puebla (19° 26’ 56.1’’n 97° 22’ 25.4’’ w and 19° 26’ 55.6’’n; 97° 22’ 27.1’’w; 2337-2407 m asl). the zone presents hills of limestone and volcanic rock, sandy soils, and a semiarid and generally extreme climate. the vegetation is xerophyllous scrub with succulent plants with leaves in rosettes or concentrated towards the extremes and aphyllous plants, represented mainly by species of the genera agave, hechtia, yucca, dasylirion, opuntia, and euphorbia (rzedowski 2006). results organization for construction of the floral arch construction of the arco mayor in the patronal festival of coatepec involves three main actors: the mayordomo, the faeneros (all of whom are male), and the padrinos. women participate only in the preparation of food, which is offered to the faeneros during the construction of the arch. the mayordomo is responsible for seeking funds for constructing the arch. he also has to coordinate and organize the collection of plant materials, the design and supervision of faeneros’ tasks, finding padrinos for the arch, and designing the arch together with the most experienced faeneros. this mayordomía has been passed down among the males of a single family, who have taken charge for the last four generations. the current mayordomo has been in charge since 2006. he is distinguished for constructing aesthetically beautiful arches and for producing the arco mayor in time for the festival. this is why each year, the authorities of the local kindergarten have asked him to produce a smaller, simpler arch for the entrance to the school during the festival of san jerónimo. the teachers and parents wish the students to become familiar with the tradition. likewise, other families have requested arches to decorate their restaurants’ entrances to attract tourists attending the festival. the faeneros are men (adults, young men, and boys) who participate voluntarily, without receiving payment in the construction of the arch every year. to make the adornments, they collect, process, and clean the plant materials. their specific activities depend on their experience and abilities. the experienced faeneros oversee collecting the cucharilla and constructing the arch structure and the decoration and design, which depend on the quantity of resources collected. the beginners (generally young men and boys of 10 to 20 years of age) process and clean the plant material and help with the construction of the arch structure. the padrinos are a catholic married couple of good moral standing, known by the inhabitants of the neighborhood los carriles, which is where the arch is built. they help the mayordomo pay for the food of the faeneros during the construction of the arch, sometimes figure 3 dasylirion acrotrichum (cucharilla) at alchichica, puebla. torres-martínez et al. 2020. ethnobiology letters 11(1):85–95 89 research communications they pay for the gasoline for the vehicles used to collect the plants. they also provide money to buy the aguardiente spirit alcohol offered to the faeneros, to pay for the dancers who participate in the processions and to buy the fireworks that are used during the festival. the padrinos are in charge of blessing the arch and place the first flower to begin its decoration. economic support for these activities is voluntary; however, these are unavoidable commitments of trust and respect that help to maintain the social fabric of the locality. collection of d. acrotrichum the site of d. acrotrichum extraction for the arco mayor of coatepec is a private property in alchichica, puebla, with an area of 10 ha, where the d. acrotrichum presents a density of 349 individuals per ha. the plants have been collected from this site for approximately 80 years, which is the same period that the family of the current mayordomo has been in charge. for all of that time, there has been an agreement between the mayordomo’s family and the owner of the site of extraction, which ensures the supply of “cucharilla” every year. the site owner imposes no limit on the number of specimens collected and does not charge for the extraction (i.e., the mayordomo has free access to the plants). the mayordomo can collect plants to make the arco mayor, as well as the other private arches he is asked for every year. in gratitude, the mayordomo gifts fruits, vegetables, poultry, and large containers of aguardiente to the owner of the land. the quantity of these gifts varies according to the economic resources of the mayordomo and any donations received by the group of faeneros. every year, the landowner authorizes the extraction of this plant by at least nine groups of faeneros from different nearby towns that celebrate different religious festivals (four groups from coatepec, four from teocelo, and one from xico). these groups gain access to the site through the recommendation of other arch makers who are friends with the landowner. the landowner shows the arch makers the collection sites and instructs them not to cut the young specimens. to avoid cutting plants unnecessarily, the landowner advises the mayordomo that they should not cut individuals of less than 12 cm in diameter. each group collects between 100 and 120 specimens, but the group from coatepec extracts a greater quantity (at least 250 specimens every year). the annual mean collection at this site is 1117 (± 42.3) plants. in addition, there are groups of faeneros that have no agreement regarding access to the plants; therefore, they may ask the mayordomo to collect more specimens for them and, in this way, they obtain the cucharilla. other groups of faeneros, having no extraction agreement with the landowner, and conduct clandestine collections in which they cut individuals in the juvenile stage (less than 12 cm in diameter). these plants have narrow, fragile leaves considered unsuitable for adorning the arches and are therefore rejected. clandestine collection of plants has led to other owners of sites in alchichica, puebla, with d. acrotrichum refusing access for extraction to any faeneros, even those that are legitimately organized. in order to collect the d. acrotrichum, the mayordomo and 25 or 30 faeneros travel to alchichica. they are organized into groups formed by a cutter, a tier, and a carrier. only the most experienced select and cut the suitable plants (adults of diameter greater than 12 cm). the cutter must cut the plants from the base of the stem, extracting complete specimens, the tier ties the cut leaves of the plant, and the carrier carries them to the vehicles for transportation to the house of the mayordomo in coatepec. there is a belief that red is an unlucky color and can cause the plants to turn dark brown, losing their characteristic ivory tone; for this reason, it is not permitted to wear red garments during collection. indeed, even the food they eat should not have any ingredients of this color. being subject to menstruation, the women are also thought to cause discoloration of the plants and, this is why, only men participate in this process. after the collection is complete, they make some adornments with cucharilla in the form of a crown that are placed on the vehicles’ hood so that people know that they are bringing plants for the arch on the road back to coatepec. the mayordomo and the faeneros are received with fireworks to announce their arrival. the collected d. acrotrichum plants are unloaded and guarded in the house of the mayordomo. finally, a meal is provided for the faeneros to thank them for their participation in the collection. processing of d. acrotrichum in order to extract the “cucharilla,” it was observed that the mayordomo organized a group of faeneros to be in charge of removing the “heart” (stem of the plant) of each of the individuals (figure 4a). the faeneros tear out the leaves and thus eliminate the spines (figure torres-martínez et al. 2020. ethnobiology letters 11(1):85–95 90 research communications 4b). from a stem of 16 cm in diameter, 80 or 90 cucharillas can be extracted, while one of 12 cm will produce between 50 and 60. around 60% of each plant is used, corresponding to the external leaves that are thicker and firmer and thus more resistant to the heat and light of the sun. construction of the arco mayor and the patronal festival of san jerónimo the main arch is 12.5 m in height and 3.60 m in width, weighs approximately three tonnes and is constructed in front of the house of the mayordomo. it is constructed from posts of pine and rods of bamboo and liquidambar, which are held in place with vines to form the main structure. the adornments are made from cucharillas (figure 4c–e), bromeliad inflorescences, heliconias, and cypress branches. once all of the materials have been collected and the main structure is complete, on september 24, the padrinos place the “first flower,” which consists of a bouquet made of cucharilla and the inflorescence of a tencho (bromeliad), on a wooden cross that will be fixed to the upper part of the finished arch. afterwards, the padrinos bless the cross and the main structure with flowers so that the next day the faeneros can decorate the offering. this activity is known as “florear el arco.” the most experienced faeneros construct the most complex adornments, while the younger men interweave the other materials onto the main structure. only a decade ago, the design would have determined the quantity of materials to be collected. now, however, the mayordomo designs the arch depending on the quantity of plant materials they were able to collect that year. to construct the offering, the faeneros use nails, wire, and ropes, which are hidden beneath the adornments. in this way, the structure of the arch is firmer and more stable and the decoration more securely fixed. the number of floral arches constructed during the festival of san jerónimo varies. arches of more than two tonnes are constructed, as well as examples that weigh between 60 and 70 kilos (1.20 x 2.20 m), so that they can be carried by groups of children that participate in this activity. in 2013, 14 arches were constructed. in 2015, 11 were constructed, including the arco mayor. in 2016, 15 arches were constructed, of which nine were large and six were small. figure 4 processing of d. acrotrichum plants to decorate the floral arch. a obtaining leaves (cucharilla), b removal of spines from the margin of the leaves, and c–e preparation of ornaments and placement in the arch. torres-martínez et al. 2020. ethnobiology letters 11(1):85–95 91 research communications finally, on september 29, the arco mayor is completed and a mass is celebrated to bless all the arches during the patronal festival. a procession is then held, known as “la bajada de los arcos,” presided over by an image of san jerónimo. the arco mayor, which is carried on the shoulders of the faeneros to the parish church to frame the main entrance. twenty days later, it is removed and carried back to the mayordomo’s house for dismantling. the pine posts and liquidambar beams are stored to be reused for the arch for the following year. conservation of d. acrotrichum the faeneros and the mayordomo believe that san jerónimo ensures the supply of cucharillas each year for the construction of the arch for the patronal festival. they explained that their extraction practices are appropriate, since the method has not changed in decades and they continue to collect specimens of d. acrotrichum. the mayordomo indicated that they impose internal rules that help maintain the plant populations under extraction; the experienced faeneros cannot extract juvenile plants or those of small diameter (less than 12 cm). in addition, during collection, the mayordomo dictates the number of plants to collect. discussion the mayordomías tradition in mexico commonly consist of a mayordomo, whose responsibility is usually held for one year. the position is rotational, and with no re-election (carrasco 1991; gómez-arzapalo 2010). this system of responsibilities varies among different communities: there can be more than one mayordomo and the duration and functions differ among sites (montalvo-nolasco and heredia barrera 2015). according to the current mayordomo, one family has had the duty for more than 80 years. the reason is that no one else has requested the position on account of the great responsibility it implies. the mayordomo stated that: “it is not easy to find the materials and cover the economic costs of construction of the arch, or to finish the offering in time and look after the physical integrity of the faeneros.” this mayordomía contrasts with the original aim of this type of social organization that, by being rotational, avoids the accumulation of wealth and monopolization of power by distributing the costs of parties and ceremonies, as well as the various obligations (korsbaek 1987). this concurs with other studies, in which some families in mexican villages accumulate wealth or make a greater economic effort in order to keep themselves in that position, excluding other families without losing the political and religious benefits and the reputation that the position offers (korsbaek 1987). concentration of the mayordomía in a single family for such a long period of time can present some risks; for example, there is a danger that the technical knowledge accumulated over such a long time in terms of the traditional management of the plants (including collection methods, forms of construction of the floral arch, and agreements with the owners of sites from which the plants can be extracted) may not be fully transmitted to other families or to new generations. there are three reasons that might explain why the mayordomía is not held on a rotation basis in coatepec: 1) few people are granted access to the collection sites, mainly because it has to do with personal rather than community agreements; 2) the economic costs are high (which demotivates other community members’ participation), and the mayordomo has to assume the social responsibilities derived from administering the money involved, that includes donations, and protecting the materials and the participants, 3) there is a lack of leadership and little skill in the general organization of the people involved (donors, workers, and padrinos). construction of floral arches has increased in recent years in central veracruz; new chapels and churches are built for which these offerings are required. thus, new groups of faeneros are formed, generally of young adults who have not adopted the organization system; nor do they have agreements with extraction site owners to utilize the correct methods of plant selection and extraction (haeckel 2008). these groups are therefore forced to carry out clandestine collection of d. acrotrichum, cutting specimens in the juvenile state with diameters of less than 12 cm that do not provide cucharillas with suitable characteristics. this practice affects the population dynamics of the species by extracting adult and juvenile individuals that have not yet contributed to the maintenance of the wild populations and thus reducing the establishment of seedlings (ticktin 2004; torres-martínez 2016). in extraction sites, torresmartínez (2016) reported a decrease in adult and seedling density. moreover, asexual reproduction has exceeded sexual reproduction, which could in turn lead to a reduction in the genetic variability of populations, as reported in other species (martínezballesté and mandujano 2013; ticktin 2004). for the above stated reason, the faeneros would have to replace torres-martínez et al. 2020. ethnobiology letters 11(1):85–95 92 research communications the cucharillas for other elements. this has been the case in some of hidalgo’s communities where synthetic materials are used for the floral arches (lópez-gutiérrez 2010). by not using the plant in the traditional way, as has hitherto been the case, the intangible elements of the ritual that act to confer a religious sense of sacredness to nature, could be lost (madrazo and urdapilleta 2008), especially considering that each of the floral elements, like leaves and flowers represents different symbols associated with agricultural cycles and with the sacredness of nature (espejo et al. 1994). although data on the ritual and sacred qualities of this tradition were not expressly collected, it should be noted that both the mayordomo and faeneros explained that replacing any material from the arch would lessen its value. therefore, to alter the composition of the arch would mean eliminating the sacrifice made to collect that materials for the offering. this could indicate that those involved in the ritual give special weight to the floral arches, and this viewpoint has little to do with a modern utilitarian attitude towards biodiversity. the expansion of tourism to coatepec could represent a pressure for an increased fabrication of floral arches, which are now installed not only for ritual purposes, but also to decorate restaurants, schools, and businesses. although the pueblos mágicos program has been considered a success in many places, in others it has caused social, economic, and demographic problems, also affecting the natural surroundings (equihua-elias et al. 2015). the latter undoubtedly receives little attention in the planning and evaluation of the pueblos mágicos, whereby the negative impacts of tourism on natural resources and traditions are not considered or analyzed (equihuaelias et al. 2015). in some of these towns, specific natural resources and derived products are now in great demand with no consideration given to their state of conservation and distribution (pavón et al. 2006). that is why it is argued that population ecological studies are essential to determine extraction rates without putting species’ viability at risk (martínez-ballesté and mandujano 2013). moreover, it draws attention to studies designed to transcend disciplinary barriers, where methods, research tools, knowledge fields, and epistemological approaches coming from areas such as anthropology, economics, politics, sociology, and others, are equally valued. however, it is especially key to address power relations in the way knowledge is produced within modern societies, where citizens and local communities should be more actively engaged, if the aim is to achieve more sustainable management practices (peterson et al. 2010). local actions that ensure biodiversity conservation through sustainable management practices should be part of the pueblos mágicos’ regulations. in this way, tourism and traditions can develop under context-specific, socially and environmentally responsible conservation schemes. in coatepec, from the late 1980s, the shortage of resources used for the arco mayor has been notable (torresmartínez 2016). because of this, the design of the offering has had to be adapted to the availability of the plants they have collected, while still conserving the original elements. despite this, the mayordomo and the faeneros consider that the supply of d. acrotrichum will be ensured by san jerónimo and that their collection techniques are suitable in terms of caring for the wild populations. however, in extraction sites, there is a lower number of reproductive individuals, lower floral production, and reduced recruitment of new individuals per seed compared to sites where no collection takes place (torres-martínez 2016). for this reason, it is necessary to find spaces of discussion and mutual learning where community beliefs converge with scientific knowledge, so that the best decisions associated with the ritual itself and the species’ conservation, can be taken. other studies (garibaldi and turner 2004; infield and mugisha 2013; peterson et al. 2010), highlight the value of considering the biocultural dimension as a mechanism for giving continuity to cultural expressions and favoring the long-term conservation of biodiversity. the floral arch tradition represents a link between culture, social organization, and nature. this scenario strengthens the sense of territory and the heterogeneous use of the landscape; it reaffirms the social fabric, as well as the local and regional identity in a celebration where all can participate. the mayordomías and the patronal festivals reassure and preserve cultural values, identity, and social interaction (wilsey and nelson 2008). for the above stated reasons, it is necessary to find new, more efficient ways to collect d. acrotrichum. collection should be done following fallow periods and rotation of the collection sites. the right amount of plants should be accounted for, to avoid unnecessary waste and the death of reproductive adults. additionally, it is crucial to improve communication among community leaders, faeneros’ torres-martínez et al. 2020. ethnobiology letters 11(1):85–95 93 research communications groups, independent archers, researchers, technicians, and government decision makers in the forestry department to ensure that decisions will be made collaboratively between everyone involved. a census of all the archers dedicated to this activity can be useful to establish clear regulations around access to the sites as well as to have control over the number of plants extracted. these actions should be oriented towards decreasing the incidence of clandestine collection. finally, in order to achieve recovery of the extraction zones, collaboration networks and educational programs should be developed with the owners of d. acrotrichum distribution sites, with the long-term aim to produce locally relevant, participatory, citizen led restoration plans. acknowledgments this study was carried out thanks to information provided by the mayordomo and the faeneros of the arco mayor of coatepec and the owner of the d. acrotrichum collection site, who kindly responded to all questions asked and allowed observation of the entire process involved in the fabrication of the arco mayor. declarations permissions: this study was conducted during fieldwork and the interviews with permissions from the mayordomo and the faeneros of the arco mayor of coatepec. sources of funding: this work was supported by a scholarship to g. torres-martínez provided by consejo nacional de ciencia y tecnología (conacyt) (294281). conflicts of interest: none declared. references cited beltrán-rodríguez, l. a., b. martínez-rivera, and a. paulo-maya. 2012. etnoecología de la flor de catarina laelia autumnalis (la llave et lex. lindl.) 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torres-martínez et al. 2020. ethnobiology letters 11(1):85–95 95 research communications velarde-valdez, m., a. v. c. maldonado alcudia, and m. c. maldonado alcudia, m. candelaria. 2009. pueblos mágicos. estrategia para el desarrollo turístico sustentable: caso sinaloa. teoría y praxis 6:79–93. wilsey, d. s., and k. c. nelson. 2008. conceptualizing multiple nontimber forest product harvest and harvesting motivations among balsam bough pickers in northern minnesota. society and natural resources 21:812–827. doi:10.1080/089419207 01651204. cultural keystone places and historical ecology: conceptual benefits and ethical impacts wolverton and armstrong. 2025. ethnobiology letters 16(2):1–6 1 perspectives special issue: historical ecology & cultural keystone places way to conceive of a ckp, for example, is as a landscape that has deep meaning to one or multiple groups’ identities, imbued over centuries or millennia, that has implications for people’s heritage and prosperity (or future well-being [laluk et al. 2022; supernant et al. 2020]). for many social scientists, the ckp concept can facilitate a shift in logic from analytical considerations of space, where boundaries and locations are merely descriptive, to a deeper understanding of places (e.g., huaman and swentzell 2021; watts 2013). although we label ckp as a concept in this introduction, we acknowledge that actual ckps are much more than abstract concepts and are frequently articulated outside of academic framings such as historical ecology. within historical ecology, however, the ckp concept offers an important structure for how to think in holistic ways about land and people. historical ecology, when applied through the conceptual framework of complex adaptive systems (davis 2023; sinclair et al. 2018; wolverton et al. 2023), gives ethnobiology a suite of integrated this special issue of ethnobiology letters focuses on cultural keystone places (ckps) from the perspective of historical ecology, which is a social science research paradigm that integrates multiple forms of knowledge to study human-environmental interactions (balée 2013; crumley 1994, 2021; see summary in armstrong and veteto 2015). cuerrier et al. (2015:432) define a ckp as a given site or location with high cultural salience for one or more groups of people and which plays, or has played in the past, an exceptional role in a people’s cultural identity, as reflected in their day to day living, food production and other resource-based activities, land and resource management, language, stories, history, and social and ceremonial practices. the use of the ckp concept has gained traction in the ethnobiological literature over the last decade, particularly in studies within historical ecology that study human-environmental interactions across landscapes. there are several reasons for this; one cultural keystone places and historical ecology: conceptual benefits and ethical impacts steve wolverton1* and chelsey geralda armstrong2 1department of geography and the environment, university of north texas, denton, usa. 2historical-ecological research lab, indigenous studies, simon fraser university, burnaby, canada. *steven.wolverton@unt.edu abstract the papers in this special issue employ cultural keystone places (ckps) as a concept to engage scholarship about land. the ckp concept is used in contrast to eurocentric understandings of place and instead acknowledges the deeper meanings of place to local communities. research employing the concept is increasingly common through the lens of historical ecology, an integrative research paradigm in ethnobiology and archaeology. in this introduction we articulate what the ckp concept has to offer ethnobiology and archaeology, particularly in terms or practices of ethical inquiry about research, which we term ethical sufficiency. addressing ethical sufficiency of research also requires addressing the limitations of and challenges to disciplines and academic communities steeped in settler-colonial histories. received july 16, 2025 open access accepted august 26, 2025 doi 10.14237/ebl.16.2.2025.1969 published december 1, 2025 keywords cultural keystone places, historical ecology, ethical sufficiency copyright © 2025 by the author(s); licensee society of ethnobiology. this is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution-noncommercial 4.0 international public license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0), which permits non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. wolverton and armstrong. 2025. ethnobiology letters 16(2):1–6 2 perspectives special issue: historical ecology & cultural keystone places concepts for the study of human-environmental interactions (but see balée and erickson 2006; patterson 1994). consider four properties of complex adaptive systems (cas) as portrayed by sinclair et al. (2018:25–26) in table 1. these concepts ground ethnobiologists into expectations that humanenvironmental interactions are entangled, blurry in terms of boundaries in space and time, and contingent and evolving—in a word, complex. because there are emergent cultural and environmental properties that are connected across time and space and that vary by context, the theoretical framing provided by cas meshes well with some dimensions and ethical concepts framed in environmental justice studies (ejs) (figueroa 2015; wolverton et al. 2023). in the version of ejs we employ, to move from injustice to justice propels recognition of harms, a transformative reconciliation process of potentially unknown extent, and (one hopes) eventual restoration of communal well-being and healed relationships among communities. limitations of this type of ejs approach include that recognition and reconciliation are western scholarly constructs (coulthard 2014), which do not go far enough and should not replace indigenous forms of justice (whyte 2020). at their worst, these concepts have been appropriated for political gain and retooled as abusive strategies that cause additional harm by centering narratives on settler-colonial histories, traditions, and norms. during the last decade in canada, for instance, reconciliation came to symbolize efforts that privilege the stability of the settler state, leading indigenous activists, scholars, and community members and allies to declare that “reconciliation is dead” and that it cannot represent serious efforts to propel indigenous sovereignty and decolonization (see cherry 2025). thus, what earlier ejs scholars intended to be an iterative moral reckoning process now is recognized as the “r-word” signifying weak efforts to decolonize that instead stabilize domination of settler colonialism. political failures and justifiable activist resistance to reconciliation have, thus, soiled the potential for using the concept to address ethical interrogation of scholarly norms and traditions. what it actually means to reconcile opposing moral perspectives, however, must be brought back into focus because the need for such interrogation and reckoning persists (see figueroa 2015:138–145). regarding archaeological fieldwork in the american southwest at ancestral pueblo sites, for example, figueroa (2015:140) asserts that from an environmental justice perspective, the pueblo moral compass is being inverted, and the playing field for the decision making process regarding these sites is not level, since the digs continue with higher regard given to the moral compass pointing to the interests of archaeological knowledge. the playing field remains unlevel (wolverton et al. 2021), and unexamined higher regard for archaeological science (and other fields) should be questioned and countermanded. ethnobiology and archaeology, as social sciences, in our view, should aggressively turn toward ethical inquiry because the fields remain steeped in western academic traditions of research that feed into and are fed by systems of meritocracy as well as uncontested norms of unfettered curiosity. our view is that justice work can seek to correct problematic academic traditions and open or vacate conceptual spaces for indigenous scholarship. the ethnobiologist can expect diverse identities and values between and among communities with disproportionate power and differing experiences of injustice because humanenvironmental interactions are connected, emergent, historical, and contextual (e.g., hua et al. 2018). historical ecology provides a framework for integrating many forms of scholarship; the papers in this special issue provide powerful examples. an important contribution of ckp research within historical ecology is that it expands the conceptual toolkit of the ethnobiologist or archaeologist. one way to describe this expansion is to think in terms of what evolutionary biologist richard lewontin (1974) termed theoretical and empirical sufficiency (see dunnell 1982). in lewontin’s terms, research that provides concepts that improve clarity of understanding increases theoretical sufficiency. those approaches that increase clarity of observation increase empirical sufficiency. in our view, research through the conceptual frame of ckp increases clarity of understanding. acknowledgement of ckps extends how social scientists may conceive of land beyond geographically bounded units of space serving utilitarian functions related to property, tourism, extraction, and other products of settler-colonial history. although not holding precisely the same meaning as lewontin’s empirical sufficiency, the ckp concept brings into focus indigenous sovereignty and relationships to land that are not as clearly understood or acknowledged in many forms of wolverton and armstrong. 2025. ethnobiology letters 16(2):1–6 3 perspectives special issue: historical ecology & cultural keystone places social science or policy (see watts 2013), which we believe increases clarity of observation. use of the ckp concept brings ethnobiology and archaeology into what might be considered a third form of sufficiency that we also feel is represented by the papers in this special issue, a focus on inquiring about the ethical impact of research. “ethical sufficiency” under this logic is a condition or practice of inquiring about the ethical implications of research before, during, and after projects. a limitation of employing the word “sufficiency” here is that it can easily be misunderstood as a dichotomous variable, such that researchers dub their research as ethically sufficient or not. that dichotomy is not what we intend. rather, what we mean is that to be ethically sufficient, one must be engaged in a continuous process of learning about the impacts of research. despite a possible alignment with lewontin’s use of the word sufficiency, it may be desirable to simply describe this concept as an iterative process of engaging in ethical inquiry. our point is that the ckp concept provides theoretical clarity, extends perspectives on land relationships, and thereby challenges researchers to engage in a deeper process of ethical inquiry. the papers in this special issue exemplify how ckp research enhances our understanding of place. arinyo-i-prats et al. (2025), for instance, move beyond consideration of place more deeply into cultural practices. dimdiigibuu and armstrong (2025) illustrate how understanding of ckps offers a different way for archaeologists and ethnobiologists to discuss places that laterally enfold indigenous perspectives, sovereignty, and ontologies in their defense of land stewardship practices, concepts of legality, and environmental heritage in gitxsan territories of british columbia. ckps, thus, can be contrasted to recognizable concepts of place prioritized in eurocentric contexts such as tourism destinations, archaeological sites, and areas for resource extraction. such meaning is similarly grounded by forste et al. (2025) through deep temporal connections of past islamic cultural and food heritage and contemporary environmental and cultural conceptions of place in menorca, spain. wolverton et al. (2025) highlight that the archaeological record of presence and absence of cultural materials evolves over time and can be understood more impactfully through the lens of historical ecology and ckps, which is of particular importance table 1 four properties of complex systems from sinclair et al. (2018; after wolverton et al. 2023: table 2). concept description by sinclair et al. (2018) connectivity “there are many interacting agents, such as people, animals, plants, or molecules. the interactions can result from close proximity, where the agents form groups, or be based on the exchange of information or other commodities. often then create different kinds of network [s]…” (sinclair et al. 2018:25). history “interactions are influenced by path dependency, memory, or feedback. path dependency means that past events amplify through positive feedback to strongly affect interactions today… memory may also affect interactions… feedbacks are chains of events that influence themselves, either positively or negatively… all the interaction modifiers will have strong effects on the dynamics of a system… the existence of feedback loops also means that agents can adapt their strategies and behaviours, based on history or earlier experiences, and that systems can change over time” (sinclair et al. 2018:25–26). context “a system is typically open, meaning that it can be influenced by its larger context. this may seem trivial since only truly closed systems exist in the laboratory, but it is important because most of the theory describing system dynamics in physics and mathematics is based on closed systems… real-world systems, however, have more complex behaviours than theoretical [closed] systems” (sinclair et al. 2018:26). emergence “systems often show surprising emergent phenomena. because of feedback loops and the openness of systems, they are seldom or never in equilibrium, i.e., they are not static or stable. as agents respond to one another or to changes in their environment, almost any pattern can appear… such emergent phenomena seem to arise spontaneously since they occur without any central controller, but as a consequence of all the interactions and adjustments of the system (sinclair et al. 2018:26) wolverton and armstrong. 2025. ethnobiology letters 16(2):1–6 4 perspectives special issue: historical ecology & cultural keystone places for engaging legal or regulatory spaces. the paper by sachs et al. (2025), which centers quw’utsun perspectives in ecological restoration, exemplifies working beyond restoration ecology into a process of land stewardship through a study design that focuses on the cultural resurgence of indigenous perspectives. such integration should become expected and rewarded in academic contexts. to summarize, we hold that understanding of ckps makes multiple non-western forms of knowledge something that ethnobiologists and archaeologists must acknowledge holds a deeper reality than might be sensed through analysis, quantification, or conventional social science study; we view this acknowledgement as akin to lewontin’s empirical sufficiency. we have argued elsewhere (wolverton et al. 2023) that historical ecology and ejs provide a theoretical framework by profiling concepts such as collective continuance, which concerns the future well-being of peoples through environmental heritage (see also harjo 2019; meskell 2010), which we think is akin to lewontin’s theoretical sufficiency. to reiterate, a limitation of our use of the term “ethical sufficiency” is that it could be used in a dualistic manner that we do not intend. for instance, a scholar or research team might simply use a checklist from a code of ethics, use their own judgement to determine potential harms and benefits, and conclude “our work is done, we checked the boxes, and our work is ethically sufficient (i.e., adequate), let’s proceed.” ethical sufficiency in our introduction of the term, however, does not represent a product or an outcome; one could not determine that, say, one or another research project attains the state of being ethically sufficient. rather, ethical sufficiency, as we frame it, represents an iterative and incremental process that seeks normative change. if a scholar or research team is not routinely evaluating the impacts of their research before, during, and after projects, the process is ethically insufficient. in contrast, if a scholar or team routinely vets their research design against ethical standards, including locally relevant ones, shares research plans and products widely, invites and welcomes consultation and criticism at any stage (before, during, or after), and has clear stopping rules for pausing or terminating a project, they are engaging in an iterative process of ethical inquiry. that is, they are questioning the ethical impact of their work as routine practice. one thing we like about the concept of ethical sufficiency is that it gives ethical inquiry equal standing alongside theoretical and empirical sufficiency; ethical inquiry is thus not an addendum, or external to, the research process, but it is integral to it. a limitation of our position in this introduction to this special issue is our grounding in science and social science from a western perspective. lewontin’s (1974) framing of theoretical and empirical sufficiency represents that colonial tradition. our framing cannot thus replace, diminish, or counter work by indigenous scholars (e.g., huaman and swentzell 2021; simpson 2014; watts 2013), those who contested western approaches to reconciliation prior to its political downfall (coulthard 2014; coulthard and simpson 2016) or those who frame indigenous forms of environmental justice and empowerment (e.g., simpson 2017; whyte 2020). a process of ethical inquiry is important because many archaeologists and ethnobiologists are entrenched in academic settings that are steeped in settler-colonial histories, traditions, and norms. one way to challenge our paradigms is to develop conceptual frameworks within academic traditions that enable and encourage researchers in those traditions to reflect on the impacts of their work. we hold that each paper in this special issue engages in that process. acknowledgments we thank one anonymous reviewer for very thoughtful comments that challenged us to dramatically improve the paper. we also thank robert figueroa for stimulating conversations about ejs and ethics. finally, we thank the editorial team (especially molly carney) for comments, advice, and support that helped us improve the paper. declarations permissions: none declared. sources of funding: none declared. conflicts of interest: none declared. references cited arinyo-i-prats, a., s. latosky, and n. j. turner. 2025. rethinking cultural keystone practices: conflict resolution practices as examples of salience and well-being. ethnobiology letters 16:7–19. doi:10.14237/ebl.16.2.2025.1909. armstrong, c. g., and j. r. veteto. 2015. historical ecology and ethnobiology: applied research for wolverton and armstrong. 2025. ethnobiology letters 16(2):1–6 5 perspectives special issue: historical ecology & cultural keystone places environmental conservation and social justice. ethnobiology letters 6:5–7. doi:10.14237/ ebl.6.1.2015.313. balée, w. 2013. cultural forests of the amazon: a historical ecology of people and their landscapes. university of alabama press, tuscaloosa. 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spp.) includes work that highlights traditional and indigenous cultivation knowledge (beaucage 1997; bandeira et al. 2002; juárez-lópez et al. 2017), features coffee as an important regional cash crop to contextualize the bioecocultural heritage of other plants (mekbib 2009), and explores coffee farm contributions to biological diversity (bandeira et al. 2002; juárez-lópez et al. 2017). these studies teach us how crops meet human needs and influence human social worlds. multispecies approaches open doors to investigate the social and biological contact zones of humans, plants, and other more-than-humans in agrarian worlds (galvin 2018). building from ethnobiological insights into the interactions between biota, environments, and people, multispecies approaches draw attention to the social dimensions that result from these relationships. researchers can investigate the co-creation of ecological landscapes through and with crops by paying attention to this introduction ethnobiologists draw from social and natural science methods to build scientific understanding around the relationships between plants and people. while ethnobiologists collect various forms of evidence, there continues to be an emphasis on quantitative studies (da silva et al. 2014) with recent calls for “hypothesis-driven ethnobiology” (gaoue et al. 2021). multispecies researchers collect qualitative, humanistic, and other artistic evidence (e.g. https:// feralatlas.org) suitable to expand knowledge around the social roles of plants in relationship to humans. both communities of research reach across disciplinary boundaries to study plants. while ethnobiologists more often incorporate quantitative elements in their studies (e.g. bocinsky and varien 2017; flachs 2015; juárez-lópez et al. 2017), multispecies researchers lean toward qualitative approaches in their investigations (e.g.; dove 2019; guthman 2019; kumpf 2020). ethnobiologists take versatile approaches to investigate economically and culturally important crops. examples include: experimental farming studies of maize (zea mays) to determine how past farming communities adapted to climate challenges (bocinsky and varien 2017); studies that document possibilities for multispecies approaches in coffee landscapes jose r. becerra vera1* 1department of anthropology, purdue university, west lafayette, indiana, usa. *becerra4@purdue.edu abstract multispecies approaches can increase our knowledge around the social and ecological dimensions of coffee landscapes. ethnobiologists combine the social and natural sciences to study the relationships between humans, the environment, and biota. multispecies approaches can build from these strategies to further explore the social and biological elements that humans together with more-than-humans contribute to ecological landscapes. using co-constitutions as a key concept, i highlight multispecies studies into agrarian worlds, review ethnobiological studies around coffee, and suggest potential research areas. received may 25, 2020 open access accepted september 28, 2021 doi 10.14237/ebl.12.1.2021.1706 published november 18, 2021 keywords multispecies, co-constitutions, coffee, more-than-human, crops copyright © 2021 by the author(s); licensee society of ethnobiology. this is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution-noncommercial 4.0 international public license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0), which permits non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. becerra vera. 2021. ethnobiology letters 12(1):115–118 116 short topical reviews collective sociality (flachs and orkin 2019). in this short topical review, i outline multispecies approaches in agricultural crop studies, ethnobiology of coffee, and highlight the potential advantages of multispecies approaches in coffee research. agrarian contact zones in this paper, i borrow from the concepts of contact zones and assemblages to define co-constitutions as spatial and temporal locations of world-making (wilson 2019), where the relational context of all constituents shapes a system (robinson and remis 2018). co-constitutions result from entangled human and more-than-human social and biological elements that together also participate in the production of social and ecological change. instances of multispecies approaches in crop studies that highlight coconstitutions include julie h. guthman's (2019) work with strawberries (fragaria spp.), michael r. dove's (2019) historical analysis with black pepper (piper nigrum), rubber (hevea brasiliensis), and sword grass (imperata cylindrica), and desirée kumpf's (2020) investigation of tea production (camellia spp). guthman (2019) describes the strawberry industry as an assemblage, for this topical review, otherwise known as a co-constitution. for guthman, the coconstitution includes elements of political economy, scientific knowledge, migrants and labor, pathogens and chemicals, and other humans and more-thanhumans that together play a role in the fragility of the strawberry industry. dove (2019) outlines how the introduction of black pepper, tea, and sword grass into agrarian co-constitutions expanded small holders' imaginations and cultivation strategies, often at odds with settler-colonial production regimes. kumpf (2020) demonstrates how the lack of compensation for tea workers results in them ignoring tea tasting during production, which leads to lower quality tea. these studies highlight the role plants have on transforming human worlds. refocusing attention to co-constitution in ecologies, where “organisms, elements, and forces cannot be considered in isolation but must always be considered in relation,” (o’gorman and gaynor 2020). ethnobiology of coffee coffee is the second most traded commodity worldwide and is recognized for its cultural value among producers and consumers (west 2012). ethnobiological studies on coffee have explicitly focused on the negative economic and environmental impacts that result from neglecting indigenous knowledge (beaucage 1997), as well as investigated the insights from indigenous and traditional knowledge in maintaining agroforests (bandeira et al. 2002) and biodiversity (juárez-lópez et al. 2017). other ethnobiological studies include coffee grounds in investigations of folk remedies for injuries from stingrays (da silva et al. 2020). in the related field of ethnomedicine, researchers examine coffee leaves for potential human health benefits (chen 2019). collectively, these studies demonstrate how people make use of coffee to meet economic, biodiversity, and human health goals. multispecies approaches can expand these strategies to gain further insight into the nuances of co-created coffee ecological and social worlds. for example, anna l. tsing, andrew s. mathews, and nils bubandt (2019) outline how coffee rust fungus (hemileia vastratrix) only became an epidemic due to multispecies histories that involve capital, ecology, humans, and more-than-humans together transforming a landscape. multispecies openings following the examples of agrarian co-constitutions help to outline essential areas of multispecies coffee research. like guthman's (2019) analysis with strawberries, the coffee industry results from the coconstitutions between political, social, economic, and biological elements. dove’s (2019) studies with pepper highlights the role of cash crops with colonial histories of displacement and local innovation, as also seen with coffee. kumpf's (2020) investigation with tea sheds light on how coffee ecologies connect to labor and production regimes that influence multispecies co-constitutions that affect coffee quality and taste. coffee agriculture includes various cultivation strategies linked to political, social, colonial, economic, biological, and ecological histories. more-than-humans are inseparable from these histories and have an active role in shaping coffee landscapes. similarly, cultivation strategies impact more-than-humans. multispecies approaches can provide the platform to observe these different dimensions. studying coffee landscapes as multispecies co-constitutions presents opportunities to enhance our understanding of the biological and social dimensions of human, plant, pathogen, chemical, and other more-than-human ecologies. becerra vera. 2021. ethnobiology letters 12(1):115–118 117 short topical reviews conclusion in sum, ethnobiological studies provide insight into how plants meet human needs and interests. multispecies approaches offer researchers the opportunity to expand on these studies to include how the interactions between humans, plants, and more-than-humans together shape and transform landscapes. applying a multispecies approach to crop studies highlights the effects of more-than-humans on ecological and social elements in agrarian worlds. this offers a view beyond ecological change as an effect of human manipulation over the environment. studying coffee co-constitutions has theoretical and methodological implications for humans and morethan-humans. while climate change discourse centers humans as the main drivers in environmental change, it also draws attention to the interlinked elements of the social and biological world. multispecies studies of coffee can provide insight into these interlinked elements and relationships that together form ecological landscapes. this can expand knowledge around the relational contexts in coffee ecologies and help identify what multispecies collaborations are impacted by climate change. as scholars from different disciplines incorporate a multispecies approach to coffee research, they must also expand methodological toolkits to address the social and biological elements that form coffee ecologies. in this aspect, studying coffee co-constitutions can benefit from the ethnobiological skill of linking the social and natural sciences (quinlan and quinlan 2016). acknowledgments thank you, dr. andrew flachs, for the continued support and valuable feedback on my drafts for this manuscript. i would also like to thank dr. maria bruno, the editor, who has been extremely helpful throughout this process. i am especially grateful for the comments and feedback from the anonymous reviewer. their suggestions were truly instrumental for improving this manuscript, thank you. declarations permissions: none declared. sources of funding: none declared. conflicts of interest: none declared. references cited bandeira, f. p., lopez, b.j. and toledo, v. m. 2002. tzotzil maya ethnoecology: landscape perception and management as a basis for coffee agroforest design. journal of ethnobiology 22(2):247–272. beaucage, p., and taller de tradición oral, cepec. 1997. integrating innovation: the traditional nahua coffee-orchard. sierra norte de puebla, mexico. journal of ethnobiology 17(1):45–67. bocinsky, r. k., 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2019. plants, politics, and the imagination over the past 500 years in the indomalay region. current anthropology 60(s20):s309– s320. doi:10.1086/702877. flachs, a. 2015. persistent agrobiodiversity on genetically modified cotton farms in telangana, india. journal of ethnobiology 35(2):406–426. flachs, a. 2016. the economic botany of organic cotton farms in telangana, india. journal of ethnobiology 36(3):683–713. doi:10.2993/02780771-36.3.683. flachs, a., and orkin, j.d. 2019. fermentation and the ethnobiology of microbial entanglement. ethnobiology letters 10(1):35–39. doi:10.14237/ebl.10.1.2019.1481. galvin, s. s. 2018. interspecies relations and agrarian worlds. annual review of anthropology 47:233–249. doi:10.1146/annurev-anthro-102317-050232. becerra vera. 2021. ethnobiology letters 12(1):115–118 118 short topical reviews gaoue, o. g., moutouama, j. k., coe, m. a., bond, m. o., green, e., sero, n. b., bezeng, b. s., and yessoufou, k. 2021. methodological advances for hypothesis‐driven ethnobiology. biological reviews 96(5):2281-2303. doi:10.1111/brv.12752. guthman, j. 2019. wilted: pathogens, chemicals, and the fragile future of the strawberry industry (vol. 6). university of california press, berkeley, ca. doi:10.2307/j.ctvp7d4bc. heindorf, c., van‘t hooft, a., reyes-agüero, j. a., and martínez, j. f. 2020. folk taxonomy of the inter-and intraspecific edible plant diversity of huastec mayan farmers in mexico. journal of ethnobiology 40(4):552–568. doi:10.2993/02780771-40.4.552. juárez-lópez, b. velázquez-rosas, n., and lópezbinnqüist, c. 2017. tree diversity and uses in coffee plantations of a mixe community in oaxaca, mexico. journal of ethnobiology 37(4):765–778. doi:10.2993/0278-0771-37.4.765. kumpf, d. 2020. organic taste and labour on indian tea plantations. social anthropology 28(4):789 –802. doi:10.1111/1469-8676.12951. loko, l. e. y., toffa, j., adjatin, a., akpo, a. j., orobiyi, a., and dansi, a. 2018. folk taxonomy and traditional uses of common bean (phaseolus vulgaris l.) landraces by the sociolinguistic groups in the central region of the republic of benin. journal of ethnobiology and ethnomedicine 14(1):1 –15. doi:10.1186/s13002-018-0251-6. mekbib, f. 2009. folksong based appraisal of bioecocultural heritage of sorghum (sorghum bicolor (l.) moench): a new approach in ethnobiology. journal of ethnobiology and ethnomedicine 5(1):1–19. doi:10.1186/1746-4269-519. o’gorman, e., and gaynor, a. (2020). more-thanhuman histories. environmental history 25(4):711– 735. doi:10.1093/envhis/emaa027. robinson, c. a. j., and remis, m. j. 2018. engaging holism: exploring multispecies approaches in ethnoprimatology. international journal of primatology 39(5):776–796. doi:10.1007/s10764-018 -0036-8. quinlan, m. b., and quinlan, r. j. 2016. ethnobiology in one health. ethnobiology letters 7(1):59–61. doi:10.14237/ebl.7.1.2016.680. tsing, a. l., mathews, a. s., and bubandt, n. 2019. patchy anthropocene: landscape structure, multispecies history, and the retooling of anthropology: an introduction to supplement 20. current anthropology 60(s20):s186–s197. doi:10.1086/703391. west, p. 2012. from modern production to imagined primitive: the social world of coffee from papua new guinea. duke university press, durham, nc. wilson, h. f. 2019. contact zones: multispecies scholarship through imperial eyes. environment and planning e: nature and space 2(4):712–731. doi:10.1177/2514848619862191. empire of cotton: a global history. by sven beckert. 2014. vintage, new york, ny. 615 pp. anderson. 2017. ethnobiology letters 8(1):97–100 97 reviews perspectives from gene anderson’s bookshelf bludgeoning, and the old-fashioned whip and lash. it was the capitalism of high-seas piracy, armed invasion to secure markets or level a competitor, and above all of slavery. slavery is as old as civilization, and its pathological rise in the seventeenth and eightenth centuries was due to sugar cultivation (see mintz 1985), but it became most notorious in the cotton world of the united states south. slavery also accompanied cotton in brazil, and in the ottoman empire and egypt. (americans often fail to realize that the united states south was not the only slave economy.) some countries produced cotton with free labor, notably india and china, but the conditions of production still involved poverty and oppression. many writers during the peak of slavery argued that only plantations worked by enslaved labor could economically produce cotton, forgetting the asian examples. after the fall of slavery, however, cotton persisted. beckert tells the story of the rise of shareholding and tenant farming in the american south. equivalent less-than-benign systems developed elsewhere. meanwhile, a key part of the industrial revolution was the development in england of spinning and weaving machinery. this led to spectacular increases in productivity. labor was only briefly and locally displaced, because the increases led to a correspondingly spectacular rise in the availability of clothing, which in turn led to dramatic decreases in price and thus increases in sales. the world became cotton-clad. pent-up demand for clothing could be satisfied. beckert does not need to emphasize the point that this improved conditions for a large percentage of humanity; that point is clear enough. as the world’s leading nonfood crop, cotton is long overdue for a comprehensive history. it has now received one. beckert’s book is not the last word on cotton, but it is a major work on the global history of this world-changing crop. cotton now joins the small and select list of crops that have received serious, focused historical treatment: potatoes (salaman 1948), sugar (mazumdar 1998, mintz 1985), chocolate (coe and coe 1996), maize (blake 2015), soybeans (dubois et al. 2008; piper and morse 1923), and a few others, including assorted works on coffee, tea, and spices. we still lack major up-to-date global histories of wheat, barley, and several other staples, to say nothing of such deserving microorganisms as lactobacillus and saccharomyces. beckert concentrates largely on the history of the cotton economy from the industrial revolution to the end of british cotton mercantilism. after spending an initial 28 pages on all cotton history prior to european manufacturing, and another eight bringing it up to 1700, he spends the rest of this long book detailing the history of cotton manufacturing and trade from then till 1963. his ending date is a firm one: in december of 1963, the liverpool cotton exchange auctioned off the last of their furniture, bringing an end to england’s cotton marketing (p. 428). a few pages bring us up to 2014, but without details. the period from 1700 to 1963 is the period in which europe and the united states dominated cotton marketing, spinning, weaving, and clothing manufacture. it is also the period of full dominance of what beckert calls “war capitalism”: first mercantile, then industrial, capitalism forced on the weak by the strong, via gunboats, armies, economic empire of cotton: a global history. by sven beckert. 2014. vintage, new york, ny. 615 pp. eugene n. anderson1* 1department of anthropology, university of california, riverside, california, usa. *eugene.anderson@ucr.edu received july 27, 2017 open access accepted august 6, 2017 doi 10.14237/ebl.8.1.2017.1068 copyright © 2017 by the author(s) licensee society of ethnobiology. this is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution-noncommercial 4.0 international public license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0), which permits non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. anderson. 2017. ethnobiology letters 8(1):97–100 98 reviews perspectives from gene anderson’s bookshelf the world now has a huge clothing glut. rwanda has just banned the dumping of used clothes as ‘charity’ there, to protect its merchants. conditions in the old-time cotton mills were, however, horrific. children labored, often for twelve hours at a time or more, under appalling conditions. mortality from tuberculosis, malnutrition, and workrelated injuries and illnesses would have led to rapid decline in urban populations without constant inmigration from the countryside. eventually, textile mills became centers of labor organization. while the vast majority of workers in the cotton economy suffered as badly as any workers in history, the industrialists, brokers, shippers, bankers, and lawyers did very well by themselves. much of this book is a history of successful entrepreneurs, a surprising percentage of whom worked their way up from the shop floor. early cotton trade was based heavily on personal trust, and thus concentrated in families and in minority religious communities (jews, armenians, parsis, jains, syrian christians, and others). the rise of corporations lowered transaction costs and routinized contracts, making personal trust less and less necessary over time. perhaps the most important point made by beckert is the role of the state in all this. ‘free trade,’ as he repeatedly points out, is only as free as national power makes it. the british state, especially, enforced labor discipline, contract, and legal infrastructures, protected merchants, fought wars to block rival economic powers, regulated the slave trade and then ended it, and otherwise created the legal, moral, and military order in which cotton manufacturers and traders lived and worked. the united states enforced slavery and then ended it; cotton planters were always disproportionately important in the national government. in short: “the tremendous rapacity and unbalanced consequences of war capitalism left in its wake a great diversity: some states were strengthened, while others were weakened…. on the one hand, slavery, land expropriations, militarized trade, and colonial expansion had opened up vast new territories… on the other hand, colonial expansion, the slave trade, and slavery itself undermined state capacity in other parts of the world and in so doing limited the likelihood that the newfangled machines, and with them industrial capitalism, would take root there” (p. 165). as a history of world cotton trade and manufacture during those euro-american centuries, this book is superb, and will remain a landmark. however, it is not the last word on cotton. ethnobiologists will first note a lack of basic biology. beckert does not even spell scientific names correctly; gossypium arboreum is consistently misspelled arboretum. he does recognize the role of sea island cotton (p. 101), a cultivar of g. hirsutum, but does not point out the importance of its specific history; developed by the arawak people of the west indies, it was introduced to the sea islands of georgia and south carolina by planters who migrated north from those islands, and then bred further in the united states. it slowly but surely went worldwide, displacing the less productive and shorter-staple cottons of the rest of the world. this is what gave the united states such a major advantage in early cotton trade. egypt too acquired superior cotton early, and remains heavily dependent on superior cotton to this day. other countries have had to catch up, often slowly. also downplayed in beckert’s work is the extreme vulnerability of cotton to pests. its extremely nourishing seeds make it a vast free lunch counter for pests that have evolved immunity to the poisons therein. (these poisons must be removed in cottonseed meal for animal and human food.) the boll weevil rates a mere mention (p. 344), the cotton bollworm—now the worst pest—not even a word. yet the boll weevil devastated cotton production in the united states in the early 20th century, leading to mass migration of ruined white and black farmers to the cities. the scourge of this weevil was immortalized in a grim blues verse: i don’t see no water, but i’m about to drown, i don’t see no fire, but i’m a-burnin’ down. (anonymous, ca. 1920.) yucatan, where cotton is native, has weevilresistant varieties, but these were never found or followed up by cotton breeders. the boll weevil is now a minor problem, but the cotton bollworm (helicoverpa armigera) is a major one. it is currently controlled by engineering bacillus thuringensis genes into commercial cotton, but is acquiring resistance, just as it has evolved resistance to just about every pesticide that has been thrown at it. moreover, resistance to ‘bt cotton’ itself has become common in india, where loss of farmers’ control over their seed stocks is a more direct and serious issue for many. anderson. 2017. ethnobiology letters 8(1):97–100 99 reviews perspectives from gene anderson’s bookshelf cotton is also a notoriously greedy crop, impoverishing the land. in the united states, this led to the steady westward move of the cotton frontier, from the carolinas to the mid-south and on to texas, then arizona, then california. now, competition from the global south adds to global warming, which is making arizona, california, and much of texas too hot and dry for cotton. the drought of 2016 exacerbated a long-term process of replacing cotton with less thirsty and less fertilizer-intensive crops. as beckert points out, cotton in the united states is now subsidized to the tune of over $4,000,000,000 a year (p. 438), paid out to only 25,000 large farms (p. 429). here and in several other countries, it is no longer economical to grow cotton, and the industry is saved due to the political power of the farmers. they contribute heavily to campaigns, and sometimes win government positions themselves, and thus keep the subsidies flowing. pest control and fertilizer demands make cotton by far the most chemical-consuming crop in the world. in some years, it has consumed a third of agrochemicals worldwide. it is also a great consumer of water. it grows best with maximal sunshine and yet has an enormous water need. it therefore flourishes most in desert river valleys: the nile, san joaquin, gila, indus, amu darya. beckert devotes only two sentences (p. 432) to the result: enormous diversions of water, poisoning of whole rivers by agrochemicals, drying of lakes and seas. the amu darya used to fill the aral sea; now it waters cotton fields, the aral sea is dry, and people along the lower amu darya lack water for washing and bathing and are dying from pesticide poisoning. the unique biological properties of cotton are part of its story. the world would have been very different if cotton had been a different plant—less attractive to pests, less easy to raise in monocrop cultivation, less tied to desert rivers or hot, rainy climates. was cotton doomed to make the world into hell? beckert sometimes toys with the alternative: production of cotton in mixed farming systems, grown by independent small farmers. this breaks up the monocrop conditions that maximize insect pests, allows use of farm wastes and legume rotations to maintain soil fertility, and uses labor efficiently. beckert implies that it never works, but in fact it works perfectly well in china and india today, or could if better pest control were instituted. as sucheta mazumdar (1998) showed that sugar did not need to be produced on slave plantations, somewhat qualifying sidney mintz (1985), so philip huang’s study of early 20th century cotton production in china (huang 1985) could have informed beckert of ways for free small-scale farmers to produce cotton. (full disclosure: this is all in the family. huang and i were mazumdar’s thesis supervisors.) various institutions, including the university of california, riverside, where i work, developed integrated pest management systems for cotton that allowed drastic reductions in pesticides, and these systems are now used—though not widely enough. similarly, there was never any very good reason for horribly exploitative treatment of workers in the fields and mills. only owners’ greed prevented fair salaries and decent working conditions. to a lack of detail on biology, beckert adds an odd indifference to theory. he does not cite marx on “primitive capital formation,” though that idea seems to lie behind beckert’s “war capitalism.” also, the book is almost a textbook case for world-systems theory, but beckert never mentions that body of enquiry. world-systems theory (wallerstein 1976) stresses the role of core nations in underdeveloping peripheral ones and creating semiperipheral (“developing”) ones. cotton had a great deal to do with creating the world-system of the last three centuries. it enormously helped germany, france, britain, and the united states take control of the core. it led to forced de-development of india, as gandhi famously pointed out. it led to the rise of egypt into the semiperiphery, and helped india rebound to semiperipheral position. it played key roles in the bitter stories of uzbekistan, sudan, brazil, and many other countries, tying them to the core nations in often highly disadvantageous ways. world-systems theory provides one way to talk about such stories in a comparative, systematic way. there are alternative theories, but at least some organized way of comparing, predicting, and understanding would seem necessary to analyzing a complex political-economic process like the development of the “empire of cotton.” lacking these or other biological and theoretical insights, beckert’s book is not the basic theoretical game-changer that salaman’s history and social influence of the potato and mintz’ sweetness and power were. we await a book that will truly make cotton central to understanding human-plant relationships. in the anderson. 2017. ethnobiology letters 8(1):97–100 100 reviews perspectives from gene anderson’s bookshelf meantime, beckert’s book is still a landmark, a grand history of one of the important business-and-industry complexes that made the modern world. in spite of its shortage of biological detail, it is an important read for ethnobotanists, showing the enormous ramifications of an important crop in an often harsh world. a personal postnote: my father was raised on a tiny, remote cotton farm in east texas. i visited the farm in my youth, and learned cotton from the ground up. the farm is now returning to the wild; cotton, once king, is now almost gone from east texas. i found, in the local cemetery, the graves of the stalwart old-time farming couple who leased it when my widowed grandmother grew too old to manage it. sic transit. references cited blake, m. 2015. maize for the gods: unearthing the 9,000year history of corn. university of california press, berkeley, ca. coe, s., and m. coe. 1996. the true history of chocolate. thames and hudson, new york, ny. du bois, c. m., c. b. tan, and s. mintz, eds. 2008. the world of soy. university of illinois press, urbana, il. huang, p. c. c. 1985. the peasant economy and social change in north china. stanford university press, stanford, ca. mazumdar, sucheta. 1998. sugar and society in china: peasants, technology, and the world market. harvard university press, cambridge, ma. mintz, s. 1985. sweetness and power: the place of sugar in modern history. yale university press, new haven, ct. piper, c. v., and w. j. morse. 1923. the soybean. mcgraw-hill, new york, ny. salaman, r. 1949. the history and social influence of the potato. cambridge university press, cambridge, ma. wallerstein, i. 1976. the modern world-system: capitalist agriculture and the origins of the european worldeconomy in the sixteenth century. academic press, new york, ny. the current status of ethnobiology in ecuador gonzález‐rivadeneira et al. 2018. ethnobiology le ers 9(2):206–213 206 perspec ves encountered and sometimes confronted to solve a specific problem. as a latin american country, ecuador represents a special case for the development of ethnobiology not only because of its great biodiversity and natural regions, but also for the different actors inhabiting these regions. social actors from academia and other areas, such as government institutions and local organizations, have contributed significantly to positioning tek in ecuadorian scholarship and politics (e.g., including an indigenous worldview described in ecuador’s constitution). both the andes and the amazon are regions of species domestication where human cultures have developed and co-evolved alongside the environment, implementing unique systems of diet, health, and worldview that have facilitated the conservation of species in these areas (diamond 2002; gorenflo et al. 2011). for this reason, ecuador is recognized in its constitution as being an intercultural, plurinational, and biodiverse country. it is home to 13 indigenous nationalities, each with their own language, history, and culture, constituting self-reliant frameworks of relationships with nature (chisaguano 2006). introduction ethnobiology comprises an extensive and complex field of research focusing on the interactions between humans and their environments. anderson et al. (2011) consider ethnobiology to be focused mainly on the knowledge of local and indigenous groups, whereas posey (1986) perceives ethnobiology as the knowledge and conceptions developed by any society regarding nature and its role in human beliefs and adaptations to particular environments, otherwise referred to as traditional ecological knowledge (tek). in that sense, tek has a local explanatory scope found in the experiences of indigenous peoples. likewise, the diálogo de saberes (argueta 2011) seeks the recognition of the traditional ecological knowledge of local communities: their languages, their culture, and their differentiated identities, and with it the same epistemic value as science, appealing to the unyielding nature of this knowledge in the face of western science (agrawal 1995; gudynas 2011; hunn 2007). diálogo de saberes or “dialogue of knowledge” is a dialogic process in which two or more ways of knowing that are epistemically different are the current status of ethnobiology in ecuador tania gonzález‐rivadeneira1*, radamés villagómez‐reséndiz1,2, alessio barili1 1sociedad ecuatoriana de etnobiología 2estudios mesoamericanos, na onal autonomous university of méxico * taniaivanovagr@gmail.com abstract this ar cle gives an account of the current status of ethnobiology in ecuador. our goal is a generalized diagnosis of la n america’s ethnobiological research produc on, which portrays ecuadorian ethnobiology as prac cally non‐existent. we perform an updated search of online databases, using a range of keywords, to show that elements of an ethnobiological research program are indeed present in ecuadorian scholarship. while ethnobotany is the most developed sub‐discipline of ethnobiology in ecuador, there is also research on ethnomedicine, ethnozoology, and, to a lesser extent, ethnomycology. the development of these sub‐disciplines promotes further ethnobiological scholarship in ecuador. beyond these sub‐ disciplines, ethnobiology is interwoven with contemporary anthropological accounts that emphasize the rela onships between nature and culture and shine a light on the epistemic plurality of ethnobiology. if ethnobiology in ecuador is dis nguished by an epistemic plurality—understood through these different styles of reasoning—then it can be characterized without being confined to sub‐disciplines with the ethno‐ prefix. received november 24, 2017 open access accepted april 24, 2018 doi 10.14237/ebl.9.2.2018.1174 keywords ecuador, ethnobotany, anthropology, epistemic plurality, styles of reasoning copyright © 2018 by the author(s) licensee society of ethnobiology. this is an open‐access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution‐noncommercial 4.0 international public license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by‐nc/4.0), which permits non‐commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. gonzález‐rivadeneira et al. 2018. ethnobiology le ers 9(2):206–213 207 perspec ves as a consequence, various disciplines including evolutionary ecology and socio-environmental studies have made important inroads with topics relevant to ethnobiology. in particular, shared concerns such as climate change, food security, and traditional knowledge have linked different fields of research in various ecuadorian institutions. however, ethnobiology crosses other axes of research by focusing on nature conservation, ethnomedicine, bioethics, ethnoagroforestry, and diálogo de saberes; it takes as a starting point the local indigenous and afro-descendent peoples and their own knowledge (argueta 2011). an analysis of ethnobiology in latin america has shed light on the current status of ethnobiological research in the region (albuquerque et al. 2013). countries like brazil and mexico appear to be leaders in the field, while in ecuador it seems that there is no research in this area at all. ecuador places last in latin america regarding scientific production specifically related to ethnobiology. albuquerque et al. (2013) show that from 1963 to 2012, only one ecuadorian scientific article has been published in the entire field, as opposed to 289 in brazil, 153 in mexico, 61 in peru, and 11 in colombia. this article offers an updated overview on the current status of ethnobiological publications in ecuador, taking into account the keywords selected by albuquerque et al. (2013) in scopus, an online index and database of peer-reviewed research. we include a brief search of databases from the ecuadorian consortium of university libraries and the open access repository network of ecuador. additionally, while we use the keywords “ethnobiology” and “ethnobotany,” we also use keywords without the ethno prefix, such as “useful plants”, “medicinal plants”, and “useful animals” in the same databases. however, to arrive at a more comprehensive analysis of ecuadorian ethnobiology, we argue that bibliometric research in terms of keywords is insufficient, and that meta-analysis is also required. therefore, we also explore previous analyses of ecuadorian ethnobiology, tracking other approaches on nature-culture relationships that reflect epistemic plurality or interdisciplinarity within ethnobiology. finally, we discuss this epistemic plurality in terms of “styles of reasoning” in light of the so-called fifth phase of ethnobiology (wolverton 2013). the notion of styles of reasoning was initially proposed to explain scientific practices beyond oldfashioned views on method and was conceived as a tool to understand the historicity of science (hacking 2009; pickstone 2001). we believe that it also serves as a heuristic to illustrate the work of groups outside the academy, as well as the epistemic plurality underlying ethnoscience (which we understand as knowledge of, and not about, indigenous peoples). thus, academics from local and indigenous communities, although they may not be ethnobiologists per se, have positioned their knowledge in different academic contexts and have been actors in collective processes for the recognition of their own knowledge. they recognize their tek in terms of diálogo de saberes to maintain or promote sustainable processes, either through selfmanagement, through decentralized autonomous governments, or by the support of non-governmental organizations. revisiting a bibliometric approach there are relatively few ethnobiological publications of ecuadorian origin in international and indexed journals (at least, those explicitly including the prefix ethno-). the bulk of ecuadorian research concerning nature-culture relationships appears in local publications, as is the case with the studies of medicinal flora by misael acosta solis (1910–1994), and more recent research concerning the rights of nature by acosta and martinez (2011). moreover, even though specialized literature on ethnobiology does exist in ecuador (e.g., rios 2009; de la torre et al. 2008; rios and pedersen 1991), albuquerque et al. (2013) do not recognize it as such. instead, they recommend revisiting the state of ethnobiological studies, using a wider methodological approach to establish an overview of academic production disseminated in various educational and research institutions across the country. our bibliometric methodology, carried out in scopus with the keywords “ethnobiology” and “ecuador”, showed five articles published in the period 2006–2016, which differs from results obtained by albuquerque et al. (2013). when combining the words “ethnobotany” and “ecuador”, we found significantly more results: 50 publications in scopus, primarily articles published in english, ignoring all contributions written in spanish. when we used different keywords for the search, such as “medicinal gonzález‐rivadeneira et al. 2018. ethnobiology le ers 9(2):206–213 208 perspec ves plants” and “ecuador”, scopus showed 96 published articles. it is important to note that most of the articles in scopus are publications from ecuadorian institutions: universidad técnica particular de loja, pontificia universidad católica del ecuador, and universidad politécnica salesiana. in the open access repository network of ecuador, the list also includes the universidad de cuenca and escuela politécnica del litoral. over the past decade, the quantity of available publications has increased (figures 1 and 2). our analysis of the ecuadorian consortium of university libraries database found that it includes articles, books, conference papers, and other documents related to ethnobiology in ecuador (figure 3), most of which are published in spanish for national institutions. while these bibliometric analyses allow a quick glance at scholarly production on the subject, they do not reveal an accurate picture of the status of ethnobiology in ecuador in part because many publications in spanish are registered in libraries and national repositories. furthermore, these publications are not limited to keywords with the ethnoprefix, but rather address specific areas of knowledge of particular groups of people and different nationalities. we have noticed that when we focus solely on keywords with the ethnoprefix, we introduce a bias that neglects other ways of identifying ethnobiological research. even when taking into account other keywords, we still leave aside epistemological issues that would illustrate a more comprehensive state of the discipline. figure 1 ins tu ons that are publishing about medicinal plants in ecuador in the scopus database. gonzález‐rivadeneira et al. 2018. ethnobiology le ers 9(2):206–213 209 perspec ves beyond the bibliometric vision of ethnobiology in her text “las plantas y el hombre” (“plants and man”), ana argüello (1991) presents an analysis of ethnobiology in ecuador. she explains that the science is gaining importance in state and private institutions, but is subject to economic limitations and lacks institutional support. argüello presents a qualitative perspective emphasizing the separation of two research areas: on one hand, biological and botanical studies with a strong ecological perspective; on the other hand, anthropological studies that underpin a strong cultural stance. this separation is striking, particularly since anthropological efforts are recognized as being essential to ethnobiological research, especially in terms of ethnobotany. two recent works attempt to synthesize a historiography of ecuadorian ethnobotany, revealing a vast number of ethnobotanical publications. these are useful for understanding the epistemological diversity that has characterized ethnobiology from its origins. the first one is a historiography of ethnobotany in ecuador by montserrat ríos (2007) in collaboration with the pontificia universidad católica del ecuador and the university of aarhus, denmark. ríos focuses analytically on two aspects of this subject: the category of “useful” plants, and the need to promote ethnobotany in ecuador, encouraging the creation of repositories to contribute to environmental impact studies. de la torre et al (2008) wrote the second historiographical account of ethnobotany in ecuador. it refers to the earliest settlements of the ecuadorian region, with emphasis on archaeological data for the domestication of native species in the sierra, the coast, and especially in the amazon. de la torre et al. (2008) focus in part on the various scientific expeditions of the eighteenth century, ranging from the french geodesic mission, led by charles marie de la condamine (started in 1739), the spanish botanical expedition to the real audiencia de quito, which resulted in the flora huayaquilensis by juan tafalla and juan agustín manzanilla (1799–1808), to alexander von humboldt’s expedition alongside aimé bonpland and carlos montúfar in 1799. finally, de la torre et al. (2008) highlight the role of several ecuadorian ethnobotanists such as josé mejía lequerica (1775– 1813), misael acosta-solís (1910–1994), eduardo estrella (1941–1996), plutarco naranjo (1921–2012), and carlos cerón (1957–). from a critical approach to science historiography, the importance of keeping a record of national scientific production entails, on one hand, joining the criticism of the diffusionist model of western science elaborated by george basalla (1967), figure 2 number of ar cles published about medicinal plants in ecuador found in the scopus database. gonzález‐rivadeneira et al. 2018. ethnobiology le ers 9(2):206–213 210 perspec ves and, on the other hand, recounting what marcos cueto (1989) called “excellence in the periphery”. this approach to ecuadorian ethnobiology demonstrates the gestation and scientific development of a national character through the notion of research styles. continuing with the sub-disciplines of ecuadorian ethnobiology, ethnomycology has works related to fungi and their relationship with humans, including studies of phytopathology, bioremediation, and biotechnology, as well as works on mushroom cultivation that could be framed as a branch of the bioeconomy. an important contribution to this field is an introduction to ecuadorian ethnomycology by gamboa (2009), where the author documents fungi species in 13 different ethnic communities, defining cultural uses and several worldviews around fungi. finally, studies in the sub-discipline of ecuadorian ethnozoology are even more dispersed, with most of them focused on hunting or dietary taboos around meat consumption. iván jácomenegrete conducted important ethnozoological studies with emphases on the cultural uses of ichthyofauna and aquatic mammals (jácome-negrete 2012; jácomenegrete et al. 2013). jácome-negrete argues that the beginning of ecuadorian ethnozoology and fisheries can be traced back to 1900 and the ethnographies of different cultural groups (jácome-negrete 2012; jácome-negrete et al. 2013). this is true for most ethnobiological studies, since the first reports concerning nature-culture relationships come from the anthropological point of view. styles of reasoning in ecuadorian ethnobiology according to argüello (1991), it is important to emphasize the role of anthropology in the emergence of ecuadorian ethnobiology, from traditional approaches to indigenous groups (barrett 1994; bianchi 1988; juncosa 1988; karsten 1935; vickers 1989), to contemporary accounts, such as the work developed by philippe descola (1988), laura rival (1996), and eduardo kohn (2013), among others. likewise, juridical studies have approached the naturefigure 3 publica ons about the ethnobiology of ecuador found at the consor um of university libraries of ecuador. gonzález‐rivadeneira et al. 2018. ethnobiology le ers 9(2):206–213 211 perspec ves culture relationship with a legal/environmental/ cultural focus, where the tek of ecuadorian peoples and nationalities have been integrated into public policies, including the national plan of sumak kawsay, or “good living”, the rights of nature, and collective rights, all of which are revolutionary in terms of public policy in the americas (de la cadena 2010). the origins of ecuadorian ethnobotany are a good reminder of how ethnobiology did not begin when this science was defined (1895); instead, it originated with the accounts of explorers during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. likewise, ethnomycology demonstrates the extent to which the ethnosciences involve modern, cutting-edge research areas such as engineering and genetics, without incurring a reductionist outlook. previous research has tried to cope with epistemic plurality in ethnobiology. for example, eugene hunn’s four phases of ethnobiology (2007) establishes how paradigms in ethnobiology arise, but does not specify how different values coexist in the emergence of a new research field. hunn’s first phase, defined at the end of ninetheenth century, is characterized by the first definition of ethnobiology and a utilitarian approach. the second phase, defined during the 1960s, was strongly influenced by cognitive/linguistic anthropology. the third phase integrates the ecological approach to human-nature interactions. finally, the fourth phase, according to hunn, emphasizes the role of indigenous people over their own rights and their own territories (hunn 2007). a bibliometric approach maintains a strong commitment to a conception of ethnobiology in terms of phases, neglecting both its heuristic use and the fact that one of the most relevant topics in this area presently concerns metatheory directed at biocultural phenomena (ellen 2006). thus, it would be misleading to attribute ecuadorian ethnomycology and ethnozoology to hunn’s first phase solely because they still elaborate lists of useful species while recognizing the role of people. in fact, they correspond to hunn’s fourth phase, or the so-called diálogo de saberes. we think that a meta-analysis of the current status of ecuadorian ethnobiology implies more than the classificatory task of ethnobiological production according to hunn’s phases, as has recently been done in south asia (hidayati et al. 2015). a better alternative to explain the epistemic plurality in ecuadorian ethnobiology would utilize the metaphor of a “patchwork” employed in contemporary philosophy of science. this notion relates to different domains of scientific enterprise, using different styles of reasoning, and creating an inferential network that concerns selection, interpretation, and support of specific results (bueno 2012; cartwright 1999). the notion of styles of reasoning is identified through the history of science in several works (elwick 2007; flech 1987); its most recent formulation concerns ian hacking’s (2009) approach, where he argues that styles of reasoning, which aim to capture inferential patterns for relevant conditions of truth, converge in interdisciplinary projects. such an account fits very well with the complexity and multilevel analysis of ethnobiological research. one advantage of this consideration of epistemic plurality is its convergence with the so-called fifth phase of ethnobiology, proposed by wolverton (2013), which emphasizes that contemporary ethnobiology concerns studies of the impact of global climate change and the effects of these changes on humans and their cultures. styles of reasoning enable researchers to link these concerns with normativity at several epistemological levels, resulting in a promising tool to map the current state of ecuadorian ethnobiology and put forward a research agenda. a wider notion of normativity than what is usually attributed to the scientific method reflects a variety of ways of knowing which are also related to tek, such as historical and experimental styles. finally, styles of reasoning help to conceive of tek as more than a classification issue. in this context, the ecuadorian society of ethnobiology and the latin-american society of ethnobiology have contributed to the development of ecuadorian ethnobiology by organizing the first and second ecuadorian congress of ethnobiology (2014 and 2017 respectively), and the fifth latin american congress of ethnobiology (2017). these forums have created spaces for reflection on this science, knitting together groups of researchers, and promoting the inclusion of ethnobiologist perspectives in the scholarly agenda. ecuadorian ethnobiology is a growing field that requires the cooperation of researchers and local communities in two ways. first, it requires the participation of local and indigenous peoples as coauthors of articles, or at least having important roles gonzález‐rivadeneira et al. 2018. ethnobiology le ers 9(2):206–213 212 perspec ves in the research process, and recognizing their knowledge in ethical ways. second, ethnobiological discussions must be positioned in both academic and political spaces, including in the context of the rights of nature in order to promote the conservation of biocultural diversity. in that sense, we encourage ecuadorian researchers to propose new styles of reasoning that will help to position ecuadorian ethnobiology as a tool to address the challenges that biocultural diversity currently faces, and to generate potential solutions to local and national socio-environmental crises, such as climate change and water scarcity. declarations permissions: not applicable sources of funding: not applicable conflicts of interest: none declared references cited acosta, a. and e. martínez, 2011. la naturaleza con derechos: de la filosofía a la política. abya-yala, quito, ecuador. agrawal, a. 1995. dismantling the divide between indigenous and scientific knowledge. development and change 26:413–39. doi:10.1111/j.14677660.1995.tb00560.x. albuquerque, u., j. soares, j. loureiro, r. silva, c. silva, and r. nóbrega. 2013. the current status of ethnobiological 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perspectives special issue on ethics in ethnobiology which they have few defenses, then our obligations to these communities are even greater for documenting these events and bearing witness. miller has noted that outsiders conducting research in indigenous communities can usually leave in times of danger, while the local people often have nowhere else to go or refuse to abandon their communities in times of need; and they may pay a high price for remaining (miller 2017). he spoke in reference to the 2017 assassination of isidro baldenegro, a rarámuri man who had assisted him in conducting ethnoornithological research in mexico and had just earned the goldman environmental prize for his work in defending rarámuri lands and resources. in honduras, lenca leader bertita zuñiga cáceres survived an assassination attempt, yet has remained in her community in the lempira region. she refuses to be intimidated, despite the fact that her mother, berta cáceres, was assassinated for defending the lenca people’s land and water against foreign mining companies (goodman 2017). as ethnobiologists, we face special obligations when working with communities that are under introduction: recognizing reciprocity as ethnobiologists, our research depends on the trust and generosity of the people we work with. we rely on their knowledge and assistance, which creates an enormous debt that can never be fully repaid. this is particularly emphasized in communities that value reciprocity, for every ongoing relationship entails expectations for sharing with others, recognizing their autonomy, and respecting their dignity. many andean economic relations are based on the principle of reciprocity, as each action implies a corresponding complementary action that maintains equilibrium among social actors (estermann and peña 1997, cited in ibarra et al. 2012). people raised in an oral tradition are experts at observing and remembering (vansina 1965). as i learned while doing research in an indigenous community in mexico, people watch outsiders closely in order to discern from words and actions whether they can be trusted to honor their obligations and fulfill their responsibilities to reciprocate. when scholars work in communities torn by violence or threatened by outside forces against condors, water, and mining: heeding voices from andean communities nicole sault1* 1sally glean center, palo alto, ca, usa. *nicole@sallyglean.org abstract this paper addresses the relationship between scholarship and activism, considering the obligations that ethnobiologists have to the communities we work with. i begin by describing the cultural meaning of andean condors (vultur gryphus) in peru through their connections to mountains and water in various forms, and the condor’s role as guardian and protector. my research on condors led me to indigenous beliefs and practices regarding sacred mountains and water, and from this to the threats against the environment posed by international mining operations. this discussion highlights questions concerning the scholar’s role in situations of environmental destruction and political conflict in relation to structural violence, the mass media, and climate change. at a time when those who protect the land and water are endangered around the globe, the decisions we make while conducting research carry responsibilities for the consequences of our actions, even as these consequences ripple out beyond our specific locality and our original intentions. received august 8, 2017 open access accepted march 13, 2018 doi 10.14237/ebl.9.1.2018.1079 keywords andes, environmental protection, indigenous peoples, ethnoornithology, condors, mining copyright © 2018 by the author(s); licensee society of ethnobiology. this is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution-noncommercial 4.0 international public license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0), which permits non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. sault. 2018. ethnobiology letters 9(1):27–43 28 perspectives special issue on ethics in ethnobiology assault by government agencies and multinational corporations. the contributions of some scholars addressing these issues were presented at the meetings of the society for ethnobiology in a session on “solidarity, allyship and justice in an applied ethnobiology” organized by armstrong and mcalvay (2017). two of these papers documented the role of scholarship in recording place-names and the history of land use for indigenous communities engaged in legal cases to protect natural resources and sacred sites (armstrong 2017; hunn 2017). the authors noted that we are called to be in solidarity with those we have depended on for sharing their knowledge and wisdom, especially when they are in danger. condor mountains and water as life after studying the cultural meaning of vultures in mexico and costa rica (sault 2008, 2010, 2016a), i became interested in their cousins, the condors— sacred to peoples of both north and south america (barnard 2009; gordillo 2000; macgregor-villarreal 2005). eventually i went to peru to study the cultural context of the andean condor (vultur gryphus). peruvians were delighted that i wanted to learn what condors mean to them. they said foreign biologists often come to observe condors, but that i was the first foreigner to focus on condors in andean traditions. the enthusiasm for research on condors was shown in unexpected ways and places. in arequipa, a taxi driver described in detail how he rescued a condor, cared for him until the bird healed, and then released him at colca canyon (2011). wherever i went, i explained my interest in condors and shared with local people what i had learned in other regions so that my work could serve as an information bridge between coastal and mountain regions, north and south, in peru, bolivia, and argentina. condors are central to andean cultures, as demonstrated by their prominence in south american myth and ritual, kinship systems, astronomy, medicine, place names, literature, and politics (gordillo 2000; jara jiménez 1990; palma 1983). for centuries condors have been portrayed throughout south america, in the textiles and ceramics of the moche and the nazca in coastal peru (ibarra et al. 2012), in the stone of machu picchu, and in a dark cloud constellation (ibarra et al. 2012; urton 1981). condor is the totem of the clan condori (jara jiménez 1990). condors are displayed on the national shields, flags, stamps, and coins of argentina, bolivia, chile, colombia, ecuador, and peru. as chilean ornithologists have noted, the andean condor is a “biocultural keystone species” in south america (ibarra et al. 2012). condors are woven into the fabric of these societies in relation to mountains and deities, animals, plants, and people—connecting with the ancestors and transforming death into spirit as they carry the souls of the dead on their wings to the celestial realm (sault 2016a, 2016b). these majestic birds mediate between heaven and earth, between mountains and seashore, and between people and mountain deities. in chavín, a quechua-speaking man told me how his father had seen condors dancing ceremonially on a mountain (march 2014). the condor is widely viewed as a manifestation of a mountain god (isbell 1978; kessel 1980, cited in reinhard 1985; roel 1966). the word cóndor comes from the quechua kuntur and in aymara is referred to as mallku, which also means a figure of authority and the guardian spirit of a sacred mountain. each community is aligned with certain mountain protectors honored in ceremonies throughout the year, and the condor is the representative or messenger of these mountain deities or apus (quechua) and achachilas (aymara). as guardians and protectors, condors are associated with justice. they watch over the herds of alpacas and llamas but will also punish herders who fail to respect the deities (reinhard 1985). in cusco, a musician named sabino explained to me that “people won’t kill them [condors] because they’re sacred, they represent the spirit of the apu or are protected by apus. if you kill one you will be cursed” (my translation of personal communication, september 17, 2011). mountain deities control meteorological phenomena by sending or withholding rainclouds (sánchez garrafa 2005). because condors live and nest in the mountains and soar in circles as storm clouds approach, they are harbingers of rain, snow, hail, and fog. their colors embody the snow-covered mountain peaks, with white shoulder feathers above black wings. as carrion-eaters, condors are associated with death, while their associations with mountains and water reflect their connection to the source of life as a cycle of renewal. these mountain guardians also protect the water that flows down the mountains from melting snow and rain (figure 1). the mountains are the source of life-giving water (sánchez garrafa 2005). while rivers flowing down sault. 2018. ethnobiology letters 9(1):27–43 29 perspectives special issue on ethics in ethnobiology the eastern slopes of the andes drain into the amazon basin, much of the andean region is either arid coastal plain or highlands with a short rainy season, so without the rains and snow runoff, neither the pasture for the flocks nor the fields would survive. the annual cycle of both coastal and highland communities revolves around water, the precious source of life. whether as rain, mist, hail, or snow, water is propitiated in ceremonies with songs and dances at highland lakes, pilgrimages to snowy mountains, and rituals for cleaning the irrigation canals that flow down into the fields of potatoes, corn, beans, and amaranth. water offerings include food, alcoholic beverages, coca leaves, flowers, llama fat, feathers, seashells, and seaweed (reinhard 1985). people identify intimately with particular mountains, as in the community of kaata, among the qollahuaya aymara in bolivia, where “people look to their own bodies for an understanding of the mountain. how they see themselves is how they see their mountain… bodily illnesses are signs of disorders between the person and the land” or between communities (bastien 1978:43, 129). sickness is like a landslide or an earthquake because “the community and mountain are inextricably bound to the physical body” (bastien 1978:129). how mining threatens condors and water habitat loss is critical for condors throughout the americas, but there are other threats that vary by continent. in north america, the most serious threats to condors are not only habitat loss, but lead figure 1 weaving depicting water flowing down mountains and a condor. colca, arequipa, peru. 2011. photograph by nicole sault. sault. 2018. ethnobiology letters 9(1):27–43 30 perspectives special issue on ethics in ethnobiology poisoning from spent ammunition in gut-piles left by hunters and bite-size pieces of metal and plastic called micro-trash (prieto 2012). in south america, the threats to condors also include trapping and hunting, wild dog packs, and mining. the decline in condor populations cannot be understood independently from the environmental context of extractive processes promoted by politicians and multinational corporations, as the largest mines in the andes are owned and developed by companies based in canada, the united states, china, korea, and australia. the andean condor is classified as endangered in peru, and the distribution of condors has dwindled drastically. in the literature on the decline in condor populations, mining is not presented as a threat. according to lieberman, rodríguez, paez and wiley (1993 apud ibarra et al. 2012), the causes for population decline are habitat destruction, hunting, and poison intended for pumas and foxes. both in peru and bolivia, i was surprised to learn about the danger mining poses for condors. people explained that mining waste contaminates the water and soil. mining requires huge amounts of water for processing, and the wastewater is dumped into holding ponds or lakes and streams. when wildlife drink contaminated water they die, and then condors feeding on the carcasses also die. according to a bolivian scholar who asked to remain anonymous, in lake poopó, 200 flamingos died from drinking contaminated water. flamingos are a sacred water bird, so when the local people discovered the dead flamingos they wept at the sight. the famous lake poopó will cease to be the second largest lake of bolivia, as it is drying up at an alarming rate, leaving fishing boats stranded in what is becoming a desert. reporters have gathered to document the disaster and photograph the bodies of hundreds of fish, flamingos, and other water birds strewn across the sand. over 300 mining operations around the lake are diverting the water and contaminating the countryside with heavy metals, while global climate change is also taking a toll. according to bolivian biologist enrique richard, in november of 2015, indigenous communities that lived from fishing in the lake performed a ceremony of symbolically burying the lake (mundo sputnik news 2016). they say now that the lake is dying they have become orphans (cepa 2014). the effects of mining on water, fish, and birds are also indicators of threats to human health. one study of two tinamou species, the ornate tinamou (nothoprocta ornate) and darwin’s nothura (nothura darwinii), found high levels of metal concentrations in the tissues of birds living in mining areas of bolivia, and the researchers noted that by analyzing the feathers, these birds could serve as sentinels for monitoring environmental concerns (garitano-zavala et al. 2010). contamination from mining wastewater is linked to a number of illnesses, including cancer, nosebleeds, birth defects, miscarriages, and problems with neurological function, metabolic function, digestion, and toxins in the blood (garcia et al. 2008; rojas and vandecasteele 2007; sánchez 2015). according to scholars working in bolivia and peru, high levels of metals are contaminating lakes, rivers, and the soil, which is killing livestock, fish, and other wildlife (efe 2015; gammons et al. 2006; gonzález pinell 2011; rojas and vandecasteele 2007; sanchez 2015). these metals are also affecting crops, including potatoes and beans, which are important food sources in the highlands (chambi parisaca et al. 2012; garrido et al. 2017; oporto et al. 2007). their research showed how the contamination is linked to mining projects that release dangerous levels of metals in wastewater that is dumped or overflows containment ponds. these metals include mercury, lead, cadmium, arsenic, sulfur, iron, zinc, and tin (garcia et al. 2008; rojas and vandecasteele 2007). in bolivia during the rainy season, heavy metal contaminants from mining iron, zinc, lead, and tin wash down from the mountains into lake poopó, while during the dry season evaporation leads to concentrations of heavy metals (garcia et al. 2008). in the puno region of highland peru, contaminated sediments with mercury from gold mining killed the vegetation along rivers and in pastures (sánchez soto 2014). the loss of vegetation led to erosion and changes in both flora and fauna, with increased salinity, aridity, and desertification. the dust impedes plant respiration and the noise has driven some species of wildlife to emigrate (sánchez soto 2014). acidic lakes with high levels of toxic metals are also created when abandoned mining pits fill with water (bebbington and williams 2008). newspapers occasionally cover some of these problems, but the lack of media attention is often striking. despite a peruvian mass media blackout of a protest in cusco in october, 2015, people shared information locally by posting photos, cartoons, drawings, and statements on a wall facing the main sault. 2018. ethnobiology letters 9(1):27–43 31 perspectives special issue on ethics in ethnobiology plaza in cusco (figure 2). the wall postings bore a placard reading: “the wall collective” (colectivo el muro). one image displayed the heading “pasco marches against contamination.” another poster showed a peruvian girl from oroya with blood trickling out of her nose: “this girl eight years old has nosebleeds from lead contamination in her blood” (my translation). la oroya is a town in the cerro de pasco, northeast of lima, where a smelter owned by a united states corporation has so contaminated the area that 90% of the children have elevated levels of lead in their blood (burgos 2017). lead attacks the brain, heart, and kidneys, leading to anemia, cancer, and leukemia. la oroya has been called “the fifth most contaminated city in the world” (translation mine) (burgos 2017). to entice support for mining, local communities are bombarded with corporate advertising that promotes the benefits and safety of new technologies, much of which is disinformation. i spoke with indigenous men in puno, peru in 2014, who said, “they told us there are now new safe ways of mining uranium.” however, such claims of safety regarding radioactive waste are untenable, and the long history of health problems in uranium mining areas demonstrates otherwise (norrell 2009). with the expansion of uranium mining in peru (three sites) and bolivia (seven sites), environmental and health concerns are increasing (paredes 2014). indigenous rights and water justice bebbington and williams note that “peru is south america’s most water-stressed country” (2008:191). water concessions given by the peruvian government in perpetuity have exacerbated the situation. investigators for ojo público (public eye) found that figure 2 anti-mining information posted on a wall in the main plaza of cusco, perú. 2015. photograph by nicole sault. sault. 2018. ethnobiology letters 9(1):27–43 32 perspectives special issue on ethics in ethnobiology 248 mining companies in peru have been given unlimited water rights with licenses that have no expiration date (conflictos mineros 2018). these water licenses were given in regions suffering drought conditions, according to the national water authority (ana) and the public defender’s office. the government has declared these regions to be in a state of “hydraulic emergency,” with dozens of conflicts over lack of water, water sources that went dry, and water contamination (conflictos mineros 2018). according to the peruvian government, almost half the situations of conflict in peru are related to mining issues regarding the environment and agriculture (rojas 2015). more than half of peru’s 6,000 campesino farming communities are affected by mining conflicts (deechave and torres 2005, cited in li 2016). in september of 2015, the universidad nacional de san agustín (unsa), the largest public university in arequipa, peru, was closed down during the week of the international mining conference to avoid continued student unrest. prior to this shutdown, university students had poured into the streets to protest after the police had fired upon farming families, who were against the usurpation and destruction of their lands and water by the chinese tía maría corporation (rojas 2012). a peruvian newspaper reported that one farmer was shot and killed by the police in this disturbance, and that in the following protest two more were killed and hundreds were injured (la república 2015). in bolivia water struggles loom large, as the government embraced neoliberal privatization policies that include exporting water to chilean mining companies. the “water wars” of 2000 sparked enormous protests, particularly by indigenous peoples in cochabamba (olivera 2004). eventually their protests were successful, and irrigation legislation was enacted that recognizes local and customary law (boelens and vos 2005). the december 8, 2000 proclamation states that “water is best protected by local communities and citizens who must be respected as equal partners with governments” (olivera 2004). a water law and indigenous rights program (walir) was formed in 2002 with partners in latin america and europe to promote justice in water policies and legislation in andean nations (boelens and vos 2005), but enforcement and protection remains a concern. north of potosí lies one of bolivia’s largest mining operations, ironically called “lake of the condor.” the mining operation is owned by south america silver, a canadian company from vancouver extracting silver, indium, gallium, and gold in open pit mines (alanes and molina 2014). since 2009 indigenous communities have been demanding the expulsion of the mining company from their communal lands and the seven lakes in the region, while the mining company argues that these 47 communities should be relocated. the conflicts over who controls the water and land have left anti-mining community leaders dead, injured, or imprisoned. similar problems of mega-mining projects associated with evictions, violence, contamination and health concerns exist throughout latin america in mexico (valadez rodríguez 2017; treat 2012), guatemala (gies 2018; van de sandt 2009), costa rica (holland 2015), ecuador (caap 2017), and chile (jarroud 2013). but the intensity of the mining conflicts is greatest in peru (li 2016), which has become an international center for mining interests, with an economy based on extraction rather than production. the annual world mining conference is held each september in arequipa, in southern peru, organized by perumin (2017) with mining company representatives from around the world crowding into the city. government support for extractive industry is unbounded, as shown by former peruvian president alan garcia’s comments deriding indigenous peoples who defend their sacred mountains by protesting against mining projects. in the highland region of puno in southeastern peru, people demanded that the sacred khapia volcano be off-limits to mining concessions (salas carreño 2017:133). garcia’s response was: “we have to defeat the absurd pantheistic ideologies...to go back to those primitive forms of religiosity where people say do not touch that mountain because it is an apu” (president alan garcía, may 2011, salas carreño 2017:134). other politicians deride protestors and environmentalists, accusing them of being delinquents, communists, or senderistas (followers of the shining path movement). mining leases granted by the peruvian government often involve land seizures and forced relocation of villages (cnn español 2016; li 2015; perreault 2013; servindi 2007). violence and the threat of violence have forced many to abandon their communities. international mining companies hire peruvian special forces police as security guards to prevent protestors from blocking access roads and sault. 2018. ethnobiology letters 9(1):27–43 33 perspectives special issue on ethics in ethnobiology keep them away from mining sites and equipment. the mining security forces are used to intimidate and threaten local communities, execute forced evictions from homes, and destroy houses in order to prevent people returning (cnn español 2016; sampat 2014; servindi 2007)1. in ayacucho, central peru, on october 25 [2007], police from the national center for special operations (diones) and hired killers attempted to remove residents from the farming community of uyuccasa, under orders from the catalina hunaca mining company… when congresswoman huancari visited the area in march she found a contingent of heavily armed police that guarded access to the mine, under orders from a general [my translation, servindi 2007]. in the cajamarca region of northern peru, i observed graffiti on walls proclaiming, “water yes, mining no” (agua sí, minería no) (figure 3). as mining projects increasingly contaminated the land and water, people were outraged and organized political campaigns, voting into office anti-mining candidates. however, bribery and intimidation are taking their toll on anti-mining officeholders. mining accidents also occur, such as the yanacocha mine’s mercury spill in 2000 that affected over 1,000 residents in choropampa, cajamarca (arana-zegarra 2009). medical attention to the victims was hampered, as the director of the hospital and the regional health director were both employees of the mine, and hospital staff lacked proper training and drugs for treating massive high-level metal poisoning. the town is still suffering the effects of the world’s figure 3 anti-mining graffiti in cajamarca, northern peru, agua sí, minería no. 2015. photograph by nicole sault. sault. 2018. ethnobiology letters 9(1):27–43 34 perspectives special issue on ethics in ethnobiology largest mercury disaster, while the mining company and health officials have rejected the recommendations of the environmental authority ingetec (arana-zegarra 2009). throughout peru, numerous clashes between protestors and the police have led to many deaths of campesinos (farmers) with hundreds more wounded in the regions of apurimac, cusco, cajamarca, and arequipa (rojas 2012, 2015; li 2016; sampat 2014). these confrontations reflect a lack of consultation between mining companies and local residents, governments making agreements with companies that ignore local sentiment, and mining companies making promises to local communities that are not kept (li 2016; muradian et al. 2003; rojas 2012). arellano-yanguas (2008:9) observes that “concentrated resources like hard-rock minerals, oil and gas” have become a resource curse in both economic and political terms. he explains that “in a context of weak central state and even weaker local governments, the ‘new natural resource policy agenda’ has partially re-located the resource curse to subnational levels,” with companies “trying to shift the burden of responsibility for conflict resolution onto the local authorities, blaming local authorities for poor outcomes” (2008:9, 28). these companies “interact with local actors in a dysfunctional way by: (a) fostering clientelism; (b) promoting quick spending that reduces the quality of public investment; and (c) trying to usurp the state” (2008:36). in the piura region of northern peru, despite a 2007 referendum that resulted in 90 percent of votes against mining, “the company, the central government, and the president of peru continue to insist that the mine go ahead” (bebbington and williams 2008:192). in contrast to peru, where the development of three sites for uranium mining is downplayed (in puno, moquegua, and colca), in bolivia the newspapers promote stories about developing seven sites for mining uranium and building a nuclear reactor just outside la paz, the nation’s capital (paredes 2014). a billboard in an upscale shopping center of la paz depicts a commanding male condor standing with wings spread above images of mining operations and coins being counted, with slogans that proclaim “treasure and the process of change” and “a solid economy, a stronger nation” (my translations; figure 4). the image of the condor who traditionally represents the spirits of the mountains and justice has been appropriated to promote extraction and accumulation. kinship with water one source of difficulty for outsiders analyzing mining conflicts in andean communities is the cultural contrast in how people understand their relationships with water. from a contemporary western perspective (boelens et al. 2016:3), actors commonly portray water territories as mere biophysical ‘nature’. this makes water problems and their solutions appear as politically neutral, technical and/or managerial issues which can be ‘objectively’ solved according to technical knowledge, ‘rational water use’ and ‘good governance’. contrasting such a conception, which is often used as a veil to legitimize deeply political choices that protect and stabilize specific political orders, we call for a repoliticization, that is the recognition of the political nature, of hydrosocial territories through the study of everyday water use praxis. but where these authors call for “repoliticization” and “creating hydrosocial territories,” i would argue that water is already politicized in a way that has denied the social and spiritual context of water, land, and sky. a mechanistic cartesian view is now accepted as normal and “natural,” but it is relatively recent in human history (kimbrell 1993). mechanism “rendered nature effectively dead, inert, and manipulable from without” (merchant 1980:214). in this cultural context, people became alienated from the land and water as they learned to perceive nature as a commodity. when outsiders talk to indigenous communities in the andes about water measurements and costs, they are using a language of alienation that denies the underlying relationships between people and water, and also with the mountains and skies from which the water flows as well as the lakes and oceans into which the water flows. for indigenous peoples, water is sacred and relationships with water are embedded in kinship networks of reciprocity (sánchez garrafa 2005). solomon (salmon 2000:1327) notes that indigenous people view both themselves and nature as part of an extended ecological family that shares ancestry and origins. it is an awareness that life in any environment is viable only when humans view the life sault. 2018. ethnobiology letters 9(1):27–43 35 perspectives special issue on ethics in ethnobiology surrounding them as kin… the interactions that result from this ‘kincentric ecology’ enhance and preserve the ecosystem... their mutual roles are essential for their survival. in the andes, this kinship relationship extends to water as well as mountains and condors. the annual ceremonies for cleaning the irrigation canals are not only a practical necessity but a sacred duty in a kincentered world of reciprocal relationships. in the worldview of the andean altiplano, mountains are deities, condors are senior kin, and water is a sentient being with a spiritual essence. as a protector of justice and right relationships, the condor has the power to promote reciprocity (grebe 1984, cited in ibarra et al. 2012). pilgrimages to highland lakes and snowy mountains like qoylluritti (“snowy star”) have spiritual significance and embody ancestral connection, for the spirits of the ancestors are associated with the mountaintops and are protected by the condors (flores lizama 1987). pilgrims who journey by the light of the full moon to the sacred mountain of qoylluritti bring back icicles and snow as a blessing for their communities, representing the ancestral distribution of water by their deities (flores lizama 1987). conflicts over water and mountains have worsened as global climate change advances, melting the mountain glaciers which have been reduced by 57% (conflictos mineros 2018). according to the tyndall centre for climate change research, peru is “the world’s third most vulnerable country to the impacts of climate change” (bebbington and williams figure 4 billboard in la paz, bolivia with the slogan “a solid economy, a stronger nation!” 2015. photograph by nicole sault. sault. 2018. ethnobiology letters 9(1):27–43 36 perspectives special issue on ethics in ethnobiology 2008:191). from the perspective of the indigenous peoples of the region, when a mountain loses its snowy covering the mountain is weakened and loses its wealth (millones and mayer 2012). women water protectors for andean women, their connection to water has depth and complexity beyond western categories for understanding nature and politics, as de la cadena observes in cosmopolitics (2010). women’s leadership roles as water protectors grow out of their connection to water as a source of life, including the first water of the womb, and water as a living being who they are called to honor and protect as part of their heritage and identity. in the andes, the emphasis on water as life is particularly elaborated. this is why mining operations pose such a tremendous threat to communities and the surrounding environment. mining not only contaminates but also abrogates people’s water rights and eliminates water sources such as lakes and springs (li 2016; perreault 2013). a community’s rights to water come from the ancestors and the deities, so denying these rights is an affront to them all that resonates deeply. because of their special relationship to water and pachamama (mother earth in quechua), women join men in resisting the mining companies that are destroying their communities, just as the lakota women at standing rock resisted the dakota access pipeline in south dakota. in these struggles to defend the water and mountains, the narratives of andean women express their relationship to water as a mother who is the source of life (jenkins 2014). two examples of peruvian women water protectors recognized and honored internationally are máxima acuña de chaupe and nélida ayay. in the cajamarca region of northern peru, nélida ayay studied law in order to defend a sacred lagoon threatened by the conga mining project owned by yanacocha. this united states company is the largest gold mining company in latin america (arellanoyanguas 2008). in “daughter of the lagoon,” ayay describes this body of water as her mother to whom she offers flowers and from whom she seeks strength (efe 2015). máxima acuña was awarded the goldman environmental prize for her struggle against the conga mining company that was forcing her family off their farmland in order to develop a wastewater reservoir. for defending the laguna azul, she and her daughter were beaten unconscious and their home destroyed by the mining company’s security forces and the peruvian military (cnn español 2016). even their potato fields were destroyed, and their dog was found stabbed to death. when they filed a complaint, the police responded with jeers and reminded them of what happened to their dog (gudynas 2016). acuña was taken to court by the mining company, accused of illegally occupying the land, and sent to prison. but she has her community’s support, and eventually she was set free (cnn español 2016). these women water protectors are not the only women at risk. throughout the mining regions, women are being threatened and intimidated, beaten and raped, even kidnapped and enslaved. i heard about this in arequipa, when university students recounted how light-skinned women students had “disappeared”—taken to the mines and used as prostitutes. this has been reported for gold-mining areas of peru, where young virgins are literally auctioned off to the mine workers on weekends (hill 2016). a report for the economist (hill 2016) lists the problems caused by mining, which include: destruction of forests and river-banks, contamination of rivers by mercury and cyanide, contamination of people, fish and other foods by mercury, indications of forced labour, 10,000s of child workers, prostitution, sexual exploitation of minors, people trafficking, appalling health and safety, numerous fatalities, money laundering, the razing of indigenous peoples’ land, violence and alcoholism. mining companies argue that new technologies enable them to operate in a safer, cleaner manner compared to the underground mines of the past, but the new methods of open-pit mining entail hiring a small labor force while causing terrible damage to watersheds, pastures, and farmland (li 2015). canadian-owned mines having the worst human rights record of all. a 2016 report by the justice and corporate accountability project documents the violence committed by canadian mining companies in latin america—deaths, injuries, sexual assault, and repression (cultural survival quarterly 2016). yacoub, vos, and boelens note that monitoring of mining sites has been used by multinational corporations to legitimize their pronouncements on sault. 2018. ethnobiology letters 9(1):27–43 37 perspectives special issue on ethics in ethnobiology helping and protecting communities through corporate programs of social responsibility (2016). analysis of an open pit gold mine in cajamarca, peru, shows how a critical examination of the hydrosocial context for monitoring mining conditions can provide support for civil society in conflict situations when challenging the official discourse of mining companies (yacoub et al. 2016). academe and activism the violent response by mining company promoters has made latin america a very dangerous place for journalists and water protectors. according to scientific american, from 2002 until 2013, two of the nations with the highest rates for killings of environmentalists are brazil (448) and honduras (109), followed by peru (58) and colombia (52) (fonseca 2013). since then many more have been killed. what is the responsibility of scholars and fieldworkers in the face of political repression against the communities where we conduct research? in 1995, i joined a human rights delegation organized by santa clara university in california to visit chiapas, mexico, to accompany mayan villagers under attack by the mexican military. we observed, recorded testimonies, and learned firsthand of the hardships and dangers that the mayan people faced. then we wrote up a report for the bartolomé de las casas human rights center in san cristobal de las casas. the mayan women repeatedly told us to go back home and tell their story. as one woman (sault 1995; my translation) said: we cannot speak freely but you can. we need your help to find justice. tell people in your country to stop supporting the mexican military. do not let us be forgotten. after witnessing what these mayan communities in chiapas were suffering, when these women pleaded with us, how could i remain silent and do nothing? much of the political repression in latin america originates with united states foreign policy, which extends to peru. in 1985, the peruvian military entered the town of accomarca and massacred 69 quechua-speaking villagers suspected of being communists (center for justice and accountability, n.d.). only two girls survived to tell what happened. they were 12 and 13 years old at the time. outsiders find it convenient to dismiss these atrocities as “tragic” examples of the “violence” in latin america, but the evidence shows that the origins of the violence lead back to the united states. the peruvian soldiers who committed the massacre were trained at the western hemisphere institute for security cooperation (whinsec), formerly known as the school of americas in fort benning, georgia. since 1946, this u.s. army academy has been training latin american soldiers and members of death squads in techniques of counterinsurgency that include torture, kidnapping, assassination, and intimidation— techniques which have then been used to suppress indigenous peoples defending their lands (smihula 2003). recently, the military officers responsible for the accomarca massacre in peru were tried and convicted, based on the testimony of the two women survivors, and with the help of the center for justice and accountability. a former military officer confessed in court to his role in the massacre, saying senior officials ordered him to cover up their role (center for justice and accountability, no date). meanwhile, in honduras, the 2016 assassination of water defender berta cáceres was linked to graduates of the school of the americas/whinsec. cáceres had reported 33 death threats and was “supposedly under state protection” (lakhani 2017). two of those arrested for the crime were officers díaz and bustillo, who received military training in ft. benning, georgia. i have been asked—how do you balance your research interests with the political interests of the communities where you work? the challenge is not only to balance but to integrate the two spheres. we do not have to choose between apples and oranges. we have two hands, so we can hold both an apple and an orange simultaneously. for me, scholarship and solidarity are intertwined. field research shows me which issues matter to the communities i work with and this understanding enriches my scholarship and teaching. my research has always depended on the trust and generosity of people in latin america, and the many teachings they have imparted include appreciating relatedness, reciprocity, responsibility toward others, and the power of each person’s contribution. i have taken these values as a model for action. this integrative approach has enabled me to witness events, document changes, and stand in solidarity with indigenous peoples. while my academic career has focused on scholarly research and teaching, i share my findings with these communities in latin america. sharing is part of reciprocity, and scholars can provide sault. 2018. ethnobiology letters 9(1):27–43 38 perspectives special issue on ethics in ethnobiology valuable outside information or expertise for those most affected by corporate decisions, while helping people in the united states to understand how the policies of their own government affect the peoples of latin america. conclusion it is easy to assume that academia is neutral, that corporate-funded research is objective, and that our goal as researchers is simply to scramble for funding to write and publish our findings. but this attitude leaves us open to being channeled and manipulated for the purposes of others. ferguson expresses this viewpoint succinctly in an epigraph taken from ron suskind’s (ferguson 2004) quote of a “senior advisor” to president bush: we’re an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality. and while you’re studying that reality—judiciously, as you will—we’ll act again, creating other new realities, which you can study too, and that’s how things will sort out. we’re history’s actors…and you, all of you, will be left to just study what we do. but indigenous peoples are not simply bystanders observing the rise and fall of empires, they are actors with their own history and a future to create. the integration of scholarship and solidarity recognizes that the people we work with have wisdom and knowledge that are crucial for the survival of the earth. the misuse and contamination of water sources is sacrilegious to indigenous peoples or pueblos originarios and violates their sovereignty. for them, only ignorant people fail to respect the mountains and ignore the consequences. an engaged ethnobiology provides a forum where indigenous leaders can speak and their voices can be heard, establishes an intellectual context where their knowledge is honored, and gives them access to organizations like the society for ethnobiology that can support their work in protecting the natural resources so essential to their physical survival and cultural identity. ethnobiologists can have a role in contributing to research that documents what is happening, while standing in solidarity with these communities. often i am surprised by where scholarship and solidarity take me, as when learning about andean condors revealed threats to sacred lands and water from mining. as ethnobiologists we are called to attend to such interconnections that demonstrate the deep complexity of each society. in traditional andean cultures, condors represent the spirits of the mountains and the values of reciprocity, mediation, and justice. these are teachings that could help all of us today. we can use the political freedoms we still have to influence decision-making bodies that affect militarization, extractive economies, and environmental destruction. from our privileged position as academics, we can address these issues both where we work and where we live. our decisions make claims on us, as our actions affect indigenous peoples in distant places where condors still soar. the condors are watching—and waiting. notes 1for maps of mining leases and conflicts see: http:// conflictosmineros.org.pe/2017/11/27/mapa-deconcesiones-mineras-del-peru-noviembre-de-2013/. acknowledgments many thanks to those who have contributed to this research in the andes and to those who have encouraged me in writing and presenting this work, including the anonymous reviewers. in the united states and canada this includes: cissy fowler, chelsey armstrong, scott herron, dana lepofsky, james r. welch, christine hastorf, and peter reynolds. sadly, i cannot name those to whom i am most indebted, due to the risks for people in mining regions of the andes who shared their stories with generosity and kindness. you know my gratitude. declarations permissions: none declared. sources of funding: none declared. conflicts of interest: none declared. references cited alanes, z., and p. molina. 2012. mallku khota: el vuelo de los cóndores. boletín del servicio de noticias ambientales 109. available at: http:// senaforo.net/2012/06/08/fob1303/. accessed on 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which not infrequently hunt and bite the reindeer calves (cf. lindin and svanberg 2016). olsen also recorded some calling words for dogs in their language: kuh-kuh-kuh (olsen 1915:81). these dog commands are seldom recorded in the ethnographic and linguistic literature (see hällzon et al. 2022). however, russian turkologist wilhelm radloff noted some examples from the tyvan: “when you drive a dog to another place they say: kör-kör! mai-mai! soq!” (radloff 1893:1330). human-canine relationships in inner asia anthropologist claude lévi-strauss (1962:105) emphasizes that dogs as domestic animals do not form their own community but are part of human society. ever since the domestication of the grey wolf canis lupus took place between 14,000 and 30,000 introduction when the norwegian zoologist ørjan olsen in 1914 carried out ethnographical fieldwork among reindeer herding turkic-speaking soyots (tožu-tyva) in the sayan mountains, he took a special interest in their dogs. in the small monograph he published in norwegian, he devoted an entire chapter to them. he regarded their dogs to be an alert and intelligent breed. the dogs he observed among the herders were used primarily for hunting. good dogs were highly valued. the dog possesses a unique ability to communicate and cooperate with human beings, which can be exemplified by their multiple roles in the soyot community. they were used to point to game (birds, squirrels) that fled into trees, by barking. according to olsen’s informants, the dogs were said to bark in different ways for different kinds of animals, so that the hunter could immediately tell from the dog's barking what kind of animal it had encountered. for squirrels, for instance, they must bark quickly and energetically, but for bears and sables, martes zibellina, slowly. each person had their »their dogs are of an alert and intelligent breed« an ethnocynology of tyvan pastoralists in inner asia victoria soyan peemot1, ingvar svanberg2* 1department of finnish, finno-ugrian and scandinavian studies, university of helsinki, finland. 2institute for russian and eurasian studies, uppsala university, uppsala, sweden. *ingvar.svanberg@ires.uu.se abstract this study presents a brief inquiry into the human-canine relationship among the tyvan pastoralists in the altaisayan mountainous region of inner asia. their co-evolution is intimately bound together, and the inter-species relationship includes several aspects and roles. the authors investigate especially the dogs’ responsibilities in taiga and steppe habitats and how the language reveals these responsibilities by focusing on distinctions between hunting dogs (aŋčï ït) and camp guarding dogs (kodančï ït). both names point at the main tasks—hunting and guarding the seasonal campsite territory. the third category is named xava dogs; the name traces its origin to chinese languages. similarly, the story of a small-sized xava dog sheds a light on the altai-sayan mountain region’s historical and religious connections with china.1 received july 31, 2022 open access accepted september 20, 2022 doi 10.14237/ebl.13.1.2022.1839 published november 5, 2022 keywords multispecies relationships, inner asian pastoralism, guarding dogs, hunting dogs copyright © 2021 by the author(s); licensee society of ethnobiology. this is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution-noncommercial 4.0 international public license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0), which permits non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. peemot and svanberg. 2022. ethnobiology letters 13(1):58–67 59 research communications years ago, this has been the case for dogs. dogs were the first domesticated animal, likely originating from human-associated wolves. however, little is known about dog population history and the extent to which it was linked to humans (bergström et al. 2020). people and dogs together form a unique intimate community. this close connection between canis familiaris and homo sapiens weaves them together into a common circle. the dog owners' way of living and making a living, as well as the general cognitive and social circumstances that prevail in a specific socioecological context, also dictate the conditions for the dogs' existence, for better or for worse (haraway 2008:33). this is of course also true among the people in southern siberia and inner asia. dogs in this part of eurasia have been bred to fit several purposes for human societies such as guarding, herding, hunting, pulling sledges and carrying loads (coppinger and coppinger 1993). dogs have also provided other economic services, such as fur, skin, medicine, and even protein and fat (strecker and svanberg 2014). in the cultural relationships that prevail between human and dog, a special multifaceted bio-cultural domain is created, which is of interest for ethnobiologists to study. these relationships include symbolic and ritual connections (hunn 2011:83; hällzon et al. 2022). here we will give examples from the tyvan-speaking herdsmen in the altai-sayan region of inner asia. ethnocynological approach and methods in recent years, the dog's close relationship with humans has also begun to gain increasing interest among researchers. canadian scholar bryan d. cummins (2006) has coined the term ethnocynology for a research field that studies dogs within past and present human societies. the domestic dog's living conditions has throughout history been shaped within the same sociocultural and ecological framework as the human group it has lived with, whether it is as a watch dog in a peasant village, a herding or livestock guardian dog among nomads, or a sled dog among northern hunters (strecker and svanberg 2014). anthropologist maria stanyukovich (2022), for instance, demonstrates cultural differences in relationships with canines and to cynophagy in asia. anthropologist alex oehler (2018, 2021) investigates relationships with dogs among the post-soviet soyot and tofa people who live in the eastern sayan mountains neighboring the tožu-tyva reindeer herders. we have drawn on previous research done by coauthors with numerous inquiries into human-canine relationships by ingvar svanberg (is) (e.g., hällson et al. 2022; svanberg and strecker 2014) and fieldwork among inner asian pastoralists from 2015 to 2019 by victoria soyan peemot (vp). the field research area included the transboundary region in tyva and mongolia, and relied on ethnographic research methodology: participant observation, semi-structured interviews, and audiovisual documentation of multispecies practices (peemot 2021:23–38). the dogs’ close ties with humans multispecies communities in the tyva republic in southern siberia are comprised of a herding family and domesticated animals. depending on the ecology – the mountain taiga or the steppe – the species of domesticates vary: reindeer in northeastern tožu province, yaks bos grunniens, in eastern tere-xöl and western möŋgün-taiga, övür, bay-taiga, and barïïnxemčik provinces, camels, camelus bactrianus, in southern erzin, tes, and central ulug-xem provinces. other livestock species—sheep, goats, and cows—are common throughout tyva. the dogs are paramount both in the taiga and steppe habitats. researchers who work with pastoralists in neighboring regions of southern siberia and western and northern mongolia have noticed that their bond with dogs differs from their relationships with other domesticated animals. two of these key differences are the practices of naming and burying the dogs, which we will briefly discuss. in his research on dogs in mongolia, terbish pointed out that dogs “are the only animals that have individual names” and a practice of naming dogs reveals the species’ closeness to humans (terbish 2015:148). the lexical means of the tyvan language, which are used when referring to dogs, point at their responsibilities as members of the multispecies aal communities which are comprised of a herding family, their livestock, and dogs. in the mountain taiga, where pastoralists engage ubiquitously in subsistence hunting, a hunting dog aŋčï ït is prioritized (figure 1). ït [tyv. ыт] is a generic term for a dog known in most turkic languages (tryjarski 1979). a term defining a hunting dog derives from ‘a hunter’ aŋčï [tyv. аңчы],2 whereas the steppe pastoralists appreciate a guarding dog kodančï ït3 (figure 2). this definition refers to the landscape term kodan – unmarked territory of the seasonal campsite, which hosts a yurt or a house (at a winter site), livestock shelters, a hay store, and a peemot and svanberg. 2022. ethnobiology letters 13(1):58–67 60 research communications tethering post for horses. human and non-human members of the multispecies aal are sensitive to the kodan’s invisible borders. for instance, the dogs chase off other aal’s livestock from its own kodan territory. this hints at the main responsibility of the kodančï dogs—to protect the campsite and its humans and livestock. dog names there are a few popular names for dogs in tyva: taiga with its diminutive form taigamay, ezir (ezirben) ‘eagle’, köstük (köstükpen) ‘eyeglasses’—a dog with brown spots above the eyes, čürek (čürekpen) ‘heart’—a dog with a white spot at the chest, moinak ‘neck’—a dog with light-colored neck hair (tatarintsev 2008:128). another popular name eger has its etymology in the old turkic word *eker meaning ‘a hunting dog, wolfhound’ (sevortyan 1974:243). some names refer to the dog’s story as it was in a case of the male dog named čerlikpen that belonged with co-author vp’s family. the name derives from čerlik, which means ‘wild’ or ‘stray’ (when talking about dogs). consider, for instance, the following story about naming a puppy. when visiting her grandparents’ winter encampment for maintenance in summer (circa late-1980s), vp found an approximately two-month-old puppy with a red coat, green eyes and pointed ears. acknowledging its unknown origin, the puppy was named čerlikpen and lived with the family for more than ten years. in addition to naming, a dog burial practice can also reveal the dogs’ closeness to humans, which is explained by cosmology. anthropologist alex oehler suggested, “[i]deas about dog personhood differ by region, but many share common features rooted in indo-iranian, shamanic, and/or buddhist cosmology. […] mongolian buddhist conceptions of reincarnation resonate also with soyot and tofa hunters who provide their deceased canine collaborators a final figure 1 a nameless one-year-old tožu hunting dog at the reindeer herders’ summer campsite aaldïg-ažïk, tožu, tyva, july 3, 2019 (photo victoria s. peemot). peemot and svanberg. 2022. ethnobiology letters 13(1):58–67 61 research communications meal, normally intended only for humans or deities” (oehler 2021:774). herdsman oleg sambuu has shared a story about death and burial of his dog kaldar (audio recorded interview, övür province, tyva, march 2017), when a dog reaches ten years, it becomes heavy and a bit lazy, it does not move much, sleeps more and stays close to the yurt and guards only the encampment. one dog, kaldar, lived until he was 16 years old. when kaldar became old, he looked so pitiful; his two eyes could not see anything. he could neither walk nor hear nor eat. he just stood shaking. it was pitiful to see him like that. we strangled kaldar with a rope, put a piece of fat in his mouth, and took him to a far place. a hunting dog aŋčï ït in the eastern tere-xöl and northeastern tožu provinces of tyva, the local hunter-herders rely on subsistence hunting as an important income source. the herders adjust their seasonal transhumance time with the hunting season. they move to their winter place before mid-october when the hunt for fur animals – squirrel and sable –begins. the experienced hunter ivan artïna (b. 1932), when talking about hunting different animals – bear, red deer, musk deer, and sable – in the mountain taiga of southeastern tyva, emphasized the importance of hunting dogs (audio-recorded interview, summer place čïrgalaŋgdï, tere-xöl province, tyva, 29 june 2015): the sable is hunted with a dog. without a dog, there is no way to catch it [the sable]. you release a dog at the footprints [of the sable], and it finds the sable quickly and drives it figure 2 the 6-month-old tyvan guardian dog ak-xol, lake shara-nuur, tes-xem, tyva, june 2019 (photo victoria s. peemot). peemot and svanberg. 2022. ethnobiology letters 13(1):58–67 62 research communications up a tree or scree. it is impossible to catch the sable without a dog. the reindeer herder and hunter daniil kïrgannay (b. 1991) explained that dogs participate in the winter bear hunt when the animal is driven out of its den. referring to the bear hunt as “aaldaar” daniil explained that the bear “is guest-visited” at its den, and this is a preferrable way to hunt this animal because “it is a clean way to kill the animal” (conversation at the aaldïg-ažïk summer site, tožu, tyva, july 3, 2019; field notes).4 he further elaborated that the hunters start with doing ööŋneer to prevent the risen bear from jumping out the den.4 the hunting dogs cooperate with hunters at all stages of this den-hunting process. while staying at daniil’s summer campsite aaldïg-ažïk in the tožu province of tyva in july 2019, vp observed his dogs being tethered for a day close to the tent. they were let roam free at nights. daniil has explained that they are young dogs, which are being trained for hunting. during the stay at the reindeer herder’s encampment, people ate the same food as the dogs—delicious meat of a 4-year-old moose, alces alces, killed two days before our arrival and preserved by air curing.6 the dogs vp encountered at the reindeer herders’ camp had an appearance which is referred in the cynological and ethnographic literature as laika (shiroky 2004)—a smallish, dog of aboriginal spitz type between 25 to 35 kg in weight, with pointed ears, and a sharp muzzle. a small-sized guarding dog xava ït this section focuses on relationships with a smallsized dog which is defined as xava ït in the tyvan language. we begin with tracing etymology of the word xava. next, we follow a journey of the word xava and a small-sized dog from the southern parts of the qing empire to its northern borderlands. thirdly, we draw attention to distinctions in pastoralists’ relationships with the tyvan breed camp guarding dogs and small-sized xava dogs. in the dictionaries, the word corresponds with the specific breed—the pekingese. consider, for instance, the following definitions: хабазы 哈巴子 habazi = ‘pekinese (dog)’ (khabdabageva 2009:161; salmi 2018:304; kabari = 1. ‘a pekingese dog’; 2. ‘a growth on the noses of horses and donkeys’ (norman 2013:224). the tyvan-spanish-english dictionary documents a transition from a narrowly specified meaning of xava as ‘the pekingese dog’ to a more general definition which considers a small sized dog, its mixed origin and suggests a translation as ‘pug, lapdog, hairy mongrel’ (dariin 2013:276). professor emeritus juha janhunen, university of helsinki, has suggested that khaba might have a descriptive or onomatopoetic origin, similarly, for instance, with the finnish word hauva “a good dog” which originates in haukkua ‘to bark.’ in the tyvan language, intense barking (especially of a small dog) is defined by a verb, khakkylaar whereas a dog’s barking in general is referred as eerer. thus, the tyvan word xava traces its origin to inner asian languages where the word corresponds with the pekingese breed, which historically had a high status in china (cheang 2006:359–387). the shared past of tyva and mongolia as part of the manchu empire in the eighteenth to the beginning of the twentieth century allows for a suggestion that the word denoting the pekingese (and later any smallsized dog) has journeyed from the imperial centre to its northern borderlands. the word is almost identical in two languages—xav nohoi in mongolian and xava ït in tyva—except for the second part with the meaning “dog” which is nohoi in mongolian and ït in tyvan. the tyvan word ït has a turkic origin and appears with phonetic variations as it, ït, et in a number of turkic languages (tryjarski 1979; sevortyan 1974:385). tyvan is the only turkic language where xava is present. in eastern turkestan the pekingese dog was known as xor-xor or kuku (hällzon et al. 2022:251). ethnographic sources reveal the presence of the pekingese breed in mongolia in the early twentieth century (haslund-christensen 1935:37; pälsi 1949 [1911]:111). caroline humphrey (1976:14–15) noticed that mongolian herders keep a small dog in the yurt and appreciate it for its loving character, the hav nohoi is kept in the yurt, unlike other dogs, and is a much loved pet . . . in appearance they were like pekinese, small, with turned -up noses, and long hair. in colour they were black and white. they were thought to be very loving dogs who would miss their owners very much, and even die, if they went away. it is said that if you keep a hav it will wake three times during the night to see that you are still alive. humphrey’s observations on a xav nohoi in mongolia correspond with the emic experience of this peemot and svanberg. 2022. ethnobiology letters 13(1):58–67 63 research communications paper’s co-author vp. her grandparents have kept small-sized dogs in addition to the guarding dogs. xava dogs were believed to have acute hearing abilities, which helped them to sense danger fast and alert people to it by loud barking. they are trusted with “taking care” of little children when they are left alone in a yurt. vp’s grandmother used to say that it is good to keep a xava and a cat in a yurt because these animals can ward off snakes, which are common “guests” in yurts in the steppes of southern tyva. the xava are allowed to live inside the family’s dwelling— in a house or a yurt. on the contrary, the “large” guarding dogs are not accepted in the intimate space of a human dwelling (terbish 2015:148). moreover, pastoralists in the field considered a guarding dog’s attempts to enter a dwelling as an undesirable trait in its behavior. although there can be exceptions. one informant has recalled their family’s dog from the late 1970s. it was “a large black dog” who was a good guarding dog with a strong protective instinct. sometimes the dog would scratch a door and, when allowed inside, he would lie on the floor carpet for a little while, and then leave (personal communication with soyan saysuu ivanovna, field notes, samagaltay village, tyva, 15 june 2019). the relationship of inner asian pastoralists with the xava dogs requires more thorough historical and ethnographic research than a scope of this work allows. a tyvan breed kodančï ït vp has conducted field research primarily in the steppes of southern tyva, which is her home region. she has collaborated on her doctoral dissertation project with horsemen from her patrilineal soyan kinship group (peemot 2021:44–52). vp observes that research with pastoralists is inherently multispecies work, and a researcher engages with various nonhuman animals and, perhaps, most actively with dogs. vp has encountered the tyvan breed guarding dog kodančï ït at the pastoralists’ encampments in provinces along the border with mongolia. they were significantly larger than the reindeer herders’ hunting dogs. the tyvan breed male guarding dog’s weight is between 55 to 60 kg and the female’s weight is between 45 to 50 kg. similarly, as with their relationships with other local breed animals, the relationship of tyvan pastoralists with the guarding dog kodančï ït (which are common in the steppe ecologies) suffered under unfavorable state policies during the soviet regime. the russian geneticist ylya zakharov (zakharov and kashtanova 2009:233-234.) noticed that a significant part of the local breed dog population in tyva had been exterminated in the early soviet period. he wrote, in 1944 tyva, which earlier kept a nominal independence, became a part of ussr. in the 1950s, the tyvan pastoralists were forced to move to the villages. in these circumstances, dogs from several camping sites gathered in large groups in a limited territory, and they were killed despite unique characteristics of particular animals and without any determined selection. the rural municipalities had even a plan for shooting the dogs. in the mid-1950s, the local authorities issued a pointless regulation: the dogs must be chained; all dogs must have [identification] numbers attached. the dogs that ran loose and without [identification] numbers were killed. by the beginning of the 1960s, most dogs were exterminated. (translation from russian by vp.) the informants in tyva have also shared their memories about the unfavorable conditions for dogs during socialism. consider, for instance testimony of oleg sambuu, “there were numerous tyvan dogs; not anymore. many dogs were killed because of rabies, they were shot. that is why now we have many mongrels” (audio-recorded interview, övür province, tyva, march 2017). one of the informants, saysuu soyan from the tes-xem province of tyva, recalled how in april and may of 1979 numerous dogs in the province were killed because of an unconfirmed suspicion of a possible rabies infection. the veterinarians who worked in the local municipalities and collective farms were tasked with killing the dogs (personal conversation, samagaltay village, tyva, june 2019).7 saysuu ivanovna remembered, “before the negative test results (for rabies) came from the central laboratory, all dogs in čoduraa and many dogs in akerik and samagaltay were killed. one could hear gunshots and whining of dogs in the early mornings. some dogs ran away to the mountains. later they returned back to their homes” (ibid.). currently the situation with the tyvan breed peemot and svanberg. 2022. ethnobiology letters 13(1):58–67 64 research communications kodančï dogs has improved. in vps home region in southern tyva, many dogs originate from one breeding place, which is named “the tyvan wolfhound—the steppe horde” and owned by vladimir orus-ool. vp recalled her field experience (fieldnotes, lake šara-nuur, tyva, 22 june 2019), in june 2019, i followed my clansman and the owner of the horse -herd in tyva vladimir orus-ool when he went to check up on a part of his herd, which was grazing at the summer pastures in lake šara-nuur area, our clan ground near the mongolian border. we started the job at 4 am, and by 6.30 am, we completed a “count” of eight stallion bands. counting actually consisted of photographing the stallion bands; the owner would analyze the data later, in his city office. after that, we paid a visit to the young horseman temir “samba” laŋaa who was looking after the herd. two large tyvan breed dogs-siblings ak-xol and eger greeted us in a friendly manner despite their formidable appearance. the dogs seem to recognize my companion, vladimir orus-ool, who had brought them as little puppies to the herder’s encampment. vladimir orus-ool started his work on breeding the kodančï dogs in 1996. he explained that at the time it was a necessity. since the beginning of the 1990s, he was investing in raising his livestock, and the dogs were important in providing safety from livestock thieves and predators. in personal communication with vp, vladimir soyanovič recalled that he was inspired to revive the tyvan breed by own childhood interactions with dogs at the pastoralists’ camping site (an email from 23 march 2022. translation from tyva by vp): i remember my grandmother’s dog taiga from my childhood, from the mid-1960s. what i remember the most is taiga’s strength. she had a shaggy, thick coat; mats of hair hung from her ears and legs. she had a large head, muscular and strong body, thick legs, shaggy black coat with red spots, large round red “eyeglasses” above her eyes, large and hanging ears. she had staid manners and thick voice. little kids liked to play with her, grabbing and pulling her tail and ears. she has never shown a drop of anger towards kids. i used to play with that dog too; sometimes i even rode on her back. when taiga got tired of children who were climbing all over her, she went to her spacious and deep den, which she dug herself to shelter from the scorching steppe sun. when i had a goal to find good dogs in the 1990s, of course, i pictured my grandmother’s dog taigamay in my mind. by that time, such dogs had become rare, and they almost disappeared in some parts of tyva. perhaps, because our kinship group has lived in the remote border area, we have not lost our tyvan dogs. vladimir soyanovič acknowledged that his tyvan dog-breeding project began with two puppies whose mother was a daughter of another bitch named taiga who belonged to his paternal aunt. this taiga died at the winter campsite ak-ödek in mountain agar in 1994 from injuries, which she got when she held her ground against three wolves (ibid.). this trait—being fearless when encountering wolves—is considered one of the important requirements for the kodančï dogs. the wolves are the main predators that pose a danger for livestock in steppe ecology. they attack in the pasture and, during night, at the encampment territory. thus, the dogs are paramount in protection against predators. during socialism, the collective farms’ administration organized wolf hunts in early may when pups were in the den. currently the herders complain that the numbers of wolves has increased but they are still reluctant to hunt predators down. it is because hunting wolves is regulated within customary human-nonhuman relationships, which take into consideration a wolf’s high symbolic value among turkic and mongolian-speaking pastoralists (consider, e.g., charlier 2015). the herders say that it might be difficult for one kodančï dog to win against a wolf; therefore, a herding family usually keeps two or more dogs. vladimir orus -ool prefers to give two puppies (siblings) to one family so they could support each other and stand peemot and svanberg. 2022. ethnobiology letters 13(1):58–67 65 research communications against wolves together. there are five tyvan breed bitches in the “the steppe horde” currently; they give birth once per year, and their litters vary from six to ten puppies. vladimir orus-ool admitted that in the past ten years he has given puppies to people from all over tyva and the altay republic. considering their pedigree and expenses for keeping the breeding facility, the puppies’ price must be expensive. however, vladimir orus-ool emphasized that he does not sell the puppies because “most people cannot pay the puppies’ fair price.” he explained to me his motivation to raise and give puppies to herders in the following words, “the kodančï dogs belong with the tyvan herding life. it is important that the tyvan breed dogs guard yurts and livestock in our homeland” (an email from 23 march 2022. translation from tyva by vp). conclusion dogs and humans have co-evolved with each other since time immemorial. although now rarely cited, norwegian ethnographer ørjan olsen (1915) showed how intertwined the life of dogs and tyvan-speaking herdsmen were in the altai-sayan region. in this brief overview, we discuss some aspects of the close bonds between humans and dogs among the contemporary tyvan, ties that do not differ significantly from conditions a hundred years ago. we have highlighted some aspects. further research and fieldwork are needed to analyse the human-dog relationship in inner asia, especially among hunter-gatherers and pastoralists. the relationships between the species are multifaceted and the bonds forged since prehistoric times are unique. notes 1specific letters of the tyvan cyrillic alphabet are transliterated as follows: ɵ – ö, ү – ü, ң – ŋ, ы – ï, й – y, ч – č, ш – š, ж – ž, and х – x. vowels are short, long, or pharyngealized. pharyngealization is marked by the symbol ’ as in a’t [аът]. however, the vowel ы is transcribed as y in words derived from the ethnonym tyva [тыва], following the established transcription system. i write the ethnonym as tyva: for example, the tyva, the tyva people, or the tyva republic. toponyms follow conventional transliteration. 2aŋ [tyv. аң] is a ‘wild animal’ in the tyvan language. 3it is also referred as a herding dog kadarčï ït. however, most informants preferred to use the former term, kodančï ït. 4in the tyvan language, aaldaar is ‘to guest’; the verb is used to refer to different guesting practices. 5the verb ööŋneer defines an action of building a barrier with wooden sticks at the den’s entrance. the sticks are fixed in the tree roots or the earth hill in front of the den. 6daniil and his older kin anton kol have referred to a 4-year-old moose as toš. the local tožu-tyva dialect has rich vocabulary concerning reindeer and wild animals. 7saysuu ivanovna soyan (b.1948) has worked as the veterinarian in the province’s center at the time. after graduation from the moscow timiryazev veterinary academy (1975), she has worked as a vet in the tesxem province’s collective farms and in the tyva republic’s central veterinary laboratory in kyzyl. acknowledgments the authors are thankful to vladimir soyanovič orusool from the tyva republic for his contribution to this study. for improving our english, we are much obliged to dr. alison locker, andorra. ethics declarations we followed the ethical guidelines prescribed by the international society of ethnobiology (ise 2006). field materials have been gathered and published with the written consent of the interlocutors. declarations permissions: none declared. sources of 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4:225–244. accessed online 16.07.2022 https://nit.tuva.asia/nit/article/ view/605 the world of sugar: how the sweet stuff transformed our politics, health, and environment over 2000 years. by ulbe bosma. 2023. harvard university press, cambridge. 448 pp. anderson. 2024. ethnobiology letters 15(1):75–78 75 reviews perspectives from gene anderson’s bookshelf to traditional diets find modern mass-marketed foods too sweet, too salty, and too oily (picking up on two other innate tastes). the enormous use of sucrose is partly because of taste, partly also because sugar is what plants make most easily. they use photosynthesis to bond co2 and water into glucose or fructose— the same molecule, c6h12o6, in dextroor levorotatory forms—and those two into the combined molecule sucrose, c12h22o11. the enzyme sucrase breaks this down into its components. other enzymes then convert fructose into glucose and runs the body on that fuel. some inuit lack sucrase and cannot digest sucrose; it has the same effect on them as lactose on those who, as adults, cease to produce lactase, and cannot break down lactose into glucose and galactose. (galactose is yet another c6h12o6 sugar, with yet another structure, often forming a ring.) sucrose is the sugar of choice largely because sugar cane, saccharum officinarum (“sugar of the drug store”), makes it. fruits and other grass stalks tend to make either glucose or fructose, or both. honey is a mix of the two, with water and pollen. sugar from sugar cane has a slight health advantage, because the enzyme action to break it down takes some time; it gives us a sugar rush, but not as bad as that from fructose. fructose tastes sweeter than glucose, and is converted into the latter in the liver, so eating a great deal of it stresses that overworked organ. bosma relates that sugar cane may have been domesticated in new guinea, but its worldwide spread was from india. it apparently came up through ulbe bosma offers us another enormous comprehensive book on sugar. this is the most comprehensive of them all, taking the story from origins to the latest news. previous books include george beckford’s (1972) persistent poverty, on the caribbean; sidney mintz’ (1985) classic sweetness and power, a work of political ecology; sucheta mazumdar’s (1998) sugar and society in china; and john yudkin’s (1986) pure, white, and deadly. these and many more are cited in bosma’s vast work. sugar deserves special attention. certainly, no crop has entailed so much human misery for so little benefit. on the plus side, it makes life a bit sweeter. on the minus side, the sweetness leads to obesity, diabetes, heart disease, malnutrition, tooth decay, and much more (yudkin 1972, 1986), while the cultivation has been the greatest drivers of the horrific slaveryand-plantation economy of the colonial world, and its survivor in the plantations and the “free” but desperately impoverished and maltreated workers of today. sugar growers and the giant processing and foodmaking firms have enormously influenced politics, usually for the worse. bosma wishes to tell the whole story yet again, bringing it up to date and adding a great deal about the sugar business. he tells the story in dry and cool scholarly form, but often the emotion breaks through as he recounts some particularly outrageous horror. humans are born to love sweets; injecting sweetener into amniotic fluid makes unborn babies drink more. the level of sweetness in modern foods, however, is unnatural by any standards. people used the world of sugar: how the sweet stuff transformed our politics, health, and environment over 2000 years. by ulbe bosma. 2023. harvard university press, cambridge. 448 pp. eugene n. anderson1* 1department of anthropology, university of california, riverside, usa. *gene@ucr.edu received july 30, 2024 open access accepted december 4, 2024 doi 10.14237/ebl.15.1.2024.1895 published december 20, 2024 copyright © 2024 by the author(s); licensee society of ethnobiology. this is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution-noncommercial 4.0 international public license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0), which permits non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. anderson. 2024. ethnobiology letters 15(1):75–78 76 reviews perspectives from gene anderson’s bookshelf the islands and then the mainland of southeast asia, but we know little about its early spread. the ancient greeks knew of “honey from a reed,” and soon the ancient world learned of the cane and began to grow it. the scientific name reminds us that sugar was first a drug, used for imagined health benefits and for sweetening otherwise unpalatable medicines. it soon became an indulgent. bosma describes the long history of developing increasingly sophisticated and cheap ways to extract cane juice, boil it down, and turn the resulting brown compound into white sugar. this involves separating out the molasses. once difficult and tedious, this became easy and cheap, dooming our health. the problem was that the machinery involved in crushing the cane, extracting the juice, boiling it down, and separating the white from the brown was and is very expensive. sugar cane itself is absurdly easy to grow. thus, working in the cane was for the poorest of the poor, but vast amounts of capital were needed to run the “engines” that were at the centers of the plantations. this almost guaranteed that sugar would be a crop grown by desperately poor, and usually servile, labor employed by rich and powerful capitalists—a classic point made by all writers on the crop. smallholder sugar was possible only with major effort on the part of governments. it happened in china (mazumdar 1998), where the millennia-old idealization of the free small farmer was too strong to deny. in the canton delta, this involved mounting the sugar milling equipment on boats and sailing them from farm to farm—difficult, but allowing china to avoid the curse of slavery in the sugar industry (mazumdar 1998). much later, smallholder sugar was developed in cuba under communism, and very locally in southeast asia and elsewhere. bosma does not note that sugar long competed with honey in europe; sugar bakers and honey bakers had separate and competing guilds. sugar was more prestigious, and eventually won out. bosma returns to tell the story of developing reasonably cheap ways to make white sugar. this unfortunately coincided with the spread of empires. european colonies in the western hemisphere, india, and southeast asia became sugar producing areas, especially the regions that are now brazil, the caribbean, india, and indonesia. in all of these, cultivation was based on enslaved or other forced labor. conditions were unspeakably horrible. unlike cotton or tobacco, sugar was edible, but unlike peanuts or rice, it was nutritionally poor. malnutrition was the common lot. in the eighteenth century, enslaved workers died within a few years. enslaved people from africa, and sometimes elsewhere, were numerous enough to be regarded as dispensable. it was cheaper to buy more than feed those on the ground. oddly, bosma does not mention rum. sugar was banked in rum just as grain was in whiskey and vodka. the old atlantic “triangular trade” involved sugar from the caribbean sent to new england to be made into rum, which was then taken to africa and traded for enslaved workers. i had the dubious luck of experiencing some of the last new england rum. it was appalling, like trying to drink burning gunpowder. its demise is unlamented. the caribbean continues to produce rum of varying grades. apparently, there is a stigma still attached to it, for i have seen sugar-cane alcohol (i.e., rum) sold as “vodka” and “whiskey” to give it class. the horrors of slavery were first introduced to the world by quaker activists. john stedman (1988, original 1790) later made it well known in a blockbuster book. anti-slavery action caught on in england. bosma explains why it was less compelling in france or the spanish world. england banned slave trading in 1807 and all slavery in the empire in 1834. the rest of the world slowly followed, cuba and brazil being the last holdouts in the 1880s. unfortunately, liberation meant little to the workers, who continue to this day to live in appalling circumstances. research by west indian economists, notably w. arthur lewis (1939), not only revealed the ills attendant on sugar growing, but also developed the whole theoretical field of tropical colonial economics, including what came to be called “the development of underdevelopment.” sugar colonies and countries were kept poor and bare, producing the deadly crop for ever-richer metropolitan powers. in the eighteenth century, the realization that beets contained sugar led to attempts to produce it. beet sugar was developed under napoleon as a way to avoiding british blockades. it cost more to produce than cane sugar, but money was saved on transport. beet sugar took off, becoming a major crop by the early twentieth century, produced in the major european countries as well as the united states. in marked contrast to cane, it could be a smallholder crop, though often produced on large estates. still, it anderson. 2024. ethnobiology letters 15(1):75–78 77 reviews perspectives from gene anderson’s bookshelf had the same problem of easy production but expensive processing. farmers were often trapped in poverty, processors became rich. other crops were tried. anti-slavery agitators in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries advocated abstaining from cane sugar. in one case, benjamin rush, the anti-slavery signer of the declaration of independence, advocated maple sugar. sorghum stalks were used, and sorghum syrup was popular in the old u.s. south. malt syrup from grain had long been a sweetener in eastern asia, but could never catch up with sugar. much later, in 1966, japanese researchers learned how to make maize starch into a syrup that is a mix of glucose and fructose, the infamous “high fructose corn syrup” (hfcs) that now sweetens the world’s drinks. bosma tells the story of its devastating impact on sugar production, as hfcs spread like wildfire. the sugar industry desperately tried to fight it, but there was little they could do. meanwhile, the sugar industry developed in the colonizing countries, making enormous fortunes. bosma’s book is at its best when reporting this development. earlier works on sugar concentrated on the plantations. bosma is more interested than earlier writers in the capitalists and their schemes, and he has 40 to 50 years of further political shenanigans to discuss. he brings in the whole story of the millionaire buyers and processors. among these was claus spreckels, a maverick german working-class young man, who came to california, made a fortune, got involved in typical plutocrat dealings, but never lost his working-class edge. left out by bosma, but well known to us californians, was the spreckels family’s importance in funding liberal politics, from the progressive movement to the new deal. they had much to do with making california the “blue” state it is today. this seems to have been the sole time in history when sugar was associated with anything progressive. other captains of industry were less liberal. bosma tells the story of the fanjul brothers, who controlled sugar in cuba. they later joined the migration of sugar titans to the united states, where politics in florida shifted far to the right. the fanjuls now control much of the world trade. there are also florida’s own sugar growers, who are engaged in highly subsidized and protected destruction of the everglades by taking or polluting the water, while supporting florida’s most far-right politicians. bosma’s work shows how profoundly sugar has shaped extremist right-wing politics everywhere. it is far behind fossil fuels in political importance, but ahead of most other primary-production interests in its political reach. sugar consumption also began to receive unwanted attention early. by the sixteenth century, it was associated with tooth decay and obesity. by the late twentieth, it was also known to be involved in type 2 diabetes and involved in heart disease. john yudkin was the leading whistleblower, but was demonized by the sugar industry. ironically, similar attempts by the meat industry to stop attacks on red meat were much less successful. we now know that red meat is basically good food and not much more, while sugar is truly damaging. yudkin is proved right, too late (he died in 1995). however, sucrose and fructose are not notably worse than other foods. potato starch, white flour, and white rice have higher glycemic indexes (or indices), potato starch ranking 87 with glucose at 100. glucose is thus theoretically worst of all, but not eaten in quantity. sucrose ranks only 65 and fructose, surprisingly, 15, because of the slight but real difficulty that the enzymes have in converting them to glucose. the high glycemic index means that they produce a “sugar rush” in the blood and body, which causes a sudden release of insulin and a reaction that can turn inflammatory and lead ultimately to type 2 diabetes. summarizing all this, the latest book on obesity and metabolism to cross my desk, david benton’s (2024) tackling the obesity crisis, lets sugar basically off the hook, blaming too many calories of any and all types for obesity, and situating them in the obvious social and economic context to explain why we are eating too many. even so, sugar and sweetened drinks are a significant part of the story. sugar has thus attracted yet another truly epochal work, to join the earlier classics. bosma compares his work with sven beckert’s (2014) work on cotton (i reviewed it in these pages in 2017). similar works on potatoes date back to redcliffe salaman’s (1985, original 1949) the history and social influence of the potato, which inspired several derivative works. books on rice, maize, soybeans (starting with piper and morse 1923), grapes (and wine), and even chiles, as well as other world crops, all exist. in general, the crops that attract attention are those that have caused vast upheavals: empires rising and falling, trade in enslaved workers, great famines, and the like. anderson. 2024. ethnobiology letters 15(1):75–78 78 reviews perspectives from gene anderson’s bookshelf all these books, to varying degrees, focus on how the unique and specific characteristics of a crop influence its management and use by humans, and thus the history of humanity. in the case of sugar, the ease of raising it, the appeal of its sweetness, and the expense of processing it combined to make it a uniquely deadly commodity. there is a striking lack of books on most of the great staple grains. only rice seems to have attracted much attention. a recent work on wheat (zabinski 2020) is worthy, but a brief and modest effort. animals have not been neglected; we now have william taylor’s (2024) wonderful hoof beats to add to many works on the horse, and of course there are hundreds of books on dogs and cats. other domestic animals have attracted at least some attention. we sorely need books on wheat, barley, rye, oats, millets, quinoa, and buckwheat that can stand with bosma, mintz, and other workers on sugar and plantation crops. young ethnobiologists, step forward! if i had my life to live over again, i would work in that field. references cited ainana l. i., and i. zagrebin. 2014. edible plants used by siberian yupik eskimos of southeastern chukotka peninsula, russia. national park service, shared beringian heritage program, anchorage, ak. beckert, sven. 2014. empire of cotton: a global history. vintage, new york. beckford, g. l. 1972. persistent poverty: underdevelopment in plantation economies of the third world. oxford university press, new york. benton, d. 2024. tackling the obesity crisis: beyond failed approaches to lasting solutions. springer nature, cham, switzerland. lewis, w. a. 1939. labour in the west indies: the birth of a workers’ movement. fabian society, london. mazumdar, s. 1998. sugar and society in china: peasants, technology, and the world market. harvard university press, cambridge, ma. mintz, s. 1985. sweetness and power: the place of sugar in modern history. yale university press, new haven, ct. piper, c. v., and w. j. morse. 1923. the soybean. mcgraw-hill, new york. salaman, r. n. 1985. the history and social influence of the potato, 2nd edition. edited by j. g. hawkes. cambridge university press, cambridge. stedman, j. 1988 [1790]. narrative of a five year’s expedition against the revolted negroes of surinam. johns hopkins university press, baltimore. taylor, w. t. 2024. hoof beats: how horses shaped human history. university of california press, berkeley, ca. yudkin, j. 1972. sweet and dangerous: the new facts about the sugar we eat as a cause of heart disease, diabetes, and other killers. p. h. wyden, new york. yudkin, j. 1986. pure, white and deadly: how sugar is killing us and what we can do to stop it. viking, new york. zabinski, c. 2020. amber waves: the extraordinary biography of wheat, from wild grass to world megacrop. university of chicago press, chicago. what drives illegal hunting with dogs? traditional practice in contemporary south africa chambers. 2020. ethnobiology letters 11(1):25–28 25 short topical review power, tradition, and dog taxes: a brief history of hunting with dogs in south africa illegal hunting with dogs occurs in a context of systematic removal of hunting rights. restriction of traditional hunting in south africa began by the late nineteenth century, with dogs positioned at the center of those measures. in 1891, tools such as nets, springs, snares, traps, and sticks were banned in modern-day kwazulu-natal, and the game ordinance of 1912 prohibited black south africans from hunting with dogs (couzens and blackmore 2010:313). systematic control of dogs owned by black south africans first occurred in the 1880s, via taxation and mass extermination. culling of dogs continued in waves throughout the twentieth century, intensifying with apartheid and the resurgence of rabies in southern africa in the 1960s (couzens and blackmore 2010:311; tropp 2002:466; van sittert and swart 2008:26–27). these measures fit within broader patterns of oppression and dispossession, feeding cycles of conflict and retaliation for over a century. contemporary illegal hunting is an heir to this history. introduction hunting with dogs has a long history in south africa, tethered to tradition and subsistence. although tightly regulated, today it is practiced outside the law, fueling conflict between rural communities, game reserves, and private landowners. academic literature and mainstream media paint a multidimensional picture of the practice. some sources stress the cultural and economic significance of hunting with dogs, linked to livelihood and tradition (dlamini 2005; hebinck 2018). others emphasize its uncontrolled, inefficient nature, contributing to the decline of key species such as oribi (ourebia ourebi) and serval (leptailurus serval) (couzens 2007:29; grey-ross et al. 2010; manqele et al. 2018). destructiveness is particularly associated with taxi hunters—a term for hunters rumored to transport dogs in minibus taxis, release them illegally on private land in pursuit of wildlife, and place bets on the outcome. in a thicket of competing narratives surrounding illegal hunting, the current gaps call for ethnographic work rooted in environmental history to answer foundational questions: who hunts with dogs illegally, and why do they do it? what drives illegal hunting with dogs? traditional practice in contemporary south africa jaime chambers1* 1department of anthropology, washington state university, pullman, usa. *jaime.chambers@wsu.edu abstract illegal hunting with dogs in rural south africa converges around issues of conservation, resource use, and livelihood. hunting with dogs has a long cultural history, tethered to tradition and subsistence. today, it is tightly regulated but practiced outside the law. academic literature and mainstream media alike paint a multidimensional picture of the phenomenon. some sources portray disenfranchised people practicing a culturally significant livelihood strategy; others emphasize illegal hunting’s destructive nature, severed from traditional context. the drivers of illegal hunting in rural south africa sit at the nexus of multiple gaps of scholarly insight, linked to a history of widespread stratification of land use, prohibition of traditional hunting, and systematic control of african possession of dogs. there is a need for ethnographic work rooted in environmental history to grapple with the complex connections underlying this issue. received august 31, 2019 open access accepted april 17, 2020 doi 10.14237/ebl.11.1.2020.1645 published may 11, 2020 keywords hunting, dogs, wildlife conservation, illegal hunting, south africa copyright © 2020 by the author(s); licensee society of ethnobiology. this is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution-noncommercial 4.0 international public license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0), which permits non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. chambers. 2020. ethnobiology letters 11(1):25–28 26 short topical review today, south african national and provincial legislation restricts traditional hunting with dogs directly and indirectly; however, the extent of this control varies by province. kwazulu-natal provides a useful case study, as a 1999 amendment to the kwazulu-natal nature conservation ordinance overturned the province’s outright ban, allowing traditional hunts with paid permits (couzens and blackmore 2010:320–321). the law defines traditional hunters as “a person, on foot, who hunts an animal using a dog or a traditional weapon, but not by means of a firearm” (kwazulu-natal conservation management amendment act, section 1). traditional hunts require a paid permit, valid for a single day in a specified place. current law does not actively ban hunting with dogs, but legal routes involve a relatively complex set of requirements logistically and financially inaccessible to the average rural black south african. academic literature portrays conflicting narratives about the nature of illegal hunting, but recent regulation fails to deter the practice, regardless of its form and participants. game farms, dispossession, and the specter of the taxi hunter the narratives around illegal hunting abound; however, some themes demand closer attention. grey -ross et al. (2010:46–47) specifically probe the taxi hunting narrative in rural settlements where 82% of surveyed men reported hunting illegally. landowners believed gambling and sport to be the primary reason (43%), but hunters themselves reported doing so mostly for meat (42%) or meat in combination with skins (8%). communities where illegal hunting occurs share high rates of unemployment, ranging from 66– 88% (grey-ross et al. 2010; kaschula and shackleton 2009). unemployment and limited protein access represent community-wide challenges in manqele et al.’s (2018:11) study in kwazulu-natal, where hunters reported consuming any prey captured. however, these authors posit that age is the most significant factor in illegal hunting with dogs, suggesting it may be practiced primarily “for sport by young men, possibly with little else to occupy their time” (manqele et al. 2018:14). in umkhuze, imfolozi, and hluhluwe game reserves, observers claim most illegal dog hunting is practiced by “disaffected youths seeking entertainment rather than sustenance” (couzens 2007:29). however, both sources explicitly distinguish taxi hunting as a phenomenon conducted by non-locals, separate from hunting by rural community members. this contrast suggests multi-layered participation in illegal hunting, with different forms involving local and transient actors. south africa’s drift toward urbanization has not been unilateral; rather, the actual movement of people between the urban and the rural ebbs and flows (couzens 2007). the potential distinction between local hunters (rural boys and men) and non-local hunters (taxi hunters) points to the need for research on movement between urban and rural spaces. illegal hunting on privately owned game farms occurs at rates eight times higher than in game reserves (manqele 2018:7). increased privatization of wildlife and the proliferation of game farms postapartheid has heightened the sense of distance between those with and without legal access to hunting (holmes 2007; ‘t sas-rolfes 2017). the perception of traditional hunters with dogs as illegitimate interlopers on a private resource perpetuates an idea with century-deep roots: “only hunting with a rifle on privately owned land, hunting privately owned game, is considered ethical and legal” (pasmans and hebinck 2017:447). despite claims that game farms reduce rural unemployment, some scholars argue they provide fewer job opportunities than ecotourism or traditional farming, while destabilizing regional and national food security, foreignizing land ownership, and stripping local smallholders of access to water and grazing land (pasmans and hebinck 2017; snijders 2012). in rural kwazulu-natal, villagers pool money to pay bail and fines for neighbors caught hunting illegally, offering community-level support in the form of “poachers’ relief funds” (warchol and johnson 2009:150). these issues tap into themes that demand further investigation: divergent perceptions of how wildlife is to be used (or not used) and by whom, in a system of stratified resource access. toward an ethnographic approach ethnographic studies of illegal hunters’ motivations are scarce. in surveys conducted in rural communities, local men and boys between the ages of 7 and 40 are consistently identified as the primary participants in illegal hunting, dogs as the favored hunting tool, and desire for wild meat as a primary motivator (infield 1988; kaschula and shackleton 2009, 2012; manqele et al. 2018). in two studies, over three-quarters of respondents reported hunting primarily in social groups with other men and their dogs (kaschula and chambers. 2020. ethnobiology letters 11(1):25–28 27 short topical review shackleton 2009; manqele et al. 2018). the social dimensions of hunting point to motivation beyond protein alone. dlamini (2005:86) reports that informants in kwazulu-natal emphasized that “we do not hunt because we are hungry,” but rather from the “need to fulfill this cultural and recreational activity.” dlamini (2005:87) reported that another informant stated that inability to hunt lowers the community dignity as well as attachment to tradition, loss of contact with nature and so on. now that we cannot practice our tradition and culture, instead we watch foreign safari hunters slaughtering our wildlife resources; we are now a weak society. these perspectives illuminate the wider significance of hunting with dogs, tethered to a dual inheritance: a deep cultural history alongside a more recent history of dispossession. hunters interviewed by kepe et al. (2001) invoke the concept of ukuloja, a zulu term for locally legitimate stealing of a resource based on historical claim to it. one hunter asks: “how can someone who does not live here with us refer to us as poachers just because we harvest our own resources? we are just good hunters and above all, we have kept these wildlife for many years” (hebinck 2018:279). these voices point to aspects of illegal hunting in south africa that have not been adequately investigated but are crucial to addressing challenges in community-based conservation. holmes (2007) posits that when small actors practice banned traditions, these acts contain wider symbolic meaning, a form of resistance in a political system that does not regard one’s own traditions as legitimate. top-down restrictions in african conservation have had significant collateral effects, leading to more hunting being classified as illegal by being too restrictive of traditional cultural practices (‘t sas-rolfes 2017:3). despite increased interest in probing the role of culture and structural inequality in african conservation, “much of this line of inquiry is nascent and unacknowledged” when it comes to illegal hunting (‘t sas-rolfes 2017:3). duffy et al. (2016) argue that poverty alone does not capture the motivation behind hunting, but that these practices are also driven by demand for satisfaction of cultural needs, enactment of values, and links to identity and agency that subsistence alone does not encompass. contemporary conservation cannot succeed without earnest inclusion of community values and perceptions. ethnographic research on illegal hunting offers a necessary path toward remedying this knowledge gap and addressing challenges to community-based conservation. after over a century of restriction, illegal hunting with dogs occupies a juncture where issues of land use, conservation, and livelihood meet. the relative lack of hunters’ voices in the academic literature points to the need for ethnographic approaches rooted in environmental history to grapple with the drivers of illegal hunting with dogs. untangling the conflicting narratives around illegal hunting will require close examination of its emic threads: into the woven history of dispossession and restriction of cultural traditions, which extend from the past to the present. acknowledgments thank you to dr. rob quinlan for the guidance, encouragement, and editing assistance. thank you to the anonymous reviewers for their constructive feedback and suggestions for improving this manuscript. declarations permissions: none declared. sources of funding: none declared. conflicts of interest: none declared. references cited couzens, e. 2007. is conservation a viable land usage: issues surrounding the sale of ivory by southern african countries. in land use law for sustainable development, edited by n. chalifour, p. kameri-mbote, l. h. lye, and j. nolon, pp. 27–44. cambridge university press, cambridge, ma. couzens, e., and a. blackmore. 2010. a millennium overturned: the long history in england and south africa of laws against hunting with dogs, and recent statutory changes in the province of kwazulu-natal. in stella iuris: celebrating 100 years of teaching law in pietermaritzburg, edited by m. kidd and s. hoctor, pp. 298–321. juta, claremont, south africa. dlamini, z. 2005. creating stakeholders in community-based natural resource management through traditional hunting: a comparative study of inhluzani farm and mpembeni community game reserve in kwazulu-natal. master’s thesis, school of environmental sciences, university of chambers. 2020. ethnobiology letters 11(1):25–28 28 short topical review kwazulu-natal, durban, south africa. available from university of kwazulu-natal research space. duffy, r., f. st john, b. büscher, and d. brockington. 2016. toward a new understanding of the links between poverty and illegal wildlife hunting. conservation biology 30:14–22. doi:10.1111/ cobi.12622. grey-ross, r., c. t. downs, and k. kirkman. 2010. an assessment of illegal hunting on farmland in kwazulu-natal, south africa: implications for oribi (ourebia ourebi) conservation. south african journal of wildlife research 40:43–52. doi:10.3957/056.040.0104. hebinck, p. 2018. poaching: between conservation from below, livelihoods, and resistance. in nature conservation in southern africa: morality and marginality: towards sentient conservation?, edited by j. b. gewald, m. spierenburg, and h. wels, pp. 257–292. brill, boston, ma. holmes, g. 2007. protection, politics and protest: understanding resistance to conservation. conservation and society 5:184–201. infield, m. 1988. attitudes of a rural community towards conservation and a local conservation area in natal, south africa. biological conservation 45:21–46. doi:10.1016/0006-3207(88)90050-x. kaschula, s., and c. shackleton. 2009. quantity and significance of wild meat off-take by a rural community in the eastern cape, south africa. environmental conservation 36:192–200. doi:10.1017/s0376892909990282. kaschula, s., and c. shackleton. 2012. how do hiv and aids impact the use of natural resources by poor rural populations? the case of wild animal products. south african journal of science 108:1–9. doi:10.4102/sajs.v108i1/2.549. kepe, t., b. cousins, and s. turner. 2001. resource tenure and power relations in community wildlife: the case of the mkambati area, south africa. society & natural resources 14:911–925. doi:10.1080/089419201753242814. kwazulu-natal nature conservation management amendment act (no. 5 of 1999). food and agriculture organization of the united nations faolex database [web page]. available at: http://extwprlegs1.fao.org/docs/pdf/saf93097.pdf. accessed on november 30, 2019. manqele, n. s., j. a. selier, t. r. hill, and c. t. downs. 2018. drivers of the illegal hunting of serval (leptailurus serval) and oribi (ourebia ourebi) in the kwazulu-natal midlands, south africa. african journal of wildlife research 48:023004. doi:10.3957/056.048.023004. pasmans, t., and p. hebinck. 2017. rural development and the role of game farming in the eastern cape, south africa. land use policy 64:440– 450. doi:10.1016/j.landusepol.2017.03.010. snijders, d. 2012. wild property and its boundaries – on wildlife policy and rural consequences in south africa. the journal of peasant studies 39:503–520. doi:10.1080/03066150.2012.667406. ‘t sas-rolfes, m. 2017. african wildlife conservation and the evolution of hunting institutions. environmental research letters 12:115007. doi:10.1088/1748-9326/aa854b. tropp, j. 2002. dogs, poison, and the meaning of colonial intervention in the transkei, south africa. the journal of african history 43:451–472. doi:10.1017/s0021853702008186. van sittert, l., and s. swart, eds. 2008. canis africanis: a dog history of south africa. brill, boston, ma. warchol, g., and b. johnson. 2009. wildlife crime in the game reserves of south africa: a research note. international journal of comparative and applied criminal justice 33:143–154. doi:10.1080/01924036.2009.9678800. using lichenometry, dendrochronology, and historical data to establish the relative age of an abandoned cemetery in northern arkansas kluthe et al. 2018. ethnobiology le ers 9(2):253–262 253 data, methods & taxonomy trees currently grow throughout the area both near and over marked gravesites. according to local folklore, this cemetery was established by early white settlers who traveled through the mountains to begin a new life in the louisiana purchase, in what would become the state of arkansas. not every person survived this journey, so the cemetery was established and became their final resting place. rough cut headstones hewn from local sandstone were used to mark the graves, although some of these no longer have any markings, if they ever did. historical documents provide little information as to who may have been buried in the unmarked graves. dates on some of the gravestones indicate that the cemetery was already present when the land was deeded from the government to the first landowner, jesse mason, in 1883 (general land office 2012). there is some indication that the land was used prior to this date. the land survey of 1831 (general land office 2012) showed square fields indicative of farming. a few miles south of the cemetery a small introduction verifying folklore associated with historical sites or events is challenging when historical documents are not available (dorson 1961). scientific methods used to date objects and places are commonplace today; these tools allow us to verify information that previously existed only as historical tradition (wagner 2007). in the absence of historical documents, dating techniques for early american sites commonly rely on artifacts—such as pottery—which are uncovered during excavations (adams 2003). this study examined the possibility of using both dendrochronology and lichenometry as tools for dating early american sites when historical documents and artifacts are insufficient or unavailable for dating the age of a site. the study site is located between the boston mountains and the arkansas river valley. an old cemetery known as cedar grove cemetery, it is now mostly covered with vegetation, the graves sunken in, and many of the headstones toppled (figure 1). small using lichenometry, dendrochronology, and historical data to establish the rela ve age of an abandoned cemetery in northern arkansas brandy garre kluthe¹*, margaret guiccioni², and steven l. stephenson³ ¹department of biology, saint peter’s university, jersey city, usa. ²department of geosciences, university of arkansas, faye eville, usa. ³department of biological sciences, university of arkansas, faye eville, usa. *brandygarre kluthe@gmail.com abstract folklore surrounding an abandoned cemetery located in johnson county, arkansas (a part of the louisiana purchase) suggested that it was used by early se lers. historical records were combined with several da ng techniques to determine the approximate me periods that cedar grove cemetery was established and abandoned. cores extracted from trees located adjacent to or on graves provided evidence that the cemetery was abandoned in the 1920s. these results coincide with the last burial event in 1922. the approximate age of undated gravesites was determined using lichenometry. a lichen growth rate of 0.0685 cm/year was determined for lichens present on two gravestones with known dates. this growth rate was then applied to the undated graves to establish their approximate ages. death dates from historical records of individuals buried in the cemetery matched the dates established by the lichen growth rate. our results show that many of the unmarked graves date prior to the first documented private ownership of the land. the results of this study support local folklore passed down over several genera ons about the origin of the cemetery. received march 23, 2018 open access accepted august 8, 2018 doi 10.14237/ebl.9.2.2018.1296 keywords lichenometry, folklore, da ng, cemetery, tree‐ring copyright © 2018 by the author(s) licensee society of ethnobiology. this is an open‐access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution‐noncommercial 4.0 international public license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by‐nc/4.0), which permits non‐commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. kluthe et al. 2018. ethnobiology le ers 9(2):253–262 254 data, methods & taxonomy creek flows towards the former site of a large trading post on the arkansas river, in use several decades before the acquisition of the louisiana purchase (key 2001). dendrochronology, lichenometry, and historical records were used to determine the age of the headstones. dendrochronology has been successfully used to determine approximate dates for historical and archaeological structures; those techniques were applied to this study (bannister and robinson 1975; pearson el al. 2013). trees now present on or adjacent to headstones likely became established only after the graves were in place. lichen growth rates were another means of dating the headstones. lichens grow at a near constant rate, and they are useful in dating objects that are relatively undisturbed (muller 2006). this is a common method of determining growth rate within a small area (mccarroll 1995). lichen growth rates can be determined by using headstones with dates on them to calculate growth rate based on a known date. the aim of this study is to use modern dating techniques to determine the approximate age of the unknown graves in cedar grove cemetery. dendrochronology and lichenometry, combined with historical documents, will help to fill in the knowledge gaps surrounding the cedar grove cemetery. by establishing dates for the unknown graves, we test the hypothesis that the cemetery was established before the land was first surveyed and settled. this would support the local folklore surrounding the establishment of the cemetery which indicates that it was used prior to the date of the louisiana purchase. historical background arkansas was part of the louisiana purchase that the figure 1 cedar grove cemetery near clarksville, ar. a) site of cemetery with gravestones present. b) increment borer used to sample trees on or near gravesites. c) one of the few gravestones (gs 12) with wri ng; the date is difficult to deci‐ pher but informa on from historical documents made it possible to verify the date as 1859. d) this gravestone was covered with the two specimens of lichen iden fied. (photographs taken by brandy garre kluthe). kluthe et al. 2018. ethnobiology le ers 9(2):253–262 255 data, methods & taxonomy united states acquired from france in 1803. during the early to mid–1700s, prior to the transfer of the land to the united states, several early french colonists had produced fairly detailed maps of the area, including the area surrounding the cemetery site (sayre 2010). one of the first trading posts in arkansas was on spadra bluff, which is located in johnson county, arkansas, just a few miles south of the cemetery site. at the time of the louisiana purchase, french traders had been established in the general area for decades (key 2000). this trading post was a place for fur traders, both white and american indian, to purchase supplies and sell furs. several trading houses were in the vicinity, and it is easy to imagine that settlers would radiate out from this post (key 2000). spadra bluff derives its name from the stream that flows south into the arkansas river adjacent to the post site. this stream passes very closely to the cedar grove cemetery. the u.s. government surveyed the land within the louisiana purchase in the decades following its acquisition. in 1831 surveyor william clarkson produced the plat for section 27 of the clarksville quadrangle, where the cemetery is located. the use of u.s. general land office (glo) records can be helpful in determining land ownership, usage, and the types of vegetation characteristic of a particular landscape, although caution must be used. not all of the surveyors working in an area were reliable, and the records they produced were not always accurate (king 1978). although the plat does not suggest that clarkson was not skilled, it also does not show the cemetery, although some of the gravesites were dated to be older than the time of the survey. looking at the survey transect, the survey does not pass through the boundary of the cemetery. clarkson would not necessarily have seen the cemetery in this large tract of land if he did not stray far from his transect. there is some conflicting data as to who first homesteaded the property. as noted earlier, the first official recorded ownership of the land (general land office 2012) where the cemetery is located was to jesse mason in 1883. regardless of ownership, there is considerable evidence to support the presence of white settlers, either french or american, in the area surrounding the cemetery site well before it was first homesteaded. this establishes the fact that people were around who would have died and been buried in the manner that was evident at the cemetery site. this information supports the scientific data collected from the gravestones, described below, which clearly show that the gravesites were established well before the first homesteaders were recorded. methods the precise location of the cemetery, which is not recorded on united states geological survey (usgs) maps, was determined using a handheld gps unit (trimble geo xt). this information was used to locate historical information in the glo records available on the bureau of land management website (general land office 2012). the gps unit was also used to record the site of each gravestone, the location of lichens used for measurements and samples, and trees from which cores were extracted. these data were then used to create a map of the cemetery, pinpointing the exact location of the samples collected (figure 2). cores were extracted from all living trees that were growing directly over or next to a grave site, regardless of species. in addition, two trees not located on or adjacent to a grave but which appeared to be within the bounds of the original cemetery were included to provide a more inclusive sampling of the trees present. the primary species collected were eastern red cedar (juniperus virginiana l.) and white oak (quercus alba l.), along with one red oak (quercus rubra l.). all cores were taken in 2012. core samples were extracted with a standard increment borer. the cores were taken at breast height (height approximately 1.30 m from the ground) and stored in straws labeled with the collection number. the cores were allowed to dry and then mounted on wood blocks. dried cores were sanded to achieve a smooth surface for viewing. the cores were analyzed with a stereomicroscope and rings were counted three times in the dendrochronology lab at the university of arkansas. each ring represents one year of growth. extra care was taken when counting rings of eastern red cedar since this species sometimes produces false rings (stahle and wolfman 1985). some of the eastern red cedars sampled had internal heart rot; for those samples approximate ages were recorded and absolute ages were obtained by crossreferencing ring data with red cedars growing nearby. the lichen measurements were taken from specimens growing on 16 gravestones. all measurements were taken from east-facing gravestones to ensure a high level of growth consistency. no measurements were taken from kluthe et al. 2018. ethnobiology le ers 9(2):253–262 256 data, methods & taxonomy figure 2 map of sampled trees and gravesites with representa ve ages. kluthe et al. 2018. ethnobiology le ers 9(2):253–262 257 data, methods & taxonomy gravestones that were toppled over. only the largest and most complete lichens and those that did not overlap with adjacent specimens were measured. two types of lichens were found to grow on the gravestones. measurements were obtained from the dominant species, parmotrema reticulatum. this species of lichen is common in the area and occurs predominantly on rocks. a ruler was used to measure these lichens in centimeters to the third decimal place. the ruler was placed at one edge of the lichen and extended across to the other edge, making sure that the line of measurement passed through the center point (armstrong 1993). initial measurements were documented twice to ensure accuracy. all field work was carried out during the months of september and october, 2012. historical records including glo records, usgs maps, death records, and cemetery data were collected and analyzed for specific information regarding the site of cedar grove cemetery (general land office 2012; johnson county historical society 2012). records obtained from the county historical society had two records that verified the dates on some of the gravestones (johnson county historical society 2012). conversations with the landowner and neighbors provided folklore about the cemetery. these sources are expanded on in the discussion section below. results the results obtained from the tree cores are presented in table 1. trees ranged in age from 71 years to 118 years. visual inspection of the trees showed a wide range in diameter at breast height (dbh) but the trees were very close in age (mean 75.5 years) with the exception of the trees in the southern section of the cemetery. these trees ranged in age from 85–118 years. as described above, two trees not directly over or adjacent to grave sites were included to allow for a more complete sampling of the cemetery trees: a white oak with an age of 98 years, in the southern portion of the area sampled, and an eastern red cedar aged 118 years old that could have been located outside of the cemetery since it was the second southernmost tree cored. a comparison of tree ages and gravestone ages shows that the trees near every grave site are several years younger than the established age of the gravestone (figure 2). the ages of trees located near or over grave sites indicate that the cemetery was abandoned around the time of the last marked grave. while tree ages alone did not provide sufficient evidence to support the pre-louisiana purchase date of the cemetery accorded by folklore, these trees do indicate that the site was relatively undisturbed, making it ideal for applying lichenometry for dating the unmarked gravestones. lichens showed a wide range of diameters, indicating an apparent difference in ages (table 2). the lichen diameters ranged from 3.81 cm to 12.19 cm. a gravestone marked from 1922 included a lichen with a diameter of 3.81 cm, while the 1859 gravestone had a lichen diameter of 8.12 cm, visually indicating a difference in age. by subtracting the diameter of the 1922 lichen from the 1859 lichen, and diving by the number of calendar years separating the two gravestone dates, a lichen growth rate of 0.0685 cm/ year was calculated for the years between 1859 and 1922. a second growth rate was determined by taking the diameter of the lichen on the 1922 gravestone and dividing the value by the number of years from 1922 to 2012. this provided a different growth rate value of 0.0423 cm/year for the period 1922–2012. the latter growth rate was deemed to have been affected by changes following the abandonment of the cemetery, as described below, so the pre–1922 growth rate was used exclusively to estimate the age of gravestones of unknown date. the ages of the gravestones was therefore calculated by subtracting the diameter of the 1922 gravestone lichen (3.81 cm) from each of the other tree sampled tree species tree rings counted 1 eastern red cedar 78 2 eastern red cedar 77 4 eastern red cedar 75 5 red oak 76 6 eastern red cedar 71 7 white oak 76 8 eastern red cedar 85 9 eastern red cedar 100 10 white oak 87 11 eastern red cedar 118 12 white oak 98 table 1 species name and number of tree rings counted for all trees sampled in cedar grove cemetery. each tree ring represents one year of growth. this infor‐ ma on was used to determine the approximate age of abandonment of the cemetery. kluthe et al. 2018. ethnobiology le ers 9(2):253–262 258 data, methods & taxonomy gravestone lichen samples, and the duration of time needed to grow the remaining diameter was estimated using the pre–1922 growth rate of 0.0685 cm/year. thus, this calculation provides the number of years that had passed between the lichen began growing and 1922. to determine the date of the gravestone, this number is then subtracted from 1922. support for the 0.0685 cm/year lichen growth rate is given by gravestone 10. this grave had a date, but it was unknown if it was the birth or death date. using the rate of 0.0685 cm/year for lichen growth, the date came out at 1811, which would correspond with the death date. by establishing that this was the death date, another lichen growth rate could be determined. the growth rate between the 1811 gravestone and the 1859 gravestone (gs 12) was then calculated to be 0.0689 cm/year, which is not significantly different from 0.0685, as verified by a chi-square analysis. this consistency in lichen growth rates supports the assumption that outside factors, including successional growth, were not affecting the rate of lichen growth within the sample area prior to 1922, permitting dates to be established for unmarked gravesites. by applying the 0.0685 cm/year lichen growth rate, the age of unmarked gravestones can be estimated. the gravestones ranged in age from 90 years to 212 years (figure 3). the youngest is the verified 1922 gravestone and the oldest gravestone was established in 1800 (gravestone 8). as illustrated in figure 3, the cemetery was used at a steady rate from 1800 to 1922. there is a strong correlation between the dates that were determined using lichen measurements and the dates from the cemetery age of gravestone gravesite lichen diameter (cm) calculated age historical records calculated date gs 1 3.81 71 1922 1922 gs 2 8.128 151 1859 gs 3 7.112 132 1874 gs 4 gs 5 7.874 146 1863 gs 6 5.2 96 1902 gs 7 11.43 212 1811 gs 8 12.192 226 1800 gs 9 gs 10 11.43 212 1811 gs 11 gs 12 8.128 151 1859 1859 gs 13 9.652 179 1837 gs 14 gs 15 10.414 193 1826 gs 16 9.652 179 1837 gs 17 9.652 179 1837 gs 18 gs 19 4.9 91 1906 gs 20 gs 21 gs 22 11.938 221 1803 gs 23 6 111 1890 table 2 ages of sampled gravestones using lichen growth rates and historical records. as outlined in the text, the calcu‐ lated lichen growth rate from 1811 to 1859 is 0.0689 cm/year, with a 0.0685 cm/year lichen growth rate from 1859 to 1922. the calculated age of the gravestones was determined using the 0.0685 cm/year rate, as described in the text. the calculat‐ ed age of the gravestones is verified by historical records and can be used to determine the age of gravestones previously unknown. kluthe et al. 2018. ethnobiology le ers 9(2):253–262 259 data, methods & taxonomy records. it is important to consider that not every gravesite had a gravestone, and that not all gravestones were measured for lichen growth. taking this into consideration along with historical data, it is possible that the cemetery is actually older than 1800. discussion dating using dendrochronology and lichenometry dendrochronology and lichenometry data, combined with historical records, provide strong evidence that cedar grove cemetery was established by white settlers prior to the acquisition of the louisiana purchase and before the first survey maps were produced in the area (1831). the research techniques outlined in this study provide a novel approach to verifying verbal histories or folklore about sites when historical documents are not sufficient, do not exist, or have gaps. the results of this type of research approach can change our previously understood knowledge of a place. it can also provide a richer historical record by validating folklore. the combination of historical documents, local knowledge, tree age, and lichen growth rates was necessary to fully understand the history of cedar figure 3 ages of the sampled gravesites ordered by year of establishment. the graph shows a steady rate of use from the first grave to the last grave. kluthe et al. 2018. ethnobiology le ers 9(2):253–262 260 data, methods & taxonomy grove cemetery. the tree cores do not provide evidence that the cemetery was established prior to the acquisition of the louisiana purchase, but they do provide information about the time of last use and appear to indicate that the cemetery boundary might have shifted and was abandoned not at one time but over an extended period of time. trees aged 85–118 years are found exclusively in the southern portion of the cemetery, suggesting that it may have been abandoned before the rest of the cemetery. this would make sense when considering the orientation of the cemetery to the entry point and the site of the most recent gravesite. gravestone 1 is located in the southeast corner with the point of entry to the cemetery at the northern part of the sample area (figure 2). conversations with the current landowner and her neighbors indicate that the cemetery was actually surrounded by a fence when the last cemetery was established in 1922, and quickly deteriorated shortly after that time. the two oldest trees in the sample area may have been outside the boundary of this fence, although the fence is no longer present. the time frame of the cemetery abandonment established around 1922 is reasonable and does allow for early disturbance, possibly caused by seedling browse by cattle or deer, which deterred tree growth until approximately the early 1930s (myster 2010). according to the current landowner, the property was used for grazing cattle until the late 1970s. on one visit to the site, deer were also observed within the area sampled. considering the age of the trees, it seems likely that the cemetery ceased to be maintained just a few years after the last grave was established. the lack of maintenance to the site allowed tree seedlings to became established within the boundary of the sample area, including those individuals growing over and adjacent to gravesites. this also allowed for a change in the understory vegetation. privet (ligustrum sp.), which may have been planted on the boundary of the cemetery, spread to cover the entire western edge of the graveyard at the time of study. gravestone 1 was found in the dense vegetation along with gravesite 21. other graves may be present along the western portion, but the understory growth was so dense that it was impossible to visually examine or attempt to sample. other vegetation within the sample area included a woody overgrown rhododendron (rhododendron sp.) and a thorny vine of either a wild rose (rosa sp.) or blackberry (rubus sp.). while successional growth within the sample area and the cemetery as a whole did not turn out to be critical to the questions being asked about the age of the gravestones, it does provide some answers to the changes in lichen growth rate after the last grave was established. the trees were not present when the greater portion of the cemetery was established. as the trees grew, they changed the amount of sunlight and moisture that would be received by the lichens growing on the gravestones. this change would account for the difference in the lichen growth rate per year after the 1922 gravesite had been established (armstrong 1993). evidence to support this interpretation came from historical records. integrating historical records the lichens growing on the gravestones provided some insight into the age of individual unmarked gravestones. at the beginning of the study, an exact age for any single gravestone had not yet been determined. two critical pieces of data provided the key for discovering the growth rate of the lichens. the first came from gravestone 1. this gravestone had not been observed in the initial visit to the cemetery. the gravesite was located in a dense thicket of privet growing on the western boundary of the site. the gravestone markings were clearly visible and confirmed that it was put in place in 1922. the second critical piece of information came from a visit to the johnson county historical society. the historical society actually had a file for this cemetery, which has been called by many names, including the cedar grove cemetery, mason cemetery, and darnell cemetery. in the 1950s a local homemakers’ club decided to inventory all the cemeteries in the county. they visited the various cemeteries and wrote down the information found on the gravestones and then verified this information through the arkansas death index and through interviews with residents who recalled ancestors buried in the cemeteries. in addition to the 1922 gravesite, only two other gravestones in this cemetery had markings. gravestone 12 was one that was able to be verified by the information collected from the homemakers group. the date of march 18 could be read, but the year was too badly weathered. the group verified the year as 1859. with two verified dates, the lichen growth rates were determined for this site. another lichen growth rate could be determined kluthe et al. 2018. ethnobiology le ers 9(2):253–262 261 data, methods & taxonomy using the current year and the newest grave established in 1922, but this presented problems. it is assumed that from the establishment of the cemetery to when it was abandoned major changes in the site did not occur, and that the rate of lichen growth would have been relatively constant. when the lichen growth rate from 1922 to present was calculated, the rate was different from the 1859 to 1922 growth rate. one explanation for this change in growth rates could be linked to the change in vegetation. it is possible to obtain an estimate for how the landscape has changed using glo records. these records did not have any information about the specific vegetation in the area, but it is thought that the climate was wetter and colder than today, which would affect the rate of growth (bragg 2004). another major consideration is the growth of the trees up and around the gravesites. lichen growth rate is determined by the amount of sunlight and rainfall (armstrong 1993). both of the factors would have been changed with the establishment of trees in the cemetery and sample area. although lichen growth rates were not statistically different for the period of 1811-1859 and 1859-1922, using different growth rates would slightly change some of the dates of the graves. for this reason, the growth rate established between 1859–1922 was used to determine the age of all sampled gravestones, which established the date of the oldest gravestone to be 1800. the data collected was used to support the folklore about the use and origin of the cemetery. the methods outlined provide a means for dating other sites when historical documents are limited or not available. conclusions stories passed down through generations become folklore relating to people, places, and events. the stories passed down about cedar grove cemetery indicate that it was used by the earliest settlers in johnson county, arkansas. in the present study, historical evidence and modern scientific dating techniques were employed to validate this local folklore. measurements of lichens growing on the gravestones established a rate for their growth which, along with verifiable gravesite dates, was able to establish the age of many of the gravestones within the cemetery. tree ring data indicate that the majority of the trees were established after the last gravesites were dug. land patent records indicate that the land was first deeded to jesse mason in 1883. the glo records along with other historical records indicate that people were using the area before it was deeded to jesse mason. the date of the oldest dateable grave was determined to be 1800, with a steady rate of use until the most recent gravesite was established in 1922. this evidence strongly supports the folklore that the cemetery was established and used well before the land was formally homesteaded. it may never be known who is buried in this cemetery, but modern science has been able to determine, in the case of the cedar grove cemetery, that sometimes there is truth to stories that are passed down through generations. declarations permissions: none declared 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paleoanthropology, edited by w. henke, t. hardt, and i. tattersall, pp. 311–338. springer verlag, berlin, germany. an interview with verna miller (pepeyla) blazina. 2018. ethnobiology letters 9(1):4–8 4 interviews & reflections special issue on ethics in ethnobiology the importance of these teachings when you were younger, or is this something that’s grown with you? verna: it wasn’t until i got home again that i realized how important the teachings were. i always had them with me, but i missed out on most of the teachings because i was sent away at a very young age to a residential school, and we were not allowed to speak our language; we weren’t allowed to practice any of our traditional ways of life. they were doing their best to change us. i thought i had lost a lot of it, and when i came home, my memories of the time i spent with my grandparents started to come back and be renewed. i would listen to my aunts and uncles when they were still alive, and they would tell me stories as well. ashley: that brings up the idea of place-based education. you called it in-situ education (miller 2013), which is such a key way to put it. how important is it to learn from multiple teachers, whether that be different people, plants, animals, processes, or place, and how can that be incorporated into today’s learning environment? verna: it’s going to mean a major, major paradigm shift. it won’t be easy because society is so engrained in the present form of education that there is reluctance. but i think there is a way to take the classroom out of the square box, or rectangle, or whatever the case may be, and put people in nature, in situ. any topic that you learn in school can easily be learned outside, and it will cover more of the different styles of learning. not everyone can learn from the present situation. from my understanding from reading john taylor gatto, he indicated that the present system of education caters to a minority of learners―a great minority of learners. in harold gardner’s multiple intelligences (1983), he gives really clear examples of verna miller (pepeyla) is a member of the nlakapamux first nation of interior british columbia. she is currently the president of the international society of ethnobiology, and is also the chair of the nlakapamux child and family services society. previously, mrs. miller worked as director of tmixw research, an indigenous research group, as well as the project facilitator for the nlakapamux health and healing society, which provides spiritual and mental health counseling for victims of the residential schools. mrs. miller attended an indian residential school from the age of 7 between 1954 and 1966. verna has a bachelor of arts in geography and environmental studies from the university of victoria, as well as a master of education degree from thompson rivers university. i first heard mrs. verna miller speak as one of the keynotes at the 2016 society of ethnobiology conference in tucson, az. her ideas on how to expand the educational system beyond the fourwalled classroom both inspired me and stuck with me. i had the chance to briefly chat with mrs. miller after her talk, and have been intrigued ever since. given the theme of this issue of ethnobiology letters, i was honored to have the chance to speak with verna on the topics of ethics and education in june 2017. the following is an edited version of our conversational interview. i’ve attempted to retain as many of verna’s powerful, often poetic, words and insights as possible. ashley: i’ll just jump right in, but if you want to lead the conversation in a certain direction, please feel free. you mentioned that you learned a lot at a young age from your grandparents (legacy of hope foundation 2013; miller 2013). were you aware of an interview with verna miller (pepeyla) ashley blazina1* 1school of environmental and forest sciences, university of washington, seattle, wa, usa. *ajblazin@uw.edu received november 2, 2017 open access accepted november 24, 2017 doi 10.14237/ebl.9.1.2018.1149 copyright © 2018 by the author(s); licensee society of ethnobiology. this is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution-noncommercial 4.0 international public license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0), which permits non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. blazina. 2018. ethnobiology letters 9(1):4–8 5 interviews & reflections special issue on ethics in ethnobiology the different ways that people learn. it’s training teachers to think differently and to get out of the classroom. an associate of mine once said, “how can you talk about nature if you’re not intimate with nature?” how much of our lives depend on nature, the natural world? and yet, the present system of education doesn’t allow for that in a more intimate way. it’s all class-based, and i mean that with more meanings than one. i think this goes to the element of ethics. if you don’t understand nature, how can you be ethical about how you conduct your study? ashley: i was reading an interview with alexis shotwell (prescod-weinstein 2017) who wrote against purity: living ethically in compromised times (shotwell 2016). shotwell talks about how our ethical regard can inform society’s belief in that being’s right to live or thrive. this goes into the ideas we have about race, disability, gender, but also how we might view a tree’s right to survive [or be destroyed]. what are the different classes we’re really giving everything, and how is that applying? verna: the problem with ethics is how people interpret the ethics and whether it suits their individual or institutional purpose. what they can get away with, so to speak. i know that’s not very fair, but that’s been my experience. i’ve said to young ethnobiologists, “be aware of your own arrogance.” just because you’re of a certain cache in the academic world does not mean that you own that knowledge. you are gathering it from people. and you have to develop a relationship. you can’t just walk in and take their information and copyright it and say it’s your own. this is where the difficulty lies, because universities have a certain process that they demand young academics follow. a lot of times it goes against the ethical demeanor of the work that these young people are doing. they’re starting to understand that, “this doesn’t belong to me.” it doesn’t belong to the university, it has been shared, that element of respect is missing in the academic world. ashley: i agree. i really like how you explain that, in [many] indigenous education practices (miller 2013), the student and the teacher have this level of respect that’s carried throughout the teachings. i was reflecting on how often that wasn’t present in my own education, and how that [lack of respect] could be carried into how an academic operates, and how damaging that is. verna: and when it’s out of context, it becomes a matter of one’s credibility. i was in ottawa at an access to benefits sharing meeting [with] an associate. we were sitting at a table, and talking about the different parts of access to natural resources and benefits sharing. and this young man says, “well, that doesn’t make sense, all of these studies should take place in a laboratory. all of these proofs, these experiments, should take place in a laboratory,” and my associate just jumped on him. she said, “how dare you! have you ever been outside of your lab?” he said, “well no,” and she said, “how do you have any ethical backbone to say something like that? you have no intimacy with what goes on in nature if you think the lab is the do-all, end-all.” he was so taken aback that he didn’t come back after that (laughter). it was so true. you can’t depend on just the laboratory. if you want to experiment, it’s better to do it in nature and understand nature. part of my teachings is that when the old people observed what was going on in nature they were able to conduct themselves accordingly. i remember my grandmother [and i] were picking berries and off in the distance we see this bear thrashing around in this berry bush and she made a comment to the effect that, “oh look, the bear is pruning the bushes.” it never clicked until nancy turner mentioned it [later], and i remembered that comment by my grandmother. so, my grandmother, she used to do the same thing. she’d sit there and she’d look at the bush before she started picking and she’d prune off the ones that weren’t producing, and she’d come back to the same bush the next year and there’d be twice as many berries, but there’d be other branches that she’d have to prune. ashley: [speaking of] your grandmother [and] learning from the environment, i was thinking about the story [of] how intimately she knew what keys to look for when collecting different saps (miller 2013). a person has to adapt to the environment when they’re living that intimately with it. with colonialbased education, [we’re] taught that as a person becomes – i’m putting quotes in the air – more ‘educated,’ they can control their environment more. could you talk about the types of damages this causes, [although] that story you shared with your associate and that young man is pretty telling. verna: well, i suspect this poor young man spent most of his life in the city. a lot of the bigger academic institutions are in big cities that don’t have the same blazina. 2018. ethnobiology letters 9(1):4–8 6 interviews & reflections special issue on ethics in ethnobiology access to day-to-day living as the more rural areas do. and i think both my grandparents were so experienced in the way that they lived that they could predict whether it was going to be a good year for a certain food source to harvest, and they knew all the places where these sources of food were. i believe the expression used is ‘knowing the indicators.’ i remember riding with both of them with their pack horse. we’d go up and camp in the mountains, collecting different foods and medicines. we’d hunt, we’d fish. of course, in those days, we didn’t have electricity, so we preserved a lot of our own food – whether we canned it, dried it, [or] salted it, we never starved. my grandparents were so adept at doing these things because they were so intimate with their landscapes. my uncle was telling me [that] my grandfather would go out at night and he would – never prayed – but he would give praise to the sky. my grandmother, during the day at some point, would give praise to the earth. there are different spiritual ways of giving thanks. in indigenous cultures in our area we always give an offering before any activity and we always give thanks at the conclusion of an activity. ashley: what are some suggestions you have for people who have gone through colonial education to gain this respect back for and give praise to these different processes? how can we put it back into the education processes? verna: first of all, we have to convince people that this is the way to go. and it’s going to take a major paradigm shift. it’s going to take time to get everyone comfortable with this way of learning, this system of learning. it can be more accommodating to different learning styles. i mean, it’s not going to happen in my lifetime (laugher and groans). it’s an idea that i personally think is doable but i know people are going to resist, because people are in a state of comfort. what is that expression? why fix it if it ain’t broke? i don’t think people realize how broke it is, because that intimacy with nature is missing. technology doesn’t work with nature very well. i can see where technology would work, but it shouldn’t be the do-all, end-all. if the earth is going to survive in a sustainable manner, there has to be more intimacy with nature. more respect and intimacy with nature. ashley: so, gaining back that respect and the intimacy. verna: it hearkens back to watching what was happening in the united states with the [dakota access] pipeline, the black snake as they’re calling it, and how the corporate elite really don’t care about nature. to them it’s how much money can they make, and how fast can they make it while they’re still alive. and you know, it also presents another dilemma: people need jobs. unfortunately, a lot of those jobs mean compromising nature. and that’s a real dilemma for me. i mean, i understand both sides, but there’s got to be a better way. ashley: there’s just so many things to tackle. like you said, it’s broken in so many ways that it’s overwhelming where do we start? verna: it is extremely overwhelming, but you know, little steps, little steps. you just [have] to take little steps at a time and make it work. and yet, the big thing is [changing] the colonizing system and the blatant racism. i always think that racism is born of fear and a lack of understanding. ashley: you mention in your thesis (miller 2013) how the colonial education [system] is really dumbing us down. what are the best ways you’ve found to diminish these effects of being dumbed down? verna: well, as gatto (1991) says, it’s what’s in the curriculum and who decides what’s in the curriculum. i think it’s very selective on the part of the elites to determine what we should be learning. there are some reasonable theories that make sense. but morals, ethics, values? we learned that at home. what we observed in the residential school was – contradictory. controlling how you thought, how you felt, how you judged. how you went through life feeling guilty about how you conducted yourself rather than say, ‘okay, i learned a lesson from that, i don’t need to feel guilty, i’ll just move on.’ that was more destructive than it should have been because it compromised and diminished our own spiritual lives that were more connected to nature. people are going to live how they’re going to live, but if you don’t experience things and learn from them, then you go through life feeling like crap. i don’t resent people who are religious – if that’s what gives them comfort, that’s fine. but i resent the propaganda that they used against my own spiritual life. my grandparents’ teachings. ashley: i wanted to talk to you a little about the allegorical voice you used for stretching the hide (miller 2013). i thought it was so beautiful, and i still blazina. 2018. ethnobiology letters 9(1):4–8 7 interviews & reflections special issue on ethics in ethnobiology haven’t fully grasped everything from it. could talk more about that voice, and how you developed it? verna: it’s connected to sustainability, that connection to nature. how you take from nature and you don’t waste anything. but in the process, you have to give thanks. we’d get a deer or a moose, [and] when my grandmother was working on the hide she would be singing – thanking – the spirit of that deer for providing for us. and it was more a metaphor of the different things you could learn in nature. for example, when learning basketry, you learn trigonometry. in the stretching of the hide, you learn how things work together, how you can make something for yourself. we still make our own regalia. your regalia is who you are. you wear it at ceremony, [and] most people are buried in their regalia. and the stretching of the hide is teaching process. it gives you physical activity. you learn how to mix a solution when you use the brains – it’s chemistry. the scraping of the hair really teaches you patience. there’s so many different elements of this and i’m trying to think of them all and i can’t (laughter). ashley: some school districts are incorporating native american and first nation education as a requirement, but i have a big fear that this will be a ‘check off a box’ on a sheet. what are ways that the teachers could “check” themselves [so to speak] before they check that box? verna: that’s really tough. i was talking to one of the members of my cohort who said, “i don’t feel qualified to teach this because i’m coming to it from my perspective.” in our area, both our districts have what they call a first nations principal. [for] any issues about indigenous peoples in our area, then the [first nations principals] are there to give as much assistance as they can to teach. and it also goes back to, are the teachers themselves prejudice in any way? if they are, should they even be teaching this stuff? it’s important to have the first nations perspective, but teachers need to educate themselves on the most appropriate way understand the literature, go in with their eyes wide open. have a much broader understanding before you go in to teach it, and part of that is just going to speak with another indigenous person. maybe you need to speak to several indigenous people. it’s really a dilemma, and i feel for the teachers who have no concept of if they’re teaching this the right way. ashley: because even if they have great intentions, they [may be] presenting it with these biases that they might not even know they have. verna: exactly. i was co-teaching a course at thompson rivers university to two cohorts of teacher candidates. and i was talking about the process of tanning a hide and i said something about [having] to get used to the smell because – it’s like you’re tasting a food for the first time and you’re not quite sure if you like it or not. and one girl in the classroom scrunched up her nose and had this look of disgust on her face, and i gave her a very long look. i thought, “boy, she’s going to be in trouble if she shows any signs of racism or lack of understanding.” it’s making sure that teachers understand their responsibilities. and if they do have any prejudice, then they have to make it known. don’t be afraid of your own folly. if the older teachers and the principals are worth their weight in gold, they will help these young people get through this. ashley: and not being afraid to counteract it when it is identified as well. sometimes they are very aware of [their prejudice] and aren’t willing to put in the work to fix it, but other times they have no idea they are holding these very racist ideas. verna: oh yeah, it’s born of ignorance, it’s born of a lack of empathy and the ability or the willingness to understand better. and you know, it’s tough. most indigenous people have just learned not to trust. you just can’t walk into an indigenous community and expect that everybody will fall all over themselves to please you. you’re going to find out that nobody trusts you. so, you have to build trust and you have to maintain that trust; otherwise, all bets are off. ashley: that makes sense with any relationship, you need to keep that trust up. verna: the high school close by just had a whole bunch of different venues for aboriginal day. each venue had a different guest and i was asked to come in and do the ethnobotany part of it. [other venues showed] how to do beading, [and] how make an underground house pit. it was for the whole school, [not] just the indigenous children. things like that are starting to happen, but it’s going to take time. because the racism that children project is what they get at home. fear, ignorance, and lack of understanding all go together. my uncle, when he was chief, said that the younger generation of indigenous people are not as patient, and he’s absolutely correct. younger generations are getting stronger and much more vocal; blazina. 2018. ethnobiology letters 9(1):4–8 8 interviews & reflections special issue on ethics in ethnobiology smarter. they’re getting involved in the colonial system of politics, administration, laws, you name it, and challenging those colonial systems. there’s a great swell of young indigenous people that are taking notes. and that goes into education as well. ashley: and how it has to blow up and it has to change. verna: oh, it has to change, we know we’re in the minority but we’re not going to go around not being heard again. doesn’t matter whether anybody likes it or not. ashley: so, if you were to envision a perfect educational system that could grow with technology and the new constructs of today, how would that look? verna: there’s an example of a school – i think it’s near your area – where everybody checks in and they’re outside all day, come rain, shine, snow, whatever. their teacher has their lessons set up [so that] the children play and [the teachers] watch for teachable moments. the children learn from that teachable moment. and they have [teachable moments] throughout the day with great regularity. now, that’s kindergarten, grade 1. but i think as kids get older there are going to be more things for them to do, more tactile things, like measuring the circumference of a tree to determine how old it is. [with] science, you could learn just about everything you need to learn outside. there’s so many opportunities for teachable moments. i wouldn’t even know where to start (laughter). as traditionally, there was also a time inside for storytelling, passing along information. one of our bands is going toward a seasonal school. they are going to be taking more of the classroom time outside as opposed to sitting in a classroom. that’s something that is prevalent amongst first nations kids: they can’t stand sitting in a classroom for hours on end listening to a bobblehead. it’s just not in our nature to sit there and be lumps on a log. we have to be out there – touching, feeling, observing. doing something with our hands, doing something with our minds. it’s a more holistic look at life, more holistic way of learning. references cited american civil liberties union. 2017. arizona’s sb 1070. available at: https://www.aclu.org/issues/ immigrants-rights/state-and-local-immigrationlaws/arizonas-sb-1070?redirect=feature/arizonassb-1070. accessed on june 28, 2017. gardner, h. 1983. frames of mind: the theory of multiple intelligences. basic books, new york, ny. gatto, j. t. 1991. dumbing us down: the hidden curriculum of compulsory education. new society publishers, gabriola island, bc. miller, v. (pepeyla). 2013. indigenous traditional teaching and learning methods in a culturally relevant context: the braided theory. unpublished master’s thesis, school of education, thompson rivers university, kamloops, bc, canada. miller, verna. 2013. we are the children: healing the legacy of the residential schools. interview by the legacy of hope au, t. k., and l. romo. 1999. foundation. available at: http:// wherearethechildren.ca/en/watc_story/vernamiller/. accessed on june 1, 2017. prescod-weinstein, c. 2017. purity in a trumped-up world: a conversation with alexis shotwell. bitch magazine. available at: https:// www.bitchmedia.org/article/purity-trumpedworld/conversation-alexis-shotwell. accessed on june 18, 2017. shotwell, a. 2016. against purity: living ethically in compromised times. university of minnesota press, minneapolis, mn. feeding cahokia: early agriculture in the north american heartland. by gayle j. fritz. 2019. the university of alabama press, tuscaloosa. 228 pp. lopinot. 2024. ethnobiology letters 15(1):101–102 101 reviews riverine settings where some early members of the eac could have thrived and predator competition for fleshy fruit and nut crops could have been lessened. the importance of late archaic and early woodland paleofecal samples from salts cave and mammoth cave in kentucky, as well as the significance of the “flotation revolution” in advancing our knowledge of subsistence in general, are also highlighted. chapters 4–5 focus primarily on plant-food production practices during the middle woodland and late woodland periods, respectively. throughout these two periods, there is substantial evidence for the growing importance of eac crop production in relation to socioreligious interaction, and the importance of women as the primary manual laborers contributing to the development of more political complexity. the emphasis in the next six chapters centers on the american bottom, an extensive and agriculturally rich area along the mississippi river south of its confluence with the missouri river. fritz notes that the late woodland period was generally one of substantial population growth and the intensification of food production practices involving the eac with maize only added to that suite of crops after ad 900. data for plant remains from archaeological sites and for pollen cores dating after ca. ad 600 indicate a relative lack of mobility given diverse farming and foraging strategies and the widespread clearance of bottomland and nearby upland forests. prior to the “big bang” signifying the swift rise of the cahokian polity ca. ad 1050, fritz delves into the increase in panregional trade or interaction as well as the record for increasing settlement complexity and size. the introduction and 12 chapters in this book present a multifaceted chronicle of the evolution of food production and cultivation practices leading up to, during, and after early cahokia. the primary goal of the book is stated upfront: “to highlight the biologically diverse agricultural system that was unique to the central mississippi river valley during the early centuries of the second millennium ad and to trace it roots through time” (p. 4). a related goal is to dispel the notion that the emergence of the cahokian polity was fueled by maize [zea mays] agriculture (referred to as a zeacentric perspective, alluding to a prejudicial emphasis on maize or corn), rather than a diverse multi-cropping system that also included various members of the eastern agricultural complex (eac). the introduction and first three chapters present evidence for the origins of domesticated bottle gourd (lagenaria siceraria) and pepo gourd or squash (e.g., cucurbita pepo), the oily seeded sunflower (helianthus annuus) and marshelder (iva annua), and the four starchy seeds (chenopod or goosefoot [chenopodium berlandiei], erect knotweed [polygonum erectum], maygrass [phalaris caroliniana], and little barley [hordeum pusillum]), the latter seven of which comprised the eac towards the end of the late archaic and early– middle woodland times. the evidence for domestication of two of the four starchy seed taxa is described in detail. fritz also discusses the relatively early management of native vegetation by precontact peoples, a topic that few researchers have broached over the years. she argues that the clearance of nonfood-producing trees and shrubs, sometimes by controlled burning, likely also led to openings in feeding cahokia: early agriculture in the north american heartland. by gayle j. fritz. 2019. the university of alabama press, tuscaloosa. 228 pp. neal h. lopinot1* 1center for archaeological research, missouri state university, springfield, usa. *neallopinot@missouristate.edu received october 5, 2024 open access accepted november 15, 2024 doi 10.14237/ebl.15.1.2024.1915 published december 28, 2024 copyright © 2024 by the author(s); licensee society of ethnobiology. this is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution-noncommercial 4.0 international public license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0), which permits non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. lopinot. 2024. ethnobiology letters 15(1):101–102 102 reviews implications of archaeobotanical remains resulting from feasting activities during “early cahokia” are also discussed. the remains were obtained from the backfill of a borrow pit beneath mound 51, likely associated with the construction of nearby monks mound, the largest earthen mound in the western hemisphere. besides describing the unusual nature of the animal remains, this rapidly filled borrow pit contained a great assortment of plant remains, some uncarbonized owing to their rapid burial. they included unusual numbers of seeds of tobacco and eac crops dominated by maygrass grains, which fritz hypothesized might have been “a necessary ingredient in ceremonial dishes connected with planting, harvesting, and fertility in general” (p. 85). mounting evidence documented by fritz and many others clearly demonstrates that cahokia’s big bang was accompanied by an intensification of the pre-existing “diverse and mixed cropping system” (p. 88). at least with respect to maize, fritz is critical of previous interpretations of provisioning cahokia’s population with surplus maize, thereby implying its paramount importance. instead, the record is indicative of the continued importance of eac crops in addition to maize during the initial mississippian lohmann phase (ad 1050–1100) and subsequent stirling phase (ad 1110–1200). fritz presents data reflecting on the changing importance of maize during earlier versus later mississippian times, including stable carbon isotope values for human remains from cahokia and elsewhere in the american bottom area. the stable carbon isotope data presented by fritz indicate that maize became a pre-eminent crop after early mississippian times (i.e., during the later postad 1200 moorehead and sand prairie phases), when the population of cahokia itself gradually diminished. one of the last chapters includes a discussion of the effects of floods and droughts that may have led to the dislocation of people from the american bottom area. nevertheless, she also mentions the possibility of political upheaval as a possible cause for the gradual abandonment of cahokia and many other sites. whatever the cause(s), it was much like a slowgrowing cancer that ultimately led to the abandonment of cahokia by ad 1400. she also describes stirling-phase plant remains from two ceremonial sites in the american bottom, where substantial portions of flint-clay figurines of supposed “corn goddesses” or “corn maidens” were found. the religious-ceremonial significance of the two sites is reflected by the presence of an abundance of red cedar wood charcoal, tobacco and jimsonweed seeds, and the dominance of maygrass seeds among represented eac crops. previous researchers have interpreted carvings on four of the five figurines as representing maize, leading to suspected precontact ties to historic “green corn ceremonialism.” however, fritz argues that none of these figurines depict maize. instead, she contends that the woman depicted in these figurines is old woman who never dies or grandmother, a siouan deity who is the guardian of all vegetation and “predates the introduction of corn to eastern north america” (p. 112). a similar argument is made for the westbrook figurine found in eastern arkansas. this book clearly demonstrates fritz’s extensive knowledge of the archaeological, archaeobotanical, and ethnobiological record in the new world and the importance of “agricultural biodiversity” in fueling the florescence of the cahokian polity for about 100–150 years. fritz also reviews one of the most important ethnohistorical descriptions of a mississippian society, that of the natchez by le page du pratz. feeding cahokia is truly a masterpiece of scholarship in its depth of insights. yet, it is an easy-to-read record of the past written for both the professional and novice alike. the black-and-white figures and color plates are excellent, and the book even includes native american recipes at the ends of some chapters. whether digital or hard copy, this book should command a place in the reading list of anyone having an interest in the origins of agriculture in eastern north america and the development of the world heritage site of cahokia, the largest prehistoric settlement north of the valley of mexico. moving crops and the scales of history. by francesca bray, barbara hahn, john bosco lourdusamy, and tiago saraiva. 2023. yale university press, new haven. 352 pp. ford. 2025. ethnobiology letters 16(1):14–16 14 reviews actants, compositions, and reproductions. each chapter theme captures novel aspects of the cropscape. while most of the titles are intuitively obvious, actants is not. an actant is a dynamic entity or agent that participates in shaping and driving events and runs from policy to pests. this organization allows the authors to develop the important concept of cropscape, not simply crops and their outputs. this approach addresses the global categories that historically make a difference. many of the examples highlight the impact of the short-term profit-oriented commodity cropscape and its grim consequences. these are set against cropscapes that were transformed from complex traditional indigenous ones that had emerged over the long term to avert risk. this is clear, for example, in the case of the garden magic of the trobriands where missionaries noted that “… to the native, magic is as indispensable to the success of gardening as competent and effective husbandry” (p. 134). and evident, as well, in the authors’ appreciation of local values with the maya milpa forest gardens, where shifting cultivation was viewed “by modern agronomists as an extensive form of land use with low productivity.” milpa fields, in fact, “like most other swidden systems, can be highly productive” (p. 191), with maya farmers managing not only the fields but the perennial landscape, recognized as a cropscape for food, shelter, and other household goods. these accounts show how homogenization changes how the cropscape is valued: gauging soil by the standards of the west, estimating land principles based on the moving crops and the scales of history is a remarkable book with an astonishing organization strategy that turns the historical ecology of agriculture away from the obvious botanical categories as simply crops to the larger dimensions of crops in context. readers will find this a lively contribution to the understanding of the ever-developing relationship of our species and the world around us to the plants we depend on. the authors are all, broadly speaking, historians of technology and agriculture. francesca bray focuses on everyday technologies in east asia; barbara hahn studies commodity and plantation crops during industrialization and capitalism; john lourdusamy examines medicine and engineering in colonial and post-independence india; and tiago saraiva concentrates on colonial and fascist science and technology. together, these authors have synthesized a vast body of materials teasing out details that bring to bear a global fusion of a new inspired agricultural history. this book is a creative elucidation of varied subjects based on collaborative appreciations of a wide set of examples drawn from their collective experience. their account is exciting and startling. ethnobiology is put to test, examining the historical ecological records from various vantage points, including archival texts, primary resources, ledgers, paintings, photos, and film, all cleverly woven into a narrative that keeps the reader anticipating the next revelation. the organization of the book is provocative, oriented in chapters titled: times, places, sizes, moving crops and the scales of history. by francesca bray, barbara hahn, john bosco lourdusamy, and tiago saraiva. 2023. yale university press, new haven. 352 pp. anabel ford1* 1meso american research center, university of california, santa barbara, usa. *ford@ucsb.edu received october 28, 2024 open access accepted december 30, 2024 doi 10.14237/ebl.16.1.2025.1929 published february 19, 2025 copyright © 2025 by the author(s); licensee society of ethnobiology. this is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution-noncommercial 4.0 international public license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0), which permits non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. ford. 2025. ethnobiology letters 16(1):14–16 15 reviews world bank, building seed banks divorced from the living assemblage, and seeking to feed millions with green revolution agriculture. chapters by themes, such as sizes and compositions, explore crops and their changing values over time and across space. the small size of indigenous polyculture fields is part of the large regenerative cropscape that includes the perennials. these perennials are completely missed by the western view of the maize crop alone. this may also be addressed in compositions where the modern agronomist sees only maize in a sea of forest, yet the compositions of the maize field as well as the regenerating forest are part of a sophisticated cropscape that resolves both subsistence and housing. the authors’ unique framework for crops challenges the mind to reconsider how values are achieved: how they shift over time, move to different places, shrink or grow based on histories, interact with diverse actants, find stable or vulnerable compositions, or conserve and innovate around reproduction. each chapter builds from theme to theme, gathering in the deep meaning of cropscape. the chapter on time considers how cropscapes morph over history. this is illustrated with the example of the valuable date palm. the date palm was domesticated in the sahara, brought to spain as a memory, only to later explode in plantations in california. for the chapter on place, we learn about the lavish court frivolities of tulips as they were developed in the ottoman empire, pictured on the cover of the book. tulips were essential articles of commerce in the east yet influenced capitalism in the west as an investment of opulence in the netherlands and fostering the erroneous assumption that tulips are dutch. the surprising chapter on actants—defined as significant historical human and non-human agents— brings in the complexities of all the relationships among species and the very land of the cropscape where nature, plans, pests, and policy play roles. here, strange agencies are uncovered: the important role of elephants with tea in assam that leads to their demise; the hope for rubber plantations in the amazon foiled by the leaf blight that is absent when introduced in se asia; the expansion of cotton and its nemesis, the weevils, which impact individual farmers and future markets. compositions, the next chapter theme, is the consequence of place, size, and actants on a continuum of the indigenous polyculture of traditional maya forest gardens to tobacco monocultures, each where one farmer’s harvest is another’s weed. the final thematic chapter on reproduction is where we come to understand the significance of the cropscape assemblage: one part does not make up the whole. the example of seed science and how it disconnects the seed from its assemblage is noteworthy. in saving a seed, you obliterate the lively agents—the human and non-human actants that contribute to whole cropscape and of its reproduction. largely, though not directly, the text focuses on how the great columbian exchange globalized plants with the avaricious colonial approach to landscapes, or more correctly cropscapes. these collide to reapportion wealth in the short-term while simultaneously wracking destruction in the wake of the redistribution of plants. ultimately, the work considers consequences of ecological imperialism (crosby 1986) and brings us to the point where, today, big is viewed as better. this plantation mentality translates into what is now called conventional agriculture, supported, as the authors note, as orthodoxy “… in such bastions of power as the rockefeller foundation and the fao” (p. 104). through time, place, size, actant, composition, and reproduction, we learn that the cropscape assemblage developed over the long durée whether with the use of skill of dedication or greed of colonialism—plants, animals, soil, and things that shape the cropscape assemblage can bite back with their own preferences and controls when not appreciated or understood. classifying potential cropscapes based on one standard, for example soil for the united states department of agriculture, can miss entirely what may indeed be cultivable by simply assuming cultivable is equivalent to arable (see wilson 2002). planning the expansion of plantations may well work in the short term, yet monocrops are inherently defenseless against nature in the long term, be it perceived pests, when their natural food sources are removed, or weather extremes such as deluge or drought. cropscapes that have developed in situ, with magic and wisdom, show resilience. with our conventional mono-cropscapes and chemical amendments, what is the future of the cropscape assemblage? considering crops and cropscapes as the dynamic interaction of human and non-human agents ford. 2025. ethnobiology letters 16(1):14–16 16 reviews across time and space, the collaborating authors, hailing from all points of the globe, take us on a journey that plays out like a whodunit. for the authors, they command a look to our own history and technologies to cultivate a promising agenda. references cited crosby, a. w. 1986. ecological imperialism: the biological expansion of europe, 900–1900. cambridge university press, cambridge. wilson, e. o. 2002. the future of life. alfred a. knopf, new york. a reply to pierotti’s (2018) review of “evolutionary ethnobiology”: decolonizing latin american science albuquerque et al. 2021. ethnobiology letters 12(1):79–81 79 reviews specific field of evolutionary ethnobiology and how they could be incorporated into our science. in presenting a wide variety of approaches in different chapters, the authors were concerned with exposing readers to basic evolutionary definitions and highlighting how these might be applied in ethnobiology. in addition, some of the scenarios presented in the book are from modern evolutionary biology, such as niche construction theory, with an entire chapter dedicated to this approach. the authors of the book systematized this approach in ethnobiology with publications in journals specializing in evolutionary biology (see albuquerque and ferreira júnior 2017; santoro et al. 2017). pierotti (2018:266) further pointed out that the chapter “evolution of humans and by humans” represents a “basic review of human evolution of little relevance to ethnobiology” without further developing his reasons why the chapter is of little relevance. his criticism focused on grammatical errors, but beyond that it is not clear why he judged the work to be of little relevance to ethnobiology. he, therefore, missed a great opportunity to “speak truth to power.” instead, he chose to focus on minor introduction in 2018, dr. raymond pierotti published a review of the book evolutionary ethnobiology (albuquerque et al. 2015) in ethnobiology letters. in his review, pierotti (2018) critiqued several book chapters in a manner that we found offensive, culminating in comments that we perceived as racist and xenophobic. therefore, we decided to write this response, in collaboration with a group of researchers who expressed their displeasure at how criticisms were presented by pierotti (2018). in writing this reply, we advocate that future reviews in our study area, and other areas, should be based on respect. we address the review point by point here, followed by a request for corrections. according to one of pierotti’s (2018:266) criticisms, “little original research in evolutionary biology is cited, suggesting that many authors are not really conversant with modern approaches to evolution.” while it is generally interesting to provide references and a discussion of basic ideas in evolutionary biology, our book did not intend to discuss these ideas. instead, the authors made a case for how evolutionary approaches may benefit the a reply to pierotti’s (2018) review of “evolutionary ethnobiology”: decolonizing latin american science ulysses paulino albuquerque1*, washington soares ferreira júnior2, ina vandebroek3, rainer w. bussmann4, narel y. paniagua-zambrana4, ana h. ladio5, robert voeks6, felipe melo1, michelle c. m. jacob7, thiago gonçalves-souza8, ariadna valentina lopes1, and gustavo taboada soldati9 1departamento de botânica, universidade federal de pernambuco, recife, brazil. 2departamento de biologia, universidade de pernambuco, petrolina, brazil. 3institute of economic botany, the new york botanical garden, new york, usa. 4department of ethnobotany, institute of botany, ilia state university, tbilisi, georgia. 5grupo de etnobiología, inibioma, universidad nacional del comahue-conicet, argentina. 6department of geography & the environment, california state university, fullerton, usa. 7 departamento de nutrição, universidade federal do rio grande do norte, natal, brazil. 8departamento de biologia, universidade federal rural de pernambuco, recife, brazil. 9departamento de botânica, universidade federal de juiz de fora, juiz de fora, brazil. *upa677@hotmail.com received april 19, 2021 open access accepted april 30, 2021 doi 10.14237/ebl.12.1.2021.1763 published august 5, 2021 copyright © 2021 by the author(s); licensee society of ethnobiology. this is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution-noncommercial 4.0 international public license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0), which permits non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. replying to pierotti ethnobiology letters 9, https://doi.org/10.14237/ebl.9.2.2018.1381 (2018) https://doi.org/10.14237/ebl.9.2.2018.1381 albuquerque et al. 2021. ethnobiology letters 12(1):79–81 80 reviews misuses of words that did not hamper the book’s main message nor bring into question the scientific skills of its authors. another statement reads, “failure to include nonhuman animal examples limits the usefulness of this volume” (pierotti 2018:267). while it is interesting to discuss examples of nonhuman animals, we do not agree that focusing on humans limits the usefulness of the book in any way. again, the book’s objective was to show how evolutionary scenarios can be applied in ethnobiology studies, hereby offering new research perspectives to explain the interactions between humans and their environments. in this sense, the book’s content focused on human behavior and cognition in interactions with the environment. then, why would the absence of nonhuman examples become the reviewer’s main criticism? what is the point of expecting nonhuman examples in a book dedicated to ethnobiology? it is also noteworthy that the only chapter (chapter 5) praised by the author was written by non-latin americans and did not receive the same unfounded criticism about the lack of animal examples. the last paragraph of pierotti’s review is the most problematic and supports our impression that his previous comments were biased with a negative prejudice towards non-anglophone authors. the first paragraph starts (pierotti 2018:267), i have not identified specific authors in most comments, as these chapters predominantly have numerous co-authors, averaging more than five authors on twelve of fourteen chapters, rendering it difficult to associate specific ideas with any individual. this statement is strange to us, as the practice of multi -authorial publications is becoming increasingly standard in all fields of science (e.g., duffy 2017). in fact, collaborative work is increasingly encouraged. further on, pierotti (2018:267–268) writes: there is an earlier version of this book, published in 2013 in portuguese as etnobiologia: bases ecologicas e evolutivas, also edited by albuquerque, who coauthored seven of its eight chapters. thus, albuquerque has generated 19 publications, including the two books themselves as distinct publications, from this enterprise. in consequence, we have a book published by a major press that presents a very narrow perspective on how ethnobiology interacts with evolution. in this section, pierotti does not recognize that the english version greatly expands on the content of the portuguese edition. he suggests that the book has a narrow perspective and criticizes that the editors participate as authors in a wide variety of chapters. why should editors not be frequent coauthors in a volume that they edit? what is the relevance of this comment in a book review? none. this, however, seems to be an important pretext for the main idea that pierotti (2018:268) expresses in the following sentence: “this is unfortunate because one strength of the book was that it is predominantly authored by scholars of color.” there are clearly two elements to his argument. while previously suggesting that the book was of inferior quality, the author next expresses his regret of this perceived lack of quality because it was written mostly by “scholars of color.” the term “scholars of color” is in itself offensive and controversial (even in north america). “people of color” is a term primarily used in the united states and canada to describe any person who is not white. we recognize that especially in the united states, the term “people of color” has been used to replace even more derogatory terms such as “colored people” and has come to replace the term “minorities,” expressing shifts in the country’s demographics over time. we also recognize that “people of color” is even seen as a “progressive” term in untied states society, including in academia. however, given that language is essential in fostering understanding between people, every author needs to recognize that the meaning of a term might differ greatly in different contexts and geographies. while in the united states this term might reflect progress, it is regarded as profoundly racist and derogatory in much of the rest of the world, not only among “non-white” colleagues but also among many colleagues who could be classified as “white.” in this sense, we received this term as a racist offense. ultimately, the term itself is a dichotomous categorization with the main goal of distinguishing “whites” from “nonwhites,” thus erasing the ethnic diversity that exists amongst “people of color.” this is unacceptable, especially within the academic community. instead, academia must encourage the inclusion of black, indigenous, and people of color individuals that are historically underrepresented in ecology and evolutionary biology (massey et al. 2021). albuquerque et al. 2021. ethnobiology letters 12(1):79–81 81 reviews in pierotti’s (2018:268) review, we also notice a negative prejudice against non-anglophone authors, here from latin america, which becomes evident in the following sentences: thirteen of the 14 chapters are authored only by scholars from latin america, which is potentially ground-breaking. in actuality, however, the issues with topical narrowness, editing and translation result in a disappointing and overpriced volume, rather than what should have been a useful and important collaboration that reveals how latin american scholars deal with evolutionary aspects of ethnobiology (emphasis added). similar negative biases against latin american authors, including more limited citation of their works, have been highlighted in various papers (e.g., meneghini et al. 2008). we read this as pierotti setting up a clear dichotomy in which there is an implied ‘they,’ referring to latin american authors who have produced low quality material though it is good to see something written by them, and an implied “we” making an argument from an authoritative viewpoint that is north american and anglophone. the reviewer seeks to influence readers by initiating his text by writing, “i am an evolutionary biologist who turned to ethnobiology over 20 years ago” (pierotti 2018:266). finally, going back to the beginning of the review, pierotti (2018:266) considers: this book is promoted by springer as “the first comprehensive book about evolutionary ethnobiology written in english;” the accuracy of this statement depends on how one defines ‘evolutionary’ in an ethnobiological context, especially if biological and cultural evolution are conflated to the degree that they are in this book. while we certainly agree that everything depends on perspective and definition, the editors of the book clearly delimit its content in the first chapter, which defines the scope of the book and conceptualizes our understanding of evolutionary ethnobiology, which differs from evolution in an ethnobiological context as described by pierotti. a closer look at this racialized review leaves us to conclude that it does not contribute to scientific advancement and has a profound negative prejudice against non-anglophone authors, being particularly disrespectful to the latin american scientific community. we request that the editors of the journal and the representatives of the society of ethnobiology (1) correct the text that we find particularly disrespectful since it harms the principle of respect highlighted in the code of ethics of this society (society of ethnobiology 2021), and (2) with this reply, we also want to join the voices of the global ethnobiology community to engage in an urgent and needed decolonization of our science. references cited albuquerque, u. p., p. m. medeiros, and a. casas, eds. 2015. evolutionary ethnobiology. springer international publishing, cham, switzerland. albuquerque, u. p., and w. s. ferreira júnior. 2017. what do we study in evolutionary ethnobiology? defining the theoretical basis for a research program. evolutionary biology 44:206–215. doi:10.1007/s11692-016-9398-z. duffy, m. a. 2017. last and corresponding authorship practices in ecology. ecology and evolution 7:8876–8887. doi:10.1002/ece3.3435. massey, d. b. m., s. arif, c. albury, and v. a. cluney. 2021. ecology and evolutionary biology must elevate bipoc scholars. ecology letters 24:913 –919. doi:10.1111/ele.13716. meneghini, r., a. l. packer, and l. nassi-calò. 2008. articles by latin american authors in prestigious journals have fewer citations. plos one 3:e3804. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0003804 pierotti, r. 2018. evolutionary ethnobiology. edited by ulysses paulino albuquerque, patricia muniz de medeiros, and alejandro casas. 2015. springer international publishing, cham. 197 pp. ethnobiology letters 9:266–268. doi:10.14237/ebl.9.2.2018.1381. santoro, f. r., g. c. santos, w. s. ferreira júnior, l. s. chaves, t. a. s. araújo, a. l. b. nascimento, a. sobral, j. s. silva, j. l. a. campos, and u. p. albuquerque. 2017. testing an ethnobiological evolutionary hypothesis on plant-based remedies to treat malaria in africa. evolutionary biology 44:216 –226. doi:10.1007/s11692-016-9400-9. society of ethnobiology. 2021. society of ethnobiology code of ethics. available at: https:// ethnobiology.org/about-society-ethnobiology/ ethics. accessed on april 19, 2021. singing to the plants: a guide to mestizo shamanism in the upper amazon ethnobiology letters. 2014. 5: 151-152. doi: 10.14237/ebl.5.0.2014.1794. 151 book review to teach one from within and to maintain an ongoing dialogue with the plant. to diet with a plant is to take the plant into one’s body, devote one’s attention to and establish an intimate relationship of mutual love and trust with the plant as one’s teacher, doctor and healer. “learning” the plants is about learning to listen to the plants that speak a language of pure sound. chapter 6, sounds, reflects on the words and sounds spoken by plant and animal spirits. chapter 10, spirits, conveys that ayahuasca permits the shaman to see spirits in their own form – in the form in which they choose to appear. chapter 14, healing, talks of the culturally meaningful visceral theatre of the healing ritual performance. chapter 18, plant medicine, refers to maquira coriacea (h. karst.) c.c. berg moraceae as a “palm” while citing it as an example of the doctrine of signatures because the ends of the fallen branches resemble erect penises and wearing pieces of it is alleged to increase male virility. chapter 20, an introduction to ayahuasca, describes the term ayahuasca (vine of the soul) in the quechua language and the pharmacology of this ritual plant that is highly significant for almost all indigenous peoples of the upper amazon. chapter 22, questions in the study of ayahuasca, discusses the chemistry of the vine of the soul and cites the experiences of dr. richard evan schultes who drank an infusion of ayahuasca bark at puerto limón. chapter 25, other psychoactive plants, features tobacco (nicotiana rustica l. solanaceae) as a most potent, sacred, important, and almost universal shamanic plant in the upper amazon possessing the ability to induce hallucinations. along with other psychoactive alkaloids, n. rustica reportedly contains the highest levels of nicotine of any tobacco species. a wise teaching plant, ayahuasca (banisteriopsis caapi (spruce ex griseb.) c.v. morton malpighiaceae) is the “vine of the soul” documented by richard spruce and our beloved mentor and father of ethnobotany, dr. richard evan schultes, a powerful and ethical advocate for preservation of the amazonian rainforest. ayahuasca is a beautiful, alkaloid-rich, psychotropic, woody plant that is used ritually and medicinally by indigenous amazonian shamans and mestizo healers in the upper amazon. author stephan v. beyer has a law degree and doctorates in psychology and religion. he studied sacred plant medicine with ayahuascero don roberto in the upper amazon. singing to the plants is a very well referenced work with an extensive multidisciplinary bibliography, a number of useful black and white photographs, and appendices of plants and animals mentioned in the text. it would have been helpful to include the plant families in these lists of species. chapter 1 introduces two remarkable mestizo healers in the upper amazon, don roberto acho jurama and doña maria luisa tuesta flores. beyer indicates that the purpose of the book is to attempt to understand these shamans and the work that they perform during ayahuasca healing ceremonies. in chapter 2, the ayahuasca ceremony, beyer describes in great depth all-night-long ayahuasca healing ceremonies. chapter 3, shamanic performance, is intended to communicate the mystery of healing during the ritual. chapter 4, the shamanic landscape, informs us that a shaman is at constant risk of being killed by other more powerful shaman. chapter 5, learning the plants, reveals that with loyalty, it is essential for an individual to ingest a plant to allow it singing to the plants: a guide to mestizo shamanism in the upper amazon stephan v. beyer. university of new mexico press, albuquerque. pp. 544, 12 halftones, 2 charts. $29.95 (paperback). isbn 978-0-8263-4370-5. reviewed by amy eisenberg reviewer address: kanakanak native hospital, bristol bay area health corporation curyung, dillingham, alaska 99576 dramyeis@yahoo.com received: february 9, 2014 volume: 5:151-152 published: march 2, 2014 © 2014 society of ethnobiology ethnobiology letters. 2014. 5: 151-152. doi: 10.14237/ebl.5.0.2014.1794. 152 book review chapter 28, beings of earth and water, speaks of a powerful shaman, inia geoffrensis, the pink dolphin, (bufeo colorado in spanish) which is hunted for its body parts. beyer reported that mestizos strongly believe that dolphins seek sexual intercourse with homo sapiens. a mestizo man alleges that when he was thirteen years of age he had sex with a dolphin that jumped into his boat. he heard that dolphins could be more sexually gratifying than women. further, if a man wears the ear of a dolphin on his wrist he will enjoy large and prolonged erections, and the vulva of a dolphin tied on one’s upper arm makes one irresistible to women. pulverized dolphin body parts may be used to seduce women. using the penis of a dolphin, a sorcerer can call the spirit of the dolphin to attack women and cause one to have a voracious sexual appetite with every available man. as a consequence of the slaughter of pink dolphins for their body parts, i. geoffrensis was previously listed as vulnerable in the iucn (international union for the conservation of nature) red list and was facing a high risk of extinction in the wild. today the iucn classifies this remarkable species as data deficient due to the limited amount of current information available on threats, ecology, population numbers, and trends. in areas where these creatures have been studied, much of the information summarized in the assessment is dated and may no longer be valid. chapter 29, hispanic influences, acknowledges that mestizo shamans inherited the doctrine of signatures from hispanic culture and it is an underlying premise of much of their plant medicine. there is little evidence of any indigenous amazonian equivalent with regard to plants. chapter 31, ayahuasca meets global modernism, notes that ayahuasca shamanism is up for sale on the global market and has been endorsed by international celebrities. ayahuasca tourists seeking ayahuasca shamanism exert a profound influence promoted in the new age marketplace. the vine of the soul, while indigenous to amazonia, is now enmeshed in and on sale in the international medicinal plants and psychoactive substances market. chapter 32, ayahuasca tourism, states that this form of commercialization has brought new attention, money, and problems to traditional healers and their communities. it has created an international market for the misrepresentation and exploitation of traditional practices. chapters 33, ayahuasca and the law, and 34, shamans fight back, are important thoughtprovoking discussions on the issues concerning indigenous traditional knowledge and intellectual property including the ayahuasca patent case and amazonian shamans’ organizations from which arose the yurayaco declaration of fourteen points that states: “nonindigenous peoples are now acknowledging the importance of our wisdom and the value of our medicinal and sacred plants. many of them desecrate our culture and our territories, traffic in yage’ and other plants, dress like indians, and act like charlatans. we note with concern that a new form of tourism is being promoted to deceive foreigners with purported services of taitas or shamans in several villages in the amazon foothills” (p. 380). the peruvian national institute of culture declared ayahuasca a plant species with an extraordinary cultural history and that indigenous ayahuasca rituals are part of the national cultural heritage of peru and are to be protected in order to ensure their cultural continuity. in chapter 35, the future, beyer concludes that today there are few mestizo healers who have apprentices. without students there is no future. however ayahuascero don roberto is hopeful and expressed that, “the medicine will continue” (p. 385). young people will take up the path when they understand the power it gives them. the wonderful cover painting by upper amazon traditional healer and visionary artist don francisco montes shuña entitled el origén de la ayahuasca y de la chacruna (1998) depicts his ayahuasca visions with natural pigments on sheets of pounded bark. in the painting, pachamama, earth mother, and sachamama, great boa, observe the ayahuasca vine of the soul and the chacruna plant (psychotria viridis ruiz & pav rubiaceae) borne from the body of aya, a shaman whose name means “death” and “soul.” singing to the plants is an informative and purposeful contribution to the literature on mestizo healing and ritual plants within a syncretic mestizo cultural context. by contrast, one might strongly consider the conservation implications of the commercial buying, selling, trade, and exploitation of sacred indigenous amazonian traditional endemic plant and animal species by some unprincipled opportunists both local and global, as well as those who flock to the region to seek and experience powerful hallucinogens for new age/recreational use. avian voices, avian silences: learning by listening to birds sault. 2020. ethnobiology letters 11(2):1-4 1 editorial apply this research to create effective communitybased conservation programs which can protect wildlife and habitats by working with local leaders. research which integrates conservation with community needs is also presented by devi barman, sharma, cockrem, malakar, kakati, and melvin, growing out of their concern for the survival of the adjutant stork (leptoptilos dubius) in assam, india. the adjutant stork is the second rarest in the world and was on the edge of extinction due to habitat loss and poaching. however, in 2007, a conservation program was initiated by the researchers to work with three communities where the majority of the storks still survived. a women’s group of conservation leaders was organized, together with village elders, youth, and visiting dignitaries. their efforts were rewarded by a reduction in logging and poaching, and greater success of nests, as measured by increasing chick survival rates. over 10,000 women joined in these efforts, and now their children have become leaders in protecting the storks. the success of this collaboration between researchers and community groups is demonstrated by the rise in the stork population from 400 birds at the beginning of the research to 950 in 2020. turning to hawaiʻi, gomes also addresses issues surrounding threats to birds and their habitat and connects this with cultural loss. he notes the extinction of over 74 of the 109 known endemic bird species in hawaiʻi, while the surviving species have declined drastically and are rarely seen. when the birds disappear, so do their hawaiian names. this means that as bird sounds are silenced, the chants that transmitted their names and associated stories also disappear. as part of the native hawaiian or kanaka many societies honor birds as messengers and teachers with wisdom which offers resilience in addressing sudden changes or dealing with conflicts and crises. now more than ever, as we perch on the edge of the global climate crisis that is exacerbated by continual warfare, an ethnobiological perspective offers us a way to better understand how to restore our relationship with the land and find healing. this special issue on avian voices introduces research conducted in peru, costa rica, mexico, indonesia, india, and the united states. the six papers present a variety of approaches that include analysis of historical documents on taxonomy and naming as well as contemporary research on metaphor and memory; the dynamic role of stories in transmitting cultural values; the responsibilities that reciprocal relationships with the environment entail; and women’s roles in promoting community-based conservation. the paper by avila najera, tigar, zavalasanchez, zetina-cordoba, and serna lagunes addresses conservation concerns for birds in mexico, where habitat loss and hunting threaten many species that are eaten, sold as pets, or used medicinally. using calculations based on a cultural value index (cvi), the authors compiled information on the status of birds in many regions of mexico and coded how each species is used. while the common pigeon ranked highly as food, vultures and grackles were sought for healing. these authors demonstrate the utility of the cvi for documenting the reasons why birds are captured as well as highlighting threats to species survival. these data can inform sustainable conservation programs in mexico, while addressing the needs of rural communities. the challenge is to avian voices, avian silences: learning by listening to birds nicole sault1* 1sally glean center, palo alto, usa. *nicole@sallyglean.org received october 3, 2020 open access accepted october 25, 2020 doi 10.14237/ebl.11.2.2020.1730 published december 4, 2020 copyright © 2020 by the author(s) licensee society of ethnobiology. this is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution-noncommercial 4.0 international public license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0), which permits non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. sault. 2020. ethnobiology letters 11(2):1-4 2 editorial maoli language and culture revitalization movement, gomes examines historical records of bird classification and nomenclature dating from the 1840s to the 1860s. he analyzes the works of hawaiian avian experts david malo and kepelino teauotalani, who documented kanaka maoli bird taxonomies. gomes’ analysis also includes the 1903 work of the english naturalist, robert perkins. this contemporary research shines a light on how bird taxonomies were structured and the cultural understandings underlying the names given to birds. in hawaiian avian taxonomies, bird names express specific cultural knowledge in relation to calls, plumage, beak form, eating habits, eyesight, and holy persons who are affiliated with certain species. awareness of the cultural context for bird names enables us to understand unusual meanings and linkages, as when forest-dwelling birds are called fish-eaters (gomes 2020:35). highlighting the work of these early scholars encourages the revitalization of the kanaka maoli heritage to inform both current and future decisions and actions. pierotti examines the interweaving of ecology, history, and language in his analysis of metaphor in native american oral traditions. he shows how ethnography and historical knowledge can elucidate the deeper meanings that metaphors encode. his analysis focuses on stories featuring corvidae species—ravens, crows, jays, and magpies—as a means for exploring the empirical basis of oral traditions. drawing on examples from the apache, koyukuk, cheyenne, cree, and anishinaabe in the u.s. and canada, he describes the special roles of corvids as agents of change, tricksters, and teachers who cooperate with humans and demonstrate proper relationships with other creatures and the land. in these societies, people wear feathers as a sign of solidarity with their two-legged, winged, relatives (pierotti 2020:47). pierotti (2020:45) also incorporates wolves in this discussion, based on the close connection between wolves and birds; for example, he describes ravens as “wolf-birds” because of their cooperative hunting relationships. just as the hawaiian chants that gomes describes are important for memory and passing on cultural knowledge, so the stories pierotti presents serve to dramatize values and fix these in the socio-cultural memory of each group. he notes that such information is crucial for cultural continuity and even physical survival as birds alert humans to food sources and guide them to prey. metaphor and empirical experience are also the focus of forth’s paper on the nage of flores island in eastern indonesia. birds communicate through their own voices and through metaphors—providing ways for humans to talk about both the behavior of birds and also people who share the qualities of particular birds, such as the orange-footed scrubfowl (megapodius reinwardt). just as pierotti includes wolves in his discussion of corvids, forth also considers the relationship between birds and other animals, like sea turtles. this relationship is expressed in metaphors about reproduction and morality, in reference to the scrubfowl’s negligent style of maternal parenting. forth observes how shared metaphors associated with birds and turtles illustrate ways in which creatures lacking any connection in folk zoological taxonomy can be linked symbolically through their behaviors. these nage beliefs reflect morphological and behavioral similarities in the ways that different creatures are perceived, such that spatial proximity is believed to connect their physical shape and identity. transformation beliefs about birds and turtles explain how one can change into another, with discontinuities in their relationships resulting in morphological changes. as in the gomes paper, forth shows how seemingly unusual linkages between scrubfowl and sea turtles are derived from metaphorical meanings related to their behavior. my own contribution to this volume considers the role of stories in mexico, costa rica, and peru, with examples that illustrate how personal experiences with birds connect people to their cultural traditions and practices which provide resilience. three stories from zapotec, bribri, and quechua-speaking people portray interrelationships between people and birds through an ongoing dialogue. while people attend to avian voices, they in turn speak to the birds; through these interactions a more intimate connection develops with their surroundings. avian voices are recognized as meaningful because birds are seen as social actors with intentions, desires, needs, and responsibilities. birds are beings with spiritual significance as either messengers of the gods or their personification. rather than focusing on shared myths or other stories that are widely known, these three stories portray particular encounters with specific birds. such encounters are interpreted according to each person’s experiences and woven together with the meaning of the bird’s message for their families, as understood in the context of both traditional values and current situations. the dynamic nature of these stories of bird sault. 2020. ethnobiology letters 11(2):1-4 3 editorial wisdom and warning provides a resource that people can draw upon in times of dramatic change, such as the drought and flooding related to the global climate crisis. by attending to avian voices and behaviors, people feel they can be guided through situations of uncertainty or danger, which gives these stories greater significance and urgency. several of these contributions (avila najera, tigar, zavala-sanchez, zetina-cordoba, and serna lagunes; devi barman, sharma, cockrem, malakar, kakati, and melvin; gomes; sault) raise the issue of avian silence and what this means. the silence of birds may be due to habitat loss, extinction, or climate change, which has altered weather patterns that affect migration, feeding, and breeding. additionally, in many cultures the silence of birds is interpreted as a warning of disapprobation or danger. such portents can be seen as a reflection of how the land is faring and a measure of a people’s relationship to place. silence can be ominous—representing the judgement of the ancestors or the deities who can withhold blessing or send illness and punishment. interspecies communication between people and birds is not unidirectional from birds to people, as people may not only listen to birds but also talk with them. for the nahua of alto balsas, mexico, relationships between people and birds are connected to food and empathy in a complex network of interactions framed by working, feeding, and loving (raby 2013). as raby explains, they consider animals not only “good for thinking” but “good for living together” [translation mine]. yet, in many places people are losing the ability to hear birds and understand their messages or communicate with them. people are forgetting how to listen and attend to birds. as the tzotzil maya poet, manuel bolom, observes: “the birds dialogue with the community, tell dreams, but the ones who listen are those with understanding” (cited in vásquez-dávila 2014, translation mine). the loss of listening and understanding has in turn influenced the loss of stories, songs, and chants. in the old aymara song, “kuntur mamani,” elvira espejo ayca of bolivia sings in spanish “cuando se pone la paja en el techo…te protegerá como las alas del condor” (when the house roof is thatched…it will protect you like the wings of the condor) (espejo ayca 2011) (translation mine). espejo ayca told me that when the old aymara songs she recorded were played by a local radio station, the old people wept, for they had not heard these songs in such a long time. when the stories, songs, and chants are no longer passed down, the knowledge and wisdom encoded in those stories disappears (gomes, this volume). for many peoples, these stories are crucial for cultural and even physical survival (pierotti, this volume; raj 2019). the present collection of papers on avian voices and silences is offered as a contribution to recovering this knowledge and as a guide in the ongoing work to restore and protect birds, their habitats, and the peoples who are their companions and relatives. acknowledgments i wish to thank ethnobiology letters editor liz olson for her patient perseverance in bringing this volume to fruition. notes this special section on ethno-ornithology grew out of a session i organized for the 2019 society of ethnobiology meeting held in vancouver, british columbia, canada, on may 10, entitled “avian voices in song, story, wisdom and warning.” references cited espejo ayca, e. 2011. cantos a las casas: utach kirki, jiyawa música [audio]. available at: http:// opacespacio.fundacionpatino.org/cgi-bin/koha/ opac-detail.pl?biblionumber=21621. accessed on october 13, 2020. gomes, n. j. 2020. reclaiming native hawaiian knowledge represented in bird taxonomies. ethnobiology letters 11:30–43. doi:10.14237/ ebl.11.2.2020.1640. pierotti, r. 2020. learning about extraordinary beings: native stories and real birds. ethnobiology letters 11:44–51. doi:10.14237/ebl.11.2. 2020.1682. raby, d. 2013. comidas del zopilote: ofrenda, limpieza y empatía en un ritual agrícola (alto balsas nahua, méxico). amérique latine, histoire e mémoire 25. doi:10.4000/alhim.4496. sault. 2020. ethnobiology letters 11(2):1-4 4 editorial raj, a. 2019. in marshall islands, radiation threatens tradition of handing down stories by song. los ange le s times . avai lable at : https:// www.latimes.com/projects/marshall -islandsradiation-effects-cancer/. published november 10, 2019. vásquez-dávila, m. a., ed. 2014. aves, personas y cultura: estudios de etno-rnitología 1. carteles editores, oaxaca, méxico. review of philippe beaujard, médicine et magie dans le sud-est de madagascar anderson. 2025. ethnobiology letters 16(1):17–18 17 reviews perspectives from gene anderson’s bookshelf leading to massive deforestation of the hills. partly as a result, many of the plants used in medicine are cultivated species. (see anderson 2004 for ecology and related debates in tanala country and elsewhere in east madagascar, and a bibliography of related studies; see harper 2002 for a sad story of bullying the tanala in the name of conservation.) crucial to their lives are the ombiasy (singular ombiasa), the diviner-healers. these practice healing, magic, sorcery, astronomy, astrology, and related skills. they oversee sacrifices and prayers and are the keepers of all types of knowledge, especially esoteric knowledge of both arabic and local forms. it should be noted that the “sea people,” theoretically arabs in madagascar historical telling, are actually a more diverse lot, including other islamic travelers of the indian ocean (beaujard 2009, 2012). ombiasy draw on hasina, divine or sacred power, which seems to this reviewer to be more or less a fusion of arab baraka (divinely bestowed power or blessing), and the widespread austronesian concept anthropologically known as mana (generalized spirit power). the book ends with a tribute to them: they “still preserve a critical role in the cohesion of the communities” (p. 578; my translation). the book begins with a long and detailed introduction to the societies in question. the antemoro have a stratified social system, which beaujard describes as made up of three “pseudocastes.” first is the royalty, the clan of anteoñy. second are the nobles, antalaotra. among them are the philippe beaujard has generated something close to a “five-foot shelf” of books on madagascar, its international contexts, and its ethnobiology. readers may recall my review (anderson 2018) of his book on madagascar’s early agriculture (beaujard 2017). he has now produced another enormous work. in translation, the title reads: “medicine and magic in southeast madagascar: the diviner-healers and uses of plants.” like his other books, this is a magnificent work of scholarship, worth seeking out even if your french is limited; most of the book consists of lists of the plants (and a few animals) and their uses, with scientific names appended in the back of the book, so reference is easy. the book concerns two societies in southeast madagascar: the antemoro and the ikongo tañala. they live southeast of the well-known ranomafana national park, with its many lemur species. the antemoro comprise a very small and local kingdom. the tañala (of whom the ikongo are one branch) are a large, widely-dispersed group of tavy (swidden) cultivators; the ikongo tañala center on fort-carnot, inland from the antemoro’s coastal realm. the “tanala” (so spelled) were studied almost a century ago by the anthropologist ralph linton, who collected an incredible amount of material culture for american museums but did not describe the society in detail (linton 1933). the antemoro live by rice farming, with small-scale local irrigation. tañala swiddening involves widespread burning without firebreaks or much concern about escaped fires, médicine et magie dans le sud-est de madagascar: les devinsguérisseurs et l’usage des plantes. by philippe beaujard. 2024. sépia, paris. 619 pp. eugene n. anderson1* 1department of anthropology, university of california, riverside, usa. *gene@ucr.edu received january 2, 2025 open access accepted january 27, 2025 doi 10.14237/ebl.16.1.2025.1931 published march 3, 2025 copyright © 2025 by the author(s); licensee society of ethnobiology. this is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution-noncommercial 4.0 international public license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0), which permits non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. anderson. 2025. ethnobiology letters 16(1):17–18 18 reviews perspectives from gene anderson’s bookshelf kitabo, the literate ones (from arabic kitab, book). they keep a vast array of sorabe: manuscripts in arabic script that incorporate islamic religion, arab lore, and local medicinal, astronomical, astrological (vintaña), and other knowledge. beaujard managed to photocopy some 5000 pages of these (p. 564), surely a monumental accomplishment given madagascar field conditions. below these are the fañarivoana, commoners. descendents of former enslaved persons and pariahs are sometimes recognized. the aristocrats maintain they are descended from “sea people,” while the commoners are local. the tañala are basically egalitarian, though status differences inevitably exist. they consider themselves indigenous. they lack kitabo and sorabe but have large numbers of ombiasy. ombiasy have become rapidly more numerous in recent decades, tracking the disruption of traditional society by increasingly aggressive colonialism and then postcolonial traumas and upheavals. militantly “pure” or “proper” christianity and islam have also become social forces, inevitably opposed to everything local and indigenous, especially the ombiasy and their knowledge. sorcery has increased and with it the need for ombiasy to counter this with proper rituals. crime has also thrived, including massive environmental looting, and the ombiasy try to cope. these social accounts are followed by a list of locally recognized diseases, with malagasy names and french translations or approximations. then comes the actual data: almost 500 pages of dense, richly detailed plant lore. it defies summary; suffice it to say that plant knowledge and ritual include both local and introduced plants, including flowers, spices, fruits, barks, leaves, and other plant parts. some animals are used, especially in sorcery. excellent color photographs document the major plants used and show ombiasy at work. beaujard studied these groups off and on for more than 20 years and has detailed knowledge of madagascar and its botany. like beaujard’s other books, this is a magnificent scholarly achievement—thorough, insightful, beautifully done and set forth, and critically important in preserving data from a vanishing world. madagascar is undergoing profound changes, not always for the better, as poverty and ecological chaos ravage the island. references cited anderson, e. n. 2004. madagascar on my mind. available at: www.krazykioti.com. accessed on january 1, 2025. anderson, e. n. 2018. histoire et voyages des plantes cultivèes à madagascar avant le xvie siècle. by philippe beaujard. 2017. karthala, paris. 415 pp. ethnobiology letters 9:245–246. doi:10.14237/ebl.9.2.2018.1357. beaujard, p. 2009. les mondes de l’océan indien. tome i: de la formation de l’état au premier système-monde afroeurasien (4e millénaire av. j.-c. – 6e siècle apr. j.-c.). armand colin, paris. beaujard, p. 2012. les mondes de l’océan indien. tome ii: l’océan indien, au coeur des globalisations de l’ancien monde du 7e au 15e siècle. colin armand, paris. beaujard, p. 2017. histoire et voyages des plantes cultivées à madagascar avant le xvie siècle. karthala, paris. harper, j. 2002. endangered species. carolina academic press, durham, nc. linton, r. 1933. the tanala, a hill tribe of madagascar. field museum, chicago. traditional ecological knowledge: learning from indigenous practices for environmental sustainability. edited by melissa k. nelson and dan shilling. 2018. cambridge university press, new york, ny. 276 pp. stiegler. 2019. ethnobiology letters 10(1):111–112 111 reviews chapters and a total of 18 authors. the authors consider tek’s practical applications to sustainability and ultimately human evolutionary prosperity. while this book has relevance to ethnobiology and ecological anthropology, it will also resonate with general anthropologists, including scholars of paleoanthropology. in schilling’s introductory chapter, he suggests that during the pleistocene era, hominins lived sustainably because they sensed their existence was linked to the environment’s well-being. it seems reasonable to me that hominin populations who were successful at transmitting ecological knowledge would share an evolutionary advantage over populations unable to do so. from prehistoric lithics to modern industrial technology, schilling suggests sustainability is a moral rather than technological concern that depends on homo sapiens’ views of the natural environment. in the chapter by cajete and the chapter by whyte, these authors argue the differences between native science and western science rest primarily in understanding the relationship between humans and nature. they state that some indigenous peoples consider themselves born as members of reciprocal and local human and nonhuman biological communities. within these communities, humans develop relationships with other organisms and learn from them adaptive ecological knowledges. many western scientists do not consider these knowledges, nor do they have access to them when they engage in their studies. ecological knowledge guides sustainable behaviors and outcomes within human cultures and promotes human survivability. works in this edited volume seek to understand how non-western traditional human knowledge systems enable cultures to perceive their world in effective and ultimately productive ways. the editors, melissa k. nelson and dan schilling, are well-qualified to examine traditional ecological knowledge (tek) given their more than sixty years combined experience as ecologists, indigenous activists, environmental historians, and scholars of environmental ethics. this book arrives at a time when sustainable behaviors and diverse cultural worldviews are vital for the mitigation of climate change and other imminent ecological crises. there is a growing need for human-environment reciprocity that distances itself from western commodification of and detachment from nature. this volume presents views of environmental sustainability from authors from different backgrounds to deeply explore perspectives on environmental ethics that promote human survivorship. specifically, this volume considers the relationship between western and native science. native science is a participatory, “indigenous relationship to land, plants, animals, community, self, cosmos spirit, and the creative animating processes of life” (p. 15), whereas western science tends to view humans as separate from nature. within the western paradigm, nature is considered a commodity to be used for human consumption. the goal of this book is to understand the relations between these worldviews. there are 14 traditional ecological knowledge: learning from indigenous practices for environmental sustainability. edited by melissa k. nelson and dan shilling. 2018. cambridge university press, new york, ny. 276 pp. christopher d. stiegler1* 1department of anthropology, university of arkansas, fayetteville , usa. *cstiegle@uark.edu received june 18, 2019 open access accepted november 15, 2019 doi 10.14237/ebl.10.1.2019.1606 published december 4, 2019 copyright © 2019 by the author(s); licensee society of ethnobiology. this is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution-noncommercial 4.0 international public license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0), which permits non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. stiegler. 2019. ethnobiology letters 10(1):111–112 112 reviews in his chapter, whyte suggests that understanding tek has practical applications. regarding the everpresent threat of climate change, an array of different knowledge systems is needed. knowledges of how to live adaptively with nonhumans and the environment can lead to sustainable development and proper management of the natural world. he accurately claims that the western worldview in fact contributes to climate change because it ultimately facilitates the destruction of environments. in my mind, another way of thinking of this is that the cultural knowledge of people inhabiting ecosystems for thousands of years transmits effective and consistent ecological knowledge that may not rest within western scientific explanatory parameters. the dichotomous, materialistic, and commercial view of the scala naturae existing in western judeo-christian doctrines does not understand the reciprocal human-environment relationships associated with emotional and spiritual responses toward nature. the view of humans as part of nature switches nature from commodity to, as martinez calls it, a kincentric ecology, where all life exists in symbiotically mutualistic and phylogenetically relevant ways with all other lifeforms. in the chapter written by kimmerer, she argues tek is an alternative to western materialism. the living world is not to be viewed as a collection of extractable resources, but as a relationship with responsibilities that humans have to non-human persons. for example, if humans view plants as teachers rather than commodities, then they can learn evolutionarily adaptive knowledge, such as which plants should be used for medicine and food, and why. one could argue from a functionalist viewpoint that plants of high cultural salience, such as sweetgrass for the anishinaabe people, are teachers most willing to assist human cultures and their survival by acting as resources. additionally, salient resources are often linguistically recognized, as stated in the chapter authored by armstrong. he explains that the syilx people have a word, tmixw, that refers to the ecology of the land and all lifeforms that are culturally important. mcgregor also takes a critical view of materialistic western science and suggests the future of ecological sustainability depends on ecofeminism. unlike western masculine materialism, ecofeminism calls for a perspective where women and ecology are not subordinate to men and materialism; no ideology is dominant. while these previous authors focus on the differences between tek and scientific ecological knowledge (sek), the chapter by nelson and vucetich tries to reconcile the two knowledge systems. they claim the central focus of sek is taken to be that knowledge is valuable for its own sake in order to manipulate the world for human material gain, whereas tek seeks to better understand nonhuman persons for the knowledge of how best to care for one another in sustainable ways. long term ecological research is their answer to merging the two. it considers the assignment of personhood to nonhuman organisms as a means to instill values for these creatures in people and promote humanenvironment sustainability. these chapters masterfully achieve an understanding of the importance of the relationship between cultural conservation and ecologically related behaviors. indeed, this book indicates to the readers the immediate importance of tek conservation. for example, in their chapter, wolfgramm et al. suggest scientists may use indigenous botanical knowledge to innovate new pharmaceuticals or new strands of drought-resistant crops. looking to the future, human sustainability necessitates worldviews which implement and advance traditional ecological knowledge extensively. as a student of anthropology and ethnobiology, this volume helps me to understand humans and their evolutionary path more fully. knowledges, like genes, are transmitted from generation to generation, and knowledges which promote human survivability are selected for through the generations creating systems of information that, while not scientifically rigorous, are every bit as ecologically informative. like a part of human physiology, these knowledges allow humans to successfully navigate their ecological habitats. truly, this volume illuminates the adaptiveness of traditional ecological knowledge as humanity tries to survive in a world plagued by climate change and radically unraveling ecosystems. an intrasite analysis of agricultural economy at early islamic caesarea maritima, israel forste. 2021. ethnobiology letters 12(1):58–69 58 research communications identify variation of plant remains across spatially discrete areas. background site caesarea maritima is located on the northern mediterranean coast of modern-day israel, in the sharon plain (figure 1). it enjoys a mediterranean climate of cool, wet winters (average temperature 12– 14º c) and warm, dry summers (average temperature 24–26º c), with precipitation averaging 500–600 mm annually (danin and orshan 1999:9, 12–13). the vegetation on the coast is typified by steppe and desert plants (danin and orshan 1999). trees in these maquis and mediterranean forest communities include quercus calliprinos (kermes/palestine oak) and pistacea palaestina (terebinth) (liphschitz 2007). caesarea maritima was supplied with fresh water from nearby springs via roman and byzantine aqueducts, natural aquifers, cisterns, and wells (al-muqaddasī 1886:55). introduction archaeobotanical studies from the early islamic period (c. 636–1100 ce) in the near east are relatively few (e.g., ramsay and holum 2015; van der veen 2011) and generally discuss plant data at the scale of the site or excavation area, rather than by specific context. this approach characterizes the agricultural economy of a site by discussing broad patterns of presence and deposition of plant species and plant parts, providing data on what and how much is present. however, such an approach limits the identification of activity areas, such as discrete locations of food production, consumption, and waste discard (vanderwarker et al. 2014 and references therein). in this article, i analyze carbonized wood and non-wood macrobotanical remains (seeds, fruits, and plant parts) in 15 samples collected from two early islamic neighborhoods at caesarea maritima, israel. through this intrasite analysis (studying samples individually based on their context of deposition), i an intrasite analysis of agricultural economy at early islamic caesarea maritima, israel kathleen m. forste1* 1department of anthropology, boston university, boston, usa. *kmforste@bu.edu abstract the archaeological site of caesarea maritima in modern-day israel was an important coastal town in the early islamic period (c. 636–1100 ce). in this article, i analyze 15 samples of carbonized wood and non-wood macrobotanical remains recovered from two residential neighborhoods to investigate the production and consumption of agricultural plant products. the identified crop and wood taxa are typical for the mediterranean coast. wild seeds point to crop cultivation in the vicinity of the site. plant remains were collected from discrete contexts and are interpreted with associated features and artifacts, revealing cereal processing debris across a series of rooms in a former warehouse. such a socioeconomic shift in this building, from a storage area to a crop processing space, is detectable by combining this intrasite analysis with the diachronic research previously conducted at the site. received july 6, 2020 open access accepted february 18, 2021 doi 10.14237/ebl.12.1.2021.1718 published march 19, 2021 keywords archaeobotany, israel, early islamic period, agricultural economy, intrasite analysis copyright © 2021 by the author(s); licensee society of ethnobiology. this is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution-noncommercial 4.0 international public license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0), which permits non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. supplementary files available at https://doi.org/10.14237/ebl.12.1.2021.1718 forste. 2021. ethnobiology letters 12(1):58–69 59 research communications the city was founded by herod the great in 22 bce in honor of caesar augustus, and was built on an orthogonal plan flanked by agricultural lands (gil 1992; holum 2014; ramsay and holum 2015). caesarea maritima was the thriving capital city of the byzantine province palestina prima and served as the main seaport of palestine during this period (avni 2014:41–42). in 640 ce, the city capitulated to a treaty with muslim general mu’awiya as the islamic empire expanded (gil 1992:59), and many wealthy inhabitants fled (holum 2011; ramsay and holum 2015). thereafter called qaysariyya, the city was ruled under the umayyad (661–750 ce), abbasid (750–969 ce), and fatimid (969–1101 ce) caliphates. islamic qaysariyya functioned as part of the coastal fort system along the mediterranean to protect against the byzantine empire (avni 2014), and is described as having “an impregnable fortress [around the city], and without lies the well-populated suburb which the fort protects” (al-muqaddasī 1886:55). the role of capital was transferred from caesarea maritima to lodd in 640 ce, and again transferred to ramla in 717 ce (avni 2014). despite its shift in administrative importance, caesarea maritima remained an important and prosperous medium-sized town through the early islamic period (avni 2014; ramsay and holum 2015). excavation areas multiple excavations have identified early islamic occupation across the site (patrich 2011; ramsay and holum 2015). in general, the early islamic town is characterized by dwellings intermixed with industrial installations, such as oil and wine presses, vats for cloth processing, and storage facilities for grain and other commodities (’ad et al. 2018; ramsay and holum 2015:658). the botanical remains discussed here were recovered from area ll and the temple platform/area c. area ll was a government warehouse quarter for imports and exports (horrea) north of the inner harbor during the first through early seventh centuries (the roman and byzantine periods) (ramsay and holum 2015:657–658). in 2016, the iaa excavated a mixed commercial-residential quarter with shops and storage facilities lining the streets dating to the early islamic period. these buildings maintain the orthogonal plan of the byzantine-era warehouses (figure 2) (’ad et al. 2018:3–4). following the transition to islamic control in the seventh century, rooms were subdivided, floors were raised, and openings between rooms were changed as this area was converted into a neighborhood with dwellings, tabun ovens, storage structures, drainage features, and various other installations (’ad et al. 2018:3). the possessions of its residents comprised an array of everyday utilitarian items such as amphorae, tableware, and cooking vessels. this neighborhood expanded into the silted-in harbor during the abbasid and fatimid periods (mid-eighth through twelfth centuries) (’ad et al. 2018). the temple platform (tp) dominated the view of the city from the harbor and originally hosted a large roman temple, which was replaced by an early christian church c. 500 ce (holum 2014:183–185, 193). the earthquake of 749 ce leveled the church, and during the abbasid occupation the area became residential (gil 1992:89–90; ramsay and holum 2015:657–658). in 2016, the iaa excavated abbasidera vaulted stone warehouses that abutted the figure 1 site map of caesarea maritima (courtesy of combined caesarea expeditions; drawing by anna iamim) with inset of region (google earth). 2016 excavations in red. forste. 2021. ethnobiology letters 12(1):58–69 60 research communications herodian walls of the tp, and exposed a 1.5 m-high profile of alternating layers of burnt material, sandy fill containing ceramic fragments and gravel, and plaster and stone floors from the abbasid and fatimid periods. plant economy at early islamic caesarea maritima agricultural production at caesarea maritima changed between the fifth and tenth centuries to fit the shifting availability of land and labor, and to meet the changing needs of the town. during the byzantine period, production centered on agricultural estates surrounding the city, but these were abandoned in the face of plagues and invasions during the sixth and early seventh century (gil 1992:89). during the late seventh century, the beginning of the early islamic period, residents grew crops inside the town. in the southwest portion of the site, residents re-engineered the foundations of a roman-byzantine horrea into an irrigated, terraced garden (patrich 2011). previous botanical analysis demonstrate that residents of caesarea maritima continued to cultivate crops in the figure 2 area ll with sample locations. pie charts show percentage of economic seeds by weight in each sample (sample 20656 is not displayed because it contained no economic seeds). plan courtesy of yoav arbel and the iaa. forste. 2021. ethnobiology letters 12(1):58–69 61 research communications fertile coastal plain and shephelah to the east during the eighth through twelfth centuries (ramsay and holum 2015). however, during the tenth through early twelfth centuries (abbasid to fatimid periods) they also established a “plot-and-berm agroecosystem” on the coast to the south (taxel et al. 2018). these were sunken plots of manured sand surrounded by raised berms that were watered by shallow groundwater (taxel et al. 2018). this extensification of agricultural production transformed architectural ruins and previously barren coastal sands into fertile plots as people adjusted the scale and location of crop cultivation. archaeological and historical sources provide a glimpse of the type and quality of agricultural goods at caesarea maritima. archaeological remains of many grain storage bins and warehouses attest to highvolume production of cereals and other crops (patrich 2011; ramsay and holum 2015). previous analysis of plant remains from abbasid and fatimid layers in other portions of area ll and the tp revealed an economy based on local production and processing of wheat, barley, olive, grape, and fig (ramsay and holum 2015:663–666). tenth-century geographer almuqaddasī praised its white bread and stated, “its lands are excellent, and its fruits delicious” (almuqaddasī 1886:55). taken together, these lines of evidence point to the continuing agricultural production that provided caesarea with a source of economic wealth and power, as well as sustenance, through the early islamic period. research on the use of wood along the coastal plain shows that locally available kermes/palestine oak, terebinth, and olea europaea (olive) were commonly used (liphschitz 2007). studies from neighboring regions of the eastern desert of egypt and the negev desert conclude that local woody taxa were used for fuel in domestic and industrial activities (bouchaud et al. 2018; jones et al. 2017; ramsay et al. 2016), and that quercus (oak), rhamnus (buckthorn), and ulmus (elm) as well as imported cedrus libani (cedar of lebanon), cupressus sempervirens (mediterranean cypress), and pinus halepensis (aleppo pine) were used as timber for construction (bouchaud et al. 2018; liphschitz 2007; ramsay et al. 2016). methods these 15 samples were collected during excavations conducted by the iaa and israel nature and parks authority in 2016, and date primarily to the abbasid period in area ll and the tp (table 1). bulk samples were collected using a probabilistic strategy, targeting features already exposed by excavators such as tabuns and floors (d’alpoim guedes and spengler 2014:80). i processed all samples on-site through wash-over (bucket) flotation (white and shelton 2014:99–100). window screen (1.5 mm mesh) was used to collect the heavy fraction, and lightweight organza (<0.1 mm mesh) for the light fraction. heavy fractions were sorted on site, and botanical remains combined with the light fraction. light fractions were dried and exported to the boston university environmental archaeology laboratory for analysis. i fractionated the samples into four size classes (>2 mm, >1 mm, >0.5 mm, <0.5 mm) using geological sieves. i identified botanical remains using modern comparative material, identification keys, and early islamic botanical reports from the near east (ramsay and holum 2015; van der veen 2011). i weighed and counted recovered plant remains. wood charcoal >2 mm was weighed, as were fragmented and whole economic seeds. both economic and wild seeds were counted as whole when more than 50% of the original seed or endocarp (pit or stone) was intact. cereals were counted when the embryo end of the seed was present, regardless of the completeness of the grain. pulses were counted in halves. complete plant parts, like spikelet forks and glume bases, were counted. plant remains were sorted using leica stereomicroscopes with a magnification range of 6– 60x. wood charcoal was examined using a leica dm2700 incident light microscope with 50x, 100x, 200x, and 500x magnification in tandem with leica application suite imaging software. i identified a minimum of forty pieces of wood charcoal in each sample, except where impossible due to high fragmentation that obscured transverse sections. analytical metrics calculated here include relative abundance of weight and count of plant taxa, ubiquity of taxa, median weights and ratios of various plant parts to understand plant processing practices. results these 15 flotation samples comprise a total of 69.5 l of soil and come from four context types (table 1). ten samples (56.5 l total) come from floors, installations, and a tabun in area ll. five samples (13 l total) were taken from a series of plaster floors and fill with carbonized layers exposed in profile in the storage-vault-turned-residence in the tp. the carbonized carpological remains are relatively well forste. 2021. ethnobiology letters 12(1):58–69 62 research communications preserved though fragmented, and the economic seeds (those cultivated for consumption or use by humans) are not badly deformed and have major identifying features intact, and fragile chaff is preserved. all taxa are cultivars typical of or local to the region and correspond with previous archaeobotanical analysis of the site (ramsay and holum 2015; table 2). a total of 2,138 pieces and 52.25 g of wood charcoal were recovered; however, it was highly fragmented and friable and thus only 36% of pieces (n = 778) and 58% by weight (n = 30.35 g) were identifiable. wood charcoal taxa discussed below include only those identified to family or greater specificity. area ll the ten samples from area ll contain the vast majority of non-wood remains in this assemblage, thus providing the most information on plant deposition in discrete contexts (figure 2; table 1). five samples from floors contain sparse carpological and wood charcoal remains, and are not discussed here. these floors may have been subject to tramping or sweeping during their use and may also have been subject to further post-depositional disturbance that decreased plant preservation. three floor samples rich with plant remains are associated with deposits of collapse (table 1), which possibly increased plant preservation. these three floors have cereal chaff elements and the most economic seeds (cereals, pulses, fruits and nuts) by weight and count in the assemblage (see supplementary material). sample 20649 (locus 2078), a floor in room 10, contains whole grains of hordeum vulgare (barley) and triticum aestivum/durum (bread/hard wheat), and the most legume seeds in the assemblage, including lathyrus sp. (grass pea) and cf. vicia sp. (possible table 1 sample and context information (descriptions provided by y. arbel and p. gendelman). excavation area locus sample # sample vol (l) context type time period description ll 2019 20657 7 floor abbasid tamped earth floor ll 2020 20656 5 floor abbasid plaster/tamped earth floor ll 2032 20651 7 floor byzantine/ fatimid? disturbed stone-flag floor, related pottery byzantine and fatimid ll 2038 20654 3.5 floor abbasid plaster floor under debris ll 2048 20655 1.5 floor abbasid disturbed tamped earth floor from small yard that contained several installations ll 2059 20652 8 tabun abbasid floor, one of the phases in the in installations yard of locus 2048 ll 2078 20648 5 floor abbasid plaster/tamped earth floor over fill that covers byzantine (?) mosaic, abbasid pottery ll 2078 20649 4.5 floor abbasid collapse. numerous large, cut stones. pottery mixed byzantine-abbasid, probably abbasid-period destruction of byzantine-early islamic store room ll 2097 20653 8 installation abbasid floor, a store room in the main byzantine complex ll 2109 20650 7 floor abbasid tamped earth floor tp 292 3723 2 fill fatimid construction fill for small courtyard paved with stone slabs tp 293 3725 3 fill abbasid/ fatimid construction fill for floor paved with plaster floor tp 294 3724 3 fill abbasid/ fatimid construction fill for floor paved with plaster floor tp 294 3726 3 fill abbasid/ fatimid construction fill for floor paved with plaster floor tp 294 3727 2 fill abbasid/ fatimid construction fill for floor paved with plaster floor forste. 2021. ethnobiology letters 12(1):58–69 63 research communications table 2 plant taxa summarized by area. zeros indicate a fragment <0.001g; blanks indicate the absence of a taxon. weight is in grams; counts in parentheses indicate uncarbonized seeds. ubiquity calculated for carbonized remains only. taxon, plant part common name ll tp total ubiquity (n=15) count weight count weight count weight cereals triticum aestivum/durum, grain bread/hard wheat 9 0.119 9 0.119 0.267 triticum aestivum, rachis node bread wheat 1 1 0.067 triticum aestivum, rachis segment bread wheat 5 5 0.067 triticum durum, rachis segment hard wheat 2 2 0.067 hordeum vulgare grain barley 20 0.134 20 0.134 0.267 hordeum vulgare, glume base barley 1 1 0.067 hordeum vulgare, spikelet fork barley 2 2 0.067 cf. hordeum vulgare, grain possible barley 1 0.054 1 0.054 0.133 cereal, grain 1 0.119 1 0.119 0.400 cereal, rachis node 1 1 0.067 cereal, culm node 1 1 0.067 cf. cereal, awn fragment 9 9 0.133 cf. cereal, rachis node 1 1 0.067 pulses lathyrus sp. grass pea 2.5 0.028 2.5 0.028 0.133 cf. lathyrus sp. possible grass pea 0 0 0.067 cf. lens culinaris possible lentil 0.5 0.002 0.001 0.5 0.003 0.133 cf. pisum sp. possible pea 0.003 0.003 0.067 cf. vicia sp. possible vetch 1 0.005 0.005 0.067 pulse indeterminate 1 0.020 0.020 0.133 fruits and nuts ficus carica fig 1 0 1 0.067 olea europaea olive 1.827 0.230 4.127 0.867 cf. pinus sp., nutshell possible pine 0 0 0.067 pinus sp., scale fragment pine 0.050 0.050 0.100 0.133 vitis vinifera, seed grape 0.007 0.007 0.133 cf. vitis vinifera, pedicel possible grape pedicel 1 1 0.067 endocarp indeterminate 0.007 0.007 0.067 wild seeds agrostemma sp. 4 4 0.067 asteraceae indeterminate 7 (43) 7 0.067 bromus sp. 2 2 0.067 bupleurem subovatum 1 1 0.067 caryophyllaceae indeterminate (99) cf. carex sp. 1 1 0.067 (continued on next page) forste. 2021. ethnobiology letters 12(1):58–69 64 research communications taxon, plant part common name ll tp ubiquity (n=15) total count weight count weight count weight chenopodium sp. 1 (1) 1 0.067 cf. cynodon dactylon 17 17 0.200 cf. echiochilon sp. 1 (17) 1 0.067 cf. epilobium hirstum 1 1 0.067 fabaceae indeterminate 1 1 0.067 glaucium sp. (12) gypsophila sp. 4 (187) 4 0.067 cf. lagurus ovatus 1 1 0.067 lolium cf. persicum 1 1 0.067 cf. lolium sp. 1 1 0.067 malva sp. 8 (1) 8 0.267 medicago sp. 1 (3) 1 0.067 cf. melilotus sp. 1 1 0.067 papaveraceae 1 1 0.067 poaceae indeterminate 9 9 0.267 rumex sp. 1 1 0.067 suaeda sp. (4) unknown 13 5 18 0.333 unidentifiable 2 2 0.133 miscellaneous plant parts leaf fragment 4 4 0.067 cf. pod/capsule 2 2 0.067 wood charcoal gymnosperms softwoods/ conifers pinus sp. pine 205 3.925 29 4.225 234 8.150 0.467 pinus pinea/halepensis stone/aleppo pine 15 7.065 15 7.065 0.067 cf. pinus sp. possible pine 4 0.013 6 0.119 10 0.212 0.133 gymnosperm indeterminate 181 2.880 56 3.547 237 6.427 0.600 angiosperm dicots hardwoods quercus/fagus sp. oak/beech 5 0.040 5 0.040 0.067 quercus calliprinos kermes/ palestine oak 99 6.127 99 6.127 0.267 cf. quercus calliprinos possible kermes/ palestine oak 13 0.436 13 0.436 0.200 fagaceae indeterminate 5 0.091 5 0.091 0.067 cf. olea sp. possible olive 4 0.047 4 0.047 0.067 rhamnus sp. buckthorn 2 0.265 2 0.265 0.067 cf. ulmus/celtis sp. possible elm/ hackberry 2 0.044 2 0.044 0.067 diffuse porous 16 0.295 16 0.295 0.333 semi-ring porous 1 0.005 1 0.005 0.067 angiosperm indet. 36 1.023 4 0.214 40 1.023 0.533 indeterminate wood 1038 13.904 322 7.992 1360 21.896 0.933 (continued from previous page) forste. 2021. ethnobiology letters 12(1):58–69 65 research communications vetch). it also contains cereal chaff, including awn fragments and triticum durum (hard wheat) rachis segments. the ratio of chaff:cereal grains is 0.86 by count; for every piece of chaff there is slightly less than one cereal grain recovered. in the 0.50 g of wood charcoal from this sample, only pinus sp. (pine) can be identified (4%). the second-floor sample, sample 20654 (locus 2038) in room 17 alongside many undetermined installations, contains whole grains of barley and bread/hard wheat, as well as triticum aestivum rachis segments and nodes, indeterminate cereal rachis nodes, and possible cereal awn fragments and rachis nodes. the ratio of chaff:cereal grains is 1.12; for each piece of chaff there is slightly more than one cereal grain. it is the only sample to contain vitis vinifera (grape) pedicels, yet contains no grape seeds. sample 20654 also contains 29 carbonized wild seeds, including plants that grow in disturbed areas and fields, such as cynodon dactylon and malva sp. the wood charcoal from this sample is abundant, 6.96 g, and is dominated by angiosperms including kermes/ palestine oak (44%) and buckthorn (4%). the third-floor sample, sample 20657 (locus 2019) in room 2, contains whole grains of barley, bread/hard wheat, and fragments of grass pea and pisum sp. (pea), a barley glume base and two spikelet forks, and indeterminate cereal culm nodes and awn fragments. the ratio of chaff:cereal grains is 0.54; for every piece of chaff there are approximately two grains. this sample contains the largest number of carbonized wild seeds in count (n = 32) and variety (12 taxa). the wood charcoal from this sample is abundant; the 6.97 g is mostly kermes/palestine oak (44%), with trace amounts of quercus/fagus sp. (oak/ beech) (<1%) and possible pine (<1%). the tabun (sample 20652, locus 2059) in room 17, alongside many industrial installations, is relatively devoid of carpological remains aside from small fragments of olive, indeterminate endocarp, one wild malva sp. seed, and two unknown wild seeds. the wood charcoal from the tabun is abundant, 6.98 g, yet only pine (23%) and potential olive (<1%) can be identified. the cut-rock installation of unspecified function (sample 20653, locus 2097) in a byzantine-early islamic storeroom (room 8) contains only small amounts of indeterminate cereal fragments, olive pit fragments, a single grape seed, and a potential lolium sp. seed. it contains a small amount of highly fragmented wood charcoal, 1.23 g, including potential kermes/palestine oak (4%) and indeterminate fagaceae wood (7%). temple platform (tp) the tp samples contain scant carpological remains and are dominated by wood charcoal (tables 1 and 2). given their similarity of context and contents, i discuss all five samples together. they contain fragments of indeterminate cereal, cf. lens culinaris (possible lentil), fragments of olive endocarp, fragments of pine nut shell and pine cone scale, and 11 mineralized seeds, showing no distinction or pattern through the abbasid to fatimid periods. they are dominated by gymnosperm wood charcoal, including pine (8%) and pinus pinea/halepensis (stone/ aleppo pine) (13.5%). their average density of wood charcoal is 1.54 g/l, three times the average of area ll samples (0.51 g/l). discussion overall, the plant remains recovered from these domestic contexts are typical agricultural staples and local to the region. the non-wood remains are likely the residues of everyday food preparation (van der veen 2007), and the economic taxa align with those identified by ramsay and holum (2015). the poorly preserved wood charcoal allows only broad observations to be made, but the taxa identified are typical for the region, and are likely the remains of fuel and possibly construction debris. the dearth of carpological remains in the tp samples preclude any interpretation of plant use in the area. remains of wheat and barley are intermingled, suggesting no spatial division in their processing location. historical and ethnographic sources illustrate that wheat and barley are used in different ways (like paying different kinds of taxes) (decker 2009:97–107 and references therein; kraemer 1958), and are processed at separate times but in the same space. thus, the by-products of these grains may have intermixed during repeated use and routine sweeping. importantly, the intrasite analysis of samples taken horizontally across area ll enables the identification of specific activity areas. room 17 contains installations, mortars, and plastered floors (’ad et al. 2018), as well as the tabun, suggesting a place of working plants into edible forms, such as grinding, pressing, or baking. while there is no strong botanical evidence of fruit processing, there is evidence for late-stage cereal processing. forste. 2021. ethnobiology letters 12(1):58–69 66 research communications the by-products of specific cereal processing steps have been identified through ethnographic and experimental archaeology (hillman 1984). glume bases and rachis pieces are associated with semicleaned grains stored in bulk, which are cleaned via hand sorting (hillman 1984:10). the average ratio of chaff/cereal by count across all floors is 0.31; for approximately every 1 piece of chaff there are three grains recovered. more specifically, the highest ratios of chaff to cereals in this assemblage come from samples 20649, 20654, and 20657 (0.86, 1.11, and 0.54 respectively) suggesting that rooms 10, 17 and 2 were sites of crop processing activities. considering that complete cereal spikelets contain two to six grains per spikelet fork (a chaff/cereal ratio of 0.5 to 0.16), the ratios in these samples show that more chaff was deposited than could come from a typical ear of grain, indicating that after processing, chaff was discarded here while grains were taken elsewhere. additionally, the presence of large seeds of agricultural weeds, such a lolium and medicago (table 3) support the interpretation of these rooms as crop processing areas (stevens 2003). there are no concentrations of grains or features that indicate storage areas in these abbasid contexts, in contrast to the storage bins previously excavated in later fatimid-era houses (ramsay and holum 2015:658). by tracing these differences in storage through time, a trajectory emerges of changes in area ll’s function. originally roman and byzantine horrea, these buildings transitioned into mixed residential/ work areas in the abbasid period, and then into mixed residential/industrial/grain storage areas in the fatimid period. this blending private with industrial/ mercantile areas is common in early islamic settlements in the levant (avni 2014), and suggests a socioeconomic shift in the storage and distribution of grain. of the fruits and nuts recovered, olive is the most ubiquitous (93%). in addition to being a popular food, the large size and density of the olive endocarp make it more likely to preserve; both factors may explain its widespread distribution. however, all olive remains are fragmented, possibly because they are the remains of olive pressing that were used as fuel, then subject to post-depositional mixing (rowan 2015). the few fruits and nuts in this assemblage likely do not represent the variety enjoyed by early islamic residents, especially when compared to the more robust findings of ramsay and holum (2015:662) who identified a suite that included pomegranate, date, and melon. the relative absence of fruits and nuts in this assemblage may be a result of different taphonomic pathways for these taxa—they were table 3 carbonized wild plant taxa and their preferred habitats (feinbrun-dothan 1978, 1986; zohary 1966, 1987). species family preferred habitat agrostemma sp. caryophyllaceae fields asteraceae indeterminate bromus sp. poaceae cultivated/fallow fields bupleurem subovatum apiaceae open, dry areas cf. carex sp. cyperaceae wet areas chenopodium sp. amaranthaceae cultivated/fallow fields cf. cynodon dactylon poaceae dry to wet areas cf. echiochilon sp. boraginaceae sandy areas cf. epilobium hirstum onagraceae wet areas fabaceae indeterminate gypsophila sp. caryophyllaceae shrub-steppe cf. lagurus ovatus poaceae dry, sandy areas lolium cf. persicum poaceae field weeds/fallow fields cf. lolium sp. poaceae field weeds/fallow fields malva sp. malvaceae field weeds/fallow fields medicago sp. fabaceae field weeds/fallow fields cf. melilotus sp. fabaceae dry to wet areas papaveraceae indeterminate poaceae indeterminate rumex sp. polygonaceae wet areas forste. 2021. ethnobiology letters 12(1):58–69 67 research communications stored, consumed, and discarded in portions of the sites not represented here. pulses are scattered and fragmented, and are likely underrepresented due to processing such as soaking, boiling, or grinding that renders them too fragile to preserve through carbonization. however, the variety of lentil, possible pea, and vetches indicate a wellrounded diet. the wild seeds come from a mix of habitats, including fields, wet and sandy areas (table 3), corroborating with previous interpretations of local cultivation and potential irrigation at caesarea maritima (ramsay and holum 2015:668). the uncarbonized wild seeds in sample 20651 are likely contaminants from the current vegetation, given the poor preservation of locus 232 (figure 2). the wood charcoal taxa are also typical for the region and period, and represent either natural vegetation (e.g., kermes/palestine oak, buckthorn) or cultivated species (e.g., possible olive). area ll has a greater variety of taxa, but tp has a much higher wood charcoal density (g/l). this difference in variety parallels findings in the eastern desert of egypt, where a greater variety of wood taxa in domestic contexts from roman-era sites is interpreted to reflect the high diversity of wood used to construct buildings and everyday objects (bouchaud et al. 2018). specifically, pine is identified as a construction resource at these sites and at shivta, a byzantine agricultural village in the negev desert (ramsay et al. 2016). the dominance of stone/aleppo pine in the tp fill suggest the wood charcoal is derived from buildings. generally, the abundance of conifer wood charcoal at sites in israel increases through the roman, byzantine, and early islamic periods (liphschitz 2007), and thus the preponderance of gymnosperm wood in this assemblage aligns with broader patterns of wood-use. conclusion this small assemblage provides evidence that the early islamic inhabitants of caesarea maritima continued a long tradition of local food cultivation focused on cereals, legumes, grapes, and olives, and probably used locally available pine for construction and other accessible wood as fuel. while the suite of economic plants has a long history of cultivation in the region, the locations in which they are cultivated, processed, and stored follow patterns of diversification in the use of space, including locations and types of agricultural plots, that characterize the early islamic period in the levant. while this assemblage is both less rich and less abundant than that studied by ramsay and holum (2015), my intrasite analysis of individual samples in conjunction with associated features illuminates the relationship between plants and the places in which they were used and deposited, and brings to light the socioeconomic shift of area ll from a place of centralized storage to a residential area with workshops and smaller-scale storage. when these archaeobotanical data are considered alongside archaeological and contemporary historical evidence, a trajectory of agricultural plant production and processing at caesarea maritima can be hypothesized. we can speculate that people grew cereals in the plot-and-berm fields near the coast, or in the fields in the shephelah, and then brought at least some of those cereals to these rooms in area ll for processing. residents could have then baked goods in the tabun to be sold in the markets mentioned by al-muqaddasī. while it is not possible to identify the latter chain of events via the archaeobotanical record, the remains presented here do reveal the initial stages. by connecting all the various lines of evidence, it is possible to envision a more complete and dynamic picture of how people at caesarea maritima organized their agricultural economy, from cultivation to consumption. acknowledgments thank you to uzi 'ad, yoav arbel, peter gendelman, and their team at the israel antiquities authority, and to andrea berlin, mac marston, emily johnson, peter kovàčik, kali wade, and the environmental archaeology lab group. thanks also to bethany walker, joanna davidson, and alan sullivan who commented on earlier drafts, and two anonymous reviews who vastly improved this article. declarations permissions: permission to collect, export, analyze, and publish granted by the israel antiquities authority, uzi 'ad, yoav arbel, and peter gendelman. sources of funding: american schools for oriental research heritage excavation fellowship. conflicts of interest: none declared. forste. 2021. ethnobiology letters 12(1):58–69 68 research communications references cited ’ad, u., y. arbel, and p. gendelman. 2018. caesarea, area ll: preliminary report. hadashot arkheologiyot 130:1–13. al-muqaddasī. 1886. description of syria, including palestine. translated by guy lestrange. palestine pilgrims’ text society, london. avni, g. 2014. the byzantine-islamic transition in palestine: an archaeological approach. oxford university press, new york. bouchaud, c., c. newton, m. van der veen, and c. vermeeren. 2018. fuelwood and wood supplies in the eastern desert of 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contemporary uses and cultural significance of mammals in mexico ávila‐nájera et al. 2018. ethnobiology le ers 9(2):124–135 124 research communica ons decisions, particularly where cultural usage of a species is high (alves and souto 2015). wild mammals remain an important and widely used natural resource by indigenous and rural communities (happold 1995; alves et al. 2016). they provide a major source of protein, and have many other uses including ornamental, handicraft, medicinal, magical-religious symbolism, pets, trophy hunting, and commercial trading (alves 2012). the benefits associated with each animal and the methods used to capture it are usually highly valued aspects of traditional cultures and vary with locality and ethnic group (alves et. al. 2016; robinson and bennett 2000). in addition to being associated with benefits, some wild animals have a negative cultural introduction close human interactions with animals have occurred in all societies throughout our history (alves 2012). these ethnozoological relationships go beyond simple utilitarian needs, such as for food, to complex superstitions and magic-religious associations (alves et al. 2009; alves et al. 2010; prins et al. 2000). in some cultures, the continued use of a particular animal stems from a strong supernatural relationship established over thousands of years (allaby 2010; alves 2012). there is an increasing interest in the wider applications of such ethnozoological knowledge, including its value in informing conservation strategies and wildlife management an evalua on of the contemporary uses and cultural significance of mammals in mexico dulce maría ávila‐nájera1,5, eduardo j. naranjo2, barbara tigar3*, oscar villarreal4, and germán david mendoza5 1unidad académica de biotecnología y agroindustrial, universidad politécnica de huatusco, huatusco, veracruz, méxico. 2departamento de conservación de la biodiversidad, el colegio de la frontera sur, san cristóbal de las casas, chiapas, méxico. 3*school of forensic and applied sciences, university of central lancashire, preston, uk. 4facultad de medicina veterinaria y zootecnia, benemérita universidad autónoma de puebla, tecamachalco, puebla, méxico. 5departamento de producción agrícola y animal, universidad autónoma metropolitana, unidad xochimilco, mexico city, méxico. *b gar@uclan.ac.uk abstract we evaluated current uses of wild mammals by indigenous and mes zo communi es in mexico by extrac ng data from 59 sources published or produced between 1987–2017, covering data from 240 locali es and 3,905 ques onnaires. we then calculated a cultural value index (cvi) previously applied to plants to quan fy resource use and assess the cultural significance of each mammal. a total of 82 species were reported, and the animals with the highest cultural importance according to their cvi (in brackets) were two species of deer (odocoileus virginianus [18.32] and mazama temama [10.04]), as well as the nine‐banded armadillo (dasypus novemcinctus [14.18]), white‐nosed coa (nasua narica [14.75]), collared peccary (pecari tajaccu [11.90]), northern raccoon (procyon lotor [11.28]) and spo ed paca (cuniculus paca [9.84]). the most common uses were for food, to reduce the damage or harm they cause, and for medicinal purposes, with o. virginianus, p. lotor, n. narica, and d. novemcinctus frequently hunted for all these reasons. our analysis also highlighted the hun ng of rarer species of na onal conserva on concern, including commercial trading of body parts of the felids panthera onca, leopardus pardalis, and leopardus wiedii. by quan fying the ethnozoological significance of wildlife to indigenous communi es, indices such as cvi provide a robust measure of the extent of use and preference for par cular species or taxa. this adds to the body of evidence used to develop effec ve regula ons and laws related to harves ng and hun ng, and helps promote a more sustainable and long‐term approach to the use of natural resources. received september 18, 2017 open access accepted march 26, 2018 doi 10.14237/ebl.9.2.2018.1106 keywords cultural value index, ethnozoology, wildlife conserva on, conserva on management copyright © 2018 by the author(s) licensee society of ethnobiology. this is an open‐access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution‐noncommercial 4.0 international public license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by‐nc/4.0), which permits non‐commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. ávila‐nájera et al. 2018. ethnobiology le ers 9(2):124–135 125 research communica ons significance because they are harmful to humans, livestock, goods, or property, and as a result they are controlled to mitigate the damage they cause. therefore, cultural attitudes towards wildlife can be both positive and negative (alves et al. 2012; alves et al. 2016; treves et al. 2006). mexico is highly biodiverse and culturally diverse (sarukhán et al. 2009), and is ranked third globally for its species richness of mammals with 535 species (conabio 2008). some mammals are preferred or more highly valued for particular uses, including ungulates, large rodents, armadillos, and felines, which are subject to high hunting pressures (naranjo 2013). cunningham (2001) proposed allocating a numerical value to indicate the utility or benefit of each species based upon human perceptions of it and the extent of scientific or traditional knowledge about it (purdy and decker 1989). the advantage of using a quantitative index is that the results can be ordered by rank, which is useful when prioritizing species for decision-making purposes, as well as for spatial and temporal comparisons. here we evaluate current ethnozoological knowledge on the extent of usage, types of uses, and cultural significance of mammals by rural communities in mexico in a novel way by applying a cultural value index (cvi) (turner 1988) —originally developed to quantify the ethnobotanical value of plant species—to another taxonomic group: mammals. our aim was to generate a quantitative approach to help evaluate and develop effective strategies for the long-term conservation and sustainable use of mammals as well as other natural resources at local or regional levels in mexico, which could be useful in other locations and cultures. numerical measures of the ethnozoological significance, such as cvi, can provide evidence to inform and develop hunting regulations that more closely reflect the interests of the indigenous and mestizo communities who currently utilize wild mammals. materials and methods we systematically searched for research articles, books, theses, reports, and online material published or produced between 1987–2017, and extracted data on cultural values of, attitudes towards, and specific uses of mammals on a state by state basis in mexico. we used the national consortium of scientific and technological information resources (conricyt) database to access online ethnobiology journals, which are the main publishing option for many mexican researchers. where there were multiple articles by the same author(s), we avoided double counting by checking for unique place names or localities. we excluded records of domestic animals and corrected synonyms using ceballos and arroyocabrales (2012). records of resource-use by species were grouped into 11 categories for analysis: food, pets, trade, ornamental, artisanal, magic-religious, medicinal, sports hunting, recreational (species persecuted for amusement), harmful, and other benefits. the last of these categories includes a few animals used to control harmful species or those with secondary benefits, such as guano production by bats (cossio 2007). turner’s (1988) cultural value index (cvi) was applied to the published data for each mammal species using the following equation: cvi = σ (iu + fm + vut) where: iu (intensity of use) = (number of uses for each species from all sources / total number of uses for all species from all sources) x 100 fm (frequency of use) = (number of records [times a species is mentioned] of all uses for each species from all sources / total number of records of all uses for all species from all sources) x 100 vu (use value) = (number of records for each species of a single use from all sources / total number of records of a single use for all species from all sources) x 100 vut (total use value for each species) = sum of vu for all uses / total uses. results we found 59 sources documenting indigenous and mestizo cultural use of mammals (supplementary table 1). these consisted of information described in interviews with 3,905 individuals at 240 localities, with records for 17 mexican federal states, particularly the southern states of campeche, oaxaca, and chiapas (figure 1). there were a total of 1,727 recorded uses for 82 mammal species in mexico, representing 54 genera, 21 families, and 11 orders (table 1), particularly the orders carnivora and rodentia (24 and 28 species, respectively). about a third of these mammals were considered endangered (n=6), at risk of extinction (n=15), or subject to special protection (n=6) in mexico (table 1). mammals were mainly taken for food (36.5%) or killed to prevent damage or ávila‐nájera et al. 2018. ethnobiology le ers 9(2):124–135 126 research communica ons harm (14%), as well as for ornamentation (10%), trade (8%), and artisanal use (6.5%), with <2% having other uses (figure 2). the cvi scores varied from 0.03 for species with a single record of use, to 15 for frequently mentioned species with multiple uses (table 1). the cvis suggest that the most frequently used species were white-tailed deer (odocoileus virginianus, 18.32), white-nosed coatis (nasua narica, 14.75), nine-banded armadillos (dasypus novemcinctus, 14.18), collared peccaries (pecari tajacu, 11.90), northern raccoons (procyon lotor, 11.28), central american red brocket deer (mazama temama, 10.04), spotted pacas (cuniculus paca, 9.84), jaguars (panthera onca, 9.02), tigrillos (leopardus wiedii, 7.87), and pumas (puma concolor, 7.48). the most frequent reason for using mammals was for food, and the most commonly consumed species were d. novemcinctus (6.82), n. narica (6.66), o. virginianus (6.34), p. tajacu (6.03), and p. lotor (5.07); numbers in parenthesis are the frequency with which a species was mentioned for that use. another common reason for hunting was to reduce the damage or harm associated with a species, particularly for n. narica (6.75), p. lotor (5.48), and p. concolor (4.21). medicinal use was also common, and included d. novemcinctus (7.81), o. virginianus (6.17), mephitis macroura (hooded skunks) (6.17), and n. narica (5.34). the most frequently commercially traded mammals were o. virginianus (9.62), p. onca (8.88), c. paca (6.66), p. concolor (5.18), leopardus pardalis (ocelots) (5.18), and l. wiedii (5.18). discussion recent ethnozoological studies have shown that native and rural populations have a deep-rooted knowledge of wildlife and nature, which they apply when interacting with or exploiting natural resources (mourão et al. 2006; mourão and nordi 2002; souto et al. 2011). this traditional knowledge has been passed down through many generations and is finding new applications as a tool to inform faunal figure 1 the loca on of the 17 mexican federal states (labels 1–17) that had records for cultural uses of mammals used to calculate cultural value indices (cvis) for the 82 species. the shading indicates the number of independent sources used to calculate the cvis, where light gray is <5 (1, aguascalientes; 4, méxico city; 5, colima; 6, durango; 7, estado de méxico; 8, jalisco; 9, morelos; 11, puebla; 12, quintana roo; 13, san luis potosí; 14, sinaloa; 15, tabasco; 16, veracruz; 17, yucatán); dark gray is between 5 and 10 (2, campeche; and 10, oaxaca); and black indicates 16 sources (3, chiapas). ávila‐nájera et al. 2018. ethnobiology le ers 9(2):124–135 127 research communica ons taxonomic classifica on conserva on status number of uses reported cvi order artiodactyla family cervidae mazama temama 9 10.04 odocoileus hemionus 43 1.75 odocoileus virginianus 11 18.32 family tayassuidae pecari tajacu 9 11.90 tayassu pecari 8 5.75 order carnivora family canidae canis latrans 9 6.49 urocyon cinereoargenteus 11 8.41 family felidae leopardus pardalis r 7 6.31 leopardus wiedii r 9 7.87 lynx rufus 76 3.94 puma concolor 7 7.48 panthera onca r 8 puma yagouaroundi e 8 5.40 family mephitidae conepatus leuconotus 3 1.64 conepatus semistriatus p 34 1.50 conetaptus spp 2 1.08 mephi s macroura spp 3 1.09 mephi s spp 7 5.02 spilogale gracilis 2 0.66 spilogale putorius 3 1.50 spilogale pygmaea r 93 1.50 family mustelidae   eira barbara r 3 2.17 galic s vi ata e 1 0.34 table 1 taxonomic classifica on of wild mammal species with their na onal conserva on status according to the nom‐ 059‐semarnat‐2010 (semarnat 2010) where e=endangered or threatened, r=at risk of ex nc on, and p=subject to spe‐ cial protec on measures; total number of uses reported in mexico (from a total of 11 types of use) and cultural value index (cvi) are also reported. species with high cvis (cvi>10) are shown in bold. (con nued on next page) ávila‐nájera et al. 2018. ethnobiology le ers 9(2):124–135 128 research communica ons taxonomic classifica on conserva on status number of uses reported cvi family mustelidae lontra longicaudis 8 5.09 mustela frenata 7 8.51 taxidea taxus e 32 1.21 family procyonidae bassariscus astutus e 1 0.46 bassariscus sumichras p 4 1.98 nasua narica 11 14.75 potos flavus p 6 5.67 procyon lotor 10 11.28 order chiroptera 3 1.37 family molossidae tadarida brasiliensis 1 0.70 family phyllostomidae ar beus jamaicensis 1 0.70 order cingulata family dasypodidae cabassous centralis r 5 2.10 dasypus novemcinctus 11 14.18 order didelphimorphia family didelphidae caluromys derbianus e 1 0.37 chironectes minimus r 1 0.34 didelphis marsupialis 3 1.77 didelphis virginiana 4 3.18 didelphis spp 5 4.35 marmosa mexicana 1 0.43 philander opossum 4 1.75 (con nued from previous page) table 1 taxonomic classifica on of wild mammal species with their na onal conserva on status according to the nom‐ 059‐semarnat‐2010 (semarnat 2010) where e=endangered or threatened, r=at risk of ex nc on, and p=subject to spe‐ cial protec on measures; total number of uses reported in mexico (from a total of 11 types of use) and cultural value index (cvi) are also reported. species with high cvis (cvi>10) are shown in bold. (con nued on next page) ávila‐nájera et al. 2018. ethnobiology le ers 9(2):124–135 129 research communica ons taxonomic classifica on conserva on status number of uses reported cvi order lagomorpha family leporidae lepus alleni 10 2.57 lepus flavigularis p 32 1.05 lepus spp r 2 0.67 romerolagus diazi r 1 0.32 sylvilagus audubonii 37 1.24 sylvilagus brasiliensis 34 1.74 sylvilagus cunicularius 6 2.60 sylvilagus floridanus 10 7.48 sylvilagus spp 5 2.27 order perissodactyla family tapiridae tapirus bairdii r 6 3.72 order pilosa family cyclopedidae cyclopes didactylus r 1 0.58 family myrmecophagidae tamandua mexicana r 9 6.63 order primates family atelidae aloua a palliata r 5 3.20 ateles geoffroyi r 6 6.06 order rodentia family agoutidae dasyprocta mexicana 1 0.32 dasyprocta punctata 2 1.08 dasyprocta spp 7 5.31 family cuniculidae cuniculus paca 8 9.84 (con nued from previous page) table 1 taxonomic classifica on of wild mammal species with their na onal conserva on status according to the nom‐ 059‐semarnat‐2010 (semarnat 2010) where e=endangered or threatened, r=at risk of ex nc on, and p=subject to spe‐ cial protec on measures; total number of uses reported in mexico (from a total of 11 types of use) and cultural value index (cvi) are also reported. species with high cvis (cvi>10) are shown in bold. (con nued on next page) ávila‐nájera et al. 2018. ethnobiology le ers 9(2):124–135 130 research communica ons taxonomic classifica on conserva on status number of uses reported cvi family erethizontidae coendou mexicanus e 7 4.52 family geomyidae 4 1.58 heteromys desmares anus 22 0.74 heteromys gaumeri 2 0.68 heteromys spp 1 0.34 orthogeomys grandis 1 0.46 orthogeomys hispidus 34 2.55 orthogeomys spp 3 1.32 pappogeomys bulleri 1 0.34 family muridae 1 0.34 microtus mexicanus 1 0.35 neotoma mexicana 2 0.73 neotoma phenax p 4 2.22 neotoma spp 3 1.19 ototylomys phyllotys 1 0.32 peromyscus aztecus 1 0.32 peromyscus levipes 1 0.32 peromyscus mexicanus 1 0.32 peromyscus spp 1 0.43 peromyscus yucatanicus 1 0.68 peromyscus zarhynchus p 1 0.32 reithrodontomys spp 2 0.69 sigmodon hispidus 1 0.34 tylomys nudicaudus 2 0.73 family sciuridae ammospermophilus interpres 1 0.43 otospermophilus variegatus 3 1.40 sciurus aureogaster 8 5.34 sciurus colliaei 3 1.11 sciurus deppei deppei 6 2.64 (con nued from previous page) table 1 taxonomic classifica on of wild mammal species with their na onal conserva on status according to the nom‐ 059‐semarnat‐2010 (semarnat 2010) where e=endangered or threatened, r=at risk of ex nc on, and p=subject to spe‐ cial protec on measures; total number of uses reported in mexico (from a total of 11 types of use) and cultural value index (cvi) are also reported. species with high cvis (cvi>10) are shown in bold. (con nued on next page) ávila‐nájera et al. 2018. ethnobiology le ers 9(2):124–135 131 research communica ons taxonomic classifica on conserva on status number of uses reported cvi sciurus nayaritensis 1 0.32 sciurus spp 7 5.01 sciurus yucatanensis 5 2.58 orden sirenia family trichechidae trichechus manatus r 3 1.35 family sciuridae (con nued from previous page) table 1 taxonomic classifica on of wild mammal species with their na onal conserva on status according to the nom‐ 059‐semarnat‐2010 (semarnat 2010) where e=endangered or threatened, r=at risk of ex nc on, and p=subject to spe‐ cial protec on measures. total number of uses reported in mexico (from a total of 11 types of use) and cultural value index (cvi) are also reported. species with high cvis (cvi>10) are shown in bold. ávila‐nájera et al. 2018. ethnobiology le ers 9(2):124–135 132 research communica ons inventories, as well as zoological and ecological research (alves and souto 2015; alves et al. 2016). while ethnobotany is well-established, the emergence of ethnozoology helps to emphasize the social and economic value of regional fauna (cullen et al. 2000; léopold et al. 2009) and provides evidence to inform environmental impact assessments, resource management, and sustainable development (alves and souto, 2015; johannes 1993; sillitoe 1998). our cvi results for mexico show widespread levels of hunting and diverse uses of wild mammals, particularly large and medium-sized species like deer and peccaries, which are a major source of meat in many rural areas. however, 27 (33%) of the mammals currently used are considered to be at risk of extinction in mexico (semarnat 2010), including the jaguar, tigrillo, ocelot, jaguarundi (puma yagouaroundi), hare of the isthmus of tehuantepec (lepus flavigularis), howler monkey (alouatta palliata), spider monkey (ateles geoffroyi), and tapir (tapirus bairdii). in addition, many carnivores of national and global conservation concern have high cvi scores, suggesting they are particularly vulnerable to overuse. although subsistence hunting generally poses lower risks to wildlife than commercial hunting (fa and peres 2001), this depends on the level of hunting pressure and is often exacerbated by habitat degradation (alves et al. 2016). the impact of hunting is generally highest on large and medium vertebrates, particularly species taken for human consumption (alves et. al. 2016) or causing some form of damage or harm (peres 2000; redford 1992). species with a relatively high cvi score require management that encourages sustainable harvesting. however, as cvis reflect the values of a specific cultural group or locality, they can both help inform effective hunting laws or regulations that minimize the risk to wild populations, and bring long-term benefits to both wildlife and the people using them (naranjo 2013; robinson and bennett 2000). an example of good practice for frequently hunted species in mexico is the establishment of special units for conservation management and the sustainable use of wildlife (unidades para la conservacion, manejo y aprovechamiento de la vida silvestre [uma]) (gallina-tessaro et al. 2009), where the economic harvesting of natural resources is controlled by the local communities that rely on them. therefore, umas would benefit from considering cvis when calculating harvesting rates, and when evaluating their long-term effectiveness and figure 2 total number of mammal species reported to have a par cular use or benefit (black bars) and the total number of mes a specific cultural use of a mammal was men oned (gray bars) in all literature sources for mexico published be‐ tween 1987–2017. ávila‐nájera et al. 2018. ethnobiology le ers 9(2):124–135 133 research communica ons sustainability. such an approach can be strengthened by other activities that reduce the overuse of wildlife, such as improving the levels of environmental education, wildlife surveillance, and opportunities for better-paid local employment (naranjo 2008). in addition, promoting the local knowledge and traditions of those species most at risk helps to reinforce and maintain their cultural importance in a community (purdy and decker 1989). therefore, indices such as cvi, which quantify the importance of a species to a community, can complement accurate information on catch rates and populations sizes, leading to management strategies that support the long-term persistence of wildlife. where suitable ethnobiological and ethnozoological information are available, conservation managers and wildlife biologists can incorporate cvi into the decision-making processes for any natural resource or locality. in addition, cvi can highlight the animals most frequently utilized by human communities and at highest risk of over harvesting, which in this study included several taxonomic groups including ungulates, big cats, and large rodents, known to be important indicators of the overall health and structure of an ecosystem (miller et al. 2001). acknowledgements the authors thank their respective heads of department at the universidad politecnica de huatusco, el colegio de la frontera sur, the university of central lancashire, and the universidad autónoma metropolitana (unidad xochimilco), for supporting their collaboration on this original research idea. this research was made possible by funding to dulce maria avila nájera from the secretaria de educación pública, mexico, postdoctoral research scholarship, uam-x-ca-24. we also thank the editor and two anonymous referees for their constructive comments, which helped us to improve our article. declarations permissions: not applicable sources of funding: dulce maria avila nájera, postdoctoral research scholarship (uam-x-ca-24) from the secretaria de educación pública, mexico conflicts of interest: none declared references cited allaby, m. 2010. animals: from mythology to zoology. facts on file, inc., new york, ny. alves, r.r.n. 2012. relationships between 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doi:10.2307/1311860. robinson, j.g. and e.l. bennett. 2000. hunting for sustainability in tropical forests. columbia university press, new york, ny. sarukhán, j., p. koleff, j. carabias, j. soberón, r. dirzo, j. llorente-bousquets, g. halffter, r. gonzález, i. march, a. mohar, s. anta, and j. de la maza. 2009. capital natural de méxico: conocimiento actual, evaluación y perspectivas de sustentabilidad. síntesis. report for comisión nacional para el conocimiento y uso de la biodiversidad (conabio), méxico. available at: http:// www.biodiversidad.gob.mx/pais/pdf/capnatmex/ capital%20natural%20de%20mexico_sintesis.pdf. accessed on august 22, 2017. secretaría de medio ambiente y recursos naturales (semarnat). 2010. norma oficial mexicana nom-059-semarnat-2010. protección ambiental, especies nativas de flora y fauna silvestres de méxico, categorías de riesgo y especificaciones para su inclusión, exclusión o cambio, y lista de especies en riesgo. diario ávila‐nájera et al. 2018. ethnobiology le ers 9(2):124–135 135 research communica ons oficial de la federación [web page]. url: https:// www.gob.mx/profepa/documentos/norma-oficialmexicana-nom-059-semarnat-2010. accessed on august 22, 2017. sillitoe, p. 1998. the development of indigenous knowledge. current anthropology 39:223–252. doi:10.1086/204722. souto, w.m.s., j.s. mourão, r.r.d. barboza, and r.r.n. alves. 2011. parallels between zootherapeutic practices in ethnoveterinary and human complementary medicine in ne brazil. journal of ethnopharmacology 134:753–767. doi:10.1016/j.jep.2011.01.041. treves, a., r.b. wallace, l. naughton-treves, and a. morales. 2006. co-managing human-wildlife conflicts: a review. human dimensions of wildlife 11:383–396. doi:10.1080/10871200600984265. turner, n. 1988. the importance of a rose, evaluating the cultural significance of plants in thompson and lilloet interior salish. american anthropologist new series 90:272–290. roots of power: the political ecology of boundary plants. by michael sheridan. 2023. routledge, new york. 275 pp. vittal. 2025. ethnobiology letters 16(1):37–39 37 reviews defines modern vincentians’ landholding process: the first step to owning land, for many smallholding farmers, is the “informal but socially legitimate” (p. 197) practice of marking off land with cordyline and then seeking formal approval from the state. the salient commonality, sheridan argues, is that these plants are all used to mark boundaries, whether physical—as in differentiating agricultural fields within a terrain—or metaphysical and social, creating spheres of male or female influence, for example, or investing spaces or occasions with political and ethical value. drawing from the work of frederik barth (1969), sheridan suggests that “culture” is best treated as a verb: anthropological studies benefit from understanding culture as a process, one which is most apparent not at a societal center, but rather at the edges, or boundaries, of a cultural unit. from this standpoint, boundary plants’ importance is magnified: they underpin communities’ understanding and narratives of themselves. in conjunction with field data and socio-ecological histories, sheridan extrapolates this to show that boundary plants have been used by communities to navigate change, stability, and personal and communal identity. central to this argument, however, is the way in which dracaena and cordyline are understood. following the work of bruno latour and tim ingold (latour 1998) and subsequent post-humanist scholarship (hitchings 2003, gershon 2010), roots of power treats these plants as “actants”. they are, thus, not docile beings invested with meaning by human societies. rather, they are beings with agency and subjectivity arising from their relationships, and michael sheridan’s roots of power: the political ecology of boundary plants examines the concept of a boundary plant across five case-studies. the book uses a multisited ethnographic approach to explore the role of the dracaena species amongst the chagga people in tanzania and the oku of the cameroon grassfields; and the cordyline species in papua new guinea, french polynesia, and st. vincent. by drawing together the common thread—the agency of plants in human lives—sheridan is able to foreground the complexities of engaging with other-than-human beings. in each of the cultures studied, the values, meanings, and usage attached to these plants, while similar, are discrete and complex. amongst the chagga, for example, dracaena plants clearly mark ownership; an individual may leave a knotted dracaena leaf on an unattended resource, such as a log in the forest, to imply that it has already been claimed. in papua new guinea, however, cordyline leaves, depending on context, tribe, and the type of leaf, may signify, among other meanings, that a household is prepared to hospitably receive guests, the birth and sex of a newborn, or gesture towards funerary practice. in st. vincent, a caribbean island nation with a history of plantations worked by enslaved people, the “red dragon” variety of cordyline gestures towards a fraught and painful history, but also indicates that enslaved people asserted their right to assign heirs to the garden plots that they worked. in the “plantationocene”, as sheridan calls it, red dragon became a “guide” which directed the population towards actions of mutual benefit. it also roots of power: the political ecology of boundary plants. by michael sheridan. 2023. routledge, new york. 275 pp. jayaditya vittal1* 1manipal institute of social sciences humanities and arts, manipal academy of higher education in manipal, karnataka, india. *jayaditya.mchmpl2022@learner.manipal.edu received december 2, 2025 open access accepted april 7, 2025 doi 10.14237/ebl.16.1.2025.1918 published july 7, 2025 copyright © 2025 by the author(s); licensee society of ethnobiology. this is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution-noncommercial 4.0 international public license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0), which permits non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. vittal. 2025. ethnobiology letters 16(1):37–39 38 reviews sheridan attempts to define and locate their agency by paying attention to the “loose assemblages, networks, and tangles” (p. 33) of relationships they are a part of. consequently, meaning-making becomes a relational process, which takes cognizance of the consequences of human and other-than-human encounters. cordyline and dracaena, here, are “privileged actants”. not only do they engage in such meaning-making, but their material bodies emphasize particular kinds of agency, which, in turn, human communities “elaborate...into institutions and symbols” (p. 32) with definite effects on their social and environmental relationships. as privileged actants, sheridan argues that these plants have been instrumental in defining how human communities have navigated sociological change. colonialism, followed by a socialist turn postindependence in tanzania, for example, caused ruptures in chagga social structure; socialist policies, called ujamaa, under julius nyerere forced the chagga to move to “modernist ujamaa villages…[that]… often led to ecological, economic, and social crises rather than sustainable development” (p. 51). coffee, a cash crop, replaced the traditional banana horticulture-based kihamba system, even as, in the twenty-first century, many chagga migrated away from the farms to cities in search of economic activities. in this case, dracaena plants are used by the chagga to “bear witness” (p. 53) to the redrawing of borders and restructuring of families and villages. similarly, in french polynesia and papua new guinea, the introduction of christianity is navigated by using cordyline to “make people…ask”; (p. 129) that is, as a cultural marker that signifies a sometimesunclear meaning, it forces communication and encourages stability and cohesion. perhaps most importantly, roots of power draws attention, simultaneously, to two interlinked ethnobiological problems. firstly, it documents the ways in which ethnobotanical knowledge and ways of understanding are endangered. in cameroon, as well as tanzania, dracaena is rapidly becoming subsidiary, rather than parallel, to more formal ways of delineating land-rights, such as legal contracts and wills. combined with people’s migration away from farmlands, this results in the varied and intertwined associations of dracaena being whittled away, so that it is thought of less as an actant, with biopolitical power, and increasingly as a being loaded with the singular value of defining physical boundaries. while the state sometimes ossifies and at other times opposes the ways in which dracaena maps land, communities themselves may, sheridan suggests, be eschewing the complexity of meanings attached to the plants. in papua new guinea, linguistic concerns underscore a similar situation. for many younger papuans, the extensive vocabulary surrounding cordyline plants in various tribal languages is being lost. all varieties of the plant are referred to simply as “tanget”, the name in tok pisin, the lingua franca of the island. epistemic loss along these lines is also a phenomenon in french polynesia and st. vincent, and sheridan suggests that this, and its corollary, the reduced importance and understanding of the plants themselves, could adversely impact the robustness of tropical horticultural and agricultural systems. secondly, the book explores the fact that “older” forms of communal organization, in which these boundary plants play a major role, are also almost invariably hierarchical, traditionalist, and perhaps conservative. in communities in cameroon and french polynesia, dracaena and cordyline, respectively, are participants in a deeply hierarchical system which values traditional chieftains and the nobility over the rest of the community. in the tanzanian case study, the traditional patriarchal family unit, where each member exists on a sliding scale of importance and daughters cannot inherit the kihamba, is reified by practices involving dracaena. similarly, cordyline strengthens patriarchal concerns in papua new guinea, creating sharply defined male spaces where women are forbidden from moving or even touching the plant. taken as a whole, the book represents a definitive turn within the disciplines of anthropology and political ecology; however, some areas warrant further attention. the gendered nature of the ways in which these plants are used, and the hierarchies they are seen to validate, are left under-explored. little attention is directed towards what arun agrawal (2005) calls environmentality: the ways in which the state creates environmental subjects whose agency is practiced through their relationships with other-than-human beings. however, the multi-sited ethnography, in conjunction with historical data and an exploration of power, demonstrates a model of meaning-making which sits at the intersection of anthropology, ecology, and history. vittal. 2025. ethnobiology letters 16(1):37–39 39 reviews references cited agrawal, a. 2005. environmentality: technologies of government and the making of subjects. duke university press, durham, nc. barth, f. 2000. boundaries and connections. in signifying identities, edited by a. cohen, pp. 17–36. routledge, london. gershon, i. 2010. bruno latour (1947–). in from agamben to zizek, edited by j. simons, pp. 161–176. edinburgh university press, edinburgh. hitchings, r. 2003. people, plants, and performance: on actor network theory and the material pleasures of the private garden. social and cultural geography 4:99–114. doi:10.1080/1464936032000049333. latour, b. 1988. the pasteurisation of france. harvard university press, cambridge, ma. forth. 2021. ethnobiology letters 12(1):70–72 70 reviews zoologists, distinguish humans from all animals (the category ana wa). as i also demonstrate, “mammal” (excluding humans) must be understood as a largely covert folk taxon contrasting with other life-form taxa, which although not consistently named, nage sometimes distinguish with the label lako wawi, “dogs [and] pigs” (forth 2016:61–65, 141, 142, 146, 153–54). in his final paragraph, whitney (2018:104) identifies two respects in which the book might be seen as “com[ing] up short.” one is that it is “regionally and intellectually very specific,” which he immediately explains to mean a “comprehensive look at the folk classification of the nage from a taxonomic perspective, a close and meticulous study about organizing information” (whitney 2018:104). i would not necessarily argue with either of these characterizations, though i am not sure what is meant by “intellectually very specific”—other than the fact that the work takes a particular theoretical approach. the specification of a “taxonomic perspective” is not quite accurate, as the book concerns rather more than folk taxonomy, as the reviewer himself makes plain. but by the same token, it is unclear how this can be taken as a criticism. certainly, earlier book-length ethnozoological studies have focused on single ethnolinguistic groups (see e.g., hunn 1977 on the tzeltal, ellen 1993 on the nuaulu, and rea 1998, 2007 on the northern pimans), and to place nage folk zoology in a broader perspective i cite comparative ethnographic evidence throughout. if regional specificity needs further defending, i would add that, apart from the aims of exploring original i am grateful to cory whitney for reviewing my book why the porcupine is not a bird (forth 2016) and am naturally pleased that the review is on the whole positive. the reviewer, however, makes several statements that are erroneous or questionable and therefore require a response. i begin with specific points registered early in the review. whitney states that the nage people live on the islands of flores and timor. in fact, they inhabit only the island of flores. he also says i became interested in the nage because of their “unique funerary practices and water buffalo sacrifices.” while i have certainly written on both topics, neither was a subject that first attracted me to the nage. also, two of my papers the reviewer mentions in this connection concern neither topic, and one (forth 1988) is actually about ritual speech on the neighboring island of sumba. several other publications whitney cites in reference to my several research interests similarly do not match these interests, and whereas the reviewer states i have been conducting fieldwork in indonesia for over 30 years, the figure at the time my 2016 book was published was over 40 years. as regards matters of ethnographic substance, whitney (2018:103) describes nage “taxonomic systems for animals” as including “three sub-taxa (excluding invertebrates),” identified as “1) flying animals; 2) snakes; and 3) fish and other animals including humans and nonhuman animals.” contrary to what this implies, nage do not classify “humans and nonhuman animals” in a single category with fish. in fact, as i make clear, nage, like most folk a reply to whitney’s review of why the porcupine is not a bird gregory forth1* 1department of anthropology, university of alberta, edmonton, canada. *gforth@ualberta.ca received april 24, 2021 open access accepted may 5, 2021 doi 10.14237/ebl.12.1.2021.1765 published august 5, 2021 copyright © 2021 by the author(s); licensee society of ethnobiology. this is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution-noncommercial 4.0 international public license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0), which permits non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. replying to whitney ethnobiology letters 9, https://doi.org/10.14237/ebl.9.2.2018.1204 (2018) https://doi.org/10.14237/ebl.9.2.2018.1204 forth. 2021. ethnobiology letters 12(1):70–72 71 reviews material and treating human-animal relations comprehensively and systematically, the theoretical argument i wished to make—largely a critique of ontological relativism—could only be made by focusing on the nage, especially as their folk zoology appears different in several crucial respects from the way knowledge of animals has been represented by other ethnographers dealing with similar small-scale societies. in anthropology generally, theoretical and methodological positions can often best be advanced or criticized through comprehensive and detailed studies of particular ethnographic cases—as for example, durkheim (1915) famously did with australian aboriginal totemism in developing his theory of religion. the second perceived shortcoming, identified as one that might concern “activist readers,” is more diverse. whitney begins by stating that the questions i pursue “did not originate with the nage” but are my “own concerns.” again, this is partly correct, but also partly incorrect, insofar as i make clear that my interest in human-animal relations among nage—and not just ones pertaining to taxonomy or classification more broadly conceived—originated in uses nage themselves make of animals, conceptually, practically, linguistically, and in various ritual and symbolic respects. at the same time, my position—which i realize reflects my own values—is that any sort of scientific work or scholarship must be substantially shaped by the concerns of the disciplines involved (in this case anthropology and ethnobiology) and not solely by the interests of the community concerned. as if to qualify his criticism, whitney then asserts that “critical readers should keep in mind that much of [my] work in the region took place during a time when any political activity would have risked being banned from the country [i.e., indonesia], jailed, or worse” (emphasis supplied). if this claim refers to the suharto era, which came to an end in 1998, i should point out that much ethnography pertaining to the topic of the book was conducted after that time. in the same connection, the reviewer states that since i began my fieldwork “the local ecology of flores and timor has dramatically changed,” and that “nage culture has nearly been lost,” having been “assimilated by other more dominant regional ethnic groups.” certainly, there has been ecological change on flores, as i discuss in several parts of the book (e.g., pp. 129– 130 regarding monkeys; pp.181–183 on birds; and pp. 213–214, 222, 308–309 on fish), but the changes the reviewer likely refers to began earlier in the twentieth century. it is moreover questionable how far such changes concern the topics i chose to pursue in my book—as opposed to a very different book which “activists” might conceivably wish i had written. there is even a question of whether local ecological change is a topic nage themselves would particularly wish i had written about. more likely foci of their interest would be the history of the dutch-appointed native rulers of the nage region, sacrificial ritual, or disputes over land (some going back well over 100 years)—all of which i have written about in previous publications. as for the claim that nage culture is now virtually lost and has been assimilated by “more dominant regional ethnic groups” (whitney 2018:104), i am at a loss to know what this means or on what information it is based. if these “more dominant” groups are other ethno-linguistic populations of flores, then the statement is simply wrong, the nage being no more subordinate to culturally distinct neighbors than the latter are to them. although before 2007 the nage were conjoined with the ngadha, their western neighbors, in an administrative district (or “regency”) named “ngada,” since the 1980s not only have three leaders (or “regents”) of ngada been ethnic nage, but together with the culturally similar keo region to the south, nage has now separated to form a separate administrative district named “nagekeo.” having worked with several ethnic groups on flores, i would add that the people of central nage especially, are in several respects culturally more conservative than others i know, not least in regard to maintaining indigenous beliefs and practices disapproved by the catholic church. one must always be grateful for the effort taken by colleagues who review our books, and again, i appreciate the service provided by the present reviewer. however, in the interests of research and scholarship, where challengeable statements are made they must be challenged. references cited durkheim, e. 1915 [1912]. the elementary forms of the religious life. translated from the french by j. w. swain. george allen and unwin, london. ellen, r. f. 1993. the cultural relations of classification: an analysis of nuaulu animal categories from central seram. cambridge university press, cambridge. forth. 2021. ethnobiology letters 12(1):70–72 72 reviews forth, g. 1988. fashioned speech, full communication: aspects of eastern sumbanese ritual language. in to speak in pairs: essays on the ritual languages of eastern indonesia, edited by j. j. fox, pp. 129–160. cambridge university press, cambridge. forth, g. 2016. why the porcupine is not a bird: explorations in the folk zoology of an eastern indonesian people. toronto university press, toronto. hunn, e. s. 1977. tzeltal folk zoology: the classification of discontinuities in nature. academic press, new york. rea, a. 1998. folk mammalogy of the northern pimans. university of arizona press, tucson, az. rea, a. 2007. wings in the desert: a folk ornithology of the northern pimans. university of arizona press, tucson, az. whitney, c. 2018. why the porcupine is not a bird: explorations in the folk zoology of an eastern indonesian people. by gregory forth. 2016. university of toronto press, toronto. 375 pp. ethnobiology letters 9:103–104. doi:10.14237/ ebl.9.2.2018.1204. the first domestication: how wolves and humans coevolved. by raymond pierotti and brandy r. fogg. 2017. yale university press, new haven. 326 pp. anderson. 2018. ethnobiology letters 9(2):247–249 247 reviews perspectives from gene anderson’s bookshelf native american plains dogs may have been simply tamed wolves. domestication led to neoteny, tameness, and obedience, but broke the tight family life of the wolf. modern dogs are bred to follow our orders—unlike wolves, they learn easily to follow pointing fingers— but live in amorphous groups, without the firm dominance of an alpha male and alpha female that one sees in wolf packs. domestication has led more recently to elaboration of countless breeds of dogs, with different personalities and abilities. backcrossing to wolves has been important in some breeds, such as the german shepherd. dogs continue to be loved as companions, even among muslims, who deem dogs unclean. a delightful medieval arab work has been translated as the book of the superiority of dogs to many of those who wear clothes (ibn al-marzubān 1978); the arabic title is a bit of “doggerel” itself, and could be translated “dogs beat togs.” pierotti has longterm experience with both wild and tame wolves, with wolf-dog crosses, and with various kinds of dogs. he writes as a highly sensitive expert on how to manage various canines. wolves require firm but sensitive handling and they can be as tame as dogs, a point confirmed by the many wolfsaving organizations i follow. a major theme of this book is the widespread understanding of wolves, and even affection for them, by indigenous peoples, contrasted with the modern european and euro-american fear and hate of wolves. pierotti and fogg know best the north human-wolf coevolution involves several components. first is the initial bond between humans and wolves. this was formed, presumably, when humans got into wolf country and slowly learned to co-hunt with them. second is the development of the domestic dog. third is living with wolves and dogs today, including keeping wolves as household companions. the initial bond was probably formed as humans got into the game-rich steppes and forests inhabited by large gray wolves (canis lupus). this would have been after modern humans left africa. pierotti has long argued, and fogg has found further evidence, that humans did not domesticate dogs as scavengers or pets, but started out by working more and more closely with wolves as hunters, and finally began to domesticate them—or perhaps the wolves domesticated themselves, evolving more and more fondness for working with humans. wolves and ravens routinely co-hunt; there are probably other such partnerships. the extreme sociability of wolves is based on their close teamwork as pack hunters, conceivably easily transferable to other species when occasion arises. this theory fits with the increasing evidence for multiple domestication events in the history of the dog. recent claims for the origin of the dog in china, central asia, western eurasia, and the near east have all been made. pierotti and fogg see no reason for any of these to be wrong. if people were working with wolves and the transition was gradual, one would expect multiple crossings and back-crossings, plenty of gene flow from each site to others, and a gradual and uneven tradition. the authors believe that the first domestication: how wolves and humans coevolved. by raymond pierotti and brandy r. fogg. 2017. yale university press, new haven. 326 pp. eugene n. anderson1* 1department of anthropology, university of california, riverside, usa. *gene@ucr.edu received august 15, 2018 open access accepted august 16, 2018 doi 10.14237/ebl.9.2.2018.1379 copyright © 2018 by the author(s) licensee society of ethnobiology. this is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution-noncommercial 4.0 international public license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0), which permits non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. anderson. 2018. ethnobiology letters 9(2):247–249 248 reviews perspectives from gene anderson’s bookshelf american native views, which they compare with the australian aboriginal affection for dingoes (they cite deborah rose’s superb publications on this, among others; see rose 2000). they also cover siberia and central asia, where the turks claim descent from wolves and the mongols from the marriage of a gray wolf to a fallow doe—courage and loyalty united with beauty and grace. there is even an eyewitness account of a tamed wolf suckling a human toddler in a canadian first nations household. there is comparative european data; one instantly thinks of romulus and remus. on the capitoline hill in rome stands a powerful, evocative, and artistically brilliant statue: a life-sized bronze shewolf, looking directly at the viewer, with an expression of tenderness, protection, and courage. she is suckling the twins. she is just abstracted enough to convey the pure visionary essence of wolf; the artist saw through the surface and caught the soul. he, or she, lived far enough back in history to take such spiritual artistry quite seriously. the current wolf dates from about ad 1100 (wikipedia, “capitoline wolf”) but is probably a copy or re-creation of an etruscan or roman sculpture from much earlier times. treatment of wolves in the early celtic epics, also, is very much like that documented by pierotti and fogg for native americans. how did wolves become the embodiment of evil found in grimms’ fairy tales and other folk sources? pierotti and fogg document christian anti-wolf writings and indeed the wolf is not treated very well in the bible. settled farm life that was heavily dependent on small stock is clearly responsible for much antiwolf sentiment. also involved is hate and fear of wild nature, a hate traceable to the irrigated plantations of mesopotamia. wolves became scary as lions disappeared, exterminated from europe by the romans and others. europe became more and more wolf-averse, climaxing in the hate and fear of wolves that we have recently seen in rural america as wolves and coyotes become more widespread. pierotti and fogg document at some length the incompetence of many writers on dogs and wolves. they are especially critical of coppinger and coppinger (2001). the coppingers retain old european attitudes: animals are basically automatons, as argued by descartes (1999, latin original 1637; see pp. 40–41). dogs and wolves are totally distinct animals to the coppingers, which flies in the face of science and common experience. the coppingers also argue that dogs were domesticated from wolves that were scavengers around human camps. humans adopted “cute” pups and slowly selected for tameness. pierotti has long argued against this view, showing many reasons why it would not have worked. the cohunting hypothesis fits better what we know of people and early dogs. one can add to this. ádám miklósi, a hungarian dog researcher, has recently maintained the same cartesian point (miklósi 2018). it seems incredible that in the twenty-first century anyone could maintain that any higher animal is a machine, lacking true emotions and motivated by food; miklósi holds this and even claims dogs do not love, they merely are conditioned to expect food from their owner. (this does not explain why some dogs care little about food rewards but crave and can be trained by cuddling, walks, and petting.) anyone that has lived with multiple dogs knows that they have different personalities and knowledge bases. they take advantage of each other all the time, using knowledge of each other’s lapses in awareness. they also use their knowledge to help or support or protect or fight or trick a pack-mate who has a different personality and knowledge pool. they are also exquisitely attuned to differences between humans and know how to “work” their owners for food, walks, and petting, adjusting their appeal to personality differences. this requires a highly developed “theory of mind.” pierotti and fogg describe differences between wolf and dog communicative behavior, but do not go into details. dogs communicate by scent more than by other channels; second, in any even slightly complex transaction, they use whole-body visual cues, diverse vocal sounds, and a whole bank of pheromones to communicate—integrating all these into a single message. most dog books barely mention scent. there is now, finally, a book devoted to it: secrets of the snout by the norwegian dog trainer frank rosell (2018). even this book is more concerned with training than with natural communication, but it does have full details on dog noses and olfactory senses. dogs have about a million times the scenting ability of humans. we miss 99.9999% of what is going on in their scent-world. we can smell the pleasure/play pheromone, which is pleasant and reassuring to humans as to dogs, and the extreme fear scent, smelling like rotten onions. dogs have many scent glands, each secreting a anderson. 2018. ethnobiology letters 9(2):247–249 249 reviews perspectives from gene anderson’s bookshelf whole suite of different chemicals and each dog has his or her own special mix of these, allowing individual recognition. dogs have been tested with mirrors to see if they have a knowledge of self, but this is foolish; dogs recognize self and others primarily by scent, not sight, as several authorities have pointed out. i have often confronted puppies with their first mirrors. the pup sniffs at the strange dog, finds it has no smell, and dismisses it as a mere trick of the light. we all know that dogs (and also coyotes and wolves) howl along with sirens, but less well known is their musical ability. my cattle dog, when young, would accompany records on his squeaky-toys and matched the records perfectly in pitch and timing. the climax was a long duet with andres segovia, the master playing his guitar, the dog accompanying him perfectly on the squeaky-toy. segovia must have rolled in his grave. as to wolves: i once camped in a remote part of british columbia and soon found that the next site was occupied by a saxophonist— obviously a professional, from his playing. he and the neighboring wolf pack traded riffs half the night. the wolves would howl, my neighbor would copy their songs on his sax. the wolves would then howl something new but with the same timing and pitch. it went for hours. i suspect my neighbor had seen the film “never cry wolf,” in which the hero duets with wolves on his bassoon. in any case, the whole performance was quite amazing. dogs combine visual, auditory, and olfactory channels in productive ways. these combined messages are very poorly understood, even by experts. dogs also fail to make the complex plans for the far future that humans make, but dogs are surprisingly good at short-term planning. since wolves have 1/3 more brain than dogs, they are probably more intelligent. pierotti and fogg say a good deal about coyotes, but nothing strikingly new. they deal with coyote’s trickster role in song and story, so comparable to old world fox lore. they note that coyotes, unlike wolves, do not tame, and that this may be related to their living in pairs rather than packs. coyote young disperse within a year, though they may revisit or join periodically for hunting. i have seen some joyful and moving reunions when a pup comes home to visit— tail-wagging, rolling over, play-fights, and other doglike behaviors occur. of all the many books about wolves and dogs that i have read, this is the best. it is a “must read” for ethnozoologists, and surely for dog owners and lovers. references cited coté, c. 2010. spirits of our whaling ancestors: revitalizing makah and nuu-chah-nulth traditions. university of washington press, seattle, wa. coppinger, r., and l. coppinger. 2001. dogs: a startling new understanding of canine origin, behavior and evolution. university of chicago press, chicago. descartes, r. 1999 [1637]. discourse on method and related writings. penguin, new york. miklósi, á. 2018. the dog: a natural history. princeton university press, princeton, nj. ibn al-marzubān, m. i. k. 1978. the book of the superiority of dogs over many of those who wear clothes, edited and translated by g. r. smith and m. a. s. abdel haleem. aris and phillips, warminster, united kingdom. rose, d. 2000. dingo makes us human: life and land in an australian aboriginal culture. cambridge university press, new york. rosell, f. 2018. secrets of the snout: the dog’s incredible nose. university of chicago press, chicago. second impressions: expanding the range of cereals from early neolithic franchthi cave, greece allen. 2018. ethnobiology le ers 9(2):189–196 189 research communica ons “néolithique initial” (perlès 1987:94) or initial neolithic (in), the earliest phase of early neolithic (en) at franchthi. the franchthi in dates to the first half of the seventh millennium bc, contemporary with the earliest neolithic sites in northern greece and crete (perlès 2001, perlès et al. 2013). because the cave deposits situated between the in and middle neolithic showed disturbed stratigraphy (hansen 1991:144; vitelli 1993:256), the plant remains from hansen’s zone vi/vii do not provide evidence for plant use that can be unequivocally associated with the later phases of en. instead, they likely represent a mixing of the latest in and later deposits (hansen 1991:144). as such, despite its small size (38 whole items, 28 fragments [hansen 1991]), the franchthi in assemblage from zone vi represents the only securely en plant remains not only for the site, but also for the southern greek mainland as a whole (megaloudi 1996; perlès 2001; valamoti and kotsakis 2007). in contrast to the intensive botanical sampling implemented within the cave, no plant remains were recovered from the franchthi paralia (beach; hereafter “paralia”), the area in front of the cave, which was the primary location of post-mesolithic settlement. as introduction the archaeological site of franchthi cave in the southern argolid peninsula of greece (figure 1) is significant both for its contribution to a methodological shift in aegean prehistoric archaeology and for its status as one of the few sites in southern europe that spans the shift from foraging to farming that accompanies the transition from the mesolithic to neolithic in greece. during excavations directed by t.w. jacobsen between 1967 and 1979, intensive sampling for plant remains was undertaken in four trenches within the cave (hansen 1991), producing the first botanical assemblage associated with the transition to farming in southeastern europe. in hansen’s (1991) stratigraphic classification of the plant remains, botanical zone v/vi corresponds to the disturbed strata immediately overlying the postmesolithic occupational hiatus, and zone vi to the earliest neolithic deposits (hansen 1991). while the domesticated crops triticum dicoccum schübl. (emmer), hordeum vulgare l. (hulled barley), and lens culinaris l. (lentil) were all identified in zone vi, no triticum monococcum l. (einkorn wheat) was recovered.hansen’s zone vi corresponds to perlès’ lithic phase x, the second impressions: expanding the range of cereals from early neolithic franchthi cave, greece susan e. allen1* 1department of anthropology, university of cincinna , cincinna , usa. *susan.allen@uc.edu abstract the southern greek archaeological site of franchthi cave, with occupa on da ng from the upper paleolithic, remains the only site in southern greece that both spans the shi from foraging to farming and has produced systema cally recovered plant remains associated with this important transi on in human prehistory. previously reported archaeobotanical remains from the site derive exclusively from the cave interior, as none were recovered from outside the cave on the franchthi cave paralia. this ar cle reports the first evidence for plant use in the se lement area outside the cave, as provided by five seed impressions in early neolithic ceramic sherds from the paralia. significantly, this new data expands the range of crops represented at the site during the early neolithic to include einkorn wheat (tri cum monococcum l.), pushing back its appearance at franchthi by several centuries. received july 26, 2017 open access accepted july 14, 2018 doi 10.14237/ebl.9.2.2018.1065 keywords archaeobotany, europe, seed impressions, early neolithic, einkorn, tri cum monococcum copyright © 2018 by the author(s) licensee society of ethnobiology. this is an open‐access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution‐noncommercial 4.0 international public license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by‐nc/4.0), which permits non‐commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. allen. 2018. ethnobiology le ers 9(2):189–196 190 research communica ons such, the newly rediscovered plant impressions from en ceramic sherds from the paralia that are discussed here provide not only the first botanical evidence from this area of the site, but also the first en evidence that postdates the franchthi in. more significantly, these impressions expand the en range of taxa to include triticum monococcum l. (einkorn wheat), and push back its appearance at franchthi from middle to early neolithic, a difference of several centuries.1 prior to this new evidence, the earliest record of einkorn at franchthi consisted of seeds and chaff (spikelet forks) recovered from hansen’s (1991) franchthi botanical zone viia, corresponding to vitelli’s (1993) ceramic phases fcp 2.2 (trench fas) and fcp 2.3 (trench fan) and dating to the second phase of the middle neolithic. methods during her analysis of the franchthi ceramics, vitelli (1993) selected five sherds with apparent seed impressions for further analysis (table 1). all five sherds originate from trench q5n on the paralia and are en in date. four of these were characterized by vitelli (1993) as belonging to the earliest en franchthi cave pottery (fcp) phase (fcp1), while the fifth was characterized as belonging to fcp interphase 1/2. hansen applied latex to the impressions to create casts of their forms for identification. in total, hansen recovered five plant impressions. these casts were discovered in 2015 among a set of plant impression casts that hansen made from architectural clay fragments recovered from the bronze age site of tsoungiza, at which she supervised archaeobotanical recovery. according to hansen (personal communication), she largely followed the latex casting methods outlined by renfrew (1973:16) as “pouring a latex figure 1 map showing loca on of franchthi cave (prepared by john wallrodt). allen. 2018. ethnobiology le ers 9(2):189–196 191 research communica ons solution into the cavity exposed on the surface of the pot, allowing it to set in the air, and then extracting a positive cast of the original grain.” hansen improved on this method by using a large bore hypodermic needle to inject latex into the sherds in order to ensure that the voids were completely filled, then tapping the sherd lightly on a hard surface to release any trapped air bubbles. she then placed a small piece of gauze over the latex to facilitate extraction of the cast after drying. analysis of the seed impressions took place in the mediterranean ecosystems dynamics and archaeology laboratory at the university of cincinnati. seed identifications were made with use of stereoscopic microscopy at magnifications of 10–40x. all impressions were photographed and measured (length, breadth, and thickness). identification followed morphometric criteria for cereal determination, as outlined by renfrew (1973), hubbard (1992), and jacomet (2006). results the seed impression identifications and the ceramic ware types for the associated sherds, as identified by vitelli (1993), are shown in table 1. two examples of triticum monococcum l. (einkorn) impressions were identified (figure 2). both occur on sherd q5n16, an en burnished no lime sherd (vitelli 1993). the identification of einkorn was based on morphometric characteristics, particularly the narrowness of the grains and their somewhat attenuated shape with pointed ends, as reflected in their low ratios of breadth to thickness (b:t) and breadth to length (b:l) (table 2). these specimens are similar in outline to middle neolithic specimens of einkorn illustrated by hansen (1991, figures 38 and 41).2 a third impression was identified only as triticum sp. (wheat) due to incomplete preservation of its dimensions. its status as wheat, rather than barley, is based on the rounded apex and ventral surface of the grain, which contrasts with the flattened apex and ventral surface of barley grains. in addition, the ventral furrow of the preserved specimen lacks the angular form characteristic of barley. a fourth impression was identified as an indeterminate seed with morphometric characteristics consistent with a cereal grain, but lacking distinctive characteristics needed for identification as either wheat or barley (q5n29, early neolithic burnished). dimensions of seed impressions measurements of length (l), breadth (b), and thickness (t) of the two complete grain impressions identified as einkorn (table 2) support this identification. for einkorn, breadth to thickness (b:t) ratios are typically less than one, with a range of 0.69 to 1.20, whereas in emmer b:t is usually greater than one (jacomet 2006). the franchthi specimens’ b:t ratios of 1.06 and 1.17 fall at the higher end of the range reported by jacomet (2006) and slightly exceed the generalization of a b:t ratio of “less than one” for einkorn; indeed, they fall within the range of overlap and therefore are consistent with both einkorn and emmer b:t ratios reported by jacomet (2006). although hansen (1991:83, table 13) reports maximum, minimum, and average measures for l, b, and t for the einkorn specimens recovered from sherd fcp ware type fcp phase iden fica on q5n29 en burnished fcp 1 cf. cereal grain indet. q5n55 en lime temper fcp 1 cf. tri cum sp. (in glumes) q5n16 en burnished, no lime fcp 1 tri cum monococcum l. q5n16 en burnished, no lime fcp 1 tri cum monococcum l. q5n54 en lime temper fcp 1/2 cf. tri cum sp. table 1 plant impressions recovered from early neolithic sherds from the franchthi paralia. specimen length (l) breadth (b) thickness (t) b:t b/l * 100 qn516a 7.17 3.08 2.90 1.06 42.96 q5n16b 7.97 3.16 2.69 1.17 39.65 table 2 measurements of tri cum monococcum l. impressions (in mm). allen. 2018. ethnobiology le ers 9(2):189–196 192 research communica ons zone vii, these aggregate measures unfortunately do not allow for direct comparison of b:t ratios for the impressions with those of individual seed specimens from the cave. one possible explanation for the franchthi specimens’ position at the top of the b:t range for einkorn is that their dimensions may reflect an expansion of seed breadth with the uptake of water by grains when embedded in wet clay, as demonstrated by helbaek (1955) and discussed by renfrew (1973). in his soaking experiment, helbaek found that breadth increases were most significant (mean increase of 0.37mm [14%]), followed by thickness (mean increase of 0.54 mm [12%]), and that length increased only slightly (mean increase of 0.11mm [1%]) (helbaek 1955:654). however, two alternative explanations are more likely. the first of these is the difficulty of measuring the full thickness of the specimens due to their orientation in the pottery profile with the dorsal margin of the seed embedded in the base of the latex cast (figure 2b). another potential explanation for relatively high b:t ranges for these specimens is the possibility that they represent two-grained einkorn, which, according to hubbard (1992), shows higher b:t ranges than single-grained einkorn. measurable specimens of both one-grained (n=22) and twograined (n=6) einkorn were identified in the zone vii (middle neolithic–final neolithic) deposits at franchthi. although the presentation of aggregate measures for these specimens does not allow calculation of the b:t ratios for individual grains, the aggregate average measurements produce ratios of figure 2 einkorn impressions on sherd q5n16, ventral view (a) and lateral view (b). allen. 2018. ethnobiology le ers 9(2):189–196 193 research communica ons 0.85 and 1.27 for the recovered oneand two-grained einkorn, respectively (hansen 1991:83, tables 13 and 14). while kroll (1992) has demonstrated that emmerlike two-grained einkorn is not generally distinguishable from emmer, the two specimens of einkorn identified from the franchthi impressions are more consistent in outline with einkorn than emmer, given their relatively straight sides and acuminate ends, and can be said to be “emmer-like” only in the flatness of their ventral surfaces when viewed from the side. when viewed laterally, however (figure 2b), their more trigonous outline, consistent with einkorn, is more apparent. while the b:t ratios for these specimens are inconclusive, the breadth and length measurements for these specimens provide more compelling evidence for their identification as einkorn. due to the long, narrow shape of its grains, einkorn typically shows values of less than 50 for b/l*100, whereas emmer values are usually around 54, with a typical range of 48.33 to 60.38 (jacomet 2006:20-21). the franchthi impressions' b/l*100 values of 42.96 and 37.38 are consistent with those calculated on the basis of the average b and l values for carbonized einkorn reported by hansen (1991: tables 13 and 14). the resulting b/l*100 value for single-grained einkorn (n=22) is 42.83, and that of two-grained einkorn (n=6) is 44.08. for both the carbonized specimens and the impressions, the b/l*100 values reflect the grains’ elongate forms and point clearly toward einkorn, rather than emmer, as the identification most likely to be correct. discussion the revolutionary adoption of a systematic and intensive sampling strategy for the recovery of plant remains at franchthi cave (hansen 1991) marked a methodological paradigm shift in aegean prehistoric archaeology. for the first time on an excavation in greece intensive water-sieving was used for the recovery of plant remains. four trenches within the cave were selected for collection of 100% of the excavated deposits for water-sieving, in order to maximize the recovery of plant remains (hansen 1991:24). because of this, despite the stratigraphic break that marks the mesolithic to neolithic transition at franchthi, its archaeobotanical assemblage for the in phase (botanical zone vi, represented only in trenches fan and fas) retains exceptional importance not only as the first to document the shift to agricultural economies in greece (hansen 1991; hansen and renfrew 1978), but as the only en botanical assemblage for the southern greek mainland (megaloudi 1996; perlès 2001; valamoti and kotsakis 2007). at franchthi, the earliest neolithic deposits are now unambiguously dated to the early seventh millennium bc (prior to 6,500 cal bc) on the basis of recent ams dates for four emmer grains (fan 163 gifa 11016, fan 163 gifa 11455, fan 162 gifa 11017, and fan 162 gifa 11456) from trench fan (perlès et al. 2013). the dated specimens originate from hansen's botanical interzone v/vi, the mesolithic and neolithic interface. although the franchthi botanical evidence was initially thought to represent an autochthonous domestication (hansen and renfrew 1978), this interpretation was later revised upon closer examination of the evidence. according to hansen (1991:138), "there is no true transition between zones v and vi, but rather an abrupt change in botanical sequence.” on the basis of archaeobotanical, faunal, and lithostratigraphic evidence, hansen (1991:141) argued for a transition to agriculture at franchthi brought about by a new group of people who reoccupied the cave following the mesolithic hiatus. despite intensive sampling within the cave, only a small collection of plant remains was recovered from zone vi, which corresponds to perlès’ (1987) lithic zone x, the initial neolithic. in total, the in assemblage consists of just 38 whole and 28 fragmentary items from fas and fan (hansen 1991: appendix a, appendix d). hansen postulated that the low frequency of plant remains within the cave could be explained by a focus of plant processing and other plant-related behaviors in the paralia area in front of the cave (hansen 1991:141): “if a neolithic settlement had been developed on the terrace below the cave . . . we could expect that the bulk of plant resources would have been stored, processed, and consumed there rather than inside the cave” (hansen 1991:141). however, due to the lack of sampling for botanical remains on the paralia and perhaps also preservation biases, no plant remains whatsoever were recovered from its early neolithic deposits (hansen 1991). the franchthi in botanical assemblage includes emmer wheat, hulled barley, and lentil, but not einkorn. the absence of einkorn at franchthi during this earliest en phase contrasts with the pattern seen allen. 2018. ethnobiology le ers 9(2):189–196 194 research communica ons at the majority of en sites in central and northern greece, where both emmer and einkorn are present (marinova and valamoti 2014; perlès 2001; valamoti and kotsakis 2007). at franchthi, einkorn is not attested in the macrobotanical assemblage from the cave interior until the middle neolithic in botanical zone viib (approximately 6800 bp to 5260 +/60 bp; hansen 1991:145), and occurs in much lower frequency than emmer in middle neolithic and later deposits (hansen 1991:83-84). the plant impressions on early neolithic sherds from the paralia can be securely associated with franchthi botanical zone vi (in) or a later en phase through the sherds' placement within the franchthi cave pottery (fcp) phasing developed by vitelli (1993). in vitelli’s scheme, interzone 0/1 (int 0/1) corresponds to the in, and is characterized by a paucity of sherds. according to vitelli, all of the sherds associated with int 0/1 “are body sherds typical of fcp1 [franchthi ceramic phase 1] varieties” (vitelli 1993:38), corresponding to en, while fcp interphase 1/2 corresponds to the en to mn transition (vitelli 1993). four of the franchthi sherds with impressions are associated with fcp1, and one with fcp interphase 1/2 (vitelli 1993). because the plant impressions were formed at the time when the clay was still soft, and they date to en, the plants that created the impressions also date to en. as such, this re-discovery of latex impressions of seeds that hansen produced from early neolithic sherds recovered from the paralia is significant for two reasons. first, it provides the only botanical evidence available for the area outside the cave, where hansen (1991) posited that most plant processing was likely to have taken place. second, the identification of two impressions of einkorn wheat grains on these sherds pushes back its appearance at franchthi by several centuries, from mn to en. with only two impressions of einkorn grain, it is not possible to determine whether or not it was grown as a crop in its own right. similarly, the quantity of seeds represented in the franchthi botanical zone vi macrobotanical assemblage is also quite low, with just 38 whole items and 27 fragments (hansen 1991:appendix d). together with lentil (n=11, whole, 1 fragment), emmer (n=9) is the only taxon that occurs regularly (hansen 1991:139). although this study has expanded the range of early neolithic cereal crops represented at franchthi, the small assemblage of plant remains recovered from these deposits precludes determination of the role of any of these cereal types in the agricultural system or diet of the population at franchthi during early neolithic. for franchthi botanical zone viia (mn), in which einkorn seeds and chaff are first attested in the cave in the fan sequence, the high ratio of emmer to einkorn seeds (6.41:1 for complete specimens and 2.4:1 for fragments) and chaff (1.6:1) points toward einkorn’s status at franchthi as a tolerated weed rather than a crop in its own right, like emmer. on the basis of the regular occurrence of einkorn in northern greece, several scholars have posited a northern and southern divide in wheat types, with einkorn dominant in the north and emmer in the south (marinova and valamoti 2014; valamoti and kotsakis 2007). although this pattern is intriguing and warrants further examination, given the presence of only two early neolithic assemblages from southern greece, franchthi cave (hansen 1991) on the mainland and knossos on crete (sarpaki 2013), it is difficult at present to argue convincingly for any clear regional patterning. instead, the recovery of a previously unreported taxon at franchthi from a small quantity of impressions further highlights the problem of small early neolithic assemblages from greece as a whole, such that even small datasets—including those from seed impressions—have a higher potential to change the narrative for the early neolithic than for better attested periods. conclusions the identification of einkorn in impressions on ceramic sherds from the franchthi paralia pushes back the appearance of einkorn at franchthi from the middle neolithic, as documented in plant macroremains from franchthi botanical zone vii, to the early neolithic, known only from its earliest phase in franchthi botanical zone vi. many early neolithic sites in the aegean have small botanical assemblages, even when intensive sampling and flotation with the use of small mesh sizes are applied. careful examination of ceramic sherds to assess the presence of plant impressions can provide evidence that complements sparse macrobotanical assemblages. for site phases where plant remains are especially few, as is the case for the franchthi cave early neolithic assemblage, the potential for plant impressions to expand the range of taxa is higher than for site phases where plant remains are abundant. allen. 2018. ethnobiology le ers 9(2):189–196 195 research communica ons notes 1because the early neolithic deposits at franchthi are poorly dated (perlès 2001, perlès et al. 2013), it is not possible to provide a more precise length of time for the difference, but perlès (personal communication) suggests that it is not more than a few centuries. 2according to hansen (personal communication december, 2017), the grains depicted in her figure 41 are einkorn, despite having been captioned as “triticum turgidum ssp. diccoccum,” an error that was not caught during the editing process. acknowledgements i sincerely thank karen d. vitelli for permission to publish the franchthi impressions and for her thoughtful comments on the text, and catherine perlès for feedback on an initial draft and insightful discussion of chronology, phasing, stratigraphy, and other issues. julie hansen provided both encouragement and essential clarification of her methodology. chantel white, mac marston, and two anonymous reviewers also provided helpful feedback on earlier drafts of this article and suggestions for its improvement. i also thank lora arduser and kathleen forste for their moral support during research and writing. declarations permissions: permission to study and publish these materials was granted by dr. karen d. vitelli. sources of funding: this research was facilitated by a university of cincinnati arts, humanities, and social sciences research advisory board third century faculty release fellowship. conflicts of interest: there are no conflicts of interest to declare. references cited hansen, j.m. 1991. the palaeoethnobotany of franchthi cave. excavations of franchthi cave, fascicle 7. indiana university press, bloomington, in. hansen, j.m. and j.m. renfrew 1978. palaeolithic– neolithic seed remains at franchthi cave, greece. nature 271:349–352. helbaek, h. 1955. the botany of the vallhager iron age field. 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care zent et al. 2022. ethnobiology letters 13(1):29–40 29 perspectives announcing the presence of those that produced them. smiling, ijtö stopped beside a huge, buttressed tree trunk. after touching its bark, he introduced me to this handsome specimen, uli jkwiwi, as his brother, and explained how his lineage descended directly from this family of person-plants. he told me that jkwaijlë (saki monkey), however, was his preferred cousin. ilę, instead, came from ajlikwete lue jyeï (inga sp.), a powerful but different tree-lineage. they had been together for decades and raised a family of 9 children. the next stop, they laughed, would coincide with our unannounced encounter with her ascendant’s tree relative and perhaps other ones (field notes april 2002). the persons at sunrise on a soft morning, we started walking. ijtö and ilę were graciously leading the way. they were loudly whistling, singing, chirping, and cheerfully talking to the forest animals. the forest itself was damp, bursting with day-loving creatures. the manifold sounds echoing through the understory called to us and observed us on our journey. butterflies, macaws, caterpillars, quails, wasps, hummingbirds, termites, squirrels, toucans, frogs, parrots, spiders, oropendolas, mosquitoes, orioles… so many life forms produced an untuned concerto, decidedly exquisite and mysterious. around the vines, trees, shrubs, and palms, the sounds were not shy; they were statements, trekking the amazon with love and care egleé zent1*, stanford zent1, lojta jtute2, awelajlu jtitekyo2, jkatalila̧ jtute2, lobįko ijtö2, ilę jkwayo, 2 maliela yaluja2, iva juae2, noe jono2, alejadro molö2, aula amikoja2, abeto melomaja2, alabala aubojkyo2, kyabo bowijte 2, awaïkï yewi2, janiyewi yewi2, ba̧lejko jtitekyo2, jkai2, jtobá jtute2, lila yolo2, ajti̧ta uliejteja2, jtujkaybojlae bowijte2, ulijkule jtute2, jkwajkya jlawi2, and late bowijte2 1ecología humana, instituto venezolano de investigaciones científicas, altos de pipe, venezuela. 2knowledge holder and community member. *egleezent@gmail.com abstract this essay highlights the philosophical views of the jotï, an indigenous group from the venezuelan amazon. daily jotï behaviors are embraced by a notion of life in which everything is interconnected (mana jtïdemame) and should be respected given its sacredness (jkïmañe). furthermore, life is in perennial movement (jkeibïae dekae) and is designed to be carried out together in groups (uliyena majadïka). the maintenance of life is related to engaging in solidarity, reciprocity, and amicability (me madöna), with these values being the key metaphor for hunting-gathering-farming-fishing rather than predation. the universe is populated by a myriad of entities with unique capacities, volitions, and motivations (budëkïmade) —like those of people, regardless of their nonhuman appearances—evidence that the universe’s inherent condition is subjective, and all life forms originated from the same root. likewise, no landscape or life form is pristine or final; instead, everything is potentially subject to ceaseless transformation (jka ojtali ~ jkabaemade). those reasons provide the basis for why every person should strive for righteousness (nï jti maudöna), endeavoring to be morally good and practicing love-care with all that surrounds us (jkyo jkwainï). love-care is the translation of a praxis considered an innate essential constituent of all persons. it is also the fundamental strategy to sustain and protect life. given that nothing prevents a person anywhere in the world from embracing love and care as their life motto while struggling to prevent the current path of destruction of the earth, the enactment of love-care is an endless possibility regardless of location or time. received january 14, 2022 open access accepted march 7, 2022 doi 10.14237/ebl.13.1.2022.1809 published august 20, 2022 keywords love-care, biocultural conservation, traditional ecological knowledge, indigenous peoples, jotï, amazon copyright © 2022 by the author(s); licensee society of ethnobiology. this is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution-noncommercial 4.0 international public license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0), which permits non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. zent et al. 2022. ethnobiology letters 13(1):29–40 30 perspectives categories are subsumed in unique cultural contexts, times, and spaces, often leading to confusions across cultures. the memory narrated above reveals phylogeny and kinship among botanical, zoological, and human spheres, domains which are considered scientifically separate. here, ijtö and ilę, a jotï couple, consider the saki (chiropotes chiropotes), as well as other living entities, as their paradigmatic equals. this view is consistent with the jotï relational multispecies universe which permeates daily life dynamics (zent and zent 2020), asserting their common ancestry with other-than-human-persons, including specific amazonian trees (see below). the jotï hold a conception of personhood that is not exclusive to homo sapiens. instead, it includes what hallowell (1960) called “other-than-human-persons”, as found among the ojibwa. since then, a substantial number of amerindian groups have been shown to share a similar broad notion of personhood (århem 1996; crocker 1985; morrison 2002; robinson 2014) pervading their conception of reality, which has generated a rich body of research known as multispecies ethnography (yates-doerr 2015). humans and other-than-human persons are equally awarded consciousness, agency, and souls, playing a cosmic role (viveiros de castro 1998). beyond the americas, legal rights have been demanded for “subjects” previously recognized as “natural objects” (i.e., the whanganui river, te ao māori; vicente 2020). biocultural conservation efforts could potentially intensify if the subject status were granted to other-than-human entities. indeed, the importance of other-than-human persons has recently infiltrated fields like conservation biology (wallach et al. 2020), although it is still necessary to create transdisciplinary bridges to incorporate the vast anthropological literature on this topic. other-than-human persons are not mere abstractions but rather are interwoven into the dynamics of life for millions of people, challenging the scientific notions of nature and culture, as illustrated in table 1, with our ongoing reflection on speciation in two discursive traditions. according to this conception of life-form order, plants, animals, and people are equal but different, nonetheless sharing similar habits and cultures. the processes that generate the different life-forms are essentially opposite in amerindian and scientific traditions. for example, speciation sprouted from reverse trajectories: in amerindian ways of knowing, hominids descend from humans while in scientific ways of knowing humans descend from hominids. communicability among distinct narratives could thus turn impossible, failing to agree on the genesis of basic categories like persons, nature, and culture. contrasting views of speciation constitute a good example of viveiros de castro’s (2004) method of controlled equivocation, in which local peoples’ practical and discursive concepts are communicated through the scientific conceptual apparatus. this practice has sometimes proved to be grounded in misunderstandings associated with epistemological imbalances, which can lead to inaccurate assumptions. this method is useful for underlining ethnobiological equivocations (furlan et al. 2020). furthermore, the comparative approach has the potential to increase the possibilities of building more effective biocultural conservation strategies that could be applied in multiple contexts. critical characters scientific jotï creation ex nihilo (out of nothing, initial combination) ex materia (out of preexistent something) perpetual movement evolution transformation selection process natural volitive unit of evolution individual sp. interrelations among spp. target matter/bodies bodies/morality/spirit objective survival of the fittest continuity of biosphere ultimate reference point cell human condition status object subject common original condition chemistry humanity cognition unconscious conscious dimension finite, prediction infinite, chance table 1 critical characters in two narratives that explain speciation. zent et al. 2022. ethnobiology letters 13(1):29–40 31 perspectives the ways the first two authors embraced amazonian forest and peoples during the last 25 years permeated our own categories and methods of thinking. the jotï requested our cooperation in their struggles for land, health, identity rights, and in strategies to preserve their language and biocultural knowledge. in engaging in such community projects, the jotï expanded our comprehension of their values and ways of life to maximize our suitability for their goals. from the onset, they established our roles as transmitters of technology, information, and services from the outer world. we have served as mediators and liminal allies, with the purpose of achieving land and human rights as well as biocultural conservation objectives recognized by global society. our training flipped the traditional way that academics engage with local communities by conducting collaborative action research (zent and zent 2022a). multiple learning events taught us a range of dynamics of knowing, giving us diverse lenses as apprentices grasping parallel, distinct realities. eventually, some jkajo jadï (light wise women/men) asked us to communicate their philosophy of life to dodo jotï (non-indigenous people), convincing us that jkyo jkwainï is the main survival strategy in the anthropocene. this essay builds upon that request. jkyo is a polysemic nominal lexeme and constitutes the closest equivalent to “environment” in the jotï language. jkwainï is a verb that is also semantically complex, encompassing “love [in the sense of emotional attachment], appreciate, respect, nurture, protect, care for, and refuse to give up”. lack of space prevents us from providing examples of the enactment of jkyo jkwainï in daily life as well as the many conservation movements worldwide which are engaged actively in a similar ethos of love-care (see zent and zent 2022b). this paper explores ethical categories under jkyo jkwainï and has the naïve goals of (1) helping to build bridges between disciplines and (2) highlighting the potential of localized biocultural conservation approaches that recognize the vital roles and relationships with other-than-human persons in human lives and habitats. bridging disciplines can perhaps help to reduce the enormity of the gap separating our ontologies with those of indigenous peoples (viveiros de castro 2004:15). we nurture the polemic politics of ontology (holbraad and pedersen 2014) while working to build a better world, beyond or despite the different ontological assemblages (cf. descola 2005 animist, totemic, analogic, or naturalist) of persons in a network of specific relations. in support of our candid goal is the ubiquitous amazonian narrative and praxis of convivial coexistence based on the principles of love, care, compassion, generosity, and the spirit of sharing (overing and passes 2000:3) as the axiological dynamic of society. jkyo jkwainï is the translation of that ideal, indeed emotional, axiom for the jotï, stressing amicability, companionship, and empathy across life-forms as the essential strategy sustaining life (zent and zent 2022b). this ethos bridges local and global, biological and cultural, modern and traditional, as well as individual and social strategies of caring for the earth, thus responding to the contemporary challenge of building effective biocultural conservation approaches (see gavin et al. 2015), given that love-care is always an option at hand in almost any circumstance. the jotï jotï is the self-denomination of a highly mobile, minimalist group of about 1,500 people who have lived for untold generations in the forests of the sierra maigualida, venezuela. jotï sustenance depends on their forests and their knowledge about them; they dedicate about 80% of their subsistence ecology time to foraging (jkyo balebï), while 20% is concentrated on horticultural tasks (zent and zent 2012). an extensive ecological knowledge mastered since childhood allows the jotï to benefit from a varied resource base. an indicator of the depth of their knowledge is the number of different species used for food or some other purpose, including 600 wild plant types, 70 cultigens, 50 mammals, 15 fish, 95 birds, and 75 arthropods. a summary of the number of plants per use category is shown in table 2. jotï hunting-gathering-agroecological-fishing practices are based on a profound knowledge of their natural environment that is enriched by a multifarious ideology explaining how the world functions. considerable ethological and phenological knowledge (botanical, zoological, fungal, geological, hydric, and ecological), often encoded in ancestral narratives, is mastered since childhood by most jotï. such knowledge permits them to persist and reproduce as a cultural and biological group. the viewpoints and narratives of more than 200 jotï (zent et al. 2019) offer comprehensive and detailed accounts of their life, history, ecologies, ecogonies, and philosophy. the jotï trace their ancestry directly to several native amazonian trees: jtïjtïmo jyeï (apeiba cf. schomburgkii), alikwete luwe jyeï (inga bourgoni), jkwiwi jyeï zent et al. 2022. ethnobiology letters 13(1):29–40 32 perspectives (caraipa densifolia), together with jwalulë (musa x paradisiaca), the domesticated south asian plantain. these person-trees fabricated humankind with the assistance of a diverse set of person-plants such as ulu (attalea maripa), jani bate (oenocarpus bacaba), muli (socratea exorrhiza), jtawibo (guadua sp.), jwana (arthrostylidium schomburgkii), nïjnëo (monotagma laxum), jtawe (calathea spp.), dökö (calathea spp.), mau (protium spp.), jtokolo jtawï (himatanthus sp.), malu jtawï (trattinnickia spp.), wejtolo (cecropia spp.), and the cultivated shrub jkulilu (bixa orellana). sub-groups of jotï ancestry are organized after plant-person assemblages, influencing aspects of their social composition and dynamics (zent 2009:19). originally, most animals (mammals, birds, and arthropods) were people who transformed their physical shapes in diverse primeval events. many of them emerged from the primordial jkwë ‘food’ tree, singing when it was cut down: each sound imitated a new animal-person. the most frequently mentioned animal-persons are listed in table 3. diverse animal-persons are kin, especially uli jkwayo, jani jkwayo and imo, considered to be ña jti macro-category families species undetermined jotï taxa edible 58 222 43 253 medicine 67 182 76 229 construction 59 285 46 294 fishing 18 36 4 39 firewood 54 325 51 351 drinks 9 11 4 14 sanitary 15 23 7 29 technology 59 193 50 245 animal food 91 550 89 591 table 2 number of plant species used by macro-category. jotï name english name latin name ajkujkëdï spiders several species añodï crickets several species duwëno jkwajtïbö brocket deer mazama americana ijtidï scorpions several species imo howler monkey alouatta seniculus iye crabs fredius spp. jani badebodï palm weevil rhynchophorus palmarum jani jkwayo capuchin monkey cebus olivaceus jkijki squirrel monkey saimiri sciureus jkilëkä orange-cheeked parrot pionopsitta barrabandi jkili golden-winged parakeet brotogeris chrysopterus jkwaijlë saki monkey chiropotes chiropotes jkwii piping guan pipile pipile jkyado ajkuli agouti dasyprocta leporine jtukuli hummingbirds several species lolo amazon parrots amazona spp. nimodï red ants atta spp. uli badebodï bearded weevil rhinostomus barbirostris uli jkali northern amazon squirrel sciurus igniventris uli jkwayo spider monkey ateles belzebuth uli jkyejko cuvier’s toucan ramphastos cuvieri uli jwaïli black curassow crax alector uli ojko long-nosed armadillo dasypus kappleri yowä tapir tapirus terrestris table 3 most frequently mentioned animal-persons. zent et al. 2022. ethnobiology letters 13(1):29–40 33 perspectives jluwëna, the most affective and cooperative nonconsanguineal relation. they are also among the most appreciated meat, being ranked the first, fifth, and tenth most hunted prey respectively. the rankings reflect the aggregate results of the gross weight of animal captures/collections recorded in four jotï communities (kayamá, iguana, majagua, and mosquito) by the authors or trained local residents over a three-year time span (see zent and zent 2008 for more detailed description of the method used and results). these persons, along with some stars, fungi, bodies of water, stones, and mountains, reproduce jotï social and moral conditions (kinship, ethics, relatedness, tools, etc.), through a life strategy based on effective and affective daily interactions infused with reciprocity and respect. the ethos peoples’ ideal commitment in the concert of life is embedded in a universe characterized by the following qualities: 1. mana jtïdemame: everything is interconnected. borders between perceived and discrete entities are illusory, just as the limits between matter and spirits are fuzzy. behaviors provide keys to understand the essence of entities more than their forms. selfishness, for instance, is a trait seen as being uncharacteristic of or even opposed to authentic humans. for example, if someone is morphologically human but they act selfishly, they are not considered to be a true person. flexible boundaries characterize the perceptual and non-perceptual reality, allowing a better understanding of the phenomena and the ways in which one’s guise and manner change according to the context. this foundational paradigm sets the basis for biological and social life dynamics, just as much contemporary science is recognizing the importance of relational modes of existence (laszlo 2003; timmis et al. 2019:1521). 2. jkeibïae dekae: perennial movement, never-ending dynamic of change. the contexts of movement are multiple, relative, and depend on one’s place and role. the three spheres or layers of life, sustained by trees jkyo (sky), ne (earth), and nejkwa (underworld), as represented in figure 1, are constantly rotating as flat spheres (in clockwise and counterclockwise directions). movement is ceaseless on the earth, nurturing life while allowing the sharing of water, air, sap, and light. stillness is virtually an illusory condition. movement is innate to all persons, inside their bodies and expressed in the social interrelationships with one’s surroundings (jkyo), as illustrated by the endless circulation of thoughts, food, liquids, sadness, beverages, pain, joys, secrets, dreams, scents, diseases, hopes, body fluids, plans, love, hate, and other states of being. 3. budëkïmade: the existence of countless subjects beyond humans, or the subjective condition of the universe. as mentioned above, the amerindian world is populated by both otherthan-human and human persons engaged in similar dynamics of interrelationships and social links, which are interconnected while attending to their needs and interests (morrison 2002). table 4 shows the essential, substantial, visible, and invisible components of a jo person. ancestral narratives, as well as current beliefs, state that phylogenic identity substantiate wilson’s biophilia theory and are the genesis of life, as illustrated in figure 2. the non-linear explanation of life-forms as having circular-interlinked origins reveals a syncretic space-time notion that is expressed in diverse matters (speciation). figure 1 cosmos, spheres of life and trees that sustain all, elaborated by nuria martín. zent et al. 2022. ethnobiology letters 13(1):29–40 34 perspectives 4. uliyena majadïka: be together, to live in groups. the awareness of our social—not individual— condition is reinforced from birth, along with the viability of being divisible, that is to say different from an indivisible person/thing (from latin indīviduum). the stress here is on each dividuo i.e., partible or divisible person, their behaviors and products are interdependent and not isolated (see strathern 1988). all production is the result of collective actions in a relational social matrix. this even extends to a lack of personal names in the most traditional isolated communities. the constitution and maintenance of bodies and minds depend upon a myriad of unquestionable entities, relations, processes, and dynamics. likewise, the forest and knowledge are collectively constructed, as are the daily social practices of eating, drinking, reproducing, propagating, building, dancing, singing, relaxing, dreaming, collecting, hunting, resting, or sleeping. all are part of a continuous and vital exchange within the community. there are no notions of privacy or needing time alone, but rather an endless awareness of helping-cooperating, of being a team player. hunting, building, laughing, or crying are activities that are meaningful only if carried out in groups, not alone. strong interdependence, sociability, and communicability among trees, fungi and hundreds of entities has recently been shown to explain the structure, composition, richness, and antiquity of temperate forest in canada (simard 2021). survival is communal. 5. jkïmañe: sacred site, analyzed in terms of jkï ‘respect’ + ma ‘exist’ + ñe ‘say or think’. sacredness is widely distributed throughout space and can be found in a multitude of life-forms and ways; it is not secluded, but rather quotidian and mundane. cosmological narratives, a token of amerindian peoples, stress the interlocking relationship between words and behavior. to say is to do, and both are allocated to the same ontological domain (viveiros de castro 1998). the jotï respect what they consider to be holy and, vice versa, they consider holy what they respect. all events that provide maintenance and reproduction, including any and all harvests, hunting or fishing quests, and social gatherings, are held to be sacred events. from childhood, the jotï learn the benefits of practicing these activities with a joyful yet serious attitude. these values are enhanced during the passage ritual that consolidates adulthood through systematic rehearsing of the daily exercise of yu (expressing blessing and gratitude for all hunted or harvested products that will be eaten), maintaining amicable interactions with the jkyo aemodï (masters/ hypostases of many of the species in the cosmos, each species has different ones, they regulate/ control their populations and kinds), and recounting cosmological narratives that explain the structure and functioning of the universe (zent et al. 2019). negative and harmful consequences (at individual and social spheres) are expected if these ritual and ancestral practices are omitted or ignored. like many amerindian peoples, respect, reciprocity, and noninterference are central tenets of the jotï’s vision of how the world works (miller and davidson-hunt 2013:9). the jotï’s practices are aligned with compassionate (wallach et al. 2020) and convivial conservation (büscher and fletcher 2019). jotï name approximate translation allows the person to ïnë ja dodo physical expression of self and its sheath, body apprehend, think, move, stay in the sensual space; transform the material aspect and the habitus ijkwöju heart, blood, soul see, feel, predict, know, live as sentient being. it’s the first to enter and exit the human body. human essence gives subjectivity and sensibility. jnamodï animus, spirit, 2-4 invisible components dream, understand, apprehend, perceive the ancestral ways, absorb or deflect diseases and attacks; redirect good energies. they communicate directly with jnamodï and jkyo aemo of all beings. awëla shadow, reflection sentient transformation of the person body after death, potentially dangerous table 4 fundamental components of a person. zent et al. 2022. ethnobiology letters 13(1):29–40 35 perspectives greediness, unnecessary cruelty, or stinginess in any event cause negative outcomes that are usually morally oppressive. adults warn children: people do not play with plants or animals that sustain us. take just what is needed to survive, or else there will be bad consequences. 6. jka ojtali ~ jkabaemade: transformation of matter, bodies, spirits, processes, and spaces are potentially ceaseless, triggered by a persons’ volition. permanent dynamic changes are inherent to daily subsistence and ritualistic activities. transformation is attuned to impermanence, similar to the buddhist stance; change is the quintessence of existence (cf. hodge and hodge 2009). forests and bodies are never finished products, but are constantly changing. they are recipients of similar processes of construction through behaviors, stimulating interactions with spaces, entities, essences, and words. forests and bodies encapsulate the cultural poetics or performances that are carried out in liminal spaces, the diffuse interface that connects and produces the link between praxis and ideas, the primordial times and present-day events. all life forms are a metamorphosis of another entity (hallowell 1960), each one originating from a transformation of something else (viveiros de castro 1998). changes are coded in language, prioritizing phonological-descriptive phrases over discrete categories. the idea of pristine environments is totally alien to the jotï. the possibilities for speciation and combination are figure 2 ontological links to the biota, elaborated by a. juae and e. zent. zent et al. 2022. ethnobiology letters 13(1):29–40 36 perspectives infinite and unpredictable, as are the dynamic structure, richness, and composition of forests and social life through creative events like the harvesting and dispersion of seeds, use and management of prominent plants like palms, monitoring and nursing coleoptera, cultivation of natural forest gaps, or honey extraction (choo et al. 2009; zent and zent 2002). 7. me madöna: the key relationship between the hunter, gatherer, harvester, or fisher and their prey is not one of predation but of amicability, friendship, and kinship. one is able to hunt because they are friends or kin of our prey, who are represented in social interactions by their spirit masters. the language of other-than-human -persons (i.e., mother tree, pheromones; choo et. al 2009; simard 2021) is based on signs of sustenance--such as cooperation, solidarity, reciprocity, and gratitude. good communication between interacting species is essential for the reproduction and hence continuity of the biosphere. the jotï choose to act in accordance with reciprocity over predation practices (cf. descola 1998:37), coupling human practices with the cosmic giving-receiving economy. such practices involve many entities with whom people encounter, stalk, capture, kill, handle, and consume with respectful prescriptions and proscriptions formulated over many generations (zent et al. 2019). survival is a permanent reverent negotiation. to harvest, kill, or fish is legitimized by a moral and social structure of care that leads to fatal consequences if not performed in the right way: to eat/kill is not seen as a predatory act, but rather a reciprocal one if rituals are followed correctly. similar dynamics occur today among brazilian groups (campos 2008:90). the harvester and harvested are tied by affinal relationships, practicing the “mutuality of being”, sensu sahlins (2012), as they participate and cooperate in the other’s existence, which is extended to all beings that surround us. our own existence depends on mutualist, amensalist, and other symbiotic relationships that are not based on competition. final words the jotï strive to achieve nï jti maudöna which can be translated as righteousness – to act or be morally correct. more than axiomatic, this stance is aimed at all of a person’s phases, events, or circumstances; it is a condition reflected daily everywhere and is more important than material evolution. righteousness as the main goal of life is frequently articulated and reinforced to the young, cementing the centrality of jkyo jkwainï for sustaining life, which is to love-care all that surrounds us. jkyo jkwainï is the philosophical and pragmatic synthesis of the issues unpacked in the previous section. the direct and unavoidable outcome of neglecting the practice of love-care is total destruction and annihilation of the self, others, and the entire earth. some jotï believe that we are currently at the threshold of this very outcome (cf. richter and mobley 2009; rothman 2017). as a feasible and comprehensive strategy to save the earth, the jotï propose love-care, a praxis considered to be an innate-essential constituent of all persons. it constitutes a capability that, if chosen daily by each person in all contexts, turns into a plan to sustain and protect life. all people have the capability to love-care everything that surrounds them, including both living entities and abiotic entities that provide the structure of the universe such as soil, air, water, and communities of mountains or savannas, among others. the enactment of love-care as a principle regardless of location or situation is a behavioral approach that is accessible to all, given that nothing prevents anyone from embracing love and care as their life motto while struggling to prevent earth’s current path of destruction. jkyo jkwainï is expressed everywhere, ingrained in all activities, ranging from reading and talking to hunting and sharing. they are mementos of interconnectedness and interdependence as shown in figure 3. jotï hunting-gathering-farming-fishing transcends capturing or killing other organisms for subsistence, and embodies an integrated lifestyle steered ideally by love-care. such responsibility is the footprint par excellence of humans, and it is paradigmatically represented in love-care. the diverse forests inhabited by the jotï harbor some of the highest α and ß diversities ever reported for the guiana shield portion of the amazon. this exemplifies the sustainability of the jotï ethos and the potential outcomes of love-care, if practiced. it also generates reflection on whether their forested territories are natural, cultural, or biocultural. the pragmatic and conceptual continuity of the biosphere among amerindians such as the jotï does not conceive nature and society as separate ontologies. jotï natural sociology and human ecology make zent et al. 2022. ethnobiology letters 13(1):29–40 37 perspectives analogous the human body and the forests inasmuch as both are socio-ecological fabrications. the jotï notion of a web of life is similar to that delineated by ecologists and by many indigenous peoples throughout the americas. however, the amerindian view goes beyond the species, landscape, or microbiological level. it is a web that unites the material with the spiritual, the present with the past, the ritual with the mundane, the separate domains (botanical, zoological, fungal, human) with the same strategy: loving and caring. in fact, this relational amerindian notion opens doors to the possibility of building conservation strategies in specific contexts embracing socio-political, historical, economic, and geographic dimensions (niewöhner and lock 2018). the environmental philosophy based on love-care is not exclusive of amerindians, but rather is already practiced in different cultural traditions worldwide, in rural and urban settings (see zent and zent 2022b for multiple examples). love-care implies minimally the following principles. the first involves undermining the dubious conviction that homo sapiens is the pinnacle of biological creation who has been exclusively awarded with unique attributes and rights. instead, the faculties of cognition, consciousness, sensitivity and agency are recognized as being shared by many species on earth rightly considered as subjects-persons by amerindians. the second acknowledges that ecosystem services are a diminished label that overlooks the crucial lifefigure 3 pragmatic links of the biota, picture taken by g. liye melomaja 2017, drawn by j. ijtö, a. juae jono, i. melomaja, ijte, elaborated by e. zent. zent et al. 2022. ethnobiology letters 13(1):29–40 38 perspectives supporting roles of innumerable species and ecological dynamics. increasing the awareness of lifedependence on them changes the perception that they are mere objects serving humans but rather subjects in their own right. many of these species, like the trillions composing the human-soil-air microbiome, are only recently discovered by scientific ways of knowing. third, love-care constitutes the essential guiding value netting human-ecological dynamics in a communal-cooperative life discourse, displacing the focus from individual to collective interconnectiveentities and embracing the notion that a myriad of organisms, processes, and sceneries are just as important and valuable as humans. fourth, love-care is always available to all, mostly to those living in the spirit of sustaining and fostering life in all of its expressions, such as biocultural conservation actors. it is also a kind but pragmatic response of resistance to a world dominated by an abusive economic system, a counter strategy that opposes degrowth to accumulation, reciprocity to egoism, and resource utilization to wealth accumulation (nirmal and rocheleau 2019). love-care is at the core of ecotopian movements like bioregionalism, permaculture, and ecovillages (lockyer and veteto 2013), and is gaining ground in the scientific arena elaborated as the paradigm of convivial conservation (büscher and fletcher 2019). love-care is a pragmatic and durable strategy to stop the current path of destruction to life. acknowledgments we are very grateful to andrew flachs for encouraging the writing of this essay. we express our deep gratitude to numerous jotï for their friendship, teachings, and care towards us and life. we thank the suggestions of three anonymous reviewers that improved the final version. declarations permissions: none declared. sources of funding: we thank ivic for sponsoring our research over the years. conflicts of interest: none declared. references cited århem, k. 1996. makuna: an amazonian people. sans papers in social anthropology göteborg university, sweden. büscher, b., and r. fletcher. 2019. towards convivial conservation. conservation and society 17:283–296. doi:10.4103/cs.cs_19_75. campos, m. 2008. cruzando ecologias com os caçadores do rio cuieiras: saberes e estratégias de caça no baixo rio negro, amazonas. 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conservation. in field environmental philosophy: education for biocultural conservation. ecology and ethics, edited by r. rozzi, a. tauro, t. wright, n. avrielavni, and r. may jr.. springer, dordrecht. astro-ethnobiology: insects, identity, and the design of food systems in space berggren and svanberg. 2025. ethnobiology letters 16(1):150-158 150 perspectives systems for space. technology and environments may differ, but the core challenge is the same: how to sustain health, morale, and resource use in isolated settings. current strategies from space agencies emphasize the development of self-sufficient, closed-loop life support systems for the moon and mars (european space agency 2022; national aeronautics and space administration 2023). these systems must minimize waste, operate autonomously, and support well-being under confinement. fiction like the martian celebrates the cleverness needed in space survival (weir 2014). but real historical expeditions, from sixteenth-century naval voyages to nineteenth-century arctic missions, reveal the complex realities of provisioning, including dependence on animals, preserved food, and symbolic familiarity (carpenter 1986; spalding 2014). introduction as space agencies prepare for long-duration missions beyond earth, the question of how humans will procure food in extraterrestrial environments has become increasingly urgent. this issue intersects with key themes in ethnobiology, such as human– nonhuman relationships, food symbolism, and the adaptive use of resources in constrained settings. gastronomic ethnobiology helps us understand how food systems are shaped by ecology and nutrition, but also by history, culture, and daily practices (pieroni et al. 2016). a particularly relevant area of study is the history of travel diets and how food was sourced, prepared, and sustained during long-distance expeditions under harsh and isolated conditions (nagai 2023). the provisioning strategies developed for maritime voyages and polar explorations provide instructive analogies for today’s efforts to design food astro-ethnobiology: insects, identity, and the design of food systems in space åsa berggren1* and ingvar svanberg2 1department of ecology, swedish university of agricultural sciences, uppsala, sweden. 2institute for russian and eurasian studies, uppsala, sweden *asa.berggren@slu.se abstract astro-ethnobiology—an explicitly interdisciplinary framework connecting ethnobiology and astrobiology—treats space food systems as cultural and ecological interfaces, not just technical solutions, by integrating engineering, bioregenerative ecology, and human factors. as humanity prepares for long-duration missions beyond earth, these systems must support not only survival, but also identity, multispecies relations, and emotional resilience. drawing on historical provisioning strategies, from maritime voyages to polar expeditions, we examine how animals fulfilled multifunctional roles in sustaining morale, routine, and ecological balance under extreme conditions. insects, in particular, emerge as promising candidates for space-based life support due to their efficiency in nutrient provision and recycling as well as waste conversion. beyond their biological utility, insects may contribute to psychological well-being and cultural continuity through care-based routines, storytelling, and sensory engagement. while cultural acceptance of insects as food remains a challenge in some parts of the world, historical dietary shifts show that unfamiliar foods can gain acceptance through ritual and shared experience. astro-ethnobiology invites us to see space food not as a technical product, but as a shared practice shaped by care for other species, cultural meaning, and symbolic connection. received july 27, 2025 open access accepted october 9, 2025 doi 10.14237/ebl.16.1.2025.1970 published november 20, 2025 keywords astrobiology, bioregenerative life support systems, gastronomic ethnobiology, mini-livestock, food system resilience, multispecies spaceflight, space food copyright © 2025 by the author(s); licensee society of ethnobiology. this is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution-noncommercial 4.0 international public license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0), which permits non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. berggren and svanberg. 2025. ethnobiology letters 16(1):150-158 151 perspectives in this perspective, we introduce astroethnobiology as a conceptual lens that expands the scope of ethnobiology into extraterrestrial environments. this emerging framework combines ethnobiology, astrobiology, and systems thinking to view food as more than sustenance—as a shared cultural and ecological practice. through the case of insects, we examine how future provisioning systems may support not only physiological needs, but also emotional resilience, symbolic continuity, and multispecies care. we argue that understanding future food systems requires attention to cultural adaptability and relational practices that sustain more than nutrition alone. astro-ethnobiology is explicitly interdisciplinary: it links engineering design and bioregenerative ecology with human factors, psychology, and cultural analysis. in this sense, the framework bridges the technical and the lived dimensions of space exploration—much as insects in our case study bridge ecological performance, provisioning, and cultural meaning (european space agency 2021; national aeronautics and space administration 2023; wolverton 2013). we begin by examining historical provisioning strategies from maritime and polar expeditions, highlighting the multifunctional roles of animals in sustaining life under extreme conditions. next, we explore current approaches to bioregenerative space food systems, focusing on insects as ecologically efficient yet culturally complex candidates. finally, we introduce astro-ethnobiology as a conceptual lens to reframe food in space not just as sustenance but also as a relational and symbolic practice. astro-ethnobiology is proposed here as a bridging framework that draws from ethnobiology’s attention to multispecies relationships and cultural knowledge, and from astrobiology’s orientation toward life beyond earth. unlike gastronomic ethnobiology, which emphasizes food as a cultural and ecological interface within terrestrial systems (pieroni et al. 2016), astro-ethnobiology expands this analysis into closed, artificial, and culturally unfamiliar environments such as spacecraft and planetary habitats. it focuses not only on what can be eaten but also on how provisioning practices support identity, care, and symbolic continuity in extreme isolation. lessons from historical expeditions historical provisioning strategies developed during scientific and exploratory expeditions offer valuable insights for future space-based life support (table 1). during the age of sail, spanning roughly the sixteenth to mid-nineteenth century, maritime voyages faced considerable challenges related to nutrition, logistics, and crew morale (patrick et al. 2019). to extend autonomy at sea, vessels often carried livestock such as pigs, goats, and chickens. these animals supplied meat, milk, and eggs and were selected for their resilience in cramped conditions (spalding 2014). pigs were particularly valued for their efficient feed conversion, while goats and chickens diversified the diet and could subsist on food waste (weibust 1969). occasionally, unfamiliar species like land and sea turtles were collected from islands such as ascension and the galápagos to supplement provisions (haworth and russell 2023). despite being novel to many european sailors, such animals were generally accepted as food, especially under necessity. their nutritional value, including mitigation of vitamin deficiencies such as scurvy, was considerable in diets otherwise dominated by salted and dried foods (carpenter 1986). livestock brought on board were not only sources of nutrition, but they also provided much-needed comfort during long journeys. pigs, for example, could be treated as pets (weibust 1969). however, including animals created additional challenges. they required space, feed, and care, introduced risks of zoonoses, and added to crew workload (spalding 2014; swanson and morrowtesch 2001). in polar expeditions, where livestock was impractical, sled dogs played multifunctional roles, offering both transportation and, at times, an emergency food source (strecker and svanberg 2014). later provisioning innovations, such as canned food, aimed to reduce reliance on live animals but introduced new concerns, including toxicity, suspected in the case of lead-soldered cans used during sir john franklin’s 1845 arctic expedition (millar et al. 2015). these practices illustrate how provisioning involved more than logistical problemsolving. familiar foods and animals contributed to psychological stability and social cohesion. the presence of recognizable species and caregiving routines provided continuity and structure in otherwise unpredictable and isolating conditions (hurley 1925). even animal waste, manure from shipboard livestock, was at times repurposed for small -scale gardening, an early example of circular nutrient use under constrained conditions (spalding 2014). cultural frameworks also played a significant role in shaping food acceptance during expeditions and beyond. while seafarers and polar explorers berggren and svanberg. 2025. ethnobiology letters 16(1):150-158 152 perspectives sometimes relied on unfamiliar foods, their willingness to consume these often depended on cultural framing and necessity (nagai 2023). similar dynamics were evident during terrestrial famines, when broader societies were encouraged to adopt alternatives such as lichens, mushroom bread, or bark flour. the acceptance of these substitutes was not purely a matter of survival, it often hinged on prevailing social norms, taboos, and symbolic associations (svanberg and nelson 1992). this interplay between pragmatism and cultural negotiation parallels the kinds of adaptation likely to be required in space-based food systems, where unfamiliar or unconventional food sources must be integrated into daily life. taken together, these historical examples, both from exploratory expeditions and societal crises, highlight key themes relevant to future life support: the multifunctional use of organisms, cultural flexibility, symbolic continuity, and circular resource use. these themes underscore that food systems for long-duration space missions must address not only biological and logistical challenges, but also the cultural, psychological, and multispecies dynamics that shape how humans relate to food in unfamiliar environments. insects in life support systems space imposes a hard boundary on provisioning: aspect historical exploration space exploration lessons for the future animal roles livestock (pigs, goats, chickens) provided food, milk, and emotional comfort to sailors (patrick et al. 2019; spalding 2014). insects like crickets and mealworms offer nutrition, waste conversion and caregiving roles (ko et al. 2016; van huis and tomberlin 2017). insects can serve multifunctional roles similar to livestock, blending utility with emotional support. space constraints compact livestock such as pigs were chosen for efficiency aboard cramped ships (spalding 2014). insects require minimal space and can utilize waste as feed, fitting autonomous systems (berggren et al. 2025). practices with livestock and insects inform compact, regenerative systems for longduration space travels. waste management livestock waste created logistical burdens and sanitation challenges on ships (spalding 2014). insects help close nutrient loops by consuming organic waste and producing plant fertilizer (van huis and tomberlin 2017). insect-based systems can transform waste into value, improving sustainability. psychological impact animals like cats, dogs, and goats offered routine, companionship, and familiarity (strecker and svanberg 2014). humans can gain psychological resilience by caring for insects and the benefits of animal companionship (ko et al. 2016). care-based interactions with insects can support mental well-being in space. cultural and ethical factors food choices historically aligned with cultural norms; some species rejected even during famine (svanberg and nelson 1992). unfamiliarity can be a hinder, but norms can be reshaped through ritual and framing (oshaug 1985; svanberg and berggren 2021). acceptance depends on aligning nutrition with culture and dignity in closed environments. symbolic and ritual roles animals held symbolic meaning, pigs, goats, and dogs were seen as companions and food rituals helped foster crew cohesion and morale (hurley 1925; svanberg and nelson 1992). insects also carry symbolic meaning: pets strengthen emotional well-being, and insects can play important roles in spiritual practices (ko et al. 2016; quezadaeuán et al. 2018). recognizing the symbolic and relational potential of insects can support emotional resilience during long-duration missions. logistical challenges maritime provisioning involved dried meats, canned goods, and livestock, all resource-intensive and vulnerable (carpenter 1986; millar et al. 2015). space provisioning must prioritize self-sustaining, automated and resilient systems (berggren et al. 2025; european space agency 2021). learning from historical provisioning inefficiencies can drive innovation in life support system design. table 1 the roles of animals in historical expeditions and potential role in future space missions. this highlights how past use of livestock can inform insect-based systems for sustainable, multifunctional provisioning in space. berggren and svanberg. 2025. ethnobiology letters 16(1):150-158 153 perspectives volume, mass, and energy are tightly constrained, and resupply is impractical beyond low earth orbit (european space agency 2021). while historical expeditions relied on a mix of stored, preserved, and sometimes live food sources, space provisioning must follow a different logic. food systems must be integrated into closed-loop ecological infrastructures, where even minor failures can threaten system function and crew well-being (national aeronautics and space administration 2023). bioregenerative life support systems offer a promising model. they aim to establish closed to semi-closed ecological cycles that recycle waste, regenerate air, and produce food— treating life support not as isolated engineering tasks but as interdependent processes (european space agency 2021). this approach draws on analogues like lunar palace, biosphere 2, and other earth-based experiments, though maintaining stable multispecies environments remains a significant challenge. for example, laboratory biosphere trials achieved highyield, closed-system soil crops (nelson et al. 2005; silverstone et al. 2005). in parallel, a range of biological strategies for in situ food production is under exploration. earth-based circular-bioeconomy research shows that nitrogen can be recirculated into food proteins via insects, algae, and fungi (siddiqui et al. 2023). higher plants offer oxygen generation, carbon fixation, and sensory familiarity, but demand substantial resources and time (wheeler 2010). algae and cyanobacteria produce biomass quickly and contribute to gas exchange but are generally unpalatable and culturally unfamiliar. cultivated meat and microbial electrosynthesis remain energyintensive and are unlikely to meet crews’ psychological or symbolic needs in the near term (matassa et al. 2016). most strategies address discrete functions like nutrition, air quality, or morale, but few integrate ecological performance with symbolic or emotional relevance. insects as mini-livestock offer a rare convergence of these domains (table 1). they convert organic side streams into edible protein with minimal water or space, and their frass can fertilize crops (cammack et al. 2021). species like yellow mealworm (tenebrio molitor), house cricket (acheta domesticus), and black soldier fly (hermetia illucens), tolerate high-density rearing and environmental variability and are already used in food and feed production systems on earth (berggren et al. 2019; van huis and tomberlin 2017). a. domesticus has a long dietary history and cultural familiarity in parts of asia and europe, while h. illucens is efficient for bioconversion but is predominantly used for feed and waste management (cammack et al. 2021; van huis and tomberlin 2017). insects can be reared modularly, adapted to different rearing scales and complement plant systems by processing inedible biomass. presently significant knowledge gaps remain in how insects would cope with the environment in space. microgravity, radiation, and altered microbial dynamics may affect insect development, behavior, and reproduction (berggren at al. 2025; guidetti et al. 2025). their integration into bioregenerative life support systems needs to be studied holistically to ensure ecological stability and avoid unintended feedback. importantly, insects may serve more than biological functions. like animals on historical expeditions who provided food, labor, companionship, and symbolic continuity, insects may contribute to psychological stability. their care and responsiveness may anchor routines, provide tactile contrast, and support emotional well-being, particularly in confined, artificial environments. from a systems perspective, insects embody a rare combination of ecological utility, logistical efficiency, and cultural adaptability. they point toward food infrastructures that offer more than sustenance: systems that are also meaningful, participatory, and emotionally resonant. insects, meaning, and multispecies care as human spaceflight extends in duration and autonomy, the organisms selected for life support systems must contribute across ecological, operational, and psychological domains. insects, while often viewed through a technical lens, may also carry symbolic, emotional, and relational value—particularly in the confined and isolating environments of space (table 1). historical expeditions offer instructive analogues. animals on board were not only eaten but also named, cared for, and used to mark time. dogs, goats, pigs, and monkeys accompanied travelers as sources of food, labor, companionship, and emotional continuity (spalding 2014). these relationships were not incidental; they formed part of the social and psychological architecture of survival. insects could serve similar functions in space. beyond their ecological role, they may offer opportunities for multisensory engagement and ritualized care. feeding, observing, or interacting with insects can introduce rhythm, contrast, and purpose into highly controlled environments. in long-duration missions, such routines may support well-being and psychological berggren and svanberg. 2025. ethnobiology letters 16(1):150-158 154 perspectives continuity (barbour et al. 2024). this potential is grounded in cultural precedent. across societies, insects are embedded in symbolic and ritual life. in pre-columbian mesoamerica, stingless bees (melipona spp.) were cultivated for honey and ceremonial use (quezada-euán et al. 2018). in many african and asian cultures, edible insects form part of a wider ethnozoological landscape that includes medicinal uses, ceremonial practices, and social memory (van huis 2022). globally, people eat more than 2,000 insect species— from mopane caterpillars (gonimbrasia belina) in southern africa to chapulines (sphenarium spp.) in mexico and weaver ants (oecophylla spp.) and giant water bugs (species of belostomatidae) in southeast asia—so entomophagy is a long-standing norm rather than a novelty (van huis 2021). in east and southeast asian traditions, insects symbolize resilience, rebirth, or spiritual presence (duffus et al. 2021). they also appear in folk medicine, seasonal rituals, children’s games, and household cosmologies (duffus et al. 2021; meyer-rochow 2004). these practices suggest ways future crews might weave insects into the cultural and emotional fabric of space life. naming, storytelling, and caregiving routines can build emotional relationships with nonhuman cohabitants. these multispecies ties need not be nostalgic projections; they may evolve into new, mission-specific rituals that help astronauts navigate uncertainty, isolation, or interpersonal tension. insects may thus serve as symbolic anchors: small, tangible beings that connect crew members to earth-bound traditions or emerging space cultures. however, cultural acceptance of insects as food or companions is not universal. though widely consumed in parts of the world (lesnik 2017; van huis and tomberlin 2017), insects are often rejected elsewhere due to disgust, unfamiliarity, or colonial legacies (svanberg and berggren 2021). yet dietary norms are fluid. history shows that foods once regarded as revolting have been normalized through repetition, ritual, and collective adaptation (svanberg and berggren 2021). food in space has always required negotiation—between technical feasibility and cultural acceptability, between standard rations and personal taste. future crews will likely be multinational, and what is considered edible, offensive, or sacred will differ across individuals, shaping both diet and social dynamics (hartmann et al. 2015). astro-ethnobiology helps anticipate and navigate these divergences by foregrounding cultural entanglements with food, animals, and care. designing systems with symbolic flexibility could support both personal identity and intercultural cohesion on long missions. by attending to symbolic, ritual, and affective dimensions, astro-ethnobiology invites a broader view of provisioning. insects in space may be edible, but also nameable, narratable, and carereceiving. they offer a bridge between ecological function and emotional resilience, between engineered systems and cultural meaning. toward astro-ethnobiology: a conceptual lens much of the current discourse on space food systems is dominated by technoscientific framings prioritizing efficiency, automation, and caloric adequacy. these approaches are essential, especially in resourceconstrained environments. however, they often underplay the relational, symbolic, and emotional aspects of food that are central to human adaptation. as past expeditions have shown, survival depends not only on inputs and outputs, but on rituals, shared purpose, and care. astro-ethnobiology builds upon established subfields such as gastronomic ethnobiology (pieroni et al. 2016), which explores the cultural and symbolic dimensions of food systems, and the broader ethnobiological tradition of examining human–biota relationships in specific ecological contexts (wolverton 2013). while ethnobiology is typically grounded in terrestrial, localized systems, astroethnobiology extends this focus to extraterrestrial settings and spaces defined by isolation, artificial ecologies, and cultural heterogeneity. it reframes provisioning as a cultural-ecological process shaped not only by survival and logistics but by shared purpose, care, and relational ethics. unlike conventional astrobiology, which often focus primarily on biochemical conditions for life, astroethnobiology emphasizes how multispecies relationships, symbolic practices, and cultural continuity evolve in space-based living systems. this orientation aligns with emerging strands of applied ethnobiology that address future-oriented challenges, such as food system resilience, multispecies adaptation, and ecosystem design. the integration of insects into future provisioning systems is not merely a technical possibility—it is an entry point into astro-ethnobiology, a perspective that rethinks how humans relate to food, species, and ecological processes in unfamiliar environments. berggren and svanberg. 2025. ethnobiology letters 16(1):150-158 155 perspectives building on the lessons of historical expeditions and the emerging complexities of bioregenerative systems, astro-ethnobiology offers a conceptual framework that draws from ethnobiology, history, and systems thinking to explore human–nonhuman relationships in space-based life support. ethnobiology has traditionally focused on dynamic interactions between people and biota within localized, terrestrial contexts. it examines not only practical knowledge systems such as foraging, cultivation, and animal husbandry, but also the symbolic and cultural dimensions of these practices. astroethnobiology extends these concerns into the extraterrestrial domain. it invites reflection on how food systems beyond earth will be shaped not only by engineering constraints and biological requirements, but also by deeply human needs for meaning, continuity, and cultural expression. for instance, anthropologist hugh raffles (2010) highlights the complex and emotional ways in which humans and insects interact, emphasizing the intricate relationships between humans, even within closed systems. this perspective emphasizes that space food systems cannot be reduced to calculations of calories, mass, or technical efficiency. like their historical antecedents, the systems will be shaped by emotional attachments, daily rituals, symbolic meanings, and cultural negotiation. insects exemplify this multidimensional role: they function as ecological recyclers and nutrient sources while also enabling care -based routines. their presence shifts provisioning from passive delivery toward active cultivation and interaction with other organisms. astro-ethnobiology also encourages inclusive thinking about the makeup and diversity of future space crews. as international missions expand, provisioning systems must reflect the cultural preferences, taboos, and culinary identities of their members. insects, already integrated into many terrestrial food traditions, have the potential to offer a culturally adaptable and scalable component of these systems, particularly when their use is guided by ritual, storytelling, and participatory practice. while their technical inclusion requires rigorous study, their symbolic potential invites a broader conversation about what counts as acceptable, comforting, or meaningful food in unfamiliar worlds. by linking historical models of provisioning with emerging technologies and multispecies systems, astro-ethnobiology invites us to understand future food design not just as engineering, but as an ongoing cultural and ecological negotiation. it does not offer definitive solutions, but a lens for asking richer questions: how do humans co -create life support with other organisms? how are identity, care, and tradition sustained in space? and how can food systems reflect not only survival, but ethical adaptation and relational depth beyond earth? conclusion designing sustainable food systems for space requires more than technological innovation. it calls for an understanding of food as a multispecies, multidimensional practice. drawing on historical analogies and ethnobiological insights, this perspective has emphasized that provisioning is never purely functional. from early seafarers and polar explorers to future astronauts, food systems have shaped routines, relationships, and resilience under conditions of isolation. insects exemplify this complexity. as efficient biological processors, they can transform waste into nutrients within life support systems. but like the pigs, goats, and sled dogs of earlier expeditions, their value may extend beyond calories to include symbolic, emotional, and relational roles. insects embody a kind of multifunctionality that is ecological, psychological, and cultural. there are, of course, a number of network effects of human-animal relations in the spacecraft environment (kirsey and helmreich 2010). the insects brought along also require care, which can offer psychological benefits, including by alleviating the isolation and stress that space travelers are exposed to. in this way, insects have a number of other functions that benefit human fellow travelers, which protein-rich fungi and microalgae do not have. the conceptual lens of astro-ethnobiology helps articulate this shift. it highlights the cultural, historical, and ecological dynamics that shape how food systems are designed, interpreted, and lived. rather than viewing provisioning as a technical pipeline, astroethnobiology encourages us to consider food systems that also support ritual, meaning, and identity. this approach invites researchers, engineers, and mission planners to imagine provisioning models that are not only efficient and sustainable, but also culturally resonant and emotionally sustaining. as humanity ventures beyond earth, we are not just solving problems of nutrition and logistics, we are shaping new ecologies of life and meaning in unfamiliar worlds. the lessons of ethnobiology and the versatile roles of insects suggest that future food systems can support not only survival but creativity, continuity, and ethical adaptation in space. ethically, berggren and svanberg. 2025. ethnobiology letters 16(1):150-158 156 perspectives an ethnobiology lens stresses care, reciprocity, and biocultural stewardship. it helps avoid extractive, colonial patterns and complements planetaryprotection rules by adding attention to cultural as well as biological impacts (coustenis et al. 2021). declarations permissions: none declared. sources of funding: this study is the extension of a research project on insects in circular systems in space funded by the european space agency (esa) ‘potential of insects as nutritional food in 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ethnobiology letters 14(1):69–79 69 perspectives scientific/academic research. first, studies aim to obtain a comprehensive list of species, whether plants or animals, for a particular region or ethnic group. although these studies may have some local importance, they contribute little, scientifically, to adding new knowledge in the field or creating ruptures in the structures of knowledge that elevate us to new levels. another type of study is justified by calculating ethnobiological indices. unfortunately, such indices have multiplied over time and have been increasingly incorporated into different studies entirely uncritically. for example, the renowned use value index proposed by phillips and gentry (1993) was aimed at testing hypotheses in ethnobotany (albuquerque 2009). since then, few studies have used the proposal as conceived (ramos et al. 2012) and ended up reproducing the technique in various studies to introduce something quantitative to the study. i would like to argue that brazilian ethnobiology is a field of theoretical and epistemological disputes that can generate a rich debate and vibrant advances for the area if our community overcomes tendencies to negate one approach in favor of another and instead accepts that we have a complex and multifaceted interdisciplinary field of knowledge. this (un)defining the brazilian ethnobiology in 2013, we sought to characterize the trends in ethnobiology in latin america to understand the state of the field (see albuquerque et al. 2013). we attributed the observed growth in the field to various factors, including the rich biological and cultural diversity and the scientific landscape in some nations. since then, it has become clear that ethnobiological research in latin america has already moved away from the classic dichotomy that divides ethnobiological research into utilitarian and cognitive approaches (e.g., prado and murieta 2015). instead, the scenario outlined at that time showed the apparent dominance of research categorized as ethnobotanical, which persists today. furthermore, brazilian authors publish more papers on ethnobotany than any other approach, focusing on medicinal plants (gonzalezrivadeneira et al. 2018; pathak and bharati 2020; phumthum 2020; ritter et al. 2015). in brazil, researchers who do not necessarily identify as ethnobiologists have made notable contributions to understanding the interaction between people and biota (e.g., sena et al. 2022). however, mapping this research can be challenging. in brazil, i am particularly critical of two types of studies that undermine the logic or motivation of directions in brazilian ethnobiology ulysses paulino albuquerque1* 1laboratório de ecologia e evolução de sistemas socioecológicos, centro de biociências, universidade federal de pernambuco, recife, brazil. *upa677@hotmail.com abstract this manuscript examines the prevailing trends within the field of ethnobiology in brazil and highlights its departure from the traditional dichotomy that partitions ethnobiological inquiry into utilitarian and cognitive perspectives. instead of an extensive review of the diverse perspectives within the brazilian ethnobiological landscape, this article primarily highlights the author’s specific viewpoint. as such, this paper outlines some of the orientations and inventive trajectories within the field, emphasizing their origin within the rich academic legacy of brazil. open access doi 10.14237/ebl.14.1.2023.1862 received may 13, 2023 accepted august 20, 2023 published december 11, 2023 keywords epistemological orientations, evolutionary ethnobiology, philosophy of ethnobiology, ethnoecology copyright © 2023 by the author(s); licensee society of ethnobiology. this is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution-noncommercial 4.0 international public license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0), which permits non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. albuquerque. 2023. ethnobiology letters 14(1):69–79 70 perspectives acceptance can enrich discussion and progress in the field (ludwig and el-hani 2020). controversies villagómez-reséndiz (2020) made a recent effort to understand how ethnobiological research is configured in north and latin america beyond a historical perspective centered on classification into stages/phases and the utilitarian/cognitive dichotomy. our aim in discussing the work of villagómezreséndiz is not to provide a direct response to their specific critique. instead, we intended to contextualize their perspective in the broader framework of contemporary trends in ethnobiology scholarship, with a particular emphasis on the brazilian context. we will now summarize villagómez-reséndiz’s (2020) ideas, which classified brazilian ethnobiology into two main branches: evolutionary ethnobiology and ethnoecology. both branches prioritize biological perspectives in their understanding of ethnobiology but differ in their interpretation of traditional ecological knowledge (tek) and their approach to cultural issues. ethnoecology aims to create an integrated approach between human and natural sciences, considering social-ecological factors and focusing on historical and synchronic accounts of plants and animals. on the other hand, evolutionary ethnobiology concentrates on ethnomedicine, ethnobotany, and ethnozoology, emphasizing plants’ economic and medicinal value and relying on an evolutionary perspective. however, villagómez-reséndiz (2020) argues that evolutionary ethnobiology typically needs more resources to address cultural issues and conduct more comprehensive ethnographic research. its focus on tek in biodiversity management adopts a quantitative approach that overlooks broader cultural and political dimensions of tek in the co-production of knowledge (villagómez-reséndiz 2020). villagómez-reséndiz’s (2020) analysis ignores nuances that ethnobiological research has achieved in brazil and its classification effort is unfortunately misguided. in brazil, different understandings of the area coexist. for example, we still tend to distinguish ethnoecology from ethnobiology inconsistently. the brazilian ethnoecological tradition encompasses different authors who structure different schools, from ethnoecology based on assumptions in human ecology, which had alpina begossi (1958–2023) as its leading exponent, to comprehensive ethnoecology proposed by josé geraldo wanderley marques to ethnoecology centered on discussions about peasant farming by victor toledo. in my reading, over the last few decades, only ethnoecology, practiced by alpina begossi, seems to reinvent itself in the brazilian scenario (e.g., nunes et al. 2019; silvano et al. 2023). today, i argue that we should reserve the term ethnobiology for any study focused on the relationship between our species and different life forms at different spatial and temporal scales. for us, victor toledo’s work influenced the treatment of ethnoecology as a synonym for political ethnobiology (see albuquerque et al. 2024). however, different approaches still coexist in brazil. villagómez-reséndiz (2020) adds to this argument that there is an ongoing debate about the relationship between tek and biological and anthropological research in north and latin america. for him, ethnobiology encompasses various approaches to studying tek, but there is a growing trend toward prioritizing a biological perspective in ethnobiological research. in his view, this emphasis on biological factors often results from the limited use of ethnographic methods. it can lead to a lack of critical examination of ecology’s cultural and political dimensions. i had the recent opportunity (albuquerque 2022a, b) to criticize this perspective as reductionist and ignoring the interdisciplinary character of ethnobiology (see mcalvay et al. 2021). i am not arguing against anthropology and ethnography, but rather against the claim that ethnobiology cannot be conducted without anthropology and ethnography. in my view, the lack of a more anthropological approach in brazilian ethnobiology, or the limited use of ethnographic methods, is also due to the lack of interest of researchers trained in these traditions in ethnobiological studies, although there are notable exceptions (e.g., prado et al. 2020, 2022; shepard jr. and daly 2022). indeed, one of the reviewers of this article pointed out that brazil may not have had a strong tradition of incorporating more anthropology into ethnobiology due to a limited engagement of brazilian anthropology with the field. i argue that villagómez-reséndiz (2020) incorrectly labels all research conducted in brazil that identifies with any of the subdisciplines of ethnobiology, such as ethnobotany, ethnozoology, and ethnomycology, which may follow different theoretical or epistemological orientations, as evolutionary ethnobiology. on the other hand, evolutionary ethnobiology is a recently systematized albuquerque. 2023. ethnobiology letters 14(1):69–79 71 perspectives field that assumes evolutionary theory as the main theoretical background to understand the relationship between humans and nature (ferreira júnior et al. 2022). directions and innovative approaches over the past years, ethnobiology research has made significant progress in brazil, leading to novel perspectives and opportunities to understand the interplay between humans and biodiversity. while i will discuss some of these advances, it is essential to highlight that research in brazil is broader than these approaches. brazilian ethnobiology has certainly been reinventing itself, either by following global trends in research in the area or by generating innovations for the field. brazilian scholars have made significant investments in advancing the educational aspects of ethnobiology, resulting in the production of numerous textbooks (albuquerque et al. 2014, 2015, 2017, 2019a; alves and albuquerque 2018) and the establishment of scientific journals (ethnobiology and conservation and ethnoscientia). regarding the journals established in brazil, they have become part of the network of sister journals published worldwide, thus expanding the possibilities for diverse research and epistemological orientations. over time, they have been gradually gaining more international prominence (see stepp 2023). notably, brazil is the home of latin america’s first graduate program in ethnobiology and nature conservation, founded in 2011. moreover, brazilian academics have played a pivotal role in establishing and developing various subfields and approaches within ethnobiology, including evolutionary ethnobiology, the intersection of ethnobiology and education, and the integration of ethnobiology with philosophy. the emphasis placed by brazil on educational initiatives, the creation of specialized programs, and the active involvement of scholars in diverse branches of ethnobiology underscores the country’s distinctive contributions and advancements within the field. by fostering a nurturing academic environment and encouraging interdisciplinary collaborations, brazil has cultivated a vibrant and thriving ethnobiological community that transcends the mere adoption of global trends. this distinctive state of brazilian ethnobiology exemplifies the nation’s dedication to pushing the field’s boundaries and promoting innovative approaches (see albuquerque et al. 2020a). in this perspective, science is considered a fundamental tool for understanding and preserving tek but is not seen as an end. on the contrary, political ethnobiology values integrate science with social, ethical, and political values, recognizing the importance of cultural, environmental, and political dimensions involved in the phenomena studied. political ethnobiology, in contrast, differs from naïve social activism, which often lacks connection with the realities of traditional communities and fails to contribute to effective practices. this approach needs to be updated and more effective in dealing with the complexity of the phenomena studied by ethnobiology. for example, renck et al. (2023a) suggests that including indigenous people and local communities (iplc) in fisheries policy can enhance the accuracy of environmental policies and promote sustainable fishing practices by providing valuable information on marine species’ behavior and migration patterns and the ecological connections between different species. additionally, including epistemic diversity in environmental policy challenges methodology, politics, and ethics, leading to concrete proposals to benefit both people and nature (renck et al. 2023b). one area that has gained traction in ethnobiology research in brazil is the link with education (see baptista and araújo 2019; baptista and el hani 2009; oliveira et al. 2020; sotero et al. 2020; van luijk et al. 2021). scholars have emphasized the value of tek and cultural diversity for helping to build a multicultural and inclusive education. combining ethnobiology and education can foster critical awareness of environmental and social issues. according to robles-piñeros et al. (2020), the introduction of formal schooling in many contexts of the “global south” raises concerns about the simultaneous introduction of hierarchies between knowledge systems that present academic knowledge (ak) as authoritative, while marginalizing local knowledge and practices of knowledge transmission. according to them, this can create tensions between tek and ak in communities. by investigating biology education as a “trading zone” between knowledge systems, it is possible to analyze how partial overlaps become negotiated in educational practices in rural brazil and provide the basis for educational interventions that foster intercultural dialogue. albuquerque. 2023. ethnobiology letters 14(1):69–79 72 perspectives another critical area of research has been the integration of ak and tek (el-hani et al. 2022) to support biodiversity and biocultural conservation and sustainable use (e.g., assis magalhães et al. 2022; braga-pereira et al. 2022; sena et al. 2022). this approach involves recognizing and valuing local communities and traditional peoples’ knowledge and practices concerning biodiversity and integrating it with scientific knowledge and practices to develop conservation strategies that acknowledge their contributions (albuquerque et al. 2021). a crucial component of ethnobiology research in brazil has been a critical reflection on research methods, including the discussion and analysis of different methodologies used (e.g., chaves et al. 2019; jacob et al. 2021; lyra-neves et al. 2015; meireles et al. 2021; silva et al. 2022). this reflection has led to the development of new approaches that consider the complexity and diversity of knowledge systems and practices of local communities and traditional peoples, as well as scientific questions. gender (silva et al. 2019; zank et al. 2021) and decoloniality (martinelli and euzébio 2022) have also emerged as important topics in ethnobiology research in brazil. researchers are exploring how gender issues affect knowledge, research practice, and relationships between researchers and research institutions. for example, silva et al. (2019) propose a comprehensive strategy to tackle gender bias in ethnobiological research. they advise various measures, such as facilitating the participation of women in scientific gatherings, initiating mentorship programs for female researchers and students, and integrating gender issues into research projects. moreover, the authors recommend that journals implement policies to support gender equity in authorship and editorial boards. finally, they stress the significance of spreading awareness about gender bias and its repercussions on scientific research by conducting educational initiatives, such as workshops and seminars. historical ethnobiology is another growing field of research in brazil that examines the historical interactions between human societies and the natural world, focusing on using and managing natural resources (e.g., medeiros 2020; medeiros and alves 2020). this area provides valuable insights into contemporary environmental and cultural issues and can inform efforts to promote sustainable and equitable use of natural resources. i cannot overlook, also, the studies of historical ecology initiated in brazil, to the best of my knowledge, by balée (2013), which have provided strong evidence of indigenous peoples’ management of our landscapes throughout the years. this management has led to the domestication of landscapes and individual species, challenging the notion of environments being untouched or free from human influence (e.g., clement et al. 2015; levis et al. 2018; lombardo et al. 2022). brazilian researchers have also developed innovative conceptual frameworks, emphasizing the dynamic and interactive relationships between humans and their environment and the several factors that shape these relationships. an exciting example involves the recent formalization of the evolutionary ethnobiology approach. brazilian researchers systematized ecological and evolutionary scenarios to investigate the dynamic relationships between peoplebiota in different social-ecological systems (ferreira júnior et al. 2022). in addition, we have proposed a conceptual synthesis that aims to enhance the integration of research programs in ethnobiology (albuquerque et al. 2020a). the framework explicitly considers the three general processes that can underlie the relationships between humans and nature in social -ecological systems: cognitive processing, cultural transmission, and biocultural evolution. by demonstrating the interactions between these processes across different spatial and temporal scales, the framework can help address the complex dynamics in social-ecological systems. this integrative potential is significant in ethnobiology as it combines applied and basic research, enabling reflexivity about the structure of local knowledge in negotiations related to issues such as biodiversity conservation or food security. instead of viewing applied and basic research as competing for attention, the proposed framework illustrates how they can complement each other to better understand the negotiation of practices. brazilian researchers have also produced formal theories originating from ethnobiological research and the accumulation of diverse sources of evidence (albuquerque et al. 2019b). the social-ecological theory of maximization, for example, integrates the evolutionary relationships between plants or other living resources and humans, providing a theoretical framework for the selection and use of biota from an evolutionary perspective. furthermore, the theory albuquerque. 2023. ethnobiology letters 14(1):69–79 73 perspectives draws on various hypotheses and evidence from previous ethnobiological studies, such as the apparency hypothesis, hypothesis of non-random selection of plants, hypothesis of diversification, climatic seasonality hypothesis, and the utilitarian redundancy model (see gaoue et al. 2017). the challenges posed by contemporary political and economic issues have profoundly impacted ethnobiological research in brazil, prompting the field to reinvent itself. there has been a growing development of political ethnobiology in the brazilian context, characterized by an approach that combines the appreciation of science with the defense of political and ethical commitments with indigenous people and local communities (iplc). this movement has been particularly strengthened through the pioneering work of ethnobiologist darrell posey (see lópez garcés and robert 2012; golan et al. 2019), who emphasized the importance of tek and community engagement in his research (see albuquerque 2022b). for example, the recent substantial expansion of political ethnobiology in contemporary brazil can be inherently linked to the political context. brazil’s distinctive social and environmental dynamics, characterized by political polarization during the president bolsonaro administration, an upsurge in anti-science populism (see lasco 2020), critical concerns regarding deforestation, contentious debates encompassing land utilization and conservation (see levis et al. 2020), and violence against iplc and primarily indigenous communities, as well as the ongoing deliberations surrounding the future and structure of funai (national foundation for indigenous people) (e.g., congretel and pinton 2020; welch 2022), have collectively forged a fertile backdrop for the evolution and significance of political ethnobiology in the nation. during the bolsonaro administration, the political landscape has experienced heightened divisions and polarization, with policies and discourse perceived as undermining environmental safeguarding and indigenous rights. this contentious milieu has instigated the emergence of political ethnobiology as a response to the challenges encountered by iplc and their knowledge systems about the environment. by actively addressing the predicaments posed by deforestation, land disputes, and the unsustainable exploitation of natural resources, political ethnobiologists in brazil have endeavored to bridge the gap between scholarly research and activism, advocating for more efficacious approaches firmly rooted in a profound comprehension of iplc and their interconnectedness with the environment. additionally, the ascendancy of anti-science populism (see taylor 2021) and the erosion of trust in scientific expertise have amplified political ethnobiology’s pertinence. the iplc’s knowledge systems have been undervalued and disregarded, as anti-environmental agendas frequently dismiss the significance of indigenous perspectives. in this context, political ethnobiology assumes a pivotal role in amplifying the voices and knowledge of iplc, underscoring their invaluable contributions to environmental conservation and sustainable practices. the nation’s extensive biodiversity and culturally rich heritage face jeopardy due to deforestation and the unsustainable exploitation of natural resources. political ethnobiologists recognize the urgency of addressing these challenges and advocate for inclusive and participatory approaches integrating tek systems into conservation endeavors. furthermore, i can consider several significant aspects based on reflections (albuquerque et al. 2019c) for the field of ethnobotany. considering this work, it is necessary to identify the key characteristics that also define ethnobiological research in brazil: • one crucial issue is understanding better biotabased knowledge systems (bbks), which involves developing new theoretical and methodological research proposals integrating insights from various disciplines. it highlights the importance of understanding bbks as complex systems encompassing not only biota but also people and their cultural practices. ferreira júnior (2020) argues that we need to advance in building common research agendas and invest in better training in theory and methodology of science to advance ethnobiology. • another issue is how to improve our understanding of biota-human interactions at a biological and cultural level (e.g., liporacci et al. 2017), studying biota uses and biota meanings and values (e.g., jacob et al. 2023; souza et al. 2022), including in urban ecosystems (albuquerque et al. 2023). • the potential role of tek in contemporary conservation strategies must be addressed (e.g., albuquerque. 2023. ethnobiology letters 14(1):69–79 74 perspectives conde et al. 2020). recognizing tek as a valuable source of information for conservation efforts is crucial, and strategies incorporating local knowledge and practices must be developed (e.g., alves et al. 2022; bastos et al. 2022). • promoting sustainable use and management of biota resources must be addressed and is critical, in light of increasing threats, such as climate change (ladio 2017), habitat loss, and overexploitation. it requires the development of strategies that balance human needs with ecological sustainability. • improving our understanding of medicinal biota requires attention (albuquerque et al. 2020b). integrating approaches, such as ethnopharmacology, phytochemistry, and clinical trials, are crucial to comprehensively understanding medicinal biota’s chemical composition, pharmacological properties, and cultural significance. • the social and economic dimensions of bbks also need to be addressed. for example, issues, such as power relations, gender roles, and market dynamics, must be studied in addition to biota uses to understand better the contexts in which they occur. • lastly, improving our understanding of biota domestication and crop evolution is a critical issue that requires the study of genetic, ecological, and cultural dimensions of both crop species and their wild relatives and other biota utilized by humans (e.g., reis et al. 2018; wagner et al. 2022). these advancements demonstrate brazilian researchers’ creativity and intellectual rigor in ethnobiology. by developing new frameworks and challenging traditional approaches, they contribute to a more comprehensive and inclusive understanding of the complex relationships between humans and their environment, with the potential to inform policies and practices that promote sustainability and equity in brazil and beyond. acknowledgments the author expresses gratitude to prof. dr. washington soares ferreira júnior for providing critical feedback on the initial draft of this manuscript. special thanks are also extended to prof. dr. gustavo soldati for providing references, as well as to the anonymous reviewers for their valuable suggestions. declarations permissions: none declared. sources of funding: none declared. conflicts of interest: none declared. references cited ainana l. i., and i. zagrebin. 2014. edible plants used by siberian yupik eskimos of southeastern chukotka peninsula, russia. national park service, shared beringian heritage program, anchorage, ak. albuquerque, u. p. 2009. quantitative ethnobotany or quantification in ethnobotany? ethnobotany research and applications 7:1–3. 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zank, s., n. hanazaki, and c. r. melo. 2021. gender and ethnic equity: what can we learn from ancestral and indigenous peoples to deal with socio-environmental issues? ethnobiology and conservation 10:1–9. doi:10.15451/ec2021-02-10.16 -1-9. precontact use of balsam fir (abies balsamea) in iowa, usa green and parker. 2025. ethnobiology letters 16(1):56–69 56 research communications entrance is 9.7 m wide and 2.5 m high. the sheltered area extends to a depth of 10.9 m, constricting in height from 2.5 m to 1.2 m toward the rear, where a fracture admits light, moisture, and sediment from the overlying ground surface. the habitable floor area totals about 106 m2 (figure 2). the cave’s ceiling height and habitable area would have been greater in precontact times because recent accelerated sediment accumulation has raised the cave floor. iowa is located within the prairie peninsula, an eastern extension of the central grassland of north america. prairie peninsula vegetation for most of the past 5000 years consisted of a mosaic of tallgrass prairie, temperate deciduous woodland, and savannas. according to plant ecologist roger anderson, “the occurrence of the three community types (prairie, savanna, and forest) in the vegetation mosaic was the result of climate and fire frequency, which was strongly influenced by topographic features and distribution of waterways” (anderson 2006:635; see also robertson et al. 1997 and transeau 1935). iowa currently has a moderately warm, humid, continental climate (shepard et al. 2024:10). united states general land office (glo) surveys and paleoenvironmental studies permit introduction seeberger cave is one of hundreds of caves and rockshelters found in the silurian and ordovician bedrock systems of eastern iowa, usa. the site, designated 13jk411 by iowa’s office of the state archaeologist, was excavated in 1926, but no report was published until recently (green et al. 2025). people from several indigenous cultures used the cave from as early as 5000 bc up to around ad 1200 –1600. this article focuses on charred wood of balsam fir, abies balsamea, dating to around ad 300– 400, recovered from a feature located near the center of the cave. the cave’s location beyond the range limit of balsam fir, the association of balsam fir with paleorefugia at other cave openings in iowa, and indigenous medicinal and ceremonial uses of this species suggest the cave served as a locus of ritual activity in additional to quotidian residential functions. site description and environment seeberger cave is a south-facing opening in hopkinton formation (silurian) dolostone. it is situated at the head of a small ravine along the little maquoketa river, a tributary of the mississippi river, in jackson county, iowa (figure 1). the cave precontact use of balsam fir (abies balsamea) in iowa, usa william green1,2* and kathryn e. parker3 1logan museum of anthropology, beloit college, beloit, usa. 2office of the state archaeologist, university of iowa, iowa city, usa. 3independent archaeobotany consultant, indian river, usa. *greenb@beloit.edu abstract excavation of a cave in eastern iowa (usa) revealed a feature containing charred wood of balsam fir (abies balsamea) dating to ca. ad 300–400. taxon identification was based on wood anatomy and species distribution. balsam fir, a boreal forest species, does not currently grow near the cave but is restricted in iowa to paleorefugia at algific talus slopes. balsam fir’s widespread medicinal and ceremonial use, along with the common ritual uses of caves throughout eastern and central north america, suggest the cave might have been the locus of a sweat bath, analogous to sweat lodges used for healing and purification. received january 3, 2025 open access accepted may 14, 2025 doi 10.14237/ebl.16.1.2025.1935 published july 24, 2025 keywords caves, wood, anthracology, ethnobotany, ritual copyright © 2025 by the author(s); licensee society of ethnobiology. this is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution-noncommercial 4.0 international public license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0), which permits non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. green and parker. 2025. ethnobiology letters 16(1):56–69 57 research communications general reconstructions of late holocene (ca. 2000 bc–present) regional vegetation patterns and climate. figure 3, based on glo survey records, illustrates the distribution of prairie and forest/savanna communities near seeberger cave in 1838–1839. large stream valleys and areas of high topographic relief supported deciduous woodlands, while tallgrass prairie covered more level uplands. because the surveys were conducted near the end of the little ice age—represented in the prairie peninsula by a cool and moist eighteenth century—it is likely that fire frequency had declined and that forests had recently expanded at the expense of grassland (stambaugh et al. 2011; wood 1976). in stark contrast to these late holocene patterns, regional vegetation in the late wisconsinan (ca. 25000 –11000 rcybp) consisted of open tundra and mixed conifer-hardwood forests (jans-langel and semken 2003; josephs 2005; slaughter 2001). late glacial and early holocene biomes in eastern iowa transitioned from boreal forest to mesic deciduous woodlands beginning around 9300 rcybp (ca. 8550 cal bc). subsequently, prairies expanded during the warm and dry middle holocene. during the late holocene, oak savannas spread into some of the prairie loci, forming the mosaic observed in the nineteenth century. cave investigation paul h. nesbitt excavated portions of seeberger cave over a 10-week period in the summer of 1926 on behalf of beloit college’s logan museum. nesbitt had just graduated from beloit and would begin graduate school in anthropology that autumn at the university of chicago. having received a few days of training in field methods by logan museum archaeologist alonzo pond, nesbitt mapped the cave, excavated a trench and two additional units, and wrote a short summary report. the recovered collection remained unstudied and mostly intact at the logan museum. documentation of the excavation is sparse: no field notes have been found, nor have any excavation profiles or photographs been located1. despite the paucity of associated documentation, analysis of the recovered material permitted interpretations of the site’s occupational history and function, as well as comparisons to nearby caves, rockshelters, and open-air sites (green et al. 2025). multiple episodes of occupation, as inferred from diagnostic cultural material, occurred over a period of around 6000 years. numbers of temporally diagnostic artifacts indicate that the most intensive uses of the cave occurred during the late archaic (ca. 2100–950 bc) and late woodland periods (ca. ad 650–1100), though utilization was not limited to those periods. white-tailed deer (odocoileus virginianus) elements are the most common animal remains, and numerous other mammals, birds, turtles, and freshwater pelecypods are represented, too. nesbitt reported finding three “fireplaces” in his excavation. two, found at depths of 31–41 cm below the surface, were “very small.” the third, and the only one from which he collected charred wood, was, in his words (green et al. 2025:386), quite large covering an area 18 inches [46 cm] long and 12 inches [31 cm] wide, and at a depth of 2 ft. 3 inches figure 1 location of seeberger cave (indicated by star) in eastern iowa, usa. green and parker. 2025. ethnobiology letters 16(1):56–69 58 research communications figure 2 map of seeberger cave with plan view and four profiles. star indicates approximate location of balsam fir feature. drafted by michael lace, november, 2023. used with permission. green and parker. 2025. ethnobiology letters 16(1):56–69 59 research communications the cave entrance. figure 2 shows the feature’s approximate location within the cave. according to nesbitt, organically enriched deposits full of artifacts overlay a light-colored clay with little or no cultural material. the interface between the two main layers appeared at depths of around 69–86 cm. the presence of the large “fireplace” at a depth of 69 cm and nesbitt’s mention that it was “just above the clay” indicates that it appeared near the base of the principal cultural deposit. it is possible that the feature constituted the basal portion of a pit that originated higher in the deposit. the “few small burnt bones” and small flint chips found above the feature are common inclusions throughout the deposit and were not necessarily associated with the feature. wood identification and dating charcoal from the large “fireplace” was stored at the logan museum of anthropology in a sealed glass test tube. examination of the entire sample at 6.3–40x magnification determined that it consisted entirely of charred wood fragments. all of the specimens were narrow fragments, such as from small branches. sizegrading resulted in an assemblage of 110 fragments >2 mm, plus innumerable smaller pieces. the >2 mm subsample weighed 1.92 g. all of the >2 mm specimens were apparently the same wood taxon. ten fragments were selected for anthracological analysis and identification. all were found to be conifer wood featuring distinct growth ring boundaries, an abrupt transition between earlywood and latewood, and the absence of resin canals in the transverse section (figure 4a), with taxodioid cross-field pitting exhibited in the radial section (figure 4b). homocellular uniseriate rays are visible in tangential view (figure 4c). these characteristics indicate wood of the abies (fir) genus. although ray cell height in abies species typically ranges from 1 to 25 and in some cases over 30 cells (panshin and de zeeuw 1980:471), the seeberger cave sample exhibits low ray height, which may be associated with juvenile wood as in other gymnosperms (meng et al. 2021). for abies wood anatomy, see garcía esteban et al. (2009), hoadley (1990:158), nc state university libraries (2025), panshin and de zeeuw (1980:469–471), and strelis and kennedy (1967). the seeberger cave charcoal most likely represents twigs, branches, or juvenile wood of balsam fir (a. balsamea). although several abies species have similar wood anatomy (eom and kwan figure 3 historic vegetation of the seeberger cave vicinity from general land office surveys. source: iowa state university extension and outreach, https:// naturalresources.extension.iastate.edu/iowas-nature/ educational-graphics. accessed on january 6, 2024. [69 cm], just above the clay. there was a 3 inch [7.6 cm] layer of charcoal, and the whole fire place was so situated that it occurred in the very middle of the cave. nothing was found in the ashes but just above them was found a few small burnt bones2, and small chips of flint. around the ashes and below them was found a number of burnt rocks, used in building the fireplace. consistent with his statement that this feature was situated “in the very middle of the cave,” nesbitt reported that it was located 15 feet (4.6 m) north of green and parker. 2025. ethnobiology letters 16(1):56–69 60 research communications 2009; garcía esteban et al. 2009; panshin and de zeeuw 1980:471–474; richter et al. 2004), balsam fir is the only species that occurs in or near iowa. the three species other than balsam fir whose ranges are closest to iowa occur more than 1000 km from seeberger cave. fraser fir (a. fraseri) is endemic to the high elevations of the southern appalachian mountains (beck 1990), while the easternmost range limits of subalpine fir (a. lasiocarpa) and white fir (a. concolor) are 1200 km distant in the rocky mountains (alexander et al. 1990; laacke 1990). other abies species occur even farther from iowa (burns and honkala 1990). only three conifers other than balsam fir are native to iowa (van der linden and farrar 2011:267, 282), and their wood anatomy does not resemble the seeberger sample. eastern white pine (pinus strobus) wood features resin canals, and both eastern redcedar (juniperus virginiana) and canada yew (taxus canadensis) exhibit a gradual earlywood to latewood transition. for images and descriptions of the wood anatomy of these taxa and closely related species, see hoadley (1990:16–17, 26, 56, 145–147, 159, 163), kukachka (1960:894–895), panshin and de zeeuw (1980:439– 441, 490–492), and nc state university libraries (2025). to determine the age of balsam fir usage at seeberger cave, we submitted one wood fragment for ams radiocarbon dating. the sample, weighing 57 mg, was pretreated at the directams lab in bothell, washington, and dated at the center for applied isotope studies (cais) at the university of georgia. cais also conducted stable isotope assays. the resulting age of 1723±21 bp (δ13c = –22.22‰; ugams 60959) has a mean date of 342 cal ad, with 2-sigma probabilities of dating to 252–291 cal yrs ad (30.1%) or 319–406 cal yrs ad (69.9%). this date is compatible with several artifact types from the site, principally linn ware pottery and steuben points, both dating to the fourth-century transition between the middle woodland and late woodland periods (green et al. 2025). balsam fir in iowa seeberger cave lies outside the modern range of balsam fir (figure 5; little 1971). there are no historic records of the species in jackson county or in any of the bordering counties. as a boreal forest constituent with extremely low fire resistance (ali et al. 2008; starker 1934), balsam fir disappears from paleobotanical (pollen and macrofossil) records after around 9400 figure 4 scanning electron micrographs of seeberger cave charred wood indicating typical abies anatomy: a transverse section (400x), b radial section (2000x), and c tangential section (700x). note the different scales for each image. images courtesy of peter kováčik. green and parker. 2025. ethnobiology letters 16(1):56–69 61 research communications rcybp (ca. 8650 cal bc) in central iowa and 8500 rcybp (7550 cal bc) in northeast iowa (baker et al. 1990; baker et al. 1996; reimer et al. 2020). in iowa today, balsam fir occurs only as disjunct, scattered, relict populations restricted to the state’s northeastern-most counties (figure 6; conard 1938; eilers and roosa 1994:38; glenn-lewin et al. 1984:24; van der linden and farrar 2011:80–81)3. the nearest stand is 85 km northwest of seeberger cave. the bluffton fir stand state preserve—the only substantial protected stand of this species in iowa—is 193 km northwest of seeberger cave (gibbs 2016; herzberg and pearson 2001:12–13). balsam fir in iowa occurs at north-facing algific talus slopes, “steep hillsides which are bathed in cold, moist air from adjacent ice caves” (nekola 1993:iii). the cold air emanates from bedrock fissures connected to deep caves that harbor ice reservoirs. even in the summer, soil temperatures at these locations rarely exceed 15° c (conard 1938; eilers and roosa 1994:8–9; frest 1982; hartley 1966:17–18; nekola 1999:2463–2464; shea and furnier 2002:783–784). algific talus slopes constitute ecologically and biogeographically significant paleorefugia whose stable, cool microclimates have allowed survival of balsam fir and more than 60 other disjunct boreal forest species well south of their contiguous ranges (nekola 1999:2463). the stands of balsam fir at these isolated locations exhibit low genetic variability, consistent with longterm habitat fragmentation (shea and furnier 2002). about 300 algific talus slopes have been recorded in iowa. some occur as far south as jackson and adjoining counties, constituting the southernmost recorded in the midwest usa (nekola 1999:2464). several of these southern algific talus slopes are located within 20 km of seeberger cave (figure 7). although no balsam fir currently grows at these southern sites, they may well have served as refugia for balsam fir for a portion of the holocene. if this was the case, residents of seeberger cave could have acquired the species within just a few hours’ walk. whether balsam fir grew nearby or had retreated to its current locations in northeast iowa by ad 300–400 is not known. no other examples of balsam fir have been reported to date from iowa archaeological sites. neither the iowa statewide archaeobotanical survey (asch and green 1992) nor any document in the iowa archaeological research center database (2024) mentions balsam fir. however, few systematic analyses of wood charcoal fragments have been conducted for sites in eastern iowa, so it is possible that additional research will recover evidence of balsam fir use. indigenous uses of balsam fir about 1700 years ago, people transported balsam fir branches or other young wood from an algific talus slope to seeberger cave. in the center of the cave, they built a rock-lined feature on which the wood burned. it is likely the fire was deliberate rather than accidental because this feature and two smaller ones were the only burned deposits noted in the excavation. while the wood’s ultimate fate was to burn, it (and possibly other parts of the tree that did not survive) might have been used for various purposes before it ignited. the low fuel value of balsam fir wood (wisconsin center for environmental education 2020) and the occupants’ access to better fuelwood in the mesic deciduous forest surrounding the cave indicate that the principal reason (s) for transporting and burning these branches or young wood did not include everyday cooking or heating needs. aside from the tree’s aromatic qualities that are familiar to many at christmastime, balsam fir resin and essential oils have numerous medicinal properties, including antibacterial, antitumor, and even acaricidal figure 5 modern range of balsam fir. star indicates location of seeberger cave. source: u.s. geological survey geosciences and environmental change science center, digital representations of tree species range maps, from little (1971). wikimedia commons. green and parker. 2025. ethnobiology letters 16(1):56–69 62 research communications (tick-killing) (adamo et al. 2022; coté et al. 2016; johnson 1999:1; legault et al. 2003; pichette et al. 2006; see kaufman et al. 1999:249 on the chemical composition and properties of the plant’s oleoresin). native american medicinal uses of balsam fir employing these and other properties of the tree are well documented, though not among the indigenous groups historically resident in eastern iowa (eastern dakota, ho-chunk, ioway, meskwaki, sauk). ethnographic and historical sources for groups residing within the species’ principal range indicate that nearly all parts of the balsam fir, from the leaves through the trunk to the roots, had medicinal as well as technological uses (arnason et al. 1981). the native american ethnobotany database (2024), which is based on information compiled and published by daniel moerman (1998:33–34), contains records of 87 uses of balsam fir by 12 indigenous groups in eastern and central north america. these sources also contain numerous references for medicinal and ceremonial uses by 13 additional groups of the closely related species abies lasiocarpa (subalpine fir, also occasionally termed balsam fir). more recent first-hand accounts (clavelle 1997; m. geniusz 2015; geniusz 2009; herron 2002; kenny and parker 2004; roufs 2019) and compilations (meeker et al. 1993; uprety et al. 2012) supplement moerman’s records about indigenous peoples’ engagement with balsam fir in central north america. most relevant to seeberger cave are those uses of balsam fir that involved close exposure of the plant to heat. anishinaabe (ojibwe) people in northern wisconsin and minnesota placed balsam fir leaves, resin, and root decoctions directly on live coals or hot stones and inhaled the vapor or smoke to treat nervous ailments, rheumatism, and colds (densmore 1928:338–339, 362–363; smith 1932:378). farther afield but relevant to seeberger cave, absaroka (crow) and northern cheyenne people burned twigs and leaves of a. lasiocarpa on coals during ceremonies to create smoke and “incense” for healing and spiritual purposes (blankinship 1905:5; grinnell 1923:169; hart 1981:2, 5–6). although they lived in montana when those uses were recorded, the cheyenne had earlier resided in or near the a. balsamea range in minnesota. the live coals mentioned in these accounts could be wood or heated stones such as the burnt rocks nesbitt found below and around the charcoal in the seeberger cave feature. anishinaabeg of northern wisconsin also employed balsam fir along with other plants in sweat baths taken for ceremonial, cleansing, or medicinal reasons. the steam from boiling those plants persisted within small, enclosed sweat lodges (smith 1932:378). mohawk people also heated balsam fir branches for steam baths (herrick 1995:113), as did plateau groups (employing a. lasiocarpa) for use in purification rituals in sweathouses (turner 2014:1:428). where abies was unavailable, other aromatic gymnosperms such as juniperus pinchotti (pinchot juniper or mountain cedar) would be placed on hot rocks in sweat lodges, as among the plains apache (jordan 2008:94–97, 110– 113). seeberger cave would be akin to a constructed sweat lodge, its central fireplace allowing steam and smoke to permeate the cave, especially if the inhabitants covered the entrance and rear crevice. overall, indigenous people have long recognized and honored the healing and spiritual properties of abies. the tree’s many virtues cause it to be considered “a blessed plant” (m. geniusz 2015:74; w. geniusz 2015:342). its powers and abilities include purification, protection from harm, and even reviving a dying person’s spirit (hart 1981:5–6). indigenous people in the plateau region know a. lasiocarpa as figure 6 present locations of balsam fir in iowa (circles). source: iowa natural areas inventory database, iowa department of natural resources, courtesy of john pearson. star indicates seeberger cave. green and parker. 2025. ethnobiology letters 16(1):56–69 63 research communications “med ic ine -p l ant” and “med ic ine -p l an t tree” (armstrong 2020:40; turner 2014:1:130). reflecting a “kincentric” worldview that considers plants as “generous relatives of humans, to be treated with care, deep appreciation, and reciprocity” (turner et al. 2020:13), anishinaabeg refer to balsam fir as “elder sister,” “she who points out,” “she speaks for us,” and “she stands at prayer for us” (or “she makes me speak”), signifying that the tree holds “the highest concern for her family and relatives” because of her (the tree’s) healing properties (glifwc climate change team 2023:79). caves as ritual and ceremonial settings seeberger cave apparently served as a residential base camp. this conclusion is based on the diverse assemblage of domestic tools from the site—scrapers, knives, grinding stones, cooking and storage vessels— as well as indications from faunal remains of occupation during multiple seasons: fur-bearing mammals in the fall and winter; turtles in the spring through fall; newborn or full-term fetal bison in the early spring; and pelecypods in the summer and fall. similar-sized caves and rockshelters in the region also served as base locales (green et al. 2025). yet the balsam fir “fireplace” used about 1700 years ago likely reflects ritual or ceremonial use of seeberger cave in addition to everyday domestic purposes. it is true that the “domestic” and “ritual/ ceremonial” dichotomy may well have meant little to the site’s inhabitants. globally, “ritual permeates daily practice in noncapitalist societies” (chapman 2006:514). nevertheless, preferences for particular fuel wood species “in both practical and ceremonial contexts” and selection “of certain species for specific purposes” reflect indigenous traditional knowledge “based on a range of criteria and contextual considerations” (swan and simons 2014:325). in addition to the preference noted above for balsam fir and other aromatic species in sweat lodges, an ethnographic example of careful selection of wood for ceremonial uses is the preference for a narrow range of species for osage ritual peyote fires (swan and simons 2014). for cave rituals in particular, morehart et al. (2005) discuss archaeological and ethnographic examples of selection of pine (pinus) among the maya. in addition to the balsam fir, other finds also suggest ritual or ceremonial activities at seeberger cave. the cave contained the remains of at least two bison (bison bison)—one adult plus the full-term fetal or newborn calf mentioned above. the latter is represented only by a cranium. the context and age of the bison are unknown. several nearby caves and rockshelters also contain bison elements, though none from fetal/newborn calves (green et al. 2025). while the fetal/newborn cranium might simply reflect the fortuitous result of a spring-season hunt, bison skulls and calves play important roles in belief systems and healing rituals among many indigenous groups of the north american prairie-plains (brown 1953; hall 1997; skinner 1926; walker 1980). seeberger cave also contained the remains of at least two human individuals, one adult and one lateterm fetal or newborn (repatriated and reinterred per state and federal law). many eastern iowa caves and rockshelters contain human remains, both as intact burials and as disarticulated elements. the common presence of human remains at these sites conforms to patterns noted throughout the eastern woodlands of north america (boyd et al. 2001; claassen 2012a, b; crothers et al. 2002; homsey-messer 2015; prufer and prufer 2012; sabo et al. 2012; spurlock et al. 2006), and, indeed, worldwide (tarlow and nilsson stutz 2013). among north american prairie-plains tribes, caves are viewed as places of origin or emergence into this world, portals to spirit worlds, and sacred places figure 7 jackson county and adjacent counties showing locations of iowa’s southernmost algific talus slopes (circles). balsam fir is absent from these locations. source: iowa natural areas inventory database, iowa department of natural resources, courtesy of john pearson. star indicates seeberger cave. green and parker. 2025. ethnobiology letters 16(1):56–69 64 research communications for fasting and vision quests (foster 1999:183; howe et al. 2011:3, 8–9). interment in such sites, along with the accompanying ceremonies, reflected or imbued social and sacred meaning to the sites (e.g., blakeslee 2012; claassen 2012a, b; homsey-messer 2015; turpin 1994). in iowa, caves might have been especially appropriate sites for rituals involving balsam fir because of the species’ association with ice caves at algific talus slopes. balsam fir’s healing and sacred properties as well as its restricted natural occurrence at algific cave openings would have made it an ideal medium for purification and other rituals in caves. discussions of ritual or ceremonial activity at caves in iowa and the surrounding region generally focus on the rock art that is present at many sites (e.g., baldner 2020; paper 1997:134–138; schrab and boszhardt 2016). at the gottschall site in wisconsin, pictographs, a painted sandstone human-head sculpture, scattered human remains, and the identification of recurring strata of fired deposits and “anthroseds” (manufactured sediments) led to interpretations that the cave hosted a long-lasting “core ritual” and served as an “ancestor cult shrine” (salzer 2005; salzer and rajnovich 2000). no site in the region has yet been interpreted as a locus for steam or sweat baths. but sweat baths and sweat lodges were important spaces for indigenous societies across north america (lopatin 1960:983–986). seeberger cave could constitute a natural sweat lodge, with steam and smoke emanating from balsam fir atop hot rocks in the center of the cave. what better location for a balsam fir sweat bath than a cave at the very edge (or even beyond) the range of this blessed tree, which occurs in the region only in association with caves—portals between worlds. conclusions investigations at seeberger cave recovered charred balsam fir wood from a stone-lined feature in the center of the cave. the wood, dating to around 1700 years ago, had been collected from an algific talus slope, a paleorefugium for boreal plants. seeberger cave is 85 km from the nearest extant stand of balsam fir, but algific talus slopes closer to the cave might have supported this species during the time of occupation. most of the cultural material found in the cave reflects domestic activities and use of the site as a residential base locale. however, records of indigenous medicinal and ceremonial uses of balsam fir and of the spiritual importance of caves permit identification of seeberger cave as a locus of ritual activity as well. the types of rituals or ceremonies are uncertain because balsam fir use is absent from local and regional native ethnobotanical records—not surprising as the site lies outside the current distribution of the species. however, indigenous uses of balsam fir and closely related species in other regions suggest it was employed in purification or healing activities such as those associated with sweat baths. notes 1paul homer nesbitt (1904–1985) received his phd in anthropology from the university of chicago in 1938. he served as curator of the logan museum at beloit college and later as chief of the united states air force arctic, desert, and tropic information center, professor of anthropology at the air university at maxwell air force base in alabama and founding chair of the anthropology department at the university of alabama. 2these were animal bones. none of the human remains excavated by nesbitt were burned. 3although it includes little about the disjunct distribution of balsam fir in iowa, the most comprehensive treatment of the biology, geography, ecology, reproduction, growth, and modern utilization of the species is the 445-page monograph by e. v. bakuzis and h. l. hansen (1965). robert frank (1990) also supplied an informative discussion of the species. acknowledgments thanks to seeberger cave property owner stephanie weeks for her interest and assistance with our studies, to mike lace for mapping the site, and to chad heinzel, chérie haury-artz, nicolette meister, and john pearson for their important contributions to this research. thanks also to dirk marcucci for helpful insights about local algific talus slopes. many thanks to the ebl editors and reviewers for their thoughtful and constructive suggestions that improved this article. special thanks to peter kováčik for scanning electron microscope imaging and valuable assistance regarding wood anatomy and identification. we also thank joel sparks and the department of earth and environment at boston university for use of its sem facilities. none of the above-named individuals are responsible for any errors or misuse of their assistance. the seeberger cave collection is housed at green and parker. 2025. ethnobiology letters 16(1):56–69 65 research communications the logan museum of anthropology, beloit college, beloit, wi, usa. declarations permissions: none declared. sources of funding: logan museum of 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et al. 2006). crop destruction and damage impacts local farmers and indigenous groups through losses in food and income, with repercussions for health, nutrition, and education (lamarque et al. 2009). therefore, rural or indigenous communities do not always appreciate the presence of wildlife with which they share the landscape (albarracín 2010; madden 2004). the andean bear (tremarctos ornatus) is no exception, as habitat loss and growing human population densities have brought bears into conflict with humans throughout their range (albarracín et al. 2013; figueroa 2015; goldstein et al. 2006). the bears are blamed for attacks on livestock, but mainly for introduction conflicts among wildlife and humans are rapidly increasing worldwide, becoming a threat to the survival of several species, especially in areas where wildlife and human populations are living together and share resources (dickman 2010; kaczensky et al. 2004). conflicts occur when wildlife requirements and needs of human populations overlap, causing economic loss and retaliations against wildlife (goldstein et al. 2006; iucn 2005; romero et al. 2006). habitat loss, population growth, and agricultural expansion in rural areas increase the frequency of conflict between humans and wildlife (dickman 2010). landscape changes and the transformation of natural areas into agricultural land can exacerbate conflicts between humans and wildlife (kattan et al. 2004). this new resource opportunity attracts the presence of wildlife looking for food near human locations (dickman 2010; hawthorne 1987), causing a negative perception. negative perceptions towards wildlife often are exaggerated and are related to loss of traditional ecological knowledge. for example, bearly guilty: understanding human–andean bear conflict regarding crop losses viviana albarracín1* and enzo aliaga-rossel2 1ecology and conservation postgraduate program, university mayor de san andrés, campus universitario, la paz, bolivia. 2institute of ecology, university mayor de san andrés, campus universitario, la paz, bolivia. *albav7@gmail.com abstract conflicts between wildlife and humans are increasing worldwide, especially in areas where they coexist and share resources. to investigate attitudes and opinions of the human population towards human-andean bear (tremarctos ornatus) conflicts in two indigenous aymara communities, chuñavi and lambate, bolivia, semi-structured interviews were directed to an adult member of families in the communities. simultaneously, we registered, monitored, and evaluated 70 farm plots to record evidence of andean bear and other wildlife damage to the maize crops and plants. we found that the locals thought the bear caused the most damage when, in actuality, the most harmful issues identified for maize crops were environmental factors, followed by parrots and birds. knowledge of the interactions between wild animals and productive systems can contribute to an understanding of andean bear-human coexistence. received march 30, 2018 open access accepted december 1, 2018 doi 10.14237/ebl.9.2.2018.1300 keywords jucumari, human-bear conflict, coexistence, crop damage, tremarctos ornatus copyright © 2018 by the author(s); licensee society of ethnobiology. this is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution-noncommercial 4.0 international public license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0), which permits non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. albarracín and aliaga-rossel. 2018. ethnobiology letters 9(2):323–332 324 research communications damage to several crops such as corn and cane (goldstein et al. 2006; morales 2003). this conflict for resources increases the negative perceptions of and prejudices against bears, which may lead to hunting intended as retaliation for crop damage and to reduce future damage. this deliberate killing of bears increases the risk of extirpation of that species (albarracín 2010; figueroa 2015; goldstein et al. 2006; torres 2008). in an analysis of the human-bear conflict related to cattle attacks, goldstein et al. (2006) indicated that the andean bear is generally identified as responsible for the majority of cattle deaths. however, they found that locals often overestimate the real number of cattle losses caused by the bear. albarracín (2010) also studied local indigenous perception, which indicated that andean bears are believed to be the main causes of cattle losses and crop destruction. in bolivia few studies have addressed the conflict from the locals’ point of view, although these studies have identified wildlife species as responsible for damage to crops or impacts on the local economy (morales 2003; perez and pacheco 2006). the objectives of our study were to examine the perceptions of locals about the andean bears, identify the real cause of damage to corn crops, and estimate agricultural losses caused directly by the andean bear. we also attempted to determine if the distance of the crops to wooded areas has a relation to the damage caused by the andean bear or other wildlife. we figure 1 study site: the red outline areas show the lambate and chunavi communities, and both cultivated and forest patches within these communities. south yungas province, la paz department, bolivia (google earth images were used to produce this figure). albarracín and aliaga-rossel. 2018. ethnobiology letters 9(2):323–332 325 research communications hypothesize that crops at shorter distances from the forest are more vulnerable to damage than crops farther from the forest. this study contributes to andean bear conservation and crop management strategies by understanding the local perception of nature in order to facilitate human-bear coexistence, hopefully advancing conservation of andean bear populations in the region. methods study location the study was conducted in two indigenous communities of bolivia in lambate canton, south yungas province, la paz department (16º30’ – 16º40’s and 67º30’ – 67º45’w) with an altitude range between 2600 m and 3400 m. located in the eastern cordillera of the andes, lambate has deep valleys and is transitional between inter-andean dry forests and yungas (ibisch and merida 2003). weather conditions vary according to altitude, but generally are semihumid to humid (ibisch and merida 2003). within a generally temperate climate (annual average 7 to 20ºc), between june and september sporadic southern cold fronts known as surazos cause temperatures to fall. the altitude-related changes in vegetation include cloud forests ranging from 800 m to 3500 m, as well as high altitude grasslands. much of the study area features steep hillsides (figure 1). this habitat represents an area of high biodiversity with a number of wildlife species including parrots (aratinga spp.), several native dove species, andean bear, skunks (conepatus chinga rex), and rodents (albarracín 2010; yañez et al. 1995). native vegetation in several areas has been replaced by subsistence agriculture of broad beans, potatoes, and corn. corn is a main staple food and is also used for feeding livestock, as well as for sale. some local people also have sheep, horses, or cattle; however, it is not an intensive activity (albarracín 2010; yañez et al. 1995). it is estimated that almost three-quarters of rural inhabitants of bolivia are poor (oviedo 2014). we selected two of the main aymara indigenous communities in the area, lambate with 44 families and chuñavi with 33 families. these were selected because they had previously reported killing andean bears due to crop losses (albarracín 2010). chuñavi is more economically reliant on mining activity, and the forest is disturbed in lower areas of the territory. other communities in the area did not report bear presence in their territories. data collection from february to april 2011, we lived in both communities to conduct the interviews and fieldwork described here. prior to starting the interviews, we obtained the necessary permits and established informed consent with the communities and informants. fieldwork began with a workshop with the indigenous people as a general introduction to the project. to be sure we gained the trust of the interviewees, we highlighted that we were not affiliated with any authorities. to increase the reliability of the responses, the interviewers clearly indicated that the respondents’ names would be kept confidential. attitudes and opinions about crop loss. to investigate attitudes and opinions of the local population regarding conflicts, and to identify possible crop damage and loss caused by wildlife or other factors, especially the andean bear, two researchers carried out semi-structured interviews. using the list of all the families in the communities provided by the authorities, the researchers randomly selected families from each community and interviewed one adult member of each family. refusal rate to participate was 14% (n = 11) of the total families in both towns. the age of respondents was between 30 and 60 years (mean = 45). younger adults tend to migrate to the nearby city of la paz. with the exception of mining, all families interviewed had the same economic status. to avoid interrupting daily activities (and following albarracín 2010), households were visited between 07:30 and 09:30 or from 18:30 to 21:00. the interview usually lasted between 15 and 20 minutes. visits and interviews were carried out with a local assistant, who translated aymara if necessary, although most of the respondents preferred spanish for communication. interview questions included general information such as occupation, type of agricultural production, if production was for commercial or subsistence purposes, as well as questions about crop losses and their perception, and participants were asked what type of measures were taken to mitigate crop loss. then we asked specific questions about the andean bear, including whether they chase or kill bears, and their specific perception about the species in terms of their density and the effects on crops. to avoid albarracín and aliaga-rossel. 2018. ethnobiology letters 9(2):323–332 326 research communications influence and bias, we allowed interviewees to finish their answers and explain any issue they considered important, sometimes allowing the participation of their partners. in some instances women refused to participate and on several occasions the entire family was present during the interviews. for this study, we focused on corn losses, because while previous studies also mentioned damage to potatoes, they did not report that locals assigned responsibility to andean bears for potato crop damage (albarracín 2010). crop damage assessment. to record evidence of wildlife responsible for damage to corn crops during march to may, we evaluated 70 farm plots within the two study areas (n = 55 in lambate and n = 15 in chuñavi). some owners were reluctant to authorize our entrance to and evaluation of their crops, particularly in chuñavi. this reluctance was the reason for the difference in the number of crop plots evaluated between the two sites. average plot sizes were less than 3500 m2. every day, in each plot, we randomly ran linear transects (between 06:00 to 09:00 h) in search of wildlife signs such as feces, tracks, hair, or direct observations, supported by field guides to identify the possible damage caused by mammals (tarifa et al. 2001; torres 2008). to track the impact of birds on corn crops, we continuously monitored the area to register species present in the field and find clear signs of bird foraging on the cobs. we examined all plants affected in the plot to determine the characteristics of crop damage. during each survey, plants and cobs damaged by wildlife were counted and subtracted from the total. the damage due to environmental factors such as drought, sun, and frost was also registered. we tested the hypothesis that crops at shorter distances from the forest are more vulnerable to damage than crops farther from the forest. we determined crop plot location using a gps. then, we calculated the distance of each corn field to the village and to the nearest forest with a laser rangefinder. crop areas within a 4–7 km radius of the community center, which is further from the forest, are where fauna are hunted and crops protected (aliaga-rossel 2011). crops near the forest were recorded as areas adjacent to and up to 4 km from the native forest. analyses for the analysis of the crop assessment, we used pearson’s chi-squared test with yates’ continuity correction (yates 1984). results in total, 55 interviews were performed: 25 families in chuñavi (76% of the total families of the community) and 30 families in lambate (68% of the total lambate community). most families are dedicated exclusively to agriculture (46%), while others combine this activity with mining or other business. a few families also have cattle, sheep, or pigs. approximately 20% of the families rely exclusively on mining for income and do not have crops. the majority of corn production was only for self-consumption (67%), and only 13% of the families might sell the excess production. we found that the most important crops were corn, followed by potatoes and other tubers. corn was also used to feed livestock. all respondents in both communities agreed and recognized that there have been environmental changes in the area, including changes in rainfall regimes, increased temperature, and strong solar lambate chuñavi total causes to loss n % n % n % andean bear 10 30 7 24 17 31 birds (including parrots) 3 10 4 16 7 13 other/wildlife not id 1 3 1 4 2 4 environment problems 6 20 5 20 11 20 no problems 4 13 3 12 7 13 no crops 6 20 5 20 11 20 table 1 perception of the communities of lambate and chuñavi, la paz, in relation to causes of crop damage or losses. albarracín and aliaga-rossel. 2018. ethnobiology letters 9(2):323–332 327 research communications radiation. also, all elders mentioned the absence or reductions in wildlife sightings. although the majority of those interviewed ignored the causes of all of these changes, they indicated general concern about a perception of alterations in the climate. the communities had different perceptions of crop damage and the causes of crop losses (table 1). though respondents attributed corn crop losses to the andean bear (31% of respondents, n = 17), birds, including parrots, were also blamed for crop losses (13%) (table 1). in total, 20% (n = 11) indicated that the main cause of crop losses is climate related, placing responsibility on weather events such as droughts and cold fronts, while 13% (n = 7) did not identify problems with crop losses. eleven of those interviewed are miners and do not have crops, and therefore do not have any conflict with bears. thus, their data without losses were excluded. when asked about their perceptions of corn crop losses due to andean bears (figure 2), 48% (n = 21) indicated that they do not take any further action, 16% retaliated by attempting to hunt bears to control or avoid the crop loss, 16% (n = 7) scare bears away using fireworks, although they are not always satisfied with the efficiency of this method, and ten families frequently control and watch their crops. the vast majority of the locals (92%, n = 47) indicate they do not kill bears; however, they are willing to kill them if necessary. eight percent (n = 5) have already killed an andean bear. the majority (87%, n = 48) did not perceive birds as a strong cause of crop losses, and few mentioned insects or other wildlife such as skunks (conepatus chinga). andean bear conservation. only 16% (n = 9) of the respondents agreed that the bear should be conserved, figure 2 actions taken against andean bear presence in crops: no action, hunting them, scare them away, and constant vigilance. albarracín and aliaga-rossel. 2018. ethnobiology letters 9(2):323–332 328 research communications 45% (n = 25) agreed that there should be bear population control, and 16% (n = 9) emphasized that bears should be exterminated. from the respondents against bear conservation, they highlight that laws are biased towards wildlife and conservation, or that conservation laws were not useful to them, especially in economic terms. corn crop damage assessment. in the 70 maize plots we studied, we registered crop plots that had been damaged and what caused the damage. we observed two main causes of crop damage to maize crops. from the 55 registered plots in lambate, 40% (n = 22) showed crop damage caused by wildlife; 44% (n = 24) of losses were caused by environmental factors such as rain, excessive sun (called as k’asawi in aymara) and cold fronts; in the plots, climate factors caused 23% of losses in lambate and 18% for chuñavi. sixteen percent of the plots did not present any damage or attacks to the crops. in the 15 surveyed plots in chuñavi, 27% (n = 4) showed some damage by wildlife, and 40% (n = 6) presented damage caused by environmental conditions. we could not determine the cause of damage to one field. the remaining crops are constantly watched and monitored by their owners and did not have any important damage. we registered higher climaterelated damage compared to damage caused by wildlife. we found plants without fruits, dry or rotten. some climate-related records of damage are linked to the direct sunlight and not to the slope or soil texture. main causes of crop loss due to wildlife. from the 22 plots damaged by wildlife in lambate, 59% (n = 13) of the damage was caused by birds, primarily parrots (aratinga sp.) and ch’iguancu (turdus chiguancu), and 41% (n = 9) was caused by the andean skunk (conepatus chinga rex). in chunhavi, the majority of the damage was caused by birds (i.e., parrots) and skunks. parrots/parakeets were the species that caused most damage to crops. parrots in pairs and/or groups of up to 100 individuals were observed, which fly to different crop areas throughout the day. the parrots cling with their feet to the stem of the plant and open the cobs from the apex. after eating, their feces could be seen on the leaves and the plant. skunks caused losses of 3% of the total crop in the community in lambate and 5% in chuñavi. they dig at the base of corn plants looking for larvae that feed on the roots of plants, consequently killing the plant. during the survey and study period, we did not observe nor receive reports about maize crop damage caused by andean bears. as we predicted, plots with the greatest damage were located near the forest (χ square = 6.2, df = 1, p-value = 0.012, p < 0.05). plots that were closer to the town had minor damage and were characterized by being very close to dirt trails where people often walked and are present. discussion the interviews highlighted a general concern and perception about climate change and decreasing wildlife abundance. some of the interviewees also perceived a connection between crop losses and climate change; however, the majority still blame wildlife for their crop damage and losses. a variety of wildlife species around the world have been blamed for losses (e.g., aliagarossel 2011; hill 2000; madden 2004; morales 2003; pérez-torres 2001; waladgi and tchmba 2003). this negative perception presents a major challenge for conservation efforts, as local people place the majority of blame for crop losses on wildlife. wildlife, however, are likely not the primary cause of crop loss, and this misplacing of blame may prevent people from focusing on more significant or genuine threats. during this study, there was no evidence or confirmed reports of andean bear in the area, nor any losses caused by the species. contrary to local perceptions, andean bears were not the main crop threat and did not represent a major problem for the crops during our study period. nevertheless, the negative perception remains. many people support bear conservation (45%), but only if bear populations are managed, so as not to have more damage to their corn crops. in this study, locals considered andean bears as agricultural pests and blamed them for crop and livestock losses. locals may also have exaggerated blame towards the andean bear for crop damage caused by climate and other wildlife, such as parakeets. between 1993 and 1994 at least 13% of lambate and chuñavi residents claimed to have seen the bear amidst their crops eating corn (yañez et al. 1995). in the same area, locals reported several corn losses caused by the bear; however albarracín (2010) observed an andean bear only once during the daytime, walking away from the remains of consumed corn cobs. hairs and traces of this species were found albarracín and aliaga-rossel. 2018. ethnobiology letters 9(2):323–332 329 research communications in four farm plots. albarracín (2010) found that locals in the study area paradoxically also considered andean bears to be a deity and therefore were reluctant to harm them. this highlights the importance to promote traditional ecological knowledge, as these cultural beliefs could be used as a conservation tool. only a small percentage of people proposed killing the bear as the best solution. the self-reported andean bear hunters indicated that they were the reason bears no longer visit maize crops in the higher areas. we could not verify this claim since other people feared retaliation from hunters. also, hunters were substantially less tolerant than non-hunters (knopff et al. 2016), and indicated they will do it again if needed, and if they have problems with bears, they cannot count with any authority to help them, and prefer to “eliminate the problem”. this was also discussed by dickman (2010), who indicated that the response to conflict often appears disproportionate and even a small level of wildlife damage can still elicit harsh responses. despite the use of scarecrows or flagging actions, parakeets were the main cause of crop damage. perez and pacheco (2006) found that birds and monkeys alone could destroy up to 77% of a potential corn crop in cotapata national park in bolivia. local people did not show such a negative reaction towards other wildlife. they rarely mentioned skunks as a source of crop damage, although we observed them digging up roots in search of larvae and insects, especially the locally called lak’ato (scarabidae). skunks also ate maize by pulling the plant top to reach the cob. we also observed sheep feeding on remote corn crops neglected by their owners. although free-ranging domestic animals contribute to crop losses, they are less likely to be blamed than bears or other carnivores, which may increase negative perceptions of these species, similarly observed for the sun bear (helarctos malayanus; guharajan et al. 2017). we identified people who are not completely in favor of andean bear conservation, and as mentioned previously, they perceive that laws are biased towards wildlife and conservation, or that conservation laws were not useful to them. this negative attitude could increase, turning other members against local authorities (madden 2004). this low human tolerance for carnivores is mainly caused by fear or a negative prejudice (albarracín, 2010; servheenet al. 1999). more than four to five bears were killed in the area during a previous study (albarracín, 2010), but not during our study. a possible explanation could be a better and more positive bear perception due to environmental education campaigns performed during 2011. there is also the possibility that because of past killings, there are fewer bears in the area. we observed some signs of bears in the nearby forest, which precludes the possibility that bears were totally absent in the area. mining activity has increased during this time and several mining cooperatives are functioning in the area; therefore, the residents of the studied communities prefer to engage in mining rather than agriculture. as the cooperative mining camps increase, dynamite explosions are more frequent. this noise may terrify the andean bear in the area, perhaps displacing bears and explaining the reduced observations in the last few years. despite the reduced number of sightings and damage to crops, the perception of the people towards the andean bear remains negative. the substantial overestimation of risk associated with carnivores, including bears, could be the result of a cognitive illusion, which occurs when rare events are so memorable and easily recalled that individuals overestimate their frequency (knopff et al. 2016). as we predicted, plots located nearer to the forest were more often visited by wildlife and had higher damage (figueroa 2015; kattan et al. 2014). as the distance from the village center increases, farm plots are not visited as often. locals admit that they did not usually look after their crops when they are located near the forest. further, they are not willing to take further actions. damage varies from crop to crop and locality. net losses were almost 40% when closest to the forest and gradually reduced over a distance of about 5–6 km, especially when closer to human settlements. bears naturally avoid humans but can become habituated to areas occupied by humans when they provide an easy source of food (belant et al. 2011; conover 2008), thereby increasing conflicts and negative perceptions of the species. similar outcomes were registered in communities near the natural area of integrated management apolobamba (morales 2003), where locals indicated that most of the damage by wildlife is usually in crops near the forest edge. andean bears were one of the main culprits of wildlife-related crop damage. albarracín and aliaga-rossel. 2018. ethnobiology letters 9(2):323–332 330 research communications since the blame for damage is being incorrectly attributed, our work suggests that there is a greater need for environmental education. education and outreach programs could help teach locals that the andean bear is not responsible for their crop losses, while also increasing knowledge of the ecological role bears play and the importance of healthy forests. environmental education programs can be a successful conservation strategy (smith 2015; van der ploeget al. 2011). in europe, kaczensky et al. (2004) found that positive perceptions of black bears and wolves were related to higher levels of education and more knowledge about those species; therefore, by acquiring accurate information, human–andean bear conflicts can be reduced (albarracín et al. 2013; atwood and breck 2012; conover 2008; dickman 2010; figueroa 2015), effectively promoting the coexistence humans and bears. locals could also be encouraged to become advocates for conservation. finally, we conclude that climate was the primary reason for damage to maize and other crops, followed by parakeets and skunks. although there is some evidence that andean bears do attack crops (figueroa 2015; goldstein et al. 2006; morales 2003), they are blamed for substantially more losses than they actually cause. it is much easier to blame bears than to admit that a farmer does not look after their crops. during our study period, we did not find evidence that the andean bear had caused damage to crops. when we visited the area two years later, locals were still attributing crop losses to bears. knowledge of the interactions between wild animals and production systems through studies such as this can contribute to the generation of alternatives for better crop management and wildlife conflicts. human–carnivore coexistence is possible even with human population presence. this requires long-term education campaigns and proactive prevention of conflict. acknowledgments thanks to the popular education center qhana in chuñavi, for support in logistics, and to the aymara indigenous communities lambate and chuñavi for allowing us to work with them. thanks to sheena barrenechea who assisted during all the stages of the fieldwork. rob wallace, sarah dalle, lana m. ciarniello, mac marston, andrew gillreath-brown, and nicolas molina gave important suggestions for the manuscript. declarations permissions: none declared. sources of funding: this work was supported by puma foundation, conservation international-bolivia, and 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[the andean bear in lambate region]. icap. instituto científico “alax pacha” secretaria ejecutiva pl 480, bolivia. yates, f. 1984. tests of significance for 2 x 2 contingency tables. journal of the royal statistical society. series a (general) 147:426–463. doi:10.2307/2981577. saving the greater adjutant stork by changing perceptions and linking to assamese traditions in india barman et al. 2020. ethnobiology letters 11(2):20–29 20 perspectives 1990s it was thought that the population was around 400 birds (perennou et al. 1994). reasons for the decline of the greater adjutant population include habitat destruction, felling of nest-trees, drainage and pollution of wetlands, poaching, and environmental contaminants (birdlife international 2019). greater adjutant storks are now found only in assam and bihar in india (choudhary et al. 2011; mandal and saikia 2013), and in cambodia (campbell et al. 2006). the total population was assessed in 2008 to be 800 to 1200 mature individuals (approximately 1200 to 1800 birds in total), with a decreasing population trend (birdlife international 2019). the current population is likely to be less than 1% of the population of 100 years ago. introduction the greater adjutant stork (leptoptilos dubius; see figure 1) is the second rarest stork species in the world and is classified in the iucn red list as endangered (birdlife international 2016). the species has a ranking in the top 100 of 9895 species of birds for evolutionarily distinct and globally endangered (edge) scores (jetz et al. 2014). the greater adjutant was previously widely distributed from pakistan through northern india, nepal, and bangladesh to myanmar, thailand, laos, vietnam, and cambodia (birdlife international 2001). the population has been estimated to be many hundreds of thousands in the late 1800s (birdlife international 2001); however, there was a dramatic decline during the first half of the 20th century, and in the early saving the greater adjutant stork by changing perceptions and linking to assamese traditions in india purnima devi barman1*, d. k. sharma2, john f. cockrem3, mamani malakar1, bibekananda kakati1, and tracy melvin4 1aaranyak, guwahati, assam, india. 2university of science and technology meghalaya, baridua, india. 3school of veterinary science, massey university, palmerston north, new zealand. 4department of fisheries and wildlife, michigan state university, east lansing, usa. *purnima.aaranyak@gmail.com abstract the greater adjutant stork (leptoptilos dubius), locally known as hargila (the bone swallower) is an endangered bird with an estimated global population of less than 1200. habitat loss, poisoning, and poaching have caused large declines in populations of this stork in south asia, with the brahmaputra valley in assam in northeastern india now the last stronghold for the species. the stork nests colonially in privately owned trees within thickly populated villages. tree owners would cut down trees to prevent rotten food and excreta of this carnivorous bird from falling into their backyards. a change in attitudes of the nest-tree owners towards keeping their trees and towards greater adjutants has been the key to stork conservation. a conservation project involving community development, education and outreach, interlinking storks with local traditions and cultures, and capacity building of local communities was initiated in 2007. a rural women's conservation group named the hargila army was instituted and strong feelings of pride and ownership for the storks by the villagers have been generated. cash incentives for nest protection were deliberately avoided, with schemes that indirectly contribute to the livelihoods of nest-tree owners and other villagers introduced instead. the success of the conservation program is shown by the increase in the number of nesting colonies in the village area of dadara, pachariya, and singimari in kamrup district in assam from 28 nests in 2007–08 to 208 nests in the 2019–20 breeding season, making this the largest breeding colony of greater adjutant storks in the world. received september 9, 2019 open access accepted april 7, 2020 doi 10.14237/ebl.11.2.2020.1648 published december 4, 2020 keywords women’s leadership, conservation programs, community development, ethno-ornithology copyright © 2020 by the author(s) licensee society of ethnobiology. this is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution-noncommercial 4.0 international public license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0), which permits non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. barman et al. 2020. ethnobiology letters 11(2):20–29 21 perspectives knowledge of breeding sites of greater adjutants in india was limited to 75 sites found during a survey conducted in 1989 and 1990 in assam (saikia and bhattacharjee 1990a, 1990b). the largest colony had 31 nests, with most of the nests in private forest areas in villages and suburban areas. threats to the species were identified as the killing of storks, felling of nesting trees for wood or to remove storks due to dislike of the noise and smell of nests with young birds, lack of awareness of the species and its status as legally protected, and the loss of wetland foraging habitat (saikia and bhattacharjee 1990b). a survey of greater adjutants conducted in both breeding and nonbreeding seasons from 1994 to 1996 found 573 storks in the brahmaputra valley of assam in the breeding season. almost 75% of the assam population was in the kamrup district, primarily near the city of guwahati (singha et al. 2003). the birds bred in privately owned trees, preferring trees in thickly populated villages. the largest breeding colonies of greater adjutants were in the dadarapachariya-singimari villages of the kamrup district. a survey by the first author and a team in 2007 and 2008 found only 40 nests and 430 birds in all of assam. greater adjutants build nests in tall trees on private land in the home gardens of villagers. the trees were most commonly neolamarckia cadamba, bombax ceiba, artocarpus lacocha, artocarpus heterophylu, pithecellobium monadelphu, and archidendron bigeminum (barman 2018). nesting trees could be located very close to houses, with up to 15 nests in one tree. adult birds bring fish, snakes, waste meat, and bones to their nests to feed the chicks. these food items often fall on the ground along with fecal matter of the birds, so the area underneath the nesting sites often has a foul smell. chicks can fall from the flimsy nests and dead chicks underneath the nests make the area unpleasant. the owners of nest trees often used to disturb the birds to make them leave. nest-tree owners would also fell the nesting trees to earn extra money to support their families, especially during marriages of their daughters and sons. many of the nest-tree owners believed that conservation of the bird was the responsibility of a government forest department and the government should pay the owners if they allowed the storks to make nests in their private trees. this article describes the development of community support for conservation of the greater adjutant stork in the nesting colony in the dadarapachariya-singimari village areas of the kamrup district in assam. the conservation efforts were initiated in 2007. before then the villagers, particularly the tree owners, did not know that the greater adjutant is an endangered bird and that nests in their villages were important for the survival of the storks. the villagers responded to the initiation of the conservation program and became involved in the protection of the trees and in activities to promote the conservation of the storks. this has resulted in a three-fold increase in the number of successful nests in the colony since the conservation program began. study area the authors initiated a holistic community conservation program in 2007 in the dadarapachariya-singimari villages of the kamrup district of assam. dadara, singimari, and pachariya (26°13.31'9” n and 91° 37.58'6” e) are three adjoining small villages approximately 12 km from guwahati city (see figure 2). these villages are situated near poondoba beel, digholi beel, and jeng beel (beel means wetland in assam). the brahmaputra river is about four kilometers from these villages while the deepor beel, a figure 1 greater adjutant stork in assam. photograph by rathin barman. barman et al. 2020. ethnobiology letters 11(2):20–29 22 perspectives wildlife sanctuary and internationally recognized waterbird site, is about eight kilometers away. the guwahati garbage dump, a feeding area for greater adjutants in the non-breeding season, is about 14 km from the villages. the climate of the area is humid mesothermal brahmaputra with hot, wet summers. reported minimum and maximum temperatures are 7° c and 38.5° c. the annual rainfall in the district ranges from 1500 to 2200 mm. overview of conservation program we started with a pre-campaign survey in dadarapachariya-singimari villages to understand the motivations of the nest-tree owners. the survey results indicated that the villagers were not aware of the importance of the endangered greater adjutant. in many cultures around the world birds are considered to provide omens of the future (hull and fergus 2017; wyndham and park 2018). the stork was treated by the villagers as a bad omen because it feeds on the carcasses of animals and brings bones and debris to its nesting trees. people cut down the nest building trees due to the messy habits of the birds and to clear the land for house expansion. they were also not fully aware of the importance of wildlife conservation in their daily lives. various community conservation activities were designed to motivate nest-tree owners based on the survey results. we identified various key groups in the villages who could influence the nest-tree owners to allow greater adjutants to make nests in their private trees. we approached young students, women, and respected elderly persons from the locality to generate an “ownership feeling” amongst the villagers for having greater adjutants in their villages. a rural women's group named the hargila army was instituted to empower the women and to expand their voices to protect the storks. livelihood tools (approaches that help people gain capabilities to financially sustain their households) were introduced to these women and regular biodiversity classes were organized to empower and enlighten the women. as a result, 10,000 rural women have pledged to be involved in the hargila army and to be voices for unprotected areas. baby showers for stork chicks were regularly organized to encourage the women. looms and yarn were distributed and opportunities for the women to enroll in a diploma in fashion technology were provided. these women were engaged in figure 2 location of study area in kamrup district in assam, india. maps from india map with states clipart (https:// www.clipart.email/clipart/india-map-with-states-clipart-232537.html) and creative commons by planemad/wikimedia (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/file:india_assam_locator_map.svg). barman et al. 2020. ethnobiology letters 11(2):20–29 23 perspectives weaving traditional assamese garments called gamosas, with stork motifs incorporated into the traditional decorations. the hargila campaign was integrated with the holy book bhagawat gita procession, a local festival of the community. a conservation campaign was planned involving students, villagers, celebrities, media personalities, and policy makers. regular education workshops were arranged in local schools and community sites to raise the awareness of the villagers and school children living in the vicinity of the breeding colony. meetings were organized between policy makers and local people to understand the local situation for conservation of the bird. information sheets were published in local languages to spread the message of conservation of the stork and were distributed freely to local people, school libraries, and community places. street plays were performed in the vicinity of the breeding colonies to portray the situation of this bird and the need for its conservation. it is not uncommon for chicks to fall out of nests. nylon nets were placed under the nesting colonies to catch fallen chicks. chicks that fell into the nets were taken to the assam state zoo for rehabilitation and hand rearing. chicks that survived were released back into the wild. events were organized when chicks were released so that the conservation needs of the storks could be highlighted. released birds were named after local school children and after renowned conservationists and tree owners’ children. some releases were also celebrated by symbolically naming the birds after women from tree-owning families. seventy-eight chicks have been released. policy makers were enlisted into the program when conducting major field events such as bird releases. a baby shower program for greater adjutants during the breeding season was initiated, an in-kind donations program with awards to nest-tree owners’ children for excelling in examinations was begun, and wetland day celebrations and earth day celebrations were held. a process to formulate a species recovery plan for the greater adjutant was initiated. this was done through a series of workshops where government policy makers were invited along with experts in this field. during these meetings, government decision makers were informed about the facts and figures of this species and made aware of the urgent need for its conservation. the first author donated money which she received from the president of india for her nari shakti purashkar award (the highest civilian award for indian women) to the women of the villages. she has also donated money from several other awards and has donated personal resources to the village women which has led to increased awareness of their responsibilities for conservation of the storks. work with women greater adjutant storks in assam nest in trees that are often in backyard gardens of village houses. the storks were disliked as they were considered to be unclean due to their habits of feeding on garbage and on waste from the slaughter of animals including cows. the birds drop partially eaten animal food and fecal matter into the gardens, thereby creating extra work for village women to keep their gardens clean. a focus of the conservation program for the storks has been to work with women in the villages. village women were initially shy and reluctant to participate in conservation discussions, so programs were organized specifically for the women. we played a “web of life” string game with them to help them understand the importance of each species in their surroundings. we organized cooking, crafts, and folk music competitions for the women who were not comfortable with participating in discussions. a cooking competition held during the assamese bihu festival provided an opportunity for women to spontaneously participate in discussions about conservation of greater adjutants in their own villages. during the discussion, they were amazed to know that this endangered bird had chosen only their villages in which to breed. this knowledge led them to decide that they would not allow any disturbances during the breeding season of this bird. they even celebrated and publicly made wishes to the birds for a successful nesting season in their villages in the same way as they celebrate the first pregnancies of their own female relatives. the hargila army, economic help for women, and traditional linkage through weaving we formed a rural women's group called the hargila army to help empower women to conserve greater adjutants whilst at the same time helping them with their economic livelihoods. the women were primarily from families that own trees with nests, and all had expert weaving skills. we provided weaving looms, yarn, and sewing machines so that the women could create textiles decorated with traditional assamese motifs. training at a local fashion institute barman et al. 2020. ethnobiology letters 11(2):20–29 24 perspectives was arranged for village women. the gamosa is a traditional assamese scarf which is another reflection of assam culture and this gamosa is highly respected and loved by assamese people. gamosas are made with stork motifs by the hargila army women of the nesting colony. they were very proud to make these gamosas, which were not only sold as tools of livelihoods but also presented to guests, government officials, experts, and media personnel who visited the nesting colony as gestures from the villagers. a communal weaving center was established in 2017 after the project received a whitley award (also called a green oscar) so the women could come and weave together. an internship training program on weaving was also designed so that rural women could learn weaving and get certificates. eighty sewing machines were distributed in 2019 and this facility became stronger. this facility trained and benefited around 1,050 women from the village including women from adjacent areas. the hargila army is a group that not only works for the hargila but is also a voice of women for saving rural and backyard biodiversity in unprotected areas where the government does not have influence. we received requests from villagers to be paid to conserve storks nesting in their village. we consciously avoided offering cash to the nest-tree owners to support the stork nesting colonies. this decision was made as the sustainability of cash offers would be very difficult and this might create bigger problems for the bird in the future. instead, we have provided new economic opportunities for the women so their financial livelihood can be linked with their involvement with conservation. work with school students and young people at the very beginning of the conservation program we created environmental education activities for local school students. rather than going from one school to another, we concentrated on a small private school (sankardeva sisu niketan) located at the heart of the nesting colony villages. the majority of the pupils at this school were children of nest-tree owners. we introduced the students to the importance of biodiversity and wildlife conservation through play and group activities. children were involved through spot drawing competitions and after each competition a presentation was made to them describing the importance of this bird. quizzes and poetry competitions for the students were also held in order to involve the students in conservation of the greater adjutant in their villages. regular environmental education activities with the students of this school gradually introduced them to the greater adjutant. they all were surprised to know that they lived with an endangered bird in their home gardens. as the program developed, local schools were designated as guardians of the storks. apart from these programs, educational materials (posters and leaflets) were published and freely distributed among the local students. work in the first 12 years of the conservation program has educated 12,000 school children in learning about nature, bird watching, and other activities to increase their awareness of the natural environment. we introduced a small scholarship program for local students who secured good marks in board examinations. local students were the beneficiaries and almost all of them were children of nest-tree owners. we organized many group meetings with youth in their twenties. the young people were informed about the importance of the greater adjutant, and it was specifically mentioned that if they successfully conserved this nesting colony, their village could be a destination for bird tourism. a few bird tourism groups were introduced to these young people who served as guides in birding trips to the nesting colony. young people were also taken to the assam state zoo to introduce them to other conservation initiatives. in the nesting colony many young chicks die after falling out of their nests (barman, 2018). although this is a natural process, saving chicks that fall from nests will help the population of an endangered bird. once the groups of young people knew about the importance of this bird, they rescued many nest-fall chicks and handed them over to the assam state zoo for further treatment and rehabilitation. the young people did not previously have any concern for these nest-fall birds which would otherwise have died. released birds were named after young students so that the motivation for conservation of this bird would be taken to another level. work with local police it is always important to have on board law enforcing authorities while implementing any community conservation program in india. we engaged with the local police as stakeholders for conservation of this globally endangered bird. the kamrup police department was invited to participate in the conservation efforts for storks in the local nesting colony. police department staff actively participated barman et al. 2020. ethnobiology letters 11(2):20–29 25 perspectives in conservation program activities and even voluntarily published a roadside sign with conservation messages about the storks in the area. the involvement of police made a real difference and poachers did not have the courage to disturb or kill storks in the colony. integration with local religious events the story about storks helping in the delivery of human babies was narrated to the local elderly women. they liked the story and decided to include storks in the local religious procession (figure 3). this motivated people greatly and they publicly supported the conservation efforts for this stork in their area. when we started conservation work in 2007, villagers complained about the birds and cut down nesting trees of storks. after some years of active community engagement, the villages have taken ownership of the species and are proud to live with the hargila. incorporation of the conservation campaign into the villagers’ ritual belief system has played a large part in the effort to protect the species. tree and animal species are symbols of gods and goddesses in indian culture (bhatt 2010), and mythology and ritual beliefs can be a major tool for enhancing conservation awareness. the greater adjutant is called garuda (the bird vehicle of lord vishnu) in bihar mythology and people treat this bird as god. we used this mythology to motivate the women’s group. in 2015 an awareness program was held during janmashtami (the birth festival of lord shri krishna) with women of dadara village. the women were motivated to write naam songs (prayer songs) with hargila conservation messages and to perform street drama to motivate others. village womenfolk prayed to god for a better life for their bird called hargila who comes to their villages for breeding year after year. village women composed new prayer songs, for example “hargila, you are safe in our village. come and breed here and grow your family. figure 3 a cultural procession for stork conservation. photograph by rathin barman. barman et al. 2020. ethnobiology letters 11(2):20–29 26 perspectives we are blessed with your presence in our villages”. publicity media organizations are briefed periodically about the importance of the greater adjutant through many formal and informal meetings. the media play a very positive role and keep publishing information about the conservation program so the general public are made aware of the program activities. outcomes from the publicity include sharing information about the storks with people from very remote areas. publicity has included the preparation of a poster in the local vernacular language. the poster highlighted the importance of the bird and appealed for its conservation. the poster was distributed freely to villagers, students, and community groups in the areas with stork colonies and has been very popular. a leaflet with similar messages was also prepared and presented to government officials. a campaign using social media with a facebook group page “greater adjutant network” has been part of the conservation program. many participants have subscribed to this web page and valuable information and suggestions have been gathered through facebook. the group enables the exchange of information for conservation of the greater adjutant in assam. some participants in the page have volunteered during a survey of the status of greater adjutants throughout assam and have even participated in various campaign field activities. involvement of a local celebrity a popular assamese film actress, ms. prastuti parasar, was invited to visit the nesting colony. she was asked to interact with the local people to encourage the conservation of this bird. local people were overwhelmed by the presence of this celebrity in their own villages, sitting with them and having tea with them. the message from the celebrity had a deep impact, especially in young people. they promised the celebrity to support the endangered greater adjutant in their villages. the celebrity publicly felicitated all the nest-tree owners and photo sessions were arranged for the nest-tree owners with the celebrity. felicitation is a hindu practice to honor someone as a mark of respect by wrapping a shawl around their shoulders. the visit to the nest sites in the villages by the popular assamese film actress was an instant hit and was found to be very effective for spreading the conservation message. the villagers said that because of the storks the film celebrity visited their villages and they felt proud of that. success of the conservation program when the first author visited this nesting colony in 2007–08, there were 28 nests and trees were being cut down in this colony and in other adjacent colonies in assam. she started the conservation campaign and with support from local communities tried to ban the hunting of storks which was done by outsider tribal groups. these groups hunted storks for food and there were reports that stork meat was sometimes sold in restaurants as chicken meat. as a result of the continuous conservation efforts not a single tree has been cut down since 2010 and nest numbers have increased. communities have banned the hunting and killing of this species which was often done by a group of tribal people coming from other villages. the hargila army now has 400 women as tree protectors. four hundred women and their families have received benefits for their livelihoods, and 1,050 rural women have benefitted from schemes to learn new skills. furthermore, 12,000 school children received nature learning opportunities and bird watching training as future conservators. nest numbers at the nesting colony increased eight-fold from 28 nests in 2007 to 208 in 2020 and the kamrup district colony is now the largest greater adjutant colony in asia. nests numbers in assam state have increased from 40 to 270 nests over 12 years. we conducted a survey of greater adjutant storks in 2020 and found 950 birds in assam. communities responded to the conservation program and stopped felling nesting trees in dadara pacahriya village, with no trees cut down since 2010. in 2007 six trees were cut down, in 2008 six big nesting trees were cut down, and in 2009 four nesting trees were cut down, so slowly people stopped cutting down the trees. the stork population has continued to grow (figure 4), and in the 2019–2020 breeding season there were 208 successful nests in this breeding colony. there are about 650 storks in the district in which the colony is located and the colony is the largest known greater adjutant nesting colony. the number of storks at a garbage dumping site near guwahati city, the main feeding ground for the storks in the nonbreeding season, has also increased since the conservation program began. the current population of storks is approximately 50% greater than reported after a survey conducted in the breeding season in 1994–1995 and in the nonbreeding season barman et al. 2020. ethnobiology letters 11(2):20–29 27 perspectives in 1996 (singha et al. 2003). each year the colony is recruiting into the breeding population an average of 75 birds that had previously fledged from the colony as chicks. furthermore, 85 young birds that had fallen from nests have been rescued and released so far. support from the community and the work of the conservation program led to recognition of these villages by birdlife international as important bird areas (iba site in-as-49 dadara-pachariyasingimari) (rahmani et al. 2016). however, rapid urbanization and unplanned city developments which are expanding to these villages will pose a major threat to this species and its wetland habitats. conclusion our program has focused on involvement of the community through persistent and creative approaches to changing people’s attitudes towards the storks and developing feelings of ownership of the birds. involvement of village women has been crucial, including the provision of economic help for their livelihoods. integration of hargila conservation into local festivals and belief systems, and work with school students and young people have also been important for the success of the program. this model of community conservation has been included in the school curriculum in india. villagers of the kamrup district nesting colony became an example for community conservation of greater adjutants in other districts in assam. conservation groups should visit villages in other districts regularly to make the conservation effort ongoing. community based organizations need to be involved to sustain conservation activities for this figure 4 number of successful greater adjutant stork nests in dadara, pasariya, and singimari villages in assam. the dashed line shows a linear regression (y=13.3x + 34.6, r2=0.853, p<0.0001; linear regression conducted using prism [graphpad software, la jolla, ca]), indicating that the increase in the number of nests since 2007 is statistically significant. barman et al. 2020. ethnobiology letters 11(2):20–29 28 perspectives endangered bird in all nesting colonies in assam. bird tourism in these villages might help towards conservation of this species but this needs to be carried out with the active participation of local people and should not be operated for the sole benefit of tour operators. the bird was once hated by local people due to its association with slaughterhouse wastes (against the local religious sentiment), but now the same group of people feels that they are the owners of this bird in their locality. they even symbolically took the birds into their village religious ceremonies. also, in addition to continuing the program the government should carry out a proper planning process so that the greater adjutants and other species which breed in non-protected areas are not adversely affected by unplanned development. our program is a striking example of working with local knowledge and beliefs and incorporating religious events into a successful conservation program for an endangered species of bird. it is rare for ethno-ornithology, the inter-relationships between birds and people that include traditional indigenous knowledge (tidemann et al. 2010), to be included in avian conservation programs (bonta 2010). indeed, the greater adjutant stork program may be the most successful example of such a program. the conservation program for the hargila can be a practical model for other conservation programs for endangered birds that live and breed in rural districts where the nesting and feeding sites are not in protected areas. the program is also a model of work with local communities to change perceptions of birds perceived as unwanted, for example the endangered egyptian vulture (neophron percnopterus) (cortésavizanda et al. 2018) and the griffon vulture (gyps fulvus) (margalida et al. 2014) in spain. in conclusion, the greater adjutant stork program demonstrates the value of an ethno-ornithological approach to avian conservation in which local people and their beliefs are at the heart of work to halt and reverse the decline of a bird species. acknowledgments we extend our heartiest thanks to the conservation leadership program, whitley fund for nature, women in nature network, bombay natural history society, new zealand high commission, new delhi, india, kamrup district administration, and the kamrup police for supporting us in conservation initiatives for greater adjutants in assam. we are greatly indebted to professor simon stuart from synchronicity earth, professor robert elner and professor robert butler (27th international ornithological congress), dr. ashish john from wcs vietnam, and dr. kira mileham from iucn for their immense guidance. we are very thankful to dr. asad rahmani of the bombay natural history society, to mr. b.c. choudhury, scientist (rtd) of the wildlife institute of india and to dr. bibhab kumar talukdar, ceo of aaranyak, for their support and advice throughout the conservation program. we highly appreciate and acknowledge the assam forest department for their support. we are also highly thankful to the iucn ssc stork ibis spoonbill group for their support. we highly acknowledge the villagers of dadara, pachariya, and singimari for their constant support. we thank dr. nicole sault for the invitation to contribute to the avian voices special issue of this journal, and for her comments on the manuscript. declarations permissions: none declared. sources of funding: funding was received from the conservation leadership program, whitley fund for nature, 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asian waterfowl census 1987–91: distribution and status of asian waterfowl. kuala lumpur: asian wetland bureau publication no. 86. international waterfowl and wetlands research bureau publication no. 24. kuala lumpur, malaysia and slimbridge, united kingdom. rahmani, a. r., m. z. islam, and r. m. kasambe. 2016. important bird and biodiversity areas in india. priority sites for conservation. second edition: revised and updated. volume i. bombay natural history society, indian bird conservation network, royal society for the protection of birds and birdlife international (u.k.), mumbai, india. saikia, p., and p. c. bhattacharjee. 1990a. discovery of greater adjutant nesting colonies outside the protected areas of assam, india. newsletter for birdwatchers 30:3. saikia, p., and p. c. bhattacharjee. 1990b. nesting records of greater adjutant storks in assam, india. icbp/iwwrb/iucnnr specialist group on storks, ibises and spoonbills newsletter 3:2–3. singha, h., a. r. rahmani, m. c. coulter, and s. javed. 2003. surveys for greater adjutant leptoptilos dubius in the brahmaputra valley, assam, india during 1994–1996. forktail 19:146–148. tidemann, s. c., s. chirgwin, and j. r. sinclair. 2010. indigenous knowledges, birds that have ‘spoken’ and science. in ethno-ornithology. birds, indigenous peoples, culture and society, 1st edition, edited by s. c. tidemann and a. gosler, pp. 3–12. taylor and francis, london. wyndham, f. s., and k. e. park. 2018. “listen carefully to the voices of the birds”: a comparative review of birds as signs. journal of ethnobiology 38:533–549. doi:10.2993/0278-077138.4.533. crafting wounaan landscapes: identity, art, and environmental governance in panama's darién. by julie velásquez runk. 2017. university of arizona press, tucson, az. 313 pp. french. 2021. ethnobiology letters 12(1):19–20 19 reviews america, culminating in the creation of the panama canal many years later. it is this political and social climate of military action, trade, and cultural mixing, that forms the backdrop to velásquez runk’s study. chapter 3 focuses on indigenous cosmologies/ ontologies, which revolve around local riverways, which are used for social exchanges, trade, and are the home to local spirits. images of riverine wildlife decorate local basketry and carvings, reinforcing the importance of these landscapes. in wounaan culture, landscapes are marked by their own topography of spirits: they inhabit different ecosystems but also organic and inorganic objects, and can affect those who come in contact with them both negatively and positively. the result of this worldview is a charged landscape. where outsiders might view an empty, silent forest, the wounaan view the same space as teeming with spirits. chapters 4 and 5 focus on forest use and craft traditions. many indigenous carvings are made of cocobolo (dalbergia sp.), a tropical rosewood that produces heavy, hard wood in multiple colors. artisans primarily use roots and branches from fallen trees, preserving the living forests where possible. in the past artisans mostly created domestic objects (e.g., tools and utensils) but have shifted to pieces that might appeal to tourists (e.g., animal sculptures) in recent years. the wounaan are also known for their how does the environment shape cultural identity and how can this knowledge be used to inform conservation activities? julie velásquez runk takes us on a unique journey to panama’s darién, weaving together anthropology, history, and ecology to understand the central role of landscape to the wounaan people and to argue for a more culturally conscious form of biodiversity management. the wounaan people live along the chucunaque, sambú, and tuira rivers; their livelihoods are based on a mix of subsistence fishing, swidden agriculture, and crafts (mainly baskets and tagua figurines) made from forest products. velásquez runk has a unique expertise on the area; she previously conducted conservation work in the region (1996–2001) followed by two stints of ethnographic fieldwork (2001–2005 and 2006–2016). this experience of both the land and people make her an expert on the subject and lends nuance to her calls to shift conservation practices in the region. chapters 1 and 2 provide historical and geographic background to the region. archaeological evidence suggests that indigenous people have occupied the area for at least 3,800 years, cultivating maize (zea mays) and practicing swidden agriculture, until subsequent occupation by the spanish 350 years ago changed the region. population levels declined and the panama canal region became a hotspot for international trade in gold and minerals from south crafting wounaan landscapes: identity, art, and environmental governance in panama's darién. by julie velásquez runk. 2017. university of arizona press, tucson, az. 313 pp. editor's note: this book has also just been published in spanish, by bogotá's instituto colombiana de antropología e historia with the title: los wounaan y la construcción de su paisaje: identidad, arte y gobernanza ambiental en la frontera panamácolombia. 2020. katherine e. french1* 1department of plant and microbial biology koshland hall, berkeley, usa. *katharine.e.french@gmail.com received august 23, 2020 open access accepted september 11, 2020 doi 10.14237/ebl.12.1.2021.1727 published february 1, 2021 copyright © 2021 by the author(s); licensee society of ethnobiology. this is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution-noncommercial 4.0 international public license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0), which permits non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. french. 2021. ethnobiology letters 12(1):19–20 20 reviews basketry, which are made from the fibers of the chunga or black palm (astrocaryum standleyanum). these goods are an important source of income where informal wage labor is scarce. wounaan young men also collect the seeds from the tagua palm to produce carvings of local wildlife (e.g., hummingbirds) for tourists. finally, chapter 6 delves into scientific paradigms and political motivations driving conservation activities in the region and how indigenous communities have used international conservation paradigms like redd+ (reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation) to express their agency in managing and using their local landscape/natural resources. the text is rich in wounaan language and contains a glossary of terms at the end of the book. numerous black and white photos of the landscape and inhabitants complement the text and give the reader a sense of place. velásquez runk’s book touches upon a topic not usually covered in conservation: the role of indigenous ontologies in setting conservation priorities and managing landscapes with both local and global importance. the anthropological study of ontology focuses on how world views are constructed, expressed and passed on from generation to generation. in the case of the wounaan, myths about the surrounding forests and rivers shape their ontologies of life, health and community and permeate their art. how they conceive, value, and engage with the natural world is intimately connected to these beliefs. velásquez runk notes that conservation objectives are often driven by scientific goals (preserving biodiversity) or political agendas (controlling access to land/resources). this process has the potential to disenfranchise the people who inhabit these landscapes; it also threatens their identity, culture, and livelihoods. velásquez runk demonstrates that integrating indigenous ontologies can help direct which resources are protected and how in a manner that benefits local communities as well as conservationists. this echoes the work of other anthropologists who note integrating ontology into conservation can strengthen local adoption of and active participation in conservation polices (fernández‐llamazares and cabeza 2018; schroeder and gonzález 2019), develop more nuanced conservation programs based on local ecological knowledge (rist and dahdouh-guebas 2006), and promote indigenous decision‐making authority and self‐governance while decolonizing environmental management (muller et al. 2019). overall, this book would appeal to those interested in central and south american ethnobiology and new ways of conducting conservation. references cited fernández‐llamazares, á., and m. cabeza. 2018. rediscovering the potential of indigenous storytelling for conservation practice. conservation letters 11:e12398. doi:10.1111/conl.12398. muller, s., s. hemming, and d. rigney. 2019. indigenous sovereignties: relational ontologies and environmental management. geographical research 57:399–410. doi:10.1111/1745-5871.12362. rist, s., and f. dahdouh-guebas. 2006. ethnosciences––a step towards the integration of scientific and indigenous forms of knowledge in the management of natural resources for the future. environment, development and sustainability 8:467–493. doi:10.1007/s10668-006-9050-7. schroeder, h., and n. c. gonzález. 2019. bridging knowledge divides: the case of indigenous ontologies of territoriality and redd+. forest policy and economics 100:198–206. doi:10.1016/ j.forpol.2018.12.010. host plants association with longhorn beetles of food value: traditional knowledge of the guaraní as cultural identity keepers araujo et al. 2021. ethnobiology letters 12(1):85–93 85 data, methods & taxonomies van itterbeeck and van huis 2012). among the american peoples there is evidence of the consumption of insects up to 9,500 bp (van itterbeeck and van huis 2012); at present, environmental management techniques have been developed for some host plant species to promote the growth of edible insects (defoliart 1995). the larval rearing of several species of the genus rhynchophorus (known as palm weevils, order coleoptera family: dryophthoridae), is well known, with tropical palms being the main managed host plants. the consumption of these larvae as a food resource is widely distributed and has frequently been cited (choo et al. 2009; defoliart 1995). the cerambycidae family, which encompasses the insects dealt with in this work, is made up of approximately 35,000 species distributed throughout the planet (monné et al. 2017). they are phytophagous or xylophagous beetles (kariyanna et al. 2017) commonly known as wood beetles or longhorn introduction the study of how people perceive the relationships between humans, plants, and animals is a topic of interest in ethnoecology (davidson-hunt 2000), whose focus is to record the ecological knowledge of different human groups (gerique 2006). ethnoentomology is the branch of ethnoecology which studies the perception, knowledge, and traditional use of insects by different cultures (costa neto 2002; posey 1987). ethnoentomology research addresses diverse topics, including research on insects as human food, crop pests, medicines, hallucinogens, ornamentation, management, and their importance to myths and folklore (posey 1983; van itterbeeck and van huis 2012). food use stands out as an important category in traditional and peasant communities (costa neto 2004). around 1,800 edible species are used by more than 3,000 ethnic groups on the planet (ramos elorduy 1997), with reports from asia, africa, australia and tropical america (ramos elorduy 1997; host plants association with longhorn beetles of food value: traditional knowledge of the guaraní as cultural identity keepers jorge justino araujo1, 2, héctor alejandro keller2, 3, and norma inés hilgert1, 2* 1instituto de biología subtropical, ibs-conicet, universidad nacional de misiones, puerto iguazú, misiones, argentina. 2facultad de ciencias forestales, universidad nacional de misiones, puerto iguazú, misiones, argentina. 3instituto de botánica del nordeste, unne-conicet, sargento cabral, corrientes, argentina. *normahilgert@yahoo.com.ar abstract the study of plant-insect interactions and how cultural groups perceive and manage them constitutes one of the interests of ethnoentomology. this work describes the association between host plants and longhorn beetles (order: coleoptera; family: cerambycidae), an important food among the guaraní peoples of the province of misiones, argentina. different management methods of host tree species are analyzed in order to promote the rearing of larvae for edible use. we also discuss a story about the mythical origin of cerambicids relayed by the ava chiripa guaraní community. we reflect on the importance of the local worldview in the maintenance of ancestral practices, such as the cultural tasks involved in slash-and-burn agriculture and the intimate knowledge of biological relationships between the cerambycids and their woody host plants. received december 31, 2020 open access accepted june 30, 2021 doi 10.14237/ebl.12.1.2021.1743 published september 14, 2021 keywords local knowledge, edible insects, cerambycidae, traditional plant management copyright © 2021 by the author(s); licensee society of ethnobiology. this is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution-noncommercial 4.0 international public license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0), which permits non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. araujo et al. 2021. ethnobiology letters 12(1):85–93 86 data, methods & taxonomies beetles because of their showy antennae, which are almost always longer than the rest of the body (martins et al. 2009). in some tree species, adult beetles of this family cut the perimeter of the bark and part of the log from branches forming a ring. this causes the branches to weaken and fall to the ground where female beetles oviposit. because of this reproductive behavior they are considered a plague in the forestry and fruit-horticultural sectors (monné et al. 2017). in contrast, when this particular interaction can be promoted, it continues to provide an important food source for some indigenous guaraní communities that maintain ancestral practices (defoliart 1995). little information in ethnoentomological records on longhorn beetles as food can be found in studies carried out among the guaraní peoples in argentina. the scarce published scholarship on the subject in local and global literature limits the possibility of an extensive discussion. indeed, the only antecedents found discuss certain prohibitions or reproductive taboos associated with the use of logs infested by these insects’ larvae as firewood. likewise, certain mythological associations in the guaraní worldview were recorded for coleopterans from other taxonomic groups, specifically between a bamboo species (chusquea ramosissima, poaceae) and beetles of the dynastidae family (keller 2003, 2010). in this study, we analyze the knowledge and practices carried out by guaraní forest managers from the eastern region of the province of misiones in relation to the interactions between host plants and longhorn beetles for food use. study site the atlantic forest of alto paraná extends from the western slopes of the serra do mar in brazil to eastern paraguay and the province of misiones in argentina. the forest is 471,204 km2 with only 7% of its original coverage preserved (campanello et al. 2019). archaeological lithic material confirms the guaraní presence in the atlantic forest of argentina between 900-2000 years b.p. (noelli 2004). from 1609 to 1767 the study area was part of the jesuit missions established in the area (gálvez 1995; hernández 1913). at present, the guaraní groups mbya and ava chiripa are settled in the southeastern region of brazil (82% of the total guaraní population), paraguay (15%) and in the northeast of argentina in the province of misiones (3%) (jacobsen 2003; keller 2017; ladeira and matta 2004). in the three countries, actions to promote the cultural conservation of the native peoples in this biome began in the late 1980s (jacobsen 2003). in argentina, most of the communities are settled in large extensions of forests with some degree of protection (private or state reserves) (keller and prance 2008). the guaraní in these areas maintain their own political and social structure with a community leader, the cacique, elected in an assembly by the members of each community. as the political chief, he is responsible for the management of resources related to the material environment inside and outside the community and for ensuring harmony and order among the members (cardozo and guillen 2012; gorosito kramer 2006). most of the communities maintain a subsistence economy (shifting agriculture, horticulture, and craftwork), supplemented by seasonal work and state assistance (kujawska et al. 2017; sánchez and giraudo 2003). most settlements have wooden houses and, to a lesser extent, masonry houses, elementary schools, dirt roads, drinking water from the water network or from drilled wells, poor or non-existent electricity service, and partial health care (cebolla badie 2013; crivos et al. 2007). at present, the guaraní population in argentina barely exceeds 6,500 individuals. approximately 1,000 people belong to the ava chiripa ethnic community and the rest to the mbya community (azevedo et al. 2009). in the province of misiones there are around 117 guaraní settlements, most of which consider themselves part of the mbya ethnic community within only a few identifying as part of the ava chiripa group. both ethnic communities are affiliated with the tupiguaraní linguistic trunk (keller 2017). these self-styled village communities retain much of their traditional subsistence practices, such as slash and burn agriculture, gathering, hunting, and fishing (crivos et al. 2007). among these peoples, the use, management, and consumption of different resources from coleoptera, hymenoptera, and lepidoptera have been recorded (araujo et al. 2018). the promotion of the rearing of larvae of coleopterans of the dryophthoridae family (palm weevils) has been reported in several studies (ambrosetti 1894; araujo et al. 2018; cadogan 1992; cebolla badie 2009, 2013; dawson and gancedo 1977; martínez crovetto 1968; mayntzhusen 2009; müller 1989). such practices promote the development of edible larvae of different species of araujo et al. 2021. ethnobiology letters 12(1):85–93 87 data, methods & taxonomies curculionids through traditional host plant management techniques. methods we carried out this research in five villages (ita piru with 10 families; y akã porã with 6; jejy with 70; chafaríz with 25; tekoˈa arandu with 70) of the departments of guaraní and eldorado in the province of misiones, argentina (figure 1). this paper reports on data obtained from a total of 20 trips made between 2015 and 2019, involving two to four day stays in each village. participant observation, ethnobiological walks (guided tours), and semistructured interviews (albuquerque et al. 2014; bernard 2000) were carried out to study the management of the production of edible larvae of longhorn beetles. to record management practices related to the production of longhorn beetles of food value, two ethnobiological and observation walks were carried out in ita piru and one in each of the remaining villages. the combination of these methodologies allowed us to obtain a detailed account of the set of management techniques, as well as of the different stages the activity comprises, from felling of host trees, monitoring and control of larval development, to collection and consumption. a total of 30 interviews were conducted with individuals of both sexes, male and female family leaders, aged 35 to 80, estimated to represent 20% of all families. the interviews were conducted in spanish and focused on handling techniques, host plant species, time cycles of the activity and productive aspects. the arboreal host species of edible larvae were identified in the field, and herbarium samples were collected and compared with the material from the ctes herbarium, instituto de botánica del nordeste, corrientes, argentina. once the identification of figure 1 study area with guaraní communities visited in orange circles. araujo et al. 2021. ethnobiology letters 12(1):85–93 88 data, methods & taxonomies certain species was performed, they were labeled, included in spreadsheets, and their scientific names were updated according to the database of flora names of the plant list database (http:// www.theplantlist.org/, accessed 08.07.2020). the taxonomic determination of the longhorn beetles was identified from photographs of adult specimens carried out by dr. francisco nascimento of the museum of zoology of the university of san pablo usp, brazil (family specialist). this study was developed following the guidelines of the code of ethics established by the international society of ethnobiology (ise 2016). for the translation of the expressions in guaraní, the cadogan (1992) dictionary was used. results host plants and management associated with cerambycids we registered the cutting of several specific tree species in order to promote the rearing of edible longhorn or wood beetle larvae: yvyra ñechĩ [balfourodendron riedelianum (rutaceae)] (figure 2a); akuchi apiaˈy [bastardiopsis densiflora (malvaceae)]; yvi [ceiba speciosa (malvaceae)]; yvyra kachĩ [lonchocarpus campestris (fabaceae)]; kurupay [parapiptadenia rigida (fabaceae)] and yvyra pyguachu [phytolacca dioica (phytolaccaeae)]. in general, adult individuals of longhorn beetles are known to the guaraní as yvyra ñe kichiˈa or yvyra jaga'a, meaning “tree cutter” (yvyra refers to the tree or wood, kichi or jaga means to cut, and 'a to fall). likewise, these insect larvae have a guaraní zoonym, ycho akambe (ycho-aka-mbe) which translates as “flatheaded larvae” (figure 2b) referring to the flat shape of their mouthparts in the larval stage. the guaraní inhabitants in this study mention that all species of larvae belonging to this group are consumed, with a preference for those that develop large sizes. in this study orthomegas jaspideus (figure 2c) and enoplocereus armillatus (figure 2d) were identified. while walking through the jungle, they also register trees that have fallen, generally due to winds and storms, and then return to check for developing larvae and collect them in due time. two frequent forest management practices are associated with the production of larvae. the first, kokue, occurs in peri-domestic spaces as a secondary result of slashing, the clearing of the forest for agricultural cultivation. the other, in which the cutting of trees is specifically carried out for the production of larvae, is developed outside the peridomestic environment and requires the location and prior selection of the individuals to be felled. special days are dedicated to felling the trees, as well as for monitoring and collecting larvae. in the first type of management, the kokue, is located in spaces near the households -oga(figure 2e). the guaraní observe the presence of takuapi cane [merostachys claussenii (poaceae)] to define the site of a new cultivation area, as they consider the species a good indicator of the quality of soils for this purpose. to perform the kokue, the guaraní fell trees and subsequently dry and burn them. once the burning has been carried out, the area is cleared and the soil is left free from obstacles for sowing (figure 2f). when there is abundant bamboo, the burning is fast and superficial which promotes, according to some ava chiripa interlocutors, a greater degree of larval infestation in the remaining trunks. figure 2 a tree specimen of yvyra ñechĩ, (balfourodendron ridelianum) felled for larval production. b ycho akambe edible cerambiciform larva. c orthomegas jaspideus (scale-1 cm). d male adult insect enoplocereus armillatus (scale-1 cm). e preparation of the land for agriculture. f growing area. araujo et al. 2021. ethnobiology letters 12(1):85–93 89 data, methods & taxonomies in the second type of management, to produce food larvae within the forest, trees are cut down and left where they fell. if the logs are very long, curved or inclined, they are sectioned so that they rest completely on the ground. to increase the production of larvae, it is recommended to cut the trees during new moon (guaraní: jachy ray), since according to the guaraní, the insect activity increases in this lunar phase. the promotion of larvae rearing takes place during spring and summer. this productive time is called karu porã (good nutrition) given the abundance of resources. after a certain time, all the felled trees are visited and the degree of larval infestation is evaluated observing the amount of sawdust along the trunk surface (figure 3a and figure 3b). white or reddish sawdust indicates the beginning of the infestation, while black (due to the degree of sawdust decomposition through time) indicates that larvae are in an advanced stage of development. some host species require differential management to promote larval development, as is the case for ceiba speciosa (a. st.-hil.). once the specimen is cut down, it is covered with leaves and dry reeds of merostachys claussenii (munro) and a fire is lit so that a superficial and rapid burning occurs. another difference indicated by the guaraní communities in association with the host species refers to the place on the stalk in which larvae develop (that is, the plant structure). in most of the managed species, larvae develop inside the wood or secondary xylem. however, in the balfourodendron ridelianum it occurs mainly in the inner bark or secondary phloem (figure 3c). larvae rearing takes between five and six months from felling to harvest. they are collected when close to the pupal stage (guaraní: ycho aguyje). the testimonies collected, and the practices observed, highlight the local knowledge of guaraní of the biological cycle of these insects, particularly the scarce monitoring they perform on felled trees and the temporal precision with which they decide to harvest. to collect the larvae (figure 3d), alternate longitudinal and oblique cuts of the stalk are made so that portions can be lifted and detached without damaging the larvae produced. the harvested larvae (figure 3e) are transferred to households for their preparation in containers usually improvised with part of the host tree bark. in the domestic environment, the larvae are roasted on a spit, traversed by a rod or a toothpick that allows them to be held over the heat of the flame (figure 3f). this traditional food has a religious connotation that knowledge holder marciana franco of teko’a arandu explained in the following way in a 2017 interview: “ycho akambe ñanderu oejavaˈekue oreve, iporã (our father has left the flatheaded larvae for us, it's a very good thing). this consumption contributes to the transmission of knowledge associated with the worldview and the reinforcement of self-identity. the cutting of trees to promote the production of edible larvae does not always render the initial expected result; either due to adverse environmental conditions (e.g., temperature, abundant rainfall, and excess humidity), or because wild predators access the resource before its "promoters". these predators include the coati [guaraní: chiˈy (nasua nasua)], armadillo [guaraní: tatuái (dasypus novemcinctus)], and several species of woodpeckers guaraní: [pekũ rata (dryocopus lineatus, d. galeatus, and campephilus robustus)]. myth of the origin of wood beetles in general terms, the guaraní call mythical stories mboryau, which refers to stories in which events that occurred in remote times are narrated. below, we transcribe a myth relayed by knowledge holder verã tataendy of ita piru in 2016 that deals with the importance of longhorn beetles yvyra ñe kichiˈa in the narratives of the guaraní ava chiripa: “che amombeˈuta py pe yvyra ñe kichiˈa yma upéicha aˈete ñande mbya jaiko árami oikó rakae, ojapokue, aupéi oity yvyra, omopotĩ ñoty avati, upéicha gueri oñoty. upéicha varirete koata koanga peve péicha chapyˈante ovaêramo ára pyau jaˈerami aˈe jepi oikó aguerami yma oikóaguerami teopy oikó aramingua yvyra oity jepikóvy, jaˈendu ko kaˈaguyre yvyra rakã oˈa ja endu aˈe. aramingua rupity araminguare aˈe jepi oity yvyra oikóvy ava, upéicha árami javemapy ñande kuery ja kopi, ña mopotĩ, ña ñoty anguã, aˈe upéicha reñoty rupi. a rire tiko péicha ñande kuery aˈete jaiko, yvyra ñe kitiˈa ja aˈe árami ata koangapeve aˈe ombaapo oikóaguerami, ni nda echarái jepi vave ára aˈerami aˈekuery yyvyra oity koapy ˮ. which translates as: in remote times the ancestral tree feller (longhorn beetle) lived in the way we, guaraní people, live today. he cultivated, cut down trees, weed and sowed corn, in this way he worked the land. so, at present, when spring arrives, the tree-felling beetle lives in araujo et al. 2021. ethnobiology letters 12(1):85–93 90 data, methods & taxonomies the same way as the original tree-felling beetle lived, with the same customs he lives today, and continues to fell trees. when we hear the branches of the trees fall in the jungle, we hear him working. currently the tree-felling beetle cuts the trees to live, in this way we have learned to weed, clean to cultivate, and sow, we have learned that this is how we should cultivate. today, we, guaraní people, live in the same way as the treefelling beetle, they continue to work and do not forget the ancestral tree feller, the one who fell trees. discussion in this work, we analyze indigenous knowledge related to the biological interactions between host trees and longhorn beetles of mythical relevance and food importance. the guaraní identify the insect herbivory of the wood beetles and promote this process for the development of larvae production through forestry management techniques. the articulation with data from the indigenous cosmology, especially with the origin myth of the long-horned beetle, is perceived as related to agricultural practices. the way these insects manage sites to lay their eggs, by cutting branches, reflects the ancestral identity of the guaraní people as slash and burn farmers, since the felling of trees is the first step on these agricultural practices. in this way, the myth explains that to the sound of large branches falling from attacked trees is considered an indicator of the beginning of a new cycle of agricultural activity, and as such, the propitious time for rearing larvae. in the local cosmology, the promotion of larval rearing and agriculture are in close interaction, including a set of tasks such as felling trees, weeding, soil treatment, planting, and subsequent harvesting of crops. reinforcing this idea, the month of august, which corresponds to the cultivation season is called tajy poty, the flowering period of handroanthus heptaphylus (mart. ex dc., bignoniaceae) (müller 1989), and is recognized as the appropriate month to start the rearing of coleopteran larvae (cadogan 1992). one of the management practices carried out by the guaraní to produce edible larvae is that observed in the superficial burning of ceiba speciosa. according to the literature, light combustion could increase the release of volatile substances from inside the stems that function as attractants for adult insects for oviposition (allison et al. 2004; hanks and millar 2016). it has also been found that host plants emit fragrance after being cut and adult insects identify them as appropriate for oviposition (bruce 2015; hanks and millar 2016). this insect-plant interaction is a common co-evolutionary process over time (calatayud et al. 2018). in the production of food from these wood beetles, we have not observed the practice of making wedge-shaped incisions at constant distances on the tree logs to promote the development of larvae as is the case for weevils of the dryophthoridae family, (araujo et al. 2018). unlike the latter, adult longhorn beetles lay their eggs directly on the bark of fallen trees. given this behavior, the guaraní state that these insects have “hard teeth” táĩ atave, in reference to their ability to make galleries inside the stems and feed on very hard wood, making it unnecessary to open notches in the trunks to enable oviposition. reinforcing the traditional management practices carried out on the host plants, in the narrative of the myth it is reflected that in ancient times the original longhorn beetle, yvyra ñe kichiˈa ypy, had a certain human nature and that it has recently become a "tree felling” longhorn beetle. in this regard, it is recurrent that in the mythological conceptions of the world in amerindian cultures there are no differences or dichotomies between human beings, and certain species of plants and animals which vary according to the ethnic group (keller 2017). although not explicitly mentioned in the present registry, guaraní myths about the origin of plants and animals suggest that insects may come from a human being transformed through metempsychosis, reincarnation into other living organism after death, as a result of having transgressed certain sociocultural norms (cadogan 1959; cebolla badie 2013; keller 2017). myths generally correspond to different forms of conception of the world, on the basis of which religious representations can be developed (mayntzhusen 2009). conclusion the practices carried out by the guaraní to promote the production of different edible larvae of longhorn beetles reflect a comprehensive and detailed knowledge of the interactions between plants and insects. they also denote precise knowledge of these insects´ ecology (especially their biological cycle) and of uncontrollable factors intervening in the success of araujo et al. 2021. ethnobiology letters 12(1):85–93 91 data, methods & taxonomies the production (like the predators' consumption of the larvae). in this study we observed that in guaraní conception, larval rearing and agriculture, including a set of tasks such as felling trees, weeding, soil treatment, planting and subsequent harvesting, are in close interaction. further, in guaraní mythology, the associations between plants, longhorn "tree-felling" beetles and traditional agriculture show that these insects are linked in guaraní cosmology. retelling stories which refer to these complex relationships is also an important means of transmitting knowledge. in fact, through them, elders pass on a pragmatic set of traditional management practices to the young that reinforce patterns of behavior oriented to preserve their ancestral cultural identity. acknowledgments to the members of the guaraní communities visited for the information provided in this work. to dr. francisco nascimento from the museum of zoology of the university of san pablo usp, brazil for identifying the species of the longhorn beetles. to juan ariel insaurralde for the design the figure 1. to haydée gonzález for the english revision. to conicet for financing this study. declarations permissions: none declared. sources of funding: none declared. conflicts of interest: none declared. references cited albuquerque, u. p, l. v. f. c. cunha, r. f. p. lucena, and r. r. n. alves. 2014. methods and techniques in ethnobiology and ethnoecology. springer new york, new york, usa. doi:10.1007/978-14614-8636-7. allison, j. d., j. h. borden, and s. j. seybold. 2004. a review 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beverages are also consumed before opening the family tomb and before the solicitation of ancestral spirits to welcome the deceased into the afterlife. in the west and southwest of the country, mtabs are also used during the fanompoambe and fitampoha ceremonies (bathing of royal relics) (chazan-gillig and haidaraly 2006). three general types of mtabs are produced in madgascar: the distilled rum toaka gasy, the fermented cane wine betsa or betsabetsa, and the fermented palm wine trembo. introduction madagascar is known for its unique and diverse landscapes, biodiversity and cultures. many of its plant species are endemic to the island, occurring natively nowhere else in the world (ralimanana et al. 2022). the madagascar flora also constitute essential natural resources for the people in madagascar who rely on plants in their daily life. in madagascar, plants provide medicine, materials for housing and transportation, animal fodder, fuel, cultural heritage, and food, including alcoholic beverages (randrianarivony et al. 2021). throughout the world, alcoholic beverages are embedded in many aspects of social life, including traditional customs (egea et al. 2016; keskin and günes 2021; tamang 2010). alcoholic beverages can be a situation definer, status indicator, statement of affiliation, and gender differentiator (sirc 1998). homemade and traditional alcoholic beverages also span the world— tamang (2010) cites more than 50 plant species for the manufacture of malagasy traditional alcoholic beverages tabita n. randrianarivony 1*, fortunat rakotoarivony1, armand randrianasolo2, robbie hart2 1missouri botanical garden (mbg), research and conservation program madagascar, antananarivo, madagascar. 2william l. brown center, missouri botanical garden (mbg), st. louis, usa. *tabita.randrianarivony@mobot.mg abstract alcoholic beverages are an important component of many traditional events of madagascar, including life-course events like male circumcision, burial and exhumation. as with many other parts of malagasy customary practice, these beverages incorporate the unique and richly diverse flora of madagascar. we conducted structured interviews with producers and consumers of malagasy traditional alcoholic beverages (mtabs) in 10 regions of madagascar, spanning the island from east to west and north to south. we documented 75 plant species used to make three types of malagasy traditional alcoholic beverages: distilled toaka gasy, fermented cane wine betsa, and fermented palm wine trembo. of the 75 species, 14 were main materials/main ingredients, 55 were additives during fermentation, and six were used as tools for distillation. the species were diverse, occurring in 35 plant families. particularly species-rich families were arecaceae (palm family) as main materials and rutaceae (citrus family) as additives. received november 3, 2023 open access accepted march 30, 2024 doi 10.14237/ebl.15.1.2024.1874 published july 26, 2024 keywords beverage, flavoring, fermentation, distillation, traditional alcoholic drinks copyright © 2024 by the author(s); licensee society of ethnobiology. this is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution-noncommercial 4.0 international public license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0), which permits non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. randrianarivony et al. 2024. ethnobiology letters 15(1):16–29 17 research communications toaka gasy, which literally means “malagasy rum,” is the name commonly given to alcoholic beverages. it is also called galeoka or ambodivoara by people from the highlands and gantriaka or lemadio by people in the north of madagascar. the plant substrate and distillation process for making toaka gasy are the same in both regions, but plant additives are different according to ethnic group. toaka gasy is usually made through fermentation and distillation of sugar cane (saccharum officinarum), using traditional utensils and tools. sugar cane is mixed with plant additives commonly called laro, cut into tiny pieces then mashed with mortar. these plant additives used to improve aroma and taste and to enhance fermentation. laro includes species like cedrelopsis grevei, syzygium jambos, melicope madagascariensis and cajanus cajan previously studied for their role as enhancers in the production of toaka gasy (wwf 2011; randriamisetra 2016). the mixture is fermented for about three to seven days in metal barrels sealed with cow dung and clay. after the fermentation process, barrels half-full of fermented sugarcane are put on an open fire. the evaporating alcohol is collected in a metal pipe, where the surrounding water cools down the vapor and the alcohol condenses (figure 1). at the end of the pipe, two products are obtained from a single distillation—the first of around 70° for the first 75% of the liquid (lohatoaka) and the second of about 40° for the remaining 25% (wwf 2011). toaka gasy is among the most popular alcoholic beverages in madagascar and is cheaply available in the market. because of the uncertainty of ethanol content, the trade of this product for consumption is currently prohibited by the malagasy government (gouvernement malagasy 2013). toaka gasy is considered a sacred beverage that is used to figure 1 production process of toaka gasy a) collection and preparation of sugar cane b) fermentation process with additives, c) cooking and distillation with traditional alembic, d) recuperation of toaka gasy (photos by authors). randrianarivony et al. 2024. ethnobiology letters 15(1):16–29 18 research communications evoke ancestral spirits during healing ceremonies such as tromba and bilo (beaujard 2014). it is also poured in the northeast corner of the house (zoro firarazana), which is considered as a dwelling place for the ancestors, to ask for benediction and to show respect. it also plays an important role in a variety of other traditions like male circumcision, traditional weddings, and exhumations (mauro 2001). betsa, a fermented cane wine, is also called betsabetsa or badezy. betsa is mostly known from the eastern part of madagascar. the process of preparation consists of extracting sugar cane juice by pressing it with a traditional wooden press. after pressing, sugar cane juice is collected in a large vessel. plant additives like cedrelopsis grevei are added to the sugar cane juice, which is then covered and fermented for four to five days (jaonina 1986). the whitish or yellowish liquid obtained from the fermentation process is the betsa and has a sweet or sour taste with around 4°–5° of alcohol. trembo, also called sora, is obtained from a direct fermentation of sap of young palms such as hyphaene coriacea. this kind of traditional alcoholic beverage is mostly found in coastal villages in northern and western madagascar. the terminal bud of palm near inflorescence is cut, the palm sap that flows is collected in a plant container (a bamboo, bambusa maxima) then left to be fermented in the sun for a week (beaujard 2011). the product obtained (trembo) is a white milky liquid with about 3° of alcohol. in madagascar and countries in mainland africa, literature on traditional alcoholic beverages (tabs) manufacture, the impact of alcohol consumption, and the impact of mtabs production on forests and biodiversity are used as support documents for decision makers (irwin and ravelomanantsoa 2004; wwf 2011). among the over 14,000 estimated plant species inventoried in madagascar, many have been identified as sources of food and there is some information on species used in the manufacture of mtabs (rakotoarimanana 1996). however, accurate and comprehensive information on plant species used to make mtabs is scarce. the present study’s goal is to fill this informational gap by documenting plant species used in the manufacture of tabs in madagascar. methods structured interviews (cunningham 2001) were conducted from july to october 2016. surveys were done in ten regions of madagascar (analanjirofo, anosy, atsimo-andrefana, atsinanana, boeny, diana, itasy, menabe, sava, and vakinakaratra) (figure 2). we focused the surveys in rural areas of those ten regions as people from urban areas rarely consume alcoholic beverages made in traditional ways (razanamihaja and befinoana 2013). in each village, the target informants were both consumers and manufacturers of mtabs above 18 years old. all interviews were conducted after obtaining oral and written prior informed consent (supplementary document 1). in some regions, local people who were locally recognized as knowledgeable about traditional customs were hired and trained in conducting ethnobotanical surveys to conduct the survey. the figure 2 the fourteen districts within ten regions (analanjirofo, anosy, atsimo-andrefana, atsinanana, boeny, diana, itasy, menabe, sava, and vakinakaratra) in rural areas of madagascar in which interviews on plants used in malagasy traditional alcoholic brinks were conducted. randrianarivony et al. 2024. ethnobiology letters 15(1):16–29 19 research communications questionnaire (supplementary document 2) focused on the types of mtabs that participants drink or prepare, the method and materials of preparation, plant species used, plant location and abundance, and the reason of the selection of additives as well as for preparation of mtabs. data treatment the frequency of plant species used to produce mtabs was calculated to identify the most commonly used species, and then the species used for the preparation of mtabs were compared all over madagascar. frequency index (fi) which is the expression of the percentage of citation frequency of a species by informant, was calculated as: with fi: frequency index (%) fc: number of informants who mentioned the use of the species n: total number of informants. differences between plants cited by consumers and manufacturers of tabs were tested using nonparametric mann whitney test. results informant knowledge in total, we interviewed 128 informants including 115 men and 13 women. this gendered difference is because few women reported producing mtabs (table 1). informants were between the ages of 18 to 70 years. we interviewed 57 people for their knowledge as producers of mtabs and 71 people for their perspectives as consumers of mtabs. consumers and producers both cited on average three plant species used during the preparation of mtabs (3.2 ±1.8 for manufacturers and 2.6±1.4 for consumers). useful plants for the production of mtabs thirteen plant species were cited as the main materials used for the preparation of mtabs, 55 species cited as additives, and 9 as utensils and tools used like stills and containers (table 2, supplementary document 3). useful plants: main materials plant species used as main materials for preparation of trembo were arecaceae including cocos nucifera (voanio), hyphaene coriacea (satrana, satra), borassus madagascariensis (dimaka, marandravina, befelatanana, (figure 3), bismarckia nobilis (satrapotsy) and dypsis ampasindavae (lavaboka). apart from cocos nucifera, all species were native and some were endemic to madagascar (table 2). toaka gasy and betsabetsa were mostly made from sugarcane (saccharum officinarum), or fruits including pineapple (ananas comosus), jackfruit (artocarpus heterophyllus), litchi (litchi chinensis), banana (musa acuminata), cashew (anacardium occidentale), and mango (mangifera indica). sometimes cereals including rice (oryza sativa), and maize (zea mays) were used. sugarcane was frequently cited by informants (with frequency index fi 24%) as raw material for the production of toaka gasy and betsabetsa (table 2), followed by banana (musa acuminata) (fi 10%). one informant mentioned using fruits of hyphaene coriacea for toaka gasy, and three participants cited honey as raw material for the manufacture of betsabetsa. useful plants: additives (laro) for toaka gasy and betsabetsa fifty-five plant species from 25 plant families were fi=(fc/n)*100 stratum category percentage (%) gender men 90 women 10 age 18–30 19 30––45 42 45––60 33 60––75 6 occupation producers 45 consumers (including farmers and sellers) 55 table 1 profile of informants interviewed about plants used in malagasy traditional alcoholic beverages. randrianarivony et al. 2024. ethnobiology letters 15(1):16–29 20 research communications taxon voucher type1 uses2 part3 n region4 form status5 anacardiaceae   anacardium occidentale l. manjakahery 13 toaka gasy raw material f 1 so tree nat. mangifera indica l. randrianarivony 1202 toaka gasy bitterant, starter, enhancer b 4 so tree i sclerocarya birrea subsp. caffra (sond.) kokwaro andriamihajarivo 535 toaka gasy additive, starter b 1 an tree i anisophylleaceae   anisophyllea schatzii li bing zhang, x. chen & h. he h. perrier de la bâthie 14142 betsa sweetener, starter f 1 al tree e annonaceae   monanthotaxis betsa additive, starter f 1 aj   uvaria ambongoensis (baill.) diels razakamalala 1835 betsa additive, starter st 2 so shrub e arecaceae   bismarckia nobilis hildebrandt & h. wendl. gardiner 407 trembo raw material s, i 2 me, at tree e borassus madagascariensis (jum. & h. perrier) jum. & h. perrier noblick 5055 trembo raw material s, f 4 me, bo, mn tree e cocos nucifera l. trembo raw material f 5 di, aj tree i dypsis ampasindavae beentje birkinshaw 82 trembo raw material i 1 di tree e dypsis decaryi (jum.) beentje & j. dransf. beentje 4614 trembo raw material i 1 an tree e hyphaene coriacea gaertn. bussmann 18794 sora, trembo raw material s, i 2 me, sv tree e   toaka gasy cover l 2 so tree e asphodellaceae   dianella ensifolia (l.) redouté rasoafaranaivo 52 toaka gasy, betsa additive, starter, enhancer r 1 4 aj, aa, ai herb native 1toaka gasy – distilled; betsa – cane wine; trembo – palm wine 2 starter – used to start fermentation, enhancer – used to make stronger, cover – used to cover mixture 3b – bark, f – fruits, r – roots, s – sap, st – stem, se – seeds, l – leaves, lt – leafy twigs, t – trunk, i – infloresence 4so – sofia; an – anosy; al – alaotra-mangoro; aj – analanjirofo; me – melaky; at – atsimo andrefana; bo – boeny; mn – menabe; di – diana; aa – atsimo-atsinanana; ai – atsinanana; vf – vatovavy-fitovinany; it – itasy; sv – sava; hm – haute matsiatra; ad – androy; ih – ihorombe; ao – amoron'i mania; am – analamanaga continued on next page table 2 75 taxa in 35 plant families associated with the manufacture of malagasy traditional alcoholic beverages, with the type of alcohol produced, the use of the taxon, plant part, number of citations (n), regions cited, life-form of taxon and endemicity status indicated. please see supplementary document 3 for local name and references. randrianarivony et al. 2024. ethnobiology letters 15(1):16–29 21 research communications taxon voucher type uses part n region form status asteraceae   brachylaena ramiflora var. bernieri (baill.) humbert service forestier (sf) 12494 toaka gasy additive, starter b 1 ai tree native bignoniaceae   stereospermum euphorioides dc. keraudren 470 toaka gasy alembic t 2 at tree e bromeliaceae   ananas comosus l. betsa raw material f 2 aj herb i burseraceae   commiphora simplicifolia h. perrier mankakahery 274 toaka gasy additive, starter, enhancer, container b 1 at tree e clusiaceae   garcinia orthoclada baker ravelonarivo 203 toaka gasy additive, starter b 1 sv tree e symphonia louveli jum. & h. perrier rakotonandrasana 681 toaka gasy additive, starter, enhancer b 1 aj tree e combretaceae   terminalia fatraea (poir.) dc. ratovoson 1822 toaka gasy additive, starter b 3 an tree e terminalia ombrophila h. perrier lehavana 191 toaka gasy, betsa additive, starter st 17 so tree e elaeocarpaceae   elaeocarpus subserratus baker rakotozafy 214 toaka gasy additive, starter b 1 vf tree e euphorbiaceae   givotia madagascariensis baill. manjakahery 135 toaka gasy alembic t 3 at tree e fabaceae   cajanus cajan (l.) huth randrianasolo 445 toaka gasy additive, starter, enhancer r 14 so, it shrub nat. crotalaria laevigata lam. rabenantoandro 958 betsa fragrance, sweetener, starter, enhancer r 22 so shrub e dalbergia l. f. toaka gasy alembic t 3 at   delonix floribunda (baill.) capuron randrianarivony 951 toaka gasy alembic t 1 at e eriosema psoraleoides (lam.) g. don randrianarivony 557 betsa additive, starter r 1 so herb native continued from previous page continued on next page randrianarivony et al. 2024. ethnobiology letters 15(1):16–29 22 research communications taxon voucher type uses part n region form status tamarindus indica l. bernard 2453 toaka gasy additive, starter f 20 an, at, so tree native vachellia farnesiana (l.) wight & arn decary 2039 betsa, toaka gasy additive, starter st 2 so shrub nat. gentianaceae   tachiadenus carinatus (desr.) griseb. ramananjanahary 546 toaka gasy additive, starter r 1 an herb e kirkiaceae   kirkia leandrii (capuron) stannard razakamalala 4451 toaka gasy fragrance, starter b 1 me tree e lauraceae   cryptocarya agathophylla van der werff andriatsiferana 2204 toaka gasy additive, starter b 1 al tree e loganiaceae   strychnos madagascariensis poir. randrianarivony 571 toaka gasy bitterant, starter f 1 so shrub i strychnos spinosa lam. rakotovao 6020 betsa, toaka gasy additive, starter, enhancer f 6 so shrub i malpighiaceae   acridocarpus excelsus a. juss. randrianarivony 539 toaka gasy bitterant, starter b 3 so tree e meliaceae   neobeguea mahafaliensis j.-f. leroy andriamihajarivo 1148 toaka gasy alembic t 6 at tree e moraceae   artocarpus heterophyllus lam. betsa, toaka gasy raw material f 1 aj tree i musaceae   musa acuminata colla betsa raw material f 7 aj, so herb i   cover l 3   myrtaceae   syzygium aromaticum (l.) merr. & l.m. perry betsa additive, starter b 1 aj tree i syzygium cumini (l.) skeels andriamihajarivo 2199 toaka gasy additive, starter b 2 vf tree nat. syzygium emirnense (baker) labat & g.e. schatz randrianasolo 575 betsa, toaka gasy additive, starter b, lt 3 aj, at tree e syzygium jambos (l.) alston betsa additive, starter f 1 ai tree i poaceae   nastus juss. toaka gasy container st 2 so   oryza sativa l. betsa raw material se 1 di herb i continued from previous page continued on next page randrianarivony et al. 2024. ethnobiology letters 15(1):16–29 23 research communications taxon voucher type uses part n region form status saccharum officinarum l. toaka gasy, betsa raw material st 24 10 regions herb nat. rhamnaceae   ziziphus mauritiana lam. rakotovao 6011 toaka gasy sweetener, starter f 6 so tree nat. rubiaceae   breonadia salicina (vahl) hepper & j.r.i. wood randrianarivony 479 toaka gasy additive, starter b 2 an, aj tree native breonia chinensis (lam.) capuron rabarimanarivo 12 betsa fragrance, starter b 2 ai, vf tree e hyperacanthus e. mey. ex bridson betsa, toaka gasy additive, starter l, b 1 ai   razafimandimbisonia minor (baill.) kainul. & b. bremer razanatsima 1131 toaka gasy additive, starter b 1 hm shrub e sabicea diversifolia pers. randriatsivery 90 betsa additive, starter lt 2 ai shrub e rutaceae   cedrelopsis grevei baill. andriamihajarivo 495 toaka gasy additive, starter b 21 ad, an, bo, at, mn, sv, so tree e cedrelopsis longibracteata j.-f. leroy ramananjanahary 809 betsa, toaka gasy sweetener, starter b 13 aj tree e cedrelopsis rakotozafyi cheek & lescot rakotonandrasana 1046 betsa additive, starter b 1 di tree e cedrelopsis trivalvis j.-f. leroy antilahimena 777 betsa additive, starter b 6 di, an, ih tree e melicope bakeri t.g. hartley rasoazanany 308 betsa additive, starter, euphoric b 1 al tree e melicope balankazo (h. perrier) t.g. hartley rakotondrajaona 1765 toaka gasy additive, starter b 1 al tree e melicope belahe (baill.) t.g. hartley roger bernard 1689 betsa, toaka gasy additive, starter b 7 vf, sv, ai, aj tree e melicope discolor (baker) t.g. hartley ravelonarivo 3201 toaka gasy additive, starter b 1 al shrub e melicope fatraina (h. perrier) t.g. hartley ramanantoavolana 18 toaka gasy additive, starter b 2 al, ai tree e melicope j.r. forst. & g. forst. toaka gasy, betsa fragrance, starter b 13 sv, so, al, aj, ai, an, hm, vf   melicope sambiranensis (h. perrier) t.g. hartley ravelonarivo 1172 betsa fragrance, starter b 1 so tree e continued from previous page continued on next page randrianarivony et al. 2024. ethnobiology letters 15(1):16–29 24 research communications cited by informants as additives into the traditional alcoholic beverages. among them, 29 plant species were used as additives for toaka gasy and 16 were cited as additives for betsabetsa. ten species were cited as additives for both toaka gasy and betsabetsa. participants reported that additives were both used as enhancer to activate the fermentation process of mtabs, and to add flavor, to sweeten or to make mtabs bitter, to give a pleasant aroma and to improve taste of mtabs. of species used as additives, rutaceae was the most prominent family with 12 species, followed by rubiaceae, myrtaceae, fabaceae and sarcolaenaceae (supplementary document 3). additives were mostly trees (70%), and the bark was the most frequently cited part used (table 2, supplementary document 4). about 65% of additives are endemic to madagascar, and 4 plant species belonged to the madagascar-endemic family sarcolaenaceae: continued from previous page taxon voucher type uses part n region form status vepris polymorpha (danguy ex lecomte) h. perrier randrianarivony 173 betsa fragrance, starter b 1 an tree e salicaceae   homalium parkeri baker razanatsima 942 toaka gasy additive, starter lt 1 ai   sapindaceae   litchi chinensis sonn. betsa raw material f 1 aj tree i sarcolaenaceae   leptolaena pauciflora baker raharimampionona 478 toaka gasy fragrance, starter b 2 vf, ao tree e perrierodendron quartzitorum j.-f. leroy, lowry, haev., labat & g.e. schatz razafitsalama 3 toaka gasy additive, starter, enhancer r 1 ao shrub e schizolaena cauliflora thouars randriatsivery 195 betsa additive, starter b 2 ai tree e xerochlamys bojeriana (baill.) f. gérard rabarimanarivo 513 toaka gasy fragrace, starter r (b) 1 am shrub e scrophulariaceae   buddleja madagascariensis lam. razanatsoa 425 toaka gasy additive, starter lt 2 al shrub e simaroubaceae   quassia indica (gaertn.) noot. razafitsalama 496 toaka gasy, betsa bitterant, starter, enhancer, fragrance b 3 me, so tree native stemonuraceae   grisollea myriantha baill. rakotoarivelo 517 betsa additive, starter b 1 ai tree native stilbaceae   nuxia oppositifolia (hochst.) benth. rakotoarivelo 858 toaka gasy additive, starter b 1 an tree i strelitziaceae   ravenala madagascariensis sonn. rakotovao 5205 toaka gasy cover l 2 so, aj tree e randrianarivony et al. 2024. ethnobiology letters 15(1):16–29 25 research communications xerochlamys bojeriana (hatsikana, fotona, voalaro, kitoto), schizolaena cauliflora (valotra), perrierodendron quartzitorum (kitoto, kitotovavy) and leptolaena pauciflora (foto, fotona, fotondahy, tambarasaha). among additives, 65% are forest plant species and 25% are collected from open area, savannah and degraded forest. among the 55 plant species mentioned as additives, eight species were frequently cited by informants (with frequency index fi > 10%): crotalaria laevigata (fi 22 %), cedrelopsis grevei (fi 21%), tamarindus indica (fi 20%), terminalia ombrophila (fi 17%), dianella ensifolia (fi 14%), cajanus cajan (fi 13 %), melicope (fi 13%) and cedrelopsis longibracteata (fi 13%). different plant species were used as additives in each region in madagascar (table 2). more than 10 plant species were used in analanjirofo, anosy, atsinanana and analamanga. ten species were more generally cited as additives from more than one region in madagascar: the most widely cited were cedrelopsis grevei which was used in 7 regions, and melicope belahe in 4 regions. people from drier regions in the southern and western madagascar (antsimoandrefana, androy, boeny, melaky, menabe and the dry part of anosy) often cited cedrelopsis grevei or/and tamarindus indica as additives of mtabs, while melicope belahe or/and dianella ensifolia were mostly cited in the four humid regions (analanjirofo, atsinanana, atsimo-atsinanana, sava). different species like syzygium emirnense, leptolaena pauciflora and cajanus canjan were cited from the highlands (analamanga, itasy, amoron’i mania and vakinakaratra). mangifera indica, terminalia ombrophila, crotalaria laevigata, melicope sambiranensis and cedrelopsis trivalvis were frequently cited by informants from the northern regions (sava, diana and sofia). people from analanjirofo and analamanga regions reported that some species used as additives were rare. melicope belahe, m. fatraina and syzygium emirnense are locally threatened by overharvesting for their use as additives. useful plants: utensils and tools in madagascar, tabs are produced manually using locally available utensils and tools. in some regions, trunks of dalbergia spp., delonix spp., givotia madagascariensis, neobeguea mahafaliensis, stereospermum euphorioides were cited for the construction of traditional alembics. leaves of ravenala madagascariensis, hyphaene coriacea and musa acuminata were used to cover the mixture of all materials during the fermentation process. bamboo stems were used as containers for the final product after the distillation. discussion demographics the strong gender difference we observed in our survey from this study is borne out by previous literature, which mentions that only 28% of women are alcoholic beverage consumers in madagascar (razanamihaja et al. 2013). this difference was apparent among producers of mtabs (only 6 women in our study), and contrasts with other countries where alcoholic beverages are traditionally prepared by women or girls (e.g., chaves-lópez et al. 2014). main materials the most popular main material to make mtabs is fary [sugarcane, saccharum officinarum (poaceae)]. in malagasy culture, fary represents masculinity and generational succession (beaujard 2014). traditional rum produced from fary is considered sacred water figure 3 process of production of trembo a) main material borassus madagascariensis b) collecting the sap of palm c) trembo ready for sale (photos by rabotovao 2015) randrianarivony et al. 2024. ethnobiology letters 15(1):16–29 26 research communications (rano mahery) and is also used by elders when they give blessings. the plantation of fary for the production of toaka gasy and artisanal sugar is practiced over the 22 regions of madagascar occupying in total 69,820 ha of cultivated areas and has been represented in governmental planning since 2013 (wwf 2011; gouvernement malagasy 2013). however, there are also conservation concerns. irwin and ravelomanantsoa (2004) stated that illegal traditional rum production at tsinjoarivo threatened the health of lemur population in this forest. trembo palm wine – biogeography and conservation trembo has a very short shelf-life of only one or two days, unless it is refrigerated. as the process of preparation is similar to that of “toddy” or palm wine (fao 2011), it can be considered the palm wine of madagascar. apart from cocos nucifera, all species for trembo are native and some are endemic to madagascar. dypsis ampasindavae, a local endemic species from the ampasindava peninsula categorized as critically endangered, was also heavily exploited as building materials and for its edible palm fruits (mbg 2015; rakotoarinivo and dransfield 2012). cocos nucifera and hyphaene coriacea were cited in eastern and northern coast of madagascar. borassus madagascariensis was cited for the production of trembo in western part of madagascar and dypsis decaryi (lafa) in taolagnaro in the anosy region of southern madagascar. production of trembo may have a negative impact on endemic species such as borassus madagascariensis, bismarckia nobilis, and dypsis ampasindavae, as the plants perish after the collection. in other world regions where palm wine is made, nondestructive harvest techniques have been developed (bernal et al. 2010), which could be explored in madagascar to avoid extinction of useful plant species. laro additives – biogeography and conservation our findings showed that additives were mostly trees (70%), and the bark was the most important part used (table 2). in some studies from other countries, plants used as starters for the fermentation of traditional beverages were mostly herbs and shrubs (he et al. 2019). barks of the aromatic plant families (rutaceae, myrtaceae) collected from the forest remnant natural forests were the most used additives. that shows the importance of those remnant natural forests for the collection of plants used as additives for traditional alcoholic beverages, as for many other resources. people from analanjirofo and analamanga regions reported that some species used as additives were rare. melicope belahe, m. fatraina and syzygium emirnense are locally threatened by overharvesting for their use as additives. collection of bark of plants used as additives of tabs not only impacts species themselves but also forest regeneration (irwin and ravelomanantsoa 2004). andriamahazo et al. in 2004 noticed many dead trees of melicope madagascariensis (fatraina) and dalbergia spp. (manary) in the corridor forest of fianarantsoa because barks of these endemic plant species are used as ingredients in the manufacture of traditional malagasy rum. some species cited as additives including perrierodendron quartzitorum, uvaria ambongoensis and anisophyllea schatzii are categorized among endangered species. terminalia ombrophila are known only from two to five localities in madagascar. in some cases, substituting introduced species can be helpful to prevent loss or even extinction of used endemic species in their natural habitat. however, even widespread species may be threatened: cedrelopsis grevei and crotalaria laevigata are widespread, but are also highly sought for their uses as medicine, construction and forage. even tamarindus indica is nowadays threatened by charcoal production in the southern madagascar. chemical compounds of at least 15 species of laro additives have been studied (randriamisetra 2016; rasolomampionona 2010; razafindrazaka 1997). however, many more plant species documented here as laro, even including those frequently cited, have yet to be explored for their chemical compounds. knowledge change several species of melicope including m. bakeri, m. balankazo, m. fatraina, and m. sambiranensis as well other species including acridocarpus excelsus, syzygium emirnense and quassia indica were rarely cited by participants in our study, but had been recorded 50 years ago as additives of mtabs (boiteau et al. 1968; 1971). thirteen species (brachylaena ramiflora, cassinopsis madagascariensis, clematis mauritiana, ficus lutea, flacourtia ramontchi, harungana madagascariensis, kirkia leandrii, morella salicifolia, pauridiantha paucinervis, perriera madagascariensis, perriera orientalis, petchia randrianarivony et al. 2024. ethnobiology letters 15(1):16–29 27 research communications madagascariensis, and senna septemtrionalis) previously mentioned in literature (boiteau et al. 1971; gallé et al. 2015), were not cited by informants during this study. this may show change and evolution of use of plants, connected to their availability in the wild, and or reflect regional and local diversity of practice. similarly, we received only a few reports of betsabetsa made from honey, although this is documented historically (jaonina 1986). conclusion production of alcoholic beverages in a traditional way will remain an illegal activity in madagascar until a recent law proposed by the malagasy parliament, to allow free sale of the traditional rum, is accepted and implemented. however, malagasy people in many regions have for generations and continue to produce mtabs for different events, especially in traditional contexts. the superlative richness of plant species in madagascar offers a rich, highly endemic, and still incompletely documented array of plant uses. plants connected to mtab’s are no exception. the plant uses we document extend beyond the main materials of mtabs — saccharum officinarum for the preparation of toaka gasy and betsa and palm species like hyphaene coriacea and borassus madagascariensis for production of trembo — to a diverse group of species and plant parts used as additives across the island or with regional specificity, including crotalaria laevigata, cedrelopsis grevei, tamarindus indica, terminalia ombrophila, dianella ensifolia, cajanus cajan, melicope and cedrelopsis longibracteata. better understanding of this unique body of tradition allows its protection and can inform sustainable management and use that also preserves madagascar’s biodiversity. as collection of mtab additives impacts plant populations, we propose the inclusion of important plant species for tree planting activities and encourage non-destructive ways of harvesting of plants. acknowledgments the authors are thankful to all mbg’s conservation staff especially razafitsalama jeremy lalao and josso tianarifidy angelos, and to relatives including miandrimanana cyprien and randrianarivony victor in some regions for data collection. we thank also all the participants for sharing openly their knowledge with us. we acknowledge the ministry of environment and sustainable development in madagascar for the permits required for plant collection during the study. declarations permissions: none declared. sources of funding: the study was entirely funded by the william l. brown center, missouri botanical garden. conflicts of interest: we hereby certify that there is not any actual or potential conflict of interest to this manuscript . references andriamahazo, m., c. y. ebene-onana, a. ibrahima, k. 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press, cambridge, united kingdom. 306 pp. anderson. 2021. ethnobiology letters 12(1):55–57 55 reviews perspectives from gene anderson’s bookshelf by james scott [2018]). landlords and, above all, taxdemanding governments worked to get farmers to grow grain rather than root crops. from about this point, earle increasingly focuses on the british isles, especially england. she harks back to an older school of english historians, who wrote (and still write) books with very general titles and some worldwide coverage but actually focused tightly on their own country. even a chapter on “global potatoes”—which gets ahead of her story to bring china into the twentieth century—largely covers british empire outposts. by the eighteenth century, land and food were getting scarce in much of europe, and the potato was seen as a godsend. governments promoted it. worthy benefactors created recipes for feeding armies on potato soup with bits of meat (see recipe, p. 89). she repeats the old story (from a contemporary source) of parmentier popularizing the potato by having a royal garden of potatoes, guarded by gendarmes ordered to look the other way at night; of course, the potatoes were stolen as fast as the local farmers could dig, and were soon growing everywhere. she does not repeat the folktale about catherine the great of russia popularizing potatoes by wearing a wreath of potato flowers in her hair. either way, elite devices to popularize potatoes worked well, and the plant spread widely. parenthetically, potatoes were also introduced about this time to the northwest coast of america by spanish voyagers and by the late eighteenth century the indigenous people there were selling them in quantity to sailing ships. heirloom varieties have developed. in the northwest, showing how fast and thoroughly potatoes get adopted even in rather the potato has inspired many books, this being the latest. rebecca earle, a british historian, focuses on the potato in english and worldwide political history. earle begins with the origin and ancestry of the potato in the andes. she quickly moves to its introduction to europe. this involved early confusion with sweet potatoes and jerusalem artichokes. clearly such lack of differentiation is not entirely a thing of the past, since on page 32 she provides a very clear picture of a jerusalem artichoke (from 1630) but identifies it as a sweet potato (the two plants look quite different). here and throughout the book, earle gives only brief discussions of the differences between white and sweet potatoes, and their very different biology and requirements. she goes on to dismantle classic myths of the rejection of the potato in premodern europe. it was only rarely and tentatively blamed for causing leprosy. it was not rejected for being unmentioned in the bible, and neither were dozens of other crops not mentioned therein. it was not rejected for being in the family of deadly nightshade. (in fact, potato greens are poisonous, but that has never stopped anyone from eating the tubers.) it was, in fact, not rejected at all; it spread slowly, because of difficulties acclimatizing, but it was adopted locally in the sixteenth century and widely in the seventeenth century. this was well before the eighteenth century window when it became well known in elite literature. peasants and free farmers were eagerly growing and eating potatoes; the rich were more conservative. farmers found that potatoes are easy to grow, easy to hide (one can just leave them buried), hard for governments to store, and hard to tax (points made feeding the people: the politics of the potato. by rebecca earle. 2020. cambridge university press, cambridge, united kingdom. 306 pp. eugene n. anderson1* 1department of anthropology, university of california, riverside, usa. *gene@ucr.edu received january 1, 2021 open access accepted january 4, 2021 doi 10.14237/ebl.12.1.2021.1745 published march 15, 2021 copyright © 2021 by the author(s); licensee society of ethnobiology. this is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution-noncommercial 4.0 international public license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0), which permits non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. anderson. 2021. ethnobiology letters 12(1):55–57 56 reviews perspectives from gene anderson’s bookshelf unlikely settings; the northwest coast people had no previous agriculture, though they were “preadapted” by cultivating wild root crops. earle then shifts to more modern times. before malthus, european countries wanted to increase their populations, and the potato was a godsend. after malthus, and not just because of his writings (anyone could see trouble building), concern for overpopulation grew, and the potato appeared more and more as a way of allowing too many people to live on too few resources. a family could survive on a fraction of an acre, living on a minimalist diet of potatoes and buttermilk, and could avoid raising grain too. potato eaters were famed for poverty and want, as in van gogh’s famous early painting (shown on p. 208). workers rebelled against being forced to depend on the plant. of course, earle has to give some account of the irish potato famine of 1846–1850, but keeps it rather brief, presumably because so many good books have been written about it (e.g., woodham-smith 1962). like most writers, she barely mentions the fact that this famine also devastated germany, russia, and eastern europe. meanwhile, the british empire promoted potatogrowing from new zealand (where the maori already had sweet potatoes in abundance) to india and to america. earle casts a cynical eye on this enterprise: “such schemes were concerned far more with legitimating particular forms of governance than with reducing hunger. britain’s track record in hunger prevention in india [and elsewhere] was in fact extremely poor” (p. 114). earle sees potato promotion abroad as largely a cold-blooded attempt to look virtuous while alienating food and other products from local populations. without denying some reality to this image, one has to question the lack of any qualifications in earle’s narrative. surely there were well-meaning potato introducers, and there most certainly were colonialists who did not make even the pretense of being moral about their work. this is the clearest case of earle’s tendency to ascribe a single, uniform mentality to everyone in a particular era, as if everyone rapidly came into perfect agreement. potatoes took on a virtuous mien again in world war i, and subsequently, as still-increasing populations became ever more dependent on them. in the twentieth century, potatoes have increasingly appeared essential to world food security with more and more effort devoted to breeding high-yield, disease-resistant forms. the food and agriculture organization (fao) propagated them widely. earle does not discuss the potato’s role in the green revolution, which was more modest than that of the famous high-yield wheat and rice varieties, but was less subject to criticism for promoting industrial agriculture. the potato maintained its reputation as a smallholder, low-tech crop. outside her purview, also, are recent innovations in potato-growing: new and improved varieties and breeding methods (stokstad 2019), potatoes with vitamin a value (knapp 2008), and even tomatoes and other solanaceae grafted onto potatoes to produce double-value crops (mccann 2020). the great center of potato diversity, including diversity of closely related species, is still the andes, as well as chiloe island in chile, where mapuche descendants keep countless varieties alive. these centers remain sources of genes for resistance to disease and for better growth. i recall the late potato expert hugh iltis (personal communication) often advocating that farmers in the andes be paid not to modernize. in fact, something like this is now being done, with many programs in the andes and chiloe island to help local people save local varieties and to share at least a small bit of the enormous profits that are generated when genes go worldwide. among major earlier works on the potato in society, redcliffe salaman’s (1985) classic the history and social influence of the potato stands out. it is a far more ambitious work than earle’s, combining biology, history, economics, and social science with brilliant success. james lang’s (2001) notes of a potato watcher adds personal research, while john reader’s (2008) propitious esculent more or less recaps salaman and brings his book up to date. salaman’s classic was the first of many books that thoughtfully explore the ramifications of a particular crop in world commerce, and especially the ways that unique biological qualities and unique world-economic situations interact to produce vast profits but also unexpected catastrophes. sidney mintz’ (1985) famous work on sugar, sweetness and power, is probably the best -known of these. more specialized and thus less wellknown, but a superb work, is sucheta mazumdar’s (1998) sugar and society in china. sven beckert’s (2014) recent work empire of cotton, which i reviewed in ethnobiology letters (anderson 2017), deserves equal fame with salaman and mintz. this work is now joined by andrew flachs’ (2019) study of cotton in india, cultivating knowledge; some readers of this journal anderson. 2021. ethnobiology letters 12(1):55–57 57 reviews perspectives from gene anderson’s bookshelf may recall that this book started life as andy’s prizewinning student paper at a society of ethnobiology meeting some years ago. many more such books could be listed, covering everything from soybeans (du bois et al. 2008) to chiles, coffee, tea, chocolate, and other commercial plants. oddly enough, there are no comparable books on grain crops. many technical books on wheat, rice, barley, oats, rye, millets, sorghum, and other grains are available, but there is not a single book on any grain comparable to salaman, mintz, or beckert. maize is a partial exception, with good books including betty fussell’s (1992) the story of corn, but more is needed. if i were starting on my career now, i would certainly devote a considerable part of my life to researching a grain, preferably wheat, and writing a major biography of it. i strongly recommend such activity to aspiring ethnobotanists. references cited anderson, e. n. 2017. empire of cotton: a global history. by sven beckert. 2014. vintage, new york, ny. 615 pp. ethnobiology letters 8:97–100. doi:10.14237/ebl.8.1.2017.1068. beckert, s. 2014. empire of cotton: a global history. vintage, new york. du bois, c. m., t. chee-beng, s. mintz, eds. 2008. the world of soy. university of illinois press, urbana, il. flachs, a. 2019. cultivating knowledge: biotechnology, sustainability, and the human cost of cotton capitalism in india. university of arizona press, tucson, az. fussell, b. 1992. the story of corn. knopf, new york. knapp, s. 2008. celebrating spuds. science 321:206– 207. doi:10.1126/science.1159278. lang, j. 2001. notes of a potato watcher. texas a & m press, college station, tx. mazumdar, s. 1998. sugar and society in china: peasants, technology, and the world market. harvard university press, cambridge, ma. mccann, m. c. 2020. chimeric plants—the best of both worlds. science 369:618–619. doi:10.1126/ science.abd1641. mintz, s. w. 1985. sweetness and power: the place of sugar in modern history. penguin books, new york. reader, j. 2008. propitious esculent: the potato in world history. william heinemann, london. salaman, r. 1985. the history and social influence of the potato, 2nd edition, edited by j. hawkes. cambridge university press, cambridge, united kingdom. scott, j. c. 2018. against the grain: a deep history of the earliest states. yale university press, new haven, ct. stokstad, e. 2019. the new potato. science 363:574– 577. doi:10.1126/science.363.6427.574. woodham-smith, c. 1962. the great hunger. harper and row, new york. ethnobotanical study in martinique of the species behind the local plant name bwa kaka drané et al. 2018. ethnobiology le ers 9(2):136–149 136 research communica ons (1996) in martinique identified a single species matching this vernacular name, while vilayleck (2002) lists two: solanum triste (jacq.) and petiveria alliacea (l.). the first is an endemic species and a member of the solanaceae family; the second is pantropical and a member of phytolaccaceae. in order to clarify the popular knowledge linked to bwa kaka, a literature review was performed 1) to inventory all species referred to as bwa kaka in the caribbean, 2) to identify the plant species referred to locally as bwa kaka, and 3) to record the traditional uses of these species and their preparation methods. furthermore, we aim to assess the socio-cultural factors that are linked to the ethnobotanical knowledge about bwa kaka. methods survey site the caribbean islands are classified as one of the 34 global biodiversity hotspots (hobohm 2003). this study took place in martinique, lesser antilles, an introduction martinique pharmacopeia is estimated to comprise 900 products of which 92% are from plant sources, according to nossin (benito-espinal et al. 2015). among them, some have not yet been studied, but are currently in use. our search for species of local household remedies led us to a plant called bwa kaka in martinique. according to the literature, bwa kaka is one of the most sought-after plants in the traditional pharmacopeia in martinique (vilayleck 2002), a french caribbean island. however, we had difficulty identifying the species as it was not common either on the market, where current medicinal plants can be found, or in its natural habitat. furthermore, the literature was confusing as to the identity of bwa kaka. indeed, the term appears for several species in the flora of duss as “bois caca” (1897), a word-for-word translation of bwa kaka, or “bois puant”. more recently, a survey performed by longuefosse and nossin ethnobotanical study in mar nique of the species behind the local plant name bwa kaka elodie drané1*, marie feliot‐rippeault1, julie e smith‐ravin1, odile marcelin1 1ea 929 aihp geode groupe biospheres, université des an lles, mar nique, f.w.i. *elodie.drane@gmail.com abstract several scien fic studies have reported that the sustainability of tradi onal knowledge (tk) is threatened by moderniza on. plants of local pharmacopeias at the forefront of this phenomenon are those that are more discreet. based on these observa ons, we focused on the case of a vernacular name a ributed to a medicinal plant in mar nique: bwa kaka. it is reported in the literature as being highly sought a er by the local popula on but there is a lack of informa on about plant species behind the denomina on. to iden fy species that correspond to bwa kaka and to record the uses associated with them, a literature review of authors in the creolophone regions from the seventeenth century to the present day was performed, followed by an ethnobotanical survey among 80 people. a use value (uv) index was calculated. it was also determined whether there was convergence of uses between these different species. addi onally, this ar cle examines the sociocultural (age, sex, residence) factors that could influence the answers. we found that ten species were called bwa kaka. solanum triste was the most cited species, followed by pe veria alliacea. among these two, p. alliacea had the most cultural significance based on the calculated uv. designated uses for each species were not significantly dis nct according to fisher’s exact test but they were significantly different depending on the sex of the interviewee. the number of uses cited was not correlated with the age of the interviewee. received november 1, 2017 open access accepted march 19, 2018 doi 10.14237/ebl.9.2.2018.1147 keywords folk medicine, vernacular name, ethnobotanical knowledge erosion, solanum triste jacq., pe veria alliacea l. copyright © 2018 by the author(s) licensee society of ethnobiology. this is an open‐access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution‐noncommercial 4.0 international public license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by‐nc/4.0), which permits non‐commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. drané et al. 2018. ethnobiology le ers 9(2):136–149 137 research communica ons overseas french department located between latitudes 14°24'68" n and 14°51'53" n and longitudes 61°13'28" w and 60°49'05" w. martinique is composed of a group of volcanic mountains. according to the 2008 international union for conservation of nature (iucn) report, 26% of martinique is still covered by natural forest close to its primary state. strong anthropization, regular importation of exotic species, and current environmental changes constitute a real threat to local biodiversity (joseph 2006). ninety-six percent (96%) of people in martinique live in urban areas (clanché and rascol 2011). despite high urbanization and a very accessible institutional health system, people in martinique are very attached to the local pharmacopeia and still regularly make use of medicinal plants (concy 2015). a survey of 100 people in martinique, performed between 1990 and 1994, identified 251 medicinal species (longuefosse and nossin 1996). reference studies the creole pharmacopeia is a convergence of african, european, and asian cultures formed at the time of plantation society, on an amerindian substrate, originally practiced by slaves and only orally transmitted. its knowledge has crossed the centuries in large part thanks to the written testimonies of european ecclesiastical chroniclers and botanists since the seventeenth century (duss 1897; du tertre 1667; labat 1724) and naturalist-explorers (descourtilz 1830; mazé 1892). it is mostly modern authors who have collected and listed popular medical practices, such as the medical practitioner dr. cabre (1939). more recently, agronomists, botanists, ethnobotanists, ethnologists, and anthropologists have highlighted the therapeutic interest of caribbean flora and made an initial inventory of medicinal plants possible (adjanohoun 1985; benoît 1988; bougerol 1983; etifier-chalono 1985; grenand 2004; peeters 1979; stéhlé and stehlé 1957; vilayleck 2002). encyclopedias drawn up by doctors and traditional practitioners have made this knowledge available to the general public (beuze and césaire 1973; chenu 1986; ouensanga 1983, 1993; zamore and ary 1984). we were able to consult these works and collect ethnobotanical data on bwa kaka at the université des antilles library. to obtain the names and botanical families, we used the illustrated flora of the phanerograms of guadeloupe and martinique (fournet 1940) and rollet’s atlas of trees of the lesser antilles (2010) for resources on local flora, and online databases for international resources (broome et al. 2007; missouri botanical garden 2016). the smithsonian institution’s catalogue of seed plants of the west indies (rodríguez and strong 2012) was also an important tool for assessing the presence of species in the caribbean. the language of traditional medicine is creole. currently, inter-regional mobility plays a key role in the cultural development of these territories (dubesset 2012). ethnobotanical documents from several french creole-speaking areas were consulted. a total of 28 publications were consulted, published from the seventeenth century through modern times. ethnobotanical survey the survey was performed between may and september 2014. the questionnaire used with interviewees was divided into three sections. the first section was for recording plant species that interviewees designated as bwa kaka, along with any other useful information for identifying the species. the second section asked interviewees about the traditional uses they knew, whether medicinal or otherwise, using both closed questions (in particular, frequency of use, method of preparation and administration, and the source of their knowledge) and semi-open questions (in particular, for therapeutic uses). finally, the last section recorded the sociodemographic data on interviewees (age, sex, profession, place of residence). some terms used by the interviewees to describe the pains, illnesses, symptoms, treatments, and therapeutic uses, which have been reported here, are specific to creole culture. in order to provide an overview of medicinal categories as seen in another recent study carried out in the caribbean (torresalvilez et al. 2015), we classified these answers among ten categories, which correspond to the world health organization (who) international classification of disease (who 2010): 1) diseases of the nervous system; 2) diseases of the musculoskeletal system and connective tissue; 3) injury; 4) endocrine, nutritional, and metabolic diseases; 5) certain infectious and parasitic diseases; 6) diseases of the digestive system; 7) diseases of the genitourinary system; 8) diseases of the skin and subcutaneous tissue; 9) diseases of the circulatory system; 10) diseases of the respiratory system. interviewees were chosen using the “snowball sampling” method previously used and described for drané et al. 2018. ethnobiology le ers 9(2):136–149 138 research communica ons ethnobotanical studies (cabanting and perez 2016; espinosa et al. 2012; lans 2006). this procedure consists of asking each interviewee to recommend new participants. the sample thus extends from source to source. we first used the questionnaire with prominent traditional practitioners and people who grow medicinal plants for sale in martinique (identified via the internet, radio, local television, or recommendation by other people). then we focused on people who regularly consume medicinal plants or occasionally use plants for treatment, who we met in markets or at events on the subjects of “plants” and “tradition”. in this way, we interviewed over 80 people, men and women, from 20 to over 70 years old. we first asked if they had heard of the plant called bwa kaka. if the answer was positive, the interview continued. to obtain a sample covering the entire territory and population of martinique, we figure 1 map of the locality and number of interviewees in percent (%) in each of the tramil zones in mar nique. drané et al. 2018. ethnobiology le ers 9(2):136–149 139 research communica ons conducted the survey across the eight zones specified in the tramil method (longuefosse and nossin 1996). these zones were determined by criteria such as microclimate, vegetation, population, level of urbanization, type of economy and persistence of tradition (figure 1). 10.2% of people interviewed were from zone 1, 14.3% from zone 2, 14.3% from zone 3, 16.3% from zone 4, 22.4% from zone 5, 2.0% from zone 6, 10.2 % from zone 7, and 10.2 % from zone 8. for the first section of the questionnaire, plant samples were collected (where possible and with the interviewee’s permission) and identified by a. clodius, a botanist at the martinique regional nature park, and by comparison to the flora described by fournet (1940); the specimens were then taken to be dried and preserved in the laboratory collection and at the herbarium of the french national institute for agricultural research (inra), guadeloupe (inra 2018). each sample collected during the survey is linked with a form describing the plant and a photograph. however, some interviews were performed off-site, in which case it was not possible to observe or gather a sample of the living plant in its environment. in these instances, the strategy used to identify the species involved recording descriptions that were as detailed as possible (size, color, form, and structure of the flower, leaves, and entire plant, and any similarities to another species) and using images of selected species as had been practiced in earlier studies (ruysschaert et al. 2009). these images were photo sheets, supplemented by a drawing and the scientific name for eight plants that the literature specified as being known as bwa kaka in the caribbean. analysis of survey data the completed questionnaires were first entered into sphinx plus2 v5 (le sphinx développement), then into a secondary database created in microsoft excel 2007, containing nominal data such as the botanical species, uses, and interviewee profiles (place of residence, occupation). the data collected was coded and analyzed using the same software. citation frequencies were calculated using the equation: f=ni/np x 100, where ni is the number of informants using this species for a specific illness and np is the total number of informants using the plants medicinally (boulogne et al. 2011). the use value index was calculated as follows: uv=u/n, where u is the number of uses mentioned figure 2 distribu on of interviewees according to sex and age range (among 48 respondents). drané et al. 2018. ethnobiology le ers 9(2):136–149 140 research communica ons by all informants for a given species, and n the total number of informants. this is an index used to assess the significance of a plant taxon, based on its relative use within a population (phillips and gentry 1993). to analyze the results obtained for identification of species and the uses attributed to them, we postulated that: 1) there is a link between interviewee zone of residence and plant species designated, 2) the uses cited for bwa kaka differ depending on the species designated. this result is an indicator of similarity of uses and their possible convergence for the different species. furthermore, two other null hypotheses were tested, related to interviewee profiles: 3) the use cited depends on the sex of the interviewee, and 4) the number of uses cited correlates with the age of the survey participant. to assess the first three hypotheses, contingency tables were constructed and fisher’s exact test applied (a test for uniformity of variances). finally, for the fourth hypothesis, a kendall’s tau correlation test was applied. the tests were performed using the r software environment, version 3.2.1. results and discussion profile of interviewees of the 82 people interviewed, 48 (58.5%) had heard of the plant called bwa kaka and replied to the full questionnaire, and 12 (14.6%) had used it personally. the sample of respondents who had heard of the plant (48 people) was made up of 56.3% men and 43.8% women distributed across various age groups (figure 2). the sampling led us to interview seven traditional practitioners and eight sellers of medicinal plants and derived products. the 33 other people interviewed were consumers of traditional medicine. we also observed that the interviewees had most often acquired knowledge of the uses from their parents (intergenerational transmission: 27 of the 48 interviewees that knew bwa kaka, or 56.3%). other sources were their circle of friends (6 of the 48 interviewees that knew bwa kaka, or 12.5%), and research on the internet, in books, or in the paramedical or medical environment (5 of the 48 interviewees that knew bwa kaka, or 10.4%). thus, the majority of the interviewees acquired their knowledge from their parents. this reflects the authenticity and fragile nature of most of the data collected concerning bwa kaka. indeed, the elders historically transmit creole pharmacopeia orally. identification of species from analysis of bibliographical and survey data in the literature, ten scientific plant names were found to be associated with the vernacular term bwa kaka. nine species are indigenous to the caribbean islands and two are endemic in the lesser antilles. one species is indigenous to india: sterculia foetida l. there is a species of the same genus, which is endemic to the lesser antilles: sterculia caribaeae l. (table 1). solanum triste is the species with the largest number of citations in the literature. petiveria alliacea is only cited once. bwa kaka was identified by 45 interviewees during the survey. ten interviewees provided samples (voucher numbers from ui guad 14215 to 14225, see notes). thirty-five others provided a description of the different plant organs, fruits, and flowers which was used to identify the species or identified the plant from the photo sheets provided. three more interviewees were unable to identify the species, but knew about the traditional uses of the plant called bwa kaka. three interviewees cited several species. in total, six different species were identified as bwa kaka: s. triste (34 times, or 75.6%), p. alliacea (13 times, or 28.9%) and s. foetida (2 times, or 4.4%) were the most cited (figure 3). ocotea cernua, siparuna glabrescens, and piper dilatatum were cited once (not shown on the figure). of the 15 traditional medical practitioners interviewed, 10 (66.7%) cited s. triste, 4 (26.7%) cited p. alliacea, and 1 (6.7%) cited piper dilatatum. it should therefore be noted that identification of the species corresponding to bwa kaka by the population followed the same trend as that of traditional practitioners. among the ten species of bwa kaka reported in the local literature (table 1), five were confirmed by the survey: s. triste, p. alliacea, s. foetida, ocotea cernua, and siparuna glabrescens. s. triste, which is cited the most frequently in the literature, is also the most cited during the survey. however, p. alliacea, which is cited the most by interviewees after s. triste, is referenced once in the literature. capparis flexuosa, which is the most cited in the literature after s. triste, was not cited during the field study. the difference between the literature results and the actual current knowledge of medicinal plants is an evidence of a shift in this knowledge. another interesting result is that p. alliacea, the second most cited by interviewees during the survey, appears to have been reported just once in the literature. p. alliacea is therefore thought to be a recent inclusion. drané et al. 2018. ethnobiology le ers 9(2):136–149 141 research communica ons species family origin bibliographic references for bwa kaka ocotea cernua (nees) lauraceae indigenous to the caribbean (acevedo‐rodríguez & strong, 2012) graveson 2009; rollet 2010 bunchosia glandulosa (cav.) malpighiaceae indigenous to the caribbean (acevedo‐rodríguez & strong, 2012) grandtner 2005; rodríguez and strong 2012; timyan 1996 solanum triste (l.) solanaceae indigenous to the lesser an lles and south america beuze and césaire 1973; duss 1897; fournet 1940; longuefosse and nossin 1996; mazé 1892; rollet 2010; sastre et al. 2007; vilayleck 2002 pe veria alliacea (l.) phytolaccaceae indigenous to the caribbean and central america (acevedo‐rodríguez & strong, 2012) vilayleck 2002 gue arda parviflora (vahl), syn. g. odorata (jacq.) lam. rubiaceae indigenous to the caribbean and central and south america mazé 1892; rollet 2010; sastre et al. 2007; duss 1897 siparuna glabrescens (c. presl), syn. s. santae‐luciae siparunaceae endemic to the lesser an lles rollet 2010 capparis flexuosa (l.) syn. c. cynophallophora (l.) capparaceae indigenous to the caribbean grandtner 2005; mazé 1892; rodríguez and strong 2012; timyan 1996 capparis ferruginea (l.) capparaceae indigenous to the greater an lles beauvoir 2006; mazé 1892; descour lz 1833 sterculia caribaea (r. br.) sterculiaceae endemic to the lesser an lles broome et al. 2007; mazé 1892; rodríguez and strong 2012 sterculia foe da (l.) sterculiaceae exo c, indigenous to india mazé 1892; priam et al. 2015; rollet 2010 table 1 species found under the vernacular name bwa kaka in the local literature. drané et al. 2018. ethnobiology le ers 9(2):136–149 142 research communica ons bwa kaka is an example of what rollet (2010) calls an “englobant” (encompassing) vernacular name attributed to several botanical species. this can be a source of confusion when the person who gives therapeutic advice is not the same person who supplies the herbal remedy, and also in cases where people practice self-medication. in martinique, it is customary to distinguish between the traditional practitioner who diagnoses and prescribes, and the herbalist, who supplies the treatment as well as knowing and harvesting the plants and their methods of preparation. the herbalists, who are historically usually women (nossin 2006), are also called lapotijè (creole for “apothecary”) and they are found in the main markets. those encountered in the survey cultivated their herbs in their own gardens (in creole: jaden bo kay) or they gathered plants in the relatively wild grounds around their dwellings (in creole: zèb razié). alongside this type of market sale, there are an increasing number of commercial nurseries that produce medicinal plants. from the survey, two species, s. triste and p. alliacea, were frequently cited (34 and 13 times, respectively). the first species is a shrub that can reach 7 m in height and that grows in relatively humid areas. during the survey, the areas cited for gathering s. triste were along forest edges, not far from human activities, and only two interviewees cultivated it. the second species is an herbaceous plant that is sometimes suffrutescent. it appears to be easy to distinguish on the basis of these morphological features. however, a clarification of the lexicogenic matrices that define the vernacular denomination of plant species offers elements of explanation. indeed, in caribbean creole culture, a plant is usually named on the basis of features such as its morphological, organoleptic, functional, circumstantial, or ecological characteristics, from which names are generated (villayleck 1993). in the case of bwa kaka, the base term bwa means “wood” (from the french bois) and it is usually reserved for trees. s. triste is a shrub and p. alliacea an herbaceous plant. consequently, s. triste figure 3 main species designated as bwa kaka during the survey: s. triste, p. alliacea and s. foe da (among 52 answers). drané et al. 2018. ethnobiology le ers 9(2):136–149 143 research communica ons would be a better candidate for this name than p. alliacea according to these criteria. the second part of the name, kaka, means “feces” and is open to several interpretations, of which the most common, based on replies obtained during the survey, evokes the nauseating odor of the plant. on this criterion, both species could be a good match. indeed, the phytochemical study of p. alliacea has shown that it contains sulfur compounds that are structurally similar to those that give garlic its characteristic odor (luz et al. 2016). some species of the solanum genus are said to have an unpleasant odor (gentry 1993), though the odor has not been linked to specific volatile compounds in the genus (visser et al. 1979). from these observations, it is entirely plausible that people attribute the same name to the two species. however, given that one is favored over the other, the hypothesis can be posited that s. triste was the first to be called bwa kaka, and that p. alliacea was later called by the same name because of its quality as a “bad smelling plant”. we wanted to determine if the names used for a particular species were linked to the location. indeed, vilayleck (1993) indicated that vernacular names given to species in martinique are associated with the location where they are given. this is not confirmed by our results since our test shows that there is no significant difference between the zones where s. triste and p. alliacea were named (p-value=0.3226). in other words, the species designated as bwa kaka are therefore not significantly correlated with the geographical zones of the survey. this result could point out a trend towards an increase in uniformity in knowledge and practices associated with the mobility of people on the island. indeed, martinique is a small territory which has modernized rapidly, as shown by the development of roads and means of transport since the 1960s (guignard 1985). uses of bwa kaka of the 48 people who answered the questionnaire (including the three people that could not identify the species), 66.7% (32 people) were able to cite uses for bwa kaka and 25% (12) of them used it personally. among the 37 suggestions of uses, three categories were cited: therapeutic (75.7% of responses), home hygiene (10.8%), and magic-religious purposes (13.5%) such as chasing away dorlis (a supernatural malicious character in popular martinique belief), keeping away people with bad intentions, ben démaré purification rites, success in exams, or general protection. the medicinal uses were catalogued and linked to the who international classification of diseases (table 2). they include vernacular terms such as gueule de bois (hangover) and more academic terms such as kidney stones, diabetes, cholesterol, and aerophagia, alongside words and expressions from a form of local who categories uses uncovered during the survey certain infec ous and parasi c diseases elephan asis diseases of the diges ve system diges ve problems (colic, veisaglia, aerophagia), intes nal inflamma ons (hemorrhoids) diseases of the genitourinary system kidney stones diseases of the skin and subcutaneous ssue skin condi ons diseases of the circulatory system “heavy legs” diseases of the respiratory system flu, sinusi s diseases of the nervous system headaches diseases of the musculoskeletal system and connec ve ssue rheuma sm, inflammatory joint pain injury and certain other consequences of external causes sprains, hematomas, blesse (chest pain caused by a brusque movement) endocrine, nutri onal, and metabolic diseases diabetes, cholesterol table 2 correspondence between world health organiza on (who) categories and therapeu c uses cited by survey par‐ cipants. drané et al. 2018. ethnobiology le ers 9(2):136–149 144 research communica ons nosology (blesse, ben démaré, lenflamasyon). the latter term is the creole version of the word “inflammation”. in french as in english, inflammation is a type of immune system response. in creole, it refers to a series of symptoms associated with an excess of “heat” and is treated with refreshing herbal teas which re-establish lost equilibrium (longuefosse and nossin 1996). for the remaining analysis of the results, we focused on the two species most cited in our survey, s. triste and p. alliacea. the illnesses that received the most citations for s. triste were diseases of the digestive system, followed by those of the genitourinary system, the respiratory system, and injuries (figure 4). p. alliacea tends to be most frequently used in the treatment of metabolic and endocrine diseases (figure 5). however, these variations between the uses attributed to each of the two species are not statistically significant, according to fisher’s exact test (p-value=0.5189). with regard to bwa kaka preparation methods, over 99% of users use the leaves of both species. the main bwa kaka preparation methods were aqueous maceration (6 of the 14 answers, or 42.9%), decoction (2 of the 14 answers, or 14.3%), fumigation (1 of the 14 answers, or 7.1%), and no preparation or processing (5 of the 14 answers, or 35.7%). the methods of administration stated were oral (8 of the 14 answers, or 57.14%), as a poultice (5 of the 14 answers, or 35.7%), or in a bath (1 of the 14 answers, or 7.1%). this led us to consider the risk of convergence of uses for these two species. we have little information on the phytochemical composition and toxicity of s. triste, but we know that this species belongs to a family that contains glycoalkaloids that are potentially toxic for humans (ginzberg et al. 2008; maxwell et al. 1995, 1996). p. alliacea is a medicinal species indigenous to tropical america that is widely distributed in tropical areas of america, caribbean, and africa, where it is used for its medicinal properties. its extracts are associated with antitumor activities (hernández et al. 2014) and the essential oils have demonstrated antimicrobial properties (kerdudo et al. 2015). mutagenic and potentially carcinogenic effects of the extracts have been demonstrated but more tests are needed to conclude on the toxicity of folk medicine based on p. alliacea (luz et al. 2016). as some authors have noted, traditional medicine, which was for a long time essential to local people in the caribbean, has been marginalized to make way for modern medicine (mitchell and ahmad 2006; vaudreuil 2012). some studies suggest that elders have better knowledge on medicinal plants (hodge and taylor 1957; longuefosse and nossin 1996). however, our experience in the field suggests otherwise for this area. indeed, the total number of figure 4 popular uses of s. triste according to cita on frequencies (among 20 respondents). drané et al. 2018. ethnobiology le ers 9(2):136–149 145 research communica ons uses described by participants in the age ranges 50– 59, 60–69, and 70–79 years old were under two, while we had more than two uses from interviewees aged under 39. the kendall’s tau test did not indicate a significant correlation coefficient between the number of uses cited and the age of the interviewee (τ=0.09, p-value=0.4905). the number of uses cited by men and women were not significantly different (pvalue=0.5887). the literature indicated that, from the original inhabitants of martinique, the amerindians, to the modern inhabitants, women were the heirs and protectors of traditional knowledge on medicinal plants (longuefosse 2006; quinlan and quinlan 2007). our results cannot confirm this theory. regarding the category of uses cited by the interviewee, the results of fisher’s exact test differ significantly (p-value=0.0464). indeed, men stated that bwa kaka was mainly used for the treatment of diseases of the digestive system while for women the main use was magic-religious practice. thus, from these results, we concluded that the category of uses is linked to the sex of the interviewee. our results reflect the fact that a change involving custodians of ethnobotanical knowledge may be underway in martinique. to this effect, a few studies have already been carried out in the caribbean (torres-avilez et al. 2015; quinlan and quinlan 2007). for s. triste, the calculated use value was uv=0.60 and for p. alliacea uv=0.67. this reflects the greater cultural significance of the second species. this confirms earlier conclusions that s. triste has a declining place in local popular practices and lore. while bwa kaka seems to have been quite sought after in the past (vilayleck 2002), its use seems to have now regressed. indeed, the plant was only available on request at the four largest markets in martinique (one in trinité, and three in fort de france). there are several possible explanations. it may be the victim of its reputation as a plant used for “sorcery”, since one of the main uses recorded during our survey on the vernacular name bwa kaka was its magic-religious use. according to local belief, it is not good to disclose the use of such plants as they risk losing their effectiveness (nossin 2006). an additional explanation is that modern society in martinique, like in other places in the world (lee et al. 2001), has less place for these practices and consequently the species associated with these practices are neglected and they become rarer. this has been the case in the past for the caribbean species maranta ruizana (körn), according to the ethnobotanist j. barrau (1995). conclusion the study illustrates the potential side effects of the erosion of traditional knowledge, leading to interspecific use convergence and potential problems for public health, as has been underlined in other studies (olivier et al. 2015; yamani et al. 2015). the survey sheds light on s. triste, a species indigenous to the lesser antilles which has been the subject of few published scientific studies. s. triste is one of those plants that for various reasons has been marginalized over the course of history and is currently underexploited. according to our survey, it is designated in martinique under the same vernacular name as p. alliacea, the second most frequently cited species for bwa kaka, and four other species. p. alliacea is available and used in many countries, but its local traditional uses in martinique are perhaps undergoing major transformations since it was not listed as bwa kaka in the literature before vilayleck (2002). we hypothesize that it is a recent inclusion in the pharmacopeia. furthermore, the results show that the uses are not figure 5 popular uses of p. alliacea according to cita on frequencies (among 9 respondents). drané et al. 2018. ethnobiology le ers 9(2):136–149 146 research communica ons significantly distinct for the two most frequently cited species. it would therefore be of interest to check the safety of s. triste for therapeutic ends, particularly when ingested as an infusion. our laboratory will later study its phytochemistry. ethnobotanical studies can allow the development of biodiversity conservation strategies (albuquerque et al. 2009) by identifying the more fragile species, threatened with the disappearance of wild areas by human activity. we think that s. triste is a good candidate for these strategies. indeed, the species is very rare in its natural habitat (delnatte 2015). we also noted during our survey that few people cultivated s. triste. they generally picked it in secondary mesophilic forest areas, not far from dwellings and human activities. consequently, this species is more sensitive than p. alliacea to the degradation of its environment. more investigations on the field are needed to evaluate its ecology in martinique. a look at the sociocultural background of the interviewees suggests elements of the dynamics of acquisition, transmission, and loss of traditional knowledge. in our investigations, we also found that general theories of traditional knowledge of pharmacopeia in the literature do not always correspond to observations in the field. indeed, the age and gender of the custodians of knowledge in this study were not what was previously reported in the literature on martinique. to confirm this trend, a broader study is needed with a larger population and a larger number of species. notes voucher specimens were deposited in the herbarium of inra, centre antilles-guyane, guadeloupe. the datasets used and analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author. acknowledgements the authors thank dr. christian de vassoigne and dr. emmanuel nossin for providing support on the design of the survey. a special thanks to the traditional practitioners, the market vendors, and the people in martinique who volunteered to share their knowledge about medicinal plants. we thank alex clodius from the parc naturel régional de martinique (pnrm) who was a great support in the field for the localization and identification of plant species. declarations permissions: ethics approval was not required for our case reports. all data were collected under previous consent of each participant. source of funding: the project was supported by the région martinique and collectivité territoriale de martinique (ctm). conflicts of interest: none declared. references cited adjanohoun, e., 1985. contribution aux études ethnobotaniques et floristiques à la dominique (commonwealth of dominica): rapport présenté à l’a.c.c.t. agence de coopération culturelle et technique, paris. albuquerque, u.p. de, t.a. de sousa araújo, m.a. ramos, v.t. do nascimento, r.f.p. de lucena, j.m. monteiro, n.l. alencar, and e. de l. araújo. 2009. how ethnobotany can aid biodiversity conservation: reflections on investigations in the semi-arid region of ne brazil. biodiversity and conservation 18:127–150. 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(hymenoptera: apidae: meliponini) in the peruvian amazon delgado et al. 2023. ethnobiology letters 14(1):1–9 1 research communications enawene-nawe and quilombola classify bees based on their structural, morphological, ecological, ethological, and social characteristics (alves and alves 2011; santos and antonini 2008). in south america, honey is generally obtained from the forest by harvesting it directly from the nest, leaving behind destroyed colonies on the ground (kerr et al. 2001; quezada-euán et al. 2018). certain communities, such as the kayapó in brazil and rural communities in peru, practice a conservation method in which they transfer the nest to locations near their homes to periodically extract honey (alves and alves 2011; camargo and posey 1990; rasmussen and castillo-carrillo 2003). in latin america, in addition to the use of honey, larvae (pauleti et al. 2000; quezada et al 2018), pupae, pollen, cerumen, and propolis are also consumed to a lesser extent (carbalho et al. 2014; costa-neto 2005; introduction meliponiculture—the keeping of stingless bees—to extract honey and wax has been practiced by cultures around the world for thousands of years (costa-neto and ramos-elorduy 2006; crane 1999). before the spaniards arrived in south america in 1492, indigenous groups were well acquainted with stingless bees (crane 1999; medrano and rosso 2010; quezada-euán et al. 2001, 2018). different amerindian cultures attributed multiple properties to stingless bee products, including nutrition, medicine, handcrafts, religion, economy, and mythology (quezada-euán et al. 2018). honey was the single most used product, followed by pollen, wax mixed with plant resins, propolis, and larvae (alves and alves 2011; quezada-euán et al. 2018). in brazil, indigenous communities, such as the kayapó, consider stingless bees as part of their cosmology and a model of social organization (posey 1986), while the traditional knowledge of stingless bees (hymenoptera: apidae: meliponini) in the peruvian amazon cesar delgado1*, kember mejía1, claus rasmussen2, and rosa romero3 1affiliation programa de biodiversidad amazónica, instituto de investigaciones de la amazonia peruana, iquitos, perú, 2department of agroecology, aarhus university, tjele, denmark, 3departamento de lenguas extranjeras y nativas, universidad nacional de la amazonía peruana, iquitos, perú. *cdelgado@iiap.gob.pe abstract this paper describes the traditional knowledge on the management of stingless bee colonies and the use of honey by indigenous and non-indigenous communities of the department of loreto, in the peruvian amazon. semi-structured interviews and collection of voucher bees were carried out from june to august 2016 and from november to december 2017. the informants were selected through intentional non-probabilistic sampling (snowball sampling). during the study, 21 communities were visited, of which some of the community members in thirteen communities kept stingless bees. a total of 17 species of stingless bees are reported as used in the communities for either rearing or harvesting of honey from the forest with melipona eburnea being the most common species. the way communities classify, manage, and use bees depends on how they perceive these insects, informed by knowledge processed and incorporated from other communities. in these communities, they use honey and pollen, with honey being the main product. fourteen health conditions are treated with honey, with the most treated conditions being related to respiratory ailments, fertility, and reproduction. the study provides a basis for incorporating stingless bees into conservation and sustainable production policies. received june 4, 2021 open access accepted july 1, 2022 doi 10.14237/ebl.14.1.2023.1772 published march 8, 2023 keywords melipona, ethnoknowledge, amazon, peru, sustainable development copyright © 2023 by the author(s); licensee society of ethnobiology. this is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution-noncommercial 4.0 international public license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0), which permits non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. delgado et al. 2023. ethnobiology letters 14(1):1–9 2 research communications vit et al. 2014). propolis and cerumen, in particular, are used in the manufacture of hunting and fishing tools, musical instruments, handicrafts, etc. (quezada et al., 2018). bees also have mythological, religious, cosmological, spiritual meanings (cappas and souza 1995, rodrigues 2006; santos et al. 2008) and are used as a model of social organization (camargo and posey 1990; quezada et al. 2018). from peru, more than 175 different species of stingless bees are known (rasmussen, personal observation), a number that has increased with recent studies (baumgartner and roubik 1989; castillocarrillo et al. 2016; pedro and camargo 2003; rasmussen and castillo-carrillo 2003; rasmussen and gonzales 2009). in the latest survey, rasmussen and delgado (2019) reported 69 species alone for the loreto region of northeastern peru. the first peruvian account of stingless bee management included surveys from indigenous and non-indigenous communities (rasmussen and castillo-carrillo 2003). later reports described honey consumption and beekeeping practices in more detail (e.g., castillo-carrillo et al. 2016; elizalde vilela et al. 2016; perichon 2013). this study aims at documenting the current state of traditional knowledge on how indigenous and nonindigenous communities in the department of loreto use stingless bees, to establish the scientific bases that allow defining policies for the preservation of stingless bees and the use of honey from these bees. methods study area the study was conducted from june to august 2016 and again from november to december 2017 in 21 different lower basin river communities in the department of loreto, peru, including: eight communities in the ucayali river, six in the marañón river, four in the napo river, and three in the nanay river (figure 1). the local communities include indigenous kukama-kukamiria and non-indigenous river dwellers (ribereños) whose economies all rely on subsistence activities such as agriculture, fishing, hunting, collection of turtles, honey, raising chickens and, in some cases, pigs and other domestic animals. the nutrient-rich soil of these communities remains under water from three to five months per year. there are two main seasons: one with heavy rainfall from october to april and the other with low rainfall from may to september, which coincides with the lowwater period of the rivers, except in the case of the napo river whose high-water period goes from february to august, while the low-water period ranges from march to september. the area is covered with highly diverse vegetation of primary forests, secondary forests, and cultivated species, which jointly provide a valuable source of food, resins, and nesting habitats for numerous stingless bees. interviews first, we sought and obtained consent for the study from the local authorities. once approved the process of selecting informants in the communities was based on an intentional non-probability sampling technique called snowball sampling (sadler et al. 2010), which started with meeting one family or household of stingless beekeepers that led to further meetings with other known beekeepers. we included only those families that had stingless bee colonies or those who said they kept stingless bees during the past ten years. a semi-structured survey was then handed out to each figure 1 map of the study areas, with distribution of the communities in the four river basins in the peruvian amazon region. delgado et al. 2023. ethnobiology letters 14(1):1–9 3 research communications informant family while visiting their stingless bee colonies if they still had colonies. from each live colony, five bee specimens were collected, and entrance photos were taken for subsequent identification. each family that informed us they had kept stingless bees in the past was shown a 15 x 20 cm photographic plate that illustrated different bee species and hive entrance, to ensure the correct species was recognized and identified by the informant. the survey included eight specific questions: diversity: 1. which types of bees (species) do you keep now? 2. of the species you have kept in the past 1-10 years, why did you stop with those? 3. why do you keep the type (species) of bees you do now? management: 1. where in the house do you keep bees? 2. which colony product or resource do you collect and what do you use it for? 3. how much honey do you harvest and how often? 4. in which phase of the moon do you harvest honey? 5. which human conditions do you cure or treat with honey? the interview was directed at families rather than at a specific household member and no differentiation was made between whether men or women considered bees in similar ways. in the studied areas, river dwellers have coexisted for generations with the indigenous communities and no differentiation was observed in the handling or use. due to the low number of families interviewed and the similarity in the responses across the communities, all data were combined and analyzed together. to determine the importance of honey in the treatment of different conditions or diseases, we used the use value index (uvi) which was adapted from ethnobotanical studies (camou-guerrero et al. 2008). one set of the collected bee samples was incorporated into the biodiversity referential collection of the peruvian amazon research institute (iiap), iquitos, peru and the other part was sent to aarhus university, denmark, for taxonomic identification. table 1 stingless bee species that the inhabitants of the communities of the lower basins of marañon, ucayaly, napo and nanay rivers raise or collect honey from the forest. scientific name local name frieseomelitta trichocerata melipona eburnea “ronsapilla” (which is the diminutive form for “ronsapa” or bumblebee and “boca de sapo” [literally toad’s mouth] for the shape of the hive entrance melipona crinita melipona illota “abeja negra” [black bee] for the color of its body melipona grandis “abeja ceniza” [ash-colored bee] for the color of its body melipona cf. rufiventris “abeja colorada” [red bee] for the color of its body melipona titania “abeja gigante” [giant bee] partamona sp. plebeia kerri ptilotrigona pereneae “pishura abeja” [pishura bee] for the shape of its hive entrance. “pishura” is a regional term used to call the female external genitalia tetragona goettei tetragona truncata “trompa de elefante” “elephant trunk” for the shape of its hive entrance tetragonisca angustula “ramichi”, “angelita” or “niña” [little twig, little angel or little girl] for its small size and delicate appearance trigona amazonensis “arambazo”, “corta pelo” or “abeja brava” [short hair or fierce bee] trigona williana trigona dallatorreana scaptotrigona sp. delgado et al. 2023. ethnobiology letters 14(1):1–9 4 research communications results and discussion diversity we found that in 13 of the 21 (61.9%) communities surveyed 17 families keep stingless bees. families (8) in five (23.8%) additional communities had kept at least one colony in the past 1–10 years but have now abandoned this practice (1-4 colonies in the communities with an average of 2.8 colony per community). interviews represent a total of 25 current of former stingless bee keeping families. the total number of active colonies recorded was 29 distributed among 17 families with each family having one to three colonies. we recorded a total of 17 different species of stingless bees in nine genera that are either kept or harvested for honey from the surrounded forests. the species kept are: 15 colonies (51.7%) of melipona eburnea, five (17.2%) of m. illota, three (10.3%) of m. grandis, two each (6.8%) of m. titania and frieseomelitta trichocerata, and one each (3.4%) of trigona amazonensis and tetragonisca angustula. informants choose to keep specific species of stingless bees based on the quantity of honey they produce (7; 41.2%); the availability of the species near the community (6; 34.1%); and a lower aggression level (2; 11.8%). the local dwellers name the different bee species based on their morphology, color and size, the shape of the nest entrances, the colony’s behavior, or the relation with their surroundings (figure 2, table 1). other indigenous groups of the amazon already know about these ways to classify and identify the species of bees (alves and alves 2011; santos and antonini 2008). unlike other regions in the peruvian amazon (san martín, huánuco, junín, etc.), where commercial agriculture is developed and the keeping of the honeybee apis mellifera is intensifying, dwellers in the loreto region knew of apis mellifera but do not keep them and only use their honey when a tree is cut for purposes other than honey extraction (wood extraction, etc.). although in previous years the peruvian government, research institutes and universities promoted its keeping, it was not successful in the communities. the main factor attributed by the residents is the sting they cause. no other honey producing insects, such as honey wasps, were reported. management tree trunks measuring from 1 to 1.5 m with stingless bee colonies are cut and brought from the forest to the home for bee keeping. here the trunk is attached to the roof (17; 58.6%). in addition, nests are placed under the floor (8; 27.6%; note these are traditionally houses built on 1 to 2-meter-tall wooden stilts) or hung on fruit tree branches near the house (4; 13.8%). for honey harvest on a regular basis, an opening is made in the trunk and a lid sealed with clay is attached once the honey has been extracted. in addition, four of the 17 families are keeping bees in rustic or semirational hives. these people told us that they learned the techniques from other communities. honey is the most used product in the communities, followed by pollen (known locally as bee ‘excrement’), propolis, figure 2 shape of the hive entrances for some of the species recorded in the study; a melipona eburnea “toad’s mouth”; b m. illota “black bee"; c m. grandis “ash-colored bee”; d m. titania, “giant bee”; e tetragona truncata, “elephant trunk”; f trigona cf. hypogea; g ptilotrigona pereneae “pishura bee”; h lestrimelitta cf limao; i tetragonisca angustula “little angel or little girl”. delgado et al. 2023. ethnobiology letters 14(1):1–9 5 research communications and jelly (known locally as bee ‘acidito’) (figure 3). these products may be used in food, cultural activities, and especially medicine (figure 4). larvae serve as human food or as bait for fishing. honey harvesting primarily takes place in the morning: 11 (64.7%) inform that they harvest honey every 12-18 months and six (35.3%) every eight months. the reported quantity of harvested honey ranges from 300 to 1.800 ml. to harvest honey, the tree trunk is initially opened with an ax, extracting, and squeezing the honey containing pots into buckets. this process destroys the honey pots of cerumen and may kill the larvae and adults in brood cells sometimes connected with storage pots. five families (29.4%) stated that the emptied honey pots of cerumen are placed nearby the nest at the end of the harvesting period, so bees could retrieve the cerumen and rebuild the nest. venturieri et al. (2017) in an experiment with melipona fasciculata in brazil demonstrated the importance of this factor in the recovery of the colony and honey production. in latin america, there are indigenous communities that carry out sustainable practices when harvesting from native stingless bees: in peru, members of the kukamas make openings and then cover the trunk after harvest of the honey, or when a colony tree deteriorates, the whole colony is transferred to rustic wooden boxes (rasmussen and castillo 2003); in brazil, the kayapos only extract part of the honey, then close the hive, leaving provisions for the colony in order to revisit and harvest later again (posey and camargo 1985); the quilombola, guarani, and pankararé perform colony division (carvalho et al. 2014; costa-neto 1998; rodrigues 2006). however, the sustainable use and the close interaction with native stingless bees is also vanishing in parts of the range (villanueva-gutiérrez et al. 2005). the informants pointed out four reasons explaining why people are abandoning the ancient practice: 1) loss of knowledge on how to keep and use bees in the younger generation; 2) high bee colony figure 3 management and traditional use of native stingless bees in the studied communities; a bee hive on stick; b bee hive in a rustic box; c hive with the opening to extract the honey and lid sealed with clay; d nest of bee and honey extraction; e cerumen from a nest placed near the hive to be reused by bees; f preserved honey for later use or commercialization. figure 4 harvesting of a the colmenta and b use of honey, in the communities of the lower basins of the marañon, ucayali, napo and nanay rivers. delgado et al. 2023. ethnobiology letters 14(1):1–9 6 research communications mortality caused by extreme floods in the last years; 3) difficulty to locate the now often rare nests in the forest due to selective logging; and 4) low profitability of stingless beekeeping. similarly, perichon (2013) found that the number of keepers of wild bees decreased by approximately 50% between 2002 and 2012 in the northern coast of peru. one of the causes for this decline is the replacement of beekeeping of stingless species for commercial beekeeping with apis mellifera (perichon 2013). the increasing loss of stingless bees may be compromising the preservation of biodiversity, cultural heritage, food safety and health, as well as economic opportunities for these communities. cultural uses we have recorded a total number of fourteen human health conditions that are treated with pure honey or honey mixed with other products from the bee colonies or various plant extracts (table 2). these mixes are prepared from extracts macerated with sugar cane alcohol (spirit). older members of these communities explained that these extracts were done by cooking in the past. the main conditions treated with honey are cough, flu, bronchitis, infertility, and other reproductive issues. the honey use value-index ranged from 0.72 to 0.98 (table 2). some interviewees said that honey from a certain species is better for treating a specific condition. for instance, honey produced by trigona amazonensis and tetragonisca angustula are used to treat red eye and ocular growths; however, when this specific honey is not available, honey from any of the stingless bees is used as a treatment. studies carried out in peru report the use of pure honey or mixed with other products to treat colds, coughs, bronchial tubes, bronchitis, flu, rheumatism, arthritis, vaginal washes, eye infection, fertility of both sexes, anemia, constipation, and wound disinfection (rasmussen and castillo 2003; vileta et al. 2016). in the province of oro in ecuador, it is reportedly also used for bruises, tumors, ocular cataracts, pterygium, inflammation, infections, varicose veins, cleaning blood after childbirth, kidney diseases, wound healing, and as a soothing balm before sleeping (vit et al. 2016). other indigenous communities such as the uwa of colombia also use honey to treat infertility and reproductive issues (falchetti and nates-parra 2002). santos and antonini (2008) report the use of honey from many species of melipona to treat sore throats, bronchitis, erectile dysfunction, diabetes, mycosis, as a worm killer, antidote for snake and dog bites, but most of these were not reported by participants in our study. there is vast scientific literature that provides concrete evidence on the biological and chemical properties of medicinal honey around the world. for example, johnson et al. (2005) reported that australian leptospermum honey is effective “against antibiotic-resistant microorganisms” that are diseases uvi honey products plant species flu 1 pure honey or honey + jelly + pollen ginger zingiber officinale, jatoba hymenaea oblongifolia, rumberry myrciaria dubia, lemon citrus × limon, genipap genipa americana cough 0.9 bronchitis 0.7 asthma 0.2 pertussis 0.2 infertility and reproduction 0.8 pure honey or honey + jelly + pollen “chuchuhuasi” maytenus laevis, jatoba hymenaea oblongifolia, “cumaseba” swartzia polyphylla, clove vine tynanthus panurensis, m. dubia bone pain and rheumatism 0.4 pure honey or honey + jelly + pollen m. dubia, “murure” brosimum acutifolium, “icoja” unonopsis floribunda, “huacapurana” campsiandra angustifólia, “iporuro” alchornea castaneifolia, fever three brunfelsia grandiflora eye infection 0.2 pure honey bushy matgrass lippia alba cuts and other wounds 0.2 eye meatiness 0.1 burned 0.1 stomach pain 0.1 table 2 diseases treated with stingless bee honey, pure or mixed with other products of the colony or plant extracts, in the indigenous and non-indigenous communities of the peruvian amazon (data pooled across communities). delgado et al. 2023. ethnobiology letters 14(1):1–9 7 research communications associated with catheter infections when compared to commercially available mupirocin. research by ahmed et al. (2013) reported that malaysian tualang honey has potent antimicrobial, anti-inflammatory, and antioxidant properties when following randomized control clinical trials. this work also elucidated the chemical profile of this honey that included a high volume of phenols, flavonoids, and 5hydroxymethyl-furfural. furthermore, kato et al. (2012) reported that leptospermum honey harbors two highly abundant molecules including the novel glycoside “leptosin” that was directly linked to the inhibitory activity of myeloperoxidase. this result serves as chemical evidence for the antioxidant activity of this australian honey. conclusions the diversity of stingless bee species raised by local dwellers is broad, but only three are used frequently, melipona eburnea “toad’s mouth”, m. illota “black bee", and m. grandis “ash-colored bee”. indigenous communities of the amazon region have been practicing beekeeping of stingless bees to extract honey and other products for a very long time. particularly valuable colonies are cared for and brought back home for continuous use. however, management techniques are not sophisticated or considered sustainable; therefore, it is necessary to carry out actions to conserve and consolidate their use practices, create new or better transfer techniques, have a higher appreciation of colony products, and develop conservation policies. the number of communities that carry on this practice is decreasing, in part because of the gradual loss of traditional knowledge, deforestation, low production and cost of honey, and extreme climatic events (e.g., flooding, drought) increasingly common in the region. honey and other bee products have a nutritional and often perceived but not validated medical value. honey from stingless bees is used to treat different diseases and conditions and honey from certain species is used to treat specific illnesses. based on the frequency of honey use in the treatment of conditions related to the airways, reproductive system, and fertility, it is recommended to validate those claims by scientific studies. acknowledgments this research was financed by the national council for science, technology and technological innovation (concytec), in agreement with the peruvian amazon research institute (iiap). we want to thank the technician wilson gonzales for his support in the field work. we also thank the authorities of the communities for their consent to the study, and to all the people that took part in the study for sharing with us valuable information and help. declarations permissions: permits to access and carry out research in the communities were obtained prior field work. the peruvian government’s national forestry and wildlife service granted permits to collect biological materials. permit authorization no 0068-2015serfor-dggspffs and rdg-n—141-2016 serfor-dggspffs. sources of funding: the research was funded by the concejo nacional de ciencia y tecnologíaconcytec, agreement no 0185-2015fondecyt. conflicts of interest: none declared. references cited ahmed, s., and n. h. othman. 2013. review of the medicinal effects of tualang honey and a comparison with manuka honey. the malaysian journal of medical sciences 20:6–13. alves, r. r. n., and h. n. alves. 2011. the faunal drugstore: animal-based remedies used in traditional 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stingless bee (melipona fasciculata) after offering cerumen in natural form or as artificially made pots. journal of apicultural research 5:129–134. doi:10.1080/00218839.2017.1339520. villanueva-gutiérrez, r., d. w. roubik, and w. colliucán. 2005. extinction of melipona beecheii and traditional beekeeping in the yucatán peninsula. bee world 2:35–41. doi:10.1080/0005772x.2005.11099651. vit, p., o. vargas, t. lópez, and f. maza. 2015. meliponini biodiversity and medicinal uses of pothoney from el oro province in ecuador. emirates journal of food and agriculture 27:502–506. doi:10.9755/ejfa.2015.04.079. in search of ancient maya foods: a paleoethnobotany study from a non-elite context in sihó, yucatán herrera-parra. 2023. ethnobiology letters 14(1):58–68 58 research communications stage, from procurement to the presentation of food on the table (staller and carrasco 2010). as a result, food research has greatly enhanced our understanding of past human lifeways. diverse inquiries have delved into various aspects, including social inequality (cuéllar 2013), gastro-politics (appadurai 1981), food preferences (smith 2006), as well as identity, rituals, and feasts (hastorf 2016), providing captivating insights into the broader context of food-related practices. through approaches rooted in paleoethnobotany, researchers have been able to recover valuable information about plants that were consumed in the past (e.g. morell-hart et al. 2022). these studies have introduction food and cooking practices offer captivating insights into meaning-making, both in the past and the present. archaeologists have employed diverse methodologies to unravel the intricacies of ancient maya food procurement, including of animals and various plant species (emery and thornton 2008; farahani et al. 2017). the archaeology of food practices has focused on understanding the specific techniques employed to transform raw plants into widely consumed and historically significant dishes (ardren 2020). these investigations have revealed how food carries meaning and social significance, and have highlighted the role of agency at each culinary in search of ancient maya foods: a paleoethnobotany study from a non-elite context in sihó, yucatán esteban moisés herrera-parra1, 2* 1department of anthropology, brown university, providence, rhode island. 2laboratorio de análisis químicos y microscópicos, facultad de ciencias antropológicas, universidad autónoma de yucatán, mérida, méxico. *esteban_herrera_parra@brown.edu abstract feeding oneself and one’s community is a fundamental activity encompassing various stages, including the acquisition, transformation, and eventual consumption of plants and animals. these steps carry social implications that incorporate identity, gender roles, labor division, worldview, and status differentiation, among other facets of cultural practices. in the northern maya lowlands, paleoethnobotanical research has shed light on past plant consumption, expanding our understanding of ancient maya dietary habits. nonetheless, our knowledge of the dishes and plants consumed by non-elites remains limited, as the epigraphic and iconographic records primarily document the preferences of elites. this study focuses on identifying the plants exploited by residents of two lower social status domestic groups at the archaeological site of sihó, yucatán, mexico during the late-terminal classic period. by analyzing starch grains extracted from soil samples, we were able to identify staple crops like maize (zea mays) and beans (phaseolus spp.). additionally, we identified the presence of plants less commonly represented in the archaeological record, including arrowroot (maranta arundinacea) and tentatively mexican yam (pachirhyzus spp.). this research contributes to the study and identification of starch grains and provides valuable insights into agricultural and food-related practices within non-elite maya households. received december 26, 2022 open access accepted september 18, 2023 doi 10.14237/ebl.14.1.2023.1854 published november 17, 2023 keywords paleoethnobotany, starch grains, maya, non-elite, household archaeology, foodways copyright © 2023 by the author(s); licensee society of ethnobiology. this is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution-noncommercial 4.0 international public license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0), which permits non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. herrera-parra. 2023. ethnobiology letters 14(1):58–68 59 research communications shed light on the cooking processes and ingredient combinations used to create specific dishes (e.g. cagnato 2019). in the maya area, most of our knowledge about food practices stems from records associated with elite contexts, such as text and images on finely decorated pottery and murals (beliaev et al. 2010; garcía barrios 2017), often neglecting the domestic contexts that pertained to non-elites. as such, there is a need to expand our understanding by examining food practices in non-elite settings as well. it is important to note that commoners constituted a significant majority, representing more than eighty percent of the ancient maya population (lohse and valdez 2004). more recently in the trajectory of maya archaeology, there has been increasing interest in investigating the lifestyles of commoners, aiming to gain insights into the other side of pre-columbian maya society (robin 2013). these investigations have encompassed various topics across different archaeological disciplines, including paleoethnobotany (goldstein and hageman 2010). despite the progress made in understanding daily practices, there are still gaps that require further exploration, such as variation in plants cultivated and culinary preferences between regions. in light of these considerations, this paper documents the paleoethnobotanical analysis of recovered starch grains from the classic maya site of sihó, yucatán, mexico, and discusses food preferences and practices within two domestic groups belonging to the non-elite strata. plant consumption among the ancient mayas the ancient maya people made extensive use of a wide range of plants and agricultural techniques to sustain themselves and to create diverse dishes (fedick et al. 2023; morell-hart et al. 2022). early ethnohistorical records documented by friars, encomenderos, and other agents of spanish colonialism provide valuable insights into maya people’s dietary habits and emphasize the variety of plant foods they consumed. bishop diego de landa’s work, "la relación de las cosas de yucatán" (1985 [1566]), describes maya traditions and customs related to agriculture, flora, fauna, and foods. landa described varieties of maize, which differed in size and color, as well as beans, chile peppers, and squash, all of which continue to be staple crops in most parts of the yucatan peninsula. additionally, landa highlights several lesser-known species consumed by the maya, including a wide variety of sweet potatoes (ipomea batatas) and ciruelas (spondias purpurea), as well as sapodilla (manilkara zapota), avocado (persea americana), dragon fruit (hylocereus undatus), and mexican yam (pachyrhizus erosus) (de landa 1985:172– 175 [1566]). in addition to the aforementioned, landa also notes that the maya utilized many other species, such as palm fruits (arecaceae), ramon seeds (brosimum alicastrum), and various roots as "famine food[s]" during “times of scarcity” (de landa 1985:172 [1566]). early archives, such as the relaciones histórico-geográficas de la gobernación de yucatán, further substantiate the prevalence of numerous plants as primary food sources for the ancient mayas. these documents reaffirm colonial period consumption of fruits and vegetables such as sapodilla, avocado, and squash, along with species from the annonaceae family such as sugar apple (annona squamosa) and cacao (theobroma cacao; de la garza et al. 1983:77). such descriptions have contributed to our understanding of the extensive repertoire of plants consumed by the maya at the time of spanish colonization, which in turn can illuminate what people might have been eating in more ancient times. archaeological evidence for various types of plant tissues has been recovered and analyzed using paleoethnobotanical methods. these include macroremains, charcoal, phytoliths (watson et al. 2022), pollen (león 2016), and more recently, the recovery of starch grain from floors and ceramics (novelo-pérez et al. 2019; zimmermann 2019). these different sources of data have demonstrated the presence of staple plants such as maize, beans, squash, and chile peppers, indicating their continuous utilization over time. paleoethnobotanical research has also brought to light the exploitation of a more diverse range of vegetables, fruits, seeds, roots, and other plant tissues by the ancient maya (fedick et al. 2023; morell-hart et al. 2022). despite the available information on a wide variety of plants and their potential use in maya cuisine, our knowledge of the common daily practices associated with food in non-elite domestic groups is still limited. recently, there has been a growing number of paleoethnobotanical investigations that examine food practices and ingredients utilized within domestic contexts (fedick et al. 2023; morell-hart et al. 2022; novelo-pérez et al. 2019; watson et al. 2022; zimmermann 2019). this paper aims to contribute to the existing body of knowledge by exploring the diverse spectrum of maya food practices among nonelites. herrera-parra. 2023. ethnobiology letters 14(1):58–68 60 research communications methods study location sihó is a maya site located in the northwestern portion of mexico's yucatan peninsula (figure 1). archaeological fieldwork at the site was initially conducted in 2001 and 2003, and more recent investigations were carried out in 2013, 2015, and 2017 (cobos palma et al. 2004; fernández-souza et al. 2016). site chronology was established based on ceramic analysis from excavations in elite groups encompassing elevated platforms and palatial and domestic structures. occupation of the site spanned from the middle-late preclassic period (c. 600/500200/100 bce), through the early classic (c. 250 bce -600 ce), late classic (c. 550/600-750/800 ce), and terminal classic periods (c. 800-1000/1100 ce), with the latter two periods representing the main phases of occupation. archaeological evidence recovered at the site has contributed to an understanding of the settlement’s complexity. the data have revealed a graded stratification, which is reflected in the architecture as well as variations in access to resources, including obsidian, greenstone, and certain types of fauna (cobos palma et al. 2004). this evidence has enabled jiménez and colleagues (2017) to propose the existence of at least four social strata, ranging from the "royal and secondary elites" residing in the palaces, to domestic groups of middle, middle-low, and low status people who inhabited perishable constructions. figure 1 the location of sihó in the maya area, the map of the central site with the main groups, and the structures studied in this research. map based on google earth, cobos et al. 2004, and fernández-souza et al. 2016. herrera-parra. 2023. ethnobiology letters 14(1):58–68 61 research communications the present study focuses on the recovery of starch grains from soils associated with two middlelow domestic groups situated in the central area of the archaeological site. the first group, group 5d53 (figure 1), comprises a rectangular platform with seven foundations of various shapes atop its northern sector, indicating the presence of modest perishable houses (fernández-souza et al. 2016). in contrast, group 5d58, located a few meters east of group 5d53, is smaller in size (figure 1). group 5d58 consists of a quadrangular platform supporting three foundations, with two located in the south and one in the north (fernández-souza et al. 2016). the occupants of these structures likely played an essential role within the community, given their proximity to the elite groups. while previous research has investigated plant consumption in the elite and middle -status groups (novelo-pérez et al. 2019), identifying plants in low-status groups has yet to be done and contributes to our understanding of the complexity of food practices among different social strata at the site. data collection: fieldwork and sample recovery in 2015, excavations were carried out at groups 5d53 and 5d58 to investigate artifactual assemblages, periods of occupation, associated architectonic features, and the recuperation of soils samples in order to understand day-to-day activities through chemical and paleoethnobotanical approaches. both structures were systematically gridded at a size of 2x2m to ensure controlled spatial analysis and collection of artifacts. horizontal excavations of the foundations of some structures were conducted to determine their dimensions, shapes, and extent. furthermore, test pits were excavated to establish the construction and ceramic sequence associated with the platforms. samples were collected from a small area at the eastern corner of each unit, aiming to reach the same occupation level as evidenced by vertical and horizontal excavations. soil samples were collected using a clean plastic spoon and placed into individual clean plastic bags. to prevent contamination, a different plastic spoon was used for each sample. these samples were carefully marked, labeled, and transported to the laboratorio de análisis químicos y microscópicos at the facultad de antropología of the universidad autónoma de yucatán, in mérida, mexico. in order to narrow down contexts more likely to contain fruitful data, each collected sample underwent spot test analysis to obtain semiquantitative levels of phosphates, carbonates, ph, fatty acids, protein residues, and carbohydrates (barba 2007). this initial step aimed to identify enriched areas, which can be indicative of spaces where food-related activities likely took place (see herrera-parra 2021). previous research has suggested a correlation between high carbohydrate values and a significant presence of paleoethnobotanical material (zimmermann and matos llanes 2015). however, other indicators, such as phosphates and protein residues, were considered in this study due to the combination of the results helps in a better comprehension of the uses of domestic spaces. finally, specific areas associated with food-related activities, such as grinding, discarding, or processing of foods were selected as the most probable locations where plants would have been handled. this screening process based on soil chemistry and archaeological context resulted in a sample size of sixteen for starch grain recovery and identification. to establish a comparison between possible starch grains from modern milpa cultivation (open spaces) and those originating from prehispanic occupation floors, control samples taken from the open areas surrounding the archaeological platforms also underwent analysis. laboratory analysis: starch grain recovery and identification in the laboratory, we followed a modified version of the starch grain recovery methodology originally proposed by therin and lentfer (2006) and further adapted by pagan-jiménez (2005). the application of pagan's methodology has proven to yield positive results in various contexts, enabling the extraction of starches from different substrates and materials (novelo-pérez et al. 2019; venegas durán et al. 2021). the methodology involves separating the starch grains from the matrix in which they are embedded in, this case, the soil: 1. approximately 1.2 g of soil sample was transferred to a centrifuge tube. 2. a mixture of water and cesium chloride (cscl) with a density of 1.79 g/cm3, ranging between 0.5 and 1 ml, was added. 3. the vials were covered and vigorously shaken until a homogeneous mixture was achieved. 4. the mixture was centrifuged at 2500 revolutions per minute (rpm) for 15 minutes. 5. the floating fraction, which consisted of particles with lower density (<1.79g/cm3) including starch grains, was carefully collected with a sterilized herrera-parra. 2023. ethnobiology letters 14(1):58–68 62 research communications pipette. the collected fraction was transferred to a new set of vials, each appropriately labeled to distinguish between samples. 6. approximately 0.5 to 1 ml of water was added to the new vials containing the low-density floating fraction. the samples were shaken and placed in the centrifuge again, ensuring a balanced arrangement. 7. the samples were centrifuged at 3200 rpm for 20 minutes. 8. in this stage, due to the density difference between the cesium chloride (1.5-1.79g/cm3) and the water (1 g/cm3), starches should have sunk. excess water was pipetted and discarded without disturbing the sediment at the bottom of the vials. 9. steps six, seven, and eight were repeated at least three more times, gradually adding less water in each subsequent step. 10. the final concentrated sample at the bottom of each vial was collected using a micropipette with disposable sterile tips. 11. each sample was placed on a sterile slide, and a drop of glycerol was added. the mixture was then carefully mixed with a clean toothpick. subsequently, a cover slip was placed on the slide, and the edges were sealed with transparent nail polish to secure it. 12. finally, the samples were observed under a microscope for analysis. the final prepared samples were examined using a metallurgical microscope with polarizing light at 20x and 40x magnifications. starch grain identification was conducted based on morphological features described by torrence and barton (2006). reference catalogs, such as the one made by pagán-jiménez (2015), were consulted to aid in identification. additionally, a small reference collection of staple plants including maize, sweet potatoes, beans, among others, was assembled to facilitate comparisons with regional species. during the preparation and observation of the archaeological samples, strict measures were taken to maintain a sterile environment. sterile gloves were worn, and clean spaces were utilized to minimize the risk of cross-contamination. after the preparation of the reference collection, all surfaces and equipment were thoroughly cleaned. additionally, precautionary measures, such as observations of common materials under the microscope, were taken to ensure that substances such as glycerol, water, and slides did not contain any starch grains, thus avoiding any potential interference. results a total of 16 samples underwent starch extraction, and only 10 out of 16 samples presented starches after processing (table 1). seven species were identified or showed morphologies related to known plants. the main plant species among the samples was maize (zea mays), present in 9 out of 16, samples which aligns to previous known information about the consumption of maize given its culinary and cultural significance during the late and terminal classic periods. from this group of maize samples, 6 out of 9 presented starches with damage resulting from cooking processes such as toasting, boiling, and grinding (figure 2). the second plant found in relative abundance was sweet potato (ipomea batatas), found in 7 samples; followed by beans (phaseolus spp.) from one sample. other species that have received minimal documentation in the archaeological record were also identified. these include mexican yam or jicama (pachirhyzus spp.). starch grains of this species exhibit a combination of morphologies resembling those of tubers such as sweet potato and cassava. these include irregular and simple starch grains, truncated and pentagonal shapes, an open and centric hilum, uncommon presence of fissures, and the presence on starch grains larger than 10 µm; the extinction cross is primarily centric in most cases. a starch grain similar to jicama (pachirhyzus spp.) was present in one sample. arrowroot (maranta spp.) and other marantaceae starch grains exhibit single and triangular shapes, although elongate triangular shapes with obtuse angles are also commonly observed. the hilum is typically open and eccentric, and the lamellae is distinguishable by concentric rings. occasionally, fissures can be found, and the cross of extinction tends to be eccentric. two samples yielded evidence of arrowroot. a single starch grain likely belonging to cucurbitaceae (cucurbita spp.) was found in one sample. squash grains have tubular-shaped forms, with an eccentric hilum and a single pressure facet. lastly, manioc (manioc esculenta) was recorded in one sample. morphologies related to these species are characterized by a compound bell-shaped grain, eccentric hilum, a y-shaped fissure, smooth surfaces, no lamellae, and two pressure facets. two morphotypes were identified among starches with similar morphological traits. morphotype 1 was present in 4 samples; these presented features similar herrera-parra. 2023. ethnobiology letters 14(1):58–68 63 research communications to tuber starches in manioc species (figure 2, o-q). morphotype 2, on the other hand, was found in three samples. traits of morphotype 2 were characterized by an oval starch shape with a transversal fissure reaching one of the edges. the edges are not regular due to cracks that appear without touching the starch's hilum (figure 2, r-t). finally, unknown starches exhibiting morphologies that have not yet been attributed to a particular taxon, were found in 7 out of 16 samples, while starch grains with damage in their structure due to culinary processes were recorded in 8 out of 16 samples. morphological damages indicated specific culinary processes such as grinding, roasting, and boiling as demonstrated through experimental archaeology (babot 2003; babot et al. 2014; henry et al. 2009). discussion as was expected, maize stood out as the staple crop highly exploited in the past by the ancient inhabitants of sihó. maize is still a principal source of nourishment among traditional communities and a central ingredient in daily meals. in the past, maize was essential in maya society as a personified divinity and staple food. information about foods recorded in diverse contexts, such as tamales, atoles, or different maize-based dishes, demonstrates the wide range of maize uses in classic times both for elites and commoners (taube 1989). the versatile use of maize can be inferred from the starches with damage in their structure; at least three types of damage were recognized in the starches that suggested maize had been ground, toasted, and/or boiled (figure 2, j-n). these three methods of processing could hint at the variety of ways maize was transformed into nourishing meals. conversely, the recording of sweet potatoes in archaeological samples has increased during recent years, which suggest that this plant species played an important role for maya people in pre-hispanic times (morell-hart et al. 2022; novelo-pérez et al. 2019; trabanino and meléndez guadarrama 2016). today, there are records of sweet potato consumption among the mayan-speaking people, but in less quantity than taxa structure 5d53 structure 5d58 ubiquity (total=16) d41 d8 h14 h16 j18 n7 n10 n14 n16 n20 p14 e4 e9 f3 g3 l4 maize (zea mays) 3 2* 17* 8* 7* 9 2 10 * 7* 9 sweet potato (ipomea batatas) 1 1 5 3 2 1 1 7 cf. mexican yam/jicama (pachyrhizus spp.) 1 1 1 beans (phaseolus spp.) 1 1 1 manioc (manihot esculenta) 1 1 cf. arrowroot (maranta arundinacea l.) 1 1 2 cf. squash (cucurbita spp.) 1 1 morphotype 1 1 1 1 3 4 morphotype 2 1 1 1 3 unknown 1 2 4 2* 3 3* 5* 7 damaged 1 13 7 3 2 2 2 3 8 table 1 starch ubiquity from the processed samples. 1grid legend from the sample taken. *presence of starches with morphological damages. herrera-parra. 2023. ethnobiology letters 14(1):58–68 64 research communications other plants or in side dishes such as desserts (meléndez guadarrama and hirose lópez 2018). this plant seems to have played a more critical role in the ancient maya diet than it does on the peninsula at present. landa (1985:172) mentions in his relación: "the other root that grows under the soil sowing it, it's bigger, with wide varieties, there are purple, yellow, and white ones, it can be eaten, cooked, and roasted, and they are good food…;" which demonstrates the diversity of sweet potato preparation and consumption by the mayas in the sixteenth century. in addition to the relative abundance of maize and sweet potatoes, the presence of other plants that have not been well documented in the archaeological record among middle-strata domestic groups sheds light into the diversity of species cultivated and consumed by maya people. landa mentions the consumption of mexican yam or jicama in his writing: "they—the mayas—have a wonderful, fresh, and tasty fruit that they sow, and the fruit is a root that rises as a fat and round turnip: it is eaten raw and with salt" (de landa 1985:172). this vegetable is poorly known among the repertoire of plants consumed in the past and nowadays is generally consumed as a snack with lemon and chili pepper. in this set of samples, beans were weakly represented in contrast with previous elite and middle -strata contexts analyzed at sihó (matos llanes 2014:123; novelo-pérez et al. 2019). in high-status contexts, the presence of beans reached 50% of figure 2 starches identified in soils from structures 5d53 and 5d58 at sihó, yucatán. a) and b) maize (zea mays); c) manioc (manihot esculenta); d) and e) sweet potato (ipomea batatas); f) squash (cf. cucurbita spp.); g) beans (phaseolus spp.); h) arrowroot (maranta arundinacea); i) jicama (cf. pachyrhizus spp.); j) n) starch grains with damage because of culinary processes; o) q) morphotype 1; r) t) morphotype 2. photos by the author. herrera-parra. 2023. ethnobiology letters 14(1):58–68 65 research communications presence as noted by novelo and colleagues (2019:92), while in the set of samples included in this study, starch grains with morphologies similar to beans were found only in only one sample. in contrast to the mexican yam, diverse variety of beans were cultivated in the past, from which at least two species have been reported—phaseolus vulgaris and phaseolus lunatus. the seeming disparity in consumption of this crop among the domestic groups from structures 5d53 and 5d58 versus other contexts at sihó could have many explanations, such as food identity, culinary preferences, or supply restrictions by the site's elites. this scenario has been proposed by fernández and others (2020:211) and demonstrated through the evidence of differential access to meat consumption, and culinary equipment such as grinding stones, obsidian blades, and pottery containers. manioc is another crop found in low quantities among the samples. the presence of manioc starch grains in other contexts at the site seems to be at similar low levels, including at elite groups (novelopérez et al. 2019:211). this could mean that this plant was not highly consumed among the inhabitants of sihó but nevertheless was cultivated and used to complement other dietary elements. in this case, there do not appear to be differential patterns of manioc consumption throughout the site. however, previous research has demonstrated that manioc was consumed in various places in pre-hispanic and colonial times (de la garza et al. 1983), and that its cultivation and consumption varied among sites, perhaps indicating food preference or differences in preparation of dishes (cagnato and ponce 2017). finally, the least common species found in this study were arrowroot and squash. arrowroot seems to be the least common plant mentioned in colonial records, and its continuous low presence at the site suggests that this plant was likely used as a flavoring or condiment; however, more studies are needed to develop this idea since marantaceae is increasingly being identified in phytolith samples. on the other hand, squash starch grains have been the less ubiquitous in the archaeological record in contrast to phytoliths and macroremains, from the same taxon, more commonly encountered in paleoethnobotanical studies (morell-hart et al. 2022). one of the possible explanations for the minimal presence of squash starch grains is that the entire gourd is processed and consumed, including its flesh, seeds, and flowers, through different cooking processes such as boiling, toasting, and baking. this low detection rate of starch grains in the archaeological record could imply the need for alternative sampling strategies to detect their presence through other proxies such as phytoliths. furthermore, additional experimental studies are required to better understand the behavior of starches among different plant species. in sum, inhabitants of structures 5d53 and 5d58 at sihó centered their foods around maize (zea mays). they likely cooked tamales and atoles due to the identification of starches with structural damage, which suggested specific cooking processes. they supplemented their meals with tubers such as sweet potato, perhaps crafting atoles made of a mixture of on maize and sweet potatoes like those identified in other maya area regions (see beliaev et al. 2010). the presence of other plants in the archaeological record, such as arrowroot, mexican yam, manioc, beans, and squash, suggest that these plants were present as well during various stages of food processing; however, we cannot determine yet the extent to which these plants played a major or minor role in the day-to-day inhabitants' diets. more studies are needed in non-elite contexts around the maya area to understand the procurement and usage of plants among this group of ancient mayas, in addition to the diversity of plantbased dishes they consumed. through archaeology, we can look to the past and bring to the present ancient agricultural and food practices, allowing us to better understand the social implications of people's dietary habits and preferences. acknowledgments i would like to thank to dr. lilia fernández-souza from the universidad autónoma de yucatán for including me in her project “la vida cotidiana en sihó: diversidad social y económica en una comunidad del periodo clásico,” and for all her support while performing the research. thanks to dr. mario zimmermann for his guidance during the starch analyses and identification. my gratitude to the community of san antonio sihó, from which we always receive support during the field seasons. i wish to express my gratitude to amanda cooke and harper dine for their invaluable assistance in improving the grammar and style of this paper. finally, thanks to the reviewers for their comments, which improved this paper. herrera-parra. 2023. ethnobiology letters 14(1):58–68 66 research communications declarations permissions: none declared. sources of funding: this research was funded by the mexican institution consejo nacional de ciencia y tecnología (conacyt) under grant number cb2011/169583 and grant number 24821 to support the bachelor thesis from where this research was performed. conflicts of interest: none declared. references cited appadurai, a. 1981. gastro-politics in hindu south asia. american ethnologist 8:494–511. doi:10.1525/ ae.1981.8.3.02a00050. ardren, t., ed. 2020. her cup for sweet cacao: food in ancient maya society. university of texas press, austin. doi:10.7560/321645. babot, m. del p. 2003. starch grain damage as an indicator of food processing. in phytolith and starch research in the australian-pacific-asian regions: the state of the art: papers from a conference held at the anu, august 2001, canberra, australia, edited by d. m. 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(instituto venezolano de investigaciones científicas), caracas. 530 pp. anderson. 2022. ethnobiology letters 13(1):16-17 16 reviews perspectives from gene anderson’s bookshelf extent of documentation, this book stands out as an enormous beacon. i hope it converts many. the jotï are typical orinoco rainforest people, living by hunting, gathering, and preparing small conucos (shifting-cultivation fields) in which they grow maize, root crops, tree crops, and other foods and medicines. the fields are cropped with annuals for a year or so, then for the root crops as they grow up, then left as orchards, providing pockets of fruit trees in the forest. hunting is largely by blowgun. game seems to be abundant, even such large animals as tapirs that disappear once a forest gets opened and intruded. over 100 species are hunted. full lists of all plants and animals used are given in appendices. the jotï worldview includes detailed origin stories with many animal transformations and contemporary mutual dependence between all living things. animals have their masters of the game, such as jkajwiyë mowali, chief of peccaries, who resides in the sacred forest of jelau (p. 464). these masters are often large or huge forms of the animal in question. many plants, mountains, forests, waterways, and other features are sacred. spirits of all sorts abound, both evil and good ones. some people can transform themselves into animals, often for no good purpose. festivals are numerous, often marking life passages. coming of age is especially important and involves piercing the nasal septum. festivals tend to involve consumption of local beer, but hallucinogens do not seem to have the same importance that they have in the upper amazon this long and beautifully illustrated book is the culmination of decades of research by eglée and stanford zent, a pair of venezuelan researchers. assiduous readers of ethnobiology will be familiar with the jotï (or hoti), thanks to many articles in spanish or english by the zents, often concerning mushroom use. the jotï are a tiny group, a bit over 1700 individuals, dwelling in the rainforest at the center of venezuela. they are surrounded by larger, better-known groups, including the piaroa and yanomamo. their language is distinctive and not clearly related to any other. the book is an ethnographer’s dream. it details every aspect of jotï life, especially use of and relationships with plants, fungi, and animals. every detail is extensively documented with quotes and writings by jotï people. the third author of the book is nï jotï y jodena u, a jotï organization, which was created to map, document, and defend jotï lands, of course with considerable input from the zents, who even taught the jotï to use gps. the book is a collective project, which was planned and organized by this organization and other jotï. the detailed quotes make up most of the book, providing a record of venezuelan indigenous life approached before only by johannes wilbert’s enormous collections of oral literature. this is what ethnography should be— thorough documentation, as much of it in native texts as possible. franz boas would be delighted to see it. at a time when ethnography is slipping badly in nï jotï aye: jkyo jkwainï/libro comunitario jotï: historia, territorio, y vida. by eglée zent, stanford zent, and nï jotï y jodena u. 2019. ediciones ivic (instituto venezolano de investigaciones científicas), caracas. 530 pp. eugene n. anderson1* 1department of anthropology, university of california, riverside, usa. *gene@ucr.edu received november 8, 2021 open access accepted november 8, 2021 doi 10.14237/ebl.13.1.2022.1803 published january 29, 2022 copyright © 2022 by the author(s); licensee society of ethnobiology. this is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution-noncommercial 4.0 international public license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0), which permits non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. anderson. 2022. ethnobiology letters 13(1):16-17 17 reviews perspectives from gene anderson’s bookshelf or among the yanomamo. purification after death is important. jotï ideology includes a focus on the healthy, the good, and the beautiful, which recalls plato’s definition of philosophy as the study of the true, the good, and the beautiful. unlike some neighbors, the jotï are peaceful and deeply committed to protecting their environment, since it is so much a part of their spiritual and religious world. change is coming, with more dangers than hopes. the usual threats, such as mining and military activity, have not been devastating so far but are coming closer. introduced diseases, with malaria being the worst, are deadly, as is so often among indigenous americans. health care is delivered through tiny rural clinics that have little ability to stop epidemics. the zents are soliciting funds to fight malaria. meanwhile, venezuela’s well-known descent into poverty and chaos is affecting the jotï less than might be expected since they are still self-sufficient and rather isolated in the forest environment. the jotï have organized, written up their rules and culture, and set boundaries on their territory, but their future in an increasingly desperate and poorly controlled nation is cloudy. comprehensive ethnographies that record truly extensive data about a group are becoming unfortunately rare. many articles and books seem driven by the author’s desire to advance a theory, rather than by interest in human beings. this book should be a shining example for all of us. the only drawback to this book is the use of venezuelan spanish. many localisms will be strange to those who know only “academy” spanish. context and photographs make most of the usages clear, but cambur drove me to the dictionary (it is a type of banana). last and best: the photographs in this book are nothing short of incredible. this is one of the most beautiful ethnographies ever published. even more important is the value of the photographs for documenting every aspect of jotï life, from hunting to schools, from fishing to festivals, from wild landscapes to settled villages. the book is worth finding even for those who do not read spanish, for the photographs alone. rethinking cultural keystone practices: conflict resolution practices as examples of salience and well-being arinyo-i-prats et al. 2025. ethnobiology letters 16(2):7–19 7 perspectives special issue: historical ecology & cultural keystone places of a cultural keystone species was proposed by platten and henfrey (2009). then, because of the difficulty of identifying the salience and essential role of a particular species in the context of human landscapes and ecologies, they suggested thinking in terms of “cultural keystones” in general. they pointed out that one given species might be viewed as key from one angle, for example from an economic perspective, but might be insignificant in other ways if a functional equivalent could easily replace it. consequently, they coined the term cultural keystone complexes (table 1). following a quantitative approach, winter et al. (2018) developed a protocol centered on the “socialecological keystone concept” (table 1). introduction the cultural keystone species concept, introduced by garibaldi and turner (2004), can play a salient or central role in the well-being, health and resilience of a community. cultural keystone species are often connected at many levels to cultures and environments, so that the outcomes of their loss or diminished roles in a culture are multi-faceted and farreaching. ellen (2006) elaborated on cultural keystone species with a similar keystone construct: keystone ethnobiological species (see table 1 for definitions). beginning with the metaphorical keystone species, the original ecological and cultural keystone concepts have continued to expand through cultural and ecocultural realms. a more quantitative definition rethinking cultural keystone practices: conflict resolution practices as examples of salience and well-being andreu arinyo-i-prats1,2,3*, shauna latosky4, and nancy j. turner5 1department of archaeology and heritage, aarhus university, aarhus, denmark. 2department of archaeology, simon fraser university, burnaby, canada. 3max planck institute for evolutionary anthropology, leipzig, germany. 4department of anthropology, university of northern british columbia, prince george, canada. 5school of environmental studies, university of victoria, victoria, canada. *arinyo-i-prats@cas.au.dk abstract we explore and expand on the concept of cultural keystone practices as an extension of the concept of cultural keystone species and places. these concepts have helped raise awareness of traditional human-environment interactions by focusing on community well-being and salience. we discuss several keystone-related terms and link them as interdependent for well-being, where salience itself might fall within one keystone concept or another. we focus on three illustrative examples of cultural keystone practices (tribunal de les aigües, potlatch and dônga) which share conflict resolution as a well-being function. in these three cases, the salience resides in the practice itself, rather than in a particular place or species. moreover, since the societies that host these practices perceive them as traditions that are not easily substituted with other ‘functional’ equivalents, we can consider them as keystones. furthermore, we emphasize the need for an assessment strategy for these practices and highlight the limitations of other approaches for the direct and indirect protection of cultural practices, such as unesco’s intangible cultural heritage (ich). cultural keystone practices can be a key enabler for people’s recognition of culture as essential for well-being. a standardized, cross-cultural, community-driven measurement of cultural keystone practices has the potential to serve as a foundation for evaluating the risk of cultural loss associated with significant cultural practices, as well as the consequences of such loss, across diverse contexts. received october 28, 2024 open access accepted june 9, 2025 doi 10.14237/ebl.16.2.2025.1909 published december 1, 2025 keywords cultural keystone practices, well-being, salience, conflict resolution, cultural loss copyright © 2025 by the author(s); licensee society of ethnobiology. this is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution-noncommercial 4.0 international public license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0), which permits non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. arinyo-i-prats et al. 2025. ethnobiology letters 16(2):7–19 8 perspectives special issue: historical ecology & cultural keystone places cultural keystone practices here we formally define cultural keystone practices as “cultural practices that are both salient and essential for a community’s well-being.” broadly, we define cultural keystone practices as traditions, knowledge, customs, uses, habits, or rituals with high cultural salience for one or more communities. they play (or have played in the past) an exceptional role in the community's cultural identity, as reflected in their dependence on the practice for societal lifestyle, well-being, social structure, relation to environment and self-identity. cultural keystone practices have an identifiable name in the language and are encoded in a distinctive set of rules, conventions, knowledge or skills. keystones definition reference keystone species [i]ndividual populations of species are the keystone of the community's structure, and the integrity of the community and its unaltered persistence through time, that is, stability, are determined by their activities and abundances. paine 1969:92 cultural keystone species [c]ulturally salient species that shape in a major way the cultural identity of a people, as reflected in the fundamental roles these species have in diet, materials, medicine, and/or spiritual practices. garibaldi and turner 2004:4 keystone ethnobiological species [o]rganisms that by virtue of their usefulness to humans may become ecologically crucial to the maintenance of entire anthropogenic environments, subsistence systems and ways of life. ellen 2006:259 cultural keystone species [s]ystem elements with crucial non-redundant functions in maintaining any particular level of structural complexity. platten and henfrey 2009:493 cultural keystone places a given site or location with high cultural salience for one or more groups of people and which plays, or has played in the past, an exceptional role in a people's cultural identity, as reflected in their day-to-day living, food production and other resource-based activities, land and resource management, language, stories, history, and social and ceremonial practices. cuerrier et al. 2015:431 cultural keystone complex [a] complex incorporating several material and non-material system elements [and] as elements with crucial non-redundant functions in maintaining any particular level of structural complexity. platten and henfrey 2009:493 social-ecological keystone concept [n]either individual taxa nor individual practices, but rather the linked taxapractice unit. if a social-ecological keystone is severely disabled (or goes extinct), then there would be no substitute without seriously compromising the structure and function of the system—possibly inducing a regime shift. winter et al. 2018:5 conservation keystone concepts three concepts for conservation practice are considered keystones: diversity (good at multiple levels), well-being (“a balance between the challenges one faces and the resources one possesses [in] intersecting physical, intellectual, emotional, social, spiritual, vocational, financial, and environmental axes”) and coexistence (“a stable, dynamic, and desired state of cooccurrence among a diversity of (human and nonhuman) lifeforms and lifeways”). aguilar and webb 2024:2–4 cultural keystone practices [e]ssential skills and practices [...] vital to sustaining other cultural activities [...]. [ckpr] depend on a broad range of local materials derived from nature—further establishing the importance of conserving the local environment and managing its resources in a sustainable manner. brosi et al. 2007:878 cultural keystone relationship [c]ultural relationships to wild species that are intimately tied to practices, places, languages, and knowledge in ways that are deeply interconnected. lukawiecki 2024:86 table 1 summary of previous definitions involving different keystone concepts proposed in the literature. arinyo-i-prats et al. 2025. ethnobiology letters 16(2):7–19 9 perspectives special issue: historical ecology & cultural keystone places figure 1 summarizes the practice-centric keystone framework and its co-dependence on places and species. moreover, we can imagine a cultural keystone practice by considering its absence: the removal or cessation of a cultural keystone practice will cascade beyond the practice itself, directly or indirectly impacting the community’s well-being, identity, and survival. this definition aligns with brosi et al. (2007) but formalizes and expands on the definition. we use the example, of q’ichwa chaka tradition (inca bridge building) to illustrate our framework: now rebuilding the bridge plays a social bonding function that cannot be substituted by construction of a modern bridge; the salience resides on the making itself, which happens as a festival every june; this practice is perfectly interwoven with the species of grass, ichu, and the place, the apurímac canyon (valdez and vivanco 2021). in contrast, the practice of glacier grafting in the western himalayas is centered on non-biological action to manage a landscape, making the placespecies-practice less explicit. in this case, the spot where to place the glacier grafts is chosen based on its geographical properties, not by on its human connection, and the species benefited are at the ecosystem level (shaheen 2016). both of these practices are easier to single out and measure than the places or species. moreover, as these practices illustrate, the cultural keystone practices concept squarely falls within the traditional ecological knowledge framework (berkes et al. 2000), thereby connecting it to the cultural keystone practices concept. however, even when the connection between cultural keystone practices and species-places is not as clear, as in the q’ichwa chaka case, practice thinking aids in identifying and completing the keystones framework. while cultural species and places, by definition, have associated human practices, these practices might, at first, remain under-recognized when using a narrow biological or ecological lens, yet be critical for the well-being and identity of a particular group. as the traditional ecological knowledge literature amply illustrates, when identifying a particular cultural keystone, we must recognize the fragility, and the resilience, of the complex interlinked ecocultural system in which the keystone is embedded (berkes et al. 2000; kimmerer 2013), even when such relationships are not immediately evident. once a group loses its key identity, cohesion, or well-being markers, its traditional places and species are susceptible to lesser protection or erasure. the lack of a clear connection between keystones in some cases reinforces the need to raise specific keystone practices thinking beyond the existing keystone frameworks (table 1). here we focus on salient practices that play an irreplaceable function for the wider society hosting figure 1 visual abstract highlighting the main concepts of the article. a we highlight the need for cultural keystone practice thinking in terms of saliency and community well-being, while supported and supporting species and places. b we illustrate the cultural keystone practices concept by focusing on conflict resolution as a well-being. arinyo-i-prats et al. 2025. ethnobiology letters 16(2):7–19 10 perspectives special issue: historical ecology & cultural keystone places them, in terms of essentials for any human group (food acquisition, security, health, reproduction, social bonding, identity, knowledge keeping, spirituality…); these broadly account for well-being. “saliency” is woven into the original definition of cultural keystone species (garibaldi and turner 2004) and is linked to the cultural identity of a people and what is fundamental to their existence. “well-being,” health, and resilience are at the core of much of the keystone and conservation literature from the perspective of a community (cuerrier et al. 2015; lepofsky et al. 2017; tsuji et al. 2023). however, “well-being” is itself multifaceted and all members of a group might not agree upon its extent or existence, since people might have different visions and interests concerning what would be best for a healthy and resilient community. interestingly, recent work by aguilar and webb (2024) presented the concept of well-being (or wellness) associated with three keystones in conservation science (table 1). finally, lukawiecki (2024) overviews the literature on cultural keystone practices and proposes a new concept, cultural keystone relationships, adding language, knowledge, and practice to the mix needed for preservation, for example, traditional burning as protecting black huckleberry. although the cultural keystone practices concept is not new, this nomenclature has not been widely incorporated into the literature to date as a useful term to date. brosi et al. (2007) introduce cultural keystone practices in the context of canoe building in micronesia (table 1), but do not address identifying vital keystone practices more generally. furthermore, despite brosi et al. being widely cited, in a literature search using scopus we found the phrase “cultural keystone practice/s” used in only one reference. therefore, in this work we specifically define the term and make it a central theme, filling a gap in the literature and drawing needed attention to ‘practices’ thinking. the long-term sustainability of a cultural system, like a biological one, depends on many distinct but interdependent, often interlinked, elements, though not all will have the same degree of “keystone-ness.” in this sense, adding practices to the places and species keystones allows us to think in a more systemic way, where a community can identify vulnerable keystones in terms of species, places, and/ or practices, especially in cases when the connections are not direct. conflict resolution as a case topic: cultural salience and well-being to address the difficulty in identifying salience and well-being, we focus here on cultural keystone practices that, in one way or another, involve conflict resolution. resolving discord is essential for the functioning of any community or society, especially in the context of traditional and indigenous practices (lundy et al. 2022; nwosu 2021; tuso and flaherty 2016;). conflict and disagreement can happen in many different aspects of social life in a community. throughout human evolution, strategies and customs have emerged to minimize conflicts and reduce their ill effects for both individuals and groups. when conflict within a group, or between groups, cannot be curtailed, the consequences tend to be dire, with a breakdown in social relations that might translate into violence, collapse of trusted networks, cultural loss, decreased access to resources, inequity, environmental degradation, substance abuse, and property loss, among other impacts. in contrast, when the appropriate resolution practices are recognized and protected, these can alleviate conflicts within and between communities and even countries, as unesco’s assistant director-general for culture, ernesto ottone ramírez, suggests is the case for intangible cultural heritage (lucas 2024). moreover, losing a conflict resolution practice(s) might foster division in the community or a country. among other impacts, a disrupted community might temporarily lose their capacity to sustain and manage its connection to places and species, further imperilling its overall wellbeing. in our consideration of cultural keystone practices, we present three different cross-cultural case studies involving conflict resolution traditions (figure 1), which are both salient and play a crucial role in the respective community's well-being. these are: the potlatch (“to give away”) of indigenous peoples of northwestern north america; dônga (pole dueling) of the mursi people of southern ethiopia in the horn of africa; and, from valencia, along the east coast of the iberian peninsula, el tribunal de les aigües (valencia’s water tribunal), by valencian farmers using water irrigation systems (figure 2). we selected these widely different sets of practices for several reasons: their respective roles in conflict resolution for the communities that sustain them; the different traditional subsistence strategies of each group, their arinyo-i-prats et al. 2025. ethnobiology letters 16(2):7–19 11 perspectives special issue: historical ecology & cultural keystone places figure 2 map showing the places of the three case studies (center) and illustrations of the practices themselves. a comparison of the tribunal de les aigües, as depicted by bernat ferrandis-i-badenesin in 1865 (top), and contemporary event, dominated by tourist’s cameras (bottom; photo under creative commons). b photos of a kwakwaka'wakw potlatch with dancers, singers, wedding ceremony, and bride in the center (photo: edward curtis, 1914) (top) and photo of a kwakwaka'wakw big house, the wawadit'la in thunderbird park, victoria, bc, built in 1953 (bottom; photo under creative commons). c photographs representing the ula (left) and dônga (right) dueling of the mursi. photos by shauna latosky. arinyo-i-prats et al. 2025. ethnobiology letters 16(2):7–19 12 perspectives special issue: historical ecology & cultural keystone places geographic locations in three different continents (figure 2); and the different stages of vulnerability or revitalization experienced by these groups concerning their practices. these diverse practices are also familiar to the authors. tribunal de les aigües in valencia: conflict and identity, irrigation farming in eastern iberian peninsula the tribunal de les aigües de valència (valencia’s water tribunal) is a judiciary institution that deals with the litigation and conflict resolution of the water disputes in l’horta de valència, the second largest urban irrigation landscape in the mediterranean. this cultural place is characterised by water channels going back to roman and arabic times, and by a diverse set of unique local species, like xufa (cyperus esculentus), with unique agricultural practices developed and maintained in this landscape. horta’s richness and uniqueness have been recognized as a world agricultural heritage site by the united nations fao in 2019 (food and agriculture organization of the united nations, n.d.). every thursday at noon, the tribunal still gathers in front of the imposing gothic door of the valencia cathedral in the plaça de la mare de déu. any water user can appear before the tribunal to place a complaint, mainly about water theft. today, however, there are fewer conflicts, because of that, the tribunal seems of little use. historically, the decision-making process was swift: after hearing the case, the sindics—representatives of the regants de les sequies (irrigation channels users)— deliver a judgment on the spot. the tribunal's decisions are final, and its judgments are respected because of the power the sindics wield over water access. today, however, there are fewer conflicts. this practice was selected in 2008 to be recognised by unesco as part of valencia’s intangible cultural heritage (unesco, n.d.). this recognition reflects the visible role that the tribunal plays in the horta landscape, where irrigation was once—and still is, albeit eroded—key to landscape management and, without which, the particular species and places would be endangered. the tribunal's legitimacy was codified under law following spain’s liberal revolution in the nineteenth century (guinot and esquilache 2017). it was officially recognized by the state as a judicial body with the authority to resolve disputes concerning water rights. spanish legislation upholds the tribunal’s rulings as binding, and it became protected as a court of last resort for water disputes within its jurisdiction. the water users could potentially also appeal to the state-sponsored legal system to place their complaints, but they were informally restricted from doing so because it was understood that using the formal judiciary system would infuriate the sindics and water access would be curtailed. beyond these legal systems, historically some disputes were resolved through informal means, either amicably or—on occasion— through violence. the most transformative event in the tribunal’s recent history has been its recognition as a by unesco in 2008 as an intangible cultural heritage (ich). unesco’s ich designation has enhanced the tribunal’s transformation into a cultural and tourist attraction, showcasing valencian tradition to outsiders. as we can see in figure 2a, today tourists flock to the plaça de la mare de déu to witness the tribunal in action, even though there is no action to be taken. the people involved in the few conflicts still happening would rather avoid being witnessed by hundreds of tourists than only by their community. the loss of the communities as witnesses is unlike the cases of the potlatch and dônga, as we will see. as a consequence of the decline in farming in l’horta in recent decades, the tribunal has largely lost its conflict resolution function. the cultural keystone place the tribunal represents, l’horta, is in rapid decline. the community that once supported l’horta and the tribunal is experiencing the abandonment of the land and lack of generational succession, therefore, the current society struggles to maintain the agricultural traditions and landscapes of the region (vallésplanells et al. 2020). the horta is a rich social and cultural space with a centennial architectural and ethnological heritage. yet, despite this land being recognized by the fao, this heritage is at risk as the farming practices that sustained it are no longer economically viable. the horta is now in danger, with its material infrastructure in the form of sequies (water channels) falling into despair due to a lack of use and maintenance (martínez-sanchis and viñals 2015), and the tribunal not functioning, as the amount of water available is more than enough to cover the needs of the remaining land. farmers struggle to compete with industrial agriculture, which can produce food more cheaply and in greater quantities. therefore, while the tribunal still retains its de jure function as a body to resolve disputes among water users, its de facto role has shifted dramatically over time. urbanization, demographic changes, and arinyo-i-prats et al. 2025. ethnobiology letters 16(2):7–19 13 perspectives special issue: historical ecology & cultural keystone places recognition as unesco’s intangible heritage have all contributed to its transition from a practical institution to a tourist attraction and cultural showcase. this shift has profoundly impacted the community it was intended to serve, altering the conflict resolution capacity of the tribunal. furthermore, the economic transition has directly impacted the well-being of the local agricultural population, and indirectly, has limited access to traditional foods for the population generally. the future of valencia’s agricultural community remains uncertain, and with it, the well-being of the wider society, which laments the loss of the farmlands, its unique landscapes, and traditional diets. sadly, however, the same society does little to protect what once was a keystone practice, and a keystone place. the tribunal-horta-food triangle is endangered, with many local fruit varieties being lost as they are no longer cultivated. conflict resolution and the role of the potlatch in community well-being in northwestern north america we will now focus on the potlatch, perhaps the bestknown traditional cultural institution of the northwest coast of north america, described by many anthropologists and indigenous knowledge keepers (e.g., davidson and davidson 2018). in its various forms, for the communities that have historically held potlatches and/or are reintroducing them in contemporary contexts, the potlatch has an important function, both active and passive, in conflict resolution. originally deriving from the vancouver island nuu-chah-nulth verb pachitle, meaning “to give,” the term “potlatch” became widely adopted into many northwest coast languages. most individual language groups also have their own terms for the suites of ceremonies and cultural exchanges represented within the potlatch. for example, the term st’lun’uq (cf. s’uylu “spirit power”) is a hul’q’umín’um’ coast salish word for a potlatch. in most cases, potlatches encompass far more than simple gift-giving. depending on the community and the time period, potlatches have evolved into diverse but intricate sociopolitical events. as an institution they incorporate and reflect social, economic, political, environmental, and spiritual aspects of indigenous peoples’ lives. from a resource perspective, the potlatch functions to redistribute food and other property, and to promote the well-being of the community without damaging the environment or violating the principles of balanced stewardship over the land, and in such a way as to render respect and honor to chiefs, nobility, and community members, as well as to plants, animals, and spirit powers, and through all these, to the creator. socially, potlatches are celebratory, and this is perhaps a key element that relates to conflict resolution, since positive attitudes can be a key to resolving differences. potlatching is thus associated with the care and oversight of a group’s territory, playing a critical function as the political arena for clan, family, intercommunity, and regional administration (tollefson 1995; turner et al. 2003). a shared feature across variations of the potlatch is the presence of the most relevant members from both intraand inter-communities, who are invited to a chief’s communal big house, sometimes specially constructed for the event, to participate in the celebration. these guests act as “witnesses” to significant events and are then “paid” for this service through giving of culturally valued goods. communities have routinely used the potlatch as a means of recognizing and resolving conflicts, legitimizing leadership, and fostering political alliances, all of which are integral to maintaining social cohesion (tollefson 1995). focusing on the central and northern peoples (i.e., tlingit, haida, nuu-chah-nulth, kwakwaka'wakw and neighbouring coastal groups), there are specific roles and ceremonies within the potlatch that emphasise conflict resolution. for example, the kwakwaka'wakw use the term dilagh (“to make things right”) (hunt 2005), and the haida [xaayda kil] equivalent is tll’yahdah (wilson 2021). through giftgiving, speeches, and ceremonial acts, all witnessed by honoured guests, individuals at fault— chiefs and leaders who have transgressed cultural protocols— publicly clean their shame and are restored to good standing. these actions are a key component of dispute resolution (hunt 2005). crucially, the canadian government’s ban on potlatches, 1884–19511, severely restricted the ability of communities to resolve conflicts and maintain social order (loo 1992). as a result, the accumulation of intra and inter-community conflicts intensified, contributing to long-term social fragmentation. the introduction of western legal systems to indigenous communities in the pacific northwest disrupted traditional forms of conflict resolution and failed to work as a functional equivalent, resulting in direct arinyo-i-prats et al. 2025. ethnobiology letters 16(2):7–19 14 perspectives special issue: historical ecology & cultural keystone places impacts to the well-being of the communities (wilson 2021). despite the bans and suppression, potlatches survived in various forms, often held in secret, in remote locations, or undercover as marriage ceremonies or christmas celebrations, to avoid detection by authorities during the long prohibition period. since the lifting of the potlatch ban in 1951, indigenous communities throughout the region have been actively reclaiming and revitalizing their potlatches. interestingly, there has been a growing focus on the conflict resolution role of potlatches. the conferderated tribes of coos, coquille, lower umpqua, and siuslaw, for example, are exploring the introduction or reintroduction of potlatch conflict resolution practices as part of a broader effort to reestablish traditional systems of restorative justice (tuso and flaherty 2016). similar protocols are practiced by the haida, haíłzaqv (heiltsuk) and other first nations2. potlatching has survived prosecution and has retained part or all its conflict resolution practices, while developing and adopting new ones (loo 1992). today, potlatches have become not only a way to resolve conflicts but also a means of improving wellbeing and strengthening identity within indigenous communities. the process of witnessing, redistributing resources, and reconciling differences fosters a sense of belonging and unity, reinforcing the social fabric (hunt 2005; tollefson 1995; tuso and flaherty 2016). furthermore, the revitalization of healthy traditional indigenous food—berries, camas bulbs, oulachen grease, seaweed, herring eggs, salmon—both in the food served at the potlatch feasts and that used as gifts to the potlatch guests— associated with contemporary potlatching, has had many health and cultural benefits, in cultural revitalisation, strengthening of identity and providing a sense of belonging (kuhnlein and turner 2020). as well, revitalizing land tending practices, such as managing the cedar groves needed to build the big houses for the potlatch, are all aspects of cultural renewal. these associated practices themselves contribute to conflict resolution, building connections to place and species. some of the specific approaches have transformed away from traditional species connections, as in the use of store-bought blankets, to replace the original nobility blankets of dog wool (because of its extinction) and mountain-goat wool (because of its high cost). nevertheless, the overall results in terms of creating bonds and reducing tensions are as significant as ever. dônga and ula dueling in mursi: conflict resolution and community well-being in the lower omo valley, southern ethiopia the mursi are a group of approximately 10,000 agropastoralists whose livelihoods depend on cattle herding, hunting, gathering, and flood-retreat cultivation along the omo river and its tributaries in southern ethiopia. a major pillar of mursi society is the ancient practice of dônga3 (ritual dueling using sixfoot long wooden poles for boys and men and iron bracelets for girls and young unmarried women). also known as sagine (or thagine in suri), dueling contests have for centuries served as both a form of entertainment and an effective means of conflict resolution in mursi4. while there are numerous other reconciliation processes, from blessing and cursing, to seeking restitution through cattle payments and other forms of compensation, dônga remains one of the most important forms of reconciliation in mursi today (latosky and olibui 2023; turton 2002)5. at the heart of dônga contests is the restoration of peaceful social relations, including gendered relations. martial socialization is valued for both boys and girls, and entering the dueling ground is an important way for young men and young women to challenge each other and to resolve any differences or feelings of animosity by competing on behalf of their respective clans or local groups. it is during such contests that boys and men, girls and unmarried women can publicly display their bravery, skills, strength and selfrestraint, all of which are ideals of mursi manhood and womanhood. over a period of several days, boys and men will compete using six-foot dueling poles, whereas girls and unmarried young women will compete using an iron bracelet (ula; plural: ulen) to strike their opponents, preferably in the forehead (latosky 2015)6. for dônga to take place, it must first be ritually sanctioned by the komoru (ritual leader), his ritual assistants, and mursi elders in order for the outcome to be reconciliatory. the komoru’s blessings are of utmost importance for restoring and maintaining peaceful relations. latosky and olibui (2023:120) explain that: arinyo-i-prats et al. 2025. ethnobiology letters 16(2):7–19 15 perspectives special issue: historical ecology & cultural keystone places fighting [dônga] is therefore very controlled, planned and only possible with permission from the elders. the komoru has his own ‘cabinet’ around him and ‘the cabinet’ of elders cannot do anything without the go ahead of the komoru. he is like the head of state in a way. he keeps everything very organized, and he tries to always keep the peace. if there is fighting in the bush, the komoru will be the one to decide on how to proceed. when preparing for the dônga, young men drink and purge with girari [prepared from the mulched bark of the wild olive tree]7 to cleanse their bodies and make them stronger (latosky and olibui 2023). over the course of many months, young men and women begin to fatten up on cow’s milk in order to gain weight and give them strength for the fight. the training required to compete in dônga is rigorous and is closely tied to their pastoral identity and martial socialization of all mursi. however, the important role that dônga plays in reconciling differences and restoring peaceful relations is being challenged today. since 2012, government rhetoric and popular portrayals of dônga in the media have presented different perspectives of men’s dueling in mursi, which depict dônga as causing physical harm and “even death.” government attempts, especially under the tigray people's liberation front (tplf) government, to restrict dônga by labeling it as a “traditional harmful practice” are similar to restrictions enforced several decades ago in suri (bench maji zone)8. contrary to the popular belief that dônga is “harmful,” the mursi see rituallysanctioned dueling as vital for resolving conflict and maintaining peaceful relations within mursi. under the shade of the savanna trees like the choboy (sclerocarya birrea), women store the water and flour they transport to prepare sorghum gruel for their brave kinsmen and kinswomen during the three to four-day martial arts event (ibid.), which olisarali olibui refers to as “mursi olympics.” the optimal time for dueling contests is after a fruitful harvest when there are plenty of wild edible greens, sorghum, maize, grass for livestock, and thus milk, which allows contestants to fatten and strengthen their bodies in preparation for dônga. in order for dônga contests to take place, the land must be well (baa chala, lit. the land is good) as it is only during times of peace that the members of different clans can safely travel from across mursiland to meet at the designated dueling ground(s). the dueling ground, called both bala dôngay and gula dôngay. is commonly in an open plain or savannah area, where there is space to spread out and where girls have their own dueling ground. only if the terrain is rocky or with dense bush, will girls and boys fight in the same place (bal or gul) (latosky and olibui 2023). donga dueling grounds and dueling contests are inscribed on the landscape with bhollisay, a marking (or multiple markings, bholisainya) made horizontally on a tree to indicate a dônga victory (or victories). these places also become immortalized in the songs of the victors, in oral poetry, and mursi oral history and are an important part of mursi intangible cultural heritage (e.g., the dueling ground of banko [in northern mursiland], the dueling ground of bongosso [in the south], etc.), areas that are currently being encroached upon by neighbouring groups in the north and largescale development projects, especially hydroelectric dams and sugar cane factories along the omo river. in 2022, mursi elders and youth began to challenge assumptions that dônga stokes aggressive and violent behaviour by putting on the first-ever mursi performance about the significance of dônga (and ula) at the national theatre in addis ababa (in collaboration with the south omo theatre company and soas, university of london). this has garnered new media attention for the mursi, including several ethiopian television documentaries, that have not only helped the mursi to see the value in safeguarding their intangible cultural heritage, but have also begun to help outsiders, including some tourist operators and government administrators, to understand the relevance of dônga for restoring peaceful relations (latosky and olibui 2023), but also biodiversity. dônga also helps protect the kalochiya (grewia bicolor), girari (olea europaea ssp. africana) and dokay (harrisonia abyssinica oliv.) trees due to their recognized importance in making dônga possible. lomay (ximenia americana) is also vital for treating the cutaneous wounds, like those inflicted during dueling contests. today, the mursi and their allies (e.g., the suri, anthropologists, and some filmmakers) are calling for the urgent need to protect dônga in order to “promote peace,” “resolve conflicts,”, and “show respect towards the [e]lders” (latosky and olibui 2023:123). one way of doing this is by analysing the prohibitions on dônga (thagine in suri), which led to increased violence and, more recently, the reversal of such arinyo-i-prats et al. 2025. ethnobiology letters 16(2):7–19 16 perspectives special issue: historical ecology & cultural keystone places prohibitive policies, but also its biocultural significance, namely, the cultural keystone species (e.g., girari and dokay) and cultural keystone places (e.g., highland areas) crucial for dônga’s survival. another way is by proposing that it be formally acknowledged in the same way that other ancient and modern martial arts are today. for instance, the indigenous egyptian fighting art called taḥṭīb has witnessed a revival in recent years after it was enshrined in 2016 in unesco’s “convention for the safeguarding of the intangible cultural heritage”9. given the many striking similarities between taḥṭīb and dônga, latosky and olibui (2023:138) argue that a case should be made to recognise and promote the ancient practice of dônga (or sagine) and its role in maintaining peaceful relations, rather than restrict or redefine it as a mere tourist attraction or as performance theatre. measurement of intangible keystones by reinforcing the cultural keystone practices concept, we want to highlight the importance of identifying and measuring key intangible elements of a culture to safeguard their well-being and identity. beyond the well-established proposal of a biocultural vulnerability scale (reyes-garcía et al. 2023), when the biological component of a practice is not clear, we still need to measure its vulnerability and its cultural importance. we propose that ecological frameworks like the iucn’s red list for endangered species could inspire the status and measure of cultural keystone practices. in that line, a draft of what a measurement strategy would involve is: to first, identify and name cultural keystone practices; and second, to develop a standardized measurement to track the number of experts in a given community, the frequency of the practice, the time since the last use of the practice, the last training of an expert and degree of access to irreplaceable places or species. this basic approach allows for a structured evaluation of practices' sustainability over time, bridging scientific inquiry with the communities’ cultural management. by involving the community’s decision-making and focusing on their well-being and identity through cultural keystone practices or other keystones (table 1), a measurement strategy can empower communities to define and protect their traditions. standardised, longitudinal, community-driven data would provide a quantitative understanding of the practice’s vitality and its role in the community, aiming to preserve cultural practices and to facilitate their revitalisation and continuation if they are valuable for the community, or for the wider society, and are at risk. due to the intrinsic difficulties of cultural measures, in line with cultural keystone places identification, a grass-roots, locally-driven measurement initiative would be more effective than a top-down one (cuerrier et al. 2015). for example, terminology and use of language are often best clarified by spending time in the community, learning about their lifeways (cuerrier et al. 2019). of concern is the difficulty in distinguishing elements fundamental for all human groups, from those that might change from community to community, culture to culture, society to society, or generation to generation. therefore, as with the seeds of cultural keystone places, it is ultimately the communities themselves who must determine a practice’s salience or significance—it through their efforts to protect it, the extent of its adoption, or its recognition as both a cornerstone by the community and society at large. therefore, following cuerrier et al. (2015), we argue for the need to involve the communities as the main actors to measure cultural keystone practices, in addition to incorporating the strength of existing international mechanisms, to assess the vulnerability of keystone practices around the world, recognizing that such vulnerable practices could number in the tens of thousands. a new iucn-like framework that serves as umbrella for standardization and homogenization can help structure and set direction for a process which needs substantially more effort from the local practitioners than from outsider observers. unesco’s role could be that of a centralization of data, or as an umbrella. unesco’s world atlas of languages already plays a somewhat parallel role in identifying the vulnerability of languages, but unlike the keystone places framework, it mostly relies on external assessment of language vitality. in a similar way, ehraf, which compiles ethnographic literature usually produced by visiting academics or travelers, is done form from an external point of view, with little measurement of the vulnerability of the cultural practices recorded. discussion and conclusions we presented the concept of cultural keystone practices as an extension of the cultural keystone species and cultural keystone places concepts. cultural keystone practices thinking is contextualised in relation to the other metaphorical “keystones” arinyo-i-prats et al. 2025. ethnobiology letters 16(2):7–19 17 perspectives special issue: historical ecology & cultural keystone places defined in the literature (table 1). while species and places are central to these concepts, keystone practices complete the cultural cycle by integrating particular activities that support the identity and well-being of a community, especially when the practice might be overlooked through an ecological lens. by protecting and measuring cultural keystone practices, we are also protecting people’s agency to safeguard their traditional species and places. however, we have also raised the cautionary note that simple national and international recognition of a cultural keystone practices, in the form of intangible cultural heritage, does not necessarily protect the places and species necessary for its continued existence. we highlighted the often-overlooked importance of practices as a salient element of a culture’s deep interrelations between species-places-practices by focusing on conflict resolution practices in different cultural contexts, as they all directly impact the wellbeing of communities. we proposed three case studies: tribunal de les aigües, potlatch, and dônga. these cases demonstrate how maintaining or losing such heritage practices can affect community cohesion, identity, and resilience. the unique connection between these practices, territorial governance, and cultural survival is shaped by regional and societal contexts. for example, the tribunal has transitioned from a function institution to a symbolic tourist attraction due to urbanization; the potlatch has survived suppression through revitalization, retaining its role in conflict resolution and cultural continuity; and dônga, though under threat, is increasingly defended as a vital expression of identity, reconciliation, and entertainment. cultural keystone practices are indispensable for a community’s or culture’s well-being, environmental management and sustainability. as the conflict resolution practices cited here demonstrate, cultural keystone practices serve as a vital focal point to assess and safeguard cultural resilience. thus, there is a need for practices thinking, and a measurement strategy which ensures that communities retain agency over their cultural heritage while benefiting from a scientific approach to preservation, making cultural keystone practices a central pillar in the broader framework of healthy individuals and societies, in hand line with cultural and ecological sustainability. notes 1indian act, an act to further amend the indian act, 1880, s.c. 1884, c. 27, s. 3, “every indian or other person who engages in or assists in celebrating the indian festival known as the “potlach” […] is guilty of a misdemeanor, and shall be liable to imprisonment.” 2in 2014, the haida hosted heiltsuk nation leaders and band members at a potlatch in masset: “to take part in a conversation kuuniisii ancestors […] formalized through potlatch law over a century ago. in 2015, haíłzaqv and haida leaders potlatched the treaty at waglisla bella bella once again.” 3dônga is both the name of the martial art and the dueling pole made from the strong wood of the kalochiya golonya or kalochiya kora (grewia bicolor).4dônga is also practiced by their agro-pastoralist neighbors, the chai and tirmaga (referred as the suri). suri girls fight with dônga poles; mursi girls only use the iron bracelet (ula) for “girls’ dônga” or ujene ula (lit. striking bracelet) (latosky 2015). 5only severe criminal offences that require retributive forms of justice (e.g., murder, rape, bodily harm, cattle theft, etc.) cannot be resolved through dônga (latosky and olibui 2023:120). 6by attending and competing in dueling contests and by bestowing attention on their favorite fighters and admirers, it is important to mention that girls and young women legitimize dônga (ibid.). 7unmarried girls and boys use girari and dokay purgatives in preparation for dônga contests. girari (olea europaea ssp. africana) is the most salient cultural keystone species in mursi. due to the increasing inaccessibility of girari in the highlands (e.g., mago national park), dokay (harrisonia abyssinica oliv.) is used as an alternative purgative (latosky 2015). 8cultural restrictions follow other african colonial-era instances, such as zulu stick-fighting. the british exerted colonial control over this martial art by turning the practice into a public spectacle. 9modern taḥṭīb, led by adel boulad, is also under consideration as a new olympic sport starting in 2032 (latosky and olibui 2023). acknowledgments we thank enric ginot (universitat de valència) for a rich and enlightening conversation about the tribunal de les aigües. thanks also to dr. kii’iljuus barbara wilson (haida), dr. robert and sara davidson (haida), dr. umeek richard atleo (nuu-chah-nulth), hilistis pauline waterfall and wigvilhba wakas harvey humchitt, sr. (heiltsuk), the late kwaxsistalla clan chief adam dick and dr. ogwi’low’gwa kim arinyo-i-prats et al. 2025. ethnobiology letters 16(2):7–19 18 perspectives special issue: historical ecology & cultural keystone places recalma-clutesi (kwakwaka’wakw) and all the other indigenous knowledge keepers of the northwest coast for the information on the potlatch. thank you also to bijaloi biyobisseno in marege for her expert knowledge of purging plants and to olisarali olibui and many other mursi for sharing information on men’s and women’s dônga, especially bikalumi sabakorro. declarations permissions: none declared. sources of funding: the european commission has funded this research through the marie skłodowskacurie actions (h2020-msca-if-2020), grant number 101027136. conflicts of interest: none declared. references cited aguilar, l. k., and c. e. webb. 2024. keystones for conservation: diversity, wellbeing, coexistence. biological conservation 291:110464. doi:10.1016/ j.biocon.2024.110464. 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keystone concept: a quantifiable metaphor for understanding the structure, function, and resilience of a biocultural system. sustainability 10:3294. doi:10.3390/ su10093294. night soil: origins, discontinuities, and opportunities for bridging the metabolic rift kawa et al. 2019. ethnobiology le ers 10(1):40–49 40 perspec ves a close reading of marx, who had observed a break in “the metabolic interaction between man and earth” driven by the removal of soil nutrients under capitalist agriculture and a neglect for their systematic restoration (foster 1999:380). in capital volume 1, marx (1979:506) declared: “all progress in capitalist agriculture is a progress in the art, not only of robbing the worker, but of robbing the soil.” later, in capital volume 3 (1999:69), marx specifically lamented how human excrement, which was once a resource for agricultural fertilization in europe, had become a source of pollution and waste: “excretions of consumption are of the greatest importance for agriculture. so far as their utilisation is concerned, there is an enormous waste of them in the capitalist economy. in london, for instance, they can find no better use for the excretion of four and a half million human beings than pollute the thames with it, at heavy expense.” which is to say, marx pinpointed the metabolic rift in the modern treatment of human excrement. introduction for millennia, farmers across the world have relied on human excrement as a fertilizer, often known euphemistically as “night soil” (kawa 2016a; king 1911; van der geest 2002; xue 2005). in the 19th century, however, a host of factors related to urban and industrial growth in europe and north america led to the adoption of water-borne waste removal, which became the basis of the modern hydraulic sanitation system. with this development emerged a “culture of flushing”—intertwining attitudes, infrastructure, and legal codes that resulted in the channeling of human excrement into subterranean networks and waterways (benidickson 2007). in effect, this disrupted the cycling of nutrients from urban metropolises to surrounding agricultural lands, provoking what marxian scholars now describe as the metabolic rift (foster 1999; see also moore 2011). environmental sociologist john bellamy foster introduced the concept of the metabolic rift through night soil: origins, discon nui es, and opportuni es for bridging the metabolic ri nicholas c. kawa1*, yang ding2, jo kingsbury2, kori goldberg3, forbes lipschitz4, mitchell scherer4, and fatuma bonkiye1 1department of anthropology, the ohio state university, columbus, usa. 2school of environment and natural resources, the ohio state university, columbus, usa. 3world wildlife fund, district of columbia, usa. 4knowlton school of architecture, the ohio state university, columbus, usa. *kawa.5@osu.edu abstract for millennia, people have relied on human excrement or “night soil” as a source of agricultural fer liza on. following industrializa on, however, the use of this resource became considerably limited. in this ar cle, we provide a brief overview of the historical use of human excreta for agricultural applica on at varying scales of management, from early amazonian farming middens to regional networks of night soil trade in imperial china. we then draw a en on to the factors that led to the discon nua on of night soil usage during industrializa on, placing focus on the “culture of flushing” that developed along with the adop on of the hydraulic sanita on system. to conclude, we consider how improved management of human excreta in the contemporary world can have important consequences for agricultural produc on, despite the ongoing challenges posed by what marxian scholars refer to as the metabolic ri —the disrup on of the earth’s socio‐ecological cycles brought on by industrial capitalism. received june 26, 2018 open access accepted may 16, 2019 doi 10.14237/ebl.10.1.2019.1351 published july 18, 2019 keywords biosolids, excrement, humanure, soil management practice, agroecology copyright © 2019 by the author(s) licensee society of ethnobiology. this is an open‐access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution‐noncommercial 4.0 international public license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by‐nc/4.0), which permits non‐commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. kawa et al. 2019. ethnobiology le ers 10(1):40–49 41 perspec ves today, many initiatives around the world are attempting to address the metabolic rift by building more sustainable agricultural systems that restore localized nutrient cycles. part of this effort is through the local food movement, which aims to devise locally-based and self-reliant food economies that enable sustainable food production, processing, distribution, and consumption (feenstra 2002). an often less visible but no less significant movement is the growing interest in harnessing human excreta and returning it to the land as a soil amendment. in nations that maintain hydraulic sanitation systems, this is primarily done through the production of “biosolids”—treated sanitation sludge that can be spread over the surface of farm fields, or, when in liquid form, injected underground. still, the use of this resource is considerably limited in most parts of the world today. in the united states, for example, the environmental protection agency (epa) estimates that approximately eight million dry tons of biosolids are produced in the country annually, but only about half of this material is land applied and usdacertified organic agricultural operations are prohibited from using it. though many farmers, researchers, and sanitation engineers view the use of biosolids as a beneficial model for agricultural fertilization on a planet of finite resources (basta 1995; cofie et al. 2005; cordell et al. 2011), others have raised concerns about the potential consequences of biosolids usage for environmental and public health (langdon et al. 2010; leblanc et al. 2006; snyder 2005). our objective in this article is to contextualize contemporary debates concerning the use of human excreta in agricultural systems. to begin, we offer a condensed historical overview of night soil’s use at varying scales of management. we then draw attention to the factors that led to the discontinuation of night soil’s usage during industrialization, placing focus on the “culture of flushing” that developed alongside the hydraulic sanitation system. to conclude, we consider both the benefits and potential problems that human excreta poses for agricultural fertilization. in doing so, we hope to bring some clarity to the challenges of “closing the loop” in contemporary sanitation systems as well as the ways we might begin to address the marxian metabolic rift. a (very) brief history of night soil management in many regions of the world, human excrement or “night soil” was used historically to improve or maintain soil fertility, particularly in response to agricultural intensification. but this was not always an intentional management practice among early farmers, as can be seen in the case of amazonian dark earth (ade). distributed in patches across the amazon basin, ade is an anthropogenic soil known for its significant concentrations of organic residues that contribute to its elevated fertility (kawa 2016b:50–51). conservative estimates place the emergence of ade between 2000 and 2500 years ago, when it appears to have co-evolved with the rise of manioc agriculture in the region (arroyo-kalin 2010; cf. moraes 2015; neves et al. 2003). hundreds of ade sites have been identified to date, primarily along the banks of the amazon and its major tributaries, where indigenous villagers deposited food refuse, vegetative charcoal, and various forms of manure, including human excrement (birk et al. 2010; glaser and birk 2012). recent soil scientific research has concluded that ade was not intentionally created, but rather grew out of everyday midden activities, which produced a positive feedback loop that allowed for the growth of human populations in the region, and in turn, expansion of such anthropogenic soils (glaser and birk 2012). whether amazonian farming communities suffered from chronic disease as a result of these deposition practices remains unclear. but in contrast to such seemingly inadvertent use, night soil was also systematically managed in large, complex societies. in mesoamerica, for example, human excreta featured in one of the most striking agricultural innovations of the aztec empire—the chinampas. these “floating gardens” or artificial islands, connected through networks of canals, were created with aquatic plants and the sediments of lake beds. they ranged in dimensions from 2.5 to 10 meters wide and as many as 100 meters long. dating back at least to 1100 ad, these raised islands were also fertilized with human excreta collected in the great city of tenochtitlán. prior to spanish arrival, upwards of 1,000 men were regularly employed to manage the city’s refuse and maintain its canal system. the chinampas, in turn, produced maize, beans, chili peppers, and tomatoes as well as a host of medicinal plants and agroforestry products that sustained the region’s estimated 250,000 inhabitants. today, it has been considered an early model of environmental and socio-economic sustainable management in a complex society (merlín-uribe et al. 2013). in other large-scale civilizations, night soil even became a commodity integrated into networks of kawa et al. 2019. ethnobiology le ers 10(1):40–49 42 perspec ves regional trade (figure 1). this is best documented in east asia where night soil has an extensive history of agricultural use, dating back at least to the third century b.c. (mcneill and winiwarter 2004). the earliest text describing the application of night soil as a fertilizer can be found in qi min yao shu, the first chinese agricultural instruction book, written between 553 and 554 ad (jia and huang 1977). later, during the qing dynasty (1736–95 ad), night soil grew into such a prized agricultural resource that its collection was referred to as “the business of the golden juice.” farmers not only sought out night soil for fertilization figure 1 a woman carries buckets of night soil in fuzhou, fujian province, china. photograph by john thomson, 1871. cc by 4.0. (source: wellcome library no. 19724i). kawa et al. 2019. ethnobiology le ers 10(1):40–49 43 perspec ves of their fields, but many also became involved in its sale and trade, traveling long distances to procure high-quality night soil from wealthy, urban areas (xue 2005). night soil depots or trading houses (fenchang) were established to handle the collection, transport, treatment, and sale of night soil, with many farmers eventually abandoning agricultural work in the late 19th and early 20th century to become night soil traders instead. until the 1970s, urban toilet cleaners still paid for the night soil they collected from residents’ houses in southern provinces (xue 2005). like china, early modern japan placed great economic value on night soil. in 1649, authorities in edo (what is now tokyo) banned toilets that discharged into canals or rivers to prevent human excrement from being wasted (smil 2004:27). across the country, night soil was also collected by professionals and sold to farmers—once traded for vegetables but later purchased with silver (hanley 1987). by the mid-18th century, night soil had become so expensive that incidents of its theft began to appear in the record books (hanley 1987). near the height of its use, statistics from the japanese bureau of agriculture showed that almost 24 million tons of excreta were used on approximately 13.5 million hectares of arable land in the year 1908 alone (king 1911). by the mid-20th century, however, the rise in the adoption of chemical fertilizer along with growing concerns regarding night soil’s role in the spread of diseases (see kim et al. 2014) led to a drastic reduction in its use in asia (ferguson 2014). despite europeans’ and north americans’ admiration of asian agricultural resource conservation (e.g., ferguson 2014; king 1911), the large-scale abandonment of night soil in china and japan mirrored a similar trend witnessed in europe during industrialization. the discontinuation of night soil use during industrialization before the development of the modern hydraulic sanitation system, most european cities like london relied on night soil collectors to remove excrement from cesspits and privies. as in asia, night soil was collected and then spread on agricultural fields in the rural countryside. however, the growing popularity of the flush toilet in the mid-19th century led to increased volumes of water in urban cesspits, which considerably diluted night soil and compromised its value for fertilization (gandy 2004:366). to complicate matters, the expansion of cities pushed night soil collectors greater distances to reach their markets in rural areas. not to mention, the cost of emptying a cesspit was double the daily wage of an average skilled laborer, which presented an additional obstacle to timely removal (johnson 2006:10). together, these factors created the conditions for a public health crisis—between 1831 and 1866, britain was ravaged by four distinct cholera epidemics due to the contamination of drinking wells. at the time, there was much debate in europe over the flushing of human feces into newly constructed sewer systems that were originally designed to handle urban stormwater. despite such debate, the idea of directing human excreta into city sewers became the most practical option, especially since running water was not believed to be at serious risk of contamination (benidickson 2007:4). the model of the private flush toilet encouraged this “culture of flushing,” channeling urban wastes into underground tunnels (figure 2) and off into rivers and the open ocean. europe’s adoption of the hydraulic sanitation system aligned with emerging conceptions of hygiene and cleanliness that had already begun to reshape urban social life and governance. in his analysis of the “civilizing process,” norbert elias (2000) detailed how the concealment and restraint of bodily odors and excreta—along with bodily functions responsible for them—became important marks of social distinction in europe between the 13th and 18th centuries. moreover, dominique laporte (2002) showed how the rise in power of the modern european state was derived from its ability to cleanse urban space and relegate the “dirty business” of human biological necessity to the private realm. building on their observations, the cultural theorist gay hawkins (2003:40) has argued that the modern sanitation system functions as a “public secret” that ultimately prevents people from knowing “where shit ends up”. of course, this is no oversight but rather a feature of its design. in the united states, for example, some 600,000 miles of buried sewers whisk disposed solids and liquids away to municipal water treatment plants, often located on the urban fringe. it is only when such systems fail, as in the case of combined sewer overflows—where flushed excreta mixes with storm water runoff and discharges into urban waterways—that urban residents are confronted with the messy realities of modern hydraulic sanitation. kawa et al. 2019. ethnobiology le ers 10(1):40–49 44 perspec ves but in many parts of the world, sanitation is a source of ongoing debate and contestation. scholars working in developing countries like ghana and south africa have recently highlighted how sanitation has served as the basis for political mobilization of marginalized groups (chalfin 2014; robins 2010). at the same time, in the developed world, permaculturalists and other small-scale communities of agro-ecologists are pushing back against the culture of flushing by decoupling from the hydraulic sanitation system and taking matters into their own hands (jenkins 1994; pickering 1999). these different movements highlight the deep inequities in the global political economic system that manifest in the management of human excreta: while some communities suffer from a lack of improved sanitation and are simultaneously in need of resources for energy and fertilization, others are questioning the wastefulness of modern sanitation systems that require people to habitually defecate into clean water and send valuable nutrients into landfills. to add to the irony, many countries with hydraulic sanitation systems are simultaneously grappling with problems related to overuse of chemical fertilizer on agricultural lands, including massive algal blooms and the eutrophication of waterways. the question now is: can the metabolic rift be mended? or, at the very least, can human “waste” be widely incorporated into productive systems once again? figure 2 an early depic on of groundwater contamina on and sewer gas leaks resul ng from improper sewer construc‐ on. (source: sewers: ancient and modern by c. wheeler, 1887). kawa et al. 2019. ethnobiology le ers 10(1):40–49 45 perspec ves opportunities and obstacles for bridging the metabolic rift because food travels incredible distances in much of today’s globalized economic system, directly “closing the loop” in nutrient cycling—or essentially returning all soil nutrients to their sites of origin—is an impractical and even impossible task. however, one area to improve global nutrient management can be in harnessing human excrement and redirecting it into degraded lands. contemporary research has shown that in areas where soils have been depleted, the application of night soil or biosolids—treated sanitation wastes—can improve soil structure and soil porosity while also increasing soil organic carbon (garcía-orenes et al. 2005; tian et al. 2009). in new mexico, for example, a study by aguilar and loftin (1991) demonstrated that biosolids were far more effective at restoring degraded rangelands suffering from soil erosion and nutrient depletion due to overgrazing than rangeland management through natural regeneration (i.e., by simply removing cattle). biosolids have also proven to be effective in land reclamation, particularly for re-establishing vegetation and ecosystem services on lands degraded by extensive mining activity (sopper 1992). beyond this, the improved management of human excreta can diminish dependency on commercial fertilizers. this is especially important because mined phosphorus is a finite natural resource that is expected to become depleted in the next 50 to 100 years (cordell et al. 2011). agronomic research has also shown that biosolids produce effects similar to commercial fertilizers on crop yields and plant nutrition, but have the added benefit of providing essential micronutrients (basta 1995). like any soil amendment, the benefits of night soil or biosolids are partially contingent on the physical, chemical, and biological properties of the application site and many challenges remain in their management. this holds both for communities where human excreta is largely collected without treatment—particularly in the developing world—as well as contexts in which treated sanitation sludge is used. below, we briefly present case studies from ghana and the us to highlight some of the principal problems involving the management of these resources: pathogens, environmental pollution, transportation and logistics, and cultural taboo. night soil management in ghana in ghana, night soil is commonly used in rural areas (including an estimated 64% of farmers in the tamale and bolgatanga regions) to increase yields of crops like maize and sorghum, helping to overcome limitations posed by poor soils and cost restrictions that hinder access to commercial fertilizers (cofie et al. 2005). to reduce the risks associated with pathogen transmission, night soil is only generally applied to cereal crops that will be cooked or used for animal fodder. although pit composting is sometimes practiced, night soil otherwise receives little treatment. common logistical challenges include long transportation distances from nearby cities and frequent shortages. the cultural acceptance of such fertilizers also governs their use. as recent research in ghana has shown (buit and jansen 2016), the physical appearance of the resource—how it is seen and smelled—has a significant impact on its adoption by farmers, especially as social scientists have characterized ghanaian society as being “fecophobic” (van der geest 1998). to improve upon current management, composting can be helpful for pathogen-reduction, but having a consistent and reliable source of carbon (e.g., straw, hay, sawdust) is needed to sustain output. the prevention of soil-transmitted parasites also requires safe excreta handling strategies, including personal protective equipment (e.g., gloves and boots) and regular antiparasitic prophylaxis (tran-thi et al. 2017). these practices also raise critical questions about human labor. management of human excreta is a stigmatized occupation in ghana and many other nations, often performed by marginalized classes or minority ethnic groups (e.g., van der geest 2002). beyond making fertilizer that is safe and acceptable to users, the future of night soil management in ghana and other countries requires considerations of social justice as well. biosolids use in the us in countries that rely on treated sanitation sludge, concerns have been raised about potential issues of toxicity and heavy metal bioaccumulation resulting from biosolids use in human food production as well as risks of disease and parasite transmission (basta 1995; leblanc et al. 2006; turton 1995). untreated sanitation sludge can contain high concentrations of heavy metals (e.g., lead, copper, and cadmium), kawa et al. 2019. ethnobiology le ers 10(1):40–49 46 perspec ves hazardous residual chemicals (e.g., pcbs and antibiotics), as well as parasitic helminth eggs (basta 1995; leblanc et al. 2006). these problems, along with more generalized negative perceptions of biosolids used in food production, have limited their adoption in many developed regions of the globe (leblanc et al. 2006). in the us, biosolids production and application are regulated by the environmental protection agency (epa) under the part 503 rule of the clean water act. results from the epa’s national sewage sludge surveys have shown that regulated compounds (arsenic, cadmium, copper, lead, mercury, molybdenum, nickel, selenium, and zinc) in sewage sludge at wastewater treatment facilities consistently fall below ceiling levels (lu 2012). however, one challenge in the application of biosolids is that excessive use can result in unabsorbed nitrogen and phosphorus leaching into groundwater and surface water, resulting in the eutrophication of downstream waterbodies. research in the us has specifically shown that application of biosolids based on plant nitrogen requirements alone can lead to the build-up of soil phosphorus in excess of crop requirements, which can then contribute to nonpoint source phosphorus pollution of surface waters (penn and sims 2002). however, such impacts also depend upon individual wastewater treatment plant processes, since some plants produce biosolids using lime and/or metal salts, while others do not. furthermore, the organic matter content of biosolids can help to lockup environmental pollutants over time, which makes them less bioavailable to plants and thus reduces the risk of bioaccumulation or leaching into local water supplies (basta 1995; sopper 1992). in 2002, the us national research council reported that there was no documented scientific evidence that the application of biosolids had adverse effects on public health. today, however, micropollution in sewage, such as personal-care products, pharmaceuticals, and endocrine-disrupting compounds have raised new concerns among the public. the influence of these micro-pollutants on soil quality and human health requires further investigation, especially considering that the epa (2018) has recently acknowledged that it lacks the necessary data to determine the safety of many industrial pollutants. although a growing number of cities in the us are currently looking to expand the beneficial use of sanitation sludge—for forestry projects and industrial agriculture as well as urban gardening—questions about the long-term effects of biosolids still remain. conclusion as marx argued nearly 150 years ago, industrial capitalism turned human excrement from an agricultural resource into a source of waste. the “culture of flushing” that developed during european industrialization perpetuates this negative attitude toward human excrement and sewage in societies throughout the world today (e.g., morales et al. 2014). however, a growing movement of farmers, sanitation engineers, and scholars see the use of human excreta as one alternative method for agricultural fertilization on a planet of dwindling resources (figure 3). nonetheless, “closing the loop” in nutrient cycling requires negotiating a series of challenges. first, it figure 3 class b biosolids are used to fer lize 90,000 acres of dryland wheat fields managed by over 100 land‐ owners in the boulder park area of washington state, usa. (photograph by nicholas c. kawa). kawa et al. 2019. ethnobiology le ers 10(1):40–49 47 perspec ves demands better management of pathogens, particularly in the developing world, to minimize the threats to public health. second, it requires greater attention to issues of environmental pollution, including the problems of excessive fertilization and the long-term effects of pharmaceuticals and industrial pollutants that persist in sanitation sludge. third, the use of night soil and biosolids can only expand with logistical and infrastructural support, which continues to be sorely lacking in many parts of the world. fourth, the stigmatization of such resources and the laborers responsible for their management will pose an ongoing obstacle to building a food system that integrates human excreta in a sustainable manner. taking all of these factors into consideration, it cannot be denied that the bodily substances we all produce are critical elements of our ecosystems, and how we manage them 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oehler. 2020. berghahn books, new york, ny. 214 pp. kotašková. 2020. ethnobiology letters 11(1):116–117 116 reviews describes the oka-soiot household, which in soiot cosmology is a mirror image of spirit households of the taiga (chapter 1). what is domestic for humans is a game for spirits and vice versa. in soiot perspective, the “domestic” is an outcome of negotiation within the environment, rather than an outcome of solely human actions. regarding spirituality and cosmology, chapter 2 describes the historical influences of shamanism and buddhism, resulting in soiot herderhunters’ adaptation of both perspectives and contextual movement between shamanic and buddhist perceptions of the landscape according to the needs of people and animals. chapter 3 contrasts soiot and tofa reindeer herding practices and relations emerging in the presence of other species in both human and spirit households. reindeer herding, strongly influenced by political influences of the past, remains a strong symbol of soiot identity. this chapter emphasizes historical variations in the dynamics between humans and reindeer, as well as seasonal flexibility of households. for the soiots, to maintain mutual relations with reindeer is to be flexible throughout the seasons but also to have the ability to see from the viewpoint of the animal. while reindeers are interpreted as symbols of the past, the yak is rather symbolic of the present because of its hybrid character (chapter 4). oka is the only place in which indigenous residents took up yak breeding, and with a focus on history and archaeology, oehler explains why. the roots of yak herding together with its symbolic status are traced back to mongolia and further into tibet. chapter 4 further discusses the historical influence of mongolian the dichotomy of wild and tame has been a wideranging topic of many academic discussions across disciplines. although alex c. oehler does not explicitly discuss the many anthropological theories about wildness and tameness, he provides interesting insight into these discussions in his ethnography of relations emerging within human-animal encounters in soiot region of south siberia. beyond wild and tame is an ethnography of soiot communities with a focus mainly on the oka-soiots during 2012, 2014, and 2018. together with comprehensive archival research on soiot history, archaeology and previous (scarce) ethnographic work, oehler gives a complex account of soiot encounters with various animals. the author’s focus on relations is inspired mainly by tim ingold and von uexküll’s concept of “umwelt” (perspective). as a reaction to predominant focus on reindeers in siberian ethnographies, oehler chose a frame of “multispecies ethnography.” in this book, multispecies ethnography refers to the author’s focus on people (oka-soiots) and multiple species of animals (reindeers, yaks, horses, and wolves). when writing about animals, oehler is focused on soiots’ perspectives rather than making claims regarding the intentions of animals himself, but at the same time, he references genetics, evolution, morphology, and animal population studies to give a context for soiot human-animal relations. the structure of the book is clear and offers a complex illustration of domestication and wildness with a focus on both humans and animals. in regard to the question of domestication, oehler first beyond wild and tame: soiot encounters in a sentient landscape. by alex c. oehler. 2020. berghahn books, new york, ny. 214 pp. eva kotašková1* 1department of sociology, faculty of social studies, masaryk university, brno, czech republic. *332998@mail.muni.cz received july 1, 2020 open access accepted september 11, 2020 doi 10.14237/ebl.11.1.2020.1716 published september 25, 2020 copyright © 2020 by the author(s); licensee society of ethnobiology. this is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution-noncommercial 4.0 international public license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0), which permits non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. kotašková. 2020. ethnobiology letters 11(1):116–117 117 reviews dairy cattle and its effect on nomadic movement resulting in an increasing sedentary lifestyle and implementation of hybrid breeding techniques. in comparison to other species such as reindeer or yak, the features associated with wildness can also be seen as desirable in human-horse relations, as discussed in chapter 5. all three species are valued for their “wild” ability to forage for themselves in winter. therefore, techniques such as castration are not only intended to increase docility in animals but are a way to foster fierceness and self-reliance in select herd animals. however, this is often not a matter of a wild-tame dichotomy but is understood in terms of negotiation or management of human and animal intentions and will, which changes according to seasonal fluctuation of proximity between humans and horses. the chapter also focuses on material implements such as ropes, corrals, horseshoes, or saddles as part of communicative devices between humans and non-humans. while one needs to account for the animal intention or resistance, such devices are, ultimately, co-producing the sociality of the animals. relations with wolves, described in chapter 6, carry both admiration and hate. wolves are seen at times as a species inherently autonomous and at times as emissaries of a spirit master. either way, they are known in oka primarily as good learners who are able to learn from careful observation and develop their capacity to predict another’s intentions or movements. hidden intent, it seems, stood at the center of wolfhuman interactions in oka and chapter 6 shows how both humans and wolfs design to conceal intent through human-built traps with wolf-designed dens. although beyond wild and tame does not aim to be “classic ethnography” focused on the life of the soiots, the reader certainly gains insight into their lifeways throughout the book. with a focus on human -animal relations, the author contextualizes okasoiots in the surrounding communities of the whole soiot region and in the history of the regions back to 300 bc with influence from mongolia or turkey and other historical-political influences. the book provides an extensive insight for scholars interested in the south siberian area (especially considering the lack of archaeology and anthropology of oka-soiots) across disciplines. the language is rather descriptive, and mostly looks to history, archaeology, or genetics, rather than to anthropological theories. anthropological-theoretical discussions and interpretations of the soiot human-animal relations are mainly in the conclusion. beyond wild and tame is a detailed illustration of how diverse current and past humannonhuman relations can be and of the diversity in form of wildness and tameness. iwi’gara, the kinship of plants and people: american indian ethnobotanical traditions and science. by enrique salm’on. 2020. timber press, portland, or 245 pp. pierotti. 2022. ethnobiology letters 13(1):75–76 75 reviews salm’on’s personal experience with the plant in question, followed by short sections on traditional usage by indigenous peoples, identification and harvesting practices (accompanied by good color images of the species, or tribal use), and health elements, in which basic pharmaceutical information is provided. some plants, like beans, corn, cotton, cranberry, maple, and pumpkin will be familiar to most readers. others, like birch, various berries, echinacea, oak, peyote, sage, and sweetgrass, will be familiar to those who have some experience with indigenous cultures. many species, however, will be surprising to readers who do not have deeper knowledge of such cultures. the overall effect of this book is a very interesting glimpse into the cultural plant use practices of a wide range of indigenous peoples of north america. this book seems ideal for indigenous readers who have become distanced from their cultural traditions to varying degrees, and who would like to revisit or take-up some traditional practices in their lives. it will also be of interest to nonindigenous readers who desire guidance into examining and considering expansion of their diets or medicinal practices. the major reservation i have about this is that i would encourage individuals who really want to learn how to use plants to consult tribal healers and knowledge keepers, or at the least, an experienced ethnobotanist. according to rara’muri author enrique salm’on, “there is among the rara´muri a concept called iwı´gara, which encompasses many ideas and ways of thinking unique to the place with which the rara´muri live…iwı´gara is the total interconnectedness and integration of all life in the sierra madres, physical and spiritual…(and) calls on that person to realize life in all its forms:… the beginning of rara´muri life, origins, and relationships to animals, plants, the place of nurturing, and the entities to which the rara´muri look for guidance” (salmon 2000, 1328). this is an important concept, and when i first heard of this book, i anticipated that salm’on might be giving us a deep dive into the cultural traditions of his people. the book he has published under this title, reflects only one component of indigenous knowledge. as its subtitle indicates, it is instead an examination of the way various indigenous peoples of the americas, use plants for food, shelter, and ceremonial purposes. many of these plants are not part of the rara´muri landscape, therefore this book represents an expansion of the concept of iwı´gara, possibly as a pan-indian concept. the book itself is very attractive and well put together, with a brief introductory section on the indigenous cultures of various parts of north america, followed by accounts of 89 plant groupings (these are not species but mostly genera). each account includes an anecdotal introduction of iwi’gara, the kinship of plants and people: american indian ethnobotanical traditions and science. by enrique salm’on. 2020. timber press, portland, or. 245 pp. raymond pierotti1* 1ecology and evolutionary biology, university of kansas, lawrence, ks. *pierotti@ku.edu received march 11, 2021 open access accepted november 18, 2022 doi 10.14237/ebl.13.1.2022.1757 published december 7, 2022 copyright © 2022 by the author(s); licensee society of ethnobiology. this is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution-noncommercial 4.0 international public license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0), which permits non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. pierotti. 2022. ethnobiology letters 13(1):75–76 76 reviews references cited salm’on, e. 2000. kincentric ecology: indigenous perceptions of the human–nature relationship. ecological applications, 10(5), 2000, pp. 1327–1332. cognate plants: a renewed concept for species with common uses and taxonomic similarities athaydes. 2025. ethnobiology letters 16(1):96–103 96 perspectives modern botany has employed the term cognates in the description of new species to designate specific epithets, likely applied to species that are very similar in appearance. in naming the epithet, the authors emphasize the morphological proximity of the described species to another within the same genus. this is achieved by highlighting shared characteristics such as length, width, venation patterns, and petiole dimensions, among other traits, to demonstrate the taxonomic overlap between the two taxa. variations of the term, such as gaulettia cognata (steud.) sothers & prance, cheiloclinium cognatum (miers) a.c. sm., and tynanthus cognatus (cham.) miers have been employed in different botanical contexts, especially in naming species that show significant similarities to one another. the recontextualized terminology proposed here—cognate plants—operates within popular introduction this article introduces a novel application of ancient terminology aimed at enhancing environmental perception studies, particularly by addressing challenges in the popular understanding of plant species classified as cognates. originally coined as cognatum by pliny the elder in his natural history (books 15–19) to denote botanical kinship, or of the same bloodline in old latin (lewis and short 1879), the term’s first and last recorded application for this purpose was in antiquity. it was only in the midnineteenth century that the term was adapted into linguistics to describe common words of etymological origin (echeverría 2017; sabino 2012). most recently, it was formally applied to the biological sciences in 1942 by harold h. flor, with the development of the gene-for-gene theory of variety-specific resistance (flor 1942). cognate plants: a renewed concept for species with common uses and taxonomic similarities marcus vinicius de athaydes liesenfeld 1* 1laboratório de ecoanatomia e ecologia vegetal, programa de pós-graduação em ciências ambientais, centro multidisciplinar, universidade federal do acre, cruzeiro do sul, acre, brazil. *marcus.athaydes@ufac.br abstract the article introduces the cognate plant concept, presenting its novel application within an ethnobiological context. these are taxonomically or functionally analogous plant in-groups that remain overlooked and undervalued in public perception. in order to support the term definition, several examples of related plants are discussed, such as those used in the production of piaçaba, cipó-titica, and tauari wood, as well as the açaí case. in each example, the importance of correctly identifying the species is emphasized to warn against unsustainable extraction practices. moreover, inaccurate consumer perception of the product offered can overshadow conservation problems with one or more of the cognate species that are the source of the raw material. in the açaí case, the introduction of euterpe oleracea beyond its native range, alongside the native acre açaí (euterpe precatoria), raises concerns about socio-environmental impacts and the potential transition from extractive systems to monocultures. although examples cited are from brazil and the amazon, the applicability of this concept extends universally. therefore, incorporating the plant cognate concept into research, policy, and community practices offers a more realistic approach to biodiversity conservation while supporting cultural traditions and sustainable resource management. received december 6, 2024 open access accepted december 16, 2024 doi 10.14237/ebl.16.1.2025.1921 published september 8, 2025 keywords plant terminology, plant conservation, amazon, environmental perception copyright © 2025 by the author(s); licensee society of ethnobiology. this is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution-noncommercial 4.0 international public license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0), which permits non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. athaydes. 2025. ethnobiology letters 16(1):96–103 97 perspectives environmental perception studies, a field that examines the dissonance between how much we truly care about the environment and the extent to which the surrounding environmental reality is reflected in our feelings and tangible actions (amorim et al. 2024; ihemezie et al. 2021). by using the term cognate in the context of environmental perception and ethnobiological knowledge, i discuss how the process of public recognition, specifically how people perceive and identify plant species, can lead to incorrect identification and inaccurate labeling when it is flawed or mistaken. this culminates in consequences that undermine both conservation efforts and sustainable species use. cognate plants encompass species that, beyond taxonomic proximity and similar morphologies, share functional roles in traditional practices, often resulting in their collective association with a single final product in markets. this overlap is further compounded by vernacular naming practices: local names frequently fail to distinguish allied species due to intra-community variations or divergent uses of a “common language” across regions. such linguistic ambiguity, combined with functional equivalence, drives indiscriminate species exploitation for the same purposes, often without the final consumers realizing it. unintentional substitution therefore undermines distinctions in popular understanding, which can trigger ecological repercussions, including overexploitation or decline of populations of rare or vulnerable species. the proposed term cognate plants underscores these dynamics by elucidating the ecological and cultural implications of such substitutions. this concept addresses a lacuna in existing nomenclature by emphasizing the need for accurate recognition and sustainable management practices. furthermore, by delineating the risks of overexploitation and population decline among rare or vulnerable species, this concept not only seeks to bridge the gap in existing nomenclature but also stresses the need for more informed practices, promoting sustainable resource management and conservation efforts. cognate species: examples and conservation concerns to operationalize this concept, this work establishes two key subcategories: (1) congenerics and (2) noncongenerics or paracognates (table 1). the following delineates groups of species and traditional/ economical uses within this framework. furthermore, classic cases will be discussed where species identification within cognate groups has led to problems. these cases underscore the challenges in distinguishing species that share common uses, frequently resulting in confusion in both scientific classification and local practices. understanding these issues is crucial for improving botanical knowledge and the sustainable management of natural resources, as well as ensuring that local populations are better informed about the plants they use. the category of non-congeneric cognates encompasses plants with very similar morphology and common uses, but which belong to different taxonomic genera. a classic example of confusion within this group is the espinheira-santa cognate species complex (zollernia ilicifolia (brongn.) vogel, monteverdia ilicifolia (mart. ex reissek) biral, and sorocea bonplandii (baill.) w.c. burger, lanj. & wess. boer). among the three species commonly confused or intentionally collected, only monteverdia ilicifolia (mart. ex reissek) biral contains authentic medicinal substances (caldas and matos 2019). the other species may either produce no medicinal effects or even be toxic. this situation emphasizes the challenges within the group of medicinal cognates. due to their implications for human health these have garnered increased attention in recent years, contributing to the development of advanced regulations aimed at ensuring correct identification and sustainable use (agência nacional de vigilância sanitária 2014; bennett and balick 2014). the amazon’s traditional use of non-congeneric cognate species is exemplified by fiber extraction for the piassaba, piaçaba, or piaçava broom production. however, unlike the previous example, this practice lacks species-specific regulation, operating under broad harvesting protocols (guimarães-junior et al. 2020). the fibers are sourced from the species attalea funifera mart. (found in the atlantic forest), leopoldinia piassaba wallace (northern amazon), and aphandra natalia (balslev & a.j. hend.) barford (western amazon, but in brazil, exclusively in the state of acre). these species possess sclerenchymatous fibers derived from leaf petioles, which are highly valued for broom production. however, improper management, such as cutting down entire plants or harvesting immature individuals, can severely affect their population distribution and endanger the species’ continuity in the wild (josa et al. 2011). these improper practices can disrupt the species’ ability to regenerate naturally, potentially leading to population athaydes. 2025. ethnobiology letters 16(1):96–103 98 perspectives decline and local extinction. such practices can pose significant risks to the sustainability of these resources, especially in areas where these plants are used traditionally without clear regulatory frameworks (kronborg 2008). due to its limited distribution in the western part of the state of acre (daly 2008), the improper management and indiscriminate extraction of aphandra natalia (balslev & a.j. hend.) barford can affect the health of the plant populations, especially in heavily exploited areas. community harvesters’ reports indicate the growing scarcity of harvestable individuals, underscoring the need for studies on the distribution, ecology, and sustainable collection methods for this native species of acre (isaza et al. 2013). critically, if piaçaba brooms—made from aphandra natalia (balslev & a.j. hend.) barford — disappear from acre’s urban markets, popular perception may not recognize their disappearance as an indicator of the species’ probable local extinction. this is because brooms made from other species, not found in acre, will continue to be sold in the market, and the population will continue to buy them without realizing their contribution to the eventual decline of the aphandra natalia (balslev & a.j. hend.) barford populations. in the first example of congeneric cognates (referring to taxonomically related species within the same genus), a classic case can be found in the emblematic history of yerba mate or erva-mate (ilex paraguariensis a. st.–hil.). instances of mixed or substituted uses for yerba mate are considered adulterations since its cognates (such ilex theezans mart., ilex dumosa reissek and ilex brevicuspis reissek) contain biochemical compounds, such as saponins, that alter the flavor when used instead of ilex paraguariensis a. st.–hil. (giberti 1989). aimé bonpland was possibly the first to warn about these adulterations in 1849 (gerhardt 2013), and as consumption increased from the mid-twentieth century tea companies began mixing different species of ilex l. by the late 1970s, there was a sharp reduction in cultivation areas, causing prices to rise. this prompted the 1977 federal law and the subsequent brazilian regulations mandating the exclusive use of ilex paraguariensis a. st.–hil. for producing yerba mate, requiring companies to label their products with the species name (brasil 1977). a congeneric cognate example from the amazonian timber species exploitation sector underscores the use of tauari (couratari spp. aubl.), an important resource for furniture production prized for the superior wood quality characteristic of this genus. in acre, the three main native species commonly called tauari are couratari guianensis aubl., couratari macrocarpa mart. ex o. berg, and couratari prancei w.a. rodrigues. while concerns in timber management often focus on silica content, which makes some species more difficult to process, the issue goes beyond this factor. unsustainable exploitation, especially of the critically endangered couratari prance w.a. rodrigues (o’brien 1998), can exacerbate table 1 plant cognates: definition of term, subcategories and examples. plant cognates are different species that produce commercially equivalent products where gatherers and/or consumers fail to discriminate at the species level intentionally or not. subcategory examples possible species congeneric cognates tauri couratari guianensis aubl., c. macrocarpa mart. ex o. berg, c. prancei w.a. rodrigues, possible others palheiras attalea butyracea (mutis ex l. f.) wess. boer, a. phalerata mart. ex spreng., a. maripa (aubl.) mart. cipó-titica heteropsis flexuosa (kunth) g.s. bunting, h. reticulata croat & m.l. soares, possible others açaí euterpe oleracea mart., e. precatoria mart. non-congeneric cognates or paracognates espinheira-santa group espinheira-santa group: zollernia ilicifolia (brongn.) vogel, monteverdia ilicifolia (mart. ex reissek) biral, sorocea bonplandii (baill.) w.c. burger, lanj. & wess. boer piaçaba group attalea funifera mart., leopoldinia piassaba wallace, aphandra natalia (balslev & a.j. hend.) barfod athaydes. 2025. ethnobiology letters 16(1):96–103 99 perspectives population declines and increase extinction risks. these risks demand immediate attention to more stringent monitoring and improvements in species identification related to timber management. many studies, reports, and technical notes emphasize the need for improved enforcement to better understand and apply the correct scientific names of species. this aims to ensure proper management and protect these species from over-exploitation (procópio et al. 2010). a similar situation of indiscriminate exploitation occurs with the congeneric cognate group of palm species known as palheiras (figure 1), traditionally used for thatching. in acre, species like attalea butyracea (mutis ex l. f.) wess. boer, attalea phalerata mart. ex spreng., and attalea maripa (aubl.) mart. provide leaves for thatch production. these species are often improperly harvested by felling the individuals, which are monopodial and thus unable to regenerate their populations. this practice becomes especially concerning for species like attalea phalerata mart. ex spreng., which is found in acre at the limit of its geographic distribution (soares 2020). direct observations, especially from indigenous environmental monitors, provide evidence of what many indigenous people in acre are referring to as the crisis of the palheiras. they have observed a decline in populations and increasing difficulty in obtaining the desired individuals, as they are having to venture further into the forest to find these species (comissão pró-indígenas do acre 2001). another example of a group of cognate species affected by amazonian wild harvesting involves the titica vine or cipó-titica (heteropsis flexuosa (kunth) g.s. bunting and probably other heteropsis kunth species), which is harvested throughout the amazon for its adventitious roots, used in making brooms and other handcrafted products. however, in different regions, including acre, this species has several other cognates being locally exploited in its place. this happens since the plant’s useful parts, the hanging adventitious roots, cannot be reliably used to identify the source species. the difficulty arises because the mother plant is located high in the tree branches, making it difficult to properly discern and identify the species. this complicates the exclusion of threatened, rare, or small population species from exploitation. as with previous examples, the lack of efficient identification criteria and regulations aimed at sustainable use means that rare or endemic species like heteropsis reticulata croat & m.l. soares could be overharvested beyond their capacity for regeneration, severely depleting populations. empirical reports collected over recent years from local gatherers indicate a reduction in cipó-titica populations. additionally, few studies address the sustainable harvesting of cipó-titica, with most focused figure 1 three palm species belonging to the cognate group known as palheiras provide leaves for thatch production: a attalea butyracea, b attalea phalerata, and c attalea maripa. all images by author. athaydes. 2025. ethnobiology letters 16(1):96–103 100 perspectives on the eastern acre (wallace and ferreira 2016), creating an urgent need for more comprehensive investigations, particularly since species with different demographics and regenerative capacities might be exploited equally. this situation, compounded by the absence of regulations in acre, raises concerns that the current management practices for these species may not be sustainable. freitas (2024) tested the risk of improper management of cipó-titica experimentally extracted roots at different intensities and concluded that harvesting the roots to near total extraction (100%) compromises sustainability. with these levels of extraction, there are no roots regrowing, and the research results also reported the death of the mother plant. consumers who buy cipó-titica brooms may notice price variations but are often unable to detect the possible substitution of the source species or reflect on their own role in participating in the potential ecological impacts on the species. the last, but no less significant, example involves a well-known group of cognate species: the açaí palms (euterpe spp. mart.). the controversies surrounding the expansion of cultivated areas for one such species have been termed the açaí case (freitas et al. 2025), reflecting its paradoxical social effects and conservation implications. the economically important euterpe mart. species in brazil have distinct natural distributions: euterpe edulis mart. in the atlantic forest, euterpe oleracea mart. in the eastern amazon, and euterpe precatoria mart. in the western amazon. while there are regions of sympatry, in most areas where euterpe oleracea mart. does not naturally occur, it has been introduced—either sporadically in community yards or extensively in large monocultural plantations (figure 2). although within its native range, there is ample evidence that large monocultural plantations of euterpe oleracea mart. have negatively affected native biodiversity (barros et al. 2023; freitas et al. 2021; silva et al. 2023). in the atlantic forest, studies have documented risks of hybridization and competition for essential ecological services, such as pollination and seed dispersal, directly impacting the native species euterpe edulis mart. (tiberio et al. 2016). in acre, where açaí juice (vinho) is widely sold by street vendors representing small to medium-scale collectors, fruit juice or pulp derived exclusively from euterpe oleracea mart. is increasingly common. however, these products often lack proper labeling, leaving consumers unaware of the species being used. figure 2 monoculture plantation of euterpe oleracea (arecaceae), a non-native palm species in this region, along br-364 near tarauacá, acre, brazil. image by the author. athaydes. 2025. ethnobiology letters 16(1):96–103 101 perspectives this scenario exemplifies a complex interaction of ecological and socio-economic dynamics, indicating the need for more research to anticipate the long-term impacts of the transition from forest harvesting systems (e. precatoria mart.) to monocultural plantations of e. oleracea mart. (fonseca and lima 2024). the example also aligns with the cognate species concept, where different species with closely related uses or traits are treated interchangeably in trade or local practices. without proper management, these practices can undermine the ecological and conservation risks associated with species substitution. final considerations the concept of cognate plants serves as a tool for understanding groups of species that share functional uses and present taxonomic or morphological similarities. this model is particularly relevant when addressing challenges in traditional practices and resource management. the incorrect identification or unregulated exploitation of species within a group of cognates can mean the risk of overexploitation and the loss of biodiversity. this aligns with the idea of utilitarian redundancy (medeiros et al. 2020), but with a critical distinction: substitutability here is tied to cognate groups rather than any species serving the same function. from a social-ecological theory of maximization perspective (albuquerque et al. 2019), this reflects how people preferentially use cognate species due to three factors: ecological accessibility, use effectiveness, and cultural familiarity. however, this very substitutability, the interchangeable use of various species as raw materials for identical end products, undermines conservation efforts when gatherers drive unsustainable harvesting of equivalent resources. to mitigate this, consumer education on species origins must be strengthened to support ethical sourcing practices, considering the unequal distribution of knowledge and valuing multicultural and critical content. beyond consumer awareness, the erosion of traditional ecological knowledge further compounds risks of unsustainable harvesting. furthermore, commercial market demands can drive shifts toward monocultural production or exotic species cultivation, displacing traditional native cognate management systems. evidence of this is seen in borneo, where the native cognates of introduced mangifera indica l., mangifera casturi kosterm., and m. rubropetala kosterm., are now extinct in the wild, with only sporadic cultivation by local traditional communities persisting (gunawan et al. 2024). this latter case demonstrates that although many examples cited in the text are from brazil and the amazon, the applicability of this concept extends universally, wherever different but morphologically related plant species offer similar products for human needs. a fundamental requirement for addressing a group of cognates is the exact identification of the species, not only to improve knowledge about biodiversity but also to help support good traditional management and to promote a truly sustainable bioeconomy. by using a cognate plant perspective, species conservation and natural resource management efforts can be better aligned with local socioeconomic dynamics. as noted above, reports from indigenous communities and gatherer communities highlight the difficulty in obtaining individuals of important species such as heteropsis spp. kunth and roofing palms. understanding how local perceptions of cognate species work is fundamental to developing management and sustainable use strategies that respect both ecological and cultural dimensions. failure to adequately differentiate species risks accelerating the decline of rare or endemic plants, such as heteropsis reticulata croat & m.l. soares, due to indiscriminate exploitation and the lack of popular perception of the consequences of such exploitation. monocultural plantations, such as those established for euterpe oleracea mart., exemplify the complexity of the paradoxical relationship between economic efficiency and ecological sustainability. although monocultural systems increase production, they often negatively impact local biodiversity while diminishing the ecological knowledge incorporated into traditional practices. conservation, propagation, and management efforts should prioritize the cognate native species of the euterpe mart. group in acre, and management regulations should guarantee the use of these native species in forest restoration actions. therefore, the integration of this concept into research, policy, and community practices provides an important insight into a more realistic approach to biodiversity defense actions, while supporting cultural traditions and sustainable resource management. the use of the cognate plant concept allows collaboration between researchers, communities, policy-makers, and other stakeholders to organize the understanding of athaydes. 2025. ethnobiology letters 16(1):96–103 102 perspectives the similarity of species with shared use in a better way, shedding light on the complexities of conservation and seeking the resilience and sustainability of both natural ecosystems and human societies. declarations permissions: none declared. sources of funding: none declared. conflicts of interest: 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(vogl et al. 2002). in guatemala, herbal introduction home remedies with medicinal plants are often the first healthcare choice in financially disadvantaged, rural, areas that lack healthcare services and cymbopogon winterianus, neurolaena lobata, and ruta chalepensis— recurring herbal remedies in guatemalan maya q’eqchi’ homegardens amanda m. thiel1, marsha b. quinlan1* 1department of anthropology, washington state university, pullman, wa, usa *mquinlan@wsu.edu abstract we report on the top three ethnopharmacological herbs growing among a lowland guatemalan q’eqchi’ community’s homegardens. in a gardening culture characterized by pragmatic species distribution and sharing, these few herbaceous species recur in multiple households’ dooryard gardens. our aim in reporting on the most predominant ethnobotanical herbs gardened in a maya q’eqchi’ village’s dooryards is to valorize the capacities of local pharmacological traditions. thirty-one walking homegarden interviews and participant-observation inform this research with village residents. té de limón (cymbopogon winterianus, for cough, fever), qa’mank/tres punta (neurolaena lobata, for diabetes, fever, headache, gastrointestinal ills, evil eye), and ruda (ruta chalepensis, for children’s vomiting, weepiness, evil eye) are the prevalent non-woody q’eqchi’ homegarden herbs here. regional ethnomedical and extant pharmacology research mutually support the efficacy and continued practicality of these q’eqchi’ plant uses. ethnopharmacological research of maya q’eqchi’ medicinals documents local knowledge for conservation and calls for their cultural and biomedical respect as prominent, accessible, therapeutic species. resumen reportamos sobre las tres principales hierbas etnofarmacológicas cultivadas en los huertos familiares de una comunidad q'eqchi' guatemalteca de tierras bajas. en una cultura de jardinería caracterizada por la distribución pragmática de especies y el intercambio, algunas especies herbáceas se repiten en los huertos familiares de múltiples hogares. nuestro objetivo al reportar sobre las hierbas etnobotánicas más predominantes cultivadas en los patios de una aldea maya q'eqchi' es el de valorizar las capacidades de las tradiciones farmacológicas. treinta y una entrevistas en base a “caminatas botánicas” y la observación participante informan esta investigación con los residentes de la aldea. cymbopogon winterianus (para la tos, fiebre), neurolaena lobata (para la diabetes, fiebre, dolor de cabeza, enfermedades gastrointestinales, mal de ojo) y ruta chalepensis (para el vómito, el llanto y el mal de ojo en niños) son las hierbas medicinales predominantes. las investigaciones regionales etnomédicas y farmacológicas actuales apoyan mutuamente la eficacia y la factibilidad de estas plantas y sus usos entre los q’eqchi’. la investigación etnofarmacológica de las medicinas maya q'eqchi' documenta el conocimiento local como base para la conservación e invita al respeto cultural y biomédico de estas como especies terapéuticas destacadas y accesibles. received december 12, 2021 open access accepted september 1, 2022 doi 10.14237/ebl.13.1.2022.1805 published october 17, 2022 keywords ethnobotany, ethnopharmacology, ethnomedicine, medicinal plants, cultural consensus copyright © 2021 by the author(s); licensee society of ethnobiology. this is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution-noncommercial 4.0 international public license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0), which permits non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. thiel and quinlan. 2022. ethnobiology letters 13(1):41–48 42 research communications remedies are common home healthcare (adams and hawkins 2007, cosminsky 2016), and many of these plants show pharmacological efficacy (caceres 1996, michel et al. 2007). here, we report the three most common herbaceous homegarden medicinals (cymbopogon winterianus, neurolaena lobata, and ruta chalepensis) in a maya q’eqchi’ village and discuss them in regional ethnomedical and pharmacological context. indigenous and local knowledge (ilk) uniquely supports local biocultural adaptation and vitality, and yet suppression, misrepresentation, appropriation, assimilation, disconnection, and destruction all threaten ilk through continuing historical legacies of colonization, globalization, and urbanization (fernández-llamazares et al. 2021). our guatemalan q’eqchi’ research participants’ lifeways and knowledge have suffered every one of these threats; in interviews, many reported having fled their homes in other parts of the country in 1980 amidst the guatemalan civil war, seeking a safe place to live self-sufficiently and in community (see also maass 2008:127). in the wake of the consequences of relocation, racism, genocide, and violence, villagers report erosion of environmental ilk. yet many villagers retain some ethnopharmacological knowledge and practice, as evidenced here. additionally, it is likely that by moving to a lowland region from the highlands, founding villagers and their descendants adapted previous ilk—adjusting former practices and learning new ones—in their new socioecological context. we document the indigenous ethnopharmacological knowledge herein as one step towards valorizing guatemalan q’eqchi’ ilk and its continuing transmission into the future. methods study location this research assesses medical ethnobotany in a lowland guatemalan village in alta verapaz. abundant rain falls (2000–3000mm annually) and the average temperature is 26°c. evergreen rainforest grows from limestone soil (maass 2008:117,152) containing native palms, orchids, and bromeliads (standley and steyermark 1945). the village, founded in 1980, is home to ~700 people. the village area is mostly flat with palmthatched, wooden plank homes in a rectangular grid— a typical layout in post-war guatemala (wilson 1995). almost all villagers identify as maya q’eqchi’. a few residents have other maya ethnicities (kaqchikel, pokomchi, mam), and fewer identify as ladino (mestizo). q’eqchi’ is the predominant language, even among the few non-q’eqchi’, though spanish is also widely spoken. homegardens are the (30m by 60m) parcels of land where people live. villagers own or rent additional plots for maize horticultural production. for extensive ethnographic description and local definitions and perceptions of homegardens, see thiel and quinlan (2022). data collection research occurred between june and august 2016, and in july 2018. we conducted participant observation (musante and dewalt 2010) throughout this time, inquiring about ethnobotanical and ethnomedical activities from key informants and interested villagers. thirty-two adult residents (nine men, 23 women), between the ages of 19 and 70, residing in 26 households, participated in interviews. availability skewed the sample’s sex ratio; men spend daylight hours working outside the home, while women remain near home. we selected participants via stratified convenience sampling according to distance on either side of the main road for a representative spatial distribution of gardens. our semi-structured interviews were two-part: a life-history questionnaire and walking homegarden tours (martin 2010). in the homegarden tours, we asked questions to elicit individuals’ knowledge of plants’ names and uses, and probing for details regarding medicinal applications, plant parts, amounts, and preparations. most interviews were in spanish; two were in q’eqchi’ using with the assistance of a local translator. voucher specimens the guatemalan national council for protected areas (conap) granted permission for botanical voucher collection. we collected vouchers with key informants during our 2018 field visit and deposited vouchers in the university of san carlos herbarium, guatemala city. analyses we omit one interview for reliability, as one interviewee was not answering independently. we include 31 interviews (8 men, 23 women) in our analysis. we analyzed interview responses to assess participants’ frequency of mention of cultivation of homegarden medicinal species and the overall thiel and quinlan. 2022. ethnobiology letters 13(1):41–48 43 research communications agreement on plant uses and preparation methods. we compared local plant uses with the uses reported in regional ethnomedical and global pharmacological literature. results this q’eqchi’ community’s most frequently grown herbaceous medicinal plants are cymbopogon winterianus, neurolaena lobata, and ruta chalepensis (table 1; see thiel and quinlan [2020] for common homegarden medicinal trees). inter-household variation in homegarden medicinal content and plant-sharing is the norm in this village (thiel and quinlan 2022). yet, these three species recur in 12–19% (3–5/26) of sampled homegardens. here, we present their frequency of cultivation and medicinal uses, and review related regional ethnomedical and global pharmacological literature. cymbopogon winterianus three informants (11.5%) identify cymbopogon winterianus in their homegardens. all report the tea for treating coughs, and one recommends it for fever. while only these three informants grow c. winterianus, 24% of households reported using it, calling it by its spanish name té de limón, for coughs and fever in combination with other plants they grow (see thiel and quinlan 2022). a pan-tropical medicinal genera, cymbopogon’s various species, including c. winterianus and c. citratus, show antibacterial, antifungal, antiamoebic, antidiarrheal, antifilarial, and anti-inflammatory properties interchangeably due to similar chemical compositions (dutta et al. 2016). guatemalans drink c. citratus infusions for digestive ailments, respiratory illnesses, fever, malaria, menstrual problems, high blood pressure, nervousness, and susto (fright) (caceres 1996; orellana ayala 1997). for rheumatism and soreness, they use a poultice (orellana ayala 1997), and drink or wash with an infusion (caceres 1996). mexicans drink the infusion for gastrointestinal problems (sharma et al. 2017), as do belizeans, who also drink it for respiratory congestion, and children’s fever; adding the root for adults’ fevers (balick and arvigo 2015). cymbopogon winterianus essential oil is antifungal against candida albicans (oliveira et al. 2011) and highly antimicrobial against staphylococcus aureus, staphylococcus epidermidis, salmonella typhimurium, bacillus subtilis, escherichia coli, klebsiella pneumoniae, and pseudomonas aeruginosa (munda and lal 2020). c. winterianus has anticonvulsant, anti-inflammatory, and pain killing (antinociceptive) properties, and induces vaso-relaxation and hypotension (i.e., lowers hypertension) (munda and lal 2020). additionally, most cymbopogon species have insecticidal, anti-cancer, and anti-hiv properties (avoseh et al. 2015). among abundant pharmacological cymbopogon species research, we found none targeted toward pulmonary or respiratory actions indicated in q’eqchi’ and other global ethnomedicines. neurolaena lobata three village subjects (11.5%) grow qa’mank, or neurolaena lobata (tres punta, boneset/jackass bitters), and consider it a weed (they do not plant it purposefully). villagers decoct the bitter, threepronged leaf to treat stomachache, gastritis, and diabetes. one informant also uses it for evil eye, fever, and headache. the tea requires gathering a handful of leaves, boiling them in ≈1l water, and drinking this three times daily. alta verapaz q’eqchi’ use n. lobata leaves for malaria (paludismo), gastrointestinal problems, and diabetes (maass 2008:165). the q’eqchi’ of izabal use n. lobata leaf for dysmenorrhea and vaginal infections (michel et al. 2007). other guatemalans drink n. lobata leaf tea for gonorrhea (caceres 1996), malaria, fever, diarrhea, stomachache, and diabetes (caceres 1996; orellana ayala 1997). externally, they apply the leaf juice to repel ticks, a leaf infusion to clean wounds, lesions, and ulcers, and a leaf poultice for bites (caceres 1996), including snake bites, the most dangerous kind being from the venomous terciopelo viper (bothrops asper, fer-de-lance) (hay 2002), for which guatemalans also drink n. lobata leaf infusions and decoctions (saravia-otten et al. 2022). belizeans use n. lobata leaf tea or poultice for fever, pain, muscle soreness, swelling, skin ailments, digestive issues, diabetes, colds, influenza, malaria, and women’s reproductive system issues (balick and arvigo 2015). west indian islanders use n. lobata leaves and stems to make fish poison and insecticides (lewis and elvin-lewis 1977). pharmacology finds n. lobata efficacy against inflammation, microbial, and protozoal activity (berger et al. 2001, caceres et al. 1998, walsheroussel et al. 2013). it is antiglycemic (blood-sugar levelling) in mice (gupta et al. 1984). an ethanol extract of n. lobata worked against the epimastogote (intestine-occupying form) and trypomastigote (blood -occupying, infective) stages of the chagas thiel and quinlan. 2022. ethnobiology letters 13(1):41–48 44 research communications latin name and family cymbopogon winterianus, poaceae neurolaena lobata, asteraceae ruta chalepensis, rutaceae spanish name té de limón tres punta ruda q’eqchi’ name (none reported) qa’mank ruda english common gloss lemon-grass bonset, jackass bitters rue cultivation status introduced, cultivated native, weedy/not cultivated introduced, cultivated plant part used medicinally aerial parts leaves aerial parts illnesses treated locally cough, fever evil eye, fever, headache, stomachache, diabetes, gastritis evil eye, vomiting, weepiness, for children’s complaints households that reported as medicinal 3 (11.5%) 3 (11.5%) 5 (19%) homegardens where present (out of 26) 3 (11.5%) 4 (15.4%) 5 (19%) voucher id at044/80934 at109/81406 at105/81606 table 1 the three most frequently mentioned herbaceous medicinal homegarden plants and their uses. thiel and quinlan. 2022. ethnobiology letters 13(1):41–48 45 research communications trypanosoma cruzi protozoa, in vivo and in vitro (berger et al. 2001, caceres et al. 1998), and against the leishmania spp. and trichomonas vaginalis parasites, in vitro (berger et al. 2001). ruta chalepensis five informants (19%) showed ruda, ruta chalepensis (ruda, rue) in their homegardens and agreed completely on medicinal uses and preparation. all indicated its usefulness against children’s and babies’ evil eye, specifying an infusion with the plant’s aerial parts as a bath or external wash. they also drink r. chalepensis for vomiting and excessive weepiness, both symptoms of evil eye, itself. guatemalans use r. chalepensis leaf for menstrual problems (caceres 1996; michel et al. 2007; orellana ayala 1997), respiratory, digestive, and nervous system problems (caceres 1996; orellana ayala 1997), hemorrhaging (caceres 1996), and to treat hemorrhoids, varicose veins, rheumatism, animal bites, wounds, worms, colic, pain, and aire (air) (orellana ayala 1997). eastern ladinos and ch’orti’ maya use r. chalepensis for fever, pain, respiratory issues, and illnesses with a “psychological or spiritual component” (kufer et al. 2015:1130). belizians use r. chalepensis for indications paralleling evil eye: heat exhaustion, headache, fainting spells, infections, swelling, stomach pain, convulsions, nightmares, and to ward off evil (balick and arvigo 2015). yucatec maya (mexico), grow r. chalepensis in most gardens and consider it a cure-all, making a tea for stomachache and diarrhea (whether from evil eye or other causes), and use it around the house to prevent “evil winds” [i.e., aire] (anderson 2003:206). pharmacologically, ruta chalepensis extract depresses the central nervous system (gonzaleztrujano et al. 2006), and shows anti-inflammatory, antipyretic (fever-reducing), and analgesic properties in mice (al-said et al. 1990). the extract is active against t. cruzi, the chagas disease parasite (molinagarza et al. 2014). essential oils from the leaves inhibit yeasts and fungi (candida albicans and trichophyton rubrum), but not staphylococcus aureus and escherichia coli bacteria (khoury et al. 2014). but phenolic compounds in r. chalepensis inhibit pseudomonas aeruginosa, s. aureus and e. coli bacteria, and have strong antioxidant properties (ouerghemmi et al. 2017). discussion the most frequently mentioned herbaceous medicinal plants grown in homegardens in this alta verapaz q’eqchi’ village are c. winterianus, n. lobata, and r. chalepensis. the frequency with which informants cultivate and report them as medicinal indicates cultural agreement about their value and specific indications. because consensus appears to develop over time (stepp 2016), informant’s agreement on the uses of these three herbs likely indicates long-standing q’eqchi’ and regional traditions of medicinal plant use (traditional ethnobotanical [or ecological] knowledge [tek]). for example, the complete agreement on the uses and preparation methods of ruta chalepensis as an external wash for symptoms of evil eye mirrors its regional uses (anderson 2003, balick and arvigo 2015, kufer et al. 2015, orellana ayala 1997). villagers often report cultivates growing in their homegardens and common wild plants or weeds growing close to home, as cross-culturally people often use the latter medicinally (stepp and moerman 2001). in this study, villagers report growing n. lobata because it volunteered in their gardens, not because they planted it purposefully. it appears that, once established in their gardens, villagers cultivate n. lobata for its medicinal uses, as they do not report any other uses for the plant. “weedy” plants growing in disturbed areas—like n. lobata in q’eqchi’ homegardens—frequently provide maya household remedies (stepp 2018), as tends to occur crossculturally (stepp and moerman 2001). of the three remedies, n. lobata is the only native plant to this area, whereas c. winterianus and r. chalepensis are introduced. relatedly, n. lobata is the only plant of the three with a unique q’eqchi’ name. villagers report the spanish name of r. chalepensis, ruda, as the q’eqchi’ name. they use the borrowed term té de limón and do not report a q’eqchi’ name for c. winterianus. the status of these plants as native or introduced and their corresponding spanish or q’eqchi’ local names indicate and affirm the dynamism of ilk in this village. villagers incorporate new plants and knowledge of their uses into ilk, likely because of their increasing integration into local market economies and globally interconnected agriculture (maass 2008, wilson 1995). we found a similar pattern among native and introduced medicinal trees in this village (thiel and quinlan 2020). that r. chalepensis has a q’eqchi’ name may indicate that villagers have incorporated its use into local ethnomedicine longer or more completely than c. winterianus, which lacks a name of q’eqchi’ origin. thiel and quinlan. 2022. ethnobiology letters 13(1):41–48 46 research communications this would support the assertion that ethnobotanical consensus (including nomenclature) develops over time (stepp 2016). home remedies remain the first treatment choice in health care practice in guatemala (pers. obs.; weller et al. 1997) and local medicinal plants are one of the most common home remedies (adams and hawkins 2007, cosminsky 2016). of the three plants discussed herein, comparable regional ethnomedical uses and extant pharmacological research indicate the herbs’ efficacy for similar ailments. traditional medicinal plant uses warrant further pharmacological inquiry of these therapeutic resources, particularly respiratory uses of c. winterianus, salient here and cross -culturally, yet lacking pharmacological investigation (which we suggest happen in collaboration with local people to ensure equitable benefit sharing). how rural, indigenous guatemalans care for their health with accessible local resources (e.g., homegarden medicinals) that they value as pharmacologically active may influence public health in guatemala and elsewhere (caceres 1996; michel et al. 2007). understanding the context of guatemalan maya cultivation and medicinal plant uses is necessary for cultural revitalization and successful integration of diverse regional health care models as western biomedicine expands (adams and hawkins 2007; caceres 1996) and local fears of ethnobotanical knowledge erosion increase (cosminsky 2016). the threats to indigenous and local knowledge (ilk) require active dismantling so this resilient biocultural knowledge may contribute to local and global flourishing (fernández-llamazares et al. 2021). we hope that our documentation of these three recurring remedies helps valorize and preserve this practical knowledge for local and global benefit. acknowledgments bantiox (thank you) to our guatemalan collaborators for generously sharing their knowledge; especially the tox family and don ricardo yaat. thanks to lic. julio morales for facilitating connections in the field and dr. armando medinaceli for field support and collaboration. declarations permissions: washington state university’s institutional review board approved this research. we followed the international society of ethnobiology (2006) and the latin american society of ethnobiology (cano contreras et al. 2016) codes of ethics. we followed local customs (see medinaceli 2018 for our detailed protocol) for conducting research and returning results to the community. we obtained free, prior, and informed consent for each interview and complied with guatemalan biodiversity conventions per our agreement with the guatemalan national council for protected areas. sources of funding: grants from the society of economic botany, the society of ethnobiology, and the garden club of america/missouri botanical garden (to 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treatment‐seeking behavior in guatemala. medical anthropology quarterly 11:224– 245. doi: 10.1525/maq.1997.11.2.224. wilson, r. 1995. maya resurgence in guatemala. norman, ok, university of oklahoma. phaseolus vulgaris seeds from the late sixteenth–early seventeenth century ad ancestral oneida diable site, new york hart. 2022. ethnobiology letters 13(1):49–57 49 research communications often referred to as the “three sisters” (e.g., mt. pleasant 2016; waugh 1916). maize was the primary source of calories in northern iroquoian diets in the fourteenth through mid-seventeenth centuries ad (feranec and hart 2019; pfeiffer et al. 2016). the subsistence portion of the macrobotanical record from village sites in this time span is often dominated by the charred remains of maize, including kernels and cob fragments. this is consistent with the ethnohistorical (e.g., biggar 1929:125; thwaites 1896–1901: 15:153, 21:195; wrong 1939:106), ethnographic (e.g., parker 1910; waugh 1916), and contemporary (e.g., de souza et al. 2021; ngapo et al. 2021) literatures, which attest to the crop’s central place in northern iroquoian subsistence. however, these same literatures identify common bean as an important component of northern iroquoian diets. one estimate based on the early seventeenth-century ad ethnohistorical record suggests common bean averaged 13% of daily huronwendat caloric intake in southern ontario; maize, on the other hand, was estimated to account for 65% (heidenreich 1971:163). the consumption of introduction how well does the macrobotanical record reflect the plant-based components of past diets? does the proportion of a taxon in an assemblage reflect its dietary importance? how did harvesting, storage, cooking, consumption practices, and postdepositional taphonomy bias the macrobotanical record of that taxon? the importance of these questions is particularly evident for resources whose dietary importance in a region is known or suspected from alternate sources of evidence but are missing from or are scarce in the macrobotanical record. one such resource is the common bean (phaseolus vulgaris) seed in fourteenth through mid-seventeenth century ad northern iroquoia, comprising portions of present-day new york, usa and southern ontario and southern québec, canada. this is a region inhabited by iroquoian-language family speakers prior to and after european incursions in the sixteenthand seventeenth-centuries ad and where descendant communities live today (birch 2015). common bean was part of maize (zea mays ssp. mays), bean, and squash (cucurbita pepo) polyculture agronomic systems phaseolus vulgaris seeds from the late sixteenth–early seventeenth century ad ancestral oneida diable site, new york john p. hart1* 1new york state museum, albany, ny *john.hart@nysed.gov abstract the ethnohistorical, ethnographic, and contemporary literatures all suggest that common bean (phaseolus vulgaris) was an important component of northern iroquoian agronomic systems and diets. seemingly at odds with this is the sparse occurrence of whole and partial common bean seeds on fourteenth through seventeenth century ad village sites. the recovery of a large quantity of whole and partial bean seeds from the ancestral oneida diable site, dated here to between ad 1583 and 1626 with a bayesian model using seven new ams radiocarbon dates, provides clues as to when large quantities of rehydrated/cooked common bean seeds may occur in the archaeological record. received july 7, 2022 open access accepted september 24, 2022 doi 10.14237/ebl.13.1.2022.1834 published october 24, 2022 keywords paleoethnobotany, taphonomy, phaseolus vulgaris copyright © 2021 by the author(s); licensee society of ethnobiology. this is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution-noncommercial 4.0 international public license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0), which permits non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. hart. 2022. ethnobiology letters 13(1):49–57 50 research communications common bean seeds added important nutrients to the maize-based diets of northern iroquoian people (mt. pleasant 2016). despite the evident importance of common bean in northern iroquoian diets, macrobotanical remains are generally sparse in the archaeological record. while maize macrobotanical remains are ubiquitous in village sites, whole and partial common bean seeds generally occur in small quantities from a few features, if at all. for example, at the large, completely excavated early seventeenth-century ad jean-baptiste lainé (mantle) site in southern ontario, 23 common bean cotyledons were recovered through the flotation of 710.6 liters of feature fill as compared to 5,759 maize kernels; maize kernels and/or cob fragments were recovered from 176 features, while bean cotyledons were recovered from only four (archaeological services inc 2012:834840). regional paleoethnobotanical studies of multiple northern iroquoian village site collections indicate that common bean whole and partial seeds at any given site seldom account for more than a few dozen specimens at most, with >100 specimens being rare occurrences (fecteau 1985; monckton 1992; ounjian 1998). this trend is true of the broader temperate eastern north america (e.g., smith 1992:293; wagner 1987), leading some to suggest that common bean seeds do not preserve well in the archaeological record. this is thought to be primarily because of the manners in which it was prepared for consumption, including pounding, boiling without prior parching, and mashing (e.g., fritz 1990:398, 2011:508; smith 1992:293). here i report on the recovery of several thousand common bean cotyledons and fragments and several hundred whole seeds from a pit feature at the late sixteenth to early seventeenth-century ad ancestral oneida diable site, which was the subject of limited avocational excavations in the 1980s (bennett et al. 2007; gibson 1991; weiskotten 2007). a comparison of cotyledons from this site with the morphology of cotyledons from the recent charring experiments (hart 2021; whyte 2019) allow an interpretation of taphonomy for the diable site beans. these results provide additional clues for common bean seed preservation in the archaeological record. the diable site bean contexts the diable site is an ancestral oneida iroquoian palisaded village located along oneida creek in madison county, new york (figure 1). the site is situated on a peninsula-like ridge with sharp drop-offs to oneida creek on three sides (pratt 1976:118). the palisade enclosed approximately 1.45 ha, of which 1.1 ha has a gradient low enough for habitation; excavations in the 1980s exposed 1,909.33 square meters, within and immediately outside of the stockade (weiskotten 1989). these excavations exposed lines of post molds representing portions of longhouses, one complete longhouse, and portions of the palisade. also exposed and excavated were hearths and deep pits (bennett et al. 2007; gibson 1991; weiskotten 2007). in addition to small numbers of common bean seeds and cotyledons recovered from various features, large numbers, consisting of charred whole seeds and complete and partial cotyledons, were recovered from two pit features. the first of these was irregularly shaped, measuring 131 cm long, ~80 cm wide, and 69 cm deep, and was apparently bark lined (gibson 1991). referring to it as “the bean pit”, gibson (1991:1) reported that it contained several bushels of bean seeds, as well as a few maize cobs and kernels and squash seeds. there is no indication what method was used to recover the pit’s macrobotanical contents or how much of the deposit was recovered. a small sample of 22 whole common bean seeds and 150 cotyledons presumably from this pit is in the new york state museum’s (nysm) collections (catalog number a-a2009.35g.99.77). there are no records tying the sample to the pit, but this is the only feature gibson (1991) mentions with a substantial amount of common bean seeds. a second, previously unreported, pit feature yielded a substantial number of charred whole bean seeds and cotyledons and cotyledon fragments. this feature was located immediately adjacent to a longhouse exterior wall. it measured 180 cm by 120 cm in plan and 100 cm deep below the base of the plow zone. no documentation is available on the pit’s excavation other than plan map and profile drawings, one of which indicates a stratum with “corn.” this is presumably where the assemblage originated given that it was contained in a bag labeled “carbonized corn.” here too, there is no indication as to the recovery method. the collection from this pit (nysm catalog number a-a2008.02a.11.22) includes 362 whole bean seeds, 4,283 complete cotyledons, and 3,975 cotyledon fragments, as well as 1,014 maize kernels and 148 kernel fragments, 21 pieces of maize cob consisting of single or multiple cupules, and a hart. 2022. ethnobiology letters 13(1):49–57 51 research communications large amount of wood charcoal. based on the amount of material and its wide range in size, it is apparently representative of the stratum’s macrobotanical assemblage, if not the entire assemblage. as a result, my focus in the present analysis was on this assemblage. for simplicity’s sake, this feature is referred to as pit 2. methods and materials radiocarbon dates and irms measurements four maize kernels and three bean cotyledons were sampled for accelerator mass spectrometry (ams) radiocarbon dating. samples were submitted for ams dating and isotope ratio mass spectrometry (irms) measurement to the keck-carbon cycle ams facility at the university of california-irvine (uciams). protocols for ams sample preparation and dating are available on the website (keck-carbon cycle ams 2022). 13c and 15n measurements were made to a precision of <0.1‰ and <0.2‰, respectively using a fisons na1500nc elemental analyzer/finnigan delta plus irms. remaining portions of the sampled specimens were returned the nysm’s collections. bayesian modeling of the ams dates was done in oxcal v 4.4.4 (bronk ramsey 2009) using the intcal20 northern hemisphere terrestrial calibration curve (reimer et al. 2020). macrobotanical assemblage the common bean seeds from pit 2 were contained in a large plastic bag intermixed with the rest of the macrobotanical assemblage. because of the large figure 1 location of the diable site. hart. 2022. ethnobiology letters 13(1):49–57 52 research communications number of whole bean seeds, cotyledons, and fragments and maize kernels, it was possible to sort most of them out simply by placing a small amount of the assemblage in a tray and picking bean and maize remains out with forceps. after initial sorting the remaining assemblage was passed through 4-mm and 2-mm nested screens. the sorting process was repeated for those portions remaining in each of these screens. the material falling through the 2-mm screen was not examined. length and width measurements were made of whole bean seeds and complete cotyledons with an electronic digital caliper. length was measured at the longest extent between the anterior and posterior ends. width was measured perpendicular to length at the hilum location. the length:width ratio was then calculated for each specimen. photographs were taken of select specimens of bean seeds and cotyledons and maize kernels for illustrative purposes with a nikon d3300 camera equipped with a 40mm nikon lens. results site chronology the diable site is generally considered to date to the late sixteenth century ad because of the recovery of a large amount of european metal trade goods and a few glass beads (engelbrecht 2003; pratt 1976). to refine the age estimate of the diable site, accelerator mass spectrometry (ams) dates were obtained on four maize kernels and three common bean seed cotyledons from six features (table 1). the dates fall on a large reversal in the intcal20 calibration curve resulting in multimodal probability distributions falling in the fifteenth and late sixteenth to early seventeenth centuries ad. this is a frequently encountered problem when radiocarbon dating iroquoian sites (manning and birch 2022; manning et al. 2020). birch and colleagues’ (2021:23) bayesian modeling of radiocarbon dates from northern iroquoian sites indicates that sites with large amounts of european metal artifacts date toward the end of the sixteenth century ad and thereafter (birch et al. 2021:23). between ad 1550 and 1575 european metals increasingly occur on village sites throughout the region (sanft 2022). it is clear based on the large number of european metal objects found on the site, including iron axe heads (bennett et al. 2007; gibson 1991) that diable must date after the mid portion of the sixteenth century ad. therefore, to resolve the age of the site, ad 1550 was used as a terminus post quem (tpq) in an oxcal bayesian uniform phase model given what is known about european metal circulation and use by iroquoian peoples. this resulted in a start boundary of ad 1574–1616 (95.4% highest posterior density [hpd]), a date estimate of ad 1583–1626 (95.4% hpd), and an end boundary of ad 1595–1634 (95.4% hpd). these results suggest that the site’s occupation straddled the end of the sixteenth and beginning of the seventeenth centuries ad, coincident with ethnohistorical accounts of northern iroquoian three sisters agriculture suggesting the dietary importance of common bean seeds. bean seed morphology bean seeds from pit 2 are renal shaped with narrow anterior and wide posterior halves and generally round ends. initial inspection of the specimens suggested the possibility of two distinct forms— one with a relatively wide and one with a relatively narrow anterior half (figure 2a, c). however, closer examination of the cotyledons indicated that the latter represents warping with most of the cotyledon interior burned away and the lateral edges curled upward and sometimes inward (figure 2b, d). cotyledons with this shell-like morphology represent 73.7% of the complete cotyledons from pit 2. based on a series of bean seed charring experiments, this morphology indicates rehydrated/cooked seeds exposed to temperatures ≥ 260°c (hart 2021). consistent with this is the lack of fissures on the dorsal side of the cotyledons and sometimes rippled interior surfaces. that not all the complete cotyledons exhibit this shell-like form indicates that the seeds were subjected to varied temperatures. blistering on some cotyledons (figure 2 e, f) suggests direct contact with flames (whyte 2019). the possibility that bean seeds were exposed to varied temperatures is supported by an examination of maize kernels. charring experiments indicate that at temperatures above 250–260 °c maize kernels extrude their endosperms and burn into amorphous masses (hart and feranec 2021; king 1987). maize kernels from pit 2 include whole kernels with intact pericarps; whole, swollen kernels with intact pericarps; whole and partial kernels with the pericarp and partially extruded endosperm; and crescent-shaped kernels with portions of the pericarp extant and missing points of attachment and embryos (figure 2). the presence of pericarps indicates that the kernels had not been processed into hominy, which king (1987) suggested was the most likely form of maize hart. 2022. ethnobiology letters 13(1):49–57 53 research communications kernel to survive charring. a small number of whole kernels with intact pericarps exhibited brown streaks indicating desiccation. in charring experiments this occurred in kernels heated at 180°c, further suggesting the pit 2 kernels were subjected to varied temperatures (hart and feranec 2020; feranec and hart 2019). length and width measurements were made on all whole bean seeds, all cotyledons not exhibiting the warping of the shell-like cotyledons, and 10% (n=316) of the warped cotyledons. all measurements are available in hart (2022). as is evident in table 2, the warped cotyledons tend to be narrower than the other cotyledons as reflected in the length:width ratios. the whole seeds and unwarped cotyledons have similar measurements. discussion and conclusions that common bean seeds were important components of northern iroquoian agronomic systems is attested by the ethnohistorical record. however, common bean seeds are generally sparse in fourteenth–seventeenth century ad macrobotanical assemblages. maize kernels and cob fragments, on the other hand, are generally ubiquitous occurring in high percentages of pit feature, hearth, and midden samples. maize can also occur in massive deposits, while common bean is typically not found in such deposits. this disparity has been attributed to the manners in which the two crops were prepared, with maize having more opportunities to enter and preserve in the archaeological record. the diable site is unusual in having at least two pit features with large amounts of charred bean seeds and fragments. an examination of the macrobotanical remains from one of these features provides clues as to how the assemblage formed. the morphology of 73.7% of the complete cotyledons is consistent with rehydrated beans experimentally charred at temperatures ≥ 260°c, with some directly exposed to flames. that not all the cotyledons have these morphologies suggests that the bean seeds were exposed to different temperatures. this is also the case for maize kernels, some of which indicate exposures ≤ 180°c while others indicate exposures uciams no. nysm catalog no. material dated 13c (‰) 15n (‰) 14c age (bp) 68.3% cal range (ad) 94.5% cal range (ad) 236881 a-2008.20.11.22 maize kernel -8.3 4.2 38015 1458–1495 (57.7) 1602–1611(10.5) 1453-1514 (71.9) 1590-1620 (23.5) 236882 a-2007.20b.99.3 maize kernel -8.9 4.5 38020 1458–1495 (57.7) 1602–1611(10.5) 1453-1514 (71.9) 1590-1620 (23.5) 236883 a-2007.20b.8.1 maize kernel -8.7 5.8 37020 1467–1508 (43.4) 1594–1618 (24.9) 1455–1524 (57.9) 1572–1630 (37.6) 236884 a-2008.02a.99.06 maize kernel -9.8 2.2 34015 1499–1524 (24.5) 1571–1600 (28.6) 1614–1631 (15.1) 1481–1529 (32.5) 1544–1635 (62.9) 257109 a-2009.35g.99.77 bean cotyledon * 0.9 34015 1499–1524 (24.5) 1571–1600 (28.6) 1614–1631 (15.1) 1481–1529 (32.5) 1544–1635 (62.9) 257110 a-2009.35g.99.62 bean cotyledon -25.8 2.2 35515 1483–1516 (35.2) 1590–1620 (33.0) 1472–1525 (44.7) 1558–1632 (50.8) 257111 a2007.20b.99.3 bean cotyledon * 1.7 34015 1499–1524 (24.5) 1571–1600 (28.6) 1614–1631 (15.1) 1481–1529 (32.5) 1544–1635 (62.9) *sample too small for irms 13c measurement. table 1 ams dates on maize kernels and common bean seeds. all dated macrobotanical remains are from feature contexts. 54 research communications ≥ 250–260 °c. these results suggest that the assemblage formed as the result of a catastrophic cooking event, such as a pot breaking with the contents spilling into a hearth. that the fire must have been quickly extinguished is suggested not only by the varied morphologies of the bean seeds and maize kernels, but also by the fact that endosperms of some kernels were only partially extruded indicating that the extrusion process was halted before the kernels burned into amorphous masses. this is consistent with whyte’s (2019:236) experimental results, which resulted in large percentages of bean seeds surviving direct exposure to flames if the flames were quickly extinguished through dousing or smothering. hart. 2022. ethnobiology letters 13(1):49–57 this result indicates that rehydrated/cooked common bean seeds can preserve in large quantities in unusual circumstances. given that common bean seeds and fragments generally occur in small numbers on northern iroquoian sites, the occurrence at the diable site represents a rare condition in which a large mass of rehydrated bean seeds survived exposure to fire and was subsequently removed and disposed of in a context favorable for preservation. that this chain of events happened, and the result was uncovered during an archaeological excavation, is obviously a rare occurrence. however, the result of this chain of events suggests that common bean was a significant resource for at least one meal at this site and is consistent with the contemporaneous ethnohistorical figure 2 examples of common bean cotyledons and maize kernels from pit 2: (a, b) exterior and interior of an unwarped common bean cotyledon, (c, d) exterior and interior surfaces of a warped common bean cotyledon, (e, f) exterior and interior of common bean cotyledon exhibiting blistering, (g) complete maize kernel, (h) complete maize kernel with partially extruded endosperm, (i) swollen maize kernel with partially extruded endosperm and missing point of attachment and embryo, (j) crescent-shaped maize kernel with partially detached embryo, (k) crescent-shaped maize kernels missing point of attachment and embryo. note the presence of a complete or partial pericarp on each kernel. hart. 2022. ethnobiology letters 13(1):49–57 55 research communications record indicating common bean was an important constituent of northern iroquoian diets. acknowledgments i thank susan winchell-sweeney for drafting figure 1. declarations permissions: permission was received from the new york state museum for radiocarbon date destructive analysis. sources of funding: the new york state museum funded the radiocarbon dates. conflicts of interest: none declared. references cited archaeological services inc. 2012. the archaeology of the mantle site (algt-334): a report on the stage 3-4 salvage excavation of the mantle site (algt-34) part of lot 33, concession 9, town of whitchurch-stouffville, regional municipality of york, ontario. ontario ministry of culture, tourism and sport, toronto. available at: https:// asiheritage.ca/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/ mantle-final-report.pdf. accessed on 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ethnobiology letters 13(1):49–57 57 research communications thwaites, r. g. (editor). 1898. the jesuit relations and allied documents; travels and explorations of the jesuit missionaries in new france, 1610-1791, 71 volumes; the original french, latin, and italian texts, with english translations and notes. burrows bros. co., cleveland, oh. wagner, g. 1987. uses of plants by fort ancient indians. doctoral dissertation, department of anthropology, washington university, st. louis, mo. available from proquest dissertations and theses database (umi no. 8809599). waugh, f. w. 1916. iroquis [sic] foods and food preparation. gov’t. printing bureau, ottawa. weiskotten, d. h. 1989. areas of recorded excavations as of 5/10/1989, diable site, msv-22. unpublished manuscript on file at the new york state museum, albany, accession number a2008.02a. weiskotten, d. h. 2007. summary of excavations done on the diable site, msv-2-2 (nysm #665), stockbridge, new york: principally those on the southwest point, september-november 1985. the bulletin of the chenango chapter of the new york state archaeological association 30(1):75–103. whyte, t. r. 2019. an experimental study of bean and maize burning to interpret evidence from stillhouse hollow cave in western north carolina. s o u t h e a s t e r n a r c h a e o l o g y 3 8 : 2 3 0 – 2 3 9 . doi:10.1080/0734578x.2019.1616275 wrong, g. m., ed. 1939. sagard’s long journey to the country of the hurons. the champlain society, toronto, on, canada. moveable gardens: itineraries and sanctuaries of memory. 2021. edited by virginia d. nazarea and terese v. gagnon. university of arizona press ahmanson. 2025. ethnobiology letters 16(1):12–13 12 reviews is the reemergence of mead-based assemblages despite their presence waxing and waning in china, northern europe, africa, and mesoamerica over millennia. while these concepts provide frameworks for understanding how our relationships to plants can be preserved through space and time, what struck me more strongly throughout the book was the application of ontological theory in every chapter. “the ontological turn,” as described in the introduction, “challenges notions of directionality and questions the separation and dominance of humans vis-à-vis the rest of the natural world” (p. 9). ontology, in the anthropological sense, is about providing an alternative to human exceptionalism, characterizing the world as assemblages of many species in dynamic relationships, each experiencing those relationships in their own way. i was introduced to this kind of thinking through anna tsing’s (2015) mushroom at the end of the world, donna haraway’s (2017) “cyborg manifesto,” and eduardo kohn’s (2013) how forests think. moveable gardens expands upon these writings, especially tsing’s, and applies ontological concepts in a concrete way. “affective ecologies,” a phrase coined by gagnon early in the book, applies kathleen stewart’s (2007:1) notion of affect, or “a deeply embodied form of emotion that also exists between bodies, often as a product of structural or social forces,” to assemblages of human and nonhuman bodies, “encompass[ing] the myriad ways in which our daily means of carving out a living influence our relationships with those moveable gardens: itineraries and sanctuaries of memory shows us networks of mutually constitutive relationships between plants and people that carry with them a sense of home, even if one is displaced from it (p. 4). many tend to these relationships with love and care, catalyzing joy and counteracting “disruptive intrusions of modernity” that construct displacement’s many faces (p. 3): physical relocation from one’s homelands, inability to participate in traditional lifeways due to economic or other pressures, or culturally mandated ideological separation from our network of other-than-human kin. the book is divided into two parts, each chapter providing a window into a different cultural ecology categorized either as an itinerary or a sanctuary. sanctuaries are places or practices in which traditional networks of multispecies relationships are rooted and actively flourish. itineraries are traditions or ecological processes that ensure plant-people relationships survive in movement or diaspora. there are examples of both in nearly every chapter, making the book’s organization slightly confusing. for example, mead circles as roving sanctuaries of celebration, communion, and learning (chapter 5), a chapter about resurgence of communal brewing and drinking of mead in the united states, is in part i: itineraries, despite sanctuaries appearing in its title. appalachian mead circles are sanctuaries for “complex assemblages of bees, plants, landscapes, communities, rituals, supernatural beings, and many other facets of natureculture” (p. 111). the itinerant aspect of this chapter moveable gardens: itineraries and sanctuaries of memory. 2021. edited by virginia d. nazarea and terese v. gagnon. university of arizona press, tucson. 301 pp. aubrey ahmanson1* 1independent scholar, los angeles, usa. *aubreyahmanson@gmail.com received december 2, 2024 open access accepted january 21, 2025 doi 10.14237/ebl.16.1.2025.1919 published february 14, 2025 copyright © 2025 by the author(s); licensee society of ethnobiology. this is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution-noncommercial 4.0 international public license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0), which permits non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. ahmanson. 2025. ethnobiology letters 16(1):12–13 13 reviews around us—people, animals, plants, insects, fungi bacteria, and so forth—as well as our embodied perceptions of the world.” she continues, “all these things are…constitutive of ecologies: ones of care and ones of destruction” (p. 25). the term itself encourages recognition of both affective ecologies in which it may be painful to participate, and ones that are joyful. i have found the term especially useful in a re-orienting of well-being towards something larger than the individual; it’s turned over in my thoughts far more than itineraries or sanctuaries. gagnon states (p. 25), “in contemporary discourses of economics and conservation alike… entanglements of love and dependence are often elided”. not so in this book. in ontologies of return (chapter 11), virginia d. nazarea speaks of the many implications of potato (solanum spp.) conservation and repatriation in peru. while peruvian activists view potatoes as a symbol of peruvian heritage, managers of seedbank specimens view them as genetic material to be preserved, and quechua farmers view potatoes as “their wawas (infants) – to be fussed over, passed on, and celebrated in myth and ritual, and in everyday life” (p. 257). the chapter contains an anecdote about a quechua woman accompanying peruvian potatoes to the global seed vault in norway, and singing to them: “i leave my family to walk this journey… my beautiful potatoes, please don’t cry… i will return to make sure you are safe, and you will be joyful again” (p. 265). reading this was the first time i have cried over potatoes. nazarea’s case for conservation partially informed by love is balanced in its emotion and methodical practicality. tracey heatherington’s havens against the blight (chapter 9) also speaks to the importance of emotion in tending to or reestablishing sanctuaries of biological and cultural diversity. in her analysis of seed saving— both in actuality and its portrayal in the media— she invokes the term structural nostalgia to describe the motivation behind saving seeds in order to protect webs of relationships that sustain bodies and traditions. heatherington, in a delightfully cheeky way, hangs her ontological analysis on a comparison of two post-apocalyptic films: mad max: fury road, and the ultimate warrior. released thirty years apart, the films have a lot in common… violence due to scarcity, hope found in the existence of a lost sanctuary, and the saving of seeds in response to its destruction. i haven’t seen the ultimate warrior, but mad max: fury road is a silly movie. heatherington’s analysis, though, is no joke. she conveys the gravity of structural nostalgia through popular fascination with it, evidenced by box-office draw. gagnon summarizes it perfectly: “we mourn the loss of… our more-thanhuman litter, or cohort” (p. 11). our tendency to save seeds in apocalyptic scenarios, both fictional and emergent, indicates human dependency upon and desire to maintain our affective ecologies. i find the use of structural nostalgia as an informed rallying cry for intersectional conservation beautiful. moveable gardens would shine in college-level anthropology courses, especially those concerned with foodways or multispecies ethnography. i’m a relatively recent college graduate with a predominantly biological background and feel very lucky to have read the ontological literature mentioned above to contextualize this book. this volume can stand alone, however. while the language is tough to chew through at times, this book would be a great introduction to ontological thinking. born of a panel discussion, moveable gardens retains a conversational quality. a group of twelve contributors, consisting of anthropologists, ethnobiologists, food and environmental scientists, and a somatic psychotherapist, weave a common thread through their ethnographic and ontological explorations using shared vocabulary. this vocabulary’s ability to be applied to and embodied in a wide variety of affective ecologies bestows it with validity and contributes to the reader’s understanding. i included chapters i felt best conveyed the overall message of the book in this review, but i had a few more favorites. i’m excited for future readers of moveable gardens to experience all this book has to offer. references cited haraway, d. 2017. the cyborg manifesto. in manifestly haraway, edited by m. puig de la bellacasa, pp. 47– 71. university of minnesota press, minneapolis, mn. kohn, e. 2013. how forests think: toward an anthropology beyond the human. university of california press, berkeley, ca. stewart, k. 2007. ordinary affects. duke university press, durham, nc. tsing, a. l. 2015. the mushroom at the end of the world: on the possibility of life in capitalist ruins. princeton university press, princeton, nj. the palolo worm as a cornerstone of pacific ecological time-reckoning kelso et al. 2023. ethnobiology letters 14(1):24–35 24 research communications environments from which pacific islanders derive their material and spiritual sustenance.” marine ecosystems and the traditional knowledge which local people hold concerning them are of both local and global importance, particularly as ocean and reef habitats decline in health across the world (aswani and albert 2015). however, even in societies that rely heavily on their marine surroundings, these habitats are but one part of what cajete (2000:178) calls a “sea of relationships,” an indigenous worldview in which each individual element of nature, including humans, interacts with and influences all the others. oberndorfer et al. (2017:458) explores this idea in the context of ethnobotany and marine ethnobiology among the makkovimiut (inuit community of makkovik in nunatsiavut), noting that “makkovimiut understand through practice and shared oral traditions how plants support fishing at all stages of the practice introduction indigenous peoples across the world make use of natural phenomena for the purpose of timereckoning. observations of the local environment, ranging from the movements of celestial bodies to phenological cycles of plants and animals, are used to anchor oneself in time and organize schedules of agriculture, hunting, and social events (harrison 2007). these traditional time-reckoning systems, often called “ecological calendars,” encode and display the deep environmental knowledge of their users (kassam et al. 2018). however, these systems face erosion due to language loss, the adoption of foreign time-reckoning systems (harrison 2007; schieffelin 2002), and, in the pacific, a variety of threats to marine ecosystems. as stated by hviding (1996:2), “[l]agoons, reefs, and the near ocean are cornerstones of the the palolo worm as a cornerstone of pacific ecological time-reckoning neal kelso1*, gregory m. plunkett2, presley dovo3, dominik m. ramík4, charlie b. paul vusqal5, k. david harrison6,7, and michael j. balick7 1independent scholar, san francisco, usa. 2cullman program for molecular systematics, new york botanical garden, bronx, usa. 3vanuatu department of forests, port vila, vanuatu. 4independent scholar, lowanatom, tanna, vanuatu. 5vetimbosa, vanua lava, vanuatu. 6vinuniversity, hanoi, vietnam. 7institute of economic botany, new york botanical garden, bronx, usa. *neal.kelso@gmail.com abstract indigenous knowledge systems that uniquely encode environmental knowledge are vanishing globally in tandem with environmental changes and globalization. in this paper we explore knowledge and uses of the palolo polychaete worms (palola spp.) in time-reckoning, as documented in the anthropological literature on polynesia and melanesia. we then introduce preliminary findings from three contemporary cultures, the raga-, vureas-, and netwar-speaking peoples of vanuatu. use of the palolo worm as an element in traditional time-reckoning is well-attested in both historical and contemporary literature, and our original research reinforces the notion that it is still a crucial part of ni-vanuatu ecological calendars. within the cultures discussed, the annual appearance of the palolo worm is an important temporal event within very complex systems that incorporate plants, animals, agriculture, celestial bodies, the ocean, and human health for the purposes of organizing human activities. these systems, and the place of the palolo worm within them, must be given proper attention in ongoing efforts towards environmental conservation and the documentation and revitalization of traditional knowledge. received march 10, 2022 open access accepted august 17, 2022 doi 10.14237/ebl.14.1.2023.1815 published may 5, 2023 keywords palolo worm, vanuatu, time-reckoning, ecological calendars copyright © 2023 by the author(s); licensee society of ethnobiology. this is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution-noncommercial 4.0 international public license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0), which permits non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. kelso et al. 2023. ethnobiology letters 14(1):24–35 25 research communications and how fishing also supports plants”. the “sea of relationships” amongst pacific peoples, the marine environment, and the rest of their local ecosystems is clear when investigating traditional ecological timereckoning practices. in polynesia and melanesia, ecological calendars exhibit remarkable diversity and complexity, reflecting the wide array of environmental rhythms and events that island peoples in this region regularly experience. these systems include—but invariably go beyond— western notions of lunar and solar calendrics, incorporating cycles of the sun and moon, the movements of stars, patterns of clouds and weather, changes in the ocean and tides, and the phenological cycles of numerous plants and animals. the various cultures of vanuatu have rich systems of timereckoning which make use of a wide array of “calendar plants” to determine the timing of agricultural activities, schedule the harvest of marine resources, and inform health decisions (balick and plunkett 2018). often, ni-vanuatu time-reckoning also includes nature-based rituals by which specialists reportedly influence the weather, sun, or waves. a widespread component in time-reckoning systems of vanuatu and the broader oceanic region is not a plant, but an animal: the marine polychaete worm known widely by its samoan name, “palolo” (genus palola), which has one of the most regular natural cycles in pacific ecosystems. palolo are polychaete worms that grow to over a third of a meter in length and inhabit reefs around many pacific islands. rarely exiting the holes and crevices in which they hide, they stay put until the last quarter of the moons of october and november (and sometimes december), when every palolo worm in polynesia and eastern melanesia splits in half (schulze and timm 2012). the anterior end of each worm, with its head and other major organs, remains in its reef hideout, while the epitoke or posterior end, with reproductive organs, swims upward in the water column to the sea surface (figure 1). the epitoke swims “almost as if it were a separate animal in its own right. indeed, it has even developed a pair of eyes to assist it in locating the surface” (shuker 2001:94)1. massive swarms of these epitokes are both wellknown and highly predictable in their appearance. although the most famous “palolo worm” is palola viridis, first described from samoa (stair 1847), polychaete swarms in the south pacific can contain multiple palola species and even worms from other families (such as nereididae; see fowler 2017; schulze and timm 2012). furthermore, the taxonomy of the genus palola is not fully settled, although specimens from samoa and vanuatu are likely to be p. viridis figure 1 a male (orange) and female (green) palolo epitokes harvested near lowanatom, tanna, vanuatu. these organs are what ni-vanuatu and other pacific peoples most often refer to as worms, rather than the entire animal. b frying palolo worms with egg in lowanatom. photos by dominik m. ramík. kelso et al. 2023. ethnobiology letters 14(1):24–35 26 research communications (schulze and timm 2012). while a variety of polychaete worms are valued by various cultures in indonesia, including as elements in time-reckoning (forth 1983; fowler 2017; tadataka 2018), and as important foodstuffs, such as nereid worms in vietnam (lieu and nguyen 2021), the current study is only concerned with palola spp. that swarm from papua new guinea eastward to samoa. the remarkable biology of these worms has made its mark on a diverse range of cultures in this region, appearing in traditional foodways, cosmology, and ritual, in addition to time-reckoning. here, we briefly summarize several case studies from the literature on melanesia and polynesia. we then discuss three cases from vanuatu: those of the raga-speaking people of northern pentecost island, vureas language speakers of vanua lava, and the netwar-speaking people of tanna, which we recently began to document in collaboration with local experts. we demonstrate that the palolo worm is a cornerstone of many different pacific traditions that play an integral role in indigenous time-reckoning. this worm is one strand in a complex web of environmental cycles which inform the timing of human activity in these places. methods we employed two methodologies to gather information on cultures that possess palolo knowledge. first, we surveyed approximately 200 works spanning the subfields of travel writing, ethnography, and anthropology, which span 174 years (1847–2021). we coded these sources for any reference to palolo knowledge, as well as their use in ecological calendars and other time-reckoning techniques. while the total number of polynesian and melanesian cultures taken together number nearly 2,000, few are well documented, nor is it likely that all have contact with the palolo worm. our data set includes information from 35 cultures; however, we acknowledge that there may be a great deal more palolo lore distributed across oceania that remains to be documented. second, we interviewed eight culture experts from the raga-speaking people of northern pentecost island, who are known to possess significant palolo lore; five culture experts from the vureas-speaking villages of wasaga and vetimbosa on vanua lava; and four experts from the netwar language area of tanna. the relationships that sparked this research on the palolo worm were formed while working on the plants and people of vanuatu project, a collaboration between botanists, ethnobotanists, mycologists, cultural specialists, linguists, and conservationists. this project aims to study and preserve plants, fungi, and associated traditional knowledge in vanuatu, including traditional ecological calendars. our dialogue with the raga community was conducted in both english and the local raga (or hano) language, which has approximately 7,500 speakers (eberhard et al. 2022). on vanua lava, work was conducted in vureas (or vurës), which is spoken in the southern part of the island by around 2,000 people (malau 2021). the netwar language, spoken by approximately 12,000 people (eberhard et al. 2022), was used during research in southwestern tanna. our approach is not one of data extraction, but rather co-production of knowledge, based on mutual trust and reciprocity, and the willingness of community experts to share knowledge with us, and through us, to a global audience. the knowledge is shared with the understanding that it remains the intellectual property of the raga, vureas, and netwar language communities and will be fully attributed to them, both individually and collectively. results pacific cultures have closely observed the palolo worm because of its nutritional value, temporal predictability, and the dramatic scene it creates on the reefs when it spawns. rev. john stair’s (1847) experience of palolo swarms in samoa resulted in its formal description, and much has been written about it since. we surveyed the anthropological literature from polynesia and melanesia and found the palolo worm to be a common theme, with many references to its role in time-reckoning. literature survey in vanuatu, mention of the palolo worm’s place in time-reckoning stretches back at least to the late nineteenth century. codrington (1891:350) notes how, on mota island in the northern banks group, “the strange and exciting appearance of the well-known annelid, the palolo, un, sets a wide mark on the seasons.” the people of mota attribute the natural cycles of their local environment to a spirit known as qat, and by careful observation of these rhythms are able to both predict other natural phenomena and organize their agricultural schedule. the cool season on mota is marked by the appearance of rara (genus erythrina) flowers, and that same flower’s fall is the kelso et al. 2023. ethnobiology letters 14(1):24–35 27 research communications signal that the palolo worm will soon surface (figure 2)2. following the fading of the rara, three months are named after the worm, and each palolo swarm signals the current developmental stage of the yam (dioscorea spp.) crop. october is known as un rig (“little palolo”) or un gogona (“bitter palolo”) because worms first appear at this time, and this signals that yams are nearing maturity. november is un lava (“great palolo”), when large swarms of worms surface and everyone goes down to the beach to collect them. at this time, all yams are harvested. finally, december is werei (“rump [of the palolo]”) when the last few worms can be found, ganoi, the west wind blows in, and the gardens must be cleared. the rest of the mota calendar is based off other environmental indicators, including reeds, rara, and winds (codrington 1891). on loh, in the torres islands of northern vanuatu, the palolo worm is part of a ritual that realigns the sun and keeps the seasons on track. like other ni-vanuatu, the people of loh are horticulturalists and therefore have a complex system of organizing time as it relates to the propagation and harvesting of crop plants. the markers of this timereckoning system include broad seasonal changes, celestial bodies including the sun and moon, the progression of the tides, and also animals (mondragón 2004). components of this system, such as the tuwiä bird (tringa incana) and the sun, are said to have mena, which refers to the supernatural abilities of powerful people, animals, and objects to “evoke various kinds of transformative forces that lie inherent in the living world” (mondragón 2004:291). the tuwiä bird heralds the arrival of the palolo, known locally as nút, in the lo-toga language spoken on loh. when a strong stench from the sea confirms the worm’s arrival, the islanders descend to the rocky shore for harvest. but before the worms can be eaten, the people must ensure that the sun will make its way back north after the summer solstice. in the ritual of the “sun-ureparapara alignment,” islanders perform a magical chant while transferring the harvested nút from worm-catching nets to the pandanus baskets in which they are carried to the cook site. this chant both “turns” the palolo worm into food and “turns” the sun towards the north, aligning it over the island of ureparapara to the southeast. failing to perform this ritual would be catastrophic: the sun would not be imbued with mena and would thus not begin to shift in the sky following the solstice, leading to crop failure. the palolo worm and the tuwiä bird, together with the people themselves and their traditional songs and figure 2 erythrina fusca, one of two species of erythrina (rara in the mota and raga languages), native to vanuatu. this species has (a, b) orange to (c) bright red flowers. when these flowers fall, it is a signal to people on mota and pentecost that palolo (un in mota, udu in raga) will soon appear. [photo credits: a & b, laurence ramon (lr-128); c, kate armstrong (kea588).] kelso et al. 2023. ethnobiology letters 14(1):24–35 28 research communications rituals, act as integral parts in the web of magic, heavenly bodies, and living things that synchronize life for these islanders (mondragón 2004). samoans also possess a remarkable system of timereckoning and weather prediction based on careful and precise observations of the environment. stair’s (1847:18) first description of the cultural importance of palolo worms in samoa suggests a detailed system for predicting their arrival: the natives are exceedingly fond of them, and calculate with great exactness the time of their appearance, which is looked forward to with great interest. the worms are caught in small baskets, beautifully made, and when taken on shore are tied up in leaves in small bundles, and baked. great quantities are eaten undressed, but either dressed or undressed are esteemed a great delicacy. such is the desire to eat palolo by all classes, that immediately [after] the fishing parties reach the shore, messengers are despatched in all directions with large quantities to parts of the island on which none appear. today, the adopted gregorian calendar is often used to determine whether october or november will see the strongest palolo rising, but traditional environmental cues are also still consulted. smetzer (1969:68) recorded the following account from an unnamed samoan chief, if you want to know when the palolo is coming, the first thing you have to do is watch for the signs in nature. because the people in the old days did not have any calendar and they had to look around at the trees and the shrubs and the moon and things like that to tell what is the time of the year. a few of these signals include “the flowering of the moso’oi tree [cananga odorata], the closing of the palulu flower [any of several species of the convolvulaceae], a strong smell from the reef, brown foamy scum on the ocean, and abrupt weather changes or bad weather” (itano 2009). other accounts reference bending breadfruit branches (smetzer 1969), the appearance of a small fish known as o le mosimosi-palolo, an abundance of cuttlefish, long nights, and the same discoloration of the tide as signals for the palolo’s coming (stair 1897), as well as prediction of the worm’s arrival based on the sun, moon, and stars (burrows 1955). the samoan calendar is divided into two seasons: the wetter vai toʻelau (february to july) and the drier vai palolo (july to january). the first two months of vai palolo are also named after the palolo worm: palolo mua or ‘the first palolo’ and palolo muli or ‘the last palolo.’ interestingly, the palolo worm never surfaces during these months, but since the actual arrival of the palolo is strongly anticipated and accurately predicted by samoans each year in october or november, the naming of these months is somewhat of an enigma (lefale 2010; samoan society 1928; stair 1897). one explanation is given by tofa iʻiga pisa, who says that the last of the previous year’s preserved palolo was served at this time, “in anticipation of the next rising” (smetzer 1969:70). the calendar of the polynesian island of futuna (part of wallis and futuna, just to the west of samoa) has months with identical names but corresponding to the correct times when the palolo worm swarms. palolo mua roughly corresponds to october, while november is palolo muli. intriguingly, the palolo worm does not appear in futuna today. perhaps it once did, or perhaps these calendars are evidence of an ancestral polynesian calendar that has since been adapted to various islands in the polynesian sphere (kirch 1994). the palolo worm is also present in nearby fiji, which, at the eastern edge of melanesia, has many polynesian cultural influences. two fijian months named after the palolo align with the times when it surfaces. the worm first rises in the month of vula i balolo lalai, which is marked by the flowering of several different plants, and the second, often larger rising occurs during the month of vula i balolo levu, when several fruits are ready to be harvested (gatty 2009). however, while the worm does appear during these months, it does not appear everywhere. due to palolo’s cultural significance, fijian villages with no worm have designated “substitute balolo,” all of which are also edible sea creatures that can only be harvested during a short period each year. on lakeba island, a wide range of animals are called balolo. the village of tubou has the true palolo, while people in nukunuku refer to nuqa, the rabbit fish (siganus vermiculatus), as their balolo. waciwaci villagers harvest the red land crab lairo (cardisoma sp.) in november and december and have a second balolo as well: the salala, or longjawed mackerel (rastrelliger kanagurta). vakano also has two balolo: the unicorn fish ta (nasus spp.) and saku, a type of billfish (gatty 2009). kelso et al. 2023. ethnobiology letters 14(1):24–35 29 research communications the residents of vakuta, one of the trobriand islands in papua new guinea, harvest as many palolo worms as possible during the full moon of octobernovember (austen 1945). the worms rise during the night and begin to disperse at the false dawn (4 a.m.), almost completely disappearing by daytime. as the worms move away, the vakutans return to their village and hold the yoba ceremony, “which consists of religious rites associated with the return of the baloma, or spirits of the dead, from the underworld land of tuma” (austen 1945:28). to the vakutans, the palolo worm is known as milamala, however on kiriwina, the main island of the trobriands, milamala refers to a full moon in august-september. as it turns out, the palolo worm does not occur at all on the island of kiriwina, but the full moon named for it is still very important to the islanders. they hold their yoba ceremony on this milamala moon, which marks the new year, though occasionally, they find that the moons “go silly” and don’t seem to be occurring at the right time in the solar year (austen 1939, 1945). the palolo worm occurs during the same phase of the october and november moons, meaning that its phenological cycle is aligned with the solar year, rather than a set number of lunar cycles. this pattern allows the palolo worm’s rising to serve as an event which people on vakuta, and elsewhere in the pacific, use to recalibrate their calendars. kiriwina, however, only has twelve kweluva, or garden (lunar) periods, and no worm to mark its milamala; furthermore, its calendar tends to fall out of synch. to adjust the kweluva to the solar year, those living on kiriwina look to the astronomers of wawela village, who use their deep knowledge of the movements of stars and constellations to determine when different events in the agricultural cycle should occur. even using this system, trobrianders still complain of over and underabundance of yam harvests due the years when the moon “goes silly” (austen 1939; leach 1950). similarly, wogeo language speakers from the schouten islands in western png experience problems wherein their agricultural schedule is thrown off by agricultural fluctuation and the mismatch between the lunar and solar year (leach 1950). they allocate roughly three months each year to the appearance of the fruits of the “almond” (presumably terminalia catappa) and wasek (t. kaernbachii). when this period is complete, they count four lunar months to predict the appearance of the palolo worm. however, people occasionally set out to harvest the palolo a month too soon. this is most likely due to fluctuations in the length of terminalia fruiting and suggests that the wogeo calendrical system is not entirely predictive (at least in terms of the timing of palolo swarms). instead, there appear to be two anchors each year to realign the lunar calendar to the solar. one of these is the palolo worm’s appearance in october and november. rather than predicting when the worm swarms, wogeo speakers count the number of months from its appearance. the second anchor is the placement of the pleiades star cluster in the night sky. if the pleiades do not appear precisely when they are expected, an additional month is intercalated into the calendar to recalibrate. by using both of these checks, the people of the schouten islands are able to successfully orient the schedule of their various rituals and economic activities (leach 1950). codrington’s (1891) work in southern malaita, solomon islands, suggests another interesting case in which the rising of the palolo worm is predicted using a sidereal (star) calendar. to speakers of the sa’a language, the palolo worm appears in the conception of two constellations, “at saa the southern cross is ape, the net, with four men letting it down to catch the palolo, and the pointers are two men cooking what has been caught, because the palolo appears when one of the pointers appears above the horizon” (codrington 1891:349). the latter point reveals that people in southern malaita, as in other parts of melanesia, carefully predict the timing of the appearance of the palolo by watching the movements of the stars. this excerpt suggests further that the palolo worm is important at the very least in a culinary sense. original research from vanuatu speakers of the raga language in the northern part of pentecost island, vanuatu were interviewed in 2020; speakers of the vureas language of vanua lava were interviewed in 2021 and 2022; and netwar speakers from tanna were interviewed in 2022. all three peoples reported use of the palolo worm in their timereckoning systems and cultural lore. on pentecost, local experts relayed a story about a man who was murdered long ago. he was buried in an enclosed space, but his blood flowed down into the sea and turned into palolo worms (known locally as udu). his buried body became one of the island’s staple crops, the damu or yam. today, the worms still have a strong relationship with the islanders’ crops. kelso et al. 2023. ethnobiology letters 14(1):24–35 30 research communications like the people of mota, raga speakers call erythrina flowers rara and use their fall as a signal that the palolo worms will soon surface (figure 2). in raga, uda rara, the month that corresponds to september, translates to “palolo worm, erythrina flower”, clearly conveying this relationship. during udu malalageha (“palolo worm, new life”) and udu matala (“palolo worm goes away”), the following two months, a heavy rain called meren udu (or pispis blong udu “piss of palolo” in bislama) is another sign that the palolo rising is nearing. after the full moon in each of these months, people count the days. on the night of the fifth day, an abundance of snakes and crabs crossing the road serves as a last signal that the worm’s rising is imminent. when the worms surface, raga speakers attract them with a song and light, traditionally coconut-leaf torches but now more frequently electric lights. the worms are scooped up with many different tools and can be eaten raw on the spot. more commonly, the harvested worms are wrapped in leaves and baked in an earth oven, cooked in bamboo, or fried. the palolo worm is a highly valued foodstuff on pentecost and is traded for red mats and livestock. it is also believed that the stench that arises from the sea at this time makes plants grow better, and the water from the palolo-laden reef is used both as a fertilizer for crops and as bathwater to help children grow. the behavior of the palolo worm and its relationship to the local environment can be clearly seen in the naming and description of the months surrounding the palolo swarms (table 1). netwar language speakers on tanna island, in southern vanuatu, call the palolo worm mim, a general term for most worms and caterpillars, or mim taha tehé, “mim from the sea.” people from three villages in coastal netwar-speaking areas told us that mim had not been consumed by their ancestors, calling it nam napnapen am, “a useless fish/sea creature.” they only learned how to catch and eat them from people of pentecost and malakula, notably nuns who arrived in the 1960s and 1970s. some contrasted them to prisin (large larvae of longhorn beetles, including olethrius tyrannus) that are considered to be delicious and a proper food of the ancestors while mim was only to feed fish. while palolo worms were not traditionally consumed on tanna, their rising is highly anticipated because of its association with fish. during the rising of mim, it is said that fishing with bait is useless because the fish are already full. however, as fish concentrate around the palolo worms to feed on them, it is a time when one can catch a lot of fish by throwing a net or by spearing them with a knife in shallow water or tidal pools. large catches of tekapelew, a juvenile fish otherwise known as melao niés (a common name for several species of sargocentron, called red fis in bislama) were mentioned in connection with the appearance of palolo. despite palolo’s relatively recent introduction into netwar cuisine, it is now an established part of the local ecological calendar. albertine, an elder netwar speaker from lowanatom, explains how the worm’s rising is predicted and how it is caught: towards the end of the year, people observe the moon phases. when the time of full moon is passed and the moon rises later in the night, there is a smell of raw fish coming from the sea as far as a few hundred meters inland. people will then go fetch numasia [dry coconut leaves], fasten them together as a torch [nesia]. when the time is really close, there is often a very fine and thin rain [noroan] during the day or in the evening. in the evening as the night is dark, people will get their torches and go to the passes in coral reefs. mim will come in its karem [the same term used for woven pandanus bag] and go through the pass. they are all together, many different colors and they make a dim light. sometimes when you expose them to light, they will break from their karem and disperse, but when you are lucky, you can grab the entire lot into a mosquito net or cloth. if they break loose, you will need to fetch them all around the reef. you need to hurry because as soon as the moon rises, they will go all around the place and it is hard to catch them. before, we would only make a laplap of them, being ready the day of their arrival and prepare the laplap mash in advance. now we cook them differently, like frying [figure 1]. sometimes they will come two nights in a row, but the second time it may only be the last of the first lot arriving the night ago. chiefs hosia waras and eli field malau of vetimbosa, vanua lava in northern vanuatu record a vureas-language ecological calendar that relates plant phenology to the weather, crop cycles, and human health (caillon and malau 2002). in our findings, kelso et al. 2023. ethnobiology letters 14(1):24–35 31 research communications vureas speakers also describe a strong connection between the palolo worm, which they call hūn or un, and environmental time indicators. when the leaves of the wehr tree (casuarina equisetifolia or oktri [oak tree] in bislama [figure 3]) begin to turn red and a specific seabird appears in the village it is the month voromal, or october. as the time of palolo nears, the sea also turns “dirty” and brown with many dead branches floating on it and gives off a fishy smell. from the first day when the moon is visible in daylight during this month, the people of vanua lava begin to count the days. on the night of the sixth day, harvest begins on the long reef along wasaga village’s shoreline. the villagers light a large fire on a dry section of reef and an expert sings a song (table 2) to attract the worms to shore. with the worms aggregating by the shore, people use sticks or brooms to harvest them. after that morning, no more worms can be found during voromal, but the same process of counting the daytime moons and harvesting the worms is repeated for the second annual appearance of the palolo during selegdem, or november, for which no ecological indicators were recorded. upon return to the village, people rinse the palolo worm with water up to five times. the rinse water is saved and can be used in bath water as a custom medicine for the treatment of many conditions including fever, scabies, red eye (conjunctivitis), table 1 the raga calendar. month name gregorian equivalent translation details bora tirigi january “small birth” (new growth) plants start to germinate, there are lots of flies due to many leaves on the ground, food availability is less. bora lavoa february “big birth” plants get larger and flies multiply, people sense that there are enough resources available. vula barai march “moon is not quite full” resources available but will soon be gone. waves are longer, but do not cause destruction. trees and plants grow well but a small number of leaves fall off the tree. langisi april — time of planting yam. mariri may “leaves drying” yam leaves are drying (but some are still green). tarang tirigi june — yam leaves fully dry. tarang lavoa july — yams are ready to be harvested. rara memea august “erythrina is red” erythrina flowers are in full bloom. udu rara september “palolo worm, erythrina flower” erythrina flowers are falling, the worm is still “red and in the womb.” udu malalageha october “palolo worm, new life” worms are caught, wind blows through trees and makes plants grow well, there is heavy rain. palolo water used as fertilizer and bath water for children. udu matala november “palolo worm goes away” last palolo swarm, continuing heavy rains. plants do not grow very well, and you get hungry quickly. ulu gai tavu december — waves roll from a long way off and gently crash against the coast. all trees and the plants in the garden grow well and people feel happy about their crops. kelso et al. 2023. ethnobiology letters 14(1):24–35 32 research communications wounds, etc. strained palolo worms are baked in a ground oven in laplap leaf (heliconia indica) and, once removed, served on a bed of lūt (called nalot in bislama). lūt is a preparation of a mashed starchy food (such as taro or breadfruit) cooked aboveground and served on large, dedicated wooden plates, in which every family or household takes part in making one plate. additional flavor can be added by placing nuts such as nagai (canarium spp.) on top. palolo can be preserved this way for up to two weeks. discussion our original research from vanuatu—along with the prior accounts taken from the literature—shows that the palolo worm is a cornerstone of polynesian and melanesian time-reckoning and cultural identity. while the worm’s importance in north and central vanuatu is documented and known internally to be a nationwide, cross-cultural phenomenon (mondragón 2004), its place in the culture and time-reckoning of southern vanuatu has not previously been portrayed to a global audience. its widespread use across multiple cultures and locations, likely including others which have not yet been documented, reveals how natural cycles can beneficially inform agriculture and other human behaviors. pacific peoples do not incorporate the worm into a system of abstract calendrics but rather view it as one critical piece of a complex system of ecological time-reckoning involving animals, plants, agricultural cycles, celestial bodies, the ocean, and human health. ecological calendars are themselves very important in the pacific, as evidenced by the results of the plants and people of vanuatu project, which identified more than 100 calendar plants used across multiple islands and language groups. like many other aspects of pacific life, humanpalolo interactions are currently under threat from figure 3 casuarina equisetifolia (wehr in vureas, oktri in bislama) a tree, b branch with carpellate flowers, and c cone-like fruits. the leaves of this species turn reddish as they senesce, signaling to vureas-speaking people on vanua lava that hūn (palolo) will soon appear. photo credits: a, m.j. balick (mb-5092); b, g.m. plunkett (gmp-5225); c, g.m. plunkett (gmp5227b)3. kelso et al. 2023. ethnobiology letters 14(1):24–35 33 research communications ongoing knowledge erosion and climate change, even as they develop and evolve. during our work in vanuatu, people have voiced concerns about changes in the predictability and timing of the seasons, as well as dangers posed by oceanic cyclones. these changes affect the timing of signals in ecological calendars, while climate change and habitat destruction threaten to remove some signals entirely. climate change alters the phenology of plants, affecting neighboring plants differently (pérez-ramos et al. 2020), while rising ocean temperatures and acidification have been proven to negatively affect the phenology of both ocean ecosystems as a whole (harley et al. 2006) and marine polychaete worms specifically (freitas et al. 2016). in these intricate indigenous ecological calendars, disruption of one element is a threat to the whole system. the disruption or loss of palolo worm swarms would be particularly tragic, as it is utilized so widely not only in time-reckoning but in foodways, medicine, and cultural identity. the ongoing threats to these time-reckoning systems highlight the need to support and collaboratively document traditional knowledge and language. research shows that these time-reckoning systems can serve as adaptive tools in the face of climate change (kassam et al. 2011, 2018), but they cannot in fact be extricated from the local language, geography, and biota. thus, research on these systems must be appropriately accompanied by efforts to protect them. notes 1these “eyes,” or more accurately eye spots, are light sensors, one of which is located on each segment of the palolo epitoke (schulze and timm 2012). 2raga linguistic, botanical, and cultural data relevant to this research can also be found in the raga talking dictionary (http://talkingdictionary.swarthmore.edu/ raga/), a product of the plants and people of vanuatu project developed to preserve and revitalize the local language and knowledge. 3plant vouchers are deposited at pvnh and ny. acknowledgments we gratefully acknowledge the raga-speaking people of pentecost island and the vureas-speaking people of vanua lava who have shared their knowledge with us. on pentecost, those interviewed include demas harry, james ure, selwyn dovo, colin dovo, eden lini, benett hinge, george rongo, and reynold sine. on vanua lava, celestel wembus, waren qoliak, markson moffet, and selwyn ulkel shared their palolo knowledge with us. on tanna, we talked with albertine keip, numanepen, pierrot yeru, and bernard yaukelo. declarations permissions: this work was carried out under a research license from the vanuatu department of environmental protection and conservation, forestry department, and vanuatu cultural centre. the swarthmore college irb determined that this project does not constitute research with human subjects and does not require irb approval. co-author harrison was affiliated with swarthmore during the research period sources of funding: this work was supported by the u.s. national science foundation under grants no. 1555657 (pi michael j. balick) and 1555675 (pi k. david harrison) and by grant no. 1288 from velux stiftung. conflicts of interest: none declared. references cited aswani, s., and s. albert. 2015. change in roviana lagoon coral reef ethnobiology. in ethnobiology of corals and coral reefs, edited by n. narchi and l. l. price, pp. 157–175. springer, cham, switzerland. table 2 vureas language palolo song, sung by an expert from vanua lava during the palolo harvest, with english translation. original (vureas language) english translation un ē gër me ē qeōrōr e, i we un ē we un lam ē, mē 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cycles, and indigenous calendrical systems in indonesia. 東南アジア研究 [southeast asian studies] 55:111– 138. doi:10.20495/tak.55.2_111 a new future for the ancient perennial mediterranean vegetable ‘akkoub (gundelia spp. and asteraceae) van tassel et al. 2025. ethnobiology letters 16(1):82–92 82 research communications grows in rocky and inhospitable or overgrazed areas and looks thistle-like, nearly all parts of the plant are edible and even prized in local cuisine (cakilcioglu 2020), with a range of documented human uses (table 1). until very recently, this genus has been exclusively harvested from the wild. however, it may have once been on the verge of domestication as an oilseed crop because early neolithic archaeological remains in iraq and turkey indicate gathering, threshing, and oil extraction (hind 2013; pieroni 2005; rivera et al. 2011; rosenberg et al. 1995; savard et al. 2003). gathering this plant from the wild may have continued for 10,000 years as contemporary villagers rank gundelia among the 8 most important edible wild-harvested plants in agri province (turkey) (kadioglu et al. 2020). it is an important wild food plant in palestine (ali-shtayeh et al. 2008; hinnawi 2010; tesdell 2018). finally, the literature points to local and regional traditions for methods of processing and specific recipes for pickles, stews, and other dishes (cakilcioglu 2020) as well as international trade (lev-yadun and abbo 1999). introduction to gundelia gundelia (figure 1) is a small genus of prickly, perennial relatives of lettuce with a long ethnobotanical history across the mediterranean region in cyprus, turkey (anatolia), armenia, kurdistan, northern iraq, iran, afghanistan, syria, turkmenistan, kazakhstan, uzbekistan, israel, palestine, lebanon, jordan, and egypt (hind 2013). gundelia tournefortii l. (aramaic: ‘akkub; kurdish: kerenk; arabic: ‘akkoub, ‘akub, ka’ub, farsi: kangar, turkish: kenger, french: gundelie, english: tumbleweed, tumble thistle) was originally considered the only species in the genus with several varieties. these varieties have now been named as a species (genç and firat 2019), although ethnobotanically we will consider them a single crop here. gundelia is associated with well-drained soils and sunny landscape habitats such as steppe or open woodland plant communities, along with moderately disturbed sites such as roadsides and fallow fields (hind 2013). remarkably, although the plant also a new future for the ancient perennial mediterranean vegetable ‘akkoub (gundelia spp. and asteraceae) david van tassel1, aubrey streit krug1, yusra othman2, tala khouri2, fouad muaddi2, eyad taamallah2, ishraq awashra2, and omar tesdell2, 3* 1the land institute, salina, usa. 2makaneyyat research, ramallah, west bank, palestine. 3department of geography, birzeit university, birzeit, west bank, palestine. *otesdell@birzeit.edu abstract gundelia has been cooked as a wild edible plant from pastures and open areas in many countries bordering the mediterranean sea. the foliage of this hardy, prickly, perennial genus resembles the artichoke (cynara cardunculus) and has similar culinary uses. however, the heads are quite distinct and produce edible seeds that may once have been harvested as a source of vegetable oil. though avoided by grazing sheep and goats, the dried foliage is palatable and nutritious when chopped and mixed in animal rations. independently, several small producers in palestine have begun sowing and raising gundelia, known as ‘akkoub, as a crop because of its economic and cultural value, and because of increasingly constrained access to wild stands. an international collaboration could develop improved genetic varieties and agronomic practices to revive its use for oil seeds and to accelerate the domestication of this valuable, hardy plant. received march 19, 2024 open access accepted april 9, 2025 doi 10.14237/ebl.16.1.2025.1883 published september 3, 2025 keywords agriculture, ‘akkoub, domestication, gundelia, mediterranean, perennial, wild edible plants copyright © 2025 by the author(s); licensee society of ethnobiology. this is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution-noncommercial 4.0 international public license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0), which permits non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. van tassel et al. 2025. ethnobiology letters 16(1):82–92 83 research communications the deep, varied, and ongoing history of human relationships with and use of gundelia provides evidence that this plant is culturally and economically valued. such cultural valuation can be an important driver for cycles of domestication that could also feature agronomic and genetic changes, including artificial selection, for new and expanded human uses (van tassel et al. 2020). as access to wild stands of gundelia is increasingly constrained, cultivation has been proposed to reduce pressure on wild populations (padulosi and giuliani 2004). in some places this is underway. accelerated domestication of this wild vegetable, while sustaining its culinary significance, could help support diversity in regional food systems for the sake of resilience, sustainability, nutrition, and equity (streit krug et al. 2023). a new future for this perennial plant requires timely international collaboration for conservation. incipient cultivation concerns within the scientific community about the growing dependency of the global food system upon a shrinking genetic base have been raised for many years (harlan 1972; khoury et al. 2014). diversification of the food base could include genetic diversification of major crops using “crop wild relatives” (mccouch et al. 2013), de novo domestication of wild species–particularly those with life histories (van tassel et al. 2010) or adaptations (rozema and flowers 2008; warschefsky et al. 2014) that diverge from our dominant staple crops–and revival of “orphan” crops that have not received modern investment in the form of genetic or agronomic research and development (streit krug et al. 2023). however, it is difficult for funding agencies to justify investments in crops that are currently low in yield, expensive to produce, and unknown beyond their center of origin. it may also be difficult to rank plant species, given the huge number of wild and underutilized plant species. collection of this vegetable in palestine is highly restricted by israeli authorities. this crop, along with za’tar (origanum syriacum), is highly politicized in the context of israeli restrictions on palestinian use of traditional plants in the west bank. regardless, here we introduce a regionally high value but globally unfamiliar crop as a candidate for further investment. community research conducted through interviews and a survey of arabic-language literature and social media material in palestine points to increasing cultivation of gundelia in recent years. there has been a great increase in english language journalistic coverage emerging in recent years (farzin 2018; hart 2023; kamisher 2018; rubin 2020). however, there is currently no evidence of selection for particular characteristics taking place in cultivation sites. according to a journalistic report from 2019, a farmer in the tulkarem district of palestine established a large gundelia seedling nursery (alakkub 2023). the farmer explained, “i got this idea to collect these seeds from the wild and from the valleys, and step-by-step i had a large amount of seed that i planted next to my house.” with a grant from a palestinian local non-governmental organization, she then built three plastic greenhouses where she produces gundelia seedlings for sale in the west bank. production has increased massively. as of 2023 she produces about 500,000 seedlings each year, with production taking place in open air and in greenhouse environments. greenhouse temperatures must be adjusted to allow for the cold period the plant requires to be productive; greenhouses also utilize irrigation in contrast to wild, rainfed growth. two women farmers in the palestinian west bank, interviewed in march 2023 by co-authors of this article, said that they began to cultivate gundelia because of israeli authorities’ restrictions on wild harvesting. one farmer purchased gundelia from a non-profit organization years ago and are now in their eighth season of producing for home use by growing and harvesting plants in their home garden. another farmer has been growing gundelia for two years after collecting seed from wild plants. co-authors of this article have also observed seeds widely available for sale in shops in the west bank; gundelia is one of only two wild plants commonly available in local seed shops. this research group in ramallah, palestine has four accessions of gundelia from various parts of the west bank and will be making a large collection in may 2023. for three years it has been propagating and distributing from these accessions in its nursery. accessions germinate at a high rate. moreover, the group has produced the first arabic-english online platform for wild food plants of palestine, barari flora (https://www.barari.org), where the entry for gundelia is one of the most-viewed pages on the site (barari flora 2023). makaneyyat researchers surveyed arabic-language social media in 2022 and 2023 and identified seven high-quality videos, dating from 2017, van tassel et al. 2025. ethnobiology letters 16(1):82–92 84 research communications that demonstrate the cultural use and importance of gundelia in palestine and lebanon. many of the videos focus on the ways that it can be cooked, either fried in olive oil, cooked in a reconstituted dried yogurt sauce, or with eggs (barari flora 2023). other videos focus on the conflict over harvesting between palestinians seeking food and a livelihood and israeli authorities who claim it is over-harvested. the price of gundelia makes it an enticing vegetable to forage. the price of half-cleaned (meaning that the main spikes are removed) in the markets in late-march of 2023 is $10.90/kg. (40 israeli shekels per kilogram) figure 1 high wild gundelia tournefortii, in bloom, in the central hill region of the west bank, april. photo: omar tesdell. gundelia is a stout, taprooted perennial herb that forms a basal rosette. after about three years (hind 2013) the plant begins to bolt each spring flowering generally may-june. abscission of the entire mature stalk allows it to blow around as a tumbleweed, dispersing seed. one source described seeing the tumbleweeds carried hundreds of feet into the air by whirlwinds (hind 2013). gundelia currently belongs within the sunflower family (asteraceae) and most authorities currently place the genus within the same tribe as lettuce and chicory (funk et al. 2009). however, while it shares the latex-producing canals diagnostic of this tribe, its florets and the overall structure of the head are dissimilar to other close lettuce relatives and some authorities prefer to keep gundelia in its own tribe (hind 2013). capitula (heads) are the norm in the asteraceae and represent the compression of multiple flowers (florets) into a single flower-like structure. this tendency to compress structures can continue, with multiple capitula again condensing into a single structure and finally, very rarely a third-order structure appears. gundelia is one of only 4 genera in the family (with over 1600 genera) with tertiary capitula (harris 1999). defined as a monospecific genus for many years, gundelia tournefortii (named by linneus in 1753 for the german and french botanists who collected it on an expedition between 1700 and 1702 [hind 2013]), varieties have recently been designated as 16 species, 10 of which are endemic to turkey, and all of which are diploids with 2n =18 chromosomes (genç and firat 2019). it’s range essentially tracks with that of the fertile crescent, with the top countries with occurrence records on gbif being israel, palestine, iran, turkey, and syria (global biodiversity information facility 2022. van tassel et al. 2025. ethnobiology letters 16(1):82–92 85 research communications category documented traditional uses, historical and contemporary research into potential new and expanded uses food vegetable ethnobotanical surveys of local people in iran (yazdanshen et al. 2016), and turkey (ertu 2003; cakilcioglu 2020; kadioglu et al. 2020; yurtoğlu 2017) have documented many indigenous uses of gundelia as food. leaves may be eaten cooked and young leaves eaten raw. the peeled young shoots and inflorescence buds are considered a kind of artichoke in turkey (yazdanshen et al. 2016) while early european botanical explorers likened this vegetable to asparagus (hind 2013). the roots are eaten as pickles, and plant extracts are mixed with milk during yoghurt fermentation (cakilcioglu 2020) or as medicines (ertu 2003). the immature flower buds, part of the artichoke-like vegetable that is stewed in the most well-known and economically important use of gundelia (pieroni 2005) turns out to be nutritious as well as delicious: 13% protein and 16% lipid. it is also a good source of tocopherol (vitamin e). searching for local ingredients that could substitute for conventional ice cream stabilizers, gundelia extracts were considered but not found to be functionally equivalent (cakmakci and dagdemir 2013). food other cakilcioglu (2020) describes a method to produce chewing gum that involves severing the plant’s stems at groundlevel and collecting the exuded latex from the soil surface the next morning. finally, the seed-containing fruits (herafter “grains”) are roasted for two main uses. first, pan roasting 5-10 minutes in olive oil and salt (kadioglu et al. 2020) to singe the spines off of the hull (gillett, j. 1911–1995, annotations on herbarium sheets, reported by (hind 2013), allows them to be eaten as a snack (cakilcioglu 2020) “like sunflower seeds” (yazdanshen et al. 2016). second, the roasted seeds can be used as a coffee substitute (cakilcioglu 2020; hind 2013). pollination is by insects, including honeybees (hind 2013), implying that this plant could be valuable for apiculture, where wild harvesting pressure is weak enough to allow flowering. food oilseed grain although this genus has been exclusively harvested from the wild until very recently, it may have once been on the verge of domestication as an oilseed crop, as early neolithic archaeological remains in iraq and turkey indicate gathering, threshing, and oil extraction (hind 2013; pieroni 2005; rivera et al. 2011; rosenberg et al. 1995; savard et al. 2003) several workers have investigated the quantity and quality of oil in wild-harvested gundelia grain and while the specific details vary, presumably due to environmental and genetic differences, the general consensus is that the oil is similar to sunflower and soybean: rich in oleic and, especially, linoleic fatty acids (abdul and hamd 2012; al-saadi 2017; khanzadeh et al. 2012). the percent lipid content of the true seed (embryo) ranged from 22 to 32% but when considering the whole grain, the hull (pericarp) composes 70% of the mass. for perspective, oilseed sunflower embryos are 40-60% oil and the hull is only about 20% of the mass of the entire grain (fruit) (rondanini et al. 2006). khanzade studied other physical and chemical characteristics of extracted gundelia oil and concluded that it was within the range of other major vegetable oils for all important characters and could serve as an edible oil (khanzadeh et al. 2012). table 1 gundelia traditional uses by category and potential new and expanded research uses. continued on next page van tassel et al. 2025. ethnobiology letters 16(1):82–92 86 research communications and $21.79/kg. for fully cleaned gundelia (80 israeli shekels per kilogram) in ramallah vegetable shops. the latter costs about the same per kilogram as fresh lamb, the most expensive meat. future domestication challenges intentional harvesting of gundelia may over time lead to altered natural selection pressure with allele frequency shifts resulting, eventually, in populations that make it easier for humans to take over the role of seed dispersal (van tassel et al. 2010). in palestine, neighboring plants may bolt and mature at quite different times, leading to speculation that heavy seasonal harvesting pressure has led to divergent selection for early or late bolting to escape harvest (lev-yadun and abbo 1999). co-evolution in domestication (mostly cultural on the human side, mostly genetic on the plant side) is a natural and common evolutionary process (van tassel et al. 2020). however, it is likely to be very slow, particularly in the case of perennial crops that need only occasional replanting (van tassel et al. 2010). consequently, artificial selection of gundelia—in which humans decide which plants to preserve and intermate based on traits important to them rather than evolutionary fitness or chance—can result in more rapid genetic change (darwin 1859). artificial selection of gundelia has been proposed several times in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. the international plant genetic resources institute supported a study in lebanon to look at its domestication and cultivation to release pressure on wild populations while generating income category documented traditional uses, historical and contemporary research into potential new and expanded uses fodder although the prickly foliage clearly deters sheep browsing leading to “invasion” of gundelia in areas with long histories of intensive sheep grazing (khojasted and chahouki 2013), goats browse gundelia, even after the foliage is brown, targeting the seedbearing heads first. herders have been known to gather gundelia as hay for ruminants, including camels. (karabulut et al. 2006) in times of fodder scarcity. it has also been used as a winter fodder in turkey when dried (rivera et al. 2011). although sheep avoid gundelia on pasture, leading to overgrazing of grasses (khojasted and chahouki 2013), dried, ground gundelia can be substituted for alfalfa hay in sheep rations with no statistically significant reduction in performance (dehghani-samani et al. 2019). evidence of its use as a winter forage has been documented (rivera et al. 2011) in laboratory and in-vivo digestion analysis. gundelia hay outperformed wheat straw nutritionally in every category and was not significantly different than alfalfa, except in having slightly less protein but slightly higher metabolizable energy (karabulut et al. 2006). medicinal many references to medicinal uses of gundelia can be found in the ethnobotanical literature (samani et al. 2013) but are beyond the scope of this paper. numerous phytochemical analyses have been made of gundelia extracts and this literature, e.g. (de la luz cádiz-gurrea et al. 2020; farhang et al. 2016) which we will not review here, could lead to new pharmaceutical uses of gundelia. more relevant to this discussion are studies indicating that gundelia oil, grain or vegetation is safe or even beneficial. we are unaware of any human subjects’ studies, but rat and in-vitro cell studies suggest that gundelia has antioxidant properties that could be hepatoprotective (al-kadhi 2020; çoruh et al. 2007). atherosclerotic rats given gundelia oil began to show improvement in total blood lipids and in high vs. low density lipoprotein ratio (hdl:ldl) although the improvement was not as dramatic as with the antilipidemic drug clofibrate. this is good news because gundelia fatty acids are 8-13% palmitic acid, a saturated fatty acid sometimes associated with cardiovascular disease but, confusingly, also found at similar levels in foods considered healthy such as olive oil and at very high levels in human breast milk (reviewed in carta et al. 2017). continued from previous page van tassel et al. 2025. ethnobiology letters 16(1):82–92 87 research communications opportunities for local communities (padulosi and guiliani 2004). lev-yadun and abbo (1999) initiated a selection and breeding program to identify spineless gundelia for vegetable production. however, we have been unable to find evidence that these programs were pursued long enough to develop improved gundelia varieties. challenges to accelerating domestication to support new and expanded uses of gundelia are primarily agronomic and genetic. although a grassroots movement to bring gundelia into cultivation has begun, knowledge gained about agronomic practices is not readily available and formal studies are needed to guide farmer innovation. although the popularity of gundelia as an ingredient in many cuisines suggests that the genus needs no genetic change to be accepted by consumers, bringing this wild plant into cultivation may be facilitated by genetic changes that make it easier to agronomically manage and harvest. other kinds of genetic changes may be required to allow this crop to survive and thrive in a new agricultural environment. cultivated gardens and fields are generally located on relatively fertile soils in the best sites for plant productivity, while irrigation and fertilization create new environmental conditions. the cultivation environment will inevitably include many more gundelia plants and humans serving in a new role. challenges to be considered to accelerate domestication in new environments include: • abiotic stresses: gundelia appears to be broadly adapted with tolerance of many stresses including heat, drought, rocky soil, and possibly salinity (qasem 2015), but relaxing one or more of these stresses may greatly increase plant productivity. it will be important to count against the increased productivity, the economic and ecological costs of supplying inputs such as nitrogenous fertilizers or irrigation water. • harvest stress: the impact of removing a large part of the plant’s aboveground biomass including young leaves on plant survival and regrowth has not been studied. to grow this as a perennial crop, it will be important to identify the frequency of stalk or leaf removal beyond which plants become weakened and vulnerable to pathogens or decline in the number of stalks produced each year. harvesting mature seed heads is likely to be less costly to plant underground reserves because it takes place later in the season after additional time for photosynthesis. • economic stress: as a wild plant unaccustomed to irrigation, the effects of drip irrigation in intensive production is unknown. irrigation regimes and their costs must be understood and the yield and profit potential in comparison to rainfed production must be weighed in future research. • biotic stress: widely spaced wild-grown plants may experience relatively few pests and pathogens. however, under cultivation, increased plant populations and population density may allow insect herbivores or fungi to flourish and become agricultural pests and pathogens. these pest and pathogens must be identified, their lifecycles studied, and effective management strategies designed (lev-yadun and abbo 1999). finally, as discussed below, efforts to accelerate domestication that address these challenges require as a prerequisite available genetic diversity in selection populations. future domestication opportunities the contemporary cultural significance of gundelia could serve as an important driver to advance the agronomic and genetic domestication of this mediterranean plant for new and expanded uses (van tassel et al. 2020; table 1). we envision new crop domestication toward a dual-purpose vegetable and oilseed grain crop that helps grow food system diversity and sovereignty at local and regional scales, by providing nutrition, cultural and economic value through multipurpose use, and an ecologically welladapted perennial life habit that is more resilient in the face of climate change (streit krug et al. 2023). the most obvious genetic change that would make gundelia easier to cultivate and harvest would be reduction in spines. fortunately, phenotypic variation for this trait has been observed, suggesting that genetic variation may also be present within or between gundelia populations (lev-yadun and abbo 1999). another selection target could be the phenology of bolting. cultivars with different bolting times could be developed to extend the vegetable harvest period. although acceptable laboratory methods of breaking seed dormancy have been van tassel et al. 2025. ethnobiology letters 16(1):82–92 88 research communications developed, in the long-term, selection for nondormant will make it easier for farmers to save their own seed and to make stand establishment more predictable. for production of seed to propagate new varieties and for the long-term goal of using gundelia as a perennial oilseed similar to sunflower or safflower, the tumbleweed habit may need to be altered, allowing stalks to stand in the field until harvest without the risk of blowing away and scattering seeds on the ground. the dependence of gundelia seed dispersal on inversion of the stalks during rolling could mean that disrupting the main stalk abscission will be enough to reduce seed shattering to acceptable levels. to facilitate both manual and mechanical seed head harvesting, erect stalks will be preferred and under favorable conditions it is possible that gundelia plants may grow much taller than they do in highly competitive plant communities on marginal soils. breeding for reduced height may be necessary along with breeding for increased distance between the seed head and the leaves. one strategy for increasing yield of gundelia under cultivation will be to grow these plants at high density. however, it remains to be seen if gundelia will tolerate intraspecific competition. grain yield can be increased by selection for plants with more numerous stalks, larger synflorescences with more florets, increased proportion of florets that develop viable seed, increased grain size, and a relative increase in the seed (embryo) to hull (pericarp) ratio of the harvested grain. oil yield will be improved by any of these components of grain yield and increased percent oil content of the embryo. finally, gundelia domesticators should be prepared to select for host plant resistance to insect pests and pathogens as these appear. it may be impossible beforehand to predict which pests and pathogens will take advantage of cultivated gundelia populations, but it is quite possible that there are already regions or micro-environments where endemic gundelia populations have already been coevolving with these organisms. these populations could be harboring important resistance genes that confer defensive traits. therefore, extensive collection of wild germplasm from throughout gundelia’s range is critical. discussion of gundelia conservation collection and conservation of diverse germplasm is foundational to support domestication of gundelia as a future crop with new and expanded uses. the ecological and political pressures on gundelia across its native mediterranean range also means that international collaboration is required to enable collection and conservation processes and the accessibility of diverse germplasm to domesticators. the combined pressures of climate change and harvesting under conditions of political and ecological stress may make conservation of gundelia genetic resources increasingly difficult. seeds from wild population and (rarely) cultivated populations must be collected and maintained by international gene banks and made available for farmers and agronomists around the region. gundelia is native to 16 countries encompassing a huge range of habitats and requiring numerous wild collections to adequately represent the potential genetic variation. as the line between varieties of g. tournefortii and distinct species is ever changing, and as all taxa studied thus far have the same chromosome number, it would be wise to consider all species and varieties to be part of the primary gene pool until demonstrated otherwise. conservation of wild types is crucial for building a botanical base for future crop development. while some researchers are concerned about increasing gundelia in parts of iran (khojasted and chahouki 2013), the genus is characterized as endangered in cyprus (hind 2013), threatened by unsustainable harvesting in lebanon (padulosi and giuliani 2004) and concern about declining populations has led to harvesting restrictions in israel and palestine (hind 2013; lev-yadun and abbo 1999). given the plant’s spiny defenses, heavy grazing pressure leads to declines in grass vigor and population density which reduces competition with gundelia leading to corresponding population increase. in contrast, where human population density is high and human harvesting pressure is greater than grazing pressure, gundelia is preferentially weakened through repeated harvesting and prevented from producing seeds by the removal of immature seed heads. exacerbating harvesting pressure around palestinian villages and cities is military zoning that makes large areas off limits for palestinians. legitimate conservation efforts are confounded and van tassel et al. 2025. ethnobiology letters 16(1):82–92 89 research communications undermined by political pressure on israeli governments to expand settlements and palestinian resistance to loss of land access and sovereignty (kamisher 2018; rubin 2020). currently, the svalbard global seed vault contains a single accession of gundelia, and only four accessions are available through the seed bank (kew royal botanic gardens 2021; svalbard global seed vault 2021). the international plant genetic resources institute (ipgri) reported having collected 82 accessions of gundelia from syria (padulosi and giuliani 2004). however, this organization has merged with other organizations, and it is not clear if these accessions have been maintained or are available. genesys lists 44 accessions in various national and international repositories, but it is not clear how many of these are viable or available for distribution (the crop trust 2021). in terms of occurrence records, the global biodiversity information facility (gbif) database shows only 2,303 records at the time of writing with the top five countries being israel, palestine, iran, turkey, and syria, though data is limited to information available from ministries (global biodiversity information facility 2022). to maintain rare allele combinations from local populations it will be necessary to propagate these outcrossing wild accessions in isolation plots or by controlled pollination. this requires basic infrastructure and access to research areas which are not available in much of the native range of the gundelia. conservation and propagation efforts have been underway in palestine since at least 2015 by individual farmers, local organizations, and research groups including this group and the national agricultural research center of the ministry of agriculture (tesdell et al. 2020). preliminary evidence from makaneyyat shows very high seed germination of accessions from the collection, which is important as strong seed dormancy must be addressed for successful propagation of gundelia by seed for conservation or cultivation. but such efforts face questions and limitations of scale. there is significant difficulty in moving germplasm in and out of the palestinian west bank, and due to lack of clarity of status under international conventions, diverse collections in palestine may be excluded from collections in agricultural research centers outside of palestine (e.g., international center for agricultural research in the dry areas, united states department of agriculture germplasm resources information network) that could form the basis for domestication programs. gundelia has a rich cultural tradition of historical and contemporary use and valuation by humans. for this perennial plant to play a role in future food cultures, strategic and creative collaborations across borders will be important to sustain local and regional community plant knowledge, conserve accessible germplasm collections, and explore opportunities for new and accelerated crop domestication. acknowledgments the authors acknowledge the rich plant and cultural heritage in palestine and aim to responsibly document it through the knowledge that has been shared. declarations permissions: none declared. sources of funding: this work was supported by funds from the palestinian american research center. conflicts of interest: the authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest. references 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represents the collective wisdom, practices, and beliefs, passed down orally from generation to generation. lek encompasses the understanding of the intricate relationship between beings and their environment, including how these relationships have evolved in response to socio-historical changes within local populations (fogliarini et al. 2021; reyes-garcía et al. 2007). despite their distinct epistemological foundations, the lek of artisanal fishers can provide valuable insights that are not accessible through traditional biological approaches. as a result, it can complement and be considered on equal footing with scientific biological knowledge (albuquerque et al. 2020). ethnobiology incorporates both emic information, which comprises concepts specific to local populations, and etic information, which introduction artisanal fishing communities self-identify as a traditional and cultural group, manage the development of their own economic activities, and deep social and historical connections to the territory (giraldi and hanazaki 2010). in the sepetiba bay, a semi-enclosed area spanning 450 m2 on the southeastern coast of brazil, fishing serves as a subsistence activity for the local traditional community. as such, artisanal fishers maintain an ecological and cultural relationship with fishing. according to begossi (2014), artisanal fishers and their families have relied on fish for both commercial purposes and personal consumption since the 1950s. scientific knowledge has been enriched and compared with local ecological knowledge (lek), local ecological knowledge of the whitemouth croaker, micropologias furneri among the caiçaras in the sepetiba bay, se brazil claudio n. morado1, magda f. de andrade-tubino1, benjamin c. t. pinto2, and francisco g. araújo1* 1laboratório de ecologia de peixes, universidade federal rural do rio de janeiro, km 7, br 465, 23890-000, seropédica, rio de janeiro, brazil. 2departamento de teoria e planejamento do ensino, universidade federal rural do rio de janeiro, seropédica, rio de janeiro, brazil. *gerson@ufrrj.br abstract local ecological knowledge of artisanal fishers (caiçaras) was employed to investigate various biological aspects of the whitemouth croaker (micropogonias furnieri) in the sepetiba bay, in the state of rio de janeiro. this included migration patterns, reproduction, feeding habits, and interactions such as parasitism. semi-structured interviews were carried out with 40 fishers in two communities using the “snowball” technique. it was found that the fisher’s information coincides with the academic literature for some aspects of the biology and ecology of the species. furthermore, the fishers provided descriptions of novel patterns, which contributed to a deeper understanding of the species' natural history. these included observations of reproduction occurring almost throughout the entire year, the influence of east and north winds on the species' entry into the bay, interactions with marine catfish (ariidae), and notable records of the isopod cymothoidae as an important parasite of the whitemouth croaker. this study contributes new insights to the ecological understanding of this fish species, which holds significant socio-environmental importance. it also documents changes in the livelihoods of artisanal caiçaras communities resulting from the increasing anthropogenic activities in the region. finally, it highlights the species' significance in terms of its sale and consumption within these communities, owing to its relative abundance in the area, despite the environmental impacts. open access doi 10.14237/ebl.15.1.2024.1857 received february 3, 2023 accepted september 8, 2023 published march 9, 2024 keywords fish biology, artisanal fisheries, parasites, ethnoichthyology copyright © 2024 by the author(s); licensee society of ethnobiology. this is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution-noncommercial 4.0 international public license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0), which permits non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. morado et al. 2024. ethnobiology letters 15(1):1–15 2 data, methods & taxonomies encompasses the scientific perspectives and values of researchers (shagrir 2017). this study aims to analyze the lek of artisanal fishers regarding the whitemouth croaker (micropogonias furnieri). the specific focus is on migration, reproduction, feeding, and parasitism, with the aim of identifying convergences between popular and scientific knowledge. by doing so, the study intends to provide complementary insights that might have been overlooked by existing biological information. by doing so, it contributes to a more comprehensive understanding of this fish species, which holds significant socio-environmental importance. additionally, we include ethnographic records of the cultural aspects associated with the whitemouth croaker within the caiçaras communities, the local artisanal fishers residing in sepetiba bay. these records highlight the traditional fisheries, utilization, and significance of this species within these communities. methods study location sepetiba bay, located at coordinates 22°54′–23°04′s; 43°34′–44°10′w (figure 1), is an elliptically shaped coastal feature spanning an area of 450 km2 in the coast of the rio de janeiro state, se brazil (kjerfve et al. 2021). the coastline is bordered by the marambaia double sand barrier also known as the marambaia sandbank, which stretches for approximately 40 km. this sand barrier has an average width of 5 km and rises only a few meters above sea level, effectively separating the coastline from the south atlantic ocean (kjerfve et al. 2021). the formation of the bay creates a natural breeding ground for numerous species within its mangrove areas and estuarine zones. fishing activities play a vital role in the economic and social support of the region. furthermore, the bay's waters serve as a habitat for preserving diverse fauna and flora, while also providing opportunities for recreation, figure 1 sepetiba bay with indication of the two locations (ilha da madeira and pedra de guaratiba) of the interviews with artisanal fishers. morado et al. 2024. ethnobiology letters 15(1):1–15 3 data, methods & taxonomies navigation, and tourism. the region's scenic beauty, featuring waterfalls and islands, offers enticing areas for visitors to explore and enjoy (ottoni 2018). the most recent human interventions in the bay include the expansion of the sepetiba port, which involved dredging the access channel to a depth of 20 meters. additionally, a significant steel factory was constructed in 2010, followed by the establishment of a submarine building terminal in 2013 (araújo et al. 2016). fishers the southeastern coast of brazil is home to a group of artisanal fishers known as caiçaras (figure 2 c, e, g). they are descendants of the indigenous tubinambá tribe and portuguese settlers. additionally, their cultural heritage bears influence from other diverse backgrounds, including african and japanese traditions. the caiçaras have successfully sustained their way of life by responsibly utilizing natural resources, thereby preserving a territory abundant in both biological and cultural diversity. for centuries, they have occupied these spaces without causing degradation or harm to the environment (nogara 2003). over time, the caiçaras have witnessed shifts in their economic activity. initially, they engaged in agricultural pursuits, particularly the cultivation of manioc for flour production, rice, bean, cane, banana, coffee, corn, and different types of fruits. they typically exploit environmental resources for personal consumption, such as artisanal fishing, a practice observed from the beginning of the last century until the mid-1950s (maciel 2011). in more recent times, tourism has emerged as their primary activity (begossi 2006). their primary protein source is fish, which are caught using gillnets, hooks, and lines to target fish, shrimps, and squids (begossi 1996). in pedra de guaratiba, there is a traditional fishing method practiced by indigenous people known as “curral” or “cercada.” this method involves constructing a trap using wooden logs, bamboo, and canvas (figure 2a, b). according to the fundação instituto de pesca do estado do rio de janeiro (fiperj), in 2010, fishing vessels in the state of the rio de janeiro are either affiliated with one of the 25 fishing colonies or are associated with the union of fishers shipowners of the state of rio de janeiro (fiperj 2020). despite the existence of these institutionalized fishing organizations, it has always been challenging for artisanal fishers to join, as it requires affiliation with figure 2 a this photograph depicts a miniature version of a large fishing trap known as a “curral” or “cercada,” skillfully crafted by a caiçara artisanal fisher from pedra de guaratiba. the trap consists of three sections: 1) “espia,” 2) “sala,” and 3) “chiqueiro,” with the latter being the specific location where fish are caught during the “despesca” process. the photo, taken by claudio nona morado in 2018, showcases the intricate details of the trap. b another image captured by an artisanal fisher from pedra de guaratiba in 2018 shows the fishers engaged in the “despesca” activity, with the picturesque marambaia sandbank forming the background. morado et al. 2024. ethnobiology letters 15(1):1–15 4 data, methods & taxonomies figure 3 in these photographs taken by claudio nona morado (2018, 2019), we can observe various elements related to artisanal fishing practices. a a wooden “caique” or “caico” is depicted alongside wooden logs used in the construction of fishing “curral” or “cercada,” with the scenic marambaia sandbank in the background. b a “baleeira” boat is captured against the backdrop of the marambaia sandbank. c artisanal fishers (caiçaras) from pedra de guaratiba return from their fishing expedition in a “caique” or “caico,” accompanied by a “baleeira” and bamboo, which will be utilized in the construction of a “curral” or “cercada.” the marambaia sandbank forms a striking backdrop. d a traditional canoe is shown. e artisanal fishers (caiçaras) from ilha da madeira (a) are seen preparing their fishing nets. f a “caique” or “caico” and a canoe from the fisher colony of ilha da madeira island are depicted. g a “lanchinha” boat and fishers (caiçaras) from ilha da madeira are captured in the photograph. h a “baleeira” boat from ilha da madeira is shown, with a submarine building terminal visible in the background. morado et al. 2024. ethnobiology letters 15(1):1–15 5 data, methods & taxonomies specific colonies and associations. as a result, fishers operating outside the institutional framework remain even more marginalized and overlooked (silva and suiama 2018). within the sepetiba bay, there are three colonies of artisanal fishers, comprising 3,500 registered fishers and it is estimated that there are an additional 1,500 non-members (silva and suiama, 2018). recently, there has been a significant increase in industrial fishing activities along the south-eastern coast of brazil, leading to conflicts with artisanal fisheries (begossi et al. 2017). the fishing fleet operating in this region consists of small, medium, and large vessels from states including rio de janeiro, espírito santo, são paulo, and santa catarina (figure 3). these photographs offer a glimpse into the fishing activities carried out by the caiçaras fishers from pedra de guaratiba and ilha da madeira, showcasing the various vessels, tools, and settings involved in their traditional practices. the establishment of port terminals results in the creation of designated “safety zones,” spanning 500 meters on each side of the landing and berthing pier. these zones effectively become private spaces, restricting the utilization of maritime territory and giving rise to fishing exclusion zones. consequently, artisanal fishing activities in these areas are constrained, as outlined in the study by silva and suiama (2018). the fish the whitemouth croaker (figure 4) has a wide distribution range, spanning from the yucatán peninsula (mexico, 28ºn) to the gulf of san matías (argentina, 41ºs) (cousseau and perrota 2013). this broad distribution can be attributed to the eurythermal and euryhaline characteristics of the species, enabling it to adapt to various habitats, exhibit reproductive plasticity (franco et al. 2019), and display trophic plasticity (martins et al. 2017). the species' diverse feeding habits suggest its potential participation as an intermediate or definitive host in parasitic transmission systems in tropical regions (marcogliese 2002). the whitemouth croaker holds significant importance as a traditional demersal resource in estuarine areas of the southeastern and southern coasts of brazil, constituting a crucial component of artisanal fisheries (haimovici and cardoso 2016). it has consistently ranked among the most abundant fish species in the sepetiba bay for several decades (araújo et al. 2018; costa and araújo 2003) and currently represents the primary target species for artisanal fishers in the bay (morado et al. 2023). data collection the selection of informant fishers for this study utilized the “snowball” technique (albuquerque et al. 2014). the initial artisanal fishers interviewed provided referrals to other local fishing specialists. a total of 40 fishers from two communities were interviewed, with 20 fishers from each community. the interviews were conducted using semi-structured questionnaires with predefined questions of interest (huntington 2000). this approach allowed for further exploration of new topics that emerge during the interviews (albuquerque et al. 2014). figure 4 the photograph captured by claudio nona morado (2019) showcases a whitemouth croaker caught by artisanal fishers from sepetiba bay. morado et al. 2024. ethnobiology letters 15(1):1–15 6 data, methods & taxonomies the interviews covered various topics, including migration, reproduction, food, and interactions, such as parasitism. they were conducted between november 2017 and january 2019 (table 1). prior consent was obtained from the participants, and they signed the informed consent form, following the biological and ecological aspects addressed questions migration reproduction what is the ideal condition for whitemouth croaker to migrate? how big does the whitemouth croaker get? what is the approximate size of the whitemouth croaker at the time of the first maturation? when does whitemouth croaker spawn? where are the whitemouth croaker’s spawning sites? how does whitemouth croaker reproduce? food and interactions what does whitemouth croaker feed on? how do whitemouth croaker interact (behavior with the group)? is there any kind of interaction between whitemouth croaker and other fish species? do you know any type of parasite or whitemouth croaker disease? table 1 the semi-structured questionnaire with the main points of the interviews. emic etic baleeria small trawler, 6 to 8 m long, with cabin and engine. baratinha, pulgão, tatuizinho fish parasitic isopod of the family cymothoidae. bate poita launching a heavy object (iron ball or stone) in the center of an area surrounded by the net, scaring the fish towards the net. caceia type of fishing that consists of leaving the net loose, with one of its ends tied to the vessel. caique ou caico wooden or fiberglass boat, measuring between 4 and 4.5 m. calmaria da restinga inner area of marambaia sandbank, with good weather. cerco type of fishing that consists of surrounding the shoal with a net and throwing a heavy object in the center, directing the fish to the net. chiqueiro terminal area of the large fishing trap, which serves for the effective capture of fish, called despesca. curral ou cercada large fishing trap. type of indigenous peoples fishing, which consists of a large trap with several pieces forming specific compartments, with textures of wooden logs, bamboo sticks, vegetable vines and mats. they have one entrance that allows only big fish to get in, as the small ones escape through the fence. they were first built by the indigenous people to catch migratory species, such as mullet. this type of fishing was common in several places in sepetiba bay, but currently it continues to occur only in pedra de guaratiba, bordering the marambaia sandbank. espia initial section of the larger fishing trap formed by a straight line that serves to direct the shoals towards the interior of the trap. inside pega ovada in the inner zone of the bay, it captures whitemouth croaker females in the reproductive phase. lanchinha aluminum or fiberglass vessel with a more modern design, ranging in size from 4 to 7 m. in the communities studied, it is also used for tourism and sport fishing, this last one mainly on ilha da madeira. middle of the water water column. peixe de fundo demersal species ronca emits sound sala central area of the fish corral, being the place where the school is when it enters the trap, before going to the chiqueiro. table 2 expressions specific to the local ecological knowledge of artisanal fishers (emic) and to scientific knowledge (etic) in the sepetiba bay. morado et al. 2024. ethnobiology letters 15(1):1–15 7 data, methods & taxonomies ethical guidelines approved by the committee of ethics in research in human beings from the castelo branco university (approval number 3,089,110). consistent with the methodology outlined by herbst and hanazaki (2014), the interviews were transcribed and organized into a database spreadsheet. analyses the collected data were carefully selected, condensed, and subject to qualitative analysis. this qualitative analysis aimed to comprehend the meanings and situational characteristics expressed by the interviewers (marconi and lakatos 2010). additionally, a quantitative analysis was performed, examining measures such as means and frequencies. the analysis sought to provide a descriptive comparison between local ecological knowledge table 3 number of citations of environmental conditions and respective behavior of the whitemouth croaker associated with reproduction and interactions with other species in the sepetiba bay, according to lek. indicator citations detailed description environmental conditions north and east winds (warmer weather) 06 “north and east winds favor this species to enter the bay or stay near the islands.” (fisher from pedra de guaratiba, 38 years old) high tide 04 “it comes at high tide: it's in the ‘middle of the water’ and up at the moment—'half water’.” (fisher from ilha da madeira, 41 years old) food in the estuaries 01 “it comes when there is food in the estuaries.” (fisher from ilha da madeira, 49 years old) full moon 01 “full moon favors the fish enter the bay.” (fisher from ilha da madeira, 68 years old) how do you know when the shoals are coming? produce sound 11 “listen to their noise.” (fisher from pedra de guaratiba, 53 years old). “'noise of your ‘snoring’, i already know that.” (fisher from ilha da madeira, 72 years old) high tide 02 “tide starts to fill up starts to ‘talk’.” (fisher from ilha da madeira, 69 years old) time of the year 01 “mostly in august.” (fisher from ilha da madeira, 64 years old) interactions (behavior with the group) they are in the background 11 “they stay deeper.” (fisher from ilha da madeira, 52 years old) produce an audible sound from the boat 08 “they ‘speak’ in the shoal.” (fisher from ilha da madeira, 50 years old) produces odor 02 “you know by smell.” (fisher from ilha da madeira, 43 years old) eat and vomit 01 “they eat and vomit, forming ‘dead waters’.” (fisher from pedra de guaratiba, 62 years old) capture period whole year 15 “all year round.” (fisher from pedra de guaratiba, 66 years old) summer 07 “all year round, but more in the summer.” (fisher from ilha da madeira, 68 years old) winter 07 “in the cold.”' (fisher from pedra de guaratiba, 79 years old) interactions with other fish species catfish ariidae 11 “with the catfish at the bottom: the catfish turns into mud and ‘digs’, and the croaker eats the ‘worms’ that appear.” (fisher from pedra de guaratiba, 64 years old) dolphin (sotalia guianenses; s. fluviatilis) 03 “dolphin attacks croaker.” (fisher from pedra de guaratiba, 53 years old) white mullet mugil curema 03 “enough fishing for parati.” (fisher from pedra de guaratiba, 58 years old) acoupa weakfish (cynoscion acoupa) 02 “corvina and yellow hake ‘walk’ with the catfish to eat their roe.” (fisher from ilha da madeira, 41 years old). round sardinella (sardinella aurita) 02 “sardine maromba.” (fisher from ilha da madeira, 68 years old) shark (elasmobranchii) 01 “shark and dolphin feed on them.” (fisher from ilha da madeira, 52 years old) sand drum (umbrina coroides) 01 “betara keeps the white corvine, the betara is almost like the croaker.” (fisher from ilha da madeira, 33 years old) morado et al. 2024. ethnobiology letters 15(1):1–15 8 data, methods & taxonomies (lek) and scientific ecological knowledge, highlighting promising perspectives on topics including migration, reproduction, feeding, and interactions (e.g., parasitism). interestingly, it is in instances where lek diverges from biological knowledge that its greatest contribution arises. at this juncture, lek unveils new insights and presents avenues for further investigation. thus, these two epistemologies complement one another, supporting the concept of an “ecology of knowledge,” as developed by santos and meneses (2009). this concept underscores the idea that knowledge is interdependent, recognizing that each epistemology alone is incomplete. we compared the responses provided by the fishers and calculated the frequencies and proportions of occurrences where fishers mentioned similar patterns. for qualitative approach, textual analyses were conducted for certain questions. to accomplish this, the free software interface de r pour les analyzes multidimensionales by textes et de questionnaires (iramuteq) (ratinaud 2009) was utilized. this software utilizes functionalities provided by the statistical software r to perform statistical analyses and assists in organizing, separating, and encoding data. the software employs text lemmatization, which allows words to be searched and related based on their root, disregarding verb tense, gender, and plurality (kami et al. 2016). the summary of information contained in the similarity matrix is graphically represented in a tree structure. results various typical expressions utilized by artisanal fishers from the two communities in sepetiba bay were documented (table 2). these expressions are associated with the whitemouth croaker or various aspects of fishing for this particular fish species. some fishers noted that the presence of north and east winds, which are associated with warmer waters, along with the beach sea conditions, is correlated with table 4 reproductive indicators of the whitemouth croaker according to the lek. indicator citations detailed description size (mm) mean ± standard deviation maximum size 31 700 mm ± 40 mm minimum spawning size 29 340 mm ± 15 mm reproductive period descriptions summer 13 “mostly in summer.” (fisher from pedra de guaratiba, 64 years old) whole year 11 “all year round.” (fisher from ilha da madeira, 52 years old) winter 03 “winter.” (fisher from ilha da madeira, 67 years old) breeding sites marambaia sandbank 05 “calmaria da restinga.” (fisher from pedra de guaratiba, 66 years old) mangroves 04 “at the bottom of the bay, closer to the mangrove swamp.” (fisher from pedra de guaratiba, 62 years old) rivers 03 “on the rivers: mouth of são francisco, guandu and itaguaí rivers. enter to spawn.” (fisher from ilha da madeira, 53 years old) mud 02 “near mud.” (fisher from pedra de guaratiba, 62 years old) open sea 01 “open sea.” (fisher from pedra de guaratiba, 57 anos) reproductive process enter the river to spawn 06 “it goes to the slopes of the rivers, now silted up, probably on the wharf, because it has a protected area.” (fisher from pedra de guaratiba, 65 years old) go to the mangroves 04 “they look for mangroves. the rivers are silted up, shallow, making reproduction difficult.” (fisher from pedra de guaratiba, 66 years old) shallow and warm water 02 “they look for shallow and warm water.” (fisher from pedra de guaratiba, 64 years old) spawn in the bay 02 “spawning all over the bay.” (fisher from ilha da madeira, 67 years old) in august 01 “in august the croaker approaches the entrance to the bay to spawn.” (fisher from ilha da madeira, 49 years old) inside (inner zone) 01 “inside (internal area) pega ovada.” (fisher from ilha da madeira, 58 years old) it reproduces in the “sand”, where there is sand 01 “it reproduces in the sand, where there is sand.” (fisher from ilha da madeira, 69 years old) open sea 01 “open sea.” (fisher from pedra de guaratiba, 57 years old) it enters the bay to spawn 01 “it enters the bay to spawn because it has more food to reproduce.” (fisher from pedra de guaratiba, 51 years old) morado et al. 2024. ethnobiology letters 15(1):1–15 9 data, methods & taxonomies a higher abundance of the whitemouth croaker in the bay (table 3). it was observed that the species emits sounds and tends to inhabit deeper areas (table 3). according to the fishers, artisanal fishing for the species occurs almost throughout the year (table 3). the fishers also reported interactions between the whitemouth croaker and other species in the bay, such as marine catfishes from the ariidae family (table 3). the whitemouth croaker was reported to reach a maximum size of approximately 70 cm (± 40 cm standard deviation), while the minimum size of mature individuals ready for reproduction averaged around 34 cm (± 15 cm) (table 4). according to fishers, the species engages in reproductive activities throughout the year, with a preference for the summer season (table 4). fishers indicate that the innermost part of the bay, the mangroves, and the lower river reaches are preferred spawning sites for this species (table 4). this behavior is considered by fishers as one of the key characteristics of the whitemouth croaker´s reproductive process in sepetiba bay (table 4). the primary food sources mentioned by the fishers were sardines and shrimp (table 5). fishers identified the presence of parasites as the main health issue affecting the species, referring to them using ethnotaxonomic terms such as baratinha (cockroach), pulgão (aphid), or tatuizinho (small armadillo). according to the interviewees, these parasites resemble white or yellow water cockroaches, aphids, or small armadillos, measuring approximately 1 to 2 cm in size. they attach themselves to the fish's gills, mouth, or tongue, with only one parasite per fish (table 6). by analyzing the textual corpus containing the responses of artisanal fishers to questions regarding the fish utilization and fishing techniques associated with the whitemouth croaker, the results of indicator (food) citations detailed description sardine 13 “sardine.” (fisher from pedra de guaratiba, 66 years old) shrimp 12 “shrimp.” (fisher from ilha da madeira, 47 years old) seafood 09 “seafood, eat what's at the bottom.” (fisher from pedra de guaratiba, 49 years old) crustaceans 05 “crustaceans.” (fisher from ilha da madeira, 67 years old) algae 05 “algae.” (fisher from ilha da madeira, 52 years old) anchovies 04 “shrimp, anchovies and seafood.” (fisher from ilha da madeira, 68 years old) “little worms” (polychaetes) 03 “’earthworm’ that stays in the mud and sardines.” (fisher from ilha da madeira, 53 years old) barnacle 03 “barnacle.” (fisher from pedra de guaratiba, 62 years old) sludge 03 “seaweed and ‘sludge’ from the bottom.” (fisher from pedra de guaratiba, 52 years old) catfish roe 01 “catfish roe, shrimp, seafood, and barnacles.” (fisher from ilha da madeira, 41 years old) slime 01 “slime and seaweed.” (fisher from pedra de guaratiba, 53 years old) clay 01 “clay and gravel.” (fisher from pedra de guaratiba, 58 years old) gravel 01 “clay and gravel.” (fisher from pedra de guaratiba, 58 years old) shells 01 “shellfish, shells and sardines.” (fisher from pedra de guaratiba, 38 years old) oyster 01 “shrimp, seafood, oyster, clam.” (fisher from pedra de guaratiba, 65 years old) vongole 01 “shrimp, seafood, oyster, clam.” (fisher from pedra de guaratiba, 65 years old) table 5 feeding of the whitemouth croaker indicated by lek. table 6 parasitism and changes in health of the whitemouth croaker indicated by lek. indicator citations detailed description baratinha, pulgão, or tatuizinho 16 “baratinha clings to the mouth or gills, white and about 1 cm.” (fisher from ilha da madeira, 68 years old). “baratinha: it looks like a small armadillo that enters the mouth and it becomes weak and dies. it is white and measures about 2 cm.” (fisher from pedra de guaratiba, 38 years old). “pulgão that comes in and eats (he likes the sole a lot): a very small, yellow ‘bug’ eats the fish meat and sucks it.” (fisher from ilha da madeira, 52 years old) worm 06 “worm, roundworm, inside the body, white, up to three in the same animal. i have been observing this for about ten years.” (fisher from ilha da madeira, 50 years old). “earthworms: like an earthworm, 1 to 2 cm, ranging from white to red, more than 100 in the same animal, usually in large whitemouth croakers.” (fisher from pedra de guaratiba, 24 years old) injury 02 “they have mouth sores.” (fisher from ilha da madeira, 51 years old) slim 02 “lean meat, no blood, no color.” (fisher from ilha da madeira, 53 years old) morado et al. 2024. ethnobiology letters 15(1):1–15 10 data, methods & taxonomies classic textual statistics (etc) revealed the analysis of 40 texts. this analysis identified 42 text segments (st), 578 words occurrences, 224 different word forms, and 146 hapax (words that appear only once). the forms accounted for 65.18% of the total, while the occurrences represented 25.26% (figure 5). the term “sale and consumption” is positioned at the center of the representation, interconnected with other words, forming a semantic “fan.” these interconnected words exhibit a higher degree of similarity and collectively represent specific aspects or contexts related to factors associated with whitemouth croaker fishing in sepetiba bay. these aspects are derived from the questions that comprise the textual corpus. the keywords of this textual corpus were: “sale and consumption” (31), “cerco” (21), “caique” (18), “direct to consumer” (12), and “curral” (12). the expression “sale and consumption”, in the textual corpus, reflects the fact that whitemouth croaker is a very important species for these communities both as a source of income and as a source of food. the word “cerco” demonstrates that this technique is the most used in capturing this species, while “caique” indicates that this is the type of vessel most used today. the expression “direct to consumer” indicates that in these communities the sale of whitemouth croaker directly to consumers predominates. the word “curral” demonstrates the great importance of this type of fishing even today for the community of pedra de guaratiba, but no longer for the community of ilha da madeira, which no longer uses it. discussion we found that the whitemouth croaker is commonly figure 5 similarity analysis tree depicting the responses of fishers regarding the utilization and fishing techniques associated with the whitemouth croaker. source: field research, iramuteq (2020). morado et al. 2024. ethnobiology letters 15(1):1–15 11 data, methods & taxonomies utilized by fishers for direct sale to consumers. this direct selling approach is crucial for maximizing the fishers' income from the fish, as intermediaries often result in lower earnings. additionally, the whitemouth croaker serves as an important dietary resource for the fishers themselves. along the brazilian atlantic forest coast (bafc), fishers rely on fish resources for sustenance and income. consequently, any decline in catch or overexploitation of targeted fish species could have detrimental effects on the livelihoods of the fishers (begossi et al. 2017). the primary fishing technique employed is cerco, although curral or cercada remains significant in pedra de guaratiba. the prevailing vessel type is the caique or caico, which is gradually replacing the traditional caiçara canoe. the transition is attributed to the flat base of the former, which facilitates navigation through the muddy areas caused by silting. according to ottoni (2018), sepetiba bay currently faces significant siltation due to excessive solid and liquid waste from draining rivers and soil erosion. as a result, the waterline has receded from the fishing beaches, necessitating fishers to navigate through mud, which poses considerable physical exertion during fishing trips and returns. this phenomenon is more pronounced in pedra de guaratiba. additionally, on ilha da madeira island, there is a shift from artisanal fishing to tourism, particularly in association with sport fishing, utilizing more modern lanchinhas boats. these facts demonstrate the transformation in the livelihoods of artisanal caiçaras fishers in the two communities under study, which have been shaped by their adaptations to the anthropogenic influences on their traditional territories. nevertheless, the sale and consumption of fish continue to serve as a crucial source of income and sustenance. in this context, the whitemouth croaker remains a significant species for these communities due to its relatively abundant presence in the region, despite the escalating adverse effects of human activities in sepetiba bay. the maximum reported body size reached by the whitemouth croaker in sepetiba bay was 700 mm in total length. according to haimovici and reis (1984), females of the whitemouth croaker achieve their largest size after gonadal maturation as an adaptation to increase total fecundity, ensuring reproductive success by spawning a large number of eggs. reported here are declines in the size of whitemouth croaker over time, as this species was previously captured using a 70 mm mesh net with opposing nodes. however, due to the decrease in size, the largest net currently used has a 60 mm mesh size. costa and araújo (2003) suggest that larger fish may be experiencing e higher mortality rates caused by fishing activities in the bay. overfishing has been recognized as a significant factor in altering the abundance and biomass patterns of species and reducing the body size of individuals within populations (peñaherrerapalma et al. 2018). the whitemouth croaker is known to be overfished by industrial fishing in southern brazil (haimovici and cardoso 2016). moreover, the additional stress of pollution, habitat destruction and climate change are likely to further jeopardize the sustainability of estuarine fisheries and exert detrimental effects on exploited species. the escalation of pollution resulting from human activities in sepetiba bay (araújo et al. 2016) is likely to be a significant contributing factor that could have detrimental effects on various fish species, including the whitemouth croaker. in this study, fishers reported that the presence of north and east winds, associated with high temperatures and high tide, were the environmental conditions most favorable for the entry of the whitemouth croaker into sepetiba bay. whitemouth croaker is known to undergo seasonal migrations within the shelf ecosystem, primarily driven by reproductive movements that cause changes in composition of fish populations (jaureguizar et al. 2004). in our study, we found that this species exhibits a practically year-round breeding period, with a preference for the warmer period. fishers associate the breeding season with the observable behaviors, such as the presence of “oval” fish, which they interpret as spawning and procreating (ramires et al. 2007). however, different studies have reported varied spawning periods for the species, including summer (silvano and begossi 2012); late spring and summer (vizziano et al. 2002); winter and spring (vazzoler 1991). the discrepancies among these studies suggest either a distinct spawning peak for whitemouth croaker in the studied region or a potential shift in its spawning season since the 1990s, as noted by silvano and begossi (2012). to further elucidate the reproductive period and associated factors, more comprehensive biological research is necessary. two types of ecological relationship between marine catfishes and whitemouth croaker were morado et al. 2024. ethnobiology letters 15(1):1–15 12 data, methods & taxonomies reported in this study. the first is a competitive relationship, as described by the fishers: “with the catfish at the bottom: the catfish turns to mud and ‘digs’ and the whitemouth croaker eats the 'worms' that appear.” in this case, it is likely that the catfish is stirring up the substrate in search of food, mainly polychaetes. the second type of relationship between whitemouth croaker with marine catfish is predation. according to the fishers “whitemouth croaker and yellow hake walk together with catfish to eat their roe”. this clearly indicates a case of predation, where the whitemouth croaker approaches the catfish during their reproductive period to feed on their eggs. further studies should focus on exploring these interactions to gain a comprehensive understanding of the ecological dynamics in the estuarine ecosystems of southern brazil. another aspect of whitemouth croaker interactions with other species, as reported in the lek of artisanal fishers, is parasitism. the lek strongly suggest the presence of a specific type of parasite affecting whitemouth croaker. according to the fishers, this parasite bears a resemblance to a “small cockroach”, “aphid”, or “small armadillo” due to its anatomical similarities with these organisms. they describe this parasite as being white or yellow, measuring between 1 and 2 cm in length. it attaches itself to the fish´s mouth, tongue, or gills, with only one parasite per host. infected fish appear visibly emaciated, as if their blood had been drained by the parasite. the reported parasite by the fishers is a cymotoid, an isopod from the family cymothoidae. it is worth noting the interesting study conducted by luque et al. (2010), which explored the parasites of the whitemouth croaker along the longitudinal gradient of the brazilian coast. the study identified members of the cymothoidae family as parasites infesting mouths of whitemouth croaker from pedra de guaratiba, thus corroborating our findings. in summary, the whitemouth croaker´s reproductive period in sepetiba bay, as perceived by fishers, extends throughout the year, with a notable peak during the summer. this differs from the existing literature, which only mentions the summer as the reproductive period for the species. fishers have also observed a decrease in both the size of the fish and the size at which they reach gonadal maturity, potentially indicating the effects of overfishing or climate change. additionally, the fishers´ perception of breeding areas, such as mangroves and rivers, contrasts with scientific knowledge that identifies the inner shelf as the primary spawning area. according to the fishers, the entry of the whitemouth croaker into the bay is associated to north-to-east winds, and their diet consists of sardines, shrimps, and benthic organisms. the interactions with marine catfish and the potential role of whitemouth croaker as an important host for species of the cymothoidae family (isopoda) in the sepetiba bay region were also reported, suggesting a possible increasing relationship between them. this study highlights the significance of incorporating the knowledge held by artisanal fishers to enhance our understanding of the ecology and socio-environmental importance of the whitemouth croaker. it provides an ethnographic account of key cultural aspects related to fishing and the utilization of this species by artisanal caiçaras communities in sepetiba bay. furthermore, it sheds light on the adaptations made by these communities in response to the escalating anthropogenic impacts on this crucial bay located in the state of rio de janeiro. acknowledgments we would like to thank the artisanal fishers of ilha da madeira and pedra de guaratiba for the kind sharing of their precious knowledge, which serves as a basis for the development of this work. we thank researcher gustavo henrique soares guedes for drawing up the map and researcher wagner uehara for helping with field trips. this study was financially supported by the project pesquisa marinha e pesqueira, a compensatory measure established by conduct adjustment term responsibility of the chevron company, conducted by the federal public ministry – mpf/rj, with the implementation of the fundo brasileiro para a biodiversidade – funbio, proc. 16/2017. cnm and fga conceived and planned the study; cnm collected the data by conducting interviews with the fishers; bctp, mfa and cnm reviewed and analyzed the data; fga, cnm, mfa and bctp wrote the paper. declarations permissions: the research was duly authorized by the committee of ethics in research in human beings from the castelo branco university, registered under number: 3,089,110. 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essential to sustaining ancient and modern diets. genomic studies focused on improving breeding efforts consistently segregate avocado cultivars into three ecotypes: mexican (var. drymifolia), guatemalan (var. guatemalensis), and lowland (var. americana), and their genetic differentiation suggests they each follow independent domestication pathways (chanderbali et al. 2013). recent archaeological, genetic, and ethnobotanical research has greatly contributed to our understanding of the complex origins of domesticated avocados. avocado domestication documented in the archaeological record new radiocarbon dates of 11.1 ka and 10.5 ka taken from avocado pits from the el gigante rockshelter, honduras, and huaca prieta, peru, respectively, show that central and south american foragers exploited introduction the domestication of plants continues to be a subject of anthropological interest, as agriculture facilitated the development of civilizations and the maintenance of modern society. scholars often rely on the archaeological and genomic records of annual grains (e.g., maize [zea mays], rice [oryza sativa], and wheat [triticum aestivum]) to understand the reciprocal process of plant domestication (allaby et al. 2022; fuller et al. 2023), but these herbaceous field crops only make up a fraction of the total cultivated taxa in most ancient communities. perennial fruits (e.g., apples [malus domestica], grapes [vitis vinifera], and citruses [citrus spp.]) are another crucial component within ancient subsistence regimes, and in the americas their domestication process may have begun before those of herbaceous plants (kennett et al. 2023). domestication traits in grain crops usually confer an increase in the number of seeds per fruit and the retainment of seeds prior to harvesting. perennial trees require more intense and specific management practices to enable the production of valuable fruits, and many domestication-related traits differ from that of annuals, such as an increase in fruit current and future applications of genetic, archaeological, and ethnobotanical data to uncovering avocado domestication kevin w. wann1* and heather b. thakar1 1department of anthropology, texas a&m university, college station, texas. *kwann@tamu.edu abstract the domestication of fruit trees is a topic of increasing significance in anthropological research. the avocado is a perennial fruit domesticated in central america with a complex history of management and dispersal since the arrival of humans in the new world. archaeological data illustrates the avocado’s domestication from wild to cultivar forms throughout the holocene, while genetic and ethnobotanical evidence provide insights into ancient avocado cultivation patterns. it is only through the combined application of all three lines of evidence that we may fully understand the dynamic origins of this essential fruit. received september 20, 2022 open access accepted june 14, 2024 doi 10.14237/ebl.15.1.2024.1845 published september 16, 2024 keywords perennial, fruit, genomics, archaeobotany, central america copyright © 2024 by the author(s); licensee society of ethnobiology. this is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution-noncommercial 4.0 international public license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0), which permits non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. wann and thakar. 2024. ethnobiology letters 15(1):53–57 54 short topical reviews wild avocados as early as the paleoindian period (1310 ka; dillehay et al. 2017; kennett et al. 2023). the initiation of the avocado’s domestication process is signaled by a gradual increase in pit size (a proxy for fruit flesh content) throughout the archaic (10-4 ka) and formative and classic (4-1 ka) periods. at coxcatlán cave, puebla, smith (1966) found that pit size increases slightly from the ajuereado to the abejas phases (10-5 ka) followed by a sharp increase during santa maría, palo blanco, and venta salada phases (3-0.5 ka), potentially reflecting the adoption of foreign cultivars. unfortunately, early sample sizes are small, and the site’s stratigraphic integrity has been called into question (smith 2005). fuller (2018) examined coxcatlán pits solely within formative and classic contexts and still recorded a gradual increase. the only other reported morphometric analysis on avocado pit size is in a preliminary assessment of the el gigante macrobotanical assemblage, in which scheffler (2008) measured a gradual increase across el gigante’s entire occupation without any punctuated increase during the formative period. recent excavations in central and south america have unearthed a greater quantity of avocado remains, highlighting the domesticated species’ relative importance in late holocene diets and enabling future morphometric studies. at cuautémoc, chiapas, rosenswig et al. (2015) took 43 flotation samples spanning the site’s early (3.9-3 ka) and middle formative (3-2.4 ka) occupation. while early formative contexts contained a high abundance of avocado pit fragments (n = 73), they were virtually absent after 3 ka, suggesting that the intensification of maize farming replaced existing arboricultural practices. despite the dominance of field crops in late holocene diets, avocados were still commonly cultivated as a secondary, but popular, food source. dine et al. (2019) surveyed 22 mayan rejolladas— sinkholes where households grew secondary crops to supplement maize agriculture—at the late to terminal classic (1.4-1 ka) site of xuenkal, yucatán. persea americana was present in six rejolladas, ranking among the most ubiquitous plant taxa recovered. similarly, in south america, masur et al. (2018) recorded a moderate abundance of avocado fragments at the virú valley, peru. however, maize, beans, and squash still dominated this assemblage, suggesting that p. americana was likely a secondary food source and cultivated on the periphery of agricultural fields. taken together, the available archaeological data illustrate that ancient communities began consuming wild avocados during the paleoindian period, then gradually selected for local higher quality fruits throughout the archaic period. following the adoption of staple herbaceous agriculture in the formative and classic periods, domesticated avocados were dispersed across cultural landscapes, still contributing as a substantial portion of ancient diets. insights gained from emerging genetic research recent genetic studies focused on improving commercial breeding efforts continue to support the claim of a tripartite domestication of avocados, while offering new insights. talavera et al. (2019) characterized a set of dna markers that reliably identify the ecotype origin(s) of novel cultivars. they also demonstrate that the lack of sterility barriers between growth environments of each genotype allowed for ancient hybridization events, rendering it difficult to distinguish between hybrid and non-hybrid cultivars. ruiz-chután et al. (2023) show that local wild avocados of guatemala possess greater genetic diversity than previously assumed. the authors attribute this enriched local variation to an ancient legacy of human protection of ancestral populations that preserved regional diversity within the wild guatemalan population, while selecting for highquality cultivars within forest gardens. lastly, solares et al. (2023) identified a disproportionate number of genes under selection associated with fruit ripening and development in guatemalan (var. guatemalensis) cultivars. their analysis points to past human selection for larger fruits in the domestication and improvement of this ecotype, a process supported by archaeological data. these newer genomic studies provide evidence that ancient communities independently managed and cultivated regional avocado varieties, leading to the emergence of the three contemporaneous domesticate ecotypes. they also indicate that early horticultural groups selected for larger fruits and may have even experimented with tree hybridization to produce economically beneficial fruits prior to european contact. traditional avocado usage revealed through ethnobotany the vast majority of central american ethnobotanical studies identify the avocado as an important food with high nutritional value. more recent studies have wann and thakar. 2024. ethnobiology letters 15(1):53–57 55 short topical reviews further documented avocado fruits as being a common ingredient in the daily consumption of tostadas and carnitas in western and southeastern mexico, respectively (figure 1; salazar et al. 2016; zizumbo-villarreal et al. 2016). it is intriguing that avocados are now mainly included as a topping to maize-based dishes, rather than being consumed on their own, as they presumably had been for some six thousand years prior to the dispersal of maize agriculture (kennett et al. 2023). the role of avocado fruits likely switched during the mid to late holocene from a staple fruit to an ingredient secondary to surplus foods, supported by its relative abundance to maize in late holocene archaeobotanical assemblages. in this scenario, people may have selected for traits conferring easier fruit access and peeling, rather than flesh size. ethnobotanists also recently documented indigenous tree management techniques that improve avocado tree quality. basurto et al. (2023) note that traditional communities in the highlands of central mexico apply limewash to avocado trunks and prune unproductive branches. the former protects the tree from pests that bore through bark and kill branches, which worsens tree productivity (peña et al. 2013), while the latter has been shown to improve fruit yield by 9% when performed early on in flower development (roe and morudu 2000). the adoption of intensive tree management strategies such as these may have played an important role in growing higher quality fruits throughout prehistory, alongside any genetic changes associated with the species’ domestication. while the archaeological record suggests humans were selectively planting the seeds of more beneficial fruit trees, it is just as likely that the experimentation of cultivation strategies contributed to the apparent increase in fruit flesh content over time, and communities dispersed these behaviors across cultural boundaries. with further ethnohistoric research, we may better understand the timing and cultural dissemination of avocado tree management techniques and their contribution to the avocado’s domestication process. future directions while emerging research has broadened our understanding of avocado domestication, the current body of research still lacks any integration of genomic and ethnobotanical data (e.g., gros-balthazard et al. 2020), leaving a multitude of unanswered questions: why were avocados valued in the first place? to what extent were their fruits and associated horticultural knowledge disseminated across central america? how did the crop change alongside the introductions of staple food production, intensive agriculture, and spanish conquest? working alongside traditional avocado gardeners, regional cultivar genomes can be compared to those of wild and commercial trees for a greater understanding of cultivar origin and the genetic basis for domestication traits. most importantly, scholars should examine the genomes of archaeological p. americana remains recovered from ancient contexts, which would provide clues for the traits under selection at different time periods and identify signals of seed transport across cultural boundaries (e.g., kistler et al. 2020). only through the collaborative efforts of archaeologists, geneticists, and ethnobotanists may we achieve a complete understanding of avocado domestication and the cultivation of perennial new world fruits. declarations permissions: none declared. sources of funding: none declared. conflicts of interest: none declared. figure 1 traditional culinary dishes that include avocados, as documented in recent ethnobotanical studies (salazar et al. 2016; zizumbo-villarreal et al. 2016). wann and thakar. 2024. ethnobiology letters 15(1):53–57 56 short topical reviews references cited allaby, r. g., c. j. stevens, l. kistler, and d. q. fuller. 2022. emerging evidence of plant domestication as a landscape-level process. trends in ecology and 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appropriate to reference identities, relationships of belonging, or knowledge lineages in ethnobiological scholarship? wyndham et al. 2021. ethnobiology letters 12(1):73–78 73 editorials racialized categories. this historical context of the term is particular to resistance movements in north america, however. in other contexts, and particularly in latin america, the term ‘color’ and indeed any racializing may be read as offensive, xenophobic, or otherwise other-ing. these differences in terminology reflect the different histories of settler colonialism and solidarity against oppression that communities have lived through in these different places. importantly for us as editors and thus gatekeepers in academic publishing, the bigger context is a classic anthropological one in which the parochialisms and genre of the editors go unquestioned, even though terms have variable meaning depending on their context and history. as editors, we are responsible for making our journal a platform for rigorous discussions of the intersections of cultural and biological life that does not discriminate against the very people whom we have invited to voice their thoughts. we sincerely apologize to our readers—who, indeed, are also our colleagues and collaborators. we could have asked the author to reflect and revise the book review further to be sure to bring identity or place of origin into the analysis only if verifiably warranted by the authors’ own discussion of this as an aspect of their work. we are sorry for the hurt caused by that editorial oversight. at the time, we interpreted in this editorial, we offer frank discussion of a problematic situation that arose when ethnobiology letters (ebl) published raymond pierotti’s (2018) review of an edited volume by ulysses p. albuquerque, patricia muniz de medeiros, and alejandro casas (2015), at a time when wyndham was reviews editor for the journal1. in particular, the review commented that nearly all of the authors were from latin america and referred to them as “scholars of color.” the reply to the review (albuquerque et al. 2021) has compelled us to reflect on the ways that racialized configurations and dynamics can vary across disciplines, regions, and perhaps generations. we have witnessed a practical lesson in how race is socially constructed within academic contexts and some of the ways this can be problematic. in the united states, and more recently in canada, the term “people of color” is often used in a liberation context, related to political organizing against structures of white supremacy and solidarity in the struggle against systemic racism especially, since the 1990s (malesky 2014; moses 2016). though the term has its problems, it can be considered an example of what gayatri chakravorty spivak called ‘strategic essentialism’ (ashcroft et al. 1998:159–160), in which an idiom is adopted for its coalition-building utility, even while using ‘false’ (socially constructed) when is it appropriate to reference identities, relationships of belonging, or knowledge lineages in ethnobiological scholarship? felice s. wyndham1*, janelle baker2, kelly bannister3, maria bruno4, andrew flachs5, cynthia fowler6, andrew gillreathbrown7, elizabeth olson8, kali wade9, and sarah walshaw10 1school of anthropology and museum ethnography, university of oxford, oxford, uk. 2centre for social sciences, athabasca university, athabasca, canada. 3 polis project on ecological governance, centre for global studies, university of victoria, victoria, canada. 4department of anthropology and archaeology, dickinson college, carlisle, usa. 5department of anthropology, purdue university, west lafayette, usa. 6department of sociology, wofford college, spartanburg, usa. 7department of anthropology, washington state university, pullman, usa. 8department of history, sociology, and anthropology, southern utah university, cedar city, usa. 9archaeology program, boston university, boston, usa. 10department of history, simon fraser university, burnaby, canada. *felice.wyndham@anthro.ox.ac.uk received may 31, 2021 open access accepted june 13, 2021 doi 10.14237/ebl.12.1.2021.1779 published august 5, 2021 copyright © 2021 by the author(s); licensee society of ethnobiology. this is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution-noncommercial 4.0 international public license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0), which permits non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. wyndham et al. 2021. ethnobiology letters 12(1):73–78 74 editorials dr. pierotti’s phrasing as highlighting his expectation of a particularly brazilian or latin american ‘take’ on evolutionary ethnobiology. now, we see how those same words could be interpreted in multiple ways. this and other issues are discussed in more detail in the reply by albuquerque and colleagues (2021) and in ray pierotti’s (2021) response to it. after sorting through the many tangled threads of this situation, we would like to specifically address two points because they are particularly relevant for editing and publishing practices: 1) ethnobiology is the site of specific forms of ethnocentrism and 2) ethnobiologists must be vigilantly aware of our own biases and assumptions around identity in knowledge lineages. finally, we delineate some of the ways the society of ethnobiology (soe) and its members are creating systems to support less-ethnocentric and less-biased publishing, editing, writing, reading, conferencing, and overall scholarship. publishing ethnobiology at intersections as a discipline, ethnobiology is unique in that it is produced in between the natural and social sciences and the humanities; in between euro-colonial and diverse other intellectual lineages; often in between secular and spirit-informed world views, and hopefully increasingly, in between hemispheric and regional academic traditions. as publishers of scholars writing from these various locations, journal editors in this discipline will surely rub up against the friction between different language and publishing traditions. while the soe aspires to be informed by and serve the world, its journals are still predominantly north american in terms of format, history, and the volunteers who keep it going. as a result, there will be perspectives and blinders that clash or might be felt as intellectual chauvinism by scholars in other parts of the world. in the case noted above, we failed to recognize our own positions and assumptions. as we strive to be more self-reflective, we aspire for our journal to be a venue that invites open dialogue when clashes occur, and we especially appreciate our fellow scholars bringing this to our attention for a more public examination. the potential learning available by working through these ‘scraping points’ can be transformative, while allowing for robust critique and scholarly disagreement to be freely expressed. as editors of an ethnobiology journal, we strive to hold space that encourages the flourishing of noneurocentric, indigenous, and other non-settler thought lineages, while also being aware that scholars who do not identify with that framing may not want any identity or heritage assumptions to be made about them. in a ‘strict’ natural science journal, the mention or integration of authorial identity in the research is avoided, even taboo. it is a learned rule that authors will operate within the frame of accepted euroscientific narrative that does not take into account place of origin, intellectual lineage, or personal identity—these may be assumed to be irrelevant to research that strives to be objective, replicable, and independent of social currents. publishing in ethnobiology necessarily differs in that we try to be more attentive to the deep effects that our social and cultural environments have on us as researchers and writers. in a way, this issue gets to the core founding rationale for ethnobiology’s existence—namely, that it is valuable and incumbent upon responsible inquiry to engage with and respect natural history and ecological knowledge from a broad array of intellectual lineages. we have been educated to this by indigenous scholars and thinkers, community research partners, science and technology studies, and other students of human life. from the other wing of this bird (anderson 2007), ethnobiology publications are often more data-rich and take less of a deep dive into decoding multiple layers of sociocultural and political contexts than do many indigenous and area studies, anthropological, and humanities publications. as publishers of ethnobiology, we stand by the principle that all authors should feel free to reference their personal identities or relationships of belonging as key aspects of their learning, knowing, and scholarly processes. this, of course, includes the term “scholar of color” or “person of color.” however, a clear take-home point is that this must be a choice left to the individual thinker-researcher-writer. we immediately venture into dubious territory when we write about these processes with reference to anyone who is not ourselves. at that point, our own assumptions and blinders are almost sure to blunder, offend, entrench systems of discrimination, and further obscure the insights that are always best voiced by the person or group in question. when is it relevant for editors to question the ways that authors reference other scholars’ personal history, relationships of belonging, or self-identities? when this occurs, it should be regularly flagged and checked to confirm that terms of belonging were chosen by the authors themselves, not imposed upon wyndham et al. 2021. ethnobiology letters 12(1):73–78 75 editorials them. given our journal’s current euro-north american bias, we are likely to run into other situations like this in the future due to regional nuances and we invite and thank our colleagues to “call us in” to be more aware. a few related points to keep in mind:  when writing about race and/or racism, consider whether it might be clarifying to replace these terms with ‘racialized’. racialized is a useful term that refers to a process by which people believe in the constructs of racism (e.g., in the united states) and use race categories as if they are biologically meaningful. it allows us to acknowledge the real impact of the social construct without reifying it in our own writing.  albuquerque et al. (2021) point out another small word that can do a lot of ‘othering’: “we.” we can make it a habit to ask ourselves, or the author whose work we are editing, who exactly is being referenced by “we” in a sentence. “we” is a wonderful window into our subconscious bias. it will often be referencing some nebulous group of stereotyped authority figures: what do they look like?  consulting style guides can prevent some common writing issues, such as gregory younging’s (2018) excellent elements of indigenous style: a guide for writing by and about indigenous peoples. staying abreast of and citing innovative theoretic and methodological developments from diverse regions (e.g., delgado burgoa and silvestre rojas 2021) keeps us on point.  one of the big structural inequities in academic publishing today is the fact that most scholars in latin america and around the world are required to publish in english in order to advance their careers. this can create a serious communicational imbalance, in which writers of english as a second (or third) language have to spend more time, money, and effort to communicate their findings and thoughts. thinkers who never had english courses in their schools have even less access. though it is beyond the scope of this editorial, we want to acknowledge this situation.  we encourage more personal communication among author-colleagues. we’ll be more actively inviting reviewers to send their typescripts to the authors in question if they’d like to ask for pre-publication clarification on points made or preferred identity terms, for example (if any). though this would never be mandatory, it might lead to more collegial interactions and is recommended for any written piece that uses/references others’ material.  the language around identity is always shifting (ghomeshi 2021). as editors and authors, we have to be active listeners to chart the changing tides—not to be ‘correct’, or dogmatic, but as a practice towards being in better relationships with all people who may be visibly or invisibly disadvantaged by the systems we’ve inherited. identity terms as flashpoints and soe support systems the term “people of color” (or the related bipoc— black, indigenous, and people of color) has become more commonly used in the united states, canada, and britain, to reference solidarity and shared experience in a context of (and often in coalition against) over-privileged settler, white, and eurocolonial societies and academia in particular. the term may, as so many identity terms have, come to be replaced with a term that better achieves the goals of those who use it through new social and political configurations. because this is not a shared usage in other parts of the world, however, identifying work as done by “scholars of color” or any other reference to personal identity terminology can be totally inappropriate in some settings. we are not advocating the banning of controversial terms (with a few exceptions); rather, amplifying the message that we need to write and edit with sensitivity to all our audiences and their experiences. even more pointedly, because it is probably inevitable that we will make mistakes in this arena, we can learn to take these friction points as windows that help us understand the layers of assumptions and meaning-making in which we move. how can our ethnobiology journals and professional societies be better platforms for real discourse and structural transformation that breaks down persisting power imbalances in our discipline? as people who tend the publishing portals that get ideas and current research dialogue out into the wyndham et al. 2021. ethnobiology letters 12(1):73–78 76 editorials public eye, we would all be pleased if ethnobiology letters could ideally become a venue that is truly accessible and attractive for all scholars and all languages. it would shed its old skin of feeling predominantly north american and as framing research from a predominantly euro-settler intellectual tradition. it would be a venue for more active dialogue about the foundational role of peoplein-ecology relationships in the past, present, and future, and engage with deeply political and pressing contemporary human ecology activism. it would be a place where not only academics read about new research but also would integrate priority topics of indigenous rights, ethics, policy, and conservation advocacy. of course, we are limited as a non-profit, volunteer-run journal. being one tentacle of the larger organization that is the soe, however, we hope to build on the synergies of so many individuals who have, over recent decades, developed unique innovations to help break us out of old molds in academia and publishing. as the society of ethnobiology and its publications seek to decolonize and decenter our north american focus (lepofsky et al. 2021; mcalvay et al. 2021), it is key that in our different venues we continually circle back to our ethical guidelines (code of ethics [society of ethnobiology 2021a] and code of conduct [bannister et al. 2021]). we are exploring possibilities for breaking the mold of servicing mainly an anglophone, academic audience. what would it look like to have a radically multilingual publication? a journal that is multimedia, of use also to nonliterate people (many of whom are our teachers in the discipline)? the possibilities are broad at the moment given the state of technological connectivity and vernacular knowledge production. in recent years, the society has created several systems and advisory groups to support its members to “move toward an ethnobiology which prioritizes (1) power equity, (2) receptiveness to diverse ways of knowing, and (3) social justice,” (armstrong and mcalvay 2021). while there is more to be done, some of these initiatives include:  establishing ethnobiology letters as a pioneer fully open access, peer-reviewed journal,  expanding the ethics committee to the ethics and advocacy committee to network with allies, promote justice, host sessions and open houses at conferences, and grapple with ethical issues,  a rapid assistance fund for indigenous people and communities (society of ethnobiology 2021b) in need to support indigenous, black, people of color, and other non-white and non-western individuals and communities in their needs related to humanenvironment interactions,  a memorandum of understanding to find synergies and continue mutual learning with solae, the latin american society of ethnobiology,  offering an array of awards and fellowships, including gifted memberships; travel awards; and waivers of conference costs to majority world residents, indigenous peoples, and members of underrepresented groups, and  joining the international society of ethnobiology and the society for economic botany to work towards structural expansion of who feels they ‘belong’ in the discipline, and who occupies decision-making positions. in the case discussed above, for example, the ethics and advocacy advisory group mobilized to discuss the issues of identity and identity terminology in publishing internationally, which was extremely helpful. we are grateful for those conversations. this issue has brought up a lot of important themes for ethnobiology; perhaps most saliently that our discipline, in the ways it brings people together from different regions and fields, will be a site of contested terms, interpretations, views, and ontologies. our publications strive to be a place where these things lead to learning and dialogue rather than conflict and entrenchment. we invite further conversation on the topic, either here in ethnobiology letters’ perspectives venue, or on the soe’s forage blog. the double-helix topics of identity and respect are far too complex for us to do justice here. but as in a personal life, through our individual and collective slip -ups and discomfort, generous ‘callings in’ for each other, and contributions to a collective endeavor we hope to get better at the hard stuff and be better relations to each other and the rest of the world. notes 1there are a couple details that i (wyndham) would like to address personally as i was the one involved. i am very sorry indeed that there was an oversight in carrying through the addition of a post-publication wyndham et al. 2021. ethnobiology letters 12(1):73–78 77 editorials editor’s note back in january 2019 to remove the term ‘scholars of color’ and other references to places of origin. in response to his mention, i was clear with dr. pierotti that it was his choice whether or not to submit his original review, and i certainly have never prodded him to submit written work against his will. i did tell him that critical reviews are as welcome as positive ones. i stand by the idea that our journal does not only publish positive reviews of others’ work. as a place that holds space for thoughtful debate and critique to move the discipline forward, we are open to uncomfortable topics, constructive criticism, and downright disagreements. we do require that dialogue be respectful, which is why we wrote this editorial--to help all of us do better in this arena. the co-editors and the soe ethics and advocacy committee were all involved in discussions and decisions about this backand-forth in ebl since the beginning, so as to make decisions together that are in ebl's and our readership's best interest. i am grateful to each person and to the collective for their involvement. the level of reflection and insight about meta-processes in our discipline makes me honored to be a part of it and, as i transition off the editorial team after two terms, hopeful that ethnobiology can lead the way towards a more ground-truthed and equal-access academia. references cited albuquerque, u. p., p. m. de medeiros, and a. casas, eds. 2015. evolutionary ethnobiology. springer international publishing, cham, switzerland. albuquerque, u. p., w. s. ferreira júnior, i. vandebroek, r. w. bussmann, n. y. paniaguazambrana, a. h. ladio, r. voeks, f. melo, m. c. m. jacob, t. gonçalves-souza, a. v. lopes, and g. t. soldati. 2021. decolonizing latin american science. ethnobiology letters 12:79–81. doi:10.14237/ebl.12.1.2021.1763. anderson, e. n. 2007. the two wings of the bird. paper presented at the annual meeting of the society of ethnobiology, berkeley, ca. available at: http://www.krazykioti.com/articles/the-twowings-of-the-bird/. accessed on may 10, 2021. armstrong, c. g., and a. mcalvay. 2021. available at: https://ethnobiology.org/decolonizingethnobiology-resources. accessed on may 10, 2021. ashcroft, b., g. gareths, and h. tiffin. 1998. key concepts in post-colonial studies. routledge, london. bannister, k., m. efford, c. fowler, r. hart, j. lecompte-mastenbrook, l. mccune, a. medinaceli, k. wade, and s. walshaw. 2021. adopted code of conduct. available at: https:// ethnobiology.org/about-society-ethnobiology/ ethics/code-conduct. accessed on may 10, 2021. delgado burgoa, j. m. f., and c. a. silvestre rojas, eds. 2021. avances teóricos metodológicos y experiencias de diálogo intercientifico en países andino amazónicos. ministerio de educación, la paz, bolivia. available at: https:// www.redlatambiocultural.org/blog/2021/05/17/ avances-teorico-metodologicos-y-experiencias-dedialogo-interespecifico-en-paises-andinoamazonicos/. accessed on may 10, 2021. ghomeshi, j. 2021. bipoc or ibpoc? lgbtq or lgbtq2s+? who decides which terms we should use? the conversation. available at: https:// theconversation.com/bipoc-or-ibpoc-lgbtq-orlgbtq2s-who-decides-which-terms-we-should-use159188. published on may 21, 2021. lepofsky, d., c. heckelsmiller, a. fernándezllamazares, and j. wall. 2021. seeking a more ethical future for ethnobiology publishing: a 40year perspective from journal of ethnobiology. journal of ethnobiology 41:122–143. doi:10.2993/0278-0771 -41.2.122. malesky, k. 2014. the journey from 'colored' to 'minorities' to 'people of color'. npr code switch. available at: https://www.npr.org/sections/ codeswitch/2014/03/30/295931070/the-journeyfrom-colored-to-minorities-to-people-of-color. published on march 30, 2014. mcalvay, a. c., c. g. armstrong, j. baker, l. black elk, s. bosco, n. hanazaki, l. joseph, t. martínezcruz, m. nesbitt, m. a. palmer, w. c. priprá de almeida, j. anderson, z. asfaw, i. borokini, e. j. cano-contreras, s. hoyte, m. hudson, a. h. ladio, g. odonne, s. peter, j. rashford, j. wall, s. wolverton, and i. vandebroek. 2021. ethnobiology phase vi: decolonizing institutions, projects, and scholarship. journal of ethnobiology 41:170–191. doi:10.2993/0278-0771-41.2.170. wyndham et al. 2021. ethnobiology letters 12(1):73–78 78 editorials moses, y. 2016. is the term “people of color” acceptable in this day and age? sapiens. available at: https://www.sapiens.org/column/race/peopleof-color/. published on december 7, 2016. pierotti, r. 2018. evolutionary ethnobiology. edited by ulysses paulino albuquerque, patricia muniz de medeiros, and alejandro casas. 2015. springer international publishing, cham. 197 pp. ethnobiology letters 9:266–268. doi:10.14237/ebl.9.2.2018.1381. pierotti, r. 2021. reply to albuquerque. ethnobiology letters 12:82–84. doi:10.14237/ebl.12.1.2021.1780. society of ethnobiology. 2021a. society of ethnobiology code of ethics. available at: https:// ethnobiology.org/about-society-ethnobiology/ ethics. accessed on may 10, 2021. society of ethnobiology. 2021b. rapid assistance fund for indigenous communities & individuals in need. available at: https://ethnobiology.org/ awards/rapid-assistance-fund. accessed on may 10, 2021. younging, g. 2018. elements of indigenous style: a guide for writing by and about indigenous peoples. brush education, edmonton, canada. on butterflies and the carpenter bees (xylocopa caffra): perceived ecological roles and description of traditional children’s games in mayotte (french island, indian ocean of east africa) perichon. 2024. ethnobiology letters 15(1):63–74 63 research communications insects and will naturally interact with them, either by observing or playing with them. for centuries, insects have been involved in games, such as rhinoceros beetle fighting in thailand (rennesson et al. 2012), or answering questions in the truth game with a mantis in cameroon (seignobos et al. 1996). japanese children enjoy playing with insects (crickets and beetles) and many consider them cute (laurent 2000). games are regulated by rules that vary in complexity, unlike play, which is spontaneous activity (bailly 2001). playing is viewed in developmental psychology as a means of encouraging children’s emotional, sensory-motor, cognitive, moral, intellectual, and social growth (gaussot 2001). piaget (1945) suggests that children can assimilate the external world by playing and their ability to transform and symbolize what they perceive (aucouturier 2017). as children age, they begin to concentrate more and more on realistic play activities, transitioning from functional or symbolic games to social ones (garaigordobil et al. 2022). the expression of reality in children’s games is influenced by cultural introduction people frequently express fear toward insects and spiders, along with a strong aversion towards invertebrates, but not all insects are viewed equally (lockwood 2013). butterflies which are important pollinating insects, along with dragonflies, and ladybirds are highly regarded due to their well-known, attractive, and harmless characteristics (nathan et al. 2017; van huis 2019). hymenoptera insect’s negative perception can be explained by their memory of a painful sting or their awareness of the risk of stinging, on the other hand (christ and dreesmann 2022). the pollination services offered by the numerous species in this insect order are almost unnoticeable, as only honeybees are visible. research suggests that school curricula fail to emphasize the significance and diversity of pollinating insects, and the decrease in their numbers (sitar et al. 2023). social representations of good and bad insects are often conveyed by using highly anthropomorphized insects in children’s media and literature (boileau and russell 2014). children can encounter these good on butterflies and the carpenter bees (xylocopa caffra): perceived ecological roles and description of traditional children’s games in mayotte (french island, indian ocean of east africa) samuel perichon1* 1department of geography, rennes 2 university, rennes, france. *sa.perichon@gmail.com abstract with over a million described species, insects are the most diverse group of animals on earth. insects, particularly those responsible for pollination, play a major ecological role that is often overlooked or even ignored. indeed, apart from honeybees, many species are not recognized for the services they provide. what is more, all pollinating insects do not attract the same affection. some, such as butterflies, enjoy a very positive image, while others are feared or hated, often because they can sting. during a semi-structured interview study (n = 35) on the island of mayotte, we confirmed these views. on the other hand, butterflies and one species of carpenter bee were the subject of many children’s play and games, which have now been abandoned. those who played with them in the past, and more simply enjoyed watching children play, seem to bitterly regret it. received april 7, 2024 open access accepted june 27, 2024 doi 10.14237/ebl.15.1.2024.1885 published october 15, 2024 keywords pollinator insects, children’s play and games, butterflies, carpenter bees, mayotte, indian ocean copyright © 2024 by the author(s); licensee society of ethnobiology. this is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution-noncommercial 4.0 international public license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0), which permits non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. perichon. 2024. ethnobiology letters 15(1):63–74 64 research communications values, which inform the relationship between societies and the environment in which they develop. traditional games, which are seen as the embodiment of customs passed down from generation to generation, are under threat due to globalization (huizenga et al. 2017). the fact that they are often passed down verbally supports the idea that these games will be lost forever if a generation of children ceases to play them. several countries, including indonesia, have implemented programs to encourage children to play traditional games (arlinkasari et al. 2020). our study’s main objective was to gain a better comprehension of the relationship between the inhabitants of the island of mayotte in the indian ocean and pollinating insects. first, we evaluated their comprehension of the ecological significance of lepidoptera and hymenoptera as pollinators. we then asked for additional information about the social representations and uses associated with various insect species. the focus of our attention has been on children’s play with butterflies and carpenter bees, among all the uses cited by respondents. children on the island played many games with these insects until recently. we want to highlight these traditional children’s play and games because they are either already gone or in the process of disappearing today. methods study location mayotte is a small volcanic archipelago in the indian ocean, 300 km north-west of madagascar and 450 km off the coast of mozambique (figure 1). covering an area of 374 km², it comprises two main islands: grande-terre (363 km²) and petite-terre. two thirds of the surface area of grande-terre where our survey was carried out is marked by slopes of more than 15% and is located above 300 meters in altitude (oberlinkels 2007). four mountain ranges structure this area, including the bénara massif, whose eponymous peak is the highest point on the island (653 m). forests and agroforestry systems cover 10,792 ha, the equivalent of 30% of the island’s surface area, but only 8% of this area corresponds to forests little disturbed by human activity. traditional agroforestry systems cover 5,400 ha, of which 2,200 ha are dedicated to banana production (41%). human settlements began to develop in the comoros from the 8th century onwards. the population originated from the east coast of africa and was descended from bantu communities. between the eleventh and sixteenth centuries, the influence of the shirazian elite (modern-day iran) led to the gradual conversion of the bantu populations to islam. today’s population (estimated at 300,000) is overwhelmingly of afro-malagasy origin, with an animist cultural background and a high degree of islamic syncretism (dauphin and thibault 2011). shimaoré, or the language of mayotte, is the local comorian language. however, a significant proportion of the island’s population speak kibushi (austronesian language), a dialect of malagasy, as their mother tongue. french is the official language, and is mainly spoken by young people, graduates and people from mainland france. arabic is the primary religious language. data collection surveying a population or group and collecting information relevant to a research object can be done using a range of techniques. we chose a methodology that combines photo sorting by preferences and additional interviews called the q methodology, a common technique for analyzing the subjective nature of viewpoints (dieteren et al. 2023; rost 2020). five themes were highlighted in the photos we picked, figure 1 geographic location of the island of mayotte (france). perichon. 2024. ethnobiology letters 15(1):63–74 65 research communications which included pollinating insects and their environment, anthropogenic threats to pollinating insects, honey gathering and modern beekeeping, honey, wax and pollen, and insect stings. respondents were asked to rank 39 photos by preference in a forced gaussian distribution. the photos on the right of the image (figure 2a) correspond to preferred photos, those on the left to least preferred. the photos were placed on the floor without the respondent’s knowledge during the sorting process. only when all the photos were on the floor did the respondent discover the result of his sorting (discussed in perichon 2024). an additional interview (figures 2b–c) aimed at understanding preferences: aesthetic, symbolic and spiritual dimensions. here, we discuss the information on butterflies and carpenter bees collected during those interviews. among the 39 photos, 12 had close-ups of pollinating insects (table 1), with most of them appearing on the flower. three pollinating insect orders have been chosen. lepidoptera is the most represented taxon in the images, with seven photos, five of which show rhopalocera (butterfly) and two of which show heterocera (moth). these are junonia rhadama (brilliant blue, the female), papilio demodocus (christmas butterfly), acraea ranavalona, and danaus chrysippus (african monarch). coeliades forestan, the fifth species, is a butterfly that is easily observed and identified by its horizontal stripes on its white abdomen, which has given it the common name striped policeman. two heterocera species, which have different appearances and are among the most common in mayotte, were chosen. achaea violaceofascia has forewings that are all brown and hindwings that are light brown in the upper half, and black with a white stripe in the lower half. lymantriinae sp. have quite attractive patterns on their wings, with a range figure 2 data collection. a an example of q-sort, and b, c respondents discuss his q-sort. photo credits: lisa fabris (fmae). scientific french common shimaoré dialect kibushi dialect junonia rhadama matso; matsou kamaïsu papilio demodocus papillon de vinson; voilier des citronniers mosoungo acraea ranavalona danaus chrysippus petit monarque; monarque africain karane coeliades forestan achaea violaceofascia papillon de nuit lymantriinae papillon de nuit protaetia fusca cétoine chonga madbelua aphex torridus guêpe fouisseuse mauvu delta emarginatum guêpe maçonne niamo fanentri; faraka apis mellifera abeille mellifère nyoshi anteli xylocopa caffra abeille charpentière gwé-gwé (m.); gwé-gwé dzilou (f.) vougovoug (m.); madjabilaé (m.); madjabivavé (f.) table 1 presented insect pollinator species (n = 12) during identification tasks with their scientific, french common, and shimaoré or kibushi names. perichon. 2024. ethnobiology letters 15(1):63–74 66 research communications of colors from beige to dark brown. four hymenoptera species were selected: a. mellifera (honeybee), x. caffra (carpenter bee), delta emarginatum (mason wasp) and sphex torridus (burrowing wasp). protaetia fusca (mango flower beetle) was selected as the coleoptera. the study focused on eight specific types of respondents: religious representatives, elders, shopkeepers, honey gatherers, farmers, beekeepers, young people, and environmental professionals. as honey-gathering is not a professional activity, a honey gatherer interviewed would likely also belong to another target profile. our sample was created based on the relative heterogeneity of viewpoints, not necessarily based on proportionality. the interviews were conducted face to face and recorded using a digital voice recorder. in the same way, we allowed interviewees to express themselves in french, shimaoré, or kibushi. the presence of a translator, in addition to a moderator, and an assistant was necessary for this. all audio-recorded interviews were transcribed. the analysis was conducted by calculating the occurrence of items that we deemed essential for describing an object, subject, or situation. an excel spreadsheet was used to enter the data. every column was associated with a respondent, and the rows displayed key words that the respondent spoke and were linked to a particular photo. some words were grouped together because they had similar meanings, but others remained isolated. to make reading easier, we sometimes organized many keywords generated by a photo into different categories. the analysis was done using the number of identified keywords, their frequency, the percentage of the total sample of respondents and the total number of respondents who expressed their opinions on the photo in question. results our sample comprised 35 people (23 men and 12 women). in total, we recorded 28.6 hours of exchanges. the average age of the respondents was 50.4. the youngest was 16, the oldest 95. our sample included 23 working people, six of whom were shopkeepers (in food shops or traditional markets), five farmers (four of whom were beekeepers working in a second job), and four civil servants working in departments responsible for the environment in the broadest sense. we also met seven retired people, two high school students, two university students, and a young job-seeker (blue-collar worker). fifteen of the thirty-five respondents spoke shimaoré or kibushi, and twenty french. they represent 11 of the islands 17 communes (figure 3). the state of knowledge about the role of insects in pollination insects, particularly honeybees (shimaoré nyoshi and kibishi anteli), are seen as beneficial to entomophilous plants by nearly 50% of respondents (n = 16). even so, only nine respondents linked this benefit to pollination. nectar is described as sugar (shim. sukari), a sweet and liquid substance that insects use to feed on flowers. this is not always seen in a positive light. some respondents (n = 5), who are typically older, believed that butterflies were being selfish by taking nectar promptly, or even worse, they were wasting sugar. other respondents (n = 2) state that butterflies can deprive bees and humans of honey (shim. and kib. ngizi) by eating nectar. the transportation and figure 3 distribution of respondents by commune in the island of mayotte. perichon. 2024. ethnobiology letters 15(1):63–74 67 research communications storage of pollen by insects is almost never mentioned by respondents, except for those with higher education or who are beekeepers. given this, respondents must clearly have some understanding of the concept of pollination. pollinating insects are frequently linked to agriculture. the respondents acknowledge that insects are not solely linked to agricultural environments, but they are not the only ones providing services to forest ecosystems, in particular. the role of pollinating insects is not fully understood in taxa except for honeybees and butterflies. only beekeepers respond that a mango flower beetle (shim. chonga, kib. madbelua) covered in pollen on jasmine inflorescences is a pollinating insect. three farmers argue that foraging has a negative impact on the plant as insects consume the sugar, resulting in premature drying of the fruit. no respondents consider moths to be insect pollinators because they do not see them foraging at night. some who think that they eat waste or dead animals, while others think that they are not ecologically significant. we were unsuccessful in finding a name for moths in shimaoré and kibushi languages, but an older person called them light extinguishers. she named them that is because her parents used a candle to light their home when she was young, and the moths would jump into the flame and extinguish it. butterflies, a symbol of beauty the butterflies in shimaore language are now commonly known as spelapelaka or the diminutives spepi and spaleca. tsipelapelaka is the name given to these insects in kibushi language. the oldest respondents reported that all butterflies had a distinctive common name in the shimaoré language, which may be based on mimics like j. rhadama. it is possible that the knowledge of these species is decreasing, and there is probably less interest in them. butterflies were considered the most beautiful pollinating insects by the respondents. the bright colors and patterns on their wings appear to be an emotional trigger (table 2). the verb papillonner in french (to flutter, in english) is named after their lighthearted nature, which also enhances their visual appeal by representing their fragility. j. rhadama was the most talked about, and it may have been due to the ocelli on its hind wings (in the female). matso or matsou is the name given to this butterfly for the rounded spots on its wings, which mean eye or eyes in shimaoré. some respondents claim that ocelli is meant to intimidate and deter potential predators. occasionally, they link blue to danger (toxic) in nature. the most favored butterfly is the african monarch butterfly, which is common in mayotte and known as the karane (shim.). respondents rarely mention the caterpillar stage when discussing butterflies. the appearance of butterfly caterpillars in photos was not described by any of them. there are two main reasons why caterpillars are commonly known: their stinging hairs and the fact that they are pests of field and garden plants. those who own or cultivate an agricultural plot are usually familiar with pest caterpillar butterflies. the issue of cocoons and pupae was forgotten because metamorphosis was not mentioned. the carpenter bee, an insect feared for its sting as the other hymenoptera table 3 indicates that most respondents have no specific remarks about the carpenter bee (shim. gwéitem (n = 50, σ = 120) respondents (n) respondents (%) response expressed (%) children’s play and games 14 40% 48% beauty 12 34% 41% colorful 9 26% 31% fly 8 23% 28% childhood 6 17% 21% blue 4 11% 14% caterpillar 4 11% 14% orange (color) 3 9% 11% nectar 3 9% 11% village 3 9% 11% other items (n = 40) does not express 6 17% total 35 100% table 2 the 10 most frequently cited items in the photo of a butterfly. perichon. 2024. ethnobiology letters 15(1):63–74 68 research communications gwé m., gwé-gwé dzilou f.; kib. vougovoug, madjabilaé m., madjabivavé f.). those who recognize the insect in the picture talk about the stings they can cause (shim. sindzano, kib. mtisongu). respondents mentioned using a pain and sting risk assessment scale in interacting with these insects. mason wasps do not usually sting, and their stingers are the least painful among all the local hymenoptera. under staircases and sloped roofs, they commonly build small nests out of mud. the pain that comes from a honeybee sting is described as intense, but not as intense as that from a carpenter bee. the carpenter bee’s stinging risk is greatly reduced by its sonorous buzz and massive, black body, which make it easily spotted when approaching. the burrowing wasp’s sting is the most terrible (shim. mauvu, kib. poumpoumdré). although it is common knowledge that the female honeybee stings while the male bee does not, respondents wondered if that was also the case for the carpenter bee. the insect’s yellow, harmless appearance was not compatible with their idea of masculinity, particularly if it implied that the dangerous, black with two white or yellow bands over the hind thorax carpenter bee was a bee’s female (figure 4). amused, lightly disparaging comments are sometimes made when we say that the yellow bee is the male. when talking about children’s play and games where the carpenter bees was the object, sexual dimorphism is a subject that all respondents discuss. the children were able to recognize the bee’s male and capture it with their hands without any danger. they chose not to pursue the female carpenter bees as they knew they would be stung by the insect immediately. children’s play and games with butterflies and the carpenter bees childhood memories are triggered by butterflies and carpenter bees, and respondents often share these memories with us with emotion. the use of pollinating insects in children’s play and games is no longer happening. mango flower beetles were not mentioned, even though beetles are commonly used in children’s games in other areas of the world. this coleoptera species in mayotte is not widely appreciated; its vernacular name can even be item (n = 26, σ = 53) respondents (n) respondents (%) response expressed (%) bee stings 7 20% 70% children’s play and games 5 14% 50% ear 5 14% 50% sexual dimorphism 5 14% 50% pain (of a bee sting) 4 11% 40% yellow 3 9% 30% buzzing sound (loud) 2 6% 20% flowers 2 6% 20% male (bee) 2 6% 20% (sewing) thread 2 6% 20% other items (n = 16) does not express 25 71% total 35 100 table 3 the 10 most frequently cited items in the photo of a carpenter bee. figure 4 xylocopa caffra (carpenter bee). a–c male and the d female bees. photo credits: corné vermaak, ian junor, nicolas vereecken and mariane harmand. perichon. 2024. ethnobiology letters 15(1):63–74 69 research communications translated as bad beast. it is said to be a pest for agriculture, but the reasons behind it are unclear. the reaction to seeing an insect is often to crush it. the most straightforward play activities with insects were watching butterflies and running after them without catching them (table 4). triggering the flight of many butterflies on a pond is also mentioned. some respondents recall being reprimanded by their parents for following butterflies into cultivated fields which shows the child’s fascination with insects. depending on the butterfly species, it takes different levels of skill to capture them with your bare hands. a species of pieridae, possibly eurema floricola (figure 5a), was believed to be elusive according to a 35-year-old man: in the past, we played in the fields. we were trying to catch butterflies. there’s something beautiful about them that makes you want to catch them. during that time, there were many of them. the meadows were covered in low grass and lots of flowers! numerous insects were present in these meadows. there was also a tiny yellow butterfly. catching this one was impossible! [laughs]. they were so fast and agile that a net would have been needed, and even then it’s not certain we insect pollinator attitude play age range gender location game play butterflies contemplative individual 6 to 8 years mixed garden, fields observe butterflies on a flower individual (or group) 4 to 8 years old mixed garden, fields, village run after butterflies without necessarily to catch them active individual 8 to 12 years old mixed garden, fields, village catch a butterfly and closely observe its body or certain parts like its head or wings catch a butterfly and observe or count its wing beats ty a sewing thread around the thorax of the butterfly, keep it on a leash and take it for a walk around the house group 6 to 12 years old mixed fields, beach catch butterflies to participate in a race that awards the fastest (highest flight or longest distance covered) winner catch and release butterflies at the same time to observe their float away grab the legs of butterflies with their thumb and forefinger and walk or run with them carpenter bee active group 6 to 10 years old mixed fields, beach hold the carpenter bee prisoner in your hands to better hear its buzzing sound 8 to 12 years old male fields ty a sewing thread around the thorax of the bee, keep it on a leash and observe its hovering 8 to 14 years old male fields, beach slip a carpenter bee under someone’s clothes, and watch them to try to remove the insect table 4 list of children’s play and games with butterflies and carpenter bees that respondents described in mayotte. perichon. 2024. ethnobiology letters 15(1):63–74 70 research communications would have caught them! [laughs]. the children caught the african monarch (figure 5b) and christmas butterfly (figure 5c) more often than any other species, possibly because they were present in greater numbers in the fields. the butterflies were usually snared while foraging for flowers. after the butterfly has folded its wings, the child would grasp it by gripping the upper wings between thumb and forefinger. the alternative method involved holding it in his hands and slowly closing them over the insect and flower. children appear to use different methods of capture depending on both the butterfly species and their age. although they were familiar with the places where butterflies gather at specific times of the year, it appears that they were not there for that specific reason. these games were improvised by them when they observed a significant number of butterflies in one area. respondents described three games that had butterflies captured: 1. the first game, which is a group game, has three variants. in the first variant, children who had captured a butterfly stood in a line in an open field, sometimes on a beach, while the other children watched. as soon as the signal (a loud countdown) was given, they gave up on their butterflies and all the children ran after them. the game was won by the child who had their insect cross an imaginary finishing line first. the winner in the second variant was the one who had either gone the furthest or the highest in the sky within a given time. once enough children had caught a butterfly, the races figure 5 butterfly species often mentioned in children’s games. a eurema floricola, b danaus chrysippus, and c papilio demodocus. photo credits: allan hopkins, and b–c quentin esnault. perichon. 2024. ethnobiology letters 15(1):63–74 71 research communications began. to make the game run smoothly and foster competitiveness among the group, a restricted number of children were allowed to release butterflies simultaneously. for small groups, there was a range of two or three children while for large groups, there was a range of five or six children. the referees could be the other children. there was no real competition in the third variation of the game. the captured butterflies were all released at once and the children watched as they flew away. 2. the children played the second game by grabbing the insect’s legs with their thumb and forefinger and walking or running in that way. usually, there were multiple children playing together. it seems that some of them had fun observing (or counting) the flapping wings of their butterflies. 3. real skill is needed to play this game. the task involved tying a sewing thread around the thorax of the captured butterfly without causing any harm to it. the children used a thread that measured around 1 meter to keep their butterfly on a leash. while this game was more of a solo activity, the children appeared to make sure that as many people as possible saw them. emotional memories of walking with butterflies in their village often come to mind for those who played this game as children. the insect was brought home. the game ended when the child became disinterested in following their butterfly or if their parents asked for lunch, dinner, or to do some household chores. for all of them, the rule of giving their butterflies back their freedom was a requirement, despite the possibility that the insect may have been injured or crippled. for the carpenter bee, the same game is explained with the insect on a lead. boys are the only ones who play this game, unlike the butterfly games. a 35-yearold respondent mentioned a children’s cartoon from the late 1980s: one stings while the other doesn’t. the one that was all yellow was the one that was not dangerous. we tied it to a wire around the body and watched them flutter around us, making noise. vrammm... we nicknamed them the transformers! the transformers, a children’s cartoon featuring airplanes that turned into robots, you know. [laughs] we could either hold them in our hands, shake them a bit, and instantly feel a buzz. vrammm... vrammm. we placed them close to our ears. generations of children have been delighted by the insect’s buzzing, which was amplified when it was kept captive in their hands. any child who successfully caught a carpenter bee was immediately surrounded by other children who pushed one another to hear the amplified buzzing sound more closely. the insect produces a sound that is commonly called beautiful music, and some have compared it to a violin tune. one respondent joked with us that the carpenter bee stuck in their hands was analogous to the walkman that nobody had. another game, the vibrations, was mentioned by a 45-year-old man: and the vibrations… [laughs] one of my cousins used to put gwé-gwé [carpenter bee] under our clothes and under our underwear! the gwé-gwé tickled you all over until you caught it… catching it under our clothes proved to be a challenge. we had a great time playing with it! discussion and conclusion in our survey in mayotte, it very quickly became apparent that butterflies and a species of carpenter bee were the subjects of traditional children’s play and games. according to the respondents, these play activities, which were still practiced by children ten years ago, are no longer of interest to them today. this seems to be a source of regret for them, even more so because they have happy memories associated with it, and these activities have shaped unchanging images of village life. seignobos et al. (1996) reported that children in the mofu (cameroon) had stopped playing with insects. soccer had already become more popular by that time. like children in mayotte, mofu children were accustomed to insects from an early age. in the fields, young children used to tie a thread around their wrists, with a beetle at the end. fascinated by the flight and noise of the insect, they would not take its eyes off it until it fell asleep. their mothers were able to work without any crying interruptions. recent international publications that focus on traditional games in asia and africa frequently address perichon. 2024. ethnobiology letters 15(1):63–74 72 research communications the question of how digital games impact children’s development. the increased awareness of the overuse of smartphones tends to lead to more acute concerns. the reason why parents and educators are worried about digital games is that they can lead to sedentary behavior, confinement to a room, and isolation from the real world (showkeen 2023; yücel and elçin 2015). therefore, traditional games are highly valued by them as they believe they are vital for children to expend their energy, learn how to channel it, and socialize (mutema 2013). outdoor play activities promote the development of children’s motor skills by allowing them to walk, run, jump, and hold objects, among other activities. butterfly hunting is an outstanding example. the children’s games with insects that we identified in mayotte illustrate the three stages of social development, as per parten (williams 2015). firstly, there is the so-called nonsocial activity, in which the child observes insects alone. the butterflies’ wings fluttering, colors, and hum of carpenter bees are all likely to pique their attention and induce emotions. it should be noted that this spectator behavior is applicable to any age group. later, they develop a type of social involvement, such as playing with insects in groups, but their individual behavior is not influenced by the other children. when respondents recall memories of chasing butterflies as children to capture them, this is what happens. in the third stage, children work together or collaborate to achieve a common objective. this can be observed during insect races. traditional games are commonly associated with a local culture that has been weakened by western systems in many publications. madondo and tsikira (2022) in zimbabwe believe that children are abandoning the games of yesteryear due to information and communication technologies and globalization. mutema (2013) feels that the school curriculum, starting from early childhood, lacks sufficient indigenous knowledge that can be used as learning tools. adom (2022) made a similar observation in ghana and encouraged teachers to include more indigenous ecological knowledge in their children’s education. he believes that games are equally important to knowledge as language, values, stories, songs, and so on. suhra (2023) in indonesia makes a connection between the maintenance of children’s access to a wide range of land, particularly agricultural plots (e.g., rice fields), and the continuation of traditional games. the author’s observation is that the perpetuation of these traditions is more susceptible to changes in society because they are passed on orally. from childhood onwards, people tend to distance themselves from insects, which can lead to negative attitudes and misconceptions that can further complicate the acceptance of conservation actions in favor of entomofauna (cardaso et al. 2011). in environmental education, it is a major challenge to restore informal and playful childhood interactions with insects (shipley and bixler 2016). it has been observed by sitar et al. (2023) that children are more likely to be fascinated by insects if they interact with them early in life. the authors choose butterflies as their main species because they convey positive images. nevertheless, insects are often overlooked as flagship species, despite their importance in local biodiversity and the ecosystem services they provide (schlegel et al. 2015). weeks and oseto (2018) propose that children learn about ecosystems through the use of the many insects found in nature for educational purposes. the effectiveness of a playful approach in creating a lasting bond with insects can be demonstrated by our survey in mayotte. regardless of age, anyone who claims to have played with butterflies and carpenter bees as children still feels real emotions when talking about them. their fascination is clearly evident in the fact that the games vary based on the child’s age, but are still completely focused on these insects. it is suggested that the use of these two taxa as part of environmental education initiatives in mayotte would be pertinent. enhancing the value of the carpenter bee would be a unique educational experience that links to local traditions that are now facing extinction. educational activities can benefit from the male bee carpenter’s harmless nature, large size, loud buzzing, and all-yellow appearance. both young and old are immediately captivated by the presence of this insect. acknowledgments the author expresses gratitude to the fédération mahoraise des associations environnementales (fmae) and its president for their trust in us. thank you to all the respondents in mayotte who took the time to talk about pollinating insects. lisa fabris, corné vermaak, ian junor, nicolas vereecken, mariane harmand, allan hopkins and quentin esnault, thank you for providing us with photos of carpenter bees and butterflies to illustrate our results. the author is grateful to andrew flachs and the reviewers of the ethnobiology letters for their perichon. 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in insects: the role of entomology in environmental education. insects 23(9). doi:10.3390/ insects9010026. yücel, g., and y. elçin. 2015. a study into traditional child games played in konya region in terms of development fields of children. procedia social and behavioral sciences 197:1859–1865. doi:10.1016/j.sbspro.2015.07.247. prescribed fire use among black landowners in the red hills region, usa perkins et al. 2023. ethnobiology letters 14(1):36–48 36 perspectives were established from the 1860s into the 1950s to offer sharecroppers the opportunity to manage parcels as a cohort and were places to get financial assistance and credit to buy and maintain farmland (seals 1991; siby, 2013). black people rebuilt their communities decimated by the civil war, and by 1910 there were approximately 240,000 or more blackowned farms in the states of alabama, florida, and georgia alone (usda census 1910). many property owners possessed lands on former plantations. eighty -nine years later in 1999, a usda agricultural economics and land ownership survey stated that african american landowners accounted for approximately 68,000 farms covering 7.8 million acres, approximately 2% of all private landowners in the united states (usda ers 1999). in 2017, these already dismal figures had dropped further: there were only 28,000 black landowners, and these individuals introduction alabama, florida, and georgia are the center of prescribed burning in the united states (melvin 2018). the red hills region of north florida and southern georgia, known for its rolling hills and red clay soils, is considered the birthplace of fire ecology. however, the dominant narrative establishing how this region has flourished economically and ecologically as a result of prescribed fire has excluded the stories of black people1 who helped to implement it. in the post-civil war period, black sharecroppers, tenant farmers, and wage workers stewarded these lands and opened opportunities for landownership. the freedmen’s bureau of beaufort (1865), the federation of southern cooperatives (1867), and the farmers home administration (1946) prescribed fire use among black landowners in the red hills region, usa la’ portia j. perkins1, t. adam coates1*, j. kevin hiers2, cynthia t. fowler3, and seth w. bigelow4 1department of forest resources and environmental conservation, virginia tech, blacksburg, usa. 2natural resources institute, texas a&m university, college station, usa. 3department of sociology and anthropology, wofford college, spartanburg, usa. 4tall timbers research, tallahassee, usa. *acoates4@vt.edu abstract the red hills region of southern alabama, northern florida, and southwestern georgia is one of the most prominent areas in the united states for conducting prescribed fire research and is the birthplace of fire ecology. the culture of prescribed burning in the red hills has been influenced by multiple ethnic groups, including the seminole and creek nations, black landowners, and white researchers. given the distinctive reliance of the region on prescribed fire, it is noteworthy that the combined issues of black land loss, underrepresentation, and incentives for using prescribed fire on private lands in the southeastern united states have generated questions about diversity and inclusion in landowner outreach. to increase understanding about black landowner historic and current use of prescribed fire for land management in the red hills region, formal and informal interviews were conducted from may through august 2019 with 21 black landowners and tenants to document the perspectives and thoughts of black landowners and tenants of southern alabama, northern florida, and southwestern georgia. the results of this research show that black landowners, tenants, and fire experts, have been, and continue to be, influential in the development and sustainment of fire traditions in the red hills and in the resilience of the longleaf pine ecosystem. received december 28, 2022 open access accepted may 16, 2023 doi 10.14237/ebl.14.1.2023.1855 published august 4, 2023 keywords discrimination, heirs’ property, longleaf pine, southeastern us, tenant copyright © 2023 by the author(s); licensee society of ethnobiology. this is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution-noncommercial 4.0 international public license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0), which permits non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. perkins et al. 2023. ethnobiology letters 14(1):36–48 37 perspectives owned 2.4 million acres (usda census of agriculture 2017) (figure 1). from 1910 to 2017, an 88.3% plummet was heavily facilitated by discriminatory practices, particularly those related to land tenure. a portion of the black-owned land that still exists today in much of the south previously existed as acres of plantation land for agriculture, hunting, or estate living that depended on slaves and eventually wage laborers. all these practices involved fire use. postenslavement, the pervasive cloak of racism deeply impacted displaced black people and led to things like vagrancy charges being written into state legislatures as “black codes” (morris 2017). historians assert that this shift and the lack of safe livelihoods depleted resources for black landowners as they began to acquire properties. there was not much legal counsel given on how to leave or share their land assets. this led black landowners to have land passed down to the next generation through verbal agreements that typically did not include written documentation, like a last will and testament. land in this situation is known as “heirs’ property.” thus, these properties were left without a single, dominant landowner. as more generations joined the shared ownership, the number of owners grew, and land tenure became less secure for each individual landowner (bailey et al. 2019). of the laws and loopholes governing this legal issue, black landowners are among the highest population to lose land due to the inconsistency of rights for tenants in common, foreclosure, and adverse possession (mitchell 2001). in this article, we present information from interviews that were conducted by l. perkins with black landowners in alabama, florida, and georgia in 2019. the research team consisted of l. perkins who is a fifth-generation descendant of the red hills region, and they interviewed landowners, provided the concept, methodology, analysis, and original writing. their graduate advisor, t. coates, contributed equally as a southeastern fire ecologist to the concept, writing, and editing. j. hiers hosted the research at tall timbers as a southeastern fire ecologist and equally contributed to the concept, writing, and editing. c. fowler contributed to the formal analysis, writing, and editing as an ethnographer, and s. bigelow contributed to funding, editing, and writing. some of the interviewees featured in this research inherited their property, others purchased it, and others entered into lease-to-own agreements with family members or acquaintances (table 1). their stories featured connections in the community and in the shift from plantation culture to widespread landownership and the struggles to maintain it. black landowners shared their knowledge about prescribed figure 1 black-owned acreage in the united states in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. perkins et al. 2023. ethnobiology letters 14(1):36–48 38 perspectives p ar ti ci p an t c o u n ty a cr e ag e y e ar s o f o w n e rsh ip a cq u is iti o n u se o f p re sc ri b e d fi re o rg an iz ati o n s, c o -o p e ra ti ve s, o r o th e r affi lia te d g ro u p s p 1 0 5 2 8 2 0 1 9 je ff er so n c o u n ty , a l 3 3 0 p u rc h as ed n o n e, b u t aw ar e o f th e p ra cti ce n /a p 2 0 6 0 3 2 0 1 9 d o u gh er ty c o u n ty , g a 1 0 3 p u rc h as ed ( le as e to o w n f o llo w in g 5 y ea rs o f w o rk in g th e la n d ) a n n u al b u rn in g fo rt v al le y st at e u n iv er si ty , n at u ra l r es o u rc es c o n se rv ati o n s er vi ce , so u th ea st er n a fr ic an a m er ic an fa rm er s' o rg an ic n et w o rk p 3 0 6 1 2 2 0 1 9 th o m as c o u n ty , g a < 1 a cr e n /a p u rc h as ed n o n e, b u t aw ar e o f th e p ra cti ce ja ck h ad le y b la ck h is to ry m u se u m p 4 0 6 1 2 2 0 1 9 g ra d y c o u n ty , g a 3 7 >1 0 0 h ei rs ' p ro p er ty ( sp lit b et w e en si b lin gs ) a n n u al b u rn in g u n iv e rs it y o f fl o ri d a p 5 0 6 1 4 2 0 1 9 m o b ile c o u n ty , a l 3 0 1 6 p u rc h as ed ( fr o m p re vi o u s o w n er ) a n n u al b u rn in g n at u ra l r es o u rc e s c o n se rv ati o n se rv ic e, u s fo re st s er vi ce p 6 0 6 1 4 2 0 1 9 m o b ile c o u n ty , a l 2 2 1 1 0 0 in h er it ed ( p ro p er ty f ro m gr ea tgr an d m o th er ) b u rn ed o n ce a la b am a fo re st ry c o m m is si o n , l o ca l m an ag em en t p ro gr am s p 7 0 6 1 9 2 0 1 9 ja ck so n c o u n ty , f l 1 5 8 6 0 p u rc h as ed (c as h s al e; d e ed f ro m f at h er ) a n n u al b u rn in g fl o ri d a fo re st s er vi ce , u s fo re st se rv ic e, n o rt h f lo ri d a c o -o p p 8 0 6 1 9 2 0 1 9 th o m as c o u n ty , g a 3 6 5 1 3 6 in h er it ed ( o ri gi n al p u rc h as e ca . 1 8 8 0 ) a n n u al b u rn in g fe d er ati o n o f so u th er n c o o p er ati ve s, n at u ra l r es o u rc e s c o n se rv ati o n s er vi ce p 9 0 6 2 0 2 0 1 9 b ak er c o u n ty , g a 2 n /a p u rc h as ed c o n d u ct s b u rn s at th e jo n es c en te r at ic h u aw ay th e jo n e s c en te r at ic h u aw ay p 1 0 0 6 2 0 2 0 1 9 b ak er c o u n ty , g a 1 n /a p u rc h as ed c o n d u ct s b u rn s at th e jo n es c en te r at ic h u aw ay th e jo n e s c en te r at ic h u aw ay p 1 1 0 6 2 0 2 0 1 9 b ak er c o u n ty , g a 0 n /a li ve s at t h e jo n e s c en te r at ic h u aw ay c o n d u ct s b u rn s at th e jo n es c en te r at ic h u aw ay th e jo n e s c en te r at ic h u aw ay ta b le 1 in te rv ie w ee c o u n ty o f re si d en ce , a cr ea ge , ti m e o f la n d o w n er sh ip , p ro ce ss o f la n d o w n er sh ip , a n d e vi d en ce o f p re sc ri b ed fi re u se . (c o n ti n u ed o n n ex t p ag e) perkins et al. 2023. ethnobiology letters 14(1):36–48 39 perspectives p ar ti ci p an t c o u n ty a cr e ag e y e ar s o f o w n e rsh ip a cq u is iti o n u se o f p re sc ri b e d fi re o rg an iz ati o n s, c o -o p e ra ti ve s, o r o th e r affi lia te d g ro u p s p 1 2 0 6 2 0 2 0 1 9 d o u gh er ty c o u n ty , g a 5 5 7 in h er it ed ( fr o m f at h er ) n o n e, b u t la n d o w n er c u rr en tl y as si st s w it h b u rn s at t h e jo n es c en te r at ic h au w ay th e jo n e s c en te r at ic h u aw ay p 1 3 0 6 2 1 2 0 1 9 g ra d y c o u n ty , g a 5 4 3 8 -3 9 p u rc h as ed b ie n n ia l b u rn in g ta ll ti m b er s r e se ar ch s ta ti o n a n d la n d c o n se rv an cy , n at u ra l r e so u rc e s c o n se rv ati o n s er vi ce , f ed er ati o n o f so u th er n c o o p er ati ve s p 1 4 0 6 2 6 2 0 1 9 g ra d y c o u n ty , g a 7 5 -8 0 5 0 p u rc h as ed , ( st ar te d o ff in gr ea t gr an d m o th er ’s p o ss es si o n ) a n n u al b u rn in g fa rm s er vi ce a ge n cy p 1 5 0 6 2 7 2 0 1 9 th o m as c o u n ty , g a 1 4 0 3 9 p u rc h as ed ( fr o m f at h er 's e m p lo ye r) p re vi o u sl y b u rn ed , b u t n o t ac ti ve n /a p 1 6 0 6 2 9 2 0 1 9 g ad sd en c o u n ty , f l 1 .5 7 9 h ei rs ' p ro p er ty p re vi o u sl y b u rn ed , b u t n o t ac ti ve ta ll ti m b er s r e se ar ch s ta ti o n a n d la n d c o n se rv an cy p 1 7 0 7 0 2 2 0 1 9 ja ck so n c o u n ty , f l 5 3 8 -3 9 p u rc h as ed ( fa th er a n d s o n ) a n n u al b u rn in g fl o ri d a fo re st s er vi ce p 1 8 0 7 0 3 2 0 1 9 je ff er so n c o u n ty , a l 1 7 .5 5 5 p u rc h as ed ( p ro p er ty in t w o d iff er en t co u n ti es ) p re vi o u sl y b u rn ed , b u t n o t ac ti ve 4 h , a u b u rn c o o p er ati ve e xt e n si o n p ro gr am , n at u ra l r es o u rc es c o n se rva ti o n s er vi ce p 1 9 0 7 0 8 2 0 1 9 le o n c o u n ty , fl 1 5 8 0 > 1 0 0 in h er it ed ( fr o m g ra n d m o th er ) a n n u al b u rn in g lo ca l fi re d ep ar tm en t p 2 0 0 7 1 9 2 0 1 9 ea rl y c o u n ty , g a 2 0 5 3 5 h ei rs ' p ro p er ty ( p u rc h as ed fr o m d is ta n t co u si n s) a n n u al b u rn in g lo ca l g ro u p , n at u ra l r es o u rc e s c o n se rv ati o n s er vi ce p 2 1 0 8 0 8 2 9 1 8 je ff er so n c o u n ty , f l 6 4 0 p u rc h as ed p re vi o u sl y b u rn ed , b u t n o t ac ti ve fl o ri d a fo re st s er vi ce (c o n ti n u ed f ro m p re vi o u s p ag e) perkins et al. 2023. ethnobiology letters 14(1):36–48 40 perspectives fire while discussing the changes in its use and persistence over time. to provide better context for the stories gathered through these interviews, there needs to be an understanding of the shift that occurred in the economic and social structure of the red hills. in this place, much knowledge about fire in the southeast had been learned from the work of black individuals. their experiences helped develop modern fire science. the interviews provide insight into the factors that limit black prescribed fire use today: access to educational and financial resources, land legacy, and underrepresentation. fire in the red hills region transfer of knowledge between indigenous and black communities there is little published evidence of direct person-toperson transfers of knowledge between members of indigenous communities of alabama, florida, and georgia and enslaved or freed black people prior to the twentieth century. nevertheless, some fire knowledge exchange likely occurred throughout the past 300 years (foster and cohen 2007). the initial implementers of prescribed fire in the red hills were indigenous americans who used fire to manage plants, obtain medicines, promote game hunting, ease travel, and conduct ceremonial or religious practices (ryan et al. 2013). fire was considered an essential, divine element in indigenous health, both natural and spiritual. the muskogee (creek) and seminole, two indigenous nations who live in the red hills and surrounding regions, upheld practices aligned with nature's duality. common town fires or talofas were shared by muskogee people along rivers and creeks in alabama and georgia for ceremony, celebration, and cooking (haveman 2009). muskogee and seminole people believe the universe is divided into the opposing forces of order and chaos, represented by female and male, with fire representing the divine masculine. the indigenous communities of the red hills region lost land at the hands of spanish, french, and english colonists. even in times of displacement, the creek practiced “carry[ing] the fire” and keeping the “eternal flame” (fischer 2013). the indian removal act of 1830, upheld by president andrew jackson, attempted to extirpate indigenous ways of life, allowing attacks not only on indigenous tribes but also on fleeing slaves (green 1982; herbert 2014; jackson 1830). some escaped slaves became warriors alongside indigenous allies and fought against removal from the land, sometimes using fire as a tool in warfare (herbert 2014). in addition to forming alliances in the war against colonizer-enslavers, interactions between indigenous and black peoples included enslavement of black people by some creek indians and conjugal relationships whose offspring are referred to as black seminoles. enslaved black people may have been knowledgeable about prescribed fire prior to the forced migration across the atlantic. in western african countries where many enslaved black people originated, subsistence burning continues to be used today (shaffer 2010). for example, the loma people of northwestern liberia and guinea use swidden agriculture to produce rice, ground nuts, and beans (fraser et al. 2015; leopold 2006). in the palm oil belt of southeastern nigeria, bush fallow was a system of agricultural burning and crop rotation in the 1970s (awanyo 2010). this method was believed to enhance long-term soil fertility. another method commonly utilized in eastern nigeria is ley farming. this method ensures that planted grasses and legumes are rotated for hay production (lagemann 1977). based upon these examples, one may assume enslaved blacks possessed and shared similar applied knowledge and skills as they entered a new frontier. indigenous people may have shared knowledge with enslaved africans, formerly enslaved black people, and freed persons. we hypothesize that this shared, combined knowledge survives amongst all landowners in the red hills today, including black landowners (herbert 2014). their african heritage, combined with native culture in the red hills, presented new opportunities for black people in the post-civil war south to transfer knowledge about fire. centennial landownership black landownership began to skyrocket in the late 1800s to 1930s when access to life-changing educational resources increased for black sharecroppers and tenant farmers. the morrill acts of 1862 and 1890 created agricultural and mechanical universities, like the tuskegee institute in alabama and the florida agricultural and mechanical university in florida. the smith-lever act of 1914 instructed rural landowners on the scientific nature of farming and helped stabilize agriculture across the nation (brown and davis 2009; seals 1991). perkins et al. 2023. ethnobiology letters 14(1):36–48 41 perspectives interviewees with centennial land-ownership, one hundred years or more within a single family, are likely descendants of the first black landowners to establish agriculture and fire culture within the region. one interviewee was a former agency employee turned hay farmer (table 1). this interviewee’s family legacy and fire knowledge shared through land stewardship and ownership was critical to his survival. the property was split among himself (37 acres), a brother (14 acres), and a sister who eventually gave her share to his brother. he stated that a home on his property had been owned by his family for over 100 years. standing at the edge of his hay field he pointed and said: so, this is the property line here. the land that my dad owned came from here all the way back over to those trees over there. the 60 acres up to the road and that was the 60 acres, and we subdivided that up between the siblings. but when i was growing up, that was owned by black folks, and up in the corner owned by black folks. this owned by black folks. but now it’s changed hands. his parents who purchased the property lived on it when most of the surrounding properties were black-owned. community members shared resources through a co-op managed by his dad, wrote petitions for proper equipment, and advocated for one another. however, things started to change as northerners throughout the midto late 1900s continued to take interest in the heavily wooded landscapes surrounding u.s. route 319 between thomasville, georgia and tallahassee, florida. they bought many properties, increasing land prices. this increased challenges for retaining ownership and fragmented the community so much that few large black landowners exist there today. it led to changes from row agriculture to hay farming for this landowner. even with social changes, the management goals of the hay farmer continued to require fire annually. he noted, “well [his brother] and i burn this whole place right here,” pointing to a few acres of longleaf pine (pinus palustris) on their property in front of the four-wheeler we drove around that day. there was a focus on avoiding structural burns, like of the equipment barn and house. his pine stand previously was 10 to 12 years old when he cut and sold it. he planted new seedlings and hoped to avoid a disease that had damaged his previous stand. regular prescribed fire use had maintained the new stand for several years. early fire science and black crew members’ work with prescribed fire people of european descent, generalized as white, contributed to the construction of knowledge about prescribed burning by formalizing knowledge and skills related to fire into a science. two founders of fire ecology, ellen call long and herbert l. stoddard, were based in the red hills region. both of these advocates of prescribed fire understood its essential role in longleaf pine management. long and stoddard’s work led to a socio-political and scientific transformation in prescribed burning for longleaf pine maintenance. they saw utility in burning regardless of the fire suppression legacy in many parts of the new world since the early colonial era, rooted in fears of wildfire outbreaks (varner et al. 2005). long was one of the first women to speak on the benefits and ecological necessity of prescribed fire in her address to the american forest congress in 1888. long’s (1888) report expressed concern for fire suppression’s devastating effects on longleaf pine and was the first article in a national forestry publication to advocate for controlled burning (waber 2016). in the 1920s, herbert l. stoddard began to interpret the patterns of fire that benefit longleaf pine and that were required to create a pine savanna. his findings and implementation of prescribed fire fostered life for not only the trees, but also unique flowers, gopher tortoises (gopherus polyphemus), and northern (bobwhite) quail (colinus virginianus). the same ecosystems that long and stoddard’s work highlighted have been maintained by the practices passed down through generations of black people. their land management methods protected crops, livestock, and wildlife, kept the forest floor clear enough for turpentining, and promoted timber production. black people’s knowledge and skills were also indispensable to the success of white landowners’ operations in the twentieth century and into the twenty-first century. this claim is illustrated by interviews conducted at tall timbers research station (tallahassee, florida) and the jones center at ichauway (formerly known as ichauway in newton, georgia). both institutions are in the red hills region. in july of 2019, three individuals were interviewed and were connected to ichauway by birth or through family members who were employed there (table 1). of these the most memorable was “frog,” the eldest interviewee, whose wife was seated near him when we spoke. frog was perkins et al. 2023. ethnobiology letters 14(1):36–48 42 perspectives rife with knowledge on setting prescribed fire at ichauway. frog was born on the river near ichauway while the owner and founder, mr. robert w. woodruff, also lived there. frog recreated on woodruff’s land and worked on his property beginning at age 13. he eventually advanced to the burn team and became known for training hunting dogs. he learned burning primarily through experience. as frog remembered, well pretty much you are there on your own. they’ll show you a spot. ... we would wanna burn a certain spot in there. we wouldn’t burn it all at that one time. he revealed that instruction on fire was not always free of oppressive behavior or attitudes; in fact, it often highlighted issues of race, class, and labor relations. frog was a member of an all-black burn team at ichauway where stark gaps existed between the livelihoods of black people and their mostly white supervisors. frog and i (l. perkins) sort of chuckled after hearing his remarks because we each encountered racism and underrepresentation through our lived experiences. frog and the other former members of ichauway’s fire crew who served on burn teams there learned where to watch the wind, how to plant pines, how to set back-fires, and how to build fire lines. as they became experts alongside hunting property owners and researchers, they leveraged their knowledge in a broader community of small landowners who followed suit and were employed to conduct prescribed burns on other properties. frog stated, it uh ... other folks have a lil spot ‘bout 5 or 6 acres. we had a get it burnt. we would burn it large while we was burning. so we wouldn’t mess up they hunting. because of their roles in managing fire, the black men who worked at ichauway and other estates in the region influenced burning practices of local community members off of the plantation grounds. one former burn team member from ichauway who continues to volunteer there said, they [neighbors around the property] see you burning, they gone light a fire. that's the way it was. they go in there and light a match down, let it burn, then they call somebody. ‘we got a fire over here,’ so and so a say. ‘oh watch at that fire. let it burn.’ well they didn’t believe in no permit back in them days. just go and set a spot on fire. black “firelighters,” those that use prescribed fire for management purposes, comprised landowners, tenants, and firefighters who nourished the red hills acre by acre with the application of fire. in the early 1900s, black landowners and firelighters valued land for food, religion, play, familial abundance, and promise for the future. unfortunately, over the course of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, the extent of black-owned lands has decreased due to land loss, residential development, increased liabilities, and burdensome permitting. yet the methods black firelighters applied are not forgotten, and instead live on in the present policies and ecosystems. among the black landowners interviewed, 71.4% (15 individuals) used prescribed fire on their property and 14.3% (3 individuals) used prescribed fire as tenants (figure 2). only 14.3% (3 individuals) did not use prescribed fire. forty-three percent of landowners (9 individuals) described using prescribed fire annually or biennially. twenty-eight percent (6 individuals) reported infrequent use of prescribed fire ranging from once every 5 years to over 40 years ago. the black firelighters interviewed possessed similar knowledge and used similar practices as prescribed burners elsewhere, including knowledge of wind patterns; burning in the spring for wildlife management or in the early winter for fuels reduction; and working towards conserving native ecosystems and species. the sentiments of black firelighters may have been lost over time, at many communities like the one at ichauway. fire had been used on these lands for generations and users of fire knew both the benefits of frequent, low intensity fire as well as the consequences of fire exclusion, which at the time was largely ignored by agency officials (brenner and wade 2003). black-owned land in the past, present, and future black people in the u.s. south have long maintained a strong connection to farming. the usda census of agriculture (2017) found that 30,339 out of 32,910 black-owned farms were located within the 15 southern states (92% ). southern black farmers participate in row cropping, cattle farming, and timber management (adams 2010). however, little is known about the techniques black farmers use to manage their properties in the red hills region and throughout the south (j. k. hiers pers. observation 2019). black landowners and tenants living within tall perkins et al. 2023. ethnobiology letters 14(1):36–48 43 perspectives timbers research station’s conservation planning area are spread out among 52 counties across southeastern alabama, northwestern florida, and southwestern georgia. in thomas county, georgia, a family has managed their farm through row crop agriculture, raising cattle, and annual prescribed fire since 1883 (over 139 years) (table 1). regarding fire, they said, “[we] just did it ... and it helps maintain undergrowth and keeps the veg./fuel [vegetative fuels].. you know you get too many leaves in pine it gets built up. too much fuel. so, you try to keep that from happening. that way if a fire happens it just won't get out of control.” safety, long-term maintenance, and land legacy were the focus of this family’s land stewardship practices. over time, rapid development had taken a toll on a practice they suggested at one time, “everybody did.” when asked if other people in the area still burned, they noted, they've been burning here lately, yes. but if you note there is a lot of deforestation going on. but i think for the most part we still, if you look around here, it’s probably one of the most forested areas. they do burn, i noticed. on the plantation sometimes they burn. i noticed they burn. they've been burning a lot more often here lately than they have in a minute. now they burn pretty much every year or two. this family briefly made note of the shifts in black and plantation owners’ prescribed fire practices and roles in wildfire mitigation. their oral histories tell us that burning woody debris on agricultural lands has been entrenched in southeastern fire-adapted ecosystems for generations. the transition from the past into the present is best captured in the resilience of the black landowners and tenants. a cattleman, whose father was a retired firefighter who died tragically in an equipment fire, was a great representation of this resilience. he discussed his continuous search for knowledge to maintain the land he now came to value. he said, i’d like to get around more african americans and see how they go about managing and funding, keeping everything going. i realized when my daddy passed. i realized the value of the land and not just figure 2 prescribed fire frequency of interviewees in alabama, florida, and georgia. perkins et al. 2023. ethnobiology letters 14(1):36–48 44 perspectives money-wise. what it was symbolic of and just keeping it going. you just hate to see something go to waste that he put so much time in, and that’s what i really been focused on. carolyn finney (2014:xv­–xvi) states, “black people have laid it all down to feed their children, plant their dreams, and share their experience and history with the environment.” the land exists as a symbol of life and ancestral love (crook 2008). this may be due to the discriminatory practices black people in america have faced since being enslaved or the simple trials of taking on the management of 0.5 to 365-acre properties. those landowners who live, work, and love through their land seem to retain it longer and gain more reward from their ownership (adams 2010). these connections may be expressed recreationally through hunting and fishing, spiritually through their religious perspectives, or economically through commodity production (gordon et al. 2013). since many black people have subsisted on their lands, currently or in their ancestral lineage, it is reasonable to assume they have maintained unique connections with their lands, including a love of fire. as one black firelighter put it, “fire is my love, so that’s what i did. ... i was a firefighter for like 28 years.” this same message was echoed in different forms from interviewees who wanted to hold on to the land, the legacy, and the specific land management practice of fire that kept them going. black landowners in the red hills have a variety of management goals. of these, most were like the management goals for landowners of other ethnic groups while including conservation practices required to protect native species within their region. historically, black landowners have participated in the usda conservation reserve program (crp)—a program that allows landowners to remove environmentally sensitive land from agricultural production and plant species that will improve environmental health and quality—more than other minority groups (gilbert et. al 2002). within their range of management goals, there were limitations that affected their use of prescribed fire and, vice versa, affected their tenure as landowners. black landowners frequently identified the need for a next of kin to carry land management into the next generation. they also identified a need for better access to prescribed fire resources and improved collaborations with organizations. as one young innovative farmer noted, if forestry [usda, usfs, or other local/state forestry groups] did more programs promoting, like having to go to different counties and say, ‘we’re hosting a training on forestry management,’ that way they can just go around or people who wanna get into it [can go]. that’s how farmers learn about different programs so, you can’t just look for them to come to you, you have to ... [go to them]. education and its limitations were brought up in 57% of the interviews. black landowners mentioned the desire for more information about safety, permitting, long-term management planning, and landowner assistance programs. they also inquired about working within natural resource organizations. ninety percent of the interviewees were over age 50 and felt insecure about the continuation of their landownership legacy. underrepresentation in land management agencies and organizations was mentioned in 33% of the interviews as a third potential limitation to fire use by black landowners. better community-based outreach, more financial incentives or tax breaks, safety assurances, liability protections, and the protection of legacies are necessary for the viability of prescribed fire on blackowned land and for the security of black landownership. a landowner who serves as part of a local farm collective noted the need for additional education and advocacy efforts related to managing timber for small acreage farmers when he said, it’s just unmanaged. they don’t manage their timber. if you don’t manage your timber, you have no use for prescribed burning. so ... when i came back, there was actually other farmers local farmers that [suggested] i should manage my timber and no one knew the [answers to] the questions [i had]. so that’s how i got involved. so i started attending these little seminars. he mentioned having to travel over 200 miles north to attend seminars held by the longleaf alliance which gave him more knowledge on using prescribed fire as a management tool. even so, he had struggled to have fruitful conversations with neighboring farmers in his county about the use of this practice. he surmised that his neighbors did not use or delayed perkins et al. 2023. ethnobiology letters 14(1):36–48 45 perspectives burning because of uncertainties about the dynamics of fire use, worries about wildfire risk, and a mismatch with their set management goals. knowledge and practices related to fire use within the community of black landowners some black landowners burn because of the history of fire and its interconnected history with black people. a female landowner, who had managed prescribed burns on a centennial farm owned and occupied by her family, reminisced on their burning as an alternative to mowing, saying, ... the central part of the property, which is between my house and my brother’s house and where my grandparents’ original house was and still part of, it still is [burned]. my mom, they would actually [burn] each year. ... they like to keep burning off because it’s not a place you can really mow because of the trees. ... it’s kind of hard to get the mower in there. so every year she would like burn it off just to keep the brush down, but it’s not near the property line so no danger of getting to you know [someone] else’s property. fuel treatments varied by the landowners’ intended management goals. several landowners noted more focus on row crop agriculture or soil health and would mention mowing and tilling agricultural lands. timber and crop production were reasons for burning as farmers and foresters noticed increases in the growth of oaks, pines, hardwoods, sugar cane, peanuts, fruit trees, hemp, and medical marijuana. burning revolved heavily around a focused approach to wildlife management, fuels management, and pest reduction, all conducted with respect to structural and human safety. black landowners used similar tools and equipment as the neighboring plantation owners, such as matches or drip torches, for fire ignition. black landowners with smaller holdings who work among family members shared mules, tractors, and fourwheelers, which they used to conduct backing fires, strip burning, and windrow burns. landowners’ understanding of their land did not always originate from an ancestral source. some landowners had previously moved out of the region and returned to the community where they noticed differences in people and their approaches to land management. seventy-six percent of interviewees had a connection to at least one governmental agency or nongovernmental organization (table 1). among the organizations that interviewees interacted with were the u.s. department of agriculture’s natural resource conservation service (nrcs) and farm service agency (fsa), tall timbers research station and land conservancy, the jones center at ichauway, the southeastern african american farmers’ organic network (saafon), the north florida co-op, state and local forestry commissions, volunteer fire departments, fire and rescue services, auburn cooperative extension, and 4h. these organizations have contributed to debt relief, legal protections, mechanical and technical assistance, and relationshipbuilding with private landowners. the federation of southern cooperatives stood out as a leader in the commitment to support and advocate on behalf of the almost 20,000 black farmers and farmers of color taxed with financial and technical support issues. some landowners participated in committees, workshops, and leadership roles within agencies or organizations, often as the only people of color working to make space for their communities' voices and concerns. closing the culture of prescribed burning in the red hills has been constructed by multiple ethnic groups: seminole, creek, enslaved west africans, and white researchers. because white contributors, like stoddard, receive an elevated credibility as fire experts, we looked to the black landowners of the red hills region to show how historically deep and profoundly knowledgeable and skilled they are with prescribed burning. this, coupled with the skills of indigenous peoples who have lived in this region for thousands of years, is why prescribed fire in the red hills has fostered strong, resilient ecosystems. we found that a majority of the black landowners and tenants in this study conduct prescribed fire (figure 2; table 1). black people’s life stories in the red hills are intertwined in their ownership and management of land, many of which include the longleaf pine ecosystem. to support prescribed burning among black landowners, policymakers, and fire scientists should focus on improving access to education, securing landowning legacies, and increasing the representation of black people as landowners, foresters, and fire experts. state and federal legislation providing debt relief, environmental justice, and securing heirs’ property has been proposed. in 2021, federal legislation like, the justice for black farmers act and perkins et al. 2023. ethnobiology letters 14(1):36–48 46 perspectives environmental justice for all act, sought to provide relief for long-term issues facing farmers. while these specific acts have not passed, others have. the emergency relief for farmers of color act of 2021 was a part of the inflation reduction act of 2022, which passed and promised over 4 billion dollars to black farmers. unfortunately, many black farmers have been delayed in their receipt of this aid due to resistance from white landowners, who have pursued lawsuits accusing these programs or relief of being a form of discrimination toward white landowners. at the state level, as of 2022, 21 states enacted and passed the uniform partition of heirs' property act created to alleviate the devastating effects of partition sales on heirs by ceasing buyouts and providing opportunities and legal education for shareholders to purchase or negotiate land sales. black landowners’ roles as farmers and foresters affect us greatly as a nation, and black landowners are a cornerstone to the viability of fire-adapted ecosystems in the red hills. policies that atone for historical losses, increase financial security, and encourage conservation among black landowners and firelighters should be encouraged. government agencies will benefit as they establish rapport with their constituency, help reduce legal burdens, and mitigate potential financial losses. when we understand the management objectives of black landowners and the unique obstacles they face within the broader historical and social contexts, we can implement more equitable solutions for nature and people. notes 1the terms of reference for different ethnic groups used here (black people/landowners, white people/ researchers, seminole, muskogee (creek), black seminoles) are those employed by the individuals interviewed and are most commonly employed by people in the red hills region today. acknowledgments we thank jerome golden and additional black landowners who opened their homes, lands, and stories to the research team. we thank karen kovaka, mike sorice, cassandra johnson-gaither, carolyn copenheaver, kathie hollandsworth, sarah hitchner, and julia defeo for manuscript reviews. declarations permissions: informed consent was obtained from all subjects involved in this study, and this study was approved by the institutional review board of virginia polytechnic institute and state university (protocol code fwa00000572), may 4, 2019. sources of funding: this research was made possible by the edna sussman foundation and virginia tech’s multicultural academic opportunities program. conflicts of interest: none declared. references cited adams, k. 2010. a study of african american forest landowners in south carolina: implications for land ethic and forest stewardship. doctoral dissertation, department of forestry and environmental conservation, clemson university, clemson, sc. awanyo, l. 2010. bush fallow farming. in encyclopedia of geography, edited by b. warf, p. 302. sage publications, inc., thousand oaks, ca. bailey, c., b. barlow, and j. dyer. 2019. practical constraints to timber management among african american owners of heir’s property. landscape and urban planning 188:1–8. doi:10.1016/ j.landurbplan.2019.03.008. brenner, j., and d. wade. 2003. florida’s revised prescribed fire law: protection for 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https://bit.ly/2skdt37. accessed on april 2, 2019. perkins et al. 2023. ethnobiology letters 14(1):36–48 48 perspectives uniform law commission. 2010. partition of heirs property act [web page]. available at: https:// www.uniformlaws.org/committees/communityhome?communitykey=50724584-e808-4255-bc5d8ea4e588371d. accessed on 2, 2019. varner, j. m., d. r. gordon, f. e. putz, and j. k. hiers. 2005. restoring fire to long-unburned pinus palustris ecosystems: novel fire effects and consequences for long-unburned ecosystems. restoration ecology 13:536–544. doi:10.1111/j.1526100x.2005.00067.x. waber, a. 2016. sounding the first discordant notes: ellen call long and her legacy in the field of fire ecology. tall timbers ejournal 3:24. rooted in the mangrove landscape: children and their ethnoichthyological knowledge as sentinels for biodiversity loss in northern guinea-bissau keleman et al. 2023. ethnobiology letters 14(2):10–21 10 research communications special issue on diverse conservations in guinea-bissau coastal villages, fish species' availability and people’s cultural differences determine the characteristics of the artisanal fishing practices that complement mangrove swamp rice agriculture livelihoods (temudo and cabral 2017). early research on the offshore bijagos islands yielded important diversity records (lafrance 1994), but shoreline estuaries remain underrepresented. consulting fishers’ long-lasting expertise in species and natural resource management can help to overcome this gap (aswani et al. 2018). local ecological knowledge (lek) includes locals' fluctuating perceptions and experiences of the immediate environment, resulting from cultural transmission (bender et al. 2014). lek introduction guinea-bissau is a small west african republic that holds 2.5% of global mangroves, ranking second in africa (giri et al. 2011). converging ocean currents and regional upwelling events define the xcountry's important marine biodiversity (campredon and cuq 2001); its dynamic coastal line represents a network of estuaries hosting mangroves that provide suitable habitats for a flux of both marine and freshwater fish. the intertidal forests thus represent vital shelter and spawning grounds for migrating fish, while their rich aquatic diversity feeds coastal societies and is embedded in local culture (leeney and poncelet 2015). rooted in the mangrove landscape: children and their ethnoichthyological knowledge as sentinels for biodiversity loss in northern guinea-bissau pieter-jan keleman1*, rui m. sá2, and marina p. temudo1 1forest research center and associate laboratory terra, school of agriculture, university of lisbon, lisbon, portugal. 2center for public administration & public policies, school of social and political sciences, university of lisbon, lisbon, portugal. *pieterjankeleman@gmail.com abstract biomonitoring fish species losses in data-deficient estuaries of west africa can be facilitated by consulting smallscale fishermen as on-the-spot sentinels. children are often prominent fishing actors in rural societies, but scientific studies looking at their ethnoichthyological knowledge are lacking. this study examines childhood fish knowledge inside a diola village in northern guinea-bissau, discussing how gendered division of labor affects the distribution of such knowledge. by using a photo-based identification methodology supplemented with participant observation and key informant interviews, we compare differences in children’s knowledge, perceptions of their mangrove environment, and associated fish diversity. the results show: a) a high level of ethnoichthyological knowledge among the children; b) girls identified fewer fish species than boys; c) both boys and girls show difficulties in correctly naming the fish less visible in the local mangrove ecosystem. we highlight the importance of children’s participation in landscape use and maintenance for their cognitive development. additionally, we conclude that the assessment of children’s endogenous knowledge is important for biological conservation, securing fish diversity, and sustainable exploitation efforts in mangrove socio-ecosystems while respecting local bio-cultural identity. received june 17, 2022 open access accepted january 10, 2023 doi 10.14237/ebl.14.2.2023.1826 published may 31, 2023 keywords human-nature relationships, artisanal fishing communities, participatory monitoring, child taxonomy, knowledge erosion, west africa copyright © 2023 by the author(s); licensee society of ethnobiology. this is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution-noncommercial 4.0 international public license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0), which permits non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. keleman et al. 2023. ethnobiology letters 14(2):10–21 11 research communications special issue on diverse conservations can improve effective biomonitoring and determine socio-environmental conflicts by understanding and integrating local attitudes and species valuations (mclean et al. 2022). local people can also act as sentinels tracking biodiversity changes in a data-poor country (jessen et al. 2022), such as guinea-bissau, where governments lack the financial or human resources to conduct comprehensive inventories. the bio-cultural diversity of natural landscapes determines different lek distribution patterns among life stages, genders (pfeiffer and butz 2005), and regions. scientists often exclude children when characterizing folk taxonomies within fishing communities toward conservation ends (e.g., castillo et al. 2018; djidohokpin et al. 2020). nonetheless, children’s relationships with nature exist (ross et al. 2002), and ethnobiologists acknowledge their importance within rural societies (gallois and reyesgarcía 2018). children can be integrated into conservation actions from a young age, cultivating future leadership skills while fostering place attachment and environmental stewardship. this is important as continuous species fluctuations (both introductions and losses) due to socio-ecological changes can influence perceptions and memories of children’s immediate surroundings (turvey et al. 2010). a shifting baseline syndrome of fisheries (pauly 1995) can thus occur locally with the progressive adaptation to intensified resource depletion (turvey et al. 2010). a gradual insensitivity to biodiversity changes and an increased tolerance for coastal degradation in children might hinder future conservation efforts. ethnographic fieldwork laid the foundation for exploring children’s ethnoichthyological knowledge in one diola (ethnolinguistic group also known as djola, jola, or jóola in casamance, senegal) village located in the mangrove natural park of cacheu (henceforth pntc) of northern guinea-bissau (figure 1). this community lives in approximately twenty villages that can roughly be described according to two agroecological and livelihood characteristics: a) coastal villages, where inhabitants produce mangrove swamp rice for consumption, men fish, and women collect oysters for consumption and selling; and b) inland villages, where upland rice, peanuts, root crops, and cashew nuts are produced, men tap palm wine, and women fish for home consumption. for the coastal village-islands, rice is thus the main staple food, and fish represents their only daily source of protein and cash income. our main research objective was to explore children’s knowledge of fish species linked to mangroves to better understand and anticipate their perceptions of, and potential participation in, sustainable use efforts inside the pntc. the weakening of traditional belief systems and associated figure 1 geographic location of guinea-bissau within the african continent (left). elalab village is located on the outskirts of the parque natural dos tarafes de cacheu (pntc) in the cacheu region, northern guinea-bissau (right). however, the village’s surrounding fishing river defines the pntc’s westernmost boundary, locally considered sacred and adopted in state management (ibap 2008). keleman et al. 2023. ethnobiology letters 14(2):10–21 12 research communications special issue on diverse conservations sustainable fishing practices mentioned in the pntc management plan (ibap 2008) determined our selection of the diola ethno-linguistic group as a case study. additionally, the diola are known for their labor ethos and balanced gender division of work; both boys and girls start to learn domestic, agricultural, and fishing tasks from an early age (linares 1992). elalab (one of the coastal villages) was chosen following the observation that: a) boys are important fishing actors and start angling before the age of 10, thus gaining specialized knowledge during early childhood; b) women have progressively abandoned fishing activities since the nineties. this created the conditions for studying gender differences in ethnoichthyological knowledge and exploring a child-inclusive model of biological conservation. methods study location elalab currently consists of approximately 335 permanent inhabitants spread over 70 households (fogon in creole); many urban migrants return to help plow and plant rice during the rainy season, and the population increases to 482. the village is situated at the margins of the pntc (figure 1), and its surrounding river is considered sacred in state management (ibap 2008). the park area hosts the most continuous mangrove forests of west africa (temudo and cabral 2017) with (emblematic) aquatic species such as the african manatee (trichechus senegalensis) and the common hippopotamus (hippopotamus amphibius). the park protects aquatic resources through a set of spatiotemporal fishing restrictions and bans on damaging practices. several men have fishing ponds and craft traps, while others have canoes and nets. women possess or often borrow a canoe to collect oysters in faraway places. fathers provide their sons hooks and lines, but boys generally learn fishing from their peers. the landscape of elalab is dominated by mangrove and baobab trees adjacent to houses and spirits' shrines in which sea snail (cymbium sp.) shells are placed. mangroves surround the river, rice fields, and the permanent fishing ponds that villagers keep on abandoned paddies. this mosaic of habitats provides local populations with plentiful fish resources, and two distinct seasons result in mobile estuarine communities (ibap 2008). during the rainy season, starting in june and ending in october, strictly freshwater species occupy the river. in the dry season, which occurs from november until may, high salinity levels allow the presence of marine species at juvenile or adult stages. data collection prior to this study, the third author researched socioenvironmental and livelihood changes in nine diola villages (elalab included) using mixed methods, guiding our case study selection and contextualization. direct and participant observation were conducted for seven months: february until march 2021, october and december 2021, and february until march 2022. this recurrent and long-term fieldwork allowed the first author to integrate into the fishing community, learn the local language (kriol and some diola dialect), and demonstrate commitment toward the people through financial contributions in terms of school supplies (back bags, pencils, notebooks) and fees and fishing equipment, i.e. fishing hooks and lines. he established friendship bonds during fishing trips with children, especially with the boys most actively involved in mangrove fishing with a line and a hook. all given vernacular names were triangulated by consulting five older fishermen as key informants (ki). we asked them to confirm the correct fish names, spell them, and provide background information on the presence and abundance of each species. diola is a non-standardized, spoken-only language with many dialects, so diola names provided in this paper follow local interpretations of correct spelling. a total of 25 fish pictures were presented on separate cards (table 1). the selected species were initially encountered on local fish landings or found in secondary literature (ibap 2008; lafrance 1994). moreover, we included aquatic species that are absent in the region or less frequently fished by the community. photographs of these fish were taken by the first author or obtained from the fishbase (https://www.fishbase.org) and bold (https:// www.boldsystems.org) databases. each card contained a number followed by the scientific name to facilitate the researcher’s species recognition and a fish picture. after pre-testing, the first author chose to limit the number of cards to prevent children’s attention from waning. photo elicitation tasks were introduced in the form of a game, and interviews were individually performed. all participants were asked to identify the fish using vernacular names in their local diola dialect. we chose to use this methodological approach because pictures stimulate curiosity, provide sensory https://www.fishbase.org https://www.boldsystems.org https://www.boldsystems.org keleman et al. 2023. ethnobiology letters 14(2):10–21 13 research communications special issue on diverse conservations fish scientific english common diola dialect carlarius parkii (günther, 1864) guinean sea catfish edjetenkai1 carlarius heudelotii (valenciennes, 1840) smoothmouth sea catfish edjetenkai1 behau1 caranx crysos (mitchill, 1815) blue runner kakisisenaku1 kakisisenadju2 trachinotus teraia (cuvier, 1832) shortfin pompano kahentaku1,4 esenegalai1,5 djisenegaladju2,5 coptodon guineensis (günther, 1862) guinean tilapia ewankai1 djiwankadju2 sarotherodon melanotheron (rüppell, 1852) blackchin tilapia eokai1 djihokadju2 pseudotolithus senegallus (cuvier, 1830) law croaker kaleliaku1 djileliadju2 parachelon grandisquamis (valenciennes, 1836) largescalled mullet essukai1 djisokadju2 neochelon falcipinnis (valenciennes, 1836) sicklefin mullet elepai1 djilepadju2 musukamu2,3 pseudotolithus elongatus (bowdich, 1825) bobo croaker etowai1 djitowadju2 ephippion guttifer (bennett, 1831) prickly puffer hurungunborahu1 sphyraena afra (peters, 1844) guinean barracuda juntukasomai1 djintukasumadju2 entekasumai1,3 drepane africana (osório, 1892) african sicklefish kameronaku1 djimeronadju2 pomadasys sp. (lacepède, 1802) grunt species kakokaku1 djikokadju2 continued on following page table 1 presented fish species (n=25) during identification tasks with their scientific, english common, and diola names. fish pictures were taken by the first author or by the center for applied fisheries research (cipa) in guinea-bissau, except for ilisha africana (credits: p. beelen, available at https://www.soortenjagers.nl). keleman et al. 2023. ethnobiology letters 14(2):10–21 14 research communications special issue on diverse conservations stimuli, and maintain children’s interest (see sullivan et al. 2018). relevant parents sometimes acted as translators from diola to kriol. one boy appointed himself field assistant and translated his peers’ testimonies, creating a comforting interview setting for the children. following graham et al.’s (2015) ethical guidelines, prior parental consent was obtained after an initial briefing and the interviews could be terminated at any given time. for the purpose of this paper, we defined fishing children as youngsters aged between 7 and 17 years old, following local explanation (graham et al. 2015). one hundred children within this age range permanently live in elalab, based on name listings provided by local schools. we employed a genderbalanced sampling of 45 children (24 boys and 21 girls with an average age of 12 years old) interviewed in november 2021 and february–march 2022. analyses interviews were recorded by mobile phone and, together with field notes, transcribed during analysis. fish scientific english common diola dialect pseudotolithus typus (bleeker, 1863) longneck croaker elutai1 galeoides decadactylus (bloch, 1795) lesser african threadfin horokokahu1,4 ampaholal1,5 hemichromis fasciatus (peters, 1857) banded jewelfish hutjulau1 plectorhinchus macrolepis (boulenger, 1899) biglip grunt ehokulai1 djihokuladju2 mugil bananensis (pellegrin, 1927) banana mullet essukai1 djisokadju2 elepai1 djilepadju2 lagocephalus laevigatus (linnaeus, 1766) smooth puffer hurungunborahu1 ilisha africana (bloch, 1795) west african ilisha solma1 ethmalosa fimbriata (bowdich, 1825) bonga shad kakubaku1 djikobadju2 hukobau1,3 sardinella maderensis (lowe, 1838) madeiran sardinella kajabojaku1 sardinella aurita valenciennes, 1847 round sardinella kajabojaku1 fontitrygon margaritella (compagno & roberts, 1984) pearl stingray ebagalurai1 continued from previous page 1 name of an individual with a bigger size; 2 name of an individual with a smaller size; 3 more than one individual, plural 4 original, older name; 5 newer, more recent name keleman et al. 2023. ethnobiology letters 14(2):10–21 15 research communications special issue on diverse conservations to investigate gender differences, we differentiated identification and non-identification per species by creating 2x2 contingency tables. the frequencies were calculated by summing up the correct answers (identified) and the incorrect and skipped answers (non-identified). afterwards, we explored gender differences statistically by applying the fisher exact test for each fish species, using sisa (http:// www.quantitativeskills.com/sisa/). fisher’s exact testing was preferred to chi-square testing due to the small, expected values (<5), and the p-value <0.05 was set as significant (campbell 2007). results identification tasks a total of 20 different fish species were correctly identified by most children (>50%). all respondents properly named sarotherodon melanotheron, ephippion guttifer, and fontitrygon margaritella. for two species (carlarius parkii and carlarius heudelotii), we accepted the general diola name edjetenkai, catfish. interestingly, two girls specified the name for the latter, behau, meaning red catfish in local dialect. generally, it had a moderate recognition level because its name was frequently mistaken for esquilão (local name in creole, chrysichthys nigrodigitatus), a more prevalent and similar-looking bagrid catfish. few respondents identified pseudotolithus typus, ethmalosa fimbriata, and caranx crysos, which were commonly mistaken for ethmalosa fimbriata or ilisha africana. interviewees regularly confused pseudotolithus senegallus with the two other sciaenid species, as well as with pomadasys sp. and galeoides decadactylus. one boy identified sardinella maderensis, and four boys recognized sardinella aurita. both sardine species were usually confounded with ethmalosa fimbriata. a general overview of the children’s responses along the identification categories is shown in figure 2. gender differences we found significant gender differences for six out of the 25 fish species (figure 3): caranx crysos figure 2 general identification of the different fish by all children (n=45). response categories per species (n=25) are marked in different colors: correct (white), incorrect (light blue), and skipped (dark blue) answers according to child response numbers. http://www.quantitativeskills.com/sisa/ http://www.quantitativeskills.com/sisa/ keleman et al. 2023. ethnobiology letters 14(2):10–21 16 research communications special issue on diverse conservations (p=0.00031), pseudotolithus senegallus (p=5.00e-05), sphyraena afra (p=0.00338), pomadasys sp. (p=7.0e-5), galeoides decadactylus (p=0.00094), and ilisha africana (p=0.00073). caranx crysos was generally confused with ilisha africana and ethmalosa fimbriata, or unknown by boys, while half of the girls couldn’t identify this species. the diola names for the different croakers were commonly interchanged by the girls. however, a large portion of the girls simply did not know the correct name for pseudotolithus senegallus. also, they mainly gave no answer for pomadasys sp. or answered incorrectly. galeoides decadactylus was identified by all boys, while for girls it was mostly unknown. a similar pattern was observed for the two remaining species: most of the boys correctly identified sphyraena afra and ilisha africana, while few girls could do so. discussion children’s development roots in mangroves our results show that overall children’s ethnoichthyological knowledge in elalab is striking, as 20 fish species were correctly identified by more than half of the participants. the three species identified by all respondents are abundant, commonly fished, and eaten in elalab (table 2). formal schooling does not include environmental topics on mangrove environments or fish diversity; thus, children’s ethnoichthyological knowledge is fully acquired through participation in their coastal forest landscape. during the rainy season, boys fish separately from older males for smaller fish such as mullets and tilapias in the permanent fishing ponds or rice field canals, either for home consumption or to supply their mothers’ sales. they walk with ease on the muddy, slippery dikes that connect their houses to schools in neighboring villages while spontaneously identifying proper fishing spots. during the dry season, they engage with peers in angling trips in the river using rowing canoes; they target the more profitable species like croakers, grunts, and rays and obtain money for personal use. only girls over 15 years old collect oysters in the intertidal zone together figure 3 significant gender differences for six fish species after fisher’s exact testing. the frequencies of identification results are shown for boys (n = 24) and girls (n = 21) separately. pictures were either taken by the first author or by the center for applied fisheries research (cipa), except for ilisha africana (credits: p. beelen, available at https:// www.soortenjagers.nl). keleman et al. 2023. ethnobiology letters 14(2):10–21 17 research communications special issue on diverse conservations scientific name abundance1 fished by boys1 iucn2 carlarius parkii (günther, 1864) lc carlarius heudelotii (valenciennes, 1840) lc caranx crysos (mitchill, 1815) lc trachinotus teraia (cuvier, 1832) lc coptodon guineensis (günther, 1862) lc sarotherodon melanotheron (rüppell, 1852) lc pseudotolithus senegallus (cuvier, 1830) vu parachelon grandisquamis (valenciennes, 1836) dd neochelon falcipinnis (valenciennes, 1836) dd pseudotolithus elongatus (bowdich, 1825) lc ephippion guttifer (bennett, 1831) lc sphyraena afra (peters, 1844) lc drepane africana (osório, 1892) lc pomadasys sp. (lacepède, 1802) lc pseudotolithus typus (bleeker, 1863) lc galeoides decadactylus (bloch, 1795) nt hemichromis fasciatus (peters, 1857) lc plectorhinchus macrolepis (boulenger, 1899) lc mugil bananensis (pellegrin, 1927) lc lagocephalus laevigatus (linnaeus, 1766) lc ilisha africana (bloch, 1795) lc table 2 presented fish species with their abundance and whether they are fished by boys, as responded to by the key informants. the conservation status for each species on the iucn red species list is also given. continued on following page keleman et al. 2023. ethnobiology letters 14(2):10–21 18 research communications special issue on diverse conservations with their mothers from february until may, and they are responsible for fish selling on weekly markets all year round. elalab children share ethnoichthyological knowledge through mangrove work-and-play that complements their fishing activities. as they swim, cultivate rice, hunt (only boys), and collect wild edible plants, children ponder the perceived sensory cues during in-situ personal experiences, triggering a joint cognitive process (ingold 2000; nabhan 2002). elalab boys become fishing experts as they grow older, learning, e.g., where to find certain species or proper fishing spots along the rice fields’ canals and mangrove river, or how to handle fishing equipment requiring some craftsmanship and skills, for instance wooden traps, hooks, and cast nets. as illustrated in other rural communities (zarger 2011), this continuous learning-by-doing promotes boys’ confidence, independence, respect for nature, and gradual social status in society. within diola’s relationships with nature, mangroves represent a natural learning ground that forms individual and community identity, expressed through traditional beliefs and practices of natural resource management. these strong ties with nature foster a sense of shared environmental stewardship and consequently environmental protection, defining local responsibilities and understanding of the mangroves. however, we have observed that the conversion to christianity (catholicism and evangelism) and the integration into a cash economy have weakened young people’s respect for the elders’ traditional values and rules of sustainable natural resource management. for instance, smaller captured fish are no longer immediately thrown back into the water by all fishers. additionally, climate change and industrial fishing constitute a driver of aquatic resource change and an accumulative threat to coastal livelihoods, local diets, and coping mechanisms. formal, modern education and migration are seen as a last resort to provide both the youth with a better future and the ones that stay behind with remittances to face their daily needs in times of diminishing rice harvests and fishing resources. species inconstancy socio-ecological changes are altering fish diversity and the fundamental functioning of mangrove ecosystems (belhabib et al. 2015), and species fluctuations over a long period can influence people’s collective memory of their natural surroundings (turvey et al. 2010). the elalab dialect of diola can be used as a conservation tool for exploring (invasive) introductions and losses of fish. one example is provided by the recent observation of lagocephalus laevigatus in local waters. key informants attest that it has not received a unique diola name and, hence, shares the vernacular name with ephippion guttifer. children use the simplified diola name ampaholal for galeoides decadactylus; this could reflect its worsening conservation status and locally decreased significance. vernacular names can thus reveal hidden biological information useful for conservationists. elalab children did not know the names of sardinella species because they are not present in the local mangroves (table 2) and appear only in neighboring senegal. the diola dialect illustrates this fact, with locals using the name kajabojaku, a diola adaptation of the senegalese wolof name yaboy. sardines were confused with the similar-looking ethmalosa fimbriata that is also locally absent (table 2). recently, people are encountering sardines at local scientific name abundance1 fished by boys1 iucn2 ethmalosa fimbriata (bowdich, 1825) lc sardinella maderensis (lowe, 1838) vu sardinella aurita valenciennes, 1847 lc fontitrygon margaritella (compagno & roberts, 1984) nt continued from previous page 1×: rare; ××: normal; ×××: a lot; -: not present. “×” represents the fish symbol used in the table. 2dd: data deficient; lc: least concern; nt: near threatened; vu: vulnerable. keleman et al. 2023. ethnobiology letters 14(2):10–21 19 research communications special issue on diverse conservations markets in the neighboring village of susana through senegalese merchants. interestingly, a total of three boys and one girl mentioned this novel diola name for sardinella aurita and only one boy for sardinella maderensis. this means that some children distinguish both species despite their local absence. gendered erosion of ethnoichthyological knowledge the current work division related to fishing activities could lead to gendered erosion of ethnoichthyological knowledge in elalab. lack of fishing experience among girls is illustrated by their inability to correctly distinguish the threatened sciaenid species that look morphologically similar. following the drastic fish declines inside the rice field canals and men’s increased engagement in net fishing as a source of income, female mangrove fishing has been reduced to oyster harvesting during the nineties. this limits girls’ knowledge of fish to those they consume at home or encounter at local markets, where they sell the smaller mullets and tilapias caught by men and children together with their mothers. few kids specified the name for carlarius heudelotii, except for two girls. this may be because it is being sold smoked on neighboring markets in senegal and bissau. resource richness once allowed larger fish to form an integral part of the household diet, but nowadays locals prefer to sell them instead. locally called first-class (kriol: purmeira; but no diola term) fish according to national and global markets’ classifications, including pseudotolithus senegallus and sphyraena afra, are sold to merchants, retailers, or middle women by men. caranx crysos, pomadasys sp., and galeoides decadactylus are considered second-class (kriol: segunda; no diola term) because they make less money. rather than being household staples, these highly valued species are quickly covered and stored at the village port, to be transported and sold in são domingos city. however, girls can still encounter them on the market or through contact with boys. this explains their persistent knowledge of fish names, albeit limited compared to boys. conclusions: children as sentinels for biodiversity loss the article illustrates that children are important stakeholders within rural societies whose knowledge could be useful for participatory biomonitoring. as sentinels that grow up, their knowledge could secure the continuous assessment of local species and help inform management when biodiversity loss occurs. furthermore, if children stop encountering species, the community’s intrinsic connection to the species’ relevance and original status in the mangroves could also erode. papworth et al. (2009) distinguish between knowledge generational amnesia, which occurs when people do not know the past conditions linked to age and experience (often children), and personal amnesia if individuals forget their own experiences throughout their lifetime. a shifting baseline syndrome of fisheries (pauly 1995) among the children can thus locally occur with the progressive adaptation to resource depletion (turvey et al. 2010). as children represent future leaders in society, an erosion of collective memory might even lead to what jaríc et al. (2022) called the “societal extinction of species.” as demonstrated by the elabab girls, children’s species identification can reveal knowledge erosion linked to a gap in knowledge transmission triggered by changing conditions and practices. an important line of future research could emerge from studying early children’s knowledge and its acquisition in parallel with comparative intergenerational baseline assessments. this would allow scientists and conservationists to monitor the status of ethnoichthyological knowledge among generations and genders and to assess current naturesociety relationships. moreover, children can act as sentinels for biodiversity losses and become integrated into public policies, reflecting their societal importance as rural actors. by strengthening children’s relationships with fish, the (future) willingness to protect local species will contribute to the sustainable use of wild species in data-poor mangroves areas. acknowledgments the authors would like to thank the community of elalab, especially the children, who showed great interest and willingness to participate in this research. we are grateful for the permission of the local authorities to conduct fieldwork inside the cacheu river mangroves natural park (pntc). a special thanks goes to j. sandoval, b. vandesonneville, the invited editors, and the ebl reviewers for providing useful input and critical insights, to m. merkohasanaj and m. coomans for their major contributions to the presented figures, and to the technicians of the center for applied fisheries research (cipa) for their excellent photography skills. declarations permissions: the nagoya protocol was signed on keleman et al. 2023. ethnobiology letters 14(2):10–21 20 research communications special issue on diverse conservations october 21, 2021, on behalf of the school of agriculture (isa) of the university of lisbon and by the ministry of the environment and biodiversity of the republic of guinea-bissau. all the children participants’ parents provided informed consent and were aware that the interview data would be used for publication and scientific purposes. sources of funding: this article was written within the framework of the eu-funded project mangroves, mangrove rice, and mangrove people: sustainably improving rice production, ecosystems, and livelihoods (grant contract food/2019/412-700). the study received backing from the forest research center funded by fct-portugal (uidb/00239/2020), the laboratory for sustainable land use and ecosystem services (la/p/0092/2020), and the public administration and public policies (capp) research unit funded by fct under project uid/00713/2020. conflicts of interest: none declared. references cited aswani, s., a. lemahieu, and w. h. h. sauer. 2018. global trends of local ecological knowledge and future implications. plos one 13:e0195440. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0195440. belhabib, d., u. r. sumaila, and d. pauly. 2015. feeding the poor: contribution of west 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to indigenous communities because colonization, climate change, and neoliberal capitalist markets diminish food sovereignty (ferguson et al. 2022; whyte 2016). heat waves and incremental increases in temperature cause species to retreat to cooler areas, out of their natural distributions, where people harvest them for food (corlett 2011). in tropical coastal communities, rising temperatures strongly correlate with coral bleaching; these events threaten the local supply of protein in indigenous coastal introduction a changing global climate negatively affects access, availability, utilization, and food stability in many countries (mbow et al. 2019). those in the global south are disproportionately affected, and indigenous groups are particularly affected within these countries (ngcamu 2023). food security is an ongoing political issue whose impacts are exacerbated by climate change (gregory et al. 2005). while having predictable caloric intake, food security, is important, not all calories are equal nor arrive in the same foods. food sovereignty refers to a community’s right to their own food and agriculture systems that produce healthy, culturally appropriate foods in an ecologically sustainable way (patel 2009). investigating the connections between food choices and climate change mitigation in fijian households alexandra kaminski1*, peter hughes2, waisiki sevakarua2, osea dukuno2, joana kamanalagi2, mia glover1, and joshua drew1 1environmental biology, suny college of environmental science and forestry, syracuse, usa. 2school of agriculture, geography, ocean, and natural sciences, the university of the south pacific, suva, fiji. *alex.kaminski0215@gmail.com abstract climate change negatively impacts indigenous people’s food sovereignty. the choices communities make to manifest that sovereignty fluctuate in response to environmental conditions and access to resources. to investigate how communities in coastal indigenous fijian (itaukei) villages balance risks related to food production and food access we conducted 71 interviews in three coastal communities across fiji. we asked which foods were purchased from nearby towns, which foods were grown or harvested locally, and how different spatial locations and climatic factors affected food choices. geography, weather patterns, and extreme events influence food production, while village remoteness influences food access. these factors also affect risk exposure mitigation in itaukei communities. our cluster analysis comparing food items in town and village groups showed there was little overlap between community-grown and purchased foods for each village. however, there was a higher degree of variation within the community-grown foods. purchased food and frequency of travel were consistent among all locations regardless of distance or cost of travel, suggesting that items from towns were relatively inelastic to travel costs. we find that coastal itaukei communities are splitting risks by maintaining two complementary food systems, providing the ability to alternate between purchased and community-grown foods to adjust for varying risk levels. while grounded in fiji, this work speaks to broader conversations about barriers to indigenous food sovereignty. received december 9, 2024 open access accepted april 21, 2025 doi 10.14237/ebl.16.1.2025.1922 published september 12, 2025 keywords food sovereignty, indigenous communities, climate change copyright © 2025 by the author(s); licensee society of ethnobiology. this is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution-noncommercial 4.0 international public license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0), which permits non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. supplementary files available at https://doi.org/10.14237/ebl.16.1.2025.1922 kaminski et al. 2025. ethnobiology letters 16(1):104–112 105 research communications communities because coral die-offs decrease fish and invertebrate species abundance and body mass (cinner et al. 2012). extreme weather events destroy reef and mangrove habitats that protect coastal communities from erosion (hernándes-delgado et al. 2024). in other studies, indigenous fijian men have reported that it is now harder to grow crops due to changes in soil composition and saltwater intrusion from rising sea levels (mckenzie et al. 2022). many crops will reach the limit of their heat tolerances and cease to grow in hotter conditions (corlett 2011). the rise in sea level here is considered a local effect, whereas more significant climate disasters such as cyclones can be considered a regional effect because they can disrupt supply chains and make it more challenging to access food from local towns. due to these compounding variables, indigenous communities are faced with adversities in achieving food sovereignty including barriers that hinder growing, harvesting and purchasing the food they desire. fiji: a case study fiji is composed of approximately 300 islands in melanesia. the first settlers arrived some 3,500 years ago (clark and anderson 2001). later, the british empire colonized fiji on october 10th, 1874. the first governor, sir aurthur gordon, created policies that limited fijians from participating in commercial and political developments. fijians were also taxed on agricultural products instead of traditional currency. to maintain these policies and grow fiji’s economy, the governor introduced indentured indian laborers to work on sugar cane plantations and processing mills. the indenture system was terminated in 1920, and many indians stayed in the country (chand 2015) influencing fiji’s cuisine and customs. fiji gained independence on october 10, 1970; the current demographic is 56.8% itaukei, or indigenous fijian, 37.5% indian, and 1.2% rotuman. although most of the land mass of fiji is mountainous, about 90% of fiji’s population lives on the coast (sutton 2013). in many pacifika communities the natural world is viewed in relational terms. the land is not something that is owned, it is something that communities are part of. being part of that relationship implies certain rights and responsibilities: nature does not exist outside of people and people do not exist outside of nature. in fiji this relationship is encapsulated in the term vanua. vanua is the interconnected nature of physical objects like people, places, ancestors, relatives (both human and nonhuman) and the actions that are necessary to maintain those relationships. for example, when an itaukei child is born in the village its umbilical cord is buried near the home under a tree or rock. thus, that child becomes part of the land and vice versa (long 2018). the child and the tree are part of vanua, but so is the act of burying the umbilical cord because it is that act that facilitates that relationship. perhaps unsurprisingly, ecosystems have strong intrinsic value to itaukei communities as expressed through this epistemological concept of vanua (stutton 2013). climate change and other stressors like urbanization are threatening vanua and the natural resources it supports. episodic events like hurricanes or flooding may represent real and punctuated disasters. events that have a “before” and an “after” and are often named. for example, cyclone winston ravaged fiji during 2016, making landfall as a category 5 hurricane with sustained winds over 170mph. this landfall had, and continues to have, indelible impacts on communities and reframed climate conversations, especially among coastal people. these punctuated events can shock a system opening opportunities for new conversations, new political alignments and, unfortunately, disruptions in civil society. in contrast, the “slow violence” of sea level rise (sensu nixon 2013) is not a single event. unlike hurricanes or flooding there is no option of a “before” to move toward. this insidious creep places communities in increasing levels of danger. the danger of sea level rise is multifaceted. sea levels in fiji are already rising by 6mm per year, while an estimated 6.2% of the shoreline infrastructure of fiji is predicted to be inundated by 2100 (shiiba et al. 2023). in low lying coastal areas, particularly those on coral rock, sea level rise can contaminate fresh groundwater, rendering agriculture more challenging. to further explore people’s relations with land and understand how climate and its associated impacts influence access to markets and food choices, we worked with three communities experiencing a gradient of food production and access: nagigi, located on vanua levu; qilai, located on viti levu; and mua-i-ra, located on naviti island of the yasawa group (figure 1). we investigated how itaukei communities balance food choices to minimize risk exposure considering that physical geography, weather patterns, and climate change influence food production while the remoteness of each community kaminski et al. 2025. ethnobiology letters 16(1):104–112 106 research communications and climate change influences food access. functionally, this means that certain foods are purchased from towns while other foods are harvested from villages. this provides redundant ways of acquiring culturally important calories. itaukei communities practice risk spreading, where food is purchased and grown locally so nutrition is not entirely reliant on one source. buying food decouples local food from community farms but is sensitive to supply chain shutdowns and barriers to travel following disasters. by contrast, locally produced food is less susceptible to geopolitical shifts but is sensitive to local perturbations such as saltwater inundation and habitat degradation. methods we conducted research in three communities in the republic of fiji in may and june of 2024 and worked with partners based on preexisting relationships and villages’ interest in collaborating with the authors (figure 1). interviews lasted approximately 10-20 minutes, depending on the level of engagement from the interviewee. because of the heterogeneous distribution of knowledge in itaukei culture, we involved various community members, including men and women aged 21 to 81. we conducted a total of 71 interviews across three villages (28 qilai, 24, nagigi, and 19 mau-i-ra). within the villages, the median age range was 48-53 and the majority of interviewees identified as women (74.6% women and 25.4% men). our interviews showed a total of 86 different kinds of food products, which are foods identified by interviewees. nagigi had 52 products, qilai had 35 products, and mua-i-ra had 70 products; significant overlap of products occurred within each site. a compilation of data that includes each food item mentioned, its scientific name, its english common name, and its fijian common name, is available as appendix 1. the largest community was qilai with 80 households and the smallest mua-i-ra with 32 (table 1). all research was conducted under the auspices of the syracuse university ethics committee irb 24 figure 1 map of fiji indicating study sites of nagigi, qilai, and mua-i-ra in 2024. kaminski et al. 2025. ethnobiology letters 16(1):104–112 107 research communications 121. survey questions were developed during conversations with itaukei community members during summer of 2023 and were validated through preliminary evaluations with community members in nagigi. while these evaluations were useful in developing the suite of questions, the resulting answers were not included in these analyses. each interviewee was asked a series of questions that began with basic demographic information (appendix 2). we then asked, “what did you have for breakfast, lunch, and dinner,” and “where did those foods come from?” this type of question is effective because it is more immediate and assists with active recall (de keyzer et al. 2015). to assess the categories of climate susceptibility (global vs. local) participants were also asked what types of foods were typically bought at the grocery store and which were typically grown or gathered in the village. these data were then compiled into a table (appendix 3) and were plotted as a cluster dendrogram, conducted in the package vegan 2.6-8 (oksanen et al. 2024) (figure 2). finally, to assess whether access to markets was an influencing factor we asked about transportation costs in terms of both the time and the price required to reach the nearest location for purchasing groceries. data were gathered on the type of transport, shopping frequency, transportation cost, and transportation duration (appendix 2). notes were handwritten in field notebooks during each interview and subsequently transcribed digitally and re-checked with native fijian speakers to ensure proper translations. results our cluster analysis revealed three key points. first, there was a high degree of similarity between all three locations for staple grocery store food items such as flour, sugar, and rice. second, and in contrast, there was a greater degree of variation of foods grown within the communities, although such staples as plantain, dalo, bele, cassava, coconut, and fish were all commonly found. finally, we saw little overlap between the sets of food obtained from town and in the village (figure 2), indicating that these were largely non-overlapping sets. our investigation of potential barriers to markets indicated substantial variability in both the amount of time traveled and cost per visit that community members faced. nagigi was the closest to a town, with an average reported travel time of 31.04 ±7.5 minutes predominantly by bus and the average cost of travel being $2.61 ±0.04 fjd. qilai had an average reported travel time of 45 ±14.14 minutes, predominantly by bus, and an average cost of $7.65 ±2.54 fjd. travel to grocery stores from mua-i-ra was most timeconsuming and expensive as the average reported travel time was 93.46 ±15.19 and cost $50 fjd via small motorboat over nearly 50 km of open ocean (figure 1). discussion our analysis revealed distinct patterns in food systems between all three sites. foods purchased from town exhibited a tighter clustering, suggesting highly similar food acquisition choices among all three villages. by contrast, there was a high degree of dissimilarity and minimal clustering among communities when analyzing foods produced within villages, displaying a figure 2 cluster dendrogram of food choices among itaukei communities. bootstrap values from 1000 replicates are listed above the node. site # of households # of interviews % female median age median residency distance from town (km) # products town # products village # of products both qilai 80 28 82 48 31 24.3 21 13 1 nagigi 65 24 67 54 34 21 18 28 6 mua-i-ra 32 19 74 53 31 56.84 35 33 2 table 1 demographic data and food products of each community visited. kaminski et al. 2025. ethnobiology letters 16(1):104–112 108 research communications higher degree of difference in choices around harvesting and farming. despite the greater variety observed in food production, staple foods such as flour, sugar, and rice remain central components of the diets across both axes independent of the time, effort, or financial resources required to access them. this indicates that these staples are price-inelastic and essential to contemporary itaukei diets. additionally, our research revealed that, despite vastly different travel times, the average frequency of travel to town for supplies was similar across all three sites. this suggests that the cost and distance of traveling to town were not a deterrent for community members to obtain supplies. our findings in the context of climate change suggest that itaukei communities are adaptable, balancing different kinds of risk to support their food sovereignty. staples are purchased from town and are therefore subject to potential large-scale climate induced disruptions such as supply chain interruptions or fluctuations in global price and supply. on the other hand, many key foods such as the traditional itaukei starches cassava, dalo, and yams are grown within community gardens or food forests. these foods are more resilient to large scale disruptions as they are locally grown, but they are susceptible to more local-scale perturbations such as sea-level rise, increases in cyclones, or drought. thus, we see that coastal communities are choosing foods that distribute risk across global and local scale climate threats. this ability to shift between where and how to obtain food provides itaukei communities some resilience and adaptability in maintaining their food systems. the disruption of the covid-19 pandemic served as a natural experiment, allowing us to view a disruption that might affect food access in ways similar to climate-induced natural disasters (walters et al. 2021). when major cities were shutting down and employment opportunities were limited for fijians, community members informed us that relocation from urban areas back to home villages was a common response (see also leweniqila and vunibola 2020 for a similar example). upon returning to their communities, interviewees reported an increase in local-food production. members returning from the city could access farmland, and thus communitygrown food was a common response to the lack of imported food and a reduced access to metropolitan grocery stores and markets. this shift led to changes in food consumption, as well as in food production, including the emergence of food collectives (solesolevaki), such as in nagigi, where community members collaborated to provide food for one another (leweniqila and vunibola 2020; mcmichael et al. 2024). this adaptability illustrates the resilience of local food systems in the face of global market disruptions, as communities could switch between food production and market access as needed and speaks to the adaptive capacity of itaukei communities (mcmichael et al. 2024). in addition, strong family ties between rural communities and those members of an extended family (tokatoka) living in urban areas allow for the transfer of food and resources between the village to urban areas (leweniqila and vunibola 2020). for example, family members employed in urban areas can financially support family members in rural communities, supplementing their ability to purchase food from town. together, this research highlights the importance of land access for itaukei communities. in this context, because itaukei communities were able to maintain land sovereignty and ownership over traditional farming/fishing grounds in a post-colonial context, they had greater access to ecosystem services including food production, and, thus, greater resilience to climate change. we must also consider the adaptive capacity of the plants and animals grown and harvested in communities to understand their vulnerability to future climatic stress. two crops that were prevalent in our results have had research suggesting their vulnerability to climate change. cassava is commonly grown in communities and is highly drought tolerant (meier et al. 2017). however, cassava is intolerant of flooding and cyclones, as dislodging and root rot occurs (palanivel and shah 2021). another important crop grown in fijian communities is papaya, which has a temperature tolerance between 21–33 °c. above 35 °c papaya undergoes female sterility and no longer bears fruit (palanivel and shah 2021). furthermore, drought induces lower production in papaya (palanivel and shah 2021). while palanivel and shah recommend genetic modification though crop improvement programs, many scholars have noted that genetically modified crops may be anathema to indigenous food sovereignty (gupta 2018; mueller and flachs 2022; plahe et al. 2013). thus, efforts that are grounded in indigenous land practices such as utilizing seed banks and conserving unique landraces would increase the resilience of food crops in fiji and kaminski et al. 2025. ethnobiology letters 16(1):104–112 109 research communications other pacific islands. in addition to seedbanks and strengthened landraces, our findings offer insights for shaping policies that support food sovereignty and climate adaptation in fiji. investments in decentralized, climate-resilient infrastructure are essential. fiji’s horizon 2030 strategy highlights the importance of diversified agricultural systems and local infrastructure development, recommending innovations such as climate-resilient crop varieties, seed banks, and agroforestry as key tools for climate adaptation (government of fiji 2021). community-managed food forests and regenerative agriculture initiatives, particularly those that are women-led, can improve ecological and nutritional resilience. further, improving equitable market access through transportation subsidies, mobile markets, or community cooperatives would reduce the burden on isolated villages and align with the inclusive market strategies proposed in horizon 2030 (government of fiji 2021). additionally, local responses during times of stress mirror the goals of the pacific adaptation to climate change (pacc) program, where the importance of decentralized, community-driven adaptation strategies (secretariat of the pacific regional environment programme 2014) is highlighted. the nap and pifacc recommend integrating indigenous knowledge into formal adaptation planning (government of fiji 2019; secretariat of the pacific regional environment programme 2005) to design policies that resonate with local worldviews and governance structures. part of the adaptive capacity of food systems depends on the knowledge necessary to make informed choices about which foods will work under which climate scenarios. our work shows the significance of gender in dietary decision-making within itaukei communities. it recognizes the influence of women, who are often responsible for household food choices, while many men work outside the home. our findings mirror previous research in fiji that documented similar gender divisions in food-related knowledge and practices, including the central role that women play in food processing and natural resource provisioning (mckenzie et al. 2022) through their knowledge of food and forest products (pearson et al. 2019), as well as through gendered divisions in fishing (golden et al. 2014). the knowledge that women hold offers key insights into the biology, management, and use of economically valuable plants and animals, thus providing the raw material for adaptation strategies. (mcmichael et al. 2024). moreover, our research shows that the dietary choices women make daily are already incorporating differential risks of climate and that their food sovereignty is adapting to climate risks at both a local and national level. women’s leadership in food-related decisions, including managing food forests and other traditional practices, shows their role in maintaining community resilience (fache and breckwoldt 2024; ferguson et al. 2022; thomas et al. 2021). access to land and sea resources further strengthens these food systems’ resilience, making them less vulnerable to global-level perturbations. however, it remains to be seen what happens when local agricultural systems, such as farms, are severely disrupted by events like saltwater inundation. other communities reflect that changes in soil composition and sea level rise are creating unfavorable growing conditions, thus encouraging community members to more heavily rely on markets. (mckenzie et al. 2022). future research should consider how these communities respond when their primary food production systems are compromised and whether their adaptability extends in both directions, back to market-based reliance when necessary. research from other coastal regions has shown that having a strong base of locally grown foods provides economic and food-based resilience to environmental degradation and climate change (garcía‑quijano et al. 2023). although our study focused on three coastal communities, exploring insights from inland communities could offer a broader understanding of food system resilience across diverse fijian contexts. our findings speak to the adaptability of coastal fijian communities. however, we acknowledge some biases in our study. a small sample size in each location was obtained due to the overall small sizes of each community and the availability of interviewees during working hours. our reliance on self-reported data could have introduced bias as interviewee responses may not have been completely accurate. furthermore, due to the temporal limitations of the study, we could not extend our interviews to all growing seasons, which could influence food items identified. our limited sampling time in each community could also influence our results. for example, in mau-i-ra the community had “dahl monday” to lighten the burden of cooking after large kaminski et al. 2025. ethnobiology letters 16(1):104–112 110 research communications sunday family dinners. this may have overestimated the importance of imported dahl in this community. thus, we encourage future researchers to consider sampling in larger communities during all growing seasons and over several weeks to fully capture the diversity of food consumed. understanding how coastal communities in fiji respond to environmental and market disruptions will be necessary for developing strategies to strengthen resilience in the anthropocene (shah et al. 2018). the adaptability and 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population relies on floraand fauna-based medicines for immediate healthcare needs (who 1993). ayurveda— an ancient system of medicine deeply rooted in indian culture—utilizes a wide range of plantand animalbased ingredients to treat ailments. it has served as a cornerstone of traditional healthcare practices since ancient times, particularly in remote areas where modern medical facilities are lacking (patwardhan 2005). even today, approximately 15–20% of ayurvedic medicines are derived from animal sources introduction ethnozoology is defined as the study of humananimal interactions, which provides valuable insights into traditional knowledge systems and cultural contexts. among tribal communities, this knowledge forms the backbone of healing practices and customs because wherein fauna and their by-products are used to treat various diseases (alves et al. 2018; costaneto 1999). animal-derived products have long been valued for their medicinal properties in treating various human ailments (alves and rosa 2005, 2007; alves et al. 2018; lev 2003; cragg and newman 2013; traditional ethnozoological practices of galliformes by indigenous inhabitants in koraput district of odisha, india bhawani sabat1, ankeet kanwar1, basavaraj s. holeyachi2, riddhika kalle1,3, kamal kant joshi4, and ashutosh singh1* 1sálim ali centre for ornithology and natural history, south india centre of wildlife institute of india, anaikatty (post), coimbatore, tamil nadu, 641108, india. 2padmaja naidu himalayan zoological park, jawahar parbat, darjeeling, west bengal, 734101, india. 3centre for functional biodiversity, university of kwazulu-natal, durban, south africa. 4department of environmental science, graphic era hill university, dehradun, uttarakhand, 248002, india. *apgsacon@gmail.com abstract hunting has been a traditional human practice for centuries to exploit faunal resources for beneficial needs. wild galliformes are particularly hunted for bushmeat, ornaments, religious rituals, spiritual practices, and medicine. this study documents the traditional ethnozoological knowledge and practices of galliformes utilized by the indigenous inhabitants of koraput district, odisha, india. information was collected using the participatory rural appraisal (pra) method through semi -structured interviews. we recorded eight galliformes species utilized in 23 distinct ways. six body parts (meat, skull, egg, feather, feet bone, and body oil) were used to treat 15 human ailments. results indicated that oral application (52.1%) was the most effective mode of treatment, followed by topical application (47.8%). among the reported species, feathers of gallus gallus and gallus gallus domesticus were most commonly used for treating ear-related complaints (fidelity level [fl] = 100%), while feathers of pavo cristatus were least utilized, associated with predicting the birth of male children (fl = 6.7%). this study provides the first documentation of the ethnomedicinal use of three quail species (coturnix coturnix, perdicula erythrorhyncha, and perdicula asiatica) in odisha. this study also highlights three hunting techniques along with the cultural importance of the galliformes and is the first quantitative ethnozoological analysis of galliformes in the koraput district, using fl percentage scores. findings of this study emphasize the significance of galliformes, linked with traditional ethnomedicine, hunting, and socio-cultural systems. received july 16, 2024 open access accepted april 29, 2025 doi 10.14237/ebl.16.1.2025.1894 published july 16, 2025 keywords ethnoornithology, traditional medicine, wildlife conservation, hunting practices, fidelity level, feathers copyright © 2025 by the author(s); licensee society of ethnobiology. this is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution-noncommercial 4.0 international public license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0), which permits non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. supplementary files available at https://doi.org/10.14237/ebl.16.1.2025.1894 sabat et al. 2025. ethnobiology letters 16(1):40-55 41 research communications (chaudhury et al. 2016; kim and song 2013). therefore, animals have consistently been utilized in traditional medicine across various cultures (haq et al. 2020; loko et al. 2019; singh et al. 2020; souza et al. 2022). india is home to a diverse array of tribal communities, each with its unique ethnomedicinal practices. these traditions vary across regions and reflect distinct cultural beliefs, as observed in himachal pradesh (singh et al. 2020), assam (borah and prasad 2017), rajasthan (kushwah et al. 2017; mahawar and jaroli 2006), tamil nadu (chellappandian et al. 2014; vijayakumar et al. 2015b), ladakh (haq et al. 2020), kerala (vijayakumar et al. 2015a), and west bengal (chaudhury et al. 2016). odisha similarly stands out for its rich diversity of tribal communities, accounting for 9.7% of india’s total tribal population, with 62 tribal communities comprising 22.1% of the state’s overall population (scheduled castes and scheduled tribes research and training institute 2018). within this demography, ethnozoological practices form an integral part of cultural life and have been well documented in several regions of odisha (jena et al. 2020; joseph 1988; mishra and panda 2011; mishra et al. 2011; pradhan 2016), highlighting the importance of animal resources in both traditional medicine and daily practices. hunting is one of the oldest human activities and remains an integral component of ethnozoological practices, reflecting the relationship between human societies and wildlife (alves 2012). faunal-derived products serve a range of purposes beyond medicine, including use as food, clothing, and in magicoreligious practices (alves et al. 2018). in india, hunting was an ancient practice and a vital survival tool for sustenance in various communities, and it continues today with complex ecological, social, and economic implications (gubbi and linkie 2012; velho et al. 2012). while mammal hunting has been more extensively documented, the use of avifaunal resources for human needs is equally rooted in indian culture (aiyadurai 2011, 2012). the illegal hunting of scheduled wild birds through various hunting techniques remains a major concern, irrespective of their conservation status at present (iucn 2024; neto et al. 2022). galliformes, commonly known as gamebirds, have long been part of human lifestyles as domesticated pets. however, they are now greatly threatened due to excessive hunting pressures driven by the demand for their high-protein bushmeat, ornamental value, plumage, and use in ethnomedicines and religious practices (aiyadurai 2011, 2012; fuller and garson 2000; kaul et al. 2004; singh et al. 2022; tian et al. 2018). hunting customs such as “small game hunting,” targeting wild fowls in western odisha, have been documented by padhan (2023), yet there remains a substantial knowledge gap regarding the utilization of galliformes by tribal communities in southern odisha. a previous avian diversity study in the koraput district by majumdar (1988) made no mention of galliformes or associated ethnozoological practices. therefore, the present study aims to document the ethnozoological uses and hunting practices involving galliformes among tribal inhabitants in the koraput district through detailed quantitative analysis. methods study area the present study was conducted in the koraput district of odisha, located along the western fringe of the eastern ghats in the southern part of the state (18º 13’ to 19º 10’ n and 82º 5’ to 83º 23’ e), covering approximately 8,807 km2. geographically, the study area is covered with hilly terrain (highest peak, 1,672 m asl), dense forests, waterfalls, and narrow intermontane valleys. koraput shares its borders with two neighboring states of india: chhattisgarh to the west and andhra pradesh to the south (figure 1). the district is administratively divided into 14 blocks, comprising 226 gram panchayats and 2,042 villages. it has a total population of 1,379,647, and a population density of 157 people per square kilometer (office of the registrar general and census commissioner india 2011). approximately 50% of this population belongs to tribal communities such as the paraja, gadaba, kandha, saura, and others (behera and mohanty 2019; scheduled castes and scheduled tribes research and training institute 2018). these tribal groups, commonly referred to as adivasis, depend mostly on natural resources for their livelihoods. india is home to 45 galliformes species, of which 13 species—comprising five quails, two spurfowls, three francolins, and two pheasants—are present in odisha and are currently categorized as least concern (lc) (sathyakumar and sivakumar 2007). sabat et al. 2025. ethnobiology letters 16(1):40-55 42 research communications data collection field surveys were conducted across 15 regions of the koraput district, odisha—boipariguda, doraguda, tanginiguda, kollar, dasamantpur, keraput, kakalpoda, majhiguda, bhatipara, ranginiguda, kota junction, chandili, jeypore, rondapali, and kotpad (figure 1). semi-structured interviews, based on the participatory rural appraisal (pra) method (kim and song 2013; kumera et al. 2022), were conducted from march to may 2023, totaling 200 hours of data collection on ethnozoological practices of galliformes. both investigators and respondents were actively involved in discussions during the interview. we targeted participants from various age groups (table 1). prior to the interviews, we introduced ourselves to the locals, explained the study objectives, and requested permission while emphasizing our commitment to respecting and protecting their intellectual property rights (ipr). the questionnaire was designed following chellappandian et al. (2014), huntington (2000), kumera et al. (2022), vijayakumar (2015a), and focused on documenting the galliformes species involved in ethnozoological practices, their vernacular names, hunting methods, body part utilization, medicinal purposes, modes of application, and any associated commercial applications. quantitative analyses the respondents’ answers were summarized and analyzed using fidelity level (fl). fl was calculated to identify the frequently used galliformes species for treating certain ailments, as reported by the inhabitants in the study area. the fl percentage was calculated using the following formula: fl (%) = np/n× 100 here, np denotes the number of informants who mentioned the use of specific animal species for certain ailments, and n denotes the total number of informants who used a particular species for treating any ailment (chellappandian et al. 2014; kim and song 2013; kumera et al. 2022; loko et al. 2019; vijayakumar et al. 2015a). the higher values of fl figure 1 sites and localities surveyed for the questionnaire in the koraput district of odisha. sabat et al. 2025. ethnobiology letters 16(1):40-55 43 research communications percentage indicate greater agreement among respondents regarding the utilization of an animal species for treating ailments, while lower values reflect less agreement of respondents for using a particular animal species for treating any ailments. results demographic characteristics of respondents individuals (n=45) aged above 18 years (33 males and 12 females) participated in the interviews (table 1). the majority of respondents (44.44%) were aged 41– 50 years. participants aged above 60 and 18–30 years were the least represented, each accounting for only 11.11%. most respondents had poor literacy levels and belonged to the low-income groups. male respondents accounted for 73.33%, whereas females comprised only 26.67%. in terms of daily activities, females were primarily engaged in household chores and agricultural activities, while males were predominantly involved in farming, cattle grazing, and coaching traditional practices and customs to the younger generation. galliformes diversity and habitat in the study area the respondents identified eight galliformes species (table 2) that are commonly observed and locally recognized. most of these species are known by their vernacular names; in the local desia and odia languages, fowls are commonly referred to as kukda. additionally, male fowls are called ganja, whereas females are called peti. the study area, surrounded by dense forests, bamboo thickets, and terraced croplands, provides a diverse and suitable habitat for galliformes. these birds primarily occupy areas that provide mix of forest cover and open spaces, ensuring both shelter and foraging grounds. quails and spurfowls are particularly abundant in agricultural fields, like rice paddies, but particularly in finger millet farms, locally called mandia. unlike the more solitary pheasants, these species are in small groups, taking advantage of the resources provided by the agricultural landscape. this close association with agricultural areas highlights the role of human-altered landscapes in supporting certain galliformes species. ethnomedicinal use of galliformes in the koraput district, certain tribal communities rely on fauna-based medicine to treat a range of human ailments, relying mostly on galliformes species (table 2; supplementary table 1). oral administration (52.1%) is slightly more prevalent than topical application (47.8%) among the documented practices. six body parts of galliformes—meat, skull, eggs, feathers, feet bones, and body oil—are commonly used in the preparation of medicinal remedies. g. gallus domesticus is favored over wild species due to its easy accessibility, particularly for treating ailments such as bone fractures, joint pain, musculoskeletal disorders, and analgesics. the meat ofc. coturnix, p. erythrorhyncha, and p. asiaticais commonly used for treating kidney stones. feathers of p. cristatus, g. gallus, and g. gallus domesticus are mostly used for ear complaints. additionally, the feathers of p. cristatus are utilized to treat ailments such as constipation, diarrhea, fever, cough, and cold in children, as well as for exorcisms and spiritual practices. patterns of fidelity level we found that the most quoted species, with all 45 respondents citing the use of g. gallus and g. gallus domesticus feathers for ear wax cleaning, achieved the highest fl value of 100% (n = 45). this was followed by the feathers of p. cristatus used for exorcism (n = 42, fl = 93.3%) and warding off the evil eye (n = 41, fl = 91.1%). the meat of g. gallus and g. gallus domesticus was used for treating fever, cough and joint pain (n = 40 each, fl= 88.9%), followed by p. cristatus table 1 demographic profiles of respondents interviewed for the survey (n = 45). demographics number of respondents percentage (%) gender male 33 73.33 female 12 26.67 age group between 18-30 5 11.11 between 31-40 6 13.33 between 41-50 20 44.44 between 51-60 9 20 above 60 5 11.11 sabat et al. 2025. ethnobiology letters 16(1):40-55 44 research communications ta b le 2 e th n o m ed ic in al u se s o f g al lif o rm es b y th e lo ca l i n h ab it an ts o f k o ra p u t d is tr ic t, o d is h a. c o n ti n u ed o n n ex t p a g e sl n o . sc ie n ti fi c n am e en gl is h n am e lo ca l n am e / v er n ac u la r n am e p ar ts /p ro d u ct s u se d a ilm e n ts tr e at e d a d d iti ve s u se d p re p ar ati o n m o d e o f a p p lic ati o n f l % 1 p a vo c ri st a tu s in d ia n p ea fo w l m a ju ra , m a yu ra , ja lia m a ju ra (m a le ), m a ku m a ju ra ( fe m a le ), m a i m a ju ra (f em a le ) m ea t n o n e ea ti n g aft er co o ki n g o ra l n a sk u ll h ea d p ar t ev il att ac k n o n e p ra yi n g to p ic al 1 3 .3 eg g n o n e ea ti n g aft er co o ki n g o ra l n a fe at h er fe ve r, c o u gh , c o ld , v o m iti n g, d ia rrh ea , a n d c o n sti p ati o n in y o u n g o n es m u st ar d o il fe at h er ro as te d , p o w d er ed , an d d is so lv ed in m u st ar d o il to m ak e ti n y b al ls o ra l 2 0 ex o rc is m n o n e a b u n ch o f ey e ta il fe at h er s is st ro ke d o ve r th e b o d y to p ic al 9 3 .3 ev il ey e n o n e ty in g to p ic al 9 1 .1 p re gn an t w o m e n h av e an in cr ea se d p ro b ab ili ty o f h av in g a b o y b an an a ey e t ai l fe at h er in b et w ee n th e cu t b an an a o ra l 6 .7 sabat et al. 2025. ethnobiology letters 16(1):40-55 45 research communications c o n ti n u ed f ro m p re vi o u s p a g e c o n ti n u ed o n n ex t p a g e sl n o . sc ie n ti fi c n am e en gl is h n am e lo ca l n am e / v er n ac u la r n am e p ar ts /p ro d u ct s u se d a ilm e n ts tr e at e d a d d iti ve s u se d p re p ar ati o n m o d e o f a p p lic ati o n f l % ea r co m p la in ts w at e r fe at h er b u rn t, cr u sh ed , an d d is so lv ed in to p ic al 4 6 .7 fe ve r, c o u gh , v o m iti n g, c o ld , a n d fe b ri le co n vu ls io n s in y o u n g o n es n o n e th e ey e ta il fe at h er is ti ed w it h a st ri n g an d w o rn o n t h e n ec k to p ic al 8 6 .7 fe et b o n e ea r in fe cti o n s lik e e ar p u s sa n d al w o o d ru b b in g st o n e o r an y gr in d in g st o n e d ri ed le gs ar e gr o u n d o n a gr in d in g st o n e w it h w at er in a ci rc u la r m o ti o n a n d p u t in to t h e ea r as d ro p s to p ic al 1 1 .1 2 g a llu s g a llu s r ed j u n gl ef o w l d es i k u kd a , b a n a ku kd a , b a n a g a n ja (m a le ), g a n ja ku kd a ( m a le ), m a i ku kd a ( fe m a le ), p eti k u kd a (f em a le ), b a n a m ea t fe ve r, c o u gh , jo in t p ai n , b o n e fr ac tu re s n o n e ea ti n g aft er co o ki n g o ra l 8 8 .9 sabat et al. 2025. ethnobiology letters 16(1):40-55 46 research communications c o n ti n u ed f ro m p re vi o u s p a g e c o n ti n u ed o n n ex t p a g e sl n o . sc ie n ti fi c n am e en gl is h n am e lo ca l n am e / v er n ac u la r n am e p ar ts /p ro d u ct s u se d a ilm e n ts tr e at e d a d d iti ve s u se d p re p ar ati o n m o d e o f a p p lic ati o n f l % fe at h er ea r w ax cl ea n in g c o co n u t o il/ m u st ar d o il d ip p ed in o il, & u se d as a n e ar b u d t o c le an to p ic al 1 0 0 le g c o u gh , c o ld v eg et ab le s so u p o ra l 5 7 .8 eg g n o n e ea ti n g aft er co o ki n g o ra l n a 3 g a llu s g a llu s d o m es ti cu s d o m es ti c ch ic ke n ku kd a , g a n ja k u kd a ( m a le ), p eti ku kd a ( fe m a le ) m ea t fe ve r, c o u gh , jo in t p ai n , b o n e fr ac tu re s n o n e ea ti n g aft er co o ki n g o ra l 8 8 .9 fe at h er ea r w ax cl ea n in g c o co n u t o il/ m u st ar d o il d ip p ed in o il, & u se d as a n e ar b u d t o c le an th e e ar w ax to p ic al 1 0 0 le g c o u gh , c o ld v eg et ab le s so u p o ra l 6 6 .7 eg g w h it e b o n e fr ac tu re n o n e m as sa gi n g to p ic al 8 4 .4 4 g a llo p er d ix lu n u la ta p ai n te d s p u rf o w l p a n d ka , m a i ti tr i (f em a le ), k h o im o ku kd a b o d y o il sk in b u rn s n o n e m as sa gi n g to p ic al 7 5 .6 5 g a llo p er d ix sp a d ic ea r ed s p u rf o w l kh o im o k u kd a , kh o im i k u kd a , p a tr a li ku kd a , ch o to b a n k u kd a b o d y o il b o d y w o u n d s, s ki n b u rn s, b o d y sw e lli n g n o n e m as sa gi n g to p ic al 7 5 .6 sabat et al. 2025. ethnobiology letters 16(1):40-55 47 research communications c o n ti n u ed f ro m p re vi o u s p a g e sl sc ie n ti fi c n am e en gl is h n am e lo ca l n am e / p ar ts /p ro d u ct s a ilm e n ts a d d iti ve s p re p ar ati o n m o d e o f fl % 6 p er d ic u la er yt h ro rh yn ch a p ai n te d b u sh q u ai l b a n g u n d ri , b o d o b a n g u n d ri , g a g o r g u n d ri , b o d o m ea t k id n ey s to n es n o n e ea ti n g aft er co o ki n g o ra l 8 6 .7 7 p er d ic u la a si a ti ca ju n gl e b u sh q u ai l sa n o g u n d ri , k a n i g u n d ri , d u m a g u n d ri , c h o to g u n d ri , m a n d a g u n d ri m ea t k id n ey s to n es n o n e ea ti n g aft er co o ki n g o ra l 8 6 .7 8 c o tu rn ix co tu rn ix c o m m o n q u ai l jo m m i g u n d ri m ea t k id n ey s to n es n o n e ea ti n g aft er co o ki n g o ra l 8 6 .7 sabat et al. 2025. ethnobiology letters 16(1):40-55 48 research communications feathers, which were used to manage febrile convulsions in children (n = 39, fl = 86.7%), and the egg white of g. gallus domesticus, which were used for healing bone fractures (n = 38, fl = 84.4%). the quail species, including c. coturnix, p. erythrorhyncha, and p. asiatica, all showed identical fl values of 86.7%, reflecting their effectiveness in treating kidney stones. similarly, the galloperdix spadicea gmelin, jf, 1789 and galloperdix lunulate valenciennes, 1825 both exhibited identical fl values of 75.6%, with their body oil used to treat skin burns. conversely, certain uses showed lower fl values. for instance, the skull of p. cristatus had a low value (n = 6, fl = 13.3%) for treating evil attacks, followed by the feet bones of p. cristatus used for ear infections (n = 5, fl = 11.1 %). the lowest fl value of 6.7% (n = 3) was observed for the oral consumption of p. cristatus feathers, believed to increase the likelihood of bearing a male child when used by pregnant women (table 2). hunting techniques the reliance on wild meat in the koraput district is closely tied to traditional hunting practices, which have been passed down through generations. according to the interviews, locals used a variety of weapons for hunting, including spears, bows and arrows, catapults, nets, bamboo traps, and ropes. the three main hunting techniques of galliformes were net capturing, catapults, and bamboo basket traps (figure 2). in the net capturing (figure 2a), a long rope is attached to a triangle-shaped net with sharp iron nails along its edges. to capture wild galliformes species, finger millet grains are scattered irregularly on the ground, and hunters hide nearby, holding the rope. when a fowl approaches and begins feeding, the trap is released, capturing the fowl. this technique is commonly used to capture g. gallus. in some cases, to capture a male wild g. gallus, a domesticated female fowl is tied near the trap. the male bird, drawn by the call of the female, is subsequently trapped by the hunters. catapulting, locally known as gulcha, is one of the most widely practiced methods for hunting galliformes (figure 2b). this small, y-shaped weapon is made of wood and rubber latex strips that acts as a sling for holding and launching stones. when a fowl is spotted or its call is heard, the hunter stretches the elastic strips to the desired tension and releases the stone, often striking the fowl from a considerable distance, resulting in its instant death. bamboo baskets (figure 2c) are commonly used to trap quails and spurfowls, particularly for bushmeat. flocks, locally referred to as manda, frequently visit croplands, making them easy targets for hunters. in this method, finger millet grains are scattered, and bamboo baskets are propped slantwise using a short stick tied to a thin rope. when the fowls begin feeding, the rope is pulled, causing the basket to fall and trap the small fowls inside. these trapped fowls are then sold in local markets, with prices ranging from rs. 70 to 400 per bird, depending on their size. in the past, these trapping methods were widely employed to hunt galliformes, which were abundant in the region. however, with the advent of modernization, changes in cultural practices, a lack of interest among young ones, and the implementation of stricter wildlife regulations, the frequency of hunting has significantly declined, leading to a reliance on domesticated fowls for meat, and thus reflecting a gradual move towards sustainable practices. galliformes in sporting cultures galliformes have historically held a significant place in rural sporting traditions (fuller and garson 2000). among local communities, a traditional sport known as kukda gaali (cockfighting) remains a part of the local sporting culture. although cockfighting is prohibited under the prevention of cruelty to animals act, 1960, respondents indicated that it continues to be clandestinely practiced in certain areas of koraput. this sport typically involves both wild g. gallus and domesticated g. gallus domesticus, which are pitted against each other in cockpit rings. the fights are often brutal, with sharp-edged spurs tied to the legs of the competing birds, forcing them to battle until one succumbs. these events are usually accompanied by gambling and serve as a major attraction during festivals or local gatherings, symbolizing rural entertainment. galliformes in socio-cultural practices the tribal communities in koraput celebrate an annual hunting festival known as chaitra parab or choith porv, which spans several days to a month. during this festival, it is customary for at least one male member from each family to participate with others. experienced hunters venture into dense forests and return with game animals, which are subsequently offered to the local deities as a form of ritualistic thanksgiving and celebration. these sabat et al. 2025. ethnobiology letters 16(1):40-55 49 research communications offerings are made to invoke blessings and good fortune. saura paintings, created by the saura tribe, are made using natural pigments derived from white rice paste, charcoal, red earth, and plant extracts. executed on the mud walls of homes, the artworks depict stylized human figures, animals, trees, sun, moon, and deities in intricate geometric patterns. during chaitra parab, the paintings often portray scenes of communal hunting, agricultural abundance, ritual offerings, and the harmonious relationship between humans and nature. during the survey, 88.9% of respondents were aware of the indian wildlife protection act (iwpa-1972) and the associated legal consequences of hunting or poaching of protected species. at present, many communities have transitioned from sacrificing wild animals to using domesticated fowls during the festival. galliformes’ feathers are extensively used to create decorative items such as colorful fans for local rituals and festivals across the koraput region. for instance, the modified tail contour feathers of p. cristatus are prominently featured in koraput’s traditional performances known as dhemsa dance, where performers clad in vibrant costumes carry ornamental brooms adorned with the long iridescent eye feathers of peafowl. additionally, both men and women embellish their turbans with colorful fowl feathers as a symbol of tribal identity and culture (figure 3a). participants reported that the majority of people participating in ritual activities purchase feathers from local markets rather than sourcing them through hunting (figure 3b). regarding the origin of these feathers, 60% of respondents believed the feathers were manually plucked, while the rest assumed they were naturally shed. interestingly, the figure 2 different methods commonly used by locals to trap galliformes in the koraput district a net capturing, b catapult, and c bamboo basket trap. illustration by ©bhawani sabat. sabat et al. 2025. ethnobiology letters 16(1):40-55 50 research communications majority (64.44%) expressed indifference regarding the method of feather collection, prioritizing accessibility over origin. discussion this study documented the ethnozoological practices and cultural significance of galliformes in the koraput district of odisha. firstly, we found that the knowledge and utilization of galliformes were more prevalent among men, reflecting traditional genderbased roles in ethnozoological practices. secondly, a key finding was the use of galliformes body parts— both orally and topically—for treating various human ailments. these ethnozoological practices were supported by fidelity level (fl) analysis, which figure 3 galliformes feathers in folklore and festivities a use of colored galliformes feathers on head crowns during folk dances at festivals b sale of p. cristatus feathers in local markets. photo by ©bhawani sabat. sabat et al. 2025. ethnobiology letters 16(1):40-55 51 research communications highlighted commonly shared knowledge of ethnomedicines within the study area. thirdly, we recorded the different types of hunting tools and techniques traditionally used to capture different galliformes species. lastly, we outlined the cultural and traditional importance of these birds, emphasizing their symbolic and ritual roles in people’s lives. this study faced several limitations. first, the sample size was relatively small and gender-biased, with fewer female respondents due to cultural restrictions, possibly limiting the full spectrum of medicinal and cultural knowledge known to women. second, the study was geographically confined to a few locations in southern odisha, which may not fully represent the diversity of ethnozoological practices across other indigenous groups. however, our detailed, site-specific data offers valuable insights into regional practices that can serve as a foundation for broader comparative studies in the future. third, we could not directly observe all hunting and cultural practices described due to their seasonal or private nature, however, we addressed this limitation using photo-elicitation and in-depth interviews to capture detailed narratives. despite these limitations, this study presents several strengths. to our knowledge, this is the first detailed documentation linking species-specific use of galliformes in ethnomedicines and socio-cultural practices within a single narrative from the koraput district of odisha. we also documented the first ever meat usage of quail species (c. coturnix, p. asiatica, and p. erythrorhyncha) for treating kidney stones, which has not been previously reported, and emerged as a new finding highlighting a potentially undocumented aspect of local medicinal knowledge. the integration of field-based interviews with photographic documentation adds robustness to the findings. furthermore, by emphasizing the inhabitants’ sustainable interactions with local biodiversity, i.e. transitions from hunting to domestication—this study contributes a positive narrative to conservation discourse. oral consumption emerged as the most effective mode of treatment in the studied sites, which aligns with the findings of vijayakumar et al. (2015a). similarly, other studies documented the use of p. cristatus—including legs for ear ache and feathers for infertility and convulsions—corresponds with previous reports by mishra et al. (2011), vijayakumar et al. (2015a), and chellapandian et al. (2014). additionally, chellapandian et al. (2014) also described the combined use of p. cristatus feathers with lepus nigricollis to alleviate rheumatic pain and hemiplegia, highlighting their diverse medicinal role. similarly, the use of g. gallus and g. gallus domesticus— feathers for removing earwax, meat and legs for joint pain, fever, cough, and cold, and eggs for bone fractures—has also been reported by kumera et al. (2022), altaf et al. (2018), vijayakumar et al. (2015a), and chellapandian et al. (2014). beyond orthopedic treatments, g. gallus domesticus eggs have also been reported for treating cardiovascular diseases, convulsions, bronchitis, skin disorders, arthritis, and diarrhea (chellapandian et al. 2014; kim and song 2013; nayak et al. 2022; vijayakumar et al. 2015a). in terms of burn treatment, chhetri et al. (2020) reported that g. gallus fat is orally consumed for treating skin burns, whereas this study found that the body oil of g. lunulata and g. spadicea is predominantly used for similar purposes, indicating regional variations in species preference. while previous literature (atlaf et al. 2018; vijayakumar et al. 2015a, 2015b) has noted the medicinal use of c. coturnix for muscle pain, weakness, sexual health, and anemia, our study is the first to document the use of meat from c. coturnix for treating kidney stones, thus moving beyond earlier findings and contributing additional data to the ethnomedicinal knowledge of indian galliformes. the findings of the study also align with existing literature on the cultural significance of galliformes in india, particularly in relation to their integration into regional art, dance, and sporting traditions. the magico-religious use of p. cristatus feathers for exorcism and protection against evil spirits and prayer chanting has been previously documented among several tribal communities in the mayurbhanj district of odisha (behera and mohanty 2019) and darjeeling (chhetri et al. 2020). the species used for creating ceremonial feather fans vary by region—communities in northeast india, for example, utilize feathers from lophophorus impejanus, tragopan blythii, polyplectron bicalcaratum, and lophophorus sclateri, indicating a widespread and culturally shared tradition (aiyadurai 2011). while bhat (2010) elaborates on the symbolic role of birds in “indian art forms,” our study adds by linking galliformes to local paintings and traditional dance performances. a similar cultural expression involving birds has been reported among the bhil tribe in rajasthan (kushwah et al. 2017). in sporting sabat et al. 2025. ethnobiology letters 16(1):40-55 52 research communications traditions, the use of g. gallus and g. gallus domesticus in local recreation aligns with observations by haq et al. (2020), who reported similar practices involving alectoris chukar and tetraogallus species in the transhimalayas, again showcasing species preference according to various regions. these cultural continuities underline the multifaceted importance of galliformes beyond medicinal use. importantly, the interactions of tribal communities in the study area with galliformes provide a brief understanding of their existing traditional ecological knowledge (tek) about the birds’ feeding habits and habitat requirements. similar tek has been noted in other ethno-ornithological studies (pam et al. 2020; tidemann and gosler 2010). the interviewed farmers in the study area recognize quails and spurfowls as non-threatening, allowing them to forage on fallen millet grains, fostering a symbiotic relationship that benefits both agriculture and avifauna, fostering coexistence. this research contributes to the growing body of ethnozoological literature, emphasizing the role of tek in future conservation efforts. future research should expand to other regions for comparative analysis and further explore the transmission of ethnozoological knowledge across generations. conclusion this study is the first to document the use of galliformes in traditional medicine and culture in the koraput district of odisha, providing deep insights into the traditional ethnozoological knowledge of indigenous inhabitants. these tribals are often referred to locally as “adivasis,” have an in-depth understanding of their local biodiversity, accumulated through generations of observation and oral knowledge transfer. the older generations serve as key knowledge holders in zootherapy, thus acting as living repositories of traditional animal-based medicine. preserving such traditional ecological knowledge is important for their cultural identity and also for its potential to support modern conservation strategies. despite increasing modernization through education, healthcare, and increased wildlife conservation awareness led by forest departments, has resulted in a gradual decline in reliance on galliformes for food and medicine. this shift has reduced hunting pressures and fading traditional practices. however, traditional conservation practices include self-imposed rules such as seasonal taboos, selective hunting, and community norms against overharvesting, support certain species’ persistence. understanding the sustainability of such practices requires assessing factors like hunting pressure, habitat changes, economic pressures, and bird population trends. a key limitation of this study is the lack of quantitative ecological data, such as galliformes population estimates or hunting pressure metrics, which would have helped assess the sustainability of traditional practices more robustly. in contrast, modern conservation approaches involve protected areas and legal protection. this study highlights the need to find common ground between these systems to ensure effective, community-led conservation of galliformes species and support sustainability. although the species documented in this study are categorized as least concern, they still matter. awareness should be raised about the importance of galliformes and the repercussions of species extinction among the local inhabitants. future research should combine ecological monitoring with community engagement and expand ethnozoological studies across southern odisha to safeguard both biodiversity and traditional knowledge systems. acknowledgments the authors acknowledge the participation of local tribals of the koraput district belonging to 15 villages for sharing their traditional ethnozoological knowledge about galliformes. we also thank mr. pradeeshwar r j for helping with map preparation. declarations permissions: all interviewed individuals provided oral consent to participate in the study. they were informed about the primary objectives and importance of the research and were asked for prior permission to collect information. participants were also made aware that their responses would be used for publication and scientific purposes, to which they agreed. sources of funding: this work was supported by the startup research grant (srg) of science and engineering research board [grant no. srg/2022/000906] department of science and technology, government of india. conflicts of interest: none declared. references cited aiyadurai, a. 2011. wildlife hunting and conservation in northeast india: a need for an interdiscipli sabat et al. 2025. ethnobiology letters 16(1):40-55 53 research communications nary understanding. international journal of galliformes conservation 2:61–73. aiyadurai, a. 2012. bird hunting in mishmi hills of arunachal pradesh, north-eastern india. indian birds 7:134–137. alves, r. 2012. relationship between fauna and people and the role of ethnozoology in animal conservation. ethnobiology and conservation 1:1-69. doi:10.15451/ec2012-8-1.2-1-69. alves, r. r. n., 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to a pre-defined plan to achieve ecological or land management objectives (fernandes and botelho 2003; food and agriculture organization of the united nations 2006). nonetheless, both approaches share the recognition of fire as a tool for regulating vegetation, controlling pests, fertilizing soil, creating favorable conditions for the regeneration of native plant species, and avoiding catastrophic wildfires. these ecological functions benefit not only introduction fire management has been a fundamental practice across various cultures throughout human history, particularly among indigenous peoples and traditional communities who rely on sustainable methods to ensure the renewal of natural resources and the stability of ecosystems (bowman et al. 2009; mistry et al. 2005). in this context, the term traditional refers specifically to fire use practices developed and transmitted by these groups as part of their cultural, spiritual, and subsistence relationships with the land— often termed cultural burning in the literature (eriksen and hankins 2014; lake and christianson 2019). indigenous peoples are recognized as the original inhabitants of a territory, with their own social organization, languages, and customs. traditional communities—such as quilombolas, extractivists, and understanding fire through ethnoecology in brazil caique dantas 1*, eraldo medeiros costa neto1, and elmo borges de azevedo koch1 1postgraduate program in ecology and evolution, feira de santana state university, feira de santana, bahia state, brazil. *caidanvas@gmail.com abstract this study provides a detailed analysis of the historical context of fire management in brazil from the perspective of ethnoecology. the study aims to identify traditional fire management practices in brazil, examining their interactions with ethnoecology and their impacts on biodiversity conservation. the review adopted a systematic approach that began with the formulation of a clear research question: “what are the traditional fire management practices in brazil from an ethnoecological perspective, and what are their impacts on biodiversity?” the results highlight the uneven distribution of studies across brazilian biomes, with a greater concentration of research in the cerrado and amazon regions, while significant gaps were observed in other biomes such as the atlantic forest and pantanal. recent advances in research on fire management by traditional communities underscore the importance of local knowledge as an essential tool for the sustainable management of brazilian ecosystems. nevertheless, traditional fire management practices have historically been marginalized by public policies. this review emphasizes the need to more broadly integrate these practices into environmental management strategies, recognizing their significance for biodiversity conservation, landscape management, and cultural revitalization. such integration is increasingly urgent given the growing threats to brazil's biomes. received march 2, 2025 open access accepted august 5, 2025 doi 10.14237/ebl.16.1.2025.1942 published november 28, 2025 keywords traditional knowledge, ethnobiology, fire management, burning practices, historical use copyright © 2025 by the author(s); licensee society of ethnobiology. this is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution-noncommercial 4.0 international public license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0), which permits non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. dantas et al. 2025. ethnobiology letters 16(1):159–175 160 research communications wildlife and agricultural systems, but also the availability of sovereign or wild tended foods used in traditional diets (anderson 2013; berkes et al. 2000; bond and keeley 2005; dos santos et al. 2021; miranda et al. 2009; pyne 2001; russell-smith et al. 2009). rooted in long-standing ecological knowledge and customary stewardship systems, traditional fire management plays a vital role in sustaining biodiversity and maintaining ecosystem balance. however, despite recent advances such as the approval of the national policy on integrated fire management (brazil 2024), brazil still faces significant challenges in effectively implementing fire governance across its diverse regions and biomes—particularly in areas where traditional practices remain criminalized or poorly understood. uncontrolled wildfires in the cerrado, especially when they affect fire-sensitive environments such as gallery forests and riparian zones, have drawn attention due to their severe and often long-lasting ecological impacts (durigan and ratter 2016). unlike cultural burns—low-intensity and purposefully managed according to seasonal and ecological indicators—these wildfires are unplanned and can irreversibly damage biodiversity and ecosystem structure. in the amazon, studies by berenguer et al. (2014) and aragão et al. (2018) reveal that wildfires have generated emissions and forest degradation that undermine previous advances in reducing deforestation. similarly, the pantanal—a firedependent ecosystem—has suffered from unregulated burning that occurs outside of traditional or natural fire regimes, resulting in significant ecological imbalances affecting flood cycles, soil fertility, and species composition (hardesty et al. 2005). the increase in such wildfires in recent years is often associated with illegal deforestation and the expansion of agricultural frontiers. in these regions, fire is frequently used to clear vegetation for pasture or crops; when conducted illegally and without proper control, it increases the risk of fires spreading beyond intended boundaries, threatening biodiversity, carbon stocks, and aquatic systems (martins et al. 2022; nepstad et al. 2006; welch et al. 2013). these uncontrolled fires stand in stark contrast to traditional fire management, which is carefully planned and executed by indigenous peoples and traditional communities in harmony with the natural cycles of the landscape (eloy et al. 2019). over the past 20 years, scientific research on fire management in brazil has significantly expanded, with an increasing number of studies aiming to integrate ethnoecological perspectives into conservation practices and sustainable management. ethnoecology, which explores the local and traditional ecological knowledge of communities that have historically managed their territories, has demonstrated the value of controlled burning practices, particularly among indigenous peoples and traditional communities, as an effective strategy for maintaining biodiversity and controlling large-scale wildfires (berkes et al. 2000; bird et al. 2008; eloy et al. 2019; mistry et al. 2005; schmidt et al. 2018; trauernicht et al. 2015).the intensification of wildfires over the last decades, with severe impacts on human populations, biodiversity, and greenhouse gas emissions, underscores a global concern regarding fire management (hardesty et al. 2005). this type of management is especially relevant in biomes such as the cerrado, which is firedependent, and in certain ecosystems within the amazon, where the controlled use of fire can promote ecological resilience and facilitate the regeneration of native species. it also prevents the accumulation of flammable biomass, which can lead to uncontrolled fires during dry seasons (bilbao et al. 2010; schmidt et al. 2016). the ethnoecological approach to fire management involves the integration of ecological knowledge rooted in the cultural practices, cosmologies, and long-term environmental observations of indigenous peoples and traditional communities. as a discipline, ethnoecology is particularly valuable because it bridges scientific and traditional knowledge systems, offering insights into how fire is understood, used, and regulated outside conventional technical frameworks (eloy et al. 2019; mistry et al. 2005; posey 1985). in brazil and australia, case studies have demonstrated how indigenous and local knowledge systems can inform and enhance fire governance and biodiversity conservation strategies, contributing to more inclusive, context-sensitive, and ecologically effective management (ens et al. 2015; peroni and hanazaki 2002). by emphasizing the value of plural knowledge systems, the ethnoecological perspective challenges top-down, standardized approaches and reinforces the importance of recognizing sociocultural diversity and dantas et al. 2025. ethnobiology letters 16(1):159–175 161 research communications localized fire regimes. these ethnoecological practices, grounded in generations of observation and interaction with the environment, promote a holistic view of ecosystems and landscape dynamics. when guided by traditional ecological knowledge, fire is applied in low-intensity and targeted ways—reducing fuel loads, preventing large-scale wildfires, and maintaining habitat heterogeneity to support biodiversity. recognizing fire management as a sustainable practice integrated with traditional knowledge thus offers a promising pathway for ecosystem governance. this approach has already been empirically tested, as shown in recent studies such as falleiro (2024), which demonstrates the practical effectiveness of incorporating local knowledge into fire management strategies. this review aims to analyze the current state of scientific research on this topic, highlighting the importance of traditional fire management practices and their implications for biodiversity conservation and the development of more inclusive and effective public policies. specifically, it seeks to address the following research questions: (1) how has traditional fire management been characterized in the scientific literature? (2) what are the documented ecological and sociocultural benefits of these practices? (3) to what extent have they been incorporated into public policy frameworks in brazil? methodology this literature review was conducted following the guidelines of the preferred reporting items for systematic reviews and meta-analyses (prisma) method (galvão et al. 2022). the research aimed to identify traditional fire management practices in brazil, considering their relationship with ethnoecology and impacts on biodiversity conservation. the review was structured in multiple stages, from formulating the research question to synthesizing the results and assessing the quality of the included studies. initially, a clear research question was defined, as required by prisma guidelines, to guide the systematic review. the question explored: 'what are the traditional fire management practices in brazil under an ethnoecological perspective and their impacts on biodiversity?' this approach ensured a focused and directed search, facilitating the inclusion of relevant studies on the topic. specifically, the review was guided by the following research questions: (1) how has traditional fire management been characterized in the scientific literature? (2) what are the documented ecological and sociocultural benefits of these practices?, and (3) to what extent have they been incorporated into public policy frameworks in brazil? the search was performed across four primary databases: scielo, web of science, google scholar, and scopus. a combination of terms in three languages (english, portuguese, and spanish) was used to maximize the scope of the research. the keywords employed were: (1) "traditional knowledge" and “fire” and “brazil”, (2) "historical use" and “fire” and “brazil”, and (3) "fire management" and “brazil”. these keywords were translated to both portuguese and spanish. they were selected for their relevance to the study of fire management from an ethnoecological perspective in brazil, encompassing both traditional knowledge and the historical use of fire by local communities. a temporal scope of the last 30 years (1993 to 2024) was defined to analyze the evolution of the topic, considering the growing debate around traditional practices and the integration of these approaches into environmental management and conservation policies. inclusion/exclusion criteria inclusion criteria considered research articles addressing the historical use of fire by human communities, focusing on traditional fire management practices and their impacts on ecosystems. only studies published in portuguese, english, and spanish were included. broader studies, such as those on general management practices, were included for extracting specific data on fire usage. studies using duplicate datasets were excluded. articles offering more detailed and comprehensive information were prioritized. excluded works included studies not directly related to the topic, those lacking relevant data for the review, as well as abstracts, book chapters, and entire books, which were excluded due to difficulties in ensuring consistent peer-review standards and comparability with journal articles, as well as limitations in accessing complete and standardized metadata for systematic analysis. screening each database was examined independently. in scielo, 78 articles were found, of which 35 were included after applying the screening criteria. from web of science, 90 articles were retrieved, with 42 selected for final analysis. google scholar initially dantas et al. 2025. ethnobiology letters 16(1):159–175 162 research communications returned 150 articles, of which 60 were deemed relevant after screening. finally, scopus identified 34 articles, with 19 included after final screening (figure 1). in total, 26 articles were included in the review after removing duplicates and applying inclusion/ exclusion criteria. the variables analyzed in the selected studies include author(s), year, title, journal, and biome (table 1). advances in research on fire management by traditional communities the growing body of literature on fire management by indigenous and traditional communities in brazil reveals not only a significant increase in scientific interest in recent decades but also a broader shift in how fire is understood—not as a universal threat, but as a potential ecological tool shaped by context, knowledge, and culture (brasil 2007). this trend has intensified particularly after 2011, with publication peaks in 2016 and 2021 (figure 2), reflecting growing concern with climate change, wildfire risk, and the recognition of traditional knowledge in biodiversity conservation and landscape governance (artaxo 2019; berkes et al. 2000; bowman et al. 2009; costa and figure 1 prisma flow diagram used in the screening process of studies that investigated traditional fire management practices in brazil, considering their relationship with ethnoecology and impacts on biodiversity conservation. figure 2 temporal distribution of studies on the historical use of fire by human communities in brazil, focusing on traditional fire management practices and their impacts on ecosystems under an ethnoecological perspective between 1993 and 2024. the years 1993 to 1999 were omitted from the figure as no publications were recorded for this period. distribution of studies on fire management in brazil between 1993 and 2024. dantas et al. 2025. ethnobiology letters 16(1):159–175 163 research communications table 1 list of articles and information on variables analyzed for the review. all = amazônia + caatinga + cerrado + pampa + pantanal. author(s) year article title journal biome leonel, m. 2000 o uso do fogo: o manejo indígena e a piromania da monocultura estudos avançados amazônia/cerrado mistry, j., et al. 2005 indigenous fire management in the cerrado of brazil: the case of the krahô of tocantins human ecology cerrado nepstad, d., et al. 2006 inhibition of amazon deforestation and fire by parks and indigenous lands conservation biology amazônia schmidt, i. b., et al. 2011 fogo e artesanato de capim-dourado no jalapão usos tradicionais e consequências ecológicas biodiversidade brasileira cerrado ribeiro, m. c. and côrtesfigueira, j. e. 2011 uma abordagem histórica do fogo no parque nacional da serra do cipó, minas gerais – brasil biodiversidade brasileira cerrado pivello, v. r. 2011 the use of fire in the cerrado and amazonian rainforests of brazil: past and present fire ecology cerrado melo, m. m. and saito, c. h. 2011 regime de queima das caçadas com uso do fogo realizadas pelos xavante no cerrado biodiversidade brasileira cerrado falleiro, r. m. 2011 resgate do manejo tradicional do cerrado com fogo para proteção das terras indígenas do oeste do mato grosso um estudo de caso biodiversidade brasileira cerrado fidelis, a. and pivello, v. r. 2011 deve-se usar o fogo como instrumento de manejo no cerrado e campos sulinos? biodiversidade brasileira cerrado/pampa welch, j. r., et al. 2013 indigenous burning as conservation practice neotropical savanna recovery amid agribusiness deforestation in central brazil plos one cerrado melo, m. m. and saito, c. h. 2013 the practice of burning savannas for hunting by the xavante indians based on the stars and constellations society & natural resources cerrado welch, j. r. 2014 xavante ritual hunting: anthropogenic fire, reciprocity, and collective landscape management in the brazilian cerrado human ecology cerrado welch, j. r. 2015 learning to hunt by tending the fire xavante youth, ethnoecology, and ceremony in central brazil journal of ethnobiology cerrado oliveira, l. n., et al. 2015 use of multispectral imaging in the evaluation of burnings and forest fires in krahôlandia indigenous land (2003-2014) floresta cerrado mistry, j., et al. 2016 community owned solutions for firemanagement in tropical ecosystems casestudies from indigenous communities of south america philosophical transactions of the royal society amazônia/cerrado (continued on next page) dantas et al. 2025. ethnobiology letters 16(1):159–175 164 research communications thomaz 2021; eloy et al. 2019; falleiro et al. 2024; mistry et al. 2005). this evolution in research coincides with evidence that the fire season in south america has expanded by approximately 33 days over the past 35 years, affecting tropical forests, savannas, and grasslands (jolly et al. 2015). the increasing frequency of wildfires—driven by climate change, illegal deforestation, and the expansion of agricultural frontiers—has caused severe environmental degradation, particularly in biomes such as the cerrado, pantanal, and amazon (silvério et al. 2019). in the cerrado, wildfires are concentrated at the end of the dry season and the beginning of the rainy season, severely affecting gallery forests and firesensitive environments (durigan and ratter 2016; instituto nacional de pesquisas espaciais 2024). in contrast to destructive wildfires, traditional fire management involves controlled, low-intensity burns guided by ecological indicators, seasonal patterns, and culturally embedded practices. ethnographic case studies exemplify this: the krahô people in tocantins author(s) year article title journal biome borges, s. l., et al. 2016 fire management in veredas (palm swamps) new perspectives on traditional farming systems in jalapão, brazil ambiente & sociedade cerrado abreu, f. a. and souza, j. s. a. 2016 dinâmica espaço-temporal de focos de calor em duas terras indígenas do estado de mato grosso: uma abordagem geoespacial sobre a dinâmica do uso do fogo por xavantes e bororos floresta e ambiente cerrado schmidt, i. b., et al. 2016 implementação do programa piloto de manejo integrado do fogo em três unidades de conservação do cerrado biodiversidade brasileira cerrado falleiro, r. m., et al. 2016 as contribuições do manejo integrado do fogo para o controle dos incêndios florestais nas terras indígenas do brasil biodiversidade brasileira cerrado batista, e. k. l., et al. 2018 an evaluation of contemporary savanna fire regimes in the canastra journal of environmental management cerrado carmenta, r., et al. 2018 forbidden fire: does criminalising fire hinder conservation efforts in swidden landscapes of the brazilian amazon? the geographical journal amazônia eloy, l., et al. 2019 seasonal fire management by traditional cattle ranchers prevents the spread of wildfire in the brazilian cerrado ambio cerrado falleiro, r. m., et al. 2021 histórico, avaliação, oportunidades e desafios do manejo integrado do fogo nas terras indígenas brasileiras biodiversidade brasileira all welch, j. r. and coimbra jr., c. e. a. 2021 indigenous fire ecologies, restoration, and territorial sovereignty in the brazilian cerrado: the case of two xavante reserves land use policy cerrado xerente, p. p. g. s. and oliveira, r. c. s. 2021 abordagem indígena sobre manejo integrado do fogo em terras indígenas no estado do tocantins biodiversidade brasileira cerrado carvalho, e. v., et al. 2023 fogo no cerrado em terras indígenas xerente (tocantins) pesquisa de opinião em comunidade indígena boletim do museu paraense emílio goeldi ciências naturais cerrado (continued from previous page) dantas et al. 2025. ethnobiology letters 16(1):159–175 165 research communications use rotational burns for vegetation regeneration and hunting, following ancestral fire calendars (mistry et al. 2005); the xerente (falleiro et al. 2021) and xavante (carneiro filho et al. 2021) employ fire strategically to manage trails, protect sacred sites, and sustain resource use. these practices, rooted in traditional ecological knowledge (tek), contribute to ecosystem heterogeneity, reduce fuel loads, and help prevent large-scale wildfires. fidelis and pivello (2011) argue that fire suppression policies may even heighten ecological vulnerability in fire-adapted regions like the cerrado. despite growing recognition, several studies (eloy et al. 2019; fernandes et al. 2021) highlight persistent political and institutional challenges that hinder the effective integration of traditional fire regimes into public policy. while initiatives such as the brifs (brigadas federais) have begun incorporating indigenous participation (falleiro et al. 2021), these efforts remain limited in scale and institutional support. the approval of law 14.944/2024 (brasil 2024), which establishes the national policy on integrated fire management (política nacional de manejo integrado do fogo – pnmif), marks a legal advance by formally recognizing traditional fire knowledge and promoting adaptive and participatory fire governance. yet, implementation gaps and institutional resistance continue to restrict broader figure 3 spatial distribution of brazil’s terrestrial biomes with state boundaries: amazon (dark green), caatinga (orange), cerrado (brown), atlantic forest (light blue), pampa (purple) and pantanal (light green); state boundaries shown as thin black lines; projection wgs84. source: ibge (2012). dantas et al. 2025. ethnobiology letters 16(1):159–175 166 research communications adoption within environmental governance frameworks. this combination of scientific advancement, policy interest, and socio-environmental urgency has made both fire management and fire prevention central subjects of academic inquiry. studies such as eloy et al. (2019) and mistry et al. (2005) show that traditional regimes increase ecosystem resilience by limiting fuel accumulation and maintaining habitat diversity. in the brazilian cerrado, the cyclical burning strategies employed by the krahô and xerente align with ecological signals and have proven effective in reducing wildfire risk (falleiro et al. 2024). these insights reinforce the importance of culturally informed fire governance and the need for strategies that value local autonomy, sociocultural diversity, and sustainability. distribution of studies on fire and ethnoecology across biomes the analysis of the distribution of studies conducted across different brazilian biomes provides valuable insights into research priorities and current environmental concerns (figure 3). the cerrado stands out as the biome with the highest number of studies, totaling approximately 20 publications, a significantly higher number than in other evaluated biomes. the amazon follows, with about seven times fewer studies than those conducted exclusively in the cerrado (figure 4). other categories include research covering multiple biomes, such as cerrado/pampa and amazon/cerrado, as well as generalist studies that do not focus on a specific biome (category "all"). however, biomes such as the caatinga, pantanal, and pampa show either no studies or an extremely low number of them (figure 4), suggesting significant research gaps regarding fire management in these regions. the cerrado has been attracting increasing academic attention not only due to its unique biodiversity and the environmental challenges it faces—such as land conversion for agriculture and the impacts of fire management policies—but also because of the maintenance of large areas of indigenous lands within fire-dependent ecosystems, which continue to be managed through traditional practices. the emphasis on studies conducted in this biome may be related to the recognition of fire regimes' importance in maintaining cerrado biodiversity and ecological functioning (klink and machado 2005; melo 2007; mittermeier et al. 2005). on the other hand, the amazon remains a key area of scientific interest, mainly due to pressures related to deforestation, climate change, and conservation policies (nepstad et al. 2006; steward 2018). it is important to note, however, that prescribed burning management in the amazon is limited to savannah-like areas of the biome—such as amazonian grasslands and farmlands—as the forested areas are highly fire-sensitive. the traditional use of fire by indigenous communities in the amazon has been a subject of study, reinforcing the need to understand the interactions between culture and conservation (carmenta et al. 2018; uriarte et al. 2012). the lack of studies focusing on biomes such as the caatinga and the pantanal raises questions about research gaps and the need for greater scientific attention in these regions, especially considering their contrasting fire regimes—while the caatinga is generally fire-independent, the pantanal is a firedependent ecosystem where fire plays a key ecological role. the caatinga, for example, harbors biodiversity adapted to semi-arid conditions and features traditional fire management practices that could provide valuable insights into sustainable conservation strategies. the pantanal, in turn, faces challenges related to water management and habitat conservafigure 4 number of studies assessing the historical use of fire by human communities, focusing on traditional fire management practices and their impacts on ecosystems, published by brazilian biome. all: amazon + caatinga + cerrado + pampa + pantanal. dantas et al. 2025. ethnobiology letters 16(1):159–175 167 research communications tion, making research advances essential for supporting environmental management policies (silva et al. 2019). this uneven distribution of studies reflects not only scientific interests but also the social, political, and environmental dynamics shaping conservation priorities in brazil. the need for interdisciplinary approaches that integrate ecology, social sciences, and public policy is crucial to developing effective conservation and fire management strategies that respect traditional knowledge and promote the sustainability of brazilian biomes. in summary, the analysis of study distribution highlights the predominance of research in the cerrado and amazon, while other biomes remain relatively understudied. this finding underscores the importance of directing future efforts toward expanding knowledge on fire use in different ecological and cultural contexts, ensuring a more balanced and sustainable environmental management approach. distribution of studies on fire and ethnoecology: analysis of the number of studies per scientific journal the distribution of publications across scientific journals provides important insights into the platforms researchers use to disseminate studies on fire management and brazilian biomes (figure 5). among the analyzed journals, biodiversidade brasileira stands out as the most prominent, reflecting its emphasis on biodiversity conservation, sustainable management, and the integration of traditional knowledge. its predominance suggests not only strong academic interest but also a strategic effort to reach policymakers and stakeholders engaged in environmental governance. the journal’s focus, its thematic issues on fire, and its management by a government institution make it an accessible and practical outlet, especially for public servants who may face constraints related to time, funding, or language. publishing in such journals enhances the visibility and applicability of research findings, increasing their likelihood of influencing policy formulation and conservation strategies. in addition to biodiversidade brasileira, other journals such as the journal of ethnobiology and human ecology also play a significant role, demonstrating a broad and multidisciplinary landscape in this research field. these journals emphasize the social, ecological, and cultural dimensions of fire, reinforcing the complexity of fire management as both an environmental and sociocultural issue. the variety of publishing venues reflects emerging research trends and growing interest in integrating ethnoecological perspectives into conservation. this shift suggests a reorientation of scientific priorities toward valuing local knowledge and promoting inclusive, culturally sensitive approaches. overall, analyzing the number of studies per journal not only reveals dominant research platforms but also illustrates the dynamic interplay between science, society, and policy in addressing fire governance and biodiversity conservation in brazil. general patterns in traditional fire management practices in brazil the reviewed literature reveals several recurring themes and patterns regarding traditional fire figure 5 number of studies assessing the historical use of fire by human communities, focusing on traditional fire management practices and their impacts on ecosystems, published by scientific journal. biobrasil = biodiversidade brasileira, hum. ecol. = human ecology, soc. nat. resour. = society & natural resources, phil. trans. r. soc. b = philosophical transactions of the royal society b, j. ethnobiol. = journal of ethnobiology, j. environ. manage. = journal of environmental management, geogr. j. = the geographical journal, floram = floresta & ambiente, fire ecol. = fire ecology, estud. av. = estudos avançados, conserv. biol. = conservation biology, bol. mus. para. emilio goeldi cienc. nat. = boletim do museu paraense emílio goeldi. ciências naturais, ambiente soc. = ambiente & sociedade. dantas et al. 2025. ethnobiology letters 16(1):159–175 168 research communications management practices (tfm) in brazil, particularly in the context of ethnoecology and biodiversity conservation. these patterns encompass (1) the cultural foundations and ecological knowledge guiding fire use among indigenous and traditional communities; (2) the conflict between traditional practices and restrictive contemporary fire policies; (3) the ecological benefits of traditional fire regimes, such as wildfire prevention and biodiversity maintenance; (4) spatial and temporal variations in fire practices across regions and peoples; and (5) the limited incorporation of traditional fire management into public policy frameworks. each of these points is examined in the sections below to demonstrate the complexity and importance of integrating traditional knowledge into broader environmental governance. traditional fire management practices are deeply rooted in the cultural and ecological knowledge of indigenous and local communities. for instance, the xavante people in the cerrado biome use fire for hunting, landscape management, and cultural ceremonies, which not only sustain their livelihoods but also promote biodiversity and ecosystem health (melo and saito 2011, 2013; welch et al. 2013, 2014, 2015). similarly, the krahô people employ fire to create mosaic landscapes that enhance both ecological and cultural resilience, while supporting traditional activities such as hunting, gathering, and ceremonial practices (mistry et al. 2005). these practices demonstrate a sophisticated understanding of fire as a tool for maintaining ecological balance and strengthening cultural identity, whether grounded in indigenous knowledge—embedded in long-standing cosmologies and territorial governance—or in local knowledge systems, such as those associated with swidden agriculture and smallholder land management. a recurring theme across the studies is the tension between traditional fire management practices and modern, often restrictive, fire policies. for example, carmenta et al. (2018) highlight how antifire narratives in the amazon marginalize smallholder farmers who rely on fire for subsistence slash-andburn agriculture, leading to socio-economic and ecological disconnects. it is important to note that this refers specifically to agricultural fire use, not to broader landscape-scale fire management. similarly, fidelis and pivello (2011) critique the prohibition of fire in protected areas of the cerrado and campos sulinos, arguing that such policies disrupt natural fire regimes and exacerbate biodiversity loss. these studies underscore the need to reconcile traditional fire use with contemporary conservation goals. several studies highlight the ecological benefits of traditional fire management. for instance, controlled burns by indigenous communities in the cerrado and amazon can reduce the risk of large wildfires, promote vegetation recovery, and help maintain habitat diversity (schmidt et al. 2016). in the jalapão region, traditional fire practices support the sustainable harvesting of golden grass (syngonanthus nitens), a culturally and economically important resource used in handicrafts, and contribute to the conservation of wetland ecosystems (schmidt et al. 2011). other cultural tending practices include the use of fire to clear trails for collective use, stimulate the growth of medicinal and edible plants, renew pasture areas for communal livestock, and mark seasonal cycles through fire-linked rituals. these findings challenge the prevailing view of fire as solely destructive and highlight its potential as a conservation and cultural management tool when used appropriately. spatial and temporal patterns of fire use vary significantly across different biomes and communities. for example, oliveira et al. (2015) document the extensive use of fire in the kraholândia indigenous territory, where fire is strategically applied to manage resources and maintain cultural practices. in contrast, abreu et al. (2016) observe distinct fire regimes in the bororo and xavante indigenous lands, reflecting differences in cultural practices and land use. these variations underscore the importance of contextspecific approaches to fire management that respect local knowledge and ecological conditions. despite the demonstrated benefits of traditional fire management, its integration into formal conservation policies remains limited. while important initiatives such as the brifs program explicitly incorporate traditional knowledge as a central element (falleiro et al. 2021), broader fire management discussions still underrepresent indigenous perspectives, highlighting the need for more inclusive and participatory policies (mistry et al. 2016). the marginalization of traditional practices often stems from a lack of understanding and recognition of their ecological and cultural value. programs like the integrated fire management (ifm) and indigenous brigades (brifs) represent positive steps toward bridging this gap, but their success dantas et al. 2025. ethnobiology letters 16(1):159–175 169 research communications depends on sustained collaboration between indigenous communities, researchers, and policymakers. for example, in the xingu indigenous territory, ifm strategies have been co-developed with local communities to prevent large-scale fires and protect agroforestry plots and sacred areas. similarly, brifs have been successfully implemented among the krahô people in tocantins, where indigenous brigadiers combine traditional knowledge with formal training to manage fire regimes and monitor biodiversity. the reviewed studies collectively call for a paradigm shift in fire management policies, advocating for the integration of traditional knowledge with scientific approaches. pivello (2011) and fidelis and pivello (2011) propose that fire should be recognized as a natural and necessary ecological process in fire-adapted ecosystems like the cerrado. similarly, carmenta et al. (2018) and welch et al. (2013) emphasize the importance of participatory approaches that involve local communities in decision -making processes. future research should focus on developing adaptive management strategies that balance ecological, cultural, and socio-economic objectives, ensuring the sustainability of both ecosystems and traditional practices. traditional fire management in brazil: bridging indigenous knowledge, ecological sustainability, and policy challenges the analysis of traditional fire management practices in brazil reveals the complex interplay between cultural heritage, ecological sustainability, and policy frameworks. these findings highlight the intricate relationship between indigenous and local communities and fire as a tool for landscape management, biodiversity conservation, and socioeconomic resilience. however, the integration of this traditional knowledge into contemporary environmental policies remains a significant challenge. the reviewed literature underscores the deep cultural and ecological significance of fire for indigenous and traditional communities. the xavante and krahô peoples exemplify the use of fire as an adaptive strategy for hunting, agricultural management, and ecosystem maintenance (melo and saito, 2011, 2013; welch et al. 2013, 2014, 2015). for instance, the xavante use fire to flush out game such as armadillos (dasypus novemcinctus) and deer (mazama spp.), and to prepare areas for the planting of traditional crops like manioc (manihot esculenta) and yam (dioscorea spp.). the krahô employ controlled burns to promote the regrowth of grasses and stimulate the flowering of useful plants such as golden grass (syngonanthus nitens). these practices help maintain a mosaic of vegetation types that support species like the blue-winged macaw (primolius maracana) and cerrado-endemic flora, thereby enhancing both biodiversity and cultural landscapes. the ecological benefits of traditional fire use, such as reducing large-scale wildfires and maintaining habitat heterogeneity, challenge the dominant perception of fire as purely destructive (nepstad et al. 2006; schmidt et al. 2011, 2016). one of the most pressing issues emerging from these studies is not merely the conceptual conflict between traditional fire practices and contemporary fire management policies—especially as public policies increasingly recognize the value of traditional knowledge—but rather the practical challenges in implementing these policies effectively, including budgetary and institutional constraints. modern conservation strategies often prioritize fire suppression, overlooking the ecological necessity of fire in fire-adapted biomes such as the cerrado (fidelis and pivello 2011). the prohibition of fire use in protected areas can disrupt both natural and culturally established fire regimes—such as those maintained through traditional or prescribed burning—leading to an accumulation of combustible biomass and, consequently, more intense and uncontrollable wildfires. this regulatory disconnect marginalizes traditional knowledge systems and undermines the socio-economic viability of indigenous and rural livelihoods that rely on fire for subsistence agriculture and sustainable resource management (carmenta et al. 2018). however, the potential of traditional fire management as a conservation tool is increasingly documented across various regions of brazil. studies show that controlled burns conducted by indigenous communities help reduce the frequency and intensity of catastrophic wildfires, promote vegetation regeneration, and support sustainable harvesting practices (santos et al. 2021; schmidt et al. 2011). a notable example is found in the jalapão region, where traditional fire use has contributed to conserving wetland ecosystems and enabling the sustainable extraction of golden grass (syngonanthus nitens). this plant is used by local communities—particularly women artisans—to produce handcrafts such as baskets, hats, and decorative items that hold both dantas et al. 2025. ethnobiology letters 16(1):159–175 170 research communications cultural value and economic importance. controlled burns are strategically applied to stimulate the regrowth and flowering of golden grass, ensuring its availability without depleting natural stocks. these findings reinforce the need to reassess fire management policies and formally incorporate controlled burning as a legitimate and effective conservation strategy. the spatial and temporal variability of fire use among different indigenous peoples—recognized as the original inhabitants with distinct cultural identities and traditional communities—such as quilombolas, extractivists, and riverine populations, who also maintain deep-rooted, place-based knowledge systems—highlights the necessity of context-specific fire management strategies. the contrast between fire regimes in the kraholândia indigenous territory and the bororo and xavante indigenous lands illustrates the diverse ecological and cultural factors influencing fire use (abreu et al. 2016; oliveira et al. 2015). this diversity is further evidenced by multiple other indigenous groups engaged in traditional fire management practices across different brazilian biomes—such as the xerente, paresi, irantxe, myky, nambikwara, karajá, tapirapé, kayapó, apinajé, javaé, guarani-kaiowá, terena, kadiwéu, ofayé, kanela, gavião, pankararu, ticuna, tukano, and yanomami—as documented in table 2 of falleiro et al. (2021). this variation necessitates tailored management approaches that consider local ecological conditions, cultural practices, and community needs. for example, in the cerrado, fire is often used cyclically to renew pastures and stimulate native plant regeneration, while in the amazon, fire is more restricted to small-scale clearings for swidden agriculture and spiritual rituals. in the pantanal, fire is used to manage aquatic-grassland interfaces and reduce fuel loads before the dry season. a summary of these regional differences in traditional fire management practices is provided in table 2. despite the ecological and cultural benefits of traditional fire management, its integration into national conservation policies remains insufficient, often due to standardized approaches that overlook local variability. the limited inclusion of indigenous knowledge in fire governance reflects enduring institutional preferences for western scientific paradigms, often at the expense of local ecological expertise (falleiro et al. 2021; mistry et al. 2016). while programs like integrated fire management (ifm) and indigenous fire brigades (brifs) indicate a shift toward more inclusive approaches, structural challenges persist in establishing truly equitable collaborations. the reviewed literature advocates for a paradigm shift in fire management policies that acknowledges fire as an essential component of ecosystem health and resilience, rather than simply as a threat to conservation (fidelis and pivello 2011; pivello 2011). researchers emphasize the importance of participatory approaches that include indigenous and local communities in fire management decisionmaking (carmenta et al. 2018; welch et al. 2013). future research should prioritize developing adaptive management strategies that balance ecological sustainability, cultural heritage, and socio-economic resilience. policymakers must recognize indigenous fire knowledge as a valuable asset and integrate it into broader environmental governance frameworks. the results of this study reaffirm the significance of traditional fire management practices in brazil, demonstrating their role in promoting biodiversity conservation and cultural sustainability. however, achieving a holistic and effective fire governance table 2 regional variations in traditional fire management practices in brazil. region community/group fire use purpose ecological context cerrado quilombola / rural pasture renewal, vegetation fire-adapted savanna with seasonal amazon indigenous (e.g., krahô) swidden agriculture, spiritual humid forest, fire-sensitive pantanal local cattle herders fuel load reduction, aquatic plant wetland biome with fire-flood caatinga smallholder farmers clearing brush, promoting forage semi-arid region with frequent droughts atlantic forest traditional agroextractivist selective burning in restinga or transitional forests humid biome with fragmented fireprone areas dantas et al. 2025. ethnobiology letters 16(1):159–175 171 research communications system requires policy reforms that acknowledge the value of traditional ecological knowledge. by fostering interdisciplinary collaboration and participatory management approaches, brazil can develop fire management strategies that align with both conservation objectives and indigenous rights. embracing traditional fire practices as part of the solution rather than as a problem is essential for ensuring the resilience of both ecosystems and traditional communities in the face of environmental change. conclusion the reviewed literature underscores the critical role of traditional fire management practices in promoting biodiversity conservation and cultural resilience in brazil. these practices, rooted in centuries of ecological knowledge, offer valuable insights for addressing contemporary environmental challenges. however, their integration into formal conservation frameworks requires a shift in policy paradigms, greater recognition of indigenous rights, and collaborative approaches that bridge traditional and scientific knowledge. by embracing these principles, brazil can develop more effective and inclusive strategies for managing fire in its diverse biomes, ensuring the preservation of both ecological and cultural heritage. fire management in brazilian ecosystems is a complex and multifaceted issue that requires differentiated approaches to address the ecological and cultural specificities of each biome. traditional fire management practices, developed over generations by indigenous and local communities, have proven essential for fostering resilient landscapes and conserving biodiversity in regions such as the cerrado. these local knowledge systems provide a robust foundation for developing sustainable management programs, such as integrated fire management (ifm), which seeks to align traditional practices with current conservation needs. however, the implementation of fire management policies in brazil still faces significant barriers, including a lack of interinstitutional coordination and insufficient recognition of traditional practices within legal and governance frameworks. strengthening fire governance in brazil will require confronting historical biases and promoting equitable partnerships between indigenous communities, researchers, and policymakers. recent initiatives such as ifm and brifs offer promising steps in this direction, but their long-term success hinges on the formal recognition of traditional knowledge systems as essential to effective environmental management. finally, sustainable fire management should be understood as a low-cost and effective strategy to address ecological and social challenges. the incorporation of adaptive approaches that account for the characteristics of each biome and local knowledge will enable the creation of more resilient landscapes, contributing to both environmental sustainability and the preservation of traditional cultures in brazil. acknowledgments i would like to express my gratitude for the financial support provided by the “a coordenação de aperfeiçoamento de pessoal de nível superior” – capes (88887.952111/2024-00), which was essential for the completion of this research. declarations permissions: none declared. sources of funding: none declared. conflicts of interest: none declared. references cited anderson, k. 2013. tending the wild: native american knowledge and the management of california’s natural resources. university of california press, berkeley. artaxo, p. 2019. working together for amazonia. science 363:323. doi:10.1126/science.aaw6986. aragão, l. e. o. c., l. o. anderson, m. g. fonseca, t. m. rosan, l. b. vedovato, f. h. wagner, c. v. j. silva, c. h. l. silva junior, e. arai, a. p. aguiar, j. barlow, e. berenguer, m. n. deeter, l. g. domingues, l. gatti, m. gloor, y. malhi, j. a. marengo, j. b. miller, and s. saatchi. 2018. 21st century drought-related fires counteract the decline of amazon 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sovereignty in the brazilian cerrado: the case of two xavante reserves. land use policy 104:104055. doi:10.1016/j.landusepol.2019.104055. the skarù·ręʔ (tuscarora) food forest project—reconciliation in sustainable agriculture research and education through cross-cultural agroforestry demonstration bosco and thomas. 2023. ethnobiology letters 14(2):56–71 56 perspectives special issue on diverse conservations and is in the ancestral homelands of the haudenosaunee confederacy. archaeobotanical and historical ecological evidence demonstrate the presence and cultural use of nut trees since at least 2500 bce in this biocultural landscape (gerard-little 2017, ritchie 1980; schaefer 2011, tulowiecki et al 2020; yarnell 1984). through photosynthetic carbon capture and storage in plant biomass and soils, agroforestry has a global carbon (c) sequestration potential of up to 5.7 gigatons c yr-1 (mbow et al. 2019). as such, it ranks introduction agroforestry is the intentional inclusion of woody perennials within crop and/or livestock systems to meet livelihood and ecological needs. it has long existed globally in landscapes stewarded by indigenous traditional ecological knowledges (fajardo cavalcanti de albuquerque 2020). the subject of this manuscript occurred at the skarù·ręʔ (tuscarora) nation, a federally recognized indian reservation in so -called lewiston, new york (ny), united states (us), the skarù·ręʔ (tuscarora) food forest project—reconciliation in sustainable agriculture research and education through cross-cultural agroforestry demonstration samantha bosco1* and bradley thomas2 1 u.s. forest service, national agroforestry center, ithaca, usa. 2tuscarora (snipe clan). forester, oneida nation of wisconsin, oneida, usa. *sfb42@cornell.edu abstract temperate nut trees have long been utilized in eastern north america, providing high quality food, durable materials, and contributing to multispecies relationships across geographic and cultural landscapes. while not widely consumed today, renewed interest in temperate nuts such as hybrid chestnuts and hazelnuts, are part of efforts to realize nature-based solutions to climate change, which include multifunctional agroforestry systems. indigenous peoples’ contributions to agroforestry and climate resilience are substantial, however sustainable agricultural research often overlooks critical social justice implications underlying the history of colonization in settler nations, including dispossessed land and appropriated indigenous crops. as one of the most nutritionally dense plant-based foods, nuts were important components of haudenosaunee foodways. archaeological, ethnographic, and historical-ecological evidence indicate that the haudenosaunee subsistence and settlement dynamics transformed cultural landscapes favoring such nut trees. the skarù·ręʔ (tuscarora) food forest was a community-based project demonstrating contemporary contributions of nut trees to indigenous food systems in ancestral haudenosaunee territories, today known as new york state. while domesticated crop polycultures (i.e., the three sisters) are iconic of haudenosaunee horticultural ingenuities, temperate nuts are lesserknown woodland foods that can additionally contribute to food and language revitalization efforts within contemporary haudenosaunee territories. here we discuss theories and praxes informing community engaged approaches at the skarù·ręʔ nation. by addressing social justice concerns within agricultural science, we demonstrate how the skarù·ręʔ food forest project can provide a methodological testing ground for reconciliation-based and decolonial participatory action research that expands ongoing food sovereignty, community health, and education initiatives. received august 9, 2022 open access accepted february 7, 2023 doi 10.14237/ebl.14.2.2023.1840 published may 31, 2023 keywords food forests, decolonial participatory action research, knowledge co-production, reconciliation science copyright © 2023 by the author(s); licensee society of ethnobiology. this is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution-noncommercial 4.0 international public license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0), which permits non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. bosco and thomas. 2023. ethnobiology letters 14(2):56–71 57 perspectives special issue on diverse conservations highly amongst nature-based solutions (nbs) to climate change, which together are estimated to deliver 30–40% of global greenhouse gas mitigation by 2030 (arneth et al. 2019; griscom et al. 2017). agroforestry also enhances ecosystem services, biodiversity, and sustainable food production (munsell and chamberlain 2019). despite accounting for 4% of the global population, indigenous peoples currently manage, own, and/or steward 40% of critical protected areas worldwide and 22% of tropical and subtropical carbon resources (garnett et al. 2018; frechette et al. 2018). recognition of indigenous contributions to nbs and climate resilience were outlined in the paris climate agreement (united nations 2015), the ipcc special report on climate change and land (arneth et al. 2019), and elsewhere (townsend, moola, and craig 2020). however, claims that agroforestry (and nbs) can contribute to transformational change often fail to consider aspects of social justice, colonization, and sovereignty. for example, it has been argued that scaling-up the extent of agroforestry to help global agroecosystems align with sustainable development goals needs to critically support resurgent indigenous governance (artelle et al. 2019), transdisciplinary action-research for multifunctional forestry (ojha et al. 2019), inclusive knowledge co-production discursive to settler colonial human-nature divides (woroniecki et al. 2020), and account for limitations in the nbs approach. reconciliatory & community engaged research in the haudenosaunee context the united nations declaration on the rights of indigenous peoples (undrip), detailing the freedoms and human rights standards entitled to indigenous peoples worldwide, recognizes treaties as the basis for strengthening relationships between indigenous and state entities and asserts the state’s responsibility for providing public education therein for its non-indigenous citizens (un general assembly 2007). in 2015, the truth and reconciliation commission (trc) of canada not only bolstered undrip’s assertions regarding the central role of education (truth and reconciliation commission of canada 2015:298–290), but also highlighted the role of cross-cultural research partnerships as “vital to reconciliation” (ibid. 293). while social science and humanities disciplines were particularly called in by trc, natural and physical sciences have often been central in colonial conquests of land and the subjugation of indigenous peoples (smith 2012). on the other hand, indigenous peoples not only have made numerous contributions to scientific disciplines but can also help advance shared goals and objectives regarding environmental sustainability (turner, cuerrier, and joseph 2022). given the fraught history and political implications of land, biodiversity, and ecosystem research, natural scientists need a heightened awareness of how their work does, or does not, contribute to reconciliation (dawson et al. 2021; wong et al. 2020). the skarù·ręʔ food forest project (sffp) is a collaboration between a non-indigenous cornell university (cu) phd graduate (samantha bosco, phd ’22, horticulture) and skarù·ręʔ (tuscarora nation) members. the project was a component of bosco’s dissertation research about the past, present, and future contributions of temperature nut trees to haudenosaunee food sovereignty and climate smart agriculture in new york state (bosco 2022 forthcoming; bosco and thomas 2019). emerging in the contemporary us context, where states and institutions have shown much greater inertia to undrip, this project sought to enact anti-oppressive praxes called for in the declaration and elsewhere in critical indigenous literature. “land education” (tuck, mckenzie, and mccoy 2014)— placed-based indigenous futurities as an intervention to settler colonial assumptions in education—and “decolonial participatory action research (dpar) (tuck and guishard 2013)—centering indigenous relationality and protocols when conducting community-based research with indigenous peoples—broadly informed sffp. as a cross-cultural collaboration, the kaswentha (two row wampum, or covenant chain treaty) was centered to ensure that haudenosaunee treaty rights, cultural identity, values, and traditional knowledge were respected (ransom and ettenger 2001). the two row wampum has also been used as a guiding framework for cross-cultural authorship (hill and coleman 2019) and following this philosophy, this paper was primarily authored by samantha bosco with contributions from bradley thomas (skarù·ręʔ; snipe clan). skarù·ręʔ are one of six sovereign indigenous nations comprising the haudenosaunee confederacy in the united states (figure 1), whose territories, customary laws, and governance structures, precedes the establishment of cu, new york, and the united states by millennia. cornell university was established bosco and thomas. 2023. ethnobiology letters 14(2):56–71 58 perspectives special issue on diverse conservations through the 1862 land grant under the morrill act of 1862, enabling the sale of nearly one million acres of stolen indigenous land (lee and ahtone 2020). the smith lever act of 1914 mobilized a national cooperative extension service (referred to as simply “extension”) that extended outreach programming of land grant institutions through county-based association offices— expanding and entrenching settler agriculture agendas throughout the state. the ithaca, ny-based campus presently resides on the ancestral territory of the gayogo̱hó꞉nǫ’ (cayuga nation); the university owns and operates several thousands of acres across the haudenosaunee homelands and beyond (jordan 2022). cornell’s academic horticulture program, within the college of agriculture and life sciences (cals), has been central to the land grant charter since its establishment and has achieved global eminence in agriculture research and education today. an official response, list of demands, and further analysis related to the “land-grab universities” report is maintained by the american indian and indigenous studies program (aiisp) at cu (ibid.). aiisp is administratively based in cals and officially began in 1983 (then the american indian program; american indian and indigenous studies program 2022). it was sparked by indigenous student activism a decade earlier finding that cu’s negligence in actively recruiting indigenous students was in violation of the 1964 civil rights act. today, over 400 indigenous undergraduate and graduate students are affiliated with aiisp, with one of the highest figure 1 archaeologically and historically documented locations of the haudenosaunee confederacy and other northern iroquoian nations (reproduced from birch and hart 2018). the approximate location of cornell university is indicated by a red star () and the approximate location of the tuscarora federal indian reservation is indicated by a purple star (). bosco and thomas. 2023. ethnobiology letters 14(2):56–71 59 perspectives special issue on diverse conservations indigenous student retention rates in the us. dr. professor emeritus jane mt. pleasant (tuscarora), who was bosco’s phd committee chair until her retirement in 2018, served as the aiisp director from 1995–1999 and 2002–2008, and advised bosco during the initiation of sffp. professor jolene rickard (skarù·ręʔ, turtle clan), served as aiisp director from 2011–2019 and in 2017 invited bosco to the tuscarora reservation to discuss sffp with tuscarora title holders. professor kurt jordan serves as the current aiisp director and was also on bosco’s phd committee advising her graduate minor in american indian and indigenous studies. acknowledging the deeply rooted colonial histories of the university and new york state, and as a student benefiting from this, sffp sought to collaboratively center haudenosaunee people and perspectives to: (1) interrupt ongoing silence and apathy of this settler colonial legacy within cu, and (2) offer an example of agriculture research and education that integrates social justice aspects of sustainability (klinsky et al. 2016). many new yorkers (and us citizens) assume haudenosaunee peoples are remnants of the past and no longer present in the region. in fact, haudenosaunee are vigorously rebuilding and expanding their communities across new york and canada (simpson 2014). along with language revitalization, direct actions, self-governance, and economic development, many communities are highlighting the importance of food (adams 2020; delormier et al. 2017; mt. pleasant 2016) and forests (francis 2019). indigenous food sovereignty (ifs) is the expansion of political rights discourse and action around food production and consumption to include indigenous cultural, social, and governance resurgence (grey and patel 2014). further, ifs accounts for the interdependent relationships between indigenous peoples, the places of their territories, and the sacred responsibilities that give rise to the enactments of particular practices (martens et al. 2016). haudenosaunee food sovereignty in a nutshell intercropped annual plants including maize (zea mays), beans (phaseolus vulgaris), squash (curcubita pepo)— collectively referred to as the “three sisters”—as well as sunflower (helianthus annuus) are foundational to haudenosaunee food sovereignty as well as to the food sovereignty of their iroquoian speaking neighbors in territories north of haudenosaunee homelands (see schillaci et al. 2017 for a spatiotemporal review of iroquoian languages) and their anishinaabe neighbors in the upper great lakes region. this cropping system was decisively important to the regional size and political strength of the haudenosaunee leading up to colonial invasion (mt. pleasant and burt 2010). these plants’ role in haudenosaunee cosmology further underscore deep cultural and ontological ties (adams 2020). by 1300 ce, archaeological evidence suggests that haudenosaunee and other northern iroquoian peoples established agriculturally based villages that were relocated in cycles lasting up to 40 years (birch et al. 2021) forming landscape relationships beyond the cleared fields and into forests edges. trees are important parts of haudenosaunee biocultural lifeand foodways. for example, black ash (fraxinus nigra) was and is commonly used for constructing baskets (francis 2019), shagbark hickory (caya ovata) is prized for dehoñtjihgwa’és (lacrosse) sticks and hunting bows, while red oak (quercus rubra), white cedar (thuja occidentalis), and american elm (ulmus americana) were used for longhouse construction (gerard-little 2017). trees also offer important teachings in haudenosaunee ontology, axiology, and relationality. depending on the orator, the thanksgiving address/words that come before all else may include references to white pine (pinus strobus) as the tree of peace—symbolizing the 1,000-year-old teachings of the peacemaker that formed the haudenosaunee confederacy—and how sugar maple (acer saccharum) sap flow marks the beginning of the yearly cycle of ceremonies (dolan 2016; francis 2019). ethnohistoric accounts of nuts in haudenosaunee food and medicine are well documented (parker 1910; waugh 1916). forest clearing for domestic centers and agricultural fields, wood harvesting for infrastructure and firewood, and forest management for the maintenance of vital plant and animal communities resulted in long lasting changes to individual species and forest communities at distances of 5–15 km from village centers, detectable even centuries later (fulton and yansa 2020; gerard-little 2017). for example, the presence of black walnut (juglans nigra) in association with haudenosaunee settlement and village sites well outside its so-called natural range offers compelling evidence that the species was at least managed and to some extent cultivated and/or transplanted (coladonato 1991; wykoff, 1991). recent spatial models of late pre-colonial seneca, bosco and thomas. 2023. ethnobiology letters 14(2):56–71 60 perspectives special issue on diverse conservations cayuga, and onondaga homelands (western and central ny) demonstrates that hyper-dominance of fire-adapted mast taxa (including oak, hickory, walnut, and chestnut species) in 18th century land surveys, again indicating an association between species distribution and recursive practices of haudenosaunee subsistence and settlement (fulton and yansa 2020). haudenosaunee settlement establishment and subsequent village relocations were importantly cradled and deeply nourished by dynamic relationships with ethnoforests rich in nuts and other wild foods. by the 18th century, haudenosaunee communities had selectively adopted european fruit trees into the food systems, including the tending and orcharding of native plums (prunus americana) and nonnative domesticated apples (malus domestica [suckow] borkh) and peaches (prunus persica var. persica), which were brought to the western hemisphere by europeans but also acquired through inter-indigenous trade (kerrigan 2008). during the revolutionary war, american forces targeted british-allied haudenosaunee nations, burning thousands of acres of maize and fruit orchards during the scorched earth sullivan campaign of 1779. haudenosaunee–us relations continued to decline into the 19th century. treaties with the now united states promised less and less land for the nations of the haudenosaunee confederacy. residents of the newly formed new york state, aided by transportation projects such as the building of the erie canal, moved aggressively to settle newly dispossessed land that had been vacated through violence and bribery (hauptman 1999; palmer 2020). the contemporary tuscarora reservation is located in the historic holland land company, morris reserve, and phelps and gorham purchases (tulowiecki, robertson, and larsen 2020), which wrested 3 million acres from haudenosaunee sovereignty, leaving only 56,550 acres in federally recognized reservation lands. throughout the mid-19th and early 20th century, life confined to the reservations was further under attack with attempts to culturally assimilate haudenosaunee youth and disrupt indigenous family systems through residential schools operated by state and religious organizations, in some cases operating well into the 20th century (nichols 2006; palmer 2020; tiro 2006). by the first half of the 20th century, the effects of us indian termination policies, political meddling by ny , and the ongoing effects of reservation life forced haudenosaunee communities into destitute conditions, with some nations extirpated to other us states or across the us-canada international border. continued expansion of us federal and ny state development projects, such as the kinzua dam, the niagara falls “tuscarora reservoir”, and the st. lawrence seaway further eroded the land bases of haudenosaunee territories, even affecting federally recognized reservations (hauptman 1986). despite centuries of occupation by colonists and settlers, almost complete loss of languages and cultural traditions, denial of sovereignty, and the systematic dispossession of over 99% of their traditional land, the haudenosaunee have maintained important components of their traditional food ways. today, haudenosaunee-led initiatives are actively seeking to restore traditional foods to their diets and multiple food-focused initiatives are active across haudenosaunee territories including: iroquois white corn project (friends of ganondagan 2015); oneida community integrated food systems (oneida tribe of indians of wisconsin 2017); kanien'kehá:ka (mohawk nation) akwesasne community food assessment (saint regis mohawk tribe 2016) and efforts in kahnawà:ke (delormier et al. 2017); six nations healthy roots (de souza et al. 2021); seneca nation of indians gakwi:yo:h farm (pietrorazio 2021); gayogo̱hó꞉nǫ’ (“cayuga share farm” 2022; forstadt 2021); and seed saving and rematriation at the onondaga nation farm (lisjak 2018). while traditional corn is often the focus, relationships with forests and particular tree taxa— indigenous agroforestry— are a less prominent dimension of haudenosaunee ifs. attention to temperate nut trees, either currently in forests or intentionally planted, can further expand ongoing food sovereignty initiatives, add to language revitalization efforts, and greatly contribute to indigenous well-being in the face colonial interruptions to indigenous food ways (dennis and robin 2020). many haudenosaunee currently gather nuts or remember their parents and grandparents collecting nuts for home consumption. community members have identified nuts as a significant source of healthy fats, important for people with diabetes, which are limited due to the contamination of local freshwater fish by industrial pollution in their territories (personal communication, jolene rickard; skarù·ręʔ, turtle clan). skarù·ręʔ nation history — by bradley thomas bosco and thomas. 2023. ethnobiology letters 14(2):56–71 61 perspectives special issue on diverse conservations “we were burned down three times and are still here today!” – wendy bissell before colonization, tuscarora people or skarù·ręʔ lived in what is now called north carolina, in the areas ranging from the roanoke, neuse, taw and pamlico rivers. much of our historical diet came from living within these systems which had rich agriculture soils, prime fishing water, and forests to hunt and a variety of areas to collect medicine. archaeological evidence found tree crops such as oak acorns and hickory nuts in middens that prove agroforestry has been a tuscarora custom for centuries. in our entire history we relied on the forest as a source of food and tended to settle in places with a high number of nut producing trees. in 1713, we were burned down for the first time in the events that followed the tuscarora war and the battle of neyuherú·kę. the survivors were welcomed by the haudenosaunee and stayed in oneida territory along the susquehanna river near modern day brisbane ny. the area was flush with everything that was familiar to us, and we were able to provide for ourselves but unfortunately only a couple of generations enjoyed this area until the sullivan campaign in 1789. we were gifted land from the seneca for the current territory in niagara county, ny within the niagara river watershed, with good soil to plant and “great quantities of butternuts and walnuts and a nice stream (johnson 2006:34)”. despite continual encroachment from new york state, there are many of the 1100 tuscaroras who still carry on the agricultural traditions on the remaining 24 km2 territory. tuscarora, at one point, was home to successful fruit orchards and tuscarora white corn is still planted and harvested every year. in recent history, there has been a resurgence of tuscaroras returning to our original way of life and a need to regain food sovereignty through our traditional diet. skarù·ręʔ food forest is one initiative that has helped tuscarora people of all ages begin to realize the importance and relevance of forest food crops. skarù·ręʔ food forest project — by samantha bosco project overview skarù·ręʔ food forest project was developed and conducted in three phases from 2016–2021. these phases were modeled after the akwesasne good research model (akwesasne task force on the environment research advisory committee 1996, figs. 1, 2), discussed further below. phase 1 consisted of project development based on literature review, presentation to skarù·ręʔ for approval, and then following approval, articulated in grant proposals for project funding. once initial funding was secured, institutional review board (irb) approval was applied for and granted, and phase 2 consisted of a two-year period of relationship building between bosco and skarù·ręʔ in advance of project implementation. phase 3 included planning and conducting a three-part workshop series in collaboration with hired and volunteer skarù·ręʔ community partners, as well as the co-compilation of a sffp booklet and the co-authorship of this publication. as an outsider-researcher and guest at skarù·ręʔ, i often felt a tension between the imperative to collect data and the desire to build genuine relationships. this tension was informed by personal observations during phase 2 that skarù·ręʔ peoples seemed less interested in filling out forms, being recorded, or being formally (or semi-formally) interviewed. in recognizing their right to refusal (simpson 2014; tuck and yang 2014), i made a conscious effort to prioritize relationship building at the expense of formal data collection. one result of this is that i now refer to this as a community-based “project”, rather than “research”. methods for allied and reconciliatory approaches in sustainable agriculture projects when i began developing my dissertation research in august 2016, i was interested in focusing on temperate nut trees to advance both agroforestry research in ny and, in recognition of ny and cu’s ongoing role in haudenosaunee dispossession (lee and ahtone 2020), contribute to reconciliatory and reciprocal practices as an allied researcher and educator in sustainable agriculture (more recently articulated by wong et al 2020). there were no similar past or present projects at cu to draw on, however, i was fortunate that my faculty advisor, dr. jane mt pleasant (skarù·ręʔ)— was a (the only) haudenosaunee (tuscarora) agronomist at cu. she connected me with the american indian and indigenous studies program (aiisp) graduate minor where i began engaging with decolonial discourse (smith 2012, wilson 2006), traditional ecological knowledges (escobar 2008; kimmerer 2013), critical indigenous and place-based studies (betasamosake simpson 2014; calderon 2014; furman and gruenewald 2004; tuck and gaztambide-fernández 2013; tuck, mckenzie, and mccoy 2014), and decolonial participatory action bosco and thomas. 2023. ethnobiology letters 14(2):56–71 62 perspectives special issue on diverse conservations research (tuck 2009; tuck and guishard 2013). the sffp sought to exemplify a collaborative, community -based, and action-science project that demonstrated the indigenous roots and future of agroforestry— something that had never been done in the history of cu. haudenosaunee historical (hauptman 1999; 1986) and emic perspectives (akwesasne task force on the environment research advisory committee 1996; benedict 2004; committee research advisory 2000; holmes, lickers, and barkley 2002; lickers, n.d.; ransom and ettenger 2001; story and lickers 1997; tarball and arquette 2000) were most critical in informing this project. the akwesasne mohawk “good research agreement” (figure 2), while not specific to skarù·ręʔ, was the best approximation for cross-cultural collaborations in haudenosaunee territories. i used this model to guide how the sffp was developed, implemented, and assessed. phase 1: skennen (peace) included the literature review described above, as well as a pitch to skarù·ręʔ title holders from several clans in late 2016, describing the ways in which nut trees could help expand food sovereignty efforts delivered. the idea for the project was accepted, and during 2017 and 2018, the project entered phase 2: kariwiio (good mind). i focused on relationship building and familiarity at the reservation by providing interactive and educational table displays focusing on nut trees and foods at the annual tuscarora history day and the tuscarora community fair. during this time, dr. mt pleasant and i wrote a federal grant proposal specifically detailing funding for this project, including funding for a tuscarora community partner (tcp), which we budgeted at $20/hour for 20 hours/week over three years. the grant was awarded in late 2017, and in early 2018 the project welcomed mia mckie (turtle clan) as tcp and phase 3: kasastensera (strength) began. together we co-designed a three-part workshop series that took place between august 2018–june 2019 (figure 3). while mia began her doctoral studies in fall 2018 and stepped away from the project, vince schiffert (turtle clan), teacher at both the nation’s elementary school and the settler niagara-wheatfield middle school, became a significant volunteer and collaborator through the duration of the project. bradley thomas (snipe clan) was hired as the tcp in early 2019 through the duration of the project. project outcomes part i—tree walk and talk. on 3 august 2018, bosco and mckie facilitated a sixhour introductory workshop for which mckie designed the flier (figure 3a), advertised through word of mouth and posting at the nation building. the first half of the workshop included a walking tour of a nearby and commonly used grove of trees where participants engaged in dialogue about tree identification, botanical uses, and personal stories— focusing primarily on nut tree species (figure 3b). the second half of the event included a provided lunch while i presented the scope of the sffp, highlighting the intersections of food sovereignty, community health, and youth education. we provided some participatory hickory nut tea making opportunities (figure 3c) and textual information about nut tree ecology and production. over 20 skarù·ręʔ nation members whose ages ranged from 5 –95 participated (figure 3d). here, voluntary media release consent forms were presented and signed by consenting participants. at the end, attendees of this event were given the opportunity to sign up to receive native fruit and nut tree seedlings in the following spring at part iii of the series. part ii—nut processing workshop. figure 2 the akwesasne “good research model” schematic, principles, and tools (reproduced from akwesasne task force on the environment research advisory committee 1996; figs. 1, 2). bosco and thomas. 2023. ethnobiology letters 14(2):56–71 63 perspectives special issue on diverse conservations vince schiffert and i collaborated on advertisement design, with vince bringing the skarù·ręʔ word for nuts (figure 4a). vince helped advertise the event through word of mouth. on 16 december 2018, 12 participants gathered in the skarù·ręʔ nation house’s community room for a six-hour interactive and communal nut processing and cooking workshop, with lunch was provided. schiffert, other nation members, and i, brought nuts collected from that season including black walnuts (juglans nigra), various hickories (carya spp.), and chinese chestnuts (castanea mollissima). we split into groups and worked together cracking and sorting nuts. one elder nation member even brought his own custom-welded drill-powered nutcracker (figure 4b), which proficiently assisted black walnut processing. through social network figure 3 skarù·ręʔ food forest project. part i: initial nut tree walk and talk flier (a) and pictures (b – d). photo credits: samantha bosco and waylon wilson (skarù·ręʔ). figure 4 skarù·ręʔ food forest project workshop series part 2: nut processing flier (a) and pictures. (b–d). photo credits: samantha bosco and bradley thomas. bosco and thomas. 2023. ethnobiology letters 14(2):56–71 64 perspectives special issue on diverse conservations promotion, traditional mohawk seedkeeper, terrylynn brant, who operates the mohawk seedkeeper network at the six nation territory in ontario canada, made a surprised and welcomed visit (figure 4c). we made a variety of traditional and modern skarù·ręʔ recipes, including nu:yah cookies (figure 4d), hickory nut “milk”, and chestnut-corn mush. vince and i both compiled printed resources of nut processing recipes, journal articles, fact sheets, and haudenosaunee stories about nuts, which were bound in three ring binders and gifted to participants. part iii—seedling giveaway and planting. by this phase of the project in 2019, bradley thomas had been hired as community partner. during the winter, we generated further interest in the project through a sffp facebook group that brad created and made short posts about significant native food trees. we collaborated on the event flier (figure 5a) to share in our facebook group and contacted the nation members that signed up for trees during part i. over 300 fruit, nut, and medicine plants were brought from the greater ithaca area to the skarù·ręʔ nation on 25 may 2019 (figure 5b). i grew roughly one-third of the plants using cu greenhouses, with the remainder provided by donation from local permaculture nurseries and farms. nation members who had signed up for trees during part i and other nation members who saw the social media post collected their order. what was not taken was then planted on nation school grounds and included chestnuts, pecans, elderberries, raspberries, and a variety of medicinal and culinary herbs (figure 5c). additional events based on the success of the previous three workshops, a second nut processing workshop was held 15 december 2019, which expanded the repertoire of nut processed to also include acorns as well as supplies for nut-themed arts and crafts. owners of the tuscarora woodworks business (www.tuscarorawoodworks.com) made custom shirts for the event with the skarù·ręʔ language word, nwęhrarúhčręh, meaning “we gather nuts”, and black walnut husks were used to tie-dye the shirts. a second plant giveaway and school planting on 1 april 2021 transferred nearly 200 plants to nation members and bolstered existing plantings at the nation school. challenges two major challenges i encountered were project relevance to life at skarù·ręʔ and the longevity or continuance of interest in nut trees beyond the project timeline. while haudenosaunee food sovereignty efforts are primarily focused on three sisters cultivation, the sffp sought to expand this work to figure 5 skarù·ręʔ food forest project workshop series part iii: seedling give away and food forest planting flier (a) and photos (b, c). photo credits: samantha bosco. bosco and thomas. 2023. ethnobiology letters 14(2):56–71 65 perspectives special issue on diverse conservations also include nut trees. in haudenosaunee cosmology, nut trees do not share the same revered status that the three sisters and other plants do (e.g., white pine [tree of peace], maple tree [leader of the trees]). engaging skarù·ręʔ people’s interest required drawing on less well-known haudenosaunee–forest relationships and appealing to the nutritional benefits of consuming nuts (barbour et al. 2014; chen, wan, and qin 2016; zhou et al. 2014). globally, nut consumption falls below dietary recommendations due to misinformation about healthy fat content in nuts and high price of purchasing nuts, among other reasons (neale, tran, and brown 2020). educational and economic inequities are likely more pronounced on federal indian reserves, such as skarù·ręʔ, following centuries of attempted genocide and forced assimilation, obscuring even older histories of indigenous-forest relationships. being of settler descendance, i had to ensure that the sffp was inclusive, expansive, and in service to existing skarù·ręʔ foodways—not proselytizing or replacing them with a myopic interest in nut trees. though sffp was grounded in historically documented foodways that are the heritage of skarù·ręʔ and haudenosaunee peoples, it did not seem to be ‘top of mind’ regarding important land use projects. this engages the meta-question: what is the relationship of indigenous food projects to the larger political project of ifs if they are stimulated and carried by outsider entities? in reflection of this, sffp occupied somewhat of an in-between place: it resonated with the interests of particular individuals (younger and elder) at skarù·ręʔ but was predicated on, and needed, my (outsider) input to take shape. in sum, sffp was aspirationally decolonial: it substantively demonstrated anti-oppressive education and research praxes, rather than materially contributing to resurgent enactments of sovereignty. transforming such allied research into more subversive “action” and “activist” moieties requires much longer, deeper, and professionally riskier social contracts (armstrong and mcalvay 2019). examples of how the related ethnobiology and archaeology fields can and have interrupted settler colonial encroachments can be found in the journal of ethnobiology special issue on action ethnobiology (ibid.). the question of project impact longevity is a tough nut to crack (pun intended), especially when based on the ephemeral nature of grant cycles and student tenure. when mia parted ways to begin her doctoral studies, she offered pointed feedback that i still reflect on, “even though sam was able to come to tuscarora and participate in the community fair and history conferences over the course of two years, was this enough to establish ethical and reciprocal relationships? the short answer is no. in order to break this (still in use) model, sam committed to longer engagement with the community over the course of this project, that doesn’t always work in [her] own best interest. which brings us back to the question of reciprocity and the undeniable necessity to bring something to the table when conducting research. both parties are engaging in an exchange, however for many researchers once their “interests” shift or a site becomes unproductive, these relationships are ultimately dismissed or forgotten.” while the plants we planted and gave away may live on for decades, mia’s critique will serve as a touchstone for evaluating this and other projects into the future. collecting and measuring specific project outcomes was deemphasized to reduce transactionbased relations in favor organic and relational approaches. thus, it is difficult to objectively assess the success of the sffp. however, by the end of the project, nearly 500 plants (valued at approximately $5000) found new homes at skarù·ręʔ, a living compendium of culturally relevant nut resources was compiled and distributed, program activities expanded food sovereignty conversations amongst a wide audience, accommodated various levels of participation, and enriched the territory with edible and medicine plants. furthermore, nation members experienced culturally relevant forest foods and new relationships were built on shared interests in how nuts contribute to food sovereignty, community health, and youth education. brad thomas offered this in reflection of our work together: “you have at least started a conversation of contemporary agroforestry amongst groups of people on the rez so i would call that a success”. conclusion the skarù·ręʔ food forest project is an example of cross-cultural, interdisciplinary, and community-based bosco and thomas. 2023. ethnobiology letters 14(2):56–71 66 perspectives special issue on diverse conservations research intentionally designed to center indigenous ingenuities and futures. based on upholding treaty relationships (kaswentha) and principles of reconciliation, the project prioritized reciprocal relationships over data extraction. we focused on temperate nut trees as ecologically prevalent plants that provide nutritive crops and have been an integral part of haudenosaunee land management spanning several millennia. this type of project is atypical of cornell university research and required specific attention to notions of justice inherent to sustainable agriculture. the sffp found its success in stepping away from traditional research protocols and instead focused on community-based education, hands-on projects, and knowledge co-creation. projects and relationships such as those demonstrated by the sffp may be better suited for the cornell cooperative extension (cce) system, which are county-based associations that focus on community work. one benefit of cce is that staff often maintain long term employment, which better serves lasting relationship building. however, cce, as part of the cornell university land grant system, needs to overcome the institutional values, rules, and knowledge inherited from cu’s “land grab” legacy. calls for reimagining extension have been raised elsewhere (peters, 2014) and highlight extension’s community-oriented, democratic, and nature-based origins (ostrom, 2020) as facultative to larger social transformations through agroforestry and nbs. attending to the equity outcomes of transformative change requires reckoning and repairing the origins of cu and cce as beneficiaries of indigenous dispossession and actively cultivate social justice as integral to nbs approaches (nightingale, 2017; seddon et al., 2021; townsend et al., 2020). liberation extension (copeland, 2022) is an emerging framework that re-envisions extension away from neutrality and toward facilitating collective responsibility for just and sustainable responses to emerging and urgent problems. within agriculture, liberation extension not only supports agroforestry and nbs land management, but also climate resilience and food sovereignty efforts. given cornell’s history as an institution built on anti-indigenous settler colonialism and the indigenous roots of nut tree integrated afs, we recommend that liberation extension, in what is today ny, specifically attend to indigenous food sovereignty. indigenous led and allied conservation efforts demonstrate enormous potential in aligning conservation and sovereignty goals, thus making progress on nbs that enhance justice. the sffp was an example of the kinds of methods, relationship building, and outcomes that engendered cross-cultural collaborations specifically in the skarù·ręʔ/haudenosaunee context. acknowledgments special thank you to dr. jane mt pleasant for your guidance and mentorship which helped initiate this project. thank you to lena rickard (skarù·ręʔ, turtle clan mother), dr. jolene rickard (skarù·ręʔ, turtle clan), and tim mckie (skarù·ręʔ, deer clan) for welcoming me to the tuscarora reservation and offering consent and interest in the sffp. thank you to mia mckie (skarù·ręʔ, turtle clan), for your pivotal contributions and useful critiques as the first community partner. thank you, waylon wilson (skarù·ręʔ, deer clan), for helping to inform, organize and take pictures for part i of sffp. thank you, anni ditto (skarù·ręʔ), for welcoming me into your summer school classes and teaching me about working with tuscarora youth. many thanks to vince schiffert (skarù·ręʔ, turtle clan) for all your support and enthusiasm throughout the entirety of the sffp, it would not have been possible without you! declarations permissions: the skarù·ręʔ food forest project was granted exemption from cornell university irb review (protocol id#: 1705007154) and was approved according to cornell irb policy #2 and under paragraph(s) 2 of the department of health and human services code of federal regulations 45cfr 46.101(b). sources of funding: funding for this work was made possible by usda-nifa smith lever and mcintyre stennis grant #1014031, the cornell university american indian and indigenous studies program, and the phipps conservatory botany in action fellowship. many additional thanks to edible acres, ort family farm, and wellspring forest farm for donating additional plants. conflicts of interest: none declared. references cited adams, a. m. 2020. yotsi’tsishon and the language of the seed in the haudenosaunee story of earth’s creation. english language notes 58(1):111–131. doi:10.1215/00138282-8237454. bosco and thomas. 2023. ethnobiology letters 14(2):56–71 67 perspectives special issue on diverse conservations akwesasne task force on the environment research advisory committee. 1996. protocol for review of environmental and scientific research proposals. hogansburg, ny. american indian and indigenous studies program. 2022. history [web page]. 2022. https:// cals.cornell.edu/american-indian-indigenousstudies/about/history. accessed on january 5, 2023. armstrong, c. g., and a. c. mcalvay. 2019. introduction to special section on action ethnobiology. journal of 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consumption in relation to cardiovascular disease risk and type 2 diabetes: a systematic review and meta-analysis of prospective studies. american journal of clinical nutrition 100(1):270–277. doi:10.3945/ajcn.113.079152. ethnobotanical study of wild-edible plants in simada district, south gondar zone, amhara region, ethiopia wassie. 2024. ethnobiology letters 15(1):79–96 79 research communications consumption is more prevalent in communities experiencing food insecurity (teklehaymanot and giday 2010). this study seeks to compile data on weps that are used as food in simada district, along with information on indigenous knowledge and threats related to these species. based on previous fieldwork and pilot surveys, the simada district is a food insecurity area in the amhara region. the indigenous population frequently eats weps in periods of famine as well as during normal times. this practice not only helps with food shortages during droughts and other emergencies but also keeps many people safe in developing nations (getu et al. 2015). therefore, it is necessary for agronomists, planners, extension agents, aid workers, genetic resource specialists, and others to learn about the function of weps and document indigenous knowledge in farming systems generally and in local economies specifically. furthermore, the study's findings may be helpful to relevant introduction in numerous parts of the world, people frequently use wild edible plant (wep) species as their main source of nutrition, especially during times of famine and seasonal food scarcity (asfaw et al. 2023). weps play a significant role in the long history of human adaptation to natural habitats, social interactions with nature, and environmental conditions, and many people around the world depend on them for food (tao 2020). ethiopia has a diverse geography and many native plant species. approximately 6,000 plant species are endemic (hedberg et al. 2009). there are several weps in the nation's marshes, grasslands, and riverine environments (asfaw 2009). ethiopia also possesses a wide range of indigenous knowledge connected to its abundant biodiversity (tizita 2016). many communities throughout ethiopia regularly consume edible wild plants as part of their diet (balemie and kibebew 2016), and wild food ethnobotanical study of wild-edible plants in simada district, south gondar zone, amhara region, ethiopia kindye belaye wassie1* 1department of plant science, college of agriculture and environmental sciences, bahir dar university, bahir dar, ethiopia. *belayekindye@gmail.com abstract this study was conducted in the simada district, south gondar zone, ethiopia, to investigate the ethnobotanical properties of wild edible plant species. ethnobotanical data were collected through individual interviews, focus group discussions, guided field walks, and semi-structured questionnaires at markets. the data were analyzed using microsoft excel and spss version 29.0.2.0. data were further verified using preference ranking, direct matrix ranking, and informant consensus with buyers, sellers, cooks, and elderly users. a total of 45 edible wild plants from various families were recorded in this investigation. among the identified wild edible plants, fruit was the most used part (60%), followed by leaves (13%). most (82%) of the wild edible plants in the study area were consumed raw. there was a significant difference in the number of wild edible plants reported by different informant groups (p<0.05). opuntia ficus indica was the most frequently used wild edible plant, reported by 69.6% of respondents. simada district has abundant wild edible plants that poor residents consume and sell to supplement their needs. strengthening conservation, value addition, and market linking methods will improve local livelihoods and promote sustainable wild edible plant resources management. received april 30, 2024 open access accepted october 1, 2024 doi 10.14237/ebl.15.1.2024.1889 published december 26, 2024 keywords food insecurity, threats, indigenous knowledge, useful plants, key informants copyright © 2024 by the author(s); licensee society of ethnobiology. this is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution-noncommercial 4.0 international public license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0), which permits non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. wassie. 2024. ethnobiology letters 15(1):79–96 80 research communications organizations in creating suitable managerial interventions. methods study location the study was conducted in simada district, south gondar zone, and amhara regional state, ethiopia (figure 1). simada is characterized by its semiarid terrain and frequent drought conditions (figure 2; masresha et al. 2023). the amount and type of vegetation vary depending on the agro-ecological zone: shrubs are more prevalent in low-lying agroecological zones than in mid and highland agroecological zones (swingland 2013). the types of vegetation in the area include scattered trees and shrubs (tebikew 2009). however, the area covered by plant species is very small due to deforestation, and remnants of natural forests are found around churches (tebikew 2009). the geographical framework of the simada district is characterized by valleys (10%), hills (20%), plateaus (20%), slopes (40%), and other areas (10%). its altitude varies from 1500 to 4000 meters above sea level. design of sampling and study site five research sites (yekuasa, zefafit, kachena, warkaye, and wefegie mariam kebeles) were selected from 24 administrative kebeles based on the availability of weps and key informants (martin 1995). a pilot survey was conducted from september 1 to 30, 2022, to investigate the research area, and data collection via an ethnobotanical survey of weps was conducted from october 1 to february 30, 2022. in accordance with earlier studies (martin 1995), 80 general informants (16 from each kebeles) were chosen randomly using a lottery method from a list of kebele inhabitants. thirty-five key informants (seven from each kebele) were purposively selected from the five kebeles with the recommendation of administrators and elders based on deep traditional knowledge of wild edible plants, individuals who have extensive hands-on experience foraging or using wild plants in cooking or medicine and informants involved in community gatherings, workshops, or educational programs related to foraging and wild food are valuable. figure 1 map of the study area (developed in arcmap 10.3). wassie. 2024. ethnobiology letters 15(1):79–96 81 research communications ethnobotanical data collection ethnobotanical data was collected through semistructured interviews with all 115 general informants and knowledgeable elders using a prepared interview guide (alexiades 1996; cotton 1996; cunningham 2001; martin 1995) to collect data on human interactions with weps (figure 3). other interviews were conducted while the participants walked around the area where the plant of interest was located. during guided field walks, specimens of weps were collected for identification (figure 3). seven informants selected from each of the five kebeles (35 total) participated in focus group discussions. the research team convened focus groups including agriculture experts, health professionals, and farmers with detailed plant knowledge to discuss herbarium samples, pictures, and published plant descriptions. focus group discussions were held before and during ethnobotanical data collection. these analyses were carried out at designated times at each location with wep sellers, buyers, collectors, and other knowledgeable members. participants were asked to list the plant species most figure 2 simada district (2100-meter elevation) climatogram for 2012–2022 (data source: national meteorological agency from 2012–2022). figure 3 wild edible plant collection and identification with informants in the study area, photograph taken by kindye belaye wassie (2022). wassie. 2024. ethnobiology letters 15(1):79–96 82 research communications favored and most used by the community in their kebeles to select commonly used weps (martin 1995) (figure 3). market surveys were conducted in five local markets at the study sites and the segno gebya, wogeda, areda gebya, soscham and tara markets were investigated. during the market survey about consumer preferences, usage, and market dynamics and brief overview of common areas covered was posed. a weekly market survey was conducted to document the wild edible plants found in these markets following alexiades (1996) (figure 3). a voucher specimen collection was performed with assistance from informants and local field assistants. fieldwork activities during this time were recorded, together with observations about the flora and the corresponding indigenous knowledge. to record the locations, plant parts, and other pertinent details, pictures were also taken in the field. specimen identification was performed at bahir dar university, department of biology, by a senior taxonomist (dr. ali seid) using flora of ethiopia and eritrea (hedberg 2009). ethnobotanical data were analyzed using microsoft excel (2016) and spss version 29.0.2.0 to generate descriptive statistics from the semistructured questionnaire (cotton 1996; martin 1995). the preference ranking, informant consensus and direct matrix ranking were then calculated (martin 1995). results diversity of wild edible plants a total of 45 weps were encountered in the study area, 22 (48.89%), 15 (33.33%), and 8 (17.77%) of which were trees, shrubs, and herbs, respectively (figure 4). the dominant growth form of the weps was trees, which accounted for 22 (48.89%) of the total recorded plant species. a variety of sources provided the edible plants for collection. according to the current study, the majority of wep species were found in natural forests (table 1). mode of consumption of wild edible plants most weps are harvested from young plants and are consumed raw (37, 82.22%), followed by cooked (6, 13.33%). in the study district, wild edible plants were available in the summer season. during this season, people collect the leaves, wash them with water, and burn them with fire (figure 5). edible parts of the plant the edible parts of wild plants are very diverse. the most widely used part of the wild edible plant was fruit (27, 60%), followed by leaves (6, 13%). the edible parts include stems (f. communis, r. nervosus, and g. ferrugine), gum (a. abyssinia, a. seyal, and c. collinum), and flower nectar (a. polystachius, a. sennii, and d. stramonium) (figure 6). contribution of wild edible plants to food security most of the area's indigenous inhabitants consume wild edible plants as famine foods or foods in times of starvation, as well as to fill the gap created by seasonal food shortages. according to the respondents, 64.4% of the wep species were eaten during normal times, and approximately 20% and 15.6% of the identified wild edible plants were consumed during severe and mild hunger, respectively figure 4 growth forms of wild edible plant species. figure 5 mode of consumption of wild edible plants in the simada district. wassie. 2024. ethnobiology letters 15(1):79–96 83 research communications sc ie n ti fi c n am e fa m ily lo ca l n am e d e sc ri p ti o n g ep c s m d c c p tc o th e r u se s c n a ca ci a a b ys si n ia fa b ac ea e b az ra g ir ar tr ee t h at r ea ch es a h ei gh t o f 2 0 m et er s, d is ti n gu is h ed b y it s co m p le x, fl u ff y le av e s an d ye llo w b lo ss o m s. t g fs g u m is ch ew ed r n a n im al s fr eq u en tl y ea t th e le av es a n d p o d s k 0 9 a ca ci a s ey a l fa b ac ea e n ec h g ir ar tr ee o f m ed iu m s iz e w it h litt le y el lo w b lo ss o m s an d p ri ck ly b ra n ch es . i t h as fl at p o d s th at e xt e n d u p t o 1 0 cm . t g fs g u m is ch ew ed r n fo lia ge u se d in an im al n u tr iti o n k 1 0 a ca n th u s p o ly st a ch iu s a ca n th ac ea e k u sh e sl ia ta ll fl o w er s p ik es a n d b ro ad , lo b ed le av es c h ar ac te ri ze th is p er e n n ia l s h ru b . i t d o e s b es t in d am p , s h ad y co n d iti o n s. s fl r s th e ju ic e o f fl o w er s’ n ec ta r is co n su m ed r n u ti liz ed a s a fe n ce an d le av e s fe d t o an im al s k 1 1 a ca n th u s se n n ii a ca n th ac ea e k u sh e sl ia fr eq u en tl y fo u n d in s im ila r se tti n gs , t h is p la n t fe at u re s la rg e le av es a n d fl o w er sp ik e s. s fl fs th e ju ic e o f fl o w er s’ n ec ta r is co n su m ed r n p o ss es se s h is to ri ca l m ed ic al ap p lic ati o n s fo r tr ea ti n g sk in co n d iti o n s an d fe n ce v al u e k 1 2 a d a n so n ia d ig it a ta m al va ce ae d iz a k n o w n a s th e b ao b ab t re e, it is la rg e w it h a d is ti n cti ve tr u n k th at c an s to re w at er . th e tr ee p ro d u ce s la rg e fr u it s w it h a t an gy p u lp . t f a l fr es h r ip e fr u it s ar e ea te n r n th e fr u it c an b e co n su m ed r aw o r u se d t o p ro d u ce d ri n ks . i t is h ig h in vi ta m in c k 0 1 a lb iz ia s ch im p er ia n a fa b ac ea e se ss a m ed iu m -s iz ed t re e w it h a b ro ad c an o p y th at is ad o rn ed w it h c lu st er s o f w h it e to p in k b lo o m s an d d el ic at e le av es t h at r es em b le fe rn s. t f fs fr es h r ip e fr u it s ar e ea te n r m h th e tr ee h as th er ap eu ti c q u al iti e s th at c an b e u se d t o t re at ta p ew o rm , a n d t h e le av es a re o cc as io n al ly u ti liz ed a s fo d d er k 1 3 a llo p h yl u s a b ys si n ic u s sa p in d ac ea e im b is li tt le t re e o r sh ru b w it h gl o ss y le av e s an d ti n y fl o w er cl u st er s. it f re q u en tl y gr o w s in f o re st s. s f fs fr es h r ip e fr u it s ar e ea te n r m h u ti liz ed in t h e b u ild in g o f co n ve n ti o n al f ar m eq u ip m en t k 1 4 b a la n iti s a eg yp ti a ca b al an it ac ea e la lo p ri ck ly t re e b ea ri n g o va lsh ap e d f ru it s an d ti n y ye llo w fl o w er s. t f a l fr es h r ip e fr u it s ar e ea te n r sh tr ee is u se d m ed ic in al ly t o s to p vo m iti n g k 0 2 ta b le 1 l is t o f w ep s w it h t h ei r fa m ily , l o ca l n am e, g ro w th f o rm , e d ib le p ar t, m o d e o f co n su m p ti o n , a n d c o lle cti o n n u m b er in t h e si m ad a d is tr ic t, e th io p ia . (c o n ti n u ed o n n ex t p ag e) wassie. 2024. ethnobiology letters 15(1):79–96 84 research communications sc ie n ti fi c n am e fa m ily lo ca l n am e d e sc ri p ti o n g ep c s m d c c p tc o th e r u se s c n b o le tu s ed u lis b o le n ta ce ae en gu d ay it is r ef er re d t o a s th e p o rc in i m u sh ro o m b ec au se o f it s d ar k to p a n d s to u t st em . u su al ly , i t th ri ve s in w o o d ed en vi ro n m e n ts . s f a l fr es h r ip e fr u it s ar e ea te n r sh h ig h v al u e cu lin ar y p la n t; f re q u en tl y u se d in s au ce s an d so u p s k 1 5 c a p p a ri s to m en to sa c ap p ar id ac ea e k em er o a ro m ati c fl o w er s an d t h ic k, m ea ty le av es c h ar ac te ri ze th is p la n t. it g ro w s in s to n y, ar id r eg io n s. t f fs fr es h r ip e fr u it s ar e ea te n r sh th e ro o ts a re a ls o in fu se d t o h e lp tr ea t sy p h ili s, go n o rr h ea , th re at e n in g ab o rti o n , s te ri lit y, an d t o c o n tr o l b le e d in g aft er k 1 6 c a ri ss a s p in a ru m a p o cy n ac ea e a ga m p ri ck ly s h ru b w it h g lo ss y le av es a n d f ra gr an t w h it e fl o w er s th at a re f o llo w ed b y ti n y b er ri es t h at a re d el ic io u s. s f fs fr es h r ip e fr u it s ar e ea te n r n th er ap y fo r ch es t p ai n a n d h ea d ac h e s k 1 7 c o m b re tu m c o lli n u m c o m b re ta ce ae a va lo w o o d y tr ee b ea ri n g ti n y, fr ag ra n t b lo o m s an d ex te n d e d le av e s. t g fs g u m is ch ew ed r sh le av es a p p lie d to p ic al ly t o h ea l w o u n d s k 1 8 c o m m el in a b en g h a le n si s c o m m en lia ce ae ye b re k o lt e c re ep in g p la n t th at g ro w s in d is tu rb e d p la ce s an d h as la rg e le av es a n d b lu e b lo o m s. h t u g l fr es h r aw tu b er a re ea te n r n it c au se s b u rn s to th e th ro at a n d is u se d t o t re at in fe rti lit y k 1 9 c o rc h o ru s o lit o ri u s ti lia ce ae k u d er a (a m h ) w o o d y p la n t w it h g re en le av es a n d y el lo w b lo ss o m s th at is w el lkn o w n f o r it s fi b er . t l fs fr es h a n d ra w l ea ve s w er e co n su m ed r m h u ti liz ed a s an an al ge si c an d t o tr ea t m al ig n an ci e s, ch ro n ic c ys ti ti s, an d g o n o rr h ea in tr ad iti o n al m ed ic in e k 2 0 c o rd ia a fr ic a n a b o ra gi n ac ea e w an za m ed iu m -s iz ed t re e w it h ti n y w h it e b lo ss o m s an d a r o u gh b ar k. it y ie ld s ti n y, d e lic io u s fr u it s. t f r b fr es h r ip e fr u it s ar e ea te n r n u ti liz ed a s a m al ar ia t re at m e n t k 2 1 c u cu m is fi ci fo liu s c u cu rb it ac ea e ye aw u t ar eg e c re ep er w it h ti n y, c u cu m b er lik e fr u it s an d le av e s lik e fi gs . h f r s fr es h r ip e fr u it s ar e ea te n r n u ti liz ed t o a vo id d eh yd ra ti o n k 0 3 (c o n ti n u ed f ro m p re vi o u s p ag e) (c o n ti n u ed o n n ex t p ag e) wassie. 2024. ethnobiology letters 15(1):79–96 85 research communications sc ie n ti fi c n am e fa m ily lo ca l n am e d e sc ri p ti o n g ep c s m d c c p tc o th e r u se s c n d a tu ra s tr a m o n iu m so la n ac ea e a st e n ag re sp in y se e d p o d s an d b ig w h it e fl o w er s ad o rn t h is gr as sy s h ru b . i t is f re q u en tl y se en a s h ar m fu l. h fl g l th e ju ic e o f fl o w er s’ n ec ta r is co n su m ed r n se e d s h av e an th el m in ti c, an al ge si c, a n d a n ti in fl am m at o ry p ro p er ti es k 2 2 d io sc o re a p ra h en si lis d io sc o re ac ea e w o fe gi e p la n t th at is w e llkn o w n f o r it s st ar ch y ro o ts . i t p ro d u ce s litt le b lo o m s an d h as h ea rt sh ap e d le av e s. t l fs le av es co o ke d a s st ew c m h tu b er is u se d t o w ar d a ga in st f u n gi k 2 3 d io sp yr o s a b ys si n ic a eb en ac ea e se rk in ( a m h ) m ed iu m -s iz ed t re e w it h ti n y, fr ag ra n t fl o w er s an d d ar k gr ee n f o lia ge . t l fs le av es co o ke d a s st ew c n a le af d ec o cti o n is u se d t o t re at m al ar ia k 2 4 d is co p o d iu m p en n in er vi u m so la n ac ea e b am la t sm al l t re e, o ft en r ea ch in g h ei gh ts o f ab o u t 2 m et er s. t l fs le av es co o ke d a s st ew c n th is p la n t' s le af is u se d t o s o o th e st o m ac h ac h es k 2 5 d o vy a lis a b ys si n ic a fl ac o u rti ac ea e k o sh im p ri ck ly s h ru b b ea ri n g ti n y, u su al ly y el lo w t o o ra n ge co lo re d f ru it s w h e n r ip e. t f fs fr es h r ip e fr u it s ar e ea te n r n th is p la n t' s fr u it s ar e u se d a s a co u gh r em ed y k 2 6 ek eb er g ia c a p en si s m el ia ce ae k u d ek u d a to w er in g b u sh w it h ti n y fl o w er s. s f fs f ru it b u rn ed w it h fi re a n d co n su m ed c sh th is p la n t' s ro o t is u se d a s a h ea d ac h e re m e d y k 0 4 em b el ia s ch im p er i m yr ic ac ea e en ko ko p la n t b ea ri n g ti n y b lo o m s an d f ra gr an t fr u it . t f fs fr es h r ip e fr u it s ar e ea te n r n c o n su m in g u n co o ke d f ru it a s a re m ed y fo r ko so ill n e ss k 2 7 eu cl ea r a ce m o sa eb en ac ea e d ed e h o sm al l b e rr ie s an d le at h er y le av es c h ar ac te ri ze t h is sh ru b o r sm al l t re e. s f fs fr es h r ip e fr u it s ar e ea te n r n fr u it t h at g u ar d s ag ai n st a n th ra x ill n e ss k 2 8 fe ru la c o m m u n is a p ia ce ae d o g a t al l h er b w it h a r o b u st st em a n d b ig , fl u ff y le av e s. w el lkn o w n f o r it s h e ig h t an d t h er ap e u ti c q u al iti es . h st g l st em b u rn e d w it h fi re o r p ee le d b n th is p la n t' s st em is u se d t o c u re b o n e fr ac tu re s k 2 9 fi cu s su r m o ra ce ae sh o la tr ee w it h li tt le fi gs t h at a re ed ib le . i t is f re q u en tl y fo u n d in d am p r eg io n s an d h as la rg e le av es . t f r b fr es h r ip e fr u it s ar e ea te n r n c o n su m in g u n co o ke d f ru it s as a re m ed y fo r d ia rr h ea , w o rs h ip in g k 0 5 fi cu s va st a m o ra ce ae w ar ka la rg e tr ee w it h a s p re ad in g ca n o p y, p ro d u ci n g sm al l fi gs th at a re e d ib le . t f r b fr es h r ip e fr u it s ar e ea te n r n th e le av es a re u se d t o p re ve n t ev il ey e, w o rs h ip in g k 3 0 (c o n ti n u ed f ro m p re vi o u s p ag e) (c o n ti n u ed o n n ex t p ag e) wassie. 2024. ethnobiology letters 15(1):79–96 86 research communications sc ie n ti fi c n am e fa m ily lo ca l n am e d e sc ri p ti o n g ep c s m d c c p tc o th e r u se s c n fi cu s sy co m o ru s m o ra ce ae b am b a o ft en c al le d t h e sy ca m o re fi g, it b ea rs h u ge , d el ic io u s fi gs f ro m a b ro ad t ru n k. t f r b fr es h r ip e fr u it s ar e ea te n r n c o n su m in g th e fr u it s th at a re re co m m en d ed t o cu re d ia rr h ea a n d co n sti p ati o n k 3 1 g re w ia f er ru g in e ti lia ce ae le n q at a tr ee t h at r e se m b le s b er ri es an d h as ti n y, d el ic io u s b lo o m s an d y o u n g st em s. t st fs yo u n g st em is c h ew ed r sh th e le af t h at k e ep s co n sti p ati o n a t b ay k 3 2 h ib is cu s ca n n a b in u s m al va ce ae w ay ka ta ll sh ru b w it h b ig , e ye ca tc h in g b lo o m s an d fi b ro u s st em s. f o r it s fi b er , i t is fr eq u e n tl y fa rm e d . s f fs fr es h r ip e fr u it s ar e ea te n r m h u se d t o t re at ca n ce r k 0 7 h ib is cu s es cu le n tu s m al va ce ae w ay ka u su al ly c al le d o kr a, it h as ed ib le f ru it s an d h as g re e n , ri b b e d p o d s. s f fs th e fr u it s ar e h ar ve st e d w h en im m at u re an d e at e n a s ve ge ta b le an d a re o ft en c o o ke d in d ai ly r m h u se d t o r e d u ce b lo o d p re ss u re k 0 6 m im u so p s ku m m el sa p o ta ce ae es h e ti n y to m ed iu m -s iz ed t re e w it h ju ic y fr u it a n d t h ic k le av es . t f r b fr es h r ip e fr u it s ar e ea te n r n c o n su m in g fr u it s is sa id t o s ta ve ag ai n st b ad lu ck , ri tu al s an d ce re m o n ie s ce le b ra ti o n k 3 3 m o m o rd ic a f o eti d a c u cu rb it ac ea e ye jib m ed ih an it p la n t w it h y el lo w b lo ss o m s an d u n u su al , p ri ck ly f ru it s. t f fs fr es h r ip e fr u it s ar e ea te n c sh ea ti n g fr u it s u se d to t re at h yp er te n si o n k 3 4 (c o n ti n u ed f ro m p re vi o u s p ag e) (c o n ti n u ed o n n ex t p ag e) wassie. 2024. ethnobiology letters 15(1):79–96 87 research communications sc ie n ti fi c n am e fa m ily lo ca l n am e d e sc ri p ti o n g ep c s m d c c p tc o th e r u se s c n o p u n ti a fi cu sin d ic a c ac ta ce ae q u lk al c ac tu s, s o m eti m es c al le d a “p ri ck ly p ea r, ” w it h fl at p ad s an d b ea rs d el ic io u s, e d ib le fr u it . s f r s fr es h r ip e fr u it s ar e ea te n r n ea ti n g ra w f ru it u se d t o t re at s ki n ra sh in a d d iti o n t o th e p la n t th at is fe ed t o a n im al s an d u se d a s a fe n ce . o p u n ti a fi cu sin d ic a h as ex p er ie n ce d su b st an ti al ch an ge s th ro u gh o u t ti m e, su gg es ti n g en vi ro n m e n ta l ad ap ta ti o n a n d h u m an in vo lv em en t. k 3 5 o xa lis o b liq u if o lia o xa lid ac ea e la m ch o p la n t th at g ro w s sl o w ly , b ea ri n g ti n y ye llo w fl o w er s an d le av e s lik e cl o ve r. h l g l fr es h le av e s co n su m ed o r b u rn w it h fi re b n u ti liz ed a s a fe e d so u rc e fo r an im al s k 3 6 p h o en ix r ec lin a te a re ca ce ae se n el ( a m h ) it s d el ic at e, a rc h in g cr o w n is co ve re d w it h p in n at e, fl u ff y le av es . h f r s fr es h r ip e fr u it s ar e ea te n r m h u se d a s liv es to ck fe ed a n d f en ce , a s w el l a s a sk in r as h k 3 7 p h ys a lis p er u vi a n a so la n ac ea e a w at o ft en c al le d t h e ca p e go o se b er ry , i t b ea rs li tt le o ra n ge f ru it s th at a re en ca se d in a h u sk . h f g l fr es h r ip e fr u it s ar e ea te n r n u se d a s an im al fe ed k 3 8 p lu m b a g o z ey la n ic u m p lu m b ag in ac ea e m al ku ya sh ru b b ea ri n g cl u st er s o f ti n y fr u it s an d c o m p le x le av es . s l fs fr es h le av e s co n su m ed r sh c o n su m in g fr u it a s a vo m iti n g re m ed y k 0 8 r h u s g lu ti n o sa a n ac ar d ia ce a k am o sh ru b b ea ri n g cl u st er s o f ti n y fr u it s an d c o m p le x le av es . s f fs fr es h r ip e fr u it s ar e ea te n r n u ti liz ed t o b u ild h o m es , p ro vi d e fi re w o o d , a n d f ee d an im al s k 3 9 r h u s vu lg a ri s a n ac ar d ia ce a a sh e ka m o b u sh ylo o ki n g sh ru b t h at b ea rs ti n y b er ri es s f fs fr es h r ip e fr u it s ar e ea te n r n u ti liz ed t o b u ild h o m es , p ro vi d e fi re w o o d , a n d f ee d an im al s k 4 0 r u m ex n er vo su s p o ly go n ac ea e em b ac h o p er en n ia l p la n t fe at u ri n g ti n y fl o w er s an d le av es f as h io n e d lik e ar ro w s. s st fs c h ew in g yo u n g st em c n st em t h at is u se d to m ak e fi re w o o d k 4 1 (c o n ti n u ed f ro m p re vi o u s p ag e) (c o n ti n u ed o n n ex t p ag e) wassie. 2024. ethnobiology letters 15(1):79–96 88 research communications sc ie n ti fi c n am e fa m ily lo ca l n am e d e sc ri p ti o n g ep c s m d c c p tc o th e r u se s c n r u m ex a b ys si n ic u s p o ly go n ac ea e m ek em ko li ke r u m ex n er vo su s, t h is p la n t is w id el y d is tr ib u te d in it s n a tu ra l h a b it a t a n d p o ss es se s ed ib le r o o ts . s r t a l c h ew in g yo u n g ro o t r n u ti liz ed a s an im al fe ed k 4 2 sp o ro b o lu s p yr a m id a lis p o ac ea e m u re ty p e o f gr as s th at g ro w s w el l in a v ar ie ty o f se tti n gs a n d is fr eq u e n tl y fo u n d in w id e fi el d s. h se g l se e d is gr o u n d t o p o w d er a n d b ak ed in to in je ra r sh u ti liz ed a s an im al fe ed k 4 3 sy zy g iu m g u in ee n se m yr ta ce ae d o km a tr ee w it h ti n y, d el ic io u s b er ri es a n d f ra gr an t fo lia ge . t f r b fr es h r ip e fr u it s ar e ea te n r n ti m b er is u se d t o m ak e b u ild in g m at er ia ls k 4 4 zi zi p h u s sp in a -c h ri sti r h am n ac ea e k u rk u ra ti n y, s p ik y tr e e o r sh ru b b ea ri n g ti n y, t as ty f ru it s. t f a l fr es h r ip e fr u it s ar e ea te n r n ti m b er u ti liz ed t o co n st ru ct h o u se s an d t h e le av e s fe ed t o g o at s k 4 5 (c o n ti n u ed f ro m p re vi o u s p ag e) g -g ro w th f o rm , t -t re e, s -s h ru b , h -h er b , e p -e d ib le p ar t ffr u it , l -l ea ve s, r tro o t, s tst e m , se -s ee d , g -g u m , f lfl o w er n e ct ar , c p -c o n su m p ti o n p ar t, r -r aw , c co o ke d , b -b o th , c sfs fo re st , r sr o ad s id e, a la gr ic u lt u ra l l an d , g la gr ic u lt u ra l l an d , r b -r iv er b an d , tc -n -n o rm al ti m e, n o n -f am in e co n d iti o n s, s h -s ev er e h u n ge r, m h -m ild h u n ge r, m d c -m o d e o f co n su m p ti o n , c n -c o lle cti o n n u m b er , a n d k -k in d ye . wassie. 2024. ethnobiology letters 15(1):79–96 89 research communications (table 2). the study community reported that at present, some of the edible wild plants were comparable to cultivated crops. indigenous knowledge of informants the study's informants ranged in age from 19 to 39 to 40 to 85 years old, with the majority (52.2%) being younger. there were more women than men, based on the demographic profile data that represents the population structure. of the informants, 70 (60.9%) were literate. the knowledge of local residents about wild edible plants was greater for men than women. older informants reported more knowledge about edible wild plants in the study area than younger informants. there were also significant differences in the number of wild edible plants reported by different informant groups, including age, literacy, and marital status. compared with those aged ≥40 years, informants aged less than 40 years reported fewer wild edible plants. the informants age ≥40 (40–85) reported 200 wild edible plants species (table 2). the illiterate informants knew more than the educated informants about using edible wild plants. based on field research at the study site, they were able to identify a greater number of weps and were also able to determine where to find these plant species, how to gather them, and when they should ripen. literate informants provided information about a smaller number of weps than illiterate ones, and they lacked knowledge about the consumption and preparation techniques of weps (table 2). in this study, various wild edible plant species were collected from participants using various tools. approximately 30 (66.66%) of the plants were collected using long sticks, followed by a ladder (10, 22.22%) and a plant digger (5, 11.11%) (figure 7). figure 6 parts of wild edible plants eaten by people in the simada district. figure 7 materials used for the collection of wild edible plants by people in the study area. parameter informant groups n no. of plant species reported mean t value** p-value marital status single 65 110 2.23 -3.95 0.001* married 50 240 5.03 literacy literate (able to read or write) 70 100 1.43 -6.15 0.001* illiterate (unable to read or write) 45 290 6.4 age <40(19-39) 60 95 1.58 -3.54 0.001* ≥40(40-85) 55 220 4 gender male 53 219 3.32 2.99 0.003* female 62 97 1.69 table 2 statistically independent t-test on the quantity of wild edible plants in simada district that informant groups mentioned. significant difference (p<0.05), **t (0.05) two-tailed, df = 113, and n = number of respondents. wassie. 2024. ethnobiology letters 15(1):79–96 90 research communications seasonal availability of wild edible plants in ethiopia, there are four seasons: spring (september, october, and november), winter (december, january, and february), autumn (march, april, and may) and summer (june, july, and august). from a total of 45 wild edible plant species, 20 (44%) were available in the autumn season, followed by the summer season (13, 29%), whereas 8 species (18%) were found in the winter season, and 4 species (9%) were available in the spring season (figure 8). since there are a lot of plants in abundance during the autumn season, foragers gather weps two times per day. similarly, wild edible plant collectors gather 2–3 kg per trip. during the spring season foraging in the study site is restricted to plants that are hardier, including roots and certain dried fruits. gathering occurs once per week. marketability of edible wild plants the results showed that specific weps were identified as potential sources of income. for instance, fruits of m. kummel and s. guineense were offered for consumption in local markets. according to observations made during a market survey, the wep species in the research area were sold in plastic cups, with one cup costing ten ethiopian birrs ($0.17 usd) for m. kummel and eight ethiopian birrs $0.14 usd) for s. guineense. quantitative data analysis direct matrix ranking was conducted to assess the relative importance of each plant. six wild edible plant species and 35 key informants were chosen for direct matrix rating. f. sycomorus was the most versatile wild edible plant species according to the direct matrix table 4 informant consensus on the most widely used wild edible plants in the study area. table 3 direct matrix ranking of six wild edible plant species. values: 5 = excellent, 4 = very good, 3 = good, 2 = fair, 1 = poor, 0 = not used. use categories f. sycomorus g. ferruginea m. kummel e.racemosa c. spinarum r. nervous total rank firewood 2 5 3 3 1 5 19 1st charcoal 5 0 4 4 2 2 17 3rd medicine 2 3 4 3 2 1 15 4th building 5 1 1 2 1 3 13 5th forage 1 2 2 2 1 2 10 6th furniture 5 2 4 1 3 3 18 2nd total 20 13 18 15 10 16 rank 1st 5th 2nd 4th 6th 3rd scientific name no. of informants percentage rank o. ficus-indica 80 69.6% 1st c. africana 50 43.5% 2nd d. abyssinica 45 39.1% 3rd f. vasta forssk l. 36 31.3% 4th f. sycomorus 25 21.7% 5th e. racemose 18 15.7% 6th c. spinarum 12 10.4% 7th m. kummel 8 6.96% 8th figure 8 seasonal availability of wild edible plants in the study area. wassie. 2024. ethnobiology letters 15(1):79–96 91 research communications grouping results, whereas c. spinarum had the lowest direct matrix ranking score (table 3). informants were interviewed from a variety of groups regarding food value of wild edible plants. among the studied plants, o. ficus indica was the most popular, cited by 80 (69.6%) respondents for its food value, followed by 50 (43.5%) respondents from c. africana and 50 (43.5%) respondents in the simada district (table 4). indicating the relevance of opuntia ficus-indica in local populations, the informant consensus value for this plant is expected to show substantial agreement among informants regarding its many uses. a preference score study was carried out for commonly mentioned edible wild plants. informants were given seven of the most popular wild edible plants, which were then ranked according to sweetness. participants ranked the wild edible plants from one to five, with the best tasting fruit receiving a five and the worst tasting fruit receiving a value of one. the total score for every species was used to calculate the preference ranking. by summing the numbers provided by each key informant, the overall rank of the preference exercise was found. the fruits of o. ficus-indica and s. guineense were the most preferred wild edible plant in the study site followed by f. sycomorus (table 5). a prioritization analysis using nine key informants was conducted to assess the degree of destruction associated with wild edible plants. ranking analysis values ranged from one to five. therefore, agricultural expansion and drought were ranking first and second threats that have an impact on the district's wild edible plant biodiversity and availability (table 6). in addition to the information provided by informants, the researchers observed that farmland growth close to the forest posed a significant threat to wep habitats (figure 9). discussion in this project, we found that there were more wep species recorded in the simada district than other researchers have found in other districts across ethiopia, including the konso ethnic community (137 species); burji district, segan area zone of southern nations, nationalities and peoples region (54 species); awash national park (55 species); and berihun and molla, bullen district northwest (44 species) (addis et al. 2013; ashagre et al. 2016; bahru et al. 2013; berihun and molla 2017). we also found a lower number of wep species recorded by other researchers in the simada region, who recorded 41 (wondimu et al. 2006), 30 (assefa and abebe 2011), 30 (seyoum et al. 2015), 24 (ayele 2017), and 39 (tebkew et al. 2015) species. the variation in weps recorded is due to various factors, particularly climate, table 6 threats to wild edible plants reported by nine key informants. table 5 preference ranking of seven wild edible plants based on their taste from six key informants. values: 5 = excellent, 4 = very good, 3 = good, 2 = fair, 1 = poor, r = key respondents. values: 5 = excellent, 4 = very good, 3 = good, 2 = fair, 1 = poor, r = key respondent. plant types r1 r2 r3 r4 r5 r6 score rank c. spinarum 2 6 4 1 3 2 18 5th o. ficus-indica 4 3 7 5 3 4 26 1st e. schimperi 2 2 6 3 2 1 16 6th f. vasta 5 3 2 6 3 1 21 4th s. guineense 5 4 4 3 2 6 24 2nd m. kummel 1 2 2 5 3 1 14 7th f. sycomorus 3 2 2 7 4 4 23 3rd threats r1 r2 r3 r4 r5 r6 r7 r8 r9 total rank over grazing 1 2 1 1 2 3 3 2 4 19 5th agricultural expansion 5 3 3 2 4 4 3 2 2 28 1st firewood collection 4 1 2 2 1 1 3 3 5 22 3rd over exploitation 2 2 1 3 1 1 3 3 1 21 4th timbering 3 2 2 3 1 1 2 2 1 17 6th drought 5 4 3 2 2 1 2 3 3 25 2nd wassie. 2024. ethnobiology letters 15(1):79–96 92 research communications land use types, and agricultural strategies, which affect the number of wild plant species present. in general, the main elements that influence the number of plant species in each area include geography, environment, cultural and environmental aspects, community structure, landscape variability, and farming practices (mebrate et al. 2022). most of the edible wild plants that were described in this study were in forest areas. this suggests the importance of in-situ conservation in guaranteeing the sustained utilization of these species. more kinds of wild edible plants were found in greater abundance in the research areas in the forest. this may have been caused by altitude, which in turn produced favorable soil conditions and other microclimates (asfaw et al. 2023). similarly, the preference for raw eating showed that plant parts are consumed right away after being harvested from their natural habitat. raw eating of wild edible plants in simada district agrees with the finding of (anbessa 2016; masresha et al. 2023; yiblet and adamu 2023). the consumption of wep parts after preparation and cooking frequently serves to both enhance flavor and decrease toxicity. conversely, cooking food more than the maximum level could cause alterations in a variety of inorganic mineral components, colors, flavorings, vitamins, acids, enzymes, and other substances. most of the studies on the mode of consumption of wep species were of the raw form, which demonstrates that different cultural groups in the nation have a similar figure 9 agricultural expansion as primary threat wild edible plants in simada district, photograph taken by kindye belaye wassie (2022). wassie. 2024. ethnobiology letters 15(1):79–96 93 research communications consumption mode for weps. in most investigations conducted in various regions of ethiopia, fruits are the predominant component of weps (duguma 2020). however, other researchers (amenu 2007; mesfin et al. 2005) found that roots are mainly used for food and medicinal purposes. the fact that wild fruits are used more frequently than other plant parts during times of food scarcity and that their flavor and taste are enhanced by their chemical makeup could be the reason for their increased use. indigenous knowledge is the comprehension, abilities, and ideologies that have been cultivated by nearby communities with extensive histories and encounters with their natural environments (ogunkeyede et al. 2023). indigenous knowledge of the studied community varied with respect to the use, listing, and ways of consuming weps. the level of information provided by married people is greater than that provided by single people. this could be because the married people had greater responsibility to fulfill the nutritional desire of their children, and they were more intensively collecting weps in their surroundings. men and women have different duties when it comes to food collecting and preparing in this region. in simada district, further from home, men are typically in charge of hunting, foraging, and resource collection, which include gathering wild plants. males can acquire more expertise and information about edible wild plants (table 3). this higher level of knowledge in males could also be due to a difference in mobility: males can move freely one place to another without facing social or violent consequences, but women cannot move as freely. as a result, males had a greater chance to know more weps than females. however, this relationship is complex, as women were more knowledgeable than men in the chelia district of central-western ethiopia (ashagre et al. 2016; regassa et al. 2014). in this study, wild edible plant species were not directly collected from the mother plant. the collectors used different materials in the study site, with two thirds (66.66%) of the plants collected using long sticks. this could be because the majority of the wep species in the research area are large trees, making it challenging to pick portions of the plants directly from the mother plant. in this study, wild edible plant species were not directly collected from the mother plant. the collectors used different materials in the study site, with two thirds (66.66%) of the plants collected using long sticks. this could be because the majority of the wep species in the research area are large trees, making it challenging to pick portions of the plants directly from the mother plant. five percent of the fruits and seeds in this study were collected using a plant digger, 13% were collected from the ground, and 82% were collected from plucking the larger plants. wild edible plants are available in different seasons because their flowering and fruiting times are different. in simada district, 20 (44%) of the 45 weps were available in the autumn season, 13 species (29%) in summer, and 8 species (18%) in winter. studies of weps seasonality show variation. yibelt and adamu (2023), reported that more weps were found in the spring than in the winter, tahir et al. (2023) found that most weps were accessible yearround, and tebkew (2015) reported that between most weps were abundant during march and june). in simada district, we found that people gather weps in autumn two times per day with an amount of 2–3 kg per trip. however, wild food collectors gather once a week during the spring season. these patterns are influenced greatly by ecological factors, fruiting and availability of wild edible plant species. among the 45 wep species, only the fruits of syzygium guineense and mimusops kummel were sold at the five market sites. market sales of weps vary across previous studies. anbessa (2016) reported that of 54 wild edible plants were sold in the local marketplace, and feyssa et al. (2011) reported that 75.7% of 37 widely recognized edible plant species were sold in east shewa, ethiopia. however, no wild edible plants are available for sale in the marketplace of the berehet district, north shewa zone, amhara region, ethiopia (getu 2015). the commercial value of wild edible plant species varies throughout ethiopia. masresha et al. (2023) reported that balanitis aegyptiaca was the most expensive wep in the local market. this may depend on the region's availability of wild edible plants and the community's level of awareness. in the study site, weps were also used for nonfood purposes. according to the key informants, firewood was the most highly valued use category, whereas forage had the lowest value. these findings contrast with those of tebkew et al. (2015) who reported that d. mespiliformis was the first multipurpose wild food plant in the chilga district of northern and western ethiopia. the most widely used edible wild plants are those with the highest relative use wassie. 2024. ethnobiology letters 15(1):79–96 94 research communications values. however, abuse puts these plants at risk of extinction. due to the great variety of uses of these wild food plants, special attention to their conservation is thus needed (chekole 2011). opuntia ficus indica was the most popular, cited by 80 (69.6%) respondents for its food value. this study was not in line with previous findings (masresha et al. 2023) in which diospyros abyssinica high informant consensus of 78 had (60.94). the difference might be due to the cultural variation of people from one region to another region combined with agro-ecological distribution. different types of indigenous knowledge in the community may account for the heterogeneity in their frequency of citation (informant consensus) (masresha et al. 2023). furthermore, the variation may also be due to the number and quality of wild edible plant products (masresha et al. 2023). wild edible plant species with the highest informant consensus value have significant food value in the community. this indicates that weps are beneficial as food and medicine, as reported in similar studies (emire et al. 2022). when people in the study region became sick, they ate wild edible herbs because a local healer had advised them to do so. these factors mean that many edible wild plants are scarce (tebkew et al. 2015). agricultural activity ranked as the primary threat to weps in the study site, as discussed by berihun and molla (2017). the community has extensive indigenous knowledge about many uses of weps apart from food value: they use weps in house construction, medicinal practices, religious worship, animal feed, fencing, and ritual and festival celebration. however, their many applications may have an impact on the local species' availability. in a similar vein, masresha et al. (2023) claimed that plant species are exploited more in an area when they are used for numerous purposes. to preserve the versatile wild edible plant species for future generations, more care needs to be paid to them. conclusion the results of the investigation revealed that simada district is home to several wild edible plants and the knowledge that goes along with their use. district residents fulfill their subsistence and market needs by consuming and selling these plants. wild edible plants are affordable and accessible, allowing economically poor communities to supplement their diet. these plants are essential for food security and nutrition, especially in areas with limited access to farmed commodities. by eating and selling these plants, the residents of the district can meet their necessities. wild edible plants have multiple purposes, including food, medicine, fodder, construction, and fuel, leading to overexploitation the knowledge gathered from this research can help guide biodiversity studies in the future by highlighting the importance of protecting plant species and the cultural legacy that goes along with them. proper management and preservation of these plant species are crucial for future generations to alleviate food insecurity in the study site. acknowledgments i want to express my gratitude to the simada district, kebele staff offices, and people who gave me both primary and secondary data and who gave up their time to participate in several official and informal interviews and group discussions to help me better understand the district's background. my acknowledgments also extended to dr. ali seid for identifying the voucher specimens and to the bahir dar university department of biology for storing this reference specimen. declarations permissions: the research and ethical committee of the department of plant sciences at bahir dar university provided written ethical clearance. the department of plant sciences sent a formal letter to the simada district agriculture office. accordingly, approval to perform the study was secured from the district agricultural office, as well as each kebele administration. all individuals who agreed to participate in the study provided written informed consent. the participants were guaranteed the confidentiality of their responses. sources of funding: none declared. conflicts of interest: none declared. references cited addis, g., z. asfaw, and z. woldu. 2013. ethnobotany of wild and semi wild edible plants of konso ethnic community, south ethiopia. journal of ethnobotany 11:121–142. alexiades, m. n. 1996. collecting ethnobotanical data: an introduction to basic concepts and techniques. in selected guidelines for ethnobotanical research: a field manual, vol. 10, edited by m. n. wassie. 2024. ethnobiology letters 15(1):79–96 95 research communications alexiades, pp. 53–94. the new york botanical garden, new york. amenu, e. 2007. use and management of medicinal plants by indigenous people of 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special issue on diverse conservations and institutions are creating new relationships and, de facto, new political arrangements to harness more knowledge types for conservation and sustainability. such initiatives often elicit tensions related to what counts as knowledge and who gets to decide which knowledges are useful and why (e.g., gillette and singleton 2022; hill et al. 2020; mcelwee et al. 2020; sidorova 2020). in this article, we seek to clarify what is at stake in such efforts to change (or maintain) what counts as knowledge by applying michael thompson’s rubbish theory (2017) to the ilk-western science engagements presented in this special issue. rubbish theory is a sociological theory of valuation exploring how objects (broadly defined) come to be accorded value, which in turn affects group identities and political configurations. taking examples from the case studies included in this volume, we explore how knowledge objects are manipulated within and relate to the wider socio-political system to make visible the introduction it is an exciting time in conservation and environmental sciences. quite apart from the “excitement” of proliferating local and global environmental catastrophes, environmental and conservation sciences rooted in the western academic tradition appear to be opening up. historically science has been viewed as the product of research based on academic disciplines performed by a distinct group of university -trained scholars, but today many argue that citizen science, traditional ecological knowledge, local ecological knowledge and indigenous and local knowledge (hereafter ilk) are productive knowledge sources for conservation and environmental research and decision-making (e.g., molnár and babai 2021; tengö et al. 2021). as shown in the articles that comprise this special issue, many research scientists and conservation practitioners trained in the western academy (including ethnobiologists and scholars with indigenous backgrounds), local and indigenous communities, and other interlocutors, stakeholders, mutiny on the boundary? examining ilk-based conservation collaborations through the lens of rubbish theory benedict e. singleton1* and maris boyd gillette2 1school of global political studies, malmö university, sweden. 2school of global studies, university of gothenburg, sweden. *benedict.singleton@mau.se abstract many conservation researchers and practitioners argue that knowledges traditionally conceptualized as nonacademic are useful for guiding environmental decision-making and stewardship. as demonstrated by the articles in this special issue, bringing indigenous and local knowledges to bear on environmental conservation requires forging new relationships and, de facto, new political arrangements. in this article, we seek to clarify what is at stake in such efforts to change (or maintain) what counts as knowledge by applying rubbish theory to the volume’s case studies. redrawing the boundaries of what counts as conservation knowledge in engagements between academic researchers and practitioners trained to “do conservation” according to western science traditions, on the one hand, and indigenous peoples and local communities who possess knowledge generated in non-academic contexts, on the other, effects demarcations of expertise and so challenges existing social hierarchies. unsurprisingly, tension emerges about how far such changes should go. by increasing awareness of the relationship between (re)defining knowledge and (re)configuring social and political hierarchies, we hope to make it easier for participants to manage such collaborations. received june 21, 2022 open access accepted september 26, 2022 doi 10.14237/ebl.14.2.2023.1830 published may 31, 2023 keywords indigenous and local knowledge, western science, collaboration, rubbish theory, conservation copyright © 2023 by the author(s); licensee society of ethnobiology. this is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution-noncommercial 4.0 international public license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0), which permits non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. singleton and gillette. 2023. ethnobiology letters 14(2):83–91 84 perspectives special issue on diverse conservations relationship between redrawing the boundaries of knowledge/science and the socio-political formations within which such initiatives are located. ilk–western science collaborations, like all acts that extend the boundaries of knowledge, potentially alter or expand the category of expert and so challenge existing hierarchies. unsurprisingly, tension emerges about how far such changes should go. by applying rubbish theory to the special issue’s case studies, we hope to increase awareness of the relationship between (re) defining knowledge and (re)configuring social and political hierarchies, and so make it easier for participants to manage such collaborations. our text proceeds as follows. in the next section, we describe rubbish theory. we then characterize the ilk–western science initiatives included in the special issue according to rubbish theory’s analytic framework, showing their relationship to broader socio-political dynamics. here it is important to note that ethnobiology has an atypical status among western environmental and conservation sciences, as ethnobiology has insisted on the value of knowledges located outside the western academy since its inception. we conclude this contribution by discussing how an increased awareness of the relationship between knowledge production and socio -political order can facilitate ilk-western science conservation initiatives and ameliorate inherent tensions. our hope is that this analysis will facilitate possibilities for creative and transformative solutions to the environmental problems we face. rubbish theory rubbish theory models the general social processes by which some objects in human society gain or lose value over time (thompson 2017). thompson’s basic idea is that objects “have certain important properties imposed on them as a result of processes of human social life, and, conversely, that if these properties were not conferred upon them then human social life itself would not be possible” (2017:288). object in rubbish theory refers not only to things but also people and ideas. recent studies have used rubbish theory to discuss apparently incommensurable environmental worldviews (singleton 2021), archaeology (marwoto 2019), cancer tumor donation (morrell et al. 2011), heritage tourism (fisher and smiley 2015), and literary theory (chappell 2013). in simple terms, rubbish theory proposes that objects fit into three basic categories (see figure 1)1. the categories durables and transients have value but different temporal characters. durable objects, for example works of fine art, are considered to retain or gain value over time. social actors consider durables to be largely eternal even if, ironically, they require material and symbolic maintenance work (thompson 2017:113). in the case of fine art, this work is done by museums, connoisseurs, auction houses, art historians, dealers, and others (e.g., duhem et al. 2019). in contrast, transient objects, for example cars, lose value over time, eventually becoming worthless and falling into the third category, rubbish. rubbish differs from durables and transients in having no figure 1 the basic rubbish theory hypothesis. the solid boxes denote overt cultural categories; the broken-line box denotes a covert category. the solid, red arrows are the transfers that theoretically happen; the broken, black ones the transfers that theoretically do not happen because they contradict the value and/or time direction that define the various categories. adapted from thompson 2017:4. singleton and gillette. 2023. ethnobiology letters 14(2):83–91 85 perspectives special issue on diverse conservations value. a feature of rubbish is that it becomes most noticeable when it is in the wrong place according to the operative ordering system. rubbish then evokes responses akin to those elicited by the breaking of taboos or social mores (thompson 2017). societies and institutions invest considerable social, political, and economic resources into ensuring that the proper orderings of objects are enforced and, in particular, that rubbish ends up in the correct place, namely the landfill in the rubbish theory’s original articulation. while transients eventually become rubbish, rubbish is not a category in the same way as durable or transient: it is residual and so outside the ordering system. however, rubbish is potentially a source of new durables. in what thompson calls “class society,” the control of transfers of objects from rubbish to durables is the privilege of particular social groups and indeed co-constructive of those groups. who occupies this social position is not static: groups compete to be the ones defining durables and setting trends that others follow. thompson classifies the groups who compete into three basic types, which he (irreverently) calls the “high priests,” “crashers through,” and “levellers” (thompson 2003; 2017). the high priests try to maintain the status quo: they act to preserve extant durables and prevent change. thompson gives the example of literary critics defining and protecting an established canon of great (durable, feted) authors as the behavior of high priests (thompson 2003:325). by contrast, the crashers through are those who try to redefine what is durable and so modify the class system (thompson 2003:325). using the example of the literary canon, crashers through champion the authors of “new classics” as worthy of consideration amongst “the greats”. the third classification, the levelers, seek to eliminate hierarchies and push for an egalitarian approach. returning to the literary canon example, levelers would argue that all books are equally valuable and there are no sacred texts. levelers thus “[flood] the durable category” (thompson 2003:325) and in doing so diminish the status and power of those maintaining the existing ordering system. in this article we apply the language of rubbish theory, namely durables, transients, rubbish, high priests, crashers through, and levelers, to analyze the conservation initiatives discussed in this special issue. in other words, we take knowledges as objects that can be durable (feted), transient (temporary, less valuable), or rubbish (not knowledge), and regard actors, groups, and institutions as working to maintain or change the ordering system (see also rayner 2004; swedlow 2007; 2017). the participants in the conservation initiatives described here can thus be high priests, crashers through, or levelers: they may seek to maintain the status quo, reconfigure existing hierarchies but retain some form of hierarchical organization, or democratize knowledge (and status hierarchies) entirely. in other words, each of the case studies we discuss (re)defines what counts as conservation knowledge—e.g., what and which knowledge is valued and how durable it is—and thus enacts a social order, maintaining, reconfiguring, or eradicating different hierarchies of expertise and status. the language of durable, transient, rubbish, high priests, crashers through, and levelers comes from rubbish theory. we emphasize that our use of these concepts is not a normative endorsement of any particular ordering or valuation system or sociopolitical formation. rather, we use rubbish theory as a tool to illuminate the socio-political stakes in efforts to modify what counts as knowledge in conservation and environmental sciences, and what such initiatives say about the conservation community. in applying rubbish theory to the case studies from this special issue, we periodically write as if conservation science and ilk are distinct objects if that is how they are represented in the research we discuss (cf. beaulieuguay 2020). this usage does not reflect a normative position: ilk-holders may be (and often are) conservationists, scientists, or conservation scientists with training in the western academy (e.g., cajete 2020). our goal is to illuminate the processes through which orderings of knowledge are enacted and spotlight their consequences for socio-political hierarchies. we purposely avoid arguing for or against particular knowledge hierarchies and strive to apply strategic essentialisms as seldom as possible (cf. singleton et al. 2021). the articles in this special issue focus upon processes of integrating ilk with western science, with science envisaged as the durable of focus. this is only part of the story. in other contexts, ilk—or, for that matter, other knowledges—are the durable, and actors other than western scientists thus may play the role of high priests facing off against levelers and crashers through. we draw readers’ attention to this point because a) the rubbish theory hypothesis should pertain to any given context (cf. singleton 2021), singleton and gillette. 2023. ethnobiology letters 14(2):83–91 86 perspectives special issue on diverse conservations making this discussion relevant to any and all orderings of knowledge and b) our application of rubbish theory is just that—an application of a theory that is intended to illuminate a particular set of social processes, and not an endorsement of any knowledge hierarchy or socio-political ordering. ilk-conservation collaborations: crashing through and levelling overall, participants in the research described in this special issue view ilk as durable and exemplify the positions of crashers through and levelers. these positions characterize ethnobiology as a scholarly field while also reflecting a broader historical trend in (western) environmental and conservation scholarship. as a discipline, ethnobiology puts nonwestern ecological knowledge and ways of knowing at the center of its research agenda (see turner et al. 2022). in rubbish theory terms, ethnobiologists depart from the presumption that ilk is not rubbish: it is collectively valued within particular communities and deserves attention from western scientists. turning to the historical trend in western academic conservation and environmental sciences, academics and practitioners (such as the international conservation union) began paying attention to ilk in the 1980s, which in turn led to the formation of a global network of indigenous knowledge resource centers in the 1990s (see berkes 2018:23–25). participants in these developments asserted the value of ilk, arguing that it had been disregarded in conservation and environmental management yet actually was key to understanding ecology and environmental stewardship. as the contributions to this special issue show, bringing ilk into conservation challenges the assumptions of reductionist environmental science and modifies how conservation is practiced (see also berkes 2004, 2018; turner et al. 2022; cf. kashwan et al. 2021). in this special issue, the texts directly challenge what could be called a high priest’s position that western science is the only durable knowledge for conservation. several of this issue’s authors and research participants can be classified as crashers through: they seek to redefine what counts as durable knowledge and reconfigure hierarchies of expertise. the articles by keleman et al. (2023:10–21) and shebitz et al. (2023:37–46) exemplify this orientation. keleman et al. argue for the importance of overlooked sources of knowledge: they argue that diola children (particularly boys) learn ilk of significance for biodiversity conservation, particularly the “sustainable exploitation of mangrove ecosystems” that respects “local bio-cultural identity” (2023:10). in other words, the ethnobiological knowledge of diola children can contribute to better (western) science-based sustainability. shebitz et al. (2023) is a second case of crashing through. in this article the authors argue that the dominant valuation system in conservation practice misses the ethnobiological importance of secondary forests to local communities and biodiversity. the authors seek to move secondary forests from transient to durable alongside primary growth forest, altering but not upending how land is classified. a second group of articles that manifest a desire to crash through simultaneously articulate a wish to reshape the socio-political formations within which knowledges operate; in other words, they attempt to unmake boundaries between knowledge objects and exhibit a levelling or egalitarian impulse. for example, bolletin et al. (2023:47–55) describe several cases in which ilk informs research endeavors by oceanographers, ecologists, and other western-trained scientists and indeed reshapes the practice of western science. the authors argue that ilk-holding communities can combat the disregard of brazilian and global society through these collaborations, from which they draw cultural strength and independence. the conservation collaboration affirms the expertise of local knowledge holders and scientists against other socio-political actors. sandroni also imagines a reconfigured social order in her vision of “convivial… conservation” (2023:73). employing discourse analysis, she interrogates the perspectives of environmentalists and indigenous people in the brazilian atlantic forest, arguing that these two groups share more than is generally recognized. yet while her analysis shows that “preservationist” and “indigenous” positions on biodiversity are not necessarily opposed, she also writes that political change is needed for tupinambá to exert significant influence over conservation. in other words, sandroni sees the potential for “convivial” or more egalitarian conservation practices, not their implementation— perhaps because of opposition from national political powers (e.g., former president bolsonaro) that counteract possibilities for local conviviality. a third article that crashes through while also advocating levelling is mcguire and mawyer (2023:22–36). these authors use the cases of sea salt and fresh water to demonstrate that ilk can provide environmental singleton and gillette. 2023. ethnobiology letters 14(2):83–91 87 perspectives special issue on diverse conservations indicators about coastal ecologies which mainstream conservation has failed to recognize. local cultural practice thus hints at the possibility of alternative valuing systems and suggests ways to reconfigure conservation and stewardship to promote an ethics of care. ilk is durable because it addresses blind spots within the dominant practice of conservation science—and ethnobiologists can, by implication, help (other) conservationists to recognize these blind spots. the authors of these five articles adopt the perspective that intercultural dialogue is possible and desirable for western scientists and ilk communities (see also molnár and babai 2021; reyes-garcia et al. 2022). perhaps unsurprisingly, given the history of ethnobiology (see turner et al. 2022), the researchers themselves play a crucial role in moving ilk into the category of durable. the authors vary, however, in the extent to which they explicitly consider the sociopolitical impacts of knowledge integration or pluralism. their work suggests that hierarchies of expertise should be modified, and that new experts— indigenous peoples and local communities—be included in conservation initiatives. at the same time, these texts depart from the premise that academic scientists should continue to have the status of expert, albeit in partnership with ilk-holders who are also recognized as expert. the possibility or specific nature of any potential hierarchy between these groups is left undiscussed. this has consequences for when and if conflicts arise between these diverging categories of expert. a final paper takes a more radical levelling position: in this explicitly anti-colonial article, unmaking hierarchies takes center stage. bosco and thomas (2023:56–71) describe a community-based action research project in which academic researchers and indigenous people came together to design and implement an initiative to vitalize haudenosaunee culture through renewed attention to forest food crops. with an explicitly articulated desire to contribute to decolonization through food sovereignty and “reconciliatory” science, this project manifests a strong levelling or egalitarian impulse. in this article, western scientists recognize ilk as durable, and the project effectively seeks to dismantle social hierarchies that exclude or marginalize indigenous knowledge-holders. this resonates with the argument that decolonization requires nonindigenous scientists accepting ilk on ilk-holders’ terms (cf. lopez-maldonado 2022), which in turn requires overturning the socio-political legacies of colonialism that persist today. concluding discussion in this analysis we have drawn on rubbish theory to highlight the relationship between diversifying knowledges for conservation and modifying the socio -political order. in broad strokes, the contributions to this special issue manifest two trends in ethnobiology and ilk-western science collaborations: the desire to expand the epistemological community of conservation science (crashing through) and the desire to unmake hierarchies of knowledge in service of an anticolonial social order and new “community” (levelling). efforts to extend the epistemological community of science—a practice which arguably characterizes ethnobiology as a scholarly field—seek to redefine which knowledge is or is not durable, yet posit, if only implicitly, the continuing importance of expert status and thus social hierarchies in conservation practice. in the language of rubbish theory, advocates of this position want to modify the class society of conservation but retain a hierarchical order in which some knowledges (perhaps including their own) are more durable than others and some actors more expert than others. by contrast, advocates of anticolonial conservation projects problematize the politics and status of (western) “experts” who are granted the right to control the movement of knowledge into the durable category. in this framing, western science has played a central role in colonial projects of domination and is a stateand settler-serving institution at odds with an egalitarian (or more egalitarian) social order. ilk does not need western science or scientists to make it durable, although ethnobiologists may play a role in calling attention to the durability of ilk. however, in the more radical expressions of this levelling perspective, ilk does not need western science or scientists at all (see lopez-maldonado, 2022). in this special issue, participating authors offer different potential articulations of a more level or egalitarian social formation, but make it clear that radical change to the political order is needed. this includes changing the status of western science—now potentially rubbish— and (some) western scientists, whose expertise may be demoted or even unprivileged within alternative orderings (cf. alfred 2005). there are times that the agendas of crashers through and levelers are not at odds; both may seek singleton and gillette. 2023. ethnobiology letters 14(2):83–91 88 perspectives special issue on diverse conservations to undermine the authority of particular high priests. arguably, this is one of the appeals lying behind calls to bring ilk and western science together and part of ethnobiology’s scholarly mission. our point, however, is that an implicit tension remains between crashing through and levelling that may make itself felt within apparently collaborative relationships. in our view, the socio-political implications of redefining and expanding what counts as knowledge for conservation are underacknowledged in the literature (see rayner 2012). knowledge politics can never be separated from wider political struggles—they are one and the same thing. rubbish theory allows us to highlight that ilk-conservation collaborations can be, intentionally or unintentionally, mutiny on the boundary. such collaborations have social and political stakes. reclassifying an object such as ilk or western science changes the socio-political order. different actors manifest diverging views about what changes are necessary. many crashers through want to modify the class society by acknowledging ilk as durable and ilk-holders as experts, while simultaneously retaining western science (including ethnobiology) as durable and western scientists as experts. levelers by contrast tend to adopt a more radical position, questioning for example whether practitioners of western science should be accorded rights to evaluate and judge ilk’s value and authenticity (its durability), and challenging the extent to which western science, including ethnobiology, should be accorded expert status. behind ilkwestern scientific collaborations lie crucial questions to confront: should there be experts and expert knowledge, and if so, who and what? through what relationships or institutions should conservation initiatives be created, implemented, and evaluated? who is conservation for, and what community gets to decide? these sorts of questions manifest most clearly when conflict emerges within western science– indigenous collaborations (e.g., blaser 2009; nadasdy 2011; west 2006). given that desires for more egalitarian knowledge practices and desires for expert knowledge hierarchies are in tension, with potential for conflict, we recommend that participants in ilk–western science collaborations (within ethnobiology and elsewhere) explicitly confront the contradiction between extending knowledge and maintaining hierarchies (cf. thompson 2008). this includes confronting the differences between western science-based empirical validation and science derived from experience or practice, and the resultant hierarchies that exist in relation to these diverse knowledges in different contexts. as thompson and others have argued, clashes between social orders and world views have the potential to engender more complete knowledge, leading to outcomes that transcend the possibilities enabled by a single perspective (see verweij and thompson 2011). participants in ilk–western science collaborations who recognize and discuss their diverging understandings, goals, and visions have a better chance of identifying areas where they might form temporary alliances (see singleton et al. 2021) and open their collaborations to the possibility of richer, more complete understandings that could ultimately result in better responses to the shared environmental challenges we face. we contend that participants in ilk–western science projects should speak openly about what their values are: what they prize as durable and how willing or eager they are to promote incremental (crashing through) or radical (levelling) change to conservation as currently practiced, as well as to the broader socio-political formation within which conservation initiatives occur. western scientists may need to demonstrate that they are cognizant of science’s social status as feted (durable) knowledge, and the ways in which recognition of their expertise accords their pronouncements legitimacy (rayner 2004:352). since there is no value without its antithesis (see thompson 2003), according to western scientists, particular ilkholders, or any other group status as experts in turn necessitates that others are defined as non-expert or less expert within specific knowledge domains (cf. lidskog and sundqvist 2018). similar valuations occur when indigenous or other communities develop their own research protocols and methodologies, which may differ from western scientific methods and promote ilk-holders as experts (see smith 2012). our experience and the case studies presented here suggest that in many ilk-science collaborations, all involved endorse both conservation and indigenous rights. left unaddressed, however, is what happens if these imperatives clash. which values are more durable? one example of a path towards a resolution that contrasts with inevitable conflict that we imagine here emerges in the work of mario blaser (2016, 2018). blaser seeks to mitigate persistent conflicts between western scientists backed by national and regional authorities and indigenous innu people in labrador, canada. these conflicts have occurred around caribou (or atiku) hunting and singleton and gillette. 2023. ethnobiology letters 14(2):83–91 89 perspectives special issue on diverse conservations conservation; as two distinct social systems ordering objects differently, innu and settler-science inevitably clash. blaser and colleagues’ solution is to design institutional arrangements that keep the ordering systems of scientists and innu apart. in this model, the need to determine where each party stands with regard to the durability or transience of one another’s knowledge is elided and “equivocacy” maintained (blaser 2016, 2018). the hope is that those involved can in this way avoid clashing over which values and concomitant social orderings are more durable. whatever model one adopts for ilk–western science conservation collaborations, calls for diversifying knowledges speak to what sort of society we want. as the contributions to this special issue show, researchers, indigenous and local peoples, and other “communities” have argued persuasively that conservation and sustainability should not rely solely on western science. at the same time, western scientific facts—which, in the best tradition of the western academy, have themselves been subject to continuous challenge and reformulation—have been durables for over 100 years, and many who advocate using ilk for conservation and environmental stewardship acknowledge that western science has contributed, at least sometimes, to alleviating suffering and promoting positive change (e.g., turner et al. 2022: 628–629; see also ravetz 2006). various actors may have their doubts about western science and scientific experts, but still wish to retain the existence of expert knowledge (cf. gustafsson and lidskog 2012; rose 2018). whether or if western science is rubbish and how far we wish to go with diversifying knowledges in a “post-truth” world (cf. rose 2018) are crucial questions for collective deliberation. put another way, knowledge-holders of all sorts may wish to consider at what point they wish to operate as crashers through, levelers, or high priests, and consider what consequences such choices have. notes 1rubbish theory may be assimilated into mary douglas’s (and michael thompson’s) “cultural theory” (cf. thompson 2003). we have kept the use of cultural theory terms to a minimum to avoid confusion. acknowledgments we wish to thank the anonymous reviewers of this article, whose perceptive comments and suggestions significantly improved our text. we presented a draft of this research in 2022 at the annual conference of the swedish anthropology association (sant) and the score 2.0 organizing the world conference at the stockholm centre for organizational research, where we benefitted from listeners’ active and thoughtful engagement with our paper. we are also grateful to fikret berkes for his reflections and support throughout the writing process. declarations permissions: none applicable. sources of funding: gillette gratefully acknowledges funding from formas grant 2018-00251. conflicts of 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conservation of secondary forests as medicinal plant habitat. ethnobiology letters 14(2):37–46. doi:10.14237/ebl.14.2.2023.1831. sidorova, e. 2020. the incorporation of traditional ecological knowledge in the arctic council: lip service? polar record 56. doi:10.1017/ s0032247420000273. singleton, b. e. 2021. the whale watched and whaled: exploring the orderings of a complex environmental issue through the lens of rubbish theory. journal of political ecology 28:396–415. doi:10.2458/jpe.2928. singleton, b. e., m. gillette, a. burman, and c. green. 2021. toward productive complicity: applying ‘traditional ecological knowledge’ in environmental science. anthropocene review. doi:10.1177/2053019621105702. smith, l. t. 2012. decolonizing methodologies: research and indigenous peoples. zed books, london. swedlow, b. 2007. using the boundaries of science to do boundary-work among scientists: pollution and purity claims. science and public policy 34:633-643. doi:10.3152/030234207x264953. swedlow, b. 2017. three cultural boundaries of science, institutions, and policy: a cultural theory of coproduction, boundary-work, and change. review of policy research 34:827-853. doi:10.1111/ ropr.12233. tengö, m., b. j. austin, f. danielsen, and a. fernandez-llamazares. 2021. creating synergies between citizen science and indigenous and local knowledge. bioscience 71:503–518. thompson, m. 2003. time’s square: deriving cultural theory from rubbish theory. innovation: the european journal of social science research 16:319– 330. doi:10.1093/biosci/biab023. thompson, m. 2008. clumsiness: why isn't it as easy as falling off a log? innovation: the european journal of social science research 21:205–216. doi:10.1080/13511610802404922. thompson, m. 2017. rubbish theory. the creation and destruction of value, 2nd edition. pluto press, london. turner, n. j., a. cuerrier, and l. joseph. 2022. well grounded: indigenous peoples’ knowledge, ethnobiology and sustainability. people and nature 4:627–651. doi:10.1002/pan3.10321. verweij, m., and m. thompson, eds. 2011. clumsy solutions for a complex world. governance, politics and plural perceptions. palgrave macmillan, basingstoke. west, p. 2006. conservation is our government now. the politics of ecology in papua new guinea. duke university press, london. ethnobiology after four years of socioecological violence flachs et al. 2021. ethnobiology letters 12(1):16–18 16 editorials the certification of joseph r. biden jr.’s presidential electoral college win. against the backdrop of these overt calls for destruction, the united states withdrew from the paris climate accords. bureaucracies charged with regulating environmental relationships including the department of interior, environmental protection agency, and department of agriculture perpetuated the quiet work of structural violence through ecological destruction that disproportionately affects the wellbeing of nonwhite and poor communities. they reduced the indigenous-led bears ears national monument by 85%, rolled back more than 100 environmental protections, limited how scientists could use research in rulemaking, and granted a stay on regulatory enforcement for polluting industries, including confined animal feeding operations, during the coronavirus pandemic (brugger 2020; popovich et al. 2020; smith 2020). in a fitting symbol of such pointed, cruel violence against the web of life, florida wildlife authorities are investigating a manatee graffitied with “trump” in block letters (diaz 2021). these policies of nativism and environmental injustice in the united states emboldened similar ones abroad. ruling governments in brazil, russia, india, china, the united kingdom, and poland, to name a few, have also intensified violence against ethnic, religious, biological, political, and cultural life. but in the united states, at least, the administration is leaving. in spite of these challenges, ethnobiologists continued to stand against the violence of white supremacy, which is antithetical to the core socioecological relationships that define ethnobiology. four years ago, the editors of ethnobiology letters (welch et al. 2016) reaffirmed our scholarly and personal commitments to the diversity of ecological and human life. we hoped that our free, open access publication would continue to provide space for ethnobiologists and scholars in related fields to celebrate disciplinary and epistemological plurality. as a community dedicated to the interdisciplinary study of humans, plants, animals, and ecologies, we did not know then what four years of governance under president donald trump would mean for the society of ethnobiology and our larger community. but we feared an intensification of violence against indigenous peoples, the destruction of environments, the commodification of scientific knowledge, and cruelty toward the biological and cultural diversity that defines ethnobiological research and ethics. it was worse than we feared. channeled through a harmful rhetoric to return to a past defined by settler colonial greatness, the trump administration ceaselessly attacked institutions of biological and cultural diversity. over the past four years, officials from the highest office in the united states sought to ban muslim migrants, separated families migrating into the united states of america, encouraged violence against indigenous communities protesting pipeline projects invading their land, failed to act as epidemics of police violence (peeples 2019) and coronavirus (kullar et al. 2020) intensified across the country at the disproportionate expense of black, indigenous, and communities of color, and supported white supremacist violence including an armed insurrection at the united states capitol to prevent ethnobiology after four years of socioecological violence andrew flachs1*, elizabeth a. olson2, john m. marston3, and maria c. bruno4 1department of anthropology, purdue university, west lafayette, usa. 2department of history, sociology, and anthropology, southern utah university, cedar city, usa. 3department of anthropology, boston university, boston, usa. 4department of anthropology and archaeology, dickinson college, carlisle, usa. *aflachs@purdue.edu received january 18, 2021 open access accepted january 19, 2021 doi 10.14237/ebl.12.1.2021.1750 published january 22, 2021 copyright © 2021 by the author(s); licensee society of ethnobiology. this is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution-noncommercial 4.0 international public license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0), which permits non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. flachs et al. 2021. ethnobiology letters 12(1):16–18 17 editorials in a critical antidote to the destruction of humanenvironmental relationships, ethnobiologists are working to protect lands and ecosystems against settler colonialism (black elk and baker 2020) and working to strengthen claims to food, seed, knowledge, land, and sovereignty (armstrong and mcalvay 2019). the society of ethnobiology worked quickly to establish the rapid assistance fund for indigenous communities and individuals in need as we are putting action behind our voiced support of indigenous, native, first nations, and others historically oppressed by colonization. our members teamed up with local communities to document the true, human-entangled histories of land as a protection against its destruction and exploitation (lepofsky et al. 2017; thornton et al. 2019) and interrogated methods for inclusive research (carlessi 2019; sullivan et al. 2018), all while working to expand the voices and perspectives we publish in our professional communications (fowler and herron 2018): ethnobiology letters, the journal of ethnobiology, and contributions in ethnobiology. the society has amplified our presence on social media as we work to break down elite academic barriers. hard, dedicated work remains ahead to leverage our community of scientists, teachers, practitioners, and observers. we believe there is cause for cautious optimism with the next administration and the emerging commitment in the united states (but also elsewhere) to reversing some of the damage that has been done. the election of joe biden and kamala harris will not only bring a change in the white house, but also the nation’s policies as enacted through federal agencies. within the new administration, we are particularly looking forward to the work of the first indigenous person, deb haaland (laguna pueblo), to hold a cabinet position as secretary of the interior, and the influence of scholar of science, technology, and social inequality, alondra nelson, as deputy science policy chief. our members, with much of the united states, are looking to re-establish the bears ears national monument, rescind the keystone xl pipeline permit, return to a reliance on evidencebased science, and recover from the pandemics that have plagued our country through an effective vaccination campaign and genuine efforts to protect black and non-white lives. the momentary victory of removing president trump from office and ushering in a new administration was made possible by massive grassroots efforts to get out the vote in communities of color that have long been disenfranchised. repair and solidarity remain critical for these seeds to thrive. in a year when face-to-face sociality can be deadly, ethnobiology demands that respectful relationships grow between and within academic and community organizations who share a common goal of better understanding diverse experiences of living on earth. we must continue to grow and listen as a community dedicated to biological and cultural wellbeing, especially in the wake of the covid-19 pandemic that has forced a reflection on the ongoing importance of multi-generational knowledge grounded in place (vandebroek et al. 2020). ethnobiology has always been interdisciplinary and political in its interweaving of cultural and ecological systems. the editors of ethnobiology letters look forward to continuing to make space for plural voices by publishing open access research that features methods, perspectives, and reviews that investigate the more-than-human dimensions of our entangled lives. references cited armstrong, c. g., and a. c. mcalvay. 2019. introduction to special section on action ethnobiology. journal of ethnobiology 39:3–13. doi:10.2993/0278-0771-39.1.3. black elk, l., and j. baker. 2020. from traplines to pipelines: oil sands and the pollution of berries and sacred lands from northern alberta to north dakota. in plants, people, and places: the roles of ethnobotany and ethnoecology in indigenous peoples’ land rights in canada and beyond, edited by nancy j. turner, pp. 137–187. mcgill-queen’s press, montreal, canada. brugger, k. 2020. trump administration expands reach of 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disparity of coronavirus disease 2019 in african american communities. the journal of infectious diseases 222:890–893. doi:10.1093/infdis/jiaa372. lepofsky, d., c. g. armstrong, s. greening, j. jackley, j. carpenter, b. guernsey, d. mathews, and n. j. turner. 2017. historical ecology of cultural keystone places of the northwest coast. american anthropologist 119:448–463. doi:10.1111/ aman.12893. peeples, l. 2019. what the data say about police shootings. nature 573:24–26. doi:10.1038/d41586 -019-02601-9. popovich, n., l. albeck-ripka, and k. pierre-louis. 2020. the trump administration is reversing more than 100 environmental rules. here’s the full list. the new york times, october 16, 2020, sec . cl imate. avai lable at : ht tps:// www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/climate/trump -environment-rollbacks-list.html. accessed on january 15, 2021. smith, a. v. 2020. trump’s impact on indian country over four years. high country news, december 16, 2020. available at: https:// www.hcn.org/articles/indigenous-affairs-trumpsimpact -onindian-country-over-four-years . accessed on january 15, 2021. sullivan, a., a. brewis, and a. wutich. 2018. studying children’s cultural knowledge and behaviors related to environment, health, and food: methods for ethnoecological research with children. journal of ethnobiology 38:276–293. doi:10.2993/0278-0771-38.2.276. thornton, t. f., m. rudolph, w. geiger, and a. starbard. 2019. a song remembered in place: tlingit composer mary sheakley (loo) and huna tlingits in glacier bay national park, alaska. journal of ethnobiology 39:392–408. doi:10.2993/ 02780771-39.3.392. vandebroek, i., a. pieroni, j. r. stepp, n. hanazaki, a. ladio, r. r. n. alves, d. picking, r. delgoda, a. maroyi, t. van andel, c. l. quave, n. y. paniaguazambrana, r. w. bussmann, g. odonne, a. m. abbasi, u. p. albuquerque, j. baker, s. kutz, s. timsina, m. shigeta, t. p. r. oliveira, j. a. hurrell, p. m. arenas, j. p. puentes, j. hugé, y. yeşil, l. j. pierre, t. m. olango, and f. dahdouh-guebas. 2020. reshaping the future of ethnobiology research after the covid-19 pandemic. nature plants 6:723–730. doi:10.1038/s41477-020-0691-6. welch, j. r., j. m. marston, and e. a. olson. 2016. plurality in ethnobiology: a look towards 2017. ethnobiology letters 7:106–106. doi:10.14237/ ebl.7.1.2016.861. centering indigenous cultural resurgence to improve ecological restoration: learnings from the revitalization of cultural keystone places of the quw’utsun peoples sachs et al. 2025. ethnobiology letters 16(2):58–73 58 perspectives special issue: historical ecology & cultural keystone places centering indigenous cultural resurgence to improve ecological restoration: learnings from the revitalization of cultural keystone places of the quw’utsun peoples nava s. sachs1, tara g. martin2, and jennifer grenz1* 1department of forest resources management, university of british columbia, vancouver, canada. 2department of forest and conservation sciences, university of british columbia, vancouver, canada. *jennifer.grenz@ubc.ca positionality we are indigenous and non-indigenous women scientists with training from colonial institutions. the stories herein emerge from, and are part of, our work alongside co-researchers quw’utsun (cowichan tribes) and spune’luxutth (penelakut tribe), who are both hul’q’umi’num-speaking, coast salish successors of the historic quw’utsun (cowichan) nation. our research is situated in their territories, in places known today as duncan and penelakut island, british columbia (bc), canada. sachs is a fifth-generation settler from the west kootenay region of bc, the lands of ktunaxa, sinixt, and syilx peoples. grenz is an nlaka’pamux woman of mixed ancestry and member of the lytton first nation, who grew up in delta, bc on the lands of scəw̓ aθən məsteyəxʷ (tsawwassen) and xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (musqueam) first nations. martin is a fifthgeneration settler who was born and grew up on salt spring island, bc, on the lands of the quw’utsun, spune’luxutth and w̱sáneć peoples. grenz and martin met as new members in the faculty of forestry at the university of british columbia in 2021 and soon realized they shared many research interests, community connections, and research ethics. in 2022, martin hired sachs as a field technician and later taught her as an undergraduate student in her conservation planning and decision making course. sachs is now pursuing a phd under the supervision of grenz. the research we collectively present herein is inseparable from the quw’utsun and spune’luxutth peoples and places it emerges from. its value relies on continued and deepening relationships between co-researchers that form the basis of ethical consent through time. abstract many places of ancestral and cultural importance to the quw’utsun (cowichan) nation, have long been recognized by settlers as important contributors to biodiversity as habitat for rare and/or at-risk species and ecosystems. this recognition has resulted in numerous settler-led ecological restoration efforts of cultural keystone places such as garry oak (quercus garryana) meadows, western red cedar (thuja plicata) forests, and pacific salmon (oncorhynchus spp.) estuaries. while such efforts are well-intentioned, lack of understanding of pre-colonial baselines such as historical uses and stewardship practices and exclusion of cultural practices via the focus on fortress conservation have contributed to poor long-term restoration outcomes. our research alongside quw’utsun (cowichan tribes) and spune’luxutth (penelakut tribe), is showing that centering cultural resurgence in restoration planning is a critical methodology that ensures projects respect the true history of lands, uphold community values, are culturally appropriate, protect indigenous knowledges from misuse and misapplication, and ensure the reciprocal, human-land relationships required for long-term successful outcomes. our learnings have broad implications for land restoration that suggest that finding ways to strengthen human relationships (indigenous and non-indigenous) to land, could provide the commitment and stewardship needed for lands to thrive into the future. received december 2, 2024 open access accepted august 4, 2025 doi 10.14237/ebl.16.2.2025.1920 published december 1, 2025 keywords indigenous knowledge, garry oak ecosystem, camas meadow, cedar forest, estuary, conservation, reciprocity copyright © 2025 by the author(s); licensee society of ethnobiology. this is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution-noncommercial 4.0 international public license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0), which permits non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. sachs et al. 2025. ethnobiology letters 16(2):58–73 59 perspectives special issue: historical ecology & cultural keystone places introduction we are in a unique and exciting time in history when two transformational shifts are taking place. the first is a paradigm shift for western science, particularly within the fields of conservation and restoration ecology, as both are embracing and actively seeking traditional ecological knowledges to inform them after a long history of denigrating their value (shackeroff and campbell 2007; wickham et al. 2022). the second is the cultural resurgence occurring within indigenous communities, as they [we] work to reclaim and revitalize aspects such as languages, art, food systems, land and water stewardship, and governance (asch et al. 2018; corntassel 2020; grenz 2020; joseph and turner 2020; lake et al. 2017). although these two transformations may appear distinct whilst occurring along parallel trajectories, we contend that they are inherently interdependent and should be pursued in tandem. this integrated approach is exemplified by the restoration outcomes of cultural keystone places (ckps) of the cowichan nation’s, quw’utsun (cowichan), and spune’luxutth (penelakut) peoples. today, ckps, specific locations that hold profound cultural, spiritual, ecological, and historical significance for indigenous communities and other cultural groups (cuerrier et al. 2015), are often stewarded by well-intentioned, non-indigenous peoples. while their efforts can often be credited with decades-long protection of these places from colonial, capitalistic values, their ecological restoration efforts can fall short in terms of both efficacy and meaningful inclusion of the indigenous peoples of those lands (grenz and armstrong 2023). while the fields of historical ecology and ethnobiology have long acknowledged the value of indigenous knowledges and have worked tirelessly to preserve, recover, and document them (mcclenachan et al. 2024), the fields of conservation and ecology are only recently waking up to their importance, often with little or no knowledge of these original fields working within this knowledge space. the inexperience of restoration practitioners looking to improve ecological outcomes by attempting to bring together western science and indigenous knowledges, often described as braiding, weaving, and two-eyed seeing (e.g., kimmerer 2013; reid et al. 2021), has left indigenous knowledges and communities vulnerable not only to extractive practices, but also to the fragmentation and misapplication of their knowledges such that their full benefit cannot be realized (armstrong et al. 2024). within the context of british columbia (bc), canada, many indigenous nations were forced to protect and preserve their cultures in secret during a period of colonial rule that outlawed their [our] practices and dispossessed them [us] of their [our] lands (joseph and turner 2020). today, as communities heal and reconciliation efforts advance—through initiatives such as the truth and reconciliation commission of canada (truth and reconciliation commission of canada 2015) and the 2019 enactment of bill 41, which aligns bc with the united nations declaration on the rights of indigenous peoples (undrip [government of british columbia 2019; legislative assembly of british columbia 2019])—indigenous communities are enacting cultural resurgence. defined as the active and ongoing reclamation of cultural practices such as language, traditions, art, ceremonies, governance, foods, and land stewardship (coulthard 2014), cultural resurgence is seldom acknowledged in restoration ecology or integrated into restoration planning (grenz 2020). there are other examples in bc of cultural resurgence being enacted by indigenous communities as they [we] work to reclaim their [our] traditional food systems (joseph and turner 2020). hul’q’umi’num’ and w̱sáneć coast salish nations are revitalizing clam gardens in the salish sea, strengthening food sovereignty, land-based learning opportunities, and intertidal ecosystem health (augustine and dearden 2014; olsen 2019; wickham et al. 2022). kwetlal (camassia quamash, camassia leichtlinii, and camas) food systems are being reinstated in lək̓ʷəŋən (lekwungen) territory through traditional harvesting and pit cooking practices, invasive species removal, and educational campaigns (corntassel and bryce 2012). while distinct and place-based, these initiatives demonstrate connections between cultural resurgence tied to foodways and the recovery of threatened ecosystems. working alongside quw’utsun and spune’luxutth peoples, both successors of cowichan nation, in the salish sea, pacific northwest of north america, we are undertaking ecological restoration and conservation research at ckps to address nationidentified concerns such as the impacts of multiple cumulative stressors (e.g., land use change and climate change) on native plants, animals, and ecosystems. in practice, this positions the quw’utsun and spune’luxutth communities we work alongside as “co sachs et al. 2025. ethnobiology letters 16(2):58–73 60 perspectives special issue: historical ecology & cultural keystone places researchers”—we work together as equal partners to determine the research process, from developing questions to interpreting and sharing findings, to ultimately ensure that outcomes center their values and priorities (grenz 2020; wilson 2008). as our research together has progressed, our relationships with communities have deepened, and we have become engaged in other community initiatives such as site interpretation, field schools, and language revitalization at our research sites and more broadly. we have come to recognize that cultural resurgence is a critical and often overlooked land-healing methodology. this perspective challenges the conventional restoration paradigms we were trained in and initially operated within. by centering cultural resurgence as a methodological foundation, our work has been transformed into a holistic, relational practice. this approach not only strengthens connections between land, culture, and community, but also offers a meaningful pathway toward reconciliation—understood here as the transformative process, grounded in truth, of building respectful relationships between indigenous and nonindigenous peoples, as well as with lands and waters (asch et al. 2018; truth and reconciliation commission of canada 2015). we use autoethnography to reflect on our work at three cowichan nation ckps, each shaped by differing colonial histories and stages of resurgence. we illustrate how cultural resurgence, through the reclamation of indigenous land stewardship practices and foodways, enhances the health and resilience of ecosystems which depend on human relationship. methods we use autoethnography and elements of indigenous research methodologies (irms) to reflect on our respective experiences and observations conducting ecological restoration and conservation research at three ckps of the quw’utsun and spune’luxutth peoples (figures 1 and 2). autoethnography is a qualitative research method described as “both process and product,” combining personal narratives and reflections with broader cultural meaning (ellis et al. 2011). it positions the researcher not as an objective observer, but as a relational participant whose experiences, values, and transformations are part of the knowledge generated. this aligns with irms, where placing the researcher within the research and self-reflexivity are key components (grenz 2020; kovach 2021; wilson 2008). rather than simply aligning with decolonizing methodologies, our approach intentionally goes beyond decolonization. while decolonization seeks to dismantle colonial structures and challenge western dominance in knowledge production, it can, in inexperienced hands, risk perpetuating fragmentation, tokenism, or even reproducing extractive research practices under the guise of inclusion (tuck and yang 2012). indigenization, by contrast, moves beyond inclusion within existing paradigms and re-centers indigenous epistemologies, ontologies, and axiologies as foundational to the research process (pidgeon 2019; wilson 2008). we follow an irm that prioritizes relational accountability, reciprocity, and respect, ensuring that knowledge production is grounded in the cultural resurgence and worldviews of the communities with whom we work. this approach prevents the dislocation of axiology from indigenous epistemologies and affirms that knowledge is not only contextual, but sacred, relational, and lived (kovach 2021; wilson 2008). quw’utsun nation territory description quw’utsun (cowichan tribes) and spune’luxutth (penelakut tribe), are both hul’q’umi’num-speaking, coast salish successors of the historic quw’utsun (cowichan) nation in the place known today as british columbia (bc), canada. the term coast salish broadly refers to diverse indigenous peoples whose rich and complex homelands are in the coastal regions of the pacific northwest, spanning across the imposed international border. these homelands extend roughly from the northern salish sea within south-coastal bc, down to the mouth of the columbia river in areas of western washington and northwestern oregon, united states. quw’utsun and spune’luxutth peoples were part of the quw’utsun nation before the arrival of europeans. this nation was broken up by the crown government with the creation of the reserve system and imposition of the indian act (cowichan tribes 2024). originating in 1876 to assimilate first nations through mechanisms of colonial land dispossession and cultural erasure, the indian act, amended, remains the primary law governing indian status, band governance, and reserve lands in canada (indian act 1985). the present-day quw’utsun (cowichan) and spune’luxutth (penelakut) are among six (stz’uminus [chemainus], halalt, lyackson, and hwlitsum) successors to the historic quw’utsun nation whose original territory, spanning 376,308 ha of continuous area, was reduced and sachs et al. 2025. ethnobiology letters 16(2):58–73 61 perspectives special issue: historical ecology & cultural keystone places fragmented into small, disconnected parcels under this legal framework. today, cowichan tribes, the largest single first nation band by population in bc, holds nine reserves totaling 2,389 ha. quw’utsun peoples fished the fraser river, as far away as yale and lulu island (now the site of vancouver international airport, which was a quw’utsun traditional summer base camp). they traveled all over the southern half of vancouver island, the gulf islands and as far south as sumas and nooksak in washington state. the quw’utsun population is estimated to have been 15,000 people prior to contact (cowichan tribes 2024). quw’utsun nation traditional territory sits in the rain shadow of vancouver island and the olympic peninsula and is home to the highly developed moist maritime subzone of the coastal douglas-fir biogeoclimatic zone, known for its unique and endangered ecosystems—from wetlands and estuaries to rocky outcrops, garry oak (quercus garryana) meadows, and various forest types generally dominated by coastal douglas-fir (pseudotsuga menziesii var. menziesii) (meidinger and pojar 1991). ye’yumnuts ye’yumnuts, a sacred ancestral site of the quw’utsun, is in the place now referred to as duncan, on vancouver island, bc, along somenos creek, an important canoe route that linked the ocean to inland areas. archaeological evidence reveals quw’utsun use figure 1 map of study sites at three ckps on quw’utsun (hwkw'akw'la'hwum [purple] and ye’yumnuts [yellow]) and spune’luxutth (spune’luxutth island [green]) lands. the study region (red star) is within the salish sea bioregion (blue) and the broader pacific northwest. reference map layer for the salish sea bioregion accessed through salish sea atlas (flower 2021). sachs et al. 2025. ethnobiology letters 16(2):58–73 62 perspectives special issue: historical ecology & cultural keystone places and occupation spanning over 1,300 years, from 2,800 –800 years bp (mclay et al. 2009, 2013). the site includes cooking features with plant and fish remains and evidence of extensive management for camas (c. quamash and c. leichtlinii) production through weeding, transplanting, and cultural fire practices in the surrounding garry oak meadows (turner 2014). after being stolen and sold as farmland in 1876, ye’yumnuts was used as pasture for over a century and later slated for residential development in 1992 (commemorating ye’yumnuts 2023). the discovery of its archaeological significance led to efforts to protect it, preserving an important ancestral site which includes a legacy-state quw’utsun food system, referred to today as a garry oak ecosystem, of which only 1-5% remain in bc (lea 2006). currently, ye’yumnuts is being restored as an historic interpretive site and food system led by cowichan tribes and an interdisciplinary team of researchers including archaeologists and anthropologists. my (grenz) involvement focused on ecological restoration of the site which included ethnographic work, such as interviews with quw’utsun elders. while work is on-going, the site now hosts land-based learning for students, with interpretive infrastructure under development, and has held traditional feasts in recent years. hwkw’akw’la’hwum the cowichan bay estuary is near the city of duncan, bc, in quw’utsun territory where the xwulqw’selu sta’lo’ (koksilah river) and quw’utsun sta’lo’ (cowichan river) flow into the salish sea after joining together. this place embodies a legacy-state indigenous food system, meaning its ecology reflects the colonially disrupted history of land and water stewardship by quw’utsun peoples where only remnants of their diverse traditional plant foods, medicines, and marine proteins remain today (hul’qumi’num treaty group 2005). the area has been further degraded by the impacts of the forestry industry, agriculture, and other development. extensive diking (circa late 1800s) completely altered figure 2 the three ckp study sites. top left: hwkw'akw'la'hwum, where restoration is ongoing for conversion of the degraded farm site to revitalized quw’utsun estuary food system. bottom left: spune’luxutth island, where indigenous-led deer stewardship has remained intact even in colonial times, regulating deer populations which benefits cedar forest plant communities as indigenous food systems. right: s’amuna’ looking towards ye’yumnuts, where indigenous land stewardship has been disrupted for over a century and settler-led restoration efforts have seen minimal success. photos (in order): nature trust bc, sachs, grenz. sachs et al. 2025. ethnobiology letters 16(2):58–73 63 perspectives special issue: historical ecology & cultural keystone places the 363-hectare estuary, draining large portions of it to make it suitable for farming. today, the cowichan estuary restoration project (cerp)—the largest estuary restoration project ever on vancouver island, led by the nature trust of british columbia, cowichan tribes, and the indigenous ecology lab (grenz)—aims to revitalize this ecosystem and build climate resilience. this will involve the removal of over two kilometers of failing agricultural dikes, including those surrounding an old farm site. prior to colonization, this site was used extensively to cultivate and harvest traditional foods, and known to the quw’utsun as hwkw’akw’la’hwum, meaning “little dog salmon creek” in hul’q’umi’num (williams 2025). through the cerp, hwkw’akw’la’hwum is being reclaimed and revitalized to a quw’utsun estuarine intertidal food system. our research will be contributing to the development of a culturally centered restoration plan which includes historical ecological studies of intact portions of the estuary to assess legacy states of the food system and reconstruct precolonial baselines, assisting with reconnecting intertidal channels where farmland has been imposed for over a century to encourage habitat for salt marsh, marine riparian areas, and flood fringe forests (estuary resilience 2024), the construction of a 5-acre plant nursery to raise plant stock and seed for the project, and facilitating cultural opportunities on the land and reducing barriers to quw’utsun access. spune’luxutth spune’luxutth (penelakut) island, the largest of four penelakut reserves today, is culturally and ecologically unique in the densely settler-occupied, southern gulf islands archipelago. here, spune’luxutth’ is an independent community enacting indigenous land stewardship as they have always done, managing resources and traditional foodways through the penelakut tumuhw (land) code (penelakut tribe 2024). importantly, this includes hunting black-tailed deer (odocoileus hemionus columbianus), regulating their populations in a landscape where deer are otherwise hyperabundant and reach up to ten times pre-colonial densities due to hunting suppression, habitat expansion, and extirpation of predators (arcese et al. 2014; martin et al. 2011). spune’luxutth (penelakut) island is the only entire island in the canadian salish sea that has been lived on and stewarded continuously by an indigenous community. however, it was not unscathed by colonization. colonial disruption on the island began with arrival of british surveyors in 1851, followed by attack during the colonial war of 1863, and extended through the kuper island residential school, located on the island from 1889–1975 (arnett 1999). penelakut tribe has reclaimed stewardship of their island, practicing culture grounded in strong relationships to lands and resources (penelakut tribe 2024). the island supports, among others, the wettest of the coastal douglas fir (cdf) forests, dominated by western redcedar (thuja plicata). we refer to these ecosystems as “cedar forests” here. cedar forests throughout the cdf were quickly cleared for colonial agriculture during colonization, leading to their scarcity today (green et al. 1989). however, they have always been managed as food systems by quw’utsun peoples, enhancing harvests of berries, roots, rhizomes, and inner bark of trees, maintaining diverse understory plant communities (turner 2014). colonization and the severing of indigenous stewardship, including hunting of blacktailed deer, has contributed to deer hyperabundance throughout the salish sea and resulting ecological degradation of native plant and animal communities (arcese et al. 2014; martin et al. 2011). remnant cedar forests have been severely impacted with overbrowsing leading to the simplification of the understory vegetation structure, loss of plant diversity favoring browsing-tolerant species, and degradation of habitat for native birds and pollinators (beckett 2022; martin et al. 2011). spune’luxutth island is thus an important biocultural baseline where indigenous deer stewardship has been continuous, even in colonial times. my (martin) relationship with spune’luxutth began 20 years ago as i worked alongside elders, knowledge holders and settler community members to help protect sacred burial grounds at syuhe’mun (walker’s hook, salt spring island). this collective action was the beginning of a deeper understanding of the history of where i was born and the continued impacts of colonization on the spune’luxutth people. since then, my team (conservation decisions lab) has been working in service to support spune’luxutth and other coast salish nations in culture and land revitalization and landback (david suzuki foundation 2025; ndn collective 2025; pieratos et al. 2021). i (sachs) was introduced to spune’luxutth island as an undergraduate student and field technician in dr. martin’s conservation decisions lab in 2022, coresearching alongside spune’luxutth tribe. we sachs et al. 2025. ethnobiology letters 16(2):58–73 64 perspectives special issue: historical ecology & cultural keystone places assessed cedar forest health through vegetation surveys on the island, in comparison to neighboring, settler-managed islands where indigenous deer stewardship has been largely excluded since colonization. i am expanding on this research in my graduate studies with martin and grenz, interviewing spune’luxutth’ elders and knowledge holders to highlight relationships between cultural deer stewardship and the resilience of cedar forests as indigenous food systems. results ye’yumnuts and hwkw’akw’la’hwum i (grenz) am an nlaka’pamux woman of mixed ancestry and member of the lytton first nation, who grew up, pursued post-secondary education, and established my career in coast salish territories. my identity as an indigenous woman had little to do with my career as a restoration ecologist—until many years of restoration failures, and early work with land guardians (nation-hired stewards who monitor lands and waters, protect cultural resources, and enforce indigenous laws on their territories), made me realize that it needed to. for me, both ye’yumnuts and hwkw’akw’la’hwum projects represent a timeline of my own personal reconciliation as an indigenous ecologist trained by western science. ye’yumuts, almost a decade ago, was the place where much of my own unlearning and relearning had to occur. it is here that i learned that archaeologists and anthropologists working at the site were not simply working on their own, independent projects that had nothing to do with me. i learned that their work had everything to do with my task of creating a restoration plan for the highly degraded site. i held relics in my own hands, listened to the stories shared by elders, and for the first time in my life, became interested in history. through those experiences, learning and walking with an awareness of the significance of this cultural keystone place to my quw’utsun friends, a term i was not even aware of at the time, i realized that site degradation was a symptom of a greater problem, and successful restoration required new measures to evaluate success (grenz 2024). site degradation i witnessed, such as the encroachment of the garry oak ecosystem by native species, coastal douglas fir, and snow berry (symphoricarpos albus), and the dense thatch layers inhibiting the growth of the common camas (c. quamash) and lily species such as chocolate lily (fritillaria affinis) were a symptom of the loss of human relationship with the land. upon this realization, the loss of quw’utsun land stewardship practices became apparent everywhere i looked. i came to realize standard measures of ecological health and planning were wrong for these places—it wasn’t simply about native plant presence and condition nor casting invasive species as the primary threat to them. the more i engaged with the archaeologists, anthropologists, and knowledge keepers, i realized that restoration planning not only required meaningful inclusion of indigenous knowledges but also needed to facilitate opportunities for the revitalization of culture—both learning about it and practicing it on the land. i could see that focusing on building relationship with place through increased access, such as learning opportunities and spaces (figure 3), could also resolve some of the challenges associated with ecological restoration by promoting ongoing stewardship rooted in reciprocity. in this context, i finally understood what the phrase, “we [indigenous peoples] are the land,” meant. our own personal, cultural, and spiritual health is reflected by the land. that in healing ourselves, the land will be healed and that in healing the land, we will heal ourselves. ye’yumnuts taught me that ckps have spirit and are our teachers if we learn to listen to them. i recognized that our work was not simply to restore them, but a responsibility to work in reciprocity with these teachers by telling their story, caring for them, and strengthening relationships with them. more recently, as i have begun working on hwkw’akw’la’hwum, quw’utsun culture has come first. the work has been grounded in honoring the truth of those lands through historical ecology, and aligned with the values, needs, and vision of the community. as i stood one day, looking over a site that is the ultimate confrontation with colonialism upon the land—stolen, diked, and subjected to agrarian-style farming for a century—to be restored to a quw’utsun intertidal food system, i had a vision. i could see and hear people on the land, talking and harvesting. i could see the youth learning to hunt ducks and fish salmon on the restored channels. i could see people gathered, cooking and eating together. as our project has progressed, i saw one of my visions come to life as i watched quw’utsun gather and cook the first feast on those lands in over one hundred years. i sat beside an elder at the fire, watching him eat his clams, salmon, and potatoes, while looking at the beginnings of the five-acre plant nursery being installed to provide plants for the immense site (figure 4). centering culture has sachs et al. 2025. ethnobiology letters 16(2):58–73 65 perspectives special issue: historical ecology & cultural keystone places transformed my work to include elements i never learned about during my colonial education or career, such as finding ways to facilitate access and landback. through this reconciliation within me, i am able to help enact reconciliation on the land. i now work with a sense of hope and a confidence in our outcomes that i have never had before. we [indigenous peoples] are, indeed, the land, and i can already see how our collective resurgence is transforming and healing landscapes and people for the benefit of all relations. spune’luxutth i (martin) am a fifth-generation settler, conservation scientist, and mother. i was born on and grew up on salt spring island part of the unceded territories of the quw’utsun, spune’luxutth, and w̱sáneć peoples. surrounded by the evidence of the histories of these peoples in the culturally modified trees, clam gardens and shell middens, oak meadows and the ancient burials, i sought out knowledge from family and teachers throughout my childhood about the history of this place but was offered very little. i came to realize that the evidence of indigenous occupation of this land was actively being erased as part of the colonial project in which i was born into. stories shared with me from early settler families confirmed this erasure. they told of the days when shell middens were mined for use as road base; the roads were so bright they’d light the way home at night. i learned of land, tree, and cave burials that were present at the time of colonization but had since “disappeared,” and figure 3 ye’yumnuts. top left: learning from elder luschiim, dr. arvid charlie. top right: integration of interpretive elements. bottom right: encroachment of garry oak meadow by douglas-fir. bottom left: enabling land-based learning (construction of covered teaching area). photos by grenz. sachs et al. 2025. ethnobiology letters 16(2):58–73 66 perspectives special issue: historical ecology & cultural keystone places in my lifetime i witnessed the continuation of this erasure—ancient burials desecrated by development, culturally modified old growth cedars and firs logged, and camas gardens smothered by settler homes, farms, and gardens. the forests, meadows, and intertidal zones of the salish sea became my teachers. watching the changes in the ecology of the island as the settler population of salt spring island expanded from <1000 when i was born to >12000 today, were motivators for pursuing a career in conservation. i was trained in a discipline that viewed humans as the problem and keeping humans out of areas as the solution—fortress conservation (sapignoli and hitchcock 2023). since completing my doctoral studies in 2005, i’ve been unlearning and decolonizing the way i work in conservation, learning that re-establishing healthy human-nature relationships is the most important work of conservation. i (sachs) am a young researcher and fifthgeneration settler living in the inland temperate rainforest of bc on unceded ktunaxa, sinixt, and syilx territories. i grew up learning beneath tree canopies that were cleared more extensively each year of my childhood, a pattern that grounded in me a commitment to protecting and restoring forests. i pursued undergraduate studies in forest sciences which brought me to coast salish territories and led me to work in various outdoor research positions. along this path, i was trained to see ecosystems through a western scientific lens—as webs of species, interactions, and processes, too often unraveling in the hands of human extraction. this framing heightened my anxiety for our planet and compelled me to “find solutions”. however, as i set out to assess impacts of hyperabundant deer on cedar forests throughout the salish sea, as described below, spune’luxutth shifted my perspective. i’ve listened to elders describe their figure 4 hwkw'akw'la'hwum. top left: part of large-scale restoration of the estuary including 2km of dike removal. right: traditional quw’utsun feast at hwkw'akw'la'hwum farm site to be revitalized. bottom middle: on-site native plant nursery to support food systems revitalization. bottom left: signage at hwkw'akw'la'hwum. photos (in order): nature trust bc, grenz, sachs. sachs et al. 2025. ethnobiology letters 16(2):58–73 67 perspectives special issue: historical ecology & cultural keystone places forests as highly managed places—where traditional foods, medicines, and technologies have been enhanced over generations—and witnessed the scarcity of these same resources where their stewardship has been excluded. i now see these places not just as ecosystems but as complex indigenous food systems rooted in human relationship. as part of the conservation decisions lab’s work on understanding and predicting cumulative effects in the salish sea, we (martin, sachs, and our field crew) survey islands of differing deer densities to understand the impacts of deer hyperabundance and other stressors. as we began our work on islands experiencing high deer densities, the only sounds in the forest were crisp conifer needles and dry branches snapping underfoot, as over-browsing had swapped lush understory vegetation for desert-like conditions. without hunting or natural predators (wolves and cougars were extirpated by settlers in the early 1900s), it became clear that when deer were at high densities, the lands struggled to provide for them. the few plants remaining were low-nutrient starvation foods like sword fern (polystichum munitum) and invasive english holly (ilex aquifolium)—the forests naked and quiet. noting the buildup of wildfire fuels, defoliated shrubs, and lack of understory vegetation which many songbirds rely on for nesting and foraging and pollinators require to thrive, we ranked deer hyperabundance high on the list of threats facing these places, among fire suppression, climate change, rural development, and forestry. however, as we moved from these islands where indigenous land stewardship has long been severed, to spune’luxutth island where spune’luxutth tribe continues hunting today, we experienced a stark difference. guiding us to our plots, our spune’luxutth co-researchers shared stories about the importance of deer to nourish their community. we enjoyed cool shade of diverse understory trees and shrubs weaving additional canopies beneath towering cedars and douglas-firs. this ecological complexity hosted songbirds, calling from the branches of pacific crab-apple (malus fusca) and cascara (frangula purshiana) trees. we heard them clearly, as our footsteps fell quiet on the mossy forest floor. berries sweetened the air, signaling healthy soils, wildlife habitat, and a diversity of foods (figure 5). we learned that the ecological silence we previously felt in those high-deer-density forests was indeed the silencing of coast salish stewardship. spune’luxutth teaches us that ecological restoration must aim beyond management of a single species like deer or recovering native plant communities. by centering cultural resurgence, we (restoration ecologists and practitioners) must work toward dismantling barriers preventing indigenous communities from accessing and managing their traditional foods. this is an essential step toward ecosystem recovery in fundamentally cultural landscapes. we are learning to align our research with this understanding. our initial analyses, based on conventional measures of vegetation and deer alone, documented declines in understory plant communities on high-deer-density islands, describing unraveling ecosystems, but not the indigenous food systems before us that held immense potential for healing. it became clear that the story of our data required deeper context. interviews with spune’luxutth elders and knowledge keepers have deepened our understanding of pre-colonial deer stewardship and helped refine our research questions to center culturally relevant plant species, which are often the most palatable to deer and thus disproportionately impacted by insufficient deer management. spune’luxutth reminds us that the stewardship these forests require is embedded in reciprocal human relationships with lands and waters, including indigenous-led deer hunting. through applying an indigenous food systems lens in our research, we advocate that the healing of these relationships is integral to both indigenous food sovereignty and the restoration of cedar forests in the salish sea. discussion our experiences working alongside quw’utsun peoples at three ckps with differing colonial histories and stages of revitalization—ye’yumnuts, hwkw'akw'la 'hwum, and spune’luxutth — demonstrate each place serves as critical traditional ecological knowledge keepers, offering teachings that reconstruct the past and guide future restoration efforts. these ckps revealed not only the risks of erasure posed by western restoration practices (grenz and armstrong 2023), but also the tendency to mischaracterize, misdiagnose, and mistreat ecological degradation due to a limited understanding of historical human-land relationships. considering that the “extent of traditional resource management undertaken” and the intensity, sachs et al. 2025. ethnobiology letters 16(2):58–73 68 perspectives special issue: historical ecology & cultural keystone places frequency, and diversity of use by humans are all critical indicators of ckps (cuerrier et al. 2015), the loss of reciprocal human-land relationships is unsurprisingly antithetical to their wellbeing. this further aligns with calls to dismantle and transform colonial systems of environmental management that inhibit indigenous stewardship practices through land dispossession and centralized governance structures (artelle et al. 2021). to overcome this, we must redefine what efficacy means in restoration to center aspects of cultural resurgence, such as indigenous languages, ceremonies, land stewardship practices, and laws, instead of conventional objectives like species lists that match a reference, endangered, or “at -risk” condition. while the latter objectives hold value, ckps teach us that they emerge downstream of healthy relationships between people, culture, and place, and thus cannot be restored in isolation. this resonates with the use of biocultural indicators for social-ecological resilience and sustainability, which reflect the interdependence of ecological and cultural wellbeing (dacks et al. 2019; sterling et al. 2017). our experiences with ye’yumnuts, hwkw'akw'la'hwum, and spune’luxutth underscore how colonial conceptions of them misinterpret environmental degradation as isolated issues rather than symptoms of disrupted human-land relationships. we thus join many others (e.g., wickham et al. 2022) in challenging the notions that humans are inherently harmful to the earth. we advocate instead for restoration practices that restore traditional relationships with land. for instance, spune’luxutth offers a compelling contrast: its relatively intact indigenous, culturally based governance and stewardship, visibly distinguish it from nearby islands where indigenous stewardship has been severed and colonial governance dominates. while some point to deer hyperabundance on these nearby islands as the cause of ecological degradation, this framing overlooks the root issue, which lies in broken indigenous relationships with the land. the loss of coast salish hunting practices post-colonization has enabled deer hyperabundance, triggering the cascade of ecological impacts we observe in cedar forests today (mccomb et al. in review). in contrast to spune’luxutth, sites like ye’yumnuts, where indigenous land stewardship and governance have been disrupted for over a century, face significant challenges. surrounded by settler development and under colonial government control, these ckps have seen limited restoration success despite repeated efforts such as invasive species removal and native planting. while recent efforts to include indigenous knowledges in restoration are wellfigure 5 cedar forest understories where deer populations are hyperabundant (left: ruckle park, salt spring island) versus stewarded through continuous hunting by spune’luxutth tribe (right: spune’luxutth island). photos by sachs. sachs et al. 2025. ethnobiology letters 16(2):58–73 69 perspectives special issue: historical ecology & cultural keystone places intentioned, they often fall short of achieving longterm, desired ecological outcomes such as the recovery of threatened plant and wildlife communities. this is due to the extraction of these indigenous knowledges from their grounding in axiology and epistemology (armstrong et al. 2024; grenz and armstrong 2023). additionally, the application of indigenous knowledge without historical ecological context or limited access to the full, indigenous-led implementation of traditional stewardship practices, such as cultural fire management in garry oak meadows (turner 2014), limits their effectiveness. these efforts also fail to facilitate or enable the strengthening of human-land relationships rooted in reciprocity, which are essential for the long-term health and resilience of culturally shaped ecosystems. as we turn to the immense challenge of restoring a ckp like hwkw'akw'la'hwum, where very little remains of the quw’utsun intertidal food system it once was due to significant colonial transformation to diked, agrarian farmland more than a century ago, we draw on teachings from ye’yumnuts and spune’luxutth. this has allowed us to apply quw’utsun cultural resurgence not as a symbolic gesture, but as the guiding methodology for restoration. in doing so, our approach departs from the common and misguided practice of selectively appropriating elements from indigenous knowledge systems and labeling that as inclusion. instead, it is grounded in the appropriate axiology and rooted in relationships and accountability. in addition to being guided by quw’utsun values and community needs (grenz 2020), quw’utsun knowledge holders are integral to the decision-making processes that shape restoration efforts for their own territories (artelle et al. 2021; wickham et al. 2022). the involvement of historical ecologists and ethnoecologists within our interdisciplinary research team reflects a supporting role—bringing expertise that contributes to the establishment of precolonial baselines and providing additional lines of evidence for historical land use. their work helps to address gaps in oral histories and provides knowledge of colonial-era land use that inform future actions grounded in truth-based practice, as we recognize that truth must come before reconciliation (stein 2020). drawing from our experiences, we offer the following guidelines for cultural resurgence as a methodology for ecological restoration. it is essential that this approach is tailored to the specific histories, cultures, priorities, lands, and waters of the indigenous peoples involved. first, restoration efforts must be guided by indigenous communities on their own territories, and thus require ongoing, respectful, and reciprocal relationships between communities and restoration practitioners and researchers. this includes ensuring indigenous knowledge holders are integral to decision-making processes and that restoration outcomes reflect community-identified priorities. second, we must work to understand pre-colonial baselines, so we can set restoration goals and ask research questions that are culturally, ecologically, and historically grounded. for us, this has meant listening deeply to indigenous knowledge holders about how their lands have changed through time and collaborating with historical ecologists and ethnoecologists. third, the restoration process must remain flexible, adapting to the evolving needs and values of communities, as well as unfolding climate futures and shifting social, political, and ecological conditions. finally, we emphasize the importance of reflexivity (smith 2021) as a distinct and ongoing practice. this involves critically reflecting on our own positionalities—how who we are shapes what we see, what we value, how we are seen by others, and how this is reflected in our work. for researchers implementing cultural resurgence as a methodological approach to ecological restoration of ckps, particularly those who are not from the places in which they work, including reflexivity as an intentional and continual practice supports greater accountability, humility, and alignment with community-led goals. each of these elements may generate tensions— in academic institutions, across disciplines, and within ourselves—as they challenge entrenched westernscientific norms around research timelines, deliverables, power structures, and the epistemological foundations of ecology (grenz 2020). kovach (2021) reminds non-indigenous allies of our [their] “role in pushing back against an all-consuming eurocentrism” when working to advance indigenous-led research. additionally, as cultural resurgence is applied in restoration, and ecosystems receive the reciprocal human-land relationships they need to thrive, researchers must embrace shifting roles and responsibilities. moments for researchers to step back are important indicators of success, as community-led land stewardship is at the heart of this methodology. the intersection of indigenous cultural resurgence and ecological restoration offers a sachs et al. 2025. ethnobiology letters 16(2):58–73 70 perspectives special issue: historical ecology & cultural keystone places transformative framework for addressing the limitations of western scientific practices for healing ckps while advancing reconciliation. by positioning cultural resurgence as a foundational methodology, restoration efforts can transcend misguided and extractive approaches to embrace holistic, relational practices that honor the profound connections between land, culture, and community. the revitalization of quw’utsun cultural keystone places demonstrates how centering culture—such as language, ceremonies, foods, and land-based learning—not only strengthens ecological health and resilience but also reaffirms indigenous sovereignty and stewardship. acknowledgements we would like to acknowledge the contributions of quw’utsun and spune’luxutth elders and knowledge holders and their lands. in particular, dr. arvid charlie (luschiim), mena williams, peter williams, ken elliott, jared williams (qwustenuxun), august sylvester, ken thomas, and robert sam. declarations permissions: the studies involving humans were approved by ubc behavioural research ethics board. the studies were conducted in accordance with the local legislation and institutional requirements. the participants provided their written informed consent to participate in this study. sources of funding: this research was supported by the social sciences and humanities research council of canada, the national science and engineering research council of canada, liber ero chair in conservation (tara g. martin), and the nature trust of british columbia. conflicts of interest: none declared. references cited asch, m., j. borrows, and j. tully, eds. 2018. earthbound: indigenous resurgence and environmental reconciliation. in resurgence and reconciliation, pp. 49 –82. university of toronto press, toronto. doi:10.3138/9781487519926-004. arcese, p., r. schuster, l. campbell, a. barber, and t. martin. 2014. deer density and plant palatability predict shrub cover, richness, diversity and aboriginal food value in a north american archipelago. diversity and distributions 20:1368–1378. doi:10.1111/ddi.12241. armstrong, c. g., j. grenz, j. zyp‐loring, j. lafontaine, l. main johnson, and n. j. turner. 2024. ethnoecological perspectives on environmental stewardship: tenets and basis of 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mcgill-queen’s university press, montreal and kingston, canada. wickham, s., s. augustine, a. forney, d. mathews, n. shackelford, j. walkus, and a. trant. 2022. incorporating place-based values into ecological sachs et al. 2025. ethnobiology letters 16(2):58–73 73 perspectives special issue: historical ecology & cultural keystone places restoration. ecology and society 27:art32. doi:10.5751/es-13370-270332. williams, j. q. 2025. first person: indigenous agriculture and the cowichan estuary restoration project. available at: https://thediscourse.ca/ cowichan-valley/first-person-cowichan-estuaryindigenous-agriculture. accessed on may 26, 2025. wilson, s. 2008. research is ceremony: indigenous research methods. fernwood publishing, winnipeg, canada. let it grow (back): a call for the conservation of secondary forests as medicinal plant habitat shebitz et al. 2023. ethnobiology letters 14(2):37–46 37 perspectives special issue on diverse conservations making (einhorn 2022). in the years leading up to this agreement, there was vigorous discussion of the importance of recognizing iplc rights to territories and local community lands. iplcs are the stewards of at least half the world’s land, and their territories have some of the planet’s richest biodiversity. in tropical forests, rates of deforestation and degradation are lower in areas traditionally owned, managed, used, or occupied by indigenous peoples compared to other areas (sze et al. 2022). the nature conservatory, therefore, argued that “the 30x30 target is only achievable if the rights and territories of iplcs are fully integrated” (dudley and stolton 2022:27). introduction the impacts of deforestation coupled with the escalating impacts of climate change comprise a global emergency with serious implications for forest ecosystems and the indigenous peoples and local communities (iplc) who inhabit them. when the united nation’s biodiversity conference concluded on december 19, 2022, over 190 nations finalized a landmark agreement to preserve 30% of the planet’s land and oceans as a means to protect the world’s biodiversity by the year 2030. importantly, this 30x30 agreement recognizes the traditional knowledge held by iplc as integral parts of conservation decision let it grow (back): a call for the conservation of secondary forests as medicinal plant habitat daniela j. shebitz1*, lindsey page agnew2, steven kerns3,4, angela oviedo1 and juyoung ha1 1school of environmental and sustainability sciences, kean university, union, nj, 2middle school science teacher and independent researcher, california public schools, 3deputy attorney general, california department of justice, 4department of environmental science and policy, california state university long beach, long beach, ca *dshebitz@kean.edu abstract costa rica is widely regarded as a global leader in conservation practices. in the maquenque national wildlife refuge (mnwlr), within costa rica’s northern zone, a strong commitment to conservation has led to protecting highly biodiverse mature forests. however, a significant opportunity to strengthen conservation in this region is being overlooked at a great cost to the local community and environment: the protection of regenerating secondary forests. secondary forests account for over 50% of global tropical forests and serve vital ecological and cultural functions. within the mnwlr, many species in the secondary forests provide medicinal value to the rural communities where western medical care is difficult to access. recent research, however, has shown that secondary forests in costa rica are re-cleared within 20 years, before they have accumulated the previously lost biomass and biodiversity. in this paper, we call for conservation and management strategies to incorporate community held knowledge about culturally significant species, and for there to be economic incentives for keeping secondary forests intact and for determining which forests are designated as protected areas. we discuss previous research with two trees that are common in secondary forests in the mnwlr (vismia macrophylla and pentaclethra macroloba), recognizing that these are some of the many species that have great potential to both the ecological and social communities. while our focus area is in the northern zone of costa rica, the integration of community use and local knowledge into conservation should be a global priority. received june 27, 2022 open access accepted january 31, 2023 doi 10.14237/ebl.14.2.2023.1831 published may 31, 2023 keywords payments for ecosystem services (pes), protected areas (pa), community conservation, vismia macrophylla, pentaclethra macroloba copyright © 2023 by the author(s); licensee society of ethnobiology. this is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution-noncommercial 4.0 international public license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0), which permits non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. shebitz et al. 2023. ethnobiology letters 14(2):37–46 38 perspectives special issue on diverse conservations unfortunately, the finalized agreement does not explicitly recognize iplc lands and territories as a separate category of conservation areas. therefore, organizations such as amnesty international fear that they will not be protected from “…the predations they often experience in areas such as state-run national parks” (amnesty international 2022). conservation efforts often fail to recognize the connections between local communities, biodiversity, ecological services, and economics. furthermore, these efforts in tropical ecosystems have historically focused on primary, or old-growth forests. there is a commonly held belief that these ecosystems are “pristine” and characterized by greater levels of biodiversity than secondary forests that are recovering from disturbance, yet these previously damaged systems are essential habitat for biodiversity and provide vital ecosystem services (chazdon 2014). with secondary forests now constituting more than half of the remaining tropical forests (reid et al. 2019; taylor et al. 2017), these ecosystems have risen recently as a global conservation priority. in fact, over the past two decades, there has been a significant increase in the research and interest in the role that tropical secondary forests play in local economies, species conservation and climate change mitigation (chazdon 2014; sheil et al. 2016; taylor et al. 2017). through this perspectives paper, we call for community-based conservation efforts in costa rica that integrate local ecological knowledge into the management of secondary forests. we believe that knowledge of cultural uses of plants, such as for medicines, should be incorporated into land management decision making, specifically regarding forests that are designated as protected areas (pas). our perspective is based on our work in the northern zone of costa rica, where great strides have been taken by the government to conserve primary, or oldgrowth forests, but less of an emphasis has been on the conservation of secondary forests which house a great diversity of culturally significant plants. secondary forests have often become the predominant forest type in many tropical areas due to the destruction of old-growth primary forests. this shift in ecosystems, and the general proximity of these recovering forests to human population centers, has led local communities to rely heavily on secondary growth for resources. indeed, ethnobotanical studies of the neotropics have found that iplcs recognize secondary forests’ wealth of medicinal species; and use these forests far more than adjacent old-growth forests (chazdon et al. 2009, 2021; chazdon and coe 1999; shebitz et al. 2020). this is particularly true in the northern zone of costa rica, where chazdon and coe (1999) found that secondary forests had a significantly higher density and relative abundance of medicinal trees compared to old-growth and selectively logged forest stands. the protection of these regenerating secondary forests therefore offers a significant opportunity to strengthen conservation efforts and have substantial benefits to local communities and environments. costa rica’s forest conservation program costa rica is widely regarded as a global leader in sustainability and land conservation. over the past three decades, the country has taken strong actions to protect primary forests and limit agricultural expansion. these efforts were a response to over a half century of heavy land use and exploitation, with deforestation reaching 70,000 ha/yr in the 1970s. in 1985, national forest cover fell to its lowest point, with only 24.4–29.5% of forests remaining (tafoya et al. 2020). a nationwide ban on deforestation that was adopted in 1996 provides few exceptions for acceptable deforestation and allows only regulated logging under the country’s guidelines for sustainable forestry (fagan et al. 2013; steed 2003). with 143 terrestrial pas reported in the world database on pas, 28.4% of the country’s land is now recognized as a pa. in addition, there are 51 biological corridors that have been identified in the country, which amounts to more than 38% of its land cover. the san juan-la selva biological corridor (sjls) was created in 2001 to connect six highly biodiverse regions covering over 1,204,812 ha of costa rica’s northern zone. the land use history in the sjls is characterized by intensive agriculture following human colonization and associated deforestation in the 1970s and 1980s, which predated the 1990s forest conservation efforts (shaver et al. 2015). the maquenque national wildlife refuge (mnwr) is the nucleus of the sjls and consists of 50,000 ha of various ecosystems, including humid atlantic lowland primary and secondary forests. the mnwr contains the highest percentage of forest cover and has the most valuable habitats for biodiversity within the region (chassot et al. 2005). banning clear-cutting and establishing the sjls to conserve primary forests’ biodiversity have been essential efforts. indeed, shebitz et al. 2023. ethnobiology letters 14(2):37–46 39 perspectives special issue on diverse conservations research has shown that forest protection efforts in northern costa rica have likely slowed mature forest loss and succeeded in re-directing expansion of cropland to areas outside mature forest (fagan et al. 2013). throughout costa rica, designating pas has been successful at limiting agricultural expansion into forests, but establishing these pas in productive agricultural regions can negatively impact the local economy by limiting income (fagan et al. 2013). therefore, costa rica has tried to implement other programs to reverse the trend of tropical deforestation including promoting ecotourism and payments for ecosystem services (pes) that incentivize landowners to retain forest cover to compete with the returns from agriculture (fagan et al. 2013; tafoya 2020). in the 1996 forestry law, a voluntary pes system was established, using revenue from the 15% tax on fossil fuels. the diverse portfolio of pas, pes and ecotourism has fostered an increase in forest cover from 24.4% in 1985 to over 50% by 2011, including over 237,550 ha of land enrolled in pes contracts and 32 national parks and 230 other pas (tafoya et al. 2020). community support is the key to success for pa and community incentive programs such as pes. therefore, tafoya et al. (2020) argue that “…it is essential to improve understanding of which initiatives are more likely to not only encourage local participation, but also ensure that participation results in maintaining tropical forests and their ecosystem services they provide” (tafoya et al. 2020:2). the 1996 forest law was successful at banning the clearing of forests in costa rica, within the definition of a “forest” as having at least 70% cover over 2 ha and having 60 tree species that are greater than 15 cm dbh and have varying ages and sizes (chazdon et al. 2007). this definition, however, does not include most naturally regenerating, or secondary forests, even some that may be over 15 year of age (miller 2006). perhaps because of this strict definition for forest protection as well as a lack of adequate enforcement, recent research has found that secondary forests in costa rica have short lifespans with approximately half of the country’s secondary forests re-cleared within 20 years and 85% re-cleared within 54 years of regrowth (reid et al. 2019). these shortened lifespans negatively impact costa rica’s secondary forest biodiversity, ecosystem functions, and the iplc who rely on them. secondary forests that are undergoing natural regeneration following agricultural use are socio-ecological systems in transition, i.e., experiencing a series of non-linear societal and biophysical changes (lambin and meyfroidt 2010). when conditions are favorable and the natural vegetation regenerates over decades, this system is likely to recover the site’s original structural and functional properties, restoring ecosystem function and services (chazdon et al. 2021; reid et al. 2019). however, in the presence of negative external pressures and a depletion of essential resources in the forest system during post-agricultural recovery, the resulting degradation can lead to a major loss of ecosystem functions, often with cascading effects (lambin and meyfroidt 2010). for example, soil erosion can lead to sediment and nutrient discharges that ultimately deteriorate soil and water quality (pacheco et al. 2021) leading to an environment that is less suitable for restoration. while costa rica celebrates that mature forest loss has decreased 40% in its northern zone, the region’s pineapple production has tripled since the early 2000s. fagan et al. (2013) used satellite imagery of the region to determine that despite costa rica’s deforestation ban protecting primary forests, intensive agriculture has replaced unprotected forests, including secondary forests and wetlands. additionally, agriculture’s reliance on monocultures (e.g., pineapple or banana) and chemicals threatens the remaining forests. an example of local knowledge that can inform conservation in the summer of 2015, the authors of this paper were part of the research experience for undergraduates (reu) program for ecosystem studies in the mnwlr of costa rica funded by the national science foundation of the united states. participants and researchers explored and studied a remote, densely forested area in northern costa rica at a town called boca tapada (population approximately 250), 15km south of the nicaraguan border. for six weeks, the group slogged through mud and torrential midday rains, exploring the diversity of the lowland tropical wet forests, and trying to absorb the expertise and plant names shared by israel mena, a traditional healer who is recognized by botanists as an expert in the local forest ecology (shebitz et al. 2013, 2020; zamora, personal communication 2010). due to the proximity of the northern border, much of the “local knowledge” in this region is influenced by nicaraguan shebitz et al. 2023. ethnobiology letters 14(2):37–46 40 perspectives special issue on diverse conservations immigrants who have been arriving in costa rica since the united states occupied nicaragua between 1927 and 1932 (mitchell and pentzer 2008). here, the costa rican and nicaraguan cultures blend, particularly their shared use of plants, thus deepening the plant knowledge pool (shebitz et al. 2013). even though local cultures rely on many of the 12,000 species of costa rican plants as medicine, the vast majority of their medicinal properties are undocumented in scientific literature (gargiullo et al. 2008). the laguna del lagarto eco-lodge in boca tapada, where we stayed during our 2015 fieldwork, is within the mnwlr and is an ecotourism escape for those interested in rare tropical birds and getting far away from other tourist destinations. the lodge is surrounded by two ecologically distinct forests: the primary forest, relatively undisturbed by humans, and the secondary forest, a large tract of previously untouched primary forest that was cleared in the early 1990s for cattle grazing and has been regenerating naturally since. when we sampled, these secondary forests were approximately 20 years old. surrounding these forests are vast acres of pineapple and cattle pastures that are increasingly encroaching upon the remaining protected forests. the rapid secondary forest deforestation rate in the northern zone has led local people to recognize the urgent need to conserve and promote the cultivation of medicinal species by sharing these species’ medicinal value. this need is further emphasized by dr. nelson zamora, a leading botanist in costa rica, who stated that there is poor documentation of the identity, ecological requirements, and distribution of many culturally significant species (shebitz et al. 2013). therefore, deforestation represents more than the loss of the forest, it represents the unjust and physical loss of the local peoples’ culture and identity. as part of an earlier reu project, shebitz and students documented 60 medicinal plants that were used as medicine by boca tapada’s healers. they documented that half of the plants used were found in the forest and the other half were cultivated or found along roadsides. of those growing in the forest, the majority occur in the secondary forests and were recognized by local healers as being important for treating a wide range of ailments including gastritis, skin infections, colds/fevers, anemia, cancer, snake bites and diabetes (shebitz et al. 2013). in boca topada the closest doctor’s office is over two hours away by car, over unpaved roads that are often obstructed by flooding or tree falls. western -trained medical professionals visit the region monthly, but lack the time or resources to treat the needy. therefore, boca topadans often use the medicinal plants in the adjacent forests. our main participant in the initial ethnographic survey, israel mena, has had minimal formal education, yet he can identify every tree, liana and understory plant in the forest and describe its ecological role and medicinal use (zamora, personal communication 2010). in the summer of 2015, our research objective was to document the cultural and ecological role of species that were identified as being important for skin infections. we focused on two trees that are common in early succession (vismia macrophylla and pentaclethra macroloba) as a means of taking an ethnobotanical approach to ecological research. israel explained their medicinal preparation and use amongst local communities: the two trees are applied to the skin to treat fungal skin infections. israel harvested the inner bark with a machete, using a palm leaf to catch falling bark shavings. ecologically, both species are early colonizers of recently disturbed forests. they are also some of the first species to grow within the forest gaps of the primary forests resulting from storm damage or logging road clearings (eaton et al. 2020; shebitz et al. 2020). to learn more, we worked collaboratively to evaluate the effects that the trees had on reclaiming soil nutrients and fostering plant diversity in the primary as well as in the secondary forests as they recovered from disturbance (eaton et al. 2020; shebitz and eaton 2013; shebitz et al. 2017, 2020). as a nitrogen (n)-fixer, pentaclethra is both a strong competitor to early successional plants and a facilitator of n inputs into the surrounding soils. while it is recognized as a “climax” species, it is also prevalent in early succession in the northern zone of costa rica (taylor et al. 2017). vismia, which is not a n-fixer, was documented as a pioneer species that thrives in secondary forests and within gaps of primary forests. while we did find that it takes advantage of light and lower densities of neighboring plants, vismia did not apparently limit the growth of competing species (shebitz et al. 2020), our research focused on the ecology and ethnobotany of these two species, and we realized that they are important players in succession and shebitz et al. 2023. ethnobiology letters 14(2):37–46 41 perspectives special issue on diverse conservations recovery in a way that is part of a dynamic humanenvironmental system (eaton et al. 2020; shebitz et al. 2020). we believe that by understanding the ecological and cultural importance of individual species, we can better understand the value of secondary forest ecosystems. as relatively common species in our study site, vismia and pentaclethra, as well as the secondary forests that they are a part of, are not recognized and protected under current policies. they therefore can serve as a means for us to consider the importance of conservation policies to incorporate culturally and ecologically important plant species so that they can continue to be sustainably used by the local community. uniting three community-based conservation strategies: pas, pes, and ecotourism creating pas, such as the sjls is an effective method of conserving tropical biodiversity, but it cannot be the single conservation strategy employed. in fact, as tafoya et al. (2020) point out, countries are often ill equipped to effectively safeguard pas, especially where people rely heavily on natural resources for subsistence and environmental laws are regularly broken. in those situations, conservation policies that focus on local communities by providing economic incentives have become increasingly important tools (reid et al. 2019, tayofa et al. 2020; allen et al. 2021). without inclusion of local communities in decisionmaking and management responsibilities, pa rules are not upheld when the control of land is not ceded to local people. tafoya et al. (2020) therefore advocate for providing incentives for local community participation in order to improve tropical forest conservation. in addition to pas, costa rica’s other approaches include 1) pes programs that financially reward landowners who protect their forests, and 2) embracing ecotourism that increases local profits, protects biodiversity, and minimizes tourists’ ecological harms. through the integration of these approaches into environmental protection policies, costa rica has reversed primary forest deforestation and restored forest cover more than 50% in 2011 (tafoya et al. 2020). despite this success, we believe that there is an opportunity for these approaches to incorporate more local and indigenous knowledge into the management of the secondary forests that provide great ecological and cultural benefits. over 2.6 million tourists annually contribute $2.85 billion to costa rica’s economy, constituting a third of the country’s national revenue. despite the financial benefits of ecotourism, scholars have long questioned the negative ecological and social effects of tourism on forest degradation, stress on wildlife, and increasing inequality on tourist areas and local communities (tafoya et al. 2020). ecotourism often favors landowners who conserve their forests or who market their ecolodges to tourists over the local community. this economic disparity unjustly fails to serve the local people who often have the greatest needs (hunt and stronza 2011). so, while ecotourism can provide some much-needed jobs to remote regions like boca tapada, there is no direct link between incentive funds and the communities. the people who rely on forests for medicine, natural resources, and their cultural practices must therefore also rely on a landowner’s (private or government) financial or ethical motivation to choose forest conservation over agriculture or logging. this dynamic further entrenches the unjust power dynamic between socioeconomic classes wherein lower-income locals’ health, culture, and means are at the landowner’s whims. to educate and persuade decision-makers to conserve forests, environmental economists have begun assigning economic value to biodiversity and ecosystem services. pes programs compensate landowners for ecosystem services including carbon sequestration, hydrological services, biodiversity protection, and provisioning of scenic beauty. yet their implementation has yielded mixed results with some researchers claiming that governmentcoordinated pes cause negligible or modest reversals of deforestation while smaller-level and user-financed pes programs are effective (pattanayak et al. 2010; tafoya et al. 2020). there is also increasing recognition that the definition of ecosystem services is culturally constructed and context-dependent, based on value systems that in turn determine the value of ecosystem services. therefore, there are inherent issues with pes, which make ecosystem services reducible to a simple monetary exchange that can be incorporated into policy (allen et al. 2021). the millennium ecosystem assessment defines cultural ecosystem services (ces) as “the nonmaterial benefits people obtain from ecosystems through spiritual enrichment, cognitive development, reflection, recreation, and aesthetic experience, including, e.g., knowledge systems, social relations, and aesthetic values” (ma 2005:40). ces are defined by the relationship between diverse cultures and their shebitz et al. 2023. ethnobiology letters 14(2):37–46 42 perspectives special issue on diverse conservations local governments and must include the historical and cultural complexity that defines iplc’s interactions with, and valuations of, their ecosystems (allen et al. 2021). within the sjls, the government gives pes as conservation incentives to landowners to maintain forests by not clearing their land for agriculture (tayofa et al. 2020). the sjls is targeted for pes because of the population’s lower socioeconomic power and because its geography is suitable for linking national parks. in their research, tayofa et al. (2020) applied an integrated social-ecological approach to measure deforestation, primate diversity and abundance, and local community participation in conservation incentives across various regions of costa rica. they found that despite these incentives, from 2001-2017, the sjls region experienced a loss of 5.19 km2 of forest annually, totaling a loss of 82.97 km2 of forest. of that total, the vast majority, 78.65 km2, were in non-pas, such as secondary forests. the authors explained that of the four regions they evaluated, the sjls had the second lowest level of local community participation (44%) and second highest deforestation rate, with most of this deforestation occurring in its non-pas (94.97% of total deforestation). public participation is a necessary component for pes’s success, and should be prevalent throughout the pes development and implementation process. allen et al. (2021:16) recognized a “thin line between research, community engagement and environmental action” and argue that inviting stakeholders to participate in discussion and deliberation through workshops that establish community values for ecosystem services and associated challenges can help in “developing shared action steps towards ces conservation”. with our work focusing on culturally useful species, it is important to note that despite medicinal plants being listed as a provisioning ecosystem service in the united nations millennium ecosystem assessment of 2005, they are not emphasized within the pes system. scholars such as sucholas et al. (2017) argue that local communities’ medicinal plants should be recognized as part of the pes framework. it is possible that if the sjls stakeholders were to engage in dialogue to elucidate cultural values for ecosystem services as they did in allen et al.’s (2021) workshops in the rural central pacific region of costa rica, these stakeholders would understand and incorporate more of the culturally significant services that the secondary forests provide. in addition to the medicinal importance of many of the secondary forest plants, the forest ecosystems in northern costa rica provide a rich diversity of useful species for timber and construction materials, food, thatch, firewood, hunting and crafts (chazdon and coe 1999). while some may argue that these cultural traditions associated with harvesting necessary resources are invaluable, an economic view may help public and private land decision makers to understand the true value of ecosystem services and biodiversity and therefore support that local and indigenous communities have the means and access to sustainably use and care for nature (sucholas et al. 2017). it is not uncommon for conservation professionals and the media to refer to invaluable and largely untapped sources of new pharmaceutical products as further rationale for protecting tropical forests (caniago and stephen 1998). despite the reliance of 80% of people in developing countries on traditional medicines, discussions in non-subsistence cultures tend to highlight only the global consequences of biodiversity loss for pharmaceutical development, making little or no mention of the local consequences of biological impoverishment for the health care of local communities who depend on plant -based medicines (shanley and luz 2003). so, while the loss of potential resources for the pharmaceutical industry can rightly be understood as an additional harm of deforestation, it is unjust to view it as the primary harm to human enterprise, especially as local communities such as boca topada depend heavily on secondary forests for their medical needs. global demand for medicinal plants continues to increase by 8-15% annually (chen et al. 2016). although we advocate for medicinal plants to be valued as part of the pes system, it is essential that assigning economic value to plants does not open the secondary forests to widespread pharmaceutical bioprospecting. on the contrary, the conservation and sustainable use of these species should be prioritized. with increasing demand for herbal medicines, approximately 15,000 of the 50,000-80,000 flowering plant species used as medicine globally are threatened with extinction from overharvesting and habitat destruction (chen et al. 2016). both vismia and pentaclethra are relatively common in the northern zone of costa rica, but it would be incredibly detrimental to their population and their forests if they were subject to indiscriminate and uncontrolled shebitz et al. 2023. ethnobiology letters 14(2):37–46 43 perspectives special issue on diverse conservations collection. the protection of secondary forests allows for a in situ conservation opportunity (chen et al. 2016; shebitz et al. 2020) to protect these plant species, and the intricate network of ecological and cultural relationships that they foster. while we do advocate for an economic value to be placed on medicinal plant species in the secondary forests as a conservation strategy, it is essential that this value prioritizes the sustained local harvesting accessibility and use. applying martin lipton’s “the new paradigm” (2016) reasoning could advance the interest of all forest stakeholders. this essay has become an emerging corporate governance framework in which lipton argues that corporations responding to economic pressures have errantly maximized their short-term gains at the expense of “long-term value and the local and national communities in which they operate.” instead, corporations should reject actions or policies that threaten sustained, long-term growth and embrace stewardship to maximize long-term value. lipton’s analysis parallels the story of deforestation: as economic pressure mounted, landowners (managers) have for too long errantly maximized their short-term gains by allowing agricultural interests to clear-cut forests at the expense of “long-term value and the local and national communities in which they operate.” like the corporations in lipton’s analysis, if iplcs are central to conservation decision-making, they may realize long-term value. by embracing community-based stewardship in their forest management practices, private and public land managers might favor sustainable bioprospecting, paying local communities for their deep medicinal plant knowledge, and lobby for stronger conservation systems before deforestation occurs. there is potential for landowners, local communities, and the government to all recognize stronger long-term returns by integrating local knowledge into conservation decision making. conclusion while each tree that is cut down within a remaining patch of forest is a loss for the local ecological, economic, and social communities, the global loss of forest cover represents a crisis for climate stability and biodiversity conservation, as well as a devastating humanitarian disaster. the united nations (2021) estimates that 1.6 billion people, or 25% of the global population, rely on forests for their subsistence needs, livelihoods, employment, and income. the potential human impacts of deforestation underscore the data’s staggering nature: in the two decades between 1980 and 2000 alone, 100 million ha of tropical forest were lost (un 2021). over 12 million ha of tropical forests, including 4.2 million ha of undisturbed primary tropical forests were lost in 2020 (world resources institute 2022). the remaining 7.8 million has were secondary forests that were destroyed during their transition, before they were given the time to recover. we advocate expanding tropical forest protection to secondary forests under the pa system. in the face of deforestation, there must be a greater emphasis on incentivizing and empowering long-term forest management. moreover, these incentives must benefit local communities by ensuring that they can sustainably use the forest’s resources. secondary forests are considered the “forests of tomorrow” (chua and potts 2018), but they are the forests of today too. allowing them to fully develop as pas presents a unique opportunity to implement community-based conservation efforts. as local people continue to sustainably harvest resources from the forests, the forests simultaneously mitigate climate change and foster biodiversity. but deforestation will inevitably force these local communities to increasingly depend on a vanishing resource. it is therefore essential to gain a deeper understanding of the social and ecological benefits of these young forests and ensure their continued global presence. acknowledgments we are truly grateful to those who generously shared their knowledge of medicinal plants with us, especially israel mena, and to kurt schmack, adolfo gonzalez, and the rest of the staff of the laguna del lagarto lodge for their hospitality. declarations permissions: a research permit was issued with the instituto nacional de biodiversidad (inbio) and institutional review board (irb) approval was granted through kean university. sources of funding: nsf reu biology grant # 1262907 and kean university orsp. conflicts of interest: none declared. references cited allen, k. e., c. castellano, and s. pessagno. 2021. using dialogue to contextualize culture, ecosystem services, and cultural ecosystem shebitz et al. 2023. ethnobiology letters 14(2):37–46 44 perspectives special issue on diverse conservations services. ecology and society 26(2):7. doi:10.5751/es-12187-260207. amnesty international. 2022. biodiversity: cop15 biodiversity deal a ‘missed opportunity’ to 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research.wri.org/gfr/latest-analysis-deforestationtrends. accessed on february 2, 2023. herring and people of the north pacific: sustaining a keystone species. by thomas f. thornton and madonna l. moss. 2022. university of washington press, seattle. 276 pp. anderson. 2022. ethnobiology letters 13(1):70–74 70 reviews perspectives from gene anderson’s bookshelf governments and bureaucrats generally know perfectly well what the historic levels of fish were. they simply do not see enough political advantage in rebuilding the stocks. fishers, for their part, are apt to say, “there are still plenty of fish, they have just gone away for a while”—a line i have heard from trout streams in the rockies to bays of the south china sea, as well as all along the northwest coast, during over 60 years of studying and watching fisheries and their fates. often, the fishers will admit when pressed that they realize there is overfishing, but they still hope. of course, small-fish systems are not alone. anything valuable is overfished. bluefin tuna (thunnus thynnus) and sturgeon (acipenser spp.) are facing extinction worldwide. aquaculture is gaining at the expense of wild fishing, simply because there are so few profitable wild fisheries left. territorial limits have proved almost worthless, because heavy-fishing nations like japan and china simply pay high sums for the right to fish within poorer nations’ waters, leading to exhaustion. the poor nations lose heavily; small ruling elites get the money, while vast numbers of local people lose their cheap protein. worldwide, fish are a rapidly wasting asset (costello et al. 2016; worm 2016). there is hope, since we know what to do (duarte et al. 2020), but few nations are doing it, since the temptation to maximize catch is so strong. very often, governments are not particularly concerned about preserving fisheries, and allow overfishing simply because it provides quick economic benefits. anderson (1978) whenever i need to demonstrate the depths to which human irrationality can sink, i use the history of the herring fishery. the atlantic-north sea fishery for clupea harengus, atlantic herring, has been overfished for centuries, leading to collapse. everyone has known for at least 200 years that overfishing was going on. world wars i and ii allowed dramatic recovery, since fishing was halted, but as soon as the wars ended, people immediately resumed their folly. the european union was supposed to allow some discipline to set in, but that has not happened; too many member states continue to go by the logic of, “some won’t obey, so we might as well all fish.” other small-fish production systems, from sardines (sardina, sardinella, and related spp.) and anchoveta (engraulis spp.) to menhaden (brevoortia tyrannus) and sandlance (ammodytes spp.), are also overfished (pinsky et al. 2011). often, these vitally important foods for both marine life and humans are simply made into fertilizer. an extremely significant point is the similar behavior of capitalist, socialist, communist, fascist, theocratic, and mixed regimes in this regard. societies with these modes of production, despite claims of vast superiority of one system over another, have overfished, in full knowledge of what they are doing to the fish stocks and to their own peoples’ nutrition. responsible management lasts, at most, for a few years. countries may briefly shut down fisheries, but once stocks rebuild to minimal levels, the devastation begins again. thornton and moss follow many others in speaking of “shifting baselines,” but the herring and people of the north pacific: sustaining a keystone species. by thomas f. thornton and madonna l. moss. 2022. university of washington press, seattle. 276 pp. eugene n. anderson1* 1department of anthropology, university of california, riverside, usa. *gene@ucr.edu received september 13, 2022 open access accepted september 13, 2022 doi 10.14237/ebl.13.1.2022.1844 published november 21, 2022 copyright © 2022 by the author(s); licensee society of ethnobiology. this is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution-noncommercial 4.0 international public license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0), which permits non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. anderson. 2022. ethnobiology letters 13(1):70–74 71 reviews perspectives from gene anderson’s bookshelf studied this case in malaysia and has observed it in the united states. governments often subsidize fisheries, invariably leading to massive overfishing; it has been estimated that about $1.50 is invested for every $1.00 of fish caught (finley 2011). the foregoing provides some worldwide context for a superb book on a local fishery and its triumphs and tragedies. ethnographer thomas thornton and veteran maritime archaeologist madonna moss team up on a detailed study of the herring fishery for clupea pallasii, pacific herring, in southeast alaska. this fishery goes back at least 10,000 years, but almost all our information covers the last 200. during this time, the local tlingit sustained more and more competition from commercial settler fleets, leading ultimately to the destruction of the herring fishery in many areas and the reduction of the last few strongholds to tiny, desperately threatened stocks. thornton and moss provide a quick comparison with the similar fate of herring in japan and russia, where overfishing began as early as the eighteenth century and has virtually exterminated the stocks. important to note is the fact that imperial, communist, and post-communist russia, and imperial and modern democratic japan, all overfished with close to the same lack of responsibility for the fishery, and the same lack of concern for local indigenous peoples (the ainu and nivkh). thornton and moss see this as commodification: herring are taken from their ecological context and traditional comprehensive management and treated as merely goods to take and use. herring are critical in the food webs of the northtemperate oceans. their decline has caused an equivalent decline in western grebes (aechmophorus occidentalis) and clark’s grebes (a. clarki), scoter ducks (melanitta spp.), and many other birds, as well as in salmon (salmo spp. and oncorhynchus spp.), sea lions (otariinae), and other life forms. (this reviewer can testify that grebes and scoters once wintered in millions in southern california and are now virtually extirpated, largely by depletion of herring, sardines, anchovies, and shellfish.) herring are also among the very best food for humans, being not only an unexcelled source of protein but a top-level source of calcium and other minerals and of omega-3 fatty acids. like other northwest coast peoples, such as the neighboring haida (jones et al. 2016; pinkerton 2015; pinkerton and davis 2015), and tsimshian (menzies 2016), and the heiltsuk (gavreau et al. 2017), the tlingit maintained extremely good and thorough stewardship over herring, as they did over other marine resources (kan 2015; thornton 2008, 2012). for the tlingit, herring are people; perhaps they became truly human-like under the sea, as salmonid do, living in houses and speaking human languages. treating them with disrespect makes them go away. fishing beyond immediate needs for subsistence was the height of disrespect. the tlingit word for “respect,” actually a wider concept including reverence and deep personal regard, is at yáa awuné; the key phrase is “ldakát át a yáa ayaduwané: toward all things show respect” (p. 121). thornton has elsewhere noted the tlingit “three r’s” as “resilience, resonance, respect” (thornton 2012:xxii–xxiii). (one might add responsibility and reasonableness; those are certainly part of tlingit management.) thornton reports that small sockeye deserted a stream and lake because they were insulted by a take-all weir being put over the stream. this episode gave rise to a saying “don’t leave insulted like those little sockeyes” said to guests to get them to stay (thornton 2012:82–83). tlingit object to calling herring resources (p. 112). the tlingit not only consumed herring but made their eggs a staple food. the herring and their eggs are cultivated; “cultivation is any conscious labor to create specific conditions for enhancement in space and time of the production or distribution of a species of animal or plant” (p. 117, their emphasis). this involves strategically placing hemlock (tsuga heterophylla) branches and protecting seaweed. herring spawn onto substrates, and the eggs must be exposed to air part of the time, so placing hemlock branches where tide will cover them provides more space for spawning. branches can be moved around and otherwise managed even after roe is placed. (also, the present reviewer can attest from experience that the hemlock needles give a delightful piney flavor to the eggs.) cultivation also extends to keeping the shores clean. pollution of any kind damages the resource, another worldwide problem for herring fisheries. the herring spawning grounds were owned by kwaan (local sociopolitical groups with some kinship basis) and protected or shared accordingly. poachers could be shot (p. 126). at this point it is worth reminding readers that the opposition of nature and artificial or cultural is meaningless in contexts like this. as elsewhere in native north america, myths, stories, songs, and other teachings brought home in anderson. 2022. ethnobiology letters 13(1):70–74 72 reviews perspectives from gene anderson’s bookshelf emotional, culturally valued terms the importance of respect for the fish. in contrast, the settler societies began immediately to take as many herring as possible, without regard for waste. in the early twentieth century, the usual fate of herring was reduction into fertilizer. this peaked in 1929 (p. 137) and collapsed in the 1930s as herring were depleted. the extremely valuable salmon fishery was thus impacted by loss of the salmon’s key food, though overfishing of salmon probably made that problem moot. (i studied a similar case in malaysia: small fish were caught for fertilizer, though many would have grown up into adults selling for several dollars a pound; anderson 1978.) there was then a slight rest for the herring, but by the late twentieth century the herring were taken for the roe still in its sac, stripped from the females, for the japanese delicacy kazunoko. the authors emphasize that this not only kills the females before spawning, but also kills the males, since all are taken together in giant purse seines. the roe-on-hemlock and roe-on-kelp fisheries took no live fish and could be managed by taking roe from areas too high (above average tide) or too low (below minus tide) for the eggs to survive. eventually only 49 sac roe boats could survive (p. 177). one assumes there are fewer now. thornton and moss (p. 182) say that profit-seeking commercial herring fishers, heavily capitalized with investments in limited -entry permits and the equipment necessary to participate in the sac roe seine fishery, continue to push fisheries managers to put the maximum sustainable quota of herring on the block for commercial harvest. in the meantime, in alaska as in japan, russia, and the european herring fishery, pollution has steadily increased. logging and resulting erosion of soil and rocks into the water has destroyed many spawning grounds. development of marine oil drilling and shipping is only the most obvious problem. the grounding of the exxon valdez destroyed permanently the formerly rich herring fishery of prince william sound, and that is only the most spectacular case. over the last several decades, alaska has been governed by the oil industry; for well over a generation, its governor, senators, and representative in congress have come from that industry or been associated with it. they sometimes appear to see fish more as an annoyance than anything else. since the late twentieth century, the herring have been “managed” according to the principle of maximum sustainable yield (msy). this idea, in theory, involves calculating how many fish can be caught per year without reducing the fishery. individual quotas are then made available to fishermen, who can sell or trade them. this would be reasonable, but in fact the msy is calculated by government scientists and bureaucrats with every interest in maintaining the fishery at the highest levels possible, and no interest in being conservative about their estimates. fishermen and fish consumers vote, and those with political power may set budgets and do hiring and firing; alienating them is not good for job prospects. also, my research on fisheries development in asia and british columbia found bureaucrats and fish managers to be responsive to protests and complaints. the bureaucrats often genuinely want to help, and see more value in keeping the fishermen in business for a while and hoping for the best down the road. thornton and moss give examples of such thinking, as well as of some simple irresponsibility. it is a neoliberal experiment, and, like many attempts by government to manage a not-really-free market, it produces problems. thornton and moss agree with a very large literature that this constant pressure leads to chronic overestimates of the msy. it appears that often the bureaucrats do not even try; they just use old figures. little or no account is taken of damage to the fishery by pollution and other outside sources. the problem has been widely reviewed (e.g., in finley 2011). evelyn pinkerton has been studying this problem for some 40 years on the northwest coast (e.g., pinkerton 2015; pinkerton and davis 2015) with the same findings. the authors make all the necessary recommendations: document, restore, monitor, study, and consider the subsistence fishery (pp. 192–195). above all, they recommend using local tlingit knowledge— accumulated, after all, over 10,000 years—instead of msy. they also make a new and very important recommendation: “encourage a more robust program of science education, beginning with primary school and continuing at the secondary and tertiary levels” (p. 195). this is rarely advocated in the fisheries literature but is vital. children need to learn that the world has limits. if you catch all the fish, there will be no fish. children who do not learn this go on to become adults who seem unable to grasp the concept. anderson. 2022. ethnobiology letters 13(1):70–74 73 reviews perspectives from gene anderson’s bookshelf this and many more recommendations for sound management, based on tlingit tradition, make this book a profoundly hopeful work. if it is taken seriously in high places, it will save the herring and the tlingit fishery. it is such a stunningly well-done, scholarly, tightly argued work that it will be impossible to dismiss. it may have good effects. at the end, a book that has managed to maintain a cool, rational tone for 200 pages finally breaks into a desperate cry from the heart: “it would be a disastrous shame if these cultural values and ecosystem services were sacrificed on the altar of msy commercial fishing for the benefit of a few dozen herring sac roe seine permit holders and elite foreign markets” (p. 203). the present reviewer can only agree. other things in the human record equal, but nothing surpasses, the sheer stupidity of worldwide management of herring fisheries. some of the thinking in the northwest coast was simply to eliminate anything native and natural, to allow introduced economic formations to flourish, but this does not explain the suicidal insanity of herring mismanagement in europe and japan, where herring are staple foods. thornton and moss call it “managed annihilation” (p. 171). they also refer to the “tragedy of the commons,” but it is the opposite: the government has asserted full control over the resource, shoving the tlingit aside (p. 197). eliminating common-property management was supposed to fix overuse, but in this and almost every other reported case involving displacement of local managers by governments, it led to the opposite. one point that should be made here is that the conflict is not between the indigenous people and the settler society. many whites and others agree with the tlingit and would support them. my research in haida gwaii found very widespread support by all non-indigenous groups for indigenous rights. conversely, a few haida fishermen had large boats and fished hard on the herring stock, not acting notably different from white fishers. this is a management issue, not a “racial” one, though racism has always confounded it and been used by the giant fish-packer interests to divide and degrade their opponents. the most important conclusion of this book, however, is the vast superiority of local management, based on accumulated local knowledge, over remote management by bureaucrats who have little knowledge or understanding of the system they are managing, and often no personal commitment to it. once again, it is worth pointing out that the destruction of the world’s small-fish stocks has been done under imperial, capitalist, socialist, communist, fascist, and even theocratic governments. the hopelessness of the contrast drawn between capitalism and socialism is particularly clear. both are forms of modern industrial bureaucratic civilization and both have the same record in managing fisheries. the contrast is not between modes of production. the contrast is between responsibility and the flagrant lack thereof. more generally, the contrast is between remote bureaucrats with little stake in doing right by the resource users and local, often indigenous, people who depend on the resource and understand its place in local ecology. james scott has long argued that states tend to consolidate power at the expense of local autonomy, and that this routinely produces disasters (scott 1998). many others, a large share of them students of northwest coast fisheries, have pointed out that long-established local users need to retain management rights. unfortunately, dehumanizing indigenous people is as typical of states as is humanizing fish among indigenous cultures. beyond that, the thoughtful reader cannot escape the conclusion that maintaining a vulnerable fishery, or anything else of value, requires, above all, respect. we must respect the fish. we must respect the consumers of those fish—grebes and salmon as well as humans. we must respect the whole ecological web, and in the end the whole world. the opposition is not between modes of production, but between cold indifference and warm respect and regard. references cited anderson, e. n. 1978. fishing in troubled waters. orient cultural service, taipei. costello, c., d. ovando, t. clavell, c. k. strauss, r. hilborn, m. c. melnychuk, t. a. branch, s. d. gaines, c. s. szuwalski, r. b. cabral, d. n. rader, and a. leland. 2016. global fishery prospects under contrasting management regimes. proceedings of the national academy of sciences 113:5125–5129. doi:10.1073/pnas.1520420113. duarte, c. m., s. agusti, e. barbier, g. l. britten, j. c. castilla, j.-p. gattuso, r. w. fulweiler, t. p. hughes, n. knowlton, c. e. lovelock, h. k. lotze, m. predragovic, e. poloczanska, c. roberts, anderson. 2022. ethnobiology letters 13(1):70–74 74 reviews perspectives from gene anderson’s bookshelf and b. worm. 2020. rebuilding marine life. nature 580:39–51. doi:10.1038/s41586-020-21467. finley, c. 2011. all the fish in the sea: maximum sustainable yield and the failure of fisheries management. university of chicago press, chicago. finley, c. 2017. all the boats on the ocean: how government subsidies led to global overfishing. university of chicago press, chicago. gauvreau, a. m., d. lepofsky, m. rutherford, and m. reid. 2017. “everything revolves around the herring”: the heiltsuk-herring relationship through time ecology and society 22:10. doi:10.5751/es-09201-220210. jones, r., c. rigg, and e. pinkerton. 2016. strategies for assertion of conservation and local management rights: a haida gwaii herring story. marine policy 80:154–167. doi:10.1016/ j.marpol.2016.09.031. kan, s., ed. 2015. sharing our knowledge: the tlingit and their coastal neighbors. university of nebraska press, lincoln, ne. menzies, c. r. 2016. people of the saltwater: an ethnography of git lax m’oon. university of nebraska press, lincoln, ne. pinkerton, e. 2015. the role of moral economy in two british columbia fisheries: confronting neoliberal policies. marine policy 61:410–419. doi:10.1016/j.marpol.2015.04.009. pinkerton, e., and r. davis. 2015. neoliberalism and the politics of enclosure in north american smallscale fisheries. marine policy 61:303–312. doi:10.1016/j.marpol.2015.03.025. pinsky, m. l., o. p. jensen, d. ricard, s. r. palumbi. 2011. unexpected patterns of fisheries collapse in the world’s oceans. proceedings of the national academy of sciences 108:8317–8322. doi:10.1073/ pnas.1015313108. thornton, t. f. 2008. being and place among the tlingit. university of washington press, seattle. thornton, t. f., ed. 2012. haa leelk’w has aani saax’u / our grandparents’ names on the land. sealaska heritage institute, juneau, ak, and university of washington press, seattle, wa. scott, j. 1998. seeing like a state. yale university press, new haven, ct. worm, boris. 2016. averting a global fisheries disaster. proceedings of the national academy of sciences 113:4895–4897. doi:10.1073/pnas.1604008113. archaeofaunal remains, geography, and the investigation of cultural keystone places wolverton et al. 2025. ethnobiology letters 16(2):47–57 47 perspectives special issue: historical ecology & cultural keystone places places, land use practices, spirituality, and many other cultural practices that may have been lost and/or recorded through a colonial lens (turner and berkes 2006; wyndham 2009). our focus in this paper is on one aspect of ckps that can leave a tangible trace (i.e., the archaeological record of material culture). the archaeological record has been one crucial source of information used to identify and establish where ckps occur on the landscape (lepofsky et al. 2017; rick et al. 2022). identifying ckps with archaeological data is not always straightforward for multiple reasons. these introduction cultural keystone places (ckps) are areas situated on the landscape that have deep meaning to one or more group’s cultural identities and prosperity (cuerrier et al. 2015). much like theories of place established in human geography (tuan 1977), ckps are partially defined by how people interact with the natural world. these material interactions are multifaceted, can occur at a multitude of overlapping spatial scales, and often have deep temporal roots. ckps, though they may hold a physical manifestation, are also represented in intangible ways, such as through oral traditions about archaeofaunal remains, geography, and the investigation of cultural keystone places steve wolverton1*, jonathan dombrosky2,3, chelsey geralda armstrong4, and susan c. ryan2 1department of geography and the environment, university of north texas, denton, usa. 2crow canyon archaeological center, cortez, usa. 3department of anthropology, university of new mexico, albuquerque, usa. 4historical-ecological research lab, indigenous studies, simon fraser university, burnaby, canada. *steven.wolverton@unt.edu abstract cultural keystone places (ckps) are areas on the landscape crucial to individual and group identities, especially descendant communities. as such, they are often significant components of indigenous land claims and cultural continuity. ckps commonly have deep temporal roots and unclear spatial boundaries, and archaeological investigation is often relied upon to define them. however, relying on archaeological prospection and data to define a ckp can be problematic. the discovery of archaeological material and, by extension, a ckp is a probabilistic endeavor, often constrained by preservation conditions and sampling strategies. while many archaeologists understand that the material record will always be incomplete and that the absence of archaeological materials does not indicate the absence of a ckp, this view is juxtaposed with comparatively simple legal or regulatory understandings of ckps as areas exclusively defined by either the presence or absence of archaeological materials in places such as british columbia, canada, which we discuss in this paper. to frame that discussion, we turn to the archaeological record from a different region; we use a large multisite database from southwestern colorado—created and curated by the crow canyon archaeological center—to illustrate the variability in the quality of the archaeological record across the landscape. by modeling the fragmentation and sample size of animal remains, we demonstrate how even systematically collected archaeological data can still lead to knowledge gaps, potentially resulting in a false negative for the presence of a ckp. we therefore urge regulatory agencies to more thoroughly consider the sampling strategies and preservation conditions of remains related to the investigation of ckps and to highlight the value of using robust archaeological databases to support indigenous land rights and the identification and protection of ckps. received november 12, 2024 open access accepted april 10, 2025 doi 10.14237/ebl.16.2.2025.1913 published december 1, 2025 keywords quantitative archaeology, zooarchaeology, applied archaeology, action ethnobiology, central mesa verde region, british columbia copyright © 2025 by the author(s); licensee society of ethnobiology. this is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution-noncommercial 4.0 international public license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0), which permits non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. wolverton et al. 2025. ethnobiology letters 16(2):47–57 48 perspectives special issue: historical ecology & cultural keystone places issues are similar for the identification of archaeological sites, but there are some differences, too. in archaeology, sites are conceptual units (rhetorical devices) used to approach places for the purposes of research, tourism, preservation, and other functions (hayashida 2005; matero 2006; mccoy 2020). ckps, on the other hand, may mesh more meaningfully with ideas of place held by local and/or indigenous peoples (armstrong et al. 2022; lepofsky et al. 2017). one of the main issues in the discovery of ckps (as with archaeological sites) is that human-environment interactions that constitute them can be subtle, leaving only scant material traces (wyndham 2009). exacerbating this problem—and the focus here—are challenges of preservation and sampling that routinely obfuscate archaeological interpretation. how can one confidently identify a ckp if archaeological traces have been erased or have simply eluded the detection of archaeologists? the consequence of not fully understanding issues surrounding sampling and recovery of where ckps occur on the landscape is critical. the distribution of ckps might be unknowable, and what is known might change regularly. this reality may cause legal issues regarding land claims, land use planning, and its appropriate management. those in the legal and regulatory world often see landscapes, ckps, and/or archaeological sites through a comparatively simple geographic lens of presence or absence, with little understanding that the empirical archaeological record is far more complex (martindale 2014; owen 2015). how, then, might those in the legal and regulatory world come to appreciate these complexities and more thoroughly evaluate the presence or absence of ckps, at least in terms of their discovery probability via the archaeological record? one way in which archaeologists have worked to better understand geographic patterns of archaeological observations is through the construction and analyses of large, multi-site databases. these datasets help answer research questions that focus on multiple geographic scales (ritchie and lepofsky 2020). archaeologists, for instance, can pivot from regional to local to site-level spatial scales to analyze artifact variability. in this paper, we analyze the large, multisite faunal dataset produced and curated by the crow canyon archaeological center in southwestern colorado to demonstrate the usefulness of such datasets to legal and regulatory agents and agencies. the large database created and curated by crow canyon (crow canyon archaeological center 2025) offers a means to examine the empirical variability of the archaeological record through space and time in the central mesa verde region and to draw comparisons to other regions where the presence (and absence) of archaeological data is increasingly implicated in indigenous land claims and the enforcement of cultural resource management (crm) regulations. one such area that we focus on in the discussion section is the northwest coast, particularly within british columbia (bc, canada). indeed, the northwest coast (sensu carlson 1983) comprises collections of sites that represent assemblies of ckps, and we maintain that the sites in the crow canyon database are part of the reason why the central mesa verde region is also an accumulation of ckps (naranjo 2006; ortman 2010, 2012; swentzell 2015). bc is one of the few regions in canada where many indigenous territories were never ceded (e.g., through treaty or other agreements). this has led, in recent years, to an upswing in legal and regulatory confrontations where archaeological data are squarely positioned to confirm indigenous use and occupancy—or, more insidiously, to illustrate a presumed lack of use and occupancy (when there is a purported lack of “data”). while in some cases, inference from absence can indeed be justified in some archaeological contexts (wallach 2019), the logical frameworks within which most “absences” are presented in real-world contexts, such as courtrooms and boardrooms, are anachronistic and untested (martindale and armstrong 2019). moreover, the purported absence of archaeological materials might have no bearing on the cultural relevance, attachment, and inheritances of a given landscape—especially true for ckps. although we do not focus on archaeological sites from bc in this paper, our intention is to illustrate variability in the absence and presence of a class of material culture (faunal remains) using a large geospatial dataset. we employ a large dataset from the central mesa verde region to this end. we examine faunal remains because, more than some other types of material culture (e.g., lithic and ceramic artifacts and some forms of architecture), animal remains are perishable. entire sites can be composed of perishable artifacts (sometimes called ecofacts) and subsequently lost to the vagaries of time. for the central mesa verde region, we show that high variability in the preservation conditions of the zooarchaeological record across the landscape is to be wolverton et al. 2025. ethnobiology letters 16(2):47–57 49 perspectives special issue: historical ecology & cultural keystone places expected. we model this empirical reality through one agent of bone preservation: fragmentation. here, we use a metric that combines the extent and intensity of bone fragmentation and serves as a proxy for how well archaeological materials might be represented on the landscape. we demonstrate over decades, with ongoing and incremental archaeological field and lab work, that the spatial extent of the archaeological record increases, initiating questions about archaeology as a tool for defining the limits of peoples’ presence and/or absence on a landscape (owen 2015). for example, the absence of artifacts and ecofacts in unsurveyed spaces represents a need for additional attention and information and should not be considered as the absence or presence of archaeological materials. we hold that the exercise we present here has direct relevance to places in the world where the reality of ckps is legally debated (e.g., bc). the ability to use archaeological data to influence legal and regulatory bodies regarding ckps puts the work presented here squarely in the realm of applied archaeology and action ethnobiology (albuquerque et al. 2024; armstrong and brown 2019; arrivabene et al. 2024; mcalvay et al. 2021; soldati and almada 2024). it is this empirical nature of the archaeological record, as conceptualized at the landscape scale, that holds meaning for action ethnobiology, particularly in contrast to binary legal concepts of presence and absence of sites on the landscape. large, regional multisite databases—though steeped in western scientific norms—can be used to strengthen indigenous land claims. previous research our intent in this paper is not to provide a literature review of work in environmental archaeology that demonstrates the increasing geospatial extent of artifacts and sites. archaeologists know spatial coverage of the archaeological record increases with fieldwork; that said, there are fewer studies that engage the intersection of the geography of the archaeological record and heritage ethics and environmental management, though such works exist. lee lyman (1988, 1994a, b, 1998), for instance, investigated the probability that remains of rare mammals would be recovered from archaeological sites during his assessment of the olympic national park mountain goat (oreamnos americanus) eradication plan in the 1990s. over multiple articles and books, lyman highlighted how faunal assemblages are narrow subsets of the life and death assemblages of past animal populations. those species that are rare on the landscape, such as mountain goats, are not likely to show up in the record (lyman 1995a). as a result, it is logically flawed that mountain goats should be culled from olympic national park because “they were never there” based on a material record of absence (lyman 1998). when mountain goat remains are recovered, they are found in exceedingly low proportions across many archaeological sites because of low discovery probability caused by rarity on past landscapes and taphonomic variables (lyman 1995b). preservation conditions, for instance, relate closely to the degree to which bones are fragmented, which is our focus here. fracture of bone can happen anteor post-mortem, but the probability of fragmentation increases once carcasses are butchered by those who hunt prey. as the taphonomic history of a fauna unfolds from death to deposition, and (potential) eventual excavation, recovery, and analysis, the potential for fragmentation and destruction increases. archaeologists encounter faunal remains late in this taphonomic trajectory; thus, zooarchaeologists study remains subject to diverse preservation conditions both within and across faunal assemblages. as a result, the absence of a species from the faunal record does not mean they were not present on prehistoric landscapes. similarly, culturally modified trees in the pacific northwest are obscured over time—after a harvest event, the lobes on either side of the tree begin to heal and envelop the harvest scar, masking the harvest event. assessing post-logged sites (stump cross sections) in a forestry cut block in nuu-chah-nuulth territory, bc, earnshaw (2019) found that approximately half of the bark peeling scars on culturally modified trees were embedded inside healing lobes. this meant that the diagnostic features on half of the potential culturally modified trees (especially the older ones) were invisible to archaeologists and were therefore not subject to regulatory protections. in this paper, we use similar logic—that absence and presence relate to taphonomy and sampling intensity—to counter the legal perspective that the absence of sites in a region or area means that people were not there in the past or that important cultural practices did not occur on the landscape (owen 2015). many areas have not been studied, and even then, variability in the preservation and/or visibility of wolverton et al. 2025. ethnobiology letters 16(2):47–57 50 perspectives special issue: historical ecology & cultural keystone places the archaeological record is to be expected (e.g., see growing knowledge of clam gardens in the northwest coast [lepofsky et al. 2021; smith et al. 2019]). in this paper, we examine the taphonomic condition of remains from the crow canyon faunal database of sites in the central mesa verde region of southwestern colorado to demonstrate variability in preservation as well as a changing record of absence and presence geographically. although this region is dramatically different from the northwest coast, our purpose here is to investigate a well-studied archaeological database geographically, which is relevant to the study of ckps elsewhere. our results show that decades of fieldwork have increased the geospatial extent of the archaeological record of faunal remains in the region; what would have been considered areas of geographic absence decades ago show the presence of archaeological materials (i.e., sites and/or ckps) today. understanding bone fragmentation in the central mesa verde region dataset one way to examine the variability in the condition of faunal remains between and within archaeological sites is to develop measures of bone fragmentation (lyman 1994b; munro and bar-oz 2005; stiner 1994; wolverton 2002). in this paper, we follow lyman (1994b) and conceive of fragmentation in two ways: extent and intensity of fragmentation. extent of fragmentation refers to how many bones are fragmented and how many are complete. we measure this as “%whole bones” in an assemblage, which is a ratio of the number of whole skeletal specimens relative to the total number of specimens (whole and fragmented) in a faunal assemblage. the lower the % whole, the greater the extent of fragmentation. intensity of fragmentation refers to how often fragments are fractured into smaller pieces. conceptually, the smaller the fragments, the more intense the fragmentation. at a coarse taxonomic scale, we use the measure of “%unidentifiable” remains from an assemblage as a proxy of intensity with the logic that progressively smaller fragments have a lower probability of maintaining taxonomically diagnostic morphological characteristics (cannon 2013). faunal assemblages that are poorly preserved and considered highly fragmented will be extensively and intensely fragmented with low %whole and high % unidentifiable remains. we combine the two variables mathematically through dividing measures of intensity of fragmentation by extent of fragmentation to create a fragmentation agency index (fai). the fai is calculated by dividing %unidentifiable by %whole. this calculation can be simplified to the number of unidentifiable specimens divided by the number of whole specimens. the higher the value, the more fragmented a faunal assemblage is. with the use of the fai, variability in fragmentation can be studied as one important measure of preservation across the sites represented in the database. correspondingly, we can illustrate the continuum of preservation conditions within and between sites in the region. we calculate fai per study unit in the crow canyon database; a study unit is defined as a specific area of similar deposition or cultural use in time and space. different structures or middens are common types of study units, which are then explored further using provenience designations that specify exact vertical and horizontal locations within a study unit (crow canyon archaeological center 2001). to be clear, what we see is variability in the preservation of faunal remains across the 890 study units from 48 sites represented in the crow canyon database (figure 1; supplementary file 1)1. our point related to ckps is that even perishable cultural materials, such as zooarchaeological remains, are expected to vary considerably in their condition and presence across sites. how does this play out geographically in the region? the geography of the central mesa verde region faunal record crow canyon’s database contains detailed information for 48 archaeological sites, however, there are over 30,000 recorded sites in the county where the center resides (additional sites exist on nonsurveyed lands). if we think in terms of fai and the presence of faunal remains, data from the 48 sites can be visualized in terms of the taphonomic importance of fragmentation. the maps in figure 2a show the median fai per site; larger, lighter circles reflect sites with higher fai remains (meaning less well preserved, more fragmented). there is spatial variability in the magnitude of the importance of fragmentation and associated preservation condition of remains. the geographic implication of the map visualization is that wolverton et al. 2025. ethnobiology letters 16(2):47–57 51 perspectives special issue: historical ecology & cultural keystone places variable differential preservation of faunal remains is to be expected across space. importantly, then, the absence of zooarchaeological bone in one or another location is hypothetical until it has been determined through fieldwork. extending this logic to regulatory reviews for environmental or other impact assessments, reliance on existing databases to determine the archaeological or ckp potential of a landscape is hypothetical without field and laboratory work. differential preservation of bone is but one factor that influences the probability of encountering faunal remains; another variable is the extent and intensity of fieldwork over time. preservation combined with recovery efforts leads to zooarchaeological samples that vary in size (conceivably from n = 0 to very large faunas, such as > n = 30,000 remains). here we map the distribution of faunal sample size from sites in the dataset (figure 2b). larger, lighter circles represent larger faunas. recall the geographic distribution portrayed in the map is not for all sites in the region, nor is it for all remains at the sites; it’s a distribution of what has been reported by crow canyon as a result of their archaeological sampling of sites. the preservation condition maps also display projects conducted by crow canyon over several decades. if the geographic distribution is visualized in a manner that conveys the geographic record of faunal sampling over time (figure 2), it is clear that what is known about the distribution of faunal remains (and by association other cultural materials) has changed over the last 40 years. of key concern figure 1 the variability in the fragmentation agency index (fai) from 890 study units across 48 archaeological sites in crow canyon databases. fai values are divided into four categories for visual purposes (demarcated visually in blue, sequentially): low (below the first quartile), medium-low (between the first and second quartile), medium-high (between the second and third quartiles), and high agency (above the third quartile). wolverton et al. 2025. ethnobiology letters 16(2):47–57 52 perspectives special issue: historical ecology & cultural keystone places figure 2 changes in a median fragmentation agency index (fai) and b faunal assemblage sample size (n) through time. time is measured as the year the last faunal data was added to the database (note that projects were often started years before). this figure illustrates how much information is added across the landscape as time progresses and the variation in its quality. wolverton et al. 2025. ethnobiology letters 16(2):47–57 53 perspectives special issue: historical ecology & cultural keystone places when thinking in terms of regulatory geography is that what appears to be a record of geographic absence on the cultural landscape has decreased over time. the logic is simple, the more we look, the more we find. discovery probability of sites, faunal remains, and other cultural materials increases over time because sampling has extended to new areas and sampling technologies have improved over time. our simple— yet essential—point is that a contemporary map of a landscape reflects the current state of knowledge, not absence. if the importance of a portion of a landscape is to be known, especially in terms of ckps, absence is not the null hypothesis, rather presence of cultural materials is. discussion scholars of action ethnobiology make a call for researchers to step into the real-world impacts of their work, to literally put themselves on the front lines of activism in social and environmental justice (armstrong and brown 2019; armstrong and mcalvay 2019; references in turner 2020). progress is being made in many ways, including but not limited to decolonizing academic programs, courses, and syllabi; direct fieldwork that has important legal implications; and community-engaged research done for community members, not for the primary scholarly benefit of individuals. in these areas, researchers may struggle to integrate into and receive recognition within traditional academic, disciplinary structures. one issue that permeates action scholarship is whether there are frames of understanding that empower academics to recognize the merits of applied and action research, into which examples such as the one we present here—an application of taphonomic and geospatial approaches in archaeology for the benefit of legal actions related to heritage claims— may be meaningfully integrated and recognized. what is legal and ethical to the zooarchaeologist who simply recognizes taphonomy as a theory for understanding the condition of faunal samples? without a conceptual superstructure for framing applied and action research, calls for action may not reach full potential. some ethnobiologists may, for instance, work towards actionable outcomes in their research, but in relative isolation from others in academic communities. others may make important, periodic attempts to influence key academic and applied conversations outside their disciplines, mainly to fall on deaf ears. in addition, calls for action that are not clearly integrated into the implications of disciplinary frameworks may cause some scholars to retreat deeper into the stability of disciplinary norms and currencies of success, which may lead to further academic gatekeeping against novel forms of scholarship. beyond codes of ethics for research, we must lay the foundations of why action and applied research make sense within and beyond traditional disciplines. we have argued elsewhere that historical ecology—a theoretical perspective that portrays the integrated and synergistic complexities of humanenvironment interactions (armstrong and veteto 2015; balée 2013; crumley 2021)—provides actionoriented framing for ethnobiology and environmental archaeology (wolverton et al. 2023), particularly when interwoven with ethical precepts from environmental justice studies. ethnobiologists, from disciplinary and interdisciplinary perspectives, understand humanenvironmental interactions are complex, entangled, and widely impactful across many geographic and cultural scales (ignace and ignace 2020). such understanding makes sense to anthropologists, ecologists, geographers, linguists, taxonomists, and others who recognize ethnobiology as an interdisciplinary home (wolverton et al. 2014; wyndham et al. 2011). environmental justice studies provide ethical guideposts that integrate fluidly with foundational precepts of historical ecology (figueroa and waitt 2010), such that even a geospatial study of the taphonomic condition of faunal remains in a region (such as this one) can easily be recognized as holding important meaning for action research. for example, in indigenous land claims cases in bc, indigenous communities are tasked with providing evidentiary proofs of “land-use” prior to 1846 (i.e., the signing of the oregon treaty as declaration of british sovereignty). archaeological evidence has been particularly important in such cases; however, it is also weaponized against claimants when defendants (the crown) argue the absence of archaeological data in a given area proves the absence of people—therefore reducing a nation’s strength of claim (see also martindale and armstrong 2019). clearly, the record of archaeological absence in an area might be expected to decrease with increased fieldwork, as is the case for the mesa verde region (this study); certainly, absence cannot be assumed for areas not studied. three theoretical concepts from environmental justice studies help strengthen the theoretical position wolverton et al. 2025. ethnobiology letters 16(2):47–57 54 perspectives special issue: historical ecology & cultural keystone places of action research in ethnobiology (figueroa and waitt 2010; wolverton et al. 2023). first, each person holds an environmental identity, comprising their connection to places, their understanding of environments, and even their values related to environmental ethics (which informs their behaviors and choices). individual environmental identities coalesce in communities to form environmental heritage or held-communal norms that are shared and passed down through time. second, people encounter places (known and new ones) from the perspective of their environmental heritage, and thus each place is represented to them as a moral terrain because of the identity they bring to it. what a lawyer steeped in legal regulations and currencies brings to a court case about a place represents a different moral terrain than can, and would be, that of someone who belongs to and witnesses the same area as a ckp (napoleon 2005). third, and perhaps most important for the action ethnobiologist—who likely walks (or at least may traverse) the halls of academia steeped in western norms—is that environmental heritage today represents the collective continuance of a given community. collective continuance holds that heritage is not only about the past but also influences the future well-being of people and their communities (harjo 2019). environmental identity/heritage, moral terrains, and collective continuance offer all ethnobiologists a theoretical framing with which to enter into and better understand the intellectual merits of applied and action research. this is true for practitioners in seemingly disparate cultural and geographic contexts (e.g., colorado and british columbia), but where environmental identity/heritage represents nothing other than what anthropologists have recognized as culture, under its many definitions. the concept of moral terrains represents place as known by the geographer, with clear explication that peoples’ values connect to places and represent an identity-based lens through which places are understood. and collective continuance represents historical, cultural continuity as experienced in wonder by the archaeologist when encountering material culture from the past. we must look toward the future well-being of communities; to adopt such a framing puts respect before knowledge as scholarship becomes part of the framing of action ethnobiology. a future direction for this research is to work directly with indigenous community members related to the geographic distribution of the archaeological record and its relation to ckps. conclusion our geographic perspective on taphonomy attempts to acknowledge the ethical impacts and relevance of heritage-based data. as co-authors we do not share the same environmental identities and heritage, but our work is informed by the traditions of western archaeology. nor do we encounter places through the same lenses as moral terrains, but we are studying places here via the lenses of geospatial data analytics, archaeology, ethnobiology, and historical ecology. our intention could be to inform the collective continuance of indigenous cultures in the mesa verde region; indeed, we hope this has been achieved. however, we authored this paper because we became aware of simplistic geographic and archaeological data use in court cases and regulatory frameworks in british columbia and beyond. the absence of archaeological data is not evidence of human absence or value relative to a particular landscape at a particular point in time. yet, regulatory compliance regimes often rely on this flawed logic when making land-use decisions. to do so ignores decades of theory and practice in archaeology focusing on site formation processes, taphonomy, and more broadly historical ecology. have we (archaeologists) grappled enough with these concepts when it comes to indigenous peoples’ presence on the landscape and the legal and political implications of our findings? is it possible we downplay ancestral presence when we base our conclusions on the established archaeological record without conveying the geographic limitations of our sampling? evoking the ckp concept may help archaeologists re-frame their approach, from tracecentric (i.e., what has been recovered) to place-centric (i.e., the meaning of a place), reintroducing ourselves with the limitations of archaeological methods and data, while supporting indigenous land-use cultural legacies and ultimately, sovereignty. notes 1we have attached raw data needed to replicate the fragmentation agency index across all crow canyon study units and sites except for one: the haynie site (5mt1905). the haynie site is an ongoing field project. we feel data from haynie is important to incorporate here to illustrate variability in preservation potential. these data are not completely finalized so we have left them out of supplementary file 1. wolverton et al. 2025. ethnobiology letters 16(2):47–57 55 perspectives special issue: historical ecology & cultural keystone places acknowledgments we acknowledge the pueblo, ute, paiute, diné, and jicarilla apache peoples on whose traditional homelands sites in the crow canyon database rest. we also thank all the researchers, staff, and interns associated with data collection from each of the projects at the crow canyon archaeological center (and numerous other institutions). the following institutions have helped preserve these sites: the archaeological conservancy, national park service, the bureau of land management, and colorado mountain college. funding that helped build the crow canyon databases was provided by the national science foundation, national endowment for the humanities, history colorado state historical fund, and the earthwatch institute. three anonymous reviewers greatly improved the content and clarity of the paper. thank you. declarations permissions: none declared. sources of funding: none declared. conflicts of interest: none declared. references 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15(1):98–100 98 reviews worlds. throughout the book fritz’s voice is clear and direct, and her writing style centers the ancient cahokians as the subject, rather than the quantitative archaeological data. one example where this stands out is in her discussion of shifting landuse around cahokia during the emergent mississippian era. rather than passively stating that palynological and archaeological evidence of agricultural systems indicate that uplands were likely to wooded and in need of clearing for maize [zea mays] agriculture, fritz makes a powerful and intentional shift in subjects. she writes from the perspective of the farmers, suggesting their reaction when they encountered these tall trees (p. 132): because native species of trees can grow to impressive heights in this area within a human life span, the first generation of farmers returning to a wooded upland tract that has not been cleared or otherwise managed by frequent burning for several decades might well have had to undertake some serious tree removal. in this sentence fritz focuses our reading on a relatable human timescale (in contrast to the naturally abstract archaeological time periods), situates the farmers’ perspective within a brief environmental history of a specific landscape, and paints a poignantly possible moment in the past. i assigned chapter 10 (“how to feed cahokia: cultivating fields and social relationships”) as a reading because it contains fritz’s examination of the practices and decisions of cahokia’s farmers—the way that the agricultural system functioned—by in her introduction, fritz states three goals for the book: to “highlight the biologically diverse agricultural system” in place at cahokia during the early second millennium ad and its development; to “examine the possible roles played by farmers” across the social hierarchy in producing and preparing food; and to present the archaeological evidence for agriculture and subsistence at cahokia in a “comprehensible and… interesting” manner for the general public (p. 4–5). here i share my perspectives mainly on her third goal and highlight the pedagogical value of excerpts from this book as a deep learning tool for college students, and as a source of inspiration for developing paleoethnobotanical exercises in college courses. in the spring of 2024, i taught a seminar for upper-level undergraduates and graduate students that studied ancient systems of food production and acquisition in urban societies across the globe (e.g., plant cultivation, animal raising, and direct and indirect access through distribution and exchange systems). of the ten enrolled students, half were majoring or minoring in archaeology, while others were majoring in sociology, engineering, history, economics, and international relations. in other words, they offered a range of perspectives to understand the topics at hand and had varied levels of archaeological training. i found this book to be an ideal teaching tool because fritz synthesizes research on food production at a major ancient north american city and contextualizes her analyses with well-written background that acts as a primer and introduction for learners new to the woodland and mississippian feeding cahokia: early agriculture in the north american heartland. by gayle j. fritz. 2019. the university of alabama press, tuscaloosa. 228 pp. kathleen m. forste1* 1joukowsky institute for archaeology and the ancient world, brown university, providence, usa. *kathleen_forste@brown.edu received august 10, 2024 open access accepted november 4, 2024 doi 10.14237/ebl.15.1.2024.1897 published december 28, 2024 copyright © 2024 by the author(s); licensee society of ethnobiology. this is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution-noncommercial 4.0 international public license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0), which permits non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. forste. 2024. ethnobiology letters 15(1):98–100 99 reviews connecting archaeological data with social concepts (p. 129). her goal of the chapter aligned with the goal of the course: understanding the social and economic conditions that influenced what food people ate and how it was produced and prepared. additionally, its content and style made it an appropriately interpretive reading for the final case study of the semester. in chapter 10, fritz covers topics central to studies of agricultural systems: population estimates, what/when/where to grow, what to do with surplus, and the social and ideological systems that created “community-level cooperation and spiritual support” needed for successful agricultural production (p. 150). in this chapter, as throughout the book, she emphasizes that “it is important to keep in mind the larger landscape when considering cahokia’s economy” because farmers in outer settlements produced food used for events in the civic-ceremonial center (p. 130). she also includes “a summary of old and new views about how the cahokian system might have functioned” (p. 131), providing the scholarly context and framework for the current interpretations. in doing so, fritz deftly combines variable and sometimes conflicting perspectives into a coherent narrative of study about a sophisticated, cooperative, ancient farming society. while these successes of the chapter are more evident to people familiar with research in the mississippian world and in food systems, it was fritz’s exploration of the temporal and spatial aspects of planting crops and managing and accessing fields that resonated with the students. twelve out of the 22 pages of this chapter are dedicated to descriptions of sleeping eastern complex crops (maygrass [phalaris caroliniana], little barley [hordeum pusillum], erect knotweed [polygonum erectum], chenopod [chenopodium spp.]) and the ever-popular maize, squash [cucurbita spp.], and sunflower [helianthus annuus], and their possible planting patterns (p. 136). the discussion of these tangible characteristics is further brought to life by the illustrations of possible “adaptive garden layouts” of small early cahokian fields along watery edges (figure 10.2) and on elevated dry land (figure 10.3), both of which “take into account proportions of plant remains found in the archaeological record” (p. 137–138). students noticeably perked up during our discussion of these garden plots, and they used these figures as tools to move their discussion from semi-abstracted plant figure 1 bloom’s taxonomy (after armstrong 2010). forste. 2024. ethnobiology letters 15(1):98–100 100 reviews remains to actual plants, and finally to a place of where people cultivated plants with careful consideration of seasonality and growing requirements balanced with availability of cultivable lands. such a conceptual shift, understanding data in a new framework, is a demonstration of deep learning (mcgregor 2020). by interweaving multiple lines of evidence through this book, fritz creates a culmination of research at cahokia that parallels the culmination of archaeological inquiry these students developed throughout the course that tracks along bloom’s taxonomy (figure 1). through our discussion of food systems across ancient cities, students demonstrated their growth of comprehension along these steps, moving from remembering and understanding the evidence of food provisioning in these various societies. specifically in our study of cahokia, this chapter helped them to move further up the pyramid of learning to apply, analyze, and evaluate the various lines of archaeological, historical, and ethnographic evidence presented to draw connections among ideas (armstrong 2010). the effectiveness of the field illustrations as deep learning tools inspired me to develop an exercise for future iterations of this course. by having students draw their own possible layouts, they will learn to apply information about the types of archaeological plant remains found, the ecological and seasonal requirements of the plants, and data about the natural environment. this exercise can be applied to any other agricultural case study, and as students evaluate this data to create possible field layouts, they will develop skills and abilities and achieve deep learning at the highest tiers of bloom’s taxonomy. in short, fritz leaves readers with vivid reconstructions of life and landscape at cahokia based on decades of scholarship that are thoughtfully marshalled into her current interpretation. references cited armstrong, p. 2010. bloom’s taxonomy. vanderbilt university center for teaching. available at: https://cft.vanderbilt.edu/guides-sub-pages/ blooms-taxonomy/. accessed on august 6, 2024. mcgregor, s. l. t. 2020. emerging from the deep: complexity, emergent pedagogy and deep learning. northeast journal of complex systems 2:1–21. doi:10.22191/nejcs/vol2/iss1/2. cultivating the unseen: paʻakai and the role of practice in coastal care mcguire and mawyer. 2023. ethnobiology letters 14(2):22–36 22 research communications special issue on diverse conservations managers. for instance, in hawaiian cosmology, a significant aspect of some waters that flow from uplands to coasts is that they can be home to a class of beings known as moʻo—mediators between human and other-than-human worlds, conception and perception, mind and action, and rights and obligations. mo‘o can be protective entities, as well as threats to be wary of. they may take a reptilian form, often glossed in english as dragon-like, perhaps reflecting their sublime character—both terrible and introduction: coastal conservation and moʻo this piece works to identify and discuss potential blind spots and unseen realms in coastal conservation. as an opening to the observations about conservation and coastlines which we wish to draw into view, we point to the complexity of elemental and biological entities when perceived through a cultural lens. on coastlines, these entities, including salt, seaweeds, or offshore freshwater springs, are often more, or other, than they appear to conservation scientists and cultivating the unseen: paʻakai and the role of practice in coastal care gina mcguire1* and alexander mawyer2 1 geography & environment, university of hawaiʻi mānoa, honolulu, usa. 2 pacific island studies, university of hawaiʻi mānoa, honolulu, usa. *mcguire2@hawaii.edu abstract this piece centers itself in paʻakai (seasalt) practices as providing a critical lens for an ethnoecology of the rural puna coastline on the island of hawaiʻi. grounded by ethnographic engagement with ʻōiwi (native hawaiian) tradition, interweaving moʻolelo (stories) from kūpuna (ancestors, elders) alongside contemporary praxis in puna, hawaiʻi island, we explore the role of paʻakai gathering, limu (seaweed) provisioning, and offshore spring water collection in what we are calling coastal care—the reciprocal relationship of care between communities and coasts. hawaiian cultural practices around paʻakai are a striking home for biocultural linkages including practitioners’ understandings of human and other-than-human wellbeing that exemplify the diversity of cultural dimensions tangibly present in coastal places. highlighting the plurality of roles culture plays in the sustainable stewardship and wellbeing of coastal places and communities, this work contributes to ongoing discourses around the role of human dimensions in coastal conservation and management. here we use water, pa‘akai, and limu to make visible what we call the “unseen realm” within contemporary conservation—the persistent blind spots around indigenous and local culture(s) within conservation policy, planning, and enactment. encouraging conservation and island sustainability scientists and practitioners to better engage with their blind spots, we identify the need for collaborative coastal management inclusive of ʻōiwi practices and understandings of coastal care with implications for coastal studies in hawai‘i and in other indigenous contexts across oceania. received june 16, 2022 open access accepted december 5, 2022 doi 10.14237/ebl.14.2.2023.1825 published may 31, 2023 keywords conservation, coasts, coastal care, sea salt, cultural practice, indigenous ecology copyright © 2023 by the author(s); licensee society of ethnobiology. this is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution-noncommercial 4.0 international public license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0), which permits non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. mcguire and mawyer. 2023. ethnobiology letters 14(2):22–36 23 research communications special issue on diverse conservations beautiful. because moʻo are akua wai (water deities), “when investigating them we should keep the lifegiving and death-dealing properties of wai (water) in mind because as a collective body they embody most if not all of its attributes”, as professor of religion alohalani brown (2022:43) notes. mo‘o thus exemplify some of the character of the relationships between nature’s materiality and the role of culture in sensitively shaping environmental behavior, in this case through an ʻōiwi (native hawaiian) lens which brings into focus the potency of elemental deities physically manifested in the environment (goldberghiller and silva 2011; kanahele 2021; kanakaʻole kanahele and wise 1989). notable among the ontological and metaphysical plurality is the likelihood that the unaware may never perceive the culturally grounded presence of entities such as mo’o even as their presence may be actively bearing on and frequently threatening passers-bys’ wellbeing (brown 2022:45-46; torgersen 2018). beyond the shores of hawai‘i, social anthropologist veronica strang positions such water beings as “provid[ing] symbolic support for the alternate beliefs and values that locate humankind in more egalitarian and reciprocal position in relation to the non-human world, and which might therefore encourage more sustainable modes of engagement” (strang 2021:19). thus, they exemplify land and waterscape presences or ‘metapersons’ (sahlins 2022) immanent in everyday contexts. these too often go unseen, unfelt (wiebe 2019), and unconsidered by some coastal actors including those whose conservation and management actions will profoundly affect the wellbeing of indigenous and local communities. in hawaiʻi, where this paper is positioned, marine, coastal, and nearshore conservation and management may frequently find itself entangled in the relationships, values, knowledge systems, and practices which surround such complexly cultural entities (dacks et al. 2019; sterling et al. 2017). these management types include large-scale marine protected areas (lsmpas) that are no-take zones such as papahānaumokuākea marine national monument, meso-scale mpas implementing fishing seasons and harvest limits enforced, as possible, by statemanagement bodies such as the west hawai̒ i regional fishery management area, no-take zones for all but cultural descendants such as the hawai̒ i volcanoes national park shoreline, and relatively community-scale protected areas such as the slowemerging community-based subsistence fishing areas (cbsfas) like moʻomomi cbsfa (akutagawa et al. 2016; freestone et al. 2013; nps 2020; poepoe et al. 2007; stevenson and tissot 2013). as attention to water bodies and water beings emphasizes, conservation and management areas may seek to enclose and govern these human and other-thanhuman worlds. in that sense, conservation areas may, too, be somewhat like bodies of water with unseen presences which may, at times, pose risks to the unaware. contrasting with the unseen cultural dimensions which can escape the perception of some observers, coastal care-based practices and their knowledge bases foster reciprocal relationships that cultivate resilience and entangled multi-body and multi-dimensional wellbeing. these can manifest across spiritual, relational, and physical dimensions. in the remainder of this paper, we seek to complement insights about the potent presences embodied by moʻo by drawing attention to paʻakairelated practices including paʻakai gathering, limu (seaweed) provisioning, and offshore spring water collection. we suggest that conservation scientists and practitioners may advance their work by better appreciating the presence of cultural complexity around particular species or entities on the coastal landscape which, like water bodies and all that they may contain, too often go unseen. many scholars, indigenous and otherwise, alongside diversely positioned practitioners, have called for the inclusion of indigenous, local, and rural ways of knowing within conservation and environmental management. these calls include an acknowledgement of land-use legacies’ contribution to ecosystem diversity and resilience (armstrong et al. 2021; berkes 2018) alongside the “mainstreaming” of social sciences necessary to synthesize human dimensions within the conservation, sustainability, and environmental sciences (bennett et al. 2017; moon et al. 2019). ʻōiwi practitioner engagement with paʻakai (seasalt) offers an exemplary lens for understanding coastal places and provides an effective and embodied monitoring approach. this highlights the opportunities of biocultural approaches (betley et al. 2021; sterling et al. 2020) to contribute to the linked wellbeing of coastal communities and local environments by drawing into view relevant dimensions that might otherwise go unperceived and unengaged. the unseen realm and the need for effective management of coastal areas the presence of unseen, culturally grounded mcguire and mawyer. 2023. ethnobiology letters 14(2):22–36 24 research communications special issue on diverse conservations aspects of place tangibly manifested in diverse indigenous and local perceptions, conceptions, and responsive practices of community members that we focus on within this piece resonates with what chamorro jurist and environmental philosopher julian aguon calls “perpetual light” (aguon 2021). just as water holds eddies, currents, and minerals that cannot readily be seen, so too do our places hold practices and ways of knowing, inclusive of culturally immanent entities, such as mo‘o, that have yet to be well incorporated into active conservation and management approaches including visioning, policy, and implementation. this persists despite their potential to contribute to effective management, sustainable stewardship of resources, and an ethic of care for community that is inclusive of respective environmental and ecological linkages. asking the reader to dwell, for a moment, on the relations between mo‘o and waterways brings to mind an observation which deserves continued attention by conservation scientists and practitioners. as anthropologist of science stefan helmreich observes, water exemplifies the challenge to understand the interplay of both natural and cultural substances: “for natural science, water’s effects depend on its state (solid, liquid, gas), on its scale (from molecular to oceanic), and on whether it is fresh or salty, still or turbulent, deep or shallow. for interpretative social sciences, water can be sacred substance, life, refreshment, contaminant, grave” (helmreich 2011:132-133). a key point here for those coming from disciplinary backgrounds outside the social sciences is that the ‘nature’ of water, in any particular culture, with all the locally salient irreducible uniquenesses of conception, perception, and practice, is tangible and material, in a different sense than the molecular definability of some substance. water, that is, exemplifies the obstacle confronting approaches to conservation and management when attempting to perceive, understand, and incorporate expertise within indigenous worlds inclusive of knowledge, perception, value, or practice (fabre et al. 2021; lauer 2017; moon et al. 2019). engaging with place may reveal cultural dimensions which are material and tangible to practitioners and social scientists, but which may linger in the realm unseen, unperceived, or felt to be intangible by many conservationists despite the more or less emerged consensus that all such practices benefit from engagement with local communities and their socio-ecological worlds (abas et al. 2022; cronon 1995; west et al. 2006). this challenge of bridging between the unseen/ unfelt and the tangible/material in cultural dimensions may be particularly salient for coastal areas, home to vibrant biocultural linkages (lepofsky et al. 2017), which are often obscured within conservation bins: as neither land nor sea, yet featuring both extraordinary and ordinary dimensions. in hawai‘i for instance, the ability for ʻōiwi to represent themselves, their knowledge, goals, and practices within the context of biocultural conservation of coastal areas may be hampered, not only because of legacies of dismissiveness of indigenous and local knowledges in (post)settler colonial societies (tuhiwai smith 2012), but also because of the persistent tendency to perceive coastlines as mere boundaries between terrestrial or marine conservation contexts, each with their own particular concerns and literatures, and which persistently overlook the density of cultural practices that are specifically coastal. the intertidal zone presents a geography central to ʻōiwi culture and provisioning that is under-explored in coastal management and research in comparison to fisheries or reefs. in the hawaiian archipelago, as elsewhere, we argue that coasts are areas that deserve nuanced negotiation and engagement as “sentient cultural landscapes,” comparable to the australian country described by strang, not only informed by but realized within cultural practice(s) as way of knowing (strang 2021:18). here, we engage with active cultural practitioner-based understandings of pa‘akai to exemplify the unseen dimensions surrounding particular resources or resource-complexes subject to conservation and management. allowing for consideration of ways that place-based, culturally grounded approaches can contribute to an alternate modality of knowing, monitoring, and sustainably managing coastal wellbeing. such approaches have material implications for conservation and sustainability impacts, resulting in desired outcomes for any number of valuable cultural resources such as limu, among others. while emerging work continues to highlight the need for the turn to place (andrade and morishige 2022; hale et al. 2022; kamelamela et al. 2022; larson 2020), we note that cultural dimensions, including some of the most salient, continue to be overlooked in engagement by extra-local experts or difficult to capture through more familiar disciplinary lenses (dacks et al. 2019; verschuuren 2007) seeking to support effective coastal management in hawai‘i and beyond (leong et al. 2019; toniello et al. 2019). at mcguire and mawyer. 2023. ethnobiology letters 14(2):22–36 25 research communications special issue on diverse conservations root, our argument suggests that ʻōiwi knowledge systems and practices remain underrepresented and overshadowed in the status quo of conservation and marine resource management because they remain unseen, unfelt, and thus go unacknowledged by nonpractitioners despite frequent articulations of best intentions and shared goals towards sustainable management of coastal resources and areas. the implications of this work extend well beyond hawai‘i. recent work suggests that 47.9% of coast regions across the globe are under pressure from heavy anthropogenic impact and will face changing climatic and harvesting pressures in the near future (bindoff et al. 2019, williams et al. 2021). as the world community increasingly recognizes the growing challenges facing shorelines, there are and will continue to be calls for coastal conservation interventions such as the above-mentioned management-styles. in hawaiʻi, for example, the holomua marine 30 x 30 initiative calls for the hawaiʻi department of land and natural resources to “effectively manage hawai‘i’s nearshore waters with 30% established as marine management areas by 2030” (dar 2020). but could effective management benefit if filtered through a place-sensitive lens and implementation which pragmatically engages with diverse cultural dimensions (winter et al. 2021)? what might conceptualizing coastal management through care-based cultural practices bring ever more clearly into view (morishige et al. 2018)? moreover, this lens brings into view an assembly of other entities and associated practices on the coast which require similar attention to the too often unseen cultural dimensions tangibly present in local practices around diverse flora and fauna and elemental entities such as pa‘akai and offshore freshwater. place-based engagement & methods we would like to nuance our place-based engagement, introducing the piko (navel) of this work. our understanding of cultural praxis as a lens for liminal coastal spaces is informed by recent ethnographic experience on the rural coastline of kalapana, which is located on the southeastern shore of hawaiʻi island in the puna district. kalapana is best -known for its position downslope of the active kīlauea volcano. kalapana’s coast is a rich biocultural landscape (dacks et al. 2019; morishige et al. 2018), woven through cultural lifeways such as lawaiʻa (fishing), ʻohi (gathering), nohokūpuna (to reside in ancestral homelands), and kanikapila (impromptu music composition). these exemplify the interconnectedness of ʻōiwi culture and ecological knowledge systems which undergird ʻāina (land, literally that which feeds) as the site of the linked sustainable wellbeing of human and other-thanhuman communities (mcgregor et al. 2003, 2007). kalapana is a key site of continuing care-based relationships by long-persisting kuaʻāina (rural subsiding) communities who maintain niche-based sites of vibrant ola (ʻōiwi term for health, wellbeing) (mcguire in press). kuaʻāina is “someone who embodied the backbone of the land…the native hawaiians who remained in the rural communities of our islands, took care of the kūpuna or elders, continued to speak hawaiian, bent their backs and worked and sweated in the taro patches and sweet potato fields, and held that which is precious and sacred in the culture in their care” (mcgregor 2007). we pair contemporary conversations with kūpuna and gathering practices with documented oral history accounts from the same coastline to emphasize the value of moʻolelo (story) and mo‘okūauhau (genealogical) or other ancestral based understandings (nākoa and wright 2015, wilson-hokowhitu 2019). engagement included holoholo (purposefully meander) along the kalapana coastline with elders (2020–2022), and limu provisioning for medicinal, ceremonial, and dietary purposes conducted by mcguire. mcguire was raised and continues to subside within the puna district where she navigates several roles as native woman, community member, and hawaiian medicine student-practitioner. the lived experiences, ethnographically documented, provide the grounded context and sensory engagement with the entities discussed with elders and within this paper. ʻōiwi scholar kaiwipunikauikawēkiu lipe writes of “moʻolelo aku, moʻolelo mai” as methodology, to share and receive three kinds of moʻolelo including mele (musical compositions), ʻōlelo noʻeau (hawaiian proverbs and sayings), and narration or storytelling (lipe 2015). we focus, here, on the third kind, the stories told by both ancestral and contemporary kuaʻāina of kalapana. using moʻolelo engagement, from both current practitioners together with ancestral voice, provides a genealogical understanding of our piko and attempts to meet hawaiian historian noelani arista’s call to not just position “native voice” within scholarly work but to nuance and contextualize it within an honoring of ancestral voice (arista 2009). in an effort to “compose anticolonial genealog[ies]” of place (mcdougall 2021:52), we mcguire and mawyer. 2023. ethnobiology letters 14(2):22–36 26 research communications special issue on diverse conservations engage with kaona, the hawaiian term for veiled inner meaning within the stories considered (arista 2010:665) calling attention to the understated and poetic aspects of coastal care. semi-structured interviews were completed with individuals who have intergenerational connections to the kalapana coastline and are current residents and/ or maintain pilina (un-severable relationships) with coastal sites. interview questions focused on understanding how individuals maintain their pilina to this coastline. interviews were transcribed, returned to knowledge holders for consent and review, and coded for elements of coastal care and ways of knowing coast. of the wider group of interviewees, the primary knowledge holders included within this constellation of paʻakai practices include uncle sam and uncle primo keliihoomalu, who both reside in kaimū. with their permission and guidance, their names are included rather than anonymized within this work. engagement with oral histories particularly draws on 25 oral histories collected by dr. charles langlas and students spanning from 1987-2010, providing the most comprehensive source available for accounts of kalapana lives within the 20th century (langlas and kūpuna 2016). we primarily draw from the oral history of aunty emma kauhi which provides insight into the lives of the kuaʻāina of the kalapana coast within 1916-1935 (kauhi and langlas 1996). in the discussion below, we do not report across the full range of interview findings but tease out key ideas from those which brought paʻakai practices into focus, emphasizing practitioners’ maintenance of pilina and coastal care. paʻakai, ʻuao kapakai (coastal mediator) paʻakai practices are an embodied, place-based lens with which to understand the ‘ōiwi coastline. like water, pa‘akai evidences a plurality of chemical, molecular, and physical properties readily engaged by natural scientists alongside a lush range of cultural and social properties which become visible through ‘ōiwigrounded ways of knowing, perceiving, and holding practical expertise with sustainability and ecological management implications. grounded in the kapaʻahu section of the wider kalapana coastline, aunty emma kauhi shares that the gathering of seasalt was known by two names: ka ʻohi ʻana o ka paʻakai and hāhāpaʻakai (kauhi and langlas 1996). in the hawaiian language the crystallized form of salt is known as paʻakai. paʻa literally means to be firm, secure, steadfast. kai, the sea. paʻakai is thus a powerful embodiment—unseen but tasted and felt in its kai (sea water) form and ʻehu kai (sea spray) form, only seen in its crystallized form (pukui and elbert 1986). across the hawaiian archipelago, paʻakai has many different uses, primarily for the preservation of food and seasoning, but also medicinal and ceremonial purposes (nobrega-oliveira 2019). in mcguire’s experiences with paʻakai gathering on hawaiʻi island—in kona and puna districts, gathering sites look different, dependent on the size of coastal shelfs and depressions, and remain consistent sites of return, following the weather events that allow for the shelf’s wave-inundation and subsequent evaporation. with hawai‘i island sites differing from those previously documented on kauaʻi (nobrega-oliveira 2019), the style and size of the sites also vary by island. paʻakai is used in all elements of hawaiian healing—as a cleansing agent, topically in combination with several different herbs for wounds, bruises, and broken bones, and internally in combination with herbs for a multitude of ailments (gutmanis 2006). among healing and subsistence practitioners, paʻakai is used in death ceremonies, blessings, and as a preservative of food and of the dead. among its many highly culturally significant roles, paʻakai is sometimes used in protocol exchanges of greeting to establish and mediate social relationships between kiaʻi (caretakers) of that place and visitors. it is positioned as an entity that has value in the ordinary and every-day contexts of community wellbeing. however, it is also positioned within ceremonial and sacred domains, highlighting its role as a medium or even vessel of mana (loosely glossed as spirit, energy, or power) within ʻōiwi worldviews.1 kuaʻāina connection to the coast through paʻakai practice is emplaced, temporally rooted in a past which is embodied, plural, and active.2 each of these dimensions of paʻakai practice brings into view the selective attention, directed responsiveness, and lived experience of community members as what we call ʻcare’. it is these components of care that this piece identifies as valuable to coastal management conversations and approaches. “what keeps me attached to the land, is this right here,” uncle primo keliihoomalu said as he shared his bucket full of his home-made paʻakai (figure 1). uncle primo is the only traditional salt-maker within the kaimū community and wider kalapana coastline. this salt is a delicate crust, rather than the hard granules that we can buy in the store... made from the waters of kaimū, the traditional homeland of the mcguire and mawyer. 2023. ethnobiology letters 14(2):22–36 27 research communications special issue on diverse conservations keliihoomalu family within the wider kalapana area. mcguire observed, when talking to uncle primo, that this practice gives him great pride, and maintains his intimate relationship with this specific coast. in her account of life in neighboring kapaʻahu from 19161935, aunty emma kauhi shares of the practice of hāhāpaʻakai: if the ocean is stormy, the waves cover the shore far inland and the depressions in the rock get filled up with seawater. and then if the hot weather comes back, the water in those depressions dries up and turns into seasalt. and you have to be careful to collect the salt before it rains. the places to get salt were at ʻapua or kekaha... so there were certain places to get seasalt, places with big, flat rocks, with the proper depressions, huge depressions. you got clean seasalt... only when the time was right would you gather seasalt... they'd be observing the nature of the clouds, perhaps the kind of wind that blew, and the movement of the ocean” (kauhi and langlas 1996:102). aunty emma’s account shares intimacy of knowledge of weather patterns and wave activity over time as well as of specific rocks and shelves. following dramatic geologic activity along the coastline, which have altered the coastal depressions needed for the evaporative process (such as at kekaha) and altered relationships of access within the boundaries of hawaiʻi volcanoes national park (such as at ʻapua), paʻakai gathering practices have shifted from western portions of the coastline to areas of more immediate access (figure 2). as with other cultural practices such as hawaiian healing, lauhala (pandanus tectorius) weaving that have declined due to limited availability, shifts away from subsistence-based livelihoods, and breaks in practitioner-knowledge transmission, salt gathering has declined within hawaiʻi (boyd and kūpuna 1997, nobrega-oliveira 2019). uncle primo shared the challenges he faced in traditional-style salt-production including unknowing passersby stepping on the salt beds which makes production in traveled areas potentially difficult and has led to an adaptive practice—the evaporation process now done further inland, away from the immediate coastal edge, in raised trays (figure 1). additional causes of decline of this practice include the high levels of development and pollution across the shores of hawaiʻi. paʻakai, and engagement with it in its kai (sea) form as well as mineral form, is essential not only for establishing human wellness via ʻōiwi practice, but to knowing and intimately understanding other-thanhuman wellness within our coastal spaces. within the kalapana coastline, for example, which has no large freshwater-bodies such as streams, the presence and absence of paʻakai acts as a biocultural indicator for specific limu, certain marine invertebrates, and dependent-fish. from practitioner groundings— drawing from mcguire’s and kalapana-kuaʻāina experiences provisioning limu— we3 know that seaweed, limu ʻeleʻele (enteromorpha prolifera) will only grow in areas where there is freshwater input (brackish areas). on seeing limu ʻeleʻele on the puna coastline practitioners know by association that the water is more wai (freshwater) than kai (saltwater) from potential spring or groundwater sources. in these areas, too, practitioners know to look for our brine shrimp, ʻōpaeʻula (halocaridina rubra) (figure 3), which like to hide in the thin ʻeleʻele fronds. kalapanabased practitioners know this from gathering practices. uncle sam keliihoomalu shares, “guarantee if people go look outside here, the ʻōpelu4 schools out here, guarantee the ‘ōpae‘ula stay popping out, over there, someplace.” uncle sam's knowledge aligns with ancestral accounts of the coast. aunty emma kauhi shares, “as for the bait for ʻōpelu fishing, it was ʻōpaeʻula (a small, red endemic shrimp). before at kapaʻahu, there was plenty of that kind of shrimp, ʻōpaeʻula. in the ponds. but goldfish were brought in, let loose into the ponds. the ʻōpae were eaten by these goldfish, and the ʻōpaeʻula completely disappeared” (kauhi and langlas 1996:109). practitioner experiences gathering limu ʻeleʻele and uncle sam’s knowledge can be paired with aunty emma’s account to show a return of these beings within this coast, an ecological indicator for which biogeographic data in this space is lacking. the consideration of what we are calling wai kai (freshwater and saltwater/marine) relationships on this coast and subsistence-based understandings of place provides an embodied and dependent relationship with species assemblages of ecological communities. this practice-based knowledge of how wai kai dynamics inform the status of inter-dependent coastal wellness can provide for more intimate, site-specific ways of knowing coast. just as paʻakai-presence provides a lens for understanding the limu and dependent biota communities, the niche-pockets of its mcguire and mawyer. 2023. ethnobiology letters 14(2):22–36 28 research communications special issue on diverse conservations absence provide the lens with which to intimately engage with other areas that are easily overlooked. not easily perceived sites such as offshore springs called punaluʻu5 and hoaka6 in ‘ōlelo hawai‘i, engaged in past and present by skilled practitioners, provided access to mea waiwai (valuable entities) including those used in lapaʻau (healing), loko iʻa (fish pond), and lawaiʻa (fishing) practices (harden and kūpuna 1998:50, nishimoto and akutagawa 1991:74, 83). historic maps and stories (langlas and kūpuna 2012) show that springs are abundant along the kalapana coastline. writing on the hygiene and sanitation of the hawaiian islands, bushnell wrote of the “numerous” springs that were each “known and named, even those that came up in the sea, beyond the edge of land” within hawaiʻi (1966:331). bushnell goes on to write of villagers who could “dive into the sea with an empty water-gourd and to come up with it filled with its cool water” (1966:331). this intimate and named knowledge base exemplifies ways of knowing that are lived, dependent on recurring site-relationships, and that highlight reciprocal care. these springs, through their taste and consistent presence, provide insight into island groundwater happenings that may otherwise go unobserved. just as we, persons, cannot exist without freshwater, these offshore springs cannot exist without proper island-based management that will be better grounded when the role of cultural practices, sensory engagement and dependencies, and presences (and as importantly, realized absences) around such entities as pa‘akai are taken into account. paʻakai as coastal management intervention: concluding thoughts in their work with vhavenda plant knowledge holders, natasha constant and milingoni tshisikhawe suggest that “hybrid knowledge co-production through the development of collaborations between state-sponsored management, conservation experts, researchers, and indigenous and local knowledge holders can lessen the dominance of science and positivism as the primary decision-making figure 1 left: salt beds at kaimū. right: kaimū paʻakai, 2022. photo credit: gina mcguire. mcguire and mawyer. 2023. ethnobiology letters 14(2):22–36 29 research communications special issue on diverse conservations frameworks for natural resource management” (2018:26). we echo this sentiment. engaging with practice is a lens for better perceiving the multidimensionality of landand sea-spaces in which management and conservation actions are enacted. by considering practice, ecological connections that were formerly difficult to perceive, much less incorporate within policy and decision making through previously available indicators (dacks 2018; sterling 2020), improve on existing tools that advance broadly shared goals of sustainable wellbeing for coasts and communities. decisions and management schemes should work to be aware of the presence of, if not incorporate, cultural dimensions that would otherwise go unseen, which may emerge only in the context of particular cultural practices at certain seasons and places, and which are not easily dismissed as “intangible” once their lived materialities are taken into account. in one example of how this inclusion leads to more dynamic modalities of care, yuku baja muliku7 observations within their traditional seasonal calendar “have led to changes in management practices at some levels (the way we manage our cultural burning regime) or to adapted indigenous knowledge in others (using a different flowering tree as an indicator of fish presence)” (hale et al. 2022:236). similarly, paʻakai provisioning offers conservationists and managers the opportunity to incorporate knowledge on coastal wellbeing indicators such as water quality or weather patterns (consistency/ seasonal fluctuations) to inform place-based monitoring and care. when scientists and figure 2 kalapana coastline, displaying historic and contemporary sites of paʻakai practice. mcguire and mawyer. 2023. ethnobiology letters 14(2):22–36 30 research communications special issue on diverse conservations practitioners make space for these praxis-based ways of knowing, we also make visible these indicators for others engaged in conservation-based management and/or sustainable harvest. we ask that conservation bodies directly promote and support cultural practices such as hāhāpaʻakai, limu provisioning, or offshore wai collection as valid ways of informing ecosystemwellness and as ways that build community investment in their place-health. “if we want our shorelines to be productive and continue to produce for us, we need to understand how to tend to them” (andrade et al. 2022:191). this action-basis of ‘tending’ ensures long-term care in and of our coastal places, their resources, and cultural imminencies. we identify the need for collaborative coastal management inclusive of cultural practices and understandings of coasts, making room for ancestral and contemporary knowledge transmission-based relationships in conservation while at the same time identifying that these ways of knowing often occur outside of state-sponsored conservation modalities. rather, they are maintained by cultural knowledge keepers without expectation of recognition toward coastal care. returning to the challenge of the unseen realm of cultural dimensions, particularly of indigenous ecological practices within conservation and management regimes emplaced over coasts, we are reminded of the way that hawaiian scholar emalani case describes pōʻai, domains at the edge of what is visible, by which hawaiian cultural practitioners understand relationships to entities and spaces that are not visible to the eye (2022:102). these pōʻai particularly call for engagement within coastal realms, as neither entirely terrestrial nor marine. they are more than the sum of their parts. paʻakai embodies this unseen realm, as not just mineral but spiritual entities with mana. the sea waves, rocks, sites of gathering, and the paʻakai itself through interrelationships take on kin-based relations. paʻakai, and correspondingly the coast, is alive because we are alive (and vice versa): i ola ʻoe, i ola mākou nei (my life is dependent on yours; your life is dependent on mine). we present paʻakai as an entity that shapes our ecologies, our coast-spaces, and as integral to ʻōiwi cultural practices, with practice-based engagements that remain, largely, in the unseen realm of conservation-based and other forms of coastal management. we call this into sight as a kino (corporal) embodiment of a care-based engagement for coastal management that incorporates practice within place-wellness indicators. in our experiences, management bodies have tended to focus on easily quantified indicators of human wellness that can be compared across sites (e.g. water quality levels) and biota abundances rather than practice-based indicators, which can be more individual, ungeneralizable, and experience based. in reflection of the relevance of our suggested insight about what the moʻo-like elements of management or conservation areas/regimes can hold for those not positioned as cultural practitioners, we are reminded of the way in which european cartographers would illustrate a large dragon-like entity over parts of the sea as yet uncharted. in discussion of olaus magnus’ 1539 map, carta marina, european historian, lindsay starkey writes, “the ocean continually gave birth to more and more figure 3 mixed media ʻōpaeʻula contributed by loi. mcguire and mawyer. 2023. ethnobiology letters 14(2):22–36 31 research communications special issue on diverse conservations marvels, meaning that no matter how much a person investigated its sea monsters, that person could never fully know either the ocean’s contents or its potential contents, leaving the spectator of that ocean... to wonder about both the ocean and the sea monsters it repeatedly produced” (starkey 2017:37). this visual history of other peoples’ sea monsters, juxtaposed with moʻo, reminds us that one person’s unseen realm may be another’s tangible, immanent, and mediating ecological and environmental praxis. if we accept the cultural, cosmological, and mana-based understandings of coast as immanent and tangible, what then changes? what might it mean for conservation? we support the call to better develop and incorporate indicators of cultural dimensions frequently described as “intangible”, often unseen, and almost always unmeasured within coastal management, as embodied in our discussion of moʻo. as dacks et al. (2019) note, significant gaps in addressing placeand cultural praxis-based indicators persist. we encourage conservation scientists and practitioners, as well as sustainability actors to attend to the following interventions: • the ongoing development of biocultural indicators that are specifically coastal, and which indicate for coastal environmental states the linked wellbeing of sites and their supported human and other-than-human communities, and the culturally salient practices which are linked within them (dacks et al. 2019; leong et al. 2019; sterling et al. 2017) • the consideration of the persistence and resilience of practitioner-linked pilina to elements and entities that indicate and/or carry mana, such as paʻakai. we recall uncle primo’s words about paʻakai provisioning as what keeps him connected to the land. we encourage evaluation of: 1) the diversity and plurality of entities, practices, and cognitions which tie us to place (inclusive of that which is shared or not shared between differently positioned actors, e.g. indigenous knowledge holders maintaining relations to ancestral lands and seas, local/rural residents, managers, caretakers); the status over time of those ties; and 2) how conservationists, managers, and stewards can sustainably facilitate these practice-based ways of knowing and caring for coasts within respective place-based contexts. • the assessment of the survival of enduring nohokūpuna, of whether knowledge transmission from kuaʻāina within ancestral sites is occurring and the continuity of sustained residence in ancestral homelands. we would like to flag this concept of nohokūpuna of particular importance and as currently under-emphasized in considerations of coastal wellbeing. when nohokūpuna is intact, mana-bearing ancestral presences that are embedded and remain alive within coasts are known and cared for in modalities of selective attention, directed responsiveness, and lived experiences. • the use of moʻolelo as key sources on how elements and entities of coasts are storied and appropriately cared for. moʻolelo often present non -linear ways of knowing a place, with past, present, and future frequently co-aligned. we suggest the analysis of moʻolelo kuaʻāina alongside contemporary stories and compositions to inform temporally dynamic and ancestrally grounded coastal wellbeing. • the composition of management teams that practice makawalu (eight ways of seeing), which allows for the consideration of the place or entity from a plurality of worldviews and ontological stances (cf. todd 2014 for a resonant call in a first nations context). the ocean, and the coast in particular, remain jumping-off points for tangible engagements of care with seemingly intangible aspects of cultural practices around paʻakai or punaluʻu, as well as for the known entities and relations we depend on such as ʻōpaeʻula, ʻōpelu, or limu. when engaged with practice-based care, practitioners advance from observers of these coastal and marine spaces across scales (andrade and morishige 2022, 312) into embodied and action-based roles within wider communities committed to tending ancestral lands and seas. pihana et al. identify knowledge sharing, storytelling, and engagement with cultural practice as ways to create and sustain longlasting relationships to place that strengthen the wellbeing of future generations as ocean stewards (2022). our work similarly calls into sight the value of practitioner-based engagement to inform coastal care. in doing so, we emphasize the need to make room for care and knowledge transmission-based relationships in conservation around plural ontologies. as uncle primo shared, cultural practice is an umbilical cord— one which links community members to ancestral home coasts. such connections enable the reciprocal relationships necessary for coastal care: the vital mcguire and mawyer. 2023. ethnobiology letters 14(2):22–36 32 research communications special issue on diverse conservations relationships of people to place that advance integral wellness through practice and consciousness of the lifeways within geographies of care. notes 1 for a robust treatment of this important term, see the edited volume tomlinson & tengan 2016. 2 for hawaiian cultural practitioners this past may be conceived as “before us” (wilson-hokowhitu 2019). 3 like other polynesian languages, ʻōlelo hawaiʻi observes two series of first-person plural pronouns. one series (māua/mākou) includes the speaker/writer and one or more others but not the audience/reader. the other series (kāua/kākou) includes both the speaker and audience/reader or the speaker, audience, and yet others. these distinctions in positionality are not readily captured by the, relatively speaking, depauperate ‘we’ of english. here we (māua) note that mcguire and the kapalana kuaʻāina community of practitioners, in whose knowledge this work is embedded, engages a ‘we’ (mākou) that does not include the co-author and may or may not include the reader depending on their positionality. for an important treatment of the role of these shifting ‘we’ in scholarly writing, particularly that bearing on indigenous worlds, see tengan 2018 and the large linguistics literature on “shifters.” we encourage other scholars to attend to the nuance of we-stance in their research and writing. 4 decapterus spp. 5 puna springs, luʻuto dive, reference from kaʻū and puna districts, hawaiʻi island. 6 hoakareference for blue holes from ʻualapuʻe, molokaʻi (nishimoto & akutagawa 1991:74). 7 traditional custodians of land and sea country of archer point, north queensland, australia. acknowledgments mahalo nui to the families of kalapana for being so generous with us, particularly to the keliihoomalu, hauanio, kahookaulana, and peleiholani ʻohana. we are very grateful for the knowledge shared by uncle primo keliihoomalu and uncle sam keliihoomalu. we stand in gratitude for the remarkable work done by dr. charles langlas and mahalo him for all that he has done and continues to do. we would like to thank the guest editors and peer-reviewers for their contributions that allowed us to strengthen this work. declarations permissions: this work was completed under university of hawaiʻi institutional review board #2020-00220. in alignment with best practices of indigenous data sovereignty, we gained consent of the two interviewed knowledge holders to include their names rather than anonymize. sources of funding: none declared. conflicts of interest: none declared. references cited abas, a., a. aziz, and a. awang. 2022. a systematic review on the local wisdom of indigenous people in nature conservation. sustainability 14. doi:10.3390/su14063415 aguon, j. 2021. the properties of perpetual light. university of guam press. akutagawa, m., e. cole, t. p. diaz, t. d. gupta, c. gupta, a. fa'anunu, s. kamakaala, m. taualii. maile. 2016. health impact assessment of the proposed moʻomomi community-based subsistence fishing 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schoeninger and moore 1992). during the 1980s, isotopic evidence detailing the antiquity of maize consumption incorporated data from human bone collagen from archaeological sites in northern south america, including the andes (burleigh and brothwell 1978; van der merwe et al. 1981). archaeological stable isotope analysis in south america is now routinely used to examine a broad diversity of subjects such as past climate (yanes et al. 2014; latorre et al. 2017), paleoenvironments (domingo et al. 2012), and human diets reconstruction at multiple spatial and temporal scales (barberena et al. 2009; otaola et al. 2018; pezo-lanfranco et al. 2024; zangrando et al. 2013). in cwa, pioneering stable isotope research occurred during the late 1980s and early 1990s (fernández and panarello 1991; fernández et al. 1999; novellino and guichón 1999). stable isotopes (carbon and nitrogen) in central western argentina: an introduction central western argentina (cwa) represents a buffer/transitional zone where lifeways vary from southern patagonian hunter-gatherers to the northern "andean world" of farmers (figure 1). there were 2,000years of interactions within a shifting frontier zone between these societies with contrasting socioeconomic lifeways (gil et al. 2020c; lagiglia 2001). in this context, archaeological stable isotope data significantly improve the knowledge about prehistoric human diet. focusing on this transition in human subsistence and diet, this paper summarizes how the application of stable isotopes in cwa archaeology began and its subsequent methodological and theoretical evolution. with roots in archaeological research back into the 1970s, carbon and nitrogen isotope analysis of human tissues is a powerful tool that provides robust stable isotopes analysis (carbon and nitrogen) in the central western argentina archaeology: a review adolfo gil1, 2,*, gustavo a. neme1,2, and eva a. peralta1 1instituto de evolución, ecología histórica y ambiente-idevea (conicet & utn), san rafael, argentina. 2facultad de filosofía y letras. universidad nacional de cuyo, mendoza, argentina. *agil@mendoza-conicet.gob.ar abstract stable isotopes analysis has become an essential part of the archaeological research agenda that engages ethnobiology. this paper reviews its impact in regional archaeological research focusing on the introduction of domesticated plants and their evolution in the human-environment system in central western argentina (cwa). we emphasize the significance of stable isotopes in investigating the complex evolutionary history of maize adoption and agricultural practices within a dynamic late holocene boundary zone between farming and hunter-gathering. the 30-year history of archaeological isotopic research in cwa represents a dynamic history of old and new questions and methodologies, greater statistical sophistication and theoretical depth in its interpretation. its impact, initially limited to reconstructing human diets, has now expanded significantly, providing powerful tools to model humans as part as a dynamic ecosystem. received january 13, 2025 open access accepted september 1, 2025 doi 10.14237/ebl.16.1.2025.1937 published october 16, 2025 keywords stable isotopes, holocene, central western argentina, hunter gatherer, farming, human diet copyright © 2025 by the author(s); licensee society of ethnobiology. this is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution-noncommercial 4.0 international public license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0), which permits non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. gil et al. 2025. ethnobiology letters 16(1):128–138 129 data, methods & taxonomies in this review we begin by analyzing factors driving the variation of stable carbon and nitrogen in terrestrial ecosystems, focusing on cwa. other elements have been studied in cwa but are not considered here (e.g., h, o, and sr; barberena et al. 2020; fernández et al. 1999; sharp et al. 2003; ugan et al. 2012). we explore the application of stable isotope analysis to studying diet diversity in cwa focused on the introduction of domesticated plants and their evolution in the human-environment system. stable isotopes in central western argentina: the natural background cwa is a heterogeneous environment with altitudinal variation in climate, hydrology, fauna, and vegetation. the study area (figure 1) is between ca. 30º and 37º s latitude, including mountains in the west, plains to the east, and a volcanic area in the southeast (figure 2). this area is a temperate, continental region with an arid to semi-arid climate. different ecoregions include the puna, altoandina, patagonia, cardonal, and monte deserts within the south american arid diagonal, where precipitation alternates seasonally between the atlantic and pacific anticyclones. the puna and altoandean desert, which comprises the cordillera above 2,500–3,000 masl, is characterized by cold, windy climatic conditions and winter predominant precipitation of 300-800 mm/year. the shrubby and herbaceous steppes of this unit are composed mostly of c3 photosynthetic bunch grasses and shrubs (cavagnaro 1988). the patagonian desert, extending south from ca. 35° s latitude, is located between 2,200 and 1,500 masl. the patagonian semideserts and steppe average 200 mm/years, with a ranging of 600 to 120 mm. most rainfall occurs during the winter. this desert is characterized by a xeric bushy steppe, and the dominant vegetation is composed of c3 plants (aranibar et al. 2023). the monte desert, which covers the majority of the study area, forms a wide fringe containing the eastern plains and eastern part of the la payunia badlands. it is characterized by an arid climate with summer dominant precipitation of 150–350 mm per year. in cwa, the most influential factor of δ13c variation is the isotopic distinction between c3 and c4, the two dominant photosynthetic pathways. few species exhibit another photosynthetic pathway, crassulacean acid metabolism (cam). different factors can influence variation in nitrogen isotope values: aridity, mean annual temperatures and soil salinity. figure 3 shows the preliminary isotopic variability in wild plants of cwa (aranibar et al. 2023; gil et al. 2020b). zea mays is added as a comparative framework along with lama sp. this provides an isotopic framework where human isotopic diet is constructed and interpreted (details in aranibar et al. 2023; gil et al. 2020b; otaola et al. 2018; peralta et al. 2022). stable isotope in cwa archaeology: topics and perspectives stable isotope research in cwa archaeology became commonplace in the 1990s (fernández and panarello 1991; fernández et al. 1999; gil 2003; novellino and guichón 1999) and focused on identifying the arrival and significance of maize farming. initially, as in the rest of the americas (cadwallader et al. 2012), these studies assumed non-presence, or feeble signals, of wild c4 plants in cwa ecosystems (roberts 2022). thus, it was presumed human tissues with high values of δ13c could be interpreted as a consequence of maize consumption. if it was assumed that humans living in a predominantly c3 plant environment have access to a c4 cultigen that formed an essential dietary staple, then the relative importance of such a cultigen in the diet should be measurable through an isotopic figure 1 central west argentina (cwa) in the macro regional context of subtropical andes (south america), with a schematic historic boundary between huntergatherers and farmers (gil et al. 2011; lagiglia 2001; neme et al. 2024). gil et al. 2025. ethnobiology letters 16(1):128–138 130 data, methods & taxonomies study of skeletal remains. however, this assumption should be and has been contested. cavagnaro's (1988) paper, for instance, strongly influences the applications of stable isotopes in archaeological research by rejecting the idea of a "wild c3 world” where the variation in 13c/12c can be translated in terms of the degree of maize consumption (roberts 2022). it encourages the necessity to generate a regional baseline for understanding isotopic variation. interpretations of diet based on isotopic data depend upon a thorough knowledge of the range and variation in isotopic compositions of foods potentially consumed. based on general models of plant 13c/12c and 15n/14n distribution (ambrose 1991; amundson et al. 2003; kohn 2010), a baseline for altitudinal isotopic distribution model was used by gil et al. (2016) as an initial theoretical approach. this model assumed a linear negative relationship between altitude and δ13c and δ15n values with decreasing altitude and increasing aridity, from the western mountains to the eastern plains. this was a baseline proposed for the tropics, with clinal altitude and climate gradients for both δ13c and δ15n values and was influential in the first stage of cwa isotopic research. the initial effort was to develop an isotopic baseline for dietary reconstruction focused on vertebrate fauna (fernández et al. 2016; gil et al. 2014; 2020a; 2024; otaola et al. 2018). otaola et al. (2018) presented the results of an isotopic study of δ13c and δ15n on bone collagen from modern samples of native wild fauna from the monte and patagonia deserts. however, contrary to “altitudinal” expectations, they did not observe significant differences in δ¹³c values across different ecosystems figure 2 environmental diversity in cwa. a altoandean, b monte, c patagonian desert, and d llancanelo wetland. gil et al. 2025. ethnobiology letters 16(1):128–138 131 data, methods & taxonomies (among monte and patagonia deserts), although differences in δ15n were observed. otaola et al. (2018) integrated the isotopic research on faunas from modern and archaeological contexts in cwa (barberena et al. 2018; fernández et al. 2016; giardina et al. 2014; gil et al. 2016, 2020b, 2024). otaola et al. (2018) influences advance in this line of research focused on camelids (gil et al. 2016, 2024; gil et al. 2020a, 2023b) and rodents (fernández et al. 2016; lópez et al. 2025). otaola et al.’s (2018) regional perspective on isotopic ecology has also provided new insights into human diet and trophic relationships (gil et al. 2020b, 2024; gordón et al. 2018; moscardi et al. 2022). this study demonstrates that the clinal and altitudinal model of δ13c and δ15n variation does not apply in cwa, highlighting a key area for research agenda. the same paper presents isotopic data for diverse vertebrate fauna in the region, enabling the development of mixed-diet models that incorporate resources beyond guanacos. additionally, these findings contribute to refining models of past and present fauna mobility and human -animal interactions (gil et al. 2024). a broad isotopic plant survey is currently underway (aranibar et al. 2023) to investigate spatial patterns of δ13c and δ15n of different plant types (c3, c4, and cam) along environmental gradients in the eastern slopes of the southern andes. this provides a more accurate baseline for reconstructing animal diet, mobility, and trophic relations. aranibar et al. (2023) reject the previously presented model of increasing δ13c and δ15n at lower elevations and in areas of higher aridity. the spatial frequency distribution of the c3/c4 ratio exhibits a non-linear pattern, with higher c4 abundances at intermediate altitudes, probably driven by atmospheric circulation patterns that generate aridity and c4 dominance at intermediate altitudes. this pattern has a significant impact on interpreting not only the human diet and the humanfauna relationship. the modern plant baseline of isotopic variability continues to lead the exploration of new topics such as investigation of archaeological rodent remains (ctenomys sp.) as a proxy of paleoclimate and/or maize cultivation in cwa (lópez et al. 2025). most applications of stable isotope analysis of human bone in cwa concern dietary reconstruction. studies have focused on a diversity of scales from populations to individuals within archaeological sites (gil et al. 2014, 2017; peralta et al. 2022; peralta and ots 2024) and regions (gil et al. 2006, 2017; novellino and guichón 1999) to summaries of diet at the regional scale (gil et al. 2011, 2014). recent isotopic research in archaeology includes several figure 3 isotopic variability in cwa baseline (based on aranibar et al. 2023; otaola et al. 2018; peralta et al. 2022; gil et al. 2020b). gil et al. 2025. ethnobiology letters 16(1):128–138 132 data, methods & taxonomies studies that advance knowledge about the human past based on well-formulated archaeological questions and theoretically informed perspectives (see roberts 2022), and research in cwa follows a similar trend (freeman et al. 2024; gil et al. 2024; peralta et al. 2022, 2024). changes in human diet are being connected with human population dynamics, and some studies consider changes in climate/ environment structure (barberena et al. 2020; freeman et al. 2024; peralta et al. 2022, 2023, 2024). the focus of contemporary isotopic research is not only reconstructing the human diet, but is incorporating studies of diet as a variable to explain more theoretically oriented research (freeman et al. 2024; gordón et al. 2018; peralta et al 2020). at the same time stable isotopes are advancing to connect the human-nature systems with an ecological framework (gil et al. 2020c). stable isotopes, human strategies, maize and the limits of farming in cwa cwa is considered the pre-hispanic southern limit of maize agriculture in the americas (figure 1; lagiglia 2001). cwa is a heuristic cultural geographic unit that includes northern patagonia, which represents the northern limit of pre-hispanic hunting and gathering societies; and the northwest where the last evidence of farming was recorded (figure 1). thus, cwa is a border area between hunting and gathering to the south and farming to the north and, consequently, the archaeological record is a mosaic of these diverse human strategies (figure 1). the presence of cultivars such as maize, squash, bean, and quinoa (lagiglia 2001) as well as ceramic technology have been interpreted as evidence of farming and sedentary settlement in the region (lagiglia 2001). in some cases, it has been associated with pastoralism as well. maize is the most ubiquitous domesticate in prehispanic cwa and dates back to as early as ca. 2000 years ago (gil, 2003). it is generally assumed that maize was a significant resource when added to the central western human diet 2,000 years ago and that it rapidly became a staple until historic times. cwa subsistence adaptations varied along a northern to southern gradient during the historic period, when spanish chronicles described the ethnics groups. to the north of diamante river valley, sedentary or semi-sedentary huarpe horticulturalists occupied a vast plain area, about 35°–30° s, while to the south, puelche and pehuenche remained with a hunter-gatherer lifestyle from diamante river to the province of neuquén, about 35°-40° s. early archaeological research projected this culturalgeographic pattern back ca. 2,000 years, associating its origin with the arrival of maize agriculture in the region (lagiglia 2001). as stated above, early studies in the archaeological application of isotopic analysis in cwa focused on the origin and significance of maize consumption in the region (gil 2003; novellino and guichón 1999). since then, stable isotopic analysis in cwa archaeology has rejected previous ideas and generated new insights about the initial incorporation of domesticate resources, their spread, and time/space variation. in its early use, the analyses were based on δ13c on bone collagen (gil 2003; novellino and guichón 1999). these studies used a heuristic threshold to define the degree of maize consumption: 13c/12c >−14‰ indicates a diet with >50% of maize on diet (tykot 2006). it became a "maize rule" for determining the presence of maize as a resource in cwa human diet. the advance of research added the δ15n as another proxy to monitor the variability in human diet (gil et al. 2006). with this second element, the research utilizes an analytical perspective with bi-plot (δ13c and δ15n) including human bone collagen, plant and animal resource values to build a visual comparison (gil et al. 2006, 2011). the incorporation of δ¹⁵n allowed estimating trophic positions (freeman et al. 2024; peralta et al. 2022) and includes aspect of climate (lópez et al. 2025). additionally, new research also incorporated the analysis of stable isotopes in bone carbonate (gil et al. 2006). it allowed differentiate routing of diet component sources such as protein source-inferred from bone collagenand total diet including proteins, lipids and carbohydratesinferred from bone carbonate. two key assumptions regarding the initial adoption of agriculture and its spread in cwa have been revised through advances in stable isotope analysis of archaeological remains. first, the early assumption that agriculture abruptly emerged in cwa and became the dominant subsistence strategy over the last two millennia has been challenged. second, the notion that this early agricultural transition established a long-standing and fixed boundary between hunter-gatherers and farmers in the region has also been reconsidered. gil et al. (2011) rejected the idea that maize was significant in the human diet as early as 2000 years ago gil et al. 2025. ethnobiology letters 16(1):128–138 133 data, methods & taxonomies in a study that sampled archaeological remains from northwest mendoza where there was historic evidence of farming and contact with the inka. these authors concluded that maize was incorporated early but only became significant in the human diet after ca. 1,000 years bp (gil et al. 2011; figure 4). subsequent investigations explored the earliest maize isotopic signal and its geographic distribution improving sample size, explored greater temporal depth, and expanded geographic scale within cwa (gil et al. 2011, 2014). ẟ13c data indicates that c4 resources initially (ca. 2000 years bp) were not very significant in the cwa human diet, and when they were, it was highly variable among contemporaneous individuals. however, this research shows that after 1,000 years bp, c4 resources became a significant energy source in the northern cwa (freeman et al. 2024; gil et al. 2009; peralta et al. 2022, 2024; figure 4). the ẟ13c and ẟ15n values show a population with a highly heterogeneous diet. this spatial and temporal expansion in the database of stable isotopes on human bone allows us to visualize an extensive range of variation that cannot be simply assumed as a directional increase of c4 thought time (figure 4). in addition to the studies described above, stable isotopes have been applied as a proxy to investigate additional factors that trigger variation in time and space of maize consumption (barberena et al. 2020; gil et al. 2016; peralta et al. 2022). gil et al. (2016) explored the impact of climate on farming production using dietary reconstruction over the last 2500 years. in northern mendoza and san juan provinces, maize enters the archaeological record at the beginning of this period and increases in importance through time, stabilizing at approximately 50% of the overall diet between 1000and 600-years bp. these data indicate that the most significant increase in maize consumption predated the inka occupation of the northern andes, coinciding with a similar pattern in central chile (falabella et al. 2007). an important conclusion, therefore, is that expansion in maize figure 4 bone collagen smooth trend on δ13c for cwa; north (32° to 34° sl), center (34° to 36° sl), south (36° to 38° sl). data from gil et al. (2011), freeman et al. (2024), and peralta et al. (2022). gil et al. 2025. ethnobiology letters 16(1):128–138 134 data, methods & taxonomies consumption was not an effect of inka expansion. after that period of increase in the consumption of maize, the onset of cold conditions associated with the little ice age induced changes in human diets in cwa, with declining stable isotope values after 600 bp. results indicate a decrease in c4 inputs in human collagen and, by extension, a drop in maize consumption after that time. in a related study geographically situated farther to the north in cwa, barberena et al. (2020) proposed a migration influx into uspallata valley between ca. 700 to 400 bp, based on evidence from multiple data types. their isotopic data (c and n associated with sr) suggests that a significant fraction of the migrants came from farming communities that practiced maize agriculture, as opposed to communities incorporating a broader subsistence base previously recorded as common in the area. recently, peralta et al. (2022) added data on human population dynamics as another variable to understand time/space variation in maize consumption. they observed that the population dynamic of late pleistocene-holocene huntergatherers changed its trajectory toward rapid growth ca. 2,300 years bp. peralta et al. (2022) identified several population “booms” followed by notable population “busts” in northwest mendoza (cwa). stable isotope relationships of 13c/12c on human bone follow a similar trend, indicating an increase in the consumption of maize during the population boom periods and decreased consumption during the bust periods. peralta et al. (2022) propose that the variation in human population during the last 2500 cal. years bp is associated with maize consumption. the increase in population density after the incorporation of domesticates is associated with higher investment and reliance on maize agriculture. the use of domesticated plants, maize in particular, varies over time in association with the recorded population oscillations. this dynamic association between population and maize consumption probably was due to delayed feedback between subsistence choices at a small-scale and population density and ecosystem structure at larger scales (freeman et al. 2024). using ẟ13c as a maize consumption marker, the discrete and long-term, stable hunter gatherer/ farming boundary proposed originally and placed among the atuel and diamante rivers (figures 1 and 3), is not as clear and stable as was expected. gil et al. (2011) call attention to early characterizations of such a hunter-gatherer/farming boundary, indicating that it should be questioned as a static limit and suggesting that it should be re-interpreted as a shifting zone between geographic expressions of contrasting subsistence modes. the study by gil et al. (2020c) concludes that the farming frontier in northwestern patagonia was dynamic in time and space. the authors show how changes in temperature and precipitation over the last 1000 years bp have influenced the use of domestic plants and the hunting of wild big game. gil et al. (2020c) demonstrated that between 900 and 550 cal. bp, when the climate had warmer and drier summers, there was an associated increase in c4 resource consumption (e.g., maize). after 550 cal. bp, the climate shifted to wetter and cooler summer conditions—less favorable for c4 plants. this change coincided with a dietary shift toward wild resources, particularly meat. importantly, these changes occur during a period in which there is no evidence of significant changes in human population size. it indicates a high resilience to this population that changing its subsistence strategy without a drastic variation in population dynamics. 30 years of stable isotope in cwa archaeology: then and now in this review, we highlight the role of archaeological research with stable isotopes in the study of a complex evolutionary cultural history regarding the incorporation of maize and farming in a shifting late holocene boundary zone between farming and hunter -gathering. stable isotope research in cwa began with the measurement of 13c/12c in bone collagen and mainly interpreting the proportion of corn in the diet according to the distance to the extremes of the expected values for direct c3 and c4 consumption (fernández and panarello 1991; fernández et al. 1999; novellino and guichón 1999). early results were interesting and may have suggested early reliance on maize, but greater depth in isotopic investigations has led to a more subtle early adoption of maize that does not indicate high reliance until after 1000 years bp. our review centered on the history of the incorporation of maize as a case of study to show the impact of stable isotope analyses in cwa archaeology. however, the implications of these methodologies are wider than this case study shows. the current agenda has changed from the initial concern about when maize was incorporated into the cwa human diet and how important it was in subsequent processes. its application has expanded and includes analyses of human (gil et al. 2011), gil et al. 2025. ethnobiology letters 16(1):128–138 135 data, methods & taxonomies animal (otaola et al. 2018), and plant remains (aranibar et al. 2023). these studies are helping to define the resource exploitation and management strategies that underscore broader changes in the human diet. the advance in understanding a regional baseline allows us to adjust our archaeological interpretations about mobility and diet. it allows us to know to what degree isotopic variation implies a change in diet and our studies also indicate how environmental, climatic, or other variable influence isotopic variability. the carbon and nitrogen stable isotopes were incorporated to evaluate the proportion of meat and vegetables and even the proportion of different categories of resources in the human diet (gil et al. 2020b; mosquera et al. 2022). recent research builds on these earlier studies with a comprehensive effort to include isotope results in multiproxy analyses framed with questions informed by clear theoretical approaches (barberena et al. 2020; freeman et al. 2024; gil et al. 2020c; gordón et al. 2018; lópez et al. 2019; peralta et al. 2022, 2024). a new perspective emerges with the interaction between stable isotopes on human bones and paleometagenomics (lopopolo 2023) as a window to evaluate the relationship between human diet, demography, and health. sequenced human and microbial dna, including pathogens, recovered from archaeological samples of farmers and hunter-gatherers permit tackling fundamental questions such as demographic and genetic changes and evaluating their association with the emergence of infectious diseases. the 30-year history of archaeological isotopic research in cwa represents a dynamic history of old and new questions, old and new methodologies, greater statistical sophistication and theoretical depth in its interpretation. stable isotope research is now a fullfledged research program in cwa and neighboring regions. the application of stable isotopes in cwa has not only improved our knowledge of the human past, but has opened new avenues of research. notes 1references are limited in order to accept the editorials rules. a more extensive and complementary references list is provided in the supplementary materials. acknowledgments this review is part of the grant pict-2021-i-a00891. we would like to thank the institutions, colleagues and friends who provided samples for the stable isotopes research in cwa. special thanks to museo de historia natural de san rafael “humberto a. lagiglia”, museo regional malargue, museo canals frau (uncuyo), museo arqueológico mariano gambier (unsj), lic. sergio dieguez (cnea). thanks to dra. gisela quiroga, ing. armando dauverné and ing. martin luna from lieca for their enormous contribution to the laboratory analysis of many of the studies carried out in this region. thanks to manuel lopez and jacob freeman for the interesting discussions and exchanges regarding the interpretations of stable isotopes in the agricultural dispersal of cwa. we are grateful to steven wolverton for motivating us to write this text and for his guidance during initial stage of this process. we are grateful to the two reviewers for their valuable insights and constructive criticism, which significantly enhanced the quality of our manuscript. declarations permissions: none declared. sources of funding: none declared. conflicts of interest: none declared. references cited1 ambrose, s. h. 1991. diet, climate, and physiology affect nitrogen isotope abundances in terrestrial foodwebs. journal of archaeological science 18:293– 317. doi:10.1016/0305-4403(91)90067-y. amundson r., a. austin, e. schuur, k. yoo, v. matzek, c. kendall, a. uebersax, d. brenner, and t. baisden. 2003. global patterns of the isotopic composition of soil and plant nitrogen. global biogeochemical cycles 17:1031. doi:10.1029/2 002gb001903. aranibar j., j. molina, g. neme, f. roig, d. cabral, g. quiroga, a. 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doi:10.1002/oa.2378. the biodemography of subsistence farming: population, food and family. by james w. wood. 2020. cambridge university press, cambridge. 502 pp. anderson. 2021. ethnobiology letters 12(1):119–123 119 reviews perspectives from gene anderson’s bookshelf ignored. the book is highly number-conscious, but the math is not difficult. statistics are deployed at every point, and wood has made a careful search for sources with good data. beginning with malthus is almost inevitable, and wood does so. he has investigated malthus’ background, life, and theories in detail, as he does with all other theorists cited. although he was indeed wrong about the generality of population growth outpacing food production growth, wood shows that malthus was far more nuanced and widely competent than his critics allege. he had a place for voluntary population control, though he called it “vice,” and was not dogmatic about the impossibility of food production keeping up with population growth. the next modeler to receive serious attention is ester boserup (1965), who countered malthus by stating that population growth would force people to intensify their farming. she investigated colonial-era changes in africa, where increase led to shortening fallow, gathering, and burning brush to create fertile ash in swiddens (chitimene farming) and, in general, harder work. boserup saw people as intensifying agriculture only when forced by rising population impacting food supply more and more. this would predict that haiti would be the most advanced agricultural nation in the world, the united states the least, and the rest in due proportion—exactly the reverse of what we actually observe. malthus lived in a world of limited land and not very productive food crops. boserup had a lightly populated african realm to study. wood is able to subsistence agriculture is a long-standing focus of anthropological and ethnobiological research. studies include some of the great classics of anthropology, such as the work of malinowski and his students raymond firth and audrey richards. a comprehensive review of this literature can be found in in robert netting’s (1993) classic work smallholders, householders. however, there have been no such reviews in some years. james wood has provided a stunning fulfillment of that need—an encyclopedic review that is also a thorough and creative elaboration of models of demography and household economics in smallscale agriculture. wood begins with a limiting assumption: he models a family farm, isolated, without much community involvement, far from markets, and safe from the tax collector and landlord. “beyond the normal surplus, there is little incentive to produce in excess of the household’s own needs” (p. 29, his italics). he admits on the very next page that this does not happen and repeats near the end of the book that the image of “every household for itself” is “never true” (p. 420); but he uses the simplifying assumption to allow easy modeling and use of existing models. after that admission, he does consider the community, but restricts it largely to the kindred and the village. i have studied such communities in quintana roo, mexico 30 years ago, but none exist there today, and few do worldwide. for better or worse, markets and governments are well-nigh universal. however, the simple models are so useful even now, and so established in the literature, that they cannot be the biodemography of subsistence farming: population, food and family. by james w. wood. 2020. cambridge university press, cambridge. 502 pp. eugene n. anderson1* 1department of anthropology, university of california, riverside, usa. *gene@ucr.edu received june 13, 2021 open access accepted july 28, 2021 doi 10.14237/ebl.12.1.2021.1774 published december 30, 2021 copyright © 2021 by the author(s); licensee society of ethnobiology. this is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution-noncommercial 4.0 international public license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0), which permits non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. anderson. 2021. ethnobiology letters 12(1):119–123 120 reviews perspectives from gene anderson’s bookshelf synthesize their models and go well beyond them, by looking at other ways people can intensify. people can always figure out some way to deal creatively with food problems, though malthusian checks such as war, drought, flood, and pestilence are all too often operated in subsistence-agriculture societies. part of advancing the models involves demolishing those bugbears, “population pressure” and “carrying capacity.” wood absolutely devastates those old clunkers. “populations” do not “press.” individuals may have many children and then have trouble finding food, but we can go even beyond boserup in pointing out that people do all kinds of things when there are lots of them. they can move; work harder or more efficiently; use famine foods (minnis 2020); use new crops; learn better and more efficient techniques; kill each other off; or simply starve. wood discusses all these alternatives. they reduce “population pressure” to a meaningless concept. the question is: what do people actually do when food runs short? “carrying capacity” is even less worthy of attention. it is a concept derived from animals that can do nothing about increasing numbers except move or starve. humans, of course, immediately change their behavior and environment when food is scarce. as long pointed out by kenneth laland and colleagues (odling-smee et al. 2004), humans, like beavers and leafcutter ants, are niche constructors. even hunter-gatherers alter the environment, often massively (as by burning and by extensive planting of wild food sources), to improve production. even the “carrying capacity” of a given farming system cannot be calculated accurately, because people are always fine-tuning it. this book should drive those two terms out of use in studies of agriculture and human ecology. from here, a book that is already a blockbuster becomes even more impressive. wood points out that malthus and boserup were talking at a high level of abstraction. populations grow, people intensify, all is reduced to lines on a graph. the rest of the book brings subsistence farming models down to reality: the family farm and its individuals. wood makes use of the great russian scholar chayanov, murdered by stalin like so many other original thinkers in the ussr. chayanov pointed out the importance of the developmental cycle in domestic groups, the reproduction and training of labor, and the ways in which farming for subsistence differs from farming for markets. for one example, subsistence agriculture requires diversification of crops, for insurance and for nutrition, while market farming tends toward monocropping. wood tests the chayanovian idea that subsistence farmers have large numbers of children and finds it somewhat wanting. the tradeoff of poor life expectancies and chances, given sparse food, is too daunting. (the “wizard of id” comic strip once made a memorable comment on this: the knight is talking with a peasant, outside his hut, where his wife is trying to deal with a mass of scruffy kids. the conversation, as i recall it, goes: “yes, lots of children are a great help around the farm.” “uh, and what does your wife say about that?” “i don’t know, she won’t talk to me.” enough said about why farm families don’t always maximize labor production.) still, farm families are notoriously large, and the sons and daughters work hard. most of the book, in fact, is taken up with the question of family labor—reproducing it, allocating it, and managing it. labor is not only in the field, but also in the household, and in transporting farm produce, manure, and other goods. wood reviews and comments on a vast range of sources that provide real numbers on the issue. he misses some—he does not cite the stunning work of james lee and associates (see e.g., tsuya et al. 2010) on china, for instance, though he has found the lee group’s work on europe. lee and colleagues have extensive details on voluntary population limitation in the old days, as well as on yields and other details. wood draws more on geertz and others, and especially on robert netting. finally, in the last 30 pages, wood expands his vision to look at the community and the wider context. since he is limiting “subsistence agriculture” to realms relatively remote from markets and state authorities, he can neglect those two troublemakers, but he knows he cannot neglect community. the problem is that the models get exponentially more complex as more households and villages must be taken into account. models must be fairly general to succeed at that level. wood points out that most villages that are genuinely outside the market-andstate world are largely kinship villages; they are made up of relatives and in-marrying spouses, and even those spouses are apt to be more distant relatives. he misses the enormously important role of folk experts. maya villages generally have a best beekeeper whom everyone consults on that side of farming, a best crop expert, a best hunter, a best ritualist (the local hmeen, anderson. 2021. ethnobiology letters 12(1):119–123 121 reviews perspectives from gene anderson’s bookshelf “doer”), and so on. every adult maya farmer already has an encyclopedic knowledge of farming in that difficult environment; the experts often rank with academic scientists in the sheer quantity and quality of knowledge they can deploy, though it is often localized; it includes the exact locations of every flowering tree, every pocket of good soil, and every game animal for miles around. this local expertise faces an uncertain future; suffice it to say that our village beekeeping expert in chunhuhub has three daughters, who went to town and became computer experts—the kind of mind it takes to manage beehives turns out to be perfect for managing computers. (and my father left the wretched little cotton farm where he was raised, went to town, and became a historian. such is the fate of small-scale farming in the modern world.) in short, this is a major synthesis of an important area. it also comes to conclusions that go far beyond its focus. the world of subsistence agriculture (by his restricted definition) is now definitively dead; there are almost no such isolated communities left. the book’s “envoi” (p. 446) is in fact a lament for the loss. but wood’s book is not of purely historical interest. his demolition of “population pressure” and “carrying capacity,” his exhaustive collection of statistics on how much physical labor people can do and how they deploy it, his similar collection of statistics on inputs and yields, and many other data banks not only advance the field of subsistence agriculture studies but are highly relevant to all agricultural research and modeling. no book so wide-ranging and comprehensive can be without errors, especially if it is also a brilliantly original contribution in modeling and analysis. this book has its share. to begin with minor ones: 1) wood sees rest for a minute or two as frequently necessary when doing sustained hard work (p. 320); this is not the case if one paces oneself carefully, as is necessary—since one must keep moving and keep up with others—in transplanting rice, burning milpa, and many other jobs. 2) wood seems to think that draft animals must compete with humans for food, either directly (oats…) or indirectly, by requiring land (p. 340). however, water buffaloes can exist happily on sawgrass, rice husks, field weeds, and other fare that costs nothing in time or land. other draft animals can sometimes be equally cost-free. other errors are more serious. starting on p. 17, wood stresses the very low yields of subsistence farming, especially compared with modern agriculture. while this is true for many areas of the world, it is not true for traditional japan and china; he even cites sources (king 1911, ruddle and zhong 1988) that show traditional paddy-rice agriculture yielded as much as western commercial agriculture of the early twentieth century. from another end of the scale, yucatec maya agriculture yields less than iowa maize farming, but it yields better alternatives in yucatan’s harsh climate and thin limestone soils. modern industrial-style agriculture has never done well in the yucatan, and the peninsula has been left to traditional maya farming. there are many other such cases. one problem is that wood does not take enough account of knowledge of plants and animals, and the degree to which traditional farmers learn and experiment. he leaves this major form of intensification entirely out of his final statement on how farmers intensify (pp. 371–372). in areas i know best—south china and maya mexico—this is an enormous factor. people constantly experiment, seek out experts for advice, and work to learn more. wood apparently worked in areas of the world where subsistence farming was less skill-intensive, less constrained by the environment, and less informed by constant knowledge-seeking. this makes him miss the importance of induced development, as i will argue below. another problem of a different kind occurs on p. 115: “all farming, by its nature, inflicts ecological disturbance on the local environment…and creates an ecological disequilibrium…” that is inevitably damaging to biodiversity, soil, and environment in general. this is usually but not necessarily true. good managers at low population densities maintain all those things, admittedly not in “virgin” form, but without causing serious decline; there is a large body of literature on this subject (anderson 2005). more serious is a real lapse: “rapid and often cataclysmic change” like that of today “did not exist in the distant past” (p. 243). i had thought that the image of the peasant, changeless since time immemorial, was long dead; apparently not so. china’s dynastic cycles, famines, floods, earthquakes, droughts, epidemics, and so forth guaranteed that every year brought a cataclysm somewhere, and every farmer who lived a long life saw three or four of them. balancing this was a continual introduction of new crops, new techniques, and new forms of capital (mobile and fixed), leading to steady improvement of farming. none of these latter changes occurred with anderson. 2021. ethnobiology letters 12(1):119–123 122 reviews perspectives from gene anderson’s bookshelf revolutionary speed, but some, such as the introduction of good wheat milling in the han dynasty, high-yield rice in song, and new world crops in the 16th-17th centuries, had revolutionary effects over a relatively short time. the same could be said for many other areas of the world. moving to higher levels of abstraction, wood’s theories, hypotheses, and models are sound and thoroughly worked out, but he neglects a large chunk of the relevant literature: the various approaches sometimes referred to as “induced development” (hayami and ruttan 1985; north 1990). this is the idea that people will change in the direction of more intensive and efficient use of resources when they are constrained by bottlenecks of some sort. if, for example, land and labor abound but capital is short (as it always is in subsistence farming), people will apply more labor, use more land, and invest in landesque capital. if labor is abundant but land is short, people will lavish vast supplies of labor on the limited land, and if they have wet-rice agriculture they can always support one more hand (hayami and ruttan 1985); there are photographs of fields where no more people can fit into the transplanting or harvesting line. if land opens up, people will use it more extensively, as wood notes for such cases as ukara (or ukora) island in tanzania and its shore long colonies, and as hayami and ruttan (1985) noted for frontier america. in denmark, land and labor are a constraint, but capital is abundant, leading to technology-intensive agriculture (hayami and ruttan 1985). if land, labor, and capital are all short, people will invest in knowing as wide a range of things about farming and the environment as they possibly can. that is the maya case. similar bottlenecks often occur in transport and communication, and people work to improve those situations. in short, people do not wait for “population pressure” or the “malthusian squeeze” to motivate them. they innovate wherever an obvious need or want, especially a bottleneck, presents itself. it can be as simple and straightforward as a need to produce food close to the home because of fear of raids, a serious problem in much of the premodern world. it can be because of nutritional needs for specialized high-nutrient crops. it is often driven in subsistence societies by ritual obligations. since all change and improvement requires some investment of time and energy, and usually capital (which in nonmonetized societies means surplus production over immediate need), the induceddevelopment model correctly predicts that development will be fastest in societies with a comfortable margin. in the modern world, it is the downright rich societies that develop and change their agriculture most rapidly. it thus predicts correctly, exactly the opposite of boserup’s model. in fact, the induced development theory works reasonably well across the board for predicting technological change. wood surely knew of this body of theory but seems to have assumed it applied only for monetized, marketoriented societies, and that traditional societies rarely changed in such ways. this is not the case, as hayami and ruttan, and also douglass north (1990), point out. these various criticisms do not detract greatly from a book that will stand for years as a great work of synthesis and theory-building. it is an absolute must-read for anyone studying traditional subsistenceoriented farming. human ecologists and agricultural development workers, in particular, must seriously study this book. references cited anderson, e. n. 2005. political ecology in a yucatec maya community. university of arizona press, tucson. boserup, e. 1965. the conditions of agricultural growth: the economics of agrarian change under population pressure. aldine, chicago. hayami, y., and v. ruttan. 1985. agricultural development: an international perspective, 2nd edition. johns hopkins university press, baltimore. king, f. h. 1911. farmers of forty centuries: permanent agriculture in china, korea, and japan. good press, new york. netting, r. 1993. smallholders, householders: farm families and the ecology of intensive, sustainable agriculture. stanford university press, stanford. north, d. c. 1990. institutions, institutional change and economic performance. cambridge university press, cambridge. odling-smee, g. j., k. n. laland, and m. w. feldman. 2004. niche construction: the neglected process in evolution. princeton university press, princeton. anderson. 2021. ethnobiology letters 12(1):119–123 123 reviews perspectives from gene anderson’s bookshelf ruddle, k., and g. zhong. 1988. integrated agricultureaquaculture in south china: the dike-pond system of the zhujiang delta. cambridge university press, cambridge. tsuya, n. o., w. feng, g. alter, and j. z. lees, eds. 2010. prudence and pressure: reproduction and human agency in europe and asia, 1700-1900. mit press, cambridge. native food uses of common milkweed (asclepias syriaca) gonella and kindscher. 2024. ethnobiology letters 15(1):58–62 58 short topical reviews sustainable harvesting most wild food plants used by native peoples are utilized in a way that sustains or increases production, and specific methods are aimed at protecting the longterm viability of the species (anderson 2013). the myaamia (miami) people, inhabiting a large area in the lower great lakes, centered in northern indiana, have utilized milkweed for centuries. their historic relationship with common milkweed involved burning milkweed habitat in the late fall to improve milkweed (and other prairie plant species) growth, as well as to improve hunting grounds (gonella 2007). they also selected the most robust milkweed clones for harvesting in early spring, which had a positive, longterm impact on the species, according to some native community members (gonella 2007). domestic cultivation of common milkweed was another way plant health and production were optimized, with accounts of tribal members taking wild seeds and planting them in their home gardens (gonella 2007; smith 1933:47). for example, smith (1933:47) remarked that in forest county potawatomi villages, "one always finds a riot [large patch] of milkweed close to the wigwam or house of the indian, introduction many north american native communities use common milkweed (asclepias syriaca) as a food source (gonella 2007; kindscher 1987), despite its potential toxicity (gonella and everest 2019)1. much has been learned about common milkweed by the scientific community since gaertner’s (1979) common milkweed monograph, including its behavior as an invasive weed in crop fields, the impacts of decades of herbicide control methods, and its ecological importance to the monarch butterfly (danaus plexipplus) and other insects (price and wilson 1979). but the extent of its importance as a native food plant, utilized for centuries by indigenous communities in north america, including methods of harvesting, preparation, and tending, have not been well examined or recorded. here we report on new ethnographic data regarding the specific uses of common milkweed as a food, learned directly from native interlocutors through personal interviews, archival data, and from participation with the native families and individuals still involved in milkweed harvesting, processing, and consumption. native food uses of common milkweed (asclepias syriaca) michael p. gonella1* and kelly kindscher2 1environmental horticulture department, santa barbara city college, santa barbara, usa. 2kansas biological survey, university of kansas, lawrence, usa. *gonella@sbcc.edu abstract common milkweed (asclepias syriaca) is used as a food by numerous north american indigenous groups, yet also considered a poisonous plant by chemists and others. the details of traditional, indigenous preparation methods, which render it as an edible and culturally important food choice, are reported here, along with harvesting and tending methods. the specifics of these interactions between indigenous groups and common milkweed not only allow consumption of this “poisonous” plant, but also appear to sustain the vigor of the species, making these details important for conservation of this traditional food. received january 8, 2024 open access accepted april 24, 2024 doi 10.14237/ebl.15.1.2024.1876 published september 16, 2024 keywords milkweed, harvesting, sustainability, indigenous plant foods, food preparation copyright © 2024 by the author(s); licensee society of ethnobiology. this is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution-noncommercial 4.0 international public license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0), which permits non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. gonella and kindscher. 2024. ethnobiology letters 15(1):58–62 59 short topical reviews suggesting that they have been cultivated". similarly, a number of myaamia families brought common milkweed seeds from indiana during their forced removal and planted them in their allotment homegardens in oklahoma (gonella field notes 2003-2006). however no morphological or genetic evidence was found to support semi-domestication, where certain traits were actively selected. in addition, although common milkweed has not been nutritionally analyzed, if it is like its cogeners, it provides protein, carbohydrates, vitamin c, calcium, potassium, and other trace elements (cheatham and johnston 2000). one myaamia colleague recalled: my mother used milkweed. it was good spring medicine. she cooked it and we ate it because it was good. it had a lot of iron in it and everything and so we'd have that for greens. pods were not eaten. concern over the loss of common milkweed and discussion about conservation are found amongst the omaha, winnebago and myaamia, and certainly other native communities. members of these three communities have observed reductions in individual plant health and habitat of common milkweed, as well as reduced availability of uncontaminated plants due to roadside herbicide spraying. each of these communities intends to replant milkweeds on tribal nation lands to provide “clean,” accessible plants in adequate numbers for traditional uses (gonella 2007; kindscher 2023). traditional management methods of common milkweed, to protect and restore this important food, fiber, and medicine resource, whether intentional or a byproduct of culinary desires, is all aimed at species conservation. native american use of common milkweed as food in the early part of the twentieth century was well recorded (table 1), but the details on harvesting, preparation, and consumption methods, which are key to future protective measures, were almost nonexistent until more recently. for example, gonella (2007) documented the detailed methods of myaamia milkweed harvesting while working directly with myaamia harvesters, who also relayed their view of the plant-human relationships, where harvesting methods benefit both the plant and the harvester. this mutualistic goal is achieved by specific methods: (1) removing only 25-50% (depending on the family) of early spring shoots from each clone; (2) harvesting at a specific life history stage (only 4-8 leaves and less than 25 cm tall); (3) recognizing subtle differences between individual neighboring clones; and (4) harvesting only annually. these fine-scale methods, long known to many indigenous harvesters, mitigate negative effects of high intensity harvesting (anderson 2013). the sustainability of these careful methods have been validated in a number of scientific studies. harvesting common milkweed shoots stimulates dormant root buds (bhowmik and bandeen 1976), and removes apical dominance, promoting growth of new shoots (evetts and burnside 1975). and if the seasonal harvest timing is early enough, it allowed for reblooming (kaul et al. 1991), seed set, and clone persistence (gonella 2007). additionally, from his work with omaha and winnebago (tribal nations of nebraska) and the prairie band potawatomi in kansas, kindscher learned that harvested flower bud clusters, used in cooking, are removed only at a specific stage of maturity, just before they open. from this specific timing of harvesting pods, the harvester ensures tenderness, but also increases the chances of reflowering by that clone. preparation for all of the historical information in table 1, the specifics of preparation of milkweed for consumption are still being elucidated. what we do know is that milkweed was and is boiled and the water drained. in contemporary practice, the omaha, winnebago, and potawatomi all put tender milkweed parts (most often the flower buds) into a culturally prized soup, along with deer meat or beef and vegetables, and cook it for a long time (kindscher, personal observation, 1987). in discussing the concern about poisonous properties in the milkweed being in the soup with potawatomi colleagues, they were unconcerned and amused at the thought. although consumption of raw shoots can be dangerous, gonella (2007) learned that the myaamia prepare milkweed shoots in a way that dramatically reduces the levels of toxic compounds, rendering them non-toxic and edible (everest et al. 2019). specifically, early spring shoots are boiled by the myaamia, two to three times, using fresh water for each boiling (gonella 2007). besides common milkweed, other milkweed species were eaten as well, although many are simply too toxic, with the verticillate-leaved taxa being responsible for most poisonings in livestock, gonella and kindscher. 2024. ethnobiology letters 15(1):58–62 60 short topical reviews especially asclepias fascicularis and a. subverticillata (burrows and tyrl 2013). showy milkweed (asclepias speciosa) overlaps in range with common milkweed in the great plains and was certainly used by tribal nations in the region. many of the reports of milkweed consumption by the cheyenne, crow, kiowa, lakota, osage, plains apache, and others were likely to have been of either showy milkweed or both species (kindscher 2023). it is possible that discernment between the two species was not needed by the communities and both were eaten, or there was inaccuracy on the part of the ethnographer. it should be noted that tribal communities recognized many distinct species of milkweed for food and medicine (kindscher 1987, 2023). for example, the lakota had specific names for the following milkweed species: asclepias incarnata, a. pumila, a. speciosa, a. stenophylla, a. verticillata, and a. viridflora (buechel 1983). harvester-harvested relationship because of dramatic declines in common milkweed abundance within its range due to wide-scale herbicide use in the last two decades, there are current efforts to enhance and restore some populations for the monarch butterfly (danaus plexippus) and other associated insects (mccauley 1991). but there is also a need for restoration of common milkweed for cultural use by indigenous groups as well, since common milkweed populations on native lands are often not large enough (gonella 2007) or adequately free of pollutants (e.g. herbicides) to be culturally viable for human use. ironically, their abundances are not so low that they are given state or federal regulatory tribal nation food use and plant part reference acoma early spring shoots eaten castetter 1935 apache early spring shoots eaten kindscher 2023 arikara sprouts, tender young leaves and tips, bud clusters and young seed pods stewed alone or with corn and bison meat kindscher et al. 2020 cherokee food source parker 1910 cheyenne early spring shoots eaten kindscher 1987 crow early spring shoots eaten kindscher 1987 dakota sprouts used in early spring for food kindscher 1987 forest potawatomi flowers and buds used in meat soups smith 1933 hopi early spring shoots eaten kindscher 2023 iroquois stalks eaten as greens in spring parker 1910 laguna early spring shoots eaten castetter 1935 lakota sprouts used in early spring for food gilmore 1913; rogers 1980 meskwaki dried and fresh buds used in soups; cooked with meat or added to cornmeal mush smith 1928 myaamia immature flower buds, pods and shoots eaten gonella 2007 ojibway (anishinaabe) flowers cut up, stewed and eaten like preserves; eaten before a feast to increase appetite densmore 1928 omaha tender shoots, young pods, and inflorescence eaten as greens before the flower buds opened fletcher and la flesche 1911; gilmore 1977 osage shoots, floral buds and young pods eaten matthews 1961 paiute early spring shoots eaten kindscher in press pawnee tender shoots, young pods, and inflorescence eaten as greens before the flower buds opened fletcher and la flesche 1911; gilmore 1977 ponca tender shoots, young pods, and inflorescence eaten as greens before the flower buds opened fletcher and la flesche 1911; gilmore 1977 shoshone early spring shoots eaten kindscher 2023 winnebago tender shoots, young pods, and inflorescence eaten as greens before the flower buds opened fletcher and la flesche 1911; gilmore 1977 table 1 records of common milkweed food uses. gonella and kindscher. 2024. ethnobiology letters 15(1):58–62 61 short topical reviews protection, but their abundances are far below what is viable for use as a native community’s resource. all of that said, the relationship between the native harvesters and the harvested plant is indeed “endangered” from the viewpoint of the native communities (anderson 2013). although endangered, the strength of the historic and ongoing relationship between native harvesters and common milkweed is evident. this is partially demonstrated by the simple fact that native peoples are able to use this otherwise “poisonous” plant as a food source, much like the contemporary use of tomatoes, potatoes, and rhubarb, which also have toxicity, and their ability to harvest it sustainably for centuries. conservation efforts should follow native tending protocols and methods, and focus on restoring and strengthening this particular humanplant relationship, which has wider ecological benefits than simply restoring the abundance of common milkweed alone. notes 1common milkweed and other milkweeds contain toxic cardiac glycosides and these plants should not be ingested without expert guidance or oversight. acknowledgments we thank all our indigenous colleagues who shared their plant use information with us and trusted us with personal family and community stories relating to milkweed use. thank you to the miami tribe of oklahoma for housing a voucher specimen of asclepias syriaca in their archive. declarations permissions: myaamia center (miami university, ohio), miami tribe of oklahoma. sources of funding: none declared. conflicts of interest: none declared. references cited anderson, m. k. 2013. tending the wild. university of california press, berkeley. bhowmik, p. c., and j. d. bandeen. 1976. the biology of canadian weeds. canadian journal of plant science 56:579-589. buechel, e. 1983. a dictionary of teton sioux lakotaenglish: english--lakota. red cloud indian school, pine ridge, south dakota. burrows, g. e. and r. j. tyrl. 2013. toxic plants of north america. john wiley & sons, new york. castetter, e. e. 1935. uncultivated native plants used as sources of food. university of new mexico ethnobiological studies 4: (vol. 1), albuquerque, new mexico. cheatham, s., and m. c. johnston. 2000. the useful wild plants of texas, the southeastern and southwestern united states, the southern plains and northern mexico. useful wild plants inc., austin, texas. densmore, f. 1928. uses of plants by the chippewa indians. forty-fourth annual report of the bureau of american ethnology to the secretary of the smithsonian institution, 1926-27, edited by j. w. fewkes, pp. 275397. government printing office, washington, d. c. everest, m. a., m. p. gonella, h. g. bowler, j. r. washak, and j. r. 2019. how toxic is milkweed when harvested and cooked according to myaamia tradition? ethnobiology letters 10:50-56. evetts, l. l., and o. c. burnside. 1975. effect of early competition on growth of common milkweed. weed science 23:1-3. fletcher, a. c., and f. la flesche. 1911. the omaha tribe. in twenty-seventh annual report of the bureau of american ethnology to the secretary of the smithsonian institution, 1905-1906, edited by w. h. holmes, pp. 15-654. government printing office, washington, d.c. gaertner, e. e. 1979. the history and use of milkweed (asclepias syriaca l.). economic botany 33:119-123. gilmore, m. r. 1913. some native nebraska plants with their uses by the dakota. collections of the nebraska state historical society 17:363. gilmore, m. r. 1977. uses of plants by the indians of the missouri river region. university of nebraska press, lincoln. gonella, m. p. 2007. myaamia ethnobotany. doctoral dissertation, department of botany, miami university, oxford, ohio. available on request from gonella@sbcc.edu. kaul, r. b., s. b. rolfsmeier, and j. j. esch. 1991. the distribution and reproductive phenology of the milkweeds (asclepiadaceae: asclepias and cynanchum) in nebraska. transactions of the nebraska academy of sciences xviii:1267-140. gonella and kindscher. 2024. ethnobiology letters 15(1):58–62 62 short topical reviews kindscher, k.1987. edible wild plants of the prairie: an ethnobotanical guide. university press of kansas, lawrence, kansas. kindscher, k. 2023. edible wild plants of the prairie: an ethnobotanical guide. 2nd edition. manuscript submitted to university press of kansas, lawrence, kansas. kindscher, k., l. yellow bird, m. yellow bird, and l. sutton. 2020. sahnish (arikara) ethnobotany. contributions in ethnobiology, tacoma, wa. matthews, j. j. 1961. the osages, children of the middle waters. university of oklahoma press, norman, oklahoma. mccauley, d. e. 1991. the effect of host plant patch size variation on the population structure of a specialist herbivore insect, tetraopes tetraophthalmus. evolution 45:1675-1684. parker, a. c. 1910. iroquois uses of maize and other food plants. university of the state of new york, albany. price, p. w., and m. f. willson. 1979. abundance of herbivores on six milkweed species in illinois. the american midland naturalist 101:76-86. rogers, d. j. 1980. lakota names and traditional uses of native plants by sicangu (brule) people in the rosebud area, south dakota. st. francis mission, rosebud, south dakota. smith, h. h. 1928. ethnobotany of the meskwaki indians. bulletin of the public museum of the city of milwaukee 4:175-326. smith, h. h. 1933. ethnobotany of the forest potawatomi indians. bulletin of the public museum of milwaukee 7:1-230. insect consumption in indigenous communities of central america cruz-dubón. 2025. ethnobiology letters 16(1):19–26 19 research communications these organisms coexist with us in daily life and provide essential services to other species, such as pollination, pest control, and seed dispersal (eggleton 2020). the relationship between humans and insects is varied, as some insects are used for medicinal, economic, and nutritional purposes (elizalde et al. 2020). the practice of consuming insects is known as anthropo-entomophagy (costa-neto and ramoselorduy 2006). this food culture is as old as humanity itself, with records of wings and other insect body parts found in fossilized human feces in caves in the united states and mexico (olivadese and dindo 2023). insect consumption is predominant in parts of asia, africa, and latin america, supplementing the diet of at least 2 billion people (deepak et al. 2022). it is estimated that around 2,111 insect species are traditionally consumed in at least 113 countries (bermúdez-serrano 2020). in africa, insects are consumed in 48 countries across the continent, while in asia, 52 countries incorporate insects into their diet. in the americas, the number drops to 15 introduction the region of central america, located on the caribbean plate, covers an area of 523,000 square kilometers, representing 1% of the earth's surface (serrano-solares 2023). it consists of seven countries and is home to an estimated population of 52 million people (figure 1), including around 65 indigenous communities that occupy approximately 40% of central american territory (sistema de la integración centroamericana 2013, 2018). in countries like guatemala, it is estimated that 40–45% of the population belongs to indigenous communities (international work group for indigenous affairs 2024). these historically marginalized peoples face a range of common issues, including racism, limited access to education, land displacement, genocide, the sale and exploitation of natural resources, extreme poverty, and food insecurity (camacho and sotoacosta 2015; haas 2023). insects constitute the most diverse group of organisms on earth, representing approximately 80% of all species worldwide (chantawannakul 2020). insect consumption in indigenous communities of central america josé adalid cruz-dubón1*, eraldo medeiros costa neto1, and elmo borges de azevedo koch1 1postgraduate program in ecology and evolution, feira de santana state university, feira de santana, bahia state, brazil. *adalidcruz07@gmail.com abstract insect consumption, known as entomophagy, is an ancient practice that has recently garnered attention as a sustainable food alternative considering the global food crisis. a literature review was conducted on insect consumption among indigenous communities in central america, a region renowned for its biological and cultural diversity. the aim was to catalog, for the first time, the insect species consumed by these indigenous peoples. various search engines, including google scholar, mendeley, scopus, and web of science, were used, focusing on articles in english and spanish available until june 2024. the findings revealed a total of 15 edible species across five orders with a notable predominance of the order hymenoptera. consumption practices involve the harvesting of larvae and adults at different stages of development with larvae being particularly prized. additionally, the review explores ongoing initiatives in guatemala, honduras, and costa rica that aim to implement trade in crickets and mealworms as an alternative food source. this study underscores the significance of preserving and valuing indigenous knowledge regarding entomophagy, particularly in the context of food insecurity. received august 17, 2024 open access accepted january 25, 2025 doi 10.14237/ebl.16.1.2025.1902 published march 7, 2025 keywords entomophagy, edible insects, ethnoentomophagy, honduras, hymenoptera copyright © 2025 by the author(s); licensee society of ethnobiology. this is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution-noncommercial 4.0 international public license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0), which permits non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. cruz-dubón. 2025. ethnobiology letters 16(1):19–26 20 research communications countries in the southern part of the continent (omuse et al. 2024). however, in the west, this practice has not been widely developed and could be considered to involve a certain phobia toward insect consumption by western societies (defoliart 1999). cultures such as those in europe or the united states often view these activities as primitive or characteristic of marginal areas where significant agricultural development is lacking (lesnik 2017). despite this perception, thanks to globalization and the growing concern over the global food crisis and climate change, insect-based protein production has emerged as a highly viable option (jaunikis and michopoulou 2020). the study of insect-based foods offers various benefits beyond their high protein levels and lower energy costs. these benefits include reduced land use for cultivation and the opportunity to produce in local farms to feed a population (yen 2009). additionally, insects can be utilized for the bioprospecting of new antibacterial components, as well as in functional, pharmaceutical, and industrial biotechnology (verkerk et al. 2007). although this practice has been widely explored in the latin american region (abril et al. 2022; bermúdez-serrano 2020; costa-neto 2015; granadosechegoyen et al. 2024), the central american isthmus has received less attention, despite being home to around 8% of the world’s biological diversity (sistema de la integración centroamericana 2020). in this region, new insect species are constantly being discovered (hanson 2011). however, efforts in areas such as ethnobiology and ethnoecology remain scarce, especially in comparison to other regions. this study aims to conduct a review of the existing information on anthropo-entomophagic practices by indigenous communities in the central american region, to list for the first time for this region the edible insect species documented in each country, and the indigenous peoples who carry out these practices. methods for the development of the review, search engines such as google scholar, mendeley, scopus, and web of science were used. the search was conducted using the keywords “entomophagy” and “central figure 1 borders and political division of central america. cruz-dubón. 2025. ethnobiology letters 16(1):19–26 21 research communications america”, “ethnoentomophagy” and “central america”, “edible insects” and “central america”, and “ethnography and central america”. the search was performed using the same keywords in both english and spanish and included articles, book chapters, and opinion articles (letters to the editor, editorials and perspective articles). we considered peer-reviewed articles and not published ethnographic texts. the focus was on documents that mentioned one of the seven countries that make up the central american isthmus or that referred to the region as a whole. documents from 1932 until june 2024 were considered. however, local newspaper reports were excluded due to their inaccuracy and the inability to corroborate information. results and discussion a total of 15 different types of edible insects were reported, divided into five orders and eight families. of these, only seven are identified at the genus and species level, while eight are identified at the genus level (table 1). the order hymenoptera is the most abundant with 10 organisms, followed by coleoptera with two species (figure 2). the diversity of edible insects in central america recorded to date is presented in table 1. the number of edible insects by the indigenous population in central american region may be underestimated, as consumption by the indigenous population is reported in only five of the seven countries that make up the region, leaving countries like costa rica and el salvador without any bibliographic records of indigenous insect consumption except for a personal communication (founded in pino et al. 2014) about the guaymi people in the peninsula of osa but without taxonomic data of consumed insects. in the reported cases, consumption of insects at different growth stages is evident, with the larval stage being the most consumed, followed by processed insect products, while adult insects are the least consumed. the following is a brief discussion on insect consumption in central america by indigenous populations, with some specific examples of entomophagy. megaloptera the larvae of corydalus sp. are collected under rocks in rivers by the mayan chortí indigenous people in the department of copán in western honduras and prepared on griddles with salt and chili to be consumed with corn tortillas. consumption of larvae from the same genus is also recorded in mexico (montesinos and ramos-elorduy 2007). coleoptera evidence for beetle consumption exists in honduras and panama (jongema 2017; marineros et al. 2015), as well as among various indigenous peoples of latin america. the larvae are cooked on griddles or boiled and then consumed with various seasonings inside a corn tortilla. the consumption of rhynchophorus palmarum is documented from mexico (viejomontesinos and ramos-elorduy 2007) to the amazon (costa-neto and ramos-elorduy 2006; sancho et al. 2015). consumption of this species is also reported in the caribbean islands, detailing the process by which indigenous people cultivate the larvae on palm trees, where bodenheimer (1951:302) translates mérian’s (1771:48) expedition account: the tree grows to the height of a man and is cut when it starts to become tender. it is cooked like cauliflower and tastes better than an artichoke. in the midst of these trees live countless quantities of larvae, which at first are as small as a worm in a nut but later grow to a very large size and feed on the tree's pith. these larvae are roasted over coals and are considered a very pleasant food. lepidoptera caterpillars are consumed in honduras by lenca people (marineros et al. 2015), although their consumption is mentioned throughout central america by bodenheimer (1951:307), citing daguin (1900), who describes the process of searching for and using the larvae of a lepidopteran called maquara by figure 2 number of edible insect species in central america by taxonomic order. cruz-dubón. 2025. ethnobiology letters 16(1):19–26 22 research communications the mundraco people: upon reaching a lake with its shores covered in reeds, these indians began to shout joyfully, break the reeds, and extract from each knot large, white larvae, 8 to 10 cm long, called maquara. they ate them greedily and soon fell down as if dead from drunkenness. these caterpillars are truly excellent, and to avoid intoxication, it is sufficient to remove their heads before consuming them. however, there is no information provided by daguin for the family or genus of these larvae, and there is limited additional evidence regarding the origin of the mundraco people or the maquara larvae mentioned by the author in his expeditions. orthoptera orthoptera includes crickets, grasshoppers, and locusts, which have high nutritional values and are one of the groups of edible insects with high protein content with percentages of up to 61% (liceaga 2022). they are one of the most consumed groups in north america (costa-neto and dunkel 2016). in honduras, the consumption of neoconocephalus triops is recorded among the lenca indigenous group (marineros et al. 2015). the immature katydids are roasted on a griddle and consumed within a corn tortilla, accompanied by salt, spices, and chili. hymenoptera hymenoptera represents the most consumed group in central america, with reports from guatemala, belize, honduras, and nicaragua (bodenheimer 1951; conzemius 1932; costa-neto and ramos-elorduy 2006; defoliart 2002; marineros et al. 2015). the consumption of wasp larvae, adult ants and honey from stingless and stinging bee species has been recorded. evidence of the consumption of larvae of polistes sp. is reported in guatemala by the chuh indigenous order family species country edible stage indigenous group citation megaloptera corydalidae corydalus sp. honduras larvae mayan chortí marineros et al. 2015 coleoptera curculionidae rhynchophorus palmarum honduras larvae lenca marineros et al. 2015 hydrophilidae tropisternus mexicanus panamá larvae no data jongema 2017 lepidoptera hepialidae phassus. sp. honduras larvae lenca marineros et al. 2015 orthoptera tettigoniidae neoconocephalus honduras ninfae lenca marineros et al. 2015 hymenoptera vespidae polistes sp. guatemala larvae chuh defoliart 2002; costa-neto and ramos-elorduy 2006 polistes sp. honduras larvae mayan chortí defoliart 2002; marineros et al. 2015 polybia sp. honduras larvae mayan chortí and lenca marineros et al. 2015 agelaia sp. honduras larvae mayan chortí and lenca marineros et al. 2015 synoeca sp. honduras larvae mayan chortí and lenca marineros et al. 2015 apoica sp. honduras honey mayan chortí and lenca marineros et al. 2015 apidae melipona beechei guatemala honey mayan chortí bodenheimer 1951 honduras honey mayan chortí bodenheimer 1951 trigona fulviventris belice honey maya-yucateco bodenheimer 1951 apis mellifera honduras honey lenca marineros et al. 2015 formicidae atta cephalotes honduras adult miskitu conzemius 1932; defoliart 2002 nicaragua adult sumu conzemius 1932 table 1 taxonomy of edible insects reported in central america. cruz-dubón. 2025. ethnobiology letters 16(1):19–26 23 research communications group, who believe that the larvae's eyes confer reproductive abilities, allowing them to have children with large eyes (costa-neto and ramos-elorduy 2006; defoliart 2002). these larvae are also consumed by the chortí indigenous people in honduras, along with species of polybia, agelaia, and synoeca (marineros et al. 2015). the methods for capturing these individuals vary, from flooding shelters to drive out the larvae, to manual capture using spines or sticks. among the chortí groups in guatemala, the task of “honeycomber” for the bee melipona beechei is common and is often done individually. in belize, formerly known as british honduras, the cultivation of the stingless bee trigona fulviventris is as old as the colony itself, while in honduras, honey collection was more common compared to beekeeping (bodenheimer 1951). in costa rica, consumption of wasp larvae and honeycombs roasted by the guaymi people is reported; unfortunately, there are no taxonomic records of the species consumed (pino-moreno et al. 2014). ant consumption is restricted to the genus atta. this consumption has been documented among the miskitu and sumu indigenous groups of the honduran and nicaraguan mosquitia. although their diet is primarily based on other foods and animal husbandry, it has been recorded that the winged adults of the leaf-cutter ant atta cephalotes, known as wiwi, are eaten by the indigenous people. their abdomen is roasted and eaten by both tribes (conzemius 1932; defoliart 2002; pino-moreno et al. 2014). modern drive for insect consumption in central america recent years have seen a growing interest in insects as human food and animal feed (baiano 2020). central america is no exception and different companies and campaigns have been found promoting the cultivation, consumption and utilization of insectbased meals, as well as social projects to improve malnutrition rates (bermúdez-serrano et al. 2021; hernández-de la roca et al. 2018; pino-moreno et al. 2014; quirós 2022). in the municipality of patulul, guatemala, one of the regions with the highest malnutrition rates in the country, a feeding program was launched for children aged 4 to 6 years, incorporating yogurt made from flour derived from acheta domesticus. this initiative aims to evaluate the effectiveness of insect-based yogurt in promoting weight gain, height increase, and overall growth among preschool-aged children (hernández-de la roca et al. 2018). according to the study, children who consumed yogurt showed greater acceptance of the product, as well as improvements in weight, height, and growth rates when compared to a control group. however, the study concluded that for the program to be sustainable, the production costs need to be reduced to meet the budget constraints of school nutrition programs. in honduras, the entomology museum at the universidad nacional autónoma de honduras organizes an invertebrate fair aimed at educating the university community about alternative sources of animal protein. held once or twice annually, the event is organized by biology students, who prepare various dishes featuring insects, primarily crickets, tenebrio larvae commonly named gusano de la harina in spanish or yellow mealworm in english, and ants (canahuati 2023). however, there is no available scientific literature or comprehensive list detailing the specific insect species offered during these exhibitions. meanwhile, in costa rica, there has been growing interest in developing an edible insect industry. national legislation now includes provisions for the industrial production of three species of edible insects: acheta domesticus, tenebrio molitor, and zophobas morio (promotora de comercio exterior de costa rica 2021). reports indicate that there is potential for producing edible insects for export, further boosting the country's efforts to establish this industry (bermúdez-serrano et al. 2023). currently, seven companies in costa rica are involved in the breeding, marketing, and promotion of insect consumption. these include costa rica come insectos, insectario orgánico, juicy ant, gricket house, ktl pro, costa rican insect company, grillos en costa rica, and gusanos de harina & grillos-costa rica (pinomoreno et al. 2014; quirós 2022). additionally, the insect museum at the universidad de costa rica contributes to this effort by cultivating various species of cockroaches, crickets, and mealworms. the university also organizes activities in collaboration with students and national media to raise awareness and disseminate information about the benefits of insect consumption (o'neal coto 2019). cruz-dubón. 2025. ethnobiology letters 16(1):19–26 24 research communications conclusion entomophagy practices in the central american region, although not widely recognized by the general population, are still prevalent in most countries of the isthmus. despite the taboos surrounding insect consumption in western society, it represents a viable alternative in countries facing high rates of malnutrition, particularly among indigenous populations (spitzer 2023). due to the growing demand for food, concerns about climate change, changes in land use, and excessive water resource use (van huis 2020; van huis et al. 2013), entomophagy emerges as a potential solution for the future. the revaluation of this food practice is increasingly important, especially considering the growing interest of new generations in alternative food sources (kamenidou 2023). in addition, its implementation promotes the recognition and appreciation of the knowledge and customs inherent to the indigenous heritage of central america. declarations permissions: none declared. sources of funding: none declared. conflicts of interest: 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material uses, such as food, medicine, or raw materials, but also appreciated for the cultural meanings and emotional connections it inspires, which in turn fosters respect, pride, and protection toward nature (pretty et al. 2009). for instance, in the argentine dry chaco, animals like the puma or the caiman are not only hunted for food or medicinal purposes but are also seen as spiritual beings with symbolic significance who guide behavior and reinforce cultural identity (camino et al. 2018). similarly, among the nahua communities of puebla, mexico, reptiles and amphibians are deeply embedded in moral, medicinal, introduction biocultural practices, those that are both spiritual and cultural, are deeply embedded in the ways indigenous peoples interact with their territories. these practices are part of an integrated worldview where biodiversity is not only a source of material resources but also a repository of meaning, identity, and responsibility (maffi and woodley 2010; ruheza and kilugwe 2012; verschuuren 2007). similarly, fauna linked to indigenous spiritual and magical attributes can have a positive influence on the conservation of multiple species within shared ecosystems (holmes et al. 2018). therefore, understanding the physical and symbolic dimensions of a territory through the lived experiences and knowledge systems of the indigenous peoples who inhabit it is essential for effective worldview and conservation: crocodiles and caimans in the pijao indigenous people in colombia edison d. bonilla-liberato1,2,3*, nelson martínez-criollo4,5, and islena villalba-yate6 1parcialidad indígena pijao la unión, tolima, colombia. 2programa de biología ambiental, universidad de ibagué, tolima, colombia.3department of wildlife ecology and conservation, fort lauderdale research and education center, university of florida, fort lauderdale, usa.4parcialidad indígena pijao palmira alta, tolima, colombia. 5tribunal superior indígena del consejo regional indígena del tolima (crit), tolima, colombia.6resguardo indígena pijao san antonio de calarma, tolima, colombia. *edisondanielbl@gmail.com abstract sacred and cultural practices that link biodiversity with indigenous communities play a vital role in conservation. likewise, fauna associated with these practices have positive implications for many species with which they share their ecosystems. recognizing how cultural worldviews shape, and are shaped by, the physical characteristics of a territory can strengthen conservation and restoration efforts. however, in the case of the pijao people, an indigenous group from colombia, socioeconomic and landscape transformations have deeply affected cultural practices and identity, putting at risk both ancestral knowledge and the species that benefit from it. we report on the connection between the pijao people with two species of crocodylians (crocodylus acutus and caiman crocodilus) as well as the role these animals play within their worldview and ancestral medicine. our study offers new contributions to the cultural and spiritual role of crocodilians in colombia. it highlights the importance of strengthening indigenous knowledge and identity to maintain customs and traditions, as preserving these ancestral practices is essential for the continuity of ethnic identity and the protection of these species as a unique expression of cultural heritage. received december 25, 2024 open access accepted june 9, 2025 doi 10.14237/ebl.16.1.2025.1926 published october 24, 2025 keywords conservation, crocodylians, ethnozoology, indigenous, pijao, worldview copyright © 2025 by the author(s); licensee society of ethnobiology. this is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution-noncommercial 4.0 international public license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0), which permits non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. bonilla-liberato et al. 2025. ethnobiology letters 16(1):139–149 140 perspectives and spiritual frameworks. they are used in healing practices, symbolically associated with deities, and perceived as regulators of human behavior (linaresrosas et al. 2021). this is particularly prevalent among indigenous peoples, where the land and its components hold a sacred and central role within their ethnic identities, prompting local actions for its protection (toledo 2001). this highlights the crucial role that ancestral peoples play in conservation processes (berkes et al. 1994), since their territories are home to ecosystems that contain high biodiversity (dawson et al. 2021; garnett et al. 2018; o'bryan et al. 2021). however, the significance of indigenous peoples’ traditional ways of life is being compromised by globalization, modernization, and changes in socioeconomic contexts (aswani et al. 2018). this results in a disconnection from their own cultures and contributes to linguistic loss and the diminishing of indigenous knowledge (figueroa 2011; loh and harmon 2014). moreover, transformations and inadequate management of their territories can lead to the modification or disappearance of cultural expressions, creating gaps between native communities and their past (antrop 2005). illustrating this in colombia is the pijao ethnic group, also historically referred to as pixaos, pyjaos, or pinaos, originally semi-nomadic hunter-gatherers whose early subsistence practices are reported to have included anthropophagy (salmoral 1963). the pijao were later pressured to adopt an extractivist model, resulting in significant spatial transformations and a rupture from their traditions. this change was marked by persecution during colonization, followed by dispossession and abandonment by authorities in subsequent years, leading to a considerable decline in population and territorial shrinkage (ministerio del interior 2014). the pijao language is currently considered extinct (zwisler 2018). by 2018, its population was 51,635 people (dane 2018), and by the following year, their presence was limited to 205 communities and 114 indigenous reserves, mainly in the department of tolima (perdomo 2019; figure 1). this indigenous group maintains a close relationship with nature, which plays a central role in shaping their cultural identity and territorial organization (ortiz gordillo et al. 2023). their ancestral lands encompass ecosystems that reflect the representative biodiversity of the tolima region. among the species found there, some hold profound symbolic and spiritual significance within the pijao worldview, which has not been previously documented. these include the needle caiman, american crocodile, or magdalena crocodile (crocodylus acutus), which is classified as vulnerable (rainwater et al. 2022), and the babilla (caiman crocodilus), a species not currently considered threatened globally, even as its local conservation status is uncertain (balaguera-reina and velasco 2019). the extent of the spiritual and cultural relationship between the pijao people and these species remains largely undocumented. based on indigenous research methodologies (kovach 2009) and informed by the principles of collaborative ethnography (lassiter 2005), here we report on the cultural and spiritual significance of these two species for the pijao people. our approach draws primarily on our own lived experiences as indigenous representatives of this community, and especially on the ancestral knowledge of two of the figure 1 map of the distribution of municipalities with the presence of pijao indigenous communities and both crocodylians (caiman crocodilus and crocodylus acutus) in the department of tolima, colombia. bonilla-liberato et al. 2025. ethnobiology letters 16(1):139–149 141 perspectives authors, both of whom are traditional healers of the pijao people. this knowledge was complemented by conversations held between 2022 and 2023 with other members of pijao indigenous communities and reservations in southern tolima. the origin of the world for the pijao indigenous people according to the cosmogony of the pijao people, the earth is immersed in a perpetual duality between two forces represented by cold (chirí) and heat (chajuá). this rivalry dates back to when the moon (taiba) desired to retain the water flooding the earth to contemplate its beauty, leading to the designation of chirí as the guardian of water. conversely, the sun (ta) aimed to rest and create the lagoon covering the planet, dispatching chajuá on a mission to evaporate it. this event gave rise to mother earth (bota ima), resulting in the creation of fauna and flora through fertilization by ta. nevertheless, this process initiates conflicts between the spirits of the cold, more closely linked to plants and animals in aquatic or cold environments, and the spirits of heat, with a greater affinity for terrestrial species in warm areas. to restore balance, ta fertilized bota ima once more, giving rise to human beings whose primary role was to facilitate harmonious relationships between chirí and chajuá, seeking equilibrium in their interaction with the environment and surrounding species. the role of the crocodilians within the ethnic group according to members of the pijao community, these species fulfill ecological, energetic, and spiritual functions within the ecosystems they inhabit. alemao (c. acutus) and kaxiol (c. crocodilus) represent cold spirits that, along with the ancestral doctors or mohanes, regulate, purify, and protect water bodies, ensuring balance for the species inhabiting them. hence, the presence of these species is crucial for the health and existence of rivers and lagoons. regrettably, the health of numerous water bodies has been jeopardized in recent decades due to the local extinction of alemao. historically, this species was widespread from the magdalena river, known in pijao as ico antene yuma jizbil acahuanca, to several tributaries of the saldaña river (pijao: antene melamina). overexploitation for skin and fat, coupled with substantial landscape changes in tolima during the twentieth century, led to population decline. this had a profound impact on the spiritual harmony of water channels and compromised their overall health. presently, the distribution range of c. acutus within the pijao territory is confined to a few areas in the magdalena river in the department of tolima. uses of crocodilians alemao and kaxiol served to ward off malevolent forces affecting people. in the past, mohanes employed the matachines dance (meaning "they don't kill me") using masks crafted from plant materials and suits made from the skin of these reptiles to invoke different spirits. these spirits, through fear, aided in dispelling evils afflicting a person. also, they used the fangs and claws as good fortune amulets. warriors selected for capturing these reptiles during full moon nights (taliban) underwent a ritual where the chief utilized fat from the sacrificed animals to anoint the new warriors. within the ancestral medicine of the pijao people, the cold spiritual nature of c. acutus and c. crocodilus allowed them to be employed in treating various ailments, such as diabetes and cancer. the fat from these animals was used for injuries, burns, and respiratory problems. however, the medical application of these species depended on the type of ailment and the patient's location. diseases caused by heat spirits could be neutralized with medicines derived from cold spirits, and vice versa. treating an illness with the same type of spirit that caused it could exacerbate the patient's condition. according to the oral tradition of the ethnic group, during the spanish colonization era, many mohanes were persecuted and punished for their beliefs. some sought refuge in specific places like forests, caves, rivers, and lagoons, assuming the guise of animals such as foxes, sloths, howler monkeys, fish, and caimans. this strategy continues to be embraced by some mohanes today to protect the territory and accompany the pijao people. conservation and conflicts within indigenous reservations, hunting of c. crocodilus for commercial purposes or human consumption is prohibited by indigenous authorities. its use is restricted only for medical purposes, with the ancestral doctor being the only one authorized to allow the sacrifice of an animal for the purpose of carrying out specific treatments, as long as the patient has previously performed the necessary spiritual attunement. bonilla-liberato et al. 2025. ethnobiology letters 16(1):139–149 142 perspectives as a result of protective measures implemented by indigenous authorities, the kaxiol populations within pijao territories have remained relatively robust. however, individuals of this species outside these territories face significant pressures, primarily due to hunting for consumption or trade. these activities often give rise to conflicts between indigenous and non-indigenous communities. in the case of c. acutus, the observation of individuals is sporadic due to its low population density. for this reason, the use of this species for human consumption, commercial, or medical purposes was strictly prohibited by indigenous authorities. discussion crocodylians evoke a wide range of emotions and perceptions within communities. while these animals often inspire fear, they can also be viewed with respect, curiosity, and even admiration (janovcová et al. 2019; neves and giger 2023). this would explain the reason that they have historically been linked to cultural, spiritual, and aesthetic values in various societies (olupona 1993; passariello 1999; stephens 2005; telban 2008). recognizing the symbolic and relational meanings attributed to wildlife, particularly those species that evoke fear, conflict, or tension, can help contextualize the dynamics between humans and animals (pooley et al. 2017). such knowledge supports more inclusive and culturally grounded strategies for coexistence, especially in cases of perceived conflict (könig et al. 2021; pooley et al. 2021a). this approach could be particularly beneficial in the case of c. acutus and c. crocodilus, which rank first and fourth, respectively, in terms of the highest number of negative interactions among crocodilian species in latin america (pooley et al. 2021b). in colombia, although there are significant gaps in knowledge regarding crocodilian populations, biology, and local perceptions, evidence indicates that these animals have played key roles in cultural, medicinal, and ethnic practices across various groups (morales-betancourt et al. 2013). however, considering the country's cultural diversity (ministerio de cultura de colombia 2022; wade 2004), the roles crocodilians and other taxonomic groups occupy within indigenous worldviews remain largely undocumented (hernández species description references caiman crocodilus among the nukak people of guaviare, caimans are believed to embody ancestral beings who transformed into caimans during a great flood. for this reason, they are thought to inhabit the animal house of the floodplain, linking them to both mythological origins and the natural world. politis and saunders 2002 in communities along the colombian pacific, parts of this species are occasionally used. the skull and teeth are used as ornaments, while the skin is crafted into artisanal products. gonzález and asprilla 2009; usmaoviedo et al. 2009 in the caribbean region and the magdalena river basin, the fat of the american crocodile is traditionally believed to have healing properties. it is used to treat asthma and other respiratory conditions. morales-betancourt et al. 2013 crocodylus acutus initially, this species was linked to indigenous rituals in which the caiman was considered a sacred being and spiritual mediator. over time, the legend evolved through mestizaje (the blending of indigenous, european, and afro-descendant traditions), becoming a festive and critical folkloric expression. mendoza roldán and gómez 2025; ramírez 2015 in la guajira, the bones of the american crocodile (especially the skull) are used to heal wounds and sores. the bone is crushed into a fine powder and applied directly to the wound to promote rapid healing. corpoguajira and asociación desarrollo guajiro 2006 this species is reflected in various pre-hispanic ornaments, such as pendants, necklaces, chest pieces, nose rings, and pots, crafted from materials like gold, copper, clay, wood, bone, and stone. ulloa-delgado 1996 the wayuu myth of keeralia describes a crocodile spirit from la guajira that seduces women at sunset, causing them to explode and give birth to snakes, iguanas, and lizards. turbay 1994 table 1 cultural importance of crocodylus acutus and caiman crocodilus in colombia. bonilla-liberato et al. 2025. ethnobiology letters 16(1):139–149 143 perspectives -coronado 2018; janssen et al. 2024; moralesbetancourt et al. 2013). at the cultural level (table 1), various folkloric representations and popular legends involving c. acutus have previously been documented in colombia (morales-betancourt et al. 2013; turbay 1994). particularly in the caribbean region, this species has been recognized as culturally significant to human societies since the archaic period (ca. 3300 bce), profoundly shaping regional identity through traditional dances, popular festivals, commemorative monuments, and musical expressions (mendoza roldán and gómez 2025). similarly, as reported in the present study, the species has been attributed with curative powers, especially in the treatment of respiratory conditions and other diseases (corpoguajira y asociación desarrollo guajiro 2006; morales-betancourt et al. 2013). nonetheless, none of the previous accounts mentioned the role of c. acutus as a spiritual guardian, as revealed in this work. these findings highlight the need to broaden the understanding of this species, recognizing its deep cultural, medicinal, and spiritual significance for local and indigenous communities. a similar situation applies to c. crocodilus. in brazil, ecuador, and venezuela, this species has been documented in rituals intended to ward off evil spirits and offer protection against witchcraft (alves et al. 2012; corr 2023; seijas 2011). in colombia, references to this species have primarily focused on its use in the creation of ornaments and handicrafts (gonzález and asprilla 2009; usma-oviedo et al. 2009). additionally, in the department of guaviare, the nukak communities consider that this species represents specific ancestors who took the form of a caiman during a great flood (politis and saunders 2002). however, no reports have documented spiritual functions attributed to c. crocodilus among other local communities (morales-betancourt et al. 2013). throughout the american continent, the image of crocodylians has profoundly influenced the worldviews of various cultures, in which these reptiles are considered sacred due to their association with the creation of the world and the spiritual role attributed to them as guardians (bassie-sweet 2008; salt 2005; taube 1989; velásquez garcía 2006). in south america, species such as paleosuchus palpebrosus, paleosuchus trigonatus, melanosuchus niger, caiman latirostris, and c. crocodilus have been documented as being used for magical and religious purposes (e.g., protection against negative energies and as good luck charms), as well as for treating ailments, such as rheumatism, vascular accidents, snakebites, and respiratory illnesses (alves et al. 2007, 2012; alves and rosa 2010; castellanos et al. 2005; costa-neto 2005). additionally, the fat of p. palpebrosus, p. trigonatus, and c. crocodilus is known to be used to enhance ancestral medicinal practices and rituals (pagani et al. 2017). this similarity in uses may be related to the concept of therapeutic redundancy: the use of multiple animal species to treat the same ailment, which serves as a resilience strategy in contexts where specific faunal resources are scarce or unavailable (castillo and ladio 2019). however, to clarify this possible relationship, more detailed studies are needed, particularly considering that costa-neto (2005) refers to unpublished data from another researcher in peru, reporting that some communities use caiman blood to treat epilepsy and cerebrovascular accidents. this suggests that some ethnobiological knowledge remains unpublished. the variation in how data are collected highlights the urgent need to standardize research methodologies in this field, to improve cross-study comparisons and achieve greater clarity in the analysis of usage patterns (gutiérrezsantillán et al. 2018). in this study, we generated new contributions regarding the cultural and spiritual role that the species c. acutus and c. crocodilus present in colombia. likewise, this study expands knowledge regarding the pijao ethnic group and its worldview. also, it reports the relevant role that the different indigenous reservations are playing concerning the conservation of c. crocodilus and c. actutus. this form of conservation could be understood as a “diverse conservation” (gillette et al. 2023), as it is not carried out through formalized interventions but rather through indirect actions shaped by the ontological and spiritual responsibility that we, as pijao people, feel toward the rivers, lagoons, and the beings that inhabit them. this includes these two reptile species. this insight highlights the unique contribution of the present study in documenting the cultural role of c. acutus and c. crocodilus, underscoring the cultural and spiritual dimensions that have been overlooked in previous accounts, and opening new avenues for integrating cultural perspectives into conservation efforts. the pijao people hold significant potential to bonilla-liberato et al. 2025. ethnobiology letters 16(1):139–149 144 perspectives contribute to the conservation of these species. however, it is essential to implement projects and initiatives aimed at revitalizing indigenous knowledge and strengthening cultural identity to ensure the preservation of their customs. the pijao have faced a persistent struggle for the recognition of their rights and identity within their ancestral territory, a battle shaped by historical land dispossession, processes of acculturation, limited institutional and governmental presence in their territories, and patterns of violence and exclusion (roldán zarazo 2016). studies have shown that younger generations are experiencing a decline in ancestral knowledge (mendoza hernandez et al. 2021). this issue is compounded by the extinct status of the pijao language (zwisler 2018), with only a few native speakers remaining, highlighting the urgent need for cultural and linguistic preservation efforts. the potential loss of c. acutus and c. crocodilus species within pijao territory is not only an ecological concern but a cultural one, as it threatens the erosion of ancestral knowledge, spiritual relationships, and language linked to them. in this sense, the conservation of these crocodilians becomes inseparable from the revitalization of pijao identity, worldview, and territorial sovereignty. this is because biodiversity, traditional ecological knowledge, languages, and indigenous territories are deeply interdependent (maffi and dilts 2014; maffi and woodley 2010). furthermore, the disruption of local communities' connections with their territories, whether through imposition or cultural assimilation, has negative effects on crocodilian populations and their habitats, which were historically protected through local spiritual taboos and customary norms (bio ouré et al. 2023; pooley 2016). interactions deeply rooted in spiritual values have been pivotal in advancing conservation efforts (berkes 2009; garnett et al. 2018; van der ploeg et al. 2011). preserving these traditions and ancestral knowledge is essential to maintaining the ethnic identity of the pijao people, ensuring the protection of crocodilians through the unique cultural heritage these communities embody. additionally, indigenous, peasant, and other local colombian communities can play a vital role in monitoring wild crocodilian populations (gómez-gonzález et al. 2017; ulloadelgado 2005). to support these efforts, it is crucial to promote ethnozoological studies that explore the relationships between communities and these reptiles, enabling the development of effective conservation strategies tailored to their cultural and ecological contexts. this is especially important, as previous studies have shown that local ecological knowledge and community-based social organization around crocodilian species can foster the emergence of management practices that, in turn, help ensure the persistence of the species while supporting local livelihoods (bio ouré et al. 2023; 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bonilla-liberato et al. 2025. ethnobiology letters 16(1):139–149 149 perspectives rojas, editorial universidad del cauca, popayán, cauca, colombia. zamudio, f., e. bello-baltazar, and e. i. j. estradalugo. 2013. learning to hunt crocodiles: social organization in the process of knowledge generation and the emergence of management practices among mayan of mexico. journal of ethnobiology and ethnomedicine 9. doi:10.1186/17464269-9-35. zwisler, j. 2018. the intergenerational perception of the causes and effects of language loss in the pijao community of natagaima, colombia. lenguaje 46:220–241. doi:10.25100/lenguaje.v46i2.6581. threats to heritage in cultural keystone places: fitting western concepts into gitxsan legal orders and laws dimdiigibuu and armstrong. 2025. ethnobiology letters 16(2):20–32 20 research communications special issue: historical ecology & cultural keystone places cultural keystone places are also a natural follow -up to work led by ethnoecologists contemplating cultural aspects of the ecological keystone species concept. paine’s work on the “first” keystone species, the ochre sea star (pisaster ochraceus) in the pacific northwest, described it as a top predator in coastal intertidal systems, observing that, relative to their abundance, ochre sea stars were significant drivers of the structure and function of intertidal systems (paine 1969). building on this, nabhan and carr (1994) described desert ironwood (olneya tesota) as an ecological and cultural keystone of the sonoran desert, owing to its relatively unique and pervasive role in tohono o’odham and seri foods, medicines, and technologies, and its role in creating desert microhabitats with its nitrogen fixing capabilities and dense canopy structures that safeguard understory soils from drought. introduction and background cultural keystone places (ckps) are recognized by scientists and community-based researchers as landscapes that play a critical role in maintaining the health and well-being of people, while also supporting biologically and/or functionally diverse ecosystems. coined relatively recently (cuerrier et al. 2015), the concept is an extension of previous iterations of “cultural landscape” literature from the 1990s that spurred a re-examination of policy and research challenging the nature-culture divide in conservation biology, and pointed to the role of people (usually indigenous peoples) in enhancing, protecting, and stewarding local biodiversity, with implications for landscape ecology, planning, and assessment processes (anderson 1996; posey 1999; rössler chief 2006). threats to heritage in cultural keystone places: fitting western concepts into gitxsan legal orders and laws ardythe wilson dimdiigibuu1 and chelsey geralda armstrong2* 1wilp guutginuuxs, gisgaast, hazelton, canada. 2historical-ecological research lab, indigenous studies, simon fraser university, burnaby, canada. *chelsey_geralda@sfu.ca abstract resource extraction poses significant threats to cultural heritage sites and landscapes across british columbia (bc, canada), particularly in gitxsan territories, where people’s values are often overlooked in archaeological heritage management and consulting contexts. this research explores how gitxsan legal orders and stewardship principles can contribute to conserving and restoring culturally and ecologically significant places—crucial work in the face of ongoing colonial policies and an increasingly changing climate. cultural landscapes, characterized by the lax’yip (gitxsan wilp/house territories), provide a foundation for understanding long-standing stewardship practices and relationships that underscore cultural and environmental values and well-being. a key challenge, however, is how to effectively represent these landscapes to outsiders who may not share the same cultural connections to the land or understand gitxsan heritage, histories, laws, and protocols. reviewing these tensions in the context of resource extraction in one territory, lax xsin djihl, wilp/house histories and stewardship practices are routinely ignored by archaeological consultants, leading to the destruction of cultural heritage. evocative metaphors, such as cultural keystone places, may offer a way to convey the ecological and cultural realities of territories for gitxsan houses, fostering a broader understanding and deeper regard for gitxsan cultural heritage within archaeological regulatory frameworks. received november, 15, 2024 open access accepted july 10, 2025 doi 10.14237/ebl.16.2.2025.1914 published december 1, 2025 keywords archaeology, cultural keystone place, gitxsan, heritage management, indigenous governance copyright © 2025 by the author(s); licensee society of ethnobiology. this is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution-noncommercial 4.0 international public license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0), which permits non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. dimdiigibuu and armstrong. 2025. ethnobiology letters 16(2):20–32 21 research communications special issue: historical ecology & cultural keystone places the concept of a “keystone” species emerged from the disciplines of ecology and conservation biology. as such, it is a derivative of the principles and theories from those fields, with an emphasis on concepts such as diversity, competition, and resilience (cottee-jones and whittaker 2012; davic 2003). when the qualifier of “culture” was added, it was meant to be treated as a complex intersection of ideas and theories from indigenous epistemologies, human ecology, and ethnoecology—the notion that we could simply add “people” to the ecological keystone concept was anathema to those considering its integration (ellen 2006; garibaldi and turner 2004). instead, the “cultural” qualifier was intended to highlight the role that people have in shaping and maintaining distinct species and/or landscapes. it also illustrated how those species and/or landscapes in turn bring into being cultural praxes and shape healthy communities for the people sustained by them. for example, while a particular species might not have tremendous significance to a western-trained conservation biologist, it could be a significant driver of cultural practices with cascading effects on peoples’ language, intergenerational knowledge transmission, cultural cohesion, renewal, and well-being, reflected and reproduced on the same lands with emergent “conservation” results for other biota and entities (bonifácio et al. 2016; mccarthy et al. 2014). this aspect of the concept is critical—a recent policy analysis found that the majority of cultural keystone species identified in canada to date have no form of protection under the canadian species at risk act, precisely because of systemic naïveté among regulators and conservation institutions (lukawiecki et al. 2024). conversely, and despite best intentions, the cultural keystone species/place concept has, in some cases, unintentionally sieved through people’s deeply relational and cosmogeneologically tethered perspectives in a way that separates a single species or place from broader homelands. distilling inimitably relational and place-based entities, like a single species or landscape, into acronyms like cks or ckp (see also wyndham 2017) or force-fitting indigenous epistemologies and ontologies into western concepts of ecosystem functioning and diversity misses the point of the “cultural” qualifier. for example, some critics argue that the cultural keystone species literature does not go far enough in integrating ecosystem processes (coe and gaoue 2020). while this point is valid according to their data, they fail to grasp the reason for the integration of people/culture in the first place—not as a one-way template (cultural preferences fitting into ecological principles) but as a metaphorical parallel for understanding the significance of an ecological entity outside of ones’ own culture (cuerrier et al. 2015). similarly, some archaeologists fail to comprehend how the places they survey are deeply tied to the broader landscapes that form part of people’s cultural histories; places instilled with meaning, memory, and value that extend beyond the discrete boundary of a single archaeological site. the cultural keystone place concept, explored here, might be useful to archaeologists to epitomize bidirectional (dare we say reciprocal) feedback between people and place that represent values and worldviews not readily meaningful to outsiders (wolverton et al. 2023). cuerrier et al. (2015) refer to cultural keystone places as an “evocative metaphor” for helping nonspecialists, such as archaeologists or conservation biologists, understand the importance of people-place relationships and they highlight how these realities need more attention in both environmental and heritage conservation and management (see also reyes -garcía et al. 2022). in this research, we explore how the cultural keystone metaphor is useful for illustrating the role that the lax’yip (territory) plays in gitxsan legal orders, worldviews, heritage, and territorial realities. we consider how, for some gitxsan huwilp (houses), governance structures and stewardship values and practices are enacted within and in relation to the lax’yip. as keystone places for people, animals, plants, and fish relations, the lax’yip is a significant place for biocultural health and renewal. archaeologists, like conservation biologists, should better understand where history and heritage sit in the greater territorial realities of gitxsan places and cultural infrastructures. we suggest that adopting the cultural keystone place approach in archaeology and heritage management could aid in addressing or reshaping harmful heritage policies and conventions, but only if this eurocentric framework is presented within a gitxsan context— and not the other way around. cultural keystones in gitxsan contexts the skeena river watershed in northwestern british columbia (bc, canada) encompasses over 55,000 km2 of lands and waters, comparable in size to costa rica or slovakia. the watershed is, for its size, one of the biggest producers of all five species of pacific salmon dimdiigibuu and armstrong. 2025. ethnobiology letters 16(2):20–32 22 research communications special issue: historical ecology & cultural keystone places in north america, and a substantial portion constitutes gitxsan homelands—a large ethnolinguistic group of decentralized polities organized by huwlip. the wilp (house) is the predominant unit of social, political, and territorial organization both in the past (before the imposition of british and canadian law) and in the present. in the landmark delgamuukw and gisday wa v. the queen (1997) court case, the supreme court of canada recognized gitxsan (and neighbouring wet’suwet’en) title is distinct from other forms of property ownership and that huwilp never extinguished this title to the crown. gitxsan title extends beyond lockean “land-use” benchmarks to encompass the rights and responsibilities to the land, including the right to manage access and trespass, and to steward accompanying resources according to the social/spiritual/ecological needs of the wilp (mills 1994; monet and wilson 1992). while the delgamuukw decision did not lay out the framework for the bc government’s obligations to consult and/or acquire consent for resource extraction in wilp territories (a massive source of revenue for the province), the case did imply the government has a duty to consult and accommodate gitxsan huwilp before making decisions that affect their lax’yip (sterritt 2016). this duty to consult pertains to environmental and heritage permitting, and across bc, archaeologists are required to consult with relevant first nations prior to permitted work (case law reinforces the duty to meaningfully consult, see hickey 2021). over the last 80 years, the skeena river watershed has been variously impacted by outside industries, with mismanaged clear-cut logging, mining, and more recently, with frontier-like expansion of widespread natural gas infrastructure development (bishop and shaw 2022; davis 2015; drushka 1985). the impacts of industry have aggressively accumulated over the last few decades, with major tributaries of the skeena river consumed with sediment and debris flows from erosion (from clearcut logging and logging roads), pollution, and social/ health impacts disrupting kin networks and major wildlife resources, including salmon, a major source of food for people (gottesfeld and rabnett 2008). this tipping point is ushering in irreversible implications for wilp territory use, access, and management of foods and medicines, all of which are compounded by increasing influences from mega wildfires and climate change. huwilp are highly decentralized political units that have a robust hereditary governance structure led by simgiigyet (chiefs) and sidigim haanak’ (matriarchs). the wilp is based on matrilineal lineages and ranges in size from 20 to upwards of 600 members per wilp (daly 2005). hereditary leadership is inherited by virtue of comportment, reflecting an individual’s standing under gitxsan law; their attention to cultural preservation, stewardship of lands, and their advocacy for the rights of their people (gisday wa and delgam uukw 1992). usually, more than one candidate is groomed to take on such positions, and values like the intimate knowledge of the history of the wilp and lax’yip and the ability to interact and communicate with other huwilp and nations are of paramount importance. as mary mckenzie (wilp gyoluugyat) remarked in her 1987 expert testimony, “in gitksan law you have to work yourself up to become a chief. you don't get a chief name just if you want it today… it doesn't work that way. [a] chief has to work himself up to become a head chief” (british columbia supreme court 1987:218). government bureaucrats and industries typically divide the skeena river watershed into sub-basins or management units like “timber supply areas”. however, the territorial boundaries that delineate wilp-owned territories in the middle and upper skeena river watershed have been established for thousands of years (monet and wilson 1992). these boundaries, often following river systems, heights of land, and drainage divides, define the limits of the lax’yip and constitute the political and economic parameters of the lands and waters that are the responsibility and prerogative of the relevant wilp (porter and barry 2016). one of us (dimdiigibuu, ardythe wilson; armstrong is a settler researcher) belongs to wilp guutginuuxs (gisgaast, fireweed clan). the wilp has legal title (both under gitxsan and canadian law) to the lax’yip called lax xsin djihl, a roughly 310 km2 area, with the southern boundary following the shegunia river and the western boundary seamed along the skeena river (figure 1). the boundaries that define lax xsin djihl are so irreparably binding that, like for all huwilp, guutginuuxs has exclusive rights to protect and enforce entry, access, use, and trespass to any outsider. as johnson (2010) and others have pointed out, if an individual shoots a bear in their lax’yip and the bear runs off into another wilp’s lax’yip, it is no longer their bear. the dimdiigibuu and armstrong. 2025. ethnobiology letters 16(2):20–32 23 research communications special issue: historical ecology & cultural keystone places complexity of this decentralized system is evident by the fact that even within these strict ownership and title laws, all huwilp have a responsibility to confer and engage with one another on any decisions that could affect another territory (e.g., upstream or downstream). in the delgamuukw court case, hereditary chiefs explained, in the words of neil sterritt sr., “…it would not be fair for a house to benefit exclusively to the detriment of the other house that has suffered damages…all of the people must get together…so that no one benefits excessively, and no one suffers a great loss” (sterritt 1988:8149). there is no doubt that individual lax’yip are, for wilp members, cultural keystone places. consider lax xsin djihl for wilp guutginuuxs—the lax’yip courses with unique cultural histories and meaning that are exclusive to wilp members. there are extensive historical and ethnographic data, interviews, and oral histories compiled by house members and researchers that denote specific wilp names for rivers, creeks, berry camps, berry burning areas, fish camps, and other place names—many of which are ignored, undermined, or misunderstood by archaeologists and environmental practitioners (figure 1). the cultural attention afforded to specific locales, not captured in colonial gazetteer names, exemplifies more personalized relationships to the landscape that outsiders often overlook. from large river systems like xsu gwin ya’a to upland headwaters of second and third order creeks like sin laaxw, xsu guu min yansit, and xsi gwi luu gaat, the latter of which have no english name equivalents. gitxsan toponyms and place names not only facilitate the transmission of land-based knowledge—which in turn is crucial for biodiversity conservation and stewardship (e.g., dawson et al. 2021; reyes-garcía et al. 2019)—the names and attendant adawx (laws/stories) are also the deeds to the land and form the basis for gitxsan cultural continuity. consider sim maa’y (the “one” or “true” berry; black huckleberry, vaccinium membranaceum), widely considered a cultural keystone species for many communities in the pacific northwest (shores et al. 2019). as a major food staple and trade commodity, black huckleberry fields were figure 1 wilp guutginuuxs lax’yip, lax xsin djihl is a cultural keystone place. a lax xsin djihl according to wilp histories and records and b lax xsin djihl according to recent colonial histories and records. dimdiigibuu and armstrong. 2025. ethnobiology letters 16(2):20–32 24 research communications special issue: historical ecology & cultural keystone places cultivated through controlled burning, fertilization, and pruning (johnson 2000; trusler 2002). for gitxsan and gitanyow, black huckleberry “was traditionally and is still the most highly valued plant” (johnson 2019:145; people of ’ksan 1980). berry camps and berry burning locales feature prominently in lax xsin djihl (e.g., lax ansa matsa), illustrating how stewardship and management of the territory was enacted by the wilp, through the labour and know-how that was, and is, tied to use rights and responsibilities to keep the lax’yip productive for wilp members. cultural heritage in lax xsin djhil during two field surveys in 2023 and again in 2024, we re-examined historically cultivated sim maa’y landscapes in lax xsin djihl, such as lax ansa matsa, a berry area on an upland plateau south of the upper xsa’ ansi mitsitxw. prior to colonial fire bans, these upper-elevation sites were routinely burned (likely on decadal scales), resulting in extensive ericaceous subalpine shrub field complexes (trusler 2002; trusler and johnson 2008). the lack of fire under colonial policies has resulted in the encroachment of coniferous trees, including amabilis fir (abies amabilis), subalpine fir (abies lasiocarpa), western hemlock (tsuga heterophylla), and scattered lodgepole pine (pinus contorta). climate change impacts resulting in increased seasonal variability in these sub-alpine landscapes, owing to decreased seasonal snowpack and melting glaciers [within 70 years most of bc’s glaciers will be gone (clarke et al. 2015)] has also contributed to local food system disruptions, with staples like black huckleberry routinely being described as “puny” or “sick” (armstrong 2022). impacts to guutginuuxs’ food sovereignty and heritage in the lax’yip are also under threat from irreversible impacts brought on by oil and gas infrastructure development. currently, a proposed natural gas pipeline is being proposed that would bisect the entirety of the territory, crossing every skeena river tributary in lax xsin djihl. the access road to lax xsin djihl, which would be used by oil and gas developers, is an ancient trail still in use today by many huwilp who access their territories annually. compressor stations proposed for the pipeline on this ancient trail will emit volatile organic compounds and greenhouse gases and generate significant noise pollution affecting wildlife in the territory (e.g., mountain goat, bear, deer, waterfowl, and resident birds; see boyle et al. 2017; francis et al. 2011). moreover, there are considerable risks of explosions and air and water contamination given the large amount of sediment and pollution associated with natural gas transportation lines (payne et al. 2017; shoghl and pazuki 2024). ongoing research and local experiences show how cumulative effects—from colonial policies enacting coercive fire bans and fishing bans to contemporary oil and gas development and displacement of people from lands—are impacting the productivity of, and peoples’ access to, staple foods like berries (black elk and baker 2020; muir 2022), salmon (newell 1993), caribou (santomauro et al. 2012), medicines (turner and turner 2008), as well as peoples’ access to heritage sites, spiritual and ceremonial sites for purification, cleansing, cremation, and training in healing and arts (see also horowitz 2022). as a result of this complex interplay of impacts, felt and experienced at different scales and in different pulses, experts argue that regulatory management strategies ought to be tailored to the legal customs of each wilp within the context of their own lax’yip (johnson 2019; porter and barry 2016). in effect, decision-making in cultural keystone places should be made and defined by the people who have explicit cultural, historical, and legal ties to those places (see also ignace and ignace 2020). the intersection of food sovereignty and archaeological heritage has long been underscored by indigenous peoples and historical ecologists (przelomska et al. 2020; reed and ryan 2019; reedermyers et al. 2022). for example, archaeological heritage can provide a foundation for understanding indigenous food systems impacted by colonialism (campbell and butler 2010; lepofsky et al. 2015, 2020) and offers direct historical throughlines that tie specific people and food systems to specific land bases, helping with food reclamation and renewal (joseph et al. 2022; laluk et al. 2022; lepofsky 2009). recently, understanding historical-ecological food systems such as indigenous forest gardens has helped to identify previously unknown or unrecorded archaeological features and village sites (armstrong et al. 2023a). compliance regimes and extraction in lax xsin djhil one of the major drivers of heritage protection laws in bc are the intangible values of archaeological places and objects—whether these are scientific and educational values defined by the dominant power structures (e.g., archaeologists, the bc archaeology dimdiigibuu and armstrong. 2025. ethnobiology letters 16(2):20–32 25 research communications special issue: historical ecology & cultural keystone places branch) or the values expressed by the descendants and cultural inheritors of those places and objects. sometimes these values align, but other times they are at odds. as such, professional archaeologists in bc recently proclaimed that, “if indigenous peoples are denied direct and meaningful ways of engaging in decision-making concerning their cultural heritage, then cultural heritage management policies are ineffective at best, and harmful at worst” (schaepe et al. 2020:58). despite this, gitxsan/wet’suwet’en archaeological heritage is routinely undervalued or ignored in advance of large industrial projects such as natural gas pipelines in northwestern british columbia (armstrong et al. 2023b; sutherland-wilson et al. 2019). for example, archaeological assessments undertaken in advance of the prince rupert gas transmission (prgt) pipeline in lax xsin djihl concluded that over 90% of the territory was “low potential” for archaeological heritage. potential models are used in archaeological overview assessments to estimate the likelihood of archaeological resources occurring in each project area. archaeologists will use criteria like slope, aspect, and proximity to previously recorded archaeological sites to rank areas as low, moderate, or high potential for heritage resources. based on these outputs, archaeological consultants then determine where field investigations are required in advance of land-altering activities, such as pipeline and compressor station construction. field investigations (or impact assessments) make up the bulk of the heritage stewardship industry in british columbia, an increasingly lucrative sector for mostly non-indigenous practitioners. regrettably, there is irregular oversight when it comes to regulating this work, and indigenous communities have little, if any, say or power when it comes to this process (see ferris 2003)1. for example, if guutginuuxs’ heritage record in lax xsin djihl is compared with the province’s record, egregious discrepancies exist. all the consulting archaeological surveys in lax xsin djihl—done in advance of two pipelines and a few logging cut blocks—amount to 24 discrete sites recorded since 1984 (figure 1). none of the archaeological reports accompanying the recording or “interpretations” of these sites (prior to their destruction) mentions guutginuuxs. failing to connect the physical heritage (lithic scatters, culturally modified trees, trails) in the lax’yip to the history and heritage of the wilp is a disconcerting oversight. in advance of oil and gas development, most heritage sites are slated to be “altered”—that is, instead of avoided, they are mitigated (destroyed). mitigation is a trade-off where heritage sites and objects are destroyed, but, in exchange, they are investigated and studied by archaeological consultants. however, without a basic understanding of the wilp—the relevant villages, food harvesting areas, trails, camps, fishing stations, and spiritual locales—two distinct versions of history and heritage appear to be unfolding in lax xsin djihl— the guutginuuxs version and the colonial one (figure 1; see also estes 2019). industry archaeologists have so far ignored the broader wilp-based history and heritage infrastructures that define, in part, guutginuuxs’ social, political, and ecological order. certainly, individual consultants are structurally limited (e.g., restricted budgets and timelines), and there are obvious systemic barriers to doing meaningful archaeological work for pipeline proponents (e.g., see note 1). however, archaeologists should be accountable for their work and/or the perpetuation of harms their work may be causing, particularly consultants in higher management roles (johnson 2023). as such, the concept of cultural keystone places may be one way to draw practitioners into a deeper consideration and understanding of gitxsan laws, histories, and heritage, with huwilp as fundamental stewards, interpreters, and drivers of heritage stewardship and decision-making. for example, some cultural keystone places have been identified and promoted based on their archaeological and heritage infrastructures, which provide a meaningful connection between physical archaeological objects and places, and their social, spiritual, economic, and educational values defined by the descendants of those objects and places (lepofsky et al. 2017; nicholas 2010). this is especially relevant for outsiders (i.e., consulting archaeologists new to an area) who are generally unable to comprehend the dynamic histories and intangible heritage that are specific to someone else’s homelands (greer and strand 2012; see also angelbeck and jones 2019). for example, rick et al. (2022) consider kumqaq’ (point conception) as a cultural keystone place for chumash because of the profound role it plays in spiritual, cosmological, and oral traditions. this framework helped archaeologists go beyond material artifacts (e.g., typologies) to: (1) better recognize the intangible cultural values tied to kumqaq’, (2) more dimdiigibuu and armstrong. 2025. ethnobiology letters 16(2):20–32 26 research communications special issue: historical ecology & cultural keystone places meaningfully integrate heritage data with ecological data, and (3) build a coherent framework that prioritized cultural insights. wilp records of lax xsin djihl are not only crucial for interpreting archaeological heritage, but they are also critical for locating it. prgt pipeline archaeologists noted that the pipeline crossing at utsun creek was “low potential” for cultural heritage. unbeknownst to them, the gitxsan name for this creek is xsin djihl, the namesake of the lax’yip, which indicates, at the very least, its significance and, despite the flawed models, its high potential for archaeological heritage. in 2023, we ran a field course along the southern bench of this skeena tributary and documented a large hard-packed trail, culturally modified trees (cmts), and clusters of cultural depressions. prgt archaeologists had previously spent one day surveying the area and missed the overwhelming majority of cmts. it is unclear why, but one explanation could be that they did not look attentively enough because they were not aware of the importance of xsin djihl (indeed, there is a village site ~100 m downriver). more importantly, proper surveys likely weren’t conducted because archaeologists did not notify or consult the wilp before (or during) their assessment process. similarly, in 2024, we ran another field course survey in the territory, up xsan sisook, and again, we located hundreds of cmts and a trail that were either ignored or overlooked by prgt archaeologists. the consultant’s mismanagement of guutginuuxs heritage was apparent across the lax’yip. culturally modified trees were so ubiquitous in the territory that they constitute what are typically classified as “cultural figure 2 above row: 100 m downslope of the prgt pipeline right-of-way in lax xsin djihl, a cultural forest (over 80+ cmts) including a a trail and b cultural depressions, and c, d culturally modified trees recorded by the authors and where consultant archaeologists ascribed “low potential” for archaeological heritage. bottom row: another cultural forest with e toppled cmts, and f standing cmts with no apparent buffers. g, h poor drainage and scraped soils resulting from prgt construction add to the mismanagement of lax xsin djihl, the cultural keystone place for guutginuuxs. dimdiigibuu and armstrong. 2025. ethnobiology letters 16(2):20–32 27 research communications special issue: historical ecology & cultural keystone places forests” (earnshaw 2019). however, these were logged without the prior knowledge or consent of the wilp. some cmts were left standing without any apparent management prescriptions (i.e., buffers) and logging debris and erosion from road construction were evident in the nearby creeks (which themselves were lined with cmts, a hard-packed trail, and 3 cultural depressions) (figure 2). this trove of physical archaeological heritage was present in places deemed “low potential” by the consultant archaeologists and would otherwise be protected under the heritage conservation act. final thoughts in the context of american cultural resource management, king (2003) previously coined the term “traditional cultural property” or tcp as part of section 106 legislation, with the very similar purpose of helping archaeologists grapple with places deeply rooted in a community’s history, cultural practices, beliefs, and the continuity of identities. the term, although not well integrated into archaeological practice, was intended to engage mainstream practitioners with a suite of values and a deeper understanding of heritage that, until then, had been consistently overlooked (e.g., sacred sites). in that sense, the concept of a cultural keystone place is not new, and so, perhaps our characterization of the lax’yip as a wilp keystone place is a fool’s errand. from a gitxsan perspective, it’s worth asking: do industry archaeologists and environmental managers continue to mismanage gitxsan territories because they cannot comprehend these places? or are there other drivers at play (e.g., financial interests, conflicts of interest)? in that case, why are the regulators not honest with us? under gitxsan law, as well as canadian law, it is challenging to understand how industry archaeologists continue to conduct substandard surveys (or lack thereof) of important gitxsan heritage features and landscapes. how can regulators, professionals, and proponents be held accountable to gitxsan people? one of the reasons researchers began articulating the role and function of cultural keystone places was their significance in biocultural conservation, restoration, and renewal (cuerrier et al. 2015). however, evidence suggests that the ultimate goal of archaeological management in advance of oil and gas development in bc is not to support conservation, renewal, and management of indigenous heritage, but to expedite a proponent’s permit requirements to make way for development. while it is true that most consultant archaeologists are likely not aware that, under gitxsan adawx (laws, histories), there is not a single square inch of lax xsin djihl that guutginuuxs is not responsible for, the question remains: if they did know, would they care? would it change behaviours around the misuse of potential models or the basic standards of free, prior, and informed consent when it comes to mitigating/destroying heritage? many huwilp have been working tirelessly, sometimes in addition to their full-time jobs, to “be on the lax’yip”. wilp gwinninitxw has worked indefatigably for decades protecting fish and wildlife in their territories (armstrong et al. 2024), wilp ‘wii k’aax has invested in building cabins on their remote (fly-in only) territories for wilp members to engage in land-based learning and education (antlihlxlaxyip.org), and wilp luutkudziiwus/xsimjiitsiin have spent over 15 years defending their territories from nonconsensual resource extraction, while providing culture camps and land-based learning opportunities for gitxsan youth and wilp members (madiilii.com). in all these cases, archaeological heritage features prominently. but the cultural and ecological significance of the lax’yip appears to be a moot point to regulators and oil and gas proponents. and so, as we continue to contemplate the idea of cultural keystone places, we must be mindful that the governance structures that form the basis of stewardship for those places need to be foregrounded (goolmeer et al. 2024). while the lax’yip is undoubtedly a place of intense cultural and ecological importance, critical to people’s lifeways and identities, it is gitxsan laws and governance structures that ensure these places remain cared for. sovereignty is prior—supporting title will ensure the protection of biocultural landscapes, providing resilient futures for wilp members in the face of coercive (and increasing) natural gas development and worsening impacts from ongoing climate change. notes 1recently, the province of british columbia announced that all heritage permitting associated with oil and gas development will no longer be the purview of the archaeology branch (formerly the sole regulator of archaeological heritage management in bc), and instead is now overseen the bc energy regulator (previously ogc) with a dubious record of dimdiigibuu and armstrong. 2025. ethnobiology letters 16(2):20–32 28 research communications special issue: historical ecology & cultural keystone places prioritizing industry over first nations heritage (armstrong et al. 2023b; sutherland-wilson et al. 2019). acknowledgments we would like to thank all the land defenders currently working to protect their lax’yip. thank you to steve wolverton for the thoughtful edits on the manuscript. declarations permissions: none declared. sources of funding: this work was funded in part by sshrc (armstrong 435-2023-0295). conflicts of interest: none declared. references cited anderson, e. n. 1996. ecologies of the heart: emotion, belief, and the environment. oxford university press, oxford. angelbeck, b., and j. jones. 2019. direct actions and archaeology: the lil’wat peoples movement to protect archaeological sites. journal of contemporary archaeology 5:219–229. armstrong, c. g. 2022. silm da’axk: historical ecology and ethnobotany in gitselasu lahkhyuup. mitchell press, vancouver, canada. armstrong, c. g., n. lyons, a. mcalvay, m. ritchie, d. lepofsky, and m. blake. 2023a. historical ecology of forest garden management in ts’msyen lahkhyuup and beyond. 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wolverton, s., r. m. figueroa, and c. g. armstrong. 2023. integrating historical ecology and dimdiigibuu and armstrong. 2025. ethnobiology letters 16(2):20–32 32 research communications special issue: historical ecology & cultural keystone places environmental justice. journal of ethnobiology 43:57– 68. doi:10.1177/02780771231162196. wyndham, f. s. 2017. the trouble with tek. ethnobiology letters 8:78–80. doi:10.14237/ ebl.8.1.2017.1006. local bird knowledge and practices among traditional accipiter hawkers of the black sea coast of transcaucasia sözüer et al. 2025. ethnobiology letters 16(1):70–81 70 research communications sparrowhawk is caught by using the female redbacked shrike (lanius collurio) in september, and the red-backed shrike is caught by using the mole cricket (gryllotalpa vulgaris) in august. the mole cricket is caught in july by pouring soapy water inside their holes. experiences over generations determine what to use as a decoy and these experiences are consistent with ecological principles. there are studies on the deleterious impacts of such traditional bird-related cultural activities (mian 1986; wyatt 2014), but their positive effects have not yet been adequately analyzed. technical details of traditional trapping as an ethnoecological phenomenon are very well documented (magnin 1988). the aim of this study is to define the knowledge and introduction the aim of this study is to show the ethnoornithological content of traditional accipiter hawking in the black sea/transcaucasia region of turkey (figure 1). it is typical for hunters in the large steppes of central asia to hunt with the golden eagle (aquila chrysaetos) and for the desert people of the arabian peninsula to hunt with falco species. in the transcaucasia and black sea coasts, falconry is often done with accipiter species. in the region of our study, hawking is pursued with the eurasian sparrowhawk (accipiter nisus), which is very suitable for hunting fleshy, small-sized prey such as the common quail (coturnix coturnix) (figure 2). the common quail is caught by the female eurasian sparrowhawk. the local bird knowledge and practices among traditional accipiter hawkers of the black sea coast of transcaucasia özgün sözüer1, 2*, lale aktay-sözüer2, 3, refik lakerta4, sercan bilgin2, 5, oğuz kurdoğlu6 1department of rural development and agricultural services, adana metropolitan municipality, adana, turkey. 2raptor research and conservation working group of turkey. 3department of biology, institute of science, akdeniz university, antalya, turkey. 4arhavi hunters and traditional accipiter hawkers association, artvin, turkey. 5department of forestry engineering, institute of graduate studies, istanbul university-cerrahpaşa, istanbul, turkey. 6faculty of forestry, karadeniz technical university, trabzon, turkey. *ozgun.sozuer@gmail.com abstract the traditional accipiter hawkers in the arhavi district of artvin province of turkey and the makhindjauri (მახინჯაური) village of georgia were investigated to understand local knowledge and potential conservation of birds in these communities. through free-listing, identification, pile sorting, and conducting unstructured interviews, our results revealed detailed, consistent, and specific knowledge of birds among the hawkers of both survey sites. all participants were male, as both hunting and hawking are gendered ancestral activities. songbirds and diurnal raptors were the most common groups identified. the classification of birds was primarily functional, citing behavior and usage, especially edibility. the names of songbirds are more likely to be of non–turkic origin, probably because of onomatopoeia, but most raptors have very functional turkish names. we have concluded that this detailed, and consistent knowledge within the region could form a good foundation for effective and participatory conservation strategies in communication with the local hawkers. received november 28, 2023 open access accepted may 25, 2025 doi 10.14237/ebl.16.1.2025.1870 published august 22, 2025 keywords traditional accipiter hawking, arhavi, traditional bird knowledge, ethno-ornithology, conservation, transcaucasia copyright © 2025 by the author(s); licensee society of ethnobiology. this is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution-noncommercial 4.0 international public license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0), which permits non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. sözüer et al. 2025. ethnobiology letters 16(1):70–81 71 research communications perception of bird fauna by the local people of the transcaucasia/black sea region particularly amongst traditional accipiter hawkers. we believe this information can inform future conservation efforts. study locations arhavi, a district of artvin province of turkey, located 27.5 km south of the georgian border is interesting in terms of the functional relationship of the people of the region with its birds (figure 1). the most typical type of relationship is traditional accipiter hawking. in arhavi, all hawkers come from agrarian communities. tea and hazelnuts are commonly grown in gardens for non-commercial consumption, and plantations are also typical common quail hunting fields. makhindjauri (მახინჯაური) is 48.7 km north of arhavi in georgia, and 21.5 km from the turkish border (figure 1). it is a very important location both for bird migration and traditional accipiter hawking (van maanen et al. 2001). old tea plantations are commonly used for hawking and hunting here, particularly for quail. according to our nonstructured interviews, both in georgia and turkey, hawkers go to the trapping fields on a clear day after a rain because of an abundance of prey in these conditions (van maanen et al. 2001). in both towns, urbanization is increasing due to economic development and will likely have an impact on these traditions. in arhavi, the national culture is turkish, and the primary religion is islam. in makhindjauri (მახინჯაური), the national culture is georgian, and the primary religion is christianity. the local culture and ethnic group of both towns, however, is laz. laz is an unwritten, kartvelian (south caucasian) language (lacroix 2009) that is increasingly endangered (harrison 2023, ünlü and hewitt 2023). laz people live primarily in the southeastern shores of the black sea today (minorsky 2010) but are more common in turkey (kikvidze and pachulia 2020). as a primarily oral language, intense interaction with the turkish language has contributed to its diversity and dynamism (harrison 2023). a lazuri proverb "happiness is achieved by having a good horse, dog and hawk" illustrates their passion for hunting with birds (bıjışkyan 1969). hawking is a very strong tradition in both towns and observations from both locations contribute to an figure 1 arhavi and makhindjauri (მახინჯაური) are located on both sides of the border in the black sea/transcausia region of eastern europe/west asia. sözüer et al. 2025. ethnobiology letters 16(1):70–81 72 research communications understanding of this practice from a regional perspective. transcaucasia represents the region between the breeding and wintering grounds of migratory birds; their migration stream continues along the choroki river valley and the black sea coast in northeastern turkey (van maanen et al. 2001). birds that cannot enter the black sea mountains of turkey via the choroki river follow the coast. there are important valleys extending into the interior. the valley in arhavi is the second valley after the hopa district used by migratory raptors (magnin 1988; magnin and kurdoglu 2016). makhindjauri is also one of the migration points of quail and provides secure resting places after crossing the black sea. methods participants arhavi and makhindjauri (მახინჯაური) are important sites in the western palearctic zoogeographical region not only for sparrowhawk migration but also for other raptor species. all the interviews on both sites were conducted during the autumn migration season, which is also the sparrowhawk season, and it is when all activities related to accipiter hawking take place. there was a total of three visits for this study. the first was to makhindjauri (მახინჯაური) and then two in arhavi. while everyone in both towns has some knowledge about birds and hawks, hunting and hawking are traditional and gender specific activities (bonta 2003). as such, all the participants were adult males. the general occupations of traditional hawkers are related to natural resources, such as hunting, non-commercial angling, and trapping songbirds as pets to be kept in cages for their singing. although we used different methods in the two areas, they complemented each other because of the close distance and similarities of the culture and environment. in makhindjauri (მახინჯაური), all participants were hunters and traditional accipiter hawkers, and about 50 of them were interviewed and observed during the single visit. here, we conducted nonstructured interviews with hawkers and the hawkers were observed during raptor counts. bird watchers and ornithologists from all over the world conduct raptor counts regularly every year, especially during the fall migration. figure 2 hunting chain: 1. common quail (coturnix coturnix) 2. eurasian sparrowhawk (accipiter nisus) 3. red-backed shrike (lanius collurio) 4. mole cricket (gryllotalpa vulgaris). sözüer et al. 2025. ethnobiology letters 16(1):70–81 73 research communications in arhavi, the participants were hawkers and other relevant people such as their families. seven groups of 20 people were interviewed during two visits here. these groups of people were from one flower shop, three barber shops, and three coffee shops, whose owners and customers are hawkers. several of these shops had red-backed shrikes that were used in hawking on the front perches. it is an honor for shop owners to display both hawks and shrikes in front of the shop until they release them. this practice helped us to identify some of the accipiter hawkers to interview. free-listing, identification exercises, and pile sorts during the second visit to ahravi, identification exercises and pile sorts were carried out based on the results of free-listing exercises under the guidance of an experienced local hawker (table 1). a bird guide in english with pictures was used to avoid manipulating the informants with the official turkish names of the birds and people were more willing to talk by using visual material (bignante 2010). while conducting the identification exercises, we asked respondents “what kind of bird is this?” to understand the local classification. then, we coded and applied the results as pile sorts of data to enter and to analyze on a multidimensional scale (table 1, figure 3). the software program anthropac 4.95 (borgatti 1995) was used to analyze free-listing and to calculate saliency and pile sort data (figure 3). the naming strategy for the bird species follows worldbirdnames.org (gill et al. 2024). most of the names in arhavi are laz, but some of them are quite pure turkish referencing the bird’s behavior and usage, especially diurnal birds of prey. for example, atmaca, means ‘throwing’ and is related to their hawking style. some of the local bird names also include local dialects of other languages, however. for this reason, we classified all names as turkic or nonturkic (table 1, figure 4). results saliency in the free-listing exercises, 105 names from 14 orders and 58 bird species were elicited (table 1). freelists can give us saliency of items, which reflects the relative importance of birds (newing et al. 2011). the most prominent bird species associated with hawking were passeriformes and accipitriformes, respectively (table 1, figures 4 and 5). although we anticipated strong recognition of birds of prey, the level of traditional knowledge (total salience and total species) was higher in passeriformes than in raptors. the reasons for this could be the high number of species and broad number of traditional groups of birds included in the survey. songbirds are included in almost all traditional groups by participants, even raptors (such as shrikes) (table 1). free-listing also elicited intra-species details, such as mamul for males, and the inclusion of non-avian figure 3 non-metric multidimensional scaling with data from pile sorts of birds. sözüer et al. 2025. ethnobiology letters 16(1):70–81 74 research communications species such as vapa, the mole cricket, and bats. mamul in laz is used for the two primary hunting species: the red-backed shrike and the eurasian sparrowhawk. the mole cricket was mentioned for its association with hawking, employed as a decoy, and bats were mentioned as “nocturnal birds” (figure 2). identification and naming there is a rich diversity of bird names in ahravi, where we recorded 85 local bird names (table 1, figure 4). thirty-four of the names listed are turkish, such as atmaca and karakush. seventy-one of the names are non-turkic. according to the participants in arhavi, non-turkic local names are lazian. however, at least some of these non-turkic names likely belong to the other minority languages and dialects due to the diverse and complex distribution of languages in the region. there is also clear influence of greek names as well as names deriving from the sounds of the birds themselves. particularly interesting is the fact that there are more non-turkic names for songbirds while birds of prey have very pure turkish local names (figure 4). the use of onomatopoeia may be the reason why songbirds have more non-turkic names (berlin and o'neill 1981). for example, parus major (great tit) has the name mshkii, a mimic of the species’ song. it sounds like “teacher” rhythmically. these older, nonturkic names have not been converted into turkish due to the reflection of the birds' voices, especially inedible songbirds (5, 7) (table 1). the wide knowledge of songbirds seems much like the diverse plant knowledge of beekeepers (cheng et al. 2020). some of the names of passerine birds in turkey are pure greek, such as, european greenfinch (chloris chloris), which are mostly kept as cage birds for their song (table 1). the common turkish name of this species is florya and modern greek name is φλώρος (flóros) (the hellenic ornithological society). in arhavi they use a non-turkic local name, civane, again reflective of its song. the turkish bird name seyfi, a small raptor (özdemir 2012), is likely to be associated with the lazian name sifteri of the eurasian sparrowhawk (a. nisus), which is known in the region but not used in arhavi, a lazian town (bijişkyan 1969). here, the term from a proverb, atmaca, is used for the eurasian sparrowhawk and the birds are still in use. the lazian name mamuliki is also used but only for the male hawks, and they are not used for hawking. even pure turkish names have very complicated interactions. traditionally, “doghan” describes medium -large sized soaring birds of prey. during identification exercises, buteo hawks are identified as “doghan” with 100% agreement (table 1). doghan means “rising” in turkish. traditionally, the largest raptors are called by the turkish name, kartal. these include vultures, the golden eagle (aquila chrysaetos) and whitetailed eagle (haliaeetus albicilla), but formally they designate only eagles. this traditional definition is consistent with the ancient greek name for large birds of prey, aëtos or aietos (arnott 2007). also, in modern greek, eagle is αετός (aetós), golden eagle (aquila chrysaetos) is χρυσαετός (chrys aetós), and white-tailed eagle (haliaeetus albicilla) is θαλασσαετός (thalassaetós) (the hellenic ornithological society). in ancient greece and many ancient cultures of anatolia, the eagle was the symbol of light, the sun, as well as the solar god, zeus, kingship, and sovereignty, an opposite of the snake (arnott 2007; hull and fergus 2009; johansson 2012; wittkower 1939) and is likely related with doghan in turkish. many of the common georgian names and local names in arhavi are not the same but levant sparrowhawks (accipiter brevipes) are called karagöz in arhavi, meaning black eye, and it has the same meaning in georgian (van maanen et al. 2001), so the approaches are similar. apart from the white-throated dipper (cinclus cinclus) and kingfisher (alcedinidae sp.), none of the wetland birds such as ducks and herons were mentioned in the free-listing results. this is a result of the interaction between the local people and the environment they inhabit, which is primarily woody and mountainous, despite its proximity to the coast. secretive, silent, and alpine birds remain largely passerine nonpasserine turkic 10 7 nonturkic 46 22 figure 4 the number of mentioned local bird names: passerine, non-passerine, turkic, non–turkic. sözüer et al. 2025. ethnobiology letters 16(1):70–81 75 research communications table 1 bird species identified in study. local names and origin (turkic/nonturkic). salience by species and local name. the birds that do not have salience on the table were only mentioned during identification exercises. groups identified in sorting: 1 falconry, 2 raptor, 3 game, 4 edible, 5 inedible, 6 to heal/medicinal, 7 song, 8 nocturnal, 9 trap, 10 scavenger, 11 diver. continued on next page sp. name sp. salience local name turkic/non-turkic salience included group fringilla coelebs 0.742 kinchkaki nt 0.402 5, 7 ispinoz nt 0.244 ispinozlar t 0.095 carduelis chloris 0.532 purmoli nt 0.154 5, 7, 9 florya nt 0.317 civane nt 0.147 accipiter nisus 0.496 atmaca t 0.413 2, 5 mamuliki nt 0.202 tüylek t 0.103 1, 2, 5, 9 lanius collurio 0.483 gacho nt 0.483 2,5 mamulgacho nt 0.139 sia nt 0.135 1, 2, 5, 9 falco tinnuculus 0.445 kerkenez t 0.235 2, 5 anke nt 0.21 pipiliki nt 0.049 passer domesticus 0.441 serche t 0.226 5, 7 bughdaykushu t 0.112 sokak serchesi t 0.103 turdus merula 0.413 zesku nt 0.268 3, 4, 7, 9 karatavuk t 0.253 karakush t 0.02 carduelis carduelis 0.407 saka t 0.285 5, 7, 9 cennetkushu t 0.122 kikilimchita nt 0.058 buteo sp. 0.39 doghan t 2,5 parus major 0.389 mshkii nt 0.278 5, 7 bashtankara t 0.111 accipiter brevipes 0.368 karagoz t 0.344 2,5 merlin nt 0.024 fringilla montfringilla 0.358 golakinchkakhi nt 0.266 5, 7 gola kushu nt 0.092 merops apiaster 0.354 mapatule nt 3, 5 upopa epops 0.343 golamamuli nt 0.227 5, 6 ibibik kushu t 0.066 golamamuliurculi nt 0.049 oenanthe sp. 0.321 ovakushu t 0.135 5, 7 famsil nt 0.131 kvamcil nt 0.054 spinus spinus 0.317 cighili nt 0.238 5, 7, 9 iskete t 0.048 cillizi nt 0.032 sözüer et al. 2025. ethnobiology letters 16(1):70–81 76 research communications sp. name sp. salience local name turkic/non-turkic salience included group coturnix coturnix 0.314 otruge nt 0.301 1, 3, 4, 6, 9 ghargha (male) nt 0.063 bildircin t 0.02 troglodytes troglodytes 0.273 churcha nt 0.266 5, 7 churchasica nt 0.088 makrumpe nt 0.008 oriolus oriolus 0.258 malaghue nt 0.253 3, 4 asmali t 0.046 glandarius glandarius 0.232 chiki nt 0.156 5, 6 chihi nt 0.076 scolopax rusticola 0.205 kaskhotume nt 3, 4 a larger size falcon 0.204 shahin t 2, 5 columba livia 0.198 toroci nt 0.142 3, 4 yabani guvercin t 0.056 pyrrhula pyrrhula 0.193 fifi nt 0.098 5, 7, 9 shakrak t 0.051 fiyo nt 0.028 erikchi t 0.016 accipiter gentilis 0.178 atmaca shahini t 2, 5 luscinia megarhynchos 0.178 maincia nt 0.178 5, 7 maune nt 0.116 circus sp. 0.146 kudelikche nt 0.115 2, 5 mundikvali nt 0.031 turdus philomelos 0.144 suida nt 0.251 5, 7 macacga nt 0.054 erithacus rubecula 0.143 sana nt 5, 7 cuculus canorus 0.141 kuku nt 5, 6 loxia sp. 0.139 makasgaga t 0.082 5, 7 kikilgolaktei nt 0.057 cinclus cinclus 0.136 tkamzesku nt 5, 11 regulus regulus 0.134 chalikushu t 5, 7 cercotrichas galactotes 0.125 chalibulbulu t 5, 7 anthus sp. 0.107 liashatu nt 0.099 5, 7 tipisknci nt 0.085 otkusu t 0.008 motacilla alba 0.105 tintan nt 0.105 5, 7 emberiza sp. 0.097 yabani kanarya t 5, 7 crex crex 0.093 gharga nt 5 gallus gallus 0.087 khotume nt 4 turdus pilaris 0.085 cokali nt 3, 4, 7, 9 falco peregrinus 0.083 anke shahini t 2, 5 turdus viscivorus 0.08 chimchikide nt 0.08 3, 4, 7, 9 chimchikine nt 0.027 corvus sp. 0.071 kvai nt 0.,071 5, 10 continued from previous page continued on next page sözüer et al. 2025. ethnobiology letters 16(1):70–81 77 research communications unknown. the lack of interaction is reflected in the paucity of local names. this is mostly true for some alpine species such as the caspian snowcock (tetreagallus caspius). even elegant species such as the common rosefinch (carpodacus erythrinus) are not well known and do not have local names (ploeg and weerd 2010). classification and uses analysis of pile sorts that were clustered according to participants’ answers were grouped as falconry, raptor, game, edible, inedible, to heal/medicinal, song, nocturnal, trap, scavenger, and diver (table 1, figure 3). the local classification is always according to use. for example, the results of the pile sorts confirm that all clusters of shrikes, raptors (gacho and shachuli), and eurasian golden oriole (oriolus oriolus), were never classified as songbirds, but instead were classified as game. functional similarities perceived among the species of pile sorts occur. there was strong consistency among the participating groups in arhavi, probably due to strong communication between the public and hawkers in the small towns. there was almost 100% agreement in the identification exercises and pile sorts across almost all species. an exception was for the identification of the turdus species likely due to similarity in appearance and use. each turdus species has its own special local name, and all species are eaten (table 1). massive, fat songbirds such as turdus species and starlings are more likely to be considered edible with the targeted hunted species being common quail (figure 3). cultural diversity results in different approaches to birds (muiruri and maundu 2012). at the two sites, the main difference between birds of prey is their edibility. in georgia, the most typical edible raptors are european honey buzzards (pernis apivorus), which are made into soup, harriers (circus sp.), which are roasted, and eagles (aquila sp.), which are grilled. in georgia, smaller birds are also killed to feed sparrowhawks and shrikes. in the black sea region of turkey, birds of prey are not hunted or eaten, mostly due to muslim religious influence; however, they may have been chosen as a source of meat for species such as decoy shrikes and sparrowhawks (magnin and kurdoglu 2016). inedible birds are not only carnivorous ones, all birds of prey are believed to be scavengers, but as mentioned above, carnivorous sp. name sp. salience local name turkic/non-turkic salience included group lyrurus mlokosiewiczi 0.07 khotume nt 0.04 3, 4 yaban_tavughu t 0.03 gryllotalpa gryllotalpa 0.068 vapa nt 1, 5, 9 columba palumbus 0.053 alakanat guvercin t 3, 4 woodpecker sp. 0.034 mkudi nt 5 swallow sp. 0.031 chkirdane nt 5, 7 bat sp. 0.027 burbu nt 5, 8 coccothraustes coccothraustes 0.022 ahkushpulmol nt 0.015 5, 7 chakushpulmol nt 0.01 chuspulmol nt 0.007 kocabash t 0.005 owl sp. 0.021 ghum nt 5, 8 kıngfisher sp. 0.02 tamzesku nt 11 motacilla flava 0.016 cintani nt 5, 7 larus sp. 0.014 zuvaginci nt 5 lanius minor 0.01 shachuli nt 2, 5 phoenicurus sp. 0.009 kutelimchita nt 0.04 2, 5 krana nt 0.009 coracias garrulus 0.004 golamchiki nt 6 falco subbuteo pipilik shahini t 2, 5 continued from previous page sözüer et al. 2025. ethnobiology letters 16(1):70–81 78 research communications turdus species are labelled as edible (table 1). in our interviews, only one participant from one of the groups stated that the bullfinch was edible, probably due to its size. it seems that diversity of edible birds was wider in the past in both site areas; diversity is currently wider in georgia, which may represent persistence of earlier traditions. today, very small songbirds and birds thought to be scavengers are not considered edible in arhavi. corn crake (crex crex) is called gharga and they do not hunt it, and male common quail is also called by the same local name. sometimes woodcocks are hunted by hawkers, which is why they have a specific name as prey. mapatule (european bee-eater, merops apiaster) is shot for two reasons: to protect beehives and to provide food for tended female hawks. in the past, cardueline finches and house sparrows (passer domesticus) were used as a decoy instead of redbacked shrikes during spring migration in arhavi (magnin 1988). the observations made in makhindjauri (მახინჯაური) showed that house sparrows were still used as a decoy there. atypical individuals of shrikes and sparrowhawks, such as white ones, attract interest in both regions (van maanen et al. 2001). interesting-looking species with a crest or tuft, such as eurasian jay (garrulus glandarius) and eurasian hoopoe (upupa epops), are believed to have medicinal properties and their local names include gola, which means “hill” in laz. although they are hunted, these birds are not classified as game or edible, instead they are classified as inedible due to their ability to heal (table 1). discussion in arhavi, people mostly learn hawking from other members of the family beginning in childhood. this activity is associated with spare time rather than the degree of wealth. hawkers are mostly local tradesmen and their customers. every hawker has other hawkers in their family. with the migration from rural to urban areas due to unemployment, traditional accipiter hawking has decreased in arhavi. it persists on a limited basis in western cities, especially istanbul. according to our non-structured interviews, over time the economic cost of traditional accipiter hawking, including equipment, has increased tremendously. as a result, there is a decrease in this traditional practice. the increasing environmental awareness of hawkers through the media also has an figure 5 number and salience of bird names as they relate to 14 orders and 58 species of birds in the study area. sözüer et al. 2025. ethnobiology letters 16(1):70–81 79 research communications impact. salted common quail meat is consumed in georgia (van maanen et al. 2001), but it is gradually decreasing as food source in arhavi because of the decrease in hawking. for the sustainability of local foods, this traditional dish could be prepared using common quails raised in captivity, but quail breeding is not common. in recent years, hawkers have not gone to the field to hunt common quails. they just keep the hawk as a pet for one year or just catch and release them. the scarcity of common quail and other prey has also affected the practice of hawking. there is still an abundance of sparrowhawks, but they are becoming more monotypical without many varieties in their colors compared to the past, according to our respondents. secretive, silent, and alpine birds remain largely unknown. the lack of interaction is reflected in the lack of local names. this is mostly true for some alpine species such as the caspian snowcock. even elegant species such as the common rosefinch are not well known among locals and do not have local names (ploeg and weerd 2010), although these species are very abundant and very well known among the birdwatchers and ornithologists in the region. overall, understanding bird knowledge and naming by hawkers can also contribute to understanding the origin of bird names in turkey (table 1). in the region, new bird migration hotspots can be discovered by checking the hiding points for catching the eurasian sparrowhawk. especially around batumi, migratory raptor counting points are always used by traditional accipiter hawkers and these points have been known for many years. among traditional accipiter hawkers, eurasian sparrowhawks are classified not only by their color but also by their behavior, including preying style. as mentioned by participants tüylek, means adult-plumaged, female sparrowhawk. tüylek birds also have different types as kızıl tüylek and sarı tüylek and they claim these birds have different preying styles. this traditional hawking knowledge contains a very important migration data that should be investigated further by ornithologists. conclusion there is a close relationship between the conservation value of bird species and cultural values (alcántarasalinas et al. 2022). ethno-ornithological studies can improve the effectiveness of conservation and advance scientific knowledge (berkes 1999). conservation actions should not be isolated from the local people (muiruri and maundu 2012). the general occupations of traditional hawkers are related to local use of natural resources, such as hunting, noncommercial angling, and trapping songbirds for pets kept in cages for their singing. there is no trade of sparrowhawks amongst traditional hawkers, but decoys and equipment are exchanged. this is possibly an advantage for conservation efforts (alves et al. 2013). there is, however, an illegal trade in hawk species to middle eastern countries, and more research is needed into how this affects falcon populations and other wildlife. determining the impact of hawking is not easy due to the complexity of other anthropogenic factors such as habitat loss (pangau-adam and noske 2010). this study of hawkers helps us to better understand cultural values and recognizes the potential of better environmental awareness in the local communities, including relatively detailed, precise, and consistent bird knowledge. the consistency of information concerning birds can provide an important basis for communication with modern stakeholders such as researchers and ngos. this study reveals the potential roles that hawkers could play in conservation studies and management. detailed bird knowledge forms the basis for awareness. hawkers randomly catch an average of 4–5 ringed hawks a year and release them because they are afraid of reporting the ringed ones and fear being captured as poachers. the raptors released by traditional accipiter hawkers need to be surveyed by ornithologists and ringed by bird ringers, as an invaluable source of data. they also can catch hawks fitted with a transmitter. attempts are being made to persuade them to obtain such data in order to have better ornithological records. bird trapping techniques should be observed by scientists using nets and decoys. birdwatching is not suitable for them because they find it somewhat passive due to the distance between the observer and the bird, the lack of tactile contact, or use of any tools. but volunteering for activities such as bird banding, photography, and bird rehabilitation allows them to be closer to the birds. additionally, the use of tools for these activities makes them more attractive to trappers and hunters, as well as allowing hawkers to help protect the birds because they are more sensitive than regular hunters. their actions are not focused on killing the birds; they are very emotionally connected to their hawks, shrikes, and even mole crickets. nevertheless, sözüer et al. 2025. ethnobiology letters 16(1):70–81 80 research communications birdwatching, and environmental education should still be encouraged, especially among the trappers’ children. children’s interest in accipiter hawking has decreased as they integrate into urban life and through the influence of education and unemployment. we suggest that the traditional accipiter hawking, which was a survival adaptation in the past and has turned into a passionate hobby today, can evolve into a factor that triggers interest in nature conservation and arhavi could become a natural raptor research center of turkey. acknowledgments we would like to thank the hawkers and the friendly people of arhavi who participated in this research. we would like to thank the batumi raptor count project team for their hospitality in makhindjauri and barış lakerta for his guidance around arhavi. we also would like to thank prof. dr. çağan h. şekercioğlu from the university of utah, also the president of the kuzeydoğa society who inspired us to focus on ethnoornithology. we are grateful to raptor biologist dr. laurie goodrich, conservation science director of hawk mountain sanctuary, and ethnologist, uğur yavaş, for their valuable contributions, and to terrance m. p. duggan for editing the english text. ethnobiology letters editor maria bruno and several reviewers provided very thorough and helpful feedback to support this paper. declarations permissions: none declared. sources of funding: none declared. conflicts of interest: none declared. references cited alcántara-salinas, g., hunn, e. s., ibáñez-bravo, m. e., aldasoro-maya, e. 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ethnobiology letters 14(2):72–82 72 research communications special issue on diverse conservations injustices its implementation created (adams and hutton 2007). restrictive pas often do not encompass social and cultural heterogeneities, creating negative impacts on otherwise sustainable livelihoods. the consolidation of this critique led to the mainstreaming of more inclusive models of conservation, such as participatory conservation and community-based conservation, that became the global paradigm in the late 1990’s. thereafter, the debate on biodiversity conservation took a polarized form, stressing the role of local populations in conservation: one ‘side’ advocates for the restriction of access and circulation, and the other recommends community involvement as a solution to conflict (holmes 2009). introduction over the past 30 years, a consensus has emerged about the need to protect what is left of the planet’s biodiversity. this globally shared social acceptance opens a multifaceted debate on the best ways to achieve this goal. taking a foucauldian perspective, we understand the emergence of ‘biodiversity conservation’ as the social construction of an object of knowledge and, therefore, a space of power relations (foucault 1977). throughout this historical process, different models of practices and discourses have become preponderant. the first global model for conservation, based on the implementation of restrictive and large protected areas, came to be known as ‘fortress-conservation’ (vaccaro et al. 2013). this model was severely criticized due to the conservation at stake: institutionalized environmentalisms and indigenous knowledges about how to protect the brazilian atlantic forest laila thomaz sandroni1* 1wildlife ecology, management and conservation lab (lemac), escola superior de agricultura “luiz de queiroz”, university of são paulo, piracicaba, brasil. *lailasandroni@hotmail.com abstract this paper aims to compare two different sets of solutions on best pathways for biodiversity conservation present in a specific territory in the brazilian atlantic forest, in southern bahia. we look specifically at three interconnected administrative instances: the tupinambá de olivença indigenous land; the una biological reserve; and the una wildlife refuge. we show that different perspectives regarding what it means to preserve nature come into focus in this territory. these are intertwined with power relations that highlight the inequality in the legitimacy of different groups in decision making for environmental governance. we map the causes and solutions for biodiversity degradation proposed by two contrasting narratives: the indigenous perspective and the institutionalized western science-based environmentalism developed by state agencies and non-governmental organizations that work with conservation projects in the region. we expect to equalize these contrasting perspectives that are commonly seen in hierarchical terms. we conclude by advocating for managing combinations of diverse sets of knowledge and for pluralism in conservation efforts that accounts for underlying power relations. received july 4, 2022 open access accepted march 3, 2023 doi 10.14237/ebl.14.2.2023.1832 published may 31, 2023 keywords biodiversity conservation, discursive disputes, environmental narratives, indigenous peoples, atlantic forest, power relations copyright © 2023 by the author(s); licensee society of ethnobiology. this is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution-noncommercial 4.0 international public license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0), which permits non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. sandroni. 2023. ethnobiology letters 14(2):72–82 73 research communications special issue on diverse conservations in our perspective, this polarization does not account for the complexity of conservation disputes, in a context where social inclusion is becoming increasingly mainstream. we argue that the construction of viable solutions for conservation could benefit from material attempts at dialogue among diverse groups of people working towards a more sustainable future. nonetheless, many conservation policies continue to generate situations experienced by local populations as injustices. we understand environmental justice as key for the longterm involvement of those who have been sharing those environments for centuries. thus, we seek to contribute to a convivial approach to biodiversity conservation (büscher and fletcher 2020), that sees the dialogue among different perspectives and radical equity as fundamental tenets for discourse and action to protect ecosystems. in this paper, we focus on the discursive disputes around biodiversity conservation in a specific territory, relating directly to environmental narratives of those who live in and seek to protect the brazilian atlantic rainforest. we apply a qualitative analysis to compare solutions to the shared problem of biodiversity degradation of the atlantic forest proposed by two different groups of people: the solutions developed by tupinambá indigenous people and the institutionalized western science-based environmentalism developed by state agencies and non-governmental organizations who work with conservation projects in southern bahia. we avoid universalizing solutions, trying instead to compare the concrete solutions presented by each narrative. we understand that although indigenous—and other traditional—knowledges have their construction grounded in concrete life experience and not in generalization, they should not be seen as less valid than science-based perspectives (ingold and kurtilla 2000). nonetheless, in conservation planning and implementation so called ‘evidence-based’ (sutherland et al. 2004) perspectives tend to have more legitimacy, despite the continued efforts toward showing the social and cultural injustices it produces. the solutions provided by more powerful actors in conservation, namely conservation biologists and ecologists that act in academia, ngos, and state agencies, fail to account for the overlying power relations and causes of conflicts around conservation, including the detachment to local perspectives and excessive bureaucratization (peluso 2003). with our case study, we wish to contribute to the ongoing advocacy for more effective pluralism in conservation (pascual et al. 2021). the methodology based on the analysis of environmental narratives makes it possible to compare and equalize the solutions proposed by representatives of commonly empowered decision-makers in environmental issues and representatives of commonly marginalized discourses. through the equal juxtaposition of narratives that usually are perceived in a strict hierarchy, we wish to shed light on concrete challenges for mitigating the recurrent conflicts around conservation planning and implementation. we also illuminate the actual possibilities of building alliances between different perspectives. we conclude by advocating for pluralism in conservation, through direct engagement with the proposed solutions offered by on-the-ground agents of indigenous life and struggle. the territorial contours the geographic scope of this research is composed by the tupinambá de olivença indigenous land, una biological reserve (rebio una) and una wildlife refuge (revis una), located in southern bahia, in northeastern brazil, an area once completely covered by the atlantic forest biome (figure 1). the brazilian atlantic forest hosts one of the world’s most diverse and threatened tropical forest biota of the world (joly et al. 2014). only around 26% of its original cover remains (rezende et al. 2018), with severe defaunation (bogoni et al. 2018). the south of bahia is the second largest remaining fragment of the biome in northeastern brazil, though it is threatened by intense processes of deforestation related to plantations, mining, and tourism enterprises (hirota and ponzoni 2017). before colonization the lowlands of the atlantic coast were occupied by indigenous peoples, mainly from the tupi linguistic community. through the colonial period, the lands that today form the tupinambá de olivença indigenous land were occupied by a jesuit-controlled indigenous village. during the nineteenth century, cocoa gradually became the main monoculture for export in the region and the brazilian state officially declared the ‘extinction’ of the indigenous populations, authorizing the alienation of their lands (alarcon 2013). around the 1980s, cocoa production was deeply impacted both by the spread of pests and overseas competition. the crisis in cocoa intensified sandroni. 2023. ethnobiology letters 14(2):72–82 74 research communications special issue on diverse conservations deforestation and impoverishment. most of the cocoa in the region was planted in a system called ‘cabruca’, which consists of a plantation that maintains part of the original atlantic forest, to take advantage of shade. given the low profitability, several landowners, predominantly from white and settler communities, resorted to timber to pay off debts. at this moment, a conservationist movement emerged in the ‘cocoa cost’, aiming to contain the accelerated process of deforestation. in 1994, the institute for socio-environmental studies of the south of bahia (iesb) was created and quickly became the largest ngo with an emphasis on biodiversity at a local scale. this ngo was a main actor in a process of enlargement of the local protected areas network during the 2000s. the biological reserve that had been implemented in the early 1980s was enlarged in 2007, giving it 18,715.06 hectares. this process was accompanied by the creation of a new pa, the wildlife refuge, with 23,262.09 hectares, functioning as a buffer zone for the biological reserve and overlapping with some portions of the indigenous land. concurrently in the late 90s and early 2000s, a renewed tupinambá indigenous movement rose. reframing their cultural past and present (oliveira 2018), the tupinambá enacted certain political strategies, among them, the ‘retomadas’ (or ‘retakes’): the reappropriation of something that was usurped from the indigenous peoples in the past. the ‘retomadas’ are mainly expressed in the effective occupation of lands and are used as a way to pressure the brazilian state to ratify indigenous titles to indigenous lands. however, this political-cultural strategy goes beyond the sphere of negotiating rights, constituting a dimension of autonomy for indigenous movements and the construction of new landscapes. in this sense, they have an ontological dimension since they provoke reorganizations of material and immaterial territories (escobar 2015). the indigenous land is, therefore, the result of an intense politicalcultural process performed by the tupinambá through which they actively take back their land and history (alarcon 2013). in 2009, the first official map was published by the brazilian state in which the indigenous land consisted of 47,376 hectares (viegas and paula 2009). this demarcation, however, has never been ratified by the ministry of justice, and thus remains more legally vulnerable than the protected areas. since those processes occurred concomitantly, efforts were made to assure the smallest overlap possible according to diverse expectations (viegas and paula 2009). nonetheless, as we shall demonstrate, the implementation of the protected area led to conflicts due to reinforced environmental monitoring experienced as injustices by indigenous peoples. therefore, despite the attempt at finding middle ground, the paths for conservation remained disputed and uncertain, since legitimacy for choosing the best paths for biodiversity conservation remained unequal. this makes it important to look at the different proposed solutions for biodiversity conservation and recognize to what extent they have the power to figure 1 tupinambá de olivença indigenous land, una biological reserve and una wildlife refuge. source: this map was produced by the author using official data found in the database of the national indian foundation (funai) and the chico mendes institute for biodiversity conservation (icmbio) and follows the delimitation of the tupinambá indigenous land originally published in the “relatório circunstanciado de identificação e delimitação da terra indígena tupinambá de olivença” (viegas & paula, 2009) sandroni. 2023. ethnobiology letters 14(2):72–82 75 research communications special issue on diverse conservations effectively become a central guidance for conservation. methods our analysis is based on the comparison of the environmental narratives of two groups: ‘indigenous’ and ‘institutionalized scientific environmentalism.’ different actors have different access to the discursive power to define what should be understood as environmental degradation, as well as its causes and solutions. in order to approach these power relations, we analyze 'environmental narratives' (see bixler 2013), understood here as stories bounded by the narrators’ particular experiences, observations and attachments to place (robertson et al. 2000). the narrative concept was used as a tool to compare competing knowledge systems bounded to place, including those based in western cosmologies (lejano et al. 2013). the selection of materials that could compose such narratives was guided by the aim to access views over an urgent problem shared by both perspectives, namely, “the need to protect what is left of the atlantic forest”. the main sources of access to the tupinambá narrative were 20 interviews conducted with tupinambá people in 7 villages inside indigenous territory, and participant observation during fieldwork conducted in 2016–2017, when conflicts between the indigenous population and local state agencies were unfolding due to environmental fines received by the tupinambá. the tupinambá interviewed by the researcher were defined by the coproduction relation between the researcher and two indigenous leaders. this choice took into consideration gender, age, and territory range, but had the indigenous people and leaders of communities that were in direct involvement with the disputes around conservation issues as its main criteria. on the other hand, the set of discursive materials that comprise the institutionalized western sciencebased environmentalism narrative is linked to the performance of iesb and its partner institutions, due to its prominent role in southern bahia and influence in decision-making. in this case, we drew upon 8 scientific papers, 15 project reports, and 10 interviews with members of iesb and the local agents of the national brazilian agency for biodiversity conservation. therefore, the second narrative is composed from people’s personal experiences and perceptions, as well as the available documents and projects developed by governmental and non-governmental established institutions that work directly with conservation implementation in the region. analysis of the data was conducted through the identification of repeating categories on the materials that composed each narrative related to the causes and solutions for biodiversity degradation. the most recurrent topics became unifying themes that composed each narrative (charmaz 2006). each of these unifying themes was systematized in a table per document/interview per narrative and all data was then condensed to the three causes and solutions most present in each narrative. therefore, drawing from the field work and collected materials, we have identified the general contours of two different perspectives on the same issue, making it possible to compare contrasting perspectives on biodiversity conservation. in the results section, we point out three main causes for the shared problem and its related solutions according to each narrative. our main objective is to bring into dialogue points of view about the best paths for forest management that have considerable differences in terms of language and social legitimacy, to move closer to plurality in conservation. results institutionalized environmentalism narrative traditional strategies for biodiversity conservation have emphasized the creation of intact protected areas, free from human presence. while these areas have enormous potential for conservation, long-term conservation of biodiversity requires the development of an approach that includes the management of buffer zones and biological corridors. (ayres et al. 2005) the main argument that stands out in the institutionalized environmentalism narrative is the defense of the ‘bioregional paradigm’ for biodiversity conservation. the restriction of conservation planning to protected areas is considered one of the main causes of the degradation, and the solution would thus be planning on a wider landscape scale (araújo 2014; landau et al. 2004; pinto et al. 2006). categories such as ‘corridor’ and ‘network of protected areas’, are recognized as the basis for biodiversity conservation especially in the context of the atlantic forest. conservation efforts should be geared towards maximizing habitat connectivity, ecosystems, and ecological processes, facilitating genetic flow, and increasing the chances of species survival. for these sandroni. 2023. ethnobiology letters 14(2):72–82 76 research communications special issue on diverse conservations precepts to be followed, scientifically grounded planning is crucial. geographical information systems (gis) are recognized as a good basis for decisionmaking because of their ability to provide rapid information on landscape dynamics (fonseca et al. 2004). by identifying priority areas, the environmentalist narrative proposes a series of solutions that are intrinsically related to each other as part of a coherent discourse. solution #1: actions in human occupied areas and social participation the adoption of a more comprehensive scale for biodiversity requires activities for conservation outside protected areas, necessarily including human populations in the equation. the solution proposed seeks to keep the protected areas as intact as possible and, at the same time, to work with local communities that inhabit their surroundings. thus, the inclusion of so called ‘social dimensions’ is a founding element of the narrative, but this inclusion appears in specific terms. the most relevant publication on the theme produced by iesb aims at “analyzing the opportunities to reconcile economic and conservation use of areas” (alger et al. 2004:4). the proposition is to generate mechanisms to compensate landowners for environmental services provided, stating that areas with less potential of profitability and greater potential of environmental services should be privileged (alger et al. 2004). another form of argument is the need to create participatory spheres for the implementation of biodiversity projects, such as decision committees and advisory councils. in several of the activities carried out by iesb and partners in the region, participatory workshops were implemented, although the profile of the members of these participatory meetings is quite specific: state agents, ngos, and researchers. environmental education is another cited path to solve biodiversity degradation, which is presented as complementary to participatory processes. this instrument is seen as a way to change people's behavior by bringing them environmental awareness about the value of inhabiting the surroundings of a biological reserve (iesb and wwf 2004). solution #2: the ‘cabruca’ identity in southern bahia, the proposal to carry out biodiversity conservation management on a broader scale is linked to the need to confront the cocoa crisis through a new development model (araújo et al. 1998). this narrative argues that, in the face of the lack of financial return of the cacao plantations, the pressure on timber resources increases, mainly in the areas of ‘cabruca’ agriculture (ayres et al. 2005; fandi 2013; fonseca et al. 2004). landowners, as a form of economic complementation, may prefer to create pastures in areas once covered by forest or ‘cabruca’. the expansion of pastures is seen by environmentalists as the central cause of degradation. to the institutionalized environmentalism narrative, the solution is to encourage organic cocoa plantation, to promote the maintenance of ‘cabruca’ areas and to stimulate alternative productive activities for local agriculture. in order to justify this point of view, research projects were carried out to demonstrate the occurrence of several species of plants and animals in ‘cabruca’ areas and its connective capacity between forest fragments (delabie et al. 2011; save and iesb 2009). it is also worth mentioning that the valorization of ‘cabruca’ is linked to ideas of a regional identity: the environmentalist narrative points to the social and historical value of cocoa culture, affirming the importance of the ‘personality’ of the region as a path to an integrated sustainable socio-economic development (save and iesb 2009). solution #3: expansion of the network of protected areas according to this narrative biodiversity conservation, especially in the atlantic forest, necessarily depends on the expansion of the protected areas network (ayres et al. 2005; ci and iesb 2000; pinto el at. 2006). advocacy for strengthening monitoring of existing conservation units and creating new ones is recurrent. the creation of private reserves is also encouraged, although it is seen only as a complementary solution (araújo et al. 1998; ayres et al. 2005; mesquita and leopoldino 2002). in fact, all solutions are only seen as effective if they are combined with large restrictive protected areas, thus forming the basis of the conservation landscape system. land regularization through compensation payments and the relocation of human inhabitants within parks and alike is prioritized here (ayres et al. 2005). on the other hand, these areas are intensely populated by a myriad of non-human living beings. the choice of priority areas for biodiversity conservation is largely anchored in the behavioral patterns of animal species. in all institutional documents, endemism and the risk of extinction of certain species are recognized. the framing of the problem in the institutionalized environmentalism narrative is strongly influenced by threats to certain species, which are often defined sandroni. 2023. ethnobiology letters 14(2):72–82 77 research communications special issue on diverse conservations through global indicators such as important birdlife areas (ibas) and key biodiversity areas (kbas). lack of knowledge about the different species is widely seen as a cause for the problem: according to the analyzed documents, the lack of data on the occurrence of threatened species makes it harder to push for more restrictive environmental protection policies. indigenous narrative conservation should be like this: you have a whole structure in nature. if you need something, first you have to ask permission for it to be removed from nature, so that you are aware that you have to replant. so if you take one, you replant ten, and when you need another one, you will see that the area is all planted. tupinambá leader in interview 2017 when field research was conducted, the indigenous narrative was marked by feelings of injustice in relation to fines for environmental crimes. in the areas of overlap and buffer zones of the protected areas, environmental monitoring is intense, and, in recent years, several indigenous people have been accused of suppressing vegetation in areas considered ‘regenerating forest’ in accordance with the atlantic forest law (lei nº 11428/2006). unsurprisingly, the indigenous narrative evidences indignation in relation to punishment for an act that they do not consider to be in any way criminal. the practice of crop rotation is common among the tupinambá de olivença and has been used historically (viegas 2016). in the view of the tupinambá, agriculture for family sustenance should never be considered deforestation. the tupinambá understand deforestation as the withdrawal of what they call ‘thick wood’ or ‘hardwood’ from areas of ‘dense forest’ or ‘native forest’. on the other hand, what is perceived by the environmental agency as ‘regenerating forest’ falls within indigenous categories such as ‘arrancador’ and ‘capoeira’. ‘arrancador’ is recent vegetation that grows in lands with little rest time and is generally described ‘growing up to three feet from the ground’. ‘capoeira’ is vegetation somewhat higher than the ‘arrancador’, endowed with ‘fine woods’ or ‘white woods’, which can be felled ‘with machete and ax’. the common point of view of all tupinambá is that other types of land use should be forbidden in areas described as ‘dense forest’, since this would mean ‘deforestation’. therefore, most indigenous formulations on the best ways to conserve nature are connected to land use according to certain restrictions autonomously decided by them. in the tupinambá view, there is a clear distinction between a use that would cause ‘environmental destruction’ and one that would take into account the ‘times of nature’, taking less than the land can produce again over time. solution #1: recognition of indigenous land claims in the indigenous narrative, the main vectors of ‘environmental degradation’ are large enterprises with high impact capacity. if their land claims could be fulfilled, they believe they would have the power to halt those activities in their territory and therefore become contribute to growing examples of effective conservation on indigenous lands in brazil (ribeiro et al. 2018). the subject of such activities are variously named by the tupinambá: the ‘outsiders’, the ‘miners’, the ‘powerful’, the ‘non-indians’, or the ‘fazendeiros’ (big landowners). the impunity of these other groups in relation to activities of high social and environmental impact within the indigenous land aggravates indigenous feelings of injustice about the fines. the ‘care for nature’, an indigenous concept that relates to their ability to take care of the ‘times of nature’ constitutes for the tupinambá an element of alterity in relation to the non-indigenous people living in their territory, especially in relation to the ‘fazendeiros’. in the indigenous narrative, the ‘fazendeiros’ have no relation to the land, because they do not depend on the water that flows through it and on the quality of the environment when raising their children and grandchildren. therefore, they devastate with impunity. among the highly impactful activities, the most frequently mentioned by the tupinambá is sand mining. the sandbanks are seen as disastrous and were named as a main cause to biodiversity degradation by all tupinambá interviewees. sand extraction for the construction industry generates enormous craters that, in addition to the deforestation, cause springs to dry up. this directly affects indigenous families, and often involves the removal of natural fields containing the ‘piaçava’ tree (attalea funifera), a source of income and an important element of tupinambá cultural life. another high-impact activity is the large-scale monocultural planting of coconuts and palm hearts. the tupinambá de olivença also vehemently condemned timber logging and the active presence of agents of real estate speculation. in the indigenous narrative, the ideal environmental solution that would ameliorate all the sandroni. 2023. ethnobiology letters 14(2):72–82 78 research communications special issue on diverse conservations framed causes would be confirmation of indigenous land titles, which would allow indigenous peoples to deepen their ties to their territory, encouraging preservation for their descendants. solution #2: ‘retomadas’ the tupinambá develop, within the areas that come to their management through the practice of ‘retomadas’, transformations in the landscape to protect nature. the diversity of actions that are carried out in the ‘retomadas’ by the tupinambá to ‘preserve’, include: efforts to maintain the ‘forest in the spring area’; restoration in pasture degraded areas; closure of charcoal stores; production of several crops in the same space, so that the different species help each other; extraction of raw materials such as ‘piaçava straw’, ‘imbira shells’ and ‘aroeira seeds’ used for crafts and/or sale respecting their times of regeneration; among others. the ‘retomadas’ are seen by the tupinambá, especially their leaders, as ‘seed-boxes’ for actions that point in the direction of preservation. the tupinambá widely recognize the possibility opened by the ‘retomadas’ for more autonomous management of their collective labor and also control over their territory. this ability to organize the work is aligned with the possibility of collectively deciding on the management of the territory, making choices in terms of the varied uses of the different areas based on their own criteria. solution #3: income alternatives and educational seminars the tupinambá accept, to some extent, monitoring activities as a solution for environmental degradation, as long as they penalize practices that they consider to be causes of deforestation. indigenous peoples also point out that the prohibitions, if indeed necessary, could be enforced by them. one of the main concrete proposals in terms of conservation-related public policies, reiterated by a significant number of indigenous leaders, is the hiring of indigenous brigade fighters to contain fires and indigenous rangers to curb deforestation. the monitoring would, however, be carried out in accordance with indigenous criteria. in addition, the possibility of conducting ‘educational seminars’ is present in the indigenous formulation of solutions to the biodiversity degradation problem. the main objective of such seminars would be to open a space for dialogue, where joint alternative land management strategies could be developed, in accordance with collectively established environmental limits. hunting is a good example of how the limits are established: for instance, crabs must be larger than a fist to be collected and pregnant females of all mammals cannot be disturbed. it is important to emphasize that, in the view of the tupinambá, monitoring would only have some effect if accompanied by alternatives to generate sustenance for indigenous families. in a context of limited financial resources, and in some cases extreme poverty, authoritarian bans do not reach their conservation objectives. discussion when we analyze the solutions proposed by each narrative, we can see resonances and divergences. first, both narratives present themselves as ‘counterdiscourses’, since they challenge dominant perspectives by advocating for the conservation of forest areas: the mainstream perspective on the development of the region advocates for the implementation of plantations, large tourism enterprises, and resource extraction (mining). both stress the importance of engagement, participation, and environmental education. in addition, both narratives consider the economic aspect and the need to generate income alternatives that are sustainable, albeit in different forms. those similarities can open paths for joint efforts and could be used as middle ground to develop alliances, for instance, by including the indigenous populations as main beneficiaries of sustainable alternatives. however, the narratives diverge in relation to the degree of use and integral protection in different areas. the indigenous statements present some criteria to choose areas for use that would not necessarily be recognized as ‘sustainable’ by the institutionalized environmentalism. as stated previously, for the tupinambá, hunting may or may not be a cause of degradation, depending on who does it and how it is done: they recognize a difference between ‘indigenous hunting’, that respects limits regarding the time and species that can or cannot be a target, and ‘predatory hunting’, the irresponsible attack of any of the wild animals by ‘outsiders’. in the institutionalized environmentalism narrative, hunting is necessarily a cause of biodiversity degradation in all forms, and it is as a threat perpetrated by the populations surrounding the protected areas, since the ‘human actions’ are recognized in a generic way, without a specification of the groups responsible for degradation. the tupinambá, on the other hand, recognize that the ‘big and powerful’, not themselves, sandroni. 2023. ethnobiology letters 14(2):72–82 79 research communications special issue on diverse conservations are responsible for the activities that ‘really destroy the environment’ and, therefore, should be contained by law and enforcement. a dichotomous view of the disputes over biodiversity conservation does not account for the complexity of relations in this case and other territories where conservation is at stake. on the one hand, the a priori perception that environmentalist and indigenous narratives would be mutually exclusive, since the former would tend to overlook environmental justice, can become an obstacle for alliances between environmental actions and indigenous perceptions on forest management. on the other hand, a vision that sought to recognize an automatic alliance between the indigenous movement and a ‘socio-environmental’ movement would be equally difficult. unlike the institutionalized environmentalist narrative, the indigenous narrative illuminates how processes occur and how they could be better but does not articulate a fixed set of principles about how things should be done. any coalitions among these perspectives need to take into account this epistemological difference. several factors give the different groups a greater or lesser capacity to publicly legitimize their perceived solutions for the problem. in the case in question, through political organization, the tupinambá reach greater capacity to convince other actors and to manage their territories. however, their access to resources for biodiversity conservation is low when compared to institutionalized environmentalism, since most decisions of high impact related to biodiversity conservation in the region were taken in arenas from which they were excluded. the tupinambá are not an isolated case: conservation policies, even when they seek to address the ethical issue of marginalizing local populations, often reinforce exclusion dues to the ontological dimensions that define the different interventions (moon and perez-hämmerle 2022). in this scenario, injustice is aggravated by the power differentials relating to juridical and political authority between the protected areas and the indigenous land. the brazilian bureaucracy created a complex, expensive, and hard demarcation process for indigenous lands, which creates a sort of ‘obstacle race’ permeated by several politicization processes (mares 2021). the protected areas implementation on the other hand, although complex, is rather faster, making it easier for environmental institutions to make their solutions prevail. conclusion the need to address social justice and participation is becoming mainstream, and yet, the overlying power relations still play a role in the actual legitimacy of diverse proposed solutions for concrete environmental problems. the upfront identification of the solutions for the atlantic forest proposed by both sides shows that they are equally coherent, and that there is room for bridges between the perspectives. the above-mentioned differences in social legitimacy and territorial effectiveness, however, show the stronger weight of the institutionalized environmentalism in actual decision-making. this case illustrates the importance of recognizing non-dominant imaginaries for the future (beck 2021). we hope that this can inform contestation of knowledge production and decision making (turnhout et al. 2019). current times of accelerated deforestation urge for the formation of all possible alliances and an in depth understanding of knowledge-power relations in each context is crucial to make a fertile ground for that. we argue that our method of making the divergent perspectives as equal as possible can contribute to tackling those power relations. this is a key step to move beyond the perceptions of inconsistency typically recognized by institutionalized environmentalisms on indigenous and other traditional ecological knowledges (berkes 2008). pluralism is needed to contemplate not just the different proposed actions impacting the prosperity of all living beings, but also to recognize the diverse values that guide relations to nature and their implications on the recognition of the main causes behind biodiversity degradation in the first place (pascual et al. 2021). just conservation is more effective in long term but can only be pursued through historical reparations (büscher and fletcher 2020) that should encompass both dynamics of land dispossession and colonial knowledge structures (collins et al. 2021). acknowledgments thank you to all people involved in this research, especially the communities of the mamão, serra do padeiro, itapuã, tupã and tucum of the tupinambá indigenous land for their trust . thank you also to all members of instituto de estudos socioambientais do sul da bahia and the instituto chico mendes para conservação da biodiversidade for the support, time and access to documents and reports. this work was fully funded by the national council for scientific and technological development (cnpq), and the article sandroni. 2023. ethnobiology letters 14(2):72–82 80 research communications special issue on diverse conservations developed with the support of the são paulo research foundation (fapesp) (#2019/01325-7). declarations permissions: none declared. sources of funding: national council for scientific and technological development (cnpq) são paulo research foundation (fapesp) (#2019/01325-7). conflicts of interest: none declared. references cited adams, w. m., and j. hutton. 2007. people, parks and poverty: political ecology and biodiversity conservation. conservation and society 5 (2):147–183. alarcon, d. 2013. o retorno da terra: as retomadas na aldeia tupinambá da serra do padeiro, sul da bahia. masters dissertation, department of 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transformations among the tupinambá (bahia, brazil). in ownership and nurture: studies in native amazonian property relations, edited by m. brightman, c. fausto and v. e. grotti. new york and oxford: berghahn books. yak domestication: a review of linguistic, archaeological, and genetic evidence jacques et al. 2021. ethnobiology letters 12(1):103–114 103 research communications winters, increased heart and lung size, and increased foraging ability through an adapted tongue that allows them to easily eat the low-lying forage grasses that characterize areas of the plateau. they likely diverged from wild cattle 4.9 million years ago and adapted to the plateau over the course of its uplift (qiu et al. 2012). recent genetic comparisons of the yak to cattle have found that yaks possess unique adaptations to the low oxygen conditions of the plateau: they identified an expansion of protein domains associated with hypoxic stress and nutrition metabolism, both traits that were likely important over the course of its evolution on the plateau (qiu et al. 2012). to date, there is only disparate archaeological evidence of when humans first began to manage and eventually domesticate this animal. below, we review the archaeological, genetic, and linguistic evidence for yak domestication. linguistic evidence reveals that languages which have the most elaborate terminology for yak are tibetic and rgyalrongic, suggesting that its domestication may have taken place somewhere among the speakers of the ancestors of these languages. the speakers of proto-tibetic and protointroduction yaks (bos grunniens) provide important resources for millions of tibetans, not just in the form of meat, but also in the form of secondary products such as milk products, hide, and fur that can be spun into black tents that retain moisture when it rains and prevents the tent from leaking. yak dung provides a vital fuel source (rhode et al. 2007); it also serves as construction material in walls, enclosures, storage houses for frozen meat, dog houses, tethers to which dogs and yaks can be attached, and even for manufacturing toys. yaks are frequently crossbred with domestic cattle, producing a f1 hybrid dzo, which are valued for their increased milk production, and ability to adapt to the lower altitudinal range for yaks (between 2500–3500 masl). rhode et al. (2007) have argued that meeting fuel needs may have led to the integration of the yak into early foragers survival mechanisms on the plateau and eventually its domestication. yaks have a set of traits that have allowed them to adapt to the high-altitude environment of the plateau: a thick coat that keeps them warm in freezing yak domestication: a review of linguistic, archaeological, and genetic evidence guillaume jacques1*, jade d’alpoim guedes2, and zhang shuya3 1french national centre for scientific research, paris, france. 2department of anthropology, university of california, san diego, usa. 3ilcaa, tokyo university of foreign studies, tokyo, japan. *rgyalrongskad@gmail.com abstract yak, a species of bovid uniquely adapted to high-altitude environments, plays a critical role in the life of the inhabitants of the tibetan plateau and neighboring areas. there is currently no consensus on when these animals may have been domesticated. in this paper, we review the archaeological, genetic, and linguistic evidence relevant to this question, and suggest that the domestication took place following hybridization with taurine cattle from the end of the fourth millennium bce. this study also shows that the original domesticators of yaks included not only the ancestors of the tibetans, but also rgyalrongic speaking people from eastern tibet. received march 4, 2021 open access accepted june 21, 2021 doi 10.14237/ebl.12.1.2021.1755 published october 13, 2021 keywords yak, domestication, tibet, taurine cattle, linguistics, archaeology copyright © 2021 by the author(s); licensee society of ethnobiology. this is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution-noncommercial 4.0 international public license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0), which permits non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. jacques et al. 2021. ethnobiology letters 12(1):103–114 104 research communications rgyalrongic appear to have independently cross-bred yaks with cattle, and the breeding of f1 hybrids predates the proto-rgyalrongic split (3221 [2169– 4319] bp, according to sagart et al. 2019), which implies that the inhabitants of the eastern plateau had begun to experiment with cattle/yak hybridization. geographic background the domestic yak is present over a large area, spread over ten countries (afghanistan, bhutan, china, india, kyrgyzstan, mongolia, nepal, pakistan, russia, and tajikistan; joshi et al. 2020) comprising a southern and a northern zone, linked in the west by the pamir mountains, as shown in figure 11. the southern zone corresponds to the entire tibetan plateau from qinghai and sichuan in the east up to baltistan in the west, including the southern slope of the himalayas in india, nepal, and bhutan. this area reflects the maximal extent of the tibetosphere, mainly inhabited by speakers of tibetic languages (i.e., in direct descent from the language of the tibetan empire, 618–842 ce; tournadre and suzuki 2021), but also speakers of burushaski (a language isolate), indo-iranian (indo-european), turkic, mongolic, and sino-tibetan languages that are culturally and linguistically influenced by tibetan. the non-tibetic sino-tibetan languages of this zone mainly comprise either groups that are closely related to tibetic, such as tamangic, east bodish (hyslop 2013) and bragsum (tournadre and suzuki 2021), languages of the na-qiangic branch, in particular naic (jacques and michaud 2011), ersuic (yu 2012), rgyalrongic (sun 2000), as well as muya, zhaba and queyu, and several isolated branches of the family including tshangla (bhutan), kho-bwa (arunachal pradesh, india) and guiqiong (sichuan, china). the northern zone spreads from the pamir mountains up to the hangai mountains in mongolia, north of the taklamakan desert (qi et al. 2008:429), figure 1 geographic distribution of wild and domesticated yak. jacques et al. 2021. ethnobiology letters 12(1):103–114 105 research communications and is inhabited by speakers of mongolic and some turkic languages (tyva, altai). wild yaks (bos mutus) are only restricted to a much smaller range, in several discontinuous refuge zones: the chantang, hoh xil, sanjiangyuan and altun shan national nature reserves, the qilian mountains and an area in ngari district in tibetan autonomous region. genetics and archaeology yaks belong to the bovini tribe, a group of bovids, which have played an important role in human life: a source of milk, meat, hide for leather but also as draft animals where their muscle power was used for moving produce and ploughing fields. several genera are important in understanding the history of domestication in asia: the genus bos which includes taurine cattle (bos taurus taurus), zebu (bos taurus indicus), yak (bos grunniens), and domestic gaur (bos frontalis). the genus bubalus, which includes water buffalo (bubalus arnee), were also important domesticates in asia. cattle archaeological evidence suggests that taurine cattle were introduced to china from west asia between 4500–2000 bp (brunson et al. 2020; cai et al. 2014; flad et al. 2007; lu et al. 2017). ancient dna analysis on mtdna from 53 cattle remains between 4500– 2300 years ago from across northern china showed predominantly taurine cattle, an exotic introduction from the near east (cai et al. 2014), introduced at the same time as other near eastern species like wheat and barley. recent genetic work supports the two introductions of taurine cattle into east asia that took place (chen et al. 2018). zooarchaeological evidence contains evidence for taurine cattle by roughly 5500 cal. bp in gansu/qinghai province, although more secure evidence dates to roughly 1000 years later (4500 cal. bp). lu et al. (2017) point out, however, that the proportions of bos taurus in earlier assemblages are very low and they do not appear to have formed an important component of the diet. on the tibetan plateau and its margins, bones of bovids (bos sp.) which may be bos taurus, have been unearthed at tawendaliha (3350–2750 cal. bp) and talitaliha (3350–2750 cal. bp), xiariyamakebu (3300 cal. bp; dong et al. 2016), ashaonao (2800–200 cal. bp; kaoguxi et al. 2017). bos javanicus (banteng) and bos frontalis (gayal) introgressed with both zebu and taurine cattle in east asia, providing cattle with adaptive traits to high temperatures. likewise, yak was introgressed with taurine cattle on tibet’s margins, conferring adaptive traits to altitude (chen et al. 2018). archaeological evidence for yak domestication unfortunately, there is currently very little concrete evidence for yak domestication in the archaeological record. physical evidence of yak skeletal remains has been found at nuomohong sites on the northeastern plateau, including xiariyamakebu and tawendaliha (3300–2700 bp), however, only their presence is noted, and it is unclear if they show signs of domestication (or what these signs of domestication might look like in yaks). at talitaliha (3000–2700 bp), a clay sculpture of a yak demonstrates the importance this animal may have held for the inhabitants of the site (qinghai sheng wenwu guanli huiyuanhui and zhongguo shehui kexue yuan kaogu yan-jiusuo qinghai dui 1963). at qugong, a yak skull was also unearthed in an ashpit that dates to roughly 3650 bp (zhongguo shehui kexue yuan kaogu yanjiusuo 1999). the authors argued that because of the relatively small size of the horns of the animal, it was likely domesticated (or hybridized with cattle). yak skulls are also present in samdzong 5 dating to 450 ce (aldenderfer and eng 2016). using pollen and charcoal analysis, some scholars have argued that humans may have modified yak’s grazing lands via burning and encouraged the growth of grass and forbs on which these animals rely as early as 8000 bp (huang et al. 2020; miehe et al. 2009, 2014). this agrees with other sources on anthropogenic modification of the landscape as taking place by c. 5900 bp (meyer et al. 2009; schlütz and lehmkuhl 2009). genetic evidence for yak domestication genetic data has not been helpful in resolving this debate: some genetic papers predict a very early domestication (c. 10,000 bp; guo et al. 2006), while other mtdna data suggest that it took place twice roughly 5000 years ago (see discussion in rhode et al. 2007; bailey et al. 2002). qiu et al. (2015) use molecular clocks to date yak domestication to roughly 7300 bp and document a large increase in yak populations corresponding to 3600 bp or the known spread of pastoral economies into the region. jacques et al. 2021. ethnobiology letters 12(1):103–114 106 research communications while there is no evidence for pastoralism as early as 7300 bp, it is possible that the encouragement of the growth of plant species on which yaks rely by foragers may have led to the population expansion and divergence in yak populations. following yak’s domestication on the tibetan plateau, genetic evidence appears to support that it was then moved to mongolia however it is unclear from the current data when this took place (qi et al. 2010). bos taurus has been interbred with a number of other different species across asia. a number of genetic studies have documented the introgression of taurine cattle genomes into yak populations and of yak genomes into taurine cattle on the tibetan plateau and in mongolia (chen et al. 2018; medugorac et al. 2017; qi et al. 2010). medugorac et al. (2017) see an increase in the amount of introgression between yak and cattle populations taking place 1500 years ago with particular peaks around the medieval climate anomaly (897–1121 ce) and the dzungar-qing wars (1687–1758 ce). future genetic analysis on archaeological specimens may help us resolve the timing of the domestication of the yak. linguistic evidence linguistics provide important evidence for the domestication of plants and animals. the study of systematic correspondences between related languages to reconstruct the vocabulary of their common ancestor (a field called linguistic paleontology) allows to constrain the range of hypotheses regarding the origin and way of life of the speakers of that proto-language (hock 1991:573–578). it can be further applied to investigate the date of and place of domestication of plant and animal species (brown et al. 2013). this field of research uses the regular sound correspondences between cognate words in attested languages to reconstruct the proto-language (the comparative method). this procedure can distinguish genuinely related words from chance resemblance, and cognates inherited from the proto-language from loanwords. language phylogenies obtained by bayesian phylogenetic methods (sagart et al. 2019; zhang et al. 2019; zhang et al. 2020)2 on the basis of cognates in the basic vocabulary provide dates for protolanguages which can be compared with archaeological evidence. we use the dates in sagart et al. (2019), which is the only one of the three studies that took borrowing from tibetan and chinese into account. yak terminologies yak-related terminology varies considerably in size and complexity. languages spoken outside of the natural habitat of domestic and wild yaks (see supplementary materials 2) usually lack specific terms for this animal, and with a few exceptions detailed below, employ borrowings from tibetan (like english yak). most of the languages of the southern zone belong to the sino-tibetan family, and the relevant terms are indicated in table 13. the phylogenetic relationship between these subgroups is shown in figure 2, representing the nodes with posterior probability >90% in sagart et al. (2019). the group ‘para-rgyalrongic’ in table 1 is paraphyletic. tibetan also has special names for f2 hybrids, only involving female hybrid yaks, since the males are sterile: མགལ་ mgal and རྟོལ་ rtol, which refer to the offspring of female hybrids with male yaks and bulls, respectively. in addition to tibetan, rgyalrongic languages also have a distinct term for f2 hybrids: kətó in situ and rtsʰæqætû in khroskyabs, whose last syllable could be reconstructed to proto-rgyalrongic. some languages have only one word for both males and females, and do not distinguish between yaks and hybrid yaks, whereas other languages have four different terms, in all cases different from those that designate taurine cattle. among the languages that have distinct terms for male and female animals, some express it by using feminine or masculine suffixes (for instance, the suffix -mo in མཛ་ོམྟོ་ mdzo.mo ‘female yak-cattle hybrid’), while other languages have suppletive forms, i.e., use different roots to designate female and male animals. amdo tibetan is reported to have more than 24 terms for yaks depending on sex and age (tournadre and suzuki 2021:11.7.1), but these terms are transparently analyzable and therefore recent. the tibetan terms have been borrowed by neighboring sino-tibetan speakers who lack native terms for yaks, f1 and f2 hybrids. this is the case of guiqiong in eastern tibet, of kurtoep and other east bodish languages in bhutan (gwendolyn hyslop, p.c.), of bokar among tani languages (the other tani languages lack terms for yaks altogether, mark post, jacques et al. 2021. ethnobiology letters 12(1):103–114 107 research communications p.c.), and kho-bwa languages including puroik and duhumbi (bodt 2020:296). a specific term for wild yak is found in tibetic languages (old tibetan འབྟོང་ broŋ), which has been borrowed into neighboring languages, including japhug ʁmbroŋ and pumi ɖõ̌. since the yak is known through products from its fur and horns, terms for yak also exist in sino-tibetan languages spoken outside of the natural range of the animal. in yunnan and burma, languages with native terms for yaks include jinghpo (wāhpò’ ‘yak’), rawang (shvṕè) and some lolo-burmese languages such as lahu (nu53mv33 ‘yak’, nu53tɔ53 ‘yak hybrid’), zaiwa (mau55phjap51no21 ‘yak’, no21 phuʔ51 ‘yak hybrid’), all involving the native words for ‘cow’ (for instance, the syllable nu53 in lahu). the yak-related vocabulary is less rich in nonsino-tibetan languages, as shown in table 24. only some mongolic languages, notably khalkha, have native terms for yak hybrids; the other languages, including burushaski and southern mongolic languages, have borrowed the term from tibetic (nugteren 2011:532). in addition, mongghul has innovated a term for ‘wild yak’ se:naġ from an etymon designating bovids or ovids in other mongolic languages (nugteren 2011:486). attested semantic innovations among the language groups discussed in the previous section, only tibetic, chinese, turkic, mongolic, and indic have ancient written records. comparison of the meanings of these words in ancient texts with recent languages offers insight into possible semantic changes. two cases are detailed below. first, the terms for male and female hybrid yaks (མཛོ་ mdzo and མཛ་ོམྟོ་ mdzo.mo in old tibetan) have become ndzɔ̀ ‘bull’ and ndzõː ‘cow’ in cone (by subgroup language yak yak-cattle hybrid male female male female tibetic old tibetan གཡག gjag འབྲི་ nbri མཛ་ོ mdzo མཛ་ོམྟོ་ mdzo.mo lhasa tibetan jâ tʂì tsò tsòmo amdo tibetan hjaχ ndʐə ndzo ndzomo tamangic thakali 545ja 545pri rgyalrong japhug qambrɯ qra jla fstoʁ zbu qɐⁿbrúʔ qʰríʔ lɟéʔ ftsʰóʁʔ tshobdun qɐⁿbrúʔ qrê jlê ftsɔ ̂ situ kəmbrû karâ təjliɛ ̂ mbəɕák khroskyabs ʁbrô qʰrí çə̂ vzə́ɣ stau ʁjɑ# qrə xə zʚ para-rgyalrongic smarskad mdʐɔ ̂ râ ʑɔ ̌ zɯ̀.mát# ndrapa ptʂɿ55 ʑi55 a33ʂko55 zo55 rma ʐbə ʁu miɛ khʂɛ khsɛ miɛ muya ndʐõ53 rə33ma53 ziɣə zi53zə33ma53 pumi ɻwɐ ́ ɻwɐmí tɕû naic namuyi bu53 bu55mi53 zʉ55ɣə31 zʉ55ɣə31mi53 naxi bə˞˩ ersuic ersu bv̩˥ lizu fɹæ kiranti limbu phuŋbit mishmic idu sā pūú kho-bwa puroik çi33-beɹi55# hruso-miji hruso fu bzə chinese old chinese 犛 mæw < *mrˁu mandarin 牦牛 máoniú 犏牛 piān niú table 1 terms for domestic yaks in selected sino-tibetan languages of the southern zone. #terms borrowed from tibetan. jacques et al. 2021. ethnobiology letters 12(1):103–114 108 research communications contrast, the terms for ‘yak’ have remained stable). second, in the mongolic languages of gansu and qinghai (shironglic), the inherited ‘hybrid yak’ etymon qayinuɣ has shifted to ‘yak’ as in mongghul χe:naġ (nugteren 2011:532), ousting the etymon sarluɣ ‘yak’. the semantic slot ‘hybrid yak’ was filled by a loanword from tibetan མཛོ་ mdzo (for instance mongghul musu), which may have already been borrowed in the common ancestor of shironglic languages (nugteren 2011:400). these two examples show that semantic shifts between ‘yak’ and ‘yak hybrid’ are bidirectional. etymology and phylogeny in the data presented in 4.1, some languages (for instance, burushaski, uighur, wakhi or rawang) have isolated terms for ‘yak’. two sets of terms with suppletive gender distinction are reconstructible for tibetic and rgyalrongic languages. in tibetic, the terms གཡག་ gjag ‘male yak’, འབྲི་ ’bri ‘female yak’, མཛོ་ mdzo ‘male hybrid yak’ and འབྟོང་ ’broŋ figure 2 simplified topology of the sino-tibetan phylogenetic tree (terminal nodes in bold). tree topology and ages inferred are based on the relaxed-clock covarion model, data cited from sagart et al. (2019). jacques et al. 2021. ethnobiology letters 12(1):103–114 109 research communications ‘wild yak’ are attested in documents from the tibetan empire (laws of hunting, pt 1071, 8th century ce), and have remained stable in most tibetic languages (except isolated cases like cone, see section 4.2). these etyma are not based on the words for taurine cattle (གླང་ glaŋ ‘bull’, བ་ ba ‘cow’), and have been largely borrowed, either partially or as a full set, into neighboring languages (mongolic, burushaski, guiqiong, kho-bwa). genuine cognates of the tibetan etyma for domestic yak are only found in tamangic (*ᴮʰjaː ‘male yak’, *ᴮprit ‘female yak’; mazaudon 1994), the closest relatives of tibetic (figure 2). the term འབྟོང་ ’broŋ ‘wild yak’, on the other hand, has many extra-tibetic cognates, discussed below. the tibetic-tamangic etymon for ‘female yak’ itself is the probable source of the sanskrit word camarī‘female yak’ and its reflexes in modern indic languages (such as nepali cauṃrī ‘yak’), through a series of complex sound changes (jacques 2016). this etymon has been also borrowed into kho-bwa languages as a general term for the animal, early enough to display the same sound correspondences as the noun ‘name’ (illustrated in lieberherr and bodt 2017). unlike tibetic languages, whose common ancestor is attested as a written language, protorgyalrongic is not an attested language, and can only be reconstructed by using the comparative method. the only ancient rgyalrongic language, tangut, only has one term for ‘yak’5, possibly a consequence of the migration of its speakers from north-west sichuan into ningxia and shaanxi (lai et al. 2020). all rgyalrongic languages other than tangut have suppletive terms (table 3), and present the phonetic correspondences expected from cognates: at least ‘male yak’, ‘female yak’ and ‘female yak-cattle hybrid’ are reconstructible to proto-rgyalrongic. other domesticated mammals whose names are reconstructible to proto-rgyalrongic include taurine cattle (two terms, see table 3), sheep, goat, and pigs (sagart et al. 2019). in addition, the reconstructibility of the verb ‘to herd’ (japhug lɤɣ, situ lɐḱ, khroskyabs lɑ̂ɣ) confirms that the common ancestors of rgyalrong-speaking peoples were familiar with cattle herding. outside of rgyalrongic, the etymon for ‘female yak’ is attested with certainty only in ersuic *ra ‘yak’ (yu, 2012, 73, 84). by contrast, the etymon for ‘male yak’ (zbu qɐⁿbrúʔ, khroskyabs ʁbrô) has cognates outside of this subgroup. it seems to correspond to the word for ‘male yak’ in some para-rgyalrongic languages (notably muya ndʐõ53), though this is difficult to prove in the absence of in-depth study of the historical phonology of these languages. it is also cognate to the unique etymon for ‘yak’ in naish (naxi bə˞˩, na bv̩˩˧, laze bv̩˥, proto-naish *bru; jacques and michaud 2011), to xumi (formerly known as shixing) hlbõ (chirkova 2009:17), ersuic *bu ‘male yak’ (yu 2012:100), and to tibetan འབྟོང་ ’broŋ ‘wild yak’. in addition, burmese proŋ ‘gaur’ (bos gaurus) is a likely cognate of this etymon. given the fact that this etymon means ‘yak’ in both tibetic and rgyalrongic on the one hand, and that rgyalrongic and burmese family language male yak female yak yak hybrid indo-european sanskrit camaracamarī nepali cauṃrī wakhi ʣuuɣ ̌ buruskaski hunza bépaỵ zó# yasin bépa sum bépa turkic old uighur ḳotoz tuva sarlïk hainak sarlïk mongolic cl. mongolian sarluɣ qayinuɣ khalkha сарлаг хайнаг mongghul χe:naġ musu# yugur xainaġ omsə# bonan warχan ndʐə# ɵmsə# #terms borrowed from tibetan. table 2 terms for domestic yaks in the non-sino-tibetan languages. jacques et al. 2021. ethnobiology letters 12(1):103–114 110 research communications are closer to each other than either it to tibetan on the other hand (since they belong to the burmorgyalrongic branch, a clade supported by all phylogenetic studies, zhang et al. 2019; sagart et al. 2019; zhang et al. 2020), burmese has undergone a semantic shift from ‘yak’ to ‘gaur’ than the other way round, and the meaning ‘yak’ can be reconstructed back to the common ancestor of tibetic and rgyalrongic. the old chinese term mæw 犛 (first attested in the text guoyu, dating from the warring states period, 475–221 bce) is reconstructed as *mrˁu (in baxter and sagart’s 2014 system). this reconstructed form is compatible with the rgyalrongic-tibetic etymon, and could reflect a borrowing from a rgyalrongic language after the loss of final *-ŋ. two conclusions relevant to the question of yak domestication can be drawn from the evidence presented above. first, one term for ‘yak’ is reconstructible to proto-tibeto-rgyalrongic (4847[3363–6429] bp; sagart et al. 2019)6, without distinction between wild and domesticated animals, and between yaks and yakcattle hybrids. this fact indicates familiarity with the animal but does not necessarily imply domestication. second, at least three etyma for male and female yak and f1 hybrids distinct from those of cattle, are reconstructible in proto-rgyalrongic (3221 [2169– 4319] bp; sagart et al. 2019)7. since all rgyalrongic languages (except tangut, whose migration is documented in historical records) are spoken in the rngaba and dkarmdzes districts of western sichuan (see the map in figure 1), the reconstructibility of these etyma entails that cross-breeding between taurine cattle and yak was already well-established in this part of the eastern tibetan plateau before the split of the rgyalrongic subgroup three millennia ago. discussion our linguistic reconstruction indicates that domestication of yaks took place sometime after the split of tibeto-rgyalrongic (4847[3363–6429] bp), but before that of rgyalrongic (3221 [2169–4319] bp), and that the domestication process possibly took place independently in two places, among the ancestors of rgyalrongic and tibetic, respectively. the timing of yak domestication according to linguistic reconstructions appears to correspond to a period of time that postdates the introduction of taurine cattle to the northwestern china and the margins of the tibetan plateau, as shown in figure 3. given the fact that the name for f1 hybrids is reconstructible to proto-rgyalrongic, it is possible that the introduction of taurine cattle and contact with people who herded cattle may have inspired protorgyalrongic speaking peoples to begin to herd, pen and carry out the more intensive type of management of this animal that led to its domestication. hybridization of taurine cattle with yaks may have further conferred traits that further facilitated human management such as higher quality milk production, lower aggressivity and increased tolerance to human presence. this hybridization process may have resulted from human intervention but could also have taken place between wild yaks and feral cattle, the resulting offspring being more amenable to human management. linguistic evidence further suggests that two yak domestication events may have taken place, one on the western tibetan plateau, associated with the ancestors of tibetan speakers, and one on the eastern plateau, associated with proto-rgyalrongic speakers. cattle yak yak-cattle hybrid male female male female male female japhug mbala nɯŋa qambrɯ qra jla ftsoʁ zbu ⁿboléʔ ŋwéʔ qɐⁿbrúʔ qʰríʔ lɟéʔ ftsʰóʁʔ tshobdun ⁿboléʔ ŋê qɐⁿbrúʔ qrê jlê ftsɔ ̂ situ baliɛ ̂ nəŋiɛ ̂ kəmbrû karâ təjliɛ ̂ khroskyabs bəlé ŋî ʁbrô qʰríʔ vzə́ɣ stau qrə zʚ table 3 cognate sets in rgyalrongic languages. jacques et al. 2021. ethnobiology letters 12(1):103–114 111 research communications this is unsurprising as kham and amdo contain some of the richest biomes for wild forage used by yaks and wild animals would likely have concentrated in this area. the large numbers of lower altitude river valleys which cross-cut this area also likely brought yaks into contact with farmers who had begun to fodder taurine cattle and other domesticates like sheep. as this paper details, we are only beginning to learn about how humans first began to manage and eventually domesticate yaks. future archaeological and genetic research will be important in testing the time frame that the linguistic evidence we presented in this paper suggests for this animal’s domestication. future adna work could help resolve the timing of when hybridization between yak and taurine cattle first took place and the location of where such hybrids were first developed. in order to carry out this work, we require more systematic sampling of animal bones to take place at excavations on the plateau. since the male yak-cattle hybrids are sterile (niayale et al. 2021), and only the female can have offspring, we would expect absence from introgression in the ychromosome (medugorac et al. 2017). for this reason, adna sampling would need to be based on large samples to identify female individuals on which sampling could be carried out. future zooarchaeological work could also help identify how humans managed the yaks that they began to domesticate. do kill off profiles show strategies aimed primarily at meat or milk extraction (vigne and helmer 2007)? we hope that future research in this area will help resolve some of these issues. notes 1in addition, yaks have been more recently introduced in other areas, including yakutia and ossetia, which are not represented here. this map is based on different sources depending on the countries: for mongolia, the official statistics on yak population (http://www.1212.mn/tables.aspx? tbl_id=dt_nso_1001_052v2) were consulted, for china we used an important number of sources to ascertain the existence of yaks in various districts, cited in the supplementary document, and was used for other countries. 2the applicability of phylogenetic methods in historical linguistics is still controversial. however, while these three articles were based on three independent datasets, their results present a high degree of congruence. 3for editorial reasons, the complete dataset and the references cannot be shown here and are included in a supplementary document. 4this table does not include all indo-aryan and mongolic languages spoken in yak-herding areas. the relevant data on mongolic languages can be found in (nugteren 2011:400, 532). 5tangut 1195 kʰie ‘yak’ is cognate with the word meaning ‘female yak’ in other languages. 6 this date reflects the covarion relaxed clock analysis; sagart et al. (2019) obtained 5816 [5007–6715] bp and 5684 [4916–6449] bp in the dollo and covarion strict clock analyses for this branch, respectively. other phylogenetics studies (zhang et al. 2019; 2020) find less support for a tibeto-rgyalrongic branch. the figure 3 comparison of linguistic and archaeological evidence for yak domestication. panel a indicates the archaeological and paleoenvironmental evidence for yak domestication and management. in lines i-ii, the area in red indicates the period during which wild yak population growth may have been encouraged through anthropogenic burning. areas in green indicate potentially domesticated yak. in lines iii-v, areas in green indicate the introduction of taurine cattle. panel b shows the hypothesized date at which terms for wild and domesticated yak are present. jacques et al. 2021. ethnobiology letters 12(1):103–114 112 research communications common ancestor of rgyalrongic and tibetic is thus slightly more ancient in their results. 7with other 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wetland cultural assessment mitchell et al. 2025. ethnobiology letters 16(1):1–9 1 data, methods & taxonomies to present-day tribal members for subsistence harvest activities and other traditional life practices and remain inextricably tied to swinomish cultural beliefs and values. the environment cannot be adequately protected without being attentive to cultural values and tribal cultural values cannot be maintained without protecting the environment. as mcgregor et. al. (2020:38) note, “alternate laws, knowledges, legal and governance structures at every level and scale are required if we, as humanity, are to live well with the earth and support the continuance of life. existing indigenous systems of understanding offer living examples and insights into the development of such sustainable alternatives.” tribal sovereignty over introduction the terms cultural values and environmental protection are not usually seen together and are often considered separately. however, ecosystem health affects all facets of life for the swinomish indian tribal community (sitc or tribe). the swinomish people are among those descended from the indigenous tribes and bands that have lived in the skagit river valley and islands of the central salish sea since time immemorial. these coast salish groups maintained a culture centered on abundant salt-water resources that included salmon, shellfish, and marine mammals, as well as upland resources like trees, roots and bulbs, berries, and wild game. natural resources remain vital using indigenous science to protect wetlands: the swinomish tribe’s wetland cultural assessment todd a. mitchell1*, nicole j. casper1, lindsay thomason logan1, erin m. colclazier2, and karen j. r. mitchell3 1department of environmental protection, swinomish indian tribal community, la conner, wa, usa. 2hamer environmental, portland, or, usa. 3land management department, swinomish indian tribal community, la conner, wa, usa. *tmitchell@swinomish.nsn.us abstract while wetland functional assessment or rating systems may include cultural, socioeconomic, or site value components, they are insufficient to evaluate the cultural functions of wetlands to resource-centric communities like native nations. the swinomish indian tribal community has developed a cultural module for use in conjunction with standard physical wetland assessment approaches to incorporate tribal cultural values and functions in wetland rating. the swinomish cultural module leverages traditional plant use data from historical and community sources to create a comprehensive plant list and database and identify evaluation categories for assessment. six categories were used: four use -based categories (construction/household uses, medicinal uses, subsistence uses, and spiritual/ceremonial uses), and two weighting categories (common use, plant rarity). botanical surveys of fourteen wetlands produced a botanical inventory that was compared to the list of traditionally used plants. each wetland was given a cultural module score and cultural value rating based on the number of species of traditional use plants observed. wetlands for which surveys were not available were evaluated for similarity to surveyed wetlands and assigned scores from the most similar. the cultural module score is used in combination with traditional physical functional rating systems to produce a robust, culturally relevant, overall wetland rating. the swinomish cultural module was designed to be easy to use and update as additional cultural plant data or wetland site data become available or physical functional assessment methods change. the resultant wetland ratings are used in regulating land-use to protect wetland function, both physical and cultural. received september 3, 2022 open access accepted september 9, 2024 doi 10.14237/ebl.16.1.2025.1843 published february 14, 2025 keywords cowardin class, wetland, wetland rating, wetland function, cultural function, traditional plant uses copyright © 2025 by the author(s); licensee society of ethnobiology. this is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution-noncommercial 4.0 international public license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0), which permits non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. mitchell et al. 2025. ethnobiology letters 16(1):1–9 2 data, methods & taxonomies indian lands is intended, in part, to ensure that cultural values are incorporated in their governance. the swinomish indian tribal community is a federally recognized indian tribe and political successor in interest to certain tribes and bands who signed the 1855 treaty of point elliott that, among other things, reserved fishing, hunting, and gathering rights in vast areas of land and water in northern puget sound and beyond, and established the swinomish reservation on fidalgo island in skagit county, washington. as a federally recognized tribe, swinomish operates under a constitution originally approved in 1936 that created the swinomish senate as an elected body to self-govern and manage the affairs of the tribe including natural resources protection, policy development, and regulatory authority. through sovereign authority and delicate management of complex cross-jurisdictional regulatory relationships, the tribe has developed and maintains the necessary capacity to regulate land-use and activities within the reservation to protect and advance the tribe’s sovereign interests, cultural values, and the interests of both member and nonmember reservation residents. this includes the development of culturally relevant natural resources protection ordinances and policies. the tribe recognized that a wetland protection policy reflecting cultural and ecological wetland values required a comprehensive assessment of those values. the tribe’s wetlands were first assessed using the current methodology of that time for wetlands of washington state (cooke 1996; reppert et al. 1979; swinomish 1999): a functional wetland assessment that used a physical module divided into eight scoring categories (flood/storm water control, baseflow/ groundwater support, erosion/shoreline protection, water quality improvement, natural biological support, overall habitat functions, specific habitat functions, and cultural and socioeconomic) to describe a wetland’s physical characteristics. although the assessment already had a generic cultural and socioeconomic category, it “lacked input from the tribe, and therefore no relationship to tribal cultural values could be assessed” (swinomish 1999:4). development of the tribe’s wetland cultural assessment was initiated in 2000 to replace the generic category with a new, pertinent cultural module. this article illustrates how this cultural module was developed and used to produce environmentally and culturally sound wetland policy and management. methods traditional plant uses the most important step in developing this wetland protection method was the collection and collation of ethnobotanical data. we further defined that our data would only come from sources that we or the sources directly attributed to specific swinomish or skagit elders and ancestors by name, thus tracking down sources was a lengthy process since our tribes are mainly an oral tradition and many of the ethnographic or testimonial documents were obscure and difficult to find or obtain. the first phase of the project focused on interviewing tribal elders to gather information on traditional uses of native wetland plants. the tribal cultural planner and enrollment officer helped produce a list of elders with possible knowledge of plant uses whether by first-hand knowledge or knowledge gained from practicing family members (swinomish 2003). eleven interviews with twelve elders were conducted and recorded in the respective elders’ homes where they were asked a list of questions about plant uses, including medicinal, ceremonial, or spiritual uses. the interviews were transcribed, and the information entered into the traditional plant uses list table of the swinomish wetlands database. though several of the tribal elders interviewed lamented that they did not learn or have good recollection of their ancestors’ plant use and did not continue plant practices themselves (mitchell 2005), their memories helped identify 62 plants as having at least one traditional use in this phase (swinomish 2003). additional archival information was sought to compile a more comprehensive species list and supplement our tribal elder interview data. we focused on sources within the skagit river valley, including gunther (1981), snyder (1955), and the lushootseed dictionary (bates et al. 1994), as the tribes in this region are closely related. these source materials were reviewed for mentions of plants and their uses (plant species mentions). detailed information for each individual plant mention was recorded in the traditional plant uses list table of the swinomish wetlands database, including name, traditional use, plant part used, and preparation method. through this work, we were able to expand our traditional plant uses list from 62 species in mitchell et al. 2025. ethnobiology letters 16(1):1–9 3 data, methods & taxonomies 2003 to 99 species spanning over 600 mentions based on our research through 2016. botanical surveys of wetlands the 1999 wetland assessment report of reservation lands (swinomish 1999) identified 54 wetlands by aerial photo interpretation; 36 of these wetlands were field-verified as wetlands and assessed. the remaining eighteen wetlands were non-verified but were included in the report. the verified wetland data included only a basic plant species list, making it impossible to reassess wetland rating based on the presence or abundance of traditionally used plants. to fill that gap, botanical surveys were conducted yielding comprehensive botanical species lists for selected wetlands. we selected 14 wetlands for survey, including 13 of the 36 field-verified wetlands and one newly-identified wetland. wetlands of varying united states fish and wildlife service wetland classifications (cowardin classes) were selected for botanical surveys to capture the wetland and plant diversity found within reservation lands (cowardin et al. 1979). botanical surveys were conducted in two phases several years apart due to budgetary constraints. six wetlands were selected based solely on cowardin class (palustrine: forested, scrub shrub, or emergent; and estuarine) and were surveyed in phase one. an additional eight wetlands were chosen in phase two to include: wetlands with high similarity scores as calculated using methodology described below (to check the accuracy of our calculations); wetlands that were dissimilar, again, based on similarity scoring described below, to all known wetlands to increase the robustness of our calculations (choosing an outlier to add to the known group); and an estuarine wetland to increase the variety of surveyed wetlands. the wetland field botanical inventory surveys and wetland classification conducted in this study focused on vascular plants and involved: (1) a full walkthrough of each wetland to document cowardin classes, vegetation communities, and individual plant species; and (2) botanical survey of representative plots to further develop the plant species list and their relative percent cover. survey plots were 11.3 m radius circular plot(s) for scrub-shrub and forested wetlands and average 1 to 2 plots per wetland, or multiple 1 m2 quadrats for emergent and open water wetlands and range from 4 to 12 quadrats depending on wetland size. in many cases, an average of two stratified plots were established in each wetland, and the data were averaged for the final wetland plant abundance and composition information. information was entered in the botanical list table of the swinomish wetlands database including: • wetland and representative plot(s) location; • scientific name; • common name; • united states department of agriculture (usda) plant symbol; • percent cover; • size class for trees; • plant type/form; • wetland status (usace 2016). these botanical surveys resulted in the documentation of 304 unique species with over 970 individual plant observations in the surveyed wetlands. identifying reference wetlands for wetlands without botanical surveys since we do not have botanical surveys for all 36 verified wetlands, we developed a method to apply the botanical data from surveyed wetlands to the nonsurveyed wetlands to which they were the most hydrologically similar, assuming that the hydrologic properties of a wetland inform its botanical properties. each of the non-surveyed wetlands was compared to all surveyed wetlands (reference wetlands) across the seven physical module categories (cultural socioeconomic excluded) assessed in the 1998 wetland surveys (swinomish 1999). scores from the 1998 wetland assessment were used to calculate a similarity score for each physical module category. the residual of the calculation for percent difference was used to produce a decimal number that is a quantification of similarity between values or percent similarity: where: • n is a specific non-surveyed wetland, • r is a specific reference wetland, • snr is the similarity score between the nonsurveyed wetland (n) and the reference wetland (r), mitchell et al. 2025. ethnobiology letters 16(1):1–9 4 data, methods & taxonomies • pn is the proportion of possible points (actual score divided by maximum possible score) for the non-surveyed wetland (n), • and pr is the proportion of possible points (actual score divided by maximum possible score) for the reference wetland (r). this calculation produces a result between 0 and 1, with higher numbers indicating higher similarity that are used as point values in calculating the final similarity score. similarity of non-surveyed wetlands to reference wetlands was assessed based on location and physical characteristics. geographic location was compared to evaluate similarity based on associated watershed. one similarity point was given if the reference wetland and non-surveyed wetland pair were in the same watershed and zero points if in different watersheds. wetland type (palustrine or estuarine) was also compared for each reference and non-surveyed wetland pair and similarity was again scored on a binary basis, as same (1 point) or different (0 point). physical characteristics and geomorphic position were compared based on wetlands’ cowardin and hydrogeomorphic (hgm) classes, respectively. many wetlands contain multiple cowardin and/or hgm (depressional, slope, riverine, or estuarine) classes, so we scored similarity by comparing whether the classifications in each system for each reference and non-surveyed wetland pair were exactly the same (3 points), overlapped with 1–2 classifications (1–2 points), or no overlap (0 points). we weighted the cowardin classification and hgm class more heavily than wetland type or watershed location as they more directly represent vegetation community conditions. there were 15 possible similarity points: seven from the physical module categories, and eight points from the comparison of location and physical characteristics. the reference wetland with the highest similarity score for each non-surveyed wetland was designated as its reference wetland and its botanical information and cultural score assigned to the nonsurveyed wetland. the similarity scoring was completed twice, first with the six botanically surveyed wetlands in phase one which were used to help refine additional wetlands to botanically survey, and second with the additional eight botanical surveyed wetlands for a total of 14 reference wetlands possible to be used as designated references. scores from the 14 surveyed wetlands were applied to the 23 remaining verified but non-surveyed wetlands. developing the cultural module we wanted to develop a module that was easy to use, considered the versatility of species that have multiple uses, and was updatable when new traditional use or botanical information became available. we built a system that was based on the presence of traditionally used plants in varying categories of use. we reviewed over 600 unique traditional plant use mentions among the 99 traditionally used plant species and identified four traditional use categories for scoring metrics: construction/household (39 species), medicinal (76 species), subsistence (46 species), and spiritual/ ceremonial (15 species). the 600 unique plant mentions provided information to develop a rating metric called common use based on the number of times a species was mentioned in the traditional plant use list table. we decided species that are more versatile and have many uses should be weighted more heavily than species with fewer documented uses or that are only mentioned once by one informant, and wetlands containing more of these high-use species should be ranked higher. we queried the database for the number of mentions by species. plant species with fewer than four mentions were considered low rank since they did not appear to be widely used and that was a natural break in the data near the median. of the 99 plants in our list, 47 were considered high common use rank, and 52 species were considered low rank. western red cedar (thuja plicata) had the most mentions (65), followed by stinging nettle (urtica dioica) (27), willow (salix spp.) (19), oceanspray or ironwood (holodiscus discolor) (18), broadleaf cattail (typha latifolia) (16), and salmonberry (rubus spectabilis) (16). including the count of observed species with high common use rank as a discrete metric in the cultural module created a weighting factor to prioritize wetlands with high value for common use plants. the botanical list also lent itself to the development of another rating metric called rarity that considers frequency of plant observations during field botanical surveys. this created a weighting factor to prioritize protection of wetlands with rare or less common species. the traditional plant use list was subset to include only those species occurring or likely to occur on or near the reservation. range determinations for individual plant species relied on two herbaria data sources (burke museum 2019; cpnwh 2019). if a plant species was documented mitchell et al. 2025. ethnobiology letters 16(1):1–9 5 data, methods & taxonomies within skagit county or in the lowland-coastal regions of a neighboring county (island, whatcom, snohomish), the species was considered in range. if it was not found there or only in mountainous regions of eastern skagit county, the species was considered out of range. the traditional plant use list subset was reviewed against the botanical list to determine those species consistently observed and documented during previous botanical surveys (2003–2016) yielding 60 species. plants were ranked by relative rarity, with higher significance based on lower rates of occurrence. five or fewer total species observations were chosen as a natural break cut-off value designating about one third, or 19 plant species total as high rarity rank and 41 species as not rare. the rarest species were goat’s beard (aruncus dioicus), crevice alumroot (heuchera micrantha), and swordleaf rush (juncus ensifolius) with one observation each. the final scoring value is past or present place of value, with a resulting high, medium or low score. we found it important to assign value to wetlands that were currently harvested or near other places of high value and use since the resources would be easy to access and utilize either now (spiritual/ceremonial) or the past (archeological sites). thus, a high score was given if a wetland is within 200 ft (~61 m) of a known archaeological site, a site currently used for harvesting, or a spiritual/ceremonial area. a medium score was given to wetlands that are easily accessible within 200 ft of shoreline or a maintained road or trail or mention of historical place value in tribal elder accounts. a low score was given if there is no known place value. scoring on this section has been reserved until locations can be verified with the tribe’s cultural resources office. the overall cultural score and overall rating for each wetland was determined by comparing the wetland’s botanical list with the traditional plant use list to identify the number of traditionally used species found. the cultural module rating matrix (table 1) shows the thresholds for rating and assigned points for each category. the cultural module score is then calculated by summing the rating points for each of the six categories. the total possible score for the construction/ household medicinal subsistence spiritual/ ceremonial common use rarity emg1 9 23 12 4 17 3 fc4 a & f 16 32 18 6 26 6 kb1 6 13 9 2 9 1 kb5 18 28 21 6 23 3 ltc4 11 19 14 7 17 2 ltc5 11 18 13 7 16 1 ltc1 14 26 18 7 23 2 ltc7 14 25 14 6 22 1 mc1 15 28 19 6 23 2 s1 16 30 17 6 23 5 s2 12 20 14 5 18 1 sbt1 6 12 7 2 8 0 sbt3 13 24 17 5 19 3 sbt4 0 1 0 0 1 0 cultural module scoring matrix minimum for high rating (3 points) 13 24 14 6 19 2 minimum for moderate rating (2 points) 9 18 12 4 16 1 maximum score for low rating (1 point) 8 17 11 3 15 0 table 1 botanical survey counts of traditionally used plant species present in each reference wetland by swinomish traditional plant use category and their scoring results. mitchell et al. 2025. ethnobiology letters 16(1):1–9 6 data, methods & taxonomies cultural module is currently 18 instead of 21, pending development of the three-point place of value category. the resulting scores from minimum (6 points or 33%) to maximum (18 points or 100%) are divided into thirds by quantile to assign low (<9.9 points or 55%), moderate (9.9–13.86 or 55–77%), and high (≥13.86 points or 77%) cultural rating to each wetland. the resulting cultural value rating are 19 wetlands as high, 12 as moderate, and 6 as low (cultural rating in table 2). overall wetland rating, combining cultural and physical modules the cultural module score and cultural value rating for each wetland provide information on the richness of traditional species and form an intermediate step in determining the final wetland rating. the final wetland functional rating is determined by adding the cultural module score and physical module score and dividing that point total by the total possible score to calculate a final percent score. the total possible scores for the physical module varied from 96 to 114 points depending on which physical attributes could be measured and scored for a particular wetland (cooke 1996; reppert et al. 1979). the resulting percent scores, ranging from minimum (47%) to maximum (90.9%), were used to calculate the median and first quartile percent scores, and overall wetland ratings are assigned as in the cultural module categories above (table 2). the new wetland functional ratings include 18 wetlands rated as high, 10 as moderate, and 8 as low, with eleven wetlands rated as moderate under the physical rating module upgraded to high when the cultural module was also applied. application of wetland ratings in tribal wetland protection policy the tribe’s shorelines and sensitive areas code (ssac) title 19 chapter 4 (swinomish 2018) was enacted in 2005 and includes wetland protection policy. the ssac establishes buffers around wetlands to protect wetland functions and values with the buffer subject to the same use restrictions as the wetland it buffers. until the cultural module could be completed, the ssac used the physical module wetland ratings only to assign buffers of 200 ft (~61 m) for high, 100 ft (~30.5 m) for moderate, and 25 ft (~7.6 m) for low ratings. with the completion of the cultural module, the swinomish wetland ratings system is now referred to and incorporated in the code and we are using the above wetland ratings for ongoing permit review near or in wetlands. revision of wetland assessment methods and application to future ratings wetland researchers at washington department of ecology developed a new, widely accepted physical module, the washington state wetland rating system (wswrs) (hruby 2004, hruby 2014), during development of the swinomish cultural module. the new physical system uses scores in nine sections by assessing a wetland’s three functions (improving water quality, hydrology, and habitat) for site potential, landscape potential, and site value to rate wetlands. our existing physical scores have not yet been updated to be consistent with the wswrs. while, as a sovereign nation, the tribe has no obligation to adopt the revised module or provide assessments on wetlands for private or individual trust landowners, we have initiated the process of reassessing all reservation wetlands using the wswrs physical module to facilitate use by tribal permitting and comparison to workers in adjacent jurisdictions. we are also completing new botanical surveys in wetlands without previous surveys, with the intent to survey half of all wetlands to develop updated cultural scores, reduce the number of cultural scores derived from reference wetlands, and further validate the method used to score and assign reference wetlands. swinomish cultural value rating as described here will be used to provide swinomish culturally relevant input to ongoing wetland rating, though the exact mechanism for inclusion is still under development. one option being considered is to use the swinomish cultural value rating as an alternate to the wswrs’s habitat-(site) value rating where the higher of the cultural or the habitat-(site) value would be the score for that rating. these wswrs value category scores are based on presence of threatened, endangered, or state priority species; high conservation value as determined by state; or importance to other local governments. for example, if the wetland had a habitat-site value rating of moderate, but the swinomish cultural rating was high the resulting habitat-site value would be high. however, if the swinomish cultural rating was low, the habitat-site value would remain moderate. this allows the cultural value of the wetland to potentially increase the total score by 1 to 2 points. total scores yield the category of wetland (i-iv). to ensure protection for high functioning wetlands, the wswrs mitchell et al. 2025. ethnobiology letters 16(1):1–9 7 data, methods & taxonomies ta b le 2 in co rp o ra ti n g th e p h ys ic al a n d n ew c u lt u ra l m o d u le s co re s. 1 w et la n d id en ti fi ed a ft er s w in o m is h 1 9 9 9 r ep o rt c o m p le te d . * b as ed o n s im ila ri ty s co re . w e tl an d 1 9 9 9 r e p o rt p h ys ic al m o d u le s co re n e w s w in o m is h c u lt u ra l m o d u le s co re c o m b in e d p h ys ic al & c u lt u ra l m o d u le s sc o re sc o re m ax p e rc e n t sc o re w e tl an d r ati n g r e fe re n ce w e tl an d * c u lt u ra l sc o re m ax c u lt u ra l sc o re p e rc e n t sc o re c u lt u ra l r ati n g sc o re m ax p e rc e n t sc o re sw in o m is h w e tl an d s r ati n g em g 1 8 8 1 1 4 7 7 .2 0 % h ig h b o t. su rv ey 2 0 0 3 1 3 1 8 7 2 .2 0 % m o d er at e 1 0 1 1 3 2 7 6 .5 2 % h ig h fc 1 6 5 9 6 6 7 .7 0 % m o d er at e sb t3 1 7 1 8 9 4 .4 0 % h ig h 8 2 1 1 4 7 1 .9 3 % h ig h fc 2 6 0 9 6 6 2 .5 0 % m o d er at e lt c 4 ,5 1 3 1 8 7 2 .2 0 % m o d er at e 7 3 1 1 4 6 4 .0 4 % m o d er at e fc 3 7 0 9 6 7 2 .9 0 % h ig h sb t3 1 7 1 8 9 4 .4 0 % h ig h 8 7 1 1 4 7 6 .3 2 % h ig h fc 4 7 1 1 0 2 6 9 .6 0 % m o d er at e b o t. su rv ey 2 0 1 6 1 8 1 8 1 0 0 .0 0 % h ig h 8 9 1 2 0 7 4 .1 7 % h ig h fc 5 5 3 9 9 5 3 .5 0 % lo w lt c 4 ,5 1 3 1 8 7 2 .2 0 % m o d er at e 6 6 1 1 7 5 6 .4 1 % lo w k b 1 7 2 1 1 4 6 3 .2 0 % m o d er at e b o t. su rv ey 2 0 1 6 7 1 8 3 8 .9 0 % lo w 7 9 1 3 2 5 9 .8 5 % m o d er at e k b 5 1 b o t. su rv ey 2 0 1 6 1 8 1 8 1 0 0 .0 0 % h ig h n /a lt c 1 5 3 1 1 4 4 6 .5 0 % lo w b o t. su rv ey 2 0 0 3 1 8 1 8 1 0 0 .0 0 % h ig h 7 1 1 3 2 5 3 .7 9 % lo w lt c 4 6 2 9 6 6 4 .6 0 % m o d er at e b o t. su rv ey 2 0 1 6 1 5 1 8 8 3 .3 0 % h ig h 7 7 1 1 4 6 7 .5 4 % h ig h lt c 5 6 2 9 6 6 4 .6 0 % m o d er at e b o t. su rv ey 2 0 1 6 1 3 1 8 7 2 .2 0 % m o d er at e 7 5 1 1 4 6 5 .7 9 % h ig h lt c 7 6 2 1 1 4 5 4 .4 0 % lo w b o t. su rv ey 2 0 0 3 1 7 1 8 9 4 .4 0 % h ig h 7 9 1 3 2 5 9 .8 5 % m o d er at e lt c 8 5 8 9 6 6 0 .4 0 % m o d er at e lt c 4 ,5 1 3 1 8 7 2 .2 0 % m o d er at e 7 1 1 1 4 6 2 .2 8 % m o d er at e m c 1 6 6 1 0 2 6 4 .7 0 % m o d er at e b o t. su rv ey 2 0 0 3 1 8 1 8 1 0 0 .0 0 % h ig h 8 4 1 2 0 7 0 .0 0 % h ig h m c 2 6 9 9 6 7 1 .9 0 % m o d er at e sb t3 1 7 1 8 9 4 .4 0 % h ig h 8 6 1 1 4 7 5 .4 4 % h ig h p b 1 8 3 1 1 1 7 4 .8 0 % h ig h k b 1 7 1 8 3 8 .9 0 % lo w 9 0 1 2 9 6 9 .7 7 % h ig h s1 1 0 2 1 1 4 8 9 .5 0 % h ig h b o t. su rv ey 2 0 0 3 1 8 1 8 1 0 0 .0 0 % h ig h 1 2 0 1 3 2 9 0 .9 1 % h ig h s2 6 6 1 1 4 5 7 .9 0 % m o d er at e b o t. su rv ey 2 0 0 3 1 3 1 8 7 2 .2 0 % m o d er at e 7 9 1 3 2 5 9 .8 5 % m o d er at e sb 1 6 9 9 6 7 1 .9 0 % m o d er at e lt c 4 ,5 1 3 1 8 7 2 .2 0 % m o d er at e 8 2 1 1 4 7 1 .9 3 % h ig h sb 2 6 3 9 6 6 5 .6 0 % m o d er at e lt c 4 ,5 1 3 1 8 7 2 .2 0 % m o d er at e 7 6 1 1 4 6 6 .6 7 % h ig h sb 3 6 4 1 0 2 6 2 .7 0 % m o d er at e lt c 4 ,5 1 3 1 8 7 2 .2 0 % m o d er at e 7 7 1 2 0 6 4 .1 7 % h ig h sb 4 6 0 9 6 6 2 .5 0 % m o d er at e fc 4 1 8 1 8 1 0 0 .0 0 % h ig h 7 8 1 1 4 6 8 .4 2 % h ig h sb 5 3 7 9 9 3 7 .4 0 % lo w lt c 1 1 8 1 8 1 0 0 .0 0 % h ig h 5 5 1 1 7 4 7 .0 1 % lo w sb 6 8 1 1 1 1 7 3 .0 0 % h ig h sb t1 6 1 8 3 3 .3 0 % lo w 8 7 1 2 9 6 7 .4 4 % h ig h sb t1 8 4 1 1 4 7 3 .7 0 % h ig h b o t. su rv ey 2 0 1 6 6 1 8 3 3 .3 0 % lo w 9 0 1 3 2 6 8 .1 8 % h ig h sb t2 4 7 9 6 4 9 .0 0 % lo w fc 4 1 8 1 8 1 0 0 .0 0 % h ig h 6 5 1 1 4 5 7 .0 2 % lo w sb t3 6 5 9 9 6 5 .7 0 % m o d er at e b o t. su rv ey 2 0 1 6 1 7 1 8 9 4 .4 0 % h ig h 8 2 1 1 7 7 0 .0 9 % h ig h sb t4 6 7 1 1 1 6 0 .4 0 % m o d er at e b o t. su rv ey 2 0 1 6 6 1 8 3 3 .3 0 % lo w 7 3 1 2 9 5 6 .5 9 % lo w sc 1 6 5 1 1 1 5 8 .6 0 % m o d er at e k b 1 7 1 8 3 8 .9 0 % lo w 7 2 1 2 9 5 5 .8 1 % lo w sc 1 4 , s c 8 4 7 9 6 4 9 .0 0 % lo w lt c 4 ,5 1 3 1 8 7 2 .2 0 % m o d er at e 6 0 1 1 4 5 2 .6 3 % lo w sc 2 5 9 1 0 2 5 7 .8 0 % m o d er at e lt c 4 ,5 1 3 1 8 7 2 .2 0 % m o d er at e 7 2 1 2 0 6 0 .0 0 % m o d er at e sc 3 5 9 9 6 6 1 .5 0 % m o d er at e lt c 4 ,5 1 3 1 8 7 2 .2 0 % m o d er at e 7 2 1 1 4 6 3 .1 6 % m o d er at e sc 4 5 3 1 1 1 4 7 .7 0 % lo w lt c 1 1 8 1 8 1 0 0 .0 0 % h ig h 7 1 1 2 9 5 5 .0 4 % lo w sc 5 5 2 9 6 5 4 .2 0 % lo w sb t3 1 7 1 8 9 4 .4 0 % h ig h 6 9 1 1 4 6 0 .5 3 % m o d er at e sc 6 5 5 9 6 5 7 .3 0 % m o d er at e sb t3 1 7 1 8 9 4 .4 0 % h ig h 7 2 1 1 4 6 3 .1 6 % m o d er at e sc 7 8 6 1 0 2 8 4 .3 0 % h ig h fc 4 1 8 1 8 1 0 0 .0 0 % h ig h 1 0 4 1 2 0 8 6 .6 7 % h ig h sc 9 5 5 9 6 5 7 .3 0 % m o d er at e sb t3 1 7 1 8 9 4 .4 0 % h ig h 7 2 1 1 4 6 3 .1 6 % m o d er at e mitchell et al. 2025. ethnobiology letters 16(1):1–9 8 data, methods & taxonomies categories i and ii are considered equivalent to the high class 1 in the ssac classification, category iii to moderate class 2, and category iv to low class 3. another option may be to select the higher of the wswrs rating or the swinomish cultural value as the final wetland score. we intend to evaluate these and/or other options based on analysis of all available wswrs and botanical survey data collected. discussion developing a cultural module establishes a way to include tribal cultural values in wetland assessments to protect traditionally used plants as a resource for the community. this method is an evaluation of current cultural valuation but does not take into account future plant availability. one limitation is this does not include other wetland resources like fauna or cultural practices related to wetlands as valuable places. however, having any method to include local cultural values in wetland evaluation is a significant improvement over the generic physical rating system. this method should be transferrable and adaptable to other communities. it should be noted that this method required large amounts of data and information from the traditional uses, botanical surveys, and wetland assessments and the expertise to collect the data. due to the amount of data and various ways we needed to combine or separate the data, the management of the data relied on the ability to gather, input, relate, and query the data within a database that was created for this purpose. we found it important to use the information in the module to protect all traditional species whether these resources had a current, past, or future use. this approach is protective of continuing traditional harvesting and any subsequent expansion or reinvigoration of a wide variety of traditional plant use by younger generations, either as a result of our efforts or others in the tribe. further work will develop an ethnobotanical journal article of our collected data and database for a future submission and more importantly for the tribe we are writing a guidebook of swinomish traditional plants compiling uses, lushootseed names, and elder quotes on traditional methods into an easy to read and use book for the community. coupling the guidebook with wetland locations, species present, and relative plant abundance in wetlands will help the community in continuing, expanding, or reviving traditional plant harvests. acknowledgments we are grateful to the tribal elders that are still with us and those that have passed on who contributed their plant knowledge in interviews for this project: bertha dan, gus stone, ivan willup, neah martin, floyd williams, sherman williams, dobe tom, bernita john, june mcleod, john cayou, liz cassimere, and alfreda bailey; and staff helping with the interviews: philip stone, harold williams, maggie finkbonner, becky stinson, and doreen booth. declarations permissions: tribal elders provided their verbal permission to be interviewed. sources of funding: initially funded through the u.s. environmental protection agency wetland management grant, then continued support of the swinomish tribe thereafter. conflicts of interest: none declared. references cited bates, d., t. hess, v. hilbert. 1994. lushootseed dictionary. university of washington press, seattle, wa. burke museum. 2019. herbarium image collection [webpage]. available at https:// biology.burke.washington.edu/herbarium/ imagecollection.php. accessed february 18, 2019. consortium of pacific northwest herbaria (cpnwh). 2019. specimen data [webpage]. available at http://www.pnwherbaria.org/data/ search.php. accessed february 18, 2019. cooke, s. s. 1996. wetland buffer functions semiquantitative assessment methodology, draft user’s manual. cooke scientific services, seattle, wa. cowardin, l. m., v. carter, f. c. golet, and e. t. laroe. 1979. classification of wetlands and deepwater habitats of the united states. publication fws/obs-79/31, u.s. fish and wildlife service. gunther, e. 1981. ethnobotany of western washington (revised edition, fourth printing). university of washington press, seattle, wa. hruby, t. 2004. washington state wetland rating system for western washington – revised. publication #04-06-025. washington state department of ecology, olympia, wa. mitchell et al. 2025. ethnobiology letters 16(1):1–9 9 data, methods & taxonomies hruby, t. 2014. washington state wetland rating system for western washington: 2014 update. publication #14-06-029. washington department of ecology. olympia, wa. mcgregor, d., s. whitaker, and m. sritharan, 2020. indigenous environmental justice and sustainability. current opinion in environmental sustainability, 43, pp. 35-40. mitchell, t. a. 2005. native uses of wetlands and natural resources planning: the swinomish tribal community's wetlands cultural assessment. practicing anthropology 27:11–14. reppert, r. t., w. sigles, e. stakhiv, l. messman, and c. meyers. 1979. wetlands values: concepts and methods for wetland evaluation. resource report 79-r1, institute for water resources, u.s. army corp of engineers, fort beloir, va. snyder, s. 1955. skagit ethnographic notes, 1950– 1955. unpublished field notes. swinomish indian tribal community. 1999. swinomish tribal community wetland inventory, skagit county, washington. prepared by adolfson associates, inc, seattle, wa. swinomish indian tribal community. 2003. swinomish traditional uses of wetlands plants. prepared by swinomish water resources program, laconner, wa. swinomish indian tribal community. 2018. title 19 chapter 4 shorelines and sensitive areas. available at: https://swinomish-nsn.gov/ media/4944/1904shorelines_sensitiveareas.pdf. accessed october 9, 2018. u.s. army corps of engineers (usace). 2016 national wetland plant list, version 3.3 [webpage]. available at: http:// wetland_plants.usace.army.mil/. accessed october 4, 2016. growing the taraco peninsula: indigenous agricultural landscapes. by maria c. bruno. 2024. university of colorado press, denver. 232 pp. villar. 2025. ethnobiology letters 16(1):93–95 93 reviews early twenty first century aymara, followed by technical discussion of the chapter’s topic, allowing readers to see change and continuity between the archaeological record and modern andean peoples. apart from the first and final chapter, each chapter covers a different aspect of food preparation, from planting the fields to cooking the meal. the final chapter is more of a reflective one, focused on the role of ethnobiology and archaeology in informing sustainable practices, both in the altiplano and beyond. chapter 2 focuses on the various communities which have inhabited the taraco peninsula, and how the taraco archaeological project has informed us of how their waxing and waning has been influenced by, and influences, the wider altiplano environment. we learn about continuity in the social structure of chiripa, such as the nineteenth century mestizo manor house having been built near one of the major pre-columbian mounds, and change, such as the increasing prominence of female mallkus, or community leaders, in chiripa. we get a broad timeline of social change in the altiplano, which grounds the rest of the chapters. chapter 3 focuses on field preparation. the chapter discusses how the agricultural calendar of the modern aymara campesino follows the same pattern described nearly 500 years ago by early spanish chroniclers, starting with qhulltayxasina, or the clearing of the field of rocks, removal of vegetation, and breaking of dirt clods. we learn about the paleoclimate of the altiplano, and how lake levels have fluctuated considerably over its history, and how these changes in lake levels and precipitation have amongst andeanists, perhaps no long-term research site is more renown than the taraco site on the southern banks of lake titicaca. since 1992, when christine hastorf began to study the archaeology, and particularly the archaeobotany of the taraco peninsula, this peninsula in lake titicaca on the bolivian side of the altiplano has been providing insights into various aspects of indigenous life in the andes, from early human settlement to contemporary peoples. the taraco archaeological project includes ethnographers, zoologists, botanists, and of course archaeologists, and is the home to some of the most interesting work in the andes today, including the work of the maria c. bruno, who now co-directs the project, and author of growing the taraco peninsula. growing the taraco peninsula is a synthesis of taraco archaeological project’s last thirty years, especially as regards agriculture. it provides readers with an overall picture of the goals of the taraco archaeological project, going from a bird’s eye view to detailed case studies of plant use and environmental change in the region. it has unique value in integrating ethnographic findings of the contemporary aymara residents of the altiplano with palaeobotanical information, allowing readers to see continuity from past to present andean societies. the tone, which has an almost novelistic quality, is set from the beginning. the book begins with a description of the morning routine of the quispe family, campesinos in whose house bruno stayed during her doctoral fieldwork, before transitioning to a more detailed discussion of andean agriculture and aymara ethnogenesis. most chapters of the book follow a similar pattern, starting with ethnographic accounts of growing the taraco peninsula: indigenous agricultural landscapes. by maria c. bruno. 2024. university of colorado press, denver. 232 pp. daniel a. villar1* 1department of biology, university of oxford, oxford, uk. 2department of anthropology, durham university, durham, uk. *daniel.a.villar@durham.ac.uk received february 13, 2025 open access accepted july 16, 2025 doi 10.14237/ebl.16.1.2025.1941 published september 5, 2025 copyright © 2025 by the author(s); licensee society of ethnobiology. this is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution-noncommercial 4.0 international public license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0), which permits non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. villar. 2025. ethnobiology letters 16(1):93–95 94 reviews caused ancient societies in the region to rise and collapse. there is also a discussion of one of the most well studied aspects of pre-columbian agriculture, raised fields (erickson 1992; janusek and kolata 2004), which required entire communities to engineer and maintain, and how they fell out of use as a result of first incan, and then spanish, imperial conquest and governance. chapters 4 and 5 focus on planting, and harvesting respectively, but can be considered two halves of the same chapter, as both deal with the biological aspects of the plants and animals used by andean peoples. chapter 4 focuses on domesticated plants, such as potatoes and quinoa. perhaps unsurprisingly given bruno’s specialty (bruno 2003; bruno and whitehead 2003), the most detailed subsection is that devoted to chenopods, such as quinoa, and their history. chapter 5 focuses on wild plants. the author discusses how there can be species where the line between domesticated and wild are blurry, such as wild chenopods historically eaten in times of poor harvest and now seen as sources of new varieties of high value quinoa. chapters 6 and 7 are explicitly labelled as parts 1 and 2 of the transformation of plants to food. the first part focuses on the harvest, where we learn how, after centuries of relatively little change in how crops are harvested in the altiplano, the last few decades have seen a revolution as the tractor replaces hand harvesting in much of the region. chapter 7 focuses on food preparation. the remarkable aspect of food preparation and its history in the taraco peninsula is how conservative it is; as far as the archaeological evidence can show us, for all the political, social, and environmental changes which the altiplano has experienced over the last several millennia food has remained relatively unchanged. new ingredients get added and old ones forgotten, and no doubt recipes change, but the core of the andean diet, being tubers and chenopods, remains unchanged from the start of andean agriculture to today. in both the introduction and the final chapter, bruno argues that the agricultural practices of the taraco peninsula can inform sustainability as “resurgent communities; whose practices allow for human communities to endure in an area for a long time without exhausting the organic and inorganic entities that they depend upon” (p. 23). bruno does not ignore the difficulties of scaling up indigenous agricultural practices, or how “sustainability” has become a buzzword in certain quarters. she recognizes that many practices of traditional taraco agriculture are not scalable. she also mentions how many traditional practices are being left by the wayside by the people of taraco itself, as the youth move to cities like el alto and bread and pasta replace traditional grains in the diet. while arguable beyond the scope of a book focused on the taraco peninsula, there is no grappling with the economic causes as to why rural youth prefer city life to the life of their ancestors. nor are there specific testable hypotheses about what aspects of traditional andean agriculture can be used to inform sustainable agriculture (e.g., jago and borrell 2024) in a world where smallholder agriculture is increasingly giving way to industrial agriculture. this book is the culmination of over thirty archaeological field seasons in the taraco peninsula and deftly incorporates contemporary ethnography and aymara voices with archaeological evidence to trace cultural and environmental change in the altiplano. for andeanists and environmental anthropologists, this book is a necessary addition to their bookshelves. for environmental anthropologists, it showcases the importance of combining multiple strands of evidence, historical and contemporary. the accessible writing style means it can be assigned to upper-level anthropology classes as an example of how to write about interdisciplinary projects. references cited bruno, m. c. 2003. formative agriculture? the status of chenopodium domestication and intensification at chiripa, bolivia (1500 b.c.-100 b.c.). msc thesis, washington university in saint louis, st. louis, usa. bruno, m. c., and w. t. whitehead. 2003. chenopodium cultivation and formative period agriculture at chiripa, bolivia. latin american antiquity 14:339– 355. doi:10.2307/3557565. erickson, c. l. 1992. prehistoric landscape management in the andean highlands: raised field agriculture and its environmental impact. population and environment 13:285–300. doi:10.1007/bf01271028. jago, s., and j. s. borrell. 2024. agrobiodiversity conservation enables sustainable and equitable land sparing. trends in ecology & evolution 39:877– 880. doi:10.1016/j.tree.2024.08.009. villar. 2025. ethnobiology letters 16(1):93–95 95 reviews janusek, j. w., and a. l. kolata. 2004. top-down or bottom-up: rural settlement and raised field agriculture in the lake titicaca basin, bolivia. journal of anthropological archaeology 23:404–430. doi:10.1016/j.jaa.2004.08.001. creation of a field guide to camas prairie plants with undergraduates: project-based learning combined with epistemological decolonization bowcutt. 2021. ethnobiology letters 12(1):21-31 21 data, methods & taxonomies both technically and ethically? how is the legacy of colonization linked to the need for habitat restoration? and how might structural racism impact contemporary conservation efforts? this case study provides a model for linking interdisciplinary instruction with project-based learning. in 2016, the evergreen state college press published the first edition of vascular plants of the south sound prairies (figure 1), a much-needed reference for plant identification that serves both the public and professionals involved in camas (camassia quamash) prairie and oregon white oak (quercus garryana) woodland conservation in the south puget sound region (bowcutt and hamman 2016). this vegetation mosaic is the focus of ongoing ecological restoration in multiple places within the willamette valley/puget introduction this essay examines how the creation of herbariumbased online resources and a field guide with undergraduates can support a more holistic way of teaching floristic research methods, historical ecology, and ecological restoration. project-based learning, such as this, involves “a systematic teaching method that engages students in learning knowledge and skills through an extended inquiry process structured around complex, authentic questions and carefully designed projects and tasks” (markham et al. 2003:4). in ethnobiology courses, students gain skills in multiple disciplines, which can include plant taxonomy and botanical illustration. they often also engage complex conservation questions such as: how can cultural landscapes1 like camas prairies be restored creation of a field guide to camas prairie plants with undergraduates: project-based learning combined with epistemological decolonization frederica bowcutt1* 1environmental studies, the evergreen state college, olympia, usa. *bowcuttf@evergreen.edu abstract remnant camas prairies and associated oak woodlands are the focus of contemporary indigenous food sovereignty efforts in the salish sea (aka puget sound) region of western washington. they are also the focus of research and restoration to conserve at-risk species of animals and plants protected under the united states endangered species act. currently there is little collaboration between tribes and restoration scientists. these conditions create an opportunity and ethical imperative for developing undergraduate curriculum that highlights the connections between biodiversity conservation and traditional indigenous ecological knowledge. patchy mosaic prairie-oak woodland vegetation visibly reflects the imprint of human activity, which includes past burning to foster native food plants including common camas (camassia quamash) and oregon white oak (quercus garryana). using a floristic research project focused on these cultural landscapes as a case study, this essay illustrates how interdisciplinary inquiry and service learning can enrich college-level plant taxonomy curriculum, while creating rich opportunities for students to link their botanical studies to a historicallygrounded understanding of why the conservation challenges exist in the first place. through this collaborative, multi-year research effort, students contribute to the production of needed resources useful to regional conservation efforts. affiliated learning communities also consider what it might mean to decolonize botanical knowledge in the context of ecological restoration. received august 8, 2020 open access accepted december 16, 2020 doi 10.14237/ebl.12.1.2021.1723 published february 12, 2021 keywords cultural landscapes, decolonizing pedagogical praxis, historical ecology, interdisciplinary learning, undergraduate floristic research copyright © 2021 by the author(s); licensee society of ethnobiology. this is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution-noncommercial 4.0 international public license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0), which permits non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. bowcutt. 2021. ethnobiology letters 12(1):21-31 22 data, methods & taxonomies trough/georgia basin ecoregion, which extends from the willamette valley of western oregon north to southwestern british columbia (hosten et al. 2006; thorpe and stanley 2011). the first edition of the field guide involved contributions from over forty students between 2003 and 2016. the end result was a novel, accessible tool for plant identification tailored to these biodiverse ecosystems. the most commonly used field guide for western washington by pojar and mackinnon (2014) focuses primarily on coniferous forests. the primary pacific northwest flora, which was recently updated, uses technical language that makes it inaccessible to many people (hitchcock and cronquist 2018). the first print run of 300 copies of vascular plants of the south sound prairies sold out in less than two weeks indicating pent up demand for a local field guide of this kind. undergraduate students at the evergreen state college conducted most of the field, herbarium, and library research needed to write the field guide. they generated hundreds of botanical illustrations and voucher specimens. student staff members in the evergreen herbarium also digitized and databased the pressed plant specimens to make them accessible online through the consortium of pacific northwest herbaria. short essays covering various aspects of these unique ecosystems were generated for the field figure 1 cover of the field guide designed by student jackie argueta, upper photo of showy fleabane (erigeron speciosus) by rod gilbert and lower photo of camas prairie by frederica bowcutt. on the right, a page with student illustrations of early blue violet (viola adunca ssp. adunca) by kate mcsorley, stream violet (v. glabella) by lisa hintz, and upland yellow violet (v. praemorsa var. praemorsa) by brita zeiler. bowcutt. 2021. ethnobiology letters 12(1):21-31 23 data, methods & taxonomies guide by advanced students and professional scientists from evergreen, centralia college, and the non-profit organization center for natural lands management (cnlm). discipline-based skill building formed the bedrock of our work. the field guide created opportunities for students to apply what they had learned through lectures, readings, illustration workshops, and plant taxonomy labs. through the project, students honed their sight recognition skills for plant identification and learned to use technical dichotomous keys as well as online identification tools. they learned how to portray important diagnostic characters through their detailed scientific illustrations and written descriptions. building on their increasing competency in plant taxonomy and botanical illustration, students considered the historical ecology of the prairies as anthropogenic ecosystems managed by indigenous peoples who traditionally used fire to promote a polyculture of native food, fiber, forage, and medicine plants (leopold and boyd 1999; norton 1979; sinclair et al. 2006; storm and shebitz 2006). readings and lectures also examined the impacts of european and euroamerican (white) settlement of western washington during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries as it relates to historical and contemporary conservation issues (hintz 2016a). floristic research projects and their importance to conservation work herbarium “specimens are the fundamental records of [plant] biodiversity” in large part because they enable other researchers to verify identifications if there is a question (prather et al. 2004:216). in the western botany tradition, collections of pressed, dried, and mounted plant specimens are housed in herbaria typically on college and university campuses. state parks, the united states forest service, national park service, and other land managing governmental agencies rarely have the resources to fund years of floristic research or maintain collections of voucher specimens. yet floristic information and herbarium specimens are critical to science-based land management. for this reason, it can be argued that figure 2 high-resolution images of herbarium specimens of prairie and oak woodland plants housed in the evergreen herbarium (eve) can be accessed on the consortium of pacific northwest herbaria website at https://www.pnwherbaria.org. the salish sea is pictured on the upper left and camas specimens on the far right. bowcutt. 2021. ethnobiology letters 12(1):21-31 24 data, methods & taxonomies institutions of higher learning have the potential to play vital roles in floristic research. although the evergreen herbarium is a small one, our students contribute to one of the most urgent conservation concerns in our immediate area through our ongoing multi-year commitment to documenting the floristic diversity of local camas prairies and associated oak woodlands. in the words of university of washington prairie expert peter dunwiddie (bowcutt and hamman 2016:back cover): this project represents an important contribution towards furthering public understanding of, and support for, a rare ecosystem. by developing an illustrated flora for the prairie habitats in this region, this effort will significantly increase public awareness of the unusual species that are found in this highly endangered habitat. … furthermore, this effort is being carried out in a manner that greatly facilitates participation by students in the preparation of the text and figures. this is a commendable and creative effort to engage nonprofessionals in furthering the conservation of this habitat, while educating themselves and others in the process. biodiversity informatics make it possible for us to share our research results broadly through the internet to facilitate collaboration with other public institutions, non-profit organizations, and local tribes. images of our prairie voucher specimens are available on a website maintained by the consortium of pacific northwest herbaria (figure 2). these high-resolution images can be used to confirm plant identifications and locate populations. in addition to making our voucher specimens available online, undergraduate students created a website featuring wikipedia-style pages for over 100 vascular plants with descriptions and photographs including images of the magnified figure 3 salish sea prairie flora project wiki generated by undergraduate students. for photo credits and additional information, go to wikis.evergreen.edu/pugetprairieplants. bowcutt. 2021. ethnobiology letters 12(1):21-31 25 data, methods & taxonomies seeds (figure 3). these photographs aid in the seed gathering and identification work required for propagating native species for restoration. information sharing online can amplify the contributions small liberal arts colleges with an herbarium can make to regional conservation. interdisciplinary, place-based pedagogy interdisciplinary studies “best prepares students for the complex issues facing our society” (smith 2003:50 –51; see also kinzie 2013). many college students are interested in learning about indigenous uses of plants for food, fiber, and medicine. however, ahistorical ethnobotanical inquiry has a deeply problematic legacy given the often negative social and environmental consequences of settler colonial commercialization of plants after ethnobotanical information is shared, often without permission. indeed, botanists have a long history of aiding imperialist and colonial agendas as resource scouts expanding commodity frontiers by seeking out potentially profitable plants and exploiting indigenous knowledge (brockway 2002; schiebinger 2004). even “well-meaning” researchers can unintentionally cause harm by attempting to “help” indigenous people through patronizing, self-serving, and/or voyeuristic research (land 2015; smith 2012). with this legacy in mind, higher education needs to deliver more than a narrow vocational training. although attempting to “decolonize our minds” is an ongoing process, place-based curriculum can help to decenter epistemic imperialism including hegemonic claims of objective, universal scientific knowledge construction (gahman and legault 2019:65–66; see also tuck and yang 2012). in my field plant taxonomy program, we visited many remnant and restored prairies on the ancestral lands of coast salish peoples, including the chehalis and nisqually nations. these cultural landscapes or ecosystems are among washington’s most endangered habitats and the fraction of them that remain are significantly degraded. due to the loss in acreage of roughly 97% of these special ecosystems since white settlement began in the mid-1800s, a number of species that depend on them are listed under the endangered species act (hintz 2016b). ecological restoration is funded in part to prevent the extinction of prairie-dependent species, such as the federallyprotected golden paintbrush (castilleja levisecta). the technical expertise of how to foster prairie and oak woodlands in conifer-dominated western washington has grown significantly over the last few decades, including the use of fire (dunwiddie and bakker 2011; hamman et al. 2011). there is also a growing awareness that recognizing and honoring traditional ecological knowledge is critical “if restoration is to accurately reflect the historical ecology and ethnoecology of place” (storm and shebitz 2006:266). currently, tribal involvement in prairie restoration in the south salish sea region is very limited. however, efforts are underway to cultivate “partnerships based in trust, reciprocity, and respect” that “[draw] on western and indigenous ways of knowing” to foster healthy prairie ecosystems (nabhan 2018:84). prescribed burning has already been adopted as a common management tool, vindicating indigenous stewardship practices developed over thousands of years. unfortunately, contemporary burning promotes some non-native plants, such as hairy cat’s-ear (hypochaeris radicata) and various perennial pasture grasses, spurring some restoration ecologists to use herbicides to control these invasive species to favor native species. however, tribal members from the area express concern about the safety of harvesting plant foods, medicines, and basket weaving materials after pesticide spraying. the complex subject of non-native plants in the context of conservation offers a rich topic for student discussion. white settlers introduced eurasian pasture grasses because they withstood continuous livestock grazing, particularly sheep, better than the native bunchgrasses and they made better hay (brockway 2002:45; norton 1979:179). gardening served as a central metaphor for colonists who sought to subdue and civilize unruly native landscapes in part through “displanting” the indigenous species deemed inferior (mastnak et al. 2014). decolonizing botanical knowledge decolonization of knowledge (or epistemological decolonization) efforts often incorporate deconstruction and reconstruction. according to madden and mcgregor (2013:372), deconstruction involves examining colonization and colonial strategies that continue to be utilized by settlers to exploit, and justify the theft of, indigenous lands and resources … reconstruction centers indigenous epistemologies and ontologies in working toward localized education and research priorities as outlined by indigenous communities. bowcutt. 2021. ethnobiology letters 12(1):21-31 26 data, methods & taxonomies as i wrestle with the question what might it mean to decolonize botanical knowledge, my current pedagogical praxis includes: (1) helping students understand the historical roots of western botany as a discipline including its role in biopiracy, linguistic imperialism, and intellectual property rights violations (bowcutt and caulkins 2020; brockway 2002; schiebinger 2004); (2) making land dispossession, genocide, resistance, and survival visible in historical accounts of indigenous peoples in part through placebased education; (3) bringing my students into dialogue with contemporary indigenous scholars; and (4) drawing from multiple disciplines to teach students analytical tools that are useful for a more nuanced ability to interpret and link historical and ecological information. in decolonizing methodologies, linda tuhiwai smith (ngāti awa and ngāti porou, māori) addresses the importance of deconstructing imperial accounts of the past, which students practiced in this project through their study of white settlement’s ecological impacts on local prairies. during white settlement of western north america, euro-americans actively stopped the burning practices of native peoples (anderson 2005; bowcutt 2015; bunting 1997; leopold and boyd 1999; norton 1979). most settlers failed to recognize or respect the traditional ecological knowledge of indigenous peoples who used fire as a tool to clear competing conifers and favor prairies and oak woodlands (stewart 2002; whitlock and knox 2002). these cultural ecosystems maintained by regular burning support valued plant foods including acorns from oregon white oak trees (q. garryana), camas bulbs (camassia spp.), berries (amelanchier alnifolia, fragaria spp., and rubus ursinus), biscuitroot (lomatium spp.), bracken fern rhizomes (pteridium aquilinum), riceroot (fritillaria affinis) and wild sunflower seeds from deltoid balsamroot (balsamorhiza deltoidea) as well as medicine and basket plants such as nettle (urtica dioica) and hemp dogbane (apocynum cannabinum) (carpenter 1986:8; norton 1979). prairie-oak woodland mosaics also provide important forage for deer (odocoileus hemionus columbianus) and elk (cervus canadensis ssp. roosevelti) (norton 1979; weiser and lepofsky 2009:185). after the nisqually nation and other local tribes obtained horses through trading with the nez perce tribe, the prairies provided pasturage as well (norton 1979). instead of recognizing the existence of different forms of knowledge and legitimate land management goals, fire was seen as a threat to personal property by settlers. native people who persisted in trying to use it as a tool on a landscape-scale were viewed as arsonists who wasted natural resources. through deconstructed accounts of the past, students learned how racial hierarchies promoted as objective scientific fact by nineteenth and early twentieth century anthropologists among others served to justify colonization. despite their active use of fire to promote desirable plants for food, fiber, forage, and medicine production, indigenous peoples were dispossessed of their lands during white settlement in part based on the argument that only active agricultural land use gave people legitimate land claims. as ethnobotanists douglas deur and nancy j. turner (2005:8) argue, “misrepresentation of subsistence practices by explorers, settlers, and early anthropologists” led to the misperception that northwest coast indigenous peoples did not cultivate plants for food but rather passively gathered food stuffs. american land claims in the nineteenth century hinged on a definition of agriculture that excluded the coast salish food production systems. by learning about the collision of worldviews that occurred during british settlement and subsequent american expansion, students began to understand the impacts of white settlement on local ecosystems and indigenous communities. students considered how early agriculture during white settlement damaged cultural landscapes that local tribes depended on, including the nisqually and puyallup indian tribes. in 1838, hudson’s bay company employees based in london decided to establish an agricultural outpost near the mouth of the nisqually river (carpenter 1986). to distinguish it from the fur trade branch of the business, it was called the puget sound agricultural company. once in operation, it introduced thousands of spanish horned cattle, horses, sheep, and other livestock that significantly damaged native food plants like camas growing in the area (norton 1979). the british company was shipping “surplus grain, butter, and cheese to the russians in alaska” by 1841 and in 1845, they exported 10,000 pounds of wool to england (washington state archives 2020). through floristic analysis and lidar aerial photography, students learned to interpret the visible impacts of this history on the land in the form of prairies degraded by plowing, overgrazing, and introduction of non-native plants. using a reconstructionist lens, students engaged with the work of various contemporary indigenous bowcutt. 2021. ethnobiology letters 12(1):21-31 27 data, methods & taxonomies scholars to center indigenous ways of knowing. students considered the responsibility of humans to relate to other life forms as relatives, an aspect of kincentric ecology. enrique salmón (2012:21) explains in his book eating the landscape: “without human recognition of their role in the complexities of life in a place, the life suffers and loses its sustainability.” through a tedx talk on food sovereignty, local nutrition educator valerie segrest (muckleshoot) introduced students to the concept of traditional native foods being critical for contemporary indigenous health. students also read the work of fire ecologist frank lake (karuk) and restoration ecologist dennis martinez (o'odham/chicano) who explained the opportunities and challenges of integrating traditional ecological knowledge into ecological restoration projects (senos et al. 2006). linguistic scholar zalmai zahir (sioux) introduced students to lushootseed names for common native plants and the etymology of these indigenous names. lushootseed is one of the coast salish languages currently undergoing active revival. the work of two contemporary indigenous artists matika wilbur (swinomish/tulalip) and evergreen alumna tracy rector (choctaw/seminole) illustrated the concept of survivance for students. the term celebrates survival and resistance; it “accentuates the degree to which indigenous peoples and communities have retained cultural and spiritual values and authenticity in resisting colonialism” (smith 2012:146). rector’s multimedia installation ‘clearwater: people of the salish sea’ (2018) shown in the ‘double exposure’ exhibit at seattle art museum featured current-day camas harvesting. through discussions and assignments, students worked to synthesize what they learned from indigenous scholars with their other studies on the historical ecology and ecological restoration of local prairies and oak woodlands. although it does not address the root causes of harm caused by colonialism, incorporating indigenous content and place-based histories of colonization into botany curriculum can be viewed as “short-term, harm reduction practices” that “can become the first step toward opening up other, more thoroughly transformative higher education futures” (stein 2019:157). capstone opportunities offering capstone opportunities for undergraduate students who are ready for advanced research is widely recognized as a high-impact practice (kuh 2008). the integrative learning that often occurs through these culminating experiences can result in more holistic understanding for students (kinzie 2013). in the context of this project, nearly twenty students have gained capstone experiences typically in their junior or senior year through an internship, a paid fellowship, and/or independent study. in 2016, i launched the prairie conservation internship program with sarah hamman, a restoration ecologist for a local non-profit conservation organization and a frequent visiting faculty member in the master in environmenfigure 4 nisqually tribal member chantay anderson’s graduation present to herself, a camas tattoo based on an illustration by frederica bowcutt from the field guide. photo and tattoo by sean lindseth, published with permission from chantay anderson. bowcutt. 2021. ethnobiology letters 12(1):21-31 28 data, methods & taxonomies tal studies program at evergreen. formerly she worked for cnlm, but recently joined the ecostudies institute. with the support of dr. hamman as their field supervisor, the interns gain hands-on experience in prairie restoration and ecological monitoring techniques in a professional setting. after graduation, many of the interns have successfully competed for paid positions in prairie restoration with cnlm and americorps. one former intern, chantay anderson, now works for the nisqually tribe on food sovereignty initiatives as a tribal member and as the nisqually community garden project supervisor (figure 4). the praxis of decolonizing education is always a work in progress. having native students complete the program creates the potential for building ongoing relationships that can facilitate greater collaboration with local tribal communities in the future. multiple students have completed capstone experiences in support of this collaborative floristic research project. two students in their senior year served as paid summer undergraduate research fellows (surf). tari gunstone in 2018 and geena barker in 2019 contributed towards a second edition of the field guide. adrienne chitwood, who aspires to become a scientific illustrator, completed six-months of independent work during her senior year to generate thirty-five new illustrations. lisa hintz learned to use an auto-montage microscope and then generated high-resolution photographs of seeds from native plants used in local prairie restoration most of which are not available commercially. her images continue to be used by the friends of puget prairies to sort hand-gathered seeds and weed out non-native species. various non-profit organizations propagate plants for restoration efforts from the sorted seeds. for her final senior project, hintz wrote a history of the impact of white settlement on local prairie ecosystems drawing from primary historical materials. although she graduated in 2017, hintz remains committed to the project and will be one of the editors of the second edition which is slated for publication in 2023. applications to other institutions of higher learning many opportunities to contribute to plant conservation exist in the united states that could become a focus of project-based learning. even at more traditional universities and colleges, similar projects could be developed as a capstone experience for seniors or a summer immersive practicum for upper division students. many students engaged in botany and environmental studies curriculum are doing so with the hopes of contributing in meaningful ways that advance environmental sustainability and social equity. the incorporation of bioinformatics into floristic research has the potential to improve access to herbaria in ways that help diversify its users and contributors. most major herbaria at institutions of higher learning in the united states are already digitizing their collections. however, people of color remain underrepresented in science. decolonizing pedagogical praxis might begin to address this problem. according to clare land (2015:82), author of decolonizing solidarity “a key role for non-indigenous people seeking to be politically supportive of indigenous people is to educate themselves and other non-indigenous people, to lessen the demands on indigenous people to do this educating.” learning historical ecology can be a good place to start. conclusion herbarium-based floristic research involving undergraduate students can help to reimagine botany curriculum. decolonization praxis can begin to relieve the burden often put on indigenous peoples to educate others about the ecological legacy of colonialism. through their study of prairie biodiversity enhanced by indigenous burning practices, students came to appreciate how restoration of these cultural landscapes requires an interdisciplinary approach that is historically grounded and involves tribal partners as well as indigenous leadership. based on this case study, students benefited from a placeand project-based curriculum that engaged them “in an active quest for understanding in a faculty-student cooperative environment” (noam chomsky quoted in freire 2018:194). students embraced their work, mastered new skills, contributed to collective work, and made valuable contributions to local biodiversity conservation while studying the history of colonialization and its legacy in the context of local prairie and associated oak woodland restoration. by responding to and supporting student interests, experiential learning and purposeful work can result in good outcomes for both students and the conservation efforts they serve. notes 1according to cultural anthropologist joyce lecompte, some people prefer the term cultural bowcutt. 2021. ethnobiology letters 12(1):21-31 29 data, methods & taxonomies ecosystems over cultural landscapes to more clearly distinguish systems that require human involvement to persist (june 2020, pers. comm.). acknowledgments the evergreen state college sits on the traditional lands of the medicine creek treaty tribes: the squaxin island tribe, nisqually indian tribe, and the puyallup tribe of indians. the 1854 treaty ceding these lands remains in dispute. i am grateful to the evergreen state college, the evergreen state college foundation, and the washington native plant society for generous support of the salish sea prairie flora project. i received valuable feedback on earlier drafts of this essay from geena barker, sarah hamman, john mclain, julia metzker, katherine sackman, eirik steinhoff, and two anonymous reviewers. thanks also to andrew flachs, andrew gillreath-brown, and marc morris for their skillful editorial work. sarah haynor updated the wiki for figure 3. thank you to my former students for permission to use their work. declarations permissions: i received written permission to use images of and by my former students who are acknowledged in the manuscript. sources of funding: i am grateful to the evergreen state college, the evergreen state college foundation, and the washington native plant society for generous support of the salish sea prairie flora project. conflicts of interest: none declared. references cited anderson, m. k. 2005. tending the wild: native knowledge and the management of california’s natural resources. university of california press, berkeley, ca. bowcutt, f. 2015. the tanoak tree: an environmental history of a pacific coast 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shebitz. 2006. evaluating the purpose, extent, and ecological restoration applications of indigenous burning practices in southwestern washington. ecological restoration 24:256–268. thorpe, a. s., and a. g. stanley. 2011. determining appropriate goals for restoration of imperiled communities and species. journal of applied ecology 48:275–279. doi:10.1111/j. 1365-2664.2011.01972. bowcutt. 2021. ethnobiology letters 12(1):21-31 31 data, methods & taxonomies tuck, e., and k. w. yang. 2012. decolonization is not a metaphor. decolonization: indigeneity education & society 1:1–40. washington state archives. 2020. territorial timeline: puget sound agricultural company organized [web page]. available at: https:// www.sos.wa.gov/legacy/timeline/detail.aspx? id=178. accessed on january 6, 2021. the advent of phylocode: the continuing evolution of biological nomenclature. by michel laurin. 2024. crc press, taylor and francis group, boca raton. 209 pp. ellen. 2025. ethnobiology letters 16(1):113–115 113 reviews developments has arguably turned this into a crisis, where we can only describe effectively a small fraction of the total. greater knowledge of biodiversity has led to more taxonomic instability, cladistics revealing ever more taxa as paraphyletic rather than monophyletic. the ontological status of the species concept seems no nearer to resolution, being inapplicable to many organisms. what are the disadvantages of using ‘species’ as a shorthand unit for measuring biodiversity? do we overstate or understate the number because of confusions in delimiting them, or in differentiating ‘chrono-species’ at arbitrary transition points? computerized information retrieval and ai has permitted experimentation with sophisticated methods, although numerical taxonomy has only compounded the problems. the establishment of international codes of biological nomenclature designed to produce agreement on various meta-groups of organisms has similarly led to further confusion through failure to agree basic concepts, while attempts to produce a single code have met resistance from opposing groups of specialists. the ultimate objective of this book is to find a more workable naming system compliant with evolutionary pathways, which avoids continual name changes due to ranking shifts and new discoveries. but if there is a compelling validity in aligning phylogeny with classification and nomenclature, then cladistics too faces problems: in defining clades, multiple nesting through inexplicit delimitation of taxa and ‘cascades of name changes.’ in dealing with eukaryote hybridity, and with lateral gene transfer, in this book, michel laurin’s goal is to review the existing and historic problems of rank-based taxonomic classification and nomenclature (rn) and to promote instead phylogenetic inference and nomenclature (pn). while rn is based on overall similarity in which evolutionary relationships are formally at least irrelevant (as they were for linnaeus), pn is increasingly undermining the logic of rn through a rigorous application of cladistical methods. concerned only to establish evolutionary relationships through demonstration of shared inheritance of characters, cladistics though now normalized was once regarded dangerous. in cladistics, all taxa are ‘clades’ defined through the most parsimonious tree of character traits, with good delimitation and a stronger relationship between name and content. laurin is an advocate of phylocode (the international code of phylogenetic nomenclature) as a necessary if imperfect solution to the current impasse in biological nomenclature. he argues its relevance in both evolutionary sciences, and in conservation policy where political arguments around biodiversity loss have required better ways of measuring it. apart from the lack of an ultimate objective basis for linnaean categories, the main challenge for systematics has been the sheer numbers of new taxa reported. this latter results especially from the use of molecular methods for micro-organisms, and the extension of rn conventions to bacteria, archaeans and viruses. many taxa remain un-named as the backlog is so overwhelming. the speed of recent the advent of phylocode: the continuing evolution of biological nomenclature. by michel laurin. 2024. crc press, taylor and francis group, boca raton. 209 pp. roy ellen1* 1centre for biocultural diversity, university of kent, canterbury, uk. *rfe@kent.ac.uk received june 4, 2025 open access accepted july 14, 2025 doi 10.14237/ebl.16.1.2025.1968 published september 15, 2025 copyright © 2025 by the author(s); licensee society of ethnobiology. this is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution-noncommercial 4.0 international public license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0), which permits non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. ellen. 2025. ethnobiology letters 16(1):113–115 114 reviews evolution seems somehow less predominantly divergent than once assumed. what makes this book important for ethnobiologists is laurin’s explicit and sympathetic engagement with the literature on folk classification, and its use to interrogate scientific taxonomy. perhaps we should not be surprised that these specialisms seek to converse. taxonomy is among the most scholarly, literary, and complexly byzantine branches of biology, passionate about its underlying philosophy, about the precise use of words and the interpretation of codes, with much in common with black-letter law, and forever reflecting on its own history. more pragmatically, taxonomists have found in local ethnobiological knowledge evidence helpful in their empirical work. for these reasons, we might have expected something on the influence of european ‘indigenous’ knowledge on the development of taxonomy, and on the impact other pre-linnaeans such as g. e. rumphius, who borrowed and latinized binomial nomenclature from ambonese malay (ellen 2024; peeters 1979). laurin does not cover the fundamental ways in which literacy has shaped and radically changed how classification works, whether in chinese characters, egyptian hieroglyphs or in the alphabetic languages of the ancient mediterranean (pommerening and bisang 2017), which might go some way in explaining the ‘rank inflation’ he notes in roman natural history (e.g., pp. 15, 22, 31). some have even suggested that writing itself ‘silences’ the indigenous experience: it certainly simplifies and deforms it. laurin suggests that there might be more ‘stability’ in the use of implicit ethnobiological ranks and vernacular names for macro-organisms than in scientific taxonomy. he approves of the pragmatic flexibility of ‘core and peripheral ranges’, a system that is workable because local populations sufficiently share a lived familiarity with delimited taxa. but what have ethnobiologists sought from scientific taxonomy? firstly—and somewhat ironically in the context of this review—they have imagined a convenient and stable framework for reliable identification (ellen 2023), one that might also serve as a basis for cross-cultural comparison. the preference has been for rn rather than pn simply because this follows the general practice of the herbaria, labs and experts upon which they depend. but biological ranks are looking less-and-less secure while pn will take some time to filter through. underpinning this reliance is the idea that scientific taxonomy is somehow more ‘real,’ suggesting that some ethnobiologists have profoundly misunderstood the ontology of taxa. but for others, and for cognitive anthropologists, scientific taxonomy has itself become an object of scrutiny: inviting interrogation as to whether levels and mandatory categories (generic or generic-specific) actually exist. this has a bearing on debates around possible evolved universal features relevant to classifying the natural world. we want species to be absolute units because the human mind works with a concept of natural kind that assumes uniformity. additionally, folk biology has been employed as a way of understanding the cultural origins of scientific taxonomy, providing new perspectives on the history of science. for many, ethnobiological classifications and scientific taxonomy share the same cognitive infrastructure. while the advent of the phylocode chiefly aims to introduce its subject to a broad readership, there remain sections where abstruse technicalities still require stamina from the reader. neither rn nor pn are theory-free, though in pn there seems more coherence between ontology and nomenclatural practice, and better preservation of the link between names and taxa when phylogeny or rank changes. both rn and pn remain, however, a chaotic tangled web, with their rule complexity, proliferation of named categories, litany of acronyms (litus, dons, motus, bins ...): an intellectual ediface reminiscent of borges’ library of babel or escher’s impossible architecture. inevitably, pn will make nomenclature even more of an impenetrable specialism, less a stable anchor than an annoying mirage. how widespread adoption of pn in biology will pan-out and what its consequences for ethnobiology might be remain to be seen. dna barcodes have already made an appearance, though what of molecular operational taxonomic units, and what of archived types (a working practice mostly unknown in folk classification) based on nucleotide sequences rather than physical specimens, let alone the regnum database? there is still much resistance in the taxonomy community to phylocode, especially in institutions that are built around the convenience of well-established practices. if the shift from rn to pn is to progress it will be interesting to see how ethnobiologists grapple with the fallout. i think it unlikely that ethnobiologists, especially those concerned with folk classification and the diverse uses of different organisms, could undertake their work of ellen. 2025. ethnobiology letters 16(1):113–115 115 reviews analysis and comparison without the framework that scientific taxonomy and nomenclature can supply. maybe we will just fudge the issues and find workarounds. while this book is a useful summary of debates, and a reference work for the broader audience that comes into contact with the issues surrounding scientific naming practices, phylocode in particular remains controversial, and the author may face difficulty in converting its many ardent opponents. references cited ellen, r. 2023. identifying plants as a process of cultural cognition: comparing knowledge production and communities of practice in modern botanical science and nuaulu ethnobotany. journal of ethnobiology 43:208–218. doi:10.1177/02780771231194153. ellen, r. 2024. plant identification and ethnoscience in the work of rumphius. history of anthropology review 48. available at: https://histanthro.org/ notes/plant-identification-and-ethnoscience/. accessed on july 1, 2025. peeters, a. 1979. nomenclature and classification in rumphius’s ‘herbarium amboinense’. in classifications in their social context, edited by r. f. ellen and d. reason, pp. 145–166. academic press, london. pommerening, t., and w. bisang, eds. 2017. classification from antiquity to modern times: sources, methods, and theories from an interdisciplinary perspective. de gruyter, berlin. perceptions of the titicaca grebe (rollandia microptera) in a peruvian aymara fishing village quispe et al. 2023. ethnobiology letters 14(1):49–57 49 research communications between conservationists and local communities in a way that links conservation local cultural practices and concerns (barman et al. 2020; bonta 2010). the titicaca grebe (rollandia microptera gould) is a flightless endemic found in the lake titicaca watershed of peru and bolivia (fjeldså 2004), listed as endangered (en) in the iucn redlist (birdlife international 2020). little is known about the population trends of the lake titicaca grebe; surveys done in the early 2000s showed that the population had declined by 70% compared to the first population surveys done in the 1970s (engblom et al. 2001; martinez et al. 2006). however, no published introduction historically, conservation biology focused on plants and animals, while ignoring the humans who lived with them (dowie 2011). however, this has changed over recent decades, with many conservationists now recognizing that local ecological knowledge (lek) is crucial to conservation (dayer et al. 2020; joa et al. 2018). at the forefront of this change has been the increasing interest of integrating ethno-ornithological knowledge into conservation (dayer et al. 2020). lek has been especially important in developing conservation programs for species in remote areas, or which have not been well studied (joa et al. 2018), and for the coproduction of conservation programs perceptions of the titicaca grebe (rollandia microptera) in a peruvian aymara fishing village jhazel quispe1, d. a. villar2 *, joel zapana estrada1, bastian thomsen3, and andrew g. gosler2 3 1asociación para la ciencia y el desarrollo ambiental, natural way, puno, peru. 2department of biology, university of oxford, oxford, uk. 3institute of human sciences, university of oxford, oxford, uk. *daniel.villar@biology.ox.ac.uk abstract this paper presents a qualitative analysis of people’s attitudes and knowledge of the endangered endemic titicaca grebe (rollandia microptera) in the aymara fishing village of karana, peru, on the shores of lake titicaca. most respondents hold no strong opinions on the titicaca grebe, and those who do tend to be hostile towards it. hostility towards the species tends to come from fishers, who view the species as competition for fish and blame it for breaking their nets. as the majority of the interviewees lack formal environmental education, we suggest that increased environmental education about the grebe’s endemic and endangered status may move some people from apathy towards support for grebe conservation. since most of the source of the hostility towards the grebe from fishers stems from perceived competition with it for fish and its role in breaking nets, we suggest that further study of grebe diet and bycatch is needed to reduce direct grebe-fisher conflict. we also discuss the potential future of grebe-fisher conflict, as many of the fishers of lake titicaca begin to transition to pisciculture. this study is a pilot study for future conservation work on local attitudes and local ecological knowledge across the entirety of lake titicaca. it therefore informs as to how to conduct ethnobiological research in the region. we discuss what we learned about conducting ethnobiological research in the high andes and how this study informed that larger ethnobiological project. received march 1, 2023 open access accepted september 2, 2023 doi 10.14237/ebl.14.1.2023.1858 published october 30, 2023 keywords conservation, qualitative analysis, fisheries, aymara, grebe copyright © 2023 by the author(s); licensee society of ethnobiology. this is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution-noncommercial 4.0 international public license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0), which permits non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. quispe et al. 2023. ethnobiology letters 14(1):49–57 50 research communications population surveys have been undertaken since then. while multiple causes have been proposed for the population decline, the most likely cause is fisheries bycatch in monofilament nets (birdlife international 2020; engblom et al. 2001; martinez et al. 2006). fishing has existed in lake titicaca since at least 1,500 bce (capriles et al. 2014). however, for most of history, fishing was a minor source of food (ibid.). the introduction of brown trout (salmo trutta l.) and pejerrey (odontesthes bonariensis valenciennes) in the mid20th century (bouysse-cassagne et al. 1992) created a fishing boom in lake titicaca (everett 1973; laba 1979), and fishing became the main economic activity of 151 villages on the peruvian side of the lake by the 1990s (levieil and orlove 1990). this fishing boom has been associated with disruptions of the lake titicaca ecosystem, including the probable extinction of some native fish species, such as orestias cuvieri valenciennes (lauzanne et al. 1992). given how little is known about the present status of the titicaca grebe, we decided to undertake an ethnobiological investigation of attitudes towards this species in the village of karana, peru. because the grebe’s observed population decline is thought to have been driven by fisheries by-catch, we have focused on interviewing fishermen, though also included non-fishermen in this study. our focus was on understanding a) attitudes towards the grebe what people thought of the grebe, b) self-reported knowledge of and uses for the grebe of the grebe, and c) assess what lek may exist regarding the grebe’s natural history and conservation status. methods study area lake titicaca straddles the borders of peru and bolivia, in the altiplano (the high tableland of central s. america) of the central andes. it has a surface elevation of 3,812 metres, and surface area of approximately 8,372 km. lake titicaca is consists of two sub-lakes, the larger and deeper lago mayor, where this study took place, and the smaller and shallower lago menor. within lago mayor, several major zones can be identified, including puno bay, a large, sheltered bay with extensive wetlands, thought to be an important breeding ground for the titicaca flightless grebe (hereon referred to as the titicaca grebe or simply the grebe), and is home to the reserva nacional del titicaca (villar et al. 2023). the study took place in the community of karana (10◦32′n 83◦30′w) (fig. 1), which is on the lago mayor, one hour’s drive from the city of puno, which is the largest city on the lakeshore. the titicaca grebe is found across the entire lake titicaca watershed. while the village of karana lacks the large expanses of wetland found on the other side of puno bay, it is typical of the open water mosaic which constitutes most of the grebe’s lakeshore habitat. being near the city of puno, karana has more commercial ties and more tourism potential than the average altiplano village. however, most of its inhabitants are still fishers and farmers, like the residents of most villages around lake titicaca. karana is an aymara fishing village in chucuito district, puno region, and has a population of 182, most of whom live in poverty according to the peruvian government (instituto nacional de estadística e informática 2018). karana was selected because dead grebes have been seen in its port (jq and jz pers. obs.) (fig. 2), and because the authors have been developing research and conservation programs with the village community. data collection semi-structured interviews were conducted face-toface with the approval of the principal karana authority (president) on december 18–19, 2020. the interviews took place within a kilometer of the port of karana. the people interviewed consisted of a convenience sample of the residents of karana. the interviewers formulated a qualitative, semi-structured questionnaire to guide their interviews, with a limited quantitative component which involved a likert scale of the opinion towards (rate 0–10) and self-perceived knowledge of the grebe (creswell and creswell 2017). after conducting interviews in spanish, the authors translated, and proofed translations of responses. original spanish responses are included as footnotes in the results. the questions asked in the semistructured interviews can be seen in the supplemental materials to this paper. data analysis rather than perform statistical analysis, we opted to use the anthropological technique of qualitative analysis (newing 2011). this involves the close reading of the responses of interviewees to determine factors influencing attitudes towards the grebe. we opted for qualitative rather than quantitative data analysis because of the small sample size involved, quispe et al. 2023. ethnobiology letters 14(1):49–57 51 research communications and because the focus of this study was to better understand why people hold the opinions they do about the titicaca grebe. results demographic information thirty-eight people were approached. of these, 24 initially agreed to an interview, but only 19 (5 female, 14 male) completed the full set of pre-determined questions, with the remaining 5 indicating that they had not realized how much time an interview would take and were too busy to complete it. incomplete surveys were not included in our analysis. fourteen people declined to answer the questionnaire, either because they were afraid to give personal information, had bad experience with outsiders, were not village residents, or did not speak a language in common with the interviewers as they were monoglot aymara speakers. although this is a small sample size as is often necessary in qualitative social science research such as this (guest et al. 2006), it represents 10.5% of karana’s population. full results, including responses, are in the supplemental materials to the paper. all correspondents were bilingual in aymara and spanish. most individuals said that they were farmers, including both pastoralists and agriculturalists (n=10), with fishing being the next most common profession (n=5), and the remainder listing other occupations. only one respondent lacked any formal education, but the majority (n=12) had not completed high school. key finding #1: attitudes towards the grebe only five respondents had heard of a bird called “zambullidor del titicaca”. however, when shown a photograph of the grebe, every respondent said they recognized the bird. every respondent said that the figure 1. map of peru with inset showing the location of karana (author: joel zapana) quispe et al. 2023. ethnobiology letters 14(1):49–57 52 research communications local word for the bird was keñola, save one who said it was “onkaillo”. five respondents said that they had either no opinion or a neutral opinion, of the grebe, which meant a score of 5 on the likert scale. when asked to justify their neutral opinion, the justification used by one respondent was typical when he said, “the bird just doesn’t interest me1”. only three respondents gave the grebe a score of over 5. when asked why they liked the grebe, one respondent said “it looks pretty”2, but did not elaborate to say what she found about it that she thought was pretty. 11 respondents gave a low score under 5. when asked to justify why they disliked the birds, seven respondents mentioned either fishing or nets. as one respondent said “it competes with us for fish and breaks our nets”3. three also mentioned that the bird was generally annoying; one respondent saying “i hate it because there is no fishing”4 a sentiment that appeared driven by the grebe getting caught in, and breaking, nets. this suggests that the dislike of the grebe is rooted in economic concerns, especially amongst fishers. key finding #2: self-reported knowledge of and uses for the grebe every respondent said that they had at least some knowledge of the grebe. the most common fact about it, given by seven respondents, was that it lives amongst the totora (schoenoplectus californicus subsp. tatora (c.a. mey) soják). totora is a common sedge which forms one of the primary macrophyte areas of lake figure 2. titicaca grebe found dead in karana’ port, and gill nets commonly used for fishermen in green and red behind the body. (photo by jhazel quispe) quispe et al. 2023. ethnobiology letters 14(1):49–57 53 research communications titicaca (raynal-roques 1992). however, one respondent said that the bird “lives in open water”5. this comment, alongside one that says that it “nests in the totora”6 suggests that the grebe might have a different habitat depending on whether it’s breeding. eight individuals commented on the grebe’s diet, with seven saying that it ate fish. however, none said which fish species it ate, save for saying that it probably only eats small ones. three individuals mentioned the eggs of the grebe, and they concurred on two facts; that the grebe has white eggs, and that it has between 2 and 3 eggs in the nest at any one time. only one individual mentioned anything about the grebe’s social behavior, who said that the grebes “travel in packs”7. one respondent mentioned the grebe’s population decline, saying that “there used to be many of them”8. when asked whether they had any practical use for the grebe, 11 of the respondents said no. of the eight who replied yes, two individuals indicated that they hunted the grebe, one individual said she had a commercial use for the grebe, three said they had medicinal uses for the grebe, one responded he had an ornamental use for the grebe, and four said they had alimentary uses for the grebe. those who mentioned alimentary uses for the grebe specified that they ate grebe eggs, rather than the meat itself, since the meat tastes and smells terrible. the hunters hunt the grebe for sport rather than for meat, with ducks and flamingos being preferred game birds for meat. one said “i do not like it”9. one respondent specified what the medicinal use of the grebe was, saying that “its blood is good for you if you are malnourished”10. in the authors’ experience, most of the cases where a cure for malnourishment is being discussed in the region, it is a cure for iron deficiency or anemia (dav, pers. obs.). lake titicaca is polluted with agricultural, and industrial pollution (guédron et al. 2017), and consumption of fish from the lake titicaca watershed is already associated with health problems (de loma et al. 2019). given the grebe’s position as an apex predator in lake titicaca, and the bioaccumulation of pollutants in apex predators, we can also assume that regular consumption of grebe’s eggs could cause health problems. key finding #3: conservation of the grebe the frequency at which grebes were netted by fishermen varied greatly, from five birds per year to ten per week, though this latter number may have been an exaggeration. the mean answer was 4.2 grebes caught per month, assuming a four-week month, and the median answer was 4.0 per month. while there are not good statistics on the total number of fishers active on lake titicaca, the latest published estimates suggested that there were around 3,000 active fishers on lake titicaca (bouyssecassagne et al. 1992). if this number remains the same, which we suspect it has not, that would mean that roughly 12,000 grebes are caught as bycatch each month. this number is implausibly large, since even the latest estimates of the potential population of the titicaca grebe place its population, at the upper limit as 21,626 (villar et al. 2023). even accounting for decline in the number of fishers which has occurred on lake titicaca, as fish numbers have declined and pisciculture has replaced fishing, the rate of bycatch reported by fishers would suggest a species which should have gone extinct decades ago, assuming the population estimates of the low thousands reported in the early 2000s are accurate (engblom et al. 2001; martinez et al. 2006). we must therefore conclude that either the population of the titicaca grebe has been significantly undercounted for decades, that the grebe can reproduce far more rapidly than previously assumed, or fishers are exaggerating the amount of bycatch they get in their nets. further studies are needed to determine which of these is the case. when asked what they did with the grebes caught in their nets, most refused to respond, and of those who did respond, most said that they throw the grebe overboard. when asked whether they knew that the grebe was endemic, 11 respondents said that they were not aware of that, and eight said that they were. of the fishermen, only one knew that the grebe was endemic to lake titicaca; the one fisherman who knew that the grebe was endemic said he generally threw out grebes caught in his nets. the individuals did not indicate how they knew it was endemic, but we suspect that past environmental education and awareness programs done by the reserva nacional del titicaca likely played a role. when asked whether they knew that the species was endangered, ten respondents said that they were aware of this fact, and nine said that they were not aware. three of the fishermen were aware of the grebe being endangered. of those who were aware that the grebe was endangered, six were men and four were women. of those nine people who were not aware, eight were men and seven people lacked a complete formal education. we once again suspect quispe et al. 2023. ethnobiology letters 14(1):49–57 54 research communications that what knowledge of the grebe’s endangered status exists can be attributed to the reserva nacional del titicaca’s environmental education program. when asked what other birds, if any, they would want to see more frequently around lake titicaca, every respondent save one said choka, i.e., andean coot (fulica ardesiaca) or parihuana, i.e., andean flamingo (phoenicoparrus andinus). one individual named the pato pana, i.e., the andean ruddy duck (oxyura ferruginea). every individual who expressed a desire to see more andean coots said it was because they wanted to either eat it or eat its eggs. the same was true for the individual who wanted to see more andean ruddy ducks. the reason for more andean flamingos was more varied, with respondents saying both that it looks pretty and that it has medicinal use. only four respondents gave additional comments at the end of the interview. three requested hunting controls in the area, especially for non-community members. this did not just mean hunting of the grebe, but also hunting of other birds on the lake, such as ducks. there was a general agreement that these measures should be enforced by the local government, with the view of one respondent who suggested that “governments should be the ones taking care of birds”11, being typical. discussion while this pilot study only included a sample size of 19 individuals, it provides the starting point for ongoing collaborative research with local people on the conservation of the lake titicaca grebe and local people’s attitudes towards the species. our experience shows us that while there are some questions which can help to understand the grebe better, informal discussions guided by general questions are the most likely to elucidate novel information about the ethnobiology of lake titicaca. the formalized questionnaire format seemed to dissuade many people, while some of the best informants engaged more enthusiastically when the interactions turned from formal questionnaires to informal conversation. we have therefore used a more informal approach in our subsequent, lake wide, ethnobiological survey of lake titicaca. we also found that language was a greater barrier to engagement than we expected; despite all interviewers being peruvian, lack of knowledge of aymara hindered our research. we have thus included quechua and aymara speakers in our subsequent ethnobiological research. our study also suggests that fishers themselves have an inaccurate picture of how often they catch fish in their nets. whether fishers can be trusted to self-report bycatch has been a contentious issue in the literature for decades, but most cases of inaccurate reporting of bycatch have been fishers under-reporting bycatch (psulty and całkiewicz021). this over-reporting of bycatch suggests either that a) the fishers are honest, and grebe populations are significantly above what they are thought to be, or b) that fishers may be boasting about how many of a “problem” species they have killed, or that there is something peculiar to the cultural context of lake titicaca that makes exaggeration of bycatch more common than underreporting it. this has informed us that we cannot rely on self-reported bycatch numbers to be a reliable guide in lake titicaca, which is why in subsequent work we have undertaken to monitor nets as they are brought in each morning in each village for the period of our stay. our study suggests that the titicaca grebe is not a particularly culturally important bird for the aymara fishing community who interact with it most. this does not bode well for its conservation, since individuals who hold positive attitudes towards the environment are typically the most active in driving conservation action (heberlein 2012). instead, the most common responses to the titicaca grebe are apathy or dislike. apathy can be as much of a problem for a conservation program as active dislike for a species because people may continue to blithely maintain their quotidian routines which have harmed the species until it goes extinct (kwan et al. 2017). apathy also reduces the ability of projects to survive into the long term, since without active investment in the conservation of a species by a wider community, conservation projects tend to fade out once the committed individuals either get tired or leave. apathy is often thought to originate in ignorance of the environment or the particular species, but that does not appear to be the case here. it should be noted that no specific answer could be given by respondents who indicated that they had no opinion of the grebe, and instead they had to state their opinion on a continuum from extreme dislike to extreme like. after apathy, the most common view of the grebe was dislike, mainly driven by individuals viewing it as either a direct competitor for fish or because it was trapped in nets. there is extensive literature on birds being treated by farmers as problem species (nyhus 2016), but much less on birds being problem species quispe et al. 2023. ethnobiology letters 14(1):49–57 55 research communications for fishers. however, assuming that the same lessons from farmer-bird conflict apply to fisher-bird conflict, any successful community conservation scheme would have to involve reducing both the actual and perceived competition between the grebe and fishers. reducing negative attitudes towards a problem species can be one of the most difficult elements of a conservation program, and while education programs and compensation schemes for harm have both been found to assist in reducing human-wildlife conflict in other study systems (nyhus 2016; ardoin et al. 2020), they can often also fail to reduce hostility towards a species. the fact that karana is less reliant on fisheries economically than most lakeside villages would be due to its proximity to puno, which also suggests that hostility to the grebe might be even more pronounced elsewhere. this means that encouraging fishers to take part in conservation of the grebe, which is already difficult enough in karana, might be almost impossible elsewhere. further research is needed to better understand the actual overlap of competition between fishers and grebes, and whether there are steps that might be taken to reduce that overlap. these surveys suggest that the average clutch size of the titicaca grebe is between 2 and 3 eggs. knowledge of the clutch size of birds has proven to be valuable in the conservation efforts of other birds, and lack of knowledge of basic life history traits of a species is a data gap that must be filled for effective conservation (conde et al. 2019). this study also provides some evidence on the main habitat of the titicaca grebe being in totora wetlands, as held by fjeldså (2004) and pulido capurro (2018), as opposed to being in open water, as held by martinez et al. (2006). the uses of the grebe by people merit further study. medicinal uses of birds in the lake titicaca area have been noted before (forbes 1870; tschopik 1946), but mainly in surveys completed generations ago. while dependent on several factors, the conservation of a species may be aided if it is perceived to have human medicinal use (chen et al. 2016). the medicinal use of the grebe seems to be limited to its blood, which is in keeping with previous ethnological work on the aymara using bird blood as a treatment for anemia (la barre 1951). that the titicaca grebe is generally not eaten by humans corresponds with loza del carpio et al. (2019). it is a concern that unregulated hunting occurs frequently enough to be complained about as a public nuisance. both hunters listed their profession as fishers, and indicated that they did not eat the grebes, suggesting that the hunting of grebes is either a form of recreational hunting or pest control, rather than being related to subsistence. since hunting has been the cause of major population declines in other waterfowl, the practice ought to be closely monitored in lake titicaca. the eating of grebe’ eggs is also worrying, given that predation of eggs has been associated with population declines and extinction of other birds (loehle and eschenbach 2012). however, further work is needed to see whether grebe eggs are targeted or collected opportunistically, and what effect, if any, grebe egg hunting has on the grebe population, and whether sustainable egg harvesting can be implemented. our study suggests that the lake titicaca grebe is not a culturally significant bird in aymara fishing villages like karana. most of those interviewed were apathetic about it, and those who were not, tended to be actively hostile. hostility stemmed mainly from fishers viewing the grebe as a competitor for fish and blaming it for breaking nets. detailed research on the grebe’s diet is being undertaken. we suggest further research about fishing’s effect on the grebe population, as well as the implementation of an environmental education program, to teach people that the grebe is endangered and endemic. this may assist in making the apathetic become more positive about the grebe, while a compensation scheme for fishers may reduce their hostility toward the bird. this study also allowed us to pilot an ethnobiological survey of the fisheries of lake titicaca and showed us what does and does not work when elucidating information. notes 1 no me interesa 2 es bonito 3 come peces y daña las redes 4 lo odio porque no hay pesca 5 vive en el agua 6 anida en totorales 7 andan en grupos 8 antes había muchos 9 no me gustan 10 su sangre es buena para la desnutrición 11 autoridades deben cuidar las aves quispe et al. 2023. ethnobiology letters 14(1):49–57 56 research communications acknowledgments we would like to thank the people of karana. declarations permissions: we received permission from the local authorities of karana to conduct this research, and the universidad nacional del altiplano. sources of funding: none declared conflicts of interest: none declared references cited ardoin, n. m., bowers, a. w., and e. gaillard. 2020. environmental education outcomes for conservation: a systematic review. biological conservation 241:108224. doi:10.1016/ j.biocon.2019.108224 barman, p. d., sharma, d. k., cockrem, j. f., malakar, m., kakati, b., and t. melvin. 2020. saving the greater adjutant stork by changing perceptions and linking to assamese traditions in india. ethnobiology letters 11:20–29. doi:10.14237/ ebl.11.2.2020.1648 birdlife international. 2020. 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was quite distinct from modern people’s notion of spicy, which is essentially due to the wide availability of american chili pepper. such a taste was unknown to ancient people of east asia, and the exact meaning of these words in old chinese and proto-languages remains unclear. in this paper, we focus on sichuan peppercorn, the spice that is the best attested in the archaeological record and linguistic data. we review archaeological, genetic, and genetic data and propose a scenario on when zanthoxylum was first cultivated and how it spread to the rest of east and south asia, and what we can learn from it concerning ancient peoples’ linguistic classification of flavors and spices. geographical distribution the genus zanthoxylum (rutaceae) consists of 250 species worldwide, which includes 21 that are endemic to china (zhang and hartley 2008). two different species are referred to as ‘sichuan peppercorn’ (in chinese 花椒 huā jiāo). the most introduction prior to the introduction of black pepper (piper nigrum) from india in the third century, and chili pepper (capsicum spp.) from mexico in the sixteenth century, local spices were considerably more prominent in the food preparation of people of east asia than they have been in the last few centuries. before the han dynasty (202 bce–220 ce), the main food condiments attested philologically and archaeologically were sichuan peppercorn (zanthoxylum bungeanum/ armatum), ginger (zingiber officinale) (liu et al. 2022), angelica (angelica sinensis) (sheng et al. 2020) and chinese cinnamon (cinnamomum cassia), plants that were collected and eventually cultivated in areas within today’s people’s republic of china, rather than introduced from the west. from the point of view of linguistic evidence, although old chinese (the language corresponding to the texts written from 1300-200 bce) and reconstructed proto-languages of comparable age in east asia (proto-hmong mien, proto-tai, protorgyalrongic, proto-lolo-burmese) have words describing ‘pungent/spicy’ taste (in old chinese for sichuan peppercorn and the birth of numbing spices in east asia guillaume jacques1*, jade d’alpoim guedes2 1french national centre for scientific research, paris, france. 2department of anthropology, university of california, san diego, usa. *rgyalrongskad@gmail.com abstract sichuan peppercorn zanthoxylum sp. is an important food condiment, currently used in east asia and south asia. in this paper, we review genetic, archaeological, and linguistic evidence regarding the use of zanthoxylum by ancient human populations. the evidence from these three disciplines converge to suggest that its earliest attested use dates from the midfourth millennium bce, in western sichuan, making it one of the oldest spices in east asia. the paper also discusses how this spice was supplemented, and even superseded, by the introduction of the american chili pepper (capsicum spp.). in the seventeenth century. we further argue that differences in the biosynthesis of numbing compounds between cultivars of zanthoxylum sp. in northern and southern western china that are due to deep evolutionary processes may have in turn influenced culinary preferences. received august 24, 2022 open access accepted february 1, 2023 doi 10.14237/ebl.14.1.2023.1842 published april 3, 2023 keywords zanthoxylum, capsicum, majiayao, spice, rgyalrongic, tibetic copyright © 2023 by the author(s); licensee society of ethnobiology. this is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution-noncommercial 4.0 international public license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0), which permits non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. jacques and d’alpoim guedes. 2023. ethnobiology letters 14(1):10–23 11 research communications common of these is zanthoxylum bungeanum, which is endemic to china and is found in a wide range of habitats that are below 3200 meters in altitude and is currently distributed across the provinces of fujian, gansu, guangxi, guizhou, hebei, henan, hubei, hunan, jiangsu, jiangxi, liaoning, ningxia, qinghai, shaanxi, shandong, shanxi, sichuan, se xinjiang, s and se tibet, yunnan, zhejiang and in bhutan (zhang and hartley 2008). western china is the center of genetic diversity of this cultivar (e.g feng et al. 2015, 2020). the second one, zanthoxylum armatum (in chinese 竹叶花椒 zhúyè huājiāo ‘bamboo-leaf peppercorn’), is also, however, referred to as sichuan pepper corn and used in a similar manner. this plant has a wider distribution and is found in habitats below 3100 m and is distributed in the provinces of anhui, fujian, southern gansu, guangdong, guangxi, guizhou, southern henan, hubei, hunan, jiangsu, jiangxi, shaanxi, shandong, southern shanxi, sichuan, northern taiwan, xizang, yunnan, zhejiang [bangladesh, bhutan, india, indonesia, japan (including ryukyu islands), kashmir, ko rea, laos, myanmar, nepal, pakistan, philippines, thailand and vietnam. additional cultivars include z. piperatum which is understood to have been introduced from japan (zhang and hartley 2008). there are several key phenotypic differences between cultivars which correspond to genetic differences. for instance, zanthoxylum bungeanum has (red peppercorn 红花椒 hóng huājiāo) red pericarps and zanthoxylum armatum (green peppercorn 青花椒 qīng huājiāo) has green pericarps, deciduous and lanceolate leaves, and earlier flowering time as well as a distribution that is limited to southwest china, which explains the latter. feng et al. (2020) hypothesize that these two cultivated species, z. bungeanum and z. armatum, originated in yunnan and guizhou provinces during the miocene and then dispersed to other regions via long distance dispersal events. genetics recent genetic studies have helped shed light on where these two populations of sichuan peppercorn may have first been cultivated or domesticated (feng et al. 2015, 2020). an analysis of srap markers from 175 wild and cultivated accessions found that red peppercorn accessions cluster within the z. bungeanum complex, and green peppercorn accessions cluster within the z. armatum (feng et al. 2015, 2016). this study was limited, however, by the numbers of wild accessions they were able to access, which was restricted to specimens from guizhou province. these wild specimens clustered closely with z. armatum, suggesting that they were ancestral to the latter. in a genome wide study, feng et al. (2020) found that z. bungeanum split into four geographic clades that spread across both subtropical and temperate china. they further infer a center of diversity in gansu province, where samples from wududahongpao (wddhp) appears to be the ancestral population of z. bungeanum from which other geographic clades arose. two populations fell within the same clade as the ancestral variety in gansu, which includes samples from maowen in sichuan (mwhj) and a sample from fengxian in shaanxi. each of these experienced very little genetic drift since their divergence from the common ancestor in western gansu. a second clade indicates multiple streams of gansu to north gene flow including a series of back migrations that includes populations moving from shandong to shaanxi and shanxi and back to shandong. a final separate southwest china clade is represented by samples from hanyuan in sichuan (hyhj), qinlong in yunnan (yxhj) and sajizhen in guizhou (gzhj). this last clade appears to have diverged prior to the common ancestor found in gansu, but then experienced introgression from the shandong and shaanxi clades. in sum, this speaks to a center of diversity in western china. some cultivars also formed a separate clade with no genetic introgression either from the ancestral variety in gansu or from later cultivars including hydhp a sample from hanyuan in sichuan, suggesting that these varieties have been cultivated in relative genetic isolation throughout history (feng et al. 2020). it is likely that these genetically isolated clades represent instances of cultivation of plants by farmers who did not exchange seeds with other areas following cultivation. for z. armatum, ancestral populations appear to have been located in frost free southwest china (sichuan, guizhou, and yunnan) (feng et al. 2020; hu et al. 2023). for z. armatum, an analysis of divergence events showed that wild accessions of z. armatum clustered together and possibly diverged from cultivated accessions ~3−5 kya bp (feng et al. 2020). feng et al. (2020) also found that while there were high levels of genetic diversity within z. bungeanum, there was little to no genetic diversity within jacques and d’alpoim guedes. 2023. ethnobiology letters 14(1):10–23 12 research communications individual cultivars. while on one hand this high level of genetic diversity within the species is reflective of high adaptiveness to local environments, the local diversity within cultivars is due to its special form of asexual reproduction. zanthoxylum sp. reproduce via facultative sporophytic apomixis (fei et al. 2021), a form of asexual reproduction that produces offspring without the need for combining male and female gametes, and where the offspring have the same genetic makeup as the mother. in sporophytic apomixis there is little to no exchange of pollen to the embryo and pollen is involved only in the formation of the triploid endosperm. only occasionally does sexual reproduction happen in this plant and most figure 1 early archaeological attestation of zanthoxylum (see the complete dataset in the supplementary file peppercorn.xlsx) jacques and d’alpoim guedes. 2023. ethnobiology letters 14(1):10–23 13 research communications individuals in the population samples by geneticists were clonal (hu et al. 2023). it is hypothesized that this trait evolved as a suite of anti-herbivory linked traits during the miocene (hu et al. 2023). this contrasts with the co-evolution with pollinators in the example of many other angiosperms, where plants develop traits that encourage dispersal by pollinators. hu et al. (2023) argues that these traits, alongside the biosynthesis of allomones and alkylamides evolved to deter insect herbivory, but also by extension insect pollination. we argue that the long-distance exchange of seeds (that contained genetic material that was identical to the mother plant) contributed to the high levels of genetic diversity seen within z. bungeanum as cultivars adapted to local conditions as they spread geographically. however, once in place, farmers were able to retain high genetic fidelity within the plants they cultivated without the need for grafting (although they may have practiced this) due to zanthoxylum sp.’s asexual form of reproduction. hu et al. (2018) and feng et al. (2020) found that distinct regional demands for different cultivars reflect local idiosyncrasies in consumer tastes; for instance, the cultivars of z. bungeanum distributed within the tropical and subtropical regions south of the qinling mountains contain more numbing components but fewer leaf glandular puncta, which likely evolved because of increased insect herbivory action in southwest china, than those north of the qinling, which also possess a lighter pericarp. generally, selection processes for traits in sexually reproducing long generation perennials take many human generations and domestication traits are generally seen later in arboriculture than for annual plants, like grain crops (fuller and stevens 2019). this is because each plant produces genetically distinct seeds and each seed needs to grow to maturity until its traits are evident, thus requiring substantial selection over generations of farmers. we argue that despite zanthoxylum sp. being a long generation perennial, the emergence of a new trait (such as more numbing components) could have easily been maintained in subsequent generations due to sporophytic apomixis. it is possible that the higher numbers of numbing components in z. bungeanum south of the qinling mountains was a random mutation that evolved in tandem with increased pressure from herbivory, but one that was easily maintained given this plant’s form of reproduction. humans in each area, thus, may have adapted their culinary tastes to the density of numbing compounds of zanthoxylum in their area. sporophytic apomixis also makes zanthoxylum an unlikely candidate to exhibit traits of domestication as asexual reproduction results in offspring that are identical to the mother plant. indeed, there is little to no difference in flower type, seed size, or flowering uniformity between wild and cultivated varieties. archaeology archaeobotanical evidence makes it difficult to distinguish between the green and red varieties of zanthoxylum as pericarps are often found in a carbonized form and color cannot be observed. the earliest finds of zanthoxylum sp. come from the jingtoushan site in zhejiang province which is dated to 6300-5800 bce (sun et al. 2021), but this isolated attestation is not followed by other finds in this area. following this, zanthoxylum sp. is found in neolithic (majiaoyao) layers in the haxiu site in western sichuan dating to roughly 3400-2900 cal. bce (zhijun zhao: personal communication; yáng et al. 2006). a radiocarbon date at haxiu dates the site to 4470 ±30 bp (or 3340-3026 cal. bce; d’alpoim guedes and hein 2018). finds then appear in anhui at yuhuicun 禹会村 by 2500 cal. bce (zhōngguó shèhuì kēxuéyuàn kǎogǔ yánjiūsuǒ bèngbùshì bówùguǎn 2014), and then in the shangtaizi 上台子 site in inner mongolia by roughly 2000 bc (jia et al. 2017). finds appear again at jinsha 金沙 in the chengdu plain by roughly 1400 bce (jiang et al. 2015) and again in northern china (see figure 1). thus, by the second millennium bce it appears that zanthoxylum was already widely distributed across china. following this date, the numbers of finds increase substantially first across northern china and henan (hénánshěng wénwù kǎogǔ yánjiūsuǒ 1986) and then finds center on warring states period tombs in hubei, where they appeared to have a prominent role as a spice in the chu kingdom, particularly in elite tombs (sheng et al. 2020; húběishěng wénwù kǎogǔ yánjiūsuǒ 1996; yao and xu 2008). figure 1 summarizes the sites dated bce where zanthoxylum remains have been discovered (the data on which this map is based can be found in supplementary table 1). linguistics historical linguistics provides important evidence for the knowledge and use of plants and animals by past human societies, and bayesian phylogenetic methods jacques and d’alpoim guedes. 2023. ethnobiology letters 14(1):10–23 14 research communications provide dated language phylogenies that can be compared with archaeological evidence (sagart et al. 2019). when several languages have similar words referring to a particular plant or animal, several hypotheses are possible: common inheritance, borrowing, parallel innovation, or chance resemblance. the study of sound correspondences and morphological structure can be used to identify inherited words and borrowings, and exclude chance resemblances, at least in the languages groups for which this knowledge is available. distinguishing between very ancient nativized loanwords and inherited etyma can be difficult. on the other hand, transparent compounds, even if they comply with regular sound correspondences, are not sufficient evidence for reconstructing an etymon, as they could have been coined independently in each language after the split of the protolanguage. in this section, we attempt to determine the earliest proto-language for which an etymon specifically referring to zanthoxylum can be reconstructed, in order to infer the timeline of the use and management of this plant among ancient populations of east asia. overview of the linguistic evidence no less than five language families are spoken in areas where zanthoxylum bungeanum or zanthoxylum armatum are endemic: sino-tibetan, hmong mien, kra-dai, austroasiatic and indo-european. however, reconstructible terms for zanthoxylum species have only been found in subbranches of sino tibetan, while terms attested in other families are either borrowed from chinese or restricted to a particular subbranch. in the following sections, we first present data from non-sino-tibetan families, then focus on sinotibetan, and finally discuss one particular etymon attested in several subbranches of that family and its significance for the history of zanthoxylum domestication. etyma referring to zanthoxylum in non-sino-tibetan families the natural range of zanthoxylum armatum includes parts of south asia where indo-aryan and dravidian languages are spoken. however, no known term for zanthoxylum is found in sanskrit or any ancient language of south asia. some indo-aryan languages use terms for zanthoxylum that are etymologically transparent: for instance, hindi tejphal ‘zanthoxylum’ is a compound from tej ‘sharp’ and phal ‘fruit’. such terms do not provide any evidence for ancient use and familiarity with this plant. family branch language form austro-asiatic vietic vietnamese sẻn ga khmuic khmu dʑɔŋ mangic mang pa³¹ʔa⁵¹ anɡkic kemie ma³¹khɛn³⁵ pakanic bugeng lɯ̠ ²⁴ palaungic wa (masan) ʔa tɕhip wa (yancheng) si giap wa (aishuai) phiɔŋ hmong-mien hmongic qiandong so¹kɑ⁸ xiangxi ʂei³⁷ chuanqiandian tsz³ʂa³ diandongbei tsi⁶sie³ baheng (gundong) tjei²²ljaŋ²²si⁵³ baheng (wenjie) pe³¹tɕɛ³⁵ mienic mien huo²tsiu¹ (from 花椒) kra-dai kra laji min⁴⁴khje⁴⁴ table 1 etyma for zanthoxylum in languages of the austroasiatic, hmong mien and kra-dai families (miáoyáoyǔ yánjiū shìbiān 1987). jacques and d’alpoim guedes. 2023. ethnobiology letters 14(1):10–23 15 research communications another widespread form among languages of india is that represented by nepali ṭimur ‘zanthoxylum’, which however is related to terms designating other plants (sanskrit tumburu-, pali timbaru‘diospyros embryopteris’ or ‘strychnos nux-vomica’, turner 1966: 335), and which present irregular correspondences indicative of contact rather than inheritance. in view of the early attestation of zanthoxylum sp. in the jingtoushan site in zhejiang province (sun et al. 2021), one could have expected that either hmongmien, kra-dai or austroasiatic languages (the three language families that potentially originate from the speech of the populations from the early neolithic lower yangtze) could have a reconstructible term for zanthoxylum sp. yet, in kra-dai and hmong-mien, we have no evidence for any native term for this plant, even though recent fieldwork reports provide detailed documentation of terms for cultivated and wild plants. in these two families, most languages use either borrowings from chinese or trans parent compounds. some languages even use the same word to refer to both zanthoxylum sp. and capsicum sp.: in mak (kra-dai) for instance, both plants are designated by the word lə²seu¹ from mandarin làjiāo 辣椒 ‘chili pepper’. in austroasiatic, native terms are found for zanthoxylum sp., but they are unrelated across the family and there is no evidence that any etymon is reconstructible to even lower branches of austroasiatic (table 1). etyma referring to zanthoxylum in sino-tibetan the oldest philological attestation of zanthoxylum sp. in any language comes from the old chinese poem 椒聊 tsjew lew ‘the pepper plant’ from the 8th century bce: (1) 椒聊之實、蕃衍盈升。彼其之 子、碩大無朋。椒聊且、遠條 且。 ‘the clusters of the pepper plant, large and luxuriant, would fill a pint, that hero there, is large and peerless. o the pepper plant! how its shoots extend!’ (translation by legge) the noun 椒 tsjew (reconstructed as *s.tew in old chinese by baxter and sagart 2014) was used to build the name of the black pepper (胡椒 hújiāo, etymologically ‘barbarian zanthoxylum’) and chili pepper (辣椒 làjiāo, etymologically ‘spicy zanthoxylum’), following a new name was devised to refer to zanthoxylum itself (花椒 huājiāo ‘flowery table 2 terms for zanthoxylum in several subgroups of sino-tibetan group language zanthoxylum source sinitic old chinese 椒 tsjew <*s.tew (baxter and sagart 2014) kho-bwa puroik sunuɛ̃ (lieberherr 2017) bodic tibetan kurtöp གཡེར་མ་ gjer.ma chawa (hyslop et al. 2022) ‘olekha çoː karma tshering, gwendolyn hyslop (p.c.) sal jinghpo mă³³tʃa̱ŋ³³si³¹ (huang 1992) guiqiong guiqiong tsɑ́⁵⁵mɑ́⁵⁵ (huang 1992) nungish dulong ɑ³¹dʑɑp⁵⁵ (huang 1992) lolo-burmese achang tɕap⁵⁵ʂə³¹ (huang 1992) rgyalrongic khroskyabs rtsʰɑ́v (lai 2017) para-rgyalrongic zhaba ʂtse³¹shə⁵⁵ smarskad jì.mjə ̂ zhao haoliang (p.c.) naish yongning na dze˩˧ (michaud 2018) tujia tujia tsho⁵⁵pu⁵⁵ (huang 1992) idu-kaman kaman tɕʰap⁵³ (li 2002) gongduk gongduk tshai karma tshering, jacques and d’alpoim guedes. 2023. ethnobiology letters 14(1):10–23 16 research communications zanthoxylum’) to distinguish it from the two previous plants. however, old chinese 椒 tsjew (*s.tew) is unrelated to the name of plants belonging to this genus in other languages of the sino-tibetan family. table 2 provides a representative sample of the forms found across the family, excluding branches where the term is borrowed from indic, chinese or tibetan. four of these subgroups, kaman, east bodish, nungish, lolo-burmese and rgyalrongic, share similar forms to designate plants belonging to this genus. in the following, we analyze to what extent the resemblances between these forms are due to common inheritance, language contact, or chance, and what are the implications of these data for the history of the domestication of sichuan pepper. these four subgroups are not particularly close to each other in the phylogeny of sino-tibetan. table 2 illustrates the place of these four subgroups and their respective age according to sagart et al.’s (2019) phylogeny of the sino-tibetan family. contact of inheritance? the apparent resemblance one can observe between the nungish, lolo burmese, rgyalrongic and kaman forms in table 2 is strongly indicative of a historical relationship, but it remains to be shown figure 2 simplified topology of the sino-tibetan phylogenetic tree (terminal nodes in bold). tree topology and ages inferred are based on the relaxed-clock covarion model, data cited from sagart et al. (2019). branch length is irrelevant. jacques and d’alpoim guedes. 2023. ethnobiology letters 14(1):10–23 17 research communications whether this etymon reflects inheritance from the common ancestor of all these languages or borrowing between some of them. in addition, we will see below, some rgyalrongic and lolo-burmese languages have similar forms for the noun zanthoxylum and the adjective ‘be spicy’, raising the question of their etymological relationship. in the following, we first discuss the data from the rgyalrongic group, and show that the term for ‘spicy’ derives from the name of zanthoxylum. then, using sound correspondence, we argue that the similar forms found in lolo-burmese, and kaman might reflect common inheritance, while the same is unlikely to be true for dulong. rgyalrongic rgyalrongic languages are spoken in the dkarmdzes and rngaba districts of western sichuan, china (see figure 3). they can be divided into two subbranches, core rgyalrong (situ, japhug, tshobdun and zbu) and west rgyalrongic (stau, khroskyabs and the ancient language tangut, lai et al. 2020). in west rgyalrongic (see figure 2) the term for zanthoxylum presents an obvious resemblance with the adjective ‘be spicy’ (table 3). the two etyma only differ by the voicing of the initial consonant and go back to *rts(ʰ)æˠp¹ and *rndzæˠp¹ in their common ancestor, respectively.1 the semantic link between these two etyma and its significance for the history of taste classifications is discussed below. the data in table 3 show that both the noun ‘zanthoxylum’ and the verb ‘be spicy’ are reconstructible to the macro-rgyalrongic node. the noun ‘zanthoxylum’ is not found in east rgyalrongic, but attested in west rgyalrongic, muya and zhaba. from the point of view of sound correspondences, the first syllable of the zhaba ʂtse³¹shə⁵⁵ ‘zanthoxylum’ is phonologically compatible with khroskyabs rtsʰɑ́v ‘zanthoxylum’. the historical phonology of zhaba is very imperfectly understood, but we find the same onset correspondence in ‘lung’ (khroskyabs rtsʰóz, zhaba ʂtse⁵⁵pe⁵⁵) and the same rhyme correspondence in ‘scoop water’ (japhug kaβ, zhaba tə³¹khe⁵⁵) and ‘needle’ (japhug taqaβ, khroskyabs ʁɑ̂v and zhaba je⁵⁵). the second syllable -shə⁵⁵ is a suffix occurring in plant names. as for muya zɐ¹³, the rhyme correspondence is ascertained by the tibetan loanword thɐ⁵³ ‘method’ (from tibetan thabs ‘method’), and the voicing of the initial is also found in nouns such as zə̱⁵³ ‘shoe’ (cognate of japhug tɯxtsa ‘shoe’). in east rgyalrongic, the terms of ‘zanthoxylum’ are secondary. situ mdzartsá ‘zanthoxylum’ is clearly analyzable: mdzaris a radical that appears in the name of prickly plants such as mdzarwú (circium shansiense petrak.) and -tsa is a diminutive suffix (zhang 2020:110).2 this name, a possessive compound, which literally means ‘(plant having) small thorns’, refers to the thorns of the zanthoxylum. as for japhug tɕɣom ‘zanthoxylum’, it appears to be related to the noun for smɯ-tɕɣom ‘spark’, possibly a metaphor about the fizzy oral sensation of this spice. the etymological relationship between these two etyma raises the question of the directionality of derivation. two hypotheses are possible: 1. adjective to noun: ‘the spicy (one)’ → zanthoxylum 2. noun to adjective: zanthoxylum → ‘be spicy’3 the only way to decide between these two hypotheses is to take morphological alternations into account. voicing alternations are found in rgyalrongic, but only the directionality unvoiced → voiced (or voiced prenasalized) is attested (gates et al. 2022). since devoicing processes are not japhug (tɕɣom) mɤrtsaβ situ (bragbar) (mdzartsá) rdzɑ́v 512 tsar1.80 table 3 comparison of the etyma for ‘zanthoxylum’ and the verb ‘be spicy’ in rgyalrongic languages. jacques and d’alpoim guedes. 2023. ethnobiology letters 14(1):10–23 18 research communications otherwise attested, the adjective-to-noun hypothesis is extremely unlikely.4 moreover, the source of voicing in the case of ‘be spicy’ reveals itself when comparing with east rgyalrongic. east rgyalrongic languages preserve presyllables lost in west rgyalrongic (lai et al. 2020), nasal presyllables induce onset voicing. thus, protokhroskyabs *rndzæˠp¹ ‘be spicy’ can come from earlier *n-rts(ʰ)æˠp¹, where *nrepresents any nasal pre syllable. the mɤpresyllable in japhug mɤrtsaβ ‘be spicy’ and other east rgyalrongic languages thus accounts for the voicing in west rgyalrongic and can be analyzed as a mɤdenominal prefix deriving figure 3 burmo-rgyalrongic languages (purple: rgyalrongic and para rgyalrongic; cyan: naish and ersuic; blue: loloburmese). jacques and d’alpoim guedes. 2023. ethnobiology letters 14(1):10–23 19 research communications intransitive verbs and adjectives (jacques 2021:10441045). lolo-burmese the rgyalrongic etymon ‘be spicy’ (pre-khroskyabs *n-rts(ʰ)æˠp¹, japhug mɤrtsaβ) directly corresponds to burmese tsap ‘be spicy’, which could originate from either *dzap or *dʒap in proto-burmish (gong and hill 2020). this proto-form is also compatible with the etyma for zanthoxylum in several burmish languages, including zaiwa tʃap²¹ʃi²¹, achang tɕap⁵⁵ʂə³¹, reconstructed as *dʒap-ʃeh (gong and hill 2020). in these nouns, the second syllable (for instance achang ʂə³¹) means ‘fruit’, and they can thus be analyzed as compounds meaning ‘spicy plant’. achang tɕap⁵⁵ʂə³¹ ‘zanthoxylum’ and related burmish forms are not direct cognates of the rgyalrongic etymon for ‘zanthoxylum’ (pre-khroskyabs *rtsʰæˠp¹), but rather represent secondary compounds, built from the adjective ‘spicy’ (see the summary in figure 4). nungish and jinghpo in nungish, the terms for ‘zanthoxylum’ are phonetically similar to the etymon ‘be spicy’ in rgyalrongic and burmish and have a voiced onset (dulong ɑ³¹dʑɑp⁵⁵ ‘zanthoxylum’ and rawang vzvp ‘zanthoxylum armatum’ lapolla and sangdong 2015). due to the discrepancy in voicing, these forms cannot be direct cognates of the rgyalrongic etymon for zanthoxylum and should rather be analyzed as early borrowings from the burmish ‘spicy’ etymon, that took place before burmish languages changed their voiced obstruents to unaspirated unvoiced stops. jinghpo, a language in contact with both burmish languages and dulong, does not have a related etymon for ‘zanthoxylum’, but has the adjective tʃap³¹ ‘spicy’ (huang 1992). this form is compatible with the correspondences of early burmese loanwords into jinghpo (kurabe 2016), and in view of the fact that this etymon is not found in any of the languages that are phylogenetically closest to jinghpo (bodo-garo, northern naga and sak). bodish the tibetan word གཡེར་མ་ gjer.ma for zanthoxylum is retained in most modern tibetic languages (the languages descended from old tibetan). an exception is dzongkha, a tibetic language of bhutan, where ema (from gjer.ma) became the word for chili pepper (capsicum sp.), and was replaced by thiŋŋe in the meaning zanthoxylum, an etymon attested in classical tibetan as tʰiŋ.li referring to pepperweed (lepidium latifolium), from chinese 葶苈子 tínglìzǐ. while tibetic etyma for zanthoxylum are unrelated to the root found in rgyalrongic, the east bodish language kurtöp has chawa ‘zanthoxylum’ (hyslop et al. 2022), whose first syllable could go back to earlier *tɕʰap with a *-(b)a suffix and intervocalic lenition. in polysyllabic tibetan loanwords or cognates with ba as a second syllable, when the first syllable has a coda, it is lost in kurtöp, and the consonant of the suffix is lenited to w, as shown by examples such as phawa ‘dhole, cuon alpinus’ from tibetan འཕར་བ་ ⁿpʰar.ba or sawan ‘seed’ from tibetan ས་བོན་ sa.bon. in this hypothesis, kurtöp preserved the cognate of the burmo-rgyalrongic root for zanthoxylum, while tibetic languages (including old tibetan) lost it. in this verb, the etymon གཡེར་མ་ gjer.ma is an innovation, though its origin meaning is not known (the example of dzongkha in again case leads credence to the idea that semantic shifts can occur with this plant name). figure 4 derivational history of the etyma for ‘zanthoxylum’ and ‘be spicy’ in burmo-rgyalrongic languages. jacques and d’alpoim guedes. 2023. ethnobiology letters 14(1):10–23 20 research communications kaman kaman tɕʰap⁵³ ‘zanthoxylum’ (li 2002:258-259) appears to be phonetically compatible with the rgyalrongic etymon for ‘zanthoxylum’ (prekhroskyabs *rts(ʰ)æˠp¹). the historical phonology of kaman has never been thoroughly investigated, and we lack any additional example of rgyalrongic *rts(ʰ) corresponding to kaman tɕʰ-, but given the limited number of examples with this onset, this absence may be fortuitous. thus, the comparison of kaman tɕʰap⁵³ ‘zanthoxylum’ with the previous etyma is plausible. kaman is not in contact with burmo-gyalrongic languages, and unlike in the case of nungish and jinghpo, this etymon cannot be easily explained as a borrowing from burmish. it could reflect inheritance from the common ancestor of kaman and burmorgyalrongic, but this could entail a very early date. another possibility is early borrowing from a nonbodic languages (or from the ancestor of tibetic, before the term གཡེར་མ་ gjer.ma ‘zanthoxylum’ was innovated). zanthoxylum and spicy condiments the etymological relationship between the noun zanthoxylum and verb ‘be spicy’ discussed above is not entirely straightforward. the current meaning of the etymon ‘be spicy’ in rgyalrongic languages (such as khroskyabs rdzɑ́v) refer to the hot sensation of chili pepper, rather than the tingling and numbing oral sensation of zanthoxylum, for which different terms are used. for instance, in japhug, the taste of zanthoxylum is not described by the adjective mɤrtsaβ ‘spicy’, but rather by the ideophonic verb ɣɤzɯβzɯβ ‘have the numbing taste of zanthoxylum’.5 this discrepancy suggests that the meaning of the adjective ‘be spicy’ independently changed in all burmo-rgyalrongic languages in the last four centuries, following the introduction of chili. its original meaning must have rather referred to the oral sensation caused by zanthoxylum, but when chili replaced zanthoxylum as the main food condiment due to its stronger oral sensation, speakers of burmorgyalrongic languages changed their understanding of the notion of ‘spicy’. rather than coining a new word to describe this new flavor, they created new words to refer to that of zanthoxylum, the older, but now secondary, condiment. summary of the linguistic evidence the linguistic data reviewed in this section suggest that an etymon for zanthoxylum is reconstructible to the common ancestor of rgyalrongic, lolo burmese and bodish, dated 4847 bp [3363–6429 bce]) according to the main analysis of sagart et al. (2019). it is possible that a cognate exists in ka man. although this language was not included in sagart et al. (2019), the closely related languages yidu and taraon were, and the common ancestor of rgyalrongic and yidu-taraon would go back to 6009 bp [4124–7834 bce], very close to the root of the sino-tibetan family. outside of the sino-tibetan family, there is no evidence of reconstructible term for zanthoxylum in any other language family, including the kra-dai, hmong-mien and austroasiatic, the three families of southern china and south-east asia that are plausibly originate from the neolithic population of the lower yangtze, where the earliest isolated attestation of zanthoxylum has been found. conclusion archaeobotanical and genetic evidence converge to indicate that zanthoxylum was employed by ancient populations in western sichuan at least in the fourth millennium bce, before its use spread to the central plains of china a millennium later. the mid-fourth millennium is slightly earlier than the approximate date of the common ancestor of tibeto-rgyalrongic, the earliest proto-language in which an etymon for zanthoxylum is reconstructible, as shown by the evidence in this paper. western sichuan is also a fitting localization of the ancestral language of tibetic and rgyalrongic languages: the 哈休 haxiu site where the earliest (although as of yet, not directly dated) evidence of zanthoxylum was found is located in an area where the rgyalrongic language japhug is currently spoken. incidentally, since the chinese name haxiu originates from japhug ɬaɕɯ (whose etymology is unclear, though the first syllable is probably the tibetan word lha ‘god’) an alternative name lhashu based on japhug could be used to refer to this site. the linguistic evidence is thus compatible with the main conclusions of the other disciplines and supports the view that the earliest known use of zanthoxylum could have been by millet farmer populations of western sichuan, around 5000 years ago, although evidence for its wider spread across asia dates to later. jacques and d’alpoim guedes. 2023. ethnobiology letters 14(1):10–23 21 research communications although foragers inhabited western sichuan for millennia before the arrival of neolithic farmers, and presumably would have been familiar with zanthoxylum, there is no direct evidence that they used it for food consumption, and in any case, we have no trace of the languages they spoke. the isolated find of zanthoxylum in the jingtoushan site in the lower yangtze in the sixth-seventh millennium bce reflects an independent early use of this plant. however, in view of the paucity of later evidence, and absence of linguistic support for ancient use of zanthoxylum among people of southern china, it may be a deadend, reflecting discontinuity of use among these ancient populations. the american domesticate chili pepper (capsicum spp.) has served as a supplement or even a substitute of zanthoxylum sp. after its introduction in east asia from the seventeenth century, and has completely replaced it in many areas, to the extent that the original terms designating zanthoxylum sp., formerly the main spice condiment, has been lost in many areas. notes 1no systematic reconstruction of proto-west rgyalrongic has been proposed, but these reconstructions are based on lai (2021). the geshiza forms show an unexplained irregularity in the preinitials: rwould be expected in the noun ltsʰəu ‘zanthoxylum’, perhaps a clue that this word has been borrowed from a closely related gyalrongic language. 2although the second syllable of situ mdzartsá ‘zanthoxylum’ superficially resembles that of martsáp ‘be spicy’, no known morphological process could cause a final -p to disappear in word-final position in rgyalrongic, and this resemblance is fortuitous. 3in english for instance, the adjectives ‘spicy’ or ‘peppery’ come from the nouns ‘spice’ and ‘pepper’, not the other way round. 4this hypothesis could only be supported if incontrovertible examples of onset devoicing are found in rgyalrongic. 5in chinese, the adjective 麻 má ‘numbing’ is used to describe this sensation. acknowledgments some of the fieldwork data has been obtained thanks to the project ‘an ethnobotanical study of rgyalrongic languages’ funded by the national social science fund of china (19byy190). declarations permissions: none declared. sources of funding: none declared. conflicts of interest: none declared. references cited baxter, w. h. iii, and l. sagart. 2014. old chinese: a new reconstruction. oxford: oxford university press. fei, x. t., y. lei, y. c. qi, s. j. wang, h. c. hu and a. z. wei. 2021. small rna sequencing provides candidate mirna-target pairs for revealing the mechanism of apomixis in zanthoxylum bungeanum. bmc plant biology 21(1):178. doi:10.1186/s12870021-02935-5. feng, s. j., z. s. liu, l. chen, n. hou, t. x. yang and a. z. wei. 2016. phylogenetic relationships among cultivated zanthoxylum species in china based on cpdna markers. tree genetics & genomes 12(45). doi:10.1007/s11295-016-1005-z. feng, s. j., z. s. liu, y. hu, j. y. 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bèngbùshì yǔhuìcūn 蚌埠市禹会村 [the yuhui site in bengbu]. kēxué chūbǎnshè 科学出版社. continuity and knowledge transmission on the northwest coast: insights from wet site ektb-9, triquet island, n̓úláw̓itx̌v tribal area, british columbia, canada gauvreau. 2025. ethnobiology letters 16(1):27–36 27 research communications the relationship between the archaeological past, ethnobotanical research, and wet sites on the northwest coast (nwc) of british columbia (bc), canada, is complex and multifaceted. wet sites are created through social practices and the discard of vegetal cultural material in water saturated contexts where anaerobic (low oxygen) conditions occur (peat bogs, lake beds, intertidal zones) (bernick 2019). while paleoethnobotanical evidence can be fragmentary and subject to preservation bias, wet sites can reveal lasting records of the processes and activities of ancestral generations and their varied relationships with plants (hill 2019; hoffmann et al. 2016; speller and forbes 2022). preserved pollen and macrobotanical analyses also provide information about environmental conditions (climate; forest introduction “every woven or stitched container, every fishnet, every digging stick, every dugout canoe reflects an immense array of complex knowledge about plants and their materials, where to find them, how and when to harvest them, how to prepare them for use, the techniques of creating the final product, and finally, how to use or apply the finished item in procuring food, creating shelter, or whatever other purpose is intended. all of this knowledge is built up over generations of experimentation and observation and is passed on to succeeding generations through experiential learning, demonstration, and instruction.” nancy turner (2014:334). continuity and knowledge transmission on the northwest coast: insights from wet site ektb-9, triquet island, n̓úláw̓itx̌v tribal area, british columbia, canada alisha gauvreau1* 1department of anthropology, university of victoria, victoria, canada. *alishagauvreau@gmail.com abstract paleoethnobotanical wet site investigations enhance our understanding of ancestral people's relationships with plants and how they have evolved and persisted into the present. archaeological records of human-plant interactions were historically underutilized or underreported at sites along the northwest coast of british columbia, canada. recent advances in interdisciplinary and community-based research have increased awareness of the importance of studying wet site assemblages in the region. site ektb-9, triquet island, within the n̓úláw̓itxv̌ tribal area of haíɫzaqv (heiltsuk) nation territory, is the only mid-holocene wet site on british columbia’s outer central coast that has been subject to focused investigations. this case study provides a description of the wooden artifact assemblage from ektb-9 with consideration in the context of other select wet sites in british columbia. the enduring relationships that indigenous peoples of the northwest coast maintain with the varied plant communities represented in these regional wet site assemblages demonstrate continuity and perpetuation of ancestral plant-related knowledge, technologies and land management practices over several hundred generations. collectively, these data enable an exploration of the interactivity of wet sites, social practice, and knowledge transmission spanning the early holocene to the present day. received april 22, 2024 open access accepted january 16, 2025 doi 10.14237/ebl.16.1.2025.1887 published march 27, 2025 keywords paleoethnobotany, wooden artifacts, wet sites, haíɫzaqv (heiltsuk) territory, northwest coast of british columbia copyright © 2025 by the author(s); licensee society of ethnobiology. this is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution-noncommercial 4.0 international public license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0), which permits non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. gauvreau. 2025. ethnobiology letters 16(1):27–36 28 research communications composition) during past occupations and how these conditions changed over time (eldridge 2019). paleoethnobotanical studies that incorporate indigenous knowledge (oral histories, narratives; interviews with descendent communities), and analysis of macrobotanical and wooden artifact assemblages can provide a more holistic understanding of humanplant interactions through time. current trends in interdisciplinary research on the nwc emphasize the importance of integrating indigenous knowledge in paleoethnobotanical analyses to explore the cultural importance of plants (e.g., armstrong et al. 2023; lepofsky and lertzman 2008; lepofsky and lyons 2013; lyons and ritchie 2017). these and similar studies have improved our understanding of historical and contemporary plant management practices and have identified applications for evolving indigenous governance and stewardship initiatives on the nwc. following this trend, this case study provides a description of the wooden artifact assemblage from wet site ektb-9, located on triquet island in the n̓úláw ̓itx̌v tribal area of haíɫzaqv (heiltsuk) nation territory on the nwc of bc (gauvreau 2024). the modest mid-holocene-aged wet site assemblage from figure 1 study area map showing location of wet sites on the nwc of bc mentioned in text. prepared by keith holmes (hakai institute); used with permission. gauvreau. 2025. ethnobiology letters 16(1):27–36 29 research communications ektb-9 is considered in the context of select bc wet sites, with a focus on the enduring and varied relationships that indigenous peoples maintain with the plant communities represented in these regional wet site assemblages (cohen 2014; fedje et al. 2001; hoffmann et al. 2016; mclaren et al. 2015, 2019). collectively, these data enable an exploration of the interactivity of wet sites, social practice, and knowledge transmission spanning the early holocene to the present day. methods study location deglaciation of the outer nwc was underway by ca. 18,000–16,000 cal yrs bp, and by ca. 13,800 cal yrs bp, the diminishment of ice influenced regional sealevels and the growth and spread of post-glacial vegetation (mackie et al. 2018; shaw et al. 2020). through the phenomenon of a sea-level hinge, the outer central coast of bc has maintained a stable relative sea level since ca. 14,500 cal yrs bp (mclaren et al. 2014, 2015; shugar et al. 2014). human presence is documented on the nwc by ca. 14,000–13,000 years ago (gauvreau et al. 2023), however, only a handful of outer coastal sites are known to pre-date ca. 12,000 cal yrs bp (vogelaar 2017). with a 14,000year record of repeated human occupation and investment, ektb-9 is a critical component of the post-glacial record of the nwc (gauvreau et al. 2023; gauvreau 2024). triquet island is located approximately 25 km west of the pacific mainland coast of bc within the hakai lúxvbálís conservancy (figure 1). despite the small size of the hypermaritime island (144 ha), seven archaeological sites (ektb-3, 8, 9 and 11-14) are recorded there. of these, ektb-9 is a permanent outer coastal village site that is centrally located along a protected northern facing bay (figure 1). shell midden deposits have a surface area greater than 17,000 m2 and extend up to 6 m below surface along the northern extent of the site. peat accumulations are limited to southwestern areas subject to persistent water saturation. there are estuarian root gardens along the northern bay, established berry bushes across the island, and bark-stripped western redcedar trees at the southern end of the site. the pollen assemblage from mid-holocene peat deposits (strata viib to vi) indicate presence of arboreal taxa consistent with a cool, wet, rainforest climate, including spruce (picea spp.), western hemlock (tsuga heterophylla), and few cedar (cupressaceae) as well as herbaceous taxa (grasses [poaceae], sedges [cyperaceae], asters [asteraceae], umbellifers [apiaceae]), and aquatic plants (pond-lily [nuphar spp.], cattail [typha latifolia], peat mosses [sphagnum spp.]) (lucas 2013; hebda 2020). identified macrobotanical specimens include species that thrive in moist riparian or nearshore environments (red elderberry seeds [sambucus racemosa], spruce roots and cones, and western hemlock cones and needles). during the late holocene (ca. 5,500–450 cal yrs bp), western redcedar (thuja plicata) and yellow cedar (xanthocyparis nootkatensis) joined the stands of spruce and hemlock and a rapidly developing understory rich in salal (gaultheria shallon), ferns, and berry bushes (hebda 2020). the mid-holocene faunal assemblage demonstrates specialized marine-based subsistence targeting fish, shellfish, and sea-mammals. greenling (hexagrammos sp.), rockfish (sebastes sp.), and pacific herring (clupea pallasii) dominate the assemblage, whereas salmon (oncorhynchus sp.) represent a mere 0.2% (gauvreau et al. 2023; gauvreau 2024). data collection ektb-9 was recorded in 2009 and subject to further investigation from 2012–2017; detailed descriptions of field and laboratory methods are previously published (gauvreau et al. 2023; gauvreau 2024; mclaren et al. 2015, 2019) and not repeated here. peat deposits encountered in the excavation trench were removed in 25 x 25 x 5 cm sections; some sections were wet screened through 3 mm mesh at the site while others were individually wrapped in polytarp, packed into totes, and transported to cold storage for later processing. the packed peat sections were processed at the quadra island ecological observatory operated by the hakai institute. recovered vegetal material was packaged in plastic containers/bags filled with water and refrigerated. analyses preserved wood demonstrating evidence of potential and/or obvious signs of human modification were inventoried, described, and subject to analysis at the university of victoria (uvic), the royal bc museum (rbcm), or the pacific northwest archaeological services (pnas) laboratory. nine of the wood artifacts were selected for cellular analysis. of these, six were examined by hawes and croes (2013), and four were examined at the rbcm for this study. cellular analysis involved the following steps: (1) removal of small thin section with razor blade, (2) gauvreau. 2025. ethnobiology letters 16(1):27–36 30 research communications mounting thin section on glass microscope slide, (3) examination with compound microscope (100–400x resolution), and (4) identification of diagnostic anatomical characteristics (tangential, radial, cross section) where possible (florian et al. 1990; friedman 1978, 2005; hoadley 1990; panshin and de zeeuw 1990). following analysis, wood artifacts were sewn into plastic mesh bags and submerged in containers filled with a mixture of 50% polyethylene glycol (peg) 400 mol wt and 50% water to initiate the stabilization process (florian et al. 1990). the containers were stored for nine months and were periodically checked to confirm they remained free of mold. as the water evaporated over time, the ratio of peg was gradually increased to support stabilization. each specimen was inspected prior to initiating the drying process due to their variable size and density. once subject to airdrying, they were monitored for evidence of cracking/ checking and promptly resubmerged to resume the stabilization process, as applicable. results a total of 850 wood artifacts classified into 20 types were recovered from deposits spanning ca. 7,788– 5,604 cal yrs bp (table 1; figure 2). most wood artifacts are from stratum vi (58%; ca. 6,700–5,600 cal yrs bp) and stratum viiib (29%; ca. 7,500–7,100 cal yrs bp). wood chips are the most abundant artifact type, 60% of which derive from stratum vi and 27% from stratum viiib. a sample of the wood chips (n=43; 8.5%) range from 1.6 to 13 cm long, 0.2 to 2.8 cm wide, and 0.2 to 1.9 cm thick. approximately 33% of the woodchips, 5% of the split wood, and 8% of the split sticks exhibited burning/charring. one tool, three tool tips, three pieces of worked wood and one artifact of unknown type exhibited fire-hardening (figure 2). a few wedges, split roots (some spruce) and abundant chopped wood were recovered from stratum vi. two carved wood balls/knobs were recovered from stratum viiib. bipoints from stratum vi are of variable lengths (10 to 21 cm) and exhibit multiple tool marks. evidence of composite tool technology from stratum viiib and vi includes an type strata ca. 7,788–5,604 cal yrs bp v/vi vi vi/vii viiib ix site total atlatl throwing board 0 0 0 1 0 1 ball/knob 0 0 0 2 0 2 barkstrip 0 6 0 2 0 8 bipoint 0 5 0 0 0 5 board 0 4 0 0 0 4 carved 0 1 0 0 0 1 carved? 1 1 0 0 0 2 chopped wood 1 23 1 12 3 40 fishhook fragment 0 1 0 2 0 3 harpoon foreshaft 0 1 0 0 0 1 point 0 7 0 3 0 10 split root 0 10 1 2 0 13 split stick 6 30 0 47 1 84 split wood 0 77 0 59 0 136 tool 0 1 0 1 0 2 tool tip 0 5 0 0 0 5 tool? 0 1 0 3 0 4 wedge 0 2 0 0 0 2 woodchip 15 305 11 135 38 504 worked root 0 0 0 1 0 1 worked wood 0 9 1 4 0 14 worked wood? 1 6 0 0 0 7 bark wrapped stick 0 1 0 0 0 1 total 24 496 14 274 42 850 table 1 wood artifacts per stratum recovered from ektb-9. gauvreau. 2025. ethnobiology letters 16(1):27–36 31 research communications atlatl throwing board, bipoints, fishhooks, a harpoon foreshaft, and a bark wrapped stick. pieces of worked wood exhibit different modification types (carved; whittled; chopped) and were either too fragmented to further categorize or could not be specifically classified as one or the other. table 2 describes the wood artifacts subject to cellular analysis for this study. earlier analyses conducted on select specimens indicated that most were made of sitka spruce (picea sitchensis) or western hemlock, however, two artifacts (atlatl throwing board; fishhook barb) were made of douglas fir (pseudotsuga menziesii) and a split stick was made of yellow cedar (mclaren et al. 2019). consistent with these earlier analyses, the bipoint and piece of worked wood (type unknown) were made of spruce, and the bark-wrapped stick and harpoon foreshaft were made of western redcedar (table 2; figure 2). discussion results from ektb-9 reveal that plant harvesting and use, a specialized vegetal marine tool kit; use of watercraft (inferred), woodworking and composite tool technology were well established on the nwc by the mid-holocene. the bark wrapped stick is a significant example of composite tool technology, indicative of the innovative combination of multiple material types, including those that may have been procured at separate times and/or places. for example, ektb-9's mid-holocene lithic assemblage includes utilized obsidian microblades and a pigment stone (graphite) that were both imported to the site (gauvreau et al. 2023). it is possible that a precision cutting tool was created by hafting a microblade to the stick, or that fibers were attached to create a brush for pigment application (art; personal adornment) (stewart 1984). although the bark wrapped cedar stick, harpoon foreshaft, and pollen assemblage signal the early presence of cedar on the island (ca. 6,700– 5,600 cal yrs bp), cedar may have been imported to the site like the artifacts made of douglas fir (lucas 2013; mclaren et al. 2019). abundant wood artifacts in strata vi and viiib signal periods of increased activity, and the absence of artifacts in stratum vii is likely a product of the palaeotsunami that occurred ca. 6,931–6,314 cal yrs bp (stratum viiia) (gauvreau et al. 2023). the smaller, wider bipoints were likely used as fishing gorges, whereas longer, narrower bipoints were likely used for spearing, and the carved wooden balls may be fishing floats (stewart 1984). presence of worked roots, bark, branches and wood indicate use of all tree parts for specific, though varied, purposes. burnt and charred wood and botanicals were used as fuel, though may also represent discard of processed plants that served food, medicinal, or ritual purposes (cohen 2014). wedges, woodchips, chopped and split wood, and split sticks suggest large to fine scale woodworking was occurring at the southern extent of the site for over 2,000 years. tool tips from ektb-9 demonstrate similar attributes to digging stick fragments recovered from other nwc wet sites and the presence of estuarian root gardens at ektb-9 infer continuity of these technologies and associated cultivation practices (e.g., hoffmann et al. 2016). the assemblage of wood artifacts from ektb-9 is like those of early-holocene wet site kilgii gwaay figure 2 select wood artifacts from strata viiib-vi: harpoon foreshaft (i ektb-9:828), tool tips (ii ektb-9:895; iii ektb-9:803; iv ektb-9:870; v ektb-9:824; vi ektb-9:698; bipoints (vii–xiv ektb-9:825 827); fish hook (viii ektb9:749) ; carved ball (ix ektb-9:763); bark-wrapped stick (x ektb-9:783); wedge (xi ektb-9:866); damaged point (xii ektb-9:906); unknown (xv a-d) ektb-9:884. gauvreau. 2025. ethnobiology letters 16(1):27–36 32 research communications (1325t) on ellen island, haida gwaii, in haida nation territory (cohen 2014; fedje et al. 2001; mackie et al. 2011) and mid-to-late holocene wet site, dhrp-52, in maple ridge near the confluence of the pitt and fraser rivers in katzie first nation territory (hoffmann et al. 2016). kilgii gwaay is the oldest wet site currently known on the nwc (cohen 2014; fedje et al. 2001; mackie et al. 2011). while kilgii gwaay was occupied prior to sea-level transgression (ca. 10,600 cal yrs bp), and dhrp-52 was occupied following sea-level regression (ca. 6,000 cal yrs bp), site ektb-9 was subject to the post-glacial sea-level hinge and was repeatedly occupied between ca. 14,000 and 450 years ago (cohen 2014; gauvreau et al. 2023; gauvreau 2024; hoffmann et al. 2016; mclaren et al. 2014). although the post-glacial sea level constrained the occupation of kilgii gwaay, over 100 wood artifacts were recovered, including stakes, wedges, planks, withes, twine, and composite tools (cohen 2014). these were primarily made of sitka spruce or western hemlock and indicative of well-developed woodworking technology and the use of watercraft (inferred) (cohen 2014). preliminary evidence of early -holocene (ca. 10,640–10,517 cal yrs bp) wet site deposits consistent in age with those of kilgii gwaay were also identified in the vicinity of triquet island at nearby wet site eltb-18 (kildit narrows) on hunter island (figure 1; mclaren et al. 2019). excavations at the 3,800-year-old wetland garden site dhrp-52 produced 185 wood tool fragments, 3,768 specimens of wapato tubers and other garden specimens (figure 1; hoffmann et al. 2016). distal ends (tool tips) of digging sticks dominated the dhrp -52 assemblage (n=149) and analyzed specimens were made from fir (abies spp.) and western hemlock (hoffmann et al. 2016). the assemblages from dhrp52, kilgii gwaay and ektb-9 indicate locally dominant conifers (fir, spruce, and hemlock) were used to produce many of the same products and tools (planks, wedges, digging sticks) during the early and mid-holocene that are known to be made of cedar today and all nations of the nwc have oral historical records that tell of ancestral relationship with these coniferous species (boas 1932; turner 2014). the assemblages from kilgii gwaii and ektb-9 also indicate that seafaring, marine adaptations, plant technologies, and other aspects of the socio-cultural complexity underpinning nwc culture began in the absence of cedar and salmon and much earlier than some had initially hypothesized (coupland 1998; donald 2003; hebda and mathewes 1984; turner 1998). results from ektb-9, kilgii gwaay, and dhrp52 demonstrate long-term people-plant relationships on the nwc, as all the identified plant species are known to be of great cultural importance to the haíɫzaqv, haida, and katzie nation’s today (gauvreau et al. 2023; gauvreau 2024; hoffmann et al. 2016; lyons et al. 2021; turner 2014). technologies related to tree species identified in table 3 were developed and practiced by ancestral peoples throughout the mid to late holocene, and likely artifact dbs (cm) dimensions (l x w x h) (cm) description and sample location ektb-9: 783; bark-wrapped stick 145 – 150 3.4 x 0.8 x 0.3 small flat rectangular handle; carved, smoothed; (inferred) distal end wrapped with thin bark strip. broken on both ends. sample: flattened edge opposite bark strip. ektb-9: 828; harpoon foreshaft 175– 180 22.7 x 1.3 x 1.2 tapered cylindrical shaft; carved, smoothed. shaft is widest at proximal end; tapers toward distal end; both ends rounded, smoothed. sample: distal end. ektb-9:826; bipoint 160 – 170 14.5 x 0.8 x 0.5 carved, whittled and abraded into smooth cylinder tapering to opposing points. sample: pointed end. ektb-9:884; worked unknown type 138 – 145 3.3 x 2.9 x 2.0 carefully worked, carved, smoothed, burnt; artifact has 5 sides; tapers from rectangular proximal end to finely tapered distal edge; two fire hardened lateral faces (spade-shaped). sample: lateral surface. table 2 description of select wood artifacts from ektb-9 (stratum vi, ca. 6,700–5,600 cal yrs bp) subject to cellular analysis for this study. gauvreau. 2025. ethnobiology letters 16(1):27–36 33 research communications earlier, as demonstrated by the assemblage from kilgii gwaay. the perpetuation of these practices from an immemorial past to the present day demonstrates continuity among nwc cultures and the power of knowledge transmission over several hundred generations. the diversity of plants at ektb-9 and elsewhere along the nwc, and the enduring relationships that indigenous people maintain with these plant communities, represents “a complex product of the history, dynamics, and development of species1 technology food medicine turner (2014) page # douglas fir pseudotsuga menziesii (pinaceae) máwála̓s harpoon and spear shafts, dip net poles and hoops, arrow shafts, fishbarbecuing stakes; bark slabs split off standing trees and used for shelter covering, siding; thick bark and wood hot-burning fuels decoction drank in sweathouse for purification 339, 340, 344, 428 sitka spruce picea sitchensis (pinaceae) h̓ṇíw̓as bows, wedges, blanket pins, arrows and arrow points, tongs, clubs, implement handles, ladders, drying racks, containers, fish traps, deadfalls, shelters; pitch for sealing canoes and baskets, waterproofing, glue pitch as salve (wounds, slivers); tea from inner bark applied to rashes, eczema, sores; tips boiled in house and branches used on floor to keep sickness away; disinfectant 340, 344, 422, 428 western hemlock tsuga heterophylla (pinaceae) lúq̓vás bentwood fishhooks, harpoon shafts, fish weir stakes, points, paddles; harvesting herring eggs cambium and inner bark tissues eaten; cooked/ dried; served with grease, berries infusion/decoction of bark for colds, tuberculosis, ulcers, internal injuries 276, 340, 344, 423, 424, 425 western redcedar thuja plicata (cupressaceae) dṇ́ya̓́s dugout canoes, house posts, totem poles, boxes, pegs, fish weirs, arrow shafts and points; wood and shredded bark as tinder, kindling, fire drills, hearths; branches, roots for baskets, mats, clothing, cordage infusion of boughs for colds; also used as inhalant for coughs, colds 339, 340, 342, 423 yellow cedar xanthocyparis nootkatensis (cupressaceae) díw̓ás inner bark for baskets, mats, clothing, blankets; bows, canoe paddles, carving 340, 342 table 3 turner (2014) known indigenous uses for tree species recovered from ektb-9. 1 common (english), scientific (latin), and haíɫzaqv (haíɫzaqvḷa) names provided. gauvreau. 2025. ethnobiology letters 16(1):27–36 34 research communications [regional] flora […] over time and of the interweaving of human migration and settlement with the synchronous acquisition, transmission, and adaptation of knowledge, practices, and beliefs about these flora” (turner 2014:29). woodworking practices evidenced at ektb-9 are perpetuated in their current forms by contemporary haíɫzaqv carvers, weavers, and gardeners and these activities are supported by several haíɫzaqv organizations (qqs projects society; haíɫzaqv káxḷá society; qíɫcutkv wellness project) to promote cultural revitalization, community healing, knowledge perpetuation, language and skill development, and youth empowerment. aligned with these goals, the haíłzaqv integrated resource management department (hirmd), and q ̌íx ̌itasu yím ̌ázalas elroy white (central coast archaeology [cca]), have facilitated youth trips to triquet island to monitor the site and share haíłzaqv knowledge and history through a m ̓ṇúxvit approach (white et al. 2024).1 like other wet sites on the nwc, ektb-9 remains an “encultured place full of meaning, of teaching and learning, of associating with the ancestors, and the rest of the world” (hill 2019:68). every single wood chip, tool tip, and wedge recovered from wet sites like kilgii gwaay, dhrp-52, and ektb-9, and those in the carving sheds of coastal indigenous peoples today, reflect transmission of complex and dynamic knowledge of plants and associated technologies on the nwc of bc. notes 1the m ̓ṇúxvit (uniting or becoming one) approach builds on the internalist concept in alignment with haíɫzaqv language, protocols and cultural knowledge. acknowledgments thank you (ǧiáxsix ̌a) dúqva ̓ísḷa william housty , qˇíxˇitasu yímˇázalas elroy white, dr. duncan mclaren, dr. quentin mackie, dr. genevieve hill and society of ethnobiology reviewers for thoughtful comments on drafts of this manuscript. ǧiáxsix ̌a haíɫzaqv cultural education center (hcec), haíɫzaqvla language program, larissa dixon (wood analysis support) and haíɫzaqv field members brodie lawson, danny windsor, kelly windsor, andrea walkus, josh vickers, maxwell johnson jr., and jordan sandy. dr. eric peterson and dr. christina munck (tula foundation) are thanked for coordinating financial and logistical support, and the hakai staff are thanked for being all around awesome. deepest thanks to core team members (daryl fedje, angela dyck, christopher hebda, seonaid duffield, john maxwell, jim stafford, joanne mcsporran, jenny cohen, callum abbott), all other field crew members (2012-2017), and to dr. mathews for provision of storage and lab space at uvic. thank you, dr. marr, for support with cellular id at the rbcm. thank you, grant keddie, jenny eamer (lucas), kathleen hawes, dr. dale croes, al mackie, dr. junko habu, dr. naoto yamamoto, dr. tomonori kanno, rika shinkai, and members of uvic’s department of anthropology. declarations ethics statement: heiltsuk tribal council c/o hcec, approved of this research per the conditions of the heiltsuk band research registration agreement (2016–2024). this study complies with the tricouncil policy statement: ethical conduct for research involving humans. the study was conducted per the terms and conditions the uvic’s human research ethics community engaged research project registration protocol (approval number: 19-0104-01) and those of heritage conservation act permit 2011-0171, issued to dr. duncan mclaren by the bc archaeology branch, ministry of forests. permissions: permission granted for use of figure 1 by keith holmes. sources of funding: social sciences and humanities research council (sshrc) of canada (scholarship #752-2017-1022) funding to dr. alisha gauvreau. sshrc had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, or manuscript preparation. the hakai ancient landscapes archaeology project 2012–2017 research expenses were funded by the tula foundation (https://tula.org/) to dr. duncan mclaren. the funders participated in meetings regarding project scope but had no role in manuscript preparation. conflicts of interest: the author declares that no competing interests exist. references cited armstrong, c.g., n. lyons, a.c. mcalvay, p.m. ritchie, d. 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alpine research 54:96–110. stewart, h. 1984. cedar. university of washington press, seattle, wa. turner, n. 1998. plant technology of british columbia first peoples. ubc press, vancouver, bc. turner, n. 2014. ancient pathways, ancestral knowledge: ethnobotany and ecological wisdom of indigenous peoples of northwestern north america. mcgill-queen’s university press, montreal, qc. vogelaar, c. 2017. using gis modelling as a tool to search for late pleistocene and early holocene archaeology on quadra island, british columbia. unpublished master’s thesis, department of anthropology, university of victoria, victoria, bc, canada. white, e., k.a. artelle, e. brown, k. brown, d.e. chen, and w. housty. 2024. m̓núxv̓it model for centering indigenous knowledge and governance. conservation biology 38. doi:10.1111/cobi.14398. an introduction to a tandem review on gayle fritz’s feeding cahokia: early agriculture in the north american heartland walshaw. 2024. ethnobiology letters 15(1):97 97 reviews tandem reviews a tandem review includes two reviewers writing from different angles, with the aim of broadening the scope while building interest in a volume. for example, one reviewer might come from a methodological specialty but not a regional or community-based perspective; adding such a voice brings the reader a broader understanding of the contributions made by the author(s) of a work. reviewers can request this specifically through email or in a note to the editor while submitting via ojs; alternatively, i may reach out to reviewers with this option. ethnobiology letters is pleased to bring readers our first tandem review in volume 15 of gayle fritz’s feeding cahokia: early agriculture in the north american heartland. kathleen forste considers what fritz offers to undergraduate teaching and learning of early agriculture and archaeobotany. neal lopinot shares what makes this volume so valuable to archaeologists and archaeobotanical researchers, from regional specialists to global scholars of the origins of agriculture. individually, they stand alone as important reviews of fritz’s magnum opus; read together, they show the strength of the evidence and breadth of the insights fritz brings from decades of research into the eastern agricultural complex. as reviews editor at ethnobiology letters, i am pleased to update our readership about ways to engage and to introduce a newly available format: tandem reviews. suggest books have you recently published a book, or read something you would like to review? let us know! this can reach beyond traditional scholarship to include memoirs, cookbooks, primary source collections, graphic histories, and educational works. write a review a review of a book (1000 words) can help our readership connect to recent publications as researchers, teachers, practitioners, community members, and ethnobiology enthusiasts. a review could help a phd student decide what should be included in core literature reading; it might inspire someone to add a new reading to their syllabus; and it even has the potential to inspire a holiday or birthday gift! share your perspective when reviewing several works at once or establishing the contribution of a book by including detailed information about relevant other works, “perspectives” (2500 words) has sufficient space for you. an introduction to a tandem review on gayle fritz’s feeding cahokia: early agriculture in the north american heartland sarah walshaw1* 1department of history, simon fraser university, burnaby, canada. *sarah_walshaw@sfu.ca received december 20, 2024 open access accepted december 27, 2024 doi 10.14237/ebl.15.1.2024.1928 published december 28, 2024 copyright © 2024 by the author(s); licensee society of ethnobiology. this is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution-noncommercial 4.0 international public license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0), which permits non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. agave spirits: the past, present, and future of mezcals. by gary paul nabhan and david suro piñera. 2023. w.w. norton and company, new york. 320 pp. mcalvay. 2025. ethnobiology letters 16(1):10–11 10 reviews states. restauranteur and tequila producer suro piñera’s deep roots in the tequila industry adds nuance to the critiques of contemporary commercial tequila and mezcal production. as the founder of the tequila interchange project, he has championed sustainable, transparent, and traditional production practices. the authors’ own reverence for agaves comes through clearly, with rhapsodic descriptions of the drinks, such as (p. 65): why should we regard these cultural achievements as any less valuable than the egyptian pyramids or the great wall of china, simply because they were not built of stone, but of succulent plant mandalas raised up into delectable spirits? and the impassioned mezcal manifesto—a statement of values and an action plan developed in consultation with a wide range of agave experts. the points discussed range from concrete conservation strategies to improved wages and healthcare for harvesters and distillers. the authors deliver insightful critiques of systems that superficially appear to be pro-agave but in practice promote low-diversity industrial production such as the denomination of origin for tequila. the ten-point action plan and stories of fierce commitment by farmers, distillers, and other activists are inspiring, setting it apart from works that end with the reader mired in helpless pessimism. additional value for ethnobiologists is distilled in the appendix tables—a trove of comprehensive lists the long-term symbiotic relationships that have evolved between humans and agaves have led to the flourishing of botanical diversity (through human selection of local varieties) and cultural diversity (in both the anthropological and microbiological senses of the word). over millennia, strategies have developed for stewarding this diversity and producing complex aromas and tastes from distilled mezcals, tequilas, bacanoras, raicillas, and related beverages. unfortunately, threats to these practices are intensifying, resulting in an ever more precarious industry hurdling toward homogenous fields and flavors at the expense of wild populations and heirloom varieties. in an effort to rekindle reverence for these plants and processes, authors gary paul nabhan and david suro piñera wrote agave spirits: the past, present, and future of mezcals. their holistic examination of the cultural and ecological state of agave species and their distillates spans phytochemistry, microbiology, population, and community ecology while addressing human actors from farmers to distillers to bartenders to drinkers. this holistic approach is only possible because of the authors’ multifaceted and complementary backgrounds. in the book, they identify as “mezcal historians, scholar-activists, and entrepreneurs” (p. 3). nabhan draws on his extensive experience as an ethnobotanist and agricultural ecologist in the arid united states-mexico borderlands, as well as his role as co-founder of native seeds/search, a non-profit dedicated to preserving crop diversity in the southwestern united agave spirits: the past, present, and future of mezcals. by gary paul nabhan and david suro piñera. 2023. w.w. norton and company, new york. 320 pp. alex c. mcalvay1* 1center for plants, people and cultures, new york botanical garden, bronx, usa. *amcalvay@nybg.org received may 18, 2024 open access accepted january 6, 2025 doi 10.14237/ebl.16.1.2025.1936 published february 14, 2025 copyright © 2025 by the author(s); licensee society of ethnobiology. this is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution-noncommercial 4.0 international public license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0), which permits non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. mcalvay. 2025. ethnobiology letters 16(1):10–11 11 reviews including agave species used in mezcal and other distillate production that is taxonomically up-to-date and includes geographic information and local names. a list of plants and animals that are traditionally infused in—or distilled with—agaves (ranging from tagetes marigolds to chicken) for flavor and medicinal properties is also fascinating and could guide a range of follow-up directions. this volume balances its usefulness as a reference for anyone involved in agave conservation, biology, production, or commerce with its accessibility for curious non-professionals and mezcal aficionados. while scientific detail is abundant, covering topics such as adaptive radiation, crassulacean acid metabolism (cam) photosynthesis, phytochemistry and more, it is delivered in a digestible manner: “succulents [conserve water] by virtue of a biochemical and physiological sleight of hand called the…cam. that’s a lot of syllables to say ‘(we) save water’” (p. 31). having recently started working with communities in western mexico to document and revitalize mezcal traditions, i found this book to be an extremely efficient crash course in the sociobiology of agaves and their spirits. in the last several years, i have witnessed tequila monoculture creeping into the endangered dry subtropical forests of the sierra madre occidental and cheap tequila replacing ceremonial indigenous mezcals, resulting in a cascading loss in biocultural knowledge. this volume’s solutionsfocused orientation has been both comforting and bracing. an overtone that thrums throughout the book is agave as an other-than-human person. this animistic presence is captured in the alternative interpretation of the title “agave spirits,” with the authors describing their work as a “spiritual quest” (p. 107) and championing the spirit of the plant, its dignity, and agency. they share stories of aztec deity mayahuel (p. 62), an embodiment of agave’s lifegiving generosity and express affection and veneration for the plant throughout. i read this as a meta-lesson of the book: we need to remember how to uphold our side of the relationship with our plant partners—and reviving our reverence is the first step. the breaking down of agave-human symbiosis reflects the sobering global loss of affective bonds with plants which has driven overexploitation of plant resources that were once considered plant relations. nabhan and piñera offer this book, which is one part ode to these species and cultures, one-part scientific manual, one part diagnosis of challenges, and one-part passionate manifesto, providing the blueprint for repairing our relationship. ethnobotany of artistic plant uses. crop art in baix llobregat (catalonia, ne iberian peninsula) marín et al. 2024. ethnobiology letters 15(1):41–52 41 research communications materials can be considered part of the biocultural diversity (pretty et al. 2009; wiersum 2017) of a region and, as such, need to be fostered, preserved, and protected (posey 1999). in this study, we explore the use of plants for artistic purposes in two municipalities in the area of barcelona (catalonia, ne iberian peninsula). these artistic practices are observed during agricultural fairs. these folk activities can be classified as part of the artistic movement known as crop art, which involves creating sculptures and smaller-scaled architectural forms using grains, seeds, and other plant parts. such practices are considered part of traditional heritage (simpson 2005) and studying them provides insight into the ideas, beliefs, practices, and values of the culture (simpson 2012). the objectives of this research are twofold: i) to inventory the plants and their specific parts used in introduction modern european ethnobotanical literature often focuses on medicinal and food plant uses (pardo de santayana et al. 2015; vallès 2019), especially in southern european countries such as italy and spain (pardo de santayana et al. 2010). however, few studies have described the use of plants for cultural and artistic purposes, as they are perceived to be less fundamental (gras et al. 2016). most of these studies refer to plants used in ritual contexts (austin 2004; barceló et al. 2019; łuczaj 2011; stryamets et al. 2021). very few related studies on artistic uses can be found, such as the study on illustrated children’s books (łuczaj 2009), folk songs (baránková 2022), or even on ceramics (menezes et al. 2021). traditional artistic expressions, including handicrafts, are a valuable component of traditional knowledge (wipo 2000). those involving biological ethnobotany of artistic plant uses. crop art in baix llobregat (catalonia, ne iberian peninsula) jon marín1*, teresa garnatje2, and joan vallès1,3 1laboratori de botànica – unitat associada al csic, facultat de farmàcia i ciències de l’alimentació, universitat de barcelona, avinguda joan xxiii 27-31, 08028 barcelona, catalonia, spain. 2institut botànic de barcelona (ibb), csic-cmcnb, passeig del migdia s/n, 08038 barcelona, catalonia, spain. 3secció de ciències biològiques, institut d’estudis catalans, carrer del carme 47, 08001 barcelona, catalonia, spain. *jmeirin@gmail.com abstract artistic uses of plants are rarely explored in ethnobotanical studies. however, in baix llobregat (catalonia, ne iberian peninsula), seeds and other plant parts are utilized to create art expressions associated with agricultural fairs and promotion of local vegetal goods. the objective of this study is to catalog the plants used and to reflect on the current vitality and significance of this cultural and social activity. the contribution of the manuscript lies in the cataloging of plants used in crop art, which is a biocultural use that is not often registered in ethnobiological studies. the methodology employed involved semi-structured interviews, bibliography research, and observation. we have identified two distinct types of artistic creations. a total of 65 taxa have been identified, primarily comprising locally cultivated species. the results of this research emphasize the enduring presence of ethnobotanical knowledge related to cultural uses and underscore the significance of its preservation. received september 25, 2023 open access accepted march 21, 2024 doi 10.14237/ebl.15.1.2024.1868 published september 16, 2024 keywords agricultural fairs, crop art, spain copyright © 2024 by the author(s); licensee society of ethnobiology. this is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution-noncommercial 4.0 international public license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0), which permits non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. marín et al. 2024. ethnobiology letters 15(1):41–52 42 research communications the production of artistic creations within the studied region, and ii) to reflect on the current vitality and significance of this cultural and social activity. agricultural fairs and crop art agricultural fairs, which have remained popular annual events in many western countries since their origin in the eighteenth century, are often portrayed as significant and socially important gatherings that contribute to broader understandings of agriculture and rurality, attracting an increasing number of urban visitors (irshad 2011; larsen 2017). these exhibitions aim to foster a connection between rural and urban communities and emphasize the importance of farming and agricultural products. to further engage visitors, these fairs are sometimes complemented with amusement and leisure activities (köksal et al. 2021). art and handcrafts can be among these activities, attracting visitors to agricultural fairs (sheehy 2007). no other modern artistic practices related to agricultural food fairs have been found in spain or even europe. the fact that there are not too many similar experiences worldwide makes this one even more relevant. however, at the minnesota state fair (usa), crop art was introduced in 1965 (sheehy 2007). as simpson (2005:190-92) observes, using food to create art served as an “icon of abundance,” showcasing a fertile territory but also adding an innovative and visually appealing element to the fair. brief history and context description the artistic vegetable creations, known as paneres artístiques in catalan, which translates to "artistic baskets," have an interesting origin. at first, they were wicker baskets containing asparagus, but over time, the typology evolved while retaining the same name. these creations are an integral part of two agricultural exhibitions in the study area: the asparagus fair, locally known as fira de l’espàrrec and sant isidre's fair. the asparagus fair is located in gavà and it has been organized by the agricultural union of gavà since 1932. the main goal is to praise the most significant agricultural product in the region: asparagus (asparagus officinalis) (tarrida 2003). over the years, it has evolved into a prominent regional and supraregional event, serving as an agricultural, commercial, and cultural showcase (gabernet 2003). initially, the fair solely exhibited asparagus baskets, but starting in 1964, local farmers began displaying baskets featuring other vegetables in a more or less creative manner. in 1971, recognition of the best artistic vegetable creations was introduced (tarrida 2003). currently, the fair hosts several contest categories. under the realm of artistic creations, a distinction is made between those crafted using fresh vegetable materials and those created with grains. participants in both categories have the freedom to choose their themes, but they must incorporate some part of the asparagus plant into their creations, though this requirement is not always strictly fulfilled. saint isidre's fair is located in viladecans and it was established in the 1970s, possibly in response to the successful fair in gavà. this annual event takes place on may 15, in honor of sant isidre's day, the patron saint of farmers, and aims to showcase the agricultural products of local farmers (luengo 2018). over time, the fair has evolved into a platform not only for agriculture but also for trade, industry, and local entities. this fair includes also a contest for artistic vegetable creations, which is divided into two sections: creations made with fresh vegetal material, referred to as "vegetal skin creations," and creations made from grains or seeds. the notable distinction between the two fairs is that in viladecans, the artistic grain creations are three-dimensional, whereas in gavà, they remain two-dimensional. materials and methods study area gavà and viladecans are two neighboring municipalities located in the baix llobregat region, on the central coast of catalonia, situated on the ne iberian peninsula (figure 1), with populations of 47,057 and 67,197 inhabitants, respectively (institut d’estadística de catalunya 2023). currently, the study area is part of the peri-urban area of barcelona and the interdependence with barcelona and its extensive area of influence is highly significant (palos 1999). regarding the economy, 44% of the population is engaged in the tertiary sector, while only 1% is involved in the primary sector (diputació de barcelona 2023), experiencing clear regression. despite its limited economic impact, agriculture holds significant social importance within the study area, primarily due to the creation of the baix llobregat agricultural park (blap) in the 1990s. blap is a local public consortium aimed at conserving and enhancing the region's territorial values. blap has gained recognition and has been extensively studied as a spanish model for preserving agricultural activities in a highly urbanized setting (breton et al. 2001; paül and mckenzie 2013; zazo 2011; zazo et al. 2020). marín et al. 2024. ethnobiology letters 15(1):41–52 43 research communications blap comprises 2938 ha where vegetables and fruit trees are cultivated. it is estimated that approximately 80% of production is distributed through the wholesale market mercabarna, and 20% is distributed through alternative food networks, such as farmers’ markets (soler 2013). methodology the research methods employed involved a combination of archival data and fieldwork, and the study was conducted between 2014 and 2023, allowing for the assessment of vitality and evolution over time. to compile a comprehensive inventory of plants associated with the artistic creations, nine informants were interviewed, comprising five women and four men. all of them were native to the study area and either are currently participating or have participated in the fair. semi-structured interviews were used (silva et al. 2014), focusing on the creation of artistic works. participants were asked about the species, plant parts, and techniques used. they were also encouraged to discuss other related aspects, such as their motivations to participate, past experiences, and more general aspects related to the agricultural fair and the contest. these interviews were conducted with some artistic creations present (either in physical format or through images), allowing participants to directly refer to visual elements when discussing their creative processes. this approach enabled a deeper understanding of the practices, not only through verbal responses but also through the direct observation of the artworks and their relationship with the participants' experiences. prior to conducting the interviews, the researchers adhered to the ethical guidelines outlined in the international society of ethnobiology code of ethics (international society of ethnobiology 2008) to obtain informed consent and address related ethical considerations. plant vouchers were deposited in the herbarium bcn, located at the centre de documentació de biodiversitat vegetal, universitat de barcelona. the nomenclature used for plant identification follows the flora manual dels països catalans (bolòs et al. 2005), and sánchez-monge (1991) for cultivated plants not appearing in the former, and for plant families, we have adopted the apg iv system (angiosperm phylogeny group 2016). the basic information unit is the use report (ur), i.e., each mention made by an informant regarding one use of a specific part of a plant species for a particular purpose within those considered in this work. to determine the frequency of use of the taxa reported, a total of 79 artistic creations dating from 1979 to 2023 were analyzed. this analysis included on -site observations and archival photograph reviews for further insights. these observations were conducted both as desk work and field work, in collaboration with some of the informants. results and discussion in the present study, data were collected from a total of 65 taxa, with two identified at the genus level and the rest classified at specific or infraspecific levels. these taxa belong to 26 botanical families. throughout the study, a total of 157 use reports (ur) were documented. in terms of the number of taxa, the most well-represented families are poaceae (12%), fabaceae (11%), and apiaceae (9%), which have a high representation of cultivated food species. these results partially differ from the studies on general ethnobotanical uses in the mediterranean area, where lamiaceae, rosaceae, or asteraceae are the most represented families (gonzález-tejero et al. 2008; vallès 2007). the inventory of taxa and their respective information, including the part of the plant used and the type of artistic creation it is typically associated with, are presented in table 1. according to the ethnofloristic catalogue of the studied area (marín et al. 2023), 22% of the taxa recorded are used for artistic purposes, alongside other potential applications, such as food or medicinal uses. in fact, within the studied area, 68% of the taxa figure 1 studied area in europe and catalonia. on the right, the dark-blue area corresponds to the municipalities studied. source: own elaboration. marín et al. 2024. ethnobiology letters 15(1):41–52 44 research communications family/species part used type of creation actinidiaceae actinidia chinensis epicarp fresh amaranthaceae amaranthus sp. seed grain beta vulgaris subsp. vulgaris var. conditiva root epidermis, leaf, stem fresh chenopodium quinoa seed grain amaryllidaceae allium cepa cataphyll, leaf, stem fresh allium porrum cataphyll, leaf, root fresh allium sativum root, bulb epidermis fresh apiaceae anethum graveolens seed grain apium graveolens leaf fresh daucus carota subsp. sativus root, root epidermis, fruit fresh, grain foeniculum vulgare fruit grain pastinaca sativa var. hortensis root fresh petroselinum crispum leaf fresh araliaceae hedera helix leaf fresh asparagaceae asparagus acutifolius turion fresh, grain asparagus officinalis cladode, turion fresh asteraceae cichorium endivia leaf fresh cichorium intybus leaf fresh cynara scolymus inflorescence’s bracts fresh helianthus annuus fruit grain lactuca sativa leaf, fruit fresh, grain brassicaceae brassica napus root epidermis, seed fresh, grain brassica oleracea subsp. oleracea var. botrytis inflorescence fresh brassica oleracea subsp. oleracea var. capitata leaf fresh raphanus raphanistrum subsp. sativus root, seed fresh, grain bromeliaceae ananas comosus epicarp fresh cucurbitaceae citrullus lanatus epicarp, seed grain cucumis melo seed fresh, grain cucumis sativus epicarp fresh cucurbita maxima fruit, seed fresh, grain cucurbita pepo var. oblonga epicarp fresh fabaceae cicer arietinum seed grain lens culinaris seed grain phaseolus vulgaris seed grain pisum sativum seed fresh, grain continued on next page table 1 plant species used for artistic creations in the baix llobregat agricultural fairs. marín et al. 2024. ethnobiology letters 15(1):41–52 45 research communications family/species part used type of creation fabaceae (cont.) vicia faba seed grain vigna angularis seed grain vigna radiata seed grain schisandraceae illicium verum fruit grain juncaceae juncus acutus young leaf fresh lamiaceae salvia hispanica seed grain lauraceae laurus nobilis leaf fresh linaceae linum usitatissimum seed grain nictaginaceae bougainvillea sp. bract fresh oleaceae olea europaea subsp. europaea fruit fresh papaveraceae papaver rhoeas seed grain pedaliaceae sesamum indicum seed grain poaceae arundo donax stem fresh hordeum murinum inflorescence fresh oryza sativa fruit, grain crushing fresh, grain panicum miliaceum fruit grain phalaris canariensis fruit grain triticum aestivum inflorescence, fruit, grain crushing fresh, grain zea mays epicarp, style and stigma, fruit, grain crushing fresh, grain zizania aquatica fruit grain rosaceae prunus persica seed fresh pyrus malus subsp. mitis epicarp fresh rubiaceae coffea arabica seed fresh rutaceae citrus limon epicarp, mesocarp, seed fresh, grain citrus sinensis epicarp fresh solanaceae capsicum annuum fruit fresh solanum lycopersicum fruit fresh solanum melongena epicarp fresh solanum tuberosum tuber epidermis fresh vacciniaceae vaccinium myrtillus fruit fresh continued from previous page marín et al. 2024. ethnobiology letters 15(1):41–52 46 research communications reported for artistic uses also have food-related uses, while 45% have medicinal uses. the most frequently reported taxa are allium porrum (8 ur; 5%), oryza sativa (8 ur; 5%), solanum melongena (7 ur; 4%), beta vulgaris subsp. vulgaris var. conditiva (6 ur; 4%), and a. officinalis (5 ur; 3%). these findings align with the patterns observed in the artistic creations, as detailed below. regarding plant parts, seeds (21%) and fruit (18%) are the most commonly used components. these parts are primarily used for creating grain mosaics. additionally, epicarps (16%) and leaves (8%) are also reported, with exclusive use in fresh vegetal material creations. fresh vegetal material creations the artistic creations made with fresh vegetal material are free-themed dioramas or sculptures (figures 2 and 3). artistic creations encompass a wide range of heterogenous themes, including local current events (e.g., 50th anniversary of a local association), representations of animals, everyday scenes (e.g., children playing at the park), landscapes, clothing items, and representations from worldwide cultural references (e.g., replicas of andy warhol’s work). the creation process unfolds primarily in two phases: first, crafting a pre-form made of foam or a similar material in advance, and second, selecting the plant materials and covering the pre-forms, securing them in place using pins or white glue. to ensure the freshness of the plant material, these creations are crafted the night before the fair, often with the assistance of the entire family, neighbors, and friends (figure 4). this is an example of socialization of this biocultural knowledge, and, at the same time, may serve to transmit it, particularly to younger generations. in fact, this community creation process holds significant value for several interviewed participants. as one interviewee emphasized, “in the past, creating the artworks was a family celebration. it enabled us to craft much larger creations, but what we were truly fostering was a sense of belonging.” this aligns with lowe (2000), who views community art processes as a ritualistic setting for social interaction and documents the construction of neighborhood community. it might be one of the reasons why farmers continue with this tradition. forty-eight taxa were identified in the 55 artistic creations considered in this study. the most frequently used taxa are a. porrum, which appears in 76% of the artistic creations, followed by s. melongena (67%) and a. officinalis (64%). the dominant use of a. porrum and s. melongena can be attributed to the appealing characteristics of their leaves and epicarps, respectively. their color, texture, and ease of application make them popular choices for artistic creations. as for a. officinalis, the contest rules mandate its incorporation in all cases, primarily in its turion form, though occasionally cladode is also used. however, compliance with this rule is not consistently observed in all creations. over time, we mainly figure 2 example of a fresh vegetal material creation. for this creation, eggplant, leek, carrot, asparagus, olive, red pepper, and pumpkin parts are used. gavà’s fair, 2007. figure 3 example of a fresh vegetal material creation. for this creation, leek, eggplant, orange, lemon, asparagus, potato, apple, and parsnip parts are used. gavà’s fair, 2007. marín et al. 2024. ethnobiology letters 15(1):41–52 47 research communications observed the use of the previously mentioned species. however, in recent years, we have observed the use of non-locally cultivated species due to predominantly aesthetic factors, such as actinidia chinensis. the most frequently used plant parts in the artistic creations are epicarps and fruits (figure 5). grain creations there are two type of grain creations: twodimensional creations are typical of gavà’s fair (figures 6 and 7), while three-dimensional creations are the hallmarks of viladecans’ fair (figure 8). in two -dimensional creations, the main lines are typically sketched on the canvas, and seeds are then fixed with glue. in three-dimensional creations, a pre-form is crafted, which is subsequently covered with selected seeds fixed with glue. in both cases, participants prepare their works in advance, sometimes during the whole year, and, usually, on an individual basis. occasionally, seeds are dyed or painted. mosaics or dioramas are of a free-style and feature heterogeneous themes, such as popular buildings, representations from worldwide cultural references, landscapes, or rural scenes. a total of 25 taxa were identified when analyzing the 24 grain creations considered. the most frequently used taxon is o. sativa (117%). this high utilization can be attributed to the variety of available colors, the ease of obtaining the grains, and their ease of application. the seed is the most representative part of the plant used in these creations (figure 5), although crushed grain is sometimes used for background mosaics, for example. consequently, it is common to find both parts of rice used in the same creation, resulting in a taxon frequency higher than 100%. sesamum indicum (50%) and chenopodium quinoa (37%) are the second and third most frequently used taxa, respectively. seeds from c. quinoa and zizania aquatica (12%) have been relatively recently introduced to the market, and, as a result, they have been used for a relatively short period of time. in contrast, seeds from zea mays or mongeta de mig dol, which is a landrace figure 4 community creation process during the evening and night before the fair. gavà’s fair, 2017. figure 5 on the left, parts of the plant used for fresh vegetable creations. on the right, parts of the plant used for grain creations. source: observation of 79 artistic creations. marín et al. 2024. ethnobiology letters 15(1):41–52 48 research communications of phaseolus vulgaris that has already disappeared, are no longer used. provenance of plants cultivated plants predominate among those used for artistic purposes (88%), which is not surprising, as the objective is to highlight and value local cultivated products. remarkably, 58% of the cultivated taxa used in these creations are locally produced. fresh vegetable creations predominantly utilize local products, whereas seeds for grain creations are not locally produced or self-cultivated. interviewees explained that today, they not only use vegetables and seeds from their own farmlands, but they also buy some products to make their artistic creations, without distinction of origin. relevance of agricultural fair and crop art contests in the studied area, where agricultural activity is heavily threatened (zazo 2011), both agricultural fairs effectively play a role in revitalizing the territory. when asked about their threats, informants agree that the lack of generational succession and feasibility of small-scale agricultural activities are the most important ones. these fairs enable the promotion of short marketing channels, thereby fostering the viability of peri-urban agricultural activity (francèstudel 2018). the asparagus fairs enable the preservation of this crop. as one interviewee states, “in the past, a farmer could have 3000 square meters of asparagus, now they barely have 500, but with those 500, they participate in the fair.” another interviewee echoes this sentiment and affirms that "thanks to the fair, asparagus production continues." the artistic creations showcase a rich agricultural tradition that serves as a source of pride for the community and exemplifies how food can be appreciated and valued from diverse perspectives, figure 6 two examples of two-dimensional grain creations. on the left, creation made with quinoa, rice, wild rice, sesame and flax; gavà’s fair, 2023. on the right, creation made with rice, quinoa, asparagus, millet, amaranth, wild rice, wheat, red lentil, black bean, and red bean; gava’s fair, 2022. figure 7 two-dimensional grain creation. gavà’s fair, 2007. for this creation, leek leaves are used for background; rice, pumpkin, yellow lentil, corn, green mung beans, black beans, and flax seeds are used for the figure. figure 8 example of three-dimensional grain creation. viladecans’ fair, 2019. chickpeas, ground rice, quinoa, lentils, and red beans are used for this creation. marín et al. 2024. ethnobiology letters 15(1):41–52 49 research communications including art. in our study, the interviewees agree that the exhibition of artistic creations is the distinguishing key of the fair and engenders public interest. it reflects how proud they are to be farmers and of their land and their products. however, they also assert that the production of these artistic works is becoming increasingly difficult due to a dwindling number of farming families, and the younger generations are displaying diminished enthusiasm as well (figure 9). also, the use of purchased or other plants not grown by the artist may suggest that the artistic aspect is even more relevant than the pride of exhibiting their own farm products, although this truly may weaken the intended message. in any case, it is important not to overlook that this artistic contest is part of an agricultural fair where lavish baskets of asparagus and other products from their own garden are showcased. conclusions this study reveals the overall persistence of the folk use of plants as an expression of local identity. there is significant concern regarding the rapid erosion of ethnobotanical and traditional ecological knowledge in industrialized contexts (benyei et al. 2020; reyesgarcía et al. 2014). therefore, preserving any significant activity related to these traditional activities is of utmost importance. culture plays a critical role in addressing social, economic, and identity-related issues, particularly in the case of vernacular art manifestations, such as crop art, which is accessible and popular (simpson 2012). this study reflects that, besides being an activity capable of fostering community cohesion, it can contribute to the promotion of agricultural fairs in the blap. this involves showcasing their products, agrobiodiversity, and ecological knowledge. moreover, vegetal artistic creations play a vital role in preserving the tradition and cultivation of asparagus and other vegetables. a greater concern for generational turnover and for the use of local species figure 9 number of artistic creations participating in gavà’s contest between the years 2014-2023. in 2019 and 2020, the fair did not take place due to the covid-19 pandemic. source: https://elllobregat.com; https://elbruguersdigital.cat. marín et al. 2024. ethnobiology letters 15(1):41–52 50 research communications and varieties by the organizers would reinforce this aspect. in any case, this traditional artistic activity serves as a valuable means to highlight and celebrate the diversity of crops and promote the territory’s cultural identity, its social networks, and its economy. acknowledgments the authors thank the informants, who transmitted their knowledge on the plant-based popular artistic creations, the creators of these artworks and the photography owners (enric archivell for figures 2, 3, and 8; pep riera for figure 4; and santiago vicedo for figure 7), who contributed with their work selflessly. declarations permissions: the images have been generously provided by various authors without any compensation. all authors and individual participants agreed to participate and read the final version of the manuscript. sources of funding: this work was partially supported by projects from the catalan government (2021sgr00315, clt051-opei-2023/2024) and the institut d’estudis catalans (pro2023/2024-s02valles). conflicts of interest: none declared. references cited angiosperm phylogeny group. 2016. an update of the angiosperm phylogeny group classification for the orders and families of flowering plants: apg iv. botanical journal of the linnean society 181 (1):1-20. austin, d. 2004. compendium of symbolic and ritual plants in europe. economic botany 58:121. doi:10.1663/0013-0001(2004)058. baránková, z. 2022. ethnobotanical knowledge through the slovak folk songs as a reflection of intangible biocultural heritage. acta societatis botanicorum poloniae 91(1):9116. benyei, p., l. calvet-mir, v. reyes-garcía, and m. rivera-ferre. 2020. resistance to traditional agroecological knowledge erosion in industrialized contexts: a study in la plana de vic (catalonia). agroecology and 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springer nature switzerland. doi:10.1007/978-3-030-49012-6_12. enduring legacies of agriculture: long-term vegetation impacts of ancestral menominee agriculture, wisconsin, usa mcleester et al. 2023. ethnobiology letters 14(1):80–91 80 research communications pavlik et al. 2021; wykoff 1991; zeiner 1946; zou et al. 2019). the now densely forested reservation of the menominee indian tribe of wisconsin (mitw) in menominee county, wisconsin (figure 1), contains dozens of confirmed and suspected archaeological garden bed sites. established in 1854, it is located in the northeast section of the state on ancestral menominee territory (beck 2002). for millennia, the mitw have utilized the region, resulting in a rich archaeologically and biologically diverse landscape that was and continues to be managed, maintained, and preserved by the tribe. for example, today, roughly 87% of the reservation lands are managed by the menominee’s forestry business, menominee tribal enterprises (mausel et al. 2017), whose efforts have increased the forest canopy over the past century (trosper 2012) and whose lumber is sought after for its high quality (buckley 2023). the ancient, long-term ecological management by the mitw remains visible introduction agricultural spaces are emblematic anthropogenic landscapes. by constructing and maintaining these places, humans often radically alter vegetation, soils, and even waterways. they reshape ecology and possibilities for future ecological systems, sometimes for millennia (erickson 2006; morrison et al. 2021). worldwide, past agricultural pursuits have had longterm ecological consequences ranging from the salinization of soils (flannery 1969; jacobson 1982) to deforestation (kirch 2005) to changes in vegetation (briggs et al. 2006; ellis et al. 2021; ford and nigh 2015; larson et al. 2021). moreover, vegetation changes associated with ancient agriculture and other past land use often remain observable on the landscape today, with distinct vegetation differences occasionally evident at archaeological sites (abrams and nowacki 2008; armstrong et al. 2021; campbell et al. 2006; ceschin et al. 2016; dunn 1983; erickson 2006; feinman and nicholas 2020; harris 2018; enduring legacies of agriculture: long-term vegetation impacts of ancestral menominee agriculture, wisconsin, usa madeleine mcleester1*, alison e. anastasio2, and jeff grignon3 1department of anthropology, dartmouth college, hanover, usa, 2university of chicago, chicago, usa, 3tribal historic preservation department, menominee indian tribe of wisconsin, keshena, usa *madeleine.mcleester@dartmouth.edu abstract agriculture significantly reshapes soils and ecology, often with lasting ecological impacts. for over a millennium, the menominee indian tribe of wisconsin have practiced maize agriculture in the upper great lakes. though the vast majority of ancestral indigenous agricultural sites have been destroyed in the american midwest, the menominee have documented numerous archaeological, raised garden bed sites at their reservation, enabling an investigation into the lasting vegetation impacts of ancestral menominee agricultural practices. here, we report findings from our pilot vegetation surveys of three ancestral raised garden bed sites. results show that all sites surveyed are high quality ecosystems. we observed differences in species richness between agricultural and non-agricultural places, although findings varied based on location. overall, our surveys illustrate the complexity of these anthropogenic, biologically diverse landscapes shaped by past and contemporary menominee land use and illustrate how today’s ecology is in part an enduring legacy of past practices. received june 4, 2023 open access accepted october 19, 2023 doi 10.14237/ebl.14.1.2023.1864 published december 29, 2023 keywords vegetation surveys, species richness, ancestral menominee agriculture, archaeology, great lakes ecology copyright © 2023 by the author(s); licensee society of ethnobiology. this is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution-noncommercial 4.0 international public license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0), which permits non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. mcleester et al. 2023. ethnobiology letters 14(1):80–91 81 research communications today at the reservation in the topographic expressions of archaeological features including agricultural storage features, burial mounds, subterranean house basins, and dozens of confirmed raised agricultural garden bed sites. these preserved archaeological expressions provide increasingly rare glimpses into the scale of ancestral indigenous land use that have elsewhere been largely erased in the american midwest (mcleester and casana 2021). ongoing archaeological investigations of ancestral agriculture at the menominee reservation and elsewhere in the northern great lakes show that for roughly a millennium, ancestral indigenous communities in the region conducted agriculture in raised beds, a practice common throughout eastern north america (doolittle 2000; overstreet and grignon 2021; overstreet et al. 2020; sasso 2003; sasso and joyce 2006). raised beds at the reservation (figure 2) are primarily constructed in rows created either by hilling the surrounding dirt or bringing in sediments from wetter, nutrient-rich environments (gallagher et al. 1985; gallagher and sasso 1987; gartner 1999; munson-scullin 2022; sasso 2003). excavation of beds at the reservation and regionally has shown that they were primarily used for growing maize, beans, and squash, along with additional plants based on preference (mcleester and casana 2021; overstreet and grignon 2021; overstreet et al. 2020; sasso 2003). agriculture practiced under marginal cultivation conditions, like those at the menominee reservation, leaves little room for error. with its cold climate and short growing season, the northern united states is inhospitable to many crops, including maize, and ridged fields were a critical technology for the cultivation of maize near its northernmost extent. these raised beds helped mitigate risks by improving soil fertility, moisture, nutrient cycling, and suppressing diseases and pests (gartner 2003). they additionally extended the length of the growing season by absorbing more sunlight (munson-scullin and scullin 2023) and draining radiation frost (boyd and surette 2010; gartner 1997; riley and freimuth 1979). the construction of ridged beds involved not only a topographic reworking of the earthen surface, but often a reworking of the soil itself, with the addition of a variety of amendments, like charcoal, to ensure a successful harvest (gallagher et al. 1985; munson-scullin 2022; munson-scullin and scullin 2023). the widespread destruction of archaeological sites, including archaeological garden beds, in the american midwest poses significant challenges to investigating the long-term ecological impacts of ancestral native american farmers. central to this study, the dozens of confirmed ancestral menominee raised agriculture bed sites and numerous suspected past agricultural sites at the menominee reservation (overstreet and grignon 2021) provide a unique opportunity to explore whether or not past menominee agricultural practices have lasting ecological impacts. here, we report on a pilot study of the long-term impacts on vegetation associated with ancestral menominee agriculture at the menominee reservation. results obtained from observational data demonstrate that vegetation differences are evident between agricultural beds and off-bed cultural spaces; however, the impacts varied at each location. overall, data suggest that ancestral menominee farmers have had lasting impacts on the local ecology. site background vegetation surveys were conducted at three of the more prominent ancestral agricultural sites at the reservation: joe dick road, five islands, and wayka. all three archaeological garden bed sites are located along the wolf river, which runs through the reservation (figure 3). while there are dozens of confirmed and unconfirmed ancestral agricultural sites, the three sites for this study were selected figure 1 location of the menominee reservation (outlined in white). mcleester et al. 2023. ethnobiology letters 14(1):80–91 82 research communications because the college of the menominee nation has conducted archaeological research at each and confirmed their use for agriculture through phytoliths, macrobotanical analysis, and/or bed construction techniques (overstreet et al. 2020). at all sites, the college has ruled out any other use than agriculture at these locations. moreover, the sites are associated with the wolf, deer, and sturgeon clans, whose families have passed down accounts of agriculture at them. joe dick road, five islands, and wayka are all ridged bed sites, and they are all forested today. while significant time has passed since their agricultural usage, there is no record of forestry, road, or settlement history directly at the surveyed garden sites or areas selected for controls, to our knowledge. there were also no prescribed or other fires per menominee forestry department records. additionally, there were no floods and no grazing animals recorded at or near the sites, and large trees indicate that this was the case for at least 100 years. in the past when agriculture was being practiced at the study locations, the canopy would have been open and free of trees. a shift to a forested environment is evident within the stratigraphic phytolith record, yet clear dates on agricultural efforts and forest growth (or regrowth) remain to be established (munsonscullin 2022). joe dick road is an agricultural village site occupied around 1000 to 1200 ce (overstreet et al. 2020). it comprises several house basins, over a dozen ridged beds, and a collection of over 1,000 surface depressions that are interpreted as subterranean storage features, primarily used for storing agricultural products. there are two separate areas of the site that contain garden beds, described as east and west beds, together comprising a known area of about 700 square meters. our analysis took place at the eastern group. timber was recently harvested in areas directly outside of the archaeological site boundaries closer to figure 2 photograph of garden bed ridges at the wayka creek archaeological site. two beds indicated by pink arrows (photo taken by mcleester). mcleester et al. 2023. ethnobiology letters 14(1):80–91 83 research communications the western group, resulting in closer sampling on and off garden beds than at other sites. the five islands archaeological village contains a similar composite of house basins, storage features, and ridged garden beds as well as a tapered burial mound. the site dates to approximately 800 to 1100 ce and may have an earlier component (overstreet et al. 2020). the area of ancestral agricultural ridges measures approximately 2,000 square meters. our sampling occurred at the northernmost ridges near the wolf river. the wayka site is located along wayka creek. the site is not dated, and no diagnostic artifacts have been uncovered. a precontact village is documented on the other side of wayka creek; a historic medicinal lodge and lacrosse field are also located nearby. wayka contains the largest ridged beds of the study (figure 2). the estimated area is approximately 2,500 square meters. methods all surveys were conducted by mcleester and anastasio over several days in mid-june 2022, following a preliminary study undertaken in 2021 by mcleester, anastasio, and grignon. at each site, 2mx2m quadrats were laid out along field ridges and compared to 2mx2m quadrats off of the ridges in areas with similar ecology. the location of the subsequent quadrat was determined at random by flipping a coin for north-south, then again for eastwest. quadrats were at least 5m from each other; the minimum distance between an onand off-bed quadrat was at least 30m. at each site, all vascular plants in at least five quadrats (i.e., a minimum of 20m2) were identified. additional quadrats were added until no new plant species were identified (armstrong et al. 2021), to maximize likelihood of surveying rare species. the maximum number of quadrats needed for repetition was six (figure 3), which provided us with a means to ensure that we were capturing the vast majority of plant species at these ancestral agricultural sites. not all plots were selected at random, but instead placed to maximize plant diversity. in other words, we walked the sites looking for new plants and added plots as needed after our efforts at randomization. thus, we do not expect plot size to have influenced our ability to locate rare plants. however, the time of year would have influenced this count, given the short sampling window. future studies should consider multiple site visits. no plots contained trees, to maximize vegetation coverage. instead, the closest trees to each corner of each plot (n=4 per plot) were identified to provide a preliminary assessment of forest composition. as such, tree data presented here is far from comprehensive, as we focused this study on ground coverage. any plants unidentifiable in the field were pressed for later identification. those that were still figure 3 location of plant surveys with on-bed quadrats in turquoise and off-bed quadrats in yellow. mcleester et al. 2023. ethnobiology letters 14(1):80–91 84 research communications unidentifiable at the species level were recorded as unique unknowns. coefficients of conservatism (c value, ranging from 0–10), or the degree of fidelity a plant species has to specific habitats (swink and wilhelm 1994), for all identified plants were based on values provided in wisconsin flora (chadde 2019). the c value assigned to a plant species reflects the probability that the species is likely to occur in high quality habitats (chadde 2019). that is, a low c value indicates that a species can tolerate disturbance and potentially novel conditions, being found in a wide variety of habitats and conditions. alternatively, species with a high c value are able to persist only in the narrow conditions found in high quality habitats. generally, a mean c value of 0–3 indicates poor quality or disturbed habitat; an area of "high natural quality" would have a mean a c value of 4–7, while an average >8 suggests undisturbed habitat (swink and wilhelm 1994; wilhelm and rericha 2017). relying on expert opinion to determine c values has been criticized as subjective methodology, and notably, bauer et al. (2018) found that c values were correlated with life-history strategies such that highly productive, short-lived, early successional species had low c values, and long-lived late-successional species not often seen in disturbed areas had high c values (bauer et al. 2018). plants with economic value to the menominee were the most difficult category to establish, since knowledge and use, particularly of medicinal plants, can be highly personalized and varies from one individual to another (mcleester 2017; smith 1923). thus, we chose to be conservative in this category, and only identified plants as economically useful if they were recorded as such by huron smith, an ethnobotanist who worked closely with tribal members in the 1920s (smith 1923), or listed by frances densmore, an anthropologist who worked with the menominee on several occasions from 1925 to 1929 (densmore 1932). no more recent ethnobotany specific to the menominee has been published. while ethnobotanical texts exist for neighboring tribes and could be useful for a broader study, our focus here was specific to ancestral menominee practices, since our research is located on ancestral menominee land. fuel wood was also excluded, since these sources were not recorded by smith or densmore, and it is difficult to know without archaeological evidence what woods were preferred for fuel. results a total of 95 distinct species were identified across all sites. of these, 81 specimens were identified to genus, 71 to species, and 14 were unknown. eight species were located at all three sites in onand off-bed contexts: acer saccharum, anemonoides quinquefolia, carex pensylvanica, maianthemum canadense, oryzopsis asperifolia, pinus strobus, trientalis borealis, and viburnum acerifolium. twenty-six species were found on-bed at one site and never off-bed, but no species was unique to the agricultural beds at more than one site. twenty-four species were found off-bed at one site and never onbed; two species, rubus occidentalis and smilax tamnoides, were unique to off-bed contexts at two and three sites respectively (table 1). when comparing between on-bed and off-bed contexts, there is a clear distinction in total species identified (species richness) between contexts. at both five islands and wayka, off-bed contexts had more species. the opposite trend was observed at joe dick road, where on-bed contexts had more observed species than off-bed (table 2, figure 4). the coefficient of conservatism (c value) at all sites were comparable, with means ranging from 5.41 to 5.78, indicative of high-quality habitat at all locations (table 2). of the eleven identified species with a c value of 8 or 9, seven were found both on and off-bed, two were found only on-bed, and two were found only off-bed (table 1). the presence of economic plants varied. overall, more economic plants were found in areas with higher species richness. at wayka, 48% of the off-bed plants were identified as economic versus only 35% on-bed. at joe dick road, 52% of plants on-beds were economic and only 44% were off-bed. the percentage of identified economic plants were only 3% different at on and off bed contexts at five islands (table 2). discussion the ancestral agricultural sites analyzed here have complex land use histories and remain dynamic landscapes today. beyond their own land use histories, what we know of ancestral indigenous raised bed agriculture is limited, and flexible practices of raised bed farming likely varied from place to place and farmer to farmer (munson-scullin 2022). therefore, it is impossible to conclusively unpack the likely many interconnected causes of the preliminary patterns identified. however, our findings provide details of mcleester et al. 2023. ethnobiology letters 14(1):80–91 85 research communications species c value economic wayka creek five islands joe dick rd. on-bed off-bed on-bed off-bed on-bed off-bed acer nigrum 5 x acer rubrum 3 x x acer saccharum 5 y x x x x x x amphicarpaea bracteata 5 x anemonoides quinquefolia 6 x x x x x x aralia nudicaulis 6 y x x x asarum canadense 7 y x carex intumescens 5 x carex pensylvanica 3 x x x x x x carex rosea 4 x carya ovata 5 y x caulophyllum thalictroides 8 y x x chimaphila umbellata 8 y x x clintonia borealis 7 y x x x cornus alternifolia 7 y x x x x x corylus cornuta 5 y x x dendrolycopodium dendroideum 7 x diervilla lonicera 6 y x x diphasiastrum digitatum 6 x dryopertis expansa 8 x dryopteris carthusiana 7 x x x dryopteris expansa 8 x x x x enemion biternatum 7 x epifagus virginiana 9 x fagus grandifolia 8 y x x x x x fraxinus pennsylvanica 2 x x x galium aparine 2 x x galium triflorum 5 y x x x gaultheria procumbens 6 y x x x goodyera oblongifolia 8 x hepatica americana 7 y x x x impatiens capensis 2 x lactuca biennis 3 x leersia virginica 5 x lonicera canadensis 8 y x x x x x lycopodium obscurum 7 x maianthemum canadense 5 x x x x x x mitchella repens 6 y x x x x x mitella diphylla 8 y x x x oryzopsis asperifolia 6 x x x x x x ostrya virginiana 5 x parthenocissus vitacea 4 x pinus strobus 5 y x x x x x x polygonatum biflorum 4 y x x x x populus deltoides 2 x populus tremuloides 2 x x x prunus serotina 3 x table 1 plants identified to species level found at each site. continued on following page mcleester et al. 2023. ethnobiology letters 14(1):80–91 86 research communications vegetation from archaeological agricultural sites and differences among them, and the results present an opportunity to highlight features of the raised bed agricultural technique that will add to a rapidly growing literature on long-term indigenous ecosystem impacts (e.g. ellis et al. 2021; ford and nigh 2015; hecht et al. 2014; larson et al. 2021; lightfoot et al. 2013; slade et al. 2021). at all sites analyzed at the menominee reservation, the coefficient of conservatism (c value) indicates high quality habitat in both onand off-bed contexts. high quality habitat across sites is consistent with our field observations as well as a credit to the mitw who for millennia have practiced sustainable land use at these spaces. while these data are most likely to be affected by whether or not we could identify a plant to species level, the mean c values ranging from 5.4 to 5.8, suggest that individual plant species do not affect the general ecosystem health interpretation. that said, five islands had a slightly lower coefficient of conservatism across bed contexts when compared to the other archaeology sites (table 2). upon undertaking this study, we anticipated clear patterns in terms of species richness and expected that garden beds would either enhance or limit growing conditions for plants; however, no definitive pattern was observed. at two sites, five islands and wayka creek, we observed garden beds had fewer total species than uncultivated spaces (figure 4). one possible explanation for this finding is decreased nutrient availability of soils from past agricultural practices. garden beds were active spaces that had to first be constructed and then regularly maintained, recharged, and rebuilt in order to ensure a successful harvest. for both construction and maintenance, earth was mounded using nearby soils and/or soil was imported from nutrient rich spaces, like wetlands (gallagher 1992; munson-scullin and scullin 2021). soil amendments, including “muck soils” (munsonscullin 2022), like those from wetlands, and charcoal, helped retain moisture and increase nutrient availability. garden beds required regular rebuilding and reshaping, especially after winter or strong storms (munson-scullin 2022). the longer a bed was in use, the more maintenance it could require, as soils species c value economic wayka creek five islands joe dick rd. on-bed off-bed on-bed off-bed on-bed off-bed prunus virginiana 3 y x x x x x pteridium aquilinum 2 x x x x x pyrola elliptica 6 x x x x x quercus alba 7 y x x x quercus bicolor 7 x x quercus ellipsoidalis 5 y x quercus rubra 5 x x x x x quercus velutina 5 y x ranunculus recurvatus 5 x ribes lacustre 9 y x rubus occidentalis 2 y x x rubus pubescens 7 x schizachne purpurascens 7 x smilax tamnoides 5 x x x staphylea trifolia 7 x x tilia americana 5 y x x x toxicodendron radicans 4 x x trientalis borealis 7 x x x x x x trillium grandiflorum 6 y x x x x x tsuga canadensis 8 y x x x x vaccinium angustifolium 4 y x viburnum acerifolium 7 y x x x x x x viola labradorica 4 x continued from previous page mcleester et al. 2023. ethnobiology letters 14(1):80–91 87 research communications become less productive over time (arnáez et al. 2015; ghanem et al. 2011; munson-scullin and scullin 2005; sandor et al. 1990, but see mt. pleasant 2015). while this hypothesis is intriguing, anthropogenic soils can sometimes increase soil fertility for centuries, such as in locations throughout the amazon where observed anthropogenic terra preta soils are more fertile than surrounding unaltered soils (glaser et al. 2001). here, the menominee farmers were recharging and shaping soils with various amendments throughout the fields’ use, and it is impossible at this stage to untangle soil fertility from other factors that may affect this area over the past centuries. economic plants were observed to concentrate areas with higher numbers of species at all three sites. thus, areas with higher quality environments have a larger proportion of species with economic value, but it is not clear why this is the case. in addition, all the plots are located in actively managed environments that have been part of the menominee landscape for millennia and remain so, providing an additional variable to our analysis. further, some of these site on-bed species richness off-bed species richness species shared at on and off-bed contexts on-bed mean coefficient of conservatism off-bed mean coefficient of conservatism % on-bed economic plants % off-bed economic plants joe dick rd. 33 25 15 5.59 5.78 52% 44% five islands 40 44 20 5.39 5.41 38% 41% wayka creek 34 42 21 5.73 5.59 35% 48% table 2 summary of species richness, c values, and % economic plants at each site. figure 4 total species identified at each sampling location. mcleester et al. 2023. ethnobiology letters 14(1):80–91 88 research communications economic plants may have been encouraged at different points in time. conclusion ancestral menominee maize farming near its northernmost extent required significant investment of time and labor and a tremendous reworking of the earth surface and soils. these efforts appear to affect vegetation long-term, seemingly impacting vegetation patterns up to a millennium later. however, the variety of techniques, range of ecosystems in which they are practiced, and length of agricultural efforts likely influence the severity and nature of these impacts. centrally, the menominee indian tribe of wisconsin have preserved these now-rare agricultural archaeological sites making analyses like this and future investigations possible. overall, our findings illustrate that the long-term ancestral and contemporary land use of the menominee people shaped the biologically diverse ecosystems and dynamic anthropogenic landscape we see today. acknowledgments we are grateful to the menominee indian tribe of wisconsin for allowing us to conduct this research, especially the language and culture commission, tribal historic preservation department, and david grignon for assistance, feedback, and thoughtful conversations. we want to thank david overstreet, jesse casana, carolin ferwerda, and wendy munsonscullin for their assistance and support throughout this project. maxx corn, match corn, and monea warrington assisted with surveys at joe dick road. stevie and jake grignon assisted on several aspects of this work. we are grateful to liz arnold for her hospitality and lively discussions. the ernst and elfriede frank foundation and the claire garber goodman fund provided funding for this project. declarations permissions: none 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early succession on slag compared to urban soil: a slower recovery. plos one 14(12):e0224214. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0224214 subsistence strategies and resource use among the santals of srirampur in assam mardi and singha. 2025. ethnobiology letters 16(1):116–127 116 research communications significance (hillaluddin et al. 2005). however, ecologists identify hunting as one of the primary threats to wildlife in northeast india (mishra et al. 2006). consumption of bushmeat is common in northeast india (aiyadurai 2011) and unsustainable hunting practices contribute to decline in wildlife populations and extinction (aiyadurai 2011; hillaluddin et al. 2005; kaul 2004; mishra et al. 1998). this study discusses two villages in western assam, india, dominated by members of the santal community. we investigate the practice of bushmeat hunting, the importance of bushmeat and non-timber forest product (ntfps) collection, and awareness and perception about wildlife conservation. methods study location srirampur is a rural town in hathidhura tehsil in the district of kokrajhar, assam, india. national highway introduction santals are one of the largest indigenous tribes in india, residing in jharkhand, west bengal, assam, tripura, bihar and odisha (mandal et al. 2020). they also inhabit regions of bangladesh and nepal (sarker 2014). they are recognized as a disadvantaged tribe with respect to social, economic and political status (sarker 2014). besides undertaking agriculture as a major livelihood (sarker 2014), they are hunters and gatherers organizing themselves near forests, jungles, and beel (wetland) areas, hunting bushmeat for local consumption (kharel et al. 2019). bushmeat hunting is a crucial resource for many poor rural people around the world (brown and williams 2003). bushmeat provides an accessible source of protein; while hunting and consumption are meaningful elements in their larger culture (wilkie and carpenter 1999). in several northeast indian rural communities, hunting has a religious and cultural subsistence strategies and resource use among the santals of srirampur in assam saurabh mardi1 and hilloljyoti singha1* 1department of zoology, bodoland university, kokrajhar, india. *singha.hilloljyoti@gmail.com abstract the santals, one of india's largest indigenous tribal communities, are primarily found in regions of india, bangladesh, nepal, and bhutan. they share a common language and cultural traditions. the study discusses how the santals use natural resources including bushmeat, often gathered from the forest or densely vegetated areas in srirampur, the west border of assam in north-east india. a structured survey and interviews were carried out among 111 residents. the interviewed community depended significantly on the forest, collecting natural resources such as food, medicinal plants, and non-timber forest products (ntfps). hunting was prevalent in the community. hunters were significantly younger (21.54±8.21 years old) than non-hunters (47.96±10.19 years old) and most preferred catapults to traps. mass hunting occurred occasionally and was mostly done by children for leisure. birds were the most targeted animals, while frogs and rodents were also hunted. the primary driver for hunting was consumption and bushmeat was not sold in markets. other hunting includes species of mollusks and fish. the illiterate members of the tribe were not aware of ngo and state-led conservation efforts although they supported them. this study discusses santal culture, santal attitudes toward natural resources, and stresses the need for governmental intervention and awareness programs. received may 25, 2024 open access accepted july 4, 2025 doi 10.14237/ebl.16.1.2025.1891 published september 19, 2025 keywords santal, natural resources, bushmeat, conservation awareness, srirampur copyright © 2025 by the author(s); licensee society of ethnobiology. this is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution-noncommercial 4.0 international public license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0), which permits non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. mardi and singha. 2025. ethnobiology letters 16(1):116–127 117 research communications (nh 27) passes north of the town which connects west bengal in the west. two kilometers south from the town, there are four villages called srirampur no. 1, no. 2, no. 3, and no. 4 on both sides of the state highway. the damra river flows on the west side of the villages, which then joins the river sankosh, a tributary to river brahmaputra. the temperatures in summer average 27.64° c to 31.67° c and the average winter temperature is 19.34° to 23.66° c. the average rainfall is about 2,400 mm to 3,000 mm per annum. the town is inhabited by assamese and bengali communities, as well as the santal tribe. few residents live close to the market. most of the population lives outside the town, in the four villages. the town’s infrastructure is poor, with only a few schools (serving children up to secondary level only), one market, one bank, and no hospital. the public market is in the center of the town, and all residents visit it. however, natural forest resources are only sold by santals. we selected srirampur no. 1 and no. 2 villages for our study because they were inhabited only by the santals. residents speak santali, the indigenous language, as well as assamese, bengali and hindi. the first author (sm) is a native santal of srirampur and speaks the language. most of the santals are christians; however, they still uphold their traditional rituals. illiteracy is also common among the santal tribes of the study area. all households, both literate and illiterate, reared livestock. all households, apart from the literate minority, did not own lpg or electrical stoves. the region has sparse tree cover and scattered bamboo patches, with the majority of the landscape consisting of agricultural paddy fields (figure 1). however, every household has home gardens comprising cultivated species (areca catechu, artocarpus heterophyllus, averrhoa carambola, carica papaya, litchi chinensis, psidium guajava, syzygium cumini, and others), and naturally growing plant species that create a figure 1 map showing the study area – sriampur, kokrajhar, assam. mardi and singha. 2025. ethnobiology letters 16(1):116–127 118 research communications mosaic habitat for amphibia, reptiles, small mammals, and birds. monkeys (e.g., rhesus macaque, macaca mulatta) are sometimes seen making their way through villages using the bamboo groves as a temporary abode. large wildlife has not been observed by the locals in their living memory. data collection we used a structured survey for data collection (see supplementary file) after the pilot study. the interview schedule consisted of 14 questions designed to extract information for quantitative analysis focusing largely on the issue of bushmeat hunting and perceptions on conservation. the interviews also helped to collect other general information regarding the tribe. the first author conducted interviews in santali. both the study villages were ethnically and culturally inhabited by santals, and so we considered these two villages as one unit of study area. out of the 220 households in the study area, we conducted a survey among 75 santal households from april–june 2020. we selected the households using a random sampling method (kothari 2004) and obtained verbal consent before conducting the interviews. we interviewed 111 individuals from the population, prioritizing the head or representative of the family (usually males). sometimes, other family members also supplemented the replies. when no males were present, we interviewed females to inquire about the males’ hunting habits. we interviewed other family members because we recognized that it was the children who hunted and not elder males. the hunters were categorized into three age groups: 10–20, 20–30, and over 30. the youngest group was also interviewed, as the pilot survey indicated that they were the ones who had the habit of hunting. each interview lasted 10–15 minutes. the respondents were asked about their use of natural resources and the products they extracted from their forest for subsistence activities. we categorized forest products into four categories: ntfps, medicine, firewood and food. ntfps in this study were defined as wood mostly used for construction of houses and tools. the type of ntpfs and intensity of extraction was not investigated. hunters were asked regarding their hunting tools, strategies, motivators, and harvesting success rate. the harvesting success rate was assessed by defining five categories: 10–30% (1–2 animals in five trips), 30 –60% (5 animals in five trips), 60–90% (5–10 animals in five trips), 90–100% (more than 10 animals in five hunting trips) and 0% (none of the above). the drivers and motivations for hunting were assessed by four categories: personal consumption, festivals, commercial purposes and sport. occurrence of group hunting i.e., organized hunting groups, in the region was also assessed. during this hunting, people go in groups of more than five. for assessing the frequency of mass hunting four categories were considered: everyday, weekly (once per week), festivals (special occasions), and occasionally (rarely). the market was also surveyed to verify the sale of forest products, wild meat and other animal products. conservation awareness, their perceptions and support for wildlife conservation were also assessed. analyses all data were stored in excel spreadsheet as binary data (i.e., yes = 1, no = 0). chi-square analysis was used to determine significant differences among the variables with 0.01 significance level. yates’s correction was used where degrees of freedom was 1 (i.e., between two variables) with 0.01 significance level. chi square contingency tables were used to test for association between hunters and non-hunters, and between sexes. z test was used to analyze the average age of hunters and non-hunters at 0.05 significance level. the mean and standard deviation (sd) were estimated respectively. all statistical analyses were done using rstudio (version 4.3.0) (r core team; 2023). graphical representations were created using microsoft office professional plus excel 2019 (version 2304). results all respondents had been to the forest in their locality for collection purposes. all respondents described that they had collected food, ntfps, medicine, and firewood at roughly equal rates regardless of age and gender (c2 = 0.05, df = 3, p > 0.01; figure 2). no female respondents (20) hunted in the community. among the male respondents (91), we found more non-hunters (59%) than hunters (41%). hunters tended to be younger (21.54 ± 8.21 years old) than the non-hunters (47.96 ± 10.19 years old) (z = 13.87, n1 = 54, n2 =37, p <0.05), although one hunter was 59 years old. among the hunters, the youngest age group (62% of 10–20 years old) hunted more than the other age groups (c2 = 16.43, df = 2, p < 0.01). all interviewed students (n = 10; age: 15.9 ± 2.68) hunted. the catapult was the weapon of choice of all the hunters, because it was easy to carry. all the mardi and singha. 2025. ethnobiology letters 16(1):116–127 119 research communications hunters preferred going to hunt rather than setting traps. mass hunting occurred occasionally according to all the respondents. hunters primarily targeted birds (100%), with rodents a (41%) being their secondary target (c2 = 24.54, df = 2, p < 0.01). the harvesting success rate was significant in the “10–30% category” (73%), in which only 1–2 animals were harvested in five hunting trips (c2 = 7.81, df = 1, p < 0.01). all hunters stated that the primary driver for hunting was consumption. among the respondents, 73% were significantly aware of the need for conservation (c2=23.43, df = 1, p < 0.01). however, the awareness among students was not significant with 20% not being aware about ngo and statedriven conservation (c2=2.5, df = 1, p > 0.01). there was no significant difference between females who were and were not aware of conservation programs (c2=2.45, df = 1, p > 0.01). however, all respondents expressed their support for conservation programs when they discussed them with the researchers. discussion the results of the study indicate that the santals in srirampur depend on natural resources for their livelihood. their devotion to their traditions and rituals have not eroded with development infrastructure over the last twenty years. all the respondents had been to the forests and home gardens for collection of natural resources. santal women and children venture out to catch fish and crabs from nearby streams, ponds, and rivers (similar to barkat et al. 2021). they extract wild edible plants (diplazium esculentum, dioscorea bulbifera etc.) grown around their house or picked from nearby jungle patches. common seasonal crop plants such as abelmoschus esculentus, manihot esculenta, solanum lycopersicum, solanum tuberosum, and solanum melongena are grown by almost every household. ntfps products are used for various reasons such as fuelwood for household fuel use and to sell for cash; bamboo and non-timbers for house construction and also for cash; and bamboo for tools and crafts. mishra et al. (2006) found adi tribes in arunachal pradesh and santals in bangladesh (barkat et al. 2021) to be heavily dependent on the forest for fuelwood, timber and bamboo for house construction, medicinal plants for cash, and leaf litter for manure. cooking was done in mud stoves and firewood and ntfps were used as fuel. cow dung mixed with hay was wrapped around sticks and dried and used as an alternate fuel for cooking (figure 3). firewood is in high demand and sold regularly. ntfps such as bamboo species are figure 2 purpose of going to the forest by the respondents in the study area (respondents were allowed to provide multiple answers). mardi and singha. 2025. ethnobiology letters 16(1):116–127 120 research communications also grown on santal land and then sold (figure 4). bamboo is an important cash plant for the santal communities who depend on it for their livelihood. natural resources such as wild plants, ntfps and firewood also contribute supplementary income and act as a tool for poverty alleviation (arnold and perez 2001; brown and williams 2003). santals in alipurduar, west bengal used 73 medicinal plants (mandal et al. 2020). however, there was no documentation of medicinal plants in this study. the traditional medicines are not sold in the open market. the residents reported that they generally depend on traditional medicines including prayers and rituals. however, people occasionally use pharmaceutical medicines as well. the research was constrained because it relied on hunters to recall their harvesting rate. this limitation means that the data might not accurately reflect the actual number of animals harvested, leading to possible overestimations or underestimations of hunting activity. consequently, the conclusions drawn from these data should be approached with caution. the hunters of the study area did not follow a fixed hunting schedule but hunted when convenient, and even out of boredom (similar to barkat et al. 2021). santal hunters pursue rats whenever they come across figure 3 cooking with firewood in mud stove (left), cow dung mixed with hay wrapped on sticks used as alternate fuel for cooking (right). photographs by saurabh mardi. mardi and singha. 2025. ethnobiology letters 16(1):116–127 121 research communications them while working on cultivated land. generally, hunting is gender differentiated, being done mostly by men or adolescent boys (similar to lowassa et al. 2012). all young boys are introduced to hunting by their peers from an early age (<four– five years of age). hunting was mostly done by catapults and handcrafted traps (figure 5) which resonates with other studies (kharel et al. 2019). a study with a santal tribe in nepal (kharel et al. 2019) documented several traditional mammal hunting tools such as passi (snare trap), kachhad (thick spear), aapuni (bow and arrow), tunud (arrow triggered crossbow trap) and sitob (trigger bamboo rat trap). among these hunting tools, only tunud was used in srirampur, (figure 5a) and was set up in agricultural lands for rodents. hunters told us that hunting was mostly opportunistic, occurring when they were out collecting natural resources or tending to their grazing cattle. we saw groups of children (five–seven persons) walking with rodent traps to set in the fields and catapults around their necks or in hand looking for opportunistic prey (figure 6). mass hunting was not solely a ritual or limited to festivals; it was often unplanned and driven by boredom. kharel et al. (2019) understood that group hunting among the santal people is crucial for strengthening social bonds and fostering unity. hunters attested to consuming bushmeat, motivated by a desire for personal consumption and a culturally informed interest in hunting (similar to ceppi and nielsen 2014; mavah et al. 2018). they did not cover large distances to hunt and seldom travelled far from their village, although a few hunted in nearby villages when the grazing grounds for cattle changed. snares and traps were not preferred in this case because another hunter could collect their kill. these were used in only in areas where their kills would be easily accessible. the hunters did not sell their game figure 4 a sale of firewood, b bamboo taken for sale, and c–e ntfps collection. photographs by saurabh mardi. mardi and singha. 2025. ethnobiology letters 16(1):116–127 122 research communications in the market, likely because it was less socially desirable to other communities (luiselli et al. 2019). traditionally, hunting among the santals is more tied to subsistence and cultural practices than commercial activities (barkat et al. 2021). however, the fear of legal repercussions could have also deterred hunters from disclosing information about any potential sale of game, even if it occurred on a smaller scale within their communities. this study highlights the intersection of cultural practices, legal enforcement, and the economic realities faced by communities in northeast india, shaping both hunting behaviors and the broader sustainability of local ecosystems. all the hunters stated that there had been a drastic reduction in game species. large wildlife species were absent, which may explain why hunters targeted birds more. wilcove et al. (2013) suggests that hunters facing these conditions are forced to target smaller species that flourish in human-modified habitats such as birds, rodents and insects. frog hunting at night is very common in the area. the residents also did not complain about any wildlife conflicts apart from pests and snakes. however, the absence of such wildlife in this case suggests significant ecological shifts, driven by habitat degradation, overhunting, or changes in land use. the decline or displacement of larger wildlife species might be a result of expanding agricultural land, deforestation, or urbanization, all of which contribute to reducing the natural habitats where these species once thrived. the absence of larger wildlife conflicts is significant because it sheds light on broader environmental changes and the potential loss of species diversity. it may also indicate a shift in the local community's relationship with wildlife, where the focus has moved from managing larger, more figure 5 a–b “tunud” rodent trap and c bird trap. photographs by saurabh mardi. mardi and singha. 2025. ethnobiology letters 16(1):116–127 123 research communications complex wildlife interactions to dealing with smaller, more common species. although there is a lack of records and studies in this region that would discuss bushmeat hunting practices, hunting was done frequently as described by the older residents of the community and the neighboring santal villages. the older men took pride in sharing information on hunting, a culturally meaningful element of their culture and an integral part of their lifestyle. older hunters considered farming to be more profitable than hunting, and described hunting as a way to pass the time that was only attractive to the youth. the market survey showed no sale of wild bushmeat (i.e. large prey) or other wild animal products. however, a very rare sale of rodent meat in the market was recorded (figure 7). this is because hunting is mostly for household consumption (similar to barkat et al. 2021). kharel et al. (2019) found that rat meat is the primary source of meat for the santal community. santal communities in srirampur told us that they eat many different kinds of food, including insects, birds, rodents, frogs and reptiles (figure 7). this is supported by studies among the santal tribe in nepal (kharel et al. 2019) and bangladesh (barkat et al. 2021). this highlights the significance of wild alternative protein in their diet. the adi tribes in arunachal also consume numerous species of rodents figure 6 a children hunters with catapults and b–c “tunud” rodent traps. photographs by saurabh mardi. mardi and singha. 2025. ethnobiology letters 16(1):116–127 124 research communications (meyer-rochow et al. 2015). insects as food is common in north-eastern india among various tribal communities (chakravorty and meyer 2011; roychoudhury and joshi 1995). the consumption of rats as a food source is more prevalent across the world, including in african and south american societies. indigenous groups in all north-eastern states of india also include rat-eating communities (assogbadjo et al. 2005; fiedler 1990; jori et al. 2005; malekani and paulus 1989; wilkie and carpenter 1999), while tribal communities in china, myanmar, and elsewhere in south-east asia also appreciate rat meat (meyer-rochow et al. 2015). comparable ratios can be anticipated among the ratconsuming tribal communities in northeast india. however, they might fluctuate with the seasons (meyer-rochow et al. 2015). kaul et al. (2004) stresses that it is essential to understand why bush meat is hunted and consumed. here, hunting was only a secondary activity to supplement household consumption. there appears to be no commercial market for wild meat in the study area. hunting is losing its cultural significance in the community and is likely to decline over time. our findings indicate a declining trend in hunting, as nonhunters comprised the majority (59%) of the respondents. additionally, according to the local residents, the intensity of hunting has decreased over the past two decades. our findings suggest a decline in hunting activity with increasing age, as evidenced by the relatively young mean age of active hunters (21.54 ± 8.21 years), indicating that participation in hunting diminishes substantially beyond early adulthood. this decline is mostly due to a lack of game species. as a result, they have begun farming to sustain their livelihood (similar to barkat et al. 2021). several older residents have stated that they would prefer the new generation of their community to be literate and employed, rather than hunt. a study in arunachal pradesh reported that hunting intensity declined in certain villages following the preaching of the dalai lama (mishra et al. 2006). all interviewees expressed a positive attitude toward nature and wildlife conservation upon discussion with the researchers. they understood the need for forest cover, abundance of wildlife, and need for coexistence with nature. a few interviewees had negative attitudes toward wildlife because of crop damage due to pests and rodents; otherwise, there were no concerns. this suggests that, while the community supports wildlife conservation in principle, the only significant challenge they face in relation to wildlife is the impact of smaller, more common species that directly interfere with their livelihoods. the community was aware of conservation and laws restricting hunting. in addition, respondents with education tended to have more positive perception of wildlife and conservation. the study also recorded a very low literacy rate among the respondents, and all the interviewed females were illiterate. this might be a reason for continuation of this practice by their children. the study does not attempt to draw conclusions about the sustainability of extraction and hunting in figure 7 sale of rodent meat in market (left) and asian bullfrog (hoplobatrachus tigerinus) hunted for consumption (right). photographs by saurabh mardi. mardi and singha. 2025. ethnobiology letters 16(1):116–127 125 research communications the region. more intensive and focused research is required to quantify extraction and hunting and evaluate the outcomes of a range of potential conservation interventions. the results suggest that hunting activity is low and probably in decline. since attitudes are not static, change even within an individual and among individuals will differ, generalizations are hard to make (kinzig et al. 2013). professed sympathy toward nature conservation can be argued to be overestimated, as the attitudes and statements expressed in many surveys are not related to real actions or management (kaiser et al. 1999). gauging the perceptions of the communities was a challenging task, as respondents may have been guarded or masked their actual views with those held by most of their community. the attitudes and feelings of people concerning conservation policies and wildlife conflicts affect their behavior and understanding, thus it is important to involve local people in conservation planning and decision-making processes. our survey indicated that the santal tribe had no exposure to wildlife conservation or awareness programs run by state and ngos. education and awareness on sustainable resource management is key, as it helps communities use natural resources without depleting them. we recommend educating the communities and stakeholders on managing land and resources sustainably. this 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werth 2007). under such circumstances, it is important that agricultural practices improve the efficient use of limited resources and ensure substantial productivity gains. for farmers, the number of crops harvested is the benefit of farming, and the effort expended in obtaining that harvest determines the cost. all else equal, evidence of water stress means lower rates of return for farming. this has implications concerning the trade-off between hunting and gathering wild resources and effort expended on other field activities related to farming. for maize, the effective management of water produced with irrigation is a major predictor of increased kernel number and size (adams 2015; benson et al. 2013; boomgarden et al. 2019). physiological response to water stress in maize is measured in a multitude of ways, including total biomass yield, reduction in leaf area, increases in rootshoot ratio, reduced number of ears, kernels per ear, introduction starch is an energetically important polymer of glucose produced as a by-product of photosynthesis. it is preserved inside a plant’s amyloplasts as discrete granules. size and other morphological attributes of the granules differ depending on plant species and are important identifying features (bertoft 2017; jane et al. 1994). starchy plant foods such as cereal grains like maize, as well as roots, rhizomes, and tubers, were considered important in human evolution (messner et al. 2008; wells et al. 2020; wrangham et al. 1999). furthermore, global patterns of human subsistence and plant domestication have been generated from several studies on maize starch granules found on artifacts or in sediments (holst et al. 2007; musaubach et al. 2013; piperno et al. 2009; yang and perry 2013; zarillo et al. 2008). in the arid southwest, the role of irrigation in growing maize is an important parameter in many foraging models (mabry 2005). uncertainties in rainfall patterns require situational adaptation and starch granule size and morphology as a proxy for water regime influence on zea mays stefania wilks1, lisbeth a. louderback1*, and shannon boomgarden2 1department of anthropology, natural history museum of utah, university of utah, salt lake city, usa. 2natural history museum of utah, director, range creek field station, department of anthropology, university of utah, salt lake, usa. *llouderback@anthro.utah.edu abstract a wealth of information on the patterns of human subsistence and plant domestication has been generated from studies on maize (zea mays) starch granules. however, very little work has been conducted on how the size and morphology of those granules might change as a function of water stress during the growing season. in the arid southwest, the role of irrigation in growing maize is an essential parameter in many foraging models. our study seeks to determine if there are significant changes in the size and other morphological attributes of starch granules from maize planted at range creek canyon under two different irrigation regimes ranging from little water (once every three weeks) to ample water (once a day). our results provide data on the effects of irrigation on z. mays starch granules and, therefore, have implications for identifying archaeological maize and possibly determining past water regimes at range creek canyon. received august 14, 2020 open access accepted december 22, 2020 doi 10.14237/ebl.12.1.2021.1725 published march 15, 2021 keywords agriculture, arid western north america, irrigation, fremont culture, starch analysis, maize copyright © 2021 by the author(s); licensee society of ethnobiology. this is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution-noncommercial 4.0 international public license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0), which permits non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. wilks et al. 2021. ethnobiology letters 12(1):35–43 36 data, methods & taxonomies and kernel size. furthermore, significant relationships between drought, reduced maize yield, and kernel size are well documented (benson et al. 2013; boomgarden et al. 2019; muenchrath 1995; shaw 1988). very little work, however, has been conducted on how the size and morphology of starch granules stored in those kernels might change as a function of water stress during the growing season. our study seeks to determine if there are significant changes in the size or morphology of starch granules from maize planted at the range creek field station under two different irrigation regimes: very little water (once every three weeks) to ample water (once a day). this study has implications for identifying archaeological maize and possibly determining past farming investment strategies. range creek canyon and experimental maize irrigation farming the range creek field station is located within the book cliffs, along the tavaputs plateau, 40 miles southeast of price, utah (figure 1). human populations of the fremont culture flourished in the canyon from 1100–700 cal yrs bp. they were huntergatherers who also farmed maize and stored numerous cobs in granaries tucked in sandstone cliffs throughout the canyon (boomgarden et al. 2014; coltrain 2011; metcalfe 2008; towner et al. 2009). the goal of the field station is to examine adaptations of arid-land foragers and farmers through paleoenvironmental, experimental, and archaeological lines of evidence (boomgarden 2015; boomgarden et al. 2014, 2019). since little is known about the farming techniques used by the fremont, experiments conducted at the field station examine the economic trade-offs related to dry versus irrigation farming documented archaeologically and ethnographically throughout the southwest (arbolino 2001; ingram and hunt 2015; mabry 2005; nabhan 1983). irrigation farming requires modifications and investments in surface features that will move or control incoming water. construction and management of features designed to move, direct, or control intermittent or permanent surface water can be costly (simms et al. 2020). ethnographically, the costs associated with these techniques vary from minimal to intensive through the combination of various strategies (arbolino 2001; doolittle 1984; mabry 2005). for example, minimal investments in irrigation may include branches placed in a shallow, intermittent drainage to spread the occasional surface water from storms, whereas high investment could include terracing hillsides or building massive canal systems to move water from rivers to distant fields (arbolino 2001; benson 2010; castetter and bell 1942; doolittle 1984; mabry 2005; nabhan 1983; rhode 1995; simms et al. 2020). permanent sources of water, like the creek in range creek canyon, offer a relatively low risk strategy with respect to minimizing water stress in crops, whereas irrigation techniques that rely on capturing rainfall are dependent on the frequency and duration of precipitation occurring in the right location. the irrigation experiments at range creek replicate the simple surface diversion techniques documented at several fremont sites in utah (metcalfe and larrabee 1985; talbot and richens 1996) and are particularly focused on measuring the costs (labor) and benefits (maize yield) of simple irrigation farming (boomgarden et al. 2019). these experiments documented the differences in maize yield (the number of cobs and the number and figure 1 range creek canyon (575040 e, 4356861 n) is located in the book cliffs along the tavaputs plateau, 40 miles southeast of price, utah. wilks et al. 2021. ethnobiology letters 12(1):35–43 37 data, methods & taxonomies size of kernels on each cob) as a function of water stress resulting from differing amounts of irrigation water (boomgarden 2015). the maize chosen for the experiment was an heirloom variety of tohono o’odham 60 day because of its short growing season compared to other native american maize landraces (adams et al. 1999; adams et al. 2006; muenchrath 1995). adams and colleagues (2006) describe the variability in maize landraces grown historically by measuring maize ear characteristics and kernel traits, temperature parameters, and grain yield estimates from a two year grow out (2004–2005) in farmington, new mexico. the project recorded emergence and maturity dates on 86 of the 123 accessions analyzed. the mean number of days from emergence to maturity for all 86 maize accessions from all three culture regions/ groups was 128 days (e.g., adams et al. 2006:table 15). it is clear that based on the frost-free growing season in range creek canyon, many varieties of native american maize can be grown in the lower reaches of the canyon. six plots of tohono o’odham 60-day maize with different watering schedules were planted in the range creek experiment, each with 12 growing basins containing four seeds. for the purposes of this study, maize kernels were selected from plot 2 (watered once every three weeks) and plot 6 (watered every day). plot 1 (which was not irrigated) did not produce sufficient maize cobs or kernels for analysis (figure 2). methods starch granule analysis five replicate samples of maize kernels from the two most extreme watering treatments (plot 2 and plot 6) were processed in the archaeobotanical lab at the natural history museum of utah. starch granules were examined for their size and morphological attributes to quantify differences between water treatments. starch extraction only mature endosperm from the maize kernels was selected. to extract the starch granules, a dried kernel was cut in half with a sterile razor blade, removing the endosperm from its outer pericarp hull (holst et al. 2007; musaubach et al. 2013). the collected endosperm (containing starch granules) was then transferred to a sterile mortar and lightly ground to a fine flour. the flour was sieved through a 125 µm mesh endecott screen into a beaker using dh20. sample material < 125 µm was transferred to a sterile 50 ml test tube and each sample was centrifuged for three minutes at 3000 rpm. the supernatant was discarded, and the sample pellet was transferred to a sterile 15 ml test tube. each test tube was resuspended with a vortex mixer, adding 7 ml of lithium heteropolytungstate (lst; specific gravity 2.00), and then centrifuged for 15 minutes at 1000 rpm. the sample was extracted from the heavy liquid using a pipette, carefully removing the top 1–2 mm layer of figure 2 experimental maize farming at range creek field station. six plots of tohono o’odham 60-day maize with different watering schedules were planted, each with 12 growing basins. five replicate samples (solid circles) of maize kernels from plots 2 and 6 were sampled for this study. wilks et al. 2021. ethnobiology letters 12(1):35–43 38 data, methods & taxonomies organics containing starch and placed into new 15 ml test tubes. each sample was rinsed three times until all residual heavy liquid was removed. samples were then rinsed with acetone, mixed with a vortex, and centrifuged for 3 minutes at 3000 rpm. the acetone was decanted, and samples were covered and left to dry overnight. once dried, the samples were mixed with 50% dh20 and 50% glycerol solution and then mounted on microscope slides. starch granule size and formal attributes slides were positioned using randomly chosen x-y coordinates. each slide was scanned using a transmitted brightfield microscope fitted with polarizing filters and nomarski optics (zeiss axioscope 2, zeiss international, göttingen, germany) and all starch granules within that field of view were measured and photographed. starch granules from each replicate treatment sample (plots 2 and 6; five replicates from each plot) were measured and photographed, for a total of 310 granules in plot 2 and 310 granules in plot 6. maximum length measurement of starch granules was made using the zeiss zen measurement software (accuracy = +/-0.001 µm). at the same time, several morphological attributes were documented, including hilum position (0 = eccentric and 1 = centric), shape (0 = not irregular, and 1 = irregular), and fissures (0 = no fissure, 1 = stellate, 2 = transverse, and 3 = radial). these attributes have been previously described (holst et al. 2007; icsn 2011; reichert 1913; torrence and barton 2016) and chosen based on studies that documented them in maize starch granules (holst et al. 2007; musaubach et al. 2013; piperno et al. 2004, 2009). shapiro-wilk normality tests were performed on all starch granule size distributions and reported as pvalues (table 1). p-values higher than 0.05 indicate the distributions are normal. pooled starch granule size distributions for plots 2 and 6 were plotted using the strip chart function in the r graphics package (r core team 2019) and compared using kolmogorovsmirnov (k-s) tests. we examine the size distributions and the frequencies of the different morphological features for all starch granule sizes (100%) as well as the largest 20% of granules from each sample. results starch granule size and formal attributes starch granule lengths from the treatment samples (plots 2 and 6; five replicates from each plot) exhibit normal distributions, except for ls6.70 which was subsequently log-transformed (table 1). treatment samples were then pooled for statistical comparisons. relying on the upper 20% size range allows for greater differentiation between samples because it has been shown that different species can have different maximum granule sizes (herzog et al. 2018; liu et al. 2014; louderback et al. 2016). starch granule size distributions (100% and top 20%) from plots 2 and 6 are shown in figure 3. both samples sample size (n) mean sd median skewness kurtosis shapiro-wilk replicate samples ls2.17 50 8.17 1.34 8.08 0.40 -0.34 p = 0.279 ls2.18 51 8.85 1.63 8.84 0.17 -0.94 p = 0.226 ls2.21 56 7.48 1.20 7.58 0.07 0.47 p = 0.4347 ls2.22 102 12.45 2.07 12.38 0.23 0.04 p = 0.9061 ls2.24 51 8.30 1.62 8.26 -0.15 -0.16 p = 0.9716 ls6.65 51 8.91 1.33 8.87 -0.30 0.21 p = 0.6774 ls6.66 56 10.58 1.90 10.52 0.36 -0.18 p = 0.5172 ls6.69 52 9.78 1.50 9.64 0.56 0.88 p = 0.2997 ls6.70* 100 16.14 1.22 16.37 0.05 0.08 p = 0.0296 ls6.72 51 8.49 1.62 8.13 0.65 0.32 p = 0.0862 pooled samples plot 2 5 9.05 1.96 8.3 --- plot 6 5 10.78 3.10 9.78 --- table 1 descriptive statistics and shapiro-wilk normality test of starch granule lengths for replicate and pooled samples from plots 2 and 6. *measurements from sample ls6.70 were log-transformed because it had a non-normal distribution. wilks et al. 2021. ethnobiology letters 12(1):35–43 39 data, methods & taxonomies distributions from each sample fraction are significantly different (k-s test, p < 0.0001) from each other. furthermore, there is less overlap in granule sizes from plots 2 and 6 within the top 20% size range, making it easier to define a size range that can be used to characterize the irrigation plot (figure 3). morphological attributes, including hilum position, two-dimensional granular profile, and fissure type were recorded for each granule in plots 2 and 6 (figure 3). these attributes occur more frequently in the upper 20% size range of starch granules and, therefore, we report statistics for those granules (table 2). plot 2 dominant features observed on the upper 20% size range of starch granules from plot 2 included irregular -shaped two-dimensional profile (0.97; figure 3b, c) with centric hila (0.77). transverse fissures were most frequently observed (0.45; figure 3b), while stellate and radial fissures were rarely observed (0.08 and 0.02, respectively; figure 3b, c). the overall frequency of fissures observed on granules was approximately 0.55. the upper 20% size range in plot 2 is 11.94–18.47µm. plot 6 dominant features observed on the upper 20% size of plot 6 granules include irregular shaped granules (0.90; figure 3a, b) with centric hila (0.51). transverse fissures were also the most commonly observed fissure type (0.46; figure 3a), while stellate and radial were less frequent (0.24 and 0.03, respectively; figures 3a, b). the overall frequency of fissures observed on granules in plot 6 (σ = 0.73) is much higher than in plot 2 (σ = 0.55), most likely due to the increased size of the starch granules. the upper 20% size range of plot 6 is 15.36–28.16µm. discussion this study demonstrates that the size of maize starch granules reflects the amount of moisture the parent plant receives and, therefore, is a function of water stress during a growing season. size distributions from high-water plot 6 are significantly skewed towards larger granules when compared to distributions from low-water plot 2. size differences are especially apparent within the upper 20% size category and, figure 3 a starch granule size distributions of pooled samples (100%) from plot 2 (n = 310) and plot 6 (n = 310). size distributions for the upper 20%, both plots (n = 62). comparisons between distributions from each sample fraction were significantly different (p < 0.0001). (right) morphological attributes (nomarski optics, dic) include b sf = three-armed stellate fissure radiating from the hilum on an irregular granule from plot 6, tf = transverse fissure dissecting the hilum and extending toward the margin of an irregular-shaped granule from plot 6 and c rf = radial fissure radiating from the hilum to the margin of an irregular-shaped granule from plot 6. wilks et al. 2021. ethnobiology letters 12(1):35–43 40 data, methods & taxonomies therefore, could be useful when determining ancient watering regimes from archaeological materials (i.e., granules, caryopses, and cobs). for example, remnant granules larger than ~20µm would most likely have been produced with ample access to water. the implications for interpretation of archaeological and paleoenvironmental records are obvious. water stress in maize results in fewer cobs, fewer kernels per cob, and generally smaller kernels. in arid and semi-arid regions, especially those with marked interannual variation in growing season precipitation, large granules (>20um) could potentially indicate access to ample water. this is important because irrigation may be very difficult to identify in the archaeological record due to its inconspicuous and ephemeral material consequences. moisture during the growing season is essential and often the most important constraint on the quantity and quality of an agricultural harvest. less moisture during the early stages limits the growth and development of both the shoot and root systems (benson et al. 2013; boomgarden et al. 2019; muenchrath 1995; shaw 1988). chronic moisture deficits during reproductive stages (silking, tasseling, and kernel filling) produce essentially infertile plants and, therefore, a meager harvest. our research shows that water stress also affects the size and morphology of starch granules within maize kernels, even if the adult plant survives to maturity. starch granule size is, therefore, a potentially important environmental and archaeological proxy because it can evaluate the relative performance of prehistoric farming in a specific place and time and it can serve as another piece of evidence in understanding the role of irrigation in the past. acknowledgments the authors wish to thank the following individuals and organizations. duncan metcalfe for his review of the manuscript. corinne springer, joel and folsom boomgarden, and the students of the range creek archaeological and paleoenvironmental field schools for access to plant materials from the experiential farm project. we are grateful for bruce pavlik’s advice on experimental design and editorial comments on the manuscript. we would also like to thank two anonymous reviewers and our colleagues at the university of utah archaeological center (uuac) for providing helpful suggestions. any errors or omissions remain the responsibility of the authors. declarations permissions: none declared. sources of funding: funding for this research was 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book, evolutionary ethnobiology, (albuquerque et al. 2015). as stated previously, “it was with considerable excitement that i initially received this book” (pierotti 2018:266). reading this book, i recognized issues that needed to be addressed, involving the second and third issues mentioned above, and that i could not write an honest and positive review (the first issue was never a factor in my review). i communicated this to the book review editor at ethnobiology letters, stating that i no longer wished to write a review. the editor said they still wanted the review, even if negative. i submitted a review, that in my concluding paragraph, attempted to find something positive to say, so i naively made statements concerning the ethnicity of many of the authors in this book, not realizing that terminology used routinely in the united states might offend brazilians, where individuals of european ancestry would take offense at being referred to as scholars of color, or apparently even as “scholars from latin america,” a term that says nothing about ethnicity. there are a multitude of issues involved in this situation i have found myself drawn into, all of which seem to involve semantics. first, how scholars from different cultural traditions choose to refer to colleagues and their identities. second, which emerges from the first, is how scholars try to evaluate professional work produced by individuals forced to publish in languages in which they are not fluent. third, and most scholarly, but in some ways the easiest to address is, “what does it mean to describe the field in which you do research as evolutionary?” i address these to provide clarity. in the united states, i am considered to be a scholar of color. this is a clumsy, not very useful term; however, in a society as racially confused as twenty-first century america, this term has become a signifier for scholars who do not personally identify as white, caucasian, or being of european ancestry. this is not intended to be an insult, but an acknowledgment that the individual is trying to exemplify or represent a point of view that comes from outside the dominant culture, which is how i use it. the category into which i fall can best be described as mixed-blood, which indicates that a person has ancestors that emerged from different cultural ancestries, at least one of which did not come from western europe, and is often used to describe people that have some ancestry from indigenous america (owens 1998). both the united states and brazil, as american nation states, are colonialist in origin. their founding involved slavery and genocide, perpetuated by people the semantics of color: reply to response to review raymond pierotti1* 1department of ecology and evolutionary biology, university of kansas, lawrence, usa. *pierotti@ku.edu received may 27, 2021 open access accepted june 28, 2021 doi 10.14237/ebl.12.1.2021.1780 published august 5, 2021 copyright © 2021 by the author(s); licensee society of ethnobiology. this is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution-noncommercial 4.0 international public license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0), which permits non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. replying to albuquerque et al. ethnobiology letters 12, https://doi.org/10.14237/ebl.12.1.2021.1763 (2021) https://doi.org/10.14237/ebl.12.1.2021.1763 pierotti. 2021. ethnobiology letters 12(1):82–84 83 reviews albuquerque et al. (2021:80) chose to regard this attempt “as profoundly racist and derogatory…, not only among “non-white” colleagues but also among many colleagues who could be classified as “white.” in this sense, we received this term as a racist offense.” i feel badly that they were offended; however, in the united states, scholars like myself who do not regard themselves as white have learned to live with the term of color, even if they are phenotypically white. learning of possible offense in 2019, i agreed with the editors to remove the term from my published review, because i did not want to cause offense, and provided alternative wording. for unknown reasons, this action was not taken by the editors. two years later, this issue still festers. i apologize for not being more emphatic in making the change. concerning publishing in languages other than mother tongue, i am sympathetic and have reviewed numerous manuscripts for journals where i spent considerable effort making sure that the actual statements of the authors were represented accurately in english. i do not know why the editors of evolutionary ethnobiology did not make a similar effort to ensure that their intended meanings were accurately presented. my review stated, “i do not really blame the authors, but i am surprised at the lack of basic editing and proofreading, which leaves the authors looking less capable than they surely are” (pierotti 2018:266). although i did not say so in my review, i think the editors and especially the publisher (springer) bears this responsibility. evolutionary ethnobiology was rushed into publication without concern about how the authors were presenting themselves. this is a shame, but the people responsible must accept responsibility. instead of accepting responsibility, however, albuquerque et al. (2021:79–80) state that i “chose to focus on minor misuses of words that did not hamper the book’s main message nor bring into question the scientific skills of its authors.” this is untrue; examples i cited rendered entire sentences and paragraphs incomprehensible. some chapters featured multiple errors per page, and figure captions and figures were confusing and hard to understand. a couple of errors is ‘minor’. hundreds of errors constitute carelessness. i stand by my comments. finally, there exists a question of whether evolutionary ethnobiology as written, actually deals with biological evolution in any meaningful way. the term evolutionary biology is used repeatedly in their publications, but they admit that “the book's content focused on human behavior and cognition in interactions with the environment” (albuquerque et al. 2021:80). this focus involves psychology rather than evolutionary biology, and should be identified as such (e.g., ludwig 2018). as stated in my review (pierotti 2018:266), this book is promoted by springer as “the first comprehensive book about evolutionary ethnobiology written in english;” the accuracy of this statement depends on how one defines ‘evolutionary’ in an ethnobiological context, especially if biological and cultural evolution are conflated to the degree that they are in this book (emphasis added). cultural evolution is important in anthropology. its importance in evolutionary biology, however, is based largely on its existence in nonhumans (de waal 2001). it is also indirectly important in niche construction. in evolutionary ethnobiology, the editors paraphrase gene anderson (2011:1) (2) that ethnobiology is “the study of the biological knowledge about certain groups of plants and animals and their interrelationships” (albuquerque et al. 2015:2), yet they omit animals or even free-living plants. domestication can involve evolution, but it operates primarily in the realm of artificial rather than natural selection. to conclude, i also “advocate that future reviews in our study area, and other areas, should be based on respect” (albuquerque et al. 2021:79). respect is a two-way street; authors, editors, and publishers also must respect the process of scholarship and present their work in as professional a manner as possible. albuquerque et al. (2021:81) further states, we read this as pierotti setting up a clear dichotomy in which there is an implied ‘they,’ referring to latin american authors who have produced low quality material though it is good to see something written by them, and an implied “we” making an argument from an authoritative viewpoint that is north american and anglophone. they are entitled to their reading, after all we live in a postmodern world. there is no implied ‘we’ or ‘they’; i admit to being a north american anglophone, but i certainly do not regard that as indicative of any inherent superiority. pierotti. 2021. ethnobiology letters 12(1):82–84 84 reviews references cited ainana l. i., and i. zagrebin. 2014. edible plants used by siberian yupik eskimos of southeastern chukotka peninsula, russia. national park service, shared beringian heritage program, anchorage, ak. albuquerque, u. p., p. m. medeiros, and a. casas, eds. 2015. evolutionary ethnobiology. springer international publishing, cham, switzerland. albuquerque, u. p., w. s. ferreira júnior, i. vandebroek, r. w. bussmann, n. y. paniaguazambrana, a. h. ladio, r. voeks, f. melo, m. c. m. jacob, t. gonçalves-souza, a. v. lopes, and g. t. soldati. 2021. decolonizing latin american science. ethnobiology letters 12:79–81. doi:10.1423 7/ebl.12.1.2021.1763. anderson, e. n. 2011. ethnobiology: overview of a growing field. in ethnobiology, edited by e. n. anderson, d. pearsall, e. hunn, and n. turner. wiley-blackwell, hoboken, nj.de waal, f. b. 2001. the ape and the sushi master. basic books, new york. ludwig, d. 2018. does cognition still matter in ethnobiology? ethnobiology letters 9:269–275. doi: 10.14237/ebl.9.2.2018.1350. owens, l. 1998. mixedblood messages: literature, film, family, place. university of oklahoma press, norman, ok. pierotti, r. 2018. evolutionary ethnobiology. edited by ulysses paulino albuquerque, patricia muniz de medeiros, and alejandro casas. 2015. springer international publishing, cham. 197 pp. ethnobiology letters 9:266–268. doi:10.14237/ebl.9.2.2018.1381. fisher ethnotaxonomy for elasmobranchs captured along the brazilian amazon coast coelho et al. 2022. ethnobiology letters 13(1):79–99 79 research communications brazil has been marked by the tupi linguistic trunk, which is manifested in the names of places, landscape landmarks, animals, plants, and food (dietrich and noll 2016a). this stems from the relations established during the colonial period between the portuguese and tupi-guarani inhabiting the brazilian coast, especially the tupinambá people, whose loans and cultural exchanges were historically documented through linguistic contacts and the absorption of numerous amerindian words in the portuguese language spoken in brazil (dietrich 2016). in the first half of the 16th century, tupinambá was widely spoken in brazilian coastal zones and introduction traditional communities inhabiting coastal brazilian regions attribute a great diversity of popular names to marine fish and other nature elements (barbosa-filho et al. 2021; freire and carvalho-filho, 2009). the diversity of names employed by fishers and fish consumers is due to multiple factors, including country size, regional disparities, colonization processes, and the complexities of brazilian culture (amorim 2005; freire and pauly 2005; mourão and barbosa-filho 2018; rodrigues 2016). many of the popular plant and animal names in brazil have their origins in tupi-guarani linguistics (barbosa 1951). since colonization, the portuguese language spoken in fisher ethnotaxonomy for elasmobranchs captured along the brazilian amazon coast keyton k. f. coelho1,2*, getulio rincon3, arkley m. bandeira1, márcio l. v. barbosa-filho4, natascha wosnick5, rafaela m. s. de brito1,2, ana r. o. p. nunes1,2 and jorge l. s. nunes1,2 1departamento de oceanografia e limnologia, universidade federal do maranhão, são luís, brazil. 2programa de pósgraduação em biodiversidade e biotecnologia da amazônia legal rede bionorte, universidade federal do maranhão, são luís, brazil. 3curso de engenharia de pesca, universidade federal do maranhão, pinheiro, brazil. 4vp eco engenharia & meio ambiente, taubaté, são paulo, brazil. 5departamento de zoologia, universidade federal do paraná, curitiba, brazil. *keytonfc@yahoo.com.br abstract the diversity of popular names used in fish nomenclature off the brazilian coast makes it difficult to identify species, and many names have their origins in indigenous languages, mainly tupi-guarani. this study sought to understand and update the list of the most popular names and assess some ethnotaxonomic patterns employed by artisanal fishers from the brazilian amazon coast in naming elasmobranchs. interviews with 314 fishermen from 17 coastal municipalities were carried out employing a semi-structured form, banners, and photographic records of local elasmobranch species, addressing characteristics applied to species identification. a total of 130 ethnospecies were identified (113 names in portuguese and 17 of tupi-guarani origin) for the identification of 22 and 18 species of sharks and rays, respectively. the highest degree of homonyms occurs interspecifically for the dasyatidae, mobulidae, pristidae, urotrygonidae, carcharhinidae, sphyrnidae and triakidae families. sphyrna tiburo and hypanus guttatus comprised the taxa with the highest diversity of common names. morphological characteristics such as shape, colors, texture, and size of certain body parts are the ethnotaxonomic patterns most applied in shark and ray identification. we conclude that the use of common names for elasmofauna facilitates communication between fishers and that the scientific approach to this local ecological knowledge is fundamental for the management and sustainability of fisheries in the long term. received april 8, 2022 open access accepted october 5, 2022 doi 10.14237/ebl.13.1.2022.1819 published february 11, 2023 keywords ethnobiology, ethnospecies, local ecological knowledge, chondrichthyes copyright © 2021 by the author(s); licensee society of ethnobiology. this is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution-noncommercial 4.0 international public license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0), which permits non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. coelho et al. 2022. ethnobiology letters 13(1):79–99 80 research communications estuarine areas, as well as in some inland areas (rodrigues 2016). its dispersion followed the migratory flows of indigenous people and was adopted in jesuit missions between the 16th and 17th centuries, while other languages of tupi origin were spoken in other regions of the country (dietrich and noll 2016b). however, tupinambá fell into disuse with the genocide of tupinambádue to epidemics and the catechization process and subsequent religious assimilation (rodrigues 2016). from the 19th century, the term "tupi" refers to a complex linguistic combination, comprising tupinambá, on which most colonial languages are based on, the brasilic language used in jesuit missions, the language spoken in são paulo on the piratininga plateau—the first colonizing nucleus towards the southeast, and the amazonian language used in settlements of indigenous peoples of different ethnic origins in the grão-pará jesuit missions (dietrich 2016). "tupi" has also been applied as a generic term since the 16th century to designate indigenous populations along the brazilian coast (rodrigues 2016). with the intensified contact between the portuguese and brazilian indigenous peoples, both were learning to use each other's language, mixing, exchanging, and building a common language that has influenced the current language spoken in brazil. the growing need to include traditional communities and natural resources users in biodiversity management and conservation has shown traditional ecological knowledge to be a promising tool (barbosa-filho et al. 2021; ferreira-araujo et al. 2021; giareta et al. 2021; rodrigues et al. 2021; silva et al. 2021). for example, ethnotaxonomy can be applied to improve and adapt management plans, as the use of inclusive language increases the chances of traditional communities understanding what is being proposed and for which species. ethnotaxonomy translations can also fill knowledge gaps regarding target-species biology and ecology, particularly in datapoor countries such as brazil (ladislau et al. 2021; mourão and barbosa-filho 2018). concerning artisanal fisheries, traditional fisher knowledge is of great value, as fishing is spread out and landings are difficult to monitor. in brazil, elasmobranch fishing is a traditional activity, with several coastal communities engaged in the capture and trade of sharks and rays (aragão et al. 2019; barbosa-filho et al. 2019; barbosa -filho et al. 2021; carvalho et al. 2018; martins et al. 2018). not entirely a subsistence activity, elasmobranch fishing guarantees the financial gain of many families under socio-economic vulnerability conditions, as well as food security in many regions of the country (araujo et al., 2020; dias et al. 2016; martins et al. 2018; nunes et al. 2005; pinto et al. 2015; viana and souza 2019). the point of concern is that sharks and rays are now among the most threatened vertebrates worldwide, with population declines that seriously compromise their sustainable use (dulvy et al. 2021; pacoureau et al. 2021). the situation is critical in brazil, as official fisheries statistics are absent since 2011, and legislation towards elasmobranch conservation is rarely met, mainly due to a lack of enforcement and incentive programs aiming at reducing elasmobranch catches. moreover, the vast majority of species captured incidentally are retained and traded, posing additional pressure to elasmobranchs throughout the brazilian exclusive economic zone. the brazilian amazon coast (bac) is listed as a global conservation hotspot, mainly due to the significant number of local endemic species threatened with extinction (dulvy et al. 2014). the region has a large artisanal fleet that captures elasmobranchs throughout the year, catching mostly juveniles and pregnant females (almeida et al. 2000; araujo et al. 2020; gonçalves 2004; lessa et al. 1999; lessa and silva 1992; nunes et al. 2016). members of fishing communities are mostly citizens suffering great social vulnerability, marginalization, and being deprived of access to basic health, education, and adequate living conditions. the management of endangered species in the brazilian amazon region is very challenging, and human dimensions are constantly overlooked in decision-making processes. in order to improve shark and ray management in the region, traditional communities should be not only considered in decision-making processes, but also their knowledge and demands in conservation planning. this includes access to regional ethnotaxonomy, especially considering the barriers imposed by poor access to basic education and the complexity of the language used in legal/punitive measures (e.g., list of banned species). in this context, the present study aims to update the list of popular names of sharks and rays used by traditional communities inserted in the bac and identify ethnotaxonomic patterns applied in the identification and classification of captured species marketed by local artisanal fleets as a way to reduce coelho et al. 2022. ethnobiology letters 13(1):79–99 81 research communications the linguistic distance between academia, policy makers and fisheries resource users. material and methods study area the data were collected along the coast of the state of maranhão, which extends from the mouth of the gurupi river to the mouth of the parnaíba river, approximately 640 km in length (imesc, 2020). this coastline comprises three environmental protection areas (epa) with 35 municipalities, an estimated population of over two million inhabitants, and is part of the bac (ibge, 2020; figure 1). the western coast comprises the reentrâncias maranhenses environmental protection area (epa). this area is characterized by an expressive set of islands, peninsulas, and bays, cut by rivers, streams and tidal channels filled with clay and silt that favor mangrove development (castro et al. 2019) with high fishing resource productivity, representing a source of food and work for most coastal and riverside populations, especially low-income communities (imesc 2020). the central part comprises the golfão maranhense, an estuarine complex formed by three bays, several river discharge sites and the island of maranhão (castro et al. 2019), as well as the upaon açu-miritiba-alto do rio preguiças epa. the latter displays paramount importance concerning the region's high commercial value fishing resources, such as acoupa weakfish cynoscion acoupa (lacepède, 1801) and serra spanish mackerel scomberomorus brasiliensis collette, russo & zavala-camin, 1978 (imesc 2020). the eastern coast comprises the foz do rio das preguiças pequenos lençóis adjacent lagoon region epa (imesc 2020), marked by a straight coastline, tidal terraces, fixed and mobile dunes, figure 1 delimitation of environmental protection areas and the 17 municipalities that make up the study area on the coast of the state of maranhão, located on the brazilian amazon coast. credits: brenda s. s. nunes, 2021. coelho et al. 2022. ethnobiology letters 13(1):79–99 82 research communications mangroves, beaches, bays, islands, coves, and the parnaíba river delta (el-robrini et al. 2018; figure 1). data collection and analysis monthly interviews were carried out with artisanal fishers from december 2019 to october 2020 in the main alcântara, apicum açú, barreirinhas, cândido mendes, carutapera, cedral, cururupu, guimarães, humberto de campos, icatú, paço do lumiar, porto rico, primeira cruz, raposa, são josé de ribamar, turiaçú and tutóia ports (figure 1). the interviews took place over three days with a daily effort of eight hours at each location, when the interviewees were performing fishing gear maintenance, vessel repairs or following fish landings. the interviews took place individually through a semi-structured form, visually stimulated by banners (figure 2) and photographic records of local elasmobranchs (see wosnick et al. 2019), focusing on their common names and external characteristics used for species identification. during the interviews, fishers were also asked about the species that were caught in abundance in the past and that have disappeared, species currently hardly caught at all and species not recorded for the region. the obtained information was compared with available literature (almeida 2008; almeida et al. 2011; martins-jura et al. 1987; marceniuk et al. 2020; nunes et al. 2005; nunes et al. 2011; stride et al. 1992). in addition, an additional search on local fauna records from the 17th figure 2 interviews and data collection in the municipalities of carutapera (a) west coast, tutóia (b) east coast and raposa (c) golfão maranhense, in the state of maranhão. credit: keyton k. f. coelho, 2020. coelho et al. 2022. ethnobiology letters 13(1):79–99 83 research communications century was carried out to understand the origins, historical records and diversity of popular names applied to elasmobranchs. data were quantitatively analyzed to obtain the total common names and relative frequencies (fr) of citations for each species, as well as the total percentage of each common name cited in relation to all species identified by fishers. linguistic considerations in the present study, common names were considered non-scientific nomenclature employed by fishing communities and fish consumers for the identification of morphological entities and, therefore of no official taxonomic nature. synonymy was considered as the use of different common names applied to the same species (minelli 1999), while homonymy was considered when at least two distinct species were associated with the same common name (papavero 1994). polysemy cases were associated with generalized naming conditions regarding initial species identification (e.g., “arraia” or “cação;” martins 2015). the richness of common names was evaluated by the sum of synonyms and homonyms (minelli 1999). the observed variation was subtle in many cases, but details were also considered as a possible variation of diachronic origin, which consists of slightly modified forms due to divergences over time (e.g., “arraia-lixa” or “raia-lixa”), or of diatopic origin, slightly different nominal forms for the same species as a result of regionalisms (e.g., “cação-junteiro”, “juntão”, “junteiro” or “tubarão-junteiro”). results a total of 314 artisanal fishers from 17 municipalities were interviewed ( 18,47 ± 8,68 fishers/ municipality), numbering a minimum of five fishers from primeira cruz and a maximum of 35 fishers from cândido mendes. all fishers were men, and most were from the state of maranhão (90%; n = 282), mainly residing in the municipalities of cururupu, cândido mendes and turiaçú, while other fishers (10%; n = 32) were from other states, such as ceará, pará and piauí. fishers’ age ranged from 20 to 83 years old ( 47 years) and time acting as fishers ranged from two to 72 years ( 30 years). all fishers identify elasmobranchs as “leather fish,” informally classifying them in the “sharks or cação family” or “ray family”. a total of 14 taxonomic families were recorded (five shark and nine ray families), comprising 40 species (22 sharks and 18 rays), resulting in 130 common names and an average of 3.25 names per species (figure 3; table 1 and table 2). ethnospecies were named in both portuguese and tupi-guarani. most common names were in portuguese (87%; n = 113; 61 for sharks and 52 for rays) (table 1) compared to tupi-guarani (13%; n = 17, nine for sharks and eight of rays) (figure 4 and table 2). both simple names (e.g., “boneta”) and compound names (e.g., “tubarão-lombo-preto”) are noted among the cited common names in portuguese. compound names usually contain the prefixes “cação”, “tubarão”, “sacuri”, “panã”, “raia” and “arraia” as polysemic forms for designating a group (shark or ray) or the initial name of a given species (e.g., “cação-rudela”) (table 1). for rays belonging to the pristidae and rhinobatidae families, the use of the term “cação” was predominant (e.g., “cação-viola” for pseudobatos percellens and “cação-espadarte” for pristis pristis and/or pristis pectinata) (table 1). interestingly, 65% of fishers (n = 205) reported that they had never caught or seen a “caçãoespadarte” (i.e., sawfish, pristidae) (table 1). common names derive from a series of morphological, ecological, behavioral, or physiological characteristics (table 1). the fishers name, identify and classify sharks and rays mostly based on morphological attributes (56%; n = 175), such as body shape and color, body part size and texture, at 50%, 25%, 15% and 10% of citations, respectively (e.g., “sacuri-branco” for carcharhinus acronotus and “raiabicuda” for hypanus guttatus). fishers also use ecological attributes (18%; n = 57), such as the type of consumed food and habitat or type of substrate where the species is usually found (e.g., “raia-pedra”, hypanus say). behavioral attributes (15%; n = 47) such as the ability to produce sounds underwater, strength, and endurance (e.g., “tubarão-boca-redonda,” carcharhinus leucas), and physiological attributes (11%; n = 35), such as the ability to produce electrical discharges and inoculate venom (e.g., “raia-elétrica”, narcine brasiliensis and “raia-de-fogo”, urotrygon microphthalmum), are also applied (table 1). historical documents (carvalho 1964; d’abbeville 2008; prazeres 1891) also indicate the description of some elasmobranchs based morphological characteristics, as in the case of coelho et al. 2022. ethnobiology letters 13(1):79–99 84 research communications galeocerdo cuvier, ginglymostoma cirratum, sphyrna tiburo, aetobatus narinari and hypanus guttatus (table 3). regarding linguistic considerations, homonyms occur most frequently among species belonging to the same ray families (62%), such as dasyatidae (hypanus berthalutzae and pteroplatytrygon violacea), mobulidae (mobula birostris and mobula hypostoma), pristidae (p. pristis and p. pectinata) and urotrygonidae (urotrygon microphthalmum and urotrygon venezuelae) (table 1). homonyms between species from different families, however, are also noted, such as potamotrygonidae (styracura schmardae) and urotrygonidae (u. microphthalmum and u. venezuelae) (table 1). regarding sharks, homonymy is most frequent (38%) for carcharhinidae (rhizoprionodon lalandii and rhizoprionodon porosus), sphyrnidae (sphyrna lewini, sphyrna mokarran, sphyrna tiburo and sphyrna tudes) and triakidae (mustelus canis and mustelus higmani) (table 1). concerning synonymy, averages of 3.18 and 3.33 names per species were identified for sharks and rays, respectively (table 4 and table 5). regarding sharks, sphyrna tiburo (linnaeus, 1758) was given the greatest diversity of common names (n = 8), displaying the highest relative frequency (11.43%) and citations (6.15%) (table 1, table 2, and table 4). carcharhinus falciformis, c. longimanus, isurus oxyrinchus and sphyrna media, on the other hand, were all identified by a single common name throughout the entire study area (table 1 and table 4). for rays, hypanus guttatus (bloch & schneider, 1801) was given the highest number of common names (n = 9), displaying the highest relative frequency (15%) and citations (6.92%) figure 3 hierarchical diagram of shark and ray families with their common names associated to their respective scientific names cited by artisanal fishers on the coast of the state of maranhão, located on the brazilian amazon coast. credit: keyton k. f. coelho, 2021. coelho et al. 2022. ethnobiology letters 13(1):79–99 85 research communications family species common names ethnotaxonomic features carcharhinidae carcharhinus acronotus (poey, 1860) cação-flamengo, sacuribranco or tubarãoflamengo. “when young, this shark has a soft and very tasty meat..., it is small, when bigger it reaches up to one meter and has a black dot on the tip of its nose” (morphological ethnotaxonomy – body size and head color). carcharhinus falciformis (müller & henle, 1839) tubarão-lombo-preto. carcharhinus leucas (müller & henle, 1839) tubarão-cabeça-chata or tubarão-bocaredonda. “this shark snores a lot under the boat, it makes a lot of noise” (behavioral ethnotaxonomy). “it has a lot of strength and is too angry..., it takes a long time to die in the fishing net, it is very resistant” (behavioral and physiological ethnotaxonomy). “this animal's head is flattened to the tip of its nose and its mouth is huge” (morphological ethnotaxonomy – head shape). carcharhinus limbatus (müller & henle, 1839) sacuri-da-galha-preta or tubarão-da-galha-preta. carcharhinus longimanus (poey, 1861) tubarão-galha-branca. carcharhinus obscurus (lesueur, 1818) cação-fidalgo, fidalgo or tubarão-fidalgo. carcharhinus perezi (poey, 1876) cabeça-de-cesto or cação-azul. carcharhinus plumbeus (nardo, 1827) cação-abudo, barrigad’água, cação-baía, cação-galhudo or cação -baiacu. carcharhinus porosus (ranzani, 1839) cação-junteiro, juntão, junteiro or tubarãojunteiro. galeocerdo cuvier (péron & lesueur, 1822) cação-tigre, tintureira or tubarão-tigre. “this shark is easy to identify because it has spots on its body” (morphological ethnotaxonomy – body color). isogomphodon oxyrhynchus (müller & henle, 1839) cara-de-pato, caçãobicudo, cação-quati or cação-tapogi. “this shark has a head that thins and flattens up to the nose” (morphological ethnotaxonomy – head shape). rhizoprionodon lalandii (müller & henle, 1839) cação-frango or figuinho. table 1 families, species and common names in portuguese of the ethnospecies cited by artisanal fishers from the brazilian amazon coast associated with ethnotaxonomic characteristics. continued on next page coelho et al. 2022. ethnobiology letters 13(1):79–99 86 research communications family species common names ethnotaxonomic features carcharhinidae rhizoprionodon porosus (poey, 1861) cação-figuinho, figuinho or rabo-seco. ginglymostomatidae ginglymostoma cirratum (bonnaterre, 1788) barroso, cação-lixa or tubarão-lixa. “where there is mud, you can throw a net, because this shark likes muddy environments” (ecological ethnotaxonomy – habitat). “the skin of this shark is like sandpaper” (morphological ethnotaxonomy – body texture). lamnidae isurus oxyrinchus rafinesque, 1810 mako sphyrnidae sphyrna lewini (griffith & smith, 1834) cação-rudela or panãbranco. “this panã (shark) is easy to find when we are out there, it lives in the high seas” (ethnotaxonomy ecological – habitat). sphyrna media springer, 1940 boneta. sphyrna mokarran (rüppell, 1837) panã-preto or rudela. sphyrna tiburo (linnaeus, 1758) cação-martelo, caçãorudela, cornudo, rodela, sirizeira or tubarãomartelo. sphyrna tudes (valenciennes, 1822) cação-rudela or panãamarela. “this shark has a hammer-shaped head and is yellow on the underside of its head” (morphological ethnotaxonomy – head shape and color). triakidae mustelus canis (mitchill, 1815) cação-canejo, sebastião, tubarãocanejo or tubarãosebastião. mustelus higmani springer & lowe, 1963 cação-canejo, caçãodiabo, sebastião, tubarão-canejo or tubarão-sebastião. aetobatidae aetobatus narinari (euphrasen, 1790) arraia-pintada, raiapintada or raia-chita. “this stingray is called a spotted stingray because its entire top body has white spots and it is easy to know when it is this species” (morphological ethnotaxonomy – body color). “when it's sururu time, this ray shoals into the mouth of the river to eat this shellfish” (behavioral and ecological ethnotaxonomy). continued from previous page continued on next page coelho et al. 2022. ethnobiology letters 13(1):79–99 87 research communications family species common names ethnotaxonomic features dasyatidae fontitrygon geijskesi (boeseman, 1948) arraia-morcego, raiamorcego or carapirá. “this ray has very large fins, even more so when you consider the big ones” (morphological ethnotaxonomy – body size and shape). hypanus berthalutzae petean, naylor & lima 2020 raia-prego. hypanus guttatus (bloch & schneider, 1801) arraia-bicuda, arraiaprego, arraia-lixa, raialixa or raia-bicuda. “the sea of maranhão was made for this ray, just cast a net from end to end of this coast and you catch this fish, there are too many” (ecological ethnotaxonomy habitat). “its skin is like sandpaper, even more so when you consider the big ones... you can even scrape the hull of the boat” (morphological ethnotaxonomy – body texture). hypanus marianae (gomes, rosa & gadig, 2000) raia-amarela or raiaolhuda “this ray is called this because it has very large eyes that sticks out of its head” (morphological ethnotaxonomy – shape of the eyes on the head). hypanus say (lesueur, 1817) arraia-amarela, raia-dapedra or raia-pedra. “this stingray likes stony bottoms, that's why it’s called the stone ray” (ecological ethnotaxonomy – habitat). pteroplatytrygon violacea (bonaparte, 1832) raia-prego gymnuridae gymnura micrura (bloch & schneider, arraia-baté, raia-baté or raia-manteiga. “this stingray is yellow on the underside of its body; it really looks like butter” (morphological mobulidae mobula birostris (walbaum, 1792) arraia-gaveta, raiagaveta, raia-jamanta or jamanta. “this ray has some white spots near the head, the other manta rays don’t” (morphological ethnotaxonomy – body color). “we know that this ray is in the water when it is above the water hitting its big fins or when it gets caught in the net; in that case, it drags the boat for many meters; it's a loss, we have to cut the nets and lose everything” (morphological ethnotaxonomy – body size and shape). mobula hypostoma (bancroft, 1831) arraia-gaveta, raiagaveta, raia-jamanta or jamanta. myliobatidae rhinoptera bonasus (mitchill, 1815) arraia-jamburana, arraia-jamborana, jaburana or raia-boi. “this ray has a head similar to that of an ox, even the eyes look very much like an ox’s” (morphological ethnotaxonomy – head shape). narcinidae narcine brasiliensis (olfers, 1831) raia-elétrica or raiatreme-treme. “i want to get away from this animal, fish from hell, it gives a huge shock, and it hurts” (physiological ethnotaxonomy – act of shocking). continued from previous page continued on next page coelho et al. 2022. ethnobiology letters 13(1):79–99 88 research communications (table 1, table 2 and table 5). interestingly, p. violacea and h. berthalutzae were both recognized by the same common name (“raia-prego”) (table 1 and table 5). discussion the richness of common names (n = 130) in portuguese or in tupi-guarani used by artisanal fishers does not necessarily correspond to the number of biological shark or ray species, since these common names are usually associated with polysemy, homonyms, or synonyms cases when naming ethnospecies. the polysemy observed in the studied area is high and is generally applied when fishers generically identify fish as “cação”, “panã”, “raia” or “arraia” or classify them in the “shark” or “ray” family. these denominations do not correctly define biological species but may reveal the biological diversity that exists in the region. in the northeastern coast of brazil, generic or polytypic taxa are usually associated with the high species richness observed in some localities (barbosa-filho et al. 2021; previero et al. 2013) or categories of greater economic or sociocultural importance in local fishing communities (mourão and montenegro 2006; pinto et al. 2015; silvano and begossi 2012). this was verified in the present study, given the high richness of elasmobranch species in the study area and the relevance of family species common names ethnotaxonomic features pristis pristis (linnaeus, 1758) cação-espadarte, raiaserra or peixe-serra. “this fish is easy to identify because of the katana sword, but they have not appeared in these waters for a long time” (morphological ethnotaxonomy – body shape). “i only hear about this animal, but i've never seen it, i want to see it... my father caught a lot in the past” (common citation). “about three years ago, one appeared here at half a meter in size, which caused a lot of confusion because many people did not know this animal, including an old fisher who had never seen it” (report of a fisher in the municipality of cedral-ma). pristidae pristis pectinata (latham, 1794) cação-espadarte, raiaserra or peixe-serra. “there is a beach called espadarte beach, because we used to go there just to kill these animals years ago, often just to get the katana to sell” (report of a fisherman over 80 years old from the municipality of barreirinhasbad). potamotrygonidae styracura schmardae (werner 1904) arraia-de-fogo, foguinho or raia-defogo. “another animal that i want to stay away from, it even walks in the mud and runs after us to hurt you with its sting” (behavioral ethnotaxonomy). rhinobatidae pseudobatos percellens (walbaum, 1792) cação-viola or raiaviola. “this ray has a body like a guitar” (morphological ethnotaxonomy – body shape). urotrygonidae urotrygon microphthalmum delsman, 1941 arraia-de-fogo, foguinho or raia-defogo. “the sting of this stingray hurts so much, even more when we are removing the nets, then it takes advantage of it” (physiological ethnotaxonomy). urotrygon venezuelae schultz, 1949 arraia-de-fogo, foguinho or raia-defogo. continued from previous page coelho et al. 2022. ethnobiology letters 13(1):79–99 89 research communications marine fish as a source of subsistence and income on the coast of maranhão. homonyms are more frequent in rays (62%), mainly due to the phenotypic similarity usually observed between different species belonging to the same family. an example of this are the manta rays m. birostris and m. hypostoma, which are locally identified as “arraia-gaveta”, “raia-gaveta”, “raia-jamanta” or simply “jamanta”. concerning sharks, although a lower homonym frequency is observed (38%), a high morphological similarity between different species is also noted, such as between m. canis and m. higmani known as “cação-canejo”, “sebastião”, “tubarãocanejo” or “tubarão-sebastião”, as well as between r. lalandii and r. porosus identified by “figuinho,” in addition to “cação-frango” and “cação rabo-seco,” respectively. this same morphological similarity pattern was observed by carvalho et al. (2018) when studying the ethnotaxonomy of sharks in the state of rio grande do norte, brazil, where r. lalandii and r. porosus have also been recognized as “cação-frango” and “cação rabo-seco”. this perception and recognition of biological groupings by humans is based on similarities and differences shared between organisms, but the skills required to recognize this variability must be developed (barbosa-filho et al. 2021). the synonymy observed in sharks, with an average of 3.18 common names per species, was lower than that observed by barbosa-filho et al. (2021) regarding the ethnotaxonomy of sharks by fishers in the municipalities of ilhéus, una and canavieiras, in the state of bahia, brazil, which averaged 4.8 common names per species. these authors indicated 13 common names for s. tiburo, higher than for the same species in our study (n = 8). these differences in common names are often justified by geographic variations, linguistic differences, or person to person changes (carvalho et al. 2018; freire and carvalho-filho 2009; freire and pauly 2005; last et al. 2016). however, when analyzing the popular knowledge of artisanal fishers concerning 22 shark species, carvalho et al. (2018) also identified an average of 3.17 common names per species. for stingrays, the highest number of common names for h. guttatus (n = 9; five in portuguese and four in tupi-guarani) may be associated with the use of ethnotaxonomic characteristics in their identification (e.g., stingray) and their high occurrence along the study area (as reported by some fishers: “... just cast the net from one end of the coast to the other and you catch this fish”), favoring its availability and commercial value accessible to local consumers. the national average for brazil is of six common names for each biological species, but some fish species are known by more than 30 common names, in addition to higher-level taxonomic groups that include different families, genera, and species that are referred to by a single common name (freire and pauly 2005), as in the case of rays (“raia” or “arraia” in brazilian portuguese). for taxa displaying high synonymy, the insertion of “notes” is recommended for reviews, catalogs, and other publications, to avoid naming errors (papavero 1994). family species common names meaning carcharhinidae galeocerdo cuvier (péron & lesueur, 1822) cacam, jaguara or guajará. big fish, huge size. ginglymostomatidae ginglymostoma cirratum (bonnaterre, 1788) arumaru, guaromaru, lambaru or urumaru. sphyrnidae sphyrna tiburo (linnaeus, 1758) panãpanã or panã. dasyatidae hypanus guttatus (bloch & schneider, 1801) jabubira, jabebyretê, jabybúra or raiajarabuibura. swollen, lumpy or blistered skin. pristidae pristis pristis (linnaeus, 1758) araguaguá or araoába. pristis pectinata (latham, 1794) araguaguá or araoába. table 2 families, species and common names in tupi-guarani of the ethnospecies cited by artisanal fishers from the brazilian amazon coast associated and their respective meanings. coelho et al. 2022. ethnobiology letters 13(1):79–99 90 research communications many common fish names reflect fisher local ecological knowledge (mourão and barbosa-filho 2018). all artisanal fishers who participated in this study have fishing as their main activity and demonstrate knowledge concerning the biology of the fish they often catch. this is reflected in the length of experience in the fishing profession ( 30 years), where the use of natural aquatic resources is the result of life experience and knowledge. these social actors have empirical knowledge that must be respected regarding their behavior in relation to the environment when obtaining resources (mourão and nordi 2002) with a wealth of information on the biology, ecology and etymology of different groups of animals (mourão and barbosa-filho 2018; silvano and begossi 2012). this knowledge is paramount regarding the relational composition of social existence, being transmitted orally and through experience to descendants over time in the construction of identity bonds across generations (aragão 2021; aragão et al. 2019). the association of ethnotaxonomic characteristics favors the existence of many common names in portuguese (87%) for shark and ray identification. morphological aspects are the most considered for naming species, highlighting the size or shape of the body, or the texture and colors of body parts, which are usually associated with a word (noun or adjective) to designate the species. an apt example is the “cação -bicudo” or “cara-de-pato” (transliteration portuguese to english = “beaked shark” or “duckface shark”, respectively). daggernose shark i. oxyrhynchus, which, according to fishers, is named after the shape of its head: “this shark has a head that thins and flattens up to the beak”. the sharpsnout stingray f. geijskesi receives the composite name of “raia-morcego” (“bat stingray”) due to the presence and span of its large fins. barbosa and nascimento (2008) suggest that the use of common names related to other animals, objects or actions should be composed to avoid confusion and thus, aid in informal species identification. thus, the use of nouns and adjectives when establishing compound or derivative names is extremely important for the determination of a specific taxon (papavero 1994). in some cases, different morphological characteristics are considered in the complete naming of the species, as in the case of the “panã-amarelo”/ smalleyer hammerhead (“yellow panã”) s. tudes, in which fishers relate the shape of the head with the characteristic color of the animal: “this cação has a hammer-shaped head and is yellow on the underside figure 4 percentage of common names with portuguese and tupi-guarani origin applied to the identification of ethnospecies by artisanal fishers on the coast of the state of maranhão, located on the brazilian amazon coast. credit: keyton k. f. coelho, 2021. coelho et al. 2022. ethnobiology letters 13(1):79–99 91 research communications of the head and the rest of the body”. in other situations, body shape can confuse fishers as to the difference between some species of rays and sharks, as verified in the statement that the “raia-viola”/ chola guitarfish p. percellens and the “raias-serras”/ sawfishes p. pristis or p. pectinata are usually identified as “cação-viola” and “cações-espadartes”, respectively, attributing these names due to their similarity with cações (sharks). the color pattern is the second most applied morphological aspect in species identification, such as in the “sacuri-branco”/blacknose shark c. acronotus (“with a black marking on the tip of the nose”) and the tiger shark g. cuvier (“with markings along the body”), or the “raia-manteiga”/smooth butterfly ray g. micrura (“yellowish color on the underside of the body”), the “raia-pintada”/whitespotted eagle ray a. narinari (“all the upper part of this species has white spots”), and the “manta ray”/giant ray m. birostris (“with some white spots near the head”). colors play a major role in descriptions and are important for the identification of the vast majority of plant or animal organisms (papavero 1994). in fact, this physical feature stands out to the eye, being frequently used in the construction of popular and vernacular denominations (martins 2015; mourão and barbosafilho 2018). the size and texture of the body are morphological aspects evidenced in species such as the “sacuribranco”/blacknose shark c. acronotus (“...it is small, when large it reaches one meter...”) and in the longnose stingray h. guttatus (“its leather is sandpaper..., you can even scrape the hull of the boat”). names in tupi-guarani also reveal the same family species morphological description carcharhinidae galeocerdo cuvier (péron & lesueur, 1822) “a dangerous fish of the sea”, it only serves to do harm, especially to shipwrecked people and bathers, comparable to the jaguar, and can reach six meters or more in length; we only use the liver for the oil... (carvalho 1964). ginglymostomatidae ginglymostoma cirratum (bonnaterre, 1788) body short, subcylindrical, somewhat tapered and long in the posterior region. an obtuse, rather small muzzle is noted, as well as the eyes, which are located in the upper third of the head. size ranging between 1 and 4 meters weighing over 150 kilos... (carvalho 1964). sphyrnidae sphyrna tiburo (linnaeus, 1758) this fish has a semicircular cephalic contour and the nostrils are close to the eyes, very characteristic for having a small, flattened and spatulate head (carvalho 1964). aetobatidae aetobatus narinari (euphrasen, 1790) flatfish similar to stingrays. it is six feet long by six feet wide. the tail is a fathom long, and in the center, as in the previous one, a tip, but longer, about a foot long, and equally dangerous. this fish is all spotted white and black (d’abbeville 2008). dasyatidae hypanus guttatus (bloch & schneider, 1801) the young are entirely smooth; adults have a series of spines along the midline of the body, up to the caudal dart; some over the shoulder, with a rough upper body (carvalho 1964). another flatfish, similar to the stingray, but much larger. it is two fathoms long by two fathoms wide and a foot thick. it has a tail an arm and a half long, in the center of which there is a point, in the shape of a dart, much larger than a finger, and whose wound is very dangerous, to the point that it is often necessary to cut off the offended part (d. 'abbeville 2008). table 3 families and species identified in maranhão waters in the 17th century (historical documents). coelho et al. 2022. ethnobiology letters 13(1):79–99 92 research communications aspects, such as “jaguara,” “cacam” or “guajará” (“large fish, of enormous size,” referring to the tiger shark g. cuvier) or “jabubira,” “jabebyretê,” “jabybúra” or “ray-jarabuibura” (“swelled, lumpy or blistered skin,” referring to the stingray h. guttatus). however, these and other names in the tupi-guarani language used to identify sharks and rays, such as “arumaru,” “guaromaru,” “lambaru” or “urumaru” (g. cirratum), “panãpanã” or “panã” (s. tiburo) and “araguaguá” or “araoába” (p. pristis and p. pectinata) are no longer used by fishers in the region. these names are generally used by fishers aged between 50 and 80 years due to contact with older fisher generations (e.g., parents and grandparents). a loss of cultural values through applied names is verified, due to the lack of interest of young people in fishing. for pinto et al. (2015), this lack of interest occurs due to the lack of investment in storing, processing, and marketing fish, in addition to low values and the search for new employment opportunities. morphological characteristics were also widely applied in early descriptions of the local aquatic fauna in colonial periods, as observed for the “tubarãolixa”/nurse shark g. cirratum ("...the hide of this dogfish is like sandpaper" or "...obtuse snout, somewhat small, the same is noted for the eyes, located in the upper third of the head...”), the hammerhead shark/bonnethead s. tiburo (“... semicircular cephalic contour and the nostrils are close to the eyes...”), the spotted ray/whitespotted eagle ray a. narinari (“...this fish is all spotted white and black”) and the “raia-bicuda”/longnose stingray (beaked ray) h. guttatus (“...the adults have a series of spines on the midline of the body, to the tail dart..."). the ecological criteria used by fishers reveal much of the habitat of some species, such as nurse shark g. cirratum (“it likes muddy environments”), the “panã-branco”/scalloped hammerhead s. lewini (“it is found out there, in high seas”) and the “raia-pedra”/ bluntnose stingray (“rock ray”) h. say (“its likes stony table 4 list of shark species with the number of synonyms, relative frequency (fr%) and percentage of citations by artisanal fishers from the brazilian amazon coast. nº shark common names fr% % citations 1 sphyrna tiburo (linnaeus, 1758) 8 11.43 6.15 2 ginglymostoma cirratum (bonnaterre, 1788) 7 10.00 5.38 3 galeocerdo cuvier (péron & lesueur, 1822) 6 8.57 4.62 4 carcharhinus plumbeus (nardo, 1827) 5 7.14 3.85 5 mustelus higmani springer & lowe, 1963 5 7.14 3.85 6 isogomphodon oxyrhynchus (müller & henle, 1839) 4 5.71 3.08 7 mustelus canis (mitchill, 1815) 4 5.71 3.08 8 carcharhinus porosus (ranzani, 1839) 4 5.71 3.08 9 carcharhinus acronotus (poey, 1860) 3 4.29 2.31 10 carcharhinus obscurus (lesueur, 1818) 3 4.29 2.31 11 rhizoprionodon porosus (poey, 1861) 3 4.29 2.31 12 carcharhinus leucas (müller & henle, 1839) 2 2.86 1.54 13 carcharhinus perezi (poey, 1876) 2 2.86 1.54 14 rhizoprionodon lalandii (müller & henle, 1839) 2 2.86 1.54 15 sphyrna lewini (griffith & smith, 1834) 2 2.86 1.54 16 sphyrna mokarran (rüppell, 1837) 2 2.86 1.54 17 sphyrna tudes (valenciennes, 1822) 2 2.86 1.54 18 carcharhinus limbatus (müller & henle, 1839) 2 2.86 1.54 19 carcharhinus falciformis (müller & henle, 1839) 1 1.43 0.77 20 carcharhinus longimanus (poey, 1861) 1 1.43 0.77 21 isurus oxyrinchus rafinesque, 1810 1 1.43 0.77 22 sphyrna media springer, 1940 1 1.43 0.77 total 70 100.00 coelho et al. 2022. ethnobiology letters 13(1):79–99 93 research communications bottoms”). the behavioral and physiological criteria reported by fishers indicate certain peculiar characteristics of some species, as observed for the “tubarão-boca-redonda”/bull shark (“roundmouth shark”) c. leucas, which emits sounds, making a lot of noise under the boat and is highly resistant when caught, even tearing nets or breaking longlines, the “electric ray”/brazilian electric ray n. brasiliensis, capable of producing painful electrical discharges that leave fisher body parts numb for long periods of time, and the “raias-de-fogo” (“fire rays”) chupare stingray s. schmardae and smalleyed round stingray u. microphthalmum that can leave irreparable injuries when piercing the human legs, arms or hands with their stingers (see carvalho et al. 2019; dias et al. 2016 and junior et al. 2013). these ethnotaxonomic fish identification patterns are also reported in other ethnobiological studies (mourão and barbosa-filho 2018; mourão and nordi 2002, 2003; pinto et al. 2016), but morphological criteria are generally the most employed in elasmobranch identification and naming (barbosafilho et al. 2021; carvalho et al. 2018; pinto et al. 2016). all the ethnospecies mentioned by the interviewed fishers match those mentioned in the preexisting literature (almeida 2006; almeida 2008; araujo and gonçalves 2006; almeida et al. 2011; barbosa 1951; carvalho 1964; d’abbeville 2008; fortes and galvão 2006; icmbio 2018; marceniuk et al. 2020; martins-jura et al. 1987; nunes and santos 2006; nunes et al. 2005; nunes et al. 2011; papavero et al. 2000; silva and paz 2006; spix and martius 1829; stride et al. 1992), with the exception of the “raiamorcego”/sharpsnout stingray f. geijskesi, which was also identified by the name “carapirá” in the municipality of carutapera. however, some fisher reports (65%; n = 205) indicate that they had never caught or seen a p. pristis or p. pectinata specimen throughout their years of fishing experience (e.g., “i only hear about this animal, but i've never seen it, i’d like to see it...”). the few reports (34.72%) concerning species of pristidae function as historical records of the distribution of their populations, indicating occurrence and capture sites of these animals, since the information is brought by the oldest fishers in the region and indicate a long time since the last time these animals were seen (“...but it has been a long nº ray common names fr% % citations 1 hypanus guttatus (bloch & schneider, 1801) 9 15.00 6.92 2 pristis pristis (linnaeus, 1758) 5 8.33 3.85 3 pristis pectinata (latham, 1794) 5 8.33 3.85 4 mobula birostris (walbaum, 1792) 4 6.67 3.08 5 mobula hypostoma (bancroft, 1831) 4 6.67 3.08 6 rhinoptera bonasus (mitchill, 1815) 4 6.67 3.08 7 fontitrygon geijskesi (boeseman, 1948) 3 5.00 2.31 8 hypanus say (lesueur, 1817) 3 5.00 2.31 9 gymnura micrura (bloch & schneider, 1801) 3 5.00 2.31 10 urotrygon microphthalmum delsman, 1941 3 5.00 2.31 11 urotrygon venezuelae schultz, 1949 3 5.00 2.31 12 aetobatus narinari (euphrasen, 1790) 3 5.00 2.31 13 styracura schmardae (werner 1904) 3 5.00 2.31 14 hypanus marianae (gomes, rosa & gadig, 2000) 2 3.33 1.54 15 narcine brasiliensis (olfers, 1831) 2 3.33 1.54 16 pseudobatos percellens (walbaum, 1792) 2 3.33 1.54 17 pteroplatytrygon violacea (bonaparte, 1832) 1 1.67 0.77 18 hypanus berthalutzae petean, naylor & lima 2020 1 1.67 0.77 total 60 100.00 table 5 list of ray species with the number of synonyms, relative frequency (fr%) and percentage of citations by artisanal fishers from the brazilian amazon coast. coelho et al. 2022. ethnobiology letters 13(1):79–99 94 research communications time since they appears in these waters”; “about three years ago one appeared here, half a meter in size...”). fishers from batoque beach in the state of ceará, northeastern brazil, reported that the sawfish p. pristis has not been observed in the region for over 40 years (pinto et al. 2015). in general, fisher reports indicate how much these species have been suffering population declines over the years. feitosa et al. (2017) recorded 23 sawfish catches in the region maranhão amazon coast between 1984 and 2016 and demonstrated that the degradation of these species’ habitat through mangrove deforestation, pollution and strong artisanal fishing pressures are the main factors responsible for the observed declines. the high diversity of common names used in brazil to designate fish species is a challenge for adequate collection of fish landing data (freire and pauly 2003). in this sense, the designation of a certain species by several popular names, as well as the use of the same epithet to refer to different species, makes it difficult to record species-specific fish in existing landing monitoring systems, a fact that limits the possibilities for assessing the impact of fisheries on fishery resource populations (freire and pauly 2005). for example, the ethnocategory “cação” is used to designate a multitude of scientific species from different shark families, and this category is usually used in regional fisheries monitoring systems in brazil to group all locally caught shark species (freire and pauly 2005; barbosa-filho et al. 2021). such a procedure is not very useful in terms of fisheries management, as it makes a basic assessment of the population dynamics of the different fishing resources exploited over time unfeasible (freire and pauly, 2003), a fact that strongly restricts the possibilities of the brazilian state to adequately manage the fishing for elasmobranchs. it is verified that, in brazil, it is usual to group the fishing landings of elasmobranchs under the generic categories “cações” and “arraias” in several official documents such as evaluations of landings carried out by the public authorities, as well as in research reports and scientific articles (barbosa-filho et al. 2021; medeiros et al. 2022). it is possible that the challenges inherent in the taxonomic identification of elasmobranch species, the fact that sharks are normally landed eviscerated and headless, and the possible negligence of researchers and fisheries managers in carrying out a thorough job of identifying the landed elasmobranch species, culminate for this scenario. given this context, for a more adequate management of the elasmobranch fishery in the country, it is essential to link academic knowledge from scientists and fisheries managers with those related to the ethnotaxonomy developed by fishermen for the construction of a landing data collection system more judicious and fruitful, that is, that seek to carry out the species-specific identification of the captured animals. conclusion the diversity of common names used to identify different shark and ray species from the brazilian amazon coast is a consequence of the high miscegenation rates that took place between indigenous and settler populations during the colonization process. this linguistic richness is easily observed by homonyms and synonyms that reflect a series of ethnotaxonomic characteristics employed for species identification. the use of these common names facilitates traditional fishing community communication with consumers and civil society. on the other hand, this is one of the main difficulties regarding correct species identification. thus, constant updates concerning common names should take place, in order to standardize species nomenclature in the region. finally, fisher knowledge regarding shark and ray names can contribute to basic information on elasmobranchs captured throughout the coast of maranhão and species-specific recognition in fishing landing monitoring systems, generating subsidies for the development of conservation and management plans for these fishery resources. author contributions section kkfc and jlsn, conceived and planned the study; kkfc, gr, mlvbf, nw, aropn and jlsn reviewed and analyzed the data; kkfc, gr, amb, mlvbf, nw, rmsb, aropn and jlsn wrote the paper. acknowledgments to the artisanal fishermen for their willingness to participate in this study, to marcelo neves diniz for the search for historical documents, to brenda soares da silva nunes for making the map, for the financial support to jlsn through the fundação de amparo à pesquisa do maranhão (fapema bepp02106/18; bpd-04215/17; aquipesca-06605/16) , biodiversity conservation: interface between the coelho et al. 2022. ethnobiology letters 13(1):79–99 95 research communications creative economy and environmental quality (capes aid nº 0762/2020, process nº 88881.510069/202001), and the coordination for the improvement of higher education personnel (capes) and the graduate program in biodiversity and biotechnology in the legal amazon bionorte network. declarations permissions: this research followed the guidelines set by the declaration of helsinki and tokyo for humans and was approved by the human ethics committee of the federal university of maranhão (ufma nº 3717163 caae 25628919.9.0000.5087), brazilian institute for the environment and renewable natural resources (ibama; sisbio nº 60306-1) and the state secretariat for the environment and natural resources (superintendence of biodiversity and protected areas; sema-ma nº 00397/2019). all interviewees signed a free and informed consent term (fict). sources of funding: none declared. conflicts of interest: none declared. references cited almeida, z. s. 2008. os recursos pesqueiros marinhos e estuarinos do maranhão: biologia, tecnologia, socioeconomia, estado da arte e manejo. tese (doutorado), curso em zoologia, universidade federal do pará/ museo paraense emílio goeldi. almeida, z. s. 2006. um dia do peixe, outro do pescador. in elasmobrânquios da costa maranhense: história evolutiva, biologia e pesca, edited by z. s. almeida and r. fortes, pp. 60–69. são luís, uema. almeida, z. s., frédou, f. l., nunes, j. l. s., lessa, r. p., and pinheiro, a. l. r. 2011. biodiversidade de elasmobrânquios. in peixes marinhos e estuarinos do maranhão, edited by nunes, j. l. s. and piorski, n. m. pp. 37–94. editora café & 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conflicts with other communities and political organizations; and most of all, a history of oppression (castilho 2011). when enslaved africans fled, they searched for freedom and dignity, maintaining the culture and lifestyle they were torn away from when they were enslaved. the exploitation of enslaved africans and erasure of their cultures were typical of the racist european practice at that time. these practices denied enslaved peoples' rights that were guaranteed to people of european descent. the lack of those rights, especially of land ownership, even today results in conflicts when lands occupied by the quilombos are designated for protection. this is ethnoornithology and bird conservation in afro-descendant communities in the brazilian caatinga aurea palloma bezerra barbosa veras1, cauê guion de almeida1, lorena lima de moraes1, and alexandre m. fernandes1* 1federal rural university of pernambuco, serra talhada campus, pernambuco, brazil. *alexandre.mendesfernandes@ufrpe.br abstract this paper investigates relationships between birds and the inhabitants of afro-descendant communities in the caatinga of northeastern brazil, paying particular attention to conservation. near the refúgio de vida silvestre da serra do giz wildlife reserve, we interviewed 55 residents using semi-structured forms combined with free interviews and informal conversations. residents reported 121 species in 43 families and 21 orders. they recounted what they knew about nesting, reproductive and social behaviors, diet, and bird conservation. the lack of reporting on several species of birds known from the serra do giz was probably because those birds are absent due to hunting and habitat destruction. this study demonstrates the importance of conducting ethnobiological studies for bird conservation and to record local traditional knowledge. received february 27, 2021 open access accepted november 18, 2021 doi 10.14237/ebl.13.1.2022.1753 published january 29, 2022 keywords birds, ethnobiology, quilombolas, semiarid copyright © 2022 by the author(s); licensee society of ethnobiology. this is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution-noncommercial 4.0 international public license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0), which permits non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. veras et al. 2022. ethnobiology letters 13(1):1-15 2 research communications conservation biology tends to not address communities that live in conservation areas, often viewing them as potential sources of conflict with conservation, especially under the assumption that local communities are incapable of developing rational use of their natural resources (diegues 2000). however, local communities are often the repository of considerable knowledge pertaining to the local ecosystem that can strengthen and inform conservation sciences (sayago and bursztyn 2006). traditional communities often have strong ties to their natural resources because they depend on them, and their relationship often figures largely in the symbolism they use when describing their community, jobs, resources, and resource management and even influences how their knowledge is taught to subsequent generations (colchester 2000). ethnoornithological studies are being carried out around the world in recognition of contributions of traditional knowledge as tools for conservation (alves et al. 2013; barman et al. 2020; lima et al. 2014). in brazil, the first studies including ethnoornithological information were carried out when early colonizers began noting bird names and stories told to them by indigenous peoples (farias and alves 2007). around 1985, jensen was the first to apply scientific methods to ethnoornithology in brazil. jensen (1985) found similarities between the bird classification systems of four groups of indigenous peoples of the amazon and the linnean system of classification. early ethnoornithology in northeastern brazil began with observations and collections of 52 species in pernambuco (forbes 1881). other ethnoornithological studies followed in northeastern brazil, with themes such as ethnotaxonomy, ecology, conservation, hunting, illegal trade, bird omens, zootherapy, bird use (food, religion, pets), and beliefs and perceptions about birds (alves et al. 2013; araujo et al. 2005; barbosa et al. 2010; bezerra et al. 2013; farias and alves 2007; galvagne-loss et al. 2013, 2014). in brazil, there are still few studies that examine traditional knowledge about birds of quilombo communities, of which a few focused on northeastern brazil. diniz et al. (2012) examined local ecological and taxonomical knowledge, habits, and customs of a quilombo community in pernambuco focusing on local bird community structure. others examined ethnozoological knowledge overall, including the avifauna. costa-neto (2000) examined reproduction, social interactions, ecology, medicinal use, and hunting activities of a quilombo community in bahia. in that same community, moura and marques (2008) studied zootherapy based on local fauna and identified therapeutics prepared using local birds. this study aims to build on this scholarship by further documenting quilombola bird knowledge. to better understand how people of the quilombos interacted with their local bird species, we asked participants about bird biology, conservation, and sociocultural importance of birds in northeastern brazil. additionally, we asked: 1) to what do the quilombolas attribute the loss of bird species? 2) is knowledge of the quilombolas useful for developing effective conservation strategies? methods quilombola communities from the state of pernambuco included in this study are leitão da carapuça in the municipality of afogados da ingazeira and brejo de dentro in the municipality of carnaíba. both are near the refúgio de vida silvestre da serra do giz state conservation unit (310 ha, hereafter “reserve”) the region is predominantly semiarid savanna (santos et al. 2006; veloso et al. 1991; figure 1). we collected information using semi-structured questionnaires, free-form interviews, and conversations (huntington 2000). one member of each participating household was questioned, who selfidentified as the most knowledgeable about the local fauna. questionnaires included the socio-demographic profile of the participant and information about birds including their natural history (reproduction, diet, migratory, sociality), aesthetics, cultural significance, uses, species that remain and those that have been lost, and their conservation. participants freely consented to the interviews. bird species were identified during the interview by comparisons with animals and samples, photographs taken during the study, a photographic guide that was prepared for this study, and with help from specialists familiar with the local avifauna and their vernacular names (alves and rosa 2006). qualitative information was analyzed by the individual-based unity model, and included all information provided by the participant (marques 1991). information provided by the participants was compared with information available in the scientific literature of the region (silvano and jørgensen 2008). twenty-five men and 30 women were interviewed, veras et al. 2022. ethnobiology letters 13(1):1-15 3 research communications with 32 in leitão da carapuça, and 23 in brejo de dentro. all participants, except one, were farmers. socio-demographic profiles of the participants are provided in table 1. ethnoornithological information as reported by the quilombolas participants identified 120 species (43 families, 21 orders). families most often cited were tanagers (thraupidae), doves and pigeons (columbidae), tyrant flycatchers (tyrannidae), typical antbirds (thamnophilidae), tinamous (tinamidae), and blackbirds (icteridae) (table 2). most participants (82%) knew a bird was nesting by its behavior, which may include having observed them carrying nesting material and duet singing. participants (78%) said birds tended to not re-use a nest, but rather build each nest in a new location. some stated that the pileated finch (lanio pileatus) and southern rough-winged swallow (stelgidopteryx ruficollis) defend their nests when a person approached. participants indicated two unidentifiable species: a hummingbird that nests on spiny branches for protection, and another, probably a flycatcher, that nests close to bee or wasp nests. several (73%) stated that breeding occurred during the rainy season (january to june), when resources were abundant (poulin et al. 1992), as is typical in the caatinga (hau et al. 2004). most participants (91%) said 14 species migrate (seasonal movement to and away from an area) (rappole 1995; stotz et al. 1996; table 2). when resources become scarce as summer begins, the birds leave. participants (45%) said that during the rainy season, the eared dove (zenaida auriculata) travels in search of water and food, returning when beans (phaseolus vulgaris) and croton (croton blanchetianus) (euphorbiaceae) ripen. euphorbiaceae (common in northeastern brazil) are among the most important food plants for the dove (antas 1987). the lined seedeater (sporophila lineola) migrates during the dry season and may go as far as the llanos of venezuela figure 1 location of the refúgio da vida silvestre serra do giz, where we conducted the study. veras et al. 2022. ethnobiology letters 13(1):1-15 4 research communications (silva 1995). only one person said that the plainbreasted ground dove (columbina minuta) is apparently nomadic. nomadic species simply move around and stay where they find food (winkler et al. 2016). most participants recognized territoriality in the great kiskadee (pitangus sulphuratus) and the southern lapwing (vanellus chilensis). they consider the great kiskadee to be aggressive because it attacks other birds when defending its nest and will even chase much larger birds (marchini and ferraz 2014). the southern lapwing was said to often attack animals, including people, if they get too close to a nest (costa 2002). most participants (73%) said birds sing more in the early morning (after 05:00 h), and they suggested that they do so when the day is still cool (andrade 1997; nishida et al. 2012). a quarter of participants said mornings and afternoons provided the same opportunity for hearing birds, and 2% said the afternoon was best. all said that early mornings and late afternoons were the best time to observe birds. the most difficult birds to see were the smallbilled tinamou (crypturellus parvirostris) and the whitetipped dove (leptotila verreauxi). tinamous are always hard to see because they are well camouflaged and only their songs are heard. the dove is seldom observed, but when startled it flies away, making considerable noise while flapping its wings (lima 2004). many participants remarked about birds imitating others, including the turquoise-fronted parrot (amazona aestiva), the blue-winged macaw (primolius maracana), the white-naped jay (cyanocorax cyanopogon), the variable oriole (icterus pyrrhopterus), the ultramarine grosbeak (cyanoloxia brissonii), the whitecharacteristics category age group participants (%) age men 20-30 2 (3.6) 31-40 7 (12.8) 41-50 5 (9.1) 51-60 6 (10.9) 61-70 1 (1.8) 71-80 2 (3.6) 81-92 2 (3.6) women 20-30 4 (7.3) 31-40 7 (12.8) 41-50 6 (10.9) 51-60 6 (10.9) 61-70 1 (1.8) 71-80 4 (7.3) 81-86 2 (3.6) marital status married 35 (63.7) single 12 (21.8) widow(er)s 8 (14.5) schooling never studied 3 (5.4) functionally illiterate 9 (16.4) incomplete elementary and middle school 27 (49.1) complete elementary and middle school 2 (3.6) incomplete high school 9 (16.4) complete high school 4 (7.3) mobral 1 (1.8) length of residence < 05 years 5 (9.1) 05 – 10 years 5 (9.1) > 10 years 45 (81.8) monthly income < minimum salary (~us$200) 46 (83.6) > minimum salary 9 (16.4) table 1 socio-demographic parameters of residents of the community surrounding serra do giz. veras et al. 2022. ethnobiology letters 13(1):1-15 5 research communications ta b le 2 l is t o f b ir d s p e ci e s re co rd e d d u ri n g th e in te rv ie w s in t h e q u ilo m b o la c o m m u n iti e s n e ar t h e s e rr a d o g iz r e se rv e . (c o n ti n u ed o n n ex t p ag e) s c ie n ti fi c n a m e c o m m o n n a m e i n s e rr a d o g iz n e s ti n g d ie t t in a m if o rm e s t in a m id a e c ry p tu re llu s n o c ti v a g u s z a b e le 1 ,2 z a b e lê c ry p tu re llu s p a rv ir o s tr is 3 ,4 ,6 l a m b ú -d e -c a p o e ir a , la m b ú -d o -p é v e rm e lh o o n t h e g ro u n d g ra s s a n d l e g u m e s e e d s c ry p tu re llu s t a ta u p a 3 ,4 ,6 l a m b ú -d o -p é -r o x o o n t h e g ro u n d g ra s s a n d l e g u m e s e e d s r h y n c h o tu s r u fe s c e n s c a ti n g a e 1 p e rd iz n o th u ra b o ra q u ir a6 c o d o rn iz o n t h e g ro u n d e u p h o rb ia c e a e , a n a c a rd ia c e a e , b u rs e ra c e a e a n d p o a c e a e s e e d s n o th u ra m a c u lo s a 6 c o d o rn a o n t h e g ro u n d a n s e ri fo rm e s a n a ti d a e d e n d ro c y g n a v id u a ta m a rr e c o g a ll if o rm e s c ra c id a e p e n e lo p e s u p e rc ili a ri s a la g o e n s is 2 j a c u p e m b a f ru it s ( r h a m n a c e a e , b ig n o n ia c e a e , m y rta c e a e ), s e e d s ( p o a c e a e ), l ia n a f lo w e r p e n e lo p e j a c u c a c a 1 ,2 ,3 ,6 j a c u f ru it s ( r h a m n a c e a e , b ig n o n ia c e a e , m y rta c e a e ), s e e d s ( p o a c e a e ), l ia n a f lo w e r p o d ic ip e d if o rm e s p o d ic ip e d id a e t a c h y b a p tu s d o m in ic u s 7 m e rg u lh ã o in s e c ts c o lu m b if o rm e s c o lu m b id a e p a ta g io e n a s p ic a zu ro 3 ,7 a s a -b ra n c a g ra s s s e e d c o lu m b in a m in u ta 3 ,4 ,6 ,7 r o lin h a -c a fo fa s e e d s c o lu m b in a t a lp a c o ti 3 ,4 ,6 r o lin h a -r o x a , ro lin h a -c a ld o -d e -f e ijã o , ro lin h a -v e rm e lh a b ra n c h e s a n d g ra s s p o a c e a e , f a b a c e a e , e u p h o rb ia c e a e a n d c o n v o lv u la c e a e s e e d s a n d i n s e c ts c o lu m b in a s q u a m m a ta 3 ,4 ,6 r o lin h a -f o g o -p a g ô , ro lin h a -c a s c a v e l c o lu m b in a p ic u i3 ,6 r o lin h a -b ra n c a s ta lk s o f g ra s s a n d c o tt o n e u p h o rb ia c e a e a n d f a b a c e a e s e e d s c la ra v is p re ti o s a 3 ,4 ,6 ,7 r o lin h a -a z u l l e p to ti la v e rr e a u x i3 ,4 ,5 ,6 ,7 j u ri ti o n t h e g ro u n d f a b a c e a e , e u p h o rb ia c e a e , c o n v o lv u la c e a e , a n a c a rd ia c e a e , b u rs e ra c e a e a n d p o a c e a e s e e d s z e n a id a a u ri c u la ta 3 ,7 r ib a ç ã , re b a ç ã , a rr ib a ç ã o n t h e g ro u n d f a b a c e a e a n d e u p h o rb ia c e a e s e e d s a n d c a c ta c e a e f ru it s 1 en d em ic t o t h e c aa ti n ga 2 th re at en e d w it h e xti n cti o n 3 fo rm s fl o ck s 4 in p ai rs 5 so lit ar y 6 a tt ra ct a tt en ti o n f o r ap p ea ra n ce o r so n g 7 m ig ra to ry https://www.google.com.br/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0ahukewjxjod1p8vyahwrsn8khtxjc4sqfggrmaa&url=http%3a%2f%2fwww.wikiaves.com.br%2fcodorna-do-nordeste&usg=aovvaw0a3cenharxso7n9gaqsipr veras et al. 2022. ethnobiology letters 13(1):1-15 6 research communications (c o n ti n u e d f ro m p re v io u s p a g e ) (c o n ti n u ed o n n ex t p ag e) s c ie n ti fi c n a m e c o m m o n n a m e i n s e rr a d o g iz n e s ti n g d ie t c u c u li fo rm e s c u c u li d a e g u ir a g u ir a a n u m -b ra n c o t w ig s , th o rn s , p ie c e s o f fa b ri c a n d g re e n e g g s . in s e c ts , s tr a w b e rr ie s , s n a k e s , a n d t ic k s c ro to p h a g a a n i a n u m -p re to , a n u m -d e -e n x u rr a d a t w ig s in s e c ts , s tr a w b e rr ie s , s n a k e s , a n d t ic k s t a p e ra n a e v ia p e it ic a p ia ya c ay an a a lm a -d e -g a to c o cc yz u s m el ac o ry p h u s p a p a -l a g a rt a , la g a rt ã o c a te rp ill a r c a p ri m u lg if o rm e s c a p ri m u lg id a e n y c ti p o lu s h ir u n d in a c e u s 1 ,4 ,5 b a c u ra u o n t h e g ro u n d a n d u n d e r ro c k in s e c ts n y c ti d ro m u s a lb ic o lli s 4 ,5 b a c u ra u o n t h e g ro u n d a n d u n d e r ro c k s in s e c ts h y d ro p s a lis t o rq u a ta 4 ,5 b a c u ra u -r a b o -d e -t e s o u ra o n t h e g ro u n d a n d u n d e r ro c k s n y c ti b ii d a e n y c ti b iu s g ri s e u s m ã e -d a -l u a in s e c ts a p o d if o rm e s t ro c h il id a e p h a e th o rn is r u b e r b e ija -f lo r p la n t fi b e rs , a n im a l fu r/ h a ir (c a tt le , g o a ts , a n d s h e e p ) c a c ta c e a e f ru it s c h lo ro s ti lb o n l u c id u s b e ija -f lo r w o o l, g ra s s , c o tt o n , a n d a n im a l h a ir ( c a tt le , g o a ts , a n d s h e e p ) c a c ta c e a e f ru it s e u p e to m e n a m a c ro u ra b e ija -f lo rra b o -d e -t e s o u ra , te s o u rã o , b iz u n g a , b iz u n g ã o w o o l, g ra s s , c o tt o n , a n d a n im a l h a ir ( c a tt le , g o a ts , a n d s h e e p ) c a c ta c e a e f ru it s g ru if o rm e s r a ll id a e a ra m id e s c a ja n e u s 3 s a ra c u ra , s ir ic o ra , tr ê s -c o c o , p a ta n g u s e e d s g a lli n u la g a le a ta 7 g a lin h a -d ’á g u a in s e c ts , ta d p o le s , a n d f ro g s p h o rp h y ri o m a rt in ic a 7 g a lin h a -d ’á g u a in s e c ts , ta d p o le s , a n d f ro g s a ra m id a e a ra m u s g u a ra u n a c a rã o c h a ra d ri if o rm e s c h a ra d ri id a e v a n e llu s c h ile n s is t e té u , q u e ro -q u e ro o n t h e g ro u n d j a c a n id a e j a c a n a j a c a n a j a ç a n ã https://www.google.com.br/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0ahukewjokdyw68tyahulssykhz8mbn0qfggnmaa&url=http%3a%2f%2fwww.wikiaves.com.br%2falma-de-gato&usg=aovvaw2arllkcum3nxshwedjpgyhttps://www.google.com.br/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0ahukewjg2z6kxcnyahwn0vmkhznld8yqfggomaa&url=http%3a%2f%2fwww.wikiaves.com.br%2fpapa-lagarta-acanelado&usg=aovvaw3b-kvthqizgirwhq1lsof2 veras et al. 2022. ethnobiology letters 13(1):1-15 7 research communications s c ie n ti fi c n a m e c o m m o n n a m e i n s e rr a d o g iz n e s ti n g d ie t p e le c a n if o rm e s a rd e id a e a rd e a a lb a 7 g a rç a b u b u lc u s i b is 7 g a rç a c a th a rt if o rm e s c a th a rt id a e s a rc o ra m p h u s p a p a 2 u ru b u -r e i r o c k c a v it ie s c h ic k e n a n d r o o s te r c o ra g y p s a tr a tu s u ru b u -d e -c a b e ç a -p re ta r o c k c a v it ie s d e a d a n im a ls c a th a rt e s a u ra u ru b u -d e -c a b e ç a -v e rm e lh a r o c k c a v it ie s c a th a rt e s b u rr o v ia n u s u ru b u -d e -c a b e ç a -a m a re la r o c k c a v it ie s a cc ip it ri fo rm es a c c ip it ri d a e e la n u s l e u c u ru s 5 g a v iã o -p e n ê ra , g a v iã o -p e n e ir a s m a ll ro d e n ts a n d l iz a rd s b u te o g a llu s m e ri d io n a lis 5 g a v iã o -c a b o c lo s m a ll ro d e n ts a n d l iz a rd s r u p o rn is m a g n ir o s tr is 5 g a v iã o -p e g a -p in to , g a v iã o -r ip in o , g a v iã o -m iú d o , g a v iã o -c h a m a -v is it a p in to , c h ic k e n , m o u s e , a n d s m a ll liz a rd s s tr ig if o rm e s t y to n id a e t y to a lb a r a s g a -m o rt a lh a o n t h e g ro u n d s tr ig id a e m e g a s c o p s c h o lib a c o ru jã o , c o ru ja -b o i b e e tl e , b u tt e rf ly , m o u s e , a n d s m a ll liz a rd s g la u c id iu m b ra s ili a n u m c a b o ré , c o ru ja -c a b o ré in s e c ts a te n a c u n ic u la ri a c o ru ja -b u ra q u e ir a o n t h e g ro u n d b e e tl e , b u tt e rf ly , m o u s e , a n d s m a ll liz a rd s c o ra c iif o rm e s a lc e d in id a e c h lo ro c e ry le a m e ri c a n a p e s c a d o r g a lb u lif o rm e s b u c c o n id a e n y s ta lu s m a c u la tu s f u ra -b a rr e ir a , c o lo lô , c o c h ilã o c lif fs . g a lb u li d a e g a lb u la r u fi c a u d a p a v ã o z in h a -d o -m a to p ic if o rm e s p ic id a e d ry o b a te s p a s s e ri n u s p ic a -p a u , p in ic a -p a u t re e c a v it ie s p ic u lu s ch ry so ch lo ro s p ic a -p a u , p in ic a -p a u t re e c a v it ie s c o la p te s m e la n o c h lo ro s p ic a -p a u , p in ic a -p a u , fu ri b a t re e c a v it ie s (c o n ti n u e d f ro m p re v io u s p a g e ) (c o n ti n u ed o n n ex t p ag e) http://www.avesderapinabrasil.com/lista.htm#accipitriformes https://www.google.com.br/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0ahukewi79s7bzsnyahveu1mkhqskaowqfggomaa&url=http%3a%2f%2fwww.wikiaves.com.br%2fpica-pau-dourado-escuro&usg=aovvaw0y6etuosdgmgrkb_2lxng3 veras et al. 2022. ethnobiology letters 13(1):1-15 8 research communications s c ie n ti fi c n a m e c o m m o n n a m e i n s e rr a d o g iz n e s ti n g d ie t c a ri a m if o rm e s c a ri a m id a e c a ri a m a c ri s ta ta s a ri e m a , s ir ie m a f a lc o n if o rm e s f a lc o n id a e c a ra c a ra p la n c u s c a rc a rá c h ic k e n s h e rp e to th e re s c a c h in n a n s 6 c a u ã , a c a u ã s m a ll m a m m a ls a n d r e p ti le s p s it ta c if o rm e s p s it ta c id a e a m a zo n a a e s ti v a 2 ,3 p a p a g a io t e rm it e m o u n d s a n d t re e c a v iti e s p o a c e a e s e e d s f o rp u s x a n th o p te ry g iu s 3 ,6 p a c u , p e ri q u it o p o a c e a e a n d a s te ra c e a e s e e d s a n d f ru it s e u p s it tu la c a c to ru m 2 ,3 ,6 g a n g a rr a , m a ri ta c a , g ri g u ili m , ja n d a ia t e rm it e m o u n d s a n d o th e r n e s ts p o a c e a e a n d e u p h o rb ia c e a e , p it o m b a a n d g u a v a s e e d s . in c a p ti v it y , m e a t p ri m o liu s m a ra c a n a 2 m a ra c a n ã t e rm it e m o u n d s a n d t re e c a v iti e s p a s s e ri fo rm e s th am n o p h ili d ae t a ra b a m a jo r5 c h o rr ó , c h o rr ó -v e rm e lh o t w ig s a n d c o tt o n m y rm o c h ilu s s tr ig ila tu s s tr ig ila tu s 1 p in to -d o -m a to , te m -f a ri n h a -a í, fa ri n h e ir o h er p si lo ch m u s sp .5 c h o rr ó f o rm ic iv o ra g ri s e a 5 c h o rr ó f o rm ic iv o ra m e la n o g a s te r b a h ia e 1 g a ti n h a -p re ta , fu ra -e s tr e la t h a m n o p h ilu s c a p is tr a tu s 1 c h o c a g ra ll a ri id a e h y lo p e zu s o c h ro le u c u s 1 ,2 p o m p e u f u rn a ri id a e c a m p y lo rh a m p h u s t ro c h ili ro s tr is f u rn a ri u s l e u c o p u s 6 j o ã o -d e -b a rr o c la y n e s t, w it h t w o e n tr a n c e s p s e u d o s e is u ra c ri s ta ta 1 ,4 c a s a c a -d e -c o u ro b ra n c h e s , b a ra u n a t h o rn s , m e s q u it e , b ir d f e a th e rs , c o tt o n , s n a k e s k in , p ie c e s o f fa b ri c , p la s ti c , p a p e r, a n d b ro o m s ta lk in s e c ts s y n a lla x is h e llm a y ri 1 j o ã o -x iq u e -x iq u e , m a rá , c a ja ra n a o n t h e g ro u n d s y n a lla x is f ro n ta lis t io to n h o , m a n é -t io to n h o , e s p a n ta v e a d o (c o n ti n u e d f ro m p re v io u s p a g e ) (c o n ti n u ed o n n ex t p ag e) http://www.wikiaves.com.br/thamnophilidae https://www.google.com.br/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0ahukewjg_7-sx8nyahumfvmkhc6rchaqfggomaa&url=http%3a%2f%2fwww.wikiaves.com.br%2fchorozinho-da-caatinga&usg=aovvaw18dgplk5ofxso0kfubzq8b veras et al. 2022. ethnobiology letters 13(1):1-15 9 research communications s c ie n ti fi c n a m e c o m m o n n a m e i n s e rr a d o g iz n e s ti n g d ie t t y ra n n id a e h e m it ri c c u s m a rg a ri ta c e in v e n te r l e lé , c e g u in h o , c e g u in h o -d e -c a p o e ir a t o d ir o s tr u m c in e re u m s ib it o , fe rr e ir in h o , m a n te ig u in h a , p a ti n h a , c o q u in h o t o lm o m y ia s f la v iv e n tr is c a n á ri o -d a -m a ta e la e n ia f la v o g a s te r t o n ti n h a , m a ri a -t o n ta , jo a n a -t o n ta s ti g m a tu ra n a p e n s is b a h ia e 1 t ri n ta -e -c in c o , s ib it o , p a p a -m o s c a f lu v ic o la n e n g e ta 6 l a v a n d e ir a b ra n c h e s , g ra s s , le a v e s , b ir d fe a th e rs , c o tt o n , a n im a l h a ir (t a il, m a n e ) b u tt e rf ly m y ia rc h u s t y ra n n u lu s b e m -t e -v ib o i, b e m -t e -v ip e q u e n o m a c h e to rn is r ix o s a b e m -t e -v id e -r e m e la p it an gu s su lp h u ra tu s b e m -t e -v i b e a n s o n t h e f a rm a n d i n s e c ts e m p id o n o m u s v a ri u s b e m -t e -v id a -m a ta t y ra n n u s m e la n c h o lic u s s u ir ir i, m a ri c a v ir e o n id a e c y c la rh is g u ja n e n s is b ic o -d u ro c o rv id a e c y a n o c o ra x c y a n o p o g o n 3 ,6 c a n c ã o h a rd t o f in d . t h e f e m a le l a y s e g g s h id d e n f ro m t h e m a le , w h ic h m a y d ri n k t h e e g g s . it c a n o c c u p y o th e r n e s ts . p o a c e a e a n d e u p h o rb ia c e a e s e e d s , fr u it s , in s e c ts , s tr a w b e rr ie s , a n d s m a ll b ir d s . in c a p ti v it y , m e a t. h ir u n d in id a e s te lg id o p te ry x r u fi c o lli s a n d o ri n h a -d o -c e rr a d o p o li o p ti li d a e p o lio p ti la p lu m b e a s ib it o , m a n te ig u in h a , s ib it o -m a g ro , ti in h a , c a g a -s e b o , g a ti n h a f ru it s t ro g lo d y ti d a e t ro g lo d y te s m u s c u lu s g a rr in c h a , ri c h in ó o n r o o fs a n d s a te lli te d is h e s m im id a e m im u s s a tu rn in u s a re n a c e u s 1 s a b iá -c a g a -s e b o , s e b e ir o , s a b iá s e b e ir o f ru it s a n d i n s e c ts t u rd id a e t u rd u s l e u c o m e la s s a b iá -b ra n c o , s a b iá -d a -m a ta , s a b iá -d o -c a m p o , s a b iá -b ic o -d e -p ra ta p in e c o n e a n d b u tt e rf ly t u rd u s r u fi v e n tr is 6 s a b iá -l a ra n je ir a , s a b iá -g o n g a , s a b iá -d e -p a p o -a m a re lo , s a b iá -d e -i n v e rn o , s a b iá -j a m a ic a l e a v e s a n d p ie c e s o f fa b ri c p in e c o n e a n d b u tt e rf ly t u rd u s a m a u ro c h a lin u s s a b iá -b ic o -d e -o s s o (c o n ti n u e d f ro m p re v io u s p a g e ) (c o n ti n u ed o n n ex t p ag e) https://www.google.com.br/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0ahukewjxl-3l6styahwk5yykhq3hdteqfggnmaa&url=http%3a%2f%2fwww.wikiaves.com.br%2fbem-te-vi&usg=aovvaw00p6p29xgcsymkgj6f5n07 veras et al. 2022. ethnobiology letters 13(1):1-15 10 research communications s c ie n ti fi c n a m e c o m m o n n a m e i n s e rr a d o g iz n e s ti n g d ie t e s tr il d id a e e s tr ild a a s tr ild 3 b ic o -d e -l a c re p a s s e ri d a e p a s s e r d o m e s ti c u s p a rd a l b ir d f e a th e rs s e e d s f ri n g il li d a e e u p h o n ia c h lo ro ti c a v im -v im f a b a c e a e s e e d s a n d l o ra n th a c e a e h e rb s s p in u s y a rr e lli i2 ,3 ,4 ,6 ,7 p in ta s s ilg o b ra n c h e s , g ra s s , g ra s s r o o ts a n d c o tt o n . n e s t m a d e i n a c a th o lic c o c o n u t tr e e . p o a c e a e s e e d s a n d f ru it s p a s s e re ll id a e z o n o tr ic h ia c a p e n s is s a lt a -c a m in h o , j e s u s -m e u -d e u s , ti c o ti c o , c h iq u in p o a c e a e s e e d s ic te ri d a e ic te ru s p y rr h o p te ru s 6 x e x é u -d e -b a n a n e ir a , p ê g a b a n a n a p la n t fi b e rs b a n a n a , m a n g o , c a s h e w , p in e c o n e , b a b y b e e s i n h iv e s a n d a re c a c e a e f ru it s ic te ru s j a m a c a ii1 ,6 c h o fr é u , c o n c ri z p ie c e s o f fa b ri c , lit tl e s tr in g s , a n d f ib e r c a c ta c e a e f ru it s , p u lp a n d s e e d o f g u a v a , p in e c o n e , a n d b a n a n a m o lo th ru s b o n a ri e n s is p a s s a ri n h o -p re to g n o ri m o p s a r c h o p i c ra ú n a , g ra ú n a c h ry s o m u s r u fi c a p ill u s p a p a -a rr o z , a c o rd a -n ê g o p o a c e a e s e e d s c a rd in a li d a e c y a n o lo x ia b ri s s o n ii6 a z u lã o , a z u lã o -d e -u rt ig a , a z u lã o -d e fa v e la s e e d s t h ra u p id a e p a ro a ri a d o m in ic a n a 1 ,3 ,4 ,6 g a lo -d e -c a m p in a , c a b e ç a -v e rm e lh a b ra n c h e s , g ra s s , g ra s s r o o ts a n d c o tt o n f a b a c e a e , e u p h o rb ia c e a e a n d c o n v o lv u la c e a e s e e d s , c a c ta c e a e , c a s h e w a n d p in e c o n e f ru it s c o m p s o th ra u p is l o ri c a ta 1 s a n g u e -d e -b o i, p a s s a ri n h o -d a -m a ta t a c h y p h o n u s r u fu s s a b in o t h ra u p is s a y a c a s a n h a ç u , s a n h a ç u -a z u l f ru it s t a n g a ra c a y a n a s a n h a ç u -d e -m a c a c o , s a n h a ç u -d e g o ia b e ir a f ru it s s ic a lis l u te o la m a n é -m a g ro , c a n á ri o -v a g a b u n d o , c a n á ri o -f u le ir o , c a n á ri o -p ir ri ta s ic a lis f la v e o la 4 ,6 c a n á ri o -d a -t e rr a v o la ti n ia j a c a ri n a 7 n ê g o -t iz iu , ti z iu , p á s s a ro -d e -a ra ç ã o s e e d s s p o ro p h ila l in e o la 6 ,7 b ig o d in h o p o a c e a e s e e d s s p o ro p h ila a n g o le n s is c u ri ó s p o ro p h ila n ig ri c o lli s 6 p a p a -c a p im s p o ro p h ila a lb o g u la ri s 3 ,4 ,6 g o lin h a t w ig s , c o tt o n , g ra s s r o o ts , p ie c e s o f fa b ri c a n d n y lo n th re a d p o a c e a e s e e d s a n d f ru it s c o ry p h o s p in g u s p ile a tu s 3 ,6 m a ri a -f it a , c ra v in a , ti c o -t ic o -d a -c a a ti n g a f ru it s (c o n ti n u e d f ro m p re v io u s p a g e ) veras et al. 2022. ethnobiology letters 13(1):1-15 11 research communications throated seedeater (sporophila albogularis), and the rufous bellied thrush (turdus rufiventris). all these species are known to imitate other bird species (lima 2004; sick 1997). use and factors that led to the disappearance of the birds most interviewees in the quilombos believed that hunters caught birds for their song, beauty, and intelligence; and so, the best singing birds and birds that talk (and presumably are smart) tend to be the most captured (songbirds and parrots) (franco et al. 2012). having pets was the main reason reported for capturing birds and we observed that this was common in rural communities throughout brazil during this project. birds are often captured for the pet trade as well (alves et al. 2010). thus, most participants stated that illegal hunting (for the pet trade or for food) was the main cause of bird declines, and which causes concern among the quilombolas because they recognize the ecological importance of the species, and that continued hunting can cause their demise. many participants knew of some species that were much more common in the past, nine of which are also threatened or endangered according to the red book of endangered brazilian fauna (icmbio 2018). six species seen in the past are almost never seen today by the interviewees. of these, one regional subspecies, (cr), the rusty-margined guan (penelope superciliaris alagoensis), is critically endangered. two parrots are near threatened (nt): locally, the turquoise-fronted parrot (amazona aestiva) and globally, the blue-winged macaw (primolius maracana). three are vulnerable (vu): the white-browed guan (penelope jacucaca), yellow-legged tinamou (crypturellus noctivagus), and forbe’s blackbird (anumara forbesi). three other species are seldom seen by the interviewees. of these, two are nt, the king vulture (sarcoramphus papa) and the white-browed antpitta (hylopezus ochroleucus), and one is vu, the yellowfaced siskin (spinus yarrellii). some stated that the yellow-faced siskin is only seen in the rainy season, while others said it was last seen about four years ago. some more common birds that are not threatened are seldom seen. a participant stated that they last saw the tataupa tinamou (crypturellus tataupa) eight years ago. they last saw the chopi blackbird (gnorimopsar chopi) five years ago during the rainy season. the saffron finch (sicalis flaveola) disappeared due to being captured for the pet trade. on the other hand, other birds they saw in the past, such as the campo troupial (icterus jamacaii) and variable oriole (icterus pyrrhopterus), were recently seen again. five interviewees said they thought their return was because the area was fenced in, and hunting was prohibited. another 26 said that a strong, long, dry period (5–6 years) caused the population decline in those birds due to a lack of food and water. beginning in 2018, rainfall increased again and so the birds returned. participants knew that hunting native birds is illegal, but hunting is not uncommon. landowners often prohibit hunting. some hunters avoid hunting in the reserve because they were concerned about being caught by enforcement officials. while hunting is less common than in the past, participants knew that hunting in the reserve continues. importance of birds most participants (71% ) agreed that birds are important. importance was classified as aesthetic (59%), ecological (20%), conservationist (15%), and cultural (7%). participants felt that bird beauty and song brought joy to the caatinga. participants knew that birds were important for environmental services including pollination, seed dispersal, and consuming insects like crop pests or ticks on cattle and horses. one participant noted that some birds eat snakes and so help protect people from snake bites. participants felt that conservation was important simply because birds have the right to freedom and life, just as people do. participants said that birds were important culturally because birds figure into their belief systems and communities. they also stated that they knew stories that included birds and that they believed that birds are often associated with luck (both good and bad), tragedy, death, when people are arriving, and changing weather. conservation initiatives the refúgio de vida silvestre serra do giz reserve, created in 2019, still has no management plans and there are no reserve rangers or guards that patrol the reserve. that being the case, involvement of the people of the local communities is very important for the protection of the reserve. today, a single community member is responsible for guiding tourists and researchers within the reserve. also, local residents observe hunters and outsiders (those not known to the local communities) within the reserve. they often report these infractions to the instituto veras et al. 2022. ethnobiology letters 13(1):1-15 12 research communications brasileiro do meio ambiente e dos recursos naturais renováveis (ibama), the brazilian natural resources agency, which visited the region once during our study and recovered illegal captive birds in afogados da ingazeira and other nearby communities. most interviewees were concerned about hunting and so they were interested in converting the area into a formal conservation unit to protect local biodiversity. they were also concerned about the preservation of ancient rock wall paintings that made the region archaeologically interesting and attracts tourists. when we asked the participants in these quilombos what actions might be useful for conservation in the refuge, they provided a variety of answers: 1) ibama, military police, and public prosecutors should coordinate to catch and prosecute poachers (19 citations) 2) hunting and capturing should be expressly forbidden (9 citations) 3) a law should be enacted to prohibit bird hunting (9 citations) 4) education programs should teach community members that catching, killing, and illegal wildlife trade which are all detrimental to the existence of birds (3 citations) 5) community members should take responsibility themselves and request that hunters cease their activities (2 citations). yet, no suggestions were forthcoming about how this action could be carried out, nor how this might result in personal danger in attempting to prohibit hunting. the following were recommended by one participant each. 6) deforestation should be prohibited. 7) pollution (in general, with no particular mention of kind) should be prohibited. 8) state and municipal governments should demand that the federal government install a wildlife unit in a nearby municipality and should take an active part in monitoring the refuge. 9) trees should be planted to attract birds. 10) remote (drone) monitoring should be used. 11) signage should be used around the refuge to state that hunting is prohibited. 12) hunting limits should be created rather than a complete ban. nine of the participants had no particular suggestions for protecting birds. surprisingly, quilombolas seldom visit the conservation unit despite its accessibility, while the main visitors come from more urban regions of the municipality or from nearby cities and other states. interviewees also stated that they seldom visited the area to hunt or for agriculture or logging. cultural transmission of ethnoornithological knowledge oral transmission of information is important for ethnoornithology as in all traditional ecological knowledge transmission. vertical transmission of information about birds was reported by 62% of the participants (n = 34), with fathers (n = 24) reporting more than mothers (n = 9) or grandparents (n = 9 for each sex). horizontal transfer was less important as reported by the community (24%, n = 13), with people reporting spouses (n = 2), siblings (n = 1), neighbors (n = 1) and other contemporaries (n = 10). oblique transmission (15% , n = 8) was usually mentioned by older, non-relatives (n = 5) and teachers (n = 3). several (n = 16, 29%) reported that they learned about birds at least partly on their own through daily observations of their natural environment. many of the participants (69%) said that they shared their avian knowledge with others (n = 38). conclusion we found that the people of the quilombo communities near the refuge had some knowledge and interest in birds. most were concerned with bird conservation and thought of a variety of reasonable plans to protect birds. conservation measures should include the quilombolas so that they can help manage and become more knowledgeable about avian communities. understanding that small communities know about birds and are concerned about their conservation can encourage management to include them, and other local communities, in their actions and strategies, and thereby also validate the local knowledge of these communities. declarations permissions: this study was carried out under the university of pernambuco ethics committee (caae 89888018.2.0000.5207) and registered in the brazilian sistema nacional de gestão do patrimônio genético veras et al. 2022. ethnobiology letters 13(1):1-15 13 research communications e do conhecimento tradicional associado (sisgen) under the registry number a6a6d4d. sources of funding: none declared. conflicts of interest: none declared. references cited alves, r. r. n., and i. l. rosa. 2006. from cnidarians to mammals: the use of animals as remedies in fishing communities in ne brazil. journal of ethnopharmacology 107:259–276. doi:10.1016/j.jep.2006.03.007. alves, r. r. n., e. e. g. nogueira, h. f. p. araujo, and s. e. brooks. 2010. bird-keeping in the caatinga, ne brazil. human ecology 38:147–156. doi:10.1007/s10745-009-9295-5. alves, r. r. n., r. c. l. leite, w. m. s. souto, d. m. m., bezerra, and a. loures-ribeiro. 2013. ethnoornithology and conservation of wild birds in the semi-arid caatinga of northeastern brazil. journal of ethnobiology and ethnomedicine 9:1–12. doi:10.1186/1746-4269-9-14. andrade, m. a. 1997. a vida das aves: introdução à biologia e conservação. acangaú/líttera, belo horizonte, brazil. antas, p. t. z. 1987. a nidificação da avoante, zenaida auriculata, no nordeste do brasil, relacionada com o substrato fornecido pela vegetação. revista brasileira de zoologia 3:467–470. doi:10.1590/s0101-81751986000300006. araujo, h. f. p., r. f. p. lucena, and j. s. mourão. 2005. prenúncio de chuvas pelas aves na percepção de moradores de comunidades rurais no município de soledade pb, brasil. interciencia 30:764–769. available at: http://ve.scielo.org/ scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=s037818442005001200008. accessed on september 8, 2020. barbosa, j. a. a., v. a. nobrega, and r. r. n. alves. 2010. aspectos da caça e comércio ilegal da avifauna silvestre por populações tradicionais do semiárido paraibano. revista de biologia e ciências da terra 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ibge, rio de janeiro, brazil. winkler, d. w., j. shamoun-baranes, and t. piersma. 2016. avian migration and dispersal. in handbook of bird biology, 3rd edition, edited by i. j. lovette, and j. w. fitzpatrick, pp. 452–492. wiley, chichester, england. expanding cultural and natural heritage through archaeology: an application of cultural keystone places (ckp) in the medieval mediterranean forste et al. 2025. ethnobiology letters 16(2):33–46 33 research communications special issue: historical ecology & cultural keystone places embody three categories of interrelationships between people and places: socioeconomic, environmental, and cultural (cuerrier et al. 2015: figure 1). its application is expanding into other regions and cultural groups, such as chumash ancestral lands along the southern coast of california (rick et al. 2022) and is being combined with palaeoecological and archaeological plant evidence to study the legacies of plant stewardship practices (carney and connolly 2024) and the diversity of food resources (carney et al. 2022). in a similar vein of archaeological inquiry focused on understanding the diachronic relationship between humans and environments, research in western europe and the mediterranean has explored the temporal meaning of places and landscapes. sites and monuments can still have meaning in their “afterlives” (bradley 1993; smith and van dommelen 2018), and the idea that a monument or site dates to introduction the study of human and landscape relationships through time is a strong point of convergence for the fields of ecology and archaeology, and environmental archaeology often draws on ecological concepts in its investigation of this relationship in the past. one such concept is that of cultural keystone place (ckp), which are “places of strong cultural attachment that need particular consideration in any proposed development activities” (cuerrier et al. 2015:428). the concept of ckp was developed and has been mostly broadly applied in pacific northwest contexts, specifically with regard to protecting and legitimizing traditional indigenous spaces and (re)connecting native populations to ancestral landscapes, knowledge, and stewardship practices (cuerrier et al. 2012). as this framework gained traction in collaborative work between indigenous communities and archaeologists, ckp was further codified to expanding cultural and natural heritage through archaeology: an application of cultural keystone places (ckp) in the medieval mediterranean kathleen m. forste1*, amalia pérez-juez2,3, and alexander j. smith4 1joukowsky institute for archaeology and the ancient world, brown university, providence, usa. 2department of history and archaeology program, boston university, boston, usa. 3institut menorquí d’estudis, menorca, spain. 4department of anthropology, suny brockport, brockport, usa. *kathleen_forste@brown.edu abstract in this article we apply the cultural keystone place (ckp) framework to the island of menorca, balearic islands, spain, to explore the importance of archaeology in enhancing connections to and valuation of natural and cultural landscapes. through a brief overview of recent investments made on the island in the environment, agricultural and food heritage, as well as cultural heritage, we discuss the implications of the narrative created by what is and is not claimed or designated as heritage. we are writing from the position of archaeologists working on the island and argue that archaeological investigation of the often-overlooked medieval islamic era on the island is key to understanding more fully the historical ecology and historical narrative of the island. following the tenets of ckp, we argue that archaeological visibility can ensure the enduring cultural importance of a place, demonstrating not just its importance to people in the past, but also preserving it for the present and future. received november 3, 2024 open access accepted june 9, 2025 doi 10.14237/ebl.16.2.2025.1910 published december 1, 2025 keywords archaeology, islamic era, cultural heritage, historical ecology, balearic islands copyright © 2025 by the author(s); licensee society of ethnobiology. this is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution-noncommercial 4.0 international public license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0), which permits non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. forste et al. 2025. ethnobiology letters 16(2):33–46 34 research communications special issue: historical ecology & cultural keystone places only one time period or one cultural phase has been challenged. it is recognized that the biographies of monuments and sites grow more complex as they persist in the landscape, and as more people engaged with them after their initial construction (lillios 2022). this is exemplified by iron age monuments and sites in iberia, with which medieval islamic communities engaged in multiple ways—as evidence of past societies and rulers worth recording in chronicles as they made sense of the history of the region, and as places to build their homes and bury their dead (lillios 2022 and references therein; pérez-juez et al. 2021, 2024; pérez-juez and smith 2024). though stemming from vastly different corners of archaeology and human-environment studies, these approaches share the principle that a place’s importance can persist through time and fit comfortably within archaeological inquiry. archaeology provides a method with which to uncover the material evidence that contributes directly to understanding the intensity, frequency, diversity, and antiquity of use in a space. it is through archaeological study that the context of a space is better understood—the context of how it fits into landscapes and society over centuries or millennia. this material record complements oral traditions and the historical and ethnographic records that create the narrative of land-use and stewardship of a place, and moreover, can be scaled to specific sites or regions. archaeological visibility can ensure the enduring cultural importance of places, but that visibility is often obscured by deficiencies in preservation or detection, including conducting research at spatial and temporal scales that do not capture the culturally relevant phenomena, as discussed by wolverton and colleagues 2025 (this issue). in short, archaeological visibility can ensure the enduring cultural importance of places, demonstrating not only the importance of the place to people in the past, but also preserving it for the present and future. in this article we apply the ckp framework to the island of menorca, balearic islands, spain (figure 1). the combination of recent investments in ecological conservation, invigoration of sustainable eco-tourism and agro-tourism, changes in cultural heritage management frameworks, and a robust expansion of archaeological research on the island make it a prime case study. after introducing the environmental and historical context of menorca, we review these investments against the ckp categories of environmental, socioeconomic, and cultural interrelationships, and argue that recent archaeological findings at the archaeological site of torre d’en galmés are vital to strengthening and refining ideas of ckp and deepening connections and stewardship of this island landscape. we are not writing as ecologists, conservationists, historians, or tourism directors, but we weave elements of these fields into a broader discussion of how the narrative of this island has been created. environmental and historical overview of menorca menorca is part of the balearic islands off the mediterranean coast of spain. it lies within the mediterranean ecosystem, and the major vegetation communities on menorca are matorrals (shrub lands) punctuated by quercus ilex (holm oak), olea europaea (domesticated olive), olea sylvestrus (wild olive), pistacia lentiscus (mastic/lentisk tree), and juniperus phoenicea subsp. turbinata (phoenician juniper), along with mediterranean pine forests, marsh and dune ecozones along with rocky outcrops (médail 2022). geologically figure 1 a map of menorca with the site of torre d’en galmés marked, and b toponyms across the island mentioned in the text. forste et al. 2025. ethnobiology letters 16(2):33–46 35 research communications special issue: historical ecology & cultural keystone places the island is divided into two: the southern portion is made up of younger miocene limestone and calcarenites that create wide sand beaches which rank as top tourist destinations, while the northern portion is made up of older shales and sandstones as old as the paleozoic period that attract visitors with its rugged and rocky vistas (rosell and llompart 2014; segura et al. 2007). hot summers and mild, wet winters characterize the region, and on menorca the modern average daily temperatures range from 25°c in july and august to 11–12°c in january and february, with an annual precipitation of approx. 550 mm (agencia estatal de meteorología 2024). over four millennia of human occupation, the island has experienced relatively low populations densities and has retained its rural and agricultural characteristics (cherry and leppard 2018). the earliest archaeological evidence of human settlement on the island comes from coastal caves dating to the chalcolithic/early bronze age (c. late third millennium bce) (ramis et al. 2002). the island coast is dotted with early burial and habitation sites from the middle and late bronze ages (c. 1600–850 bce), with settlements gradually moving away from the coast and deeper into the interior of the island (sintes 2015; van strydonck 2014). some of the most visible architectural remains date to the iron age, or the talayotic period (c. 850–550 bce), so called for the megalithic towers constructed during the era. similarly, the late iron age or post-talayotic period (c. 550–123 bce) saw the construction of large circular megalithic houses and ceremonial taula precincts (horseshoe-shaped buildings enclosing tshaped stone towers), which have both received a significant amount of attention in recent years (see riudavets and ferrer 2022). the talayotic and posttalayotic communities engaged in agriculture and animal husbandry, notably cattle, and developed local ceramic, metallurgical, and bone working industries (van strydonck 2014). by the sixth century bce, the islands were part of the interaction spheres of contemporary phoenician then carthaginian colonies, and to a lesser extent iberian and greek centers, and were eventually conquered by rome in 123 bce. the archaeological evidence of the subsequent centuries indicates slow depopulation and gradual interruption of indigenous life, as these post-talayotic settlements were abandoned, and a smattering of roman settlements, portages, and later paleo-christian basilicas appeared along or near the coasts. between the fourth and seventh centuries ce, more settlements were abandoned as the byzantine empire’s power in the western mediterranean weakened, although ceramics, coins, and royal and religious accounts indicate that menorca retained a connection, if reduced, to the byzantine capital at constantinople (jarrett 2019; zavagno 2019). naval skirmishes and sea raids between the prevailing powers in the western mediterranean, namely the carolingian, byzantine, and muslim empires, left the island vulnerable and deterred demographic growth. this pattern continued until military commander ʿisam al-khawlāni secured control of the island and incorporated it into the emirate of córdoba in 902–903 ce, and muslim populations moved from iberia and north africa to the balearics (kirchner and retamero 2016; pérezjuez and smith 2024). historical and archaeological research into this medieval islamic period is bringing into focus the figure 2 stratigraphic relationships at torre d’en galmés. the stone walls (in green) of a rectangular islamic period room atop circular talayotic architecture that includes pillars (purple circles) and paving stones (purple rectangles). forste et al. 2025. ethnobiology letters 16(2):33–46 36 research communications special issue: historical ecology & cultural keystone places reinvigoration of the island as these new settler populations grew and harnessed the agricultural potential of the land through sophisticated hydraulic systems (barceló 1989, 1995; barceló and retamero 2005; kirchner 2010, 2019, 2024; retamero and moll 2010). at least one of these systems has been restored for modern use, as discussed below. the capital city was established on the western coast of the island, madina manūrqa (modern ciutadella), and is the only known urban center on the island at this time (kirchner and retamero 2016). because of a series of political invasions and resulting demographic shifts on neighboring majorca and mainland iberia, by the thirteenth century menorca had an influx of muslim refugees and settlers who left behind a wealth of material evidence rendered increasingly visible through ongoing archaeological research (forste et al. 2025; pérez-juez et al. 2021, 2024). these communities were primarily rural agriculturalists who were engaged in irrigated and rainfed crop cultivation and pastoralism. these alquerías (farming villages) are characterized by typical muslim domestic architecture—rectilinear buildings, many of which are composed of two or more rooms built in an l-shape that open up onto a patio, which is enclosed by two walls to create a private courtyard (castillo et al. 2021; fentress 2013; gutiérrez lloret 2013; kirchner 2014; kirchner et al. 2023). some of these alquerías were built abutting or atop the ruins of the iron age structures, such as torre d’en galmés (kirchner et al. 2023; pérez-juez et al. 2021) (figures 2–3), but are less visible because their much smaller footprint is figure 3 stratigraphic relationships at torre d’en galmés. the stone walls (in green) of a rectangular islamic period domestic compound abutting talayotic architecture that includes a stacked stone archway and stone wall (in purple). forste et al. 2025. ethnobiology letters 16(2):33–46 37 research communications special issue: historical ecology & cultural keystone places overshadowed by the monumental prehistoric ruins, and also because it is difficult to discern the limestone rubble of a collapsed building from the craggy limestone bedrock outcrops. while the talayotic culture has been the major focus of historical and archaeological research on menorca, interest in the medieval period is growing as excavations and archival work have yielded substantial evidence about this era (forste et al. 2025; kirchner et al. 2023; pérez-juez and sintes 2022; pérez-juez et al. 2023). even though only a handful of islamic-era settlements are attested to archaeologically across menorca, the muslim population left a legacy of toponyms and irrigation systems that persist into the present-day (figures 1 and 4–5). these lines of evidence are discussed only briefly below, but nonetheless provide enough information to discuss the utility of ckp in understanding cultural heritage valuation. environmental investment in menorca unesco declared menorca a biosphere reserve on october 7, 1993. the menorca biosphere reserve, which is managed by the consell insular de menorca (menorca island government), is part of a national program in spain that is connected to unesco’s man and biosphere program. these programs define a biosphere as a place where “human activity is carried out in compatibility with the conservation of natural resources and cultural heritage” (agència menorca reserva de biosfera 2024a). this designation was made in order to protect the environment in the wake of development across the island since the 1960s, and to ensure policies were uniform across the island regarding water, energy, waste management, figure 4 irrigated terraces planted with fruit trees arbres d’algendar in july 2023. forste et al. 2025. ethnobiology letters 16(2):33–46 38 research communications special issue: historical ecology & cultural keystone places territory and landscape, conservation and custodianship of natural heritage (and later cultural heritage), the economy, education, and social welfare (canals bassedas and carreras martí 2016). the five main areas of conservation and sustainability as outlined on the website (menorcabiosfera.org) are the environment, social welfare, tourism, culture, and economy. with this biosphere designation, an ethos has permeated the island culture focused on limiting the ecological impact of modern living. there has been particular attention focused on reducing the environmental impact and carbon emissions of the agricultural sector, including meat, dairy, and crop products. one of the more visible programs is the custòdia agrària, which is created by the ecological non-profit organization called grup balear d’ornitologia i defensa de la naturalesa (gob menorca), and works with the international union for conservation of nature (iucn), which connects government and civil/private organizations to advance sustainability initiatives. together they research and release public-facing data on the ecological footprint of fruit, vegetables, beef, and dairy production as part of its mission to support sustainable stewardship and environmental conservation (alliance for mediterranean nature and culture 2023a, b). the government of menorca (consell insular) also supports sustainable land-use by making grants available to farmers to fund traditional agricultural practices and to maintain biodiversity on their land. the consell is involved in promoting the sale and production of local goods in their “made in menorca” program, which focuses on food and artisan products made from natural raw materials, including wood and esparto grass. across these programs’ mission statements, there is a recurrent call to maintain the mosaic of agricultural land, pastures, and wild areas that blanket the island to preserve the biodiversity of the natural and cultural landscape. this patchwork of land-use has been maintained since the medieval period, and a taxonomy of plot types has can be reconstructed based on textual and archaeological evidence: 1) a huerta is a large irrigated area, often for growing fruit trees, and can be associated with urban or rural settlements; 2) an almunia is a farm connected to government officials; and, 3) an alquería is a rural farming site, comprising both residential areas and farming or pasturelands (kirchner 2018, 2024), whose territory was complemented by 4) rahals which were collectively held mixed-use land (glick 2005:167; kirchner 2018:201). these smaller plots can be understood as kitchen gardens and personal orchards, which supplied fresh vegetables, fruits, and herbs. many agricultural plots (particularly irrigated ones) retained into the mid-twentieth century their original structure from the arab and berber farmers of the islamic era (barceló and retamero 2005; kirchner 2024). the efforts of environmental sustainability and conservation are encouraged across multiple social figure 5 irrigation system is still active in the ravine of cala en porter in july 2022. forste et al. 2025. ethnobiology letters 16(2):33–46 39 research communications special issue: historical ecology & cultural keystone places sectors of the island, including tourism. the official tourism website of the island, menorca.es, includes a link to the biosphere website page listing visit tips (agència menorca reserva de biosfera 2024b), as well as guidance on how to be a lowor no-impact visitor and how to conserve resources such as water. this is one way the government balances tourism with its ecological stewardship, simultaneously touting its environmental treasures (stunning coves, unreal teal waters) as top eco-tourism destinations while educating visitors on how to align their behaviors with the conservation goals of the island. while these are only a few of the programs and institutions active across the island, they demonstrate menorcans’ desire to continue to steward the land while balancing the needs of modern living and ecological stewardship. connecting to the definition of ckp above, these investments make clear that this environment requires “particular consideration in any proposed development activities” (cuerrier et al. 2015:428). along with this kind of habitat and natural environmental preservation, there is also a desire to preserve productive environments and practices, particularly those related to agriculture and food production. socioeconomic investment in menorcan agricultural and food heritage the identity of menorca is deeply entrenched in the connection to the land, and embodies a slower, more rural lifestyle that has its roots in prehistory (ferrer et al. 2022). even today, only relatively small urban centers dot the island, and 70% of the island is dedicated to farmland (iucn and gob menorca 2023). it is further enshrined on the island’s official tourism website (menorca.es), which touts “traditional” farming life as a unique experience in menorca, as a dominant message in tourism campaigns, and is the basis for agro-tourism on the island. beyond enjoying fruits, vegetables, meat, and dairy products that are raised in sustainable and lowimpact ways, tourists can have an immersive experience by staying in these “traditional” (i.e., historical, 100 years+ old) farmhouses and estates. there are thirty-one agriturismos (catalan: agriturismes), and six rural hotels listed on official tourism website (fundació foment del turisme de menorca 2024). the impression visitors are left with after they browse these websites or visit the island is that the heritage harkens back only to the last few hundred years, a relatively shallow foray into the deep human history of the island. one salient example of a modern agricultural endeavor findings its roots in medieval islamic landuse practices is the arbres d’algendar, an organic orchard in the ravine of algendar (mestral menorca 2019). this ravine is home to an irrigation system engineered by andalusian farmers (barceló and retamero 2005), which was restored by this project in order to water its terraces of fruit trees (apple, pear, fig, plum, among others) (figure 4). while at present there is no evidence about which species were cultivated when these terraces were initially constructed, apple, fig, and plum were present in iberia by this period (peña-chocarro et al. 2019), making it possible that they were also cultivated by medieval farmers. this sustainable irrigation system also provides training and employment for underprivileged people, and thus stewards both the environment and the modern population. this ravine is also a popular hiking trail for visitors and locals seeking a shady respite. with regard to food heritage, menorca garnered international attention when it was named the european region of gastronomy in 2022. this program aims to improve citizens’ lives “by raising awareness about the importance of cultural and food uniqueness” while also stimulating tourism and economic growth (international institute of gastronomy, culture, arts and tourism 2022a). in the report assembled for menorca’s bid for this award, the main goal was to emphasize the culinary diversity that comes from the richness of natural and cultivated products, including cheese, seafood, cured and spiced sausages, and locally grown fruits and vegetables. the report also traces the history of gastronomic influence, highlighting the agricultural roots of the prehistoric populations along with spanish, french, and english influence beginning in the eighteenth century, while the islamic influence on cuisine is limited to one dish called arròs de la terra/moorish rice that is made with semolina, and to a vague mention of islamic influence on dessert culture (international institute of gastronomy, culture, arts and tourism 2022b). as part of this gastronomic celebration, the island’s archaeology museum, museu de menorca, held an exhibit called “the taste of menorca” (“el gust de menorca”). the catalogue features kitchen equipment central to menorca cuisine through the ages: talayotic cooking pots, roman fish sauce plates and amphora, along with early-modern forste et al. 2025. ethnobiology letters 16(2):33–46 40 research communications special issue: historical ecology & cultural keystone places pieces such as mortars, grease pans, and glass stemware (anglada et al. 2022). absent from this catalogue are medieval islamic objects, despite the museum having in its collections numerous islamicera ceramic vessels, three of which are viewable through their online catalogue (museu de menorca 2024). in place-based topics such as agricultural and gastronomic heritage, the representation of cultural groups and time periods reflects their salience to the current culture. again, while these are just a few examples of agricultural and food heritage initiatives, the medieval period is not as visible as other eras (pérez-juez and sintes 2022). as archaeological evidence grows, it is important to consider the way in which cultural periods are represented in these spheres. cultural heritage investment in menorca another pillar of the biosphere reserve is history, and archaeological research is understood as important to preserving cultural heritage. menorca talayótica, an organization dedicated to the promotion of menorca’s ancient history and heritage, reports 1,586 prehistoric sites in an area of 700 km2 (consell insular de menorca 2021:167). the talayotic settlements and burial places of menorca were inscribed on the unesco world heritage list in 2023 under criteria (iii) (to bear a unique or at least exceptional testimony to a cultural tradition or to a civilization which is living or which has disappeared) and (iv) (to be an outstanding example of a type of building, architectural or technological ensemble or landscape which illustrates (a) significant stage(s) in human history) (whc.unesco.org/en/criteria). the sites developed for visitors (with infrastructure such as walkways, interpretation signage, and parking lots) are mostly the monumental, megalithic and therefore highly visible, prehistoric ruins, and are slow to update signage as the “islamic afterlives” (lillios 2022; pérez-juez and sintes 2022) are exhumed through archaeological research. the biosphere website cites specific legacies in the landscape from the islamic period, including the “ethnological heritage related to systems of cultivation and water use” and “menorca toponymy, which retains some names of arabic origin” such as binibeca, binidalí, biniancolla, alaior (“bini” meaning “son of”, and “al” being the preposition “the”). the one islamic-era site mentioned on the website is the fortified castle of santa águeda, located in the northwest atop one of the highest points on the island (agència menorca reserva de biosfera 2024c). while the muslim era is listed on a webpage, there is not much in the infrastructure of heritage management and heritage tourism that highlights it, and there is limited signage and information across the landscape about this 400-year-long chapter of history. even though the consell insular de menorca purchased this fortress in 2007, little archaeology has been conducted to learn more about it, and little has been done to develop it for visitors. another toponymic nod to the islamic population is the name of a popular beach on the eastern coast, sa mesquida, or the mosque, but there is no evidence or oral history of such a building nearby. while there is still much room to study and highlight the muslim legacy on the island, the past 20 years have seen a marked change in recognizing the built and environmental legacy of the islamic-era populations, to the point that the islamic period of the talayotic sites was included in the world heritage nomination report as a way of preserving the long history of prehistoric structures. cultural heritage investment is uneven across the different archaeological and historical periods of the island, and such investments aim to highlight the uniqueness and distinctiveness of the archaeological remains. while there is a gallery at the museu de menorca dedicated to the islamic period, the objects and topics on display are by nature removed from their place in the landscape. the protection and recognition of the talayotic remains is complicated by the fact that many of these sites were reoccupied in the islamic era (as described above), and early archaeological investigations removed later layers of cultural material to uncover the prehistoric ruins (pérez-juez 2016; pérez-juez and sintes 2022). the temporal vagueness with which the medieval period is viewed is reflected in a colloquial saying when explaining unknown episodes in the past: “it belongs to the time of the moors” (pérez-juez and sintes 2022:99). strengthening heritage investment with archaeology these local and national programs codify that this environmental mosaic, specific elements of farming and food heritage, and prehistoric archaeological sites are deemed important to modern life. given these categories, a case can be made that the entirety of the island is a ckp, but there is a leap of nearly two millennia from prehistory to today. in this gap, during forste et al. 2025. ethnobiology letters 16(2):33–46 41 research communications special issue: historical ecology & cultural keystone places the medieval period, people developed land-use practices (including irrigation systems) which left substantial archaeological traces and place-names that endure into the present. medieval archaeological sites showcasing the once dense muslim population are incredibly common across the island yet rarely acknowledged or commented upon (pérez-juez et al. 2021). there are large-scale narratives about menorca’s inclusion in the islamic empire and large remote hilltop fortifications built by muslim islanders, but these broad strokes do not connect to any lived experiences of the muslim communities here. while the unesco world heritage designations include the islamic period remains, the inscription of these sites as explicitly named “talayotic” and do not mention the islamic period; an interesting contrast to the existing toponyms across the landscape that reflect the muslim populations of the past. the historical particularisms of the island might shed light onto this period being relatively overlooked; muslim populations were removed during the thirteenth century, and as christian populations settled on the island, non-christian identities and culture were criminalized and thus suppressed and hidden. so now, after nearly 800 years, archaeology can revive the memory of this time period, during which people shaped and modified the agricultural landscape in ways that were inherited by people in more recent history, and which continue to support the livelihoods and economy of the island. the modern menorcan population is primarily christian with catalan roots and see a stark separation between themselves and the muslim arab/berber medieval population across ethnical, linguistic, and religious categories. this gap, described as a damnatio memoriae (pérez-juez and sintes 2022), can be restored with archaeology, as new evidence is uncovered about the lived experiences in the medieval era and the ways in which people stewarded this island landscape. at the forefront of this archaeological and historical research, the menorca archaeology project (map) is excavating at the site of torre d’en galmés. this site is an ideal case study as it lies within the intersection of protected heritage and environments—it is one of the largest talayotic sites on the island with a substantial islamic-period reoccupation, and it is nestled between two ravines with medieval irrigation systems (barceló and retamero 2005; kirchner et al. 2023; pérez-juez and sintes 2022; pérez-juez et al. 2021). map’s goal is to understand the diachronic history of the site, the reasons for its reoccupation, and how people modified their natural environment to support their agricultural and craft economies (forste et al. 2025; pérez-juez et al. 2024). to this end, an interdisciplinary approach is employed at various scales: intrasite/household-level investigations of quotidian practices, and settlementlevel to understand how this medieval population adapted to the natural and cultural features of the locale. the rich archaeological assemblages of ceramics, metal objects, macrobotanical remains (seeds, fruits, plant parts, wood charcoal), microbotanical remains (phytoliths), faunal remains, and geoarchaeological evidence (micromorophology, dung spherulites) records over 200 years of human livelihood during the medieval period. these scientific analyses are framed with robust spatial recording and analysis and further contextualized with interpretation alongside the scant contemporary historical texts. current results of this archaeological and historical research provide insight into the exact categories of interest to ckp—the land-use and the environment along with socioeconomic and subsistence practices such as food preparation and skilled production (metallurgy, architecture, perhaps wool production). in short, we explore evidence of how these medieval rural populations practiced their agricultural lifestyle, adapted their livelihoods to the natural environment, and how they too displayed deep connections to the landscape. archaeology can contribute to the richness of a ckp, and in menorca specifically it can revive the memory of medieval populations without detracting from the historical and/or cultural connection to antecedent and decedent groups. in the case of torre d’en galmés, studying the large islamic settlement does not diminish the importance of the talayotic settlement. as more archaeological work is undertaken with a newly sharpened awareness of the traces left by the medieval populations, their visibility will be amplified, and the seeming absence of evidence of muslim influence will be revised on the island (sensu wolverton et al. 2025). along these same lines, archaeological and historical evidence can contribute to the historical ecology of an area by strengthening connection between past and present land-use, such as tracing continuity in the cultivation of tree fruits. this aligns with the biosphere goal of understanding the traditional ways in which the island has been forste et al. 2025. ethnobiology letters 16(2):33–46 42 research communications special issue: historical ecology & cultural keystone places stewarded. what becomes evident with the case of torre d’en galmés, as at other sites across the island with multiple periods of occupation, is that there is an overlap in the interests of the biosphere reserve and world heritage designation in protecting places, specifically within the context of the intersecting spheres of natural and cultural resources and heritage. from an economic perspective, there is opportunity to develop more cultural and gastronomic programs and parks featuring the medieval islamic contribution to menorca heritage, simultaneously broadening appeal while making an important addition to the island’s historical narrative. caveats and concluding thoughts in contrast to regions and issues where the ckp approach has more commonly been used, such as (re) connecting communities to traditional homelands/ landscapes from which they or their ancestors have been coercively separated, in menorca there is no descendant population seeking recognition for the medieval ancestors. instead, our perspective comes from our experience as archaeologists who are seeking to bring greater visibility to this medieval population and to understand its role in creating and maintaining the unique natural and cultural features discussed above. one aspect where ckp and archaeology align is in the longevity of a place; ckp seeks cultural longevity, and archaeology can help illuminate that temporal scale. in this particular case, we see how filling in the medieval gap can reestablish cultural connections to contemporary menorcan culinary culture and can help uncover new areas of investment and research into anthropogenic landscapes. the work done at torre d’en galmés by map has been essential to these efforts, re-establishing historical links to landscape use and agricultural heritage. this paper is a first step in understanding this island landscape through the ckp framework, and meaningful research can continue as conversations are widened to include other fields of history, cultural and natural heritage and patrimony, ecological conservation, and ethnobotany. being cognizant of the narrative that is formed when natural and cultural resources are recognized or protected— or not—in official ways is especially important as ckps are monetized through international funding agencies and tourism economies. moreover, archaeology is well-suited to push back against the narrative of erasure (intentional or not) of nonchristian populations on the island. however, when faced with a patchy and potentially incomplete archaeological record (lucas 2012), some questions arise in the application of ckp to archaeological cases. does ckp allow for discontinuities in temporal and spatial extent of a space’s importance? can a place be a ckp for one time period but not another? can the demarcation of the place change, expanding or contracting, through time? in other words, does the importance of a space need to be temporally and spatially continuous? while this exploration perhaps generates more questions than answers, it is clear that ckp thinking is useful in evaluating natural and cultural heritage, and that there is potential to explore the boundaries of ckp frameworks related to geographic boundaries, temporal continuity, and the meaning of places to multiple populations. the islamic period of menorca is just one example where these questions may be asked, and the ramifications of such a framework can be assessed in a place with both a strong regional identity and a dedication to the exploration of the island’s history and heritage. acknowledgments we thank chelsey geralda armstrong and steven wolverton for the invitation to participate in the cultural keystone places session at the 2024 annual meeting of the society of ethnobiology. deep thanks go to the menorca archaeology project team. this research was supported by the american society for overseas research (asor), boston university, brown university, suny brockport, medieval academy of america olivia remie constable travel award, the rust family foundation, qualitas energy, and medgreenrev project (european union’s horizon erc program, grant agreement no. 101071726). thanks also to the 3 reviewers, whose comments and suggestions improved this manuscript. declarations permissions: consell insular de menorca. sources of funding: american society for overseas research (asor), boston university, brown university, suny brockport, medieval academy of america, the rust family foundation, qualitas energy, and medgreenrev project (erc grant 101071726). conflicts of interest: none declared. forste et al. 2025. ethnobiology letters 16(2):33–46 43 research communications special issue: historical ecology & cultural keystone places references cited agencia estatal de meteorología. 2024. valores climatológicos normales, menorca, aeropuerto. available at: https://www.aemet.es/es/ serviciosclimaticos/datosclimatologicos/ valoresclimatologicos?l=b893&k=bal. accessed on august 26, 2024. agència menorca 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